USA > New York > Erie County > Memorial and family history of Erie County, New York, Volume I > Part 8
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COL. CHARLES E. WALBRIDGE, founder of the well- known house of Walbridge & Co., represents a high type of American business character, citizenship and patriotism.
The ancestors of Col. Walbridge were among the settlers of New England. Henry Walbridge lived in Norwich, Conn. In 1760 he removed to Bennington, Vt. He was a member of the Committee of Public Safety, and with his three sons was engaged in the battle of Bennington. His wife, Anna Safford, was a granddaughter of Captain Samuel Robinson, the founder of Bennington. David, son of Henry and Anna Safford Wal- bridge, married Ruth Brush. About 1819 or 1820 the family removed to Byron, Genesee County, N. Y. Shortly afterward they came to Buffalo. Finally the family removed to Erie, Pa., where, in 1829, David Walbridge died.
GEORGE BRUSH WALBRIDGE, son of David Walbridge, was born in Bennington, Vermont, September 14, 1814. About 1830 he came to Buffalo and became a clerk in the wholesale grocery of Augustus Colson. In 1835 Col. Ira A. Blossom established him in the grocery business, himself becoming a special partner. Later Mr. Walbridge became the senior mem- ber of the firm of Walbridge & Hayden. In 1849 Mr. Hayden retired, and a new firm was organized under the style of George B. Walbridge & Company. In 1847 the store was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt the next spring. Shortly afterward Mr. Walbridge sold his interest and retired. In the meantime
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Mr. Walbridge had become interested in lake transportation. He built several sailing vessels and later purchased the steamers Tecumseh, Diamond and Fashion, forming a regular line between Buffalo and Cleveland. Afterward Mr. Walbridge established a line of propellers between Buffalo and Grand Haven, Michigan, and also ran boats to Chicago, Milwaukee and other ports.
In politics he was a Whig. In 1849 he was President of the Board of Trade, and was one of the original trustees of the Buffalo Female Academy.
In January, 1836, Mr. Walbridge married Miss Wilhelmina C. L. Colson, daughter of the Rev. Karl Colson of Meadville, Pa. Of the children the following survive: Charles E., and Harry Walbridge of Buffalo; Mrs. Charles Warren Butler of Plain- field, N. J .; Mrs. Henry Woodley Musson of Kansas City; Mrs. Edward Potter Bowen of La Salle, N. Y. The second son, George B. Walbridge, Jr., died in March, 1880, at Plainfield, N. J.
Charles Eliphalet Walbridge was born in Buffalo July 24th, 1841. He attended the public and old Central High School. At 15 years of age he became a clerk with Pratt and Company, hardware dealers, until the breaking out of the Civil War.
In September, 1861, at the organization of the 100th Regi- ment New York Volunteers, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant of Company H. The 100th bore a gallant part in the Peninsular Campaign under Mcclellan, in 1862 and 1863, took part in the operations on Folly and Morris Islands, and the siege of Fort Wagner. He was rapidly promoted to First Lieutenant, and then to Captain. He was assigned to staff duty and at different periods was detailed as regimental brigade, and division quartermaster, and United States Quartermaster of Volunteers. For several months he was Chief Quartermaster of the district of Florida. In 1864 he was sent to Virginia, being made Depot Quartermaster for the Army of the James. At the close of 1864 he directed the ship-
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ment of the two famous expeditions against Fort Fisher. At the request of Gen. Terry, Major Walbridge, as he had been brevetted, was assigned to the former's staff as Chief Quarter- master of the Tenth Army Corps, with the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel. His new position took him to North Carolina, where he remained on duty until he resigned from the service, October, 1865.
Returning to Buffalo in 1866 he re-entered the employ of Pratt & Co., this time as buyer. Here he remained until February, 1869, when he went into business on his own account, through the purchase of the old hardware concern of Hadley & Nichols, dealers in hardware and house furnishings. Under Mr. Walbridge's direction the business was improved and extended until, in 1873, a removal to the Sherman block on Washington street was justified. More extended business developments made another removal necessary, this time to a fine structure on the corner of Washington and South Division streets. In 1886 the long established business of Pratt & Com- pany was absorbed.
In 1900, a change in commercial conditions made a corre- sponding change in the enterprise conducted by Mr. Walbridge desirable. Accordingly the fine and commodious structure now occupied at 392 to 394 Main Street was erected. Constituting the present firm of Walbridge & Co. with Col. Walbridge are his brother Harry, and the latter's son, Newman.
From childhood Col. Walbridge has been connected with the North Presbyterian Church, and for many years a member and President of its Board of Trustees. He is President of the Buffalo Seminary, a trustee of the Buffalo Savings Bank, a Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and a member of Bidwell-Wilkeson Post, No. 9, G. A. R.
Col. Walbridge married in Brooklyn, N. Y., on September 3, 1868, Annie F. Noble, daughter of Capt. James and Anne (Watson) Noble. Capt. Noble commanded a vessel in the British navy and was lost in the wreck of his ship in the China
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Sea. Five children were born of the union: Wilhelmina Von Colson (Mrs. Wilder S. Buffum) of Dobbs Ferry, N. Y .; Isabel E. and Louise H. Walbridge, both of Buffalo, and two sons who died in infancy.
HON. T. GUILFORD SMITH. In the life of the Hon. T. Guilford Smith one finds the ideal American citizen realized to a large extent. He is indeed a man whose knowledge is broad, deep, and varied, and above all things so sensible that he is fitted to lead in whatever profession he could have chosen. His mind is one of that clearness which enables him to discern beyond the present, and it is this gift, combined with a keen and philosophical observation of men and events, which makes him the successful man of affairs.
Of impressive appearance, scholarly bearing and with the breadth of culture born of extensive travel, together with his love of the beautiful in life, and a warm human interest in his fellow men, all unite in making him an example of the high type of development to be found in our commonwealth. He might be said to be in harmony with every desirable phase of life, and while possessing high ideals, he is no idle dreamer of dreams. System is the keynote of his existence, and it is largely due to this notable characteristic that he has been able to accomplish so much in so many different fields of work. In the advancement of the Arts and Sciences he has been a forceful mover, while his practical efforts for the betterment of the conditions of his fellow men have been such as to bear result in lasting benefits. He is a born organizer, and an able promoter for good.
Family records and modern research, which have been exhaustively carried out, have established the fact that Dr. Smith can look back upon a most varied and cosmopolitan ancestry, and one that embraces not only the rigid Puritan, and the Roundhead, the Pilgrim sympathizer and the Cavalier, but the just-minded Quaker, the hardy, determined Welshman
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and the hearty resourceful native of the banks of the Rhine. On the paternal side, the direct Smith line of descent is from Ralph Smith of Norfolk, England, who settled on the shore of Massachusetts Bay in 1635 and whose grandson, also named Ralph, found the banks of the Delaware at Burlington, N. J., a more congenial place of residence about 1698. A generation later the family appeared in Philadelphia, in the person of the latter's son, Ralph, who married Margery Allen in Christ Church, Philadelphia, April 22, 1749, and who engaged in the transpor- tation, by water, of passengers and goods between Burlington. and Philadelphia. Thomas Smith, the son of Ralph, became a lumber merchant, and his son, Charles Eastwick Smith, was the grand-parent of Dr. Smith. It is interesting to note that through the marriages made by the Smiths of the several gener- ations a magnificent retrospect is apparent as the collateral lines are seen branched out upon the chart of the descents, some of which are carried back, by official evidence, to the period of the Norman conquest of England. Most of these branches have been revealed through Dr. Smith's interest in historic genealogical studies, and through his persistence in obtaining and directing, over many years, the most far-reaching and expert investigations. The results of these inquiries have already formed several volumes of intense and graphic narra- tives. It can only be said on this page that among the American founders from whom descent has been proved on the paternal side, are Nathaniel Sylvester, 1652, Lord of the Manor of Shelter Island, whose wife was the daughter of the Honorable Thomas Brinley, Auditor of the Revenues to Kings Charles I and II; James Lloyd at Boston, 1673, Lord of the Manor of Queen's Village, Long Island, the son of Sir John Lloyd of Bristol, England, and great-grandson of Dr. Lloyd, a physician to Queen Elizabeth; George Allen of Somersetshire, at Lynn, 1633, and legislator in the Bay Colony, 1641-2, through. his son, Ralph Allen, persecuted as a Cape Cod Quaker, 1676, and grand-son of Jedidiah Allen, who defied Lord Cornbury in
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the N. J. Colonial Legislature, 1703, and through the latter's son, Nathan, the founder of Allentown, N. J., 1705. Also may be mentioned Walter Newbury, a Friend, at Newport, R. I., 1673, who served as Councillor for R. I. in the Council of Sir Edmond Andros, Governor of all English Colonies in America, in 1689; and John Eastwick from London, 1700, an Alderman of Boston, Mass., 1736; also fully as worthy, Henry Howland from London, 1633, to Duxbury, Mass., brother of the Mayflower Pilgrim, John Howland; and in Pennsylvania from David Ogden, passenger in the "Welcome," 1682, with Wm. Penn, and also from William Bullock, keeper of the celebrated "Three Crowns" Tavern in Philadelphia, 1728.
Upon the maternal side Dr. Smith descends from notable Germantown and Merion founders of Pennsylvania, both Welsh and German, such as Abraham Tunes, 1685, part owner of the first paper mill (Rittenhouse's) in America, 1714; and from Arent Klincken, participant in the meeting at Germantown, 1688, at which was brought forth the first formal written protest against slavery made in America; from John Christo- pher Meng, a builder of Mannheim, Germany, who settled at Germantown, 1728, and built the Germantown Academy and other stone structures there, and whose son, Col. Christopher Meng, received the stores surrendered by Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown; from Wigard Levering of Mulheim, Germany, at Germantown, 1683. Of the Merion settlers may be named Daniel Jones, the Welshman; John Williams from the Palatinate, and John Zell, who built up the fine estate of Walnut Grove, Merion Station, Pennsylvania Railroad, the son of Jacob Zell from Germany, 1740, where the Zells have been found to be a family of great distinction with royal connections.
The Ralph Smith of Burlington, referred to in the pedigree, married Olive Clark of Burlington. He died there about 1718, and both were communicants of St. Mary's Church, were buried in the churchyard adjacent, and in memory of his parents is a memorial window of stained glass in the church, presented by Dr. Smith.
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The great-grandfather of T. Guilford Smith, Thomas Smith, the lumber merchant of Philadelphia, was born in that city August 23, 1761, and died in 1810. He married Grizzel East- wick September 26, 1782, at the North Meeting, Philadelphia. She was a daughter of Captain Thomas Eastwick, master of various passenger and merchandise vessels to the West Indies.
Charles Eastwick Smith, son of Thomas Smith, and grand- father of the subject of this sketch, was also a Philadelphian. He died in 1828, at the age of forty-five. His wife, Mary Ogden, was a descendant of David Ogden, one of the company of a hundred who accompanied William Penn to Pennsylvania in the ship "Welcome," in 1682. She died in 1838. Their son, Pemberton Smith, the father of T. Guilford Smith, was born in 1816 and died in 1873. His monument is in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia. The maiden name of his wife, Dr. Smith's mother, was Margaretta E. Zell.
Thomas Guilford Smith was born in Philadelphia on the 27th of August, 1839. He attended both the public and private schools of his native city, finally entering the Central High School of Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1858 with the degree of A.B. He then entered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., from which in 1861, he graduated with the degree of Civil Engineer, also being elected to Delta Chapter, Theta Delta Chi Fraternity. Two years afterward, in 1863, his Philadelphia alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts.
Dr. Smith's first entry into the world of active business was in connection with the engineering department of the Phila- delphia & Reading Railroad, attaining the position of Resident Engineer in the Mahanoy Mining District. Subsequently, he resigned this place to become manager of the Philadelphia Sugar Refinery. After the termination of this connection, he again entered actively into engineering work, this time as Consulting Engineer for different companies, and in 1872 their interests necessitated his visiting Europe. A notable event of
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this trip was his attendance at the International Prison Congress in London, to which body he held credentials as a delegate. Dr. Smith at this Congress met many eminent men interested in the reform of prison methods and the amelioration of the condition of convicts.
Dr. Smith came to Buffalo in 1873, and from that year to 1889 was engaged here in business in connection with a number of industries. In 1889 he became Sales Agent for Carnegie, Phipps & Co., of Pittsburg, and later of the Carnegie Steel Company, the nucleus of the United States Steel Corporation. The relations of Dr. Smith with this business have continued to the present time, and he is also identified with the Illinois Steel Co. and the U. S. Steel Products Export Co.
He has been able to take an active part in many movements relating to science, humanity and general progress, to main- tain genuine and living affiliations with a large number of societies organized for the furtherance of literature, science and fine arts and other branches of knowledge, to become a potent factor in educational matters, to achieve distinction as an exponent of the doctrine of the American protective tariff and to make his opinions felt and his course followed in affairs connected with the vital subjects of the time.
In 1887 Dr. Smith was made a member of the Council of the University of Buffalo. In 1890 Dr. Smith was elected a Regent of the University of the State of New York. The office of Regent is justly considered one of the highest within the gift of the State, to the Board of Regents being committed the official supervision of all educational institutions within the State.
Dr. Smith's labors as a Regent have been marked by initiative earnestness and effective results. He is Chairman of the Museum Committee of the Board, which has charge of all the scientific work under the Regents' supervision, including geology, botany, entomology, palaeontology and other branches. Dr. Smith is himself a man of scientific training and has always been a
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student of natural history. To him is due much of the study in recent years of the economic geology of the State, a subject of great practical importance in its relations to road-making, agriculture and mining.
In 1899 Hobart College, in recognition of Dr. Smith's long and valuable services in behalf of education, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Five years before, Hobart Chapter had honored his attainments as a scholar by electing him to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. In 1900 Alfred University, Alfred, N. Y., conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws in recog- nition of his efforts in establishing at Alfred the N. Y. State School of Ceramics.
A survey of Dr. Smith's work in the province of education- using the word in its strict sense-leads naturally to some examination of the relations held by him to general culture and to organizations having for their aim intellectual improvement in different special fields. In 1896 he was elected President of the Buffalo Library. He took the ground that the Library should be made free to the public, succeeded in bringing about this result, and aided in obtaining from the city an annual appropriation of $80,000 for that institution. Serving first as Treasurer, then as Vice-President, and finally as President of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, he showed the same spirit which had characterized him in the case of the Library. The outcome was that the Academy was opened to the public every day in the week. He is now President of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences and has been for the past three years. In 1894 he was chosen a Director of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the same year he was the delegate of that body to the 11th International Congress of Medicine and Surgery, at Rome. In the years 1866-67 he was elected a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute and the Union League, all of Philadelphia. He is a member of the American Economic Association, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the New York State Historical
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Society, the Buffalo Historical Society, the American Institute of Mining Engineers and also the Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania. In 1889 he was elected President of the Alumni Asso- ciation of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and he is a member of the Alumni Association of the Philadelphia Central High School. In 1892 he joined the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, representing Col. Christopher Meng, Assistant Deputy Quartermaster-General of the Continental army, subsequently being elected Vice-President and still later President of the Buffalo branch of that order, and he is a member of the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York, and is also a member of the Welcome Society of Pennsylvania, being a descendant of David Ogden, who came to this country in the ship Welcome.
Col. T. Ellwood Zell, a Quaker of Philadelphia, at the close of the Civil War, in which he had served with honor and distinction in the 121st Pennsylvania Volunteers, organized with two others the Military order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He officially appointed his nephew, T. Guilford Smith, to be his successor, and at a meeting of the N. Y. Commandery held December 13, 1905, Hon. T. Guilford Smith was elected a Companion of the First Class Heredity of the Order.
A Republican in politics, the connection of Dr. Smith with the American Protective Tariff League deserves special mention. His views of the tariff question are a matter of inheritance as well as conviction, for when the party of Alexander Hamilton was in existence Dr. Smith's ancestors were Federalists, and at a later epoch his father and grand- father were Whigs. He has been a member of the Tariff League from the time it was established, and has worked with persist- ent energy for the cause of protection to our national industries, being convinced that American prosperity is vitally involved in the tariff issue.
Dr. Smith is identified with many clubs and organizations for
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social purposes, being a member of the Buffalo and University clubs of Buffalo.
Prominent among the philanthropic institutions to which Dr. Smith has lent his influence and aid, is the Charity Organization Society of Buffalo, of which he was elected President in 1888, thereafter continuing in that office. This is the pioneer society in the United States. It is an important example of organized benevolence, and since its inauguration over one hundred charitable associations have been formed along similar lines in other cities.
Dr. Smith had a share in the Pan-American project. He was Chairman of the Exposition Committee on Fine Arts, and the choice was admittedly a felicitous one. The collection of paintings, sculpture and other works of art was remarkable both for diversity and merit, and the outcome was that the Exposition gave a strong and lasting impetus to esthetic culture in Buffalo. In addition to his activities in the art department of the Pan-American, Dr. Smith was a member of the Committee on State and Foreign Relations, a field for which he was fitted by cosmopolitan spirit and extensive travel, and in which he did important service.
To fail to allude to Dr. Smith's foreign journey would be to omit an interesting phase of his life, and one which has had a marked influence on his career. Dr. Smith has many of the characteristics of the typical "citizen of the world," and this is largely to be attributed to the exceptional opportunities he has had to visit distant lands and observe dissimilar customs and new habits of thought. Four times he has made compre- hensive tours of Europe, and he has also traveled in the Orient.
As a man who in a singular degree unites sterling qualities with polished address, and whose scope and variety of experi- ence assures ready adaptation to circumstances, Dr. Smith is much sought on those occasions where social amenities are combined with larger interests. A noteworthy instance of this character was the visit of the members of the Iron and Steel
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Institute to the United States in 1904, as Dr. Smith was a member of the Reception Committee.
July 14, 1864, Dr. Smith was married in St. Marks' Church, Grand Rapids, Mich., to Miss Mary Stewart Ives, a daughter of Chauncey Pelton and Charlotte Brownell (Stewart) Ives of Lansingburgh, N. Y., where Mrs. Smith was born. They have two sons, Pemberton Smith, who was born June 3, 1865, graduated with the degree of C.E. from the Rensselaer Poly- technic Institute in 1888, and who is a civil engineer by profession, and now represents the U. S. Steel Products Export Co. in South America; and Chauncey Pelton Smith, born October 27, 1869, graduated as M.D. from the medical depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania, later taking a post- graduate course of Johns Hopkins Hospital, and who is now a physician and surgeon practicing in Buffalo.
THE GOODYEAR FAMILY. The ancient home of the Eng- lish Goodyears was the Parish of Monken Hadley, in the County of Middlesex. The American Goodyears trace their lineage to Stephen Goodyear, Governor of New Haven Colony from 1643 to 1658, who was one of the merchants who, on June 26, 1637, came from London to this country with the Rev. John Daven- port in the ship Hector. In 1638 most of these immigrants made their way to the site of New Haven, Conn. Gov. Stephen Goodyear of the New Haven Colony stood high among the English Colonial governors of his time. His judgment determined the location of the colony and the plan of the town of New Haven. He took a leading part in the development of the infant state and is, historically, the most conspicuous personage in its early annals. Long before Yale College was founded he was one of the first to advocate such an institution. John Goodyear, son of Governor Stephen Goodyear, was a lieutenant in the Colonial militia. He had a son, Andrew, who married Jane Gilbert, daughter of Deputy Governor Matthew Gilbert. Their son, Titus, had a son, John Goodyear, who
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removed to Geneva, N. Y., and died in Barre, Orleans County, in 1826. BRADLEY GOODYEAR, son of John Goodyear, was born in Sempronius, N. Y., December 6, 1816. He studied medicine with Dr. Miles Goodyear, practiced in Cortland, N. Y., and later in Western New York, and spent the last years of his life in Buffalo, where he died May 16, 1889. November 26, 1845, Dr. Goodyear married Esther P. Kinne, daughter of Moses and Polly (Forbes) Kinne, and granddaughter of Ira and Miriam (Goodell) Kinne of Connecticut, and of Alexander Forbes, a native of Scotland. The children of Dr. Goodyear were: Charles W. Goodyear and Frank H. Goodyear.
Dr. Goodyear was to a notable degree identified with the practice and progress of the medical profession in Western New York, being a well-read, experienced and successful medical practitioner.
The wife of Dr. Goodyear was womanly, helpful and devoted -an ideal wife and mother. Possessed of a remarkable amount of energy and vitality, she long survived her husband, her death occurring in 1907.
CHARLES W. GOODYEAR. It is seldom that a man wins great and genuine success in two distinct fields. To Charles W. Goodyear belongs the honor of such an achievement. Mr. Goodyear is one of the ablest lawyers in Western New York. He is among the foremost lumbermen of the country.
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