Onondaga's centennial. Gleanings of a century, Vol. II, Part 21

Author: Bruce, Dwight H. (Dwight Hall), 1834-1908
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston History Company
Number of Pages: 1094

USA > New York > Onondaga County > Onondaga's centennial. Gleanings of a century, Vol. II > Part 21

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ONONDAGA'S CENTENNIAL.

ers enabled him to master the English alphabet at seven, and to make "straight marks "-most woeful and wabbling-in his writing book at nine. In the common and select schools, and at the excellent Cazenovia Seminary (which he attended for three years), he acquired in a measure the rudiments of an ordinary education. That these rudiments were fixed in a fairly retentive memory was due, he thinks, to his two winters' experience as a school teacher in 1840 and 1841.

In 1842 he became a medical student in the office of his accomplished friend, the late Dr. David A. Moore, of Cazenovia, and later finished his studies under the late Dr. Nelson C. Powers, of this city, attending in the mean time one course of lectures at the Geneva Medical College and two courses at the medical college in Albany, from which latter institution he was graduated in 1846. Locating then in Romulus, Seneca county, he had abundant leisure during his five years' residence there to con- tinue his medical studies, as the large majority of the good people in that quiet and healthful locality enjoyed almost uninterrupted immunity from illness, while the sick minority chose the attentions of a venerable and experienced professional neighbor, whose friends actually boasted that he had not looked into a medical book in thirty years! Before leaving Romulus Dr. Didama married Miss Sarah, daughter of Hon. Sherman Miller, of Tompkins county, N. Y., and to her good judgment and faithful devotion attributes in no small measure whatever of success in practice he may have achieved. She has been the mother of three children, all deceased: Amelia Louise (wife of the late William H. Niven), who after her marriage was graduated from the Medical College of Syracuse University and died May 8, 1893, while in Florida; Sher- man Miller, who died in March, 1878, while a student in the Syracuse Medical Col- lege; and Henry Darwin, who died in infancy.

Dr. Didama came to Syracuse in 1851, and during his forty-five years' residence in this city has enjoyed an extensive medical practice, having long been recognized as one of the leading members of the profession. He has been or is at present a mem- ber of several medical societies and associations, among them the Syracuse Medical Association, Syracuse Academy of Medicine, Onondaga County Medical Society, Central New York Medical Association, New York State Medical Society, New York State Medical Association (in each of which he has served as president), American Medical Association, American Academy of Medicine, American Climatological As- sociation, and British Medical Association. He has been one of the physicians to St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse since its institution and has served for several years as chief of its staff. He has been professor of the science and art of medicine in the College of Medicine of Syracuse University since its organization in 1872 and is now dean. In 1888 the university conferred upon him the degree of doctor of laws. He is also an officer in the First Presbyterian church of Syracuse and has been a Republican ever since the formation of that party.

Dr. Didama is the author of several essays on medicine which, in addition to pub- lic addresses, have been published in medical journals at home and reviewed abroad. Over the signature of "Amos Cottle" he has also for many years written for the daily press articles of current interest and letters of travel in foreign lands. His skill and research are dedicated to his fellowmen, and he still finds his highest pleasure in the profession to which his long and active life has been assiduously devoted. Dr. Didama has always been earnestly in favor of a high standard of medical educa- tion. In his address at Albany in 1880, while president of the State Medical Society,

BIOGRAPHICAL.

he urged that, without delay, an entrance examination should be required by each medical college in the State; that this examination should be equal to that exacted by the best universities; and that after four years from the new departure each can- didate for admission should possess the degree of A. B. In the same address he ad- vocated the substitution of a sensible, prolonged three years' graded course of 111- struction for the prevailing, unnatural, short two winters' course, the second winter being but a repetition of the first. In his address in New York city in 1884, as presi- dent of the New York State Medical Association, he reaffirmed his convictions and amplified his arguments regarding entrance examinations and a graded course. In 1888 the State Legislature enacted a law compelling all candidates for admission to a medical college to be subjected to specified mild and elementary examination, and to a final examination for license to practice by an independent board to be appointed by the Regents of the State University. It is remembered with considerable pleas- ure that the medical department of Syracuse University had in full force for sixteen years prior to the compulsory legislative enactment, and still has, all and more than all the requirements of the new law.

ALFRED MERCER, M. D.

ALFRED MERCER, M. D., son of William and Mary (Dobell) Mercer, was born in High Halden, Kent, England, November 18, 1820, and came to America with his parents in 1832. The latter were then nearly sixty years of age, imbued with Eng- lish social and business habits, and the change to America proved too great for their comfort or enjoyment. They therefore returned to England in the following spring, leaving their youngest son in America with an older brother, who had resided here several years, believing this country offered better advantages than England for an ambitious young man.

The youth spent two years at the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, studied medicine in the office of Dr. John F. Whitbeck, in Lima, Livingston county, and was gradu- ated from the Geneva Medical College in 1845. In 1846 he visited his parents in England, and devoted a few months the study of medicine and surgery in the hos- pitals of London and Paris. Returing to America in 1847 he opened an office in Mil- waukee, Wis., but in 1848 returned to this State and practiced in Livingston and Monroe counties until 1853, when he settled permanently in Syracuse, where he has since become one of the best known and most skillful physicians and surgeons in the Empire State. While in Europe he wrote a number of interesting professional letters to the Buffalo Medical Journal; in 1859 he contributed to the same periodical a paper on "Partial Dislocations: Consecutive and Muscular Affections of the Shoulder Joints," and in 1873 he wrote another article on "Relations of Scientific Medicine to Special and Specific Modes of Medication." An abstract of one of his addresses was published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal in March, 1879. Besides these he lias contributed many other valuable papers on professional subjects to the litera- ture of his calling.

Dr. Mercer was health officer of the city of Syracuse for many years, and upon the removal of the Geneva Medical College to this city he was made a member of the

ONONDAGA'S CENTENNIAL.

faculty, in which he long occupied the chair of minor clinical surgery. He has also been a member of the local Board of Health for several years; was one of the State Commissioners of Health from April 7, 1884, to 1890; has been professor of State medicine in the medical department of Syracuse University since 1883; was acting surgeon for ten years, and has been since and is now consulting surgeon of the House of the Good Shepherd ; is a member and has been vice-president of the New York State Medical Society; is a member and was for some time president of the Onondaga County Medical Society, in which he has held all the offices except that of secretary, being treasurer for several years; is now vice-president of the Syracuse Academy of Medicine, and also a member of the American and of the British Medi- cal Associations. In 1848 he married Miss Delia, eldest daughter of Aaron Lam- phier, esq., of Lima, N. Y., who died in February, 1887, leaving one son, Dr. A. Clifford Mercer, now practicing medicine with his father, and one daughter, Ina, wife of Lepine H. Rice, of Brookline, Mass. In 1888 Dr. Mercer married Mrs. Esther A. Esty of Ithaca, N. Y.

THEODORE E. HANCOCK.

HON. THEODORE E. HANCOCK, attorney-general of the State of New York, is a son of Freeman and Mary (Williams) Hancock, and was born in the town of Granby, Oswego connty, N. Y., May 30, 1847. His father, of English descent, was born at Martha's Vineyard and belonged to a family of sailors. His mother's ancestry were French, and she was born in Providence, R. I. Mr. Hancock, as a youth, attended the district schools of his native town, working upon the farm summers. He was graduated first in his class from Falley Seminary in Fulton, N. Y., in 1867, and then entered Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., from which he was graduated with honors in 1871, being the head of his class and the recipient of prizes for pro- ficiency in Latin and Greek. At a comparatively early age he evinced a strong in- clination for the law as a profession, for which his native faculties and scholarly habits were peculiarly adapted. Upon leaving college he read law in the office of Hon. Edward T. Bartlett, now judge of the Court of Appeals, and also entered Columbia Law School, in New York city, and was graduated and admitted to the bar from that institution in 1873. Immediately afterward he took up his permanent residence in Syracuse, where he has ever since followed the practice of his profes- sion, being at different times a member of the firms of Gilbert & Hancock, Hancock & Munro; Hoyt, Beach & Hancock; Hancock, Beach & Devine; Hancock, Beach, Peck & Devine; and Hancock, Hogan, Beach & Devine, his present partners being Hon. William A. Beach, Hon. John W. Hogan and James Devine.

As a lawyer Mr. Hancock has won a foremost place among the eminent members of the legal fraternity of the State. His more than twenty years of active and suc- cessful practice has gained for him a wide reputation as well as the respect and con- fidence of every person with whom he has come into contact. His business in the office and before the courts has been varied and extensive, and the many important cases which he has been called to conduct reflect the highest credit upon his ability as an advocate. He is a student by nature, profoundly versed in the science of law,

BIOGRAPHICAL.

and is thoroughly equipped for his profession and the important public offices to which he has been elected. In politics he has always been an active and ardent Re- publican, and to the welfare and progress of his party he has given valued services consistent with dignity and fairness. In this respect he has ever borne the esteem and confidence of both friends and opponents. In 1889 he was nominated by the Republicans for district attorney of Onondaga county, and at the ensuing election ran about 1,200 ahead of the regular ticket. Mr. Hancock's legal ability and pro- found knowledge of the law had now attracted the attention of the ablest jurists of the State, and in the Republican judicial convention of 1891 he came within three votes of being nominated for justice of the Supreme Court, the nomination, had he received it, being equivalent to an election. In 1893 he was nominated by the Re- publican State convention for the office of attorney-general of the State of New York, and at the general election in November was triumphantly elected to that exalted position for a term of two years, beginning January 1, 1894. His majority over his Democratic opponent, Simon W. Rosendale, was 21,290. In the fall of 1895 he was nominated and re-elected by the Republicans for the new term under the revised constitution of 1894 for three years from January 1, 1896. At that election he re- ceived the highest number of votes on the State ticket, being elected by a plurality of about 95,000. As attorney-general Mr. Hancock's official opinions have com- manded universal respect, not only for their sound judicial character, but also for their high literary quality, their clearness and precision.

Mr. Hancock was married June 7, 1881, to Miss Martha B. Connelly, daughter of Dr. Joseph Connelly, and a native of Wheeling, W. Va. They have three children : Stewart, Clarence and Martha.

WILLIAM B. COGSWELL.

WILLIAM BROWN COGSWELL, son of David and Mary (Barnes) Cogswell, was born in Oswego, N. Y., September 22, 1834. His ancestry emigrated from Wiltshire, Eng- land, and settled in Ipswich, Mass., in 1635. His father died in 1877 and his mother in 1862. During the three years between the ages of seven and ten he attended Hamilton Academy in Oneida county, and later studied in the private schools of Joseph Allen, of Syracuse, and Prof. Orin Root, Seneca Falls, N. Y. In 1848 and 1849 he worked with the engineering party on the survey of the Syracuse & Oswego and Syracuse & Utica railroads, and in this employment evinced a strong inclination for civil engineering as a profession. On May 1, 1850, he entered Rensselaer Poly- technic Institute at Troy, N. Y., where he remained three years, and which in 1884 conferred upon him the degree of C. E. Soon after leaving school Mr. Cogswell be- gan an apprenticeship in the Lawrence machine shops under the superintendence of John C. Hoadley, and came out three years later with a theoretical and practical knowledge of engineering, mechanics, physics, and allied branches. Coming to Syra- euse in 1856 he was selected by George Barnes to accompany him to Ohio to take charge of the machinery of the Marietta and Cincinnati railroad at Chillicothe, of which Mr. Barnes was superintendent. He remained there three years, when he was made superintendent of the Broadway foundry in St. Louis, Mo. In 1860 he re-

ONONDAGA'S CENTENNIAL.

turned to Syracuse, and with William A. and A. Avery Sweet started what became the works of the present Whitman & Barnes Manufacturing Company, with which he was identified when the Rebellion broke out. In 1861 he received a civilian appoint- ment as mechanical engineer in the U. S. navy, and in this position performed an enormous amount of labor fitting up separate repair shops for five stations on the Atlantic seaboard and lived at one of them erected on shipboard at Port Royal, S. C. In 1862 he was transferred to the Brooklyn navy yard and placed in charge of steam repairs, and remained there four years. The following two years he lived in New York city. In 1870 he was given charge of the completion of the Clifton suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, where he continued four years, and at the same time super- vised the construction of two blast furnaces at Franklin Iron Works in Oneida county. In all of these responsible undertakings he met with flattering success, which stamped him as one of the foremost civil engineers in the country. He also manifested a remarkable business talent and great executive ability, and won the confidence and esteem of all classes of citizens. He was successful in the broadest sense of the term.

The year 1874 may be regarded as the turning point in Mr. Cogswell's career. He was solicited at this time to go to Mine La Motte, Mo., and assume charge of the lead mines of the same name at that place. These mines were and still are owned by Rowland Hazard, of Peace Dale, R.I., who induced Mr. Cogswell to take this step, which he did. He remained there until the spring of 1879, when he returned to Syracuse, where he has ever since resided, retaining, however, to the present time- a period of twenty-one years-the management of the Mine La Motte lead mines. Soon after returning to Syracuse he determined to go to Europe to investigate the soda industry, and through a friend made the acquaintance of Messrs. Solvay & Co., of Brussels, Belgium, the leading manufacturers in that line in the world. Mr. Cogs- well, as a result, was commissioned to inspect the various points in this country where a manufactory would be practicable, and report. After the receipt of the re- port steps were taken to form a company for the manufacture of the various soda products, and Syracuse was decided upon as the best place for the works, for Mr. Cogswell believed that rock salt might be discovered in the vicinity. The manufac- tory was located here, just west of the city limits, and around it the village of Solvay has sprung into existence. The Solvay Process Company was organized in 1881 with a capital of $300,000 and the following incorporators: Rowland Hazard, president ; Earl B. Alvord, William A. Sweet, George Dana; and W. B. Cogswell, treasurer and general manager. The capital has been increased from time to time to keep pace with the growth of the business until now it is $4,000,000 with a total investment of $8,000.000. Around this immense establishment, the largest of the kind in Amer- ica, nearly 3,000 people have taken up their residence, and these were incorporated into a village in 1894. Mr. Cogswell held the positions of treasurer and general manager until June, 1887, when Frederick R. Hazard was made treasurer. In the spring of 1894 Mr. Cogswell became managing director and E. N. Trump was pro- moted general manager.

Several experimental borings for rock salt were made in 1881 and 1883, but with- out success; information, however, was obtained which led to the experiments in Tully valley in 1888 and the discovery of two veins of rock salt, each about fifty feet thick, at a deptli of 1,200 feet. The Solvay Process Company now receive their en-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

tire supply, equal to 400 tons of salt per day, from the Tully wells, and have a plant of such capacity that a large quantity of saturated brine can be sold to the salt man- ufacturers of Syracuse. This enterprise led to the incorporation of the Tully Pipe Line Company, for conveying brine from the wells, to the works, with a capital of $300,000 and Mr. Cogswell as president; John L King, secretary; and Frederick R. Hazard, treasurer. The Solvay establishment also led to the formation of the Split Rock Cable Road Company with $100,000 capital and John L. King, president ; W. B. Cogswell, general manager; O. V. Tracy, secretary; and F. R. Hazard, treasurer.

Mr. Cogswell has received ample honors in his profession and evidence of that confidence from business men which is a tribute to his judgment and his business qualifications He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Mining Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engi- neers, the Society of Chemical Industry of England, and the Society for the Ad- vancement of Science, and a fellow of the Geographical Society. He is a Master Mason and a member of the Royal Arch Chapter. Mr. Cogswell was married on January 31, 1856, at Lawrence, Mass., to Miss Mary N. Johnson, a native of New Hampshire, who died July 20, 1877, leaving on daughter, Mabel.

THOMAS G. ALVORD.

HON. THOMAS G. ALVORD was born on what is known as the John Hopper farm at Onondaga Hollow, this county, on the 20th of December, 1810. His paternal ances- tor, Alexander Alvord, came to this country from Somersetshire, England, in 1634, and first stopped at East Windsor, Conn., but soon removed to Northampton, Mass., of which he was the founder, and where he lived and died. His grandfather, Thomas G. Alvord, sr., served in the Colonial army in the French and Indian wars, and was present on the frontier at Oswego in 1756, and together with his son, Thomas G. Al- vord, jr., was in the artillery service during the war of the Revolution, for which both drew bounty lands on the Military Tract, their claims lying in what was for- merly Onondaga, but now Cortland county. They were both present at the sur- render of Cornwallis. Elisha Alvord, son of Thomas G., sr., and father of the sub_ ject of this sketch, was born in Farmington, Conn., in September, 1773, and before 1790 brought his father and the family to his father's military claim in the present town of Homer, Cortland county, where the two Revolutionary veterans above men- tioned both died. In 1793 Elisha Alvord came to Salina as superintendent for the Federal Salt Company, and in 1798, in partnership with his younger brother, Dio- clesian, purchased the business of that concern, which, together with merchandising, was carried on by the firm of E. & D. Alvord until May, 1813. Elisha Alvord then engaged in the general mercantile and produce business in company with his brother- in-law, Abraham C. Lansing, at Lansingburg, Rensselaer county, which they con- tinued until 1825. He died there in 1846. Mr. Alvord was the first supervisor of the town of Salina, and was for many years a commissioner appointed to lay out roads, notably the famous Salt road leading to Sackett's Harbor.

He married (first) Polly Bush, by whom he had one daughter, Julia V. (Mrs. Elijah

ONONDAGA'S CENTENNIAL.

M. Bissell) who died at the age of eighty-five. His second wife was Helen Lansing, who bore him five children: Hon Thomas G., Cornelius L., Charles B., Elizabeth (Mrs. C. A. Burgess), and Mary (Mrs. Alson D. Hull). Mrs. Helen (Lansing) Alvord was the great-granddaughter of Abraham Jacob Lansing, the original patroon of Lansingburg, Rensselaer county, who came from Holland to New Amsterdam in 1620, and later moved to Fort Orange (now Albany), but subsequently settled upon his patrimony in Lansingburg. Her father, Cornelius Lansing, patroon of Lansing- burg, Schaghticoke, and part of Brunswick, was a captain in the Colonial militia, and also served in the Revolutionary war, being in General Schuyler's contingent at the surrender of Burgoyne and the night afterward in command of Fort Edward, where he was the host of Baroness Reidsel and Lady Harriet Auckland, the night after the battle. He was a member of the State Legislature in 1798-99 and a dele- gate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1801. Two of his sons, Abraham C. and Jacob C., and three sons-in-law, Gardner Tracy, David Allen and David Rus- sell, were members of the Legislature of this State in the early part of this century, while another son, Dirck C. Lansing, was a pioneer clergyman of the Presbyterian church in the town of Onondaga from 1807 to about 1812 and occasionally preached also at Salt Point.

Thomas G. Alvord moved with his parents in 1813 to Lansingburg, where he at- tended the public schools and the local academy during his boyhood, In 1825 he entered the sophomore class of Yale College, from which he was graduated in June, 1898. After a short time as clerk in the store of his brother-in-law, Mr. Bissell, at Pittsfield, Mass., he began the study of law with his old academic tutor, Hon. George A. Simmons, at Keeseville, Clinton county, and completed his legal studies with Kirkland & Bacon, of Utica, being admitted to the bar at Albany in October, 1832. January 1, 1833, he commenced the practice of his profession in the First ward of Syracuse, then the village of Salina, and continued until 1846, when he turned his attention wholly to business pursuits. For about three years prior to 1842 he had as his legal partner Enos D. Hopping. In 1846 Mr. Alvord formed a partnership with Elizur Clark and his brother, Cornelius L. Alvord, under the firm name of Clark & Alvords, and began the manufacture of lumber and salt on an extensive scale, hav- ing a large saw mill on the site of the present chemical works in the First ward. They continued successfully until 1863, when the firm dissolved and went out of busi- ness. Meanwhile Mr. Alvord had organized the Salina Coarse Salt Company and the Salt Springs Salt Company, in each of which he has ever since been a director and the moving spirit. With Hon. E. B. Judson he established the Salt Springs Bank, and was elected its first president, and he was also for a short time a director in the old Bank of Salina, now the Third National Bank. He was the originator, with others, of the Salina and Central Square Plank Road Company, incorporated in 1844, which constructed between those two points the first plank road in the United States. This road is still maintained between Syracuse and Cicero. Mr. Alvord has continuously been a member of the board of directors, and for the last two years has served as president of the company.

Mr. Alvord's long political record is one of exceptional brilliancy and purity. He was recognized as a man of great ability, of the strictest integrity and of unswerving fidelity to his constituents, and for many years held a foremost place in the councils of his parts. Engrossed as he was with the care of large and varied business inter-

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

ests, which constituted an important factor in the growth of the city and materially influenced the progress of a thriving community, he nevertheless took an active part in all matters of a public nature; and contributed both time and money in furthering every movement which met his approval. He affiliated with the Democrats until the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861, when his convictions impelled him towards a more patriotic policy than that represented by Democratic principles. At the Union State Convention, composed of delegates imbued with the same spirit of loyalty, held in 1861, Mr. Alvord presided as both temporary and permanent chairman, and ever since then he has acted unflinchingly with the Republican party. He has ably and conscientiously filled many important offices of trust and responsibility, beginning with that of inspector of common schools in Clinton county, before he had reached his majority. He was clerk of the town and village of Salina several years, and in the fall of 1843 was elected to the assembly, in which he served in all fifteen terms, namely in 1844, 1858, 1862, 1864, 1876-72 inclusive, 1874-75, and 1877 to 1882 inclu- sive. He was speaker of the assembly in 1858 and 1864, and the first speaker in the new capitol in 1879, and when not in the chair he was chairman and a member almost continuously of the committees on canals and ways and means. His legisla- tive career was characterized by great personal effort in advancing not only the in- terests of his own asssembly district, but the welfare of the State at large, and numerous measures of more than local benefit were the result of his untiring labors and wholesome influence. In the fall of 1864 he was elected lieutenant-governor of the State of New York, and in that capacity served with distinction during the years 1865 and 1866. As president of the Senate he presided with dignity, ability and fair- ness, and won the approval and respect of every member on the floor. In the fall of 1866 and again in the autumn of 1893 he was elected a delegate to the State Consti- tutional Conventions which met in Albany in 1867-68 and 1894, and in each of these bodies he was chosen vice-president. This last service closed the notably eminent political career of Mr. Alvord, and now at the age of eighty-five, living in retire- ment, he bears the respect and esteem of all classes of citizens, whose public inter- ests were long intrusted to his faithful hands. Throughout an active and useful life he has won laurels which distinguish him among his fellow men and honors that rest with peculiar brilliancy upon declining age.

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Onondaga's centennial. Gleanings of a century, Vol. II, Part 21

Author: Bruce, Dwight H. (Dwight Hall), 1834-1908 Publication date: 1896 Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston History Company Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Bruce, Dwight H. (Dwight Hall), 1834-1908
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston History Company
Number of Pages: 1094