Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 85

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

USA > New York > Oswego County > Landmarks of Oswego County, New York > Part 85

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Thomas Kingsford was a man who clearly recognized the truth that a business to be successful must be a system of mutual services. The operatives were treated with fairness and good will, their interests consulted, their opinions and suggestions sought, their pleasure and comfort made a matter of thoughtful consideration. Such treatment on the part of the employer, had its fruitage in the cordial relations which always existed between Mr. Kingsford and his employees. Strikes and contentions were unknown in the business, and the utmost quiet, regularity, and kindly feeling ever prevailed throughout the whole establishment.

Mr. Kingsford's uprightness and business ability were recognized by the citizens of Oswego soon after he took up his abode with them, and his co-operation was sought in many public and associated movements. In 1856 Mr. Kingsford, with four others, established the Marine Bank of Oswego, of which Mr. Elias Root was the president, and Mr. Kingsford the vice-president. In 1864 Mr. Kingsford in company with sub- stantially the same parties organized the First National Bank and he was its first president.

Mr. Kingsford never cultivated the arts of political life, but he embraced heartily, as a true patriot, the principles of the Republican party, and sustained the war measures of the administration in its efforts to preserve the Union. In 1864 he was

BIOGRAPHICAL.

one of the Presidential electors who cast the vote of the Empire State in favor of Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Kingsford's religious character, the result of early training by his pious mother, was decided and active. An ardent Baptist, he early identified himself with Baptist history in New Jersey, and was a prominent organizer of the first Baptist church built in Harsimus, now Jersey City. Soon after removing to Oswego he con- nected himself with the First Baptist Church in East Oswego, at that time under the ministrations of Rev. Isaac Butterfield. The increase of population on the opposite side of the river led to the organization in 1852 of the West Baptist Church by forty- two members, dismissed from the parent church for that purpose, in which movement Mr. Kingsford took an active interest. Mr. Kingsford was the first treasurer of the new church, and subsequently one of its leading deacons. Mr. Kingsford gave with a liberal hand both to his church and to other charitable institutions. Ever ready to assist those less fortunate than himself, he never turned a deaf ear to any proper appeal to his sympathies. His manners were unassuming, and he did not embarrass the recipients of his bounty by a word or look. At his death, which occurred at his home in Oswego on November 28, 1869, and which was universally mourned, he left an example of exalted success attained by singleness of aim, well directed application, and unde- viating rectitude. His unfailing kindness had made all his friends, and he left no enemy to begrudge his well earned prosperity. Mr. Kingsford had four children- one son and three daughters, by his first wife, who died in 1834, soon after her arrival in America, his son Thomson being now the sole surviving child.

As an inventor and discoverer the name of Thomas Kingsford will ever be asso- ciated with a great industry, and will live in history as that of a benefactor of the human race. Dying, he has left a "foot-print on the sands of time," which will not soon be effaced. Of him, as of another great man, it may be said: "It was his misfortane (if indeed it be one) to be born poor. It was his merit by industry and perseverance to acquire wealth. It was his misfortune to be without friends in his early struggles to aid him by their means or their counsel. It was his merit to win them in troops in his maturer age by a Christian character that challenged all scrutiny."

THOMSON KINGSFORD.

THOMSON KINGSFORD, the present head of the firm of T. Kingsford & Son, was born at Headcorn, in Kent, England, April 4, 1828, one of four children of a family whose ancestry is traceable back to the days of the early English kings. His earlier years, until the age of five, were passed in his native place, where his mother was main- taining a school founded by her husband, who, in 1831 had sailed for America to seek the opportunity for bettering his own condition and of educating his family, which seemed to be denied to him in his native land. Locating in the spring of 1832, in Harsimus, Bergen county, N. J., where he had secured employment in the starch factory of Messrs. William Colgate & Co., the elder Kingsford was enabled during the following year to send to England for his family. Thus it was that Thomson

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

brought to the environment of the congenial air and institutions of America, those characteristic traits which its untrammeled freedom was so well suited to foster and develop. The excellent schools and academy of Harsimus, laid for him the founda- tion of a thorough practical education; and at the age of fourteen he entered as ap- prentice the business of machinist and draughtsman. During the first year of this apprenticeship, he constructed a perfect working steam engine of some six horse power, which was the first power used by his father in the then newly discovered process of extracting starch from ripe Indian corn. At the age of eighteen years, the American Institute awarded him its diploma for the best mechanical drawing, a high honor when his age and the exclusive character of that Exhibition are taken into account. It was in this year (1846) that his father, having severed his connec- tion with the starch firm of William Colgate & Co., took into partnership his son Thomson, who had been a deeply interested participant in all of his father's researches and experiments, and had rendered direct and efficient aid in their prosecution, and with him, organized, for the manufacture of starch from corn, the firm of T. Kings- ford & Son, now so widely known as the largest manufacturers in the world in their peculiar line.

Thomson was therefore especially fitted, both by a knowledge of the needs and his thorough mechanical training, to supply the necessary machinery and many labor- saving devices for the factory which the firm erected at Bergen, N. J. In the spring of 1848, the young business having crowded itself out of its New Jersey quarters by its rapid increase, the machinery was taken down and removed to Oswego, N. Y., where it served to form a nucleus for the establishment which has since made Oswego famous the world over, as the center of the starch making industry. The steady and remarkable growth of the business in its new location, and the new uses and adapta- tions of the product in manufactures and the arts, which were constantly arising, necessitated continual improvements in appliances and treatment to suit various de- mands, in supplying which the inventive talent of Thomson Kingsford was often useful. For twenty years the business life of father and son were interwoven, and an effect pro- duced which probably would not have been accomplished by either single handed. Neither knew any limit to his energy and perseverance, and having concert of tastes and views, the efforts of one supplemented those of the other.

As the years of the father increased, the management devolved more and more upon the son, and at the death of his father in 1869, Thomson Kingsford found him- self at the head of one of the largest manufacturing establishments in the country. The sixty-five workmen of 1848 had been increased more than tenfold. The capital, from $50,000 had been augmented to $500,000. That the high quality of the product was maintained under the administration of Thomson Kingsford is evidenced by the fact that in 1876 the superior merits of the Kingsford's Oswego Starch, which had steadily held the first place in all public exhibitions where the manufacturers had put it in competition, was clearly recognized by the report of the judges for awards of the Centennial Commission at Philadelphia, in which they paid tribute to the supe- rior character of the exhibit shown, recognized the Kingsfords as "originators of starch from Indian corn."

Mr. Kingsford maintains a constant and unremitting oversight over all manipula- tions of the starch. He is familiar with all the countless ramifications of the business

ANGER N. Y

I. P. Kings ford. (

BIOGRAPHICAL.

and nothing escapes his eye. He is personally acquainted with every employee, and his relations with his subordinates are of the most cordial and helpful nature. He aims to be the friend of each, and in this, unconsciously makes each a friend.

Mr. Kingsford's ability as a financier and manager, has received recognition both at home and abroad in his appointment to positions of honor, trust and confidence. He is a trustee of Colgate University at Hamilton, N. Y., and also of Wells College at Aurora, N. Y., president of the corporation, The Oswego Starch Factory, and chairman of its executive committee ; a director, and subsequently vice-president of the National Marine Bank of Oswego; an active participant in the organization of The First National Bank; a promoter, with his father, of the Oswego Water Works Com- pany; a director of the Oswego Gas Light Company; a trustee and one of the origi- nal incorporators of the Home for the Homeless, a local charity of widespread influ- ence, originated by the ladies of Oswego in 1879. Mr. Kingsford also now carries on a number of individual enterprises among which are a box shop and planing mill, which supplies the boxes for The Oswego Starch Factory; a machine shop and foundry, and a " department store," one of the largest in this section of the State.

Mr. Kingsford's influence has been frequently recognized in the councils of the Republican party in this State. He was a member of the Convention of 1879 in Sar- atoga Springs which nominated Gov. Cornell, and again three years later, in 1882, a member of the Convention which in the same place nominated the Hon. Charles J. Folger to the same office.

Mr. Kingsford was, with his father, one of the founders of the West Baptist Church of Oswego, which has left its deep impress upon the community.

Mr. Kingsford married, July 1, 1851, Virginia J., daughter of Augustus and Mary Pettibone of Oswego. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Kingsford; Thomas Pettibone Kingsford, born December 24, 1858; now associated in business with his father, and perpetuating the firm name of T. Kingsford & Son, and a daughter, Virginia M. Kingsford, now the wife of the Hon. John D. Higgins, one of the trustees of The Oswego Starch Factory, and at present mayor of the city of Os- wego.

Mr. Kingsford is a public spirited citizen, a great manufacturer, a financier of com- prehensive views and executive force; a kind employer, a strong friend with a helping hand, and a philanthropist of deep seated religious principle.

THOMAS PETTIBONE KINGSFORD,

ELDEST child and only son of Thomson and Virginia J. (Pettibone) Kingsford, was born in the city of Oswego on December 24, 1858. He attended the schools of his native city, after which in 1876 he entered Madison (now Colgate) University, at Hamilton, Madison county, N. Y. Closing his studies there in the spring of 1880, at the age of twenty-one years, he was immediately called into the business of The Oswego Starch Factory, and for the past fifteen years he has worked in harmony with the policy that has always governed the conduct of the several branches of manufacture and trade founded by his grandfather and his father, in unceasing

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

efforts to maintain the high character of their product, and in that fairness and liber- ality towards the employees which seldom fails to secure their loyal service. He was elected to the office of vice-president of The Oswego Starch Factory in June, 1894.

Mr. Kingsford is a Republican in politics, but his exacting business relations pre- vent him from giving to public affairs more than the performance of the duties of good citizenship.

On February 7, 1882, Mr. Kingsford was married to Jennie E. Schuyler, daughter of Harvey Schuyler of Little Falls, Herkimer county, N. Y .. They have one child, Thomson, born July 27, 1888.

JOHN D. HIGGINS.

IN the second generation back, John D. Higgins descended from Bradley Higgins, who was born in Norwalk, Conn., in 1793 and died April 30, 1885, at Mexico, Oswego county. He was married in early life in New York city to Maria de la Montanye. In 1835 he removed to the northern part of the town of Richland, Oswego county, having successively conducted mercantile stores in New York city, Richfield, and Plainfield, a nearby place. He carried on farming for eight or nine years in Rich- land and then moved into the village of Mexico, where he passed the remainder of his life. He was a life-long and ardent Democrat and a highly respected citizen, and died at the advanced age of ninety-two years. His oldest surviving son, John B. Higgins, was born in New York city July 17, 1822, and moved to Mexico with his father in the early forties. Educated at Mexico Academy, he studied law in Mexico with Orla H. Whitney, beginning in 1843, and was admitted to the bar in 1846; be- gan practice in Mexico and was for a few years associated with Luke D. Smith. George G. French and T. W. Skinner were students in his office, and the former was subsequently his partner for a few years. In 1856 he removed to Oswego and has continued in practice there since. A Democrat in politics, Mr. Higgins has been active in his party and influential in its measures. In 1850 he was elected district attorney and served one term. After settling in Oswego he was appointed deputy collector of customs under Orville Robinson, whom he succeeded as collector in 1857, under James Buchanan. In 1874 he was elected recorder of Oswego for a term of four years. Mr. Higgins was married in 1850 to Mary A. Dauby, a native of Oswego county, daughter of Alexander J. Dauby. There were two children: Dr. Frederick M. Higgins, of Bozeman, Mont., the elder, and John D. Higgins, the subject, who was born in Oswego city June 9, 1858. His education was obtained in the public schools, the High School and the State Normal School of his native city.

Having determined to follow the law as a profession he entered the office of Rhodes & Richardson in 1877 and in 1880 was admitted to the bar. He remained in the same office in the employ of the firm until February, 1882, when the firm was dissolved by the death of Mr. Richardson. On the 1st of March of that year, the firm of Rhodes, Coon & Higgins was formed, composed of Charles Rhodes, S. M. Coon and John D. Higgins. This firm continued in business until March'4, 1890, when it was dissolved by the withdrawal of Mr. Rhodes therefrom and the firm of

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Coon & Higgins was formed, which continued until September 1, 1891. He early took an interest in local politics, departing from the precedent fixed by his father and grandfather and affiliated with the Republican party. In 1887 he was elected city attorney and served one term. On June 6, 1889, Mr. Higgins was married to Virginia M. Kingsford, only daughter of Thomson and Virginia J. Kingsford of Os- wego. Previous to the dissolution of the law firm of Coon & Higgins in September, 1891, before mentioned, Mr. Higgins was chosen a director in The Oswego Starch Factory, T. Kingsford & Son, and soon thereafter abandoned his law practice and associated himself actively with the business of that company. In the spring of 1894, he was elected to the office of mayor of the city of Oswego after a heated campaign, in which office he has not failed to uphold the principles which have always gov- erned his public acts, nor flinched from what he believed to be his duty, in the pro- motion of the common good of the community.

ALANSON SUMNER PAGE.

ALANSON S. PAGE was born in Saratoga county, N. Y., on June 30, 1825. His an- cestry belonged to the hardy New England stock from which sprang so many of the pioneers of this State. His father was David Page, born in Massachusetts, who re- moved with his parents to Providence, Saratoga county, when he was ten years old. He was a respected farmer and later in life followed canal contracting. His wife was Elsy Sumner, a daughter of Robert Sumner, of Edinburg, Saratoga county, who was a native of the State of Connecticut, where his daughter was born. The father of David was also named David, was a native of Salem, Mass., and removed to Sara- toga county and died there.

Alanson S. Page was given exceptional educational advantages for one in his sta- tion in life and at that comparatively early time. After attending the district school through his boyhood, he was sent to the Galloway Academy, which he left in 1842, when he was seventeen years old, to attend the Cazenovia Seminary one year; this was then an institution of learning of considerable note and gave its students excel- lent opportunity for obtaining a highler English education. His attendance there was followed by a period in the academy of Professor Beck, in Albany, which he left well equipped for his after career. It had been determined by himself and his par- ents that he should follow the profession of law, and he accordingly entered the office of S. & C. Stevens, in Albany in 1846, where he studied assiduously for two years, when he was admitted to the bar and settled in the then young but active city of Syracuse. One year of practice there was sufficient to convince Mr. Page that in other fields of labor he could more surely, and certainly sooner, attain the success for which he was ambitious. He removed to Oswego in 1850 and engaged in lumber trade with Myron S. Clark under the firm name of Clark & Page, a successful busi- ness connection which continued until the death of Mr. Clark in 1862, which dissolved the firm. The business was then continued three years longer to 1865 by Mr. Page associated with L. A. Card under the style of Card & Page. This firm was dissolved and Mr. Page became a member of the International Lumber Company, an organiza-

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

tion at Albany comprising five co-partners. This organization continued until 1873, when the business was closed up. In 1853, during the existence of the firm of Clark & Page they purchased of Benj. Burt, the water power at Minetto, including an old saw mill, which they rebuilt into the second gang mill in this State. Logs were im- ported from Canada, and the mill was operated by that firm and by Mr. Page until the close of the business in 1873. During the period between 1868 and 1873 Mr. Page was associated with the late Delos De Wolf in Oswego in the distilling business.

With the winding up of these business enterprises Mr. Page found himself idle after a period of nearly thirty years of active life. With means at his command and the possessor of a splendid water power at Minetto, he remained out of business three years, when his attention was attracted to a new industry. The only manufactory of shade cloth in the country, for window curtains, was then in operation in Oswego, and Mr. Page determined to enter the field as a competitor for a part of the immense trade in these goods. He accordingly in 1879 formed the Minetto Shade Cloth Com- pany, consisting at that time of himself and Cadwell B. Benson. Charles Tremain became a member of the company prior to the beginning of manufacturing. The old saw mill was remodeled for its new purposes, and a new structure was erected 300 by 40 feet in size, and the business was begun with about twenty-five workmen. Mr. Page assumed the direct and active management of the business, and under his ener- getic and prudent control the manufactory prospered from the first and has become one of the largest industries in Northern New York. Additional buildings for various purposes have been erected, a roller plant established, a large number of workmen's houses built, and new processes evolved, until at the present time (1895) about 350 hands are employed, and the product of the manufactory finds its way to all parts of the United States, as well as to many other countries.

Mr. Page's superior business qualifications and his staunch integrity, sound judg- ment, and his character as a man, have received recognition from his fellow citizens. He was chosen the first president of the Oswego County Savings Bank, upon its or- ganization, but resigned the position and was succeeded by John B. Edwards. Upon the resignation of the latter, on account of his advancing years, Mr. Page was again elected to the office, which he still holds. He was also one of the directors of the City Bank, and for a number of years was in the directorate of the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad. All of these institutions have profite'd by the business sagacity and conservative counsel of Mr. Page.

In politics Mr. Page was formerly an independent Democrat; indeed, independence of character is one of his marked traits, and when the time came that prompted him to change his political affiliations, he did not hesitate, but cast a Republican vote for President Hayes. Since that time he has supported the principles of that party as far as consistent with his sense of duty. Naturally aggressive and impatient of in- justice and trickery in the political field, he has never hesitated to denounce wrong- doing, by whomsoever perpetrated. As far back as 1869, before he had changed his political allegiance, he was elected mayor of the city of Oswego by the Democrats and served in that capacity until 1872 inclusive. His administration was satisfactory to the community, and the city business was carried on upon the same prudent basis that has always characterized his own affairs. The new City Hall was erected dur- ing that period and is an enduring monument to those who had it in charge. A sewer-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

age system for the city was projected also during that administration, which has been since established on substantially the plan then inaugurated.

In 1875 Mr. Page was elected to the Assembly and served in 1876. In that body he was chairman of the Canal Committee, in which capacity he warmly opposed free tolls on the canals and made a minority report to that effect. Mr. Page's course in the committee was disapproved at the time by many men who have since lived to adopt the views then so energetically advanced by him. The removal of tolls did not help the canal traffic, but, as he had often predicted would be the case, caused the railroads to lower their rates to a point where they could control the situation, just as they had previously done. With the close of his term in the Assembly Mr. Page relinquished politics as far the acceptance of office is concerned; but he is found fearlessly aggressive and independent in support of what he believes to be for the best in local politics. His public and private life has been such as to gain for him the unqualified respect of his fellow citizens.

In 1858 Mr. Page was married to Elsie Benson, of Geddes, Onondaga county, N. Y., daughter of Dr. D. M. Benson, who died in Geddes in 1854; the widow of the latter died at the residence of Mr. Page in Oswego in January, 1895.

THOMAS SMITH MOTT.

AMONG the names of men who have contributed in a large degree to the growth and prosperity of Oswego, none stands out with more prominence or with a brighter lustre than that of Thos. S. Mott. In many respects his career was a remarkable one ; in some respects it was astonishing. From the smallest of beginnings and by the sheer force of his natural and acquired qualifications, he rose to a position of opulence and power; and when it is understood that during about one-third of his compara- tively short life, and during its period of greatest activity and heaviest responsibility, he was almost wholly deprived of sight, his career becomes more than remarkable and teaches lessons of fortitude, patience, energy and uprightness that possess in- estimable value to the living.

Thomas Smith Mott was born in Hamilton, Madison county, N. Y., on December 15, 1826. His father, Smith Mott, was a native of Bridgewater, Oneida county, N. . Y., whence he removed to Hamilton in 1826 and there became a prominent and in- fluential merchant. He married Lucinda Rattoone, of Lansingburg, N. Y., born in September, 1806, and died in February, 1827. She was a descendant of an old and honorable family of that place.

The ancestry of the family on the mother's side is traceable to Maj. Thomas Brown, a Revolutionary officer, who was great-grandfather of the subject. On the male side the family was of Quaker origin.

Thomas S. Mott was enabled to acquire a good business education in the then fa- mous Nine Partners Quaker Boarding School at Washington, Dutchess county, N. Y., and in the Hamilton Academy. He inherited from his father the characteristics that prompted him to engage in business pursuits and made him successful therein. Leaving school he entered his father's store as clerk and there laid the foundation of a broad knowledge of business principles, strict devotion to his duties and thorough-

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 85

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