Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 72

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

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Albert P. Stevens, his son, came to Albany in October, 1853, and took a position as clerk in the Albany Exchange Bank, then in the second story of the Exchange building, on Broadway and State streets, where the present post-office building stands. He was connected with several banks in the city until 1869, when he be- came secretary and treasurer of the National Savings Bank at the organization of that institution. He has continuously held these positions ever since. He is prom- inent in religious and charitable organizations and is a member of both the board of trustees and the board of directors of the Young Men's Christian Association, and was the president for four years. He was treasurer of the Albany City Tract and Missionary Society for many years, and was treasurer of the Albany County Bible Society for nearly twenty years and is now its president. He is a member of the First Presbyterian church and one of its trustees, is treasurer of the Presbytery of Albany, member of the permanent committee on synodical aid of the Synod of New York, and a member of the Fort Orange Club.

December 30, 1856, he married Emma Henrietta, daughter of the late Thomas McMullen, a prominent citizen of Albany; she died February 12, 1891, and they had three sons and two daughters, of whom two sons, Clarence W. and Frederic B., are living.

VERPLANCK COLVIN.

VERPLANCK COLVIN was born in Albany, N. Y., January 4, 1847. His first name is derived from the family of his father's mother, one of the oldest families of Albany county of ancient Dutch lineage, while his family name is of the oldest English origin, though his paternal great-grandfather came to this country from Scotland. John Colvin was this paternal great-grandfather. He was born in Scot- land in 1752, settling at Nine Partners, Dutchess county, in 1772, where he married Sarah Fuller (descendant of one of the Fullers who came over on the Mayflower) in 1774, and subsequently removing to Coeymans, Albany county, he purchased a farm. In 1810 he was chosen a member of the State Assembly. Johannes Verplanck, also a great-grandfather of Verplanck Colvin, was a descendant of Abraham Verplanck,

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who came from Holland when there were only fifteen houses in the present city of New York, and was commander of Dutch forces there under Governor Kieft in the war with the Indians. It was in the house of the Verplancks at Fishkill that the Society of the Cincinnati was formed. Verplanck Colvin's father, Hon. Andrew J. Colvin, studied law in the office of Martin Van Buren and Benjamin F. Butler, and was corporation counsel of the city of Albany; district attorney of the county, and State senator. In 1861 he was the first State senator to speak for the defence of the Union and was chosen by the New York Legislature to be president of the joint assembly receiving Abraham Lincoln, the. president-elect.

Andrew J. Colvin married as his second wife Margaret Crane Alling, daughter of Prudden Alling and Maria Halsey Alling. of Newark, N. J. It was at the residence of Col. John Ford, unele of Maria Halsey Alling, that Gen. George Washington, by invitation, made his headquarters in Morristown, N. J., during the Revolution, and John Alling, of Col. J. Baldwin's Regiment of the Continental army and great- grandfather of Prudden Alling, in another regiment (of whom Mr. Colvin is a lineal descendant), assisted in the defence of the city of Newark, fighting face to face with the British. General Prudden and General Ebenezer Foote, who were personal friends of General Washington, were also relatives of Mr. Colvin's mother.

Verplanck Colvin attended the Albany Academy and subsequently studied law in his father's office, practicing in the minor courts and was successful in all the cases entrusted to him. The law, however, did not please him, as he was mathe- matically inclined and preferred scientific research and engineering; and, in 1865, he began those scientific explorations of the then unknown Adirondack wilderness which became of such importance. In winters he gave more attention to scientific study and in 1868 organized a very successful course of free scientific lectures in the State Geological Hall at Albany. In 1869 he made a careful study of the topography and geology of the Helderberg mountains and published a description of that region in Harper's Magazine. In 1870 he explored the Cough-sa-gra-ge, or Dismal Wilder- ness of the Indians, and made the first known ascent and measurement of Mt. Seward and other high peaks; and during the winter of this year he traveled exten- sively in the Southern States. In 1871 he made the journey across the great plains of the far West, passing through Chicago the day before the great fire, and crossing Kansas in the midst of the herds of innumerable buffalo. In Colorado he studied the geology and mineralogy of the gold and silver mining districts and ascended the highest peaks of the Snowy Range, returning through the Black Hills, Wyoming and Nebraska. Subsequently he wrote and illustrated an article for Harper's Mag- azine which he entitled the "Dome of the Continent," and from this article arose the name of "Dome State" for Colorado. In acknowledgment of his Colorado ex- plorations Mr. Colvin was elected an honorary member of the Rocky Mountain Club of Denver, an appointment only conferred upon a few of the explorers of the high snowy ranges of the Rocky Mountains, being associated with Gen. Philip Sheridan in this honor.

In 1872, recognizing the need of a careful survey of New York, for the preserva- tion of its land boundaries and forests protecting the water supply, Mr. Colvin went before the Legislature and succeeded in having made the first appropriation for the State survey in the Adirondack region, and he thus was the first to make any tri- angulation of New York under the authority of the State government. He this

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year traced the Hudson River to its highest pond-source, Lake Tear-of-the-Clouds, which he was the first to visit, geographically locate, name and describe. This is now accepted as the true source of the Hudson River. In this year, also, Mr. Colvin was the first to suggest to the Legislature the construction of an aqueduct from the upper Hudson in the Adirondacks as a source of water supply for New York city and the cities of the Hudson valley. From this time Mr. Colvin has continued in the employment of the State as superintendent of this survey.

In 1873 he was appointed one of the commissioners of State Parks, Gov. Horatio Seymour being president thereof, and Mr. Colvin having been the first to recom- mend to the Legislature the Adirondack Park as a forest preserve in a previous report made to the Regents of the State University. During this year Mr. Colvin extended the exploration of the wilderness over great areas in the western uncx- plored section : but, in 1874, the work almost ceased, on account of the financial panic.

In 1875 the surveys were continued, Mr. Colvin personally making the first truc measurement of Mt Marcy, the highest mountain peak in the State of New York, with leveling observations on a rod read by vernier to the thousandth part of a foot. In 1876 larger appropriations were made and the work continued. During all the years following, he has sustained a reputation second to none for careful and systematic engineering and surveying, and his services have been of great value to the State and science at large.

In 1881 he was engaged by the faculty of Hamilton College to lecture on higher surveying and Geodetic Engineering, but on completing his first course of lectures retired from this work, finding teaching to be a monotonous employment.

In 1882 he was chosen one of the New York State delegates, with the then Gover- nor Cornell, to attend the first American Forestry Congress, where Mr. Colvin read one of the most important papers

In 1883 a law was passed by which he was given full charge of the New York State Land Survey.

In 1888, when the ten and twelve-inch cannon for the coast defense of the United States were ordered by the government, Mr. Colvin showed, in a clearly written paper, that Albany was the one unconquered State Capital of the United States, and hence, probably the most secure location for the new gun foundries was at the Watervliet Arsenal near Albany. The United States Congress adopted Mr. Colvin's views as conclusive, and he was called into consultation by the ordnance officers of the U. S. A. and was present at the assembling of the first great gun at said arsenal by special invitation. The Burgesses Corps of Albany, in recognition of Mr. Colvin's services in urging the location of the gun foundry near Albany, presented him with a sword which Mr. Colvin justly prizes.

Mr. Colvin is a member of many scientific societies. He is president of the Albany Institute, perhaps the oldest scientific and literary society in New York if not in the United States, having held its sessions while the British flag yet floated over the fort at Oswego, and this society having had as its first president Robert R. Livings- ton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and of the committee which drew that memorable document. Gen. Simeon De Witt, chief engineer on the staff of General Washington, Prof. Joseph Henry, the first to send telegraphic . signals by electricity, Mr. Bloodgood, to whom Ericsson the builder of the Monitor

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attributed the invention of the revolving iron clad turret, the Van Rensselaers, Pruyns, etc., were former officers of the Institute.

Mr. Colvin is a life member of the American Geographical Society and of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and honorary member of the Club Alpine Francais of Paris, through his membership in the Rocky Mountain Club, honorary member of the Adirondack Club, a foundation member of the Fortnightly Club. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an hon- orary member of the British Society for the Advancement of Science of London, Eng- land, a corresponding member of the Appalachian Mountain Club of Boston, Mass., honorary president of the Adirondack Guides Association, etc., as the chief employer of the guides. His numerous reports to the Legislature are an authority on the questions with which they deal. He has delivered numerous lectures and written many papers on scientific subjects, engineering, astronomy, geology, chemistry and physics, besides articles in the magazines. His portable boat for explorations, his improvement in telescopes and his recent discovery of a method of securing the mean temperature of the atmosphere independently of thermometer, by observation of the velocity of sound, were notable discoveries.

In 1891 Mr. Colvin was nominated for the office of State engineer and surveyor receiving 538,000 votes and running 4,000 ahead of his ticket.

In 1893 Mr. Colvin represented the State of New York in the reception of the Duke and Dutchess of Veragua, the descendants of Columbus, enjoying the pleasant expe- riences of traveling with them among the mountains and lakes of this State, and was given a dinner at the Hotel Waldorf in New York by the duke and duchess, on the evening of the departure of the distinguished descendants of the discoverer of Amer- ica for Europe, Col. J. V. L. Pruyn, of the Governor's staff being the only other guest on this occasion.

In 1895 Mr. Colvin was reappointed superintendent of the State Land Survey, an office which he still holds, and in which he is given special power and authority to locate the boundaries of lands, especially of the great counties, towns and townships, his decisions being prima-facie evidence in the courts.

Mr. Colvin has never been married.

LUTHER TUCKER.

LUTHER TUCKER was born in Brandon, Vt., May 1, 1802. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to Timothy C. Strong, a printer of Middlebury. Mr. Strong re- moved to Palmyra, N. Y., in 1817 and took the young man with him, but they did not remain long together, the separation coming two years later, before Mr. Tucker had quite finished his apprenticeship. Mr. Tucker then started out for himself and in the prosecution of his work, visited, during five succeeding years, various points in the North and East, and the cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and New York. In the spring of 1825 he entered into partnership at Jamaica, Long Island, with Henry C. Sleight, whose business was chiefly the publication of standard works for New York houses. Some of the volumes then published are now in the posses- sion of his sons, bearing the imprint of Sleight & Tucker. In 1823 Mr. Tucker had

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passed through Rochester, N. Y., and although the place was then very small, he was much impressed with the location. Hle witnessed there the first crossing on the aqueduct, over the Genesee, of the Erie Canal. When looking for a wider field than that at Jamaica, he went to Rochester and at the early age of twenty-four he began the publication of the Rochester Advertiser, the first daily newspaper established on this continent west of the city of Albany. Its first number appeared October 27. 1826, and it at once attracted attention. January 1, 1831, he established the Genesee Farmer, while still continuing the Daily Advertiser. The circulation of the Genesee Farmer rapidly increased, notwithstanding the establishment of the Cultivator at Albany, by Judge Buel, under the auspices of the State Agricultural Society in 1834. Mr. Tucker's paper had the larger circulation of the two. In 1839, after purchasing a farm near Rochester, he sold the daily paper, which still exists as one of the lead- ing journals of Western New York, under the name of the Rochester Union and Adver- tiser. Mr. Tucker then intended that farming and the publication of the Farmer should occupy all his time, but before a single season, Judge Buel's death at Albany left the Cultivator without a head and Mr. Tucker was induced to combine the two papers. The number of the paper for January, 1840, was published from Albany and bore the title of " The Cultivator; a consolidation of Buel's Cultivator and the Genesee Farmer." The publication is still continued by one of his sons and a grand- son, under the old firm name, Luther Tucker & Son, the paper (now called "The Cultivator and Country Gentleman") being very much the oldest agricultural period- ical of any class in this country. Mr. Tucker died of pneumonia, Sunday, January 26, 1873.

LUTHER H. TUCKER.

LUTHER HENRY TUCKER, son of Luther and Mary (Sparhawk) Tucker, was born in Rochester, N. Y., October 19, 1834. His parents were of English descent and New England birth and ancestry dating back into the seventeenth century. At the time of his birth his father was engaged in the publication of the Rochester Daily Adver- tiser (a journal still widely popular and influential in this, its seventy first year) and of the Genesee Farmer, both which papers he founded, the Advertiser being the first daily established west of Albany and the Farmer the first really practical agricultural weekly in the world. The death of Judge Buel of Albany, conductor of the Cultivator, which occurred in 1839, gave Luther Tucker the opportunity of acquir- ing that paper and the good will of the New York State Agricultural Society, of which body the Cultivator was regarded as in some sense the organ; and he estab- lished himself at Albany, bringing his family with him, in time to consolidate his new purchase with the Genesee Farmer for the first issue of the year 1840, calling the remodeled journal by the broader name. Here his son began school life, study- ing at the Albany Academy and one or two smaller institutions, and entering the sophomore class at Yale College before he had reached his eighteenth birthday. Although obliged to leave his college course unfinished, he took high junior honors, became eligible to election to the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and the faculty granted him the honorary degree of A. M. with the rest of his class.

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The premature return from college seemed to be necessitated by the state of affairs at home. When, in addition to the monthly Cultivator, Luther Tucker started an agricultural weekly, the Country Gentleman, he was not successful in securing for the business management of the venture such assistance as he shortly found to be absolutely needful. He had himself little aptitude and less liking for business details and financial plans. The son appreciated the situation and felt there was just one course for him to pursue-abandon his studies and thoughts of a strictly professional career and lend his aid to the management of the papers. So he left college in the middle of junior year and took charge, in January, 1854, of the financial side of his father's affairs, becoming, December 1, 1855, a partner in the firm of Luther Tucker & Son. And it was chiefly owing to his efforts that the new paper, the Country Gentleman (with which the Cultivator was finally merged), proved a financial success.

During the following thirty years he devoted himself to the paper with unremitting energy, assuming at the death of his father in 1873 the editorial as well as the busi- ness management. In the beginning he taught himself bookkeeping by the rapid absorption of the contents of one or two manuals of the art that happened to be at hand, and ultimately devised a special system of accounts for his special needs which has proved in the highest degree satisfactory, though probably quite unlike anything in use anywhere. And every department of the business came under his scrutiny and largely into his personal care. Economies were rapidly effected, the circulation of the papers was pushed by every means then known, order was brought out of chaos, and business prosperity began.

But he also early entered into the editorial part of the work, and found himself equally successful in this sphere, and fast winning wide reputation. In the summer of 1859, after seeing what he could, in brief visits here and there, of the best Ameri- can farming, he spent some months in Europe (agricultural operations in this coun- try being at that time modeled on foreign practice after a fashion hardly conceivable by the present younger generation of American farmers) and detailed his observa- tions, first in letters to the Country Gentleman, and afterwards in a contribution to the nineteenth volume of the "Transactions of the State Agricultural Society," and in a series of lectures on English agriculture in a course of agricultural instruction at New Haven (delivered in 1860) which attracted wide attention and aided ma- terially in the subsequent development of the Sheffield Scientific School. It has seemed surprising that he was able to collect, in so short a time, and particularly in countries like France and Germany, whose languages he was compelled to ac- quire by periods of study that most persons would consider utterly inadequate- such a wealth of the practical and accurate information on agricultural practice for which the trip was undertaken, selecting with rare judgment the points most likely to be useful in the United States.

Of other literary work, outside of that constantly done in the office of the Country Gentleman, Mr. Tucker preserved no record, being absolutely careless of his reputa- tion as a writer and speaker, and keeping no copies of a number of lectures and essays of his that were at one time and another printed. In 1865, at the time when Congress distributed the public land fund for the establishment of colleges of agri- culture and the mechanic arts, Rutgers College at New Brunswick, N. J., received its share, and Mr. Tucker was appointed professor of agriculture in the first arrange-

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ment of the faculty and delivered a full course of lectures. He was compelled to resign his chair, however, at the completion of his course because of more pressing duties at home.

In 1858 Mr. Tucker was elected treasurer of the State Agricultural Society (as had been his father, ten years before), and entered at once actively into the management of that body. He brought to official duty the same habits of unbounded energy, scrupulous accuracy, and the constant aiming at improvement and expansion, that characterized his operations as a publisher; and the rapid increase in the financial resources of the society which followed his election was certainly due in considerable part to the good management of the treasurer's office and to the sound judgment of the treasurer himself in the councils of the governing board. He resigned this office on the death of his father in 1873, when he became senior member of the firm (the original title remaining unaltered), that occurrence throwing upon him the heavy burden of the editorship in chief of the paper and adding greatly to his responsibili- ties. The executive committee accepted the resignation s'with great reluctance," according to a minute made at the time, adding that the office had been filled by him "most acceptably and efficiently."

So passed thirty active and successful years-years however in which there was at first no opportunity, and afterwards but little thought, of recreation or pleasure. He did, it is true, make two or three flying visits to warmer climes like Florida and Cuba to escape the opening of our northern spring, and he took occasionally a few days at the seashore and the springs in summer. But for the most part he was per- petually at his post.

In the autumn of 1884, however, when he had just passed his fiftieth birthday, this unremitting application began to tell. A heavy cold, neglected at first, refused after- ward to yield to treatment, and brought about a condition of general malaise that rendered exertion of any kind most irksome; and at last, one gloomy day toward the close of the year-a busy day it was, too, when the editor-in-chief had his hands and his head especially full-he found himself absolutely unable to go on, and left the office for rest and medical advice, expecting that a few days at home would make him all right again.

But his condition had become so serious that a winter in Nassau was necessary, and even this did not restore his former health. The following winter (1886) was spent in Bermuda, and from January to June, 1887, he traveled in Southern Europe and Great Britain. For some years following shorter trips were taken; another foreign tour in 1895. So although these years were shadowed by semi-invalidism, there were great alleviations in the larger leisure and opportunities for travel and observation. His life, in short, seemed enviable, and would have been so indeed, had he succeeded in recovering completely his lost health. But this was not to be. A complication of disorders caused him trouble, and gave anxiety to those who loved him, -sometimes more, and sometimes less, but never entirely absent after the first break down. Toward the end of February, 1897, the symptoms of acute Bright's disease suddenly developed, and ou Tuesday, February 23, he passed away peace- fully and painlessly.

Mr. Tucker was one of the trustees of the Albany Savings Bank, treasurer of the board of trustees of the Albany College of Pharmacy, and a vestryman of St. Peter's church.

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November 28, 1865, at St, George's Manor, L. I., Mr. Tucker was married to Cor- nelia Strong Vail, daughter of Harvey Wentworth Vail and Anne Udall Vail of Islip, L. I. His wife survives him and four children, Luther Henry, jr., Cornelia, Wentworth and Carll.

The following are among the resolutions passed at Mr. Tucker's death by the various bodies with which he was connected :

At a special meeting of the board of trustees of the Albany Savings Bank, called to take action in regard to the death of Luther HI. Tucker, the following minute was adopted :

The associates of Luther H. Tucker, who for nearly fourteen years has been a trustee of this bank, desire to express their sincere sorrow for the loss of one who has so long and so ably as- sisted in the management of this institution, and to bear testimony to the faithfulness with which he has met the responsibilities of the position.

While unobtrusive in manner, he was always firm in his advocacy of every measure which he believed would subserve the best interests of the depositors, and his associates felt that they could depend upon him for advice and council whenever needed.

To his family, so sadly bereaved, they extend their sympathy in this hour of trial, and as a manifestation of their respect will attend his funeral in a body.

At a meeting of the vestry of St. Peter's church, Albany, February 28, 1897, an entry was directed on the minutes of the board, in respect to the death of the late Luther H. Tucker, as follows:

The rector, wardens and vestrymen of St. Peter's church have received with profound sorrow the announcement of the death of their friend and associate, Luther H. Tucker. They deeply mourn, in this event, the loss of a trusted and greatly esteemed officer of the church, and of a fel- low citizen of rare attainments, widely extended influence and estimable life and character, and they direct that the following brief record of his earthly career shall be entered in their minutes, transmitted to his family, and given to the press for publication.

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Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 72

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