USA > New York > Yates County > History of Yates County, N.Y. : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers > Part 48
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In this department of life's duties he often exhibited a courage and leadership calculated to deter the selfish timid, while it enlisted others more cosmopolitan in spirit, from the confidence his integrity, suc-
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cesses and energy inspired, and his name was always found associated with every noteworthy enterprise started for public benefit or private gain in those early days when it required united effort to overcome the obstacles of the time ; hence he was found connected with such men as the late John Magee, Joseph Fellows and Constant Cook of Bath, W. W. McCay, A. M. Adsit of Hammondsport, and others of marked character for enterprise in all the early stage routes leading from and through Penn Yan, the building and running the first steamboat on the Crooked Lake, known as the " Keuka," and was also largely inter- ested in and connected with the produce trade and transportation on the canal. Associated with Spencer Booth under the firm of Ellsworth & Booth, they were the originators of Branchport, where they conducted a large mercantile and produce business connected with lumbering and farming, for many years.
With people Judge Ellsworth was eminently popular, and was often called to fill places of public duty and trust. In 1824 and but a few years after his advent to the town he was elected supervisor of Milo, and selected for three years thereafter. After the organization of this county in 1824 (March 31, 1828) he was appointed first judge, a station which he filled for five years. In 1829 he was demanded by his party friends to stand as their candidate for the Assembly, and was elected by a close vote, it is true, but this raised his party from an almost hopeless minority to a working majority and for future successes.
In this council of the State his character for business tact and energy, with that of political integrity, had preceded him, and he was placed in positions of great responsibility and labor, and was at once made chair- man of the celebrated committee of nine, known in the history of the times as the " Grinding Committee," which he discharged with marked ability and fairness, winning credit and confidence from both political parties, where his less confident supporters had predicted failure.
In 1844 he was elected to represent the district then composed of Tompkins, Chemung and Yates in Congress by a telling majority. It was in this session of 1845-46 that the great heat of the Texas Admis- sion question was at its height, and which engrossed the best minds of the statesmen of those days, as to the propriety of extending the area of slavery by the acquisition of free territory. It was at a meeting for
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consultation of friends of annexation without slavery that the fruitful mind of Judge Ellsworth modestly suggested that attaching of the Jef- fersonian ordinance of 1784 to the resolution of acceptance of annexa- tion as a measure that would render it acceptable to the North, by thus forever prohibiting slavery therein. The paternity of this measure has been claimed by others, but the Hon. Horace Mann was the authority for this version. The idea was at once entertained as both forcible and practical, and the more ambitious David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, in- troduced the amendment which has since borne the name of the " Wil- mot Proviso." It was with general satisfaction that Judge Ellsworth discharged his duties as Member of Congress, and he made himself there so widely known and respected that it gave to his opinions and influence great weight in the other years of his life in the councils of both the nation and the State.
His political affinities were always with the Democracy, yet his inde- pendence impelled him to uphold the right even where strict party al- legiance might otherwise lead.
· "Stewart Ellsworth," although popular and, as has been shown, polit- ically successful, was not in the more common acceptation of the term a politician ; not that he was insensible to the flattery of the confidence of the people, or the true honor of position ; but such was the construc- tion of his mind that he shrank instinctively from the bold competition of the heartless place hunter and scorned to wear honors that he felt were only the result of party fealty and discipline. In brief, his true sphere was that of the business man, the social circle and pre eminently so within the domestic circle and family group ; always eschewing the hotel as a home, he established and maintained his household long be- fore he married, and the graceful hospitalities of which were known and appreciated throughout a wide range of acquaintance.
In 1834 he married Mrs. Elizabeth C. Vosburgh, of Penn Yan, who died January 16, 1873, and was long a prominent and valued member of the Presbyterian Church of that village. Her maiden name was Elizabeth C. Henry, a daughter of Dr. Robert R. Henry, a surgeon in the army of the Revolution, and a citizen of New Jersey. Her mother was Mary Hilliard, who died at Penn Yan, November 19, 1843, aged eighty-four years. All who knew Mrs. Ellsworth cheerfully testify
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to her peculiar fitness to be the wife of such a man as was her husband. She was a good woman and widely beloved.
Judge Ellsworth died at his residence in Penn Yan June 4, 1863, aged seventy-three years, full of years and works, missed and mourned by all who knew him.
ELLSWORTH, SAMUEL STEWART, JR., was born in the vil- lage of Penn Yan, December 25, 1839, and was the son of Judge Samuel Ellsworth and Elizabeth Vosburgh nee Henry. Stewart Ells- worth, as he is sometimes called, prepared for college in the public and select schools of Penn Yan. He entered Hamilton College in January, 1857, and was graduated with the class of '60, receiving the degree in course of Master of Arts in 1863. He read law and was prepared for examination, but never entered the legal profession, as his attention about that time was directed to the care of his father's estate and business, the latter having died in 1863. In this and other recent trusts Mr. Ells- worth established and confirmed a fine record. At this time, too, the war was in progress, and our subject became actively engaged in politics. He was a Douglass or War Democrat, and gave an earnest support to the Union cause. He has on more than one occasion shown himself to be a ready, eloquent speaker and graceful critic. In 1865, '68, '70, and '74 he was a delegate to the Democratic State Convention. Also, in 1872 he was a delegate to the National Convention of the same party at Baltimore that placed Horace Greeley in nomination for the pres- idency.
But while General Ellsworth has been an active participant in local, State and national politics for about twenty- five years, he has seldom been the candidate of his party for political preferment. In 1870 he was the Democratic candidate for the Assembly, and made a remarkable run, his party being in a hopeless minority. His office holdings have been limited to two terms as supervisor of the town of Milo, during the years 1882 and 1883. For three years also, 1875, '76 and '77, he served as member of the Board of Education of Penn Yan, but this office has been considered rather non-political than otherwise. But his familiarity with local and general politics has brought General Ellsworth into ac- quaintance and association with public men and measures, and has
Des Ellsworth
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placed him high in the councils of his party, and in many desirable po- sitions in connection with public corporations and institutions. In 1869 he was elected president of the Sodus Point and Southern Railroad Company. In 1872 he was likewise chosen president of the Wilksbarre and Seneca Lake Coal Company. In 1875 and '76 he served as Quar- termaster-General of the State on General Tilden's staff, from which position he acquired the title of General, by which he is commonly known. In 1870 he was elected trustee of Hamilton College, a position he still holds. From 1868 to 1880 he was one of the board of mana- gers of the Fall Brook Coal Company. In 1891 he was elected pres- ident of the Lake Keuka Ice Company. In 1890 he was made a member of the American Institute of Christian Philosophy. He was the first patron of the famous "Ellsworth Hose Company," named after him, formed October 26, 1871, and composed of the best young men in the village and which won the State competitive prize at Cortland, August 24, 1888. He is now one of the active trustees of the John Magee es- tate (Fall Brook Coal Company). He was engaged in 1867, and for four years in a large grain, malting and forwarding business with F. Davis, jr., at Watkins. The local firm of S. S. Ellsworth & Company, coal dealers, was formed in 1890, but the General's connection with that business dates back to 1884.
Among his fellow-men and associates, in his social, political and busi - ness relations, Stewart Ellsworth is a popular central figure. In all matters pertaining to the welfare of his native village and locality he is public spirited and generous; and it may truthfully be said that no worthy enterprise or charity ever appealed to him in vain. He is a member and strong supporter of the Presbyterian Church, its conserva- tism and polity. But it is in the social relation, in the unrestricted flow of familiar conversation, that the most pleasing traits of his character are exhibited. His devotion to friends, his general presence, his well-trained mind, his generous literary taste, finely cultivated, together with his remarkable memory, combine to make him one of the most interesting of companions
On the 12th day of December, 1866, Samuel Stewart Ellsworth was married to Hebe Parker, only daughter of the late Hon. John Magee, of Watkins, N. Y. Of this marriage two children were born : Duncan
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Steuart Ellsworth, and John Magee Ellsworth, both students in Yale University. The former was born February 19, 1870, and the latter May 17, 1874. Hebe Parker Ellsworth died in Paris, France, April 16, 1880. From the local press at the time of her untimely depart- ure we copy the following :
" Mrs. Ellsworth was a most estimable woman, and her death is a sad loss to her family and her large circle of friends. In Penn Yan, where she resided for a number of years, it can very truly be said, 'None knew her but to love her, none named her but to praise.' She was lib- eral to a fault, bestowing out of her abundance to every worthy and charitable cause ; she was looked upon by the poor as a 'friend, indeed.' We tender our heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved family, and especially to her husband, to whom her death is a great blow. There is a day when 'parting is no more,' and to this should he turn for com- fort and consolation. Mrs. Ellsworth was one of the loveliest of women, in person and character, winning to herself without effort the esteem and friendship of all with whom she came in contact."
Mr. Ellsworth's twin brother, Henry, died April 9, 1840, and a sister, Mary Elizabeth, of sainted memory, died August 8, 1848, at the age of eleven years.
"In the midst of life cometh death," and when on May 6, 1892, it became known that Stewart Ellsworth had passed away at 2 o'clock on the morning of that day, a universal thought went forth that Penn Yan had sustained a loss that could not be replaced, that each and every one of her citizens would ever afterwards miss the smiling countenance, the genial presence of whom they all loved and respected.
S PICER, JAMES, one of the prominent and best known lawyers of the Yates County Bar, was born in the town of Barrington, Yates County, October 23, 1827. His father, the late John Spicer, was an extensive farmer, lumber dealer, and builder of mills. He was an active politition and had a strong hold on the local Democratic party.
In his early life the son worked with the laborers on his father's farm. His early educational advantages were confined to the winter term of the "District " school. (Mr. Spicer is eminently a self- made man. Whatever he is he has made himself.) After following several kinds of
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business he finally settled down to the study of medicine in the office of his father-in-law, the late Dr. Richard Huson. By the advice of the late Dellazon J. Sunderlin, he abandoned the study of medicine and directed his attention to the legal profession, which was much more to his taste. He read law in the office of Mr. Sunderlin, and was admitted to the bar in 1862, since which time he has steadily applied himself to the duties of his profession for which he has a natural adaptation. He has made a fine record as advocate, and is a skillful cross-examiner. Sometimes in his examinations he is very severe and he makes it very uncomfortable for the witness.
He is particularly careful and painstaking in the preparation of his cases for trial. His briefs are always full and complete. This is one of the secrets of his success.
Mr. Spicer, speaking of the commencement of his legal practice, tells the story of the trial of his first suit. He says two parties that were in law each wanted the services of Mr. Sunderlin. They were both per- sonal friends and he declined serving either, and advised the parties to employ the boys (students) ; M. J. Sunderlin was a student in his father's office. The proposition was accepted and "the boys " had a severe legal tussle. Spicer gained the suit and received two dollars for his fee. This was the beginning of a long and successful legal practice.
After concluding his studies and his admission to the bar, Mr. Spicer opened an office in Dundee. The business was successful and from the commencement of his practice he has taken a high position in his pro- fession.
In the year 1880 the Dundee National Bank was organized and Mr. Spicer was elected president, and has held the office until the present time.
In addition to his other business he has the management of a large farm. His early home training gave him a love for agricultural pursuits and he takes great pride and pleasure in raising fine sheep and other stock.
He has a fine residence in Dundee, which he occupied for some years ; but preferring a rural life he moved on his farm where he can give direction and oversight to his farming operations. His farm is situate one- half mile north of the village line and was known as the Longwill
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farm. Since it came in his possession he has greatly improved and beautified it and it is now considered the model farm of the county.
In his farming business his wife is a very efficient helpmate. Mr. Spicer was twice married. His first wife was Katharine, daughter of Dr. Richard and Rebecca Huson, in 1845, who died many years ago. They had born to them two daughters, Mary and Rebecca, only one (Mary), now living. His second marriage was to Martha Sharp, in 1861, who is still living. Mr. Spicer has had for partners Judge Hurd, Hiland G. Wolcott, Charles Baker, Hon. H. Struble. His residence, with the exception of one year in Penn Yan, has been in Dundee since 1845.
H ARTSHORN, ISAAC WRIGHT, is a son of Samuel Hartshorn, and Samuel was born at Amherst, Mass., in June, 1872, and he was a blacksmith. He married Sarah Genung, in 1798; Sarah was born April, 1781, in Newark, N. J. In 1817 they came to Barrington, Yates County, N. Y., and five years later they moved to Jerusalem, set- tling on lot 68. Samuel died May 6, 1854, and his wife, July 13, 1862. Their children were Hiley, who was born November 23, 1799, married Hosea Williams, of Exeter, N. Y. She died November 26, 1879, and he died November 19, 1851, in Jerusalem. Bersey, born March 12, 1802, married Robert Brown, and moved to Dresden, where he died, October, 1850, and she died December 18, 1873. Abigail, born May 1, 1804, married Azor Barrett ; he died December 14, 1871, and she died December 18, 1873, William W., born September 6, 1806, married Mary Thomas, and moved to Michigan ; he died May 3, 1868; his widow still resides there. Sybil, born July 29, 1811, died May 25, 1875. James H., born January 17, 1814, married Emily Will- iams ; he died July 18, 1856; she died July 8, 1854. Malissa, the young- est, died in infancy.
Isaac Wright, the subject of this sketch, was born in Exeter, Otsego County, N. Y., March 1, 1809. He was educated at the common schools of that time, and when he was seventeen years of age he began teaching and kept at it during the winter for a number of years, work- ing on the farm in the summer ; and he also became a civil engineer, but he always lived upon the farm, and by close application to business, good judgment, strict economy, and ceaseless industry, he was known
KHartshown
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as one of the most successful farmers of Yates County. In politics he was known as a reformer, always voting for the party that he thought was for reformation; he was a strong Prohibitionist, and also a great friend and supporter of the cause of anti-slavery, and made a trip through the South with the late William Lloyd Garrison, when the friends of this cause were persecuted by the press and in the pulpit ; but Mr. Hartshorn lived to see this grand cause succeed. He was not a member of any religious denomination, but he always recognized that there was a Supreme Being, and tried to live so that his actions would warrant and deserve the respect and esteem of his fellow-man.
Mr. Hartshorn married, first, Sarah, daughter of Ashbel Beers, in 1849, and she died in April, 1853, without issue. He married, second, Sarah, daughter of Amzi Bruen, December 31, 1857, and by this union there was one child, Wendell Phillips Hartshorn, born October 19, 1866. Mr. Hartshorn died March 18, 1888, much respected by all who knew him. His widow still resides upon the old homestead, and their son, Wendell Phillips, resides in Penn Yan. He spent one year at Oberlin College, and then graduated at the Albany Business College, at Albany, N. Y , and is now reading law with J. H. Butler, and has also opened a real estate and broker's office in the Post- office block, and it is through his liberality that we are enabled to insert in this work a fine likeness of Isaac Wright Hartshorn.
V AN ALEN, JAMES VANDERPOEL, was born at Stuyvesant, N. Y., February 1I, 1819, and was the son of Lucas I. and Eliza- beth (Vanderpoel) Van Alen. He was named for his uncle, James Vanderpoel, an eminent lawyer of Albany. After completing his early education he commenced the study of medicine with his uncle, Dr. John Vanderpoel, but on going to Philadelphia to attend medical lectures conceived a dislike for a farther prosecution of that study, and left for the West where his elder brother had settled. Owing to the death of this brother he returned to his native town, where he studied law, and in 1844 came to Penn Yan, where he completed his studies in the office of Benedict M. Franklin, esq. After remaining in Mr. Franklin's office two years, he established himself in business at Newark, N. Y. His stay was short in Newark; after a residence of six months he received
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an offer of partnership from Mr. Franklin and returned to Penn Yan. Mr. Van Alen was for the next ten years partner with Mr. Franklin, and after the dissolution of the firm, practiced law until his death. In IS53 he married Sarah, daughter of Eben Smith, and in 1862-63, erected a residence, corner of Clinton and Sheppard streets. Mr. Van Alen's taste and industry were largely manifested in the beautiful appearance of his elegant and well organized home. Domestic enjoyment blessed his abode with all that is best in life, except children, of which there was none. Kind, thoughtful, and peerless in generosity, Mr. Van Alen was a model husband. His professional work was chiefly office work. He never cultivated his powers as an advocate and seemed to shrink from anything of that character as a legal counselor. He was eminently safe and trustworthy, and documents prepared under his hand were found worthy of all confidence and noted for legal accuracy. He put his con- science into his work as a lawyer, and hence came to be trusted im- plicity by a large clientage, who had learned by experience the high value of his advice and services. A more industrious man was seldom seen ; whatever he had to do he did with all his might, and thereby accomplished a large amount of work. His professional accomplish- ments were strictly practical and gave him thorough understanding of legal affairs as connected with the ordinary business of life in the present day. He was the chief legal advisor of nearly all the sheriffs of Yates County for a period of thirty years, and no one was better qualified for such service. He naturally shunned large professional responsibilities and did not estimate his own legal abilities at their true value. But for his extreme modesty and timidity of mind he might have filled a much larger sphere in his profession, for he had an excellent legal mind, as well as the energy and ability to achieve real eminence in his chosen walk of life. Mr. Van Alen died at his residence in Penn Van, April 26, 1877, while yet in the prime of his powers, and his loss was there- fore very keenly felt. His widow survives him, being a resident of Penn Yan.
L APHAM, LUDLOW E .- The original emigrant ancestor of this gentleman was John Lapham, a weaver by trade, who came from Devonshire, England, and settled at Providence, R. I. He married Mary, a daughter of William Mann, and had a family of five sons and
ARTOTYPE PROCESS,
LE Lapham
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one daughter. John, the eldest son of this family, married Mary, daughter of Joseph Russell, and they had fourteen children, of whom John, the second child and oldest son was born October 3, 1703, and married Desire, daughter of Benjamin Howland. He settled about 1772 at Nine Partners, Dutchess County, N. Y., and had three children. Benjamin, his eldest son, was born January 15, 1727, and had four chil- dren, Pazzi being the youngest son, and was born October 22, 1750, and married Bethany Foster. Of their ten children the eldest was Eliakim, born at Nine Partners, Dutchess County, N. Y., September 1, 1778, and married, January 5, 1800, Rachel Harris. The latter was a native of Northeast, Dutchess County, N. Y. Eliakim died in Columbia County, N. Y., December 17, 1828. His widow came to Penn Yan in 1840, residing with her daughter, Mrs. Metzer Tuell, and died in 1863, at the advanced age of eighty-five. The children of Eliakim and Rachel (Harris) Lapham, were John H., born October 8, 1804. He came to Penn Yan and engaged in the drug trade, and died in 1874; and Lud- low E., born at Kinderhook, Columbia County, July 22, 1806. His education was limited to the local school, and during his boyhood he learned the trade of scythe- making of one Harris, he being at that time the most noted manufacturer of scythes in the United States. Mr. Lud - low E. Lapham came to Penn Yan in 1825, being then nineteen years of age, and was engaged as a clerk in the store of his uncle, Capt. James Har- ris, the firm being Harris & Stevens. This was one of the first stores. opened in Penn Yan. Mr. Lapham retained his connection with this firm till 1833, in which year he succeeded to the business, the firm being Lap- ham & Brown. He continued in the mercantile business till within a few years of his death, with partners and individually, excepting a pe- riod of ten years, when he was engaged in farming in the town of Ben- ton. He was an excellent farmer, and was one of the most industrious. organizers of the Yates County Agricultural Society, and in competi- tion in ploughing was frequently a successful winner of the society awards.
Mr. Lapham married, April 18, 1830, Reliance W., daughter of Henry Townsend. She was born in 1812, and died in 1855, leaving five chil- dren, viz .: Sabra A., the eldest, who was a young lady of fine mental gifts, ambitious and earnest in self-improvement. She was one of the early
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graduates of the State Normal School at Albany, and was a frequent contributor to the press of poems of acknowledged beauty and worth, amongst which we mention "Spirit Voices," and " The Carrier Dove." She married, in 1853, Rev. Asa Countryman, Universalist minister, and died in 1857, at Orange, Mass., leaving two daughters, Ella and Geor- gia, both graduates of the Iowa State University. George H., the sec- ond child (see biographical sketch in another part of this work). Olive T., the third child, is the wife of Theodore F. Wheeler, the well-known druggist of Penn Yan. Mary J., the fourth child, is the wife of Clar- ence M. Page, of Rochester, N. Y. Agnes R., the youngest of this family, resides in Penn Yan, and is the wife of John T. Knox, Esq., present district attorney. Mr. Lapham remarried, August 20, 1856, Mrs. Susan Wilkin née Booth, of Hamptonburg, Orange County, N. Y. The issue of this marriage was one son, Ludlow E, professor of lan- guages at Cornell University.
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