USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume III > Part 23
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Obed (2) Edson, like his father, was a soldier of the French and Indian War, and for several years lived in Lanesboro, Mass. Between 1790 and 1793 he moved to what is now Richfield, Otsego county, N. Y., but then a part of the town of German Flats, Montgomery county. There he engaged in farming, and kept an inn in the local- ity now known as Monticello. He was a man of much natural ability, and a good musician. Prior to his death in Richfield, May 9, 1840, at the age of ninety-three years and seven days, he freed his only slave, "Ike," whom he had long owned. Obed (2) Edson married Prudence How, of Welsh descent, and they were the parents of a son, Obed (3) Edson.
Obed (3) Edson was born during the residence of his parents in Lanesboro, Mass. He then lived in Otsego county, N. Y., at Cooperstown and Richfield, later mov- ing to Eaton, Madison county, where he died Aug. 6, 1804, aged thirty-two years. He was a clothier by trade ; a member of the Masonic order; an Episcopalian, and like his father a follower of the political teachings of Thomas Jefferson. He was a man of education, a reader of good literature, and always a student. He married (second) Fanny Bigelow, born in Colchester, Conn., daughter of Captain Elisha Bigelow, an officer of the Revolution, as were two of his sons, a third serving as a private. Her mother, Thankful ( Beebe) Bigelow, whose ancestor served under Cromwell, died in Sinclair- ville, Chautauqua county, N. Y., at the great age of ninety-seven years. After the death of her hushand, at the age of thirty-two years, Fanny ( Bigelow) Edson, then a woman of less than thirty years, married (second) Maj. Samuel Sinclair, with whom she and her children came to Sinclairville, in 1810, the site then a wilderness, but a village growing thereon later was named in his honor. Mrs. (Edson) Sinclair was a woman of intelli- gence and education, one of the Chautauqua mothers who filled an important place in early county life, dying in Sinclairville, Jan. 12, 1852, widely known and honored for her many virtues and useful life. Maj. Samuel Sin- clair, her second husband, was a soldier of the First New Hampshire Regiment, serving from the age of fifteen until eighteen under his uncle, Col. Joseph Cilley. He
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was at Valley Forge, Saratoga. Monmouth, and with General Sullivan in his campaign against the Indians. Maj. Sinclair was one of the founders of the Masonic lodge at Sinclairville, and of Forest Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Fredonia, the first in Chautauqua county.
John Milton Edson, son of Obed (3) and Fanny ( Bige- low) Edson, was born at Eaton, Madison county, N. Y., July 30, 1801. and died in Sinclairville, Ang. 21, 1885. He was but three years of age when his father died, and nine when with his stepfather, Maj. Samuel Sinclair, his mother. his brother and sister, he came to Chautauqua county. in 1810. the family settling at what later became Sinclairville. He obtained a fine education principally through home teaching and reading, as there were 110 schools then in his section. But in after life those who met him never failed to be impressed with his large and original views, and to feel a regret that a thorough cdn- cation had been denied him. But he was a thorough woodsman, skilled in all the arts of the frontiersman, an excellent rifle shot, a leader among the pioneers. He was a noted athlete in his younger years, and greatly interested in military life, holding the rank of lieutenant- colonel of the Western New York Regiment, appointed May 22, 1830. He was justice of the peace for the town of Charlotte for fourteen years; was supervisor three terms: deputy United States marshal one term; judge of the Court of Common Pleas, April 17, 1843, until July 1. 1847. when the court was abolished. He was the first master of Sylvan Lodge, No. 303, Free and Accepted Masons, of Sinclairville, his stepfather, Maj. Samuel Sin- clair. the first master of the "Masonic Society" organized there in 1810. He married, in 1831, Hannah Alverson, born in Halifax, Windham county, Vt., June 3, 1804, died Nov. 22, 1878, in Sinclairville, N. Y. She was a daugh- ter of Jonathan and Ursula ( Church) Alverson, and in 1821 came with her mother to reside in the town of Gerry, Chautauqua county. They were the parents of two children: Obed (4) Edson, Chautauqua's "grand old man," whose life is herein commemorated; and a daughter, Fanny Ursula, born June 4, 1834, married Henry Sylvester.
Such were the antecedents of Obed (4) Edson, and th-, ugh the men and women named he received a rich legacy, good health, strong physique, worth, ambition, quick: intelligence, upright character, and love of the richt. Ilis ance-tors were unusually long lived, and he fulfilled the promise of his youth in every particular, his rireer trerending in usefulness and brilliancy that of any of his rarc, and closely resembling that of his first Arerin ancestor, Deacon Samuel Edson, of three cen- tairie, ago. Eighty-seven were the years of his life, and until their very close he was "in the harness," death com- i. p ., him onietly and gently at the midnight hour, while he lent hi fas ing in keeping with the ideal life he had
Obed ( ;) Edion, orle son of John Milton and Hannah ( Alver on) Ed on, was born at Sinclairville, Chautauqua county. N. Y. Feb. 18, 1832, and died at the home of his son, Walter 11 Ed on, in Falconer, N. Y., Nov. 22, 1910. He attended the public schools of Sinclairville, and was a student at Fredonia Academy, there completing his school yra- He then pur ged the study of law under the direction of F. H Sears, of Sinclair ville, entering Albany
Law School in 1853, and gaining admission to the New York bar, Aug. 8, 1853, he then being in his twenty- second year. At the age of eighteen years he had been engaged in land and railroad surveying and later he ran surveys for railroads and county roads. But from 1853, when admitted to the New York bar, he continuously practiced his profession in Chautauqua county, and, well trained in the law, an able advocate, an honest man, he stood high among his brethren of the profession, and he possessed the entire confidence of his clients, even his adversaries feeling that they had no injustice to fear at his hands. And at all times he was a polished gentle- man of the old school, who would rather be of service than cause offense to any man. At Sinclairville he was a law partner with Judge E. F. Warren, later co-partner with C. Frank Chapman, and subsequently was with his nephew, Fred H. Sylvester.
Although not actively engaged in practice in the last few years, he continued to give some time to his pro- fession, and recently the local newspapers noted his re- port as referee in County Court proceedings which was entered just a few days before his eighty-seventh birth- day. His historical researches, his early recollections, and his wonderful memory for events, dates and details made him a veritable encyclopedia of local information, which was always open to his friends or the public. It is not too much to say that the information he collected and stored away in his records and his retentive memory was often of much greater value to others than it was to himself. He never attempted to commercialize his talent for historical research; to him it was a labor of love. He took greater interest in it and gave it more atten- tion than he did his profession. He was one of the founders of the Chautauqua County Society of History and Natural Science, and was its backbone through all the years since its formation. He retained his interest in the county historical society up to the time of his death, and attended the annual meetings of that organi- zation as long as he was able to do so.
Mr. Edson was a contributor to "The Continent," "The Chautauquan," and other leading magazines, generally upon historical subjects. He first gathered and collected the facts respecting the expedition of Col. Daniel Broad- head, which was sent against the Indians of the upper Alle- gheny river by Gen. Washington during the War of the Revolution to operate in conjunction with General Sulli- van. Mr. Edson prepared a full history of this expedi- tion, which was published as a leading article in the No- vember number of the "Magazine of American History" for the year 1879. He was the author of several local historics, among which is a portion of "Young's History of Chautauqua County," and all of that part of it which relates to its Indian, French and early history. He lcc- tured before the Chautauqua Institute, and delivered the historical address at Westfield in 1902, on the occasion of the Centennial celebration of the settlement of Chau- tauqua county. He made a similar address at the cele- bration of the Centennial of the settlement of the city of Falconer, and he delivered many addresses and lectures. He was president of the Chautauqua County Historical Society, member of the County and State Bar Associa- tions, member of the Buffalo Historical Society, and president of Evergreen Cemetery Association of Sin- clairville.
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Mr. Edson was a lifelong Democrat and prominent in the councils of his party for many years. In 1874 he was elected member of Assembly from the old Second Assem- bly District, defeating Harvey S. Elkins, Republican, by two hundred and twenty-five majority, although the Re- publican State ticket had one thousand majority in the district. The preceding year he was defeated by only seventy-two majority, his successful Republican oppo- nent being John D. Hiller. Mr. Edson was the only Democrat ever elected to the Assembly from the old Second Assembly District, which then included both Jamestown and Dunkirk. Beside his term in the Assem- bly, he served several years on the Board of Supervisors as the representative of his native town. He was for nearly sixty years a member of the Masonic fraternity, and served Sylvan Lodge, of Sinclairville, as master in 1862 and again in 1912-just half a century later, as well
as several terms between those years. He was also a member of Western Sun Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of Jamestown. During the ministry of the Rev. Dr. James G. Townsend at the Independent Congregational Church in Jamestown, Mr. Edson took an active interest in the work of that church.
Mr. Edson married, at Sinclairville, May 11, 1859, Emily Amelia Allen, born at New London, Conn., Nov. 27, 1835, died in March, 1899, daughter of Caleb J. and Emily E. (Haley) Allen. Her father, Caleb J. Allen, in his youth, was a sailor on a Pacific ocean whaling ship, but later located in New London, Conn., where he be- came a hatter; was mayor of New London, and also represented that city in the Connecticut Legislature as State Senator. Later he was a merchant of Sinclairville. Obed (4) and Emily A. (Allen) Edson were the par- ents of eight children : I. Fanny A., born April 28, 1860; married John A. Love, now residing at Bellingham, Wash. 2. John M., born Sept. 29, 1851, now living at Bellingham, Wash. 3. Samuel A., born Sept. 15, 1863, died Nov. 16, 1872. 4. Mary U., born Sept. 11, 1865, died Nov. 27, 1872. 5. Hannah, born Feb. 15, 1869, died Dec. 10, 1881. 6. Walter H., a sketch of whom follows. 7. Ellen E., born April 21, 1875, died March 31, 1887. 8. Allen O., born Sept. 3, 1880, died Jan. 16, 1882. John Milton, the eldest son, is a well known ornithologist of Bellingham, Wash., and has made many valuable contri- butions to the literature of that science. He married Alma B. Green, a former teacher in Chautauqua county schools.
Such was the life and deeds of Obed (4) Edson, whose years, eighty-seven, were spent entirely in Chautauqua county. While he held various positions of public trust and confidence, was a lawyer of high repute and identified with many good movements ; he was best known and will be long remembered as a local historian. A monument to his historical labors has been erected in every history of Chautauqua county that has been written for the past half century. Mr. Edson knew more about the early history of Chautauqua county, and of conditions and peoples connected with the Chautauqua lake region long before the advent of the white man, than any other man who has ever made a study of these things. Living a life of activity and good works, modestly and quietly pursu- ing the open road that lay before him, never making an effort to avoid the responsibilities that came to him, nor seeking honors that did not belong to him, he lived and
labored long beyond the allotted years of man, and goes to his rest and reward with the respect and the love of the people of Chautauqua county, the old and the young, the rich and the poor, to a very marked degree.
WALTER HENRY EDSON-Since his admission in February, 1898, Walter H. Edson has practiced at the Chantanqua county bar continuously, and as a lawyer of learning, sound judgment and integrity he occupies high and honorable position. As a citizen, Mr. Edson is most earnest, well-informed and public-spirited, always at the service of individual or organization in aid of the cause of education, religion or good government. His spirit of helpfulness is well known and he is freely called upon for platform service to enlighten and instruct audiences seeking light upon perplexing questions of City, State and National policy. His interest never lags and he gives freely of himself to every worthy cause which needs an advocate. He is a native son of Chautauqua, and through his father, Obed Edson, of blessed memory, is heir to a rich inheritance of county ancestry dating to John Milton Edson, who came to the county in 1810. He is a descendant of Deacon Samuel Edson, of War- wickshire, England. (See ancestry in memorial review of the life of Obed Edson). John M. Edson was a step- son of Maj. Samuel Sinclair, founder of Sinclairville. Through his mother, Emily A. (Allen) Edson, another line of Chautauqua county lineage is established, her father coming from New England to become a merchant of Sinclairville. Walter Henry Edson is the sixth child of Obed and Emily A. (Allen) Edson, and has always been true to the county of his birth and is well known in the county. His home was the abode of his honored father during the latter's last years, and the association between the two men was closer even than the natural bond.
Walter H. Edson was born in Sinclairville, Chau- tauqua county, N. Y., Jan. 8, 1874. He completed public school courses of study with graduation from Sinclair- ville High School in 1891, then pursued a general classi- cal course at Cornell University, whence he was gradu- ated with the usual bachelor's degree, class of 1896. He read law under his father and attended the College of Law, Cornell University, receiving his LL. B., class of 1897. From 1896 to 1898, he was a clerk in the law office of Obed Edson, and upon his admission to the Chau- tauqua county bar in 1898, formed a partnership with Harley N. Crosby, now surrogate of Chautauqua county. The firm Edson & Crosby opened a law office in Falconer, March 1, 1898, and there continued a successful general practice until Jan. 1, 1914, when the firm dissolved, Mr. Crosby retiring, Mr. Edson continuing practice in Fal- coner alone until Jan. 6, 1915, when he was appointed assistant United States attorney for the western district of New York, with headquarters at Buffalo. He gave up practice at Falconer upon accepting the government appointment, and gave his time exclusively to the duties of his office until Nov. 13, 1918, when he resigned and resumed private practice as a member of the law firm of Dean, Edson & Jackson, Fenton building, Jamestown, N. Y. On March 20, 1920, he was appointed special assistant to the United States attorney and is still serv- ing (Dec. 20, 1920) in that capacity. The law and his public service has filled Mr. Edson's life to the exclu-
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sion of business activities to a large extent, his only important connection being with the National Chau- tauqua County Bank, which he served as director, trust officer and counsel. On Jan. 1, 1921, he began service as vice-president and trust officer of the National Chau- tauqua County Bank of Jamestown, devoting his entire tinte to that work. He is retained by other of the cor- porations of Jamestown in a legal capacity and he ad- init.isters many trusts.
The politic. of the Edsons has for generations been Denicratic, and Obed Edson was long prominent in party courcils. His mantle fell upon his son, and since early life Walter H. Edson has been rated a party leader and one of the strong men of the party. Chautauqua is strongly, almost hopelessly, Republican, and official life is but a dream to those loyal to the Democracy. But Mr. Edson has always been a strong and loyal supporter of the party and its great leaders. In 1912 he was one of the eight Wilson supporters on the New York delega- tion to the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore. In Falconer, he was president of the Board of Educa- tion in 1905, and as above noted held the office of assistant United States district attorney for Western New York, Jan. 11. 1914-Nov. 13, 1918, that appointment coming irem the fact that the Nation and State were Demo- cratic in their executive departments.
During the Great War period, Mr. Edson was assist- ant United States district attorney; he joined the army and trained at Fort Niagara, N. Y., receiving a second lieutenant's commission, Nov. 27, 1917. He was assigned to duty with the 90th Division at American Lake, Wash., and served until Dec. 11, 1917, when he resigned and re- turned to his post. He is a member of Cornell Chapter, Delta Chi, and Sylvan Lodge, No. 303, Free and Accepted Masons, of Sinclairville, a lodge of which his father, Obed Edson, was a member for sixty years and of which he was twice master, just a half century clapsing be- tween his first term, 1852, and his second, 1912. John Mibon Edson, grandfather of Walter H. Edson, was the first mister of S.lvan Lodge, and his stepfather, Maj. Samuel Sinclair, the first master of a "Masonic Society" organized in Sinclairville in 1819. In religious faith Mr. Edson i a U'nitarian, affiliated with the First Church of Jamestown.
Mr Ed n married, at Shumla, Chautauqua county, N. Y., June 27, 1860, Florilla Belle Clark, daughter of Fran- cis Drake and Fabel M. (Grover ) Clark. Mrs. Edson is a great-treat granddaughter of Maj. Samuel Sinclair and hi :rt : ife. Sarah ( Perkins) Sinclair. Mr. Edson is a Kr.a. w .: child i Maj. Sinclair's second wife, Fanny (BigOrevi Ed o: , widow of Obed (3) Edson, mother of J h. Miren Ed . . and grandmother of Obed (4) Ed- cor . father of Walter Henry Edson. Mr. and Mrs. Ed- Icarr the parent, of two children : Francis Drake and I : ! I. E .n. The family home is in Falconer. Mrs. a member of the Daughters of the American
WARREN BREWSTER HOOKER-With the Da er Gi fe emitent Judge Warren B. Hooker, one of the trong men of Chautauqua county retires from rar'hlv , and with him padres some phases of copper toltgal life with which politicians of the old scheel alore are familiar. Judge Hooker began his pub-
lic career where other famous Chautauquans began, on the Board of Supervisors, and was a recognized party leader before Governor Black appointed him to the Su- preme Bench in 1898. A member of Congress at the age of thirty-four, he became an influential factor in the National House of Representatives, and under Speaker Reed was awarded a most important committee chairmanship-Rivers and Harbors. He was four times elected to Congress, and in his district during his long period of public service he gathered around him a group of men loyal in their Republicanism, but to their leader as loyal and as true. It has been said of Judge Hooker that he served his friends too well, but it is the testimony of all the attorneys who practiced before him that he was one of the most impartial judges who ever sat in New York courts. Loyalty to his friends was a striking characteristic of his whole life, but a friend was never recognized as such in his judicial hearing, or the testi- mony just quoted would not have been given. While he was a politician of the most astute type, he was also the gracious gentleman and the just judge. Those who knew him best loved him most, and as friend and neighbor he will long live in the hearts of his townsmen. They will not recall the fact that he entered Congress unknown, but by sheer force of personality became one of a small group which dominated that body; nor that for fifteen years he served with ability and integrity as a justice of the Supreme Court of his native New York, but they will remember that his great dominant trait was kindli- ness, that his timely aid started many a Chautauqua boy on a useful carcer, and that his long public career was marked by countless favors to those who were less for- tunately situated. "Were everyone for whom he has done some loving kindness to bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of flowers." So it is not as the forceful politician of a period when men gave and received hard blows in their political controversies, nor as the just and upright judge who almost held life, death and the future at his behest, nor as the successful business man that Chantauquans remember Judge Hooker, but as a friend whom they mourn with a deep and a genuine sorrow, pride in his achievement being lost in sorrow at his passing.
Judge Hooker was a native son of New York, his parents, John and Philena ( Waterman) Hooker, com- ing from near Brandon, Vermont, to Perrysburg, in Cattaraugus county, N. Y., and there their son, Warren B. Hooker, was born Nov. 24, 1856. He died at his home in Fredonia, Chautauqua county, N. Y., March 5, 1920, and is buried in Forest Hill Ceme- tery. His education, begun in the public schools, was continued at Forestville Free Academy, from whence he was graduated, class of 1876. Choosing the profes- sion of law, he studied under the preceptorship of John G. Record, of the Chautauqua county bar, and until 1879 was a student in the latter's office in Forestville. In 1879 he was admitted to the bar, and until 1882 practiced law in Chantanqua county, with offices at Forestville. In 1882 he went to the State of Washington, and for two years practiced his profession in the city of Tacoma. He re- turned to Chautauqua county in 1884 and at once estab- lished law offices in Fredonia, that village continuing his home until his death, thirty-six years later.
Until 1890 Mr. Hooker successfully practiced law in
Warrend B. Hooke
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Fredonia, then gave himself wholly to the public service as Congressman from the then Thirty-fourth New York District. He continued in Congress through successive reelections until November, 1898, when he was appointed by Governor Black a justice of the Supreme Court of the Eighth Judicial District to fill a vacancy. At the elec- tion in November, 1899, he was elected to the same high office for a full term of fourteen years. On Dec. 8, 1902, he was appointed by Governor Odell to the Ap- pellate Division in the Second Department and went to Brooklyn, where he served until 1909, then returned to trial work in his own district. Upon the expiration of his term in 1913 he retired to private life. He was, how- ever, recalled to the bench late in the summer of 1919 as official Supreme Court Referee by appointment, and dur- ing the fall and winter heard a number of cases. The last trial over which he presided was in Allegany county, but two weeks prior to his death.
The record Judge Hooker made while on the bench shows him to have been a diligent worker and most anxious that nothing but justice should proceed from his decisions. He was learned in the law, but never rendered a decision until after deep search and profound study of law precedent and authority to fortify his own opinion. Eminently just in this judicial decision, he was equally noted for his fairness and impartiality.
The fifteen years Judge Hooker spent upon the Su- preme Bench came as a crowning honor to a life of public service that began while he was yet a law student. A Republican in his political affiliation, he was of the domi- nent party, but his was a day of personal politics, and it was necessary to success that a politician maintain a strong organization loyal to him as well as to the party. This Judge Hooker early learned, and he proved one of the strongest of leaders of organized politics in his dis- trict. He fought his political battles according to the rules laid down by former leaders and by contempo- raries ; he asked no quarter, and gave and received hard blows with equal equanimity.
His career in the public service began in 1878, the year before he was actually admitted to the bar, when he was elected special surrogate of Chautauqua county. He held that position for three years. After returning from the West, Mr. Hooker immediately began taking an active interest in public affairs, and in 1889 was elected supervisor from the town of Pomfret. In 1800 he was reelected, receiving the support in that election of both I.ading political parties, which was a compliment to his efficient service. In the fall of 1890, when yet but thirty- three years of age, he was nominated hy the Republicans of the Thirty-fourth Congressional District of New York for representative in Congress. The district comprises the counties of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany. His election followed by a majority of 5,726. He was reelected in 1892 and again in 1894, receiving in the latter election a plurality of 15,300 votes. In 1896 he again re- ceived the nomination and was again elected by the hand- some plurality of 27,436. He was elected for the last time in 1898. At the time he was elected for the first time he was the youngest member of Congress. He was nominated at that time over old and experienced men of the party. His subsequent renomination by acclamation was a compliment to his popularity and faithful service.
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