USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume II > Part 35
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CAROLINE CURTISS-With the awakening of a national consciousness in America has come the first real opportunity for our native musicians to assert their talents and to challenge the world with the signifi- cance of their ability free from prejudice and the fetich of "foreign atmosphere." Among the great American singers of astonishing powers is the young lyric soprano of Jamestown, Chautauqua county, New York, Miss Caroline Curtiss. Although Miss Curtiss has been only a short time before the public, her career has been the concentrated essence of spectacular success. This is not only due to her wonderful talent, but to the systematic and careful training she enjoyed since her earliest childhood, and not a little of her success may be credited to her cultured and talented mother, who, possessing exceptional musical ability, has been able to encourage her daughter toward the musical career which she has attained.
Caroline Curtiss was born in Jamestown, New York, and is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Delevan Cur- tiss. She received her early education in the James- town public schools. She demonstrated her musical talent at the age of five years, attracting the attention of a noted musical critic who recorded that she sang "cleary, sweetly and with great expression, showing decided musical talent." Two years later she played her first operatic role, that of Little Bo-Peep in a fairy operatta for children. Again at the age of twelve she took a leading part in an operatic performance in
her native city, where "her pleasing soprano voice found a responsive chord in the audience and she was heartily encored again and again." After several years of study in the famous Washington Girls' School, "Fairmount," Miss Curtiss had not only gained the general intellectual background so necessary to the true artist, but also achieved the unusual honor of graduating from the vocal department of the institu- tion, an event which had not been duplicated in thir- teen years. At this time her teacher pronounced her ready for the concert stage, but before making a pub- lic appearance she received additional instruction from such famous masters as Otto Torney Simon, of Wash- ington, D. C., and from Parisian Jean Criticos. teacher of Jean de Reszke and other great artists. Two of the most famous musicians in the world had also, by this time, given the young singer their unqualified approval. Shortly before her graduation she had an opportunity to sing for Madame Emma Calve, and the French diva expressed the greatest enthusiasm over her voice, predicting a most brilliant future. Not long after this the great Belgian violinist and conductor, Eugene Ysaye, had Miss Curtiss sing for him the famous "Aria" from Massenet's "Herodiade." When she had finished he sprang from his chair, kissed her upon the forehead, and exclaimed: "My child, you have God's gift."
Through diligent work and steady development, Miss Curtiss has mastered a large repertoire in a wide vari- ety of styles, being made familiar with the literature of music from earliest childhood through the splendid assistance and encouragement of her parents. She is equally familiar with the requirements of oratorio and those of song interpretation. Miss Curtiss' personal beauty, united with distinction of manner and personal- ity, her emotional understanding with her marvelously even voice of highly sympathetic qualities, has made her the interpreter par excellence of many and varied selections. Her absolute sincerity, her ability to forget self in her art, has won for her a unique place in the hearts of the music loving public. This is evidenced in the many testimonials which she has received. Quoting from an article which appeared in the "Musi- cal Courier," April 3, 1919, speaking of her New York debut recital at Aeolian Hall, March 25, 1919, it said: "In conclusion, Miss Curtiss has a soprano voice of much clarity and sweetness which she uses with skill. Her interpretations showed serious purpose and intelli- gence and held her audience interested to the finish of the program. One looks forward to a second recital. Her future is assured and she is a most attractive addi- tion to the concert field."
Miss Curtiss has been paid many tributes by the press and critics in many of the large cities of the East where she has appeared in concert. One par- ticularly noteworthy, of local interest, is that of the Jamestown "Morning Post" relative to her recital ap- pearance at the Samuels Opera House, Jamestown, New York, January 9, 1919; it said in part that her recital was not only a distinguished musical event but one of civic pride as well. "The concert program of Caroline Curtiss, the young prima donna soprano, was one of chaste beauty, a collection of rich musical gems, distinctively of the modern cult, and happily
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fitted to the voice and temperment of the gifted artist. Miss Curtiss possesses a voice singularly pure, un- failingly true to pitch and of real exquisite quality, her pianissimo an achievement of real vocal command."
The Jamestown "Journal" on that occasion in an editorial said in part: "Miss Caroline Curtiss, the young and most pleasing soprano soloist, in beginning her professional career will have the good wishes as she has the love and admiration of the people of James- town and Chautauqua county generally. A girl with charm of character and person, a voice of singular beattty and culture, Miss Curtiss will surely win the hearts of the people wherever she appears." On the occasion of the recital last spoken of, a telegram sent to R. E. Johnston, her concert manager in New York City, by William L. Foster, manager of the Samuels Opera House, said: "Caroline Curtiss scored triumph last night, exceeded all expectations."
In closing this review of Miss Curtiss' life will say that when the next history of Chautauqua county shall have been written we predict that Miss Curtiss will have achieved a place among the noted artists of the world, and will not only be a source of credit and pride to her city and county, but to her State and Nation as well.
HUBERT ELMER VOLNEY PORTER -- As president and principal of the Jamestown Business College Association, Ltd., Mr. Porter has long been numbered among the leading educators of Western New York. He has, also, for some years, been actively associated with the political life of his home city and now (1920) fills the office of acting mayor. For nearly a quarter of a century he has been inti- mately and influentially identified with the religious interests of his community, taking a leading part in the various activities of the Methodist Episcopal church.
(I) John Porter, founder of the American branch of the family, came from Dorset, England, to the American colonies, and in 1637 was at Hingham, Mas- sachusetts, settling in 1644 at Salem, Massachusetts. He was constable and deputy to the General Court at Hingham, established the first tannery in New Eng- land, and was reputed to be the largest landholder in Salem Village.
(II) Samuel Porter, son of John Porter, married Hannah Dodge.
(III) John (2) Porter, son of Samuel and Hannah (Dodge) Porter, married Lydia Herrick.
(IV) Samuel (2) Porter, son of John (2) and Lydia (Herrick) Porter, married Sarah Bradstreet. Samuel (2) Porter held the rank of sergeant in the Colonial forces.
(V) John (3) Porter, son of Samuel (2) and Sarah (Bradstreet) Porter, served as sergeant in the Conti- nental army, participating in the battle of Benning- ton, and being present at "Burgoyne's surrender" at Saratoga. He was commissioned captain in 1779. Cap- tain Porter married Mary Kimball.
(VI) John (4) Porter, son of John (3) and Mary (Kimball) Porter, was a major in the Patriot army of the Revolution, serving with the Thirteenth Regiment, under Colonel Edward Wiggleworth, under whom he
also held the rank of brigade inspector. Major Por- ter married Lydia Baker.
(VII) Israel Porter, son of Jolin (4) and Lydia (Baker) Porter, was one of the founders of Gouver- neur, New York. He married Hannah Belknap, and settled at Gouverneur, where he established the home- stead and engaged in the milling business. In 1835, accompanied by his eldest son, Israel Washington Porter, he journeyed to the wilderness of Wisconsin, west of Milwaukee, where he laid out farms for his three sons.
(VIII) Israel Washington Porter, son of Israel and Hannah (Belknap) Porter, was one of the pioneer set- tlers of Waukesha county, Wisconsin, where he built and operated the first saw mill and the first grist mill established in the territory of Wisconsin. He married Lydia Harris, and they became the parents of ten chil- dren. Shortly after the Civil War he disposed of his interests in Wisconsin and retired from active life to devote his declining years to fruit culture in Vineland, New Jersey. Mr. Porter was a man of much force of character, and it was generally felt that any interest with which he was identified possessed in him a wise and vigorous promoter.
(IX) Volney Homer Porter, son of Israel Wash- ington and Lydia (Harris) Porter, married Adelia E. Jackson, and served through the Civil War in the Twenty-eighth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infan- try, being appointed sergeant in 1864. After the war he engaged in horticultural pursuits in New Jersey.
(X) Hubert Elmer Volney Porter, son of Volney Homer and Adelia E. (Jackson) Porter, was born No- vember 21, 1861, at Waukesha, Wisconsin, and in 1885 graduated in the scientific department of Pennington (New Jersey) Seminary Collegiate Institute. Later he attended Dickinson College, and also the Eastman Na- tional Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York, re- ceiving from the latter institution, in 1887, the degree of Master of Accounts.
For some time, thereafter, Mr. Porter taught in the public schools of New Jersey, and at Baptist College, Woodstock, Ontario, Canada. In 1892 he was elected president and principal of the Jamestown (New York) Business College Association, Ltd., and has since re- ceived, annually, the tribute of a reëlection to that im- portant and responsible position. The institution was founded in 1886, and in 1889 was incorporated as a business college, with authority to issue diplomas to its graduates. The splendid structure which is now its home was erected in 1910 and the institution is now one of the best appointed business colleges in the United States. The school is co-educational, and its patronage is chiefly from Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania. In the autumn of 1919 two hundred and sixty students were in daily attend- ance, and the faculty was composed of seven meinbers. How much of this growth and prosperity is attributa- ble to the far-sighted sagacity and wisely directed aggressiveness of its president and principal it would be impossible to say, except by declaring that he has been from the day of his installation the guiding spirit and controlling mind of the entire institution, inspiring, with his own vitalizing energy and indomitable perse-
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verance, his official associates and the constantly in- creasing body of students.
Not even the leadership of such an institution as we have most inadequately described can supply sufficient employment for Mr. Porter's versatile talents and in- exhaustible energy. He is secretary of the National Association of Accredited Commercial Schools, and in 1918 was elected president of the Dahlstom Metallic Door Company, thus giving to business interests a portion of his attention. With public affairs he has for a long period been actively associated, and for three years served as president of the Jamestown Civil Service Commission. He has also served four terms as alderman, in which capacity he has been three times elected president of the board. By virtue of this he becomes acting mayor whenever the city's chief execu- tive is obliged to be absent from his post of duty.
Since 1891 Mr. Porter has been a director of the Jamestown Young Men's Christian Association and at different intervals has, for several terms, filled the office of president. While thus serving, in 1900, the sixty thousand dollar home of the association was erected. In 1897 he was ordained an elder of the Methodist Episcopal church, and for three years he served as president of the Erie Conference Epworth League. For two years he was president of the fourth general conference of the league, embracing seven con- ferences. During the Spanish-American War, Mr. Porter enlisted in the 113th Separate Company, Na- tional Guard, State of New York, serving as corporal and later as sergeant. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Porter married, Jan. 26, 1893, Grace Estelle, daughter of Benjamin Franklin and Jennie (Stevens) Townley, and they are the parents of two children: Carolyn Margaret, and John Townley.
Mr. Porter is a descendant of ancestors who, in their successive generations, were among the foremost in the upbuilding of their communities. He has exceeded their traditions in that his work has been and is not the upbuilding of his own community alone, but also that of many in various and distant parts of the land by the training of citizens who are to make the his- tory of the nation.
CHARLES HENRY BROWN-Shortly after the settlement known as the "Rapids" or "Prendergast Mills" had been renamed Jamestown, Samuel A. Brown, grandfather of Charles H. Brown, came to the new village, then containing a few unfurnished houses amid a forest of tall timber and without mail facilities. Samuel A. Brown was a son of Col. Daniel Brown, of Hebron, Conn., and a brother of Judge Henry Brown, a graduate of Yale College, class of 1808, a lawyer and the first judge of Herkimer county, New York. An- other brother, Daniel Bishop Brown, a graduate of Yale, class of 1800, settled in Batavia, Genesee county, New York, and became one of the leading lawyers of Western New York. Samuel A. Brown studied law under his brother, Judge Henry Brown, while the latter was practicing in Springfield, N. Y., and practiced in the justices' courts, but had not been admitted to any court of record when he came to Jamestown. The
County Court was then in session at Mayville, twenty- two miles away, and applying at once for admission, he passed the required examination tests, was admitted to the Chautauqua county bar, and was the first lawyer to settle in Jamestown. His first office was in the lower northeast room of the unfurnished two-story house on the southeast corner of Main and Third streets, and became very popular, "Squire Brown," as the law "oracle" of the village, gaining considerable business in the Justice's court and usually being counsel in most of the villager's cases in the Court of Common Pleas. He frequently traveled to neighboring towns on horse- back, carrying a few law books in his saddle bags to attend suits in the Justice's courts, and was reputed fairly successful. The career of the first lawyer of Jamestown is of deep interest, and will be further out- lined in connection with a review of his ancestry and descendants.
(I) Charles Henry Brown, of Jamestown, N. Y., is of the eighth American generation of the family found- ed in New England by Edward Browne, who settled in Ipswich, Mass., as early as 1654, as he was marshal there from 1654 to 1659. By his wife, Faith, he had sons: Joseph, John, Thomas, and Bartholomew, and became the head of a large family now widely scat- tered. In this branch the line is traced through Joseph, the eldest son of Edward and Faith Browne.
(II) Joseph Brown (he dropped the final e), son of Edward Browne, was born about 1639, and was a farmer of Ipswich, Mass., where he died Sept. 30, 1694. He married Hannah Asselbie, who survived him, the mother of five sons and three daughters.
(III) Sergt. Thomas Brown, son of Joseph Brown, was born in Ipswich, Dec. 26, 1678, died June 27, 1767. He married Abigail Jacobs, and among their children was a son, Thomas.
(IV) Thomas (2) Brown, son of Sergt. Thomas (1) Brown, was born in Ipswich, July 7, 1707. He left Ipswich, and located in Windham, Conn., where he engaged in farming until his death, Jan. 10, 1773. By his second wife, Sarah (Bishop) Brown, he had three sons and three daughters, descent in this branch com- ing through their son, Daniel, a patriot of the Revolu- tion.
(V) Col. Daniel Brown, son of Thomas (2) Brown, was born in Windham, Conn, Jan. 13, 1747, died at his estate near Hebron, Conn., June 18, 1832. At the time of the Revolution he gave up a successful mercantile business to serve as deputy commissioner under Gen. Jonathan Trumbull, which station he held to the close of the war, ranking as colonel. He then retired to his farm, near Hebron, Conn., his home until his death. "The public securities," which he received from the Government in pay for his services, greatly appreciated in value, and not only provided for the ample education of his five sons, but guaranteed a competence for his old age. Col. Daniel Brown married, in 1771, a daugh- ter of Captain Ichabod Philips, who survived him until Aug. 10, 1837, residing at the family mansion with her son Thomas, who remained at the home farm and cared for his aged parents after all the others had re- moved to Western New York. Mrs. Brown spent the last twenty years of her life in darkness, losing her sight in 1817. Their children were: Daniel Bishop, a
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lawyer, previously referred to as of Batavia, N. Y .; Henry, the first judge of Herkimer county, New York; Thomas, a farmer at the old homestead, which he owned and passed on to his son, Thomas L. Brown; Samuel A., of whom further; Ephraim, a physician of Batavia, N. Y., where he died aged thirty-nine years.
(VI) Samuel A. Brown, son of Col. Daniel Brown, first of this branch to settle in Chautauqua county, New York, was born at the farm near Hebron, Conn., in 1795, died at Jamestown, N. Y., on Sunday, June 7, 1863. He was well educated, proficient in Latin and surveying, and was well equipped for the battle of life when, in Aug., 1813, he left home to join his brother, Henry, in Springfield, N. Y., his parents yielding a reluctant consent to his going, as they intended him to have the home farm. Besides studying law in Springfield, he taught the district school for three months, and in 1814 marched with the Otsego militia to Sackett's Harbor, but was not called into action. In October, 1816, with a cash capital of eighty dollars, he left Springfield on horseback, visited his brother, Daniel Bishop Brown, in Batavia, N. Y., then jour- neyed as far west as Painesville, Ohio, returning to New York, and locating in Jamestown, Chautauqua county, in Nov., 1816.
His early life in Jamestown has been referred to, and as the first settled lawyer in that village he pos- sesses a peculiar interest to those of a century later who now populate that prosperous city. On Oct. 31, 1818, he was admitted as an attorney of the Supreme Court, and on April 27, 1827, his counsellor's license was granted. He purchased from his early friend and patron, Judge Prendergast, five lots on the west side of Main street, and there built his first law office, and later a dwelling, occupying both until his death. He was appointed a justice of the peace in 1818, was the principal magistrate of the village, and gained high reputation for administering justice honestly and im- partially. In 1824 he was licensed a counsellor in the Court of Equity; on March 28, 1825, was appointed master in chancery, holding that office about twenty years· appointed brigade judge advocate under Gen. Horace Allen, in March, 1825, resigned in 1828; ad- mitted a counsellor in the Court of Chancery in 1827; appointed district attorney in 1828, holding this ten years; appointed agent of the Cherry Valley Land Company in 1828; and in 1858 was elected special surro- gate of Chautauqua county. He probably drew more pension papers, revolutionary and others, than any other attorney of the county, and lived to see all of that class of his friends pass away. During his many years of law practice he had as partners Richard P. Marvin, later a judge of the Supreme Court; George W. Tew; and in succession his sons, Charles C., Levant B. and Theodore Brown.
He first entered public life in 1824, as a nominee of the Clinton party for the Assembly. He came within two votes of being elected, although his party was in a decided minority. In 1826 he was again nominated, winning by seventy votes. In 1828 he was elected a village trustee, and chosen president by the board. He was elected superintendent of the poor for Chautauqua county, in 1838, serving five years, and in 1843 was the unsuccessful candidate of the Whigs
for the Assembly. He was elected to the State Assem- bly in 1844, and as chairman of the committee on aliens rendered important service to the State. He was elected a director of the Chantanqua County Bank at its organization in 1831, and until his death, thirty-two years later, was a director and attorney for the bank. He was an incorporator of Jamestown Academy, and a trustee of that institution as long as lie lived, serv- ing during his later years as president of the board. He was one of the incorporators of the First Pres- hyterian Church, frequently serving as trustee, and from Feb. 9, 1849, until his death in 1863, was an elder of that congregation. He represented the Buffalo Presbytery in the General Assembly of the Presby- terian church on several occasions, and was a special commissioner of Auburn Theological Seminary. He was treasurer of Mt. Moriah Lodge, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, for many years, beginning with 1820; was a member of the First Independent Rifle Company, organized in Jamestown, in 1818, and on April 24, 1818, was elected its captain. He wrote a brief history of Chautauqua county, which appeared first in the James- town "Journal," and later was published in book form. In 1847 he delivered a series of lectures on the history of the town of Ellicott, before the students of James- town Academy, and was a strong advocate for the cause of temperance, delivering many public lectures in its support. From 1840 he was a life member of the Chantanqua County Bible Society, and held life memberships in all the county's benevolent societies. He prepared his legal causes with the greatest care, and was always fortified behind an authority, his library the best in the town. He was originally a Fed- eralist in politics, then later acting with the Clinton, Whig, and Republican parties, casting his last presi- dential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1860.
Samuel A. Brown and Prudence Olivia Cotes were mar- ried, March 7, 1819, she was born Jan. 18, 1799, daugh- ter of John Cotes, an inn keeper and farmer of Spring- field, N. Y. Their first home was in Jamestown in the rear room of Mr. Brown's law office, their kitchen by the side of a large stump in the back-yard covered by a temporary board roof. There Mrs. Brown did her cooking, and had, in addition to her own family, sev- eral mechanics who were erecting their dwelling house. This stump was long preserved by Mr. and Mrs. Brown as a memento of the past, and he was fond of exhibiting it to his friends as their first kitchen. Mrs. Brown was a devoted and efficient member of the Con- gregational church, and later of the First Presbyterian Church of Jamestown. The Brown home was the abode of hospitality, and a welcome haven for visit- ing ministers. She was a woman of practical sense and clear judgment, firm in purpose, and a tower of strength to the church. During the great fire in James- town, Jan. 31, 1861, Mrs. Brown over-exerted herself in the endeavor to save their household goods and never recovered her health, dying Ang. 31, 1862. Mr. and Mrs. Brown were the parents of eleven children, six of whom reached years of maturity, namely: Charles C., a lawyer, associated with his father in practice until his death in 1847, aged twenty-six; Levant B., a lawyer of Jamestown until his death, in 1875; Theodore, also a lawyer of Jamestown; Henry E., of
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further mention; Margaret, married Salathiel Batchel- ler, and moved to Victor, Iowa; and John T.
(VII) Henry E. Brown, son of Samuel A. Brown, was born in Jamestown, N. Y., Oct. 4, 1826, and there died Jan. 13, 1897. He was educated in the city schools, and became a partner of the firm, Crosby & Brown, who in 1851 established a tannery in Jamestown. Later he was proprietor of a general store at Clear Creek, Chautauqua county, which he sold in 1855, and the same year went West, locating in Iowa City, Ia. He was assistant county clerk until 1860, then was elected county clerk, resigning to enter the Union army in the quartermaster's department, serving with the Army of the Cumberland until the close of the war. He then returned to Jamestown, where he continued active until his death, thirty-two years later. He was a Republican in politics, in religious preference an Episcopalian, but very liberal in his views.
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