USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > History of Rochester and Monroe county, New York, from the earliest historic times to the beginning of 1907, Vol. II > Part 56
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his department of instruction included not only mathematics and physics, but the whole range of chemistry and the natural sciences.
In 1827 Dr. Dewey resigned the chair he had so long held. He removed to Pittsfield, where he had been previously engaged as professor of chem- istry in the medical college, and became principal of this institution. He remained in Pittsfield for nine years, at the same time occupying the chair of chemistry and botany in the medical colleges in Pittsfield and in Woodstock, Vermont. At the cnd of this period he removed to Rochester, New York, and took charge of the Collegiate Institute in that city. This institution he conducted with high success for fourteen years. In 1850, at the establishment of the Universtiy of Rochester, he was elected professor of chemistry and natural history in that institution and discharged the duties of that chair for a little more than ten years. He retired from active duty at the ripe age of seventy-six. After his removal to Roches- ier he continued to lecture for many winters in the medical schools at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and at Woodstock, Vermont. While he was a teacher of science he never lost sight of the other profession (that of minister), in which he was trained, or forgot that part of his duty was to preach the gospel. Thus, though he could not assume the charge of a parish, for over fifty years he supplied vacant pulpits, going wherever called, and preaching almost as regularly as if he had no other vocation. He represented practically the two professions. He died at his home in Rochester in December, 1867, at the age of eighty-three.
In his chosen profession he was an enthusiast. and his whole life was absorbed in obtaining knowledge and imparting it to others. All honored him as a sage; all loved him as a father. What he was to his family and friends he was to the multitude who knew him but partially. To the whole population of Rochester his presence in the streets was a benediction.
HARRY A. CHASE.
Harry Archer Chase has been a resident of Rochester since 1889, in which year he removed to this city from Medina. Orleans county, New York, the place of his birth. His natal day was September 29, 1871, and his parents were Henry Horace and Frances (Parks) Chase. In the Me- dina Free Academy he acquired his education, developing a taste for newspaper work at an early age. In 1886 he was appointed Medina corre- spondent for Rochester and other newspapers, which he served until he removed to Rochester. The following year he was engaged by the New York Sun as its special representative in Orleans
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county. Coming to Rochester he engaged as re- porter with the Rochester (morning) Herald, serving for a term of years as reporter and assist- ant city editor. In 1896 he was engaged by the Post-Express in an editorial capacity and con- tinued with that paper until March, 1901, when he became the New York state manager for The Shoe Retailer, of Boston, the leading publication for the retail shoe trade. In fact his association with the shoe trade interests began in 1896, when he was appointed Rochester correspondent of the Shoe and Leather Reporter of New York, which journal began the publication of the Retailer in 1898. These publications removed from New York to Boston in 1902. Mr. Chase continued to write for both papers and later severed his con- nection with the daily newspaper press to give his entire time and effort to editorial and ad- vertising work on these two trade journals. Early in 1907 he became a stockholder, director and vice president of the Shoe Retailer Company. He is widely known as an authority on shoe and leather matters.
Mr. Chase has never sought political office. Hc is an officer of Yonnondio lodge, No. 163, F. & A. M., and a member of Hamilton chapter, No. 62, R. A. M. He married Catherine Elizabeth Harding, June 21, 1898, and he has three chil- dren : a daughter, Helen Archer, and two sons, John Harding and Benjamin Percival.
Mr. Chase's ancestry is English, his paternal grandfather of the ninth generation, William Chase, having come to America with Governor Winthrop's colony in 1630. His great-grand- father, Rufus Chase, served for seven years with the Rhode Island troops in the war of the Amer- ican Revolution. His great-grandfathers, Jacob Parks and Benjamin Chase, fought in the war of 1812, while his grandfather, Colonel John Parks, is a veteran of the Civil war. Mr. Chase owns a pretty home in the eastern part of Rochester.
1
HENRY LOMB.
Henry Lomb was born November 24, 1828, at Burghaun, in Hesse-Cassel, Germany, where his father was a prominent lawyer of the district. His mother died when he was five, his father when he was nine years of age, and he had to leave his home when twelve years old to live with an uncle. With him he remained about six years, being apprenticed part of this time with a cabinet- maker.
In March, 1849, when about twenty years old he sailed from Bremerhaven for America and after a voyage of forty-two days arrived in New York
on the 1st of May. He left the same day for Rochester expecting to meet friends there. Here he worked at his trade of cabinet-maker until 1853, when his friend J. J. Bausch offered him a partnership in his optical business, which offer he gladly accepted, appreciating, however, that the advantages he could bring to the business would be rather moderate, his financial possessions being limited to sixty dollars. The business was conducted as a retail optical store, Mr. Bausch and Mr. Lomb making, besides, occasional trips to the neighboring towns, partly for the purpose of selling their goods and especially to make their business better known in the surrounding country.
In 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil war, he responded to the first call of President Lincoln and on April 23, enlisted in Company C, Thir- teenth New York State Volunteers for a term of two years. At the first election of officers he was elected first sergeant, and later during the term of service promoted by the state authorities to first lieutenant and then captain of the com- pany, serving with his regiment in the Virginia campaign of the Army of the Potomac until the expiration of its two years' time of service. Re- turning with it to Rochester in command of his company, he was mustered out with his regiment May 13, 1863.
After returning from military service Mr. Lomb resumed his previous business activities. He was married in 1865 to Miss Emilie Klein of this city. In 1866 the firm decided to dispose of its retail business and to give its entire time and attention to the manufacture of optical goods. The firm at the same time decided to make New York city the selling place for all goods manu- factured, and Mr. Lomb went there as manager of the sales department of the business, Mr. Bausch remaining in Rochester as manager of the manufacturing department. From June, 1866, Mr. Lomb remained in New York until 1880, when he returned to reside in Rochester, it hav- ing then been arranged to concentrate all de- partments of the business in this city.
He has been living in Rochester since then, making himself useful in business where best he could and having the satisfaction of seeing the business grow and prosper, and having in 1903, the exceptionally great satisfaction, granted to so comparatively few, of celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of forming business connections be- tween the two original partners, and to have on that occasion the great pleasure of seeing that the firm enjoys the hearty good will of its many employes.
Outside of his business Mr. Lomb has been mostly interested in matters of health, education, veterans of the Civil war, Grand Army of the Re- public and associations affiliated wtih the Grand
HENRY LOMB.
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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.
Army, the German-American Society and in some other charities.
He is a member of the American Public Health Association and offered through this association prizes for the best essays on the following sub- jects, for which the awards were made at the Washington meeting in 1885: Healthy Homes and Foods for the Working Classes, The Sanitary Con- ditions and Necessities of School Houses and School Life, Disinfection and Individual Prophy- laxis against Infectious Diseases, The Preventable Causes of Disease, Injury and Death in American Manufactories and Workshops, and the best Means and Appliances for Preventing and Avoid- ing Them. In 1888 he offered another prize also through the same association on the following subject : Practical Sanitary and Economic Cook- ing adapted to Persons of Moderate and Small Means. All these essays have been published by the American Public Health Association, and large numbers of them have been distributed to the great benefit of the people in different parts of the country. Mr. Lomb was elected a life mem- ber of the association at one of its annual meet- ings.
On the occasion of the celebration of the late Dr. E. M. Moore's eightieth birthday anniversary, Mr. Lomb proposed with others to organize on that day the Rochester Public Health Association, with Dr. Moore as its first president, which proposition was carried out shortly afterward in a public meeting and where Dr. Moore accepted the presi- dency. The association has by different means accomplished much good.
In 1885 Mr. Lomb assisted in organizing the Mechanics' Institute and was elected its first presi- dent. After holding that position until 1891 he declined a reelection and has continued to be one of the directors since, working for the institute in various ways which seemed the most practical to him.
Mr. Lomb has established in the Mechanics' In- stitute a scholarship entitled : The American Citi- zen Soldiers Scholarship, to give forever to the descendants of the veterans of the Civil war op- portunities to obtain some useful instruction in some of the most practical classes of the in- stitute.
For a number of years Mr. Lomb was also a member of the board of managers of the State Industrial School. He was in 1884 elected chair- man of the flower committee for Memorial Day, to which position he has been reelected every year since. In that position he has had charge of the decoration of the graves of all soldiers and sailors in the different cemeteries of the city, and has thereby been able to assist in making the observance and work of Memorial Day, and also the records of the living and dead veterans of this section of the country .- in the opinion of many
outside Grand Army men and Sons of Veterans- the most practical and complete in the country.
In 1883 Mr. Lomb assisted in organizing the German-American Society on the occasion of the celebration of the second centennial of the first German colonization within the boundaries of the United States, which society under the long and self-sacrificing management of its late president, Frank Fritzsche, has been so beneficial in assist- ing the German immigrants as well as those who, from want of knowledge of the language and con- ditions of this country, needed help.
THEODORE S. DEAN.
Theodore S. Dean, attorney at law at Brockport, New York, was born in Syracuse, July 29, 1845. He was a son of R. Sanford and Mary S. (Parker) Dean, both natives of New York. The family on both sides were in the Revolutionary war. Mr. Dean was a farmer for a few years, but later be- came a Baptist clergyman.
Theodore S. Dean was very young when his father left the farm. He attended the public schools, where he pursued his preparatory work, afterward attending the seminary at Wolcott, New York. When the war broke out he was not sixteen years of age. He enlisted in August, 1862, at the age of seventeen, in Company G, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Infantry, and was afterward trans- ferred to the Ninth Heavy Artillery. He served in the Sixth Army Corps in the Army of the Potomac. War was a stern reality to him, for he was in the midst of heavy fighting most of the time, first at the battle of Cold Harbor and then the siege of Petersburg. He met Early at Win- chester and took part both in this fight and in the one at Cedar Creek. After this victory he was returned to Petersburg and took part in all the engagements until the surrender. He served as clerk for his company at tne regimental head- quarters, where he held the rank of artificer. In July, 1865, he was mustered ont and returned to his home.
Immediately Mr. Dean went to Syracuse, New York, where he began the study of law, complet- ing the same with the chief judge of the court of appeals, William C. Ruger. Admitted to the bar in 1867, he began the practice of his profes- sion in Chicago. To establish one's self in a pro- fession in so large a city as Chicago requires hard work and so close au attention to the business that Mr. Dean's health failed under the strain. He re- turned to Middlesex, New York, where he spent two years before his health permitted him to re- sume business. In 1871 he located in Brockport, where he has since been engaged in the practice of
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his profession, having built up a very large busi- ness. Since the organization of the Brockport Loan Association he has been its efficient attorney and for a number of years has served in the same capacity for the First National Bank of Brock- port and has represented a number of other cor- porations.
In 1883 he was married to Miss Hattie B. Mc- Arthur, of Mount Morris. Two children were born to this union: Marie A., recently graduated from Livingston Park Seminary; and Edith M., who is at present taking a domestic science course in the Mechanics Institute at Rochester.
For twenty years, until the office was abolished, Mr. Dean was the popular justice of the peace and also served in the capacity of police justice of Brockport. He is a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Fraternally he is allied with the Masons, belonging to the blue lodge and chapter. He is now president of the Acacia Ma- sonic Club. Socially he is allied with the members of the Rochester Whist Club and is one of their strongest players. In politics Mr. Dean has cast his vote with the republican party and has done all in his power to further its interests in his locality, serving on the republican county committee for four years. He and Mrs. Dean are both members of the Episcopal church.
Mr. Dean has led a busy life and has met and overcome both interruptions and discouragements. He has already attained an age when most men feel that they must give up active life, but Mr. Dean is still in his prime, hale and hearty, with more energy than many a younger man.
He has been identified with and is a leader in all Brockport's public improvements. The firm of which he is a member are Brockport's attorneys. Mr. Dean is now chairman of the water commit- tee to arrange for a more ample supply of water for the city. In all affairs pertaining to the im- provement and upbuilding of Brockport his coun- sel is sought and his advice is often adopted as conclusive. He is recognized as the authority upon many important questions and is considered a leader in the affairs of the town.
PIERCE JORDAN COGSWELL.
Pierce Jordan Cogswell, president of the Brighton Place Dairy Company, has manifested much of the spirit of the pioneer in his business career, inaugurating new methods and promoting new ideas which have proven of substantial value in the business world. He gained a very wide reputation as a breeder of Jersey cattle, retiring from that field of activity only when ill health demanded that he put aside business cares to a
considerable degree. He was born at Mount Vernon, Kennebec county, Maine, May 15, 1848. His father, Aaron Cogswell, was a farmer and mill owner of that place. His mother was Sarah (Doloff) Cogswell and both were of English de- scent.
In the public schools of his native town Pierce J. Cogswell acquired his education and afterward became associated with the Bradley Fertilizer Company, of Boston, Massachusetts, as a sales- man. In 1874 he came to Rochester, where he established a branch house for the company, acting as its manager for thirty years and building up the largest branch establishment in that line in the world. When the business was merged into the trust in 1898 he tendered his resignation, which took place when the trust assumed man- agement in 1902.
For over twenty years the breeding of Jersey cattle had been his hobby and in that work he had met with great success, developing the bull, Exile of St. Lambert, which had given him world-wide fame, as this bull had the largest num- ber of tested daughters of any bull in the world. His descendants were sold and shipped to nearly every state in the Union, also to Canada and Nova Scotia, while two shipments were made to Auck- land, New Zealand. After Exile of St. Lambert was known among Jersey breeders as the greatest sire of milk and butter cows upon record Mr. Cogswell went to the island of Jersey, where the . great family of Jerseys originated and have been bred in purity for over a hundred years. There he selected what he considered the best bred bull on the island, registered under the name of Finan- cial King. He continued as a breeder for a year thereafter and then upon the advice of his physi- cian, who counseled him to put aside extensive business cares, he disposed of his herd of Jerseys, numbering one hundred and fifty head, Financial King being bought by William Rockefeller, the brother of the oil magnate. Mr. Cogswell's herd of Jerseys was kept on Brighton Place and he was the first in this part of the state to build a san- itary milk station. It constituted the beginning of what is now the Brighton Place Dairy Com- pany, incorporated in 1905, with Mr. Cogswell as president and Peter Langwell, treasurer and man- ager. The latter was educated for this work at Cornell University, after which for ten years he was manager of one of the largest butter factories in the state. Since the present company was formed Mr. Langwell has relieved Mr. Cogswell of most of the care of the business. Their new sanitary milk station, located at No. 647 East avenue, was constructed under the direction of a competent architect, who had made the building of milk stations a study and incorporated the ideas of Mr. Cogswell according to the latest plans rec-
P. J. COGSWELL.
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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.
ommended by the department of agriculture of Cornell University and the department of dairy husbandry at Washington, D. C.
Mr. Cogswell was married in 1869 to Miss Maria F. Pratt, daughter of Jerry Pratt, of New Vine- yard, Maine. In community affairs he has been deeply and actively interested and was president of the village of Brighton before it was taken into the city corporation. For over a quarter of a century he has been a trustee of the Second Bap- tist church, of which he and his wife are devoted members. His business activity and success have gained him a wide reputation and he is well known throughout the country as an authority on Jersey cattle. Moreover, in his business his affairs have been conducted with such honesty that probity is considered synonymous with his name among those who know him.
EDWARD L. FIEN.
Edward L. Fien is connected with a business enterprise of that class which first won Rochester prominence as a commercial center, being now secretary of the Macauley-Fien Milling Company. He was born in Rochester on the 2d of April, 1874. His father, Louis Fien, was a native of Germany, born in Baden, and in his boyhood days he came to the new world with his father, Bernard Fien, who was a blacksmith by trade. The family home was established in Rochester, where Louis Fien acquired his education. He started with George C. Buell in the wholesale grocery business, and later was for himself in the grovery business, with Victor Knapp as part- ner, on Main street. For a number of years he figured prominently in connection with milling interests in this city. In 1890 he established the business now conducted by the Macauley-Fien Milling Company, and in this enterprise was asso- ciated with Matthew Macauley. They had a thoroughly equipped mill and placed the business on a substantial and paying basis. Mr. Fien was connected with the enterprise continuously up to the time of his death, which occurred about five years ago, while his wife, who bore the maiden name of Marguerite Etzel, and was born in Rochester. passed away about eight years ago.
Edward L. Fien was a student in the public and parochial schools of Rochester in the days of his boyhood and youth, and when he put aside his text-books he entered the milling business, which had been established by his father. He did not attempt to profit by the fact that his father was one of the proprietors but resolutely set to work to master the business in every detail and became thoroughly acquainted with the trade.
Upon his father's death he became a partner in the business. The officers of the company are : Matthew Macauley, president; George Fien, treasurer; and Edward L. Fien, secretary. The business was incorporated in 1902 under the name of the Macauley-Fien Milling Company and em- ployment is furnished to eighteen people in the mill, which is located on Graves street. Mr. Ma- cauley was formerly with the firm of Elwood & Armstrong, the predecessors of Armstrong, Shaw & Macauley. In 1890 he bought out the interest of his partners and the Macauley-Fien Milling Company was organized. In connection with this interest the father of our subject was a director in the Rochester German Insurance Company. He was also vice president of St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum and was a gentleman of broad humani- tarian principles. Edward L. Fien has also be- come interested in other business lines aside from milling and is regarded as a young man of keen discernment and sound judgment. The milling business, however, claims much of his time and attention and is capably conducted, the trade steadily growing until the capacity has been in- creased from one hundred to three hundred barrels per day. The Pride of Dakota is the special brand of flour which they manufacture and its excellence secures for it a ready sale on the market.
In 1898 Mr. Fien was married to Miss Cecelia Hahn, of Rochester, a daughter of John B. Hahn, also connected with the flour milling business. He is a democrat in politics with somewhat inde- pendent tendencies and he belongs to St. Joseph's church. He is also a member of the Elks lodge, No. 24, of which he is a trustee. His thorough mastery of the milling business in his youth well qualifies him for the onerous duties which de- volve upon him in connection with the manage- ment of what is now an extensive and important milling industry, and his success- is attributable no doubt in large measure to the fact that he has persevered in the line of business in which he emharked as a young tradesman.
EDWARD F. HIGGINS.
Edward F. Higgins, who is engaged in the conduct of coach, livery and sale stables, at Rochester, was born in this city May 7, 1861, his parents being Timothy G. and Mary ( Powers) Higgins, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of Canada. The father came to Rochester in his youth and resided here for about forty years, after which he removed to Hamilton, On- tario, where he now resides. He was the first man to run a public vehicle in Rochester, on Buffalo street, now West Main street, and also
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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.
on Lake avenue, conducting his business before there were any street cars. He also ran a stage to the camp here during the Civil war and was the pioneer stage man of Rochester. He likewise engaged in milling for a number of years and later turned his attention to the wholesale butcher business, being thus connected with several busi- ness enterprises which were an element in the city's growth and development. His wife died in June, 1881. They were the parents of eight children, six of whom are living: William: Ed- ward F .; Jane; George, a blacksmith of Roch- ester ; Florence ; and Henry. One son, John, was killed by the cars in Buffalo.
Edward F. Higgins was reared in the city of Rochester and was educated in the public schools. He afterward worked as an employe in a whole- sale butchering business and later in a coaching business. Seeing opportunities for himself, in 1883 he established an enterprise of his own in a small way, at No. 35 Atkinson street, and his patronage rapidly increased until in April, 1899, it necessitated his removal to larger quarters. He then opened a stable at his present location, where he has since remained, and he now owns this prop- erty, ninety-nine by one hundred and sixty feet, and another place, sixty-six by one hundred and sixty feet. Mr. Higgins has one of the best equipped livery barns in the city. He has the latest vehicles of every kind, including everything from a one-passenger vehicle to those which will carry fifty passengers. and keeps on hand all the time from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty head of horses, all of which are good animals. His patronage now is very ex- tensive, making his business profitable and he de- serves much credit for what he has accomplished, for he had no assistance when he started out in life
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