History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 65

Author: Beers, F.W., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: New York : F.W. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 664

USA > New York > Fulton County > History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents > Part 65
USA > New York > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents > Part 65

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

John HI. Hale began business at his skin mill in 1873. Its capacity is 35,000 skins per annum. Max Maylender's kid factory, started in 1868, has a capacity of 72,000 skins.

The business concerns of Johnstown not already mentioned include a grist-mill with three run of stone, and a capacity of about 1,000 bushels per day ; three bakeries, two banks, the history of the oldest of which has been given ; three book stores, three dentist offices, five dry-goods stores, a gun shop, four hair dressers and dealers establishments, three harness shops, five millinery shops, five meat markets, two flour and feed stores, and six paint shops, including that of J. E. Bruce.

200

THE HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

JUDGE DANIEL CADY.

Second to no name in the history of Johnstown, if we except that of its titled founder, is the name of the eminent jurist and admirable citizen Daniel Cady. He was born in Canaan, Columbia county, in April, 1773. Going forth at an early age to carve out his fortune, he turned toward that land of promise, the Mohawk valley. Accident, it would seem, possibly only sameness of name, brought him to Judge David Cady's, in the town of Florida, where he found a hospitable home, taught a school, studied hard, and earned the lasting friendship of the gentleman at whose house he lived. It is said that the latter once asked him how he happened to . come to his house in seeking a home, and that the younger man replied. " I didn't know that I should be able to earn my board, and I felt you could afford to lose it." After studying law in Albany during 1794, and being admitted to the bar in the following year, he began his practice in Florida, but soon removed to Johnstown, of which village he was for the remainder of his life the most illustrious and useful citizen. By industry, ability and integrity he rapidly gained professional reputation, and in 1798 managed his first Supreme Court case. In 1812 he was associated with Aaron Burr and Ebenezer Foote in the defence of Solomon Southwick, charged with attempting to bribe Alexander Sheldon, member of the As- sembly, to vote for the incorporation of the Bank of America. "hief Jus- tice Kent presided, and the prosecution was conducted by Thomas Addis Emmet. The aceused was acquitted. Mr. Cady was an old-fashioned Federalist in politics. Though not a politician in the uncomplimentary sense of the term, and no office-seeker, he repeatedly represented his dis- trict in the national and State Legislatures. What was, perhaps, still more honorable and grateful to him was his promotion in his profession. He was elected a judge of the Supreme Court in 1847, reversing the usual Democratic majority of from 1, 800 to 2,000 in the district, being supported by the bar generally; and again in 1849, beating the same opponent, the popular Judge Fine. As judge he rode the western district of the State, including Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Monroe counties. He held the judgeship until Jan. 1, 1855, when he resigned and retired from the duties of the profession with an exalted reputation and the highest testimonials of esteem from his brethren of the bar.

Judge Cady was far from being entirely absorbed in his professional la- bors, arduous as they were. He owned much land about Johnstown, and took great pleasure in agricultural operations, especially the reclaiming of waste lands. His mansion at Johnstown was a common resort of the elite of society, and his daughters formed matrimonial connections in the promi- nent walks of life. As force of mind and character ever wins the most solid distinction, the most famous of Judge Cady's family is the illustrious advocate of woman's right to vote, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

NICHOLAS H. DECKER.

The gentleman whose name heads this sketch is an illustrious example of the class whom the world honors as self-made men, and is also one of the smaller number, who, in making their own fortunes, have contributed greatly to the material prosperity of their country.

Mr. Decker's great-grandfather emigrated from Holland to Ulster county, New York, in 1760. Ilis mother was a member of the famous Hoffman family, from whom was descended the eminent counsellor Ogden Hoff- man of New York, whose sister was the affianced of Washington Irving, but died during their engagement, leaving the great author to mourn her

loss throughout a celibate life. The grandfather of Mr. Decker, on his father's side, fought in the patriot army through the Revolutionary war with the rank of captain. Mr. Decker's mother died a few years since, aged seventy-eight ; but his father was killed by a horse running away, when the son was but five years old.

The lad worked until he was sixteen on his father's farm, which re- mained in the possession of the widow. During the winters of these years he obtained his only school education. On leaving the farm he learned the trade of a tanner and currier, and followed it until becoming of age, when he abandoned it for more promising enterprises which sug- gested themselves to his active and energetie mind.

He spent a year in the service of the engineers engaged in constructing the Chenango Canal, learning what he could of engineering, and display- ing an executive talent which obtained for him the management of some 300 men, and later the post of general superintendent for a very extensive contractor.

After a time he took a contract of his own, and made a successful entry upon the business in which he has been winning fame and fortune ever since. He began his career by building a part of the Erie railroad, near Sher- bank, on the Delaware River, and subsequently constructed the Worcester and Springfield ; the Albany and Stockbridge ; the Providence and Wor- cester ; the road from Worcester to Burlington, Vt .; portions of the Hud- son River line ; the Albany and Eagle Bridge ; the Union Railroad of Troy ; several western roads, including the Michigan Southern and seventy miles of the Peoria and Hannibal line ; the Staten Island road ; the North Shore road from Flushing to Manhasset, L. I .; and the Spuy- ten Duyvil and Port Morris road, finishing the last in November, 1871. Beside these railroads, Mr. Decker built the railroad bridge over the Con- nectient at Willimantic, and others, including the bridges and bulkheads of the Worcester and Hudson River railroads at Albany, all characterized by a strength and solidity which leave them still firm and in good condition. His later enterprises include the construction of the third and fourth 'through freight) tracks of the New York Central Railroad between Schen- ectady and Fort Plain in 1873-4, and, on the completion of this important work, of the horse railroads between Johnstown and Gloversville and Funda and Fultonville ; the building of the immense "sheep-house " of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, at Fifty-ninth street and North River, New York city, and some four hundred thousand yards of filling and four or five acres of paving, in connection with it-this latter contract involving about half a million dollars. He is at present engaged in the construction of Riverside avenue, from Seventy-second to One hundred and thirtieth street, New York, part of an extensive system of works for the improvement of the Hudson River front of the up-town por- tion of the metropolis. His well nigh infallible judgment of the cost of .1 proposed work has made his labors as profitable to himself as they are satisfactory to the capitalists who have availed themselves of his services,

Mr. Decker married, in 1845, a daughter of Mr. J. B. Mathews of Johns- town, where he has built a splendid country seat, at which, and at Saratag., he spends his summer-, living the rest of the year at his house in Filth avenue, New York. Two children have been born to him, neither of whom is now living.

Mr. Decker is characterized in person by a muscular form of mediam height, excellently preserved in advanced years; in the expression of his countenance, by intelligence and firmness ; in his manner, by cordial courtesy ; in his tastes, by simplicity and refinement, and in his character, by uprightness and benevolence.

201

LLE.

MRS. NH DECKER

View Looking S.E

عبال شركة

rom 1845 to 1856, managing a blacksmith shop in the In 1857 he built the first planing mill in the county. rst block of plank similar to those now used for cut- . first buffalo coat made in the county.

of this century there is said to have been a tavern kept posite the northeast corner of Prospect Hill Cemetery. as a public house about 1807.

te, William C. Mills built grist and fulling mills, near use now stands. The grist-mill, indeed, is said to have section of the country, though there is a tradition of by J. Mathews. Both would doubtless have been t of Sir William Johnson, near Johnson Hall. The

: liam C. Mills passed into the hands of his son Thilo, tter was killed in 1835 by the overturning upon him of which he was traveling to Schenectady. The grist- the possession of his son Sidney, who sold it to

ned the first store in Gloversville in 1828, in a small site the site of the Alvord House. In 1829 Henry the mercantile business, which he continued about ) there were still but two stores in the village, and in jear one of them. kept by J. K. Sexton, was burned. removed from Boston to Gloversville, and opened in the village. He continued in the business there ut twenty years.

hich Gloversville has grown seems to have borne no En that year Jonathan Sedgwick proposed that it be The name is said to have commended itself immed- sense of the fitness of things, and was adopted. The " illage may be supposed to have bristled with pine Fner of the hills on its present southern border. If 's of the name will not be questioned, whatever may In the latter respect improvement seems to have and when a post-office was established, and Henry ostmaster, in 1828, the present name was adopted at ed by Jennison Giles. Gloversville thus presents village twice named from its most striking character- ving already been sufficiently developed in 1828 to chosen.

Gplace gave no promise of its recent rapid growth. It name before its first christening in 1816, for in 1830 mises, and but two were added in the next two years. fen became more rapid. The village was incorpor- , and the next two years, one hundred and fourteen , raising the number in the village to about five Three thousand inhabitants The Mills .now the It in 1856-7, and its erection is spoken of by Mr. he building operations of the village." The estah- It was heated by steam and lighted with gas, fur- or the illumination of the churches, business places, amuel S. Mills was the proprietor.

res-occupied by the appropriately named Prospect chased for its present purpose in 1855 at a cost of ujion it was that of Lewis Meade. In this cemetery stown , Fulton GO., M, a veteran of 1812, who settled near Kingsboro in ck maker. For more than twenty years before his

H. DECK

MAS

CKER

View Looking

View Looking S.E.

นักคลอ

"VILLA DECKER; " Res. of N . H DICKER, Johnstown, Fulton Co.,N .Y.

View Looking N. E

THE FOUNDERS OF GLOVERSVILLE.

201

GLOVERSVILLE.

The growth of Gloversville presents a phenomenon in village-building. From a hamlet of a dozen houses in 1830, remote from all important chan- nels of communication, with no advantage of location but the water-power afforded by a small stream, it has outgrown neighboring villages that were old when it was only fairly started; and almost at its doors in some direc- tions the forest is now giving way before its rapid expansion. And this mainly by the almost accidental development of a peculiar industry, which now draws its materials from every quarter of the globe, and sends its pro- duet abroad well nigh as widely, giving support to most of the inhabitants of the village, and a name to their enterprising town.

The earliest settlements from which the village has grown were made about the close of the last century, at the eastern and western extremities of the corporation as now bounded, namely about the four corners north- east of Prospect Hill Cemetery, and in the vicinity of McNab's Mills. At the latter location settled, as enumerated by Mr. Horace Sprague in 1857: "James Lord, a magistrate and a person of some note; Job Heacock, an- cestor of the Heacocks of Kingsboro; Jehial Griswold; Benjamin Crosset, a loyalist of the Revolution; Robert, Charles and John Wilson, brothers, with whom lived their mother, the widow Wilson, and their grandmother, the widow Greig, whose oldest son, Captain Greig, was an officer in the American army, whose capture by the Indians, as narrated in the story of ' The Faithful American Dog,' was familiar to every school-boy thirty years ago; Thomas Mann, father of William and John Mann, afterward favorably known in the community; Asa Jones, grandfather of Col. Harvey Jones; Rev. John Lindley, minister of the church at Kingsboro Center; Samuel Giles and William C. Mills."

At the eastern settlement Daniel Bedford kept a store and tavern. The principal residents at this point were two families of Throops; one that of Rev. George Throop, whose adopted son, George B., was afterward the father of Governor Enos T. Throop; and the other that of Col. Josiah Throop, whose son, William, was the Baptist preacher at West Kingsboro. Between these hill-and-valley hamlets but two houses then represented the large village of the present day. One of them, occupied by William Ward, sen., stood just west of the spot now covered by the Congregational church. Mr. Ward, Samuel Giles, William C. Mills and James Burr, with their im- mediate descendants, are spoken of as the founders of Gloversville.

The oldest dwelling now standing in the village is believed to be the brick house on Main street, near Day & Steele's mill. It was built prior to 1800 by John Mathews; sold by him to S. Livingston, and by him to Joab Phelps. It passed into the hands of E. Hulbert, the present owner, May 1, 1835.

James Burr, born December 12, 1779, in West Hartford, Connecticut, moved to Fulton county with his father four years later. In 1810 he es- tallished in what is now Gloversville the first glove manufactory in the village. ITis further contributions to this branch of business are mention- ed in connection with its full history given elsewhere. On establishing himself in Gloversville, he budt a brick house where the Alvord House now stands. Here he lived until 1836, when he moved into a hotel called the Temperance House, built for him by his son, H. L. Burr, in the pre- vinus year. This building, a wooden structure, was the first hotel in the village. It stood on the west side of Main street, ncar Fulton, and was kept by Mr. Burr as a public house about twelve years. It was mentioned by Mr. Sprague in 1857, as then standing "opposite the old Baptist church." James Burr had seven children, Caroline, Horatio L., James 11., William II., Selina, Francis and David M. The last three died on "the old place." Horatio I .. Burr, born in 1810, manufactured gloves from

1836 to 1842, and from 1845 to 1856, managing a blacksmith shop in the intervening years. In 1857 he built the first planing mill in the county. He also made the first block of plank similar to those now used for cut- . ting gloves, and the first buffalo coat made in the county.

At the beginning of this century there is said to have been a tavern kept by Horace Burr, opposite the northeast corner of Prospect Hill Cemetery. It ceased to be kept as a publie house about 1807.

At a very early date, William C. Mills built grist and fulling mills, near where the Alvord House now stands. The grist-mill, indeed, is said to have been the first in this section of the country, though there is a tradition of one built previously by J. Mathews. Both would doubtless have been much later than that of Sir William Johnson, near Johnson Hall. The mill property of William C. Mills passed into the hands of his son Philo, about 1800. The latter was killed in 1835 by the overturning upon him of a loaded sleigh with which he was traveling to Schenectady. The grist- mill then came into the possession of his son Sidney, who sold it to Frederick Steele.

Simon M. Sill opened the first store in Gloversville in 1828, in a small building nearly opposite the site of the Alvord House. In 1829 llenry Churchill went into the mercantile business, which he continued about thirty years. In 1839 there were still but two stores in the village, and in the autumn of that year one of them, kept by J. K. Sexton, was burned.

In 1828 D. S. Tarr removed from Boston to Gloversville, and opened the first cabinet shop in the village. He continued in the business there and at Kingsboro about twenty years.

The hamlet from which Gloversville has grown seems to have borne no name before 1816. In that year Jonathan Sedgwick proposed that it be called Stump City. The name is said to have commended itself immedi- ately to the villagers' sense of the fitness of things, and was adopted. The site of the growing village may be supposed to have bristled with pine stumps, after the manner of the hills on its present southern border. If so, the appropriateness of the name will not be questioned, whatever may be said of its beauty. In the latter respect improvement seems to have been thought possible, and when a post-office was established, and Henry Churchill appointed postmaster, in 1828, the present name was adopted at his suggestion, seconded by Jennison Giles. Gloversville thus presents the singular case of a village twice named from its most striking character- istie, glove-making having already been sufficiently developed in 1828 to dictate the name then chosen.

For many years the place gave no promise of its recent rapid growth. It probably deserved no name before its first christening in 1816, for in 1830 it had only fourteen houses, and but two were added in the next two years. Progress in building then became more rapid. The village was incorpor. ated in 1851. In 1855, and the next two years, one hundred and fourteen dwellings were put up, raising the number in the village to about five hundred, with some three thousand inhabitants. The Mills now the Mason House was built in 1856-7, and its erection is spoken of by Mr. Sprague as " an era in the building operations of the village." The estab- lishment cost $65,000. It was hented by steam and lighted with gas, fur- nishing the latter also for the illumination of the churches, business places, and some dwellings. Samuel S. Mills was the proprietor.

The land-twenty acres-occupied by the appropriately named Prospect Hill Cemetery, was purchased for its present purpose in 1855 at a cost of $1,000 The first burial up:on it was that of Lewis Meade. In this cemetery is buried Othniel Gorton, a veteran of 1812, who settled near Kingsboro in 1819 as a watch and clock maker. For more than twenty years before his

202

THE HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY.

death, in 1872 aged 77 , he lived in Gloversville. Another veteran of 1812, James Whittaker, was still living in 1877, in his 86th year, with his son, E. V. Whittaker, in Fremont street.

When Mr. Horace Sprague wrote of Gloversville, in 1857, the business places comprised four dry goods, three clothing, three grocery, three " flour," one drug, one jewelry, and two " fancy " stores; two stove and tinware shops; two lawyers' and three physicians' offices. That gentleman also made the following interesting reference to the relative prices of real estate in the village at several dates:

"All the land lying north of Fulton and west of Bleecker streets, and all lying between Main, Fulton and Water streets and owned by Wm. T. Mills, was sold in 1825 to Samuel Giles for $500. Wm. Ward, sen., owned, previous to the year 1808, all the land east of Bleecker and north of Ful- ton streets, and all south of Fulton street from nearly opposite the Congre- gational church to the eastern limits of the village. That portion 'called the Hardy place, including all west of Main to Bleecker street and north of Fulton street, was sold in the year 1820 for $500 ; and all the remain- ing lands of W'm. Ward, sen., owned by Dea. Abraham Ward, were sold in "1833 for $800. Thirty acres lying south of Fulton and east of Main streets, and owned by Jennison Giles, were sold to Jennison G. Ward in 1836, for $1,800. Their present value would reach $5,000."

The population of the village is not far from 4,000. Officers in 1877 : President, H. Z. Kasson ; clerk, A. Wetherwax ; treasurer, ' hn R. War- man ; collector, P. F. Everest ; street commissioner, J. R. Cadman ; trus- tees, H. Z. Kasson, P. Van Wart, Geo. W. Nickloy, Daniel Lasher, J. Sunderlin, A. D. Simmons, C. McDougal, L. F. Marshall and J. H. Johnson ; assessors, A. Bruce, E. C. Burton and W. Case.

CHURCHES.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL.

Methodism in Gloversville is an outgrowth of a society organized north of Kingsboro, in 1790, by the Rev. Mr. Keff. That was in the heroic age of the church, and the planting of this outpost of christianity was one of the labors of the never-to-be-forgotten circuit riders. It was the pioneer church of its neighborhood. Among its members " the names of Easter- ly, Edwards, Clancy, Carpenter, Port, Northrop, Porter, Hartshorn, Powell, Phelps, Smith, Sutliff, Edwards, Johnson, Flood, Halstead and Wait will long be remembered with affection and respect as pillars in the church and community." In 1791 Rev. Freeborn Garretson, then presiding elder of the Saratoga district of the New York Conference, was able to report that the society had secured a lot and building materials, and that a chapel was in process of erection. From 1790 to 1801 services, it is believed, were con- ducted by the Rev. Mr. Keff, Abner Chase, Samuel Draper, Samuel Lucky, Daniel Ostrander, Samuel How and Samuel Eighmy. From the latter date forward the preachers included T. Seymour, H. Stearns, N. Levings, J. Beeman, S. Miner, J. Covell, C. Pomeroy, J. D. Moriarty, Jesse Lee, J. Demp- ster, A. Schofield, M. Bates, S. Stebbins, D. Stevens, J. B. Stratton, J. Alley, T. Spicer, H. Eames, S. Coleman, V. R. Oshorn, J. McCreary, J. B. Houghtal- ing and others. Among the names thus far mentioned are some very prominent in the history of the denomination at large. Freeborn Garret- son, Jesse lee and John Dempster are among the leading men in the whole annals of Methodism.

In 1838 a great revival occurred at Gloversville, under the lahors of J. H. Taylor and L. W. Bradley, assisted by Charles Sherman, who was pre- siding elder at the time. Gloversville was thenceforward the center of Methodist influence in the northern part of the town, and the Kingsboro society declined, though a new building was subsequently erected and services maintained at the old place. The first Methodist Episcopal society in Gloversville was organized in 1838 with 69 members, and a church edifice begun, which was finished and dedicated in the following . summer. The society spent $6,500 upon this building, and $1,600 for a parsonage. In 1840-1, Thomas B. Pearson was pastor of the new church; 1842-3, Stephen Parks; 1844, Thomas Armitage; 1845, Dillon Stevens; 1846-7, C. Barber; 1848-9, James Quinlan; 1850-1, Richard T. Wade. In 1851 the church was enlarged and rededicated. In 1852-3, Rev. Mer- rit Bates was pastor, and in 1854-5. Stephen Parks. During Mr. Parks' pastorate the church was again enlarged and rededicated. He was suc- ceeded by Rev. B. Hawley. In 1857, the last year of his pastorate, the

number of communicants was 270. The subsequent pastors have been as follows: 1858-9, N. G. Spaulding; 1860-1, E. Watson; 1862-3. Dr. 1 Parks; 1864-6, T. Griffin; 1867-9, G. S. Chadbourne; 1870-2, 1). W. Dayton; 1873-5, H. C. Sexton; 1876 to the present, O. A. Brown.

The present elegant church edifice of the society, 64 by 141 feet, with a spire rising 153 feet, was built in 1869. The estimated cost was $55,000, but the actual expense was largely in excess of that sum.

Scores of conversions annually swelled the membership of the church, until, in 1875, it had reached 1,200. The Fremont street church was formed from the First in that year.

The Sunday-school was organized in 1838 with some fifty scholars and teachers. J. G. Ward held the position of superintendent for over thir- teen years, and his successor, A. E. Porter, who was appointed in 1852, served for more than eighteen. At his appointment the school numbered 150 scholars and 20 teachers. Mrs. E. G. Ward was assistant superintend- ent, and superintendent of the infant department, for thirty-four years. In 1870 Mr. G. M. Powell was made superintendent. During his incum- bency the number of scholars was 680. He was followed in 1872 by J. 1). Clark. He held the post for three years, during which the membership of the school increased to 900. It was then divided, one-third going to the new church in Fremont street. Mr. E. Olmstead is now superintend- ent, having been elected in December, 1876.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Montgomery and Fulton counties, N.Y. : with illustrations and portraits of old pioneers and prominent residents, Part 65

Author: Beers, F.W., & co., New York, pub Publication date: 1878 Publisher: New York : F.W. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 664

Author: Beers, F.W., & co., New York, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: New York : F.W. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 664