Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 88

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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Judge Allen was married in 1833, to Miss Cordelia Carrington, daughter of Elisha Carrington, of Oswego. They had three children, all of whom died young.

GEORGE M. CASE.

HON. GEORGE M. CASE is the sixth child and third son of Jonathan and Betsey Ann (Ferguson) Case, natives of Oneida county, and was born in Fulton, where he has always resided, on the 29th of August, 1827. The parents were married in Oneida

BIOGRAPHICAL.

county and came thence to Fulton at an early day. Jonathan Case was a merchant, sheriff of Oswego county, a canal contractor, and later a contractor on railroads, and died here in 1850. His widow survived until about 1885, at the age of eighty-six.

George M. Case was educated in the public schools of his native village and in the old Fulton Academy, the predecessor of Falley Seminary. He taught a district school one winter and then entered the dry goods store of J. & S. F. Case as a clerk, in which capacity he remained for three years, when he was admitted to a partner- ship under the firm name of J. & S. F. Case & Co. Soon afterward his father died and the firm became S. F. & G. M. Case. He subsequently engaged in business as a canal contractor in company with Thomas Gale, and performed the work of en- larging the Liverpool level. In 1860 he retired from mercantile trade and until 1870 devoted his entire attention to contracting. He undertook many important contracts, involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, and executed each one satisfactorily. These covered numerous State and government works, and among them, as a mem- ber of the firm of Case, Van Wagenen & Co., was the blasting of rock out of the Mississippi River at Rock Island and the extensive dredgings in Maumee Bay at To- ledo, Ohio. For eight years, with Thomas Keeler, he had charge of the Cayuga and Seneca canal.

In 1870 Mr. Case retired from business as a contractor and became cashier of the Citizens' National Bank of Fulton, of which he was subsequently elected president, a position he still holds. This bank was founded and has generally been conducted by members of the Case family, and no similar institution in Western or Northern New York ranks higher in financial affairs. It has always enjoyed the confidence of business men everywhere.

In politics Mr. Case has ever exerted a commanding and wholesome influence, and as a staunch Republican he has materially contributed to his party's welfare. In 1886 and again in 1887 he represented the second district of Oswego county in the State Legislature, where he served with distinction as chairman of the Banking Committee and member of the committee on canals. His legislative career was marked with un- swerving fidelity to his constituents and an open-handed, liberal support of every worthy measure. He has served as member of the Republican State Committee for three years, and has frequently represented his constituency as delegate to local, county, district, and State conventions. He went as a delegate to the Chicago Na- tional Convention in 1880, and was one of the 306 who voted for the renomination of Grant; after Garfield was brought forward as a candidate Mr. Case with the others transferred his support to that subsequently lamented president, and was prominent among the number who proudly placed his name in nomination. Mr. Case has also been for many years one of the railroad commissioners for the town of Volney, a position he still holds. With Willard Johnson he was instrumental in refunding the town's indebtedness, which proved exceedingly beneficial to the taxpayers.

In private life and as a citzen Mr. Case is universally esteemed and respected. His influence is ever directed towards the betterment of his town and county. In business he is shrewd, liberal, and honest. He is a generous benefactor, public spir- ited, kind hearted, and consistent. He belongs to the Masonic lodge in Fulton and is a prominent member of the Presbyterian Church, of which he has served as pres- ident of the board of trustees for many years. To this organization Mr Case has long been a liberal contributor and an earnest, active supporter.

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

September 11, 1850, Mr. Case married Miss Vandalia M., daughter of Henry French, an early and prominent resident of Fulton. They have had two children, both living, viz., Eva D., wife of Dr. Charles R. Lee, of Fulton, and Solon F., cashier of the Citizens' National Bank. Mrs. Case died August 14, 1890, and on October 20, 1894, Mr. Case married for his second and present wife Mrs. B. J. Kimball, of Fulton.

EDWIN RICHARD REDHEAD.

FEW men in all Northern or Western New York have attained by their own exer- tions, within a comparatively short space of time, a more distinguished position in the business and social life of their respective communities than has Edwin Richard Redhead, the extensive paper manufacturer of Fulton. His parents, the Rev. Rich- ard and Elizabeth (Barker) Redhead, natives of England, descended from a long line of honored and substantial ancestry, many of whose members acquired stations of eminence. Soon after their marriage, or about 1847, they emigrated to America, where the father has since followed the respected profession of a Methodist clergy- man, being for a number of years an active member of the Northern New York Con- ference of the M. E. Church. He is now superannuated and lives in Syracuse, where his surviving daughter also resides, his other daughter having died in Fulton, where he officiated as pastor in 1860-61. While holding a pastorate in Brownville, Jefferson county, his only son, Edwin Richard, was born on January 6, 1851. E. R. Redhead was educated in the public schools and spent his boyhood in the villages in which his father was stationed as a preacher. He attended the Red Creek (N. Y.) Academy and Fairfield Seminary in Herkimer county, graduating in the classical course of the latter institution in 1869. He then entered Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., and remained until the beginning of his sophomore year, when sickness obliged him to return home, where he spent one year in recuperating. His father was then stationed at Port Byron, N. Y. Meanwhile Syracuse University had been founded, and young Redhead was given the choice of going there or returning to Wesleyan. He chose the former, entered as a sophomore, and was graduated in the classical course with the class of '74. During his attendance at Syracuse he ably filled all the positions on the college paper, the University Herald, of which he was one of the founders, and the last year was editor-in-chief.

In the fall of 1874 Mr. Redhead began the study of law in the office of the late Judge H. B. Howland at Port Byron (later of Auburn), where he remained about one year, when serious impairment of the eyes compelled him to relinquish that profes- sion and threw him upon his own resources. He finally entered the employ of F. G. Weeks, the well-known print-paper manufacturer of Skaneateles, N. Y., as traveling salesman, a position he filled with entire success for five years. In 1880 the two formed a partnership and purchased the original mill of the present Victoria Paper Mills Company in Fulton, and began the manufacture of tissue papers. Mr. Weeks was president and Mr. Redhead served as secretary, treasurer, and general manager. Two or three years later they reconstructed the plant, erected a pulp-mill-the first pulp-mill in this section using the Voelter or German process-and changed from the making of tissue to the manufacture of heavy manilla paper. About 1886 they pur-

novo Hutchinson

BIOGRAPHICAL.

chased the great water-power at the upper bridge in Fulton and converted an old stone flouring-mill into a pulp-mill. In 1889 they constructed the present raceway at a cost ot $50,000 and laid the foundations of a new pulp-mill which was completed in 1890. This valuable property had laid idle for a number of years, and it is to these enterprising men that it owes its modern development. They reclaimed its immense water-power and converted the site into one of the best manufacturing privileges in the village of Fulton.

In 1892 Mr. Weeks exchanged his interest in the Victoria Paper Mills Company for Mr. Redhead's interest in the property at the upper bridge; the title at this latter point was vested in the Oswego Falls Pulp and Paper Company, of which Mr. Weeks had been the president and Mr. Redhead the vice-president and local manager. This exchange of interests left Mr. Redhead the principal stockholder, the president, and the general manager of the Victoria Paper Mills Company, positions he has since filled with singular executive ability.

In 1894 the mills formerly operated by William Barber and the Cataract Paper Company were added to the plant, making four paper machines, employing an aver- age of eighty men, and giving a daily product of fifteen or twenty tons of manilla paper. In the summer of that year a bag manufacturing company was also added.

These vast business interests have placed Mr. Redhead in the front rank of the leading manufacturers in not only Oswego county but in Western and Northern New York. He is one of the best known paper men in the State and acknowledged as a leader in his line of manufacturing In local affairs he has always taken a promi- nent part. An unswerving Republican he has ever been actively identified with wholesome politics, but has always eschewed public preferment. Charitable, liberal, and benevolent, he has been a local benefactor, especially to the M. E. church, of which he and his wife are active members. With characteristic liberality he donated the lot upon which the State street chapel stands and furnished also a large portion of the funds for erecting that building. "During the erection of the new M. E. church in Fulton he was one of its most generous supporters, while in the government of that denomination at large he has contributed valuable time, great executive ability, and wholesome influence. As a lay delegate he represented the Northern New York Conference in the General Conference of the M. E. church in Omaha, Neb., in 1892. For nine years he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Syracuse Univer- sity, being at present one of its Executive Committee.

Mr. Redhead was married on May 22, 1877, to Miss Sarah A., daughter of Israel Petty, of Port Byron. They have traveled extensively throughout the United States, and in 1889 made a continental tour, during which they visited the memorable Paris Exposition.

WILLIAM B. HUTCHINSON.

WM. B. HUTCHINSON was born in Pepperell, Worcester county, Mass., July 4, 1806 He received a district school education in his native town. In early life he worked at the painter's trade in various cities in the New England States. In 1833 he was united in marriage, to Amelia, daughter of Azariah Haskin, of Pittstown, Rensse-

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

laer county, N. Y. They resided in Poughkeepsie two years, then went to Palmyra, Wayne county, N. Y., and in 1837 removed to Mexico, Oswego county, where he purchased a large farm. His agricultural ability soon developed, and in a short time he was known as a successful and scientific farmer. Energetic, honest, and upright in every business transaction, and possessed of a remarkably cheerful and social disposition, he took a great interest in everything that tended to the welfare and prosperity of his adopted town. He was greatly interested in educational mat- ters, and did much to bring the school at Colosse up to the high standard which it had during his residence in Oswego county. He was an organizer of the Colosse Debating Society, for the culture of the young people of the vicinity. Mr. Hutchin- son took a leading part in the politics of his town and county, being an old time Democrat, but joined the Republican party at its formation. From the time Horace Greeley was nominated for the presidency he voted the Democratic ticket. Another fact, of which his children are justly proud, is the interest he always manifested in the cause of temperance. His popularity in this way made him a prominent man all through his life, which ended May 26, 1889, at the age of eighty-three years. His wife survived him two years. Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson were the parents of five children: Harriet F. Driggs, of Decorah, Iowa (deceased); Lucy G. Calkins, of Erie, Pa. ; Ellen J. Joyce, of North Syracuse, N. Y. ; Lydia A. De Lancey, of Binghamton, N. Y. ; and Charles D., who died at the age of sixteen. Mr. Hutchinson spent the last fifteen years of his life with his daughter, Mrs. Joyce, in the town of Cicero, Onondaga county, N. Y.

GEORGE H. GOODWIN.

GEORGE H. GOODWIN was born in Mexico, Oswego county, N. Y., on December 5, 1834. His family is of English descent, and he is the youngest of four children, and the only survivor. His brothers were J. Austin Goodwin, Joseph C. Goodwin and Henry G. Goodwin, His ancestors on both sides were of New England stock, and of sturdy stuff, both intellectually and morally. His father, Calvin Goodwin, and his mother, Emily Hinkley, were born in Mansfield, Conn., and came to Mexico in 1828. The former died in 1869 at the age of sixty-eight years, and the latter died in 1845 at the age of forty-three years. His grandfather, the Rev. Jonathan Goodwin, was a widely known and universally respected minister of the gospel. He preached for nearly forty years in Connecticut, and was the founder and first pastor of the Baptist church in Mexico village.

The subject of this sketch was educated at the Mexico Academy. He early began the study of law with ex-Judge Cyrus Whitney, and finished his legal studies in the offices of Orville Robinson and James Noxon. In 1856 he graduated from the De- partment of Law of the Albany University, and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one years. He practiced his profession in Oswego county and in Califor- nia, and for a number of years applied himself closely to the profession but was afterward more or less diverted from the law by reason of ill health and the cares de- volving upon him in the settlement of some extensive estates, and has of late given more time to business and literature than to his profession. Mr. Goodwin has been

BIOGRAPHICAL.

largely identified with the growth and prosperity of Mexico, and few men in the county have a more extended acquaintance or are possessed of warmer friends.

Mr. Goodwin formerly took an active interest in politics and often refused offers of political advancement. His local popularity has been attested on numerous occa- sions by the positions of trust which have been given him. He was chairman of the Democratic County Committee many years, and very frequently represented his party in its State conventions. He was president of Mexico village in 1879, and was chosen supervisor, of the town of Mexico in 1883, though the town was more than two to one Republican at that time. He is the only Democrat, with a single exception, that has been elected as supervisor of the town of Mexico during the past thirty-nine years

Mr. Goodwin has been an extensive traveler on both continents. In 1882 he visited Ireland, England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Holland, of which countries he had previously acquired a broad general knowledge from books and conversation. In 1889 he made another more extended tour in the east, in the course of which he ascended the Nile in Egypt, and afterwards visited Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Greece, and many islands of the Mediterranean. He has also trav- ersed almost every portion of North America. In writing, as well as in speech, Mr. Goodwin is a master of the English language, with a style clear, lucid, terse, and fluent. While abroad he wrote a long series of very interesting letters, which were published in the local papers, and widely copied by the press of the State.

In 1883 Mr. Goodwin was united in marriage with Adelaide E. Alfred, daughter of Charles L. Webb, of Mexico. She died April 14, 1884, at the age of thirty-six years. Their only child, Mabel A., died September 29, 1884.

SYLVANUS C. HUNTINGTON.

JUDGE HUNTINGTON was sixth in direct descent from Simon Huntington of Norwich, England, who, in 1633, died on board the ship that was bearing him and his family to America. His widow, Margaret (Baret) Huntington, and their four children-the first Huntingtons in the colonies-dwelt for a time in Massachusetts, but in 1660 Simon, the youngest son, moved to Norwich, Conn., and in that vicinity nis descend- ants lived for more than a century. There Joseph Huntington was born in 1778. In 1807 he married Hannah Convers, and engaged in farming in Orange and later in West Charleston, Vermont, where he died in 1857, a man of commanding presence and physical prowess. There Sylvanus Convers, the sixth of their eight children, was born April 14, 1820.

Of strong constitution and vigorous in body and mind, he early determined to get a liberal education, and buying his time from his father, supported himself during his whole term of study, first at Brownington Academy, Vt., and afterwards at Ober- lin and Dartmouth Colleges, graduating at Dartmouth in 1845. He then studied law with McCarty and Watson of Pulaski, N. Y., being drawn thither by Miss Hannah M. Warner, of Sandy Creek, a classmate at Oberlin, whose ambition, so like his own, led her to make her way, by a fortnight's journey on horseback, by canal boat and

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

stage to the only college where women could receive the same classical education as men. After their marriage in February, 1846, they went to Tennessee, where he was private tutor in President Jackson's family at "The Hermitage," and she a govern- ess in the family of Mrs. Nicholson, President Jackson's adopted daughter.

Returning in 1847, he was admitted to the bar, and practiced for two years at Belleville, N. Y., whence in 1849 they moved to Pulaski. There he continued in active practice until 1894, alone until 1882, and after that in partnership with his only son. He served as county judge of Oswego county for four years, beginning Janu- ary 1, 1856, and in 1865 was elected district attorney, but resigned soon after his health not being equal to the strain of that and his other work.

Alone in a country village, he devoted himself with great energy to the law in all its branches, and soon became thoroughly equipped in its principles and practice in the courts of the State and Nation, and for more than thirty years was conceded by all to be a leader of the county bar. His great mental and physical strength and in- domitable will enabled him to perform the vast amount of labor which his reputation as a trial lawyer and as a counsel, and his devotion to the interests of his clients brought him. Probably his well trained intellect was at its best in the study and argument of questions of law before the appellate courts, yet most will remember him as a successful criminal lawyer, but one of the sixteen, indicted for murder, whom he defended, having suffered the death penalty. The ability and persistency for almost six years displayed in the defense of that one, Nathan Orlando Greenfield, a poor farmer of Orwell, N. Y., charged with wife murder, and his lavish expenditure of time, strength and money, added more to his fame than the other fifteen. Three jury trials, occupying in all eleven weeks, four arguments on appeal and numerous applications to the governor did not bring success. The power of public opinion, the skillful preparation of the evidence by ex-District Attorney Lamoree, and the mas- terly conduct of the prosecution at the third trial by William C. (afterwards Chief- Judge) Ruger, secured a conviction, which the highest court sustained. Judge Huntington's belief in Greenfield's innocence became to him a certainty, when, as stated by Judge Churchill, at the meeting of the Oswego County Bar in April, 1894, Greenfield before the third trial refused to plead guilty to murder in the second de- gree, because by so doing he would admit that he killed his wife. And the feeling that a great wrong had been done contributed as much to Judge Huntington's sorrow at the final execution of the sentence as did the failure of the labor of years. One of the results of Judge Huntington's labors in that case was Chapter 182 of the Laws of 1876, which provided that persons jointly indicted for crime could testify for each other, thus making Greenfield's mother a competent witness for him.

Judge Huntington's mind was well formed and trained for grasping legal princi- ples and solving legal problems. Its most distinguishing qualities were strength, keenness of insight, and the power of generalization. He always sought the broad principles which lie at the foundation of all things, and valued details only as they showed the way to or illustrated those principles. He believed in an order of things in which God works by eternal and unchanging laws, and his reverence for the In- finite One and his expression of himself in the universe was unbounded.

Throughout his life he added to his professional labors careful reading of the classics, and critical and thorough study of the sciences, the higher mathematics, philosophy and history. His ardent love for the masterpieces of poetry, his wide

Merrick Stowell

BIOGRAPHICAL.

reading and most vivid imagination kept his own inner life fresh and beautiful with the thoughts of all the ages. He was gentle as well as strong, and his affections formed a large part of his home life, while his genial nature made him to all a most welcome companion. He never oppressed or tyrannized over any one. In all his relations with his fellowmen his principle of conduct was, "All have an equal right to live their own lives without dictation from others."

His first wife was seventh in direct descent from Andrew Warner, who came from Wales to America about 1630, and lived in Massachusetts and Connecticut. She was the third child of Andrew Warner, jr., and Elizabeth Clark (Young) Warner, who moved from Vernon Centre to Sandy Creek in 1836. Her literary tastes and love of study, especially of the laws and ways of nature, continued throughout her life, which was ended by pneumonia May 23, 1888.

On December 24, 1890, Judge Huntington married Emily L., daughter of Lovina (Warner) and Benjamin Snow, and widow of Hon. James W. Fenton, of Pulaski. Endowed with rare personal qualities, she made his last years a happiness for him and therefore a beautiful remembrance for herself. She survives him and now resides with a married daughter in New York city.

Judge Huntington left two children by his first marriage, Miss Metelill Hunting- ton, now engaged in literary work in Philadelphia, and S. C. Huntington, jr., of Pu- laski, both graduates from Oberlin College.

Judge Huntington's fine inherited physique and strong will carried him to a good old age in spite of his immense labors. After repeated attacks of the "grippe," the last few years of his life showed constantly decreasing vitality, though no loss of mental power. He died on March 2, 1894, "full of years and of honors."

SYLVANUS CONVERS HUNTINGTON, JR., only son of Judge S. C. and Hannah M. War- ner Huntington, was born June 12, 1857. His home has always been at Pulaski, where he prepared for college in the class of 1871. In 1872 he entered the Freshman class at Oberlin College, graduating at the head of the class of 1876. He then taught classics at Pulaski Academy one year and Greek at Oberlin the next, and had begun a post-graduate course in languages at Yale, when his father persuaded him to begin the study of the law in his office. Admitted to the bar in January, 1882, he at once became junior partner in the firm of S. C. Huntington & Son, of Pulaski, which continued until his father's death in March, 1894. Since then he has practiced law at Pulaski, first alone, and lately with F. G. Whitney.

Mr. Huntington was married November 1, 1883, to Ellen Douglas, only daughter of Rev. James and Mary J. Douglas, of Pulaski, and with his wife and their three sons, lives in the homestead so long occupied by his father.

MERRICK STOWELL,

COUNTY JUDGE of Oswego county, was born in the town of Scriba on October 3, 1838. His father was Shubael W. Stowell, a native of Jefferson county, N. Y. Merrick Stowell, at the age of thirteen, commenced to earn his own livelihood by

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

working as a boatman upon the New York State canals, which occupation he followed continuously for seven years-the first three as a canal driver, the remaining four in other positions. His principal ambition at that early age was to acquire a liberal education. He attended the country district schools winters; afterward the district schools of Oswego, and the excellent High School of the city, where by his naturally studious habits and retentive memory he fitted himself for a teacher. He had already spent two years in this vocation before graduating from the High School in 1860, thus securing the necessary means to carry out his cherished plan of going through college. But the outbreak of the great civil war, which changed the current of so many men's lives, found a ready response in the young man's breast, and he should- ered a musket as a private in the gallant Twenty-fourth Regiment, gave his country two years of faithful service and returned with the rank of sergeant. The record of the Twenty-fourth Regiment is elsewhere given in this work, and in its varied struggles Mr. Stowell bore his honorable part.

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Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 88

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