History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 93

Author:
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 932

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At the age of eighteen, Mr. Middleton went to Lowell, Mass., and engaged for six years with the Lowell Carpet Company, and the following seven years with the Merrimac Woolen Company, where he officiated as assistant superin- tendent of the company's mills. During these ycars he became impressed with manufacturing business, and had become so schooled in that direction that his subsequent life has been spent in connection with similar operations. In the year 1857, May 10, he came to Utica, and, on account of his large experience in the manufacture of woolen fabrics, he was at once engaged by Mr. Theodore S. Faxton, Presi- dent of the Globe Woolen Company, of Utica, to take charge of their mills, as agent and superintendent. His practical experience in this branch of business, his comprehensive knowledge of every part of machinery, and his aim to se- cure the highest results from the business, during the twenty- two years he has held the supervision and management of the business, have demonstrated his qualifications to the com- plete satisfaction of the stockholders; and it is only just to say that the quality of goods produced, standing as high as any in the American market, is due, most wholly, to the management and supervision of Mr. Middleton.

Mr. Middleton, though not an active politician, yet regards the right of suffrage of great value to every citizen, and has during his life been identified with the Republican party.

In the year 1849 he married Miss Lucy Ann, daughter of Ira Cummings, of Greenfield, N. H., by whom he has one son, Walter B., and three daughters,-Ella, wife of James G. Hunt, M.D., of Utica, Mary, and Florence.

THOMAS HOPPER

was born where he now resides, in the city of Utica, N. Y., January 31, 1807. His father, Captain James Hopper, was a native of England. For many years he was in com- mand of vessels, in the English merchant service, and owned shares in them and their cargoes. During the war between his own country and France he commanded an armed vessel of sixteen guns, and, furnished with letters of marque from the British admiralty, he cruised in the South Seas. Attacked at one time by a superior force, his vessel was taken after a brave defense, and he was carried prisoner to France. Thence he was released by being cxchanged- he and another captain-for the celebrated Marshal Junot, captured in Egypt. Some little time afterwards he came to America, his principal object in coming being to obtain in- demnity for the loss of another and smaller vessel that had fallen into the hands of the French by reason of informa- tion furnished them by an American as to its situation and the practicability of its seizure, and which, after such seiz- ure, was sold to parties from America.

He engaged General Hamilton, in New York, as coun- sel, but failed in securing the object of his visit. By him he was prevailed upon to come to Utica and see the coun-

try, which visit occurred in the year 1801. Shortly after his arrival he bought considerable land on the southern borders of the village. Forty-nine acres of it were the cleared farm of Benjamin Hammond, in great lot No. 95, which the latter had obtained from John Bellinger. In part it was a portion of the Holland purchase, and other smaller parts were bought of John Post, Richard Kimball, and Jonathan Evans. On this purchase Captain Hopper put up a house that he enlarged upon the arrival of his family, and engaged in farming, and also in tanning, to neither of which pursuits he had ever been accustomed. He im- ported tanners from the East, paying them high wages, and as the stumps on his farm were offensive to him, he ex- pended freely for the labor of having them grubbed up and removed. Hence his projects failed of being very remuner- ative, and he besides lost considerable in the Utica Glass Company. The land which he bought increased.in value, and became ultimately, through the skillful management of his sons, a quite handsome estate. Captain Hopper was honest and highly respectable, but as he lived a little apart from niost of the other village residents, he was not much concerned in affairs of general interest.

His death occurred May 16, 1816. His wife afterwards married Joshua Wyman, but died Dec. 11, 1843, and it is remarkable that she predicted the day of her death full a month before its occurrence. Their children were George J., born in England, and quite recently deceased ; Elizabeth Ann, died in 1843; Thomas, and Mary (Mrs. Bradley, afterwards Mrs. McClure), who are still resident.

Thomas Hopper spent his boyhood days at home, and received the opportunities of an education afforded by the common school and the old Utica Academy. He early in life was impressed with the idea of leading a business life, and at the age of twenty-six engaged in the mercantile business in Utica, which, however, he continued only some four years, and turned his attention to dealing in real estate, improving the property first purchased by his father, by erecting residences which now form one of the finest por- tions of the city. This business he has continued until the present time in Utica and New York, spending the time from 1835 to 1844 in the latter place.

Soon after his return from New York, Mr. Hopper, not- withstanding much opposition, instigated, and with the as- sistance of a few others favorable to the scheme, projected, and he himself constructed the fine system of water-works now so much admired in the city, and became one of nine of the first directors, which office he still holds, and for the past six years has been its treasurer and president. In this work of care Mr. Hopper never has consented to receive any remuneration. He was one of the first movers in the organization of the cemetery association, which has brought to a successful completion one of the finest cemetery plats of the State, and upon which, partially at his own expense, he has erected very fine and almost palatial accommoda- tions for the convenience and comfort of friends during in- clement weather on burial occasions.

Following the footsteps of his father (one of the first members of Trinity Church), he is identified with church and other kindred interests tending to educate and elevate the rising generation. He has been a director in the First

graved by Sam, J.Partain, Plus"

Robert middleton

The Hopper

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

National Bank of Utica for many years, and was treasurer of the Bishop's fund for the diocese of Western New York for fourteen years under Bishops De Lancey, Cox, and Huntington.

In politics he has never taken an active part, and has always declined any political preferment or publicity, and although identificd with the Republican party, has not been zealously partisan when he conceived right measures repre- sented by men of integrity of the opposition. Mr. Hopper is a man of great consideration, candor, and integrity of purpose, and has spent an active business life.

THEODORE S. FAXTON

is a man of marked and distinguishing traits of character, allied in business of wide extent and almost universal neces- sity, who has passed in Utica long years of continuous and well-rewarded endeavor, and in the course of his life has been a leader in most of the undertakings of the place. He was a native of Conway, Mass., born in the year 1792 or 1794, Jan. 10, and came to the village of Utica to reside in 1812, although he had previous to that time lived in the vicinity. In 1813 he obtained a position as driver on the stage, and held the reins of a four-in-hand every day until 1817, except for the space of six months, which time was spent in the school at Clinton. And though after this time it was only now and then that he mounted the box, yet such was his acknowledged skill as a reins-man, that on occasions of ceremony, or when something extraordinary was required, he was the one that was usually selected as most competent to do honor to the service. One of the most: satisfactory remembrances of his life in this direction is the one that recalls the visit of Lafayette in 1825, when with six dash- ing grays and the old Van Rensselaer carriage he drove to Whitestown, where the distinguished guest was to be re- ceived. A second, when between midnight and carly bed- time the following night, with fresh relays of horses, he made the trip to Albany, carrying six of Utica's honored citizens,-James Platt, Richard R. Lansing, John H. Os- trom, Charles P. Kirkland, Joseph S. Porter, and William Williams, arriving at that city before the opening of the Legislature ; and returning, completing by going to New Hartford, a distance of some two hundred miles, in less than twelve hours. A solitary, but not less exciting, ride of those early times was his well-planned and self-executed, and almost unparalleled swiftness and courage, in overtaking and the capture of a thief in the pine-woods, above Troy, the particulars of which are given by Dr. Bagg, in his " Pio- neer History of Utica," and very full details of Mr. Faxton's early life. In the year 1822 he became a partner with Mr. Childs, in the firm of Parker & Co., in the conveyance of passengers and goods between Utica and Albany, which at that time was a large and important business, there being subsequently cight daily lines of stages running east and west through Utica, besides four lincs running north and south, with the departure and arrival of eighty-four stages daily. This vast and increasing transport the firm con- tinued for ten years after the death of the senior partner, Mr. Parker, and down to the year 1838. This firm erected the Exchange building, on the site of the old Canal Coffee- House, and held real estate in common.

----

Mr. Faxton was associated with Hiram Greenman and John Butterfield in running packet-boats on the canal, after its completion. In connection with Alfred Munson and others he organized the first line of steamers that ran on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, and continued for a number of years to be one of its managing directors. He was one of the originators of the Utica and Black River Railroad. Gave the first one hundred dollars to found the Utiea Mechanics' Association, and held the presidency of that organization for several years. With Willett H. Shearman and Anson Dart, he was one of the commis- sioners who, in 1843, completed the crection of the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, the first board having been dis- missed when Mr. Seward became Governor, after they had laid only the foundations.

In 1852 he was chairman of the committee who super- intended the erection of the present edifice of the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. Faxton was one of the origina- tors of the water-works company, the Utica Steam Cotton- Mills, the Globe Woolen-Mills, of which he is now presi- dent, and the Second National Bank, over whose affairs he has presided ever since its organization.

In 1845, he, not content to wonder at a distance of the success of the achievements of the telegraph line laid between Baltimore and Washington, after an examination of the same, united with Hiram Greenman, John Butter- field, and others, and formed a company, with a capital of $200,000, which laid down the first wire between New York and Buffalo. He was chosen president and super- intendent, and continued in that capacity for seven years, and made it a complete success by using the iron instead of the copper. wire.

Mr. Faxton never took a very active part in politics, but was often called to positions of honor and trust. He was trustee of the village of Utica, 1831, alderman in 1836, and mayor in 1864. . He was a delegate to the National Whig: Convention which nominated Zachary Taylor, in 1848,' and was also sheriff of the county in 1842. Hold- ing the office only a few weeks, he was displaced by the in- coming Governor, William C. Bouek, for political reasons only.

In addition to the stage, packet, steamboat, railroad, and telegraph lines, banks, manufactories, and other enterprises that have added wealth and prosperity to Utiea, Mr. Faxton has three other monuments that will perpetuate his name and add honor and blessings to his memory,-the Old Ladies' Home on Faxton Street, Faxton Hall, at the june- tion of Varick and Court Streets, for the education of the children of factory operatives by day and night, and Faxton Hospital, a splendid institution recently opened.

Mr. Faxton is a gentleman of marked sociability, of great kindness of heart, of strict integrity of purpose in all his business transactions, and in his advanced age still holds, as he always has, the respect and confidence of all who know him.

HIRAM GREENMAN

was born in Brookfield, N. Y., June 3, 1801. He was a son of Benjamin Greenman and Eunice Billings,-both natives of Massachusetts. Prior to coming of age he pur- chased his time of his father, and with that resolution and

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

indefatigable perseverance which characterized his subse- quent career, he began business life for himself.

We first find him as a common laborer on the canal, afterwards steward of a packet-boat, and subsequently a captain and owner of a boat, and for many years carried on extensively the forwarding business, being largely interested in the stock of one of the boat companies wherein the bulk of his property was made. He was among the fore- most in all public undertakings, had a share in steamboats on Lake Ontario and in the earlier telegraph lines, pos- sessed a remarkable degree of enterprise and energy, and practically knew not the meaning of the word fail. As a friend he was frank, generous, and true. As a neighbor he never tired of doing good offices, as to watch with the sick and to comfort the afflicted.

Whatever he turned his hand to, whether for the ad- Vancement of his own fortunes, the interests of his friends, or the promotion of the public good, was sure to succeed.

For seven years he was the victim of a fearful malady, against which he bore up with indomitable spirit. This was a cancer that in the end destroyed the whole of one side of his face and took away his life on the 11th of November, 1850.

His genuine pluck is well illustrated by the experience of a neighbor who, having the previous night overheard the sufferer groaning with pain as he walked up and down the sidewalk, accosted him in the morning with the inquiry, " How are you, Captain Greenman ?" To which the latter, with a cheerful smile, replied, "First-rate, I thank you." It is by such men that the material interests of com- munities are fostered, the means of intercommunication brought into being, and towns and cities sustained. Captain Greenman was a liberal supporter of church and kindred interests, and for many years previous to his death a mem- ber of Trinity Church, Utica.

Fifteen months previous to coming to Utica, and in the year 1823, Feb. 15, he was married to Miss Sarah, daughter of Silas Cobourn and Elizabeth Reynolds, of Whitestown, this county,-the former a native of Massa- chusetts, the latter a native of Saratoga. Both died at Utica. Captain and Mrs. Greenman had three children,- Sarah, dicd in infancy; Hiram, died at the age of twenty- seven ; and Silas, died at the age of forty-two, leaving a wife and one son, James C. Mrs. Greenman is a lady of rare womanly qualities, respected by all who knew her for her many virtues, and still survives in 1878.

Mr. Greenman's wife and two sons survived him. Hiram Greenman, Jr., was born at Utica, Jan. 8, 1827, and re- ceived his education in the schools of that city. After reaching manhood he engaged in business at Syracuse, and subsequently in Utica ; but his failing health soon obliged him to retire from active pursuits, and after a long and painful illness, which he bore with great patience and Chris- tian fortitude and submission, he peacefully expired at his mother's residence in Utica, July 4, 1857, with a good hope of eternal life. His premature death was a great affliction to his widowed mother and other relatives and to his many friends, to whom he was greatly endeared by his frank and generous nature and kind disposition ; and had his life been spared it is believed that he would have done much good

as a useful and excellent man. Many fond hopes were buried with him. He died unmarried.

Silas C. Greenman was born at Utica, Nov. 10, 1829, and died at the same place, June 20, 1871. His health was very frail for many years, which prevented him from engaging in business pursuits, for which he had a taste and decided ability ; but he was of an active disposition, and keenly interested in political and military affairs, and in all matters pertaining to the good of the city of his birth and residence, and to his country.

He was an ardent patriot, and on the breaking out of the rebellion offered his services to the government with the military company of which he was a member, and left his home to join the army ; but his health was unequal to the hardships of camp life, and he was obliged to return. His attachment to his friends was ardent and sincere, and his death was a great grief to his family and to his associates. His mother survived him, and also his wife and son, James C. His death was peaceful and hopeful.

HON. EATON J. RICHARDSON

was born in the town of Schuyler, Herkimer Co., N. Y., May 14, 1816. His father, Warren Richardson, was a native of Cheshire, Mass., and removed to Schuyler, with his father, Nehemiah Richardson, about the year 1790, and settled as a farmer. The grandfather, Nehemiah, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war, and the father a soldier of the war of 1812-14, and died on the farm in Schuyler, where he first settled, at the age of nearly eighty-nine years. His mother still survives, at the age of eighty-nine years. Eaton J. was fourth child in the family of ten children ; spent his minority on the farm at home. At the age of twenty-one he went to Cazenovia Seminary, where he re- mained for two years, and prepared for college. At the end of this time he entered the office of Hon. Thomas E. Clark, of Utica, as a student at law, where he remained for some four years, and was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 1845, and after the usual time as a counselor at law. Im- mediately after his admission to the bar he entered upon a partnership with Mr. Clark, and began the practice of his profession, and has been continuously in practice until the present time. Mr. Clark died in 1857, and for the follow- ing seven years Mr. Richardson was alone in practice, and in the year 1864 associated with him Mr. George W. Adams, and in September, 1877, Mr. James F. Mann, the firm being now entitled " Richardson, Adams & Mann."

Originally, Mr. Richardson was identificd with the old Whig party, and upon the formation of the Republican party supported its platform and advocated its principles until, in the year 1865, he became more conservative in his opinions relative to the administration of the government, and has since stood as an independent thinker on all political questions.

In the year 1855 he was elected to the State Senate, which position he filled for one term of two years, and served as chairman of the committee on " Finance," on " Roads and Bridges," and member of the committee on " Printing." As chairman on roads and bridges, Mr. Richardson did efficient service, and was chiefly the means in getting the charter for a connecting railroad-bridge across the Hudson

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

River, in which he was successful after much opposition ; and in this act a matter was settled which the traveling public demanded, and which had been agitated for over a half-century.

Mr. Richardson has never been solicitous of any political preferment, and has remained in the quiet practice of his profession. In the year 1863 he married Miss Cesarine Meigs Sleeper, of Floyd, Oneida Co., N. Y. She died in the year 1869.

PATRICK CASSIDY

was born in the city of Albany, N. Y., Nov. 12, 1805. He was son of Patrick Cassidy and Polly Welch,-the former a native of Ireland, the latter a native of Albany. When about eight years of age his father died and he went to live with a man by the name of Moses Steel, a farmer,

Photo. by Williams.

Patrick, Curling

with whom he stayed until he was of age, when he set out in life for himself. For the next seven years we find Mr. Cassidy a farm laborer, and for the following six years a stage driver for John Butterfield, of Utica, N. Y. It was during these years that he had the honor of eonveying General Kirk- land, Thos. Walker, E. A. Wetmore, Ezra D. Barnum, and other prominent citizens of Utica to Albany, for the pur- pose of getting the charter for the city of Utica.

Mr. Cassidy spent some two years with Governor Clinton's nephew in his trip to Europe and other parts of the world, since which time he has been engaged as a business man in the city of Utica, with the exception of two years spent as a farmer in the town of Schuyler, and several years in the milling business. Mr. Cassidy is well known among the old men of the city of Utica, and among the rising gene- ration as a man of honesty of purpose and characteristic integrity. In the year 1836 he married Miss Harriet M. Gilbert, of Washiugtou Mills, who was born in the year

1819. Her parents, Billy Gilbert and Sarah Stockings, were natives of Connecticut. They have had eight children. George and Willie died young. Sarah (deceased), wife of Willett Northup, of Chicago; Emma, wife of Hiram E. Brewster, of Utica ; J. Archer, of Chicago ; Fred A., under- taker of Utica ; Willie G. (deceased), and Harry C.

It is said of Mr. Cassidy, that he was second to none outside of New York as a restaurant-keeper, when in that business, and many of his old associates remember with pleasant pride his genial and courteous ways and his great hospitality. In politics, Mr. Cassidy has been an unswerv- ing standard-bearer of first the Whig and subsequently the Republican party.

DR. WILLIAM H. WATSON.

William H. Watson, A.M., M.D., was born at Providence, R. I., Nov. 8, 1829. He is the only son of the late Hon. William Robinson Watson and Mary Anne Watson, and on the paternal side is descended from the oldest, most respect- able, and most distinguished families in the State of Rhode Island, among whom may be named the Wantons, Hazards, Robinsons, and Browns, who, at a period anterior to the Revolutionary war, were the largest landed proprietors in the southern portion of that State, and were noted for dis- pensing an elegant and princely hospitality, and furnishing a genial and polished society, when the city of Providence was yet but a small and inconsiderable village.

Dr. Watson on the paternal side is the lineal descendant in the fifth degree of Gideon Wanton, the Colonial Governor of Rhode Island in 1745 and 1747. Five of his ancestors had filled the gubernatorial chair of that State previous to the Revolution of 1776.

The original ancestor of the Watson family, John Wat- son, came from England about 1680, and settled in South Kingston, R. I.

Dr. Watson's father was the son of John J. and Sarah (Brown) Watson, and was born in South Kingston, R. I., Dec. 14, 1799. He pursued his early classical studies at the Plainfield (Conn.) Academy, and graduated at Brown University in the class of 1823. Among his classmates were Chief-Justice Ames, of Rhode Island, Rev. Dr. Crane, George D. Prentice, the distinguished editor of the Louis- ville Journal, and Judge Mellen, of Massachusetts. Pro- fessor Gammell, in an article on the necrology of Brown University for 1863-64, states that " he was admitted to the bar, but engaged to only a very limited exteut iu the practice of his profession. His life was devoted pre-emi- nently and almost exelusively to politics. For nearly forty years he was one of the most active and promineut politi- cians in Rhode Island, and probably uo individual ever exerted a greater influence in its local politics.

" Mr. Watson was also during much of his life a writer for the political press, and in several instances, usually at scasons of election, for brief periods, conducted as editor certain papers with which he was politically connected. His writings were almost invariably of a political character, and in the interest of the Whig party, of which he was a devoted champion in Rhode Island. The most elaborate of these were a series of papers first published in the Journal iu 1844, under the siguature of 'Hamilton,' which were

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

afterwards collected and printed in a pamphlet form. The doctrines then held by the Whig party were there explained and vindicated with remarkable force and vigor."

He was distinguished alike for the integrity and ability with which he discharged the duties of the many and varied public offices which he filled, for the elegance and force with which he wielded a facile and not ungraceful pen, and for a kindness of heart and dignified urbanity of manner, which attached to him the warmest friends, who appreciated his agreeable qualities as a citizen in private life.

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History of Oneida County, New York, 1667-1878, Part 93

Author: Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Fariss Number of Pages: 932

Author:
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 932