USA > New York > Orange County > Newburgh > Newburgh; her institutions, industries and leading citizens, historical, descriptive and biographical > Part 22
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He came to Newburgh as teacher in the Academy February 14, 1853, remaining as assistant to William N. Reid till July, 1854.
Having already taken up the study of medicine in the hours not employed in the schoolroom, he relinquished his position as a teacher that he might give his whole time to his medical studies, which were thereafter pursued under the oversight of Dr. Gilbert C. Monell, who then resided at the corner of Montgomery and Third Streets. With this skillful practitioner he remained till he entered the Albany Medical College, from which institution he was graduated in December, 1856. Immediately after graduating he commenced the practice of his profession in this city.
JOHN H. VALENTINE.
He was mustered out of service in June, 1865. The following year he was ap- pointed Health Officer of the City of New-
He burgh, and served four years. He was Alms House physician in 1865 and 1866; physician to the Home for the Friendless, 1866-82, and a member of the staff of St. Luke's Hospital from its organization to the present year. In 1868 he was Assistant Cattle Commissioner to investigate the outbreak of Texas fever in Orange County, and Inspector of the State Board of Health to investigate the outbreak of supposed typhus fever during the construc- tion of the West Shore Railway.
In 1867 Dr. Montfort was one of the charter members of Ellis Post, G. A. R. and ever since has been one of the most helpful members. Seven times its Comman- der, he is now serving his fifth consecutive term. He has been a Trustee of the Glebe fourteen years. He has been a member of St. Paul's Church since its foundation; was a member of its first Board of Vestrymen, and continued a vestryman to about 1876. He was one of the founders of the Young Men's Christian Association, and a mem- ber for more than twenty years. He also holds a membership in the Orange County Medical Society. Not the least of the many trusts confided to him was the secretaryship of the Centennial Committee. This was not the trivial work of a day, but a prolonged labor of a national importance, discharged with singular ability.
But Dr. Montfort's best service to his community has been as Superintendent of the Schools. For nineteen years he has fill- ed a position demanding high mental abili- ties. His long retention therein, and the ad- PHOTO. BY ATKINSON. vancement which the schools have made nn- her his administration, tells the kind of a man he is. Dr. Montfort's first wife died in October, 1864. In 1870 he married Theodosia B. Crowell, of Newburgh.
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JAMES M. CRANE, A. M., Principal of the Newburgh Free Academy, is a descendant of Stephen Crane, who emigrated from Plymouth, England, and settled in New Jersey. His great-grand-
MARCO
PHOTO, BY ATKINSON.
R. V. K. MONTFORT, M. D .- Superintendent of Public Schools.
father, Josiah Crane (who was the grandson of Stephen) was a Cap- tain in the American Army of the Revolution, and about the year 1783 came from Morristown, N. J., and settled in the Town of Wall- kill, Orange County, N. Y.
James M. was born near Circleville. Orange County, N. Y. His father (Josiah 2nd) was a farmer and Justice of the Peace, and during his life spent much time in teaching. In early life Prof. Crane at- tended tbe district schools, and at the age of seventeen began to teach school. He took a collegiate preparatory course under a private tutor and also in a private school in Circleville, but afterwards decided to take a Normal course. Entering the State Normal School at Albany in September, 1862, he was graduated in July of the following year. Since then he has been teaching in the public schools of the State continuously. He was Principal of the Roslyn, L. I., public school part of a year, leaving there to take a similar position at Walden, N. Y. After three years' service at that place he was appointed Princi- pal of Newburgh Grammar School No. 4, in September, 1866. Two years later he was transferred to the Academy and appointed assistant Principal.
For eighteen years he was the instructor of the graduating class. His ability and thoroughness as a teacher of the higher branches earned not only the entire confidence of the Trustees, but in a marked degree the respect and good-will of his students. When Prof. Doughty retired in 1886, Mr. Crane succeeded him, and as Principal of the Newburgh Academy he fills a most honorable and responsible position.
In 1885 Professor Crane was elected by the Republican party a member of the Board of Water Commissioners, to fill a vacancy, and in 1886 he was re-elected for the full term of five years. For three years he was President of the Board. He is a Trustee of Calvary Church, and a Trustee of Newburgh Lodge, F. & A. M. His hon- orary degree was conferred by Union College in 1890.
WILLIAM H. KELLY, Principal of Grammar School No. 1, is a native of Glens Falls, N. Y., where he attended the common schools, and afterward received an academical training. At the early age of seventeen he adopted the profession which he has fol- lowed with marked success all his life. He first taught school at Lake George. It was in 1859 that he came to Newburgh, and in 1860 he was teaching the New Windsor school. He was appointed to his present position in September, 1861. Since then the school edifice has been enlarged three times; the number of pupils has increased from two hundred to nearly eight hundred; then there were but four teachers, now there are seventeen.
Aside from the duties of his profession, Mr. Kelly has been related to several things worthy of note. In early manhood he was an ex- pert in the game of baseball, and on coming to Newburgh his skill as a pitcher was first enlisted for the Newburgh club, and next for the famous Hudson Rivers. He continued in that pleasant relation during the subsequent existence of the club, participating in nearly all its great games. He has been a useful man in Trinity Church. For thirty years he has been the Secretary of its Sabbath School, for many years the leader of the church choir and of the singing in the Sabbath School ; fourteen years a Steward, and now a Trustee. In his political relations he has been a Republican. He was an Assessor nine years, an Alderman four years, and for one year President of the Common Council. He has been a Mason since 1863, and a member of Leonard Steamer Company since 1878.
CHARLES E. SNYDER, LL. B., Principal of Grammar School No. 2, was born in Constableville, Lewis County, N. Y., January 10, 1836. His father, John Snyder, was a descendant of an old Dutch family of Columbia County, N. Y., and was born near Saratoga
PHOTO. BY ATKINSON.
JAMES M. CRANE, A. M .- Principal of Newburgh Academy.
Springs. His mother, Eleanor E. Roberts, was born in Wales, and came to this country when about ten years of age, with her parents, who were among the first Welsh settlers of Lewis County.
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Mr. Snyder attended the village schools till 1850, when his parents removed to the vicinity of Rome, Oneida County, N. Y. There he attended school only in Winter, and in the Summer worked on the farm. Commencing in the Winter of 1852-53, he taught different country schools for several Winters, and work- ed on the farm in Summer seasons. In the Fall of 1854 he attended at the Oneida Conference Seminary at Caze- novia, N. Y. For three years he taught in the township of Wood- bridge, N. J.
WILLIAM H. KELLY-Principal Grammar School No. I.
In March, 1858, he entered the State Normal School at Albany, completed the course, and was graduated in Feb- ruary, 1859. After teaching awhile longer, he began the study of law in the office of Beach & Bailey, at Rome, and attended lectures at the Albany Law School. He re- ceived the degree of LL. B. from the University of Albany, and was admitted to the bar in 1862. Meanwhile war had begun, and within a few weeks af- ter leaving the law school, Mr. Snyder vol- unteered as a private in Company C, 50th N. Y. V. Engineers. He served with that company and regiment in the Army of the Potomac to the end of the war, aud returned home in July, 1865, with the rank of First Lieutenant.
Choosing the profession of teaching rather than law, Mr. Snyder took charge of a school at Walden in 1866, and remained there till 1868, when he became principal of Grammar School No. 4, in Clinton Street, Newburgh. On the completion of the large school building in Grand Street, he was transferred thereto as principal, where he has continued ever since. The school has nearly seven hundred pupils and sixteen female teachers, He has been prominently identified with the Orange County Teach- ers' Association, and has been Vice-Presi- dent of the New York State Teachers' As- sociation.
Mr. Snyder has been an Elder of the First Presbyterian Church since 1874, and has also been Superintendent of its Sabbath School. He has been a Director of the Young Men's Christian Association since its organization, and was President one year. He was appointed a Civil Service Commissioner by Mayor Odell when the Board was organized, and still holds that position. Mr. Snyder was married at Rome, N. Y., in 1866, to Miss Hannah R. Wright, a descendant of one of the first settlers of the part of that town known as Wright's Settlement. They have two sons and two daughters.
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PHOTO, BY ATKINSON.
CHARLES E. SNYDER, LL, B .- Prin. Gram. School No. 2.
E. Y. CLARKE, Principal of Grammar School No. 3, was born June 17, 1829, at Saybrook, Conn. His father was Captain Natha- niel Clarke, who for many years was engaged in ship-building and in the transporta- tion of passengers and freight be- tween New York, Charleston and Havana. After- ward he retired from this business and purchased a farm, where the greater part of Mr. Clarke's early life was spent. He attended the vil- lage school Win- ters, and later fin- ished his studies at the Saybrook Academy, a well conducted institu- tion.
Mr. Clarke com- menced teaching in November, 1849, at PHOTO. BY MAPES. Westbrook, Conn. E. Y. CLARKE-Principal of Grammar School No. 3. After teaching four years in that place he was called to take charge of the high school at Clinton, Conn., now known as the Morgan School, a position which he filled for six years. He then received a call to the Academy
at Newburgh, entering upon his duties as teacher and principal December 22, 1858.
The Academy pupils then numbered about one hundred and fifty, with two male and two female teachers. The principal was required, besides teaching, to take charge of the public library, which was then open only on Saturdays.
The first of the exhibitions given by the pupils of the Newburgh Free Academy, which have since become so popular, was held under his management at the Opera House, April 21, 1865. It was a decided suc- cess, both from a literary and financial point of view. The money realized from the eu- tertainment, which was about two hundred dollars, was used in purchasing chemicals and philosophical instruments, and formed the nucleus of the extensive apparatus now in use at the present Academy.
October 2, 1868, he left the Free Academy to take charge of Grammar School No. 3, where as principal he still remains. As principal of this school Mr. Clarke has un- der his supervision and direction sixteen teachers and nearly five hundred scholars.
CHARLES ESTABROOK, Librarian, was born in Rochester, N. Y., October 18, 1823. He came with his parents from Hyde Park, N. Y., to Newburgh in 1835. About 1840 he was a teacher in the New- burgh High School, and followed that vocation two or three years. Then for twelve years he was bookkeeper and cashier of the freighting establishment of Wardrop, Smith & Co., and afterward
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for about fifteen years he was in the book and stationery business. In 1877, upon the erection of the present handsome Library Build- ing, Mr. Estabrook was appointed Librarian, a position for which he is eminently qualified by both education and experience. Previously the library had been of small proportions, and open only a few hours in the day. Mr. Estabrook at once reorganized and made many im- provements in the system of library work. In 1864-67 he was a mem- ber of the Board of Education and Chairman of the Teachers' Com- mittee.
He united with the Second Presbyterian Church, of Newburgh, in 1842, and after its disbandment in 1852, he with others of its members joined its successor, the Second Methodist (now St. John's) Church. He was its first organist and for more than twenty-five years a mem- ber of the Board of Trustees. He was the first Secretary of its Sun- day School, and for many years its Superintendent. For twenty-five years past he has been a local preacher. Mr. Estabrook was initiated into the mysteries of Free Masonry in Newburgh Lodge, No. 309; in 1854 he was a charter member of Hudson River Lodge, No. 607, and its first Treasurer. Since 1864 he has heen a Royal Arch Mason-a member of Highland Chap- ter, No. 52; and for nine years High Priest. In 1865 he was knighted in Hudson River Commandery, No. 35, Knights Tem- plar, and has been Prelate in that Commandery for about twenty years.
He has been a member of the Board of Counsel- lors of the Home for the Friendless since 1865, and is Secretary of that Board. He has been an active member of the PHOTO. BY MAPES Historical Society CHARLES ESTABROOK-Librarian at Newburgh Library. of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands and of the Newburgh Cemetery Association since their organization, and is the Secretary of both. He has always been a prominent tem- perance man of the total abstinence stamp, and has filled the highest office in nearly all the local temperance societies of the past.
But the ennmeration of his varions connections, and of the posts of honor he has filled, can only suggest the nseful and busy life he has led. As befits one in his position, Mr. Estabrook is a man of varied learning and accomplishments, and withal a man of affairs, of keen perception and fair-minded. He is particularly well informed in local history, and has written many graceful historical articles for publica- tion. He married Miss Susan E. Marshall in 1848, and has three chil- dren living-Frank E., a resident architect, Lillie O., assistant librar- ian, and Hattie C., wife of Clarence W. Deyo. Mrs. Estabrook died September 27, 1890.
JOHN W. DOUGHTY was born Angust 12, 1817, in the Town of Clinton, Dutchess County, N. Y., of English ancestry long resident in this country. The family name on the maternal side was Arm- strong. The father went to New Orleans while John was an infant, and not succeeding in business, joined a military company then form- ing for the purpose of occupying the territory of Florida. In this ex-
pedition he lost his life. During this time the boy was at his grand- father Armstrong's with his mother, to whose care and kindness, he says, any good qualities found in him are mainly due.
Commencing school at six he was up to his thirteenth year rarely absent. The next ten years, depending upon himself, he worked on the farm and in the shop, or attended snch institutions of learning as opportunity offered and his earnings might permit. He then taught some three or four years, occupying his spare time in the study of Greek and Latin.
In 1844 he married Miss Harriet M. Hale, daughter of the late Major Lewis Hale, of Glasco, Ulster Connty, N. Y., and at Hyde Park opened a boarding school, which enterprise, financially, was not a success. In 1848 he accepted a position of associate instructor in the Chelsea Collegiate Institute (N. Y.), of which John H. Brown, A. B., was principal and proprietor. He remained in this institution four- teen years. During the last six years of this period he also taught geometry and chemistry in a French and Spanish school in Hoboken, N. J., of which Mons. L. De Grandval was principal and proprietor. Although never practicing, he com- pleted a course of medical studies, receiving in 1852 a diploma from the New York State Medical Society.
In the Fall of 1862 he obtained the position of teacher of Greek and Latin in the Newburgh Acade- my. The institu- tion was then of far less importance than now. It was officially termed the " senior de- partment " of the common schools and only by court- esy an "academy." In 1866 Prof. Doughty was ap- pointed principal. He recommended wise changes in the JOHN W. DOUGHTY. curriculum, advo- cated a more strict adherence to the graded system of classifi- cation of the pupils, and recommended that examinations, hith- erto conducted orally, might be made iu writing. He also earnestly requested the superintendent and board of officers to allow commencement exercises at the close of the year, and confer diplomas upon such pupils as might complete the course of studies prescribed. All the above recommendations were of- ficially adopted, and the institution not only escaped the danger of obliteration that had been threatened, but rose rapidly in public estimation, and eventually acquired a high degree of res- pect as its nsefulness increased under Prof. Doughty's wise adminis- tration. The first commencement occurred in 1871, since which time the essential features in the academic course have, with few modifi- cations, remained as then established. He also introduced element- ary exercises in field trigonometry and leveling, the use of the tele- scope in astronomy and transit observations for sidereal and mean time. In his intellectual pursuits he found time also to enter upon different inventive lines of activity. One result of this was a clock for the transit building, on the Academy grounds, indicating both sidereal and mean time, and showing the culmination of the principal stars at any time of day or night. For twenty years he remained at the head of the institution, steadily improving its standard, widening
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its influence, increasing its popularity, and retaining the love of his pupils, and the unqualified esteem of the community for his learning and noble characteristics as a man. He resigned in 1886, when the old academy was demolished.
With his wife he continues to reside in Newburgh. Two of their children are dead. Mary H., the eldest, died in this city; William H. in the City of New York. Sarah C., now Mrs. Augustus Senior, re- sides in Newburgh, and Wesley H., the youngest, married Miss Mary T. DuBois, daughter of the late Broadhead Du Bois, and resides in Nebraska City, Neb. Prof. Doughty, now in his seventy-fourth year, is not engaged in any special work, but says the day is barely long enough for the lesson which Nature and a kind Providence continually suggest, and the night sometimes too short for the contemplation of its starry dome.
HUGH S. BANKS was born in the Town of South Salem (now Lewisborough) Westchester County, on the banks of Croton river, near the head of the lake which supplies the City of New York with water. His par- ents were both na- tives of Westches- ter County, and their ancestors were among the earliest settlers of the country. He was sent to the common district school at an early age, where he was taught the ele- mentary branches of education, and at the age of seven years he could read quite fluently, and at eight had read the Bible entirely through. After twelve years of age he attended school only in the Winter.
At the age of eighteen he was employed to teach PHOTO BY ATKINSON. a district school, HUGH S. BANKS. which he continued for nine months. During this time he procured Day's algebra, which he mas- tered by himself and reviewed, solving every question propos- ed with the exception of five or six in the application of al- gebra to geometry. He then attended a select school for two months under the care of an excellent classical teacher, where he gained such a knowledge of the principles of the Latin language that he was enabled to pursue the study of it by himself. After this he continued the occupation of teaching in district schools for four or five years, with the exception of four months as a student in the academy at Bedford, N. Y., where in addition to Latin he studied geometry and elementary Greek.
All the spare time he had out of school he spent in study, often sitting up late at night, until he had read not only the studies required for admission to college, but the whole course of classical studies pur- sued in our best colleges. He was advised by a valued friend who knew his requirements to apply for admission to an advanced class in Union College, which he accordingly did. He was admitted upon examination without any condition to the senior class.
The class, numbering 82, was graduated in 1829. Ten or eleven were marked of the highest grade possible, and among them was Mr. Banks.
In the Fall and Winter after his graduation he was employed as an assistant in the academy at North Salem. In the Spring of 1830 he was offered the superintendency of the academy at Bedford, where he continued five and one-half years.
In 1832 he was married to Miss Rosilia H. Bailey, daughter of Dr. Roland Bailey, of Putnam County, with whom he lived for 57 years, she dying in November, 1889.
In the Autumn (1832) he was induced to take charge of the acad- emy in Dover, Dutchess County, a new institution, where he continued two years; but not being fully satisfied with his situation there he re- moved to Ridgefield, Connecticut, in the Fall of 1837, where he estab- lished a private classical and English school. After nine years of con- stant and arduous labor with a large patronage, his throat began to trouble him with pain and hoarseness, and threatened permanent bron- chial affection. He sought a change of occupation. He procured an interest in the book-selling business with the late Rev. D. L. Proudfit, of Newburgh, in the Fall of 1846. This continued for a year, when Mr. Proudfit wished to retire, and sold out his interest to Mr. Banks. He continued the business for thirteen years, keeping a very good collection of classical, scientific, miscellaneous and school books, also stationery and some fancy articles belonging to the trade.
At the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861 the business of book- selling was very much curtailed. Besides, the close confinement in a store not well ventilated brought on frequent attacks of vertigo, so much so that one day in crossing the street he suddenly fell prostrate. These frequent attacks were alarming, as they betokened apoplexy. He therefore disposed of his business and resumed that of teaching, at first by giving private lessons in several families, also having a room where he heard the lessons of some pupils in the morning.
In the course of his teaching he can count over 70 young gentle- men and four young ladies whom he has aided in their preparatory education for admission into different colleges, many of whom are oc- cupying honorable positions in the various learned professions.
In the course of his life he has kept up and added to the studies of his younger days. He also is able to read quite readily French and Spanish. The latter he has learned since he was eighty years of age.
In religion Mr. Banks, both by education and from principle, is a Presbyterian, and when he came to Newburgh he and his family con- nected themselves with the Presbyterian Church under the charge of the venerable Dr. Johnston. After Dr. Johnston's death, and upon the organization of Calvary Presbyterian Church in 1856, in which he took a great interest, he united with others who left the old church. He was soon after elected an elder of that church, which office he holds to the present time.
In politics he learned his first principles from the histories and writings of Washington, Hamilton, Jay and Madison, who in former days were called Federalists, and in later times, with the small changes under Clay and Webster, were denominated Whigs. In still later times, upon the breaking up of the two great political parties, that part of the Whigs denominated " Woolly Heads" and that of the Democrats called "Barnburners" united to form a free-soil party in order to oppose the continued aggressions of the pro-slavery advocates against the opponents of the extension of slavery upon the free soil of the North. Mr. Banks was among the first to unite with the party, afterwards assuming the name of Republicans. He with four others (one of whom was Dr. W. A. Royce, of this city), in answer to a call for a meeting, formed the first Republican club in 1856, in the cam- paign when General Fremont was nominated for President. Of this club Mr. Banks was chosen president, and so served through the cam- paign. Upon the announcement of this club it is difficult to tell who were the most ready and earnest to unite with it, whether " Woolly Heads " or " Barn-burners," until the number became so large that no room in the village could hold them, so a large log cabin was erected in Front Street for their accommodation. The result was that a large majority was given Fremont. Since that time Mr. Banks, believing in the principles of the Republican party, has voted with it on the great questions of the day, but if any candidate nominated is deemed unworthy by him for the office, he leaves his name off his ticket.
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