Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 91

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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BIOGRAPHICAL.

He was for several years elected justice of the peace while living in Shrewsbury, and was the captain of a militia company, and when volunteers were called for to de- fend our northern border in the war of 1812, he with several other members of the company volunteered and marched to the defense of Plattsburgh. In politics he was always a Democrat. He was a millwright by trade and with his brother, Samuel, went on horseback from Vermont to the place where Rochester, N. Y., now is and built a saw mill, the first mill on Genesee Falls.

Dr. Low's mother was the daughter of William Webber and Hannah Barney, both of Puritan stock, coming from Rhode Island, and settling in Shrewsbury about the same time that Samuel Low did.

Dr. Low was one of a family of three boys and four girls, all of whom, excepting the doctor, have been dead for several years.

He spent his early life on his father's farm, attending the district school during the winter. Being a great reader, he availed himself of the benefits of a circulating library (a common thing in New England towns), composed largely of works on an- cient and modern history and biographies of eminent men, acquiring a kind of ed- ucation that proved of great service to him in after years. He also attended a few terms at Castleton Seminary, then quite a noted school, where the Hon. John C. Churchill, now of Oswego, was one of his instructors.

The first book the doctor ever read aloud was Weems's Life of Washington. This he read to his grandfather by the side of an old fashioned fireplace and by the light of a tallow candle.

The stories told by his grandfather of the war of the Revolution and by his father of the war of 1812 made a lasting impression on his mind, creating great love and. veneration for his country and its defenders.

In 1847 he commenced the study of medicine at Castleton Medical College, Vt., under the instruction of the whole faculty, among whom was Dr. Middleton Goldsmith,. Dr. Thomas Markoe, and Corydon L. Ford, all of whom became very eminent in the. profession. The college being in the town of his residence, the doctor was enabled to. attend two courses of lectures of sixteen weeks each for three years, which at that: time was something unusual. He graduated June 19, 1850, and immediately settled. in Williamstown, Oswego county, N. Y., where he entered into a large and laborious. practice, in which he continued until 1855, when he removed to Pulaski, where he has continued in active practice ever since, and as an all around general practitioner has probably seen a larger number and greater variety of cases than most physicians.

His opinion and counsel have always been in demand both locally and abroad, by the laity and his professional brethren. His honesty and charity are proverbial while his genial, cheerful manners have won him a host of friends.

The doctor married February 6, 1850, Jane H. Graves, daughter of Jesse Graves. and Sarah Wheeler, of Castleton, Vt. She proved a true woman, a loving mother and an affectionate wife. She died March 17, 1860, leaving four children : Frank W., who, after embarking in commercial pursuits took a course of lectures at the dental department of the University of New York, and is now a prominent and successful dentist of Buffalo, N. Y .; Addison S., who graduated from the medical department. of the University of New York, practiced in Pulaski, N. Y., and Steamboatrock, Iowa, from where he removed to Watertown, N. Y., where he remained until the time of his death, January 17, 1892; Kate N., now the wife of Frank E. Averill, who is a.

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

graduate of the School of Mines of Columbia College and a skillful electrician of Buffalo, N. Y. ; Jesse B., a graduatefrom the medical department of Howard Univer- sity, Washington, D. C., and now a successful practitioner in Watertown, N. Y.

October 8, 1860, the doctor married Helen L. Fifield, of Salem, N. Y., the daugh- of Francis Fifield and Mary Graves. She had one child that died in infancy, and died January 27, 1871, a noble woman beloved by all.

February 8, 1872, the doctor again married, this time Mrs. Mary F. Woods, widow of Wait T. Woods, also a daughter of Francis Fifield and Mary Graves. She is the ideal of true womanhood, the fondest of mothers and best of wives. She has borne him one child, Charles E., who is now pursuing a course in medicine at the medical department of the University of Buffalo.

In politics the doctor is a staunch Democrat, and although living in a county of an average Republican majority of 3,300, he was in 1875 elected sheriff of the county by 800 majority. In 1863 he was elected on a union ticket as a War Democrat to the office of coroner. During the Rebellion he was zealous in aiding the northern cause and in raising troops. He was three times offered the surgeonship of different regi- ments, but owing to his family of small children he was unable to accept. He has also been trustee of Pulaski Academy, as a member of the Board of Education, and has served several terms as trustee and president of the village. He was active in securing a village water system and the first president of the Board of Water Com- missioners.

He was the first Mason raised in Pulaski Lodge, F. & A. M., and was for two years master of the same, and is now a member of Pulaski Chapter No. 135 R. A. M. He was last year appointed chief inspector of the second division of New York on the State Board of Health. He is a member and ex-president of the Oswego County Medical Society. a member of the Central New York Medical Association, a perma- nent member of the New York State Medical Society, of which at its last meeting he was elected vice-president.

ORRIN R. EARL

WAS born in Jefferson county, November 2, 1812. He is a grandson of Stephen Earl, who was born in Rhode Island and died in Saratoga county aged seventy-eight, and a son of Pardner Earl, who was born in Rhode Island, and died in Jefferson county, aged sixty-two. The latter married Nancy Sherman, who died at the age of fifty years; their children were Andrew C., Ruth, Orrin R., Albert. Nancy, Jenette, and Ann V., who are all deceased excepting Orrin R., the subject. Pardner Earl was a soldier in the war of 1812, a prominent farmer, and served as supervisor and in other local positions of trust.

Orrin R. Earl was educated at Belleville, Jefferson county, and in 1846 began life as a farmer. His public spirit and his unselfish interest in public affairs gave him prominence in the town, and he was elected to the Board of Supervisors, on which he served as a leading member for seventeen years. He held the office of president of the village four years, and in 1847 was elected to the State Legislature where he

BIOGRAPHICAL.

served with credit. In 1848 he engaged in mercantile trade at Sandy Creek, as a member of the firm of Earl & Salisbury, which continued five years. He also con- ducted the Salisbury Hotel one year, and for about eight years carried on the tan yard. In 1870 he opened a bank in Sandy Creek, in connection with P. M. Newton, which partnership existed ten years, and was dissolved by the retirement of Mr. Newton. This bank was the first one established in Sandy Creek, and is still suc- cessfully conducted by Mr. Earl. In 1884 Mr. Earl became interested in the Sandy Creek Wood Manufacturing Company, Limited, of which he is now president and one of the largest stockholders. When the subject of boring for natural gas in Sandy Creek was first agitated, Mr. Earl took a deep interest in the matter and was one of the prime movers in the project of sinking the first gas well in 1889. He was chosen president of the Sandy Creek Oil & Gas Company, held the office three years, and is now one of the directors, and the principal stockholder. In addition to these various pursuits, he has successfully conducted a general farming and dairy business.

During the war period Mr. Earl was one the most ardent and unselfish supporters of the government, and in 1862 was sent by the citizens of his town to look after the interests of the local soldiers at the front. While on this mission he found himself inside the lines at the battle of Antietam, and witnessed the entire fight. He gave to the wounded men of his acquaintance $500 in cash, and rendered them other much needed assistance. Mr. Earl at the age of eighty-two years still personally conducts his banking and other business interests, and enjoys the merited confidence and es- teem of the community.

In 1844 Mr. Earl was married to Jenette Salisbury, daughter of Nathan Salisbury, and granddaughter of a soldier of the war of 1812. She died on March 8, 1886.

FREDERICK J. DORR.

THE subject of this sketch was born in Cambridge, Washington county, N. Y., on the 30th of April, 1826. His father was Rittenhouse Dorr, and his mother was Anna Lorain Carrington, a daughter of Elisha Carrington, and sister of Frederick Carring- ton, both of whom were prominent citizens of Oswego city. When Frederick J. Dorr had reached his tenth year, in 1836, he was taken by his parents from Cambridge to Oswego, and there placed in the family of Elisha Carrington. His opportunities for obtaining an education were limited to the district school, after which he was em- ployed as a clerk in the dry goods store of Dwight Herrick, where he continued until he had reached his majority. His experience as clerk served to inculcate in him those strict and conservative business principles which governed his long and active business life. Soon after he was twenty-one years of age, he opened a hardware store in Oswego, where he carried on a successful trade until his death. During this long period Mr. Dorr gained the entire respect and confidence of the community. His unswerving integrity, fairness in all business transactions, sound judgment upon public questions, and the high plane of morality which governed his social and do- mestic life, conspired to give Mr. Dorr an enviable position in the business and social life of Oswego. Although not a member of any church, he was long a trustee of the

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

Presbyterian Society, and was always ready to devote his time and energies to good works. In early life he was a Democrat in politics, but later espoused the cause of the Republican party, and cast his vote for General Grant for president of the United States. Of a naturally retiring disposition, the active strife of politics was distaste- ful to him, and he never sought public official station.

Mr. Dorr was married in Watertown, N. Y., on September 23, 1857, to Mrs. George D. Lewis. Before her first marriage, she was Louise L. Dake, a daughter of Edward D. W. Dake, of Saratoga, N. Y. The Dake family were prominent in Saratoga county, where Mrs. Dorr's father was a physician, and late in life a successful lum- ber merchant. Her grandfather was a large real estate owner in that vicinity, and a prominent and respected citizen. Mr: Dorr died on February. 24, 1881, his widow surviving him, and now residing on their homestead about two miles south of Oswego city.

ORSON H. BROWN.

ORSON H. BROWN, an old and respected citizen of the city of Oswego, was born in Jefferson county, N. Y., on September 23, 1816. His father was Roswell Brown, a native of Stonington, Conn., of which State his mother, Electa Herrick, was also a native. The family removed to Oswego county in 1827, when Orson was eleven years of age. Roswell Brown died in Oswego county at the age seventy-six, and his wife at the age of eighty-four. After receiving such education as was possible in the common schools up to the age of fourteen years, the son then entered the service on the inland lakes, which he followed seventeen years, rising in the mean time from the lowest position to the command of vessels. In 1838 he was in command of a vessel and continued in the same capacity ten years, when he abandoned navigation. Mr. Brown now turned his attention to the insurance business, the adjustment of marine losses, care of properties, etc. In fire insurance he is one of the oldest and most respected agents in the State; he has held the agency of the Ætna Insurance Company of Hartford over forty-one years; of the Insurance Company of North America thirty years; and of the Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool, England, the Pennsylvania Fire In- surance Company of Philadelphia, and the Western Assurance Company of Toronto twenty-three years each; also the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, twenty-five years. During this long period a large part of the insurance of Oswego and vicinity has been placed in these staunch companies by Mr. Brown. In the adjustment of marine losses Mr. Brown is an expert and has had many in- teresting experiences. Thoroughly familiar with maritime law, he has in the inter est of clients, met and vanquished some of the famous lawyers of this State. In one memorable case he fought his opponents almost single handed through four years of litigation and won his case against some of the best legal talent in the State. A man of recognized integrity and sound business judgment, Mr. Brown has been honored with many positions of trust. For fifteen years past he has been trustee, vice-presi- dent, and chairman of the Loan Committee of the Oswego City Savings Bank, and chairman of other committees in the same institution; he is a member of the Board of Directors of the First National Bank of Oswego; and in 1879-80 he was president.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

of the Oswego Board of Trade, and aided in inaugurating many movements for the welfare of the city. His public spirit is active and he has always contributed freely to the local press on topics of current interest. Under the will disposing of the Guimaraes estate of $200,000 value, of which he was executor-no bond or other security required-and on which he rendered his final account on May 16, 1895, and in less than an hour and thirty minutes after presentation the account was settled, and the surrogate's final decree entered. Mr. Brown collected between October 3, 1882, and May 15, 18:5, $126,553, a task requiring much of his time and oversight for twelve years past. He had previously handled the same estate under power of attorney after 1876. Complicated litigation in the cities of Oswego, New York, and Lisbon, Portugal, and other exacting duties have attended the settlement and care of this estate, but they have all been judiciously conducted by Mr. Brown. In 1878 he purchased the lot on which the Guimaraes Block stands, which structure he erected. He has also been entrusted with other valuable property on many occasions, and always without the execution of any bonds Mr. Brown is a Republican in politics, but has given little attention to that field of effort further than is the duty of every citizen. For six years he was a trustee of the Presbyterian church, although not an active member.

In 1838 Mr. Brown married Jane Weed, daughter of William Weed of Richland, where he died in 1849, at the age of sixty-two years. He was a native of Vermont, and a cousin of Thurlow Weed, the celebrated journalist and politician.

EDWIN L. HUNTINGTON.

EDWIN L. HUNTINGTON was born in Mexico, N. Y., July8, 1839, and was the fourth child of a family of eight children. He was of English stock on his father's side, while his mothers ancestors were of Scotch origin.

His grandfather, Caleb Huntington, was born October 4, 1770, in Sharon, Conn., and married Sarah Joyce in 1795. She died September 13, 1823. He died at Mexico, N. Y., October 1, 1839.

His father, Edwin Huntington, was born in Otsego county, June 1, 1805, and came to Mexico in 1829. He married Mary C. Gregory in 1831 and she died July 6, 1834. In 1835 he married Lucy A. Gregory who died in 1851. In 1853 he married Mary E. Hewett who died in 1881.

The children of Edwin Huntington were as follows: Marion, Mary H., Lester B., Edwin L., Sarah H., Lewis J., Harriet E. and Helen. Three of his daughters are still living, Mrs. M. H. Thorpe and Mrs. S. H. Howard in Michigan and Mrs. Helen McMullen in Mexico. Lewis J. Huntington, his third son, enlisted in Battery L, 9th Artillery, in March, 1864, and died in Washington July 9, 1864, at the age of eighteen, . of fever contracted in the Wilderness campaign.

The subject of this sketch was educated in his native town and finished his studies at Mexico Academy in 1856. He lived for two years in Wisconsin and Michigan.

In 1861 when the tidings of the assault on Sumter flew over the land Mr. Hunt- - ington was one of the first to leave his business and his home to defend the principles which had found such deep root in his heart. From first to last he was in the thick-

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

est of the conflict and has good reason to be proud of his war record. Waiting for no bounties he volunteered as a private soldier and went with the first regiment which left the county. Entering the ranks as a private he was afterwards promoted as corporal and then as captain.

In April, 1861, he enlisted in Capt. Payne's Co. B, 24th N. Y. Infantry, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Corps. The 24th Regiment was one of the regiments which com- posed the famous "Iron Brigade." Mr. Huntington was at the front during almost the entire war and took part in the following engagements during the years 1861-62-63:

Bailey's Cross Roads, July 25th; Falls Church, October 8th; Falmouth, April 17th ; Massaponax, August 6th; Rappahannock River, August 22d; Sulphur Springs, August 26th: Gainsville, August 28th; Groveton, August 29th; Bull Run, August 30th; Little River Turnpike, September 1st; South Mountain, September 14th; An- tietam, September 17th; Fredericksburg, December 14th and 15th; Pollock's Mill Creek, April 29th; Chancellorsville, May 2d and 3d.

At Chancellorsville Mr. Huntington was the only private in Co. B that escaped injury, all the others engaged in the battle being either killed or wounded. He was slightly wounded at Fredericksburg and honorably discharged and mustered out May 29, 1863.

Mr. Huntington re-enlisted in 1863 as 2d lieutenant in Capt. Frank Sinclair's Bat- tery L, 9th N. Y. Artillery, for three years and was promoted as captain July 6, 1865. He served in 2d Brigade 3d Division, 6th Army Corps, and participated in the follow- ing engagements during the years 1864 and 1865:

Cold Harbor, May 31st to June 12th; Assault on Petersburg, June 15th to 19th ; Weldon Railroad, June 21st to 23d; Washington, July 12th to 13th; Charlestown, August 21st; Summit Point, August 29; Winchester, September 19; Near Cedar Creek, October 9th; Strasburg, October 14th; Cedar Creek, October 19th; Bunker Hill, October 26th; Assault on Petersburg works, March 25th; Fall of Petersburg, April 2d; Sailor's Creek, April 6th: Appomatox C. H., April 9th.

He was slightly wounded at Cedar Creek and was honorably discharged Septem- ber 29, 1865. Since the close of the war he has devoted most of his time to the drug trade in Mexico.

In June, 1870, he organized a company to be attached to the 48th Regiment of National Guards of the State of New York, which was known as the Huntington Guards. He was the captain of the company for twelve years. It was composed largely of veterans and was reputed to be one of the finest companies of the regiment. This company was called into service of the State several times, the most notable occasion being at the time of the railroad riots commencing at Hornellsville and ex- tending over other parts of the State.

In 1980 Mr. Huntington was unanimously nominated at the Republican County Convention as sheriff on first ballot, an event which never before occurred in connec- tion with that position in Oswego county politics. He was elected by an unusually large majority. In 1894 he was elected supervisor of the town of Mexico for two years. For eight years he has held the position of commander of the Melzer Rich- ards Post No. 367 of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Camp of the Sons of Veterans of Mexico bears his name. He always manifested a deep interest in village improvements and to his means and energy the people are largely indebted for the Mexico Electric Lighting System. He was also very active with others in the rais-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

ing of funds for the erection of the beautiful monument now standing in the Mexico cemetery to the memory of the brave men who enlisted from that town during the war of the Rebellion.

In 1868 Mr. Huntington was married to Florence A. Allen and they have two chil- dren, Edith L., now Mrs. Clinton E. Avery of Mexico, and Lulu Adelle. His wife died in 1888 and in 1891 he married Mary A. Tudo.

Mr Huntington has held many positions of trust and always filled them with honor to himself and credit to the community. Reliable in his pledges, true to his friends, he possesses independence of character to do what he thinks to be right. In what- ever position he has been placed, the public have always evinced entire confidence in his ability and integrity.

JOHN C. CHURCHILL, LL. D.,

OF Oswego, was born at Mooers, Clinton county, N. Y., January 17, 1821. He is sixth in descent from John Churchill, who settled at Plymouth, Mass., about 1640, and who married there, December 16, 1644, Hannah, daughter of William Pontus, a member of the Plymouth Company to whom King James granted in 1605, the North American continent between 41 deg. and 45 deg. north latitude. His oldest son, Joseph, married Sarah, granddaughter of Robert Hicks, an eminent non-conformist of London, also a member of the Plymouth Company, who sailed in the "Speedwell " in company with the " Mayflower " in 1620, and, on that vessel becoming disabled, returned to England and in the following year sailed to and settled in Plymouth. Joseph, grandson of the last named couple, born in Plymouth in 1722, settled in Boston, where in 1748 his son John was born, who married Sarah Stacy, of Salem, Mass., and settled in New Salem, Mass. Soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, he removed with his family from New Salem to Benson, Vermont, in the valley of Lake Champlain, to which at that time the people of the older settled parts of New England were greatly attracted, and where he died August 23, 1798.

In 1804, Samuel, his third son, with his brothers and sisters and their widowed mother, removed to Clinton county in this State, in the same beautiful valley, then almost an unbroken wilderness. February 8, 1814, he married Martha. daughter of John Bosworth, esq., of Sandisfield, Mass., and died February 23, 1865.

Their second son, the subject of this sketch, fitted for college at Burr Seminary, in Manchester, Vermont, and entered Middlebury College, where he graduated in July, 1843. The ensuing two years he taught languages in Castleton Seminary in the same State, and subsequently, for a period of twelve months, was a tutor in Middlebury College. Having decided on adopting the legal profession, he entered the Dane Law School, of Harvard University, and having completed the required course of study was, in July, 1847, admitted to the bar. About this time the Chair of Languages in his alma mater being temporarily vacant, he was called to fill it and remained thus engaged several months. Early in 1848 he established himself in the legal profession at Oswego, where he has since resided. A year later he married Miss Catherine T. Sprague, daughter of Dr. Lawrence Sprague, of the United H

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

States army. From 1853 to 1856 he was a member of the Oswego Board of Educa- tion, and during a part of the same period he was a member of the Board of Supervisors. From 1857 to 1860 he held the office of District Attorney, and in the latter year was chosen County Judge. October 15, 1862, he was appointed by Governor Morgan commissioner to superintend the draft for Oswego county, which office he held for about one year, and until that business was transferred to officers appointed by the general government. In 1866 he was elected by a majority of 5,634 to represent the Twenty-second District of New York in the XLth Congress. Dur- ing the XLth Congress he served on the Judiciary Committee, and with Mr. Bout- well and Mr. Eldridge formed the sub-Committee that drafted the Fifteenth Amend- ment to the Constitution in the form in which it was finally adopted. On the ques- tion of the impeachment of President Johnson he joined with a majority of the Judiciary Committee in a report in the affirmative. In the XLIst Congress Mr. Churchill was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures on Public Buildings, and was second on the Committee of Elections. He introduced at this Congress the act to secure the purity and freedom of elections at which members of congress were chosen, which subsequently became a law with slight amendment, and fur- nished means for national supervision of such elections. The determined attempt to repeal this act, and the equally determined defence which kept it on the national statute books until 1894, show the importance attached to it. In 1876 Judge Churchill was a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention, which nominated President Hayes, and the following year (1877) he received the Republican nomination for Secretary of State of the State of New York. At the presidential election in the fall of 1880 Judge Churchill was elected one of the presidential electors-at-large for the State of New York, and as such voted for James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, for president and vice-president of the United States. During the years 1879 and 1880 he was again a member of the Oswego Board of Education and president of the Board, which he resigned to accept the appointment of Justice of the Supreme Court, made by Governor Cornell, January 17, 1881, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Noxon. In the fall of 1881 Judge Churchill was nominated, and at the November election chosen by a majority of 11,092, Justice of the Fifth Judicial District of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, for the full term. The de- gree of LL.D., was conferred upon him by Middlebury College, Vermont, in 1874, and by Hamilton College, New York, in 1882. He is a member of the Local Board of the State Normal and Training School at Oswego.

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Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 91

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