History of Onondaga County, New York, Part 54

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 840

USA > New York > Onondaga County > History of Onondaga County, New York > Part 54

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).

The following officers are hereby announced as the Staff of the roth Brigade, N. G., S. N. Y. : Lieut. Col. James H. Hinman, of Syracuse, As- sistant Adjutant General and Chief of Staff.

Major John J. Letchworth, of Auburn, Inspector. Major Frederic B. Chapman, of Syracuse, In- spector of Rifle Practice.

Major Wm. Allen Butler, of Syracuse, Engineer. Major Ely Van DeWarker, of Syracuse, Surgeon. Major Elbert O. Farrar, of Syracuse, Judge Ad- vocate.

Capt. Geo. W. Edwards, of Syracuse, Ordnance Officer.

Capt. James M. Belden, of Syracuse, Quarter- master.

Capt. Louis F. Powell, of Syracuse, Commissary of Subsistence.

Capt. Robt. Townsend, of Syracuse, and ist Lieut. Frank P. Denison, of Syracuse, Aides-de-Camp. J. DEAN HAWLEY,

Brigadier-General.

[OFFICIAL. ]

FIELD AND STAFF OF SIST REG'T, N. G., S. N. Y.

John W. Yale, Colonel. Rhesa Griffin, Lieutenant-Colonel.

John A. Nichols, Major.

I. F. Draime, ist Lieut. and Adjutant. Riley V. Miller, Ist Lieut. and Quartermaster.

Jos. Sniper, Ist Lieut. and Com. of Subsistence.

Gregory Doyle, Major and Surgeon.

Geo. W. Cook, Capt. and Assistant Surgeon.

Rev. Henry R. Lockwood, Chaplain.

D. H. Bruce, Bvt. Col. and Inspr. of Rifle Practice.

ARTILLERY-BATTERY H.

Paul Birchmeyer, Captain.

Conrad Meyer, Ist Lieutenant.

Henry Wirges, Ist Lieutenant.

Frank Meilich, 2d Lieutenant.

George King, 2d Lieutenant.

CAVALRY-SEPARATE TROOP " C."

Michael Auer, Captain. Frederick Auer, Ist Lieutenant. M. B. Nicholson, 2d Lieutenant.

Vivas Hr Smith

The subject of this sketch was born in Lanesborough, Berk- shire Co., Mass., January 27, 1804. His grandfather, Jared Smith, was a Revolutionary soldier. IIis father, Silas Smith, died at a premature age, and about the year 1824.

Vivas W. was one of a family of five sons and two daughters who reached manhood and womanhood. He spent his minority on a farm, except the last year, which was spent in the law-office of George N. Briggs, at Laneshorough. After a short experience in a newspaper-office at Westfield, he came to Onondaga Hill, this county, and bought out the Onondaga Journal, and published the same for twenty months, and, upon the moving of the county-seat to Syracuse, he also removed there, and, with John F. Wyman, established the Onondaga Standard.

In 1837 he dissolved his connection with the Democratic party, and established, in 1838, a Whig paper, entitled The Western State Journal. The continuation of the same paper, now by the name of the Syracuse Daily and Weekly Journal, is carried on by Hon. Carroll E. Smith & Co.

In 1841, Mr. Smith went to Columbus, Ohio, and spent three years there on the State Journal, a Whig paper. He returned to Syracuse, and in the fall of 1846 was elected county clerk, the duties of which office he discharged for one

term of three years. In 1855 he was appointed superintendent of the Onondaga salt springs by Governor Clark, which posi- tion he held for ten years, and discharged the duties of the office with honor to himself and satisfaction of all interested. In the year 1873, Mr. Smith was appointed canal appraiser by Governor John A. Dix, which office he still retains.

Nurtured in the Democratic party, he early became imbued with Republican principles, and, for some twenty-five years after the establishment of his paper in Syracuse, Mr. Smith wielded a controlling influence in political cireles, stood fore- most in his party, and ardently, with pen, advocated a platform of purity, economy, and reform, and exercised a large influence not only in his own county, but in appointments for his county made by State authorities.

For his first wife (February, 1832) he married Miss Caroline, daughter of Hon. Jonas Karll, of Onondaga Hill, by whom he had one son, Carroll E., now of the firm of Smith & Co., publishers of the Syracuse Daily Journal. His wife died April, 1835. For his second wife (June, 1839) he married Miss Theodora, daughter of David Morey, of Syracuse, by whom he has three children,-Fillmore M., Seward V., and Florence A.

HON. DENNIS MCCARTHY.

The subject of this sketch was born in the village of Salina, Onondaks Co., N. Y., March 19, 1811.

llis father, Thomas M Carthy, was born in the city of Cork, Ireland, in the year 17-6. Came to America in 180%, and settled at Salt Point, sub- Frequently called Salina, but now the first war of the city of Syracuse : carried in mercantile business, and was quite extensively engaged in the salt interest, nt that time just beginning to be develope I. He wn- promt- bently identifiel with public interests, was a member of the State legs. Inture one term, wis trustee of the village of Sabini for many years, on In dire tor of the first bank established in the village of Salins. le diel in 1sts.

minnie, after pursuing the usunl elementary branches of instruction in the common schools of his native place, " finished" hi- elucation, tech- nienlly speaking, nt Onondaga aca.lemy anl the Yates' Poly technic institute. In 1º31 he went into partnership in the mercantile business with his father, and after four years. his father retiring from that interest, Dennis carried it on alone until 1516, when he onthe to Syracuse, where he opened a general merchandise store, Hlin trade grew rapidly as the coun try developed and demand in- crossed, until, from a small beginning, with sales of Giftern thousand dollars per year, be is new, nasprinted with his sons. Dasnl K. Thomas and Dennis, Jr., entrying on eno of the Inrgeat wholesale trade in dry goods of any firm between Now York and Chicago, their sales per year amounting to nearly two million dollars.

Since the first opening uf the mercantile business by his father, sixty years ago, two successive generations have only enlarged the business ap l rufended its boundaries of trude. Mr. Mel'arthy, from the beginning of his business en reer, displayed great industry, energy, and angacity, and he fore coming to Syracuse was well known in business vireles nan anlt manufacturer, and us surh was very successful.

l'hotu, by Brady, Washington.]

Mr. Motorthy was formerly a Free sal Democrat, and rom sined with the Democratic party until the needs sities of the late rebellion appended to the patriotism of every friend of his country, when, in 1 -62, he becamean ardent supporter of the principles of the Republican party, and of the administration representing the l'on cause.

He has always taken a deep and intelligent interest in politics, and for many years has been recognized in political circles as one of the most prominent members of the party with which he is Mlentitled in Central

New York. He has had a long and varied experience in public life having been honored by the people from time to time with a number of positions of honor, influence, and responsibility. He represented timon Inga County in the State legislature in Isis, and was chairman of the committee on salt, and a member on the petitions of aliens. In lait bis follow - citizens bestowed upon bito a signal mark of their confi lene aol respect by electing lin mayor of Syracuse. In late he was elected to the House of Representatives of the Fortieth Congress of the United States. and served on the committees of ways and means, foreign af- faire, roads and emoals. While in congress, Senator MI L'arthy advocated, with his necustomel persistency and energy, n tarif for the protection of American industry. He was elected to the senate of the State in the fall of Isti, and served as chairman of the committee on privileges and elections, and was a member of the finance. public expenditures, and joint library committees. He was re elected to fill the same pari tion in the senate of the State in the fall of 1-77, and acts as chairman of canal committee, noul second on finance and cities, in which enpacity he serves nt the time of the writ ing of this sketch.

Mr. Mel'arthy ir prominently identified with the banking in tereats of Syracuse, and classed among the angneiou- and far pering financiers of his di. Characteristic of him is his integrity of purpose, rendy to Diret and streng to overcome the difficulties in the way of self-made men. Whether in public or private life, Mr. Me- Carthy's influence and value ns a citizen are felt and neknowl edged : and more especially in his own home circle are the members of his family the re eipiente of much kindness nt his hands, and there bis soci able and courteous qualities ny.pour in the ascendency.

In the yenr 1936 he inarriod Miss Elizabeth, daughter of David K. Carter, une of the first settlers of Rochester, N. Y.

To Mr. and Mrs. Mcl'arthy have been born seven children : Francis died in infancy ) ; Flora (died in infaney ) : Mary B. (deceased), wife of James Sedgwick : Elizabeth ( died in infancy ) : l'erey, wife of Thomas Emory, who was a sun uf Gen. W. Il. Emory : David K. Thomas, who married n dnaghter of lion. Francis Kernan ( Kate) ; and Dennis, Jr., who married Miss Frisbie, granddaughter of Gen. Valleju, governor-general of California when erded to the I'nited States.

247

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY NEW YORK.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

HENRY GIFFORD.

Henry Gifford was born in the town of Harwich, Mass., Sept. 4, 1801. His ancestors were of Eng- lish and more recently of Norman extraction, his family records extending back to the time of the Conquest, when a Sire Randolphe de Gifforde, for services rendered at the battle of Hastings, was rewarded with lands in Somersetshire and Cheshire. In 1630, a son of a Sir Ambrose Gifford emigrated to Massachusetts Bay and founded the family from which the subject of this sketch was directly de- scended.

Mr. Gifford passed his childhood and early youth in his native town of Harwich, but when still a lad he removed to South Yarmouth, where, in a promi- nent Quaker family, he formed friendships and principles which were never relinquished. It was also during his residence in Yarmouth that he ac- quired that knowledge of the manufacture of salt, which, in after years, proved of such advantage, and in consequence of which, in 1821, he was induced, in company with Stephen Smith, of New Bedford, to remove to the then village of Syracuse, in order to develop the salt interests of the place. An asso- ciation called into being by the enterprise of Judge Joshua Forman, was established under the name of the " Onondaga Salt Company," and of this com- pany Mr. Smith became the controlling agent, and Mr. Gifford superintended the construction. Dur- ing his long residence in Syracuse, a period of more than fifty years, Mr. Gifford took an active and successful interest in the manufacture of salt, and though extensively engaged in other enterprises, never entirely withdrew from his original invest- ment.

In 1826, Mr. Gifford married Phebe Dickinson, daughter of Obediah Dickinson and of Mary Thomas Morse. Mrs. Gifford was born in Salisbury, Conn , Nov. 20, 1801. Becoming motherless at a tender age, she, in company with an only sister, was reared and educated by her maternal grandfather, a staunch and worthy representative of that old-time courtesy now so much lauded and regretted. It was during a visit made in Syracuse to her aunt, Mrs. Archi- bald Kasson, that Mrs. Gifford was married, the ceremony being performed at Mrs. Kasson's resi- dence, situated on the spot where the old depot afterward stood, at the western limit of Vanderbilt Square.

Mrs. Gifford was a lady of great culture as well

as of true refinement. At a period when so-called accomplishments were rare, she possessed acquire- ments which even in these days would be consider- ed of no mean order. She was a good French scholar and a correct artist in water colors, while her taste for scientific subjects was decided. After her marriage a rapidly increasing family so occupied her time that duties and pleasures beyond the home- circle were necessarily relinquished, though her influence was felt and her name made honorable by a system of unostentatious charity. She was a de- voted Christian mother in every sense of the word -- a woman of whom it may well be said that " her children arise and call her blessed."

For a period of eight years preceding her death, Mrs. Gifford was confined to her home by illness, but her disease was of so mild, yet so insidious a type, that though her family were conscious of the dread nature of her malady, they were spared the sight of violent or long continued suffering. She died April 13, 1871.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Gifford were active and con- sistent members of the First Presbyterian Church from within a very short period of its organization, until their death. Mr. Gifford was one of the building committee which erected the present church edifice, and so zealously did he discharge this trust that it may truly be said that largely by his efforts the building "fitly framed together grew unto a holy temple in the Lord."

In the year 1834, Mr. Gifford purchased of the Syracuse Land Company a building lot on the Gen- esee Turnpike, and in the following year erected a homestead where most of his children were born and reared, and where a portion of his family still reside.

In politics, Mr. Gifford was originally a Whig and afterwards a Republican of pronounced anti-slavery principles. He was never solicitous for public office, and whatever influence he wielded was always exer- cised on the part of moderation, humanity and jus- tice. He was thoroughly identified with the busi- ness interests of Syracuse and held various positions of responsibility and trust. At the time of his death he was Vice-President of the Syracuse Sav- ings Bank, of which institution he was an incorpo- rator, trustee of the Syracuse Water Works Com- pany, director in the Syracuse Gas Light Company, and in the Salt Springs National Bank. Gifford street, in the Fifth Ward, was named after him, he

248

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK

owning at one time a large tract of land in that por- tion of the city.

Mr. Gittord died June 20, 1872, at Avon Springs, whither he had gone in search of health.

To Mr. and Mrs Gitford were born eleven chil- dren, viz : Phebe Kelly deceased, Sylvanus Morse (deceased, Mary Eliza deceased., Mary Elizabeth, wife of J. N. Babcock of Syracuse, Henry Brooks, George Thomas (deceased, Frances P., Martha, Helen, George Sylvanus, and Isabella Grahame.

ROBERT GERE.

In the development of the various business in- terests which have contributed to the growth and progress of Syracuse and its vicinity, none took a more active and efficient part than the subject of this brief memoir, the late Robert Gere.

Mr. Gere was born in the town of Groton, Con- necticut, on the 26th of November, 1796. His early opportunities for education were such only as the common schools afforded, but he possessed a mind of rare vigor and unusual acuteness of obser- vation-faculties which, in the school of his varied experience, in after life, enabled him to become a sagacious judge of human nature and of the diver- sified business interests which he inaugurated and successfully carried out.

His boyhood days were spent on his father's farm in his native town. In the 244th year of his age, on the 25th of October, 1820, he was united in mar- riage to Miss Sophia Stanton, and removed to Florida, Montgomery county, where he was a con- tractor on the original Erie Canal ; and as the work approached its completion, by means of a river boat on the Mohawk and the finished portion of the canal, he removed his family to the town of Geddes in the spring of 1824, and settled on a farm pur- chased from the State, about one and a half miles west of the present village of Geddes. Two brothers, William S. and Charles Gere, came and settled on adjoining farms west-one preceding and the other following Robert Gere. They also pur- chased their lands from the State, and these three adjoming farms were then a dense forest, which were cleared by the proprietors and made as desir- able homsteads as any to be found in the county. They are still the property of the Gere families.

Mr. Gere, well aware of the effect upon a young and rising community of the beneficial influence of education and religion, early gave the land and erected a school building, and maintained the same individually for fifteen years. He also united with a few others to form an Episcopal Church in the

village of Geddes. Anxious to do more than his farm required at his hands, he early engaged in the manufacture of salt, and continued thereafter in that business in all its branches for fifty years. In 1832 he embarked in the lumber business, and, in connection with the late Joseph Breed, got out and shipped to tide-water a large amount of pine lumber from Cicero Swamp. In 1835-'6, in connection with Hon. Elizur Clark, he was a very large con- tractor in the manufacture and delivery of the rails and ties for the Utica and Schenectady and the Auburn and Syracuse Railroads. His house was the depot for the latter road when it was run by horses to his place, before the deep cut further east was worked through, in 1838.

Although Mr. Gere lost heavily by his generous endorsements for business men, he always managed by his energy and enterprise to be forehanded, and to keep in successful operation more than one im- portant and lucrative branch of business. In 1843, leaving his farm, he came to Syracuse (then a village; and entered into partnership with those two noted and honored founders of Syracuse, William II. Alexander and Columbus C. Bradley, in their furnace and foundry business. He survived them both.

In 18448, his business ability and adaptation for the position made him the appointee of the Governor and the Senate for the office of Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs, the duties of which he admirably performed till 1851, when he resigned to become a contractor for the building of the locks at Salina and doing the section work of the Liverpool level of the Oswego Canal. Shortly after this work was completed he, together with the late Horace and Hamilton White, founded the Geddes Coarse Salt Company, of which he was President, and engaged in the business of manufacturing coarse salt on lands lying west of Geddes, and was at the time of his death the President and a large stock- holder in that enterprise, as well as in the various iron industries now largely under the control of his family. In fact, Mr. Gere was the originator, founder and chief supporter of these and many other industries ; his mind conceived them and his enterprise and capital supported them. Although he was the leading mind in many of the prominent industries of Syracuse and Geddes, he never desired to appear conspicuous in any of them ; but, on the contrary, as a wise educator of his sons, whose suc- cess and honorable standing as business men more than compensate for his generous care and assist- ance, he chose worthily to stimulate their ambition and develop their business talents by placing them

(

PHID BYWY RANGER SYRACUS

RESIDENCE OF JACOB AMOS, COR OF HAWLEY & MC BRIDE STS SYRACUSE NY.

249

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

at the head of the various industries which he had been so largely instrumental in creating and sup- porting.

Mr. Gere died on the 18th day of December, 1877, aged 81 years and 28 days. Of his family there remains to mourn him his widow, the faithful wife of more than half a century ; Hon. R. Nelson Gere, President of the Syracuse Iron Works and of the Merchants National Bank; George C. Gere, Superintendent of the Geddes Coarse Salt Compa- ny ; Anna, wife of Hon. James J. Belden, Mayor of the city of Syracuse ; Hon. William H. H. Gere, Secretary of the Onondaga Iron Company and Supervisor for the Third Ward of Syracuse ; and N. Stanton Gere, late President of the Board of Supervisors, and representing on the Board the town of Geddes. These are the children of Mr. Gere, born in the order named. Two of his sons represented Onondaga County in the Legislature, and all of them have exercised an influence of great importance in the business interests of the city and county.

The city of Syracuse and the county of Onon- daga, owe a large debt of grateful remembrance to their sturdy pioneers, among whom Robert Gere assumed a leading position. He was a man of great strength of will, and possessed the most positive traits of character. A plain, blunt man, he was always just what he seemed to be. His inner na- ture was a genial, kindly one. He was deeply at- tached to his family, and took the keenest pride in the prosperity and advancement of his sons.

During the last year of his life when infirmities confined him to his residence, his family, without exception, were unremitting in their attentions to him and vied with one another in their efforts to miti- gate his last suffering. When, at last, death had set its seal upon his long, laborious and useful life, his four sons bore all that was mortal of him to the grave.

We clip the following from a brief notice of his death which appeared in the Daily Journal of De- cember 18, 1877 :

" Another of our oldest, most honored and es- teemed citizens passed to his eternal rest, when, at six o'clock this morning, the death messenger came to Robert Gere. For several days past it was ap- parent to those who gathered at his bedside that his end was near, that his lamp of life was flicker- ing. Months ago he was borne down by the weight of years, his physical strength having been almost expended in the faithful discharge of the duties of an exceptionally active life .. As colors melt away into shades and tints and finally disappear, so his life went out at the age of eighty-one years.

" A full and just review of the life of Mr. Gere 32*

cannot be prepared hastily. It was a life of unu- sual activity, and most thoroughly identified with the history and business interests of this city."

JACOB AMOS.

The subject of this sketch was born in Würtem- berg, Germany, April 23, 1818. He is the young- est of three sons of Charles Amos and Barbara Chaffla, both natives of Würtemberg. His early life was spent in learning the butcher's trade, which he followed until he came to America. His op- portunities for education from books were such as the common schools of that country afforded.

At the age of twenty-one years he resolved to seek his fortune in a foreign land, and where greater opportunities offered for the efforts of a young man, and consequently came to New York, thence to Rochester, and in February, 1840, to the village of Syracuse. His whole effects at that time con- sisted of his raiment and seventy-five cents in cash.

His first business here was packing salt and chopping wood, and for some six years he was en- gaged in the butchering business. He had by this time, by strict economy, saved from his small earn- ings sufficient to furnish a house comfortably, and in the year 1847 married Miss Mary Ann Kepplan, a native of Alsace, Germany, who had come to this country in 1834 with her parents and settled in the town of Manlius. She was born in the year 1824 and was one of seven children of Sebastian Kep- plan. For the first year after his marriage he rented a mill with one run of stone in Jamesville, and after three years he rented the whole mill with four run of stones. Here he continued business four years gradually increasing his trade and patronage.

He then removed to the town of DeWitt, rented a mill, put in machinery and manufactured flour, split peas and farina. Here he continued until the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, when his mill property was accidentally burned, but with very little loss to Mr. Amos. He then came to Syracuse, purchased three stores in the Raynor Block, and again commenced his milling business, subsequently adding to his purchase as much more of the block. His operations in milling have been carried on here until the fall of 1877. During this time he also invested in mill property in Baldwins- ville and carried on a very large business there. Shortly after coming to Syracuse in the year 1864 his wife died, and for his second wife he married in 1867 Mrs. Arminda Ring, widow of the late Wm. Ring of Buffalo.

250

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

At the time of the writing of this sketch his busi- ness in Baldwinsville and Syracuse in milling opera- tions is supposed to be the largest of any in Onondaga county. During these years of successful enter- prise, Mr. Amos has confined himself very closely to his business, and has risen in trade from an em- ployé to one of the most successful business men of his county and of this part of the State.

His strict integrity of purpose and honest deal- ing have gained for him the respect and esteem of his fellow-men.

On first coming to this country he cast his vote in the Whig party, and is now an ardent supporter of the Republican party, although never active in politics or solicitous of public honors.

To Mr. and Mrs. Amos have been born seven children, viz : Charles, Matilda, Jacob, Mary (died in infancy. Katie, John (died in infancy,) and Amelia. Charles and Jacob are now associated with their father in business, and the firm is now the owner of the large and new flouring mill on West Water street, Syracuse.

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 Onondaga County, New York, Part 54

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 840

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 840