History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 91

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649

USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I > Part 91

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The strain and exposure that Col. Allen suffered dur- ing the campaign, caused his sickness, and soon after, before he could enter upon his official term, his death. At the succeeding election Nelson I. Norton, Repub- lican, from Cattarauqus county, was elected to fill the vacancy. Walter L. Sessions' disastrous defeat closed for a while his political career, and Governor Fenton thereafter ceased to take an active part in the politics of the county. He died August 25, 1885, at the age of sixty-six years. He was the most distinguished citi- zen of the county. For ten years he was a member of Congress, four years Governor of the Empire State, and for six years its United States Senator-the only Gov- ernor and Senator that at that time had been elected

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from Western New York. In 1868, in the National Convention of his party, he stood second in the final ballot for vice-president-facts, that concisely tell the story of his active and prominent career. He was a polished and easy speaker, but not a strong one. Nor was he a distinguished writer. He had, however, pe- culiar talents of his own. He was a man of action, of diligence, of strong common sense, self-reliance and self-control. He was distinguished as an organizer and tactician. His secretiveness was large, and he kept his own counsel in an eminent degree, never losing sight of his own interest. He courted the favor of his fellow-citizens. To secure it, he assiduously cultivated all the arts of manner and speech. He was gracious and courteous alike to friend and foe. He was affable and polite in a remarkable degree, and was regarded as being the most polished member of the House of Representatives in his time. Refinement and elegance of manner have never been regarded as the products of an humble birth, but as virtues that exclusively belong to the aristocratic and well born, yet Mr. Fenton, born in the backwoods of Chautauqua county, in a log cabin, reared in the society of rough lumbermen and rafts- men, had graces of speech and polish of manner, that a courtier might envy. And yet Mr. Fenton was not an aristocrat. His early associations and his natural instincts were strongly democratic.

In 1876 Hayes received 4,380 majority over Tilden in Chautauqua county, and George W. Patterson, of Westfield, Republican, was elected to Congress. Al- though the political career of Walter L. Sessions had apparently come to an end, his brother Loren was still a power in the congressional district, and was in 1877 elected from that district to the State Senate upon the Republican ticket. In 1880, Garfield was elect- ed President, with a majority of 4,950 votes over Han- cock, in Chautauqua county. During Loren B. Ses- sions' last term in the State Senate, to which he had been elected in 1879, the celebrated contest occurred in Congress between the friends of Senator Conkling and the friends of President Garfield, resulting in the resignation of Senators Conkling and Thomas Platt, and occasioning a strong effort on the part of their friends in the Legislature of the State of New York to have them returned to the Senate. Sessions was a sup- porter of Garfield, and took a leading, and most effec- tive part in preventing their return. There were more ad- herents to Senators Conkling and Platt in the Legisla- ture than were opposed to them. Through Sessions' nerve and audacity, an adjournment of the Legislature was effected, and sufficient time gained for the mem- bers to hear from their many Garfield constituents, and to cause a majority of them to vote against the re- turn of these Senators. Had they been reelected, they would have probably, continued to be the dominant power in the Republican party. The defeat of the Senators and the division of the party in the State in consequence of it, had much to do with the election of Cleveland over Folger as Governor, and later con- tributed to his election as President.

During Loren Sessions' term as Senator, charges of bribery were brought against him, but a committee of the Legislature exonerated him. The charges, how- ever, proved disastrous to his political fortunes, and he was unable to command a renomination to the Senate of the State. For twenty-three years after, however, he was elected Supervisor of his town of Harmony, in Chautauqua county, and for seventeen years its chairman. He was a superior, impartial and popular presiding officer, watchful of the public interest. He had a striking personality, strong common sense, was

genial, witty, and a born fighter. He was a unique and original character, and it will be long before his dupli- cate will appear in the politics of Chautauqua county. His name still inspires memories of the lively times and spicy happenings in the old stormy political days that followed the Civil War. For more than twenty years he and his brother Walter controlled the politics of Chautauqua county, and as we have seen, were formid- able competitors of Governor Fenton for the honors of their party in their congressional district.

The year 1880 began a new period in the history of politics of the county. Reuben E. Fenton had retired from political life, Walter and Loren Sessions had ceased to be a power in their party, and the bitter feud between its wings had come to an end. The old lead- ers of both parties were now giving place to younger men, many of whom had passed the prime of life, but still occupied the stage, their parts unfinished, so that their story cannot now be fully told.

Never since the existence of the Democratic party under that name, a period of nearly ninety years, has the county been carried by that party at a presidential or gubernatorial election, except in the year 1882. That year, Folger, the Republican candidate for governor, re- ceived but 4,803 votes ; Cleveland, the Democratic can- didate, received 6,217, a majority of 1,414, and was elected governor. Francis B. Brewer, of Westfield, and John S. Lambert, the Republican candidates for Congress and county judge, respectively, were elected. Charles H. Corbett, Democrat, was elected to the As- sembly from the western assembly district of the county.

At the presidential election in 1884, Blaine received in Chautauqua county 10,670 votes, Cleveland 5,861, Butler of the Greenback or People's party, 540, and St. John of the Temperance party, 540. Walter L. Sessions was at this election again elected to Congress. Ten years before, he had suffered an overwhelming defeat, which would have destroyed all expectation of future recogni- tion by the people, of a weaker, and less able man. His political life had been a stormy one from its beginning. This was the last time that he sought, or held a political office.

In 1888, Harrison was elected President. He received 12,008 votes in Chautauqua county; Cleveland polled 6,178; and 893 Prohibition votes were cast. In 1889, John S. Lambert, of Fredonia, was elected Justice of the Supreme Court, and Warren B. Hooker member of Congress. In 1890, the Democrats succeeded in elect- ing Almon A. Van Dusen county judge.

In 1891, dissensions existed in both of the leading parties in the county. Grover Cleveland had admirers among the Democrats, while others were followers of David B. Hill. The partisans of each were active and energetic to promote the candidacy of their favorite. Commodore P. Vedder, the Republican candidate for Senator, was not popular with all of his party. Dr. James T. Edwards, president of the Chamberlin In- stitute at Randolph, Cattaraugus county, although he was a Republican, was nominated at the Democratic Senatorial Convention. He received the support of many Republicans, and was elected. Arthur C. Wade, of Jamestown, a lawyer who stood in the front rank in his profession in his county and in Western New York, was nominated by the Republicans for the office of Comptroller. As the State was that year Demo- cratic, he failed of an election.

In 1892, Grover Cleveland was elected President. John Bidwell, of California, the candidate of the Pro- hibitionist or Temperance party, was a native of Chau- tauqua county. In 1841, when a youth, he crossed the plains to California, then a part of Mexico, and but

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little known. He became thereafter identified with its history. He was a member of the first Constitutional Convention of California, and a delegate to the famous National Democratic Convention held in Charleston in 1860, a member of Congress, and once an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of California. At this election he received in Chautauqua county 1112 votes, the high- est number of votes ever polled by that party in the county. Cleveland received 6397 votes, and Harrison 11,504. Warren B. Hooker was elected to Congress, and subsequently chosen chairman of Rivers and Har- bors.

In 1893, the Republicans nominated for delegates to the State Convention called to form a new constitution, the following residents of Chautauqua : Benjamin S. Dean and Louis Mckinstry. The Independent Repub- licans and Democratic candidates as such delegates were : Hubert E. V. Potter, Ohed Edson and Silas W. Mason. The Republican candidates were elected. In 1894 Warren B. Hooker was again elected to Con- gress.

At the presidential election that followed in 1896, Mckinley received 8167 majority in Chautauqua county, over Bryan. John Woodard, of Chautauqua county, was elected Justice of the Supreme Court, over James A. Allen, Democrat, of Buffalo, a lawyer, and former resi- dent of Chautauqua county. Warren B. Hooker was elected to Congress, and Jerome B. Fisher county judge. Mr. Fisher, reelected to that office, was afterwards ap- pointed reporter of the Supreme Court.

In 1808, Theodore Roosevelt received in the county 6,716 majority for Governor over Augustus Van Wyck. Warren B. Hooker was again elected to Congress.

The Assembly of the State of New York was organ- ized in 1899 by the election of Samuel Fred Nixon as its speaker. He was the first member chosen to that position, by that body, from the county of Chautauqua, and was often afterwards chosen as speaker. Warren B. Hooker having resigned his office of member of Con- gress, to which he had been elected for five consecu- tive terms, was now elected Justice of the Supreme Court. Chautauqua county, from time to time, had be- come represented in this court by seven distinguished members of the legal profession, as follows: James Mullett, Richard P. Marvin, Benjamin F. Green, George Barker. John S. Lambert, John Woodard and Warren B. Hooker,-a record that the city of Buffalo scarcely exceeds. Fredonia seemed the home of the judiciary in Chautauqua county, for all of these judges, with the exception of Judge Marvin, have had their residence in that village.

At the presidential election held in 1900, Mckinley received 8660 more votes than Bryan in Chautauqua county. In the election of 1902, Frank H. Mott, of Jamestown, the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State, carried his strong Republican city of James- town by a majority of 300. The State being Republi- can at the time, he failed of election. In the presi- dential election of 1904. Roosevelt received 10,597 more votes in the county, than Parker, and in the pres- idential election of 1908, Taft received 9683 more votes than Bryan.

And now the most important political campaign and election that had occurred in half a century was ap- proaching. The Republican National Convention was held in Chicago, in June, 1912, and William H. Taft was nominated for President, at which Frank Anderson, of Jamestown, represented Chautauqua county as the dele- gate. The Democratic National Convention was held in the later days of June and first days of July, 1912. and Woodrow Wilson was made the candidate for

President, at which Walter H. Edson, of Falconer, rep- resented Chautauqua county. The Progressive party's national convention, was held in Chicago, August 5, 6 and 7, 1912, and Theodore Roosevelt was made the candidate for President, at which H. E. V. Porter, of Jamestown, represented the county of Chautauqua.

At the general election that followed, on the 5th of November, 1912, Taft, the Republican candidate for President, received 7996 votes in Chautauqua county ; Wilson, the Democratic candidate, received 4032; Roosevelt, the Progressive candidate, received 6574; Debs the Socialistic candidate, 1353; and Chafin. the Prohibition candidate, 916. Charles M. Hamilton, of Chautauqua county, Republican, was elected to Con- gress. Ernest Cawcroft, of Jamestown, the Progres- sive candidate for State Treasurer, failed of election, as the State was carried by the Democrats, but received more votes than his party in the county. All of the candidates upon the Republican ticket for county of- fices were elected, with the exception of the candidate for member of Assembly in the first district. George WV. Jude, of Jamestown, the Progressive candidate for that office, was elected, and was the only Assemblyman elected in the State, of that party, outside of the city of New York.

In the year following the Progressive movement, Chautauqua county was still disturbed. George W. Jude was renominated to the Assembly in the first dis- trict, and received the support of the Democrats and Progressives, with an aggregate of 3537 votes, and was defeated by A. Morelle Cheney, who secured 3612 votes upon the Republican ticket. John Leo Sullivan, of Dunkirk, was nominated hy the Republicans, and had 5017 votes, to 3553 votes for E. S. Moss. William S. Stearns, the Republican nominee for district attorney, received 8620 votes, as against 8349 votes for his Dem- ocratic-Prohibition-Progressive opponent.

Charles M. Hamilton was re-elected to Congress in 1914, the vote in Chautauqua county being 9804, to 2063 for Manton M. Wyvell, of Allegany county. By this time the effects of the Progressive movement had prac- tically disappeared, A. Morelle Cheney, the Republican candidate for member of Assembly having 4753 votes, while his Democratic opponent, Carl O. Hultgren, had 1728, with 1500 votes divided about equally between the Socialists and the Socialist Labor parties. In the sec- ond district, John Leo Sullivan was chosen by 4024 votes to 2815 for David H. Stanton, his Democratic opponent. In this year Charles M. Dow, president of the Chautauqua County Historical Society, and a res- ident of Jamestown, and Herman J. Westwood, of Fre- donia, were chosen as delegates to the Constitutional Convention which convened in Albany in 1915. Thomas Heffernan, of Dunkirk was Mr. Dow's opponent, and received 3477 votes, Mr. Dow having 8760 in Chautau- qua county.

In 1915, Leon L. Fancher of Jamestown was elected by the Republican party to the Assembly from the first Chautauqua district, defeating William F. Stitt, Demo- crat, and Frank G. Curtis, Prohibitionist and Pro- gressive, the latter receiving 3361 votes, to 5324 for Mr. Fancher, and 1006 for Mr. Stitt. In the second dis- trict. Joseph A. McGinnies of Ripley became the can- didate of the Republican party, securing 6475 votes, against 2103 for his Democratic opponent, David T. Smith.

The presidential election of 1916 showed Chautauqua county back in its leading position among the Republi- can counties of the State, giving Hughes 14.280, to 7146 for Wilson, with 435 American, 863 Prohibition and 922 Socialist votes. Charles M. Hamilton was re-

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elected to Congress, and Leon L. Fancher and Joseph McGinnies to the Assembly, and William S. Stearns district attorney.

In 1917, Senator George Spring having died, J. Sam- nel Fowler of Jamestown was elected to fill the va- cancy. John S. Lambert of Fredonia was elected to the Supreme Court for the third time, and Hermes L. Ames of Ellicott was elected to the Assembly to suc- cecd Mr. Fancher, and Joseph A. McGinnies was re- elected from the second district.

In the following year both members of Assembly were re-elected. Arthur B. Ottoway, who had been county judge for the previous seven years, was re- elected, and J. Samuel Fowler was elected to the full term in the Senate. Charles M. Hamilton having re- fused to be candidate for re-election to Congress, Dan- iel A. Reed of Dunkirk was elected Representative in Congress, his opponents being Frank H. Mott of James- town, and Gust C. Peterson, of the same city. The vote in Chautauqua county was 17,271 for Reed, 4490 for Mott, and 1125 for Peterson.

In 1919, Ames and McGinnies were re-elected to the Assembly, and McGinnies was seriously considered as a candidate for the office of speaker, an ambition which he still cherishes, after his successive elections in 1019 and 1920. In the latter year, Mr. Ames was a can- didate for the Assembly, but a fatal accident befell him just before the primary, and Judson S. Wright of Elli- cott was nominated and elected to succeed him. The result of the general election of 1920, in which Chau- tanqua county contributed something over 22,000 to the plurality for the Republican ticket in the State of New York, is rather too recent to constitute history. Daniel A. Reed was re-elected to Congress, and J. Samuel Fowler was defeated in the primary for renomination, and was succeeded by DeHart H. Ames of Cattaraugus county in the Senate.

Thus closes more than one hundred years of Chan- tauqua county politics.

Although Chautauqua was one of the counties last

settled in the State, and lies in its extreme western part, it is now, perhaps, the most important of those that have not a large city within its limits. Its towns that border on Lake Erie are interested in fruit raising and have become one of the most important grape regions in the United States. The remainder of the county is devoted to dairying. In that industry it is among the foremost counties. The farmers' Grange had its origin there. The first subordinate grange was es- tablished at Fredonia. Dunkirk is among the leading cities in the manufacture of railroad locomotives. For a half a century the saw mills and manufactories of Jamestown, then in the heart of a great forest of Weymouth pines, manufactured the lumber that was rafted down the river, to supply the growing cities and towns along the Allegheny, Ohio, and even the Missis- sippi river, and it and its neighboring village of Fal- coner are still important manufacturing points. After the New York and Erie railroad had been completed in 1851, Chautauqua became one of the chief railroad counties in the State. In 1902, there were 250 miles of steam, and 24 miles of electric roads built in the county. Since then, many more miles have been con- structed.

Besides economic and civic, Chautauqua has physical features, that mark it, chief among which is the lake which gives it its name, and lies exclusively within its borders. The lake extends for eighteen miles through the heart of the county, is bordered by green and gently sloping hills, girdled by railroad and trolley lines, navigated by steam and electric boats, bearing thousands of passengers during the summer months. It is the highest of the navigated lakes bordering on, or within the State, and the only one that lies within the Valley of the Mississippi. Its upper extremity is only some half a dozen miles from the basin of the Great Lakes. the waters of which enter the ocean upon the cold and bleak shore of Labrador, 4,000 miles from where the waters of Chautauqua Lake finally mingle with the tepid waves of the Gulf of Mexico.

MUNICIPAL ACTIVITIES. By Mayor Samuel A. Carlson, Jamestown, New York.

Rufus Choates said, "The final end of government is not to exert restrictions, but to do good." "To do good must indeed be the end of all government, to advance society, to perfect citizenship, to exemplify the ideals of human service, and to promote the greatest good to the greatest number." This has been the mu- nicipal democracy programme carried out in a large measure by the Jamestown municipality.

This city furnishes to its inhabitants, through munici- pal channels, light, water, market, hospital and sanitary service, paving and sewer construction, at rates con- siderably less than those charged by private corpora- tions for similar service in other cities. There has been developed a civic spirit which places emphasis upon the value received in public service, and which has re- jected the short-sighted policy of turning every public utility over to private ownership for fear that public ownership might involve a public debt.

For years private interests have conducted a propa- ganda by which the public mind in most cities has been taught to believe that anything undertaken by the mu- nicipality for the public good would mean a tax burden upon the citizens. Few persons seem to realize that every time a street car fare is paid or an electric bill is paid to a private corporation, it means just that

much paid in taxes into private channels instead of into public channels. In the end, the whole community pays not only the indebtedness of the private corpora- tions, but dividends on stock which is often inflated. If the average citizen dwelling in the city in which public service utilities are privately owned will undertake to compute the amount of his contribution for service re- ceived, he will find that his burdens are far greater than the tax outlays in cities where the opposite policy is pursued.

When as a public official I first proposed to munici- palize the lighting system in Jamestown twenty-five years ago, there went up a great hne and cry from cor- poration sources about "tax burdens," "waste of public money," "socialistic experiments," etc., but the city has proved the unsoundness of these predictions.

The city now has a municipal electric plant valued at a half million dollars with an indebtedness against the plant of less than $60,000. The assets of the plant have been created entirely from the profits realized from the commercial sales of electric current to citizens. Not a single dollar has been levied in taxes to pay for the plant or its operation. The income from this source has paid all operating expenses, all interest on bonds, all repairs and replacements, and all necessary extensions

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to the plant from time to time, besides leaving a sur- plus (after deducting five per cent. for depreciation) with which annual payments on bonds have been made. The city has been able to do this after having made rates far below those paid by consumers of current in cities supplied by privately owned plants. Our prevail- ing rate is 472 cents per k. w. hour, notwithstanding the excessive price paid for coal from which its power for current is produced. Not only has the city been ahle to return to its citizens the increased values of a municipal utility nearly paid for, but it has saved to the people nearly two million dollars as a result of low rates for electric current. The average home owner is able to light and do the laundry work in his home at a cost of $1.50 per month.

The city has succeeded in rendering this service in the face of keen competition from the Jamestown Street Railway Company, which under its franchise is author- ized to carry on the business of commercial lighting. If this mistaken policy of duplicate service had not been sanctioned by the city, there would have been much greater revenue and gain to the people than is now the case. The municipal plant has forced the private com- pany to sell within the city limits at the same price charged by the city, although outside of the city, where there is no municipal competition, the private company charges 12 cents per k. w. The municipality has con- tinued its low rates, while private corporations have continually demanded increases. Various disinterested experts have made repeated examinations into the affairs of the municipal lighting operations, and in every instance the reports have reflected credit upon the city's management.

Jamestown has a water plant valued at one and a half million dollars, with a honded debt of $450,000. The difference between assets and debts represents gains to the community obtained without taxation and entirely from revenues derived from water rentals, which were reduced 60 per cent. after the acquisition of the plant from the private company. The city also owns and operates a public market, which is valued at $35,000, and was wholly paid for from the revenues derived in rentals from stalls used by market dealers. The public market has had the effect of stabilizing prices. Jamestown also maintains a public hospital valued at $200.000, against which there is an indebted- ness of only $80,000.

All the paving operations in the city are conducted directly by the municipality, with the result that the profits which formerly went into the pockets of con- tractors now remain in the pockets of the abutting property owners, whose assessments for paving and sewer improvements have been reduced by this method more than 33 per cent. All the garbage within the city is wrapped by each householder in paper bundles after having been drained in the kitchen sink, and is taken by means of a collecting wagon owned by the city to a piggery located in the outlying district.

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 91

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc. Number of Pages: 649

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649