USA > New York > Orange County > Newburgh > Newburgh; her institutions, industries and leading citizens, historical, descriptive and biographical > Part 17
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His first schooldays were passed at a private school; at that time the public school accommodations were insufficient for the population. In 1829 the High school was built, and opened for scholars in 1830; this school was very popular and inviting in its day. It had long been needed, and its capacity was promptly filled. He went to this school from its opening until 1832, when his school days ended in Newburgh. His parents attended the First Presbyterian Church, Rev. Dr. John Johnston, pastor, of which his mother was a member. His father was a carman; the village archives of 1832 record the names of Samuel Chambers and five others licensed to do all the carting of the village. Wood was then exclusively used in dwellings for fuel; the day of coal and coal stoves had not arrived. The farmer with his load of wood, and the man with buck and saw, were prominent characters daily seen on the streets. He, like most all sons, inherited his politics from his father, and religious beliefs from his mother; early education and impressions were enduring; this is why he is a Republican in politics and a Presbyterian in religion. When the Asiatic cholera was epidemic in this country, in 1832, his father was the first victim of the destroyer in Newburgh; he was attacked in the evening and died the next day at noon, August 28. This bereavement soon made a change for William. It left his mother with five children to care and provide for, and with financial circumstances inadequate to the responsibility.
When ten years old he went to live with a farmer in the Town of Warwick and learn the art and science of husbandry. In those days to be a farm boy was to labor; labor was the rule, leisure the excep- tion. But he was fortunate in his new home with strangers; the wife
WASHINGTON LAKE.
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was a Christian woman, and treated the lad with the kindness of a mother. On the Sabbath after church, they all read chapters in the Bible, repeated the Lord's prayer, and recited the catechism. The change from village association and influence to farm life, when so young, was by Providence favorably compensated for by a physical and moral development for health and longevity. In 1846, when 24 years of age, he began seriously to anticipate the future, and was in- spired to change for a higher vocation. At that time he was acquaint- ed with a school teacher at Edenville-a popular instructor and Meth- odist exhorter. He was a good Samaritan in word and deed; by his good council and influence Mr. Chambers acquired the qualification and commission to become a school teacher, and while his memory lasts will owe him affectionate gratitude. He taught school for three years (1847-49) first in the Town of Wawayanda, and next at Salis- bury Mills. January 4, 1849, he married Hannah J. Case, of Waway- anda. After leaving the schoolroom he was clerk for Van Allen & Son, at Salisbury Mills; the father was postmaster, and the son sta- tion agent for the railroad; they also kept a store and operated a paper mill and a cotton factory. The Newburgh Branch of the Erie Railway commenced running trains to Newburgh January 8, 1850. Through business relations with Newburgh station officials, he re- ceived a clerkship at Newburgh station. He was in the Erie Railway
service ten years, from 1850 to 1861. The last two years he was sta- tion agent, and then resigned for another change.
When the " War of the Rebellion" commenced, his two and only brothers, John and James, enlisted in the Union army, and he volun- tarily sent a substitute before drafting began. He accepted a position as bookkeeper with James Bigler, in the lumber and timber and saw mill business, and was with him 18 years, from 1861 to 1878, hoth as clerk and co-partner. The business was a very large one, and for a term of years Mr. Chambers' annual salary was five thousand dol- lars. In 1879 he was elected an Alderman from the Second Ward by 257 majority. In 1881-82 he was with J. P. Andrews at Buffalo, who had a contract for masonry with the Delaware & Lackawanna Rail- road Co. in building their road through the city of Buffalo. On his return to Newburgh he was appointed by Postmaster Joseph M. Dickey to be Deputy Postmaster, and served from April 1, 1883, to 1887. March 9, 1891, he was appointed by the Board of Water Com- missioners to be Superintendent of the Water Works and Secretary of the Board. Mr. Chambers has three sons and two daughters. His son William C. is Deputy Postmaster, Albert N. is a member of the firm of P. Delany & Co., proprietors of the Newburgh Steam Boiler Works, and James L. is a book-keeper at Ferry & Napier's hat fac- tory.
HEALTH.
HE sanitary affairs of the city are in charge of the Board of Health. It is independent of the control of the Common Council, and has power to enforce the pro- visions of its excellent sanitary code. It has always been a highly intelligent and efficient body. Its mem- bers are appointed by the Mayor. The Health Officer is a salaried physician. The duties of the Board take a wide range, and its work is of inestimable value. Its recommenda- tions to other municipal bodies are invariably followed, and all its acts have the co-operation of the people.
The sanitary arrangements are as complete as possible, and con- sidered with the naturally healthy situation of the city, we have a combination of favorable conditions. The sloping nature of the land on which the city is built allows thorough sewerage and drainage. It is difficult for any place to obtain good sewerage if built on land that has a level surface. In such localities sewers may be and are constructed, and if they do their work at all, they do it sluggishly and inefficiently. The great majority, even if not all, epidemics and scourges which sweep off their victims by the hundreds and thousands -often designated " visitations of God "-are attributed to the want of, or imperfect, sewerage. Happily Newburgh is so situated that it needs no artificial means to force running water through its sewers, or to wash its streets and gutters. Nature takes this work upon her- self here, and does it well. There is no stagnant water-neither puddle nor frog pond-anywhere within the limits.
Nearly all the streets are sewered, with one or more basins at the intersections of streets to collect surface water. The gutters are curbed, sagged and paved. Vaults are not allowed in streets where sewers are, and no poultry nor cows can be harbored.
Inspections are made whenever nuisances are reported. The Health Officer makes the inspection and reports to the Board of Health. If nuisances exist a notice is served upon the owner or occupant of the premises, ordering him to abate or remove it. If this order is disre- garded the Board makes the abatement and charges all expenses upou the estate. Defective house drainage, cesspools, sources of drinking
water, and contagious diseases are controlled by the Board; and it also has power to compel those living near a sewer to connect their drains with it. No house offal is allowed to be thrown into the street. The Street Superintendent's department removes all ashes on stated days of the week. The streets are cleaned by the abutters, the city removing the collected heaps of sweepings. The business streets are cleaned three times a week, and the others twice a week. Garbage is removed by contractors in closed tank-wagons.
For the year 1887 the whole number of deaths was 363. Of these 5I were seventy years old and over, 38 were seventy-five years old and over, 24 were eighty and over, 3 were ninety and over, I was ninety-seven, and one was one hundred and two years old.
In 1888 the number of deaths was 469 (22 heing by violence). Of these, 61 were seventy years old and over, 44 were seventy-five and over, and 33 were eighty and over.
In 1889 there were 474 deaths, including those by violence. Of these, 73 were seventy years old and over, 46 were seventy-five and over, 20 were eighty and over, Io were eighty-five and over, I was ninety-three, and I was ninety-four.
The country about Newburgh is a great health resort, and harbors thousands of boarders in Summer. Many gentlemen who have re- tired from business elsewhere have come to this beautiful and health- ful place to spend their declining years, while others doing business in New York have their country seats here.
N. P. Willis, in the introductory chapter to " Out-doors at Idle- wild," (1855) says:
" To many the most essential charm of Highland Terrace, how- ever (as a rural residence in connection with life in New York), will he the fact that it is the nearest accessible point of complete inland climate. Medical science tells us that nothing is more salutary than change from the seaboard to the interior, or from the interior to the seaboard; and between these two climates the ridge of mountains at West Point is the first effectual separation.
" The raw winds of the coast, so unfavorable to some constitu- tions, are stopped by this wall of cloud-touching peaks, and, with the rapid facilities of communication between salt and fresh air, the bal- ance can be adjusted without trouble or inconvenience, and as much
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taken of either as is found healthful or pleasant. The trial of climate which the writer has made for a long summer, in the neighborhood of these mountainous hiding-places of electricity, the improvement of health in his own family, and the testimony of many friends who have made the same experiment, warrant him in commending it as a pe- culiarly salutary and invigorating air." Then, addressing a certain class, he adds:
" For those who have their time in some degree at their own dis- posal-who have competent means of luxurious independence-who have rural tastes and metropolitan refinements rationally blended- who have families which they wish to surround with the healthful and elegant belongings of a home, while at the same time they wish to keep pace with the world, and enjoy what is properly and only en- joyable in the stir of cities-for this class, the class as we have said before of leisure, refinement and luxury-modern and recent changes are preparing a new theory of what is enjoyable in life. It is a mix- ture of city and country, with a home in the country. And the spot with the most advantages for the first American trial of this new com- bination, is, we venture confidently to record, the Highland Terrace, encircled in the extended arm of the mountains above West Point."
The Board of Health is at present constituted as follows: Mayor Michael Doyle, President ex-officio; Chas. H. Doughty, *William C. Lawson, Charles Mapes, Samuel C. Mills, John Deyo, M. D., William T. Hilton. James Gordon, M. D., Health Officer; D. J. Coutant, Clerk.
The following citizens have been member of the Board of Health:
Cameron, William F .. ... 1882-89 Kimball, Samuel G. 1867-68
Carson, William W .. .. . . 1882-87
Lawson, William C .. 1890-91
Comstock, Stephen S., M. D. 1866
Lockwood, D. S ... . 1887-91
Church, Samuel P., M. D. 1868-69 Mapes, Charles. ... 1878-82, 1883-91
Callahan, W. H. 1873-78, 1882-83
Marsh, Edward J. F. 1883-85
Crissey, Gilbert R ... . 1881-82
McCanu, Alex
part of 1873
Decker, Charles N. .... . 1867-69 Deyo, Nathaniel, M. D. . 1871-80 Deyo, John, M. D .. . 1882-91
Mills, Samuel C 1889-91
Moffat, David H. I866-67
Schoonmaker, John 1885-88
Doughty, Charles H . . .. . 1890-91
Scott, Francis. 1867-68
Garner, Henry. 1888-90
Smith, Lewis M 1880-81
Heard, John S., M. D. . . 1867-83
Tice, Charles W. 1869-70
Hilton, William T. 1891- Townsend, William. 1869-89
Jones, Hiram A. 1866-67 Van Nort, John F 1869-72
HEALTH OFFICERS.
Deyo, John, M. D. 1880-82 Montfort, R. V. K., M. D .. 1866-69
Fenton, John W., M. D .. 1870-71 Stone. M. C., M. D. . 1878-80
Gordon, James, M. D. 1872-76, 1882-91 Health Officer in 1891, James Gordon, M. D.
PHYSICIANS.
The number of physicians in the city is thirty-five, as follows: A. E. Adams, Peter M. Barclay, James G. Birch, Elman H. Borst, Miss Sarah A. Clock, F. S. Cole, John Deyo, Agnes R. Dickson, Smith Ely, Gustav Gartzmann, W. Stanton Gleason, James Gordon, Louis E. Hanmore, Louis A. Harris, John T. Howell, Frank A. Jacob- son, William Jones, A. V. Jova, R. J. Kingston, Joseph Kittel, J. D. Malone, Jerome A. Maubey, John J. Mitchell, R. V. K. Montfort, Henry F. Nichols, James E. O'Malley, L. G. Roberts, M. C. Stone, Senan L. Sweeney, S. F. Teed, Thomas L. Ward, L. Y. Wiggins, Henry Wilson, H. E. Winans, C. N. Woolley.
DR. ELIAS PECK was descended from William Peck, one of the founders of the New Haven colony in the Spring of 1638. With his wife, Elizabeth, and his son Jeremiah, William emigrated from England to this country, with Governor Eaton, Rev. John Daven- port and others, in the ship Hector, arriving at Boston from London June 26, 1637. Dr. Peck's ancestors continued to reside in New England until the year 1804, when his father, Abrahamı Peck, and Auna, his wife, migrated from Greenwich, Conn. (which had been their home for several generations), to Warwick, Orange County, N. Y., and purchased what is now known as the Benedict Farm, on which Elias was born in 1806.
At the age of 12 his parents removed to Kentucky, and his boyhood from that period was spent in that State. Soon after arriving an epidemic, known locally as milk sickness, prevailed and both par- ents contracted the malady and died. At this early age (14 years) Elias was thrown on his own resources. He succeeded in securing the educational advantages that the common schools and academy af-
forded, and commenced reading medicine with Dr. Beach, of New York, at the age of 20. He received his medical education at the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York City, and settled in Newburgh 111 1833.
In the same year he married Catherine I. Millard, of New York City, and his long life of usefulness is well known by the older New- burghers. His efforts were expended in relieving suffering, and the poor of this city ever found in him a friend whose best years were
ELIAS PECK, M. D.
spent in promoting their welfare. After a successful life, measured by 32 years of active professional work. he died in July, 1865. Three children survive him: Thomas M. and John E., of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Catherine A., of New York City.
WILLIAM A. M. CULBERT, M. D., was born in New York City November 4, 1822, where during his earlier years he resided. His father, John Culbert, settled in New York soon after the Revolu- tion, and for almost half a century was engaged in mercantile pur- suits. Dr. Culbert was a graduate of both the Academic and Medi- cal Departments of the University of the City of New York, and pursued a post-graduate course in the former, after receiving his degree of B. A., and entered the latter from the office of his precep- tor, Dr. Valentine Mott, then the most noted surgeon in the world and Professor of Surgery in the University. Dr. Culbert, early in his professional life, esponsed the principles of homœopathy, and settled in practice in Newburgh in the Fall of 1847, where he remain- ed until his death.
Carefully educated, possessed of an unusually clear and logical mind, fully alive to every advance in his profession and allowing no one dogma to fetter his judgment-he was a physician in the broad- est sense of the term. Ever true to the interests of his patients, Dr. Culbert soon won and maintained to the time of his death the repu- tation of an accurate diagnostician, an independent thinker and an un- usually practical and successful prescriber.
Dr. Culbert was married October 12, 1852, to Miss Henrietta, daughter of Robert and Louisa A. Powell, and grand-daughter of Thomas Powell, who was then in the enjoyment of a vigorous old age.
Besides occupying the position of an intelligent and successful physician in the community in which he passed so many years of his
*Died July 29, 1891.
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life, Dr. Culbert was also recognized as a leading citizen, perform- ing in a plain, modest, dignified and courteous manner the various social duties that devolved upon him.
His patient, earnest effort in the interest of health, his devotion to the suffering, his rare good judgment which seldom failed in
PHOTO. BY WHIDDIT.
W. A. M. CULBERT, M. D.
effecting prompt relief, his gentleness, his honesty-all these qualities endeared him in the hearts of inany until he ceased to be looked upon as a physician merely upon duty bent, and was held in esteem as a friend. This place which he won, this honor in which he was held, this solicitude which the whole city expressed during his illness, are so many evidences that he possessed a rare quality of manhood. Besides his widow he left one son, Francis Ramsdell. Dr. Culbert died November 10, 1890.
NATHANIEL DEYO, M. D. The result of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV of France, was that rather than con- form to the established religion, four hundred thousand Protestants- among the most industrious, the most intelligent, and the most relig- ious of the nation, quitted France and took refuge in Holland, Eng- land and America, while the persecution, which preceded the revoca- tion led many to anticipate the event by leaving the country. Among the latter class were Louis du Bois, Christian Doyau, Abraham Has- brouç, André le Febvre, Jean Hasbrouç, Pierre Doyau, Louis Be- viere, Anthoine Crispel, Abraham du Bois, Hugo Frere, Isaac du Bois and Simon le Febvre, who, escaping from France to Holland, and thence coming to America located in the Summer of 1677 in tlie prov- ince of New York, on a tract of 36,000 acres, in what is now the County of Ulster, to which they gave the name of New Paltz, by which it is still known.
Multiplying in their new home their children went forth to found others, permeating the social life and indoctrinating the religious sen- timent of settlements around them-sending their sons into the coun- cils of the State and to the battle-fields of the Nation in all its stages of development and perpetuation. Interesting and valuable as would
be the study of this multiplication and dispersion, which has now cov- ered a period of over two hundred years, our purpose is to uote simp- ly the career of a single member of one of its branches-that of Na- thaniel Deyo, a lineal descendant of Christian Doyau, whose life-work was performed, as was that of many other descendants of the ancient refugees of New Paltz, as a citizen of Newburgh.
Nathaniel Deyo was born in that portion of the Paltz now called Gardiner, Ulster County, May 14, 1817. His father, Jonathan D. Deyo, was a farmer. His mother, Mary Hardenbergh Deyo, was a DeWitt, niece of Simeon DeWitt, Geographer of the Army of the Revolution, and also of Mary DeWitt, the wife of General James Clinton, the mother of De Witt Clinton. After finishing an academic course at the Montgomery Academy, he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Daniel N. Deyo, at New Paltz; subsequently con- tinued his studies with Dr. Peter Millspaugh, of Montgomery, and matriculated at Jefferson Medical College, in Philadelphia, receiving his degree from that institution in 1838.
Dr. Deyo began the practice of his profession at Marlborough, Ulster County, and continued there until 1843. During the Winter of 1843-44 he attended lectures within the venerable walls of his Alma Mater, at Philadelphia, and on his return to his native State located at Newburgh, where he continued practice until his last ill- ness. He died January 21, 1881.
His career as a physician was of the most successful character, his practice including a very large number of our most substantial citizens, which, taxing his physical energies to the utmost, no doubt hastened his death. His professional attainments gave him the con- fidence of the community, and his fellow physicians consulted him with great frequency in difficult cases. With these attainments he possessed a genial disposition and a ready tact, which made his pres- ence welcome in the sick room, and endeared him to a large circle of friends.
NATHANIEL DEYO, M. D.
Dr. Deyo was a member of the Orange County Medical Society, and also of the Board of Health of the City of Newburgh from 1870 to 1879, and was one of the founders and the first President of Cedar Hill Cemetery. He married in 1840 Miss Cornelia Bruyn DuBois,
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daughter of Louis DuBois, and grand-daughter of Colonel Louis DuBois of the 5th New York Continental Regiment of the Revolu- tionary Army. Colonel DuBois was a delegate to the Provincial Congress of New York in 1775, and also a delegate to the Provincial Congress which met later in the same year.
The surviving children of Dr. Nathaniel Deyo and Cornelia Bruyn DuBois, his wife, are Evelina, wife of M. C. Belknap; Robert E., Nathaniel DuBois, John Van Zandt and Cornelia A., wife of D. D. Sherman.
LEWIS YOUNG WIGGINS was born June 1, 1825, near Otis- ville, Orange County, N. Y. His grandfather, William, emigrated from the north of Ireland and resided first at Hempstead, L. I., and afterwards in the Town of New Windsor, where his son Stephen was born. When Stephen reached manhood he and his father jointly pur-
L. Y. WIGGINS, M. D.
chased a large farm lying south of Otisville, and moved thereto. Stephen married Olive Jillett, of Otisville, daughter of a French Hu- guenot; Lewis Young Wiggins was a child of that union. When he was a lad of five his parents moved to a farm in the Town of New- burgh opposite the Middlehope M. E. Church, remaining there two years; during which time Lewis attended school at Balmville. Then returning with the family to the old farm near Otisville he attended school there till he was fifteen, and then taught the same school him- self for one term in the Summer. The following Winter he became a pupil again, but the next year he taught in the Town of Minisink, and subsequently in the Town of Wallkill, then again at Otisville and last a school near Bloomingburgh. In the meantime he had begun to read medicine in the evenings in the office of Dr. Cook, of Otis- ville, and in the Winter of 1843-44 he attended the lectures at the Al- bany Medical College. Being dependent solely upon his own endeav- ors for the means of acquiring his professional education, the follow- ing Summer found him again teaching school in the day time and studying medicine under Dr. Cook's oversight at night. The next Winter (1844-45) he entered the medical department of the University of the City of New York, and the next Summer taught school in that city and also studied under the preceptorship of Dr. Valentine Mott,
the leading surgeon of his time. The following Winter he again at- tended the medical college, and received his diploma in 1846, when he had arrived at the age of 21. Dr. Wiggins, however, continued his studies at the hospitals, and took up his permanent residence in New York. He opened an office at the corner of Wooster and Houston Streets, and had a drug store in connection therewith. While he continued in New York Dr. Wiggins' relations with Dr. Mott and his son-in-law, Dr. Van Buren, were very intimate, and most of their night calls were turned over to him. The instruction and encourage- ment he received from these eminent men were of priceless valne.
In 1847 Dr. Wiggins married Mary Cornell, of New York, the sis- ter of J. B. and W. W. Cornell, the well-known iron men. His resi- dence in Newburgh began in 1855, when he opened an office and drug- store in Colden Street. He immediately acquired a high standing in the profession, having great repnte for surgical ability. Dr. George Brown, who then had the largest practice in the city, employed him in one hundred and sixty cases to perform difficult operations in child- birth. During the forty-five years he has been a physician he has al- ways done the best he could for suffering humanity, and how many of the first accents of the living and the last farewells of the dying have fallen upon his ear! Between ten and eleven thousand infants have passed through his hands into this breathing world. He has been indefatigable in his devotion to the interests of his patients and skillful in the treatment of complicated diseases: sympathetic with the suffering, his aid has been given as willingly to the penniless as to those abundantly able to compensate him. For thirty-two years he was the physician to the Alms Honse, and an esteemed advisor of the Board; and since the completion of the West Shore Railroad he has been the resident surgeon. As a citizen he has large property interests and has concerned himself in whatever was for the munici- pal advantage, not holding aloof from his fellows nor confining him-
JOHN J. MITCHELL, M. D.
self exclusively to his professional field; his interest grasps every worthy topic of the day, and his cheery greetings and bright conver- sations are the characteristics of a man of simple manners and com- prehensive mind. His first wife having died, Dr. Wiggins married
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Mary E. Olmstead, of Delaware County, by whom he has two sons, Dr. Levi O. and Charles L., both of whom have adopted their father's profession.
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