USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 30
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 30
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C HARLES R. PARIS, a member of the
Washington county bar, and an influen- tial and respected citizen of Sandy Hill, is the eldest son of Hon. U. G. and Cordelia (Rog- ers) Paris, and was born at Sandy Hill, Wash- ington county, New York, in 1851. He re-
ceived his education principally in the schools of Sandy Hill, read law with his father, and was admitted to the bar of Washington county in 1880. Immediately after admission to the bar he opened an office in his native village, where he has been engaged in active and suc- cessful practice ever since.
In 1879 Mr. Paris was united in marriage with Alma Biggart, of Sandy Hill.
Charles R. Paris is a republican in politics, and served for several years as a member of the board of supervisors of Washington county, representing the town of Kingsbury, and dur- ing his last term was chairman of that body. Mr. Paris is well known for his legal ability and substantial business qualities. He takes an active interest in the affairs of Sandy Hill, and is prominent in the law and the business life of his county.
M AJ. JJAMES MCCARTY, who made a brilliant record during the great Civil war, and now living a retired life at Sandy Hill, was born in the town of Hartford, Wash- ington county, New York, January 6, 1840. He received a common school education in his native town, where his parents, then engaged in farming, resided. He attended school at the North Granville academy one term, in the fall of 1860. He is a son of Patrick and Mary ( Donavan) McCarty. His father was a native of Ireland, who came to the United States when a young man, and located on a farm in the town of Hartford, where he continued to live until his death, which occurred in 1886, aged eighty-three years. His wife, Mary Donavan, was also born in Ireland, whom he married in that country. James McCarty, after leaving the academy at North Granville, en- tered the Fort Edward Collegiate institute, and when the president of the United States called for five hundred thousand volunteers, Mr. McCarty volunteered, from this collegiate institute, on the 4th day of November, 1861. He became a private in Co. E, 96th regiment
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New York volunteers, then being organized under Col. James Fairman, at Plattsburg, New York. The officers of the company then being recruited at Fort Edward were : captain, Hiram Eldridge; first lieutenant, A. J. Rus- sell ; and second lieutenant, James L. Cray. Mr. McCarty was appointed sergeant, Novem- ber 22, 1861, and in March, 1862, was assigned to duty as commissary sergeant of his regi- ment ; promoted to second lieutenant Sep- tember 25, 1862, and to first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster on July 17, 1863. In May, 1864, he was assigned to duty as brigade commissary on the staff of Brigadier- General Gilman Marston. He served on staff duty in different capacities in the "Army of the James" until the close of the war. On May 15, 1865, he was promoted to the rank of captain. After the close of the war he served on the staff of Brevet Major-General N. M. Curtis as assistant adjutant-general in the department of Virginia, and received com- mission as major by brevet from the president, and also from the governor of the State for gallant and meritorious service. Major Mc- Carty served nearly five years in the war, and during which time he participated in some sixty odd engagements. He was honorably discharged from the service at Hart's Island, New York, in February, 1866. Returning home, he spent two years in learning the lan- guages, and soon thereafter came to Sandy Hill. In 1868 he became the manager of the Washington Mowing Machine Company of this village, a position he held for ten years. At the expiration of this time, he, with James T. Outterson, purchased this plant, which they owned and conducted up to 1891, when they sold out. This company was first or- ganized for the purpose of manufacturing mowing machines, which they did for one year only, after which they made milling machinery.
Major McCarty was married, in 1867, to Mary C., daughter of William Johnston, of Hartford, this county. To their marriage have been born one son and three daughters :
Sarah J., Alice H., Le Roy [., and Grace W. He is a member of the First Presbyterian church of Sandy Hill; member of Hershal Lodge, No. 387, Free and Accepted Masons ; and a republican up to four years ago, when he identified himself with the People's party. Major McCarty has served as a member on the school board and other village offices.
H ON. U. G. PARIS was one of the most prominent lawyers and successful busi- ness men of Washington county, in whose his- tory his name will always occupy a high and honorable place. He was born at Fairfield, Herkimer county, New York, August 14, 1819, and was of German descent. When he was quite young his parents removed to Harris- burg, in Lewis county, where he grew to man- hood on the farm that lie helped to transform from the wilderness. He enjoyed but limited opportunities for obtaining an education, and at twenty-one years of age went to Watertown, in Jefferson county, where he learned the trade of carpenter. Mr. Paris while learning his trade gave his leisure hours and evenings to reading and study with such encouraging re- sults that he soon decided to leave carpenter- ing at the earliest opportunity, and seek his life vocation in a profession more congenial to his tastes, although possessing mechanical ability of a high order. In a short time his opportunity came, when he entered the office of Judges Rosekrans and Ferris, of Glens Falls, with whom he read law. At the end of his required course of reading he was admit- ted to the bar and soon removed to Sandy Hill, where during a lifetime of devotion to his profession, he won success, fame and fortune. At the very opening of his legal career he en- countered some of the ablest members of the northern New York bar. He always made an exhaustive preparation of his cases and fought them to completion. He soon secured a re- munerative practice and rose to the front rank of his profession. He held the confidence of
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the solid business men of the county, and so judiciously invested his earnings that he be- came one of the wealthiest men of his section. He was prominent in the business enterprises of his village, and was one of the founders of the Peoples' National bank of Sandy Hill. Mr. Paris was a man of strong and earnest con- victions, and fearless in his expression; being a hater of shams and frauds and an enemy to all hypocrisy. He was the soul of sincerity, and his devotion to a friend or a cause stop- ped at no effort that he could make. In pol- itics Mr. Paris was imbued with a strong Na- tional feeling that caused him to ally himself with the whig party, and afterward support its successor, the republican. He was nomi- nated and elected in 1859 as surrogate of Washington county, and in 1863 was elected for a second term, which he also filled. As a surrogate he was able and satisfactory, as his decisions were based on justice and the law.
In 1850 Mr. Paris married Cordelia Rogers, a daughter of Hon. Charles Rogers, of Sandy Hill, who was a prominent citizen' of the county, and served in the State legislature, and as a member of the twenty-eighth Con- gress. (See sketch of Mr. Rogers on another page.) To Mr. and Mrs. Paris were born eight children, two of whom died young ; six are now living, viz .: Charles R., Dr. Russell C., a prominent physician of Albany; Preston, of Kansas ; Lincoln, of the same State ; and two daughters, one of whom was graduated from Vassar college, and the other from a Boston institution.
During the latter part of the summer of 1891 Mr. Paris became enfeebled in health, after returning from a tour through the south- ern States and the West Indies, he grew worse, and at sunrise on September 15, 1892, his final summons came. His funeral was very impressive, and his remains were en- tombed with appropriate ceremonies in Union cemetery, between Sandy Hill and Fort Ed- ward.
Of U. G. Paris it was eloquently and truth-
fully said by one who knew him : " Mr. Paris was an illustration of what a man of character, ability and determination can accomplish in the face of adverse circumstances, and his career is a perpetual encouragement to strug- gling young men. He fought the battle of life honorably and manfully, and obtained a full share of its honors and fortune, and at its close could serenely retire ' like one that wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams.' "
R OBERT CRUIKSHANK, editor of the Salem Axiom, and one of the public spirited citizens of Salem, is a son of Peter and Elizabeth (McKnight) Cruikshank, and was born in the town of Salem, in which he now resides, September 1, 1836. His father, Peter, was a native of the same town, where he resided up to his death, in 1887, at the age of eighty-one years. He was a member of the United Presbyterian church, and a demo- crat in his political opinion. Peter Cruik- shank, sr. (grandfather), was born in the town of Salem, where he followed the occupation of farming all his life, dying in 1856, at the age of eighty-four. In the early settlements of Washington county he served as captain of a company of mounted troops, and was ever after known as Captain Cruikshank. His father, who was the founder of the family in America, was William Cruikshank, who came from Scotland about the time of the emigra- tion of Dr. Clark's congregation. He pur- chased a tract of land in the northern part of the town of Salem, and of his sons, Peter settled in Salem. Elizabeth McKnight, the mother of the subject of this sketch, was born in the town of Hebron, and was a member of the United Presbyterian church, who died at the age of eighty years, in 1892. James Mc- Knight (paternal grandfather) was born in. Salem, and settled in the town of Hebron, where he was engaged in tilling the soil the remainder of his life.
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Robert Cruikshank grew to manhood on his father's farm, receiving the advantages of a common school education, and on leaving school he learned the trade of carpenter and joiner. He was afterward engaged in con- tracting and building, which he successfully carried on until 1867, when he was compelled to give it up on account of ill health. In August of 1862 Mr. Cruikshank enlisted in Company H, 123d New York infantry ; after six months he was promoted from private to second lieutenant, and in the fall following made first lieutenant of his company. Imme- diately after the battle of Gettysburg was fought his regiment was transferred from the army of the Potomac to that of the Cumber- land. In the winter of 1863 his regiment guarded the Nashville & Chattanooga Rail- way, and in the spring of the following year it started on the Atlanta campaign. In all the battles, until after the capture of Atlanta, Lieutenant Cruikshank was the commanding officer of his company. On arriving at At- lanta he was detailed as acting adjutant of the regiment, in place of the regular one who had recently been wounded. Just before leaving Atlanta with Sherman, on his march to the sea, he was detailed provost-marshal, first brigade, first division, 20th army corps, and in which capacity he served until the close of the war. He was honorably discharged at Washington, D. C., and mustered out of the service at Albany, New York.
Lieutenant Cruikshank, in 1867, after giv- ing up building and contracting, embarked in the harness business at Salem, New York, where he continued for seven years. In 1874 he was commissioned postmaster of his vil- lage, which office he held for twelve years and four months. In 1885 he founded his present newspaper, a weekly eight-column folio sheet, republican in politics, which is well filled with local news of the county, and ably edited. Its circulation is steadily in- creasing, and in connection with the paper he conducts a job printing department.
Robert Cruikshank, in 1860, wedded Mary E., daughter of Henry M. Wells, of Salem. His marriage has been blessed by the birth of six children, five sons and one daughter : Ella, Harry B., Robert A., Everett and Earnest W. Ella is now the wife of Dwight P. Cruikshank, who is an importer of spices in New York city.
A son died in infancy.
Robert Cruikshank, with his wife and three sons, is a member of the United Presbyterian church ; a member of Salem Lodge, 45, I. O. O. F., and is at present commander of A. L. McDougall Post, No. 570, Grand Army of the Republic. He is a stanch republican, and has always taken an active and leading part in politics.
C EORGE N. FINCH, the present pop-
ular sheriff of Washington county, was born in Schuylerville, Saratoga county, New York, August 12, 1856, He is the son of Charles B. Finch and Sarah M. Slade, both natives of Saratoga county. Charles B. Finch was reared and educated in his native county, and was afterward engaged in the livery busi- ness at Troy, New York, and in 1861 removed to this county, and located at Granville. Here he continued to reside until 1871, when he re- moved with his family to Eagle Bridge, in Rensselaer county, where he continued to re- side until 1882, engaged in the hotel business. He wedded Sarah M. Slade, and for eleven years has been the proprietor of the Central House at Granville, which is one of the popu- lar and well known hostelries of this county, returning from Eagle Bridge in 1882 to Gran- ville, which has since been the home of the family .. He was born in 1829, and is at pres- ent acting in the capacity of under sheriff. He was the son of Rev. Finch, who was an early settler in Saratoga county, where he be- came one of the pioneer ministers of the Bap- tist church.
George N. Finch received the rudiments of an education in the schools of Granville, and
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later pursued special studies at the Friends' seminary at Easton, this county. Froni 1877 to 1881 he was engaged in the wholesale pro- duce business at Eagle Bridge, and in the latter year went to New York city, embarking in the same line, and where he continued suc- cessfully for two years. Returning to Gran- ville in 1882 he became manager of the Cen- tral House in partnership with his father, under the firm name of C. B. Finch & Son, which firm existed up to the spring of 1891. In the fall of the same year George N. Finch was elected on the republican ticket sheriff of Washington county, and was conducted into office on January 1, 1892. Mr. Finch takes an active and leading part in the politics of his county, and is influential in the councils of his party, and is a capable officer and pop- ular with members of both parties. He is still the proprietor of the Central House, which he has leased. George N. Finch wedded Helen B. Hunt, a daughter of John P. Hunt, of Eagle Bridge, in 1882. To their marriage has been born one child, a son, Royal G. He is prominent in Masonry, being a member of Granville Lodge, No. 55, Poultney Chapter, No. 10, and Washington Commandery, No. 33, Saratoga Springs, and also of the Oriental Encampment at Troy.
S HERMAN WILLIAMS, superinten-
dent of the Union school of the village of Glens Falls, and a man of extensive liter- ary and scholarly attainments, was born at Cooperstown, Otsego county, New York, No- vember 21, 1846. He is a son of Justin Wil- liams and Mary Sherman. Justin Williams was also a native of Otsego county, and now resides at Cooperstown, that county, in the seventy-third year of his age; a farmer by occupation, and a republican in his political belief. He was a son of Isaac Williams, pioneer, and one of the most prominent men in the early history of Otsego county ; born at Lebanon, Connecticut, and while yet a boy
he drove an ox teanı from his native town to Cooperstown, where the remainder of his life was spent in advancing the interests of his adopted county, and as a member of congress. He died in December, 1860, in his eighty- third year. He ran a farm and hotel, and was a whig and afterward a republican in politics. He was a member of three con- gresses ; he also served as sheriff and surro- gate of Otsego county, and being a man of wonderful resources and great natural attain- ments, he became very popular and strong before the people. The Williams family is of Welch extraction, and the founder of this branch of the Williams family in America was Robert Williams, who emigrated from Wales in 1638, and settled in Massachusetts for several generations, thence into Connecti- cut, and from there migrated to the State of New York. Mrs. Mary (Sherman) Williams was born in Cooperstown in 1821, and is now in her seventy-third year.
Sherman Williams was reared on the farm in the vicinity of Cooperstown, where he at- tended the common schools; subsequently en- tered the Albany State Normal school, from which institution he was graduated in the class of 1871. He immediately engaged in teaching school, first at Little Neck, Long Island, where he taught for seven months ; giving up this position he went to Flushing, Long Island, where he successfully acted in the capacity of superintendent of public schools of that city for a period of over eleven years. Leaving there in 1882, he came to Glens Falls, where he has ever since remained as superintendent of the Union school. The schools of this village are organized under the free school act, having two large school buildings, erected since Mr. Williams' incum- bency. For nine years Prof. Williams, asso- ciated with Charles F. King, of Boston, sus- tained by some of the most prominent busi- ness men of Glens Falls, conducted a sum- mer normal school for the benefit of the teachers of this county and those adjoining.
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In the early history of the village, a Mr. Wil- liam J. Ballard, of Jamaica, Long Island, originated the idea of running a school for teachers, of three weeks duration, in the lat- ter part of July and August, obtaining special instructors from all over the country ; the cost of running this school is in the neighbor- hood of five thousand dollars per year. Teachers from forty states and territories of the Union have been in attendance, and there have been about four thousand teachers in attendance since its inception and organiza- tion.
Prof. Sherman ' Williams was married in 1874 to Margaret, a daughter of Dr. Wilbur, of Pine Plains, Dutchess county, New York. To his marriage have been born two children, Henry W. and Paul. Mr. Williams is a mem- ber and steward of the Methodist Episcopal church, and of the Senate Lodge, No. 456, Free and Accepted Masons, of Glens Falls, and is a liberal republican in his political belief.
A. J. LONG. In the year 1694 Joseph Long moved from Hartford, Connecti- cut, to Coventry, Tolland county, Connecticut, where he purchased a farm, which still remains in the Long family, and which has never passed out of its possession, two centuries the present year. He was present at the organi- zation of the first Congregational church in Coventry, and for several years one of its deacons, and his remains lie buried in that town. Before his descendants took any in- terest in their genealogy, the bleak New Eng- land climate had so wrought upon his grave stone that the inscription could not be de- ciphered. Whether he came from France as De Long, or the north of Ireland of Scotch- Irish descent, or from England, cannot be definitely established. But the Bible given names in the Long family, and their faith in the doctrine and practice of Calvanism strongly indicate their Puritan descent. To Joseph Long was born Lemuel Long, July 12, 1727,
who married Martha Baker, who was born September 23, 1730. To Lemuel and Martha Long, in Coventry, were born Lemuel, Martha, Joseph, Rufus, Levi, Jesse, Driadema, Ste- phen, and Reuben Long. Of the above chil- dren, Joseph and Rufus served in the war of the Revolution, and died in the army. Levi, the fourth son of Lemuel Long, was born in Coventry, Connecticut, July 23, 1758. At the age of twenty-five he married Abigail Baker, and removed to Rutland, Vermont, in 1783. To Levi and Abigail Long, in Rutland, were born Pamela (who died in infancy), Rufus, Levi, Joseph, Jared, Pamela, Harvey, Lyman, and Clark Long. Jared Long, the fourth son of Levi and Abigail Long, and the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Rut- land, Vermont, October 13, 1791. In the war of 1812 the militia of Vermont was called out to defend their northern frontier. The com- pany in which Jared Long served was sta- tioned in the town of Highgate, and was com- posed of the yeomanry of Vermont. And no invasion from Canada being threatened at that point, left the Green Mountain boys leisure to indulge in things not strictly in line of mili- tary duty. One of the results was that Jared Long won the heart of a farmer's daughter, by the name of Martha Barr, and brought her, as a rich trophy of that campaign, to Rut- land. They were married December 25, 1814. She was the third daughter of Conrad and Elizabeth (Weaver) Barr, who emigrated from Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1775, and located in Dutchess county, New York. In 1780 they, with several German families, who were in- clined to a monarchical form of government, moved to Canada, as they supposed, but when the line was settled between the States and Canada, they found themselves in Vermont. To this accident Vermont is indebted for some of her most enterprising citizens in that part of the State: the Hogabomes, Stearnes, Sti- mets, Meigs, Hinkleys, Barrs, Saxes, Stein- hours, etc., were all well-to-do farmers and business men. Peter Sax was the grand-
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father of John G. Sax, the poet. To Con- rad and Elizabeth Barr were born John, Margaret, Catherine, and Martha. Mar- tha, the youngest, and mother of A. J. Long, was born June 11, 1792, in Highgate, Vermont. Jared and Martha Long resided sixteen years in Highgate, and the remainder of their lives in Rutland, bringing up to man- hood and womanhood four sons and three daughters, and fulfilling life's great mission in its highest and best sense, full of years, good deeds and charitable acts, and rest from their labors, each in the ninetieth year of their age. They are buried in Evergreen cemetery, Rutland, Vermont. To Jared and Martha Long was born Charles Conrad, who married Sarah A. Fern, and died, without issue, in Highgate, September 9, 1891, aged seventy- six years; Martha P., married John Hoga- bome, died in Highgate, December 31, 1892, aged seventy-five years, leaving a husband, one son, and three daughters ; Julia A., mar- ried Asahel Cleveland, and now resides in Rutland, a widow, with her only child, George Herbert ; Benjamin F. was born in Highgate, August 9, 1827, married Lovina Martin, and moved to Rockford, Illinois. He enlisted in Co. K, 100th Illinois volunteer regiment, died in the army at the age of thirty-five years, and was buried in Cave Hill cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky ; he left one son, Carlos Long, who now resides in Joliet, Illinois. Levi C., born in Highgate, June 2, 1831, married Eliza Mer- riam, and now resides in Rutland ; they have one son and three daughters. Mary E., born in Highgate, March 25, 1834, married William H. Crawford, a resident of Louisiana, by whom she had four daughters; she died in Mount Enterprise, Texas, aged fifty-four years.
A. J. Long, second son and fourth child of Jared and Martha Long, and the subject of this notice, was born in Rutland, Vermont, August 5, 1824. He worked on his father's farm until he was eighteen years of age, when he commenced preparation for college at Cas- tleton seminary, and during his entire course
of study he taught school winters. He grad- nated at Middlebury college, in a class of fif- teen, in 1851. Eight of his classmates are still living. He attended his first course of medical lectures at Castleton, and his second at the university of the city of New York, from which institution he graduated, with the degree of M. D., March 9, 1853, in a class of one hundred and one. July 28th of the same year he opened an office in Whitehall, and from that day to this, (with the exception of 1879, which he spent in Colorado,) he has been in continuous and active practice of his profession in Whitehall, and to one who has endeavored to keep abreast of the times and in touch with the developments and progress of the art and science of medicine, what varied, rich and profound experiences have not been realized during the last half of the nineteenth century. The doctor is a member of the county, State and national medical societies, honorary member of the California State Medical society, and his alma mater conferred upon him the M. A. degree. Al- though not an active politician, the town of his adoption has elected him to nearly all the offices within its gift, from village clerk to su- pervisor of the town.
On December 6, 1855, he was united in marriage with Susan Eleanor Coulson, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1833, and was the third daughter of Thomas and Jane (Watson) Coulson. Her father was a native of St. Johns, New Brunswick, and her mother of Sussex, England. They were married in Albany, New York, November 15, 1827, and to them were born twelve children, five sons and seven daughters. Mrs. Coulson died, aged fifty-two years, in 1862, and Mr. Coulson in 1871, aged sixty-eight years. To the Doctor and Mrs. Long was born Mary Jane, November 17, 1857. She married Dr. B. C. Senton, now an active practitioner in Rutland, Vermont. They have one son and four daughters : Charles Jared, born July 17, 1860, and died July, 10, 1878 ; Freddie Coul-
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