Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Delaware County, New York, Part 98

Author: Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, pub
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 744

USA > New York > Delaware County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Delaware County, New York > Part 98

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" He was born June 15, 1805, at Walton, a town in the wild and mountainous county of Delaware, New York, and died August 3, 1877, at his country seat, Boscobel, near High Bridge on the Harlem. He was yet a lad when his father died; and, being the eldest

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son, he was early placed in a position of re- sponsibility as the head of a large family, and soon developed those qualities of executive ability, sagacity, and courage, good sense, energy, and determination which made him always a recognized leader among men, and caused his influence to be powerfully felt in this city and State and through the North- west.

"His boyhood was passed in the picturesque valley and hills of Delaware County, which was then covered with a dense and magnificent forest of sugar-maple, beech, birch, and elm trees; while on the sides of the mountains were pine, fir, and hemlock. And vast rafts of logs and lumber were with the spring floods sent down the Delaware to Philadel- phia. The raftsmen had rude, and sometimes dangerous, experiences in running the dams of the swollen river ; and Mr. Ogden had many a tale of exciting adventure occurring in these rough days. But it was hunting the deer among the hills of the Delaware, and on the Unadilla and other tributaries of the Sus- quehanna, which furnished the most exciting stories of the days of his youth. Clubs of hunters then existed in the counties of Otsego, Chenango, and Delaware. Packs of hounds were kept; and the hunters who gathered at the annual autumn hunts, coming often forty to sixty miles, were as well mounted, with horses of as good blood and equal endurance, as the best English stocks. Judges, lawyers, and gentleman farmers joined in the exciting sport ; and among them all was no keener sportsman, no more fearless rider, than Mr. Ogden."

The death of Mr. Ogden was a loss to the world at large. He is ever remembered for his genial disposition, his generous impulses, and large benevolence. He was interested in fostering everything that would promote the general progress and prosperity, and at all times exhibited an unwavering rectitude.

OHN T. ODWELL, a native of Glas- gow, Scotland, was born on October 27, 1837. His parents, John and Elizabeth (Gilfillan) Odwell, embarked for America when he was an infant of scarcely

twelve months, and for over seven weeks were out of sight of land. Arriving in New York City, the father engaged in tailoring, which he continued to pursue until 1840. He then removed with his family.to Delaware County, making the journey as far as Catskill by water, and thence by driving across the country to Campbell Mountain. Here the travellers stopped, and leased a tract of one hundred and fifty acres of land. A few years later this lease was given up, and they came to Downs- ville. In December of the same year they set sail from New York for bonnie Scotland, where they spent about four years. They then returned to New York, and in the following spring they settled in Downsville. John Odwell some time afterward started for Cali- fornia, but was shipwrecked ninety miles south of Acapulco. He was rescued by the "Star- light's" crew; but the fatigue, exposure, and privation had so impaired his constitution that he succumbed to the illness that seized upon him, and, dying on board the vessel, was buried at sea on May 7, 1853. He had seen service as a soldier in Spain, as a young man. He belonged to the political party known as Whig, and both he and his wife were faithful to their beloved kirk. His wife, Elizabeth (Gilfillan) Odwell, came of ancestry that claimed connection with royalty in long-gone generations.

Their one son, John T. Odwell, was sent to school in Glasgow, and after his return to the United States studied for three years at Frank- lin Institute. For four winters he taught school, and through the summer vacations read law with some of the best lawyers in the vicin- ity. In November, 1860, he was admitted to the bar, and in the following spring opened his office as an attorney-at-law in Downsville. Here he had begun to establish a flourishing practice when he enlisted in the Civil War, which was then distracting the Union, and faithfully performed his duties to his country as a good soldier.

On July 10, 1864, he was married to Miss Sarah C. Terwilliger, a daughter of Isaac and Mary (Anderson) Terwilliger. . Mrs. Odwell's grandfather Terwilliger was a Captain in the Revolutionary War, and was present at the burning of Kingston. Her maternal grand-

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father, Ezekiel Anderson, also held the rank of Captain in the war. Both Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Terwilliger lived and died at Callicoon.

Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. John T. Odwell, namely: Elizabeth and Thomas, deceased; John G. ; Frederic M. ; George B. ; and Catherine. Mr. Odwell con- tinued to practise law after the war until his health failed. He was a Republican until the time of the Hancock campaign, when he be- came a Democrat. He and his wife are both members of the Presbyterian church.

OHN BABCOCK, senior member of the firm of Babcock, Lary & Co., railway and dredging contractors, with an office at No. 1I Pine Street, New York City, is a man of more than ordinary mechanical ability and business tact. He was born in Orange County, December 27, 1838. His. grandfather, Isaac Babcock, a life-long resi- dent of Orange County, married a Miss Ben- jamin ; and they both lived to be eighty years of age, having reared a family of fourteen chil- dren, ten sons and four daughters, all of whom grew to maturity and married.

John Babcock, Sr., one of the sons of Isaac, was married in 1834 to Catherine Secor, who bore him nine sons and three daughters; and of these seven sons and two daughters grew to adult life, and all but two of the sons married. Five sons and one daughter are now living, namely : John, the subject of this sketch ; Samuel, also of Walton; Josiah and George, railroad men, living at Port Jervis; Isaac, a resident of Cornwall; and Eliza, the widow of David Bowen. The father died in 1880, at the age of fifty-eight years, from the kick of an ox. The mother survived her husband thirteen years, dying in 1893, in the seventy- second year of her age. Their graves are in the beautiful cemetery near Greenwood Lake in Orange County.

John Babcock, who received the name of his honored father, obtained a good common- school education, and, not being content to spend his life as a tiller of the soil, left the shelter of the parental roof when seventeen years old to begin his career as a railroad man. He was first employed as one of the track

force, but was advanced step by step until appointed foreman. He subsequently became Division Roadmaster on the New York, On- tario & Western Railway, and was finally made General Roadmaster, having full charge of all the lines and branches of this railway. In 1888 he resigned this position to engage in his present lucrative business, becoming one of the firm of Ward & Lary, railway contrac- tors. While in this firm, one of his great achievements was the putting through of the zigzag tunnel of two thousand seven hundred feet, eight miles north of Walton, the ap- proaches of which are one-half mile long and one hundred feet high, the building of these latter being considered a greater mechanical feat than that of constructing the tunnel, which is one of the four tunnels from Cornwall through the spurs of the Catskill Mountains. The next important work of Mr. Babcock was the building of the water tunnel, three thou- sand three hundred feet long, at Winsted, Conn. As Mr. Babcock has never made a special study of civil engineering, it is evident that he has great native ability, possessing an active and fertile brain, which he keeps in constant use. Mr. Babcock was a volunteer in the late Civil War, going to the front as First Lieutenant in Company C, One Hundred and Seventy-sixth New York Volunteer Infantry, and taking part in many engagements. He was made prisoner in June, 1863, and remained in durance thirteen months at Camp Ford, Texas, but on his rations of corn-bread and beef stood the imprisonment quite well, com- ing out strong. He was finally exchanged, and afterward promoted to the rank of Captain, but, being taken sick, was sent home and subsequently discharged.

On October 8, 1861, Mr. Babcock was united in marriage to Christina Miller, the daughter of John and Agnes (Anderson) Mil- ler, both natives of Scotland. Mrs. Babcock was born in Utica, N. Y., but was reared to womanhood in Canada ; and in that dominion, in the city of Quebec, while she was on a pleasure trip, her death occurred, July 17, 1892. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Babcock, one of whom, Frank, an en- gineer on the West Shore Railway, died at the age of twenty-eight years, The other two

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children are a son, Charles, who lives in Wal- ton, and a daughter, Tina, the wife of C. E. Vosburgh, an architect in New York City. Since the death of her mother Mrs. Vosburgh presides over the handsome house of her father, which he erected in 1882. In politics Mr. Babcock is a supporter of the Republican party ; and, socially, he is an influential mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, being a Royal Arch Mason.

HERMAN STREET, M.D., a widely known and much esteemed physician of Middletown, residing at Ark- ville, settled in this vicinity a num- ber of years ago, and has since then attained a leading place among the professional men of the county. His birthplace was Putnam, Conn. ; and he is the son of John and Rebecca Street. His paternal grandfather, John Street, was an Englishman, who came to America, where he married, afterward return- ing to England. Later he came back to this country, and spent his last days here. His son, John Street, Jr., came to Delaware County from Putnam, Conn., and engaged in farming for three years. Then, returning to his old home, he became engaged as a contractor, and resided there until his death, at the age of forty-five. His widow was left with five chil- dren to support, and later became the wife of William Frisbee. She lived to the age of eighty-six years. Their children were: Ann, who became the wife of Isaac Robinson, and died, leaving four children; Philip, who mar- ried Jane Fisher, and at his death left six chil- dren; John, who married Diantha June, and went to Iowa - had one child; Jane, who died when quite young ; and Sherman, the subject of this sketch.

After pursuing his studies in a college in Western Massachusetts, Sherman Street at- tended medical lectures at Castleton, Vt., and began practice in Roxbury, N. Y., when but twenty-one years old. Later he removed to Middletown, and now resides at Arkville, where he has a farm of one hundred and thirty-three acres, situated on the Delaware River. The farm buildings, erected by him- self, were destroyed by fire; but he rebuilt

them, and is now the possessor of a fine prop- erty. Dr. Street has been twice married. His first wife, Ann Fallock, daughter of Will- iam Fallock, a progressive farmer of Roxbury, died when only thirty-six years old, leaving two children : Loranda, now deceased ; and Malvina, who married Dr. Banker, and now resides at Livingston Lake. Dr. Street mar- ried for his second wife Julia A. Baker, daugh- ter of Frederick Baker. Five generations have lived on the old Baker homestead, on which Dr. and Mrs. Street now reside. They have one son, John, who married Emma Croft, of Somerville, Greene County, N. Y., and has two children. John Street is a carpenter and a bridge-builder, and has built several bridges on the U. & D. Railroad. Dr. Street has been very successful in his profession, and has a large practice, not only in his immediate neighborhood, but extending far beyond the limits of his adopted town, and keeps in touch with the latest medical discoveries.

A Republican in politics, he has been a leader of the people by reason of his great natural talents, and has rendered great services to his party. A man of wide influence and conspicuous ability, he is well worthy of public confidence, and is esteemed by all with whom he comes into personal contact.

R OBERT H. SLOAN, an old and honored citizen of the village of Walton, where he has resided the past twenty-eight years, was born in County Down, in the northern part of Ireland, February 28, 1823. When a lad of little more than three years, he was brought to this country by his good parents, Thomas and Jane (Bailey) Sloan.

Thomas Sloan and his family were seven weeks and three days in making the voyage from Ireland to New York City, where they landed July 25, 1826, with their two children, Robert and his elder sister. On the night of their disembarkation another son was added to their family. Mr. Sloan was a shoemaker by trade. He soon came to Delaware County, and settled on a farm of fifty acres in the town of Bovina. His services as a shoemaker were in excellent demand as soon as his reputation

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for thorough and skilled workmanship became fully established. He also paid good attention to farming, and before his decease had added considerably to his acreage. He died while yet on the sunny side of the hill of life, pass- ing away on September 22, 1844, aged forty- seven years. His widow survived him until 1865, being sixty-seven years old at the time of her death. They became the parents of eight children, all of whom grew to maturity, and were married, and of whom three sons and one daughter are now living, as follows : Thomas, who resides in Bloomington, Wis. ; Alexander B., who is a farmer, and lives near Belle Plaine, Ia. ; Nancy, who is the wife of William Miller, and lives in Walton; and Robert H., also of Walton.

Robert H. Sloan has spent the major part of his useful life in Delaware County, and has but a dim recollection of any other home, although he distinctly remembers going to the cooper-shop of his grandfather, Alexander Bailey, in Ireland, to get a hoop to roll. His educational advantages were very limited, as at the age of ten years he was set to stitch- ing leather. Having learned the shoemaker's trade, he worked at it with such steady applica- tion that in 1856 his health began to fail, and he was compelled to seek some other employ- ment. In connection with agriculture, in which he engaged, he has carried on an exten- sive and profitable business as a dealer in cattle and in butter, the latter of which he shipped to the New York markets.

On July 4, 1848, Mr. Sloan married Nancy Smith, of Delhi, daughter of Robert and Christine Smith, both of whom were natives of Scotland. Sorrow as well as joy has from time to time crossed the threshold of his home. Two of their five children - namely, Catherine, a child of seven years, and Thomas Albert, an infant of ten months -- died in the month of May, 1868, the former on the 4th, and the latter on the 24th, of scarlet fever. And Jennie, a daughter, who married Jacob H. Osterhoudt, died at the home of her parents of diphtheria, August 2, 1882, being then but twenty-two years of age. In less than three years the devoted wife and mother was also called, dying February 15, 1885, at the age of fifty-seven years, having borne with

heroic fortitude and patience the intense suffer- ing caused by a cancer. She was an earnest Christian, possessing the serenest trust in divine Providence, and was a member of the United Presbyterian church. Two daughters are left to Mr. Sloan, his first and last born, of whom Christina, the wife of A. F. McFad- den, lives with her father. She has three children, one son and two daughters. Ella Catherine, the youngest child, is the wife of Charles K. Wakeman, of Walton.

In politics Mr. Sloan was formerly a Repub- lican, voting with that party until 1872, since which time he has been independent. He has never sought the emoluments of public office, although he served as Justice of the Peace four years, in the town of Bovina, and under the administration of Abraham Lincoln filled the office of Postmaster. Clear-headed, high- principled, and endowed with an excellent memory, he is a man of exceedingly temperate habits, having never used liquor nor tobacco in any form.

ARRY WARNER and his wife, Emily (Kelsey) Warner, occupy the Kelsey homestead of over one hundred acres in the valley of the Delaware. Mr. Warner was born in Windsor, Broome County, on Washington's Birthday, February 22, 1826. His father, Moses Warner, came from Massa- chusetts, and, purchasing a tract of land near Windsor, was here extensively engaged as a lumber dealer. He was twice married. His

first wife died in Windsor; and he married for his second wife Miss Hannah Smith, a native of Albany County. Seven children were born of this marriage - Diana, Rachel, Chloe, Elias, Harry, John, and Jane. The father died at about eighty years of age. The mother died in Tompkins, when upward of seventy.

The marriage of Mr. Harry Warner and Miss Emily Kelsey took place in 1848. Mrs. Emily Kelsey Warner was born in the town of Tomp- kins, Delaware County, on January 17, 1824. Her father, Roswell Kelsey, was born, so far as is known, in the same village. Her grand- father, James Kelsey, who was a native of Connecticut, came thence to the State of New York, and was an old settler in the valley of

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the Delaware. He bought a large tract of timbered land in Tompkins, cleared a farm, and erected frame buildings. His wife was Avis Hoag. On this farm Mr. Kelsey lived and died. He was twice married, and three of his children now survive.

Roswell Kelsey, Mrs. Warner's father, was for a number of years a lumber dealer, floating his logs down the Delaware River on rafts to their places of destination. In 1844 he bought a farm on the west side of the Delaware River in Deposit, and lived thereon until his death, when about seventy years old. His wife's maiden name was Hannah Smith. She was born in Cannonsville, and was the daughter of Caleb and Huldah (Cottrell) Smith. Mr. and Mrs. Roswell Kelsey raised a family of eight children - Lydia, Emily, Stephen, Elias, Caleb, Albert, Ellen, and Harper.

Mr. and Mrs. Warner have two sons - Samuel and Hiram. The former married Ella Kingsbury, and has one son - Roswell. Hiram married Ann Eliza Smith, and has three children - Harry, Hiram, and Roselle. About the time of his marriage Mr. Warner bought a farm at Tompkins, which he sold five years later, when he moved to Unadilla, Otsego County, where he remained for seven years. He finally returned to the Kelsey homestead in the Delaware Valley, where he has been most successfully engaged in general farming and dairying. Besides this farm, he has two hundred acres of outlying land.

ELSON OZIAS FLINT, proprietor of the Walton foundry and machine- shop, is a manufacturer of ploughs, drags, cultivators, and rollers, for which he finds a ready sale in this locality without the assistance of travelling salesmen. He is respected as one of the most enterprising and upright business men of this part of Dela- ware County. He was born in the town of Delhi, August 29, 1829, being a son of Albert and Joanna (Jones) Flint, the former of whom was born in Delhi, and the latter in Greene County.

Albert Flint was the son of a pioneer hotel- keeper of Delhi ; and after his marriage, which occurred in 1826, he settled down to farming

pursuits, and improved a valuable homestead. He and his wife became the parents of seven children, three of whom are living, namely : Cornelius M., a farmer in Delhi; Nelson O .; and Osman, a compositor on the Delaware Republican. The names of the deceased are : Mary, who died April 5, 1894; Romaine R., who died near Amsterdam, at the age of thirty-five years, leaving a widow and three children ; Sarah Augusta, Mrs. Robert Hen- derson, who died while in the prime of life, in Delhi, leaving five children; Phebe Ann, who married Beman Johnson, and died at the age of forty-five years, in Delhi, leaving six children. The father departed this life in 1876, and his widow in 1880.

Having mastered the common English branches in the district school, young Nelson began at the age of twelve years to plough the steep side hill of the old home farm, using two pairs of horses. After growing to manhood, he owned and improved a fine farm in Delhi, on which he resided several years. After that he was for about nineteen years engaged in the foundry in Delhi. In 1877 he sold out his property in Delhi, and came to Walton, where two years later he established his present foundry and machine-shop, quite an extensive building, being one hundred feet by forty feet, and has since carried on a lively and lucrative business, employing from six to ten hands.

Mr. Flint was united in marriage to Miss Electa L. Smith on January 8, 1851. Mrs. Flint was born in the town of Meredith, Au- gust 23, 1830, being a daughter of Elijah C. and Electa (Seward) Smith, the latter of whom died when a young woman ; and the former, who was successfully engaged in agriculture in Meredith, was subsequently married, and reared a second family of children. He departed this life in 1873, being then seventy-six years okl. He was a son of Peter Smith, who removed from Chatham, Columbia County, in 1798, and located in the town of Kortright, being one of the original settlers of that town. He was four times married, one of his wives, Abigail Cleveland, being the mother of Mrs. Flint's father. One of his wives died without issue, and by the other three wives he reared twenty children. He lived twenty-one days after celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of

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his birth, dying at the home of his son, Elijah Cleveland Smith, in Meredith. Mrs. Flint had five brothers and three sisters, all of whom, with the exception of one sister, have passed away. Of this family, three of the sons were practising physicians, and one was a lawyer. Three of her half-brothers are still living, as follows: George C., a physician, resides in Delhi. Josiah D., a farmer, who was a volun- teer in the army during the late Civil War, lives on the family homestead, which contains two hundred and forty acres of land. Henry Melville Smith is a practising physician in Jersey City. Mrs. Flint is a cultivated woman, who taught school three terms before marriage. She and her husband have reared a foster-child, Maggie, the wife of A. D. Peak. Politically, Mr. Flint is a stanch supporter of the principles of the Democratic party; and he and his wife are devout members of the Methodist church, of which he is a Steward.

ALVIN CROSBY, a well-known resi- dent of Fleischmanns, where he is an enterprising man of business, was born in Middletown, January 1, 1838, being the son of Horace and Phebe (Ackerly) Crosby, and grandson of Hopkins and Betsy (Weed) Crosby.

Hopkins Crosby was a farmer on Hubble Hill, where he worked the farm now owned by Elijah Hull. Later he went to Indiana, where he settled and continued farming until his death. His wife also died in that State, and they left the following children: Jeremiah, Horace, Calvin, Cyrus, Jeanette, Amanda, Esther, Maria, Elisha, and William. Horace was born on the old homestead at Hubble Hill in 1812, and grew to manhood there. Having learned the tanner's trade, he served as foreman in a number of different places, and then bought a tannery at Clovesville, in which place he carried on a successful business until his death. His wife was Phebe Ackerly, daughter of William and Lucy (Townsend) Ackerly, the former of whom was a carpenter. He died in early manhood, and left three chil- dren - Alfred, Matilda, and Phebe. The chil- dren of Horace and Phebe Crosby were : Calvin; Adelia, who married David Pulling,

now deceased, and resides in Marlboro, Ulster County, N. Y. ; and William H. and Mary F., both of whom died young. The father of these children was a Democrat, and a Methodist in religion. He lived to the age of sixty-three years, his wife reaching her seventy-first year.

Calvin Crosby having received his education in the schools of Clovesville, began to work at the age of fourteen for Mr. Humphrey, then became clerk for the firm of Snyder & Dim- mick, with whom he remained four years. He afterward purchased a horse and team, and for two years travelled the road with goods. He received the appointment of Deputy Sheriff for Delaware County under Gabriel S. Mead, of Walton, which office he held two years, and was for five years Constable in the town of Middletown. In 1864 he enlisted as a de- fender of his country's flag in Company C, First New York Engineer Corps, and continued in service until the close of the war, receiving

an honorable discharge. On returning home, he married Augusta Van Valkerburgh, daugh- ter of Alexander and Thankful (Peck) Van Valkerburgh. Her father is a mechanic, car- penter, and millwright, owning a saw-mill at Halcott Centre, Greene County.

After Mr. Crosby's marriage his father died ; and he went into the mercantile business at Clovesville for three years, but at last took his father's tannery, carrying it on from 1865 to 1886. During this period he met with various mishaps, at one time losing a large stock of leather by fire in Boston. But, not discour- aged, he bought a new stock of bark and leather, which he lost by a freshet. Even this did not daunt him. He began again with renewed determination, and kept on with the business. In the mean time his mother died ; and he found himself ignored in the will, the property going to others. In 1888 he estab- lished a general merchandise store at Fleisch- manns, which he has continued to the present day, now having the largest trade in the vil- lage. In politics he is a Democrat, and has been Overseer of the Poor for eight years. He is a member of Margarettville Lodge, No. 389, A. F. & A. M. ; of the Knights of Pythias; and of Elliot Post, Grand Army of the Repub- lic. In religion he is a progressive thinker, being liberal in his views. He has led an

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Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Delaware County, New York, Part 98

Author: Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, pub Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 744

Author: Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, pub
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 744