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 51
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cash and enabling him to complete a course in law study in Boston, where he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar. In looking about for a location he decided upon Rochester, but he did not at once begin law practice. For two years he taught in old public school No. 6, then accepted a position as assistant editor of a Boston, Massachusetts, newspaper Later he became chief editor and while in that position wrote an editorial upon his kinsman, Daniel Webster, the states- man, whose death had just occurred. Rochester soon after again called him and for several years in that city he edited the "Rural New Yorker." With the estab- lishment of the Rochester Free Academy he became assistant principal of that in- stitution and in 1857 was chosen princi- pal, serving until 1863, his connection with the academy greatly increasing the reputation of the school and establishing Mr. Webster among the able educators of his day.
In 1863 he resigned his position as prin- cipal of the academy and henceforth his connection was with the law, the profes- sion for which he had prepared but had not hitherto followed, circumstances lead- ing him into journalism and pedagogy. He won instant recognition at the Mon- roe county bar, for he was thoroughly equipped for the practice of his profes- sion, and during his years as editor of the "Rural New Yorker" and as principal of the Free Academy he had made a large acquaintance and many close friends. In 1871 he rented offices in the Powers Building, the same yet being occupied by his son, Roy C. Webster, forty-five years later, a record in the city for continuous occupancy of offices. After a long and honorable career as journalist, educator and lawyer, Edward Webster, "joined the innumerable caravan."
Roy C. Webster, son of Edward and Polly A. (Andrews) Webster, was born
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in Rochester, New York, April 16, 1858. After completing the work of the grades in public school No. 6, he completed college preparation in Rochester Free Academy, graduating with the class of 1874. The next four years were spent as a student in the University of Rochester, receiving his degree A. B. from that insti- tution, class of 1878. He then studied law for two years, and in October, 1880, was admitted to the Monroe county bar. He at once began practice in Rochester, his honored father admitting him to part- nership and together they practiced until death dissolved the bond. Since that time he has practiced alone retaining the offices 303 Powers Building, which since 1871 has borne the name of Webster upon the door. He is not only learned in the law but is a man of broad culture and re- finement, interested in all good works and true to the best traditions of the honored family name he bears. He has a large practice in the State and Federal courts of the district and has been connected with a great many of the more important cases brought before those courts. He is a member of the various law associations and is highly esteemed by his profes- sional brethren of the bench and bar.
The following case excited deep in- terest and is one of the many of note which Mr. Webster has brought to suc- cessful issue. In the cause quoted he was counsel for the respondent.
SUPREME COURT. MONROE COUNTY.
The People of the State of New York, on the Relation of DANIEL W. POWERS, Respondent,
against
EDWIN A. KALBFLEISCH, HENRY C. MUNN and EDWARD B. BURGESS, Assessors of The City of Rochester, Monroe County, New York,
Appellants.
The above proceeding was brought for the purpose of reviewing the action of the assessors in assessing the building known as "Powers Block" at the sum of $1,000,- 000 for the purposes of general taxation. For more than ten years prior to the com- mencement of this proceeding the build- ing and land were assessed at $1,035,000. Each year Mr. Powers had protested against this assessment, claiming that the valuation was excessive, but to no pur- pose. In the year 1896 Mr. Powers again appeared before the assessors and filed a protest against the valuation placed on the property (building and premises) and the amount was reduced to $1,000,000. Still feeling an injustice had been done, he commenced the proceeding. It was tried before Hon. George W. Cowles, of Clyde, New York, as referee, who re- ported that the property was over as- sessed $175,000, placing its value at $825,- 000. The referee's report was affirmed by the Supreme Court at special term; Jus- tice Edwin A. Nash presiding. An appeal was then taken from the judgment and order entered to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court Fourth Depart- ment, and the judgment and order sus- tairied by an unanimous decision. De- fendants then appealed to the Court of Appeals. The appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeals, June 7, 1898.
The proceeding is in many respects novel and interesting on account of the value and reputation of the subject-mat- ter involved and the fact that this is the first time the judgment of the assessors was called in question and reviewed on the determination of a general city tax. It is of the utmost importance as it forms a precedent and establishes the rule gov- erning and controlling assessors in esti- mating the value of commercial property in the State of New York.
Mr. Webster is attorney for the Ameri- can Express Company, the Westcott Ex-
N Y-4-23
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press Company and numerous other cor- porations in addition to the large private interests he serves. He is a Republican in politics, and thoroughly alive to his responsibilities as a citizen. From 1890 until 1892 he was a member of the school board and from 1892 until 1898 was civil service commissioner. He served with admirable zeal in both positions and in many ways has attested his loyalty and his public-spirited interest in the city of his birth. He is a member of the Brick Presbyterian Church which for many years his father served as elder, and is con- nected with the Masonic order, affiliating with Corinthian Lodge.
Mr. Webster married, March 20, 1901, Florence A. Kerwin, of Rochester. They are the parents of a daughter, Marian Florence. The family home is at No 1115 Lake avenue.
JUDSON, John Brown, Printer, Public Official.
John Brown Judson is a member of one of the old New York families, a family representative of the best type which came from the "Mother Country" and established English blood and English in- stitutions as the foundation of the social structure in the United States. Domi- nant and persistent in character, it has given its prevailing traits to the popula- tion of this country, which no subsequent inroads of foreign races have sufficed to submerge, and has formed a base for our citizenship upon which the whole vast and composite fabric of this growing people is being erected in safety. It was sometime prior to the last decade of the eighteenth century that Deacon Daniel Judson, the progenitor of the Judsons in Fulton county, New York, settled in what was then the little village of Kingsboro, New York, which has since grown to be the flourishing city of Gloversville. With
this progress the descendants of Deacon Judson have been most intimately identi- fied, especially with the upbuilding of the great glove industry which has given the place its name and put it among the in- dustrial centers of the country. Deacon Judson's descendants are very numerous in the region of the city and all the lines of descent have carried on the worthy traditions bequeathed them by their foun- der. It is from the second son, Elisha, that the branch of the family with which we are concerned is derived, the members thereof having continued to make their home in Kingsboro or Gloversville down to the present day. This Elisha Judson was born in 1765, and followed the occu- pation of farming all his life with the ex- ception of the Revolutionary period dur- ing which he distinguished himself as a soldier in the Continental army. His wife, who was Lucy Case before her mar- riage, was born in 1766, and they were the parents of six children: Sylvester, Sylvanus, Gurdon, Elisha, Lucy and Alan- son. The son Elisha was the grandfather of the Mr. Judson of this sketch. Like his father he was a farmer, but he was also engaged in the making of gloves, being the first member of the family to enter this business. He may, therefore, properly be called one of the founders of the immense business which in the next generation grew to such large propor- tions. He and his wife, who was Rachel B. Brown before her marriage, were the parents of three children : Daniel Brown, John Wesley and Elisha, of whom the eldest was our Mr. Judson's father.
Daniel Brown Judson was a man of un- usual ability and marked talents for the practical affairs of life. A great organ- izer and manager, he also possessed a wonderfully receptive mind and it has been said of him by Professor Sprague in his "Gloversville History" that "he had less to learn and less to unlearn than com-
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monly befalls when he came to grapple with the duties of active life." His abil- ities quickly made themselves felt even as a school boy nor did they cease to be ap- parent until the time of his death. After the completion of his schooling he taught for a time, but finally turned his attention to the manufacture of gloves in which his father had gained a considerable success. It was his purpose, however, to conduct it upon a much larger scale than any- thing his father had ever contemplated, and this purpose he rapidly carried out in spite of obstacles by no means slight. His great plant included besides the large mills where the gloves themselves were cut and sewed two leather mills where the leather used in their product was dressed. During the seventies, when the industry had reached to its greatest importance, it was the largest in the world at that time and Mr. Judson, Sr., became one of the most prominent figures, not only in the glove trade, but in the commercial and industrial world generally. He was one of the most prominent figures in his own town and county and held many impor- tant positions there. He was among other things vice-president of the Fulton County National Bank for many years, and was conspicuous in the affairs of the Presbyterian and Congregational churches. One of the connections in which he was best known was that of his activities as a member of the Democratic party in New York State. A man of ready intellect, whose thoughts had been turned since childhood to political issues, he was also possessed of that essential to popular leadership, a strong and attrac- tive personality. He was a fluent and forceful speaker, as well, and these quali- ties could not fail to gain a great prestige with his fellow Democrats in Fulton county. He was his party's candidate for a number of important offices, among
others for Congress in the year when the ticket was headed by Horace Greeley. He married, March 10, 1852, Phoebe E. Brown, of Gloversville, a daughter of Thomas and Eunice (Mosher) Brown. Their children, who were six in number, were as follows: I. Edward Wall, born January 30, 1853, at Gloversville ; has had a very successful career as a member of the firm of Baker & Judson, contractors for heavy construction work; married Blanche Cutter, of Cincinnati, Ohio. 2. Daniel Brown, Jr., born February 13, 1855, died February 14, 1857. 3. Mary Louise, born December 3, 1857; married Alvah J. Zimmer, to whom she bore four children : Judson, Ruth, Janet and Hor- ace. 4. John Brown, of whom further. 5. Horace Sprague, born June 10, 1863 ; mar- ried (first) Jessie Belden, (second) Mabel Marstellar. 6. Daniel Bingham, born June 2, 1866, died February 21, 1903 ; married Nettie Morrison.
John Brown Judson, the fourth child of Daniel Brown and Phoebe E. (Brown) Judson, was born August 20, 1861, at Gloversville, New York. He has inher- ited the talents and abilities of his father and now occupies much the same place as did the elder man in former times in the regard of the community. His education, which has been a very complete one, was begun in the public schools of his native town. A course in the Kingsboro Acad- emy followed and his studies were com- pleted at Williston Seminary, Williston, Massachusetts. Like his father, he showed great aptness as a student and drew upon himself the favorable regard of his mas- ters and instructors. Upon leaving the Williston Seminary, he returned to his native city, which has continued to be his home ever since. He was scarcely more than a boy at the time, but remarkably enterprising and alert, and not only suc- ceeded in mastering the craft of printing
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but by the time he was sixteen years of age had established a job printing office of his own at Gloversville. It is not often the case that the business experiments of such extreme youth are permanently suc- cessful, yet this was so in Mr. Judson's case, and the little printing trade estab- lished by him then has met with un- broken success down to the present time, having developed in the meantime to great proportions. His success has been largely due to the fact that he early mas- tered every detail of his craft and was able to turn out work far superior to that of his competitors, work that bore the stamp of his original personality in a cor- responding originality and an attractive- ness of design of its own. These qualities have not diminished but increased with the passing of the years and the gaining of experience and Mr. Judson's business is now on a more secure basis than ever. His specialty is business stationery, it being his intention from the start to make his product fit the needs of the great manufacturing concerns, especially the glove companies of the city. In this he has succeeded remarkably well and has now a large market for his goods among glove makers, not merely in his own locality, but throughout the United States and Canada. Another matter to which Mr. Judson has directed his attention, in- creasingly so of late years, is the field of real estate in his native city. He has realized with his usual foresight and sagacity that the value of property in a growing community like Gloversville is bound to rise as a general proposition and that it only required judgment in select- ing them to make such properties the best of imaginable investments. He has never lost sight of the general interests of the community, however, in any of the transactions he has entered into and has rather consulted its welfare in everything
and has certainly served to great purpose by the development of several important tracts and the improvement of several localities in the city. One of these tracts has been named after its public-spirited developer and is called "Judson Heights."
But it is not by any means only in oper- ations such as these, or in the conduct of his important business, that Mr. Jud- son is best known in Gloversville and Ful- ton county. He is a strong subscriber, as was his father before him, to the prin- ciples which are represented in this coun- try by the Democratic party. To the early trend of his opinions, gained natur- ally enough under the influence of his father's strong mind and personality, Mr. Judson has added the still more profound kind of conviction that arises from in- dividual thought and earnest study. He began in early manhood to associate him- self with the local organization of his party, and from, the year 1888 has been considered an important factor in county, and later, in State politics. In that year he was sent as a delegate to the State Democratic Convention and was again honored in the same manner in 1892. In 1890 he was chosen secretary of the Ful- ton County Democratic Committee and served in that capacity until 1894, when he was chosen its chairman. In the pre- ceding year he had become a member of the New York State Democratic Commit- tee and in the years 1894 and 1896 was elected secretary of that body, an office which he held for seven years. In 1895 he was nominated by the Democratic Convention at Syracuse for State Comp- troller by a vote of three hundred and twelve to ninety-eight. Again in 1900 he was the Democratic candidate for State Treasurer on the same ticket as that upon which John B. Stanchfield ran for Gov- ernor. During these years the Demo- cratic party was not the popular one in
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the State and Mr. Judson suffered defeat with his colleagues, but a great change in public sentiment was about to be made and in 1913, when Woodrow Wilson was triumphantly elected President on the Democratic ticket, he rewarded Mr. Jud- son for his long and faithful service to the party by appointing him postmaster of Gloversville. Mr. Judson's administra- tion of that department has been a most efficient one and he has brought up to and maintained at the highest standard its local service. Mr. Judson is a prominent figure in the social life of the community, and a valuable member of the Eccentric Club of Gloversville, and served as its president in 1913 and 1914.
Mr. Judson was united in marriage at Gloversville on September 19, 1882, to Isabelle Stewart, a daughter of John and Catherine (Wells) Stewart, old and highly honored residents of the city. The Stew- arts are of Scotch descent, Mrs. Judson's grandparents being James and Margaret (McFarland) Stewart, both natives of Scotland. Her father was Judge John Stewart, of Johnstown, one of the best known men on the county bench, where he presided for more than twenty years. Mr. and Mrs. Judson are the parents of two children as follows: Margaret, born August 2, 1883, married, June 20, 1907, Boyd G. Curts, of Brooklyn, trust officer of the Empire Trust Company of New York, to whom she has borne one child, Isabelle Catherine ; John Brown, Jr., born May 10, 1893.
John Brown Judson is a fine type of citizen and the part that he plays in the community is a very vital one. He com- bines in very happy proportion the quali- ties of the practical business man with those of the public-spirited altruist, whose thoughts are with the good of the com- munity, and in addition is noted through- out Central New York as one of the best
after-dinner orators, his services being in great demand. It is by his own efforts that he has developed the successful busi- ness of which he is the owner and be- come one of the city's prominent mer- chants, and through all his worthy career he has never conducted his business so that it was anything but a benefit to any of his associates or to the city at large. He is frank and outspoken, a man whose integrity has never been called in ques- tion, who can be and is trusted to keep the spirit as well as the letter of every contract and engagement that lie enters into. He is possessed of the true demo- cratic instincts, easy of access to all men and as ready to lend his ear to the most humble as to the proudest and most in- fluential. It is scarcely necessary to add that these qualities give him a host of friends and admirers from every class of society so that he may be fairly regarded as one of the most popular men of the county.
HILL, Henry W.,
Legislator, Scholar, Waterway Promoter.
Henry Wayland Hill, scholar, lawyer, legislator, and especially prominent as a champion of the waterways system of the State, was born November 13, 1853, at Isle La Motte, Grand Isle county, Ver- mont, of good New England lineage, the son of Dyer and Martha Puella (Hall) Hill. His father was a member of the Vermont Legislature (1849-50) and his mother was of pronounced literary tastes.
Henry Wayland passed his youth on his father's farm and attended the pub- lic schools whenever he was able to do so. Desirous of a liberal education, he began his preparation for college, not without certain handicaps due to con- tinued manual labors, and was enabled to enter the classical course of the Uni-
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versity of Vermont in 1872. While in college he was a diligent student, at- taining membership in the Phi Beta Kap- pa Society, and was graduated honorably in 1876 as Bachelor of Arts, five years thereafter receiving his Master's degree, in 1900 being laureated Doctor of Laws by his alma mater, and in 1901, in recog- nition of his scholarly attainments the same distinction was conferred upon him by Middlebury College. A period of teaching succeeded his graduation. He was principal of Swanton (Vermont) Academy (1877-79) ; and of the Chateau- gay (New York) Academy-Union Free School (1877-83). Meanwhile he also read law and was admitted to the bar of the State of New York, at Albany, Janu- ary 25, 1884. The following May, he set- tled in Buffalo and became a member of the law firm of Andrews and Hill, which partnership continued until dissolved by the death of Andrews, May, 1896. He has uniformly maintained an honorable and general practice, his house address being at 471 Linwood avenue, Buffalo; where he has a choice collection of books. He married, August 1I, 1880, Harriet Au- gusta, daughter of Francis and Helen Eliza (Butts) Smith, of Swanton, Ver- mont. Mrs. Hill is a very amiable lady. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hill are descendants of well known New England families.
Early enlisted in political activities as a Republican-hailing from Vermont, he could not well be otherwise-he has con- sistently adhered to that faith through- out; and, happily, he came into New York politics too late to be involved in the factional embroilments that had vexed his party therein for the preceding twenty years. His first preferment was an ex- alted one, that of his election, from the Thirty-first Senatorial District, to the State Constitutional Convention of 1894; and, in that body he had an influential part. He served on the suffrage, educa-
tion and civil service committees. He was the author and introducer of sev- eral important measures designed to pro- vide home rule for cities, honest elections, the maintenance on a popular basis of secondary and higher education, especi- ally the constitutionalizing of the Re- gents of the University and, above all, was the leading advocate of the further development of the waterways system of the State, with which subsequently he has been conspicuously and persuasively identified.
At the general election in 1895, he was elected to the Assembly from the Second District of Erie county, and by successive reëlections, served five terms in the Lower House (1896-1900) ; and, promoted to the Senate in the latter year, retained a seat therein for five terms (1901-10). In each house respectively he was highly es- teemed and influential, clear and courte- ous in debate, diligent as a member of various leading committees and notably efficient as chairman (in the Senate) of those on commerce and navigation, codes and finance. In the Assembly, his labors ex necessitate, were largely of a local character, among which the follow- ing may be cited: The Buffalo Free Public Library, the Buffalo Historical Society Building and the New Armory appropriation bills. Among general bills to his credit are the Pan-Ameri- can Exposition, the All-State Pharmacy, and the Primary Election bills; and as chairman of the canal committee in 1900, he was chiefly responsible for for- mulating and securing the passage of the Canal Survey law for a barge canal. In the Senate, in 1902, he drafted and intro- duced a proposed amendment to article seven of the Constitution, providing for the application of the surplus moneys in the treasury to the liquidation of the bonded indebtedness ; and an amendment to the same article extending the bonded
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period from eighteen to fifty years, both which passing two legislatures, were ap- proved by popular vote in 1905. He also was the principal champion of the $101,- 000,000 canal referendum of 1903 which was overwhelmingly ratified at the polls. He has also championed all canal refer- endum measures since that time. In the last year of Governor Hughes's ad- ministration he was chairman of the fi- nance committee of the Senate, a position of the highest responsibility. It may well be doubted that any Senator, in recent years, has compassed more of competent and valuable legislation than did Senator Hill during the period from his entry into the Assembly in 1896 to the close of his Sen- atorial career in 1910.
Outside his professional and legislative service, Senator Hill has been engaged in many activities, inuring to the public benefit and his own distinct desert. His most engrossing labors have been those devoted to the waterways of the State- the problems relating to their improve- ment and utilization. His signal achieve- ments in this regard, while in the Legis- lature, have been referred to previously ; but since his retirement therefrom, he has also been incessant and indefatigable, with voice and pen, in correspondence and convention, in toil and travel, in moulding public opinion in behalf of the cause he has at heart. His literary con- tributions thereto have been volumi- nous. He is the author of "Waterways" in the "Encyclopedia Americana," and of "Waterways and Canal Construction in the State of New York," a volume of five hundred and fifty pages, and a standard authority on the subject. He is the author also of the article entitled "Origin and Con- struction of the Barge Canals" in "Official New York from Cleveland to Hughes" and is also the author of a comprehen- sive pamphlet on "The Development of Constitutional Law in New York." He
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