Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 70

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

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Mr. Van Alstyne had secured the confidence and cordial friendship of the ablest and best members of the House, and was renominated by acclamation to succeed himself. The election in 1884 was the first in fact after the reform in State offices introduced by Governer Cleveland had become operative, requiring the conducting of the affairs of the public on business principles. It generated an opposition to the party, which, aided by the fact that the opposing candidate for Congress, Hon. John Swinburne, was one of the ablest physicians and surgeons of the State, and one of the most philanthropic and charitable citizens of the district, resulted, without fault of Mr. Van Alstyne, and without implied condemnation of him, in a tidal wave in his defeat and for the success of his opponent. If he had been continued in the House of Representatives his influence in that body, already great, would have been more effective; but he accepted the result of the election more as a favor than as a loss, and thereafter refused a further tender of nomination and retired from politics, against the wishes and earnest protestations of the chiefs of his party.

Mr. Van Alstyne has been thrice married-first, in 1851 to Miss Sarah Clapp, daughter of the late Ruel Clapp, of Albany. Of this marriage one son survives, Mr. Thomas Butler Van Alstyne, lawyer and fruit grower, residing in Southern Cal- ifornia. Secondly, in 1876 to Miss Louisa Peck, a daughter of the late Samuel S. Peck, of Albany; and thirdly, in 1886 to Miss Laura Louisa Würdemann, daughter of W. W. Würdeman, esq., of Washington, D. C. Of this latter marriage one son aged nine years is living.

Mr. Van Alstyne is a member of Emmanuel Baptist church of Albany, as has been each of his wives. He is also a member of several orders and societies, but was never a devotee or habitué of the social society of the day so attractive to and patron- ized by many. He has a well selected library of over six thousand volumes of mis- cellaneous books, to which he gives constant nightly attention, and from which he gleans richer and less wearying enjoyment than could be derived from the social whirl. He is still in full vigor and perfect health, with a fair prospect of being per- mitted to survive many years in future.

ISAAC G. PERRY.

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ISAAC G. PERRY.

ISAAC G. PERRY, architect and commissioner of the State Capitol, is of Scotch descent and was born in Bennington, Vt., March 24 1822. His father, Seneca Perry, a native of White Creek, Washington county, N. Y., was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and died in 1868, his wife, Martha Ann Taggart, a native of Londonderry, N. H., and an ardent member of the old Presbyterian church, having died in 1860. Mr. Perry's grandparents were Valentine and Patient (Hays) Perry, both of White Creek, N. Y.

When a lad of seven years Mr. Perry moved with his parents to Keeseville, Essex county, N. Y., where he attended the village school and served an apprenticeship with his father at the trade of carpenter and joiner. He soon mastered the business and won a local reputation as an architect, and for several years successfully prosecuted the work of contracting and building on his own account. In 1852 he moved to New York city and opened an office at No. 229 Broadway, where for twenty years he carried on a steadily increasing architectural business. In 1857 he received a com- mission to furnish the plans and superintend the construction of the New York State Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton, a fine specimen of castellated Gothic architecture, which won for him a wide and permanent reputation. He also designed and erected many other notable buildings in Binghamton, including the First Baptist church, the Centenary M. E. and Congregational churches, St. Patrick's church, the Phelps and First National Bank buildings, the McNamara, Hagaman and Perry blocks, the High School, Hotel Bennett, the Phelps mansion, and numerous others of equal prominence. His works extended throughout and beyond the Chemung Valley.

In 1872 Mr. Perry removed to Binghamton in order to be nearer the scene of his labors, and thenceforward his work was pushed into adjoining cities and towns with a vigor which has characterized all his undertakings. At Scranton, Pa., he built the Lackawanna court house, the Dickson Manufacturing Company's machine shops, the Second National and the Scranton Trust Company's Banks, the library edifices, and many dwellings, such as those of Hon. Joseph H. Scranton, jr., and the Messrs. Linnen and Green. In Wilkesbarre, Pa., he designed and erected the First Natianal Bank, the opera house, several blocks, and many residences, including those of Charles Parish and Stanley Woodward. At Port Jervis, N. Y., he built the Dutch Reformed and Catholic churches, the Farnum & Howell block, and a number of private and public edifices. This is but a small portion of the work designed and executed by Mr. Perry, but it furnishes an idea of the wide and varied demands upon his services, which were sought in many Western States and in other sections of the east. It has been estimated that at times the work in his office aggregated $1,000,- 000.

On March 30, 1883, Governor Cleveland appointed Mr. Perry the regular commis- sioner of the State Capitol at Albany, under a new law creating a single commis- sioner to have " entire charge of the interests which had heretofore been confided to a board of commissioners," and six days later this appointment was confirmed by the Senate. The office was conferred upon him without solicitation, and was most favor- ably received by the press of all political parties. Since then he has most ably administered his duties, superintending the work with commendable energy, dili-

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gence and fidelity. Much of the interior arrangement and decoration as well as the principal exterior embellishments of that immense structure are due to his artistic taste and skill, and many of the designs are his own creations. He has not only established the highest reputation as a first-class builder, but he has won merited praise as an accomplished architect, and is deservedly styled the master of his pro- fession. He is also the architect of the new armory building on the corner of Wash- ington avenue and Lark street.

Mr. Perry was married in December, 1848, to Miss Lucretia L. Gibson of Keese- ville, N. Y.

CHARLES H. PECK, A. M.

CHARLES H. PECK, the son of Joel B. and Pamelia Horton Peck, was born in Sand Lake, Rensselaer county, N. Y., in 1833. He is the oldest of a family of nine chil- dren, six of whom are now living. During his early years his father was engaged in the manufacture of lumber. Accordingly in his youth he was in close association and familiarity with the trees of the forests that surrounded his home. When he was five years old he commenced his educational course by attending the district school. This was at that time kept in a log school house whose furnishings were of the most primitive character. As soon as he was old enough to be of assistance in the saw mill, his school days were limited to the winter season, his help being re- quired in the mill during the summer.

When eighteen years old he entered the State Normal School at Albany, from which he graduated at the end of the year. While here he joined a voluntary class in botany, taking this study as an extra, since it was not at that time included in the regular course of study These few lessons awakened in him a love for botanical pursuits that never afterwards left him. By such trifling and apparently almost ac- cidental circumstances the whole future course of life is sometimes changed. This love of botanical science afterwards proved to be the controlling power in his life work.

The winter succeeding his graduation found him in charge of a large district school in the town of Poestenkill, Rensselaer county. The next summer he accepted a clerkship in a general country store, but long hours of labor and close confinement soon impaired the health of a constitution never very robust, to such a degree that he was obliged to change his occupation. This he did without much reluctance, determining to take a course of study in college that he might be better prepared for some more agreeable field of labor. Having pursued the necessary preparatory studies in the Sand Lake Collegiate Institute, he entered Union College in 1855.

He took the regular classical course, and was one of three members of his class to whom was awarded what was then known as a Nott Prize Scholarship. This was an honor granted to those only who sustained a special rigid examination in the pre- paratory studies, and it was continued only as long as its recipients maintained a certain high standard of excellence in their studies and deportment. During his college course his botanical inclinations supplied much of his recreation. Instead of playing foot ball with his fellows on the college campus, he sought communion with

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his plant friends in the fields and woods. In these rambles many treasures were gathered to enrich his small but gradually increasing herbarium. In this study he received instruction from the late Professor Pierson, not only in the class room but also sometimes in the field, for it was the custom of the professor to be a leader and a companion of his scholars in their excursions after material for study. He grad- uated in 1859 and three years after received the degree of A. M. from his Alma Mater.

Scarcely had he finished his college course when he was offered a position as teacher of classics, mathematics and botany in Sand Lake Collegiate Institute, where four years before he had been a student. This position was accepted and proved so satisfactory that an opportunity, which was offered some time afterward, to teach in a more prominent position of learning, was declined.

About seven years were spent in teaching here and in Albany. While in the latter place he formed the acquaintance of the Hon. George W. Clinton, a member of the Board of Regents of the University. Judge Clinton was a good botanist himself, and interested in the improvement and extension of the State Herbarium, a part of the State Museum of Natural History. Through his instrumentality, Mr. Peck was employed to do this work and to add to the Herbarium specimens of the cryptogamic flora of the State, but few of which plants were then represented in it. Upon the passage of the law recognizing the geologist and paleontologist, the botanist and the entomologist, as constituting the scientific staff of the State Museum, he was ap- pointed as botanist of the staff, which position he now holds. By his labors the num- ber of plant species represented in the Herbarium has been trebled, and it is now one of the most complete and extensive local collections in the country. His duties have required him to devote much time to the investigation of the fungi which con- stitute by far the most extensive and intricate branch of the cryptygamic flora. Of these plants he has described many new species and added vastly to the scientific value of the Herbarium by placing in it the type specimens of these new species. His investigations of the fleshy fungi, especially, have been so thorough and exten- sive, that he has become a recognized authority in this department of botany. By experimental trials of their edibility he has added many species to the list of useful and edible mushrooms. There are few mycologists in this country who have not been at some time or who are not now his correspondents. Many of them have re- ceived more or less assistance from him in acquiring a knowlege of these plants. At the present time he is in almost daily receipt of specimens of fungi from various parts of the country. These are sent for identification or as data for the solution of some problem in regard to their character, quality or edibility.

His literary productions are not extensive, consisting chiefly of several papers on botanical topics read before the Albany Institute, contributions from time to time to the Country Gentleman, replies to botanical queries therein and his annual reports made to the Board of Regents and published in the Museum Reports. These now exceed twenty-five in number, but some of the carlier ones are out of print. They are eagerly sought by botanists and especially by mycologists. The application for copies of the one containing the report on the edible and poisonous mushrooms of the State were unprecedented in number, scores of them being received even before the issuing of the report. They came from various parts of the country and indicated

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a wide spread interest in the subject and an evident desire for information in this practical branch of botany.

In 1861 he married Miss Mary C. Sliter of Sand Lake. He has two sons, Harry S. and Charles A. Peck, both of whom are now engaged in mercantile pursuits. He is fond of his home and takes much pleasure and recreation in his garden at Menands. By experiments in it, he derives from it aid in solving or in verifying many problems in plant life and plant diseases. He is naturally modest and retiring in his disposi- tion, shrinking from the excitements of public life, averse to extravagant pretensions and ostentatious display, contented to labor on quietly and faithfully in his chosen field and to add what he can to the sum of human knowledge and human happiness. He is an active member of several scientific societies, an elder in the Presbyterian church, a Republican in politics, but has never held nor earnestly sought an elective civil office. He is decided in his own political and religious opinions but tolerant of others who hold different views.

CHARLES WHITNEY CARPENTER.

CHARLES WHITNEY CARPENTER is descended from an old Albany family, his paternal grandfather, Henry, being a life-long resident of that city. His father, George W. Carpenter, who still resides in Albany at the age of eighty-six, was educated at the Albany Academy and afterward became one of its professors; later he was for over twenty years the city surveyor, and subsequently was superintendent and engi- neer of the Albany Water Works for over forty years and an active member of the Board of Education for more than twenty-five years, being most of that time its president. He married Mary Ann Burton, who died in 1877.

Charles Whitney Carpenter was born in Albany, N. Y., March 13, 1847, and graduated from the Albany Academy in 1864. He was subsequently a clerk in the wholesale grocery store of E. C. Batchelder & Co., of Albany, until June 10, 1869, when he went to New York city and accepted the position of cashier and bookkeeper for J. N. Perkins & Co., brokers, in Wall street. Eighteen months later he entered, as a clerk, the well known establishment of R. Hoe & Co., with whom he has ever since remained, becoming in a short time their correspondent, confidential clerk, and salesman.

The firm of R. Hoe & Co. was founded by Robert Hoe about the year 1804 under the name of Robert Hoe & Co., and is the largest printing press manufactory in the world. Many changes have occurred in the firm, by death and from other causes, since Mr. Carpenter became associated with the house, and on January 1, 1888, he was admitted to partnership. The firm now consists of Robert Hoe, Theodore H. Mead, and Mr. Carpenter. R. Hoe & Co. have gained a world-wide reputation in the manufacture of printing presses of every size and description, ranging in price from about $1,000 to the great combined newspaper and color press costing $55,000. Wherever printing is done their name is known. They also manufacture immense quantities of cast steel circular saws, which go to every country on the globe. In their New York establishment they employ from 1,400 to 1,500 men, manufacturing almost everything used by the printer, excepting type, ink, and paper. Here also are

CHARLES W. CARPENTER.

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about 300 apprentice boys under competent instructors and professors. In the London works some 600 men are employed, making presses for England and her colonies.

Mr. Carpenter is an able business man, and has always been a staunch Republi- can, following, in this respect, in the footsteps of his grandfather, father, and brother. He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution through his father's maternal grandfather, Mr. Mascraft, and is also a member of the New England Society and the Union League and Grolier Club of New York.

On October 16, 1869, he was married to Miss Caroline Bowne Smith, a great- granddaughter of Walter Bowne, who was mayor of New York city from 1829-1833. They have had eight children: Arthur and Jessie, deceased; and Lilian, George W., 2d, Florence, Charles W., jr., Adele, and Beatrice.

RUFUS W. PECKHAM.

AMONG the landmarks which give prominence to Albany county it is impossible for the historian to overlook the name of Rufus W. Peckham. The court proceed- ings and public affairs of the county bear testimony to the activity and prominence of a member of the bar by that name at a period more than half a century ago; the history of his further public career of honor and prominence is preserved in the records of the Supreme Court, and of the Court of Appeals of this State, of both of which he was a vigorous and able member.

To the present Rufus W. Peckham no higher praise can be given than to say that he is a most worthy successor to his ancestor in whose footsteps he follows. He seems to have inherited the mental as well as physical characteristics of his father.

Born in Albany in 1838, the present Rufus W. Peckham was admitted to the bar and engaged in the active practice of the profession. He soon developed the quali- ties of an advocate, and many important trials occupied his attention, not only at the Albany Circuit, but in contiguous counties.

As district attorney of Albany county his prosecutions were marked by a fearless discharge of duty; as corporation counsel of the city of Albany he conducted the legal affairs of the city with eminent success, besides being largely instrumental in forming a new charter containing many reforms.

"The energetic and sturdy advocacy of his views, his unswerving loyalty to friends, the reliance to be placed on him by associates, his ability as a vigorous leader in debate, made him a conspicuous figure at political gatherings; he was prominent in the counsels of his party, and a champion in the contests of Democratic conventions. As a public-spirited citizen he was interested in local institutions, and participated in their administration, as a governor of the City Hospital, as a bank director and park commissioner. His independence in politics was frequently made manifest. His voice publicly and privately was always heard in the interest of clean politics and for good and pure government.

In 1884 he was elected justice of the Supreme Court, and while his admirers re- gretted his retiring from practice, believing that his greatest field for personal suc- cess and public service lay in his career at the bar, his great qualification for the

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judiciary was made manifest. He was most efficient as a trial judge. In 1887 he was elected to the Court of Appeals, and his written opinions with which the reports of that court abound, are further proof of his judicial ability. In 1895 he was ap- pointed a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, of which he is now a member. His attainments as a lawyer, his lofty personal character and intellectual perspicuity, so marked a characteristic, have already won for him an exalted posi- tion among his associates, and his standing is of the highest among the distinguished members of that august tribunal.

While his place of residence is nominally at Washington, D. C., the long recesses of the court are spent in Albany county, at his summer home in Altamont, on the side of the Helderberg Mountains.

GEN. EDWIN A. McALPIN.

GEN. EDWIN A. McALPIN was born in New York city, June 9, 1848, and is the son of David H. McAlpin, the president of D. H. McAlpin & Co., one of the largest to- bacco establishments in the country. General McAlpin attended the public schools in New York city and later was graduated from the academy at Andover, Mass. He early showed his love for the military by enlisting, when a mere boy, as a drummer boy in the war of the Rebellion, but was of course prevented from serving, being under age. In November, 1869, he enlisted in the 7th Regt. N. Y .; in 1872 was elected corporal; was elected first lieutenant of the 71st Regt. in November, 1873, and captain in 1875; major in August, 1875; resigned from the 71st Regt. in the fall of 1882 to accept a captaincy in the 7th Regt .: elected colonel of the 71st Regt. in May, 1885, and resigned his commission in June, 1888; in the spring of 1888 was elected colonel of the 71st Regt. Veterans Association. Gen. McAlpin is a man of large fortune and is very liberal. He is director of the Eleventh Ward Bank and director of the Sixth National Bank of New York city and of the firm of D. H. Mc- Alpin & Co. of New York city. He owns a delightful summer residence at Lake Brandreth. Since 1878 Gen. McAlpin has lived in the village of Sing Sing and he has contributed largely to its development. In 1884 and 1888 Gen. McAlpin was up- on the Republican electoral ticket in the State of New York and in the year General Harrison was elected, he received the largest number of votes. General McAlpin was president of the Republican State League for three years, and was appointed by Gov. Levi P. Morton adjutant-general of this State June 1, 1895. The wife of Gen- eral McAlphin was a Miss Brandreth of Sing Sing.

JOHN R. VAN WORMER.

JOHN R. VAN WORMER is a member of an old Albany family, the original American ancestor of which was Henri Van Wormer, who, with a brother, came from Wormer, Holland, about 1655, and first settled in New Jersey, whence he moved to this locality. From here a member of the family removed to the Lake George region,

JOHN R. VAN WORMER.

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long prior to the Revolution, and there Abram Van Wormer, grandfather of John R., was born, his father Henry being a lieutenant in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war in a company of the 14th Albany County Regiment. Abram served in the War of 1812, on the Canadian frontier, and subsequently settled in Jefferson county, N. Y. He had a son Rufus, who married Eunice E. Bullock, of Trenton, Oneida county, N. Y., and they were the parents of the subject of this sketch.

John R. Van Wormer was born in Adams, Jefferson county, March 14, 1849, and received first a thorough preliminary education in the public schools of his native town. There he also attended the Hungerford Collegiate Institute, an academy of excellent reputation, and meanwhile learned telegraphing, a business he followed for many years in various places. In 1869 he became a member of the faculty of the Hungerford Institute, having charge of the military department until 1872, when he went to Oswego in the employ of the Western Union Telegraph Company. The same year he was made the Oswego correspondent of the New York Times, which supported General Grant for president as against Horace Greeley, the candidate of the Liberal Republicans and Democrats. Hon. De Witt C. Littlejohn, of Oswego, was an ardent partisan of Greeley's, and became a candidate for member of assembly in Oswego with a view to aiding the cause he espoused. He was defeated and Daniel G. Fort was elected. This episode terminated Littlejohn's public career. During that campaign he was also active on the stump, making political speeches which attracted wide attention. He had previously had, from youth up, considerable experience as a public speaker and debater, and his talents now formed a wider field as a campaign orator and correspondent.

Late in the year 1872 Mr. Van Wormer came to Albany (where he had spent much time since 1868) and remained here in the employ of the Western Union Telegraph Company until January, 1878, doing also considerable newspaper work and stump speaking and taking an active part in Republican politics. When Hon. George B. Sloane was elected speaker of the Assembly in 1876 Mr. Van Wormer became his private secretary. In the fall of 1877 he was appointed the Albany correspondent of the New York Evening Post, but in January following he resigned this position to become private secretary to U. S. Senator Roscoe Conkling and clerk of the Senate committee on commerce, of which Mr. Conkling was chairman. He filled these positions for about one year. Early in 1879 he was made chief clerk of correspond- ence in the New York post-office under Postmaster Thomas L. James, and in 1881, when the latter was appointed postmaster-general, he became his private sec- retary and soon afterward chief clerk of the post-office department at Washington. On January 1, 1882, Mr. James resigned and returned to New York with all the glory and distinction he had won in the famous Star route cases, which he had successfully carried through, and in the credit for doing which Mr. Van Wormer shared as the active executive officer of the Post-office Department during this trying period. Mr. Van Wormer returned also, and was made teller of the newly organized Lincoln National Bank, which commenced business January 12, 1882, in a build- ing opposite the Grand Central depot. This bank now has deposits aggregat- ing about $10,000,000. The Lincoln Safe Deposit Company was organized and in July, 1883, occupied the substantial building erected for the purpose at 32-38 East 42d street, New York city, and since then Mr. Van Wormer has been its secretary

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Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 70

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