History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 180

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 180
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 180
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 180
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 180

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).

While in this unfortunate condition he became estranged from many prior friends, lost his interest in the pride of his life, the People's College, and permitted its munificent endowment of public lands to be taken from it and given to Cornell University. And, after becoming thoroughly em- bittered by this result, he brought suit, and obtained judg- ment against it, shortly before his death, for the amount of advances which he made it. He never was a church mem- ber, though theoretically a believer in the Christian religion, and he finally passed off the stage of earthly action a phys- ical and mental wreck, leaving no directions for the man- agement or distribution of his large estate, and no child to bear his name. His legal heirs have been considerate enough to mark his last resting-place by a shaft of hard and enduring granite ; but his more fitting monument con- sists in the enterprises of his life, whose results are appa- rent on every hand in the home of his manhood.

The principal heir-at-law to the estate of Charles, just mentioned, was Elbert W., named above as settling and rearing a family in Springville, Erie Co., this State. After the death of Charles he became one of the administrators of the estate, and removed from Springville to Havana, the more conveniently to attend to the duties of the position. After the settlement of the estate he continued to reside in Havana, and he identified himself quite fully with its in- terests ; endeavoring, so far as able, to carry out the plans of his dead brother for the prosperity of the village. To this end he opened, for manufacturing enterprises, some of the vacant shops designed for use in connection with the manual-labor scheme of the People's College, and helped in the opening and continuance of a Masonic school and or- phan asylum in the People's College building.

In 1868, when sixty-four years of age, he was converted from rank, atheistic infidelity to Christianity, and at once entered upon a carcer of active Christian and church work. He early joined the Baptist Church (then recently organ- ized in Havana), in communion with which his mother had died many years previous, and his wife had lived from early youth and became an active and influential member thereof. He begged of his church the privilege of build- ing them a house of worship, and erected a fine building of brick for such purpose at his own expense, securing its dedication in January, 1874.

The Masonic school and orphan asylum in the People's College building proving a failure, he bought the interest

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AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

of other heirs of Charles Cook in the latter's judgment against the People's College, had the property sold under the judgment, and bought it in his own name. He then, in connection with one other heir of his brother Charles (Warren G. Ransom, of Springville, Erie Co., a nephew of Charles and himself, and his own foster-son), gave the build- ing and some eighteen or twenty aeres of land to a eorpo- ration known as the Cook Academy, having a charter from the Regents of the University of the State of New York, and of whose trustees a majority were Baptists, for the purpose of founding a college-preparatory and business- education school of a high grade. Mr. Cook supplemented this aet by giving more than $40,000 as a nueleus for an endowment-fund ; and in September of 1873 the school was opened with a very able faculty and under most favor- able auspiees.

The founding of this academy and the building of the Baptist church edifice are the most prominent aets of a publie nature which Mr. Cook has performed sinee his re- turn to Schuyler County. His interest in the welfare of the village he continues to manifest in various ways, how- ever; but his financial ability has been much erippled by his various benefactions, and his advaneing years tend to withdraw him, though still quite vigorous in his seventy- fifth year, from the active duties of life. He still retains the presideney of the Board of Trustees of Cook Academy, and participates actively in the management of its affairs ; but, never having taken aetive part in political affairs, he is now restricting his labors to school and church matters and the management of his private business. In 1872 his wife died, following three of their children who had passed away at intervals just after reaching maturity. In 1873 he remarried, and is now living with his second wife, a widowed sister of the first wife.

Mr. Cook has living children as follows, viz .: J. Paul Cook, born in 1846, married in 1871, a farmer, living near Springville ; Grace Cook, only surviving daughter, born in 1855, living at home with him ; and Elbert P. Cook, born in 1841, married, living in Havana, and carrying on the business of banking.

Mr. Cook's dominant physical and mental eharaeteristies are very similar to those of his older brother, Charles. However, sinee his eonversion, the asperities of his eharaeter have been much modified, and he remains quite steady in trying, as he says, to undo some of the mischief of his long life of bitter infidelity, awaiting the approach of death with Christian resignation.

Of other members of this family not here mentioned few, if any, have ever settled in the region embraced by the counties whose history we are writing, except for tran- sient periods, and the necessities of our space forbid the mention of those not actively identified with our territory.

L. M. CONKLIN.

Prominent among the living representative men of Sehuy- ler County is he whose name heads this sketeh. His an- eestors, who were of Seotch-Irish birth, eame to America about the year 1700, and settled on the Hudson, in Orange

Co., N. Y. His grandfather, David Conklin, was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, serving five years in that great struggle. He was a captain, in command of a de- tachment, in General Sullivan's army during that intrepid officer's memorable campaign of 1778 against the Indians of Western New York. His maternal grandfather, whose name was Donahue, was a major in the Revolutionary war, and subsequently settled in New York City. Mr. Conk- lin's family, on both his father's and mother's side, have held important positions in the judicial and legislative de- partments of the country. On his mother's side he is a direet descendant of General Pike, who was killed at the battle of York (now Toronto), in the war of 1812 .* He was Mr. Conklin's mother's grandfather on the maternal line.

Mr. Conklin's father, David Conklin, was a native of Chenango Co., N. Y., being born July 16, 1809; and his mother, whose maiden name was Hill, was born in the same State, on the 24th day of December, 1813.

L. M. Conklin was born March 26, 1838, in Lieking Co., Ohio, to which place his parents had previously moved. He received his education in Otterheim University, located in the village of Westerville, Franklin Co., Ohio. He was admitted to the bar in 1864, and has been in constant practice ever sinee. His father was a lawyer, but never engaged in aetive praetiee.

In 1865, at the elose of the Rebellion, Mr. Conklin re- moved to Missouri, and in 1867 was appointed United States Commissioner, which office he held until 1874, when he resigned, and removed to the State of New York, set- tling at Havana. His father was an old-line Whig,-a " Free-Soiler,"-and among the first and active workers in the organization of the Republican party in Central Ohio : following in his footsteps, the son has always been a Re- publiean, voting and aeting with the Republican party ever sinee he attained legal citizenship.

In 1868, Mr. Conklin was elected to the Senate of the State of Missouri, but was " eounted out" by a Demoeratie "returning board," and the office given to his competitor by a majority of eleven only. From 1867 to 1873, Mr. Conklin was a member of the Republican State Committee of Missouri.

IION. WILLIAM T. JACKSON.

William T. Jackson was born at Chester, Orange Co., N. Y., Dee. 29, 1794. His father's name was John, and that of his grandfather, William. The former emigrated to America, from Ireland, about the year 1735. He was one of two brothers, the other being Colonel Richard Jack- son, who remained in Ireland. William eame here during a college vacation, and the opportunity for return not pre- senting itself for some time, he went to Goshen with friends from the same part of Ireland from which he eame. There (at Goshen) he engaged to teach, and subsequently married. The Revolutionary war breaking out effected a final separa- tion between this and the mother-country. On account of his patriotie devotion to his adopted country, and his aetive

# The famous Pike's Peak, in the Rocky Mountains, was named after him.

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

participation in its cause, he entered the commissary de- partment, with the rank of major, and rendered important services. By his success in collecting and carrying news he earned the cognomen of " Post" Jackson in the army. He lived and died at Goshen. John Jackson, a son of his and father of the subject of this sketch, was born at Goshen, and was one of a family of five sons and three

BLA

M Joachim

daughters. He spent most of his life in Orange County. He married Mehitable Terry, daughter of Uriah Terry, who with his family were fugitives from Forty Fort, at the time of the Wyoming massacre. He returned to Goshen, where he died. John Jackson removed to the town of Catharine (now Montour), in 1824, and died at Syracuse in 1831, at an advanced age.

William T. Jackson was the oldest of a family of three brothers and one sister, namely : Hiram and George W. and Julia. He lived with his father at Smith's Village until he was nineteen years of age, clerking in his father's store and working on the farm. He attended the common school of his native place, which is all the educational ad- vantage he ever enjoyed. While at school he studied sur- veying and practiced to some extent under a local surveyor, Phineas Terry ; subsequently, during a part of the years 1813-15, he taught school. At this time he stood two drafts, but was not drawn. In April, 1815, he entered into a mercantile partnership with Abijah Wells, at Smith's Village, and in August of the same year sold out to his partner's brother. In June following he left for Owego, where he engaged with Dr. Jeddiah Fay to clerk in the store of Fay & Brown, at Spencer, Tioga Co., where he remained until the early part of the winter of the same year. From Spencer he went to Painted Post, to clerk for Hon. John R. Drake, of Owego, and took charge of the store, having brought the goods with him. He remained at Painted Post until September, 1817, when he returned

to his father's house at Smith's Village, in Orange County. During the following winter was engaged in making prep- arations to go to Illinois, spending a portion of that time in New York City, in the office of Wadsworth, Brewin & Lamb, who were dealers in soldiers' land claims ; and while there inade an agreement with them to go on with Major James D. Wadsworth to what was known as the " Military Tract," in the then Territory of Illinois, to act for them as a general clerk and surveyor, on a salary. . On the 24th of April he started from the residence of Major W., at Mini- sink, N. Y., with one single and two double wagons, the latter being occupied by Mrs. Wadsworth and the children, etc. The route was over the Newburg and Great Bend turnpike, through what are now the cities of Elmira and Binghamton, then small settlements. The mode of travel was primitive, the food for man and beast being taken along with the party. They proceeded to Pittsburgh, thence down the Ohio to Cincinnati, from there to Louisville, Ky., thence to Cairo, and up the Mississippi to St. Louis, where they remained three or four days. It was then, as now, the metropolis of the West; but did not then contain more than three or four thousand inhabitants. Here the party pur- chased the necessary utensils and articles of food for the new settlement, and then proceeded up the Mississippi, passed the Missouri and the site where Alton now is, the mouth of the Illinois River, and up that stream about eighteen miles, at which point they found a board nailed to a tree directing them to the locality of the new settle- ment, which lay about two miles back from the river. The party arrived June 24, occupying exactly two months in the journey. Here Mr. Jackson remained engaged in the business of the company as surveyor and agent until Octo- ber following. During this time it was very sickly, and Major Wadsworth died, which deranged the plans of the company, and had a very depressing effect upon its business and prospects.

Owing to this sad event Mr. Jackson had no desire to remain, so he returned to New York on horseback, and, without any particular adventure, arrived at his home in Orange County in December, 1818. In February, 1819, he joined a Masonic lodge. After remaining at home about a year, in December, 1819, he went to Montague (Bemerville), Sussex Co., N. J., where he entered the mercantile business, and continued in the same till Decem- ber, 1825, except in 1823, in which year he kept a store at Smith's Village. On the 26th of January, 1822, he married Miss Anna Decker, daughter of Simon Decker, of the same place. This union was blessed with eleven chil- dren, of whom only three survive, viz., Hiram B., William Henry, and Isabella G., wife of Horace V. Weed. In De- cember, 1825, having closed up his business at Bemerville, he removed to Havana, N. Y., where he became a mer- chant, being the first in Havana who purchased goods in New York City to retail. His father had previously moved to the old town of Catharine. At the time Mr. Jackson came to Havana it was a small straggling village of a few houses, and he has lived to see it develop into an incor- porated town of considerable business importance, and, in his life and character, has been among the prime factors of its success. He was one of the constituent members of the

661

AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

Presbyterian Church, with which denomination he united in 1813, as will be seen by reference to the history of that body elsewhere in this volume. In December, 1829, having closed up his mercantile business, he purchased and settled upon a farm near Elmira, where he remained until 1835, when he sold the place and returned to Havana. In 1836 he entered a copartnership with Simon and Sidney S. Decker in the mercantile business. Prior to this, in the fall of 1835, he purchased the old Bowers mill property, which he improved the following spring and summer. In 1836 he erected an oil-mill, which is now occupied by the Dunham brothers as a woolen-mill. The same year he was elected a justiee of the peace, and re-elected two consceu- tive terms. In 1838 he sold his interests in the store and mills to S. & S. S. Decker. In 1839 he was appointed one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Che- mung County, being associated with Judges James Dunn, Wm. H. Wisner, John Crawford, and Eli Banks, all of whom are now deceased. In 1841 he was made an elder in the Presbyterian Church. In 1843 he was a commis- sioner from Chemung Presbytery to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Philadelphia. From 1842 to 1847 he was engaged in cutting and running spars and square timber from Kenka and Cayuta Likes to New York. In 1848 he sustained the loss of his wife, who was removed by death. The same year he was elected to the Thirty-first Congress, representing the then Twenty-sixth District, com- posed of the counties of Tompkins, Chemung, and Yates. After serving one term he remained out of business until 1854. In 1849 he was married a second time, to M ss Mary D. Hine, of Blooming Grove, Rensselaer Co., N. Y. She died in March, 1853. From 1854 to 1857 he was engaged in the mercantile business with his son, William Henry. In the fall of 1853 he married Mrs. Ailsworth, of Havana. She died in September, 1870. March 7, 1857, he met with a severe loss by fire, and in the fall of the same year sold out his business to his sons, who removed to Winona, Minn., whither he made a trip and return the same year. Aug. 8, 1873, he married Miss Mary E. Sny- der, of North Hector. Since 1853 he has not been aetively engaged in business. We have thus sketched minutely the life of Mr. Jackson because he is one of the oldest living residents of Havana, and no history of the village would be complete without some mention of his life and services. He is a man very generally respected, and enjoys the estecm of the community in which he lives in a marked degree.

GEORGE W. JACKSON.

Prominently identified with the business interests, and hence with the internal progress of Havana, was George W. Jackson. Coming to Havana when it was a mere straggling village, he at onee connected himself with its development, and in his active business and social life did as much as almost any of its pioneers towards its ultimate prosperity. Perhaps we can offer no testimonial to his general worth more fitting than that published in the Havana Journal shortly after his demise :

" Though not entirely unexpected, yet the announcement

of the death of George W. Jackson, on the morning of Tuesday last, created a feeling of sadness in the hearts of very many of our citizens. Mr. Jackson was born at Minisink, Orange Co., N. Y., in January, 1801. In the year 1824 he removed with his father's family-John Jackson-to the town of Catharine (then), Tioga Co., and settled near this village. With his own hands he cleared much of the land lying to the south of Havana, enduring the many privations incident to what was then a new country. But, with an iron constitution and indomitable energy, he mastered the situation, and has lived to see, where was then an almost unbroken wilderness, pleasant and well-cultivated farms and a beautiful and prosperous village. Mr. Jackson was of a genial temperament, fond of society, and took mueh delight in conversing with his fellow-citizens. He possessed a large fund of aneedotes and incidents, and rendered him- self a pleasing companion, both for the suggestions of thought and the good -humor of his manner. In politics, Mr. Jackson had ever been a Demoerat. Though never, we believe, holding an elective office, yet his knowledge of political questions rendered him a prominent, if not a lead- ing, man in his party in the locality in which he lived. Eminently sound in judgment, his advice and counsel were often heeded to the benefit of his associates, both in his political and business relations. For several years prior to his death, Mr. Jackson had suffered all the pangs of that terrible disease rheumatism, but, with a heroism character- istic of his whole life, he bore his ills almost uncomplain- ingly, and at the last calmly and peacefully passed away. Requiescat in pace."

But two of his father's family survive him,-Hon. Wil- liam T. and Hiram W. Jackson. He was three times mar- ried, and leaves a widow. His first wife was Eliza Van Tassel, to whom he was married in 1823. She died June 25, 1852. He had six children, of whom three survive, namely : John M., who resides on a farm just outside the corporate limits of Havana ; Sidney D., who lives at Clifton Springs ; and Helen M., who resides at Goshen, N. Y. Of his children deceased, perhaps the best known in Havana was Andrew Jackson, who spent his childhood and youth there, and was for some years associated in business with his father. In 1857 he went to Minnesota, where he died in 1860. He was a young man of unusual promise, and would have secured to himself a prominent place in busi- ness circles had he been spared. Abraham Curran Jack- son, another son, was also a young man of fine qualifications. Harriet, the deceased daughter, married Marcus Crawford, who is also dead.

This brief sketeh of the life of Mr. Jackson is inserted by his widow, as a token of affectionate regard for liis memory, and as a deserved tribute to a blameless and useful life.

SAMUEL GILLESPIE CRAWFORD.

Among the families of eminent respectability and moral worth that settled in old Orange County, this State, at an early day, was that from which eamne the gentleman of whom this brief sketch is written. As an evidence that his forefathers were good and houest people,-just the sort, in fact, admirably qualified to become pioneers in a new

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

country, bringing with them as they did a high sense of secular and religious duty,-we quote from a certificate given one of the ancestors of Mr. Crawford and his estimable wife on their dismissal by letter from the Presbyterian Church in Scotland prior to emigrating to America :

" This is to certify that James Crawford and his wife (Mary Wilkin) were granted letters by the Congregation of Golen, Scotland, in June, 1718, free of all known scan- dal or ehureh eensure, being both of them honest and creditable persons, so they are blameless and innocent per- sons, and may be received into any congregation where Providenee may order their lot.

" Witness my hand the 9th day of August, 1718. " ROBERT COLPHEART."

The great-grandfather of Samuel G. Crawford, Samuel by name, was born in the north of Ireland, Feb. 21, 1734. About the year 1756 he, with two elder brothers, emi-

A. G. Crawford

grated, settling in Orange Co., N. Y., where the father of Samuel G. was born, Feb. 10, 1766, and died Nov. 2, 1847.

Samuel G. Crawford was born in the town of Mont- gomery, Orange Co., N. Y., July 4, 1799. He is the sixth son of James and Mary (Barclay) Crawford, who were both of Seoteh descent. About the time of Samuel's birth his father lost the bulk of his property through un- fortunate indorsements for friends. In 1804, James Craw- ford removed to Trumansburg, then considered the ultima thule of the country, and ealled Shin Hollow. Owing to the thinly-settled condition of Trumansburg, and, in fact, of all the territory embraced within the limits of Tomp- kins. County, Samuel's chances for education were very meagre, and he received none until 1809, when he removed to Orange County, where he was taken in charge by an uncle, then residing at Hopewell. There he remained three years. The prevalent idea of education in those days being

of a theological nature, he learned little else but his church catechism. He returned to his father's house at Trumans- burg, and soon entered upon an apprenticeship to the trade of tanning, eurrying, and shoemaking, and remained at that until the winter of 1816-17, when he returned to Orange County, to work at his trade and to self-study. In the winter of 1818 or 1819 he married Miss Elizabeth Davis, by whom four sons and one daughter were born,- Medorem and Elizabeth were born in Orange County. In the winter of 1823 he removed to Onondaga County, where his son John D. was born. In April, 1825, he re- moved to Havana, then called Catharine's Landing, where his two younger sons were born. Mr. Crawford estab- lished himself in the boot and shoe business at Havana, in which he became quite famous. He gave his children a good common-school education, which they subsequently used to the best possible advantage. His eldest son, Me- doreni, went to the State of Oregon in 1842. He was clected a member of the first Legislature of that State, and has served three subsequent terms in the same position. Two younger sons also removed to Oregon, both of whoni have been members of its lower House of Representatives. On the whole, Mr. Crawford has raised a family that does honor to himself and to their native State. Mr. Crawford held the office of justice of the peace four years, and has been elected to several offices of minor importance. Dur- ing the trouble known as the " bridge war," at Watkins, he was constable of the old town of Catharine, and arrested Samuel S. Seely on a warrant issued by Squire Jones of Havana .* In 1826 there was a semi-eentennial held at Havana, on which occasion Mr. Crawford was chosen to read the Declaration and to address the gathering, both of which duties he well performed. A pine-tree constituted the liberty-pole, and a general good time was enjoyed. In 1862.an appropriation was made by Congress to enlist and equip a party to afford protection to emigrants to Oregon. Mr. Crawford's son-Medorem-had the command, and in the spring of 1862 he gave his father a clerkship in the expedition. He left home in May, went by rail to St. Louis, then up the Mississippi to Omaha, where the party was made up. They started with fifty men, armed with brecch-loaders and mounted on mules. From Omaha they proeceded to Walla Walla, where they disbanded, after spending one hundred days on the trip. The scenery, savages, and wild animals seen by Mr. Crawford on this trip made one of the most interesting periods in his life. He spent about six weeks with his children in Oregon, and then embarked on a steamer at Portland for San Fran- cisco, where he spent eight days in seeing the city and surrounding country. From San Francisco he proceeded round by way of Panama by steamcr ; thence to Aspinwall by rail, and from there to New York by water, in all spend- ing eight months from home with a great deal of pleasure and some profit. During his trip he collected a valuable eabinet of minerals and Indian curiositics.

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History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 180

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