USA > New York > Comley's history of the state of New York, embracing a general review of her agricultural and mineralogical resources, her manufacturing industries, trade and commerce, together with a description of her great metropolis, from its settlement by the Dutch, in 1609 > Part 16
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Passing over the subsequent period of his business history in New York City, in which he trained several clerks who have since be- come very distinguished business men, we next find him investing a considerable portion of his amassed capital in Elmira, with a sagacious forecast of the future growth of that place. He moved to that place in the spring of 1835, and purchased considerable real estate. The bulk of his large fortune was derived from the rising value of his village property, the erection
of buildings, and the constant growth of im- provements. His early habits of caution and watchfulness against all losses, small as well as great, still characterized him. Both a sound and honorable policy, and the dictates of a generous public spirit, led him to take a deep and liberal interest in public improvements, in building churches, school-houses, hotels, and especially in connecting Elmira with Se- neca Lake by railroad. Ile was the first President of the Chemung Railroad, and per- haps it is not too much to say that he was its chief manager, and its success was chiefly Owing to him. He was also somewhat largely engaged in banking, for which his peculiar style of business in some respects eminently fitted him.
He was the son of pious parents and had the covenant blessing of a godly ancestry. He was first a communicant in the church at Aquebogue. In the city of New York, he united with the Presbyterian church in Van- dewater street, then under the ministry of the too celebrated Hooper Cuminings.
He resided for a time in Newtown, Long Island, where he was an elder in the church of Rev. John Goldsmith, who was an uncle to Mrs. Benjamin. His next church relation was with the first Presbyterian church of Brooklyn, under Mr. John Sanford, and afterward Dr. Carroll.
From Brooklyn he came to Elmira in 1835. The next year he was chosen trustee of the First Presbyterian church, and continued by re-election to hold that office until his death. which occurred September ist, IS68. In November, 1836, he was elected an elder, and was always an efficient member of the session-able in counsel and fully identified with the prosperity and progress of the church.
He began early a system of beneficence
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but he never gave ostentatiously. Probably no man in Southern New York has, during the past thirty-five years, given so large an amount to religious, charitable, and educa- tional objects, even besides his large gifts to the College. He was for many years a trustee of Auburn Theological Seminary. He was also for a number of years a trustee of Hamilton College. To both these institutions he made liberal donations, and freely ex- pressed the intentions of making some further addition by bequests. For more than ten years he was a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and took a deep but quiet interest in the great missionary work.
But the last and crowning object of his Christian liberality was the Elmira Female College, a fine view of which we give.
From the first he was the financial manager, as Treasurer and President of the Board of Trustees. His donation of $5000, the largest amount then subscribed by any one, fixed the location, changing it from Auburn, where it had been located, and for which a charter had been granted as the Auburn Female Univer- sity. By act of the Legislature the charter was amended, the name changed, and the in- stitution removed to Elmira.
The college opened with a debt of nearly forty thousand dollars, more than half of which was owed to Mr. Benjamin himself, and a considerable portion of the remainder to personal friends in New York and on Long Island.
After a few years, Mr. Benjamin proposed to give to the college $25,000, by releasing so much of the amount due him, on condition that the college be placed under the super- vision of the Synod of Geneva, with the pro- vision that the evangelical denominations be represented in the Board, and also with the
condition that the interest of the sum so re- leased should be every year paid into an en- dowment fund, for the endowment, first, of the presidency, and then of professorships, and the increase of the library.
The college accepted the proposal, and has been from that time under the care of the Synod of Geneva. Yet Mr. B. never designed to narrow its boundaries or diminish its liberal catholicity. In the recent effort to raise $50,000 by subscription to improve and en- dow the college and meet the conditions of the State appropriation, Mr. B. at once sub- scribed $25,000, in addition to his previous gift, making a total of $55,000 .*
Bennett, James Gordon -- A jour- nalist, born in Banffshire, Scotland, Septem- ber ist, 1795, and educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood, emigrated to the United States in 1819, was connected with several journals published in the city of New York, and was chief editor in 1833 of the Pennsyl- vanian, a daily paper of Philadelphia. In 1835, he founded the New York Herald, which was very successful. He died June Ist, 18/2.
Bills, Alfonzo, was born in Jamaica, Windham County, Vermont, July 9th, 1815, where he lived and worked on his father's mountain farm until seventeen years old, with the exception of the summer of 1829, when he worked for Judge Taft, of the same town, whose son Alphonso was then home on his summer college vacation, and assisted in gathering the farm crops. Young Bills little thought he was working in the hay-field with a future Secretary of War and Attorney-Gen- eral of the United States.
* This was still further increased by legacy to $30,000.
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Mr. Bills's early educational advantages were very poor, being obliged to work hard for his daily bread (as the injunction, " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread," was par- ticularly applicable to that hard, sterile soil)- brown bread at that, except on state occa- sions, such as the visitation of the minister, general training-day, etc., when a wheaten loaf would be made and a general feast enjoyed.
In the summer of 1832, the subject of our sketch entered the employ of Captain Daniel Read, of Wardsboro, an adjoining town, where he worked three years, learning the tanner and currier's trade. When his ap- prenticeship was completed, he took his first job of finishing a lot of leather, under the coveted and exalted title of journeyman ; and right here happened one of those strange freaks of chance, or, from a higher stand- point, one of those providential orderings which change the whole course of one's life. Our journeyman being ambitious to complete his job and count his first money, was in the habit of rising early in the morning. One cold Monday morning, he went to the shop between four and five o'clock, and found the stove quite full of ashes. Under the finishing-table was a wooden box, in which cold ashes were kept; he scooped out a hollow in the mid- dle of the old, to deposit the new ashes, and in cleaning out the stove he found considerable heat, and on examination found occasionally a small coal of fire. The proprietor also saw it, and remarked, it might do mischief. Nothing more was thought of it until Tuesday night, when the whole family were startled by the crackling of fire. The house and shop were not far apart. The works were burned to the ground. The jour- neyman was out of a job, and the owner was out of a place of business. It is needless to say, as the burned child dreads the fire, so
Mr. Bills has ever since been very suspicious of wood-ashes. Luckily for our young friend, J. & S. Newell, the merchants of the village, were just then in want of a clerk. They offered the situation to the journeyman, who gladly accepted it, and proudly ex- changed the title of journeyman for that of clerk. He then began to dream that perhaps his fondest wishes might be realized. For when a mere child, he would tell his mother he intended to be a merchant, and if he could find a boy to play "store," calling sand, sugar; muddy water, molasses ; and clover-heads, tea; and buy and sell, using chips as the circulating medium, he was hap- py. He remained with the Newells two years, occasionally driving their four-horse team to Boston, Brattleboro, and Troy, ex- changing country produce for merchandise. On one of these trips to Troy, another pivot presented itself, on which hung still another important change, and which undoubtedly altered his subsequent career. He took a package of money from a neighboring mer- chant to A. & J. Howland, flour-merchants, River street, Troy; and while it was being counted, and a receipt prepared, he got into conversation with the senior partner, who said to him, " We are looking for a Yankee boy to enter our office, as our book-keeper is about leaving us."
The young man replied, " Guess I am the boy you are looking for, as I certainly am a Yankee, and would like to get a situation in your office."
A hurried engagement was at once entered into, and the following April our Yankee was on hand to carry out the arrangement ; but as there was some misunderstanding as to the situation he was expected to fill, he de- clined going with Messrs. Howland, and found a vacancy in the post-office under
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Judge Isaac McConihe, Postmaster, at $15 per month and board himself.
He immediately accepted it in hopes of doing better some time, and remained there about three months, when Mr. Howland again appeared and asked if he was satisfied with his situation ? Mr. Bills promptly re- plied, " No, sir !" A new arrangement was im- mediately made, and the young man entered Messrs. Howland's employ in July during the height of the panic of 1837, where he re- mained a book-keeper until the spring of 1841, when Mr. James Howland retired from the firm, and Mr. Bills became a partner in the new firm of Howland, Loveland & Co. This firm lasted but one year, when Mr. Love- land retired, and the firm became Howland & Bills, which remained the same until 1846, when Mr. Howland died; which caused great distress of mind to Mr. Bills, as he had learned to love and respect him, and look up to him as a father. He was a noble man, honest and true.
A new firm of Howland, Sage & Bills was soon formed, consisting of James Howland, William F. Sage, and A, Bills, which was dis- solved in a year or two. That firm was suc- ceeded by Howland, Bills & Thayer; then Bills & Thayer ; then by Bills, Thayer &' . Usher ; then Bills, Thayer & Knight. Then Mr. Bills retired from the old concern and entered into business with William F. Sage again, under the firm of Sage & Bills, which . remained a year or two, when, at the death of Mr. Knight, in 1867, he took his place again in the old concern under the firm of Bills & Thayer, where he remained until the spring - of 1873, when he sold his interest in the mill ------ and business to Mr. Thayer, and has done but very little since, although he yet keeps an office near the old spot, having spent the last forty years within a few hundred feet of
the place he now occupies. He bought the house he now lives in, near Washington Park, nearly a quarter of a century ago. Mr. Bills has had perhaps more than his share of disasters by fire. His store was burned on River street in 1844, which was immediately rebuilt ; it was again burned and rebuilt in 1846; the large down-town fire of 1855 burned the back part of his house and out- buildings. The old Merritt & Hart mill, at the nail-works, was burned while owned by his firm ; also a cooper-shop burned in West Troy, in which he was interested. He also lost a barn by fire in the alley between First and Second streets.
He often speaks with much interest of a land operation he was engaged in in Illinois, with two brothers-in-law, about twenty-three years ago. They bought nearly two thousand acres choice prairie land near Geneseo, Henry County, Ill., at a low price. They then in- duced relatives and friends from the old Ver- mont hills to emigrate to the newly-pur- chased Illinois land. To-day there are six- teen families of their own kith and kin lo- cated within a short distance of each other, and mostly well-to-do farmers; they have all vastly improved their condition by the change. Another experience he often relates to his friends with much gusto : It was hard times with him from the time he first entered busi- ness until 1846. Hehad a family on his hands, and was obliged to practise the strictest in- dustry and economy in order to keep the wolf from the door; but in 1846 a foreign war broke out, which caused a large export demand for breadstuffs. His firm, Howland, Sage & Bills, bought largely of wheat early in the fall of that year; very soon the market commenced advancing, whereat, of course, the partners felt somewhat elated. After the business of the day was over, they
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would get together in their office and com- pare notes. One Saturday evening, after get- ting very favorable market reports, Mr. Sage remarked he wanted a good horse ; Mr. How- land said he wanted a rifle that would kill a crow as far as he could be seen; Mr. Bills said he wanted a good watch. They finally agreed to gratify these wants providing the market kept on advancing another week. The market did advance. Mr. Howland bought his rifle, Mr. Sage his horse, and Mr. Bills his gold watch, which he carries to this day, a memento of his first extravagance, also of his first successful speculation.
He has never mingled to any extent in politics ; was alderman one year ; received the nomination for mayor from the American party when that party was in its glory. He declined to run. Was interviewed once or twice as to taking the nomination for member of Assembly. He always said No! He was satisfied that he had neither taste nor ability to make a successful politician and re- tain his self-respect. He preferred to give his strict attention to the manufacture of flour, and let others more willing and capa- ble attend to making laws. He never could get rid of his early Vermont training, that it was not quite the thing for a man to work for his own political preferment by buying his nomination, then buying his election, elec- tioneering, and voting for himself. He thinks the office should seek the man, and not the man the office.
Mr. Bills has for many years spent a good deal of his time in working for others, and is yet doing the same thing. He has been a governor of the Marshall Infirmary for nearly twenty years, and for about ten years one of its committee of management, and for a number of years its secretary. He was a director in the old Bank of Troy until it was
merged in the United National Bank ; has since been a director and one of the execu- tive committee in the last-named bank ; was one of the incorporators of the Free Library and Reading-Room ; was executor of three of his old partners' estates ; was a member of the vestry of St. John's church for a number of years, and took quite an active part there during the rectorship of Rev. Dr. Potter, now of Grace Church, New York, for whom he formed a very strong attachment ; was also one of the incorporators of the Troy Board of Trade, and its president one year ; also one of the advisory committee of the Day Home in the early days of that most excellent charity.
He was married, in 1840, to a daughter of Peter Hammond, of Wardsboro, Vt. One child, now Mrs. Knight, was born in 1842.
The venerable father Hammond is yet living at Geneseo, Ill., and will be one hun- dred and two years old at his next birthday.
Bird, William A .- Descended in a - direct line from Thomas Bird, of Hartford, in 1642. His great grandfather, John Bird, was sergeant-at-law, settled early in Litchfield, Ct., and was a large landed proprietor. His grandfather, Seth Bird, was a physician of distinguished ability in Litchfield. His father, John Bird, was a graduate of Yale College, studied law with Tappan Reeve, and settled in Troy, N. Y., in 1791. He was a member of the Legislature in New York City in 1796 and 1797, and at Albany in 1798, the first year the Legislature met at that place. He was a member of Congress in 1800 and 1801. William A. was born in Salisbury, Ct., March 23d, 1797, at the resi- dence of his maternal grandfather, Colonel Joshua Porter, his father being then in the Legislature in New York City. He was
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fitted for college at Lenox Academy, and entered Yale College in 1813; but left the next year on account of his mother's sick- ness, and did not return. He was a clerk in a store in New York in 1815-16. In ISI7, he was appointed Assistant Surveyor with the Commission for running the boundary- line, under the sixth and seventh Articles of the Treaty of Peace at Ghent. He served as such in 1817 and 1818, and in 1819 was made principal surveyor, and had charge of the survey, until, having completed the sur- veys and maps from St. Regis, on the St. Lawrence, through the lakes and rivers to the Nebish Rapids in the St. Mary's River (the terminus of the sixth Article), in 1822, he resigned and soon after settled permanent- ly at Black Rock.
In 1824-25 and 1826, he was employed in the construction of the piers and harbor of Black Rock. In 1827, in company with General Porter and Robert McPherson, they built the first flouring-mill at Black Rock. In 1835 and 1836, he superintended the building of the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad, and was director, superintendent, and treasurer of that road until it was leased to the New York Central Railroad Company in 1823-24. In 1852, he was appointed Supervising Inspector of Steamboats, and with the first Board assisted in forming a code of rules, which, with little variation, have continued to this time. He was several years supervisor of the town, and was twice elected and served in the Legislature in 1842 and 1851. In 1854, he was elected Presi- dent of the Erie County Savings Bank, when first organized, and has continued in that situation to this time.
He early became a large owner of real es- tate at Black Rock, and was deeply inter- ested in the growth of the place. In 1836, ; lic honors.
he was associated with L. F. Allen, H. Pratt, and others in the purchase of a large part of the lands in the village plot, and for many years was an active agent in the construction of basins, flumes, and other facilities for the mills and machinery being erected on the water-power, and in the laying out and open- ing of streets and other improvements.
Blossom, Colonel Ira A .- Colonel Blossom was born in Monmouth, Kennebec County, Maine, December 24th, 1789. His early education was from the common schools, though later he attended the aca- demy of his native town. Early in the year ISIo, at the age of twenty, he went to Erie, Pa., and took charge of an academy, continuing in that employment a year or two, after which he studied medicine and practised that profession for a time in Erie ; from thence he removed to Meadville, Pa., and was employed by the Holland Land Company in the sale of their lands in that State, with Harm. Jan Huidokoper, Esq., where he continued several years till 1826, when the company employed him to take the local agency for the sale of their lands in Niagara and Erie counties, N. Y., his office being in Buffalo.
In 1828, he was espoused to Miss E. I. Hubbard. Their only child, a daughter, is still living.
He was interested with large interests of a public nature, such as the settlement of the affairs of the late United States Branch Bank ; also another State bank located in Buffalo.
Though frequently solicited by his fellow- citizens to become a candidate for important and responsible civil trusts, he always pre- ferred the tranquil satisfaction of a life of private benevolence to the enjoyment of pub-
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He was called from this transitory life October 22d, 1856, and his loss was sincerely felt, not only by the immediate circle of his intimate friends, who lost in him a quiet, genial, and most attractive gentleman, but also by the destitute, whose wants his liberal hand was ever ready and open to relieve, by the sufferers whose sorrows have been sooth- ed by prompt and feeling sympathy, and by the numerous young men whom he assisted with his credit and his means, and who were indebted to him for the beginning of their prosperity.
He was a man of marked character, com- bining great business capacity with singular suavity of manner and great firmness and decision, and he illustrated a long life by the most unblemished integrity and the faithful discharge of every public and private duty.
Bowen, Judge Levi Fowler. -- This distinguished jurist was born November rith, 1SoS, at Homer, Cortland County, N. Y., where his parents, Levi and Anna Bowen, had for some time lived, though they were origin- ally from Woodstock, Ct. Levi Fowler Bowen, the subject of this sketch, was sent early to school, and afterward received a preparatory education at the Academy at Homer. He then entered Union College at Schenectady, from which institution he grad- uated with honors during 1830. He then, for a short season, attended law school at Lexington, Ky. After which, he read law with Joseph C. Morse and Judge Woods, at Lockport, N. Y., and in due season was ad- mitted to the practice of his profession. Soon after this eventful period, he became a partner with his former preceptors, continuing as such five years, when J. C. Morse retired from the firm. The copartnership with Judge Woods continued for some time after this. It, how-
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ever, was ultimately dissolved, when he took into partnership his nephew, G. W. Bowen, who had been prepared for the law by and read under him. After being admitted to the bar, Levi Fowler Bowen used all his industry, for which he is now remarkable, to qualify himself thoroughly in his profession. In 1845, he was elected a member of the State Assembly, and in 1867 a member of the Constitutional Con- vention. During his professional career, he has been Judge of the Supreme Court, mem- ber of the Court of Appeals, County Judge, a position he still holds, besides being Presi- dent of the National Exchange Bank of Lockport. In 18440, he was joined in wedlock to Miss Sylvia M. De Long, who departed this life in 1867. As a member of the Ni- agara County bar, by the consent of his pro- fessional brethren, he stands proudly eminent. He is profound as a lawyer, as a judge, and as a speaker before court and jury. Judge Bowen is now seventy years of age, with a mind matured by experience, a constitution that is hale and vigorous. Without injuring any one, he has accomplished much ; and as a judge, lawyer, a citizen, and a man he de- serves the esteem of posterity.
Brand, John, was born in Germany, Jan- uary Ist, 1821, received a common-school edu- cation, and at the age of thirteen was appren- ticed to the soap-and-candle making business, at which he worked till he was twenty-nine years of age, when he came to this country, working on a farm and at many other laborious occupations. In 1853, he owned a brick-yard, with which, together with a garden for raising vegetables, he occupied himself till 1860, when he engaged in the retail grocery and pro- vision business, at which he remained ten years, when he sold out with the intention of retiring from business life. But in 1872 he
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embarked in the leaf-tobacco business, at which he is still engaged. Though of a re- tiring disposition, he has been compelled to accept several local official positions, such as supervisor, city treasurer, police commissioner, etc., all of which he has filled with honor.
Bradley, George B .- This distinguished jurist was born at Greene, Chenango County, N. Y., February 25th, 1825. His education included common-school and academic train- ing. In May, 1848, he was admitted to the bar at Oswego, N. Y., when he immediately moved to Steuben County, where he has practised law ever since, residing at Corning since 1852. Filled with honorable emula- tion and a fair field before him, it was not long before he became known as a rising man in his profession. In 1871, he was nominated in the twenty-seventh district for State Sena- tor, though defeated by a small majority. In 1872, he was appointed by Governor Hoffman a member of the Constitutional Commission. In 1873, he was again nominated for the State Senate, and elected by over 2Soo majority. In 1875, he was again nominated and elected, filling the positions each time with distinc- tion and ability. He has been a stirring prac- tical man, both in his public and his private life. He has done much and all honorably. He is a polished, ready, eloquent, and most effective speaker, and takes a prominent part in all important debates. He signalized his entrance into the Senate by his minority re- port from the Committee on Privileges and Elections on the Abbott-Madden contested election case. He favored the retention of Abbott as sitting inember until all the evi- dence in the case had been offered and re- ported on by the committee. His speech in support of his report was the most able and eloquent presentation of Mr. Abbott's claims
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