USA > New York > Broome County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Broome County, New York. > Part 4
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Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Rockwood were the parents of eight children, two of whom died in infancy, and one at the age of twelve years. Theodore, one of the sons, enlisted in the Federal army during the War of the Rebel- lion, from New Haven, Conn. He was a Captain in the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, but was subsequently transferred to the Twenty-ninth Regiment of colored troops, of which he was Major, and was killed in' front of Petersburg when twenty-eight years old. Newell P. Rockwood enlisted from Hartford, Conn., in 1862, in Company K, Fourteenth Regiment Volunteer Infantry, and remained in the service and the same regi- ment until November 30, 1864, when, hold- ing a Captain's commission, he was com- pelled to resign on account of disability occasioned by a severe wound received during the battle of the Wilderness in the preceding
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May. He was by trade a painter and paper- hanger, but followed that occupation but little in his maturer years.
He was married to Ettie J. Alderman, a daughter of Bradley and Sarah (Phelps) Alderman, January 17, 1861. Her parents were from Connecticut, and came to Castle Creek, Broome County, N. Y., in 1828, with four children, making the journey by team and settling in the woods near this village, where they built a small frame house, among the first in the vicinity. Bradley Alderman died in August, 1870, when seventy-five years old, leaving his widow, who made her home with her son-in-law, Mr. Rockwood, until the time of her death, which occurred in the au- tumn of 1893. They had buried two daugh- ters: Emily F., wife of Jason H. Payne, who died in 1852, when twenty-two years old; and Fannie, who died in 1857, at the age of fifteen years. The living children are: Brad- ley J., a resident of Castle Creek; Israel P., a farmer on the old homestead, running the saw and grist mill, which he built on the old place; Edwin B., at Riverside, Cal .; Sarah A., wife of Dexter Cunningham, living at Anamosa, Ia .; Talcott, a farmer in the town of Barker; Amaret L., wife of 1I. II. Hos- mer, of Southwick, Mass .; Judson, at Ana- mosa, Ia .; and Ettie J., the wife of the sub- ject of this sketch.
Mr. and Mrs. Newell P. Rockwood came to their present home in Castle Creek during the spring of 1887. Mr. Rockwood has been a commercial traveller most of the time since he left the army, his territory covering most
of the States east of the Rocky Mountains. He belongs to the Order of Red Men, Tribe Hiawatha, No. 214, Castle Creek, of which he was the first Sachem. He has been con- nected with the Grand Army of the Republic for the past fifteen years - first in New York City, then at Milwaukee, Wis .- and is the present Quartermaster of Post No. 199, Whit- ney's Point. He is not now so actively engaged in the work of life as in former years, but is in a measure retired, and living in the enjoyment of his pleasant home, hav- ing already performed a good share of useful labor.
LLEN BARLOW, founder of the man- ual training-school at Binghamton, which is incorporated under the laws of the State of New York as the Bar- low School of Industrial Art, was born in Windham, Greene County, N. Y., September 17, 1810, son of Alanson and Mary Ann (Allen) Barlow. Alanson Barlow owned one hundred and fifty acres of the original five hundred bought by his father when most of the county was a dense forest.
In the primitive district school Allen Bar- low received his education, his years of study being from the age of ten to that of sixteen. But he made good use of these opportunities, so that he was able at the age of seventeen years, when the distriet was divided, to teach one of the new schools, many of his pupils being his own schoolmates of the old one. Although so young, he was gifted as a leader, and was able to manage those boys some of
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them older than himself; and so well did he succeed that he was invited to take charge of the school the next year. But, having a bet- ter offer made him, with more salary and a larger district, he accepted the latter, and taught the best school in the place for one winter. The high common school on the turnpike from Catskill via Windham to Ithaca was next tendered him, and there he taught one winter term. After this he assumed charge of one of the largest and richest dis- trict schools in the county, which was situ- ated in the town of Lexington. He remained there for one year, and then went to Andover, Mass., where he attended the Teachers' Semi- nary, boarding with the Principal, Samuel Hall, and graduating after a two years' course. The school was a branch of the famous Phillips Academy, and later became its English department. Returning to his home, Mr. Barlow taught in Lexington for five years, in the same district, giving great satisfaction to the community. After this he opened an academy school at Lexington Heights, which proved a well-paying school, and was conducted by him for about two years. He subsequently opened a general country store on the Heights, and dealt in general merchandise for a similar period. When he sold out that business, he went to Prattsville, Greene County, where he bought a lot of Colonel Pratt, who was there conduct- ing an extensive tannery.
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About this time Mr. Barlow married Miss Lucina D. Blakeslee, whose father's farm adjoined that of his father in Windham.
Cutting and hewing lumber from the growing timber on his father's land, he made on the same premises the several parts of the frames of a house and a barn, and, when completed, hauled the framed lumber with his own team to Prattsville, ten miles distant, to prepare on his own lot a home for himself and his wife. Aided ·by an old resident carpenter, who laid out his work, he built both house and barn almost entirely with his own hands, except the plastering. He first dug the cellar, in itself no light labor, and then, when he had three comfortable rooms to live in, considered himself a man whose fortune was to be envied. He worked for a carpenter at ten dollars per month to get money to pay for materials used in his building. At this time, being called to teach a school in Prattsville at fifteen dol- lars a month, Mr. Barlow was able in a little while to' build a front to his house, which now stands a monument to his industry in Prattsville:
While he was in that place, a large oil-cloth factory was started, which was considered a great novelty. The company wanted to ex- tend their trade, and Mr. Barlow was asked to travel through the West to solicit orders. With a wagon and a stout pair of horses he started on the general turnpike road to Chi- cago via Toledo, Michigan City, and along the shore of Lake Michigan. The ground on which the . Columbian Exposition stood in 1893 was at that time all swamp. lle looks back now, and sees Chicago as it was then, a mere village with a few stores; and the ware- house where he obtained fresh supplies of oil-
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cloth, a little structure on the Chicago River. From this place he sent out his teams to dif- ferent parts of the State, going himself down to Joliet, where he stayed for a while, and from there to Springfield, and thence to Peoria, Ottawa, and Elgin, taking in all the northern part of the State of Illinois, then journeying through Madison, Racine, and Kenosha in Wisconsin, returning to the East after an absence of two years. He received twenty-five dollars per month and expenses while away, and, after settling down at home in Prattsville once more, worked at the trade of a carpenter.
And now began the most novel experiences and greatest adventures in the life of Mr. Bar- low. It was the year 1849, the year in which the country went wild over the discovery of gold in California. Having seven hundred dollars in cash, visions of increasing it to seventy times that amount filled his mind; and, in company with a band of seventeen persons, he started from Prattsville in the spring of 1849 for the new El Dorado. They went by a steamer from New York to Panama, employing natives to row them up the Chagres River on the isthmus, and from there hired burros to Panama, wlfere they took the boat for San Francisco, Cal. Seeing on his arrival that San Francisco had just been nearly all burned up, he bought a chest of carpenter's tools, and immediately got work. At the United States Hotel, a high-sounding name for a very ordinary tavern, he boarded, and worked all the summer of 1849 at carpen- tering, getting ten dollars per day. When
wages declined to eight dollars, he concluded then to go to the southern mining country, and finally located himself at Sonora, a live town for those times, filled up with broken- down Eastern business men trying to retrieve their fortunes. He went by way of Stockton, situated at the head of navigation on the San Juan River, and from thence by stage to Sonora. Here, again, Mr. Barlow found a United States Hotel, with all its pretentious title; but he slept on a dirt floor, with a blanket for his covering, a plank for a table, and millions of sand fleas for company.
After looking around for a few days to de- cide what to engage in first, he hired himself out to a man to make what were known as "long toms" for miners' use - implements for sifting the gold. For this work he received five dollars per day. In the spring he started out prospecting for himself; and his first find was a nugget of gold worth twelve hundred dollars, with another as large as an egg, which brought eight hundred dol- lars. He staked out a claim, and worked it at a fair rate, but finally opened a store with. a person by the name of B. Cruthers, and put in a variety of stock, such as miners' stoves, shovels, picks, and crow-bars, dry goods, crockery, hardware, and provisions. The store was a very rough building, and small; for boards were from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars per thousand. Ile was obliged to go to San Francisco to procure goods, and, not having money enough to pay for them all, secured some on' credit. He put in a heavy stock, shipping by boat to Stock-
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ton, and from there to Sonora by mules, on account of the deep mud in the spring run- ning no wagons. It was a lamentable but veritable fact that the best trade was done on Sunday, the only day on which the men could leave their work in the mines; and many times the sales on that day amounted to one thousand dollars. He marked his goods at exactly double the cost price, and at the end of one year had accumulated sufficient to pay his debts 'and have a respectable surplus. But here the clouds began to gather, and his first misfortune happened. He and his part- ner had built a large lodging-house, with as many conveniences as obtainable in this crude and rugged locality, and had secured forty mining boarders at good prices. At the end of one week the whole establishment was burned up, everything was lost; and, as there was no such thing as insurance in that coun- try, the proprietors found themselves once more adrift.
But all was not lost : they still had manly pluck and energy; and with brave determina- tion Mr. Barlow started once more for San Francisco, purchasing goods on credit from acquaintances there, while his partner built another store at Sonora. They prospered for the next year, and erected once more a board- ing-house, which, like the preceding one, fell a victim to the flames the first week. This time the store was not burned; and at the end of the second year they sold out the business to a good advantage, Mr. Barlow then going to San Francisco, where he found, after all his losses and gains, he had just three thou-
sand dollars in twenty-dollar gold pieces. He strapped this amount around his body, finding it a pretty heavy load to carry on the steamer to New York City, whence he reached his home in 1853, after an absence of four years.
The money he brought with him gave him a start; and he settled in Ashland, N. Y., where he built a house for his brother-in-law, J. Baldwin. Being undecided just where to settle permanently, he went on a trip through Broome County; and, meeting Judge Loomis, a celebrated lawyer living in Binghamton, he bought property in this city at the corner of Court and Summit Streets, and here took up his residence. This was in 1854, and he paid two thousand dollars for the property. He followed various occupations, being a car- penter one year, a. drug clerk another, buying out the drug store at the corner of Court and Washington Streets, and making money for the time he conducted it. Selling that out, he went as clerk for Mr. Erastus Ross for fif- teen years, and, after leaving that position in 1872, bought the brick block on Washington Street, No. 142, and started stencil works. Mr. Barlow was appointed first United States Gauger in 1864, under the new law at the close of the Civil War, which position he held for ten years at a good salary, making twenty-five hundred dollars the first year. 1Ie improved the store on Washington Street, and had can- vassers out for his stencil works. In 1885 he built the handsome block corner of Ruther- ford and Court Streets, in which neighbor- hood he owns considerable property. This
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block consists of three elegant brick stores, with handsome front and stone trimmings.
Mr. Barlow is a man of wealth; and it is all the result of his own energy, the work of his own hands. He has led a remarkably varied life, has had his trials and joys, adver- sities and successes, his heart not being puffed up by the one nor hardened and soured by the other. On the contrary, he has shown himself a practical philanthropist and a kindly helper of his fellow-men. While opposed to organizations in general, being impressed with the belief that the present disturbed state of society comes from the numerous pop- ular unions and leagues, Mr. Barlow is yet a man of far-reaching benevolence. The great work of his life is the industrial school men- tioned in the first of this sketch, for which he has already made testamentary provision of over seventy-five thousand dollars. This money is to be used by the Trustees to build shops where the boys may be taught trades after leaving school, and where, as he quaintly expresses it, the "girls will learn to cook a meal as well as flirt and talk Latin." To the perfection of this scheme for the bene- fit of the rising generation Mr. Barlow has devoted much thought in recent years, his design being to establish a beneficent institu- tion that shall be free to the residents of Binghamton.
A portrait of this worthy citizen, an excel- lent steel engraving, on another page of this Review, shows him as he is - a man of good habits and principles, a lover of order and peace, a veteran of industry, enjoying now,
when well past fourscore, after many years of toil, with the wife of his youth the ease and comfort which he has richly. carned.
'AMES D. SEEBER, furniture-dealer and undertaker at Chenango Forks, is a man possessing good business quali- fications, desirable social qualities, and a commendable inclination to do that which he conceives to be right. He commenced life as a tiller of the soil, and was successful in per- suading mother earth to give up to him a goodly share of her product. IIe farmed in- telligently, using his head as well as his hands, making it a business not altogether of " drudgery, but of pleasure as well as profit. Although the work was congenial to him, cir- cumstances necessitated a change; and in other occupations of life he has been found a ready and successful manager.
Colonel Saffreness Seeber, the first ances- tor of the family in America, came with four brothers from Alsace, Germany, and settled at a place called Oak Ridge, near Cherry Valley, Otsego County, N.Y. He married a Miss Yates, whose family name had been changed from its original form of Eight. Colonel Seeber was killed in the War of the . Revolution, leaving two sons. His widow was again married to James Vandewerker, to whom she bore one son. She died at an advanced age in Schoharie County, New York. William Seeber, the grandfather of James D., was born in Herkimer County on the Mohawk. IIe married Dorothy Kling,
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and early in the present century, when the country was comparatively new and wild, settled in Cherry Valley in the woods, where he and his sons cleared a farm and made a home. After a life there of over fifty years and bringing up a family of five sons and four daughters, he died, February 26, 1860, aged eighty-five years, nine months, and ten days; and his memory is still dear to those who knew him best. His wife died June 18, 1859, aged eighty-three years, two months, and five days. They were buried in the Sew- ard Cemetery, Schoharie County. The father of the subject of this sketch was James W. Seeber, who was born in Schoharie County, New York, in 1804, and died in the town of Milford, Otsego County, in January, 1890. He was married to Clarissa Lowell, whose birthplace was on the border line of Otsego and Schoharie Counties, New York, and whose people on her mother's side were carly settlers in the Wyoming valley, Pennsyl- vania, her grandfather Inman being a victim of the massacre. The Lowells were from the old and noted Massachusetts family of that name, which has furnished so many distin- guished citizens to the commonwealth. Mrs. Clara L. Seeber was born October 3, 1803. Her father, Abram Lowell, was born in Put- ney, Vt., February 7, 1774. He left the parental roof when but a boy, and, coming to New York, was a pioneer settler on the border line of the above-named counties, where he secured land and cleared a farm. He married Sally Inman, of Wilkesbarre, Pa. ; and they reared six children - namely, Nyram, Abram
Bradbury, Clarissa, Sarah, Hannah, and Anna. Mr. and Mrs. Lowell died at the home of a son in Seward, Schoharie County.
Mr. and Mrs. James W. Seeber were en- gaged in farming on the old homestead which the grandfather settled, consisting of about one hundred acres, for many years; were well- known people, and exerted a salutary influence in the community. They were the parents of seven children, four sons and three daughters, of whom six are now living; namely, James Delos, William Riley, Abram, Abram Syl- vester, Emeline, Mahala, and Melissa. Will- iam R. was born March 19, 1830, and was married on February 22, 1853, to Mary Wise, now deceased. Ilis children are Uriah, Ella, and Angenette. Abram was born November 28, 1832, and died January 16, 1835. Abram Sylvester was born May 19, 1837, and was married on August 23, 1859, to Augusta Maria Perkins. They have four children, Clara, Clarence, Eugene, and William Rufus, Emeline was born August 14, 1839, and was married June 10, 1860, to Henry Tice. They have three children, Ida, Seeber, and Clara. Mahala, born April 30, 1841, married Charles Tillapaugh on December 31, 1861. They have two children, Arthur and Floyd. Me- lissa, who was born February 3, 1843, be- came the wife of Austin Cronkrite, and has one son, Schuyler.
James D. Seeber was born on February 4, 1828. He was brought up on the home farm, was familiar with farm work, and remained thus engaged until of age, receiving mean- while such education as the limited school
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privileges afforded at that time. He then learned the trade of mason; but, that occupa- tion proving unfavorable to his health, after about five years he abandoned it. He was married when twenty-five years old, February 22, 1853, to Mary C. Sarringar, of Otsego County. She was born August 22, 1833, daughter of Josiah and Mary (Demming) Sar- ringar, who were married November 19, 1831. Josiah Sarringar was from Massachusetts, where he was born May 30, 1808. He died in Michigan, and was there buried in Septem- ber, 1883. Mary Demming Sarringar, his wife, was born June 3, 1806, and died No- vember 29, 1890. She was buried at Kettel- ville, Broome County, N.Y. Her parents lived at Tully, Onondaga County, N.Y.
Mr. and Mrs. James D. Seeber began domestic life on his father's farm. Then he rented a place for three years, and subse- quently purchased a farm in Nanticoke, Broome County, where they resided for eight years. Mr. Seeber sold the place, and, after again renting for four years, came to Che- nango Forks, and built a fine large dwelling, which has since been the home of the family. He embarked in his present business in 1871, and since that time has controlled this branch of trade in this vicinity. The stock kept on hand is well selected and of good quality, and sold at reasonable prices. He has added to the facilities for handling goods by the pur- chase of store and ware-rooms on the East Side, enlarging the buildings and keeping pace with the increasing demand for honest goods.
Mr. and Mrs. Seeber have had five chil- dren. . Eugene, the eldest, was born April 13, 1854, and died April 17, 1856. Fayette, born February 5, 1857, is now a druggist at Whitney's Point. Stella, born January 6, 1860, died August 30, 1883, wife of Addison H. Youmans. Carrie, born September 30, 1864, wife of Fred Van Amburgh, of Bing- hamton, Vice-President of the Evening Herald Publishing Company. Grace, born February 4, 1869, died February 19, 1869. Mr. and Mrs. Seeber have been connected with the Baptist church for twenty-five years, and feel a commendable interest in the advancement of religion and morality. In politics Mr. Seeber is a Democrat.
ARRY A. NICHOLS, one of the . leading retail merchants of Bing- hamton, N. Y., doing a good busi- ness in the boot and shoe trade, was born at Brooklyn, Susquehanna County, Pa., in Sep- tember, 1860, son of Amos and Harriet (Wade) Nichols. The Nichols family came from New England to Pennsylvania at an early period in the settlement of that State. Mr. Amos Nichols was formerly a merchant, but has filled the position of Cashier of the First National Bank at Montrose, Pa., for the past twelve years. He has also held the office of County Treasurer, and is one of the most prominent and respected citizens of that section. Both he and his wife are strict members of the Baptist church at Montrose. When his parents took up their residence in
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Montrose, Harry was but two years old. Verging toward manhood, and having com- pleted his studies in the schools of that town, he decided on adopting a mercantile life, and for that purpose entered into his father's store, where he remained, and managed the business after the father had become engaged in the bank. In 1887 Mr. Nichols came to the city of Binghamton, N. Y., and formed a partnership with Mr. W. H. Gleazen in the shoe business, the firm speedily taking rank among the best representatives of the highest class of retail establishments in the city. For four and a half years they carried on a most successful business, always having a well-selected stock of goods in every variety of style and finish. On the first of January, 1892, Mr. Nichols withdrew from the firm to establish a business of his own, and in March opened a boot and shoe store at No. 31 Court Street. Here he has an extensive and grow- ing trade, his success being due not only to the high class of goods he carries, but also to his pleasant manner of serving his customers and his thorough knowledge of the art of buy- ing and selling.
Mr. Harry A. Nichols was married to Miss Laura Grow September 30, 1886. Iler father, Mr. S. 11. Grow, has been a resident of Binghamton for many years. Mrs. Nichols is a niece of the Hon. Galusha Grow, the vet- eran statesman, who has represented his na- tive State, Pennsylvania, in Congress for over a third of a century. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Nichols -a daughter, Helen. The family are consistent, earnest,
and faithful members of the Tabernacle Meth- odist Church, where Mr. Nichols is one of the official Board of Stewards. The parents of Mrs. Nichols have long been identified with the advancement of Methodism in Bingham- ton, and most especially with the fortunes of the Tabernacle Church, which they have ac- tively supported since it was first started in the little wooden structure on Main Street that has since been replaced by the present beautiful temple of worship on the same site.
Mr. and Mrs. Nichols reside at No. 23 North Street, Binghamton. They are highly popular in society, and are respected by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
In business matters Mr. Nichols, who is still quite young in years, has always dis- played sound judgment and commendable energy; and the pronounced success he has attained is only the just due of well-directed enterprise. As a Free Mason, he belongs to the Royal Arcanum, and is deeply interested in the principles and workings of the ancient craft. Ile is also Collector in Empire Coun- cil, No. 32.
R. M. G. CUNNINGHAM, a promi- nent member of the medical profes- sion and well known in the city of Binghamton, where for the last six years he has enjoyed a large and increasing practice, was born in Little Meadows, Susquehanna County, Pa., May 28, 1856. His parents were Michael and Bridget (Reardon) Cun- ningham, the former of whom came to that county when it was, for the most part, a
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