USA > New York > Broome County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Broome County, New York. > Part 13
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"fail." He was blessed with good health and a strong constitution, and began heavy toil when but a lad. He has no use for the drones of society, and believes that a man who will not work ought not to cat.
His paternal grandfather, who was named after the prophet whom the ravens fed, was a Massachusetts farmer, a man of firm princi- ple and determined purpose. Elijah Walter was married to Mary Field, a native of Mas- sachusetts, with whom, seeking a more pro- ductive land, he came, about the year 1813, to New York, and settled on West Creek, ten miles from Owego, where he cleared a large farm, and brought up a large family, and there died at an advanced age. Asaph Morse, the maternal grandfather for whom Mr. Walter was named, was a soldier in the Revolution. lle died at Moravia, N. Y., when ninety-six years old. His wife was Clara Dudley, a daughter of an old sea-captain. The father of A. B. Walter was Horace Walter, of Massa- chusetts, who married P'hebe Morse, of West- moreland, N.Y., and came to Tioga County, New York, about 1813, with his wife and one child. Mrs. Walter came from a family who were quite active on land and sea during the great struggle of the colonies for indepen- dence. Horace and Phebe (Morse) Walter had a family of eight sons and four daugh- ters, all of whom reached maturity, and six of whom are now living, namely: William, a farmer in South Dakota; Alvin, of the town of Maine, Broome County; Asaph B., of Barker; Horace, a farmer of this county; Caroline, wife of Wallace Thelman, a hotel-
keeper of Lisle; and Jane, wife of Joseph Walters, living in Berkshire, N. Y.
Asaph B. Walter was born in the town of Triangle, Broome County, in 1818, was brought up on a farm in the town of Nanti- coke, where his father settled in the woods, and where, assisted by three sons-all strong, muscular men - he cleared up a large farm of one hundred and fifty acres. The subject of this sketch was a wonderful speci- men of physical endurance, and few there were who could swing an axe as well or accomplish as much as he. Single-handed, he cut one fall and winter eighteen acres of heavy sugar-maple and hemlock timber, and has by himself cleared over one hundred acres of land. When but sixteen years old, his strength was more than usual for his age; and the amount of work accomplished by him would be impossible to the average boy. When he became of age, desiring to start for himself, he began by working out by the month, and was thus engaged for one man three years for thirteen dollars per month. Ile was married in 1840 to Mary E. Dibble, of Barker, daughter of David Dibble. She bore two children, a son and a daughter. The latter, Amelia, is the wife of Sherman Tracy, a farmer of Triangle, and has five chil- dren. The son, Emmet Walter, died at forty- two years of age, on March 11, 1887, leaving a widow and one son, Gilbert, now fourteen years old, and at home attending school. Mrs. Mary E. Walter died April 4, 1873; and Mr. A. B. Walter was again married December S. 1875, to Sarah A. Wooster,
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daughter of John and Amanda Wooster, of Barker.
Mr. Walter does not mix much in politics, but is a Republican, and fully believes in the principles of that party. He has a mind of his own, and is able to give a good reason for his opinions; is willing to listen to argu- ment, but must fully believe a thing before he will adopt it as a rule of action. Relig- iously, he adheres to the faith of the Baptist denomination. His start in life was made by means of a clear head and two willing hands; and his success is attested by the flourishing condition of his present place, consisting of two hundred and eighteen acres well im- proved, having commodious and tastefully arranged buildings, and being kept in good order. He does things thoroughly, believing a thing that is worth doing is worth doing well. He usually keeps from fifteen to twenty-five cows, manufactures butter which brings the very best price on the market, in competition with creamery or any other dairy, and manages all departments of his farm with intelligence and success.
AMUEL HOLDEN PARSONS. HALL, born at Middletown, Conn., June 23, 1804, was the youngest son of Dr. William Brenton Hall, a prominent physician of that city and a graduate of Yale (1786). His grandfather, Brenton Ilall, a wealthy farmer of Meriden, and one of the founders of Connecticut, was a cousin of Gov- ernor Lyman Hall, of Georgia, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence. His great-grandfather was the Rev. Samuel Hall (Yale, 1716), minister at Cheshire, Conn., son of the Hon. John Hall, member of the Governor's Council, and one of his Assist- ants, grandson of Deacon Samuel Hall, of Wallingford, and great - grandson of Deacon John Hall, of New Haven and Wallingford, the progenitor of the Wallingford branch of the family, who came to this country from England in 1635.
Mr. Hall's mother was Mehitable, second daughter and fifth child of Major - General Samuel Holden Parsons, of the Continental Army. Through her he is descended from the Mathers, Griswolds, Wolcotts, Elys, Hydes, and DeWolfs. Through his great- grandmother, Ann Law, wife of the Rev. Samuel Hall, of Cheshire, he is descended from Governor Jonathan Law, of Connecticut, Governor William Brenton, of Rhode Island, and John Eliot, the Apostle to the In- dians. Of the sixty-four ancestors of the first generation in this country to whom he traces back, forty-four have been ascertained, all of whom are of British parentage; and all, ex- cept two or three, came to America during the great Puritan emigration between 1630 and 1640, and none, probably, later than 1650.
Mr. Hall was but five years old when his father died in 1809, after which he was taken to live in the family of his maternal uncle, Enoch Parsons, President of the Connecticut Branch of the United States Bank. From his association with this uncle he probably re- ceived the legal and financial bent of mind
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which was characteristic of him in later life. Mr. Parsons proposed to send him with his own son, Samuel Holden, to Yale; but he preferred to engage in mercantile business, which he did with his brother, William Brenton, upon his return from his clerkship in New York. May 14, 1826, he was married to Emeline Bulkeley, of Rocky Hill, Conn., by the Rev. Dr. Calvin Chapin, of that town. She was born in Rocky Hill, November 6, 1798, and was the youngest daughter of Cap- tain Charles Bulkeley and the sixth in de- scent from the Rev. Peter Bulkeley, founder of Concord, Mass., and the eighteenth from Robert, the first Baron of Bulkeley, in the time of King John, and the twenty-second from Chauncy de Chauncy, a Norman noble- man who came into England from near Amiens in France in 1066 with William the Conqueror. At the time of his marriage Mr. Ilall was engaged in business in Middletown; but, anxious to get on faster than was possible in his native city, he determined to go West. Buffalo, which since the opening of the Eric Canal in 1825 had attracted considerable at- tention, at this time was undergoing a boom of considerable dimensions. The population was nine thousand, and increasing rapidly. Major Andre Andrews, a Middletown lawyer, who had married a daughter of Mr. Hall's uncle, Chief Justice Hosmer, had gone there to practise his profession. The reports which came back from him of the promising future of the lake city induced Mr. Hall to remove there in the spring of 1831. He immediately engaged in mercantile business, and bought
considerable real estate. Among his pur- chases was a lot one hundred and sixty-five feet front, running through to Franklin Street, ten acres on Batavia Street, and a house lot on Chippewa Street. The unearned increment of these lands would be a very large fortune to-day. Unfortunately, the cli- mate of Buffalo proved too trying for the deli- cate health of his wife; and he was obliged the next year to give up his fine prospects, and return to Connecticut.
For a time he lived and did business in Rocky Hill, the birthplace of his wife; but, not satisfied with the chances in an interior New England farming town, as his wife's health improved, his eyes turned to New York again, and this time rested on a little village among the hills, the terminus of another canal just on the eve of completion, where, too, lived kindred families, the Mathers and Elys from ancestral Lyme. The journey was made by water from Middletown to Albany, thence by rail to Utica, and by stage to Binghamton. This was in the days of strap-rails and snake- heads, when the cars were hauled up State Street by horses and let down an inclined plane at Schenectady. The family arrived in Binghamton on the day of the opening of the Chenango Canal, which was being celebrated by the firing of cannon from the court-house hill, an eminence of some magnitude at that time. Mr. Hall bought the house on the west bank of the Chenango, then occupied by Richard Mather, but since sold to E. K. Clark. Ile immediately engaged in mercan- tile business, which he conducted with suc-
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cess. He interested himself in public mat- ters, and advocated and aided with his contri- butions every measure tending to promote the growth and drosperity of his adopted home. He was among the foremost in founding the Binghamton Academy, in securing the lo- cation here of the Inebriate Asylum; and he donated five acres of land to establish the Sus- quehanna Seminary, now St. Mary's Home.
In politics Mr. Hall was a Whig. The campaign of 1840, the hard-cider and log- cabin campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," he fought out bravely and successfully, too. In 1844 he learned, as did Clay and Frelinghuysen, who James K. Polk was. In 1846, after having held several minor offices, he was nominated by the Whig party, and elected State Senator from the Sixth Sen- atorial District, composed of the counties of Chenango, Broome, Tompkins, Chemung, Tioga, Steuben, Livingston, Allegany, and Cattaraugus. He received more than twenty- five thousand votes and a majority of seven- teen hundred over Judge Hawley, the opposing candidate. The Senatorial term at that time was four years; and the Senate, with the Chancellor and the Judges of the Supreme Court, composed the Court Tor the Correction of Errors, the court of last resort in the State. This Senate was a very able body, containing some of the best talent in the State, and in- cluding among its members such men as Ira Harris, Judge Hand, Samuel Young, of Sara- toga, and Joshua Spencer, of Utica. The adoption of the Constitution of 1846 and the revision of the Senatorial districts rendered
necessary a new election; and in 1847 Mr. Hall was elected for a term of two years from the Twenty-third District, composed of the counties of Broome, Cortland, and Tioga. The duties of this Senate were more than ordinarily difficult, as the new constitution required the preparation and enactment of general laws on many important subjects,
including banking, insurance, and manufact- uring. At the legislative caucus in Febru- ary, 1849, Mr. Ilall supported John A. Collier for United States Senator; but, it appearing upon an informal ballot that Will- iam H. Seward had a majority of the votes cast, after reading a letter from Mr. Collier withdrawing his name, Mr. Hall moved that "this caucus unanimously nominate William H. Seward as the candidate to be supported by the Whig party for the office of Senator of the United States." In the division of the party which took place on account of the Abo- lition tendencies of the Seward faction, Mr. JIall remained with the conservatives, who, under the lead of Mr. Fillmore, obtained the name of Silver Greys. Mr. Fillmore was Comptroller while Mr. Hall was in the Sen- ate, and their two families became very inti- mate. In 1848 Mr. Fillmore was elected Vice-President, and succeeded to the Presi- dency upon the death of General Taylor.
Upon the opening of the Erie Railway to the lakes the l'resident and Cabinet partici- pated in the celebration, and were presented by Mr. Ilall to the citizens of Binghamton during the stop of the train at this station, each as presented delivering himself of a
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complimentary speech. Later on Mr. Hall became a Director in this road, in the man- agement of which he took an active part. In the fall of 1857 he organized the Otseningo Bank, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars; but the money panic of 1857 coming on put an end to the enterprise. Like most of the Silver Grey Whigs, Mr. Hall gradually drifted into the Democratic party. During the war he stood with the war Democrats, and was firm in his support of the government in putting down the Rebellion and restoring the unity of the States. He retired from busi- ness in 1867, but never ceased to take an active part in all matters of public interest.
In 1855 came his life's great sorrow, the death of his beloved and faithful wife, which occurred while on a trip through the St. Law- rence and Lake Champlain. May 20, 1857, he married for his second wife Elnora Rob- bins, a cousin of his first wife, who survived him two years. Mr. Ilall had five children, of whom only the first and fourth are now liv- ing: Charles S. Hall, of Binghamton, N. Y .; William B. Hall, deceased; Josephine E. M. Hall, who married Hugh Allen, of Brooklyn, deceased; Theodore Parsons Hall, of Detroit, Mich. ; and Richard H. Hfall, deceased.
His death occurred Monday, March 5, 1887, and was due rather to a failure of his vital powers than to any marked disease. He was buried in Spring Forest Cemetery. The honorary pall-bearers were: the Hon. S. D. Phelps, the Hon. S. C. Hitchcock, the Hon. B. N. Loomis, the Hon. John Clapp, Dr. F. T. Maybury, and Charles W. Sandford,
Esq., all of whom, except Judge Loomis, have long since been followed to their own last resting-places.
Mr. Hall was emphatically a gentleman of the old school -the soul of honor and honest to a fault. Although not a member of any church, no church member was more rigid in his observance of the Sabbath or more regular in his attendance at church, none more cor- rect in morals, more upright in dealings, or with a keener sense of right and wrong. In person he was tall and well formed; in pres- ence, dignified and stately; in carriage, remarkably erect; in manner, courteous and cordial. His eyes were of a deep blue; his hair, auburn; his complexion, clear and fair. He had a judicial temperament, and in the course of his business had acquired a consid- erable knowledge of law. In the Senate he served on the Judiciary Committee. One of his distinguishing qualities was his loyalty to his friends. Ties of blood were peculiarly strong with him. Ile was always interested in the affairs of the city, his home for forty years; and he did much to extend and beau- . tify it. Whatever duty was imposed upon him, he was earnest and conscientious in its discharge, regarding it as a sacred trust. Al- ways a leader of men, he was honored as such while living, and died respected by all.
HARLES SAMUEL HALL, eldest son of Samuel Holden Parsons Hall and his wife, Emeline Bulkeley, of Binghamton, N. Y., sketches of whom are
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given above, was born at Middletown, Conn., May 10, 1827, and lived there until 1831, when he removed with his parents to Buffalo, N. Y. Remaining there a year, the family returned to Connecticut, whence it again re- moved, this time to Binghamton, arriving here May 10, 1837, in the midst of a celebra- tion of the arrival of the first boat through the Chenango Canal, that great artificial water- way which first connected this city of the forests with outside civilization. One of the first families with which he became ac- quainted was that of Daniel S. Dickinson, in whose office he afterward studied law. The Rev. Mr. Lockwood was then conducting a classical school; but the boys privately cau- tioned him not to attend there, as he was too free with the rod. It was only after several years of experience with the private schools of transient teachers that that fountain of Par- nassus for the youth of this region, the Bing- hamton Academy, was established. Here were acquired those extra polishings which enabled him to enter Yale without conditions in the fall of 1844.
This was the exciting fall of the election of James K. Polk, who was later on brought up to New Haven, and exhibited to the students with all. his Cabinet on the campus, seeing whom, each one immediately resolved to be- come President. In those days there was more study than foot-ball; and the great object of every one's ambition was the ap- proval and smiles of the Faculty, though the subject of this sketch does confess to being one of the pioneers in the athletic sport of
boat-racing, which has since attained such abnormal development. After having taken the usual number of first prizes and secured several good things in the power of favorably inclined professors to grant, Mr. Hall was graduated with his class in August, 1848. In the fall he entered the Law School at New Haven, under the charge of Governor Bissell, and finished in the spring of 1850, when he entered Mr. Dickinson's office. In August, 1850, he received the degree of LL.B., and in July, 1851, the degree of A.M. He was admitted to the bar at Norwich in January, 1851, to the United States District Court in May, 1879, and to the Circuit in August of the same year. He was appointed United States Circuit Court Commissioner December 13, 1856, and Master and Examiner in Chan- cery in November, 1879, which offices he still holds.
In 1857, being then Village Attorney, the work was assigned to him of drafting a city charter by a committee appointed for the pur- pose, composed of Messrs. Dickinson, Tomp- kins, Stuart, and Park. Those who preferred a big village to a small city being a majority, the project fell through for a time, but was revived in 1867, when a new committee, com- posed of Messrs. Bartlett, Chapman, Loomis, Park, Robinson, and others, requested Mr .. Hall to perfect the draft of a charter he had made ten years before. This, when com -. pleted, was enacted by the legislature, and the new city government organized that year. The next year, at the request of the Council, Mr. Hall drafted over the city ordinances and
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JAMES S. MINOR
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edited the first edition of the charter and laws, which was published in book form. The acts providing for the erection of Fire- men's Hall, the Court Street and suspension bridges, were also drawn by him. Mr. Hall was for four years a member of the Board of Education, and during that time revised the city school law and the method of keeping the school accounts. He was engaged in the famous Dwight insurance litigation, having charge of the defence for the New England Life Insurance Company. His business at present is largely office business and the care of estates.
Mr. Hall has always been a Democrat in politics, acting first with the Hardshells, led by Dickinson, and with the War Democrats after the Civil War broke out. At a meeting of the Village Council, of which he was then a member, he moved the first appropriation of money by the village of Binghamton to aid in raising troops. He was active in the enlist- ment of recruits for the army, and adminis- tered the oath of allegiance to nearly every member of the three companies raised in this vicinity for Slocum's Twenty-seventh New York. Mr. Hall had a taste and inclination for political life; but Democracy was not a merchantable article in this county for nearly twenty-five years, and he did not care to change his opinions for the sake of office. He was one of the first to bring forward in this county the name of Mr. Cleveland for Governor, having known him in Buffalo, and supported him heartily in the three campaigns in which he was a candidate.
Mr. Hall has frequently written upon mat- ters of public interest. In 1854 he published an article entitled "Why the Missouri Com- promise should be repealed." This was ex- tensively copied, with more or less favorable comment. The Albany Argus, the Rochester Advertiser, the Syracuse Republican, and the Richmond Examiner were extravagant in its praise; while the Albany Evening Journal was not suited with it at all. Hle has also published articles on the relations of the States and the general government, on the cur- rency, on education, and other subjects.
Mr. Charles S. Hall has been twice mar- ried, first to Mary R. Harris, of Ballston Spa, and second to Annie H. Knowlton, of Richwood, Ohio. The children of the first marriage were: Louise Harris, born March 17, 1858, died September 4, 1858; Charles Harris, born March 19, 1860 (Yale, 1883) - has a son, Fairfax Hall; Arnold Harris, born May 5, 1863, died April 9, 1885; Samuel Holden Parsons, born October 10, 1868, and is married. By the second marriage: Lyman Knowlton, born December 10, 1892, died July 23, 1893. Mr. Hall resides in Bing- hamton, on the west bank of the Chenango, in a house he built for himself in 1855.
AMES S. MINOR is a well-known and highly esteemed business man of De- posit, proprietor and manager of Minor's Manufacturing Company of that place, one of the prominent and representa- tive enterprises of Deposit, and contributing
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not a little to its prosperity and importance. Mr. Minor's paternal grandfather, Philo Minor, was a native of Connecticut, being born in that State, May 3, 1781. He became one of the pioneers of Chenango County, New York, where he followed the useful and time- honored occupation of farming, and became a popular and highly respected citizen of his locality. His wife, whose maiden name was Polly Stilson, was born March 26, 1783, and died February 6, 1848. Mr. and Mrs. Philo Minor had a large family, six of whom, three boys and three girls, attained maturity.
George Minor, one of their sons, was born November 3, 1803, was reared on the farm, and when a young man came to Deposit, where he obtained employment with Martial R. Hulce, a well-known citizen, who was then engaged in the lumber business at that place. After remaining here for some time Mr. Minor returned to Chenango County, built a store, engaged in mercantile business, and dealt to some extent in pine lumber. The lumber was hauled across country by : team to Deposit, where it was made into rafts on the river, and thus floated down to the Philadelphia market. The business increased in extent and importance; and Mr. Minor, finding his financial prospects improving so rapidly, made an especial effort, and invested the bulk of his profits in a large supply of this useful product of the forests, which he had on the river in rafts, when a freshet occurred which swept away the lumber and his fortune at the same time. This would have discouraged most men; but Mr. Minor
met his bad luck with fortitude, and went to work anew. Receiving an inheritance from his father, he used it to apply on his debts, and by dint of industry and economy finally succeeded in clearing off all his indebtedness and meeting every obligation, paying one hundred cents on the dollar -- an example of business honor and fidelity that might be copied to advantage by firms and individuals of to-day. Mr. George Minor died September 18, 1880. He was twice married, first to Miss Maria L. Wattles, who died, leaving two children, and second to the mother of the subject of this sketch, Miss Ann Eliza Smith, who was born in Delaware County and was a daughter of Ralph Smith. The latter was a native of Connecticut, where he was born in Chatham, Middlesex County, March 2, 1780. He died in Deposit, N. Y., January 17, 1850.
James S. Minor was born in Deposit, Janu- ary 19, 1840; and it was in the following year that his parents removed to Chenango County. He laid the foundations of a good and substantial education in the district schools of his locality, which were of a high degree of excellence. He later attended the seminary at Deposit, and spent two terms at the Delaware Literary Institute. He im- proved his opportunities, became an excellent scholar, and was engaged in teaching in the town of Deposit, Delaware County, during one winter, and during another in Chenango County. The money he earned in the latter place he turned over to his father to be ap- plied upon the latter's debts. He was at this
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time about twenty years old; and, making up his mind to obtain some regular employment, he came to Deposit that year with a cash capi- tal of just one dollar. He first obtained a situation as clerk in a store, receiving for his services for the first year seventy dollars and his board, and for the second year ten dollars per month. He was industrious, and applied himself carnestly to business and to obtaining a close insight into business methods. Dur- ing this time he became acquainted with C. M. Putnam, of this place, who had some capital; and an agreement was reached be- tween them by which a partnership was formed under the name of Putnam & Minor. They bought out the store of N. A. Eggles- ton, which they conducted, and where Mr. Minor was engaged in taking care of the bus- iness in 1862. They were very prosperous, and continued the partnership until 1886, when they dissolved. The attention of Mr. Minor was then directed to manufacturing interests; and, after looking over the ground, he established a plant for the manufacture of shirts, overalls, and other articles in the line of men's furnishing goods, putting in machin- ery and stock to the amount of five thousand dollars, and thus the Minot's Manufacturing Company was inaugurated. The first three years of the firm's existence were not very successful ones, and the outlook was rather discouraging; but Mr. Minor was not a man to give up easily, and simply renewed his efforts, his persistence being finally rewarded by larger sales and a rapidly increasing de- mand for the goods manufactured by the firm.
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