Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 90

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 90

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In 1841 Mr. Robinson was appointed district attorney of the county and held the: office two years. In 1843 he was elected to represent the newly-formed district com -. prising the counties of Oswego and Madison, in Congress, and in the same year was: elected supervisor of the town of Mexico. In 1847 he removed to Oswego, where he: has since resided. In 1852 he was elected recorder of the city, but the police duties; connected with the office made it distasteful to him, and he resigned in August, 1853. In 1855 he was for the fourth time elected to the Assembly and was honored with the speakership of that body. In 1858 he was appointed by President Buchanan collector of customs for the Oswego District, and after having discharged the duties of that office to the satisfaction of the government and the public for two years, he resigned it and thereafter held no public office.

BENJAMIN S. STONE.

BENJAMIN S. STONE was born in Bridport, Vt., March 26, 1821, and came to Mexico with his parents, Isaac and Lydia B. (Hurlbut) Stone, in 1826, where he has since re- sided. One of a family of twelve children, reared on a farm, with all the privations and hardships which that implied in those days, at the age of seventeen he entered

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

upon a clerkship in the general store of Peter Chandler, with whom he remained until that gentleman's retirement from business in 1843, when he was succeeded by S. H. & B. S. Stone. In 1857 this partnership was dissolved and B. S. Stone engaged with S. A. Tuller under the firm name of Stone & Tuller, in the hardware trade. They were burned out in 1862, and again in 1864, after which Mr. Tuller withdrew from the business and Mr. Stone formed a partnership with a younger brother, J. R. Stone, under the firm name of B. & J. Stone. This firm was dissolved by the death of J. R. Stone in the spring of 1868, and soon after the present firm of B. S. Stone & Co, was organized. They were again burned out in 1882. This record gives Mr. Stone an unbroken active mercantile career of fifty-seven years.

In 1846 he married, at Saratoga Springs, Sarah Elizabeth Chester, only sister of the Rev. A. G. Chester, D.D., of Buffalo, and Col. J. L. Chester, of London, Eng- land. They had six children, two of whom died in childhood, and the four living are: Walter C., proprietor of the Advance-Journal, Camden, N. Y .; Edward T., of B. S. Stone & Co., Mexico, N.Y .; Dr. William G., for thirteen years a physician in the Northern Insane Hospital at Elgin, Ill. ; and Rev. Carlos H., proprietor of Corn- wall Heights School, at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson. His wife died in 1861, and two years later he married Mrs. Ellen S. Boyle (born Hicks), of Bennington, Vermont. Mr. Stone has never sought political preferment, but has nevertheless been called to many positions of public trust and honor. He has been a member of the First Presbyterian church since young manhood, for a greater part of that time one of its trustees, and three times has had charge of repairing and remodeling the church edifice. A member of the Board of Trustees of Mexico Academy for forty years, and president since 1878, he was active and prominent in the erection of the present academy building, to which, as a member of the building committee, he devoted much time and energy, estimating its cost, and, what is noteworthy in these days, completing it within the estimate. He has several times served as trustee of the village, has for twenty-five years been prominently identified with the Mexico Ceme- tery Association, of which he is at present one of the Board of Commissioners, and has since its foundation been a trustee of the Oswego County Savings Bank, of which for several years he has been one of the vice-presidents.

Starting in life with very limited educational privileges and little or no capital financially, and in young manhood, owing to the death of his father, being called upon to partially bear the burden and care of the family, he made the most of his limited advantages, was energetic, economical and of strictest integrity, and has won an enviable reputation among the most successful business men in the county.

THE ROWE FAMILY.

THE year following the formation of Oswego county, on February 17, 1817, Nor- man Rowe, then twenty-two years of age, with his wife, Mary Moore Rowe, and all their household goods, loaded upon sleighs, drawn by a yoke of oxen, started from Paris, Oneida county, for their new home in the town of New Haven. They settled upon a farm a mile northwest of the present village of New Haven, and afterwards purchased and cleared a farm further to the north, which is now known as the George

BIOGRAPHICAL.

W. Daggett farm, and where Mrs. Rowe died, in October, 1835. In the following year, Norman Rowe removed to the village of New Haven, and soon after married Sarah Tompkins Hitchcock. She brought with her her niece and adopted daughter, who, with Norman's five motherless children by his first wife, made up the family. Mr. Rowe died at the village of New Haven October 28, 1887, being then nearly ninety-three years of age. He was a son of Ari and Wealthy Bull Rowe, and was born at Litchfield, Conn., January 2, 1795, and removed with his family to Oneida county in 1803, and in 1808 to Paris, in the same county. In these early days, he often drove team from Paris to Albany, carrying wheat to market. During the war of 1812, he served as a soldier at Sackett's Harbor, and thereafter was promoted from time to time until he was commissioned. by Governor Clinton, lieutenant-colonel. Intemperance was then one of the vices of the service, and Colonel Rowe, as an ex- ample to his brother officers, took a bold stand for total abstinence from all intoxi- cants, a novel position in those days, and difficult to maintain, but one which he did maintain ever after. He and his wife, Mary, with his father and mother above named, were four of the original thirteen persons who organized the Congregational church of New Haven, July 30, 1817, one of the first churches in the county; and he was made one of its first trustees, and on December 10, 1852, he was appointed one of its deacons. In 1827, he was elected justice of the peace, and was thereafter elected to that office several terms till 1853, after which he was re-elected regularly every four years, making almost fifty years of service in that office, and he served as one of the justices of sessions in 1849 and 1856. He was elected town clerk in 1860 and again in 1865, and continuously thereafter until his death. These positions he held without opposition of any kind. He represented the town in the Board of Su- pervisors in 1839, 1840, 1847 and 1858, and was twice chairman of the board. In 1840, he was elected sheriff of the county and again in 1848; and at the time of his death one of his neighbors figured up his years of service in public offices as one hundred and thirty-four years.

In the early days of this county, there was much more litigation in justices' courts than at present, and its relative importance was much greater. Justice Rowe's judgment was considered excellent, and it was seldom that any decision rendered by him was reversed by the higher courts; but he was known more as a peacemaker than as a magistrate; and by his counsel and aid, many a settlement of neighborhood quarrels was brought about that might otherwise have been the cause of much ex- pensive litigation ; in all town matters, his advice was sought and followed. He had a wonderful memory, and his stories of early days were delightful to listen to; and he retained his faculties until his death. At the age of ninety-two, in the last year of his life, at the town meeting, he presided as chairman of the Town Board.

Mr. Rowe's children who survived him were Nathan M. Rowe, of Oswego, N. Y .; Abbie N. Rowe, who is well known by the present generation of the city of Oswego, where she was a favorite teacher in the public schools for over twenty years, retiring therefrom fifteen years ago, to act as housekeeper for her father; Henry M. Rowe, of Bucyrus, Ohio; Elizabeth, mentioned above, who, in 1850, married Dr. C. M. Lee, of Fulton; and Augustus F. Rowe, for twenty years postmaster and the leading merchant at New Haven, and who is now engaged in mercantile business at Syra cuse, N. Y.

Nathan M. Rowe, son of Norman Rowe, was born in the town of New Haven in

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

1823. He went to Fulton while a young man, where he attended Falley Seminary and studied law in the office of the late Judge Tyler, and taught school for several seasons; but he afterwards chose to follow other callings. In 1848, when his father was elected sheriff for the second time, he came to Oswego to discharge the duties of under-sheriff. In 1850 he married Miss Sophia Park a sister of the late Ira Lafrei- niere, the well-known ship-builder of Cleveland, Ohio. Her parents died while she was an infant, and she was adopted by Miss Louisa Park, whose name she took and was reared and educated by Miss Park and her brother, John B. Park, who was one of the most prominent and active members of the First Presbyterian Church, an en- thusiastic worker for the common school system, in which he had great faith, and one. of the leading dry goods merchants of the former village of Oswego.

For a short time Mr. Rowe was interested with the late James M. Brown as editor and publisher of the Oswego Times, and he was also engaged in the clothing busi- ness in West First street. About this time, he built the house in West Fifth street, now the home of Charles H. Bond, and lived there until, becoming interested with Willis S. Nelson, of Fulton, in the starch factory established by the Messrs. Duryea, at Battle Island, he removed thither in 1859, where he assumed the superintendency of the factory, and where he resided with his family until after the factory was de- stroyed by fire in 1861. The loss by the fire was a heavy one.

In the spring of 1862, he returned to the city of Oswego, and having acquired a. large tract of timber land in conjunction with the late Charles Rhodes of Oswego, in the northwestern portion of the town of New Haven, commenced cutting the tim- ber which found a ready sale at Oswego, as the Island dock and several elevators were then being constructed.

While the Oswego Water Works Company was constructing its plant, the superin- tendency was offered to Mr. Rowe, which he accepted and retained for many years, and built up and ran in connection with the same an ice business under the name of Reservoir Ice.

About 1890, owing to failing health, he retired from active business, and spent. most of his time thereafter on his farms in the town of New Haven where he had one of the largest apple orchards in the county. He died suddenly at New Haven August 29, 1893, of heart trouble, in his seventy-first year.

He was always active and energetic, and ready to help those who needed help. In politics he was a staunch Democrat and was widely known throughout the county. He held many positions of trust and responsibility, and always acquitted himself so as to gain the highest esteem of all with whom he came in contact. .

Among those of the fourth generation of the Rowe family in Oswego county is the. present postmaster of Oswego city, Louis C. Rowe. He was born at Battle Island, in the town of Granby, November 27, 1861, while his father, the late Nathan M. Rowe, was running the starch factory at that place, and the family returned to Os- wego in the following spring. Louis C. Rowe was educated in the schools of Oswego city, and thereafter began the study of law with B. F. Chase, esq., then district attorney of the county. Upon Mr. Chase's removal to Chicago, he continued his studies with. the late Newton W. Nutting, then our representative in Congress. In 1884, at Rochester, Mr. Rowe was one of twenty-three applicants, out of a class of thirty-four, then admitted to the bar, and since that time he has been engaged in the practice of his profession at the city of Oswego, in which he has attained a satisfactory degree of

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success. Though still young in years he has been entrusted with a number of im- portant cases, in the conduct of which he has shown superior ability as a lawyer.

. He has always been an ardent Democrat, active in the party councils, and has done much good work for his party. April 19, 1894, President Cleveland nominated Mr. Rowe to the position of postmaster of Oswego, but his nomination, with many others, was not acted upon by the Senate, and after the adjournment of the Senate, and on August 30, the president appointed him to the position, and in December sent his name to the Senate, which thereupon confirmed his nomination on December 11, 1894. He was one of the members of the Charter Revision Commission, 1894, 1895. In these official stations he retains the confidence and respect of the community.

EARNEST M. MANWAREN, M. D.

THIS well-known eclectic physician of Oswego is a son of Dr. James U. Manwaren, and was born in New Haven, Oswego county, on September 20, 1852. Removing at an early age with his parents to the city of Utica, he was there given excellent educational advantages, and attended and graduated from the Select School of Prof. Williams. He soon afterward went to Saginaw, Mich., and there attended and grad- uated from the Commercial College of Prof. Tillinghast. He was still young and from the time he left this school until he was twenty years old he had charge of the news business on the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad.

At the close of this period, in 1873, he found himself in such circumstances that he was able to carry out his earlier formed intention, and he returned to Mexico, Oswego county, whither his father had in the mean time removed, and began the study of medicine under his father's guidance. This period of study was followed by his at- tendance at lectures in the Eclectic Medical College in New York city, from which institution he graduated in 1878. Returning to Mexico he began his professional practice in association with his father where he remained until the spring of 1881. He then removed to New Haven, Oswego county, and succeeded to the practice of Dr. G. W. Whittaker.

The death of Dr. James A. Milne took place in Oswego in 1886 and left a vacancy which Dr. Manwaren was invited to fill, and he accordingly removed to the city where he soon acquired a large and reputable practice which he continues at the present time. Dr. Manwaren is qualified by nature and by his earnest and persistent study and reading to successfully fill the honorable professional position accorded him in Oswego, while his rare social qualifications, genial and equable temperament and unfailing courtesy have given him his well deserved popularity outside of his pro- fession. Prompt to act, and yet gentle in the sick room, sympathetic with every form of distress, he wins that feeling of confidence and affection from his patients which always constitutes an important curative element. Among his professional brethren Dr. Manwaren is accorded the respect and esteem everywhere due to "the good physician." This is clearly indicated by his having been honored with various offices in societies more or less closely related to his profession. He was president of the Oswego County Eclectic Medical Society in 1885, of which he is now a leading

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

member. He has also held the same office in the Central New York Eclectic Medical Society and the New York State Eclectic Medical Society, is a member of the National Eclectic Medical Society, and has taken an active part in the proceedings in each of these organizations. He has also held the chair of Lecturer on Physiology and Hygiene in the college from which he graduated in New York city.

Dr. Manwaren is now and has been since 1893 a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners, which is under the control of the State Board of Regents, and is secretary of the board.

He is conspicuously identified with Free Masonry and has been honored with several eminent positions in that order; has held the office of master of Oswego Lodge No 127; has been high priest of Lake Ontario Chapter No. 165, R. A. M .; and is a member of Lake Ontario Commandery No. 32, K. T .; and of Damascus Temple A. A. O. N. M. S., Rochester.

Dr. Manwaren is not active in politics, but as far as practicable fulfills the duties of good citizenship in the ranks of the Republican party. He is a member of the Presbyterian church of Oswego and one of its Board of Trustees.

He has been a prolific contributor to medical literature, especially to the Chicago Medical Times, the New York Medical Tribune, and the Eclectic Medical Journal, of Cincinnati. In these and other publications his communications are received with marked favor.

On May 14, 1879, Dr. Manwaren was married to Emma L. Thomas, daughter of Almeron Thomas, of Mexico, N. Y., and they have two children, a son and a daughter.

EDGAR A. VAN HORNE.

EDGAR A. VAN HORNE was descended from Dutch ancestry, and was a son of Rob- ert Van Horne, born in Cooperstown, N. Y., in 1809, and settled in Oswego village in 1823. There he joined his brother, W. H. Van Horne, in the boot and shoe trade, the firm being W. H. & R. Van Horne. Upon the subsequent dissolution of the firm Robert Van Horne engaged in grocery trade and was many years one of the most extensive dealers in that line in Oswego. In 1840 he married Rebecca Ives, daugh- ter of the late John C. Ives, who was during many years a leading mason and builder of Oswego and erected many of the large stone structures in the place. Mr. Ives died January 24, 1860. Mr. Van Horne removed to and lived in the town of Oswego several years, but in 1865 returned to the city, and acquired an interest in the trans- fer business of Parker & McRae, forming the firm of Van Horne & Co. In politics he was an old school Democrat, but never held nor sought office. He was one of the original members of the Oswego Guards, organized in 1838, and so continued until 1842. He was a dignified, courteous and unostentatious gentleman, and fully en- joyed the confidence of the community. His death took place on July 7, 1884, and he is survived by his widow. Robert and Rebecca Van Horne had two children, Celia, and the subject of this sketch, both now deceased.

Edgar A. Van Horne was born in Oswego on August 7, 1845, and received his ed- ucation in the city schools. At the age of seventeen years, in 1862, he entered the.

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employ of the late A. B. Merriam as clerk in his hardware store. He served his em- ployer's interests with fidelity, but all the time felt that he was not in his proper sphere. From early boyhood he had shown a deep interest in all matters connected with railroading; the running of a locomotive, the laying of track, the bustle about a station, all possessed an irresistible charm for him, and heresolved sometime to join the great army of railroad workers. After two years in the hardware store he found a beginning towards gratifying his ambition, and entered the office of Superintendent George Skinner, of the then Oswego and Syracuse Railroad. There he managed, outside of his prescribed duties, to learn the mysteries of telegraphy, an accomplish- ment which was often of great value to him in after life. He was now amid sur- roundings that thoroughly pleased him and he labored unremittingly to master all the details of the office. In 1865 he was promoted to the position of freight and ticket agent. In 1870 he purchased the controlling interest in the line of transfer teams, which he managed until August 31, 1872, when President Mollison made him superin- tendent of the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad. In the following year he was made assistant superintendent of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad from Oswego to Richland, which he managed until June 1, 1874, when the Lake Ontario Shore road went under control of the R. W. & O. Company and was added to Mr. Van Horne's charge. Thus far his career had amply justified his choice of life work, and he demonstrated the possession of extraordinary ability in railroad management. On January 1, 1876, the Syracuse Northern Railroad also passed to the control of the: R. W. & O. Company, and on October 1, 1878, Mr. Van Horne was made general superintendent of the whole line of the R. W. & O. road. The exacting duties of this responsible position were discharged by him until the road passed under control of Charles Parsons on July 1, 1883. He did not remain long idle, and on August 1, 1883, was made general superintendent of the Utica and Black River road, and took: up his residence in Utica. He held this position about four years, when he sub- stantially retired from public station, and returned to Oswego to pass the remainder of his life. For a short time he was engaged in Syracuse in the interest of a street railway company, and later was made superintendent of the Oswego Street Railway Company. This offered little inducement to him and he soon resigned and purchased an interest in the hardware store of Smith & Lieb, in Oswego. In 1893 this business was consolidated with that of Tanner & Co., and the Oswego Hardware Company was formed, of which Mr. Van Horne was a prominent member until his death. For ten years or more before his decease Mr. Van Horne was in ill health and finally be- came impressed with the belief that his heart was affected. This belief became very strong and to a considerable extent controlled his actions and weakened his powers. He avoided all possible exertion that might affect his circulation, and only a short time prior to his death refused a salary of $10,000 annually for the management of a. new railroad. His presentiment that he would die from heart trouble was finally verified, and on July 31, 1894 he suddenly passed to another life.

Mr. Van Horne was a fine example of the typical successful railroad manager. A strict disciplinarian, he was yet affable and courteous to the lowest employee, as well as to the wealthiest person; and his knowledge of every detail of the business was. remarkable. His genial bearing and the confidence felt in his management made him extremely popular with the public and his friends were numberless. His hospit-

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

eble home, at a little distance from the city, was characterized by refinement and af- fection, and the city at large often felt the force of his public spirit.

Mr. Van Horne was fond of military affairs and a one time was a member of the 48th Regiment. He was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant in Company K, and in 1867 was made inspector-general on General Sullivan's staff with rank of cap- tain. In 1875 he was promoted to major and was inspector general of rifle practice and brigade inspector in 1877; this office he held until 1881, when he resigned. In Masonry he was a member of Æonian Lodge No. 679, of Lake Ontario Chapter No. 165, and of Lake Ontario Commandery No. 32, K. T .; also a member of Oswegatchie Lodge No. 156, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

At the time of his death he was president of the Oswego County Agricultural So- ciety. He was a Democrat in politics of the conservative type, but never accepted political office.

On June 12, 1867, Mr. Van Horne was married to Sarah M. Perry, daughter of Talmadge Perry, who was a son of Eleazur Perry, the first supervisor of Oswego town, and grandson of the first Eleazur Perry, who was the supervisor of the town of Han- nibal, then in Onondaga county. Talmadge Perry died at his home in Oswego town on May 25, 1883, bearing the respect of the whole community. His wife was Amy Sabin. Mr. and Mrs. Van Horne had four children: Mrs. N. H. Tunnicliff, of Omaha, Neb. ; R. E. Van Horne, F. P. Van Horne, and Medora Maynard Van Horne, all of whom are living. Mrs. Van Horne is also surviving.

FRANK S. LOW, M.D.

DR. FRANK S. Low was born in the town of Shrewsbury. Rutland county, Vt., March 31, 1828, being the fourth child of a family of seven children born to Joel B. Low and Anna Webber.

Joel B. Low was the son of Samuel Low and Abigail Bacon, who moved from Barry, Mass., and settled in the wilderness of Vermont.

Samuel Low was the son of Francis Low, who was born at Cape Ann, Mass., in 1720.

The stories told to the doctor by his grandfather Samuel, of the adventures and hardships undergone in the struggle for existence during the first few years of his residence in the wilderness, would read much more like fiction than a formidable fact. But Samuel, whose father was one of the early settlers of Massachusetts and who was himself a soldier in the war for our independence, was of true Puritan stock, and with his good wife, Abigail Bacon, overcame all obstacles and reared a family of eight children. He died in 1837.

Joel B. Low, the father of Dr. Frank S. Low, was the seventh child of the above mentioned Samuel Low and Abigail Bacon. He was born in 1795 in a log house covered with spruce bark, and was the first child born in the town of Shrewsbury, where he lived until 1847, when he moved to Castleton, Vt., for the purpose of better educating his children. He lived in Castleton until 1853, when he came to Williams- town, N. Y., from where he removed to Pulaski, N. Y., in 1855, where he lived until his death in 1875.

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Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 90

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