USA > New York > Saratoga County > History of Saratoga County, New York : with historical notes on its various towns > Part 70
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In politics General French has always been a republican, and well known as an able plat- form speaker. He is public spirited, and takes a deep interest in all that pertains to the wel- fare of the community in which he lives. He is one of the founders, a life member, and sec- retary of the Saratoga atheneum ; a member of the Saratoga club and the Saratoga athletic club ; has acquired a competency in his pro- fession, and lives handsomely on North Broad- way with his very interesting family. He is also prominent in all philanthropic matters ; is president of the Saratoga Humane society ; a trustee and the secretary of the "Church Aid."
He has been twice married, his first wife be- ing Emma E. Pitcher, who died in 1875, leav- ing two daughters : Georgiana and Emma W., and one son, Winsor P. Emma died in 1885.
In 1886, Mr. French married Frances Mor- ris Shepard, daughter of William A. Shepard,
of Troy, New York, by whom he has one child, a son named William A. Shepard French.
Mr. French is deeply interested in church matters, and is with all his family a member of Bethesda Episcopal church, of which he is also a vestryman.
H ON. HENRY HARRISON HA- THORN, one of the distinguished citi- zens of Saratoga Springs and Saratoga county, who was an active and useful member of the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses of the United States, was born in 1812 in the town of Greenfield, Saratoga county, New York. His grandparents came to this country from Scotland. He grew to manhood on the farm, where his labors were constantly re- quired until he had attained his majority. He acquired an elementary education in the dis- trict schools, which he attended during sev- eral winters, but being energetic and ambi- tious he employed his spare moments in read- ing and self-study, and thereby came to be in time a remarkably well informed young man in his section of the county. He taught one term of school, and then left both the farm and the school room to engage in the mercan- tile business at Saratoga Springs, where he soon took rank as an energetic and thorough- going business man. He afterward, in 1837, became a joint owner of Union hall, and in 1840 became identified with Congress Hall hotel, which burned in 1866. He then under- took what seemed to be the herculean task of rebuilding the hotel, and his great energy, fertility of resources, and positive business ability were such that not only did the new building equal the old one, but far surpassed it in size, beauty, and appointments. While excavating for the foundation of the Congress Hall ball room, in 1868, he discovered the magnificent mineral spring which bears his name, and whose sparkling waters. as drank in this and other lands, will forever perpetuate his memory.
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
Henry H. Hathorn was an unswerving re- publican, who ever upheld with credit and honor the great cardinal principles of his party. He represented his village in the county board of supervisors in 1858, 1860, 1866 and 1867, and served as sheriff of Saratoga county from 1853 to 1856, and again from 1862 to 1865. His splendid qualifications, sterling integrity, and intellectual ability made him a popular public official, and led to his nomination, in 1872, by the republicans, as their candidate for Congress in the Twentieth district, com- posed of the counties of Saratoga, Schenec- tady, Montgomery, Fulton, and Hamilton. He was elected by a large majority. Mr. Ha- thorn served with ability and disinterestedness, and never lost sight of the true interests of his constituents. At the close of his first term he was reëlected, and served with credit and use- fulness through the exciting political times of the Forty-fourth Congress. At the expiration of his second Congressional term he withdrew from the political arena and devoted his time to his business affairs until his death, in 1887.
In 1846 Mr. Hathorn married Emily H. Moriarty, a daughter of the late Rev. J. D. Moriarty, of Saratoga Springs. To their union were born five children: Frank H., Ella E., and William A., who are now living, and John D. M. and Walter, deceased. Mrs. Hathorn still resides at her beautiful home at Saratoga Springs.
Through life Mr. Hathorn acted an import- ant part in the history of his county, and was admired and appreciated on account of his ability, his integrity, and his rare nobility of character. He was a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church, and a Christian gentleman, and when death came to him it brought no fears, and he passed calmly away on February 20, 1887, when in the seventy- fourth year of his age. His remains lie en- tombed in his vault in the Greenridge ceme- tery, Saratoga Springs.
Henry Harrison Hathorn has passed away, but his life is a part of the history of his county,
and a true estimate of his character is given by his pastor, Rev. Dr. S. V. Leech, who, in his address at the funeral of Mr. Hathorn, said: " Why is this auditorium filled, on this stormy morning, with this large representative audi- ence? Because the loyal soldier of the cross whose remains rest in this coffin was no ordi- nary member of the community, among whom he has spent a half century of his earnest life. Known favorably to tens of thousands through- out the republic, elevated to commanding po- sitions by the people who appreciated his moral worth, superlatively generous and be- nevolent, patient and heroic in the darkest epochs of commercial disaster, and a faithful trustee of his church, this congregation has assembled to do honor to his memory. This fallen friend would have coveted a private burial, without a word of eulogium from his pastor, concerning his widely recognized ex- cellencies of nature and life. But we owe it to a host of his friends to refer to some of these. Brother Hathorn was a polished gen- tleman. He was revered by all who knew him as a polite, urbane, and well-bred man. Gen- tle in his manners-tender in his address, pacific in his spirit, sweet in his disposition - he won the esteem of all who came in contact with him. He was a man of large conceptions, broad views, resolute will, and abiding faith in his own business abilities properly linked to the providence of his Heavenly Father. These elements of character sustained him through- out the successive decades of his political and commercial life. Like the vast majority of practical and successful men, he was not born in the cradle of wealth. Meritoriously and perseveringly he fought his way up to social prominence and great professional achieve- ments. Congress Hall stands as a majestic monument of his faith in his own energies and in Saratoga. No ordinary man could possibly have plucked victory from apparent defeat, and so developed an accidentally discovered spring that its fame is world-wide, while its revenues come from both hemispheres and its
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waters are drank in every land of the earth. He was a good man. While much of his hap- piness was the logical issue of a joyful nat- ural temperament, and the delights of an ideal Christian home, much of his beatitude of thought was the legitimate fruit of his solid and unostentatious piety. His church life was no Lapland night. Loving all of our churches, he loved this one with intensity of affection, and but for his generosity it would not have won, perhaps, its present temporal prosperity. By its successive pastors he has stood as loy- ally as Jonathan by David. He lived and moved among his brethren on the plane of lofty manliness. They loved him in life, and they lament him in death. And yet his sun went not down at noonday, prematurely, but it sank brilliantly and normally behind the hilltops after it had trodden its full, orbital way across the sky. He was taken away, as Job says, 'in full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season.' He retained his full intellectual powers until life's terminus. In this (Christian) faith our sainted brother died. I prayed often with him, and inquired con- cerning his relationship to Christ and the ever- lasting outlook. He met death as triumph- antly and calmly as a king-elect would go to his coronation. Leaning on Jesus as a pres- ent and complete savior, he fell asleep in Christ as peacefully as a weary child falls asleep at the close of a long summer day. Just as the Sabbath sun was kissing away the night shade of the eastern sky, he bade fare- well to earth to spend his first Sabbath in heaven. To his bereaved household this loss is crushing, but the separation need not be cither permanent or eternal. These remains are only the souvenir of husband and father. This body is only the broken casket from which God safely removed the immortal gem it encased. You lose, but he has gained by this transfer. A devoted wife has lost a model husband; affectionate children, trained under his paternal vigilance, have lost a noble father; a sorrowing village has lost a pure, philan-
thropic, and beloved citizen; and this church has lost one of its strongest and most devoted friends. Henry H. Hathorn has lost nothing. He has left the fountain whose bubbling waters he loved so well that he may hereafter gaze on ' the stream that makes glad the city of God,' and drink of the river of life, seen by John flowing from the divine throne, 'clear as crys- tal.' His gain is comprehensive, infinite, and imperishable."
C LARENCE EDGAR CARRUTH,
M.D., a popular and successful physician of Jonesville, this county, and a graduate of the university of Vermont, has been regularly engaged in the practice of his profession since 1880. Dr. Carruth is the youngest son of Theophilus and Ruth (Spear) Carruth, and was born September 19, 1853, at Northbor- ough, Massachusetts. The Carruths trace their transatlantic origin to bonnie Scotland, from the famous highlands of which country came the immigrant ancestor who early planted the family in the colony of Massachusetts. There Joseph Carruth, paternal grandfather of Dr. Carruth, was born and reared, and spent nearly all his life in Worcester county, of which he was deputy sheriff for a number of years, being appointed June 10, 1799. Hc resided in the village of Northborough, and was extensively engaged in farming in that county for many years, dying there at an ad- vanced age. His son, Theophilus Carruth (father), was born at Worcester, Massachu- setts, in 1807, and after attaining manhood engaged in farming and spent all his active life in that occupation. He owned and culti- vated a fine farm containing one hundred and twenty-five acres at Northborough, that State. Politically he was a whig and republican, and held a number of local offices. He was not a member of any church, but held to a belief in universalism. On October 12, 1834, he mar- ried Ruth Spear, a daughter of Ebenezer Spear of Norwich, Vermont, and by that union
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
had a family of eight children : Charlotte D., who married Lewis T. Seymour of South Framingham, Massachusetts ; George T., de- ceased at an early age ; Louise H., who wed- ded Albert E. Fuller ; Georgiana, died young; Albert, who enlisted in Co. C, 34th Massa- chusetts infantry, in 1861, was captured by the Confederates and lay in the Andersonville prison seven months and died in the hospital at Alexandria, Virginia, April 19, 1865; Frank T., a conductor on the Pennsylvania railroad, residing at Lock Haven, Pennsylvania ; Ev- erett H., in the employ of the Old Colony railroad at South Framingham, Massachusetts; and Clarence Edgar, the subject of this sketch. Theophilus Carruth (father) died May 27, 1868, aged sixty-one, and his wife passed from earth February 8, 1891, in the seventy-fourth year of her age. The remains of both repose in the cemetery at Northborough, Massachusetts.
Clarence Edgar Carruth was reared at North- borough, Massachusetts, from the high school of which village he was graduated in 1869. He then took a course of training at the Bry- ant & Stratton Business college in Boston, Massachusetts, after which he learned the drug business at Marlborough, that State, and was connected with the drug trade in various capacities for a period of seven years. In 1878 he began the study of medicine with Dr. J. B. Rich, then superintendent of the city hospital of Worcester, Massachusetts, in which Mr. Carruth was acting as steward, and took his first course of lectures the same year at Dartmouth Medical college, Dartmouth, New Hampshire. Later he entered the medical department of the university of Vermont, and July 1, 1880, was graduated from that insti- tution with the degree of M. D. In 1879 Dr. Carruth became assistant surgeon at the Mary Fletcher hospital in Burlington, Vermont, and the next year he was made surgeon of that institution. He commenced general practice at Island Pond, Vermont, in 1881, and in 1882 came to Crescent, Saratoga county, New York, where he practiced until 1884, when he re-
moved to Jonesville, in the town of Clifton Park. Dr. Carruth has met with excellent success here, and now has a good practice in the village and surrounding country.
On July 9, 1881, Dr. Carruth was wedded to Katie E. Seavey, a daughter of Charles L. Seavey, of Worcester, Massachusetts. To this union has been born a family of four children, all sons : Charles A., Jesse G., Frank E. and Harold S., who died May 21, 1893.
Dr. Carruth is an active member of the Union Medical society and an earnest student of the best literature of his profession. In 1876 he became a member of Quinsigamond Lodge, No. 440, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Worcester, Massachusetts, and in 1887 he organized Jonesville Lodge, No. 139, of the same order, becoming its first noble grand, and has represented this lodge in the Grand Lodge of the State three times. He is also a member and the present president of the Jonesville association, No. 16, Patrons of Industry. In religion Dr. Carruth is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and has served his church as steward and superinten- dent of the Sunday school. Politically he is a stanch republican, was elected clerk of the town of Clifton Park in 1889, and has accept- ably occupied that position for a period of three years. He is an active, energetic and useful citizen, in addition to being a skilled and successful physician.
M ARQUIS D. RICHARDS, a success- ful farmer of the town of Moreau, and a retired grain and lumber dealer, is a busi - ness man well known for activity, punctuality and foresight. He is a son of Edmund B. and Maria (Martin) Richards, and was born at Prattsville, in Greene county, New York, February 27, 1820. His paternal grandfather, Peletiah Richards, was of Welsh descent, and came from Connecticut, where the family was founded at an early day. He settled at Schroon, in Essex county, this State, which he left to
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OF SARATOGA COUNTY.
remove to Warren county, where he remained but a short time. He then became a resident of Greene county, in which he lived until his death in 1830, at seventy-two years of age. He was a cloth manufacturer by occupation, a Clintonian democrat in politics, and an Epis- copalian in religious faith and church member- ship. He was a prominent Free Mason, and married twice. By his first wife he had sev- eral sons and daughters, among whom were : Edmund B. Richards, father of the subject of this sketch ; Pelatiah, George, Solomon, Sam- uel and Betsey Gosling ; and by his second wife, William and Philo. Edmund B. Rich- ards was born in the city of Hartford, Connec- ticut, March 11, 1788, and died at Glens Falls, September 11, 1876, at the remarkable age of ninety-three years. He came at an early age to Glens Falls, where he conducted the Amer- ican house for a number of years. He then was engaged in farming at Half Way Brook, a place in the town of Queensbury, Warren county', famous in revolutionary days as a mil- itary post for the Continental forces, but in a few years returned to Glens Falls. He was a democrat and a republican in politics, and an Episcopalian in religion, and in local matters, especially those of a political character, took considerable interest and sometimes an active part. He was a prominent Free Mason, and married Maria Martin, by whom he had nine children: Jacob, Martin, Marquis D., Solomon, Edmund B., Anna M., Sally Crowfoot, Cath- erine E. Traphagen, and Mary J. Brydon. Mrs. Richards was a daughter of Jacob Mar- tin, of Prattsville, and died July 27, 1867, aged seventy-seven years.
Marquis D. Richards received his education at the district school, and then was engaged for seventeen years in boating lumber and lime be- tween Glens Falls and Troy, and between Glens Falls and Albany. At the end of that time he embarked in the grain and lumber business at Glens Falls, and followed it very successfully for eight years and up to 1865, in which year lie purchased his present farm in the town of
Moreau. This farm contains one hundred and seventy acres of land, some of which is in timber, and ranks as one of the most desirable farms of the town of Moreau. Mr. Richards is a man- of conservative policy in business matters, and prefers to be safe in his enter- prises and investments by not endangering the fruits of years of toil in hasty experiments or rash adventures, even if golden wealth and great returns are promised as results. He was formerly a democrat, but of late years has supported the Republican party ; is now a democrat, and has held a number of town offices.
On December 14, 1849, Mr. Richards mar- ried Mary Ann Briggs, who was a daughter of Jeremiah and Mary Briggs, and died Novem- ber 10, 1849. Mr. Richards wedded Mary E. Wing, a daughter of Richard and Sally (New- comb) Wing, and by his second marriage has two sons and five daughters: Julia W., wife of James Reeves, a clerk in a wholesale grocery at Glens Falls; Solomon M., who married Mary E. Ferris, and is a lawyer and resident of Corinth; Arthur N., who married Carric Farlon, is now a lawyer residing in Luzerne ; Isabella, married George Morrison, superin- tendent of a crushing mill at Elkhorn, Jefferson county, Montana; May C., resident of Moreau; Sarah J., wife of Edwin Mott, and Clara, who married Arthur S. Brownell, a merchant of Gloversville, in Fulton county, this State.
E LMER E. BAKER, a representative of one of the early families of Saratoga county, and a stirring young business man of Grangerville, was born at Bacon Hill, Saratoga county, New York, January 23, 1860. He is a son of Hosea and Mary Ann (Tallmadge) Baker, and is of Dutch and Irish descent. His granfather, Hosea Baker, was born about 1790, and lived for some time in Saratoga county. He removed to St. Thomas, Canada. where he died about 1862. The immigrant ancestor of the Baker family in Saratoga
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county originally came from Holland, and many of its descendants were born, lived and died in the vicinity of Round Lake. Hosea Baker (father) was born at Round Lake, and was a farmer, and married Mary Ann Tall- madge. She was born at South Owega, a daughter of Ezra Tallmadge, and was the mother of four children, the subject of this sketch and one sister, Mrs. William Gilbert, being the only two now living.
Elmer E. Baker attended the common schools of his district. Leaving school he turned his attention to farming on the old homestead, in the town of Saratoga, where he continued to farm successfully for some years. This tract of land, which was first settled by the Thorn family, is now divided into three farms. In 1889 Mr. Baker purchased the milling interests of B. J. Thorn, at Granger- ville, where he has since done a prosperous business in the manufacture of flour, and in the sale of feed and grain of all kinds. His mill is a custom mill and has the patronage of a large vicinity around him. In 1892 he bought the general mercantile interests at Granger- ville, of John E. Baker, which he still owns. He is president and stockholder in the Sara- toga Creamery Company at Grangerville, and has for two years been the business manager of the company. In politics Mr. Baker is a stanch republican, and takes an active interest in the success of his party.
On November 15, 1882, he was united in marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of John M. and Elizabeth (Turnerman) Vandermarker, and to their union have been born one child, a daughter, Lucie.
JOHN J. WANDELL, the popular pro- prietor of the famous Commercial hotel at Saratoga Springs, and one of the most suc- cessful business men of northern New York, is a son of George W. and Helen M. (Smith) Wandell, and was born in the town of North- umberland, this county, February 5, 1855.
The Wandells are descendants of an old Hol- land family that was planted in America at a very early day. Peter J. Wandell, paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, re- moved to Saratoga county when he was yet a young man and passed the remainder of his life here, engaged in agricultural pursuits. He died about 1876, at the advanced age of seventy-seven years. One of his sons, George W. Wandell (father), was born in 1824 on the old homestead in this county, where he grew to manhood and received a good practical education. Later he engaged in farming and speculating in the town of Old Saratoga, and being a man of sound judgment and good business ability, became very successful and prosperous. For many years he conducted his farming operations on an extensive scale, and was widely known, but about 1890 he retired from active business and is living with his son at Saratoga Springs, being now in the sixty- ninth year of his age. Politically he is a stanch democrat, and on December 15, 1852, married Helen M. Smith, a daughter of John Smith, of this county. She was of English and Con- necticut Yankee stock, and was born and reared in the town of Northumberland, this county, and died May 8, 1888, at the age of sixty-two years. They reared a family of two children, one son and one daughter: Anna Rebecca, born September 17, 1853, near Northumber - land, Saratoga county, married Eugene Sarte of Bemus Heights, November 27, 1877; and John J., born February 6, 1855.
John J. Wandell was reared principally on his father's farm in the town of Old Saratoga, this county, and obtained a good English edu- cation in the public schools of his neighbor- hood, which was afterward supplemented by a course of study in the academy at Mechanic- ville. He then took a course of business training in the commercial college at Fort Edward, this State, from which institution he was graduated in June, 1873. Returning to the farm, he was engaged in agriculture and trading in cattle and sheep until 1883, when
اليمصر
John J. Handelle
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OF SARATOGA COUNTY.
he assumed the management of a hotel at White Sulphur Springs, this county, for one season. He was very successful in this enter- prise, and finding the business congenial, de- termined to devote his attention to hotel man- agement thereafter. He opened negotiations for an interest in his present hotel property, the Commercial, but as it could not be com- pleted immediately, Mr. Wandell accepted a position as traveling salesman and spent one year on the road as a "knight of the grip." Here his excellent business ability found an ample field, and he proved very successful as a salesman ; but greatly preferring the hotel business, he purchased an interest in the Com- mercial hotel here on September 15, 1884, and in partnership with John T. Bryant, one of the former proprietors, managed this popular house for four years. At the end of that time, in 1888, Mr. Wandell purchased the entire interest of his partner, and has ever since conducted the hotel alone and in his own name. In 1890 he purchased the hotel build- ing, which is a large and handsome frame structure, with livery and feed stables attached. The Commercial is one of the leading hotels of Saratoga Springs that remain open the year round, and is widely known for the ex- cellence of its cuisine and the care with which every want of its guests is anticipated and supplied. Mr. Wandell has demonstrated that he is the right man in the right place, and it is no secret that he is rapidly accumulating a fortune as a result of his masterly business management and sound judgment as to what the great traveling public desires and appre- ciates in a first-class and popular hotel. He is handsome in appearance, genial in manner, and is justly voted a model landlord by the thousands of satisfied patrons who find a tem- porary home at the Commercial hotel every year.
On November 28, 1877, Mr. Wandell wed- ded Emma HI. Sarle, youngest daughter of Benjamin Sarle, of Stillwater, this county. Mrs. Wandell died May 30, 1892, aged thirty-
five years, and leaving behind her three chil- dren, a son and two daughters: Lena May, aged thirteen years; Grace Edith, aged six ; and George Eugene, only two years old.
Politically John J. Wandell is a stanch re- publican, of broad and liberal views, and is now serving as one of the water commissioners of Saratoga Springs. He is a regular attend- ant of and liberal contributor to the Episcopal church of this city, and has long been promi- nent in secret society circles, being a member of Rising Sun Lodge, No. 103, Free and Ac- cepted Masons ; Rising Sun Chapter, No. 131, Royal Arch Masons ; Washington Command- ery, No. 33, Knights Templar ; and Oriental Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Wandell is also a member of the Order of Elks and of the Improved Order of Red Men. He has traveled extensively in the United States and Mexico. In the fall of 1891 he and Mrs. Wandell visited California and spent the winter in that delightful climate. They also traveled together in old and New Mexico, and visited nearly all the southern States.
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