USA > New York > Saratoga County > History of Saratoga County, New York : with historical notes on its various towns > Part 46
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J. JUDD DAYTON, a prominent and influential citizen, and one of the young and progressive business men of Corinth, is a son of the late Rev. James and Laura (Barton) Dayton, and was born at Stony Creek, Warren county, New York, January 21, 1863. He was reared principally at Corinth, and after attending Greenwich High school and Mid- dlebury academy entered Troy Conference academy, at Poultney, Vermont, from which excellent educational institution he was grad- uated in the class of 1881. Leaving the acad- emy he was engaged successively as a clerk in his father's store and in a dry goods house at Saratoga Springs until 1885. In that year he embarked at Corinth in the mercantile business, in which he has been successfully engaged there ever since. His present busi- ness establishment is on Maple street. Two large rooms, fifty-two by twenty-four and
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twenty-six feet in dimensions, are stocked by one of the largest and best assortments of dry goods, groceries, provisions, hardware, cloth- ing and footwear to be found in the State, outside of the cities. He carries full lines of men and boy's furnishing goods of all styles and prices, and makes a specialty of rubber coats and mackintoshes, while his footwear, for men, women and children, is all that can be desired. The steady growth and prosperity of his establishment has been in keeping with the energy and enterprise that he has dis- played in its management.
On January 12, 1888, Mr. Dayton married Mary L. Leavens, daughter of Darius Leav- ens, of Hadley, and to their union have been born two children : Judd Kenyon and James Barton.
In politics Mr. Dayton has always given the Republican party an active support. He was town clerk for four years, acted as village treasurer for two years, and in 1889 was ap- pointed postmaster at Corinth, which position he has held up to the present time. He is a member of Corinth Lodge, No. 174, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows; and Talla- hatchie Lodge, No. 229, Improved Order of Red Men.
The Dayton family is of Scotch lineage, and Joel Dayton, the paternal grandfather of J. Judd Dayton, was a farmer and life-long resident of the town of Hadley, this county. He married Jane Cameron, and of their sons, one was Rev. James Dayton, the father of the subject of this sketch.
Rev. James Dayton was born in the town of Hadley, September 1, 1820. He assisted his father in farming until he attained his majority. He was studious when a boy, and under the influence of a Christian mother, at sixteen years of age united with the Methodist Episcopal church. He pursued a theological course at Poultney seminary, of Vermont, was licensed to preach, and in 1843 left the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal to unite with the Wesleyan Methodist church, because the latter
adjured all connection with slavery and slave holders. He continued in the ministry until his death, doing circuit and evangelical work and holding regular pastorates. For several years he was engaged in the mercantile busi- ness at Corinth, yet he never allowed his store to take any necessary time from his ministerial labors, and his dealings with his patrons were such as to win their respect and confidence. He was a man in whom the people at large had confidence, and hence his great power to advise, counsel, console and comfort all who came to him in hours of trouble and affliction. Mr. Dayton married Laura Barton, who was a daughter of William C. Barton, of DeKalb, St. Lawrence county, and died February 22, 1882, at fifty-six years of age. During the fifty years of his ministry he married many couples, was instrumental in the conversion of a great number, and attended upward of twenty-five hundred funerals. He rested from his labors on October 15, 1892, when in the seventy-second year of his age, and his remains are entombed in Corinth cemetery.
In speaking of the life, character and work of Rev. James Dayton, his friend, Rev. S. H. Foster, says: " Rev. James Dayton was one of those men. He studied not only to preach well, but to live well. By a good example, kindness of heart and pleasant words he drew men to himself and was thus enabled to exert an influence over them always for their good. Perhaps there was no man in this community who was more universally beloved and re- spected than he. There was something magi- cal in his example, for men always spoke well of him, and what he said and did most men thought was right. Mr. Dayton attended the first Wesleyan Methodist camp meeting which was held in Vermont. Here he was called upon to preach, and being still young and very diffi- dent, and having never preached before a body of this character, he hesitated, but finally consented and retired to the woods near by for prayer. While there in prayer he had what he denominated a heavenly vision. The
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Savior appeared to him, showed him His wounded brow, side, hands and feet, and bade him go preach My gospel, promising His presence and blessing upon his ministry. He described the vision as being similar to that of the Savior's transfiguration. He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but went immediately to the camp ground where they had been waiting long for him and preached one of the most affecting, spiritual and power- ful sermons that I ever heard. He seemed imbued with the spirit, and a Pentacostal bless- ing fell upon the people during his discourse. Mr. Dayton, for a number of years before his death, had been vice-president of the Saratoga Bible society. He was a member of the Champlain Wesleyan Methodist conference, and in 1891 was a delegate to the general con- ference which met at Grand Rapids, Michigan. His wife, who shared with him the burdens of his active life, passed on before him to the heavenly city, where with her daughter Lillie, who died in infancy, and her daughter Helen, a young woman who died in 1888, they have waited with beckoning hands his coming. His death was peaceful, and his five children who survive him are comforted in their be- reavement in the thought that father heard his Master, whom he had served so long and faithfully, say: 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'" At his funeral a sheaf of wheat, pre- sented by Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Parmenter, represented his ripeness in age and fitness for the future life. The tea roses and carnations, sent by his sister-in-law and nicce, Mrs. L. M. Glasgow and Mrs. C. C. Sackett, of Canan- daigua ; and the laurel wreath, palms and white roses, presented by his loved ones herc, were emblems of the affection which they cherish for him. In closing this sketch we may say in the words of Fuller : "Lying on his death bed, he bequeaths to each of his parishioners his precepts and example for a legacy. And they in requital erect every one a momument for him in their hearts."
F ARRINGTON L. MEAD, Ph. D., a
graduate of Syracuse university, and the popular editor of the Mechanicville Mercury, one of the interesting and progressive weekly papers of the State, is a son of Lewis and Almeda H. (Farrington) Mead, and was born at Burnt Hills, Saratoga county, New York, November II, 1850. He attended Fairfield and Falley seminaries, and spent one year at Cazenova seminary, from which he was grad- ated in 1874. The same year he entered Syra- cuse university and was graduated therefrom in the class of 1878, receiving from his alma mater the degree of Ph. D. While attending the university he was editor of the University Herald, and served for four years on the staff of the Syracuse Standard. Leaving Syracuse, he was editor for two years of the Citizen, at Ilion, this State, then owned by E. Reming- ton & Sons, the celebrated manufacturers. At the end of that time he formed a partnership with G. W. Weaver, a former classmate, and purchased the Citizen, of which he was man- aging editor until 1883, when he disposed of his interest in the paper to Mr. Weaver, in order to purchase his present paper, the Me- chanicville Mercury, which was then known as the Mechanicville Era. Mr. Mead owns the fine Mercury business block, and several valuable lots at Mechanicville, besides some other desirable property. He was a republi- can in politics until 1888, when he changed his political views on the tariff, and has since supported the Democratic party. In 1885, he was appointed postmaster at Mechanic- ville, by President Arthur, and after serving through Cleveland's first term, he resigned three months before the expiration of his time. He is a member of Delta Kappa Ep- silon college fraternity ; llion Lodge, No. 591, Free and Accepted Masons, and the Mechan- icville Methodist Episcopal church, of whose Sunday school he was superintendent for some time.
January 30, 1879, Mr. Mead was united in marriage with Lillian C. Clark, a daughter of
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Dr. Orlando C. and Mary B. (Bell) Clark, and a granddaughter of Gen. Isaac Bell, of Weedsport, New York. To Mr. and Mrs. Mead have been born three children : Lillian M., Farrington C., deceased, and Lewis C.
April 1, 1883, Farrington L. Mead issued the first number of the Mechanicville Mercury, which has continued to grow in public favor until it now circulates throughout Saratoga county, and to some extent in adjoining coun- ties. Mr. Mead has sought to make a lively and interesting local newspaper, and has suc- ceeded. In connection with his paper he has established a first-class job office.
Farrington L. Mead is of Dutch English descent, and his paternal grandfather, Lewis Mead, sr., was a native of Connecticut, and became an early settler in the section of Sar- atoga county of which he was a resident from his early manhood until his death in 1852. Lewis Mead, sr., married Esther Husted, who was a member of the same family of which the Husteds of Waterford and Stillwater are descendants. She died and left five children: Jesse, Reuben, Lewis (father), Betsey, dead, and Mary Ann June. After her death Mr. Mead wedded her sister, Sarah Husted, by whom he had two children : Edwin and Anson A. Lewis Mead (father), was born May 14, 1826, at Burnt Hills, and received a good English education. Some years after his mar- riage he removed to near the village of Her- kimer, in Herkimer county, where he now owns two farms of three hundred acres each, and is extensively engaged in farming and dairying. On one farm the milk from his dairy is sent to market, while on the other the milk is used for making cheese. Mr. Mead is one of the largest land owners of Herkimer county, and has acquired his means by his own indus- try and judicious management. He is a re- publican in politics and has been for many years an official in the Herkimer Methodist Episcopal church, of which ex-United States Senator Warner Miller, is a member. He married Almeda Farrington, and to their union
have been born two sons and four daughters: Farrington L., Helen A., dead, Adella Kay, Gertrude, dead, Florence and Grant H. Mrs. Mead, who was born April 27, 1825, is a daughter of John Farrington, who was of English lineage, and whose father, it is claimed, brought the first two-wheeled vehicle-a cart- into Herkimer county. John Farrington had a brother who went to Canada, where he op- erated the first cheese factory of that province, and served as president of the Canadian Dai- rymens' association. John Farrington owned one thousand acres of land and a large portion of the village of Middleville, in Herkimer county, where he had an extensive cotton mill. He married Sophronia Johnson, and their children were: Cephas, Betsey, Parmelia, Wesley, Horace G., Mrs. Almeda Mead, Fran- ces and Varnum.
C APT. CHARLES H. HOLDEN, pro-
prietor of the Holden house of Saratoga Springs, and who, as a steamboat captain and a railroad conductor for ten years, carried thous- ands of passengers, without ever having an accident by which a life was lost or any one ser- iously injured, is a son of Cyrus A. and Lavinia (Hard) Holden, and was born at Arlington, Bennington county, Vermont, January 28, 1825. He was reared on the farm, received his education at Ball's seminary of Hoosic Falls, Rensselaer county, this State, and in 1845 became a clerk on a steamboat plying between Troy and New York city, on the Hudson river. After serving as a clerk for four years he was made captain of the steam- boat Troy, which he commanded for one year. He was then, in 1856, appointed as agent for the Troy line of steamboats, and had his office at Troy until 1860, when he resigned to be- come a passenger conductor on the Rensselaer & Saratoga railroad, which position he held up to 1866. In that year he became station and freight agent of the Rensselaer & Sara- toga road at Saratoga Springs, and served in
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that capacity until 1875, when he resigned to assume charge of his present hotel, the Holden house, which he had purchased in 1869. The Holden house is a large four-story brick build- ing, on Broadway street, with accommodations for one hundred and twenty-five guests. The interior of the house more than fulfills the ex- pectation awakened by its many external at- tractions. It is furnished in good style and taste throughout. It is kept in every respect up to the metropolitan standard, and for the last few years has only been open to the public from May to October, yet during that time it is crowded with guests from nearly every State in the Union.
On December 24, 1863, Mr. Holden mar- ried Mary C. Young, daughter of Nicholas E. Young, of Saratoga Springs. They have four children, three sons and one daughter: Charles H., George D., Rockwell P. and Tillie Y.
Captain Holden is a member of Bethesda Episcopal church, and has always been a re- publican in politics. He has served as a member of the boards of education, health and village trustees, sewer, and was chairman of the building committee of the present water works. In Masonry he has passed through lodge, chapter, council, commandery, temple and consistory, and is a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. He is a noble of Mecca Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic Shrine of New York city, and in 1879 was grand commander of the Grand Com- mandery of the State of New York. He is a pleasant, courteous gentleman, and has been remarkably successful during his many years of active life.
The Holden family is one of the early set- tled English families of Massachusetts. After the Revolutionary struggle, among those who went from the Bay State to the lands west of the Green mountains in Vermont, was John S. Holden (grandfather), of Barre, Massachil- setts. He settled at the village of Arlington, on the Batten Kill, in Bennington county, ยท southwestern Vermont, where he died on his
farm at eighty-eight years of age. He served in the war of 1812, and married Abbie Chipp- man, of Sunderland, Vermont. One of their sons, Cyrus A. Holden (father), was born in Barre, Massachusetts, in 1793, and died at Arlington, Vermont, December 25, 1891, at the wonderfully advanced age of ninety-seven years and four months. He was a prosperous farmer, and an active member of the Episco- pal church, and in politics supported the whig party until its dissolution, when he became a republican. He married Lavinia Hard, of Arlington, who died in December, 1884, when in the eighty-seventh year of her age. She was a daughter of Belus Hard, of Arlington, Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Holden had four children : Charles H. (subject), Cyrus D., George B., and Willard.
D R. P. W. WEED, now the oldest prac- ticing dentist at Saratoga Springs, and one of the organizers of the first State Dental society, is a gentleman widely known in his profession, and universally esteemed as a citi- zen. He is a son of Seneca and Catharine P. (Drake) Weed, and was born in the town of Greenfield, Saratoga county, New York, De- cember 22, 1833. The Wecds are of English- French extraction, and the family was planted in America about the close of the seventeenth century. Noah Weed, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born at Stam- ford, Connecticut, but removed to Saratoga county, New York, in 1758, and located in the town of Greenfield, becoming one of the earli- est settlers in his section. Here he resided until his death in 1840, and reared a large family. He had a fair education and was one of the first to become interested in the science of electricity. He constructed a number of electrical machines, and experimented with the subtle fluid in many ways, coming near its practical application to telegraphy about the time Morse was engaged in perfecting his first crude apparatus. His machines were turned
.
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by hand, and people came hundreds of miles to witness their operations and have the cur- rent applied to themselves. A number of remarkable cures were effected, and Mr. Weed won quite a reputation as an electrician, hav- ing his name coupled with Morse's for a time. If his attention had been earlier called to the subject, and he had then had the means to prosecute his researches and experiments, he might have been the inventor of the modern telegraph, that miracle of the nineteenth cen- tury. One of his sons was Seneca Weed (father), who was born on the old homestead in the town of Greenfield, July 20, 1797, and was a resident of that town ail his life. He died December 6, 1887, at the remarkable age of ninety-one years, and his remains rest in the Union cemetery, in the town of Milton. He was a farmer by vocation, and also en- gaged for a time in manufacturing lime and cement. Being a man of excellent judgment, industrious and energetic, he eventually be- came quite prosperous and accumulated a handsome competency. In religion he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and took an active part in support of the va- rious interests of his denomination. During his earlier years he was a whig in politics, but became a republican upon the formation of that political party in New York, and adhered to that organization until his death. In 1817 he married Catharine P. Drake, of Saratoga county. She was born in the town of Milton in 1795, was a life long member of the Meth- odist Episcopal church, and died at her home there in 1874, in the seventy-ninth year of her age. They had a family of ten children, five sons and five daughters : William W., Jared, Albert E., P. W., C. W., Amanda, Electa, Aurelia, Dorcas and Mary. Dr. P. W. Weed was reared on the old homestead until he was seventeen, attending the schools of his neighborhood and acquiring a good practical education. When seventeen years of age he went to Glens Falls, where his brother, William W. Weed, was engaged in
merchandising, and entering the store was engaged for two years as a clerk and sales- man. He then taught school one winter and afterward began the study of dentistry with Dr. Charles E. Carpenter, of Saratoga Springs. Later he studied under Dr. Charles H. Payn. In December, 1859, Dr. Weed opened a dental office in Saratoga Springs, and began a practice which has been con- tinuous and successful ever since. He is now the oldest practicing dentist in the city, and has a fine reputation in his profession, which extends over a wide territory. His of- fice is at No. 39012 Broadway, and his resi- dence No. 60 Phila street.
On May 24, 1860, Dr. Weed was married to Emma J. Ford, a daughter of Samuel A. Ford, of Saratoga Springs. To the Doctor and Mrs. Weed were born two children, one son and a daughter : Ernest F., who studied dentistry with his father, graduated in 1888 from the New York college of dentistry, and is now practicing in New York city; and Sarah K., living at home with her parents.
Dr. Weed was a member of the first State Dental society formed in New York, in. 1869, and as such took part in its organization and subsequent proceedings. He has at all times been interested in everything pertaining to his profession, and has endeavored to keep up with the march of progress in dental science. Politically he is a firm adherent of the Repub- lican party, and in religion is a member of the First Baptist church of Saratoga Springs, tak- ing an active interest in all the various enter- prises of his church and every movement calculated to benefit humanity. Heis a mem- ber of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and is deservedly popular as a gentleman and a citizen.
R. NEWTON BREZEE, who has won considerable distinction as an architect, and has been a resident of Saratoga Springs for a number of years, was born September 26, 1851, in Schoharie county, New York.
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OF SARATOGA COUNTY.
R. Newton Brezee received a good practi- cal education, and later learned the trade of carpenter, to which he gave seven years of careful attention and then abandoned it to de- vote himself to the more congenial employ- ment of architectural drawing and designing, which has been his principal business for many years, and in which he has been very success- ful. For a considerable period he was located in New York city, and later on Long Island, but in 1883, returned to Saratoga Springs, and permanently settled here. A large number of substantial buildings in this village illus- trate the fertility of his mind in architectural designing, and stand as monuments of his handiwork. He has made himself master of his profession, having thoroughly studied the principles of ancient and modern architecture, and acquired great skill in the combination of desirable results in the plans for either private residences or public buildings. He has an office at No. 43212 Broadway, where he is at all times pleased to see any one interested in building or in building plans.
On July 25, 1882, Mr. Brezee was married to Jennie M. Carr, daughter of the late John Carr, of this county, and to them have been born three daughters : Edna W., Claire M. and Bessie L.
J AMES T. SWEETMAN, M. D., a de-
scendant of the old and honored pioneer Sweetman family of Saratoga county, and whose life as a public official at Washington city during an important era in the political and financial history of the country was such as to do credit to the worthy name he bears, is a son of John A. and Ann (De Remen) Sweetman, and was born at Charlton, in the town of Charlton, Saratoga county, New York, January 4, 1834. He was reared at his native village, where he attended the common schools until he was sixteen years of age, when he entered his father's store as a clerk, where he remained for some time. He then attended
Charlton academy for two terms, and after taking a course at Carlysle academy of Scho- harie county, took charge of the home farm, which he managed for two years. He then, in 1861, went to Manchester, Vermont, and was engaged in the marble business for one year. From there he went to Jefferson county, and after spending two years as a farmer, was appointed by the governor as a member of the New York State military agency at Washing- ton city. After serving in that capacity for some time he was appointed as a clerk in the treasury department, and was promoted from position to position until he was put in charge of the office that had charge of all the business pertaining to lost and stolen bonds and the ownership of the same when recovered. He served for twenty years in the treasury depart- ment, and resigned in 1886 to care for his pa- rents, who were in failing health. When Sen- ator Sherman was secretary of the treasury he sent Mr. Sweetman as chairman of the com- mittee that took thirteen million dollars worth of four per cent. United States coupon bonds to England and exchanged them for the same amount of six per cent. bonds in that country, that their owners had to exchange for four per cents or accept cash payment. During his stay in Washington, Dr. Sweetman read med- icine with Drs. Johnson, Elliott and Thomp- son, and attended lectures at the medical de- partment of the Georgetown university, from which he was graduated in the class of 1870. Returning home from Washington city, Dr. Sweetman has resided ever since on the old homestead farm of his grandfather. He only practices in emergency cases, and when he can not well avoid it. Most of his practice was at Washington city, and it was largely charitable.
Dr. Sweetman, on October 5, 1858, married Susan M. Curtis, of Ballston Spa. They have two children : Dr. James T., jr., a very suc- cessful physician of Ballston Spa ; and Sarah R., wife of T. B. Martin, a large coal dealer of Washington city.
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Politically Dr. Sweetman was a republican until the formation of the Prohibition party, since which time he has been a prohibitionist. In 1892 he was honored by his party with the nomination for assembly, and ran in advance of the prohibition ticket. Dr. Sweetman is an elder in the Presbyterian church, of which he has been an active and useful member since early life. He is a true and firm friend, a courteous and pleasant gentleman, and a worthy and public-spirited citizen.
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