USA > New York > Noted living Albanians and state officials. A series of biographical sketches > Part 26
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In 1844 he was the democratic candidate for congress from his district, which was then largely republican or whig. December 13, 1823, he was commissioned by John McLean, postmaster-general, as postmaster at Union Square, an office which he held for fifty years, amidst all the changes in the
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national administration. This venerable man died in 1876, at the age of eighty.
Charles R. Skinner, the subject of this sketch, spent the first sixteen years of his life on his father's farm, attending the district school in the winter. But he seems to have been more devoted to his books than to farming, and before he was seventeen years of age he had commenced his - academic studies at Mexico, and had successfully taught the district school near his own home. Thus early were the lines of his thought and his natural genius indicated.
From 1861 to 1867 Mr. Skinner engaged in various pur- suits, his one purpose being to earn his own living, com- plete his education, and enter upon a college course and a profession, hoping in the end to enter the legal profession.
At various times he was assistant postmaster at Watertown --- leaving his work to teach the school two winters at his own home, to attend the Clinton Liberal Institute for a while, and to complete a full course at Mexico academy, graduating as valedictorian from the latter in 1866, with the full pur- pose of entering upon a college course. In this ambition he was disappointed - a disappointment which has never been removed. He spent a year as teacher in the Mexico aca- demy under Professor W. M. Mclaughlin. During the year he was nominated for school commissioner in the third Oswego district, but declined the nomination. During his school work at Mexico he was instrumental in securing courses of lectures by the best lecturers in the country. These were not only interesting but profitable to the society having them in charge.
In December, 1867, he gave up teaching and study and accepted a position with the Walter A. Wood Mowing and Reaping Machine Company of Hoosick Falls, and was placed
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in charge of the New York city branch of the business, hav- ing charge of territory in New Jersey, south-western New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania and the south. He remained here until March, 1870, when in response to urgent appeals from his father, then in poor health, he returned to the farm, which he carried on for a year. During the year, however, he purchased a third interest in the Watertown Daily Times and Reformer, his associates being Lotus Ingalls and Beman Brockway, two well-known and experienced news- paper men.
Mr. Skinner's love for newspaper work commenced in his youth. Encouraged by the attention of Stephen C. Miller, the editor of the Pulaski Democrat, he began when very young to send " the news" of his locality to the Democrat every week, and has some claim as a "pioneer" in the field of local correspondence. While attending the academy at Mexico he spent his leisure hours in learning how to set type in the office of the Independent, whose proprietors gave him every encouragement and facility. Mr. Henry Hum- phries, then one of the proprietors, still edits the paper. To his kindness Mr. Skinner has always felt indebted in pur- suing his newspaper work; and the atmosphere of a print- ing office seemed to have attractions for him at all times.
In May, 1870, he took up his permanent residence in Watertown, as city editor and business manager of the Times and Reformer. He has always said that the best years and the best energies of his life were devoted to the newspaper field into which he then entered. He had the pleasure of seeing the Watertown Times become a prosper- ous and influential journal. He and his associates spared no pains to make it so, and for many years all profits were expended in increasing facilities - which were always fol-
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lowed by increasing lists and patronage. Mr. Henry A. Brockway now has his time fully occupied as business man- ager, with plenty of assistance, and the city editor has two assistants in his work. This shows the growth and prosperity of the newspaper and of the thriving and beautiful city in , which it is published.
In 1874 Mr. Skinner severed his connection with the Times and Reformer, disposing of his interest to his partner, Mr. Brockway, who with his sons, has since managed the publication with great success. It was not Mr. Skinner's in- tention to remain long out of the journalistic field, for he found that fascination in newspaper work so often found by others and which it is hard to throw off. His tastes have always been in the direction of journalism, which he is never disposed to deny. He has hosts of friends in the profession throughout the state, and still has a strong hold upon the friendship of the many friends he made while active in the work. But he was destined to enter other fields, still main- taining his intention of ultimately returning to the quill and scissors. In 1889, at its annual meeting, the New York State Press Association elected Mr. Skinner a life member of that body.
Mr. Skinner always took an active interest in all things connected with the prosperity and progress of Watertown. As secretary of the Manufacturers' Aid association in 1876, he prepared an elaborate pamphlet showing the advantages of the city as a manufacturing point. For many years he was treasurer of the Watertown fire department and was instrumental in inducing the fire department to purchase the first steam fire engine used in the city.
Though reared amid democratic surroundings-though his father lived and died a staunch democrat of the old school
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- Charles R. Skinner has always been an unswerving re- publican, identifying himself with that party as soon as he became of age.
In 1874, Mr. Skinner was nominated for alderman of his ward, but did his best to see that he was not elected. In 1875 he was elected a member of the board of education of the city, being twice re-elected, and holding the office until 1884, identifying himself closely with the educational inter- ests of the city. In 1875 he was nominated as member of assembly from the first district of Jefferson county. Fear- ing that holding the office of school commissioner for the city brought him within the provision of the amendments of the state constitution, adopted in 1874, which made all city officers ineligible as candidates for the legislature, he with- drew as a candidate. The question was decided in the leg- islature in the case of Senator Gerard, of New York city, that the office was not under the city government.
In 1876 he was unanimously nominated for the assembly, and elected by 1,416 majority over A. P. Smith, the demo- cratic nominee. During his first legislative term Mr. Skinner was chairman of the committee of public printing, and a member of the committee on insurance. He exhibited the qualities of a ready debater in the assembly, was earnest and forcible in his delivery, and took a leading part in the dis- cussion of legislative measures, earning an excellent reputa- tion for a new member. During the session of 1877 he in- troduced and pushed to its passage the bill prohibiting frequent changes in text-books in schools. In 1878 he was re-elected to the assembly, by a majority of 998 over William H. Eastman. While retaining the chairmanship of public printing during his second legislative term, he was also a member of the committee on the affairs of cities, and on
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internal affairs. In the legislature of that session he was an earnest opponent of proposed modifications of the exist- ing excise laws - a subject which has caused so much trouble and perplexity to successive legislatures down to the present time.
Meeting with the approval of his constituents as a legisla- tor, Mr. Skinner was returned to the assembly in the au- tumn of 1879 by a majority of 1,042 over Luther H. Bishop. During the session which followed he introduced a bill, which passed both houses, reducing legislative expenses and cutting down superfluous rolls of useless employees. He never urged that officers of the legislature should serve for inadequate salaries, but insisted that sinecures should be abolished, after the employment of sufficient force to trans- act public business. He also introduced an amendment to the state constitution, which he defended with singular ability, amending the constitution in the direction of bien- nial sessions of the legislature. This amendment passed both houses of the legislature. In November, 1879, he was again re-elected over A. P. Sigourney by an increased ma- jority. He once more came forward in defense of his favorite biennial amendment, which, though passing the house, was defeated in the senate. Such a measure was favored by Gov. Cornell in his message of 1882. As chairman of the committee on railroads in the session of 1879-80, Mr. Skinner took a very active part in reporting and advocating the anti-discrimination freight bill, and the five-cent fare on the New York elevated railroads.
Mr. Skinner again carried his district for member of assem- bly in 1880, being the fifth consecutive time, by a majority of 1,653 over James M. Cleveland. Entering upon his duties in the session of 1881 he advocated, among other measures,
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the street-cleaning bill for New York city, and during the same memorable session he was an energetic and powerful opponent of the return of Messrs. Conkling and Platt to the United States senate. He had voted for the return of Mr. Conkling in 1879 and for the election of Mr. Platt in January, 1881, but he represented the wishes of a large ma- jority of his constituents in opposing the re-election of these gentlemen after their resignation. He was an earnest sup- porter of Chauncey M. Depew and William A. Wheeler through over fifty ballots. Upon the withdrawal of Mr. Depew he supported Warner Miller and E. G. Lapham, who were elected after a well-known struggle.
In 1878, Mr. Skinner was appointed a member of a special committee of the assembly, to consider and report whether the state normal schools were fulfilling their original purpose, and what legislation, if any, was necessary to increase their usefulness. An elaborate report was made by this commit- tee to the succeeding legislature.
Taken altogether, the legislative career of Mr. Skinner furnishes a bright page in his history and reflects honor upon his constituents. At the close of his work in our state leg- islature he was selected to go up higher in the political scale. In October, 1881, he was nominated by acclamation for rep- `resentative in congress to succeed Warner Miller from the twenty-second district, composed of the counties of Jeffer- son, Herkimer and Lewis, and was elected over Hon. John Lansing, his competitor, by a majority of 3.153. This was certainly a remarkable recognition of the strength of Mr. Skinner as a politician and a standard-bearer of the republi- can party.
In 1882 Mr. Skinner was unanimously re-nominated for congress, and thirty-one of thirty-two delegates to the demo-
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cratic congressional convention were in favor of indorsing the nomination. The one delegate, however, was permitted to make a nomination, and L. C. Davenport, of Lowville, was Mr. Skinner's competitor. This was the year of the un- fortunate Folger campaign, and 6.000 republicans did not go to the polls. The republican majority of 3.000 in the district was turned into a democratic majority of nearly 4,000, but Mr. Skinner was re-elected by a majority of nearly 1,400.
In the Forty-seventh congress, Mr. Skinner was a member of the committees on patents and accounts. In the Forty- eighth congress he was a member of the committee on post- offices and post roads, thus finding congenial and useful work. In this congress he introduced and advocated a bill reducing letter postage from three to two cents. Several similar bills were introduced, and the reduction was made. He was the author of the measure providing for the special delivery of letters, which, through his watchfulness, became a law. This system now yields a handsome profit to the government, and is a well-known convenience to the public. Mr. Skinner also introduced and urged to passage through his committee and the house, the law giving letter carriers a vacation. He was also active in urging the extension of the free delivery system to villages of ten thousand inhabitants, and in securing allowance for rent and clerkships in third- class post-offices. Mr. Skinner took an active interest in congressional work, attempted to keep himself informed in regard to legislative topics, the demands of his constituents, promptly answered a large correspondence, and was specially active in pushing to settlement the pension claims of the veterans of the war.
Mr. Skinner was an earnest opponent of the Chinese re-
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strictive act, taking the ground that the United States was bound to keep the terms of the treaties made with China. One of his strongest speeches was upon this subject. An- other speech took strong ground in favor of prompt action to suppress polygamy. He also made a carefully prepared speech against the Morrison tariff bill in 1883, and he was active in debates on post-office questions.
In 1884 he was appointed by Speaker Carlisle one of the board of visitors at West Point. Among his associates were General Rosecrans and Mr. Waring of Newport. The report made to congress by this board was one of the most exhaustive ever presented on the subject. In this connection it is fair to say that Mr. Skinner has always ex- pressed great admiration for Mr. Carlisle, both as a gentle- man and as a presiding officer. It is difficult to see, says Mr. Skinner, how any man can be a more impartial speaker than Mr. Carlisle proved himself. Every man received his rights from Mr. Carlisle, no matter what his politics were.
On the 4th of March, 1885, Mr. Skinner closed his con- gressional experience. In 1884 his county unanimously gave him its delegates for a re-nomination, but St. Lawrence county had become a part of the congressional district by the re-apportionment of 1883, and insisted upon nominating a St. Lawrence county candidate. Mr. Skinner retired from office with no regrets or heart-burnings, and with a full measure of gratitude to his constituency who had so often honored him with their confidence and their suffrages.
It is to Mr. Skinner's credit that every political office held by him has come through unanimous nominations by the conventions. He has never known what it was to enter a protracted struggle for delegates. He long held the confidence of his party, and in 1876 was chosen secretary of
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the Jefferson county republican committee. His ability as an organizer was promptly recognized in many circles and for nine years, with the exception of 1882, he was chairman of the county committee of Jefferson.
Upon leaving congress, Mr. Skinner was engaged to edit the Watertown Daily Republican, published by his former partner, Mr. Ingalls, until January 1886, when he became for a few months city editor at his old post on the Water- town Daily Times. In April of that year, however, he was appointed by Superintendent Draper, deputy superintendent of public instruction of the state of New York. No two officials ever worked more thoroughly in harmony than Su- perintendent Draper and his deputy, nor have men ever la- bored more faithfully to advance the best interests of educa- tion. Mr. Skinner confesses that he thoroughly enjoys his work, and his surroundings. He was re-appointed April 7, 1889, and will serve until 1892.
In 1889, he compiled an elaborate work, entitled the Arbor Day Manual, in which he collected a large amount of interesting literature relating to trees, forests, flowers, etc.
In June, 1889, Hamilton college, as if to mollify his dis- appointment in not securing a collegiate education, con- ferred upon Mr. Skinner the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
In 1874 Mr. Skinner married Miss S. Elizabeth Baldwin, daughter of D. W. Baldwin, a prominent citizen of Water- town. Aside from deep griefs which have come, as they come to all, his married life has been one of great delight. He is passionately fond of his family, and spends his leisure hours at home with his wife and children, who constitute his truest happiness. His family have always accompanied him in his life at Albany and Washington. He has three inter-
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esting boys, aged four, seven and fourteen years, and an in- fant daughter ; and he has been called upon to mourn the death of two beautiful daughters, Alice, who died in 1882, at the age of eight, and Bessie, who died in this city May 14th, 1889.
A man of ordinary size, with a dark complexion, earnest and impressive countenance, cordial and friendly in his man- ner, and popular with the masses, Mr. Skinner is one who cannot fail to command the respect and confidence of men of all political associations.
Sec also, Engresto & Ne s Fe Sigara Est, Sure, som portrait .
ELNATHAN SWEET.
I N THE profession of a surveyor and civil engineer, a name known far and near is that of Elnathan Sweet-a man who for the past fourteen years has claimed the city of Albany as his residence. He was born in Cheshire, Mass., on the 20th of November, 1837. He comes from a New England ancestry, noted for their enterprise, solidity and high character, and for the active part they took in pioneer work in this section of the country, and in the dissemination of moral and religious principles in their communities. His father, Rev. Elnathan Sweet, was an earnest, eloquent and pious minister of the Baptist church, who for many years preached in Cheshire and Adams, Mass., and who removed to Stephentown, Rensselaer county, N. Y., in 1842, and carried on a very successful pastorate there until his death, in 1879, at the age of eighty-two. His mother, whose maiden name was Chloe Cole, was a daughter of a substan- tial farmer of Berkshire, Mass. She died in 1872, at the age of sixty-eight. Of this old couple it may truly be said that they were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their deaths were not long divided.
His great-grandfather, Elnathan Sweet, removed from Dutchess county, N. Y., to Stephentown about the year 1762, and was one of the first settlers of that fertile region.
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He made his home on a tract of five hundred acres, which was a part of the land of the manor of Rensselaerwyck, situated about four miles from Lebanon Springs, where he built a log- house and went to work to clear up the forests around him. This large farm has remained in possession of the Sweet family for over a hundred years, the greater part of it being still owned by the present Elnathan Sweet, who has paid many a pleasant visit in later years to the old homestead, where once " his childhood fancy strayed." Among other New England pioneers who found their way to Stephen- town -- named in honor of Stephen Van Rensselaer, the patroon of the manor - about the year 1766, where Joshua, Caleb and Benjamin Gardner, three brothers of good scrip- tural names suggestive of subduing a wilderness land, Na- than Rose, Alexander Brown, Joseph Rogers and old Asa Douglas, whose grandson, Asa Douglas, is said to have been the first child born in Stephentown. And it may be stated here that the great statesman, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, was a descendant of this family.
Elnathan Sweet, the subject of this memoir, was about five years old when his parents removed to Stephentown, and there he grew up strong and healthy in the midst of a beautiful, bold and striking scenery. His education was carefully attended to by thoughtful and vigilant parents. He was first sent to the public school of Stephentown, and being naturally of a studious disposition and apt in learning, his parents encouraged him to keep right on in the pathway of knowledge. He gladly followed their advice, and was prepared for a collegiate course at the Hancock select school. In 1857 he entered the junior class of Union college and graduated there in the scientific course in 1859, at the age of twenty-one. By his tastes and inclinations from early
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youth he was designed for a surveyor and civil engineer, and like a true, earnest student, desiring of excelling in some special study, he bent all his energies toward mastering the details of the particular subject of engineering ; and how well he has succeeded in accomplishing the grand aims of his early studies in this department, his subsequent career fully shows.
After his collegiate graduation he was appointed deputy surveyor in Kansas and Nebraska, under Gen. Ward B. Bur- nett, surveyor-general of that then new and undeveloped re- gion, where thriving towns and villages have since sprung up on every side. When young Sweet arrived there the wounds of " bleeding Kansas " had but recently been healed, and the virgin soil of the new territory was just ready to be cultivated by true, law-abiding pioneers, and vast extents of wild lands were soon to be turned into fruitful fields, pro- ducing golden harvests, throughout the great west. Our young and adventurous surveyor and engineer remained in those wild, waste western regions about a year, actively en- gaged in public land survey. But while discharging his du- ties there he was seized with an intermittent fever, and obliged to return home to regain his health, which required about two years to re-establish.
With his characteristic energy and love of adventure he went to Pennsylvania and re-entered the engineering busi- ness, opening an office at Franklin, Venango county, in the midst of the oil regions. There he followed his profession with constant activity until 1867, and in the following win- ter, went to the West Indies as engineer and superintendent of the Santo Domingo Copper company.
In the spring of 1869, having finished his West India work, he returned to the United States with an excellent
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reputation as an accomplished engineer, and going to Chi- cago, assumed the position of chief engineer of the Rock Is- land and St. Louis railroad. While in this capacity he soon became general superintendent of the road - an office he held until 1872, when a still wider field of professional activ- ity was opened to him. The building of the Northern Pa- cific railroad was then exciting general attention, especially through the rapidly developing western country. Mr. Sweet saw at a glance what immense advantages the nation would gain on the completion of such an enterprise, and re- moving to Minnesota, he was engaged for two years as en- gineer and contractor in the construction of this road.
Returning to New York state near the close of 1874 he opened an engineering office in the city of New York ; but not entirely satisfied with metropolitan life he removed, in the spring of 1875, to Albany, and became a permanent resident here. His busy career and eminent professional services were still to be continued in the interests of the public. He was immediately selected as the expert engineer of the Tilden canal investigating committee appointed by Gov. Tilden to unearth the irregularities and, if possible, to remove the abuses in the old system of letting contracts in that department. In 1876 - the centennial year - he was appointed engineer of the eastern division of the state canal, comprising the Erie canal from Albany to Rome, the Black river and the Champlain canal, and held that office until the summer of 1880, when he resigned to resume his business as contracting engineer. While division engineer he made a series of experiments in determining the laws governing the propulsion of vessels in narrow channels-the results of which were given by him in an elaborate paper which was read before the American society of civil engineers at its twelfth
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annual convention, May 25th, 1880, and published in its " Transactions." This paper attracted wide notice at the time of its publication and its statements are strengthened by correct mathematical demonstration. In 1878 he was elected a member of the American society of civil engineers.
In 1879-80 Mr. Sweet made a thorough investigation of the system of the New York elevated railroads and prepared a paper which was adopted as a report of the railroad com- mittee of the assembly.
From 1880 to 1883 he was chiefly engaged in large rail- road contracts, mostly on the West Shore line, where he built the great West Point tunnel and about fifty miles of the road north from Catskill to Albany.
The state at that time required his services in furtherance of its important engineering interests, and in the fall of 1883 he was nominated by the democratic party as a candidate for the office of state engineer and surveyor, and elected by a plurality of 18,842 over his opponent, Hon. Silas Seymour. So acceptable and popular were his services to the people of the state, that he was re-elected in the fall of 1885, by 12,249 plurality over the republican candidate William V. Van Rensselaer. His administration was eminently successful ; one of its most important acts in the interests of the canals was the system of enlarging the locks. . As a friend of the canals he also wrote a paper on the importance of the arti- ficial waterways, which was read at the annual convention of the American society of civil engineers at Buffalo, on the 10th of June, 1884, and afterward published in its "Transactions."
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