USA > New York > Tompkins County > Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University > Part 80
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Dr. Seabring was an honorable member of the Tompkins County Medical Society, and the following resolutions adopted soon after his death show the esteem in which he was held by his fellow members:
Resolved, That it is with profound sorrow that this society has to record the death, since its last meeting, of Dr. Samuel A. Seabring, of Newfield.
Resolved, That in Dr. Seabring this society loses an old and valued member. For twenty years in active practice in the same community, he commanded its con- fidence and love, and was often called by it to positions of honor and responsibility. His loss, as the trusted physician, counselor, and citizen, will be widely and deeply felt.
Dr. Seabring's death, from pneumomia, occurred on the 20th of April, 1891, while he was in the midst of his usefulness. He is survived by his widow and his son, Cornelius O., who reside in Ithaca.
DARIUS HALL, M.D.
DR. DARIUS HALL was born in the town of Croyden, N. H., April 18, 1809. At the age of two years his parents removed to Sempronius, Cayuga county, N. Y. He re- ceived a liberal education, and at the age of twenty-two graduated from the Fairfield Medical College, the oldest medical college west of Albany. In 1832 he married Eliza- beth, daughter of Palmer Baker, of the town of Lansing, and the remainder of his life was spent in the practice of his profession in that town. As a physician he was skilled, kind and successful. Even after failing health prevented an active practice he was strongly urged to care for many of his patients whom he had treated during his vigorous years.
In 1849 he was elected by a liberal majority to represent his district in the lower house of our State Legislature, and since that time has always held public office in the town. His judgment on important questions was eagerly sought, and many found in him not only a wise counselor, but a true friend. His kindness and polite- ness, and consideration for others, won for him a large place in the hearts of the peo- ple. During many years of constant suffering he was resigned and patient, ever re- taining the loveliness of an evenly balanced life and character. In his life he was re- spected, since his death he has been mourned.
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The last eleven years of his life he had been deprived of the wife of his early man- hood, as the records show. Mrs. Hall died March 16, 1881. Darius Hall died April 12, 1892. They had been the parents of two children, a son died in infancy, and the daughter, Marian, is the wife of Clinton A. Haskin, of Lansingville.
JESSE H. JENNINGS.
In the history of the town of Danby one of the earliest settlers was Hudson Jen- nings, who located there in 1807, and the name of Jennings has ever since been familiar to every resident of this section as associated with honor, integrity, and ability. Hudson Jennings was member of assembly in 1820, and represented the then county of Tioga, and was the last member from that county prior to the annexation of the town of Danby to Tompkins county. His brother has also represented his district in the Legislature of New York State. While they have been a family of agriculturists, when the people demanded their services they have left their farms to fill the offices of government for which they were eminently fitted. Lemuel Jennings, only son of Hudson and father of Jesse H., was, like his father in early life, a Whig, and at the formation of the Republican party espoused that party and held many of the town offices of Danby with great credit to himself and his constituents. At the building of the Ithaca and Owego Railroad (the second railroad of this State) Lemuel Jennings filled the position of assistant engineer in its construction, a position he had fitted himself for by private instruction and reading. Lemuel Jennings died in 1884.
Jesse H. Jennings was the youngest of a family of six children, born in Danby, February 15, 1857. His early education was derived from private tutors and the common schools, after leaving which he entered the law department of Union Col- lege, graduating with the degree of LL .. B. in May, 1883. His practical education in the profession was derived in the office of George D. Beers and William N. Noble. He was admitted to practice in 1884, and in 1888 was elected district attorney of Tompkins county, to which office he was re-elected in 1891. While he has been the incumbent of this office Mr. Jennings has served his county with eredit and won re- nown for himself in conducting the trial of a number of cases, prominent among them being the murder case of " the people vs. Richard Barber," in which he secured the conviction of the defendant, "the people vs. Barr," and now his attentions are given to the conviction of the parties implicated in the celebrated chlorine poisoning case.
Mr. Jennings is a hard worker, and gives his undivided attention to his profession, the only social organization he is connected with being Fidelity Lodge, F. & A. M.
BENJAMIN SHELDON.
BENJAMIN SHELDON was born in the town of Taghkanic, Columbia county, N. Y., April 5. 1845. Edward Sheldon, the father of our subject, was also a native of Co-
Eugene Jerry
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lumbia county and a farmer, and in 1854 he removed to Tompkins eounty and set- tled on a farm belonging to John Southworth, where the home of Benjamin has al ways been. He is still a resident of this town and a prominent farmer. Benjamin was educated in the common schools, and at eighteen years of age he left his father's hearth and engaged in the employ of Robert Purvis, a farmer, with whom he re- mained twelve years, and then returned to the old homestead. He had bought this place six years previous, in 1869, and has ever since owned it. He has here a beauti- ful farm of ninety-four acres, which is devoted to dairy purposes, having thirteen cows. Mr. Sheldon is an ardent supporter of the Republican party and its principles, and in 1886 was elected to the office of assessor by a liberal majority, and re-elected to the same office in 1889, and again in 1892, which proves the esteem and honor the people of this township have for him. In 1888 he was elected president of Dryden Agricultural Society and re-elected to the same office in 1889.
Of social life we can say without intruding on family affairs that Mr. Sheldon has been twice married. First, in 1867, to Miss Lydia Purvis, of the town of Harford, Cortland county, N. Y., who died August 2, 1873, leaving no children. The present wife is Olive M., daughter of Thomas Davenport, of Virgil, Cortland county, whom he married, December 23, 1874. They have been the parents of four children: Lydia E., Leonard E., and Edward B., who all live with their parents; the third child, An nie, died September 14, 1888, in the fifth year of her age.
Mr. Sheldon is deserving of a great deal of credit for his present affluent position and the prosperous condition of his farm. Starting with comparatively nothing he has acquired a beautiful farm, of which the house and outbuildings are of his own production and of the best.
EUGENE TERRY.
The subject of our sketch is one of the county officials of Tompkins county. He is one of a family of twelve children of Leland Terry, a farmer of Covert, Seneca county, N. Y., and was born in that town October 22, 1861. As a boy his ambition was to secure a good education, and after exhausting the resources of the district schools he became a student of Ithaca High School. The year of his majority he taught school in the town of Ulysses, and in 1883 he entered the State Normal School at Cortland, after which he became the principal of Jacksonville School, where he remained for five successive terms, It was his intention to follow teaching as a profession, but the study of law was too strong an attraction for him to resist, and in 1887 he came to Ithaca, and the following three years we find him in the law office of M. N. Tompkins. He then spent a year in Jared T. Newman's office, and then became law clerk in the office of Almy & Bouton. Bradford Almy was elected county judge in the fall of 1891, assuming the duties of the office January 1, 1892, and that was the date of Mr. Terry's appointment as Clerk of the Surrogate's Court of Tompkins county, an office he still holds. He was admitted to the bar November 18, 1892, at the general term of the Supreme Court in Syracuse.
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Mr. Terry was married, November 8, 1888, to Miss Myra S. Taylor, of Jacksonville, and the issue of said marriage is two children, Richard T. Terry and. Leland W. Terry. Our subject is a member of the I. O. O. F. and also of the Royal Arcanum.
ANDREW B. COOK.
ANDREW B. Cook was born in Genoa, Cayuga county, March 25, 1819, and came to Trumansburgh with his parents in 1829. He was educated in the common schools of that day, the old Trumansburgh Academy, and the academy at Ithaca. and for many years carried on the farm for his parents, being now a farmer and gardener of Trumansburgh. Mr. Cook has been an extensive traveler, having visited Ohio and many of the Western States, made a tour of the great lakes, navigated our great riv- ers, and finally a "'49er " in doubling Cape Horn in the gold excitement of Califor- nia. Mr. Cook's father, Burnett, was born on Long Island in 1785, and came to this eounty in 1794. At the age of twenty-one he married Abigail, daughter of Andrew Christie, of Middletown, Orange county, and they had eleven children: Charlotte, who died young; Sarah M., born in 1809; Mary A., born in 1811; Jehiel S., born in 1813; Calista, born in 1815; Abigail, born in 1817; Andrew B., born in 1819; James C., born in 1821; Jackson, born in 1823; Elizabeth J., born in 1825; John G., born in 1827; and Charlotte, born in 1830, after they came to reside here. He died in 1868 (June 25) aged eighty-two years, and his wife January 14, 1880, aged ninety-five years. [The following is written by, and published at the request of, the subject.] This family are lineal descendants of an English family by the name of Cook, who came over from England and settled on Long Island near Sag Harbor in the year 1743. They raised a family of five sons, whose names were Mitchell, Abram, Stephen, Bur- net and Nathan, and the youngest, an only daughter, named Phebe. These sons moved from Long Island and settled in Morris county, N. J. They raised families of their own. Burnet Cook and Nathan Cook were the two sons who settled in New York State. In the year 1794 Burnet Cook, jr., then a lad of eight years, with his father's family numbering eight children, moved from Morris county, N. J., just one hundred years ago from the month of June of recent date. It was at this point that the family moved in two divisions. The mother with the children, ac- companied by other pioneers and friends, moved through Southern New York by way of the Beech Woods, and arrived at Ithaca and Ludlowville during the month of June; and the father, by shipping his goods by water, pursued his way up the Hudson River in a bateau, thence up through the Mohawk River and through Wood Creek, reached Seneca River, Montezuma and Cayuga Lake. In this movement of the family and goods to Ludlowville, the father, by taking the water route through rivers and lakes and through the Montezuma marshes, met with a fatal sickness, in a fever brought on by the miasma of these marshes, which infected his physical con- stitution, and the water which he drank, and the food which he ate, and the atmos- phere which he breathed, and the clothes which he wore, and the very ground he walked on, as he traveled through those pestilential districts. On his arrival at Lud- lowville the fever became so unmanageable, with all the medical skill and attendance
of med chany
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
which he received in this new country, that at the end of three weeks from the day of his arrival the fever terminated fatally, thus leaving a family of orphans in desti- tute circumstances to grow up with the country. The names of this family of sons and daughters who were left on the death of their father, Burnet Cook, were, of the daughters after their marriage: Hannah King, settled near Genesee River; Sally Conkling, settled in Canada near Niagara Falls; Polly Fulkerson, settled in the town of Dryden; Betsey Allen, settled at Adrian, Mich. ; and Phebe Drake, a daughter of Mrs. Cook by a second marriage with Jasper Drake, who later in life married Elder Jones and settled in the village of Medina, N. Y. Silas Cook married and settled at Union Springs, Cayuga county; Burnet, jr., settled in Genoa, same county ; Lot married and remained in Lansing. Each of these families raised a numerous family. Their descendants have found homes in many of the Western States. They can be traced in a direct line from the Atlantic at Montauk Point to the Pacific slope of the Rocky Mountains, including California and Oregon. Nathan Cook, who accom- panied the family of Burnet, sr., from New Jersey and settled in Dryden, married Caroline Sanford and raised a large family. He was a distinguished pioneer of this county.
THOMAS J. McELHENY.
THOMAS J. MCELHENY was born in Dryden, June 6, 1824, a son of James McElheny, a native of New Jersey, one of the first settlers of Dryden, and a man of considerable prominence in that town. Thomas was the second of seven children; was educated in the common schools, and was a teacher for a short time. He next engaged in mercantile business in Dryden village, which he followed until 1861, in the mean time having served as superintendent of the common schools of that town. The follow- ing four years were wholly given as a member of the war committee of Dryden, in recruiting for the ranks, rendering service to the soldiers and their families, and to the cause of the Union, by earnest work in the Republican party ; and it is the boast of Mr. McElheny that the old town has the proud distinction of having answered in full every call of the government for soldiers to put down the unholy Rebellion.
While a resident of Dryden he took an active part in the incorporation and im- provement of the village, and the records of the village and of the Agricultural So- ciety and Cemetery Association show his faithful and arduous work in the interest of the village and town.
He had always taken an active part in the success of the Republican party, and in 1865 was elected county clerk by a majority of over 1,400, and removed to Ithaca. He was re-elected in 1868, being the first to serve in that office a second term.
In 1871 he engaged in manufacturing, which he followed for about four years, and then turned his attention to real estate speculations. Much of his time was given to politics, and he served as chairman of the County Committee in the Garfield cam- paign, and several years thereafter. Since January 1, 1889, he has he'd the office of deputy county clerk. He is trustee, steward and treasurer of the First M. E. church of Ithaca, and was a delegate from Central New York Conference to the General Conference of 1880 at Cincinnati.
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He has been twice married, first in 1853 to Ada Tabor, of Dryden, by whom he had three children, two daughters now living. She died in 1871. In 1875 he mar- ried his second wife, Mrs. Drake, a daughter of the Rev. V. M. Coryell, of Waverly, N. Y. The mother of our subject was the daughter of Judge John Ellis, a biography of whom appears on other pages.
JOHN BARNARD.
JOHN BARNARD was born in Charlemont, Franklin county, Mass., August 19, 1843, son of Allen Barnard, a mechanic of that town. A brother of our subject was a resi- dent of Ithaca, and in 1853 John came here to make his home. He was educated in the Ithaca schools, and learned the tailor's trade. At the outbreak of the war he was seized with a patriotic ardor to rescue his country, and enlisted August 19, 1862, in the 137th Regiment, N. Y. Volunteers. He was unanimously elected corporal of Company D), and left Binghamton for the seat of war September 27, 1862. Decem- ber 10 his regiment was ordered to reinforce General Burnside at Fredericksburg, and it was there our hero first came within hearing of the enemy's guns, but his courage was equal to any emergency, and never through the whole course of his mili- tary career did he turn his back to the enemy, but always stood up and boldly bat- tled for the right. January 18, 1863, he was detailed by Colonel Ireland as one of the color guards of the regiment. May 1, 2 and 3 he participated in the battle at Chancellorsville, and July 2 and 3 was engaged on the bloody fields of Gettysburg. October 29, 1863, participated in the midnight battle of Wauhatchie. In this engage- ment one out of every three of the whole number were either killed or wounded, and the colors of the regiment fell into the hands of our gallant Barnard. After this en- gagement he was detailed color bearer of the regiment, vice Baker wounded. No- vember 24 the regiment was ordered to march flying light, with only one day's ration. This march ended in the famous " Battle above the Clouds," and our bold and dar- ing sergeant here earned the title of "The Hero of Lookout Mountain," which he has ever since born. He was in the battle at Missionary Ridge and at Ringgold, Ga. January 4, 1864, was ordered to Stevenson, Ala., and while here Sergeant Barnard was appointed postmaster, a very responsible position, having the entire charge of the mail for over five thousand troops. This office he held until Sherman's campaign against Atlanta commenced, when he resumed his office in the regiment. He was engaged in the battles of Resaca, New Hope Church, Pine Hill, Kolbe Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, and was among the first troops that entered Atlanta, September 2, 1864. He was in nearly all the engagements of the Georgia and Carolina campaigns, arriving in Goldsboro, N. C., April 1, 1865. He was pres- ent at the capture of Raleigh, April 14, and the war having virtually closed, Sergeant Barnard started homeward.
He was engaged in fourteen battles besides numerous skirmishes, and while suf- fering all the dangers, exposures and deprivations of the Georgia and Carolina cam- paigns, our sergeant was never a day from his regiment, unless detailed for special duty. He made every mile of the whole march on foot, carrying a burden that every
John Bernard
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
soldier knows is enough to break down the constitution of almost any ordinary man. No soldier ever enlisted in the service of his country who is deserving of more honor than Sergeant John Barnard.
After his return to Ithaca Mr. Barnard resumed his trade, which he has since fol- lowed in this city. He has been prominently identified with the Masonic Fraternity for twenty-seven years, joining Fidelity Lodge, in May, 1867. He has passed all of the chairs of the Blue Lodge, nearly all of the Chapter, the same of the Coun- cil, and is now Captain General of the Commandery, of which he has been a member twenty-five years. He has always taken an active interest in G. A. R. matters, and was a charter member of Sidney Post No. 41 at its formation. He has held nearly all the offices in the Post, and is now (1894) the commander.
PETER B. CRANDALL.
AMONG those who were attracted to Ithaca in the early days of the university, no one took more interest in the development of the university, and in the well being of the town and its surroundings, than the late Peter B. Crandall. He was born in Bridgewater, Oneida county, N. Y., July 1, 1816, of parents who had migrated from Connecticut. He enjoyed the advantages of a country district school, and by making unusual exertions he secured, in addition, instruction for one or two winters at the Bridgewater Academy. At the age of seventeen he began to teach, and soon had debating clubs organized, which were continued quite a number of years with suc- cess and enthusiasm. At the age of twenty-one he was put in charge of the schools of the town as town superintendent. Later, he was one of the leaders in the organ- ization of a farmers' club, which made the first shipment of cheese to England, con- tributing funds to pay the expenses of the late X. A. Willard, who was sent over to look up a market and take care of shipments. As supervisor of his native town for years, and as clerk of the Board, he introduced and successfully carried through many public spirited measures, one of which was the construction of substantial and comfortable modern brick buildings for the county almshouse, which the citizens still point to with pride as being one of the most convenient in the State, to replace the old, crowded, unhealthy, tumble-down structure, which was a disgrace to modern civilization, although advocated by the average citizen as good enough for paupers. As school commissioner, much was done in raising the standard of scholarship for teachers, in securing new and suitable school buildings, and in awakening interest and enthusiasm in the schools on the part of both scholars and patrons. As provost marshal of the Twenty-first District of New York, with headquarters at Utica, in the winter of 1864-5, he was brought in contact with corrupt superior officers, who were in league with bounty brokers to defraud the government by mustering in re- cruits, allowing them to desert, taking them to another district for re-enlistment, and so on indefinitely ; the towns being heavily taxed to provide the large bounties which were necessary to fill their quotas and avoid a draft, the officers, brokers and men dividing up these bounties so easily obtained, and the army receiving scarcely any recruits. Of the 700,000 to 800,000 men enlisted under the last calls, just before the
H
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close of the rebellion, not more than 200,000 to 300,000 ever reached the front, ac- cording to congressional estimates. Finding their schemes thwarted in the Twenty- first District by the new provost marshal, hostilities were opened against him. These resulted in his temporary suspension from office on the one hand (but the effort to secure any evidence to impeach his honesty or ability utterly failed), while on the other they resulted in the trial and conviction of the assistant provost marshal gen - eral, who was in charge of the recruiting service of the State, as "guilty of the basest forms of official atrocity, and the most monstrous acts of bribery, oppression and wrong doing," with the implication of many of his associates. The Honorable Roscoe Conkling was prosecuting attorney. The next winter, when the bill for the reorganization of the army came up before Congress, Mr. Conkling moved to strike out the section which provided for the continuance of the office of provost marshal general, on the ground that it provided an unnecessary office for an undeserving public servant. In the discussion which followed, James G. Blaine stood up for the officer attacked by Mr. Conkling, and this is believed by Mr. Conkling's friends to be the beginning of the Conkling-Blaine fight, which became so bitter in later years. Outrageous charges were brought against Mr. Conkling by this officer, and presented to the senate by Mr. Blaine. These charges were referred to a committee to investi- gate and report. As many of them referred to the recruiting service, and some to the Twenty-first District of New York, Captain Crandall was sent for to aid Mr. Conkling in collecting data and arranging proofs to be presented before the com- mittee. Always an enthusiastic and zealous worker, he set to the task with vigor, working under pressure both night and day for weeks. After the committee had made its report, which completely exonerated Mr. Conkling and censured Mr. Blaine, Captain Crandall returned home overworked and completely exhausted. Although a farmer by occupation, much of his life and more of his thought and energy had been devoted to public service as a public officer, as already de-cribed, and, also, as an individual, among his neighbors and elsewhere, whenever he could stand for the right and do a deed of kindness; the care of the farm in these later years falling largely upon his wife and children. His health now began to fail, lessening his de- sire for public service and turning his attention more to the future welfare of his family. In casting about for better educational facilities, he was soon attracted by Cornell University and Ithaca, where he moved in 1868. At this time the public schools of the State were being changed over to the graded system in all the princi- pal cities and villages. Ithaca was following the old methods, with all its public school children huddled together in the old central building at the corner of Albany and Mill streets. He took an active part in the efforts which were made to interest the public in the welfare of the school, to secure more adequate quarters, and to in- troduce the graded system. In the reorganization which followed; the appointment of a Board of Education, with a school superintendent directly responsible to the board for the efficiency and co-ordination of the work of the teachers; the adoption of the graded system, with the old academy included as an academic department, free to all residents; and the relief of the old Central building by the construction of substantial brick buildings at Fall Creek, on East Hill, and on West Hill, and a wooden one on South Hill, for the primary departments; he labored zealously as a citizen and as a member of the Board, until conipelled to resign on account of ill health. The work thus begun has been continued and developed by able hands and
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