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 76
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for a long period. He lived to the very venerable age of ninety-two years and his death then resulted from an accident.
His son, Garrett Smith, father of our subject, was reared at Clarkson upon the home farm and when a young man engaged in general merchandis- ing in the village. He carried on commercial pursuits in connection with general agricultural interests, owning a farm near the town. His life covered but a comparatively brief period, for he passed away when his son Andrew was only about nine years of age. He had married Margaret Vanderbeck, and unto them were born two sons who are yet living, the younger being Henry Emerson, of the Rochester Marshmallow Com- pany, Rochester, New York.
Owing to his father's early death, Andrew V. Smith had but limited educational privileges, at- tending the country schools until about twelve years of age, when he came to Rochester to live with an uncle, J. L. ReQua. Here he was sent to public school No. 6 and later had the advan- tage of a year's training in Fairfield Academy. When fifteen years of age, however, he entered upon business life as an apprentice to A. T. Leg- gett, harnessmaker at the corner of Stone and Main streets in Rochester. He served a three years' term of indenture and during the first year received but thirty dollars, during the second vear thirty-five and during the third year forty dollars. He made good use of his time, however, and became a skilled mechanic. He was thus well known in his trade and when he had completed his apprenticeship was well qualified to enter busi- ness life in connection with harnessmaking. How- ever, before becoming a factor in manufacturing or commercial circles he spent two terms as a stu- dent in Parma Institute in order to improve his education. For four years thereafter he worked at harnessmaking and while thus employed in New Jersey he manufactured a set of harness which won first premium at the state fair in New Jersey
Upon President Lincoln's first call for seventy- five thousand troops he gave proof of his loyalty and his valor by enlisting as a member of the Third New Jersey Volunteer Infantry. It was thought that the rebellion would be easily crushed out in three months and thus the term of enlist- ment covered only that period. Later the New Jersey legislature presented medals to all of the men who enlisted under that first call. In 1862 Mr. Smith returned to Rochester and engaged in the harnessmaking business on his own account, opening a shop for the manufacture of harness and horse furnishing goods. He soon gained a reputation for fine workmanship that extended throughout the United States and some of the European countries, and he received orders from some of the most famous turfmen and wealthy citizens of the entire country, many of the most
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famous record-breaking trotters being fitted out by Mr. Smith. He was thus enabled to command excellent prices and conducted a very profitable business until 1892, when he retired from the manufacture of harness and became identified witlı the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with which he is now associated. The insurance business has proved congenial to him and he has become known as one of the most extensive and successful in- surance men of Rochester.
January 6, 1864, was the marriage day of An- drew V. Smith and Miss Catherine Louise Goetchius, who was of French ancestry and a resi- dent of Allendale, New Jersey. They became the parents of three children, but Edith Louise is the only one now living. Their son, Frank G. Smith, was captain of the First Separate Company. From his boyhood days he was filled with the spirit of the soldier and his enthusiasm in mat- ters pertaining to the National Guard and the company of which he was a member was so great that it attracted attention almost as soon as he shouldered a rifle in the state service. This was not his first military experience, for several years before he had been a pupil at the military school at Aurora, New York, where he laid the founda- tion of the broad knowledge of military affairs that in later years caused him to be called upon more than any other officer in this city to officiate at competitive drills or to settle disputes on points of military law. He enlisted as a private in the First Separate Company, as a charter member of the organization, May 19, 1890. He showed such proficiency as a soldier that in less than five months he was warranted corporal and eighteen months later was warranted sergeant, with rank from July 3, 1901. He had attained such excellence that when the company arrived in Peekskill during the summer of 1896 he was made sergeant-major of the provisional regiment. Later came the Spanish war and Captain Smith was one of the first of the company to express a desire to volun- teer. Captain L. Bordman Smith was then the commanding officer. When the second lieutenancy became vacant Frank G. Smith was chosen to fill that position. The company was ordered to Camp Black at Hempstead, Long Island, and later to Camp Alger, Virginia, where Captain Smith con- tracted a cold that developed into tuberculosis. After the company returned from active service and was awaiting the order to muster out. the first lieutenancy became vacant and Frank G. Smith was again promoted. In the Spanish war he became known as an ardent photographer. He took several hundred photographs of camp scenes, which were later made into stereopticon views and used in giving an illustrated lecture that nearly filled the drill hall of the armory. After the com- pany was mustered out Frank G. Smith, who had
been the ranking line sergeant of the company at the beginning of the war, went back to that posi- tion upon leaving the United States service. He had previously begun the agitation that led to the reorganization of the company and his election to the captaincy was a foregone conclusion. His death came as a great blow to his family and many friends, for he was one of the most popular young men in military and social circles in Ro- chester.
Andrew V. Smith is a member of Genesee Falls lodge, No. 560, F. & A. M., and has also taken the degrees of the chapter, the council, the command- ery, the consistory, the Shrine and the Grotto. He is a stalwart republican in politics and for over thirty years has been a trustee in the Brick church of Rochester. His life has been characterized by steady advancement, not only in business circles and successes, but also in the development of those characteristics which command honor and respect in every land and clime.
CHARLES O. BENNETT.
Charles O. Bennett was born in the town of Parma, February 20, 1863. He is a son of George Bennett, also a native of Monroe county, born in the town of Parma, in 1828, and Tamson Ann (Roe) Bennett, born in Albion, Orleans county, New York, in 1838. The father passed away in 1898, survived by three children. He was a promi- nent republican and a faithful member of the Methodist church.
Charles O. Bennett was educated in the public schools but became very early interested in the evaporating business, in which his father was actively engaged. Accordingly he left school and worked with his father, operating their large plant. He was thus prepared to carry on business when the elder Mr. Bennett passed away. That he has met with success is hardly necessary to state, for his business is now so well known throughout the county. His farm consists of one hundred and twenty-six acres of choice land, forty-five acres being devoted to apple, pear, peach, cherry and plum trees. Upon this farm Mr. Bennett has placed a large evaporating plant, which has a capacity of twelve hundred bushels for each twenty-four hours. In the fall of 1906 his business amounted to seventy-three thousand bushels of apples, evaporated in twelve weeks. He employs forty men and women in his establish- ment during the busy season and has the largest and best equipped plant in New York state. He has not been contented to follow along established lines, but has invented many of the improvements that now contribute to the
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success of his plant. His own methodical habits have so permeated the business that it is interesting to visit the plant and see how easily and rapidly all things move along. After the apple is placed upon the fork of the parer by the operator it is not touched again by hand until it comes out ready for being packed for shipment. It is carried by means of elevators and carriers to the different parts required to prepare it for the kiln. The apples are all assorted by means of a power assorter, which takes out the small fruit, all the dirt and leaves, so that every- thing is conducted in a most sanitary manner. It has never been necessary for the state to make any suggestion at this plant, for Mr. Bennett has always realized that it was to the interest of his business.
Mr. Bennett was married to Louise Hartman, who was born in the town of Greece, November 1, 1862. Their union has been blessed with an in- teresting family of six children: Mary L., born December 14. 1885; Charles W., born August 2, 1887; Annie M., born January 25 ,1889 ; Elsie G., born April 12, 1892; William S., born August 22, 1896; and George C., born September 11, 1902.
In his political views Mr. Bennett is inde- pendent. and he is a member of the Masonic lodge of Hilton, New York. For thirty years he has been a much respected and highly honored citizen of this community, and he has always given his hearty support to any measure that would add to the public good. While his business has occupied much of his time, he has always found leisure to enjoy his home and his family and realizes that here he finds his greatest happiness.
LUCIUS W. ROBINSON.
Lucius Waterman Robinson finds an appropriate place in the history of those men of business and enterprise in the state of New York whose force of character, whose sterling integrity, whose good sense in the management of complicated affairs and marked success in establishing large indus- tries and bringing to completion great schemes of trade and profit have contributed in an eminent degree to the development of the vast resources of this part of the country.
His life record began in Hudson, Ohio, Sep- tember 19, 1855. His father, Warren Robinson, was an architect and contractor. The mother, Mrs. Sarah (Woodward) Robinson, was a native of Maine. In private schools of New Haven, Connecticut, L. W. Robinson acquired his pre- liminary education preparatory to entrance into Yale College, from which he was graduated in
1877 on the completion of a course in mining and civil engineering. Thus well equipped for prac- tical and responsible business duties, he entered the employ of the Blossburg Coal Company, of Arnot, Pennsylvania, owned by Jay Gould. His duties connected him with railroad work and coal mining operations in Clearfield, Jefferson, Indiana and Armstrong counties of Pennsylvania. He has continued in this line of business to the pres- ent time with unusual success, in which connec- tion he has set in motion the occult machinery of business which, materializing into many forms of practical utility, has been a source of financial benefit in the communities where he has operated and at the same time has gained for him a place among the most prominent and prosperous busi- ness men of western New York. He is now presi- dent of the Rochester & Pittsburg Coal & Iron Company, the Jefferson & Clearfield Coal & Iron Company, the Pittsburg Gas & Coal Company, the Cowanshannock Coal & Coke Company, operating actively in connection with all of these corpora- tions, the operating offices of which are located at Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, with general offices in Rochester. He has also extended his operations and his investments to other fields, being interested in various other mining and financial enterprises of Pennsylvania, at the same time acting as presi- dent of the Punxsutawney National Bank, the Reynoldsville & Falls Creek Railroad and the Rural Valley Railroad. He is likewise a director in the Indiana Trust Company of Indiana, Penn- sylvania.
Mr. Robinson maintains his home in Rochester, . residing at No. 334 East avenue. He was mar- ried September 9, 1890, to Miss Dolly De Moss, a daughter of Louis De Moss, a grain and milling operator of Coshocton, Ohio. They have two daughters and a son: Mrs. F. H. Gordon, living at Brockport, New York; Ruth and Lucius W., at home. The family residence is built after plans drawn according to the Italian style of architect- ure. It is entirely new to this country and in fact there is nothing like it outside the classic city of Florence. It is, moreover, the only fire- proof residence in Rochester.
Mr. Robinson is a member of the Theta Psi, a college fraternity, the Genesee Valley Club, the Rochester Country Club and of various clubs in Pennsylvania. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, and he belongs to the Presbyterian church. He is not slow to assist in furthering plans and movements for the public good and his tangible co-operation can be counted upon in this connection. He does not seek to fig- ure in any public light save that of a business man. One of the most prominent characteristics of his successful business career is that his vision has never been bounded by the exigencies of the mo- ment, but has covered as well the possibilities and
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opportunities of the future. This has led him into extensive undertakings, bringing him into marked prominence in industrial and commercial circles.
EDMUND P. WILLIS.
Edmund P. Willis was a representative of one of the families whose names have been associated with Rochester's history from pioneer days down to the present and have always been synonymous with advancement and progress here, standing for all that works for the public good and brings about substantial improvement. From an early epoch Edmund P. Willis was associated with busi- ness interests in Rochester, being for a long period connected with the drug trade and with banking. He settled in this city in 1836, when it was a com- paratively small and inconsequential town upon the western frontier of New York. He was at that time a young man of eighteen years, his birth having occurred in Queens county, Long Island, in December, 1817. His parents, Henry and Phoebe (Post) Willis, were also natives of Queens county, where they spent their entire lives, the father following the occupation of farming.
Edmund P. Willis is indebted to the public schools of his home locality for the educational privileges he enjoyed and as he was only eighteen years of age when he arrived in Rochester he was also for a time a student in the schools of this · city. He soon entered business life, however, forming a partnership in 1838 with Isaac Post, as a wholesale dealer in drugs at No. 4 Exchange strect. For many years he was connected witlı the business and in fact was one of the oldest drug merchants of the city for a long period. The en- terprise was successful from the beginning and Mr. Willis continued active in its management and conduct until his health became impaired through close application and unfaltering diligence. He then retired from that line of activity but the business is still carried on under the firm style of the J. K. Post Drug Company, wholesalers, at No. 17 East Main street. When the Commercial Bank of Rochester was established he became one of its founders and leading stockholders, was chosen a director and continued in that official connection with the institution throughout his re- maining days. During the later years of his life he practically lived retired, although he spent much time at the bank. He was an expert book- keeper and looked after the books of the drug company and also examined the books of the bank.
Mr. Willis was married twice. He first wedded Miss Julia Lawton, who died a year and a half after their marriage. In 1853 he was joined in
wedlock to Mrs. Sarah L. (Kirby) Hollowell, who was born Jannary 16, 1818, and was the widow of Jeffries Hollowell, who died here soon after their marriage. The death of Mr. Willis occurred on the 14th of April, 1882, and was the occasion of deep and sincere regret among his many friends.
His political allegiance was given unswervingly to the republican party and he was a strong anti- slavery man. Both he and his wife were members of the Friends church, but Mrs. Willis is now a member of the Unitarian church. She owns a large and attractive home at No. 93 Plymouth avenue, where she went to live with her husband in 1861. She is happy in the memory of his hon- orable career and upright life. He displayed fi- delity in friendship, loyalty in citizenship, honor in business and devotion to the home. His name is inseparably interwoven with Rochester's com- mercial and financial progress and his history therefore deserves a prominent place in its annals.
JOHN P. PALMER.
John P. Palmer, assistant cashier of the Alli- ance Bank of Rochester and president of the Pal- mer Real Estate Investment Company, has spent his entire life in this city, where his birth occurred in 1847. His parents were James and Elizabeth Palmer, the former of the Palmer Fire Works Company, now living at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. The mother, however, is de- ceased.
Passing through successive grades in the public schools, John P. Palmer eventually became a stu- dent in the high school at Rochester and later entered the University of Rochester on a scholar- ship from the high school. He completed his literary course by graduation with the class of 1868, and taking up the study of law, was ad- mitted to the bar and for five years engaged in practice, during which time he was candidate on the republican ticket for municipal court judge. Entering commercial circles he became secretary and treasurer of the Warner Company, in which capacity he served for several years, while his connection with banking interests dates from 1898, in which year he entered the Alliance Bank, and now occupies the position of first assistant cashier. For two years he was secretary and treasurer of the Rochester Clearing House. His efforts have likewise been extended to other fields of business operation and he is now president of the Palmer Real Estate Investment Company.
In 1879 John P. Palmer was married to Miss Margaret E. Syme, and to them were born two sons. The wife and mother died about three years ago. In his political views Mr. Palmer is a stal-
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wart republican, although not an office seeker. Hc belongs to the Genesee Valley and Country Clubs -organizations in which he is popular by reason of the social, genial nature which wins him friends wherever he goes. He is secretary of the board of trustees of the Third Presbyterian church.
GLEZEN F. WILCOX.
Glezen F. Wilcox, whose active work in literary and public lines has made him well known, not only in Monroe county and in western New York, but even beyond the boundaries of the state, main- tains his home in Fairport. His birth occurred on the 8th of April, 1836, on a farm in Perinton, and he is a representative of an old American family. Tradition says that the first of the Wilcox family in this country were three brothers who came from Wales or were the descendants of Welsh ancestors. They settled in Rhode Island and the greater number of the representatives of the name of Wilcox in this country can probably trace their ancestry back to one of these three brothers. The paternal great-grandfather was Elnathan Wilcox, a Baptist preacher, and the first knowledge we have of him was as a resident of Simsbury on the Connecticut river in the state of Connecticut. He removed from there to the town of West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and after- ward to the town of East Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York. This was about 1789 and he was one of the first settlers of that section of the state, where he remained for several years prior to his death. His son, Enoch Wilcox, grandfather of our subject, aided in the pioneer development of Ontario county, assisting in its reclamation from an unbroken wilderness and its conversion into a productive farming district. William Wil- cox, a great-uncle of our subject, served for seven years in the Revolutionary war, participated in the battle of Bunker Hill, and he afterward re- ceived a pension from the government in recogni- tion for the aid which he had rendered in the cause of liberty.
William Wilcox, father of Glezen F. Wilcox, was born in East Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, on the 4th of November, 1793. Removing to Monroe county, he purchased in 1834 the farm upon which his youngest son, Glezen, was born, and the two brothers of the latter were Francis M. and Seymour G. Wilcox. The former, a physi- cian and surgeon, served throughout the Civil war as surgeon at Mead's headquarters and later lo- cated at Rochester, Michigan, where he engaged in the practice of medicine for twenty-five years. Subsequently he removed to Nebraska to look after his landed interests and there died in the year 1891. Seymour G. Wilcox became an attorney
and for many years practiced law in Rochester. He afterward removed to Omaha, Nebraska, in 1880, and in 1900 he returned to Monroe county, New York, broken in health, after which he spent his remaining days upon the farm of his younger brother, Glezen F. Wilcox.
The last named acquired a liberal education in the schools of Lima and of Rochester and further supplemented his intellectual training by study in Heidelberg, Germany. At the age of twenty and twenty-one he traveled widely on the British Isles, in France, Germany and Italy, on foot, with knapsack and staff, walking more than three thousand miles. As the result of his travels he wrote a series of descriptive letters under the title of "Europe Afoot and Alone," which were pub- lished in Moore's Rural New Yorker and attracted wide and favorable attention. Returning to his home after a couple of years, broadened by that knowledge, culture and experience which only travel can bring, he resumed the occupation of farming, to which he had been reared and to which he has given considerable supervision throughout his entire life, although his real life work has been of a literary character. He is a very forceful writer, with clear, lucid and pleasing style, and he continued his literary work as a contributor to several journals on rural topics. He has been a student of the agricultural and horticultural de- velopment and progress of the country and has been an element of no small force in the advance- ment which has been attained in those directions. He has also published many sketches of "Boat and Tent Life" in the northern wilderness and on the Great Lakes. For several years he was associated with D. D. T. Moore as editor of the Rural New Yorker, then published in Rochester, but declined to go to New York at the time of the removal of the paper to that city and in consequence severed his connection with it. In 1871, associated with A. A. Hopkins, he established the Rural Home, a rural and literary journal, in Rochester, but at the end of a year sold his interest in the paper and retired from active newspaper work. He has, however, at different times written articles which have attracted widespread attention. Among his writings in recent years was a series on the Phelps & Gorham purchase, written for a local paper and which received much favorable comment from the general press.
In 1861 Mr. Wilcox was married to Miss Ada- line C. Goodrich, a daughter of W. K. Goodrich, of Fairport, and their only child, Glezen G., was born October 13, 1868. The family home is still maintained on the old farm in the town of Perin- ton, which was the birthplace of Mr. Wilcox. He has been very active and prominent in public af- fairs, serving as administrator of estates, as asses- sor, supervisor and in other positions of public trust. In politics he is independent. He supports
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the Baptist church and gives hearty co-operation to all measures and movements for the general good. It would be tautological in this connection to enter into any series of statements as showing him to be a man of broad mind and scholarly at- tainments, for these have been. shadowed forth between the lines of this review. Aside from the reputation he has won in editorial and literary circles, however, he is well known by reason of his public spirit and devotion to the general welfare, his kindly purposes and his fidelity to high ideals of public and private life.
GEORGE L. MINER.
George L. Miner, born in Genoa, New York, September 1, 1856, can trace an unbroken line of honorable ancestry to England as far back as 1620. His parents were William O. and Harriet (Avery) Miner, natives of Genoa, New York. Two children were born to them: George Lee; and Ida Ailsworth, who married Henry D. Rose, of Cortland, New York, and died in October, 1888. The father was a farmer, who died in the year 1870 at the age of fifty-six years in the old homestead owned and occupied by the Miner fam- ily for over one hundred years. The paternal grandfather, William Miner, a native of Connecti- cut, was one of the early settlers of Genoa, New York, and was a prominent Mason in his day. His wife was Laura (Ailsworth) Miner, of Ver- mont, and to their union was born two daughters and three sons.
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