USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 34
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 34
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dent for one year, and has been an active member for several years. While in active service as a fireman he served one term as assistant chief of the fire department of the same village.
J AMES D. SHERRILL, a member of the leading contracting firm of Flood & Sherrill, was born in the city of Albany, New York, September 3, 1848, and is a son of James H. and Ellen A. (Lewis) Sherrill. The Sherrills are of Scotch descent, and Darius Sherrill, the paternal grandfather of the sub- jeet of this sketch, was one of the early set- tlers of the village of Sandy Hill, and who afterward served as sheriff of Washington county. He ran the old coffee house at Sandy Hill at the time when the old stage line from Whitehall to Albany passed through the vil- lage. His son, James H. Sherrill (father), was born in 1812 at Sandy Hill, where he died in 1886, when well advanced in the seventy- fourth year of his age. James H. Sherrill was a republican, and an Odd Fellow, and served for several years as superintendent of the Champlain canal at Sandy Hill. He was a contractor on public works, in which line of business he was very successful. Mr. Sherrill married Ellen A. Lewis, a native of Mobile, Alabama, who was born in 1826, and has con- tinued to reside at Sandy Hill since the death of her husband.
James D. Sherrill was reared in his native village, received his education in the common schools and Glens Falls academy, and then engaged with his father in the contracting business, which he has followed ever since.
In 1890 Mr. Sherrill married Elnora Nash, daughter of Harvey B. Nash, of Sandy Hill.
In political opinion Mr. Sherrill has always been a republican, while in religious belief and church membership he is an Episcopalian. Within the last twenty years he has been con- nected with the erection of some very exten- sive and important village, city and govern-
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ment works. He erected the reservoir at Rutland, Vermont, which has a capacity of six million gallons of water; built the large water works system at Ticonderoga, and con- structed the fine water works in Pittsford, Ver- mont. He is now a member of the contract- ing firm of Flood & Sherrill. They have held several State and government contracts on canal work, and at the present they are en- gaged in building a coverly post called Fort Ethan Allen, near Burlington, Vermont.
C HARLES TRUMBULL WRIGHT,
popularly known as Deacon Wright, is one of the most intelligent and progressive farmers in the town of Kingsbury. He is a son of Abner and Pamelia (Trumbull) Wright, and was born in the town of Hebron, Wash- ington county, New York, March 31, 1831. Abner Wright was a native of Williamstown, Massachusetts. He came to this county in 1808, and married for his first wife a daughter of Dr. Oliver Brown, a practicing physician in the town of Salem. He was a farmer, and settled first in the town of Salem, then in Ru- pert, Vermont, then in Hebron, then in Green- wich, and then he removed to the town of Hartford, and died there in 1870, in the eightieth year of his age. He reared a family of ten children that lived to the age of man and womanhood. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 ; a leading member and deacon in the Baptist church ; he did a great deal of suc- cessful evangelical work, and bore an envia- ble Christian name throughout his neighbor- hood. He was a whig and republican, and was a son of Thomas Wright, who was a na- tive of Massachusetts ; he was a fisherman by occupation, and died in Boston Harbor when his son, Abner Wright, was quite young. Pamelia (Trumbull) Wright was born in Ru- pert, Rutland county, Vermont ; she is now in the eighty-fifth year of her age, and is a mem- ber of the Baptist church.
Charles T. Wright grew to manhood on the
farm, in this county, receiving a good English education in the common and a select school at Hartford, and when he became of age en- gaged in teaching school : Two terms in South Hartford, one in Jackson, and one term at Slyborough, Granville; but the greater part of his life has been spent in tilling the soil. He removed to his present finely improved farm of four hundred acres, at Smith's Basin, from Granville in 1866, where he has ever since re- sided. On March 24, 1857, he was married to Julia E. Moone, of Yates, Orleans county, New York, daughter of Lyman Moone, for- merly of Hebron. To Mr. and Mrs. Wright have been born three children : Lyman M., Ella P. and Lillian B. Ella P. being the wife of Leonard Johnson, of Pawlet, Vermont ; Lillian B. married A. K. Cross, jr., of the town of Kingsbury ; Lyman M. is a farmer, and resides in the town of Hartford. Mrs. Julia E. Wright died April 20, 1876. Charles T. Wright wedded for his second wife, in 1878, Lydia A., daughter of Hiram Waller, of Hartford. To this last union has been born six children : Alice E., Charles A., Fannie E., Nelson W., Helen and Rollin T. Mr. and Mrs. Wright are both members of the Fort Ann Baptist church, the former being senior deacon of his church, and in his political opinion is a stanch republican. For six years he served in the office of town assessor, and was afterward elected justice of the peace, which office he refused to accept. His grand- father, Horace Trumbull, was a native of Connecticut, and when a young man removed to Rupert, Bennington county, Vermont, where he resided all the remainder of his life, and where he reared a large family of children. He was a farmer and a member of the same family of Trumbulls as was Governor Trum- bull, who served as governor of the State at the time of the war of the Revolution. After arriving at the age of twenty-one years, Charles T. Wright worked eight months of each year, for four years, for his father, on the farm, for which he received, for the entire
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time, three hundred and forty-one dollars, at the expiration of which time he purchased his father's farm of one hundred and seven acres ; two years later he bought an additional forty acres, and in 1866 sold both of these tracts and purchased the Baker farm, in the town of Kingsbury, near Smith's Basin, and where he has since resided. This is one of the most valuable farms in the county; it contained then four hundred and sixty-six acres, for which lie paid six thousand dollars at the time of the purchase, and went in debt to the amount of seventeen thousand dollars for farm and stock. He sold off sixty-six acres of the outskirts of the farm, and settled the last of his indebted- ness in 1889. Charles T. Wright has, through his honesty, industry and Christian manhood, tru'y earned the title of a self-made man, and it can be safely asserted that no one stands higher in his entire community than he, for having more of the prerequisities that go to make up a man.
JOHN BRAYTON was born in the town
Hartford, on what is called Brayton street, Washington county, New York, June 12, 1840, and is a son of William Brayton and Mariah Hoyt. William Brayton was also a native of the town of Hartford, where he was born in 1802. He was an engineer by occupation and for five years ran on the Hudson river, and fifteen years he spent at his trade on some of the principal steamers that ply the Chesapeake bay. Ile died in his native town in 1871. He was a member of the Baptist church, and a republican in his political opinion.
His father was Thomas Brayton, who was a native of Rhode Island, and with his two brothers came into the town of Hartford and were among the early settlers. They took up land and here made their homes until their deaths. They were tories. The Braytons are of English lineage.
The mother of the subject of this sketch was born in Virginia, and died July 4, 1889, aged
seventy-seven years. For forty-two years she was a devoted member of the Baptist church. Her father was Captain Hoyt, a native Vir- ginian. He served as captain in the Revolu- tionary war, and was a member of Washing- ton's staff.
John Brayton was reared in his native town and received the benefit of only a common school education. At the age of eighteen years he went to Whitehall, where he learned the jeweler's trade with George Barney, with whom he continued to work up to the spring of 1861, when he returned to his father's farm. Among the first call for troops by the presi- dent in 1861, he early enlisted in Co. G, 44th New York regiment, as a private, and was discharged in the latter part of December, 1862. During this term of service he was engaged most of the time on detached duty. He was taken prisoner at the seven days' fight at Savage Station, Virginia. On the 28th of July, 1862, Mr. Brayton, with Lieutenant Kelly, of Co. B, made good their escape. After get- ting back into the Union line Mr. Brayton, by special order of General McClellan, was sent north to Philadelphia, where he was discharged on account of ill health. After recuperating his health to some extent he engaged in the United States Secret service, and did duty on the Potomac river, being transferred from one post to another, his boat carrying the mail from Fortress Monroe to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and three months between Hilton Head and Saint Augustine. His crew was then detailed as a flag ship going up the Saint John's river and captured Jacksonville, Flor- ida. One month afterward going up the river some sixty miles from Jacksonville, their boat was blown up by a torpedo from the rebels and sunk. After returning east Mr. Brayton went to Baltimore and was second engineer on a tug boat for a short time, when he en- gaged on a government vessel as assistant en -. gineer, running from Boston to New Orleans and Cuba, where he remained up to 1868. He returned to Hartford in that year, where
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he has worked at his trade ever since. Since December, 1873, Mr. Brayton has in addition to his other business interests kept the Empire House of Hartford, which is a well managed country hotel.
In 1873 Mr. Brayton was married to Arlesta 1., daughter of Richard Smith, of the town of Hartford. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Hershall Lodge, of his village, and Norman F. Weer Post, No. +53, Grand Army of the Republic. Since the organization of this post he has been its commander. He is a stanch republican, and has filled the office of town clerk and town collector, and takes an active part in politics.
C RVILLE H. MOTT, M. D., a physi- cian of good standing in his profession, residing at Fort Ann, is a native of the town of Saratoga, Saratoga county, New York, and was born April 30, 1851. He is a son of La Fayette and Mary A. (Weston) Mott. La Fayette Mott was also born in the town of Saratoga, where he lived all his life, dying in 1872, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. He was a republican in politics, and a farmer by occupation. His father was a native of Dutch- ess county, New York, where he took up a grant of land that the government had con- fiscated from the tories. He was among the early settlers of Dutchess county, as well as one of the pioneers of the town of Saratoga. The Motts who first settled in this country were French Huguenots; the great-great- grandfather of Dr. Mott came over from England and settled on Long Island, whose son (great-grandfather) afterward settled in Dutchess county. La Fayette Mott married Mary A. Weston, who was born in the town of Saratoga, and who died in 1867.
Orville H. Mott, M. D., grew up on the farm in his native town, attended the common schools of the neighborhood, and afterward attended the Connecticut Literary institute, at Suffield, Connecticut. Leaving this insti- 16
tution, he took up the study of medicine in the New York Homeopathic Medical college, completing his studies there in the spring of 1873, when he went to Glens Falls, and was there engaged in the practice with Dr. D. H. Bullard until the following October, going thence to Fort Ann, where he has succeeded in building up a substantial and paying prac- tice. Dr. Mott is a member of the Homeo- pathic Medical society of northern New York; he is also a member of Mt. Hope Lodge, No. 260, Masonic fraternity, Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons, and Washington Council of Royal Arcanum. The greater part of Dr. Mott's time and attention is devoted to his profession, while he never neglects any oppor- tunity to widen his knowledge of medicine or to study closely the most successful methods of treating diseases. He occupies a useful position in Fort Ann, being a well-read and successful physician, and a pleasant and gen- ial gentleman.
F RANCES A. TEFFT, a prominent educator and a woman of remarkable in- dividuality, is the daughter of John H. and Dyantha (Winchip) Tefft, and was born in the town of Kingsbury, Washington county, New York, August 1, 1845. John H. Tefft was a native of the county and for many years a lead- ing farmer in the town of Kingsbury, owning a farm in the vicinity of Sandy Hill, where his death occurred in March, 1878, at the age of sixty-six years. For many years he was a consistent and respected member of Sandy Hill Baptist church, and a life-long republican. His father, Joseph Tefft, was born in Rich- mond, Washington county, Rhode Island, March, 1779, removed to Easton, Washington county, New York. in 1787, where he followed the occupation of farming for many years. He died March 1, 1870, in the ninety-first year of his age. The Teffts were probably of English extraction, and among the early set- tlers of this county, the first to settle in this
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section being William Tefft, the paternal great-grandfather of Miss Tefft, For addi- tional facts in the ancestry of this pioneer family, see the sketch of R. C. Tefft, on an- other page. Dyantha Winchip was born in the town of Queensbury ; she is a devoted mem- ber of the Christian church, and now residing in the village of Sandy Hill. Her father, John Winchip, lived all his life in the towns of Queensbury and Kingsbury, where he fol- lowed farming. He was a native of Queens- bury, and a drafted soldier in the war of 1812. He died in October, 1857, aged sixty-nine years. The Winchips are of English origin, but for many generations have lived in this country.
Frances A. Tefft was brought up in Sandy Hill and received a good education at the Fort Edward institute, and under the tutelage of a private instructor, William McLoren, who was a graduate of the university of Glasgow, and one of the famous mathematicians of his day. Miss Tefft was graduated from the Fort Ed- ward institute in the class of 1864. Leaving the institute she became an assistant to 'Prof. William McLoren, jr., in the Argyle academy, in which she remained for three years, suc- ceeding Mr. McLoren as principal. Subse- quently she became an instructor in a private school at Sandy Hill, conducted by Mr. Mc- Loren, where she remained for one year. In 1868, the year the Union school was organ- ized at Sandy Hill, William McLoren, jr., was selected principal, and she preceptress, and here they labored together until 1876. In the latter year they both went to Glens Falls, becoming principals and joint owners of the Glens Falls academy, in which capacity she remained for eleven years, when in 1887 she returned to Sandy Hill, soon after becoming principal of the Union school of that village, a position she has ever since held to the gen- eral satisfaction of all the patrons of the school. During the last few years the school under her competent supervision has increased to such an extent that in 1892 there was a new high
school building erected, and the corps of teachers increased from thirteen to seventeen, and during this year's term there is an enroll- ment of about nine hundred pupils. In at- tendance at this school there are many schol- ars who are non-residents of the village and immediate vicinity, who prepare here for teaching and admission to colleges. Scholars have been graduated from here and gone to the leading universities of the country : Syracuse university, Rochester, Middlebury, Cornell, Trinity, Union, and Leland Stanford, jr., uni- versities being among the number.
Frances A. Tefft is at present occupying the principalship of this Union school, and will long be remembered as one of the most com- petent and able instructors of her time.
R' DEV. CHARLES D. KELLOGG,
pastor of the Presbyterian church at Sandy Hill since 1880, and one of the most prominent ministers and eloquent divines of his denomination in northern New York, is a son of Dan W. and Esther A. (Bull) Kellogg, and was born at Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 3, 1842. The Kelloggs are of Scotch extrac- tion, and the family was planted in America early in the seventeenth century, soon after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. The original Scotch orthographiy of the name was Kolloch, but it was changed in America to the present spelling. Hon. Charles A. Kellogg, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a native of Connecticut, and settled at an early day in Cayuga county, New York. He was an ardent whig, a strong supporter of Henry Clay, and served one term in congress from the Cayuga district. In later life he removed to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he died about 1844, at the age of seventy- five. One of his sons was Day Otis Kellogg, at one time mayor of the city of Troy, and father of Charles D. Kellogg (cousin), who is now at the head of one of the leading charity associations of New York city. Another son
C
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
was Dan W. Kellogg (father), who was born and reared at Galway, New York. For a num- ber of years he was a wholesale hardware merchant of Troy, under the firm name of Kellogg & Co., but in 1852 the firm removed to the city of New York, where they engaged in the same business. There Mr. Kellogg continued the hardware business until 1870, when he sold out, and the next year removed to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he resided until 1883. In that year he returned to New York and located at Sandy Hill, where he lived until his death in 1885, when in the seventy- third year of his age. He was very successful in business, and accumulated a handsome for- tune. In religion he was an Episcopalian, and in politics an ardent republican. In 1833 he married Esther A. Bull, a daughter of Judge Archibald Bull, and a native of the city of Troy. She died in August, 1842, when her son, the subject of this sketch, was only five weeks old. Judge Archibald Bull (maternal grandfather) was of English extraction. He was three times elected judge of Rensselaer county, and was one of the most distinguished Free Masons of New York. He became sov- creign grand inspector general of the western hemisphere, and in that capacity introduced and first organized Free Masonry in the island of Hayti.
His mother having died while he was yet an infant, Charles D. Kellogg was reared by his father's sister, Mrs. E. S. Abel, of Peeks- kill-on-the-Hudson. His education was re- ceived in the Peekskill academy, a polytech- nical institute at Brooklyn, and Princeton col- lege, from which well known institution he was graduated in 1861. He immediately entered the Princeton Theological seminary, and began preparing himself for the ministry of the Pres- byterian church. In April, 1863, he was li- censed to preach by the Second New York (old school) Presbytery, having previously con- nected himself with the Presbytery at the Scotch Presbyterian church on Fourteenth street, near Sixth avenue, New York city.
Rev. Charles D. Kellogg's first charge was at Wilmington, Delaware, where he officiated from June, 1863, to April, 1867. He next as- sumed the pastorate of two churches, at Bacon Hill and Fort Miller, in New York, where he remained until September, 1872, after which he had charge of the North Reformed church at Passaic, New Jersey, until October, 1879. He then came to Sandy Hill and took charge of the Presbyterian churches here and at Fort Edward. After serving these churches for nearly one year he was regularly installed as pastor, which position he has acceptably filled ever since. The old Presbyterian church in Sandy Hill, which was built in 1826, has been torn down, and in its place a handsome stone edifice is being erected, which will shortly be completed and dedicated. Since being located in this village Reverend Kellogg has refused calls to take charge of churches in Boston, Wilmington and Philadelphia. In his minis- terial work he has been very successful, and is most highly esteemed by the people as a gen- tleman of lofty ideals, sympathetic character and scholarly attainments.
On October 28, 1863, he was united in mar- riage with Mary J. Baucus, a daughter of Hon. Joseph Baucus, ex-sheriff and ex-assembly- man of Saratoga county, and a sister of Hon. A. B. Baucus, ex-sheriff and ex-State senator of the same county. To the Rev. and Mrs. Kellogg was born a family of four children, two sons and two daughters: Joseph Augus- tus, who was the democratic candidate for the State assembly from this district in 1891, and has served two years as third assistant of the attorney general of New York ; Florence Grace, married Preston Paris, son of Hon. U. G. Paris, of this village, and now resides at Gaylord, Kansas ; Charles W., a banker of Cawker City, Kansas; and Kate, living at home with her parents. In his political opin- ions Rev. Mr. Kellogg is a republican, and a most excellent citizen and gentleman, in addi- tion to being one of the best known and most popular pulpit orators in this part of the State.
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E RSKINE G. CLARK, who died at his home in Sandy Hill, May 27, 1894, was a distinguished physician, prominent citi- zen and a representative man. His personal merits and his identification with the whole county, by his erection of a monument to her soldiers who participated in the war for the suppression of the rebellion, entitle him to elaborate space on these pages. Dr. Clark was born in Hubbardton, Rutland county, Vermont, October 5, 1807. His parents were Russell Clark, a native of the same county, and Aurinda Wheeler, who was a daughter of Seth Wheeler, a revolutionary soldier. Rus- sell Clark started for the battle at Plattsburg, in the war of 1812, but the war closed before he arrived there. He was a graduate of the old Medical college at Philadelphia, and came to Sandy Hill in 1810, where he practiced medicine the remainder of his life. He was the father of two children : Dr. Erskine G. and Susan, who was the wife of Charles Rogers. Dr. Russell Clark became eminent in his profession in his day, and his talent was inherited by his more eminent son, who attained a greater prominence and develop- ment than even his distinguished father.
Dr. Erskine G. Clark had for some years been in feeble health, and had gradually re- tired from professional and active public life, from the decease of his wife in 1872. His funeral services were held on memorial day, a fitting day for the funeral of one who had done so much to perpetuate the memory of the soldiers of this county and had erected such a splendid monument to their patriotic service. Though he had never identified himself with any church organization, he was nevertheless a man of Christian character, in sympathy, and a firm believer in the sacred truths of the Bible. His sympathies were with the Universalist doctrines and interpre- tation of the scriptures, and the Rev. J. D. Corby, of Troy, an eminent clergyman of that denomination, was engaged to conduct the services and pronounce his funeral discourse.
His family was one of character and of dis- tinguished talent. The late General Orville Clark, one of the great men of the county in his day, was his father's brother. The only sister, Susan A., became the wife of the late Honorable Charles Rogers. Dr. Clark mar- ried a Miss McDonalds, of Glens Falls.
Dr. Erskine G. Clark was pre-eminently successful in his profession, he was correct in his diagnoses, prompt and skillful in treatment and kind and gentle at heart, though at times apparently brusque and abrupt in manner. His patients, however, learned to trust him and to have confidence in him. He was a good practical business man, as well as an excellent physician, and acquired a large competency. He had one of the largest farms in Kingsbury, and carried it on success- fully until his wife's death, which, with his declining years, caused an abatement of in- terest, to some extent, in business matters. He was a stockholder and director in the Glens Falls National bank and in the Peoples' National bank, of Sandy Hill, and was also president of the Sandy Hill and Adamsville Plank road company. Dr. Clark was an in- tense union man ; he raised and equipped, at his own expense, the company which his nephew, General Rogers, first led to the front, and a few years ago erected the beauti- ful monument, at the cost of many thousand dollars, to the soldier-dead of the county, which stands in the park in the heart of the village of Sandy Hill. It was a great day in that village when it was dedicated. Corporal Tanner was there and made one of his most effective speeches, and other men of national reputation. An interesting camp fire was held in the evening, and the venerable patriot who had inspired this tribute to his country's defenders was there, and seemed wrapped in thought of the events which the monument was intended to commemorate. He was wholly unmoved by the compliments which were so lavishly showered upon him. Sandy Hill has the right to be proud of the monu-
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