USA > New York > Erie County > Memorial and family history of Erie County, New York, Volume I > Part 5
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Mr. Pratt died in 1872, and in 1886 the firm of Beals & Brown was organized. This association lasted until the death of Mr. Brown in 1892, and was marked by notable prosperity and a large extension of the trade, which was of both wholesale and retail character. In 1893 Edward P. Beals, his son Pascal P. Beals and W. R. Gass established the great and representative business of Beals & Company, wholesale dealers in hardware, iron and steel, and under the style then assumed the house exists at the present time, being the oldest and largest enter- prise in its line in Buffalo. The business, founded in 1818, has had upwards of seventy-eight years of continuous success, and stands an enduring monument of the sagacity, foresight, reso- lution and persistence of those identified with it.
About 1857 the firm of Pratt & Co., consisting of Mr. Beals, Mr. Pascal P. Pratt and Samuel F. Pratt embarked in the iron manufacturing industry. Purchasing the iron rolling mills at Black Rock, some years later they developed the Fletcher blast furnace. The enterprise thus originated developed into one of the largest manufacturing firms of Western New York, giving employment to thousands of men and sending forth an immense output of iron products.
Toward the close of his life Mr. Beals disposed of his inter- ests in the iron industry and devoted himself to his wholesale hardware concern. He also became prominently connected with banking, serving as a Director of the Buffalo Savings Bank and exhibiting as signal ability in finance as he had in commerce and manufactures. His intellect and, energies were proof against advancing years, and living to the age of eighty- two he was to the last a leading factor in the community and the business world.
In 1848 Mr. Beals married Mary Lorenz, daughter of Fred- erick Lorenz, a prominent manufacturer and banker of Pitts- burg, Pa. The surviving children are Col. Pascal Pratt Beals, Catherine Lorenz Beals, Mary Lorenz Beals, Julia. Lorenz Beals and Grace Romney Beals, all residents of Buffalo. Two
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other children, Edward P. Beals and Frederick L. Beals died in infancy.
Mr. Beals was a strong Presbyterian and for many years a member of the old North Presbyterian Church. In his church relationships as in those of his secular life, he was an example of noble consistency and unfaltering uprightness of opinion, speech and conduct. Endowed with a fine intellect, he was a great reader, kept intelligently in touch with current events and had a wide fund of useful information. His disposition was profoundly benevolent, his deeds of generosity were many, and his modesty, unaffectedness and sunny nature endeared him to all who knew him. The life of Edward P. Beals exem- plified in pre-eminent degree the sterling qualities of the man, the Christian and the citizen, and his rewards were peace of conscience, serenity and length of days and the approval and love of his fellow-men.
COL. PASCAL PRATT BEALS. Among men conspicuously connected with the business life of Buffalo, one of the fore- most is Col. Pascal P. Beals, who as head of the leading hard- ware, iron and steel house of Beals & Company holds a place of distinctive prominence in the commercial affairs of Western New York. He is a man of liberal instincts, progressive ideas, and is actively interested in social, educational and benevolent institutions.
Pascal Pratt Beals is a son of the late Edward P. Beals and was born in Buffalo July 31st, 1850. After preparing for col- lege in the Buffalo Classical School, he entered Yale University in 1868 and was graduated with honors in 1872.
Shortly after his graduation, Mr. Beals engaged in business, becoming connected with the firm of Pratt & Company, in Buffalo. He remained with the firm until its dissolution in 1886. When the house of Pratt & Co. was succeeded by Beals & Co., of which Edward P. Beals was the head, Pascal P. Beals became a partner in the new firm, and from 1893 to the present
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time has been a leading factor in it, after the death of his father becoming the senior partner. The duration of the business has given it the prestige which peculiarly attaches to mercan- tile houses of long standing, and the management, throughout all its changes of personnel, has never swerved from the prin- ciples of high commercial honor and the practical illustration of progressiveness.
Col. Beals joined the National Guard of the State of New York in 1879 and served till 1892. In this connection his rec- ord is one of meritorious services which received recognition by successive promotions. Commissioned Captain and Aide, Eighth Division, he was later made Major both in the Eighth and Fourteenth Brigades. This was followed by promotion to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fourth Division and Colonel in Staff, Department of the Commander-in-Chief. With the latter rank, Col. Beals was retired at his own request in 1892.
Col. Beals is a life member and Director of the Buffalo So- ciety of Natural Sciences, a member of the Fine Arts Academy, holds a life membership in the Young Men's Association, now the Buffalo Library, of which he was also a Director, and was a Director of the Young Men's Christian Association. He was for many years a member of the City, Saturn and Ellicott Clubs, of Buffalo, and is a member of the United Service Club, of New York City.
MILLARD FILLMORE. Buffalo has given the United States two Presidents. The first of these illustrious citizens to attain the office was Millard Fillmore.
Mr. Fillmore was born in Locke, Cayuga County, N. Y., January 7, 1800, being the second child and eldest son of Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard. His father was born in Bennington, Vt., and his mother was a native of Pittsfield, Mass. His parents were among the pioneer settlers of the so-called Military Tract, and removed from Locke to Sempro-
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nius, Cayuga County. Nathaniel Fillmore was a farmer who cleared his land and built his own home, and like not a few other distinguished Americans, Millard Fillmore was reared in a log house. Till he was fifteen years old young Fillmore worked on his father's farm and attended the district schools. As a lad he was apprenticed to Benjamin Hungerford, a carder and cloth-dresser of Sparta, N. Y., and in 1815 was re-appren- ticed to the same business with Zaccheus Cheney and Alvin Kellogg of Newhope, N. Y. While in their employ Mr. Fillmore began a system of self-education, reading every standard work to which he had access. When eighteen years old he taught school for a term in the town of Scott. In 1818 he visited West- ern New York and later attended school at Canandaigua. Meantime he had become ambitious to study law, and returning to Cayuga County, he entered the law-office of Judge Walter Wood, at Martville. In 1821 he went to Aurora, Erie County, taught a winter school at East Aurora and obtained some practice in justice's courts. In the spring of 1822 he came to Buffalo and taught a district school, and the same year became a student in the law office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. In the spring of 1823 he was admitted to practice in the Court of Common Pleas, and opening an office at East Aurora he prac- ticed there till 1830. In 1827 he was admitted attorney of the Supreme Court, and became counselor in 1829. In May, 1830, he removed to Buffalo where he formed a law partnership with Joseph Clary. He acquired a large and successful practice, which was continued till 1848, when his duties in public life obliged him to relinquish his professional pursuits.
Mr. Fillmore was elected to the Assembly in 1828 and was twice re-elected. In 1832 he was elected to Congress and was re-elected for three successive terms, declining a fifth nomina- tion. In 1843 the Whig National Convention at Philadelphia nominated Mr. Fillmore for Vice-President. He was elected, and by the death of General Taylor, July 9, 1850, succeeded him as President of the United States .. He attained the presidency
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at a critical period in national affairs, and administered its duties with great ability and unswerving conscientiousness. However others might differ from him in matters of party principle or governmental policy, no fair-minded man ques- tioned his purity of motive or his sterling patriotism.
In 1856, Mr. Fillmore was nominated for the Presidency by the National American Convention, but the party which chose him for its leader was in the decline of its power and the Democrats carried the country. At the close of the campaign Mr. Fillmore retired from public life. The rest of his days he passed in Buffalo in the pursuits of a scholar and the activities of the citizen. He died March 8, 1874.
Mr. Fillmore was married twice, his first wife being Abigail Power, of Moravia, N. Y., whom he wedded February 5, 1826. She died in 1853, and February 10, 1858, Mr. Fillmore married Mrs. Caroline C. McIntosh.
THE CHAPIN FAMILY. The Chapin lineage is Puritan. Samuel Chapin of Massachusetts Colony took the freeman's oath in Boston in 1641 and removed to Springfield, Mass. Japhet Chapin, son of Samuel, was in the great Indian fight at Twiner's Falls on the 19th of May, 1676. Samuel Chapin (2d), son of Japhet, had a son, Caleb Chapin, who was killed in the French War. Caleb Chapin (2d), son of Caleb, was an officer in the Revolutionary War.
DR. CYRENIUS CHAPIN, son of Capt. Caleb Chapin, was a man whose career fills a memorable chapter in the pioneer history of Buffalo. Physician, soldier and frontiersman, Dr. Chapin was a typical American of that stern epoch when hard- ship and peril developed the latent resources of character.
Cyrenius Chapin was born in Bernardston, Massachusetts, on" the 7th of February, 1769. He studied medicine with his brother, Dr. Caleb Chapin. He practiced for several years at. Windhall, Vermont, later removing to Sangerfield, Oneida
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County, N. Y. In 1801 he came to Buffalo. In 1803 he went to Fort Erie, but later returned with his family to Buffalo. Dr. Chapin's life was full of the hardships of the frontier physician, and he went on horseback to his patients, making hundreds of perilous journeys through the wilderness. He founded the first drug store in Buffalo, and often supplied gratuitously not only medicine but food to his needy patients. He wielded a great influence, and was highly esteemed by the Indians, who were accustomed to speak of him as "The Great Medicine Man."
When the War of 1812 broke out, Dr. Chapin raised a com- pany of volunteers and offered his services, both as officer and surgeon. He was successively commissioned Captain, Major and Lieutenant-Colonel. He served with the American van- guard in the occupation of Fort George in May, 1813. In June he organized a body of mounted riflemen which he commanded in the fight at Beaver Dams, Canada, on the 24th of June, 1813, under Lieutenant-Colonel Boerstler, whose force was compelled to surrender. On July 12 Col. Chapin and his men were sent as prisoners toward Kingston, in two boats, under a heavy British guard. Col. Chapin had laid a carefully concerted plan of escape, and when the boats were a few miles from their destination, the Americans, at a signal, rose, overpowered the guards, steered for Fort Niagara, and after a night of rowing delivered their erstwhile captors to the commander of the fort as prisoners of war. When the British attacked Buffalo in December, 1813, Col. Chapin made a daring stand at Black Rock and defended the place till he had only five men left. He then retreated to Buffalo, where he found a dismounted six-pounder cannon. Hastily mounting it on wagon-wheels, he gathered a few men and boys whom he drew up at Niagara street, where he fought the British till his cannon was disabled. When fur- ther resistance was useless, he mounted a horse, tied a white handkerchief to his sword, and riding to the enemy held them by parleying till the inhabitants of Buffalo had time to escape.
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He also obtained from the British officer in command advan- tageous terms for the surrender of the village, but the plighted word of the foe was shamefully violated. Col. Chapin was made a prisoner and taken to Montreal, where he was held nine months. On his return to Buffalo he was appointed surgeon of the military hospital. When he retired from this office he removed to Geneva, N. Y., but returned to Buffalo in 1818, and here he continued to reside, practice his profession and take an active part in public affairs till the close of his life. On the organization of the Erie County Medical Society in 1821, Dr. Chapin was made its first President. In 1836 the citizens of Buffalo presented him a service of silver plate as a testimonial of their admiration of him as a citizen and soldier.
In 1793 Dr. Chapin married Sylvia Burnham, of Bernardston, Mass. He died on the 20th of February, 1838, and was buried with military honors. The cemetery where his remains were laid to rest is now the site of the City and County Hall.
LOUISE MARIE CHAPIN (Mrs. Thaddeus Weed), third daughter of Dr. Cyrenius Chapin, united intellectuality of a high order with rare loveliness of womanly character. Mrs. Weed held a distinguished place in the social circles of Buffalo and was one of the most interesting of those persons who through length of days and remarkable powers of observation and mem- ory form a bond between the present and the past. Mrs. Weed was born at Fort Erie, Canada, on the 19th of March, 1803. As a child she came with her parents to Buffalo, which was the city of her residence during the rest of her life. On the 9th of October, 1823, she was united in marriage to Thaddeus Weed. The lamented death of Mrs. Weed occurred on the 20th of July, 1894.
THE WEED FAMILY. The Weeds are of English and Puritan ancestry. Jonas Weed emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1630. Jonas Weed (2d), son of the foregoing,
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had a son, Benjamin, who had a son, Benjamin, who married Sarah Hait. Ananias Weed, son of Benjamin Weed (2d) and Sarah Hait, was born in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1752. At the outbreak of the Revolution he joined the Continental army, and served through the war. He fought at the battle of White Plains, crossed the Delaware with Washington and took part in the famous surprise of the Hessians at Trenton. From 1779 till the peace of 1783 he was in the Commissary Department, and participated in expeditions against the British in New York and New Jersey.
THADDEUS WEED, son of Ananias Weed, was born in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1791. He was for some time a resi- dent of Troy, N. Y. He came to Buffalo September 23, 1818, where he and George T. Weed opened a hardware store under the firm style of G. & T. Weed. The business prospered, becoming one of the leading mercantile houses of Buffalo. Thaddeus Weed married Louise Marie Chapin, daughter of Dr. Cyrenius Chapin. Their children were three sons, De Witt Chapin, George Thaddeus and Hobart Weed, and a daughter, Mrs. Sylvia Louise Stevens. Louise Marie (Chapin) Weed sur- vived her husband by many years, dying on the 20th of July, 1894, being then in her ninety-second year.
After an honorable and successful career Thaddeus Weed died in 1846. No Buffalonian of his day was held in higher estimation. Eminently public-spirited, he was one of the founders of Buffalo's first regular fire company. He was also a vestryman of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, of which he was one of the most active supporters. A man of sterling ability and probity, he left a deep impress on the life and institutions of the city.
HOBART WEED, son of Thaddeus Weed, head of the great wholesale and retail hardware house of Weed & Co., stands in the front rank of Western New York merchants. He was born
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in Buffalo, and received a thorough education at schools in Buffalo and Toronto, and the Percival Classical School in Fre- donia, N. Y., and Rev. H. D. Noble's School at Brookfield, Conn. After finishing his studies, Mr. Weed returned to Buffalo, where he gained his first. experience in business in the store founded by his father, then being conducted by his brother, De Witt C. Weed. After he had learned the business Mr. Weed with his brother formed the copartnership of De Witt C. Weed & Co. On the death of Mr. De Witt C. Weed, in 1880, the firm became Weed & Co., with Mr. Hobart Weed as principal owner. In 1903 the house was incorporated as Weed & Company, with Mr. Hobart Weed as President. The concern is one of the fore- most wholesale and retail hardware houses between New York City and Chicago. It celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary in 1893. One of Mr. Weed's most noteworthy activities has been in advancing musical culture. The musical career of Mr. Weed began in his youth. While a student at school he organized and trained a choir. When he was only seventeen years old, the vestry of St. Paul's Episcopal Church placed the entire direction of the church music in Mr. Weed's hands, and he has had charge of it ever since. He sang in the choir of St. Paul's as early as 1870, was made member of the Music Com- mittee in 1873, and was chosen Chairman of that body in 1881. From early in life he has been interested in procuring for the Buffalo public the best vocal and instrumental talent for con- certs, and has had an important part in educating the popular taste in music in the Queen City. Among the more notable musical organizations and artists brought to Buffalo by Mr. Weed and his associates were the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, the Boston Symphony and New York Symphony Orchestras, the Pittsburg Orchestra and the Damrosch Opera Company; Melba, Nordica, Sembrich, Gadski, Christine Neilson and the great artists of the last generation. Connected with St. Paul's Episcopal Church all his life, Mr. Weed is a vestryman and one of its most prominent members. He is an active member
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of the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce, holds life memberships in the Fine Arts Academy and the Young Men's Association, and is a member of the Buffalo, Ellicott and Country Clubs, and of the Hardware Club of New York City. In 1870 Mr. Weed married Miss Harriett Monteath, daughter of William and Rhoda Monteath of Buffalo. Mr. and Mrs. Weed have three children, Emily M., Shelton and Walter Irving Weed.
GEORGE R. HOWARD is one of Buffalo's leading capital- ists, who aside from his connection with financial affairs and his management of numerous and important vested interests, is prominent in the social and philanthropic life of the city and supports notable responsibilities relating to organized benevo- lence and to other institutions having the public well-being for their aim. Mr. Howard's father, George Howard, was born in Charlotte, Chittenden County, Vermont, June 25, 1810, and was a descendant of English parents who came to America in the 17th century. His father, John Howard, was a tanner, and also carried on the business of farming. The wife of John Howard was Electa Penfield.
In boyhood George Howard attended school in winter and worked on the farm and in his father's tannery summers. His schooling ended when he was thirteen years old. When young Howard was eighteen, his father met with business disaster that resulted in the loss of nearly all his property, and caused him to decide to leave Vermont. John Howard obtained an "article" entitling him to 115 acres of forest land, a few miles from Westfield, in Chautauqua County, N. Y. With one son he came to Western New York in 1828, and settled on the pur- chase. In two or three years the father and his sons cleared about 100 acres and began to cultivate the farm. In 1831 George Howard came to Buffalo and shipped before the mast at $12 per month. The next year he agreed to work at Westfield in the tannery of Aaron Rumsey for 15 months, for $100. Six months later he came to Buffalo as foreman in Mr. Rumsey's
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George R. Howard
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Buffalo tannery at a salary of $280 a year with board. By the closest economy he lived for two years on $80 a year, thus saving $200 annually, and the third year his salary was increased, his savings for the whole time amounting to $700. At that period this was a considerable cash capital, and it was the corner stone of the large financial structure he afterward reared. After the failure of Mr. Rumsey, Mr. Howard leased the tannery, which he managed for six months. In 1837 he formed a partnership with his former employer, under the firm name of Rumsey & Howard. Four years later, Aaron Rumsey was succeeded by Fayette Rumsey, with whom Mr. Howard continued two years. In 1844 Mr. Howard and Myron P. Bush entered into partnership in the tannery business, the firm style being Bush & Howard. A tannery was built in Chicago street, the concern doing a business of from $20,000 to $30,000 a year, which increased to from $700,000 to $800,000 annually. Messrs. Bush & Howard continued in partnership for thirty-five years. In time their sons succeeded to the busi- ness, which was carried on in the old firm name, Besides his tannery enterprise, Mr. Howard engaged in other lines of business and was a trustee of the Buffalo Gaslight Company, and the Buffalo Savings Bank.
In politics Mr. Howard was originally a Jackson Democrat. Later he became a Whig, and then a Republican. Mr. Howard was President of the Buffalo Cemetery Association, and served as a trustee of that body to the time of his death. The impos- ing and attractive features of Forest Lawn Cemetery are largely due to his fine taste and sound judgment. In the Buffalo General Hospital and the Buffalo Orphan Asylum he was actively interested, serving as the president of the execu- tive boards of both institutions. To these charities he con- tributed liberally, on one occasion giving $5,000 to each. He was also a trustee of the State Insane Asylum. He was a member and trustee of Westminster Presbyterian Church, President of the Falconwood Club and a member of the Young
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Men's Association, the Fine Arts Academy, the Buffalo Histori- cal Society, and the Society of Natural Sciences. Among his many gifts to the cause of education should be mentioned his contribution of $5,000 to Hamilton College. He was one of the chief supporters of the Young Men's Association, in one instance contributing $5,000 in its aid.
In 1835 Mr. Howard married Miss Ellen Martin, of Warsaw, N. Y. The issue of this marriage was one daughter, who died in infancy. Mrs. Howard died in 1846. In November, 1848, Mr. Howard married Louise Corley, of Ithaca, N. Y., who died March 28, 1851. On the 9th of November, 1852, Mr. Howard married Amelia Flagler, of Lockport, N. Y. The children of this union were Frank King Howard, born April 21, 1854; Anna Maria Howard, born February 6, 1856, died August 26, 1879; Nellie Louise Howard, born September 20, 1859, and died in infancy, and George Rumsey Howard. Though a business man of strenuous activity, Mr. Howard knew how to enjoy recreation. At one period of his life he made an extended foreign tour, visiting all important points in England and on the Continent. Among his favorite diversions were yachting and lake fishing. He was a noted yachtsman, being the owner of the famous steam yacht "Orizaba," which after Mr. Howard's death was purchased by the late Dexter P. Rumsey.
The death of Mr. Howard occurred on the 30th of August, 1888, and was the occasion of widespread and deep regret, both of friends and the public. His death came closely home to the people because he was in an unusual degree a representative American-a type of the man who begins life under disad- vantages, who struggles with courage and resourcefulness against grave handicaps, who wins success by his own abilities, but who preserves his warmth of heart and his charity for those less fortunate than himself. Mr. Howard had the respect and admiration of the entire community. He was a generous giver, a true friend, a considerate employer whose subordinates knew
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that he kept their interests in constant view, a devoted husband and father, and a lover of right and justice.
GEORGE RUMSEY HOWARD, the second son of George Howard, was born in Buffalo May 27th, 1861. After completing his education at the Buffalo Classical School, he gained his first business experience as a clerk in the tannery firm of Bush & Howard, later becoming a partner in that enterprise and continuing in this connection for four years after his father's death. In 1890 Mr. Howard disposed of his share in the concern and since then has been engaged in the field of finance and in the management of various large vested interests, hay- ing his office in the Erie County Bank Building. Mr. Howard is a trustee of the Erie County Savings Bank and a director of the Cary Safe Company. He is a capitalist of solid and extensive resources. Distinctively a strong man of affairs, Mr. Howard has the advantage of wide experience and the prestige which attaches to a business career unmarred by errors of judgment and signalized by the prosperous outcome of a great variety of undertakings. The social and other connections of Mr. Howard are many and important. He is a member of the Country, Ellicott and Park Clubs, and has served for many years as a director of the Y. M. C. A., and a trustee of the . Westminster Presbyterian Church and the Buffalo General Hospital. He is also a director of the Provident Loan Associ- ation, trustee of the Christian Homestead, and trustee of Forest Lawn.
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