History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 93

Author: Edson, Obed, 1832-; Merrill, Georgia Drew, editor
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Boston, Mass. : W.A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1068

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

THE PRENDERGASTS.

Three generations of Prendergasts have wrought in the construction of Jamestown. The family has been intimately connected with its affairs from its development out of the forest wilderness to a city full of life, activity and prosperity. It has been well said that the lives of the Prendergasts was "so frequently marked by benefactions to the people, from the founding of the place by the grandfather to the date or the noble posthumous gift of the grandson made valid by his surviving parents, and it presents such an un- broken record of high personal character and well-improved talents, that it would seem dereliction of duty not to place an enduring record on these pages in connection with the history of the place."

James Prendergast, the founder of Jamestown, was a physician, born in Pawling, N. Y., March 9, 1764. In 1794-5 he traveled extensively in the South and West. He passed weeks among the Indians, although their hostility to the whites at the time was marked by many massacres and battles. Hle met that great opponent of the whites, Tecumseh, and exchanged rifles with him, and visited the Spanish governor of Louisiana and negotiated terms of settlement for a colony, which never materialized. In 1806 he first visited " The Rapids." (See page 205) Reasoning that for many years the

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only remunerative industry here must be lumbering, and that the best water privilege, with the best mills, must become a thriving center of population and trade, he selected Chautauqua lake as his mill pond, and the nearest point to the lake where the outlet made a perceptible fall as the location of the future city. The far-seeing sagacity that so forecasted the future marks its possessor as a more than ordinary man. His brother Matthew secured the 1) land and water power for him, and James went to Rensselaer county, where he married Agnes Thompson, who was a noble helpinate to him. She brought him $17,000 as capital to develop a home in the forest solitudes. " With this and their joint efforts, all the Prendergast undertakings became successes." She had culture and fine literary tastes, was a notable housewife and the Lady Bountiful of the community. Her deeds of kindness and hospitality linger yet in tradition almost like holy sacraments. " The family of every new-comer must take their first meal with her, and she always sent them a loaf of bread and a pail of soft soap as the first requisites of commencing pioneer housekeeping." In keeping with his selection of a mill site was Mr. Prendergast's policy concerning his land. He paid for it in cash, and gained a clear title. This wise plan enabled him to stand as a guardian of the settlers at " The Rapids" in the preservation of their homes. It is recorded that " he felled the first tree in the Prendergast settlement on Chautauqua lake, and felled the first tree in his clearing at 'The Rapids.'" The removal of his first mill dam was to him a blessing in disguise. The land he bought for the site of his new mills was far better suited for business locations, and during long years James Prendergast laid well and firmly the foundations of the metropolis of this county. His wise sagacity was further shown in the . early attempt to establish here the manufacture of cloth, so that, when the magnificent timber supply was exhausted, other manufacturing industries would be in active operation to provide labor for thousands, and the wealth and prosperity of his city would stand on enduring bases.

An educated and christian gentleman, he builded well for moral, religious and educational causes, and was one of the marked leaders of Western New York. He was the first supervisor of Ellicott, the first postmaster of James- town, and a judge of the court of common pleas. But, modest and unosten- tations, he never sought offices, accepting only those duty indicated him to take. In 1836, having seen the progress of his village vindicate his choice of location, his policy and his management, its population risen to 2,000, with the water-power, whose capabilities he perceived while in the wilderness state, driving hundreds of machines and supporting hundreds of families, with a grateful populace affectionately holding him in veneration, he sold his interests here and retired to his country seat at Kiantone, where he died in 1846 aged 82. He was a large man, of fine personal appearance, courtly and dignified, and a fine type of ideal manhood, gentleness and houor.

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

Alexander Thompson Prendergast, son of James and Agnes (Thompson) Prendergast, was born in Pittstown, N. Y., February 3, 1809, and as an infant came to this county and knew no other home. He was fitted for college in Jamestown, but active participation in the management of his father's varied interests devolved on him, and so it came that his life was passed in quiet application to business. He manifested the family energy and acumen, and the large-hearted benevolence and broad christianity of his parents he in- herited in generous measure. Dominated by a high sense of honor, he had unrelenting scorn for trickery and double dealing. "For many years after the sale of the Jamestown property the financial stringency of the times rendered very problematical the success of the purchasing syndicate ; and, but for the extraordinary forbearance and aid of Alexander T. Prendergast, many leading men and commercial houses would have been involved in ruin." When his father and himself closed business in 1836 they held notes of many people, mostly collectible, amounting to $10,000, for money loaned and property sold. They were of one mind concerning their disposi- tion-they put them into the fire. Alexander inherited his father's superior intellect and generosity, and his mother's great heart and pure soul, and was educated by them to think rightly, act justly, and ever to practice generosity. He was a most dutiful son, an unceasing friend. Dr. Hazeltine well says he " was the exemplar of the loving and faithful husband, of the affectionate father, of the kind and helping neighbor, of the good and patriotic citizen, of charity towards every human being, of kindness towards all of God's crea- tures. He was during his whole life a diligent laborer, believing that it was every man's duty to ' earn his bread by the sweat of his brow,' and that idleness was the fruitful parent of misery and wrong-doing. He fed the hungry, clothed the naked, housed the needy and unfortunate, visited the sick and the decrepit, and ministered to their wants and necessities. He was pure in heart and in mind, never puffed up by riches or by the extent and value of his possessions. In addition to all the other sterling traits of character and good qualities, Alexander T. Prendergast was one of the most patriotic men of patriotic Chautauqua county. He contributed his thousands to the country's defense. He gave to every soldier from Kiantone $100 as soon as enlisted. Every word we have written of Alexander T. Prendergast is strictly true, as every fair-minded honest man who was intimately acquainted with him will say." He was ever alert to see what he could do to advance and benefit not only the individual but the community. More to him than to any other person is this county indebted for its high grade of stock. He imported cattle of the best foreign strains, and sold their full-blood progeny on very favorable terms. In every and in all ways he lived up to the highest standard of a true man. Hon. Richard P. Marvin said of him : "He stands in the front rank of nobility viewed as a generous, charitable man. As such he is far above my feeble praise." He died in Jamestown August 1, 1885.

Alex et Prendergast

Mary A. Prendergast

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With rare filial devotion Mr. Prendergast remained unmarried until after the death of his parents, making their comfort his principal business. In April, 1847, he married Mary A., daughter of Thomas and Anna (Patterson) Norton, of Westfield. Mr. Norton was the first cabinet maker of Westfield, and was also a student and an artist, and had received a fine education. His daughter had the same artistic and literary temperament, which developed into a nature passionately fond of all things beautiful, gentle, lovable, and a fitting person to be a life companion to the gentle Alexander. Flowers bloomed under her hands, and her home was ever one of artistic beanty. She thoroughly identified herself with the aims of her husband and son, and worthily upheld the fair fame of the Prendergast name. Never was loyalty to family more thoroughly represented than in her. She made her home

happy, and when death took all the loved members of her household, leaving her solitary and desolate, her life was devoted to perpetuating their memory and still further identifying them with the progress, the culture and the religious growth of the Jamestown in which they had taken pride. The large estate to which she had succeeded was mainly devoted to public objects, and the city has received through her munificence a magnificent library build- ing, a fine art gallery, and the finest church edifice in the county. Mrs. Prendergast died in Rochester, December 22, 1889. Mr. and Mrs. Prendergast had two children, James and Catherine M.

Catherine (Kittie) M. Prendergast was born April 2, 1854, and died at Mar- quette, Mich., August 2, 1864. "Kittie was a most exquisitely beautiful child. She died when but little more than ten years old, but her mind was so mature that she was no companion for children of that age. In intellec- tuality she would grace any circle of more than twice those years. She was a great reader of books of high intellectual standing that would fail to inter- est children of her age. A knowledge of high character seemed to be intui- tive with her, and she would converse with remarkable earnestness, knowl- edge and good taste on subjects that her elders were scarcely acquainted with. She was of a cheerful, lively temperament, or, as one expresses it, 'She was a ray of light and warmth in every heart upon which she beamed.' She had a good constitution and was filled with good health, although of that delicate make up which is a constituent of beauty of body and precocity of mind."- (Dr. Haseltine).

Kittie was a delicate flower nipped all too soon by the frost of death, but so long as the congregations of St. Luke's gather for service in the elegant memorial church, so long will her memory be cherished and show that her young life was not lived in vain.

James Prendergast, son of Alexander T. and Mary A. (Norton) Prender- gast, was born June 18, 1848, at Kiantone. He entered Yale College, but by advice of his physicians relinquished a collegiate course, and studied law at

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

the law school of Columbia College, where he was graduated in 1871. He possessed legal talents of the first order, and was complimented in high terms by President Dwight on his attainments and scholarship. In 1871 he entered the office of Cook & Lockwood, but soon became a member of the new legal firm, "Green, Prendergast & Wiltsie," which subsequently became "Green, Prendergast & Benedict," and remained so until his death. He was early imbued with an ambition to appropriately carry on the work for Jamestown commenced and carried on by his grandfather and his father, and his pride in his grandfather's memory and veneration for his father's high character caused him to early adopt as his work the linking of the name and fame of Prendergast still more closely with the growth and institutions of Jamestown, and before his death had identified the family with the real estate owners of Jamestown and vicinity to the amount of $140,000. In 1875 lie built " Prendergast block." This was the finest commercial building in the county. He conducted his life in an eminently practical manner. His thoughts were much given to the improvement of streets, walks and to other matters for the benefit of the place, and whatever he did was done thoroughly and well .**

In him reappeared that fine physique, commanding presence, unfailing cour- tesy and cordiality which gave his progenitors their title of " perfect gentle- men," and winning social qualities formed a leading characteristic. These, supplemented by culture, refined tastes and love for social observances, made him a leader in society as well as in affairs. He was a prominent Freemason, Odd Fellow, president of the Board of Trade and one of the founders of the G. E. C. club. As an evidence of his popularity we will state that he was elected member of assembly in 1878 by the largest majority (with one excep- tion) ever given any candidate in the district. Ellicott gave him 687 mna- jority, while the average majority of the other candidates scarcely rose above 200. His course in the legislature attracted attention by its uprightness. It was said " You can neither drive nor buy him." His friends can look on no part of his career with more satisfaction than on his political life and rec- ord. He died December 21, 1879, at Buffalo, after an illness of three weeks.

"The warmest of hearts is frozen ; The freest of hands is still ; And the gap in our picked and chosen The long years may not fill."

The whole community mourned his loss as a local calamity. The many organizations of which he had been an active member, gave fitting observ- ance by special meetings and resolutions eulogizing his character. From

*Among his papers after his death were found brief memoranda concerning his affairs, with directions to aid whoever might settle his estate. Among these was a request that Prendergast block might be made avail- able as an endowment for a free public library. This wish was acted upon by his parents, who secured the incorporation of " The James Prendergast Library Association," and the building of the library.

Jannis Timis, y vindlarga

சவத்தங்கரகத்தினார் மரவேல்,

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these we quote one paragraph of the expression of a public meeting of the citizens and business men of Jamestown held to mourn his loss :

His life was formed on lofty rules as well of public as of private conduct ; whether as a son, a citizen, a politician or a business man, he made a record not only not stained, but that may stand out as a model for the young men of this and succeeding generations. Substantial and creditable as are the structures and institutions which he founded and fostered in his brief busi- ness career with us, we feel that his fittest and most enduring monument is his symmetrical, unblemished life-record.

Mayor Green has very finely expressed the sentiments of Jamestown's citizens in his address to the grand lodge of Elks in 1894 :

All of this family are dead, and no descendant lives to bear the honored name. But their memories are perpetuated. That of the elder James in the name of our city. The Prendergast building stands as a monument, not only to the memory of Alexander, but also to the memory of the younger James, and all who look upon our Episcopal church, that artistic and beautiful structure now nearing completion, erected with funds provided by Mary Prendergast, as a mem- orial to Catherine, will ever hold the names of mother and daughter in grateful veneration. The James Prendergast Free Library building, its spacious grounds and valuable contents stand a further monument to the younger James ; the James Prendergast known to many of us. We knew him not only as a courteous gentleman, an honest, warm-hearted, manly friend, whose genial manner and pleasant, graceful dignity charmed all who met him, but also as one who could have fitly responded to that thrilling call :

" God give us men ! A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands ; Men whom the lust of office does not kill ; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy ; Men who possess opinions and a will ; Men who have honor,-men who will not lie ; Men who can stand before a demagogue, And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking ! Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty, and in private thinking."

HON. RICHARD P. MARVIN. BY OSCAR W .JOHNSON, A. M.

I attempt with diffidence a sketch of the life of Richard Pratt Marvin. Limited to a few pages, I can only touch here and there upon a great and active career connected with humanity at many points and extending far beyond the period usually allotted to human life.

It was his fortune to live in a period when progress in the arts and sci- ences in our religious, political, commercial and social affairs was taking rapid advancement over the slow and measured movements of the past. He was born in Fairfield, Herkimer county, N. Y., December 23, 1803. He was a lineal descendant of Reinold Marvin, who emigrated to this country from England in 1637, and was one of the first settlers of Hartford, Conn. Through a succession of useful and honorable lives, the name came down to Selden Marvin, Richard's father, who married Charlotte H. Pratt. Let the lives of the sons, Richard and William, tell the story of their father's and mother's

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

worth. Up to nineteen years of age Richard worked upon a farm in Tomp- kins county, N. Y. There with his impressible nature he acquired strength and inspiration to properly fit him for the accomplishment of the duties and responsibilities which were to fall to his lot in the succeeding years. He taught a district school to obtain money to complete his legal education, after his graduation at the common and select schools. He was for a time a law student of Mark H. Sibley, the great advocate before juries, and we may well believe that many of the graces which clustered around the speech of Mr. Marvin, came from his contact with a man, master of all the powers and graces of oratory. In May, 1829, Mr. Marvin was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court and Court of Chancery of the State of New York. Upon motion of Daniel Webster, he was admitted ten years later as an attorney and counselor in the Supreme Court of the United States.

Mr. Marvin came to Jamestown, N. Y., to commence his professional life in June, 1829, when it had but a few hundred people, but among them were such men as Judge Foote, Judge Hazeltine, Henry Baker, the Prendergasts, and oth- ers equally able and energetic. The region was a great pine forest of surpassing quality and beauty. Most of the houses were Jog cabins beneath the shad- ows of the great trees. The waters of the outlet of Chautauqua lake had begun to turn the wheel for the most primitive manufacturing. The region was practically a lumbering camp, but it was the source of the chain of waters whose natural flow bore the products of that region to the waters that bound the southern limits of the republic. There was the material for homes and cities to be built on the banks of the mighty rivers. The community extended to Mr. Marvin such a welcome as filled him with encouragement and hope, and from the first he took the leadership of this gathering of heroic men and women. Warren, Pa., but a few miles distant, and Jamestown each had determined, and we may say, daring men striving for the wealth of the pine. This produced litigation in many forms which for persistence and earnest- ness has become historical. Mr. Marvin was the champion of the interests that were centered at Jamestown, and his principal client was Nathaniel A. Lowry: Guy C. Irvine of Pennsylvania, represented the adverse interests. This contest was not purely in the domain of the law, but outside of it. Mr. Lowry was stabbed by a Mr. Newman, a supposed tool of Guy C. Irvine. Newman was convicted and sentenced to prison for this attempt at murder. I have heard Mr. Marvin relate the incidents of a meeting for a compromise between the contending parties, where he soon discovered that every man was armed, and in the angry storm of vituperation that followed, he did not expect that all the party would leave the room alive. On another occasion Mr. Irvine drew a knife upon Mr. Marvin. He looked the miscreant steadily in the eye until he withdrew his weapon. Such were the struggles and con- vulsions in which the foundations of society were laid in southern Chautau-

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qua. It was in these contests that Mr. Marvin began his successful career at the bar.

Judge Rassellas Brown, an eminent lawyer of Pennsylvania, who cham- pioned the other side, thus spoke of Judge Marvin :

Judge Marvin's high legal ability, learning and skill were most marked. His comprehen- sion of the legal questions involved, his quickness to detect any error on the part of his oppon- ents, and rare tact, won for his side many victories. His arguments and appeals before a jury were logical, based upon law, and presented with an earnestness and eloquence that produced great effects.

Mr. Marvin had the foresight of a statesman. Through his efforts the first public meeting ever held anywhere to consider the building of the Erie road was in Jamestown in 1831. Judge Foote presided and Mr. Marvin made the principal address. He had made this plan a subject of inves- tigation. As far as we have any record, his was the first conception of a great scheme, which in fifty years extended an iron highway from ocean to ocean, eclipsing all the visions of its projectors. This first conception may have been to the reality now, what the kite of Franklin was to modern electricity carrying intelligence around the world. In 1835 Mr. Marvin was elected to the legislature. He was the principal advocate of the N. Y. & Erie road, and the speech he made in favor of a state appropriation of $30,000,000 for that purpose made a profound impression upon the people of the state. In1 1836 Mr. Marvin was elected member of congress. He held this position for two terms or for four years. He was an ardent friend of Henry Clay. He made many able speeches upon the different topics that came before congress, and secured and exercised a wide influence. He took a con- spicuous part in the great political campaign of 1840. The writer, with eight other boys, left the Fredonia Academy without permission, and walked to Dunkirk in the burning sun to hear him speak, and we were amply repaid. The next week the same party heard Judge Mullett in the log cabin at Fre- donia in a political speech. He was not the equal of Mr. Marvin in graces of oratory, but was in impressiveness and power. September 10, 1840, at a great meeting at Erie, on the anniversary of Perry's victory, the most emi- nent speakers of both parties were present from many states, but Mr. Marvin carried away the honors of the day. It seemed as if a tidal wave had swept over his soul and carried him beyond his natural strength, as such waves carry the deep beyond its banks. In 1846 Mr. Marvin was elected delegate to the state constitutional convention. He took an active and conspicuous part in the change made in the judiciary system. By the change four justices of the supreme court were to be chosen in each of the eight judicial districts. The eighth district comprised eight counties, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Erie, Orleans, Niagara, Genesee and Wyoming. The judicial con- vention, to which all the counties sent delegates and presented candidates,

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was held in Buffalo in 1847. Mr. Marvin was first nominated by a unani- mous vote, while there were spirited contests over others ..

It may be truly said that at that time he was ranked among the foremost citizens of Western New York, which has sent out governors, cabinet minis- ters, senators and presidents, but no more faithful public servant, and .no man more fit for high position, than Judge Marvin. He held his judicial position by re-election for 24 years, leaving in his opinions an enduring monument of his purity, learning and ability. The writer heard Horace Greeley, who was opposed to the elective system for judges, say : "It was no wonder that the eight district favored it, when it had such pure and able judges as Marvin and his associates ; that the eighth judicial district had the ablest judges in the state." To give a history of the judicial action of the judge for a quarter of a century would take volumes. His services were not only in his own district, but he was frequently appointed to try important cases in all parts of the state. Among these was the famous " Jerry rescue " trial at Syracuse. Henry W. Allen was indicted for kidnaping a colored man named Henry Cooper, alias "Jerry," in 1852. Judge Marvin sustained the constitu- tionality of the fugitive slave law in a masterly charge to the jury against a wave of indignation that swept over the North. We quote from a high judicial authority. "The charge exemplifies the judge's thorough know- ledge of the fundamental principles of our complicated and mixed form of government, and vindicates with great ability the constitutionality of the 'Fugitive Slave Law.'" Judge Andrews, now of the court of appeals, writes. as follows of Judge Marvin's presiding at the trial : "The dignity and impartiality of Judge Marvin's charge and his bearing throughout the trial was in full keeping with his high character as a man and jurist, and was the subject of universal commendation." The hated law was to be done away with upon the battle field in the throes of revolution.

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 93

Author: Edson, Obed, 1832-; Merrill, Georgia Drew, editor Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Boston, Mass. : W.A. Fergusson Number of Pages: 1068

Author: Edson, Obed, 1832-; Merrill, Georgia Drew, editor
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Boston, Mass. : W.A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1068