History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 93

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920

USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 93

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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 Utica 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 erection 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- freld, 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. Bouck, 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 Utica, 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 junc- 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, died 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 identified 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

HON . E . J.RICHARDSON

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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 quict 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, Gasleiding

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 conveying 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 Washington 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 u 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 extent in the practice of his profession. His life was devoted pre-emi- nently and almost exclusively to politics. For nearly forty years he was one of the most active and prominent politi- cians in Rhode Island, and probably no 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 serics of papers first published in the Journal in 1844, under the signature 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.

Dr. Watson's mother was the daughter of Hon. Caleb Earle, a former Governor of Rhode Island.

Dr. Watson was graduated at Brown University with dis- tinction in 1852. During his collegiate course he was par- ticularly noted for his fondness of and proficiency in the classic languages of antiquity. His original dissertations in the Latin and Greek obtained for him the highest prizes in those departments of collegiate study, and at the exhibition in the Junior year he was awarded the high distinction of delivering the oratio Latina. While in college he became a member of the Phi-Beta-Kappa and Psi-Upsilon Societies.

From his earliest youth he had shown a love of and an aptitude for the medical profession. Immediately after his graduation he entered upon its study in the office of the eminent physician, Dr. A. H. Okie, of Providence.

After attending lectures at the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, he received his medical degree, and immediately located in Utica, N. Y., where he now has an extensive and influential practice.

He was elected a member of the American Institute of Homœopathy in 1854. He was one of the founders of the Homopathic Medical Society of Oneida County, and was elected its president, Oct. 16, 1860. He delivered the address at the reorganization of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York, in the city of Albany, Feb. 28, 1861. He was elected permanent member of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York in 1866. On the 12th of January, 1868, he was elected president of the last-named society, and delivered the annual address before it Feb. 9, 1869.

Dr. Watson has been particularly distinguished as the advocate of a higher standard of medical education, and as the uncompromising opponent of sectarianism in medicine.

He took a leading and very active part in the contro- versy of 1870 and 1871, by which that unjust and bigoted official, Dr. H. Van Aernam, Commissioner of Pensions, who had removed Dr. Stillman Spooner and other homoeopathic physicians from the office of pension-surgeon, for the avowed reason that " they did not belong to the school of medicine recognized by the bureau," and had thus sought to estab- lish a sectarian test for admission to office, was himself dis- placed, and the ejected homoeopathists reinstated.

On the 13th of February, 1872, he delivered an address before the State Medical Society at Albany, on "The Home- opathic School, the Modern School of Rational and Liberal Medicine," which, while it aroused the hostile criticism of the bigoted by its liberal and catholic spirit, gained for him the approval of the liberal-minded members of both the allopathic and homoeopathic schools.

At the sesssion of the American Institute of Homoeo- pathy, held at Cleveland, June 6, 1873, he introduced and in an elaborate speech supported the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted, as indicating the policy of the profession :

" Resolved, That homoeopathists everywhere should strenuously in- sist upon the non-violation of the great fundamental American prin- ciple of 'no taxation without representation,' by sectarian monopoly, either of national, State, county, or city institutions supported by legal assessments, or of those private eleemosynary institutions which derive their support from individual contributions.

" Resolved, That the recognition of this principle hy the Legislature of Michigan, by its action at its recent session, in creating two pro- fessorships of homeopathy in the University of that State, meets the most hearty approval of this body."

Dr. Watson is the " Examiner in Diagnosis and Pathol- ogy" of the " First State Board of Medical Examiners," ap- pointed by the Regents of the University of the State of New York, under the "act relating to the examination of candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine," passed May 16, 1872.

Dr. Watson was married to Miss Sarah T. Carlile, of Providence, R. I., May 1, 1854.

Dr. Watson was instrumental in establishing the " New York State Asylum for the Insane at Middletown." In his inaugural address as president of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York, in February, 1869, he recommended " the appointment of a committee to urge upon the Legislature the necessity of taking appropriate action in reference to the erection of a Lunatic Asylum, to be located in one of the southern tier of counties of the State, and to be placed under the control of a physician of good standing in the homeopathic school."

He was appointed trustee of the above-named asylum, May 28, 1873, by Governor John A. Dix, "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate," and served until April 20, 1876, when he resigned from the fact that his residence at a distance from the asylum, in connection with his professional duties, prevented him from regularly attend- ing the meetings of the Board of Trustees.

He was appointed United States Examining Pension- Surgeon, March 19, 1875.

The honorary degree of " Doctor of Medicine" was con- ferred upon Dr. Watson by the Regents of the University of the State of New York, July 11, 1878.

It politics, Dr. Watson is an ardent Republican, and, as far as his professional duties will permit, upholds the tenets of that party by his voice and pen.

Among the published papers of Dr. Watson may be enu- merated the following: " The Past and Present Position of Homoeopathy and the Duties of its Practitioners," delivered before the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York, Feb. 28, 1861, published in vol. i. p. 39 of " Transactions" of the society ; " Cerebro-Spinal Menin- gitis," read before the Homoeopathic Medical Society of Oneida County, June, 1863, published in vol. ii. p. 126 of " Transactions" of the State Society ; " Nosological Classifi- cation of Disease," by Drs. W. H. Watson and H. M. Paine, read before the Oneida County Homoeopathic Medical Soci- ety, June, 1863, published in vol. ii. p. 151 of " Transac- tions" of the State Society ; " Inaugural Address" as piesi-

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

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dent of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York, Feb. 9, 1869, published in vol. vii. p. I of "Transactions" of the State Society ; " Annual Address" as president of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York, on " The Medical Profession, its Duties and Responsibilities, and the Relation of the Homoeopathic to its Allopathic Branch," February, 1869, published in vol. vii. p. 40 of "Transactions" of the State Society ; " Allo- pathic Bigotry," published in vol. vii. p. 709 of "Trans- actions" of Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York ; " Homeopathy," originally published in " Zell's Popular Encyclopædia," also in vol. viii. p. 745 of "Transactions" of Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York ; "Illustrations of Allopathic Intoler- ance, and Statements showing Public Opinion in Reference thereto," by Drs. Wm. H. Watson snd H. M. Paine, pub- lished in vol. x., art. cxxvii., of " Transactions" of Home- opsthic Medical Society of the State of New York ; "The Advanced Medical Act," a letter to the Medical Committee of the Senate and Assembly of the Legislature of the State of New York, setting forth the objects and provisions of the " Law Authorizing the Appointment of State Boards of Medical Examiners," and the reasons for supporting it, published at p. 425, vol. x., of " Transactions" of Home- opathic Medical Society of the State of New York ; " No Sectarian Tests as a Qualification for Office, and no Sectarian Monopoly of National Institutions," "Transactions" of Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York, vol. x., article cxxvii.

DR. EBENEZER LEACH

was born in Plymouth, Mass., March 18, 1797, and was a descendant in the maternal line of Miles Standish, his grandmother being a great-granddaughter of the distin- guished pilgrim.

His father, Caleb Leach, was a native of Halifax, Plymouth Co., Mass., and was noted in his day for general ability and great mechanical talents. In 1796 he con- structed, under contract with the town of Plymouth, what for that time was a remarkable undertaking, namely, a system of general water-supply, by means of underground pipes. It was called the Plymouth Aqueduct. Wooden logs were used for the pipes, and the difficulty he experi- enced in boring the necessary holes through these led Mr. Leach to invent the screw auger; and the first one he made and used at that time is still to be seen among the articles preserved in Pilgrim Hall, at Plymouth, Mass.

The success of these water-works gave Mr. Leach a wide reputation, and Bostou, Philadelphia, and New York each sought and obtained the aid of his talents and services in similar undertakings; and in New York, at the urgent so- licitation of De Witt Clinton, Aaron Burr, and others, he took the superintendence of the construction of the Man- hattan Water-Works (which preceded the Croton), and brought them into successful operation.

He also built one of the first long bridges over the Sus- quehanna River.

He was a man of original mind, a great reader, and one of the earliest receivers in the country of the doctrines of Swedenborg, of whose writings he was a close student,

possessing for years copies of the original foreign editions of his works, including the voluminous " Arcana." He died at Utica, where he lived the latter part of his life, March 18, 1837.

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History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 93

Author: Durant, Samuel W Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss Number of Pages: 920

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920