USA > New York > Tioga County > Historical gazetter of Tioga County, New York, 1785-1888. Pt. 1 > Part 10
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BIOGRAPÁICAL.
Dr. William E. Johnson was born near Port Jervis, N. Y., October 17, 1837; was educated in the common schools, prepared for college at Neversink academy, and graduated at the Albany Medical college, December 31, 1859. In 1862 he was made ex- amining surgeon of the twenty-sixth senatorial district, at Bing- hamton, to examine recruits, and soon after received a commis- sion as first assistant surgeon of the rogth N. Y. Vols .; was sub- sequently promoted to surgeon of the same, then to brigade surgeon 3d Division 9th Corps, and then became one of the chiefs of the operating staff of the 3d Division. After the close of the war, in 1865, the Doctor came to Waverly and established him- self in practice here, where he has since resided, being prom- inently identified with the growth and business progress of the place, serving it in many ways. The Doctor married Mattie M. Fuller, of Scranton, Pa., May 1, 1873, and has no children. The Doctor is surgeon-in- chief of the Robert Packer Hospital.
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Richard Allison Elmer was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, August 28, 1808. He was the eldest son of Micah Allison Elmer. and grandson of Dr. William Elmer, of Goshen, and Richard Allison, of Wawayanda, Orange county, N. Y., and great grand- son of Dr. Nathaniel Elmer, of Florida, and General William Allison, of Goshen, N. Y. He was a descendant of Edward Elmer, who came to America with the company of persons com- prising the church of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, in 1632, and settled with the rest of Hooker's company, in Hartford, Conn., in 1636, and was one of the original proprietors of the city. At an early age he was thrown upon his own resources, and there was added to his responsibilities the care and education of his younger brothers and sisters. While engaged in farming and kindred pursuits, under his guidance, one brother entered col- lege, and subsequently became a ciergyman; the other was en- gaged in business. His attention was early called Westward, and he became interested in Western lands. In November, 1850, he settled in Waverly, having been induced by his brother, the Rev. Nathaniel Elmer, then Presbyterian clergyman at Waverly, to give up his intention to locate in the West. He was largely interested in matters pertaining to the growth of the town, and while he was a person of unobtrusive manners and quiet force, he was always identified with its schools and churches, and mat. ters pertaining to the advancement of the morals, and the gov- ernment of its citizens. He died comparatively young, August 8, 1867. He was married September 11, 1832, to Charlotte Bailey (daughter of Colonel Jonathan Bailey, of Wawayanda). She died September 6, 1883, leaving four children : Howard, Mary, Richard A., and Antoinette Elmer.
Rev. Nathaniel Elmer, brother of Richard Allison. Elmer, mentioned above, was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, Janu- ary 31, 1816. He was graduated at Union College, New York, in 1840, and was ordained a minister of the Presbyterian church, October 24, 1844. He established the first Presbyterian church at Waverly, and was its first pastor, which position he held nine Years. He was married to Mary Post, in May, 1849, and died at Middletown. July 11, 1884, leaving one daughter, Elizabeth.
Howard Elmer was born in Wawayanda, Orange county, N. Y., August 2, 1833. the eldest son of Richard Allison and Charlotte (Bailey) Elmer. He was prepared for college at the Ridgebury and Goshen academies, but delicate health prevented the con- tinuance of his course. Soon after coming to Waverly with his
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father, in 1850, a lad of seventeen, he entered the Waverly Bank, after which he was engaged by the Chemung Canal Bank and the First National Bank of Elmira. In 1864 he organized the First National Bank of Waverly, and was until 1868 its cashier, after which he became its president, which position he has con- tinued to hold. Having great faith in the value of the geo- graphical advantages of the valley in which Waverly is situated, in 1870 he associated with himself the late Charles L. Anthony, of New York, and the late James Fritcher, and Richard A. Elmer, his brother, of Waverly, and purchased the several tracts
of land, nearly one thousand acres, now embraced by Sayre and its surroundings. The panic of 1873 and consequent depreciation of values, for a time checked the growth of the proposed town considerably, but he did not swerve from his course, and with an absolute faith in its future prosperity he built the town of Sayre, which to-day has a population of three thousand, and monthly pays off over eight hundred men. Upon the death of Mr. Anthony, he induced the Packer family, E. P. Wilbur, and Robert Lockhart, of South Bethlehem, Pa., to assume the Anthony interest, and it resulted in centering at Sayre the great shops of the Pennsylvania & New York, and the Lehigh Valley railroads, which are prominent factors in the prosperity of Waverly and Athens. Through his encouragement the Cayuta Wheel and Foundry, and the Sayre Pipe Foundry were built. He also built the Sayre and Athens waterworks. He is president and active manager of the Sayre Land Company, the Sayre Water Company, the Sayre Pipe Foundry Company, the Cayuta Wheel & Foundry Company, and the Sayre Steam Forge Company. Mr. Elmer is also a director of the Pennsylvania & New York Railroad Company, the Geneva, Ithaca & Sayre Railroad Company, and treasurer of the Buffalo & Geneva Railroad Company. During the years 1875 and 1876 he was receiver of the Ithaca & Athens, and Geneva & Ithaca railroads. He has always refrained from holding any public office. He married, in October, 1865, Miss Sarah P. Perkins, daughter of the late George A. Perkins, of Athens, Pa.
. Richard Allison Elmer* is a son of the late Richard Allison Elmer, of Waverly, and Charlotte ( Bailey) Elmer. He was born in Wawayando, Orange county, N. Y., June 16, 1842, and is the
*This sketch of Mr. Elmer was contributed, at our solicitation, by Mr. Charles Nordhoff, of the New York Herald,
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second in a family of four, Howard Elmer being his elder brother.
His family removed to Waverly in 1850, and have remained established there ever since. He was educated at the Waverly High School, and subsequently at Hamilton College, from which he was graduated in 1864. He intended to practice law, and pur- sued his studies for that purpose, and was admitted to the bar, but in 1867 the death of his father led him to abandon this plan of life, and he joined his brother, Howard Elmer, who was then president of the First National Bank of Waverly, became cash- ier of that bank, and the two succeeded to their father's business. He remained cashier of the First National Bank for twelve years, during which time, by his energy and business ability, he so de- veloped the position about him that his firm became one of the largest investors of private trusts in the state of New York.
In 1870, he joined his brother Howard, Mr. Charles L. Antho- ny, of New York city, and Mr. James Fritcher, in the purchase of a tract of land in Pennsylvania, near Waverly, which now bears the name of Sayre, and has become a great manufacturing and railroad center, where large bodies of men are employed.
He still retains his original interest at Sayre, and besides being a director of the First National Bank, is director of the Sayre Land Company, the Sayre Water Company, the Cayuta Wheel Foundry Company, the Sayre Pipe Foundry Company, and the Sayre Steam Forge Company. Busied with these and other enterprises, which gave full occupation to his energies, Mr. Elmer, though he took always a prominent part in political as well as local and charitable movements, never sought political office. His name was prominently mentioned in the Republican state convention, in 1879, for the place of state treasurer, as be- ing in consonance with his business pursuits.
In 1881, on the accession of President Garfield, the urgent pub- lic demand for trenchant and long needed reform in the post- office department led General Garfield to look around for a citi- zen of more than common courage, energy and business capac- ity to fill the place of second assistant postmaster general, in which bureau of the department the required reforms were to be made. Without Mr. Elmer's knowledge, several gentlemen, prominent and influential with the President and the new admin- istration, recommended him as the fittest man within their knowledge for this place, and able to do the required and very difficult work of reform. The President determined to nomi-
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nate him, and it was only when this was decided upon that Mr. Elmer was told of what was proposed. He had but a day to consider the question of accepting the position, and with his re- luctant consent his name was sent to the senate. He was con- firmed May 5, 1881, and soon after removed to Washington, and assumed his new duties.
The affairs of the postoffice department, particularly of that part under the control of the second assistant postmaster general, known as the star route and steamboat service, had fallen into such disorder under the previous administration as to become one of the gravest public scandals in the history of the govern- ment ; attracting the attention of the whole country, and being exposed and denounced by the journals of both parties, as well as in congressional committees and debates. All demands for efforts at reform had been successfully resisted, and President Garfield on entering the presidency, felt that a thorough extirpation of the gross maladministration and waste in this part of the public service was absolutely necessary to the success and good fame of his ad- ministration. He promised his unfaltering support to Mr. Elmer, and thus encouraged, the work was begun. Mr. Elmer found himself strongly opposed by those who had in various ways prof- ited by the corruption and maladministration, many of them men of influence, and supported by others prominent in the country.
Almost entirely unknown to the circle of political leaders in Washington, and unfamiliar with the Department and with the Capitol, Mr. Eimer steadfastly pursued the work of reform he had undertaken. Overcoming all obstacles placed in his way, and the very great difficulties which necessarily met him at every step of an extremely intricate business, he, in three years of arduous and unceasing labor. completed the reform he had under- taken.
This done, he resigned his place in February, 1884, to attend to his neglected private interests. On resigning, he received the well merited thanks of President Arthur, and of the head of the Post Office Department. His course and his success had already won the approval of the country, which saw with surprise and satis- faction the substitution of economy, honesty and efficiency in that branch of the service which had long been notorious for the most scandalous abuses.
A brief statement of the results he achieved shows their value and importance. In the first year of his service he saved the Treasury $1,778,000. In the second and following years these savings amounted to over $2,000,000 per annum. Against the efforts of one of the most powerful combinations the country has known, he restored order and economy to the carrying of the Star Route and other mails, and without stinting the service the savings he enforced and brought about were so great as to make the Post Office Department self-supporting for the first time in thirty years. This encouraged Congress to agree to
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his recommendation to lower the letter rate from three cents to two cents.
The press of the country freely expressed its satisfaction with Mr. Elmer's conspicuous success in one of the most difficult works of administrative reform ever undertaken. . The New York Herald said editorially of him, in July, 1882, in a compari- son of his work with that of his predecessor :
" The saving Mr. Elmer has effected on the Star Route service alone, is more than enough to make the whole postal service self- supporting. That is what the public gains by the labors of an honest man, and it enables the Postmaster General to say, that for the year ending July 1. 1883, the Post Office Department will not only be self-supporting, but will have a surplus of one and a half million dollars. Such reductions in the cost of the service, without impairing its efficiency, tell their own story. They reflect the greatest credit on Mr. Elmer, as also on Postmaster General Howe, without whose strong and constant support Mr. Elmer would not have been able to carry out the reforms he has made in a service which had become corrupt, demoralized, and inefficient."
In June of the following year, the New York Herald, discus- sing the condition of the postal service, praised " Mr. Elmer's extraordinary administrative capacity, courage and honesty," and said, " As to Mr. Elmer, the Second Assistant General, it was his task when he came into office to reform the Star Route service, and weed out of it the extravagance and corruption which had filled it under his predecessor. Mr. Elmer did this, and he deserves the thanks of the country for doing it admirably. In the first year of his service he made a saving of over one-half of the amount spent the previous year; in the second year he effected still greater savings, and he did this in such a manner that no complaints were made of insufficient service."
Shortly after retiring to private life, Mr. Elmer organized in the City of New York the American Surety Company, of which he became and remains president. Soon after he had established this organization, he fell ill from long-continued and severe labor, and suffered for nearly two years from the results of too great and prolonged a strain. He did not, however, give up work, and his care and skill have made his corporation the largest and most successful of its kind in the world.
In the spring of 1887. on the application of the Surrogate of New York, Judge Noah Davis, acting as appointed referee, took testimony, at great length, to examine into the soundness of the plan on which the American Surety Company carried on its busi- ness, and the responsibility of its guarantees, both in regard to individuals and trusts. In his official report to the Surrogate, Judge Davis went at length into the manner in which the Com- pany does its work, and his conclusions were :
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" The capital of the Company remains wholly unimpaired. The reserved fund and the net surplus show that the business of the Company has been, during its short term of existence, both prosperous and profitable.
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" The business of the Company is strictly confined to Fidelity Insurance, and the evidence shows that it engages in no other business. It divides this business into two classes, which it calls Judicial and Fidelity. The former embraces all the business per- taining to Courts of every kind, and includes undertakings or bonds in appeals, on attachments and other process in suit, bonds of guardians, of administrators, executors, trustees, receivers, and all other obligations of sureties in courts of law, equity and probate, which involve the fidelity of appointees, except public officers. The second class includes bonds and guarantees of the fidelity of employees of corporations and persons whose relations to their employers are fiduciary in any pecuniary sense, except also public officers. The judicial business has been conducted in eleven different States of the United States, but chiefly in New York and Pennsylvania."
As to the Fidelity branch of the business, Judge Davis said :
"Thus far the business has proved itself to be a safe and profit- able form of insurance, and the experience of this Company has justified the policy of the statute which authorizes the organiza- tion of such corporations. The conclusions which the Referee has reached from the examination of this case are, that the American Surety Company has not only satisfactorily justified in respect of its qualifications to become surety in this particular matter, but has shown that as surety in judicial proceedings, it presents a sys- tem of security worthy of the confidence of the Court, and of the public, and largely superior to that which can be offered by indi- vidual sureties.
" The management of the affairs of the Company by its officers has been most creditable to their capacity and integrity."
On this report the Surrogate made an order June 1, 1887, that, " The American Surety Company be accepted as surety on the bond of Ana de Rivas Herques given in the above entitled matter, or upon any new bond that she may be required to give in this proceedings.'
Mr. Elmer is a director of the Wabash railroad, the Atlantic & Danville railroad, the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company, and several New York and New England corporations.
In 1883 he became interested in several Mexican properties, and out of this relation grew the International Company of Mexico, of which he was one of the founders and the treasurer, and to whose success he has largely contributed.
Mr. Elmer married June 16, 1870, Miss Sarah Foster France, daughter of the late J. Foster France, of Middletown, New York, and has three sons, Robert France Elmer, Richard Allison Elmer Jr., the third of his name, and Charles Howard Elmer.
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Bich Et. Shuer
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John L. Sawyer, born in Orange county, N. Y., in ISII, came to Barton in 1833, engaging in farming and lumbering. After the construction of the Erie railroad, in 1849, he removed to Waverly village, where he was long and prominently identified with the village's growth and prosperity, and where he resided until his death, in 1871. For many years he represented the town in the board of supervisors. Mr. Sawyer married Julia Smith, of Orange county, who bore him two children, Henry M. and J. Theodore. The former, born in 1832, married Maria, daughter of Senator Nathan Bristol, of Waverly, in 1856, and died two years later without issue. J. Theodore was born in Barton in 1834. He was educated at the district schools and Goshen Academy, and engaged with his father in the lumber business in Waverly and Canada. For a time he conducted a private bank, and in 1874 organized the Citizens Bank of Wav- erly, of which he is president. He represented his town two years in the board of supervisors, and in 1878 and 1879 the county of Tioga in the state legislature. In 1872 Mr. Sawyer married Alice Lyman, of Goshen, Conn., and has one child, Ellen, born in IS74.
Moses Lyman who was born in Goshen, Conn., a son of Moses and Mary A. (Hadley) Lyman, August 20, 1836; was educated at Goshen. Academy and Brown University ; began the lumber business at Windsor Locks, Conn., and McIndoes Falls, Vt., in 1859, where he remained till 1862. He then enlisted in the 15th \'t. Vols., as Ist Lieutenant of Co. F. In 1865, he came to Waverly and established a lumber business here under the firm name of Jennings & Lyman, and has since been a resident of the village. In 1872 he built the car-wheel foundry at the present village of Sayre, acting as treasurer of the company till he sold out his interest in 1884. Mr. Lyman is now identified with the Salisbury Iron interests of Connecticut, and is Eastern sales agent for the Shelby Iron Co., of Alabama, owns the Waverly Toy Works, and is president of the Lyman Bank, of Sanford, Fla., established in 1882. Mr. Lyman married Miss Ellen A. Douglass, of Mauch Chunk, Pa., who bore him two children, Moses and Isabel, and died in August, 1871. In March, 1883, he married Miss Sarah H. Beebe, daughter of P. S. Beebe, of Litchfield, Conn.
Henry G. Merriam, of the firm of Merriam Bros., was born in Goshen, N. Y., March 5, 1837. He was educated at the Farmer's Hall Academy, of Goshen, and graduated at Brown (R. I.) Univer-
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sity, in 1857, and from 1861 to 1865 was principal of Leicester Academy, Mass. He then came to Waverly and established the hardware business which he has since conducted as senior part- ner. Mr. Merriam married Fanny W. White, of Worcester, Mass., in 1867, and has two children, Harry E. and Grace M. Mr. Merriam was the first president of the board of education here, and has held the office eleven years.
Judge Ferris Shoemaker is the fifth son of Richard Shoemaker, who was a son of Benjamin, a son of Daniel, the original settler of that name in the town of Nichols, and was born June 22, 1838, in Athens township, Pa. Later in the same year his parents moved to Susquehanna county, Pa. Here he grew to manhood and made it his home until he moved to Waverly, in 1873. He was educated at Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Pa., and at the Normal School, Montrose, Pa. Prior to 1861 he engaged in teaching for several years, but soon after the war broke out he enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps, and served four years and three months, returning home in the spring of 1866. The follow- ing fall he was elected register of wills, etc., of Susquehanna county. This office he filled three years, and in February, 1870, was appointed prothonotary by Governor John W. Geary, to fill vacancy caused by the death of W. F. Simrell. While perform- ing the duties of these offices he found time to pursue the study of law in the office of Hon. W. H. Jessup, of Montrose, and in the spring of 1871 was admitted to practice in all the courts of the county. He was afterwards admitted to the bar in Bradford and Wyoming counties, and after coming to Waverly, in 1873, was admitted to practice in the supreme court of New York. For the past fourteen years he has been in constant practice .in both states. At the general election of ISS6 Mr. Shoemaker was elected special county judge, on the Republican ticket. He married Gertrude S. Sweet, of Montrose, Pa., September 1, 1869, and has had five children, all of whom except one are living, viz .: Richard S., Tila N., Mabel and Max Albrecht, residing with their parents.
Jacob B. Floyd was born in Chemung, N. Y., April 26, 1839. He was educated in the public schools of his native town, in the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, of Lima, N. Y., and the Wyoming Seminary, of Kingston, Pa., taking a college preparatory course. He began the study of law at the Albany Law school, graduating in 1871. He immediately began practice at Waverly, and has been in practice here ever since. He has held the office of special
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county judge, was a member of the state assembly in 1882, and held other minor offices. Mr. Floyd married Matilda H. Snyder, of Scranton, Pa., August 14, 1861, and has had three children, only one of whom, a daughter, Florence, a graduate of Wellesly college, is living.
Adolphus G. Allen, son of Samuel and Miranda (Sheffield) Allen, was born at Troy, Pa., November 30, 1830. His studies were begun in the common schools, and he prepared for college in the Troy academy ; but left off ideas of the classics for law, beginning study with General James Nye, at Hamilton, N. Y., and completed them with Goodwin & Mitchel, of the same place, and was admitted to the bar at the general term at Binghamton, January, 1853. The next spring he was admitted to the Brad- ford county bar, and immediately moved to Factoryville, and in the spring of 1854 located in Waverly, where he now is. Hc has held the office of town clerk, trustee of the village, been special county judge two terms, and was a member of the state legislature in 1886. Judge Allen married Sarah S. Walker. of Factoryville, in March, 1853, and has two children, D. Welling. ton, a practicing attorney of Waverly, born June 18, 1854, and Kate, wife of Clarence C. Campbell, born January 1, 1860.
William Polleys was born in Malden, Mass., August 18, 1816, and when about ten years of age removed with his parents to Bradford county, Pa. When about eighteen years of age, he entered the office of the Elmira Republican, as an apprentice. After mastering the trade, he remained in the office until 1840, when he and Alva S. Carter purchased the paper, and continued the publication until 1845, when they sold their interest, and the name was changed to the Elmira Advertiser. In 1854 Mr. Polleys removed to Waverly, and entered into partnership with F. H. Baldwin, in the publication of the Advocate, then but recently changed in name from the Waverly Luminary, and continued one of its publishers up to the time of his death. July 17, 1861, Mr. Polleys was appointed postmaster by President Lincoln, and for fourteen years following held that position, when he voluntarily retired. From early manhood Mr. Polleys took an active interest in politics, and until the demise of the Whig party, belonged to that organization, but on its dissolution, he united with the Re- publicans, and much of the strength and success of their party in Tioga county can be traced to his energy, perseverance and untiring work. For his friends and the success of his party, no sacrifice was too great. He took an active interest in all public
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