Commemorative biographical record of Dutchess County, New York, Part 34

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Dutchess County > Commemorative biographical record of Dutchess County, New York > Part 34

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

179

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

in his line of work. In his various undertak- ings Mr. Brevoort has been uniformly success- ful, and is now following his profession in the city of Poughkeepsie. He was also at one time a clerk under William C. Whitney, with whom he studied law, and was admitted to the bar, when the latter was corporation counsel.

Mr. Brevoort was first married in 1873, to Miss Fisher, of Danbury, Conn., who died in 1882, leaving two children, Thomas and Eva. The daughter resides in Buffalo. In 1894 our subject married, for his second wife, Miss Kittie Riley, a native of Walden, Orange Co., N. Y. For a number of years Mr. Brevoort was a Democrat, and was a delegate to the convention at Rochester which ruled Boss Tweed out of power. Soon after this he went over to the Republican party, and has been quite active in its interests ever since. Socially he is a Royal Arch Mason, and in all public matters is a generous and progressive citizen, . who is ever ready to do his part.

H UFCUT FAMILY. In early times a set- tlement was made along what is now known as the Ten Miles river, in Dover, in eastern Dutchess county, by immigrants from the upper Rhine (now Alsace) and from Hol- land. One of these families who came from Ingersheim, in Alsace, was named Hoffgoot.

John Lodwick Hoffgoot is the first of which there is authentic knowledge. He claimed to be a Lutheran minister. Objection was made by Rev. Christian Knoll, the Lutheran minis- ister of the Beckman's Precinct, to his officiating in Dutchess county, and he was ordered by the Consistory not to preach. He appealed to the Colonial Governor, George Clinton, of New York, who, after investigating the matter, granted him on the 24th day of February. 1748, a license as a minister to preach the Gos- pel. He is said to have had a son Nicholas, and that Nicholas was the father of John (born 'in 1760), who spelled his name Hoofcoot. John could speak both German and English, and his wife, Jane Koens, who was of Holland- Dutch descent, could talk the Dutch language. John and Jane were the parents of George, Nicholas and others. Of these, George, who spelled his name Hoofcut, married Hannah Benson, and their children were: John, Car- oline, George, Jane, Henry, Shadrach, Will- iam, Betsey, Obed and Perry. All of these married, and left issue, except Jane and Shad-

rach. John Hoofcoot, the father of George, Nicholas and others, died about 1848, and was buried in the cemetery at Dover Plains. He was called " Captain John Hoofcoot " on the tombstone. George, the son of John, was a farmer and lawyer at Dover, and died about 1853, aged seventy-eight.

George, his son, married Sarah A. Dennis. The first of her family was John Dennis, who, in 1647, received a deed of land at Cape May, in Jersey, from an Indian chief named Pank- toe, in behalf of the Indians. While the Rev- olutionary war in America was in progress Thomas Dennis, then a resident of New Jer- sey, was captured by the British, carried off a prisoner and died. His two children, Joseph and Sarah Dennis, being left without any one to care for them, a relative from Beekman, Dutchess county, brought them from New Jersey to Beek- man, Dutchesscounty, and they were there cared for. This Joseph Dennis, who married Re- becca Tanner, was the father of Sarah Dennis, whom George Hoofcut married. In 1827 this George Hoofcut changed the spelling of his name to Hufcut. He was a farmer and law- yer, owning mills and quarries at Dover Plains, and carried on considerable business therc. He served his apprenticeship in one of the small cloth factories which were in almost every town throughout Dutchess county, from 1820 to 1835. They made sattinet (a mixture of cotton and wool), and also dressed and col- ored the homespun woolen cloths made by the farmers' wives; carding machines were also connected with these establishments. to make the rolls of wool which the women spun at their home. He never engaged in the busi- ness. All the Hufcuts carried on farming at Dover except John, who resided in Lewis county, and was a farmer there. George and Sarah Hufcut were the parents of George, Horace D. and Rachel. George Hufcut died in 1881, aged seventy-five: Sarah, his widow, died in 1885, aged seventy-nine. He was ad- mitted as an attorney and counselor in 1848.

Horace D. Hufcut, now residing at Pough- keepsie, was born in Dover, Dutchess Co., N. Y., October 12, 1837. He was educated at the schools of Poughkeepsie and at Amenia Seminary, then studied law with George Huf- cut, his father, at Dover Plains, and was ad- mitted as an attorney and counsellor in 1860.

In politics Mr. Hufcut is a Democrat, and as such ran for the office of school commis- sioner in the first Lincoln campaign, in the

180

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

First Assembly District of Dutchess county. He was elected and served as town clerk and also as supervisor of the town of Dover; in 1866 he was appointed and served as clerk of the board of supervisors. In 1863 he was ap- pointed, by Governor Horatio Seymour, recruit- ing agent for the First Assembly District of Dutchess county. He enlisted, and had ac- cepted by the United States mustering officer, 150 men. After the war he continued to practice his profession in partnership with his father, under the name of G, & H. D. Hufcut, until January 1, 1884, when, having been elected surrogate of Dutchess county, he re- moved to Poughkeepsie and served in that in- cumbency until January 1, 1890. In 1891 he was elected district attorney of Dutchess county, and served as such for three years. In 1892 he associated with him Everett H. Travis, and since that time has practiced his profession, under the name of Hufcut & Travis, at No. 54 Market street, Poughkeepsie. In the election of 1896 he supported the regular Democratic ticket. He is a member of the M. E. Church.

Mr. Hufcut's wife, Alice M. (Glidden), was a daughter of Samuel G. and Martha A. Glid- den, and was born at Damariscotta, Maine. They have two children: Florence G. and Horace G.

C OL. ROBERT F. WILKINSON, one of the most prominent lawyers of Pough- keepsie, and a veteran of the Civil war, is a member of one of the inost distinguished fam- ilies of Dutchess county.

John Wilkinson, his great-grandfather, was a well-known citizen of his day, a farmer by occupation and the father of a large family. among whom were three sons (triplets)-Rob- ert, our subject's grandfather; Gilbert; and Livingston, who died when a young man. They were named for Robert Gilbert Living- ston, a prominent resident of Dutchess county. John Wilkinson lost his life by the fall of a bridge over the Housatonic river, across which he was driving on his way to New Haven to place his son Robert in college.

Robert Wilkinson, our subject's grandfa- ther, was born in 1787, and in 1806 was grad- uated from Yale College as the valedictorian of his class. He married Phoebe Oakley. daughter of Jesse Oakley, who was the head of a large family. Another of his daughters married Judge Abraham Bockee, a member of

the Court of Errors, and for several years a representative of this district in the State Sen- ate and in Congress, while still another daugh- ter married Gilbert Wilkinson, one of the trio above named. Robert Wilkinson moved to Glens Falls in 1812, and was surrogate of Warren county for two years, but returned to Dutchess county to practice law at Dover Plains, where he remained until the election of his brother-in-law, Judge Thomas J. Oakley, to Congress in 1828, when he moved to Pough- keepsie and succeeded to a considerable part of Judge Oakley's practice. He was a schol- arly man, eloquent, with many fine natural gifts. Holding strong convictions upon the reform movements of his time, he became widely known as a promoter of religion and of the temperance cause. He was a Whig, and a warm personal friend of Henry Clay, but he never held any official position except that of surrogate of Warren county, as stated, and surrogate of Dutchess county, by appointment . just previous to the adoption of the Constitu- tion of 1846. He died in Poughkeepsie in 1849.

His son, William Wilkinson, our subject's father, was born at Poughkeepsie, May 7, 1810, and after receiving a common-school and aca- demic education, he attended the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., then under the control of the celebrated Prof. Eaton. He then studied law and practiced with his father, and later with the late William I. Street. He was a leading member of the Pres- byterian Church, and a man of considerable literary attainments, being a frequent writer upon various subjects. In 1842 he married Mary E. Trowbridge, daughter of Stephen B. Trowbridge and his wife, Eliza Conklin, both of whom were members of well-known families in the county. He died December 12, 1864, leaving five children : Robert F., our subject ; William; Edward T .; Eliza, who married Au- gustus E. Bachelder, of Boston, Mass .; and . Catherine, who married Peter French, and died in 1885, leaving two children.

Robert F. Wilkinson was born at Pough- keepsie June 10, 1843. He studied at the Dutchess County Academy, and under a priv- ate tutor, and then spent one year in the State and National Law School at Poughkeepsie. In 1859 he entered Williams College with the class of 1863, and the next year joined the class of 1861, He left college in 1861 without graduating, but he and other students who

Rob.J.Mekieson

181

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

entered the army were given the degree of A. B. by vote of the trustees, and he has since received from Williams College the honorary degree of A. M. Returning home he spent some time as a student in his father's office, and in July, 1862, he became captain of Com- pany I, 128th N. Y. V. I., raised in Dutchess and Columbia counties. They went to the front in September, 1862, and Mr. Wilkinson, after serving with his regiment through the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, was assigned to duty as judge advocate of the First Division of the Nineteenth Corps, on the staff of Gen. W. H. Emory, and served as a staff officer until the end of the war. In 1865 he was promoted to the rank of major, and thereafter received from the U. S. Government a brevet commission as lieutenant-colonel for distin- guished gallantry at the battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864, and later a brevet com- mission as colonel for distinguished gallantry at Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864. He re- ceived several severe wounds during the latter engagement, and after some weeks spent in the hospital he returned home, where he re- mained until his recovery. In February, 1865, he rejoined the army, and acted as inspector- general and adjutant-general of the post of Savannah. In July, 1865, he was mustered out, having seen service in the departments of the Gulf, in the Shenandoah Valley under Sheri- dan, and in Georgia.

Returning home to Poughkeepsie at the close of the war, he was admitted to the bar in 1866, and has since that time continued to practice law. He has conducted several of the most important litigations originating in Dutchess county, has a large equity practice, and transacts much railroad and other cor- poration business. Always a Republican, and formerly active in politics, he nevertheless is independent in his political belief and conduct. He has never held office except the recorder- ship of Poughkeepsie for four years.

In 1867, Col. Wilkinson married Julia Gifford, daughter of Elihu Gifford, of Hud- son, N. Y., and they have four children: Edith; Gifford, who graduated at Williams College in 1891, and is now a lawyer in Pough- keepsie; Emily C .; and Robert, a graduate of Yale College in the class of '95, and now a member of the Harvard Law School at Cam- bridge, Massachusetts.

Being fond of hunting, fishing, walking, and all out-door exercises, Mr. Wilkinson

spends his vacations in the Adirondacks and the Catskills. He is a member of several noted social organizations-the University, the Century, the City, and the Lawyers Clubs of New York, also the Adirondack League Club and the Sigma Phi (college) Fraternity, and to the Bar Associations of the State and City of New York. He is a warden of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Poughkeepsie, of which his family have long been members.

C HARLES W. PILGRIM, M. D., a lead- ing physician of Poughkeepsie, and a well- known writer on medical topics, was born in Monroe, Orange Co., N. Y., March 27, 1855, and is a son of Roe C. Pilgrim, a native of the same place.

Morris B., the great-grandfather of our subject, was a native of Holland. The grand- father, also named Morris B., was born in Orange county. He married Ann Coleman, a native of the same county, and settled down to farming, which occupation was interrupted by service in the war of 1812. They had three children: Aminda, Susan and Roe C .; of these, Aminda married Phineas B. Thompson, of Orange county, and Susan became the wife of John Knight, a farmer and miller of the same county. Roe C., the father of our sub- ject, was reared upon the farm, and married Frances, daughter of George Wilkes, of Orange county. The latter was a prominent man of the county, and for many years a justice of the peace. After their marriage our subject's parents located on the old homestead, where they reared a family of six children, as fol- lows: Augusta A. married Henry Ingram, a merchant in New York City; Morris B. is a business man in Jersey City; Mary died in in- fancy; Charles W. is our subject; Susan M. died when eighteen years old; Roetta married Charles Sumner, an official of the Erie Railway Company. The father of this family practiced law in Orange county. He was a member of the Episcopal Church, while his wife was a Presbyterian. He died in October, 1858, and she in September, 1880.

Our subject's early schooling was obtained in Monroe, Orange county, and when ten years of age he went to Jersey City, where he attended the city and private schools. In 1876 he began the study of medicine with Dr. Herman Canfield, who was one of the physi- cians in the Bellevue Hospital at New York

182

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

City, and was graduated from Bellevue Hospi- tal Medical College in the class of 'So. He then became house physician to the hospital, in which position he remained for a year and a half, when he went to Auburn, N. Y., as as- sistant physician in the Asylum for Insane Criminals. There he remained about ten months, and then went to Utica, where he was engaged in the State Hospital as fourth assistant, a year later becoming first assistant physician. Dr. John P. Gray was head phy- sician at that time. Dr. Pilgrim remained in this institution about five years, and in the early part of 1885 entered the University of Vienna, Austria, afterward becoming a volun- teer physician in the Woman's Hospital at Munich. In 1886 he returned to Utica, and on June 12, 1889, was married to Miss Flor- ence Middleton. Her father, Robert Middle- ton, who was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, is president of the Globe Woolen Co., at Utica.

After their marriage Dr. Pilgrim and his wife went abroad, and were absent about five months. On his return the Doctor was of- fered the superintendency of the Willard State Hospital, and began his duties as such in Feb- ruary, 1890. In that office he remained about three years, at the end of that time becoming, on May 1, 1893. the successor of Dr. Cleve- land as superintendent of the Huson River State Hospital at Poughkeepsie, which posi- tion he is now occupying. Dr. and Mrs. Pil- grim have one child, Florence M.

Dr. Pilgrim is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and of the Royal Arcanum. He is also a member of the Physicians' Mutual Benefit Association, the New York State Medi- cal Association, the Bellevue Alumni Society, and the County Medical Society of Dutchess county. From 1882 to 1890 he was associate editor of the "American Journal of Insanity," and, among other valuable contributions to medical science, is the author of the following papers: "Acute Lober Pneumonia with Car- diac Failure" - Independent Practitioner ; " The Advantages and Dangers of Intra-Ute- rine Injections "-idem July, 1882; "A Case of Epileptic Insanity with the Echo Sign Well Marked "- American Journal of Insanity. April, 1884: "A Case of Spontaneous Rupt- ure of the Heart,"-idem, January, 1885; "Pyro-Mania (so called) with Report of a Case "-idem, 1885; " A Visit to Gheel " - idem: " A Study of Suicide"-Popular Science Monthly; "Genius and Suicide" - idem;

"Schools for the Insane"-idem; "Com- municated Insanity"-idem.

Dr. Pilgrim is a man of much intellectual ability and mental culture, a deep student and thoroughly interested in all matters pertaining to his profession, especially in cases involving brain diseases. He is popular, not only with his patients, but with the public at large.

OHN POWELL WILSON, M. D., a prom- inent physician of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess county, was born January 27, 1845, at Hobart, Delaware County, New York.

Dr. Wilson's family is of Scotch origin. John Wilson went from Scotland to the North of Ireland at the time of the Reformation, and bought two towns of land in Armagh which he entailed to pass to the John Wilsons in a direct line of descent. He was a Covenanter.

John Wilson, our subject's grandfather, sold his birthright in Ireland, and came to America in 1795, locating first in New York City and later in Harpersville, Delaware coun- ty. He sailed from Warrenpoint, Ireland, on the ship "American Hero," May 12, 1795. He was a member of the Masonic order, and by occupation was a farmer and mason. He married Ann Tate, and their son, Robert Wil- son, our subject's father, was born in Harpers- ville, Delaware county, in 1818. He was in the iron business, and was a man of promi- nence in his locality. He married Polly Ann Powell, and had six children, our subject being the eldest. Calista married William S. Bon- ton, of Nebraska; Mary married Charles L. Hicks, of Roxbury, Delaware Co., N. Y .; Charles lives in-Nebraska; Frank is a success- ful physician in Brooklyn, N. Y .; and Egbert died at the age of twenty-two years.

His mother's great-grandfather was John MIcKeel, who was a first lieutenant in Col. Sam Drake's regiment of Westchester militia, which did good service in the war of the Rev- olution. John McKeel's ancestors sailed from Amsterdam, Holland, April 16, 1663, in a ship known as the "Brindled Cow," otherwise spoken of as the " Spotted Cow." They set- tled at Fordham, N. Y. Her paternal grand- father, Reuben Powell, lived in Fishkill, and was a soldier of the Revolution.

Dr. Wilson's boyhood was spent at Rox- bury, Delaware county, where he attended the public schools. In 1867 he entered the Al- bany Medical College, and later the College of

183

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, from which he was graduated in 1870. He practiced one year at Stamford, Delaware. county, and then came to Pleasant Valley, where he followed his profession for some years with marked success. In 1879 he moved to Poughkeepsie, and has established a fine prac- tice entirely on his own merits. His abilities have been widely recognized. He has been health officer of the city of Poughkeepsie, and held the same position in Poughkeepsie town for twelve years. He was in the State mili- tary service about twenty-one years; in 1871 was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 2Ist Regiment, and in 1883 of the 19th Sepa- rate Company, with the rank of captain.

On August 18, 1885, Dr. Wilson was mar- ried to Miss Geraldine Siever, a daughter of George Siever, a well-known citizen of Pough- keepsie, and they have one son, George Rob- ert, born November 28, 1886. Socially, the Doctor and his wife occupy a leading position in the most exclusive circles. He belongs to the order of Elks and to the Masonic frater- nity, being past master of Shekomeko Lodge No. 458, F. & A. M. His residence is No. 40 Cannon street, Poughkeepsie, New York.

G EORGE H. WILLIAMS, M. D., M. R. C. S., L. R. C. P. But few members of the medical fraternity of this locality have enjoyed the advantage of as thorough prepara- tion for the exacting duties of their calling as has the subject of this sketch, now a success- ful practitioner at Fishkill. To a course in one of the best of our American medical col- leges, he has added prolonged study in foreign institutions, where he has won degrees repre- senting years of research and observation under the guidance of eminent workers in his profession.

Although he has been among us but a few years, the standing which Dr. Williams has already won makes it most appropriate that his biography should be given at some length in this volume. He was born May 30, 1860, in Johnstown, Fulton Co., N. Y., and is of English descent in both lines of ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Roger Williams, was a native of the "Merrie Isle," and followed the business of carriage manufacturing there in early manhood, and later in Sing Sing, N. Y., and Bridgeport, Conn., where he and

his wife. Elizabeth Spiller, passed their last days.

Rev. W. H. Williams, our subject's father, was born in Plymouth, England, and was ap- proaching manhood when he came to America. He received an important portion of his edu- cation under the able instruction of Rev. Dr. Coit, rector of St. John's Church, Bridgeport, Conn., who prepared him for entrance to Trin- ity College, Hartford, Conn. He completed his theological course at Middletown, Conn., where he was ordained to the ministry in the Episcopal Church. His first charge was at New Canaan, Fairfield Co., Conn., and his second at Johnstown, N. Y .; but some years after lo- cating there the Civil war broke out, and he served until its close as chaplain of the 87th N. Y. V. I. On his return to the North, he became rector of the Episcopal Church at Winsted, Conn., and in 1867 he went to Dixon, Fulton Co., Ill., to take charge of the con- gregation there. In 1871 he accepted a call to the Church at Albany, Ga., and from 1873 to 1876 he served as rector of the Church at Pontiac, near Providence, R. I. He returned to England in 1876; in 1879 he was called as vicar to Christ's Church, Padgate, Warrington, and died there in 1889. He was, we believe, the second American clergyman who held a ben- efice, or " living," in the Established Church. His wife, Maria (Merritt), to whom he was married in 1848, was a daughter of John B. Merritt, a prominent resident of Bridge- port, Conn. She was born in that town, but her family was of English extraction. Five children were born of this union, of , whom three died in infancy. Of the two survivors the elder, Rev. John W. Williams, is rector of St. Paul's Church (Episcopal) at East Orange, New Jersey

Dr. G. H. Williams, the younger son, passed his youth in various places owing to the changes of location which are so common an incident in a clergyman's life. His elementary education was obtained mainly in the school of the Rev. C. M. Selleck, Norwalk, Conn., and in 1876 he entered Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he spent two years. In 1878 he was enrolled as a student in the medical department of Yale College, and the following year he joined his father at Warrington, Eng- land, where he pursued his professional studies at Owen's College (Medical), Manches- ter. Later he graduated at the College of Physicians at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1883,

184

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPIIICAL RECORD.

and in January, 1884, he was graduated as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons at London, these honors conferring the right to use the titles commonly abbreviated to L. R. C. P. Edin., and M. R. C. S. Eng. He served one term as house surgeon of the Royal Infirmary in Manchester, and two years as house surgeon of the North Lonsdale Hos- pital at Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, and in 1887 became assistant surgeon to Dr. J. A. Hall, of Huddersfield, Yorkshire, with whom he remained one year. In 1888 he established an independent practice at Warrington, Lan- cashire; but returning in 1890 to his native land, he opened an office in New York City, in West Eighty-first street. During his first year there he completed his course at Yale, securing the degree of M. D. from that univer- sity. In 1894 he purchased the practice of Dr. F. T. Hopkins, at Fishkill, and has now become well established among the leading physicians of that place.

On January 12, 1893, Dr. Williams mar- ried Miss Sarah Vacher, second daughter of John Van Vorst, a prominent resident of Jer- sey City, N. J. Three children-Agnes Van- Vorst, Helen Merritt and Sarah Vacher-have blessed this union. The Doctor is a member of the Episcopal Church, and also belongs to the Masonic fraternity. While he takes an intelligent interest in all the questions of the day, he is not a partisan in politics.

C HARLES EDWARD LANE, M. D., a prominent and successful physician and surgeon of Poughkeepsie, is descended from one of the old families of Dutchess county, his great-grandfather, Jacob Lane, having resided here before the Revolution. Jacob Lane had two sons, Peter, and John G., our subject's grandfather, who was born May 22, 1776, and passed his life in the town of Beekman (now Unionvale ). He married Betsey Emnigh, and had twelve children: Thomas, Benson, Mar- vin, Jackson, William, Rennselaer, Jeremiah, Edward, Betsey, Hannah, Phobe and Julia, all of whom lived in Dutchess county except Jackson, who moved to Michigan.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Commemorative biographical record of Dutchess County, New York, Part 34

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1354