USA > New York > Genesee County > Gazetteer and biographical record of Genesee County, N.Y., 1788-1890 > Part 21
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On Sunday evening, July 22, 1877, he sat with the members of his fam- ily on the veranda of his house, enjoying the cool breezes after the heat
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of the day, appearing in excellent health and spirits. About eight o'clock he complained of a dizziness in his head, entered the house, gradually grew worse, and became unconscious, and about a quarter to I0 o'clock he peacefully, painlessly, breathed his last. Thus closed the earthly ca- reer of a good, kind-hearted, and benevolent man, and a true and devout Christian. During his long life he was an active and devout member of St. James's Episcopal Church at Batavia, serving as vestryman and war- den. Many citizens attested their respect and esteem for their old neigh- bor and friend by their attendance at the funeral service Wednesday evening. The procession was one of the longest ever seen in the village. Immediately following the hearse came the venerable roadster, so long the favorite riding horse of Mr. Redfield, saddled and bridled, and led by the groom.
Mr. Redfield was married twice. His first wife was Abby Noyes Gould, whom he married at Canandaigua, Ontario County, January 27, 1817. She died at Batavia on the I Ith of February, 1841, in the 44th year of her age. The following children only survive them both : Elizabeth Gould, wife of Robert W. Lowber, of Bald Mountain, Washington County; Mary Judd, wife of Major Henry I. Glowacki, residing at Batavia ; Jane, wife of Lawrence Turnure, of New York city ; Cornelia, the widow of Rear- Admiral Ralph Chandler, U. S. N., lately in command of the Asiatic sta- tion, at present residing at Yokohama, Japan ; and Anna M., the widow of George Evans, of Albany, N. Y. In 1846 he married for his second wife Constance C. Bolles, of Newark, N. Y., of English and French ances- try, who survives him, and by whom he had four children, as follows : Frank B. Redfield, Abby L. Sunderland, Una Clark (Mrs. Daniel W. Tomlinson), all of whom reside at Batavia, and Martha Evans, wife of Lieut. Samuel Rodman, U. S. A., now stationed at Newport, R. I.
Frank B. Redfield, born at Batavia, in 1847, received an academic edu- cation, and has followed farming and stock raising. He is now serving his fourth year on the executive committee of the State Agricultural So- ciety. He was president of the Genesee County Agricultural Society, and married, in 1874, Miss Caroline E. Dolbeer, whose people are of New York ancestry. Mr. Redfield lives in the house built by Jacob Otto in 1824.
Peleg Redfield, father of Heman J., was born May 14, 1762, at Killing- worth, Conn. He entered the service of the Connecticut troops for the Revolutionary cause in 1778, serving two campaigns, then enlisted in the Continental army for three years, and served his full time. He endured
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his full share of the privations and sufferings of those who continued steadfast in the Revolutionary cause during its most trying period. The retreat of Washington and his army from Long Island, and from York- town to Valley Forge, and the severe winter of 1780, were often with him a subject of remark. He was present on the memorable occasion of the execution of Major Andre, and always spoke of his fate with sympathy and regret. He was a true Whig of those days, and a true Republican and Democrat in after life. He worshiped his chief, General Washing- ton. After the Revolutionary service, and his discharge from the army, he remained at Suffield, Conn., and soon after married Polly Judd, daugh- ter of Heman Judd, of Farmington, Conn. He exchanged his small prop- erty in Suffield for 200 acres of wild land with Phelps & Gorham, in the then far off "Genesee County," and as early as the winter of 1799-1800 he emigrated to his wild home, now the beautiful and fertile region which surrounds Clifton Springs. With a stout heart, and the help of the willing hands of an excellent pioneer wife and mother, he was fairly un- der way as one of the founders of a settlement and of a numerous family. He died May 26, 1852, in his 91st year. His wife died in 1844, aged 80 years. Both were buried at Manchester, N. Y.
Daniel W. Tomlinson, who died October 5, 1870, aged 57 years, was a native of Middlebury, Vt., where he obtained his education. At the early age of 18 he went to Mobile, Ala., as clerk in a large mercantile house engaged in the cotton trade, where he soon became a partner, ac- quiring a comfortable fortune. He came to Alexander in 1845, pur- chased the large farm of Peter A. Remsen, and took up his residence there. He became a stockholder in the Exchange Bank of Genesee, was made vice president, and finally took entire charge of the management. Soon after he bought up the whole stock, and removed the bank to Ba- tavia, intending to locate it in a building he had prepared for it adjoin- ing the American Hotel; but that being destroyed by fire (1850) he moved into a building adjoining the old Eagle Hotel. He soon after moved into the quarters occupied by the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, now the Bank of Batavia. Mr. Tomlinson was very active in all that tended to develop his town. He was at one time president of the vil- lage, and was instrumental in introducing the present water works, he having secured the ground (from McDonald) where the present pump- house is located. He was one of the organizers of the Batavia Gas Co.
Lucian R. Bailey died in 1886, aged 53 years. He enlisted as a private in 1861 in the 28th Regiment, became lieutenant, and was in many
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battles. After leaving the army he was in Buffalo in the grain business. He started a clothing store in Batavia with N. Cross, then with D. Jones, then with J. C. Barnes, was then alone, and finally with Gould & Town. He was assessor, president of the village, two terms in the legislature, a prominent. Mason, and was treasurer of Western Star Chapter.
Daniel Upton, father of Gen. Emory Upton, came to Batavia in 1817, and bought the farm in the western part of the town where his daughter, Sara W. Edwards, now lives, which farm has always been in the posses- sion of the Upton family. He was the father of 13 children, of whom Emory was the most celebrated. The latter was born August 27, 1839, graduated at West Point, May 6, 1861, and immediately entered into active service under the government, taking a prominent part in the war of the Rebellion. Perhaps no former resident of Batavia has a name that became so widely known during his short career, for he died in the prime of life, being only 41 years of age. His death took place at Pre- sidio, San Francisco County, Cal., March 14, 1881. In 1868 he married Emily Norwood Martin, of Auburn, N. Y., but left no children. His memory is fresh in the minds of all residents, as well as the whole Nation.
The names of a few of the old merchants who are living may not be out of place. Joseph C. Wilson came about 1830, and was in the gro- cery business for 50 years. H. L. Onderdonk came to Batavia in 1839 and engaged in harnessmaking. He is still at the same trade, and prob- ably no other man living in the village can make out 51 years of con- tinuous trade in one line of business. Gad B. Worthington began busi- ness for himself about 1845. M. H. Bierce, the dry goods merchant, has been in business since about 1850. Homer Bostwick, the real estate and insurance agent, came about 1851, and has been engaged in business ever since.
General training .- " One of the ever- to-be-remembered institutions in the earlier history of this section was the militia. There are few in- cidents of any nature that are recounted with more pleasure by the old men, or listened to more attentively by the rising generation, than those of the memorable drills and musters. The militia consisted of all the able-bodied white male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 years. State officers, clergymen, school teachers, students, and some others were exempt. The major-general, brigade inspector, and chief of the staff de- partment, except the adjutant and commissary generals, were appointed by the State. Colonels were chosen by the captains and subalterns of their regiments, and these latter by the written ballots of their respective
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regiments and separate battalions. It was the duty of the commanding officer of each company to enroll all military subjects within the limits of his jurisdiction, and they must equip themselves within six months after being notified.
"On the first Monday in September of each year every company of militia was obliged to assemble within its geographical limits for train- ing. One day in each year, between 'September Ist and October 15th, at a place designated by the brigade officer, the regiment was directed to assemble for a general training. All the officers of each regiment or battalion were required to rendezvous two days in succession, in June, July, or August, for drill under the brigade inspector. Each militiaman was personally notified of an approaching muster by a non-commissioned officer bearing a warrant from the commandant of his company. A fail- ure to appear resulted in a court-martial and a fine, and possibly im- prisonment.
"""'General training' was usually regarded as a pleasant occasion to meet friends, and the boys, provided with a few pennies to buy the in- evitable gingerbread, were happier than the lads of to-day with their shillings that are invested in peanuts and a great variety of confections. The place of meeting and the extent of the parade ground were desig- nated by the commanding officer. The sale of intoxicating liquors on the ground could only be carried on by permission of the same officer. Total abstinence was not the rule, however, and an officer who had the right to seize the prohibited article did not always practice self-denial, for often some of it would find its way down his own throat.""
Of " general trainings " a veteran of those days writes as follows :
" Although the companies exhibited the élite of our regimental splendors. glittering with tinsel and flaunting with feathers, a more unsoldierly parade could scarcely be im- agined. There were the elect from the far-off farms, who sometimes marched to the rendezvous barefoot, carrying their boots and soldier clothes in a bundle-the ambitious cobblers, tailors, and plowboys from cross-road hamlets and remote rural districts, short, tall, fat, skinny, bow-legged, sheep-shanked, cock-eyed, hump-shouldered, and sway-backed-equipped by art as economically, awkward, and variously as they were endowed by nature ; uniformed in contempt of all uniformity ; armed with old flintlock muskets, horsemen's carbines, long-squirrel rifles, double-barrelled shot-guns, bell-muz- zled blunderbusses, with side arms of as many different patterns, from the old dragoon sabre that had belonged to Harry Lee's Legion to the slim basket-hilted rapier which had probably graced the thigh of some of our French allies in the Revolution.
" The officers of the volunteer companies were generally selected for their handsome appearance and martial bearing, and shone with a certain elegance of equipment each in the uniform pertaining to his company. There was also a sprinkling of ex-veterans of the War of 1812, recognizable by a certain martinet precision in their deportment,
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and a shadow of contempt for their crude comrades, but quick to resent any extraneous comment derogatory to the service. A city dandy who undertook to ridicule the old- fashioned way in which some officers carried their swords was silenced by the snappish reply : 'Young man, I've seen the best troops of Great Britian beaten by men who car- ried their swords that way.' This harlequinade of equipment, costume, and character was duly paraded twice a day, marched through the streets, and put through its man- œuvres on the parade ground adjoining the village, much to the satisfaction of all eman- cipated school boys, ragamuffins, idlers, tavern-keepers, and cake and beer venders, and somewhat, perhaps, to the weariness of industrious mechanics, who had apprentices to manage, and busy housewives, who depended on small boys for help."
The militia history of Genesee County, like other sections, dates back to an early day. Turner says " there was a general training at Alexander as early as 1808," but the necessity for its observance grew out of the War of 1812; in fact as early as 1810 or ' II, when rumors of war be- gan to agitate the country, the State authorities contracted with Ellicott to build an arsenal. He erected one, of logs, at the forks of the road op- posite F. B. Redfield's, 20 feet square. At the close of the war this was taken down and a stone building put up for the 15th Regt. U. S. A. This was on the north side of the road, but has within a few years been demolished. John Baptiste Morris, an old trapper, resided in the old arsenal for a time.
The "general training " was kept up regularly until about the year 1845. By that time it had become too much of a sham and burlesque, and the authorities gradually ceased their efforts in maintaining the dis- cipline provided by the laws for the perpetuation of the old militia sys- tem.
The Holland Purchase Insurance Co. was incorporated April 16, 1867, with 26 persons taking shares. Thirteen directors were chosen, of whom Hiram Chaddock, George Bowen, and H. T. Cross are the only ones. living. H. J Redfield was president ; H. M. Warren, secretary; Hiram Chaddock, general agent and adjuster; and Tracy Pardee, treasurer. This company closed up business a few years ago. Hiram Chaddock was appointed receiver, and closed up the affairs of the company with great credit to himself and all interested. Besides paying all policies and expenses ( the latter amounting to over $8,000 ) he paid the stock- holders $1.20 per share.
The Exchange Bank of Genesee was organized in Alexander in 1838. Among the stockholders were Samuel Benedict, Jr., Earl Kidder, Henry Martin, V. R. Hawkins, H. Hawkins, Jesse Hawkins, Stephen King, Josiah Newton, and Charles Kendall, of Bethany. The capital stock was $100,000. Heman Blodgett, E. S. Warner, H. T. Cross, J. E.
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Pierpont, and others acted as cashiers at various times. D. W. Tomlinson, soon after his coming to Alexander, bought up all the stock and re- moved the bank to Batavia, and it was closed up about 1858.
Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, of Batavia, was organized November 1, 1838, with a capital of $100,000. Among the subscribers to the stock were P. P. Kissam, T. Tredwell, John Norton, Jr., D. E. Evans, W. R. Gwinn, H. Holden, John Lowber, and John S. Ganson. The bank con - ducted business until about 1851, when its affairs were wound up.
Newspapers .- Genesee County has had publications of various char- acter, of which the following are worthy of mention. The names of the live papers are printed in SMALL CAPITALS.
The first paper issued here, and the first one west of the Genesee River, was the Genesee Intelligencer, in the spring of 1807, by Elias Williams, who purchased an old Ramage printing press from Manlius, N. Y., that had been put aside as useless. He also bought a box of old type in "pi." After much labor he got out his paper, a half sheet, medium size, with a subscription list of 100. It contained two or three columns of advertisements from the Holland Land Company, an account of an elopement, and a runaway apprentice boy, for whose apprehension a bag of bran was offered as a reward. In July, 1807, Benjamin Blodgett with his all ($48.75) joined Williams, and published 13 numbers, when Williams went to a general training in Alexander and never was heard of more./ Blodgett abandoned the enterprise then, but in the spring of 1808 he enlisted Samuel Peck with him, then publishing the Cornucopia, an enlarged sheet with new type and a list of 300 subscribers. Peck died in 1811, and the publication ceased. In 1811 Benjamin Blodgett and Col. David C. Miller began the publication of the Republican Advocate, Miller continuing the same until 1828 (soon after the Morgan affair), when he dropped out and into politics, and soon moved away. He was succeeded by Charles Sentell and other publishers from time to time, among whom were Charles W. Miller, Edwin Hough, Andrew W. Young (later of the Warsaw Sentinel), assisted by Dr. Z. Metcalf in 1832, Lewis & Brown, C. C. Allen, Waite & Cooley, and D. D. Waite, who had charge of the paper more or less for 40 years, and who was first associated with Andrew W. Young in Warsaw. He was a hard worker, and under his management the Advocate was for a long time the leading influential Whig and Republican journal of Western New York. He was firm in his political opinions and an honest man. He died in 1878, aged
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67 years. About 1854-55 Kimberly & Goodrich, aided by John R. Cooper, a practical printer, who afterwards went to the war, controlled the paper, adding to it the name Genesee County Whig ; but in 1857 Mr. Waite, on resuming the charge, placed the original name at the head, aided financially by Hon. Benjamin Pringle. In May, 1859, Mr. Waite started the Daily Advocate, continuing the same until 1867. Upon the death of Mr. Waite Messrs. Fairman (from Elmira) and Whittle purchased the paper, but they only issued it a few months, when it was discontinued, the publishers making arrangements by which the subscription list of the Advocate was merged in that of the BATAVIAN. Messrs. Fairman and Whittle removed to Tioga, Pa., and established an Advocate there.
In 1852 (?) or prior a split occurred in the dominant political party in Genesee County, and two factions, known as the " Silver Grays " and " Wooly Heads," came to the surface. The Republican Advocate was then allied to the " Silver Gray," or conservative wing, and their oppo- nents had no local organ. The late Trumbull Cary, of Batavia, long a personal friend of Hon. William H. Seward, then furnished the means to establish a paper named the Genesee County Whig, and intended it to further the interests of what soon became the Republican party. This paper appeared in 1852, with Kimberly & Tyrrell as editors, and its columns were constantly filled with the well written and spicy editorials of John H. Kimberly and William Tyrrell. It was a pronounced political success, and in two years (1854) the proprietors, having purchased the Advocate, consolidated the two papers.
The PROGRESSIVE BATAVIAN is a weekly newspaper published at Batavia by R. S. Lewis, its editor and proprietor. It was established by him in 1868, and succeeded the Genesce Democrat, which he acquired by purchase. It is Republican in politics, and has been, almost since its es- tablishment, the leading paper of that party in the county. It has a cir- culation of over 2,000. It is a firm friend and advocate of temperance and good morals, and is, as its motto expresses it, " Firm in the Right, as God gives us to see the Right." Local news is one of its strong fea- tures. In each town in the county it has bright, active correspondents, who furnish it, weekly, with the local happenings in their respective towns and localities, and thus the BATAVIAN is enabled each week to furnish its readers with a very complete report of the local news of the whole county. It is an influential and prosperous newspaper.
The People's Press was published in 1825 by Benjamin Blodgett, who carried it on, with the assistance of several gentlemen, for about one year,
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when it passed into the hands of Martin, Adams & Thorp, and was merged into the SPIRIT OF THE TIMES. The Morgan episode, occurring in the fall of 1826, was the occasion of numerous publications being started for and against Masonry. The Advocate, published by Miller, not being able to hold all the invectives directed against the Masons, he supple- mented it by the issue of the Morgan Investigator, which was published from his office until 1827. During this excitement, and for about one year, the Masonic Intelligencer was issued from the office of the People's Press, and it is to be inferred that the whole subject was pretty thoroughly ventilated. In September, 1830, the People's Press was united with the SPIRIT OF THE TIMES.
In 1837 Peter Lawrence, a jolly, witty, smart, and shiftless Irish printer, went to Alexander and stared the Farmers' and Mechanics' Jour- nal. That village was then very small, and though Lawrence was bubbling over with Hibernian humor, he could not make the thing pay. In 1840 Frederick Follett purchased an interest in the concern, and it was then removed to Batavia and called the Batavia Times and Farmers' and Mechanics' Journal. Its removal, however, brought no profit to the owners, and Peter Lawrence, who soon left, established a paper at Perry, N. Y. Mr. Follett continued until August 6, 1843, when he sold the establishment to William Seaver and his son Lucas, who merged it into the SPIRIT OF THE TIMES.
In 1842, when a phenomenal temperance furor prevailed, the Temper- ance Herald, a small monthly quarto newspaper, was published by Lucas Seaver from the SPIRIT OF THE TIMES office. Branon Young, a lawyer, of Batavia, was its editor, and, although the subscription price was only 50 cents a year, it had a wonderfully large circulation for two years, and was then discontinued.
The first number of the SPIRIT OF THE TIMES was issued at Batavia, February 3, 1819, by Oran Follett, a young printer from Canandaigua. He was assisted by Daniel P. Adams, also a young printer, and Frede- rick Follett, apprentice. Oran Follett continued as proprietor until Jan- uary, 1825, when he sold out to his brother and went to Buffalo. Adams also went away, but returned a year later. In 1826 Frederick Follett · added the name Batavia Advertiser, but soon dropped it. In1 830 the People's Press was united with it, both names being used, and published by Follett & Adams. Follett run the paper for five years, when it was sold to a " Democratic " syndicate, D. E. Evans, William Seaver, H. J. Redfield, Stephen Grant, D. H. Chandler, E. Mix, S. Cummings, J. B.
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Skinner, W. B. Collar, and R. H. Smith, William Seaver being sole edi- tor, and N. D. Wood the publisher. In 1837 Mr. Follett returned and issued the paper for three years, when Col. William Seaver bought out the interests of all the proprietors for his son Lucas, a practical printer. He issued the paper for five years, when Col. Seaver and his other sons continued the paper until September, 1853, when it was sold to C. S. Hurley, who tried to publish it (but unsuccessfully) as a " Know-Noth- ing " paper. It was sold (in 1856) under the hammer, and most all the material shipped to Central America. Andrew J. McWain, an appren- tice with Col. Seaver, in 1856 purchased the Genesee Herald (then printed at Le Roy), moved all the material to Batavia, and in January, 1857, continued its publication under the title of Genesce County Herald and Spirit of the Times. The late Dr. Chauncy D. Griswold was its editor, and a Daily Herald was published in 1858. '59, and '60, and then dropped. Mr. McWain died June 29, 1860, aged 25 years, and for a few months his administrators carried on the paper, when, in 1860, Henry Todd bought out the establishment and dropped the Herald designation, re- taining the familiar name of the SPIRIT OF THE TIMES, and once more made it the Democratic organ of Genesee County.
Henry Todd, a practical printer, came from England in 1852, and was for several months employed as a compositor on the Buffalo Courier, then owned by William G. Seaver. In 1852, with the assistance of Messrs. Redfield and Richmond, he went to Le Roy and began the publication of the Le Roy Democrat. In 1853 he removed the establishment to Ba- tavia, and called his paper the Batavia Democrat, continuing the publi- cation as such for two or three years, when H. Wilber and his brother- in-law became proprietors, and changed the name to Genesce Democrat, but it soon was a non-paying investment, so that the press and type were sold to R. S. Lewis, who began the issue of the PROGRESSIVE BA- TAVIAN. Henry Todd published the SPIRIT OF THE TIMES from 1860 until January 1, 1886, when his son, Charles E. Todd, and A. H. Thomas leased the plant, continuing the the arrangement for one year, when Mr. Thomas became owner and conducted the office alone until April 15, 1889, when the present proprietors, Messrs. Thomas & Hall, took up the work so long pursued by Mr. Todd. They are giving the citizens of the county an ably edited, newsy, Democratic journal.
A. H. Thomas was born in Tarrytown, N. Y., November 8, 1855. He learned the trade of printer in the office of the Phelps's Citizen, and for a time was with the Newark Courier, after which he published the Clifton
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Springs News, at Clifton Springs, N. Y. For two years he was engaged in business at Cincinnati, Ohio, when he came to Batavia, and was local editor of the PROGRESSIVE BATAVIAN for three years when he became connected with the SPIRIT OF THE TIMES.
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