USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 22
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 22
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obtained considerable eminence and popular- ity in his profession and in the field of politics, and his friends, who are numbered by legions, confidently predict for him a brilliant future. Mr. Cameron took an active part in the sena- torial contest between Hon. Smith M. Weed and Hon. David B. Hill, candidates for the United States Senate, and supported Mr. Hill in preference to Mr. Weed, although the latter was a resident of Mr. Cameron's senatorial district. Mr. Hill was elected by a majority of two votes in caucus, Mr. Cameron's vote being one of them, and the next day, January 20, 1891, was elected United States Senator from New York for the full term of six years.
THOMAS W. MCARTHUR, a well
read and popular young attorney, and member of the law firm of Cameron & McAr- thur, and a brother of J. L. McArthur, of Granville [see his sketch for ancestry], was born in the town of Putnam, Washington county, New York, on March 14, 1860. He received his early education in the common schools of his town, and afterward attended two terms at the State Normal school, at Al- bany, and subsequently was graduated from the Albany Law school in 1883. He then went into the office of Robert Dornburg, of Ticon- deroga, where he read law, and later read with Charles R. Patterson, of Glens Falls. In January, 1885, he was admitted to the bar, and on May 1, 1886, formed a partnership with William M. Cameron, and since which time has been actively and successfully engaged in the practice of his profession. On September 26, 1893, Mr. McArthur was married to Jean B., a daughter of William Pesinger, of Brook- lyn, New York. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum, and the Tribe of Red Men. In politics Mr. McArthur is a stanch and influ- ential republican, and while residing in the town of Putnam filled the office of justice of the peace. In the fall of 1893 he was elected delegate to the Constitutional convention of
1894, from the twenty-first senatorial district. He has already won an honorable place at the bar, and appears to be on the threshold of a successful and brilliant career.
N ICHOLAS L. JENKINS, one of the leading business men of the village of Cambridge, and dealer in harness and saddles, horse blankets, and all kinds of horse furnish- ing goods, is a son of John and Sallie Ann (Howard) Jenkins, and was born in the town of Hebron, Washington county, New York, November 1, 1844. John Jenkins (father) was a native of the same town, where he was born September 19, 1814. He learned the trade of carpenter, and afterward followed contracting and building for a number of years, having built the Methodist church of Cambridge, and many other buildings, which have added to his reputation in this line. In late years he has followed the trade of wagon making. [For further facts see sketch of son, Dr. Charles A. Jenkins, of Cambridge. ]
Nicholas L. Jenkins received his education principally at the Washington Cambridge aca- demy, and after leaving here he was apprent- iced to James Barr, to learn the trade of har- ness and saddler. After completing his trade he did journey work up to 1873, when he started in business for himself at his present stand, No. 88 West Main street, where he car- ries on an extensive business, his stock amount- ing, on an average, to about two thousand three hundred dollars, and does an annual business of about five thousand dollars. Mr. Jenkins is a republican in his political opin- ion, and has held most of the principal offices of the village and town. At present he is one of the trustees of the Cambridge Union Free school, and for two years served as supervisor of the town of Cambridge. On November 24, 1875, he was united in marriage with Eliza- beth Hill, of the village of Cambridge. To their marriage has been born one child, a son, Guy G.
C. K. Rice.
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C RRIN KELLOGG RICE, of Green- wich, a prominent citizen of the county, and extensively known throughout the United States, was born at Cambridge, Washington county, New York, December 27, 1815. He is a son of Daniel Rice, a native of the state of Connecticut, and a grandson of Thomas Rice, born in the same State, from whence he removed to the State of New York, over a cen- tury ago, and located on a farm of one hundred acres, in the town of Cambridge. He followed farming all his life. After a few years' farm- ing in Cambridge, he traded his farm there, of one hundred acres, for a tract of two hun- dred acres in the town of Salem, where he ever afterward continued to reside. He was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and assisted in building the fort at Lake George. He was a man of remarkable strength and prowess, and even retained a considerable amount of strength and activity when in his eightieth year. He died at the age of eighty- eight years. Daniel Rice, son of Thomas, and the father of the subject of this sketch, was a farmer all his life, started to the war of 1812, and after arriving at Plattsburg, peace was declared, when he returned to the farm. Orrin Kellogg Rice, a son of Daniel Rice and Zina Kidder, both natives of Connecticut, was reared on the Cambridge farm until at the age of fifteen, when, with his parents, he removed to the farm in the town of Salem. In 1838 he en- tered the academy at Poultney, Vermont, where he pursued the regular studies of that institution, with the object of entering the legal profession. Here he remained until 1840. In that year he went to Kentucky, and began the study of law in the office of Socrates Holbrook, of Clarksburg, the seat of justice of Lewis county, that State, witlı whom he remained two years. At the end of that time, in 1842, Mr. Rice was admitted to practice in all the inferior and superior courts of the State of Kentucky. For a short time after his admission he practiced law there, when he returned home. Coming to 11
Greenwich, in 1843, going into the law office of Judge Ingalls, remaining with him, as a student, the required time necessary for his admission, the term of four years, when, accordingly, in 1847, he was admitted to practice before all the courts of the State of New York. He then practiced in the office of his preceptor, and being more or less dis- satisfied with indoor life, and the tedious de- tails incident to the practice of law, he, in 1848, began to handle patent rights. His first experience in this line was selling terri- tory for a wheat fan, for cleaning grain, and at the same time to some extent did some law business. But his greatest success has been as a patent right man, and to-day probably stands without an equal, everything consid- ered, in this country. He has managed the sales of some dozen of the most important patents of the United States, one sale amount- ing to $250,000, on a sewing machine. His operations in this line have been carried into almost every state of the Union, and he is pop- ularly known by people throughout the coun- try as the great American traveler, having in one year traveled over 36,000 miles, and in eight successive years covered a distance of over nine times the circumference of the globe. For over fifty years Mr. Rice has kept a daily journal, chronicling the important events of his business career and other mat- ters of importance that came under his obser- vation. The patents he has so successfully handled have all been invented by other peo- ple, and he has been the instrument in build- ing up many large fortunes, and made a suc- cess of every one he has ever worked. His labors have been useful in other directions. For many years he carried excursions of peo- ple west, to find homes in the boundless West, being first employed by the land department of the Union Pacific railroad, and making homes for the excursionists, mainly in the State of Nebraska. He afterward was em- ployed in the same work for the Chicago and Northwestern. Retiring from this business
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several years ago, he now lives the life of a farmer, owning a farm of ninety acres adjoin- ing the village of Greenwich, some of it lying within the corporation, and it is one of the most valuable farms in the county. He here breeds the finest blooded horses and cattle in his section. The cattle are the brown Swiss breed, and he never yet sold one for less than one hundred dollars. His horses are of the Hambletonian breed, one of the best breeds of horses in the world.
O. K. Rice, on October 3rd, 1842, wedded Mary Augusta Wheeler, of Ontario, New York, who died in 1891. To this union eight children were born: Charles I., who is a clerk in the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad office, at Chicago ; he married Sarah Orson, of Indianapolis, and has three children. George C., a college graduated veterinary sur- geon, residing on the farm at Greenwich. He married Amelia Bayle, of Greenwich, and has six children; Catherine Augusta, wife of William R. Peters, a shoe manufacturer, of Rochester -- they have two children; Ella Mariah, wife of William T. Moore, of Me- chanicville-they have two children ; Lil- lie (deceased), wife of S. S. Spencer -- she was the mother of four children ; Edmund J. and Edna J. (twins). Edmund J., profes- sional acrobat, married Henrietta Scott, of Cambridge, and has one child. Edna J. is the wife of M. H. Robertson.
In 1893 O. K. Rice married, for his second wife, Mrs. Mary Kennedy, of Easton, this county. He is a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of Greenwich, having held many of the offices of the same ; of the village he has served as president, trustee, and other offices. Of the town of Easton he was commissioner of highways, and was one of the most efficient the town ever had. He has always been public spirited and in earnest in all movements calculated for the betterment and improvement of his commu- nity, and stands pre-eminent as a self-made and a successful business man.
R EV. JAMES MCDERMOTT, the
present popular pastor of Saint Mary's church of Glens Falls, and dean of the diocese under Bishop Francis McNierney, is a native of the town of Enniskillen, County Fermaugh, Ireland, where he was born December 23, 1836. He is a son of Patrick McDermott and Ann McDevitt, both born in the same county, where they resided until their final summons came. Patrick McDermott was a man of con- siderable influence and wealth, and a consist- ent member of the Catholic church, whose death occurred in the year 1838. His wife outlived him fifty-one years, dying in 1889, in the eighty-eighth year of her age.
Father McDermott grew to manhood in his native county, receiving there a classical edu- cation, and in 1854 sailed for the United States and located in Baltimore. Here he entered Saint Mary's Theological seminary, where he completed his classical education. On August 22, 1862, he was ordained priest at Albany, New York, by Bishop McClosky. Three days after his ordination he was ap- pointed rector of Saint Mary's church at Glens Falls, where he has since labored. Since then, beside administering to the spir- itual welfare of his congregation, Father Mc- Dermott has built a handsome church edifice, a large school building, and commodious con- vent.
It is here very appropriate to add a brief history of this church, in with the life sketch of Father McDermott, who has given the best years of his life to give it the influence the church wields over the community to-day.
"In the year 1848 the Rev. M. Olivette, who at that time resided at Whitehall, pur- chased a small stone building, which had been used as a Methodist church, for the sum of $801. It was appropriately dedicated and opened for worship the same year. Prior to that date there were few Catholics living at Glens Falls, their spiritual wants being min- istered by pastors at Sandy Hill - Revs. Guerdet, Coyle, Doyle, and Kelly -each of
Pen. James McDerwatt.
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whom in succession was placed in charge of that village of extensive surrounding district. The first resident pastor at this place was Rev. John Murphy, who officiated from 1848 to 1865, being succeeded by Rev. McDer- mott."
The present splendid brick edifice was built in 1867 and dedicated in the year following. In 1882 he built the large brick parsonage, adjacent to the church, and in the same year built the Saint Mary's academy, also Saint Mary's convent. This school has an average attendance of about eight hundred. The con- vent is presided over and taught by fifteen Sis- ters of Saint Joseph's and Saint Mary's churches, of a membership of about 630 fam- ilies.
Father McDermott, in addition to his pas- torage of Saint Mary's church and his remark- able record in the interest of his church and faith, is dean of his diocese. When he first arrived at Glens Falls, Father McDermott held services at Fort Edward, Sandy Hill, and other points in Washington county, be- side at places in Warren county. He preached in private houses at many places, and has ac- complished great good wherever he has gone. Among the people of the village of his adopted home nobody is personally more popular and beloved among members of all denominations than Father McDermott, and his remarkable accomplishments toward making his church a power in the community, attests his strong personality and influence.
G EORGE B. CULVER, cashier of the North Granville National bank, well and favorably known among the business men of the county and vicinity, is a son of James and Kezia (Lee) Culver, and was born January 16, 1835, at Sandy Hill, Washington county, New York. His father, James Culver, was born in the town of Hebron, September 11, 1796, but lived nearly all his life in Sandy
Hill, where he died April 15, 1872. His wife, Kezia Lee, was born May 12, 1803, at Sandy Hill, where she died May 23, 1886. Her great-great-grandfather was Thomas Lee, who came from England in 1641, and settled in Lyme, Connecticut. Her father, Stephen Lee, came to Sandy Hill about the close of the last century, and there married Mary Little in 1802. The Culvers were among the early settlers of the town of Hebron, and were of English descent. James Culver's great- great-grandfather came from England in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and settled in Southampton, Long Island. From thence George B. Culver's grandfather, David Culver, moved to Hebron, Connecticut, whence his father, whose name was also David, moved in 1795, to Hebron, this county. Both Davids fought in the war of the Revolution.
George B. Culver spent his boyhood at home in Sandy Hill, and was educated in a private school taught in that village by Rev. Dr. Samuel B. Bostwick, who was a prom- inent educator of his day, and a man of scholarly attainments. In 1850 Mr. Culver went to New York, where he lived over four years in the family of Abram Wakeman, a rising young lawyer and politician, then a member of the legislature, and whose first wife, Mary Harwood, was a cousin of Mr. Culver. Leaving New York, he attended Pro- fessor Fowler's school at Poughkeepsie, and afterward the law department of the University of Albany, from which he was graduated in 1856, and was admitted to practice. He read law with Wakeman & Latting, of New York, and Hughes & Northup, of Sandy Hill.
When the rebellion broke out, Mr. Culver enlisted, on August 24, 1861, as first lieuten- ant in Co. F, 43d New York volunteer regi- ment ; serving with his regiment for about one year, when he contracted the typhoid fever in the Chickahominy swamps, in the campaign on the peninsula, and was sick in the navy yard, Washington, under the care of the late C. D. Maxwell, surgeon, U. S. N., until the
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following autumn. The 43d, at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, was found to be reduced by losses to about three hundred and fifty men, and upon Colonel Vinton's proposal to recruit by consolidating, taking in outside companies, fully officered, was adopted, and which resulted in the resignations of ten or more officers of the 43d, field and line, Lieu- tenant Culver among that number, he at the time being very ill. Returning home as soon as he was sufficiently convalescent, he ac- cepted a position in the New York postoffice, under his friend, Abram Wakeman, who was then postmaster of that city; this position Mr. Culver held five years, excepting, by con- sent of the postmaster, an absence of about one year, when he joined the army again, in the pay department, and was stationed in Wis- consin and Illinois. Soon after the close of the war he returned to New York, and re- sumed his old place in the postoffice. From New York he went to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he was engaged in the lumber business, in which pursuit he continued up to 1871. In May of the same year he came to North Gran- ville and accepted the cashiership of the North Granville National bank, a place he has filled very satisfactorily ever since, and also that of one of the bank's directors.
George B. Culver was married in 1869 to Lucy Comstock Baker, daughter of Isaac V. Baker and Laura D. (Comstock) Baker, of Comstock's, this county. Mrs. Culver is the oldest grandchild of the late Peter Comstock, and belongs to the fourth generation of the Baker family and the Comstock family in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Culver are the parents of one child, Laura Baker Culver. Mr. Cul- ver is a member of the Episcopal church ; a republican in his political opinion, and be- longs to the Masonic fraternity, the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, and the M. O. Loyal Legion of the United States. For over twenty years he has been one of the trustees of the North Granville seminary, under the Regents.
R OBERT HAMILTON, proprietor of the well-known and popular Hamilton House, of Greenwich, this county, and a veteran of the civil war, is a son of Joseph and Jane ( Moore ) Hamilton, and a native of Schaghticoke, Rensselaer county, this State, where he was born September 7, 1838. His father, Joseph Hamilton, was born and reared in County Tyrone, Ireland, which he left when twenty-two years of age to find a new home in America. Soon after arriving in this coun- try he settled at Schaghticoke, New York, where he passed the remainder of his life, dying in 1856, at the age of fifty-eight years, having been born in 1798. He was a linen weaver by trade, and worked at that occupa- tion in the factories at Schagticoke for a num- ber of years. Politically he was a whig, and in religion a member of the Methodist Epis- copal church. A short time previous to sail- ing for America he married Jane Moore, a daughter of Charles Moore, of County Ty- rone, Ireland, and by that union had a family of eight children, five sons and three daugh- ters : James, Mary, Eliza Jane, Hugh, who was killed in the last day's fight at Peters- burg, Virginia, leaving a wife and children in Massachusetts ; William H., Charles, Robert, and Ann Jane. They are all now deceased except Robert, the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Jane Hamilton died in 1849, in the fiftieth year of her age.
Robert Hamilton was reared in his native county of Rensselaer, and obtained an excellent English education in the public schools. In 1856 he came to the village of Greenwich, where he learned the trade of shoemaker, and followed that occupation until 1861. He then enlisted in the Federal army, as a member of Co. D, 22d New York Infantry, being one of the first to enlist from this town, and partici- pated in the historic battles of Granville, Cedar Mountain, and the second Bull Run, where, on August 30, 1862, he was wounded by a ball, which tore its way through his right wrist, thus making him a cripple for life. On
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account of this wound he was discharged from the service February 14, 1863, and at once re- turned to Greenwich. Being unable to work at his trade, he engaged in the saloon busi- ness, but after three years abandoned that and removed to Middle Falls, where he embarked in the hotel business. There he remained until 1869, when he returned to Greenwich, and became proprietor of the Greenwich House, which he successfully conducted until 1881. He then purchased what was known as the Bulson House, changed its name to the Hamilton House, and has ever since de- voted his time and attention to conducting this hotel. It is the largest and best hotel in the village of Greenwich, and is located in the business center of the place. As a land- lord Mr. Hamilton is popular, and his hostelry is now widely known and liberally patronized by the traveling public.
On October 4, 1865, Mr. Hamilton was united in marriage to Ellen M. Lee, only daugh- ter of Edward Lee, of Rockville, Connecti- cut, and to them was born a family consisting of one son and three daughters: Frances, Nellie, Edward and Jennie, the latter now de- ceased.
In his political affiliations Mr. Hamilton is a stanch democrat. He is a member of Ash- land Lodge, No. 584, Free and Accepted Ma- sons, of Greenwich ; Home Chapter, No. 158, Royal Arch Masons, of Schuylerville ; and Washington Commandery, No. 33, Knights Templar, of Saratoga Springs. He is also a member and past grand of Union Village Lodge, No. 253, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and of Albert Cook Post, No. 326, Grand Army of the Republic.
JUDGE THOMAS A. LILLIE, county
judge of Washington county since 1887, to which office he was re-elected in 1893, has long been a prominent and successful lawyer of Whitehall. He is a son of Thomas and Jane (McLaughlin ) Lillie, and was born 11a
February 20, 1852, in the town of Putnam, this county. He is of Scotch descent, on both paternal and maternal sides, and his ancestors belonged to two old families of Scotland. Judge Lillie remained on his father's farm until fifteen years of age, and obtained his elementary education in the public schools of his native town. In 1869 he entered the State Normal school, at Albany, from which institution he was graduated with honors in the spring of 1871. He then accepted a position as teacher in Cedar Grove academy, Cald- well, New Jersey, where he remained for two years. Meanwhile he had determined on law as a profession, and in the fall of 1873 he en- tered the law department of Union university, at Albany, New York, and began preparing for the bar. Here he studied industriously until 1875, when he was duly graduated, and on May 20th of that year was admitted to practice in the courts of this county. He at once located at Whitehall, for the practice of law, and was soon in the enjoyment of a profitable business. From that time to the present he has been regularly engaged in ac- tive practice, and in a few years has won dis- tinction at the bar and an honorable position among the legal fraternity of Washington county. In 1883 Judge Lillie was elected supervisor of the town, and in the following year was re-elected by an increased majority, and upon the organization of the board of su- pervisors was unanimously selected as its pre- siding officer. In 1886 he was nominated, on the republican ticket, and elected to the re- sponsible position of judge of Washington county, taking the office in 1887. So well did he perform the important duties of his posi- tion, that in 1893 he was renominated without opposition, and again elected to the office of county judge, the functions of which post he is now performing with an ability and imparti- ality that reflects credit on himself, and gives entire satisfaction to the people whom he serves. An indication of his popularity as a judge may be found in the fact that he has
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been called upon to hold courts in six coun- ties outside his own, including those of Al- bany and Rensselaer.
Judge Lillie has always taken a prominent part in the politics of this section, and for fifteen years has been among the most elo- quent and convincing advocates of his party on the stump, and a most successful cam- paigner. He is a member of Whitehall Lodge, No. 5, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has filled all the chairs, and since 1880 has been a trustee of the First Baptist church of this village, and is now president of this board.
In 1879 Judge Lillie was married to Flor- ence L. Broughton, a daughter of James R. Broughton, a merchant of Whitehall. To the Judge and Mrs. Lillie have been born four children, one son and three daughters : Louise, Alice, Annie and Thomas A., jr.
The paternal grandfather of Judge Lillie, Thomas Lillie, was a native of Scotland, where he resided until after his marriage, when he came to the United States, and set- tled in the town of Putnam, Washington county, New York. Here he continued to re- side, engaged in agricultural pursuits, and as a veterinary, ( being a graduate of the univer- sity of Edinburgh,) until his death in 1856, at an advanced age. Among his children was Thomas Lillie (father ), who was born in the town of Putnam, in 1821, where he still resides, being now in the seventy-second year of his age, and still engaged in farming, to which he has devoted his entire life. He has been very successful in agricultural pur- suits, and has always been known as among the most progressive farmers of his section. He is a member and deacon of the Presbyte- rian church of Putnam, and in political faith an ardent republican. At one time or another he has filled all the offices of his town, and served as supervisor for a number of years. In 1848 he married Jane Mclaughlin, a daughter of Alexander McLaughlin, and a native of the town of Putnam. She was a
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