History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 52

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 862

USA > New York > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 52

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He wrote again soon after the blowing up of Fort Erie, as follows : " How thankful I am for parents ever alive to the slightest incident that concerns my prospeets, my health, my morals, and, above all, my devotion to that Being to whom you say you have committed your son !" Soon after the catastrophe at Fort Erie the army went into winter quarters, and the doctor was engaged in the hospital at Sacket's Harbor. The news of peace was received, and Dr. Spencer, on his way to his native State, being ealled to assist Dr. Durkee, of Champion, in attending a man who had his leg crushed, made arrangements with that gentleman for a partnership, upon which he entered after he had visited his parents and sister at home. Returning to Champion. he

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

began practice with Dr. Durkee, and the following year married Miss Deborah Mallery, of Rutland, but formerly of Litchfield county, Conn., a lady well calculated to facili- tate his well-doing, as she possessed all that prudence so requisite in conducting his affairs during his absence, and in directing the studies of his four sons, all of whom are yet living. Dr. Spencer was a man of indefatigable perse- verance, endured all kinds of weather to meet and administer to the wants of the suffering or the sacrifices he was con- stantly ealled upon to make. He had an extended practice, which led him into Lewis, Oneida, Oswego, St. Lawrence counties, and Canada. Few of the children of the present day know anything of the privation and hardships their parents endured and the sacrifices they made in the early settlement of the country. The books on which he kept his accounts since 1815 show over four thousand names and over thirty thousand dollars for which he received no remuneration, and for which none is ever expected. During the forty-two years he remained in Champion he had over two thousand cases of accouchement without losing a single patient ; and in the whole time only absented himself from his practiee to visit his native town. He rode one horse over twenty years, and until, it is said, the faithful animal was acquainted with the geography of the county for miles around.

His consulting practice was large, and he was universally considered by the physicians of the county contemporary with him an excellent diagnostician, and very clear and correet in his ideas and treatment.

. He loved his profession, and his devotion to it for the good he might do often led him to send able and remunera- tive calls to neighboring physicians, while he would go to administer to the afflicted family of some indigent person wholly unable to pay for his services, and therefore unable to proeure other professional aid. The poor were always his first care. He was essentially humanitarian and benevo- lent. In his practice his rule was never to amputate ex- cept as a last resort, or only to save life. He early reeog- nized the truth of the saying, that the physician should be the minister and interpreter of nature. He ever studied the welfare of the sick and afflicted, ready and willing at all times to make any personal sacrifice of his means, com- fort, and health for their benefit. He spent many years of his life on horseback, often sleeping while he rode, as ex- hausted nature demanded a certain amount of rest, and no other opportunity was afforded, as for many years he averaged eightcen out of twenty-four hours on duty. By his extensive practice for more than forty years the great variety of his cases taxed largely his skill and ingenuity as a physician, and as " necessity is the mother of invention," he devised and had made by the mechanics of his section instruments heretofore unknown, and of such importance as to be adopted into general practice, and are now universally used by the profession throughout the civilized world.

He was a conservative man in all his conduct,-social, political, and professional. He was publie-spirited and charitable, always interpreting favorably all acts of his neighbors and brother physicians rather than criticising them. He was largely identified with and a strong advo- cate of the public school system, and contributed liberally

to educational enterprises. For years he, with his accus- tomed liberality, hired teachers for the select school at Champion, always choosing the best that could be procured, guaranteeing to them a certain liberal compensation, and obligating himself to supply any deficiency that remained after the payment of the tuition-fee of the scholars, thus for years providing the means of good educational advan- tages to the youth of his own and adjoining towns. And in this connection, we may add that too much praise can- not be bestowed upon the generous enterprise and benevo- lence of the Masonic Fraternity for their aid in building and donating the free use, for school purposes, of a fine and substantial two-story stone temple of education, which still remains a monument to their public-spirited liberality.

In personal appearance Dr. Spencer was, in middle life, six feet tall, erect in his carriage, of rather slender build, with small bones, and a sinewy frame. His hands and wrists, feet and ankles, being small and finely formed. His face was thin, and, though intellectual, eould scarcely be termed handsome ; complexion, fair and healthy ; eyes, bright blue, mild and benevolent in their expression ; fore- head, high, broad, and well rounded ; head, somewhat bald. - Countenance quiet, with infrequent smiles, showing deep and constant thought, amounting to almost entire abstrac- tion ; lips, thin and compressed, denoting great firmness of purpose.

He was a believer in Christianity, not only by inheritance and the influence of early teaching and example, but from conviction. Although a despiser of hypocrisy, he had the most profound respect for the true and exemplary Christian. His temper was even and his disposition amiable and full of good will towards all. He was ardent in his affections and friendships, and forgiving in his resentments. He had a high sense of honor, a manly independence of character, and thoroughly despised anything base or mean. The noble faculties of his mind were only excelled by the virtues of his heart.

He enjoyed uninterrupted good health until 1854, when he was seized by a malignant congestive fever, and it was nearly four months before he was able to resume his practice. Feeling his health would not permit him to comply with the numerous calls, encroaching upon duty to himself, he changed his residence to Watertown in the summer of 1857, where he remained to the close of his life, March 25, 1859.

He never sought political preferment, and his favorite adage was, " One self-approving hour whole hours outweigh of stupid starers and of loud huzzas." In habits he was temperate in every sense of the word, using neither spirituous liquors nor tobacco in any form. In the winter of 1858, worn out with fatigue, exposure, and sleepless nights, tired nature began to give way. Before his dissolution he often requested that an autopsy be made of his body, that the true condition of his heart might be known, as he was suffering and dying of heart-disease. Love of offspring seemed the only unbroken link that bound him to earth, and though he expressed his confidence in the atoning blood of Christ and a cheerful resignation to his will, yet the desire to see his absent son, whose return was daily hoped for, was the last earthly passion that occupied his mind.

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Judge Thompson was born in Burlington, Otsego county, N. Y., where his boyhood was spent in working on his father's (William Thompson) farm and devoting his leisure hours to study. The first years of his manhood were occupied in teach- ing school in Oswego, Madison, and other counties. So thor- oughly did he master the text-books then used that he could repeat their entire contents without hesitation. His memory, naturally good, was so trained by his experience as a teacher, that when he entered the law he was able to retain minute points, even in lengthy cases, without an oversight or an error.

He studied law in Auburn, N. Y., with Judge Gridley, and was admitted to the bar in 1834. He then removed to Adams in 1837, where he entered the law-office of Judge Chittenden. During the years he lived there his sterling qual- ities became well known, commanding for him the respect and confidence of all. His influenee in the southern portion of the county, particularly in the towns of Adams, Ellisburg, Rodman, and Lorraine, cnabled him to prevail against any political opponent. When in his prime he was their leader as well as counselor ; few men excelled him in argument or ability. He never addressed a jury where he failed to impress upon them his honesty of purpose and desire to have impartial justice sustained.

In 1842 he married Miss Antoinette Chittenden, daughter of Judge Chittenden. The union proved a most happy one, blessed as it was with seven children, three of whom-two daughters and a son-are now living. In 1852, the family removed to this city, and have since lived here, enjoying the educational advantages and social opportunities which a large town affords.

Judge Thompson was elected county judge in 1851, and took his seat on the bench on the first of January the succeed- ing year. He held the position for two terms, and so high was his sense of honor that his interpretation of his duties would not admit of the reference of supplementary or sum- mary proceedings ; he heard them without additional pay. He was far from being a contentious man, usually advising his clients to avoid getting into law, if possible. Many thought and spoke of him as " The Peacemaker." In the course of

his life he settled, or amicably adjusted, more suits than he ever carried into the courts. When we consider that to do this he was compelled to sacrifice prospcetive fees, we begin to realize, in a slight degree, what manner of man he was.

During the war he was aetive in advancing every scheme that would benefit the Union cause. He frequently addressed the people, to bring them to a true appreciation of the great prineiples at stake.

In his latter years he has devoted much time to the fitting up of his grounds and the cultivation of fruit. When relieved from his office cares his time was spent in his garden, where he watched the wonderful transformations of Nature with a never-failing interest. As a rule all men, as they advance in life, become more careful observers of the natural beauties surrounding them. "One of the most common, yet, when considered, one of the most touching characteristics of reced- ing life, is in its finer perception of external nature. You find men who, in youth and middle age, seeming searcely to notice the most striking features of some unfamiliar landseape, become minutely observant of the rural scenery around them when the eye has grown dim and the step feeble. They detect more quickly than the painter the delicate variations made by the lapse of a single day in the tints of autumnal foliage ; they will distinguish, among the reeds by the river-side, murmurs that escape the dreamy ears of the poet." So wrote Bulwer in his "Caxtoniana," and it aptly describes the observing habits of our Judge Thompson, whose chief pleasure in his declining years was in horticultural pursuits.

No member of the bar was more universally respected. Ilis life was a great success, not in the accumulation of an immense property, but in building up a reputation such as the mere possession of wealth cannot give. His good name is left to his family, and it is an inheritance of which they may feel justly proud.

He died January 12, 1876, in his sixty-sixth year. His son. William C., has entered the law-office of Hon. N. Whiting. with whom his father was a partner. His daughters, Nettie E. and Nellie C., have enjoyed the advantages of the best schools of their native city, and are graduates of the same.

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

John Winslow

The root of John Winslow's genealogical trce runs back to the days of the Puritans seven generations to Kenelm Winslow, a brother of Governor Edward Winslow, the first governor of Plymouth colony. John had many character- istics that indicated his Puritan origin. He bore himself steadfastly in whatever course he had marked out to pursue, moving onward with a well-defined purpose, and always act- ing from the promptings of his judgment and convictions. He was never borne away from the roek of principle on which he had placed himself by any sudden passion or im- pulse. His life, therefore, from boyhood to the ripe age of seventy-one years, flowed on in a strong, steady current, undisturbed by those adverse elements of mental constitu- tion that make the lives of many men a never-ending sea of trouble.

Without attempting to follow the ancestral line forward from the original progenitor in this country, we will simply record that Samuel Winslow, the father of John, was born in Warwick, Massachusetts, April 21, 1765, from whenee in his childhood he removed with his parents to Pomfret, in the State of Vermont, where they died. John's grand- mother's maiden name was Goodspeed. His father, Samuel, married Lucy Frasier in 1794, and the twain commenced their life partnership at Woodstock, Vermont, where John, the fifth child, was born to them December 19, 1802.

His parents, eleven years after their marriage, in May, 1807, removed from Woodstock to the Black river country, then comparatively a wilderness. They settled on a forest- covered farm, two and three-fourths miles from the present city of Watertown.

The road passing through the farm, and on which the

farm buildings are situated, is known as the Smithville or Field Settlement road. There was no road between the farm and the village of Watertown at that time. The dwelling into which the family moved was constructed of logs. The loft, which was the sleeping-apartment of the children, was open to the storm, and soon after the arrival of the family, in the night-time, a heavy storm came on, and John related that his mother covered himself and brother, to shield them from it, with a half skin. His boy- hood surroundings were those of a pioneer life. The howl of the wolf, prowling in the darkness of the night in the forest surrounding the humble dwelling, was a sound familiar to his ear.

On that farm he spent his days, except the last five or six years of his life, during which he resided in the city of Watertown. He had but limited facilities for education, attending school for a few weeks on two or three different occasions, completing his education, so far as the schools were concerned, with one term at the academy at Lowville, Lewis county.

On October 18, 1827, at the age of twenty-five years, he was married to Betsey Collins, daughter of John Collins, who at that time lived about a mile and a half from the then village of Watertown, on what is known as the Beaver Meadow road. Five children were born of this marriage, namely : Lucy J., wife of G. W. Candee, Esq., Bradley, Norris, Jennie C., wife of Dr. H. B. Maben, and Bessie, wife of Rev. E. How, of the Central New York Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The three first-named reside in the city of Watertown, Jennie C. resides at Utica, and Bessie resides at Elmira, New York.

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

John Winslow, in his early manhood, was interested in the condition and growth of the community with which he had grown to man's estate, and in which he lived. January 19, 1826, he was commissioned ensign of light infantry in the 76th regiment of infantry by Gov. De Witt Clinton. The next year he was promoted to be lieutenant, and com- missioned by Gov. Clinton. Sept. 26, 1828, he was further promoted to the position of captain, and commissioned as such by Lieutenant-Governor Nathaniel Pitcher, acting governor of the State, in the same regiment. His mother died August 26, 1826, and his father died Dec. 21, 1832. About three years after the death of his father he purchased the interest of the other heirs in the homestead farm, which, with a small number of acres adjoining, and on which he had resided since his marriage, comprised a farm of about two hundred acres. At his father's death three sisters and himself were all that survived of his father's family of eight children. To raise money to purchase the interest of the heirs in his father's estate a mortgage had to be put upon the farm, and to the extinguishment of that mortgage, and to provide for his increasing and growing family, he diligently devoted his best energies. Prosperity attended him. But the quiet course of events with him was suddenly inter- rupted, and a great shadow fell upon him in the death of his wife. The life of this amiable, intelligent, Christian wife and mother came to a close at the age of thirty-seven years. The five children were all too young to realize that in that mother's death there was a loss to them, as well as to him, irreparable. Standing beside her open grave, the husband and father, with his mind filled with a sense of his terrible bereavement, his voice trembling with emotion, said that he had followed to their last resting-places father, mother, brothers, and sisters, all save one of his father's family, but no one of those afflictions had occasioned such intense sorrow as the parting forever in this world from his dear wife.

Mr. Winslow was. called to different civil positions by the suffrages of his fellow-citizens. He was several years assessor of his town, four years supervisor, was elected to the Legislature in 1849. (The daguerreotype from which the portrait at the head of this sketch was made was taken that year, when he was forty-eight years old.) Sub- sequently he was ten years one of the commissioners of excise for Jefferson County.

He took a deep interest in agriculture, and for many years was an active member of the Jefferson County Agri- cultural Society ; was president of the society in 1853. For several years previous to his death he was a director and vice-president of the Agricultural Insurance Company, an institution devoted to the insuring of farin property. Mr. Winslow was again married May 23, 1844, to Miss Sarah Bates, daughter of Merrick Bates, Esq., of Houns- field, who still survives him. By this marriage he had one son, John, born May 21, 1845, who resides at Water- town and is a hardware merchant.

Mr. Winslow was thoroughly domestic in his tastes and habits. He took a deep interest in the welfare of his children ; was ready at all times to assist tliem by his coun- sels, and in a pecuniary way when necessary. He watched their course in life with tenderest solicitude. His life was

free from every species of vice and immorality, his daily walk being a continuing precept and example of integrity and uprightness. He died at his home in the city of Watertown, July 7, 1874, in the presence of his wife and children and other relatives and sympathizing friends, after a brief illness, of congestion. A large concourse of his neighbors and fellow-citizens attended his funeral. His re- mains were interred in Brookside Cemetery, where a plain granite shaft-granite from Massachusetts, the home of his ancestors-marks his last resting place.

BRADLEY WINSLOW.

Incidents in the life of an individual are, in a large de- grec, an index to character. Ordinarily, circumstances do not more make the man than man the circumstances. Many times, it is true, famous people are made such by the exceptional occurrence of events. Notably, as an instance, is this true of General Grant; for it is universally be- lieved that but for the happening of the great Rebellion General Grant would have lived and died comparatively an obscure citizen. In that great crisis of the nation's career the opportunities were found for the development of those characteristics that have made him one of the most illus- trious men of his time. To become prominent as a citizen, and wield large influence in an educated and intelligent community, is a certain measure of success, indicating high capabilities and characteristics which justly entitle the pos- sessor to honorable mention in the chronicles of the locality in which he lives.

The subject of this sketch, though yet in middle life, fills such a position. Bradley Winslow was born August 1, 1831, at the home of his father, the late Hon. John Wins- low, on the Winslow homestead, 22 miles from the city of Watertown. His facilities for education, in the early years of boyhood, were such as the district school afforded,-at- tending school for the first time at the school-house in the Graves neighborhood, about midway between his father's house and the then village of Watertown. His first teacher he remembers as Miss Mary Ann Stevens. The school district in that neighborhood having been discontinued, he attended several seasons the district school at Fields' Settle- ment, and was successively under the tuition of Miss Mc Wayne, a sister of Andrew MeWayne, Esq., of the town of Cape Vincent, William Scoville, Hon. Chas. A. Benjamin, of this county, and H. H. Smith, at present one of the Board of Education of the city of Watertown. When fourteen years old the brightness of Mr. Winslow's boy- hood days was clouded by the untimely death of his mother, who was an amiable, intelligent, Christian woman. Althoughi too young at her death to fully appreciate the value of such a mother's influence, he has never ecased to deplore her loss or to feel that had she lived her influence would have made his life brighter, better, and happier. March 21, 1847, lic left his paternal roof and went to reside with Hon. Willard Ives, his unele by marriage with his father's sister, Charlotte. Working through the sum- iner on the farm on which Mr. Ives then lived, he at- tended with him, in September of that year, the State fair

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

at Saratoga Springs, and saw for the first time, at Rome, New York, the locomotive-engine and railway-car. About the 1st of December of the same year he was sent by his uncle to the seminary at Cazenovia, where he remained until the next spring. Returning, he worked during the summer on the farm and went back to the same seminary in the fall, and remained through the winter. In this way he spent alternate summers and winters on the farm of his uncle and at Cazenovia for two years. The winter of 1850 -51 he attended school at Falley Seminary, in the village of Fulton, Oswego county. Then, remaining home until the fall of 1852, he entered as a student at Wyoming Seminary, where he remained during the school year. Re- turning home, he went to work on the farm near the village

Mr. Winslow was married Nov. 15, 1855, to Miss Ger- aldine M. Cooper, daughter of John C. Cooper, of Adams. There are a son and two daughters the offspring of this union. The son, John Cooper Winslow, has recently graduated from Dartmouth College, and is pursuing the study of the law in the office of his father.

January 1, 1856, Mr. Winslow opened a law-office on Court street, in what was then known as the Peck block. In the spring of the same year he associated with L. J. Bige- low in law practice, under the firm-name of Winslow & Bigclow, conducting business in the same place. In the fall of 1859 was elected district attorney, entering on the duties of the office January 1, 1861. Served as district attorney until 1861, meantime conducting some important

Bradley Winslow

of Watertown where his uncle now resides. Though reasonably skilled in the manual labor of the farm, the prospect of the future as a farmer did not seem inviting, and he entered upon the study of the law in the office of Hon. James F. Starbuck in the fall of 1853, at the age of

twenty-two. He pursued the study of the law with Mr. Starbuck till the fall of 1854, when he entered the law- school at Poughkeepsie, where he remained until the next spring. Returning to Mr. Starbuck's office, he continued studying until July, when he was admitted at a general term of the Supreme Court, held at the Woodruff House, as attorney and counselor in all the courts of record in the State. He remained with Mr. Starbuck until January 1, 1856.

criminal trials with success, notably the trial of Sprague, for murder, who was defended by John Clark with the earn- estness and great ability which characterized that gentle- man's efforts in behalf of his clients. Mr. Winslow's sum- ming up in that case to the jury, for so young a man, was warmly commended by those who heard him. The trial was conducted in Washington Hall, which was crowded to its fullest capacity during the closing scenes.

The spring of 1861, memorable evermore as the opening of the great drama of our civil war, found Mr. Winslow a member of the Black River Corps, a military organization of the village of Watertown. Engrossed in the pursuits of civil life, he could not at once grasp the idea that the citizen soldier was summoned to the scene of actual and

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History of Jefferson County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 52

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 862

Author: Durant, Samuel W; Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 862