USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 39
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 39
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H UGH H. WALLACE, a successful young merchant of Greenwich, and who is prominently identified with the business in - terests of that village, was born in County Down, Ireland, February 10, 1864, and is a son of Hugh and Elizabeth Frances (Hunter) Wallace. (For facts pertaining to ancestry, see sketch of brother, James W. Wallace.) He was educated in the National schools of his native county, and at the age of fourteen went to Staffordshire, England, where he ap- plied his time in learning civil engineering under the tutelage of the royal engineers, where he remained for one year. At the end of that time, owing to an accident which hap- pened him, he was unable to longer pursue his work, so he returned to County Down, where he accepted a clerkship with a mercan- tile firm. He remained in that capacity for two years, when, in 1883, he canie to this country and located in the village of Green-
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wich, where he was first engaged as a book- keeper for the Dunbarton Flax Spinning com- pany. He remained as a book-keeper for that company until 1885, when he associated with his brother, J. H., opened a dry goods store at number 71 Main street, under the firm name of J. H. Wallace & Company, where they carry a full line of dry goods and all other ar- ticles found in a first-class store of the kind.
In addition to their Greenwich stand, they own one at West Hebron. Hugh H. Wallace is a member of the First United Presbyterian church, and is a prohibitionist in his political belief. Mr. Wallace is a young man of intel- ligence and energy, and has taken an active part in promoting the best interest of his town, as well as devoting his best endeavors to the permanent establishment and success- ful prosecution of his mercantile enterprises.
ERNEST T. HORTON, M. D., a lead-
ing homeopathic physician at Whitehall since 1882, is a son of Dr. A. E. and Ellen ( French) Horton, and was born at Mount Holly, Rutland county, Vermont, June 28, 1858. Dr. A. E. Horton was a native of the same place, and was a graduate of the medi- cal department of the university of Vermont, at Burlington. Since 1864 he has been prac- ticing his profession at Poultney, Vermont. He was born in 1835, and was at one time president of the Vermont State Homeopathic Medical society. His father was Alva Horton, who was also born at Mount Holly, and now resides at Clarendon, in Rutland county, and is in the cighty-second year of his age. For many years he was engaged as a lumber mer- chant. The Hortons are of English descent. Some four or five generations of them have resided in Rutland county ; the first of the name to settle in Vermont came from Massa- chusetts.
Dr. Ernest T. Horton was reared at Poult- ney, Vermont, receiving his education princi- pally at the public schools and Saint John's
parish school, of that village; the latter is an Episcopalian institution taught by Rev. E. II. Randall. Choosing the medical profession as his life's vocation, after leaving school Dr. Horton commenced reading medicine with his father, and after pursuing the regular course of study he entered the New York City Homeopathic Medical college, from which well-known institution he was gradu- ated in the class of 1881, when immediately thereafter he located at Sandy Hill, where he practiced up to the fall of 1882, removing thence to Whitehall, and has continued to practice there with brilliant success ever since.
In 1882 Dr. Horton wedded Cornelia, a daughter of L. J. Eddy, of Rutland, Vermont. To them have been born two children : Mil- dred and Gertrude.
R DODNEY VAN WORMER, clerk of Washington county, and one of the coun- ty's most popular citizens, was born in the town of Fort Ann, Washington county, New York, December 9, 1850. [For family history see sketch of brother, F. M. Van Wormer, of Sandy Hill. ]
Rodney Van Wormer grew to manhood in his native town, where he attended the com- mon and select schools of the neighborhood. Leaving school he soon became a student in the law office of Silas P. Pike, of Fort Ann, and was admitted to the bar in 1882. From his admission up to 1889 he was actively and successfully engaged in the practice of law at Fort Ann. In the fall of 1888 he was elected to the office of county clerk for a term of three years, taking charge of the same January I, 1889. At the expiration of his term it was through his popularity and efficiency as a county official that he was re-nominated by ac- clamation and re-elected to the same office in the fall of 1892, and again re-nominated by ac- clamation in 1894, which assures his re-elec- tion for a third term.
In 1871 Mr. Van Wormer was united in
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marriage to Cornelia L., a daughter of Samuel and Emma Lamb, of Fort Ann. To their union has been born one child, a daughter, Letta A., who graduated from the Fort Ed- ward Collegiate institute, class of 1894.
Rodney Van Wormer belongs to the Masonic fraternity and is a member of Mount Hope Lodge, No. 260, of Fort Anni. He is a stanch republican and an active and effective worker in the ranks of the Republican party.
w ILLIAM HI. POWELL, a retired merchant of Philadelphia, and a man of varied business experience now residing in the town of South Hartford, was born in the town of Hartford, Washington county, New York, September 13; 1822, and is a son of John and Phoebe Powell.
John Powell was a native of the town of Hartford and was one of the town's thrifty farmers during his active business life. His death occurred in 1856, aged fifty-eight years. He was a consistent member of the Presby- terian church, and a whig in his political principles. He started to the war of 1812, but before seeing any active service peace was declared. He was a son of Thomas Powell, who was a native of Wales, and who came to the United States when a young man, locating in the town of Hoosick, Rensselear county, New York. Of this town he was one of the early settlers, taking up a farm on which he re- sided until he met his death by accident, at the age of forty years, by being tlirown from his wagon.
Phoebe was born in the town of Hebron in 1800, and died in 1877. She was a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church.
William H. Powell grew up on the farm and received his education in the common schools of the neighborhood. In 1844 he wedded Louisa, daughter of Israel McConnell, of He- bron. For three years after his marriage Mr. Powell continued to farm and trade in live stock. In 1848 he went to the State of Wis-
consin, where he was engaged in mercantile pursuits, farming and lumbering until 1852, when he went to California, where for one year lie was engaged in meat marketing and buying and selling cattle. In 1853 he removed to New York city, where he branched out in the fruit and produce business at which he successfully continued up to 1862, when he went to Philadelphia. Here he carried on the same line doing a large wholesale business, also buying and selling fish in large quantities, and continued to reside in Philadelphia up to May, 1890, covering a period of twenty-eight years of an active and successful business ca- reer in that city. In that year he returned to South Hartford where he has since lived re- tired, owning one of the most beautiful homes in that section of the county.
William H. Powell is a Mason, belonging to Atlas Lodge, No. 116, of New York city, joining this lodge some forty years ago. He is a stanch democrat. His wife is a member of the Universalist church of Hartford, and is a lady of many accomplishments.
C HARLES H. BUCK, editor of the Glens Falls Republican, one of the influ- ential democratic organs of northern New York, was born at Troy, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, February 18, 1853, and is a son of William Russell and Betsy C. (Leonard) Buck.
William Russell Buck was a native of the same State, being born at Ridgebury, March 7, 1819, and was for many years proprietor and manager of a large tannery at Wellsboro, on the Chemung river, in his native State. Sub- sequently he removed to Troy, Pennsylvania, where he purchased a farm, on which he re- sided up to his death, on January 5, 1889. He was a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and for two terms served as postmaster of East Troy, under President Grant. He was a stanch republican, and a member in good standing of the Independent
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
295
Order of Odd Fellows. His wife was Betsy C. Leonard, who was a native of Pennsylvania, being born at Springfield, Bradford county, May 18, 1824, and died August 3, 1887. Her parents settled in Bradford county, from Springfield, Massachusetts. The Buck family is of English and Scotch origin.
Charles H. Buck was reared to manhood in his native village, and after completing his academical education entered the office of the Northern Tier Gazette, of that village, and three years later became foreman of the office. And after leaving there did reportorial work on the Williamsport News and the Lockhaven Record. In 1876 Mr. Buck went to Buffalo, New York, where he accepted the place as assistant proof reader on the Buffalo Commer-' cial Advertiser, and in 1879 he went to Yonkers, New York, and did general work on the Yonkers Gazette, remaining there until 1887, when, at the death of W. A. Wilkins, editor of the Whitehall Times, Mr. Buck was called to that village to take charge of that paper as editor and manager. He remained here until September 1, 1888, when he moved to the village of Glens Falls and purchased the Glens Falls Republican. This plant is the oldest in the county, being a weekly sheet, and is thoroughly democratic in principle, and is the only one in Warren county. . The paper is ably edited and has a splendid job work department. In his political tenets Mr. Buck is a consistent democrat, and in the session of 1892 and 1893 he was postmaster in the State senate.
In October, 1883, Charles H. Buck was wedded to Anna L., a daughter of David Wiggins, ex-postmaster of Greenport, Suffolk county, New York. To their marriage have been born one son, Leonard H., and one daughter, Beatrice E.
R OBINS M. WITHERBEE, of White-
tail
hall, and a leading wholesale and re- merchant of Washington county and 18
northern New York, is a son of Waldron S. and Paulina (Guilford) Witherbee, and was born in the town of Dresden, Wash- ington county, New York, November 16, 1843. Waldron S. Witherbee was a native of Connecticut, who came into this county in 1818, and one year later settled in the town of Dresden, where he resided up to his death, which occurred in 1883, in the eighty-first year of his age. He was a mem - ber of the Baptist church of Dresden, a farmer by occupation and a republican in political opinion. His father was David Witherbee, who was a native of Maine and a soldier in the war of 1812. His death occurred in Oswego county, New York, where he had resided for many years previous to his death. The fam- ily is of English extraction, and was planted in this country in about the year 1620. Wal- dron S. Witherbee married Paulina Guilford, who was a native of Hampton, this county, a member of the Baptist church, and died in 1876, aged sixty-six years.
Robins M. Witherbee remained on the farm in his native town until he had reached · the age of seventeen years, receiving his edu- cation in the common schools of the neighbor- hood. On September 2, 1861, at the age of seventeen, he enlisted in Company A, 87th New York State volunteer regiment, as a private, and after serving for one year was discharged at Philadelphia on account of disability. He then returned home, and soon went to Orwell, Vermont, where he worked for one year and a half at ship- and boat-building, when at the end of that time he accepted a position as a deck hand on a canal boat, in which capacity he remained for three seasons. At the expira- tion of this time he purchased a canal boat, and was successfully engaged in canal boating from Canada to New York city up to the fall of 1872. In the winter of the same year he became incapacitated for work of any descrip- tion on account of weak eyes, and for sixteen months did nothing. On February 26, 1874, he bought the grocery store of George M.
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Chubb, of Whitehall, located in the Polley block, which he conducted up to 1881, when he removed his stock of goods to the Dayton block, where he added a separate department of clothing, boots and shoes. In 1885 he pur- chased the Grand Union Hotel building, and immediately converted it into a store room, re- moving his stock of goods there on February 1, 1886, and on February 26 of the same year the building, including the stock, was burned to the ground, with no insurance, and in addi- tion to the loss of the building, the stock of goods was valued at nineteen thousand dol- lars. He immediately rebuilt, and now keeps the largest stock of groceries, clothing, boots and shoes of any firm of the kind in White- hall or in the entire county. He does consid- erable jobbing business, occupying two store rooms, the main one being three stories high and each floor filled with merchandise. Mr. Witherbee also controls one of the leading meat markets of the village, and in 1882, when the Whitehall grist mill company was formed, he was made president and manager of the company, which position he held for several years. In September, 1890, associated with his son-in-law, he bought the entire stock of this company, and still owns and manages it. For the past ten years he has been extensively engaged in building canal boats, and owns several boats that run from Canada to New York.
In 1879 Mr. Witherbee was married to Mary L., a daughter of Daniel Mclaughlin, who was a native of Wisconsin, but her parents were from the town of Putnam, this county. To their marriage were born three children, a son and two daughters : Minnie E., born December 14, 1871, who is the wife of Emmet J. Gray ; Clayton R., born May 17, 1873, and Ada J., born November 22, 1876, died February 28, 1880.
Robins M. Witherbee is a member of Phoenix Lodge of Masons, and also of Cham- plain Chapter. He is a member of Whitehall Lodge, No. 5, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and Whitehall Encampment, No. 69. On political questions Mr. Witherbee has always been a stanch republican, but has been too thoroughly a business man to ever seek or hold office. He is, pre-eminently, a self-made man. Starting out in life poor, he has, through abundant energy and self confidence, won his way to wealth and affluence. His career in the mercantile world is seldom equalled, con- sidering the obstacles he has had to overcome.
GEORGE SATTERLEE, one of the oldest citizens and a prominent business man of Fort Edward for nearly half a cen- tury, is a son of Squire William H. and Ruth (Cady) Satterlee, and was born in the town of Ballston, Saratoga county, New York, March 12. 1820. The Satterlee family is from Sat- terlee Parish, Suffolk county, England, where its coat of arms was a stork on a broad, white band, surrounded by buckles and arrows, in- dicating fidelity and knighthood attained by military service, while the motto was Semper Fidelis, meaning always faithful.
Mr. Satterlee's paternal grandfather, with two of his brothers, came to Stonington, Con- necticut, which he soon left to purchase land in the town of Ballston, where he died in 1828, aged seventy-eight years. He was of Puritan stock, and a Baptist, married and had eleven children : John, Samuel, Edward R., Squire William H., Douglas, George C., Val- entine, James, Elizabeth, Lucy Tracy and Sophia. Squire William H. Satterlee (father) was born at Ballston; Saratoga county, New York, and died at Burnt Hills, the same county, in 1846, aged fifty-eight years. He served in the war of 1812, was engaged in farming, canal contracting and merchandizing, and did a large amount of legal work of various kinds. He was a Baptist and a democrat, and served as postmaster at Burnt Hills, beside acting as clerk of the board of trustees of his church, and taking part in every public move- ment in his neighborhood.
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He married Ruth Cady, daughter of Asa Cady, of near Amsterdam, New York, and to their union were born four children : William and Angelina, who died in infancy ; Eliza, who married J. Oakley Nodyne, of Plainfield, New Jersey, and died Christmas, 1891 ; and George, the subject of this sketch.
George Satterlee was born at Burnt Hills, Saratoga, where he attended school until he was fourteen years of age. He then became clerk in a New York city store, and after it was burned returned home and was succes- sively engaged as a clerk in his father's store, in speculating, as a deputy clerk in the county clerk's office, and as a collector of tolls on the Champlain canal, at Schuylerville, New York.
In 1848 he came from Schuylerville to Fort Edward, where he was first engaged in the livery business and running a stage line. He was afterward employed in the First National bank of Fort Edward, next served as store keeper for Sing Sing prison, and then engaged in the pottery business, which he followed up to 1891. In that year Mr. Satterlee retired from the pottery business and accepted his present position as general foreman of Chan- plain canal. He is an active democrat and a useful member of Fort Edward Presbyterian congregation, which he helped to found. Mr. Satterlee has also been active in other fields beside those in which his business enterprises have called him. He was secretary for twelve and marshal for eight years of the Washington County Agricultural society,during which time he was instrumental in giving one of the best fairs in the State. He conducted the Empire hotel, at Syracuse, New York, for three ycars, served as supervisor of his town and as pres- ident of his village for several terms, and was collector of tolls at Fort Edward for some time. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum and Fort Edward Masonic Lodge, which he helped to institute, and of which he is the oldest living member.
On January 12, 1841, Mr. Satterlee married Mary J. Davidson, of Scotch Bush, Saratoga
county. To their union were born four chil- dren : Margaret D., wife of A. J. Russell, a hotel proprietor of Albany county, New York ; Anna, widow of S. W. McCoy, who was a jeweler ; George W., who wedded Jennie Thomas, and died October 16, 1892, leaving three children ; and Josephine, widow of My- ron G. Patten, and who now resides with her father.
AMES O. La VAKE, treasurer of Wash-
ington county, and veteran of the Civil war, is the eldest surviving son of Louis and Abigail (Wicker) LaVake, and a native of Cas- tleton, Vermont, where he was born March 14, 1844. The La Vakes are of French extraction, as the name would indicate, and the family was planted in America by John LaVake, pa- ternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who was exiled from his native France on ac- count of his republican principles. He came and settled at Northampton, Massachussetts, where he died at an early age, leaving one son, Louis La Vake (father), who was born at North- ampton in 1810, and was reared and educated in that State. Louis LaVake inherited great musical talent, and became a professor in that art. In 1842 he removed to Castleton, Ver- mont, where he remained for several years and won a reputation as one of the finest singers in that section. He also composed and published several pieces of music, which became quite popular at the time. In 1858 he was called to Cincinnati, Ohio, to take charge of a large musical association in that city, where he remained for a number of years, en- gaged in various enterprises. Later he re- moved to Troy, that State, where he resumed his profession, and afterward went to Massillon, Ohio, where he taught music until the break- ing out of the Civil war. He was then ap- pointed to the position of post adjutant at Cin- cinnati, and served as such until his death in that city, November 3, 1862, when in the fifty- second year of his age. He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of
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the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he always had charge of the music. During his residence in Cincinnati, he also had charge of all the musical conventions of the different churches. On June 21, 1841, he married Abi- gail Wicker, daughter of Lemuel and Sarah Wicker, of Ferrisburg, Vermont, and by that union had a family of five sons : William K., who was for some time clerk in the wholesale millinery house of James G. Johnson & Co., on Broadway, New York, in which city he died March 31, 1893; James O .; Louis, a ranch owner in Idaho; Charles S., a member of the millinery firm of James G. Johnson & Co., of the city of New York, and Walter H., a Methodist minister, now stationed in southern California. Mrs. La Vake died in 1853, July 6, aged twenty-eight years.
James O. La Vake was principally reared in Ohio, and obtained his education in the public and private schools of Massillon, that State. On September 10, 1861, at the age of seven- teen, he enlisted in Co. A, 19th Ohio infantry, under command of Capt. Charles F. Mander- son, now United States senator from Nebraska. On January 1, 1862, he re-enlisted in the field as a veteran, at Flat Creek, Tennessee. He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Murfrees- boro, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. He also took part in the siege of Chattanooga, was present at the battle of Missionary Ridge, and was with Sherman in his march to the sea. Other battles in which he was engaged were those of Lovejoy's Station, Franklin, and Nashville. Later he was sent to Texas with the third division of the fourth army corps, and was mustered out in that State October 16, 1865. Soon after Mr. LaVake came to Wash- ington county, New York, and entered the em- ploy of the Greenwich Boot and Shoe Manu- facturing company, with whom he remained one year. The factory was then sold to H. E. Weed, of Troy, and the firm name became Weed, Hascall & Co. Mr. La Vake remained with the latter firm for a period of twelve years. After leaving the factory he became traveling
salesman for a wholesale shoe house in New York city, and has successfully continued that business more or less to the present time. In the fall of 1887 Mr. LaVake was elected treas- urer of Washington county, and has held that office ever since. He also owns a stock farm in Greenwich, where he raises blooded horses and cattle.
On January 17, 1872, Mr. LaVake was married to Sarah G. Mowry, a daughter of William Mowry, of the village of Greenwich. To their union were born three children : Elise, LeRoy and Abbie C. Elise was graduated from the Metropolitan academy of music of New York city. Mr. LaVake is a republican in politics, and by that party was elected to his present office of treasurer of Washington county. He is a member of Mount Zion Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Reformed church of Greenwich, in the musi- cal services of which he still takes an active part. He is also treasurer of the Consolidated · Electric company of Greenwich, and a direc- tor in the Greenwich Water company, and in the Greenwich & Johnsonville Railroad com- pany.
J. WARREN GRAY, an old and highly respected citizen and farmer of the vil- lage of Granville, who has long been in inde- pendent circumstances, and is widely known and universally esteemed for his many excel- lent traits of character, is a son of John and Dilly (Caswell) Gray, and was born January 31, 1830, at Middletown, Vermont. The family was planted in America long prior to the Revolutionary war, in which David Gray, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, actively participated and personally underwent many of the privations which helped to make that struggle famous in history. He was born in Putnam county, New York, in 1757, and in the latter part of his life removed to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he dicd at an advanced age. One of his sons was John Gray (father), who was a native of
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Middletown, Vermont, where he lived until 1849. In that year he removed to Saratoga county, and continued to reside in that county until his death, in 1874, when in the seventy- fourth year of his age, having been born dur- ing the first year of the present century. Dur- ing the early part of his life he was employed in the woolen mills of Vermont, but afterward turned his attention to farming and spent the remainder of his life in agricultural pursuits. Politically he was a whig and republican, and in religion a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church. On August 21, 1821, he married Dilly Caswell, a daughter of Jesse Caswell, and a native of Middletown, Vermont.
Mrs. Gray was also a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal church, and died at Poultney, Vermont, in 1839, aged thirty-six years.
J. Warren Gray was reared partly at Mid- dletown, Vermont, and partly in Saratoga county. His education was obtained in the common schools, and at the age of twenty- four he removed to Pawlet, Vermont, where he engaged in farming and resided for a period of fourteen years. In the winter of 1869 he removed to lis present farm, purchased that year, containing one hundred and forty acres of valuable land, and now lying within the cor- porate limits of the village of Granville. Here he has resided ever since, enjoying the inde- pendent life of a farmer and surrounded with all the comforts and conveniences calculated to make such existence enjoyable. He has already sold off a number of lots for building purposes, and still owns a large quantity of land that may be devoted to such uses and will make some of the finest building sites in the village. Some years ago Mr. Gray re- tired from active business, and now rents his farm to others, though he continues to reside upon it.
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