USA > New York > Madison County > History of Madison County, state of New York > Part 36
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In 1818, Mr. King was one of the Board of twenty-four Trustees to found the Hamilton Academy. He helped buy the land, a lot next south of his own homestead, and afterwards contributed lumber and money. The brick building was rapidly put up, and the two large lower rooms finished, so that district school was held there in the winter of 1819, taught by Reuben Ransom. The Baptist Educational Society had put on a third story for their school. Early in the spring of 1820, the second story was mostly finished, and Mr. King commenced teaching the Academy on the first of May. He took delight in teaching, having been successful in it before and after he went to college. His learning was extensive and varied, and he had a rare facility of communicating knowledge. He excelled in teaching the Latin and Greek languages, all branches of Mathematics, Rhetoric, English Grammar, Composition and Elocution. Having no assistant, the scholars were few and mostly young men, but these found the cultivation of their taste and the improvement gained, invaluable to them in after life. He relinquished this business toward the end of the year 1821, and Zenas Morse began in the spring of 1822. He long and ably taught the Hamilton Academy. For years after, Mr. King was frequently resorted to by scholars, (and sometimes by teachers,) with hard nuts for him to crack, in the Classics or Mathematics, or in English Grammar. He took up the hammer with alacrity and was soon able to liberate from their obstinate envelopes the precious imprisoned kernels. Mr. King was an amateur farmer, but paid most attention to the cultivation of fruit trees, as the apple, cherry, plum and pear. He had grafted
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with his own hand his fine young apple orchard of 165 trees, procuring scions from Long Island and New Jersey. He was fond of raising winter wheat. His last crop of this was in 1825, on the acre on Broad street, which he after- wards divided and sold one-half to Amos Crocker in 1826, and the other to the Trustees of the Congregational Church in 1828.
In his later years, Mr. King retired in a considerable degree from the practice of his profession, only engaging in it occa- sionally, and then upon what he thought to be the equitable side. His knowledge of law was profound, and he never engaged in the prosecution of a case without the most thorough preparation. In this particular he was remarkable through his life, and law- yers now speak of his elegant pleas as recorded on the books. In some of these cases his efforts were crowned with complete success. He was strict in his adherence to temperance and er .- tered with considerable spirit into the other reforms of the day.
Aside from his superior education, Mr. King possessed a mind of the highest order, and a singular versatility of talent. From boyhood he was passionately devoted to literature, and read all the best authors. And in his advanced years he was emphatically a student, keeping bright the studies pursued in his youth, reading with tearful enthusiasm, Homer, Virgil and Milton, as his pastime. He was in the habit of frequently com- posing, especially in poetry, and some choice poems, not yet made public, have been preserved. At times, he was called upon to write poems or addresses for public gatherings, as for the Fourth of July ; and on the occasion of the death of Adams and Jefferson, in 1826, he prepared and delivered an eloquent oration in the Baptist meeting house. A passage in it repre- sented these patriots as arranging the time of their departure :- ' I will set out from Quincy, you from Monticello ; we will meet in the regions of the air.'
But in his domestic relations, and in the sublime truths and substantial comforts of the christian religion, Mr. King found his richest enjoyment, and used to say, with the utmost sinceri- ty, using the language of Holy Writ: 'I have no greater joy than to see my children walking in the truth.' The final scene of his existence was peaceful, in view of the future. He ex- pressed an unfaltering trust in the Redeemer. His illness was o" short duration, and his death occurred at Hamilton, July 25, 1848."*
JOHN FOOTE, ESQ.,
Was born April 30, 1786, in Colchester, Conn. He came to
" Contributed by a friend.
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Sherburne in 1795, with his father, Hon. Isaac Foote,* widely known as the first Judge of Chenango County Courts, when Madison County was included in its territory.
When Mr. Foote first came to Chenango County, all about him was an unbroken forest. The nearest grist mill was eighteen or twenty miles distant, and it was as far to a saw mill. The floor of his log house was made of split basswood timber, the roof covered with bark, in which was an open- ing for the escape of smoke ; oiled paper, instead of glass, served for windows for a year or more. A yoke of oxen and two cows subsisted on browse, mostly, the first winter, when the snow was from three to four feet deep, with a crust of sufficient strength for the cattle and deer to walk upon, so that snow shoes were dispensed with during the months of January and February. This primitive dwelling, and these unusual circumstances, became firmly fixed as the earliest recollections of the subject of this sketch.
About 1796, the inhabitants had increased to such ex- tent, that, though a yet comparatively wilderness country, a physician located himself there, and, on one occasion, hav- ing need of medicines, dispatched the boy " Johnny " Foote to Utica to procure drugs. This was a considerable jour- ney for a boy nine or ten years of age to perform, marked trees and an Indian path being the chief indication of the course to pursue, and only six houses on the whole route of forty miles. Utica, as it was then, formed a picture in the lad's memory, to remain there forever after. He went to the drug store, kept by Wolcote & Guiteau, in a small build- ing set on posts driven in the quagmire, similar to posts on which corn houses are placed. There was a house where Bagg's tavern afterwards stood, and there was a small house one-half a mile easterly from this, occupied by Col. Walker, a land agent. This comprised the village of Utica, (or rather old Fort Schuyler,) in 1796. The road, if road it
* Judge Foote died in Smyrna, Feb. 27, 1826, in the 97th year of his age.
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might be called, between Utica and New Hartford, was nothing better than a quagmire, most of the way.
Amid such unpropitious surroundings, the boyhood of John Foote was spent, but they served to develop sterling qualities which characterized his after life. He entered the law office of Hon. Thos. H. Hubbard, as a student, and about 1813 commenced the practice of law in Hamilton. In 1812, he married Miss Mary Johnson. He is now the oldest lawyer of Hamilton village. He has held the office of Justice of the Peace, and Master in Chancery .*
John Foote, Esq., is characterized for his upright princi- ples, his integrity, and a scrupulous regard for justice. He made himself conspicuous in his early efforts in behalf of temperance, in which cause he first took a decided stand in 1824, and was identified with the first temperance society of Hamilton. He was subsequently identified with several of the organized bodies to suppress the traffic in liquors.
During the anti-slavery agitation, the Female Anti- Slavery Association of Hamilton was organized at his house, he giving the unpopular cause his aid and encourage- ment. (Note l.)
John Foote has always distinguished himself by his strict adherence to his principles of right, and for his practical living up to the theories he so earnestly advocated. He still lives in Hamilton village, enjoying remarkable health, at the ripe age of eighty-six.
EARLY PROMINENT. MEN OF HAMILTON.
Dr. Thomas Greenly, the pioneer physician of Hamilton, came from Connecticut in 1796, then twenty-five years of age. In the wilderness, he made a home, to which he brought his wife and child in January, 1797. Among the pioneers he established an honorable reputation as a man, and in his practice gained a wide influence, and secured en-
* Hon. John J Foote, son of John F. ote, was elected State Senator from this District for 1858-9. When Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860, John J. Foote was one of the Presidential Electors.
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viable success. It has been said of him : " He was a man of marked character, honest, plain and outspoken, free from hypocrisy or deceit, of strong mind and eminent in his pro- fession."
He was elected to the Legislature twice, the years 1818 and 1819, and was four years in the Senate of this State, being elected from the Fifth Senatorial District in 1822. When in the Senate, he was one of the " immortal seven- teen " who abstained from voting, that a certain measure in reference to a change in the Constitution, concerning Presi- dential Electors, might not be passed at that critical period, pending the election in which Andrew Jackson and John Q. Adams were running for the Presidency.
During the Doctor's term in the Senate, his large medi- cal practice in Hamilton slipped away into other hands, and it is said, that on his return, he declared he would get it back if he worked for nothing. He had no serious difficul- ty in winning it back, when once his indomitable will and genius were employed in that direction.
Dr. Greenly was for some years Brigade Inspector of the Thirty-Fifth Brigade of New York Militia. In all positions he was characterized by integrity, and honored every sta- tion he was called to fill. He is remembered by Hamilto- nians for his characteristic independence, and his original , " speeches," the coin of wit.
Hon. Thomas H. Hubbard came to Hamilton from Al- bany, where he finished his law education, in 1804 or 1805, and commenced the practice of law.
His superior talents, cultivated by a fine scholastic edu- cation, and his thorough training as a lawyer, soon won him an extensive practice in this and Chenango County. On the organization of Madison County, in 1806, he was ap- pointed its first Surrogate, which office he held, and dis- charged its duties with ability, about ten years. He was appointed District Attorney in 1817, but was elected to represent the then Congressional District of Madison and
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Herkimer in the U. S. Senate, for the term of 1817 -19. He was also elected to serve a second time for 1821-23. After the formation of the second Constitution, he was appointed Clerk of the Supreme Court, (when he re- moved to Utica,) the duties of which office he discharged with great ability for many years, and finally retired from public life, having, by his prudence and industry, accumu- lated ample means to live, and spend his declining years in affluence and ease. He was a man greatly beloved for his many virtues and the purity of his life, and Hamilton is justly proud to claim him as one of its early law-givers. He died in Utica, the city and home of his adoption, in 1853, with the bright hope of the christian, so well exemplified in his life.
Hon. John G. Stower studied law with Judge Hubbard, and after having completed his studies, was, by Mr. Hub- bard, received in co-partnership, with whom he continued until the removal of the latter to Utica. John G. Stower was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1821, serving till 1827. In 1827, he was elected to Congress from the Twenty-Second Congressional District, serving one term. Judge Stower was a man of great abilities, marred by one failing, intemperance. His remarkable tal- ents won him great influence, so that he was exceedingly popular, and warmly beloved in a wide circle of friends.
Judge Philo Gridley, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, was, at one period, practicing law in Hamilton vil- lage, in co-partnership with Judge Stower.
John Adams Smith, son of William S. Smith, was one of the practicing lawyers of the old Courts of this county, and was, at one period, in law partnership with Judge Hubbard.
Later Lawyers of Hamilton .- Hon. Charles Mason was born in Plattsburgh in this State. He is a man of strong mind and industrious habits, also a self made man, of common academical education. He commenced reading
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law in Plattsburgh about 1828. Some two years after he went to Watertown and entered the law office of Mr. Ruger. He was admitted to the bar about 1832, when he formed a co-partnership with Mr. Ruger and remained with him in practice until the fall of 1838. About this time Judge Gridley, residing in this place, was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court, when Mr. Mason came here, and in , company with Amos Crocker, took and continued Judge Gridley's business. He continued with Mr. Crocker till 1842. In 1844 and '45, he was in company with George W. Hungerford who came from Watertown. In 1845 he was appointed District Attorney for Madison County, which office he filled till June, 1847, when he was elected Justice of the Supreme Court, and entered upon the discharge of those duties the first of July following. He held this office by re-election till 1768, when he resigned to accept the appointment of Judge of the Court of Appeals. He is now practicing in the higher courts.
Hon. Joseph Mason, commenced reading law in the office of his brother Charles Mason, in 1845, and was admitted to practice in the general term held in Morrisville in 1849. He immediately opened a law office here ; was elected Justice of the Peace, and in 1863 was elected County Judge and Surrogate of Madison County.
Judge Mason's decisions while upon the bench were seldom appealed from, for the good reason, that such cases received a studious examination and the decisions were rendered strictly in accordance with the law and the testi- mony. He has a lucrative business in Hamilton.
Sherwood & Nye were lawyers in practice here for a number of years, both from DeRuyter. Sherwood went to Texas soon after its annexation. James W. Nye con- tinued for a time his office, alone. He was regarded as one of the ablest lawyers of our time for his speaking talent at the bar. He was elected Brigadier-General, was Judge and Surrogate of Madison County in 1844, serving to 1851,
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and was appointed Master and Examiner in Chancery. He removed to New York and was subsequently appointed Governor of Nevada, and ably discharged the duty of that position through his term. His course was characterized by his successful efforts in establishing law, order and religion in the territory. He has since been elected to the U. S. Senate, where his talents have made him conspic- uous.
H. C. Goodwin & D. J. Mitchell, constituted one of the most active law firms in this village. H. C. Goodwin died while in the achievement of success. D. J. Mitchell is now practicing law in Syracuse. He is regarded as one of the ablest lawyers of Central New York.
A. N. Sheldon & James B. Eldredge, formed a law part- nership in 1845. Mr. Eldredge had been Member of Legisla- ture in 1816-17 from this county, and again in 1827, and was re-elected in 1829. He was made Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1840. The firm of Sheldon & Eldredge continued together till 1848. Judge Eldredge has since died. Mr. Sheldon is still in the business.
J. Sterling Smith, a lawyer of ability, was at one time and for some years in practice here. He received the appointment of Assistant U. S. District Attorney, and went to Washington about 1866.
D. G. Wellington came in 1861, having been admitted to the bar at the Albany General Term, in May, 1851, and entered the law office of J. S. Smith, and remained there till Nov., 1862, when he enlisted in the army to help subdue the Great Rebellion. He was promoted to first Lieut. of Co. A., 176th Regiment, in 1863. After this he was taken prisoner by the rebels and was held till 1864, when he was released and mustered out of service. On his return to Hamilton he again entered the office of J. S. Smith. When Mr. Smith resigned his office of Justice of the Peace to accept his promotion, Mr. Wellington was appointed to fill his unexpired term, and served till 1868,
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and was then elected to Legislature. He has since con- tinued his office in Hamilton.
Some of the Physicians of Hamilton .- Dr. Peter B. Ha- vens was one of the old physicians and surgeons of this village. He was widely known and employed for his great skill and success in cases requiring surgical treat- ment. He was succeeded by his son, P. B. Havens, who is still practicing medicine and surgery in this village. Dr. Henry G. Beardsley was a practicing physician and surgeon for more than thirty years, being established here before 1830. He was commissioned First Asst. Surgeon in the 114th Reg. N. Y. V. and served with cred- itable success. Dr. Sherman Kimberly commenced prac- tice in this place in 1836 as a Botanic Physician. He gradually changed his practice to the Eclectic Schocl. He is now the oldest medical practitioner in this village, and has had a most extensive practice, both in medicine and surgery. The other present resident physicians are Dr. Frank D. Beebe, who commenced practice here in 1864, he having previously been First Asst. Surgeon in the 157th Reg. N. Y. V., serving in the army of the Potomac, partici- pating in the battles of Chancellorville, Gettysburg and others till the war closed ; Dr. G. L. Gifford of the Home- pathic School, who came in 1865. He practices surgery as well as medicine and has good success. Also Miss Dr. Amelia Tompkins, the first woman physician of Hamilton, who came in 1865. She is a regular graduate from the "Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania." She has had good success in her profession and has all the practice she can attend.
Dr. A. D. Head, physician and surgeon, has recently commenced practice here and is making progressive steps toward being successfully established.
MADISON UNIVERSITY AND HAMILTON LITERARY AND THEO- LOGICAL SEMINARY.
This Institution was the offspring of the Baptist Educa-
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tion Society of New York State, which was formed in 1817, in behalf of ministerial education. This society was origi- nated by five or six individuals in Hamilton, who met at the house of Samuel Payne in the spring of that year, when they ventured to issue a call, inviting the friends of the cause to meet in Hamilton on the 24th day of the ensuing September. This call was sent to the Western Baptist Magazine and was published on the cover of that periodical. The 24th of September arrived and but thirteen responded to the call, who were : Rev. Daniel Hascall, Rev. Nathaniel Kendrick, Rev. P. P. Roots, Rev. John Bostwick, Rev. Joel W. Clark, Rev. Robert Powell, Rev. Amos Kingsley, Dea. Jonathan Olmstead, Dea. Samuel Payne, Dea. Samuel Os- good, Thomas Cox, Elisha Payne, Esq., and Dr. Charles W. Hull. They were convened at the residence of Dea. Olm- stead, located about one mile from the village of Hamilton, directly south, a little below University Hill.
As an earnest of their faith, these thirteen commenced by paying $I each into the treasury. This was the seed sown, the germ of the widely known Madison University, which was planted in the hearts of a few noble christian men who struggled with poverty Notwithstanding, they immediately set about the work with unparalleled energy. An address, which was an appeal for ministerial education, was published, and 500 copies circulated. Nearly forty agents were appointed in the central and eastern portions of the State, who were expected to work gratuitously to ob- tain subscriptions to the work.
The first report of the Baptist Education Society has the list of the first seventy contributors, which is a " memorial of good men," whose offerings were made out of principle and pure warm hearts, toward the work. The aggregate subscriptions of that list were $2,118.88.
The committee appointed to locate the school were chosen from widely-separated localities, that the pending question might be fairly adjusted. This was at length set-
& Seur 's!
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tled at a meeting held in Peterboro, Nov. 3, 1819. Hamii- ton was to have the location of the proposed school, pro- vided, " that the people in the village and vicinity pay over to the institution the sum of six thousand dollars in the following manner, viz : three thousand five hundred dollars to be laid out in buildings to be completed within four years, and two thousand five hundred dollars to be paid in board at one dollar and fifty cents a week, in five equal an- nual payments." A place for the school was also to be furnished by the Ist of May, 1820. These conditions were accepted, and securities furnished for the fulfillment of the contract.
The first pupil was Jonathan Wade, who was examined on the 14th of February, 1818, and immediately placed un- der the charge of Rev. Daniel Hascall. During the interval between that and the time when the school was perma- nently opened in May, 1820, thirteen had shared the bene- factions of the society, who had been under instruction mostly at Whitesboro and Hamilton. May 1, 1820, with ten students, the school was formally opened in the village of Hamilton, occupying the third story of the brick building of the village academy. Rev. Daniel Hascall, pastor of the Baptist Church, consented to occupy the post as Principal, being the only teacher the first year, for which he received the moderate sum of $22.50 a month.
In 1828 the first edifice, the stone building on the plain, (in the village,) was erected. It was 36 x 64 feet, and three stories high, with rooms for students, and apartments for recitation and rhetorical purposes. This cost over five thousand dollars. The help in furnishing these apartments came, in a great measure, from female sewing societies. [This building, after being vacated by the institution, was used for the male department of the Hamilton Academy, under the principalship of Prof. Zenas Morse and his suc- cessors.]
With what absorbing interest do we learn of the various
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dealings of Providence, evident in all the great movements connected with the institution. Hascall and Kendrick were men who had faith in Providence. They were men, also, who were especially endowed for the herculean work. The heart and purse of another good man and his wife were also in the work-Deacon Samuel Payne and Mrs. Betsey Payne, who made the gift of their farm of 123 acres, valued then at $4,000, to the school, in 1826. This is Univer- sity Hill, on which the buildings are erected. No love- lier place, and none with so commanding a view of the beautiful valley, could have been selected. At the same time with the erection of the " Western Edifice," a commodious boarding hall was built in the immediate vicinity, which has been removed, and its place is occupied with a noble building called the "Hall of Alumni and Friends," which now places the Western Edifice in the middle. In 1833, the " Eastern Edifice " was built ; in 1838, the present Board- ing Hall. Up to 1839, the expenses of students were reg- ulated with reference to their benefit, on terms which at the present day seem incredible. The price of board, which had been ninety cents per week, was raised that year to one dollar. The tuition in the academic department was raised from four to six dollars per quarter, and in the col- legiate, from four to eight dollars. In the Theological department, tuition was rendered gratuitous, the salaries for Professors in this branch being raised by subscription.
In 1846, this institution was incorporated as the " Madi- son University," date of the charter being March 26, 1846. From its first opening, it has borne different names, to wit : " School," " Seminary," " Hamilton Literary and Theologi- cal Institution," and finally " Madison University,"-all of which have been applied to it on the occasion of certain changes which have taken place in its improvements.
In 1847, there commenced a series of efforts to remove Madison University from Hamilton to Rochester, N. Y., which had the effect to seriously, but temporarily, depress
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the affairs of both Society and University. The case was, as a last resort, carried into the Courts, the counsel for the removalists being Samuel Stevens and Hamilton Harris of Albany, and for the Bap. Ed. Society, Timothy Jenkins, Charles P. Kirkland and James W. Nye. The final hear- ing of the case was before Judge Philo Gridley, April 23, 1850, when the decree established forever Madison Univer- sity and the Theological Seminary in the village of Hamil- ton. When those efforts ceased, two years of recuperation saw the same institution stand forth on a strengthened pe- cuniary basis, its amount of property more than doubled, its number of students more than tripled.
Rev. Daniel Hascall, A. M., was Principal and Professor of Sacred Rhetoric from May, 1820 to 1836. Rev. Na- thaniel Kendrick, D. D., first President, which he continued to be to the time of his death, in 1848. Stephen W. Tay- lor, LL. D., was President from 1851 to 1856. He died January 7, 1856. Rev. George W. Eaton, D. D., LL. D., was elected President in 1856, and served till 1871. He died in Hamilton, August 3, 1872, aged 68 years. Rev. Ebenezer Dodge, D. D., LL. D., was elected President of the University in 1868.
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