History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 122

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 122
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 122
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 122
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 122

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 early attention was given to internal improvements, such as the progress of events and the development of the country demanded.

Upon the opening of canal navigation, he became in- terested in devising plans and constructing boats suited to the practical navigation of the canals and lakes. Then, in the improvement, enlargement, and extension of canals. In the construction of roads, bridges, mill, manufactories, churches and schools. In the construction of railroads, and the incans of effecting their practical utility, resulting finally in the use of steam-power thereon. In the establishment of telegraph lines. In improving the mode of manufacture of iron and development of iron mincs. In the development

of the coal-mines of Pennsylvania and opening ways and means for the distribution of coal.

He also gave early attention to the fundamental princi- ciples of banking,-advocating the free security system, which was finally adopted by the Legislature of the State in 1838, and which has in substance finally been adopted by the United States.

He organized a bank under the law cnacted in 1838, and still continues his interest in the business,-now under the laws of the United States.

He has been repeatedly called to occupy positions of public trust ; was a member of the State Senate from 1851 to 1856. The promotion of free education, the establish- ment of higher institutions of learning, the enlargement of canals, the suppression of crime, and establishment of sound principles of finance, were objects which received his special attention.

He was one of the corporators of Cornell University, and still continues a member of the Board of Trustees of that institution.

- In the year 1856 (a cloud in the South having already appeared) be united with a number of eminent men, assem- bled at Cleveland, O., from most of the Northern States, in the organization of the " National Compensation Eman- cipation Society," and became one of its vice-presidents, for the purpose of advocating the appropriation of the proceeds of the public lands to redeem from bondage the slaves of the South. This effort, although pressed with considerable vigor, proved unsuccessful.

-During the war of the Rebellion he rendered efficient aid to the government ; was active in raising means and troops, and in sustaining the families of such as engaged in the conflict.

He still lives, an untiring advocate of peace and good- will to all men, a monument to the proverbs that " Hon- esty is the best policy," and that " Righteousness exalteth a nation."

SAMUEL LOVE.

Prominent among the members of the Tompkins County bar, in days past, and the pioneer of that respectable body, in fact, is Samuel Love, who for upwards of half a century practiced law in Ithaca. Samuel Love was born in Kings- bury, Washington Co., N. Y., July 28, 1797, and is con- sequently in the cighty-second year of his age. His father, John Love, was born in Rhode Island, in June, 1764, and his mother, Annar Burnett Love, was also a native of that State. In January, 1813, the family removed from Wash- ington County to the town of Groton (then Locke), where Samuel received the rudiments of his education at the public schools. His father died in 1823, and his mother in 1842, and the only surviving members of his family direct are one brother, Isaac Love, of Ithaca, and a sister, Esther, now the wife of John D. Fuller, of Moravia, Cayuga Co., N. Y. Mr. Love commenced the study of law with Lewis Tooker, and completed his legal studies in the office of Alpha H. Shaw. He was admitted to the bar of Tomp- kins County in 1824, and two years later was made a practitioner in the Supreme Court of the State. He cu-

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tered upon the duties of his profession with a commendable determination to succeed, and after a long and sueeessful praetiee has nominally retired on a well-earned competeney.

In 1828, Mr. Love was elected clerk of Tompkins County, and sueh was the satisfaction he gave in that re- sponsible office that he was re-elected in 1831, serving in all six years. In 1835 he was appointed Distriet Attor- ney, which position he retained six years, performing its duties impartially and well.

Photo. by Frear.

SAMUEL LOVE.

Mr. Love has been twice married : the first time, in 1836, to Mary Ann, daughter of Daniel Dickenson, of Washing- ton Co., N. Y., she dying in 1849; the second time, in 1850, to Sarah, daughter of Jonah Tooker, a well-known and prominent resident of Tompkins County, who settled in the town of Genoa, subsequently Milton, and now Lan- sing. She was born in Washington County, Feb. 28, 1806, and is still living.

The main eharaetcristies in the career of William Love have been a desire to discharge all public and private duties in a eonseientious and upright manner, to maintain a reputation for individual reetitude and integrity, and, in short, to make a personal application of the Golden Rule, believing that the basie fabrie of moral and civil law is founded upon that grand old principle.

HENRY W. SAGE

was born at Middletown, Conn., Jan. 31, 1814, and lived at Bristol, Conn., till 1827, when his parents removed to Ithaea, N. Y. Previous to leaving Bristol, he had been pursuing studies at the academy there, with reference to entering Yale College, but this course was interrupted by his removal to Ithaca. In 1830 he commeneed the study of medieine with Dr. Austin Church, at Ithaca, but was obliged to relinquish it, in eonscquenee of ill health, after a year, and in 1832 began his elerkship to the mereantile business with his uneles, Williams & Brothers. In 1837 he succeeded to their business, and for the next twenty

years was among the most active and enterprising of Ithaea's business men. In 1847 he represented Tompkins County in the State Legislature. In 1854 he extended his business enterprises, and built up a large lumber manufac- tory on Lake Simeoe, Canada, and a few years later, in eonneetion with the late John McGraw, another at Wenona, Mich., which was at that time the largest one in the world. These establishments and the business collateral to theni were managed with great vigor and ability, and resulted in his becoming one of the largest land-holders in the State of Michigan.

He was the life-long friend of the late Ezra Cornell, and from the beginning of his labors to establish Cornell Uni- versity took a deep interest in them, and was one of its early trustees. At its first commencement, he proposed to Mr. Cornell and President White to erect there a college for women. Two years later his proposal to erect and en- dow it was accepted by the board of trustees, with the condition that " Cornell University should provide, and for- ever maintain, facilities for the education of women as broadly as for men." The college for women, known as " Sage College," and the chapel near it, have sinee been built by him and presented to the University. After the death of Ezra Cornell he was elected president of the board of trustees of Cornell University, which position he now holds.

Sinee 1857, Mr. Sage has resided in the city of Brooklyn, where he has been for many years a member, and one of the trustees, of Plymouth Church. He has nearly com- pleted arrangements to return to his old home, Ithaea, and spend the remainder of his days there.

We condense from several voluntary contributions the following views of Mr. Sage's prominent traits of eharaeter, from those who know him best.

Mr. Sage's character, in many of its elements, partakes strongly of the type of the old Puritan stoek from whichi he sprang, yet it is devoid of many of its offensive elements. He is upright and just, without selfishness ; religious, with- out bigotry ; charitable to those who differ from him in opinion or belief; stern in his sense of duty towards others, but far less cxaeting as to that of others towards him. For those who have h's friendship and confidence he has felt no labor or personal sacrifice too hard, no needed expenditure too great ; and all such who have required his services ean testify that they have always been bestowed gladly, unsel- fishly, and without stint. Few men ean say of him that he ever asked of them a favor ; fewer still, who ever granted him one, that he did not more than repay. His personal appearance and bearing indieate his character, and a man of great strength and power of endurance, with a sound mind, sound body, indomitable energy, untiring perseverance, and firm decision. A stranger meeting him casually would re- eeive sueli an impression, and feel that he was in the pres- ence of a man of unusual power and comprehension of intel- leet, of high aspirations, and honest intentions. His suc- eess in life is an accomplished fact, and has been achieved by patient, hard work, arriving through it by wise adapta- tion of the right means at the right time to the desired ends.

Mr. Sage's early training was in the hard school of ad-

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versity, and he acquired there habits of application and self-discipline which have moulded him into a rare example of executive efficiency. Blessed with a constitution of re- inarkable vigor, with a clear head, and great hopefulness, he has always welcomed work in the line of his duties with enthusiastic delight ; and his large, and often difficult, busi- ness enterprises have been conducted with a power of will and fertility of resource equal to cvery emergency.

So intensely practical a life often has a tendency to pro- duce a hardness of character unsuitable to the culture of the finer sentiments, but Mr. Sage has ever exhibited the tenderness of feeling of a woman, and a strength of friend- ship which nothing could efface. His fund of good nature is never failing ; his humor genial and ever ready. He has through life maintained a taste for literature, science and art ; and efforts for their promotion, and for the moral and religious elevation of men, have ever met from him a sympa- thetic response. Churches and school-houses have imme- diately followed the establishment of his business enterprises as parts of his work. His aim in life has not been the mere acquisition of property, or the power and influence resulting therefrom : but while these have been powerful motives, there has been behind them, and especially in later years, a higher one in his well-defined purpose to devote to the benefit of others the largest share of his accumulations, and his benefactions have more than kept pace with his increase in wealth. All in all, he is a man of rare positive- ness, which goes to make a strong character. That the fruits of his success have gone very largely to others is con- vincing proof that they were deserved, for more reasons than those of broad views, unswerving integrity, and intel- ligent industry.

SAMUEL D. HALLIDAY

was born at Dryden, Tompkins Co., N. Y., on the 7th day of January, 1847. Until fourteen years of age he attended the district school near his home, and subsequently entered the Ithaca Academy, where he prepared for college. In the fall of 1866 he entered the sophomore class at Hamilton College, and remained one year. The succeeding year he taught in the Ithaca Academy, and upon the opening of Cornell University, in 1868, entered the junior class at that institution, and graduated therefrom, with honor, in 1870. Then followed two years of preparation for the bar, to which he was admitted in 1872. Since that time, save when called aside to public station at the bidding of the people, he has assiduously practiced his profession.

Mr. Halliday early developed an interest in the politics of the time, and siding with the Democracy, warmly advo- cated the cause of that party in the campaigns of 1868 and 1872,-the former while a junior at " Cornell."

In the year 1873 he was elected district attorney by a majority of 415, being the only Democrat the voters of Tompkins County had chosen for a county officer in twenty years. In June, 1874, he was made a trustee of Cornell University by a vote of the alumni thereof, in accordance with its charter. This position he still holds, as also that of corporation counsel, to which he was appointed by the trus- tees of Ithaca, in March, 1875.

Mr. Halliday spent much of the summer of 1875 in Europe, and on his return received the nomination from his party for the Assembly, and was elected by a majority of 446 over his opponent. He was made a member of the

J. D. Hacciday

committees on Public Education, Engrossed Bills, and Game Laws, and took an active part in the legislation of the year. When the Democratic National Convention was held at St. Louis, in 1876, he was chosen a delegate to that body, and earnestly advocated there the nomination of Mr. Tilden. Nominated again for the Assembly, in 1877, he again prevailed, obtaining over the Republican and Pro- hibition candidates a handsome majority.

In the last Legislature he served on the committees of Ways and Means and Apportionment.

BARNARD M. HAGIN

was born in the town of Lansing, Tompkins Co., March 23, 1827, the youngest child of Charles and Mary Ann Hagin. His father was a native of Belfast, Ireland, and came to America as a British soldier in the war of 1812. He left the British service, joined the American army, and served till the close of the war, losing an arm, for which service he received a pension up to the time of his death. He married, in the year 1815, Mary Ann Smith, daughter of Yost and Mary Magdalana Smith. Her grandfather, John Smith, was one of the earliest settlers of Lansing. Their children were Francis Smith, John Bradley, Sarah Ann, Matildaett, Charles Augustus, and Barnard M., all born in Lansing, and all living. The father died in the month of April, 1829, leaving a widow and six children

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without any means. By the efforts of the mother, with the help of the older children, the family were kept to- gether. The mother died Sept. 12, 1873. Up to near the age of twenty-one, Barnard MI. lived at home, working out summers and attending school winters. He was mar- ried, Feb. 4, 1848, to Catharine Ives Labare, daughter of

Photo. by Frear.

S. C. Hagen

Ephraim and Clara Labare, who were also among the early residents of Lansing. Mrs. Hagin was born in Lansing Aug. 10, 1828. After marriage, Mr. Hagin followed boating ou the Erie Canal for a period of teu years. He then commenced buying and selling grain, and has fol- lowed that business up to the present time; by honorable dealing and strict integrity has succeeded in accumulating a handsome property. Mr. Hagin was identified with the Democratic party up to the organization of the Republican party, and has been an active worker in that party up to the present time. In 1875 he was elected to the office of sheriff of the county, carrying his own town of Lansing by a majority of 135. in a town largely Democratic. He is the present incumbent of the office.

Upon his election to that office, he removed his family to Ithaca. Though uot a member of any church, Mr. Hagin has always contributed his share towards its support in his neighborhood. Mr. and Mrs. Hagir have four chil- dren, as follows : Charles Earnest, born Dec. 10, 1849; Clara Edith, born, Dec. 27, 1858 ; Ida Kate, born July 18, 1865 ; and Audrew Labare, born May 14, 1870, all living. Charles Earnest was married to Julia Bush, Sept. 13, 1870, daughter of Robert and Anua Bush, of Lansing. He lives on the home farm.

JOSEPH ESTY.

Nothing serves to present more vividly the contrast be- tween the early savage and later civilized condition of the region of Central New York than a review of a life com- passing the first three-quarters of this century.

The subject of this sketch was born in Westmoreland, Oneida Co., N. Y., June 20, 1798. On his father's side the ancestral line is imperfectly traced, as yet no clear record appearing anterior to the time of the Salem witchcraft; but upon his mother's, Sally Winslow Williams, there is, as the name implies, an undoubted descent from a Puritan ancestry, whose representatives, in 1642, stepped from the deck of the " Mayflower" upon New England's rock-bound coast.

The pioneer family of Elijah Esty started from Rox- bury, Mass., now a part of Boston, in the year 1796, to seek a home in the " Western Country," as New York was then called. With an ox-team and a single horse they slowly plodded along until they reached the town of Westmoreland, Oneida Co., where they put up a log house with a bark roof. In this wilder- ness home Joseph Esty was born, June 20, 1798, and dwelt therein for two years, while stealthy Indians prowled thickly about, peering often through the chinks of the cabin and making themselves otherwise too familiar.

One day the boy was missing, whereupon the good Elijah, with a hastily-summoned company, pursued the trail of certain suspected Indians who had been lurk- ing in the vicinity, and just at nightfall overtook them and recovered the child. " Deacon" Esty, in relating this incident, concludes with the remark, "So you see how near I came to being an Indian."

His father finding the clearing up of the forests too arduous, and being by occupatiou a tanner, re- moved, in the year 1800, to what was then " Harden- burgh's Corners," now the city of Auburn, and built a tan- nery and dwelling on what is now the corner of North and Seminary Streets. Near by still stands, in the middle of the sidewalk, a stately tree, known as " Aunt Sally's elm," whose position shows that the street lines were then not well defined. This tree was planted by Mr. Esty's sister when a child.

In 1812 his father died, leaving an estate involved by reason of indorsements, thus throwing the family upon their own resources.

Young Joseph concluded to follow the business of his father, and was apprenticed to Ezekiel Williams, of New Hartford. He was next employed by a Mr. Morris, who, after six months. failed. making wreck of Joseph's wages for the entire period. Not discouraged, Mr. Esty went to Auburn, and was employed as foreman by the firm of R. & J. Patty, who, under his supervision, built a new tan- nery. He at first received for his services two hundred and fifty dollars per year, but subsequently engaged to run the tannery by the piece. This contract, however, was soon annulled by the proprietors, on the ground that their foreman was earning too much. An experience of a year and a half followed as assistant keeper at the State-prison. when a change in parties put an end to his service.

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

The year 1822 brought Mr. Esty to Ithaea. Hearing that Comfort Butler, who then had a small tannery near the present dwelling of Mr. Alexander King, had been drowned in the lake, he borrowed one thousand dollars, which, with some ready means of his own, enabled him to purchase the business. By rigid economy, this small eapital was so inereased that he was able in a few years to purehase of Simeon De Witt the lot at the junetion of Tioga and

Photo. by Beardsley.

Joseph Esly

Green Streets, where he ereeted a tannery and continued business there until 1852. He was sueceeded by his son, Hon. Edward S. Esty, who has carried forward the business to an especial prominenee, and is himself an influential representative of that particular industry in this country.

Much of the fortune acquired as a tanner Deacon Esty has expended in the erection of residenees, thus adding to the visible thrift and growth of the village. The corporate authorities, in recognition of sueh publie spirit, have given the name of " Esty" to one of the streets whose sides he had fringed with his tenements.

He was one of the earliest members of " the fire eom- pany" when the plaec boasted of but one sueh organization. He was trustee of the village in 1829, and the same year served as overseer of the poor for the town, and in 1836 was appointed supervisor. Of the old Ithaca Bank he was a director, and finally one of the trustees appointed to close up its affairs. An original stoekholder in the First National Bank, he became a director of its first board, still holds the position, and attends its regular sittings. Mr. Esty was also one of the trustees of the Ithaea Savings Bank when chartered in 1868. The chief surprise of his life, however, was when, years ago, he was elected without his knowledge to the offices of elder and deaeon in the Presbyterian Church, which positions he reluctantly ae- eepted at the urgent desire of Dr. Wisner, the pastor, and because, without him, there were then not enough male members to fill them. Of all who were then officers of the

church, he alone has survived the eventful years of its sub- sequent existenee. Of this ehureh he has ever been a devoted member and faithful offieer.

The day preceding the nation's eentennial anniversary, the youngest son of Mr. Esty, Joseph, Jr., who was in business on State Street, died. Having a just pride that the business should continue in the family name, he took the burden upon himself, and may now, at the age of eighty-one years, be daily seen at his desk, industriously applying himself to all the financial details of a leather- and finding-store.

That he has prospered-has built up at onee a fortune and an honorable name-is due to his own wise foreeast, enduring purpose, and undeviating integrity. Throughout his life his ways have been marked by persistence, prompt- ness, and regularity,-by a " faithful continuanee in well- doing."

ORISTUS II. GREGORY

was born in Berkshire, Tioga Co., N. Y., Oet. 22, 1818. His parents soon afterwards removed to Ithaea, where they resided about six years, and then removed to the vicinity of Owego, settling near the " Parmenter place."

LITTLE

Photo. by Frear.

ORISTUS H. GREGORY.

Mr. Gregory's aneestry on the side of his mother reaches baek to an early period in the settlement of this country. He is the fifth remove from Simon Huntington, of Wind- sor, Conn., a son of Simon and Margaret, immigrants from England in 1633, who as non-conformists fled from reli- gious apprehension as did the Pilgrim fathers before them. Mr. Gregory's father, Henry, was born July 5, 1791, and married Abigail Huntington, of Ellington, Conn., Sept. 25, 1818, who was born Sept. 25, 1796.

His grandfather, Oliver Huntington, was a merehant, who dealt heavily in produce of various kinds for shipment down the Susquehanna, and was the proprietor of a large traet in the valley just north of Owego.

His father died when Oristus was six years of age, and was buried in the old Owego cemetery. Oristus was then

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taken to Berkshire, and placed in the family of his paternal grandfather, where he remained for ten years. At the expiration of that period he set out to win his own main- tenance, and came again to Ithaea. He soon found em- ployment in the store of Lewis HI. Culver, and remained there three years, or until 1837, when, upon the election of his uncle, Wait T. Huntington, to the office of county clerk of Tompkins County, he was engaged to conduct the brewery of Collins & Huntington. In the service of this firm and of Mr. Huntington, who became sole proprietor, he remained seven years. He then began business for himself; his first essay being the purchase of the interest of Anson Braman in the business of Braman & Rice, then oeeupying an old wooden building on the south side of Owego Street, owned by Frederick Deming. After a few years the firm removed to the north side of the street into the " Grant Building," which was also of wood, and on the site of the ancient " Coffee House.'

Mr. Gregory finally purchased his partner's interest, and continued business alone until 1855, when he sold out. For several years after this his business required his nearly unintermitted absenee from the village; but in 1861 he purchased the brick store, now 18 East State Street, just east of his old quarters, and resumed a business which he continued suecessfully to follow for another ten years, when he again and finally sold out. In a short time thereafter he was called to a trusteeship in the Ithaea Savings Bank, and later, upon the death of the treasurer of that institu- tion, was elected to that offiee, which he now holds.

At the urgent solieitation of his political friends he lately consented to a nomination for the office of county treasurer. Mr. Gregory is of the few who do not seek office.

CHAPTER LXVII.

CAROLINE.

EIGHTY-THREE years,-less than the lifetime of many,- with their changing scenes and numerous vieissitudes, have passed into the silence of eternity since the first white set- tler made his habitation amid the wilderness that once covered the now fertile territory embraced within the bounds of the town of Caroline. To the pioneer belongs, primarily, the honor of redeeming the wilderness, and by watchful eare and arduous toil making it to blossom like the rose. In a secondary degree, the meed of praise is due the suc- cession of yeomen, who, following in the footsteps of their fathers, have developed the agricultural resources of the town, which the pioneers could but partially consummate. The poet Stoddard very neatly portrays the intelligent husbandman in the following lines, which are directly ap- plieable to those of whom we write:

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History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 122

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