USA > New York > Schoharie County > Biographical review : containing life sketches of leading citizens of Schenectady, Schoharie and Green counties, New York > Part 23
USA > New York > Schenectady County > Biographical review : containing life sketches of leading citizens of Schenectady, Schoharie and Green counties, New York > Part 23
USA > New York > Greene County > Biographical review : containing life sketches of leading citizens of Schenectady, Schoharie and Green counties, New York > Part 23
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good all-around athlete. Coming to Schenec- tady in 1868 solely for the purpose of attend- ing a supper given by the St. Andrew's Soci- ety, he was induced to locate here, and on Au- gust 3, 1860, was appointed a patrolman on the capitol police force in this city. That body was disbanded eleven months afterward, and going to Saratoga he was for the succeed- ing three months in charge of a force whose duty it was to patrol the streets and watch private property, he having been the first uni- formed police officer to do duty in that village. Returning to this city after spending the sum- mer months in Saratoga, he again in Septem- ber, 1870, joined the regular Schenectady police force as a patrolman ; was advanced on June 1, 1872, to the position of assistant to Charles H. Willard, whom he succeeded as chief on July 6 of the same year. He has held that office ever since, a period of twenty- seven years, having acted chief from July 6 to December 3, 1872, when he received reg- ular appointment - longer than that of any other chief or superintendent of police in the State of New York, and, as far as known, in the United States.
On January 10, 1872, Mr. Campbell was joined in marriage with Harriet S. Orr, of Saratoga, N. Y. They have had two sons, one of them, Bertie, died at the age of one year. William Alexander Campbell, who was grad- uated from Union University in 1897, and after studying law at the law school of the same university, where he graduated June 26, 1899, and was admitted to the bar July 13, 1899, is, like his father and grandfather, unusually
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well-developed physically. He is proficient in athletic sports, and a champion bicycle rider and lawn tennis player.
Mr. Campbell belongs to the Masonic Order, the Elks, the Knights of Pythias, and the For- esters.
In his report as chief of police of the city of Schenectady for the year ending November 30, 1898 - an interesting and valuable document, betokening a clear head and an earnest pur- pose - Mr. Campbell recommends that the penal ordinances, so far as they relate to peace and good order, together with the sanitary rules and regulations of the city, be printed in pamphlet form the size of a pocket diary and placed in the hands of the newsdealers for sale; that police officers and city officials be provided with copies; and that pupils in the schools should be instructed as to their dutics in observing ordinances. He would have even the smallest child thus led to see that a policeman is his servant and not his master. Following the adoption of this plan, he sagely thinks that "another generation would see the number of policemen in cities reduced to one- half the ratio per thousand inhabitant now employed, and in this way our citizens would become more nearly self-governing."
ILLIAM H. ALBRO, of Middle- burg, Schoharie County, N. Y., is of English, Welsh, and Holland ancestry. On the paternal side he is a descendant of John Albro, who was born in Aldboro, England, in
1617, and who married in 1647 Doratha Potter, widow of Nathaniel Potter.
In 1634, at the age of seventeen years, John Albro embarked in the ship "Francis" from Ipswich, England, for Boston. In 1638 he went with William Freeborn to Portsmouth, R. I. In 1639 certain lands at Portsmouth, R. I., were granted to said John Albro and others, by the king of England, on condition that they build upon those lands within one year - which they did. And upon the lands thus acquired John Albro and his descendants lived for nearly two hundred years. In 1644 this John Albro was a Cor- poral in the Colonial militia, rising succes- sively in after years to be Lieutenant, Cap- tain, and Major. In 1649 he was chosen to view cattle, to be clerk of weights and meas- ures, and member of Town Council. In 1660 and 1661 he was a commissioner, and member of a committee to receive contributions for agents in England. In 1666 he was appointed with two other persons to take areas of high- ways and driftways not set off. In 1670, with three other persons, he loaned the colony of Rhode Island seven pounds on account of the town of Portsmouth. From 1671 to 1686, with the exception of a few years in the seven- ties, he was an Assistant, a town officer. In 1676 he with three other persons was ap- pointed a committee for the care and disposal of powder for the supply of Portsmouth. Ile was also a commissioner to order watch and ward of the island. This was during King Philip's War. He was also a member of the court-martial at Newport to try certain Ind-
WILLIAM HENRY ALBRO.
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ians. In 1677 he was a member of a commit- tee in the matter of injurious and illegal acts of Connecticut. In 1679 he was one of the members of a committee to draw up a letter to the king of England, giving an account of the territory of Mount Hope and of their late war with the Indians. He was also appointed with one other person a committee to lay out the western boundary line of the colony. In 1685 he, Major John Albro, Assistant and Coroner, summoned a jury in the case of an Indian found dead on clay-pit lands. The verdict of the jury was "That the said Indian being much distempered with drink, was bewildered, and by the extremity of the cold he lost his life." In 1686 he was a member of Sir Ed- mund Andros's Council, and was present at their first meeting at Boston, December 30, I686. In 1697 he was allowed twenty shill- ings for his expenses for going to Boston. He died December 14, 1712. His will, dated December 28, 1710, was proved in 1713. By it he divided a considerable amount of real and personal property among his sons and daugh- ters and their children. He was buried in his own orchard. His children were: Samuel, Elizabeth, Mary, John, and Susannah.
John Albro, second, who is in the direct line of descent to the subject of this sketch, married Mary Stokes, April 27, 1693. In 1677 he and others granted five thousand acres of land to be called East Greenwich, upon which land so granted stands the present town of East Greenwich, R. I. He died De- cember 4, 1724. His son, John Albro, third, who was born August 23, 1694, married Ruth
Lawton, November 25, 1725. He had a son John, fourth, sometimes called Jonathan, who was born January 2, 1734, and married Sarah Taber, October 21, 1759. This fourth John Albro was a private in Captain Benjamin West's company, Colonel John Topham's regi- ment of Rhode Island troops, during the Revo- lutionary War, from March 16, 1778, to Feb- ruary 20, 1779. John, fourth (or, as he was more commonly called, Jonathan) Albro, had a son Isaac, who was born at Portsmouth, R. I., September 3, 1765. Isaac Albro married Sarah Bliss, whose ancestors were English and Welsh. She was a daughter of William Bliss, whose father, Josiah Bliss, was the son of John and Damaris (Arnold) Bliss, the latter a daughter of Benedict Arnold, who was one of Rhode Island's earliest and best governors. John Bliss was an Ensign in the Continental Army in 1667, also a Deputy. In 1696 he was a Major for Rhode Island. Governor Arnold, his wife's father, built as a wind-mill for grinding grain, it is now said, the Old Stone Tower, which for a great many years has been one of Newport's greatest curiosities to visi- tors, and which for a long time was supposed to have been built by the Northmen, or Norse- men, who landed on the coast of New England before the discovery of America by Columbus.
About the year 1800 Isaac Albro and family moved from Portsmouth, R. I., where for nearly two centuries his ancestors had lived, to the town of Berne, Albany County, N. Y. About the year 1785 John Bliss, who was a brother of Sarah Bliss, wife of Isaac Albro, removed from Portsmouth to Greenfield, Sara-
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toga County, N. Y., seven miles from Saratoga Springs. In the month of February, 1801, John Bliss walked all the way from his home in Greenfield, Saratoga County, N. Y., to Newport, R. I., to submit to the ordinance of baptism. John Bliss had twelve sons and four daughters. One of the sons, Isaac Bliss, was the father of P. P. Bliss, the author of the Gospel Hymns, and a singer and musical com- poser of world-wide reputation, who met a vio- lent death December 29, 1876, by a railroad accident at Ashtabula, Ohio. Isaac Albro was a prosperous farmer. He died November 12, 1838, having survived his wife Sarah about thirty-three years.
Their son, Benjamin Albro, who was born December 25, 1802, married Mary E. Bassler, of Middleburg, Schoharie County, N. Y., January 17, 1838. She was born July 25, 1818, and died February 7, 1884. Her ances- tors originally came from Holland, and previ- ous to the Revolutionary War settled in the towns of Berne and Knox, Albany County, N. Y. In early life Benjamin Albro taught school in Albany and Schoharie Counties, and afterwards in Wayne and Cayuga Counties, New York. He was engaged in mercantile business for some years, was Town Superin- tendent of common schools of the town of Mid- dleburg, and for the last forty-five years of his life he lived upon a farm near the village of Middleburg. He was an honored member of the Middleburg Methodist Episcopal church for seventy-three years, and was noted for his integrity and character. He died February 10, 1895, aged ninety-two years.
Benjamin Albro and Mary E. Albro, his wife, had a son, William Henry Albro, the subject of this sketch, who was born in the town of Middleburg, Schoharie County, N. Y., on September 8, 1840. He obtained his ele- mentary education in the district and select schools of the town, was fitted for college at Charlotteville Seminary and Fort Edward In- stitute, and he attended and was graduated from Union College at Schenectady, N. Y. He taught several terms in the district schools of the town. Afterward he read law in the office of W. H. Engle, Esq., of Middleburg, during the years 1864 and 1865, and was ad- mitted to practice as an attorney and counsel . lor-at-law of this State at a general term of the Supreme Court held at the capitol in the city of Albany, N. Y., on December 8, 1865. On January 1, 1866, he formed a partnership for the practice of law with the said W. H. Engle, which continued until February, 1874, when it was dissolved by mutual consent. He then opened an office in the village of Middle- burg, where he has been engaged in the prac- tice of law up to the present time.
On October 31, 1867, William Henry Albro married Elizabeth Dodge, daughter of the late Daniel D. Dodge, of Middleburg, N. Y., now deceased. Three children were the fruit of this union, namely: Willie D. Albro, who was born January 29, 1870, and who died of scarlet fever April 14, 1872; Arthur D. Albro, who was born October 29, 1871, and who died November 28, 1893; and Grace D. Albro, who was born May 5, 1874.
Mrs. Elizabeth Dodge Albro was born in the
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town of Middleburg, Schoharie County, N. Y., on September 7. 1837, and died February 8, 1892. She was a most excellent wife and mother, and was held in high esteem by all who knew her. Her death caused as much genuine sorrow as that of any other person ever did in the community in which she was known and had lived. In every true sense of the term she was of the noblest and best type of women. Her husband, the subject of this sketch, and their daughter, Grace D., are all of the family who now survive her. The son, Arthur Dodge Albro, a bright and promising young man, who had just entered upon business life, sur- vived his mother only about two years. Since the death of mother and son, the father and daughter live together in the old home and constitute the remnant of what was once a prosperous and happy family.
Upon Arthur's death his business came into the hands of his father ; and since then, in ad- dition to his general law practice, the subject of this sketch has been conducting a large and successful mercantile business. His store is one of the largest in the county, carrying a large stock of drugs, groceries, and miscellane- ous goods. His law office contains one of the largest and best-selected law libraries in the county. He has been fairly successful as a lawyer, and also as a business man. He has held some official positions, among them that of School Commissioner of First Commissioner District of Schoharie County, during the years 1879. 1880, and 1881. He was elected to that office by a majority of two hundred and eighteen votes at a time when there was a natu-
ral political majority of about five hundred against him. He points with pride to the record which he made while holding that office. No paper sent by him to the office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction was re- jected or sent back to him for correction, and no request was ever made by him to the super- intendent that was not cheerfully and promptly granted.
The subject of this sketch is a member of the Masonic fraternity; also of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has been a trus- tee for many years, and in which he has held other positions of trust. He was virtually the founder of the Union Free School and Acad- emy at Middleburg, N. Y., and was the first president of the Board of Education of that in- stitution. His daughter Grace was one of the first graduates of this institution.
The Albro family, of Aldboro, England, of which the original John Albro was a member, had a coat-of-arms, a record of which may be found in the public offices of London at the present day. From the facts aforesaid, it clearly appears that Mr. Albro is a lineal de- scendant in the seventh degree of John Albro, of Aldboro, England, born 1617; that he is also a lineal descendant in the sixth degree of Benedict Arnold, Governor of Rhode Island for three terms, beginning in 1663, and who built Newport's Old Stone Tower; and that he is re- lated in the sixth degree to P. P. Bliss, author of Gospel Hymns and a celebrated musical composer. He takes pride in tracing his an- cestry back through the centuries and to and through families in whose veins flowed some of
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the purest and best of English, Welsh, and Holland blood.
IDWIN D. HAGER, a general merchant of Blenheim, Schoharie County, is prominently identified with the leading inter- ests of this section of the State. He was born May 31, 1847, in Middleburg, N. Y., a son of Daniel J. Hager, and the lineal descendant, we are told, of one of four brothers who came from Holland to America in the seventeenth century, and assisted the settlement of castern New York.
llis paternal grandfather, Jacob Hager, was for many years an extensive farmer in Fulton, whence he and his wife, Cathern Fech, re- moved with their twelve children to Oeland, Orleans County, N. Y., where both died when well advanced in years. The grandfather was active in local affairs in both counties in which he resided, and in both he owned and cleared large tracts of land. Six of his children sub- sequently returned to Schoharie County, and for a time lived in Breakabeen. They were: Tunis, Jacob, John, Daniel J., Jane, and Mar- garet, none of whom are now living.
Tunis Hager married Rebecca Becker, and settled in Sharon Springs. Jacob married, and removed to Albany, and in 1849 he went with the gold-seekers to California. Return- ing from the Pacific Coast to Schoharie, he kept the public house known as the Wood House a few years, after which he conducted a hotel that occupied the site of the present capi- tol building in Albany, and then coming back to
this county he farmed it in the town of Esper- ance until his decease. John went with his brother Jacob to California, came back with him to Schoharie, and after his marriage made a second trip to the Golden Gate. Returning East, he went into the livery business with Jesse Mills in New York City. In a short time he sold out to his partner, and opened a livery on his own account at 896 Broadway, and at the St. Nicholas Hotel, where he car- ried on a thriving business some years. Re- tiring then from the livery, he bought a beau- tiful farm in Rhinebeck, whither he removed with his wife and three sons, and there lived until his death, at the age of threescore and ten years.
Daniel J. Hager was born in Fulton, Sep- tember 5, 1811. He learned the shoemaker's trade in his native place, and after his mar- riage, at the age of twenty one, he continued to work at it first at Middleburg, then at Breakabeen, and finally in Blenheim, where he passed his last years, dying September 18, 1871. He was a loyal Republican in politics, and as a soldier in the Union army he partici- pated in several of the battles of the Civil War. He married Eliza C. Zelie, who was a native of Fulton, being the eldest of a fam ily of nine children - Eliza C., Lias, Chris- tina, David, Jane, Ephraim, Harriet, Andrew, and Margaret - born to Peter Zelie, whose wife was before marriage a Miss Vroman. (Further ancestral history may be found on an- other page of this work, in connection with the sketch of Luther Zelie.) Mrs. Eliza C. Zelie llager was born November 10, 1816, and died
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October 10, 1874. She had five children, namely : Mary C., wife of George Becker, the representative of an old family of Schoharie County; William S., a farmer in Blen- heim; Peter Z., a farmer in Oswego County; Edwin D. ; and Harriet A., wife of Peter Burgett, of Schoharie County. Both parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal church of Middleburg, in which the father held various offices.
Edwin D. Hager attended the district schools in his youthful days, and until he was sixteen years old he remained at home with his parents. He subsequently worked out by the day, sometimes as a farm laborer, for two years, after which he was employed by his brother-in-law as a clerk in Breakabeen for three years. The ensuing year he was en- gaged in the mercantile business for himself in Blenheim. He then sold out, and for two years was employed as a clerk or a teacher. In 1868 he went to Catskill, where he re- mained a year, when he returned to Blenheim, and for a year was here a clerk in a general store. Going then to Middleburg, Mr. Hager was with J. Nevill three years, and then, in partnership with the late Silas Sweet, he bought out the store of John Hager, in Blen- heim, and carried on a successful business until the death of Mr. Sweet, three years later. The following spring he sold out the business, and the next year purchased a half- interest with Seneca West, and later formed a copartnership with Ira Haverly, to whom, at the end of four years, he sold out. Two years later Mr. Hager purchased the building which
he is now occupying, and put in a new and complete stock of merchandise. He has now one of the largest stores in this section of the county, and carries the finest stock of goods in his line. Being one of the oldest merchants in this locality, and with two exceptions the oldest in the county, he is well known, and it is safe to say no man has a better reputation, or is more highly esteemed in business and social circles.
Mr. Hager is a strong silver man in poli- tics, and takes a prominent part in local affairs. For eighteen consecutive years he was a member of the county committee, and was a regular attendant at all conventions. In 1882 he served as a delegate to the State con- vention held in Syracuse, and in 1883 as a delegate to the Congressional convention. He has served as Supervisor of the town four terms, in 1878, 1879, 1882, and 1883; and in 1884 he was appointed Postmaster by Pres- ident Cleveland, a position to which he was again appointed in 1892. He is one of the trustees of the school district, and a stock- holder in the Blenheim Creamery Company, of which he has been president since its incorpo- ration. Fraternally, he united with the Mid- dleburg Lodge, F. & A. M., in 1870, and is also a member of the Middleburg Lodge, I. O. O. F.
On November 16, 1876, Mr. Hager married Nellie E. Beckwith, of Springfield, Mass., daughter of Calvin and Lucy B. Balton Beck- with. Mr. and Mrs. Hager are the parents of three children, namely : Clyde L., who died at the age of twenty-two months; Eugene B.,
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born August 28, 1877; and Florence A., born July 20, 1882. Eugene B. Hager, who was educated in the graded schools, was formerly employed as clerk in Brooklyn and New York City, but is now in business with his father. lle married, December 15, 1897, Margie Dib- ble, who was born March 8, 1878, in Middle- burg, a daughter of and Eliza- beth (Dexter) Dibble. Mr. Hlager and all his family attend the Methodist Episcopal church.
MBROSE R. HUNTING, a promi- nent citizen of Schoharie, N. Y., re- siding on the Hunting homestead, was born in this town on September 14, 1833, son of Joseph and Mary A. (Chesebro) Hunting.
The first of his family in this country was John Hunting, who came from England in August, 1638, and settled in Dedham, Mass. lle was one of the founders of that town, and an Elder in the church there for many years. He had a son named John, of whom little is known, and a grandson, Nathaniel, who was graduated at Harvard College, and subse- quently preached to the church in East Hamp- ton, N. Y., for fifty-seven years.
The fourth in line, Nathaniel Hunting, sec- ond, was educated for the ministry, but poor health compelled him to give up his beloved profession, and devote himself to agriculture. His son, Joseph Hunting, was a sea captain. After this Joseph came two others of the same name. The first of these, who was the grand- father of Ambrose R. Hunting, was the first
lIunting to come to Schoharie. He came hither from Long Island in 1791, accompanied by his mother, and settled on the farm which has since been in the possession of his de- scendants. He was a shoemaker by trade, but was engaged more or less in farming and in mercantile affairs.
The third Joseph Hunting, father of Am- brose R., was born in Schoharie in 1805, and resided in the town throughout his life. Ile was known as a man who attended strictly to his own affairs and caused no annoyance to other persons by interference. He never brought suit against any one, was never sued, and never called upon to serve as a witness. In politics he was a Democrat. Hle was a leading member of the Methodist church, and for more than forty years a class leader. His wife, Mary, was born in Knox, Albany County, the daughter of Peleg Chesebro, a cooper and farmer. Her grandfather, Chris- topher Chesebro, who was a carpenter by trade, fought in the Revolution. He lived originally in Stonington, Conn., but removed thence to Knox in 1791.
Ambrose R. Hunting was reared on the pa- ternal homestead, and attended the public schools until he was seventeen years of age. He then was sent to Schoharie Academy for two terms, and afterward to the New York Conference Seminary at Charlotteville. After studying there for two years, he was prepared to enter the Junior class at Union College, Schenectady; but, his family being opposed to the profession he had chosen, he yielded to their wishes andl withdrew from school. After
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teaching for several terms he returned to the farm and began devoting himself to agri- culture.
Mr. Hunting has been a loyal member of the Methodist church for fifty years, and has held every position in the church to which a layman is entitled, except that of lay delegate to the general conference. In politics he is a Democrat. He has held the office of Super- visor for four years, that of School Commis- sioner for two terms, and for a year he was a member of the Assembly. Fraternally, he is connected with Schoharie Valley Lodge, No. 491, F. & A. M .; and John L. Lewis Chap- ter, No. 229, R. A. M.
Mr. Hunting was first married on April 14, 1859, to Amanda Severson. Two sons were born of this union: William J., who died in 1875; and Edwin F., who is a graduate of the Albany College of Pharmacy, and is now a successful druggist in that city. On June 5, 1869, Mr. Hunting was married to Mary M. Northrop, who was born in Berne, Albany County, the daughter of Asa T. and Ann E. Northrop. By this second marriage there is one child, Florence A. She has received a musical education at Claverack Institute.
IRAM RIFENBARK, a representa- tive citizen of the town of Summit, residing in the village of Charlotte- ville, was born in Summit on April 30, 1839, his parents being Aaron and Mary (Banks) Rifenbark.
The family is of German origin, and Mr.
Rifenbark's great-grandfather spelled his name Rifenbarek. The grandfather, Henry Rifen- bark, came from Columbia County in 1802 or near that date, and settled about two miles east of Summit village. There he owned a whiskey still, a store, and an inn or tavern. He was a man of influence and of considerable property, and his tavern was often the gathering-place of important assemblies. Town meetings were sometimes held there. His brother Peter was a clergyman of the Dutch Reformed church. Henry Rifenbark's wife was a daughter of Caleb Clark, who was captured by the British and Indians during the Revolution, and carried to Canada. There Mr. Clark was kept at Fort Niagara under guard, but was sent out every day with other captives under a guard of Indians to chop wood in the forest. The Ind- ians, believing that it was impossible for them to escape, often left them alone during the day, returning for them at night. Mr. Clark and his fellow-prisoners, however, with sturdy pioneer determination, resolved to make an effort to regain their freedom. Accord- ingly, one morning after their captors had left them, they started on snow-shoes for the Mo- hawk River, carrying the food that had been measured out to them for their mid-day meal. For many days this was all the food they had. At length, at the end of a week, he and his companions came to a deserted and tumble- down hut in the Mohawk Valley, where they found some mice. These they were forced to eat to keep themselves from starving. They finally reached home in safety, but Mr. Clark always felt exceedingly bitter toward the Brit-
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