USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 36
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 36
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For some winters he continued to teach school with great success ; he became one of the organizers of the county agricultural society ; he was elected school inspector and school superintendent of his town, serving in these capacities a term of years ; he was a stanch supporter of the public school system, and the free district library in its early and critical days, and he sought by the introduc- tion of good literature and the circulation of such periodicals as the Cultivator and Tribune to raise the standard of general intelligence.
His interest in educational matters continued throughout his life, and amid the phenomenal progress of the half century he kept posted regarding educational movements ; he wel- comed improved methods of training, and was often far ahead of his time in their advo- cacy. He was district clerk of his school district for fifty years, resigning in the sum- mer before his death, after having made the record during this long term, not merely a record, but a veritable district history.
On June 5, 1842, he was married to Laura Cook Chapin. She was born at Chicopee, Massachusetts, August 21, 1817, but her mother dying in infancy, she was adopted by her uncle, Moses Cook, and his wife Sophia, of South Hartford, New York, and knew no other home than theirs until her marriage. She was a granddaughter of Samuel Cook, a soldier of the revolution, whose lineage is traced back to Francis Cook, who, with his Walloon wife, came to Plymouth in the May- flower. They celebrated their golden wedding in 1892. The wife survives her husband. The newly married couple immediately com- menced house keeping on the farm of the groom's father, where they continued to re- side until 1851, when they moved to the resi- dence of Moses Cook, to assume charge of his farm and care for him and his wife in their old age. One child, Grenville Mellen, had in the meantime been born to them in 1846. Mr. Ingalsbe bought in succession two of the farms adjoining the Cook farm, and devoted himself assiduously to agriculture.
In 1853 he was elected a justice of the peace of his town, and held the office by suc- cessive elections for twelve consecutive years, when he declined a re- election. As with every thing he undertook he aimed to fit him- self thoroughly for the work in hand, he purchased the statutes and a choice lot of text-books, and studied them to such effect that his court was recognized as one from which an appeal would be unavailing, either on questions of law or fact. He was soon
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noted as a peacemaker, a discourager of liti- gation, an advocate of arbitration and a suc- cessful harmonizer of conflicting interests.
In 1863 he was elected supervisor of his town, and held that office for three successive years. Upon him fell the full burden of car- rying the town through the trying days of the last years of the war, filling its quotas and adjusting its accounts. This took very largely of his time, but as a result the town's quota was always full, its accounts were unimpeach- able, and the burden of taxation was reduced to a minimum. The stress of war time over, Mr. Ingalsbe declined a further renomination and retired to private life. He did not after- ward hold any elective official position. He was often besought to allow his name to be used as a candidate for various district and county offices, but he invariably and positively refused.
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In the early forties he aided in the organiza- tion of the present county agricultural society, occupied various positions on its early official lists, and soon was chosen its president. IIe then became its corresponding secretary, and continued in that position for over a score of years. A second time he was honored by the presidency. At the reorganization of the so- ciety in 1865 he was one of the leading spirits, and from that time until his death he was a member of the board of managers. He was always in attendance at its meetings, and de- voted a large amount of time to the interests of the society.
In 1867, aftera thorough preparation for the duties in subordinate positions, he was chosen a member of the executive committee of the NewYork State Agricultural society. He held this position for five years. He was then, in 1872, elected its president. This was a criti- cal year in its history, and witnessed a suc- cessful change of policy, from that of migra- tory fairs to the system of permanent location, the location at Elmira being that year inau- gurated. In January, 1873, in accordance with custom, he delivered an address as retir-
ing president, which was widely distributed, in pamphlet form, and which for beauty of diction, breadth and thought and masterly grasp of the agricultural situation, will remain a classic among agricultural addresses. Dur- ing the five succeeding years he was continued an ex-officio member of the executive com- mittee, and these years found him in attend- ance upon the meetings of the board, wher- ever held, faithful to the smallest details of duty.
From carly boyhood, Mr. Ingalsbe took the utmost interest in public affairs. From the first issue of the Weekly Tribune, in 1841, he was a subscriber, passing to the semi-weekly edition, upon the birth of the Republican party, and to the daily at the opening of the Civil war, and continuing to read that to the end of his life. Always a whig, until the organiza- tion of the Republican party, a republican after- ward, and supporting Horace Greeley for the presidency in 1872, his political reading was not confined to one paper, or the papers of any one section or party. For many years nearly a score of papers, representing all sections and parties, could be found on liis table. In gen- eral literature he was an omniverous reader. Beside an untiring devotion to standard liter- ature, he was a subscriber to Harper's New Monthly Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly, from their first issue. Graham, the Eclectic, North American Review, Literary World, the Nation, and many other periodicals of like character were eagerly absorbed in his eager quest for knowledge.
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In the late fifties, under his tutelage, his son commenced the making of tri-daily me- teorological observations for the Smithsonian institution. The father always aided in the work, assuming the entire burden when the son was absent at school and college, and in 1870, when the son removed permanently from the old homestead, he continued the work, un- til its transfer to the signal service office and from that time to a few weeks prior to his death, interrupted only by his absence, during
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the last winters of his life, at his son's, in Sandy Hill. He lived very close to nature, was an attentive observer of natural phenom- ena, and knew her in all her varying moods.
Upon the formation of the bureau of agri- culture in 1860-61, he became its authorized representative in Washington county, and con- tinued in its service through its evolution from bureau to department. Upon the formation of its statistical division he became the statist- ical correspondent for Washington county, and so continued until his death. Upon the or- ganization of the State service by the State agent, he became and was thereafter continued as the county representative of the State agent.
Commencing with the settlement of the estate of Obadiah Slade, in 1854, Mr. In- galsbe became the coveyancer, the drawer of wills, and the confidential legal adviser of his neighborhood, and he bore the test of this confidence so truly as to include after a few years almost his entire town as his clientele. From the close of his services as justice he held the position of notary public until his death.
His ancestors were New England Congre- gationalists, as were those of his wife, who was a member of that church at South Hart- ford, of which he was a trustee and supporter, but not a member. His thinking and acting were on lines so broad that he saw good in varying creeds. His faith in the Bible was clear and uncompromising, but he preferred to dwell upon the principles enunciated in the sermon on the mount, rather than spend time upon the subtleties of doctrine.
Mr. Ingalsbe was the master of a pure and forcible literary style. He prepared a large number of addresses and monographs upon educational, historical, biographical, meteor- olical, and agricultural subjects, which were printed in the local newspapers or read before various societies. During the last years of his life he devoted himself mainly to biographical and local historical subjects, and the prepara- tion of a family genealogy. At his death he
had large plans fully matured in all these fields, for which his remarkable memory, wide acquaintance with men and large stores of col- lected material peculiarly fitted him. It was with this work specially in mind that he re- marked on his death bed : " I have a hundred years of work, all thought out, yet to do." His tributes to his friends and associates in life, as they were called from their labors, are marked by a wonderful appreciation of char- acter, a discriminating knowledge of human nature and tenderness of heart. It would be invidious to distinguish between doz- ens of these tributes, rendered to associates in every walk of life, but the one to his de- parted friend, Samuel W. Crosby, reveals the personality of the author, quite as much as any. It is in that that to enforce his thoughts upon one of the great problems of existence, he quotes :
" The dead alone are great. When heavenly plants abide on earth, Their soil is one of dewless dearth ; But when they die, a mourning shower Comes down and makes their memories flower, With odors sweet, though late.
" The dead alone are dear. When they are here, strange shadows fall From our own forms and darken all ; But when they leave us, all the shade Is round our own sad footsteps made, Add they are bright and clear.
"The dead alone are blest. When they are here, clouds mar their day, And bitter snow-falls nip their May ; But when their tempest-time is done, The light and heat of heaven's own sun Broods on their land of rest."
The key note of Mr. Ingalsbe's life was contained in his utterance only a few hours before his death, "I have always tried to stand close by the nearest duty. I have known no better way." The rich fruitage of such living was revealed in that other remark, made in the presence of death, "I do not know that I have a grudge against anyone."
Milo Ingalsbe was a man ahead of his age, in his thinking and doing. At the time of his
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death, along many lines of thought and action, matters were just maturing into fact that he had eloquently and persistently advocated a half decade or more before. And so it had been all liis life.
He was a pioneer, blazing the paths, after- ward, many years afterward, perhaps, to be trod by the approving multitude, while he had gone forward into new fields, ever a leader in the grand forward movement of the peoples, in the evolution of humanity.
JOHN J. ROBINSON is one of the successful business men of Fort Edward. He is a son of James Robinson and Ann Liv- ingston, and was born February 5, 1830, in Annsville, Oneida county, New York. John Robinson (grandfather), founder of the family in America, came from County Monaghan, Ireland, when only twenty-one years of age, and settled in the town of Argyle, followed farming and worked some at his trade, that of stone-mason. He lived the remaining years of his life in the town of Argyle, was a demo- crat up to the time of the National bank veto by President Jackson, when he became a whig, and for forty-three consecutive years held the office of justice of the peace. In the war of 1812 he was in the battle of Plattsburg. He was tall and of commanding appearance, and a member of the United Presbyterian church, was prominent in church work, and for many years was an elder in Rev. George Mair's church, at Argyle. He married and was the father of ten children : James, Alexander P., Christopher, William, George M., Eliza, Mrs. Paddock, Mrs. McCann, and two others, names not known. James Robinson ( father ) was born at Argyle, followed farming in that town until 1824, when he removed to Oneida county and remained there for ten years, in the town of Annsville. At the end of this time he came back to Washington county and located in the town of Hebron, and was there engage } in farming up to shortly before his death,
which occurred on August 23, 1871. He was first a democrat in politics, and afterward a whig and republican, and became somewhat prominent in local polítics, was appointed loan commissioner by Governor Willian C. Bouck, an office in which he acceptably served for five years. He was a member of the United Presbyterian church, and was one of the exhorters and local preachers of that dc- nomination. He married Anna Livingstone, of Hebron, New York, who was a daughter of John Livingstone, and had ten children : John R. McClellan, who was for thirty-four years connected with the post office department at Washington, resigning recently on account of age, but still resides at the capital ; Jane M., wife of Samuel Irvin, of Hebron ; Anna Eliza, who died June 29, 1841, born 1825 ; Mary, became the wife of Alexander McGeoch, of Argyle, both now deceased ; William, who resides on the old homestead, in the town of Hebron ; Martha Fenton ; George, who en- listed in the Union army in 1861, and died of consumption in 1862, before seeing active ser- vice ; James A., died at the age of twenty- one, in 1860 ; O. C., whose sketch is on an- other page, and one other, whose name is not given.
John J. Robinson, after leaving the district schools, attended the academy at Argyle, but soon had to leave there to aid in the support of his family, becoming a clerk in a store at North Argyle, New York, where he remained two years, and then engaged in business for himself, in partnership with Edwin Gilchrist, at West Hebron, which lasted until 1858. In 1860 he purchased a farm of two hundred acres in the town of Argyle, and for ten years, up to 1870, followed farming. At the expira- tion of this time he engaged in the meat busi- ness, and later in pulling and buying fleece wool, and is still a wool dealer at Fort Ed- ward. Mr. Robinson is a republican, and for eighteen years has been an elder in the Pres- byterian church. He wedded Margaret Cogg- shell on March 18, 1858, and has had seven
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children, five living : Willard, John J., born December 23, 1860 ; Carrie, born November, 1861, died September 12, 1863; Clara J., Minnie, and John J., jr., born July 15, 1876. Willard is a lawyer, a justice of the peace, village clerk, and clerk of the board of water commissioners. Clara is a teacher in the Cortland Normal school, and enters upon her duties in September for the third year. Min- nie married and lives in New York. Annette and John, jr., are at home.
E DWIN L. BURDITT, of Sandy Hill, New York, is a fine example of the thorough going and successful business man, and his straight-forward, active and unpretentious ca- reer is well worthy of imitation. He is the son of Sylvester P. and Mary(Sanders) Burditt, and was born in Suesbury, Rutland county, Ver- mont, July 2, 1846. Sylvester P. Burditt was also born in the same place in Vermont, as was also his wife, Mary Sanders, and where he died at the age of twenty-six years. He was a farmer and miller by occupation, and a mem- ber of the Christian church. His father was Daniel Burditt, who was a native of England, who with seven of his brothers emigrated to the United States when quite a young man, settled in the State of Vermont, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. The mother of the subject of this sketch died in the village of Sandy Hill, July 26, 1891, at the age of sev- enty-three years, and is buried alongside her husband at Suesbury, Vermont.
Edwin L. Burditt was brought up at Sues- bury, Vermont, where he received the rudi. ments of a common school education. He afterward worked on the farm and in the mill in his native town, when, in 1875, he came to Sandy Hill. Since then he has been engaged in the manufacture of soap.
Beginning in a very small way with a cash capital of only a dollar and eighty cents, and after making the soap would peddle it from house to house, and in this way he built up a
trade, and from this insignificant capital his business has grown to its present proportions. His factory now has a capacity of turning out one hundred dollars' worth of soap per day, which finds a ready market. He manufac- tures a superior quality of soft, toilet and gen- eral family soaps. Since his coming to Sandy Hill he has erected his present factory, also his residence, which he owns.
Edwin L. Burditt was married on January 1, 1867, to Eliza C., daughter of Jerry Wilkins, formerly of Granville. To their union has been born three children, now living, two daughters and one son : Mary E., born April 5, 1868; Carrie E., born August 16, 1870, and Earnest L., born December 15, 1881.
Mr. Burditt is a member of the Advent church, and is a prohibitionist .in politics. He has served as collector of the school funds of Sandy Hill.
DELIVERANCE ROGERS, proprie-
tor of the leading grocery house, vice- president of the National bank of Granville, and a man of remarkably good business abil- ity, was born in the town of Granville, Waslı- ington county, February 18, 1841. He was reared on the farm, obtaining his education in the common schools of his neighborhood, and an academic course, which he afterward pur- sued in the seminary at Manchester, Vermont. He returned to the farm, where he continued to carry on that business until 1867; selling his farm in that year he came to Granville and embarked in the grocery business. Being of an enterprising and energetic disposition it was not long until his business swept out into the broad sca of popular success, and he now carries at his elegant store, which is a brick structure twenty-six feet by sixty-five feet in dimensions, and two stories in height, one of the largest and best assortments of groceries to be found in the eastern part of the county. Thus before reaching middle life, Mr. Rogers has by his own efforts and ability, placed hin-
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self at the head of a permanent and one of the most prosperous establishments of the kind in this section.
Deliverance Rogers was married in 1861 to Antoinette, who was a daughter of John C. Bishop, of this town. Her death occurred in 1875, leaving. one daughter, Flora, now the wife of P. J. Staples, of Granville. Mr. Rogers wedded for his second wife, in 1877, Carrie A., a daughter of J. E. Pratt, resident of the village of Granville, and to his second marriage was born two daughters, Mabel D. and Dor- othy Tida. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and Granville Lodge, No. 55, Free and Accepted Masons, and Knights Templar, Killington Commandery, No. 6, Rutland, Vermont. Being a stanch republi- can in his political belief, he has filled the office of justice of the peace of his town. Two years after coming to Granville he erected liis present store building, and is now the second oldest merchant and longer in the service than any other man in the village. Mr. Rogers has descended from good old New England and Quaker ancestry, a family noted for its integ- rity, honor and respectability.
David Rogers (father) was born in the town of Granville, Washington county, New York, in the year 1806, and was one of the thrifty and well-to-do farmers of this section. He was a Friend in religion and a republican in politics, having died in 1861, aged fifty-five years. He wedded Hannah Dillingham, who was born in the town of Granville. She was a member of the same church as her husband, noted for her intelligence and many Christian graces, and as a preacher of that denomination. She died in 1885 at the age of eighty years. David Rogers was a leading elder of the Qua- ker church, and a son of Deliverance Rogers, (grandfather), who was a native of Vermont. He migrated from his native State and located on a farm in the town of Granville, where he continued most successfully, and was recog- nized throughout the neighborhood as a thor- ough business man and successful farmer. He
owned a dairy and kept one hundred cows, and was the proprietor of eleven hundred and twenty-five acres of land in this town. His death occurred in 1849, at the age of eighty- three years. The Rogers family is of English extraction, and in direct line has descended from John Rogers, who was burnt at the stake on account of his religious beliefs, Deliverance Rogers being of the fourteenth generation who have lived in this country.
A NDREW B. COLE, president of the Greenwich National bank, who has had an extensive and varied experience in life and won reputation as an educator and successful business man, is a native of Jackson, this county, where he was born June 10, 1834; His parents were Curtis and Ann (Ford) Cole, the former a native of Rhode Island, and the latter born and reared in Washington county, New York. The Coles are of English extrac- tion, and the American progenitor of the fam- ily settled at Warren, Rhode Island, long prior to the Revolutionary war. In that col- ony Curtis Cole, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born and grew to manhood. He was a ship-builder by occupa- tion, owning a ship-yard at Warren, Rhode Island, where he did an extensive business for several years. During the Revolutionary war he served as major of a military organization known as the Rhode Island mintite men, do- ing local service during the entire war. Soon after its close, Major Cole removed with his family to Jackson, this county, where he pur- chased a large farm and devoted the remainder of his life to agricultural pursuits. One of his sons was Curtis Cole (father), who, at the age of ten years, accompanied his father to Washington county, where he was reared and educated. After attaining manhood he also engaged in farming, which he carried on ex- tensively, owning and cultivating a farm of three hundred acres of excellent land in the town of Jackson. Politically he was a whig
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and republican, well posted on all general topics, but of a retiring disposition. In early manhood he married Ann Ford, of this county, and by that union had a family of eight chil- dren, five sons and three daughters : Charles, deceased ; Mary, who married John Herring- ton and is now dead ; Lewis, also deceased ; Caroline, wife of Anson Collins, now living in Ohio; William Henry, also residing in Ohio ; Morgan, who studied medicine and was a practicing physician of Greenwich, but is now dead ; Amanda, wife of Frank M. Paul, of Nashville, Tennessee ; and Andrew B., whose name heads this sketch. Curtis Cole died August 26, 1862, aged seventy-eight, his wife having preceded him to the grave in 1840, at the age of fifty-one years.
Andrew B. Cole was reared on the farm, and was educated in the public schools and at the old Cambridge academy. He remained on the home farm until he was twenty two, when he went to Vermont and engaged in farming for a couple of years, after which he removed to Iowa and embarked in sheep hus- bandry. The impaired health of his wife compelled his early return to Vermont, where lie purchased a large stock farm and again engaged in sheep raising, but giving a portion of each year to teaching, having charge of the schools of Fair Haven and Benson during this period. In 1862 he sold his property in Vermont and removed to Sidney, Ohio, taking with him a large flock of Spanish merino sheep, which, during the war following, was a source of much profit. He was soon called to the superintendency of the schools of the town, and was also made a member of the board of school examiners for the county, which positions he filled until the failing health of his wife made necessary his return again to her native State of Vermont, locating in Shoreham, and taking charge of Newton academy at that place. Here he spent four pleasant and profitable years, and then return- ing to his native State of New York, located in Greenwich, where he has since lived. In 17
1889 he was elected president of the First National bank of Greenwich, and has con- tinued to occupy that position to the present time.
In 1856 Mr. Cole was married to Miriam Hitchcock, a daughter of Almon Hitchcock, of West Haven, Vermont. To them was born an only child, Candace, now the wife of James P. Duncan, of the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Mrs. Cole was a woman of brilliant intellect, and for many years took an active part in the efforts made for the. betterment of woman's condition before the law. For some time she edited a paper publislied at Dayton, Ohio, in the interest of that cause, taking an active part in the exciting campaign of that period, urging woman's enfranchisement in several addresses before the State senate of Ohio, and speaking from the same platform with such distinguished speakers as Mrs. Stowe, Mary A. Livermore, Lucy Stone and others. She was a member of the Congregational church, and always took an active part in the interest of religion. Her life was singularly useful and beautiful, and her death occurred in 1887.
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