USA > New York > Westchester County > Biographical history of Westchester County, New York, Volume II > Part 20
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The family in this country, at least that portion which settled in Fair- field county, Connecticut, preserved the tradition that two brothers came over from England, and that one stopped at the eastward, while the other came to " Horse-neck " (Greenwich), Connecticut. The tradition is possibly correct, as a Gabriel Mead and David Mead settled in Lexington, Massachu- setts. Gabriel was born in 1587 and died in 1666, aged seventy-nine. A son, Israel, was born in 1639, and there were several daughters. David was possibly also a son of Gabriel, though he does not seem to be mentioned in the will. The first record of any Mead in Fairfield county, Connecticut, is
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the following in Stamford town records: "December 7, 1641, William Mayd received from the town of Stamford a house, lot and five acres of land." The date, 1641, agrees with the Lexington dates and seems to bear out the tradition of the family as mentioned. This William is the ancestor of the Fairfield county Meads. We have record of three children, though there were probably four. A son who died about 1657 is noted in Huntington's History of Stamford.
The three children of William of whom we have record are Joseph, born 1630, died 1690; Martha, married John Richardson, of Stamford; and John, the ancestor of the Greenwich Meads. Both Joseph and John were settled for a time at Hempstead, Long Island, but they afterward removed to Fair- field county and located there. John purchased land of Richard Crab, and the deed is dated October 26, 1660. The descendants of William are prac- tically innumerable.
The Westchester county branch was established in the town of Lewis- boro (then South Salem), about the year 1776, by Colonel Enoch Mead, a brother of Major-General Ebenezer Mead, of Greenwich, Connecticut. Colonel Mead married, at the age of twenty, Miss Jemima Mead, daughter of Caleb Mead, of Greenwich, who was in her twentieth year. He and his young bride made a journey of exploration up into Massachusetts on horse- back, but returned and settled on a ridge traversed by the New York and Albany post-road, about half a mile south of Lake Waccabuc. Here he built a log house, in which he was still living when the war of the Revolution broke out, and in which was born his oldest son, Colonel Solomon Mead, but from which he soon removed to the house, still standing, which is owned and occupied by his descendants. Colonel Enoch Mead was a man of great energy and ability, and his wife, who long survived him, was a woman of heroic resolution and indomitable courage. Many traditions are preserved in the family of their patriotic and self-sacrificing devotion to the national cause and of the risks they ran, -of the swift horse which had to be kept in the cellar; of the repulse of a band of marauding cowboys by the youthful matron alone, except for an infant child and a negro slave boy; and of the flight of the little household into the woods at the rumored approach of the enemy. Colonel Enoch Mead served at one time on the staff of his brother, the general, but managed, while the war was still in progress, to get his new house built for his young wife. Here their family of nine children were born, six of them living to a good old age, and the other three dying in child- hood and early youth. Here the oldest son, Colonel Solomon, died in 1870, at the great age of ninety-two years, The place is now known as Elmdon.
Colonel Solomon was, like his father, a man of uncommon ability, and through his long life his services were in constant demand as a friendly ad-
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viser and arbitrator. He also married very young, wedding. at the age of twenty, Miss Eunice Gilbert, aged nineteen. The oldest son of this youth- ful couple, Jacob Gilbert Mead, died at his place, a few hundred yards to the northward, in 1884, at the advanced age of eighty-four. Colonel Solomon, as were his parents and a number of his children, was buried in the family burying-ground, about one-quarter of a mile south of his former residence.
The eastern boundary of the farm was formerly that of Cortlandt Manor, -the so-called twenty mile line, which divided it from Connecticut, -and the rude monument erected by the commissioners in 1734, to mark an angle of the line, is still standing in the stone wall of which it forms a part.
The second son, Alfred (or as he always, for some unaccountable reason, spelled it, Alphred), was established a little way down the road, and before many years eight comfortable houses in succession, on as many flourishing farms, were occupied by members of the family, all bearing the family name, so that the road became known as Mead street. The first minister of the Presbyterian church in South Salem was Parson Solomon Mead, who was an uncle of Colonel Enoch Mead. He was settled May 19, 1752, and remained in charge until shortly before his death, in 1812, at the age of eighty-six. He was very eccentric and grew more so as age increased upon him. Many amusing stories have been told of his peculiarities. He lies buried in the cemetery at South Salem, and a neat tombstone marks his resting place.
MILTON C. PALMER.
An attorney at law of Sing Sing, and now serving as police justice of the village, Mr. Palmer is well known as a successful educator through eleven years of faithful and efficient service. Although he has recently retired from teaching, his work will not readily be forgotten by the many who have been helped by him along the steep, and sometimes weary, path of knowledge.
Mr. Palmer was born in Sing Sing, April 29, 1862, and is a son of Rich- ard and Charlotte (Lawrence) Palmer. The mother is now deceased, but the father is still living, and makes his home in Sing Sing. Prior to the war of the Rebellion he was engaged in business in New York city, but later gave his attention to farming, and is now living retired. The family is of English origin, and was founded in this country, in 1638, by three brothers, James, William and John, who came from England and located near Stonington, Connecticut. In 1695 William removed to Westchester county, New York, and took up his residence near New Rochelle. It is from him that our sub- ject is descended. The next in direct line to our subject was Henry Palmer, a farmer, who was the father of Richard Palmer, a man of prominence, and
Milion & Palmer
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of considerable wealth, for those days. He held a number of town offices. The latter's son, Richard R. Palmer, was the grandfather of our subject. He was one of the leading and influential citizens of Sing Sing, held many local offices of honor and trust, was a man of upright, Christian character, and held conspicuous place in a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
Milton C. Palmer is the third in order of birth in a family of nine chil- dren. The family is identified with the First Baptist church, and is quite. prominent.
Mr. Palmer, of this review, was principally reared in this state, but spent one year, from 1872 to 1873, in Maine. He attended the public- schools of Sing Sing, and graduated, in 1877, at the head of his class. Thus prepared for college, he entered Cornell University in the fall of 1877, and graduated from that noted institution, in 1881, with the degree of B. S., being the youngest in his class. He at once commenced teaching school,. and in 1884, after a successful examination in New York, was granted a state teacher's life certificate. He successfully taught in the public schools of Westchester county until 1889, when he established, at Sing Sing, what was known as Palmer's Collegiate and Business School. In the fall of 1892 he entered the Columbia Law School, and was graduated therefrom with the degree of LL .. B., in 1895, but before his graduation he was admitted to the bar on May 15, 1894. He has since been successfully engaged in the prac- tice of the law at Sing Sing, and on the 19th of March, 1896, was elected police justice, which office he is now filling in a most creditable manner.
On the 23d of December, 1891, Mr. Palmer married Miss Eliza D. Vail, a daughter of William and Phoebe B. (Palmer) Vail, in whose family were- two children, the younger being Indiana, now the wife of T. H. Calam, of Sing Sing. They belong to one of the oldest, most highly respected and prominent families of Westchester county. The father, who is now deceased,. was a worthy representative of the Vail family, which was founded in this county about the beginning of the seventeenth century by Samuel Vail. His ancestors were from England and the name was formerly spelled Veale and Vaile. Thomas, the son of Samuel, is considered the head of the family in Westchester county. He was a member of the Friends church and was one of a family of ten children, one of whom was John Vail, the father of Thomas, who had a family of four children: John, William, Elizabeth and Ann. The second son, William, is the father of Mrs. Palmer.
Politically Mr. Palmer is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, and as acting chairman of the Republican town committee for two years he rendered it effective service. Socially he is a prominent member of the Sing Sing Yacht Club, the Point Senasqua Rod & Reel Club, the Westchester County Bar Association, and the Cornell Club, of New York city, while relig-
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iously he is one of the leading members of the Baptist church of Sing Sing, takes an active part in all church and Sunday-school work, and for two years was president of the Young Men's Christian Association.
WILLIAM PATERSON VAN RENSSELAER.
Mr. Van Rensselaer was the second son of the patroon, Stephen Van Rensselaer, of Albany, and was born March 6, 1805., His mother was a daughter of Judge William Paterson, of New Jersey. After graduating at Yale College, in 1824, he was commissioned aid-de-camp to Governor De- Witt Clinton, with the title of colonel, which post he soon relinquished, and from 1826 spent four years in Europe, traveling extensively and pursuing legal studies in Edinburg.
Upon his return he entered the office of Peter A. Jay, then a well known lawyer of New York. For a number of years afterward he resided in Albany and Rensselaer county, but the last twenty years of his life were spent at his home at Manursing island, near Rye, Westchester county. He died in New York, November 13, 1872.
He inherited from his distinguished father many noted characteristics. Conspicuous among these was a true simplicity. Free from all pretension and eminently unselfish, he found his happiness in a life of retirement and in unobtrusive but earnest endeavors to do good. A genuine sympathy with works of Christian benevolence was another inherited trait. He was an attentive observer of the great and philanthropic movements of the day and a most liberal supporter of every worthy cause whose claims were brought to his notice.
A man of noble impulses and clear convictions, he was no less decided in the rebuke of injustice and iniquity than in the approval of that which was good. The uprightness and elevation, the kindliness and generosity of his nature, his fine intellectual gifts and high culture, and with all an unaffected humility, the fruit of true religion, made him the marked example of a Chris- tian gentleman.
WILLIAM N. SLATER.
Numbered among the progressive, enterprising business men of Harri- son is the subject of this sketch. Though he has been here but a few years, dating from February, 1894, he has succeeded in building up a large and flourishing business and has made a truly enviable reputation for upright- ness, justice and courteous treatment of all with whom he has entered into financial relations.
The Slaters have long been considered representative citizens of West-
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chester county and none are more thoroughly respected and esteemed. The father and grandfather of our subject both bore the Christian name of Abra- ham. The father is now retired from active business cares, having amassed a comfortable fortune by years of honest, industrious toil in his chosen voca- tion of building and contracting. He married Eva E. Schmaling, a native of Rye township, and she has been a true helpmate to him, sharing his joys and sorrows and aiding him with her loving womanly sympathy and cheer. They became the parents of five children, but two of the number are deceased. Abraham H. is engaged in business with the subject of this arti- cle, and the only sister, Mary G., is at home.
The birth of W. N. Slater occurred in this county, March 1, 1872, and here he grew to man's estate, receiving an excellent public-school education at an academy, where he pursued an advanced course of study. He was initiated into the mysteries of business life long before attaining his majority, and he is now a dealer in lumber, lime, cement, brick, and, in short, almost everything needed in the construction of a house or other building, and keeps a full line of hardware, paints, oils, etc., in addition to which he runs a feed, grain and hay store. He carries a very large and well selected stock, and strives to please his customers as to price and quality of goods. In manner he is genial and obliging and his word is always to be depended upon to the letter. In political matters he sides with the Democratic party, but he has given little attention to politics, as his business affairs have thus far engrossed his whole time.
Upon the 24th of September, 1896, Mr. Slater was united in marriage with Miss Sarah B. Haight, a daughter of Thomas A. Haight, an old and respected citizen of Round Hill, Connecticut. Mrs. Slater is a lady of good education and attainments and is a member of the Episcopal church. She takes great interest in religious and charitable enterprises and is aided by her husband in her many benevolent enterprises. They have an attractive home, where their hosts of friends delight to congregate.
GEORGE GRAB, JR.
The genial and popular proprietor of the Central Hotel, and also owner of the New Rochelle Bottling Works, of New Rochelle, New York, is one of the most enterprising, energetic and successful business men of this com- munity. He is a native of Germany, born in Baden, December 18, 1861, and is a son of John and Susan (Saber) Grab, also natives of Baden. The father was a general business man, of sound judgment and good executive ability, and carried on operations in Germany until 1892, when he emigrated to America and located in New Rochelle, where he spent the remainder of
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his days in retirement, dying here August 13, 1897, at the age of sixty-five years. His wife, who survives him, is still living in New Rochelle, and is in her sixty-seventh year.
George Grab, Jr., was educated in Germany, being admitted to school at the age of six years and continuing his studies until he attained his fifteenth year, after which he was variously employed in his native land. It was in 1880 that he came to the United States, landing at the port of New York, and from that city he came at once to New Rochelle, where he soon afterward entered the employ of Becker & Sons, and later of Christian Becker, manufacturer of fine scales, and with him he remained for seven years. He then embarked in business on his own account, opening a gro- cery store on Oak street, and also handling beer. In 1890 he purchased the Central Hotel, at No. 17 North street, New Rochelle, which he has since conducted in a most successful manner, making his place a favorite resort with the traveling public. In 1889 he also became agent for the Stevenson Brewing Company, New York city, which responsible position he still holds, and in 1897 he purchased the entire interest of the New Rochelle Bottling Company, and in that branch of his business also is meeting with excellent success.
In 1884 Mr. Grab was united in marriage to Miss Caroline Clarius, of New York city, and they now have two interesting children, a son and daughter, - Peter C. and Mamie. Politically Mr. Grab is a stanch Demo- crat, and is now rendering his party efficient service as secretary of the Democratic town committee. Fraternally he is a member of Frederick Hielig Lodge, No. 329, I. O. O. F., and has, also been a member of the Enterprise Hook & Ladder Company for the past fifteen years, serving as its secretary for several years. and being the second oldest member of the com- pany now living.
JUDGE STEPHEN A. MARSHALL.
This honored resident of Port Chester was born April 18, 1837, in Green- wich, Connecticut, in which place also his father, Gilbert Marshall, was born, November 3, 1809. The latter devoted his life to the shoe business, coming in 1859 to Port Chester, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1892, when he had arrived at the age of eighty-three years. He was a Republican but not publicly active in political matters, and in religion he was a Methodist, being active and efficient in church work, filling about all the lay offices in the society. He had seven children, viz .: Ann M., wife of David S. Betts, of Port Chester; Stephen A .; Joseph H., bookkeeper and confidential man at the Russell, Birdsall & Word Bolt & Nut Works; Leslie G., of Port Chester; Abraham F., of Greenwich, Connecticut; Caro-
Stephen Marshall
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line M., now Mrs. Charles Riddle, of New York; and Sarah E., who married Charles Joy and is living in New Haven, Connecticut. The eldest is now sixty-three years of age and the youngest forty-nine, and all are married and have families.
Stephen Marshall, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was also a native of Greenwich, Connecticut, where he passed all his life, his occupation being mainly that of running a market sloop between Greenwich and New York. He died in 1837, at the age of fifty-one years. Mr. Gilbert Marshall married Miss Deborah Hoyt, a daughter of Joseph and Thankful (Benedict) Hoyt, and she died at the age of sixty-four years. She also was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. Stephen A. Marshall, whose name heads this brief sketch, remained at his parental home attending the public schools until fourteen years of age, when he began clerking in a grocery in Greenwich, and continued there till August 11, 1853, when he came to Port Chester and was clerk in a dry-goods store for Samuel Kelley and Johnston A. Deal for about six years. Next he was engaged in the bakery business until 1864, when he sold out. Being elected overseer of the poor in 1862, he served in that office three years. Next he was appointed by Governor Horatio Seymour as a recruiting officer for West- chester county to enlist soldiers for the army, and in this service he went to Washington, D. C., in June, 1864, and remained there until the following May, after the war was ended. While he was recruiting officer he paid out a sum between eight and nine hundred thousand dollars.
After the war he returned to Port Chester and engaged in the wholesale cigar and tobacco trade, selling mostly to merchants in this county, and fol- lowed this business for five years. In 1870 he was appointed under-sheriff by Sheriff Brundige, and served in that office for three years; for the subse- quent three years he was out of business; in 1874 Mr. Brundige was again elected sheriff and Mr. Marshall was again appointed deputy by him and served during his term of office, and also in the same capacity under Sheriff James C. Courter, and one term under Sheriff Stephen D. Horton, two terms under Sheriff Duffy, and one term under Sheriff Schumer, -so that altogether Mr. Marshall was deputy sheriff for a period of twenty-one years. In 1888 he was performing the duties of his office as deputy sheriff, when he was appointed justice of the peace at Port Chester, ever since which time he has held the office. He has a judicial mind, and the community appreciate his painstaking care and impartial fidelity. In his view of national policies he is a Democrat, and has been active in the interests of his party ever since he became of age. From 1869 to 1879 he was one of the trustees of the village of Port Chester, and during the latter year he was elected president of the village and served one term. Next he was clerk of the village for five years. 42
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In matrimony Judge Marshall was united with Miss Jane Leonard, who died January 27, 1899, and they had three children: Charles A., now a pat- tern-maker at the Birdsall & Word Bolt and Nut Works; Stephen Leonard, deputy postmaster at Port Chester; and Emily J.
HALCYON SKINNER.
Yonkers resembles other cities in that some of its citizens, by reason of political influence, or wealth, or fluency of speech, have attained prominence for a brief time, and then have been forgotten. Among those whose distinc- tion is deserved, and not short-lived, is Halcyon Skinner. He came to Yonkers in 1865, an unassuming stranger, neither wealthy nor college-bred, in dress plain, in manners quiet, in disposition retiring, a man of more thought than words; and those who met the unpretentious stranger did not know that his labors here would prove such an important factor as they have become in promoting the growth and prosperity of the town, and making it famous at home and abroad as a center of one of the largest carpet industries in the world; nor did they know that his great ability as an inventor would materially increase the wealth of the country. Mr. Alexander Smith, his friend and employer, appreciated his talent, and on more than one occasion, notably when Messrs. A. T. Stewart & Company endeavored to secure his services, he made such arrangements with him that Mr. Skinner remained with him.
The annals of Yonkers would be incomplete without a record of Mr. Skinner's contributions of original thought to its development. His father, Joseph Skinner, of New England, was an inventor and natural mechanic, whose tastes turned him away from farming, to which he had been bred, and influenced him to engage in mechanical pursuits. Halcyon Skinner's early education was obtained in a log-cabin district school in Ohio, and subse- quently, when the family moved to Massachusetts, he attended school at Stockbridge during several winters, working in summer for the neighboring farmers, or for his father in the shop. His father's success in devising and constructing machines for rapidly and efficiently forming the various parts of violins, led him to the construction of a large machine for cutting veneers, and one of his father's large machines for veneer-cutting was in use for some years in Mr. Copcutt's mill, at West Farms, New York. In 1838 the family moved to West Farms, where the father became foreman for Mr. Copcutt, and the son worked with him in the mill. When the mill was destroyed by fire, in 1845, Halcyon Skinner found work as a carpenter. He was then twenty-one years old. In 1849, when Mr. Skinner was about twenty-five
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years of age, Alexander Smith, who was owner of a small carpet factory at West Farms, and who knew something about his mechanical skill, had a conversation with him about a new method of dyeing yarns, in which he and an assistant were interested. The carpet factory was not then in operation, but Mr. Smith and Mr. John G. McNair were engaged in devising and con- structing some apparatus for parti-coloring yarns for ingrain carpets. Mr. Smith desired Mr. Skinner to aid them. The object was to so dye different parts of a skein of yarn that when woven into the fabric each color would appear in its proper place in the design. If this could be accomplished the striped appearance, which was a great objection in ingrain carpets, would be avoided. The process required reels of a particular form and a special reel- ing machine, also an appartus for immersing parts of the skein in the dye liquor accurately to a measured depth. Mr. Skinner overcame the difficulty with which the experimenters had met, and devised a reeling machine and dip- ping apparatus which proved to be efficient. A factory was built for manu- facturing the new style of carpet on a large scale, and Mr. Skinner became the general mechanic of the factory. When his connection with the Alex- ander Smith & Sons Carpet Company terminated, in November, 1889, he had rendered Mr. Smith and his business successors a service of forty years. Only those familiar with the history of carpet manufacture in the United States and abroad can begin to realize what Mr. Skinner accomplished. The carpet industry as he left it widely differed from what it was when he became connected with it.
In 1855, when Mr. Smith spoke to him about the possibility of construct- ing a loom for weaving Axminster carpet, that fabric was woven by a slow and costly process of hand weaving. It seems that no attempt had ever been made to weave it in any other way. Mr. Skinner at that time knew little or nothing about power looms of any kind, and had not even seen a power loom in operation for many years. His tools were few, as were the conveniences with which he had to work. The invention of the Axminster loom was the beginning of a new period in the art of carpet-weaving, because it first made possible the production of this high-grade fabric by automatic machinery. One operative with the new loom could easily produce as many yards per day as seven or eight could produce by the best previously known method. The weaving of tapestry ingrain by power was also considered to be impossible, until Mr. Skinner devised machinery by which the work was efficiently done. When looms for weaving tapestry Brussels were brought to Yonkers from England and proved defective, Mr. Skinner designed a loom so superior that eventually the number of yards of carpet produced by it was double the num- ber manufactured by the imported loom in the same time. The English looms were sold for half what they cost to make room for the improved ones.
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