USA > New York > Dutchess County > History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 90
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A.LITTLE
Photo. by Merritt & Myers, Poughkeepsie.
(CORNELIUS N. CAMPBELL, M. D.)
He was present and took part in the battle of Gettysburg with the Army of the Potomac, and with the Army of the Cumberland under Generals Thomas and Sherman at the battles of Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church, Cassville, Culps Farm, siege of Atlanta, and went with Sherman on his " march to the sea," and did service at the battles of Averysboro, Bentonville and Raleigh, and was mustered out of the army with his regiment, on the 8th of June, 1865, after which he returned to his home in Stanford.
The following spring he removed to Poughkeepsie where he has since lived, and where he con- tinues to practice his profession.
OTIS BISBEE.
Otis Bisbee, the founder and Principal of River- view Academy, was born Feb. 14, 1822, in the town of Chesterfield, Hampshire County, Mass.
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
His father Job Bisbee, settled when the son was about eleven years old, in Ellicottville, Cattaraugus County, in this State. Here he attended the dis- trict school in his neighborhood from two to three months each winter, till he was fifteen years old. During the spring, summer and autumn he as- sisted his father on the small farm, which, through the combined efforts of father and son yielded but a scanty subsistence to the family. Means were indeed small enough. The country was new, and cultivating the land among the stumps was a rough business.
An incident may show something of the wild character of the country, and, at the same time, a trait in the character of the boy. At the age of thirteen, being of large size, he was ambitious to prove what he could do unaided, in the making of maple sugar. The farm was long and narrow, ex- tending from Great Valley Creek, on the border of which the log house and barn stood, over rolling ground, across a narrow valley, more than half a mile away. At this end of the farm was a fine growth of maple trees. It was his request to be allowed to locate in this place his "sugar bush " and "boiling place." Here he began in February to dig his troughs, and otherwise get ready. He
tapped sixty-five trees, hired a caldron and made, "sugaring off" by himself, a larger proportionate yield of good sugar than was elsewhere made in the neighborhood. One busy day he did not leave the place till about ten o'clock in the evening. On the next morning tracks of wolves following a deer were seen near the "boiling-place."
The custom of working with his father, who was well informed on a variety of subjects, served to stimulate in the boy's mind a desire to avail himself of any opportunity he might find for improving his mind by reading and study. It would happen in hoeing corn or digging potatoes, for instance, that the attention would be given partly to some discussion wherein questions would run riot, while answers often came limping or failed to appear. But in his case the awakening to thought was doubtless more valuable to him than the acqui- sition of knowledge relating to agriculture.
During the two years following he was restless, and growing more and more dissatisfied with the fruitlessness of the manner of life he was leading. His schemes of change were incited and encour- aged by the reading he fell upon, in biography and history. In his seventeenth year, a severe axe-cut in the ankle confined him to the house; and through the encouragement of father and mother, he began to study up the matters, a knowledge of which was supposed to qualify a youth to " teach school." Discouraging work it was. Grammar wouldn't come clear, and arithmetic was very per- verse. Late autumn brought an opportunity and an engagement to teach school in a back-woods district. Then followed the examination by three distinguished committee-men, and then the certifi- cate. Not much boasting would be justified in relation to the qualifications of the young teacher, though he soon won the reputation of having com-
mon sense enough to manage the school. In March following, the boy teacher, seventeen years of age, set forth on foot, with moistened eyes, and a very heavy heart, from the log-house where the inter- twining of family affections held him strongly bound, and the associations of the neighborhood were dear to him, to venture among strangers with the hope that he might be able to pay a debt against his father, and afterwards benefit himself. With severe economy, he managed to pay the debt after labor- ing three years. On one of those March days, through mud, footsore, with all his worldly goods, besides the clothes on his back, slung in a cotton handkerchief over his shoulder, our sun-and-wind- tanned youth was trudging through Canandaigua eastward. In the same direction came a man rid- ing a well-saddled horse, and leading one bare- back. "Good Samaritan art thou indeed," thought our youth as the horseman offered to let him ride on the bare-back horse. He was going to Ca- millus, he said, and it would not hurt the horse to ride him. Stiffened by walking and a chilliness that presaged fever, the limbs of our new rider were so inflexible, and the sleek horse was so plump and round that he seemed to himself to require more than the art of a rope-dancer to keep his seat, especially when his companion struck up a trot. At a tavern near Auburn Free Bridge they put up for the night. Supperless, save a dose of brandy and a cracker, recommended to him as a medicine, our young traveler retired. In the morn- ing he awoke much improved, but found his compan- ion had taken a very early start, apparently to be rid of him, and no wonder; for he had been a shiver- ing, teeth-chattering companion.
The four subsequent years were spent with his uncles, who were to him then as strangers, in dairy- farming in the county of Herkimer. Of these years the last three were spent in the town of Fair- field, where was located a celebrated academy and a medical college. Here again school teaching became the object of his ambition, and, after an examination said to be satisfactory, he, at nineteen, entered on teaching, which he continued several subsequent winters, having, in the meantime, be- gun study at Fairfield Academy.
In the spring of 1847 he entered third term sophomore, at Union College, before Dr. Nott had become crippled by rheumatism. Being inclined to steady habits he did not make the doctor's ac- quaintance so soon as did some of his more lively companions ; in fact, he never became intimate with the celebrated doctor. In 1848 the Adelphic Literary Society held its semi-centennial celebra- tion, and for the term of office in which that cele- bration took place, he was chosen president, and thus had imposed on him the duty of welcoming the Alumni back to the halls of the society. On this occasion was seen the tact of Dr. Alonzo Potter, who replied in behalf of the Alumni, in adroitly commingling reminiscences with express- ions of welcome in such a way as to encourage confidence in the acting members. Dr. Potter acted as president of the college during Dr. Nott's
Photo. by Vail, Poughkeepsie
Oho Thisbe
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
sickness. It was not at this time an uncommon thing for some of the students to make their trips to and from college by the packet canal boat. One such trip our student made with a lot of others who were disposed to be merry on the way. It happened at least once. that a noisy fellow in the berth above felt himself raised by a force below and landed on the floor.
He left college in the spring of 1849, to teach in Mr. Chas. Bartlett's school on College Hill, and on the graduation of his class was elected to member- ship in the Phi Beta Kappa Society. In the year 1851 he married Miss Frances C. Bartlett, and in 1853 built a house for a dwelling and school on the south-west corner of Mill and Hamilton streets, Poughkeepsie. In 1857, on the death of Mr. Chas. Bartlett, he became, in company with Mr. Chas. B. Warring, the accomplished principal of Poughkeepsie Military Institute, associate prin- cipal of the Poughkeepsie Collegiate School.
Mr. Warring having retired in the spring of 1862, he changed the character of the school by intro- ducing the military element which it has since re- tained. In 1866 he erected the building known as the Riverview Academy, and in the spring of the next year removed to the new quarters.
THOMAS G. NICHOLS.
Thomas Grier Nichols was born in Boston, Mass., on the 8th of January, 1833. The follow- ing year he removed with his parents to the then village (now city) of Poughkeepsie where his father and mother died in old age and where he himself has since resided.
Early in life Thomas was apprenticed to the printing business, and thoroughly acquired that art in all its branches. Immediately upon the close of his apprenticeship, and at the age of nineteen he started the first office ever established in Pough- keepsie for job printing exclusively.
The following May (1852) he founded the Daily Press which was the first successful daily newspaper upon the Hudson River between the cities of Albany and New York. In this early en- terprise he was materially aided by the late Mat- thew Vassar, who was subsequently the founder of Vassar College, and also by the illustrious inventor of telegraphy, Prof. S. F. B. Morse, both of whom continued their friendship through their remarka- ble lives. In 1858 he disposed of his interest in that paper.
In 1868, at the urgent pressure of many of his in- fluential fellow citizens he was induced to establish another daily under the title of the Daily News which he continued to publish for several years, until he was compelled to retire from its man- agement by broken health. This paper subse- quently passed into the hands of Hon. J. O. White- house.
In the winter of 1872, Mr. Nichols was suffi- ciently recovered to enable him to accede to the
desires of his fellow citizens of prominence, by re- turning to his favorite occupation. This he did by establishing the Sunday Courier, the only Sunday paper on the Hudson River between New York and Albany, of which he is still sole editor and proprietor, and which has realized altogether un- precedented success. The two editions of this newspaper, Sunday and Monday, seemed to meet exactly the public demand, and have reached a circulation never before known upon the banks of the Hudson between the two cities which limit its navigable extremes. The Courier became at once, and has continued to be, the representative news- paper of the city and county where it is published.
LITTLE
(THOMAS G. NICHOLS.)
The ideal journalist should be free from sectarian, partisan or personal bias, and this idea has been exemplified in and has been one of the main un- derlying causes of the success of the ventures which have marked the career of this successful journalist.
All the leading enterprises which have marked the career of Poughkeepsie have been inaugurated since Mr. Nichols has been an active editor, and to all these his pen has actively contributed. All local improvements, public and private, enlisted his energies and advocacy. As early as 1854, he fore- saw the advantages and necessities for a railroad to the Connecticut line, and of a connection between the cities and manufactories of the East and the coal fields of the West by means of a bridge across the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, and to these important elements of civic prosperity he then be- gan to call the attention of the public through his publications, and he may therefore justly be re- garded as the pioneer in these great undertakings.
The change of local government from the village to city form, the successful water and sewerage sys- tem, the city railroad and the various manufactur- ing and other enterprises, which have rendered the
460
HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
place of his residence most attractive, healthful and prosperous, are all largely indebted to his skillful advocacy.
At the foundation of this career lies the fact that Mr. Nichols has had a perfect knowledge of the art of printing-past and present in all its forms- a fact which has been exhibited in all his publica- tions. Added to this pre-requisite, are those traits which in such a career are prophecies of success and final public respect. Among these are inde- pendence, fearlessness, sagacity, persistence and a natural sympathy for enterprise, morality and justice toward all, for all and in all. Cruelty, injustice and pretense in all the forms of cant, hyprocracy and sham, the assumptions of wealth and power against the poor or helpless, have always enlisted the utmost critical powers of a pen remarkable for keen and discriminating judgment and force. It is not singular that such a man so endowed and so prepared, should reach his ele- vated rank in provincial journalism, and that the temporary criticism which always follows inde- pendence should prove wholly evanescent and close in the unanimous judgment, that the work of such a life has proved a beneficence to every worthy public and private interest, especially to the community most accessible and most deeply permeated by its influence.
JAMES HOOKER.
James Hooker, Esq., the subject of this sketch, was descended from one of the oldest and most influential New England families. The Hookers settled early in or near Hartford, in Connecticut, and are honorably connected with its early history. Thomas Hooker was first minister of Hartford, born in Marshfield, Leicestershire, England, in 1586, educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, of which he was elected Fellow ; was chosen Lec- turer in 1626, but silenced for non-conformity. In 1633, he came to New England, preached for a time at Canıbridge, but in June, 1636, removed to, and commenced the settlement of Hartford, where he continued his ministry until his death in 1647.
He was eminent for talent and learning-of great dignity and energy as a preacher and one of the best and most useful founders of the Colonies. (Lempriere's Biog. Dict. 2 Vol. page 69.) The venerable President Dwight thus writes of Rev. Thomas Hooker : "On the affairs of the infant colony (Connecticut) his influence was command- ing. Little was done without his approbation, and almost everything which he approved was done of course" (Dwight's Travels p 238.) "He was invited to be a member of that memorable body, the Westminister Assembly of Divines, which was convened in London, A. D., 1642, and which gave to the world those admirable digests of religious faith and practice, The Larger and Shorter West- minister Catechism," (Life of Thomas Hooker, page 130.)
His son, Rev. Samuel Hooker, of Farmington, Massachusetts, married Mary Willet.
Their son, Nathaniel Hooker, married Mary Stanley. Their son, Nathaniel Hooker, of Hart- ford, married Eunice Talcott, daughter of Gov- ernor Talcott. Their son, James Hooker, married Mary Chaffee, and their son, James Hooker, the subject of this sketch, was born at Windsor, Con- necticut, A. D., 1792.
He entered Yale College about the year 1806, and was graduated honorably in the year 1810, two of his classmates being the Hon. Prof. S. F. B. Morse and Hon. Severen Bryne Hasbrook, formerly President of Rutgers College, New Jersey.
In looking round for a suitable place to settle and commence the study of law, to which he intended to devote his life, he selected the then vil- lage of Poughkeepsie, at that time the residence of some of the most influential lawyers of that day- Hon. James Emott, afterwards Supreme Court Cir- cuit Judge ; Thomas J. Oakley, for many years Chief Justice of the Superior Court of the city of New York ; Hon. James Tallmadge, Lieut .- Gov- ernor of New York; Philo Ruggles Sr., and others of eminence in the profession.
Mr. Hooker after completing his studies in the office of Philo Ruggles, Sr., where Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles and Philo T. Ruggles were his co-stu- dents, was licensed and became a partner of the elder Ruggles in the practice of the law. He was a close student ; had a keen discriminating mind well stored with the principles of equity and the common law, and was soon regarded as one of the soundest and safest counsellors in the county.
Among the younger members of the profession, it was like stalking into the presence of the King, to venture upon the duty of drawing a bill in equity, but Mr. Hooker was not long in entering upon this field of competition with older counsel, who up to this time held exclusive possession of this almost untrodden domain.
Mr. Hooker, on January 24, 1816, was married to Helen S. Reade, youngest daughter of John and Catharine Reade, residents of Poughkeepsie ; the eldest daughter of Mrs. Reade being married to Nicholas W. Stuyvesant of New York, and the second, to Robert Kearny. Two daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hooker, Catharine L., after- wards married to John W. Hamersley, Esq., of New York, and Mary, who died in early life.
Mr. Hooker, on the removal of Mr. Ruggles to the city of New York, formed a law partnership with Hon. N. P. Tallmadge, and together they wielded the power and controlled the patronage of the Democratic party in the county of Duchess.
- Mr. Hooker was appointed Surrogate of the County by the Governor, which office he held to the perfect satisfaction of the bar and of the peo- ple, for sixteen years consecutively. Mr. Tallmadge at the same time held the office of Supreme Court Commissioner, then embracing most of the duties now performed by the Judge of County Courts. They were ardent supporters of General Jackson's administration, and in constant inter-
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James Booker-
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
course with Mr. Van Buren, Governor Marcy and Silas Wright, in fact, the Democratic party in this State under such management was all but invin- cible. As early as the year 1845, having acquired an ample independence, and after the marriage of his daughter, he substantially retired from the active duties of his profession, and spent his leisure in literary studies, and in the care of his extensive landed property, a great portion of which has descended to his wife in an unbroken succession from Queen Anne. He was one of the first pro- posers of the Hudson River Railroad and continued its zealous and unflagging sup- porter till its completion ; was one of its first Board of Directors and continued as such till his decease.
He anticipated the growth of Pough- keepsie from 1840 to 1865, and made landed investments which became valuable after his decease.
He died suddenly, September 3, 1858, leaving his daughter and widow surviving him. He had only one grandson, James Hooker Hammersley, Esq., now of the city of New York, to whom he devised his family homestead. Mr. Hooker was a sincere christian, a devoted husband, a tender and affectionate father and grandfather, a loyal friend and an esteemed and respected citizen. He was tall in stature, of noble presence, his bearing was manly, courtly and urbane, combining a cordial manner with great conversational powers, in fact a happy type of the almost extinct " gentle- man of the old school."
JOHN R. COOPER, M. D.
John Reed Cooper, the subject of this brief sketch, was born in the city of Pough- keepsie, January 25, 1828. He is a son of John and Rebecca (Hardenbrook) Cooper. The father was born in Fish- kill, N. Y., June 6, 1786, and died in Poughkeepsie in 1863. The mother was born in New York City in August, 1793, and died in Poughkeepsie in 1862.
John Cooper, M. D., studied for his profession in Fishkill and graduated from the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons in New York, after which he came to Poughkeepsie and practiced medicine until the breaking out of the war of 1812, when he entered the service of the United States. He was stationed at Fort Dearborn, where the city of Chicago is now located, remaining there till the close of the war, when he returned to Poughkeepsie and practiced his profession until his death.
John and Rebecca Cooper were the parents of thirteen children, eleven daughters and two sons, all now dead except one daughter, Margaret Jane Adams, residing at Bath, on the Hudson, and John Reed, the subject of our present sketch. John R.
attended the old Duchess Academy in Pough- keepsie until he was eighteen years of age, when he commenced the study of medicine in his father's office. He attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York during the years 1848 and '49, and commenced the practice of his pro- fession in Poughkeepsie in 1850. Here he re- mained one year, then practiced at Wappingers Falls one year, after which he returned to Pough- keepsie, where he has continued in practice to the present time.
A.LITTLE
Photo. by M. Smith, Poughkeepsie.
In 1851, Dr. Cooper married Aletta J., daughter of William and Eliza (Fanning) Schenck, of the city of Brooklyn. They have one child, William S., born in 1852, now living in New York City.
In 1861, Dr. Cooper entered the service of the Government as Surgeon of the 5th New York Cavalry and was mostly in the Shenandoah Valley. His regiment was in Gen. Banks' Army and was with that command in its retreat before Stonewall Jackson's Army from Strasburg to Williamsport.
He was in the service fourteen months when he was obliged to resign his commission in order to attend business connected with the death of his mother, not being able to obtain a furlough for that purpose.
In politics Dr. Cooper has always been a Repub-
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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.
lican and was elected to the office of Supervisor for one term. He has represented his ward as Alder- man twelve years. In religious sentiment he is an Episcopalian.
In early boyhood it was said of John R. that he was a "chip of the old block; " his tastes and mental characteristics being so marked and identified with those of his father. In medicine their practice was "heroic." So in their intercourse witli men they never occupied equivocal grounds.
The writer who has enjoyed the acquaintance of both father and son since 1838, and who was never a patron of either, calls to mind a somewhat remark- able law suit, in which the elder Dr. Cooper was a prominent figure, which will be given as one illustration of the qualities alluded to. At the time he was President of the Duchess County Med- ical Society, a young gentle- man had passed the proper examination and was ap- proved for learning ; Presi- dent Cooper refused to sign his license on the ground of the immoral character of the applicant, who thereupon brought suit against the President. The doctor de- fended himself with his characteristic resolution. It is enough to add, that the subsequent course of the young man more than justi-
tional Church, at Jericho Centre, Vt., January 22, 1845. During his pastorate here, which ended January 2, 1850, he was for two years Superintend- ent of the common schools in Chittenden County, Vt. On the 29th of May, 1850, Mr. Wheeler became pastor of the Congregational Church, in Brandon, Vt. While there he was appointed Sec- retary of the Vermont Sabbath School Union, also one of the examining committee of the University of Vermont.
On the 7th of September, 1854, he was dismissed from the church in Brandon and immediately removed to Saco, Maine, where on the 6th of December, 1854, he assumed the pastoral charge of the First Congre- gational Church. His pas- torate there was one o marked success and power, resulting in large accessions to his church. During the winter of 1857-'8, there was a wonderful display of Divine grace in his congregation. For three months, meetings were held every day, at which the pastor himself officiated, preaching and visiting from house to house. In this revival many prom- inent professional and busi- ness men with their families were brought into the church ; making the sacra- mental days in May and July of 1858, days never
Marcus
fied the wisdom of Dr. Cooper's action. He was of the first class of the old school of medicine and may fitly be written a nobleman.
FRANCIS B. WHEELER, D. D.
Francis Brown Wheeler was born in North Adams, Mass., of ministerial descent ; his father, grandfather and four uncles having been clergy- men. He was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1842. Ex-Vice-President Wheeler, Hon. John Kasson, late U. S. Minister to Austria, Hon. Robert S. Hale and Hon. E. J. Hamilton, were among his class-mates.
Having studied theology at Andover Theologi- cal Seminary, and with the Rev. J. W. Ward, an eminent Theologian of Massachusetts, he was or- dained and installed as pastor of the Congrega-
Wheeler,
to be forgotten in the annals of Maine church history. The health of his family compelled Mr. Wheeler to relinquish this interesting field to which he was bound by ties stronger than death, and accept a call from the First Presbyterian Church of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., over which church he was installed on the 12th of May, 1859, having been dismissed from Saco, March 2d, 1859, against the earnest and affectionate remonstrance of his people. During his ministry in Poughkeepsie there has been a constant and increasing demand for his labors, so that all his powers have been taxed in the accumulating cares and responsibilities of a large congregation and protracted pastorate. Fre- quent additions have been made to his church and at two different times there have been special re- vival ingatherings. He has had many ecclesiastical honors, Hamilton College having conferred the honorary distinction of S. T. D., or Doctor of Divinity, upon him in 1868, the honorary degree
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