USA > New York > Saratoga County > History of Saratoga County, New York : with historical notes on its various towns > Part 77
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sketch. Their last removal was made to be convenient to a Friends' church, where they worshiped until called from the trials and cares of this world. Mr. Buffinton died April 19, 1858, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years ; and four years later was joined by his wife, who passed away November 30, 1862, when in the eighty-fourth year of her age.
Joshua Anthony and his three brothers were taken, after the death of their mother, and reared by their maternal grandparents. He received his education in the district schools, and at eighteen years of age commenced the battle of life for himself as a clerk in a store at Jonesville. After acquiring considerable experience in the line of work which he had taken up, he left Jonesville, and was success- ively engaged as a clerk in mercantile houses at Schuylerville, Troy and Stillwater. Leav- ing the last named place in the spring of 1867, he returned to his grandfather's old farm to care for his brother, Ira, who died the same year from injuries received accidentally. He then assumed management of the farm, which he soon purchased and still owns, and two years later engaged in his present successful business of manufacturing baking powder and cream of tartar. In 1892 he added spice grind- ing and the manufacturing of all kinds of fluid extracts used for flavoring purposes in cooking. The baking powder factory is a handsome two-story frame building, forty by sixty feet in dimensions, and thoroughly fitted up in every department. It is spacious and commodious, and equipped with late machinery for all manufacturing purposes, and with every facility and convenience for the transaction of business. Mr. Anthony manufactures a very superior and absolutely pure article of baking powder, which is rapidly becoming popular in every part of the United States where it has been introduced. His large sales are indis- putable evidence of general consumption and public appreciation. His spice mills occupy the larger part of the fine two-story brick ad- dition, thirty-six by sixty-six feet, which he
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added to the factory in 1892. He has the latest and most improved mills, and one of them alone will grind three thousand pounds of pepper per day. Mr. Anthony has taken another step forward, within the last year, for providing for household comfort and conven- ience, by organizing a department in his works for the manufacture of all kinds of pure flavor- ing extracts that are used in cooking. All of his goods are standard in purity, strength and quality, and stand well the test of time and experiment, under which many favorites for popular favor fail and disappear.
On March 23, 1868, Mr. Anthony was united in marriage with Mary E. Ingraham, of Ful- ton county, and to their union have been born three children, two sons and one daughter : Sidney J., Ira J., and Sila G. The two sons are assisting their father in his extensive bus- iness, and the daughter is attending school. Mrs. Anthony is a daughter of William S. and Sila (Gilbert) Ingraham, of Fulton county, the former of whom died April 3, 1891, at seventy-five years of age, and the latter of whom passed away March 2, 1887, when in the sixty-seventh year of her age.
In politics Mr. Anthony is a straight repub- lican, and when residing at Stillwater he served as United States assistant assessor, but since engaging in the manufacturing business he has been too busy to take any very active part in political affairs. His place is near Ushers railroad station, which he secured June 19, 1882, by the name of Hammonds, named after C. D. Hammonds, superintendent of the Delaware & Hudson railroad. In 1883 he se- cured the postoffice by the name of Ushers, and the name of the station was soon after- ward changed from Hammonds to that of Ush- ers, on account of there being a Hammond postoffice in St. Lawrence county, New York. Mr. Anthony has a private telegraph line run- ning from Ushers to his factory, and thence to Clifton Park and to Round Lake, which is a great help to him by putting him in constant communication with the cities of New York
and surrounding States. He is a member of Montgomery Lodge, No. 504, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, of Stillwater; and Waterford Chapter, No. 169, Royal Arch Masons.
While actively engaged in pushing forward his great business enterprises with zeal and energy, Joshua Anthony has not forgotten his home or neglected in the least anything that could add to its beauty or its convenience. His house is a handsome two-story wood structure. It is furnished throughout in good taste and with everything necessary to com- fort and convenience. It is heated with steam, and will soon be lighted with electricity. A more beautiful, pleasant or desirable home cannot well be found anywhere within the boundary limits of the great Empire State of the Union.
THOMAS R. KNEIL, a cultured gen- tleman and scholar, and the highly effi- cient and exceedingly popular superintendent of the public schools of the village of Saratoga Springs, is a son of the Hon. Thomas and Mary (Bush) Kneil, and was born at Westfield, Massachusetts, November 6, 1851. Thomas R. Kneil is of Celtic descent. Both his father and grandfather were natives of the Isle of Man. William Kneil (grandfather) emigrated to the United States when his son Thomas (father) was a mere child, and settled in Utica, New York, where he followed his trade, that of a carpenter, up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1854, at a very advanced age. Thomas Kneil (father) grew to manhood at Utica, New York, and then went to Massa- chusetts and located at Westfield, where he still resides, at the age of seventy-five years. Ever since his residence at Westfield, Thomas Kneil has been one of the most prominent and enterprising citizens of that place, always tak- ing a very active interest in public affairs. In politics he is a republican, and has filled from time to time about all the local offices of the place. He was chairman of the school com-
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
mittee for a great many years, and is now succeeded in that position by one of his sons. The office has been in the family for the past twenty years. He was also postmaster at Westfield during the administrations of Grant and Hayes, and has also served as a member of the State senate for two terms, and likewise served in the. assembly from Westfield. He is a leading member of the Methodist Episco- pal church, always ready with open hand to do his part in every good work. He is at pres- ent a large coal dealer at Westfield, still tak- ing as active an interest in public affairs as his age will permit. He is a gentleman of extensive information, well posted in the affairs of both State and Nation, and keeps abreast of the progress of the nineteenth century.
In 1840 Thomas Kneil married Mary Bush, of Westfield, Massachusetts. She was a mem- ber of the same church as her husband, and died in 1885, at the age of sixty-six years.
The Bush family are of English descent, of good old Puritan stock, and one of the oldest and most distinguished families of Westfield.
Thomas R. Kneil was brought up at West- field, educated there in the high school, and graduated from Wesleyan university, of Con- necticut, in 1875. He afterward took a post graduate course at Boston university. After the completion of his education he became prin- cipal of the schools of Belchertown, Massa- chusetts, which position he very ably filled for the next two years. He then accepted a po- sition in the academy at Poultney, Vermont, where for another two years he was teacher of Latin, Greek and elocution, proving himself a fine master in Greek and Latin, as well as of English. In 1880 Professor Kneil was chosen principal of the Union school at Crown Point, New York, where he remained for the next five years, and to him belongs the credit of build- ing up this school until it ranked among the first in the State, thus showing himself to be thoroughly fitted, both by nature and educa- tion, to fill the position of trainer and instruc- tor of the youth under his charge. In 1885
Professor Kneil resigned the principalship of the school at Crown Point, and entered the field of journalism, taking charge of the Ticon- deroga Sentinel, of which he was proprietor, editor and publisher. He continued the pub- lication of this paper, with a fair degree of success, for the ensuing three years, but being more interested in school work he gave it up, and resumed his old position as principal of the Union school at Crown Point, where he remained up to 1891, when he came to Sara- toga Springs. Here he was principal of the high school until September 1, 1892, when he was elected superintendent of the schools of Saratoga Springs, which office he is now hold- ing. Possessed of a pleasant, genial disposi- tion, and being thoroughly competent to fill the office, progressive in his ideas and methods, and wholly in sympathy with his work, he soon became very popular, and has attained a high standing in his profession. The schools under his charge are known far and wide as ranking among the very best to be found any- where in the country.
In politics Superintendent Kneil is a repub- lican, but rather inclined to be liberal, giving his greatest attention to educational work. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and also a Royal Arch Mason and Knight Templar.
Superintendent Kneil was united in mar- riage January 5, 1882, to Carrie M. Hawley, a daughter of the Rev. C. R. Hawley, of Ver- mont. To them has been born a family of four children, three sons and one daughter : Thomas H., Philip C., Margaret M. and Rob- ert C.
W ARREN CURTIS, treasurer and manager of the Hudson Pulp & Paper Company, and an efficient business man of wide and varied experience, both in the east- ern States and the great West, is a son of Warren Curtis, sr., and was born in the city of Passaic, Passaic county, New Jersey, Oc- tober 19, 1837. Warren Curtis, sr., was en-
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OF SARATOGA COUNTY.
gaged for nearly three quarters of a century in the manufacture of paper, and during that time was prominently and actively identified with some of the leading paper manufacturing interests of Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. He was well known throughout New England and the Middle Atlantic States as a skilled and practical workman, and an in- telligent, energetic and progressive manufac- turer. With weight of years came reputation and leadership in his chosen line of manufac- turing, and when death called him from the field of his earthly labors at the end of a long and useful career, many tributes of respect were paid to his memory through the press. From the notice of his death in the Paper Trade Journal we quote the following: "Warren Curtis, sr., the venerable American paper- maker, died on Thanksgiving day, November 24, 1892, at the residence of his son, William Henry Curtis, 97 Fourth avenue, Newark, New Jersey, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. Mr. Curtis was born in Massachusetts. He was the fifth of nine brothers, all practical workers in their time at the vat and on the cylinder and Fourdrinier machines. Their names were respectively Allen C., William, Edward, War- ren, Melville, Frederick A., Solomon M., George B. and Walter C. Curtis; the sons of that Solomon Curtis, who early in 1790, in part- nership with Gen. Simon Elliott, began to manufacture paper under the firm name of Elliot & Curtis, in the village of Newton Lower Falls, on the Charles river, near Boston. Solomon Minot Curtis, the seventh of the nine brothers, is now the sole survivor. He resides at Newark, New Castle county, Delaware. The elder Solomon Curtis died in 1818. He was the father of thirteen children. Warren Cur- tis and his brother Melville went from Newton, Massachusetts, to Belleville (now Passaic), New Jersey, and for many years carried on a paper mill there, which was finally destroyed by fire. Hon. George West, of Ballston, New York, was employed by them at that mill as an engineer. He lived for a while with his son
at Palmer Falls, and took an eager interest in the construction and development of the Hud- son River Pulp & Paper Company, at that place." The funeral of Mr. Curtis was at his late residence in Newark, New Jersey, on No- vember 26, 1892, and his remains were en- tombed in Mt. Pleasant cemetery of that city.
Warren Curtis was reared at Passaic, New Jersey, until he was sixteen years of age, and then entered the engineering department of Delaware college. He afterward went to Iowa, where he built a paper mill and was a member of the company that operated it. From Iowa Mr. Curtis went to St. Louis, Missouri, and spent three or four years there in charge of the counting-room and business department of the St. Louis Times, after which he came east to Palmer Falls, this county, to assume his present position of treasurer and manager of the Hudson River Pulp & Paper Company, which was then just starting their large pulp and paper mill at that place.
The Hudson River Pulp & Paper Com- pany's plant is located on the main headwater of the Hudson river, known as Palmer's Falls, which has eighty-five feet of head and fall, equivalent to ten thousand horse power for manufacturing purposes. This plant, the largest single plant of its kind in the world, covers several acres of ground. All the build- ings are of iron, brick and stone, and the great mill is five hundred and fifty by one hundred feet in dimensions. The company employ several hundred men in the various depart- ments of their great works, and much of their success is due to the business ability, good management and intelligent super- vision of Warren Curtis. The establish- ment of these works and their successful operation under the charge of Mr. Curtis, has made Palmer Falls and Corinth what they are to-day, thrifty and progressive vil- lages. The works liave a capacity of seventy- five tons of paper per day, eighty tons of grand wood and twenty-five tons of sulphite pulp. This pulp has been found so excellent in
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quality and so well adapted to all of the uses of such an article, that its present splendid reputation is but the steady growth of several years, while its popularity is attested by the large and continually increasing orders which the company receive from many different parts of the United States. The officers of the com- pany are: A. Pagenstecher, president; Warren Miller, secretary; and Warren Curtis, the sub- ject of this sketch, treasurer and manager. Their express, telegraph and railroad station is Corinth, their postoffice at Palmer, and their New York city office is in the Times building. Their enterprise is creditable alike to their energy and the great industry which it repre- sents.
IEUT. LEWIS WOOD HAMLIN,
who served as a Union officer in nearly all of the great battles of the army of the Po- tomac, is one of the leading business men and one of the most popular republicans of South Glens Falls. He is a son of David B. and Nancy M. (Potter) Hamlin, and was born in the town of Queensbury, Warren county, New York, March 4, 1841. He received his edu- cation in the district schools of Moreau and Fort Edward institute, and after teaching one term enlisted on October 10, 1861, in Co. F, 93d New York volunteer infantry. He parti- cipated in the battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, South Mountain, Antietam, the Wilder- ness, the siege of Petersburg, Boydton Plank Road and Appomattox, where the Confederacy met its Waterloo. He was wounded in one of the great Wilderness fights by a piece of a shell, and commanded Co. E of his regiment in the grand review of New York troops at Albany, on July 12, 1865, when he was honor- ably discharged from the Federal service. He was appointed as sergeant in 1862, was com- missioned lieutenant of Co. H on February 12, 1865, and commanded Co. D in a charge on the Confederate works in front of Peters- burg, Virginia, April 2, 1865, and the brigade picket line on the night of that day. He was
on the skirmish line the 6th of April, and was at Appomattox when General Lee surrendered the Confederate army of Virginia to General Grant. Returning from the army, Lieutenant Hamlin engaged in farming and lumbering, which he followed chiefly up to the present time. In 1878 he came to the town of Moreau, where his wife owns a farm of one hundred and forty acres. She also owns an eight acre grazing lot near the Hudson river, and Mr. Hamlin owns two hundred acres of farming land in the town of Queensbury, Warren county. He makes a specialty of potatoes, raising an average of about twelve hundred bushels an- nually for the last twenty years. He is an active member of Atatea Tribe, No. 154, Im- proved Order of Red Men, and the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has held vari- ous official positions. Mr. Hamlin is also active and prominent in the Republican party, being so popular as to win election after elec- tion as supervisor of his town. In 1884 he was first elected supervisor, sweeping away a democratic majority of eighty-four and being successful by nineteen votes. At the next election he quadrupled his preceding majority, and having lowered the taxes thirteen per cent., was again elected in 1889,'90,'91 and '92. He is now holding that office and discharging its duties with great credit to himself, being efficient, energetic and popular. He was chairman of the board of supervisors of Sara- toga county in 1891, and is much interested in the cause of temperance, being a member of the Royal Templars, and doing much for so- briety and total abstinence at South Glens Falls.
On Christmas day, 1868, Mr. Hamlin mar- ried Louise Camp, who was a daughter of James W. Camp, and who died August 29, 1876, leaving four children : David J., a grad- uate of Troy Business college ; Sarah F., at- tending Albany Normal school; Minerva, a graduate of Glens Falls academy and now teaching ; and Grace M., who is now attend- ing the public schools.
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OF SARATOGA COUNTY.
Lent Hamlin, the paternal grandfather of Lieutenant Hamlin, was of English descent and a native of Connecticut, and came to the town of Moreau with his father, Ebenezer Hamlin, who had served in the Revolutionary war. Daniel Hamlin married Lucretia Barnes, and died January, 1859, aged ninety-six years, while his wife passed away in 1835, at fifty- three years of age. They had six sons and three daughters : Sallie, Truman, Romanty, Ebenezer, Daniel, Lent, Sophia, David B. and Amelia. David B. Hamlin (father), was born April 2, 1807, and followed blacksmithing and farming for many years. He is a cousin of Bishop Leonidas Lent of the Methodist church. He is a Methodist and a Jeffersonian demo- crat, and has been twice married. His first wife, Nancy M. Hamlin, was a daughter of Major Ephraim Potter, of Revolutionary fame, and French-Irish descent, and died April 17, 1876, aged seventy-seven years. His second wife, Mrs. Minerva Potter, died in 1881. By his first marriage Mr. Hamlin had four chil- dren : John S., Olivia, Lieut. Lewis W. (sub- ject), and Sarah Van Tassel, who died in No- vember, 1875.
R ICHARD BAXTER HAXSTUN is
an energetic son of the great Empire State, who has, by his own industry and tact, built up a large and prosperous business and created a demand for his products in the mighty metropolis of the new world. He is a son of Andrew King and Martha (Darrow) Haxstun, and was born at Cambridge, Wash- ington county, New York, September 18, 1848. His grandfather, Andrew King Hax- stun, sr., was of Scotch descent and a native of near Cambridge, Washington county, where he followed his trade of carpenter in connection with farming. He was a democrat and a Methodist, and wedded Mary Donnehue. He died in 1868, at eighty-three years of age, and left a family of ten children: Jeremiah, An- drew King, Coroline Pratt, Palmer, William,
James, Horace, 'Nelson, Anna Mary Narra- more and Martha Austin. Andrew King Hax- stun (father) was born December 10, 1823, and died on February 13, 1889, from the effects of exposure in the Federal service. He re- ceived a good English education, served from 1855 to 1860 as steward of Ft. Edward insti- tute, and in the latter year was commissioned by Governor Morgan as quartermaster of the 93d New York infantry, but in a few months was discharged on account of physical disa- bility brought on by service in the line of duty. Returning from the army Mr. Haxstun was successively engaged in the flouring busi- ness at Ft. Edward, the paper manufacturing business in Wayne county, and in stone-ware manufacturing at Ft. Edward, as a member of the firm of Haxstun, Oatman & Co. He afterward was a member of the firm of Hax- stun & Griffin, wheel manufacturers, and then of Haxstun & Co., stone-ware manufacturers, who did business for eight years at Ft. Ed- ward. He next served as foreman for General West in his large paper mills, and in October, 1884, engaged in the manufacture of neats foot oil and fertilizers, which he conducted quite successfully up to the time of his death. In 1884 Mr. Haxstun also engaged in farming, purchasing in that year the farm of thirty acres, in the town of Moreau, on which his son, the subject of this sketch, now resides. Mr. Haxstun was a democrat in politics, had served as a trustee of his village, and was also a trustee for twenty-five years of the Metho- dist Episcopal church of that place. He was a man of fine business ability, and but for im- paired health would have attained to a com- manding position in the commercial world. He married Martha Darrow, who was a daugh- ter of Hiram Darrow, of Ft. Edward, and lived to be sixty-three years of age, dying on February 7, 1893. Mrs. Haxstun's father, Hiram Darrow, was a native of Massachusetts, and besides farming, was a manufacturer of tow and flax seed oil, owning at different times large flax seed mills in Cambridge, New
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York, and at Plainfield, New Jersey. He was a republican and Methodist, and died April 10, 1870, aged sixty-three years. Mr. Darrow married Elmira Wilson, and his children were: Mary Haxstun, wife of Jeremiah Haxstun, of Cambridge, New York; Clark D., Henry, Mrs. Martha Haxstun (mother), Salina, wife of A. D. Wait, judge of Washington county for fifteen years ; Caroline, who married Rev. C. R. Barnes, of Hoboken, New Jersey ; El- mira Cuelter, wife of George Cuelter, of Jack- son, New York; Hiram, jr., Ensign, Lucy, who died in childhood, and Daniel. Mr. and Mrs. Haxstun had two children : Richard Baxter and Martha A., wife of John Henry Viele, a farmer of Washington county.
Richard Baxter Haxstun received his edu- cation in the district schools and Ft. Edward institute, which he left at an early age to be- come bookkeeper and general foreman for Haxstun, Oatman & Co., whose service he left five years later to accept a position with the firm of Haxstun & Co. Eight years later, in 1884, he succeeded to the business, which he has conducted most succesfully .ever since .. He manufactures tallow, neats foot oil and several popular fertilizers, finding ready sale at Cahoes and in New York city for the entire product of his plant. His monthly pay roll is large, while his raw material is purchased by the car load weekly. Mr. Haxston makes a specialty of a hen food which is highly prized wherever it has been introduced. He is a democrat in politics, and gives some at- tention to agricultural affairs, owning and re- siding on a choice farm of thirty acres of highly productive land in the town of Moreau. Mr. Haxstun is a man of skill and energy in his particular line of business, and has attained well merited success in this land of wonder- working industry. In his business he has chosen to climb slowly but surely, and has now reached a fair height where he can feel that noble and honorable pride that is felt by those who honor the pursuits in which they are engaged.
On July 31, 1879, Mr. Haxstun was united in marriage to Helen Carswell, daughter of William and Isabella Carswell, of Salem, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Haxstun have three children, one son and two daughters : Martha Amelia, born March 12, 1881 ; Lina Wait, born April 22, 1884 ; and Andrew King, born March 8, 1887.
H' ENRY D. SAFFORD, an active and enterprising business man of Mechanic- ville, and a distant relative of Roscoe Conk- ling, whose name will never be forgotten in the United States, is a son of Jobe S. and Eliza (Conkling) Safford, and was born in the city of Troy, Rensselaer county, New York, July 25, 1859. His paternal grandfather, Henry D. Safford, was a native and life-long resident of Greenwich, Washington county, where he followed farming as an occupation. He was a whig and a Presbyterian, and died in 1880, at seventy-seven years of age. He was twice married, and by his first wife, whose maiden name was Martha Sherman, he had five chil- dren : John H., Charlotte A. Kenyon, Caro- line Sharp, Joseph and Jobe S., the father of the subject of this sketch. Jobe S. Safford received a good education and learned with his uncle, Jacob Safford, the trade of tinsmith, . which he followed in Troy, this State, until 1859, when he removed to Stillwater, where he remained until 1865. In that year he came to Mechanicville, where, in 1886, he estab- lished his present hardware house. In con- nection with tinsmithing and the hardware business, he operates a plumbing and steam heating establishment. In October, 1861, Mr. Safford enlisted in Co. F, 77th New York infantry, and participated in the battles of the Peninsula campaign, Second Bull Run, Antie- tam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and the Wilderness fights, receiving severe wounds in the second battle, of Fredericksburg and also at the Wilderness. He received an honorable discharge at the expiration of his three years
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