History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 120

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1336

USA > New York > Orange County > History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 120

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W'm. II. Youmans, Co. D, 18th ; enl. April 27, 1861; born in Monroe, and probably belonged there.

Robert Young, corp., Ist Mounted Rifles; enl. October, 1861.

Andrews Zevisky, Co, G, 176th ; enl. Nov. 26, 1862.

Jonas Zindle, Co. D, 18th ; eal. April 27, 1861 ; one of the Monroe family of Zindles. (See that town.)

488

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

REAR-ADMIRAL SILAS HORTON STRINGIIAM.

While the territory embraced in the present county of Orange has produced many men eminent in civil and professional ranks, it has not been without equally honorable representatives in the army and navy, especially in the latter, where the banner of the heroic Ludlow and his ill-fated commander, Law- rence, was taken up and borne upon every sea by the ' no less heroic Rear-Admiral Silas Horton Stringham. We regret that the space assigned to notices of this character is necessarily circumscribed, for, regarding biography as history in its highest and most instruc- tive form, we feel that our duty can be but very im- perfectly performed in an abridged review of his career. The family from which Admiral Stringham sprung was one of the oldest in the county,-James Stringham, his grandfather, running back in its set- tlement as early as 1734. His father, Daniel String- ham, resided, at the beginning of the present century, just east of the village of Bloomingburgh, across the county line in the town of Wallkill. Ile kept a store in the building which now or lately stood at the forks of the Newburgh turnpike and the Middletown plank-road, on the east bank of the Shawangunk Kill ; his residence, which was in the immediate vicinity, was removed some years ago. His mother was a Horton. It was while his parents resided here that he was born, in the year 1798. His parents removed to Newburgh in the spring of 1806, his father at that time being a director, and in 1808 taking command of the sloop " Jefferson," of the Farmers' Company line, engaged in the produce trade. The new life which was thus opened to young Stringham was to him a delight. On his father's sloop he was master of every part, while in the public school he submitted only after con- fliet to the domination of mates older in years. To one of these conflicts he was indebted for his place in the navy. On the occasion referred to, with the assist- ance of a school-mate, he defied all the other lads of the class. The contest was witnessed by Capt. Ludlow, of the navy, who happened to be passing, and so struck was he with the pluck and determination which Stringham displayed, that he immediately solic- ited his parents to consent to the boy's apprentice- ship in the navy. At the age of twelve years (1810) he went out with Capt. Ludlow as a midshipman, under Commodore Rogers, in the frigate " President." From that time until his death, in 1876, a period of sixty-six years, the history of the American navy was a part of his own. He was on duty when the balls from the "Little Belt" came crashing through the canvas of the " President," in May, 1811, and dur- ing the war of 1812. In 1815 he was sent to the Algerine war in the Mediterranean squadron under Decatur. Returning home, and while holding the rank of lieutenant, he was made acting commander . Middletown.

of the sloop-of-war "Falmouth." In 1834 he was promoted to the rank of commander in the "John Adams," and from this to a captaincy in the " Inde- pendence." From this post he was transferred to the command of the Brooklyn navy-yard. In the war with Mexico he was in command of the "Ohio," and at the head of the squadron before Vera Cruz. In 1852 he was promoted commodore. IFis last service at sea was in command of the expedition to Hatteras Inlet during the war of the Rebellion, and his last pro- motion was to the rank of rear-admiral. He was a man of extraordinary courage, judgment and integrity. The honor of his Creator, and the honor of the flag of his country, was the shrine at which he worshiped. An oath he never uttered, nor would he suffer one in his presence; no wine or intoxicating liquors ever touched his lips. A pure, brave, true man, his name is written upon the nation's history as an example and an inspiration.

ROBERT II. HOUSTON.

His great-grandfather, Rev. Joseph Houston, with his two brothers, John and James, emigrated from the north of Ireland in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and came first to Jamestown, Va. James remained near them, and John settled in Pennsyl- vania. Rev. Joseph, after preaching a few years at Jamestown, came north, and was the first settled pastor of the Goodwill Presbyterian Church in the town of Montgomery, Orange Co., N. Y., where he pur- chased some 600 acres of land, upon which he resided until his death, and upon which his sons, Joseph and .James, resided during their lives. He had also four daughters. James occupied the homestead part of the farm, and Joseph removed to the other side of the Otterkill.

James married Anna, daughter of Rev. George Carr, a Presbyterian minister of Goshen, who bore him the following children : Joseph, George, Thomas, James, John, Samuel, Andrew, Polly, wife of Robert Wilkin ; Jane, wife of Adam Dickerson.

Of these children, George was for a few months on gnard in the Mamakating Valley to protect the whites from the incursions of the Indians during the Revo- lutionary war, and Joseph was a physician at Amity, and afterwards at Edenville, where he died. All of the children were married and reared families in Orange County.

George, father of our subject, born in 1763, died in December, 1825. His wife was Jane, daughter of Robert Hunter, of Montgomery, who died in 1801, aged about thirty-two, leaving the following children : Ann, wife of Samuel W. Brown, of Scotchtown; John G., James G., Robert H., and George. The latter was a farmer where a part of Middletown now is, the pres- ent cemetery being a part of his farm, and he was afterwards a merchant and justice of the peace in

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WALLKILL.

George Houston married for his second wife Julia, widow of Mr. Gale, and daughter of William Thomp- son, of Goshen, who by her first marriage had one son, William Gale. Of this union were born chil- | of its citizens. He was one of the men to obligate dren,-Anthony and Jane, twins, the latter becoming the wife of Charles Heard, of Hamptonburgh ; Henry; Sally, wife of Hector Van Cleft; Samuel and Theo- dore, died young men; Almira, wife of Orange IJorton, of White Plains, N. Y .; Elizabeth, wife of William Church, of Orange, N. J .; and Thomas. Twelve of these children were married, and eleven reared families.

George Houston settled on a farm at Scotchtown in 1787, where he remained until 1805, and during the re- mainder of his life he was a farmer in the town of Wallkill. He gave the land for the church (Presby- terian) and burial-plots at Scotchtown, was one of its founders, and served the church for many years as elder. He was a man of strong force of character, and a promoter of the best interests of society. He was the prime mover in the construction of the Goshen and Bloomingburgh turnpike.

Robert H., son of George and Jane Houston, was born in the town of Wallkill, Aug. 20, 1798. At the age of sixteen he began learning the tanner and cur- rier trade, which he completed at the age of twenty. For six years following he remained at home and had charge of his father's farm. In 1826 he came to Mid- dletown, and in company with Charles Dill rented the " Anderson " tannery, which they afterwards pur- chased, located across the street from the Commercial Ilotel, and carried on the tanning business under the firm-name of Dill & Houston. After a few years they disposed of it, and built another on the present site of the Orange County Milk Association building, where they continued business until 1846. In 1831 they purchased a farm of sixty acres adjoining the village, which they also carried on.

The partnership was dissolved in 1846, Mr. Samuel S. Wickham purchasing an interest in the tannery, which was carried on by Messrs. Houston & Wickham until 1851, when Mr. Houston sold his interest in the business to Mr. Wickham.

In the dissolution of the partnership of Houston & Dill, Mr. Houston retained the farm, which now forms a part of the village of Middletown, and has been laid ont by him into lots and streets, and upon which many fine and substantial residences have been erected, forming a desirable part of the village.

To the original purchase he has added contiguous land, and his present farm, of about 100 acres, he still finds pleasure in superintending.

In 1841, Messrs. Houston & Dill donated the land upon which to erect the Wallkill Academy, and dur- ing their career together were also engaged for seven years in the lumber business in Sullivan County.

eral contributor in founding many of its present in- stitutions, and forwarding such interests as have tended to the prosperity of the place and the welfare himself for the extension of the Erie Railway to Mid- dletown after its completion to Goshen, and in the erection of schools, churches, and kindred institutions he has always been found ready with his time and . money.

Like his forefathers, he has stood unswervingly a supporter of the Presbyterian Church, which his Scotch ancestors in the mother-country spilled their blood to establish and protect, and both he and his wife have been members of the church at Middletown for many years. He married, May 2, 1829, Mary, daughter of David Dill and Elizabeth Houston, who was born April 6, 1799, was a devoted wife and mother, and died Sept. 11, 1880. JIer mother was a daughter of Joseph Houston, and granddaughter of Rev. Joseph Houston, the progenitor of the family in Orange County.

Their daughter, Jane Elizabeth, died at the age of eighteen. Their only surviving child is David Dill Houston, born Dec. 15, 1833, and who married, Aug. 29, 1861, Catharine M., danghter of John K. Moore. He carries on mercantile and milling business and farming at Middletown.

HON. EDWARD M. MADDEN.

Edward Millspaugh Madden was born near Sears- ville, in the town of Crawford, Orange Co., N. Y., in the year 1818. His ancestry were Scotch-Irish, Huguenot, and German. Until he was nearly nine years of age he attended the common schools of the neighborhood, these being the only educational advan- tages that he ever had. When he was about nine years old the family removed to the village of Walden, in the town of Montgomery, where he en- tered a cotton-mill as an apprentice.

He worked the first year for seventy-five cents a week, boarding himself. Being badly treated by one of his bosses, young Madden ran away in the year 1833. The same day he obtained employment as an appren- tice in a tin-shop in the village of Montgomery. He left there in 1839, when about twenty years of age, and bought out a small tin-shop located in a little build- ing then standing in the west end of what is now the Holding House, in the village of Middletown. His cash capital at this time was, all told, just $133, which he had earned by overwork at his trade. In 1842 he entered into partnership with Elisha P. Wheeler, Jonah F. France, and Joseph Lemon, all now de- ceased. The firm built the foundry now owned by Mr. A. L. Vail. Mr. France died in 1847. Messrs. Wheeler, Madden, & Lemon continued the busi- ness until 1851, when Mr. Lemon sold his interest to Wheeler & Madden. In 1853 the firm built the

Mr. Houston may safely be ranked among the men to whom much is due for the present prosperous and thrifty village of Middletown, and he has been a lib- . Monhagen Saw-Factory, on King Street, adjoining 32

490

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the foundry. in connection with the late Josiah Bakewell, who had become a member of the firm.

In 1854 the foundry business, in which Mr. Madden was a partner, was sold to Messrs. Joseph Lemon and Silas R. Martine. The saw manufacturing busi- ness was continued by the firm previously men- tioned until 1860, when Mr. Bakewell left the con- "cern, and Mr. Wm. Clemsen was admitted as a partner, and still continues connected with it. The business had grown to such proportions that in 1866 the present extensive works were erected. In 1868, Thomas D. Roberts and Lemuel Wheeler were taken in as members of the firm. Mr. Roberts died in 1872, and Mr. Lemmel Wheeler in 1874. In 1873, Charles I. Humphrey and Wm. Millspaugh became members of the firm. In 1874 the other partners bought out the interest of Mr. E. P. Wheeler, the senior member. In 1880, Wm. K. Stansbury was

In 1871 he was again prevailed upon to take the nomination for State senator, and was elected by a large majority, notwithstanding the district is strongly Democratie. In 1873 he was renominated and elected again. The nomination for the office was again ten- dered him in 1875 and in 1877, but was declined, as was also a nomination again for memher of Congress. In 1879 he accepted a nomination again for the State admitted into the firm. In 1863 the then firm built Senate, and was returned for the fourth time to that body by a large majority.

a factory and began the manufacture of files, which is still carried on, and known as the Eagle File-Works. Mr. Madden is president of the concern, his nephew, Mr. Isaac P. Madden, and Mr. J. T. Cockayne being the managers.

In the year 1862, immediately after the capture of the Confederate envoys, Mason and Slidell, from a British steamer, apprehending that this would lead to a war with England, and thereby prevent the im- portation and greatly enhance the price of steel, the firin of Wheeler, Madden, & Clemsen began the

manufacture of this article, having previously im- nation. He declined the nomination as a delegate to

ported all the steel used by them.

In 1877, Mr. Madden, in connection with Mr. James H. Norton and Mr. C. C. Messerre, estab- lished the Union Printing Company of New York City, which business still continues, and of which he is the president.

In 1843, Mr. Madden was married to Eudocia M. Robinson, daughter of Rev. Phineas Robinson, a Presbyterian elergyman. Six children were the fruit of this marriage, three of whom are now living,- Charles Carroll, Edward M., Jr., and Ella.

Mr. Madden has always taken a lively interest in political affairs, local as well as State .and national. He was originally a Democrat, and his first vote for President was cast for Martin Van Buren. In 1854, on the passage by Congress of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, allowing slavery to be extended over the Western Territories, Mr. Madden, with many other Democrats throughout the country, protested against this action, and in 1855 he aided in the preliminary steps which led to the organization of the Republican party in 1856. Ile has ever since continued a steadfast and influential member of that party.

In the fall of 1855 there was a bolt in the Demo- I cratie Senatorial Convention of this district, growing out of the aggressions of the South and the action of Congress upon the slavery question. The Free-Soil portion of the convention, in Mr. Madden's absence,

nominated him for the office of State senator, to which he was elected. Although frequently there- after urged to become a candidate for office, he re- fused until 1868, when he accepted a nomination by the Republicans for member of Assembly in the Second District of Orange County, having just pre- viously declined a unanimous nomination for repre- sentative in Congress. Although the district is usually carried by a large majority, Mr. Madden canie within a half-dozen votes of an election.

Mr. Madden has always held it to be the duty of every citizen to attend the primary meetings of the party to which they belong, and he is seldom absent from these meetings. He has been delegated to at- tend numerous County, Senatorial, State, and National Conventions. There is probably no one within the limits of this county who has oftener been ealled upon for such representative service. He was a member of the Republican National Convention at Baltimore in 1864 which gave Abraham Lincoln his second nomi- the National Convention of 1868. In 1876 he was a member of the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati which nominated Rutherford B. Hayes.

Mr. Madden drafted and secured the passage of the bill for the public-school system of Middletown, and for many years was an active member of the school board of that place, until increasing business cares caused him to decline further service in that capacity. Senator Madden was also the author of the bill pro- viding for the construction of the Middletown Water- Works. Ile was the first and is now the president of the board. He also interested himself in obtain- ing the charter for the Middletown Savings-Bank, and was instrumental in securing the necessary leg- islation to set it in operation. While he has been a member of the Senate he has secured much import- ant legislation for the benefit of the New York State Homeopathie Asylum for the Insane at Middletown, and no small degree of the success of that institution is due to the effective aid that he was thus enabled to render it.

Mr. Madden was appointed by the Governor one of the commissioners to locate the Hudson River Asylum for the Insane, which is at Poughkeepsie.

When the project of the Middletown and Crawford Railroad was first broached, connecting, as it pro- posed, the place of his birth and the place where his active business career had been passed, Mr.

Af, I. Wietham

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WALLKILL.

Madden at once took hold of it with his accustomed energy, and, in co-operation with the companion of his boyhood days and life-long friend, Maj. Daniel Thompson, made it a success. The road was con- structed much more economically than many similar undertakings. Mr. Madden has been the vice-presi- dent of the company since its organization, Mr. Thompson being the president and manager.

Mr. Madden has been so prominently identified with the business and political interests of his county and State that few men within their borders are better known than he.

Although without the advantages of an academ- ical education, in fact with only the few years meagre schooling that he obtained previous to his ninth year in the then indifferent common school that he attended, Mr. Madden, by close application to reading and study during the evenings and the mo- ments that he could snatch from the labors of the work-beneh, became a thoroughly well-read man, and few, with all the educational advantages they may have had, have a larger store of practical knowl- edge at their command. He has seemed to acquire knowledge by intuition. His memory for events and dates is most remarkable.

He is a man of the strictest integrity, who has never been known to go back upon his word, which is proverbially as good as his bond, and has never deserted a friend.

Mr. Madden has now been in active business in Middletown for forty-two years, and has seen the little hamlet of some 500 inhabitants increase to a population of 10,000. He is still actively engaged in business, and is constantly making large additions to his manufactories.

Senator Madden may be considered as a fair and conspicuous type of the "self-made man," having from an humble origin, and against adverse circum- stances, arisen to wealth and prominence in the com- munity, solely through industry, pluck, determina- tion, indomitable energy, and a landable ambition, which demonstrates what may be accomplished by the youth of our land, through the possession and active use of these qualities, under our beneficent, free American institutions.

SAMUEL S. WICKHAM.

The property settled on by Samuel and Israel Wickham and their sister Jerusha, mentioned in the sketch of Col. Israel 11. Wickham, comprised about ' 1000 acres in the Minisink Angle, upon which the ! the property he now occupies, and in 1869 became village of Middletown is now built.

Samuel was grandfather of our subject, married Mary Irwin, who bore him the following children : Elizabeth, wife of John HI. Corwin; Jerusha, wife of Eliad Tryon ; and Jesse H. The homestead of Sam- uel Wickham was where Mrs. Linus B. Babcock now resides.

Upon his decease the homestead property was en- tailed to his son, Jesse H., upon which he resided during his life, and died Oct. 3, 1841, having been born Feb. 28, 1786.

He took down the log house in which his father lived, and kept the hospitable inn of "olden time" about 1829, and where the forefathers of the present generation used to gather and exchange wit, indulge in story-telling, and narrate the incidents of pioneer life.

Jesse H. Wickham married Laura, daughter of Samuel Benedict, of Middletown, who died Aug. 31, 1823, aged thirty years, leaving the following children : Temperance Ann, Harriet Maria, wife of Isaac Van Duzer, Samuel S., and Henry Lewis, who died young.

His second wife was Frances Ludlum, who died in 1857, and hore him the following children: Theo- dore, George, and Israel.

Jesse H. Wickham was one of the founders of many of the early institutions in Middletown, spent his life in a quiet way as a farmer, and was esteemed through- out his business life for his integrity in his dealings with his fellow-men. He was a man of correct habits and sterling principles.

Samuel S., son of Jesse II. Wickham, was born on the homestead Aug. 20, 1821, spent his boyhood at home, and was twenty years old when his father died. He was one of the pupils who attended school the first term of the opening of the Wallkill Academy.

At the age of twenty-two he started ont in life for himself, and for three years was a clerk in a dry-goods and crockery-store in Middletown.

In the spring of 1846 he rented a stone-quarry in Sullivan County, which he was successfully carrying on when, in the fall of that year, he purchased the interest of Charles Dill in the tannery of Houston & Dill, at Middletown, and, in partnership with Robert II. Houston, carried on the business until 1851, when he purchased Mr. Houston's interest, and, with the exception of two years, carried it on alone until 1855, when he sold out to Stephens & Hulse.

During that year, with Joseph Lemon, he purchased 1900 acres of woodland in Sullivan County, upon which were three saw-mills.

In 1858, having paid for their land in lumber, and having a large quantity on hand, they disposed of their land, dissolved partnership, and Mr. Wickham estab- lished a lumber-yard on Canal Street, in Middletown, where he was engaged in the lumber, feed, and coal business until 1866, and sold out to Eaton & Russell.

The same year, with Eaton & Russell, he purchased the sole owner of it. Here since 1866 he has been successfully engaged in the lumber, coal, and feed business. He erected in 1870 his present commo- dious store-house and lumber-sheds, and in 1877 he erected a grist-mill on the property, in which latter interest he has associated with him in business Joseph F. Terhune.

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HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

For nearly forty years Mr. Wiekham has been closely identified with the active business interests of the village, and among the first to encourage, promote, and push forward every worthy loeal enterprise tend- ing to the thrift and prosperity of Middletown, or in any way to advance the educational interests of its rising generation.

His ancestors were among the founders of the early institutions now enjoyed by the people. Mr. Wickham retains the family characteristic of prog- ress, and by his frank, sociable, and unostentatious ways holds the confidence of his fellow-citizens.

His first wife was Ellen Adelia, daughter of Fred- erick Dolson, of Wawayanda, who died in 1868, leaving children,-Cecilia S., Oscar, Almeda D., Samuel S., and Laura B.

His present wife, whom he married in 1870, is Marilla, daughter of Madison Raplee, of Yates County, N. Y., by whom he has one child, Willis R.

WICKHAM C. McNISHI.

Wiekham C. McNish is a descendant in the fifth generation from Rev. George McNish, a native of Scotland, who came to America in 1705 upon the so- licitation of Rev. Francis Makemie, who was after- wards styled the father of Presbyterianism in America. There also eame with Revs. MeNish and Makemie Rev. John Hampton.

Rev. George McNish was licensed to preach here by Governor Seymour, of Maryland, in 1706. He was one of the original members of the Philadelphia Pres- bytery, the first formed in America, and upon the first vacancy in the pulpit after the formation of the Philadelphia Presbytery, he was called in 1710 by the wardeus and vestrymen of the Presbyterian Church at Jamaica, Long Island, and began to preach there in 1711. and is called the father of the Presbyterian Church on Long Island,-the first Presbytery in the province of New York. He was a man of much Chris- tian zeal, and having inherited a spirit of freedom of worship in his native country, which his forefathers spilt their blood to achieve, he was well prepared to, and did meet with determined resistance, the aggres- sions of the devotees of the English Church on the island, who fiually succeeded in taking from them their church property. After this he preached to his congregation in private places. He owned 1000 acres of land in the town of Wallkill, Orange Co., which, after his death, became the property of his only child, Rev. George MeNish. He died March 10, 1722. His son, Rev. George McNish, married a daughter of Jo- seph Smith, of Jamaica, and settled in New Jersey, preaching at Newtown (now Newton) between 1744 and 1746, He subsequently preached at Goshen, spent his life in the ministry, and died in Wallkill in 1779, aged sixty-five. His children were Andrew Clark ; George, who served in the Revolutionary war, and fortunately escaped from Fort Montgomery when

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History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 120

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1336

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1336