USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 61
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Mr. Faxton was a man of marked sociability, great kindness of heart, of strict integ- rity, and possessed unusual executive and business ability. He died on the 30th day of November, 1881.
C HILDS, SILAS D., was prominent among the early public spirited and active citi- zens of Utica. He was born at Conway, Mass., in 1794 and came to Utica in 1816. He had received a good common school education, had already served as a clerk in his native town, and arriving in Utica he at once found kindred employment with his former fellow-townsman, Stalham Williams, who was then connected with Jason Parker in his staging business. It was not long before the young clerk became Mr. Parker's book-keeper and was installed in the stage office situated at the southwest. corner of the basement of Bagg's Hotel. His courteous manners, his diligent and ac- curate habits, and his conscientious discharge of all his duties soon won upon this ap- preciative and wisely judging proprietor. In 1820 he took him into partnership and subsequently gave him his daughter in marriage. The monopoly in staging enjoyed by Parker & Co., ever since the failure of Joshua Ostrom & Co. in 1812, continued until about 1821, when a new line was started by Peter Cole, aided in Utica by a run- ner named Henry S. Storms. This line was, however, soon overpowered, and the in- fluence of Mr. Storms effectively met by introducing from Albany the energetic John Butterfield. About 1828 the old line encountered more serious opposition when Josiah
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
Bissell, of Rochester, set on foot a week-day line to traverse the State, and enlisted in its behalf the sympathies and the money of church members along the route. The pro- ject caused much excitement, coming as it did at a time when men's minds were pecul- iarly alive to religious questions. Dissensions in the Presbyterian Church in Utica were especially rife because it was there that Messrs. Parker, Faxton, and Childs all attended. But the week-day line lacked both capital and skill in its management and besides had not the privilege enjoyed by the other of carrying the mails, and so after a contest which impoverished itself and greatly straightened the resources of its rival it finally yielded the field. Until 1836 this field continued free, but when the Utica and Schenectady Railroad was opened the eastward route was blocked, and afterward as the railway was gradually extended other routes were more and more curtailed and Parker's with the associate line of stages was brought to a close. Messrs. Faxton and Childs still remained a while together closing up the concern and caring for the real estate they owned in common.
Detached at length from his near forty years' connection with his partner Mr. Childs did not engage in any new business of a merely personal nature. So much of his time as was not spent in do.ng for the community was occupied with his own private affairs and the care of his now ample estate. The chief solace of his later life he found in the pursuit of horticulture. He had a passion for flowers and the raising of fruits and espe- cially grapes. In the exercise of these pleasures he evinced remarkable taste and skill and met with a high degree of success. The products of his garden delighted all be- holders and were the comfort of many a chamber of the sick, while his annual grape parties were among the expected and most agreeable events of the winter. In other particulars also his benevolence was genuine and his giving profuse. A good object or a needy one he never turned away empty. Abounding in public spirit, and deeply in- terested in every project devised for the benefit of the town, he could not be an idle or a useless spectator. Trusted by his townsmen for his liberality, his integrity, his good sense, his fidelity, his prudence, and his wisdom in affairs he was relied on as an im- portant actor in every public undertaking whether social, charitable, commercial, or manufacturing. He was a director in the Utica Savings Bank and in the Oneida Na- tional; a director in the steam cotton and the Globe woolen-mills; a director in the Black River Railroad and a manager of the State Lunatic Asylum; a trustee in the Female Academy and in the Cemetery Association; a counselor of the Utica Orphan Asylum and a trustee of the Reformed Church. By him these various positions were never regarded as empty honors, tributes to his wealth and standing which made no exactions on his time and efforts. He was prompt at every meeting, faithful to every trust, and cheerfully aided with his judicious but unobtrusive counsel.
Mr. Childs was by instinct and in the highest sense a gentleman. He had not only the suave courtesy of manner and of tongue and the modest unpretention of the well- bred man; he had also the refinement of feeling, the justness of sentiment, the kind- ness and generosity of heart, the evenness of temper, and the purity of motive which are the basis of the true born gentleman. He was sensitive to opposition and to wrong, but he had the rare ability to keep silent when disturbed or to retire if unduly excited. His death occurred suddenly while he was in the directors' room of the Oneida Na-
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tional Bank on the 11th of July, 1866. The munificent legacies left by Mr. Childs for educational and elemosynary purposes were in harmony with the many charitable deeds of his life. They amounted in all to $90,000 and were as follows: To Hamilton College for the founding of a professorship of agricultural chemistry, $30,000 ; to the Utica Orphan Asylum, $25,000; and to the following $5,000 each, viz .: Forest Hill Cemetery, the Reformed Church of Utica, the Board of Foreign Missions of the Re- formed Church, its Board of Domestic Missions, its Board of Publication, the Ameri- can Bible Society, and the American Tract Society.
His wife, Roxana (Parker), with deep veneration for his memory, purchased the chapel then recently erected at Forest Hill Cemetery and presented it to the association to be maintained in memory of her husband as a place for funeral services and for tem- porary sepulture, in free and common use forever. In her will she supplemented his bequests, selecting for the most part the same objects that had profited by his benefac- tions. And these were her bequests, increased as they were by a residuary portion of her estate: To Hamilton College for the agricultural professorship, $58,101.64; to the Utica Orphan Asylum, $48,417.04; to the Utica Female Academy, $16,367.04; and to the following each $9,683.04, viz .: Forest Hill Cemetery, the Board of Foreign Mis- sions of the Reformed Church, its Board of Domestic Missions, the American Bible So- ciety, and the American Tract Society.
M ANN, CHARLES ADDISON, a native of Fairfield, Herkimer County, N. Y., came to Utica at the age of nineteen and entered upon the study of law with Lynch & Varick. In 1825 he was admitted to the bar and became a partner with Mr. Varick, Mr. Lynch removing at this time from the place. This partnership had a great influence upon the course of his life. Mr. Varick was largely interested in real estate and before he too removed to New York Mr. Mann purchased through him the re- maining interests of the Holland Company in the northern part of Oneida which he had conducted. This property absorbed a large share of the time of the purchaser and led him away from his profession. Still although he frequented the courts very little he gradually came to be one of the best real estate lawyers in the county, and his opin- ion in legal matters was highly prized. The property he bought was disposed of on easy terms to settlers in plots and farms and sold largely on contracts. It laid the basis of his fortune. From about 1829 Mr. Mann was associated with David Wager and in later years with John H. Edmunds. As the city grew Mr. Mann's attention was directed to many new enterprises. Public spirited and energetic, with a sound judgment and far-sightedness above the average, his aid was sought and freely given to many of the undertakings of the time. He was active among the projectors of the Utica and Schenectady Railroad. He was a leading spirit in the Oneida Bank, and after its disastrous robbery was successfully employed with others in detecting and bringing the robbers to justice, and was for many years vice-president of the bank and subsequently was president. He was one of the founders and for some years president of the Utica steam cotton-mills. In 1856 after a long term as director he was elected
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
president of the New York and Buffalo Telegraph Company, and remained as such until ill health compelled him to give up the position in 1859.
Besides his business connections Mr. Mann took an active interest in educational and charitable enterprises. He was one of the original managers of the State Lunatic Asy- lum and for a long time chairman of the board. He devoted much time to this insti- tute and was particularly busied in perfecting its system of ventilating and heating. As a counselor of the Utica Orphan Asylum he did good but humble service. The financial management of its affairs was largely in his hands, his mother-in-law, wife, and daughter having in turn held the position of treasurer from its foundation to the present time. He was one of the founders of the Utica Female Academy as well as a trustee of the Utica Free Academy before it was absorbed in the common school sys- tem. He also rendered excellent service as school commissioner for the five years pre- vious to his death.
He drafted the charter under which Utica was incorporated as a city in 1832, and was for several ensuing years a member of the common council. In 1840 he was elected to the Assembly by the Democratic party. The clearness and soundness of his views especially on questions of finance attracted attention and his speeches on these topics were widely published. In 1848 he became a member of the Free Soil Party and was nominated for Congress, but failed of election. He returned to the Democratic party, but never hesitated to denounce the aggressions of the slave power and to de- clare the necessity of opposition to them. In 1850 he was elected to the State Senate and at once assumed a leading position.
On the impending passage of a bill relating to the canal known as "the nine million bill " his sense of right and justice was so shocked that he advised the resignation of the Democratic senators rather than permit the consummation of what he deemed an outrage, and his advice was followed. This act was not approved by the directors and a new Senate was chosen which passed the bill; but the courts eventually affirmed its unconstitutionality, thus vindicating his judgment. Even those who condemned the resignation were forced to admit the unbending integrity and sacred regard for the constitutional prohibition which impelled Mr. Mann as the leading adviser. This act ended his political life. Business and local affairs engrossed his time and he never had any heart again for politics, though repeatedly urged to accept of subsequent nomina- tions, particularly that of comptroller.
He died January 9, 1860, his loss being fully appreciated by the people of Utica, and the large attendance at his funeral showing how closely he had linked himself with the affections of his fellow citizens. Simple in his habits, calm and unperturbed in man- ners, quick and penetrative in his judgment, and though uncompromising in the deliv- ery of his opinions and inflexible in his integrity, yet easy of adaptation to others and prompt to enlist for the common good, he secured a leading place in the community.
SARWELL, SAMUEL .- The professional life of Mr. Farwell made him conspicuously F a benefactor. Born on May 19, 1795, amid the hills and the bracing air of Litch- field, Herkimer County, and trained on a farm by his father, a practicing physician, he commenced active life with a stalwart frame and active limbs, and to the last was a
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
picture of health and strength. Joining his brother Eli, a master mason at Herkimer, in 1812 he soon learned the trade and carried it on during his minority for his brother, when his health failed and then he conducted it on his own account. This prepared him for the public works in which he engaged and on which he entered soon after his mar- riage in 1820. The number and magnitude of these have been rarely surpassed by in- dividual contractors. The first was performed under Canal Commissioner Henry Sey- mour and consisted in the building of the aqueduct, culverts, and all the other masonry, except locks, of the portion of the Erie Canal extending between Steele's Creek and Little Falls. Early in 1821 he made an additional contract to build the mason work between Yankee Hill and Schenectady, and this was afterward extended to Alexan- der's Bridge in the town of Watervleit, where the canal crosses the Mohawk. This work was finished in 1823, and he returned to the neighborhood of his father's and bought a farm. Hiring a man to manage it his own time was principally occupied in building. Among other structures erected by him at this time was that of the Second Presbyterian Church of this city, the same which is now known as the Bleecker Street Baptist Church.
In 1824 or 1825, in company with three or four associates, he began to construct a portion of the Oswego Canal below the falls on the Oswego River. During the first season at Oswego he and his partners took a contract on the Delaware and Hudson Canal to build the locks and other masonry at Rondout from tide-water to the High Falls. They completed their work and settled in 1826. The following spring they entered into an engagement for the building of nine locks, aqueduct, and dam across the Mongaup River from Port Jervis to opposite the mouth of the Lackawaxen, twenty- five miles. While this was in progress they contracted to build up the Lackawaxen River Valley to Honesdale, the end of the canal, whence a railroad extended to the Carbondale coal mines. Before this was finished they engaged to construct locks and dams across the Lehigh River, and also other structures of masonry pertaining to the Lehigh Canal from Mauch Chunk to Easton. They finished in 1829.
During all this time while Mr. Farwell was personally engaged in the above mentioned works his associates were occupied on the Chemung Canal, the Crooked Lake Canal, and the Chenango Canal, he holding an interest with them, but, with the exception of the former canal, only giving a partial superintendence to the operations. In the meantime two of his earlier partners began making lumber at Fulton, and opened a yard for its sale in Utica, of which Mr. Farwell on his return took charge. This yard occupied nearly the whole space embraced between Bleecker street and the canal and between John street and the rear of the stores on Genesee. At this time (1830) he built a house for himself on the corner of Genesee and Court streets, and for the firm of Farwell, Case & Co. he put up a dwelling-house and a block of stores on the site of the Butterfield House. During 1831-34 his time was employed on a portion of the Delaware and Raritan Canal. It extended from Bordentown to New Brunswick and included two tide locks in the harbor of the latter city. This canal opened a chan- nel for vessels between New York and Philadelphia, and now does most of the coast- ing trade between the two cities. In the prosecution of his portion of the work Mr. Farwell was associated with his brother Eli and others. In the fall of 1835 he bought
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
the interest of James Platt & Co. in the forwarding and commission business. This, which they had transacted on the slip that then extended from the canal to Catharine street, he removed to the site of the Empire block on Franklin Square. His first part- ner in this employment was Horace Butler; his later ones were J. S. Harrington and H. H. Fish. They owned the New York, Utica, and Oswego line of canal boats and were part owners of propellors plying between Oswego and Chicago and a line of canal boats on the Wabash. Meanwhile, entrusting the forwarding largely to his partners, Mr. Farwell was busy with public works. He supplied ties and lumber to the Mohawk and Hudson, Hudson and Berkshire, Utica and Schenectady, and Syracuse and Auburn Railroads, and completed a contract on the Erie Canal enlargement. In 1838 he en- gaged with Moreau Delano, Charles G. Case, J. W. Baker, and Thomas R. Brayton in a large contract on the Croton aqueduct, and spent most of his time in carrying it for- ward. It embraced the archway for the passage of the Saw-Mill River, the roadway, the foundation for conduit over the valley of this river, some sixty feet high, and piercing the mountain on the south side by means of a tunnel eighty or ninety feet be- low the surface three-fourths of a mile in length. From this point (Yonkers) his work extended south to King's Bridge. It was closed in 1840. During the last year of its progress a contract to build the New York and Albany Railroad was made by Messrs. Farwell, Case, Baker, Daniel Carmichael, J. S. T. Stranahan, and Alva P. Downer. Progress was made at Troy, at Greenbush, and in Columbia, Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester Counties. Funds were limited and the work slow, and eventually the company, proving unable to pay the estimates of the contractors, sold out their line to the Hudson River Company. While engaged on the New York and Albany the associates entered into terms with the New York and Erie Company to build from fifty to seventy miles of their road through Sullivan County and a large section in Orange County. Operations on the former were stopped by a bill in chancery, procured by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which ran alongside the proposed route. But in Orange County the work progressed until the company failed, owing the contractors from $50,000 to $70,000. For this amount they obtained judgment and levied on the locomotives running over twelve miles of the completed road nearest New York. Feel- ing friendly to the company they took a receipt and allowed the latter the use of these locomotives; and thus for five years, and until State aid was obtained, Messrs. Strana- han, Carmichael & Farwell carried the Erie on their shoulders. Mr. Farwell also took another contract on this road from Port Deposit to Binghamton, which, however, he was not allowed to build, and out of this grew a protracted lawsuit. About this time he was also interested in work on the Erie road in Allegany and Cattaraugus Counties and took personal charge of it. About 1840-41 he bore a part in the organization of the Ontario and St. Lawrence Steamboat and Canal Packet Boat Company and was one of the first directors. After its re-organization in 1857 he was made president and continued to hold this position during the remaining eleven years of the existence of the company.
In the spring of 1847 he spent some time at Clayton supervising the building and fitting out of the Ontario, one of the boats of his line, and so soon as the machinery was in place and the vessel launched he set out for Boston to fulfill a contract he and others
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
had made to build the Beacon Hill reservoir in that city. His associates were Messrs. Carmichael, Case, Stranahan, Joseph Gonder, and John Duff, but the execution of the work fell to Mr. Case and himself. This reservoir, which fills a square in the rear of the dwellings on Beacon street, is sixty-three feet above the flagging on its highest side and contains 27,000 cubic yards of granite masonry. It was completed in November, 1849. Almost cotemporaneously Mr. Farwell perfected the channel for the supply of the city of Brooklyn with water. In October, 1850, he began the construction of 105 miles of the Great Western Railway in Canada, a portion of which embraced some of the heaviest work on the road. This, with the branch running to Galt, occupied him about four years. Samuel Zimmerman and Messrs. Stranahan & Farwell were the partners in this enterprise, they having purchased the interests of numerous other con- tractors. Mr. Farwell's next contract was for the construction of a section of the Utica and Black River Railroad. It occupied him during the years 1854-56. His old associates, Baker, Case, and Stranahan, and also James G. Lund, co-operated with him in this work. Though the contract comprised the whole of the road they completed work only as far as Boonville, doing, however, considerable grading beyond. He was afterward one of the directors. He entered upon the Flint and Pere Marquette road in 1854, and was at his death still concerned in it. His associates were T. D. Estabrook, A. M. Farwell, his nephew, and Dr. H. C. Potter, his son-in-law. Mr. Farwell and Dr. Potter bought up the interests of the others and have the chief management of the road. It extends from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan, 253 miles, has thirty miles of branch roads, and cost nearly $7,000,000. In view of its magnitude and that he was the leading person in its construction, besides aiding largely in procuring the necessary funds, it may be considered his greatest undertaking.
What an immense amount of labor is sketched in this epitome! It seems incredible that human powers should be equal to it; and there was involved in it the severest. mental strain. Yet Mr. Farwell passed his fourth-score year without a sign of liaving been overtaxed. No man stood higher in the respect, confidence, and favor of the community. With the instincts of a thorough gentleman his fine person and courteous manners made him noticeable on the streets, in business circles, and in society, while his face beamed with intelligence and kindness. Exceedingly trying tests were applied to him, and they notably proved to the satisfaction and admiration of all his absolutely perfect integrity and honor. For fifty years he conducted colossal enterprises in differ- ent parts of the United States and Canada, but without the slightest abatement of his geniality. With a warm, tender, generous heart for all men, and a loving and devoted friend, his conspicuous charm was in the household of which he was the center and idol. The halo of religion suffused his character and the spirit of religion pervaded his being. His public works are the monuments of his usefulness, and fond memories will ever cherish his integrity, his nobility, and his loveliness.
FISH, HENRY HOPKINS, born in the village of Herkimer, October 22, 1813, was the youngest son of Walter and Jane (Whitney) Fish, who came from Bozrah, Conn., in 1793. He started with the education derived from the common schools of two generations ago, which later on he extended by broad and varied reading and study in C
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
many directions, so that he impressed those with whom he came in contact with the scope and value of his knowledge. His ambition was to become a lawyer, but his father meeting with business reverses the son was obliged to begin his career at six- teen as teacher in a country school, a position that was very distasteful to him. In 1837 he came to Utica and was engaged by Butler & Livingston, who placed him in entire charge of their forwarding business at Albany. He married, in 1841, Cornelia Phelon, daughter of Dr. Thomas Phelon, of Litchfield, Herkimer County, and two years later returned to Utica and engaged in forwarding with Samuel Farwell. The firm name was Farwell & Fish, and their stand was on the site of the one now occupied by George W. Head & Co. Some years later he was associated with A. E. Culver in the same business, the title of the firm being Culver, Harrington & Fish. In 1851 Mr. Fish abandoned the forwarding business and took a fortunate step in helping to organ- ize the Utica Gaslight Company. He was made superintendent and treasurer of this organization. The latter position he occupied until the day of his death. It was in this responsible post that he displayed his native energy of character and his intelligent con- ception of true business methods. At the time he took charge the company's finances were in such condition that he was unable to borrow on the credit of the company alone such moneys as were needed, and he lent it his own credit. He developed its resources and its facilities by adopting new methods and machinery so as to keep them apace with the requirements of the city. From a very modest beginning the company came into possession of an extensive plant and held high rank among the city's enterprises.
The main details of Mr. Fish's business career are easily given ; but it is quite another task to indicate what manner of man he was, to measure his natural ability or the ex- tent of his acquired knowledge of numerous matters of current interest, and to estimate his influence therein. In the welfare of the city, State, and country he displayed an active and vigilant concern. He was elected alderman in 1848 and in 1855 was chosen mayor, conducting a successful administration. For six years following March, 1857, he was one of the most valued and efficient members of the Board of School Commis- sioners. A Whig and afterward a Republican in politics his methods of political thought were conservative and often decidedly independent. He was a delegate to the convention at Chicago which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, and prided him- self in the issue of that assembly. He was for a time collector of internal revenue under the administration of President Johnson. He was familiar with traffic on the canal, and once delivered an able address on that subject before the Canal Committee of the legislature; and he bore part with Samuel Farwell and Dr. H. C. Potter in the preparation for the building of the Pere Marquette Railroad, as he did subsequently in the adjustment of its embarrassed affairs. To every movement in which he enlisted him- self he brought a proper degree of enthusiasm backed by persuasive powers of speech. He possessed rare gifts as a conversationalist, and he frequently demonstrated his ability to make a sustained address of telling force and symmetrical construction. On subjects of even commonplace interest his discursiveness often revealed a vein of thought that was philosophic and instructive. For that reason he was always an agreeable man to meet. While advancing his convictions with earnestness he was never offensive in his mode of expressing them. He could write as gracefully and effectively as he could
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