USA > New York > Herkimer County > History of Herkimer county, New York > Part 48
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Charles King was born in Freehold, N. Y., August 21, 1848. He received his educa- tion in the Norwich Free Academy and fitted for Yale, but at the age of twenty-one years relinquished the plan of attending college and wasgiven an interest in his father's business, after having served seven years in learning every detail. Removing with his father to Little Falls, he became a member of the firm of A. & C. King, which contin- ued, as above stated, until his father's death. Since that time he has been associated with Hon. Seth M. Richmond in the management of the Saxony Knitting Company. As a business man and a master of his trade Mr. King occupied a conspicuous position and enjoy the confidence of all who know him. He is a Republican in politics but has not held office, his business requiring his whole attention. Mr. King was married in 1875 to Sarah B., daughter of Hon. Seth M. Richmond.
FREDERICK U. WELLER.
Among the pioneers of the town of Newport, Herkimer county, was Israel Weller. He was a man of some note in early days, and shared in the War of 1812 at Sackett's HIarbor. He was a practical hatter and carried on that business in Newport village, and was among the earliest manufacturers of that vicinity. His wife was Sally Hawk- ins, a native of Newport, daughter of Uriah Hawkins, who took part as an officer under Washington in the Revolutionary War. Israel Weller died at an advanced age in Cattaraugus county. N. Y.
Frederick U. Weller son of Israel, was born in Newport November 24, 1819. Being one of a large family and living where schools were far apart and primitive in character, his education was limited to a few months in winter until he was fifteen years old. He
6.M. Carpenter
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had already struck out for himself three years earlier, by working summers on neigh- boring farms, for which he received four or five dollars a month. From that time on- ward he supported himself. When he had reached seventeen years he entered the store of Benjamin Terry at Newport and served one year as clerk, when he, in company with a Mr. Hall, bought the store and carried on business four years. During this period they also had a staging business, carrying freight, money, etc., to Utica, and in 1838 carried the mail and ran a stage from Little Falls, passing through Eaton's Bush, Fair- field, Middleville, Newport, Poland, Russia, Gravesville, Trenton Falls and Trenton. During his partnership with Hall, Mr. Weller purchased a farm near Newport and worked it two years. On the 8th of November, 1842, he married Helen Spencer, daugh- ter of Alpheus Spencer of Newport. They occupied the farm two years after marriage, but with indifferent success, and Mr. Weller's ambition prompted him to make a change, and he accordingly removed to flion. There were only about fifty buildings of all kinds in the village at that time. The elder Remington had substantially retired from active business, and his son Samuel had just secured the first large contract for 25,000 guns. In Ilion Mr. Weller established the Ilion Temperance House, which he successfully conducted five years. At the end of that period, taking his capital of $4,000 or $5,000, he removed to Pittsfield, Mass., where he purchased of his uncle a stock of boots and shoes. He remained there seven years, devoting himself closely to his business and meeting with good success. It is proper to state here that Mr. Weller had never en- joyed a very robust constitution, and his many years of ardnous labor finally broke his health, and upon the final advice of physicians he came to Mohawk, N. Y., for rest and possible recuperation. Before the final breaking down of his health he resorted to numerous doctors who successively fed him calomel until his system became charged with it, and ever since he has been a constant sufferer from the ravages of the drug.
On his arrival in Mohawk on his way back to Ilion he saw the residence he now occupies (then owned by the now venerable Jacob Diefendorf), and eight months later, in 1857, he purchased the premises and there made his permanent home. Three years later he added by purchase a tract which now gives him about six acres of beautifully situated land, and has since enlarged and greatly improved the residence. He continued the ownership of considerable real estate in Pittsfield until 1881, when he sold it, and for thirty- five years past he has had no active business, but has given much attention to the care of his buildings in Mohawk and to other affairs, as his health would permit. In 1860 he purchased a brick block, now known as the Weller Block, of Charles Spin- ner. He was called by his fellow-citizens to fill the office of president of the village one term, and by his honorable and upright life, his genial temperament and liberal aid in all good works, has gained the high esteem of the community.
Mr. and Mrs. Weller have one daughter, Sarah Matilda born September 12, 1843.
C. W. CARPENTER.
The subject of this sketch was born in Rockingham, N. H., on the 21st of July, 1819. lle is descended from English ancestry, and his father was Christopher R. Car- penter, a native of the State of Maine, born in 1782. He died in 1833. His wife was
63
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HISTORY OF HIERKIMER COUNTY.
Mary B. McCrilas, born in 1796, and died July 22, 1872. They were parents of ten children. of whom only forir are now living; they are: The subject; William II., of Milford. Mass., born January 19, 1821; Vasta MI., born January 19, 1825, married William Abbott, of Concord, N. H .; Mary E. Osgood, born December 26, 1829; both of these daughters are now widows; Rufus T., born June 9, 1822, deceased; Jacob C., born December 28, 1823, deceased ; an infant, born and died in March, 1824. Jacob MeCrillis, born January 24, 1826 ; Waldo, born January 7, 1827, died February 2, of the same year, and Abby L., born December 26, 1828.
C. W. Carpenter found only limited opportunity to obtain an education in the district school, and early in life took up mechanical labor. While he was yet young his parents removed from Rockingham to Lowell, Mass., and lived there two years. Afterward his father and a younger brother came westward on the then new Erie canal, in 1829, and he was taken along and finally reached the village of Owego, Tioga county, where he lived two years with two of his aunts. In 1832 his father located in Utica and C. IV. followed him and began working at the cabinet-making trade. This he followed only one year, when he went to the town of Marcy and spent five years in arduous labor on a farm. He then went to the village of Mohawk into a blacksmith and car- riage shop, where he worked four years at carriage ironing, in which work he became thoroughly proficient. This brings his career down to the year 1844, when he made his last removal to the village of Ilion and worked in the department in the Remington works in which gun barrels were made; this was then the principal part of their business and required skill and executive ability. Mr. Carpenter continued in this occupation for twelve years, until there was a decline in that branch of the industry, when he followed railroading in Ohio five years. In the summer of 1862 he re- turned and took up his foriner occupation in the armory, where he continued in full charge of that branch of the great works until 1884, when he retired from active labor. In the long period during which he served in the armory Mr. Carpenter developed the sterling qualities which are necessary in such a responsible position, and his success was such that he not only became a strong factor in the growth of the industry, but won the regard of those who labored under him.
Mr. Carpenter is a Republican in politics, but never gave his attention to public affairs more than is the duty of every good citizen. He was chosen president of the village in 1888 and held the office two terms; is vice-president of the Mohawk and llion railroad since 1889; treasurer of the Ilion Gaslight company since 1888, and a d rector in the Ilion National bank since 1886. In these several positions he has shown judgment and business capacity of a high order. He joined the Order of Odd Fellows in 1847, and became a Master Mason in 1855, in the Mohawk Valley lodge, No. 276. He is now a thirty-second degree Mason as a member of the Central City Consistory in Syracuse. He has acted as treasurer of the Mohawk Valley lodge for seventeen years and recently was re-elected to the office.
Mr. Carpenter was married on February 9, 1845, to Lucretia P. Coppernoll, daughter of George L. and Nancy Coppernoll, of Mohawk ; she was born June 21, 1828. They have children as follows: Henry R., born May 26, 1846, now employed in the United Express auditing office, in Jersey City ; Marion, born July 28, 1847, living at home ;
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and Sarah A., born September 20, 1850, married Harry A. Tuttle, and lives in Minne- apolis ; and grandchildren, Charles W. Tuttle, aged twenty-one, and Ilarry W. Car- penter, aged nineteen years.
DR. MALEK ADHEL SOUTHWORTH
Was born in Oswego county, New York, in 1828. In his childhood his parents, Daniel II. Southworth and Elizabeth Southworth, moved to Little Falls, N. Y., and there he and his sister, Miss Pauline E. Southworth, now deceased, and his brother, William D. Southworth, grew to maturity. The lineage of the family extends directly to the Southworths of Plymouth and the Mayflower; and from them to an old but now ex- tinct English family of that name, whose crest was a bull's head, with the motto, in Latin, "Strive and Pray." When twelve years old, Malek A. Southworth was temporarily assistant teacher in the famous school of S. S. Whitman, esq., at Little Falls. When thirteen he commenced teaching " district school " in Herkimer county, and many of our now prominent citizens were his pupils. At the age of sixteen he began the study of medicine in the office of Drs. Green and Brown, in Little Falls. In 1845 he went to New York and finished his preliminary medical studies in the office of Dr. Jacob S. Miller. at the University Medical College, and Bellevue Hospital.
He commenced the practice of medicine and surgery in New York city in 1849, and thereafter it was his good fortune to provide a maintenance for his parents and sister during the rest of their lives. He soon became a member of the County Medical Society, a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, etc. In 1855 his excessive professional labors had so impaired his health that he was obliged to relinquish his large practice, and seek a more congenial climate.
In 1857 Dr. Southworth located in Houston, Texas, and notwithstanding the then pronounced antagonism to Northern men, and the personal contentions that necessarily followed, he was, at the beginning of the Rebellion in 1861, eity physician of Houston, and Medical Director of the city hospital, and had a private practice not exceeded in financial value by that of any medical gentleman in the State.
In November, 1861, he received at Houston, from the Confederate States govern- ment, and without his solicitation, a commission as surgeon in the Confederate service. It was accompanied by a note, signed J. P. Benjamin, Acting Secretary of War, C. S. A., requesting Dr. S. to immediately take the accompanying oath of allegiance, and signify his acceptance of the commission. Dr. Southworth did neither; but with the essential assistance this document gave him, he proceeded to Arizona, and from there duly declined the commission, and crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico.
A true history of the whirlwind of passion that swept over the South, and especially Texas, in 1860 and 1861, of detestation of the North, and wild zeal for the Confederacy, with all the social conditions those feelings implied, has never been written, nor would it be believed by the present generation. In comparison the passions, prejudices and patriotism of the masses of the North were but trivialities. More fortunate than many loyal men in the south, Dr. Southworth escaped from the Confederacy ; and still more
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fortunate, without taking the oath of allegiance, or any oath or obligation to any Con- federate civil or military authority.
In 186] or '62 the State government of Texas enacted a law making it desertion to leave that State to avoid military service in the Confederacy, and declaring all who had left that State for that purpose to be deserters, and therefore punishable by death. Necessarily the loyal refugees from Texas, and particularly those in the United States army, were in especial danger of dying.
Dr. Southworth was obliged to travel through the northern border States of Mexico to a seaport on the Gulf, and owing to their disturbed and turbulent condition, he was a year in reaching Matamoras and New Orleans. He necessarily learned the Spanish language, and profitably practiced his profession during unavoidable detentions, At New Orleans he was immediately appointed volunteer surgeon on the staff of General Jack Hamilton. From New Orleans he went to Texas with General Hamilton, and the army of Gen. N. P. Banks, who then commanded the Department of the Gulf ; and in 1863, at Brownsville, Texas, was mustered into the United States service as sur- geon of the Second Regiment Texas Cavalry Volunteers. He acted as health officer of Brownsville and the camp; and when the army returned to New Orleans was transferred, as surgeon, to the First Regiment. In May, 1864, Dr. Southworth was ordered, as medical director, to Morganza, on the Mississippi river above New Orleans, where typhoid fever, dysentery and scurvy were prevailing among the 12,000 men there encamped. I'nder his supervision sanitary measures were promptly enforced; the camp was additionally ditched and drained; large foraging parties into the enemy's territory brought in abundant supplies of vegetables; the colored troops, General Ull- man's command, were put nearly on their old plantation thet; and in two months those diseases were almost banished from Morganza; and then Dr. Southworth was taken to the hospital at New Orleans, siek of typhoid fever. When convalescent he was ordered north on sick furlough for sixty days.
HIe duly rejoined his reg ment at New Orleans, and was detailed as medical director of the Second Cavalry Division, of the cavalry forces of the department in the field, and on other special duties. He participated in all the principal engagements that occurred in the Department of the Gulf alter he entered the army, and served with distinction until after the close of the war; and in November, 1865. at San Antonio, Texas, was honorably mustered ont of the United States service.
Early in 1867, General Sheridan then commanding the department of the Gulf, Dr. Southworth was appointed resident physician of the Mississippi river quarantine station, by far the most important quarantine in the South, and self-evidently to him was mainly due the credit of then so long keeping yellow fever from New Orleans and the Mississippi valley. In 1875 he was re-appointed by Governor Kellogg. of Louisiana, and held the office until he resigned three months after all other State officials had been superseded by the Democratic regime. On the spacious and beautiful quarantine grounds, about forty miles below New Orleans, were three large hospitals, a dwelling for the resident physician and his assistants, and honses for nurses and employees ; and the office of resident physician was thought so desirable that the superseding governor stated that more than fifty physicians had applied to him for the appointment.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
In 1873 Dr. Southworth was appointed and duly commissioned Surgeon General of Louisiana, with the rank of brigadier general.
The loyal residents of the South were in no degree responsible for the reconstruction laws enacted in 1867. More than the people of the north, they realized the difficulties, uncertainties and dangers of negro enfranchisement. Nevertheless for them there was no alternative but to do the best that was possible under the existing conditions.
Whatever may be the ultimate conclusion about the right and expediency of the im- mediate and universal enfranchisement of the colored men in the conquered States, whether it was an outrage against humanity or a wise and beneficent providence, this fact is evident, that thereafter the honor of the Republican leaders of the South who had loyally, honestly and faithfully participated in reconstruction, and the honor of the United States government and the Republican party of the North, were concerned in a reasonable protection of the ignorant and defenseless negroes in the exercise of the un- solicited rights thus given to them by a great and victorious nation.
The massacre at Mechanics' Institute in New Orleans, in 1866; the dispersal of Re- publican political organizations by armed mobs in 1867-8-9 ; the wanton and nnpunished persecution and killing of negroes and loyal white men; and the violent overthrow of the Republican government in Louisiana, in the first year of President Hayes's admin- istration, are illustrative incidents and events of those times.
It is our purpose to state only unquestionable facts, and without criticism or blame ; for whether the lawless overthrow of the Republican regime in Louisiana was politi- cally right or politically wrong, and a blessing or a curse to the negroes themselves, is still a disputed question.
During reconstruction in Louisiana Dr. Southworth owned and edited the New Or- leans Daily Republican, the then leading Republican newspaper in the South; he was president of the Republican executive committee and the Louisiana member of the Na- tional Republican committee.
Because of the relatively insignificant number of white Republicans and the race pro- clivities of the blacks, it was inevitable that a large majority of the Legislature and some of the State officials should be negroes. But it is an unquestioned fact that owing chiefly to the labors of the loyal men of Louisiana who had served in the United States army, and there were few others, four-fifths of the negroes elected to office in that State at the first election after their enfranchisement were local preachers and praying men - the best representatives of their race. It was also inevitable that in the sudden and wonderful transition that had come to them, the negroes, even the more intelli- gent, should be unable to realize or comprehend their new duties and responsibilities, even where the larger interests of their race were plainly and directly concerned. But the result has passed into history, and the great problem of negro enfranchisement in the South still remains nnsolved.
Necessarily, from the positions he held, Dr. Southworth was prominent in the Repub- lican politics of Louisiana; but in all the bitter controversies and personal animosities of those times no charge was ever brought against his personal integrity or honor, and many of his friends were among his political opponents, and those who had been dis- tinguished in the Confederate armies. It is another unquestioned fact that the ani-
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mosities following the war extended but slightly, when at all, to those who had done the fighting to the end The long contest sobered the contestants.
After the final acceptance of his resignation as quarantine physician Dr. Southworth determined, because of the unsettled state of the society and the impoverished condi- tion of the Gulf States, to again locate in the North.
In 1878 at Dallas, Texas, he married Mrs. Eunice Victoria Fowler, nee Dixon, a most estimable lady. She died in New York the subsequent year and was buried at Little Falls.
He then passed two years in the hospitals and medical colleges of New York city, and finally, in 1881, settled in the practice of his profession at Little Falls, N. Y., select- ing that locality because there was the home he had provided for his sister and his home in boyhood.
He has written extensively on sanitary subjects for medical journals and the press, and somewhat on other professional subjects for medical societies and journals. In politics, since 1880, he has taken only sufficient interest to vote for the candidates of either party indifferently, as his conscience and judgment dictated.
Dr. Southworthi, at Little Falls, soon acquired and has continued a large and lucra- tive practice.
He has shown an unusual devotion to his professional work. Through painstaking and careful examination of every case that has come under his care he has been able to look deeply into the nature of diseases, and thus to often relieve and cure where others have failed. This acumen has led to his opinion being frequently sought in consultation practice over a large field ; and among his own patients it has led to his opinion being accepted with unusual confidence and trust. His relations with his pa- tients and friends have always been of the pleasantest kind; his earnest solicitude for the best interests of all inspiring a confidence and hope that is the best tonic in the sick room.
Dr. Southworth is a member. and formerly president, of the Herkimer County Medical Society, a Fellow of the New York Medical Association, and consulting physi- cian to St. Luke's Hospital at Utica, N. Y.
DR. IRVING O. NELLIS
Was born in Herkimer, N. Y., on the 9th of July, 1856. He received his classical education at Fairfield Seminary and his medical education at the University of Ver- mont, graduating June 24, 1882, with the honor of marshal of his class of 128 grad- uates. In August, 1882, he began practice of his profession in IIerkimer, N. Y., where he still enjoys a large and well-earned business.
During the time he was attending school Dr. Nellis taught winters in district schools, in order to be able to educate himself. In 1884 he was elected coroner and in 1889 was re-elected, receiving at that time the renomination by the Republican and en- dorsed by the Democratic party, showing the esteem and confidence felt in him by
Irving 6. Nellis, m.D.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
members of both of the prominent political parties. During the first term of his coronership Dr. Nellis beld the inquest in the famous Druse case.
Dr. Nellis's mother was a Witherstine, a descendant of the famous Chrisjohn Schell, of Revolutionary fame, then living in Schell Bush and old Fort Herkimer. During one of the battles of that contest they had two boys stolen and taken to Canada by the Indians. In the same battle tbe Indians thrust the muzzles of their guns through the crevices of Fort Schell (in Schell's Bush) when Mr. Schell's wife grasped an axe and struck the gun barrels, bending and rendering them useless.
The father of Dr. Nellis is a native of this State, where he has always lived. The doctor is is a member of the Herkimer County Medical society ; the American Legion of Honor (of which he is past commander); the United Friends; Fort Dayton Hose company, and other social and political organizations. He is a member of the Episco- pal church, also one of the board of sewer commissioners of Herkimer, N. Y.
Dr. Nellis married on October 29, 1885, Jennie Pierce, of Herkimer, and they have one child, Mary Irene.
CELORA E. MARTIN
Was born in the town of Newport on the 23d of August, 1834. He was the son of Ellis Martin, a direct descendant of John Martin, who came to New England from Wales in 1663, and his mother was Lucetta Prayton, the only daughter of Captain Stephen Prayton, who was one of the early settlers of the town. He was educated at the common schools and in the academies at Fairfield and Holland Patent; studied law with John C. Harris, of Newport, and was admitted at Oswego, July 8, 1856, and in the summer of 1857 removed to Whitney's Point, Broome county. In 1867 he opened an office in Binghamton where he has resided since 1868. In May, 1877, he was appointed by Governor Robinson a justice of the Supreme Court for the Sixth Judicial District, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of the late Judge Balcom. In the fall of that year he was nominated by both parties for the office and unanimously elected, and in 1891 he was again unanimously nominated by both parties and elected without opposition. He has for several years been and is now an associate justice in the General Term of the Fourth Judicial Department with Judges Hardin and Merwin. He is a painstaking, able and useful judge.
CHESTER W. PALMER
Was born in Herkimer, N. Y., and has always resided here. His father bore the same name and was a native of Reading, Vt., where he carried on the manufacture of cloth in all its branches. He came to Herkimer at an early day, but was not actively engaged in business here. He died in July, 1877. His wife was Zilpha Morse, of Reading, Vt. Their children were as follows: Mary Ann, born in Herkimer, married Jacob P. Harter of Herkimer; Bela, born in Herkimer and died in 1874; Cordelia,
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HISTORY OF HIERKIMER COUNTY.
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