Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 105

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1410

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an open court, every room being well ventilaled. It has sample and reading rooms, and the famous Deep Rock spring is under the hotel, the water being free to guests. It is the largest hotel in Northern New York.

Condé, Frederic, was born in this county November 14, 1855, a son of Henry S., born in Saratoga county, who died in Oswego, aged sixty-nine, and of Dorcas A. Peckham, born in Connecticut, who died in Oswego aged seventy-five. Frederic was educated first in Oswego, then attended Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass., then returned to Oswego and entered the factory of H. S. Condé & Son, the firm being composed of the father, son, and eldest brother, and on the death of the father the brother and mother continued the business. Frederic then went to New Mexico, where he remained ten years. He returned to Oswego in January, 1891, and orga- nized and started the manufacturing plant of which he is sole proprietor. This plant is located on the east bank of the river, being a substantial four-story structure, 80 by 100 feet, and equipped with the latest machinery obtainable, water power being used. They employ 200 operatives constantly, their goods being consigned to New York commission dealers, whence they find their way to all parts of the State and country. Mr. Condé is a man of strict integrity and great business ability and energy.

Wallace, Joseph A., of Scotch ancestry, was born in Oswego, March 24, 1861, a son of Joseph, born in Aberdeen, Scotland, who died in Oswego, aged fifty-six. The latter married Martha Griffith, a native of Ireland, who survives him. Joseph A. was educated in the public schools, and assisted his father, who was the first bill poster of Oswego, having begun in 1853, and the son has continued the business ever since his father's death, in 1876. He controls the entire licensed city bill posting business, owning bill boards and having leases covering all desirable vacant places in town. He has also been engaged in various other occupations, among them being the roofing business, and the tobacco and cigar trade. He was also manager of the Academy of Music of this city until the closing of that house, in December, 1892, and upon the erection of the Richardson Theatre in 1894, accepted the management of that palace of play houses, and still continues in that position. He is a member of the Masonic Fraternity.

Parmelee, Seymour, long a prominent builder of Fulton, where he has lived for over sixty years, was born at Volney Centre, in 1832. William Parmelee, his father, moved to Fulton about 1833, and in 1835 built and operated the first machine shop in the place. He was one of the pillars of the M. E. Church. He was very active in the choir, and was the first to introduce instrumental music, to the great annoyance of some of the more conservative members. He died in 1844. Seymour is very highly esteemed in Fulton and wherever known as a citizen of worth and character. In the Masonic fraternity he has reached the topmost round. He has passed through the chair in both lodge and chapter, which are all the Masonic bodies in Fulton. He holds various positions in town and village affairs. He was married in 1856 to C. Minerva Cummings, of Palermo, who died after a little more than two years of married life. The present Mrs. Parmelee was Lucy M. Cummings, a sister of the former wife.

Wilson, Francis M., was born in Lee, Berkshire county, Mass., in 1825, and was the son of John and Delia Wilson. When Francis was but a child his mother died, after which he came to live with his sister at Palermo. When a young man our sub-

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ject went on a whaling voyage and was in California at the beginning of the gold excitement. He subsequently made two other voyages and became first mate of the vessel. He next bought a boat and afterward followed the canal for about twenty- five years, then he sold out and for a while lived on a farm in Granby. About two years later he went again on the canal, but later located at Fulton, and has since been identified with local business interests. He has been in the coal business since 1881. He has been village president, street commissioner, foreman of the State scow, and division superintendent of the canal. He married Flavilla Church, by whom he had three children, ida, who married W. J. Watson; Carrie, wife of Frank Blanchard; and Francis M., jr., deceased.

Wart Family, The .- It was not until the spring of 1812 that the forests of Boylston rang with the woodman's axe, it being the last town in the county to be settled except Albion, which was occupied the same year. The first pioneers of Boylston were John Wart. of Cherry Valley, and Michael Sweetman, of Montgomery county, who, un- known to each other, came by the inevitable ox sled conveyance of that era about the same time. Mr. Wart, however, arrived two days the earlier, and was conse- quently the very first settler of Boylston. Wart and Sweetman both located in the northwestern part of the present town of Boylston, which was then a part of Richland. It was more particularly designated as survey township No. 6 of the Boylston tract, and on the survey maps it was also called Campania. Mr. Sweetman built his cabin where the present residence of Norman Wart stands, and Mr. Wart established him- self half a mile further east. It was two miles to another house in Lorraine, and a like distance west into Ellisburg; to the south nearly ten miles of forest lay between the two hardy pioneers and the settlement of Orwell; while on the east the oaks and hemlocks stretched in an unbroken mass to the distant valley of the Black River. In 1815 there was a heavy immigration consisting of four families, namely: Peter Wells, Martin Lillie, John F. Dean and Asa B. Copeland. They settled where North Boyl- ston church (M. P.) now stands. Morris Wart, a younger brother of John, came in 1816, living with the latter a while and then locating in 1818 in the town of Lorraine. In 1830 he located in the northwest corner of Boylston, adding to his purchase at various times until he had 300 acres. His wife was Phoebe Hall, of Royal Grant, Oneida county, by whom he had two sons and one daughter: Frances Ann, James P. and O. Norman. The mother died in 1838, and Morris married Betsey Bargey, by whom he had three sons and one daughter: Phebe M., Peter V., Alfred B. and Jere- miah. She died in 1881. Mr. Wart served a number of years as assessor and was also poormaster. He was a member of the Mannsville Baptist church. He died in 1882. Three of his children, Frances, James P. and Alfred are in Michigan. O. Norman Wart was born July 18, 1835, in the town of Boylston. He married Elsie Ann, daughter of Stephen Draper, born August 22, 1840, in the town of Orwell, and has two children: Clarence H., born May 11, 1873; and Clara V., born Mày 21, 1876, both of whom are teaching school. He has a farm of 100 acres devoted to general farming, and has served as assessor three years. He and family are members of the Mannsville Baptist church. It is related that about 1850, this part being settled mostly by Warts, there were in the district school at one time twenty-five children of that name.

Morrow, Nelson, was born in Ontario, December 15, 1860, and came to Oswego

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when three years of age. His father was Robert T., and his maternal grandfather was a soldier in Canada at the Fenian uprising. Nelson was educated in the com- mon schools and at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., graduating in the class of 1883. He learned the machinist's trade, and later worked for the Pennsylvania Rail- road Company, but on the death of his father returned to Oswego and assumed the management of a lumber, coal and insurance business. June 3, 1885, he married Laura J., daughter of Benjamin Doolittle, of Oswego, and they have two children: Laura, born March 3, 1892, died January 26, 1893; and Nelson -Doolittle, born Feb- ruary 9, 1893. Mr. Morrow is manager of the deep Rock Spring, located in Oswego on the bank of the Oswego River, and which is drawn from a depth of 115 feet. The capacity of the well has equaled 4,500 gallons per day. These waters are shipped to all parts of the United States and Canada, being shipped to dealers, who bottle and supply the local trade. It is shipped also to Great Britain and Cuba, the annual out- put being 4,000 barrels. Eminent physicians declare these waters to be equal to any mineral spring in existence.

Haviland, Norman H., M. D., was born in West Hoosick, Rensselaer county, October 6, 1844, and is of the ninth generation from William Haviland, a pioneer of Newport, R. I., in 1667, another descendant of whom was Dr. Ebenezer Haviland, a prominent surgeon of the Revolution. The present doctor is the youngest of the four sons of Garrison and Aurilla (Chapman) Haviland. His childhood was spent upon his father's farm of 360 acres, at West Hoosick, and here he was educated at the district school. He afterward continued his studies at the Wallace private school at Hoosick Falls and then completed his preliminary education at the Folsome school finishing there in the spring of 1866. He spent the next two years upon his father's farm, of which he assumed the whole management. During 1868 he began the study of medicine with Dr. Carpenter, of Troy, and later studied with Dr. E. J. March, of Hastings. He then took two courses of lectures at the Eclectic Medical College of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, from which institution he received the degree of M. D., March 14, 1872. Entering the office of Dr. I. B. Earl, of Syracuse, he practiced during the summer of 1872 and in October entered the Homeopathic Hospital College, of Cleveland, now known as the Cleveland University of Medicine and Sur- gery, from which he graduated in 1873. In 1872 he married Nettie B., daughter of Thomas Newman, of Granby Center, a Methodist minister of the New York Confer- ence. He settled in Spencertown, N. Y., where he soon had an extensive practice and where his son, Clarence Floyd, was born. The latter is at present a medical student at Syracuse University. In the spring of 1876 Dr. Haviland removed to Fulton, where he has since resided and practiced. In 1880 his second son, Frank Ross, was born, who is at present attending school at Fulton Academy and already shows considerable ability as an artist and also as an athlete. Dr. Haviland became a member of the Oswego County Medical Society in 1876 and a permanent member of the New York State Medical Society in 1880. Upon July 2, 1891, occurred the death of Mrs. Haviland at their home in Fulton. In the fall of 1893, he married Emma Newton Chaffee, a musician of rare ability and considerable note.

Ames, Hon. Leonard, of English ancestry, was born in Mexico, February 8, 1818, a grandson of Cheeny, born in England, who died in Connecticut, and a son of Leonard and Minerva (Peck) Ames, all now deceased. The children of Leonard

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

Ames and wife were Orson, Emeline, Dorothy, Harlow, George, Cheeny, Edwin, Harriet, Henry (deceased), Leonard, Minerva, Henry 2d, and Milton. The father was in the war of 1812. Leonard was educated at Mexico, and followed farming till the age of twenty-four. He came to Oswego in 1844, and with others opened a store, handling plaster and lime. Later with others he opened a pork packing plant in Delphi, Ind. (in 1846), and next returned to Oswego and with others bought the Ontario Mills. In 1864 he started the Second National Bank, and also bought with others the Ames Iron Works. Mr. Ames was elected to the Assembly in 1857, was supervisor and United States assessor under Lincoln, and has taken a prominent part in politics. He married Charlotte, daughter of Nathan Tanner, of New Haven, Oswego county, and they had these children: Leonard, William (deceased), Cornelia (deceased). His wife died, and he married second Anna M., daughter of William Allen, of Connecticut, and they have had three children: Allen, Fanny, and Alfred H. Leonard married, and is in business with his father. Fanny married L. N. Dewing, of Hartford, Conn.

Bennett, Charles T., late editor and publisher of the Patriot and Gazette, was born in Westport, Conn., in 1841, and five years later his parents removed to Peekskill, N. Y. During his boyhood at this place and while attending Peekskill Academy, his strong bent for the business was evinced by his voluntary apprenticeship to the office of the Peekskill Republican. In 1855 his family removed to Lyons, where he soon became an attache of the Lyons Republican, under William Tinsley, and soon after becoming an expert compositor and mastering the minutia of the trade, he went to Clyde, and in partnership with a friend named Daly established the Clyde Com- mercial, his maiden venture in journalism. In 1862 he first became associated with the Patriot as foreman, three years later taking the position of city editor on the Oswego Advertiser. In 1865 he returned to Fulton and purchased the Patriot and Gazette, since which time he has been not alone a journalist and editor, but a leader and molder of public opinion. An active member of the M. E. church, an earnest and effective advocate of the temperance cause, an ardent Republican, devoted to the advancement of all that was best in its platform and principles, Mr. Bennett was a personal. type of ideal citizenship and an example worthy of emulation. In 1875 he was appointed postmaster of Fulton, holding that position at the time of his death, August 14, 1877, aged thirty-six. His wife, who survives him, was Mary L , daughter of Joshua Richards, an evangelist of local fame. She has one son, Charles R., born November 8, 1871, inheriting and already exhibiting many of the attributes which made his father a man of note, but at present wedded to the activities of a commercial life.

Curtis, Charles L., was born in Philadelphia, Jefferson county, February 22, 1853, son of Reuben S. and Eunice (Danforth) Curtis. The family was originally from Massachusetts. The father was born in Saratoga county. He followed the inill business, and died at the age of seventy-three years. He was the father of nine children, Frederick, Frank, Ella .M., Rev. E. Danforth, Charles L., Henrietta, Frederick, Anna H., and Henry A. The life of Charles has been spent mostly in the mercantile business. He was educated in the Watertown select schools. After this he was weigher clerk in the custom house at New York. He then conducted a grocery and undertaking business; this he soon sold out. He then spent one year in

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Clinton, retiring to Sand Bank in 1882. He again engaged in business and later sold out. He then spent one year in Watertown, then retired to Sand Bank and engaged in business, the firm being Costello & Co. He is now in Sand Bank in partnership with Mr. Steel. He married Anna, daughter of Dr. A. M. Van Ostram, of Jefferson county. They have four children, Louzon D., Carrie H., Dexter, and Kate. Mr. Curtis is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Pulaski Lodge No. 415.

Summerville, F. A., was born in Granby, April 29, 1868. His father, the late William H., was the oldest of six children of Edward and Lovina Summerville. The family is of Irish nativity. William was a man of considerable note in this town, where he was born in 1843, and where all of his life was spent. His mother was Lovina, daughter of William Draper, esq., one of the first settlers in this locality. William H. Summerville married in 1863 Sarah M. Fowler of Lysander, who survives him Their children are Mrs. Addie E. Wells, George, Fred. A., Mary L., Ella L. Williams, Satie, Willie J., and Lyman L. Of the M. E. church of West Granby William Summerville was for many years a trustee, and of all good works an advocate and supporter. At the outbreak of the war he enlisted in Company I. 193d N. Y. Vols., serving one year. He served as commissioner of highways two years, 1888 and 1889. His death occurred July 29, 1893, and his memory will long be cherished by his numerous descendants as well as by the community at large.

Scully, C. J., was born in the fifth ward of Oswego where he now resides. His parents were Irish, born in County Tipperary, Ireland; they came to this country in 1845, and settled in the fourth ward in 1852, where they were burned out at the time of the big fire, when they moved to the third (now the fifth) ward, where they since have lived. C. J. Scully passed through the senior school and three years in the unclassi- fied. At the age of fifteen he left school and began work in the Kingsford box factory, where he remained five years (the only place where he ever worked). In May, 1876, he engaged in the liquor business, which he has followed to the present time. In 1881 he was elected alderman of the fifth ward and held the office two years. He is a Democrat, and was several times made delegate to the State conven- tion. For four years he was connected with his brother Edward in the plumbing business. In 1882 he took as a partner Wm. Sweeney, and the firm of Scully & Sweeney has been doing business at 206 West First street as wholesale liquor dealers, and have been successful. Mr. Scully is connected with several social societies; he is a member of St. John church, county president of the A. O. H., member of the C. M. B. A., and one of the founders of the Ontario Liberal League and Protective Association. He was born December 25, 1855 (Christmas), and in recognition of his natal day he was named Christopher. On January 21, 1891 (the day David B. Hill was made senator), he married Anna Lynn, daughter of the late Francis and Margaret Lynn. They have two children, Frances M., born November 21, 1892, and Margaret J., born July 15, 1894. Mr. Scully is the second youngest of five boys and one girl. His father died April 6, 1891, and his mother is still living. His father's name was James Scully and his mother's Nora Burns.

Harding, Gilbert N., was born in Sandy Creek, January 4, 1843, son of Truman C. and Dolly (Tuttle) Harding, both born and died in Sandy Creek. The grandfather, Solomon S., died in Sandy Creek at the age of forty-two years. They are of English descent. The father was a farmer, merchant, and a captain in the State

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

militia. The children were Solomon S., Gilbert N., James B. and Frances E. Solomon S. was a soldier in the Civil war. Gilbert was educated in the common schools, Mexico Academy, and Eastman's Commercial College, of Rochester. He first entered the employ of the R. W. & O. R. R. at Sandy Creek as a clerk. He then clerked in a store until 1861, when he took an interest in the store with J. S. Robins & Co., which continued until 1874. Mr. Harding then engaged in the insurance business until 1881, when he bought half interest in the Salisbury flour mill. In 1886 he bought out the whole concern and now runs it alone. He has held the offices of president and trustee of the village of Lacona, supervisor, assessor and postmaster. He is at present postmaster at Lacona, the distributing office for Greenboro, Boylston, North Boylston, and Swartville. In October, 1870, he married Kittie E., daughter of Henry and Marie (Hanchett) Wright, of Sandy Creek. They have one child, Tad W., born in 1871, who is in the employment of his father.

Gilmour, Rev. James, M. A., late owner and principal of Falley Seminary for twelve years, was born in Paisley, Scotland, December 19, 1822, where he was reared, and came to this country in May, 1845. After preparing at Ogdensburgh Academy he entered Union College, from which he graduated with high honors in June, 1850. He then traveled abroad for over a year. On his return he spent three years in Prince- ton Theological Seminary. He first assumed a pastoral charge as a Presbyterian clergyman, but the insidious pulmonary difficulty which finally cut short his useful- ness compelled him to relinquish preaching. Various educational and business vicissitudes marked his career, until he purchased the Falley Seminary at Fulton in 1869. September 5, 1855, he married Mary J. Veeder, who survives him and by whom he had seven children, four of whom are now living. Falley Seminary is now closed perhaps forever as an educational institution, but the memory of its builders of brain and lives will never perish. Its massive wings still domicile Mr. Gilmour's family, but the halls remain intact, and the various apparatus is in place. As an institution it has gone into history indelibly.

Jennings, Joseph, is a well known farmer and veteran, born in the town of Wooster, Otsego county, in May, 1830. He is a son of Calvin Jennings, born 1797 in Otsego county, who is a son of Isaac Jennings, who was born in England and was a Revolu- tionary soldier. Calvin, the father, was a farmer and came to the town of Parish in May, 1837. He married Abigail, daughter of Joshua Irish, of Otsego county, who was born in 1800. Their children were Isaac, Joatham, Stephen, Joseph, Jonathan, and Mary Jane, all living but Isaac. At the age of fifteen the subject learned the cooper's trade, which he followed until 1864, when he enlisted in Company K, 184th N. Y. Regiment, and served until the close of the war. In 1868 he removed to Boylston, and from that time until 1881 was engaged in the manufacture of butter tubs. He then bought the farm of fifty-five acres on which he now resides. In 1849 he married Lucretia, daughter of Jesse Williams, of Parish. Their children are Sally A. (deceased), Mary A., wife of Zimri Brownell, and Clarissa A. (deceased), and Joseph Calvin, who is married and has six children, Joatham A., Mary J., Sally A., Clarissa, Charles, and Flora. Mr. Jennings served as constable continuously from 1879 to 1893. His son now holds that office. He is a member of the Barney Post, G. A. R., of Sandy Creek.

Langan, John T., M. D., was born in Lowell, Mass., December 9, 1855. His grand-

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father, Captain Albert Langan, was born and died in England. He was an officer in the English army. His father, John M. Langan, was born in Bolton, England, and died in Lowell, Mass., aged thirty-three. The latter married Anna M. Doherty, a native of Ireland, who survives; he was educated at the military academy and came to this country in the fifties and served as a soldier on the Union side through the late war. John T. was educated in Lowell and graduated when eighteen years old. He then went to Old Mexico with a surveying party, remaining three years, then went to Nicaragua, Central America, in the same business, where he stayed one year. Returning to Lowell, he read medicine with Dr. F. C. Plunkett, then went to Europe, remaining two years. Returning, he graduated from the medical department of the University of Vermont and Bellevue Hospital Medical College of New York city, and began practice in Lowell, Mass. He came to Oswego in 1889, and began regular practice, but in 1891 went again to Europe, visiting the principal hospitals and medical colleges in all civilized countries. Dr. Langan makes a specialty of surgery, though has a regular practice. He is one of the staff of physicians of the Oswego Hospital. In 1889 he married Catherine L. Conway, of Lawrence, Mass., daughter of Thomas and Sarah (McGugin) Conway, and they have one child, Paul C., born October 27, 1892.

Keeney J. Harvey, M. D., was born in the village of Keeney Settlement, Cortland county, N. Y., August 10, 1859. His grandparents were among the first to settle in that section, coming there in an early day from Connecticut. Dr. Keeney was educated in Hamilton, N. Y., after which time he read medicine with Dr. Hutchins of Batavia, and matriculated at the Homeopathic Medical College in New York, from which institution he graduated with honor in 1883. He practiced medicine in Batavia for two years, coming to Oswego in 1885, where he has since remained. He is president of the Oswego County Homeopathic Medical Society; he is also a member of the State Society and the American Institute of Homeopathy.

Place, C. C., of Fulton, whose grandfather came from Rhode Island at an early date, is the eldest son of the late B. B. Place of Oswego. The latter was a citizen of much note, holding important official positions, such as justice of the peace and rail- road commissioner. His business was the manufacture of brick on the old "No. 9 Road." He died in 1874, leaving four sons and one daughter. Chauncey, the eldest, first entered the office of Jenkins, Hoover & Co , a milling firm at Oswego, and was afterward bookkeeper in the National Marine Bank. Closing up in 1879 the affairs of the bank under Mr. Kingsford's vice-presidency, he then became associated with Thompson Kingsford, managing the latter's foundry and machine works for several years. In 1886 Mr. Place engaged in the manufacture of railway car springs at Os- wego, removing to Fulton in 1892, where his ability and energy have made them- selves felt in business circles. He remains associated with the Place Manufacturing Company of Oswego, a business established by himself in 1889 for the production of lathe chucks, pipe wrenches, and machine tools. In 1875 he married Caroline, daughter of Dr. Alfred Rice, of Hannibal.

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Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 105

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1410

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1410