USA > New York > Biographical sketches of the state officers and members of the legislature of the state of New York in 1862 and '63 > Part 14
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After the adjournment of the Legislature Mr. Pryne
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returned to his home, to repose on the laurels he had won. But, alas ! how little do mortals know of their own destiny. Ere the summer had passed the startling intelligence flashed over the wires, that the unfortunate gentleman had committed suicide. Peace to his memory. Let his errors be forgotten, and his virtues only be re- membered. He was a kind-hearted man and, undoubt- edly, a sincere Christian. His mental aberration was an affliction that the Great Disposer of Events only could control ; and for the acts of a " mind diseased," He, only-the God of infinite mercy-is the judge.
ALBERT G. PURDY.
DR. PURDY is a native of Plymouth, Chenango county, N. Y., and is fifty-four years of age. He is descended from pure Anglo-Saxon stock. He received a good education, and engaged in the study of medicine. Sub- sequently he entered upon the practice of his profession, and is now a successful physician in Madison county, where he resides. " He was a Member of the Assembly in 1857, and during the session of that year served on the Committee on Claims. His political sentiments are strongly Republican-in favor of emancipation, exter- mination, and all that sort of thing; and he came to the Assembly the second time as a representative of the late Union movement. The most distinguishing mark of his career in that body was his persistent efforts to
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divide the county of Madison; which, however, failed of success, and which destroyed much of his personal as well as his political popularity at home.
THOMAS H. REED.
We have in the history of individuals many instances of persons born and brought up on a farm and made familiar with agricultural pursuits who nevertheless early develop a disinclination to become farmers. They take naturally to books, and are anxious to go to school, and had much rather learn a lesson than turn a furrow. In short, their activities are those of the brain rather than those of the body. Of this we have an example in the life of the subject of this sketch.
Mr. Reed was born in Carmel, Putnam county, N. Y., on the 27th of December, 1826. Both his parents, James H. Reed and Emily Hazen, who are of English descent, are natives of Putnam county, and are still liv- ing. During his youthful days he spent his summers in working upon his father's farm and his winters in attending the district school. In the spring of 1844 he commenced teaching, and in the autumn of the same year became a pupil of the State Normal School, at which institution he graduated in 1847. He then taught again until the summer of 1851 when he was a clerk on board of a night passenger boat running be- tween New York and Albany. In the autumn of that
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year he commenced keeping a private school in the vil- lage of Carmel, Putnam county. He then taught suc- cessfully, employing three assistants until 1854, when he closed his school and became professor of mathematics in Raymond Collegiate Institute, a new institution of learning then started by Rev. H. G. Livingston at Car- mel. On the death of Mr. Livingston, in 1855, he re- opened his private school and continued it for one year, when he accepted the position of cashier of the Croton River Bank, which he still holds.
Mr. Reed was a Clay Whig; afterwards an Ameri- can, and then a Republican. He was very active in the Union movement of 1861, and was nominated for the Assembly by both parties.
He was married on the 5th of April, 1852, to Nancy J. Tillott, who died on the 6th of February, 1855. He was again married on the 23d of January, 1860, to Ann Augusta Crosby, and attends the Presbyterian Church.
ADDISON G. RICE.
MR. RICE was born at Richfield, Otsego county, N. Y., on the 29th of December, 1821. He is of English origin. His father, Elijah A. Rice, is still living, at the age of sixty- eight. His mother, whose maiden name was Hawks, died at the age of sixty-two.
Mr. Rice received a good common school and academical education, and then studied higher English and the classics
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under a private tutor. He subsequently commenced the study of law, and in due time was admitted as an attorney and counsellor. He attends closely to the business of his profession, and is considered a good lawyer. Though taking that interest in National and State affairs which every intelligent and right-thinking citizen regards as a duty, he is not in the popular sense of the term a politician, much less an office-seeker, and came to the Assembly entirely without his solicitation. He was originally a Whig, and is now a Republican.
Mr. Rice is fond of speaking and enjoys a public debate, though he was absent from his seat a large part of the ses- sion on account of sickness. When present he always took part in the discussion of questions of general interest, and those affecting his locality, and was quite good in debate.
He was married on the 22d of December, 1846. He attends the Protestant Episcopal Church.
ELIAS ROOT.
MR. ROOT is an energetic, self-made man, of methodi- cal business habits, and brought with him to the dis- charge of his legislative duties the experience of a successful career. Without the advantageous aids of fortune or influential friends, he began life for himself while yet a mere boy ; but, by the resources of his intellect and the energy of his character, has success- fully made his way up to the position he now occupies in public and private life. Having received an ordinary
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common school and academical education, he began his career as a student at West Point, where, in conse- quence of ill health, he remained only a short time, and finally, after traveling for some time in unsuccessful pur- suit of something to do, found himself employed as a school teacher in the vicinity of Newburgh, Orange county, N. Y. Here he remained, in that capacity, some two years, when, at about the age of twenty-one, he en- gaged in the mercantile trade in that village, which he followed there successfully till 1831. He then removed into Herkimer county, in the then town of German Flatts, still continuing his mercantile pursuits, to which he then added an extensive produce business, and carried on a successful trade, in that place, till 1856, when he removed to Oswego, where he has always since been residing.
Mr. Root is descended from English ancestry, and was born on the 30th of November, 1806, at Fort Ann, Washington county, N. Y. He is one of an extensive connection, all the Roots in the United States having sprung from but one family, who originally came to this country. His mother, whose maiden name was Roxcyntha George, died in 1853, at the age of sixty- six. His paternal grandfather, Ashel Root, who served in the Revolutionary struggle, and his father, John Root, were both natives of Rensselaer county. The former died in 1835, at the advanced age of eighty- three, and the latter is still living, at the age of eighty.
Mr. Root was one of the founders of the Mohawk Valley Bank, of which he was for many years Vice- President, and has devoted himself to banking since his
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removal to Oswego, where he is now President of the Marine Bank. He was never ambitious of political preferment, preferring the quiet pursuit of his own private business to the turmoil and strife of public life, and with the exception of the office of Loan Commis- sioner, which he held under Governor Wright, and that of Supervisor, which he occupied some three years in Herkimer county, he never consented to hold any im- portant public position till his election to the House in 1852. Nevertheless, he is a very industrious, hard- working Republican, of Democratic antecedents, and from the day on which he assisted in christening the party, at Auburn, in 1856, down to the present hour, has been among the most zealous and consistent of the supporters of its principles and measures. Although chosen as the Republican candidate to the Assembly, his love for the Union transcends all mere party consi- derations, and he is always ready and anxious to subor- dinate all mere political preferences to a thorough and successful prosecution of the present war.
Mr. Root was married on the 14th day of January, 1830, to Miss Lydia Noyes, and belongs to the Congre- gational Church.
CHARLES J. SAXE.
MR. SAXE was a Member of the Assembly in 1861, and in 1862 served his second term in that body. His legisla- tive career has been quiet and unassuming, though eminently
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satisfactory and successful. Of some dozen bills introduced by him in 1861, he failed to secure the passage, through both Houses, of but one-that asking State aid to the Troy University, which was defeated in the Senate by the casting vote of the Lieut .- Governor. During the session of 1862, however, he was more successful in regard to that measurc. He triumphantly carried it through both Houses, and, to the satisfaction of his constituency and the credit of himself, it finally became a law. His speech, it is true, on the subject, which was spoken of by the public press, in terms of com- mendation, betrayed no effort whatever at oratorical dis- play ; but it showed a knowledge of facts and figures, which established at once his reputation as a shrewd business man and a capable legislator.
Mr. Saxe is a native of the Green Mountain State, where he was born on the 25th of March, 1814. He is of Ger- man and English descent. He is the oldest of four brothers, whose aggregate height is over twenty-four feet, and one of whom is John G. Saxe, the celebrated poet. His father, the Hon. Peter Saxe, who was a brother of the wife of Col. J. B. Scovell, of Cambria, N. Y., died at that place on the 27th of May, 1839, at the age of fifty-nine, and his mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Jewett, is still living, at the age of seventy-three.
Mr. Saxe was educated in his native place, Highgate, Franklin county, Vermont, and at the county grammar school in St. Albans in that State. He followed farming and merchandising in his father's store while young, besides assisting in his father's grist and saw-mill, and was subsequently, for fifteen years, a merchant in his native place and at St. Albans. He came to New York
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in March, 1851, and located at Troy, where he has since been the most extensive wholesale lumber commission merchant at that place. He formerly did business under the firm name of Saxe & Avery, but it is now Douglass, Saxe & Co., and his business has been extended to Albany.
From the age of sixteen until he was twenty-six years old, he was Surveyor of his native. county, and from 1835 until 1840 was Postmaster at Saxe's Mills. He was also several years Trustee of the United States Deposit Fund at St. Albans, and occasionally held the office of Justice of the Peace. He is now Vice-Presi- dent of the Market Bank of Troy, and occupies a high position in that city. In politics he has never faltered in his devotion to the principles and policy of the old Democratic party, and ranks high among the members of that party, as he did among his political opponents in the last House.
Mr. Saxe was married on the 22d of February, 1843, to Miss Susan Maria Baker, granddaughter of Judge Hammond, late of Pittsford, Vermont, who died in 1847. He then, on the 22d of February, 1853, married his present wife, Miss Ellen, daughter of the Hon. Thomas Griggs, of Massachusetts, and belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church.
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SIMON J. SCHERMERHORN.
MR. SCHERMERHORN was born on the 26th of Septem- ber, 1827, in the town of Rotterdam, Schenectady county, N. Y., of unmixed Holland Dutch parentage. His father, Jacob J. Schermerhorn, died in 1849, in that county, at the age of sixty, and his mother, Maria Vedder, died in 1832, at the same place, at the age of forty-four.
Mr. Schermerhorn received at the common schools of his native place the education usually given to farmers' sons, who were expected to follow the occupation of their fathers. His school-days over, he took to the plow very naturally and contentedly, and became a steady-going farmer. Embracing the political creed of the Democratic party, he gave it the help of his vote and his influence, and in 1856 was elected Supervisor of his town without opposition. He sympathized with the Union movement in 1861, and was elected to the Assem- bly without opposition.
Mr. Schermerhorn was one of the quiet members of the House, but was nevertheless industrious and influ- ential, and in the social and political circles in which he moves is quite popular.
He was married on the 4th of February, 1857, to Miss Helen M. Veeder, and attends the Reformed Dutch Church.
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CHARLES M. SCHOLEFIELD.
When this gentleman rises to speak, he reminds one of Burns' couplet :
" Perhaps it may turn out a sang, Perhaps turn out a sermon."
" Boz" says that "Mark Tapley was never more jolly than is this man Scholefield." He never treads upon any- body's corns, unless he is first kicked upon the shins. Still, he is pretty sure not to pick quarrels with plucky men, for although he thinks very little of the rest of inan- kind, he has a great deal of regard for himself. He was one of the most fluent speakers in the House in 1862, as he was in 1859, when he was also a member. He is likewise a good parliamentarian ; quite a tactician, and though some- times pretty strong in debate, believes with most men that
" A little nonsense now and then Is relished by the best of men."
The sketch, however, of Mr. Scholefield has already appeared fully in the author's volume for 1859, which ren- ders it wholly unnecessary to repeat it in detail here. Suffice it to say that there is nothing at all distinguishing either in his public or private career.
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WILLET SERLS.
MR. SERLS was elected to the Assembly, at a special election, after the opening of the Legislature, to fill the seat in that body of the Hon. John Vanderzee, who died shortly before the opening of the session, and who had always been prominently known in his district as a man of character and influence.
Mr. Serls was born on the 23d of January, 1814, on the same farm on which he still resides, in the town of Coeymans, Albany county, N. Y. He is of English descent. Two brothers originally came to America ; one settled in Rhode Island, and the other on Long Island. He sprung from the latter, and is the youngest of eleven children. His father, Abraham Serls, died in 1849, at the age of eighty-one, and his mother, whose maiden name was Joanna Tompkins, died in 1860, at the age of ninety-two.
Mr. Serls was educated in the common schools of his native place. His chief occupation has been that of farming, though he has, also, for upwards of twenty years, been engaged in mercantile pursuits, together with the foundry business, which he has successfully followed some ten years. He has held several town offices, including that of Supervisor, which he occupied some two years, and has been Postmaster ever since the establishment of an office where he resides. His politics have always been of the true Democratic stamp, and his abhorrence of sectionalism has always been of the most bitter and uncompromising intensity. As a legis-
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lator he is sound, practical, and dispassionate; as a citizen enterprising, straightforward, honest and influ- ential -- as valuable a man as his district has sent to the Legislature for many years.
Mr. Serls was married on the 13th of February, 1834, to Miss Eliza Ann Vincent, and attends the Methodist Church.
H. D. H. SNYDER, JR.
MR. SNYDER is a native of Prattsville, Greene county, N. Y., and was one of the most industrious and efficient young men in the Legislature. He is but twenty-eight years of age, and began active life for himself when only nineteen. He was educated at the academy in his native place, and at the Charlotte Institute, in Delaware county, at the latter of which Professor Waterbury, now of the Albany Academy, was then a teacher. He soon became interested in a tannery at Middletown, Dela- ware county, now owned and operated by his brother, and subsequently purchased the more extensive estab- lishment at Newkirk's Mills, Fulton county, together with the entire accompanying village and some ten thousand acres of land. He was very successful in business, and soon after purchased an interest in a tannery at Port Leyden, Lewis county, where he now resides. In his tanneries he tans, annually, some seventy thousand sides of leather, the United States tax on which now amounts to over ten thousand dollars.
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Although interested at Port Leyden for some years, Mr. Snyder did not take up his residence at that place till June, 1861. He immediately; on so doing, enlisted in the Union ranks, and by actively encouraging the patriotic sentiment of that county and vicinity, contributed vastly to the effi- cient enlistment of volunteers. The reward for the services thus rendered was his triumphant election to the Assembly, there being but one single vote cast against him in his own election district, and but twenty-seven in the entire town- ship where he resides. It is not surprising, therefore, that a person possessing the energy of character thus exhibited should have succeeded so well in making his mark in the House. He did many things during the session worthy of special remark, but his greatest success, perhaps, was on the Public Defense bill, where he successfully deprived the thunderers of the House of all their artillery. After there had been days of discussion, and gallons of ink had been shed by such men as Pierce, Stetson, Raymond, and Ogden, in framing bills and amendments, he defeated them all by introducing a substitute which was substantially adopted by the House. He is an incessant worker-indefatigable in whatever he undertakes, and was considered by some as one of the most dangerous opponents to encounter in the Legislature. He is, at the same time, kind-hearted, socia- ble, and agreeable toward all with whom he comes in con- tact, and possesses the faculty of making scores of friends wherever he goes. No one, perhaps, has been more faith- ful and efficient in the discharge of their legislative duties during the session, and his course in the House is doubtless a fair indication of a still more prominent and successful career in the future.
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Mr. Snyder was married in 1860, to Miss Storrs, of Eaton, Madison county, and enjoys a high social position where he resides.
GEORGE SPRINGER.
MR. SPRINGER is a descendant of pure German stock, and possesses all those marked attributes of character for which the German race is so peculiarly distinguished. He is a native of the town of Stark, Herkimer county, N. Y., where he was born on the 13th of February, 1805. His paternal grandfather, Jacob Springer, was an officer in the Revolution. Both his parents were natives of the town of Brunswick, Rensselaer county, and removed into Herkimer county about sixty years ago. His father, Lodowick Springer, died in 1857, at the age of eighty-two, and his mother, whose maiden name was Maria Coons, died in 1821, at the age of forty- four.
Mr. Springer was educated in the common schools of his native place, and has always been engaged in farm- ing. He has been Supervisor of his town some eight or nine years since 1839, and was chosen to the Assem- bly by a flattering majority. Politically, he was origi- nally a Whig, but, through the mistaken idea that the Republican movement was inaugurated alone for the amelioration of the condition of the slave, was very naturally led, by his strong German sympathies, into the ranks of that party.
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Mr. Springer was married in 1832, to Miss Christina Eckler, and attends the Lutheran Church.
LEMUEL STETSON.
This gentleman has long held a prominent position among the most eminent men of the State. The brief space allowed us in these sketches does not permit us to do more than barely allude to some of the principal passages in his life. It would require a volume to do full justice to his biography, for "he is a man who has done the State some service, and they know it."
Mr. Stetson was born close upon the Canada line, in the town of Champlain, Clinton county, in 1804, and has continued to reside in his native county until the present time. Having received an academical education at the age of twenty, he entered upon the study of the law, a profession for which he was peculiarly well adapted. After his admission to the bar he rose rapidly to dis- tinction and took his place among such men as Ross, Simmons, Hand, Sweatland, and others who shed lustre upon the legal fraternity of Northern New York.
As a politician, the numerous and responsible offices he has held from time to time exhibits the enduring confidence entertained towards him by his fellow citi- zens. For six years, while comparatively a young man, he held the office of District Attorney of Clinton county. He has been four times returned to the Legislature. In 1846 he was a member of the Constitutional Convention.
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For three years he was Judge and Surrogate of Clinton, and has also represented his district in Congress. In 1855 he ran for Comptroller on the Democratic Ticket, but was defeated by the Americans, who were then at the height of their power.
The Congressional debates, the report of the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention, and of the various Legis- latures of which he has been a member, show the marked position he occupied among his comrades in all these bodies. As a lawyer at the bar, as a judge on the bench, in Con- gress, in the assemblies of the people, wherever he appears, he is a man of mark. Utterly fearless, independent and self-possessed, he moves straight forward to the object be- fore him, without hesitating for an instant to court favors by the way. He has firmness and decision to a remarkable degree, and these qualities, combined with strong, native intellect, and a high-toned sense of honor, have necessarily made him influential and conspicuous among his fellow- citizens.
Up to the breaking out of the war, Mr. Stetson was a Democrat of the Hard-shell persuasion. When, however, treason raised its arm against the Republic, he ranged him- self at once on the side of those who demand that the Re- bellion shall be crushed at all hazards and at any cost.
The war has brought desolation and grief to the house- hold of Mr. Stetson, as it has to so many others in the land. His eldest son, Col. Stetson, of the regiment raised in Essex and Clinton counties, was among the foremost of the volun- teers. He fell at the battle of Antietam. He was gallant, generous, brave, the pride of his friends and the idol of his family. His father hastened to the bloody field, on receipt
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of the sad intelligence, found the remains of his beloved boy, and erected a temporary monument to mark his grave. His narrative of the trip to the battle-ground of Antietam was widely published, and though subdued by grief, breathed the genuine spirit of a patriot. It will be read long after its honored author shall have likewise gone to sleep with his fathers.
JEREMIAH SWEET.
MR. SWEET is a Union Republican, and by the nume- rical strength of his party, in his district, was elected to the Assembly by some seven hundred majority over his Democratic opponent, John T. Thomas. He is a native of Milford, Otsego county, N. Y., and is fifty- seven years of age. Like the sons of most farmers, in the days of his youth he received only an ordinary English education, and has passed most of his life in agricultural pursuits. His career in the House was quiet and unpretending, but he is said to have discharged his duties with a good deal of success and ability. He is a gentleman of respectability and some influence in the community in which he lives, and had some personal influence at Albany.
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GEORGE H. TAYLOR.
MR. TAYLOR is one of the most enterprising and influ- ential men in the town of Fort Edward, and has served with credit as a Member of the Legislature. Although since 1845, largely interested in the general mercantile and produce business, with an extensive firm in the city of New York, he is, by profession, a practical civil en- gineer and surveyor, and, in 1858, gratuitously planned and superintended the construction of the free bridge across the Hudson river at Fort Edward. He, also, took the survey and made the plan of the Fort Edward Water Works, of which Company he is now President.
Mr. Taylor was born in Fort Edward, and is forty- two years of age. He is descended from Anglo-Saxon stock. He was educated at the Washington County Academy, at Argyle, and at a mathematical school at Sandy Hill, and studied civil engineering. He was, politically, a Democrat until the bombardment of Fort Sumter, since which time he has been identified with the late Union movement, having been elected to the Assembly as the candidate of that party. He held the office of Supervisor during the years 1855 and '58, and has always been one of the chief pillars of the Fort Edward Institute since its establishment. He is, also, a prominent Director in the Bank of Fort Edward.
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