USA > New York > Warren County > History of Warren County [N.Y.] with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 75
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In this community he soon assumed the front rank among the successful business men of the place. He erected, soon after his arrival, his present large saw-mills, a little below the village of Glens Falls. This mill furnishes em- ployment to about eighty hands. He also occupies the position of vice-presi- dent of a stone quarrying company of Sandy Hill, which has a capital of $80,000 and employs from one hundred and fifty to two hundred hands.
Mr. Monty is a man of naturally retiring disposition, never thrusting him- self forward for political or other notoriety ; but his eminent business qualifi- cations have led to his having been often selected for local positions of trust and responsibility. His chief ambition has been to deserve the esteem of his fellow citizens as a successful and honorable business man. In this he has suc- ceeded in a flattering degree.
In the year 1853 Mr. Monty was married to Miss Mary E. Stowell, of Schroon Lake. She died in 1869 leaving five children-Harriet M., William H., Benjamin F., Mary E. and Julia A. In 1870 he married Miss Mary E. Nulty, who is still living.
4.LITTLE, PHIL
J. C. MONTY.
639
STEPHEN LEWIS GOODMAN.
S TEPHEN LEWIS GOODMAN .- Among the earliest pioneers of War- ren county was Eleazer Goodman, who came with his family from South Hadley, Mass., in 1799, and settled about two miles from the shore of Lake George in the town of Bolton. His children were Eleazer, the eldest, Nathan, Allen, Samuel, Origen, Rebecca, Holyoton and Eldad W. All of these spent the greater portion of their lives in the county, respected by their neighbors. Samuel was the father of the subject of this sketch and born June 25th, 1789, and died in March, 1861, at his son's home in Glens Falls, after a long life of unpretending usefulness. His wife was Mrs. Sarah (Boyd) Tuttle, of Bolton. Their children, besides the subject of this notice, were two daughters, Hannah B. and Sarah Helen. Stephen Lewis Goodman was born in Bolton, June 25th (the same month and day of the month of his father's birth), 1817. His boy- hood was passed at the parental home in the manner common to American lads in that period. A good deal of hard work and some privation, alternat- ing with attendance at the common schools of the neighborhood until such time as he was competent to set out in life for himself. This time seemed to have arrived in the year 1836, when the young man removed to Chester, in the town of the same name, Warren county, where he began teaching school. This was but temporary occupation, however, which he continued but one winter, when, following the natural inclination of his mind for mercantile pursuits, he entered the store of N. & J. W. Tubbs, in Chiester, as clerk, beginning in June, 1838. Remaining here until May, 1839, he soon after entered the store of Charles Fowler in the same capacity. It may be presumed that this associa- tion was eminently satisfactory, for in March of the following year he formed a co-partnership with his employer, which continued for almost twenty years ; indeed, the business connection of these two men was broken only by Mr. Fowler's death in July, 1884. The mercantile business, combined with large in- terests in the lumber trade, was continued until 1859, when the firm dissolved partnership and Mr. Goodman removed to Glens Falls. Soon after this date he associated himself with D. G. & H. Roberts in mercantile business, which part- nership was successfully continued to November, 1862. With this mercantile business was connected, also, the manufacture of lumber. In the year 1873 Mr. Goodman purchased an interest in the Jointa Lime Company. Down to this date a business connection in ownership of lands, etc., had been continu- ously maintained with his old partner, Mr. Fowler, while after 1862 Mr. Good- man pursued the lumber business by himself. The purchase of 1873 included a portion of the stock of the Glens Falls Transportation Company (a power- ful organization formed for canal freighting), which was the property of the lime companies of Glens Falls. In 1876 Mr. Goodman, associated with Mr. Fowler and Thomas S. Coolidge, purchased the entire property of the Jointa Lime Company, thus acquiring the interests of L. G. McDonald, his brother Walter, while Joseph Fowler retained his former interest. Mr. Goodman and
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640
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Charles Fowler became by this transaction owners of a one-fourth interest each in this organization, which is retained to the present time, Mr. Fowler's interest standing in his estate since his death. The entire stock of the Trans- portation Company is now the property of three of the four lime companies doing business here, namely, the Jointa Company, the Sherman Lime Com- pany, and the Glens Falls Company, which has acquired the interest of the former Glens Falls Lime Company. With the exception of his interest in these organizations, Mr. Goodman has not devoted himself to active business for sev- eral years; he is now superintendent and has nearly entire management of the Jointa Lime Company's business. The reputation he has acquired in this vi- cinity during an active career for more than a quarter of a century, for sterl- ing integrity, excellent business judgment and foresight and sound common sense, has been fully recognized by his fellow citizens. Upon the death of John Alden, late of Glens Falls, he was entrusted with the management of his estate, which he has carefully and successfully fulfilled from 1862 until quite recently. He has also had the care of other smaller estates during this period. He has been a director of the Glens Falls Bank (now the National Bank) for about twenty years, during which period he has been continued by his asso- ciates as one of the examining committee. He was a trustee of the Glens Falls Academy for several years. He was a faithful and consistent member of the Presbyterian Church for more than forty years, and was one of the build- ing committee for the erection of the church edifice in Glen Falls, and now on the committee for rebuilding the same on the site where the former one burned. He was trustee in the church at Chester and has been church trustee in Glens ยท
Falls about twenty-four years. He was also the committee for building the handsome structure of the Glens Falls Bank. All this speaks clearly of Mr. Goodman's general practical business ability and the confidence imposed in him by his fellows.
Mr. Goodman is a Republican in politics, and while he has always been somewhat prominent in the local counsels of that party, especially in all efforts looking to the purity of the primaries and the nomination of worthy men, still he is not and never has been an office-seeker in any sense, but his general character has not been overlooked in this direction. He declined nomination for town offices before he left the town of Chester, but in Queensbury has been induced to act as supervisor for two terms (1882-83), and was made president of the village of Glens Falls in 1865 ; he has also held the office of loan commissioner. Perhaps this is sufficient to show that Mr. Goodman is entitled in the broadest sense to be classed among the leading men of Glens Falls, where he certainly enjoys the respect of all with whom he has been brought in contact. He was married on the Ist of September, 1842, to Juliette Gould, daughter of Willard Gould, a respected citizen of Chester. They have one child, a son, Samuel B. Goodman. He was married to Jenny
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Stephen Griffin 2010
641
STEPHEN LEWIS GOODMAN. - STEPHEN GRIFFIN, 2D.
Smith, daughter of Isaac Smith, of Glens Falls, and lives with his father. In Glens Falls in the fine residence erected by Mr. Goodman in 1860-61, sur- rounded by all that makes life desirable, the united family now reside.
S TEPHEN GRIFFIN, 2d. - The subject of this sketch was born in War- rensburgh, Warren county, N. Y., on the 18th day of October, 1812. The first one of the name, in this branch of the family, to settle in this country was Jasper Griffin. His third son was John Griffin, who was the father of John, jr. The latter had a son Stephen (the first), who was the grandfather of Stephen, 2d. The father of the latter was named John.
Jasper Griffin came to Southold, L. I., about the year 1675, from Wales. He was born in 1648. At the Southold Landing he purchased a small farm. His wife's name was Hannah, and they were probably married in Manchester in either New Hampshire or Massachusetts. They had a large family, four of whom were sons, named Jasper, jr., Robert, John and Edward.
John, the third son named, removed, when of age, about twenty miles west of his father's residence. He met his death from exhaustion succeeding a fall through the ice in the winter of 1741.
John, jr., his son, was born in 1710. His first wife was Sarah Paine, by whom he had thirteen children. After the death of his first wife he married the second time.
Stephen, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was the tenth of the thirteen children, and was born in 1754, in Riverhead. He served honorably in the Revolutionary War and was first lieutenant. After the war he married Elizabeth Uhl, of Clintonville (now Staatsburgh), Duchess county, N. Y., and settled there on a farm; and there, in the year 1784 was born John Griffin, father of Stephen, 2d. He removed to Thurman, Warren county, N. Y., on the Ist of March, 1800, and settled on the west side of the Hudson River across from its confluence with the Schroon. He married Catherine J. McEwen in about the year 1808.
Stephen Griffin, 2d, was the third child and first son of John and Catherine Griffin, and on the date given at the beginning of this sketch, was born on the banks of the Hudson, in Warrensburgh, on the place now owned and occupied by William J. Raymond. His father died on the Ist of June, 1828, and Ste- phen remained with his mother until he was nearly twenty-eight years old, taking charge of the farm and working by the month in the woods after he was fourteen years old and bearing a large share of the family burdens.
In October, 1838, he was married to Maria Coman, of Luzerne, Warren county. In the same week of his marriage they moved into the hotel now kept by Royal C. Smith. For about eight and a half years they successfully con- ducted the house. In 1846 he purchased an interest in the saw-mill and store of Russell & Woodward, and in the spring of the next year he gave up the
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
hotel business and devoted his time and energy to the mill; in acquiring the mill property he had bought the interest of Joseph Woodward, and continued several years in partnership with Joseph Russell. In 1852 he bought out Mr. Russell and continued in the business alone until 1865. He then sold the mill to Isaac Starbuck, and kept the store until 1867.
In the year 1866 Mr. Griffin began lumbering in the town of Newcomb, Essex county, where he continued until he had cut the timber from a tract about six miles square. Selling out his lands there he was enabled to purchase in Johnsburgh, Warren county, and Wells, Hamilton county, about 43,000 acres. In 1877 he had erected a tannery in the southwest part of Johnsburgh, known as the "Oregon Tannery," and in 1880 another in the northeast part of Wells, which became the nucleus of a settlement called Griffin, from his name. In 1882 he sold his interest in both these enterprises to the Morgan Lumber Company, of Glens Falls, returned to Warrensburgh and retired from active business pursuits.
Mr. Griffin's wife died on the 2d of February, 1882. They have one child, a daughter, named Mary E., who became the wife of Dr. Cyrus S. Merrill, of Albany, where she now resides.
It will be observed that this brief sketch indicates a very busy life; it has been one of Mr. Griffin's characteristics to constantly occupy his mind with business that would not only improve his own circumstances, but inure to the general benefit of the community. The advantages thus gained he now enjoys in the comfortable serenity of his later life.
Mr. Griffin has never pushed himself before the attention of his fellows, either politically or socially, but his eminent practical business qualifications and sterling sense and judgment were recognized by his election to the Assem- bly in 1875, an office which he honored and made his administration satisfy his constituents. He has also held the office of supervisor three times, and in 1884 was appointed State agent for the timber lands of Hamilton and Warren counties, a position he still occupies.
Mr. Griffin's business career has been characterized, not only by success, but by the sturdiest integrity, even in the smallest transactions. It follows that he gained, years ago, the respect and esteem of all with whom he had business relations.
H ENRY M. DAY .- The subject of this brief sketch was born in Potters- ville, Warren county, N. Y., on the Ist day January, 1852. His mater- nal grandparents were Martin and Emily (Day) Vosburgh. The former was born near Red Hook, Duchess county, N. Y., about 1793, and the latter at Sandy Hill, Washington county, N. Y. about 1803. They were married about 1821, and died, the former in April, 1882, and the latter in November, 1879. The parents of Martin Vosburgh moved from Duchess county to War-
643
HENRY M. DAY. - AUSTIN WELLS HOLDEN, A.M., M.D.
ren county and settled at Pottersville when he was only ten months old. Here he spent his life following the business of farming. Martin and Emily Vos- burgh had eleven children as follows: John H., Mary M., James E., William, Caroline, the mother of our subject, James 2d, Elizabeth, Helen, Charles, Julia and Eunice, four of whom are now dead, viz., James E., Mary M., Wil- liam and Eunice.
Henry, our subject, is the son of Calvin and Caroline (Vosburgh) Day. The former was born in Massachusetts in 1818, and died in March, 1877. He came to Warren county and settled at Pottersville in 1849, and married Miss Vosburgh about 1850. They had five children, Henry M., Ella, Minnie, Abby and Amelia, all now living except Abby; the mother is still living in Glens Falls. Henry, our subject, lived at home with his parents till he was twenty-one years old. His educational advantages were such as the schools of his native village afforded, and he attended one term at the Fort Edward Institute and two terms in the Glens Falls Academy. Before attaining to his majority he was employed in the store of R. P. Fuller in Pottersville about two years, and with his father in general merchandizing in the same village, under the firm name of C. Day & Son. In 1873 he came to Glens Falls and was engaged by Peck & Delong, grocers, one year ; he then engaged with Hollis Russell, with whom he remained as head salesman seven years; he then was employed by D. W. Sherman as buyer and head salesman in the dry goods department of his store and filled that position for eighteen months. After the close of the latter engagement he commenced business for himself by purchasing the interest of C. A. Hovey, of Hovey & Powers, wholesale and retail grocers. This firm, Powers & Day, was continued until September 3d, 1885, when Mr. Day purchased the interest of Mr. Powers and now con- tinues at the old stand, No. 20 Warren street.
About the time Mr. Day started business for himself he was united in marriage with Jennie H., daughter of George and Mary (Hodgson) Bibbey. The father of Mrs. Day was born in Warrington, England, in 1812, and her mother in the town of Ingleton, England, in 1814. They were married in 1848 and moved to this country in 1859, settling at Glens Falls. The father died November 5th, 1880, the mother is yet living. They had four children, Hannah, Leonard, Jennie and Alice, all living but Alice who died in infancy.
USTIN WELLS HOLDEN, A. M., M. D., was born on the 16th of May,
A 1819, in the town of White Creek, Washington county, N. Y. His par- ents were Jonas and Elizabeth (Holden) Holden (cousins german), both natives of the town of Barre, Worcester county, Massachusetts, and lineal descendants of Richard Holden, who, with his brother, Justinian, embarked at Ipswich, England, in the ship Francis, for America, in April, 1634, and settled in Watertown, Mass. It is traditionally stated that his paternal grandfather, Ben- jamin, served as one of the minute men at the action of Bunker Hill.
644
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
He lost his mother in infancy. When but four years old he removed with his father to Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, in the same State, which in that early day was but a sparsely-settled wilderness region. Here, under the fos- tering care of a kind stepmother, he acquired the rudiments of an education, afterward matured at the St. Lawrence Academy, a classical institution of deservedly wide reputation. In 1836 his father again removed, this time to Glens Falls, Warren county, N. Y., which, with brief interruption, has been from that time forward the abiding place of the subject of this sketch. The same year he commenced the study of law with the Hon. William Hay, whose office, at the foot of Elm street, is now used as a business office by the exten- sive manufacturing firm of Libby & Co. This pursuit was followed for some- thing over a year, when adverse circumstances compelled him to resort to manual labor for a maintenance. He entered his father's shop and learned the trade of cabinet-making, which he followed industriously until his twenty- second year. Failing health, acting upon a feeble constitution, made it im- perative that he should seek some other avocation. Accordingly he sought and obtained employment as a teacher of a common school at Doe's Corners, Saratoga county, where he taught two terms of five months, and the following year at Fort Edward for a like period. The succeeding winter he secured a satisfactory engagement at Glens Falls. It was during this period of school teaching that he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Tabor B. Rey- nolds, now of Saratoga Springs. During all the preceding years the doctor had been an omniverous reader, snatching the few spare moments at morning or meal time, he always had a book in readiness to consume the time, and thus his mind became stored with gems of classic literature, the recondite facts of science, and the speculations of the old Grecian philosophers, as well as the more pleasing and congenial narrations of ancient and modern history. Thus broad and deep were made the foundations of his self-acquired education. In the winter of 1844 he attended his first course of lectures at the Albany Medi- cal College. The ensuing autumn he was appointed county superintendent of common schools for the county of Warren, in which capacity he served for two years with credit and popular approval, at the same time continuing his medical studies as opportunity afforded. His term of office having expired, he resumed his attendance upon medical lectures at Albany and graduated with distinction from that time-honored institution in January, 1848. The en- suing spring he opened an office for the practice of medicine at Warrensburgh, the central town of Warren county, where he remained for the next four years, with about the average success which attends beginners in practice. On the 24th of April, 1851, he was joined in marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of the late Hon. Horatio Buell of Glens Falls and sister of the late eminent finan- cier James Buell, president of the Importers' and Traders' National Bank and of the United States Life Insurance Company, both of New York city. Of
645
AUSTIN WELLS HOLDEN, A.M., M.D.
this union three children have been born, viz .: Horatio Buell,1 Pauline Eliza- beth, who died in infancy, and James Austin, only surviving child, who recently graduated with honors from Williams College, Mass.
In the month of May, 1852, Dr. Holden with his little family removed from Warrensburgh to Glens Falls, taking the place and practice of Donald B. McNiel, M. D., a medical practitioner of great ability and wide repute, who, the same spring, had removed from Glens Falls to New York. In 1857 the doctor, through the advice and importunity of his friends, was induced to investigate the claims of homeopathy, and he accordingly made a thorough examination of its theories, testing the application of its doctrines during a prolonged visit to several of the most eminent physicians and dispensaries of that school in the metropolis. On his return home, he finally adopted that system of practice, and ultimately with such satisfactory results that he has never had reason to regret the change.
With the fierce tempest of wrath, which, upon the fall of Fort Sumter in 1861, aroused the north like a giant from its sleep, Dr. Holden was the first man in Warren county, to tender his services to the State. The offer was promptly accepted and he was authorized to enlist a company of volunteers (Co. F.), which, with another from the same place, and others from neighboring towns, was incorporated into the 22d Regiment of New York Volunteers. This, with three other early-formed New York regiments, were consolidated immediately after the first battle of Bull Run into the First Brigade of the First Division of the First Corps of the Army of the Potomac, that army which, for three long years, was " a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night," in its hourly protection and defense of the National Capital. This brigade afterwards, by its dash and endurance, its steadiness and bravery, became known as the "iron brigade," a name well-earned and merited by its gallantry in action and terri- ble losses in the sanguinary engagements of the second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam and Fredericksburgh.
At the expressed wish of many officers and men of his regiment, Dr. Hol-
I Horatio Buell Holden, M. D., eldest child of Austin W. and Elizabeth (Buell) Holden, was born at Warrensburgh, Warren county, N. Y., on the 4th of March, 1852. The following May he accom- panied his parents to Glens Falls. Here, with trifling exception, he passed the remainder of his days. His education was acquired at the primary schools and academy of this place. He studied medicine with his father. In 1872 he attended his first course of lectures at the medical department of the Vermont University at Burlington. In the summer following his return home, he received the ap- pointment of medical assistant of the Homoeopathic Dispensary at Albany, and the following season attended a course of lectures in the medical college of that city. In the spring of 1873 he re-entered the medical college at Burlington, Vermont, from which institution he graduated at the following com- mencement. The same year he commenced practice at Mechanicsville, Saratoga county, N. Y. The ensuing spring he removed to Stillwater, where he secured a fine practice. Failing health and other discouragements induced his return home, where he died at the early age of 27 years. Possessed of great natural abilities and uncommonly fine intellectual powers, he gave early promise of a career of usefulness, which, unhappily, was not destined to fruition. The summer of his days was cut short be- fore its fruitage had escaped the bloom of its flower.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
den was transferred in August, 1862, to the medical staff as first assistant sur- geon, acting, in the absence of the surgeon, most of the time as chief medical officer of the command, which relation was maintained with general satisfaction until the regiment was mustered out of the service at Albany in June, 1863, its term of enlistment having expired. Within six weeks of his discharge, Dr. Holden received an appointment as acting assistant surgeon of the U. S. army, in which capacity he performed active duty until Lee's surrender, being sta- tioned consecutively at the United States general hospitals at Frederick City and Cumberland, Md., and Troy, N. Y. On finally quitting the army he was honored by Governor Fenton with the commission of brevet major of New York volunteers for meritorious service. On returing home the doctor re- sumed his practice, and has continued in the active discharge of its humane and beneficent ministrations to the present time. A well-deserved success has fol- lowed his efforts in behalf of the sick and suffering. In 1869 he was elected a permanent member of the New York State Homeopathic Medical Society, of which body he has ever since been an active and influential member, holding at different times its most important offices, viz .: Censor, vice-president, presi- dent, delegate to the National Institute, and is at present, and has been for several years, its necrologist. In addition to these varied labors and duties, its volumes of transactions have been frequently enriched by his ably-prepared contributions. In 1879 he was elected a permanent member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, and has been an acceptable contributor to its trans- actions. In the same year he was one of four members of the State Society who were recommended for and received (in due course) the honorary degree of M. D. from the regents of the University of the State of New York, an honor that only once before has been accorded to Warren county since its or- ganization. Late in the winter of 1876-77, at the instance of several eminent physicians of New York city, Dr. Holden accepted the appointment of chief of staff of the Homoeopathic hospital, Ward's Island, New York, a position which he held with great ability, receiving testimonials of satisfaction from the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections, the Board of Visiting Physicians, officials, nurses and attendants. He remained in the discharge of these oner- ous and multiple duties for nearly two years, when failing health compelled his retirement and return home to the health-giving breezes of Warren county, once more to resume the broken thread of his practice.
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