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 pre?minent in their own and many other states. V.6 > Part 25
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bia, twice escaped and was recaptured, but a third attempt was successful after a six months' imprisonment. He made his escape from Columbia prison in the night, and after eight weeks of hunger, suffering and privation joined a detach- ment of troopers from Colonel Kirk's command, who were raiding the moun- tains of Tennessee. He was aided in his get-away by a loyal Union man, a North Carolina mountaineer, who fed, clothed and cared for him as best he could, and instructed him as to the proper course to pursue. Colonel Gere never forgot this man and the only break in his Camil !.. residence was during the ten years he spent in North Carolina engaged in min- ing mica with the man as partner who had befriended him in his hour of need. Colonel Kirk, after Captain Gere reported to him, aided him to get to Washington, and soon afterward he was sent back to his regiment, arriving in time to accom- pany it on the Petersburg campaign. At the storming of Lee's lines at Petersburg the One Hundred and Twenty-second New York took part, Lieutenant-Colonel Gere leading his men.
Colonel Gere married, October 8, 1856, Helen Hopkins, daughter of Anson Hop- kins, of Amboy, Onondaga county, New York. She was born July 7, 1832, died February 26, 1913, at Gere Locks, a mile west of Solvay, aged eighty years. At the time of her death she was the last survivor of the first members of the Am- boy Presbyterian Church, one of the old- est churches in the county. She was born in Amboy and never resided outside of Onondaga county. After the death of Colonel Gere in 1908 she made her home at the old Gere homestead.
Colonel Gere for thirty-five years was elder of Amboy Presbyterian Church, and the year prior to his death represented that church in Syracuse Presbytery. For
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many years he was engineer of the town of Solvay, and for many years was con- nected with the manufacture of Solar Salt in Syracuse. Children of Colonel James M. and Helen (Hopkins) Gere: Helen Eliza, born June 10, 1858, graduated from Syracuse University, Bachelor of Philos- ophy, class of 1881, now a teacher of science ; William Anson, born September 3, 1860, married Caroline Munro, June 4, 1890; James Brewster, of further men- tion; Mary Emmeline, born October 2, 1870, died March 27, 1872.
James Brewster Gere was born in Ca- millus, New York, August 14, 1867. He obtained his early education in the schools of that town, and then entered Syracuse High School, continuing there until 1883, when he left school to become his father's farm assistant. In 1896 he engaged in the retail coal business in Syracuse, and in 1899 added a wholesale department. In 1907 he incorporated his business under the title of the Gere Coal Company, of which he is president. He is also presi- dent of the Onondaga Vitrified Brick Company, both companies leaders in their respective lines. Mr. Gere is an active member of the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, is a trustee of Geddes Congre- gational Church, is a member of the Ma- sonic order, of the Citizens' Club, and is an ardent Republican.
He married, November 1, 1894, Harriet, daughter of Henry S. Munro, of Belle Isle, New York. Children: Wendell, born September 28, 1897; James Brew- ster (2), born June 17, 1900; Caroline, born May 25, 1902; Donald Kerr, born December 25, 1903.
CHAPMAN, Levi Snell, Lawyer, Man of Affairs, Legislator.
Levi Snell Chapman was born at Fay- etteville, Onondaga county, New York, on October 15, 1865. His father was Nathan
Randall Chapman, who after practicing law in that village for fifty-seven years, died March 21, 1897, at the age of eighty- eight years. As an evidence of the esteem in which he was held, the Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Baptist churches united for a union memorial service on the Sunday evening following his funeral. His mother was Martha Maria (Tibbits) Chapman, who was born in Syracuse on April 1, 1829, and who married Nathan R. Chapman on Decem- ber 27, 1847. She was a daughter of Otis and Rebecca Tibbits, who were early set- tlers in Syracuse, where she died on March 31, 1909, at the age of eighty years, leaving her surviving three children, Sara Fidelia Chapman, now living in Syracuse ; Ella Chapman Dike, wife of Rev. Otis A. Dike, of Lake Placid, New York; and Levi Snell Chapman, the two latter being twins. Thomas D. Chapman, a half- brother and a veteran of the Civil War, died at Fayetteville in 1901.
Mr. Chapman can trace his ancestry on his father's side in an unbroken line al- most to the beginning of American his- tory. His father was born at Stonington, Connecticut, April 21, 1809, and with his father, Nathan Chapman, and his mother, Hannah (Randall) Chapman, and an uncle, Smith Chapman, who later re- moved to Rochester, New York, came to Lenox, Madison county, New York, about 1818, long before the advent of railroads and when Central New York was almost a wilderness. There he lived for years in a log cabin and helped his father clear the virgin soil of the county of which his brother, Sanford Palmer Chapman, after- wards became sheriff, and his cousin, Benjamin Franklin Chapman, became county judge.
After graduating from Cortland Acad- emy at Homer, New York, in 1831, the elder Chapman entered Hamilton College, at Clinton, New York, from which he was
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graduated with high rank in 1835. He by an equally continuous genealogical survived every other member of his class record, traces its ancestry back to Walter Palmer, who lived in Charlestown, Mas- sachusetts, as far back as 1629. and lived to be the ninth oldest alumnus of his alma mater. Later he taught Greek, Latin and mathematics in the Manlius Academy, and in the year 1836, became a teacher in the Fayetteville Academy, of which he afterwards became principal, which position he held for two and one- half years. During his administration the Fayetteville Academy, which was a pri- vate preparatory school, had an attend- ance of nearly three hundred students, as the old catalogues show, coming from all parts of Central New York. While teach- ing, the elder Chapman studied law in the offices of Nicholas P. Randall, a relative on his mother's side, of Manlius, and Judge Watson, at Fayetteville, and was admitted to the bar in 1840.
Mr. Chapman's father, grandfather and great-grandfather all bore the Christian name of Nathan. Both his great-grand- fathers were captains in the War of the Revolution, one of whom, Peleg Randall, his grandmother's father, as Bachus' "History of the Baptists," volume 3, page 259, informs us was a lieutenant, and at the surrender of Burgoyne, the captain having been killed, took command of the company. This same Peleg Randall was for thirty years, as Benedict's "History of the Baptists," page 475, tells us, pastor of the First Baptist Church of North Ston- ington, Connecticut, one of the earliest Baptist churches in New England. The first Nathan Chapman was a deacon in this church, and his son, Nathan, Jr., mar- ried the daughter of this pastor, Hannah Randall, May 29, 1808. Her mother was Hannah Palmer, who married Rev. Peleg Randall, in 1772, thus connecting the Chapman family with the ancient Ran- dall and Palmer families, the first of which traces its ancestry back to John Randall, who died at Westerly, Rhode Island, in 1684, and the second of which,
This particular Chapman family begins with John Chapman, who was born in England, near London, in or about the year 1694, and came to America in 1712, having been impressed on a British man- of-war, from which he escaped in Boston, and fled back into the wilderness, where he stayed with the Pequot Indians until he could make his way to Westerly, Rhode Island, where in or about the year 1714 he married Sarah Brown. They had five children, viz., John Chapman, who settled at Westerly, Rhode Island; Wil- liam Chapman, who settled at North Bol- ton, Connecticut ; Andrew Chapman, born in the year 1722, who settled at Stoning- ton, Connecticut ; Thomas Chapman, who settled at North Bolton, Connecticut ; and Sumner Chapman, who settled at West- erly, Rhode Island. Andrew, the third of these five sons, was the great-great-grand- father of Levi S. Chapman, and died at North Stonington, Connecticut, April 15, 1794, at the age of seventy-six years. His wife, Hannah Smith Chapman, to whom he was married in 1744, died June 31, 1783, at the age of fifty-six years. They had seven children, of whom Nathan Chapman was the fourth, born October 7, 1760, and who was married July 7, 1785, to Nabby Peabody, who was born Sep- tember 20, 1763. The first Nathan died at North Stonington, Connecticut, Febru- ary 14, 1824, and his widow died at Fay- etteville, New York, May 12, 1847. They had seven children of whom the oldest was Nathan, Jr., Levi S. Chapman's grandfather, who was born at Stonington, Connecticut, March 17, 1786, and died at Auburn, New York, June 27, 1871, and is buried at Fayetteville, New York.
Many representatives of the Chapman family are to be found in Connecticut at
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the present day, and at Stonington we find the "Chapman burying ground" with the graves of the earlier members of the family dating back almost as far as 1600.
The early education of Levi S. Chap- man was acquired in the Fayetteville Union School, from which he was gradu- ated as valedictorian in the class of 1884, after which he was then engaged in col- lege preparatory work for one year in Whitestown Seminary, from which he also was graduated in 1885. Entering Syracuse University in the fall of 1885, he was graduated in the class of 1889, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, hav- ing been one of the commencement day speakers. He then commenced the study of law with his father at Fayetteville, but in January, 1891, having accepted a posi- tion as clerk in the Board of United States General Appraisers in New York City, he continued his studies with the law firm of Stanley, Clark & Smith. He was ad- mitted to the bar at Utica, New York, in 1891, and having resigned his clerkship in New York on January 1, 1892, he returned to Syracuse, where he became associated in offices with James E. Newell, with whom, in 1893, he formed a partnership under the name of Newell & Chapman. Harry E. Newell, a brother of James E. Newell, was admitted to partnership in 1899, and the firm has since continued under the name of Newell, Chapman & Newell, with whom also since 1901 Har- ley J. Crane has been associated.
For several years James E. Newell was corporation counsel of Syracuse, during which time the firm transacted all of the legal business for the city. Mr. Chap- man's particular field has been corpora- tion work, and he has organized and pro- moted many corporations. Principal among these at the present time are the City Bank of Syracuse, promoted by him in 1909, and now having assets of over
$5,000,000, of which he is a director and attorney; Thomas Millen Company, man- ufacturers of Portland Cement at James- ville, New York, which he reorganized in 1913, and of which he is secretary and treasurer; Watson Wagon Company, manufacturers of dumping wagons and motor tractors at Canastota, New York, of which he is vice-president ; Sherwood Metal Working Company, of Detroit, Michigan, and Syracuse, manufacturers of metal-frame window screens, etc., of which he is vice-president ; Syracuse Fau- cet and Valve Company, manufacturers of faucets and valves, of which he is treasurer; United States Steel Furniture Company, manufacturers of steel office furniture, of which he is secretary, and Morningside Cemetery Association, which dedicated in 1899, one hundred and four- teen acres of land in Syracuse for ceme- tery purposes, of which corporation he is treasurer. In the year 1905, Mr. Chap- man represented the Third Assembly Dis- trict of Onondaga in the State Legisla- ture.
Since coming to Syracuse he has been a member of the Central Baptist Church, consolidated in 1910 with the First Bap- tist Church, and was largely instrumental in bringing about this consolidation, which united two strong down-town churches, and made possible the building of the new First Baptist Church, during the construction of which he was chair- man of the building committee. This church cost, including site, over $550,- 000 and is unique, in that it operates a hotel and restaurant in connection with its church building. Mr. Chapman has been one of the deacons of this church for over twenty years, and for several years has been the teacher of the First Baraca Class, an organization of men in the Sunday school, having a membership at present of about three hundred and
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fifty, with an average Sunday attendance of about two hundred. This is the first class organized by M. A. Hudson in the Baraca-Philathea Union, now having a membership of over 1,000,000 men and 300,000 women.
Mr. Chapman has also been interested for many years in the Young Men's Chris- tian Association work, having been presi- dent of the Syracuse Association for nine years prior to 1896, when the new build- ing on Montgomery street was completed. During these nine years, the association secured pledges for $55,000 to wipe out an indebtedness in that amount on its old building on South Warren street, and raised more than $300,000 for its new building on Montgomery street. Mr. Chapman secured from Benjamin Tousey the gift of the land on which this new building was erected and an additional gift to make Mr. Tousey's subscription $114,000 which was conditioned on the balance of the required amount being raised, and appointed the special com- mittee consisting of Mr. Frederick R. Hazard, Mr. Lyman C. Smith and Mr. W. L. Smith, who with these called to their assistance had charge of the con- struction of the building and of securing the other subscriptions. Since 1896 he has been a member of the board of trus- tees.
Mr. Chapman is a member of the Uni- versity Club, the Phi Beta Kappa honor- ary fraternity, the Masonic Club, the Delta Upsilon Society, of the board of trustees of which corporation he has been president for fifteen years or more, and a member of the various local bodies of the Masonic fraternity, including the Shrine. He is also a trustee of Roches- ter Theological Seminary and a trustee of Syracuse University.
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 (1) 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 reëlected 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: 1. 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-
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