Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 77

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

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Dr. Jones has won distinction in his profession because of an inflexible purpose, persistently carried out through years of effort, to acquire an exact and thorough knowledge of all the practical details of applied medicine. With industry and en- thusiasm he has never failed to avail himself of all the resources of standard litera- ture, and the best appliances for the diagnosis and treatment of disease, more par- ticulariy the diseases of the throat and chest, of which he makes a specialty. He is unmarried.

JOHN PALMER.

HON. JOHN PALMER, Secretary of state, is a son of John, who died in the Civil war in 1863. He was born of English parentage in Stapleton, Staten Island, N. Y., March 22, 1842, and in 1843 went with his parents to England, where he lived ten years, two of which were spent with his grandfather on the Black Sea, where he wit- nessed the siege of Sebastopol. He spent three years in a semi-military school near Liverpool and in 1853 returned with the family to America and learned the trade of fresco painting, meanwhile finishing his education at Bryant & Stratton's Business College in Albany September 10, 1861, he enlisted as private in Co. B, 91st N. Y. Vols., was commissioned captain March 1, 1865, and was mustered out with the reg- iment July 3, 1865, being brevetted captain N. Y. V. His first service was in the department of the Gulf, where he displayed great bravery at Port Hudson in the Red River campaign. He was afterward transferred to the Army of the Potomac and at Five Forks received injuries from a falling horse from which he has never recovered. In 1865 he resumed his trade as painter and frescoer, in Albany, which

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he has since followed. In 1866 he became a charter member of Lew Benedict Post No. 5, G. A. R., and in 1884-85 was department commander. He was elected com- mander in chief of the National Commandery of the G. A. R. in 1891, when he led a column of 60,000 veterans through the streets of Washington. He was prominent in the erection of the Soldiers' Home at Bath, N. Y., and is president of the Board of Trustees and has been indefatigable in promoting the interests of veterans of the war. He has always been an active Republican, casting his first vote for Lincoln in 1860, and in 1893 was unanimously nominated by his party for secretary of state and elected over Cord Meyer, Democrat, by 24,484 plurality. In 1895 he was re-elected to this high office over Horatio C. King by a majority of 90,146.

In 1867 Mr. Palmer married Maggie Moore of Albany and they have one daughter and three sons.

JOSEPH W. TILLINGHAST.

JOSEPH WILBER TILLINGHAST, son of William Tillinghast, was born in Albany, January, 1835, and descends from an old New England family. William Tillinghast, a native of Wickford, R. I., was for many years a well known business man of Albany, where he died in 1881. As a member of the firm of Wickes & Tillinghast, he was engaged in the manufacture of sperm oils, and individually he was a director in the National Commercial Bank. J. W. Tillinghast was educated in the Albany Academy, was a clerk for Wickes & Tillinghast from 1852 to 1870, and from time until 1886 was engaged in the malting business, as a member of the firm of Tweddle & Co. On June 24, 1868, he became a director in the Merchants National Bank of Albany ; on April 17, 1875, he was chosen vice-president ; and on May 1, 1880, he was elected president, which office he still holds. He is also a trustee of the Albany Savings Bank, a foundation member of the Fort Orange Club, and prominently con- nected with several other corporations and institutions. He is in every sense of the word a representative business man. In 1859 he married Miss Sarah, daughter of the late John Tweddle, one of Albany's most enterprising citizens. They have three children: Frederick, William and a daughter.

GEORGE N. BEST ..

GEORGE N. BESI, son of Thomas and Magdalene (Rosenberger) Best, was born in the province of Quebec, Canada, June 13, 1845. His parents were natives of the United States and moved to Canada to engage in farming. Mr. Best attended the public schools and at the age of seventeen moved to New York State, settling at Saratoga Springs. He worked on a farm one year and desiring to enter commercial life he availed himself of an opportunity to go into the lumber business. He made his home with his brother and engaged in transporting lumber from the western part of New York State to New York city. His abilities were soon recognized and war- ranted his filling, for several years, the position of foreman for C. D. & R. English,

GEORGE N. BEST.

THURLOW WEED BARNES.

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timber dealers and lumber forwarders. Subsequently, Mr. C. D. English died and Mr. Best entered into partnership with Mr. R. English. The name of the firm re- mained the same as it was before Mr. English's death. This firm carried on an ex . tensive business, doing government contract work on Lake Champlain and also en- gaging in the ice business. While connected with this work, Mr. Best made his home in Schuylerville for five years. In 1878 he moved to Castleton, N. Y., and English, Best, and a Mr. Washburn bought Campbell Island in the Hudson River opposite Cedar Hill. Here ice houses were erected and a large ice business was carried on. In 1881, English and Best bought the property on which Mr. Best now lives and erected a mammoth ice house on the bank of the Hudson. In 1884 Mr. Washburn sold out his interest in the island to English and Best, who thereupon formed a co- partnership. In 1887 this firm commenced doing business in New York city under the name of the Cedar Hill Ice Company. In 1890 Mr. English sold his interest in the ice business to a Mr. Sherman and a Mr. Carmen, who became partners with Mr. Best. In 1894 Mr. Best bought them out and continued the business alone. In Feb- ruary, 1896, he discontinued the New York business, having sold it to the Consolidated Ice Company, who contracted with him to purchase his ice for a term of years. Mr. Best is now enjoying a large, well paying basiness and lives in a palatial residence over- looking the Hudson River at Cedar Hill. He has twenty-five acres of land, used for gardening, and also owns considerable property in Saratoga county. He is president of the Albany and Castleton Ferry Company, and is an elder in the Reformed church of Bethlehem. October 15, 1867, he married Ursula Lockrow of Saratoga. They had one son, Harvey A., who managed the New York office and who died in 1894 in his twenty-sixth year.

GEORGE S. HASWELL, M. D.

DR. GEORGE S. HASWELL was born in 1868 and is a son of Isaac M. Haswell, who is a farmer. Dr. Haswell was graduated from the Troy High School in 1889, and then from the Albany Medical College in 1892. He began his practice in New York and then settled in Watervliet, where he has won the confidence of a large circle of people of his native town. Dr. Haswell, although so young, is a Mason of the Order of the Mystic Shrine and the Knights of the Ancient Essenie Order. He was elected coroner of Albany county in November, 1896. In 1893 he married Alice. daughter of Edward H. Wiswall, of Colonie, by whom he has one daughter, Mil- dred.

THURLOW WEED BARNES.

THE BLOW WEED BARNES is a lineal descendant in the seventh generation from Thomas Barnes, who came from England and distinguished himself in the Indian wars around Hartford, Conn., about 1630. On his mother's side he is descended from Nathan Weed, a Revolutionary soldier of Stamford, Conn., and the grand-

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father of Thurlow Weed, a soldier of the War of 1812. Mr. Weed was distinguished as the great Whig and Republican leader of New York and the life-long friend of William H. Seward. His services are well remembered as a member of the so-called political firm of Seward, Weed, and Greeley, and also in connection with the admin- istration of President Lincoln, who sent him to France and England in 1861 to avert the recognition by those countries of the Southern Confederacy.

Mr. Barnes is a son of William Barnes, sr., and Emily Weed, his wife, and was born in Albany, June 28, 1853. On graduating from Harvard University in 1876 he took an editorial position on the Albany Evening Journal, and soon afterward was elected president of the Young Men's Association of that city and also of the Albany County Republican Committee. He held the latter position two terms, and took an active part in politics and in the management of the newspaper, which was founded by his grandfather as a political organ in 1830. Mr. Barnes was one of the founders of the Fort Orange Club, in which he still retains his membership. He was active in the National Guard as a member of the 10th Regiment, and held the position of first lieutenant on the staff of Gen. Amasa J. Parker In 1886 Mr. Barnes took up his residence in Boston, Mass., where he lived for five years as a member of the well known publishing firm of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., his work in the firm being in the department of literary criticism.

Mr. Barnes has made extensive journeys, including a trip around the world, and has spent two winters in India. Soon after the death of his grandfather he wrote a Memoir of Thurlow Weed, which was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. He is the owner of the published works of William H. Seward that were originally edited by George E. Baker. Of late years Mr. Barnes has been a resident of New York city, where he is a member of the Republican County Committee and of the Harvard, Metropolitan, and other prominent social organizations. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at St. Louis in 1896.

HENRY LÜEKE.

THERE are few residents of the city of Albany of German birth and parentage who have done more for this city and whose name and memory will live longer than that of Henry Lieke. He was born in Brakel, Westphalia, Prussia, February 1, 1808, and is a son of George and Margaret Lieke. George Lieke was a custom tailor by trade and it must be borne in mind that the trade of his choice in those days de- manded more care and study and closer application than the same trade does to day. In the making of fine habits and uniforms George Lieke was looked upon as the leader in the town of Brakel. The first eleven years of Henry Lieke's life were not very promising. He was a sick boy during that time, but the tenderest care of his loving parents and the best medical attention overcame the ravishes of disease. When he became sufficiently strong he began his studies at the public school and con- tinued them until he was fourteen years of age. During those few years he was very attentive and ranked with the highest in his class, displaying both docility and ability, characteristics which went a great way toward forming a suitable founda-

HENRY LUEKE.

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tion for his later years. It was contrary at that time for those learning a trade in . Europe to travel about from one country to another. Henry Lueke chose his father's trade and in accordance with the custom above mentioned, he started at the early age of fifteen to thoroughly acquit himself for his trade. He traveled through Ger- many, Austria, Hungary and Poland, apprenticing himself to the best custom tailors, and then went to London to put the finishing touches on his education. While at London he learned how to make the most exquisite habits then in vogue, and the dazzling uniforms then used in the army and navy. But while preparing to earn a livelihood he did not forget to educate the other sides of his nature. He learned the English language and studied the customs of the people and in every way sought to ennoble his character. The styles of England were not the only ones he studied. During the three years spent in London he visited Paris and acquired the language and styles of dress there. He therefore had visited the three greatest cities for setting the style to the world-Berlin, London and Paris. With the knowi- edge of his business thus acquired Mr. Lieke felt competent to carry it on anywhere. America, to which many of his fellow-countrymen had gone and succeeded, appealed to Mr. Lieke as being the most desirable place to start in business. Consequently in 1837, he left London and sailed for the New World. He arrived at New York city and spent six years there following his favorite vocation. He did a magnificent business making uniforms for the army and navy officers and ladies' riding habits. In those days a New Yorker was not considered well dressed unless his suit was from Lieke's. In 1843 Mr. Lueke removed to Albany, N. Y., and located on Liberty street as a custom tailor. Subsequently he moved to South Pearl street shortly be- fore the war broke out. In 1848, at the time of the great fire, he lost almost every- hing, and again in the panic of 1857 he had considerable trouble, but despite these disas- ters his fine work brought him custom and he was able to recover his losses. April ?. 1871, he retired from business at the age of sixty-three with a substantial competence. He had friends by the score He was very saving, yet at the same time liberal in his gifts to the worthy distressed. He invested largely in real estate in Albany, the in- come from which now supports him. He is temperate in his habits, yet withal en- joys the good things of life which he has so hard earned. So strict was he in his business that when asked to go out for a few moments' enjoyment during business hours his answer always was, " No, I am expecting a customer." Mr. Lieke possesses a very strong constitution, and even to-day reads the daily paper by gaslight without glasses. He is actively identified with Holy Cross church and was its treasurer for

thirty-four years. He has never meddled in polities, but has always voted the Demo- cratie ticket and has been a subscriber to the Argus ever since he came to the city. He is at present a member of the board of trustees of St. Agnes Cemetery and is the only surviving member of the original board which was composed of sixteen mem- bers. In 1837, in New York city, Mr. Lieke married Miss Catharine W. Rodemeir. who was a schoolmate of his. In October, 1ss?, Mr. and Mrs. Lieke had the pleasure of celebrating their golden wedding. Mrs. Lieke died in December, 1890. Two daughters survive her, Adelaide, the wife of Rupert Spang of Syracuse, N. Y., and Gertrude, who ably manages her father's property. Mr. Lieke prefers his home and church to any club life and derives most of his enjoyment from reading history. He is a very fluent speaker on this, his favorite topic. He knows the history of U

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Europe thoroughly for the past two hundred years and prides himself on being able to trace the relationship between all the royal families.

SIMON W. ROSENDALE.

SIMON W. ROSENDALE was born in Albany in 1841, coming of a German family, and reads and speaks German fluently. His father, Sampson Rosendale, was a native of Bavaria, and his mother of Saxony. His parents came to this country in 1837, and made Albany their home. Mr. Rosendale was educated in one of the public schools and became a student of the Albany Academy and by his aptness for learning and geniality of his disposition and his successful application he gained the highest esteem of his teachers and classmates. In 1857 he entered the law office of Courtney & Cassidy, then an important legal firm, suspending his law studies to finish his general education in the halls of the Barre, Vt., Academy, from which he grad- uated in 1861, and on his return to Albany was admitted to the bar in 1862. Within a year he was appointed assistant district attorney of Albany, and rendered valuable aid to that office. In 1868 he was elected recorder by a large majority. He was ap- pointed by Mayor Nolan corporation counsel, resigning the office in 1882 on account of his extensive law practice. He has been a member of the law firm of Peckham, Rosendale & Hessberg, which upon the election to the Supreme Court of Hon. Rufus W. Peckham became and now remains the well known firm of Rosendale & Hess- berg. In 1884 he was again appointed corporation counsel by Mayor Banks. He is prominently identified with the legal and commercial interests of the State and with many local organizations, being a director of the National Commercial Bank, the National Savings Bank, the Albany Railway Company, the Albany Hospital, and was for years treasurer of the New York State Bar Association. He is also a trustee of the Albany Medical College (Union University). He has long been a representa- tive of his people, willing to give his time, talents and money in aid of Jewish char- itable and religious interests, and has been identified with many movements in prominent organizations connected with Judaism. He was for many years promi- nently identified with the order of Benai Berith, and for ten years the president of its National Court of Appeals. He has presided over the convention of the United He- brew Congregations of America, and is a member of its National Executive Com- mittee. He is a member of the executive committee of the Jewish Publication Soci- ety of America, and presided at its initial meeting in Philadelphia. He is also vice- president of the recently organized American Jewish Historical Society.

In 1891 he was nominated by the Democratic State Convention for attorney gen- eral of the State of New York, on the same ticket with Governor Flower, and was elected by a very flattering majority. He is now engaged in the practice of the law. In the discharge of the manifold and arduous duties of attorney-general, it may at least be said that Mr. Rosendale's administration was successful and met with public approval.

GEORGE A. HOUSE.

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GEORGE A. HOUSE.

GEORGE A. HOUSE, well known in both business and political circles, is one of the most enterprising men of Cohoes, his native city. After graduating from the High School in 1870, he at once accepted a position with H. R. Grant & Co., in the hard- ware trade. In connection with his duties in the store he acquired a knowledge of telegraphy. On the dissolution of this firm he was appointed manager of the West- ern Union Telegraph office at Cohoes, which position he held until 1883. In that year he resigned and became the Cohoes representative of Samuel Blaisdell, jr., & Co., cotton and wool dealers, Chicopee, Mass. Almost immediately perceiving the necessity of a warehouse in Cohoes he perfected his plans and then forming a co- partnership with C. M. Blaisdell, a member of the firm of S. Blaisdell, jr., & Co., carried the new venture to a successful issue. In 1894 C. M. Blaisdell disposed of his interest to his wife, Mr. House retaining his equal position. In 1895 Mr. House individually built the Younglove Avenue Warehouse. Mr. House is a very influential political leader, standing unswervingly in the Republican party. He has served as fire commissioner, filling the vacancy caused by the death of the Hon. D. J. John- ston, general superintendent of the Harmony Mills. He is a member of Cohoes Lodge No. 116, F. & A. M., life member of Cohoes Chapter, R. A. M., life member of Bloss Council of Troy. R. and S. M., past orator of Royal Arcanum, past grand Cohoes Lodge. I. O. O. F., member of Cohoes Business Men's Association, member of Cohoes City Club, and Pafraets Dael Club of Troy.

He was born in 1853 of Holland ancestry and was the son of Moses House, who came here as early as 1850, a shoemaker by trade. He was also a private banker and real estate dealer.

WINFIELD S. HEVENOR.

WINFIELD S. HEVENOR (of the firm of Van Alstyne & Hevenor) is the eldest son of Robert D. Hevenor and Eliza C. Folger, his wife, and was born at Rhinebeck, N. Y., June 24. 1831. On his father's side he is a lineal descendant from some of the earliest German settlers of Dutchess, Columbia and Ulster counties, and of the mountainous regions of Pennsylvania and Virginia; on the side of his mother he is a descendant from Peter Folger, the brother of the mother of Benjamin Franklin, and also from one of the original Van Loons, who were among the earliest and most prominent settlers of Greene county, N. Y., and from whom the present village of Athens took its ancient name of Loonenberg. Mr. Hevenor was educated in the common schools of the town, and at Rhinebeck Academy, under the instruction of Professors Bell. Marcy, Dow, Schuyler, Smith and Covert, all foremost, in their time, among the educators of Dutchess county. No academy in the State, in those days, turned out better scholars than did Rhinebeck Academy; and many of the young men educated there have become prominent in professional and business life. and in the military service of the country. At the age of sixteen Mr. Hevenor had been fitted in the ordinary English branches, in higher mathematics and the

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Sciences as then taught, as well as in Latin and Greek, to compete creditably with many graduates of the colleges of the day, and under the tuition of Mr. Covert especially, had acquired a taste for, and a knowledge of, the rules of composition and declamation, which have since proven of great value and assistance to him. Thus equipped, and determining to waive the opportunity offered him by his father and friends to proceed with an advanced college education, he commenced, and for two years was engaged in, teaching common schools in the neighborhood of his birthplace; and then, in September, 1849, upon the urgent solicitation of his old schoolmate, Hon. George Wolford (formerly county judge of Albany county, and afterwards deputy superintendent of insurance), he came to Albany and took up the study of law with Messrs. Tabor & Joyce, and continued his studies with them, and with Messrs. Learned & Wilson, until he was admitted to practice in September, 1852. During his studentship with the latter firm he was also an attentive member of the first class of the Albany Law School (now merged in the Law Department of the University of Albany), under the instructions of Hon. Ira Harris, Hon. Amasa J. Parker and Amos Dean, esq., the founders and first professors of that now noted school; and he refers with conscious pride to the fact that the recommendation for his admission to practice as a lawyer bears the signatures of those eminent men. Mr. Hevenor's life, since his admission to practice, has been an active and busy one. professionally and otherwise. He served as assistant district attorney of Albany county under Hon. Andrew J. Colvin and Hon. Samuel G. Courtney during their respective terms as district attorney ; afterwards filled one term as justice of the peace of the town of North Greenbush ; was three years a member of the Board of Education of Union Free School District No. 6 of that town, serving one year each as clerk and president of the board; was afterwards for two years president of Bath- on-the-Hudson, and for several years served as attorney for the village of Green- bush. This constitutes his official life. In each position he was faithful, energetic and competent, and met the approval of the public. In the spring of 1858 Mr. Hevenor, after having been a partner of Mr. Colvin for several years, entered into copartnership with Hon. Thomas J. Van Alstyne (afterwards county judge of Albany county, and later a member of congress from the Albany district), under the firm name of Van Alstyne & Hevenor. The firm located in Douw's building, in Albany, and has ever since continued, as a firm, in the practice of law in the same building. It is now the oldest unbroken law or business firm in the city of Albany, and prob- ably the oldest in the State. Messrs. Van Alstyne and Hevenor are the oldest sur- viving tenants of the building. Their practice has been large, varied and usually successful. In 1878 Mr. Hevenor married Christina Pottenburgh, eldest daughter of Capt. Henry Pottenburgh, who for many years was connected with the Old Night Watch, and afterwards with the uniformed police of the city of Albany. Four daughters are living, born of this marriage, to wit: Mrs. Maria Folger Colman, wife of Rev. Charles Colman, Baptist clergyman, of Germantown, Pa .; Mrs. Nancy Eliza, wife of Dr. J. Wilton Barlow, of Brooklyn, N. Y .; Ina Van Alstyne, unmar- ried; and Mrs. Robertina L. Leech, artist, widow of the late Samuel D. Leech, journalist; the latter two children are now residing with their parents. The only son of the marriage, Robert Henry Hevenor, who died in early childhood, had he lived till this time, would have been about thirty-three years of age. Although Mr.

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M :. Thacher began his public career in 1883, when he was elected to the State Senate Trom Albany county, and during his term of office was an active supporter of ali labor measures. Since that time Mr. Thacher has been constantly in the public eye as a politician, having taken the stump during both of the Cleveland campaigns. He conducted the Albany bi-centennial with great success, and in 1895 became mayor of the city of Albany, of which office he is now the incumbent.

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Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 77

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