USA > New York > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and family history of New York, Volume II > Part 10
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The children of Cyrus Horton and Hester (Wood) Bowne were: 1. Anna, born 1839. 2. Susan, born 1840; married Will- iam Deniston. 3. Samuel W., born January 3, 1842; married. May 13. 1875, Nettie Youngs. 4. James H., born 1844; married Elizabeth Williams. 5. Obadiah, born 1847; married, 1875, Lonisa Van Piper. He had a family of seven children, and lived at Tenafly, New Jersey, and died April 29, 1906. 6. Ag- nes, born 1849; married Jonas Hawkins. 7. Emma, born 1851; married Smith Tompkins. 8. Kate, born 1853. 9. Cyrus Al- fred, born 1857; married Corinne Miller, and now resides in Walden. New York.
Cyrus Horton Bowne, fourth child of Obadiah and (Rickey) Bowne, was born in Dutchess county, New York. He was reared and trained to the routine of farm life, and, as was customary among the sons of farmers in those days, acquired his educational advantages in the schools of the neighborhood. Upon attaining young manhood he engaged in farming, and continued in that line of occupation throughout the active years of his life. He was a man of great energy and force of char- Vol. II-10
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acter, progressive and enterprising in his views and ideas, and throughout the length and breadth of the community in which he resided was regarded as a useful and honorable citizen.
Cyrus Horton Bowne married, in 1837, Hester Wood, and their children are as follows: 1. Anna, born in 1839. 2. Susan, born 1840, married William Deniston. 3. Samuel W., of this review, born January 3, 1842. 4. James H., born 1844, married Elizabeth Williams. 5. Obadiah, born 1847, married Louisa Van Piper, 1875, who bore him seven children; Obadiah Bowne died April 29, 1906. 6. Agnes, born 1849, married Jonas Hawk- ins. 7. Emma, born 1851, married Smith Tompkins. 8. Kate, born 1854. 9. Cyrus Alfred, born 1857, married Corinne Mil- ler, and resides at Walden, New York. The death of Cyrus Horton Bowne, which occurred December 9, 1858, was greatly deplored by a wide circle of friends, many of whom had often been benefited by his generosity and kindness. It has been justly said of him that in all his business transactions his word was as good as his bond. He not only left to his family a substantial competence, but also the prond heritage of an hon- orable name. His wife, Hester (Wood) Bowne, died September 1, 1891. . She was a lady of the old-school type, and was pos- sessed of many excellent qualities of mind and heart, which she generously bestowed on her husband and children. Her deeds of charity, which were numerous, were performed in an unos- tentatious manner.
Samuel W. Bowne, third child and eldest son of Cyrus Horton and Hester (Wood) Bowne, was born in the family homestead in Montgomery township, Orange county, New York. His elementary training was acquired in the district schools, and this knowledge was supplemented by a course in Mont- gomery Academy, preparatory to entering college. Being de- prived by death of his father in the year 1858, and he being
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the eldest son, a greater portion of the work and care of the homestead devolved upon him, and he subsequently relinquished his studies and spent the following three years in the manage- ment of the homestead farm. Having decided to prepare him- self for a commercial career, he attended a course in a business college, and later entered upon his business career at Newburg, Orange county, New York, remaining until 1865, when he decided to come to New York city. He secured employment in a broker's office on Wall street, New York, and, being tempted with a desire to succeed rapidly in life, as some men do in that line of business, invested his own capital as well as that of some of his friends, but was unfortunate in his investments and lost all. This did not, however, weaken his ambition nor determina- tion to succeed, and he at once applied himself to the task of retrieving his losses and finally liquidated every dollar of his indebtedness. His next venture was in the capacity of a trav- eling salesman for a manufacturing concern in New York, this line of work affording him the experience he longed for, and he at once achieved a marked success. He next became engaged with the firm of Scott & Platt, manufacturing chemists of New York city, and in this line of enterprise formed and finally laid the foundation of his success in life. Mr. Bowne's varied and diversified experience served him, in addition to his careful study and close observation, in rendering valuable aid in the production of Scott's Emulsion of Cod Liver Oil, a compound which has become renowned for its health-giving properties in every civilized country on the globe. In 1874 Mr. Bowne en- tered into partnership with Alfred B. Scott under the firm name of Scott & Bowne, and they have since been engaged as manufacturing chemists. The firm have acquitted themselves in such a way as to gain a world-wide reputation, and the extent of their business has attained to an enormous magnitude. In
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latter years it has been divided into two departments, known as the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, Mr. Scott's interest being confined to the Eastern, and the interests of Mr. Bowne to the Western.
In addition to his numerous and varied commercial inter- ests, Mr. Bowne finds time to study the social and economic conditions of his fellowmen, and has from time to time dis- pensed unstintingly of his substance to deserving persons and institutions, and to all such enterprises as have for their object the upbuilding of the moral as well as the social interests of the city. It can be justly said that he is a true philanthropist, and the name of Samuel W. Bowne will go down to posterity as one of the noble benefactors of his race. Mr. Bowne is an active member of the Union League Club, the New York Ath- letic Club, the Downtown Hardware Club, the Knollwood Coun- try Club. the City Club, and other leading organizations that have for their object the advancement of the moral and social interests of the community.
Samuel W. Bowne married, May 13, 1875, Henrietta Youngs, born March 17, 1850, daughter of Daniel S. and Maria (Mastin) Youngs.
VAN BUREN FAMILY.
This family is one of the ancient Holland stock, and the ancestors came to this country early in the seventeenth century. The particular branch concerning which this sketch is written, settled on the east bank of the Hudson river, in the present Columbia county, the immediate location being at Kinderhook, and from them were descended Harmon Van Buren, the an- cestor of this branch, and his cousin, Abraham Van Buren, who was the father of Martin Van Buren, President of the United States, and so famous in the political history of the country.
Harmon Van Buren left Kinderhook and settled in what
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was then the "Western Country," near Johnstown, New York, about 1790. He took an active part in the war of the Revolu- tion, and was a major in the Seventeenth New York Regiment. His family consisted of his wife Catharine, and six children: Maria, Francis, Peter, John and Barent, and Harmon.
Barent Van Buren was born May 29, 1764. He studied
Barent Van Buren.
law at Columbia College, and practiced his profession for sev- eral years. When a boy he met with an accident which made him a cripple for the remainder of his life. He was a man of considerable mental ability, and was respected and esteemed by the community in which he lived. Mr. Van Buren married Grace Dennison, in 1790. She was born in Connecticut, June 20, 1769, and died in Gouverneur, August 18, 1834. They were the parents of seven children: Harmon, born March 21, 1793.
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Thomas Henry, born September 22, 1795. Angelica, born Jan- uary 2, 1794. Samuel, born April 10, 1801. Peter, born No- vember 19, 1813. Katharine Starr, born October 27, 1807. William, born February 4, 1812. Barent Van Buren lived near Johnstown until 1817, when he removed to the town of Gouver- neur with his family. with the exception of his daughter An- gelica, who married Jesse Foote, of Johnstown, where her de- scendants are still living. Mr. Van Buren died in Gouverneur, April 30, 1850. The sons took up land and built log cabins, as was the custom of those days, rendered necessary by circum- stances. They were parents of families, and their descendants are numerous and respected.
Samuel Van Buren married Thankful Goodrich, of an an- cient Connecticut family. Their children are: Ann M., Martin, Betty M., married M. W. Levings; Charles Goodrich, now living in Montfort, Wisconsin; and Jeannette. All of these were born in the town of Gouverneur. The father of this family was a farmer and for some years was the proprietor of a hotel in Canton, St. Lawrence county, noted as the home of Governor Silas Wright. Mr. Van Buren died in 1894.
Katharine Starr Van Buren, daughter of Barent Van Bu- ren, married Milton Barney. November 6, 1833. He was born in Adams, New York, May 1, 1808, and died July 3, 1895. His parents, Sylvanus and Miriam (Kingsley) Barney were natives of Guilford, Vermont. They were the parents of four children : Florella Louise, Albert M., Sarah G., Morris Hart, lost at sea, 1862, and Bradley Laban.
Albert Milton Barney, the oldest son, studied law and was about to be admitted to the bar at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war. He was the first man to enlist in his native town. He was commissioned first lieutenant in the Sixteenth Regi- ment, New York Volunteers, May 15, 1861. He was afterwards
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captain in the same regiment. He was promoted lieutenant- colonel in the One Hundred and Forty-second Regiment, after- wards colonel, and before the close of the war was made brevet- brigadier-general, and was mustered out of service with his regiment, June 7, 1865. After the war he was made special agent of the United States treasury, and was later collector of customs at Brownsville, Texas. After that he was again made special agent, and held the position until his death. General Barney married (first) Leonora Chamberlin; (second) Lutie M. Smith, of Rochester.
Sarah Grace Barney married George Bigelow Winslow, a descendant of the Pilgrims. He was captain of Battery D, of First New York Light Artillery, and was distinguished for gal- lantry in action. He was born in Adams, New York, June 23, 1832, and died September 30, 1883, from the effects of wounds received in the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1863. After the war he was postmaster in Gouverneur for eighteen years. His children are: Albert B., Milton S., Grace and Katharine Mary, wife of Charles Stewart Fettis, who has one child, Miriam Winslow Fettis.
Myron W. Levings, who married Betty M. Van Buren, was a brave and efficient officer in the civil war. His son, Glenn Van Buren Levings, is a mining officer in Mexico.
Grace Louise Winslow, daughter of George Bigelow Wins- low, was born at Gouverneur, New York, December 17, 1876. She married, May 26, 1896, Edwin S. Keen. He was born No- vember 29, 1874, in Washington, D. C. They have one child, Dorothy Winslow Keen, born July 15, 1897.
Jeannette Van Buren (daughter of Samuel) Van Buren, is a resident of New York, a professional teacher of vocal music, in which art she is recognized as a teacher of great skill and ability.
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No sketch of this family can possibly be complete without an appropriate notice of Martin Van Buren, its most distin- guished member.
Martin Van Buren, son of Abraham Van Buren, of Kinder- hook, was born December 5, 1782. His early education was ob- tained at Kinderhook Academy, which he left at the age of fourteen, and studied law in the office of Francis Silvester, and later with William P. Van Ness, in New York. His first office was that of fence viewer in his native town. In 1803 he was ad- mitted to the bar. In 1808 he was made surrogate of Columbia county. Elected to state senate 1812. From 1815 to 1819 he was attorney general of the state. In 1819 he was again state sen- ator. He organized the Democratic party, and was the ruling spirit of a coterie of politicians called the Albany Regency, of which William L. Marcy was one, which ruled the politics of the state for twenty years. In 1821 he was United States senator, and re-elected 1827. He resigned that position when elected governor. He resigned the governorship to take the position of sentry of state under President Jackson. In 1831 he was ap- pointed minister to England, but the appointment was not con- firmed by the senate. In 1835 he was elected president, and renominated in 1840, but was defeated by General William Hen- ry Harrison. He made an extended tour in Europe in 1853-5. After a most eventful life, he died in his native town, July 24, 1862.
WYETH FAMILY.
In the year 1540 two navigators, Cobrillo and Ferrer, sailed under the Spanish flag along the Pacific coast as far north as C'ape Blanco, latitude 43 north, a little north of the present Cali- fornia line. No landings were made nor any attempt at settle- ment, but the entire region was claimed by Spain. In 1774 an- other Spaniard, Ivan Perrez, sailed as far north as Noodka
nathaniel J. Wyeth
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Sound, latitude 54 north, and a year later his colleague, Bodega, went as far as latitude 58 north, or as far as Mount St. Elias. Previous to this Vitis Behring, a Dane in the employ of Russia, discovered the sea that bears his name, and in 1741 went south along the shores of Alaska as far down as Mount St. Elias. In 1778 Captain James Cook, the famous discoverer, coasted along the Pacific shores, and British vessels soon swarmed there for purposes of trade. In 1790 French navigators entered into competition, and in 1800 put in a claim to the entire regions by virtue of her purchase from Spain of that vast and indefinite territory known as Louisiana. In 1791 some American vessels found their way thither, and on May 11, 1792, Captain Grey dis- covered and sailed up the great river, which, from the name of his ship, he named "Columbia." He also landed and laid claim to the neighboring region.
In 1778 Martin Frobisher, a navigator, as agent for the Hudson Bay Company, established a trading post at Athabasca lake. In 1789 Sir. Alexander Mackenzie discovered Great Slave Lake and the river that flows from it and which bears his name. In July, 1793, he reached the Pacific ocean, and was the first white man who crossed the American continent. In 1805 the celebrated expedition under Captains Lewis and Clark reached the Columbia river. In 1806 Simon Fraser, a Canadian, settled on Fraser river, and was the first white settler west of the Rocky Mountains. In 1810 Wilson Pierce Hunt, with sixty men, left St. Louis overland and in fifteen months reached the mouth of the Columbia, and built Astoria. They were driven off by the British in 1813, and the place was called Fort George. In 1818 it again fell into the hands of the Americans and its former name restored. In 1827 there was not a single settle- ment in possession of an American citizen in all that vast region, which had in turn been claimed by Spain, Russia, Great Britain,
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France and the United States. France had sold all her claims to the latter country by the famous Louisiana Purchase. Russia claimed nothing but Alaska, and the struggle for the Oregon region was between the United States and Great Britain. About 1830 the excitement was high over Oregon, and the war-cry of a large and influential party was "54 40 or Fight." The treaty which settled the north boundary of the United States at latitude 49 north was not established till 1846, nor wholly settled until 1871.
In time of need, Providence always raises up the man for the hour, and in this instance the man for the hour was Na- thaniel J. Wyeth, who was the first to organize an effort to colonize Oregon. Between 1831-36 he led two expeditions across the American continent in an effort to found a State in the great Northwest. He gave up a prosperous business and a happy home to tempt fate in a perilous journey of thousands of miles, exposed to every danger. Of him Washington Irving wrote: "His enterprise was prosecuted with a spirit of dili- gence and perseverance that merited success. All the details that we have must place him to be no ordinary man. He ap- pears to have had the mind to conceive and the energy to ex- ecute the most extensive and startling plans. Though consid- ered a visionary, he lived to see Oregon a Territory of the United States, and although he died before it became a State, in 1859, his last years must have been happier in the knowledge that he had done much to make the occupation of this region possible to his fellow citizens."
In 1831 he selected the site for Fort Hall, in the present State of Idaho. He unfurled a flag made from some unbleached sheeting, a little red flannel and a few blue patches, and saluted it with some damaged powder. Nine years later, in 1843, in the race for the occupation of Oregon, Dr. Marcus Whitman led his
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great caravan of two hundred wagons and eight hundred per- sons, and his expedition turned the balance for Oregon, and Fort Hall was the pivotal point. The Hudson Bay Company had crowded Wyeth out, destroyed his business and killed many of his trappers and followers. At this point many immigrant companies had been broken up, but Fort Hall formed a cover for Oregon, just as a battery at the mouth of a river protects an inland city.
The expedition of Wyeth began in New England, and on March 11, 1832, with a company of twenty-one men fully armed, he sailed from Boston, and in fifteen days landed at Baltimore. From there they marched to the Monongahela river and took a steamboat for Pittsburg, and from thence down the Ohio and Mississippi to St. Louis, and then up the great river to Inde- pendence, the last white settlement on the Missouri river, and near the present Kansas City. At this place two of his men deserted. In May they started across the Plains, and reached the Black Hills on June 15. On July 2 they were attacked by the Blackfeet Indians, and on the 8th a severe battle was fought. Wyeth was foremost in the fight, in which the Indians were de- feated. On October 13, 1832, they reached Fort Walla Walla, a trading station of the Hudson Bay Company, on their way having been compelled to kill their horses for food. On Novem- ber 4 one of the seven men who were left of his company died. The few left became discouraged, and on the 15th he writes: "1 have now no man, and am afloat without stay or support; but in good hands, i. e., myself and Providence."
He immediately set about to acquaint himself with the to- pography and resources of the country, and resolved to return and enlist a greater and better equipped company, and again make a settlement in the valley of the Columbia. On Novem- ber 30, with two men, in a canoe, he started up the Willamette
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river. He says: "I have never seen a country of equal beauty except the Kansas country, and I doubt not it will one day sup- port a large population." Upon the place now stands the city of Portland. His description of the Indian tribes is curious and interesting. On August 15, 1833, with one white man and four Indians, he started on a perilous voyage. His starting point was the same place where in 1876 the gallant Custer perished with all his men. A thrilling description of his journey is given by Irving in "Bonneville." On the Big Horn river they floated into the Yellowstone, and thence to the Missouri and down to St. Louis. On the 28th he reached what was later Fort Leavenworth, from whence he went by steamboat to St. Louis. and on November 8, 1833, he was again in Boston.
In May, 1834, he started at the head of another expedition, and in July was half way across the continent. On August 21 his company numbered only seventeen. In the meantime the brig "Mary Dean" had been sent from Boston, and met the party on the Columbia river. On September 22 they settled upon a large prairie about fifty miles from the coast, and such was the first American settlement in Oregon. From one tree he hollowed out a canoe sixty feet long and large enough to hold twenty-five barrels. At length, after a fearful struggle worthy of a better fate, broken in health, deserted by his fol- lowers, and bankrupt, he gave up the fight. After five years of labor, having crossed the continent four times, he reached Cambridge, his home, "a visionary and a failure." He died in 1856. The "visionary" part of his nature was shown by under- taking a vast scheme without any adequate support and re- sources-the "failure" was the result.
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GEORGE WYTHE.
A sketch of this ancient and honored family cannot be per- fect without a notice of George Wythe, one of the immortal band who signed the Declaration of Independence.
George Wythe was born in Elizabeth City, Virginia, in 1726. His father was a wealthy planter, and his mother, who possessed unusual intelligence and learning, gave him his early education, and he became an accomplished Latin and Greek scholar and an expert mathematician. He obtained a more ex- tended education at William and Mary's College. Both of his parents died before he reached manhood, and the uncontrolled possession of a large fortune led him into extravagance and dissipation. He reformed when about thirty, studied law, and rose to a high rank in the profession. Early in life he was a member of the House of Burgesses, and was a leader to the time of the Revolution. On November 14, 1769, he was appointed a member of a committee to prepare and report a petition to the King, a memorial to the House of Lords, and a remonstrance to the House of Commons, in regard to the Stamp Act. They were drawn up by him, but went so far as to be considered treasonable, and were only accepted after some modification. The whole weight of his influence was towards the Revolution, and in August, 1775, he was appointed a delegate to the Con- tinental Congress from Virginia, and was one to sign the famous Declaration of Independence.
On November 5, 1776, he was appointed, with Jefferson and others, as a committee to revise the state laws and make others more conformable to the principles of the new republic. At a later date he was one of the three judges of the Chancery Court. and was sole chancellor for more than twenty years. In De- cember, 1786, he was one of the convention to frame the Con- stitution of the United States, and was twice a presidential elec-
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tor. He manumitted all his slaves and furnished them means of support.
In the eighty-first year of his age he was poisoned. A nephew was arrested for the crime, but upon trial was acquitted. Jefferson said of George Wythe, "No man ever left behind him a character more venerated than George Wythe. He was the Cato of his country."
NATHANIEL J. WYETH .*
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth, subject of this narrative, was de- scended from Jacob Wyeth, who was born at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, reared to manhood in his native city, entered Harvard and graduated from that institution about 1800. He was a man of high scholarly attainment and became prominent in literary circles. He died at the mature age of ninety-four years.
Jacob Wyeth married Elizabeth Jarvis, who was a de- scendant of a prominent English family. She also attained to the age of ninety-four years. They are both buried in the front cover of Mt. Auburn, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is still owned by their grandson, Nathaniel J. Wythe. Jacob Wyeth had born to him by his marriage, the following children : 1. Leonard Jarvis, who was an extensive lace manufacturer in Nottingham, England, he married Caroline Osgood, and lived for some time in Baltimore, Maryland; he spent the latter years of his life in New York city, where he died. 2. Charles, who became the father of Nathaniel J., of this review. 3. Jacob, who was a graduate of Harvard, became a physician, and settled at St. Louis, Missouri, where he spent the remaining years of his life; he married Mary Jarvis. 4. Nathaniel J., who married Elizabeth Stone, of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
*The family name appears variously as Wythe and Wyeth. The explorer, Nathaniel J .. and his namesake in the present generation, have the form of Wyeth, while George, signer of the Declaration of Independence, used the Wythe form.
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Charles Wyeth, second son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Jarvis) Wyeth, spent his early manhood years under the parental roof at Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He next went to Baltimore, Maryland, where he became engaged with his broth- er, Leonard Jarvis, and spent the active years of his life en- gaged as an extensive silk merchant. He died at Baltimore, Maryland, January 27, 1891, aged ninety-three years. He mar- ried Elizabeth Norris, of Baltimore.
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