Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 69

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 1884 Father Burke was appointed theologian by the Most Rev. Apostolic Dele- gate in the Third Plenary Council at Baltimore, in which he distinguished himself by his eloquence and learning.

The ceremony of his consecration took place on Sunday, July 1, 1894, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and was a most notable event. His Grace the Most Rev. Archbishop Corrigan of New York was the consecrator, and the assist- ing consecrating prelates were Rt. Rev. Bishop McQuade of Rochester, and Rt. Rev. Bishop Ludden of Syracuse. The ceremony on the occasion was one of the grand- est and most solemn that ever took place in this country.

In 1871, while at St. Joseph's, he was instrumental in having erected for school accommodations for boys the commodious structure situated on the corner of North Pearl and Colonie streets. It was largely through Bishop Burke's effort that the Hawk street viaduct was erected.

Bishop Burke is a scholar, a forcible preacher, and an authority in theological law. He spent the summers of 1871 and 1889 in Rome. In 1890 he was made a Knight of

the Holy Sepulchre by authority of Pope Leo. Immediately after his consecration as bishop he was made a Knight of the Grand Cross of Jerusalem. In 1887 he was appointed vicar-general of the diocese of Albany.

As an educator Bishop Burke has a remarkable record, particularly in the estab- lishment of flourishing schools, which include St. Joseph's Male and Female Acad- emy, which has a well-deserved and wide reputation for excellence.

LEVI P. MORTON

HON. LEVI PARSONS MORTON was born in Shoreham, Vt., May 16, 1824. Mr. Morton is a son of Rev. Daniel O. Morton, a Congregational minister, and is de- . scended from George Morton, who came to America from England in the ship Ann in 1623. Mr. Morton's mother was Lucretia Parsons, whose father and grandfather were both clergymen, and he was named after her brother, who was the first Ameri- can missionary to Palestine. Owing to the small salary paid Mr. Morton's father, only the elder son had a college education, Levi Parsons having to content himself with a common school education.

When Mr. Morton was about eight years old the family removed to Springfield, Vt., and four or five years later to Winchendon, Mass., where he first earned money by ringing the bell of the church in the town in which his father preached. At the age of fifteen he was employed in the country store of Ezra Casey at Enfield, Mass., where he remained two years. Then he taught a country school. When seventeen he entered the store of W. W. Esterbrook at Concord, N. H. In 1842 he was made manager of a branch store at Hanover, the seat of Dartmouth College Two years later he was given an interest in the store. For six years Mr. Morton re- mained in Hanover, each year gaining in experience and knowledge. Mr. Ester- brook was forced to suspend shortly after Mr. Morton became a partner, and J. M. Beebe, of New York, the chief creditor, assumed charge and was so much pleased with Mr. Morton that he gave him his support.

In 1849 Mr. Morton went to Boston, where, as a partner of Mr. Beebe he carried on the dry goods business under the firm name of Beebe, Morgan & Co. In 1854 he removed to New York and founded the dry goods house of Morton, Grinnell & Co. Mr. Morton's partner in the firm of Morton & Grinnell was the son of Hon. George Grinnell, a member of Congress from Massachusetts. The later failure of the firm was largely due to the repudiation of Southern paper in 1861.

Near the close of 1863 Mr. Morton became a banker, the firm name being L. P. Morton & Co. One of the members of the firm, Charles W. McCune, withdrew in 1863. In 1868 George Bliss became a member of the firm, the name being changed to Morton, Bliss & Co. The same year a joint banking house was formed in Lon- don, that of Morton, Rose & Co., the leading partner being Sir John Rose, late finance minister of Canada. It was through the efforts of these two houses that a syndicate was formed to assist the United States in resuming specie payments, and by their floating five per cent. bonds, it is estimated they saved the government 870,- 000,000. Mr. Morton's firms also exerted an influence in bringing about the removal

of the ill feeling between Great Britain and the United States by settling the Ala- bama claims satisfactorily.

In 1878 Mr. Morton was elected to Congress and his influence in financial matters was very great. In 1880 President Garfield appointed him minister to France. Mr. Morton hammered the first nail in the construction of the Statue of Liberty and de- livered a speech on June 15, 1884, accepting the statue on behalf of the American government. The commercial relations between France and the United States ran smoothly during Mr. Morton's term. June 25 1888, Mr. Morton was nominated for vice-president on the Republican ticket and was elected the following November. After his term as vice-president Mr. Morton traveled and returned in the summer of 1894. September 18, 1894, Mr. Morton was nominated for governor upon the first ballot of the Republican State Convention at Saratoga, and was elected the fol- lowing November.

Mr. Morton has been twice married. His first wife was Lucy Kimball, and they had no children. In 1875 Mr. Morton married the daughter of William J. Street, and they have five children, all girls. Mrs. Morton has been of great help to her husband during his political career and her sweet smile and cordial manner are lovingly remembered by all who have met her.

JAMES BARCLAY JERMAIN.

THE name of this venerable Albanian will long be cherished as that of a truly noble philanthropist. Modestly regarding himself as but a custodian of great wealth, he has dispensed his charities with a liberal hand, yet wisely. He is the son of Syl- vanus Pierson and Catherine (Barclay) Jermain, and is descended from a long line of English and Scotch ancestry. He was born in Albany, August 13, 1809. His father settled in Albany at the beginning of the present century, and for many years was a commission merchant in that city, gradually accumulating a large prop- erty.

Deprived of his mother's care by her death in 1816, James became the protégé of his uncle, the Rev. Nathaniel S. Prime, by whom he was prepared for college. He entered Middlebury College in 1824, subsequently attended Yale, which he was obliged to leave on account of ill health, and later entered Amherst, from which he was graduated in 1831. Soon after leaving college he began the study of law, and in 1836 was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

In 1842 he married Miss Catherine Ann Rice, of Cambridge, Washington county, N.Y. She bore him five children, of whom three daughters are now living. Mrs. Jermain died in 1873.

Upon the death of his father in 1869 a large inheritance came into Mr. Jermain's possession and to his wise dispensation ; to this duty he brought a cultured mind in its matured strength and a noble heart. For the cause of practical Christianity, as well as for a family memorial, he erected at Watervliet the Jermain Memorial church, a structure of grace and beauty and an enduring monument. Bereft of an only son, a young man of great promise, in 1883 he endowed as a memorial the Barclay Jermain professorship in Williams College, his alma mater. Mr. Jermain's

local benefactions have been many and munificent. One of the most admirable of them is the Home for Aged Men on the Troy road, of which institution he has been the chief founder and patron. The magnificent Y. M. C. A. building in Albany will long and fittingly commemorate the almost princely generosity of its founder. The Fairview Home for Friendless Children owes its existence and continued usefulness mainly to Mr. Jermain. It is beautifully situated on the hill above Watervliet, and is designed to shelter one hundred children.

It is hoped that years may yet be granted to a life so marked by unostentatious philanthropy, and by the promotion of practical Christianity and the best interests of humanity.

In 1892 Williams College conferred upon Mr. Jermain the degree of LL. I).

HERMAN BENDELL, M. D.

DR. HERMAN BENDELL is a son of Edward and Hannah (Stern) Bendell, both na- tives of Bavaria, Germany, and was born in Albany, N. Y., October 28, 1843. His father, who was born in 1809, came to this country in 1838, and died in 1891. His mother still survives. Dr. Bendell received his rudimentary education in the public and select schools of his native city. He read medicine with Dr. Joseph Lewi (whose sketch appears in this volume) and at the Albany Medical College, which he left May 28, 1861, to enter the United States service as hospital steward of the 39th N. V. Vols. On September 1 of that year he was appointed acting assistant sur- geon in the United States army. Returning to Albany early in the winter of 1862, he received in December the degree of M. D. from the Albany Medical College, and almost immediately rejoined his regiment at the front. On February 24, 1863, he was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 6th N. Y. Heavy Artillery, and on Janu- ary 3, 1864, he became surgeon of the 86th N. Y. Vet. Vols., in which capacity he served until the close of the war. On May 18, 1866, he was brevetted lieutenant- colonel of New York Volunteers for faithful and meritorious services.

Dr. Bendell served in the field with his regiments, participated in nearly all the battles fought by the Army of the Potomac, and during the last campaign of that victorious army was in charge of its depot field hospital. He was also present at Lee's surrender at Appomattox, and thus closed a brilliant military record extending over a period of four years. After the close of the Rebellion he entered upon the active practice of his profession in Albany, where he continued successfully until 1869, when he was appointed by President Grant as superintendent of Indian affairs for the Territory of Arizona. In 1873 he resigned this post to accept at the hands of President Grant the appointment of United States consul to Denmark, where he not only served his country faithfully and efficiently for two years, but where he also de- voted considerable time to the study of ophthalmology and otology in the University of Heidelberg, receiving a special degree of proficiency in these branches. Return- ing to Albany in 1876 he has since practiced these specialties with uniform success.

For two years Dr. Bendell was lecturer on physiology at the Albany Medical Col- lege, and he is now clinical professor of otology in that institution. He is ophthalmic and aural surgeon on the staff of the Albany City Hospital and at St. Vincent's and

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St. Francis De Sales's Orphan Asylums, medical adviser of the Jewish Home Soci- ety, and surgeon of the Third Brigade, N. G. N. Y., on the staff of Gen. Robert Shaw Oliver, having been first appointed to this position in 1886 on the staff of Gen. Amasa J. Parker. He is a member and in 1893 was president of the Medical Society of the State of New York; a member and in 1884 president of the Albany County Medical Society; a member and in 1885 president of the Alumni Association of the Albany Medical College ; a member and past master of Washington Lodge No. 85, F. & A. M. ; and a member of Temple Chapter No. 5, R. A. M., De Witt Clinton Council No. 22, R. & S. M., George Dawson Post, No. 63, G. A. R., and the military order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

He is a prominent Republican, and has always taken a deep interest in educa- tional matters, especially in the sanitary care of school houses and school hygiene, in which he has rendered valuable service to the city. From 1880 to 1886 he was a member of the Board of Public Instruction of Albany and for two years served as its president. Upon the reorganization of the board in 1892 he again became a member and still continues in that capacity. He was appointed by Mayor Thacher for a term of seven years in January, 1897. He is widely respected and esteemed as one of Albany's most successful surgeons and professional men, and enjoys the confidence of all who know him.

In September, 1873, Dr. Bendell was married to Miss Wilhelmine Lewi, eldest daughter of his medical preceptor, Dr. Joseph Lewi, of Albany, and they have three children: Joseph Lewi Bendell, Myra Lewi Bendell, and Berta S. Bendell.

ABRAHAM LANSING.

HON. ABRAHAM LANSING, son of Christopher Yates Lansing and Caroline May Thomas, was born in Albany February 27, 1835. He attended school in Berkshire county, Mass., and afterwards the Albany Boys' Academy, and entered Williams College in the sophomore class of 1852, and was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1855. He then studied law in his father's office, and entered and was graduated from the Albany Law School, and admitted to the bar in 1857.

He was appointed city attorney of Albany in 1868, and was the first reporter of the Supreme Court under authority of law, having been appointed to that position in 1869, under act of that year, by the governor, attorney-general and secretary of state, and published the first seven volumes of the series of decisions of that court, known as Supreme Court Reports. In 1874 he was appointed by Governor Dix as acting state treasurer. In 1876 he was appointed corporation counsel of Albany, and in 1882 was elected upon the Democratic ticket by a majority exceeding that of any predecessor of his to the office to represent Albany county in the State Senate. He was chairman of the railroad committee of the Senate and member of the finan- cial committee, and was actively identified with the passage of the act providing for a State Railroad Commission, and in the other important measures, which come be- fore the railroad committee of the Legislature during his term.

He interested himself in the enactment of the act called the new Albany Charter, and succeeded against most determined opposition in carrying that measure through

THOMAS J. VAN ALSTYNE.

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the Senate in 1882, and subsequently in 1883, when it became a law. He interested himself in the remodeling of the scientific departments of the State, formed and carried through the acts which accomplished that result, and placed the Capitol and different buildings of the State at Albany in the control of a single superintendent. He took charge of the measure in the Senate which provided for the reservation and establishment of the State Park at Niagara Falls, and earnestly advocated that measure upon the floor of the Senate.

He has been for many years a director of the National Commercial Bank, and in term of service is the senior director of that bank, and also its counsel. He is a trus- tee of the Albany Savings Bank, a member of the Board of Park Commissioners of Albany, a trustee of the Albany Boys' Academy, one of the governors of the Albany Hospital, a trustee of the Albany Medical College, a member of the Board of Trus- tees of the Albany Rural Cemetery, and of the Board of Trustees of the Dudley Observatory, and was a foundation member of the Fort Orange Club, one of its first Board of Trustees, and a member of its first House Committee. He was much inter- ested in the formation of that club, drew its charter, and made the draft of its con- stitution. Mr. Lansing is also a life member of the State Geological Society, a member of the Century Association, and of the University Club and Bar Associa- tion of New York city.

At the laying of the corner stone of the present City Hall he spoke for the county and city He received the statue of Robert Burns for the Park Commission, and made an address on the inauguration of the present Dudley Observatory on behalf of its Board of Trustees, and at their request. He is a member of the Holland So- ciety, and of the Albany Burns Club. Mr. Lansing was an active Tilden Democrat and at one time chairman of the Democratic County Committee. He has been iden- tified with the Tilden wing of the Democratic party, and has done some work in the advocacy of its cause.

His father was a lawyer, a native of Albany, and son of Abraham G. Lansing, who also held the office of state treasurer for many years, both by appointment and election, and other public offices, in the early days of the city, and was the brother of Chancellor John Lansing, jr. Mr. Lansing married Catherine, a daughter of Peter Gansevoort.

THOMAS J. VAN ALSTYNE.

HON. THOMAS J. VAN ALSTYNE, who has been active in business intercourse with the citizens of Albany county for nearly fifty years, has so identified himself with its ad- vancement that its history would be incomplete without reference to him. In line of ancestry Mr. Van Alstyne traces, without break, citizenship in America, on both paternal and maternal side, back as early as 1636. John Martin Van Alstyne was a freeholder in Fort Orange as carly as 1657, from which time his lineal descendants direct, down to the subject of this sketch, have been frecholders in either one of the three adjoining counties of Albany, Columbia, and Schoharie, and the descendants from this same head are to be found in several other counties of this State and many other parts of the United States. Samuel Gile, Mr. Van Alstyne's first (American)

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maternal ancestor, was freeman and freeholder in Haverhill, Mass., early in 1640. All of these first immigrants were intelligent and thrifty farmers who by industry and frugality acquired wide stretches of real estate and considerable personal prop- erty, which was mostly transmitted to their children, and became a fitting incentive to them to emulate such example of their parents. As these men were successful in their endeavors, publie spirited in thought and action, so have their descendants been good citizens and loyal to their fellows,-especially so at the period of the Revolutionary war. Two of the great-grandfathers of Mr. Van Alstyne did service in council and in the field; William Van Alstyne having been captain, and Moses Gile a member of the Standing Committee of Correspondence of the county of Charlotte, Vt., and at fifty-eight years of age, having done service in the field in the regiment commanded by Colonel Marsh. Mr. Van Alstyne's grandfather, Thomas Van Al- styne, at the age of sixteen enlisted and served in the regiment commanded by Col- onel Clyde. This manifestation of active loyalty by both extremes, advanced age and comparative youth, is, and should be considered, unchallengeable grounds for pride in patriotic ancestry. In the late Rebellion, while Mr. Van Alstyne was pre- vented by business interests and domestic obligations from entering the field in person, he placed in the service on behalf of the Union a representative, and was an active supporter of the government, so far as his influence could be exerted, in the vigorous and speedy prosecution of the war.

Mr. Van Alstyne is the son Dr. Thomas B. Van Alstyne (formerly an eminent physician and prominent citizen of the locality in which he lived), and Eliza Gile. his wife, late of Richmondville, Schoharie county, N. Y., at which place he was born July 25, 1827. Blessed with a vigorous constitution even in infancy, and continually growing and developing in physical strength and activity, he spent the first seven years of school life in the village school when in session, mastering the limited in- struction there imparted, and during vacation baiting the tiny fishes of the brooks, or hunting the squirrel and partridge in the neighboring mountain forests-being in these times free from care, and in the full enjoyment of all those things that con- stitute happiness in the boy.

At the age of thirteen years, the boy, while visiting the house of his brother-in- law, a minister of a Baptist church in Cayuga county, conceived the purpose of ac- quiring advanced education, and became a student in the academy at Moravia, dis- tant three and a half miles from Locke. Seven miles was, by choice, the regular school-day walk of the young student for months. After a year spent thus at Mo- ravia, and a period at a select classical school, he became a student at Hartwick Seminary, where he completed his preparation for college. With six others from the same school he matriculated in Hamilton College, from which he graduated in 1848, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1851 that of Master of Arts. In the college course his class standing was good, and he especially excelled in mathematics. In addition to the regular college course Mr. Van Alstyne with a few others, took a private course in law, under the instruction of Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, who subsequently became eminent as an instructor in the Law Department of Columbia College of New York.

In 1848 Mr. Van Alstyne entered the law office of Messrs. Harris and Van Vorst, of Albany. By diligent attention to the business of the office he was enabled, with his knowledge of the principles of law before acquired, to pass, before the close of

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the year, a satisfactory and successful examination for admission to practice in all the courts of the State, the late Hon. John HI. Reynolds, Hon. John K. Porter and Orando Mead, esq., comprising the examining committee. Mr. Van Alstyne, how- ever, retained his desk in the office of Harris & Van Vorst until 1850, continuing with the exception of business personal to himself and his father, study and practice as a student, devoting a reasonable portion of the time, however, to travel and va- cation. After opening an office for public practice, he continued by himself until 1853, when he was invited to and formed a partnership with Mr. Matthew McMahon, with whom he was associated for four years. The firm did a large and diversified business, Mr. McMahon being the confidential adviser of the Prelates of the Dio- cese of the church of which he was a member, and Mr. Van Alstyne managing the legal details of the business and the trials of causes. .

In 1858 Mr. Van Alstyne formed a copartnership with Mr. Winfield S. Hevenor, which has continued down to the present time-making the firm the oldest in con- tinuance of any in Albany. When this firm commenced business Ira Harris, William B. Wright, George Gould and Henry Hogeboom were justices of the Supreme Court for the Third Judicial district (embracing the county of Albany), and a large pro- portion of the court business of the firm for years was transacted before these justices. The firm remains, and its members have survived all of these eminent men, and have seen of their respective successors, Judges Peckham (the elder), Miller, Danforth, Westbrook and Osborn yielding to the inevitable, gathered by the seythe of death, Judges Ingalls and Learned retired from the bench on account of age, and the younger Peckham promoted to the position of justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, leaving at this writing Messrs. Parker, Edwards, May- ham, Fursman and Chester as justices of the Third Judicial District, all of whom, except Judge Mayham, are much younger than the subject of this sketch. The busi- ness of the firm of Van Alstyne & Hevenor was large from the first, embracing most of the branches of the law. Both members being self-reliant and capable, they con- ducted all matters entrusted to them without help of counsel. They adopted as rules of action, never to give advice unfounded on actual or assured fact, or unwar- ranted in law ; never to appeal from a just verdict upon the merits, though a reversal on account of error might be had and might result in a new trial (the final result in such cases generally ending in mulcting the client in greater loss in money, time and anxiety).

In politics Mr. Van Alstyne has always been a Democrat. Prior to the war of the Rebellion he was a Freesoiler on principle, but recognized the rights of the slave- holding States under the constitution, and approved their maintenance under the law. War supervening, based upon the institution of slavery, he urged its vigorous prosecution with the certain abolition of slavery as an incident.

In 1871, at the solicitation of many citizens of the county, Mr. Van Alstyne con- sented to become a candidate for the office of county judge on the ticket of his party, and was elected, receiving the largest vote cast for any candidate on the ticket. On assuming the duties of his office he adopted strict rules for conducting the business of the court, thereby effecting an immediate and needed reform in that tribunal. The court calendar during the twelve years of his service as county judge was large, the number of causes tried before him nearly equaling the number of those tried at the Albany Circuit, and were as varied and difficult in nature. Very few verdicts

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were reversed for mistrial, and very few decisions of his were set aside as being against the law.

In 1882 Mr. Van Alstyne was tendered, without solicitation, the nomination for Representative in Congress. It was accepted in the sense of duty; and he was elected by a most flattering vote. On taking his seat in the 48th Congress, he was appointed a member of the Committee on Claims, and also on the Committee on Ex- penditures of the Department of Justice. In the former committee the reports will show the activity of the new member, and the passage of bills resting upon them testifies to the correctness of his conclusions. In the latter committee, the two printed volumes of the reports exhibit the extent of labor and inquiry expended by its members, resulting in the reform of many evils in administration in many im- portant branches of the service, and in saving much unnecessary expenditure of money to the country. He was also on the Special Committee of three (Messrs. Springer, of Illinois, and Stewart, of Vermont, being his associates), appointed to investigate charges of improper conduct on part of the United States marshal for the Southern District of Ohio at the Congressional election of 1884.

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Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 69

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