Landmarks of Steuben County, New York, Part 41

Author: Hakes, Harlo, 1823- ed; Aldrich, Lewis Cass. cn
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1180

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LANDMARKS OF STEUBEN COUNTY.

director of the army of the Potomac, and especially for a detailed report giving everything occurring in his division which in a remote degree affected the medical ·department.

To Dr. Jamison belongs the credit of suggesting the institution at Washington subsequently known as the "Contraband Hospital," where the colored people, who had escaped from the rebel lines and were coming to Washington in large numbers, destitute of food and clothing, and many of them sick and suffering, could be treated and cared for. Noticing a block of empty buildings near the Capitol, called the "Duff Green Row," he suggested to General Wadsworth, then in command there, the plan of using it for a rendezvous and hospital for the strangers. With the aid of Vice-President Hamlin and the president of the Freedmen's Bureau, the general secured this block and ordered the doctor to put it in sanitary condition. This he did, and soon had the hospital department in effective operation. This institution was visited by the representatives of many English and European papers and received many favorable comments from the home and foreign press.

On account of his large operative experience and skillful treatment of cases as surgeon-in-chief of division of the Third Army corps, Dr. Jamison, in June, 1866, was requested by George A. Otis, surgeon and brevet lieutenaht-colonel U. S. volunteers, to contribute to his official reports, of his operations and interesting cases during the war. In 1873 he was appointed U. S. pension examiner at Hornellsville, which posi- tion he still retains, and at present is president of the Hornellsville Board of Pension Examiners.

The doctor is a Republican in politics and has been a vestryman of Christ Epis- copal church, Hornellsville, for more than thirty years. He has devoted much time to the study of botany and has valuable botanical and geological cabinets. He was a member of the Ninth International Medical Congress held in Washington, D. C .; also a delegate for the New York State Medical Association to the Tenth Interna- tional Medical Congress, held in Berlin, Prussia; is a member of the American Medical Association; the New York State Medical Association; and was the first president of the Hornellsville Medical and Surgical Association, working under the code of the American Medical Association. He has published two papers on "Chronic Intestinal Catarrh," (see Transactions New York State Medical Association, 1885,'86).

Dr. Jamison was married May 26, 1846, to Miss Lavinia, daughter of Abijah New- man, of Schuyler county, N. Y., who died October 22, 1887. Their only child is 1 Newman Catlin Jamison, agent of the Pullman Palace Car Company at Hornells- ville.

CAPTAIN SILAS WHEELER.

THE first settlement in the town of Wheeler was made by Captain Silas Wheeler in the year 1800, and the town is named after him. He was a descendant of Captain Timothy Wheeler, who was born in England in 1604, and was a nephew of Governor Brooks of Massachuseets.

The parents of Silas Wheeler, Jonas Wheeler and Percis Brooks, both natives of Concord, Mass., were married October 13, 1743, and Silas Wheeler was born March

BIOGRAPHICAL.

7, 1752, at Concord, Mass. He was married in Providence county, R. I., to Sarah Gardner, and they remained there nearly a year with the bride's parents. Before the year was ended the famous fight at Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, took place, in which battle many kinsmen of Silas Wheeler took part in defense of their homes. An "army of observation," consisting of three regiments, was at once organized in Rhode Island, and in a few weeks marched to Prospect Hill near Bos- ton. General Nathaniel Green was commander of one of the regiments raised in Providence, and Silas Wheeler was a private in that regiment. These three regi- ments formed what wasknown as the " Rhode Island Brigade," and were present at the battle of Bunker Hill. After Washington assumed command of the troops before Bos- ton, a body of eleven hundred men was selected from hisarmy to make a descent upon Quebec. This body was intended to co-operate with General Montgomery's army, which had set out for Quebec by the way of Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River. Washington selected Benedict Arnold to command the eleven hundred men, with the orders to march through the Maine woods. Among the first to volunteer in this body was Silas Wheeler, who was appointed 3d corporal in Captain Simeon Thayer's Company. On September 13, 1775, Arnold started with his men from Cambridge, and on November 3 they reached Sertigan in Canada, in a state of starvation. For several days this little army had been without provisions of any kind.

Caleb Haskel, in his journal of the expedition recorded at the time, says: "No- vember 1, 1775, set out weak and faint, having nothing to eat; the ground covered with snow; traveled fifteen miles and encamped. Eat part of a hind quarter of a dog for supper ; we are in a pitiable condition. November 2, set out early this morn- ing very much discouraged, having nothing to eat or no prospect of anything; we are so weak and faint we can scarcely walk, obliged to lighten our packs, have been upon short allowance for sixteen days. November 3, about two o'clock we espied a house, "then we gave three huzzas, for we have not seen a house before for thirty days. The village is called Sertigan, the people are all French and Indians."

The day before the army reached Sertigan Captain Dearborn, afterward Major- General Dearborn, gave his Newfoundland dog to the men, and although the dog had been a great favorite with all the command, he was at once killed and eaten without bread or salt.

Judge Henry, of Pennsylvania, in his journal, says: "One spoonful of the dog stew was quite enough for me," but Captain Wheeler often said that nothing ever tasted better to him than this meal eaten as it was after a fast of five days. Many men of this little army died of hunger, some [in four or five minutes after making their last effort and lying down. Corporal Wheeler had with him fifty golden guineas, and in his fight for life he threw them away, in order to lighten his load, and a comrade picked them up and carried them until he fell from exhaustion.

December 1, Arnold reached Quebec, but it was not until the night of Dec. 31 that the assault was made. Corporal Wheeler's company was in the assault, took one barrier of the fort, and captured 130 prisoners, but were unable to reach the second barrier, or to retreat. Meantime Montgomery had fallen and Arnold was wounded; and after holding their position for four hours, his men were captured and taken to the Dauphine Prison in Quebec. This prison was burned down in 1810. The American prisoners were kindly treated by Sir Guy Carlton, afterwards Lord Dor-

LANDMARKS OF STEUBEN COUNTY

chester, "the savior of Canada;" but smallpox broke out in the prison, and great suffering ensued, and in March an attempt was made to escape but failed through the treachery of John Hall. The prisoners were placed in irons and so kept for two months. Corporal Wheeler was treated with exceptional severity, because it was re- ported that he had taken part in the capture and burning of the British armed sloop " Gaspe."

In August, 1776, the prisoners were paroled, and on August 12 Corporal Wheeler's company left Quebec for New York and arrived there September 12, but finding New York in the possession of the British, they proceeded to Elizabethtown, N. J. Captain Thayer, in his journal, says that he landed at Elizabethtown on September 20, with nine rank and file, one lieutenant-all that returned of the eighty-seven men of his company who left Cambridge a year before. From Elizabethtown Corporal Wheeler went to Rhode Island to join his young wife, and was soon exchanged as a prisoner. He at once re-enlisted in the "Rhode Island Brigade," in Colonel John Popham's regiment. This brigade served three years in the Continental Army. Many of the Rhode Island troops were permitted to volunteer for service on the sea, and under this permission Silas Wheeler went on board a privateer which was cap- tured by a British man-of-war. The prisoners were treated as pirates, were taken to Ireland and confined in prison at Kinsale for more than a year. Henry Grattan, the great Irish orator and patriot, was in deep sympathy with the Americans in their struggle for freedom, and in some way Silas Wheeler was placed in communication with him, and was assured that if he could escape from prison, shelter and aid would be furnished by Lord Grattan. Wheeler planned and made his escape over the walls of the prison; and amid a shower of bullets aimed at him by the guards, he made his way to Grattan, and the latter gave him clothing and money, and secured his passage to France, and when asked how he could be repaid, answered: "If you should have a son, give him my name, and bring him up to love liberty and his fel- low man." Soon after Captain Wheeler took passage for America, and lost no time . in making his way to Rhode Island to his wife, who for nearly two years had not heard from him and had supposed him dead.

It was during his service with the Rhode Island Brigade and before he went on the privateer that he was made a captain. He remained in Rhode Island until the close of the war; and on August 25, 1783, his only son was born, and to him the name of Grattan Henry was given. Soon after the close of the war Captain Wheeler moved to Albany county; then in 1798 to Steuben county. He was a man of great energy and perseverance, but liberal and generous and never a money maker. His son, Grattan H. Wheeler, who came with him to Wheeler, was a man of great busi- ness ability, and largely through his efforts ard good judgment, the great Wheeler farm of 5,000 acres was secured and improved; upon that farm Captain Wheeler lived until his death in 1828. He never forgot his early sufferings from hunger, and at his house every one who came was invited to eat and drink. He planted fruit trees by the roadside, and raised tobacco for the free use of the wayfarer. He had three chil- dren, two twin girls born during the Revolutionary war, both of whom lived and died in Wheeler, Ruth as the wife of Nathan Rose and Sarah as the wife of William Holmes. A sketch af his son, Grattan H., appears in another place.

Captain Wheeler was induced to settle in Steuben county by a Mr. Preston from Westerloo, who had purchased township 6; and upon his return to Albany county,

GRATTAN H. WHEELER, SR.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

had spread the most glowing accounts of the fertility of the Conhocton Valley. The captain located on the Wheeler farm, so many years occupied by him and his son, Grattan H.

His first trip to mill is worthy of record. There were at the time when he had occasion to go to mill but three institutions in the neighborhood where grinding was done: At the Friends' Settlement at Dresden, at Bath and at Naples. The mill at Bath had suspended operations. Captain Wheeler made a cart, the wheels of which were sawed from the end of a curly maple log; the box was in keeping. He started for Naples with a yoke of oxen attached to this cart. The young men went before them with axes and chopped a road; and the clumsy chariot came floundering through the bushes, bouncing over logs and scrubbing the tree stumps. The first day they reached a point near where Prattsburg now is-six miles, and on the second day reached the mill at Naples.

GRATTAN H. WHEELER, SR.

HON. GRATTAN H. WHEELER was a son of Capt. Silas Wheeler, and was born August 25, 1783, in Rhode Island, and removed with his father to Albany county and thence in 1798 to Steuben county. He developed into a man of great business and executive ability ; and, as stated in the sketch of Capt. Silas Wheeler, it was through his ability and efforts that what is known as "the old Wheeler Farm," of 5,000 acres, was secured and improved. He was a very successful farmer, stock raiser, lumber- man, and general business man; he also became one of the most prominent politi- cians in Steuben county and vicinity. In 1822 he represented Allegany and Steuben in the Assembly; in 1824 he was elected and in 1826 re-elected to represent the county of Steuben in the Assembly; and as State senator he represented the Sixth Senatorial District, then composed of the counties of Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Otsego, Tioga and Steuben, during the years 1828, 1829, 1830 and 1831. In the year 1831 he ran against Hon. John Magee for Congress, defeating Mr. Magee. He served two years in Congress from this district, which was then composed of Steu- ben, Allegany and Cattaraugus counties. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Gen- eral Harrison in the campaign 1840, and was elected one of his presidential electors. After 1840 he retired from active participation in politics and devoted his energies to his large business interests, which had been growing even during his political career. He died on his farm in Wheeler in March, 1852, from an acute disease, being a very vigorous man up to within a few days of his death. He was twice married, first to Fanny Baker, daughter of Samuel Baker of Canisteo, and after her death, to Eliza Aulls, the youngest daughter of William Aulls, the first settler in Pleasant Valley. To him and his first wife were born three children: Silas, who died in 1845 at Wheeler; Grattan H., who resides at Hammondsport, N. Y .; and Sarah, who mar- ried Jesse Brundage and resides upon her farm about two miles from the village of Bath. She was the mother of Frank, Grattan H., and Capt. Monroe Brundage. There were born to his second wife and him eleven children, all of whom are dead but Eliza Armstrong, of Tiffin, O,

LANDMARKS OF STEUBEN COUNTY.

GRATTAN H. WHEELER.

GRATTAN H. WHEELER was born in the town of Wheeler March 12, 1813, the son of Hon. Grattan H. Wheeler and the grandson of Capt. Silas Wheeler, sketches of whom appear elsewhere in this book. Grattan H. Wheeler lived on the farm with his distinguished father, and during the period while the latter was absent at Albany and Washington, assisted in the management of the large farm and business. He was married in 1837 to Nancy D. Sayre of Wheeler, and soon after their marriage they settled upon a farm about one mile from the old Wheeler homestead. He lived in Wheeler until the year 1857, during which period he accumulated a farm of about 1,500 acres of land, and also built up a large lumber business. He was a first-class farmer in every respect and a great stock raiser, having brought into Wheeler some of the best blooded sheep and cattle in the county of Steuben; and while there he had the reputation of having one of the finest flocks of sheep and the best herds of cattle in the county.

In politics he was a staunch Whig, and was a justice of the peace and supervisor of the town of Wheeler; he also held many offices and positions of trust. In 1857 he became satisfied that there was a future for the grape industry in the adjoining town of Urbana, and on December 9 of that year he removed from the old home to a farm one mile west of Hammondsport. He began there at once the business of farming, sheep raising and the grape industry. He at once planted a vineyard, which was then the fourth vineyard planted in that town; and in the year 1860 he was one of the active spirits which organized the first wine company and built the first large wine cellar in the State of New York, and in fact east of Ohio. He had great faith in the future of the Lake Keuka and Pleasant Valley grape region, and he believed that the wine industry would eventually develop into a large business. Time has proved the accuracy of his judgment and belief.

He was elected the first president of the Pleasant Valley Wine Company, and served in that capacity for nine successive years, when he sold his stock therein at a large profit and established a cellar, which was known as the Hammondsport Wine Company, and he continued that business until the year 1878, the present Ham- mondsport Wine Company having succeeded to his business name.

Since the formation of the Republican party he has been an active Republican. In 1858 he was a candidate for member of assembly in this district. He is at present living at Hammondsport and in active work; and at the age of nearly eighty-three years, is in good health, his mind as bright and active as ever.

There were ten children born of this marriage with Nancy D. Sayre, namely: Fanny, Sarah, Eliza, Graham H., Emma, Monroe, Nannie, Charles G., Nellie, and Mary. Fanny became Mrs. H. D. Rose and now resides at Rochester, N. Y .; Sarah married Lieutenant Layton, who was killed in 1863 in battle, and then in 1887 she married Lieutenant Cranston, of the regular army; she is living at Elmira. Eliza married Major H. Gardner and resides at New York city. Emma is the wife of R. R. Sopher, the proprietor of the Elmira Gazette, and resides at Elmira, N. Y. Nannie married Major Norton and died in 1880. The three sons reside at Ham- mondsport. Nellie also married Major Norton; and Mary married G. E. Mendel, and both reside at Wheeling, W. Va.

GRATTAN H. WHEELER, JR.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

At one time Mr. Wheeler was the president of the Ohio River Coal Company, and operated that company for years on the Ohio River; he was also president of the Steuben County Agricultural Society for several terms and aided materially in the early growth of that society, and was recently elected a life member thereof. For many years he was an officer of the Franklin Academy at Prattsburg, and later president of the Hammondsport Academy. He has always been active in educa- tional matters, a man of public spirit and closely identified with all which tended towards the progress of mankind. His wife was a woman of lovely character. She died May 27, 1889.

MONROE WHEELER.

MONROE WHEELER, the second son of Grattan H. and Nancy D. Wheeler, was born on the old Wheeler farm in the town of Wheeler, August 16, 1849, and lived there with his parents until they moved to Urbana, December 9, 1857.

He was educated at Hammondsport Academy and Michigan University, and studied law his first year at Elmira with Judge G. L. Smith, and Senator David B. Hill. The firm was then Smith & Hill. He spent the last two years of his law course with D. & W. Rumsey at Bath, N. Y., and was admitted to the bar at Roch- ester, N. Y., October 22, 1874. For three years thereafter he was managing clerk of the law firm of Rumsey & Miller at Bath.

On October 24, 1879, he married Miss Emma G. White, of Cohocton, N. Y., and on November 1 of that year he opened a law office at Hammondsport, where he has ever since practiced. During which time he has built up a large and profitable practice, and is now considered one of the best lawyers of his age in the county.

He has always been an active Republican and one of the leaders of his party in the county for the past twelve years. He has placed many others in office, but he prefers for himself the practice of law to office holding.

He has been village attorney for many years and counsel for the large wine com- panies at Hammondsport, and also attorney for the railroad and steamboat com- panies there. He is also treasurer of the Lake Keuka Wine Co.

He has an adopted daughter and two young sons.

HARRY C. HEERMANS.

HARRY C. HEERMANS is a native of West Virginia, born at Fellowsville, Preston county, June 3, 1852. He is the son of John and Nancy Heermans, both natives of Luzerne county, Pa. The family moved to Corning from Scranton, Pa., in 1865. Mr. Heermans was graduated from the Corning Free Academy in the class of 1870, after which he entered Wesleyan University in the regular classical course, grad- uating in 1875 and receiving in course an honorary degree in 1878. After leaving col- lege he began the study of law in the office of Brown & Hadden at Corning. In 1877 he became identified with the real estate business by entering the office of the

LANDMARKS OF STEUBEN COUNTY

Fellows estate, of which his father was the sole trustee. In the latter portion of the year 1876 the trustees of the village of Corning vainly sought to make some disposi- tion of the local water works system, originally constructed for fire protection only, and which was then a source of continual vexation and expense to the village.

Proposals were asked for and none received. Then Mr. Heermans, with Thomas Lawrence, proposed to lease the plant for a term of years and assume all responsi- bility for its proper management, extension and maintenance, though he met with discouraging advice from his best friends and the strongest possible objection from his father. However, he acted independently and determined to operate the works and if possible place the system on a paying basis. The lease was made by the vil- lage authorities to him and his partner. Thereupon, by the investment of private funds and in the face of many obstacles and discouraging objections the works were placed on a successful basis.

In the history of the city of Corning the reader will find a more complete and de- tailed narrative of the origin and development of the water supply system, but we may here state that whatever this system has become the whole credit therefor is due to Harry C. Heermans and his partner, Thomas Lawrence. During the term of eighteen years the city has been abundantly supplied with pure and wholesome water, ample fire protection has been furnished without cost to the city and in all respects Corning has a water system as complete and reliable as any municipality of equal size in the State.

Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Heermans is constantly engaged in the man- agement of the Water Company he has other important business interests in the city and elsewhere. The firm of Heermans & Lawrence are well known in this section as contractors in steam heating and plumbing work and supplies. He is a member of the firm of Heermans & Co., druggists, formed in 1882 and now doing business in Corning. He has been president of the Ontario Land Co. of Duluth, Minn., since its organization in 1886, now controlling large properties in various States. He is also president of other land companies and corporations in the Western States. In the management of these concerns he has been successful.

In 1878 Mr. Heermans first acted as city engineer of Corning and has ever since been more or less identified with that department of local government. In 1884 he was employed to report a sewer system for the village, which was constructed in 1886 and years following, acting at the time of construction as consulting engineer. In 1886 he devised a plan and constructed the water works system of Wellsboro, Pa., and in 1893 a similar works in Westfield, Pa. He is now city engineer in charge · of the pavements, sewers and street railway work. He was for several years chief engineer of the fire department and is one of the managers of the Corning Library Association.

In politics he is a Republican, firm in his advocacy of party principles, yet never so radical in expression as to offend his political opponents. In 1886 he was elected supervisor of the town and re-elected in 1887, in the latter year serving as chairman of the board.

Mr. Heermans is a member of the First Presbyterian church of Corning and one of the trustees of the society. He has been twice married; first in 1878 to Ella Weston, daughter of Abijah Weston, of Painted Post. She died in 1880. In 1886 he married Annie L. Townsend, daughter of Edward E. Townsend, of Erwin. Four children

GEORGE RENCHAN.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

have been born of the second marriage: Ruth, Joseph Fellows, Jerome Townsend, and Helen De Kay.

Mr. Heermans has ever been identified with the progressive spirit of the city of Corning and has been active in the work necessary to secure new enterprises in the town.

GEORGE RENCHAN.

GEORGE RENCHAN was born in the town of Wheeler, Steuben county, N. Y., the 23d of September, 1814. His advantages for an education were limited to the com- mon schools of his town, which he attended during the winter terms until he was eighteen years of age, and one term after he became of age. He then commenced the carpenter's trade without serving time as an apprentice, and built houses, barns, mills, etc., and met with unparalleled success. Many of the buildings he constructed are still in existence. He continued this occupation until he was thirty-five years of age, when he bought the farm on which he now resides and which he has occupied ever since. On the 31st of January, 1849, he married Sarah Rose, a daughter of Sherman H. Rose, of the town of Wheeler. Mr. Renchan has done a large farming business and is still engaged in that notwithstanding his advanced age. He has kept as many as four hundred sheep, and up to the time of the change in the tariff by the Democratic party during the second term of Grover Cleveland as president, since which time the production of wool has been unprofitable, and he has abandoned that branch of farming. He has done, also, a large business in the manufacture of lum- ber. In 1852 he built a large steam saw mill (one of the largest in the State), on his farm, and operated it about twenty-five years. The products of the mill, consisting of lumber, lath and shingles, were immense, exceeded by no other mill in the State. It is now operated by his son, Charles M.

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Landmarks of Steuben County, New York, Part 41

Author: Hakes, Harlo, 1823- ed; Aldrich, Lewis Cass. cn Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 1180

Author: Hakes, Harlo, 1823- ed; Aldrich, Lewis Cass. cn
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1180