History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 22

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 22
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 22
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 22
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 22

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).

# There was a Teachers' Association organized in the county in or about 1850, Hon. Wm. Smyth, the professor of the academy, being the chief worker therein. It was in operation in 1854-55, and held several institutes.

+ Missionaries were sent among the Six Nations by the English Church, and were much aided in that work by Sir Wm. Johnson.

AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

Presbyterian .- Five organizations, 5 cdifices, 2050 sit- tings, 787 members. Valuc of edifices and sites, $38,000; value of other real estate, $9000; amount of annual sala- ries of elergy, $6125.

Protestant Episcopal .- Four organizations, 4 edifices, 1150 sittings, 455 members. Value of cdifices and sites, $15,600 ; value of other real estate, $5500; annual salarics of clergy, $4000.

Free- Will Baptist .- Two organizations, 2 edificcs, 400 sittings, 83 members. Value of edifices and sites, $4800 ; value of other property, $600; annual salarics of clergy, $700.

Christian Connection .- Four organizations, 4 edificcs, 710 sittings, 87 members. Value of cdifices and sites, $4300; value of other real estate, $100; amount paid for annual salaries to clergy, $100.

Reformed Methodist .- One organization, 1 edifice, 250 sittings, 40 members. Value of property, $1000; salary of clergy, $300.

Roman Catholic .- Two organizations and cdifices, 600 sit- tings, 1000 members. Value of edifices and lots, $24,000 ; value of other property, $8500; salaries of clergy, $600.

Union Churches .- Two organizations and edificcs, 375 sittings, 20 members. Valuc of church property, $2500; salary of clergy, $135.

African Methodist Episcopal .- One organization and edifice, 200 sittings, 45 members. Value of church property, $5000; salary of clergy, $500.

Total for the county, 66 organizations, 66 edifices, 23,270 sittings, 7767 members. Value of edifices and sites, $436,782; value of other real estate, $56,950; annual amount paid for salaries of clergy, $38,250.

The county of Tioga is included in the Owego district of the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the circuits and stations in the county being Owego, Nichols, Spencer, Waverly, Barton, Berkshire, Flemingville, Candor, North Barton, Tioga, and Halscy Valley, Newark Valley, Campville, and Apalachin.

The Association of Susquehanna exercises jurisdiction over the Congregational Churches of the county, and the Presbytery of Binghamton has the Presbyterian Churches under its care. The Baptist Churches acknowledge the Association of Broome and Tioga as their higher body.

THE TIOGA COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY .*

This society was organized on the 12th of February, 1823, at Elmira, and a constitution adopted, by which it became anxiliary to the American Bible Society. The first officers were James Pumpelly, of Owego, President; Dr. G. H. Barstow, of Nichols, Eleazar Dana, of Owego, James Sayre and Samuel Lawrence, of Elmira, Vice-Presidents ; William Maxwell, of Ehnira, Treasurer ; Thomas Maxwell, of El- mira, Recording Secretary ; Rev. Henry Ford, of Elmira,

Corresponding Secretary ; and a board of twenty-six diree- tors, composed of two persons in cach town in the county, and an extra one in Owego and Elmira, At the annual meeting, held in Owego, Feb. 12, 1828, it was voted that the society should be called the Bible Society of the Eastern Jury District of Tioga County, and on the organization of Chemung County, in 1836, the society assumed its present name.

James Pumpelly was the president of the society for twenty-two consecutive years, and until his death. Rev. Marcus Ford succeeded him in 1846, and continued in the position until 1860. Dr. L. H. Allen followed Mr. Ford, from 1860 to 1864, and Rev. S. H. Hall, Rev. S. F. Bacon, Francis Armstrong, Esq., and John L. Matson have been the incumbents since then. William Platt was treasurer of the society from 1830 to 1850, and Dr. Allen was re- cording secretary from 1836 to 1852.

The society has been sustained mainly by the Presby- terian, Congregational, and Methodist Episcopal Churches since its organization. The several towns in the present county of Tioga have been thoroughly explored, and the destitute supplied with the Holy Scriptures, at different times. The society has'donated many hundreds of dollars to the American Bible Society, over and above the amount expended in supplying the destitute of its own county. Between the years 1828 and 1835, this society twice pledged itself to raise $1000 for that society, and twice fulfilled its pledge. The ministers most active in support of the society during its first ten years were the Reverends Henry and Marcus Ford, Aaron Putnam, and Charles Whitc.

The fifty-sixth anniversary of the society was held Jan. 9, 1878, at Newark Valley, at which the following officers were elected : W. F. Young, Candor, President ; Dr. J. C. Starkey, Owego, J. B. Hart, Candor, Rev. King Elwell, Newark Valley, G. F. Waldo, Barton, Vice-Presidents ; David Goodrich, Corresponding Secretary ; J. M. Hastings, Recording Secretary ; A. P. Stowell, Treasurer; W. F. Hoskins, Auditor.

THE TIOGA COUNTY SUNDAY-SCHOOL ASSOCIATIONT

was organized in 1864, at Nichols, with C. A. Winthrop as President, and H. D. Pinney, Sceretary. The first institute was held the same year, condueted by H. D. Pinney. Dr. George M. Cady, E. W. Warner, P. C. Peterson, and others were prominent also in the organization of the association. One or more institutes have been held in cach town in the county, Mr. Pinney being conductor principally. The fourteenth annual meeting was held in Candor, in June, 1878. The officers of 1877-78 were as follows: R. W. Clinton, Newark, President ; E. H. Brundage, Candor, Sce- retary. Exccutive Committee, Dr. C. R. Rogers, Newark ; W. F. Young, Candor ; P. C. Peterson, Owego.

# Contributed by Dr. L. H. Allen, of Owego.

+ Contributed by H. D. Pinney.

HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

CHAPTER XXI.

THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS.

The Beneh-The Supreme Court Jurists and Common Pleas Judges -The Bar-The Attorneys' Roll-Dana, Avery, and Platt of the old, and Taylor and Camp of the present Bar-The Lawyer Poet, and the Bar in Rhyme-The Medical Profession-A Pioneer Fee- Bill-A Heavy Blow at Quaekery-Phelps and Allen of the Past and Present Homoeopathy-Eclecticism-The Clergy : Williston, Jayne, Agard.

THE professions of the law, of medicine, of theology, literature, and song have been ably represented in old Tioga, and the name of the municipality has been carried into the high places of the nation and the State by her sons, who have therein won an enviable name for them- selves and reflected honor ou the county which has claimed their citizens while liviug and honors their dust when dcad.

THE BENCH

has been worthily occupied by her Coryell, Barstow, Bur- rows, Strong, Drake, Munger, Avery, and Farrington, and a fitting successor now holds a seat thereon in the person of Judge Clark. But foremost among the galaxy shines the name of one fitly enrolled with those of Walworth, Livingston, Spencer, and Yates,-that of Hon. JOHN M. PARKER, a justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York from 1860 till his death, in December, 1873. He was first elected in November, 1859, for a term of eight years, and re-elected at its expiration for a similar term, but died with the robes of his high office, unsullied, resting upon him. He served two terms in Congress,-1855 to 1859,-and was in 1869 appointed a general term justice for the Third Judicial Department, -a position he was " admirably fitted for by his legal learning, large judicial ex- perience, sound judgment, power of accurate discrimination, freedom from prejudice and bias, and of his complete open- ness to conviction." Judge Parker was born in Granville, Washington Co., N. Y., June 14, 1805, and was a son of Hon. Jno. C. Parker, a prominent lawyer of that county. He was a graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont, and was principal of an academy and a tutor in the college. He read law, completing his studies with John P. Cush- man, of Troy, and was admitted to the bar in the Supreme Court, and soon after (in 1833). located in Owego, and formed a law conuection with William Platt. His fine natural powers of mind were improved by much theory and discipline ; his extensive and accurate knowledge of the law, and, more than all, his perfect fairness and strict probity, soon secured him not only the approbation and confidence of the public, but a valuable law practice as well. The action of the bar ou his death was unanimous and hearty. The resolutions recite his many virtues, and say in his death a loss is suffered " of an eminent judge, whose ability, integrity, learning, purity of character, and dignified and gentlemanly bearing adorned the bench; whose strict im- partiality, justice, and kindness endeared hinu to the bar ; and whose private life and social virtues commauded the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens, and that the State at large lias been deprived of one her best citizens, and her jurisprudence of one of its strongest pillars and brightest

ornaments." Several of the distinguished jurists of the Supreme Court were in attendance at the funeral of Judge Parker ; among them Judge Theodore Miller, now of the Court of Appeals. Judge Parker died Dec. 16, 1873.

The first judge of Tioga County was Abraham Miller, a resident of Chemung. He held the position from 1791 to 1798, when he was succeeded by John Patterson, a resident of the territory subsequently included in Broome County. He held the position until 1807. In 1792 and 1793 he was in the Assembly of New York, and in Congress 1803-5. He was succeeded by John Miller, also of Che- mung, who held the position until 1810. He was in the Assembly four years,-1804 to 1807, inclusive,-and was a prominent and leading citizen of the county for several years.

Judge Miller was succeeded in 1810 by one of the noted judges of the Common Pleas of Tioga, HON. EMANUEL CORYELL, who came to the town of Nichols for a perma- nent residence in 1791, but who had two or three years previously been in the country, exploring and surveying lands in company with Robert Lettice Hooper, whose agent Judge Coryell subsequently became, as well as that of other large land-owners. He was a Revolutionary soldier and peu- sioner, and formerly resided on the Delaware, in New Jersey, at Coryell's Ferry .* Judge Charles P. Avery, in his "Sus- quehanna Valley," says of Judge Coryell, "He shared largely in public confidence, serving for many years as First Judge of the Common Pleas of the then widely-extended county of Tioga, in which capacity he enjoyed the respect and confidence of suitors as well as the gentlemen of the bar. His manners were marked by an easy and unrestrained affability iu private and upon the bench, arrogating nothing to him- self from an undue estimate of his own powers, or of his honorable position. . . . He was elected for several years a

member of the Assembly from his county, and as a well- known and decided politician he had an extensive influence, and by his cordial and free-hearted manner a strong personal popularity. He was an ardent and open admirer of General Alexander Hamilton, and of the school of policy and doc- trines of which that eminent statesman was recognized as an exponent. Judge Coryell allied himself to that party, the Federalist." He died January, 1835, aged eighty-two years.

JUDGE GAMALIEL H. BARSTOW, a son-in-law of Judge Coryell, succceded the latter on the bench of the county. He came to Nichols in 1812 to practice his profession as a

# It is on record in the State Department at Trenton that in 1732 His Gracious Majesty George II. granted to " Emanuel Coryell, his heirs and assigns, the sole liberty and privilege of keeping and using a ferry or ferries on the river Delaware, at a place ealled Coates' Ferry, opposite to Welles' Ferry, on the Pennsylvania side, as afore- said, and three miles up and three miles down the s'd river Delaware, -that is to say, three English miles above and three English miles below the s'd place ealled Coates' Ferry,-for carrying and ferrying of passengers, horses, goods, wares and merchandises." The great seal of " Our Provinee of Nova Casaria" affixed to this document then established the name of Coryell's Ferry to this erossing, which it bore till 1814, when the river was bridged, and the little hamlet on the Jersey shore was ealled Lambertville, after the family which had settled there some time before. Washington erossed the Dela- ware one hundred years ago, on the 22d June, 1778, on his way from Valley Forge to Monmouth, at Coryell's Ferry.

AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

physician, and at once took a prominent place in the com- munity. He was elected to the Assembly in 1815, and for three terms afterwards successively. In 1818 he was elected senator from the Western district, which then com- prised nearly one-half of the territory of the State. In June of that year he was appointed the First Judge of the Tioga County Court of Common Pleas. Judge Barstow drew the bill changing the boundaries of Tioga in 1822, and by its peculiar features retained the representation of two mem- bers in the Assembly, and which became a law despite the opposition of Chenango, Broome, and Delaware representa- tives. In 1823, Judge Barstow was elected again to the Assembly, and in 1825 he was elected Treasurer of the State by the Legislature. In 1826 he was again in the Assembly, and in 1830 was elected to Congress. In 1838 he was again chosen State Treasurer. He died in 1865, aged eighty-one years .*

Silas Hopkins was Judge Barstow's professional successor in 1823.

JUDGE LATHAM A. BURROWS succeeded Judge Hop- kins in 1825. He was the first professional lawyer who sat on the bench of the Common Pleas of the county. Hc was admitted to the bar of Tioga in 1816. He occupied the bench as first judge until and including the year 1827, having been one of the associate judges from 1823 to 1825. He was a member of the State Senate during the years 1824 to 1827, inclusive. He was one of the prominent attorneys of the Tioga bar for many years. Hon. Roswell Burrows, of Rochester, is his son.

GRANT B. BALDWIN, of Elmira, succeeded Judge Burrows in 1828, and held the position until 1833, when Hon. John R. Drake, of Owego, was appointed First Judge. Judge Drake had previously been First Judge of Broome County, while Owego was included in that county. He was a prominent citizen of the county, and served one term in Congress (1817-19). He was also in the Assembly in 1834. Hon. W. F. Warner says Judge Drake " was a keen observer of men and things, and a right royal talker. He found in the ordinary affairs of life abundant amuse- ment, and made the most and best of everything. He aimed to be just in his keen sarcasm, was a good hater, and unequaled as a story-teller."¡ He was succeeded on the bench by

HON. STEPHEN STRONG, one of the most eloquent and prominent members of the Tioga bar. Judge Strong was a native of Jefferson County, where he was admitted to the bar, and located in Owego in 1822, where he gained an extensive practice, particularly in criminal business.

For more than forty years Judge Strong maintained his pre-eminence as an advocate in Tioga and adjoining coun- tics in New York and Pennsylvania. He served one term in Congress (1845-47), and iu 1855 was elected county judge for a term of four years. He was district attorney in 1836-38. In 1865 he returned to his native county of Jefferson, where he married a lady who had won his boy- hood's affections, the widow of Nathan Woodruff, of Water- town, in which city he died. Judge Warner thus writes

of Judge Strong's powers of oratory : " He was for many years the leading jury-advocate of the counties of Luzerne, Susquehanna, and Bradford (Pa.), into which his practice largely extended, as well as of this county. In the prime of life he found but few equals, especially in the trial of eriminal eauses, and his services were sought in all import- ant cases. He was tall and commanding in figure, elegant and graceful in manners, of pleasing address, features strongly marked and decisive in expression, eyes full and dark, and heavy brows, and would be a prominent figure among a thousand. He was strong with a jury by his eloquence rather than for profound learning ; his keen in- telleet made him quick to perceive a flaw in the case of his opponent, and to avail himself of the advantage. As an advocate he was sarcastic and persuasive, and by his elo- quence carried the minds of court, jury, and audience with him. He possessed social qualities of the highest order ; fond of literature, his mind was well stocked with an incx- haustible fund of incident and historic facts, and possessing a retentive memory, his conversational powers were re- markable and most pleasing. His ready wit and love of mirthfulness and humor were undimmed by age; yet he was terrible in his denunciation, and his rage was a fearful thing to witness in its explosions. As a judge he was firm, and unbiased by clamor,-an instance of this quality being exhibited in his ruling against the popular judgment in a case under the excise laws, his decision being subse- quently affirmed by the highest court of the State." He was succeeded, in 1843, by

ALANSON MUNGER, of Owego, who was born in Ludlow, Mass., Feb. 5, 1801 ; was a graduate of Hamilton College at an early age; was a student of Judge Sampson, of Roches- ter, where he was admitted to the bar. He removed to Madison County, where he practiced his profession for some years, being prosecuting attorney of the county, and also later the First Judge of the Common Pleas .. He located in Owego in 1840, forming in January of that year a law partnership with Judge Strong, which continued for two years, since which time until his death, Dec. 31, 1877, he was constantly in practice. He was appointed surrogate in 1844, elected district attorney in 1850, and special county judge in 1861. He was an able counselor, and possessed an extensive knowledge of the law, and had a large practice. A general meeting of the bar of the county was held Jan. 1, 1878, at which resolutions setting forth the high legal attainments and sound judgment of Judge Munger, and paying a hearty tribute to his genial nature, kindness of heart, and uprightness and integrity of life, were unan- imously passed, and presented to the court for reeord. He was, at his death, the oldest member of the profession in the county, and with one exception (Hon. J. J. Taylor) of the longest standing at the Tioga bar. He was a promi- nent inember of the Episcopal Church from his early man- hood, and stood firmly by the old doctrines " once delivered to the saints," against all innovations, " without variable- ness or shadow of turning."

His son, Charles A. Munger, Esq., was also a member of the bar, but more inclined to literature and poetry than the law. His works in the field of song are meritorious, and are mentioned elsewhere.

# See portrait and biographical sketch with the history of the town of Nichols.

+ Centennial History of Tioga County.

HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

JUDGE CHARLES P. AVERY succeeded Judge Munger, being the first county judge under the constitution of 1846 elected in the county. He took his seat on the bench in August, 1847, and served two terms of four years each, his last term ending Dec. 31, 1855. Judge Avery filled the position of county judge most satisfactorily to the people, being faithful to their interests and competent to discharge the duties imposed on him. The author of the " Centen- nial History of Tioga," before named; says of him, " He possessed qualities brilliant and genial, a fine manly person, an exceedingly pleasing and winning address, and was a general favorite ; nor have many started in life with such brilliant prospects of success and a long and honorable career of usefulness ; but these prospects were blasted by his pre- mature death, at the age of fifty-six years." He was much interested in the early history of the county, and spent much time and money in gathering it up and preserving it, of which more is said elsewhere. Judge Avery subse- quently removed to Flint, Mich., where he died.

HON. THOMAS FARRINGTON succceded Judge Strong in 1860, and held the office three successive terms, his re- tirement from the bench, in 1872, being enforced by the constitutional limit of age. He was an Assemblyman in 1833 and 1840; Surrogate, 1835-40; State Treasurer, 1842 to 1845 and 1846-47 ; Adjutant-General of the State in 1845, and led the State troops into Columbia and Albany Counties during the anti-rent troubles of that year, and discharged the delicate duties of the position with a rare combination of prudence and judgment, restoring the execution of the laws without a conflict between the troops and the people. He was born in Delhi, Delaware Co., N. Y., Feb. 12, 1799, and died Dec. 2, 1872. At the age of thirteen years he acted as orderly on the staff of his father, General Putnam Farrington, in the war of 1812, for which action he received honorable mention from the Federal au- thorities. He graduated at Union College (1826), and read law with Colonel Robert Parker, and was admitted to the bar in the Supreme Court in 1828, and immediately there- after located in Owego, and began the practice of his pro- fession. His legal attainments were solid rather than bril- liant, and he discharged his duties to the State with fidelity and ability. He was active in educational matters, being principal of Delhi Academy at twenty-two years of age; was one of the incorporating trustees of Owego Academy, and remained so connected until the same was incorporated into the graded-school system of the village. He was a man of spotless integrity, and spent the most of his life in the discharge of public trusts, in all of which he retained the confidence of the people. He was for several years subsequent to 1850 the attorney of the New York and Erie Railway Company ; was a leading member of the Epis- copal Church of Owego, being a warden and vestryman for many years. It is said of him that "no stain ever tarnished his political, private, or Christian character." A proud record, surely. The resolutions of the bar, adopted unani- mously at a meeting presided over by Judge Boardman, of the Supreme Court, were prepared by Hon. John J. Taylor, George Sidney Camp, Esq., Colonel N. W. Davis, and Judge William F. Warner, men who had known the dead jurist for nearly forty years, and they paid him this tribute: " As

a legislator, he always had in view the best interests of the State ; as a treasurer of the State, he was strictly honest ; as adjutant-general, he ever looked with great solicitude to its military interests : and in his judicial capacity he mani- fested the same strength and power of intellect, the same care in his reasoning to determine what was right, and the same unconquerable firmness in carrying out the principles hc adopted." These resolutions were spread upon the records of the Circuit Court, and the bar attended his funeral in a body December 4. Judge Boardman, in entertaining the motion to enter the proceedings upon the records, paid a feeling tribute to the memory of the deceased judge. The vestry of the church passed some very tender and touching resolutions on Judge Farrington's death, also brimming over with kindly remembrance and regret. Judge Farring- ton's widow was a daughter of Hon. John H. Avery, and is yet living in Owego.

HON. CHARLES A. CLARK succeeded Judge Farrington in 1872, for a term of six years, and was re-elected for a like term in November, 1877. Judge Clark was born in Guilford, Chenango Co., N. Y., May 28, 1830. He was educated in Chenango County, and for a time was in at- tendance at the Ann Arbor University, Michigan. He read law with Hon. R. H. Duell, of Cortland, and was ad- mitted to the bar May 15, 1867, in the Supreme Court at Binghamton, before Judges Mason, Balcolm, Parker, and Boardman. He located in Newark Valley in 1867, where he practiced his profession until 1870, when he opened an office in Owego, and was clected to the bench in 1871. He read medicine with Dr. S. C. Gibson, of South Berlin, Chenango Co., and was admitted to the practice of the healing art at the age of twenty-two years, but gave up the practice after a year, and turned his attention to the law as a profession more congenial to his tastes than the first one. He married an estimable lady, a companion of his boyhood, May 20, 1853, whom he laid to rest in the beautiful cemc- tery that overlooks their once happy home but a few days before the twenty-fifth anniversary of their marriage. A son, H. Austin Clark, is a member of the Tioga bar, to which he was admitted in 1876. Judge Clark also has a daughter now living.

THE BAR.

The bar of Tioga has borne many honored names upon its roll during its history of almost a century of change and progress. Headed by the veteran Dana, the line includes Avery the elder, Platt, Burrows, Sweet, N. W. Davis, Dana the younger, Farrington, Parker, Taylor, Camp, Munger, Avery the judge, Traey, Catlin, Walker, and Madill, in the past, now all dead or removed from the county save Taylor and Camp, who alone remain to bind the past to the present. These men and others, their associates, have borne the name of the county into the halls of Congress and the Senate of the State, into the governors' chairs of sovereign States, up to the Supreme bench, and into the field of war; and everywhere, wherever Tioga's legal sons have stood, they have borne themselves with honor and bravery, discharging their duty with fidelity to their constituency and credit to themselves.

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History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 22

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