USA > New York > Jefferson County > Genealogical and family history of the county of Jefferson, New York, Volume I > Part 6
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(VIII) Lemuel Sherman, the sixth child of Phineas and Elizabeth Sherman, was born September 14, 1750, at Brimfield, Massachusetts. On June 18. 1773. he married Rose Blashfield, by whom he had seven children, and died September 25, 1789.
(IX) Phineas Sherman, the eldest son of Lemuel and Rose Sher- man, was born at Brimfield, Massachusetts. He married Emma Thorn- ton, in Johnston, Rhode Island, December 24, 1797. She was born Au- gust 22. 1774, and died in Watertown, New York, at the home of her son, George C. Sherman, March 15, 1847. They had six children. Phineas Sherman removed soon after his marriage, in 1797, to Provi- dence, Rhode Island, where he was a merchant. He then removed to. Norway, Herkimer county, New York, thence to Newport, New York, and in 1810 to Watertown, where he established and owned a paper mill upon the site now occupied by the paper mill of the Knowlton Brothers. He died of fever, March 22, 1813, aged forty years.
(X) George Corlis Sherman, second son of Phineas and Amy Sherman, was born December 14, 1799, at Providence, Rhode Island, and was a youth of but sixteen years when in 1815 he came to Water- town and sought in this place the opportunity of earning a living. His financial resources were extremely limited, but he possessed strong pur- pose, determination and laudable ambition. After filling several tem- porary positions he secured employment in the office of David W. Buck- lin, a well known attorney practicing at the Jefferson county bar, who recognized his capability and his desire for advancement and permitted him to become a law student in the office. He applied himself diligently to the mastery of the principles of jurisprudence, and soon after his admission to the bar in 1823 was admitted to a partnership by his former preceptor, Mr. Bucklin, this relationship continuing until the removal from the county of the senior member of the firm. In 1833 Mr. Sher- man was appointed district attorney, and occupied the office continu- ously until 1840. In the meantime his private practice grew steadily both in volume and importance. There is no calling in which success and advancement depend more largely upon individual merit, and Mr. Sherman's legal lore and his devotion to the interests of his clients won him distinction at a bar which numbered lawyers prominent in the ju- dicial annals of the state. In 1843 he was appointed one of the judges of the old court of common pleas and served upon the bench until 1847,
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when the office was discontinued through legislative enactment. In the same year of his elevation to the bench he was elected to the state senate and served out his full term, but declined again to accept the nomina- tion. For some time he was associated in practice with his brother-in- law, the Hon. Robert Lansing, forming one of the strongest legal com- binations at that day, while their business far exceeded in extent any law firm in this part of the state.
It was while Mr. Sherman was a member of this firm that the great banking house of Prime, Ward & King, of New York city, failed, en- tailing a heavy loss upon the Jefferson County Bank, of which Mr. Sher- man was a director, and of which he had long been counsel. There was then a law upon the statutory books known as the Stillwell act, by which any judgment creditor could bring an insolvent into open court and com- pel him under oath to tell all about his property, financial condition, etc. Under this strange law one of this firm of bankers was brought before a New York city judge, and Mr. Sherman was there to examine him. This was, perhaps, the first time he had had a chance to measure his powers with that of the lawyers practicing in the highest court of the state, but liere, as elsewhere, he displayed his great legal ability and astonished the city lawyers by his knowledge of the law and his ability in applying it to the points in litigation. The fallen financier was only too glad to escape from Mr. Sherman's merciless questions by a partial restitution to the bank. He continued in active practice until about 18.18. In the meantime the development of his financial and invested interests was continually making heavier demands upon his time, and in the year mentioned he resolved to devote his entire attention to his prop- erty and banking affairs. He was one of the early purchasers of land in this portion of the state, buying a large tract in the northwestern part of the county for three dollars per acre. This he afterward sold in small divisions for eight dollars per acre. He did not deal very extensively in village property, but at one time owned nearly all of Beebee's Island, and he also built the family residence on Clinton street and the large bank building in Watertown. It was in 1838 that he became an active factor in financial interests here through the organization of the Water- town Bank & Loan Company. He was active in his management of the institution up to 1848, and after his retirement from the bar he gave his entire attention to his financial affairs, remaining at the head of the bank until his death on the 23d of April, 1863. His intense and well
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directed activity had in the meantime brought to him a handsome for- tune, which was equally divided among his wife and five children.
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On the 3d of January, 1828, he had married Miss Mary Ann Hub- bard, the third daughter of Noadiah Hubbard, who was one of the pion- eer settlers of the Black River district of New York and made his home in Champion. Their children were: Frances A., Mary H., George H., Robert L., Charles A. and Sarah M. In Haddock's "Growth of a Cen- tury" the following summary of the life and character of Mr. Sherman is given, written by one who in early manhood had been a student in his office :
"Mr. Sherman was a unique character. He was quite a lovable man, full of wit and humor, and running over with anecdote and rela- tion of personal experiences. All his students loved, admired and revered him. He was eminently democratic ; easily approached by the humble, and only laughed at aristocratic pretension in another. He was of a pecu- liarly affectionate disposition ; his heart was always easily reached, a tear never far away when his sympathetic mind grasped any tale of sorrow, and his thoughts traveled quickly toward some scheme of relief. Though a man of wealth, and in daily contact with the highest and best of his contemporaries, he never forgot his humble birth, and the writer has seen the quick tear of sympathy come into the eyes as he told of his early struggles, his earnest efforts and of his triumphs as well. He was undoubtedly the ablest lawyer of his time. He had no superior in the examination of a witness. It was said that, under his rigid cross-exam- ination, no one could avoid telling the truth. His perceptions were quick and keen. He seemed to have an intuitive knowledge of the inner nature of men, and of their motives and habit of thought. He was not, in later years, so close a student among his books, for he depended largely upon his able partner, Mr. Lansing, for the preparation of cases, but when he came before a jury he was almost irresistible. He was then full of energy, exhibiting an exuberant flow of spirits that took quick posses- sion of the court and the jury, and he could make them laugh or cry as became his present mood. He had a power of mimicry the writer has never seen equaled off the stage.
"Taking him all in all-viewed in the light of his early struggles, liis judicious use of every favoring gale of fortune, the solidity of his foundation in the law, the nobility and wonderful activity of his mind, the versatility of his unusual capacity, the power of his imagination and yet his readiness to handle material things, he appears to me now as a
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wonderful man, one whom society could ill spare. He possessed nearly every human excellence, and the writer drops a sincere tear of regret upon the tomb of one whose kindness to a poor boy in his office is recalled often and lovingly. He was a man fit to stand before kings. He was well appreciated, as he should have been. To one who knew him well, this tribute to his memory sounds much below what it deserves."
(XI) Charles Augustus Sherman, son of Judge George C. Sher- man, was born in Watertown in 1838, and after mastering the prelim- inary branches of learning in the public schools he was afforded the privilege of attending college, and in the mastery of difficult problems, of the classics, of philosophy and law he displayed marked facility. He began his preparation for the bar under the direction of his father, and later became a law student in Albany, where he was afterward admitted to practice. Subsequently he became a partner of Jolin Lansing, who was a son of his father's partner. The strong intellectual powers of Mr. Sherman enabled him to readily grasp and master the intricate problems of the law. His reasoning was cogent, his deductions logical and his presentation of a case was forcible, so that he never failed to make a strong impression upon the court or jury and seldom failed to gain the verdict desired. In his legal practice he was particularly successful in prosecuting the claims of those who were sufferers from losses upon the river resulting from the great flood of 1869. He had, moreover, a com- prehensive knowledge of all departments of the law, and court and jury listened to him with attention. He had the characteristics of an ideal follower of his calling, one who seeks to aid the court in obtaining jus- tice rather than to win a suit through the employment of any methods that receive the condemnation of the most capable and conscientious members of the bar. His attention in business was not confined wholly to the law, for he made investments in industrial and financial interests. For thirteen years, up to the time of his death, he was the president of the Watertown Steam Engine Company and acted as one of its directors from its organization. He was also a trustee of the Jefferson County Savings Bank, and a principal owner and director of the National Bank & Loan Company.
Community interests received his earnest attention, and many move- ments and measures for the general good profited by his hearty co-opera- tion and substantial assistance. He held many positions of public trust and responsibility in Watertown, and from his youth up was regarded as a worthy citizen of this place. He was particularly well known be-
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cause of his activity in church work, and in this his mother and wife were his devoted co-laborers. He held membership in Trinity church, and with untiring zeal aided in the promotion of its various activities that were instituted for the extension of its influence and for its substan- tial growth. At the time of his death, which occurred in Watertown, April 25. 1882, when he was about forty-two years of age, resolutions of respect were passed by various organizations with which he was con- nected, including the directors of the Jefferson County Savings Bank. and the trustees of the Watertown Steam Engine Company. In one of the church papers appeared the following :
" By the death of Charles A. Sherman, Esq., of Watertown, our diocese loses a loyal, devoted and active friend and promoter of its best interests. He has for many years taken an active and prominent part in the proceedings of the convention, of the board of missions and of the standing committee, being always ready to serve the church at the cost of time and trouble, manifesting in these public relations thie strong con- victions and warm feelings belonging to his nature, but without bitter- ness or animosity in debate. His large family and many friends were only in part prepared for his departure by a lingering disease."
Mr. Sherman was married, in 1861, to Miss Caroline Philippa Nor- ton, a daughter of Nathaniel and Caroline Norton, of Charlestown, Massachusetts. She is a lady of unusual refinement and of superior edu- cation, completing her studies by graduation in the Packer Collegiate Institute. To Mr. and Mrs. Sherman were born six children: George C .: Caroline G., the wife of Henry Whittemore, of New York; Francis A .; Charles N., who is further mentioned in later paragraphs; Nathan- iel N., deceased; and Margaret A. The close companionship which arises from congeniality of taste and temperament made the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Sherman largely an ideal one, and he found in her sym- pathy and encouragement the inspiration which often made his labors extremely effective in both business and church life and in citizenship.
(XII) George C. Sherman, the eldest son of Charles A. and Caro- line (Norton) Sherman, was born July 25, 1862, and acquired his edu- cation in the public schools of Watertown. He entered upon his busi- ness career in the employ of the Watertown Steam Engine Company, of which his father was a director. From time to time he was advanced until he became assistant treasurer of the company. He also extended his operations to other fields of industrial activity, and in 1887 he was made secretary and treasurer of the Taggart Paper Company, a position
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which he has since occupied, covering a period of seventeen years. He was also one of the organizers of the St. Regis Paper Company, and is its secretary and treasurer. In financial circles he has figured prom- inently, not alone because of his invested interests, but because of his keen discernment in matters of management and his progressive ideas as controlling factor in the institutions of which he is a representative. He has been the president of the National Bank & Loan Company of Watertown since 1897, and is a trustee of the Jefferson County Savings Bank.
Deeply interested in the welfare of his native city and desirous of its progress along substantial lines of improvement, he has labored effectively and untiringly for good government in municipal affairs and he has contributed generously to the support of many causes, which have for their object the public welfare. He holds membership with the Trin- ity Episcopal church, and is a popular club man, belonging to the Jeffer- son County Golf Club, to the New York Athletic Club, to the Hanover Club of Brooklyn, and the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the Knight Templar degree of the York Rite and the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite.
Mr. Sherman was married, November 17, 1886, to Miss Alice Lee Taggart, a daughter of William W. Taggart, and they have two chil- dren: Katharine Lee and Caroline Norton.
(XII) Charles N. Sherman, the fourth child and third son of Charles A. and Caroline (Norton) Sherman, was born in Watertown, June 18, 1871, and following a course in the public schools he attended a military academy, and was graduated from the high school of Water- town with the class of 1888. His early business efforts were put forth in behalf of the Taggart Brothers Company, and Taggarts' Paper Com- pany, which he represented for seven years, acting a part of the time as assistant to his brother, George C. Sherman, and during the remainder of that period as a traveling representative of the house. He became familiar with the paper trade in its various departments, and thus well qualified by experience and judgment, he opened a store in 1894. in which he handled paper and pulp mill supplies. Success attended that enterprise, which he conducted for some time and then sold. On the incorporation of the Brownville Iron Works, in 1897, he was elected secretary and treasurer, a position which he still holds, and thus became identified with another department of industrial activity in Jefferson county. He is also treasurer of the Carthage Machine Company, vice-
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president of the West End Paper Company, and a director of the Na- tional Bank & Loan Company. He has excellent ability as an organ- izer and a genius for detail work, and has already proved the value of his efforts and keen discernment in the management of large interests.
Mr. Sherman was united in marriage to Miss Grace A. Stebbins, a daughter of J. R. Stebbins, president of the Agricultural Insurance Com- pany of Watertown. Mr. and Mrs. Sherman are the parents of one child, Adelaide. In social circles they are well known, and Mr. Sherman holds membership in the Union Club of Watertown and in the New York Ath- letic Club. He is also chairman of the house committee of the City Hos- pital of Watertown, contributes liberally to its support, and is a generous advocate and co-operant factor in many important public enterprises.
THE FAIRBANKS FAMILY. In the development of the mate- rial prosperity of Watertown in its early days, no man was more promi- nent than Jason Fairbanks. He sprang from a sturdy, long-lived and illustrious stock.
Jonathan Fairbanks, the founder of the American branch of the family, emigrated from Sowerby, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, and settled in Boston in 1633. After residing there three years he moved to Dedham, and built the famous "Fairbanks House," the oldest house in New England, and possibly in the United States, which has been continuously occupied by lincal descendants of the family. Before leaving England Jonathan married Grace Lee, and of the three children born to him prior to his emigration, the oldest, (II) John, in- herited by will the Dedham mansion. In 1638 he was appointed, with John Rogers, to survey the Charles river. John married Sarah Fisk in 1641. From this union there were born nine children, the seventh of whom, known later in life as (III) Deacon Joseph, born in 1656, in- herited part of the Fairbanks realty. He married, in 1683, Dorcas . But two children were born of this union, the youngest son, (IV) Joseph, Jr., born in 1687. keeping up the line of descent. He
married Abigail Doane, and was the father of eight children. (V) Samuel, the sixth of these, born in 1728, married Mary Draper. He was a revolutionary soldier. The sixth child of this marriage was a man of more than ordinary parts. He was named for his father, Sam- uel, Jr. (VI) He served with distinction in the wars. His name ap- pears on the Lexington Alarm rolls as a private; on the Coat rolls as a corporal. Later he obtained the rank of sergeant, and at the battle of
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Bunker Hill was captain. He was also captain of a company called out for the suppression of Shay's rebellion. Soon after the war of the Revo- lution he moved to Mendon, Massachusetts, and died there in 1826. Captain Samuel Fairbanks was thrice married. His first wife was Rachel Lovett, and the fifth of their six children was Jason Fairbanks.
(VII) Born at Mendon, September 5, 1785, Jason Fairbanks, at the age of thirteen, turned his back on the paternal home. He went to Boston, where he served for a year as the boy of all work in a hotel. He then apprenticed himself to James Bragg, a saddler and harness maker of Connecticut, and with him, in 1802, moved to Newport, New York. At the close of his apprenticeship liis employer sent him into "the Gen- esee country" to make some collections. After his return he visited the north country and made partial arrangements to settle at Ogdensburg. These falling through, he formed a co-partnership with Calvin Mc- Knight, and in 1808 opened a saddlery and harness business in the then village of Watertown, New York. This co-partnership was soon dis- solved, and another, also soon dissolved, was formed with John Smith, a practical workman from Connecticut, and tanning and shoe-making were added to the business. For the next forty or more years Jason Fairbanks was one of the most untiring business men of northern New York. He dealt in every species of merchandise in which there was even a seeming profit-pork, beef, butter, corn, salt-his transactions covering the northern and western counties of New York and the prov- inces of Canada. In addition he conducted a general store of dry goods, groceries and provisions, a carriage factory and an oil mill. In addition to his active business pursuits, Mr. Fairbanks was deputy marshall un- der Livingstone for twenty-four years ; sheriff of the county from 1821 to 1838. During the Patriot war he was keeper of the arsenal, and when the building was raided by the Patriots, and a quantity of state arms taken, under date of February, 1838, he offered a reward of two hun- dred and fifty dollars for the arrest of the offenders. His connection with what is known as the "Whittlesy affair," is too well known to need more than passing mention. In 1815 he, with Perley Keyes, became surety for Samuel Whittlesy, a brigade paymaster of militia. Whit- tlesy was a lawyer of fine ability, a member of the Congregational church, and a near neighbor of Mr. Fairbanks. He went to New York and received from the Merchants' Bank in that city $35,000 in one, two, three, five and ten dollar bills. At the instigation of his wife he appro- priated to his own use the funds, pretending he had been robbed while
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at Trenton, New York. His sureties, satisfied that Whittlesy was the thief, enticed him to an unfrequented pond, and after repeated duckings he confessed, and the money was recovered.
Mr. Fairbanks died January 10, 1875. in his ninetieth year. No resident of Watertown was more truly honored than he. Of the more than five hundred apprentices that served under him, not one ever turned out a bad man, while many achieved illustrious careers. He was a man unique in his personality, holding in contempt all shams and sensations, refusing even in his old age to wear an overcoat or carry a cane, regard- ing them as marks of effeminacy. He was secretive only in his chari- ties, but frank and outspoken in all else, self-reliant in all his affairs, quick to come to conclusions, and equally swift in carrying them out. Conscious of his own rectitude, he cared nothing for public opinion. His humor was peculiar and inexhaustible, and hundreds of amusing in- cidents are related regarding him.
In 1815 Mr. Fairbanks married Mary Massey, the eldest child of Hart Massey, one of the first settlers of Watertown. She was born in Plymouth, Vermont, in 1796, coming to Watertown five years later. She possessed a loving and charming personality, and her long life of eighty-seven ycars was replete with good deeds. She was the mother of four sons, each one of far more than ordinary ability. (VIII) Samuel, the oldest, was born in Watertown in 1818. He graduated from Union College, Schenectady, in 1838, and from the latter date until 1852 was engaged in business in Watertown. In 1852 he went to Florida, taking up his residence at Jacksonville, where he developed an immense lum- ber business. At the breaking out of the Civil war he removed to Rich- mond, Virginia, and for four years held a commission as quartermaster in the Confederate service. At the close of the war, his mills having been burned, he returned to Florida and engaged in mercantile pursuits, which he abandoned in 1874. He was agent of the Bureau of Immigra- tion at the time of his death, which occurred suddenly while on a visit to his mother, in the place of his birth, September 25, 1881. He mar- ried, in Watertown, in 1842, the second daughter of William Smith, and was the father of a son and two daughters. Notwithstanding his busi- ness career. he was essentially a man of literary tastes, and a forcible writer on literary and political subjects, and was a frequent correspond- ent for the press.
(VIII) George Rainsford Fairbanks, the second son, was born in Watertown, in 1820. He also graduated from Union College, in 1839.
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He studied law with the Hon. Joseph Mullin, and in 1842, having been appointed clerk of the United States circuit of the Northern District of Florida, he took up his abode in that state, where he at once took a lead- ing part in public affairs. In 1846 he was elected state senator, and dur- ing the Rebellion was a major in the Confederate army. At the close of the war he moved to Sewanee, Tennessee, where he was professor of his- tory in the University of the South, and one of the original members of the board of trustees. In 1880 he returned to Florida, locating at Fer- nandina, where he now resides and is editor of the Florida Weekly Mir- ror. He is an active member of the Episcopal church, representing it in all its conventions for more than half a century. In 1858 he published the "History and Antiquities of St. Augustine, Florida," and in 1871 a "History of Florida from Its Discovery by Ponce de Leon in 1512 to the Close of the Florida War in 1842." The work is a valuable contri- bution to the historic literature of America. Major Fairbanks has been twice married. His first wife was Sarah C., daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Wright, of Adams, New York, by whom he had six children. Mrs. Fairbanks died at St. Augustine in 1858. In 1860 he married Mrs. Susan, widow of Rev. Benjamin Wright, and daughter of John Beard, United States marshal of Florida, and for many years comptroller of the state.
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