USA > New York > Onondaga County > Syracuse > Memorial history of Syracuse, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 40
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On his mother's side he derived his descent from Richard Goodwin, his great-grandfather, who was born in New England and whose son, Richard Goodwin, a native of Pennsylvania, located early in the present century at Goodwin's Point, near Taughannock Falls, on Cayuga lake. His son, Joseph Goodwin, a soldier in the war of 1812, was the father of Catherine H. Goodwin, who married Samuel R. Vann; and their son Irving, the subject of this sketch, an only child, spent his earliest years upon his father's farm, engaged alternately at work and study. He received careful instruction from his mother, but did not attend school until he began to prepare for college at Tru- mansburg Academy, ahout four miles from the residence of his father. Boarding at home in the spring and fall, he used to walk back and forth morning and evening. but had the privilege of riding when the horses were not necded on the farm. In the winter he boarded at Trumansburg. He at- tended for one year the academy at Ithaca, where he completed his preparation for college. In Sep- tember, 1859, he entered the freshman class of Yale College, and was graduated from that institu- tion in 1863. During the next year he was principal of the Pleasant Valley High School, near Owensboro, Kentucky; and although successful as a teacher and urged to continue, he resigned the position and began the study of law in the office of Boardman & Finch, at Ithaca, and in the fall of 1864 entered the Albany Law School, where he graduated in the spring of 1865. A few months were next spent in Washington, as a clerk in the Treasury Department, but resigning in October, 1865, he came to Syracuse and became a clerk in the law office of Kaynor & Butler. In March, 1866, he began to practice law, and subsequently became a member of the law firms of Vann & Fiske, Raynor & Vann, Fuller & Vann, and Vann, McLennan & Dillaye. His success at first was moderate, but his practice finally became "large and profitable. Having associated himself with partners who were expert in the trial of causes before a jury, he preferred to conduct them after the facts had been settled, by arguing the questions of law in the appellate courts. He heard and de- cided many cases as referee, until his practice became so large that he was obliged to confine him- self to the business of his own office.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF SYRACUSE.
He was one of the founders of the Onondaga Bar Association, and became successively second and first vice-president, and finally its president. He was also one of the founders of the State Bar Association.
In polities he has always been a Republican, but was identified with its liberal wing and sup- ported Ilorace Greeley for president in 1872. He engaged actively in several political campaigns, and made speeches throughout the county, and to some extent elsewhere, but was not a candidate for office until the winter of 1870, when, without effort on his part, he was unanimously nominated as the Republican candidate for Mayor of Syracuse. After a spirited and exciting contest, with three candidates in the field, he was elected by a plurality of nearly one thousand. His administra- tion as Mayor was characterized by the lowest taxes that the city had known for many years, and lower than it has ever known since. He retired from office with every debt contracted hy his administration fully paid, and left a handsome balance in the treasury. He declined a renomination, because the duties of the office, as performed by him, were so exacting as to require nearly all his time and prevent him from practicing his profession.
In ISSI he was nominated with substantial unanimity by the judicial convention of his party as its candidate for Justice of the Supreme Court, and at the ensuing election this selection was ratified by a majority of over eleven thousand. Ile assumed the duties of that office January 1, 1882, and continued to discharge them until in January, 1888, when he became by the designation of the Governor, a Judge of the Court of Appeals, Second Division, and he is still a member of that court.
Although devoted to his profession and to the discharge of his judicial duties, he has been some- what active in benevolent, charitable, and social affairs. Ile organized Woodlawn Cemetery and has been its only president, and has also been the president of the Onondaga Red Cross Society froni its inception. He was one of the founders and has for several years been the president of the Cen- tury Club of Syracuse. In 1882 Hamilton College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws.
In 1870 he was married to Florence, only daughter of the late Henry A. Dillaye, an old resident of this city. They have two children, Florence Dillaye, born July 31, 1871, and Irving Dillaye, born September 17, 1575. Domestic in tastes, he finds the highest enjoyment in his family circle. He is fond of books and has a choice library of several thousand volumes, many of which are rare and valuable. He is also fond of fishing, and spends his vacations in the most inaccessable parts of the Adirondack wilderness, casting the fly for trout with such success as to have become somewhat noted for his skill.
His life has been uneventful, but not without benefit to the community in which he lives.
ORNELIUS TYLER LONGSTREET. The subject of this sketch was born in Onondaga C Valley April 19, 1814, and died at his residence in Syracuse July 4. 18SI. His ancestors were from Holland, the founders of the family in this country being three brothers who settled in New Jersey. They emigrated in the seventeenth century and one of them subsequently removed to l'enn- sylvania and one to Georgia. Among members of these families who were contemporaneous with the subject of this notice may be mentioned Judge Longstreet, of the Georgia branch, who w.i. president of Columbia College in South Carolina at the breaking out of the civil war ; and that brave and distinguished southern soldier, General James Longstreet, who is still living.
Cornelius Longstreet, father of the subject of this sketch, was of the New Jersey branch of the family, and a native of that State. In ISof or 1802 he removed to Onondaga Hill, a little handlet. which was soon to become a thriving village and business point and the county seat of Onondaga county. There Mr. Longstreet opened a store for the sale of general goods and was one of the earlier merchants of the county. In 1805 he married Deborah Tyler, daughter of Comfort Tyler. the pioneer of Onondaga county and companion of Asa Danforth in making the first settlement in
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
the beautiful Valley. Comfort Tyler's first wife was a Wemple and half-sister of General Herkimer. The reader of this volume has already learned something of Comfort Tyler's distinguished services, in and near this locality, in earlier pages. Cornelius T. was the youngest son in a family of five children, and his father died when he was less than one year old. The widow and children were left with what in those times was considered a substantial property, but through mismanagement of those who had it in charge, and other causes, the family received but little benefit from the estate. Mrs. Longstreet lived abou' twelve years after her husband's death, and died in 1326. She was an estimable woman in all respects and gave her best unselfish efforts to the proper education and train ing of her children.
Young Cornelius attended school until 1827, when he began as apprentice to a tailor in the then small village of Syracuse, and remained faithful at his post for three years. During the next year he worked at his trade in Geddes, and at the age of seventeen the enterprising young man opened a shop of his own at that place and.secured a profitable business, purchasing his cloths and some ready- made clothing in New York city. But Syracuse at that time was outstripping her rival villages, in the Valley, on the Hill, and at Salina and Geddes, and Mr. Longstreet saw the necessity of joining with the tide flowing towards the more promising business center at Syracuse, which he did after three years of trade in Geddes. For a short period after beginning business in Syracuse Mr. Long- street was associated in trade with Henry Agnew, then the leading tailor of the village. Mr. Long- street's business career was successful from the first. He was personally well fitted to secure the re- ward of successful mercantile operations ; a skillful, practical workman, possessed of excellent taste and judgment, invariably polite and gentlemanly to all with whom he came in contact, his establish- ment soon became widely and popularly known. For a period of ten years it was probably the largest and most prosperous of its kind in the State west of New York city. But although meeting with so large a measure of success, Mr. Longstreet's ambition carried his business ideas beyond what he could hope to attain in the then small village of Syracuse. In the course of his business he had secured a thorough knowledge of the clothing trade in New York city, and became convinced that there was more than ordinary encouragement for an enterprising person to open an establishment in that city devoted chiefly to supplying dealers in the northern and western parts of the State. Acting upon this belief he removed to New York in 1546 and founded a wholesale clothing house. This venture attested his excellent business judgment, for it proved immediately successful, and for six years he conducted it with his characteristic energy and with large profits. He was the first person to ship ready-made clothing to California and other western points.
In IS52, having amassed a fortune, he returned to Syracuse and spent the greater portion of three years in the erection of the splendid residence known as "Renwick Castle." In the autumn of 1$55 he returned to New York to assist in establishing his eldest son, Charles A. Longstreet, in the wholesale clothing business, and was associated with him for several years as a silent partner. During this period he spent a large portion of his time in the metropolis, but still maintained his home in Syracuse. In the latter part of 1962 the condition of his health compelled him to abandon active pursuits, and he returned to his native county.
In 1863 Mr. Longstreet was made one of the Directors of the First National Bank of Syracuse, the second of its kind organized in the United States, its first President being the distinguished finan- cier, E. B: Judson, who still occupies the same position in the same institution. Mr. Longstreet con- tinued in the Board of Directors of this bank until his death. He was also one of the original incor- porators of the Mechanics Bank of Syracuse, organized in August, 1851, and a Director of it for nearly thirty years. In politics Mr. Longstreet was a steadfast Republican from the foundation of that party, though he never sought or desired public office.
Mr. Longstreet was naturally of a charitable disposition and gave liberally of his means to the founding and support of St. Joseph's Hospital, the Old Ladies' Home, and other beneficent charities of Syracuse. In private life he won friends from all circles in which he moved. His life was ex- emplary in its every phase, and he gained and retained until the last the esteem of his fellow citizens. Mr. Longstreet died after a lingering illness at his home in Syracuse on the 4th of July, 1981. Resolutions of respect were passed by the various corporate bodies with which he had been connected, and his death was a source of deep sorrow to the many of his fellow citizens who had admired his sterling integrity and profited by his wise counsel.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF SYRACUSE.
Mr. Longstreet left surviving him Mrs. C. T. Longstreet, eldest daughter of Lewis II Redfield ; she is now residing in Syracuse. One daughter, Mrs. Cornelia T. Poor, of Skaneateles, who is the mother of three children, Charles Longstreet, Mattie Lindsay, and Anita Tyler. Two sons, the eldest Charles A., who died in California and left three sons, C. Tyler, Jarvis Dennis, and Guy. Edward W, died some years since in Syracuse.
ลข UCIEN BARNES is descended from good old New England stock, being a lineal descendant of his father's branch (Orson Barnes, esq.) of Major Simon Willard, who emigrated from Eorsmonden, England, and arrived at Boston, Mass., in May, 1634, and who, by his three marri- ages, became the father of eight daughters and nine sons, and from whom most of the Willards in this country may trace their ancestry. By his third marriage, to Mary Dunster, supposed to have taken place at Concord, Mass., his twelfth child, John Willard, was born, February 12, 1656 or 1657. He married Mary Hayward, October 31, 1698, and their son, Jonathan, born April 28, 1701, and his wife, Abigail Wilcox, settled in Great Barrington, Mass., and were the parents of David Willard, born July 17, 1741. The latter married Martha Sherlock, at Great Barrington, where their eldest daugh- ter, Sarah, was born September 17, 1769. She married, October 12, 1794, at Otsego, N. V., William Barnes, who settled in Pompey, Onondaga county, N. Y., near the village of Oran. They had two daughters at the time, viz .: Phebe, born January 26, 1796, who married Luther Buell, December 6, 1815; and Myra, born July 20, 1797, who married, May 22, 1815, Hon. Nehemiah P. Stanton. Both families settled in Pompey, Onondaga county, and Mr. Buell founded the place known as Buellville.
Orson Barnes, the only son and third child of William Barnes, was born at Pompey, March 26, 1802, and married, February 20, 1823, Eliza Phelps, who was born August 27, 1803. They had four sons and one daughter, of whom three survive, namely : Hon. William, of Albany, N. Y., who organized the State Insurance Department, and held the position of Superintendent of Insurance for ten years; Sarah Eliza; and Lucien, born in Baldwinsville, Onondaga county, N. Y., December 20, 1835. Orson Barnes was a talented man, became prominent in educational affairs in Onondaga county, and was Superintendent of Schools in 1843. He died August 6, 1852, when Lucien was about sixteen years of age. The mother, possessing great energy and perseverance inherited Irom her New England ancestry, devoted her life to the welfare of her surviving children, and now (July, ISgt) has attained the age of nearly eighty-eight years. She was the daughter of Capt. Ilorace l'helps, of Springfield, Mass., where he died. William Barnes, the father of Orson, born December 26, 1771, was the sixth son and child of Phincas Barnes and Phebe Bement, of West Stockbridge, Mass., who had twelve children, the first seven being sons and the others daughters.
There is much of interest relating to the family of Major Simon Willard, and the trying scenes during King Phillip's War, to be found in the " Willard Memoirs," by Joseph Willard, pp. 333-365. Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston, 1858. In Vol. IV., of " American Ancestry," 1889, published by Joel Munsell's Sons, Albany, p. 3, there is a notice of the ancestry of our subject, as follows :
"Orson Barnes, the father of Lueien Barnes, born at Pompey, Onondaga county, N. Y., March 26, 1802; Superintendent of Schools of Onondaga county, 1843 ; married, February 20, 1323. Eliza Phelps, of Suffield, Conn. Son of William Barnes, born December 26, 1771, at West Stockbridge. Mass. ; married, October 12, 1794, Sarah Willard, of Great Barrington, Mass., descendant of Major Simon Willard ; distinguished in campaign against King Phillip, 1675: commander of first company or train band in Southington parish in Farmington, Conn., 1762; lieutenant, 1760 ; captain. 176; : removed to Stockbridge before 1771 ; four of his sons were pioneer settlers of Pompey, N. V., 1703 ; married Phebe Bement, born January 22, 1734, at Weathersfield, Conn. Son of Thomas Barnes. born June 21, 1703 ; estate inventoried April 12, 1744 ; married, May 19, 1726, Hannah, daughter of Thomas and Hannah Nelson Day. Son of Deacon Ebenezer, of Waterbury, Conn. ; married first, Deborah Orvis, born April 17, 'ost, daughter of Samuel and Deborah Orvis ; married, second. Mehitable Miller. Son of Thomas Barnes, a soldier in the Pequoit battle of 1037, in which boo sav- ages were killed by ninety colonists. Ile was of Sentinel Hill, Hartford. 1039 ; joined church Jan- uary 30, 1652 ; admitted freeman 1669 : was probably the first of the family in America. Name de- rived from the Norse 'Bijourne'-a warrior."
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
Lucien Barnes, the youngest child and son of Orson and Mrs. Eliza (Phelps) Barnes, was born in Baldwinsville, N. Y , December 26, 1835. He was educated in the public schools of those times, and when fifteen years of age accepted a clerkship in the general store of Glass & Williams, at Bald- winsville, under a contract he himself made for three years, at a yearly salary of $30, $50 and $80, respectively. After completing that period the country village was not of enough interest to hini, and he then made an engagement in the larger store of Arnold, Woodward & Son of Syracuse, where he remained till 1858, when he accepted an offer to become manager of the dry goods house of Sherwood & Oakley, of Cleveland, Ohio, where he lived till July, 1861. Ilis brother, Hon. William Barnes, of Albany. N. Y., having been appointed Superintendent of the Insurance Department of the State, offered him the position of chief clerk and cashier of the Department, a position which Lucien accepted, and at once removed to Albany and entered upon the duties of the office. This high position of trust he filled to the satisfaction of all, being in charge of the large deposits made by the insurance companies,-both American and foreign, -and having the "keys" to " several millions " in his pockets for some ten years ; at the end of each fiscal year, on the 30th of September, the cash account always balanced and was found correct. lle was also notary public for the Depart- ment. He was very active in the militia at Albany, being a lieutenant in Company A, Tenth Reg- iment, Albany Zouave Cadets, N. G. S. N. Y., and resigning his commission in 1870. He was on duty with his regiment at the funeral obsequies in Albany of the lamented President Abraham Lin- coln, in April, 1865.
In November, 1869, Mr. Barnes resigned his position in the Insurance Department, and began the erection of an opera house in South Pearl street, Albany, which he completed and opened in fifty days, and which created quite a sensation at the time. The feat has never been equalled since. It is a large brick structure, perfect in all its appointments, and is still used as an opera house. The building was named " Trimble Opera House" in honor of his father-in-law. He continued as a theatrical manager until 1883, and in 1834 began to use his natural gifts as an inventor, producing, in company with his nephew, Charles O. Barnes, their first car coupler. They kept on making inven- tions, producing two other patents on car couplers, the last one, patented in 1886, being adopted by the Vanderbilt and many of the largest railroads in the United States, and has yielded a profit in five years of a quarter of a million dollars. Mr. Barnes is constantly working on something new, having patents in several mechanical branches other than railway inventions, and each year in several issues of the Patent Office Gusette are found patents granted to him, as well as having several foreign pat- ents. He was a delegate from New York State to the Inventors' Convention held in Washington, D. C., April 10, 15g1, in honor of the centennial of the l'atent Office, and was in the group of inven- tors photographed standing on the steps of that building, and also at Mount Vernon, Pa. He is now a valued and respected citizen of the Central City.
May 26, 1369. Mr. Barnes was married at the Delevan House, Albany, to Augusta Georgia Trimble, who was born in New York city, December 30, 1540, the eldest daughter of the late John Montague Trimble, the well-known architect and builder of that city. ller grandfather, the father of John Montague Trimble, was an officer in the United States navy, sailing from Norfolk, Va. The family name " Montague " has descended from Lord Montague of England. A very large book containing the biography of Lord Montague, the family coat of arms, etc., is in the possession of Mrs. Lucien Barnes, having been handed down to her by her father. This book is carefully pre- served and will in time be handed down to her sen, Lucien Barnes, jr. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes have five children, as follows : Lulu Augusta, born April -[. 1570 ; Edith Minnie, horn January 6, 1872 ; Mary Trimble, born July 7. 1974 ; Lucien, jr., born July 30, 1877 : and Florence, born June 21, INSI. All except Florence were born in Albany. She was born in New York city.
Mr. Barnes is a man of refined tastes, and known in business as very energetic, sober, reliable, and strictly honest. His word is never broken. Ile is a staunch friend, a good neighbor, and the kindest of father ...
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF SYRACUSE.
B. AUSTIN AVERY was born at Ledyard, Conn., on the 15th of July, 1814. Ilis father was Anson Avery, a respectable farmer, and his mother was Eunice Avery. His early life, like that of almost all farmers' boys of that carly period, was chiefly devoted to arduous labor at home, interspersed with attendance at the district school, chiefly in winters. In Mr. Avery's case, how - ever, he was fortunate enough to secure an attendance of a few terms at the Colchester Academy. Ilis faculties were naturally bright and his brain power exceptional. as was amply attested in after life, and he therefore gained a better education from his restricted opportunities than others might with more liberal privileges. He was thus fitted to teach school, which honorable occupation he followed winters for a number of years, working on the home farm in the summers. These occupa- tions occupied his attention until he was twenty-four years old, when he came to Syracuse, in the year 1838. He promptly came to the conclusion that the then active village was destined to become an important commercial and manufacturing center, and that he would make it, or its immediate vicinity, his future home. He spent two years in Syracuse engaged chiefly in laying the founda- tions of a fine salt manufacturing business, in which he invested the eight hundred dollars which constituted his entire fortune when he arrived here. At the end of the two years he returned to his native place, where he married Miss Mary A. Avery, and returned at once to Syracuse. From that time on till the day of his death he engaged energetically and actively in the various industries which at different times claimed his attention, all the time extending his operations and adding to his material means; and what was still more important, steadily gaining in the respect of the community and in their esteem as a man of capacity and usefulness. Soon after his second arrival in Syracuse Mr. Avery purchased fifty acres of land on the plank road near the toll-gate, and began the long period of at least partial devotion to agricultural matters which ended only with his death. From that small beginning his homestead grew by other purchases to a splendid farm of two hundred and fifteen acres, and under his intelligent and watchful care became, perhaps, one of the very best farms in the county of Onondaga It is now owned by the Skiff brothers. Mr. Avery's chief attention. as far as his farm was concerned, was devoted to the production of milk, a business which he reduced almost to a science. He purchased and bred the best of cows, investigated thoroughly into the best methods of feeding, provided extensive and comfortable barns, and was in every way a representa- tive farmer of the front rank. Outside of his farm interests Mr. Avery turned his hand to many undertakings, and it can be said that no one of them failed to feel the influence of his vigorous and wise action, and reach a fair measure of success. He manufactured brick largely on his own farm, and many of the prominent buildings of Syracuse are from the brick of his make. In the war period he filled mummy contracts for the general government in purchasing horses, etc., a business which was conducted with the same integrity which governed all his operations. Ile, with James Noxon, wa- responsible for the organization of the company which built the first street railway in the city,-that running to the First ward, -- and he was for a number of years its General Manager. But the crown- ing work, perhaps, of Mr. Avery's life was the founding of the Onondaga County Milk Association. an institution that has not only been a benefit to its members and the farmers generally, but has proved of inestimable advantage to the city of Syracuse. The company. or association, was org.in- ized in January, 1872, with Mr. Avery as President, an office which he held to the time of his death , B. F Scott, Vice-President; and Cyrus D. Avery, Secretary and Treasurer. The capital stock w.t. 850.000, which was increased in 1875 to $100,000, when the building of the association was erected. Mr. Avery's belief was, and it was supported by after experience, that the cost of selling milk could! be greatly reduced by such an organization ; that the community could at the same time obtain miin at a price as low or lower than it had done, with an almost absolute guarantee that it would be pure All this has proven to be the result of his wisdom and foresight, and the association is to-day a com- plete success in every sense. Mr. Avery was a liberal contributor to the stock of the association. but never accepted any compensation for his services as its head officer. In politics Mr. Avery w2- a Republican after the election of President Lincoln, but he never sought office and often declined : when tendered him.
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