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. 3 > Part 24
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April 28, 1866, married Robert Henry Hillis, and has one child, Edward Clapp Hillis, born November 24, 1908.
HOLMES, Daniel,
Pioneer Lawyer.
Daniel Holmes, now living retired, was the pioneer lawyer of Brockport and for many years a prominent attorney of the Monroe county bar. He is a native of West Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, born September II, 1828, and is a son of Daniel and Susan (Hale-Stuart) Holmes, natives of Massachusetts, who, removing westward about 1812, settled in Ontario county, New York, where they cast in their lot with those who were re- claiming a frontier district for agricul- tural uses. The father served his country as a soldier in the War of 1812 and participated in the battle of Buffalo. The maternal ancestry of Mr. Holmes was represented in the Revolutionary War, the grandfather, Thomas Hale, being a drummer boy at the battle of Bunker Hill.
Daniel Holmes was reared at Allens- hill, New York, his father being proprie- tor of a hotel at that place for a number of years. After mastering the elementary branches of learning he prepared for col- lege at the Brockport Collegiate Institute and received his university training at Yale, which he entered in 1846. He is numbered among the alumni of 1848, hav- ing been graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Subsequently in 1853 he received from the University of Rochester the degree of Master of Arts, and in the fall of the same year was ad- mitted to the bar, for which he had pre- viously prepared. He immediately be- gan the practice of his profession in Brockport, where he has resided continu- ously since, having been in practice here for more than a half century. He was
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the pioneer lawyer of the town and his ability enabled him always to maintain a place in the foremost ranks of its legal fraternity. In recent years, however, he has retired from active practice to enjoy well earned ease.
In early manhood Daniel Holmes was united in marriage to Mary J. Hawes, of Brookfield, Massachusetts, of whom ex- tended mention is made in following pages. Theirs was an ideal relation, their mutual love and confidence increasing year by year as they met together the joys and sorrows, the adversity and pros- perity, the disappointments and the pleas- ures which checker the careers of all. Closer grew their friendship as time went by, the desire of each being always for the best interests and happiness of the other, but on October 6, 1907, they were separated through the death of Mrs. Holmes.
Mr. Holmes still continues to reside in Brockport, where for many years he has figured prominently in community affairs. For thirty years he served as justice of the peace of Brockport, his decisions be- ing strictly fair and impartial, so that he "won golden opinions from all sorts of people." He was also clerk of the village for twenty years and in community affairs was actively and helpfully interested, be- ing secretary and treasurer of the State Normal School at Brockport, for many years.
Mr. Holmes is a member of the Ma- sonic fraternity, belonging to Monroe Lodge, No. 173, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, of which he is a past mas- ter. He also belongs to Daniel Holmes Chapter, No. 294, Royal Arch Masons, and to Monroe Commandery, No. 12, Knights Templar, of Rochester. He is senior warden of St. Luke's Church at Brockport. He is also a member of the Empire State Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution and a member of
the New York State Bar Association. He is one of the oldest attorneys of Monroe county and while his professional career gained him rank with the leading lawyers of Brockport he has also been well known because of his activity in connection with the interests bearing upon the general welfare of society and the upbuilding and improvement of the community.
HOLMES, Mrs. Mary J., Favorite Author.
With one exception the works of no American novelist have been so widely read as those of Mrs. Mary J. Holmes, and Brockport was proud to number her among its citizens, but while her name was a household word throughout the length and breadth of this land, in her home town she was loved for personal traits of character that endeared her to all with whom she came in contact. She was the wife of Daniel Holmes, whose sketch precedes this. In her maidenhood she was Mary J. Hawes, of Brookfield, Massachusetts, a daughter of Preston Hawes, a man of rare mentality, while from her mother she inherited a love of poetry and of fine arts. When but three years of age she began to attend school, studied grammar at the age of six, and began teaching school when but thirteen years old. Her first article was published when she was only fifteen years old. Very early in life she manifested rare ability for story telling, entertaining her young companions with tales of her own invention. Her precocity has been borne out by the work of her later years, for there is perhaps no American author whose works are more widely read than those of Mrs. Mary J. Holmes.
Over two million copies of her books have been published and the demand for all of them continues. The annual sale amounts to thousands of copies and no
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better proof of their merit and popu- larity could be given. A list of her pub- lished works includes the following : "Tempest and Sunshine," "English Or- phans," "Homestead on Hillside," "Lena Rivers," "Meadow Brook," "Dora Deane," "Cousin Maude," "Marian Grey," "Dark- ness and Daylight," "Hugh Worthing- ton," "Cameron Pride," "Rose Mather," "Ethelyn's Mistake," "Millbank," "Edna Browning," "West Lawn," "Edith Lyle," "Mildred," "Daisy Thornton," "Forrest House," "Chateau d'Or," "Madeline," "Queenie Hetherton," "Christmas Sto- ries," "Bessie's Fortune," "Gretchen," "Marguerite," "Dr. Hathern's Daugh- ters," "Mrs. Hallam's Companion," "Paul Ralston," "The Tracy Diamonds," "The Cromptons," "The Merivale Banks," "Rena's Experiment," and "The Aban- doned Farm." As an author she had a most happy career, with none of the trials which fall to the lot of so many writers, and her publishers have always been her friends. G. W. Carlton and later Dilling- ham had charge of the sale of her books. Her first novel, "Tempest and Sunshine," was published in 1854 and since that time her writings have been constantly on the market. With the possible exception of Mrs. Stowe, no American woman has reaped so large profits from her copy- rights, some of her books having attained a sale of fifty thousand copies.
In commenting on this, the Brockport "Republic" said :
Her success as an author is said by some to be the result of her power of description; others assert it was her naturalness, her clear concise English and the faculty to hold the reader's sym- pathy from the beginning to the end; others at- tribute it to the fact that there was nothing in her works but what was pure and elevating. We who know her best, feel that all this has made her the successful writer that she was.
Mrs. Holmes was deeply interested in benevolent works in Brockport and in
those organizations which promote cul- ture, charity and patriotism. She was president of the Brockport Union Char- itable Society and vice-regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was indefatigable in the founding and sustaining of a free reading room and did everything in her power to promote knowledge and culture among the young people, of whom she was particularly fond. She often talked to them concern- ing art and foreign travel, on which sub- jects she was well versed, she and her husband having made various trips abroad, visiting the noted art centers of the Old World. As a hostess she was charmingly gracious and hospitable, hav- ing the ready tact that enabled her to make all guests feel at home. Her be- nevolence was also one of her strongly marked characteristics. In early life she made it her plan to give one-tenth of her income to charity and this she did ever afterward. St. Luke's Episcopal Church, of which she was a member, is greatly in- debted to her for its prosperous condition. Her charitable work, however, was done quietly and few people knew the great amount of good she did. She cared not for public recognition of her benevolence, content in the consciousness of having aided a fellow traveler on life's journey. While she had thousands of admirers throughout the country, in her home town where she was best known she was much loved by the people among whom her daily life was passed.
The summer of 1907 was spent by Mr. and Mrs. Holmes at Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, and while on the return trip Mrs. Holmes became ill. After improv- ing to a slight degree she insisted on con- tinuing the journey but lived for only a brief period after she reached Brockport, passing away on October 6, 1907. Per- haps no better testimonial of the regard in which she was held in Brockport can
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be given than by quoting from a local paper, which said :
During the many years of Mrs. Holmes' resi- dence in Brockport her influence for good has been constant and unvarying, and every enter- prise that made for the welfare of the village received her most hearty sanction and support. With charity toward all, with malice toward none, she moved among us the very embodiment of gracious kindness. And so, in thousands of ways her death will prove an inestimable loss to this community, and to-day nearly every house- hold is shadowed by a personal grief. She went to her death wearing the white rose of a blame- less life. The world is the poorer for her going.
MATHEWS, John Alexander, Scientist, Man of Affairs.
John Alexander Mathews, Sc. D., Ph. D., is not a native son of New York but was born in the old college town of Washington, Pennsylvania, May 20, 1872. His father, William Johnston Mathews, was a prosperous merchant who died in 1874, leaving a widow, Frances Sage Pelletrean Mathews, and four young chil- dren. Shortly afterward the family re- moved to Wisconsin and for seven years lived upon a farm. When the older chil- dren were ready for college preparation, they returned to Washington and John A. attended public and high school, then preparatory school and later entered Washington and Jefferson College, gradu- ating with honors in 1893, with the de- gree of B. Sc. He later received the de- gree of M. Sc., and in 1902 received the first award of the degree of Doctor of Science, causa honoris, ever conferred by his alma mater. During college days he worked for various newspapers and upon graduation thought seriously of continu- ing newspaper work. Armed with letters of introduction he assailed every news- paper office in Pittsburgh, but receiving no encouragement and no job. A week later he enrolled at Columbia University
as a student of chemistry. So successful was he in this that he earned his M. A. (1895) and Ph. D. (1898) in course and was awarded first the University Fellow- ship in Chemistry (1897), and later re- ceived a three-year appointment to the "Barnard Fellowship for the Encourage- ment of Scientific Research." It was un- derstood that one year of this occupancy should be spent studying abroad and Dr. Matthews chose to work with Professor Sir William Roberts-Austen, K. C. B., F. R. S., at the Royal School of Mines, Lon- don. Professor Roberts-Austen was chair- man of the alloys research committee of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and it was along the line of alloys research that Dr. Matthews studied. While in Lon- don in 1900-1901 Andrew Carnegie en- dowed certain research scholarships in the gift of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain. These were open to interna- tional competition and the first three ap- pointees included an Englishman, an Aus- trian and an American-Dr. Mathews. This award was made with the under- standing that he should return to Colum- bia University and take up special studies in iron and steel under Professor Henry M. Howe. A scholarship "going and com- ing" was so much of a novelty that Hon. Seth Low, then president of Columbia University, referred to this unique record at some length in his commencement ad- dress in 1901 and one year later took pleasure in announcing that the first "An- drew Carnegie Gold Medal for Research" had been awarded Dr. Mathews as a re- sult of his work while holder of the Car- negie Scholarship.
The work connected with this scholar- ship directed Dr. Mathews' attention to steel and in the course of his work he secured permission to carry on some ex- periments on a commercial scale at the Sanderson Brothers Works, Syracuse, New York. The acquaintances thus
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formed led to the offer of a position with that company upon the completion of his investigations, so in September, 1902, he came to Syracuse as metallurgist in charge of research work for the Crucible Steel Company of America of which the Sanderson Works forms a part. Even then he had not fully decided to give up his wish for teaching. Several years at Columbia had been spent as instructor in chemistry and when he accepted a posi- tion in an industrial plant it was with the idea of securing some practical experi- ence to better fit him for a professorship in applied science. The fates, however, de- cided otherwise and in less than two years he had become assistant manager of the Sanderson Works, and in 1908 he went to the Halcomb Steel Company of Syracuse as operating manager and gen- eral superintendent. He later became a director in the corporation and general manager. In 1915 he succeeded Mr. H. S. Wilkinson as president of the com- pany and of the Syracuse Crucible Steel Company, an affiliated interest.
Dr. Mathews is a member of many technical societies, domestic and foreign, and has been a frequent contributor to their journals. He was a special con- tributor on steel to the "Encyclopedia Americana," second edition, and frequent- ly lectures before learned societies. While a recognized authority upon the science of iron and steel he is also a successful executive and manager. The companies with which he has been associated enjoy enviable reputations for the highest grades of tool and alloy steels.
Aside from his business he has given freely of his time and talents to civic affairs, philanthropy and charities. He has never held or sought political office but has had the rare distinction of ap- pointment by Presidents Mckinley, Roosevelt and Taft to the Assay Com- mission. At present he is president of the
Manufacturers' Association of Syracuse ; first vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce, a director of the First Na- tional Bank and the Provident Loan As- sociation. He was formerly a trustee of the Hospital of the Good Shepherd and has served on several commissions to in- vestigate municipal problems, frequently as chairman. His reports upon smoke abatement, city pavings, municipal own- ership of gas and electric plants, etc., have attracted much more than local at- tention. In politics he has been a staunch Republican and Protectionist ; in religion a Presbyterian. He is a member of the Engineers' and Chemists' clubs of New York; the University, Onondaga Golf and County Club and the Bellevue Coun- try Club of Syracuse. His chief diversion has been the collection of old books of metallurgical value and his library con- tains many of the rarest books in exis- tence on this subject, as for example : copies of Biringuccio (1540), Agricola (1563) and Gilbert (1600), beside many others.
Dr. Mathews is of mixed ancestry. His father was Scotch-Irish, the great-grand- parents coming to America shortly after the Revolution. His mother was of French Huguenot lineage, the first mem- bers of the family coming to America in 1685, and for many generations lived at Southampton, Long Island. In 1903 Dr. Mathews married Florence Hosmer King, of Columbus, Ohio, and they have two children, Margaret King, born 1903, and John Alexander, Jr., born 1908.
PERKINS, Robert Patterson, Manufacturer.
Mr. Perkins was born in December, 1861, in New York City, and is a descend- ant of one of the oldest New England families. Peter, being one of the twelve Apostles, his name was a favorite one for
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centuries among Christians. It assumed the form of Pierre in France, whence it found its way into England and there took the diminutive form of Perkin. This gradually and naturally became Perkins and, in time, was bestowed upon or as- sumed by one as a surname. Many of the name were among the early settlers of New England, and their descendants have borne honorable part in the develop- ment of modern civilization in the West- ern Hemisphere. John Perkins, born 1590, in Newent, Gloucestershire, England, set sail from Bristol in the "Lyon," William Pierce, master, on December 1, 1630, with his wife, Judith (Gater) Perkins, five children, and about a dozen other com- panions. They reached Nantasket, Feb- ruary 5, 1631, and settled in Boston. He was the first of that name to come to New England, and was one of the twelve who accompanied John Winthrop, Jr., to settle in Ipswich, where he was made freeman, May 18, 1631. On April 3, 1632, "It was ordered" by the General Court, "that noe pson wtsoever shall shoot att fowle upon Pullen Poynte or Noddles Ileland; but that the sd places shalbe reserved for John Perkins to take fowle wth netts." Also, November 7, 1632, John and three others were "appointed by the Court to sett downe the bounds betwixte Dorchester and Rocksbury." He at once took a prominent stand among the colonists, and in 1636 and for many years afterward represented Ipswich in the General High Court. In 1645 he was appraiser, and signed the inventory of the estate of Sarah Dillingham. In 1648 and 1652 he served on the grand jury, and in March, 1650, "being above the age of sixty he was freed from ordinary train- ing by the Court." He made his will (probate office, Salem, Massachusetts), March 28, 1654, and died a few months later, aged sixty-four. Thomas Perkins, second son of John and Judith (Gater)
Perkins, born about 1616, in England, came to America at the age of fifteen years with his parents. He settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts, where he owned Sagamore Hill, an elevated tract one hundred and seventy feet high. After a few years he removed to Topsfield, Massachusetts, where he was deacon, selectman, and often on committees rep- resenting the town and the church. A farmer by occupation, he bought and sold much land, and died May 7, 1686. He married in Topsfield, about 1640, Phebe, daughter of Zachary and Phebe Gould, born in England, baptized September 20, 1620, at Hemel Hempstead. On her mar- riage she received from her father a gift of one hundred and fifty acres of land. Her husband subsequently purchased the tract of two hundred and twenty-seven acres upon which he lived in the town of Topsfield. Timothy Perkins, son of Thomas and Phebe (Gould) Perkins, was born June 6, 1661, in Topsfield, and re- ceived by inheritance a portion of his father's farm, upon which he lived, and died December 18, 1751. His first wife, Hannah, died November 14. 1690. She was the mother of Jonathan Perkins, bap- tized January 22, 1693, in Topsfield, died June 2, 1749. He married at Salem, De- cember II, 1722, Elizabeth Potter, born April 23, 1695, in Ipswich, daughter of John and Sarah (Kimball) Potter. They were the parents of David Perkins, born December 6, 1725, in Topsfield, died April 30, 1803. He married, March 10, 1752, at Wenham, Massachusetts, Mary Fisk, of that town, born March 9, 1729, daugh- ter of Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Fuller) Fisk, died October 19, 1777. Their son, David (2) Perkins, born May 11, 1756, in Topsfield, was baptized on the 16th of the same month, and died July 27, 1827. He married (intentions published in both Topsfield and Beverly, November 2, 1783), Nabby Conant, of Beverly, born
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February 25, 1756, died November 25, 1842, daughter of Lott and Abigail (Per- kins) Conant. Benjamin Conant Perkins, son of the above couple, was born Sep- tember II, 1803, in Topsfield, and there married, March 10, 1835, Lucy Peabody, born August 24, 1812, in Topsfield, daughter of Ebenezer and Mercy (Per- kins) Peabody. They were the parents of Charles Lawrence Perkins, who mar- ried Elizabeth West Nevins.
Robert Patterson Perkins, son of Charles Lawrence and Elizabeth W. (Nevins) Perkins, was born in New York City, and was educated in a private school conducted by a Dr. Calerson, and at St. Paul's Episcopal School, Concord, New Hampshire, where he spent six years in preparation for college. In 1879 he en- tered Harvard University, from which he was graduated A. B. in 1884. Having determined to engage in business, he en- tered the general offices of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Com- pany of New York, where he continued one year, after which he was with H. C. Thacker & Company, wool dealers, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, until 1892, when he became secretary of the Higgins Carpet Company, continuing in that posi- tion some four years, after which he was vice-president of the company. In asso- ciation with others he purchased this business, of which he became president, and continued two years until 1894, when it became the Hartford Carpet Company, a corporation of which he was president. In 1914 this company purchased the Bige- low-Lowell Carpet Company, and now maintains factories at Thompsonville, Connecticut, and Clinton and Lowell, Massachusetts, and is one of the largest establishments of the kind in the United States. Mr. Perkins resides in New York City, and is a communicant of the Prot- estant Episcopal church. He is a mem- ber of the Brook Club, of which he was
four years president, is a trustee of St. Paul's School of Concord, New Hamp- shire, and a friend of education and prog- ress. Politically he acts with the Re- publican party.
V-
LEE, John Mallory, Surgeon, Hospital Official.
Dr. John Mallory Lee, a native of this State, was born in Cameron, Steuben county, September 29, 1852, and he is among the most prominent surgeons en- gaged in practice in New York State. He is descended from good old Revolution- ary stock. His paternal great-grandfather aided the colonies in their struggle for independence, and members of his family served in the late War of the Rebellion. Dr. Lee's grandfather was one of the early settlers of Steuben county, New York, where he carried on farming for many years, and there Dr. Lee's father, Joseph R. Lee, spent his entire life. He engaged in business as a contractor and builder throughout the years of his man- hood; he also served as justice of the peace, and was a deacon and chorister in the Baptist church of South Pulteney. In early life he married Sarah Wagener, a daughter of Melchoir Wagener and a granddaughter of David Wagener, who was of German birth and a Quaker. He removed from Pennsylvania to Yates county, New York, at an early day and became the owner of a large tract of land on which Penn Yan was afterward laid out. He was prominently identified with the development and upbuilding of the village, to which he gave its name, taken from "Penn" and "Yankee." He contrib- uted the site for the cemetery and was the first white man to be buried there. His oldest son, Melchoir, grandfather of Dr. Lee, moved to Pulteney in 1811, where he purchased a section of land and developed extensive milling interests.
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During her girlhood days Mrs. Lee at- tended the Franklin Academy at Pratts- burg, New York, where she was gradu- ated. She died in 1898, at the age of ninety-three years, and long survived her husband, who passed away in 1861. They were people of prominence in the com- munity where they made their home and were highly respected.
Left fatherless at the early age of nine years, Dr. Lee has practically made his own way in the world and success is due to his untiring efforts. He attended the schools of Pulteney, Steuben county ; the Penn Yan Academy, and was also in- structed by a college professor at Palo, Michigan, where he was employed as clerk in a drug store for three years. Under his guidance Dr. Lee was fitted to enter college and he graduated from the University of Michigan in 1878 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He opened an office in Rochester in June, 1878, and engaged in general practice for nine years, but finally decided to devote his attention to surgery and with this end in view he took post-graduate work in the Polyclinic of New York City in 1880 and the Post-Graduate School of New York in 1890, 1891, 1892 and 1894. He is to- day numbered among the most eminent surgeons of the State and has met with remarkable success in his practice. He as- sisted in founding the Rochester Homœo- pathic Hospital and its Training School for Nurses and was vice-president of the medical and surgical staff of the hospital during the first ten years of its existence. He has also been surgeon, surgeon-in- chief and consulting surgeon at different times. In 1897 he established a private hospital at 179 Lake avenue and from the start success has attended his efforts in this direction.
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