USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 71
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FORD, DR. WILLIS ELLARD, was born at Belfast, N. Y., and was educated in the Genesee Valley Seminary at that place. He was fitted for college at the age of seventeen, but did not enter, pursuing his studies at the seminary for two years and then beginning his course in medicine. Graduating in medicine in 1872, from the Med- ical Department of the University of the city of New York, he was employed a short time in demonstrating anatomy there, and then by competitive examination won a place on the medical staff of Charity Hospital, New York, and served the regular time as interne. Just before the completion of his term of service in Charity Hospital he was asked to go to Utica to see Dr. Gray, then the distinguished superintendent of the New York State Lunatic Asylum at that place. Dr. Gray's attention had been called to his services in Charity Hospital, and liking the young man he appointed Dr. Ford to fill the vacancy on his staff. Thus began a warm friendship which was terminated only by the untimely death of Dr. Gray. After five years and more of service at the asylum Dr. Ford began private practice in the city of Utica. At the time he left the service at the
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asylum, December 26, 1878, he married Miss Mary Ledyard Seymour, daughter of the late John F. Seymour, of Utica. In private practice his success was more imme- diate than is commonly the case, because he was favorably known to many if not all of the physicians in this part of the State. He was at once sought for, not only by sick people, but by physicians who desired counsel.
In 1882 he was made medical director of St. Luke's Hospital, a place he still holds. After four years of service there the institution had so grown in importance that a new hospital building was needed. Dr. Ford was active in securing necessary subscriptions and in the building of the hospital, which, as it now stands, is a source of pride to the city. He instituted in 1888 the St. Luke's School of Instruction for Nurses, which is one of the most popular institutions in the city today. For some years he has given much attention to gynecology, and his success in using electricity in this field caused his appointment in 1889 as professor of electro-therapeutics in the Medical Department of the University of Buffalo and next year as lecturer on the same topic in the Medical Department of the University of the city of ;New York. He holds both positions now and gives annually a course of lectures to the medical students in these colleges. In 1884 the degree of M.A. was conferred upon him by Madison University. He has been a liberal contributor to current medical literature. Dr. Ford, besides being a member of various local medical organizations, is a Fellow of the American Gynecological Society, a member and this year president of the American Climalogical Society, a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, a permanent member of the Medical Society of the State of New York, and a member of and this year president of the Alumni Associa- tion of the Medical Department of the University of the city of New York.
G REEN, WALTER JEROME, late a prominent citizen and business man of Utica, member of the banking house of Charles Green & Son, of this city, and president. and owner of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Halifax River Railroad of Florida, was born in Hubbardsville, Madison County, N. Y., October 10, 1842, and died in Utica on January 27, 1885. His widow and an only child (a son) survive him. His father, Charles Green (who still resides at the family homestead in Hubbardsville), was born in Sangerfield, Oneida County, N. Y., May 28, 1811. He has been in business in Utica for a number of years, and is probably one of the oldest and best known bankers and busi- ness men in this part of the State. The father of Charles Green was David Green, who was born at South East, Putnam County, N. Y. His ancestors came over in the Mayflower. He was related to Gen. Nathaniel Green, of Revolutionary fame. His mother's name was Deliverance Hatch, who was born at Cape Cod, Mass. Her mother's name was Sears. David Green was also related to the Sears family. The mother of Walter Jerome Green was Mary Jane Hubbard, of Hubbardsville, Madison County, N. Y. Her father was Oliver Kellogg Hubbard, born at Windsor, Conn. Her mother, Mary Meachem, was born at ,Simsbury, Conn. Mr. Green |married, June 26, 1867, Miss Sarah L., daughter of Henry Swartwout, of Troy, N. Y. The mother of Mrs. Green was Maria Lester Kittleliuyn, whose great-grandfather was William Kittlehuyn, of Saratoga, N. Y., who in 1734 was the owner of land ten miles square in what is now the village of
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Saratoga. Mrs. Green's father is descended from the family of Swartwouts who came from Kirkoven in Holland to this country and settled in New Netherlands, now New York. A large grant of land upon the Mohawk River was made by the Dutch government to Johannes von Swartwout. The family have held the rank of barons in the United Netherlands for more than three centuries. The head of the family is now the Baron von Swartwout, of Kirkoven.
" It is related of Capt. Abraham Swartwout that probably the first display of the American flag at a military post was at Fort Schuyler, on the site of Rome, N. Y. The fort was besieged early in the month of August, 1777, and the garrison were without a flag, so they made one according to the prescription of Congress by cutting up sheets to form white stripes, bits of scarlet cloth for the red stripes, and the blue ground for the stars was composed of portions of a cloth cloak belonging to Capt. Abraham Swart- wout, of Dutchess County, N. Y., and the flag was unfurled August 3, 1777."
Walter Jerome Green received a liberal education in his youth, having attended Caz- enovia Seminary and Madison University. Deciding to enter the legal profession he was properly qualified for it by an extensive course of study, which was closed at the Albany University, whence he was graduated in 1864 and admitted to the bar. Having practiced his profession two years the increasing importance of his father's business made it desirable for him to come to his assistance, and he abandoned the legal profes- sion and entered the bank. In a short time he was admitted to partnership, the firm becoming Charles Green & Son. Young though he was his enterprising spirit soon made itself felt in the affairs of his father's business, which gradually broadened its field of operations and took a leading part among the similar enterprises in the central part of the State. An important department in the business of the house was the trade in hops, which became so extensive as to place the firm among the largest dealers in this country. To meet the demand for reliable intelligence bearing on the hop trade the firm published a journal known as Charles Green & Son's Hop Paper, a large, handsomely printed, four-page folio of twenty-eight columns, of which an edition of about 5,000 was issued, gratuitously, quarterly. Mr. Green became interested in a rail- road project in Florida, which promised the happiest results. Seeking a new field for investment of his capital his attention was drawn to the lack of modern transporta- tion facilities in the fruit growing section of that State ; and guided by the promptings of his judgment, which on many previous occasions had been exercised with the most fortunate results, he threw both energy and money into the scheme. The outcome of this effort was the Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Halifax River Railroad, of which Mr. Green was president and the entire owner. This began at Jacksonville on the St. John's River in the northeastern corner of the State and extended southwardly and east- wardly to St. Augustine on the Atlantic Coast, and was thirty-seven miles in length. The road connected with the Atlantic Coast Steamship Company, running outside to New Smyrna on the Halifax Coast. Mr. Green's intentions were to extend the road a distance of 106 miles to New Smyrna. This would have afforded quick and cheap transportation between Jacksonville and the Halifax and Indian River country. Al- though recently constructed the road received an extensive patronage, and its energetic president and his assistants gave ample proof of their ability to meet every demand that
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should be made upon them. It ran through a fertile and rapidly developing region, and shortened the time of transport between the orange country of the east coast of Florida and New York by some eight days -- a most important consideration under any circum- stances, but more especially in view of the perishable nature of the delicate fruit trans- ported. While the possibilities of this section of Florida as a fruit-growing country and health resort had long been known, and to some extent developed, progress had been slow and uncertain owing to the lack of railroad facilities. Mr. Green's enterprise bid fair to remedy this completely, and the beneficent effects were perceptible in a great variety of ways in the fertile, beautiful, and salubrious peninsula traversed by his road. Among the most notable results is the laying out of new towns between St. Augustine and Jacksonville. Here the balmy breezes from the Atlantic, softened and toned by their passage through miles of health-giving pine forests, impart a recuperative property to the air which cannot fail to make the locality a favorite resort for invalids, while its easy accessibility must also contribute greatly to its popularity. The impetus given to the whole peninsula by the building of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Halifax River Railroad rapidly attracted northern capital, and it is probably no more than just to say that this project, so successfully inaugurated and carried through by Mr. Green, has had more to do with the upbuilding of this part of the State of Florida than any other in- fluence. The railroad rapidly enlarged its terminal facilities and was supplied by its active president with additional freight and passenger cars, including two new parlor cars and a magnificent new ferry boat, The Mechanic, 140 feet in length, and said to be the finest looking craft of its kind in any waters south of New York city, capable of carrying 1,800 people and 15 large teams. The arrival of The Mechanic recorded an- other step taken by Mr. Green to secure for Jacksonville the immense trade that was developing along the South Atlantic Coast, and the railroad being now equipped with two steamers was better than ever prepared to command it.
Speaking of the death of Mr. Green the Florida Times- Union says :
" A host of friends in Jacksonville were shocked this morning by the announcement of the death W. Jerome Green, of Utica, N. Y. At once the flags on the steam ferry line were displayed at half-mast and the office in this city draped in mourning. In the death of Mr. Green Jacksonville loses one of her best friends, for he realized that the interests of his road and that of the city were identified, and shaped the management and policy of the road accordingly. Our business men feel deeply his death, for it was well known that it was his policy to push the road to Daytona and points farther south with all possible speed. While it is true that Jacksonville, in the death of Mr. Green, has lost a friend it is still more true if possible that the whole Halifax Coast has suf- fered a much more serious loss. Mr. Green's wife and son and friends have the deep- est sympathies of our entire community in their sad bereavement."
On the death of Mr. Green the property was left to trustees for his son. It was sold six years ago to H. M. Flagler, of New York, who has carried out the plans and ideas of its late owner. The road brought $350,000, which is invested in government bonds for his son and in that shape will await his maturity.
In the varied enterprises in which he had been engaged Mr. Green showed himself possessed of superior intelligence and judgment and a rare degree of push and energy. He seldom entered upon a project as a mere speculation and what, to less far-sighted and sagacious persons might seem fraught with disaster, proved in his competent hands
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prolific of success. Not alone in Utica, but throughout the central part of the State, where his business relations have been numerous, important, and in active operation for a score of years, he was highly respected as an honorable and successful banker and merchant and an upright man. In the South, where his capital, intelligence, and en- ergy had of late provided congenial and profitable employment, the results of his labors have already been recognized as alike beneficent and progressive. Returning from active labors in Florida in the winter of 1884-85 he was passing some time at his home in Utica, when he was stricken with apoplexy, and died January 27, 1885.
Exceptionally far-seeing, and possessing rare judgment in business matters, Mr. Green had accumulated a handsome property. He spared no pains to render his home beauti- ful and attractive within and without, and the residence on Rutger Place is one of the handsomest in this city. Bright, genial, hospitable, well informed, and entertaining he had a large number of friends to whom his sudden and unexpected death was the occa- sion of profound sorrow.
H UTCHINSON, HON. CHARLES WEBSTER, was born at Providence, R. I., on July 4, 1826, in which city his parents were then temporarily residing. His birth took place at the residence of Maj. Samuel Mcclellan, who occupied the dwelling on the corner of School and Benefit streets in that city. Mr. Hutchinson has been a resi- dent of the city of Utica from the year following his birth, and here received his early education under such prominent instructors as Thomas Towell, William Backus, Will- iam Williams, William C. Barrett, David Prentice, LL.D., George R. Perkins, LL.D., and others. At the age of fifteen he entered the Scientific Department at Geneva Col- lege, devoting himself principally to these studies and the modern languages. He was then appointed to a position as clerk in the office of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad Company at Utica. He resigned this position in 1847, having been appointed teller of the Fort Plain Bank, and acted for the three subsequent years in that capacity.
Returning to Utica he assumed charge of the combined interests of his father and Hon. Horatio Seymour in the manufacturing firm of E. K. Browning & Co., but after a few months he took charge under his own name and devoted himself to its interests until the autumn of the year 1865, when he disposed of the business and went to Europe with his wife, passing between two and three years in travel upon the Conti- nent and a winter in Africa and Egypt, returning to Italy by the Mediterranean and Sicily. Upon his return home to Utica he took an active interest in matters of a pub- lic character, and for several years was a director of the Utica Mechanics Association. He was vice-president and presiding officer of the New York State Sportsmen's Asso- ciation for several years from its organization, and was a member of the first committee who presented a revision of the game laws to the legislature of this State, which were adopted, and in 1871 he was elected its president. He was elected mayor of the city of Utica in 1875, and during his term of office a number of important local measures were successfully inaugurated and completed. Several artistic fountains were erected in the public parks, and the latter beautified and reclaimed from their former neglected con- dition; several culverts were built, and the work of filling the streets over them was
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rapidly pushed forward, the benefits of which were soon proved by the rapid improve. ments and growth of the easterly part of the city. His administration was marked by a judicious economy in public expenditures, and many improvements were inaugurated to the ultimate advancement of the interests of the city. The year of his mayoralty, being notable as the centennial year, was a period which brought into more than or- dinary prominence the local executive officials throughout the country. During that year the citizens of Utica extended the hospitalities of the city for the ninth annual re- union of the Army of the Cumberland, which invitation was accepted for the dates of September 15th and 16th. Mayor Hutchinson, in his official capacity as chief magis- trate, made the address of welcome in the opera house, and addresses were also delivered by Hon. Horatio Seymour, Hon. Roscoe Conkling, and other citizens. Among those present were President Grant, Vice-Pres. Henry Wilson, several members of the na- tional cabinet, and judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, while the army was represented by General Sherman and his staff, and Generals Joseph Hooker, H. W. Slocum, H. A. Barnum, J. G. Parkhurst, Henry M. Cist, Daniel Butterfield, J. S. Ful- lerton, David S. Stanley, A. G. McCook, James McQuade, J. B. Kiddoo, Frank Wheaton, James G. Grindlay, W. H. Christian, and many other distinguished Union commanders. His Excellency Governor Samuel J. Tilden was the guest of Mr. Hutchinson, and with him were many other prominent State officials, constituting altogether one of the most distinguished gatherings of national and State dignitaries ever assembled outside of the capital of the nation. The re-union was a grand success and was fully appreciated by all the delegates and guests who were in attendance, and they expressed the highest gratification at the attention shown them by the citizens and their liberality of enter- tainment and generous hospitality. Railroad trains and other modes of conveyance were kept at the free disposal of the visitors, and Trenton Falls, the armory at Ilion, the cotton factories, and other industries of the city and New York Mills and adjoining villages were visited. The re-union closed with a reception and ball at the opera house, President Grant and Governor Tilden receiving in the proscenium boxes. One of the guests wrote of it as follows:
" No notice of this event, written at the late hour required by the circumstances, can do justice to its elegance and success in every particular. Each succeeding moment seemed to be more and more enjoyable, and the culmination was a grand triumph. Nothing of the kind ever before attempted in this city or vicinity equalled it; it re- flected the greatest credit upon the city and the good people who tendered it with the most perfect cordiality to their honored guests, the brave men of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland. It will be a long time ere the bright dream will be for- gotten."
Mr. Hutchinson was prominent in organizing the Utica Park Association, and was its president from its incorporation from 1872 until 1889, excepting three terms, when, other matters engrossing his attention, he declined an election. This park property was estimated to have cost over $150,000, but it was sold by him to the State Masonic Home in 1889 for the sum of $75,000. To this noble charity, in which as a Mason Mr. Hutchinson was deeply interested, he donated toward this purchase price the sum of $25,000. As a Mason he is a member of Utica Lodge, Oneida Chapter, Utica Com- mandery of Knights Templar, and Yah-nun-dah-sis Lodge of Perfection, and has taken
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the 32d degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in Cosmopolitan Consistory of New York. He is also prominent in the order of Odd Fellows and now holds the position of colonel and chief of equipment of the Patriarchs Militant Independent Order of Odd Fellows in the Department of the Atlantic, was for several years president of the Utica Club, and is a member of the Democratic and Manhattan Clubs, both of New York city. Mr. Hutchinson was one of the organizers of the Oneida Historical Society, associated with Alexander Seward, S. N. D. North, John F. Seymour, and Morven M. Jones, of which the late Hon. Horatio Seymour was president from its founding in the year 1876 until his death. During this period he was first vice-president and acting president, is one of the Board of Councillors, and is now its president, being elected in 1891. He has delivered several addresses before the society upon subjects relating to the! early history of the Mohawk Valley, and was a member of the committee of five who selected the design and erected the monument commemorating the battle of Oris- kany, August 6, 1777. He is also a corresponding member of a number of historical societies. For many years he has devoted a portion of his leisure to the studies of eth- nology, history, and allied subjects, and his library is large and valuable in rare books, in both English and foreign languages. One of his favorite subjects of study is In- dianology, particularly relating to the Iroquois or tribes of the Six Nations. His cabi- net of Indian curios and relics is one of the most noted in the State, and was exhibited at the Bartholdi Exhibition in New York, at the Albany Bi-Centennial, and at the In- ternational Fair in 1888 held at Buffalo. Mr. Hutchinson, in appreciation of the warm interest he has taken in matters relating to the condition and welfare of the Iroquois, was adopted by them and given the name of "Gy-ant-wa-ka " (The Cornplanter) by a council of the Senecas on their reservation, June 15, 1885.
Among the corporate positions held by him was that of president of the Utica and Mohawk Railroad Company, and he ultimately became the owner of that road. He is also president of the Central New York Agricultural Association and is a trustee of the Holland Trust Company of New York city. He was elected a vestryman of Trinity Church, Utica, in 1861 and warden in 1887. This church is one of the oldest Episco- pal churches in the western part of this State, having been organized May 24, 1803 and incorporated August 14, 1804. He is largely interested in real estate and the man- ufacturing interests of the city of his residence, and is sanguine of a rapid and prosper- ous development of its great natural resources in the near future.
Mr. Hutchinson was married October 9, 1851, by the Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Clark, the present bishop of Rhode Island, to Miss Laura Clark Beckwith, the eldest daughter of the late Alonzo S. Beckwith, a prominent citizen of Hartford, Conn. She died April 11, 1883, leaving no children. Mrs. Hutchinson was active and generous in all chari- table works, and her sister and herself were the "two founders " of that benevolent institution, the " House of the Good Shepherd," whose mission is the care of little children. Mr. Hutchinson's father, Holmes Hutchinson, was an eminent civil engineer and was a son of Amaziah Hutchinson and Elizabeth Mack. He was born at Genoa, Cayuga County, N. Y., January 5, 1794, and removed to Utica in 1819, and was almost constantly employed as an engineer upon the Erie Canal and its enlargement and other canals of the State from that date until 1835, when he was appointed chief engineer of
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the middle division, which position he held until 1841. During this period he made the maps and surveys of the Erie Canal from Canastota to the Hudson River, the Black River. Cayuga, Crooked Lake, Chemung, and Seneca Canals, the Glens Falls feeder and the Rochester aqueduct, and of a proposed canal on Long Island uniting Jamaica Bay with Rockaway Inlet. His report to the legislature, dated March, 1826, says " that construct- ing nine miles of canal through the inland bays form a continuous navigation from Sag Harbor to the city of New York, a distance of 115 miles," and he recommended its construction. In 1889, after a lapse of sixty-three years, this project was again brought into prominence. In 1825 he was engaged as chief engineer by the Connecticut River Company upon the recommendation of Gov. De Witt Clinton, of New York. to survey a route of water communication from Barnet, in the State of Vermont, to the city of Hartford, Conn., a distance of 219 miles. Upon receiving his report the directors of the company by resolution said " that Mr. Hutchinson has fully justified their high- wrought anticipations" In 1826 he was appointed by the authorities of the State of Rhode Island chief engineer of the construction of the Blackstone Canal from the city of Providence to Worcester, Mass. In 1828 he was chief engineer of the constrution of the Oxford and Cumberland Canal in the State of Maine. He married February 15, 1824. Maria Abeel Webster, the second daughter of Joshua Webster, M.D., of Fort Plain, N. Y., who was one of the most prominent among the early physicians of the Mohawk Valley. Dr. Webster was a lineal descendant of Thomas Webster, of Ipswich, England, and was a son of John Webster, of Scarboro, Me. He was surgeon of the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Regiment New York State Volunteers during the War of 1812 and was a member of the State legislature in 1822. Dr. Webster mar- ried Catharine Wagner, whose mother was the daughter of John Abeel, the Indian trader, whose father, Johannes Abeel, resided in Albany, and was recorder and mayor of that city during the years 1694 and 1695 and also during 1709 and 1710. He was also one of the commissioners of Indian affairs from 1706 to 1710. Mrs. Webster's grandfather was Col. Johan Peter Wagner, who with William Fox had the distinction of being the first two of the Palatinates who settled in the Mohawk Valley, easterly of Garoga Creek, in the town of Palatine in 1723. The colonel's oldest son, also Johan Peter, was a member of the committee of safety during the Revolution, and was lieu- tenant-colonel in the regiment of Colonel Cox at the battle of Oriskany, Angust 6, 1777, in which battle two of his sons, Johan Georg and Johan Jost, and five members of the Wagner family were also engaged. After General Herkimer was wounded and Col. Ebenezer Cox was killed tradition says that Colonel Wagner took command of the brigade, which resulted in the victory so decisive for the American forces, Mr. Hutch- inson was prominent in many of the early enterprises in the State; was one of the original directors of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad, of the Lake Ontario Steamboat Company, of the Bank of Utica, and other corporations; and was for some years the president of the Syracuse and Oswego Railroad. He was quiet in his demeanor and courteous in speech and manner, and all who were brought into contact with him accorded him their respect and esteem, and acknowledged his high sense of honor and scrupulous integrity. He died suddenly at his residence in the city of Utica, February 21, 1865. aged seventy-one years.
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