USA > New York > Madison County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Madison County, New York > Part 8
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Mr. Woods is a man of undoubted energy and industry, prospering in all his agricult- ural works and business transactions, and is
ranked among the valued citizens of his com- munity. Since 1882, with the exception of one year, he has served as Supervisor. In politics he is a firm Republican, and uni- formly casts his vote in support of the party in which he believes.
ON. DANIEL G. DORRANCE, President of the Oneida . Valley National Bank, Oneida, N.Y., was born at Peterboro, Madison County, March 13, 1811. While Mr. Dorrance is a resident of Oneida Castle, his business interests are so closely identified with those of Oneida, the development of which place has been largely due to his energy, enterprise, and lib- eral use of capital, that his biography natu- rally has a place in a review of Madison County.
His father, Dr. John Dorrance, was born in Hampton, Windham County, Conn. An earlier ancestor, James Dorrance, who was born in the north of Ireland, and was of Scotch descent, was one of four brothers who emigrated to America in the eighteenth cen- tury. They came with four other families in a vessel that they owned, and which they manned themselves. Landing at Providence, R.I., they bought oxen and carts, and cut their way through the woods until they reached Windham County, Connecticut. One of the brothers, Samuel by name, had been educated at Glasgow, Scotland, and ordained to the ministry at Dumbarton. He was soon settled as pastor of the congregation
DANIEL G. DORRANCE.
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at Voluntown, Conn. When the subject of his installation was first broached, some of the parishioners objected, on account of a rumor that he had belonged to the Boston Presbytery, in which case, in their opinion, he was as bad as the Baptists or Quakers. However, his preaching was acceptable, he was installed, and preached there until eighty- five years of age, when he resigned. James Dorrance was nineteen years old, and had married shortly before coming to America. Securing land in Voluntown, he labored at clearing and cultivating the soil till his death, in 1799, at the age of ninety-seven years. A son of James Dorrance, also a farmer, and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, removed to the neighboring town of Hampton, and there made his home. He married Rebecca Gordon, a native of that town, who also was of Scotch ancestry. She died at the age of ninety-five years, passing away at the home of an elder son, Rev. Gordon Dorrance, in Windsor, Mass.
John Dorrance was educated in the district schools and at Hampton Academy. At the age of twenty-one he began the study of medi- cine, which he pursued for two years in Hampton and two years in Dalton, Mass. From this place he went to Maine, then a part of the Bay State, but after a few months' stay decided, in 1806, to go West. With all his earthly effects packed in his saddle-bags, he made the journey to Madison County on horseback. Halting in the town of Smith- field, as a pioneer physician in a thinly set- tled territory, he entered at once into an
extensive practice, riding on horseback a cir- cuit of many miles. In 1808 be removed to Peterboro, where he had a successful practice until his death, which took place in 1857, when he was in his eightieth year.
The maiden name of Dr. Dorrance's wife was Mary Thompson. She was born in Brim- field, Mass., in 1783. Her father, Alpheus Thompson, a native of Massachusetts, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. In March, 1789, he emigrated to New York, accom- panied by his family, and making the journey with ox-teams. He tarried for a time in Clinton, then came to Madison County, and selected a tract of timber land near Leland's Pond. Finding the situation not a healthful one, he soon returned to Clinton, where he lived till 1805, removing then to Smithfield, where he was engaged in farming till his death, in 1817. He married Beulah Blodgett, who was born in Massachusetts, and who died about 1841, when in her eighty-fourth year, passing away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Samuel Record, in Smithfield. She was the mother of seven children, - Mary, the mother of our subject, Joseph, Chloe, Marcia, Wealthy A., Erastus, and Joseph. The last- named died when nineteen years old, the others attaining to a good old age, and all marrying with the exception of Erastus. After the death of her husband Mrs. Mary Dorrance continued to reside at the old home in Peterboro until her death, in 1872, when in the ninetieth year of her age. She had reared six children, - Daniel G., William C., Mary, Louisa, Sarah, and John. Mary be-
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came the wife of Dr. Edwin G. Messenger, for many years a medical practitioner in Peterboro, now deceased. Louisa died in 1886. Sarah is the widow of Philander Brown, and resides in Peterboro.
Daniel G. Dorrance received his early edu- cation in the district school, and afterward pursued more advanced studies under the tute- lage of Joseph S. and Nehemiah Huntington, attorneys of Peterboro. At the age of seven- teen he became a clerk in the store of Asa Raymond at Peterboro, where he remained two years, after which for a time he attended the Cazenovia Seminary as a classical student. He was next employed for a period of sixteen months as a clerk at Clockville. In 1832 he went to Florence, Oneida County, to manage a store for J. S. T. Stranahan & Co., continu- ing there till 1837, and then engaged in mer- cantile business on his own account, which he conducted till 1859, when he removed to Oneida Castle, where he has since resided. In March, 1837, he married Ann Sparrow, who was born in Shropshire, England, and came to America with her parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Sparrow, in 1833. Mrs. Dor- rance died in December, 1891, at the age of seventy-seven years. She left three sons and two daughters. John G., Cashier of the First "National Bank of Camden, N. Y., married Mrs. Ellen Brown, a native of Madison County, and daughter of Mrs. George Berry, of Oneida. William H., a director of the First National Bank of Camden, N. Y., and a hardware merchant of that place, married Miss Emma Fifield, of Camden. Mary is the
wife of Dr. Miles H. Bronson, of Lowville. Daniel G., Jr., who is engaged in clerical work for his father at Oneida Castle, married Ellen J. Lambie, of Camden, where they reside. Sarah is the wife of Charles L. Knapp, ex-Consul-General at Montreal, and now living at Lowville.
Mr. Dorrance is a member of the Presby- terian church. From information gleaned from various sources the biographer feels jus- tified in making the following mention of Mr. Dorrance: Politically, he was formerly a stanch supporter of the principles promul- gated by the Whig and later by the Repub- lican party. In earlier life he was an active worker in State, county, and local politics. For some years he served the people of the town of Florence, Oneida County, as Super- visor, and later, in 1845, was nominated and elected by the Whigs to represent the people of Oneida County in the State Assembly. In 1854-55 he served with credit and distinction in the State Senate. Since that time the interest he has taken in politics has been simply that of a loyal citizen. Judged from a business point of view, he belongs to the town of Oneida, and is widely recognized as one of its most useful and influential citizens, as a property-holder taking first rank. His prosperity is largely due to his own exertions. At the school-desk and in the counting-room he early trained himself to habits of diligent application. Beginning on a lower rung of the ladder, he worked his way upward, gradu- ally mastering the details of his calling as clerk until he became a business manager and
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a proprietor. At an age when most men would think it time to retire from worldly cares, he is still a vigorous man of affairs, at the head of many important trusts. He first became interested in banking in 1847, when, with thirteen others, he organized the Fort Stanwix Bank at Rome. B. J. Beach is the only other surviving member of the original company. Mr. Dorrance was elected one of the first directors of that bank, and has since continued a member of the board. Soon after coming to Oneida he was elected a director of the Oneida Valley Bank, and shortly suc- ceeded Niles Higinbotham in its Presidency. He was one of the organizers of the Oneida Savings Bank, of which he has been President from its beginning. He is also President of the First National Bank at Camden, is one of the Trustees of the Rome Brass and Copper Mill at Rome, and is President of the West- cott Chuck Company, one of the important manufacturing industries of Oneida.
In the accompanying portrait of Mr. Dor- rance the readers of this volume will see with pleasure a graphic presentment of the features of a man whose true Americanism is exempli- fied in his energy and successful business enterprise, continued into advanced years, and carried on with a sagacity that has but in- creased with time, and is the natural result of long experience joined to peculiar adaptation for business and commercial pursuits. The class of citizens of which Mr. Dorrance is a type are at once the pride and boast of our common country; and his portrait will be viewed, not only with pleasure and interest by
his numerous friends in this part of the State, but by all who realize that energy, pluck, per- severance, and keen native intelligence, such as Mr. Dorrance has so well displayed in his life career, are the qualities that have done so much to build up and advance this great nation, and are therefore, in the highest sense, qualities that are manly, patriotic, and American.
NDREW J. FRENCH. The village of Oneida has no more prominent or respected citizen than this gentle- man, who was born January 11, 1825, at Can- aseraga, Madison County, N. Y.
His grandfather, John Owen French, was from Williamsburg, Mass., moving to the State of New York in 1805, where he settled in the town of Sullivan. The journey from Massachusetts was made, as in nearly all cases at that time, with an ox-team; and they were three weeks on the road. Through a new country, where there were no means of transportation, it being a dense forest, the undertaking was perilous; but he was a man full of courage, and, foreseeing the immense resources of the Empire State, he willingly accepted all the privations and hardships of the trip to secure the fortunate result. He was in a measure a pioneer, although not among the first settlers in that section. He was a strong, healthy man, and had every prospect of a green old age, for he came of long-lived ancestry; but he lived in this place only three years, and died at the age of forty,
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a victim to his own unselfishness. There were many people in the neighborhood at- tacked with a malignant fever; and, being kind-hearted, he attended to their wants, exposing himself to the contagion, was taken down with the fever, and died in 1808. His family consisted of four boys and three girls. The mother lived to the age of seventy-five.
Samuel French, the father of our subject, was born at Goshen, Mass., in 1798, and came with his father in 1805 to New York State. He was apprenticed at the age of twelve to a shoemaker, tanner, and currier at Oran, in Onondaga County. He enlisted in the War of 1812, and, going to Buffalo, participated in the battle of Fort Erie. When the war was over, he returned to the town of Sullivan, and there, with an older brother, Horatio, bought a farm and hotel in the village of Cana- seraga, where he resided for the rest of his life. Being familiar with military tactics, having had the experience of the war, he took great interest in the home military organiza- tion, attending muster, and, advancing from grade to grade in rank, finally became Colo- nel. He was a prominent man in the county, held various positions of honor, and in 1844 was elected Sheriff.
Colonel French was one of the projectors of a part of what is now the New York Central Railroad system. He secured the right of way for that portion known as the Syracuse & Utica Railroad, and became a director, so continuing until the Vanderbilts obtained control of that and other divisions, consolidat- ing them under the name of the New York
Central Railroad. Colonel French died in 1868, aged seventy years. His wife was Miss Charlotte Beecher, of Woodbridge, Conn., and a distant relative of Henry Ward Beecher. She died in 1838, leaving four children, namely: Andrew Jackson, our sub- ject ; Jeanette L., living in Syracuse; John Henry Hobart, of Chittenango, N.Y .; and Austin B., Cashier of the National State Bank of Oneida.
Andrew J. French had excellent opportuni- ties for obtaining a good education. His father, being a successful man, and having accumulated considerable property, was en- abled to give him every chance. He attended the district school, and subsequently the Yates Polytechnic Institute in Chittenango, N.Y. When he was seventeen years old, he entered a dry-goods store in Syracuse, where he re- mained for one year, then returned to Chit- tenango, and secured employment with Sims & Bates, general merchandise, and was with them for five years. Here he obtained an excellent knowledge of the details of business, which was of infinite value to him ever after. In 1846 he and a cousin, smitten with a desire to see something of the world, started on a trip through the Far West. They were in Chicago in July of that year, when it was simply a swamp, or mud-hole, with a few houses scattered here and there; and, although the boys had money and could have bought property there cheaply, they were too dis- gusted with the place, and so neglected the opportunity of their lives. Many a time have they sighed over the millions they might be
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realizing to-day "if they had only known." They travelled through that region by what- ever conveyance they could find, and by way of the Lakes, visiting Galena, Sheboygan, Madison, Fond du Lac, Wis., and other places, and returned home after quite an extended trip. In 1847, with this same cousin, he went to Mansfield, Ohio, and started a wholesale grocery, buying grain, flour, etc. This being the time of the great famine in Ireland, they considered it a good time to engage in active business there, as quantities of grain were being shipped to the old country. They met with great success, and were doing a large and profitable busi- ness; but the climate did not seem to agree with our subject, and his health failed so rapidly that after a year he returned to his home in the East, leaving his cousin to close up the concern.
Once more in Chittenango, he opened a general store, under the firm name of French, Stewart & Co. Subsequently the Stewarts sold out their interest; and the firm was French, Clark & Co., which continued until 1860. Meanwhile, during the years of 1856- 7-8, he was by appointment Superintendent of the Erie Canal. He closed out his busi- ness in 1860, and in 1862 was appointed mail agent on the route between Albany and Syra- cuse, which continued until Andrew John- son's administration, when he returned to his home, where his popularity was evidenced by the people electing him Sheriff of the county in 1866, twenty-five years after his father had held the same office. He assumed his official
duties on January 1, 1867, performing them for three years, when he moved to the village of Oneida, in 1870. In 1873 he was again appointed Superintendent of the Erie Canal, and during these years built the elegant brick block in his town known as the French-Ben- nett Block. Since that time he has attended to various affairs, has been engaged in the settlements of estates, and was also Direc- tor in the First National Bank until that institution went into liquidation. He is now Vice-President and Director in the National State Bank, Oneida, which is well managed and very prosperous.
Mr. French was married in 1848 to Miss Mary A. Judd, daughter of Harley and Han- nah (Thurston) Judd. They have three children ; namely, Edward Everett, Agnes Rosamond, and Samuel Harley. Edward Everett, the eldest child, has been for twelve years freight agent for the New York Central Railroad at Albany, N. Y., having previously been the agent at Oneida. He married Miss Anna Augusta Cheney, daughter of Prentice D. Cheney, of Oneida, N.Y. They have four children living; namely, Agnes Jeanette, Sarah Bristol, Mary Judd, and Lillian Anna. One child, Arthur Cheney, died in infancy. The second child of Mr. and Mrs. French, Agnes Rosamond, married Clermont H. Wil- cox, a broker of New York City. They have two children, Thomas Ferdinand and Mary Adele. Samuel Harley, the third child of Mr. and Mrs. French, is freight agent for the New York Central & West Shore Railroad at Utica, N.Y. He married Miss Ada L. Fess-
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man, of Rome, N.Y .; and they have one child, Edna May.
Politically, Mr. French was brought up a Democrat, his father being a stanch and uncompromising one. He cast his vote for Franklin Pierce, but voted for Fremont and all Republican candidates for President ever since. Fraternally, he was for some time a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having .joined that organization in 1845. He was initiated a Mason in Sullivan Lodge, No. 148, of Chittenango, N.Y. When elected Sheriff, he went to Morrisville; and, there being no lodge there at that time, he became charter member of its first one, and First Master of Morrisville Lodge, No. 648. He and his wife are communicants of St. John's Episcopal Church, of which he was a vestryman for a number of years. During his long and eventful life in Oneida Mr. French has always maintained his reputation for in- tegrity, industry, and enterprise. He has done much by his influence and aid toward the prosperity of his town, and deserves the senti- ments of respect and admiration entertained for him by his fellow-citizens.
CRAN O. SAUNDERS. Among the early settlers of Plainfield was one, Stephen Saunders, who came from Rhode Island, and settled in that section of the country, in 1802, when the population was but a handful of pioneers, like himself from New England. This man was the grandfather of our subject. He purchased a
tract of land, cultivated it, and before his death had succeeded in wresting from the virgin earth a comfortable and productive farm.
The father, Clark Saunders (the youngest of six children ), was born in Plainfield, July 16, 1815, and was married to Miss Cynthia M. Mason, May 25, 1839. She was a native of Connecticut, and came with her parents to Plainfield in 1823, when but four years old. They succeeded his father in the ownership of the farm, on which they resided until her death, February 4, 1875. There were born unto them five children, -- Gilbert, Cartha, Albertus, Saraphine, and Ocran. November 29, 1875, he married Mrs. Betsy Drake, of Utica, N. Y., and retired to Unadilla Forks, where he died April 22, 1878.
Ocran O. Saunders was born in Plainfield, Otsego County, N. Y., November 24, 1847. After finishing his education in the district schools, he attended the Alfred University, in Allegany County, for two terms. After this he taught school in Plainfield and Camps' Mills, making altogether nine terms. From this occupation he went into the employment of a firm in Loydsville, where he learned the business of cheese-making. This he followed for five years, then went to Atlantic, Ia., where he engaged in the grocery trade one year, when the business was destroyed by fire, and he returned to his native place. Soon thereafter he went into the employment of the Philadelphia City Passenger Railway Com- pany, Philadelphia, Pa., remaining with them nearly two years, when he went to Leonards-
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ville, N. Y., in August, 1884, and engaged in the drug and grocery business for nearly four years. Selling his business there, he went to West Edmeston, N. Y., and purchased the stock and business of general merchandise of R. H. White, which he carried on for four years, returning to Leonardsville in the spring of 1892. During the following winter he built his present store, in which he carries general merchandise.
November 4, 1888, Mr. Saunders was married to Miss Cora B. Giles. They have two children, - Willis G. and Paul A. In his religious opinions he is decidedly inde- pendent, and not connected with any denomi- national organization; but his wife is a firm believer in the Christian religion and a mem- ber of the First Day Baptist church. Mr. Saunders votes the Republican ticket, and is a Justice of the Peace at Leonardsville. He is a man of good business qualifications, and of industrious, thrifty habits. He is popular among his townspeople, and is well known as a wide-awake, enterprising merchant, looking not only to his own interests, but to the advancement and progress of his town.
HOMAS M. RICHARDSON. This gentleman was born in the town of Nelson, June 29, 1827. His parents were natives of the same town, and were Levi and Thirza (Medbury) Richardson.
The grandfather, Eldad, and grandmother, Hophe Richardson, came from the New Eng- land States, and were among the original
settlers of the town of Nelson. They had a family of four sons and two daughters, all of whom are deceased. The grandparents died in the town of Nelson, when quite advanced in years. They were Universalists in belief. Our subject's maternal grandfather, Isaac Medbury, was one of the first to locate in the town of Nelson, and there reared his six chil- dren. He was a gunsmith. The father of Thomas M. Richardson was a general farmer, and owned the farm which he worked and where our subject now resides. His title was Captain Levi Richardson, he having been for many years identified with the local militia. Of his five children three are now living: Thomas M., our subject; Granville, of the town of Eaton; and E. Germaine, a carpenter of Morrisville, N. Y. Those who died were : Maria, wife of M. M. Jones, who died in 1892, at the age of sixty-four; and Adelbert A., who died at the age of thirty-two years. He served in the army during the late war. The parents both died on their farm, he at the age of seventy-three, and she when seventy- four years old.
Our subject, after having obtained a fair education at the district schools, remained at home and assisted his father until he was twenty-one years of age. When he first com- menced working for himself, he received two shillings a cord for chopping wood. He afterward learned the carpenter's trade, and received fifteen dollars per month. He worked at this trade for some time, saving as he could, until he was able to buy thirty acres of his father's land, which he has added to
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from time to time until he now owns three hundred acres. He is a gencral farmer, and an extensive stock-dcaler. He speculates in hides, wool, and other farm produce, and has a dairy, keeping about twenty-five cows.
In 1854 Mr. Richardson wooed and won Miss Maria E. Pinckerton, a native of Una- dilla, Otsego County, N.Y. She was born December 20, 1830, and is the daughter of Robert and Asenath (Howe) Pinckerton, the former a native of Scotland, and the latter of Pennsylvania. He was a weaver by tradc, and followed it after coming to this country. The parents both died in Madison County, he in 1875, at the age of seventy-eight, and she in 1877, at the age of seventy-three ycars. There were five children born to them, of whom three are living: Emily A., Mrs. George Phelps, living in Madison County ; Maria, Mrs. Richardson; and Robert J., who resides in New York State. The two who died were: Mary Ann, aged sixty; and Sarah Amanda, about forty years. Our subject and his wife have one daughter, Lettie L., born December 17, 1860, and married to Mr. Hiram R. Westcott. They have one son, Edgar T., who is thirtcen years old. Mr. and Mrs. Westcott reside on the farm of Mr. Richardson.
Mr. Richardson is classed among the best and leading farmers in the town of Nelson. He is a pleasant man, and has hosts of friends. He is thorough and conscientious in all his dealings; and his fellow-citizens have the utmost confidence in him, which is well evinced by the amount of business he
carries on for other people, besides his own. He has often been intrusted with large sums of money, to use as his judgment considered best in speculation; and the results have always been such as to give his friends sub- stantial returns for the moncy they invested. His career has been exceedingly fortunate, not through blind luck nor fortuitous circum- stances, but simply because of his sound, practical sense and excellent judgment. His own energy and perseverance have brought him his present prosperity; and in his hand- some home, with its fine buildings and ele- gant residence, he and his wife reside, enjoying the bliss and comfort they so well deservc. In his religious views he follows the broad gospel of liberality, not interfering with others' belief nor allowing himself to be cocrced into paths he does not choose to follow. Politically, he affiliates with the Democratic party, and has held the office of Highway Commissioner for one term, and Assessor for nine years. He is a member of the Farmers' Grange at Erieville, N. Y.
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