USA > New York > Schoharie County > History of Schoharie County, New York : with illusustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 66
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His children were :--
Joseph, William, Thomas, Alvin, Mrs. Anna Gairie, Mrs. Nancy Brigham, Mrs. Sophia Scripter, Mrs. Elizabeth Butler, Polly.
But few of the grand-children are living in the vicinity.
John Redington .- Soon after Dana's settle- ment, came John Redington, a private in the Revolution, and settled where Jared Van Wag- oner now resides. Redington was principally in the service around Boston, and was taken prisoner by the British near Horse Neck and placed in the loathsome "Sugar House," in New York, where he remained until the close of the war, and was forced, as thousands of others who were incarcerated there, to endure the greatest amount of suffering ; but possessing an iron constitution he lived through the whole, and a few years after peace was proclaimed, set- tled at this place. He was honored with a Cap- tain's commission for his faithful services, suffer- ings and patriotism through the war, by Gov- ernor Lewis, and was an efficient officer.
The Captain, as he was familiarly called, was a business man, and held several offices of trust in the old town of Cobleskill, and in the year 1812 represented his district in the State Legis- lature. He kept an inn for many years, but becoming involved in a land speculation, he was forced to part with his pioneer home, and upon doing so built the house where Peter Diefendorf now resides, in 1811, and where he died on the 12th of April, 1830, in his seventy- fourth year. Upon the death of Washington in
1799, Dana and Redington held a funeral service at the house of the latter, under the order of Free Masonry, which was, perhaps, as imposing a ceremony as was ever witnessed in this part of the State. The two heroes were the chief mourners, and the high appreciation in which they held the sainted General and President for his virtues and patriotism, dictated a sincere observance of the country's irreparable loss. The coffin was placed upon a bier, used in those days to carry the dead, and a heavy pall thrown over the whole, upon which were strewn flowers and evergreens by the immense throng of country-folk who assembled to assist in the ceremonies.
While Dana and Redington undoubtedly were the only ones that were immediately under Washington's command that assembled here upon the occasion, yet hundreds of the plain, sturdy sons of the soil and workshops of old Schoharie, whose daily lives had been vicis- situdes of danger and privations in the cause of Freedom, felt the loss, and united in mingling their tears, and made the occasion solemn and imposing.
Captain Redington was instrumental in the building of the Reformed church at this place in 1800, and was an active and consistent mem- ber. Whatever position he occupied, he proved himself a practical, energetic and thorough business man and useful citizen. His children were as follows :---
John Redington, Jr., Mariam, (Mrs. James Blodgett,) Joseph A., Cornelia, (Mrs. Abram Shutts,) Elizabeth S., (Mrs. Simeon Edison,) Julia M., (Mrs. John C. Furguson,) Laura A.
Dana and Redington lie within a few feet of each other, in the quiet cemetery here, and but a trifle beyond this, a neighbor and hero of 1812.
William Elmandorf, though a plain, awkward type of a stout yeoman, was an unflinching pa- triot, and was the first to step forth when the bugle of war was heard, to defend our frontiers from the invasion of our English foes in 1812. The late Dr. Sylvanus Palmer, a son-in-law of
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Elmandorf, left a manuscript of the Major's life which we will here insert, and which un- doubtedly is the only true knowledge that can be obtained of the veteran's military career.
"This veteran of the War of 1812 is under- stood to have been born in Sharon, Connecti- cut, on the 22d of February, 17 -. From a blot on the last figure of the family record, the year is unknown, but is supposed to have been about 1769 or 1770. He worked at the car- penter and joiner's trade with an elder brother in New York, as early as his sixteenth year. With that brother he immigrated to Lawyersville in 1795, when, excepting an early sojourn of a year or two at Poor Town on the West Kill, and a later one of a similar length at Huntersland, he spent the remainder of a long life.
" Here he bought a few acres of land to which he afterwards added a farm, being a gore left out of, or overlooked in all previous surveys, and therefore, still the property of the State. After some years of delay his petition for a grant of this gore, backed by his friend, the late William C. Bouck, then in the Legislature, was granted on paying incidental expenses only. At Lawyersville he changed his occupation for that of a wagon maker, in which he excelled all others in workmanship. Between his trade, farm and saw-mill his time was fully occupied until June, 1812, when war was declared against Great Britain, and the artillery in which he was First Lieutenant, being ordered to drill in Sharon, (Beekman's Corners.)
" Captain Josias Kellogg being in command, Lieutenant Elmandorf proposed that the whole company should enlist. As the Captain de- clined, Lieutenant Elmandorf, with the music (having first enrolled his own name) marched around the grounds, at the head of those he had persuaded to enlist. The number increased at each circuit, till most, or all, including Captain Kellogg had joined him and all soon after marched to the lines and joined the regiment under Colonel Forsyth.
" As little is said of Lieutenant Elmandorf's life in camp, we pass that over until we come to the skirmish at Ogdensburgh on the 22d of February, 1813.
" The British forces lay at Prescott, in Can- ada, diagonally across the St. Lawrence river.
They moved upon Ogdensburgh early in the morning.
"At this critical juncture Captain Kellogg was invisible. There being no time for red tape, Lieutenant Elmandorf mustered his men and flew to their gun which they found disabled by one of the trunions having been knocked off during the previous night, whether by home treachery or British powder was never known. The gun was soon put in order and brought to bear upon the enemy and the aim directed by Lieutenant Elmandorf who mounted another gun to witness the enemy's movements. He al- ways spoke with great satisfaction of the execu- tion of his piece and of the regular and frequent occasions he gave the red-coats to fill up their depleted ranks but still they came, nobody else making any effectual resistance. Few seemed in the sudden panic to realize for what they were there placed. After a number of spirited rounds, each scattering legs, arms and owners over the bloody ice, they suddenly saw a larger force had crossed directly in front of the village and now coming around in the rear and must in five minutes more have made pris- oners of the only defenders of Ogdensburgh, who were brought between two now rapidly closing columns of the foe. Further resistance being useless, they now retreated in good order up the right bank of the river, pursued by the enemy including Indians. Lieutenant Elman- dorf ran back and spiked the guns and upon finishing his task ran in front of the enemy whose balls were whistling from every side past him, but providentially escaped.
"Owing to privations and hardships, Lieu- tenant Elmandorf was taken down with the epidemic that raged to such an extent in the army, and he was allowed to return to his home.
" When some years after the war, an organiza- tion of the Veterans of 1812 was effected, with the late Gen. John S. Van Rensselaer, as com- mander-in-chief, Lieutenant Elmandorf was raised to the rank of Major. He lived a long and useful life, respected as an honest man, a kind parent, and a marked patriot. He died the 22d of February, 1869, aged ninety-six."
Jared Goodyear .- Near the resting places of the veterans of the two wars that established and
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vindicated the best government the world has ever known, lies another Eastern man, a descend- ant of the pilgrim band who, at an early day, settled here, and added one more resident to New Boston. Jared Goodyear was from Con- necticut, and after traveling to the western part of the State with an ox team, and not finding a locality that suited his mind as well as this, he re- traced his steps and located near the residence of his grandson, Jared VanWagenen. After years of patient, unremitting labor, he procured means enough to purchase in 1810, the farm of John Redington, and here reared a large, intel- ligent and useful family, whose lives were blessed exceedingly, but who have nearly passed away. The most prominent of them was Charles Good- year, who was early fitted for the Bar, and who settled at Schoharie village in 1827, and held a lucrative position for many years.
He was elected to.the Assembly in 1840, and Representative in Congress in 1845, 1847, 1865, and 1867. In February, 1848, the Governor and Senate appointed him First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, which office he held for five years. When the Schoharie County Bank was organized (1852), he was chosen president of the organization, and held the po- sition to the year 1868, when he removed to Charlotteville, Va. He was again appointed to the Judicial bench in his new home, and was tendered another term, but declined. He died, lamented by a large circle of social and political friends, on the 9th of April, 1876, in the seventy- second year of his age.
Isaac Hall Tiffany .- About the year 1798, Isaac Hall Tiffany, after finishing his legal studies in the office of Aaron Burr, of New York City, and his brother, George Tiffany, of Schoharie village, settled in Cobleskill village, and made his home at the house of Lambert Lawyer. Mr. Tiffany was from New Hamp- shire, and a graduate of Dartmouth College, and was unquestionably the best scholar to be found in Schoharie County at that time. The residents of New Boston being Yankees, and those of Cobleskill village, German Dutch, it was natural for congenial spirits to settle together, consequently Mr. Tiffany removed to this settle- ment in 1800. Here he gained a large practice,
and was highly appreciated by the people in general, and remained until the year 1810, or 1811, when he removed to Esperance, which was fast becoming the most progressive place within the County, it being upon the Great Western turnpike, the thoroughfare of the day. While there, he was appointed one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, which position he held about twenty years, but owing to his retiring disposition, officiated but few times upon the bench. He became deeply interested in the breeding of fine wool sheep, which proved dis- astrous to him, financially, although fortunate to the farmers throughout the country, in im- proving the grade of sheep. Esperance failing to continue in her progressive march, through the building of the Erie Canal, which drew away the products of the western counties from the turnpike, Tiffany once more removed and established an office at Fultonville, Montgom- ery county, where he died at the good age of eighty, on the 25th of February, 1859. Mr. Tiffany was tall and slim, of dark complexion, high carriage, ever looking straight ahead, but scrutinizing in the extreme. A perfect man in principle, and gentlemanly in manners. A philosophic reasoner, eloquent speaker, and ready debater. His principles of etiquette and tidiness caused him to appear to many eccen- tric. He was never married, and tradition says that a strong love existed in his heart for Theo- dosia, the daughter of Aaron Burr, in whose office he studied. However that was, the strange fate of that lady made a solemn im- pression upon the heart of Tiffany. The sister of Tiffany married Thomas Lawyer.
Dr. Jesse Shepherd .- We cannot leave this pleasant time-honored ville, without noticing another Yankee, who came here about the year 1800, from Plainfield, Connecticut, as he was one of the first regular read physicians in the town, and for many years a prominent business man. Perhaps the County has not contained a more skillful practitioner, until later years, than Doctor Jesse Shepherd. Hisability as a natural scholar, was conceded, and gave him precedence in society, while his ready flow of wit made him a pleasing companion, and a host of friends.
Being somewhat versed in law, he was fre-
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quently engaged in Justice's Courts, and gave to the people an immense amount of amuse- ment in his arguments. He made himself famous throughout a broad extent of territory, as a wit, and his expressions are still referred to and repeated as examples of the most cutting sarcasm. The Doctor was a zealous politician, and was placed upon the bench of the Court of Common Pleas, in 1804, by Governor Morgan Lewis, but how long he held the office we are unable to say, as the records are incomplete during Governor Morgan's term of office. He married a sister of Henry Hamilton, and the fruits of the union, that are now living, are Mrs. Thomas Smith, Thomas, Sidney, Clarence, John, Edward and George. He passed away at the age of fifty-eight, in the year 1832, and was buried by the Masonic Order, in the Lawyers- ville cemetery, where his ashes still lie with those of his early friends and neighbors.
Hon. Thomas Smith .- Among the many well educated and energetic men that settled at Lawyersville in the early part of the present cent- ury was Thomas Smith. He was of English ancestry and was born in the town of Westerlo, Albany county, on the 15th of April, 1804. After attending the district school of the neigh- borhood and Greenville Academy, he wandered off to Connecticut at the early age of sixteen and engaged in teaching school, receiving his certificate of qualification from the District Court, attested by its seal. A few years after we find he entered the Military Academy, at West Point, as a Cadet. The most prominent among the pupils at that time were Jefferson Davis and Professor Church, the latter remaining in the institution his life-time, as Professor of Mathematics. Military life not being suited to the taste of young Smith, he withdrew from the school and removed with his parents to West- ford, Otsego county, N. Y., from whence he located at Lawyersville as a teacher, and em- ployed his time not occupied by such duties, in reading law in the office of Jedediah Miller.
After being "admitted " to all the Courts, he married a daughter of Dr. Jesse Shepherd and settled within the hamlet and began his active life as a lawyer and politician, removing how- ever, in the course of a few years to the village
of Cobleskill. The young lawyer soon entered the political field as an ardent Whig, and be- caine the leader of the party in the County. There being an overwhelming Democratic ma- jority to overcome, in both town and County, Mr. Smith could not expect success, much less official honors. However, he applied himself to the work, and the year 1839 found him in the Board of Supervisors. Upon the election of Governor Seward, the year following, he was honored with the appointment of Surrogate, which office he filled four years, with such credit to himself as to gain many friends, who elicited an anxiety for his further promotion. In 1846 he was elected to the Assembly in the interest of the removal of the Court House site to Cobleskill, and re-elected the year following. He made a lively canvass in 1848 for Represent- ative in Congress from Schoharie and Otsego, but was defeated by a very small majority for the district. He was also nominated by the Whigs of Schoharie and Delaware for State Senator, we think in 1849, but was again defeated by a greatly reduced majority. It will be seen he was highly honored by his party, and as a leader was a hard worker and sagacious to gain the positions and bring about such results in the various canvasses in which he was engaged, when such extreme odds were against him. “ As a lawyer," says a contemporary of Mr. Smith, "starting with a finished education and man- ners, well grounded in all the branches of ele- mentary law, with a growing practice and stu- dious application, he gained a standing at the Schoharie County Bar second to none, and in the argument of causes before a Court in Banc he was equally strong among strong men."
He was a gentleman of fine appearance, un- affected in manner, of medium height, erect and well formed, a full developed head that early in life was covered with snow-white hair, which gave to him the appearance of a man much older. He died in Albany on the 6th day of December, 1861, and was interred in the family plot in the Cobleskill cemetery.
Of Mr. Smith's family the most prominent is Honorable Henry Smith.
Hon. Henry Smith was born at Lawyersville on the 14th of March 1829. He early enjoyed
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the fellowship of the legal gentlemen found at the ville and the benefits arising from the cir- culating library, long sustained by the neigh- borhood. Beyond such facilities to improve his mind, the village schools and the Esperance academy alone furnished means to prepare him for the prominent and active life he has passed. When but a lad he was engaged in the city of Detroit as clerk in a hardware house but that not being congenial to his tastes, he returned home and applied himself to the study of law in his father's office.
Such was his rapid progress that he was ready for an examination nearly two years be- fore reaching the age the law required the ap- plicant to attain, to receive a license-which time was employed in the office and occasion- ally trying causes in Justice courts where he early proved himself adapted to the profession agreeable to his genius. After Mr. Smith was admitted he soon rose to the front rank in the County as a pleader at the Bar, as his oratorical powers are above the general and his ingenious reasoning captivating. He renioved to Albany and formed a co-partnership with "Bancroft & Moak" one of the leading legal firms of the city and became prominent as a criminal lawyer and has been engaged in many such cases, that have enlisted the world's attention within the last fif- teen years, beside other State and National causes in which the best talent of the day was retained.
In 1872 he was elected to the State Assembly from Albany City and was chosen Speaker. The session was marked as one in which partisan spirit predominated and the cause of the people was little heeded-making the position Mr. Smith occupied anything but pleasant and unusually onerous. Yet through his affability and preci- sion, he passed through the ordeal with dignity and received highi enconiiums as an able officer from the honorable body over which he presided.
Hon. Joseph H. Ramsey was a student of Miller's, whose indefatigable energy displayed in the building of the Susquehanna Railroad gave to him renown, as a legislator and persevering worker.
Mr. Ramsey was very successful in his legal business at this place and formed a co-partner-
ship with his tutor, Jedediah Miller, afterwards with Joshua M. Donaldson and still later with his student the late William H. Young. In 1855 he represented the County in the Legislature, and in 1856 and 1857, was State Senator from this District. Heremoved to Albany and represented the 14th District in the Senate in 1860, 1861, 1862 and 1863, and occupied the position of President of the Susquehanna Railroad Com- pany for several years. Mr. Ramsey is still liv- ing at Albany, and is deeply interested in the proposed " West Shore Railroad" of which con- pany he has been President. Also long and closely connected with Mr. Ramsey at this place was William H. Young.
William H. Young was a son of Jacob Young now of Carlisle, and was born in Cobleskill. Being unfortunate in the use of one of his limbs, under great disadvantages he fitted himself for the legal profession, which he entered in the office of Mr. Ramsey, with whom as before stated he formed a co-partnership.
" Billy" as he was familiarly called possessed a quick, perceptive mind, and also a large heart, that won for him a host of warm friends, and added much to the firm's success. For several years the court's calendar noticed but few cases in which the firm was not employed. Mr. Young was elected District Attorney in 1862, and was re-elected in 1865, which was the only office with which he was honored, as his sudden and untimely death debarred his friends from conferring upon him the election of Senator, as anticipated. Soon after the removal of Mr. Ramsey to Albany, Mr. Young removed to Cobleskill village where he identified himself with the progression of the village and its busi- ness interest, in behalf of which his generous labors and purse were not withheld. On the 25th of August, 1874, in the bloom of his man- hood and legal success, he suddenly passed away, at the age of forty-five, deeply lamented by the community and the legal fraternity. It was said of him by the local press "in the pub- lic walks of life, whether in an official or pro- fessional transaction or character, his position was openly, squarely and manfully taken and maintained, for he cordially spurned every sem- blance of unworthy compromise, and abhorred a spirit of truckling policy in barter for princi-
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY.
ples he deemed right, for the mere purposes of a temporary advantage.
Shutts Family .- In 1805, Abram Shutts moved from Columbia county, New York, and settled upon the farm now occupied by his son, Abram, and reared four sons-John C., Henry, Abram, and William, each of whom followed agricultural pursuits, with the exception of Henry, who engaged in mercantile business at Lawyersville with the late Charles Courter, as before stated, and at Sharon Hill, with Abram A. Kneiskern of Carlisle, in 1839. He was endowed with a literary mind, and is one of the leading miscellany writers of the day. The productions of his pen have been voluminous, and published by many of the leading periodi- cals of high standing, instead of book form, with the exception of a pamphlet of forty-two pages-the first and second edition of which appeared in 1857 and 1859, entitled “Tobac- co,-a satire by a Non-Sucker," excusing the the latter assumed incognito thus :-
We call the subjects of the Realm of Rum " Suckers "-are not those of Tobaccodom As much so? Does not each respective tribe Alike in its peculiar way "imbibe ?"
The laconic preface exhibits the author's generosity of ideas, as he says :-
" This work the author here inscribes in brief, To all who love and all who loathe the Leaf."
Mr. Shutts' writings are marked, as fluently written, precision, weight of thought and honest aim and expression. He married Mary Ann H. Dodd, of Hartford, Conn., in 1855, and the union proved to be congenial to both, as she was of rare literary taste and ability. Of her, Caroline May, in her " Female Poets," says :-
" Mary Ann Hanmer Dodd was born at Hartford, Conn., in 1813, and educated alter- nately at Weathersfield, and in her native town. Her productions first appeared in the Heme- thenean, a magazine conducted by the students of Washington College, Hartford. Since that time she has been a frequent contributor to the Ladies Repository and the Rose of Sharon, an annual edited by the late Mrs. Mayo. She possesses a poetical sensibility and the power of deducing moral lessons from the changes of life."
R. W. Griswold, in his "Female Poets of America," makes mention of several of Mrs. Shutts' productions " as of rare excellence," as " The Mourner," " The Dreamer," and "Burns."
The writer's attention was particularly at- tracted by "Charity," " Brighter Hours," and " In Life's Young Morn," from her work pub- lished in 1844, as efforts of literary excellence. Mrs. Shutts was a lady of culture, modest and unassuming, and drew around her a large circle of friends, particularly those of literary taste. She died near Albany City on the 18th of January, 1878, at the age of sixty-four.
But few places of even greater size can pro- duce a better record than this little ville. It has seemed to be the scholar's home, where logic has shed its classic rays on unpretending worth, and produced men that were a host within themselves. While we of another school from them, under the light of brilliant literary advantages, take pride in boasting of our supe- riority in exigent times, yet when we calmly look back upon such men as have graced the legal profession from this place, we cannot but acknowledge their superiority, and when we look upon their legislative career we cannot but admire their candor and integrity. Their op- portunities to become corrupt were as good as to-day, but they did not give way to the tempta- tions ; they based their acts upon honor as men, and when they were. laid down in their narrow homes, that honor remained, unstained, irre- proachable.
We cannot leave this quiet cemetery, in all its rusticity, without a thrill of veneration for the illustrious that lie here so silently, and have left such lasting and honorable impressions of their " once having been." Here the war- rior, statesman, philosopher, and peasant lie side by side, noble by acts in life-generous by example, in death. Wave after wave of earth's changing scenes may obliterate much that man has built and fostered, yet well spent and useful lives like theirs, remain and shine with brighter luster as the foaming spray of less honorable ones, dash against their worthy records.
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