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 27
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The ancient landmarks of the order are sacred to Mr. Smith and as custodian of the work he has sought to keep closely to them. Where methods only were in- volved he has sanctioned and suggested ritualistic innovation, thereby beautify- ing and strengthening the work. Through
the exercise of his unbounded dramatic ability many of the degrees, particularly in the Scottish Rite, have been illumi- nated and clothed with a deeper meaning. His influence has been exerted for the good of the order, his service has been valued by his brethren, and his elevation to the thirty-third degree came as an acknowledgment of that service, for the degree cannot be applied for, as other degrees must be, but comes as an un- sought and highly valued honor.
A public honor was conferred upon Mr. Smith when he was but twenty-eight years of age in recognition of his stand- ing in his profession, by appointment as one of the five members of the original New York State Board of Pharmacy, a position he held for eight years. For many years he has been a trustee of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce and has been one of the progressive men ever ready to aid and to support every move- ment or enterprise to further the public good. He is an official member of the Cascade Lakes Club in the Adirondack preserve, his city club the Masonic. Social by nature and most genial in dis- position, he has many friends, and these friendships are mutually highly prized. He is, however, preëminently a man of affairs, and is a splendid example of the alert, progressive, creative American business man, a type of the men who have made this country famous.
Mr. Smith married, May 17, 1882, Jean, daughter of John A. Dawson, of Ausable Forks, New York. Children : James Hungerford, Anna Dawson, Flor- ence, died in infancy ; Jay Elwood, Lois, and Helen Hungerford.
HALE, George David, Educator, Man of Affairs.
Professor George David Hale was born in Adams, Jefferson county, New York, March 27, 1844. His parents were Abner
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Cable and Sally Ann (Barton) Hale. The first American ancestor in the paternal line was Thomas Hale, the glover, who came from England in 1637 and settled at Newbury, Massachusetts, where he died December 21, 1682. The grandfather, David Hale, was senior member of the first mercantile firm in Adams, New York, and was also captain of a troop of cavalry in the War of 1812. From a very early period in the development of Jefferson county the family was connected with its progress and upbuilding. Abner C. Hale, the father, followed the occupation of farming at Adams.
Professor George D. Hale spent his boyhood days under the parental roof. In 1870 he was graduated from the classi- cal course of the University of Rochester, and three years later that institution con- ferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. He is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon and of the Phi Beta Kap- pa, two college fraternities. Professor Hale is known personally or by reputa- tion to every resident of the city and also to a large extent throughout this and other states by reason of the fact that his students have gone abroad into all parts of the country, bearing in their lives the impress of his individuality. The Hale Classical and Scientific School, which he conducted in Rochester from 1871 to 1898, is recognized as having been one of the most excellent institutions of learning in the State and among its graduates are men who are now prominent in the public and business life of Rochester. Thor- oughness has always been his motto and he has ever held high the standard of edu- cational proficiency. Kant has said: "The object of education is to train each in- dividual to reach the highest perfection possible for him," and the spirit of this statement has been a dominant factor in the work done by Professor Hale during
these years. Moreover, he is recognized in educational circles as an authority on mathematics and as one who stands as a leader in his profession because of the high ideals which he has ever held and the unfaltering effort he has made to reach them. He is identified with several of the leading societies for the advance- ment of knowledge, being a member of the National Educational Association and the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, also of the Na- tional Geographic Society. Of local so- cieties he is identified with the Rochester Historical Society, the Genesee Valley Club, the Rochester Country Club, the University Club, and the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. His political preference has always been for the Re- publican party, and while he has been a student of the great issues and questions bearing upon the welfare of State and Nation, he has always been without poli- tical ambition.
On December 29, 1875, Professor Hale was married in Rochester to Mary Eliza- beth Judson, a daughter of Junius (q. v.) and Lavenda (Bushnell) Judson. They have two daughters, Edith Hariette and Elizabeth Lavenda Hale. Mrs. Hale was possessed of rare mental endowment, of mature Christian character, and withal of most charming personality which showed itself in sweet courtesy towards all. She died April 12, 1915, sincerely mourned by all who knew her.
Professor Hale is a member of the First Baptist Church of Rochester, in which he has served for many years as a trustee, being also prominently identified with the general interests of the Baptist denomination in this city. He has been a generous contributor to many public and charitable works and his influence is always on the side of that which pro- motes intellectual development, aesthetic
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culture and moral progress. He has given many years of an active and useful life to the cause of education and has at- tained wide distinction in the field of labor he has chosen. He has been for several years identified with the business interests of the several Judson companies of this city, in which he is both director and stockholder.
PRICE, George M., Surgeon, Professional Instructor.
For more than a quarter of a century George M. Price, M. D., F. A. C. S., has practiced his healing art in Syracuse, win- ning honorable standing in his profession and public esteem as a citizen. In fact, save for the years spent in American and European medical schools, his entire life has been spent in the vicinity of Syra- cuse; his birthplace, Liverpool, being not far away. He is devoted to his pro- fession and confines himself closely to his special work as surgeon, having few out- side interests.
George M. Price was born at Liverpool, Onondaga county, New York, March 3, 1865. After a course of public school study he became a student at Cazenovia Seminary, later entering Syracuse High School, there completing a full course to graduation. He decided upon the profes- sion of medicine as his life work, begin- ning study in the medical department of the University of Syracuse, whence he was graduated M. D., class of 1886. Al- though officially authorized to begin prac- tice, he was not satisfied with his attain- ments and for the next two years pursued post-graduate courses in the hospitals and schools of medicine in London, England, and Vienna, Austria. He then returned to the United States and spent some time in further post-graduate work as interne and student at New York Hospital.
After those years of thorough prepara-
tion, he located in Syracuse and there has since continued, an honored and success- ful practitioner. He is a member of the New York State Medical Society, Central New York Medical Association, the Onondaga County Medical Society, and the Syracuse Academy of Medicine. He has served as president of the three last named societies. He is surgeon to the Hospital of the Good Shepherd and the Syracuse Free Dispensary, and Professor of Clinical Surgery in the College of Medicine, Syracuse University. In 1914 he received the degree of F. A. C. S. from the American College of Surgeons. He is a member of the board of directors of the Syracuse Young Men's Christian Associ- ation, of the Syracuse University Social Sentiment, and the Billy Sunday Club, and of the session of the Park Central Presby- terian Church. He has been honored by membership in the following organiza- tions: Alpha Omega Alpha (the + B K of the Medical World), Iota Chapter, Alpha Kappa Kappa ; Salt Springs Lodge, No. 520, Free and Accepted Masons ; Knight Templar; thirty-second degree Mason ; University Club, Practitioners' Club, Clinical Club, Automobile Club.
Dr. Price married, January 19, 1888, Nettie B. Reese and has five children : J. Reese, Emily H., Letitia E., Willis H., and G. Taylor, 2nd.
SMITH, Ray Burdick,
Lawyer, Author of Salutary Legislation.
In every branch of activity it is the few and not the many who rise to eminence, and it is these few who give tone and character to society, and shape the des- tinies of the communities in which they reside. More men rise to what is called eminence at the bar than in any other profession. The majority of our orators and statesmen come from the forum, as it is the most general school for the training
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of genius or talent, and humanity is in- debted to the study of law and the prac- tice of our courts for the development of some of the greatest minds the world has ever produced. Certainly no state has more reason to feel proud of her bar than New York. The records of her lawyers since the earliest periods of her history are replete with the works of men who were giants in intellect, and to-day no city in the east presents a fairer array of legal luminaries than Syracuse, New York. Prominent among those who have earned enviable reputations for themselves, and whose worth the people of the city have seen fit to acknowledge by conferring on them positions of honor and trust, is Ray Burdick Smith, of Syracuse.
The particular Smith family from which he is descended originally came to this country from Germany, where the name was spelled Schmidt, and has been changed to its present form in the course of years. Henry Smith (Schmidt), great- grandfather of Ray Burdick Smith, came to America in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and settled near Hud- son in Columbia county, New York. He moved to the town of Cuyler, Cortland county, New York, at the time of the Holland Purchase, with a large family of children, of which William Henry Smith was one. William Henry Smith cleared and worked a farm in the town of Linck- lean, Chenango county, and a tannery in the adjoining town of Taylor in Cortland county. He raised a family of eleven children of whom Willis Smith, father of Ray Burdick Smith, was one.
Willis Smith was a farmer in the town of Cuyler, Cortland county, and later re- moved with his family to Lincklean, Che- nango county. He married Emily Bur- dick, daughter of James and Martha (Maxon) Burdick. The founders of the Burdick and Maxon families were mem-
bers of the Roger Williams colony, and settled in what is now the State of Rhode Island. They have remained to this day "Separatists", or Seventh Day Baptists, and Ray Burdick Smith still clings to this faith, although he is a member of the First (Dutch) Reformed Church of Syra- cuse.
Ray Burdick Smith was born in Cuy- ler, Cortland county, New York, Decem- ber 11, 1867, and was a young child when his parents removed to the town of Linck- lean, Chenango county, in the same State. There he received his earlier education in the country district school, later becom- ing a pupil at the DeRuyter Academy and Cazenovia Seminary, from which he was graduated in the class of 1886, and was awarded the Wendell Scholarship for having maintained the highest standing in the class. In the fall of that year he matriculated at Syracuse University, re- mained there one year, then entered Yale University, from which he was graduated with distinction in the class of 1891, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and mem- bership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He achieved prominence in Yale both as a prize speaker and writer. He was a successful competitor for the John A. Porter Prize Essay, being the second un- dergraduate to win it after its foundation in 1870. The "Yale Literary Magazine" was in excellent standing during the time time he was one of its editors and its manager, and as a member of the Psi Upsilon and Chi Delta Theta fraternities he was held in high esteem.
Mr. Smith commenced the study of law in the latter part of 1891, in the Law School of Cornell University, devoting himself so earnestly to this that he prac- tically completed a two years' course in one year, one of his instructors having been Justice Charles E. Hughes. Taking up his residence in the city of Syracuse,
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he completed his law studies in the office of Waters, McLennan & Waters, was admitted to the bar in 1893, and at once opened offices in association with Thomas Woods under the firm name of Woods & Smith, which was later changed to Thomson, Woods & Smith, which part- nership continued until 1911.
In 1894, when the Constitutional Con- vention opened, Mr. Smith was appointed clerk of the cities committee of that body, and in this capacity drafted and advo- cated the constitutional provision which requires every bill for a special city law passed by the Legislature to be sent to the mayor of the city, and returned to the Legislature or Governor within fifteen days, with a certification as to whether or not the city has accepted it. This was one of the most important publicity pro- visions of the present constitution, giving to cities the right to a voice in measures in which they are directly concerned. In the Legislatures of 1894 and 1895, Mr. Smith was clerk of the committee on general laws of the Senate. He was elected supervisor of the Fourteenth, now the Seventeenth, ward of the city of Syracuse, in 1895, and was the incumbent of this office for a period of four years. He was chairman of the committee which had charge of the construction of the new Onondaga County Penitentiary, a struc- ture which has repeatedly been com- mended by the State Prison Commission, and is regarded as a model of its kind.
Mr. Smith was appointed assistant clerk of the Assembly in 1898, holding this office until his election as clerk in 1908. During his service as assistant clerk, he annually organized the clerical force of the house, and managed that work with consummate ability and suc- cess. For many years he has been recog- nized as one of the foremost parliamen- tarians of the State, and he so shaped the
procedure of the Assembly as to expedite materially the work it is called upon to perform. He drafted an amendment to the legislative law, providing for a system of original journals and documents which have, since their adoption, enabled the courts to save many thousands of dollars to the State. During the sixteen years he spent in Albany, he drafted practically every piece of legislation affecting his own county of Onondaga, and succeeded in getting many laws passed of great benefit to this section and to the State at large. He was counsel for the commit- tees which revised the charter of second class cities and drew a proposed charter for the city of New York and his knowl- edge of constitutional law and wide ac- quaintance with municipal affairs were invaluable in these connections. One of the legislative achievements of which Mr. Smith may well be proud is the Syracuse lighting law, which protects the rights of the consumer of gas and electricity more effectively than any measure of its kind, and which was passed only after a hard fight.
In 1910, when a Democratic Assembly was elected, Mr. Smith retired from active political life, and since that time has devoted himself exclusively to the practice of his profession, except that he was elected and served as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1915, and was a prominent figure in that con- vention, notably in securing the adoption of several amendments proposed by him and in opposing other amendments in- cluding the form of submission which were instrumental in the rejection of the proposed revision of the constitution by the electors.
During the recent years he has won a number of cases which have been of far reaching importance. In one of them- Tomaney against the Humphrey Gas
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Pump Company-the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, affirmed a judgment of twenty-five thousand dollars, given Mr. Smith's client by a jury. This was the largest verdict in a negligence action by the Fourth Department up to the present time (1915). In the fight in the courts against the telephone monoply in Syra- cuse, Mr. Smith has been a prominent figure, as he also was in securing legis- lation to relieve the towns of the burden of paying a proportion of the cost of the construction of county highways.
In his own county Mr. Smith has been regarded for many years as influential in public affairs. He was elected a mem- ber of the Republican general committee of Onondaga county in 1895, and became the vice-chairman of this body in 1896. He was elected chairman in 1907, and acted in that capacity through two of the hardest municipal campaigns in the experience of the party, that of 1907, and that of 1909, in the latter of which Ed- ward Schoeneck succeeded in a four- cornered fight against one strong Demo- crat and two Independent Republican candidates.
Mr. Smith is a member of the Citizens' and Masonic clubs of Syracuse ; the Al- bany Club of Albany; the Republican Club of New York City ; he is a thirty- second degree Mason, and a member of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Utica ; Syracuse Lodge, No. 31, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Westminster Lodge, Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows; De Kanissora Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men; Independent Order of Foresters; the Onondaga County Bar Association, and State Bar Association.
Mr. Smith married, in 1891, Nellie King Reilay, of Syracuse, and they have one child: Willis King, born September 11, 1892.
VANN, Irving Goodwin,
Lawyer, Jurist.
If "biography is the home aspect of history," it is entirely within the province of true history to accumulate and per- petuate the lives and characters, the achievements and honors of the illus- trious sons of the nation, and when the history of New York and her public men shall have been written its pages will bear few more illustrious names or record few more distinguished careers than that of Judge Irving Goodwin Vann, of Syra- cuse. Whatever else may be said of the legal fraternity, it cannot be denied that members of the bar have been more prominent factors in public affairs than any other class in the community. This is but the natural result of causes which are manifest and require no explanation. The ability and training which qualify one to practice law also qualify him in many respects for duties which lie out- side the strict path of his profession and which touch the general interests of soci- ety. The keen discernment and the habits of logical reasoning and arriving at accur- ate deductions so necessary to the suc- cessful lawyer enable him to view cor- rectly important public questions and to manage intricate business affairs suc- cessfully. Not only has Judge Vann at- tained an eminent position in connection with his chosen calling, but also in public office. His marked intellectuality and fitness for leadership led to his selection again and again for public honors. He is a man remarkable in the breadth of his wisdom, in his indomitable perseverance and his strong individuality.
On both sides of the family his lineage is an ancient one. Samuel Vann, his great-grandfather, was born in New Jer- sey, and served with bravery as a lieuten- ant in the War of the Revolution; his
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son, also Samuel Vann, died in 1878, at the age of one hundred and six years. Samuel R. Vann, son of the second Samuel Vann, was a native of New Jer- sey, and followed agricultural pursuits. The greater part of his life was spent in Ulysses, New York, where he died in 1872. He married Catherine H. Goodwin, a daughter of Joseph Goodwin, who served actively in the War of 1812; a granddaughter of Richard Goodwin, who was born in Pennsylvania, and, early in the nineteenth century, settled at Good- win's Point, near Taughannock Falls, on Cayuga Lake; and great-granddaughter of Richard Goodwin, a native of New England.
Judge Irving Goodwin Vann, son of Samuel R. and Catherine H. (Goodwin) Vann, was born in Ulysses, Tompkins county, New York, January 3, 1842, and his early years were spent on the farm of his father in that town. He was pre- pared for entrance to college at Tru- mansburg and Ithaca academies, matricu- lated at Yale College in September, 1859, entering the freshman class, and was graduated in the class of 1863. He en- gaged in the profession of teaching for a time, and in 1864 was principal of the Pleasant Valley High School, near Owensboro, Kentucky, from which posi- tion he resigned in order to devote him- self to his legal studies. He commenced these studies in the office of Boardman & Finch, of Ithaca, continuing them at the Albany Law School, from which he was graduated early in 1865. Following his graduation he served as a clerk in the Treasury Department at Washington, District of Columbia, for some months, and in October, 1865, took up his resi- dence in Syracuse, New York, with which city his career was identified from that time. A limited period of time was spent as clerk in the office of Raynor &
Butler, and he established himself in independent practice in March, 1866. The firms with which he was successively identified are: Vann & Fiske, Raynor & Vann, Fuller & Vann, and Vann, Mc- Lennan & Dillaye. His reputation as a lawyer of tact, ability and undoubted learning was soon established. His prac- tice was mainly confined to cases in the Appellate Courts, although he was so frequently called upon to act as referee, that he was at last obliged to refuse work of this nature, owing to the mass of other legal work which had accumulated.
The interest displayed by Judge Vann in the public affairs of the community was an unselfish and impartial one, but it was soon recognized and appreciated by the people of the city that he was a man to whom the conduct of public affairs could be safely entrusted. In February, 1879, he was elected mayor of Syracuse by a large Republican ma- jority, declining renomination at the end of his term because of the demands of his private practice. However, the citizens of Syracuse had had an opportunity to judge of his worth as a public official, and in 1881 he was elected a justice of the Supreme Court of the Fifth Judicial District, serving from January 1, 1882, to January 1, 1889, when Governor Hill appointed him a judge of the Court of Appeals, Second Division, as which he served during the entire existence of that tribunal, until October 1, 1892, when he resumed the duties of justice of the Su- preme Court. In November, 1895, he was the nominee of both parties, and was reelected a justice of the Supreme Court, assuming his duties January I, 1896, and resigning them January 7, 1896, in order to assume the duties of a judge of the Court of Appeals, to which Gov- ernor Morton had appointed him on January 6, to succeed Judge Rufus W.
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Peckham, who had resigned in order to take up his work as a judge of the Su- preme Court of the United States. In November, 1896, Judge Vann was elected a judge of the Court of Appeals by the largest majority ever received at a State election in New York, his term to cover from January 1, 1897, to December 31, 1910. In the fall of 1910 he was re- elected, having been nominated by both the leading political parties, for the full term of fourteen years, but on reaching the age of seventy he retired on the first of January, 1913, owing to the age limit of the constitution. In 1882 Hamilton College conferred upon him the honor- ary degree of Doctor of Laws and the same degree was conferred by Syracuse University in 1897, and by Yale Univer- sity in 1898. He has been a law lecturer in Cornell, Syracuse and Albany Law schools. He was the organizer of Wood- lawn Cemetery, and has served continu- ously as its president. He was one of the founders, and for several years president, of the Century Club, and was president of the Onondaga Red Cross Society since its organization. For many years he has visited the Adirondacks, where he owns a handsome, well appointed cottage, which he had erected on Buck Island, in Cran- berry Lake. There he houses his splen- did collection of fire arms and weapons of varied character, many of them of decided historical and scientific interest. Always an enthusiastic hunter and fisherman, Judge Vann in earlier years was also fond of camping. In his beau- tiful city home are collections of another sort, notably that of a fine and extensive library, in which may be found many volumes of almost priceless worth. Phil- anthropic projects of varied character and scope have always received a more than fair share of his time and attention, and his charities are wide and diversified.
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