USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 79
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Albon P. Man, born in Westville in June, 1826, studied law in New York city after graduation at Union College, and about 1850 located in Malone for practice of the profession. He was also an expert surveyor. In 1859 he was elected district attorney, but before the completion of his term of office joined in raising the 98th regiment of volunteers in the civil war, and became major of the command. Mr. Man's tempera- ment was not martial, however, and the service became so irksome to him that after about a year in the field he resigned. He located in New York city soon after his return from the front, intending to practice law there, but in a short time was intrusted with the management of the large Lorillard estate and business, and for a considerable period gave practically all of his attention to the handling of that trust. Later he took up the study of electricity, and became an authority in the science. Forming a partnership with Frederick Sawyer, a practical worker in electrical problems and devices - Mr. Man supplying the suggestions and theories and Mr. Sawyer developing them - they accomplished between them results of valne and importance. Among these was the invention and perfection of an incandescent lamp very like to that now in so general use; there was a long and hard contest in the courts for determination of whether they or Edison were first with the invention and patent. Though losing the legal battle, Mr. Man nevertheless insisted that the Sawyer-Man lamp antedated the Edison. Major Man was one of the most entertaining and informing conversationalists that it was ever my good fortune to know, and was in every way a high-minded and useful citizen. He died in Brooklyn February 18, 1905.
VanBuren Miller, born in Harrietstown in 1827, became more familiar with the town's affairs, land titles and interests, and more useful in promoting and guarding them than any other resident. He was for many years supervisor. He died June 17, 1892.
Michael S. Mallon was born in Malone July 5, 1835. In his youth and young manhood he was clerk in a number of stores, and about 1863 formed a partnership with Charles L. Hubbard, which continued until a competence had been gained, and advancing years brought inclination to retire from business activities in 1896. Thereafter Mr. Mallon served many of his former customers and friends as executor or administrator, always managing their affairs prudently, faithfully and successfully. Ile was long an active and valued member of the board of education, and by wise counsel continued until his death useful both in a public way and to his friends and neighbors. He died November 20, 1915.
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George Barry Mallon, son of Michael S., was born in Malone May 20, 1865, and at once after graduation at Amherst College in 1887 entered upon journalistic work on the New York Sun - advancing in the importance of his assignments from time to time until he became city editor. His work was of a high grade, and his personality won for him the entire trust of the management and the warm regard of every- body who knew him. He became one of the most charming and most sought after-dinner speakers in New York. In 1916 he withdrew from the Sun to take the management and editorship of the Butterick publica- tions at a handsome salary, but resigned the position in 1917, applying himself for several months to war work. Recently he has become a member of the staff of the Bankers Trust Company in New York city, holding a responsible and important position in the institution.
Almerin W. Merrick, born in Fort Covington in 1836, was a farmer there all of his life except six years, from 1873 to 1879, when he was county clerk. He gained the nomination by his own almost unaided work, the Republican leaders having generally preferred another candi- date. It was only by the hardest kind of work that he was defeated for nomination for a third term, and in 1885 he again failed by but a narrow margin of being nominated. He died from the effects of an injury October 3, 1891.
John H. Moffitt was born in Chazy January 8, 1843. He enlisted in the 16th regiment at the outbreak of the civil war, and was one of the best soldiers in that fine command. From 1866 to 1872 he was deputy collector of customs at Rouses Point, and then until 1877 was engaged in the manufacture of charcoal at Moffitsville. In 1877 he located at Chateaugay Lake as superintendent at that point for the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Co., and his activity in politics and personal popularity soon made him one of the foremost Republicans in the county. He was elected to Congress in 1886 and again in 1888. In 1891 he became manager of the street railways in Syracuse, and so continued for eight and a half years, after which he was for two years in charge of the city's water works. In 1902 he was elected cashier of the Plattsburgh National Bank, and in 1904 its president, which position he still holds. Mr. Moffitt is always earnest and energetic, has sound business judgment and fine executive capacity, and is of notably genial and likable personality.
Daniel P. Morse, a grandson of Ashbel Parmelee, D. D., was born in Malone April 6, 1852, and after quitting school was associated with
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his father for a time in the boot and shoe business in Malone. In 1872 he obtained a position with a wholesale boot and shoe house in New York city, and after a dozen years of experience and study of the business branched out on his own account. His success has been pronounced, and no man now stands higher in the trade. Mr. Morse soon convinced him- self that the business was conducted generally on mistaken and illogical lines, which he proceeded to reform so far at least as his own establish- ment was concerned. The course that he pursued other dealers quickly recognized as wise, and all followed his methods, so that the trade is now upon wholly different lines from those that formerly obtained. Mr. Morse's business is of very large proportions, and his house is known as one of the most reliable and progressive in the United States.
Gordon H. Main, born at Franklin Center, Quebec, September 29, 1852, came to Burke as a child with his parents, and after attendance at Franklin Academy and admission to the bar located in Chateaugay for practice, but subsequently removed to Malone. Naturally aggressive and combative, with decidedly set convictions, which he was accustomed to express vigorously, and with a faculty for getting at the root of things, Mr. Main quickly made himself a force at the bar. He was as pronounced and positive politically as in other matters, and was often heard on the stump in advocacy of Republican candidates and policies. He was elected district attorney in 1898, and held the office for nine years. He died at the Ogdensburg City Hospital November 25, 1911.
N. Monroe Marshall was born in Schuyler Falls, N. Y., June 13, 1854, and his home conditions were such that he was compelled to fend for himself from the age of fourteen years, from which time he worked for six years at the machinists' trade. In 1874 he became telegraph operator and station agent for the Chateaugay R. R., and a little later came to Chateaugay Lake to be bookkeeper for the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Co. While so employed he lost his right arm at the shoulder by the accidental discharge of his gun, but in six weeks after his return to his desk was able to write as legible and handsome a hand as any employer would care to have appear on his books. He served Bellmont as supervisor in 1885, and the same year, after a memorable canvass, was nominated as a Republican for county clerk. He served six years in the office, and then was with the Fidelity and Casualty Company until 1895 as adjuster of claims- visiting nearly every State in the Union. In 1895 he became vice-president and manager of the Farmers National Bank of Malone, and in 1896 transferred his services to the People's
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National Bank of Malone, having been elected vice-president of that institution upon the appointment of Frederick D. Kilburn to be State superintendent of banks. In 1899 he was elected president, and still continues in the same capacity with a fine record of successful manage- ment - deposits having increased in the period by nearly $400,000, and the gain in surplus and undivided profits having been $316,500. Mr. Marshall was elected to the State Senate as a Republican by the Frank- lin-St. Lawrence district in 1914, and re-elected in 1916. His com- mittee assignments in that body have been of the first order for a new member, and his standing with his colleagues and on the record is of the best. His sound business judgment, his certainty in aligning himself always on the right side on both party and purely public measures, his camaraderie, his readiness of wit, and his genius for invariably having a corking good story peculiarly apropos to any situation have made him one of the most popular and influential of the Senators.
Martin Eugene McClary, born in Albany, Vt., February 15, 1854, came to Malone at once following his graduation from Dartmouth Col- lege in 1876 to become principal of Franklin Academy - which position he continued to hold with great acceptability to the board of education and with a brilliant record for high-class work for ten years. A thorough scholar, with a faculty for interesting students and for imparting instruc- tion, enthusiastic and untiring in his work, young enough to understand intuitively and intimately the tendencies and practices of youth and human enough to deal with them in a tactful way, Mr. McClary was one of the most successful heads that the academy ever had, and attached his pupils strongly in bonds of admiration and affection. During the closing years of his school service he studied law, and was admitted to the bar concurrently with the elose of his term of teaching -at once opening an office in Malone, and continuing in practice here until his death. He held the office of school commissioner for six years from 1891, and, with his interest in educational matters and his peculiar fitness for the place, was as a matter of course an efficient official. He was chairman of the Republican county committee for two or three years, and in 1908 was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomina- tion for Senator, and in 1899 for the Assembly -- unsuccessful perhaps because he would not employ the methods of solicitation and persuasion which usually win in such contests. In 1892 Mr. McClary had been one of the hardest workers in the movement to secure the building of the Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railway, and displayed such ability in the negotiations with Dr. Webb, and in the preparation of agreements with
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him, that when the road had been built he was employed to look after the local legal business of the company in settling deals for rights of way and in preparing and trying cases in court. Much of his time for more than twenty years was given to this work. Mr. McClary was of unsullied character, held positive convictions on all questions that inter- ested him, was a pleasant and persuasive speaker, and never failed to give earnest and generous support according to his means and to the extent of his abilities to all meritorious local projects. He was a con- tributory organizer and stockholder in a number of local enterprises which were instituted more with the thought that they would benefit Malone than that they would put money in the pockets of their backers. He was for several years president of the board of trustees of the State tuberculosis hospital at Ray Brook, a trustee of the Farrar Home for Deserving Old Ladies, president of the village board of education, and a zealous and working director of the Alice Hyde Memorial Hospital Association. He died October 13, 1915.
Robert M. Moore, born at Morristown, Ont., July 3, 1867, removed with his parents in his youth to Jefferson county. His first experience in practical life was at a blacksmith's forge, and it was perhaps his first exhibition of the natural cleverness and acumen that has since so often been evidenced when, after two years, he quit the drudgery and hard work of that occupation upon the conviction that a much better living could be made more easily, and began the study of law - gaining admission to the bar in 1890. Mr. Moore located in Malone in 1889, and after ten years of practice and of conspicuous participation in poli- tics here removed to New York city in 1900. His strong points, addi- tional to unfailing good nature, are a remarkably retentive memory, so that any principle of law or court decision once read continues always at instant command, and a persistence in court in pursuing with reso- lute refusal to be diverted from it the one line of attack or defense mapped out by him in advance. Though not without his triumphs in civil actions, Mr. Moore's reputation rests largely upon his conduct of criminal cases. Besides the many successes won by him in Malone, he has been connected with a number of important murder trials in New York city - notably the Dr. Kennedy and the Patrick trials - which he conducted with ability and marked distinction. For a number of years both while practicing in Malone and after his removal to New York, he had practically a monopoly of the rich business incident to representing Chinamen who had been apprehended under the Chinese exclusion act, and realized tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars
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from it. While spending most of his time in New York, Mr. Moore continues to identify himself with Malone through a law partnership with Andrew B. Cooney.
Daniel Harwood Martin, son of the late William Martin and stepson of Dr. Watson H. Harwood, was born at Chasm Falls May 5, 1871, and was educated at Franklin Academy, Potsdam Normal School, Oberlin College and Drew Theological Seminary. But years before he attended the latter institution, and even before he attained his majority, he had engaged in preaching, and had served as pastor of the Wesleyan Metho- dist Church of Vermontville, in the church at Paul Smiths, and else- where, with a zeal and ability foreshadowing the larger and better work that he has since achieved. After having filled a number of assignments in New York, Maryland and Virginia he was called to a church in Washington, D. C., where he is still located, and preaching with an ability not only pleasing to his parishioners, but commanding attention elsewhere. St. John's College of Annapolis, Md., conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1909. Dr. Martin is a frequent contributor of articles on social welfare and patriotic questions to the Washington papers, and is an indefatigable worker.
Maurice D. O'Connell, born in Constable April 23, 1839, was a student at Franklin Academy with William D. Brennan, Edward II. Hobbs, Birney B. Keeler, Eugene Wilbur, Patrick G. Duffy and other well known men of that generation, and then taught school in Clinton, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties. During the civil war he was a chief of division in the office of the comptroller of the currency at Wash- ington, D. C., where he studied law, and was admitted as an attorney in 1866. In 1869 he located at Fort Dodge, Iowa, and practiced law there until 1897. From 1872 to 1879 he was district attorney for a district which embraced eight counties; was appointed by President Arthur United States attorney for the northern district of Iowa, but resigned for political reasons when President Cleveland was elected ; again held the office under President Harrison; and in 1897 was appointed by President Mckinley to be solicitor of the treasury, and so continued until 1910, when he resigned to take a trip around the world - visiting the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines, China and Japan. Mr. O'Connell then lived for two years at San Diego, Calif., and now makes Washing- ton his home. He is rated a very able lawyer, and evidently has prospered.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Edmund O'Connell, a brother of Maurice, was born in Constable November 20, 1848; was graduated from Franklin Academy in 18:1: and a couple of years afterward removed to Bloomington, Ill., where he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and has since practiced the pro- fession. It was at Bloomington that the Republican party in Illi- nois had its birth in 1836 at a meeting which was addressed by Abra- ham Lincoln in his famous "Lost Speech " (lost because not reported), but which those who heard it remembered throughout their lives as a magnificent effort, and which, in appealing to his hearers to join the Republican standard, he closed with -
" Come as the winds come, when forests are rended ; Come as the waves come, when navies are stranded."
In such an environment, and with his associations strongly Republican it was altogether natural that Mr. O'Connell should become a Republican notwithstanding his antecedents were all Democratic. Mr. O'Connell was for four years an alderman of Bloomington, eight years prosecuting attorney for his county, and for four years a member of the Legislature. At present he holds a quasi-judicial position with the public utilities commission of Illinois, enjoys a large private practice, and stands high as a citizen.
John G. O'Connell, brother of Maurice and Edmund, has been a resi- dent of Tecumseh, Neb., for more than forty years, and has served several terms as county judge, and also in both Houses of the Legislature.
Richard S., another brother, and also a graduate of Franklin Acad- emy in 1871, located at Cato, Wis., and became a physician. He died in 1906.
George, the youngest brother, prospered in railroading in Wisconsin and then as a manufacturer of wood pulp. He lives now in Los Angeles, Calif.
William T. O'Neil, born in Brighton February 7, 1850, studied law with Smith M. Weed at Plattsburgh, but considerations of health pre- vented him from completing his course and from engaging in practice. He located at St. Regis Falls in 1878, and was soon conspicuously iden- tified with business interests there - becoming a merchant, building and conducting a hotel, and prosecuting lumbering enterprises. Later he was farmer, operator of creameries, manufacturer of chairs, and organ- izer with others of an electric light company, a water-works company,
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and a national bank. Between times financial misfortunes befell him, but he recovered eventually, paid every dollar of his debts in full, and at his death possessed a comfortable competence. Mr. O'Neil early became a power in local politics, served his town frequently as supervisor, and was in the Assembly for four years from 1883. During this period he had the reputation of being the best informed man in that body on pending measures generally, and was Theodore Roosevelt's principal aide and counselor, and the regulator of the latter's impetuosity. In 1884 the younger element in the Republican party made a contest for control of the State convention to choose delegates to the national con- vention, and won. It was commonly regarded as due to Mr. O'Neil's generalship that success was achieved. In 1902 Mr. O'Neil was a can- didate for the Republican nomination for Congress, and, though almost every active and influential Republican in the county was for his oppo- nent, he almost pulled through single handed, as a change of very few votes in the caucuses in certain towns would have given him the majority of delegates. In 1906 he was elected to the State Senate, at once taking high rank in that body, and was re-elected in 1908. His health began to fail in the latter year by reason, as he himself believed, of the change from an active, stirring outdoor life to the more luxurious and con- fining habits prevalent at Albany; and, adhering to his work when he ought to have been at home or in an institution, died during the third session of his service. Mr. O'Neil was strong with the people'as a can- vasser, straightforward and upright in all of his personal and public life, and well balanced. He did his own thinking, worked out problems for himself, and acted upon conscientious judgment. He died May 5, 1909.
Ashbel Parmelee, D. D., born at Stockbridge, Mass., October 18, 1784, moved to Vermont with his parents at an early age, and until 1802 did such work on the farm as would be expected from a boy poorly circumstanced. Having resolved to become a minister, he set about in earnest to acquire an education, but was so handicapped by eye trouble that for two years he could pursue his studies only by having fellow students read them to him. Thus it was not until 1808 that he was licensed to preach. Serving churches in Vermont for the next year or so, he came to Malone in 1809 to marry Lucy Winchester, a great-aunt of Mrs. Henry J. Merriam, which visit opened the way to his settlement at Malone in the latter part of the same year, to become pastor of the Congregational Church. His compensation was to be $400 a year, pay- able one-third in money and two-thirds in grain; and it never exceeded
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$650 per annum. The relation thus begun continued without a break for nearly thirty-six years, and fellowship with the society for sixteen years longer. During this latter period Doctor Parmelee preached in Bangor, Bellmont and other nearby places, as well as not infrequently in his old church, and for three years was prison chaplain at Danne- mora. The weakness and infirmities that afflicted him in his young man- hood disappeared within a few years, and, though of slight physique and apparently frail, he developed a capacity for great endurance and remark- able mental effort. He was all energized force, with untiring application, and his labors were prodigious. Besides his immediate pastoral work, he often gave two lectures or sermons a week in school houses in rural neighborhoods, and, taking a vacation, would travel on horseback and engage in missionary work for weeks at a time in St. Lawrence, Jeffer- son, Clinton and Essex counties. During the war of 1812 he acted as chaplain without pay in General Wilkinson's army. With it all, he built his church into a strong body, and himself into a dominating figure in the community. With an intellectual endowment of the highest order, and a strength and tenacity of conviction that no personal or public pressure could weaken or cause to waver, with inflexible standards of right and wrong, and with rigid conception of obligations of civic duty and even of the proprieties of individual walk and conduct, he so impressed upon the people generally, outside of his own church almost equally as within it, that whether or not men bore themselves as he believed and taught that they ought, they at least judged their friends and neighbors by test of whether they observed or disregarded Doctor Parmelee's dieta. Men of his time who had ample opportunity for observation and capacity for judgment were all agreed, even those of them who were not of his religious faith, that no man in Malone was ever so much of a factor in moulding the character of the community, or contributed so much to make the town what the best thought and the finest aspirations wished it to be. Of course his theology was of the type that is now commonly regarded as narrow and intolerant, but it was sincere and compelling to him, and was softened to others by a personal kindness and helpfulness that counted greatly. In a biography by his son I find the following : " He feared his Maker ; he feared nothing else. Whenever he discovered a schism or heresy arising in his church, or an evil gaining root in the community, he put his foot boldly upon it. And he never took it up until the viper was crushed. It was a hard foot to get out of the way." Doctor Parmelee often expressed the hope that his end might come without warning, and his wish was gratified. May 24, 1862, when in apparently better health than he had enjoyed for
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a number of weeks, and while in the very act of performing a neigh- borly service, he fell into the arms of his friend and expired. Former Vice-President Wheeler so appraised his work and venerated his charac- ter that on a memorial tablet which he erected he caused it to be inscribed that he was "instantaneously translated."
Ashbel B. Parmelee, born in Malone October 14, 1816, was a life- long resident except for six or seven years, and was one of the strongest, must useful and most exemplary citizens that the town ever had. He taught school in the western part of the State and at Kingston for two or three years, beginning in 1835, and also studied law while so engaged. After admission to the bar he practiced in Illinois for a time - return- ing to Malone in 1842. Here also he practiced until 1865, though not very actively from 1854 because engaged for eleven years following that date as State canal appraiser. It was at a time when graft in this work had been scandalous, and Mr. Parmelee's service purified conditions notably. From 1850 to 1854 he was district attorney of Franklin county, and during Colonel Seaver's absence in the army for two years during the civil war was in editorial charge of the Palladium. In 1865 he located in New York city for a year or two in the practice of his pro- fession, and, then returning to Malone, became a partner with James H. Titus in the land and lumber business, which passed subsequently to the sole ownership of himself and his son, Morton S. Beside's the bene- fits that Malone as a whole derived from the prosecution of his large industrial interests, scores of those holding lands under contract with him enjoyed in a measure known only to themselves forbearance and bounty at his hands which saved them from serious losses, if not from actual ruin. Of strong convictions, intelligent to a degree, upright in every walk of life, Mr. Parmelee commanded wide and profound respect; and, though far from what is known as a "good mixer," was of warm sociability in the circle of his immediate friends, and had a deep and abiding interest in everything that looked to the welfare of the com- munity. He was for many years president of the village board of educa- tion and of Morningside Cemetery Association - giving unstintedly of his time and abilities to the duties of the positions. Mr. Parmelee died of paralysis, following a surgical operation, August 17, 1886.
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