USA > New York > Onondaga County > Syracuse > Memorial history of Syracuse, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 47
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While Dr. Powers occupied a position of honor and prominence in the medical profession, as has been shown, it was as a citizen, a man, and a friend that he was most cherished in the hearts of those who knew him best. At his death he left a widow and a daughter (Mrs. C. W. Snow), who still live in Syracuse, and a son, Charles Powers, who is deceased.
DRUCE S. ALDRICH, the subject of this sketch, was born in the town of Scott, Cortland Co., N. Y., on the 25th of May. 1835. Ifis father was a respected farmer and is deceased. His mother is still living in Syracuse. The surroundings and circumstances of the ordinary farmer's son in this country fell to the lot of this boy in his early years, though he was more fortunate than many. After several years in the district school, more or less of each year being given to arduous farni labor, he enjoyed a period of study in the Academy at Ilomer, N. Y., then among the most success- ful of the minor educational institutions of the State. From the time he was fifteen years old until he reached twenty he suffered from ill health which threatened to permanently unfit bim for a useful
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF SYRACUSE.
life; but he finally regained health and strength sufficient to enable him to take up school teaching, which he followed about five years, in Spafford and Little York, in Cortland county, and Otisco, Onondaga county. At the end of this period he went to Borodino in the spring of 1855 and served as a clerk for Bavid Becker in his country store three years. He then went to Homer and kept the books of the firm of Clark Bros. A little later he began a wholesale business in notions, selling the country merchants from a large wagon for M. J. Stone & Co., and later for Stone & Carpenter, of Syracuse-a line of business which at that period was quite successful in various parts of the country where rallroads had not penetrated. This occupation he continued until the 20th of November, 1865, and Mr. Aldrich secured a large patronage, and made a business acquaintance and gained ex- pererience which were of value to him later in life. On the date last mentioned he purchased an interest in the tobacco and cigar business of Jolin P. Ilier Although that business was then on a firm foundation, it was very small when compared with its later importance. For twenty years Mr. Aldrich gave his whole time and energies to its development, attending especially to the sale of the manufactured product and the financial features of the business; and he had the satisfaction of see- ing its rapid growth from an establishment employing three or four men, to one requiring from two hundred to three hundred and doing an annual trade of about a million of dollars-the largest house of that character in the State outside of New York city. Its success was very largely due to Mr. Aldrich's efforts; but that success was purchased at the expense of a warning from his physician in February, 1835, that he must cease active labor of all kinds and at once. He accordidgly sold out his interest to his partner and for a time gave himself entire freedom from business cares, until he bad substantially regained his health. But Mr. Aldrich is so constituted that he could not long remain wholly idle, especially after half a lifetime of unremitting activity, and he has during the last five years taken a large and active interest in several important undertakings. He began operations in real estate in Syracuse, in which he has been unusually successful and now finds himself the owner of a number of excellent pieces of property, among them being the Martin Block, corner of Warren and East Jefferson streets, the Newell property on South Salina street, the Ten Eyck Block on Slocum avenue, the building of the Butler Manufacturing Company in Geddes, and other less im- portant pieces. In 1886 he purchased, in association with Gen. R. A. Johnson, surveyor-general of Arizona Territory, and Emerson Stratton, a large ranch property in that territory, on which there is now a herd of between 5000 and 6000 cattle. Mr. Aldrich and members of his family have already spent two winters there to the great benefit of his health. He is practically the owner of a large lumber yard and business on North Salina street, and is at the head of the National Typewriter Works at Parish, which is manufacturing one of the leading typewriters in the market. He has a large interest in the Syracuse Bamboo Furniture Company, of Syracuse, which he acquired in 1899. All of these various enterprises have felt a progressive impulse from Mr. Aldrich's clear-headed foresight and bold business push and enterprise. The qualifications which have enabled him to command a degree of success vouchsafed to few are well known in the community where he has lived and have led to his selection as associate in a number of important corporations; among them a directorship in the Syracuse Gaslight Company, and in the Electric Light and Power Company; and he has recently been made a director in the Consolidated Street Railway Company.
Mr. Aldrich is a great lover of fine horses and is commonly the owner of from ten to twenty good animals, which are a source of pleasure as well as of profit to him.
IIe is a Democrat in politics and has been tendered nominations for city offices; but his inclina- tions do not lead him in that direction. He was one of the Board of Police Commissioners under the administration of Mayor W. B. Burns.
Mr. Aldrich was married, in 1866, to Miss Helen E. Minturn, of Cortland, N. Y., and she died in 1872, leaving one daughter, Carrie R. Aldrich, now living at her home in Syracuse.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
D R. FLORINCE O. DONOHUE, the well-known physician of Syracuse, was born in this city, October 8, 1850. His young boyhood was spent in attendance at the public schools until he was nine years old, when with his parents he removed to the country. From that time until he was sixteen he continued going to school in the winters, and worked at farming in the summers. At the age of nineteen he entered Onondaga Academy, where he spent two years, and this was followed by one year in Cazenovia Seminary. His studies in these institutions were alternated with terms of teaching, as principal of a school at Navarino, and of another at Onondaga Hill. Dr. Donohue is blessed with mental qualifications of exceptional strength and activity, and being one of the most enthusiastic of students, studying as well for the natural love of it as for the benefits to be derived from acquired knowledge, he had by the date mentioned become thoroughly equipped for college and besides earned sufficient money to enable him to enter Syracuse University and pay his own way. This he did, beginning in 1874, and he remained in that institution two years, pursuing the medical course, and in the meantime living with Dr. W. W. Porter, one of the prominent and successful physicians of Syracuse. His college studies were supplemented with hard work under Dr. Porter's tutelage, and his advancement in the profession was rapid. At the end of the two years he entered the Long Island College Ilospital, and in 1877 graduated from it with honor. Since that time he has been in constant practice in Syracuse, where his professional ability and success have given him signal recognition from both the public and his professional brethren.
Dr. Donohue is an enthusiast in his profession and from the time he began its study has pursued it with devoted persistency and the determination to master its mysteries as far as lay within his power. As an obstetrician he has, perhaps, gained his highest professional renown, though his knowledge of medical and surgical practice as a whole is broad and deep. In the sick room he is thoroughly at home and acts promptly upon the confidence that he feels in himself. His profes- sional standing has been fully recognized both at home and abroad, as is evidenced by the numerous honors that have been bestowed upon him. He was made a member of the New York State Medi- cal Association November 20, 1884, and was chosen delegate from that body to the British Medical Association, of which he is also a member, in October, 1885. In that capacity he visited England and took part in the deliberations of that Association, and again in 1989. He is, therefore, one of the very few members of the British Medical Association in this country. He was appointed one of the State Commissioners of Health by Governor Hill, November 26, 1889, and still holds the posi- tion. He has long been a member of the Onondaga County Medical Society and in its deliberations occupies a leading position. Ile was appointed on the Syracuse Board of Health October 31, 1889, and still holds that office, acting as one of its most efficient members. He is at the present time President of the Syracuse Medical Association, having been elected to that position in 1890 and re- elected for the ensuing year. He was chosen a permanent member of the medical staff of St. Joseph's Hospital, of Syracuse, but resigned the position. In all of these honorable stations, Dr. Donohue has sustained his reputation as a thoroughly educated, thinking and progressive physician and surgeon.
Dr. Donohue is a writer of force and ability on a wide range of medical topics and is a regular contributor to several leading medical journals. Confident in his own acquirements and judgment and well equipped with knowledge of his profession, he takes a prompt and firm stand on all ques- tions and cases that come before him for discussion in the various societies, or for literary treatment, and he possesses the faculty of clearly and concisely explaining his ideas both orally and by his pen. It need scarcely be said that he enjoys to the fullest extent the confidence and esteem of his brethren of the profession.
Outside of his profession Dr. Donohue is a public-spirited citizen of Syracuse and is always awake to the needs of the city in a general way, and particularly from a sanitary standpoint. His work in the local Board of Health has been fearless, effective and useful and promises still better for the future as long as he is connected with it. His faith in the prosperity and importance of Syracuse is unbounded and he has not hesitated to become the owner of considerable real estate, in- cluding a handsome brick block which he recently erected on Clinton street.
Socially and among his acquaintances Dr. Donohue is a genial and popular gentleman; outspoken almost to bluntness in support of any position assumed by hin, he still wins respect from his opponents as well as devotion from his adherents.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF SYRACUSE.
Dr. Donohue was married on the 27th of September, 1877, to Miss Lucy A. Moseley, eldest daughter of the late William T. Moseley, of Onondaga.
ENKY J. MOWRY was born in the town of Philadelphia, Jefferson county, N. Y., February H 20, 1833. His father is Willard J. Mowry, a mechanic, who formerly lived in Nelson, Madison county, and removed back there when Henry J. was one year old. The ancestors of the family came from Rhode Island. His mother was Nancy Brown, ot Madison county, and both are still living.
The subject of this sketch went to the district school as a boy and after he had reached the age of twenty years, he attended Cazenovia Seminary for a time, thus fitting himself for a teacher. This profession he followed previous to his attendance at the Seminary, and after that he taught winters and worked at carpentering in summers for about five years. At the end of that period he felt an ambition for broader fields of activity and he purchased a livery business in Cazenovia, which he conducted two years and then on the Ist of Jannary, 1860, bought the line of stages between Manlius and Syracuse. At that time, just before the late war, that stage line and several others leading out of Syracuse, were of considerable importance and the business done by them in passen- gers and express was of comparatively large proportions. Mr. Mowry entered upon his new busi- ness with characteristic energy, accompanied his stages over the road every day and made himself extremely popular with his patrons and the public at large. He operated the stage line nearly six years, living in Manlius, and also es.ablished a line between Syracuse and Cazenovia. In 1865 he sold out his staging business and went to the oil fields of Pennsylvania, where. in association with others, he bought an oil farm. Mr. Mowry remained there only three months, but consummated transactions during that time which yielded profits. He then returned to Manlins, and soon after- ward, joined with J. A. Scoville and Lewis Eaton, purchased the dry dock property at Fayetteville and began bidding on important contracts for canal work. They secured contracts for repairs on several sections of the Erie canal, and the construction of sections of the Chenango canal extension. This business was carried on successfuly under the immediate direction of Mr. Mowry, and contin- ued about two years, to the spring of 1868. Soon afterward Mr. Mowry purchased some vacant real estate at auction in the city of Brooklyn, sold out his property at Manlins and spent the next year in Brooklyn. While there, he continued in the line of business from which he has never since been entirely free, contracting for various kinds of public work. In Brooklyn he had contracts for grading, paving, etc.
At the end of his year's residence in Brooklyn, Mr . Mowry sold his property there and lo cated in Syracuse, which has ever since been his home. Ilere he, in company with others, purchased a dis- tillery plant, where is now the Sanderson Steel Company's works. This they operated three years. from the fall of 1868, when the property was burned, and the site sold to William A. Sweet. Dur. ing the three years in which Mr. Mowry was interested in distilling business he kept up his connec- tion with contracting by associating with E. B. VanDuzen, R. N. Gere, and N. Stanton Gere, under the firm name of E. B. VanDuzen & Co., as general contractors. In this firm Mr. Mowry was the chief active spirit and had charge of the actual planning and prosecution of the various works. The :: contracts included large government works on the lower lakes, chiefly on harbors at Buffalo, I ... Rock, Sodus, and elsewhere. Under Mr. Mowry's superintendence these various contracts were energetically, honestly and profitably executed. These works continued for three years, and he was afterwards associated with Horace and Daniel Candee, and also with E B. VanDuzen. The Til les raid, so-called, on canal contractors, found them with a large amount of business on their hands, but their contraets were all cancelled.
In the fall of 1873, Mr. Mowry bought the packing business of E. B. Alvord, in which he has since been interested, and in 1875 the firm of Il. J. Mowry & Co. was formed, Vale Anderson a. : Geo. M. Barnes being the other partners. Mr. Anderson withdrew in 1832 and the firm has s#: been, and now is, composed of Messrs. Mowry and Barnes. The business has greatly prospered ar : reaches more than three quarters of a million dollars annually.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
During this period. Mr. Mowry continued his interest in contracting, as a member of the firms of Candee & Co., and VanDuzen & Co. The former firm ceased to exist in 1877 and the latter in 1832, Mr. Mowry purchasing the dredges and other property of the firm. In the year just men- tioned he bid, in association with N. S. Gere, for the construction of the Murray canal in Canada. The work was a most important one, comprising the opening of a canal six miles long. besides the work at each end, and wide and deep enough for ocean-going vessels. The contract price was about $1.300,000. Mr. Gere withdrew from the contract and Mr. Mowry assumed the entire under- taking alone. It required a heavy guarantee and the responsibility, both of a financial and a practi- cal character, was enormous. The work continued down to 1890 wholly under Mr. Mowry's direct personal supervision and was completed to the entire satisfaction of the government.
It will be seen by the foregoing that Mr. Mowry's life has been an extraordinarily busy one. In all the various enterprises in which he has been interested he has acquired a high reputation for efficiency, integrity, and fairness.
Mr. Mowry is a lifelong Democrat in politics and has developed considerable natural aptitude for that field of work. He began to take an active part in politics under the tutelage of the late Gen. John A. Green, while he was still a resident of Manlius, and his capabilities since that time have been fully recognized in the council of his party. He was a candidate for the Assembly in 1867. but was defeated by the late Iliran Eaton, reducing the majority of the previous year, how- ever, from 1,250 to 316 Since he became a resident of Syracuse he has occupied a prominent station in the political fiel.l. He has been a member of the county organization twenty-five years or more and active in every canvass. He has been conspicuous also in the city organization and a del- egate to State Conventions many times. He was the representative for this Congressional District in the State Committee for six consecutive years, during which time he held high rank among his associates and was one of the trusted advisers of the late Daniel Manning, and in this connection was an active and zealous advocate of the nomination of Grover Cleveland for Govenor. He was a delegate to the National Convention which nominated Mr. Cleveland for the Presidency, and under his administration was dispenser of political patronage, and was always consulted on political matters in this district. In short, Mr. Mowry has occupied for a long period the position of leader in the Democratic political field in this locality. He was a candidate for member of the National Commit- tee in IS$8, and the vote for him and the lon. Roswell P. Flower for this position resulted in a tief He was chosen in ISyn by the Secretary of the Treasury as one of three Commissioners to select a site for a Federal Building in Buffalo. Ile was candidate for Alderman of the sixth ward early in his career and candidate for Mayor in 1878 against the Ion, Irving G. Vann. He was appointed Fire Commissioner by Mayor Beklen and during his term of four years the old volunteer system was changed to the present paid department. Mr. Mowry was twice chosen by the local administrations upon commissions for the revision of the city charter, and was appointed by Mayor Kirk as one of the commissioners for the construction of the new city hall and also as one of the Water Commis- sioners; he is president of that board, who are entrusted with the expenditure of three millions o dollars in the construction of a system of water works to be supplied from Skaneateles lake, Mr. Mowry has been for many years a trustee of Syracuse Savings Bank and is President of the new Commercial Bank. Ile is an active member of the Business Men's Association and chairman of its Finance Committee. In all the positions of trust in which the subject of this sketch has acted, he has served without pay, and in the prosperity and welfare of Syracuse he has always taken a deep interest and given his time, energies and means freely to the welfare of its institutions, and is looked upon by the entire community as an uphokler of good government.
Mr. Mowry was married in 1558 to Miss Maria L. Evarts, of Nelson, Madison county, N. Y.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF SYRACUSE.
ADWARD CARI. STEARNS was born in the city of Syracuse. Onondaga county, N. Y .. July LA 12, 1956. Ile is the youngest of the seven children born to Delilah Taylor and the late George N. Stearns.
Eben Stearns, the great-grand-father of E. C. Stearns, came to this country from England about the year 1;So, and settled near Wilkesbarre, Pa. ; but when the historical massacre of Wyoming occurred, he removed with his family to the town of Lanesboro, Mass. His family consisted of lin wife, three sons and one daughter-Samuel, Rachel, Cyrus, and Eben. Samuel, the eldest, married Elizabeth Smith, and came to New York State in the year 1824 and settled in the town of Pompey. Their children were six, as follows: Rachel, Mary, Anna, George N., Hiram, and Avis.
George N. Stearns, the elder of the sons of Eben, and the father of the subject of this sketch. received a common school education, and at an early age from choice learned the wagon-making trade, which he followed until about the year 1859. At that timeh is several inventions began to attract considerable attention, demanding his time and energies to develop their manufacture. About the year 1860 he established himself in a small but complete works for the production of his patented devices, and from the readiness with which the trade accepted those tools, he realized that he had made a move in the right direction toward success. He remained in the same location six years, gradually extending the business, and at the end of that period erected a small but convenient factory on Cedar street. From there he was soon able to send his own traveling men on the road, instead of allowing a few large jobbers to monopolize the sale of his goods. During those six years, the sub. ject of this sketch was the principal salesman of these wares. Visiting, as he did, continually, the principal cities of the Union, and coming in contact with the ablest buyers of the wholesale hardware trade, he acquired an experience in those early years that has since proven invaluable to him. The business was thus well established and profitable; but by the year 1877 the elder Mr. Stearns showed! symptoms of failing health, and a new co-partnership was formed, which still exists, under the name of E. C. Stearns & Co. From this time forward his career as a business man has been marked by uninterrupted success. By his energy, active habits, and strict adherence to principles of integrity. he has surmounted obstacles and achieved success of which few men of his years can boast.
About the year ISSo, the firm removed their machinery to the shops formerly occupied by the gun works of John A. Nichols, on the north side of James street, near the corner of Lock street About this time they established an office in Chicago, and shipments have since been made from that point. In less than two years thereafter, it became again apparent that more extensive quarter- were imperatively necessary to meet the demands of the business. In February, 1882, they broke ground on the corner of Adams and Oneida streets, and by the following November their prex : large and substantial buiklings were finished and occupied. In the following February (1853) ..... their foundry, machine shop and wood shop in full operation. The firm now possessed what they had so long desired-the facilities for producing their goods in the best, cheapest and must work. manlike manner, and from that time forward the progress has been rapid. Their shops are equi,- > with the most approved machinery, and in many instances labor saving machinery of their own des ;" and invention is doing work in the most economical and perfect manner. Recently more territo> has been acquired, a large storehouse erected thereon, the foundry has been enlarged to neatis double its former capacity, and the firm have in their employ about 300 men. Their goods have a national reputation and have a foreign trade that is most encouraging.
In the upbuilding of this immense business in all its details, Mr. Stearns has been at the fr .! and in its present condition, when compared with what it was only a few years ago, is very flattrt . to his business and executive ability. In recent years he has given some of his time and meat.s ! the improvement of real estate, and has erected about twenty hoases for sale, His views of ans business undertaking. no matter upon how large a scale, are broad and his judgment accurate.
Mr. Stearns is a Republican in politics and has shown much earnest interest in mutn ju affairs.
Mr. Stearns was married in, 1351, to Miss Louise Albro, daughter of JeAnt Altro, of Satan .
Stearns.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
JOHN WILKINSON was the fourth in descent from Lawrence Wilkinson, of Harperly House, England. On the arrival of the latter in the new world, having little in common with the Puri- tans of Massachusetts Bay, by whose party he had been ruined and expatriated, he settled in Provi- dence, Rhode Island. There his name may still be seen in the " First Book of Records, " as signed by himself in the year 1650-'51, as one of the original founders of that colony.
He married Susannah Smith. His third child was John Wilkinson, born March 2, 1654. John Wilkinson married Deborah Whipple, April 16, 1689. Ilis fifth chill was Daniel Wilkinson, who was born June 8, 1703. in the town of Smithfield, part of the present city of Providence. Daniel Wilkinson married Abigail Inman, September 22, 1740. Ilis seventh child was named John Wil- kinson, born November 13, 1758. John Wilkinson married, in December, 1782, Elizabeth Tower, whose mother was cousin of John Hancock.
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