USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Cayuga County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 12
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The board of education of the city, to whom, by law, are confided the care and management of the schools, are so soon convinced of their efficien- cy by personal inspection, as to lead them cheer- fully to adopt the measures necessary to maintain it. The greatest improvement arose from the institution of the academic high school, which is the rallying point of the hopes, and goal of the ambition of all the grades below it. Few, in- deed, may enter it, yet most of the pupils hope and strive to do so, and it is a constant stimulant to all in the public schools. Much has been done for the improvement of popular education in Cayuga County ; yet " eternal vigilance " is nec- essary to maintain and perpetuate it.
CHAPTER XI.
ART AND PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS.
ARCHITECTS - SCULPTORS -- ENGRAVERS-POR- TRAIT AND LANDSCAPE PAINTERS - LADY ARTISTS - EMINENT LOCAL ARTISTS.
T HE large number of artists who were na- tives, or have been residents of Cayuga County, and the eminence to which several of them have attained, were a surprise to us as the long list has gradually been unfolded, and as our readers examine it, we believe that they too will find it greatly to exceed their expectations.
ARCHITECTS.
The architects of this County have, for the most part, been also practical builders, their genius and taste leading them so to cultivate their natur- al powers as to give them leading positions as designers and draughtsmen.
LAWRENCE WHITE, judging the genius of the man by the perfection of his work, was not only the first in point of time, but also the first in skill in his line, in this County. He designed and erected the old First Presbyterian church in Auburn, said, by experts, to have been as pure an exemplification of the Corinthian order of archi- tecture as existed in the State, and was so com- plete an illustration of the skill of the man that no other example need be cited.
DEACON JOHN I. HAGAMAN, from a carpenter's apprentice, became a thorough expert in archi- tectural drawing and designing, and was an in- structor in the art in Auburn for many years as well as the designer of many of its public and private buildings, including the Second Presbyte- rian church, the court house and the town hall. He projected the map of the city of Auburn, published in 1836, and the buildings illustrated upon it.
WILLIAM B. OLMSTEAD followed the business of architect and builder in Port Byron and in other parts of the County, and at present ranks among the first architects of the city of Brooklyn.
CALVIN OTIS was a pupil of John I. Haga- man in 1841, and attained distinction as an archi- tect, practicing his profession in Geneva and in Buffalo.
JOHN MAURICE practiced architectural drawing successfully in Aurora, in 1858, and afterwards in St. Louis, Mo., and was a designer and builder of good reputation.
MUNROE HAMLIN is one of the very few men now working at his trade as a carpenter and joiner, who served in it a regular apprenticeship. He is not only an excellent practical workman but a good architectural designer and draughts- man.
NELSON HAMBLIN, a native of the County, learned the trade of a carpenter here ; studied and practiced architectural drawing in the city of Brooklyn for twenty years, and recently in Auburn for a few years, designing several im- portant buildings here. He now resides in Brooklyn.
SAMUEL D. MANDELL, a native of Aurora, in this County, began architectural drawing in 1848, studied it thoroughly, and became distin- guished. He designed Wells College, E. B. Morgan's residence, and two churches in Auro- ra, and afterwards many elegant and costly build-
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ings in California, and in Kentucky. He now resides at Aurora.
BLANCHARD FOSGATE, JR., perfected himself in architectural drawing and designing by careful study and practice, and now devotes himself suc- cessfully to the work in the city of Elizabeth, New Jersey.
CHARLES FREDERICK SCHWEINFURTH, could not well avoid being an artist, as his parents, on both sides, are such. After carefully studying archi- tecture, under a competent master, he received an appointment in the office of the Supervising Architect at Washington, where, for five years he has been perfecting himself in his art, in which he is destined to attain preeminent dis- tinction.
ENGRAVERS.
Of engravers we may mention :
GEORGE WHITFIELD HATCH, who was a half- brother of Governor Enos T. Throop, with whom he began the study of the law in Auburn. His tastes led him to study engraving, and he en- gaged with A. B. Durand, of New York. He became one of the great firm of Rawdon, Wright & Hatch, celebrated for their perfect bank note engraving, and as the originators of the "Ameri- can Bank Note Engraving Company," which executed the larger share of the engraving of the . notes and bonds of the Government. Mr. Hatch was reputed to be one of the best plate engravers in the country. His remains repose in Fort Hill Cemetery.
JOHN CHESTER BUTTRE is a native of Auburn, born in 1821 ; he received an academic educa- tion, and a few private lessons in drawing from which his own genius led him to painting, in which he received casual instruction. Not suc- ceeding in his first efforts at painting to his satis- faction, he tried wood engraving, for penny toy primmers, and persevered under many disadvan- ges, in various forms of that work.
At twenty-one years of age, by the kindness of Mr. Hatch he was given desk-room in the engraving department of Rawdon, Wright & Hatch. Here he so rapidly perfected himself as an engraver as very soon to secure remunerative orders ; and from that day to this he has followed his chosen profession, and has attained in it eminent success, professionally and financially.
SCULPTORS.
In native professional sculptors, Cayuga County
has been deficient, being credited with but one such, though Erastus D. Palmer honored us by a residence in the County of about two years.
BYRON N. PICKETT, son of a Port Byron bar- ber, was a born sculptor, and developed such marks of genius and perfection of work, without instruction, as to arrest the attention of Mr. Palmer who kept him for several years in his em- ploy. He is now established in New York, and has produced several valuable works, including a model of the bust of Professor Morse, cast in bronze, and erected in Central Park, New York.
ERASTUS D. PALMER, though not a permanent resident of the County, was nevertheless employed here about two years in the execution of orders from prominent citizens, of Aurora and Auburn, and in the production of ideal pieces. He is a sculptor of great and deserved celebrity.
WALTER G. ROBINSON, from the business of grave-stone cutting, developed the true genius of a sculptor. A bas-relief of Secretary Seward executed by him, is an excellent likeness, and a marble bust of the Secretary, cut by Mr. Robin- son, is considered by the family superior to all others.
PORTRAIT AND LANDSCAPE PAINTERS.
With these, Cayuga has been exceptionally favored as will be seen in the following brief sketches.
WILLIAM DICKINSON, residing in Auburn, in 1816, and Daniel Steele, a native of Aurelius, were our earliest portrait painters. Mr. Steele and his wife were both artists. They have prac- ticed their profession in Washington, D. C., and in the West and South.
JEHU KNAPP was born in Connecticut in 1801, took his first lessons in arabesque painting from William Dickinson, of Auburn, and subsequently studied in New York and Philadelphia, after which he established himself in Auburn. He here painted a portrait of William H. Seward, now in the possession of the family. Though Mr. Knapp was a good artist, he was compelled to supplement his artistic with practical work in house and sign painting to gain a livelihood.
CHARLES LORING ELLIOTT, one of the most distinguished artists that our country has pro- duced, was born in a rude dwelling near Scipio Center, in 1812. He removed with his parents to Auburn. His father, who was a builder,
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·
erected a house on the corner of William street and Love Lane, and here the boyhood of the great artist was passed. He was a natural me- chanic, and fond of the pursuit. He early mani- fested a fondness for drawing and painting, from which his father and friends sought to dissuade him, as a poor paying employment. But his love of art grew, which his father sought to overcome by placing him first in a store, and next at school. It was, however, all the same in both places ; ; neither business nor books would draw him away from his pencil and his brush. Seeing this, his father sought to direct the boy's genius to archi- tectural drawing, as more profitable. That work he could do, but it did not please him ; he wanted to paint. At length he was placed under the instruction of Colonel Trumbull, the eminent painter, and president of the Academy of Fine Arts in New York. He next studied with Onidor. But his means failing, he left the city, and, for the next ten years, took his lessons in the school of nature. In 1845 he returned to New York, and for the rest of his life, was emi- nently successful, and had the reputation of being the best portrait painter of his time in the coun- try.
EDWIN W. GOODWIN was an artist of good reputation, resident in Auburn in 1835. He was expelled from a Methodist Church here for his anti-slavery views, in the expression of which he would not be restrained. He died at Ithaca, New York, in 1845.
CHARLES W. JENKINS was born in Owasco, July 9th, 1821, a son of a house painter, which business he pursued in Auburn for a time, until he entered the studio of E. W. Goodwin. He practiced his profession here until 1837, when he removed to Syracuse, thence to Utica, and in 1848 removed to New York city, where he has since practiced his art.
RANDALL PALMER located in Auburn in 1839. Among the portraits which he painted here were those of that notorious hero of the " Patriot," or "Rheuben " war, William Johnson, and of the bold and devoted daughter of the latter. He painted well, and was an artist of merit. He died about 1842, from the effects of a fall.
T. J. KENNEDY, was born at Saratoga Springs, New York, October 13th, 1820. He began the work of painting, as an apprentice, in Troy, N. Y., at the age of twelve years, was soon employed
in ornamental coach painting, decorating them with landscapes, and allegorical pictures, many of which were fine works of art. Here he also received, for the six years of his apprenticeship, lessons in drawing and painting landscapes, and in portrait painting, from the best artists in those branches in Troy. He came to Auburn in 1838, at the instance of Col. J. M. Sherwood, then a large stage proprietor here, and has since resided here. He has executed several large and fine pieces, "Mazeppa" and the "Last Arrow," among them, and many landscapes that have received favorable notices of art critics. He is an amateur artist of much merit, though the business of paint merchant and sign and house painting, has engaged his principal attention. He was the first man in the County to practically prepare for the great rebellion, by enlisting men, and was actively and efficiently engaged in the service during the war.
GEORGE L. CLOUGH was born in Auburn September 18th, 1834. His father died while George was yet an infant, leaving a widow with slender means and six dependent children. As early as ten years of age he developed a taste and tact in art, and his first picture, executed about this time, on a fragment of a board, is still preserved. From ten to eighteen years of age he was employed in compounding medicines, working by the piece for Dr. Blanchard Fosgate, and finding time to practice his favorite art. The excellence of his work arrested the attention of the artist Palmer, and the latter induced the mother to let her son go into his studio, where his chances of improvement were much increased. Here he continued until 1844, when he opened a studio of his own. About this time Charles L. Elliott came to Auburn to paint the portrait of Governor Seward, and fortunately for Clough, selected his room for the purpose. He was much benefited by the example and kindly hints of this great master. But his patrons were few, and the young artist was severely taxed for the means of support. William C. Barber generously gave him an order for six pictures, paying him one-half in advance. These were followed by other orders, and he soon found himself able to spend a few months with Elliott in New York, there perfecting himself in portrait painting. When he rëopened his room in Auburn, he met with fair success, and married
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a daughter of Robert Peat, in 1848. Under the patronage of the Barbers and other friends, he visited Europe in 1850, spending about a year in the principal art galleries of Germany, France and Italy. Since his return he has devoted his time mainly to landscape painting, to which his taste has always inclined him, and in which he is a close and severe imitator of nature.
There are, it is said, in the city of Auburn alone, over four hundred of his paintings, indi- cating clearly that as a painter, George L. Clough has been highly honored and liberally patronized by those among whom he has chiefly resided.
WILLIAM E. McMASTER came to Cayuga County with his parents when a lad, worked at carriage painting at Weedsport with his father, and evinced an early and great fondness for portrait painting, receiving therein some instruc- tion from Miss Munson of that place, and also from the artist Palmer. He was afterwards a student of Charles L. Elliott, and of the great painter, Vanderlin. In his habits he has been cosmopolitan, practicing his art in the various cities, towns and villages of this country and in Europe. He is an artist of genius and has executed a vast number of portraits of eminent personages, including those of President Buchan- nan, and of Marshal McMahon, President of the French Republic. He has also been prominent as a political writer and speaker, and as a pro- fessional sportsman.
JOSEPH R. MEEKER was a native of Newark, New Jersey, born in 1827, and came with his parents to Auburn about 1836. Here he engaged first in a printing office, and next with T. J. Kennedy in painting, being anxious to be- come an artist. In the preliminary lessons he was instructed by Mr. Kennedy. In 1845, he went to New York to perfect himself in art studies, depending for his support upon the practice of plain painting. Here he spent three years of struggle and toil, when he returned to Auburn, greatly improved in his chosen art. He roomed with Mr. Clough in cheap quarters, they boarding themselves and studying together about a year, when Mr. Meeker established his easel in Buffalo, N. Y. Here, after a hard struggle, he won gratifying success. In 1852, he removed to Louisville, Ky., where for seven years his success was indifferent, and he re- 1
moved to St. Louis, Mo., where he " pitched his tent," in 1859. But the war soon followed and broke up his business. He then secured the position of paymaster in the navy, and there con- tinued for four years. On the steamboats upon the Mississippi he had a fine opportunity to see and delineate the interesting natural scenery upon its shores, and he improved it, carrying back with him to St. Louis, at the close of the war, much material for future use. He has since steadily pursued his profession, and won in, it abundant success. Mr. Meeker is not alone distinguished as a successful and accomplished artist ; he is an able writer on art, and is dis- tinguished for his general culture. He was the originator, and is the President of the St. Louis Art Society, among the most successful of such associations in the country.
HENRY WELLS, the son of a shoemaker in Clarksville, was, at the age of fourteen, bound an apprentice to T.J. Kennedy,to learn plain and sign painting. Mr. Kennedy soon discovered the boy's genius in art, and instructed him in its elemen- tary principles, for about three years, when he gave the boy his indenture, and advised him to go to Philadelphia, to pursue and practice art, and support himself meanwhile by plain paint- ing. There he found an opportunity to draw on wood, and was well paid for it. Going to Mount Vernon, he drew the house and tomb of Wash- ington, had them engraved and published on his own account. Being novelties, the picture had a good sale, five hundred copies having been purchased in Auburn alone, and the enterprise paid well. He continues his designs on wood for the magazines and other publications, and also paints fair pictures in oil. He has been a dili- gent student and is a cultured and refined gentle- man, now about forty years of age.
JOHN R. PAGE, was born in Elbridge, Onon- daga county, in 1821 ; was first a cabinet-maker and next a farmer, and is still engaged in the lat- ter pursuit. He took up art at the age of thirty, as an aid to his judgment of cattle, though al- ways fond of delineating animals. In that spe- cialty he has become so thorough an expert in the critical judgment of blooded horses and cat- tle, that he has few, if any, equals in the country. He will read off the points and pedigree of an animal on first sight with great rapidity and with surprising accuracy, being rarely incorrect in his
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judgment. He paints cattle in oil, giving nearly perfect representations of the originals, and executes neat engravings of them on wood or stone. In 1851, he prepared all the illustrations for the Catalogue of Cattle issued by Col. Morris, of Fordham, the first one of the kind issued in this country. The excellence and perfection of that work gave to Mr. Page a national reputa- tion, and the claim upon his time and talents for similar work has since been very great from all : parts of the country, including California and the Pacific Coast. He illustrated the American Herd Book of Short-Horn Cattle, in sixteen volumes, and also the Canada Herd Book. His services have been sought in England. As an auctioneer in the sale of valuable animals he has no supe- rior. He sold the famous York Mills herd, one cow in which brought the fabulous price of forty thousand dollars. He owns and neatly cultivates a farm in Sennett, rears choice animals and good products, is a genial and social gentleman, a fine specimen of genius practically and usefully ap plied.
FREDERICK M. COFFIN, a native of Nantucket, born in 1822, came to Auburn with his parents in 1845, and is the only surviving son of his wid- owed and aged mother, with whom he resides, and to whose comfort he administers with true and ex- emplary filial affection. He early manifested a genius for art by drawing and grouping animals. In 1846, he engaged as clerk in the store of F. L. Griswold & Co., in Boston. We next find him engaged in sketching and drawing figures for a fresco painter in Boston. He returned to Auburn and engaged again as merchant's clerk, but keeping up his habit of sketching and draw- ing, producing striking representations of groups of people whose portraits were readily recog- nized. In 1849, he drew on wood for engravers and executed portraits in crayon. He next spent a year in the collector's office in Buffalo, and three subsequent years in designing and drawing on wood for the publishers. He illustrated sev- eral of the books published in Auburn by Derby. Miller & Co., as well as works for Buffalo, and New York publishers. In 1854, he took up his residence in New York and devoted himself ex- clusively to drawing and designing for the maga- zine and book publishers of that city and Boston. Too close application impaired his eyes and he traveled for a season as a means of restoration.
He enlisted and served three years in the war of the Rebellion, sketching many military and natu- ral scenes. He then directed his attention to painting cattle in oil, locating himself with his parents in Sennett, where he industriously applied himself to painting horses, cattle and pastoral scenes, adding greatly to his already large store of art productions. But the death of his father and brother devolved upon him the sole care of his aged mother and aunt, for whose comfort he generously relinquished his art studies and duti- fully devoted himself to his relatives - an inter- esting and forcible illustration of the beauty of his character.
GEORGE H. MATTHEWS, a native of Utica, born in 1834, removed in early life to Buffalo, N. Y., where he pursued art studies under various masters, and came to Auburn at nineteen years of age. He has been principally engaged here in portrait painting, and has probably executed more portraits of the citizens of Auburn than any other resident artist, and his portraits are all faithful likenesses of their subjects. His merits as an artist are appreciated, and he is so liberally patronized that he makes his profession a financial success, which is a rare thing in a city the size of Auburn. Notwithstanding his com- plete success as a portrait painter, he has con- tinually expressed a wish to change his employ- ment. He has a great fondness for the works of the dramatists, and the facility with which he can recite their productions is a marvelous illustra- tion of the power of his memory. It is said that he can repeat verbatim fifty entire plays, of Shakspere, Bulwer, Sheridan and Knowles, and, when on his walks, is often so absorbed in their silent recitation, as to pass his most familiar friends unnoticed.
JOSEPH HASKILL, son-in-law of the late Joseph Choate, has painted portraits in Auburn, and elsewhere in the County for many years, and in New York City, Detroit, &c. He now resides and practices his profession in Syracuse.
FRANK R. RATHBUN, a native of Burlington, Vermont, was early inclined to sketch mechanical objects, and those relating to natural history. After preliminary studies, he was engaged in the geological survey of Vermont, in sketching the scenery and animals to illustrate that work. He went out with the Nineteenth Regiment and made drawings of the birds of the Chesapeake.
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Subsequently he was mechanical draughtsman for a firm of manufacturers of cotton machinery in Worcester, Mass. He is now engaged in this city in painting objects of natural history, drawings of birds, various designs for book publishers, and artistic ornamentation generally.
NICHOLAS B. KITTELL was a resident in Auburn in 1865, and for several years painted portraits here quite satisfactorily, and is now con- tinuing his profession in New York City, and maintains a fine reputation, both as an artist and a social and pleasant gentleman.
MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM B. GIFFORD are natives of Aurora, N. Y., the latter, grand- daughter of Humphrey Howland. They possess ample pecuniary means, and are both enthusi- astic lovers of art. They are yet young, and have been, and are, carefully perfecting them- selves in art studies in the best schools in this country and in Europe, devoting to them their time and all the necessary means. They both paint portraits, and are now pursuing their studies in New York City, with every prospect of attaining eminence in their profession.
GEORGE W. KING was born in Auburn in 1836, and worked at the carpenter's trade until twenty-five years of age. He had a natural taste for art which was early and constantly shown by the use, first of his pencil, and subsequently of crayons. He would employ nearly every frag- ment of leisure in delineating some animal or other object upon a board or box, or whatever was at hand, on which he could construct the image of his fancy.
His mechanical employment did not please him ; but his love of art was controlling, and it impelled him to its pursuit against strongly opposing obstacles. He had slender means, without influential friends, and was of amiable and modest disposition, and not calculated to push his way to success through an adverse and jostling crowd. His early struggles, between the strong promptings of his taste and his inability to gratify it, were therefore severe; yet he decided to go to New York at a venture, and to test what might come of it.
He accordingly went thither and entered the drawing class at the Cooper Union. Fortun- ately for him he soon made the acquaintance of the kind-hearted and distinguished portrait painter, Page, who became his firm friend and
benefactor ; and when Mr. King's means failed he aided him in procuring work in coloring photographs, which partly relieved his necessities. His generous patron went farther and invited Mr. King to accompany him and his family to Eaglewood, N. J., and to make his home with them, and he did so.
Here he had the good fortune to meet and se. cure the warm friendship of the artist, Innis, who became so much interested in Mr. King as, for nearly a year, to give him voluntary and val- uable instruction in landscape painting. and to compliment him for his skill in that department of art, in which his progress was rapid. He was greatly encouraged by the flattering approval of so competent a master, with so full an oppor- tunity for critical and careful judgment.
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