USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 81
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Daniel H. Stanton, born at Strafford, N. H., in November, 1830, came in 1846 to Bellmont, where his father had preceded him. He learned the printer's trade in Malone, and followed it until he entered the army as a member of the 98th regiment in 1861. He became adjutant, was severely wounded, and made a fine military record. After the war he was appointed deputy and then assessor of internal revenue taxes, and took up the study of surveying, in which profession he attained to a very high standing. He was county treasurer for six years from 1876, and also served Malone as supervisor. During his later years Mr. Stanton was probably the best authority in the county in regard to local military records, as he was also a mine of information concerning most county, town and village affairs and history. To exceptional natural abilities he added a remarkably retentive memory, and was a notably interesting companion and useful citizen. He died June 5, 1897.
Patrick H. Shields, born in Ireland, July 17, 1831, came to this country in his youth, and to Malone in 1855 to enter the employ of the
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old Northern Railroad under William A. Wheeler. Willing, energetic and elever, he was advanced from humble duties to more important positions, and, making his home in Mr. Wheeler's household, became the latter's agent and representative in many personal and political matters. During the civil war Mr. Shields recruited a company for the 106th regiment, and served for a time as its captain. Ife then engaged in the grocery business at Malone, and after a time became a buyer of hops for a New York firm, which failed, and involved him for a good many thousand dollars. A little later he became the Franklin county repre- sentative of S. & F. Uhlmann. and continued with them for twenty years or more. After the close of the war, when contests for county nominations were waged more in the modern way than had been the former practice, Mr. Shields still served Mr. Wheeler in transmitting his plans and wishes to lieutenants throughout the county, and by-and-by began to operate in the field independently. His old relations with Mr. Wheeler were understood to continue long after the latter had discon- tinued employing him, and the severance of such relations not being generally known, Mr. Shields was able not infrequently to further his own schemes through the assumption of those with whom he had had earlier dealings that he still bore the Wheeler commission. He was the first man in Franklin county to "pack " a caucus, and by the procedure defeated Mr. Wheeler in his own town. He was thus a considerable political factor locally for a good many years. Mr. Shields was for a long time a deputy collector of customs, with only nominal duties, so that he had abundant leisure for political activity. His Republicanism was usually of the unswerving sort, and with two or three exceptions he accepted enthusiastically all convention results, whether they reflected his own preferences or not; and as he used to say himself, “ no man could flop quicker than " he. He was a big-hearted, generous Irishman, seldom showing vindictiveness, and was liked personally even by those who resented and abhorred some of his methods. He died July 19, 1899.
Julius C. Saunders, born in Dickinson in 1833, was one of a con- siderable number from this county who caught the early California gold fever, and upon his return entered upon the study of the law, and became a practitioner in Malone. During the first Cleveland adminis- tration he was a special treasury agent, and was often the Democratic candidate for one or another county office. He died in Malone Novem- ber 12, 1896.
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John M. Spann, born in Indianapolis, Ind., April 29, 1850, became identified with Malone by marriage with a daughter of Darius W. Lawrence. Mr. Spann made his home here from 1881 until 189%, engaging in the hardware business, and then in insurance. In 1892 he returned to Indianapolis, to join with his father and brother in insurance and real estate operations, and became so prominent in that city because of his likeable qualities and wise judgment that there were few improvements or enterprises of a general character with which he did not have some connection. He was secretary of a large insurance corporation, president of the Institution for Feeble-Minded Children at Fort Wayne, and president of the Commercial Club; and in all matters commanded the entire respect and trust of the community. Of gentle courtesy, of the most equable temper of any one that the writer ever knew, of never-failing cheerfulness, and of agreeable accom- modation to the wishes of others in non-essentials, but with a resolute will and unyielding attitude in matters involving principle, Mr. Spann was thoroughly a manly man, and easily won and surely held the affectionate regard of everybody with whom he had relations. As he turned from the railway ticket office in Indianapolis, after buying a ticket for visiting the institution at Fort Wayne of which he was presi- dent, he fell unconscious, and soon expired, on February 5, 1902.
Fred D. Shepard, born in Ellenburgh, September 11, 1855, came to Malone from Chateaugay in his youth with his parents, and after grad- uation from Franklin Academy studied medicine at Ann Arbor, Mich. In 1882 he went to Asia Minor as a medical missionary, and was at once given charge of the development and administration of the medical department of the Central Turkey College at Aintab, which had been established six years earlier, and to which a hospital was added in 1884. For thirty-three years Dr. Shepard continued in his work with no furlough except one of a twelvemonth which he passed in the United States in improving himself in modern surgery. He fitted many Armenians to practice medicine intelligently and with efficiency ; responded to almost constant insistent calls of the sick in all of the neighboring villages - always traveling on horseback, and averaging for long periods to ride three hundred miles or more per month ; inspired his fellow workers to continued effort; prescribed to hospital patients daily when not in the field ; fought the plague ; administered relief funds in feeding the starving, organizing industries and rebuilding homes after merciless massacres perpetrated upon Christians by the Turks; averaged to perform four hundred and fifty major surgical operations
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a year ; gave himself heart and soul to impressing upon the native minds " what is meant by vital Christianity " and in founding and maintain- ing churches ; and won for himself the profound respect, and in many cases the warm affection, of both Turks and Christians. Worn and weakened by the strain and work of almost a year's unintermittent labors in combatting an epidemic of typhus, he was himself stricken by the disease, and died at Aintab, December 18, 1915.
John L. Southwick, born in Bombay April 24, 1858, was gradu- ated from Franklin Academy in 1878, and from Cornell University in 1883. He became a member of the editorial staff of the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press in 1884, and in 1890 was advanced to the position of editor-in-chief, in which he has done thoughtful and creditable work. Mr. Southwick has a fine and well-balanced mind, is a graceful and vigorous writer, and is controlled in all of his work by high principle. His editorial efforts have won for him an excellent standing with the people of Vermont generally, and he is a force for good in all matters affecting the State. He is chairman of the board of trustees of the Vermont free school fund; in 1912 was a delegate to the Republican national convention, and in 1916 a Presidential elector.
Francis E. Sawyer was born in Malone in 1872, and as a boy was remarkably precocious, evincing a particular interest in music and liter- ary composition. After graduating at Franklin Academy, he went to New York to study music, and was quickly recognized as an exquisite pianist, and became a composer of stately oratorio measures and ballad music. He became the associate and coworker of eminent composers of far greater age, who deemed him a genius. Of frail physique, a high strung nervous temperament and a busy, never-sleeping brain, he broke down, and died January 20, 1896.
Samuel C. F. Thorndike, born in Malone October 12, 1810, had as his first business adventure the delivery of the Franklin Telegraph to its subscribers in Malone, making the distribution on horseback, and calling people to their doors to receive the paper by ringing blasts on his post-horn. While still a boy he engaged in clerking for various mercantile firms in Fort Covington, Westville and Helena, with a brief venture in merchandising on his own account in Fort Covington. Next he elerked in Troy, and, returning to Malone, was elected county clerk in 1849 by the Whigs, squeezing through by only two majority. In this period he became active in the old State militia. rising to the rank of
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brigadier-general, and upon the conclusion of his term of office as county clerk entered the service of the O. & L. C. R. R., with which he contin- ued for twenty years - for a part of the time as cashier and treas- urer. In his various clerical and accountant engagements he handled millions of dollars, and no account that he kept was ever even a penny out of balance, nor so confused but that it could be readily analyzed and understood. During the civil war Mr. Thorndike was provost marshal for St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, and was conspicu- ously efficient in filling quotas and conducting the drafts. In his later years he was a part of the time in trade in Malone, and otherwise led a retired life. He was a man of warm, quick impulses, of a grim humor, an ardent friend, of sterling honesty, and of marked independence of character. He died April 2, 1882.
John L. Thorndike, son of Samuel C. F., was born in Malone Sep- tember 21, 1834, and when a young man went to California, where he became associated with Henry Meiggs, and accompanied him to South America. Having been Mr. Meiggs's right hand man in all of his mammotlt enterprises in Peru, he succeeded upon the death of Mr. Meiggs, in 1878, to most of his interests, carried some of them through to completion, and undertook big mining and construction works for himself. In connection with another American he was rated in 1888 as owning a hundred million dollars' worth of mining concessions and railroad properties in Peru and Chile, a large part of which the govern- ments confiscated, though Mr. Thorndike subsequently recovered some parts of the properties, and saved a considerable fortune out of the wreck. He died at Lima October 12, 1901.
Hiram H. Thompson, born in Malone March 16, 1822, was for niany years a leading business man and citizen. In 1846, when hardly any money was in circulation, and trading was almost altogether upon a credit basis, Mr. Thompson and Edwin L. Meigs opened a store, and conducted it for years upon the ready-pay principle. No one was permitted to open an account, and all goods had to be paid for on the spot either in cash or produce. The venture, never before tried in the county, was deemed by older dealers to be recklessly foolish and certain to fail; but it proved a pronounced success, and gave to the partners the beginning of the fortunes which each accumulated. After a few years Mr. Thomp- son retired from mercantile pursuits, and engaged in farming, buying the Hardy place, and erecting the brick house still standing there. Later he became a tanner, again a merchant, and a large manufacturer
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of starch. As a tanner he was burned out three times. Before the civil war he established a hardware business, which is still continued under the name and title of HI. D. Thompson & Co., and which has always had a large trade. Mr. Thompson's only experience in public office was as a deputy collector of internal revenue, and he used to say that from a financial standpoint he made a mistake in accepting the appointment. Though in manner and temperament not adapted to political management, he yet had a considerable part in determining local policies and action by reason of trenchant expression of his views to his particular friends and associates, who, impressed by the sound- ness of his judgment, saw to adoption of his counsel by conventions and the political organization. Mr. Thompson was publie spirited, intelligent, conscientious and virile. At times direct to brusqueness and positive almost to severity, he was nevertheless sympathetic and kind of heart, and attached himself strongly to the circle of his immediate friends. He died August 18, 1900.
Horace A. Taylor, born at Morristown, New York, August 8, 1824, came to Bangor with his parents in 1828; and studied law and was admitted to the bar in Malone. In 1862 and again in 1865 he was elected district attorney, and served as county judge from 1878 to 1890. For a number of years he was interested in the manufacture of starch, and for a time had a part in the experiment in Bangor of making tanning extract from bark. His business enterprises were not successful, however. As a practitioner he was neither energetic nor aggressive, but was generally regarded as a safe adviser and a fairly good judge of law. He died March 29, 1893.
Chandler Newell Thomas, born in Bangor July 8, 1834, prepared for college at Franklin Academy, graduated at Middlebury College in 1861, taught in Castleton (Vt.) Seminary in 1861 and 1862, and in the latter year entered Auburn Theological Seminary, where he gradu- ated in 1865. In the same year he became pastor of the Presbyterian church at Fort Covington, and continued in that relation for seventeen vears. Mr. Thomas had a fine bass voice, highly cultivated, and while a student at Middlebury became a member of a glee club which toured Vermont and Northern New York, giving very popular entertainments ; and while at Fort Covington he taught singing schools and organized and conducted local musical conventions. He was active also in support of the old Northern New York Musical Association, participating inter- estedly and helpfully in its affairs until the organization went out of
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existence - an unfortunate and deplorable culmination, due to jealousy between its Potsdam and Malone members. Upon the conclusion of Mr. Thomas's pastorate at Fort Covington he removed to Port Henry, where he served the church at that place for eight years. He was located afterward at New Haven, Vt., at Bristol, Vt., and at Castle Rock, Col- orado, where he died February 2, 1908. Mr. Thomas was a trustee of Middlebury College from 1889 to 1908, and a director of the Vermont Domestic Missionary Society in 1898. He was a devout man, a faithful minister, gratefully remembered for good works in every community to which he ministered.
John M. Thomas, D. D., LL.D., son of Rev. Chandler N. Thomas, born at Fort Covington December 27, 1869, prepared for college at Franklin Academy; was graduated from Middlebury College in 1890; entered Union Theological Seminary the same year - graduating in 1893. He took a postgraduate course for two years. He was a stu- dent in the University of Marburg, Germany, in 1903. He was ordained in 1893, and served as pastor of the Arlington Avenue Presby- terian church at East Orange, N. J., from 1893 to 1908, when he was elected to the presidency of Middlebury College, which position he still fills. Doctor Thomas was a member in 1908-11 of the Vermont commis- sion on the tercentenary of the discovery of Lake Champlain ; member of the Vermont State board of education 1912-14; and chairman of the same for two years; chairman of the commission on conservation of the natural resources of Vermont 1910-12 ; and chaplain of the first infan- try of the Vermont national guard 1913-16. He is a contributor to The Independent. The Nation, The Congregationalist, etc., and the author of " The Christian Faith and the Old Testament." The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Middlebury in 1907, by Amherst in 1908 and by Dartmouth in 1909, and that of LL.D. by the University of Vermont in 1911. The work of Doctor Thomas as president of Middle- bury College has been strikingly successful, but only through persistent and arduous effort by a man in whom are united a remarkably winsome personality, supreme tactfulness, and, strangely, broad business capacity with profound scholarship. Since Doctor Thomas became the head of the institution the college property has been increased in value, by gifts persuaded by him, from $225,000 to $745,000, the endowment fund more than doubled in the same way, the annual income quadrupled, the faculty enlarged from ten professors to thirty, the number of students multiplied by three, and the tuition receipts lifted from $4,904 to $37,484, annually,
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with new departments added and the courses of study broadened. In June, 1918, Doctor Thomas completed the raising of a further fund of $300,000 for the college, upon the success of which effort an additional contribution of $100,000 by a single donor was conditioned. The bare recital testifies to Doctor Thomas's great efficiency, and stamps him as peculiarly fitted for his trust. In October, 1918, he was commissioned a chaplain in the United States army, with a view to an overseas assignment.
Samuel Clark Wead, born in Brandon, Vt., September 20, 1805, came to Malone with his father, Jacob, in 1815. Jacob became a part- ner with Benjamin Clark, his brother-in-law, in merchandising at the corner of Main and Webster streets, and afterward, operating by himself, had his residence and a store combined on Elm street, adjacent to the present Episcopal church; and also engaged in what were for the time other considerable enterprises. Samuel C. began business in partner- ship with Guy Meigs in 1824, opening a store at Westville, prosecuting lumbering there and in Fort Covington, and also manufacturing and dealing in pot and pearl ashes. In 1826 the firm lumbered extensively in Canada, and in 1829 leased from Jacob Wead a saw mill in Constable and the several properties at the point known as "whiskey hollow," north of the village of Malone. These included a saw mill, a grist mill, distillery, brick yard, pottery and rope walk, and to them the lessees soon added a forge- buying the Hollembeck ore bed, west of the village, for their supply of iron. They also opened a store in a wing of the dwelling house of Hiram Horton on the site of the Rutland pas- senger station, but, having erected in 1831 the store building now occu- pied by the Peoples National Bank, on the corner of Mill and Main streets, changed their location to the latter point. They also owned and operated a steamboat between Fort Covington and Montreal, which was the first to run the rapids above the latter city. Mr. Meigs died in 1855, when Mr. Wead formed a new partnership with his son, Edwin L. Meigs, and Isaac P. Wilson to lumber in a big way in Canada, and still another with Benjamin S. W. Clark and John A. Fuller to conduct a store in Malone, which latter arrangement continued until 1863. Mr. Wead had engaged also at various times in lumbering at Chasm Falls and in Bellmont, and was for years the Franklin county correspondent of the Clinton County Bank at Plattsburgh, in which capacity he did at his store practically all of the banking business of the county until in 1846, at the same place, he established the Franklin County Bank, the first in the county, as a private or individual institution, in
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which New York city gentlemen were partners. This bank went into liquidation upon the organization of the Bank of Malone (capitalized at $100,000, and later increased to $150,000), in which also Mr. Wead was the principal mover and president, with William A. Wheeler as cashier. A bank building was erected on the site of the present village library, and the institution flourished in a modest way, and served the business interests of the county usefully until 1865, when, upon the organization of the National Bank of Malone, it was closed - Mr. Wead having had a leading part in the formation of the new institution, and serving as its president until his death. Mr. Wead was very active in the movement to accomplish the building of the old Northern Railroad, and, besides having worked zealously in its interest at home, spent six months in Boston in effort to enlist capital for its building ; and in 1847, with Hiram Horton, Guy Meigs and John L. Russell, gave the com- pany ten acres of land upon condition that it locate its shops in Malone. He was also a leader in forming the Malone Water Works Co. in 1857 and the Malone Gas Light Co. about 1870. In 1872 he began the erec- tion of a paper mill, which was his last considerable business enterprise, and I think the only one for which he was responsible that he did not make a success. Mr. Wead was elected county treasurer in 1848, and from an early age was particularly and beneficially interested in educa- tional affairs. He was the first president of the village district board of education in 1867, so serving for seven years, and with results that prompted his successor in office to write: "If Mr. Wead had done nothing for Malone beyond what he did for its schools, that alone would entitle him to the affectionate remembrance of its citizens." In all of his undertakings, public and private. Mr. Wead was enterprising, progressive, sound in judgment, scrupulously correct and honest, deeply interested in the general welfare, and in a business aspect the foremost citizen that the county ever had. He was apt to be a bit domineering at times, but at heart was kind and in general association with friends and neighbors interesting and genial. His character was unsullied, and pettiness or meanness utterly foreign to him. Mr. Wead's second wife was Mary Kasson, a remarkable woman, possessed of great strength of character and endowed with exceptional intellectual qualities. She was preceptress of Franklin Academy in 1813, and, outliving her husband by a number of years, made in 1881 a Christmas gift to the village school district of the fine library building on Elm street as a memorial to her husband and son, Colonel Wead, which was " dedicated to the use of the public for the promotion of knowledge and morality." Mr. Wead died May 11, 1876.
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Frederic Fuller Wead, born in Malone January 26, 1835, worked in his youth in the railroad machine shops as an apprentice for nearly a year, and, then resuming his studies, was graduated at Union College, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced the profession until the outbreak of the civil war. He entered the Union Army in May, 1861, as first lieutenant of Co. I of the 16th regiment, but was soon transferred to staff duty as aide-de-camp to General Slocum. In 1862 he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 98th regiment, and eventually to the colonelcy. At Cold Harbor he was severely wounded in the shoulder, but, in defiance of the surgeon's prohibition, persisted in returning to the field the next day, and was killed while leading his men in a charge. He was an ardent patriot and a daring and capable soldier. With keen perceptions, a clear mind and sound judgment, and a fluent and eloquent speaker, Colonel Wead was one of the most bril- liant and promising men of the county. He was killed June 3, 1864.
Leslie C. Wead, born in Malone February 17, 1851, was a graduate of Franklin Academy and Dartmouth College. He was admitted to the bar in 1873, and engaged in practice at Malone until 1890. He was also closely identified with a number of manufacturing and other com- mercial enterprises, and never lost opportunity to suggest, advocate and promote courses of action that were calculated to increase the number and importance of the town's industries and its welfare generally - especially its educational and moral conditions. Mr. Wead removed to Boston in 1890, and engaged there for twenty years in the business of real estate broker and agent. From 1910 until his death he acted as trustee in the management of various real estate trusts and as an expert on valuations of properties taken by the city or damaged in the con- struction of public improvements. His business standing in Boston was high, and his judgment and advice were widely sought in matters that he had made his specialty, and were greatly respected. Mr. Wead died in Boston March 16, 1918.
Jonathan Wallace, born in Essex county, was a participant in the battle of Plattsburgh, and came to Fort Covington in 1815, where he was prominent for forty years in all matters affecting the town, and had a good standing at the bar. Except for a break of two years he was a justice of the peace continuously from 1818 to 1856, was supervisor in 1840, and a Presidential elector the same year. As a practitioner he was rated as somewhat timid and hesitating, but usually sound in his advice and conclusions. He died June 14, 1856.
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