USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 74
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Wheeler withdrew in anger, and with the determination that his shadow should never again darken the doors of the White House while General Grant occupied it. But the next morning the President sent for him, and stated that after having taken time to think the matter over he was con- vinced of the feasibility and justness of the plan, and that the whole power of the government should be employed to carry it through. It succeeded. Mr. Wheeler did not know until months afterward that when he started for New Orleans to unfold his proposition there and urge its adoption President Grant had given General Sheridan directions that no effort was to be omitted to protect him against every possible danger, and that federal soldiers were continually near to interpose between him and rough characters who the President thought would not hesitate to take his life if they could do it secretly.
In 1876 Mr. Wheeler was regarded by many as a possible nominee for the Presidency, and his selection was urged in some quarters. But he himself never took the matter seriously, and, though not actually in favor of Senator Conkling, advised that he be given the New York dele- gation without opposition. When Mr. Hayes was named for first place, New York was looked to as the natural and advisable State to furnish the candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and Mr. Wheeler was the State's choice. There is no occasion here to argue the merits of the disputed result of the election, but it would be improper not to say that Mr. Wheeler fully believed that his title to the office was unquestionable and that the decision which gave it to him was " as righteous as an edict of God." President Hayes purposed at the outset of his administration to make Mr. Wheeler a real factor in it, and invited him to attend the meetings of the Cabinet and participate in its deliberations. He did attend at one session, but saw, or possibly fancied, that his presence was not agreeable to the members, and accordingly never went again. As presiding officer of the Senate he was dignified, efficient, respected and popular. But in general the office had no attraction for him; he used to say that occupancy of it seemed too much like that of an heir with great expectations, or like waiting to step into a dead man's shoes.
Besides the public offices held by Mr. Wheeler, the Governorship of New York was in effect declined by him in 1872 because he thought his means insufficient to meet the expense attendant upon incumbency of the office, and in 1879, when Senator Conkling urged him to give countenance prior to the State convention to the movement for the nomination of Alonzo B. Cornell, with significant suggestion that if he would take such course, it must surely make him United States Senator
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in 1881 - the suggestion amounting in the circumstances to a promise of support - he rejected the overture because he regarded Mr. Cornell's nomination as unwise, and also because the proposition carried the appearance of bartering a public trust. The same proposition came to him again in 1880 as an inducement to him to favor the nomination of General Grant for President for a third term, and was declined by telegraph, with his decision based not upon hostility to the nomination, but upon aversion to bargaining in such a matter.
In 1881 when Senator Conkling and Senator Platt resigned in anger as a protest against the appointment of William H. Robertson over their remonstrance to be collector of the port of New York, and then sought re-election, in the weeks of deadlock that followed Mr. Wheeler was the leading candidate against Senator Conkling, but refused to go to Albany in his own interest or to do anything for himself, until towards the end he accepted an invitation to visit the capital for a conference with Governor Cornell, the conclusion of which was that at the opening of the then ensuing week the Governor should announce himself a can- didate against Senator Platt, with indorsement of Mr. Wheeler for the other place. It was believed that this combination would assure success, but before it could be announced President Garfield was shot, and Governor Cornell withdrew from the arrangement. Even then many of those who were on the inside in the contest had no doubt that Mr. Wheeler might still have been elected if he had consented to certain con- ditions. Refusing to tie himself in any way, he was beaten. Thereafter he had no active participation in politics except quietly in home matters, and passed his remaining years, a lonely and disappointed man, though not embittered, at his home in Malone. Mrs. Wheeler (who was the daughter of William King, and whom he had married in 1845) had died in 1876. Their union was childless, and Mr. Wheeler had no close relative in the world. He died June 4, 188?, after years of suffering from neuralgia and other painful ailments, the immediate cause of death having been softening of the brain.
Generosity was as natural to Mr. Wheeler as breathing, and was regu- larly and frequently exercised. No subscription paper was ever pre- sented to him for a cause that he thought worthy that he did not sign in so large an amount as almost shamed the solicitor to accept. Nearly every church in Malone was the recipient of gifts from him ranging from five hundred dollars each to ten thousand dollars. For a long time he gave also a thousand dollars annually to missions. Auburn Theological Seminary received three thousand dollars from him, and a gentleman
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whom he employed shortly before his death to arrange and classify his cancelled checks informed me that for many years it had been his prac- tice to send twenty-five dollars to every church from which any sort of an appeal for aid reached him, regardless of denomination or location. There were scores of such checks, and as many to societies in the middle or far West as in New York. His benefactions to individuals, and particularly to young men seeking education, were innumerable, and must have aggregated a great sum. His estate amounted to only about eighty thousand dollars, and with the exception of a few personal bequests, totaling less than ten thousand dollars, all went to home and foreign missions.
The memory of Mr. Wheeler is not venerated in Malone as he him- self was during the years of his activities, and it is of interest to note the causes of the change. One was undoubtedly his treatment of his physician, the lovable and devoted Theodore Gay, who surrendered his practice in order to give him companionship and constant attendance, and whose living expenses were increased heavily in deference to his patient's wishes. The provision made in the will as recompense was felt by everybody to be inadequate, and grieved more than it provoked the doctor. The matter was finally compromised by the payment to him of ten thousand dollars. Then, too, it was thought that in view of the loyal support which the community had always given to Mr. Wheeler in his campaigns for office he might better have bequeathed a' part of his fortune for home uses than to have given practically all to missions. Had there been a provision in the will to establish a local hospital, for a public hall, for scholarships at Franklin Academy, or for any one of the many things that Malone needed or would have liked, sentiment would probably have been very different. However, the money was his own, and his right undoubted to dispose of it as he chose.
Still another ground of criticism or grievance came to be known after his death. When he was retiring from Congress upon his election to the Vice-Presidency, both Samuel J. Randall in the House and Justin D. Morrill in the Senate proposed to include in the public buildings bill an item for the erection of a post-office in Malone, but Mr. Wheeler vetoed the suggestion because he had always opposed such appropria- tions for small places, and would not stultify himself by accepting one. for his home town. While this attitude was creditable in a way, not a. few residents regarded it as overnice, and resented it.
Though I knew Mr. Wheeler intimately, liked him thoroughly, and was in close touch with him in many matters during the last fifteen years of his life, my own estimate of him is uncertain in some regards,
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and not easy of statement. He had great magnetism; the clasp of his hand was warm and winning, and even his casual greeting a pleasure to be sought and remembered. As a public speaker he lacked the rhythm and finish of expression, as well as the spontaneous outpouring of thought, that we associate with real oratory, and yet he was one of the most popular, persuasive and. forceful men on the stump that it was ever my fortune to hear, while in conference he was emphatic and dominating to a degree. Concerning any serious question he was always tremendously in earnest, which was one of his elements of strength. Nevertheless when a plan of action was under consideration, though he was a radical in principle, he was usually conservative (or ought I to say timid?) in counsel. He himself would have said that he was merely cautious. In all affairs of State and national politics at least he pro- fessed an unbending conscientiousness and fidelity to the very highest standards and ideals, and so squared his conduct. Locally, however, he could countenance employment of methods in emergencies that were not always savory. Though he preferred and commonly applied mild procedure because it gave a better aftermath (a favorite expression with him was that molasses would catch more flies than vinegar), yet when deeply interested in the candidacy of any one for a local nomination, and particularly if the situation seemed desperate, no one could be more autocratic or inconsiderate of the character of means to be employed for the accomplishment of his ends. Through federal appointees obligated to him for their places and through others of his beneficiaries, he usually could and did have delegates named to county conventions from a num- ber of towns simply upon intimation of what he wanted, and these voted readily for any " slate " that he had made. But this does not tell the whole story by any means, for everywhere in the county there was a genuine liking for the man, a profound respect for his judgment and a ready willingness to act in his behalf. Nevertheless it is the fact that while he remained active in the field of home politics there was seldom a real contest in the primaries for any nomination, and the tick- ets presented were Mr. Wheeler's rather than the people's.
If I were to pronounce an opinion concerning him as a politician in the broader field, it would be that he lacked aggressiveness and cour- age - which, perhaps, is explicable in part by his morbid and persistent belief during the last twenty years of his life that his health was pre- carious, and would break utterly if he were to engage strenuously in any undertaking. To such a degree did this feeling abide that more than once he would have resigned his seat in Congress, and, as he believed, returned to Malone to die, had it not been for the influence
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of his wife and the pressure of friends. Possibly it was this element of apprehension that caused him to be passive in the fight against the nomi- nation of Mr. Cornell for Governor in 1879, which he might easily have prevented. But he would not even request the St. Lawrence delegates to vote against Mr. Cornell, though they offered to do so if he should ask it. Bitterly inimical to Senator Conkling's political leadership, he nevertheless chose to content himself with sneering at it, and refrained from openly challenging it. As a legislator there must be great respect for his aptitude, abilities and high purposes. To command the leader- ship of his party in the Assembly while yet a young man, and serving only his second term; to be chosen president pro tempore of the Senate in his first term; and to win in Congress a leading place among such men as composed that body in his time, admits of no conclusion but that he had more than ordinary talent and force of character. Great- ness in the degree or of the kind that distinguished Seward, Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens and others of the giants who were in public life during and immediately after our civil war he may have lacked, but his usefulness and influence within his sphere was hardly less than theirs, while as regards the cleanliness and incorruptibility of his service no one surpassed him.
CHAPTER XXXIII BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Frederick P. Allen was born in Tinmouth, Vt., December 23, 1798, and became a printer's apprentice in Plattsburgh in 1812 - continuing thereafter to work at the trade or in publishing and editing until 1844. Mr. Allen participated in the battle of Plattsburgh in 1814, and a cher- ished evidence of the fact was a musket granted to him by the govern- ment for the service. He came to Malone in March, 1835, and estab- lished the Palladium as the successor of the Northern Spectator, which a brother had founded and conducted for a couple of years previously. He continued in the business until 1844 or 1845, when he sold to Francis T. Heath. The employees of such an establishment in those days were few, and those that Mr. Allen employed were almost all taken into his own home, and made almost members of his family. At least two of them he came to regard as foster sons, and they to look to him as a father. And throughout his long life he was especially interested in the young, watching over many with loving kindness, and proffering them advice in a manner that never seemed obtrusive. No more helpful citizen in this regard ever lived in Malone. Mr. Allen was for more than thirty years a justice of the peace, and his decisions usually stood the test of review and appeal, as they were invariably based upon his conception of right and justice. In uprightness of life, interest in the welfare of the town and its people, in the example he was and the influence he exercised, he was a man of remarkable usefulness, and commanded respect and even veneration. He was postmaster for three years from 1841, and again from 1849 to 1853. He died May 7, 1818.
William Andrus, born in Malone September 27, 1806, was the son of Cone Andrus, an early settler. He drove the mail coach and stage for Jonathan Thompson over the route from Plattsburgh to Ogdens- burg for a few years earlier than 1832, and in 1840 became himself one of the proprietors of the line, which he operated until 1850 or a little later. In 1839 he was elected sheriff, and in 1851 and again in 1852 was defeated for the Assembly, though running largely ahead of his ticket against a very popular Democrat. The majority against him in
[715]
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the former year was 82, and in the latter 33. Mr. Andrus was super- visor of Malone for 17 terms, though not of continuous service. In 1860 he was elected to the Assembly, but in 1861 patriotically declined a renomination so that a Union county ticket might be named, with Albert Andrus, a Democrat, at its head. Mr. Andrus never engaged actively in business apart from stage driving and farming, and except also in the sale of village lots carved from the extensive tracts which his , father had once owned, and which comprised a considerable part of that section of the present village lying east of the river. Returns from investments, the lot sales and farming gave him a competence, and the last twenty years of his life were comparatively inactive. Extremely social (everybody knew him as " Uncle William"), and finding his greatest enjoyment in calling upon friends at their homes, offices or stores, Mr. Andrus probably knew more of the affairs of his neighbors, as well as of local public concern, than any other man in the town. His judgment was sound, and his character without reproach. He was intensely interested in politics, and unswervingly a Whig and Republi- can. He died March 10, 1884.
Albert Andrus was the son of Cone Andrus, who was a pioneer, and who gave Arsenal Green to the State. He became a merchant at Malone at an early age, after having gained experience as a clerk in Vermont and in Michigan. Shrewd, careful and possessed of 'excellent practical judgment, his merchandising was successful, and he accu- mulated a comfortable fortune as wealth is measured in a rural com- munity. He became a director of the O. & L. C. R. R., and was inter- ested largely in banks in Malone and elsewhere. He was the Demo- cratic nominee for the Assembly a number of times prior to the civil war, but as such was always defeated by small majorities. In 1861 he was nominated for the Assembly by the Union party, composed of Republicans and war Democrats, was elected, and was re-elected in 1862 and 1863. He made a fine record, and was recognized as one of the leading and most useful members. Franklin county presented his name for Senator in 1865, but St. Lawrence county, doubting his Republicanism, refused to accept him. He then became an "Andy " Johnson man, and for a time was the recognized administration repre- sentative in this section, but soon afterward identified himself with the Democracy again, and after a few years ceased to take an active interest in politics, and devoted himself quietly to business affairs. He died at Malone July 19, 1889, in his 75th year.
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George S. Adams was born in Bangor in 1817, and came to Malone in 1844, where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar. In his younger years he was a Democrat, and his suavity and studious avoid- ance of antagonisms and controversy made him one of the most popular men in the county. For a number of years he was clerk of the board of supervisors, and in 1850 was defeated for the Assembly by William A. Wheeler, but only by a small majority. He was elected county judge by the Knownothings in 1854, and during his term of office became a Republican. He removed to Burke, where he kept a hotel and engaged in the lumber business, losing the small property that he had accumu- lated. Returning to Malone, he again engaged in the practice of the law, but never regained his prestige and prominence. He died February 16, 1888.
J. Foster Atwood, born in Royalton, Vt., came to Malone in 1849, and became one of the town's best known, most successful and best liked farmers. Genial, companionable and always eager to do a friend a service, and intensely interested in music, he won general esteem, and enjoyed a wide popularity.
Oscar P. Ames, born in Salisbury, Vt., March 17, 1841, came to Malone in 1857 to learn the printers' trade. During the civil war he served as a lieutenant in the 98th regiment until incapacitated by ill health, and also for a time as clerk in the commissary department. After his return to Malone he engaged for a year or two in the grocery business, and then re-entered the employ of the Palladium. In 1877 he became one of the publishers of the paper, and so continued until his death. A man who always did his own thinking, with great tenacity of purpose, and of such an intensity of earnestness in any matter that excited his interest and seemed to require action that his expression of opinion was apt to suggest passionate anger, he was a force to be reckoned with, and was an excellent and useful citizen. He was a special United States treasury agent for four years from 1890, and made an efficient officer. He died January 29, 1899.
Frank D. Allen, born in Malone January 21, 1862, studied law with Judge Hobbs after having graduated from Franklin Academy and Hamilton College, and then located in New York city as a clerk in the office of Davies & Rapallo, of which firm the late Charles A. Gardiner became a member. Upon Mr. Gardiner's retirement from the firm to become counsel for the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad Company, Mr.
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Allen went with him to be managing clerk in the office, in which scores of attorneys and clerks were employed. Mr. Allen is now with the great Interborough Rapid Transit Company as assistant to the attorney and counsel - a responsible and highly complimentary position - and has "made good " in it.
Frederick L. Allen, born in Malone November 27, 1863, is a graduate of Franklin Academy and Hamilton College; and after admission to the bar removed to New York city, where he was associated with Davies, Stone & Auerbach for some years. Twenty-odd years ago he was appointed assistant to the general solicitor of the Mutual Life Insur- ance Company, and about ten years ago was advanced to be himself the general solicitor, a remarkable selection for a comparatively young man. Mr. Allen has an excellent professional standing at the New York bar, and his work in his present position has been of a markedly high grade.
Roswell Bates, born in Rutland, Vt., June 13, 1788, located as a young man at Fort Covington, and not only gained prominence locally as a physician as early as 1820, but came to rank high in the profession throughout Northern New York. He was a thorough student, and painstaking and competent in research and experiment. A number of the early physicians of the county studied with him and were trained by him. A man of great force of character, stubborn and combative, he was often in controversy, and always able to hold his own. He died June 6, 1869.
Daniel Brown, born in Alburgh, Vt., November 5, 1798, came to Malone in his young manhood, and in 1828 bought for thirty dollars the lot on the corner of Main and Catherine streets, where Hubbard & Mallon were for so long engaged in trade, and erected on it a carriage and sleigh shop. Mr. Brown lacked the temperament to engage actively in politics or conspicuously in public affairs, though he was always interested in both, and in an unobtrusive way was helpful by counsel and by contributions in promoting village and town matters. As a rule, however, his business and the church engrossed most of his atten- tion. He had sound judgment, and his walk in life was upright and exemplary. He died March 5, 1869.
Sidney P. Bates was born at Derby, Vt., February 16, 1815. His father died before his birth, and his mother only a few weeks after-
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ward, when he was adopted by an unele (the father of Dr. Roswell Bates of Fort Covington), and came to Malone with him in 1820 or 1821. He studied medicine with Dr. Roswell Bates, attended lectures in Vermont, and then practiced there for seven years -returning to Malone in 1847, where he ever afterward made his home. As a physi- cian he was in the front rank of the profession in his time, and "his tact, management and humor in the sick room were exquisite." His interest in educational matters was pronounced, and the work that he wrought for the improvement of our common schools was great. He was superintendent of schools for the town of Maione for seven years under the old township system, and, almost single handed and against the combined opposition of practically every man of influence and standing in the community, carried through the project for consolida- tion of the schools in the village of Malone, and the creation of our graded school system. Later he was recognized by everybody as having been right, and the change as having been wise. Dr. Bates was school commissioner for the first commissioner district from 1861 to 1867, and again to fill a vacancy in 1870 - making a fine record. About ten years prior to his death he was thrown from his sleigh while returning from a night call upon a patient, and sustained injuries which crippled him, and after a time confined him to his bed. Hc died February 1, 1894.
Henry N. Brush, born in New York city March 12, 1810, was a graduate of Columbia College in the class with Hamilton Fish, and located in Moira in 1835. He owned at one time the mile square which includes the hamlet of Brushton, originally called Brush's Mills in compliment to the owner. After the removal of Luther Bradish, he became the foremost man in the town with the exception of Sidney Lawrence. An obituary of him in the Palladium at the date of his death said: "In all of his instincts a gentleman; a man of infinite zest, kind and genial in all his relations." He died November 2, 1872.
H. Corbin Brush, son of Henry N., was born in Brushton in 1838, and always made his home there. He had large property interests, and to the care of these applied most of his energies and time. Finely educated, possessing exceptional business abilities, genial, companion- able and public spirited, Mr. Brush enjoyed the respect of everybody, and was of great usefulness in the hamlet that was his home. He died April 19, 1898.
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George D. Bell, born at Weybridge, Vt., in 1818, located in Malone in 1830. He was a farmer, but spent his winters for a long time in teaching village and country schools. Singularly mild and even tem- pered, though firm on every question of principle, and always upright and just, he was popular and respected. He died April 1, 1897.
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