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 26

Author: Fitch, Charles E. (Charles Elliott), 1835-1918. cn
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] The American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 662


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 26


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On November 30, 1892, Mr. Chapman married Lucia Louise Pattengill, daugh-


ter of Rev. Charles N. Pattengill, retired, of Whitesboro, New York, who was for- merly pastor of the Baptist church at Fayetteville and for twenty-three years he has resided on Westcott street, Syra- cuse, for twenty years at No. 321 West- cott street, his present home. They have three children: Ella Louise, a senior in Vassar College ; Charles Randall, a senior in Mercersburg Academy; and Lucia Maria, ten years old.


NORTHRUP, Ansel Judd, Lawyer, Jurist, Author.


Ansel Judd Northrup, one of the lead- ing citizens of Syracuse, is a lifelong resi- dent of Central New York, having been born in Smithfield, Madison county, June 30, 1833. His father was a pioneer set- tler of that region, and his ancestors were among the sturdy and enterprising na- tives of old England, who set out and met hardships and difficulties to settle New England. The name is derived from an old Saxon word, "thrope" (or "thorp"), a village, and appears as early as 1294 in England as del Northrope (of the north village). It is frequently found in that form in the records of York county, and under various spellings in other sections of England and in Massachusetts. It has figured in the various Colonial wars, the War of the Revolution, and the Civil War. Under the various forms it appears forty- nine times in the roll of Revolutionary soldiers from Massachusetts alone. It has figured in the learned professions at the head of educational institutions, on the bench, and in high ecclesiastical posi- tions. Many descendants now use the form Northrop.


Joseph Northrup, the immigrant an- cestor of the family in America, is supposed to have come from Yorkshire, England, and was presumably a member


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of Eaton and Davenport's company, which left England on the "Hector and Martha," landing in Boston, July 26, 1637. He was among the settlers at Milford, Connecti- cut, where he joined the church in 1642, and was admitted as a citizen of the colony, having come of good family with good estate. He died in 1669, at Milford. His wife Mary was a daughter of Francis Norton, who went to Milford from Weth- ersfield, Connecticut. Joseph (2), eldest son of Joseph (I) and Mary (Norton) Northrup, was born July 17, 1649, in Mil- ford, where he married Miriam Blakeman, daughter of James and Miriam (Wheeler) Blakeman, granddaughter of Rev. Aaron Blakeman, born 1598, in Stratford, Eng- land. Moses, third son of Joseph (2) and Miriam (Blakeman) Northrup, baptized March 31, 1695, in Milford, was among the purchasers and original settlers of Ridgefield, Connecticut, as early as 1716. In 1734 he removed to Dutchess county, New York, where he died about 1747. He married Abigail Cornwall, and they were the parents of Amos Northrup, born 1730, at Ridgefield, died February 9, 1810, in Tyringham, Berkshire county, Massa- chusetts, where he settled as early as 1771. He was ensign in the Tyringham company in the Revolutionary army. He first enlisted as a private September 22, 1777, again enlisted October 18, 1779, serving in a company from Claverack, Columbia county, New York. He mar- ried a widow, Hannah, born Calkins, 1737, died April 22, 1805. Amos (2), their eldest son, was born April 19, 1768, in Dutchess county, and died October 12, 1835, in Peterboro, Madison county, New York. He visited that section in 1804, and took up lands in the "milestrip" in the town of Smithfield, where he built a log house. Thither he brought his fam- ily in February, 1805. He married, March 10, 1796, Elizabeth, daughter of Tristram


Stedman, born December 18, 1773, died November 15, 1852, and both are buried at Peterboro.


Rensselaer Northrup, their second son, was born August 10, 1804, in Tyringham, and was six months of age when the fam- ily removed to Madison county. He died August 8, 1874, in the village of Canas- tota, and was buried in Quality Hill Cemetery, on the seventieth anniversary of his birth. An active, upright farmer, an earnest advocate of temperance, and a "Gerrit Smith Abolitionist," his active life was passed in the town of Smithfield. He refused to accept the office of assessor after his election because he was expected to assess property at a low rate after tak- ing an oath to assess at full value. His house was a station on "the underground railroad," where he often sheltered slaves on their way to Canada and freedom. For many years he was a member and officer of the Presbyterian church. He married, October 3, 1832, at Watervale, Onondaga county, New York, Clarissa Judd, born May 9, 1810, died August 17, 1862, at Lenox, Madison county, New York. She was a descendant of Thomas Judd, who came from England in 1624, and settled at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was admitted a freeman May 25, 1636. In that year he removed to Hartford, Con- necticut. He was among the pioneers of Farmington, Connecticut, and one of the first proprietors, a charter member of the Farmington Church, and its second dea- con. His descendant, Ansel Judd, mar- ried Electa Jones, and lived in the town of Pompey, Onondaga county.


Ansel Judd Northrup, son of Rensse- laer and Clarissa (Judd) Northrup, passed his early life on the paternal farm, in whose labors he participated in the inter- vals of attendance at school. He taught four winter terms of school, prepared for college at Peterboro Academy and Ober-


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lin College, Ohio, and was graduated from Hamilton College at Clinton, New York, in 1858, as salutatorian of his class with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. After pur- suing the study of law at the Columbia Law School at New York, he was ad- mitted to the bar in Norwich, New York, May 12, 1859, and began the practice of his profession at Syracuse, in the same year. In 1861 he received the degree of Master of Arts from his alma mater, and in 1895 that of Doctor of Laws. He was appointed a United States court commis- sioner, March 22, 1870, and soon after United States examiner in equity, both of which positions he still holds.


He was elected a trustee of the Syra- cuse Savings Bank, March 20, 1877, and still fills that position, being also a trus- tee of Oakwood Cemetery at Syracuse. He was one of the founders and long a director of the University Club of Syra- cuse; was for ten years president of the Onondaga Historical Society, and has long been an elder of the First Presby- terian Church of Syracuse. During and after the Civil War he was vice-presi- dent and later president of the Loyal League (in Syracuse) and served as lay commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Saratoga, in 1890, at Buffalo, in 1904, and at Atlan- tic City, in 1910. He was elected in No- vember, 1882, as county judge of Onon- daga county, and reƫlected in 1888, serv- ing twelve years. In January, 1895, he resumed the practice of law at Syracuse in association with his son, Elliott Judd Northrup. In February of that year he was appointed by Governor Morton one of three commissioners of statutory re- vision of the State, and in June following one of three commissioners to revise the code of civil procedure, and served six years in each of these positions. Judge Northrup is much interested in historical


and genealogical research; is a member of the Genealogical Society of Central New York, and published in 1908 the Northrup Genealogy. He is a member of the Alpha Delta Phi and the Phi Beta Kappa, and of the Citizens, University and Fortnightly clubs. Besides the work above mentioned, he is the author of sev- eral books, such as "Camps and Tramps in the Adirondacks and Grayling Fishing in Northern Michigan" (1880-1901) ; "Sconset Cottage Life" (1881-1901); "Slavery in New York" (1900) ; "The Powers and Duties of Elders in the Pres- byterian Church" (1908), also numerous addresses. As secretary he edited the "History of the Class of 1858," Hamilton College, 1898; edited the history of the "Seventy-fifth Anniversary First Presby- terian Church," Syracuse, 1899. Politi- cally Judge Northrup is affiliated with the Republican party and advocates its principles. He is still (1915) active in his profession of the law.


He married, November 24, 1863, Eliza Sophia, eldest daughter of Thomas Brock- way and Ursula Ann (Elliott) Fitch, of Syracuse, born December 15, 1842, and died March 15, 1914. Children: I. Ed- win Fitch, graduate of Amherst College and Johns Hopkins University, Doctor of Philosophy, formerly a manufacturer of instruments at Philadelphia, member of the Leeds & Northrup Company, and since 1910 a professor of physics in Princeton University. He is an inventor, and frequent contributor to magazines on scientific and engineering subjects, and has written many scientific addresses. 2. Elliott Judd, graduate of Amherst Col- lege and Cornell University Law Depart- ment, professor of law in the University of Illinois for some time, and since 1910 in Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. 3. Theodore Dwight, died in his twelfth year. 4. Ursula, married Louis


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Cleveland Jones, of Solvay, New York, chief chemist of the Semet Solvay Process Company, Syracuse, and residing in Syra- cuse. 5. Edith, graduated from Syracuse University, 1908, with the degree of Bach- elor of Philosophy, and a teacher of Eng- lish in the Goodyear Burlingame Private School in Syracuse.


MORRIS, Robert Clark, Lawyer, Law Instructor.


Robert Clark Morris is descended from a very old Connecticut family, which was first located at New Haven, and has in- herited those sterling qualities which dis- tinguished the pioneers of that State. The first in this country was Thomas Morris, a native of England, who was one of the signers of the Plantation Covenant at New Haven, in 1639. His eldest son, Eleazer Morris, was born at New Haven, and settled in the adjoining town of East Haven, Connecticut, where he resided with his wife Anna. Their second son, James Morris, was born about 1690, in East Haven, and married, February 24, 1715, Abigail Ross. Their second son, James Morris, born 1723, in East Haven, settled in Litchfield, Connecticut, where he was a landowner at Litchfield South Farms, now the town of Morris, a deacon of the church, and a prominent citizen. He died June 6, 1789, in Litchfield. He married, April 8, 1751, Phebe, widow of Timothy Barnes, born 1712-13, died April 15, 1793. Both are buried in the grave- yard at Morris.


Their eldest child was James Morris, born January 8, 1752, was graduated from Yale in 1775, and began the study of the- ology with Rev. Dr. Joseph Bellamy. In May, 1776, while teaching at Litchfield, he entered the patriot army as an ensign in Colonel Fisher Gay's Connecticut regi- ment. He served in the campaign around New York, and in January, 1777, was ap-


pointed first lieutenant in Colonel Philip B. Bradley's New Connecticut regiment. At the battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777, he was captured, and spent the next eight months in prison at Philadelphia. Thence he was transferred to Brooklyn, and was discharged January 3, 1781. While in captivity he was promoted to a captaincy, and in the summer of 1781 was detached to serve in Colonel Scannell's Light Infantry Regiment, which he ac- companied to Yorktown. On his dis- charge from the army, in January, 1783, he settled in his native village, where he filled numerous important offices. Here he established an academy in 1790, which instructed in all nearly fifteen hundred pupils, of whom more than sixty were prepared for college. At nine sessions of the General Assembly, between 1798 and 1805, he represented Litchfield. The town of Morris, formerly a part of Litchfield, was named in his honor, and he was dea- con of the church there from 1795 until his death, which occurred April 20, 1820, at Goshen, Connecticut, while on a trip from Cornwall to his home. Portions of his narrative of his life and public serv- ices during the Revolution have been printed in "Yale in the Revolution" and "Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society." He married (first) Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Robert Hubbard, of Middletown, Connecticut, and (sec- ond) March 16, 1815, Rhoda Farnum.


The only son of the second marriage, Dwight Morris, was born November 22, 1817, in what is now Morris, and gradu- ated with honors from Union College in 1838, subsequently receiving the degree of Master of Arts from Yale. In 1839 he was admitted to the Litchfield bar, be- came active in public affairs, represented his town in the General Assembly sev- eral sessions, and was judge of probate from 1845 to 1852. In 1862 he recruited a regiment, and went to the front as colo-


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nel of the Fourteenth Connecticut Volun- teers. Soon after he was given command of the Second Brigade, Second Corps, and took part in the battle of Antietam. His regiment came to be known as the "Fight- ing Fourteenth," from its brilliant service. Ill health compelled him to resign his commission, and he was honorably dis- charged, with the rank of brigadier-gen- eral. He was nominated by President Lincoln as judge of the Territory of Idaho, but declined. From 1865 to 1869 he served as consul-general at Havre, France, and in 1876 was elected Secretary of State of Connecticut. Through his efforts the Society of the Cincinnati was reinstated in his State, July 4, 1893, after having been dormant eighty-nine years, and thenceforward, until his death, Sep- tember, 1894, he was its president. He devoted considerable time to literature, and contributed many articles on histori- cal subjects. His second wife, Grace Jo- sephine Clark, whom he married in 1867, at Paris, France, was born 1844, in Chi- cago, daughter of Lewis W. and Emily (Henshaw) Clark, of that city, died 1884.


Robert Clark Morris, son of the last named, was born November 19, 1869, at Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he was a student of the public schools, after which he pursued the study of law at Yale Law School, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1890. From Yale he received the degree of Master of Law in 1892, and Doctor of Civil Law in 1893. He was secretary of the class of 1890 at Yale Law School. In that year he was admitted to the Connec- ticut bar, and in 1890-91 studied conti- nental jurisprudence in Europe. In 1894 he located in New York City, where he immediately began practice. From 1895 to 1904 he lectured on French law at Yale Law School, and since 1904 has been lec- turing on International Arbitration and Proceedure in that institution. He is the


author of a standard work entitled "In ternational Arbitration and Proceedure." He is at present senior partner of the law firm of Morris & Plante, in New York City. Mr. Morris has taken a keen in- terest in political movements, and from 1901 to 1903 was president of the Repub- lican County Committee of New York, and in 1909 was president of the Repub- lican Club of that city. He was counsel for the United States before the United States and Venezuelan Commission in 1903, and occupies a leading position at the metropolitan bar. The work of his firm is general, but most of his time is devoted to reorganizations. By inherit- ance he is a member of the Order of the Cincinnati, and is a member of the Mili- tary Order of the Loyal Legion and the Sons of the Revolution. He is also a member of the New York Bar Associa- tion, the International Law Association, the American Bar Association, New York County Lawyers' Association, the Amer- ican Society of International Law, the Society of Medical Jurisprudence, the Japan Society, and the China Society. He is identified with several clubs, including the Union League, Yale, Metropolitan, Tuxedo of New York, Lakewood Coun- try, also the Graduates' Club of New Haven. He resides on Fifth avenue, in New York City. He married, June 24, 1890, Alice A. Parmelee, of New Haven, daughter of Andrew Yelverton and Sarah Elizabeth (Farren) Parmelee. They have travelled extensively throughout the world, and Mrs. Morris is the author of "Dragons and Cherry Blossoms," a work on Japan.


SMITH, Jay Hungerford, Manufacturer, Man of Affairs.


There is genuine satisfaction in telling Mr. Smith's life story, for it is a record of worthy effort, generously recompensed.


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There are men who build well upon foun- dations laid by another and there are men who conceive, plan, dig, lay the founda- tion and upon it build to completion. To this latter class Mr. Smith belongs. A graduate chemist, he might easily have followed the beaten paths, compounded drugs, and sold soda water all his life, and might have been one of thousands performing their duty well along similar lines. But his nature would not permit this and from the drug store at Ausable Forks he launched out into the wide field of experiment and established a new busi- ness, adding his own to the names of America's creative geniuses. From foun- dation to spire the business over which he presides is his own, the child of his own brain, developed through his own skill and conducted by his own master- ful mind. "Founder" and "head" of a business conducted in one of Rochester's finest factories, Mr. Smith can with deep- est satisfaction contemplate the work he has accomplished in the twenty-five years since he first located in Rochester and began as the head of the Jay Hungerford Smith Company the manufacture of "True Fruit" syrups.


A review of Mr. Smith's ancestry, pa- ternal and maternal, is most interesting. He descends paternally from Silas Smith, who came from England with the Plym- outh Company, settling at Taunton, Mas- sachusetts. The line of descent to Jay Hungerford Smith is through Silas (2) and Hannah (Gazine) Smith; their son, Samuel, and Abigail (Wright) Smith ; their son Daniel, and Susan (Holmes) Smith; their son, William Priest, and Sarah Porter (Hungerford) Smith; their son, Jay Hungerford Smith.


Samuel Smith, of the third generation, was a soldier of the Revolution, and the first of this branch to locate in New York State, living in Spencertown, Columbia county, where his son, Daniel, was born.


Daniel Smith moved to Ellisburg, Jeffer- son county, in 1802, was a lieutenant in the War of 1812, fought at Sackett's Har- bor, and donated the use of his home for a hospital for the wounded soldiers. Susan (Holmes) Smith, his wife, bore him sixteen children. Her father, Thomas Holmes, was a soldier of the Revolution from Connecticut, ranked as sergeant, and was a Revolutionary pensioner. William Priest Smith, of the fifth generation, was born in New York, January 5, 1799, was a lumberman and landowner of St. Law- rence county, New York, justice of the peace, associate judge, a man of influence and high standing. His wife, Sarah Por- ter (Hungerford) Smith, whom he mar- ried, July 9, 1843, traced her ancestry to Sir Thomas Hungerford, who in 1369 pur- chased "Farley Castle," in Somersetshire, England, an estate that was the family seat for more than three hundred years. Sir Thomas was steward for John of Ghent, Duke of Lancaster, son of King Edward III., and was a member and speaker of the House of Commons, re- puted to be the first person elected to that high office. The present crest of the Hungerford family, "A garb or, a wheat sheaf between two sickles erect," with the motto Et Dieu mon appuy (God is my sup- port), was first adopted by Sir Walter, afterward Lord Hungerford, son of Sir Thomas. John Hungerford, great-grand- father of Sarah Porter Hungerford, a lineal descendant of Sir Thomas, was a colonial soldier, ranking as captain. His son, Amasa, was a colonel in the Revolu- tionary army ; his son, Amasa (2), was a "minute man" of the War of 1812, a ship builder on Lake Ontario, a prosperous farmer of Jefferson county, New York, a man widely known. His daughter, Sarah Porter Hungerford, married William Priest Smith, whom she bore eleven chil- dren: Lois Elizabeth, Amasa Daniel, Annie Eliza. Frances Sarah, George Wil-


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liam, Jay Hungerford, of further mention, Mary Louise, Jennie V., Joseph Brodie, Frank Robbins, and May Lillian.


Jay Hungerford Smith was born at Fine, St. Lawrence county, New York, February 20, 1855, third son and sixth child of William Priest and Sarah Por- ter (Hungerford) Smith. He prepared for college at Hungerford Collegiate In- stitute and entered the University of Michigan, whence he was graduated Pharmaceutical Chemist, class of 1877. Three years later he began business at Ausable Forks, New York, as a whole- sale and retail dealer in drugs. He de- veloped a prosperous business along con- ventional lines and there was no reason to suppose that he was not permanently set- tled in business. But his ideals were higher and in the course of business he saw opportunity open a new avenue of effort, and this avenue he saw would lead to great result could he but tread it. At that time the soda fountain business, now of such immense proportions, was but a small item in the drug trade and all flavor- ing syrups dispensed were either artificial or from preserved fruit. Mr. Smith at- tacked the problem of improving the qual- ity of these flavors, striving to extract and to preserve the true flavor of fresh fruit. His intimate knowledge of chemistry was called upon and after a great deal of ex- perimenting and many failures he finally perfected a cold process by which he ob- tained the desired result. He added to his process, matured his plans of manufac- ture, located in 1890 in Rochester, New York, and began carrying them into effect. He organized the J. Hungerford Smith Company, erected a plant, and began the manufacture of "True Fruit" syrups. So well had he planned and so superior was his product that public favor was quickly secured and to-day two hundred thousand square feet of factory space is required to meet the demands for "True Fruit"


syrups. As the products, so are the sur- roundings attending their manufacture, for "purity and cleanliness" are factory slogans and the highest in both has been realized. The sanitary precautions are unsurpassed, and every device making for purity, cleanliness, health, efficiency of operation, and perfection in product, has been installed. "True Fruit" syrups have an immense sale in the United States, and a large export trade, double that of any similar product, has been built up. This end, attained in twenty-five years, is a gratifying one, the business having been built from nothing but an idea to its present prosperous condition. Mr. Smith conceived the idea of "True Fruit" flav- ors, founded the business, visioned and perfected the conditions under which such flavors should be produced and with rare executive ability has managed the busi- ness affairs of the company producing them. So the titles of creator, founder and head are truly his as applied to the product and business of J. Hungerford Smith & Company. He is a director of the Alliance Bank, and has other impor- tant business interests in Rochester and elsewhere.


Mr. Smith's next greatest interest is in the Masonic order, one in which he has attained every degree in both York and Scottish rites that can be conferred in this country. He has received many honors at the hands of his brethren, the thirty-third degree Scottish Rite being one that is only conferred by special favor and then only for "distinguished service" rendered the order. He was "made a Mason" in Richville Lodge, No. 633, Free and Accepted Masons, in 1880, and after coming to Rochester affiliated by "demit" with Frank R. Lawrence Lodge, No. 797, serving as worshipful master in 1897 and 1898. He, as rapidly as the Masonic law permits, took the chapter, council, and commandery de-


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grees constituting the York Rite, and holds membership in Hamilton Chapter, No. 62, Royal Arch Masons ; Doric Coun- cil, No. 19, Royal and Select Masters, and Monroe Commandery, No. 12, Knights Templar. By virtue of being master he became a member of the Grand Lodge of the State of New York, and in 1898 was appointed grand senior deacon. As chairman of the Grand Lodge committee on work and lectures in 1899 he performed valued service in per- fecting ritualistic work and for several years was one of the custodians of the work. He was a member of the commis- sion of appeals of the Grand Lodge in 1905, 1906, and 1907, and since 1900 has been representative of the Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Canada, near the Grand Lodge of the State of New York. He is a director of the Ma- sonic Temple Association, and ex-presi- dent of the Masonic Club, of Rochester, ex-trustee of the Hall and Asylum Fund, and a present member of the standing committee.


After acquiring the degrees of York Rite Masonry, Mr. Smith, desiring "further light," was initiated into the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, is a member of the four bodies of the Rite, and has attained the much hoped for, seldom conferred, thirty-third degree. He is a member of Rochester Consistory, which conferred all degrees including the thirty-second, Sovereign Princes of the Royal Secret, and on September 15, 1896, received the crowning thirty-third degree through the favor of the body governing the holders of that degree, the highest honor an American Mason can receive.




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