USA > New York > Livingston County > Nunda > Centennial history of the town of Nunda : with a preliminary recital of the winning of western New York, from the fort builders age to the last conquest by our Revolutionary forefathers > Part 47
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Some Men Who Started Down at the Foot of the Ladder and Reached the Upper Rounds
I know of many of this class : I will mention but a few. John F. Barber. whose father, Samuel Barber, died when John F. was only twelve or thirteen, leaving several children and some debts. He left a shop with tools to make plows-wooden ones, with sheet iron sides. John burned the midnight oil working upon these ; then toiled by the day or month for Col. Williams at the low wages of that time. Soon he worked also on lands of his own and at lumbering in the winter and floated the lumber down the Genesee on rafts to Rochester. He educated his younger brothers and sister. Without father or mother he reared the household. The banker. John F. Barber. knew how hard it is to start at the foot of the ladder, and if he prized his fine farm and plethoric purse higher than some do, it was because of the strenuous life he lived to win them. He surely was a self-made man.
Francis H. Gibbs had nothing but his trade, that of a wagonmaker, when he came to Nunda. It is said Isaac Mc Nair induced F. H. Gibbs and Minor T. Stout to come to Nunda Valley and work in his shop. His shop burned and then Gibbs worked for David Holmes. where the Capt. John W. Hand house now stands on Buffalo Street. He married Miss Sarah Keith and lived in a chamber over the shop till he got money enough to build the cottage on Holmes Street where Mrs. Isaac Whitenack now resides. This served them for several years. Then he built or bought the house on State Street best known as the Houghton Place. Next he established a shop on State Street, probably with a partner. and the old Holmes shop became the property of
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CAPT. JNO. W. HAND
MARK P. HAND
HENRY WELLS SPEAR
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THE LATE WM. H. HAND Died, Aged 24
Barton Satterlee, Sr., and not many years after he succeeded David Holmes in shop and residence. In this fine house lie reared his family. It is located at the south end of Gibbs Street. The carriages and coaches made on State Street were the wonder of the time. It is doubtful if any of them have sur- vived their manufacturer. Again there was a change of business and in the other side of the street a large manufacturing plant was established and great engines, boilers, locomotives even were made. From forty to one hundred hands were employed. The inconvenience of hauling these heavy goods to Nunda station for shipment lead to a change of location, and Titusville, Pa .. became his home and the scene of his greatest prosperity. This added wealth had enabled him to rebuild and improve his residence at Nunda, till it was one of the finest homes in the village. The writer knows very little of Mr. Gibbs' business ventures after leaving Nunda. He was always successful, a good workman when he worked, and a good manager when he employed others. He had begun at the foot of the ladder, and he knew all the successive steps that lead upward. Surely he may be classed with the self-made men of Nunda.
Dr. John Gilmore, whose story has already been partially told, had only his horse, and his saddle bags filled with medicine when he hired his board at Watson's Inn, Nunda valley, without the means of paying for it till it was earned. Within a few years he built and paid for a store, and one or more houses before he left Nunda. He had faith in himself and in his skill, and in the contents of his saddle bags enough to establish himself in business. He mar . ried the landlord's sister, and Mrs. George Carter, his daughter, will tell you the rest.
MARK P. HAND
It takes grit, persistance and industry and sometimes dash and pluck to secure success. The author's youngest brother's best stock in trade was decision. He decided one day to go West, and went the next day. He asked me to give him my revolver which I had brought home from the war, and with that and less than $50 he started for the wild and wooly West. His first stop was at the Mississippi River, where a railroad bridge was being constructed. He hired out as a bridge carpenter, though he had never worked at it a day. He next looked up a friend, the late Michael Dowling, and asked if he needed him. Mr. Dowling made him commissary on his big railroad job, to see that the horses were properly fed and cared for by his many teamsters. As soon as he had earned a sufficient sum to buy a team he bought one, hired a teamster. set him at work on the job, then soon another, and another, till he sold out his outfit for two thousand dollars and started for California. Here lie located a silver mine but sought other occu - pation and waited for a railroad to come to his mine. He took up a large farm and was rushing this mile square of land when three successive seasons of drought nearly left him bankrupt. He gave up the farm and started at the bottom again as a charcoal burner. This was only temporary, however. He then bought again a tract of land near his mine and rented most of it for pas- ture lands. The railroad he believed must come, came, and he worked his mine and shipped the ore until silver mining ceased to be a paying business then the farm took up his energies. He lent money at twelve per cent., and
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finally owned a thousand acres. To-day Los Angeles needs the water on his land and are willing to pay his price but the time of payment is not quite sat- isfactory. Should that be arranged satisfactorily he will visit Nunda ir. August, after an absence of 43 years. He is emphatically a plunger but is generally successful.
THE LATE MICHAEL DOWLING
Everybody about Nunda knows that Michael Dowling started at the bot . tom of the ladder, and had both feet squarely planted on one of the uppermost rounds when he was forced by ill health to cease hustling and take a muchi needest rest. Born in a household of nineteen children he and the rest of them had to get to work early in life and to look out for number one. Good, strong, substantial common sense regulated the judgment that made his chief occu- pation, that of contractor on public works, successful and highly remunerative. His successes lay along the line of finance, and the abundant competency he secured is proof of his sound judgment and executive ability.
COL. JOHN J. CARTER
John J. Carter's career has been somewhat phenomenal. Whatever he engaged in commanded his large stock of energy ; and industry with acqui- sition prompted by a commendable ambition, characterized the boy. and has not forsaken the man. To be something and somebody above mediocrity moved him to strive for a rich endowment of knowledge. Without an educa - 'tion he must plod along the ordinary paths trod by the industrious, but badly equipped toilers, he saw everywhere about him. At that period, when the writer first knew him, he seemed to have but one aim, to be a scholar. . A little later, when the war broke out, his energy and desires took a new form. that of patriotism. Men of courage, more than scholarship, were needed, and the energy he turned on meant a determination to be a good soldier. a little better than the average, and he certainly was. Then love became uppermost, and he intended to be a better husband than some who thought themselves fairly good. Again he was successful in choosing and winning. and in creating and possessing an ideal home. In business activities the same abundant energy was conspicuous : all the other acquisitions turned in and helped : lov : inspired, knowledge directed, but energy executed whatever he planned. A competence up to modern ideas was acquired. but the same energy is propell- ing onward still, for it is a part of himself. and it must be operative. Others have recognized this fund of energy and are utilizing it. It is this that sends him to Japan. when prudence would say : Stay at home, get well. enjoy life ; why keep this surcharged energy at work? As well tell the singer to stop singing and let the vocal organs have rest ; no. it can't be done, again away to California this time. why not send some one else? Why not? Some one else cannot put the same amount of energy and experience, and business tact. and loyalty, and knowledge of conditions into the business : no one else has sur . mounted so many steps on the ladder of doing difficult things in a masterly way. But how account for this spirit of philanthropy that crops out so often in such practical and tangible forms? Why, the fifty years that have passe !!
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over the head of the school boy is ageing him, and men as they grow elderly are full of love for the past ; the school they attended, the teachers who helped them, the soldiers who shared their perils, the flag they served under, the . dead men who gave life with their service are objects of veneration ; their names, their deeds, their heroism must not be allowed to fade away. and so to perpetuate what called out this heroism, what made martyrs of heroes, this must take form, and so the energy guage is turned on again, and the heart and brain control the lever and here we see and know the real man as he is, and in this, too, he is a modern Kenjockety, vastly "above the multitude ;" nothing mediocre about John J. Carter.
Others have started at the bottom, with other ideals, and have found exactly what they sought.
THOMAS TRELEASE ROWE,
An average cooper, with the most meager acquirements along scholastic lines. Failing to see how making barrels, however good and numerous they were, was to improve his manhood or his mind, he coveted educational advant- ages. But how could they be obtained? There were schools for the young, but he was no longer a child. He saw the multitude of youth and young adults going to the school house day by day-and if they hungered for knowi . edge as he did, they surely could obtain it, but did they? This strong desire haunted him. He passed up and down in front of the neat brick building. thinking there are teachers there who could advise me if they were told my strong purpose and desire. One day he went in at close of school to take counsel with the principal. He made known his wishes, but the teacher failen to see in a man with only a child's education any desirable addition to his schcol. He finally gave him over to the preceptress for her advice and to obtain for himself, her opinion. The preceptress listened with interest and promised assistance by hearing his lessons at her home till he could be prop- erly classified at school. The time came sooner than expected, when the esoper took his place in the school room and, strange to say, fitted rapidly for college. He afterward graduated from Rochester University, from the Divin ity School of Boston University ; and is now the Rev. Thomas Trelease Rowe, D. D., of Rochester, fully fitted for a useful intellectual occupation congenial to his tastes and ideals of usefulness. If this man. this scholar, was not self made, it was the preceptress, Miss Mary Pettit, who made him-a scholar ; but the man himself was intent on making of himself a man-after his own ; leal, and he succeeded.
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DR. ARTHUR W. SWIFT
Arthur Swift left Nunda in his infancy, his father. once a carpenter left his family here, in a temporary home and went with Capt. Lemen to the war. The author of these records saw him enlist in Portage and wondered how he could leave wife and child to go where duty called him. He rose to the position of Lieutenant, but ere his commission arrived, he was killed. The subject of this sketchi was born after his father enlisted. The struggle with poverty and privation during his youth, which his mother endured in the double affliction in losing her husband and her oldest boy Charley, who died in boyhood, would touch any heart. The mother in her poverty stinting the meager fare for herself, that
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the growing child might have a needed supply is almost too sad to tell; the child is now a skilled physician. The struggle to gain an education under these cir- cumstances can be imagined: to-day he lives in Belvidere, Ill., in a mansion equaling any this town affords, he has been Mayor of the city, Member of the Board of Education, delegate to Senatorial conventions ; is a Knight Templar and Shriner ; he is a member of the College Club of Nunda, because of his MI. D., and his birth right, and the one member who has contributed to its funds most cheerfully, and most generously, because of the love he feels for the town that honors the memory of the father he never saw. This statement and sketch of successes won in spite of difficulties, places nim in the list, of self-made men for it is doubtful if any others have risen to usefulness and a competency, from more unfavorable conditions.
PROF. WILLIAM G. TOUSEY, A. M., ST. D. OF TUFTS COLLEGE
William G. Tousey was left orphaned by the death of his father when but a small boy and soon had to look after himself. At an early age some kindhearted people took an interest in the interesting child and encouraged his laudable de- sire to obtain an education. They were farmers and he learned to do farm work. We state this to show, that he had less than the ordinary advantages of the sons of farmers or of mechanics. From the district schools of Portage, he found his way to the village academy, the Nunda Literary Institute, which was soon after- ward destroyed by fire ; then to a high school of the select school order that was established, which he attended for three years, and then became the principal's successor. Having become a Universalist by reading their literature, he sought a college of that denomination. Tufts College, Mass., and in due time was grad- uated with honors. Then he took the theological course there, and having won all the prizes that came in his way. won the position of assistant pastor, with his homiletical professor. Dean Leonard, who was supplying the pulpit of the church, at Chelsea, Mass. He was to do the pastor work of the parish and preach on alternate Sabbaths at a salary of $1,400, for half the time. At the end of the year the trustees of the church, offered him three thousand dollars a year for his services for the entire time. This he declined as the duties of the pastor, prevented his progress with his studies, for he is, a student for life. He accepted at less compensation. at first, the position of instructor in the Theo- logical Department, and is still there, filling "a chair" not only in the theologi- cal school, but having classes in his specialities, in the college of arts and sci- ences, also. In Ethics, physiology and logic, he has no superior, in any college in the land. (See Photo.)
FREDERICK A. BISBEE, D. D.
Editor in chief of the Universalist Leader of Boston and Chicago. If this man may not be classed with the self-made men, he may surely be placed at the head of the list of those who have made the most of themselves, when handi- capped by the worst physicial conditions. After a sickness of four years dura- tion, at the age of eighteen, he entered Tufts College Divinity School,-A semi- invalid-crippled for life-seldom entirely free from pain, and frequently sub- ject to long periods of excruciating pain. During the course of study he had to have frequent surgical operations performed, but was graduated in four
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years, nearly at the head of his class, though several years younger than any of its members. Confined to his room for two weeks, before graduation, he deliv- ered his thesis, as if in perfect health, though suffering intensely all the time. His habitual cheerfulness and fine sense of humor, deceives all those who come in contact with him, and few realize the amount of suffering lie endures patiently and ever untold. His progress has been Phenomenal, he graduated in 1877, and has never had but two parishes and neither of these were willing to part witlı him. As pastor, of a metropolitan church he was urged to remain with them for life, but when invited to assume full charge of the denominational press, the par- ish consented to the arrangement for the good of the denomination, and as best adapted to his physicial condition. As a denominational figure-head his pres- ence is urged at all State and National conventions, and the travel this required and the expenditure of energy for one of the great addresses of the occasion, renders his chosen work he loves so well little short of physical torture. A re- cent collapse from overwork more serious, than any heretofore, has brought out this statement that voices, as well as words can express it, the estimate of his fellow co-laborers, as well as the apprehensions, and sympathy of the denomina- tion in whose hearts, he is enthroned as a favorite. The assistant editor said, through the Leader :
Dear Workfellow: Though absent from this post of duty in which you have long and faithfully served, your influence is felt in the familiar places in which you have cheerily greeted coworkers and friends and from which you have sent forth words of counsel and inspiration; in the recollection of your fidelity to high ideals and four persistent endeavors for their practical realiza- tion in human life ; in memory of your unwavering interest in movements for the betterment of home and social conditions ; in the recalling of the able man- ner in which you have set forth and defended the faith for whose advance- ment this journal was founded: and especially in the knowledge of the fact that, under the imperative call of the strong and resolute spirit for immediate ministering to a soul in need, the weaker body yielded to the strain. Brave and hopeful brother ! to us who know it all thou art coworker and inspirer still; and to thee we send grateful remembrances, accompanied by the prayer that He who is the strength of thy life and ours shall give thee peace day by day and return thee to us with body as vigorous as the spirit which it clothes. Dr. Bisbee is a nephew of the writer. (See Photo.)
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OP12
CLERGYMAN AND CHOIR OF PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Rev. J. M. Carmichael, Pastor, Easter 1908 Choir: F. W. Craig, Mrs. H. T. Haines, Mrs. A. J. Frayer, Mrs. H. Peck, Organist, Miss Flora Conklin, Miss VanEtten, W. M. Wagor
DEPARTMENT II
CHURCHES
O U'R Churches and our Schools have been the most potent forces in keep- ing the standards of life in our community high, and though they have been greatly diversified in thought and method, each has reached and benefited a class of minds no others could have served as well. Even at this time, when great improvements indicate a desirable spirit of toleration for the theological opinions of others, it is to be lamented that there is still too much intolerance of spirit-that crops out on special occasions and renders a com- bined union of work for Christ and His Kingdom-less possible than could be desired. It is, however, the one thing needful, to which we, as a community of well wishers, have not yet fully attained. No one says we have too many groceries, or too many that sell bread, but many think "The Bread of Life" should be served from a few platters, and those few, the ones nearest alike. Now good people that is a mistake. the bread adapted to the Catholic palate could not better be served to them than it is, and so of the various churches. Let the seven churches keep just as busy as they can, and depend upon it there will be seven times as much good done as though there was only one big church in this village.
"Who, with another's eyes, can read, Or worship by another's creed?"
All the "home feeling." all that fellowship of kindred minds, that is like to Heaven above, would not be felt.
It would cost less, say the very ones who pay little, and desire. to pay less ; very true, if money frugality is more helpful, than giving until you feel it, giv- ing because your heart is in it. Then by all means seek to kill the weakest churches, one by one, and when the survival of the strongest is attained, by methods that are everywhere condemned in business as pernicious ; then let your Wanamaker-Department Store. institutions, take stock of trade and see what increase there has been in spirituality and if more people attend the one church then did the seven, take stock of the fruits of the spirit. and see if there has been much of patience, meekness, long suffering, gentleness, love, joy, peace, at- tained.
No. we have not too many churches. the Catholics, are better Catholics be- cause Father Day. is helping them to be better. The Universalists are better Universalists because Rev. E. P. Wood, is leading them on to more thorough consecration of their powers, to more love for God and humanity. It is to be regretted. that another like Rev. H. S. Dennis, is not helping the Episcopalians along the upward p .thway.
No. we have not too many churches, but we have too many who love money more than Man, and serve gold more than God. But looking over the field for the eighty years that we have had churches in Nunda, the inestimable amount of good these institutions, one and all, have done is beyond expression. True it would have been greater, if they had spent all their energies in seeking to .
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BAPTIST CHURCH
REV W. L. BATES
REV. WM. C. PHILLIPS
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develop more of that charity, that thinketh no evil ; more of humanity, without which no Christian excellence is attainable, or even perceptible; and not wasting their energies, in trying to help the Almighty, arrange a system of theology after their own scanty pattern.
But there has been progress with the many, and the few who are still intol- erant, only serve as the type of those, far more common fifty years ago, who were alike noted-for their zeal, and for bigotry. It is right to be zealous, it is right to love your own sect best : but, it is wrong to condemn the opinions of others, equally dear to them, as heresy until you have at least investigated them by reading what their own theologians promulgate as their standards of belief.
Another century of progress will find the various forces of the living God marching in sold phalanxes, establishing the right and subduing the power of evil.
THE BAPTIST CHURCH
The following condensed statement gleaned from the well kept records of the Baptist Church, was read at the Church and School day exercises Old Home Week, by the compiler. Mrs. Cora Stone Cudebec, and is well worth a careful perusal by all who are interested in Church work : Ed
"The Baptist Church of Nunda was organized May 21st, 1819, with twelve members. The first pastor was Rev. Samuel Messenger who was present at its organization and gave the Church the hand of fellowship. He served the Church until 1826, living on his farm and seldom receiving more than $100 from the Church in a year.
"The meetings of the Church were held sometimes in private houses, some- times in school houses in different parts of the town. ] In 1827 the members voted to meet in one place from May first to October first, and that place was Mr. Jones' barn.
"They prized meeting together and in two years 40 were added to the membership.
"The first house of worship was built in 1830, with a seating capacity of about 400.
"The present church edifice was built during the pastorate of Rev. J. W. Spoor and was dedicated in June. 1842.
"The church has had twenty-three pastors, namely: Rev. Samuel Messen- ger ; Elijah Bennett ; Ransom Harvey; Ezra W. Clarke: Abraham Ennis: Jo- seph W. Spoor : Ichabod Clark : Jirah D. Cole; P. Houghwout; J. W. Spoor : Whitman Metcalf: J. J. Keyes: J. B. Vrooman : Wareham Mudge; C. B. Par- sons : J. D. Tucker : W. P. Decker : S. D. Moxley : William C. Phillips ; Norman S. Burd : T. S. Leonard: Delos E. Abrams and William Bates, its present pastor.
"The largest membership of the church was in 1843, and was 547. Its present membership is 174.
"Several who have been members here have gone to carry the Gospel to mission fields. Eliza J. Bennett. daughter of Rev. Elijah Bennett, went with her husband Rev. Peter Conrad to carry on mission work in the far West. Hannah B. Wright and her husband. Rev. Lyman Stilson, were missionaries in Burmah. Carrie Batterson was also a missionary to Burmah, going to the field with Mrs. Ingalls. Rev. Norman W. Keyes also a member of this church is at the present time laboring in, Zululand, Africa.
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"Elijah Bennett, Peter Robinson, Newell Boughton, Alvin W. Tousey, Lysander L. Wellman, A. J. Joslyn, Wm. D. Clark, S. F. Holt, James Work, A. J. Barrett, Thomas Lovell, Sylvanus Ellis, Rev. Norman Keyes, and Geo. W. Strutt, are among those converted or tramed here, who have been licensed or ordained ministers."
Many who were once members with us have been called to places of influ- ence :
Nathaniel Coe, Samuel Skinner, and Leroy Satterlee, members of Assembly.
A. J. Barrett, T. B. Lovell, Sylvanus Ellis, Miss Mary L. Pettitt, Miss Sarah L. Stilson, Mrs. Mary Stilson Turrill, John P. Colby, principals or teach- ers of schools and colleges.
Herman L. Page. Mayor of Milwaukee.
Clark B. Adams, H. M. Dake, A. J. Knight, Irving McDuffey, lawyers.
Z. W. Joslyn, Jabez Dake, Jabez Dake, Jr., David M. Dake, Chauncey Dake, physicians.
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