USA > New York > Onondaga County > Syracuse > Memorial history of Syracuse, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 42
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Mr. Baker's position in the community in which he passed his life was such that he was often called to stations of trust and responsibility in the village and city government, all of which he filled with fidelity and integrity. Earlier in his life he was prominent in the State militia and rose from a stibordinate official post to Major. In politics he was a Republican from the time of the birth of that party, and was previous to that time a Whig. Not an ardent politician, he nevertheless never hesitated to uphold his opinions on all proper occasions.
Mr. and Mrs. Baker passed their lives in the village of Danforth after their removal thither. Their family circle was broken in 1855 by the death of their eldest daughter, Julia L., and in IS64 by that of their youngest son, George Danforth. It was their rare fortune to dwell together fifty years, and on the anniversary of their marriage in October, 1877, they welcomed many friends to their golden wedding, where the ceremony was re-performed by Rev. Dr. Nelson Millard. Of the guests at their marriage four were still living, and two of them were present at the golden wedding.
Mr. Baker's eldest son, Charles Wood Baker, died ten months after his father's decease, in Denver, Col., whither he had gone to recuperate his health, leaving a widow, one son, and a daughter. In the spring of 1884, Mr. Baker's widow, Maria Wood Baker, died at the age of SI years, retaining her faculties to the end, having lived the true Christian life through these years. Both Mr. and Mrs. Baker received the devoted care of their daughter, Cornelia A. Baker, who now alone survives of the immediate family.
G EORGE NELLIS CROUSE was born at Chittenango, Madison county, N. Y., on the 24th of November, 1847. He is of German ancestry, and three centuries ago, in Saxony, Jacob, George, and James were familiar names in the Crouse family of that time, as they ever since have been. James Crouse, father of George Nellis, was a son of Jacob Crouse and Catharine Nellis, in whose wedded life was a union of two families prominent in the business and social life of the Mohawk valley. James Crouse was a successful merchant at Chittenango, N. Y., and in IS55 removed to Syracuse, where he formed a partnership with his brother John, and the great wholesale grocery house of J. & J. Crouse was established. This is a department of trade in which the Crouse family has become pre-eminent, and as great and successful merchants, the Crouse name has a prominent place in business annals. Daniel Crouse, another brother, was at the head of a like enterprise at Utica, N. V. The Crouse Bank at Syracuse was organized by the brothers, John and James, and under their management was very successful. James Crouse died in 1858, leaving a record of the strictest probity and an example as a citizen and business man worthy of all emulation.
George Nellis Crouse received his education primarily at the Polytechnic School at Chittenango ; afterwards attending the seminary at Kinderhook, N. Y., and still later the Walnut Ilill School at Geneva, N. Y. He left school at the age of eighteen, and having determined to devote his life to active business pursuits, he made an extended trip through the western States with a view of possibly locating there ; but he returned to Syracuse and entered the employ of the wholesale grocery house of Enos Stimson & Co. During this connection he made himself familiar with the details of the busi- ness, in which afterwards he was himself highly successful. In 1869, Jacob Crouse, with George N. and James S. Crouse, formed the firm of Jacob Crouse & Brothers, wholesale grocers. In IS79 James S. Crouse withdrew from the firm, and in 1884 Jacob Crouse also withdrew, and the firm style was changed to G. N. Crouse & Co., composed of George N. Crouse and Robert E. Bentley. Since Mr. Crouse became connected with this tirm, it has had his personal attention and energies concen- trated in its management, and it long has ranked as the leading wholesale grocery house in Central New York.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF SYRACUSE.
Outside of his exacting business connections, Mr. Crouse has found time to take an active and useful part in public affairs. In 1874 he was commissioned as Commissary of Subsistence in the National Guard of the State, holding rank as Lieutenant-Colonel on the staff of Brigadier-General D. P. Wood (from which office he gained the title by which his friends habitually address him). Ile has at all times shown himself to be a sturdy friend and promoter of military interests. Ile has long ranked among the most public-spirited of the citizens of the city of his residence. IIe is never spar- ing of his time and influence in promoting what he considers the best interests of the community. He devotes, in harmony with the inclination and nature of both himself and wife, active efforts in all be- nevolent and charitable enterprises, to which, indeed, they both give hearty co-operation and support. Mr. Crouse is a trustee and treasurer of the First Presbyterian church, and for many years has been continued in these relations. lle is a director in several financial institutions ; manager in philan- thropic organizations, and an active member of the Century and Citizens' Clubs and other public bodies. In politics a Republican, he always takes a warm interest in public affairs, and though he has never sought political office, yet he frequently has been honored with representative commissions and been tendered prominent places. He has put all offers of official station aside, but has practi- cally lived up to his conviction that it is every citizen's duty to uphold to the extent of his ability the principles of good government. Mr. Crouse was Chairman of the Republican County Committee for two years, 1872-3 ; a member of the State Committee for several years, and of the Executive Con- mittee in 1877-78. He was a delegate to the National Convention which nominated President Ilayes in 1876 ; and in ISS8 he was a Presidential Elector. His vote was the greatest given to any Elector in the State of New York in that election. In 1889 his name was proposed by the Republican papers of New York city for the office of State Treasurer. These honors came to him without his seeking, and were evidences of confidence in his fitness and worthiness. Prompt and quick in action and thought, and always knowing just what he wishes to convey, and the best way to express himself, with absolute fearlessness in argument, Mr. Crouse has shown himself able to encounter successfully men who have made politics the study of their lives. No listener ever mistakes his meaning on any topic he may discuss.
Mr. Crouse has traveled extensively, and his study and observation have been profitable to him. His journeys include trips with his wife to San Francisco and through Southern California, in 1876, and to England and the principal continental countries in ISS9, besides a trip to Cuba for the benefit of his health in 1887. In his earlier life he was a leader in social life in the city of his residence, and his home always has been a center of a refined social influence.
Mr. Crouse was married October 5. 1876, to Miss Florence Jennie Marlette, daughter of the ate Dr. Edwin R. Marlette, a distinguished oculist and aurist. Her mother was Frances Anne Wright, daughter of the late Dr. Rial Wright, a prominent citizen of Syracuse, and one of the early Superintendents of the Onondaga Salt Springs. Mr. and Mrs. Crouse have four children: George Nellis, Jr., Florence Beccher, Mariette, and Laura Catherine.
W ILLIAM B. COGSWELL, the distinguished engineer and general manager of the Solvay Process Company and the Tully Pipe Line Company, of Syracuse, was born in Oswego, N. Y., September 22, 1334. Flis father was David Cogswell, who died in 1877. During the three years when William B. was from seven to ten years of age, he attended the Hamilton, Oneida county, academy. le afterwards attended a school of some note, kept by Joseph Allen, in Syracuse, and also a school kept by Prof. Orin Root, in Seneca Falls, N. Y. During the two years, 1848-9, Mr. Cogswell worked with an engineering party on the survey of the Syracuse and Oswego railroad and the Syracuse and U'tica road. Ilis natural tastes impelled him strongly towards engineering a> < profession, and it is not, therefore, surprising that when his surveying experience ended, he shuus! enter the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., which he did on the Ist of May, 1.20. in the class of 1852. Ile remained with that excellent institution three years and left it with credit ; but owing to an extension of the course no class was graduated in that year. In the year 1834 the degree of C. E. was conferred on him by thisinstitute.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
Soon after leaving the school Mr. Cogswell began an apprenticeship in the Lawrence Machine Shop, under the superintendence of John C. Hoadley. He came out of that apprenticeship three years later with a theoretical and practical education in engineering, mechanics and physics, with their allied branches, not often secured in so short a time by so young a man. He had studied and worked with the ardent devotion born of a strong love for his chosen profession, and the result was what always follows such efforts when put forth by native ability under such circumstances.
Returning to Syracuse in 1856 he was selected by George Barnes of the same city to accompany him to the State of Ohio to take charge of the machinery of the Marietta and Cincinnati railroad at Chillicothe, of which road Mr. Barnes had been made superintendent. He remained in that position only three years, when the railroad became crippled in the financial panic of 1857. The year 1859 Mr. Cogswell spent as Superintendent of the Broadway Foundry in St. Louis, Mo., and in 1860 re- turned to Syracuse, and in conjunction with William A. and A. Avery Sweet, started the works which were the inception of the present Whitman & Barnes Manufacturing Company. Here the breaking out of the civil war found him, and in 1861 he was appointed Civil Engineer in the United States navy. In this position he performed an enormous amount of labor in fitting up separate repair shops for five stations on the Atlantic seaboard and lived at one of them erected on shipboard at l'ort Royal, S. C. In 1862 he was transferred to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and placed in charge of steam repairs in that then busy place, where he remained four years. The following two years he lived in New York city. In 1870 he was called to take charge of the completion of the Clifton Suspension Bridge at Niagara Falls, and at the same time gave his attention to the construction of two blast furnaces at the Franklin Iron Works (Oneida county).
This work brings the record of Mr. Cogswell's career down to 1874 and it had been a successful one in the broadest sense of the word. In no one of the responsible undertakings in which he had been engaged, or stations he had been called on to fill, had he failed of the most flattering success.
In 1874 came what may in some sense be viewed as a turning point in Mr. Cogswell's career. In that year he was solicited to go to Mine La Motte, in Missouri, to assume charge of the lead mines of the same name at that point. This mine was then and still is owned by Mr. Rowland Hazzard, who brought all arguments in his power to induce Mr. Cogswell to take this step, which he finally did. Ile remained there tive years until the spring of 1879, when he decided to remove to Syracuse, though retaining, as he still does, the management of the Mine La Motte lead mines. After return- ing to Syracuse, and while in quest of some kind of employment, Mr. Cogswell decided to go to Eu- rope to investigate the soda industry. Through a friend he made the acquaintance of Messrs. Sol- way and Co., of Brussels, Belgium, who are the most prominent manufacturers in that line in Europe. The result was, Mr. Cogswell was given a commission to inspect the various points in this country where a manufactory would be practicable, and report. After the receipt of the report steps were taken for the formation of a company for the manufacture of the various soda products. It was decided that Syracuse was the best point for the works and they were located here, for it was believed by Mr. Cogswell that rock salt might be discovered in the vicinity. Several experimental borings were made in 1881 and 1883, but without success; but information was obtained which led to the experiments in Tully valley in 1888, and the discovery of two veins of rock salt, each about fifty feet thick, at a depth of 1,200 feet. The company now receive their entire supply, equal to 400 tons of salt per day, from the Tully wells. The company also put in a plant of such capacity that a large quantity of saturated brine is sold to the salt manufacturers of Syracuse. The company was formed in 1881 with a capital of $300,000, and the following incorporators: Rowland Hazzard, president ; Earl B. Alvord, William A. Sweet, George Dana ; W. B. Cogswell, treasurer and general manager. The capital has been increased from time to time as the business has increased, until now it is $1,500,000, with a total investment of $3,000,000,
This great industry has led to the formation of the Tully Pipe Line Company, for conveying brine from the wells to the works, with $300,000 capital, and the Split Rock Cable Road Company, with a capital of $100,000. The production of the works for the year 1892 will be 75,000 tons of soda ash, 20,000 tons of caustic soda, and 6,000 tons of bicarbonate of soda.
_ Mr. Cogswell has received ample honors in his profession, as well as evidence of that confidence from business men which is a tribute to his judgment and his business qualifications. Ile is a member
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF SYRACUSE.
of the American Society of Civil Engineers ; a member of the American Society of Mining Engineers ; a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers ; a Fellow of the Geographical Society ; a member of the Society for the Advancement of Science ; a member of the Society of Chemical In- dustry, of England ; and president of the Warner's Portland Cement Company, organized in 1869 with a capital of $250,000.
Mr. Cogswell was married in 1856 to Miss Mary N. Johnson, a native of New Hampshire. She died in July, 1877. There is one daughter
H ENRY LYMAN DUGUID was born in the town of Pompey, December 25, 1832. His father was William Duguid, a son of a Scotchman, John Duguid, who, near the close of the last een- tury, came to America from Aberdeen. William Duguid was among the many early settlers of Pom- pey whose industry, thrift, and sterling worth have contributed to give to that town an enviable nane. He married for his second wife, Eveline VanBuren, a sister of Harmon W. VanBuren, late of Syra- cuse. The boyhood of their son was passed in the wholesome atmosphere of a Christian home, and there were laid the foundations of a character which is worthy of emulation in every respect. Ile received his early education at the Pompey Academy, and in 1852 entered Hamilton College, from which he was graduated with honor in 1856. Besides the work of his regular College course, he studied law during his junior and senior years, under Prof. Theodore W. Dwight. After his gradu- ation he entered the law office of the Hon. Daniel Gott, at Syracuse, later, that of Judge J. M. Wool- worth, of Omaha, Neb., and was admitted to the bar at Council Bluffs in 1857. The following year he returned cast and on the 5th of January, 1859, was married to Miss Harriet Eliza Wells, only daughter of John S. Wells, of Pompey. Immediately afterwards he settled permanently in Syracuse. Mr. Duguid never began the practice of law, but found business opportunities opening to him towards which his tastes turned and in which he achieved unusual success. The first saddlery hardware es- tablishment in Syracuse was that of Pope & Dawson in 1845. Under the management of different firms it attained a high reputation in business circles. Mr. Duguid became associated with Edward S. Dawson in this business in 1858, and at a later date, after the retirement of Mr. Dawson, Jacob Brown became a member of the firm. That business, like all others that came under the influence of Mr. Duguid's tireless energy and activity, was remarkably successful. In 1868 he was the principal owner and senior member of the firm of Duguid, Wells & Co., his brother-in-law, J. E. Wells, having become a member of the firm. At the time of Mr. Duguid's death the firm was Duguid & Wells, and the business had grown to large proportions. His reliability and far-seeing judgment in hnancial affairs was so generally recognized in Syracuse that he was chosen in 1883 as President of the Syra- ense Savings Bank, a position which he held at the time of his death.
Mr Duguid's general interest in all public affairs brought him into considerable prominence in politics as a member of the Republican party. In recognition of his services and his fitness for the position, he was appointed to the office of U. S. Internal Revenue Collector for the 23d District of this State, and held the office from 1869 to 1873. When the paid fire department of Syracuse was organized, Mr. Duguid was appointed a fire Commissioner and was President of the Board in 1877 and 1878. In the latter years he was elected to the Legislature of the State, and was subsequently re-elected, serving as a member of the Assembly in 1879, 1880 and 1881. His liberal education, his ample business experience, and his unimpeachable integrity, rendered him at once a prominent and effective legislator. He was placed on some of the most important committees, including the Special Railway Investigating Committee. In ISso he was Chairman of the Committee on Commerce and Navigation and a member of the Committee on Cities. In 18SI he was again Chairman of the Com- mittee on Commerce and Navigation and a member of the Committees on Cities and Indian affair -. Mr. Duguid's most valuable legislative service was rendered, however, in a series of railway investi- gations. His advocacy of the measures recommended by the committee, which resulted in vast ben- efit, made him favorably known throughout the State. In all his political labors his progressive spirit and sagacity were clearly manifested, and though a striet partisan, he always strove to elevate the standard of party principle.
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BIOGRAPHICAL ..
In the community in which he lived Mr. Duguid's Christian character shone in his daily life and his benevolent spirit was active in all good work. Himself and his devoted wife were active mem- bers of the First Presbyterian Church until 1870, when they went out with others to build up the Fourth Presbyterian Church. Of this society they were members for seventeen years, and it had no more cheerful, unselfish workers than they. At the organization of the church Mr. Duguid was chosen President of the Board of Trustees, and continued in the position during his connection with the church. In 1887, soon after the death of his unele, H. W. Van Buren, who for many years had taken a deep interest in the Seattergood Mission School, Mr. Duguid became convinced that the mis- sion should be organized into a church, and he, with other workers, again went out to build up the Memorial Presbyterian Church. Its Board of Trustees also made him President. He was a lead- ing spirit in the building up of the Syracuse V. M. C. A. and for two years filled the office of Presi- dent. He was also President of the Board of Trustees of the Onondaga County Orphan Asylum for twelve years. Upon the religious life of the city he left his mark. He was publie-spirited, and his. citizenship was fruitful in benefits to the community.
Mrs. Duguid died in April, 1888, and the shock upon Mr. Duguid, whose health had already begun to decline, was a severe one and hastened the end. He died in Tucson, Arizona, December 30, 1888, while on a slow journey towards Southern California. Mr. and Mrs. Duguid had three children-Mary E., Harriet E., and Henry W. Duguid. They are all residents of Syracuse.
OBERT G. WYNKOOP, one of the oldest merchants in Syracuse, was born December 3d. R 1816, at Catskill, Green county, N. Y. His father was the Rev. Peter S. Wynkoop, pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church, and was born at Kinderhook in 1788. He died in 1848 at the age of sixty years. His ancestors were from Holland. The mother was Margaret Gosman, of New York eity, who died at Ghent, Columbia county, N. Y., about the year 1832. They had a family of thirteen children, one of whom died in infancy, leaving four sons and eight daughters. Of the sons four became prosperous booksellers, of whom the subject of this record is one. The boyhood of Robert G. Wynkoop was passed at home in an atmosphere of sturdy piety and surrounded by wholesome influences that fostered and directed his natural energy and industry into proper channels and planted in his young mind the germis that developed into a character fully endowed with those principles of integrity and honor that are the foundation of all useful lives. He was educated at the Kinderhook academy and graduated with an excellent education in 1835. His first occupation away from his home was teaching school in Coxsackie and West Troy, which he followed one year. He then went to New York city and was employed as clerk in a wholesale dry goods house about a year, when the financial panie of 1837 swept over the country and for a time demoralized all kinds of business.
It was in the next year, 1938, that Mr. Wynkoop performed his first political aet by casting his first vote for Seward as governor of the State. In the same year also he was honored with the first and only office of a politieal character which he has ever held, being appointed hy Governor Seward as a Commissioner of Deeds. The effects of the panie in New York city were felt, perhaps, more severely than in any other part of the country, and Mr. Wynkoop remembers being compelled to walk through files of soldiers in Wall street who were guarding the banks.
After one year as a elerk in New York Mr. Wynkoop joined with his brother, Peter S., and opened a book store in Iludson, N. Y. This partnership continued until 1848. In 1841 Robert G., still a member of the firm, went to AAuburn, N. Y., and opened a book store which he conducted during the life of the partnership. 'With ten years of active experience Mr. Wynkoop now felt an ambition for a wider field of business. He had already learned of the bright prospects of Syracuse as a business center. It was not then a large place, but had just been incorporated as a city and was already becoming somewhat noted for the spirit and enterprise which has always characterized its business eireles. In pursuance of well considered plans he, therefore, dissolved the partnership alluded to, joined with his other brother, Jonathan G. Wynkoop, and after closing out his business
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF SYRACUSE.
at Auburn and Hudson, opened a book store in Syracuse in the same block where it has since been successfully carried on through a long period of forty-two years. The only change in the firm during this period was the retirement of Jonathan G. in 1870, and the accession of James S. Wynkoop, son of Robert G. Mr. Wynkoop now enjoys the distinction of being one of the three oldest continuous merchants in Syracuse, the other two being S. P. Pierce and J. Dean Hawley ; and the latter has just now retired from the field. It need scarcely be said that during his long business experience in Syracuse Mr. Wynkoop has gained a reputation for uncommon mercantile capacity, unimpeachable integrity, as well as the respect and esteem of the entire community. Successful business careers of more than fifty years duration, forty-two of which are passed in one location, are never founded upon sand ; they must inevitably be, and always are, built upon principles of uprightness, business honor, prudence and fairness by men of sagacity, foresight and indomitable perseverence and industry. All of these conditions have surrounded and governed the conduct of the old and reputable Wynkoop business house.
The character of Robert G. Wynkoop as a citizen and a man has been honored in the com- munity where he has lived so Ieng in many ways. He was one of the incorporators of the Onondaga County Savings Bank and one of the most active in the laborious work of placing it upon a solid foundation and in conducting its manifold affairs ever since. He was its vice-President for many years, and is at present. He was made a Director of the New York State Banking Company, and is still in that office. He is a Director in the Trust and Deposit Company of Onondaga, and has been from its organization. He is a Trustee of the Oakwood Cemetery Association, was actively in- strumental in giving to the city that beautiful burial place, and has always taken a deep interest in its improvement. Mr. Wynkoop's naturally benevolent impulses have found expression in Syracuse in various directions. He was one of the few men who gave liberally of their time and means to es- tablish that beneficent institution, the Old Ladies' Home, and has been one of its Trustees from the first. He is a Trustee of the Onondaga Orphan Asylum, and has been for many years. He is a regular attendant at the Reformed Dutch Church, on James street, and it has received from him not only material support, but the benefit of his counsel in all of its affairs. Mr. Wynkoop is not lacking in public spirit, and the affairs of the city at large, its growth and prosperity, have always received his earnest attention. He was one of the incorporators of the Genesee and Water street Railway Company, and its President for many years. Though he has never held public office it is not because such honors have not often been tendered him ; but his tastes are not inclined in that direction. He has been an active politician in the Whig and Republican ranks, and has always devoted himself to the upholding of the better principles of party action. In the late Presidential campaign, when General Harrison was making his successful run for the Presidency, Mr. Wynkoop was one of the prime leaders in the organization of the Harrison Old Men's Club, all of the members of which had voted for the first President Harrison. One hundred and ninety who enjoyed that distinction were found in the city of Syracuse. Such is a brief and imperfect record of the active life of one of the staunch and honorable business men of Syracuse.
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