History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 121

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 1112

USA > New York > Chemung County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 121
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 121
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 121
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 121

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

His school in youth had been adversity. and in early manhood experience had been his ouly tutor.

He has been president of the village of Ithaca, of the Ithaea Calendar Clock Company, and is now president of

# For portrait see page 383.

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

the Ithaca Journal Association ; loan commissioner from 1857 to 1861; appointed postmaster at Ithaea by Presi- dent Lineoln in July, 1861, and continued as such until August 25, 1866, when he was removed by President Johnson.

He was a Democrat until 1848; then a Free-Soiler ; supported the Union Democracy in 1849; an anti-eompro- mise man in 1850; anti-Nebraska in 1854; an advocate of General Fremont in 1856; and from this time on an uncom- promising Republican and Union man. For five consecu- tive years, viz., 1867-71, he represented Tompkins County in the Assembly. In 1867 he served with notable aceept- ability on the Committee on Banks. In 1869, withdrawing his name from the contest for Speakership, he was appointed chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and during the five years of his service in the Assembly he was a member of this important committee. He also did duty as a member of the Committee upon Privileges and Elec- tions, that of Publie Printing, and others of little less im- portance.

The large constitueney of Mr. Selkreg being pleased with his able representation, the distinction won for them, with the rank gained by himself, aided to enlarge his sphere of usefulness by furthering his nomination and election in 1873 to the State Senate. This was repeated in 1875, and for four years he carefully and faithfully attended the in- terests of Broome, Tioga, and Tompkins Counties at Al- bany. He was constituted chairman of the Senate Com- mittee on Railroads in 1874, and continued in that post through 1875-77; a member of the Finance Committee in 1874-75; the entire four years a member of the Committee on Printing, a portion of the time its ehairman.

We have not attempted to detail all the positions in which Mr. Selkreg has served his townsmen or the public, nor can we; but we cannot in justice elose this hasty sketch without a reference to his eonnection with the pro- motion of local and railroad improvements, the Cornell Free Library, and Cornell University. To all of these he has given hearty, undivided sympathy and support; has served most of them as a trustee, and in other capacities, in and out of season, and many times at the hazard of his own private interests.

Ripe with honors at the hands of his neighbors, he has retired to the chief editorial chair of the Journal, prouder of his connection with it than at the thought of any polit- ieal station gained, or strategie point won, during his long career in active polities.

BEN JOHNSON

was born at Haverhill, Grafton Co., N. H., June 22, 1784. His father was a native of Enfield, in the same county. He was married in Fayette, Seneca Co., N. Y., Nov. 20, 1817, to Jane, a daughter of Peter Dey, an early settler in that part of the state, and died at Ithaca, N. Y., March 19, 1848.

At the time of his marriage the house erected by him on Seneca Street, in that village, and which is now owned by Dr. William Coryell, was nearing completion, and be- eame his residence for the remainder of his days, a period

of thirty years. His carly education was chiefly derived from the common schools, and was supplemented by a little academic training. He had a decided inclination to the law, and as a preparation for that profession entered as a student the law-office of Foote & Rumsey, of Troy, N. Y., where he and John A. Collier, who was then a student in the same office, pursued their studies together. The two subsequently, at Binghamton, N. Y., formed a law partnership, which was, however, of short duration. For a while thereafter Mr. Johnson resided in Hector, Schuyler Co. (then Cayuga), with the Richard Smith who became first judge of common pleas for Tompkins County, upon its erection in 1817, and held sessions alternately at his resi- dence in Hector and at the Columbian Inn at Ithaca. Mr. Johnson came to Ithaca some years before his marriage, and opened a law-office on Aurora Street, where he pur- sued his profession single-handed until near the year 1819, when he became associated with Charles Humphrey, and continued that connection a number of years.

He subsequently formed a partnership with Henry S. Walbridge, which terminated in 1839. He next was asso- ciated with Anthony Schuyler, his son-in-law, who had a short time previous married his daughter Eleanor, since deceased.

Mr. Johnson was one of the stanehest members of the Ithaea bar. Erudite, of logical mind, and possessed of rare powers in debate, his efforts before the courts where he practiced always challenged attention and often admira - tion. Dry humor and sarcasm were allies always at his command, and, upon occasion, used. An indefatigable worker, he kept serupulously within the bounds of his vocation, concentrating his mental and physical strength upon the cases in hand, from which the temptations of office could not lure him. His intellect, cool and penc- trating, sped its shafts straight to the mark, undiverted by the false and the immaterial.

His nature was social, genial, though quiet and unde- monstrative, revealing at times a slight eecentricity of man- ner, the habit of a mind preoccupied by engrossing subjects eonneeted with his practice.

The only publie position he was ever induced to accept, and that doubtless from a sense of duty, was the office of president of the village, in 1825. His wife and eight children-three sons and five daughters-survive him, and all except three-a son and two daughters-are still resi- dents of Ithaca.

ADAM SMITH COWDRY

is pre-eminently a self-made man. He was born in Sharon, Sehoharie Co., N. Y., July 11, 1810, and is the son of R. L. and Rachel (Smith) Cowdry, both deceased. He had but a limited chance to acquire an education, simply attending the common schools until he was fourteen years of age. His parents removed from Sharon to Albany, and from thence to Broome County. In 1822 he eame to Ithaca. He worked with his father, at the blacksmith's trade, until his marriage, which event oeeurred in 1832; the other particularly-interested party being Mary, daugh- ter of Thomas Riley. Soon after his marriage he began

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EZRA CORNELL.

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AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

life for himself, and entered into partnership with his brother, in carriage-making and blacksmithing, which con- tinued until 1843, when it was dissolved, he conducting the business alone until he was burnt out, in 1871, by which calamity he lost about $15,000 over and above

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expenses. He then retired from active business. devoting his time to the care of his property, etc. He has two chil- dren .- one son. Charles Edward. who is in Australia, and one daughter. Isabella, who resides with him.

Mr. Cowdry is quite a prominent citizen of Ithaca. For fourteen consecutive years (from 1857 to 1871) he was one of the trustees of the corporation. and two years (1573- 74) he was its president. He is now one of the trustees of the Ithaca Savings Bank, and also president of the Ithaca Mechanics' Society, one of the oldest institutions of the village. Mr. Cowdry's business career has been marked by the strietest honesty. and his public life by justice and impartiality.

EZRA CORNELL

was born at Westchester, Westchester Co .. N. Y .. Jan 11, 1807. He married, in 1831, Mary Ann, daughter of Ben- jamin Wood, of Dryden, N. Y. Their union was blessed with nine children. His wife and five children survive him. His father, Elijah Cornell. was from Bristol Co .. Mass., whence be removed to Columbia Co .. N. Y., in 1801. and was married. in 1906, to a daughter of Captain Reuben Barnard, of Nantucket, who had recently emigrated to Co- lumbia County with his family. Soon after their marriage they removed to Westchester. The mother of Mr. Cornell died in 1844. at the age of seventy ; his father died in Michi- gan in 1862-63, at the age of ninety-two or ninety-three. His

parents were poor, but, as regards culture and intelligence, were fully up to if not in advance of their times. They reared a family of eleven children, Ezra being the eldest. His father was a potter by trade, but for many winters taught publie school, in which chiefly their children were taught. Aside from their home-training, this school kept by their father afforded the only instruction attainable.

In 1819 his father removed to De Ruyter, Madison Co., where he established a small pottery, and, with the assistance of Ezra and a younger brother, conducted a farm. Here, also, his father taught school, and the two brothers attended. They likewise attended a school kept by Colonel T. Nye. In 1825 they obtained three months' schooling, for which they paid by clearing a heavily-timbered tract of four acres, between March 15 and May 15, working only after school each day.

Narrow as were the educational advantages of young Ezra, he made the most of them, and, by native tact, me- chanical ingenuity, and good sense, wrought practical results that many, better educated, could not have achieved. At the age of eighteen, without any previous apprenticeship, he cut timber, and planned and built a two-story house for his father, which was pronounced one of the best in the village.

In 1826 he began life for himself. He worked two years as carpenter and joiner at Syracuse, Homer, and other places, and then, in 1828, came to Ithaca, and engaged with Otis Eddy to work in the machine-shop attached to the cotton- factory, at eight dollars per month and board. This sum was voluntarily increased by Mr. Eddy, at the end of six months, to $12.

In 1830 he was employed by the late J. S. Beebe in repairing a mill. By his faithfulness and skill he won the confidence of his employer, who at once gave him the en- tire charge of his milling business, in which he continued until 1840, at a -alary of 8400 per year. He, meantime, built for Mr. Beebe a large flourinz-mill. and engineered the work of cutting the since-famous " tunnel," by which water was carried to supply it with power. He also built the well-known Beebe's Dam, at the head of the Gorge on Fall Creek.

Mr. Cornell was always a firm friend and supporter of the agricultural interests of the country. and after 1-40 devoted much of his time to farming and much of lis means to the improvement of the various branches of that industry. and especially that of stock-raising. He was president of the Tompkins County Agricultural Society and the Ithaca Farmers' Club. In 1962 he was elected president of the State Agricultural Society, and by it selected as delegate to the Royal Agricultural Exhibition. in London

While engaged in selling a patent plow in the States of Maine and Georgia, in 1840. he made the acquaintance of Francis O. J. Smith, who was interested in the then new invention of Prof. Morse. the magnetic telegraph. How. by means of his inventive genius. he perfected a machine for laying wire underground. how he improved the crude instruments of Prof. Morse, making thiem effective on long circuits, and accomplished other achievements of immense value to telegraphy. are facts that have passed into history

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

and need not be detailed. He received in 1844, at the hands of Hon. John C. Spencer, then secretary of the treasury, the position of assistant superintendent of the telegraph. In May of that year he finished the line be- tween Washington and Baltimore, and in 1845 between the latter eity and New York. His salary was then $1000 per year, of which he invested $500 in telegraph stock. In 1846 he built a line from New York to Albany, clearing thereby $6000, and the following year organized a company and built a line from Troy to Montreal, by which he cleared $30,000. He invested much of this sum in a line from Buffalo to Milwaukee, but, because of some controversy between owners of different portions of the patent, the proper fruits of this outlay were a long time delayed. In 1855, largely through the efforts of Mr. Cornell, the rival interests were consolidated under the name of the Western Union Telegraph Company, in which he was and remained a large shareholder. He was once president of what was known as the American Telegraph Company.

His family, nearly all the time he was engaged in the telegraph business, remained in Ithaca, where they still reside. They lived at what is known as the " Nook," near Fall Creek, for many years, and subsequently on South Hill. In his farming days he occupied the house and farm where his son, Frank C., now resides, including the lands afterwards given to the University. The mag- nificent stone residence, in Gothic style, whose motto, " Firm and True," chiseled above the entrance, per- petuates his noblest traits, was not finished while he lived. Its cost was great, its foundation rock, and it stands as if to erown with the true and beautiful the grand achievements of his later days. Here Mrs. Cornell, with a portion of her large family, now resides.

The great wealth that flowed from his investments in the telegraph was poured out unstintedly in behalf of many enterprises whereby his fellow-man is benefited, his beloved town enriched, and his name glorified al- most to the ends of earth. Besides the Free Library which he founded, and the University, conceived and endowed upon a basis so broad and liberal, and brought to ample fruitage while he lived, his efforts in behalf of the railroad interests of the place were almost super- human, and involved outlays of money amounting to nearly or quite $2,000,000. A million had sufficed to rear and endow the Library and the University. These are elsewhere fully described.

Mr. Cornell never sought politieal distinetion, but willingly served where duty ealled. He was in early life a Whig, in later life a Republican. Was assem- blyman in 1862-63, and State senator from the Twenty-fourth Distriet from 1860 to 1864.

He was truly a great man ; approachable, large-hearted, unostentatious, looking beyond self in all things; too great to seem greater, or prouder or more conseious of his no- bility, because of the plaudits he won by his generous deeds. Nor were lesser objects overlooked and unreached by that " larger heart, the kindlier hand." The worthy poor, the struggling student, found in him a sympathizing helper. He was equally honored by those in high and those in humble stations.

At his death, beside his connection with the telegraph company, Mr. Cornell was a stockholder in the American Photo-Lithographie Company ; was president of the Geneva, Ithaea and Athens Railroad, in which he held a large share of the stock; and was also connected with other organizations.

Though he was reared a Quaker, and held in a measure to the views of that sect, he gave liberally in aid of other denominations.

His death oceurred Dec. 9, 1874, at the age of sixty- seven, and, though not unanticipated, was felt as a severe blow in all circles. On every hand was mourning,-real, not affected. Civic and corporate bodies took appropriate official aetion, and delegations from afar joined in the last rites over his remains, his beloved University taking prominent part therein. His remains now lie where it was his wish to be buried, on the grounds of the University.

DR. WILLIAM CORYELL

was born in Nichols, Tioga Co., N. Y., July 5, 1813. His grandfather, Emanuel Coryell, came to that plaee in 1792, when the county was yet new, and for many years was closely identified with its growth and development.

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He was at one time judge of the Supreme Court, and in 1810 was appointed judge of Tioga County, which, at that time, contained within its boundaries the present counties of Broome, Chemung, Sehuyler, and Tompkins. He was also in the State Senate and Legislature for several terms. Before he removed to Nichols, his home was at Coryell's Ferry, now Lambertville, N. J .; and it would appear that the Coryells had been planted on New Jersey soil for a long time, for in the State department at Trenton it is recorded

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AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

that, in 1732, King George the Second granted to another Emanuel Coryell, grandfather of the one of whom we speak, the privilege of keeping a ferry on the Delaware at that place. Here, in 1778, John Coryell, father of Judge Emanuel, ferried Washington and his army across the river when on their way from Valley Forge to Monmouth ; and in the Presbyterian churchyard at Lambertville lies George Coryell, who died at the age of ninety-one, and whose monument tells us that " He was the last survivor of the men who laid the body of George Washington in the tomb."

Dr. Coryell studied medicine with his father, Dr. Charles Coryell, who, after some years' practice in Pennsylvania, re- moved to Ithaca in 1840, where he continued his active professional life until 1860, when a severe illness deprived him of his sight.

His son, after studying with him, completed his course at Jefferson College, Philadelphia, graduating from that insti- tution in 1837.

For a short time he pursued the practice of his profession in Pennsylvania, but in 1840 he removed to Ithaca, and practiced with his father for two years, after which he re- turned to Pennsylvania, locating himself in Burlington, Bradford Co. He remained there twenty years, which were very laborious ones, filled as they were with many professional cares.

Here, where so many years of his life were spent, he made many warm friends, as was natural to a man of his ardent. temperament and generous impulses ; and the beginning of many a pleasant friendship which has lasted through life thus far, and grown deeper and stronger as the years have gone by, may be traced to this little village nestled among Pennsylvania's hills.

After his father was deprived of his sight he was very desirous that his son should return to Ithaca, and take up the practice which his sad affliction had compelled him to lay down long before his great energy and ambition would have otherwise allowed him to retire from active life. Ac- cordingly, in 1862, he returned to Ithaca, which he has since made his home, and where his professional life has been very active, untiring, and successful.

Until the death of his father, in 1873, they remained in partnership ; for to the elderly man, whom blindness had prematurely shut out from life's active dutics, yet who was so youthful in his every feeling, it was a pleasure to know that this partuership was a link which bound him still to the busy world around him.

The doctor has been twice married. His first wife, Miss Juliette Palmer, was his cousin, her mother being the eldest daughter of Judge Emanuel Coryell and the sister of Dr. Charles. She was a lady of great refinement, gentleness, and loveliness of character, and her memory is still tenderly cherished by her children and friends. Her death occurred . in 1873, and in 1875 Dr. Coryell married Miss Mary L. Petrie, a niece of the wife of General Simeon De Witt, the founder of Ithaca, and a lady much beloved by her many friends for her charming social qualities, great benevolence, and kindness of heart.

Dr. Coryell has for many years been an earnest Christian and a devoted member of the Methodist Church. Since his return to Ithaca, in 1862, he has been very intimately

and actively associated with the Aurora Street Methodist Episcopal Church, and foremost in aiding to carry on suc- cessfully all of its beneficent plans. With great professional pride, with the highest sense of honor, and with the no- blest impulses, he has built up for himself a character of the most sterling integrity, and it may truthfully be said that as a man, as a physician, and as a Christiau he has led an honored life all these years.

JOHN RUMSEY.

It is gratifying to contemplate the life of a self-made man,-one who, in spite of obstacles, has attained success in any department of life. Such an one is he whose name heads this brief sketch.

Mr. Rumsey's ancestors were without doubt of Scotch descent, although there are no records preserved antedating the settlement of three brothers, who located respectively in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Orange Co., N. Y. It is from the latter family that Mr. Rumsey is descended. His father, James Rumsey, and his grandfather (also named James) were born in Orange Co., N. Y., but removed in the year 1805 to Cayuga County, and a few years later to the town of Enfield, Tompkins Co., where they settled upon a tract of land now owned by the family. This land was then a wilderness, and the efforts of these pioneers to found a home was attended with the hardships and trials that fell to the lot of the first settlers of this valley. Arriving as they did in the month of March, with a deep snow covering the ground, they were compelled to melt it by huge bonfires ere they could commence the ercction of the primitive log house. But there was reared the family, and there John Rumsey first saw the light of day,-there, on the partly- cleared farm, were his boyhood days spent. He grew up on the farm, attending school winters, and assisting his father at other seasons of the year, until he was twenty-one ycars of age, when (in 1844) he came to Ithaca to complete his education. His constitution not being sufficiently strong to warrant him in choosing a farmer's vocation, and with strong predilection towards mercantile pursuits, he entered as a clerk the hardware-store of L. & L. L. Treman, in Ithaca, and subsequently the store of E. G. Pelton, engaged in the same line of business. He thus employed ten and a half years, making himself thoroughly familiar with every branch of the trade. The two following years (1856-57) he spent in business ventures outside of his chosen line, the result of which was a determination to return to Ithaca and the hardware business. He then purchased the store and in- terest of E. G. Pelton, which he has successfully carried on ever since, and without change of location. Next to Mr. Treman he is the oldest hardware merchant in Ithaca.

Mr. Rumsey is a man of rather retiring habits, prefer- ring to leave official honors to others. Nevertheless, he served as president of the village in 1875. He was one of the chartered trustees of the " Ithaca Savings Bank," and at the time of its organization was chosen vicc-presi- dent, with Ezra Cornell, president. Upon the death of the latter he was elected to fill the presidency, which he still holds. He was also a stockholder in the " Cascadilla Water-Curc," and secretary and treasurer during its build-

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

ing until completion ; after which he was a prime mover in the donation of stock and subsequent transfer of the prop- erty to the Cornell University. Mr. Rumsey was one of the prime movers in the building of the Geneva and Ithaca Railroad, and from the start has been a commissioner for the bonding of the town of Ithaca, as well as a director of the same,-the road, since its consolidation with the Athens Railroad, being known as the Geneva, Ithaca and Sayre Railroad and operated by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. In 1868, Mr. Rumsey made a visit to the Old World,-a general trip to Great Britain and the Continent, viewing the Paris Exposition by the way.

Mr. Rumsey is a man of quiet, unobtrusive habits, yet frank and genial, honest, and outspoken in his social inter- course. Throughout his life he has taken great pride in fol- lowing to success whatever he undertook to do. His suc- cess as a merchant he attributes solely to these primal points of action,-a knowledge of the business, economy in its inan- agement, and strict attention to it. He stands among the many merchants of Ithaca a representative man, and, as a citizen, ranking among its most enterprising, having done much in the way of buildings and improvements towards the advancement and beautification of the village.

JOSIAH B. WILLIAMS.

No history of the village of Ithaca or of the surround- ing country would be complete without some mention of a prominent resident, whose name has been familiar to its citizens for more than half a century.

Josiah B. Williams was born in Middletown, Conn., in the month of December, 1810.

His elementary education was commenced at the age of four years, in the common or district school, after which he spent several years under private instructors in higher and Select branches of study.

In the year 1825, when the completion of the Eric Ca- nal was about to open the then new country of Western New York to the advantages of Eastern commerce, he was attracted, in company with his two elder brothers, to leave his New England home and become a resident of the county of Tompkins.

Their united energies were speedily applied to the devel- opment of the commercial advantages thus opened, which soon resulted in extensive business relations, and which were jointly pursued until the decease of his brothers,- one having died in 1840, the other in 1849.

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History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 121

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 1112

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 1112