USA > New York > Rensselaer County > Landmarks of Rensselaer county, New York, pt 2 - 3 > Part 18
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WILLIAM SHAW.
WILLIAM SHAW was born in Saratoga Springs, N. Y., June 13, 1842., Ile was of New England parentage, and his boyhood was spent on a farm at Chester, Vt. Hle received a distriet school education, and has earned his own living since he was eight years of age. He came to Troy in 1860.
He served as a private in the 25th N. Y. Vols. in the war of the Rebellion, after which he studied law in the office of Beach & Smith, and was admitted to the bar in 1865. He has sinee practiced law in the city of Troy, and at present is at the head of the law firm of Shaw, Bailey & Murphy. He was appointed assistant police magistrate of Troy by Gov. John A. Dix. He was captain of Troy City Artillery; president of the Young Men's Association Debating Society ; president of the Young Men's Association in 1877; and at the present time is court house commissioner. He is a director of and counsel for the United National Bank, the Manufacturers' Na- tional Bank and the Troy City Railroad Company; he is a director of the Waterford and Cohoes Railroad Company, the Union Railway Company of New York city, the Troy and Lansingburgh Railroad Company, Troy and New England Railway Com- pany, and is receiver of the Gilbert Car Manufacturing Company, trustee of the first Baptist church of Troy, and a member of Post Griswold G. A. R.
JOHN AUGUSTUS GRISWOLD.
HON. JOHN AUGUSTUS GRISWOLD, only son of Hon. Chester Griswold, was born in Nassau, Rensselaer county, November 11, 1818, and descended from a long line of worthy and influential ancestors, some of whom fought in the Revolutionary war, one being captured by the British and confined in the prison ship Jersey. Hon. Chester Griswold was for several years supervisor of Nassau, was member of assem- bly for Rensselaer county in 1823, 1831, and 1835, and during a long and active lite was highly esteemed and respected. He had one son, John A., and one daughter who married Isaac B. Hart, of the firm of llart, Leslie & Warren, of Troy. John I Griswold was educated for commercial pursuits. When seventeen he entered the hardware establishment of Hart, Lesley & Warren and when eighteen became bookkeeper for C. IL. & 1. J. Merritt, cotton manufacturers, with whom he remained some time, living in the family of his uncle, Major-General John E. Wool. Soon afterward he engaged in business for himself. Ile soon became interested in the manufacture of iron, which formed the principal business of his life. Mr. Griswold being first identified with the late Ilon. Joseph M. Warren and other gentlemen in what afterwards grew to be the great Albany-Rensselaer Iron and Steel Company of Troy, which is well known in the past as having been one of the most conspicuous enterprises in this section of the country.
Mr. Griswold was originally a Democrat, and in 1855 he was elected mayor of Troy. In 1862 and 1864 he was elected as a war Democrat to the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses, being heartily supported by the Republicans, and serving in each session as a member of the Committee on Naval Affairs. He was re-elected to the Fortieth Congress and served on the principal committee of the House and
WILLIAM SHAW.
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STEPHEN KIMBALL.
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the Committee on Ways and Means. He sustained Lincoln's administration through- out the war and loyally supported all worthy measures. When the navy depart- ment was attacked in the House he made a speech in defence of its policy and espe- cially in regard to the construction of momtors. He aided in raising and equipping the 20, 125th, and 169th, the Griswold Light Cavalry, and several other New York regiments, and was a leading member of the War Committee of Rensselaer county during the Rebellion.
Mr. Griswold and his associate, the late Hon. John F. Winslow, formerly of Troy, furnished the capital and built Ericsson's Monitor, the iron being largely furnished from the Troy works and the vessel itself being constructed in New York. As a matter of fact, the Monitor, when she fought the Merrimac, was still the property of Messis. Griswold, Winslow and Ericsson, her designer, the government at that time not having fully accepted the vessel. 'The success of the Monitor led to the con- tracting on the part of the government with Mr. Griswold and his associates, con. tracts for the ironclad Dictator and a number of other vessels of similar type, many of which were conspicuous in the naval engagements of the Civil war.
In 1-6> he was nominated by the Republican Union State Convention for got- ernor of New York and received 411,855 votes, the largest number ever given for any gubernatorial candidate prior to that year. His party claimed his election by a majority of the votes actually cast, and many prominent members of the opposing party admitted the fact, but he was counted out through what were afterward proved palpable frands. He died in Troy October 3, 1972. On September 14, 1-13 he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Richard P. Hart, of Troy, and they had three sons and three daughters.
STEPHEN KIMBALL.
STANDA KIMBALL, whose portrait is pictured on the adjoining page, is of the fam- ily of that name, so numerous throughout the New England States. He was born at Cheparchet, in the State of Rhode Island, March 29, 1-18 Uhr-Father, being hente ! of the studies taught in the district school of his neighbor hood. pat the boy to work. Accordingly, at an early age he became a practical blacksmith and v. Lechyright. Som after attaining his majority deeming business opportunities more favorable in New York than in his native place he immigrated to saratoga county, where he commenced his business career. After a little he removed from Saratoga to Fast Greenbush, making that place his home for the remainder of his life. Here he e- gaged in his trade, of which he was master, and meeting with the success which ability and prompt attention uniformly secures, he enlarged the field of his industry by purchasing and conducting a farm. Later he became owner of the major part of the stock of the Rens-elaer and Columbia Turnpike Company, and for the period of twenty years was secretary, treasurer and general manager of the affairs of the company, to the profit and entire satisfaction of the other stockholders. Later in life, and for several years, Mr. Kimball conducted a furniture store at 22 and 24 Green street in the city of Almir He was to a considerable extent a date i ica'
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estate, more especially in Albany. For several years prior to his death Mr. Kimball exercised supervision over the affairs of the property and management of the large farm of his daughter Charlotte, consisting of two hundred and forty-five acres situ- ated in East Greenbush.
The only civic office Mr. Kimball ever held was that of deputy sheriff, and that not from choice so much as by solicitations of friends. Mr. Kimball was eminently en- ergetie and industrious, -- no duty was left unperformed by him, no business interest allowed to slumber for a more convenient time for action. His promptness in these respects was coupled with probity, making his life a profit and blessing to his family. He died February 23, 1887, respected by all who knew him.
Mr. Kimball was three times married; first to Charlotte Anthony of Saratoga, . second to Catherine Snook of Sand Lake, and third to Kate E. Bullock of Albany, who still survives. One son was born of each the first and third marriages, neither of whom survive. By the second marriage there were born two daughters, Charlotte A. and Sarah A., both of whom are still living, the latter unmarried and invalid. Charlotte A. while still in her teens became the wife of Albert Smith, an extensive farmer and successful business man in East Greenbush. The grandparents of Albert were Jesse and Rachel (Furman) Smith, of Providence, R. I., where Nehemiah, the father of Albert, was born, and who when a young man settled in East Greenbush as farmer and speculator. He was successful in business, being at the time of his death (1864) the owner of landed property in Albany and Rensselaer counties to the extent of eight hundred acres.
Albert Smith died in 1866 at the age of twenty-nine years, leaving his widow and an infant son surviving. The son has since died. The widow, Mrs. Charlotte A. Smith, since the death of her father has developed into an all-round business woman, taking personal charge of her own large property, succeeding also to the offices, duties and responsibilities of her father in connection with the Turnpike Company, and exhibiting the business ability and personal characteristics of her father.
GEN. JOSEPH B. CARR.
GENERAL JOSEPH BRADFORD CAKE was born in Albany, N. Y., August 16, 1828, and died in Troy, N. Y., February 24, 1895. His father and mother emigrated from Ire- land in 1824. He attended the public schools of Albany, and early in life learned the trade of cigar-making. In 1812 be removed to Troy and engaged in cigar mak- ing, continuing in that business until the breaking out of the civil war in 1861. llis military career began in 1819, when he joined the Troy Republican Guards, being promoted by degrees to the command. He was chiefly instrumental in organizing the Second Regt., N. Y. State Vols,, and April 15, 1861, was elected lieutenant-colonel of that regiment. The regiment was mustered in May 4, 1861, and left Troy May 18 in command of Colonel Carr. In May, 1862, he was given command of a brigade, and shortly afterward was ordered to report to General Mcclellan at Fair Oaks, Va., and was assigned to Patterson's Brigade of Hooker's Division of the Army of the Potomac. At the battle of Malvern Hill he superseded General Patterson, and Sep- tember 7, 1862, upon recommendation of General Hooker, " for gallant and merito-
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rions service in the field," he was made brigadier-general of the Volunteers. Jann- ary 12, 1863, he was given command of the Second Division, Third Corps, and de- stroyed the Rappahannock bridge. In April, 1564, he was assigned to the command of the Fourth Division, Second Corps. He afterwards commanded divisions in the First Corps, had charge of defenses on the James River, and June 1, 1865, was bie- vetted major general. He was mustered out of service August 21, 1865, having pre- vionsly been nominated for secretary of state of New York.
In 1879 he was a candidate for secretary of state on the Republican ticket and was eleced by a large majority. He was re-elected in 1881 and 1883. In 1885 he was the Republican candidate for lieutenant-governor, but was defeated.
Upon returning to Troy General Carr became the senior member of the firm of J. B. Carr & Co., chain manufacturers, continuing in that business until the time of his death. Without any previons knowledge on his part he was appointed by the gov- ernor to be major-general of the Third Division, N. Y. S. M. He was highly esteemed at home and abroad, and many organizations bestowed honorary member- ship upon him. He was connected with the Old Guard of New York, the Ninth Regiment, the Troy Citizens Corps, and the Burgesses Corps of Albany. He was a member of the Loyal Legion, the highest military organization in the country; the Second Regiment Association, the Third Army Corps Association, Post Willard, the Troy Club, the lonie Club, was vice-president of the Rensselaer County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Association, a director in the Mutual National Bank, second vice- president and a director of the Troy City Railway Company, and a trustee of the New York State Gettysburg Monument Association. At his death he left a widow formerly Mary Gould; a daughter, Mary Cari ; and a son, William G. Carr.
JOHN A. QUACKENBUSH.
Hos. JonN A. QUACKENDE SH was born on the homestead on the banks of the bean. tiful Hoosick River in the town of Schaghticoke, N. Y., October 16, 1828. His edu- cation was obtained in the district schools and Stillwater Academy. He is a farmer and speculator in farm products and lumber. September 29, 1552, he married Harriet E. Kinney, of his native town ; they have two children, a son and daughter, namely John 11., and Ema. John 11. was educated in the common schools, and Poultney Academy, Vermont, and Willbraham Academy, Mass. He is farming in connection with his father at home. They have a herd of registered Jersey cows in which they justly take much care and pride. John H. married Nellie Newland of Stillwater, N. Y. ; they have one daughter, Lionne N. Ema married G. Ira Haner of the town of Schaghticoke. Mr. Quackenbush's father, Herman, was born here in the year 1798, was educated in the schools of that day, and was a farmer and surveyor. He married Elizabeth Baucus, of his own town ; they had four children, Jacob, John A., Harriet A., and Charlotte L. He died at the age of thirty-four years and his wife died in January, 1878. Mr. Quackenbush's grandfather, Jacob Quackenbush, was born here on the old homestead in the year 1770. He married Anna Groesbeck. This property has been in the family since 1705. A census was taken of this town in 1412 and nineteen Dutch families were found at that time. The eighth generation
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is now living on the property in the person of Mr. Quackenbush's granddaughter. Lionne N. Mr. Quekenbush has been elected three times supervisor of the town of which he is an honored citizen, viz. : in 1861, 1862, and in 1863. In 1868 he was chairman of the Board of Supervisors. In the fall of 1862 he was elected member of assembly of the Second district and served his constituents with ability. He was elected sheriff of Rensselaer county in the fall of 1873, and served in that capacity three years. In the year 1888 he was elected to the Fifty. first Congress, and re- elected in 1890 to the Fifty-second. In the first he served on the committee on public buildings. In his second term on the committee on rivers and harbors and other important committees. He has been a member of the State Central Republi- can Committee for the past ten years. He has served as delegate to three national conventions and was an alternate to the St. Louis convention. In caring for his con- stitnents' interests, this congressional district never had a member who did more than did Mr. Quackenbush. During his term in Congress he secured the appropria- tion for the building of the magnificent court house in Troy, and was largely instru- mental in securing an appropriation of two and a half millions for the improvement of the Hudson River, which improvement will be finished during the year 1896; also some appropriations for the improvement of the navigation of Lake Champlain. It was through his determined efforts that sufficient protection in the MeKinley bill was given to the shirt and collar industry of Troy, by which they were enabled to prosperously conduet their business. The family attend the Presbyterian church at Stillwater. Mr. Qnackenbush is a member of Victor Lodge No. 680, F. & A. M., and Apollo Commandery of Troy. The ancestry of this family is Holland Dutch and German.
EZRA THOMPSON GALE, C. E.
MR, EZRA THOMPSON GALE was born in Troy, N. V., April 22, 1819; died at his residence in North Greenbush at 12.30 o'clock, July 4, 1887. Mr. Gale suffered from creeping paralysis, and had been an invalid for several years. He passed a portion of the last two summers at Saratoga, and was greatly benefited. On the 23d of Jime of the latter year he went to his summer residence, where he died. The re- mains were brought to his residence on First street. The Rev. T. P. Sawin, of the First Presbyterian church, of which the deceased was a member, conducted the service. The remains were interred in Oakwood Cemetery.
Mr. Gale was a native of Troy, having been born in this city April 27, 1819. His father was Dr. Samuel Gale, whose father was also Dr. Samuel Gale, who came to this section of the country from New England, Killingworth. Conn., in the latter part of the last century, September, 1987. 11is ancestors came to America at a very early date, prior to 1640, and settled near Boston, Mass. Edmund Gale died in Boston in 1642, and the first Dr. Samuel Gale studied medicine with his uncle, Dr. Benjamin Gale, Killingworth, Conn., who was also a professor in Yale College. He held a captain's commission under Gov. Jonathan Trumbull, dated May 1, 1275, serving a considerable time during the Revolutionary war. The elder Gale was a physician, and for some years was the only one practicing in the valley adjoining Ashley's
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Ferry, as the latter place ocenpying the present site of Troy was called. Dr. Gale was one of the original trustees of the First Presbyterian church, which were appointed December 31, 1791. The meeting at which they were chosen was held at the house of Stephen Ashley. The place was then known as the town of Troy. Dr. Gale had been in Troy about four years at the time that this church was organized. On arriving here he bought of the patroon, Jacob Van Der Heyden, the second lot of land below the ferry on the river road. Hle desired to become possessed of the next lot north, but the patroon would not part with it, and Mr. Gale was obliged to con- tent himself with what he could get. Mr. Van Der Heyden had not yet become very well acquainted with the new comer, and for some business reason he did not care to give him a piece of land that might control the ferry, which was a fruitful source of income to the patroon.
We read in these days of the treatment of small-pox by inoculation, but Dr. Gale possessed that theory and reduced it to practice when he first came to Troy. Ile inoculated many of the inhabitants, and they had small pox as the result. Dr. Gale was evidently a man who lived beyond his time, as his inoculation plan showed. The small pox ran its course, and the thriving young village was soon free from all danger of a sudden and severe visitation of that disease. Dr. Gale grew in public favor and estimation. A cotemporary man said Dr. Gale was a born gentleman. llis figure was tall and commanding, and he was built in good proportion. Besides being a gentleman by nature he was a splendid specimen of physical manhood. In those days he drew about him men of superior intelligence and worth, and was indeed the leader in a refined and cultured cirele. The nobler attributes of the man came down to his son and to his grandchildren. E. Thompson Gale was a man of unnsnal strength of character, and the most natural thing to him was to be a refined and cul- tured gentleman under all circumstances. No trait in his character shows with more resplendent brilliancy than this. Dr. Gale's whole heart was in the young village that began to prosper soon after he arrived here. One day there came to this part of the country Wait Rathbun. He was considered a wealthy man, and had $8,000 in his money bags. Ile desired to settle in Troy, and offered to purchase of the patroon a lot on the northwest corner of Congress and First streets, and to the surprise of everybody he wanted to pay cash for the entire amount. Mr. Van Der Hayden did not understand why a man should wish to pay all cash when he could get the prop- erty by paying so much each year, and declined to sell. Mr. Rathbun took himself to Lansingburgh, and was about to settle there, but Dr. Gale prevailed upon the patroon to accept the proposition, and the new comer was retained as a resident of Troy. lle erected a handsome residence on his purchase, and it stood there until Dr. Wotkyns built the block of stores that now occupy the site.
The death of Mr. Gale left his brother, John B. Gale, the sole remaining repre- sentative of that New England element that came to the valley of the Hudson at the time we have above referred to. Other men and women servive to represent the later comers to Troy, but of the ones referred to nearly the last vestige has passed away. As the coming of Dr. Gale to Troy marked a new era in the progress of the place, so the birth of his grandson, E. Thompson Gale occurred at a time when the whole country was swelling with pride at the successful ending of the second great war with England. Only a short time after the close of that war Mr. Gale was born. His father early took special pains to guide the footsteps of his boy into that path of
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rectitude in which he himself had trod, and to lay in him the foundation of a career of usefulness and honor surpassed by no man who ever called Troy his home. That is a broad compliment to pay to him; it is to choose him from among many men who have left behind them enduring monuments of their public spirit and boundless generosity; but that compliment is deserved. If ever a man merited the approba- tion of his fellows and the plaudits of his friends, that man was Ezra Thompson Gale. His early education was received in the select schools of the town and village, and the rudiments of practical work were carefully instilled into his young mind. Ile entered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute when that school was in its infancy, and its fame was yet to be earned and spread. He was a good sample of the work done there, and a credit to the Institute, as he was to everything else with which his name was connected. After he left the Institute he spent the next few years in ex- tensive travel in America and in Europe. The late William Howard Hart was his companion in some of his European travels, and the two enjoyed not only the rare scentes and places that they visited and the companionship of traveled people, but they enjoyed the opportunity that they got to add to their store of knowledge by that sure and certain teacher-observation The journeys of Mr. Gale were not taken for the pleasure that often prompts such goings-idle curiosity to see that which others have not seen, and to relate for the edification of friends, and for self glorifi- cation, stories of life in other lands and of people in other chies. He was a searcher after knowledge. He was laying broad and deep that sure foundation on which he was to build the superstructure of a life filled with that success that comes of honest effort and well directed attention to the work that is given him to do. He entered the business world as a clerk in a mercantile house, and in 1840 the hardware firm of Brinkerhoff, Catlin & Gale was organized, with our subject as the junior partner. During his connection with this house, he made his European journeys. In 18-18 the firm became E. Thompson Gale & Co. They did business on lower River street, and the style remained unchanged until 1853, when it was changed to Catlin & Sex- ton, with Mr. Gale as a special partner. The firm manufactured as well as traded in hardware, and the business was a very extensive one. In 1857 Mr. Gale closed out his interest and withdrew, but a few years later his eldest son, Alfred de Forest Ciale, entered the firm, and the style became Late, Gale & Co. Alfred de Forest Gale died March 30, 18 ;;.
As a financier Mr. Gale took high rank among the most successful men of that class in this county. His habits of life led him to be careful and systematic in his dealings, and to search for cause and effect in his own way. He never studied a subject on its superficial bearing. He did not look for results to-day or to-morrow, but beyond the present he saw the reward that would come to well-matured plans, or the ruin that would follow some fleeting fancy of the hour. In 1850 he became a director of the Farmers' Bank. He took the seat that was once occupied by his dis- tinguished father in this, one of the oldest monetary institutions of the land. In 1859 he was elected president of the bank, and held that position until 1865, when the bank was consolidated with the Bank of Troy under the name of the United National Bank of Troy. He was chosen president of the new institution, and held that posi- - tion until 1885, when he passed it to the care and keeping of other men, while he re- tired to enjoy the evening of his life, after a day well spent and fruitful of good works. Under his guidance, the bank made a reputation throughout the State for its solid-
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ity and fair conservatism. In speaking on several occasions with the writer on various topics, Mr. Gale often showed that he had great confidence in men of moderate means who had gathered their hoardings themselves, and also knew the value of them. 1Ie seemed to think that the motto, " Come lightly, go quick," was never more appropriately applied than to men who inherited fortune and suddenly became possessed of the idea that they were financiers when theretofore they had shown little or no aptibility for anything but ease and comfort. "I have more confidence in the note of a man who is worth $20,000," he said, " than I have in one of a man who is worth $100,000. The former will not fail if he can help it; but very often the latter will not pay if he can help it."
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