Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 68

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1374

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In 1876 he married Sarah, daughter of Gad B. Worthington, of Batavia, N. Y., and they have three children: Worthington, Florence and De Lancey.

GARRET A. VAN ALLEN.

GARRET ADAM VAN ALLEN, fire underwriter and financier, was born in Albany, N. Y., February 28, 1835, the oldest son of Adam Van Allen, a wholesale lumber merchant and banker of that city. The Van Allens are of Dutch descent, their an- cestors having resided in Albany county for fully two centuries. Garret A. Van Allen was educated in the Albany Academy. After some experience as bank clerk, he, from 1857 to 1860, occupied the position of deputy county treasurer of Albany county. In 1859 he became prominently identified with the organization of the Com- merce Insurance Company, of which he was secretary from 1859 to 1867, when he became vice-president, which office he held until 1884, when he succeeded his father as president. Fire underwriting may, therefore, be said to have been Mr. Van Allen's life business, and in that profession he passed through various experiences,

such as the Chicago (1871) and Boston (1872) conflagrations, in which the Commerce Insurance Company paid over $500,000 in losses. In that connection he has also been prominently identified with the National Board of Fire Underwriters, holding positions in its executive committee and being chairman of its Incendiarism and Arson Committee for several years. In 1864, becoming impressed with the value and importance of the national banking system, Mr. Van Allen so urged its advan- tages upon the gentlemen with whom he was associated in the Commerce Insurance Company, that, with four of them, he became one of the five incorporators and first directors of the First National Bank of Albany. He has been a director of that in- stitution since 1864; vice-president from 1876 to 1884; and in September of the latter year succeeded his father as president. Mr. Van Allen has been a prominent mem ber of the American Bankers' Association ; was vice-president for New York State in 1889-1891 ; and was elected a member of its executive council at New Orleans, La., in November, 1891, for three years. He is vice-president of the National Savings Bank of Albany, treasurer of the Capital City Malleable Iron Company, and has also been identified with a number of important business enterprises; and is a member of the Holland Society, Fort Orange Club, and Albany Institute. Mr. Van Allen was married on September 6, 1860, to Elizabeth Morgan Barker, of Newport, R. I. They have one daughter, Mrs. Anna V. A. Jenison, whose husband is secretary of the "Commerce " and associated with Mr. Van Allen in other business enterprises. In politics he has always been a Republican, and has held elective offices twice, be- ing fire commissioner from 1874 to 1878, and alderman from 1888 to 1892.

JOHN C. SANDFORD.

JOHN C. SANDFORD is the owner and originator of the Fashion Knitting Mills of Cohoes. He established that industry after having been burned out of the dry goods business, which he had conducted there for some years. He was educated in the common schools of Passaic county, N. J., where he was born in 1841. He acquired the blacksmith's trade and came here in 1870, engaging in the carriage-making industry for seven years. Later he entered the insurance and real estate business, then the paper box manufacture, operating box shops at Cohoes, Troy and Amsterdam. He was at one time president of the Adams Steamer Company, also a member of the Taxpayers' Committee. In 1884 Mr. Sandford declared allegiance to the Prohibi- tion party, was boycotted by the Republicans, and being independent he advertised boycotted goods for sale. He was a member of the M. E. church about forty years, but withdrew from it after election in 1896, because the bishops voted a license ticket and for a man for president that leased property for a saloon.

THEODORE TOWNSEND.

THEODORE TOWNSEND was born in Albany, October 9, 1826. His father, John Townsend, came here from Orange county, N. Y., early in the present century and

became a business partner with his elder brother, Isaiah, who had previously ar- rived. The partnership thus formed continued for more than thirty years, until the death of the latter. During all of this time the brothers lived from a common purse, supporting large families, acquiring a common fortune and both attaining high and honorable positions in the community. John Townsend married a daughter of Am- brose Spencer, long chief justice of the Supreme Court of New York. She was a noble Christian woman, beloved by her family and all who knew her.

Theodore Townsend was educated at the Albany Academy, the Poughkeepsie Collegiate School and Union College. In the spring of 1846 he engaged in the foundry and iron business with his cousins, Franklin and Frederick Townsend, suc- ceeding to the establishment which had been started and long carried on by their fathers. Frederick withdrew the same year, but Franklin and Theodore continued partners for ten years, when the latter retired to enter into partnership with Lewis Rathbone and Joseph P. Sanford, in the manufacture of stoves. He remained in this business until September, 1862, when he was appointed by President Lincoln United States collector of internal revenue for the counties of Albany and Scho- harie, which office he held until December, 1869.

On several occasions he was invited by the authorities at Washington to consult with them, and was complimented by them for the able and business-like manner in which his duties were discharged, and which gave to his district the reputation of being with one other the model one among 200 or more in the United States. As Mr. Townsend was not a politician he finally resigned, an act which was greatly regretted. He had collected and paid over $20,000,000. During a part of his term he was also receiver of commutation money for drafted men and in this capacity more than half a million dollars passed through his hands. Being the father of four motherless children, he sent a substitute to the Union army.

In January, 1870, he became connected with the Albany Insurance Company, the second in age in this State, being incorporated in 1811, the firm of I. & J. Townsend having been the first subscribers to its stock, the former being president for over a quarter of a century and the latter vice president and president many years. During his active management he maintained the high reputation and integrity which the company has always enjoyed. He resigned as manager in 1882 and is now vice- president.

In 1882 he was elected treasurer of the Albany Savings Bank, also the second oldest of its kind in the State, having been chartered in 1820, his father being one of the original incorporators as a vice-president. He still holds this responsible position.

December 18, 1851, he married Miss Louisa Mickle, daughter of Hon. Andrew H. Mickle, formerly mayor of New York. She died August 3, 1862, and June 15, 1865, he married Miss Mary Lathrop Sprague, daughter of the Rev. Dr. William B. Sprague, for forty years the distinguished minister of the Second Presbyterian church of Albany. Mr. Townsend has had four children, of whom the eldest married in 1889 Winthrop Scudder, of Brookline, Mass. She died in 1890. Two daughters still reside with their father. His son, John Townsend, of St. Paul, Minn., married Miss Mary Learned Cook, daughter of the late James C. Cook. Mr. Townsend was an alderman in 1853 and 1854, was president of the Young Men's Association in 1852, and is now a warden of St. Peter's church.

THOMAS SLAVIN.

FREDERICK J. H. MERRILL.

FREDERICK JAMES HAMILTON MERRILL was born in New York city, April 30, 1861. His early education was received at Charlier Institute and other schools. In Octo- ber, 1880, he entered the School of Arts at Columbia College and in October, 1882, he entered the School of Mines at the same college. In June, 1885, he was grad- uated with the degree of Ph. B. From 1885 to 1887 Mr. Merrill was assistant on the geological survey of New Jersey, and from 1886 to 1890 he was fellow in geology at Columbia College. In June, 1890, he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and the summer of that year was spent in visiting the principal natural history museums of Europe. He was assistant state geologist of New York from October, 1890, to June, 1893. In December, 1890, he was appointed assistant director of the New York State Museum during 1892 and 1893, and was director of the Scien- tifie Exhibit of the State of New York at the World's Columbian Exposition. In June, 1894, Dr. Merrill was appointed director of the New York State Museum. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the Geological Society of America, a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, and is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the American Society of Naturalists, the National Geographic Society, and of the Brooklyn Institute. Dr. Merrill has published many important articles in leading scientific journals in connection with his profession, and several bulletins of the New York State Museum on the subject of the Mineral Resources of this State. In 1887 he married Miss Winifred Edgerton, of New York city, and they have two children: Louise Edgerton and Hamilton.

THOMAS SLAVIN.

THOMAS SLAVIN, though a native of Waterford, N. Y., where he was born Octo- ber 20, 1833, has been a lifelong resident of Cohoes. His reminiscences of the place in its infancy are very interesting, and he is regarded as a personal land- mark and a compendium of data concerning the early times. His testimony is re- garded as unimpeachable in cases involving boundaries and conditions of half a cen- tury ago. Here has been the scene of his early struggles in business life, for Mr. Slavin is.a self-made man; being one of seventeen children he early assumed the responsibility of earning a livelihood.

He was the eldest son of Michael Slavin, a man well known in both counties, and whose home was ever a haven to the hungry or weary traveler-of whom there were many in those early days. Father and son did teaming for the large flour mills which then flourished in this vicinity. In 1865 he established a coal business, and in 1869 removed to No. 135 Saratoga street, where he still conducts, together with his son, Thomas Slavin, jr., the most successful coal and grain business in the city. His eldest son, Charles J. Slavin, he established in the coal business on Lansing street some ten years ago.

In 1859 Mr. Slavin married Elizabeth Brennan, of Troy. Of this union five chil- dren survive: Charles J., Thomas, jr., Mary, Helen and Sara. Mr. Slavin's aim

has been not to amass a fortune, but to aid his fellow-men in and beyond Cohoes, where his name is associated with every movement for the welfare of the people, city and dear old Albany county.

LOUIS STERN.

LOUIS STERN was born in Germany on the 22d of February, 1847, and came to America with his parents, M. A. and S. Stern, in 1854. The family first located in New York city, but in 1855 removed to Albany, where the father was engaged in the jewelry business until his death in 1866. Mr. Stern received a thorough educa- tion in the public schools of the capital city and at the Albany State Normal School, and when fourteen became a clerk in a large dry goods store in Petersburg, Va., where he remained until 1863. He then went to Memphis, Tenn., and later to Mobile, Ala., being engaged in the dry goods trade in those cities.

In 1867 he removed to New York city, and with his brother Isaac, under the firm name of Stern Brothers, established a dry goods business on Sixth avenue, between 22d and 23d streets. This enterprise, founded in a modest way and being confined strictly to the dry goods trade, formed the nucleus to the firm's present establish- ment, which was moved to the site it now occupies on 23d street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. in 1878. The firm now consists of three brothers, Louis, Isaac, and Benjamin, the latter being admitted in 1886. Another brother, Bernhard, was also a partner for several years prior to his death in 1888.

Mr. Stern, in co-operation with his brothers, has built up one of the largest and most successful dry goods establishments in New York, and from the first has confined it strictly to the retail dry goods and upholstery trade. The name of Stern Brothers has a wide reputation throughout the United States. They employ nearly 2,000 people, and carry an extensive line of high class imported and domestic goods, and are noted for fairness and reliability in all business transactions. Mr. Stern is an active Republican in politics, taking a keen interest in the welfare of his party, and is a member and the third vice-president of the Republican Club of New York. He is a director of the Bank of New Amsterdam of New York city, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, New York Geographical Society, and first vice-president of the Albany Society of New York, an organization to which many former Albanians belong, and which ably fosters their interest in the capital city though engaged in business in the metropolis. Besides these he is prominently identified with several other social, civil, and commercial institutions, and as a citizen is public spirited, liberal, and enter- prising.

WILLIAM C. VAN ALSTYNE.

WILLIAM C. VAN ALSTYNE, son of Thomas W. and Sarah E. (Pease) Van Alstyne, was born in Albany, N. Y., December 7, 1846. He is a lineal descendant of Henry. Van Alstyne who was knighted by Otho II, emperor of Germany, and who assisted

LOUIS STERN.

at the coronation of Otho III, by Pope Gregory V, in A. D. 983, and whom he served in the wars against Henry III of France. Henry remained in Flanders and his descendants have lived in Belgium and Holland to the present time. A branch became Protestants, represented in this country first by John Martense Van Alstyne, who left Gand (Ghent), Belgium, in 1635 and finally settled the village of Ghent, near Kinderhook, Columbia county. One of Mr. Van Alstyne's ancestors was the first president of the Board of Trustees of the village of Kinderhook, and a cousin of his now (1896) occupies the same position. The original grant in heraldry was by Otho II, and a re-grant was published by Marie Therese, empress of Austria, January 17, 1771. The father of the subject of this sketch, Thomas W. Van Alstyne, was a mer- chant and sheriff of Albany county from 1858 to 1861.

William C. Van Alstyne was educated at the State Normal School at Albany and graduated from the Albany Academy in 1864. He was assistant treasurer of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad, and was for a time in the employ in a similar capacity of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company's Railroad. In 1872 he moved to Chicago to accept an official position with the Michigan Central Railroad; in 1880 he was obliged to return east on account of illness, and he accepted the position of general manager of the Lebanon Springs Railroad, which position he resigned in 1886. Since then he has been engaged in the manufacturing business as secretary and manager of the Standard Emery Wheel Company. Mr. Van Alstyne is also a dealer in emery and kindred supplies.

He is a member of the Holland Society of New York, the Camera Club of Albany, Masters Lodge No. 5, F. & A. M., Beaverwyck Lodge No. 261, I. O. O. F., the Albany Institute, and of the Emmanuel Baptist church of Albany. In 1869 he married Mary Warren Carter, of Albany.

JAMES NEWTON FIERO.

JAMES NEWTON FIERO, dean of the Albany Law School, was born May 23, 1847, in Saugerties-on-the Hudson, Ulster county. He is the son of the late Christopher Fiero, who in 1853 organized the 20th N. Y. Militia, which was known during the Rebellion as the 18th N. Y. Vols., and under Col. George W Pratt achieved a most honorable career at the front. Christopher Fiero was colonel of this regiment from its organization until his retirement in 1858. J. Newton Fiero's paternal grandfather was Dr. Abraham Fiero, a noted physician. His paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Gillespy, was of Scotch descent. His maternal grandparents were of Holland stock, descendants of the Van Schaicks and Van Slykes. The name Fiero is probably of Spanish origin, from settlers in Holland at the time of the Spanish conquest. The first record of the name in Ulster county is attached to an old document during the early days of the Revolution, protesting against the arbitrary action of the British toward our people for the maintenance of their rights as American citizens. J. New- ton Fiero after attending the district school, entered the Delaware Academy at Delhi, then under Prof. John L. Sawyer. He subsequently became a student in the Cherry Valley Academy and for a brief period was a member of. Rutgers College, but in January, 1865, entered the sophmore class of Union College at Schenectady,

from which he graduated with honors in 1867. Mr. Fiero studied law with Hon. William Murray, of Delhi, a distinguished justice of the Supreme Court. In May, 1879, he was admitted to the bar at the General Term of the Supreme Court at Binghamton. After remaining in the office of his preceptor a few months he re- turned to his native village and began a successful legal practice. In January, 1872, he went to Kingston and formed a partnership with Reuben Bund, remaining at Kingston until 1891, when he removed to Albany and entered into partnership with Gen. Amasa J. Parker taking the place of the late Judge Amasa J. Parker in the firm. In 1887 Mr. Fiero published his first law book, treating of "Special Proceed- ings in the State of New York" and followed it in 1888 by "Special Actions." These books are now standard works upon the subjects treated, a new edition of the latter having been published early in 1897. He was chairman of a committee to draft an act to facilitate the business of the courts of this State. At a recent meeting of the American Bar Association he was appointed chairman of a committee to investigate into the expediency of a scheme for uniformity in legal reporting and to recommend a remedy for existing difficulties. He is now chairman of a special committee of that association on Uniformity of Procedure. Mr. Fiero has won a wide and enviable reputation in his persistent efforts in the law reforms in our courts of justice. In January, 1891, he was retained by Messrs. Knevals, Cox and Basselir, forest commissioners, as leading counsel in the investigation ordered by the Assem- bly as to the management of the forests, which resulted in the complete exoneration of the commissioners; he was also counsel for the commission in matters relating to the Catskills. Mr. Fiero has been a member of the faculty of the Albany Law School for several years, lecturing upon practice and pleading, and in 1895 was elected dean of the institution. In 1892 he was elected president of the New York State Bar Association and was re-elected in 1893. He was chairman of the commit- tee on law reform, succeeding David Dudley Field. In politics he has always been a pronounced Republican. He began stump speaking in the Grant-Seymour canvass in 1868 and has been in every important campaign since. He was for many years a leading member of the Ulster County Republican Committee, and for a considera- ble period its chairman. He is a member of the Fort Orange Club and the Univer- sity Club of New York city. In 1870 he married Miss Jennie Sands McCall of Delhi, and they have three children: Maude Goodrich, Clifford B., and Harriette A.

WILLIAM J. WALLACE.

HON. WILLIAM JAMES WALLACE, judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Second Judicial District since April, 1882, is a son of E. Fuller and Lydia (Wheel- wright) Wallace, early settlers of Syracuse, N. Y., and was born there April 14, 1838. He was prepared for college with the view of entering Dartmouth, from which his father was graduated, but having decided upon the law, pursued a course of general studies in lieu and having special reference to that profession under Hon. Thomas Barlow, of Canastota. Subsequently he entered the law department of Hamilton College, of which Prof. Theodore W. Dwight was then the preceptor and was gradu- ated and took his degree from that institution in 1858. On the day he became

twenty-one years of age, Judge Wallace commenced the practice of his profession in Syracuse in copartnership with Hon. William Porter. Later he was associated with Levi W. Hall, Hon. William C. Ruger and Edwin S. Jenney. In 1873 he was elected mayor of Syracuse on the Republican ticket. In March, 1874, President Grant ap- pointed him a judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York to succeed Hon. Nathaniel K. Hall. In April, 1882, Judge Wallace was appointed by President Chester A. Arthur judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Second Judicial District, comprising the States of New York Vermont and Connecticut, which exalted office he still holds. Judge Wallace has exercised the duties of his judicial positions with great dignity, honor and credit. In 1876 Hamil- ton College conferred upon him the degree of LL.D., and in 1883 Syracuse Univer- sity presented him with a similar honor. Judge Wallace married, first, Miss Joseph- ine Robbins, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who died in 1874, and in 1878 he married Alice Heyward Wheelwright, of New York city. Judge Wallace and his family have re- sided in Albany since 1893.

WILLIAM L. LEARNED; LL.D.

HON. WILLIAM L. LEARNED, LL. D., eminent lawyer and jurist, was born at New London, Conn., July 24, 1821, of English ancestry. His father was a lawyer and finan- cier of great ability. When sixteen years of age, Judge Learned entered Yale Col- lege, graduating four years later with high honors. He was noted as a fine classi- cal scholar, and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society. He was admitted to practice at Rochester, N. Y., in 1844 settled in Albany, and during the earlier years of his professional practice was associated with Gilbert L. Wilson and James C. Cook. In 1870 he was appointed justice of the Supreme Court and was later elected to that office for a term of fourteen years. At the end of that term he was re-elected. He was appointed presiding justice of the General Term in 1875, and held that office till disqualified by age. In 1874 he was made a member of the faculty of the Albany Law School and was for years the honored president of that body. His opinions as presiding justice of the Supreme Court evince great vigor and acumen. In 1878 he was accorded the degree of LI .. D. by his Alma Mater.

ALDEN CHESTER.

HON. ALDEN CHESTER, youngest son of Alden Chester (born in New London, Conn., May 26, 1803, died in Westford, N. Y., March 4, 1857), was born in Westford, Otsego county, September 4, 1848, and descends from Capt. Samuel Chester, who came from England to Boston and settled in New London in 1633. Judge Chester's mother. Susan G. Draper, descended from James Draper, who came from England to Roxbury, Mass., about 1643.

Judge Chester was educated at the Westford Literary Institute, taught therein and became clerk in a store in his native village. When eighteen he was made telegraph

operator on the old Albany and Susquehanna Railroad. He graduated from Columbia College Law School in 1871, was admitted in May of that year and came to Albany, where he formed a law partnership with his cousin, Andrew S. Draper. From 1876 to 1882 Hon. William S. Paddock was a member of the firm, under the name of Paddock, Draper & Chester; since 1887 Judge Chester has practiced alone. In 1874 and 1876 he was deputy clerk of the Assembly; for several years he was a member and secre- tary of the Republican General Committee of Albany county ; has been a member and president of the Board of Public Instruction, and was appointed assistant United States attorney for the Northern District of New York in 1882; resigned in 1885; was appointed by Governor Morton in 1895 member of the commission to prepare a uni- form charter for cities of the second class, and in November of the same year he was elected justice of the Supreme Court for the term of fourteen years.

RT. REV. THOMAS BURKE.

RT. REV. THOMAS BURKE, M. A., was born in 1840, and is the son of the late Dr. Ulric Burke, of Utica, N. Y. He was educated in the school and academy under the charge of the Christian Brothers in Utica, later in the college of St. Michael at Toronto, and entered St. Charles College, Maryland, in 1856. Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop Kain of St. Louis, and the rector of the Catholic University of Washing- ton, Bishop Keane, were students at the latter institution during Bishop Burke's term. Upon graduating from St. Charles, Bishop Burke entered St. Mary's Semi- nary, Baltimore, Md., where he was ordained on June 30, 1864, which conferred on him the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Theology.

He came at once to Albany and remained about two months with Cardinal Mc- Closkey at the Episcopal residence, and was appointed as assistant at St. John's church, Albany, on September 4, 1864. He remained at St. John's until April 4, 1865, when he was transferred to the assistant pastorate of St. Joseph's church. In 1874 he was appointed pastor of that church, which pastorate he held until appointed bishop of Albany in 1894.

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Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 68

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1374

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1374