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 31
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Weller, Jacob J .- The subject of this sketch was born in Buffalo, N. Y., April 27th, 1839. At the age of fourteen years, he came to the determination to do some- thing for himself, and engaged as an ap- prentice to Hersee & Timmerman to learn the cabinet business. He readily mastered it, and showed such marked ability that be- fore the expiration of his apprenticeship he was made foreman over a number of men
in his department. He was afterward pro- moted to a clerkship ; he mastered the detail of the business, and in course of time be- came the leading salesman, also doing all the buying for their large establishment, which annually sold some hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of their manufac- ture. He being prudent and careful, and with a view to his future interests, saved his earnings, and was thus enabled to pur- chase a quarter interest in the business, which he retained for four years, at the end of which time the partnership was dis- solved. In less than three months, such was the influence he possessed, and great the esteem in which he was held by the business men of the city, he was enabled to in- duce some capitalists to join him in the purchase of the business; he negotiated the business successfully, and became the senior member of the firm, under the style and title of Weller, Brown & Mesmer.
The house has sustained an enviable repu- tation, which is not confined alone to Buffalo, and is owing to the business tact and experience of its head, who is destined to become one of the foremost business inen of Buffalo.
Wells, John E .- There are men whose characters are so nobly planned by nature, and so plentifully adorned with those vir- tues which ennoble humanity, that it is a duty and a pleasure to write their biogra- phies, and place them on record as memorials to posterity for its benefit and instruction. The subject of this sketch was born at Johnstown, N. Y., August 7th, 1822. Dur- ing his youth he received a thorough train- ing in the common school and academy at Johnstown, and at an early age he had charge of his father's business. In 1843,
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he opened a flouring mill, and since that date he has been most actively engaged in milling, farming, and building, and to his credit, be it said, he has in the latter branch of industry done more to build the town of his birth, and furnish it with beautiful homes, than any other man who ever lived there. In 1845, he was married to Miss Sabra M. Steel, by whom he had one daughter, now living at Kingsboro. In 1848, he was married the second time to Miss Margaret E. Burton, of Johnstown, and they now live in their beautiful homestead which has been in the family possession for eighty-four years. This house was originally built by Sir William Johnson, in 1762, and is one of the few landmarks remaining of that celebrated English lord. The halls on both floors are fifteen by forty feet, and the stair- case is still provided with the original ban- isters which Brandt, the Indian chief, hacked with his tomahawk as a signal to the incom- ing tribes not to destroy the mansion. (See Stone's History of Brandt).
John E. Wells has liberally dispensed his charities, and seen and enjoyed the fruits of them while living. His good works live around him, and he can enjoy them, for there is no one more deeply respected by zealous, admiring friends than is J. E. Wells. ..
Wheeler, William A., was born June 30th, 1819, in Malone, Franklin County, N. Y. Entered the University of Vermont in the class which graduated in 1842, but was compelled by adverse pecuniary circum- stances to leave at the middle of the course. He pursued the study of law at Malone with the Hon. Asa Hascall, and was admit- ted to the bar in 1845. He was for several years District-Attorney for the county . parents moved to the city of Albany, where,
of Franklin. He represented that county in the Assembly of New York in the years 1850 and 1851 ; in the latter year he en- gaged in the business of banking at Malone, which was continued until 1865. From 1854 to 1865 he was president of the board of trustees of the second mortgage bond- holders of the Northern New York Railroad Company, and as such managed the railroad of that company. He was a member of the Senate of the State of New York for the years 1858 and 1859, and for that tiine president, pro. tem., of the same. He was a member of Congress during the first two years of the war of the rebellion. Was a member and president of the New York Constitutional Convention in 1867-8. He. was again elected to Congress in 1868, where he remained continuously until March 4th, 1877. On the 5th day of March, 1877, he was inaugurated Vice-Presi- dent of the United States. Mr. Wheeler was a member of the House Committee, raised in the 43d Congress, upon Southern affairs, and in that capacity united the State of Louisiana, and was the author of the plan for composing the political diffi- culties in that State, which was finally ac- cepted, and is known as the " Wheeler Ad- justment."
White, John G., was born on board the Ship Fair America, Captain Duplex, on the Atlantic Ocean, on the 22d day of July, IS01, his parents, Matthew White and Elizabeth Given White, emigrating from the County Tyrone, north of Ireland, for America, and landing at the city of New York. The years of his childhood were spent mostly in the western part of Pennsylvania, and until 1813, when his
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in 1814, his father died at the age of forty- five, leaving a family of seven children-four boys and three girls-in humble circum- stances, so that the boys were obliged to put on the harness for the journey of life at a very early age, and with but little advan- tages of education. John G., the subject of this article, was, in 1814, at the age of thirteen years, indentured as an apprentice to the publishers and printers of the Albany Gaselle, with whom he served the full length of his apprenticeship. During the first year of his apprenticeship, Thurlow Weed, Esq., worked in the office, type-set- ting as a journeyman printer, and the sub- sequent year J. G. assisted Tom Tillman to make the first patent roller that was ever made outside New York City, which very soon took the place of the old-fashioned balls. Before he had reached his twenty- first year, he purchased from Solomon South- wick, Esq., the printing office and Albany Register, a semi-weekly paper, Israel W. Clark being editor, which in a few years was given up and the printing office sold to John C. Johnson. In 1823, J. G. W., in connection with his brother William, was for a year or two engaged in the wholesale grocery business, during which time they, in connection with some of the principal mer- chants of the city, got up a West India Company, with the view of opening a direct West India trade with this city. The schooner Enterprise was chartered from Davis & Center, and loaded with flour and provisions, together with twenty horses, leaving Albany in the month of November, and did not return until next spring, with a cargo of sugar and St. Croix rum, proving a very profitable trip for the owner of the vessel, but unfortunate for the stockholders. In 1824, J. G. White was one of the com-
mittee appointed by the city authorities to make suitable arrangements for the cele- bration of the completion of the Erie Canal, there now being only three of that commit- tee living, viz., Thomas W. Alcott, Samuel Morgan, and John G. White. In IS25, J. G. W. and his brother William entered into the brewing and malting business, and, in connection with Samuel Puyn, it was con- tinued several years. On the 25th of March of that year, Mr. J. G. White was married to Hannah J., the third daughter of Elisha Putnam, Esq. Subsequently withdrew from the brewing business, but has continued that of malting up to the present time in connection with his sons Matthew and An- drew G. The latter is personally interest- ed, being one of the firm of John G. White & Son. The senior of this firm has, during his long experience in the business, built and rebuilt nineteen malt-houses, and intro- duced many improvements ; among them is one universally adopted in building malt- houses, where real estate is valuable, and embodies the construction of a number of kilns, one over the other, and the use of superheated steam in drying malt.
On the 25th of March, 1875, the subject of this article, with his partner in life, had the pleasure and satisfaction of meeting a great number of their friends on the fiftieth anni- versary of their wedding, their union hay- ing been blessed with eleven children-seven boys and four girls, three of the former dying in childhood, and one at the age of twenty-four, of malarial fever, while serving in the defence of his country on the Island of Roanoke.
The parents' children and grandchildren now number thirty-three in all, and for many years they have been in the habit of meeting regularly on every Thanksgiving
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day around the parental table with thankful hearts to an overruling Providence for a liberal portion of health, happiness, and prosperity.
Willard, John D., was a native of Lan- caster, N. H., where he was born November 4th, 1799, and was the son of a clergyman. He was a descendant of Major Simon Wil- lard, who emigrated to this country from the County of Kent, England, in 1643
Senator Willard was educated at Dart- mouth College, where he graduated at the early age of nineteen. He commenced the study of law in Chenango County, N. Y., completed it in Troy, and was admitted to the bar in 1826. He immediately opened an office in that city, where he had already made many warm friends. The next year he was nominated by DeWitt Clinton for Surrogate of the County of Rensselaer. In 1834, he was appointed Judge of the County Courts of Rensselaer County, on the nomi- nation of William L. Marcy. This office he held six years. In the mean time his business as a lawyer had been constantly increasing, and was now very extensive. He then determined to devote himself en- tirely to his profession, and after this time steadily refused all nominations for election to public office. In 1850, accompanied by his wife, he carried out a plan he had long cherished of visiting Europe. He spent two months in Great Britain, and two months in Paris; in the autumn he visited Belgium, Western Germany, and Switzer- land, and passed the winter in Italy, divid- ing his time chiefly between Florence, Rome, and Naples. In the following spring and summer he extended his tour through Austria, Hungary, Prussia, and Poland, go- ing as far east as Warsaw. He afterward
visited Holland, and returned to America after an absence of more than a year. In 1855, he again embarked for Europe, partly for the benefit of his health, and partly to accompany a son. He was absent from the country on this visit about fifteen months.
In the fall of 1857, Judge Willard yielded to the earnest request of his Democratic friends, and accepted the nomination of that party for Senator from the Twelfth district, and was elected, although the dis- trict gave at the previous election a ma- jority for Fremont over Buchanan of nearly five thousand.
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Judge Willard, though not a church member, attended the services of the Pres- byterian Church, and for several years was chairman of the board of trustees of the Second Presbyterian congregation in Troy ---- the Rev. Dr. Smalley's. He was a direc- tor in the Commercial Bank of Troy, and a member of various literary and scientific societies. In 1839, he married Miss Laura Barnes. He had a taste for literary pur- suits, and found time amid the engrossing cares of a laborious profession to give much attention to general literature. In public, as in private life, he was straightfor- ward, upright, decided, and reliable ; a sound, successful lawyer, always occupying the front rank in his profession ; an able legislator, and a representative of whom the people of the Twelfth Senatorial district may well feel proud.
He died at Troy, October 9th, 1864, deeply mourned by all who knew him, and his loss was felt by the whole community in which he lived.
Wotkyns, Dr. Alfred, was born at Walpole, N. H., September 7th, 1798.
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His father was a farmer. He was mainly educated by a private tutor, under whose charge he was put at the age of thirteen. At the age of nineteen, he came to Troy, and entered the office of the late Dr. Mor- ris Hale. In 1821, he was admitted to the practice of medicine, and became a part- ner of Dr. Hale; but not long afterward, wishing to perfect himself in his profession, he removed to Philadelphia, where he read medicine one year under the tuition of Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, and attended the lectures of the University of Pennsylvania, of which institution he is a graduate. He returned to Troy in 1822, and applied for the appointment of surgeon in the United States army, and received the appointment, though there were some three hundred ap- plications for the position, and was soon ordered to Natchitoches, La., on the Red River, about two hundred miles above New Orleans, an extreme frontier post. A sub- sequent order changed his destination to Pensacola, Fla., at which post there were then stationed some two thousand men. Here he remained two years as surgeon, when he resigned. Returning to Troy, he reopened a physician's office, and for a long period of nearly fifty years was a practising physician of that city. He has been presi- dent of the County Medical Society. He was many times a delegate to the State So- ciety, of which organization he was a per- manent member. In 1838, when Troy had but three supervisors, Dr. Watkyns repre- sented the Second district. He was one of the originators of the Marshall Infirm- ary, and a governor of the institution from its commencement, and a member of the medical board. When the State Bank went into operation in 1852, Dr. Watkyns was chosen its president, and continued as such
until January, 1868. The prosperity of this banking institution is well known, and it is conceded that its success has been largely due to the striking financial abilities and great business sagacity of its president. In 1857-58, Dr. Watkyns was mayor of Troy. It will be recalled as the panic year for the whole country. City finances were somewhat embarrassed throughout, and the aid of Mayor Watkyns, furnished in ena- bling the city to meet all of its obligations on the one hand, and to escape the extor- tion of money-lenders on the other, was very considerable as well as very timely. In the discharge of his official duties, he exhibited his characteristic business prompt- ness. Dr. Alfred Watkyns died on the 23d of December, 1876, deeply mourned by his family and friends. The life of Dr. Watkyns was an eventful one. There was not a word of reproach against his charac- ter, nothing to sully his fair name, nothing to dim the lustre of his life, still left shining as a bright example to be followed ; and now that his spirit hath calmly glided from this earth, his honored name will not be for- gotten.
Wilcox, Captain Timothy Dwight, was born at Simsbury, Hartford County Ct., on the ist day of February, 1803. The early years of his life, and until he was fif- teen, were mostly spent on a farm. During this period, he obtained all the education he ever had, attending the country district- school a few weeks each winter. In Feb- ruary, 1818, his parents left Connecticut for Ohio, taking with them their whole family. When they reached Albany, both were taken sick, and compelled to stop their journey. The subject of this sketch was obliged to ob- tain work, and on the opening of navigation
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on the Hudson River, in April, he was em- ployed on Fulton's steamboat, the Paragon .. From that time to the present writing (Sep- tember, 1877), a period of fifty-nine years, he has been engaged constantly and actively in the steamboat interests, and to-day is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, steamboat man living. During this remarkably long period of active life, he was for a number of years steamboating on the Hudson River, Long Island Sound, between Boston and points on the Penobscot and Kennebec. In the fall of 1841, he removed his home from New York City to Ithaca, N. Y., where he has since lived, excepting five years, from 1850 to 1855, in the steamboat busi- ness on Cayuga Lake. For many years, he has been the sole owner and proprietor of the steamers on that lake, and at present he owns and runs five boats. Captain Wil- cox has been twice married, and now has three children living.
Wright, Luther, was born at Nelson, N. H., September 13th, 1799. In 1806, his father moved to the town of Rodman, Jeffer- son County, N. Y., and followed the occupa- tion of farmer. The subject of this sketch was brought up on his father's farin until seventeen years of age, during which time he received a common and academic education. He then taught school for two years, after which he clerked in a store six or seven years. In 1825, he moved to Tompkins County, became a merchant, and continued there until 1832, when he removed to Oswego, then a very small village, where he engaged in the milling and forwarding busi- ness until 1842, when he was burned out. In 1843, he commenced banking, a calling he has been more or less engaged in ever since. In 1828, he was married to Miss Lucinda
Smith, daughter of his former employer. In 1840, he was married a second time, to Miss L. Baily, formerly from Adams, Jefferson County, New York, by whom he has had four children, two of whom survive. In the course of his long and useful business career, he has held several directorships in banks, and otherwise interested largely in business operations. He is now President of the Oswego City Savings Bank, and Oswego Gas Light Company. He was also Treasu- rer of the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad from its organization until leased to the Del- aware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad.
A brief sketch of Mr. Wright's life is useful for its practical instruction. He has amassed a large fortune. Yet he has never risked a dollar in the precarious investments of specu- lation, but gradually added to his little com- mencement till its present proportions have been reached; and nothing exists to dim the lustre of his life, now so near its setting, in the sear of which hosts of friends and family gather round him; and when his spirit will calmly and hopefully glide away, his honored name will not be forgotten.
Wright, William, was born in Wayne County, N. Y., in 1818. He belongs to the number of our self-made men, as his success in life is due to his mechanical genius and his continual exertion to improve on his own works, and excel others by his own labor. He received in early life only a com -. mon-school education, until, at the age of eighteen, he commenced to learn his trade as a mechanic with one John Daggett, of New- ark, N. Y. He had shown his natural genius for steam engineering by building a small en- gine, alone, in the cellar of his father's house, doing all work by hand, after having seen only one small engine before. After contin
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uing with Mr. Daggett for two and a half years, being part of this time foreman of the shop, he moved to Niagara Falls, engaging in the repair-shops of the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad, with the intention to become an engineer of that railroad, but was com- pelled to desist on account of ill-health. A few months' stay at home enabled him to en- gage in building steam-engines, with a Mr. Williams, in Palmyra, until he removed to Rochester, in 1842, where he built engines, with a Mr. John Bush, until 1845. It was while here that Mr. Wright took unto himself a life-partner by being married to Miss Eliza- beth G. Taft. In that same year Mr. W. invented a rotary steam-engine, and went to Providence with one F. Church, with whom he formed a partnership, to build these en- gines; but he continued with him only one year, after which he was for a short time with a Providence Tool Company, until he en- gaged with Corliss, Nightingale & Co., man- ufacturers of steam-engines, with whom he was employed until 1850. At that time, Mr. W. engaged to build a large condensing en- gine for Brown Brothers, of Waterbury, Ct., which engine is still in use by the above firm. After this, Mr. W. was employed as general superintendent, with a salary, by Messrs. Woodruff & Beach, of Hartford, Ct., and superintended the designing, building, and erection of several large engines, similar to the one built for Brown Brothers, besides the large pumping-engines for the Brooklyn Water-works, which he patented, with another automatic cut-off engine, extensively built and used in all parts of this country. . This cut-off engine was one of the first of that kind made. During that time, Mr. W. also super- intended the building and erection of the machinery of the Kearsarge, and many other gunboats used in the late war. In 1863, Mr.
Wright resigned his position with the above house, and became one of the firm of the New York Steam-Engine Company, remain- ing as such until 1866, building during that time many engines for the government boats. In 1866, he connected himself with Homer Ramsdell, Esq., of Newburg, N. Y., for the purpose of building his patented steam-en- gines, Mr. W. receiving a salary and royalty on his patents ; as, in 1867, the firm changed hands, Mr. W. made the same arrangements with the new firm; and again, when the Washington Iron-Works became an incor- porated company, remaining such until 1870, when Mr. Wright himself formed, with several partners, the house of William Wright & Co., doing business in the sanie shop formerly occupied by the Washington Iron- Works. Mr. Wright is at present the only surviving member of that firm ; he is engaged in manufacturing his greatly improved auto- matic cut-off engines, which are extensively used in all parts of our country ; and has lately built some more of his patented pump- ing engines, greatly improved by applying the system of compound engines, which attain a duty of work heretofore unknown, and which are a credit to his mechanical genius. Mr. Wright, through his long experience and his application to the improvement of steam- engines, stands now at the head of his pro- fession as an engine-builder. He has made as many inventions and improvements in steam- engines as any one we can now call to mind, and he has through a long course of success- ful life proved worthy of the highest esteem for honor and integrity ; and now, in his six- tieth year, still living at Newburg, has promise of many years in which to enjoy the fruits of his labor. His motto in life has been and is to excel in all he undertook, and his success in life shows how well he has lived
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up to this maxim, which he set before him as a guide.
Wyckoff, Arcalous, was born in Asbury, N. J., on the roth of April, 1816. He was the fifth son of Peter Wyckoff, a farmer, who, when the subject of this sketch was one year old, moved to Tompkins County, N. Y., and had the misfortune to lose all his property. He then commenced to make fanning-mills, by which he earned his living some time, his son Arcalous learning the trade of his father, which he afterward put to good use.
Mr. Wyckoff attended the common schools of his home until sixteen years old, when he gave his time to making what he could in .
different ways till he was about twenty-four. Being ambitious to make money, he left his home, going to Wellsburg, Chemung County, N. Y., where he commenced to manufacture fanning-mills. This he continued about two years, when he went into the manufacturing of potash, and mercantile business, with a brother, continuing it three years. Thinking the field not large enough, he moved to El- mira, and engaged in the manufacturing and sale of fanning-mills. Here he remained one year. At this time, the chain-pump came largely into use, and he engaged in the man- ufacture of the wood work and the sale of the pump in the place of his adoption, Ulys- ses, Tompkins County, N. Y. At the expira- tion of one year, he returned to Elmira, where, in company with D. B. Wheeler, he commenced the manufacture of the chain. The next year, they moved to Tompkins County, took in another partner, and contin- ued to manufacture on a larger scale. Soon after this, Mr. Wyckoff sold out his interest, and moved to Dayton, Ohio, where, in com- pany with a partner, he engaged in the sale of the chain-pump. He afterward manufac-
tured the pump chain at Springfield, Ohio, then at Cincinnati. While here, his partner's be- havior caused financial embarrassment, which, after Mr. W. had adjusted properly, he moved to Columbus, and was in business with Abner. Cooper, formerly of Elmira. While here, he lost his wife, in 1855, who was the daughter of Dr. Hopkins, of Wellsburg, and by whom he had four children, two only surviving. After this sad loss referred to, Mr. Wyckoff returned to Elmira, where he has since re- sided, proving himself one of her most active and useful citizens, useful not only to the city of his residence, but to the country at large ; for he is the inventor of both the Wyckoff pavement and the Wyckoff boring-machine, both widely known. He is also largely inter- ested in real estate and building operations, having erected in one continuous block eleven stores, the whole being fire-proof excepting four. In 1860, he, in connection with three gentlemen from Rochester, built the water- works at Elmira, all the pipe used being con- structed by the machinery of his invention. To these enterprising gentlemen, who were losers by the operation, is the city of Elmira indebted for its present water supply.
Thus we give a short sketch of a useful and somewhat eventful life of one of Elmira's mnost enterprising citizens, who still lives to enjoy the benefit of his arduous labors, much respected by the community of which he is a member.
Wyckoff, Nicholas, was born in the town of Bushwick, now Brooklyn, Kings County, N. Y., on the 30th of October, 1799. His parents were Peter and Gertrude Wyckoff, and his father's ancestry emigrated to this country from Holland in 1635. During his youth, the subject of this sketch attended the common-schools, then very poor .. At the age
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of twelve, he finished his education by attend- ing for two years a private school in Con- necticut ; after which, he returned home and helped his father on the farm, attending school during the winter months. From this time until 1842, he worked the farm with his father, producing market supplies, at which they proved very successful. In 1842, his father died and left his son Nicholas the sole pos- sessor of the homestead farm. This he con- tinued to work until 1860, when he was elected to fill the vacancy in the presidency of the Williamsburg City Bank (now First National), caused by the death of its former president, Noah Waterbury, Esq. This office he still holds, and, since the commencement
of his banking career, his son has had charge of the farm, though Mr. Wyckoff continues to reside at the old homestead, situated abo ::: two miles from the bank. In 1826, he was married to Sarah A., daughter of Gen. Jere- miah Johnson, by whom he has had four children, only one of whom (Peter) survives. Throughout his successful career, Mr. Wyckoff has been a hard worker, and believes that en- ergy and industry will accomplish almost any thing. It is this that has gained for hamn esteem, position, and wealth, and if the youth of the rising generation would go and do likewise, they would in time achieve what he has done.
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