USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 122
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About the year 1838 John Rogers Murray removed from New York to the beautiful residence north of the village of Mount Morris, and long known as Murray Hill. It is said that Talleyrand, the famous French traveler, about the year 1800, visited the Genesee Valley, and as he stood on the eminence in front of the Murray Hill residence remarked, "that he had traveled the world over, but had never seen such a magnificent prospect as the one that lay before him." Possessed of a generous and noble heart, Mr. Murray's public and pri- vate benefactions knew no bounds, and for two of the finest churches in West- ern New York, Mount Morris acknowledges herself indebted to his munificence. The subject of this brief sketch graduated at Yale College in the class of
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1830, and in 1880 attended the half-century meeting of his class, at New Haven, Conn. He was a great reader, and his extensive library, well filled, contained the choicest literature and the noted periodicals of the time. He was pre-em- inently endowed with a discriminating taste for beauty, symmetry and order. He loved to do good, and unostentatiously bestowed his gifts without stint. To the poor he was a friend indeed. He most ardently hated all shams, affec- tation and hypocrisy. His was a character in which blended all those traits which make a man, viz. intelligence, uprightness and patriotism. He loved his country, its institutions, its interests. Party ties had no hold upon hin. He was an earnest christian, a constant attendant upon the ministrations of the church. His christian life was anchored in his unswerving faith in the truths of the Bible and earnest belief in the religion of the Fathers. He was a close observer, and very correct in his judgment, of men. Upright in all things, he despised dishonesty in every form, and was outspoken for truth, good morals and purity. He usually declined all public positions, and, if ac- cepted, he faithfully honored them, and earnestly sustained all private and pub- lic enterprises by his influence and means.
About the year 1862. after disposing of what might properly be called his almost baronial residence, at Mount Morris, he removed to Dobbs Ferry, on the Hudson, thence, in 1866, to the beautiful inland village of Cazenovia, where he continued to reside until the year 1878. In this year Mr. Murray met with the greatest loss that can befall a man of his seclusive nature, in the death of his wife. She was a daugher of D. W. C. Olyphant of New York City, an ac- complished, rare and high-spirited lady ; and the man who never wavered under the loss of his magnificent fortune years before, never recovered from the effects of the loss of this his almost life companion. Her remains were buried in St. John's churchyard in Mount Morris, in the month of March, 1878, and from that time Mr. Murray took up his residence again in that village wherein he and his wife had lived together so many years-in that home which I have spoken of as almost baronial. It lay upon the banks of the Genesee River, many hundreds of acres in extent, and its English-like park was laid out with that beauty and taste in landscape gardening which Mr. Murray's most perfect taste dictated, and which, even to-day, stands a splendid evidence of the cul- tured and elegant mind that fashioned it.
His last days were those of great suffering, but he was patient and uncom)- plaining- most beautifully ilustrating the power of the Christian's hope. He often said "he thanked God he was in His hands, and if it was His will he was ready to die. llis work was done, but he regretted he had accomplished so little for mankind."
The courteous, dignified and noble man has departed. The last member of a family famous in the early history of the state and of our country has passed away. '.On whom will his mantle fall'' ?
"Why weep ye then for him who, having run
The bound of man's appointed years, at last
Life's blessings all enjoyed, life's labor done,
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Serenely to bis final rest has passed,
While the soft memory of his virtues yet
Lingers like twilight hours when the bright sun has set."
Mr. Seymour wrote the following letter to Mr. David Gray of the Buffalo Courier, which is interesting asa brief description of Mr. Murray's funeral : "We are all very much gratified by your editorial, or rather obituary notice, of Mr. Murray. It was very pleasant to see in a paper which to an extent is removed from the influences and associations of this beautiful Genesee valley, this notice of one who has honored and beautiSed it so much. But I think 1 must demur in a degree to your analysis of his character, so far as it referred to a cynicism which was caused by his pecuniary troubles. I do not think he was cynical: certainly, if he was, it was not caused by his reverses. ITis was a character simple to the last degree, though encased in culture and breeding. His manner was always brusque and abrupt, and he detested shams of all kinds; but he was not cynical, though one who had never known him in the pomp and glory of Murray Hill might suppose that his hauteur was the result of bis re- verses. His old friends, however, saw no difference or change in him.
"You can fancy the beauty of this village and of his late residence, and the approaches to his former estate, tinged with the tints of autumn, beneath as warm a sun and amidst as soft an air as ever blessed an ideal autumnal day. Even the roads were hidden from view by the red leaves that have fallen by the wayside. Down around the road that passes through the miniature valley, hard by his late home, amidst this profusion of dying foliage, upon a simple bier carried by his old friends and followed by a long train of mourning ac- quaintances, his remains were carried to the beautiful church of St. John, the Evangelist, which his generosity had built; and there, in the beautiful church yard and beneath the yew trees' shade, he was laid beside, the wife whom he had loved so well, and who was so worthy a consort of so brave a spirit. was a simple and touching scene. "
A. O. BUNNELL. BY JOHN A. SLEICHER-EDITOR OF ''LESLIE'S WEEKLY. "
No newspaper man in the state of New York, and probably none in the United States, is more widely known and more generally loved than A. O. Bunnell, the editor of the Dansville, N. Y., Advertiser. For over half a cen- tury (1852-1902) the smell of printer's ink has been upon his garments Born in Lima, Livingston county, N. Y., March 10, 1836, he moved to Dansville at the age of fourteen, and at sixteen became a printer's apprentice. In 1860, be founded the Dansville Advertiser, and has ever since remained its editor and publisher. The paper typifies the man. It is a beautifully printed paper -- clean and wholesome in its contents, elevated in its moral tone, and powerful in its widely exerted influence. But this is not surprising, for Mr. Bunnell inherited the best of American tendencies. He was the third of five children
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of Dennis Bunnell, four of whom are living-Miss D. B. Bunnell, a resident of Dansville; Mrs. Mary Bunnell Willard of Brooklyn, N. Y., and Major Mark J. Bunnell of Washington, D. C., constituting the other surviving members of the family.
Dennis Bunnell was the youngest of the seven sons of Jehiel Bunnell of Cheshire, Conn., a revolutionary soldier and a member of an old and leading family. Jehiel Bunnell's wife was one of the Hitchkiss family, prominent in the early history of Connecticut. A. O. Bunnell's mother was Mary Baker, daughter of James Baker, a sturdy pioneer woodsman and hunter, whose wife, Mary Parker, was the elder sister of three celebrated pioneer Methodist circuit preachers of western New York-the Rev. Messers. Robert, Samuel and John Parker. All these ancestors are dead, Dennis Bunnell entering into his rest in 1885 and Mary Baker Bunnell in 1881
Mr. Bunnell has never sought public preferment. The love of his profession has kept him loyal to it. In the congenial atmosphere of the printing office, as boy and man, he has taken his greatest delight and realized his highest am- bitions. Modest and retiring by nature, he has still, by the force of his char- acter, become a leader in his profession. For thirty-four years he has been secretary and treasurer of the New York Press Association, and much of the success of this influencial association-probably the most progressive and vigor- ous of its kind in the country --- is concededly due to his ability, energy and industry. In grateful recognition of this fact, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his connection with the organization, his associates presented to him a superb, solid silver tea set. costing over five hundred dollars. He became a member of the New York Press Association, on its reorganization, after the war, in 1865, and three years later was chosen its secretary, continuing in that office ever since.
On the organization of the Republican Editorial association of the state of New York, January 10, 1894, in which Mr. Bunnell was deeply interested, his associates unanimously chose him as secretary and treasurer of that body. In July, 1894, the National Editorial association, at its annual meeting at Asbury Park, elected Mr. Bunnell as president of that great body of editors, in which office he served until January 24, 1896. On that day, the members of the association, after the convention proceedings held in St. Augustine, Fla., presented to their retiring president, a handsome cane and a set of souvenir gold and silver orange knives and spoons. In accepting this handsome gift Mr. Bunnell captivated his bearers by his most feeling and felicitous words. He said :
"Dear Brother Herbert, Dear friends all: By this act of yours, you have touched my heart more deeply than I can find words to tell. I feel like one awakened from a deep slumber. 'The vagaries of sleep, the wonderful fantasies of dreams seem not more unreal than that the poor boy who entered a country printing office a few years ago should be so honored by the chosen representa- tives of twenty thousand newspaper men of this great nation. You have touched with romance the plain life of a country editor. I love my profession.
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I love my brother editors, and I love the editors' wives, and I shall love them all more and more because of this occasion. Under the magic spell of memory the walls of my humble home will often expand to an infinite distance to in- clude you all and become articulate with your kind words of love and esteem. That this gift includes my true and honorable wife, dear to me as are the ruddy drops that visit this glad heart, makes the gift doubly dear. Forgive me that my heart is too full to say more."
No member of the National association is more beloved than Mr. Bunnell and no president of that body ever presided with more dignity and satisfaction than he. As special representative of the Pan American Exposition company, Past President Bunnell's effort at New Orleans in 1900 secured the convention of the National association for Buffalo in 1901. When the National Republican Editorial association was organized at Philadelphia. June 18, 1900, Jargely through the efforts of Mr. Bunnell and some of his associates in the New York Republican association, Mr. Bunnell was chosen secretary and treasurer, a place which he still holds. He has also been president of the Livingston County Press Association; was one of the organizers, in 1877, of the Livingston County Historical society, of which he has been president and is now one of the coun- cilmen; was active in the organization of The Coterie, the oldest literary society of Dansville in existence, and, in fact, has been toremost in every movement for the development of the literary tastes of the community. has been trustee of the Dansville seminary, is deeply interested in its High school; is one of the directors of the Dansville & Mt. Morris railroad, and for a long period has been a trustee of the Greenmount cemetery. His connection with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows has been most honorable and dis- tinguished, and, in 1884, he was selected to the exalted position of Grand Master of the New York state organization, filling this place, as he has filled every other which has come to him with singular fidelity.
On April 9, 1863, Mr. Bunnell was married to Anna M. Carpenter, in Lyons, N. Y. Of their children, one daughter and two sons, only the daughter, Mrs. Albert Hartman of Dansville, survives. The death of Mark H. Bunnell, the only surviving son, at the age of ninteen years, was a loss which every one who knew this brilliant young man most deeply mourned. As a lad, Mark H. Bunnell was precociously bright, Joving books and study and revealing many of the admirable traits and literary inclinations of his father. He was a careful reader of all the best books of his time and a student of politics and history. He loved music and art, his tastes were refined and he sought the best and most helpful associations. It is not surprising that his parents looked forward with eager hope to a brilliant future for their son, and when on the threshold of his young manhood, he was stricken by illness, which after a period of eight months, terminated fatally on the 10th of November, 1893, the pro- foundest sympathies of the entire community were tendered to his bereaved par- ents. This was a sad and fearful blow, inflicted by the mysterious hand of Providence, but it was borne with splendid patience and christian fortitude by the bereaved ones.
F
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The life of Mr. Bunnell has not been crowded with events of extraodinary interest. His story has been the tale of an even-minded, kind-hearted, gener- ous, helpful man, who has found his greatest satisfaction in holding up the hands weak and strengthening the purposes of the strong. Beautiful in his home life, successful in his professional career, honored as few men have been by his newspaper associates, and profoundly respected in his own community, he lives to realize the fact that man's success in life is best measured by the sweet and lasting contentment which a record of good deeds must always bring.
CHARLES L. BINGHAM, -Was born at Mt. Morris, on the 25th day of April, 1827. He was the youngest son of Dr. Charles Bingham who came to Livingston county from Connecticut at an early day and left an enviable repu- tation as an accomplished gentleman and skillful practitioner.
Mr. Bingham's common school education was supplemented by a broad and comprehensive course of reading, placing him in culture and information fully abreast with current thought. Previous to attaining his majority and at the early age of sixteen years he began his business career, which was destined to be crowned with so large a measure of success, by accepting the position of teacher in one of the rural districts of his native town, and in after years he often spoke of the pride and pleasure he experienced when he brought to his mother for safe keeping his first earnings. Shortly after this he filled with credit to himself and entire satisfaction to his employer the position of tutor in a gentleman's family in which capacity his duties called him to the south where he resided for a time. While earning his living as an instructor Mr. Bingham was bending all his energies toward the fulfillment of his ambition to become a lawyer. And very soon after he attained his majority he successfully sought admission to the bar where his energy, probity, and analytical powers joined to a never failing courtesy soon placed him in the front rank of his pro- fession, About this time Mr. Bingham formed the co-partnership with Judge George Hastings that continued without even the semblance of discord till dis- solved in 1866 by the death of Judge Hastings.
After the death of his law partner, Mr. Bingham was forced by increasing deafness to abandon the law, and in 1869 he with his brother Lucius C. Bing- ham, now deceased, and his friend Sears E. Brace, now of St. Anthony's Park. Minn., entered upon his career as banker under the firm name of Bingham Brothers & Brace. 'This business, eminently successful from the start, was peculiarly congenial to Mr. Bingham, his mind enriched and polished by his long and successful career at the bar unravelled and solved business complica- tions and intricacies with an ease that was a constant source of astonishment to his contemporaries.
Mr. Bingham's great business ability was abundantly recognized, and as executor, administrator, trustee, guardian, assignee and receiver was almost continuously utilized by the courts, government and his neighbors. In his later years and to his intimate friends he was wont to say with no little satisfac-
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tion, that in all his experience as trustee for others in various capacities, he had hever been sued, never censured by the court, and that he never went to bed without the abiding consciousness that if that should be his last sleep his affairs were in order and could be readily settled by his executor.
The banking firm of Bingham Brothers & Brace after seven years of continu- ous, successful existence was dissolved, Mr. Brace retiring, Messers. C. L. and L. C. Bingham continuing the business under the firm name of Bingham Brothers; after eight years Charles W. Bingham, the only surviving son of C. L. Bingham, entered the firm and in 1889 Mr. L. C. Bingham's death left the father and son as the survivors of the business which was and still is securely established in the confidence of the people of his locality.
Mr. Bingham was courteous, almost courtly in manner. of handsome, com- manding presence and graceful figure. As a public speaker he was always forcible, fluent and pleasing; he was in active demand as chairman ot assem- blies of various sorts, and always discharged his duties fairly and well. Al- though a man of multifarious and important business engagements, his time and ripened judgment were always at the disposal of those who needed help. His death removed the trusted counselor of many a widow and orphan, while many an honest poor man missed the ready money Mr. Bingham freely ad- vanced to relieve his necessities.
Of unswerving integrity himself, Mr. Bingham would brook no duplicity on others, and abhorred commercial dishonesty with the whole force of his nature.
As a man and citizen Mr. Bingham has left an enduring impression upon his day and generation, and his name will live as a synonym of all that is good and true in business circles.
Socially Mr. Bingham was cordial, urbane and pleasing to an unusual degree. and while charming the senses with his grace, he enriched the mind from his abundant stores of information.
Mr. Bingham married Miss Charlotte Wood of Columbus, Ohio, in the year 1857; three children were born of this union, one only, Charles Wood Bingham surviving. Mr. Bingham died on Oct. 29, 1892, in the full strength of his manhood after an illness of only a few hours. Mrs. Bingham still survives him carrying, with the help of a large circle of sympathetic friends, her load of bereavement as best she may.
A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF S. L. ROCKFELLOW. OF MOUNT MORRIS, N. Y.
Samuel L. Rockfellow was born in the town of Mount Morris, August 4, 1826. He received the common school education usual at that time and at the age of twenty became a teacher. For two years he taught, or applied the birch as seemed most necessary, in the Barron district of Mount Morris and in Alle ghany, hoping at the end of that time to enter college. A serious eye trouble made it necessary to give up this plan, and he became a clerk in the dry goods
1
Dr. Myron H. Mills.
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store of C. C. Goodale, in the village of Mount Morris. In less than three years he was established in partnership with A. D. Mordoff and continued as a merchant for twenty years; for two years under the firm name of Mordoff & Rockfellow, for three years as Rockfellow & Ames, the partner being Henry G. Ames, and the remaining time alone.
In 1853 he was united in marriage to Juliet L. Conkey, daughter of Deacon James Conkey.
In 1870 he sold his dry goods business to Beach and Bacon, of Geneseo, and moved to Rochester where he purchased a half interest in the Lake View Nur- series with Henry L. Fairchild. Several now prominent residence streets of Rochester were laid out by them on their property and in 1873 a large portion of it was sold to a co-operative building association. After this sale Mr. Rock- fellow and his family spent a winter in Edenton, North Carolina, on the Alber- marle Sound. Returning to Rochester he engaged in the lumber business with Cameron and Chase and also conducted a real estate business in disposing of heretofore unsold nursery land.
In 1878 he returned to Mount Morris, purchased the Bodine Manufacturing property, and, in 1880, formed the Genesee Valley Manufacturing Company of which he has been manager and president up to the present date, 1905.
His wife died in 1900. He has one son, John A., who is a civil engineer and ranch owner in Arizona; and one daughter, Annie G., who is a practicing architect.
Mr. Rockfellow has been connected with the Presbyterian Church for nearly fifty years. He became a member of the First Church of Mount Morris in 1856 and of the Central Church, Rochester, in 1870. He has acted as elder forty years and been a vigorous Sunday School worker for forty-five years, as superintendent or teacher. Since 1878 he has had charge of an adult Bible class numbering from fifty to seventy members, and has met with them on an average of a little over fifty Sundays each year for twenty-six years.
He was associated with the late Rev. Levi Parsons in compiling and publish- ing the Mount Morris Centennial History in 1894. He has been a member of the Livingston county Historical Society for many years. Although nearly four score years have been his he still retains his place in business, is in good health, and full of active life.
MYRON H. MILLS.
Myron Holley Mills, M. D., a distinguished and honored resident of Mount Morris, exerted a marked influence on the literary, social, and political advance- 'ment of Livingston County, and bore a conspicuous part in promoting its rise and progress to its high standing among the wealthy and well-developed coun- ties of the Empire State. He was born December 8, 1820, on the homestead where he resided until his death, and which was then owned and occupied by his father, Major-general William A. Mills.
Dr. Mills was of New England ancestry, and came of pure and undiluted
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Puritan blood. His paternal grandfather, the Rev. Samuel Mills, of Derby, Conn., born in 1744, was a graduate of Yale College, and prepared for the ministry. Attracted by the glowing accounts of the beauties and promised wealth and greatness of the Genesee valley, he moved his family in 1790-92, and located near the little hamlet of Williamsburg, the pioneer settlement in what is now Livingston county, situated midway between Mount Morris and Geneseo. Circumstances over which the little hamlet had no control placing the court-house and county buildings in the town of Geneseo, Williamsburg's prosperity and growth were summarily checked, its population gradually dis- appeared, and its individuality was entirely lost forever. The Rev. Samuel Mills was the pioneer ordained minister in the valley. He preached the great truths of the gospel to the pioneers in an acceptable manner, after holding church services in the open air, also in the large warehouse in Williamsburg and in private dwellings. He was held in high esteem by the early settlers, and his memory is preserved in the religious history of the Genesee valley. He was a man of ability, a distinguished scholar, and possessed in a marked degree the christian graces which eminently fitted him to preach the great truths of the Bible. His cousin, the Rev. Samuel J. Mills, of Torrington, Conn., who was born April 21, 1783, and graduated at Williams College in 1809, was devoted to missionary work, and fully earned the proud title in history of "Father of Foreign Missions in America." The Rev. Samuel Mills' house took fire in the night and burned, with all his household effects, the family barely escaping. This misfortune, coupled with the loss of capital invested in land at inflated prices in the town of Groveland, embarrassed and so discouraged the good man that he became the victim of the disease known as the Genesee, or spotted fever which caused his death.
His remains, at the request of James Wads- worth, Sr., were buried in what has since become the beautiful cemetery in Geneseo. No monument, we regret to say, in the interest of his descendants and posterity, designates the grave. Immediately following his lamented death, the family, except his son William A., returned to New Bedford.
General William Augustus Mills, the father of Dr. Mills, was born at New Bedford, May 27, 1777; and some seventeen years later, just one hundred years before the summer season of the present year (1894) this same sturdy infant. grown to a stalwart young man, and having learned that "westward the course of empire takes its way," might have been seen with a small bundle of cloth- ing under his arm, journeying on toot across the valley from Williamsburg to Allan's Hill, now Mount Morris, there to make a home. His only available capital was a robust constitution, a quick and active brain, a common suit of clothes, an axe, and a five-franc piece of silver. Ile located on land belonging to Robert Morris and there erected a cabin on the brow of the tableland over- looking the Genesee valley, the site now being occupied by the residence of Dr. M. H. Mills. His only neighbors were the Indians; and learning to speak their language and growing familiar with their ways of living, he became a favorite among them, and was a frequent counselor in their dealings with the white people of this vicinity, and even occasionally arbitrated matters of dis-
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