Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 64

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094

USA > New York > Jefferson County > Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894 > Part 64

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Walter Woodruff, a brother of Gilbert, was another typical son of Watertown, where he was in business many years, removing to Chicago about 1856, and becoming there an influential and prominent citizen. Before leaving for Chicago, he and his brother

294

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

GILBERT WOODRUFF.

built the Washington Hall block in 1854, it taking the place of the old public house so long a landmark on the square, as well as taking in several other adjoining properties. That building stands to-day a monument of the excellence of their work as builders. They also built the Henry Keep Home build- ing, several dwellings on East Sterling street,and many other properties in dif- erent parts of the city. Walter Wood- ruff entered largely into real estate and commercial speculations in Chicago and was for a long time a wealthy man. But the hard times of 1873 deprived him of much of his possessions, and he died in 1876 at Chicago. His body is buried in Brookside beside his wife, and their monument is a con- spicuous object there.

Jackson Woodruff, brother of Gilbert and Walter, also removed to Chicago after being in trade several years in Watertown. He was

in the lumber business, was a member of the Board of Trade, and much respected. He died in Chicago in 1873, and is also buried in Brookside.

In this single family we see how much of the best blood of old Jefferson has been drained away to aid in building up the great West, which contains almost as many of the sons of our early pioneers as yet remain in their native county. The philosophic student of history notes in these great movements of population the means by which the Almighty spreads over the whole earth the people who are to found States and push on the car of progress and of moral forces; yet one can but regret that old Jefferson should ever have lost a single one of these noble sons, who, as their fathers did before them, have in a new land cleared forests, made paths by land and water and planted commonwealths.

295

CITY OF WATERTOWN.

THE SIGOURNEY FAMILY.

The three Sigourney families, early settlers of Watertown, derive their lineage from a French ancestor, Andrew Sigourney, one of the band of Hugenots, exiled by the revoca- tion of the edict of Nantes, by Louis XIV. October 22, 1685. He settled in Boston, and died there, April 16, 1727.

Anthony and Andrew settled in Watertown in 1809, in the then called Woodruff settle- ment, in the eastern part of the town Here were spent the remainder of their days. To say both, were prominent citizens is no exaggeration. The third brother, John, was a cotton manufacturer. He came into the town in 1818 and entered the then new factory at the eastern end of the village, in which he spent the largest portion of an active life. All were decided Democrats. John died February 8, 1872.

The sons of Anthony were Alanson P. James M., and William Harrison. Harrison left the paternal roof at the age of 17, and served an apprenticeship to the jewelry and watch repairing business with the late Calvin Guiteau. During the administrations of Pierce and Buchanan, he served as postmaster in Watertown. He sold his interest in his business to Roswell P. Flower, and his real estate in the then village, and emigrated to the city of New York, where he engaged in new enterprises-some proving satisfactory, and some not congenial or profitable, His health failing in 1892, he sold his residence in Brooklyn, and purchased No. 12 Holcomb street, where he now resides, in his 79th year, accompanied by the faithful wife of his choice (who was Miss Julia Huntington).

The second son of Anthony Sigourney was James M., who spent his minority upon his father's farm, acquiring sufficient education to enable him to teach four terms of school. Early in life he married Miss Eliza Tuell, and conducted the business of his father's farm up to 1848, when he purchased the adjoining farm. Possessing a decided taste for military life, he filled all the offices in company and regiment in the 93d regiment of rifles, and.

when the War of the Rebellion broke out he was selected by the local " war committee " of Jefferson county to organize the 94th Regi- ment, and to rendezvous and drill the same at the barracks in Sackets Harbor.

This is not the place to detail the manage- ment by which Colonel Sigourney was de- prived of the command of the 94th. He aided in raising it, but others were placed in command of that fine body of troops. He died March 8, 1888, aged 75 years.

The eldest of the three sons of Anthony, Alanson P., was born and reared upon the farm he now owns, and upon which he now resides, in the original Woodruff settle- ment; spent his minority upon the farm, less two terms of school taught-the first in Rut- land Hollow, the second at Sanford's Corners. He was a pupil of William Ruger, of Prof. Charles Brown, principal of Denmark Academy, and of M. LaRue P. Thompson, principal of the old stone academy, and there finished his academic course. While in the old academy he was called to teach the school on Factory street, which he taught eleven years, and then decided to pursue the pro- fession no further. He spent about a year in the jewelry business with his brother. He subsequently taught 18 terms on Sterling street. He acted as inspector and superin- tendent of schools for the town and village of Watertown for 14 years. He spent 19 years as Secretary of Jefferson County Agricultural Society, and was its presi- dent in 1858; was clerk of the Board of Supervisors four terms; has been candidate for supervisor of the town. Mr. Sigourney retired upon his farm in 1851-where he has since resided, and is now, in his 85th year, an intelligent, very observing, reflecting, indus- trious man. He was was one of the most in- fluential and progressive of the early educators of the county. Unfortunately for his political aspirations, if he ever had any, he was sometimes allied with a minority party, but he followed its fortunes with distinguished courage and unequaled persistency, for he implicitly believed in its principles. J. A. H.

JUSTIN W. WEEKS

THE aged crier of the courts of Jefferson county, has been for so long an interesting character in Watertown, and is so favorably known to so many of the people of the county, that his portrait will be readily recognized and appreciated by our readers. The Weeks family is an ancient and honor- able one, the name, in some of its varied forms, is of very great antiquity in England. The early emigrants to this country appear to have come mainly from the South of Eng- land, and doubtless sprang from among the yeomen and landed gentry of that fruitful section. They were generally men of enter- prise-some of them men of culture and of means, who at once assumed positions of honor and of influence in this new country.

George Weeks, one of the early settlers of Dorchester, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was probably the progenitor of many of the Weeks family in the United States. He cer- tainly is the one to whom the subject of this sketch traces back his genealogy.

Justin W. Weeks was born in Watertown in 1806. In March, 1831, he married Rosa- linda Rogers, by whom he had three children, Mary Persis, Addison and Charles Warren. He was originally a farmer, then a teacher in Watertown and Hounsfield. Leaving the school-house, he became a clerk in Knowlton & Rice's book store; then in 1860, he was made special deputy county clerk, which position he has since held and still holds. His urbanity of manner, and the gentleness

296

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

JUSTIN W. WEEKS.

of' his deportment have made him many friends. His golden wedding was celebrated in 1881, when himself and his beloved part- ner received many substantial tokens from sympathetic and admiring friends. His wife died in 1883, in her 74th year, rounding out a life of great usefulness. She was in every sense a Christian.

Mr. Weeks since then has resided with his daughter, Mrs. Elisha Hemenway, at 72 Franklin street. He bears the burthen of his nearly 90 years as well as could be ex- pected, being daily seen upon the streets; but he looks upon himself as only a pilgrim, who may be called away any day to pass over and join that great but silent majority who have preceded him.

Of his three children, only Mrs. Hemenway and his son Addison are now living. The artist Gegoux, has painted an heroic sized

portrait of Mr. Weeks, which has attained de- served popularity as a fine work of art- re- flecting great credit upon the artist, for he has made a picture that seems just ready to walk out of the frame, to become the very living man himself. The writer lately ex- amined that picture with great interest. Nothing finer in the way of portraiture is seen in any of the great galleries of Europe -- a thing easy to say, but which any observing European traveller will verify.

Mr. Weeks was for 35 years an exemplary member of Arsenal Street M. E. Church, and when State Street Church was set off he be- came an official member and trustee of the latter, a relation he holds to-day. His Chris- tian experience and well-balanced life have been so exemplary as to entitle him to the universal respect he has so long enjoyed.

CITY OF WATERTOWN.

297

DEWITT CLINTON CUMINGS,

Now a resident of Carthage, where he was burned out in the great fire of 1884, was born in the town of Pamelia in 1823. His early education was such as he could pick up at odd times in the common schools of that period in Watertown, to which village his parents had removed in his infancy. Their names were Levi and Sarah (Colwell) Cumings, who were of Scotch descent, and they came into the Black River country from Vermont. At a very early age "Clint" (as every one called him) began his apprenticeship with George Goulding in the shops now owned by the Bagley & Sewall Company. Here he was a younger worker with Theodore T. Wood- ruff, the distinguished inventor of the sleeping-car. He finished his apprenticeship with Goulding, and graduated as one of the

most competent workers in wood and iron the town had ever produced. He is well remembered by the writer as the con- structor with his own hands of the first steam engine ever built in Watertown, long before he had completed his ap- prenticeship, and in his 16th year. The engine was rated for 4-horse power, and is believed to be still in use in St. Lawrence county after 50 years of service. The build- ing of this engine demonstrated the originality of his constructive ability. This capacity has been well illustrated in many ways during his long and laborious life, some of his mechani- cal contrivances running into thousands in number of construction. Had he been as competent in saving money as he was prolific in inventing machines, he would be wealthy.

298

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

His mind was cast in no common mould, be- ing another of those distinctly inventive char- acters who have, from first to last, rendered Jefferson county famous. In connection with T. T. Woodruff, we may here remark that Mr. Cumings well remembers hearing Wood- ruff tell about his invention of the mowing machine, spoken of on p. 33 of this History. This invention preceded by many years the later development of the great McCormick machine, which has been so important a fac-

tor in the march of progress and civilization. Whatever may be his financial condition, Mr. Cumings is sure of the regard and appre- ciation of his neighbors, who have known him so many years-and among them he is passing into the sere and yellow leaf of old age. In 1846 he married Miss Harriet Perkins, and they have reared a small family. His beloved wife still cheers him along in this earthly pilgrimage.

THE PRESS OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

IN introducing the subject of the Press of Jefferson county, a few remarks as to news- papers and newspaper editors, may not be inappropriate. The writer went into a news- paper office in Watertown when scarcely 10 years of age. For over sixty years he has been more or less intimately familiar with newspapers and their editors, and has had unusual facilities for observation in many cities and villages throughout the United States.

It is too often the case that newspaper editors are unappreciative of the opportuni- ties and the responsibilities of their high position. They are much like other men in allowing familiarity with their daily duties to render them careless in what they write, looking upon the preparation of matter for publication as a sort of drudgery, to be got through with as soon as possible, and neglect- ing any attempt to "polish up" what they write; permitting mediocre efforts to appear in their department, when an honest attempt to do their " level best " would have produced editorials worthy of real praise. No man of active mind writes an article that he could not improve if he were to re-write it. Yet few editors attempt to make better any leader they prepare for their papers. As a result, they fall far behind when their productions are compared with even the poorest of the magazine articles, which bear more or less evidence of an honorable attempt to adhere to a natural and therefore agreeable style. We often read articles by older editors of repu- tation, which are so much above the usual newspaper average, that we are in doubt whether the productions could have eman- ated from the same source. True it is, that a great deal of newspaper work is done in more or less haste, but it is also true that much of the editorial work of the present day is done in an indifferent way, and from it grows a slip-shod style, unworthy to take rank even with honest mediocrity. The direct result of this lack of care in prepara- tion is observed in the general character of young men who find their way into editorial positions. With few requirements, either in education or in natural parts, these young aspirants have watched the newspapers, and readily perceive that the leading editorials are generally loose in construction and incom- plete in style; so they feel themselves equal

to that grade of literary work. If they have a little money to back them, or political friends, they drop into positions which, but for the dereliction of their predecessors, might have been filled by abler men.

Newspaper-making, by this process of con- stantly lowering the standard of excellence, has become a sort of perfunctionary work, and so we have now no great editors in America, excepting perhaps a single name. This is the fault of newspaper men them- selves, and is well illustrated even in the com- posing room of a newspaper, as well as in the editorial department. In the writer's youth, none but peculiarly bright boys were accept- ed as apprentices in a printing office, and such boys were also required to be well grounded in the rudiments of an English education. But in these days the boys off the street, sometimes hardened by street experience, and often extremely illiterate, are taken on as helpers, and at last reach the case, and from such material have come that great army of poor compositors who infest all the cities and towns of the United States.

Type-setting has become a mere mechanical operation, soon to be generally performed by a machine made of iron and steel, presided over by some one with brains-the inevitable outcome of a condition where men refuse to do their best, but are content to just rub along and live.

THE DAILY PRESS.

In no branch of industry or mechanical in- genuity, or in that happy combination of man's mental methods with skilled inventive capacity, have any greater achievements been accomplished than in the modern daily news- paper. The writer's first sight of the process of printing a newspaper was in Benj. Cory's office on the south side of the Public Square, in Watertown, when Mr. Cory pulled the lever that gave the impression (a single page at each pull), and Frank Ottarson, (afterward night editor of the New York Tribune), beat the types with the inking balls (fine smooth leather stuffed with wool), by which the types were charged with ink. They could, by close application, get off 200 impressions per hour. That was only 60 years ago. The contrast between those primitive methods (the best then attainable in country villages),

299

THE PRESS OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

and the regular eight to twenty-four page dailies of to day, exhibits what American skill and invention and American business enterprise have done within this period to make the newspaper the representative force of modern civilization. All branches of literature, art and science have been made tributary to it. It has brought a knowledge of the daily history of the whole world within the reach of every reader. It has enlarged the freedom of thought and independence of opinion, and advanced the intellectual stand- ards of the people. It has quickened liter- ature, has popularized art, has broadened the mental horizon of the nation as no other single influence has done. And where news- paper readers were numbered by thousands, they are numbered now by millions.

The advance of every daily newspaper has been also an index to the progress of the com- munity it serves. The modern newspaper, with its abundant equipment, has given to business men a means of communication with the public, of which they have availed them- selves to their own as well as to its advan- tage. In the many attractive pages of adver- tisements in each issue may be read, not only the prosperity of the paper itself, but the business activity of the city it serves.

The development of the art of advertising is a feature of the modern newspaper that has not only extended its interest and its useful- ness, but has aided greatly in its progress in other directions. If there are improvements in the collection and elucidation of the news and of all topics of human interest, in tele- graphy, in typography, in paper-making, in printing, in the art of illustration, that will make it better this year than last, the modern newspaper will be sure to have them.

It may be said that to entrust such a com- plicated and powerful instrument to the con- trol of a single mind, is a dangerous experi- ment, because a bad man may make his news- paper a menace to the very civilization from whose need daily journalism has sprung. And still in a less open but insidious way, a daily newspaper may becon ? a danger. Take a city like our own, full of active, pushing men in all professions and in almost every branch of business; a ¡ > per with limited comprehension of its dutics to the whole city may, by its open flattery of its favorites-for all men have favorites of one kind or another -or by its coldness or studied indifference to those who do not admire its editor or its course, exert a distinctly mischievous influ- ence. Such a newspaper will invite-its parti- ality may even demand-a competitor, and so in time it will be confronted by contem- poraries that, by pursuing an impartial course, will at last displace any presumptuous rival that thought it "owned " and had a right to "run" the town.

Before leaving this subject of the daily press, it is meet and proper to notice, for the benefit of posterity, the one man of all others who, as printer and editor, made a deeper impress upon the young men of his time, than any individual the country has ever pro-

duced. Horace Greeley sprang from the humbler walks of life, to become a leader in thought and in true ideas of freedom-free- dom to think and believe and reject whatever his mind declared worthy or unworthy. His writings found fruitful ground in the minds of the young men of Jefferson county and Northern New York. Formed in no common mould, he stands as the brightest illustration of what honesty of purpose and a sympa- thetic nature, allied to unconquerable indus- try, can accomplish in a free country.

The Hon. Amos J. Cummings, another newspaper man, many years in Congress, an associate editor of the greatest newspaper in America, the New York Sun, himself a young contemporary of Greeley, when called upon by his fellows to speak on Decoration Day at the unveiling of the Greeley monu- ment in New York city, alluded to his older associate in these eloquent words:

COMRADES-The names of those who saved the Re- public are forever linked with the names of those who created it. Lincoln and Grant recall Washing- ton and Jefferson. Adams and Franklin were proto- types of Seward and Greeley. The soldier, the statesman, the philosopher and the philanthropist united in planting the tree of liberty on American soil, and were united in preserving it eighty-five years afterward. All live in the hearts of their countrymen. All are to-day honored in commemor- ative bronze.

Gladstone once said that "from the people of the thirteen colonies, at the close of the American Revo- lution, there came a group of statesmen that might defy the whole history of the world to beat them in any one State, and at any one time. Such were the consequences of a well-regulated and a masculine freedom."

There the great Englishman stopped. He should have said more. Behind this group of statesmen came a group of thinkers, authors, divines, orators, editors, inventors, artists, actors and soldiers that has challenged the admiration of the world. Both groups have passed into history. In the second group no figure stands more distinctive than the quaint personality of Horace Greeley. None filled the eye of the nation more completely and persist- ently; none excited more sympathetic interest, and none met a fate more sad. For thirty years his broad-brimmed hat and white overcoat were as familiar objects in America as were the cocked hat and brown surtout of Napoleon in Europe.

Like Lincoln, Mr. Greeley was born in poverty and cradled in obscurity. Like Lincoln, he was thoroughly American. Both were striking examples of develop- ment under the new republic. Although twenty-one summers have warmed the soil of freedom since Horace Greeley was laid to rest in Greenwood, his memory is still fresh in the hearts of the people. He was born twenty-nine years after the surrender of Cornwallis, and twenty years after the death of Franklin. He is frequently termed the second Franklin, but there were marked differences in the men. Franklin had wonderful intellectual energy tempered by the best judgment; Greeley had equal mental energy, but swayed by the emotions of his heart. The Greeleys were toughened in the old French war and the battles of the Revolution. Horace's matchless intellect, however, came from his mother. She was an omnivorous and retentive reader. At her knee he learned to read. She awakened in him a thirst for knowledge and a lively interest in history. From her he drew his sympa- thetic nature.

Like other great men of his time, he was a part of the gristle of the growing Republic. We see him at the case in Vermont, bobbing away with patient assiduity, eager for the daily feast on exchange newspapers after his stent is finished. We see him in boarding houses, awkward, uncouth, and poorly clad, and hear him participating in political discus- sions. He is an ardent patron of the village library. His mind is never at rest. When copy runs out he stands at the case, composing paragraphs, and puts

300

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

them in type without writing them out. He enters into metaphysical discussions in debating societies and occasionally indulges in religious disquisitions.

And then, in the fifth year of his apprenticeship. the newspaper gives up the ghost. Twenty years old and afloat in life hundreds of miles from home, without money and without friends, sick and discon- solate. Follow his footsteps across the great State of New York, into the undeveloped regions of Penn- sylvania. For a year he struggles in country news- paper offices, and finally turns his face towards the metropolis. It is nearly 62 years since he landed at the Battery, with ten dollars in his pocket. For 14 months he works at the case, earning barely enough to make a living. Then, with Horatio D. Shepperd, he establishes the first one cent daily newspaper ever issued. It dies within a month, leaving its proprie- tors in debt. Two years afterward the New Yorker appears, devoted to current literature, but giving a digest of all important news, including a careful summary of political intelligence. Dickens was then just climbing into fame under the nom de plume of Boz. Young Greeley foresaw his success, and pub- lishes his stories in the New Yorker. As time passes on, we find him in charge of the Jeffersonian, a Whig campaign paper, and later on, the editor of the Log Cabin. Before the campaign of 1840 is closed, it has a circulation of 90,000. It was the chrysalis of the New York Tribune.

Circumstances favored the development of the new newspaper. Henry J. Raymond made a magnificent lieutenant, and Thomas McElrath an unrivalled quartermaster. The leading editors and workmen were stockholders. It was practically the best co- operative establishment introduced into America. The news of the day appeared in a compact form, and its literary miscellany was unrivalled. The sketches of Thackeray, Dickens, Douglas Jerrold, and of other growing English authors were printed in its columns. It paid special attention to political matters. It was removed alike from servile partisan- ship on the one hand, and from mincing neutrality on the other. It advocated the principles and com- mended the measures of the Whig party, to which Mr. Greeley's convictions allied him, yet it dissented from its course on particular questions, and de- nounced its candidates when they were shown to be deficient in capacity or integrity.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 64

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823- Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094