USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 66
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This amendment provided : (1st) For the appointment of a State Medical Board ; (2d) that in the construction of such board none of the schools of medicine should have major representation ; and (3d) that after the establishment of such boards it should be made a
1 Transactions of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York, Vol. X., 1872 ; P.412.
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criminal offence to practice medicine without a license therefrom. Subsequently the form of a bill for creating a higher degree in medicine under State supervision was devised by Dr. Searle, and closely following that came the proposed law of 18721 for creating State boards of medical examiners, under which the licensing franchise was tentatively transferred, as far as was then permissible, from the medical colleges to State control. Dr. Watson was very active in his efforts in behalf of this law. His wise counsels and sagacious sug- gestions were followed in its construction, and his personal influence greatly promoted its passage through the legislature of that year. He became a member of the First Board of Examiners appointed by the Regents under that law, at its organization in 1872, and remained in office until his election in 1881 by the legislature to membership in the Board of Regents. While a member of the Board of Examiners he held the appoint- ment of Examiner in Diagnosis and Pathology.
Dr. Watson passed several years (1881-83) in visiting the hospitals in the principal cities and the most noted health and pleasure resorts of Europe, making also, at the same time, a critical examination of the different systems of medical education in the various countries. Upon his return he delivered an address on " Medical Education and Medical Licensure " at the twenty-third convocation of the University of the State of New York held at Albany in July, 1885. In this address he showed that the scope and relation of the medical profession demanded a high standard of education in its candi- dates in order to insure the greatest efficiency in its practitioners. He demonstrated that the present standard is so low as to have given rise to an urgent demand for its elevation. He strenuously insisted that it is the prerogative of the State to determine the educational qualifications of those who are to care for the lives and health of its citizens, and that there must be an entire separation of the teaching from the licensing interests. He outlined the proper condition of licensure as follows : (1) A fairly liberal preliminary education ; (2) Four years of professional study ; and (3) Examination and licensure by an impartial court appointed by the State. This address received the unanimous ap- proval of the convocation and, widely attracting public attention, was most highly com- mended by gentlemen of prominence in educational matters in different portions of the country. The law of 1872 proved the forerunner of that of 1890,2 by the provisions of which the right of medical licensure is effectively transferred from the medical colleges to State Boards of Medical Examiners. In the contest which preceded the passage of the law of 1890 Dr. Watson took a deep personal interest, the principles involved therein being consonant with the lines of progress which he had held and endeavored to promote during a life-long adherence thereto.
Dr. Watson, in his place as a member of the Board of Regents as also on all other suitable occasions, has endeavored to promote the general welfare of the medical pro- fession, and also more particularly to elevate the standards of medical education. His influence in behalf of the latter is shown by the following extract from the record of the minutes of the Board of Regents for 1889, page 532 :
1 Session law of 1872, Chap. 746.
2 " To Establish Boards of Medical Examiners of the State of New York for the Examination and Licensing of Practitioners of Medicine and Surgery, and to Further Regulate the Practice of Med- icine and Surgery."-Session laws, Chap. 507.
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"Dr. Watson asked the Regents to approve and request of the legislature favorable action on the bill for giving to medicine the same statutory safeguard against illiterate practitioners now given to law by the law student's examination. After reading it was voted that the committee on legislation be directed to support the passage of the bill."" }
Dr. Watson during his whole professional life has held sound medical tenets and prin- ciples. While his position has been in advance of that of his associates the profession has in every instance finally adopted the propositions which, as a wise and prudent leader, he originated, described, and earnestly advocated. As early as the year 1861 in an inaugural address 2 Dr. Watson urged the lengthening of the term of medical studies from three to four years in the following words :
" Let us seek to introduce and maintain a higher standard of professional require- ments. I would myself desire that the time required for the study of medicine should be extended to four years instead of three."
This standard, suggested by Dr. Watson twenty-nine years ago, was adopted by the American Institute of Homoeopathy at its last annual meeting as none too long for ac- quiring a practical knowledge of medicine. After a lapse of twenty-three years, by the law of 1890, the State has assumed legal control of the right of medical licensure, a prin- ciple which Drs. Watson and Paine advocated and endeavored to have approved by the Constitutional Convention of 1867. In his inaugural address, to which reference has been made, Dr. Watson advocated as early 1861 substantially the same preliminary educational qualifications as are now required by the law of 1889, which law was framed in compliance with his suggestions and earnest advocacy.
Thus it will be seen that Dr. Watson has the satisfaction of having witnessed the complete adoption, into the form of law and into the tenets of the medical profession, of three great reformatory measures to which he has given special thought, and for the success of which he has labored with undiminished energy and zeal. In the frequent contests waged by the homoeopathic school during the past thirty years in defence of civil rights, of which that school has often been deprived by allopathic leaders, notably
1 The law (chapter 468, laws of 1889) as given below was drawn up by a lawyer at Dr. Watson's suggestion. It was subsequently passed by the legislature and was signed by the governor June 13, 1889, and is now the law of the State :.
An Act to Provide for the Preliminary Education of Medical Students.
Section 1. Before the Regents of the University of the State of New York or trustees of any medi- cal school or college within this State shall confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine on any person who has not received a baccalaurate degree in course from a college or university duly authorized to confer the same, they shall require him to file with the secretary or recording officer of their uni- versity or college a certificate showing that, prior to entering upon the prescribed three years' study of medicine, he passed an examination conducted under the authority and in accordance with the rules of the Regents of the University of the State of New York, in arithmetic, grammar, geog- raphy, orthography, American history, English composition, and the elements of natural philoso- phy, and such certificate shall be signed by the Secretary of the Regents and countersigned by the principal or commissioner conducting said examination.
Section 2. This act shall not apply to persons who have already entered upon the three years' study of medicine, nor shall it alter the time of study or the courses of medical instruction required to be pursued in the medical colleges of this State by existing statutes.
Section 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
2 Inaugural address, entitled " The Past and Present Position of Homœopathy and the Duties of its Practitioners," before the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York, February 28, 1861. Transactions of the Society, Vol. 1, 1863 ; page 39.
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the introduction of homoeopathy into the Michigan University, the Van Aernam episode, the expulsion of homœopathic physicians from the Massachusetts (allopathic) State Medi- cal Society, and many others, Dr. Watson has always urged the largest liberty of opin- ion and action in the exercise of all civil rights on the broad American principle of " no taxation without representation." And he has embodied the sentiments of this sound proposition in many of the large numbers of resolutions and declarations of rights which he has so often formulated and presented at medical meetings.
Dr. Watson has been a frequent contributor to medical literature. In addition to the essays and addresses previously referred to the following articles are the more promi- nent among his published papers: "Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis "; Transactions of the New York State Homoeopathic Medical Society, 1864; "Nosological Classification of Diseases," ibid., 1864; " Allopathic Bigotry," 1869; " Old-School Intolerance," ibid., 1872, p. 657; ibid., 1873, p. 117; "The Advanced Medical Act," ibid., 1872, p. 425 ; " No Sectarian Tests as a Qualification for Office, and no Sectarian Monopoly of Na- tional Institutious," ibid., 1872, p. 684 ; and " Homoeopathy," Zell's Popular Encyclo- pædia, 1870.
In the early part of his medical career Dr. Watson aspired to the attainment of the highest standing in the medical profession. That these laudable aspirations have been fully realized is attested by the quality and thoroughness of his medical accomplish- ments. As a sound and reliable practitioner he has, these many years, stood at the forefront of the profession. He has endeavored to represent that which is truly con- servative and rational in the homœopathic school in contradistinction to that which, through Hahnemann's errors, is visionary, unphilosophical, and irrational therein. He has been eminently successful in carrying out this line of practice, as is evidenced by the high standing that he has attained in the community where he has so long resided, as well as by the frequency with which his advice is eagerly sought as a wise consultant in the management of difficult cases, both in the city of his adoption and, in fact, in all the central counties of this State. By wisely endeavoring to adhere to homoeopathic principles when applicable, and at the same time appropriating all that is of essential value in other systems of treatment, he has fairly attained the enviable reputation of being a practitioner of recognized ability and of great practical sagacity. He has been an earnest and constant student, not only in the field of his chosen profession, but also in other departments of science and general literature. Having oratorical powers of a high order his impressive and graceful presentation of any cause that he may espouse renders that object or association, be it medical, political, or literary, exceedingly fortun- ate in securing his interest and influence in its behalf. Dr. Watson was an intimate personal friend and political adherent of the late Hon. Roscoe Conkling, and for more than thirty years his attending physician. He delivered several political addresses in Mr. Conkling's interest before the Conkling Club, of Utica, when the possibility of the nomination of Roscoe Conkling for the Presidency seemed so promising in the year 1876.
Dr. Watson married Miss Sarah T. Carlile at Providence, R. I., May 1, 1854. Mrs. Watson died at Utica, July 27, 1881. On December, 1891, he married Mrs. Julia M. Williams, of Utica, N. Y. He has one son, William Livingston Watson, who was a
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member of the class of 1879 at Harvard College, and one daughter, Lucy Carlile Wat- son, both of whom reside with their father at Utica, N. Y. William Livingston Watson was married to Miss Alice G. Parkinson, of Jamaica Plain, Mass., October 12, 1887.
A DAMS, CHARLES D., born November 30, 1828, at Lowville, Lewis County, N.Y., is a son of Dr. Seth Adams, who came from New Hampshire, where his family had been settled since an early day. His mother was a daughter of Gen. Oliver Col- lins, of New Hartford, who came from Meriden, Conn., at the close of the Revolution- ary war. After completing his education Charles D. studied law with Hon. Ela Col- lins. at Lowville, and was admitted at Utica in January, 1852. He practiced his profession at Lowville until January, 1870. While at Lowville he ran on the Demo- cratic ticket for district attorney, as delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and for county judge. As his county and district were hopelessly Republican he was elected to neither of these positions. He came to Utica in 1870, taking the place of Charles H. Doolittle, who had been elected justice of the Supreme Court. The large business to which he came, and which continued till the war business of the country was closed up, threw upon him a large practice, which he conducted success- fully and with dispatch. His practice has been from the first in large and important cases and in the higher courts. His cases which have been reported have contributed as much as those of any lawyer in Northern or Central New York to the legal litera- ture of his time.
Among his cases which have attracted public attention were the Budge case, the case of Smith vs. Pease, Nicholson vs. Wilson, the capital case of Powers, the North Lake Reservoir cases before the canal appraisers, and the cases of the estate of L. R. Lyon, arrising in Northern New York, and the Mallon homicide case, the Joseph B. Taylor estate cases, the Utica Water Works case, the Clinton Water Works case, and the Piper- Hoard cases, arising in Oneida and Herkimer Counties. In his professional work Mr. Adams is most thorough and industrious in his preparation of bis cases, profoundly learned in the law, clear, forcible, and logical in the presentation of his views, and most ingenious in meeting the difficulties of his case.
Mr. Adams ran on the Democratic ticket in the Fifth Judicial District for justice of the Supreme Court in 1880 and 1882, each time running much ahead of his ticket, but not enough to overcome the heavy Republican majorities. He has always been a Dem- ocrat and during the war of the Rebellion was a war Democrat. Since his residence in Utica he has taken little part in politics.
R OBERTS, JAMES, was born in the town of Steuben, Oneida County, N. Y., Au- gust 26, 1837. His father was John O. Roberts ; his mother was a daughter of James Owen. His early life was spent upon a farm, but preferring a commercial life he soon made an exchange, his subsequent successes abundantly proving the wisdom of his choice. A copartnership was formed between himself and a friend, carrying on
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business in Remsen under the firm name of Jones & Roberts. Mr. Roberts was well known and very popular in the northern tier of towns in the county. In politics he was throughout his life a staunch Republican and stood high in the councils of his party.
In 1869 he disposed of his interest in the store at Remsen and went to New York city for a visit. While absent his friends and neighbors, without his knowledge, nomi- nated him as a candidate for member of the Assembly for what was then the Fourth District. He accepted the nomination, was elected, and served his constituents well at Albany. With the exception of a short service as town clerk this was his only experi- ence in public office. In the fall of 1870 he came to Utica and became a member of the firm of Griffiths, Roberts & Butler, successors of the firm of Charles H. Yates & Co., in the manufacture and sale of clothing. This firm carried on the business very success- fully for about ten years at No. 54 Genesee street. In 1881 its personnel was changed by the introduction of Russell H. Wicks and John Peattie as partners. The following year Mr. Griffiths, the senior member, withdrew and the firm of Roberts, Butler & Co. was formed. Mr. Roberts applied himself with unusual assiduity, and in the face of sharp competition built up the largest business in clothing in the city. He was system- atic, methodical, and attentive to detail. His judgment in matters of business as well as of men and their actions was accurate and trustworthy, was freely sought, and as freely given. Sharp in trade, and quick to see where an advantage was to be gained, he was nevertheless open and generous, not easily offended, and as averse to giving of- fence, for his social qualities were as marked as his business traits, and in this respect he was one of the most companionable of men. Loyalty to the friendships of his early days was characteristic of the man. He manifested signal power in his relations with his employees, whom he treated always with extreme courtesy, and whose respect he uniformly commanded. " If he had a failing as a business man," said one of his partners, " it was that he would not or could not throw upon others responsibilities and cares which he had no right to carry." Thus intent on his own affairs Mr. Roberts did not fail of care for those of a more public character. He was interested in political matters and in current events was thoroughly posted. He was ever ready to lend a hand in inaugurating any enterprise which promised to be a public benefit. One of the last oc- casions on which he appeared in public was the inauguration of the movement to establish the Conservatory of Music. He was a director in the Skenandoah Yarn-Mill and a stockholder in the Eureka Mower Company and the Mohawk Valley Mills.
In 1875 Mr. Roberts married Delia, youngest daughter of Hon. Samuel Campbell, of New York Mills, a lady to whom he was most tenderly attached and who accorded fully with his natural instinct, for he was strongly domestic in his tastes, and when not at his business he devoted himself to his wife and his home.
In the winter of 1888, accompanied by his wife and members of her family, he visited Europe, where he passed most of the season in the delightful atmosphere of Italy and Southern France. During his stay in Rome and Florence he purchased several choice works of art to adorn the home to which he was so devotedly attached, and the artistic decorations of which bespoke the cultured taste of its owner. In the spring he went to Great Britain, paying while there a visit to the home of his ancestors in Wales. An American by birth and education his Welsh ancestry was to him a source of pride and
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pleasure. He was proud of the industry, thrift, and integrity which characterize that people. His charities he kept to himself; his modest, engaging demeanor was not so easy of concealment, and this, with his cheerfulness, frankness, and straightforward integrity, caused the regret that was felt at his death to be widespread and sincere.
While yet comparatively young the career of this robust, healthy, handsome man, popular and respected, and by his intimates warmly beloved, was brought to an early close. His death occurred July 4, 1889. He left to his friends the memory of a most genial companion and a generous helper in times of need and to the rising generation of our young men a noble example of energetic, independent American manhood.
M IDDLETON,. ROBERT, president of the Globe Woolen Company, of Utica, was born in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland, May 25, 1825. He is the third son in a family of eight children born to Robert and Marjory (Burnett) Middleton, both of whom were natives of Aberdeen. His father was a manufacturer by occupation while in Scotland, and emigrated to America with his family in 1839. He settled at Middle Granville, Washington County, N. Y., and during the remainder of his life followed farming. He was a man of probity and respectability in a broad sense and died where he first located in the year 1876, at the age of eighty-six years. His wife died in the year 1856 aged fifty-two years.
Robert Middleton's educational advantages were confined to the common schools of Granville, N. Y., but he made the best of his opportunities in this direction until he was eighteen years of age, when he went to Lowell, Mass., and engaged his services for six years to the Lowell Carpet Company. The succeeding seven years he spent with the Merrimac Woolen Company, acting as assistant superintendent of the company's mills. In these capacities he found an occupation which he liked and which was the foundation of the life-work in which he has been more than ordinarily successful. In the latter part of April, 1857, Mr. Middleton was invited to visit the Utica Woolen-Mills with a view of accepting the agency of the same, and after a personal interview with the late Theodore S. Faxton, then president of the company, and an examination of the mill property he was engaged as agent and superintendent and entered upon his duties as such on the 10th of May, 1857. The Globe Mills, as they were then called (later the Utica Woolen-Mills), had then been in existence a number of years, as related in an earlier chap- ter of this work, but as a business enterprise they had been unsuccessful. In the year 1854, just before the approach of the severest financial struggle the country has ever passed through, the company failed and the stockholders were assessed ninety-eight per cent. to pay outstanding debts, and the mill was sold at auction. In 1855 the new com- pany was organized under the name of the Utica Woolen-Mills, and though severely tried by the panic of 1857 the establishment passed safely through the crisis and a few years later paid the first dividend it had ever made. Mr. Middleton's excellent practical quali- fications and his natural executive ability found ample scope for exercise and he gave his best energies to the upbuilding of the affairs of the company ; the product was greatly improved in quality under his skillful direction and other reforms were inaugurated which soon placed the company on a firm and permanent foundation. The product of
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the mills was formerly sold by commission houses, but on the 1st of January, 1864, a salesroom of their own was established in New York city, which is now in charge of W. W. Coffin, and the entire product amounting to about $1,200,000 annually is sold from there. When Mr. Middleton assumed charge of the mills the product was not more than one-fifth the present quantity, while the quality of the goods manufactured has advanced still more rapidly, and at the present time cloths are made that are not excelled in the country.
On the 6th of September, 1871, the entire property of the company was burned, but the mills were immediately rebuilt, and in 1886 a worsted-mill was added to the plant. It is eminently proper to state that the stockholders of the company attribute a large share of the credit for the success of their mills to Mr. Middleton. In 1868 his son, Walter D., entered the offices of the company in a subordinate position and has risen regularly by various promotions to the superintendency, which position he now holds. On the 19th of January, 1882, Mr. Middleton succeeded Theodore S. Faxton as presi- dent of the company, and during the remainder of the life-time of Mr. Faxton he was Mr. Middleton's faithful and trusted adviser. Outside of his regular business connec- tions Mr. Middleton is a public spirited citizen, possesses a large fund of general infor- mation, and willingly lends his aid to any movement for the good of the community. He is prominently connected with the local banking interests and with various private business undertakings, all of which are gainers through his counsel and material par- ticipation. In politics he is a Republican, but throughout his life he has held himself aloof from active work in that field.
In 1849 Mr. Middleton was married to Miss Lucy Ann Cummings, daughter of Ira Cummings, of Greenfield, N. H., and they have four children : Walter D .; Ella, wife of James G. Hunt, of Utica; Mary, wife of Fred Gebhard, of Jersey City ; and Florence, wife of Dr. Charles Pilgrim, superintendent of the Willard Asylum.
W JILEY, GEORGE H., vice-president and superintendent of the Utica Steam Cotton-Mills and superintendent of the Mohawk Valley Cotton-Mills, was born in East Douglass, Mass., January 12, 1826. His education was obtained in the common schools in the several villages where he lived in the States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, supplemented by a few terms at a select school in Lonsdale, R. I., which was kept by an Episcopal clergyman. His father was a machine builder and a skillful me- chanic, and in his early life was connected with some of the first cotton-mills built in New England. His ancestors came to America from the Highlands of Scotland and settled in Massachusetts about 1770, and many members of the family have developed and made their lives successful upon the natural Scottish traits of industry, integrity, sturdy preseverance, and good common sense. When Mr. Wiley reached his seven- teenth year he began work in the Providence steam-mill and soon afterward entered the employ of the Lonsdale Company. His father was at that time engaged in building machinery at that place, which gave his son superior advantages for obtaining practical knowledge that soon enabled him to assume charge of the different departments of cotton-mills. About 1846 his father removed to Pawtucket, R. I., and the son found
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