USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 25
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 25
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trious at the recovery of Mount Orgal, Jersey.
Joseph Haviland was a son of Joseph and Lydia Sisson Haviland, the former having been born at Feeder Dam, September 12, 1793, and married May 3, 1814. His wife was a daughter of Nathaniel Sisson, who re- sided at New Bedford, and was of English . extraction. Joseph Haviland (father ) pur- chased a farm in 1826 on Sanford Ridge, where he lived until his death, November 26, 1875. He was one of the most intelligent and successful farmers of his day. He was the father of three children : Daniel S., Jo- seph and Lydia Ann. He led a long life of usefulness, filled with kind deeds and many liberal acts. The wife of Joseph Haviland died in June, 1893. His two daughters, Elma S. and Emma L., are both married : the former to J. Corwin Jacks, of Batavia, New York, and the latter to Francis March, of Surbitton, England, now deceased.
S AMUEL PRUYN, one of the proprie- tors of the Glens Falls Company, dealers in lime, lumber, grain and stone, and a man whose successful career in business has been characterized by abundant energy and sound judgment, and who has for many years occu- pied an influential position in the industrial affairs of Glens Falls, is a native of the town of Cambridge, Washington county, New York, where he was born June 19, 1820. He is a son of Henry V. N. and Hannah Morton Pruyn. Henry V. N. Pruyn was born in Rensselaer county, New York, but lived the greater portion of his life in Washington county as a farmer in the town of Cambridge, where he died in 1864, aged seventy-seven years. Francis Pruyn (grandfather), was a native of Albany, New York, removing from there in an early day to Rensselaer county, where he was engaged in farming until his death. The Pruyns are of Holland Dutch descent, and were among the earliest settlers
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in the now city of Albany. The mother of Samuel Pruyn was a native of New Haven, Connecticut, who died at the age of eighty-two years in 1864. Samuel Pruyn was brought to manhood upon the farm in Washington county, where he remained until he had arrived at the age of thirty years, when he removed to the village of Stillwater, Saratoga county, where for three years he was engaged in the manu- facture and sale of lumber, going thence to Brooklyn, where he became a clerk in a lum- ber yard for one year, at the expiration of which time he went to Newaygo, Michigan, on the Muskegon river, and was there engaged in the same capacity for one year. This brought him down to the year 1856, when he returned to his native State and located in the village of Glens Falls, where he has since re- sided, and successfully engaged in the lumber business. In 1865 Mr. Pruyn formed a part- nership with J. W. Finch, and bought out the property of the Glens Falls Company, which company was organized as far back as 1835, engaged in the sale of lime, lumber, grain and stone, and proprietors of the celebrated Glens Falls Black Marble Company. . Since the formation of this partnership in 1865 it has been most prosperous, and is at the present time doing the largest lumber business on the Hudson river. This firm manufacture about forty million feet of lumber per year, and own about one hundred and fifty thousand acres of timber land, mostly located in the Adiron- dacks and the Cedar river country. They manufacture spruce, hemlock and pine lum- ber exclusively, which they sell and ship them- selves. Their capacity for the manufacturing of lime is one thousand barrels per day. Their black marble quarries are located in the immediate vicinity of their mills on the Hud- son river. In addition to these extensive in- terests of this firm they own a large grain elevator, located on the canal, directly oppo- site their saw mill, and they are also the pro- prietors of some thirty odd canal boats, which are used in transporting their lumber, lime,
stone, grain, etc., to New York city. Around their works they use about one hundred wag- ons, and some hundred head of horses, and give employment to about one thousand men the year round. This company has a branch office in New York city, and own a great deal of real estate in and around Glens Falls. There is another firm of Finch & Pruyn which superintends the timber land and sells the manufactured lumber, made by the Glens Falls Company, but it is a wheel within a wheel, so to speak.
Since 1860 Mr. Pruyn has been one of the leading directors in the First National bank of Glens Falls, and owns stock in the Glens Falls Insurance company.
In 1860 Samuel Pruyn was married to Eliza, daughter of James Baldwin, of Washington county, and has three daughters living by this marriage : Charlotte, Mary and Nellie. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, a democrat in his political opinion, and for many years has been a member of the board of edu- cation of his village.
R EV. THOMAS A. FIELD, O. S. A., a classical scholar and cultured gentleman, and the popular pastor of Saint Joseph's Catho- lic church, is a son of Thomas and Margaret (Daley) Field, and was born in County Cork, in the south of Ireland, February 5, 1829. The Field family is of English descent, and removed about a century ago from England to Ireland, where Thomas Field was born in 1794, and died in 1859, at sixty-five years of age. Thomas Field was a large farmer in County Cork. He was a Catholic, married Margaret Daley, and reared a family of five sons and three daughters, of whom but three are now living : John, of Beverley, Massachu- setts; Mary, wife of Daniel Moriarty, of the same place; and Rev. Thomas A., whose name appears at the head of this sketch.
Rev. Thomas A. Field received his elemen- tary education in the excellent National
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schools of Ireland, and then came to this country, where he first entered Notre Dame university of Indiana, and afterward went to Villanova college, near Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in 1869. While pur- suing his classical studies he took a full theo- logical course, and on April 3, 1871, was or- dained to the priesthood by Archbishop Wood. His first charge was at Lawrence, Massachu- setts, where he served two and one-half years. At the end of that time he came to Cambridge and had charge of the church there up to 1875, when he was sent to take charge of a mission at Ogdensburg, New York. At that place he remained but eight months, and then was transferred to Mechanicville, this State, where he labored zealously and with good success for two years and a half. His pastoral labors closed there in 1878, when the church at Green- wich asked for a resident pastor and named Father Field as their unanimous choice. The petition was granted and he immediately en- tered upon the numerous and arduous duties of his present and important charge. By zeal and energy he has accomplished good results in building up his church membership, and bettering the spiritual condition of his people. He has twice enlarged the church edifice un- til it has now a seating capacity of five hun- dred. He has also beautifully frescoed the church and built a neat and handsome parson- age. While accomplishing all these desirable results he has zealously counseled his people to be independent and self-sustaining, and to- day the church stands clear of debt, and has the proud and unusual record of having asked assistance of no other church.
Father Field's labors are highly appreciated by his people, and has their love and respect. He opposes all church fairs or festivals on the ground that they tend to demoralize the young people, and exert an injurious influence on the older persons who take part in them. An ac- tive worker in the cause of temperance, he is earnest in every movement for the improve- ment and happiness of his fellow men. 12a
WILLARD H. COTTON, dentist, a
representative of two of the early settled families of Washington county, and a prominent citizen of Salem, was born in the town of Hartford, this county, December 18, 1836. He is a son of Thomas and Clarissa ( Pearce) Cotton. Thomas Cotton was a na- tive of the town of Hartford, where he con- tinued to reside during his entire life. He was a farmer and wheelwright in business, a whig in politics, and a member of the Baptist church. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and died in 1844, at the age of fifty-one years. He married Clarissa Pearce, a daughter of Daniel Pearce, who came from New England at an early day and settled in the town of Hartford. The Pearce family is of English origin. Silas Cotton (paternal grandfather) came from Connecticut with a colony from that section several years prior to the Revo- lution, and settled in the town of Hartford. He followed farming, and his antecedents run back to England. The progenitor and founder of the American branch of the Cotton family was an Episcopal minister, who came from England. Mrs. Clarissa Cotton was born in the town of Hartford in 1798, dying in 1848, aged fifty years. She was a member of the Baptist church.
Willard H. Cotton, D. D. S., was left an orphan in early life, and remained in his native town until he was thirteen years of age, when he went to Rensselaer county. He received a common school education, and upon leaving school he applied his time in learning the trade of making fanning mills and grain cradles. After working at this for some time he aban- doned that trade in order to learn that of car- penter and joiner, which he soon relinquished to begin the study of dentistry with his brother, Zina Cotton, of Salem, New York. In 1867 his brother removed to Cambridge, and in the same year he opened out in the practice of his profession, at which he has very success- fully continued ever since. He has succeeded in building up a substantial and lucrative prac-
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tice, and enjoys the esteem and confidence of the entire public. Dr. Cotton during the re- bellion responded to the first call for troops, and on June 1, 1861, he enlisted as second leader of a regimental band in the 2d Vermont volunteers, serving six months, when the band was discharged. On January 4, 1864, he re- enlisted in Co. A, Ist New York mounted rifles, but was soon detailed to regimental band duty. In this capacity he served until his regiment was discharged, December 5, 1865, and was mustered out of the service at Albany, New York.
Dr. Cotton is a director of the People's National bank of Salem, and a member of the Episcopal church of the same village. He is also a member of Lodge No: 391, Free and Accepted Masons ; Federal Chapter, No. 10 ; and of the A. L. McDougal Post, Grand Army of the Republic.
E DGAR M. PETTEYS, a resident of Middle Falls, and one of the substantial and prosperous farmers of the county, is a son of John D. and Mary ( Rogers ) Petteys, and was born at Cambridge, Washington county, New York, October 2, 1843. He was reared on the farm, attended the public schools and Greenwich academy, and has followed general farming ever since. His home farm of one hundred and twenty acres is in the northwestern part of the town of Easton, and on the old Troy and Whitehall road. He also owns a good farm of ninety acres about one-quarter of a mile south of his home place, and has expended considerable money in draining and improving his farms, which now rank among the most fertile and produc- tive land in the neighborhood. Mr. Petteys is a republican in politics, and has been a member and trustee of the West Greenwich Baptist church for many years.
In December, 1866, Edgar M. Petteys mar- ried Elsie Slade, who was a daughter of Is- rael Slade, of the town of Easton, and who
died in January, 1873, and left two children : John, and a daughter who died in infancy. Three years after the death of his first wife, he, in September, 1876, wedded Frances Da- vidson, daughter of James Davidson, a farmer of Middle Falls. By his second marriage Mr. Petteys has one child, a son, Jay D.
Ephraim Petteys, the paternal grandfather of Edgar M., was a native of Washington county, and owned a farm of four hundred acres of good farming and grazing land in the town of Cambridge. He served in the war of 1812, and died in 1864, at about eighty years of age. He was twice married. By his first wife, whose maiden name was Debo- rah James, he had five children, four sons and one danghter: Harvey, John D. (father), James, Horace, and a daughter who died in infancy. He married for his second wife, Elizabeth Ferris, who bore him seven child- ren, six sons and one daughter : Albert, Lewis, Jacob, Frederick, William, Arthur, and a daughter who died in infancy. John D. Petteys, the second son by the first mar- riage, was born in 1812, and died January 23, 1877. He was a farmer by occupation, and in 1852 purchased the farm on which his son, the subject of this sketch, now resides. He was a well respected man, a member and deacon of the Botskill Baptist church, and ranked among the most successful farmers of his sec- tion. He was a republican in politics; served as assessor of his town for several years, and in 1841 married Mary Rogers, a daughter of James Rogers, of Middle Falls, who was a farmer and a Baptist, and died in 1866, at eighty years of age.
JOHN B. FOSTER, a resident of Green- wich, and who has been engaged in con- nection with the mercantile business for over ten years, is a son of Asel and Phebe (Jack- son) Foster, and was born at Easton, Wash- ington county, New York, July 6, 1865. He was reared on the farm, received his educa-
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tion in the public schools and Greenwich academy, and served as a clerk for six years, one year of that time being spent in the em- ploy of James McLean, and the remainder of the period with the mercantile firm of A. Griffin & Son. Leaving the employ of the firm named, he formed, in 1887, a partnership with S. B. Wheelock, and they were engaged for six years, under the firm name of Wheelock & Foster, in the grocery and provision busi- ness at Greenwich. Retiring from this firm in 1893, he accepted his present position as a traveling salesman for the wholesale grocery and provision firm of Squires, Sherry & Ga- lusha, of Troy, this State. Mr. Foster is a member of Ashlar Masonic and Unionville Odd Fellow lodges, of the village of Green- wich.
On June 10, 1883, John B. Foster was united in marriage with Kittie Fitzgerald, a daughter of John Fitzgerald, of Shushan, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Foster have four children : Edith, Madge, Helen, and Marion.
The Foster family of this county are de- scendants of Amos Foster, sr., who came from Rhode Island, and became the owner of a very large and valuable tract of land in one of the towns in Washington county. His son, Amos Foster (grandfather), was a native of the town of Greenwich, where he owned a large farm, and was a prominent whig and Baptist, being a member of the old Botskill Baptist church. He married a Miss Tefft, and reared a family of twelve children. One of his sons, Asel Foster, was the father of the subject of this sketch, and passed his life as a farmer in his native town. He was born in 1823, and died at the village of Greenwich, August 3, 1893, having reached man's allotted age of three score and ten years. He was a republican and Methodist, and married a Miss Robinson, who died in a few years and left one child, a daughter, named Elizabeth, now the wife of George Lee, of Philadelphia. For his second wife Mr. Foster wedded Phebe Jackson, a daughter of John Jackson, of Warrensburg,
New York, and a relative of General Jackson. Mrs. Phebe (Jackson) Foster died February 14, 1882, aged fifty-four years. To Asel and Phebe (Jackson) Foster were born five chil- dren : Emma, wife of Frederick Tefft ; Harriet A., wife of Fred. C. Willett ; Edith J., George A., and John B., whose name heads this sketch.
R EV. EVERETT REUBEN SAW- YER, D. D., pastor of the Sandy Hill Baptist church, is a son of Rev. Reuben Saw- yer, a well known Baptist minister of New England, and was born at the village of New London, New Hampshire, October 20, 1838. He was reared partly in the "Granite State," and was prepared for college at Lowville academy, Lewis county, New York. At the completion of his academical course he en- tered Union college at Schenectady, and was graduated from that celebrated educational institution in the class of 1860, at the age of twenty-one years. Immediately after leaving college he studied for the ministry, and was ordained at Cooperstown. His first charge was at that village, in that lake section of New York State made famous for all time to come by Coopers' volume of Indian romances. After five years profitably spent at Coopers- town, Dr. Sawyer was pastor for two years at Albion, New York. In 1870 he received and accepted a call from the Sandy Hill Baptist church, where he has labored ever since.
In 1871 Dr. Sawyer was united in marriage with Sarah E. Lord, of Lewis county. They have two children, both sons : W. L. and J.E.
During Dr. Sawyer's pastorate of nearly a quarter of a century, the Sandy Hill Baptist church has had a good degree of prosperity. The present number of members is two hun- dred and seventy-five. Its offerings for benev- olence have been very generous. Dr. Sawyer was largely instrumental in securing the erec- tion of the present Baptist church edifice, which is one of the finest church structures in the county, and cost over fifty-six thousand
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dollars. The church is free of debt, and in addition to their sanctuary they have a hand- some brick parsonage. Beside discharging his pastoral duties in connection with the church, Dr. Sawyer takes a deep interest in the Sabbath school of his church, which is in a flourishing condition. He is chairman of the missionary committee of the Washington Union Baptist association, in whose interests he has frequently served. Dr. Sawyer has broken the bread of life acceptably to his church for nearly twenty-five years, and has labored faithfully during all that time in the cause of Christianity. He is a courteous and sociable gentleman, and has the respect and good will of all who know him, regardless of church creed or denomination.
A SAHEL CLARK, a descendant of one the most prominent and honored families of Washington county, and a cousin of Dr. E. G. Clark, of Sandy Hill, was born in the same village on May 20, 1830. He is a son of Or- ville and Delia M. Clark. The former was a lawyer by profession, prominent in the busi- ness affairs of his section, and a native of Mount Holly, where he was born in the year 1800. In about 1828 he came to Sandy Hill, and here he made his home until his death, which occurred in 1862, at the age of sixty-two years. A democrat in his political tendencies, he was elected State senator from his district, and served in the session of 1846. He was afterward president of the Des Moines Navi- gation Company, located at Des Moines, Iowa, and it was here that he died while on a business trip. While schooled in the law, his natural inclination led him into business channels, and for the greater part of his life he was engaged extensively in contracting. He received im- portant contracts, which he would promptly and successfully execute, for railroad and other large corporations. He was a brother of Rus- sell Clark, a prominent physician, and uncle of Dr. E. G. Clark, and for the ancestry of
the family the reader is referred to the sketch of the latter, found on another page of this book. Hon. Orville Clark was a man of di- versified resources, a leader in many of the progressive movements of his county, of un- impeachable integrity, and no citizen was more highly respected by his neighbors and by all who knew him. In physique he was tall and commanding, and his memory will long be cherished by many with whom he came into business and social contact. His wife, who was an estimable woman, was born in the town of Kingsbury, and was a daughter of Henry C. Martindale, of Washington county, New York, an old line whig and member of Congress. Her death occurred at the age of seventy-five years, in February, 1881.
Asahel Clark's boyhood years were spent in Sandy Hill and the surrounding neighborhood, receiving the rudiments of his education in the village school, and later entered Union college, at Schenectady, New York, and was graduated with his class in 1849. He then went to Ro- chester and became a law student under the preceptorship of his uncle, Gen. John H. Mar- tindale, who was a general in the late civil war, but relinquished the law before his ad- mission to the bar, and became engaged with his father in railroad contracting. For a num- ber of years he was engaged in this business in the State of Iowa, continuing in the same up to 1884, when he branched out in farming in Story county, that State, which he followed up to 1890. In that year he came back to Sandy Hill, and has since been retired from all active business. He is an Episcopalian in religious belief, and is a member of the Chi Psi Soc fraternity of Union college. Like his father before him, he is a stanch and earnest democrat. He has never married.
w ILLIAM H. MILLER, M. D., was one of Sandy Hill's most suc- cessful physicians and useful citizens ; a son of Abram and Rebecca ( Akin) Miller; and
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was born at Pittstown, near Troy, New York, in February, 1821. He was reared on his father's farm, and at sixteen years of age en- tered Amenia seminary. At the close of liis academical course he became a medical stil- dent with Dr. Lyon, of Schaghticoke, and after reading for some time, entered Albany Medical college, from which he was gradul- ated in the class of 1843. After graduating he practiced successively at Hoosic, Poultney, in Vermont, and Granville. In 1854 he came to Sandy Hill, and was a general practicioner here until his death, although he desired to retire from practice during the latter years of his life, but was constrained not to do so by many of his patients. His knowledge was such that he was called to lecture on anatomy at Fort Edward seminary, and at Troy Con- ference academy, at Poultney, Vermont. After becoming a resident of Sandy Hill, Dr. Miller was not only a popular physician but was a successful manufacturer, an extensive farmer, and an efficient public official, serving for some time as supervisor of the town' of Kingsbury. He was a charter member of the First National bank, of which he served as vice-president during the year preceding his death. He owned four hundred acres of land in the town of Moreau, Saratoga county.
In 1846 Dr. Miller married Frances A. Wentworth, a native of Connecticut, and a member of the old and honorable Wentworth family of New England, founded in 1639 by four brothers by that name, who came from England.
Dr. Miller died in 1873, and his remains rest in Sandy Hill Union cemetery. He was a self-made man, in the true sense of that term, and whatever he laid his hand to do he did with great concentration of energy and determination to succeed. Sandy Hill is largely indebted to him for its present growth and prosperity. It was through his efforts that Baker's Falls was built up and made a prosperous annex to the village. To him Sandy Hill is also indebted for its court house,
its railroad, and its first bank, as much so as to any other man; beside his encouraging and urging into life a score of private enter- prises that added to the wealth and business of the place. Dr. Miller's mind was so com- prehensive that he could instantly turn from the consideration of gigantic business enter- prises to complicated and intricate medical cases ; and it was to this he was most de- voted, and to which the best years of his life were given.
H ON. ORSON W. SHELDON, prom-
inent and active in financial affairs in New York and Kansas for over a quarter of a century, and who enjoys the popular distinc- tion of being one of the few democrats that have ever carried the republican stronghold of Washington county, is a son of Uriah and Calista ( Spicer) Sheldon, and was born in the town of Queensbury, Warren county, this State, September 2, 1828. At four years of age he was brought by his parents to Fort Ann, where he grew to manhood and has re- sided ever since. He received his education in the common school, and early in life en- gaged in canal boating, which he followed to 1862, when he embarked in his present lumber business. In addition to lumbering Mr. Shel- don has for the last twenty-five years given considerable attention to financial matters. He served for several years as president of the bank of John Hall & Co., and is now presi- dent of the Smith County National bank, of Smith Centre, Kansas. He is a member of Mount Hope Lodge, No. 260, Free and Ac- cepted Masons.
On March 19, 1850, Mr. Sheldon was united in marriage with Esther B. Broughton, daugh- ter of Amos Broughton, of Fort Ann. They have two children, a son and a daughter : Albert U. and Helen M.
The political career of Orson W. Sheldon commenced in 1872, when he was elected by the democrats as supervisor of the town of Fort Ann, an office to which he was re-elected
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