USA > New York > Saratoga County > History of Saratoga County, New York : with historical notes on its various towns > Part 39
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87
E BEN S. LAWRENCE, M. D., one of
the most successful of the talented young professional men of Saratoga county, and who has been in continuous practice at Ballston Spa since 1881, is the only surviving son of Zimri and Harriet (Smith) Lawrence, and was born in the town of Greenfield, Saratoga county, New York, April 4, 1855. He re- mained on the farm until his seventeenth year, attending the public schools in winter and spending one year in J. N. Crocker's select school at Saratoga Springs. In 1872 he en- tered Union college, where he pursued the full scientific course, and from which he was grad- uated in 1876. Two years later he entered the office of Dr. C. S. Grant, at Saratoga Springs, and began reading medicine, having decided to prepare himself for that profession. After due preparation he matriculated at the Albany Medical college, and was graduated from that well known institution in March, 1881, with the degree of M.D. In April of the same year he located at Ballston Spa, where he has conducted a large and success- ful practice ever since. For a number of years he practiced in partnership with his brotlier, Dr. Henry W. Lawrence, but since the lat- ter's death in 1889, Dr. Eben S. Lawrence
has managed his large practice alone, and is becoming very widely known as an able, con- scientious and skillful physician.
Dr. Eben S. Lawrence was married in 1885 to Jennie F. McClew, daughter of Charles N. McClew, of the village of Ballston 'Spa. Politically the Doctor is a stanch republican, and has served as coroner of Saratoga county for three years, and was also supervisor of the town of Milton for some time. He is a mem- ber of Kayaderosseras Lodge, No. 270, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, Hermion Lodge, No. 90, Knights of Pythias, and the Utopian club.
The family to which Dr. Lawrence belongs is of English descent, and ranks with the old families of this section. His paternal grand- father, Simeon Lawrence, was a prosperous farmer of this county, married Abigail Chase, and reared a large family of sons and daugh- ters. One of these sons, Zimri Lawrence (father), was born in 1807, on the old home- stead in the town of Greenfield, where he grew to manhood and received such education as the country schools afforded. After reaching man's estate he engaged in farming and fol- lowed that occupation all his life, becoming very successful and prosperous. He was a man of great energy, good judgment and strict integrity of character. In his political con- victions he was an ardent republican, and served as supervisor of his town and as deputy sheriff, besides being superintendent of the county poor for a period of nine years. His death occurred July 28, 1880, when he was in the seventy-third year of his age. In 1848 he married Harriet Smith, who still survives him, being now in the seventy-eighth year of her age. She is a native of the town of Green- field and a daughter of Levi and Elizabeth Smith, and now resides with her son, the sub- ject of this sketch. Zimri and Harriet Law- rence were the parents of two sons : Henry Webster and Eben Seward.
Dr. Henry W. Lawrence, the eldest son, received a classical education at Union col-
275
OF SARATOGA COUNTY.
lege, from which institution he was graduated in the spring of 1874, standing second in a class of sixty members. He soon after became principal of the Schuylerville high school, which post he held for two years, and then accepted the same position in the high school at South Glens Falls, where he remained one year. In the meantime he had begun the study of medicine, and in 1880 he was graduated from the Albany Medical college and commenced the practice of his profession at Ballston Spa. He became very successful, and continued in active practice until his death, January 15, 1889, at the early age of thirty-eight years. He had been a bright and earnest student, was a learned and skillful physician, and be- fore him seemed opening a brilliant and suc- cessful career in the profession to which he was devoted. But alas! for human expecta- tions.
J UDSON ADONIRAM LEWIS is a
son of Abner and Amelia Stanton (Bur- dick) Lewis, and was born in East Poultney, Rutland county, Vermont, March 19, 1840. Abner Lewis was born in Westfield, Massa- chusetts, February 27, 1787, and removed in early life to Poultney, Vermont, where he died in May, 1878, at the age of ninety-one years. He was a man of six feet in height, of powerful physique, and was one of the en- terprising and prosperous large landowners of his section. He married Amelia Stanton Burdick, who was born in Granville, Wash- ington county, New York, March 29, 1801, and died August 8, 1876, aged seventy-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were both mem- bers of the Baptist church of Poultney.
Judson A. Lewis attended Troy Conference academy, Fairfax Baptist school and San- bornton Bridge Boarding school, and after teaching for several winters was about to enter the university of Michigan, when his coun- try's need for soldiers caused him to enlist as a soldier in Co. C, 11th Vermont volunteer
regiment, under Colonel Warner. He was promoted to corporal, sergeant, commissary- sergeant, sergeant-major, second-lieutenant, first-lieutenant and captain, by brevet -- the latter for gallant and meritorious conduct in the field. Mr. Lewis was in the " Old Ver- mont Brigade." At the battle of the Opequan, September 19, 1864, Colonel Warner being ordered to command a Pennsylvania Brigade, Lieutenant Lewis was detailed in the field to accompany Colonel Warner as aide, and re- ceived a gun-shot wound in the chin the same day, during a charge of the regiment at Flint Hill, the day preceding the battle of Fisher's Hill. At the battle of Cedar Creek the brigade inpector being severely wounded, Mr. Lewis was detailed as acting inspector-general of the brigade, and served as such for sev- eral months. During the last six months of the war Mr. Lewis was aide to Gen. L. A. Grant, commanding the "Old Vermont Brigade," and was discharged at Burlington, Vermont, July 7, 1865. He has . numerous testimonials from various commanding officers attesting his bravery and efficiency as an of- ficer. After the war Mr. Lewis engaged in the drug business, first at Lancaster, Massa- chusetts, and then in the city of Brooklyn, New York. In 1870 he went to Texas and engaged in planting cotton on a large plantı- tion owned by Hon. Oakes Ames, then a member of Congress. Mr. Lewis went to Sierra Leone, Africa, in August, 1878, being employed by a New York firm of merchants, and was appointed United States consul by President Hayes, May 26, 1879, holding that office continuously till March 19, 1880, when he resigned. Upon returning to his native land Mr. Lewis purchased a handsome resi- dence in Saratoga Springs, where he resides a portion of the year, going south during the winters. Mr. Lewis is not engaged in any business, except lecturing. During about four months of the year he has lecture engage- ments, which are made by the " Star Lyceum Bureau," of New York. He is a republican
276
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
in politics, and at the present time is editor on the Saratogian.
. Mr. Lewis, on June 17, 1884, while on a visit to this country, was married to Miss Josephine L. Crans, of Brooklyn, New York. They have no children. In August of 1884, Mrs. Lewis accompanied her husband to Africa, and there she became very much in- terested in the place and people. During the five years Mrs. Lewis was in Africa she came to Brooklyn every summer. Thus she crossed the ocean ten times, traveling sixty thousand miles by sea in the five years. She was never sea sick, and enjoyed voyaging very much. Mrs. Lewis remained in Africa about seven months at a time, and had the most wonder- ful health record of any white woman, who ever went to the "West Coast," in never having a fever in all the five years. Many contract a fever in one month even. Mr. Stan- ley said her case was unprecedented.
H ON. JOHN FOLEY, an able lawyer and sound financier of Saratoga Springs, who has served as district attorney and State senator, and for several years has been presi- dent of the Citizens' National bank here, was born in County Waterford, Ireland, in 1848, and came to the United States when only four years of age. He grew to manhood in the village of Saratoga Springs, receiving his edu- cation in the common schools and at Professor Robb's academy. Although a poor boy he was animated by high ambition, and worked early and l'ate to secure the best education within his reach. His mind was early at- tracted toward the law, and notwithstanding the fact that he was without means, and had no influential friends to aid his efforts, he boldly formed the resolution to prepare him- self for that profession. As soon, therefore, as his academic studies tvere finished, he en- tered the law office of Hon. L. B. Pike, at Saratoga Springs, and under the competent instruction of that gentleman began his prepa-
ration for the duties of a profession which re- quire a high order of intellect, and which has drawn the attention and received the best thought of many of the ablest men this world has ever produced. Mr. Foley completed his legal studies, and in 1869, shortly after attain- ing his majority, was duly admitted to the bar of this State. He was soon afterward elected a justice of the peace at Saratoga Springs, which office he filled acceptably for four years, and was also chosen a member of the board of education of this village, and by successive reëlections served for a period of nine years, during three of which he was president of the board. He also served for a time as tax col- lector. In 1883 he was nominated as the democratic candidate for district attorney, and after one of the most vigorous and exciting campaigns ever known in Saratoga county, was elected by about three hundred majority, running nearly two thousand votes ahead of of his ticket.
The able manner in which Mr. Foley dis- charged his duties as district attorney seemed to increase his popularity with the people, and in the fall of 1887 he was elected State senator, to represent the eighteenth senatorial district in the senate at Albany. He participated ac- tively in the proceedings of that honorable body, and although the position has been filled by some of the best and ablest men of Sara- toga county, it was truthfully said by a biog- rapher of Mr. Foley that his "career as sena- .. tor from the eighteenth district does not suffer by comparison with that of any of his dis- tinguished predecessors."
Ex-senator Foley has frequently represented his assembly district in the State, congres- sional and senatorial conventions of the Dem- ocratic party, and was one of the New York delegates to the last National convention at Chicago (1892) which nominated Cleveland for his second successful race for the presi- dency. He is regarded as a safe and capable leader in local politics, and his reputation as a speaker is deservedly high.
277
OF SARATOGA COUNTY.
In 1888 Mr. Foley was elected president of the Citizens' National bank of Saratoga Springs, which position he has ever since oc- cupied, displaying great care, sound judgment and marked ability in financial management. He also gives some attention to the law, being associated with his former preceptor, Hon. L. B. Pike, in that and other business. Mr. Foley is an affable gentleman, of pleasing ap- pearance and marked personality, and ranks high in social as well as in business and polit- ical circles. His cheerfulness and good na- tured ways attract many friends, and his gen- uine worth of character makes permanent any. friendship once formed. He is unmarried- which, if he will excuse the suggestion, seems to be the only flaw in a career otherwise fully rounded out and eminently successful.
O
.
RVILLE D. VAUGHIN, now retired and living a life of elegant leisure at Ballston Spa, has been one of the most enter- prising and successful business men of the Empire State, and has probably traveled as extensively in this country, and seen as much of her vast domain, including the beauty and subl m'ty of its natural features and the won- derful progress of its material development, as any man now living. He is a worthy rep- resentative of an old English family, some of whose members have borne a conspicuous part in the history of New England, while others have enrolled their names in the local annals of their vicinage. Orville D. Vaughn is a son of Robert and Elizabeth (Phetneplace) Vanghn, and was born in the town of Kings- bury, Washington county, New York, April 6, 1820. As has been intimated, the Vaughns are of English extraction, and the family was carly settled in Rhode Island, where Robert Vaughn, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born and reared. Shortly after his marriage he removed to Washington county, New York, where he continued to re- side until his death, at an advanced age. His
son, Robert Vaughn (father), was born in Rhode Island, in 1791, but while yet an infant was brought by his parents to Washington county, this State, where he grew up and re- ceived an ordinary English education. After attaining manhood he married Elizabeth Phet- neplace, of that county, and engaged in farm- ing in the town of Kingsbury, where he devo- ted all his active years to agricultural pursuits. In early life he was a stanch whig in politics, and in later years a republican. A few days after reaching his majority lie enlisted in de- fense of his country, and faithfully served as a private soldier until the close of the war of 1812, when he returned to his home in Washington county. About ten years prior to his death he retired from active business, and thereafter made his home with his children. He died at the village of Stillwater, this county, in 1865, aged seventy-four years, his wife, who was of French descent, having preceded him to the grave in 1842, in the fiftieth year of her age. They were the parents of ten children, seven sons and three daughters.
Orville D. Vaughn remained on the old homestead in Washington county until he had attained his eighteenth year, receiving a good common school education, and assisting in the farm work during the summer season. He then engaged in cutting stone for the locks being built on the Champlain canal, and was thus employed for three years, after which he secured work in the marble quarries at Glens Falls, Warren county, where he remained un- til 1843. In that year Mr. Vaughn came to Saratoga Springs, this county, and embarked in the marble business on his own account. After one year at Saratoga Springs he trans- ferred his operations to Charlton, where he successfully conducted the business for a period of four years. In 1847 he removed to Ballston Spa, and here operated on an extensive scale, shipping great quantities of marble to all parts of this country, Ghina and other countries. In 1868 he retired from the marble business and removed to Washington, District of Col-
278
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
umbia, where he immediately began dealing in lumber and building material of all kinds. He soon had a prosperous trade, which he continued to enlarge until he controlled one of the finest supply depots in Washington, fill- ing contracts and orders for building material for some of the largest and most important structures ever undertaken in the capital city. He successfully conducted that extensive en- terprise until 1873, when he disposed of his interests in Washington and retired from ac- tive business. Since that time he has devoted his time principally to traveling in the United States. He has visited and spent considerable time in every one of the forty-four States of the Union, and has been in every territory ex- cept the Indian territory and Alaska. There is probably no man in this country who has traveled more extensively in his native land than has Mr. Vaughn, and he is rightly of opinion that the hosts of men and women who go to Europe every year without becoming acquainted with their own country, would do well to first visit and become familiar with the great wealth of natural scenery and the diver- sified objects of interest to be found in their own land.
In the spring of 1892 Mr. Vaughn purchased the handsome residence which is now his home at Ballston Spa. Politically he is a republi- can, having been a whig in his earlier ycars. In the fall of 1853 he was elected treasurer of Saratoga county, and reëlected in 1856, serv- ing in that important office until 1860. From 1861 to 1864 he was deputy sheriff of this county, under the late Henry H. Hathorn.
On September 9, 1851, Mr. Vaughn was married to Emily A. Tourtellott, youngest daughter of Robert Tourtellott, of Ballston Spa. Mr. Tourtellott, who was of French extraction, as the name would indicate, was born in the town of Greenfield, this county, where he grew to manhood and was educated. He learned the trades of shoemaker, tanner and currier, and located at Ballston Spa in 1845, where he remained until 1876, when he
moved to the town of Wilton, where he died in 1885, aged eighty-six years. It is related of him that he never wore glasses in his life, and could read without them up to within a short time of his death. His wife was Plicbe Swan, a daughter of Joshua and Mary Swan, whose parents were among the early settlers of Saratoga county, and came here from Horseback, Connecticut, following a bridle path marked by blazed trees. The elder Swan served as paymaster in the State militia in 1803.
R EV. BERNARD J. MCDONOUGH,
the able and popular pastor of St. Mary's Catholic church at Ballston Spa, and an earn- est and learned Christian gentleman, is a son of James and Catherine (Lynch) McDonough, and was born in the city of Albany, New York, July 6, 1840. His father was a native of the city of Dublin, Ireland, who came to the United States when only twelve years of age and located at Utica, New York. In 1826 he removed to Albany, the State capital, and re- sided in that city until his death, November 12, 1883, when in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He was a master painter by occupation and a large contractor in his line. As such he painted the Catholic cathedral at Albany when it was built, and executed many other con- tracts for the painting and decoration of large buildings. Politically he was a democrat and in religion a member of the Catholic church. In 1832 he married Catherine Lynch, a daugh- ter of Thomas Lynch, of Albany, by whom he had a family of nine children, five sons and four daughters. Mrs. McDonough died at her home in Albany, August 7, 1892, aged seventy- five years. Her father, Thomas Lynch, was a native of Donegal, Ireland, and the family came to the United States by the way of Quc- bec, Canada. They first located at Fairhaven, Vermont, being among the first Irish settlers of that section, and after a few years removed to the city of Albany, New York.
Rev. Bernard J. McDonough was educated
279
OF SARATOGA COUNTY.
at the Albany academy, St. Charles college, and Niagara seminary. He was ordained at St. Michael's seminary, Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania, in 1870, by Bishop Tobias Mullen, of Erie, that State, his bishop, Rt. Rev. John J. Conroy, of Albany, being called to Rome on official business. His first active work was done as assistant to Father Howard, at Ilion, New York, where he remained for two years. Early in 1873 he went to Camillus, Onondaga county, this State, as pastor of St. Joseph's church, where he has also had charge of the Jordan mission, and enlarged the present hand- some church. He remained at Camillus for three years and six months, engaged in earn- est and active work in behalf of his people, with whom he became very popular, and in 1 876 removed to Marcellus, same county, where he became pastor of St. Francis church, and
also had charge of the Otisco mission. In that charge he labored successfully until Oc- tober 6, 1878, when he came to Ballston Spa, Saratoga county, as pastor of St. Mary's church, where he has remained ever since. After com- ing here, in addition to his other pastoral duties, he had charge of the Charlton mission until it was attached to the mission of Galway in 1885, and also of the South Ballston mis- sion, which is still under his care. When Father McDonough took charge of St. Mary's church he found the parish in debt for the old church property, and immediately began sys- tematic efforts to pay off the debt and arrange for the erection of a larger and better church edifice. During the second year of his pas- torate he purchased the present site of St. Mary's church at a cost of ten thousand five hundred dollars, and in the spring of 1893 be- g in the erection of a handsome church build- ing of modern design, which will cost not less than forty thousand dollars when completed and ready for church purposes. The spiritual necessities of his people have been carefully looked after, and the congregation of St. Mary's church has more than doubled since he took charge. He is a courteous and scholarly
gentleman, a fine theologian, and an active and energetic pastor, who has labored faith- fully and with good success for the mental and moral advancement of his congregation. His popularity is not confined to the limits of his own church, but extends among all classes of people in Ballston Spa and the surrounding territory, where he has labored and is well known.
H ON. ESEK COWEN, whose name is known in the old and the new world as a legal authority of ability, erudition and re- search, served with distinction as a judge of the supreme court of New York from 1835 until his death in 1844. He was a son of Joseph Cowen, and a grandson of John Cowen, who came from Scotland to Scituate, Massa- chusetts, in 1656. Judge Cowen was born in Rhode Island, February 24, 1784, and was brought in 1793 by his parents to New York. After reading law and being admitted to the bar in 1810, he entered upon active practice. In 1812 he came to Saratoga Springs, twelve years later he was appointed reporter in the supreme court, and in 1828 received the ap- pointment of circuit judge, which he resigned in 1835 to take his seat on the supreme bench. While holding the latter office he died at Al- bany, this State, on February 11, 1844. While ranking high as a lawyer and a judge, his emi- nent distinction was as a jurist, whose opin- ions equaled, those of any judge of this coun- try or of England. He wrote nine volumes of supreme court reports, and was the author of the celebrated "Treatise on the Practice in Justices' Courts," and one of the authors of " Cowen's and Hill's Notes on Phillips' Evi- dence." Judge Cowen was one of the found- ers, in 1812, of the Northumberland Temper- ance society, the first temperance society of the world. He was a self-made man and is described as being over six feet in height, and of commanding presence and bearing, but withal simple and unassuming in manner.
280
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
C HARLES MASON DAVISON, a
lawyer of ability, and a worthy descend- ant of two of the most honorable families of the Empire State, possesses many of the strong and sterling traits of character for which his family has been noted for over two centuries, is a son of John M. and Sarah (Walworth) Davison, and was born at Sara- toga Springs, Saratoga county, New York, July 27, 1853. The Davisons are of English descent, and the family has been resident of New England from a very early period in the history of its settlement. One of its members in Connecticut married a Miss Miner, and re- moved to Middlebury, Vermont, where their son, Gideon Miner Davison (grandfather), was born in 1791. Mrs. Davison was a member of the Miner family that traces its ancestry back five hundred years to the time when the name Miner had its origin. A man named Bulman, who was a miner by occupation, en- listed with a hundred of his workman, and did such good service for Edward III. of Eng- land, in his war with France, that that mon- arch rewarded him with a crest and coat of arms. From that time he was known-from his occupation-by the name of Miner. Some of his descendants came to Connecticut about 1680, and from one of them in lineal descent was Mrs. Davison, the mother of Gideon M. Davison, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Gideon M. Davison received a good common-school education, and learned the trade of printer. He was in, the printing business for some time with a Mr. Fay, at Rutland, Vermont. In 1817 he came to Sara- toga Springs, where he started, in April 18 of that year, The Saratoga Sentinel, which lie dis- posed of in 1842 to Wilbur & Palmer. He had established in the meantime a book office, which he conducted for several years after selling his paper. He served one term as clerk of the court of chancery, was a ruling elder of the Presbyterian church for over forty years, and during his long and activo life was known as a man of sterling integrity and spot-
less character. He never wearied in advocat- ing public improvements, and one who knew him well, wrote of him that he "was one of the old line of men who early identified them - selves with the growth and prosperity of the village of Saratoga Springs, and contributed by their great energy of character, versatility of resource, and active personal effort in se- curing the future welfare and position of the village." He died October 1, 1869, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. By his marriage to Sarah Mason, a direct descendant. of John Mason of colonial fame, he had four children : John M., Clement M., a banker of Detroit, Mich gan ; Charles A., a lawyer of New York city; and Sarah M. John M. Davison (father) was born March 9, 1816, at Rutland, Vermont, and at an early age was brought by his parents to Saratoga Springs, where lie remained until his appointment as register in chancery neces- sitated his removal to Albany, where he re- sided until the court of chancery was abolished in 1848, when he returned to Saratoga Springs, where he lived until the time of his death on March 8, 1890. He became president of the Saratoga & Whitehall, now Delaware & Hud- son, railroad. He served as president of that road for fifteen years, and in 1865 retired from active life. In politics he was a democrat, and also was a member of the Presbyterian church. He married Sarah Walworth, a daughter of Chancellor Reuben Hyde and Maria Ketchum (Averill) Walworth, who died January 8, 1877. She was a native of Platts- burg, this State, and a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. Her father, Chan- cellor Reuben H. Walworth (maternal grand- father) was one of the most distinguished jurists New York ever produced.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.