Onondaga's centennial. Gleanings of a century, Vol. II, Part 23

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 23

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D. MUNRO.

THE township of Camillus, embracing the present towns of Elbridge and Van Bu- ren, was peopled mostly with settlers from New England. Among these, in the year 1799, only nine years later than the first white resident of the town, came David Munro, then a lad fourteen years old, born December 8, 1784, and fifth in the line of descent from John Munro, who emigrated from Scotland and settled in Massachu- setts at an early period.

David accompanied his father, Squire Munro, who had been a soldier in the Revo- lutionary war, and who then in the prime of life, being forty-two years of age, came from New England, bringing with him his four sons, John, David, Nathan and Philip A., all of them since well known throughout the county, and settled near where the village of Elbridge now stands.

As David grew up to manhood, he developed into a large and powerful man, fully marked with the characteristic family traits of enterprise, untiring industry, econ- omy and self-reliance.

In 1807 he was married to Abigail Carpenter, of the same town, and in 1808 he purchased a farm on lot number eighty, Camillus, and settled where Camillus village now stands, where only two frame houses were then erected.

The country was then covered with forests, and Mr. Munro cleared up his farm, which was heavily timbered, doing much of the labor with his own hands. Here he resided for fifty-eight years, enlarging his farm by the purchase of adjacent lands from time to time. He died May 10, 1866, being over eighty years of age at the time of his decease, His wife was six years younger than himself, having been born De- cember 3, 1790, and she survived him nearly two years.

There were eight children born of the marriage, of whom six still survive, viz. : John C. Munro, born October 17, 1809; James M. Munro, born November, 13, 1813; David A. Munro, born August 18, 1818; Mary A., wife of Thomas W. Hill, of Elbridge ; Hannah, wife of Payne Bigelow, of Baldwinsville; and Lydia H., wife of David Porter, of Lysander.

Mr. Munro carried on a large and very successful business in farming all the ear- lier portion of his life, but the necessity of finding investments for the constantly in- creasing results of his foresight, energy and economy, occupied the most of his attention in later years. He was the first postmaster in Camillus village, holding the office from 1811 to 1824, when he was succeeded by James R. Lawrence. He held the office of justice of the peace for many years, and was also one of the associ- ate judges of the Court of Common Pleas for a long time, becoming familiarly known to the people of the county as Judge Munro, by which title he was commonly called. He was a member of the State Legislature in 1818, 1819, 1822, 1836, 1841, and again in 1842.

ONONDAGA'S CENTENNIAL.

Ile was also a member of the convention which framed the third Constitution of the State in 1846. He was a leading director in, and for a long time president of the old Bank of Salina. He was also an influential director in the Salt Springs Bank from its incorporation to the time of his decease-an excellent portrait of him being engraved on the bills issued by that bank. There was no business enterprise with which he was connected which he did not inspire with the spirit of success. He was constantly in contact with the leading minds of the county, and although his early education was limited, his strong native sense, natural dignity of presence, and the innate force of his character, never failed to make due impression on every one he inet. In person he was tall, of full habit, and corpulent in later life-hardy to the last degree, riding or driving barehanded in the coldest weather, and he never post- poned a business engagement on account of storms or railroads.

Mr. Munro's manner of address was courteous but impressive, and his knowledge of the men and events of the day was unsurpassed.

REUBEN C. HANCHETT, M.D.

REUBEN CALDWELL HANCHETT, M. D., son of George Mark and Eva A. (Caldwell) Hanchett, was born on a farm in the town of Palermo, Oswego county, N. Y., March 8, 1862. His grandfather, Reuben Tuttle Hanchett, came from Connecticut to that locality among the earliest pioneers. Reuben T. married Maria Sheldon, and for about twenty years officiated as justice of the peace. His maternal grandfather, Captain Tuttle, was an officer in the Revolutionary war, in which struggle Mrs. George M. Hanchett's maternal grandfather, Mr. Baum, also participated; her father was a native of Scotland, but on account of religious persecution fled to Ireland, whence he finally came to America.

Dr. Hanchett was educated in the public schools of his native town and at Cen- tral Square, and finished with a commercial course at Meads's Business College in Syracuse. In 1881 he entered the medical department of Syracuse University and was graduated from that institution with the degree of M. D. June 12, 1884, receiv- ing first honors for scholarship. He then went to London, England, where he took special courses in general surgery and pathology in St. Thomas's Hospital, remain- ing there twelve months. There he acquired a practical as well as varied knowledge of surgical operations and perfected himself in this important profession. Return- ing to America he at once began the practice of medicine and surgery in Syracuse, and in October, 1885, was appointed lecturer in physiology in the Medical College of Syracuse University. Three years later he was made lecturer on materia medica, a position he has since held. Meanwhile he has continued in the general practice of his profession, and is one of the leading physicians and surgeons in the city. He is a member of the Onondaga County Medical Society and a charter member of the Syracuse Academy of Medicine, and is also a member of Syracuse Lodge No. 501, F. & A. M., and all the Masonic bodies to the 32º Scottish Rite. In November, 1895, he was elected school commissioner from the Eighteenth ward and is a member of the executive committee of the Board of Education.

Dr. Hanchett has been twice married, and by his first wife has one daughter,

ROKauchett,

Leonard CA. Sayer

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Elizabeth. September 5, 1894, he married Mattie Viola, daughter of Alonzo Skinner and a native of Ithaca, N. Y. She has one daughter, Geraldine, by her first mar- riage.

LEONARD A. SAXER, M. D.

LEONARD A. SAXER, president of the Board of Education of Syracuse, is the only son of Dr. Leonard and Dr. Mary V. (Adams) Saxer, and was born in Lockport, Ni- agara county, N. Y., October 30, 1856. Dr. Leonard was born in Switzerland in 1826, studied medicine in Zurich and was graduated from the University of Munich, and came to America in 1847. He settled in Syracuse, and excepting three years spent in Lockport remained here in the active practice of his profession until his death in March, 1876. He had a large and successful professional business, and served one term as school commissioner. His wife was a native of New York city, and after his death entered the Medical College of Syracuse University, from which she was graduated as M. D., in June. 1878. Since then she has practiced her profes- sion in this city. Their only daughter, Mrs. Arabella Listman, died in Decembber, 1895. A few days after her graduation Mrs. Dr. Saxer married for her second hus- band Dr. Frederick Glauner, who was killed in a railroad accident at Romulus, N. Y., in 1879.

Dr. Leonard A. Saxer, when one year old, removed with his parents to Syracuse, where he has ever since resided. He attended the public schools of this city, and was graduated from the Medical College of the Syracuse University with the degree of M. D. in 1882, since which time he has almost uninterruptedly followed his chosen profession. In 1883 he spent some time in the New York Polyclinic College and Hospital and in 1892 he took special courses in medicine in the hospitals of Vienna, Austria. He was a charter member of the Syracuse Academy of Medicine and an original fellow of the New York State Medical Association, and is a member of the Onondaga County Medical Society. In 1888 he went as a delegate from the State Medical Association to the tenth Medical Congress in Berlin. He is also a promi- nent member of Syracuse Lodge, No. 501, F. & A, M., Central City Chapter, No. 70, R. A. M., Central City Commandery, No. 25. K. T., and Lincoln Lodge, No. 180, I. O. O. F.

Dr. Saxer has for several years taken an active interest in politics. He is a staunch Republican, and in 1891 was elected to the Board of Education from the old Second (now Sixteenth) ward, and has been re-elected at the expiration of each term. In January, 1896, after a long and exciting contest under a Democratic administration, headed by Mayor James K. McGuire, he was chosen president of the board by a flattering vote. As school commissioner he has served with signal ability and won the confidence and respect of all classes of citizens. His work on the board has been characterized as representing the best interests of not only his constituents, but the city at large.

On the 2d of April, 1884, Dr. Saxer married Miss Nettie B. Worth, of Canastota, and they have one daughter, Genevieve Henrietta. Their only son, Leonard W., died March 16, 1892, aged six years and eleven months. Dr. Saxer lived and had his

ONONDAGA'S CENTENNIAL.

office at No. 514 Prospect Avenue, 16th Ward, until the spring of 1896, when he moved to his present home at No. 305 James street.

CHARLES NICHOLS.

CHARLES NICHOLS was born in the town of Pompey, near Oran, Onondaga county, July 27, 1816, and was the youngest son by the second wife of Major Browning Nichols, who came to this section of the State from Rhode Island at a very early day. Major Nichols was commissioned captain of militia in East Greenwich, Kent county, R. I., September 12, 1796, and later became major. He died in Pompey in 1836.

Charles Nichols was reared on a farm and received his education in the district school at Oran. After his father's death he was employed for a short time in the tobacco works of D. O. Salmon, of Syracuse, and later found employment as fore- man on the Erie Canal enlargement along the Jordan level. Afterward he went to Massachusetts and built by contract the railroads between Salem and Gloucester and from Lawrence to Manchester. Completing these lines he built the old Ohio and Marietta Railroad in Ohio and subsequently had important contracts on the Erie and Black River Canals in this State. He also constructed the four-track line of the New York Central between Rome and Herkimer and in company with Dr. Henry D. Denison built the De Ruyter reservoir in Madison county, besides many other notable structures. In several of these various undertakings he was associated with Horace and Daniel Candee and also with his son John A. In 1867 Mr. Nichols assisted in organizing the Delano Iron Works Company, of which he was elected the first presi- dent and served in that capacity for five years. This corporation carried on an ex- tensive and successful business in the establishment now operated by the Syracuse Tube Company. He was also interested in the manufacture of salt, being connected with two large companies engaged in that enterprise, and during the latter years of his life devoted his time mainly to the management of his farm just east of the city in Dewitt and to his extensive and varied investments. He died at his home on James street in Syracuse on the 16th of October, 1887.

Mr. Nichols was a man of retiring disposition, but keenly alive to the best interests of the entire community. He began life without a dollar and with no means save great energy, untiring activity, and indomitable perseverance, yet he succeeded in accumulating a fine competency as the result of personal application and self- reliance. He was emphatically a self-made man, and throughout a wide section was held in high esteem. His success was due in large measure to frugality and superior business qualifications as well as to great force of character and unswerving in- tegrity. In politics he was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian school, but never sought nor held public office. He was an almost unerring judge of real estate values. Every movement which promised general benefit found in him a firm friend and a cheerful supporter.

November 14, 1847, Mr. Nichols was married at Gloucester, Mass., to Miss Lucy Ann Porter, who died May 28, 1876, aged forty-eight years. Their only son and child, Hon. John A. Nichols, was born September 13, 1848, occupies the homestead and served as State senator from the 25th district in 1892-93.

Fumarlow

BIOGRAPHICAL.

GEORGE T. CAMPBELL, M. D.

GEORGE TRUMAN CAMPBELL, M. D., was born in Camillus, October 13, 1826. He studied medicine, graduating from the Buffalo University February 26, 1851, and for several years practiced his profession in South Butler, Wayne county. In April, 1858, he removed to Skaneateles and for many years carried on a drug store in addi- tion to his practice. In 1885 he sold out his drug business and devoted himself en- tirely to the practice of medicine, until failing health compelled him to retire. Dr. Campbell was married twice, his first wife dying in 1865, and in 1868 he married again. Besides being a physician of note, Dr. Campbell was a representative citizen, having been president of the Onondaga County Medical Society for several terms, supervisor of the town, and for many years a member and president of the Board of Education in Skaneateles. He died in Skaneateles, February 11, 1882.

DR. FRANK WILLIAM MARLOW.

DR. FRANK WILLIAM MARLOW, son of William Marlow, a banker, and Bertha Searle, his wife, was born in Abington, Berkshire, England, July 2, 1858, and received a private school education at Wantage in his native country. Evincing an inclination for professional life he entered St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London in 1876. As a student he was clinical clerk to Dr. Charles Murchison until the latter's death and later under Mr. Nettleship in the eye department. In 1880 he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and also a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries of London. During the next four years he held various ap- pointments, notably clinical assistant in the Royal Bethlem Hospital, house surgeon and house physician in St. Thomas's Hospital, house surgeon in the Victoria Hospi- tal for children at Chelsea, temporary resident medical officer at the Queen Square Hospital for Paralyzed and Epileptic, and finally ophthalmic assistant at St. Thomas's Hospital and clinical assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, to Mr. Nettleship for a period of eighteen months.

After a short interval, which was partly filled by acting as house surgeon in the Moorfields Hospital, Dr. Marlow came in September, 1884, to America and settled in Syracuse, where he has since resided. For a time he followed his profession both as an oculist and aurist, but since 1891 has devoted his attention wholly to ophthalmic work. In June, 1885, he obtained, by examination, the degree of M. D., from the Medical College of Syracuse University, and in the following year was made instruc- tor in Ophthalmology and Otology in that institution. In 1888 he received the pro- fessorship in those branches, which he still holds. He has also served as librarian of the medical department for several years. He is ophthalmologist to the House of the Good Shepherd, Woman's and Children's Hospital, Syracuse Free Dispensary, State Institution for Feeble Minded, and Onondaga County Orphan Asylum, a mem- ber of the American Ophthalmological Society, the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the New York State and Onon- daga County Medical Societies, and a charter member of the Syracuse Academy of

ONONDAGA'S CENTENNIAL.

Medicine. Dr. Marlow has contributed occasional technical articles to medical jour- nals at home and abroad, on subjects relating to ophthalmology.

September 24, 1889, Dr. Marlow was married to Miss Laura Bisset Mills, daughter of Frederick J. Mills, of San Francisco, formerly of Brandeston Hall, Suffolk, Eng- land. They have three children: Searle Bisset, John Mills, and Juliet.

HENRY N. BURHANS.

COL. HENRY N. BURHANS, son of Daniel and Nancy (Carpenter) Burhans, was born in the town of Dewitt, Onondaga county, N. Y., October 12, 1839, and received his education in the district schools, at the Fayetteville Union School, and at the Carey Collegiate Institute in Caryville, N. Y. His early life was not unlike that of other young men of his day, being spent mainly in acquiring substantial knowledge and a thorough business training. On the 18th of September, 1862, when less than twenty- three years of age, he was mustered into the service of the United States as first lieutenant of Co. F, 149th N. Y. Vol. Inf., his commission, dated October 4, to rank from September 8 of that year. Novembr 24, 1862, he was promoted captain with rank from October 21, and on May 11, 1865, hs was commissioned major. On June ". 1865, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel to rank from June 11, but was not mustered, being instead brevetted colonel and mustered out of service as major June 12, 1865. About August 22, 1864, he was detached as judge advocate on the staff of General Geary at Atlanta and assigned to duty as provost-marshal at Savan- nah. In the absence of Major Grumbach he commanded the regiment as captain from Savannah to Goldsboro. Colonel Burhans experienced nearly three years of active service, participated in all the battles and skirmishes in which his regiment was engaged, and was honorably discharged at the close of that sanguinary war.

Returning to Onondaga county he was admitted as member of the firm of Bur- hans, Blanchard & Co., lumber manufacturers and dealers, of Fayetteville, and in 1874 purchased their builders' supply house in Syracuse, which in 1876 was merged into Burhans & Black and later into Burhans & Black Company. This is one of the largest hardware establishments in the city, and for many years has been widely and favorably known, its principal headquarters being in North Salina street. Its success is largely due to the personal efforts of Mr. Burhans, who is a representative business man of great energy, enterprise, and recognized ability.

In social and fraternal as well as in commercial circles he enjoys a foremost posi- tion among the leading men of the community. He is a prominent member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders and past commander of Post Root G. A. R. June 11, 1861, he was married to Miss Sarah J. Blanchard, daughter of Orlo D. and Mar- netta Blanchard, of Fayetteville, and they have three children: Jennie B. (Mrs. Ed- ward Hunt), Orlo D., and Harry N.

Hh Burhan

BIOGRAPHICAL.

FRANK B. MILLS.

FRANK B. MILLS, was born in the town of Marcellus, Onondaga county, August 3, 1866, and is a son of George C. (see sketch on subsequent pages) and Eliza Mills, who reside on a fine farm at Rose Hill, in the southern part of the town. Hisearly life was passed on the homestead, where he developed a decided inclination for pro- ducing and classifying the seeds of various plants and vegetables, at which he be- came an expert while yet a mere lad. His spare time from work and school was spent in the garden, where he thoroughly familiarized himself with every plant that chanced to meet his notice. By the time he had finished his education he had ac- quired a wide and practical knowledge of almost every seed grown, not only in this country, but in the world, and he at once determined to apply that knowledge to production and distribution. This proved to be the beginning of a business scarcely equaled elsewhere in the State, a business, in fact, that ranks high among the largest concerns of the kind in the country. He had become the possessor of a small hand printing press capable of printing an ordinary page at each impression, and with this, at the age of less than twenty-one, he began, in 1887, to print his first catalogue. He did all the work alone, from setting the type to mailing the modest book, of which about 3,000 copies were issued and sent out. During that year he secured 118 customers. From this small commencement the business has steadily and rapidly increased in volume and extent until it now forms one of the largest and most com- plete establishments of its character in the United States. He has now over 400,- 000 customers, whose orders come from every habitable part of the globe-from Can- ada, South America, and Europe, from Asia, Africa, New Zealand, and Australia, -requiring about half a million catalogues annually for distribution. Mr. Mills has a number of large and convenieut buildings and several greenhouses devoted ex- clusively to the business, and all have been erected within the last four or five years. To these and especially to the greenhouses he is constantly adding; each year is in- creasing the extent and magnitude of an already mammoth concern. He has a large seed farm, of which several acres are devoted entirely to testing every variety of seed he sells, and nothing is shipped away until it is thoroughly tried aud fully equals every requirement. In this way Mr. Mills has established a name and busi- ness which ranks him among the few great seedsmen of the United States. It is doubtful if a concern of equal magnitude has ever sprung into existence in the short time in which his has been prosecuted, and all this is due to the indomitable energy, the systematic methods, and the close personal supervision of the proprietor. He is the founder of a business of which not only Onondaga county but the State of New York may be well proud. As an auxiliary to his adopted calling, and as a means of disseminating valuable and practical knowledge among the thousands of gardeners and horticulturists throughout the country, Mr. Mills established in December, 1894, an illustrated monthly entitled "Success with the Garden," which has begun what promises to be an auspicious career. His is strictly a mail-order business, and its requirements were such that the government, on November 5, 1895, established Rose Hill post-office with F. B. Mills as postmaster. He resigned this position in 1892, and was succeeded by his brother William E. Mills. His residence, the finest in the town and one of the handsomest in the county, was completed in 1893, and with all his other buildings is pleasantly located on Fairview Farm at Rose Hill in the south

ONONDAGA'S CENTENNIAL.

part of Marcellus. Mr. Mills was married, June 16, 1892, to Miss Grace Ackles, daughter of Samuel Ackles, of Spafford.

MAURICE A. GRAVES.

MAURICE A. GRAVES is a son of Abial S. and Elizabeth (Brockett) Graves, a grand- son of Benjamin and Mary (Stark) Graves, and a great-grandson of Elijah Graves, who served six years in the Revolutionary war, enlisting from Connecticut. The family came from England, where many of its members were connected with the royal army and navy. Benjamin Graves, whose wife was a cousin of Mary Stark of Bennington fame, came on foot from Connecticut to Westmoreland, Oneida county, N. Y., but soon returned east, brought back a yoke of oxen, and settled there at a very early day. He made frequent trips to Salt Point when the site of Syracuse was largely a swamp, and died March 23, 1868, aged eighty-four. Of his eight chil- dren Abial S., now of Camden, lived in Westmoreland during his active life. His wife's father, Eli Brockett, came from Connecticut to Herkimer county, served as captain at Sackett's Harbor in the war of 1812, and died in August, 1871, aged eighty-five.

Maurice A. Graves was born in Westmoreland, N. Y., April 23, 1846, received a district school education in his native town, and came to Syracuse in September, 1865. He was bookkeeper for the old Fourth National Bank and for the wholesale tea and coffee house of F. H. Loomis three years each, and afterward occupied various responsible positions. In 1875 he became a bookkeeper for John Crouse & Co., the largest wholesale grocery establishment in Central New York, and six months later was made financial manager, having entire charge of the collecting department, a position he held till the firm went out of business in February, 1887. He continued as confidential man to John and D. Edgar Crouse till the former's death June 25, 1889, and then remained in the same capacity with D. Edgar until his death November 10, 1892. Meanwhile Mr. Graves closed up the estate of John J. Crouse, the business of John Crouse & Co., and the estate of the late John Crouse, all involving extensive interests in Syracuse and elsewhere. D. Edgar Crouse, by his will, appointed him one of his executors, and early in 1893 Mr. Graves com- menced, with Jacob A. Nottingham, the settlement of that well known estate, to which he has since largely given his attention. He is also interested in various business enterprises. He was one of the originators in 1892 of the Cosmopolitan Building and Loan Association and has ever since been the treasurer and a director of that successful concern. He was also one of the projectors of the Manufacturers' Lloyds (fire insurance) of New York. In 1895 he purchased of the George F. Com- stock estate the Comstock farm of 105 acres, lying just east of the University, and laid out a large part of it into building lots, a number of which are already sold. This tract is known as University Heights, and is one of the largest pieces of city real estate which one man alone ever attempted to develop. Here, on the most ele- vated point, Mr. Graves erected in 1895 a handsome dwelling, in which will be stored his valuable library of about 2,000 volumes, many of them very rare and ob- tained at great expense.

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Onondaga's centennial. Gleanings of a century, Vol. II, Part 23

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