USA > New York > Encyclopedia of biography of New York, a life record of men and women whose sterling character and energy and industry have made them preeminent in their own and many other states, Vol. 2 > Part 3
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Humphreys assumed command of the division and General Carr returned to his brigade. June 15 he moved with the Army of the Potomac to Gettysburg, where on July 2 and 3 he participated in that memorable battle. During that fight he was mounted upon a valuable horse, presented him by friends in Troy, until the noble animal fell, pierced by five bul- lets, in the fall injuring the general's leg. Exhausted and lame as he was, General Carr refused to retire, but mounted an- other horse, and continued directing the movements of his brigade. He lost heavily in this battle-nearly two-thirds of his force-while not one of his staff, orderlies or headquarters horses escaped injury. After the battle the division gen- eral and officers of the brigade assembled at headquarters and complimented him upon his gallantry. Major-General U. A. Humphreys, in his official report of the battle, spoke of him and said: "I wish particularly to commend to notice the cool courage, determination and skillful handling of their troops of the two bri- gade commanders, Brigadier-General Jo- seph B. Carr and Colonel William R. Brewster, and to ask attention to the officers mentioned by them, as distin- guished by their conduct." After Gettys- burg he was at the battle of Wapping, and in temporary camp at Warrenton, Virginia. October 5 he was assigned to the head of the Third Division, Third Corps, advanced to Warrenton Junction, and participated in the battles at Brandy Station and Kelly's Ford. In November he was one of the principal actors in the battles of Locust Grove, Robinson's Tav- ern, and Mine Run. In April, 1864, on the reorganization of the army, he was assigned to the command of the Fourth Division, Second Corps (Hancock's), re- taining command until ordered by Gen- eral Grant to report to General Butler, commanding the Army of the James, who
placed him in command of the exterior line of defense on the Peninsula, head- quarters at Yorktown. Early in July, 1864, he was ordered by General Butler to evacuate Yorktown and report to him at the front for assignment. Obeying his order, he was sent to Major-General E. O. C. Ord, who placed him in command of the First and Third Division of the Eighteenth Corps. August 4, he was given command of the First Division of the same corps and occupied the right of the line in front of Petersburg. He re- tained this command until October I, when he was placed in command of the defense of the James river, headquarters at Wilson's Landing. Here he remained seven months, during which he built two important forts and strengthened the de- fenses. May 20, 1865, he was transferred to City Point, where he remained until the close of the war. June 1, 1865, he was brevetted major-general, "for gal- lant and meritorious services during the war," to rank as such from March 13, 1865. On being relieved of command, he returned to Troy, where he was mustered out of the service.
January 25, 1867, he was appointed by the Governor of New York, major-gen- eral of the Third Division New York State Militia, where he rendered valuable service during railroad riots of 1877, at Albany, dispersing the mob and restor- ing peace and order without the sacrifice of life or property. He remained in this command until his death at Troy in 1895. He was given an imposing military funeral on February 27 from St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Troy. The body lay in state and was viewed by thousands, officers of the army, gov- ernors, statesmen, representatives of every department of the service, and a vast concourse of his fellow citizens at- tended. He had won distinction by real work and gallant performance amid the
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danger of bloody contests, and all "de- lighted to do his memory honor."
General Carr entered the manufactur- ing field as the senior partner of J. B. Carr & Company, operating the exten- sive chain manufacturing works estab- lished in 1866, located between Troy and Lansingburg, and continued at the head of the concern until his death. He be- came a factor in the development of other business enterprises of Troy. He was a director of the Mutual National Bank; second vice-president and director of the Troy City Railway Company. He was reared in the Catholic church, and never departed from that faith. He was a Re- publican, and received the unanimous nomination of his party in convention at Saratoga, September 3, 1879, for Secre- tary of State. He was elected by a large majority ; reëlected in 1881, and again in 1883. In 1885 he was the Republican candidate for Lieutenant-Governor of the State, but was defeated at the polls. He was highly esteemed at home and abroad, many organizations bestowing honorary membership upon him. He was a com- panion of the Loyal Legion, and a com- rade of Williard Post, Grand Army of the Republic ; member of the Second Reg- iment Association; Third Army Corps Association ; the Old Guard of New York; the Ninth Regiment Troy Citi- zens' Corps; Burgess Corps of Albany ; vice-president Renssalaer County Sol- diers and Sailors Monument Association ; trustee of New York State Gettysburg Monument Association; the Troy and Ionic Clubs of Troy. He married Mary Gould, born in Canada in 1837.
HUN, Thomas, M. D.,
Practitioner, Instructor.
Thomas Hun, M. D., son of Abraham and Maria (Gansevoort) Hun, was born in Albany, New York, September 14,
1808, and died at his residence, No. 31 Elk street, Albany, June 23, 1896. His father graduated from Columbia College, immediately afterward took up the study of law, and forming a partnership with Rensselaer Westerlo, half brother of the Patroon of the Van Rensselaer Manor, acted as agent for Stephen Van Rens- selaer until his death: He resided in his house on the east side of Market street (later Broadway), which was situated about fifty feet south of Maiden Lane, which site was later built upon when the Stanwix Hall Hotel was erected, and he also owned a well cultivated farm of about three hundred and seventy-five acres extending along and northward back from the Normanskill creek (at the end of Delaware avenue in 1900), which place he called "Buena Vista," after the battle in which General Taylor figured. On the brow of the hill, he built a summer residence, which his son Thomas recon- structed in 1852, at about the same time the farm was reduced to about twenty- five acres. He married, in Albany, Sep- tember 22, 1796, Rev. John Bassett offi- ciating, Maria, daughter of Judge Leonard and Maria (Van Rensselaer) Gansevoort.
Losing both parents at an early age, Thomas Hun and his sister Elizabeth were brought up by their maternal grand- parents, Judge and Mrs. Leonard Ganse- voort, Jr. He received his earliest educa- tion as a lad at a private school conducted by an Englishman and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Upfold, and in 1818 entered the Albany Boys' Academy, where he re- mained until graduation, following a complete course which fitted him for col- lege. He was intelligent and studious, possessing a decided character, which accounted for his always standing high in his various classes. Because of his more than customary preparation and industry, when only sixteen years of age, he was
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able to enter the junior class of Union College, in the fall of 1824, following his graduation from the academy, and while there his "chum" was the popular Pro- fessor Isaac W. Jackson. He graduated with honors in 1826, taking the degree of A. B. After leaving college, he began the study of medicine, for which he had a decided leaning, and entered the office of Dr. Platt Williams, a practitioner of eminence in Albany. After serving thus as a student, he entered the medical department of the University of Pennsyl- vania, in 1827, and completing the full course, graduated in 1830 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He returned to Albany and commenced to practice with his former instructor, Dr. Williams.
When the cholera epidemic broke out in the summer of 1832, a cholera hospital was instituted in Albany, and he was appointed one of the physicians. The death rate was alarmingly high, with more funerals each day than could be arranged for, and everyone afraid to mix with his neighbors. Burning barrels of tar filled the atmosphere with a heavy smoke, calculated to purify the air. Dr. Hun's position was unenviable and heroic. He discharged his duties with fortitude and skill, until the closing of the hospital in the cold weather, when the scourge was stamped out. In the spring of 1833 he went to Europe to prosecute his studies further, and excepting two brief visits to his home, remained there, resid- ing chiefly in Paris, until 1839. The six years of foreign study afforded him a liberal range of experience, attending the large hospitals, and he gradually limited his wider range of the sciences to a knowledge of practice.
During his last year abroad, the Albany Medical College was organized and incor- porated, and before his return home in 1839, he was invited to accept the profes- sorship of the Institutes of Medicine. He
accepted, and his inaugural address excited considerable interest and admiration from its large grasp of principles as well as by reason of its lucid style and forcible illus- trations. The students came to regard his lectures as the most interesting and instructive, which ability on his part greatly increased the reputation of the young college. He continued these lec- tures until 1858, when he resigned to de- vote all his time to his practice, which had grown to be the best in Albany, and demanded this attention.
When the Albany Hospital was incor- porated in 1848, Dr. Hun became one of the board of consulting physicians, and had subsequently held the same position with St. Peter's Hospital, Albany. He was made president of the New York State Medical Society in 1862, and his inaugural address attracted much favor- able comment, despite his theories in opposition to the traditional ideas of medical theory and practice. He main- tained that neither medicine nor the phy- sician, although both were of importance in their place, ever cured disease ; that the curative power rested in nature alone, and the function of the physician not to "cure ;" but to preside over, watch and aid the efforts of nature to cure, by recog- nizing the true character of the disease, its course, its processes and effects, also the accidents and dangers to which it is liable, and thus to be able to secure, as far as possible, such favorable circum- stances, aids and conditions as may be most contributory to the restorative powers of nature. He was unanimously called to be dean of faculty of the Albany Medical College. He was especially noted as a practitioner for his sagacity and accuracy in the diagnosis of disease, and also for his calm, far-sighted compre- hension of the constitutional tendencies affecting the case called to his attention. He was always studiously inclined, con-
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templative and given to thought along planning to reform what was evil and to philosophical and metaphysical lines, for ethical investigation was a delight for him. No physician in Albany ever stood higher in the confidence of both the pro- fession and the public. He was a devout Christian, worshipping at the Episcopal Cathedral of All Saints, a man possessing the warmest of hearts for the distressed. He had been an alderman, and at his death was president of the Albany Acad- emy board of trustees.
Dr. Thomas Hun married, in Albany, New York, April 29, 1841, the Rev. Horatio Potter, rector of St. Peter's Church officiating, Lydia Louisa, daugh- ter of Hon. Marcus Tullius and his (first) wife, Cynthia (Herrick) Reynolds. She was born in Amsterdam, New York, Sep- tember 11, 1817, died at her residence, No. 31 Elk street, Albany, January 26, 1876, and was buried in the Albany Rural cemetery. Her father, Marcus T. Rey- nolds, an attorney of Albany and one of the ablest of his times, was born in Minaville, Montgomery county, New York, December 29, 1788, son of Dr. Stephen Reynolds, of Amsterdam, and died at No. 25 North Pearl street, Albany, July 11, 1864. Her mother, Cynthia (Herrick) Reynolds, was daughter of Benjamin and Cynthia (Brush) Herrick, the latter a daughter of Richard Brush ; she was born at Amenia, New York, De- cember 26, 1794, died at Amsterdam, New York, November 25, 1820. Benjamin Herrick was the son of Benjamin and Sarah (Denton) Herrick. Mrs. Thomas Hun was widely known through her en- deavors to alleviate the condition of the poor and ignorant, as well as in her own circle, where she was welcomed as one whose mind had been enriched by a liberal education and by life-long habits of good reading and reflection, which gave her a graciousness of character and brilliancy of conversation. Her chief interest lay in
aid those oppressed by undue hardships, in which aim she was always practical in the carrying out of her admirable ideas. She felt that the poor needed, even more than money, sound advice and cordial encouragement. She purchased and fitted up a sort of model tenement house, to occupy which became an esteemed privilege, and here she watched over them, inculcating habits of neatness and saving. She also sought to establish in the neighborhood of the poor reading rooms and a place of cheerful resort. In many other similar ways she led a worthy life.
HALL, John,
Divine, Anthor.
The Rev. John Hall was born in County Armagh, Ireland, July 31, 1829, son of William and Rachel (Magowan) Hall. His ancestors were natives of Scotland.
He was graduated in arts from Belfast (Ireland) College in 1846, and in theology in 1849, having been matriculated in 1842, and won repeated prizes in profi- ciency in church history and Hebrew scholarship. He was licensed to preach in 1849, and was a missionary in the province of Connaught, Ireland, 1849-52; pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Armagh, 1852-58; and of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, 1858-67, where he edited the "Evangelical Witness," built the Rutland Square Church, and under appointment by the Viceroy of Ireland was made Commis- sioner of National Education, and re- ceived from Queen Victoria the honorary appointment of Commissioner of Educa- tion for Ireland.
He visited America in 1867 as delegate to the Old School Presbyterian Assembly of the United States at Cincinnati, Ohio. During his visit he preached for the con-
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gregation of the Fifth Avenue Presby- terian Church, New York City, then wor- shipping on Nineteenth street, and received a call as pastor which he accepted after his return to Ireland. His work in this church resulted in a new church edifice erected in 1873 at a cost of over $1,000,000, the largest Presbyterian church in New York City; the Romeyn chapel on Seventy-fourth street; a mis- sion on Sixty-third street; a Chinese mission on East Fifty-ninth street, and numerous other missions and charitable institutions supported by annual contri- butions from the parent church of over $100,000. In January, 1898, he resigned the pastorate on account of increasing age, but withdrew his resignation upon the earnest demand of the congregation, which promised him such assistance as might be required. He was chancellor of the University of the City of New York, 1881-91 ; a member of the council, 1875- 98; a trustee of Princeton Seminary, 1859-83; of the College of New Jersey, 1868-98; of Wells College, Aurora, New York, and of Wellesley College, Massa- chusetts. He was a member of the Pres- byterian Board of Church Erection ; chairman of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, and chairman of the committee on church extension, New York Presbytery. He was a member of the New York Historical Society. He received the degree of A. B. from Belfast in 1846; of D. D. from Washington and Jefferson College in 1865 ; of LL. D. from Washington and Lee University, and from the College of New Jersey, Prince- ton, in 1885, and from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1890; and of S. T. D. from Columbia in 1886.
His published works include "Family Prayers for Four Weeks" (1868) ; "Prayers for Home Reading" (1873) ; "God's Word Through Preaching" (1875) ; "Familiar Talks to Boys" (1876) ;
and "A Christian Home" (1883). Dr. Hall died at Bangor, County Down, Ireland, September 17, 1898, and the remains were returned to America and buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, New York City.
He was married, June 15, 1852, to Emily, daughter of Lyndon Bolton, of Dublin, Ireland, and of their children, Robert William became Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the University of the City of New York; Richard John, Professor of Surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, died in Santa Barbara, California, Janu- ary 23, 1897; Thomas Cuming, became Professor of Theology in Union Theo- logical Seminary, New York City ; Bolton, was graduated at Princeton in 1875; Emily C. was the only daughter.
MARVIN, Selden E., Soldier, Man of Affairs.
General Selden Erastus Marvin, son of Hon. Richard Pratt and Isabella (New- land) Marvin, was born August 20, 1835, in Jamestown, Chautauqua county, New York, and died January 19, 1899, in New York City. His father was a well known lawyer, jurist, and antiquarian. Selden Erastus Marvin received his education in the public schools and academy of James- town, and at Professor Russell's private school in New Haven, Connecticut. While residing in Jamestown he became inter- ested in military affairs and was quarter- master of the Sixty-eighth Regiment, National Guard. At the beginning of the Civil War he tendered his services to the government. On July 21, 1862, he was commissioned adjutant of the One Hun- dred and Twelfth Regiment New York Volunteers and mustered into the United States service, and served until detailed as assistant adjutant-general of Foster's brigade, with the army of Southern Vir-
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ginia, through the Peninsula and Charles- town campaigns, until August 27, 1863, when he was appointed additional pay- master of United States volunteers, and was assigned to duty in the Army of the Potomac; he resigned December 27, 1864, to become paymaster-general of the State of New York on the staff of Governor Fenton. On January 1, 1867, he was appointed adjutant-general of the State of New York. As paymaster-general he disbursed upwards of twenty-seven mil- lion dollars. As adjutant-general he inaugurated and carried into practical effect reforms in the national guard which were greatly needed.
After his term of adjutant-general expired, he engaged in banking in New York City as a member of the firm of Morgan, Keene & Marvin, until the spring of 1873, when they dissolved. On January 1, 1874, he went to Troy, New York, as the representative of Erastus Corning's interests in the iron and steel business carried on by the firm of John A. Griswold & Company, and while there organized the Albany & Rensselaer Iron and Steel Company, March 1, 1875. This corporation was a consolidation of the establishment of John A. Griswold & Company and the Albany Iron Works, and General Marvin was elected a direc- tor, secretary and treasurer. On Septem- ber 1, 1885, this concern was succeeded by the Troy Steel and Iron Company, which went into the hands of a receiver in 1893. General Marvin continued as director, secretary and treasurer of the company until its business was closed up, November 1, 1895. He was for several years a trustee and vice-president of the Albany City Savings Institution, and on June 1, 1891, became its president. He was a director and in 1894 was made president of the Hudson River Telephone Company, and was the principal organizer and promoter of the Albany District
Telegraph Company, of which he became president in 1895. He was always active in religious matters, and soon after the formation of the Diocese of Albany, was elected its treasurer and treasurer of its board of missions, serving until his death. He was vestryman of St. Luke's Church, Jamestown, and later of St. Peter's Church, Albany, and was also a member of the Cathedral Chapter. He was a member of the State Board of Charities, having been appointed by Governor Morton, March 27, 1895. He was a mem- ber and trustee of the Corning foundation, on which is built St. Agnes' School, the Child's Hospital, St. Margaret's House, Graduate Hall and the Sister House in Albany. He was also a member of the board of managers of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Prot- estant Episcopal church in the United States, a member of the Fort Orange Club, and actively connected with several other institutions of Albany.
He married, September 24, 1868, Kath- arine Langdon, daughter of Judge Amasa J. and Harriet (Langdon) Parker, of Albany, New York, born August 28, 1846, died July 1, 1907. Children: I. Selden Erastus, who succeeded to the charge of his father's estate. 2. Grace Parker, born September, 1872, married, June 6, 1901, Rupert C. King, of New York City; chil- dren: i. Catherine Marvin, deceased ; ii. Rupert Cochrane, Jr., born July 29, 1908. 3. Langdon Parker, September 16, 1876, graduated from Harvard University, 1898, and LL. B., Harvard Law School, 1901 ; private secretary for Hon. Elihu Root on Alaska boundary commission in London, 1903; resides in New York City. 4. Edmund Roberts, August 10, 1878, gradu- ated from Harvard University, 1899. 5. Richard Pratt, August 18, 1882, died Sep- tember 6, 1883. 6. Katharine Langdon, August 6, 1889.
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DEAN, Amos,
Lawyer, Jurist, Author.
Than Hon. Amos Dean, LL. D., no one in the city of Albany ever gained a higher position of respect and merited popu- larity. He was born in Barnard, Ver- mont, January 16, 1803, and died in Albany, New York, at his residence, No. 31 Elk street, January 26, 1868. His father was Nathaniel Dean, and his mother was Rhoda (Hammond) Dean.
Like many other prominent lawyers and jurists who found prominence in New York State, Amos Dean acquired his early education in the common schools, at which he fitted himself with the idea of teaching. He supported himself while pursuing his academic course preparatory to entering college, and went to Union College in 1823, from which he was graduated in 1826. His uncle, Jabez D Hammond, was at this time a distin- guished lawyer and writer, in partner- ship with Judge Alfred Conkling. It was in their office that he began studying law, where he was most diligent, and enjoyed the nice distinctions and philosophy of law as a science. To him the study had a fascination, and he was remarkably well prepared when admitted in 1829. During the early years of his practice he was asso- ciated with Azor Tabor, then an eminent counsellor. He never assumed to attain celebrity as an advocate before juries, where, in those days, a lawyer usually made his mark in the world at large by publicity, although he possessed marked abilities as an orator. His amiability of disposition, his natural reserve, his kindly nature, his guilelessness and his overflowing charity, repelled him from the theatre of professional strife and conflict, and he was particularly adapted to the duties of the office and the counsel room. It was there he displayed fine traits of wisdom, prudence and sagacity. Having
a character of unimpeachable integrity, he readily won clients, success and fame.
The great benefit he had obtained by his own endeavors to pursue courses of study when young, caused him to appre- ciate the necessity for furnishing advan- tages for others, and, impelled by this idea, he conceived the plan of establishing associations for the mental improvement cf young men. On December 10, 1833, he gathered about him a few of his young friends and expounded to them his project. No sooner was the matter made public than seven hundred and fifty young men enrolled, and on December 13 he was elected president of the organization which had assumed the title "Young Men's Association for Mutual Improve- ment in the City of Albany." It was incorporated March 12, 1835, for the pur- pose of establishing and maintaining a library, reading-room, literary and scien- tific lectures, and other means of promot- ing both moral and intellectual improve- ment. It continued a debating society many years, and acquired a collection of paintings. From this beginning hun- dreds of kindred institutions have started and have been a blessing to the country. Mr. Pean was associated with Doctors March and Armsby in 1833, in establish- ing the Albany Medical College, which later was to be a department of Union University. From the day of opening until 1859 he was its Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, and when the Law Depart- ment of the university was established, he was appropriately chosen one of its professors, in which sphere his talents shone most brightly.
He became even better known as an author, and in that field wielded a wide influence. He took a keen interest in the developing science of phrenology, when little had been done in that line, deliver- ing a series of lectures which were after incorporated in a book and made him
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