USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 58
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 58
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
field, was a native of Brooklyn, and for many years was one of the leading hardware mer- chants in that city. For a number of years be was warden of Christ's Protestant Episcopal church of New York city. His death occurred on Long Island in May, 1844.
JOHN SOMERS, an old and prominent citizen of Fort Edward, is a son of Mich- ael and Mary Somers, and was born in the county of Carlow, Ireland, August 10, 1829. The Somers family is an old and well known family of that county, where Patrick Somers (grandfather) was born and reared. He was a man of good common school education, and was a member of the Catholic church, as all the members of the family have been for many generations back. By his wife, Bridget Byrns, he had a family of three sons and three daugh- ters : John, Patrick, Michael, Mary C., Bridget and Kate. Michael Somers was a man of good practical business ability, and was for many years overseer or superintendent for a large commercial house in Ireland. He was a zealous member of the Catholic church, and led an honorable and successful life. He was identified with the Democratic party, belonged to the Catholic Benevolent society, and was charitable to the poor and needy. His wife was Mary Byrns, by whom he had a family of five sons and three daughters: John (1), de- ceased at seven years ; Garret, John (2), Wil- liam, Patrick, Sarah Dyer, Eliza Doyle and Ann. Michael Somers died in 1852, when in the seventy-sixth year of his age.
John Somers was principally educated in the parochial schools of his native county, re- maining until at the age of eighteen, when he emigrated to the United States, locating in New York city. He had commenced learning the trade of stone mason with his brother Gar- ret in Ireland, which he afterward followed successfully in connection with contracting and building for a period of forty-one years. On his arrival in this country he found lucra-
435
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
tive employment in New York city, where he remained up to 1856, and during much of his time while in New York he was traveling through the south for the purpose of finding a suitable place to permanently locate. During this time, in 1854, he came to Fort Edward, and in 1857 permanently located there. In. the same year he married and has since been a citizen of Fort Edward. For the past forty years Mr. Somers has been inspector of pub- lic mason work in the employ of the govern- ment, and has also acted in a similar capacity for the State of New York, inspecting canals, docks, etc., and was for a few years in the em- ploy of the Danamora prison. As a contrac- tor and builder he constructed the Glens Falls Catholic church ; the Fort Edward Catholic church, and the Fort Edward Presbyterian church. Formerly a democrat, Mr. Somers is now identified with the Republican party, making the change principally on account of the tariff question. He takes an active inter- est in educational matters, and has for the past six years been a leading member of the board of education of the village ; he has also filled the office of trustee of the village for four suc- cessive terms. During the Civil war Mr. Somers was a stanch Union man, and in 1864 collected the war tax of lis town. In religious belief he is an ardent member of the Catholic church, in whose welfare he takes deep inter- est, and is one of that church's chief contrib- utors and supporters ; but his generosity is not confined within the limits of that one denom- ination, but other churches have received en- couragement and support at his hands. It was principally due to his influence that the fine Catholic church edifice was built at Fort Ed- ward. Mr. Somers is a member of the Union Temperance society, and is at present inspec- tor of the new water works of Fort Edward.
R OSS WILSON, M. D., one of the lead- ing physicians of Sandy Hill and a mem- ber of the Washington County Medical so- ciety, is a son of David and Mary E. (Ross)
Wilson, and was born at Whitehall, Washing- ton county, New York, in 1847. He was reared at Whitehall and Albany, and received his education in the high school of the latter city. Leaving school he read medicine with. Professor Ormsby, and then entered Albany Medical college, from which he was graduated in the class of 1870. Not deeming his medi- cal studies completed when he left the doors of that excellent institution which had graduated him, he spent two years in special courses at the university of New York. He then went to Fort Edward, where he remained a short time but with no intention of practicing. In 1873 he came to Sandy Hill and soon built up a first class and lucrative practice, and where he is now recognized as one of the leading and successful physicians of the village and north- western part of the county. Dr. Wilson is a general practitioner and keeps himself well in the advanced medical progress of the present day. He is a member of Washington County Medical society, gives his practice close atten- tion, and is a devoted student to his profession.
On September 30, 1872, he was united in marriage with Julia A. Guy, a native of Fort Miller, and a descendant of the old and well known Gilleland family, founded by Wil- liam Gilleland (great grandfather), a ·pioneer on the Boquet, in Essex county, in 1765. He was a wealthy merchant of New York city, and through his agency and that of other capi- talists, several miles of the lake shore between the mouth of Boquet and Crown Point were settled. He held a justice's commission, and for many years was the only judicial authority in that whole surrounding country. This re- markable and noted man was the great pioneer of the western`shore of Champlain. " His his- tory in its vicissitudes, struggles, wrongs and forlorn death, surpasses the creating of the wildest romance. A part of Burgoyne's army and fleet entered the Boquet and British gun- boats surrounded and captured Willsborough village, Essex county, during the war of 1812. This village was named after himself."
436
y
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
H IRAM COLE, a well known inventor of Sandy Hill, and prominantly identified with the industrial interests of the county, is a son of Hiram and Polly (Freeman) Cole, and was born in Sandy Hill, Washington county, New York, March 9, 1831. Hiram Cole (father) was a native of South Shafts- bury, Vermont, and afterward removed to the State of New York in 1803, and settled in the town of Kingsbury, where he died on Febru- ary 22, 1837, in the forty-ninth year of his age. He was prominent for many years in church work and politics, being a deacon in the Bap- tist church, and taking an active and promi- nent part in the welfare of that church. In his political opinion he was a whig, and for many years served as justice of the peace, and served one term in the State assembly in 1826. He was a farmer by occupation, and married Polly Freeman, a daughter of Phincas Freeman, of Connecticut. In an early day the family re- moved to the town of Kingsbury, where Mrs. Cole died, December 31, 1870, at the age of seventy-one years. She was also a member of the Baptist church. Phineas Freeman, her father, lived for many years and was one of the most prominent men in the town of Kings- bury in his day. He was a carpenter by trade, and served as a colonel on the staff of Gen- eral Montgomery, and was with that general when he made his unsuccessful attack upon Quebec in 1775, which resulted in the death of Montgomery and the wounding of Benedict Arnold. Phineas Freeman was elected to the first congress in the United States, but before that body convened his death occurred, which was in 1783, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. His wife was Martha Morrison, who was a member of the Morrison family of Colerain, Massachusetts.
David Cole (grandfather) was born in Dutch- ess county, New York, being a farmer by oc- cupation, and when a young man removed from his native county to the State of Ver- mont, remaining there but a short time, when he came to the town of Kingsbury, where he
lived until his death in 1845, aged eighty-six years. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and was taken prisoner. In the early Dutch settlements upon the Hudson river were three brothers of the Cole family, who came from Holland in the year 1721. One settled in Maryland, one in Connecticut, and the other, David Cole, at the place above mentioned. David Cole married Zeruah Hun- tington, whose death occurred in the town of Kingsbury in 1804, at the age of forty-four years. She was a niece of Samuel Hunting- ton, who was one of the signers of the Declar- ation of Independence. The Freemans are of English descent.
Hiram Cole, subject of this sketch, was reared to manhood on the farm, and received an academical education. At the age of twenty years he accepted a position in a transporta- tion office in the city of Troy, where he re- - mained for two years. Going to New York city in 1853 he formed a partnership with Ru- fus L. Cole, jr., in the general merchandising business, under the firm name of R. L. Cole & Co., and was successfully engaged in this for six years. In 1859 he sold his interest, and returning to Washington county, accepted a position as traveling salesman for a pottery firm at Fort Edward, with whom he remained for several years. Since leaving their employ Mr. Cole has been considerably engaged upon inventions, which he afterward manufactured. In 1884 he invented his " Paper Stock Dus- ter," on which he received a patent in 1886, and which has since come into general use throughout the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. He has also taken out a patent for a " safety collar," another useful appliance.
In 1859 Mr. Cole wedded Esther, a daugh- ter of Daniel Holly of this county. To Mr. and Mrs. Cole have been born two sons and one daughter : Rufus M., a druggist of Glens Falls; Annie E., a teacher of drawing in the Warren institute at Warren, Pennsylvania ; and Daniel H., a student in the university of Rochester.
1277
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.