History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 88

Author: Franklin Ellis and Eugene Arns Nash
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In the autumn of 1818 he located upon the south one hundred acres of lot 36, township 5, range 4, and erected his log house, in which he kept " bachelor's hall" until the time of his marriage. In the summer of 1819 he married Mary, daughter of Hon. Ashbel Freeman, then one of the judges of the old Court of Common Pleas. To trace the history of Judge Ten Broeck in detail through his eventful life would exceed the limits of this brief sketch; we must therefore confine ourselves to a few prominent events and leading characteristics of his life and experience. Possessing great physical and mental energy, unabated industry and perseverance, these added to a good constitution and a her- culean frame, rendered him capable of enduring much fatigue and accomplishing much labor. Prosperity followed as the result of his industry, prudence, and economy, until

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the small beginning of one hundred acres had expanded by a species of financial accretion and attained the huge pro- portions of eight thousand acres, all lying within the towns of Farmersville, Franklinville, and Machias. This vast estate was all managed as one farm under his own personal supervision, he directing every movement in its most minute details.

Judge Ten Broeck early gave his attention to the pur- chase and raising of cattle, and eventually became the most extensive grazier in Western New York, generally keeping from six to twelve hundred head of cattle; these were sent yearly to the Eastern market, and the avails invested in additional stock or in improvements upon his farm. In acquiring his large estate, Judge Ten Broeck never invested one dime in any precarious speculation by which fortunes are so often made or lost, but every farthing was the result of legitimate profit and honest labor.

By reason of his sterling qualities of head and heart, he possessed the entire confidence of the community in which he resided, and was frequently selected as their rep- resentative on the board of supervisors.

For a number of years he was the accredited collecting agent of the Holland Land Company, taking cattle as pay- ment on land contracts, resulting in mutual benefits to the land company and the settlers; and so extensive did this traffic become that Peter Ten Broeck became well and fav- orably known in the principal cattle markets in Pennsylva- nia and New Jersey.

From 1822 to 1827 he held the position of associate judge of Cattaraugus County, and again from 1837 to 1847, in all a term of fifteen years, the duties of which he discharged with entire satisfaction.

Mr. Ten Broeck having passed the meridian of life, and being without issue to heir his fortune, had long contem- plated, and finally matured a plan to bestow his wealth so that it might secure the greatest good to the greatest num- ber, and reflect imperishable honor upon his name.

In his last will and testament, after providing for the payment of certain legacies to relatives and friends, amount- ing in all to the sum of sixty thousand dollars, he decreed that the balance of his estate, as fast as it could be pru- dently turned into ready means, should be expended in the construction and endowment of a literary institution to be known as the "Ten Broeck Free Academy." The build- ing was commenced in 1866, and was completed the fol- lowing year at a cost of twenty-one thousand five hundred dollars, and went into successful operation in the month of December, 1867. (A brief synopsis of the history of the Ten Broeck Free Academy may be found in an- other part of this work.) Judge Ten Broeck also provided in his will that the privileges of the institution should be free to all resident students within the three towns of Farmersville, Franklinville, and Machias, so far as availa- ble funds would permit. There is already permanently in- vested as an endowment fund the sum of forty-six thousand five hundred dollars, yielding an annual revenue of some- thing over thirty-three hundred dollars.

Judge Ten Broeck, in accordance with a preconceived plan, by this generous and humane act became a benefactor to mankind and enrolled himself among those

" Whose works shall ne'er crumble, Till monuments tumble And nature shall pause."

In his social intercourse with men, Judge Ten Broeck was somewhat abrupt, pointed, and energetic, seeking no honeyed words or high-toned rhetorical phrases to convey an ambiguous meaning; yet behind those brusque utterances and unpolished demeanor he carried as kind and sympa- thetic a heart as ever beat in the human bosom. Pride in dress, in equipage, and external adornments he ever re- garded as beneath the dignity of manhood. If he ever exhibited any pride it was manifested in the extreme pau- city of a plebeian outfit. In many of his notions the judge was extremely antiquated, regarding many improve- ments as innovations upon the long-established usages of his ancestors.

As a neighbor, he was quiet, kind, and obliging; as a citizen, he was public-spirited, ever forward in promoting the general weal.

As a man, he was the soul of honor and integrity, re- garding his word as sacred, allowing no contingency of cir- cumstances or probabilities of profit or loss to interfere with its positive and prompt fulfillment. Judge Ten Broeck was human, and he had his frailties; he was mortal, and he died. On the 5th day of August, 1863, he was gath- ered to his fathers, and inhumed in a family cemetery pur- chased by himself, where a fitting memento is raised to mark his final resting-place. His frailties, if he had any, are merged in the oblivion of forgetfulness ; but he lives by his virtues, lives in the memory of a grateful people. The influences of his benevolence and philanthropy are yet to be engraven upon the hearts of generations unborn.

When the speaking marble that now tells the traveler who rests beneath its base, and the proud structure that now bears his name shall be drifting dust o'er barren wastes, could he look forth from his spiritual resting-place upon the last embryo of future years when it shall have grown old with time, he would behold engraven upon the coffin-lid of the last dead year the inscription, " I am only remembered by what I have done."

JONAS K. BUTTON*

was born May 3, 1821, at Machias, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., of poor, yet honest and respectable parents, and was the youngest except one of a family of nine children, three of whom are yet living. His parents, Charles Button and Naomi (Kingsley) Button, have long since cancelled nature's last demand, and sleep well with the generations gone before, his father having died in 1832, leaving the subject of this sketch, then a lad of eleven years, together with a family of other children, to the care of his widowed mother, to struggle as best they might with the adverse circum- stances that usually surround those in humble life, in a country comparatively new, the most of which was yet unredeemed from the dominion of primeval wildness. He continued to reside with his mother until expediency demanded the dissolution of the family, and at the age of

* By Marvin Older.

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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, NEW YORK.

sixteen he became an inmate of the family of his eldest brother, Lyman, where he remained for two years.

On the 3d day of May, 1839, it being the eighteenth anniversary of his nativity, he left his brother's house and moved out, unaided and alone, upon the broad arena of life, to carve, as best he could, his future destiny upon the shift- ing scenes of coming events. The same day, he hired out to his elder brother, Heman G. Button, for a term of six months, and for the fulfillment of this contract he was to receive the sum of seventy dollars,-an agreement which was punctually performed by both parties.

Thus was earned and stored away for future use the first few dollars upon which young Button could lay his hand and say, " By my labor have I gotten this," thus forming a nucleus around which other dollars clustered in due time.

After the close of this engagement, during the winter of 1839-40, he attended a district school in his native town for the term of three months, which completed his educa- tion, except what advancement he made in his studies during the evenings and other leisure hours not absolutely devoted to daily toil. During the succeeding five years, he continued to work through the spring, summer, and antumn, for the neighboring farmers and taught school in the winters, and by industry, frugality, and economy, had saved the handsome sum of one thousand dollars.

On the 30th day of September, 1845, he married Jane M., daughter of James Duncan, of Franklinville, N. Y. The newly-wedded pair, united in heart, hand, and fortune, instead of spending their " honeymoon" and hard earnings at some fashionable watering-place, unitedly continued in the employ of the Hon. Peter Ten Broeck for nearly two years.

In the spring of 1847, Mr. Button, with his family, removed to the town of Franklinville, settling down upon lot 36, the place now known as the " Old home farm," con- taining two hundred and fifty acres, Judge Ten Broeck taking them with all their household goods in his lumber- wagon, and still in that twelve-foot box there was room to rent for both freight and passengers.

From these small beginnings, by dint of an unconquer- able energy, he soon became the most thorough, systematic, and extensive agriculturalist in the town, always super- intending his work in person and leading off in the ex- citing labors of the day, never asking another to perform what he was unwilling to undertake himself. By the exer- cise of sound judgment, matured by a fruitful experience, prosperity crowned his efforts with success, and he was soon enabled to purchase what is known as the " East Hill prop- erty," a valuable farm of four hundred and twenty-six acres. Then followed in quick succession, the West Hill farm of four hundred and ninety-eight acres, and the " Cline farm" of three hundred and seventy-eight acres,-lands within, and adjacent to, the village of Franklinville, one hundred and eighty acres, besides a farm of two hundred and sixty- one acres in the town of Machias, making an aggregate of something over two thousand one hundred acres of farming land, all of which is heavily stocked, mostly with dairy COWB. In the spring of 1864, these farms were put under rent, and Mr. Button, with his family, removed to the village of Franklinville and commenced preparations for

erecting a splendid residence, which was completed in the following year. This residence, together with its valuable contents, was burned in April, 1875.

Immediately on attaining his majority, Mr. Button was elected to the office of inspector of common schools in his native town, and from time to time has filled different offices of trust and responsibility, having represented the town of Franklinville on the board of supervisors, in the years 1853, 1854-57, and 1860; and was elected to the Assembly in November, 1867, and faithfully represented the First As- sembly District of Cattaraugus County during the legislative session of 1868.

In politics, Mr. Button was always a Democrat of the straightest sect, thoroughly imbued with the political prin- ciples enunciated by Jackson, and carried out in detail in the State of New York by her ablest statesmen,-Wm. L. Marcy and Silas Wright. During the war of the Rebel- lion, no man within the limits of our acquaintance thrust his hand deeper into his pocket, or drew it forth more rich- ly laden with contributions to the soldiers' fund, than did Jonas K. Button.

His connection with the " Ten Broeck Free Academy," first as sole executor of the will of the late Peter Ten Broeck, and secondly, as chairman of the board of trustees of that institution, marks an important epoch in his eventful life.

His executive and administrative ability is best sustained by the large amounts instrusted to him for adjustment and disbursement, and the fidelity with which he discharged these delicate and important trusts is fully established by the records of the Surrogate's court, and the labored and concise reports of the board of trustees of which he is an honorable member ; and the best evidence of his adaptability to discharge these high trusts is the confidence reposed in him by those, who, during their natural lives, had acquired the fortunes thus committed to his charge. In refutation of the scandalous assertion that owing to his political pro- clivities, he was in sympathy with the Rebellion, let facts be submitted to an impartial public. He was among the most zealous and ardent to encourage enlistments, contributing liberally of his own private funds, and at one time laid down $100 to be equally divided as a free gift to the next four who should volunteer,-a promise which he faithfully kept ; and at another time advanced $3000 of his own pri- vate funds, and trusted to future legislation for reimburse- ment, in order to fill the quota of the town of his adoption, and thus save it from the disgrace of resorting to conscrip- tion or a forced levy of troops.

Mr. Button is quite demonstrative in his intercourse with individuals and with society at large. He weighs carefully every enterprise or proposition, and as his judgment dictates, gives it his cordial support or unqualified opposition.

His frugality is free from parsimony, his benevolence from ostentation, his kindness from sycophancy, and his judgment from bias. His friendships are warm and ardent, and his dislikes are manifested by the weight of his oppo- sition. By diligence and economy, by a close application to business, Mr. Button, scarcely past the meridian of life, has acquired a fortune, and long may he live to enjoy it, and the crisping frosts of many autumns wither the flowers of as many springs, ere one shall blossomn above his grave.

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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS .COUNTY, NEW YORK.

WILLIAM M. BENSON .*

The task of the biographer is one of extreme delicacy, standing, as he generally does, between the living and the dead, although the power of criticism on the one side is effectually hushed in the silence of the grave, yet the diver- sified standpoints from which different individuals take cog- nizance of the same character render the task of pleasing all hopeless, indeed; but when to all these is added the fact that the subject himself is to stand face to face with the records and see his own social, moral, and intellectual linea- ments reflected from the mirror of history, the matter be- comes one of intense delicacy, from which we would gladly recoil were we not shielded beneath the banner of immuta- ble truth, and adopting, as we do, for our motto, in our dealings with individuals as well as the public, " Equal and impartial justice to all."

William Marcy Benson, the subject of the following brief sketch, was born in the town of Mount Morris, Livingston Co., N. Y., April 20, 1839.

During the period of childhood and youth he resided with his parents at Nunda, N. Y., where nothing of an extraordinary nature transpired save his intellectual devel- opment, promoted by a love of study, diligent application, and a thorough investigation of the relation between cause and effect. These, brought into due subjection by a rigid system of self-discipline and self-control, fostered the germs of intellectual, social, and moral goodness in the child which have become so strongly developed in the man.

He received a preparatory collegiate education at the Nunda Literary Institute, and in August, 1858, at the age of nineteen, entered Genesee College (now Syracuse Uni- versity), where he graduated with full honors in June, 1862.

To trace him in his social, moral, literary, and scientific development throughout his collegiate carcer would be a work of supererogation ; suffice it to say that he was a good student, stood high in his class and in the estimation of the faculty, and was never guilty of an act derogatory to the character of a gentleman and a Christian.

Unaided by the advantages often given through the pres- tige of influential friends, he bore off the first honors in the Sophomore Elocutionary Prize Contest in 1860.

In the autumn of the same year he engaged as principal of the union school at Castile, N. Y., where he remained one year, and the succeeding year as principal of the Mount Morris Academy and High School.

The last year of the war was spent in government em- ploy in the quartermaster-general's department at Washing- ton, where his urbanity as a gentleman, his skill as a clerk, and his accuracy as an accountant, won for him the com- mendations of all with whom he became acquainted. At the close of the war Mr. Benson resumed the business of teaching as principal of the academy at Arcade, Wyoming Co., N. Y., where he remained three years, and the recorded success of that institution, during its palmiest days, forms a bright chapter in the history of him whose talent and genius made it one of the best literary institutions in Western New York. In July, 1867, he married Genevieve

E., daughter of Grove B. Graves, Esq., of Farmersville, N. Y., and the same summer was elected to the principal- ship of the Ten Broeck Free Academy, and entered upon the duties of that position in the following December, and the past twelve years of his life are merged into the history of that institution. Its success as a means of education, next to the munificence of its founder, is his triumph as a teacher, and its wide-spreading and deserved popularity is an incarnated advertisement of his sterling qualities and moral worth.

Of his life, though brief in years, yet long when measured by its multiplied duties and the amount of labor performed, volumes might be written, and still the subject be prolific of interest; yet we must content ourselves with a mere synopsis and leave the imagination to fill up the picture.

As an independent worker, he ignores many antiquated notions as mere verbiage, supplying their place by original methods adapted to the intellectual needs and capacities of students. Acting upon his own judgment, rendered acute by a lively perception, and strengthened by a fruitful expe- rience, he acts promptly, and adapts himself to the exigen- cies of the case as circumstances demand. His executive ability may be summed up in one brief sentence,-with him " to will is to do." He gives no purpose a divided ef- fort, or looks for possible contingencies that may thwart his purposes. As a disciplinarian, he is equaled by few, and surpassed by none. Possessing an unlimited sway over himself, his power over others is magical,-almost supreme. Quiet and undemonstrative, he governs by the magnetic influence of an unyielding will ; and no regal sceptre pos- sesses a more potent influence than the stub of a pencil held between the index finger and the thumb of Prof. Benson's dexter hand. As a teacher, he possesses an energy that is contagious, and electrifies by its diffusive nature all that comes within its influence. Thorough and searching in his criticisms, he labors zealously to improve the mind and morals, and to strengthen the judgment of his pupils, rather than burden the memory with tedious, and to them unmeaning, recitations. By wise precepts and examples worthy of imitation, he inspires his pupils to constant duties they owe to God, to themselves, and to humanity, and hundreds of young men and young women have treasured them up as their best life-lessons. The influence of these teachings is felt in the domestic household and in the fields of toil; in the workshop and at the counter ; in the learned professions and among those who minister in holy things ; it permeates the cabins of the pioneer that dot the prairies of the far West, and has over- stepped the mountain barriers whose snow-capped summits are kissed by the last rays of the setting sun. It is as if God's healing angel had dipped his wing in the stagnant pool of Time, and its influence had diverged in successive rings from the point of agitation until its rippling music was heard in sweet cadences as they playfully kissed the shores of . Eternity.

As a man, he is a model of propriety. Dignified, with- out being haughty ; reserved, without being diffident; brief, pointed, logical, and explicit in his communications in mat- ters of business and in his profession as a teacher. An attentive listener to those who have anything of importance

* By Marvin Older.

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to communicate, but to the venders of idle gossip he is cold and repulsive. Sympathetic in his nature, he pities distress, and, through his benevolence, relieves it. He is a liberal supporter of all worthy enterprises, and patriotism and love of country is with him a passion. .

Happy in his social and domestic relations, happy in the confidence and respect of the entire community, happy in constant communion with himself and his God, long may he live a blessing to the community, a benefaction to mankind ; and when, through the fullness of years, Providence shall have accomplished its designs through him, may he rest from his labors in the kingdom of God.

HENRY VAN AERNAM*

was born in the town of Marcellus, Onondaga Co., N. Y., March 11, 1819. He was the sixth child and fifth son of Jacob B. and Hannah ( Wallace) Van Aernam. His pater- nal ancestors emigrated from Holland to the American col- onies, and settled near Albany prior to the Revolution, his grandfather taking an active part in the struggle for inde- pendence, and his son, Jacob B., imitating the worthy exam- ple of his patriotic sire, actively participated in the war of 1812. His maternal ancestors brought with them from amid the Highlands of Scotland that indefeasible inheri- tance, a love of liberty, stronger than the love of life. Jacob B. Van Aernam, the father of Henry, removed with his family from Marcellus to Little Valley (now Mansfield), in the spring of 1822, when the subject of this sketch was three years of age. Surrounded by an unbroken wilderness, hampered by poverty and the pressing necessities of a large family of dependent children, the parents of young Henry could furnish but limited facilities for an education ; noth- ing, in fine, save the great volume of nature thrown broad open by the Creator's hand. Thus he struggled on, with " here a line and there a precept," until he was ten years of age, before he ever entered even the most primitive of common schools. But nature had planted within him the germs of more than ordinary intellectual powers, and these would vegetate and grow despite the hindrances of cold neglect, and the multitude of adverse circumstances by which he was surrounded.

In the fall of 1829 and the winter of 1830 he attended a common district school for the first time, and continued to attend during the summer and winter terms until the autumn of 1831. Possessed of more than ordinary powers of analytical reasoning, readily deducing results from legit- imate causes, and, withal, possessed of a laudable ambition to excel in intellectual attainments, his progress was rapid and his natural and acquired abilities extraordinary for one of his years and limited opportunities. In the winter of 1834, at the age of sixteen years, we find him at what is now West Salamanca, measuring, with dignified strides, the length and breadth of the rough plank floor of a dingy edifice, twirling between his finger and thumb, as a token of authority, the ubiquitous ferule, and rejoicing in the distinctive title of the " schoolmaster."

* By Marvin Older.

Stimulated to extra exertions by the promise of a stinted compensation and " board around" among the families of the primitive lumbermen of that period, the school was a decided success; and he looks back with glowing pride upon the order and decorum, the progress and proficiency, of the two dozen shock-headed pupils in that school upon the con- fines of the Allegany Reservation. In the spring of 1834 he entered the store of William F. Elliott, in the capacity of clerk, where he remained until August, 1835, and then went to Virginia, in the employ of William L. Perce & Co., contractors upon the James River and Kanawha Canal, where he remained for two years. Securing, by his integ- rity and correct deportment, the entire confidence of the company, he was soon made their confidential clerk and paymaster,-a position he held and honorably filled until the termination of his engagement. He came home in the fall of 1837, and entered as a student of the Springville Academy, where he remained until 1841, meanwhile teach- ing school in the winter seasons in order to eke out his means for necessary expenses. While a student his gentle- manly deportment gave him high rank in social circles, his scholarship placed him among the first in his class, and his determination to overcome the impediments by which he was surrounded challenged the admiration of all.

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History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 88

Author: Franklin Ellis and Eugene Arns Nash Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Franklin Ellis and Eugene Arns Nash
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: