USA > New York > Madison County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Madison County, New York > Part 41
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Mr. James C. Climenson was a son of
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John Climenson, and was born on a farm in the suburbs of Philadelphia, but which now is built up with solid business blocks. He died June 25, 1891, when seventy-two years old. His was a superior education, finished at Asbury University, Indiana. He was a teacher for many years. The latter part of his life was spent on a farm that he pur- chased near Canastota. Mrs. Climenson has buried one daughter, Frances Ada, five years of age, and also a daughter who was twenty- seven years of age. The latter was the wife of C. J. Prichard. She died in Canastota, leaving an infant one month old, Maude D. E. Prichard, now eight years of age. The children of Mrs. Climenson still living are as follows: Florence Maude, now living in Boston, Mass .; Ernest Lincoln, living in Canastota, who is married to Mary Phillips of the town of Lenox, by whom he has one son and one daughter; Emma H., a graduate of the Canastota union schools and of the State Normal School at Albany, who is thor- oughly qualified for teaching. Mrs. Climen- son was graduated from Cazenovia Seminary in 1848. Previous to her marriage she, like her husband, was a teacher. She is a mem- ber of the Protestant Episcopal church, and lives in her pleasant home one mile west of Canastota, highly respected by all who know her.
PRANK ISBELL, a wide-awake farmer of the town of Nelson, N. Y., a man with a good faculty for business, was born April 23, 1831, in the town of Eaton,
son of Oliver and Sally (Ayers) Isbell, both natives of Massachusetts. The father was a farmer, and came to Madison County when there were very few settlers here. He purchased several different tracts of land, making some improvements on each parcel. His first home was the unpretentious log cabin; but, with the good luck that fol- lowed the industry and perseverance of all those pioneers, he was soon able to build for himself a substantial house and farm build- ings. He prospered in this country; and to himself and wife were born three sons and four daughters, of whom four are living at the present time, namely: Frank, above men- tioned; Eli J., a well-to-do farmer of the town of Eaton; Asa P., farmer and mechanic, also of Eaton; and Antoinette, unmarried, residing with him. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Isbell died in the town of Eaton, he at the age of eighty-seven years, and she at seventy- seven years. They were members of the Baptist church.
Attending the district schools in his boy- hood, Frank Isbell remained on his father's farm until he was of age, and then for three seasons worked out for farmers. He bought his first land in the town of Nelson. consist- ing of one hundred acres. Previous to this he had run a large dairy farm on shares, and also a cheese factory very successfully for eight years, in this manner earning the money which enabled him to purchase his land. Soon afterward he sold this first farm at remunerative prices, and in March 24, 1868, bought the beautiful place of one hundred
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and ten acres, to which he has added lots from time to time, until he now has two hundred and ten acres under cultivation in the town of Nelson, besides land in Georgetown in the neighboring vicinity. While he carries on general farming, his special crop being hay, he has from twenty to twenty-seven head of stock, both for dairy and the work of the farm.
On February 7, 1855, he married Miss Mary Wescott, who was born in the town of Eaton, April 5, 1834, and is the daughter of Paul and Elizabeth Wescott. Her father was a native of Rhode Island, and her mother of Vermont. Mr. Wescott was a farmer and an early settler of the town of Eaton, where he and his wife both died. They had nine children, of whom six are living: Dr. James J. Wescott, born in 1826, resides in Nor- wich, N.Y .; Sylvester, born in 1832, lives in the old Wescott home in the town of Eaton; Mary, wife of our subject, born April 5, 1834; Wilber, born 1836, resides with Mr. and Mrs. Isbell; William S., born in 1838, lives at Orange Park, Fla .; Henry, born in 1843, is a resident of Oswego County, New York. Ezekiel, Hiram, and Salem are now deceased. Paul Wescott was born in 1789, and died in 1847. His wife, Elizabeth, was born in 1802, and died in 1859. They were well-known and respected pioneer set- tlers of Madison County.
After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Frank Isbell resided in Eaton for nine years, and since then have lived in the town of Nelson. They have two sons: Charles F., born October 19,
1856, in the town of Nelson; and Elmer E., born September 30, 1861, in the town of Eaton - both of whom reside on the old homestead, assisting their father in the man- agement of the farm. Charles F. was mar- ried December 28, 1882, to Miss Emma Lord, who was born in Smithfield, Chenango County, N.Y. They have two children : Mary, born April 29, 1885; and Minnie L., born June 20, 1888. Elmer E., the second son, received a good education in the district schools, finishing at the Norwich Academy, and for a number of years taught school in the neighboring towns. On October 6, 1882, he married Miss Jennie A. Jones, who is of Welsh parentage. She is a very highly edu- cated lady, and with her husband kept a select school in West Eaton Village. They have one daughter, Anna Grace, born April 27, 1887. Elmer Isbell is liberal in his religious views, and his wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a Republican in politics, as is his father, both taking very great interest in the affairs of their party.
While Mr. Frank Isbell is not a member of any religious organization, he is liberal- minded and tolerant of differing opinions. He is a man universally respected in his county, having during his residence here built up a solid reputation for integrity, industry, and uprightness of character. What he has started out to do has been well done; and his popularity is evinced by the positions of pub- lic trust he has held, having been Overseer of the Poor for some terms and Highway Com-
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missioner for a number of terms. He is a member of Farmers' Grange, No. 605, of which his son Elmer is an ex-Secretary.
E. CRUMB, eldest son of J. O. Crumb, a native of Edmeston, Ot- sego County, N.Y., was born March 4, 1861, in Plainfield, N. Y., where his parents still reside, his father being one of the leading farmers of the place. His mother before marriage was Miss Charlotte Brown, of Bridgewater, N. Y. The five chil- dren born to Mr. and Mrs. J. O. Crumb were : H. E., above mentioned; Charles W .; Fred; Robert; and Ruby.
The subject of this sketch left home when he was twenty years old, and began life work- ing on a farm. He had received a good edu- cation at a select school in Edmeston, and also at the public school at Leonardsville, N. Y. At twenty-six years of age he married Miss Lena R. Dye, the younger of the two daughters, Ellen and Lena, of Mr. H. B. and Celinda (Meeker) Dye, the former being a native of Brookfield, N.Y., the latter of Burlington, N. Y. The three children of Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Crumb are Mabel, Damond, and Lee. The family are attendants of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which they give cheerful and liberal support.
Although not mixing much with political matters, Mr. Crumb has always been earnest and hearty in his advocacy of the principles of the Democratic party. Having proved him- self, in every relation of life, true to the dic-
tates of the highest manhood, he has long been accorded the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens. Young in years, he is abreast with the times, alive to the opportu- nities that this magnificent age of literaturc and science affords to the broad and active- minded. Mrs. Crumb comes from an old family, who early settled in the town of Brookfield, and endured in their day priva- tions and hardships which can scarcely be un- derstood in these days of comfort and luxury. She has been carefully educated, and is a lady of refined taste and manners. Her supe- rior qualifications as a housewife are attested by a well-ordered, beautiful home. Her ma- ternal discretion is evidenced in the good bringing up of her children.
COTT H. BURLINGAME, the pop- ular station agent of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad at North Brookfield, was born in Stockwell, N. Y., May 3, 1865. His parents, James G. and Phebe L. (Stetson) Burlingame, still live on their farm at Stockwell, which is a part of the town of Sangerfield, Oneida County. At an age when most lads are ex- pected still to enjoy the advantages of school- ing and the pleasures of boyhood, James G. Burlingame, having early lost his father by death, was obliged to begin earning his own living, as a clerk in a general store in Oneida County. Here he remained till some time before his marriage, when he bought the Stockwell farm, where he has since resided.
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The five children born and brought up in this home were Willis C., Fred J., Scott, Mar- cia, and Clara S. Willis C. married Miss Nettie Bull, of Marshall, Mich., and resides there on a farm. Fred J. married Miss Kate Owens, of Chicago, Ill. He is a carpenter by trade.
Our subject in his boyhood attended the Waterville schools, and later the Lowell Business College at Binghamton, N. Y., where he took a course of study, and was graduated in telegraphy and book-keeping. At the age of eighteen he entered the employ of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company, as agent's assistant at Waterville. After remaining there fourteen months, he went to Brisben, N. Y., as agent for the com- pany. He gave so much satisfaction in these places that on January 21, 1884, he was tendered his present fine position in North Brookfield. Mr. Burlingame is the freight and ticket agent at this station, and is con- sidered one of the finest telegraph operators on the road. In the year 1888 he married Miss Grace A. Morgan, daughter of Albert E. Morgan, of North Brookfield. They have one boy, Clesson M.
Mr. Burlingame, besides his railroad busi- ness, is extensively engaged in the coal and feed trade, and, although a comparatively young man, is looked upon as one of the leading citizens of his town. He is promi- nently identified with the Masonic Order, and is a member of Sanger Lodge, No. 129, of Waterville. It is plainly seen that in both his public and private life. he endeavors to
bring into practice the humane teachings of the ancient craft. In his politics, both na- tional and State, he is a straight and earnest voter in the Republican party, mindful of his responsibilities in carrying out the principles it inculcates. Mr. Burlingame and his esti- mable wife are held in the highest regard by their large circle of friends and acquaint- ances. Their social position is among the best in the town, and their pleasant home is the centre of true hospitality.
ILAS S. CLARK, M.D., a veteran philanthropist and reformer, resi- dent in De Ruyter Village, is prob- ably the oldest practising physician in Madi- son County, where he was born in the town of Brookfield, June 17, 1824. His paternal grandparents came from Rhode Island, and settled as pioneers in that town. Here his father, Elnathan Clark, was brought up .on a backwoods farm, where the axe and the flames preceded the plough, and where the harvesting was followed by the swinging of the flail. Some of the migratory instinct being left in the second generation, instead of settling down near the place of his birth after marriage, he made several successive re- movals, first to Lincklaen, Chenango County, thence back to Brookfield, after a few years to Jefferson, and from there to Lewis County, where an accident caused his death at the early age of forty-five years. His wife, whose maiden name was Maria Spencer, and whose parents were also pioneers of Brookfield,
SILAS S. CLARK.
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whither they came from Rensselaer County, survived him some years, and died at the home of her daughter in Wisconsin.
It was not so easy in those days as now for a farmer's son to obtain a liberal education. Even the public schools of New York were not free, but each family paid for tuition in proportion to the number of pupils it sent. The youthful Silas Clark made the most of his opportunities for acquiring book learning, and with such good results that at the age of twenty he was qualified to teach. He taught three terms in a district school, and a few terms in De Ruyter Institute. While thus engaged, he began the study of medicine under Dr. Ira Spencer, preparatory to attend- ing medical lectures at the University of New York. He was graduated from the Medical Department of that institution in 1848, and immediately began practising in De Ruyter, where he has continued till the present time - a period of forty-five years. The year of his graduation also witnessed his marriage with Mary J. Champlin. The three children born of this union are Lucy Maria, Frank Edwin, and Jane Lillian. The son adopted his father's profession, and, after receiving his diploma from the Buffalo Medical Col- lege, was successfully engaged in the prac- tice of medicine for twelve years. He is now doing business as a druggist at Catskill.
Dr. Silas S. Clark, early becoming con- vinced that slavery was a great wrong, that slave - holding was a crime, zealously em- braced the cause of the Abolitionists, and ever cast his vote and used his influence on
the side of human freedom, till emancipation became a fixed fact, and the "peculiar insti- tution," an anomaly in the heart of the repub- lic, was wiped out of the land. Deeply impressed with the immensity of evil result- ing from the unrestricted sale and free use of intoxicating liquors, Dr. Clark is as strong an advocate for temperance to-day as he was for anti-slavery before the war, when the movement was far from being a popular one. He has joined the Prohibitionists, believing that party the only one capable of accomplish- ing any reform in this direction, or even will- ing to undertake it.
A portrait of Dr. Clark, which appears on another page of this work, will be appreciated as a good likeness of one of the most widely known and thoroughly respected citizens of the county, a physician tried and trusted, who has been in practice nearly half a century, a reformer never weary of pleading the cause of the oppressed or of siding with a minority in defence of a principle.
MITH CADY, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of the town of Sullivan, was born here, in the vil- lage of Canasaraga, January 25, 1811, son of Argalius and Mary (Herrick) Cady, both na- tives of Saratoga County, New York, where the grandfather lived and died. This grand- father was Elisha Cady, who owned a farm in Saratoga County, and was long one of the old landmarks of that county, so to speak, having been among the earliest settlers there. He
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lived to be an old man, known by every one, and intimately acquainted with the history of every man, woman, and child in the place. He and his wife had a family of eight chil- dren, but none is now living.
Argalius Cady came to the town of Sullivan when he was a young man, bought new land from the Indians, who owned everything around them at that time, and settled down to farming. He married Miss Mary Her- rick in the town of Lenox; and their family consisted of three sons and three daughters, of whom the living are: Zilpha, widow of Ethan Benson, residing in Toledo, Ohio; and Smith, the subject of this sketch. The other four were: Henry, a public contractor, who died at the age of seventy; Platt, who lived to be about seventy years of age; Ann, Mrs. Denton, who died at the age of sixty; Maria, Mrs. Daniel Denton, who also was sixty years old when she died. Mr. Cady was one of the pioneer hotel-keepers of this sec- tion, and was also engaged on canal and other public works. He bought the farm now owned by his son about the year 1810. It consisted of one hundred and twenty-two and a half acres, on which he carried on general farming. He died there at the age of fifty- five years, as did his wife some years after, at the age of sixty. Politically, he was a Democrat, and was also a Free and Accepted Mason. He served with distinction in the War of 1812, having the rank of Major.
Smith Cady was reared and educated in the town of Sullivan, going first to the district schools, afterward attending the seminary at
Cazenovia. He assisted his father on the farm until his manhood, when he engaged in public works, building the Chenango Canal near Sherburne, and also the north branch of the Susquehanna Canal at Wilkesbarre, Pa. After this he bought the old home farm from his parents, and cared for them in their last days. The farm is very productive, yielding fine crops of corn, wheat, oats, and hay. He also has a good dairy, and a valuable herd of Holstein and Durham cattle. Besides this Mr. Cady deals largely in stock, raising horses, sheep, and hogs. He has never mar- ried, and still resides on the home farm. For some years he has rented the farm on shares, as his increasing years precluded the possibility of his working it alone.
Mr. Cady has always been a strong Repub- lican in politics. He has filled the office of Superintendent of the Poor for two years, and Town Assessor for several terms. Since the years of his youth, which were early in the century, he has seen many changes and won- derful improvements in this part of the coun- try. Where was once an untrodden forest, the fertile fields now glow with ripening corn and golden wheat ; and the rushing locomotive whizzes past on the road where the plodding ox-team then wended its weary way. Count- less villages and towns have sprung up; and the steam-mill is now but a step from one's doors, when in those pioneer days the primi- tive windmill was only reached by miles of toilsome journey.
His prosperity is largely the result of his own industry and thrift. He is held in
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merited esteem by his large circle of social and business acquaintances, and has the grati- tude of those to whom he has extended the neighborly hand of sympathy and help.
R. ADRIEN E. WALLACE was born at Butternut Creek, Stetson- ville, Otsego County, N.Y., and was the eldest of the four children of Nathan- iel S. and Samantha (Walch) Wallace. Na- thaniel Wallace, grandfather of Dr. Wallace, was a native of Bennington, Vt., being of mingled English and Scotch origin. He set- tled in Otsego County in the early years of the century, coming there when his son, Na- thaniel S. Wallace, was but five years old. These were the days when the journey from the New England States to the State of New York was a long and difficult undertaking. It seems hard to realize that what is accom- plished now in a few hours of travel was then a matter of weeks. With no mode of convey- ance save the patient ox or the plodding horse through trackless forests, inhabited by savage animals and still more savage Indians, pioneer life, which we now find encircled with a halo of romance, as it comes down to us through the mists of a hundred years, was to them a very stern reality, and well illustrates that "distance lends enchantment to the view." The other three children of Mr. and Mrs. Na- thaniel S. Wallace were: Jason T., a physi- cian of Oneida, N.Y .; Elbert M., residing in New Berlin ; and Emily H., Mrs. William H. Davis, residing in Oneida, N.Y.
Adrien E. Wallace was born November 28, 1834, and was brought up on a farm, where he was trained to habits of industry and econ- omy. When he was eighteen years of age, being ambitious to do something for himself, he bought his time of his father for one hun- dred and fifty dollars, and set about earning the money. This was under the old appren- tice system, where a boy was not his own master until twenty-one years old - a strange idea to the youths of the present day, who are apt to consider themselves emancipated from paternal restraint ere they reach the age of fifteen. Besides working on the farm, the aspiring youth availed himself of every oppor- tunity to be educated in the common schools, and later took an academic course. Having a natural inclination for the study of medi- cine, he managed to begin his studies in that direction, when about twenty-three years of age, with Dr. Spencer, of Winfield, Herkimer County, N. Y., and was there four years. He attended medical lectures also in the cities of New York and Philadelphia, graduating from the New York Homeopathic Medical College of New York City, March, 1861, with high commendation. He was, by careful study, well qualified in medicine and surgery, and was anxious to offer his services to the United States government, but was denied on account of the foolish regulations and oppo- sition to his particular school of medicine. He demanded as thorough an examination in Materia Medica as they could make, but was refused even that. So he decided on going to Brookfield, Madison County, where he prac-
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.
tised for three years, then went back to Win- field, and was with Dr. Spencer for one year. He is now permanently settled in Oneida.
The Doctor has had from the first unquali- fied success in his profession. For many years his practice extended though a wide area. Hence he has become well known over a large tract of territory. Politically, one would have supposed that he would be a Democrat, as all of his people were of that party, with the possible exception of his brother Jason, who favors the Prohibitionists, but who always votes, when the time comes, on the Democratic side. Notwithstanding these surroundings and his early education, the Doctor does his own thinking and reason- ing, untrammelled by tradition, example, or precedent; and thus, in the free exercise of his best faculties, he adheres to the Repub- lican party, and is a stanch supporter of its principles and measures. He is a member of the Madison County Medical Society and of the Central New York Medical Association, has been President of both these organiza- tions, the latter one embracing eight counties. He is a Free Mason and an Odd Fellow.
Dr. Wallace was married at the age of twenty-five to Miss Abbie M. Potter, of Win- field, N.Y. They have two children, Will- iam A. and Victor M. William A. married Miss Anna Bernard; and they have four chil- dren - namely, Adrien C., Carlton, Lew, and Raymond. Victor married Miss Edna Rudy ; and their children are Edith, Mabel, and Helen. Victor Wallace is a man of great mechanical talent, and has invented a car-
coupler which has every indication of suc- cess, it being a merciful, ingenious, and desirable contrivance - a self-coupler perfect and simple - by which many of the terrible injuries to brakemen, and the consequent mortality, may be avoided. The murderous car-coupler has been very destructive to human life, and any one whose inventive genius can do away with this horror is de- serving of high reward.
Dr. Wallace, our subject, resides with his pleasant family in a comfortable home at No. II Wilber Street. He is an agreeable gentle- man, and enjoys the society of a large circle of devoted friends, by whom his many genial qualities are fully appreciated.
T HOMAS E. MAYNE, senior member of the firm of Mayne & Noble, coal- dealers at Oneida Castle, has been success- fully engaged in business at that point since 1888. His father, Arthur Mayne, was a native of Ireland, and removed from his native country to England, thence to Canada, and subsequently to the United States, set- tling in Vernon in the State of New York, where he engaged in a tannery for some time. He married Catharine Mount, who was born in Amsterdam, N.Y., of Mohawk Dutch par- entage, and by whom he had ten children, namely: John, living at Oneonta; Mary Ann, Margaret, Isabella, and Sarah, all deceased; Thomas E., the subject of this sketch; Will- iam, living at Oneida; Francis, Arthur, Edward Charles, and Fannie, all deceased.
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Francis served his country as a private in the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh New York Volunteer Infantry, taking part in many engagements, including those of General Grant's campaign in Virginia in spring and summer of 1864. He was honorably dis- charged at the end of a three years' term of service, while in front of Petersburg. Arthur enlisted in 1861 in the One Hundred and Forty-sixth New York Infantry, and bravely endured the hardships and fronted the dangers of war. He was killed at the seven-day battle of the Wilderness, in May, 1864.
Thomas E. Mayne, the subject of this sketch, was born in Vernon, N. Y., November 10, 1836. He secured a fair education in the common schools, and at the age of four- teen began working in a woollen factory. In 1854 he went to work with his brother John in the foundry at Utica. In 1856 he went to Eaton, and still later was engaged simi- larly in Gilbertsville and Binghamton, his experience being of great value to him in the handling of iron in all its forms, changes, and transformations. When in 1876 he set- tled in Oneida, he was familiar with the busi- ness in all its details. He and four other gentlemen established the Oneida Iron Works, which under their management became a suc- cessful enterprise. In the casting department Mr. Mayne had full control; and the success of the entire plant was mainly due to his ability and experience. and to his knowledge of every detail of the business and of the trade. He was a member of this company till about 1887, and a little later became con-
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