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 39
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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 married, 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 family 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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ing it her work for life if it should be pos- sible. What might have been a difficult task for most of us, with her talents was quite possible and she soon became known as a successful public reader. In the year 1883 she was married to Edwin P. Bellows, of Gloversville. Mrs. Bel- lows took up the work of elocutionist pro- fessionally ; she was previously enrolled as a member of the Star Lyceum Bureau, with office in the Tribune Building in New York City. She has read and re- cited at many public entertainments in the neighborhood of Gloversville and else- where.
Large as is her influence in her profes- sion, it is not by any means the only chan- nel in which it is exerted for the good of the community. On the contrary, she is active in a large number of the impor- tant movements undertaken in the city for the general good and especially those identified with her own sex. She is a member of many of the most prominent organizations among women in the State and in all takes a leading part. From the year 1886 she has been intimately con- nected with the Young Women's Chris- tian Association of Gloversville and has during all that period served as a mem- ber of its board of directors and off and on as its president also. She is a member of the Mohawk and Hudson Humane So- ciety and a director of its Gloversville branch, and is intensely interested in all philanthropic and humane work, espe- cially that connected with children and animals. She is also a member of the General Richard Montgomery Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and has served as its regent since the year 1906. Besides these organizations she also belongs to the Monday Afternoon Study Class, the Washington Headquarters Association of New York City and the Cayadutta Chap-
ter of the Order of the Eastern Star. Tak- ing part in as many of the activities of the community as she does, Mrs. Bellows is of course a very well known figure in community life. She is carrying on the work and influence begun by her father towards a better appreciation and under- standing of the beautiful, although her own course lies in different paths and is effective through other means. She is highly successful in her profession, and although it is necessarily difficult to pick out the elements and contributory factors in a thing so complex as success, the sub- ject is so fascinating a one that a glance at it in the case of Mrs. Bellows is per- haps justifiable.
There is no formula for success, one accomplishing the ends by means that seem the diametrical opposite of those employed by others. One's strength seems to lie in self-advertisement, to make progress one must call attention to him- self or herself and claim the admiration and wonder of those he or she uses as instruments, while with another silence appears as necessary as did noise to the first. There are, of course, a thousand variations to each of these general classes and we distinguish easily between those who need silence or obscurity for their deeds, and those who prefer them merely as part of modest and retiring natures. Perhaps we can say that it is to this last class that the subject of this brief article belongs-a woman who does not strive or proclaim her own merits, so convinced is she that "good wine needs no bush," that she concerns herself wholly with the performance in the very fullest sense of all her engagements. The result fully justifies her in her policy ; her suc- cess is great and no wide system of ad- vertising could have resulted in a more en- viable reputation or an achievement more substantial. Whatever may be thought
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of the method from the standpoint of business there is one thing certain, how- ever, and that is that in a broader aspect the knowledge of such a life must in the final analysis depend upon the efforts of others for its preservation. The more re- tiring and self-effacing a person is, the more important is it that an account of his or her career should be put in some permanent form so that it may not cease to serve as an example to others. Nay, there is an added reason why such a one should have his record preserved, for modesty is an added virtue and one which perhaps above all others, we need to have presented to us for imitation, and which by a strange paradox most readily hides even itself. This is the raison d'etre for a record such as this, that it shall assist in preserving the knowledge of a career that may serve us all as a model to be copied.
OTIS, Lyman M., City Official, Honored Citizen.
Exceptionally well preserved in this, his eighty-fourth year, serving his city as he has always served it, with fidelity and zeal, the tall, spare, yet supple and re- sponsive form of Lyman M. Otis, treas- urer of the city of Rochester, is a daily sight at his desk in the City Hall during business hours. Physically, no man of his years can surpass him, while in mental vigor, breadth of vision, and loyalty to the interests of the city he loves, he is more the man of fifty than of eighty-four. His has been a wonderful life, not more for its success than for the spirit that in- spires his public service. Since 1857 when, as a citizen of the town of Henri- etta, Monroe county, he first accepted public office, he has rendered official serv- ice almost continuously, not from the nar- row standpoint of self-interest, but from a patriotic desire to be identified with
public affairs and to aid the cause of clean, honest, municipal government. Prior to 1899, when he retired from active business life, this public service was given at the expense of personal interest and convenience, and certainly the twelve years during which he has been treasurer of Rochester might have been justly de- voted to personal comfort, not civic duty. But he laid aside his rightful privileges in his desire to be useful, and these twelve years have been years of active service and vigilant supervision of the financial interests of his city, his keen foresight, business sagacity, inborn financial abil- ity, and sound moral principles all being laid upon the altar of duty. And there is a lesson to be learned from the example of Mr. Otis that other men in control of industrial and commercial enterprises should take to themselves-that cities and States need the wisdom and business abil- ity of such men, and that not until the light that has illumined the life of Mr. Otis penetrates the cloud of selfishness in which so many able men are enveloped will the cause of good government ad- vance. That the public appreciates the more than half a century of official serv- ice of Mr. Otis is best shown by the fact that he found it necessary to announce publicly that at the expiration of his term, December 31, 1915, he would re- tire permanently from official life in order to prevent another reëlection. But when he shifts the responsibilities of his office to younger shoulders he can do so with the full knowledge that his duty has been performed and that he carries into private life the unbounded respect and confidence of an entire city.
Mr. Otis springs from an honored New England ancestry, tracing to John Otis, who came from Hingham, England, to Hingham, Massachusetts, in June, 1635. His grandson, Judge John Otis, born in
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Hingham in 1657, moved to Barnstable, where he died after a life of long and use- ful public service, November 30, 1727. He was for eighteen years colonel of militia, for twenty years representative to the General Court, for twenty-one years a member of the Governor's Council, and for twenty-one years Chief Justice of Common Pleas and Probate Court.
David G. Otis, a grandson of Judge John Otis, came from Connecticut to Perry, Wyoming county, New York, at an early day and was one of the pioneer school teachers of that section. He taught for many years in Warsaw, Wyoming county, moving in 1838 to Henrietta, Monroe county, where he also taught and resided until his death in 1837. He was for many years identified with military affairs in the State, and at the time of his death held the rank of brigadier-general of militia. He served as school commis- sioner and was actively interested in edu- cational matters as teacher and layman throughout all his life, although farming was his principal occupation. He mar- ried Maria Morris, born in Warsaw, New York.
Lyman M. Otis, son of David G. and Maria (Morris) Otis, was born in Henri- etta, Monroe county, New York, Novem- ber 12, 1831, and at the age of six years was deprived of a father's care. He was educated in public schools, Monroe Acad- emy, and Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, the last named institution located at Lima, New York. During his youth and early manhood he taught school during the winter months, engaging in farming dur- ing the summer seasons. In 1855 he made his entrance into the business world as a partner of D. W. Chase, embarking in the nursery business under the firm name Chase & Otis. This was in the early period of the now great nursery business of Monroe county, and in order to make
income and disbursements balance the firm dealt in produce, live stock and wool. In 1867 the firm sold its business in Hen- rietta and moved to Rochester, where the lumber business of J. H. Robinson & Son was purchased. They conducted a very successful business until 1888, when Mr. Chase died, Mr. Otis continuing the busi- ness under the firm name of L. M. Otis & Company. For eleven years he managed an ever-increasing business most success- fully, then in 1899 sold to the W. B. Morse Lumber Company and retired from pri- vate business life. He was for many years a member and treasurer of the Monroe County Agricultural Society and one of the organizers of the Monroe County Building and Loan Association. He was connected with that association during the fifteen years required to mature its issue of shares, every shareholder receiving from six to ten per cent. on his invest- ment. As a business man Mr. Otis was progressive and successful, displaying the qualities that ever make for advancement and winning high reputation as a finan- cier and executive manager.
During his earlier years Mr. Otis was a Democrat, but like so many others broke with his party when slavery be- came the issue and affiliated with the newly formed Republican party, to which he has ever since been attached. He was elected town clerk of Henrietta in 1857, served nine years as justice of the peace, and after his removal to Rochester in 1888 at once began taking active part in public affairs. In 1889 he was elected supervisor from the Fourth Ward, serving continu- ously for six terms, during the last two being chairman of the board. He also served two terms as alderman from the Fourth Ward, from 1894 to 1898 was in- spector of Monroe county prison, in 1894 was chosen chairman of the committee having in charge the erection of the new
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county court house, serving until its com- pletion in 1896, and was elected sewer commissioner in 1895. From 1900 until 1904 he was city assessor of taxes, and on January 1, 1904, entered upon his duties as treasurer of the city of Roches- ter, an office he held continuously, his last term expiring December 31, 1915, when he announced that he would re- tire from public life. He will be missed, this kindly old gentleman whose sense of humor never fails, whose tall form and keen blue eye have welcomed callers at the treasurer's office for the past twelve years. The treasurer's office of a large city like Rochester is not a sinecure, the single item of disbursements alone re- quiring Mr. Otis to sign seventy thou- sands checks each year. But from the age of seventy-two to that of eighty-four years he has carried the weight of re- sponsibility the office entails with the ease of a man thirty years his junior.
Mr. Otis married, in 1864, Amanda M., daughter of Ambrose Cornwell, of Henri- etta, New York. Mrs. Otis died in 1909. They were the parents of one child, Mary S., widow of Fred W. Baker, of Roches- ter.
GREENE, Myron W., Banker.
Myron W. Greene, who conducts a pri- vate banking and investment business in Rochester and acts as executor, adminis- trator and trustee of estates and trust funds, has gained distinction in financial circles, and is a representative of one of the oldest and most prominent American families. He is the author of a family genealogy from 1639 to 1891, which was published in 1891 by the Narragansett Historical Register. His grandfather, Nathan Greene, married Maria Greene, a descendant of John Greene, of Warwick,
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