USA > New York > Noted living Albanians and state officials. A series of biographical sketches > Part 9
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under our free institutions. From the day he left home, when scarcely fourteen years old, till the present time his hands and his heart have been engaged with untiring in- dustry in works of a practical, beneficial nature.
A man of modest and retiring manners, with high and honorable impulses, his chief ambition in life seems to have been to do whatever he has undertaken in an able and con- scientious manner, without courting the applause of his fellow-citizens or seeking official positions.
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AMOS FOWLER, M. D.
I N THE galaxy of Albany physicians whose professional labors have done so much toward alleviating physical suffering, the name of Dr. Amos Fowler stands conspicuous.
This celebrity he has attained after long years of patient toil, deep study, and constant practice. He was born in the town of Cohocton, Steuben county, N. Y., on the 5th day of July, 1820. His ancestors were among those from the old, enterprising eastern states, who loved so much to set the wheels of civilization in motion and turn the wilderness into a garden. Removing at an early day from Lebanon, Con- necticut, they came to the wild forests of Herkimer county, N. Y., and there with brave hearts and strong hands went to work to open up the wilderness around them, little dreaming that in after years flourishing towns and villages should spring up in this delightful region of Central New York. Among those pioneers were Mark Fowler, uncle of General Amos Fowler, and Rev. and Hon. Orin Fowler. Mark Fowler had a family of nine children, most of whom were sons, and who grew up to accomplish heroic work in leveling the thick old trees, in developing the resources and aiding in the prosperity of the new country. Mr. Fowler died in 1813, during the second war with England, on the very day (April 27) when the American army was trium-
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phantly transported from Sackett's Harbor and took pos- session of York, the capital of Upper Canada.
Alvin, the youngest son of Mark Fowler, was the father of Dr. Fowler, the subject of this sketch. A remarkable story is told of Alvin when he was about two years old. Living in the old log cabin, amidst the dense forests around it, where bears, wolves and other wild animals nightly prowled, and where the cheering rays of the sun scarcely ever penetrated, he was one day seized by a bear which had been caught and chained near the cabin door. Mrs. Fowler, agonized with grief, tried in vain to release her baby boy from the threatening embrace of the bear, and it was not until Mr. Fowler returned home from his work in the even- ing that the child was delivered, like David of old, from the paws of the bear. Though the writer had heard this story repeated, yet he was disposed to regard it as one of the many sensational bear stories so frequently told through the country, until he learned from the lips of the present Dr. Fow- ler himself that it was indeed true. It was certainly a sur- prising instance of infantile preservation, sparing one who was to become the father of a man, who, under God, has been the humble instrument of saving many a patient from the jaws of death.
Alvin Fowler was by occupation a clothier and stone mason. He was a man of indomitable courage and high moral character. The present Dr. Amos Fowler was the eldest of four children, and while he was an infant his father removed with the family, first to Evans' Mills, Jefferson county, thence five years afterward to Fayetteville, Onon- daga county, where he operated some mills for the manu- facture of woolen goods. In 1836 he settled on a farm in the town of Victory, Cayuga county, where about twenty-five
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years of his useful life were happily passed amidst "rural sights and rural sounds."
Young Amos Fowler was sent at first to the public schools, and afterward he became a student at the academies of Fayetteville and Victory. He was noted as a diligent stu- dent, manifesting supreme devotion to his books and making commendable progress in the elementary branches of edu- cation. He worked on his father's farm during the warmer months and attended school in winter. On account of the limited pecuniary means of their parents this was the way that many of the sons of the old pioneers, who afterward rose to distinction and became sterling, useful members of society, were obliged to obtain their early education. On leaving the academy young Fowler taught school two winters in Wayne and one in Cayuga county. But he had no idea of becoming a life-long teacher. It was about this time that his attention was turned to his much-loved study and investigation of medical science. His father tried to discourage him from the study of medicine, but his genius lay entirely in this direction. and he preferred to struggle on amidst hardships and poverty to obtain the prize of his youthful ambition. He first read medicine in the office of Dr. Blanchard of Victory, and a year or two afterward be- came a student and assistant of Dr. Root at Memphis, Onondaga county. In the meantime he attended a course of lectures at the Geneva Medical college, and graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1846. Dr. Valentine Mott, the eminent surgeon, was then at the head of that renowned university, ably assisted by Professors Granville S. Paterson, John Revere, Martin Paine, Gun- ning S. Bedford and John W. Draper. On graduation Dr. Fowler had little or no money, but plenty of pluck,
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energy, perseverance combined with rare medical skill. His practice opened auspiciously. His former teacher, Dr. Root, had just died, and our young doctor took up his prac- tice, gaining the confidence of Dr. Root's old patients, and exhibiting more than ordinary skill in his professional work. His practice soon became quite extensive, and he was sent for from distant parts of the country in consultations over difficult or dangerous cases. Success attended him, and he was esteemed not only for his excellent professional attain- ments, but for his substantial personal traits of character. While practicing at Memphis about the year 1847, a fearful epidemic of typhoid dysentery broke out, spreading with alarming rapidity over the surrounding country. Dr. Fow- ler was now called upon to exercise his greatest skill. For weeks he rode day and night, visiting as many as eighty patients a day, and it is a remarkable fact that out of the six hundred cases he treated he lost but two or three patients.
After practicing at Memphis about four years Dr. Fowler came to Sand Lake, Rensselaer county, and after remaining there four years, he found a much larger field of labor by taking up his permanent residence in Albany in 1854. He first located at 40 Second street, and in 1872 crossed over to his present residence, No. 29 of the same street. In 1854, during the prevalence of the cholera in Albany, Dr. Fowler was called to attend numerous cases, and was successful in saving the lives of many who were stricken with the disease, some of whom were given up to die by other physicians.
Dr. Fowler's medical career in Albany has been one of continued and growing success. His practice is now one of the most extensive of any physician's in the city. He is a hard-working physician, and his familiar form may be daily
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seen riding through the streets attending to the calls of the sick and suffering.
It is particularly worthy of notice here that when the great epidemic of diphtheria - a disease then almost unknown to our physicians here- broke out with such fearful mortality in 1858, carrying off so many hundreds of children, Dr. Fowler struck on a mode of treating the disease which proved so wonderfully successful in saving life, that several of our leading physicians came to him to find out his peculiar mode of treatment.
Dr. Fowler has been vice-president of the Medical society of Albany, a delegate to the State Medical society and he is now a permanent member of the State Medical society. In 1850 he married Miss Harris of Sand Lake, who died suddenly at Savannah, Ga., in 1880, while returning from the South. In 1882 he married his present wife, whose maiden name was Mary Evans. The doctor and his es- timable lady are now members of the Fourth Presbyterian church of this city.
HOWARD N. FULLER.
N ALBANIAN in whom are happily united literary talents and successful business qualities, and who, while scarcely in the full meridian of life has risen to the foremost rank of the distinguished young men of the capital city is Howard N. Fuller. Of unassuming manners, modest pretension, equable and cordial disposition, his sterling worth has brought him into high and universal esteem. He was born at New Baltimore, Greene Co., N. Y., on the 28th of October, 1853.
"Some try to wheedle fame from coffined dust; Fame comes uncalled unto the noble, just."
These lines from Mr. Fuller's own pen must be accepted as proof of his independence of ancestral greatness as a means of acquiring individual distinction, or as an incentive to personal achievements. Although he lays no claim to superior lineage he comes from an honored ancestory. His father descended from sturdy Holland stock and his mother from a good old Anglo-Saxon line. The more imme- diate ancestry of Mr. Fuller, it is said, can be traced back to Thomas Fuller, a clergyman, who came over in the Mayflower in 1620, and settled as a pastor in Connecticut, and who left his descendants, if nothing else, "the heritage
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of an honored namne." His father, William Fuller, is still a resident of New Baltimore. He is a man of admirable traits of character, of decision and perseverance, who, in his younger days, experienced unusual hardships while striv- ing to advance his station in life. By his invincible energy he rose superior to adverse conditions and circumstances, and has attained an eminent position in society, besides ac- quiring, by frugality and foresight, an ample sufficiency of worldly goods. The following lines from the poem, " My Father," by the subject of this sketch, is an affectionate filial tribute to a kind parent and a noble man :
" He has lived a life of loving, Which fulfils the higher plan, That professing is the doing,- Love to God means love to man."
He married Miss Lydia A. Swezey, and for more than forty years the devoted couple lived together at New Balti- more. Three years ago the nuptial tie was broken by the death of Mrs. Fuller in her seventy-second year. Both par- ents found great comfort in the society of their children.
. Howard N. Fuller received his earliest instruction at the primary school of his native village, taught by Miss Jean- nette Griffith. He early showed his taste for literature and his parents were glad to further his inclination. He was next sent to the Coeymans academy, then under the prin- cipalship of the late Thomas McKee, a man of ripe scholar- ship and an excellent instructor. At the age of fifteen young Fuller entered the Rutgers college grammar school at New Brunswick, N. J., with his brother Perry J., who is now a prosperous lawyer of New York city. He remained there a year, and entering Rutgers college with the class of '74 he completed the regular college course of four years'
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study, and was graduated with high honor at that excellent, time-honored institution, then under the presidency of the scholarly Rev. Dr. William H. Campbell. The literary efforts of Mr. Fuller while at college were rewarded with
success. In 1873 he won the junior Philoclean literary prize, and in the following year he secured the senior English composition prize. During his college days Mr. Fuller was not only a great lover of classical and English literature but also of athletic sports, and was delegated by Rutgers in 1873 to meet representatives of Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and the university of Pennsylvania at New York to make rules and regulations to govern colle- giate foot-ball playing. The work of that committee was ap- proved by all the colleges, and the rules then adopted govern foot-ball playing of American colleges to-day. While at college Mr. Fuller devoted an occasional spare hour from his studies to the exercise of his poetical genius. Among other pieces, he wrote a college song : "On the Banks of the Old Raritan," which has ever since been the standard college song of old Rutgers.
The New Brunswick, N. J., Fredonian June 18, 1889, spoke of Mr. Fuller as " the author of that grand old song, which fires the heart of every Rutgers' man, 'On the Banks of the Old Raritan' His name will live in that song so long as the stones in old Rutgers' walls stand one above another."
After completing his course of collegiate study, Mr. Ful- ler returned home, and during the following year began the publication of the New Baltimore Sun, which was discon- tinued shortly afterward for lack of advertising support. In the summer of 1876 he came to Albany, where he be- came connected with the firm of William Fuller & Sons, com- posed of his father and two brothers, government contract-
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ors and dealers in building materials. In order to increase his general store of information, while continuing his busi- ness relations with his firm, he successively pursued a one year's course in both law and medicine, and for another year thereafter, or until the death of its proprietor, managed and edited the Greenbush Gasette. While successful in business matters he has shown marked ability in other directions. He has devoted many hours to literary work, and is ac- knowledged to be a clever writer. His genius is not limited in style or scope, but he is equally happy in serious and humorous composition. For two years he wrote a column of witty paragraphs for the Yonkers Gazette, which gave him great prominence in the world of humor, besides contribut- ing at the same time to the several humorous periodicals of the country. He has enlivened the columns of Fudge with his paragraphs and poems, and has composed a number of songs which have become popular. One of his songs is, " God Bless the Little Woman," the sentiments of which were suggested to him when President Garfield was laid low by the assas- sin's bullet, and when the devoted wife was tenderly watch- ing over him. Some time afterward, Mrs. Garfield, in a per- sonal note, gracefully expressed her thanks to him for a hymn which had not only touched her own heart, but that of the nation. Another touching tribute to the martyred presi- dent is his hymn "The Heart of the Nation is Sad To-day."
The Albany Argus said of this production : "The song, in fact, is about the only one written in commemoration of the martyred president's death that is worthy of the subject." - The poem on the death of General Grant, which first ap- peared in the Albany Journal, found wide publicity, and elicited much favorable criticism. It is regarded as a meri- torious example of poetic art, and a fine heroic ode, com-
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bining simplicity of diction, exalted sentiment and skillful construction. One of his most popular sentimental songs, " The Dear Old Home," was probably inspired by a visit to the home of his childhood. It was sung with great success by Thatcher, Primrose & West's minstrel troop. Mr. Ful- ler is also the author of the " Bi-Centennial Hymn," written by request of the committee of arrangements, which was sung in concert by the thousands of Albany's school chil- dren, and in the city churches, during that memorable event in the annals of Albany.
Mr. Fuller has done considerable literary work of a serious and religious character. Some of his productions, which have appeared in the Youth's Companion, of Boston, The Independent, Christian Intelligencer and other religious weeklies, unmistakably reveal great literary genius.
His poetical compositions are, for the most part, of the lyrical and pastoral order, and reveal the true poetic instinct. His sacred poems display the sympathetic impulses and the pure religious fervor characteristic of refined sensibili- ties. He has written a number of patriotic poems of high excellence, and is a charming writer of light amatory verse. He is also the author of many songs of diversified character, some of which have been widely sung and possess enduring qualities. His superior faculty for poetical writing is proba- bly best reflected in his pastoral poems. The following on " Home and Happiness," is a beautiful alliterative poem :
" How happy is the home, Wherein contentment dwells, There labor's restless loom The song of concord swells; There comfort proud presides O'er fortune's scanty store And gladness calmly glides Unceasing through its door.
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" How happy is the sphere, Where love supremely reigns, There faith forestalleth fear, And joy precludeth pains; There pleasures crown the day In sweet and swift increase, And heaven hangs o'er the way The golden arch of peace."
These lines from the poem, "Three Things I Crave," il- lustrate his proficiency in didactic verse :
" Contentment is another boon I crave, That whatsoe'er may be my lot, -- That whatsoe'er the worldly store I have, I may submit and murmur not; That whether fame and fortune pass me by, Or Mammon shall my state deride, I shall not be disposed to even sigh, But with my lot be satisfied."
All of Mr. Fuller's versified writings are characterized by that simple diction, pleasing imagery, original thought and graceful style which constitute successful qualities in poetry.
Mr. Fuller's time is now almost wholly absorbed by mer- cantile matters, and his natural desire for literary work has succumbed to the arbitrary influences of business.
Since attaining his majority Mr. Fuller has always been a zealous participant in politics. In 1876, although but twenty-three years old, he addressed political meetings in several counties of the state in behalf of the national repub- lican ticket. Always a staunch republican he has taken a live interest in the fortunes of his party. In 1885 he was induced, against his wishes, to accept the nomination for alderman of the eleventh ward. He was elected and served his constituency and the city with rare credit and fidelity for the term of two years. He refused a renomination. For three terms he has been president of the famous Uncon-
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ditional republican club, the chief republican organization of the interior of the state, being the only one who has been re-elected to the presidency of the club during its permanent existence. He did yeoman's work in the Harrison and Mor- ton campaign, and directed also the affairs of the Uncondi- tional campaign club, unquestionably one of the most pow- erful and effective campaign organizations in the country. As a reward for his indefatigable labor the members of both the permanent and campaign clubs, of both of which he was president at the time, unitedly and enthusiastically urged his appointment as surveyor of customs for the port of Albany. At first he strenuously objected to being a candi- date for the office, but ignoring his feelings in the matter, his friends pressed his case with so much persistency and vigor that he was compelled by the force of circumstances to ac- knowledge himself as such. There were several other formida- ble candidates and the contest was one of the longest and most stubborn ever known in the history of Albany county politics. It resulted unfavorably to Mr. Fuller, owing princi- pally to outside and ill-advised interference. Nothing has ever discomfited and disheartened the republicans of Albany so much as Mr. Fuller's defeat. He was the candidate of the young men, the sinew and strength of the party. It may also be here stated that he was one of the originators and chief promoters of the national league of republican clubs, which became a principal factor in the success of the republican ticket in the last presidential election. Its his- tory, progress and work are universally known.
Mr. Fuller was the republican candidate for mayor of Albany at the recent municipal election, but as expected, with such overwhelming democratic odds against him, he was defeated.
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Mr. Fuller is an active member of many social and literary clubs, and takes a deep interest in the prosperity of the Young Men's association, Albany's oldest and most suc- cessful literary organization.
He is a bachelor, although possessing pronounced domes- tic traits, a congenial spirit and a warm heart. He is uni- versally well liked, and of such a forbearing and forgiving disposition that a friend truthfully remarked : " Fuller has not an enemy in the world." Of high character, superior attainments and good executive ability, few young men of the city are so competent to serve the public faithfully in offices of great trust and responsibility.
This brief sketch can be concluded no more fittingly than by quoting his own words, beautifully expressed in the fol- lowing lines, which are so true an index of his own life, and whose precepts, if more faithfully and generally followed, would lead mankind to a higher state of earthly happiness :
" So let me live that when I die My life shall show no blot of shame And o'er the grave wherein I lie, Beneath my plainly graven name, Upon a low and modest stone, That every eye can quickly scan,
May this be carved, and this alone: ' He loved his God and fellow-man.'"
MATTHEW HALE.
MAN of fine legal attainments and of high personal character, who has been a steady resident of Albany for the past twenty-two years is the Hon. Matthew Hale. On the 20th of June, 1829, in the little town of Chelsea, in the state of Vermont, this well-known jurist first saw the light of day. His ancestry is in every respect a notable one - includ- ing admirable combinations of intellectual, moral and relig- ious principles. His father, Harry Hale, was a descendant of one Thomas Hale, an English yeoman, who immigrated to this country in 1638, and settled in Newbury, Mass. Harry Hale was a leading citizen in his day, and a man of great excellence of character. He was born in 1780, and when about twenty years of age formed a partnership with his brother Nathan, and became a country merchant, first at Windsor and afterward at West Windsor, Vt. He re- moved to Chelsea, Vt., where he still carried on a country store under the firm-name of Hale & Dickinson. A few years before the birth of his son Matthew, he retired from trade and devoted himself to the management of a grist mill and to farming. He was a captain of the militia, held various town offices ; and in 1828, '32, and '36, represented Chelsea in the Vermont legislature. He was also for several years county clerk of Orange county, and about the year 1835,
Matthew Nale
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was elected by the legislature bank commissioner of the state. A memorial window of stained glass may be seen to-day in the rear of the pulpit of the Congregational church, in Chel- sea, which not only gives the name and dates of birth and death of Harry Hale, but describes him as " foremost among those who builded this house to the worship of God, 1810."
Mr. Harry Hale was twice married. His first wife was Phebe Adams, by whom he had eleven children ; his second wife was Lucinda Eddy, by whom he had seven more chil- dren, the youngest being the present distinguished Matthew Hale. The mother of our Mr. Hale was a direct descend- ant of Miles Standish and John Alden of Mayflower renown, through a son of Miles Standish who married a daughter of John Alden and Priscilla (Mullens) Alden.
Matthew spent his boyhood under the parental roof at Chelsea, engaged in the usual sports, labors and studies of a country boy. By this means his young constitution was greatly strengthened, and he became a strong and vigorous lad. It was his father's delight to give him a generous edu- cation, as he did all his children, sending him to the best schools in his native town, and afterward to the academy at Bradford, Vt. In 1847 he entered the university of Ver- mont, at Burlington, where he bore the reputation of being a close and successful student, excelling especially in classi- cal studies, in which he stood at the head of his class. He was deservedly popular with his classmates and instructors while at college, manifesting a cheerful and sunny disposi- tion which in all the turmoil and conflict of professional life has never forsaken him. He was graduated with honor from the university of Vermont, in 1851, at the age of twenty- two. In 1854 he delivered a master's oration at the com- mencement of that year.
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His natural genius inclined him to the study of the law, and accordingly he entered as a student in the law office of Kellogg & Hale at Elizabethtown, Essex county, in this state. This firm was composed of Hon. Orlando Kellogg and Hon. Robert S. Hale, an older brother of Matthew, who represented his district in congress for two terms; and was for many years a regent of the university of the state of New York, but died in 1881.
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