USA > New York > Ontario County > History of Ontario county, New York : with illustrations and family sketches of some of the prominent men and families > Part 45
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paper by any prospect of unusual gain." His death took place in Can- andaigua on the 20th of November, 1863. Mrs. Gibson died June 28, 1881. They had nine children, three of whom were sons; one of the latter died in infancy. His daughter, Catharine O. Gibson, married in 1838 Henry Livingston Lansing, and is the only one of the nine chil- dren now (1893) surviving. She resides in the old Ontario Bank build- ing in Canandaigua, which has been converted into a residence.
HENRY LIVINGSTON LANSING.
Henry Livingston Lansing, a native of Rome, N. Y. The father of the subject of our sketch, Barent B. Lansing, was a native of Herkimer connty, N. Y., and was the son of Colonel Gerrit G. Lansing, an officer in the War of the Revolution, and who served gallantly in the " forlorn hope " at the battle of Yorktown, Va., attached to Colonel .Alexander Hamilton's command. Colonel Lansing married a daughter of Edward Antill, who was a granddaughter of Lewis Morris, esq., the first govern- or of New Jersey, at the city of Albany, N. Y., in the year 1786. Edward Antill was also an officer in the War of the Revolution, being the lieutenant colonel of a regiment, the origin and condition of which was different from any other in the service, it being unattached to the quota of any State, was raised and recruited in Canada, and made up entirely of Canadians, and was known and called " Congress's Own." Colonel Lansing had by his wife, Mary Antill, three sons, Richard R., Barent B., and Edward Antill. The second son, Barent Bleecker, was born at Oriskany, N. Y., in the year 1793, and in the year 1815 mar- ried Sarah, daughter of Arthur Breese, esq. At an early age he was clerk for William G. Tracy, esq., at Whitesboro', and after that engaged in business with James Platt, esq., of Utica, N. Y. This partnership lasted only a short time and subsequently Mr. Lansing accepted an offer and became cashier of the Bank of Belleville, N. J., and from there he was called to the cashiership of the Oneida Bank, Utica, which place he held until his death in 1853. Mr. Lansing died at the house of his daughter, Mrs. Charles W. Morse, the wife of the eldest son of Prof. S. F. B. Morse, at Brooklyn. His remains were taken to Utica for inter-
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ment and were buried from the Presbyterian Church. The stores were generally closed on the day of his funeral as a voluntary tribute of respect for one who had many friends and no enemies. Mr. Lansing had a loving and affectionate nature and was distinguished for honesty and truthfulness. He was the father of five children: Arthur B., Henry Livingston, Henry Seymour, Manette Antill, and Barent B. The second son and subject of our sketch, Henry Livingston, was born in Rome, N. Y., in the year 1818. He was educated for a business career, and on leaving school engaged in the mercantile business at Utica. In 1836 he accepted an offer of a clerkship in the Ontario Bank at Canandaigua, N. Y., an institution in which his paternal and mater- nal grandfathers were large stockholders, and in the year 1838 married Catherine Olivia, daughter of Henry B. Gibson, cashier and manager of that bank. Mr. Lansing remained in the bank with his father-in law for a number of years, and then went with his family to Detroit, Mich., where he accepted the cashiership of the bank called "The Michigan Insurance." Remaining only a year or so in this bank Mr. Lansing was called to the cashiership of the Oliver Lce & Company Bank, Buf- falo, N. Y., which institution he remained in as cashier, and afterwards as president, until the bank was forced, in the great panic of 1857, to shut its doors. Some time after the failure of the bank Mr. Lansing accepted the office of treasurer and secretary of the Buffalo and Erie Railroad, with its office at Buffalo. This position he held for a number of years, filling the office with great acceptability to the directors of the company. Resigning his office, Mr. Lansing, about the year 1873, pur- chased a charming country place at Niagara, Ontario, and there he passed his summers until the time of his death in 1889. Mr. Lansing was essentially a domestic man, he was fond of his home and devoted to his family. He was ever led to seek the highest happiness in his own domestic circle and possessed in a high degree those social qual- ities which belong to the refined and cultured gentleman. In a certain sense Mr. Lansing was the fruit of hereditary culture ; his father and grandfather on the paternal and maternal side were bon vivants and connoisseurs. He prided himself upon his accurate judgment and dis- crimination in the choice of and selection of fine wines, and wasan epi- cure in the best sense of the word, a lover of life's good things. In one
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particular, in which business men are too generally negligent, Mr. Lansing excelled ; he had cultivated the art of letter writing until his epistolary style became of rare excellence. He could express himself in the readiest and neatest way with great apparent ease, his letters were bubbling over in sentiment, expressed with great felicity and beauty, as all who ever received them will bear testimony. Mr. Lansing was extremely fond of the sylvan sports, was an exceedingly good shot and an expert fisherman. In the years long gone by, in order to in- dulge in the latter sport, he was compelled to make his own flies, and it was that accomplished gentleman and skillful sportsman, Alexander Jeffrey, of Lexington, Ky., but who at that time lived at Canandaigua, who taught him how to make and use them, and it was this same gen- tleman who taught Seth Green, of Rochester, N. Y., who became the State's most expert fisherman, all he knew about angling. Mr. Lansing was a most delightful companion and enjoyed good company, but it had to be the best in order to afford him any pleasure. He was extremely fond of poetry and had no end of quotations upon his tongue's end, and possessed the unusual faculty of being able to repeat from memory whole pieces, no matter how long they were, provided they awakened a responsive chord. Mr. Lansing, coming as he did from a military family, very naturally inherited military tastes, and shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War was appointed by the governor of New York chairman of the Senatorial Committee of his Senatorial District, which was composed of the following very prominent citizens of Buffalo : Nathan K. Hall, Stephen G. Austin, Jacob Beyer, John Ganson, Philip Dorsheimer, and Alexander W. Harvey. At this time Mr. Lansing was brigadier-general of one of the brigades attached to the Eighth Division of the State militia. Mr. Lansing served faithfully upon this committee and through its efforts Colonel Chapin's regiment, the One Hundred and Sixteenth New York Volunteers, and McMahon's Irish regiment, the Corcoran Guards, were organized, recruited and sent to the front, where they did most excellent service. Mr. Lansing departed this life, after a tedious illness which he bore with great forti- tude, at Canandaigua, on the morning of the 30th of September, 1889, and left him surviving a widow and two sons, Livingston and Watts Sherman Lansing. Ile was buried at Forestlawn Cemetery, Buffalo, N. Y.
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HARVEY JEWETT, M.D.
Harvey Jewett, M.D., was born in Langdon, N. H., November 19, 1809. He died at Canandaigua, N. Y., September 5, 1888. His father was Eleazer Jewett and his mother, Submit Porter, both natives of Connecticut. Dr. Jewett was educated in the public schools of New Hampshire until he was fifteen years old, when, upon the death of his mother, he took up his residence in the family of his eldest brother, Dr. Lester Jewett, in Seneca, Ontario county, New York. After further study under the supervision of his brother, he entered Hobart College, at Geneva, N. Y., riding on horseback from Seneca to that institution, a distance of about ten miles, and returning each day. He remained in college a year and a half, when he assumed the duties of a school teacher in Ontario county, and at the same time prosecuted the study of medicine with his brother. He attended lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Fairfield, Herkimer county, New York, in 1831-32, and received a diploma from that school in the same year.
Dr. Jewett began the practice of his calling immediately upon gradu- ating, at Allen's Hill, in Ontario county. He subsequently received the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Buffalo Medical College in 1851, and was appointed a curator of that institution, which position he held to the time of his death.
In 1835 he was married to Mary M. Dixson, daughter of John Dix- son, of Richmond, Ontario county, who died September 30, 1878. The children born of this marriage were Mary M., who died in 1864, aged twenty-three years ; Alice A., who survived her father three years and died March 14, 1891, and John H., who at present resides at Can- andaigua and succeeds to the practice of his father.
After an extensive and laborious country practice at Allen's Hill for twenty years, Dr. Jewett took up his residence in Canandaigua in 1852, where he passed the remaining years of his life.
Dr. Jewett was for twenty-seven years consulting physician at Brig- ham Hall, a private asylum for the insane at Canandaigua, and for several months following the tragical and untimely death of its superin- tendent, Dr. George Cook, by the hands of a patient, he had sole charge of that establishment. He was also, at the time of his death and for a series of years previously, one of the trustees of the Canandaigua Academy
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and of the Ontario Orphan Asylum. He served for a long time as phy- sician to the latter institution, to be succeeded, upon his resignation of that office, by his son, in the same capacity. He contributed to the organization of the Wood Library Association, in Canandaigua, and was chosen its second president. He was elected to the presidency of the Medical Association of Western New York in 1875, and to the Medical Society of the State of New York in 1882.
The address of Dr. Jewett before the latter society at its seventy- seventh annual meeting in Albany, the 7th of February, 1883, entitled " Some of the Perils to Life from Preventable Diseases," was published in the Medical News of Philadelphia and afterwards in the transactions of the society, and elicited much favorable comment.
In 1853, in the Buffalo Medical Journal, Dr. Jewett published an article on "The Influence of Tobacco in Producing Sciatica."
In the same year and in the same journal he recorded the second reported case of the cure of ununited fracture by subcutaneous perfora- tion and drilling of the bone, after the method of Dr. Brainard, of Chicago.
The transactions of the Medical Society of the State of New York for 1869 contained a paper by him on Apocynum Cannabinum in dropsical affections. His success in the use of this drug by a special method drew the attention of the profession of the United States and brought letters of inquiry and corroboration from nearly every State in the Union.
Dr. Jewett had a large and varied acquaintance with general surgery, and his operations were boldly performed and yielded more than the usual measure of success which attends that branch of practice. In his earlier experience he devoted much attention to the operation for cataract, and if he had lived in a large city, with opportunities multi- plying on his hands, it is probable that he would have drifted into an exclusive practice, in which his remarkable anatomical knowledge and manual dexterity would have advanced him to deserved prominence in that line.
Dr. Jewett's tastes and sensibilities were of a gentle and refined order. He loved the quiet walks of life rather than the ways of strife and variance. His religious convictions, like his convictions on other
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subjects, were strong and abiding, and his daily deportment was an exemplification of the faith which he professed, which displayed good will to man in the loftiest as well as the lowliest illustration of that principle.
His end was as peaceful as his life. On the evening of September 4, 1888, after a day of usual professional activity he retired to rest. On the morning of September 5 his lifeless body was found in bed, the end having come without a struggle, but most unexpected to all.
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GEORGE BRADLEY ANDERSON,
The leading dry goods merchant of Canandaigua, was born in that town on the 18th of April, 1841. His father was James Anderson, a native of Scotland, and one of the early settlers of Canandaigua. His mother was a woman of Southern birth, and from this excellent parent- age the son inherited those sterling qualities which have enabled him to reach an enviable degree of success. He obtained in the common schools and the Rushville Academy a good English education, and de- termined upon mercantile business as his life work. After a period as clerk he became in 1865 a member of the firm of Squires, Anderson & Co. in Canandaigua, which partnership continued for five years. It may as well be said right here that the cardinal principle of his business career has been integrity in every business relation ; and he is a firm believer that in no other manner can any worthy and permanent suc- cess be attained. This fact and some natural foresight and that sagac- ity which prompts men to do the right thing at the right time, have contributed largely to his prosperity. When the business was first es- tablished, the science and practice of liberal advertising was almost un- known in small towns. Mr. Anderson was one of the first to grasp the full advantages of a liberal use of the columns of newspapers and other approved avenues for that purpose, and to this day, after nearly thirty years of active business life, this element of success receives his most careful personal attention. Believing, moreover, that every person, high or low, rich or poor, is entitled to the same kind of treatment at the hands of the tradesman, he early adopted what has been known as
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the " One Price System," and was the pioneer in that feature of trade in Canandaigua. In 1880 the partnership alluded to was broken by the retirement of Mr. Anderson, and his opening a store in the Hubbell block, which he successfully conducted as it then existed for about five years. He then bought the remainder of a stock of goods of Moore Brothers and removed to their former store No. 224 Main street, where he continued nine years, when to the consternation of his friends he leased the McKechnie Block store, and taking immediate possession, paid rent on both stores for a year. It was a shrewd business move, and those who at first doubted its wisdom saw the venture entirely suc- cessful.
This is an example of his boldness in business operations. He be- lieves that when he has once resolved to adopt a certain measure, the wise course is to make the most of it, at whatever cost. At the present time Mr. Anderson is at the head of one of the largest and best equipped dry goods houses in the interior of the State, and carries a stock of goods that is greater in value and more comprehensive in character than many much more pretentious city establishments. The example of Mr. Anderson's long business career to young men, and of the principles upon which his success has been built up, his persistent adherence to one line of industry, and his fair treatment of his patrons on all oc- casions, is one that will bear patient study and emulation.
In the political affairs of Canandaigua, its educational, religious, and social circles, Mr. Anderson has always shown a proper public spirit and earnest desire for the welfare of the community. He has mingled little in political contests, but has given consistent and continuous sup- port to the Republican party. During the war period he gave freely of time and money in aid of the government, and was prominent in the local efforts to furnish the several quotas of the town for the army. The academy and other schools of Canandaigua have found in him a faithful and generous helper, and his efforts have always tended to the advance- ment of the community towards better educational facilities, better gov- ernment, and more elevated morality. He and his family are active members of the Congregational Church, to the support of which, and the general up- building of religious sentiment and practical Christianity, they have consistently given encouragement.
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The marriage of Mr. Anderson to Charlotte A. Leland, of Seneca Falls, took place in 1872. They have three sons : Fred L., Charles W., and G. Elmer.
EDWIN HICKS.
Among the pioneers of the town of Bristol, Ontario county, was Aaron Hicks, a native of Massachusetts, whence he emigrated to the " Western Country " in 1795. He followed farming all his life, per- forming his modest part in laying the foundations of what has become a numerous and prosperous community. He was born in the town of Dighton, Bristol county, Mass., on December 12, 1788. His ancestors were of English extraction and among the earliest emigrants who settled Massachusetts colony. He died April 9, 1872. On the Ist day of June, 1812, he was married to Hannah Cornell, who was born on the 17th of January, 1795. She was a lineal descendant of Thomas Cornell, who was one of the earliest settlers of Massachusetts and resided in Boston as early as 1638. She died April 2, 1874. Of this marriage were born ten children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the ninth.
Edwin Hicks was born on the homestead in the town of Bristol, On- tario county, N. Y., February 14, 1830, and there his early years were passed in alternate attendance at the district school and labor on his father's farm. He was a persistent student and was given such advant- ages as were possible under the circumstances to obtain a good English education. Between the year of his leaving school and 1850 he taught school several years in different parts of his native county, an occupation which gave him further opportunity for study. In 1850 he took the first step towards the consummation of his early-formed plans for adopting the legal profession as his life-work by entering the law office of Seward, Blatchford & Morgan, of Auburn, N. Y., where he remained one year, finishing his legal study with Benjamin F. Harwood, in Dans- ville, N. Y. He was admitted to the bar in March, 1854, and on the Ist of January following began practice in Canandaigua. For nearly forty years Mr. Hicks has now (1893) been a prominent member of the bar of his county, his practice being at all times extensive and includ- ing cases of importance. He has, moreover, received from his fellow
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citizens many evidences of their confidence in his ability and respect for his character.
The Republican party was on the eve of its organization when Mr. Hicks entered upon the practice of his profession in Canandaigua. He was in full sympathy with its principles, and has never wavered in his loyalty thereto. He has given unstintedly of his services for the interest of his party and his voice has been heard in public in nearly every campaign since the party was organized. Mr. Hicks was made vice-president of the first Republican club organized in Canandaigua, which was among the earliest in the county. That he early took a prominent position in his profession is shown by his appointment in 1857 as district attorney to fill the vacancy caused by the removal of Thomas O. Perkins. In 1863 he was elected to that office and held it four consecutive terms, winning his elections over popular candidates of the opposing party and by majorities reaching in one instance 1,600. As district attorney Mr. Hicks prosecuted the criminal business of the county with vigor, efficiency and integrity. It is remembered that in one term he tried fourteen cases, twelve of which were for felony, and secured conviction in every case. Among them were several of more than ordinary importance, notably that of the people against Munson for burglary in East Bloomfield, in which the accused was sent to State prison. He prosecuted the case of the people against Eighmey, in- dicted for murder, the prisoner being convicted and huug-the first case of capital punishment in Ontario county. In March, 1876, he was en- gaged for the prosecution in the somewhat celebrated trial of George E. Crozier for the murder of his wife at Benton, in Yates county, in which the prisoner was convicted. In his civil law business Mr. Hicks has been entrusted with many cases where important interests were at stake, and has met with a gratifying degree of success.
In his political career he has been repeatedly chosen to represent his party in important State and other conventions and deservedly honored by his fellow citizens with public office. In 1874 he was nominated for the office of State senator for the 26th District, then' composed of the counties of Ontario, Seneca and Yates, which for four years had been represented by a Democrat, but was defeated by Stephen H. Hammond, of Geneva, by a majority of 318. Again nominated for the same office in
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1877, he defeated his former opponent by a majority of 381. In the Senate he was placed on the judiciary committee, was chairman of the committee on literature, a member of the committee on public expend- itures and the committee on salt. In the session of 1878 he was ap- pointed with Senators Edick and Hughes a special committee for the revision of the civil and criminal codes, a work of great responsibility and importance. Their report was made to the Legislature in 1879. The senatorial career of Mr. Hicks was honorable to himself and wholly satisfactory to his constituents.
Retiring from his service in the Senate, Mr. Hicks returned to his law practice, and has since been constantly and successfully engaged. In his personal intercourse with acquaintances and friends, and in all of his business relations, he has gained that confidence and esteem that are always accorded the public spirited citizen. Genial and courteous to all, with a disposition prone to good will and kindness, Mr. Hicks occupies an enviable social station.
On the 16th of October, 1855, Mr. Hicks was married to Mary Elizabeth Jones, of Bristol, Ontario county, N. Y. Of this marriage one child was born July 9, 1859, Charles Winter Hicks, who at the age of twenty was admitted to the bar, and now holds the responsible posi- tion of chief clerk of the freight department of the Southern California Railroad, at Los Angeles, Cal. Mrs. Hicks died June 18, 1864. On the 24th of June, 1869, Mr. Hicks was again married to Sara J. Clark, of Belleville, Jefferson county, N. Y. Of this marriage were born two children : Jessie Cornell Hicks, August 17, 1873, who graduated with credit at the late commencement of Granger Place School, Canandai- gua, class of '93, and Kenneth Clark Hicks, February 16, 1875, now in his junior year at Colgate University.
GEORGE H. PHILLIPS.
George H. Phillips was born in the town of Brunswick, Rensselaer county, N. Y., September 7, 1816. At the age of eighteen he left his father's farm, went to Troy, N. Y., and learned the carpenter trade of Ira Wood, whose daughter, Laura G., he afterward married. After a
Henry P. Taylor, Ph. D.
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few years he became a partner of Mr. Wood, and later on conducted the business alone.
In 1852 Mr. Phillips identified himself with the stove firm of Davy, Anthony & Phillips, remaining in the same business, but with different partners, until 1868, when he retired and founded the stove business of G. H. Phillips & Co., admitting into partnership John M. Howk and Walter A. Clark.
In 1885 the firm of Phillips & Clark removed from Troy to Geneva, N. Y , where it was incorporated under the name of Phillips & Clark Stove Co. Beyond question it is to day one of the most flourishing companies in the State. While a resident of Troy Mr. Phillips was an active worker in the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, and was for over a quarter of a century its treasurer. He was also for many years one of the governors and managers of the Marchels Infirmary.
Although not a politician in the ordinary sense of the word, yet he represented the Republicans of the Fourth ward in the Common Coun- cil during the years 1873, '74, '75 and '76.
Since moving to Geneva he has made many warm friends by his genial ways, loving a joke now as well as in former years. Although seventy-seven years of age, yet each day finds him looking after his business interests.
Mr. Phillips has two daughters, Mrs. John M. Howk, now of Lee, Mass., and Mrs. Walter A. Clark, whose husband has for many years been associated with him in the manufacturing business now in Geneva, N. Y.
HENRY L. TAYLOR.
Henry L. Taylor, A.B., A.M., Ph.D., was born in Fort Edward, Washington county, N. Y., on the Ist of January, 1855. His father was Rev. Henry B. Taylor, A.M, the founder and many years the effi- cient financial agent of Fort Edward Institute, an institution that has had an excellent reputation throughout the State. When the subject of this sketch was about four years of age his parents moved to Illinois, where they remained until 1864. They then returned to this State, settling in Clinton county, where they have since resided.
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