USA > New York > Westchester County > Biographical history of Westchester County, New York, Volume I > Part 41
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company for thirty-three years, and others who have been with the estab- lishment for a quarter of a century. Large concerns like that of Otis Broth- ers & Company always demand two things on the part of their employes- capable workmanship and absolute trustworthiness; and the fact that Mr. Hunt has remained so long with the firm is a sure indication of his possession of these indispensable and commendable qualifications.
On the 18th of February, 1885, Mr. Hunt was united in marriage with Miss Minnie Pearsall, a daughter of Peter and Rachel Pearsall, the former a carpenter of Yonkers, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt have three children: Edgar Leroy, Vernon P. and Estella.
Mr. Hunt gives his political support to the Republican party when questions of state and national policy are involved, but at local elections votes for the man whom he regards as the most capable candidate, without thought of his party affiliations. He is a valued member of various social and benevolent associations, including the Masonic fraternity, Royal Arca- num, Sons of St. George, and the Otis Brothers Mutual Aid Association. Of the last named he was one of the organizers, in 1886, and was its first secretary. He served in the Yonkers fire department as a member of the Hudson Hose Company for a number of years, and is now an exempt member. He is sec- retary of the A B C Bowling Club, which was organized in 1891, one of the first of Yonkers. He has become quite an expert in bowling, and is also fond of athletics in other lines. For six years he has been actively identi- fied with the Young Men's Christian Association of Yonkers, and at all times gives his hearty support to the movements and measures tending to the physical, mental, moral and material advancement of the people of this community.
NATHAN P. BUSHNELL.
This prominent and successful young lawyer of Peekskill, New York, has spent his entire life in Westchester county. He was born January 3, 1874, a son of James F. and Emma T. (Tate) Bushnell, residents of Mon- trose, New York. His ancestors were among the early settlers of Connecti- cut, from which state they removed to New York city about 1820, and many of the family have followed the legal profession, his grandfather, Orasmus Bushnell, having been associated in the practice of law with William M. Evarts. His father, however, has spent most of his life as a merchant. Governor Asa Bushnell, of Ohio, is a third cousin of our subject, and other members of the family have been quite prominent in public life.
Nathan Platt Bushnell, who is the only child of his parents, began his education in the public schools of Montrose, later attended the Oakside school, at Peekskill, and in 1891 entered Columbia University, where for one year he
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pursued the scientific course and for three years was a law student, graduat- ing from that noted institution in 1895, with the degree of LL. M. In Sep- tember of that year he was admitted to the bar, and at once opened an office in Peekskill, where he has since successfully engaged in general practice. He has already shown marked ability in his chosen calling and undoubtedly a brilliant future awaits him.
Politically, Mr. Bushnell is a Republican, and takes quite an active interest in public affairs. He is an active and prominent member of the Reformed church and of the Christian Endeavor Society, with which he has been connected for about seven years, and is now serving as president of the Cortlandt Union, and as treasurer of the county union. The temperance movement has also found in him a tireless worker, and he is now employed as counsel by the Law and Order League of Peekskill, and his earnest efforts have been strongly felt in that work.
JOHN B. COPCUTT.
John Boddington Copcutt was born August 27, 1855, at Yonkers, where he has always resided. He received his education in the private school of Rev. M. R. Hooper, of his native place, but afterward took a thorough course at a business college in New York, after which he engaged in mercantile pur- suits. Until recently he was a member of the firm of J. Copcutt, Son & Company, hard-wood merchants and importers, of New York. He is a prom- inent member of the Yonkers Board of Trade, the South Yonkers Improve- ment Company, Park Hill Country Club, and is a vestryman of St. Andrew's Memorial Episcopal church. On October 10, 1888, he married Miss May N. Hill, and to them one child (now deceased) was born.
WILLIAM H. TOMPKINS.
A retired farmer and one of the most prominent and influential men of Westchester county, New York, is William H. Tompkins, who was born in the town of Greenburg, this county, June 1, 1835, a son of John and Hester Ann (Purdy) Tompkins. He was the third generation of the family to be born in this town,-first the grandfather, Joseph Tompkins, then the father, John, who was born in 1809, and followed the occupation of farming. He was a man of upright, moral character, and stood well in the community. He was originally an old-line Whig, but later became identified with the Republican party. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and his death, in 1858, when he was in his forty-ninth year, took from it a devoted worker. His wife, whose maiden name was Hester Ann Purdy, was
John B. Copcutt.
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born in Mount Kensico, this county, and is now in her eighty-ninth year. Three children blessed their union: Warren P., William H., our subject, and Amenda, wife of S. M. Brown, of New York. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Tompkins was again married, her second husband being Joshua Tompkins, by whom she has one child, Carrie D., wife of Ed S. Crank. The maternal grandfather was Gilbert Purdy.
William H. Tompkins was educated in the public schools at Elmsford, attending during the winter, while in the summer he worked on the farm, learning habits of frugality and thrift that proved of great service to him in after life. He remained on the farm until he was twenty-one years old, when he started out for himself. Four years later, when twenty-five, he was united in the holy, bonds of wedlock with Miss Martha Seacord, a native of the town of Greenburg, and daughter of Norman and Mary Ann Seacord, descendants an old Huguenot family. One son and two daughters have brightened their home with their presence. They are Warren Seacord, of Hartsdale, and Norma and Bertha C., at home.
Mr. Tompkins is a Republican in his politics, and he is steward of the Dutch Reformed church, of which both he and his wife are members. Their home is on a fine farm property, which is supplied with a beautiful residence and well stocked barns, while the very air seems redolent of quiet and com- fort.
GENERAL JAMES W. HUSTED.
Among the distinguished citizens whose lives have conferred honor and dignity upon the history of Westchester county is General James W. Husted. Of English lineage, he traces his ancestry back to Robert Husted, a native of England, who at an early period in the colonial development of America located in Stamford, Connecticut, thus becoming the founder of the family in the New World. His grandfather, John Husted, was born in Stamford in 1773, and died at Long Ridge, January 6, 1847. His father, John W. Husted, was born in Connecticut in 1800, and died in Bedford, Westchester county, New York, March 15, 1876.
General James W. Husted was born on the 3Ist of October, 1833, but the story of his brilliant achievements is best told by his lifelong friend, Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, who, in a memorial meeting held in the state legislature, said :
"SENATORS AND MEMBERS OF THE ASSEMBLY :
"In the fall of 1852 I stood upon the campus at Yale College, a country lad who had just entered the freshman class. I had neither a friend nor an 23
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acquaintance in New Haven, and was utterly lonesome and homesick. A handsome young man, with brilliant eyes, a mass of wavy auburn hair flowing down to his shoulders, and a gay, debonair way, stepped briskly up to me, and with a cordial grasp, as if we had been lifelong friends, said: ' My name is Husted; I am a junior, and we are both from Westchester county.' This was the beginning of our attachment, which remained unbroken amid all the wonderful changes and vicissitudes of the future, and ripened and deep- ened with time, until our relations were broken by the death of General Husted, forty years afterward. The undergraduate was then developing the qualities which were the elements of his success. He was not a close student, but very active in the work of the literary societies. He was not a factor of importance in the competition for scholastic honors, but he was a potential force in college politics. He cared little who was to be the vale- dictorian, but was uncommonly anxious to be the leader of his class. He was an excellent classical scholar and always kept up his easy familiarity with Latin and Greek, but believed with Pope that ' the proper study of mankind is man.'
" Like all the men who have risen to distinction in our country, he was compelled to work from the start, and, without other assistance than his own industry and ability, make his own career. His remarkable power of lucid explanation made him an admirable teacher. The academy which he taught after leaving college, to secure the means for prosecuting his law studies, never had a better principal, and he continued to teach until his admission to the bar. He leaped into the political arena as soon as he received his diploma, and had won the respect and recognition of the county leaders be- fore he began practicing his profession. He was faithful to the trusts he assumed, either as teacher or lawyer or business man, but his models were the statesmen of the country and his ambitions and aspirations were for pub- lic life. It was thirty-eight years from his graduation until his death, and as school commissioner, deputy superintendent of the insurance department, harbor master, deputy captain of the port, emigration commissioner and member of the legislature, he was for thirty-five years in responsible positions in our state government. But he was also, during this active and busy period, judge advocate of the Seventh Brigade, major-general of the Fifth Division of the National Guard, and Grand Master of the Masonic fraternity of the state of New York.
"He served twenty-two terms in the house of assembly, and was six times its speaker,-a record unequaled, either in length of service or in the number of elections, as presiding officer of the popular branch of the legisla- ture, in the history of the state. He grasped intuitively the conditions in his district, and possessed endless fertility of resource and audacity for attack. In the quickness of his movements and combinations he resembled General
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Sheridan, and the suddenness and brilliancy of his assault was like a cavalry charge of Murat's. While still a law student he upset the calculations and defeated the plans of the veteran party managers, and, by a creation and coalition as brilliant as it was bold, carried the third district of Westchester, and elected himself school commissioner. Rockland county had always been a Democratic stronghold. It was in the same senatorial and congressional district as Westchester, and General Husted had frequently canvassed it, and was thoroughly familiar with its people. After he had served nine terms in the assembly from Westchester county, the Republicans of Rockland invited him to come over and lead the forlorn hope. His quick eye detected a divi- sion in the apparently solid ranks of the enemy. He accepted the nomina- tion, in Rockland, for member of assembly, and, to the surprise of the state and the country, carried the county twice. He thus accomplished a doubly difficult task, -first, in overcoming a majority which had always been over- whelmingly against his party, and secondly, in succeeding against the strong local prejudices which always exist in our constituencies against a candidate who is not a resident of the district.
"It would greatly strengthen and improve our public life if this custom was more elastic. No matter how able or useful a representative may be, no matter how valuable to good government or to the position and power of his party, his political career is dependent upon the accidents in the district where he may happen to reside. If constituencies could and would choose from candidates without regard to residence, men like Mr. Blaine or Mr. Thurman would always be in their proper places, leading their respective parties, and giving their genius for affairs and ripe experience to the service of their country. The statesman who has been beaten by a nobody upon some local issue could find a constituency, devoted to national questions, which would gladly return him and have pride in the fame of their member.
"General Husted entered the field of state politics at a time when an old dynasty was crumbling to pieces. New York has been singular in the domination of her great parties by individuals or cliques. They have always been arbitrary and autocratic, and often tyrannical. It is said of a parlia- mentary district in London, which will always give a larger majority for a titled candidate than a commoner, that 'Marylebone dearly loves a lord.' So our state for more than half a century has shown a decided preference for what partisans call a leader and the public a boss. Power is exercised either in the recognition and promotion of ability or in the merciless crusade against talent and ambition, and the ruthless slaughter of independent thought or action. In the one case the party grows in strength and oppor- tunity, and in the other it falls finally into the hands of a diminishing num- ber until the hardships of defeat have restored its vitality and vigor."
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HON. JAMES W. HUSTED.
Professional advancement in the law is usually slow and comes as the result of laborious and long continued effort. The hundreds of representa- tives of almost every calling make competition close, and rapid progress is therefore due to the possession of very superior qualifications, to unfaltering application, to earnest purpose and to methods above reproach. Mr. Husted, who has been a member of the bar for only five years, has already attained considerable prominence, yet this is not due to a fortunate combination of circumstances or to the aid of influential friends. It results from the fact that he is a close student, a clear reasoner and above all an indefatigable worker, and thus has he gained a good clientage in White Plains and in New York, having offices in both cities.
James W. Husted was born in the village of Peekskill, Westchester county, March 16, 1870, his parents being General James W. and Helen M. (Southard) Husted. He traces his ancestry back to England, where lived Robert Husted, who, resolving to seek a home in America, crossed the Atlantic to Stamford, Connecticut, and became the founder of the family in the New World. The great-grandfather of our subject, John Husted, was born in Stamford in 1773, and died at Long Ridge, January 6, 1847. The grandfather was John W. Husted, who was born in Connecticut, in 1800, and died in Bedford, Westchester county, March 15, 1876. General James W. Husted was born on the 31st of October, 1833, and became one of the most distinguished citizens of southeastern New York.
Reared in his native village, Mr. Husted of this review acquired his primary education at the Peekskill Military Academy. He afterward pur- sued his studies at Cutler's school, New York city, and at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, from which ancient school he was graduated in 1888. In the fall of 1888 he entered Yale University, in which world- famous institution of learning he was graduated in 1892. He then entered the New York Law School and was graduated from that institution in 1894, with the degree of LL. B., and was admitted to the bar in May of the same year.
In the fall of that year Mr. Husted began practice, and about the same time gained considerable political distinction and became a recognized leader of the Republican party in Westchester county. He was nominated for the position of member of assembly, and was elected over Francis Larkin, Dem- ocrat, of Sing Sing. In the following year he was again elected, defeating Thaddeus K. Green, of Katonah, and a third time he was chosen for the same office by the vote of the people, his opponent being Ralph H. Barker, of Sing Sing. While a member of the house he was instrumental in securing the
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passage of a number of important measures, including what is known as the retaliatory insurance law. He studied closely all subjects that came up for consideration, and gave an intelligent support to all measures which he be- lieved would advance the welfare of the state.
Since his retirement from office Mr. Husted has opened a law office in White Plains and one in New York city, and is now enjoying a large and con- stantly increasing practice.
In June, 1895, Mr. Husted was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Wet- more Spaulding, of Winsted, Connecticut, and to them have been born two sons, James W. and John Grinnell. Socially Mr. Husted is a member of Cortlandt Lodge, No. 34, F. & A. M .; also Mohegan Chapter, R. A. M., and is a companionable, genial gentleman, popular in professional, political and social circles.
JAMES W. PRENDERGAST.
James Walter Prendergast has attained a distinguished position in con- nection with the great industrial interests of Yonkers, and is now filling the responsible position of inspector of public works. His life has been an emi- nently practical and useful one, and by ceaseless toil and endeavor he has attained a marked success in business affairs. Still maintaining his residence in his native city, he has the satisfaction of knowing that he has contributed not a little to its substantial development and improvement, and now he is honored with an important position at the hands of his fellow townsmen.
Mr. Prendergast was born in Yonkers, May 30, 1853, a son of Walter and Bridget (Shea) Prendergast. His paternal grandfather, James Prender- gast, was a native of county Waterford, Ireland, and had two sons and two daughters, -Patrick, James, Catherine and Margaret,-all of whom came to this country with the exception of the first named. The grandfather died at the age of eighty years, and the grandmother passed away when eighty-five years of age. The father of our subject was born in county Waterford, Ireland, and acquired his education in the national schools. He learned the machinist trade, and after crossing the Atlantic to America located at Yonkers, where he secured employment in connection with the Portable Gas Works in the construction department. His employer was S. S. Coates, of Yonkers, and in his service Mr. Prendergast remained until his life's labors were ended by death. In politics he was a Democrat, and in religious belief was a Catholic, holding membership in St. Mary's church. To him and his wife were born four children: James W., John, Catherine and Walter. The father died on Thanksgiving day of 1860, at the age of forty-three years, and the mother passed away in 1883, at the age of sixty-two years. Her brother,
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John Shea, was a member of Company L, Fifteenth Regiment of New York Heavy Artillery, during the civil war, and thus served from November 6, 1863, until August 27, 1865.
Until twelve years of age James W. Prendergast pursued his education in St. Mary's parochial school, and then laid aside his text-books in order to take up the practical duties of life in connection with earning a living. For three years he was employed by L. R. Condon, of Yonkers, as a bookkeeper and clerk, after which he learned the mason's trade and worked as foreman for a number of men for three years. Subsequently he was appointed keeper of the Croton aqueduct, at Yonkers, and filled that position most acceptably for eight years, when he began contracting and building on his own account. He has erected one thousand residences in the city of Yonkers, besides a con- siderable number in other places. Among the fine structures which stand as monuments to his skill and enterprise are the Yonkers City Hospital, the Teutonia Hall and several residences for Frank T. Holder, all of Yonkers, and the Stevens Institute, of Hoboken, New Jersey. He often employed as many as one hundred workmen, and carried on operations on a very extensive scale. His systematic business methods, his thorough reliability and efficient workmanship secured him a very liberal patronage, and for twelve years he enjoyed a large and profitable business in the line of contracting. He was appointed inspector of public works in Yonkers in 1897, and has since served in that capacity.
Mr. Prendergast takes a very prominent part in public affairs, and is a recognized leader in the ranks of the Democracy in his native city. He served for twelve years as a member of the general committee, was treasurer of the committee from 1882 to 1884, inclusive; was a delegate to the assem- bly district convention in 1884, has four times served as a delegate to the state conventions, and was a member of the delegation from Westchester county when the balance of the vote hinged on his district-the first-and thereby determined the nomination or rejection of Grover Cleveland as candidate for governor of New York. For eight years he was a member of Palisade Hose Company, No. 4, of the fire department, and is now an hon- orary member. He belongs to the Catholic Benevolent Legion, and of the Young Men's Catholic Association was an active member for twenty years, being at the present time an honorary member. He also belongs to the Boss Masons' Association.
On the 17th of November, 1881, Mr. Prendergast was united in mar- riage to Miss Nellie Welsh, a daughter of John Welsh, of Yonkers. They became the parents of seven children, namely: Mary, Walter Fred, James Albert, John and Joseph, both deceased, Nellie, who has also passed away, and Loretta. The mother died October 14, 1897, at the age of thirty-nine
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years. Mr. Prendergast has spent his entire life in Yonkers, and is esteemed as an honorable business man, a worthy public officer and a gentleman of many sterling qualities.
WILLIAM H. COSTELLO.
For almost a quarter of a century William H. Costello has been a trusted, reliable employe of the largest elevator manufacturing works in the world, that of Otis Brothers & Company, of Yonkers. He entered upon an apprenticeship at the machinist's trade with this concern at the time he left school, and from that time to the present he has been connected with the same concern, in one capacity or another. This fact speaks well for his fidelity and his skill as a workman, and shows that his superiors appre- ciate his services.
Mr. Costello has always been a resident of Yonkers, and from his earli- est recollection has been an interested witness of its steady improvement and increasing desirability as a place for home or business location. A son of James and Ann (Ryan) Costello, he was born March 10, 1859, and with his eight brothers and sisters was reared in the parental home in Yonkers. The father was a successful contractor and builder, and many structures here and in the vicinity stand as monuments to his skill and handiwork. He was a very prosperous man from a financial point of view, and was an enthusiastic worker in the Democratic party. He retired from active asso- ciation with business affairs prior to his death, which took place when he was sixty-five years of age. The wife and mother has likewise passed away.
The education obtained by our subject was gained in the parochial school of St. Mary's, and with this foundation of learning he has become well informed by subsequent reading and study. One of the most important steps in his life was that taken when he married, January 18, 1887, Miss Sarah Burns. They became the parents of five children, but lost their first- born, James. Those who remain to them are Sadie, Annie, Kittie and William.
Mr. Costello is a member of the City Hose Company, No. 3, and is connected with Algonquin Tribe of Red Men and with the Foresters of America. Religiously, he is a member of St. Mary's Catholic church. Like his father, Mr. Costello is a stalwart supporter of the Democratic party, has attended various local and general conventions and has aided in its triumph in many material ways. In 1897 he was honored by his fellow citizens, who elected him to serve in the city council as an alderman from the first ward. He has used his influence in behalf of all kinds of public improvements and is sure to be found on the side of progress and in all that
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promotes the development of the industries of this community. He has many sincere friends and deserves the genuine respect in which he is held by all who know him.
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