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 39
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company's plants is equipped with the latest and most perfect mechanical appli- ances, securing the highest degree of cleanliness and most sanitary conditions. Over twenty-five hundred employes are at work in the factories in the busy season, and a still larger number are en- gaged on the farms in producing the fruits and vegetables needed for the business. The world-wide fame of the "Blue Label" ketchup, chili sauce, soups, per- serves, jams, jellies, meat delicacies, etc., is simply a recognition of the efficient methods, the constant watchfulness, and the wise management of the vast enter- prise of which Mr. Curtice is the head, and of which he and his brother have been the creators.
Edgar N. Curtice was married in 1876 to Lucy E. Gardner. Their only son, Edgar N. Curtice, Jr., born in 1878, died in 1905, in which year the death of Mrs. Curtice also occurred. Louie Belle, a daughter, is the wife of Frederick Edwin Bickford. Agnes Eloise, another daugh- ter, is the wife of Dr. Volney A. Hoard.
Mr. Curtice is a member of various clubs and social organizations, among them the Genesee Valley Club, the Rochester Yacht Club, Rochester His- torical Society, the Country Club of Rochester, the Oak Hill Country Club and the Sons of the American Revo- lution. Deeply interested in the welfare and commercial development of Roches- ter, he has been a member of the Cham- ber of Commerce since its organization, and he is also a director of the National Bank of Rochester and of the Fidelity Trust Company. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party. Such, in brief, is the life history of Edgar N. Curtice, a man remarkable in the breadth of his wisdom, his indefatigable energy and his fertility of resource. One of the prominent characteristics of his success-
ful business career is that his vision has never been bounded by the exigencies of the moment, but has covered as well the possibilities and opportunities of the future. This has led him into extensive undertakings, bringing him, into marked prominence in industrial and commercial circles. A man of unswerving integrity and honor, one who has a perfect appre- ciation of the higher ethics of life, he has gained and retained the confidence and respect of his fellow men and is distinc- tively one of the leading citizens, not only of Rochester but of the Empire State, with whose interests he has been identified throughout his entire career.
WIDENER, Howard H., Lawyer, Public Official.
A man of wide general information, broad reading and deep thinking, well educated and well bred, Mr. Widener even without the prestige which he deserves from his high position at the Rochester bar would be a man singled out from among his fellows as one far above the ordinary. As a lawyer he is a clear thinker, a logical reasoner, well versed in the branches of the law, to which he has devoted himself. As assistant and as district attorney of Monroe county he was necessarily obliged to specialize in criminal law and some most notable vic- tories are to his credit. His practice ex- tends to all State and Federal courts of the district, and he acts as legal repre- sentative for some of the most prominent men and concerns of the city, his sage counsel based upon comprehensive under- standing of the law proving a valuable asset to his large clientele. He is noted for his industry, his thorough knowledge of the law, his concise and searching mind, his systematic habits, his resource- fulness, his personal honesty, and his
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lofty professional ideals. It is the special function of the lawyer to actively partici- pate in the affairs of his community. He is the spokesman for its patriotic observ- ances, for the reform of its abuses, and for the enlargement of its functions. He is the motive power of its educational, moral and charitable work. All these re- quirements of Mr. Widener fulfills, and no man is more genuinely useful and helpful than he. Admitted to the Monroe county bar in 1885, he has in the years inter- vening made continuous progress in his profession and has long occupied a posi- tion of distinction among the leading lawyers of that bar. His reputation as a lawyer has been won through earnest, honest labor, and his standing at the bar is a merited tribute to his ability.
Mr. Widener springs from one of the historic families of New Jersey, his great- grandfather, Henry Widener, serving with the "Minute-Men" of Sussex county in the Revolutionary War. The family is of German origin, the American ancestors settling in Eastern Pennsylvania about 1735. A lineal descendant was Peter A. B. Widener, the great financier and capi- talist, whose son and grandson were lost at the sinking of the great steamship "Titanic." The wonderful contributions of that branch of the family to the art galleries and philanthropies of Philadel- phia are the glory of that city, and at Harvard University a memorial building stands as a monument to the brave young man whose soul went out over the frozen sea when the "Titanic" plunged beneath the wave. Other noted descendants are General Josiah Gorgas and his son, Colo- nel William Gorgas, both of the United States army, the latter of Panama Canal fame. Professor R. F. Widener, of Chi- cago, is also a descendant of the German ancestor.
Henry (2) Widener, son of the Revolu-
tionary patriot, Henry (1) Widener, of Sussex county, New Jersey, settled in Chili, Monroe county, New York, in early pioneer days, and at one time was the owner of six hundred acres of cultivated land. He was a soldier of the War of 1812, serving with the defenders of the Niagara frontier. He married Prudence Kimball, of Riga, New York, who bore him ten children. He died at Chili, Janu- ary 21, 1837, his wife, Prudence, died Jan- uary 7, 1845.
Kinney A. Widener, son of Henry (2) and Prudence (Kimball) Widener, was born at Chili, New York, April 22, 1822. He was a man of education, taught school for fourteen years, but was a farmer the greater part of his life. He was closely identified with public affairs, held many town offices, including town superintend- ent and school commissioner. He mar- ried, March II, 1848, Mary R., daughter of Samuel and Eliza (Reed) Phillips, of Chili. She was the mother of three chil- dren: Howard H .; Chandler Reed, born March 25, 1862, died January 1I, 1865; and Blanche Eliza.
Howard H. Widener, eldest son of Kin- ney A. and Mary R. (Phillips) Widener, was born at Chili, Monroe county, New York, May 6, 1860. He obtained an academic education and was graduated from Chili Seminary, class of 1879, and for four years taught school. But his ambition was for the profession of law, and after a thorough course of prepara- tory study he was admitted to the Monroe county bar at the June term, 1885. He at once began practice in Rochester, and has been continuously in practice until the present time (1916). He soon gained a foothold in his profession, and has gone forward as the years have progressed to a position of professional importance most gratifying to himself and his many friends. He possesses that rarest of gifts,
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the faculty for honest work, a faculty which has won him professional fame and, combined with business ability and sa- gacity and personal qualities of the highest order, has won him public confidence and esteem and the affection of a host of friends.
A Republican in politics, Mr. Widener was appointed assistant district attorney of Monroe, and in that office tried some very important criminal cases, and won notable victories. In 1907 he was the candidate of his party for district attor- ney, and won the verdict of the polls. He not only upheld the high reputa- tion he had gained as assistant, but won additional fame and the highest encomiums of the bench and bar. He prepared his cases with the greatest care, and in his presentation is clear, logical and forceful. He is a fair oppo- nent, a close observer of the ethics of the profession, courteous to court, and most solicitous for a client's interests. He is fond of historical and genealogical study, and in his hours "off duty" has compiled a history of the Widener family, a work of great labor, and very valuable. He is a thirty-second degree Mason of Rochester Consistory, and a Noble of Damascus Temple, his lodge, Younondio, No. 163, Free and Accepted Masons. He is a member of the local and State bar asso- ciations, and much interested in their proceedings.
Mr. Widener married, February 22, 1886, Anna L., daughter of Lyman and Mary J. (Hamlin) Brooks. The family home is in Chili, where the family has been resident for considerably more than a century. His professional offices are in the Powers Building, Rochester.
RICKER, Marcena (Sherman), M. D., Successful Female Physician.
In 1888 Dr. Marcena (Sherman) Ricker located in Rochester, New York, for the
practice of her profession, her advent causing much more comment then than can be now understood when the woman doctor is no longer a novelty but a fixed star in the medical firmament. She came thoroughly prepared by college training and hospital experience, but in the years which have since intervened she has pur- sued post-graduate courses in New York City institutions and in her specialties, diseases of women and children, has won the highest professional reputation. She is a member of the County, State and National Medical societies. She has de- voted a great deal of time to church, char- ity and philanthropy. As an able repre- sentative of the professional women of her city, she has been of great aid to every other woman who was ambitious to enter a profession, and through the influence of her own successful career and noble life she has aided in breaking down the wall of prejudice and opposition until now woman can apply for admission to nearly every institution of learning with the cer- tainty that her sex alone will not be a bar. Argument was good a quarter of a century ago, but it needed the object teaching of lives like Dr. Ricker's to make the argu- ment effective, as the men controlling col- leges of law and medicine are perhaps bound by tradition more firmly than any other class and yield only when their de- fense is utterly demolished by facts and Dr. Ricker aided by furnishing a fact in her own life.
Marcena (Sherman) Ricker was born in Castile, Wyoming county, New York, daughter of Benjamin H. and Eliza (Llewellyn) Sherman. Benjamin H. Sherman was born in Rhode Island, a distant relative to General William T. and Senator John Sherman, of Ohio, and died in 1887, aged sixty-nine. His wife, born in Bristol, Orleans county, New York, was of Welsh descent. They were the parents of two sons and four daugh-
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ters. Marcena Sherman was educated in Castile schools, Gainesville Seminary, and Albany Normal College, qualifying as a teacher. After graduation from Normal she taught for three years, then began the carrying out of a long formed ambition, the study of medicine. She obtained her degree of M. D. from the Cleveland Homeopathic College, class of 1888, and shortly afterward located in Rochester where she has since been in continuous practice, specializing in diseases of women and children. She was remarkably suc- cessful in her earlier efforts to establish a practice, and it was not long before her office was being sought for by a most desirable class of patrons. Her experi- ence and post-graduate courses taken in New York later gave her greater confi- dence in her own powers and she is now the strong, self-reliant physician, skillful in both diagnosis and treatment, her skill being accompanied to the sick room by that sympathy and womanly tenderness which brings healing in itself. A student and thinker, she is recognized as a learned and able member of the medical profes- sion and the contributions from her pen to the medical journals have been fre- quent and well received.
Dr. Ricker is a member of the Monroe County Medical Association, Western New York Medical Society, the American Institute of Homeopathy, member of the staff of the Homeopathic Hospital of Rochester, president of the board of man- agers of the Baptist Home of Monroe County, visiting physician at the Door of Hope, member of Lake Avenue Baptist Church. The Baptist Home of Monroe County was established largely through her persistent effort extending over a period of ten years, ere "hope ended in fruition."
Miss Sherman married, June, 1898, Wentworth G. Ricker, born in the State
of Maine, and for several years president of the Ricker Manufacturing Company, overhead trackings and machine work, No. 239 North Water street, Rochester. Mr. Ricker is one of Rochester's able, en- ergetic and successful business men, his line of manufacture being an important one. He is a member of Lake Avenue Baptist Church. In political faith he is a Republican.
FARMER, William Sidney, Lawyer, Jurist.
As judge of the Municipal Court of Syracuse, William Sidney Farmer is con- tinuing a career in which he has served his native State with conspicuous fidelity, and with the dignity, zeal and courage which have characterized his entire work from the time of his admission to the bar. Not only is his mental attitude one of simplicity and impartiality, but his actual contact with everyone is based on that be- lief in human brotherhood, so frequently met with, and which makes him an ideal magistrate. Rich and poor alike are dealt with by him on a plane of simple equality, and with a dignity and courtesy that are only the outward aspect of great firmness, courage and a far reaching progressive- ness. The Farmer family has been resi- dent in the State of New York for a num- ber of generations, Jonathan Farmer hav- ing been one of the pioneer settlers of St. Lawrence county, when he took up his residence in the town of Fowler.
Seymour M. Farmer, son of Jonathan Farmer, was born in Fowler, and subse- quently removed to Hailesboro. For a number of years he was engaged in busi- ness as a merchant, and for a long time held the office of justice of the peace. He was a major of the State militia. He mar- ried Alethea M. Rich, who died in 1913, and who was a member of a pioneer fam-
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ily of Northern New York. Children: William Sidney, whose name heads this sketch; Frances A., of Syracuse; Anna E., who married Hon. Vasco P. Abbott, of Gouverneur ; Martha A., married Charles W. Carpenter, of Syracuse; Lieutenant Harry H., a prominent attorney of Syra- cuse, now associated with his brother, Judge Farmer.
Judge William Sidney Farmer, son of Seymour M. and Alethea M. (Rich) Farmer, was born in Hailesboro, St. Law- rence county, New York, July 18, 1861. He received his education in the public schools of Hailesboro, and the Gouv- erneur Wesleyan Seminary, at Gouver- neur, New York, and from early years showed decided ability as a speaker. Hav- ing decided to adopt the law as a profes- sion, he commenced his studies with the Hon. Vasco P. Abbott, at that time sur- rogate of St. Lawrence county, and at the same time became clerk of the surro- gate's court. He was admitted to the bar at Saratoga, New York, in 1882, and established himself in the practice of his profession in Gouverneur, but remained there but a short time. Going to Kimball, South Dakota, at that time a pioneer set- tlement, he was successfully engaged in practice there for a period of two years, during which time he served as vice-presi- dent of the Farmers' and Traders' Bank of Kimball. In 1891 he returned to the State of New York, where he established himself in the practice of his profession in Syracuse, and is still busy with a large clientele. There he formed a partnership with Emmons H. Sanford, under the style of Sanford & Farmer. Subsequently he associated himself in a partnership with his brother, Lieutenant Harry H. Farmer, which firm is still known as W. S. & H. H. Farmer.
In May, 1914, during the absence of Judge Shove, William S. Farmer was ap-
pointed acting judge of the Court of Special Sessions, by Mayor Will, and on January 9, 1915, he was appointed judge of the Municipal Court by the same mayor, to fill the vacancy made by the resignation of Judge Cady. Judge Farmer is interested in many of the social, frater- nal and benevolent associations of Syra- cuse, and has attained the thirty-second degree in Free Masonry. He is a member of the Masonic Club of the City of New York; of Central City Lodge, No. 305, Free and Accepted Masons, of Syracuse ; honorary member of Syracuse Lodge, No. 501, and of Gouverneur Lodge, No. 217, at Gouverneur, New York. Masonically he has been master of his lodge, district deputy grand master of the Twenty- seventh Masonic District for three years, one of the commissioners and chief com- missioner of the Commission of Appeals, and is now senior grand warden of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Ma- sons in the State of New York. He is a member of Americus Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; of the Syracuse Lodge, Knights of Pythias; of the Syra- cuse Chamber of Commerce; Masonic Temple Club; City Club ; Citizens' Club ; Republican Escort; and Mystique Krewe of Ka-noo-na, a civic corporation of Syra- cuse, of which he was president three years.
Judge Farmer inarried, in 1889, Ruth Selleck, daughter of William H. Selleck, of Syracuse, and they have one daughter : Helen Alethea, born August 30, 1905. The beautiful home of the family is at No. 1518 East Genesee street.
BELLOWS, Anna May (Marshall), Well-Known Elocutionist.
Large as is the influence in a commun- ity of those more subtle forms of force, such as exert themselves in the expression
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of aesthetic feeling, as in the case in in- stance, it is very difficult to state in accu- rate terms or even to compare with other influences of another character. We can gauge, at least roughly, the benefactions of those whose gifts to their fellows are material in character, we can apply to them certain standards of value, even if it be so gross a one as that of money value, and thus gain some general idea of their comparative worth to us, but how shall we deal with the spiritual gifts of the artist? What standard of value shall we gauge and measure them by? So illu- sive and intangible are they that the man who does not feel them, the materialist, will deny their existence altogether, and even those who are most sure of their great value, who are most sensitive to their appeal, can find no adequate terms in which to speak of them. Nevertheless the great mass of people with sure in- stinct are thoroughly convinced of their worth as evidenced by the way in which they seek every opportunity to have the feelings which respond to artistic stimuli awakened and applaud those who are suc- cessful in awakening them. We must always, therefore, turn with gratitude to the work of such women as Mrs. Anna (Marshall) Bellows, of Gloversville, New York, who has given her life to the de- velopment of her remarkable artistic tal- ents, consecrating her best efforts to pro- viding this most wholesome of pleasures, the aesthetic pleasure, for her fellows.
Anna (Marshall) Bellows is a daughter of Levi T. and Mary Ann (Smith) Mar- shall, of Gloversville, New York, and a member of a very old New England fam- ily, the Marshalls having lived there from some time previous to the year 1634, on the 31st of August of which year Thomas Marshall was admitted to the church in Boston as we learn from a record in which he is described as a "widower." Tradi-
tion, indeed, makes the tamily a very old one in England and has it that the line of descent runs back to one of the warriors who accompanied William the Conqueror into England at the time of his conquest of that country. However this may be, the line is a perfectly distinct one in this country from the early colonial figure down to the present representatives of the name in New York State. The Thomas Marshall already spoken of brought to the country with him when he sailed from England his four children, Thomas and Samuel, Sarah and Frances, and it was from the second of these sons that the branch of the family with which this sketch is concerned was derived. Thomas Marshall occupied a position of promi- nence in the Boston colony and held sev- eral offices, such as selectman and deputy, was deacon in the church and generally highly respected among his fellow colo- nists. The high standard set by him has been consistently maintained by his de- scendants and the family has numbered many distinguished men among those who have borne its name.
In the seventh generation of descent from Thomas Marshall was Levi T. Mar- shall, the father of Mrs. Bellows. In his father's time the family had removed from Connecticut, where it had made its home for a number of generations, to New York State, and taken up its abode in Oneida county, and it was there in the little vil- lage of Vernon that Levi T. Marshall was born. He was one of the splendid type of farmers with which the North Atlantic States abounded in the past generation, enlightened and of strong personality, who made of the primitive occupation that they followed something that any man might be proud to call his own. Un- usually well educated and possessed of a forceful character and powerful mind, Mr. Marshall was one who might have shone
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brilliantly in professional life and his tastes led him somewhat in that direction. He was, however, one of those philoso- phers who make the best out of the condi- tions of life in which they find themselves and, finding that circumstances were such as to make it necessary for him to farm, he farmed with all his might and made a great success of his operations. A man of his character would be prominent in any community and he was eminently so among the rural population of Oneida county. He was one of the leading mem- bers in both the Oneida and the New York State Agricultural societies, held high official positions in both and was one of the most conspicuous figures in the work of advancing the agricultural inter- ests of that part of the country. His farm was one of the model places of the district, a sort of show place, where vis- itors to the town were taken to admire its beauties, and here he devoted himself to his specialty, the cultivation of fruit. In the year 1869 he removed to Glovers- ville, New York, and there made his home until his death in 1910. Upon his com- ing to Gloversville he purchased forty acres of land in the vicinity and added it to the village with the idea of improving its appearance and adding to its general attractiveness. He then organized the Rural Art Association, consisting of the most public-spirited men of the commun- ity, and at once began the active cam- paign for the beautifying of the village. He was himself chosen president of the association and it has been largely due to his unremitting efforts that the great improvement in Gloversville's appearance has taken place. It was a work entirely in line with Mr. Marshall's tastes and in- clinations and one which his unusual taste and intelligence fitted him to per- form most fully and adequately. Cer- tainly the present city of Gloversville is
much in debt to his memory. His public life was a very conspicuous and praise- worthy one and he became a very promi- nent figure in the militia organization of his State, being commissioned brigadier- general by Governor William H. Seward in 1839. He was elected justice of the peace in 1835 and held that office until 1869, when he removed to Gloversville, and in 1861 was elected to the Legislature of New York State. General Marshall was married, in 1832, to Mary Ann Smith, a daughter of John Smith, of Vernon, and to them were born three children : Charla- magne; Joseph Addison, who married, January 26, 1876, Irene Wing Lasher ; Anna May, of whom further.
Anna May (Marshall) Bellows was born at Vernon, Oneida county, New York, and passed the early years of her life on the beautiful farm owned by her father. In the midst of this healthful en- vironment, engaged in the wholesome occupations and pastimes of the country child, she grew up into young girlhood. She very early showed that she inherited her father's taste for art and the beauti- ful, also his discrimination, and she inter- ested herself particularly in literature and the art of elocution. She was a girl thirteen years of age when her father re- moved to Gloversville, Fulton county, New York, and from that time to the present that city has been her home. She was educated at the public schools of Gloversville while a young girl. This completed her preparatory studies and she then attended Wells College. Dur- ing this period she showed herself an un- usually alert and intelligent student and drew the favorable attention of her mas- ters and instructors upon her because of the high standing she maintained in her classes. She completed her course in 1876 and then turned her attention to the art she loved with the intention of mak-
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