History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 43

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 43
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 43
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 43
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 43

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).

fleury Young, private; must. Sept. 13, 1562, three years.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Walter A. Nixon, private, Co. A, 144th Regt .; in battles of James Island and Honey Hill, S. C .; wounded in the head, at lloney llill, Nov. 30, 1864. Thomas Ayers, private, Co. A, 144th Regt. ; killed at Honey Ilill, S. C., Nov. 30, 1864.

Samuel Barstow, capt., 64tlı Regt., Co. K ; must. Dec. 10, 1861, three years. Merritt L. Coffin, private, 64th Regt .; Co. K, must. Dec. 4, 1861, three years. Dennis R. Cole, private, 64th Regt., Co. K ; must. Dec. 4, 1861, three years. Ephraim Lanchart, private, 64th Regt., Co. K ; must. Nov. 18, 1861. . Isaac L. Morton, private, 44th Regt., Co. E; enl. Ang. 19, 1861, three years. Sherwood F. Cary, 5th sergt., 44th Regt., Co. E; enl. Aug. 20, 1861.

INDEPENDENT BATTERY OF ARTILLERY, No. 16.

Thomas Collins, sergt .; must. Dec. 10, 1861, three years. fleury Maslen, artificer ; must. Dee. 10, 1861, three years. William J. Bowen, corp. ; must. Dec. 10, 1861, three years. Jolin Brockham, private; must. Dec. 10, 1861, three years. John Carney, private; must. Dec. 10, 1861, three years. Philip Carrigan, private; must. Dec. 10, 1861, three years. Allen Whalen, private; minst. Dec. 10, 1861, three years.

NAVY.

Rieliard S. Stout ; enl. in vessel " Isaac S. Smith." Adelbert Cameron ; enl. on gunboat "Freeborn"; wounded Jan. 30, 1863, at Stone River, S. C.

Theodore Barnes ; enl. on gunboat " Freeborn." Edward W. Muzzy, private; enl. 1861, two years, U. S. frigate "Santee." Cicero B. Curtiss, engineer.

Albert Kenyon, engineer, and still in service. James H. Tinkham, surgeon in regular navy. Geo. Il. Avery, lieutenant commanding steamer " Sassacus." Boynton Leach, still in navy.

Win. Lord ; enl. in 1861, on board steamer " Richmond."

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

IION. LYMAN TRUMAN

is at the present time the leading business man of Tioga County, and its wealthiest citizen. He was also, until a recent period, the leading Republican politician of that county. His life is a remarkable example of what one can accomplish, unaided and alone, without any external advan- tages of wealth or family, in working out for himself a successful personal career by force of character and a tem- perate, moral, industrious, and economical habit of life.

He started a poor boy, on a farin remote from any busi- ness locality, the eldest of a family of ten children, of whom Aaron Truman was the father.

Aaron Truman was born in Granville, Mass., and came to Owego in the year 1804, where he married the year fol- lowing Miss Experience Parks, of Candor. Lyman Tru- man, the brother of Aaron, came in 1808, and Asa H., another brother, followed about 1814.

Lyman Truman, the subject of this memoir, was born March 2, 1806. His brothers and sisters were Charles, born in 1807; Dorinda, in 1809; Orrin, in 1811; Francis W., in 1813; Charlotte, in 1814; George, in 1816; Fanny, in 1818; Mary, in 1820; and Adaline, in 1822.

Aaron, the father of this large family, died in 1822, when Lyman, the oldest, was but sixteen years of age.

The only property left by the deecased to his family was a small farm of sixty acres, incumbered with a debt greater than its value ; and it was due to the sympathy of creditors only that the household was not driven from its humble shelter, which was but little better than a cabin located on the farm. By the blessing of Providence, the mother, who was endowed with remarkable sagacity and energy, so ad- mirably stimulated and directed the efforts of the young but industrious and untiring family, that within three years she not only succeeded in paying the heavy debt, but erected a comfortable house, that still remains as a monument of their thrift. From the death of his father until the year 1830, Lyman continued to follow the drudgery of day and farın labor, raising and carting the produce of the farm to market, making shingles, and sawing and selling boards.

Of course the intervals of labor in such an overtasked youth left but a few scanty weeks for schooling, at the district school before, and none after, his father's death. These brief intervals were improved, however, with the saine energy that has characterized all of the subsequent career of the man.

In 1830 he left the farm and became a clerk in the store of his uncle, Asa H. Truman, at the village of Owego. He rapidly acquired the skill and tact in trade that made him desirable as a partner, and enabled him soon to start in business for himself, though without capital, as a member of the firm of Greenleaf & Truman, composed of John M. Greenleaf and himself.

In January, 1838, he married Emily, daughter of Anor Goodrich, by whom he had four children, three of whom still survive, to wit, Adaline, married to John B. Stanbro ; Emily, wife of Hon. E. B. Gere; and Dora, wife of Clar- ence Thompson.

In 1836, with a magnanimity and love for his family that have characterized all his subsequent arrangements, he brought three of his brothers-Orrin, Francis, and George -from the farm, and sharing with them what he had earned, associated them with himself, under the firm-name that has since become distinguished in the locality for its credit and solidity, of " L. Truman & Brothers." This firm, for certain purposes, continues to the present day. The next older brother, Charles, was left to manage, and still resides on the farm. He is now and has been for years the leading magistrate of the locality.

From 1836 onward, uniform success, unchecked by any considerable reverse or misfortune, has marked the business career of Lyman Truman. That success has been largely due to the strong native sense and almost unerring sagacity that has rapidly solved, with instinctive accuracy, every business problem that presented itself; he having never en- gaged in any speculation, except an extensive purchase, at government prices, of Illinois lands in 1856, in company with Gurdon Hewitt, Jr., Esq., which proved very re- munerative. These lands were skillfully located before any settlement of the region, in the vicinity of streams and along the lines which their sagacity predicted prospective railroads must take. In the profits of this enterprise he generously associated the other members of the firm of L. Truman & Brothers with himself.

In 1856 he was elected president of the Bank of Owego,

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

and continued to hold that office until that institution became the First National Bank of Owego, of which he is still the president and prineipal stockholder.

In 1857 he was elected State Senator from the senatorial distriet composed of the counties of Tioga, Tompkins, and Broome ; and continued to be elected to that position for three successive terms. His strong native sagacity, and his known integrity, gave him a commanding influence in that body ; and although he made no pretension to skill as a publie debater, yet, even in that capacity, the direetness with which he addressed himself to the subject under debate, the . promptness with which he laid open the real point at issue, and the personally independent, frank, and outspoken fash- ion in which he treated all the influenees at work to defeat measures that he favored, made him a formidable antagonist in debate. His original style and manner had a certain pe- culiar relish, and his home-thrusts remarkable point and force.

When the war of the Rebellion broke out, Mr. Truman was, as a matter of course, one of the foremost in favor of every measure calculated to bring that war to a speedy issue, and from its very ecnummencement he contributed largely to the support of the families of ten volunteers.

During all Mr. Truman's active life his peeuniary help, and his invaluable personal direction and superintendence, have been often sought, and largely and successfully given to carrying business friends over difficult and embarrassing emergencies in their affairs. When, in 1849, a fire nearly destroyed the principal business portion of Owego, he was largely influential and active in rebuilding it, expending a large part of his own means, not very profitably, for that purpose. He has always been a ready contributor to publie enterprises, and very helpful to many in the way of private charities.

Since he left the Senate Mr. Truman has retired from politieal life, the cares of his large property interests, now estimated by his neighbors at upwards of a million of dol- lars, demanding his exclusive attention. Recently a nervous disorder, which seriously affeets his ability to go from place to place, whilst it leaves his mental faculties entirely unim- paired, has obliged him to somewhat withdraw his atten- tion from the minute details of his business. These he has devolved largely on his nephew, William, the sou of George Truman. His brothers, Orrin and George, aid in the supervision of the bank, and of his more distant and extended property interests. The brother Franeis, as a member of the firm of Johnson, Gere & Truman, is the principal capitalist in the largest manufacturing interests in Owego.

Over all, however, that bears the name of " Truman," the ex-Senator, as the head of the house, still extends, as ever, his supervisory care, and from time to time, as needed, his kindly and never-failing pecuniary and personal help.

IION. WILLIAM SMYTH

was born in County Derry, Ireland, June 19, 1819. His ancestry, both on his father's and mother's side, were among the defenders of Londonderry, strongly supporting King William, Prince of Orange, in the struggle for Protestant

aseendency, which at that time caused such intense bitter- ness in Ireland.

The subject of this memoir, having received a thorough classical education, entered the Royal Academie Institute, Belfast, from which he was graduated in 1842, having taken second honors in the Greek and Moral Philosophy

LITTLE

Photo, by Churchill.

Aching the.

classes. He also spent two years in Edinburgh University. For the next three years he was engaged as a private tutor in a gentleman's family, and prepared three young men for entering Glasgow University. He was afterwards employed as principal of a classical school in County Derry.

In 1847 he married Martha, eldest daughter of Daniel Stuart MaeKay, of Moss Sidc, County Antrim. The same year he emigrated to America, landing in New York the 27th of November. For a few months his time was em- ployed in writing contributions to the New York Sun and New York Observer. March 4, 1848, he visited Owego, and was engaged by the trustees of the Owego Academy as principal, entering upon his duties the 12th of April fol- lowing, which position he retained until June, 1854, when he resigned on account of ill health. The most successful period in the history of the Owego Academy was during his administration. The management found it necessary to add three departments, and he had engaged six assistants, having an average attendance of 250 pupils.

In 1854 he purchased the Owego Advertiser, and soon thereafter changed the name to the Southern Tier Times, and subsequently to the Owego Times, which name it has since retained. As a journalist Mr. Smyth occupies quite a prominent position.

In 1857, Mr. Smyth was elected school commissioner of

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AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

Tioga County, and re-elected in 1860, this time by the ex- eeeding large majority of 1012 votes. The same year he was appointed village clerk ; in 1864-45 he served as trustee of the village, and from 1866-69 was its president ; in 1867 was appointed justice of the peace ; in 1872 he represented Tioga County in the Assembly; in 1873 was appointed deputy superintendent of the State Insurance Department, which office he held for three years, and at the resignation of the Hon. O. W. Chapman he became acting superintend- ent, and held the office for one year, until his successor was appointed. It was during his incumbency that a rigid ex- amination of insurance companies commenced, which re- sulted in the indictment of the officers of the Security Life Insurance Company, of New York. Pending this exami- nation, frauds were discovered, and Acting Superintendent Smyth energetically pressed the case, and secured the indict- ment and conviction of its president and vice-president, being the first instance in the history of life insurance in this State where the president of a life company was convicted.

Mr. Smyth has always taken a commendable interest in the material development of the village. During the time he was its president many desirable improvements were consummated. Among other items, the first steam fire- engine was purchased during his administration. In 1862, '63, and '64 he was chief engineer of the fire department, which organization owes much of its present success to the energy and enterprise of Mr. Smyth.

Mr. Smyth is now, and has been since its organization, an active member of the Republican party. He is a mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church. His has been, so far, an active and useful life, and now, in the prime of manhood, he has the prospect of many years of future usefulness.

THOMAS IVES CHATFIELD

was born in Great Barrington, Berkshire Co., Mass., Sept. 16, 1818. His father, John Chatfield, came from Oxford, Conn., where he was born in 1792. He held the rank of major in the old Massachusetts militia, and died in Tioga Co., N. Y., at the residence of his son, Thomas I., in the summer of 1865.

Mr. Chatfield (Thomas I.) received his education at the public schools of his native town, which he generally attended during the winter months, working in the sun- mer. He continued to work on the farm until he was fifteen years of age, when he was apprenticed to learn the baker's trade. This he thoroughly mastered, and worked for about five years at that trade as a journeyman. In March, 1839, he removed to Owego, where he perma- nently settled. He engaged with Gad Worthington as an assistant in his bakery, and in October following he pur- chased the business, and added thereto a grocery branch ; which resulted in a regular retail grocery business, and finally to the wholesale establisliment which he at present carries on. In 1868 the old store which he rented was destroyed by fire. The site was afterwards purchased by Mr. Chatfield, and he built the present substantial brick block thereon. The virtue of perseverance has been ad-

mirably illustrated in Mr. Chatfield's long and sueeessful career as a merchant. For nearly forty years he has been engaged in business.

Mr. Chatfield has frequently been honored by his fellow- citizens with that distinguished mark of confidence- election to office. Ile has filled a number of responsible positions, and has always acquitted himself to the entire satisfaction of those whom he has represented, and to his personal credit. Ile has been supervisor of the village, one of its trustees, and for two terms its president. In 1852 he was selected to represent the county of Tioga in the Assembly. In 1868 he was a delegate to the meniorable Republican National Convention which nominated General Grant to the Presidency. In the polities of the past he was a Whig, and since the organization of the Republican party he has been an ardent member of that body. In 1872-73 he was a member of the State Senate, having been elected by the almost unprecedented majority of 4169. He was chairman of two committees,-roads and bridges, and grievances,-and was a member of the committee on canals and public health. IIis official life has been marked by sound judgment, large capacity for public affairs, and incorruptible integrity. (See illustration and portrait else- where in this volume.)

CHAPTER XXXI.

OWEGO VILLAGE.

OWEGO : this name has descended to us from one of the Iroquois nations. According to a map dated 1665, it was written " Owegy ;" according to the St. Nicholas, March, 1854, " upon Guy Johnson's map of 1771 it was written tlie same way, and also on the map in use at Fort Stan- wix." By the early settlers, according to tradition, it was pronounced as if written " O-wa-go," the a being pronounced as in fate. In a document of 1791, and letters written in 1799, 1801, and 1805, it is so written. Mrs. Whitaker, who was acquainted with the locality of Owego village during her captivity with the Indians, and beeauie a resi- dent in its immediate vicinity previous to the extinction of the Indian claim, has sanctioned the last orthography. In " Morgan's League" it is spelled Ah-wa-ga, the a in the second syllable being pronounced as in fate. Some have spelled the name indifferently either way, so that it is prob- able that the orthography is to be determined by the intel- ligence of the person doing the writing at the time ; be this as it may, there is no dispute about the locality or the sig- nificance of the name, meaning " Where the valley widens." The narrows below and above, and also upon the ereek about two miles from its mouth (to which this name- Owego Creek-was also given), render that meaning pecu- liarly significant, as applied to this extended valley or basin, the outlet to which, on all sides, is through narrow gorges or passes.

Amos Draper, the pioneer settler of Owego, came in the spring of 1788, according to Mrs. Williams, his daughter, and began to reside with his family. She also states that an Indian chief and his wife, who bore the title of queen,

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

passed the first winter with her mother at Owego, under the same roof, while her husband was yet trafficking at Choeonut ; and at this time there was no other white family here, her Indian guests, who were christianized and well- disposed Oneidas, acting as protectors. Their house was in the western part of the village. According to Judge Avery, who has paid great attention to the pioneer settling of this country, Mr. Draper " moved into a house built by him the year previous, while residing temporarily at Smithboro', to which place he gave the name of the Wyoming country, in 1786." The house erected by him was the first in the town. The following year (1788) McMaster and MeQuigg moved their families to the site of Owego : they became the patentees of the West Half Township; they came from New England. William Taylor, who died in Candor, Tioga Co., in August, 1849, aged eighty-two years, said he aceom- panied James McMaster to Owego as a bound boy, and there was in the company also John Nealy and William Woods. It was through the influence of Draper, who had the confidenee and friendship of the Indians, that McMaster and his little party were allowed to settle at Owego unmo- lested. A further mention of Draper and McMaster will be found in the chapters on Land Titles and Indian His- tory.

The first white child born in the town of Owego was Seleeta, daughter of Amos Draper ; she was born June 19, 1788; she became the wife of Stephen Williams, of New- ark Valley ; her great intelligence and worth made her a general favorite. Her father died May 20, 1808. His father, Simeon Draper, was one of the forty settlers, or proprietors, of the township of Kingston, in the Wyoming Valley, under the Connecticut elaim.

The family of John McQuigg came from Massachusetts, and entered the valley by way of Otsego Lake. They lived in a log house, which stood on the site of Mr. H. Camp's furnace ; it fronted towards the river, and the road ran between it and the river. It had two square rooms; it was " the best house in town ;" it was built of logs filled in with bits of wood and " mudded." A square hole in the outer wall for light, but, laeking sash or glass, would occasionally let in cold also. Split pine logs, hewed pretty smoothly, made the floor ; there was a wide hearth- stone, and sufficiently high chimney-back of stone, with an opening in the roof of ample dimensions, and above it a chimney made of sticks, the crevices filled with clay and " mudded," a wooden fastening on the door, with " the latch- string out," honest welcome presiding at the threshold, peace and hope at the hearthstone, and genuine hospitality at the board.

From the moment of the first infant effort at settlement to the beginning of internal improvement, commencing with the issuing of the first commission in 1797 "to lay out the road from the Catskill landing upon the Hudson to Catha- rine's Town, in the county of Tioga," down to the projection and completion through the "Southern Tier" of the New York and Erie Railroad,-that erowning triumph of this era,-the pioneer struggles, from first to last, have been strengthened by sympathies and heartfelt mutuality shared in brotherhood. History, with its practical philosophy, has taught us that moral and social usages uniformly assimilate .

to those of the region from which the first settlers of that country cmigrated,-in which they were educated and rearcd.

The father of Mr. Otis Lincoln settled at Owego village at an early day; he eame from Worcester Co., Mass., in 1804 ; he removed to Newark.

The pioneers in 1788, at Owego, found no mill nearer than Wilkesbarre, which was reached by canoes as their means of conveyanee until the establishment of Fitch's mill, four miles above Binghamton, or that at Milltown, (they were constructed about the same time), whither they all took their grain to be ground until Colonel Pixley built his mill about 1799, somewhere near or perhaps on the same site occupied by the plaster-mill, a few rods west of Owego Creek.

Mr. Jacob Catlin came in 1800; he is now (1878) in his eighty-fifth year, vigorous in body and mind, above the average strength. His wife has been dead nine years. Her father was Daniel Mercereau, who came from Staten Island. Mr. Catlin eame to the place where he now lives through rugged pathways,-brush and brambles. His father was a Revolutionary soldier, a great hunter, and an accurate shot. In those days of rattlesnakes, panthers, and wolves this was a necessary accomplishment. They cured their snake-bites with whisky, their aches with whisky, and made merry with whisky ; got up their courage to kill black bears (then numerous in some parts) with whisky.

David Pixley, father of the colonel, died in 1799, and was buried in the woods. They had not started a grave- yard.

Jesse McQuigg, one of the sons of John McQuigg (the pioneer), gives the following touching incident : " An Indian chief of the Oneida tribe was often seen at Owego with his family, accompanied by a young man of about twenty years, who had been taken captive in early youth from a white settlement on the North River, during the war. They sometimes remained a month or more. During one of these visits some of his relations, including the father of the captive, who had been apprised of his temporary resi- dence at this place, endeavored to induce him to return to his kindred. The interview between the father and son was very affecting, but not more so than the parting scene between the captive and his foster-parents. A mutual attachment, the result of reciprocal kindness during a long captivity, had taken root, which it was difficult to eradicate. The adopted son had been treated with more than parental kindness. His dress was similar to that of the chief, riehly worked and ornamented with the same brooches, and in every particular he was his apparent equal. In this inter- view the young man assured his foster-parents of his affec- tion, and alluded to many of their evidenees of kindness, one of which was, that they never put upon him the burden of carrying even a deer-skin from the hunting-ground. His arm was around his Indian mother's neck, and he wept bitterly. The scene of the interview and parting was near the bank of the river, a short distance above the Indian burial-mound" at the foot of Paige Street.

The custom of adopting young eaptives into some family of the tribe was practiced among the Iroquois, and very generally by the other Indians. It was usually done when

PHOTO. BY DENICON

II Chartier -

RESIDENCE OF T. I. CHATFIELD, OWEGO, N. Y.

LITH, BY L H EVENTS PHILADA

RESIDENCE OF HON. STEPHEN B.LEONARD, OWEGO, N.Y.

RESIDENCE OF C. H. KEELER, OWEGO, N. Y. "PUBLISHER TIOGA COUNTY RECORD. "

LITH. BY L. H. EVERTS, PHILADA.

J. P. Leonard)

This name stands for a man who was for many years a leader in the politics of Southern New York, and who started and conducted what is now the oldest newspaper in the Southern Tier. He was pre- eminently a self-made man. Born in the first years of the Republic, setting out in life at an early age, without the advantages which wealthy parentage or liberal education afford, by an industrious, honorable, and useful carcer he achieved not only distinction, but has left an impress of his character upon the section where he lived which will not soon he forgotten.

Mr. Leonard was of English descent, his ancestors having been ironmongers in England. He was born in New York City, April 15, 1793. He came to Owego in early boyhood, with his parents (Silas and Joanna), and hegan to learn the "art preservative" in the office of Stephen Mack, at that time publishing the American Farmer. At the expiration of his apprenticeship he purchased an interest in that paper, and then went to Alhany, where he worked in the office of Mr. Southwick, a well-known journalist of that city, contemporary with the Hon. Thurlow Weed, who was there employed as a journey- man printer. We quote from a letter of Mr. Weed, written in 1873 :

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History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 43

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