USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the Genesee country (western New York) comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, Volume III > Part 3
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On the 23d of June, 1886, Mr. Hollister was united in marriage to Miss Isabelle M. Watson of Rochester, a daughter of the late Don Alonzo Watson, one of the organizers of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Mrs. Isabelle Hollister passed away on the 19th of April, 1903. In May, 1906, Mr. Hollister was again married, his second union being with Miss Elizabeth C. Watson. He gave his political support to the republican party and held membership in the Genesee Valley Club, the Roches- ter Country Club, the Union League Club of New York city and the Santa Barbara Country Club of California. He was a trustee of Reynolds Library and of St. Paul's Episcopal church. In his lifetime the people of the Genesee country, recognizing his merit, rejoiced in his advancement and in the honors to which he attained, and ยท since his death they have cherished his memory, which remains as a blessed bene- diction to all who knew him. Honorable in business, loyal in citizenship, charitable in thought, kindly in action, true to every trust confided to his care, his life was the highest type of Christian manhood.
LUCIUS H. SMITH, M. D.
Dr. Lucius H. Smith, one of the leading practicing physicians and surgeons in Palmyra, was born on the 29th of April, 1862, in Syracuse, New York, the son of Edward and Mary (Evans) Smith, both of whom are deceased. Edward Smith was born in Skaneateles, New York, in 1817, and was ten years old when the family settled in Cattaraugus county in 1827, his parents being among the pioneer residents of that county. He taught school as a young man in New York state and Kentucky. In after years he was superintendent of public schools in Syracuse and passed away in 1908 at a very advanced age, after having been connected with the schools of that city for nearly half a century. Dr. Smith's mother was one of the Empire state's native daughters, and was born in Fayetteville, where she was also married. By her marriage she became the mother of five children, of whom Lucius H. Smith of this review was the third in the order of birth, and the only son. Two of the daughters are deceased.
Lucius H. Smith was educated in the public schools of his birthplace and in the Syracuse Medical College, from which he graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the class of 1885. He spent one year as an interne in the General Hospital at Rochester after completing his medical course and entered upon the practice of his profession in Palmyra in 1889. Since then Dr. Smith has worked up a large practice in medicine and surgery, specializing in the former and performing only operations of a minor character. There are now few men in this city or in Wayne county who have been in the profession as long as Dr. Smith, and no one is more highly respected nor better beloved by his patients and by the entire com- munity. Thirty-five years of self-sacrificing, devoted service to humanity in this community have served to make the name of Dr. Smith honored and respected by every man, woman and child. And, indeed, there is more than one household in Palmyra where three generations of the family have called upon Dr. Smith in times of illness and accident. That the members of his own profession think well of him is indicated by the fact that they have elected him to the positions of secretary and of president of the Wayne County Medical Society. The Doctor also holds membership in the American Medical and New York State Medical Associations, the Rochester Pathological Society and the Medical Association of Central New York. During the
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World war he gave his professional services to his government as medical examiner for the local exemption board.
The marriage of Dr. Smith to Miss Catherine Herbert, daughter of Henry Her- bert of Palmyra, took place in this city on the 8th of February, 1892. They are the parents of three children: Herbert E., a nurseryman of Framingham Center, Mass- achusetts; Mary Catherine, who is connected with the Times-Union office of Roches- ter; and Eleanor Porter, who has prepared herself for a teaching career by a course in the normal school. Dr. Smith is prominent in local Masonic circles as a member of Palmyra Lodge, F. & A. M., the chapter, the council, and the commandery, all of Palmyra, being a past commander of Zenobia Commandery, No. 41, Knights Templar.
MAJOR WILLIAM AUSTIN WADSWORTH.
With the history of progress in Livingston county the name of Major William Austin Wadsworth was for many years closely and prominently associated, and his death of the second day of May, 1918, deprived Geneseo of a citizen whom it could ill afford to lose. His interests and activities touched the various phases of life which are factors in public progress and improvement, and were of far-reaching importance and most beneficial in their results.
William Austin Wadsworth was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 8, 1847, a son of William Wolcott and Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth residents of Geneseo, New York, and descended from a family distinguished, not only in the early history of New England, but of western New York as well. He was educated in a school at Vevey, Switzerland, and graduated from Harvard University in 1870, with the Bachelor of Arts degree, winning honors in chemistry. During 1871-72 he was a student at the University of Berlin, after which he made a trip around the world. He inherited from his father a large landed estate in Livingston county, and his permanent home became from his earliest days the "Homestead" at Gene- seo, in which his grandfather, James Wadsworth, and his great-uncle, William Wadsworth, the pioneers of the region, established their residence. It is interesting to recall, in passing, that these brothers, James and William, were nephews of Jere- miah Wadsworth, one of the original group of men identified with the Phelps and Gorham purchase from Massachusetts of substantially all the lands in western New York lying east of the Genesee river; and they came to the Genesee country in 1790 to represent the landed interests of their uncle. Major Wadsworth maintained faith- fully the best traditions of his forbears in the enlightened management of his domain of about thirteen thousand acres and his abiding interest in the welfare and the con- cerns of his tenants. He was absorbed in the study and development of the most advanced methods in agriculture, and was associated with progressive men and enter- prises in improving farming conditions and bettering country roads. He was presi- dent of the Livingston County Agricultural Society in its later years; president of the American Farmers Association, an organization of wealthy men interested in agriculture; a member of the New York State Agricultural Society; the New York Farmers Association; the American Forestry Association; and the Good Roads Asso- ciation of New York. He was profoundly concerned with local affairs and encouraged earnestly every project that promised betterment of community conditions. He never sought to escape the obligations which good citizenship, added to large wealth, imposed, but performed them conscientiously and cheerfully as a very sacred duty. In this field he served as chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Livingston county, president of the village of Geneseo and chairman of its Water Commission, as well as Sewer Commission of the village. He gave his unremitting attention to the village water supply from the earliest movement looking to the installation of the present system, and to him must be accorded a very large measure of credit for its estab- lishment. His love for animals impelled him and his brother Herbert to purchase a famous spring of water several miles south of the village and pipe the water to the beautiful memorial fountain erected by them in the center of Main street and to the fine drinking trough at the entrance of the grove on Temple Hill. He had a part in New York state official life to the extent of serving as president of the State Forest, Fish and Game Commission.
At the time of his death he was one of the two original members of the local board of managers of the Geneseo State Normal School then surviving, having actively served nearly half a century in the multiplying responsibilities of school management. He was president for many years of the board of trustees of the Wadsworth Library
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MaWadsworth
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in Geneseo, and contributed munificently to its support. He made a gift in his will of seventy-five thousand dollars for the construction of a new library building and twenty-five thousand dollars for an addition to the Library Endowment Fund. Among other learned organizations with which he was connected was the American Geographi- cal Association and the New York Zoological Society. He became chairman of the Livingston County Home Defense committee in the World war upon its formation and was tireless in responding to the exacting demands of that position.
Major Wadsworth's military experience covered service with the Independent Corps Cadets, Second Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. He took a deep interest in the war with Spain and, associated with his friend, Winthrop Chanler of Geneseo, raised and offered to the government a regiment which, however, was declined. Still determined to see service in this affair he was on May 23, 1898, com- missioned by President Mckinley a major of volunteers and designated quarter- master at Manila and San Francisco for the Eighth Army Corps, also acting on the staffs of Generals Merritt and Otis. He was a member of the Army of the Philip- pines, the Society of Foreign Wars, the Society of Carabao and the Military Service institute.
Major Wadsworth had, as early as 1876, given his attention in a somewhat desultory way to the sport of fox-hunting, for we read in his diary of that year: "During this summer occurred the paper hunt on the Home farm, which was the occasion of the first regular organization for hunting foxes on horseback in the Genesee valley." Under date of 1879 the diary says: "This year some of the hounds were got together in a kennel at the Homestead at the beginning of the season, to get them acquainted with each other and the huntsman, but there were always a lot of strange dogs in a hunt. An attempt was made at the Homestead to run a drag of anise seed but the hounds would not own it." On October 29, 1881, the "Genesee Valley Hunt" was organized and Major Wadsworth was made the presi- dent and M. F. H. Thereupon fox-hunting was firmly established in the Genesee valley. In 1884 there was a pack at the Master's Kennels of twenty-three hounds, including several English hounds imported for stud purposes, and the valley rapidly became known throughout this country and in England as a hunting center. Along with this, Major Wadsworth was rearing hunters on his estate from selected mares and imported stallions chosen from the best English stock. It is not too much to say that his chief interest in the hunt was the incentive which it gave to the farmer and his sons to develop a better type of horses and to cultivate a market for them. David Grey wrote upon this point and the incidental advantages to the county generally, twenty- five years ago: "Indirectly the Hunt has assisted not a little in this result. * * * In a much broader manner, however, fox-hunting has tended to benefit Livingston county, as it has benefited those counties in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, where the sport has flourished for over a century. The impulse which carries so many of the young country-bred men to the city is often not so much the belief that a greater financial success is likely to be found in the city as that life in the country is dull and without variety or amusement. All work and no wholesome play makes Jack or anybody else a dull boy. Fox-hunting is the best and most natural sport to amuse and absorb the surplus energies of a farming community. Schooling a well- bred four-year-old not only doubles the value of the colt by making a hunter out of him, but it teaches the boy to ride and develops the courage and self-control requisite in following hounds across country. And most of all, it furnishes him with an autumn of the best fun in the world, which ought to make him work cheerfully, if anything will, and binds him anew to his community by the pleasant ties of sport.
"These are somewhat material considerations as to the relation between the county and the hunt. But there is another which appeals wholly to sentiment and county pride. During the past generation there have assembled at the meets of the Genesee Valley Hunt people from all parts of America and Europe, and not only people interested solely in sport, but men and women distinguished in widely varying spheres of life. Some of the best known of American artists, literary men, generals, lawyers and statesmen have been introduced to the beauty of this historic valley through the pursuit of foxes. One very hot Fourth of July afternoon, on the Meadow at the Homestead, the present [then] President of the United States [Roosevelt], rode strenuously in the sports and was much respected for the vigor of his blows in the cavalry fight. It is interesting to know that his two favorite horses have been schooled over Genesee Valley fences."
Major Wadsworth belonged to the Century, Knickerbocker, Park, Players, Metro- politan, University, Harvard and New York Yacht Clubs of New York; the Metro- politan, Army and Navy and Chevy Chase Clubs of Washington; the Somerset and
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Tavern Clubs of Boston; the Genesee Valley Club of Rochester; the Buffalo Club of Buffalo; and he was for many years president of the Boone and Crockett Club. He was a member of the Episcopal church and his political allegiance was given to the Republican party.
In 1901 Major Wadsworth was married to Elizabeth Greene Perkins of Boston and their only child, William Perkins Wadsworth, is now preparing for Harvard Univer- sity. Mrs. Wadsworth, as trustee under his will, is engaged in the management of the large estate which he committed to her care, and has taken his place upon the local board of the Normal School at Geneseo, and as chairman of the board of trustees of the Wadsworth Library. Mrs. Wadsworth's great interest in the Geneseo school is attested by the establishment of the Nursing Home for the professional students of the school and its maintenance wholly at her expense. The home is in charge of a matron, and a graduate nurse is in constant attendance. Its great need and importance may be understood from the fact that during the first six years of its existence it admitted one thousand patients.
EDMUND LYON.
Edmund Lyon, humanitarian, philanthropist and one of Rochester's most astute business men, died suddenly at his home at No. 1441 East avenue on the 24th of April, 1920, when sixty-five years of age. The following review of his life appeared in the columns of the Democrat Chronicle:
"Mr. Lyon was the son of Harrison A. and Fannie Minerva Lyon and was born in the town of Brighton in 1855. He was graduated from the University of Rochester in the class of 1877 and from Columbia Law School three years later. He practiced law in Rochester with C. D. Kiehl for a short period but soon became interested in other activities. Mr. Lyon was a man of unusual qualities of mind and heart and early interested himself in educational and philanthropic activities. In 1887 he became a volunteer teacher at the Western New York Institute for Deaf Mutes and he con- tinued this work for seven years. During that time he was not only an able and expert teacher but a deep student of the then developing methods of instruction of the deaf. Building upon the work of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell in his successful efforts to develop vocal speech among the deaf, he invented a method of representing and conveying all phonetic values by means of the fingers, which was a most significant contribution to the education of the deaf of all nations. In 1891 Mr. Lyon presented this method before the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. Dr. Bell spoke of his method as 'marking an epoch in the history of articu- lation teaching in America.' Succeeding Dr. Bell, Mr. Lyon was elected president of this national association, an office which he held at the time of his death. One of Mr. Lyon's customs was to give the pupils at the Western New York Institute for Deaf Mutes a party each year on his birthday, and these little celebrations were eagerly looked forward to from year to year. When the news of his death reached the pupils in the St. Paul street institution all were deeply moved, because Mr. Lyon was a man whom each one of them had come to love. His time and thought were given to other forms of education as well. He was a trustee of the Rochester Mechanics Institute and of the University of Rochester, a vice president of the Roches- ter Dental Dispensary and first vice president of the Rochester Friendly Home. He was a member and trustee of Brighton Presbyterian church, and more than anyone else he shouldered the responsibilities of building the new structure, which was made possible through his work and his contributions.
"Mr. Lyon was also a notable figure in the business life of the city. He was an early stockholder in the Eastman Kodak Company, as well as managing director of the North East Electric Company and a director of the Lincoln National Bank. Mr. Lyon was secretary of the New York state board of charities during 1895 and 1896, state examiner for schools for the deaf from 1895 until 1898, a member of the board of managers of the New York State Industrial and Agricultural School, a trustee of the Infants Summer Hospital and president of Riverside cemetery. He was a member of the National Institute of Social Sciences, of the Society of the Genesee. of Beta Phi Chapter of Delta Kanpa Epsilon and of Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Rochester, of the Genesee Valley and Rochester Country Clubs and of the Pundit Club.
"In 1896 Mr. Lyon was married to Miss Carolyn Hamilton Talcott and they
Eng by E.G. Williams & Bro.NY. 1924
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became the parents of two sons, who died in infancy, and of three daughters: Eliza- beth Hamilton, who is now the wife of James Howard Kidd, Jr., of Rochester; Carolyn Sybil; and Linda Gale.
"A friend said of him: 'His personal friendships were strong and fine. Few outsiders knew how constant and generous was the help he extended to those who needed it, or the fine democratic spirit with which he met everyone with whom he came in contact. He deeply enjoyed extending the hospitality of his house to as wide a group as possible and made everybody feel its cordial welcome. Friendly and helpful as Mr. Lyon was in public matters, it is to Mrs. Lyon and their daughters that the richest memories abide of a strong, generous, tender and helpful life. His home life was a beautiful thing and was a blessing to all who were privileged to come within its sunny radiance. Rochester has lost a citizen of public spirit, of kindly heart and of generous hand, and his death brings grief to many a heart that knew him.' "
The following tributes were printed in The Volta Review of June, 1920, published in the interests of better speech by the Volta Bureau of Washington, D. C .:
"The president of our association, the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, has entered upon the long sleep. He passed away at his home in Rochester, New York, on Saturday afternoon, April 24, after a brief illness. On the following Monday the Rochester Herald editorially stated: 'The late Edmund Lyon was in more than the ordinary meaning of the title a citizen of ines- timable usefulness to Rochester. Indeed his life was progressively fruitful of values that are enjoyed and cherished far beyond the boundaries of the community where it was passed. Mr. Lyon was endowed with singularly sound and clear business sagacity, and his opinion and counsel were prized in many of the best known and most influential financial and commercial circles of the city. In a material way his career was abundantly successful, for native ability, courage and patient application won appropriate rewards. But he will be most gratefully and longest remembered no doubt as the modest, generous, intelligent benefactor of a great number of worthy charities and educational and religious foundations. Some of these, like the school for the education of the deaf, in which for years he served as a teacher, have risen to national eminence as indispensable in society's discharge of duty to the unfortu- nate. But a more frequent choice of the beneficiaries of Mr. Lyon's gifts was made among the obscure, the commonly slighted or the unknown, the unpretending and wholly unadvertised agencies for good. Like the Good Samaritan, it was his delight to minister to needs that others had passed by.'"
The editor of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle paid the following tribute to the memory of Mr. Lyon: "The death summons of Edmund Lyon at his home in this city, after an illness of only twenty-four hours, ended a career of public and private usefulness and will mean a heavy loss to the community and to the business interests with which he was associated. Modesty cloaked but did not successfully conceal Mr. Lyon's ability as a business man or his important positions in other directions. He was one of the largest stockholders of the Eastman Kodak Company, managing director of the North East Electric Company and a director of the Lincoln National Bank. His ability in business affairs was manifested in every enterprise in which he became engaged. But his name will be held in affectionate remembrance in circles remote from the business arena. He early became interested in developing methods for the instruction of the deaf, becoming in 1887 a volunteer teacher at the Western New York Institution for Deaf Mutes in this city and holding this position for seven years. The result was that he became deeply interested in the subject of improving instruction methods and invented a method of representing and conveying all phonetic values by means of the fingers, one of the most important contributions to the education of the deaf and which has proved a boon all over the world to those thus afflicted. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell declared that Mr. Lvon's method marked 'an epoch in the history of articulation teaching in America.' His interest in educa- tional affairs naturally extended in other directions. He served as a trustee of the Rochester Mechanics Institute and of the University of Rochester, also as vice presi- dent of the Rochester Dental Dispensary and vice president of the Rochester Friendly Home. It was largely through his efforts that the new structure of the Brighton Presbyterian church, of which he was a member and trustee, was erected. His private life was distinguished by a genuinely philanthropic spirit which found expression in the assistance of many individuals in their hour of trouble or misfortune, but his activities of this sort were carried on so quietly that even of his friends few knew of their nature or extent. His fine character was revealed in every relation in life, and his death brings sorrow and a sense of loss not only to his friends and business
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associates but to a far wider circle who admired him for his fine character, high ideals and genial personality."
An evidence of the high personal regard and public esteem in which Edmund Lyon was held throughout the community is shown in the following expressions of sorrow and loss from some of the city's best-known men:
Dr. Rush Rhees, president of the University of Rochester: "The death of Edmund Lyon has shocked me sadly beyond expression. He was a loyal alumnus, a wise trustee and a generous helper of the University of Rochester. It is a great privilege to have enjoyed his personal friendship and an honor to have been associated with him in public service. Many are the avenues of such service which his loyal feet have trod during many years, and the number of those who now suffer deep bereave- ment it will be impossible to count."
Charles H. Babcock, president of the Lincoln National Bank: "I valued Mr. Lyon as a warm personal friend and respected business associate for more than fifty years. His death has been a staggering blow to me. It came so unexpectedly that it is hard for me to express myself. He was a man of unbounded liberality and kindness. I don't believe he had an enemy in the world. His death is a tremendous loss to the whole community."
Joseph T. Alling: "Mr. Lyon was a man who gave himself unsparingly in the interest of the educational and charitable institutions of the city and country. His advice was always worth considering, and his kindness to his friends and associates was unequaled. He was a remarkable man intellectually and possessed one of the most active and fertile brains that I ever knew. He will be deeply missed by the city at large and by his countless friends."
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