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 18
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In the spring of 1856, Mr. Crocker came to Buffalo, and purchased a portion of the track known as the Tifft farm, lying on the lake shore south-east of the city. He at once took the superintendency of the cattle yards.
In the early part of the year 1865, the ex- tensive stock-yards of the New York Central Railroad were opened at East Buffalo, and to them the business was transferred, Mr. Crock- er continuing in charge till his death, which occurred January 2d, 1870. We believe it can truly be said that during this long period he never made an enemy.
During all the time of his devotion to the duties of a business so complicated and ab- sorbing, Mr. Crocker was distinguished as a public-spirited and prominent citizen, and an active and earnest Christian. The Methodist Episcopal church of St. Mark's was built up and sustained in a large degree by his con- tributions.
Cushman, Paul .- The subject of this sketch was born at Albany, N. Y., December 25th, 1822. His father, P. Cushman, was originally from New Hampshire, and his mother, Margaret McDonald, was a native of New York State. From 1833 until 1840, Paul Cushman attended the Albany Academy.
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After finishing his education, he entered the employ of Isaac Newton, as clerk, a position he filled two years, when he moved to Os- wego for one year, where he acted as agent for a house at Albany. He then returned to Albany, and in 1849 commenced the produce and commission business for himself. In 1853, he formed a copartnership with his brother, Robert S. Cushman (deceased) ; they con- tinuing together until 1869, when, on account of declining health, his brother retired. Mr. Cushman still continues the business, as im- porter of wines, brandies, and mineral waters, under the firm style of Cushman & Co.
In 1845, he was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Jane Taylor, daughter of Captain I. I. Taylor, of Oswego, N. Y., who died in 1854. The issue of this marriage was two children. He was married a second time, 21st January, 1856, to Miss Julia A. C. Blackwell, of Rich- mond, Va., by whom he has had three children.
Mr. Cushman's life has been one of great activity, and besides attending to his usual business duties he has held the position of school commissioner ; director in the Cap- itol City Insurance Company ; trustee in the National Savings Bank ; trustee of the Albany Analine and Chemical Works, besides having interests in railroads and such other projects that have aided to develop the business indus- tries of Albany. He is now in the full vigor of manhood, and has already accomplished what many men lay out as the work of a pro- tracted life -- " wealth, honor, and the good- will of all men."
Cuyler, George W., born at Palmyra, February 17th, 18og. Died at Palmyra, July 20th, 1876. He was the eldest son of Major William Howe Cuyler, who was killed by the enemy at Black Rock, during the war of 1812.
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Mr. Cuyler . was educated at Middlebury, N. Y .; was two years in the National Academy at West Point, but, leaving for the study of law, did not graduate. He studied law with his guardian, the late Heman Bogert, of Geneva, and practised his pro- fession at Palmyra until 1840, engaged dur- ing portions of the same time in mercantile business, and also owned and edited the Wayne Sentinel, in conjunction with the late Judge Theron R. Strong. About 1840, he gave up his profession and entered the bank- ing business, in which, during the balance of his life, he continued actively engaged. He was president of " Cuyler's Bank " from 1839 till 1864, when it became the " First Na- tional Bank of Palmyra," of which institution he continued president until his death.
Daring the whole of his life he was an active Democrat, with an influence largely recognized in the councils of his party and the politics of the State. In financial circles he was regarded as a conservative financier of distinguished ability. He was a vestryman and warden of the Episcopal Church for more than forty years. With the general material interests of that church his name is intimately connected, and it was the object of his con- stant care and generous and repeated liberal- ity. He was of quiet and unobtrusive tastes -of remarkable industry and scrupulous in- tegrity-and he was led to decline frequent offers of large place and emolument, because of his devotion to his family and his care for the interests of the village in which he was born, lived, and died.
Dakin, George, was born January roth, 1815, at Concord, Mass. His father was Amos Dakin, and his mother a Miss Barritt, of the same place, and he can date his ances- tors back to the early arrivals at Plymouth Rock, who reached these shores soon after
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the May Flower. During his early life, he attended the common schools of his native town, and in 1834 moved to Geneva, N. Y., where his brother Eldridge was in the for- warding business, and connected himself with him. In the spring of 1837, he was engaged as captain to ply on the Seneca Lake, and for the next fifteen years commanded in turn all the new steamers built by the company he was with, including the famous steamer Ben Loder, named after the then president of the Erie Railroad Company, and in whose inter- ests she was running. During this time. Mr. Dakin was married to Miss Charlotte Brown. of Albany, N. Y., in August, 1841, the issue of which has been seven children. After the railroads killed the lake business, Mr. Dakin engaged in the coal trade at Geneva, receiv- ing the first load of coal that came into that town from Scranton, after the . Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad was open- ed. In this business he continued success- fully for three or four years, when he sokl out. and commenced farming. This vocation did not agree with him, and in 1859 he accepted the position of travelling agent for the Dela- ware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Company's coal interests, with headquarters at Syracuse. In the winter of ISGr, he was sent to Buffalo to locate yards for receiving and shipping their coal, and was appointed their local agent. At that time, 5000 tons of an- thracite coal overstocked a market that now consumes over 500,000 tons per year.
The association is now composed of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Company, J. Langdon & Co., the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and W. L. Scott & Co. of Erie. Mr. Dakin has remain- ed connected with the association ever since its formation, and now has charge of the retail and shipping business at Buffalo, The posi-
tion is one full of onerous responsibility, and the manner in which the duties are performed is best attested by the results that have fol- lowed.
Dart, Joseph, was born at Middle Had- dam, Ct., April 30th, 1799, and was the third son of Joseph and Sarah Dart, whose family consisted of fourteen children.
During his youth, he received a common- school education, and was also for a time a pupil of the Rev. David Selden, a graduate of Vale.
When seventeen years old, the subject of this sketch moved to Woodbury, Ct., where he served an apprenticeship of three years in a hat-factory. In December, 1819, he moved to Utica, N. Y., and took charge of a similar establishment. In 1821, he moved to Buffalo, then a village of ISoo in- habitants, and, in company with Joseph Stocking, commenced the hat and fur busi- ness, continuing the same till the death of lr, partner in 1835. In 1836, Mr. Dart dis- posed of his interest to the son of his former partner, Thomas R. Stocking.
On the first of December, 1830, he was married to Miss Dotha Denison, daughter of E. H. Denison, Esq. They have had seven children, two sons and five daughters.
From 1836 to 1842, Mr. Dart was occu- pied in looking after his interests in real es- tate, in which his partner and himself had been heavily interested.
In the fall of 1842, he commenced build- ing a grain elevator for the transfer and storage of grain, which was completed and in operation the following June. In the interest- ing history of this elevator, read before the Buffalo Historical Society, it appears that Mr. Dart was the pioneer in this business, be- ing the first person to put the elevator into
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practical use for commercial purposes. They are now in use in most of the leading grain depots of the globe. At the single port of Buffalo, there are twenty-seven at this time (1877), not including two floating elevators, with an aggregate storing capacity of six millions of bushels. It is thus seen that to Mr. Dart the world is indebted for the in- troduction of this great and indispensable convenience of modern commerce, by which is effected a saving of more than half of the tonnage and expense in the transportation of grain. By the old method, two weeks were required to accomplish what can now be done in seven hours, and to the elevator, in a great measure, may be attributed the rapid growth and prosperity of the Queen City of the Lakes.
Mr. Dart remained identified with the elevator till 1852, when he rented it to other parties, and in 1855 sold his interest.
In 1852, in company with his brother, F. D. Dart, and his brother-in-law, William II. Ovington, he embarked in the lumber bus- iness, and built a planing-mill on the Ohio Basin. The firm name of Dart & Bros., on the withdrawal of Mr. Ovington in 1862, became Dart & Bro., which is the present style.
Although well advanced in years, Mr. Dart is still actively engaged in business, and maintains a lively interest in all that affects the public welfare.
Judging from the longevity of his ances- tors, he will continue to be hale and hearty for some time to come.
Of Mr. Dart's parents the following re- cord is preserved : "On the fifth of Octo- ber, 1792, Joseph Dart, aged twenty-two, and Sarah Hurd, aged nineteen, both of Middle Haddam, Ct., were united in marriage. After a pleasant pilgrimage to-
gether, passed in the same parish on the banks of the Connecticut, another festal group gathered around them at the old home, and celebrated the sixty-second anni- versary of their espousals. In this gather- ing were thirteen of their fourteen children, with an average age of forty-six years. At the same meeting were present a brother and sister of Mrs. Dart, aged ninety-two and ninety-nine."
De Laney, C. D., was born in Westmore- land County, Pa., August 9th, 1811.
Losing his father during early childhood, he was obliged to begin the hard struggle of Je at twelve, and was apprenticed at this age to a man in Pittsburg, and while there un- derwent hardships that the apprentice lad of to-day would think almost impossible to en- dure. At sixteen, Mr. De Laney entered the machine-shop of Warden & Arthur, in Pitts- burg.
From there he moved to Cincinnati, and worked with John B. Greene, during which time a desire for knowledge made hin eager to form a night-school; and he with other companions tried hard to learn higher mathe- matics, in order that he might apply it to his business as a machinist. Unfortunately, their teacher knew but little more than the scholars, and they soon came to a stand-still.
From Cincinnati he returned to Pittsburg as a machinist for a Mr. Gibson, and it was while in his employ ( 1831) that Mr. De Laney came to Black Rock, to superintend the con- struction of the engines for the steamboats Pennsylvania, New York, and Gen. Porter, the one put in the Pennsylvania being the first marine engine ever built on the lakes.
In 1833, Mr. De Laney went to Niagara, where he superintended the iron work for a dry-dock at that point. Thence, in 1835, he
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went to New York, and engaged in the Nov- elty Works, then owned by the late Dr. Nott and F. B. Stillman, where he worked most of the time until 1837, when he came back to Buffalo and bought out a man named Butt- rick.
While occupying that shop, he built a low- pressure engine, ten-foot stroke, for the steani- boat New England.
In 1841, he was burned out, and in 1842 built the Fulton Foundry, now Vulcan Works, on Water street. In that shop he built two passenger and a number of freight cars for the B. & A. R.R. The wheels, axles, and in fact every part complete were manufactured. by him. This was the first attempt at car- building in Buffalo. The same year Mr. De Laney built the locomotive engine (excepting the boiler) "Tecumseh," which is yet in use. This is believed to be the first locomotive built in Buffalo. About this time reverses came, and Mr. De Laney was submerged with others in the iron line in a general crash.
He, however, started again in a small shop, employing only a boy, the two doing all the work offered until 1853. when he purchased the site on which the De Laney Forge and Iron-Works now stand. Here is where the first steam forge in Buffalo was erected. During the war, there were forged at this es- tablishment six monitor turrets complete, and parts of seven others, which were sent to New York for iron-clads.
The iron rollers in the Union Iron-Works were also forged at these works, and are the largest in diameter of any forged work in the United States.
In one year this establishment turned out $240,000 worth of work. The large hammer used in the forging department was built by Mr. De Laney, and is considered the most effective of any tool of the kind in the United
States, and a blow of 100 tons can be ob- tained with ease.
Mr. De Laney was the first to use anthra- cite and bituminous coal in Buffalo.
Always working to educate boys and men mechanically inclined and showing ability, some of the best smiths and hammersmen in the country served more or less of their apprenticeship with him. Now, having ac- quired a competency, he is gradually with- drawing from active work, but has the plea- sure of knowing that the present firm is an assured success. and will ultimately be man- aged and owned by his son and others whom he has educated to the work himself while in his prime. He has done much, and all honor- ably ; and now, dwelling in the affluence and honor gained by his industry and talents, he can look upon the past unsullied carrier of his somewhat checkered life with conscious pride and satisfaction.
Douglas, Asa V., was born at Stephen- town. New York, June 17th, 1794, and died at Lockport, Niagara County, New York, June 4th, 1875, and was a cousin of the late Stephen A. Douglas, the eminent Democratic statesman, and a lineal descendant of William Douglas, who landed at Plymouth, in 1630. The following is copied from the Lockport Daily Journal, issued on June 4th, 1875, the date of his death :
"Asa W. Douglas came to this county in IS14-sixty-one years since. He resided at Olcott two years, being extensively engaged in the lumber business, and also having a store in the same place. He came to this city, or what was then little else than a wilderness, in 1816, having lost every thing by shipwreck and commercial ventures on Lake Ontario. He was at first a clerk with Darins Comstock ; | but gradually, by untiring industry, worked
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into positions of power and trust. He had the contract for and built the present canal locks in this city, after which the city of Lock- port was named. He was the first canal col- lector at this point. He was subsequently largely engaged in the lumber and stave busi- ness here. About the year 1846, he went into the milling business with the late Gen. John Jackson, under the firm name of Douglas & Jackson. The mill was burned about 1855, but rebuilt the next year, and the business continued until sold to Saxton & Thompson, in August, 1867. Since that time, Mr. Dou- glas has not been in any business. He bought his present elegant residence in the southern part of the city in the fall of 1872. As was his right, he has of late enjoyed exemption from labor and care. Travel with his only surviving son, Mr. W. Bruce Douglas, through the West Indies; the hospitable and cour- teous entertainment of friends ; the quiet pleasures of ease and comfort. have of late years been his.
" The death of a man like Asa W. Douglas . naturally prompts sincere mourning. One of the pioneers of this county and city, his in- terests have been its interests. Always a public- spirited citizen, the present prosperity of Lock- port is largely due to his wise counsels, his directing hand and indomitable energy. What he found to do, he did with his might. He amassed wealth by sturdy blows and well-ma- tured efforts. He won success because he forced it. And nobody was ever jealous of that success. But the other day we heard two of our older citizens joining in the remark that they never knew Asa W. Douglas to be spoken ill of. A gentleman of the olden school; naturally humane and kind; delibe- rate and wise in judgment, he formed his opinions with judicious care and defended them with tenacious zeal. No man's opinion
was more widely sought in this section at the full tide of his life than Mr. Douglas's. Never an office-seeker (although often honored with the place of supervisor, and perhaps others of local significance), his judgment was sought and heavily leaned upon by those anxious for official position. His was the silent power that conquered because born of justice, tact, and skilled observation. Another feature of Mr. Douglas's long and useful life was his dis- interested benevolence. When convinced that a cause or an applicant was worthy, he bestowed with generous and warm apprecia- tion. He could not do too much where his judgment and his feelings were enlisted. Impostors, on the contrary, he could not and would not endure. He brooked no shams. The death of such a one, we repeat, calls for sorrow in this vicinity, and for a more detailed newspaper notice than we have facts at our disposal at this time to write. His noble and busy life, however, is treasured up among the sunny memories of our older inhabitants, and has passed as a sort of heirloom to the keep- ing of a later generation."
Du Bois, Cornelius, son of Koert Du Bois, descended from a Huguenot set- tler in Ulster County, N. Y., was born in the town of Pleasant Valley, Dutchess Coun- ty, N. Y., the 9th of July, 1802. His mother was a member of the society of Friends. His father was a farmer, and in that pursuit Cornelius was educated, and has been engaged in it all his life. In his earlier years, the common school furnished him with the best education it couldl then afford.
At the age of twenty-four, Mr. Du Bois married Julia, daughter of William A. Moore, of Fort Anne, Washington County, N. Y .. who is still his life companion. They have had eight children, seven of whom are living.
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From boyhood he has been distinguished for integrity, sobriety, industry, thrift, and com- mon sense. At the age of twenty-six, he was chosen foreman of the Grand-Jury of Dutch- ess County, by Judge James Emott, Senior, and served in the same capacity many times afterward. So trustworthy has he always been that, in the course of his busy life, he has settled twenty-four estates as executor, and four as administrator, mostly without the assistance of associates or attorneys.
Mr. Du Bois pursued farming practically and successfully until 1840, when, without disposing of his land, he engaged in the freighting and forwarding business in the then thriving village of Poughkeepsie, which contained 10,000 inhabitants. The firm name was Du Bois & Co. In this business he was engaged successfully for six years, when he exchanged his property in the vil- lage for a farmi of 163 acres, lying on the borders of the corporate limits of Poughkeep- sie. There, with his family, he remained twenty years, during which time he served four years as supervisor of the village and township of Poughkeepsie. These have since been divided. The village was incor- porated a city in 1854, and now contains over 20,000 inhabitants. For four years, Mr. Du Bois was President of the Dutchess County Agricultural Society. In 1861, he was chosen by the late Matthew Vassar to be one of the corporators of Vassar College, and has been an active member of its Board of Trustees from the beginning. For six years, he was superintendent of the building, and has ever been one of the most judicious members of the Executive Committee of Vassar College Board of Trustees, enjoying the unbounded confidence of the founder while he lived.
For four years, Mr. Du Bois was one of
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the managers of the Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane, near Poughkeepsie, and was one year a member of the Assembly of the State of New York. He was one of the founders of the First National Bank of Poughkeepsie, and was president of the insti- tution eleven years from its organization.
Mr. Du Bois is now seventy-five years of age, and full of mental and bodily vigor ; for he has ever been active and temperate ; and during his long business life of fifty five years he never had a suit at law on his own ac- count, but he has been compelled to defend three estates against loss by lawsuits. He says, "All the knowledge I want about law is to know enough to keep out of law- suits ;" and the highest title to which he aspires is that of a skilful Dutchess County Farmer.
Dunbar, Robert, was born in Carubee, Fifeshire, Scotland, in the year 1813, re- ceived a common school education, learned the trade of millwright with his father, and moved to Canada with his parents in 1831. The subject of this sketch worked at his trade in Toronto for two years ; from there he moved to Guelph, Ontario, and worked at his trade between two and three years ; after- ward moved to the village of Black Rock, now Buffalo. After moving to several places, helping to complete mills, he returned to Black Rock in 18:9, and took charge of building the Niagara Flour Mills. From that time he continued to live there, building mills there and elsewhere. In 18447, he form- ed a copartnership with C. W. Evans, of Buffalo, and built and ran a grain elevator, now the Evans elevator, in the Ship-Canal, until 1853. During the time he was con- nected with Mr. Evans, he made plans and sent the machinery from Buffalo for the
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first grain elevator ever built in New York City. In 1861, the Messrs. Follett and Jewett and Root retired from the company, and S. W. Howell, of Black Rock, became a partner with him, changing the name to the Eagle Iron-Works, Dunbar & Howell propri- etors, which partnership continued until 1874, when Howell retired, leaving him alone in the business. In 1875, he associated with him in the business his son, George H. Dun- bar, under the style of Robert Dunbar &' Son, which is the firm at the present time.
Dutton, Edward Holmes, was born December 12th, 1805, at East Haddam, Middlesex County, Ct., and was the fourth child of Amasa Dutton and Mary Mather, a descendant of Cotton Mather. The subject of this sketch moved to Ogden, Monroe County, New York, September, 1810, that section being at that time little better than a wilderness, effecting a crossing of the Gene- see River at Avon, the only bridge over the river in those days. He attended the district- school at Ogden, also the Henrietta and Ro- chester high-schools, and afterward studied under Ebenezer Everett, a graduate of Vale, from whom he received most of his educa- tion. After three years' hard study, with that end in view, he took a district-school in the town of Gates, now part of Rochester. This was in November, 1824. For the next seven years, he taught in various schools in that sec- tion, during which time he was school inspec- tor for the town of Ogden three years.
In April, 1831, he moved to Lockport, where he entered the stave and lumber busi- ness, and added to his enterprise a country store. In 1835, he was joined in wedlock to · Miss Lovinda Legge. In 1838, he com- menced the stave business at Buffalo, continu- ing his residence at Lockport until 1846, when
he moved to Buffalo, where he has since re- sided. In 1862, he opened an office in Nes York City, and in this branch took John P' Townsend in as partner. For many years he has had an extensive stave business through- out the West and all the wine-making coun- tries of Europe, proving himself an able and conscientious business man. He is well known to the citizens of Buffalo, and in con- nection with his acknowledged business qual- ifications he is highly esteemed for his social and moral attributes.
Ethridge, Alfred, was born at Little Falls, Herkimer County, N. Y., July 29th, 1817.
When the subject of this sketch was be- tween five and six years old, he left his native town in company with his parents, who moved to Herkimer village; and when between nine and ten years old, Mr. Ethridge left home and commenced to carve his own way in the world. His first four years were spent on a farm, after which he returned to his parents, who then lived at Frankfort, Herkimer County. where he remained thirteen or fourteen years, except one year spent in Utica, N. Y.
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