Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y, Part 41

Author:
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review
Number of Pages: 1256

USA > New York > Wyoming County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y > Part 41
USA > New York > Livingston County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y > Part 41

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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mother, after a long and useful life, closed her career in the town of Springwater.

James G. Morris was very young when his father moved to Springwater; and he therefore grew up with the village, and had a share in all its features of growth and prosperity. He was a student at the district school, and made such good use of his advantages that he became an instructor himself, and taught school dur- ing seven winter seasons, farming the remain- der of the year. Relinquishing the profession, he turned his attention entirely to farming, carrying it on for a time, but in 1868 began business for himself, opening a small store. This he conducted alone for about a year, then formed a partnership with his father-in-law, so continuing for several years. He then went into business with S. HI. Worthington, but at the expiration of four years dissolved partner- ship, and started in business with his present partner, opening a large general store, and keeping a line of dry goods, groceries, boots and shoes, hardware, clothing, hats and caps, carpets, oil cloths, coal and wood.

Mr. Morris was united in marriage in 1857 with Miss Eliza Grover, a native of Spring- water, and a daughter of David H. Grover, a representative of one of the old families in the town. Mr. Grover was a furniture dealer and a cabinet-maker, and also understood and car- ried on the carpenter's trade. Mr. and Mrs. Morris have one child, a daughter, Carrie G. She was graduated from the normal school in 1881, and for ten years taught in Bradford, Pa., one year being principal. Later she was a teacher in Victor, Ontario County, and for three years was head of a school in Spencer- port, Monroe County. Mr. Morris is a Repub- lican, and has always voted that ticket. Ile has been Town Clerk two years, but is not an office-seeker. He belongs to the Advent church, of which he has been a Trustee, and for fifteen years was superintendent of the Sunday-school, but has now resigned.

The Morris family, being an old and suc- cessful one, takes a prominent place in the society of Springwater. He who builds up so successful a business as Mr. Morris has done naturally receives the honors of his fellow- townsmen. Such men are looked up to in all

local and general matters affecting the pros- perity of the community, and also concerning the town's influence over neighboring towns and its position among other such factors of the State. Every man of intelligence has a part to fulfil in his day and generation; and such as Mr. Morris, who have special business qualifications, are the ones to whom the gov- ernment looks for support in the ebb and flow of mercantile prosperity.

m RS. RUTH E. CLEVELAND, an esteemed and venerated resident of Warsaw, Wyoming County, widow of Oliver Cleveland, was born in Danby, Tompkins County, N. Y., May 23, 1813, daughter of Luther and Ruth (Hedges) Foster, both natives of Southampton, Long Island. Mr. Foster was born September 1, 1770; and his marriage to Ruth Hedges took place in 1791. With the design of improving their circumstances they moved from South- ampton to Montague, Sussex County, N. J., and later to Owego, Tioga County, N. Y., where Mr. Foster was for six years engaged in the business of tanning. In 1823 they re- moved to Warsaw and settled in the west part of the town, where their grandson, Herbert, now resides. Mr. and Mrs. Foster were the parents of nine children whom they reared to maturity, three other children having died in infancy. They were Presbyterians in religion, and brought up their family in that belief. Mr. Foster died November 16, 1846, his widow surviving him until March 7, 1860, dying at the age of ninety-three years. The father of Luther Foster was Christopher Fos- ter, a farmer on Long Island, where he passed his entire life, never having left its shores.

Ruth E. was next to the youngest child of her parents in order of birth; and, on attaining womanhood, she was first married to Zera Tan- ner, this marriage occurring July 23, 1833, when she was in her twenty-first year. Mr. Tanner died November 27, 1836. He was the son of an early settler, Zera Tanner, Sr., who came to Warsaw from New England in 1808, and settled in the woods about two miles from the present village. His wife was Ja-

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nette McWhorter; and she accompanied him from New England, where their marriage had taken place. By her marriage to Mr. Tanner Mrs. Cleveland has one son, her only child, Zera Luther Tanner, born December 5, 1835, who has risen to distinction in the naval ser- vice. A separate sketch of his life is pre- sented in this connection, and may be found succeeding this brief notice of Mrs. Cleveland.

ERA LUTHER TANNER, Comman- der United States navy, whose mother is Mrs. Ruth E. (Foster) Cleveland, the subject of the preceding sketch, was born at Warsaw, Wyoming County, N. Y., December 5, 1835, son of Zera and Ruth E. (Foster) Tanner, as elsewhere stated. Young Tanner was educated in Warsaw, where he remained until his twenty-first year, with the exception of two years spent in Towanda, Pa. In 1855 he went to England, where he secured a patent upon an invention, the plans and model of which he had taken with him. In October of the following year he entered upon a scafaring life with the object of recruiting his health, and prior to the Civil War in America he made three voyages to the East Indies. He was at sea when the war broke out, en route from China to San Francisco; and, returning to the Atlantic coast, he en- tered the transport service. He entered the United States navy as Acting Ensign, August 18, 1862, and was in active service on the At- lantic and Gulf coasts until the war closed. His first command was the captured British steamer "Vixen," a blockade runner whose chief officer subsequently attained distinction in the Turkish navy under the name of Hobart Pasha. Early in the spring of 1866, while attached to the United States ship "Augusta," he convoyed the monitor "Miantonomoh " on a special mission to Russia, conveying the Hon. G. V. Fox, bearer of the congratulations of the United States Congress to the emperor Alexander II. on his escape from assassination. He spent the following winter in the Mediter- ranean, and, returning to the United States in June, 1867, sailed immediately for Chinese waters on board of the United States ship

"Onward," and served successively on the United States ships "Maumee " and "Idaho," remaining at the Asiatic station until the spring. of 1870.

After the loss of the United States ship "Oneida, " Lieutenant Tanner took command of the "Aroostook," and conducted the search for the remains of victims of the wreck. He was attached to the United States ship "Nar- ragansett " from 1871 to 1873. Sailing from New York to the Pacific station, he visited the west coast of South America, Mexico, Cali- fornia, the Sandwich Islands, Samoa, Aus- tralia, and made an extensive cruise among the South Sea Islands. The final year of the cruise was occupied on a survey of the Lower California and Gulf coasts. He was attached to the Philadelphia Navy Yard during the win- ter of 1873-74, obtained a leave of absence from the Navy Department, and commanded the Pacific mail steamer "Colon, " sailing be- tween New York and the Isthmus of Panama, from 1874 to 1876, and the "City of Peking,' the largest mail steamer of the day, from 1876 to 1878, sailing between California and China.

He was on duty at the Navy Department in Washington during the winter of 1878-79, took command of the United States ship "Speed- well ". the following spring, and was employed on the New England coast during the summer in deep-sea exploration under direction of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. He superintended the construction of the United States Fish Commission steamer "Fish Hawk," and commanded her from 1880 to 1882. While still in command of the "Fish Hawk," he made general plans for the steamer "Albatross, " superintended her con- struction, and upon her completion in Novem- ber, 1882, took command of her. The vessel was specially designed for scientific work, and was actively employed in deep-sea exploration on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts until 1887, when she was transferred to the Pacific, where her field of operation extended from the Gulf of Panama to Bering Sea, and even to the coast of Kamtchatka. She made an extensive exploration of the fishing grounds of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California, surveying a route for a submarine cable from the coast

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of California to the Hawaiian Islands, and took an active part in the fur seal investigation and patrol duty in Bering Sea. Commander Tan- ner severed his connection with the "Alba- tross" in May, 1894, and was ordered to special duty in Washington, January 1, 1895.

His advance in the naval service is indi- cated by the dates of his appointments and commissions, as follows: Acting Ensign, Au- gust 18, 1862, original entry in the volunteer service; Acting Master, September 29, 1864, promoted in the volunteer service; Ensign, March 12, 1868, transferred to regular navy ; Master, December 18, 1868, promoted, regular navy; Lieutenant, March 21, 1870, promoted, regular navy; Lieutenant Commander, Febru- ary 22, 1883, promoted, regular navy; Com- mander, February 7, 1893, promoted, regular navy.

A portrait of Commander Zera L. Tanner accompanies this meagre outline of his honora- ble career to date. Vigorous, well poised, resolute, he gives promise of much further ser- vice to the good ship " Union."

AMES SPITTAL, a well-known farmer of the town of York, was born here February 18, 1824. His father, John Spittal, one of the early settlers of the place, was a Scotchman, who came on a long, nine weeks' journey across the water, and reached the city of New York with but fifty cents in his pocket. He found his way, how- ever, to Livingston County, and went to work at first for the Montgomery Company, with which he remained a year, and then found em- ployment with one and another of his friends and acquaintances. He worked by the month a long time, but by patience and frugality ac- cumulated enough money to buy a tract of land owned by a squatter, consisting of about seventy acres. This land was very wild; and he set to work to redeem it, and put it under cultivation. This was a severe and laborious undertaking, as in those days the appliances for reducing such labor were not known, the woodsman having to depend on his bill-hook, his axe, and his own strong arm.

John Spittal built a rough log cabin for him-

self against an embankment, the cabin being so low that he could, if he wished, jump from the hillside to the roof. Later he built a small but convenient frame house, where he lived until his death, which occurred while he was still a young man. His wife was before her marriage Miss Catherine Sinclair. She was a daughter of Hugh and Ann (Campbell) Sinclair, the former of whom was one of the very first settlers in the county, coming from Johnstown, Fulton County, with his family of nine children and all his personal effects, in a two-horse sleigh. When they arrived at their destination, they found only a very small clear- ing in the dense woods, with two or three log houses at most. But the backbone of the Scotch people is strong, and meets well the vicissitudes and hardships of life; and it is to be remembered in their praise that they and their neighbors laid the foundations of the present prosperity of the town.

The children of John and Catherine (Sin- clair) Spittal were three - Hugh, David, and James. Hugh married Miss Matilda Hall, and at his death, in 1880, left two children - William and Carrie. Carrie is now the wife of Richard White, of the town of Groveland, Livingston County. David married Miss Susan Hall, a daughter of William Hall, and has two sons - George and Myron. John Spittal died in 1841, while his widow survived him nearly forty years, dying in 1880.

James Spittal received his early education in the district school, and later attended Tem- ple Hill Academy in Geneseo. He taught school in York after finishing his studies, but after the death of his father took the farm under his supervision, and in time bought out the other heirs. He then added fifty acres to the land, but ten years ago rented the farm, and moved to a residence in the village. He took for his wife Miss Ann Sinclair, a native of Michigan; and to them were given three children. John, the eldest, is in a planing- mill in LeRoy; he married Miss Sarah Simpson, a daughter of Hugh Simpson, of York, and has four children - Mary E .. Don- ald R., Edward J., and Hugh. Catherine re- mains at home, and keeps house for her father. The other sister, Martha, is a stenographer

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and typewriter, and is in the employ of Sage & Co., bicycle manufacturers of Rochester, N. Y. Mrs. Spittal departed this life on the 4th of October, 1888.

OHN ANGIER, who occupies an influ- ential and prominent position among the agricultural population of the town of Portage, is the owner of a pleasant homestead in District No. 1, where he has lived for nearly half a century. Upon this he has made some excellent improvements; and here he resides, surrounded with a goodly share of the comforts of life. He is a native of good old New England, his birth occurring in the State of New Hampshire, December 18, 1815.

His father, Elisha Angier, was a life-long resident of the Granite State, and a substantial farmer of Cheshire County. He was acciden- tally killed by driving off the side of a bridge, at the time being a strong and able man of forty-five years. He married Harriet Russell, a daughter of Amos Russell, of New Hamp- shire, and they reared a family of nine chil- dren, as follows : Silas; Amanda; John; Emily; Mary; Sophia; George and Hattie, twins; and Andrew. The latter was a volun- teer soldier in the late Rebellion, enlisting in a Wisconsin regiment. He was wounded at the battle of Antietam, dying from the inju- ries there received.

The subject of this sketch was reared and educated in the State of his nativity, and after the death of his father, which occurred when he was quite young, went to reside with his grandparents, Silas and Priscilla Angier, who were then living on a farm in Massachusetts. They subsequently removed to Livingston County, New York, locating in the town of Nunda, where the grandfather bought seventy acres of land. This farm was partly improved, and a good house had been erected on it; and into this he moved with his family, living there until his death, which occurred about three years later, he having attained the age of seventy-nine years.

In 1847 John Angier, who had previously managed his grandfather's farm, bought his

present place of residence, and at once began its cultivation. He has employed his time most profitably, and has continually added to the improvement and value of his property, being now numbered among the representative farmers of this section of the county, who by their shrewd foresight and determined energy have been active in developing its varied re- sources and advancing its industrial interests. In addition to his agricultural labors, Mr. An- gier was for six years engaged in mercantile trade, owning a shoe-store in the village of Nunda. In politics he is a stanch advocate of the Democratic party, and has acted as Path- master and as Assessor, serving faithfully in both offices. Mr. Angier is a Deacon in the Baptist church, both he and his wife, who was a woman of sincere religious convictions, having joined that church many years ago.

In 1842 Mr. Angier wedded Miss Mary Rockefeller, a daughter of Samuel Rockefel- ler, of Nunda; and their union was made brighter and happier by the birth of five chil- dren ; namely, Althea, Ella, Hattie, Carrie, and Frank. Althea married Jackson Knight, of Arcade, Wyoming County. Ella is the wife of Oscar Chittenden, of Batavia. Hattie became the wife of Joseph Fraley, of Geneseo. Carrie, who is the wife of Frank Carter, lives on the paternal homestead. Frank died at the age of nine years. Mrs. Angier, who was held in high esteem as a woman of exemplary char- acter, possessing in an eminent degree traits of heart and mind that endeared her to all with whom she was brought in contact, passed to the higher life in the autumn of 1892, having reached the advanced age of seventy-three years.

RANK FIELDER, the subject of this sketch, was born at Brighton, England, in July, 1834. When a lad of thirteen summers, he came to the United States with his father, Charles Lawrence Fielder, and the other members of his father's family, consist- ing at that time of Eliza Hooker Fielder, his father's wife by a second marriage, his brothers, Charles Sydney Fielder and Alfred Fielder, then aged respectively eighteen and

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ten years, and his sister, Rowena Fielder, then a child in arms. The paternal grand- father of Frank Fielder was Richard Fielder, of Tenterden, Kent, England, owner of the noted old Woolpack Inn, of that borough, where the county assizes were long held. ITis paternal grandmother was Catherine Cage, of Milgate, near Maidstone, England. Upon coming to this country, the family first located at Islip, Long Island, afterward re- moving to Fowlerville, Livingston County, N. Y.

Mr. Fielder's first experience in a business life which has proven so successful was as clerk in a store at the village last named. Subsequently he was employed in a respon- sible capacity by the firm of H. C. Blodgett & Co., at Rochester, N. Y., in the years 1857, 1858, and 1859.

Returning to Islip in the latter year, he conducted a profitable mercantile business there for two years upon his own account. In 1862 he came with his family to Dansville, Livingston County, N. Y., where he has since resided and still resides. Prior to 1887 Mr. Fielder was for some years in co-partnership with his brother, C. S. Fielder (until the lat- ter's death), and thereafter carried on a large and flourishing retail dry-goods business at Dansville. Upon the failure of the old First National Bank, an event perhaps more notable and important in its consequences and results than any other in the history of the place, preceded as it had been by the downfall of the Dansville Bank shortly before, Dansville was left without banking facilities of any sort; and the business interests of the town seemed to be menaced by prostration, if not complete disaster. The establishment of a new bank on secure foundations, owned and officered by men whose names would at once inspire confi- dence, became an imperative necessity.

That Frank Fielder should be looked to in that emergency and that he should respond to the requirement of the hour was natural, al- most instinctive in view of the circumstances and of his peculiar fitness for the duty and responsibility, that called for prompt and wise action, personal integrity, and undoubted financial standing and ability. With the

hearty co-operation of several of the leading business men of the town, Mr. Fielder suc- ceeded also in enlisting valuable aid from an- other town in the county; and the result was the establishment in 1887 of the Citizens' Bank of Dansville, organized under the bank- ing laws of the State, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. At the first meeting of the Board of Directors, Mr. Fielder was selected as Cashier, which position he still holds. From its inception the management and up- building of the enterprise, under a state of public confidence in banking operations natu- rally weakened and distrustful, has largely devolved on Mr. Fielder; and the success of the bank has been marked to a degree unusual with new institutions of this character, and to-day the Citizens' Bank is in a most flour- ishing condition, well justifying its name in the confidence reposed in its security and strength of management by the entire com- munity.

For many years past Mr. Fielder has been prominently identified with the educational interests of Dansville. Before the establish- ment of the union free school in the year 1883, he was a Trustee of the Dansville Semi- nary; and in the long and somewhat bitter contest which finally culminated in the adop- tion of the free school system in the village, an account of which would afford an interest- ing chapter in Dansville's history, he took an active and leading part. Ever since the adop- tion of the system he has been a member of the Board of Education, and at present holds the office of President of the Board. In 1874 he was largely instrumental in the establish- ment of the Livingston Circulating Library at Dansville, and for a number of years held the position of President of its Board of Trustees. In 1894 he with other citizens succeeded in bringing about a very desirable change, which made a free library of what was before a pri- vate institution. During the year 1894 Mr. Fielder was the President of the Livingston County Historical Society, an organization which includes in its membership very many of the most influential residents of the county. In village affairs his influence has always been arrayed on the side of good government,

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moral and material improvement; and, though never belonging to the party which has so long dominated the politics of the town and village, he has twice been elected to office on a people's ticket.

In church relations he is prominently con- nected with the Presbyterian Society, and has always taken an active interest in the welfare of the local organization as well as in the society at large.

Mr. Fielder has been twice married, first in 1860 to Ortha O. Beach, who died in May, 1879, leaving three children, all of whom are yet living, namely: Ortha Belle, now at Stan- ford University, California; Frank Sydney, M.D., of New York City; and Josephine, now Mrs. Burroughs Edsall, of Colorado Springs, Col. His second marriage was in 1886, to his present wife, Mrs. Adelaide Swift Carpenter, of Falmouth, Mass. In con- cluding this sketch it need only be said that Mr. Fielder is a man of culture, refinement, and ability both natural and acquired; that his many sterling and amiable qualities of mind and heart are best understood and appre- ciated by those who know him best; genial, courteous, and obliging to all, in nature as well as in demeanor he is agreeably modest, gentle, and unobtrusive.

ARVEY ARNOLD, of Arcade, whose death on the 23d of August, 1892, caused such universal and profound regret throughout the town and county, was born on his father's farm on the banks of the Cattaraugus River, in 1826. His parents, Gideon and Lavina (Williams) Ar- nold, were of good old Yankee blood, and came from Connecticut to the western wilds of New York to make a new home for them- selves and children. The family consisted of two sons and two daughters, of whom Mrs. George Williams, of Yorkshire, and Mr. Charles Arnold, of Nickerson, Kan., are the surviving members.

The village of Arcade was a sort of educa- tional centre in the early days, and at its sem- inary Harvey Arnold received his education. After leaving school he embarked in a mercan-

tile enterprise, conducting a country store for several years. He then devoted himself to farming, in which he was actively engaged until he moved into the village a year previous to his death. His judgment, experience, and industry made him a typical New York farmer, and fitted him to fill the offices he held in the Farmers' Alliance order, in which he was for so long a distinguished figure. He was not only the first President of the Arcade Alli- ance, and twice re-elected to the Presidency of the County Alliance, but had the honor of being the first State President of the order, to which office he might have been re-elected had he not absolutely declined it, as he did various other distinctions which were tendered him. Mr. Arnold was, from its organization thirty years ago until his resignation in 1891, a member of the Board of Education, and among other positions of trust held that of President of the local Savings and Loan Association, and was Trustee of the Congregational church. In early life Mr. Arnold was a Whig, after- ward becoming a Republican, but for some years past had been entirely independent, vot- ing for such candidates and such principles as appealed to his better judgment. In 1891 he received the Democratic nomination of Senator of the district ; and, though throughout the en- tire campaign he scorned to spend a penny in political traffic, and did not solicit a single vote, his nominal defeat was only caused by the fraudulent manipulations of the opposition. During the period of his candidacy he visited various parts of the district and addressed the people, making new and warm friends wher- ever he went. The people of Arcade feel that in the death of Mr. Harvey Arnold the village, county, and State have lost a citizen whose place cannot be filled, and that society has lost a worthy example and a noble influence.

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Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y, Part 41

Author: Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review Number of Pages: 1256

Author:
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review
Number of Pages: 1256