USA > New York > Onondaga County > Onondaga's centennial. Gleanings of a century, Vol. II > Part 35
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or vice-president. In 1893 he was president of the New York State Association for the Protection of Fish, Game and Forests, which he had been instrumental in reorganizing and making more effective. He has also served as president of the Anglers' Association of Onondaga for several years and still holds that position. This is one of the most active and influential organizations of the kind in the State and has upwards of 300 members. His fondness and enthusiasm for nature and for a-field and Adirondack life, are not among the least of his personal characteristics. In this respect his associations cover a third of a century. For many years he has been a liberal contributor to journals devoted to the protection of not only fish and game, but also the forests, on which subjects he is a recognized authority. He has published many able articles on the Adirondacks, eloquently portraying the beauties of nature in those fascinating regions, and arousing wide reverence for the primitive conditions found there, both in respect to health and recreation.
In the field of journalism and general literature General Bruce has long been a conspicuous figure. Possessing talents of a high order, and being a critic as well as a fluent writer, he has won wide distinction and a favorable reputation. "The Easy Chair" for the Syracuse Sunday Herald has been edited by him for several years, and is an exceedingly attractive feature of that enterprising newspaper. He is also a generous contributor to the newspapers on various subjects, and magazines have often sought and published special articles prepared by him. He is an honorary member of two historical societies, a frequent contributor to historical journals, and has a not extensive but choice historical library. In 1891 he edited a " Memorial History of Syracuse," a volume of more than 800 pages, and he is also the editor of the present work, "Onondaga's Centennial," covering the entire county. He is a member of three city clubs and Syracuse Lodge No. 501, F. and A. M., is promi- nently identified with social affairs, and at one time gave considerable impetus to music, being president for years of the Mendelssohn Society and prominent in other musical organizations and undertakings.
On October 13, 1859, General Bruce was married to Miss Emilie, daughter of Rensselaer and Clarissa (Judd) Northrup, of Canastota, Madison county, and sister of ex-Judge A. Judd and Postmaster Milton H. Northrup, of Syracuse. They have three daughters: Anne, Llola, and Jessica. The eldest was married January 8, 1885, to Frederick D. White. of Syracuse, and has one son, Andrew Dickson White, 2d.
JOHN L. HEFFRON, M. D.
JOHN LORENZO HEFFRON, M. D., was born in New Woodstock, Madison county, N. Y., November 29, 1851, and moved with his parents to the village of Fabius, On- ondaga county, in 1852. The family is of Scotch-Irish descent. Dr. John Heffron, his grandfather, was born in Swansea, N. H., in 1786, came to Erieville, N. Y., in 1809, and died there May 29, 1861. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, a man of recognized ability, a prominent and skillful physician, and a surgeon in the war of 1812. His mother was Lydia Lawrence, a cousin of Capt. James Lawrence of Revolutionary fame. Dr. Lorenzo Heffron, son of Dr. John and father of Dr.
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John L., was born in Erieville in 1810, was educated at Fairfield Medical College, practiced first in Titusville, Pa., and subsequently in several other places, settled in Fabius in 1852, and died there January 1, 1879. He married Mary Ann, daughter of Hon. George Pettit and Jane Upfold, his wife, of Fabius, and had four children. Mr. Pettit, a distinguished citizen of Fabius, served as a member of assembly in 1820-21, 1824, 1835, and 1837, and held various other public offices.
Dr. John L. Heffron prepared for college in the High School of Kenosha, Wis., where the family resided for three years, and at Cazenovia Seminary. He was grad- uated from Colgate (then Madison) University in 1873 with the degree of A.B., was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and received the degree of A. M. from Colgate in 1876. He is also a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. Dr. Heffron taught in Peddie Insti- tute at Hightstown, N. J., until 1875, and in the department of sciences in the Newark (N. J.) High School from 1875 to the fall of 1878. He studied medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city and for two years in the Medical College of Syracuse University, from which latter institution he was grad- uated as M.D. in 1881. After studying in the hospitals of Vienna, Austria, and at the University of Heidelberg in Germany for one year he returned to Syracuse and began active practice in partnership with Dr. R. W. Pease, with whom he was asso- ciated until September, 1883.
Upon returning to this city Dr. Heffron became a member of the faculty of the Syracuse Medical College, first as instructor in histology, then as lecturer on and later as professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. In the fall of 1894 he re- signed this position and accepted the chair of Clinical Medicine, which he still holds. For several years he was visiting physician on the staff of St. Joseph's Hospital and physician to the Woman's and Children's Hospital, and is now consulting physician to the latter institution and physician to the House of the Good Shepherd. He is a member of the Syracuse Academy of Medicine and the Onondaga County Medical Society, which he has served as vice-president and president, and is now a member of the council of the first named organization. He is also a member of the New York State Medical Society, the American Academy of Medicine, the American Public Health Association, the Citizens' Club, and the Business Men's Association. In June, 1895, he was elected the alumni trustee of Syracuse University.
Dr. Heffron has written several articles on medicine which have been published in the leading medical journals of the country. He represented the College of Medicine at the convention for the revision of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States in 1890, and at the Pan American Medical Congress in Washington in 1893, and was delegate to the American Medical Association at Baltimore in 1895.
On the 13th of August, 1881, Dr. Heffron was married to Miss Marie A. Marcher, eldest daughter of the late Robert Marcher, of New York city. They have three children: Marian, Emilie, and John Marcher.
DANIEL P. WOOD.
HON. DANIEL P. Wood, son of Daniel and Sophia (Sims) Wood, was born in the town of Pompey, Onondaga county, November 5, 1819. His father came from
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Berkshire, Mass., at the commencement of this century and was the pioneer lawyer at Pompey Hill, where he was appointed the first postmaster by President Madison in 1811. Daniel Wood was a man of influence, served as justice of the peace, and in 1807 formed a law partnership with Victory Birdseye. The firm of Wood & Birdseye instructed many who were afterwards able lawyers of the county.
Daniel P. Wood was reared on the farm which his father purchased and con- ducted, after resigning the honors of his profession largely to his partner. He attended the district schools and later the old Pompey Academy, which was incor- porated in 1811, and of which Daniel Wood was a trustee and a member of the pri- dential committee. While here, pursuing a classical course, his father died in 1838, and the next year he entered Hamilton College; then under the presidency of Dr. Simeon North, from which he was graduated in 1843. During his collegiate studies his mother died, butt al- though bereft of parental advice and influence he was at this age fixed in his life purposes and principles. He read law in the office of Hon. Victory Birdseye, his father's former partner, and later with George W. Noxon, of Syracuse. with whom he formed a copartnership on his admission to the bar in 1846. Here he soon ac- quired high rank in the pro- fession, and when the city received its charter in 1847 he was appointed the first city attorney, a position he filled with satisfaction for two or three years. In 1852 he was elected to the Assem- bly on the Whig ticket, and during the session of 1853 served as chairman on the Committee on Salt and as a member of the Committee on the Code. As a legis- lative debater he made his mark in the discussion of DANIEL P. WOOD. the improvement of the canals, and during the impeachment proceedings against John C. Mather, the canal commissioner, he was one of the Committee of Managers on the part of the House. He was re-elected to the Legislature, and in the next session, as chairman of the Committee on Educational Institutions, was the author of the act creating the De- partment of Public Instruction. He also performed effective work as a member of 2. 1 the Ways and Means Committee.
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In 1857 Mr. Wood, owing to ill-health, visited the Southern States and returned from South Carolina on horseback. He co-operated in organizing the Republican party, of which he was ever afterward an unswerving adherent, and the first acts of secession aroused his patriotism. He accompanied President-elect Lincoln to Wash- ington in 1861, and when the war of the Rebellion broke out he earnestly assisted in the raising of troops, especially for the 12th N. Y. Vols. In 1865 he again served in the Assembly, and was chairman of the special committee appointed to conduct the remains of President Lincoln from New York city through the State. During this and the next session, in which he was also a representative, he was chairman of the Committee on Canals and a member of the Committee on Ways and Means. In 1867 he was elected for the fifth time to the Assembly and served as chairman of the last named committee. In 1871 he was elected to the State Senate from the 22d dis- trict by a majority of nearly 4,000, and in that body was made chairman of the Com- mittee on Finance. In this capacity he was largely identified with the overthrow of Tweed in the politics of the State. At the expiration of his first term he was unanimously renominated by acclamation by the Republican Senatorial Convention and returned to the Senate without opposition, and during the next two years he held the chairmanship of the Finance Committee, and was also the author of the banking act of 1875. His career as a legislator was one of the most creditable in the history of the State. He was a bulwark of integrity, of unswerving honesty, and of loyalty to the entire commonwealth as well as to his constituents. He boldly stood up against the corruption which the notorious Tweed ring had so long practiced at Albany, and the measures with which he fought dishonest politicians and schemers were worthy a master's hand. In recognition of his services he was the recipient, from the New York City Council of Political Reform, of a costly sword, with this in- scription on the blade: "May this sword be drawn only to enforce righteous laws," and with this engraved on the box: " Presented to Major-General Daniel P. Wood, by the New York City Council of Political Reform, in recognition of his eminent services in 1872, 1873, and 1874, as a member of the State Senate, in favor of reform legislation, especially for the city of New York." This appropriate gift came to Mr. Wood soon after his appointment in 1874, by Gov. John A. Dix, as major-general in command of the Sixth Division of the National Guard of the State, comprising the counties of Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario, Oswego, Otsego, Schuyler, Seneca, St. Law- rence, Tioga, Tompkins, Wayne, and Yates.
Mr. Wood was one of the organizers of the Trust and Deposit Company of Onon- daga in 1869, was one of its first vice-presidents, and was connected with that insti- tution until his death. He was one of the incorporators of the Onondaga County Savings Bank in 1855, and served as its president from 1876 till his decease. He was also a director in the New York State Banking Company, one of the organizers and president of the Highland Solar Salt Manufacturing Company, one of the origina- tors and prominently interested in the Genesee and Water Street and the Syracuse and Geddes Street Railroads, and the principal owner, president, and manager of the Metallic Burial Casket Company, of New York city, which presented to the gov- ernment the casket for the remains of President Garfield and the cases sent out for the bodies of the De Long Arctic expedition. He was prominently identified with the growth of Syracuse during his active career, and contributed in various ways
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to the advancement of the city and its institutions. He died at his residence in James street on May 1, 1891.
August 24, 1848, Mr. Wood was married to Lora Celeste, daughter of Silas Smith, of Lanesboro, Mass., whose wife, Eunice Bagg, descended from Joseph Loomis, of Windsor, Conn., who arrived in Boston from England in 1638. Of their children three died in infancy; the others were Frank; Mary Clifton, wife of Prof. George Williams, of Johns Hopkins University; and Cornelia Longstreet, who married A. Ames Howlett, of Syracuse, and died May 4, 1890. Mrs. Wood was born in Lanes- boro, Mass., August 4, 1821, came to Syracuse in 1830, and died in Baltimore, Md., December 26, 1891. She was a sister of Vivus W., Silas F., Thomas A., and Asahel L. Smith.
HORACE WHITE.
HORACE WHITE, was born in Homer, Cortland county, N. Y., April 19, 1802, the eldest of five children, and spent his boyhood in that village, acquiring a common school education. His fath- er, Asa White, was born in the town of Monson, Mass., in 1774, settled in Homer in 1798, and there in 1800, married Clarissa, daughter of Caleb Keep. At the age of fourteen Horace White was placed in the store of Horace Hill in Auburn, and two years later became a clerk in a store in Albany in which his father was in- terested. He soon return- ed to Homer and entered the store of Jedediah Bar- ber, with whom he remain- ed ten years. During these clerkships he won a good reputation for integrity, energy, and excellent busi- ness ability, and laid the foundation for a successful and satisfactory career. His health, however, was not robust, and he spent two or three years on a farm, where he regained his physical HORACE WINITE. strength which subsequent- ly enabled 'him to carry on extensive business operations. In 1838 he removed to
P
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Syracuse, where he joined St. Paul's Episcopal church and remained with it until his death, serving as vestryman from 1839 to 1848 and as warden from 1848 until his death. His life here was marked with great activity and unusual success. In 1839, through the efforts of himself and John Wilkinson, the Bank of Syracuse was organized with a capital of $200,000, and for several years was the leading financial institution of the then thriving village. Mr. Wilkinson was president and Mr. White held the position of cashier, and both were also directors in the Onondaga County Bank, of which Hamilton White, together with Horace, was a director and the cashier. Later Hamilton White and still later Hon. Andrew D. White were presi- dents of the Bank of Syracuse,
Mr. White was actively associated with Mr. Wilkinson in developing the railroads centering in Syracuse, taking a prominent part in the organization of several com- panies and a special interest in the construction of the various lines. He was one of the incorporators of the Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad in 1851, and as treasurer of the company his financial ability was conspicuously displayed in the building of that road, which was opened in 1854. He was also one of the first board of direc- tors of the New York Central Railroad Company, under the lead of Erastus Corning, and to the success and prosperity of that great consolidation he contributed not a little. He was one of the founders of the Geddes Coarse Salt Company, in which he was associated with his brother Hamilton and the late Robert Gere, and was also prominently interested in several other local manufacturing industries. As a finan- cier he was a man of influence, sagacity, and sound judgment; prudent, enterpris- ing and public spirited; and ever manifested a deep interest in the growth and pros- perity of both village and city. Broad and benevolent in principle his gifts for the support of missions and churches, his endowment of a professorship and of prizes at Hobart College, and his gifts to various institutions connected with his denomina- tion, were munificent, while his unseen and unknown charities were numberless. Owing to declining health he began to curtail his extensive business operations and withdrew from banking affairs in 1856, and in the same year aided in organizing the Onondaga County Agricultural Society, from which he was sent as a delegate to the New York State Agricultural Society at Albany. He died September [5, 1860, greatly lamented and respected by all who knew him. His memory will live both in the hearts of those whom he assisted and in the community which he aided in build- ing up and improving. His children and those of his brother Hamilton erected the imposing White Memorial building on the spot where their fathers did business so many years.
Mr. White was married June 29, 1831, to Miss Clara Dickson, daughter of Andrew Dickson, of Massachusetts, and Ruth Hall, his wife, of Connecticut. Her death occurred August 23, 1882. They had two sons: Hon. Andrew Dickson White and Horace Keep White, both of Syracuse.
JAY WINFIELD SHELDON, M. D.
HENRY SHELDON, father of the subject of this sketch, was of English descent. He was born in South Kingston, R. I., and in 1810 came to Otsego county, N. Y., then
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called the " Far West," and located upon land still in possession of members of the family. He was a man of sterling qualities, and was possessed of great energy and perseverance. In the pursuit of his occupation, that of an architect and builder, he erected many fine structures, among which were churches, factories, and railroad bridges, several of them remaining as monuments of his skill and industry. He died at the age of forty-seven. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Knowles, in- herited and exhibited throughout her life the sterling and estimable traits of charac- ter peculiar to New England. She died in her eightieth year. Of their nine chil- dren, one dying in infancy, five sons and three daughters lived to adult age, and, filling responsible positions in life, became a blessing and honor to their parents.
Dr. Jay Winfield Sheldon, a son of Henry and Mary (Knowles) Sheldon, was born in Otego, Otsego county, N.Y., February 12, 1837, and received a thoroughly prac- tical English and preparatory education in the schools of his native town. At the age of twenty-one he began the study of medicine in the office of an old-school physician. Later, he became a convert to homoeopathy, and in 1864 was graduated from the Cleveland (Ohio) Homoeopathic Hospital College, now known as the "Cleve- land University of Medicine and Surgery." After a short experience in country prac- tice he located permanently in Syracuse on January 1, 1865, entering into partnership wht the late Dr. Lyman Clary, one of the pioneers of homoeopathy in Central New York. Dr. Clary practiced medicine in the city for nearly fifty years, beginning when the place was still a small village. Through his ardent love of professional work, and an intense desire to master all its varied details, Dr. Sheldon soon acquired, and for many years has steadily maintained, a large and lucrative practice. He stands pre- eminently at the head of the homoeopathic school of medicine in Onondaga county, being one of its oldest representatives and staunchest and most earnest advocates. For over thirty years he has labored assiduously and conscientiously, not for personal aggrandizement, but for the good of his profession, for its lasting honor, and for the permanancy of those principles with which he is so thoroughly imbued.
Dr. Sheldon is known in the community where he has so long resided as possess- ing keen perception, well-balanced judgment, and rare executive ability, and as a wise and progressive leader. In all questions involving sound judgment and prudent management his colleagues have uniformly found his counsels eminently trustworthy and practical. Hence he has been frequently selected to fill honorable and responsi- ble positions. He was appointed assistant surgeon of the 75th Regiment of the National Guard of the State of New York on August 13, 1864, and served in that capacity until the regiment was abandoned. He has been a prominent member of the Onondaga County Homoeopathic Medical Society since 1864, and in 1892 was elected its president. He became an active member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy in 1870, and in 1895, at the expiration of a membership of twenty-five years, a senior member. In 1885 he was elected a member of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York and in 1891 became its third vice-president. He was one of the original members of the Syracuse Homoeopathic Medical Asso- ciation in 1889, was its first president, and was unanimously re-elected to that office in 1890 and again in 1891. He is also a charter member, a trustee, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Syracuse Homoeopathic Free Dispensary Corpora- tion, and in 1890 was elected an honorary member of the Albany County Homoeo- pathic Medical Society.
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After nomination by the New York State Homoeopathic Medical Society he was appointed by the Regents of the University, in May, 1891, a member of the State Board of Homoeopathic Medical Examiners, to serve two years from the 1st of September following. On the organization of the examining board he was assigned to the department of therapeutics, practice, and materia medica. He has been for a number of years a member of the committee on medical legislation of the State Homoeopathic Medical Society, and in that capacity rendered very essential service in connection with the various and important matters that came before that committee for decision and action. As a member of that committee his suggestions and active co-operation during the well known seven years' struggle, on the part of the homoeopathic medical profession in New York State, to prevent the representa- tives of the old school (allopathic) system of practice from securing a single State medical examining board, were always timely and effective; and his personal influ- ence in behalf of the maintenance of medical civil rights constituted, during that memorable period, a potential force of recognized power in all the central portions of the State.
During hours of leisure Dr. Sheldon has identified himself with some form of be- nevolent or charitable work. One of these, and one in which he has taken a deep interest, is that of encouraging and financially aiding young men who were striving, under difficulties, to obtain a professional education. He has been for many years personally interested in the work of the Young Men's Christian Association, has served as its vice-president and several years as chairman of the finance committee. He is a member of the Citizens Club and of the Business Men's Association, and for many years a member of Central City Lodge, No. 305, F. & A. M. In politics he is a pronounced Republican, having been an active member of that party since its organization. IIe was for several years president of the Onondaga County Repub- lican League.
By means of untiring energy, unusual sagacity, and enthusiastic devotion to the practice of his profession Dr. Sheldon has, for more than thirty years, been recog- nized in Syracuse, and in fact throughout the county, as one of the more popular, influential, and reliable of its noted physicians. His gentleness yet firmness of man- ner in the sick room, his tenderness of heart and sympathy for the suffering, com- bine to secure for him a high place in the affections of his patients, and have con- tributed largely to his reputation as a skillful and eminently successful practitioner. He has endeared himself not only to numerous personal friends but to the public at large as well. He is, in the best sense, a self-made man. True manliness of char- acter, integrity of purpose and action, cordial frankness, largeness of heart, and loyalty to principle are dominant traits of his generous nature. In the city and com- munity where he has so long resided he is held in high esteem as an honorable and upright man, enjoying the confidence and respect of the public; and he is uniformly recognized as one of its most distinguished citizens,
Dr. Sheldon was married, September 12, 1860, to Miss Emily J. Betts, of Memphis, Onondaga county. They have one daughter, Susie M., who was born in Memphis on January 7, 1865, and who on October 4, 1887, was married to Albert H. Gleason, a member of the firm of Hastings & Gleason, attorneys, of New York city.
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