USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 31
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 31
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son, born August 15, 1862, and died Novem- ber 17, 1864; Benjamin Alfred, born Septem- ber 12, 1867, and now resides in Whitehall ; Clymer Børr, born December 23, 1873, is now a student in the medical department of Mc- Gill university, Montreal, Province of Que- bec. In 1879 Mrs. Long's health began to be seriously affected, and the Doctor sought a change of climate; with his wife and two sons he went to Buena Vista, Colorado. For a time the change seemed to do her good, but on the IIth of May, 1880, she was attacked with pleuro-pneumonia, which in one week proved fatal. She died May 18th, 1880, aged forty- seven years. Her remains were brought east and buried with her kindred in Albany Rural cemetery. Mrs. Long was a lady of refine- ment and culture. In her character were harmoniously blended all the good sense, wo- manly virtue and Christian grace which make the ideal wife, mother and friend. The Doc- tor returned to Whitehall, after an absence of little more than a year, and took up his pro- fessional duties, in the fall of 1880, and has endeavored to fulfill them with credit to him- self and satisfaction to his patients.
October 1, 1885, the Doctor was united in marriage with Mary M. Dickinson, daughter of Hiram and Huldah (Merrill) Dickinson. Her grandfather was a native of Glastonbury, Connecticut. He emigrated to Queensbury, New York, where her father was born Sep- tember 5, 1798. He died in Whitehall, Janu- ary 15, 1881. Her grandfather Merrill emi- grated from Canaan, Connecticut, to Addison, Vermont, where her mother was born Novem- ber 5, 1812. She died in Whitehall, January 3, 1884. They left two children: May M. and Hiram W., who now reside in West Union, Adams county, Ohio.
Now, at the end of forty-one years of prac- tice, the Doctor looks back with some satis- faction on his work accomplished. He had in one year one hundred and twenty-five cases of small-pox under his care, served through two epidemics of cholera, been pre-
sent at nearly two thousand child births, and many thrilling experiences in emergencies, is still in harness, and considers work as man's great mission on earth.
H ON. FRANK BYRNE, vice-president of the Merchants' National bank, and president of the board of health of the vil- lage of Glens Falls, is one of the most public spirited and successful business men of that village. He was born in the city of New York, October 25, 1839, and is a son of Peter and Catherine ( Byrne ) Byrne. The Byrne family is of ancient Irish origin. The father and mother of Mr. Byrne were both natives of County Wexford, and soon after their mar- riage they set sail for Canada, and after a three months' voyage, landed at Quebec. From there they removed to the city of New York, and soon after the birth of their son, the subject of this sketch, came to northern New York with the intention of making their permanent home at Chester, Warren county, arriving at Glens Falls while en route to that place, Peter Byrne sickened and died ; his wife died in this village in the seventy-sixth year of her age. Both she and her husband were worthy members of the Catholic church.
Frank Byrne was reared to manhood in the town of Queensbury, where he attended the common schools, which was afterward sup- plemented by a few terms at the old Glens Falls academy. After leaving school young Byrne commenced his active business career as a clerk in a dry goods store, where he re- mained for a while, when he formed a part- nership with Clark J. Brown (now deceased), of this village, and engaged in general mer- chandising. This firm continued most suc cessfully up to the year 1872, when Mr. Byrne sold his interest and at once embarked in the manufacturing of lime. He is at present the senior member of the Keenan Lime Company, of this village. The quarries and kilns of this company are located at Smith Basin,
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Washington county, and have a capacity of turning out one hundred and fifty thousand barrels of lime annually. These works employ eighty to one hundred hands, and the principal market for their product is in New York city. In addition to their quarries they own six hundred acres of land, which is adjacent to their works. Mr. Byrne is one of the founders and organizers of the Merchants' National bank, of Glens Falls, and is now serving as vice-president. In the present construction of a line of sewers at Glens Falls he is one of the commissioners of that improvement, and is president of the board of health, and is more or less identified with all movements calculated for the improvement of his village.
In his political affiliations he is a stanch democrat, and in 1884 was elected by over two hundred majority, overcoming one thousand republican majority in the county, member of the general assembly. He has also served as village trustee.
Mr. Byrne was married in 1871 to Elizabeth A. Keenan, daughter of John Keenan, de- ceased, of this village. In 1887 he married for his second wife Margaret O. Sullivan, of New York city, and by her has one son, John.
Mr. Byrne is a member of the Catholic church, and a self-made man in the truest sense of that term.
L IEUT .- COL. HENRY ROOT, A.M.,
M. D., of Whitehall, who served as sur- geon of the 54th and 58th New York volun- teers during the Civil war, was brevetted lieutenant - colonel for his devotion to the Union, and has been vice-president of the Society of the Army of the Potomac, is a son of Dr. Leonard and Caroline (Dayton) Root, and was born at North Granville, Washington county, New York, April 5, 1835. The family is of Norman-English extraction, and among the early settlers of New England. Near Stratford on the Avon was the home of John Roote, whose marriage with Ann Russell in
the year 1600 is recorded in the parish regis- ter, and who were the progenitors of the Rootes and Roots in America. Colonel Wil- liam Root, paternal grandfather of Dr. Henry Root, was a native of Massachusetts, served as a colonel in the American army during the war of 1812, and was among the early settlers of Hebron, this county. He married and reared a family of children, one of his sons being Dr. Leonard Root ( father ), who was born in Washington county in 1803, studied medicine and became a practicing physician of the county, and was successfully engaged in the practice until his death in 1851, at the age of forty-eight years. He died at White- hall, where he had resided since 1842, in the, house now occupied by his son, the subject of this sketch. In 1828 he married Caroline Dayton, a native of Fort Ann, and a daughter of Jehiel Dayton. They had a family of five children. Mrs. Root was a member of the Presbyterian church, and died in 1893, in the eighty-sixth year of her age .. Her father, Jehiel Dayton, was a native of Great Barring- ton, Massachusetts, who came to Washington county when a young man. He served as captain of artillery during the war of 1812, and an old musket owned by him is now in possession of Dr. Root. He died in North Granville, this county, at the age of eighty- six. By occupation he was a farmer, and also owned and conducted a store, grist mill and saw mill.
Dr. Henry Root was reared principally in Whitehall, where he obtained his elementary education in the public schools. He after- ward entered Williams college, and was grad- uated from that institution in August of 1856. After graduation he became principal of the high school at Southbridge, Massachusetts, where he remained for one year. He then began reading medicine with Dr. Daniel S. Wright, a prominent physician of Whitehall, and later matriculated in the medical depart- ment of the university of New York, from which he was duly graduated in 1859, with
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the degree of M. D. In the same year he went to Liverpool, England, as a ship's sur- geon, and while in Europe visited the hos- pitals of Paris and other cities, in order to acquaint himself with the methods in use in the old world. While in Paris Dr. Root, in 1863-64 interested himself, along with Hon. John Bigelow, Rev. Dr. McClintock and T. G. Dale, in establishing the European branch of the Sanitary commission of the United States. Returning to the United States, Dr. Root located in the village of Whitehall for the practice of his profession, and was building up a good general practice when the Civil war broke out. In the year 1861 he was appointed by the governor of New York as assistant surgeon of the 54th New York infantry, and in January, 1863, upon the recommendation of Gen. Chester A. Arthur, he was promoted to be surgeon of the 58th New York infantry. While serving in this capacity he was wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville, by a minnie ball which struck him on the head and unfitted him for duty for the space of nine months. In August, 1863, Dr. Root was honorably discharged from the service on account of this wound, and im- mediately went to Europe, where he visited England, Germany and France, seeking for restoration to health. In Paris he again visi- ted the French hospitals, and during these visits was exposed to and took the small pox, with which he was confined some time to his hotel. Returning to America in 1864, he be- came assistant surgeon in the command of General Sheridan, and while quartered at Winchester, Virginia, received a commission as surgeon of the 54th New York infantry, in his old regiment, and served until August, 1866, during the latter part of this time act- ing as post surgeon at Orangeburg and Co- lumbia, in South Carolina, at the request of Secretary Stanton. In 1866 the governor of South Carolina forwarded a highly commend- atory letter to the president, advising the pro- motion of Dr. Root to a lieutenant-colonelcy
by brevet, for his devotion to the Union cause, but his personal friend, James A. Garfield, afterward president, had already recommended him for that honor, and the president sent the nomination to the senate, by which it was unanimously confirmed.
After quitting the service of the United States, Dr. Root returned to this county and again began the practice of medicine at White- hall. For several years he has been health officer of the town, is an active member of the Washington County Medical society, and has been its secretary for twelve years. He is also a member of the New York State Medical society, and of the Congregational church, of Williams College, Massachusetts. He was president of the Young Men's Chris- tian association of this place in 1892, and takes an active part in its work. Politically he is a stanch republican, and for some time served as vice-president of the Society of the Army of the Potomac.
BURDICK G. SWEET, deceased, was one of the prominent and well-to-do farmers of the town of South Hartford ; a son of Stephen and Freelove (Potter) Sweet, and was born in Hoosick, Rensselaer county, New York, in the year 1818. At the age of six years he came, with his father, to Granville, this county, and at the age of fifteen years he removed, with his parents, to a farm in West Hartford : after his marriage he purchased a farm near South Hartford. Here he farmed successfully up to 1868, when he retired from all active business, going to the village of South Hartford, where he lived until his death, which occurred in 1877, aged fifty-nine years.
In 1849 Burdick G. Sweet was united in marriage to Laura A., a daughter of Xurey Maynard, of this town. His widow only sur- vives him, who resides at the old homestead in South Hartford, and is a member of the Universalist church. She was born in the
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village of South Hartford, where she has al- ways resided. Her father was also a native of the town of South Hartford, and who died in the thirty-ninth year of his age.
He and his brother were soldiers in the war of 1812. They were sons of Elisha Maynard, who was among the pioneer settlers of the town.
A LEXANDER WILLIAMSON, who
has risen from the humble position of a boot-black to that of proprietor of a plan- ing mill at Whitehall, was born in the county of Derry, Ireland, July 14, 1842, and is a son of James Williamson and Elizabeth Moore. His parents were natives of the same county, but both were of Scotch ex- traction, and emigrated from the Emerald Isle to the United States in 1852, locating at Whitehall, where his mother died, at the age of eighty-two years, in 1885; she was a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church in Ireland.
Alexander Williamson was brought to Whitehall, with his mother, in 1852, where he has made his home ever since. He received only the rudiments of a common school edu- cation, but after he had learned the trade of carpenter with Joseph Wilson, of this village, he went to Memphis, Tennessee, March 5, 1859, and remained there until after the war broke out, and Tennessee had passed ordi- nances of secession. Trained in the home guards of the city, he was given a choice to join the Confederate army or leave the place. He left the Confederate States, going to Chicago, and finally returned home to Whitehall in the summer of 1860. He rather favored the Confederate cause, and was called at home a "fire-eater," "secesh," etc., and was threatened a number of times being sent to Fort Lafayette, but the threats were never executed. He continued to work up to the winter of 1864-5, when he went to Albany, where he took a commercial course in the Al- bany Commercial college. In 1865 he returned to Whitehall, and founded his present extensive
planing mill business, and after successfully running it for one year, sold a half interest to N. H. Ames, of New York city. The name of the firm was then changed to N. H. Ames & Co. He remained with Mr. Ames up to 1870, when the mill burned, which was imme- diately rebuilt and operated until 1876, when the mill was stopped running on account of the death of Mr. Ames, and for several years afterward it was leased and run by Mr. Wil- liamson. In 1886 he bought his deceased partner's interest, and has since been the sole proprietor of the mill. His business from the time he started it, in 1865, has steadily in- creased and expanded, and at present has a substantial patronage and extensive trade, giving employment to several men. He man- ufactures sash, blinds, doors, frames, mould- ing and casing, beside dealing in glass, putty, etc .; also turning and gig sawing.
Mr. Williamson, in 1869, wedded Lydia S. Morris, of this village, who is a woman of superior business foresight, and to whom is due a great deal of the credit for the business success of her husband. Mr. Williamson has for many years been a leading member of the Presbyterian church, and is an elder ; also for a number of years was assistant superintendent of the Sunday school, and for eight years su- perintendent of the same. He is a stanch democrat, but has never offered for any politi- cal office.
H. DAVIS NORTHRUP, ex-treasurer of Washington county, and a successful manufacturer of Fort Edward, is a son of Hon. James M. and Julia ( Davis) Northrup, and was born October 9, 1842, at Hartford, Washington county, New York. He received his education at Fort Edward institute, and at eighteen years of age engaged in the produce business with his father, at a point on the line of the Champlain canal. Three years later he succeeded his father, and afterward formed a partnership with his uncle, W. B. Northrup, being engaged in the business altogether for
1
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twenty-two years. During this time he became a member of the shirt and collar company, known as Davis & Co., which did a large manufacturing business at Troy, and then at Fort Edward up to 1890. In that year Mr. Northrup became a member and the secretary of the present company that is manufacturing ale taps and faucets at Fort Edward. They have a branch office in New York city, and average fifty thousand dollars of sales per year. This company is known as the Auto- matic Tap and Faucet Company. Mr. North- rup is a republican in politics. He served six years as deputy county treasurer under his father, and then was elected twice as county treasurer. He is a member of Hartford Bap- tist church and Masonic lodge, and a promi- nent Knight Templar of Washington Com- mandery of Saratoga.
In January, 1864, Mr. Northrup married Parmelia E. Wait, who was a daughter of Mansur K. Wait, of Granville, and died in January, 1879, aged thirty-seven years. For his second wife he wedded, on September 10, 1885, Kate I. Hopping, of New York city. By his first wife Mr. Northrup has three chil- dren, two sons and a daughter : James M., who married Lillie Hodgman, and is traveling for the Automatic Tap and Faucet Company ; Mansur W., telegraph operator for the Dela- ware & Hudson Canal Company, in their gen- eral office in New York city ; and Maud E.
Mr. Northrup traces his paternal ancestry back four generations to Joseph Northrup, a farmer of Hebron, this county, whose son, John Northrup (grandfather), served as a drummer in the war of 1812. John Northrup was a very fine carpenter, and married Laura Baker, of English descent. They had seven children, two sons and five daughters. The elder son, Hon. James M. Northrup (father), was in early life the pioneer potato buyer of the State, some years buying and shipping to New York city as high as half a million bushels of that great root crop. In later life he was engaged in banking, being president of the.
First National bank of Fort Edward. A Bap- tist and a republican, he became useful in his church and active in his party. He served two terms as supervisor of the town of Hart- ford, was county excise commissioner for six years, served two terms as county treasurer, and represented Washington county in the general assembly for one term. Mr. North- rup married for his first wife Julia Davis, who died in June, 1850, aged twenty seven years.' His second marriage was with Martha Dun- ham, who died in 1873, and for his third wife wedded Harriet D. Sill. By his first wife he had two children : H. Davis, the subject of this sketch ; and Clayton, who died in infancy. To his second union was born one child, Min- nie J., who died at twelve years of age; and by his third marriage two children have been born : Charles S., a student at school; and William, who died in infancy.
L OYAL L. DAVIS, a promising young lawyer of Glens Falls, was born at Bolton Landing, Warren county, New York, July 11, 1862, and is a son of F. J. W. and Eliza A. (Heist) Davis. F. J. W. Davis was a native of the same place and died at Pleasant Hill, Missouri, at the age of thirty five years, in 1866. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and removed from New York in 1866, to Pleasant Hill, where he died three months after his arrival. He was a sold- ier in the Ist Vermont cavalry in the late Civil war, and was also a member of the regulars, and had the rank of sargeant. He was on duty in Washington, District of Columbia, and for a while in the quartermaster's department as citizen's clerk in the States of Virginia and West Virginia. His father was Lindsey Davis, who was born at Clarendon, and removed into Warren county, New York, early in the twen- ties. He has always followed the life of a farmer, and at present resides in Oswego county with his youngest son, in the ninety- second year of his age. This family of Davises
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probably came originally from Wales in the latter part of the sixteenth century, or in the early part of the seventeenth. The mother of the subject of this sketch is a native of Wash- ington county, New York, and resides at Glens Falls.
Loyal L. Davis was principally reared in the village of Glens Falls, receiving his edu- cation in the private schools and the Glens Falls academy, and subsequently entered the Troy Conference academy at Poultney, Ver- mont, from which he was graduated in 1878. He afterward went to Wesleyan university at Middletown, Connecticut. This was in the year 1883, and in 1885 he took a course in the Albany Law school, and has been in active practice in the courts of Warren county ever since.
Loyal L. Davis was married September 26, 1888, to Mary F., a daughter of John Walker, of Albany, New York. Mr. Davis is vice- president of the Glens Falls Printing company and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is also a member of Senate Lodge of Masons, of Glens Falls Chapter, of Bloss Council, and Washington Commandery Knights Templar. He is also a member of Delta Lodge of Perfection, the Delta Council of Rose Croix, and Delta Chapter, P. of J., and Albany Sovereign Consistory, Oriental Temple of the Mystic Shrine, aad is the local secretary in the State of New York for the Quatuor Coranate Lodge, 2076, London.
R OBERT WILSON LOWBER, of
Bald Mountain, son of John and Marga- ret Lowber, was born November 2, 1816, at the plantation of his father, near Smyrna, Delaware. The Lowbers are descendants of Gustav Lowdar, one of the privileged barons of Denmark, an active Roman Catholic in the religious war of 1616, between the Cath- olics and Protestants ; the success of the Protestants forced him to flee from Denmark
to England, and in 1623 he joined a colony of Catholics, who, under Sir George Calvert, immigrated to Avalon, in Newfoundland ; from thence, in 1632, under Sir Cecil Calvert, removed with the colony to Saint Marys, on the eastern shore of Maryland, assuming the name of Lowber. Margaret Lowber was a descendant of Robert Wilson, a Quaker who, with a colony under Clariborn, in 1631, settled at Kent, on the northern shore of Chesapeake bay. John Lowber was the son of Peter Lowber, a tanner carrying on business near Smyrna, who died in 1808. John was educa- ted at William and Marys college, studied law in the office of John Sargent, in Philadelphia, and on the death of his father, removed to Smyrna, to carry on and settle up the business of the tannery. He married Margaret Wilson, at Smyrna, in February, 1812; and, in 1821, transferred the tannery and business to his brother Peter, and returned to Philadelphia, and resumed the practice of law with his cousin, John Cole Lowber. While residing in Delaware, he was for four years sheriff of Kent county. In 1823 he removed to Batavia, Genesee county, to act as attorney and legal advisor of the agent of the Holland Land Company.
Robert W. Lowber was educated at the Franklin institute, of Philadelphia, the Caz- enovia seminary and Lima institute. In 1833 he was placed by his father in the office of the Holland Land Company, at Batavia. In the spring of 1837 he went to Chicago, from thence to Mackinaw, and with a party up Lake Superior, in an open batteau, to the mouth of the St. Louis river, from thence across the country to Fort Snelling, and spent several days with General Sibley, agent of the American Fur Company, at his post, where the city of Minneapolis now stands. While at General Sibley's, the glowing ac- counts by the trappers of the country induced lıim to go with them to Pembina, and thence to the Gulf of Fuca, traversing much of what is now the route of the Northern Pacific rail-
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road. Returning to General Sibley's, lie went down the Mississippi river to St. Louis in an Indian canoe. In 1839 he again went to Chicago, tlience to Galena, and from there to St. Croix river, joining a party of Chip- pewa Indians, intending to cross to the mouth of Copper river. While encamped on Lake St. Croix, the Chippewas were attacked by a band of Sioux, and a bloody fight took place, the Sioux being finally driven off. Mr. Lowber, returning to St. Louis, started with a party to go to the Pacific, but the hos- tility of the Crow and Blackfoot tribes caused the party to give up the attempt.
In the spring of 1840 Mr. Lowber was re- quested by the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company to come to New York and take charge of the land trusts held by them ; from that time until 1844 he was engaged in ex- amining the properties held in trust, and in settling and closing up the same, amounting to over four million dollars. After the settle- ments were made with the Ceteraque trust, the company, in August, 1844, sent him to Europe to arrange for the settlement of the trust bonds issued by the company. The bonds were principally held by the Bank of England, the Rothschilds, and the East India Company, of London, Hope and Company, of Amsterdam, and Hottingus, of Paris. Satisfactory settlements were made and car- ried out. Quite an amusing incident occurred at the first meeting held at the office of the Rothschilds : the meeting was appointed for two o'clock p. m. Mr. Lowber was promptly at the meeting, being accompanied by Sir John Wilson, president of the Bank of Eng- land. A little after the hour appointed, Mr. Fastenrath, attorney for the East India Com - pany, inquired "why the agent of the New York company was not present," and was in- formed by Mr. Wilson that he was sitting by his side. Mr. Fastenrath, after looking at Mr. Lowber a moment, exclaimed, "What, that boy !" After Mr. Lowber had stated the object of his mission and explained the situa- .
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