History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 34

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 922

USA > New York > Clinton County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 34
USA > New York > Franklin County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 34

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

mich zu Hud

BENCH AND BAR.

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Jan. 1, 1868. Judge Palmer has ever been closely identi- fied with the interests of Plattsburgh, and has officiated as president of the village, trustce, village clerk, etc., for a long series of years. He was clerk of the village as long ago as 1836, and perhaps earlier, he being at that time twenty-two years of age.

Notwithstanding the multifarious duties incident to an active professional life, Judge Palmer has found time to in- dulge his taste for literary pursuits, and has added many highly interesting and valuable works to the historic literature of this section, among which may be mentioned " Palmer's History of Lake Champlain, from 1609 to 1814," a work indicating great research and containing

in 1835-36, 1842, and 1862; member of Congress in 1843-45 ; county judge from 1847 to 1852; member of the Constitutional Convention of 1846; and was a candi- date on the Democratic ticket for comptroller in 1855. Judge Stetson was a man of decided talent, and occupied a leading position at the bar.

D. S. MoMASTER graduated at the University of Ver- mont in July, 1840, and in September, 1841, commenced the study of the law in the office of Judge William F. Haile in Plattsburgh. He was admitted to the bar in 1844, and commenced practice in Plattsburgh, where he has since remained. He was superintendent of common schools in Clinton County in 1844-45 ; justice of the peace

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much valuable historical information ; " Battle of Valcour ;" " Historical Sketches of Northern New York," including a history of Plattsburgh, and much interesting matter bearing upon the history of Clinton County generally, etc. Judge Palmer has taken an unusually active interest in historical matters, and to him more than any other person is due the preservation of the pioneer history of this scetion.

LEMUEL STETSON was born in Champlain, N. Y., March 13, 1804, and died May 17, 1868 He studied law with Judge Lynde, of Plattsburgh, and after admission removed to Kecseville, where he remained until the spring of 1848, when he returned to Plattsburgh. He was district attorney from Jan. 1, 1838, to Jan. 1, 1844; member of Assembly

in Plattsburgh from Jan. 1, 1866, to Jan. 1, 1868; and was county judge and surrogate of Clinton County from Jan. 1, 1868, to Jan. 1, 1872.

SMITH M. WEED was born in the town of Belmont, Franklin Co., N. Y., on the 26th day of July, 1833. His father, Roswell Alcott Wecd, was born in Lebanon, N. H., in 1798, and died at Plattsburgh, N. Y., in 1869. His mother, Sarah A. Weed (who is still living), is a daughter of the late Smith Mead, Esq., who in his lifetime was a prominent citizen of this county.

Mr. Weed received an academical education, and sub- sequently entered the Law School at Harvard University, where he graduated in 1857. He soon after commenced

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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the practice of the law at Plattsburgh, and at once entered upon an active and successful professional life.

In 1859 he married Carrie L. Standish, a daughter of Col. Matthew M. Standish, an old and prominent citizen of Plattsburgh, and a lineal descendant of Col. Miles Standish, of Plymouth.

Mr. Weed first appeared in State politics, as a member of Assembly, in 1865. His talents and skill as a political leader were at once recognized, and from the first he took a leading part in all the important measures brought before the Legislature. His vote, given this session in support of the amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery, evi- denced his far-sighted view of both the policy and justice of that measure, and, although at the moment somewhat in advance of some of the leaders of his party, he was fully sustained by the subsequent action of the Democratic con- vention. At this session he also framed and introduced and succeeded in passing the " Free School" act, upon which our present system of public education is based.

Mr. Weed was re-elected to the Assembly in 1866, 1867, 1871, 1873, and 1874, and has been twice the caucus can- didate of his party for Speaker. He has occupied promi- nent positions upon standing committees, and on all matters of public interest has always been recognized as one of the leaders not only of his party, but of the Assembly.

In 1867, Mr. Weed was a delegate-at-large to the State Constitutional Convention. In the Assembly he had urged that the negroes of the State should be allowed to vote for delegates to the convention, and in the convention he made a specch on the separate submission of the negro suffrage clause, which at the time attracted considerable attention. In it he stated his belief that the colored people of the State possessed sufficient capacity and intelligence to vote.

In 1871, as a member of the railroad committee, Mr. Weed successfully resisted the designs of the " strikers" upon the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and during the session prepared and submitted to the House a minority report in favor of the repeal of the Erie Classifi- cation Act of 1869. He ably defended the report, and came within one vote of carrying the bill in the House against the full power of Tammany and the Erie ring. It was during this session that he opposed, almost single- handed, the schemes of Tammany, and with such force, pertinacity, and success as to bring upon him the lifetime hatred of the leaders of that then proud and overbearing or- ganization. This opposition at the time led to a brutal as- sault upon him by the notorious James Irving, for which Irving was promptly driven from the Assembly.

During the session of 1873, Mr. Weed brought forward and advocated a measure of the greatest importance to the commercial interests of the State and of the city of New York, the enlargement of the Champlain Canal to the ca- pacity of a ship-canal, which, with the Caughnawaga ship- canal projected in Canada, would afford an unbroken water communication from the great western lakes to the city of New York via the river St. Lawrence, Lake Champlain, and the Hudson River. Mr. Weed had given long and careful study to the subject. He had thoroughly investi- gated the character of the region through which the two proposed canals were to pass, the difficulties of construction,

and the great commercial advantage of ship communication between the cities of our great western lakes and our own seaboard. Through his urgent action the Congressional committee on freight transportation from the great lakes to the seaboard had been induced to visit and examine the route, and had expressed its strong commendation of the enterprise.

Upon the discussion of the measure in the Assembly, Mr. Wecd delivered a speech exhaustive of the subject, as well in its engineering as in its business aspect. The bill passed the House, but was defeated in the Senate. Mr. Weed justly considers this as the most important measure ever advocated by him, and looks forward confidently to the time when sea-going vessels will pass through Lake Champlain bearing the cereals of the Western States to European ports. Mr. Weed closed the speech to which reference has been made, in this prophetic language :

" Local jealousies may defeat this measure at this time, as it has in days past dwarfed and retarded the Champlain route. Party leaders may, from fear of being thought extravagant, from fear of getting the ill-will of rival routes, hesitate and be afraid to do what they can but feel is for the interest of the State, its commerce, and its welfare. Narrow-minded statesmanship may think it is popular to consider that our State is a finished State ; that all public works should stop ; that public expenditures shall cease; that nothing needs to be done but to hide our talent under a bushel and keep it until the day of judg- ment. But, Mr. Chairman, the people do not feel so. The people of this State, the commercial interest of this State, are not prepared to see its interests sacrificed, its commerce taken to other seaports, its trade ruined, when liberal and enlightened political economy would grant the ready relief. And, sir, it is but a question of time; you may dam up the river in its flow to the sca ; you may obstruct and detain the avalanche in its downward course; but it will accumulate, and, by and by, sweeping all obstacles from its path, it will find its natural outlet, aud, in its course, destroy the obstacles.

" So with this great question that I have, in an imperfect way, been attempting to deal with. Narrow-mindedness, jealousy, false ideas of retrenchment and reform may, for a time, delay it, but sooner or later it will overcome them and find its natural outlet, sweeping the obstructions into oblivion."

In 1876 he was one of the most active and devoted sup- porters of Governor Tilden at St. Louis, and was active and energetic throughout the entire Presidential canvass. At the St. Louis convention he had a spirited encounter with John Kelly, and routed and defeated Kelly and his bul- lies in their attempt to browbeat the convention. In 1878 he again met his old enemy, Tammany Hall, headed by Kelly, at Syracuse, and gave them such a battle that they were glad to get away. By the latter contest he endeared himself to the Democracy of New York more than by any act of his life.

Mr. Weed is gentlemanly and courteous, but independent in word and action. He is free, outspoken, and determined in advocating what he believes to be right and in denounc- ing what he believes to be wrong, regardless of the effect upon his own political prospects. In the pursuit of an ob- ject which he considers right and by which the interests of the people will be advanced, he never hesitates or falters, but presses forward with a determination and energy which deserves and often secures success. The early completion of direct railroad communication between Northern New York and the commercial cities on the Hudson is one of the fruits of his indomitable energy. At a dinner given at

"THE POPLARS , SUMMER RESIDENCE OF SMITH M. WEED.

Winslow C. Watson, Jr., son of Winslow C. Wat- son, and grandson of the celebrated Elkanah Wat- son, was born in Plattsburgh, N. Y., Jan. 19, 1832, and is of Puritan ancestry. His mother's name was Susan P. Skinner, daughter of Richard Skinner, of Manchester, Vt.

He attended school at the Keeseville Academy, and, having decided upon a collegiate education, entered the University of Vermont, in Burlington, in 1850, where he graduated in 1854. He took Mas- ter's degree in 1857, and delivered the Master's ora- tion. He subsequently delivered an oration before the College Alumni.

He commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. George A. Saunders, at Keeseville, and was admitted to the bar in 1861, at Plattsburgh. He practiced a short time with Hon. Robert S. Hale, of Elizabethtown, Essex Co., N. Y., and then removed to Keeseville, and continued the practice of his pro- fession alone until 1865, when he formed a copart- nership with H. N. Hewitt, Esq., under the firm-

name of Hewitt & Watson, and continued a member of such firm until his election to the office of county judge and surrogate of Clinton County, in 1875.

In 1857 he was elected to the office of school commissioner of the First District of Essex, and dis- charged the duties of that office three years with great acceptability.

Judge Watson was married July 30, 1861, to Mary Anna, only daughter of Silas Arnold, of Keeseville, N. Y., who died Nov. 13, 1862. He was married a second time, Sept. 23, 1879, to Minnie, only daughter of Ashael Barnes, of Chimney Point, Vt.

Politically he is a Democrat, and a firm supporter of the principles of that party. In religious mat- ters he is a Presbyterian.

Judge Watson is a sound lawyer and safe coun- selor, and on the bench his rulings and decisions are characterized by eminent impartiality, and his de- meanor by that courtesy which always renders his intercourse with men agreeable.

Lw, L, Clark.

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BENCH AND BAR.

the opening of the New York and Canada Railroad, at which Mr. Weed presided, Hon. Robert S. Hall, of Essex County, after speaking of Mr. Dickson's part in the build- ing of the railroad, spoke of Mr. Weed as follows :

" Another gentleman has from the beginning-has indeed for years and years-toiled to this end. He has had other purposes than Mr. Dickson, no doubt, for he has no interest in the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, but he was actuated by his interest in the country. For a score of years, I must acknowledge, no man has struggled for the success of this enterprise as has Smith M. Weed (long applause). In the pursuit of that end he has never faltered, never flinched, never hesitated ; pursuing his object with skill, with sagacity,-never, thank God, with impudence, for impudence is not predicated nor predicable of such a work. I have been opposed to Mr. Weed in politics, and opposed to him professionally, and sometimes, to my grief, I am sorry to say, I have been opposed to his policy in regard to this enterprise, but time has vindicated his judgment, and I say here, if I could have the credit which honestly belongs to Smith M. Weed for the part he has taken in this work, I would thank God and say I have enough. In conclusion, gentlemen, I trust that the time will come when some- where along the line of this road a grand and worthy monument will be raised, in full view of the multitudes who shall hereafter pass over this road, perchance, that it would be jarred by the gigantic locomo- tives as they thunder past with their ponderous trains; and upon that monument I hope to sec cut in letters so deep that the hand of time will not be able to efface them, the names of Thomas Dickson and Smith M. Weed." ( Enthusiastic and long-continued applause.)

To him also the people are indebted in a great measure for the early development of the rich mineral wealth which lay hidden at the base of Lyon Mountain. He has always been an active, energetic, liberal, and progressive citizen of Clinton County, and to him very many of the publie im- provements in Plattsburgh village and Clinton County may be traced. As a lawyer and political speaker Mr. Weed always commands attention more by the substance of his discourse than by oratory. His ideas are presented in the plainest words; he is generally deliberate and unimpassioned, but under the excitement of debate he frequently becomes eloquent. He needs antagonism to bring him out, when he displays a power of illustration and a facility of repartee which interests his hearers and is not always agreeable to his opponents.

GEORGE L. CLARK, the subject of this sketch, was born in Chazy, Clinton Co., N. Y., on the 14th day of September, 1825. He was the eldest child and son of Nathaniel and Mary Clark, who were among the early residents of that town. His early years were spent upon his father's farm. While young he manifested an eager love for reading and a thirst for knowledge, and for the gratification of those desires almost wholly disregarded the sports and pastimes usual to that age.

In addition to the requirements of the common school and home readings, he received an academie education in the Champlain and Plattsburgh Academies. Mr. Clark was destined by his father for a farmer, an occupation upon which he reluctantly entered, but after two years' trial abandoned and commenced the study of law at the "State and National Law School," which he entered in December, 1850. That institution was located at Ballston Spa, Sara- toga Co., N. Y., and was under the charge of Prof. John W. Fowler, and at that time was largely attended and in the most flourishing condition. Soon after entering the law school he also became a student in the law-office of Hon. George G. Scott, of Ballston, and later completed his

office studies in Albany, at the office of Messrs. Peckham & Colt, the firm of which the late lamented Judge Rufus W. Peckham, of the Court of Appeals, who was lost at sea in the " Ville-du-Havre," was then a member.

He was admitted to practice at the bar at the capital in Albany on the 2d of February, 1852, and was also after- wards, February 3, 1868, admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, at Washington, D. C. In July, 1852, he commenced the active practice of his profession at Plattsburgh, N. Y., where he now resides.

As a lawyer, Mr. Clark soon attained a respectable posi- tion among his professional brethren at the bar and a fair share of professional business. During his praetice he has been engaged in many important cases involving difficult and intricate questions, both of law and practice, in all of which he has acquitted himself with ability and success. As a jury lawyer he has few superiors in Northern New York, his candor and peculiar manner in addressing a jury seldom failing to obtain from them a verdict in his favor, and it may be safely said of him that he now occupies a place in the very front rank of his profession.

From his well-known reputation of never encouraging litigation when it can be avoided, his counsel in important matters is very generally sought and valued.

In the summer of 1879 he was commissioned to make a professional trip to Europe, and visited England, Ireland, and Scotland, also extending his tour on the Continent from Paris to the Rhine, and through Switzerland, going as far south as Rome.

In politics Mr. Clark was a Democrat of the old school until the breaking out of the Rebellion,-voting, in 1860, for Stephen A. Douglas, but when the old flag was assailed at Sumter, his influence and energies were at once given to the cause of the Union. With Hon. Lemuel Stetson, Jesse Gay, and a few others he was active in the organiza- tion of the Union party in Clinton County, and during the war was earnest in his support of President Lincoln's administration in its efforts to suppress the Rebellion.

At Mr. Lincoln's second nomination for the Presidency, Mr. Clark heartily supported his election, and has ever since been an earnest Republican, in the active campaign of 1866 being chairman of the Republican County Com- mittec, and ever ready, on the stump or otherwise, to defend and maintain the principles of the party.

In April, 1869, he was appointed by President Grant, United States assessor of internal revenue for the Sixteenth Revenue District, embracing Clinton, Essex, and Warren Counties, succeeding in that office Hon. Lawrence Myers, of Plattsburgh, and which position he held until the office was abolished by law.

In his religious belief Mr. Clark is an earnest and active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Joining that church at Plattsburgh in the year 1854 he soon became, and continues to be, one of its most prominent members. He has held the position of class-leader and also of trustee since very soon after his first connection with the church, and in 1876 was elected by the Lay Electoral College of Troy Conference one of the laymen, Prof. William Wells, of Union College, being the other, to represent that body in the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal

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Church, that held its quadrennial session at Baltimore, in May of that year.

In all Christian work he has since his first entrance upon a religious life been very earnest and zealous, not only in his own church, in the support of Christian missions and other kindred enterprises, but in the work of the Clinton County Bible Society, of which he has been president for five consecutive years, and by its order recently made a life director of the American Bible Society. The cause of temperance has always found in him an ardent and ready supporter and advocate, and, as he says, he " never drank a glass of liquor in his life, not even wine." The representa- tion of his healthy and robust physique upon the opposite page, at the age of fifty-four, speaks well for the cause of total abstinence.

On the 9th of November, 1848, Mr. Clark was married at Chazy, N. Y., to Miss Jo Ann Walling, third daughter of Zenas and Sarah Clark, who were originally from Con- necticut, Zenas Clark having been born at Haddam, in that State. He was a son of Samuel Clark, and took an active part as a volunteer in the defense of New London in the war of 1812. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-one years, and died at Plattsburgh, on the 20th day of May, 1874. Sarah Clark, who still survives him, now in her eighty-seventh year, was born in Old Canaan, Conn., and was a daughter of James Walling, the family having origi- nally come from Yorkshire, England.

To Mr. Clark, the subject of our sketch, and Mrs. Clark have been born five children : Sarah Imogen, born in Chazy, Nov. 28, 1849, married Frank F. Hathaway, Sept. 28, 1869; Mary Isabella, born at Plattsburgh, Feb. 8, 1854, died Jan. 5, 1862; Nathaniel Walling, born Feb. 12, 1859 ; John Cheeseman, born March 24, 1863; Caroline Maud, born Aug. 8, 1865.

The Clark family to whom Mr. Clark belongs came origi- nally from the banks of the Tweed, in Scotland, and settled in or near Londonderry, in the north of Ireland, about the time of the Revolution of 1688.

The first member of the family certainly known to have come to America was Nathaniel Clark, who came to Lon- donderry in the expedition commanded by Gen. Wolfe, and participated in the battle on the Plains of Abraham at the taking of Quebec from the French in 1759. After the war he married Anna Glassford, whose first husband was killed in the French and Indian War near Schenectady, and set- tled at Merrimae, N. H., where his eldest son, Samuel, was born, previous to the Revolutionary war. Samuel was mar- ried to Sarah Cloyston, and commenced farming at New Boston, where his eldest son, Nathaniel Clark, and other members of the family were born. Subsequently, in the year 1818, he removed with his family to Chazy, and was among the early settlers of that town.

Nathaniel Clark was married in Chazy in February, 1822, to Mary, the youngest daughter of Asa Stiles, of town. Her father was a soldier of the Revolution, and also in the war of 1812, and she was the sister of Asa Stiles, one of the old merchants of Chazy, and of Col. Ezra Stiles, of Fort Covington, N. Y., who still survives at the advanced age of eighty years, and nearly as active as when in his young manhood he gallantly carried the wounded Lieut. Haile, in

the face of British shot and shell, from the bloody field of Lundy's Lane. Soon after their marriage they settled upon the old homestead in Chazy, where their children were born, four of whom, including George L., still survive.

Mary Clark died at Chazy, on the 15th of August, 1840, in the thirty-fourth year of her age. Nathaniel Clark was again married to Esther, daughter of Rev. John Vaughan, who did not survive him, and after a long and faithful life he died on the 24th day of December, 1872, at the age of seventy-six years.

Other members of the bar from that time to the present have been as follows: Matthew Desmond, William R. Jones, John L. Stetson, Samuel B. M. Beckwith, Lafayette H. Nutting, George Stevenson, Horace Allen, Benjamin M. Beck with, Daniel A. Dickinson, David F. Dobie, Royal Corbin, Jesse Gay, Edwin D. Conery, S. Wright Holcomb, John G. MeDermot, Charles G. Knight, John Crowley, Martin H. O'Brien, William E. Smith, Charles H. Moore, William Woodward,* Joseph P. Reilly, Henry S. Johnson, S. L. Wheeler, Jolın P. Riley, Paul Girard, James Tierney, Monroe Hall, Benjamin Norton, H. P. Gilliland, and Frank MeMasters.

The present (October, 1879) members of the bar of Clinton are as follows :

Plattsburgh .- George M. Beekwith (out of practice), George H. Beckwith, Benj. M. Beckwith, Henry E. Bar- nard, Royal Corbin, George L. Clark, John Crowley, A. G. Carver, Mathew Desmond, David F. Dobie, Henry P. Gil- liland (2d), Monroe Hall, Wm. R. Jones, H. S. Johnson, D. S. MeMasters, E. J. Marks, Frank MeMasters, Benj. Nor- ton, Martin H. O' Brien, Peter S. Palmer, Joseph B. Reilly, John B. Riley, Wm. E. Smith, Wm. Storrs, James Tierney, Smith M. Weed, Wm. V. S. Woodward, Winslow C. Wat- son, Jr., S. L. Wheeler.

Champlain .- James Averill, - Bowerin (Rouse's Point), C. E. Everest, Alonzo S. Kellogg. Mooers .- H. S. Haff, L. L. Shedden. Altona .- John B. Trudo. Peru .- John W. Baldwin. Keeseville .- H. N. Hewitt.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE PRESS.

The Plattsburgh Republican-The Political Observatory-The Platts- burgh Whig-The Clinton County Whig-The Plattsburgh Express -The American Sentinel-The Plattsburgh Sentinel-The North- ern Herald-The Plattsburgh Herald-The Northern Intelligencer -The Aurora Borealis-The Democratic Press-The Northern Lancet-The Cottage Gazette-The Free Democrat-The Rouse's Point Harbinger and Champlain Political and Literary Compen- dium-The Scribbler-The Colonial Magazine-The Frontier Sen- tinel-The Champlain Beacon-Rouse's Point Advertiser-The Herald of Freedom-The Independent Democrat-The Champlain Citizen-The Champlain Herald-The Clinton County Herald-The Mountain Echo and Adirondack Guide.

PLATTSBURGH REPUBLICAN.

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History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 34

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 922

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 922