USA > New York > Orange County > Newburgh > Newburgh; her institutions, industries and leading citizens, historical, descriptive and biographical > Part 41
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NATHAN H. RICHARDSON was born in Litchfield, N. H., November 2, 1816, and since his thirtieth year has spent most of his business life in rail- roading. He lived on the homestead farm until about the time the Con- cord Railroad was opened from Man- chester to Concord, N. H .. when he went to Manches- ter, in the employ of the Concord Railroad Company. He remained in Manchester about three years, leav- ing there to go to Boston in the ser- vice of the Boston and Lowell Rail- road Company, in whose employ he continued about twenty years. Mr. Richardson came to Newburgh in 1867, and was en- PHOTO. BY WHIDDIT. gaged by the Erie Railroad Company NATHAN H. RICHARDSON. as their agent in this city, which position he held continuously for about fifteen years, except an interval of nearly two years, when he
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was Master of Transportation on the Dutchess and Columbia Rail- road. He left the employ of the Erie Railroad Company to take the local agency of the United States Express Company, where he re- mained about five years-until the company discontinued its New- burgh office. Since that time he has not been actively engaged in business, although he has an interest in the Weston Transfer Com- pany, and fills therein the duties of Treasurer. Mr. Richardson has been twice married. His first wife was Ann Maria Parker, of Bed- ford, N. H., by whom he had three daughters, all of whom are deceased. His second wife was Mrs. Mary Ann Ayer, of Woburn, Mass., who is living. He has never held public office, although he takes an interest in all that pertains to the welfare and advancement of Newburgh.
CHARLES H. DOUGHTY was born in the Town of Fishkill, of Quaker descent, in 1819. He is a descendant of one of the nine partners who owned a large tract of land on which the village of Poughkeepsie was built. At the age of fifteen he came to Newburgh and was appren- ticed to the firm of Phillips, Lomas & Randall to learn the tinsmith trade. In 1840, having served his time, he returned to Fishkill-on- Hudson, and started a tinware and stove business, which he con- tinued three years.
In 1844 Mr. Doughty came to Newburgh and formed a partner- ship with John Gordon (John Gordon & Co.) at No. 112 Water Street. The manufacturing of tinware was then a very important industry in Newburgh. Nearly all the work was done by hand. The firm soon after engaged in the California business. Mr. Gordon went there and opened a branch house, and stoves, tinware, etc., were shipped to him from Newburgh in large quantities, sometimes twenty thousand dollars' worth in a single shipment. Many bushels of min-
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PHOTO. BY WHIDDIT.
CHARLES H. DOUGHTY.
ers' washing-pans were made in a single day, and great numbers of condensed-milk cans for a local condensery. The partnership con- tinued twelve years, and was dissolved, Mr. Doughty taking the Newburgh end and Mr. Gordon the California end of the business. Mr. Doughty has continued at the old stand ever since, and car-
ries on a large business. In 1855 he was a member of the Board of Village Trustees, and he is now a member of the Board of Health. He was for sixteen years secretary of the Board of Trustees of Trin- ity M. E. Church. He was one of fifteen who were first initiated into Odd Fellowship in Newburgh; that was on the opening night of Highland Lodge. He was one of the charter members of Evergreen Lodge, of Fishkill. He quickly went through the chairs, and was appointed Deputy Degree Master for the district. He was made a Mason twenty-five years ago in Newburgh Lodge.
JOHN GALT was born at New Haven, Ct., October 28, 1839. He lived in Poughkeepsie from 1846 to 1857, when he came to Newburgh and was apprenticed to John R. Wiltsie to learn the trade of harness-
PHOTO. BY WHIDDIT.
JOHN GALT.
making. He served with Mr. Wiltsie till he was 21, and then, giving up harness-making, went to learn the slating trade. In 1861 he bought out W. J. Roberts and went into business for himself in New- burgh. Early in his business career Mr. Galt exhibited that rare business sagacity which has ever since characterized him; his trade in- creased rapidly and extended through a large section of the country. In 1864 he was the first to begin naming the price of slate at any rail- road station in the country, and contracted for two-thirds of all the slate produced in the United States. Having previously opened a branch in Poughkeepsie, in 1864 he established a branch in New York City and another in Buffalo at the same time. Since 1866 New York has been his principal headquarters; the Buffalo branch was continued till 1875. In 1867 Mr. Galt was also President of the New York and Pennsylvania Bluestone Company. In 1890 a branch house was opened at Seattle, Washington, under the management of his sons, Clarence H. and J. Randolph Galt. Mr. Galt handles about one-third of all the slate used in the United States, and exports to Australia, the West Indies and South Africa. From 1876 to 1880 he made large exports to England, notwithstanding that it seemed like "sending coal to Newcastle." Mr. Galt has always continued his
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residence in Newburgh, occupying a handsome dwelling in Liberty Street which he built in 1865. He has long been an efficient member
dlehope. She was one of the fastest sloops on the North and East Rivers. On July 28, 1852, he started for Port Richmond, Staten
RESIDENCE OF JOHN GALT-279 Liberty Street.
RESIDENCE OF CAPTAIN AMBROSE S. BRADLEY-98 Grand Street.
of Union Church, and since 1871 a Trustee. He married Eveline Rob- erts at Bethel, Pa., and has four sons and three daughters.
CAPTAIN AMBROSE S. BRADLEY was born in New York City, November 19, 1831; the family removing to Middlehope, Orange County, when he was three years of age, and in 1838 they moved to Newburgh. His opportunities for receiving an education were very limited; therefore when he left school, as a pupil, a common-school education was all he had acquired. Thrown upon his own resources at the early age of eleven years, he en- gaged on the sloop Arsenal. In 1842 and 1843 he was with Captain Bullis on the sloop Orbit, then running from Newburgh to Albany. A year later he went with Captain Charles June on the sloop Pilot. In the Spring of 1847 he was engaged as mate on the sloop Benjamin Frank- lin, owned by Armstrong Brothers, of New Haven, Conn., and running from that place to Albany. In 1849 was captain on the sloop Anna Maria, owned by Silas D. Gardner, of Mid-
PHOTO. BY MAPES,
CAPTAIN AMBROSE S. BRADLEY.
Island, to purchase the schooner Nathan Barrett, and was one of the many passengers aboard the ill- fated steamer Henry Clay when she burned at Riverdale. The same year he leased the Charlton Street pier at New York, and began sell- ing brick, furnishing the brick for the wings of the Capitol at Washing- ton, D. C. In 1855, having an op- portunity to sell his lease, he did so and came to Newburgh and estab- lished a freighting business between Newburgh, Albany and Troy. In IS71 he took as partner Joseph C. Irvin, and the firm was known as Bradley & Irvin until 1874, when Jeremiah Horton was made a mem- ber, but after one year the firm dis- solved. Walter Brett, of Fishkill Landing, joined with Captain Brad- ley and they continued the business for three years, at the same place, Front Street near Fifth. Since then Captain Bradley has been in the towing business, about New York Harbor. He was married Septem- ber 16, 1858, to Emma Turner, daughter of Diah Turner, of Saug- erties, Ulster County, and has four children, two sons and two daughters.
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MAJOR JAMES CLARENCE POST, U. S. A., son of Alfred Post, was born in Newburgh. In 1861 he was appointed a cadet at West Point by the Hon. C. H. Van Wyck, afterwards United States Senator from Nebraska, who at this time represented in Congress the district which included Orange County. After graduation in 1865, Major Post was assigned to the Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., and has since remained connected with that branch of the service, passing through all the grades to his present rank.
He has from time to time occupied numerous positions of trust and responsibility in various portions of the country, some of which includ- ed the reconstruction of the fortifications and the improvement of har- bors and rivers on the South Atlantic coast, notably at Charleston, S. C., and Savannah, Ga. Also the improvement of rivers and the con- sideration of canal projects in the West.
About two years ago he was sent abroad by the Government as a member of a special commission to make a study of and report upon certain engineering works in England and France which contain cer- tain principles it was thought might be advantageously applied to some of our own public works. When this duty was completed he
MAJOR JAMES CLARENCE POST.
was retained as military attaché to the United States Legation in London, where he is at present engaged in studying the military sys- tem of England and the manufacture of military stores.
DR. L. S. STRAW is a native of Hopkinton, New Hampshire. He commenced his professional life with his father at Bangor, Maine, in 1841. In 1849 he went to California, remaining five years, and then returning to Bangor. In 1857 he came to Newburgh, joining in a limited partnership with Dr. William A. Royce for five years, since which time he has been attending to his friends professionally on the corner of Water and Second Streets. He has always taken a great interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of his profession, and was three times elected President of the New York State Dental So- ciety.
The Straw family was an old one in New Hampshire. Dr Straw's paternal grandfather was a soldier of the Revolution. His father was
a practicing physician, who, during the Rebellion, raised two com- panies of Union soldiers and went to the war as captain of one of
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DR. L. S. STRAW.
them. He subsequently resigned the captaincy to discharge the duties of army surgeon. The closing years of his life were passed in New- burgh.
Dr. L. S. Straw fills a prominent place in the social life of the city, and is a gentleman of varied accomplishments. He has passed through all the Masonic orders in Newburgh, was Master of New- burgh Lodge for three years, and District Deputy Grand Master two years. He is a Director of the Newburgh City Club. He married in 1864 with Mary Phalen, neice of Dr. A. B. Harvey, of Poughkeep- sie, and has one daughter.
LEANDER CLARK is a brother of the late Edson H. Clark, and was born at Bloomingburgh, Sullivan County, N. Y., May 13, 1828. His parents were Lucas and Phila Clark, of East Hampton, Mass. On his paternal side he traces his ancestry back to the Pilgrims; Abram Clark, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was his great-uncle. When Leander was two months old his father died, and at the age of seven he was committed to the care of rela- tives at East Hampton to work on a farm. After two years he re- turned to Sullivan County and was a tow-boy on the Delaware & Hudson Canal for one season. In 1839 he came to Newburgh and worked for William Scott, a cabinet maker in Colden Street, remain- ing with him two years. In 1841 he went to Buffalo and learned the trade of cabinet and piano forte making. In 1847 he went to Warren, Pa., and worked at his trade, and also rafting and running lumber to Pittsburgh and down the Ohio River. The following year, when he was twenty years old, he married Mary J. Olney, a daugh- ter of Stephen and Nancy Olney, of Warren, Pa., whose progenitors came to America in 1633. Captain Clark returned to Newburgh in 1850, and worked in Peter Stanbrough's piano factory at the junction of Colden and Water Streets. In 1853 he was appointed Newburgh's first police officer, and the only one in the village. He contin-
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ued in that office till August, 1862, when, with the assistance of John Stanbrongh and Isaac Martin, he raised Company I of the 124th Regiment, New York Volunteers, and went to the front as its captain. In October of the same year he was appointed Provost Marshal of Whip- ple's division of the Third Army Corps, and served in that capacity until a few days before the battle of Fredericksburgh. He was with the regiment in that battle and at Chancellorsville, and was discharged from the service on the surgeon's certificate of disability May 13, 1863. On his return to Newburgh he bought the livery business of James Roe in the rear of the Orange Hotel. In February, 1865, he engaged with Edwin Thorne, who had recently retired from business in New York with a large fortune, and desired to establish a stnd farm. Acting as his agent Captain Clark purchased the fine farm of 168 acres in the western part of the city, lying between the South Plank Road and the Turn- pike, paying $16,000 therefor. They erected extensive buildings and went into the business of raising trotting horses on a large scale. Many fa- mons horses were raised there, and the farm acquired a national repnta- EM-N-CO. tion. Captain Clark was the super- intendent, and handled the reins over such horses as Hamlet, Thorn- dale, Marksman, Edwin Thorne, Wild Oats, Daisy Dale and Enigma. When the farm was sold and the stock removed to Dutchess Connty,
RESIDENCE OF DR. L. S. STRAW-197 Grand Street.
publican party. Before its organization he was an old line Whig, and afterwards voted the Native American ticket during the short exist-
ence of that party. For four years he represented the Second Ward in the Common Council, and was President of the Council during his last year in the Board. He is a member of Ellis Post, G. A. R., and a Past Commander. He was one of the organizers of the Veterans' Rights Union in 1882. He also holds a membership in the Third Corps Union. He is one of the old- est Free Masons in the city, having been initiated in Newburgh Lodge in 1857, with which, and with High- land Chapter, he still holds connec- tion.
WILLIAM L. THEALL was born in 1843 in Newburgh, in the old Powelton-farm house. His par- ents came here in 1835 from West- chester County, where their ances- tors had long resided. His mother was a Dean, and a relative of the celebrated Judge Dean. His father, Thomas C., who was a carman, was accidentally killed when William was only two years old. He was driving through Water Street, when a wheel of his vehicle strnck an ob- struction in the roadway, and Mr. Theall was thrown ont headlong upon the pavement and his neck broken. The widow was left with the care of six children, one of whom was younger than William L. The older children went to work
Captain Clark went there with Mr. Thorne and re- mained for six months till the es- tablishment was in good running or- der. He then re- signed the position. Returning to New- burgh he built the large livery stable on the corner of Chambers and Campbell Streets, and has continned in the business ever since, except for a few years when he lived on his fruit farm at Middlehope. In 1883 he built his present establish- ment at Nos. 65, 67 and 69 Chambers Street. Captain PHOTO. BY ATKINSON. Clark is considered LEANDER CLARK. one of the foremost horsemen of Orange County, and an important part of his business is break- ing and training young trotters. He was once the owner of Mountain Boy. Captain Clark's political relations are with the Re-
in the cotton fac- tory and contribnt- ed to the support of the family, and when William was only seven or eight years old his moth- er was likewise obliged to send him to work in the factory. The little fellow worked there manfully for several years, each day commencing his labor at five o'clock in the morning. His mother married John Sneed in 1855, and the boy was then given an op- portunity of acquir- ing an education. He attended the Glebe school for a short time and PHOTO, BY ATKINSON. afterwards the Academy, of which WILLIAM L. THEALL. William N. Reid was then Principal. After working in Robert Lawson's grocery store (at No. 42 Water Street) for a year, he entered the employ of John W. Boyd to learn the trade of a carpenter. For one year he
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worked for forty-nine cents a day, and then asked his employer for seventy-five cents a day for the second year. The request being refused, he took the few tools he owned, went to Fish- kill Landing and engaged with a carpenter named Wilcox. His new employer was pleased with his workmanship, and after Mr. Theall had worked for him only two weeks gave him the full wages of a journeyman, then fourteen shillings per day. He worked there till 1861, when he enlisted in Company B of the Third New York Volunteers, which had left Newburgh the previous year, and served till discharged at the close of the war, July, 1865. He was one of five brothers who fought in the war, one being on the Confederate side. This brother was living in Savannah, Ga., when the war broke out, and it is an in- teresting fact that when, in 1862, Norfolk, Va., was taken by the Union forces, this brother retreated from the fortifications with the rebel column, and two of his brothers, William L. and Joseph D., en- tered with the victorious Union soldiers. For ten years following the war Mr. Theall worked at his trade for William Hilton, and in 1876, com- menced business for himself as a builder. He has erected altogether thirty-seven dwellings, most of them for himself as speculations. He has been prominent in the real estate operations on Washington Heights, where he has thus far erected eleven substantial dwellings, all on his own account. In 1869 he married Miss Loretta Purdy, daughter of John S. Purdy, of Balmville, and has had eleven children, seven of whom are now living.
BEVERLY K. JOHNSTON was born in Shawangunk, Ulster County, June 21, 1818. The family was identified with the early set- tlement and pioneer life of that section, both his father and grand-
BEVERLY K. JOHNSTON.
father being residents of the locality. His early life was passed in his native town. He engaged in various kinds of business during his minority, and on March 15, 1840, he came to the Town of Newburgh and entered the employ of John E. Goetchius in the hotel business at East Coldenham. He remained there four years, then accompanied Mr. Goetchius to Montgomery for one year; but, returning, leased the
property at East Coldenham and commenced keeping hotel on his own account. In 1847 he became the owner of the place, and to the time of his death, Angust 18, 1891, remained at the head of the es- tablishment. For nearly fifty years "Bev. Johnston's" has been known far and wide as a well-appointed, well-regulated and well- kept hostelry, and is a popular place of resort Summer and Winter. While Mr. Johnston confined himself closely to his business, his affa- ble manners, strict integrity, and generous hospitality made him one of the most popular men in his section, and recommended him for ap- pointment to several positions of honor and trust. He was formerly
PHOTO. BY ATKINSON.
JOSEPH VAN CLEFT.
an old line Whig, but afterwards became a Democrat, and was post- master at East Coldenham under all administrations and with brief exceptions from 1845 till his death. He was one of the commission- ers for appraising the land damages caused by building the Short Cut Railway, and for laying out the Boulevard in the Town of Corn- wall. He was the candidate of the Democratic party for Sheriff in 1870, but was defeated by a small majority. For the past thirty years he was one of the Directors of the Newburgh and Cochecton Turn- pike Company, and for many years President of the Newburgh and New Windsor Horse Thief Detecting Society. He married, in 1846, Elvira S., danghter of Alexander W. and Elizabeth (Moore) Beatty, of New Windsor, an old family in Orange County, and had two sons and two daughters: William J., Mrs. William Patton and Mrs. James S. Burnett, and John A. Johnston, who died a few weeks before his father.
JOSEPH VAN CLEFT was born in the Town of New Windsor, near Bethlehem Church, in 1836. The Van Cleft family were early settlers in the Minisink Valley. His mother was a member of the Cooper family of Blooming Grove. He remained on his father's farm until 1852, when he entered the employ of a hardware merchant at Middletown. From 1855 to 1860 he was employed in the hardware trade in New York City, and for the two years following he pursued the same business in Kansas City, Mo.
In 1863 Mr. Van Cleft formed a partnership with J. C. S. Harden- burgh in the hardware and agricultural implement business at No.
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99 Water Street, Newburgh, and three years later purchased Mr. Hardenburgh's interest. A few years later he purchased and re- moved to the large building No. 102 Water Street, and subsequently purchased the two large buildings in the rear, Nos. 73, 75, 77 and 79 Front Street. The Water Street building is connected with the Front Street building by a covered passage under the West Shore Railroad. Mr. Van Cleft occupied these extensive premises until 1888, when he leased them to the New York Furniture Company, who at once erected a large and handsome brick store on the Water Street side, in place of the old frame building. Mr. Van Cleft then moved to his present large warehouse at No. 79 Broadway, since which time his brother, Lewis A., has become a partner in the business.
Mr. Van Cleft has a wide acquaintance throughout Orange and adjoining counties, through which his trade extends. He has long been one of the most valuable members of the Orange County Agri- cultural Society. He is a member of the board of directors, and for a number of years has been superintendent of the mechanical de- partment at the annual fairs. For a short time he filled by appoint- ment a vacancy in the Common Council, the only public, political or municipal office he has ever held. He was one of the original mem- bers of the Board of Trade, and for a number of years he was a member of the consistory of the American Reformed Church.
Mr. Van Cleft married, in 1869, Edwina Storey Smith, youngest daughter of O. M. Smith, of Newburgh, and granddaughter of Judge Storey. She died in April, 1891, leaving the following children: Jose- phine Storey, Edwin L., Augusta M., Alberta and Barclay,
JEREMIAH D. MABIE was born at Piermont, Rockland County, N. Y., in 1840, and moved to Ithaca, N. Y., in 1854. He came to Newburgh in 1859, and was an apprentice to John Corwin, in the tinsmith trade. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he was a mem- ber of the Parmen- ter Rifles, a local military organiza- tion. It is said of Mr. Mabie that on the morning when President Lincoln's first call for volun- teers was publish- ed he was at work at his bench, with his hammer raised to strike a rivet, when the Presi- dent's proclama- tion was placed be- fore him. He laid down his hammer without striking the rivet, put on his coat and start- ed ont, endeavor- ing to get his mili- tia company to vol- unteer. Failing in this, he aided Stephen W. Fuller- PHOTO. BY WHIDDIT. ton to form Com- JEREMIAH D. MABIE. pany B of the Third New York Volunteers, the first company raised in Newburgh for the war. He was the first sergeant of the company, and afterward was promoted to second lieutenant, and then to first lieutenant of the company; and for meritorious service he was promoted to the cap- taincy of Company F in the same regiment. Captain Mabie par- ticipated in the siege of Charleston, and the attack on Drury's Bluff. He was on board the flagship Minnesota during the fight between the Monitor and the Merrimac. He was wounded under
Grant at Cold Harbor in June, 1864, and resigned in October of that year. Returning to Newburgh, he commenced business in the stove and tinware trade. Several years ago he succeeded John Lo- mas, at No. 46 Water Street, who was in the same line for fifty years. Mr. Mabie is one of the charter members of Ellis Post, G. A. R., and was at one time its commander. He has always taken an active part in public affairs, but invariably declined political office.
GEORGE MOSHIER has been a life-long resident of Newburgh. His ancestors lived in, or near, Newburgh many years before the Revolution. Two were soldiers in the Continental army, one being at the New Windsor cantonment at the disbandment. Mr. Moshier was born in "Tantown" (North Water Street), April 19, 1838. He was very young when his father, whose name was Elijah, died. He was put at work when a small lad, and had only one year's schooling. The first money he earned purchased a membership in the Mechanics' Library, and all his otherwise leisure hours were spent in acquiring that which most boys of the present day have so freely given to them-an education.
He commenced learning the trade of a carpenter in 1858, with Little & Kelly, and served three and a half years. He worked on all their large jobs, notably on Trinity Church from start to finish. He stud- ied mechanical drawing and archi- tecture when op- portunity afforded. He went into the building business in 1866, and since that time has erect- ed about one hun- dred and twenty- five buildings, and is one of the most prominent men in that trade. As an architect he has made drawings for nearly a thousand buildings.
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