USA > New York > Onondaga County > Onondaga's centennial. Gleanings of a century, Vol. II > Part 36
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
HAMILTON WHITE.
HAMILTON WHITE, son of Asa and Clarissa (Keep) White, was born in Cortland county, N. Y., May 6, 1807, and received his education in the common schools of his native village, where his parents settled in 1798. By improving every advantage and by diligent reading he was able, at the age of sixteen, to take charge of a school at nine dollars a week and board, which at that time was the usnal remuneration. But he soon decided upon mercantile pursmits, and accordingly entered the employ of the Messrs. Ran- dall, merchants of Cort- landville, with whom he remained about ten years, rendering valuable service to his principals and lay- ing the foundations of a successful business life. Mastering the details of the establishment and having acquired a small capital he took up his residence at the age of twenty-nine in Lock- port, Niagara county, where, during the next three years, he made wise and profitable investments. In 1839 he came to Syra- cuse, where hiselder broth- er, Horace, had settled the year before, and was made cashier of the Onondga County Bank, of which Capt. Oliver Teall was president. The two were associated in the same HAMILTON WHITE. office, and as stockholders and directors in this as well as other institutions, until the expiration of the bank's charter in 1854, when he was its natural successor as a private banker. During this period they were intimately identified, by reason of their financial interests, with the commercial growth and prosperity of both village and city, and contributed materi- ally to the success of numerous enterprises. Manufacturing industries, business proj - ects, and many other institutions felt their aid and influence.
In 1849 Mr. White, Captain Teall, and three others incorporated the Syracuse Water Works Company, and enlarged the water system to meet the demands of the young and growing city. He was also instrumental in forming, with his brother and
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Robert Gere, the Geddes Coarse Salt Company and other industries. He took a large share in developing the railway interests centering in Syracuse and became a director in all the companies on the line between Albany and Chicago except the Cleveland and Toledo. Through the exertions and pecuniary aid of himself and his associates in donating the grounds for the New York State Asylum for Idiots that institution, founded at Albany in 1851, was removed to Syracuse in 1855, and he continued to take a deep interest in its success. He was for many years the treasurer of the Onondaga County Orphan Asylum and long aided in the maintenance of the Old Ladies Home, and both institutions were remembered in his will. He was one of the founders in 1856 of the Onondaga County Agricultural Society and in 1859 of the Oakwood Cemetery Association, and of the latter served as treasurer. He also contributed liberally to his own church and the churches of other denominations in this city and elsewhere, and in every movement affecting the general welfare he took a prominent part. His counsel was often sought as that of a man who deliberately formed his own opinions, though carefully weighing the opinions and interests of others. He was careful in his advice, sound in his judgment, and unobtrusive in his demeanor, and as a citizen he commanded the highest respect. He won universal confidence both as a financier and as a man of honor, and retained through life warm friendships and valued associations. During the war of the Rebellion he was active iu measures for raising troops for the Union armies, and freely gave both time and money. In 1862 he was elected president of the Syracuse National Bank to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Wilkinson, but the next year was obliged to resign on account of impaired health. He sought recuperation in foreign travel, visiting the principal countries of Europe and the East, and in 1864 accompanied his wife and eldest son to the West Indies, where he remained until the following June. He died in Syracuse on September 22, 1865.
Mr. White was emphatically a public benefactor. His long and successful business career is eminently worthy of emulation, while his private life and many deeds of philanthropy are examples of true manhood. Besides the beautiful monument which adorns his resting place in the cemetery he did so much to create, his children and those of his brother erected the handsome White Memorial building on the spot where their fathers did business for many years. But the most desirable monument is reared to the two brothers in the gratitude and esteem of those whose cares were alleviated or removed by the charity, the sympathy, and the business assistance of these Christian bankers and philanthropists.
Mr. White was married in 1841 to Sarah Randolph Rich, daughter of Gaius B. Rich, of Buffalo, N. Y., who died March 29, 1867. She was a woman of exemplary Christian principles, charitable, kind, and exceedingly hospitable, sympathetic, and benevolent, and was for many years prominently connected with the charitable in- stitutions of the city. Their children were Jane Antoinette (Mrs. Sherman), Clara Keep (Mrs. Robert L. S. Hall), Hamilton Salisbury, Howard Ganson, Barrett Rich, and Sarah Aphia.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
EZEKIEL B. HOYT.
EZEKIEL BEERS HOYT was born at Ridgefield, Conn., March 24, 1823, the son of William and Esther Beers Hoyt, both natives of Ridgefield. In September, 1823, William Hoyt moved with his family to a farm that he had previously purchased, located on the State road in the town of Sennett, Cayuga county, N. Y., about three miles east of the city of Auburn. Here the subject of this sketch lived until his eighteenth year, doing such farm work as his age permitted during the summer months, and attending the district school in the winter. There were thirteen chil- dren in the family, nine boys and four girls. It was the policy of the parents to have each son learn a trade. One was a cabinetmaker and three others at work at the carpenter or millwright trades. Their mother remarked that "there are enough wood workers in the family and Ezekiel had better be a mason." So in 1841 he was ap- prenticed to the mason trade with Douglas & Billings, of Auburn. During the next three years Mr. Hoyt assisted in the erection of many of the buildings still standing in Auburn and vicinity, including Barber's factory. During the winters, when work was slack, he attended school at the Auburn Academy for about eight weeks each season. Some time after starting out as a journeyman, and while at work on the stone woolen factory in Seneca Falls, he received an injury in the left side by the slipping of a stone from the plank on which it was being moved to its place in the wall. From this hurt he never entirely recovered, at times feeling traces of it during the remainder of his life, and in a measure unfitting him for the active labor of his trade, and causing him to seek a less laborious means of livelihood. He had care- fully saved as much of his wages as possible, and in the fall of 1847 invested his small capital in company with Clark Howland in a little restaurant (or "recess" as they were called at that time) that stood on the corner where Gernand's Hotel now stands opposite the N. Y.C. R. R. depot in Auburn. They made money, but the busi- ness was distasteful to Mr. Hoyt, and on November 10, 1848, he sold out to his part- ner for what he considered a good price. The California gold excitement began about this time, and our subject seriously thought of joining one of the parties that were so frequently starting for the "Land of Gold," and probably would have done so had his health been what it once was. But instead he purchased, in May, 1849, the general store of Elias Skidmore, at Mottville. Six months later he sold a one- half interest to his brother Edward, and under the firm name of E. B. & E. S. Hoyt they carried on the business for about three years, when they sold to C. T. Potter. On October 14, 1852, Mr. Hoyt was married to Miss Mary E. Delano, of Mottville, and on December 21 of the same year purchased a one-third interest in and assumed the management of the foundry and machine shop established by his father-in-law, Howard Delano, in 1832. On November 3, 1874, he purchased the remaining two- thirds of the property.
At the time of his marriage Mr. Hoyt took up his residence in the home where his wife was born, and continued to reside there until his removal to Skaneateles in 1882. Aside from the foundry and machine business at Mottville, Mr. Hoyt was at times interested in other enterprises.
In July, 1860, in company with Howard Delano and four others, the Syracuse Iron Works were established for the manufacture of small sizes of bar iron. Receiving advantageous offers, Mr. Hoyt and Mr. Delano sold their stock, and with others, in
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1865, built the Delano Iron Works, also in Syracuse. These works were intended for re-rolling railroad rails. But the use of steel rails was becoming more and more general, and thinking that the days of iron rails were numbered, and being offered a fair price for his stock, Mr. Hoyt sold his interest. In 1866 in company with Thomas Morton, of Mottville, he built the Marysville Woolen Mills, about one and one-half miles north of Mottville, on the Skaneateles outlet. On April 7, 1875, he sold his interest to his partner. In March, 1874, in company with P. C. Carrigan and R. B. Wheeler, the Skaneateles Lime Works adjoining the woolen mill property were purchased and successfully operated for a number of years, when Mr. Carrigan bought out both his partners. He was also one of the first stockholders and directors of the Skaneateles Railroad. On January 11, 1867, Mr. Hoyt's first wife died. On July 1, 1872, he married Miss Mary J. Wheeler, daughter of the late Dr. Jared W. Wheeler, of Elbridge, N. Y., who survives him. Mr. Hoyt had one child, a son, Frank D., who was born January 24, 1854, and who has always lived in the home- stead purchased by his grandfather in 1832, where he was born, and where his mother was born and died. Mr. Hoyt died at his home in Skaneateles, November 17, 1895, in the seventy-third year of his age. He was a most methodical man of business-conservative, careful, and strictly honest, and whose family life was be- yond reproach.
FOREST G. WEEKS.
FOREST G. WEEKS, of Skaneateles, was born in Draycott, Somersetshire, England, August 2, 1832. His parents were Stephen and Ruth Weeks. Forest G. Weeks, the subject of this sketch, was one of a family of eight children, seven of whom came to this country. Forest G. was only seventeen years of age when he left his native country to seek his fortune in the new world. The success he has achieved is evi- dence that he possessed the metal and ability to make his way against the many obstacles that beset the road, even of the native born Americans. He came to Skan- eateles in 1849 and at once apprenticed himself to learn the blacksmith's trade. His time and talents were devoted to this occupation for the succeeding five years. Then not being satisfied with the education so far acquired he wisely concluded to attend school for a time. This was carried out by taking a course at the Falley Seminary in Fulton, Oswego county, N. Y. The winters in the mean time were spent in teaching school, and thus accumulating sufficient money to defray the ex- penses of his course in the seminary.
After having completed his course of study at the seminary, Mr. Weeks returned in 1857 to Skaneateles and entered upon a business career that has now continued with remarkable success for nearly forty years. He did not return to the occupation of blacksmith, but at once engaged in the teasel business, which was then an important industry in Onondaga county. Mr. Weeks not only raised this product but carried on a large business as a dealer in teasels. The enterprise proved eminently success- ful and so Mr. Weeks remained in that line till 1867. In the mean while energy and good management had enabled him to accumulate money to extend his business in- terests in other directions. That year (1867) Mr. Weeks purchased a one-half inter-
FOREST G. WEEKS.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
est in the paper manufactory which is now known as the Brick mill. This mill is situated on the Skaneateles outlet about three and one-half miles from the village The firm name then was Bannister & Weeks, and so continued four years, when Mr. Weeks by purchasing the interest of Mr. Banister, become sole proprietor. He still conducts this mill, turning out a large product. It was destroyed by fire in 1872 but was at once rebuilt and enlarged with more modern design and equipment. Its output is now from six to seven tons of paper per day.
The Draycott Mill was established a little later, the daily product of which now averages five to six tons per day. The third mill, which is now owned by Mr. Weeks, was formerly owned and run by the Skaneateles Paper Co. Mr. Weeks first purchased a minority interest in this company but at the same time bought the en- tire product of the mill. This business continued several years when Mr. Weeks also purchased the total capital stock of the company, thus becoming sole owner of the property. This mill too has an output of eight tons of paper per day. In 1882 another extension of the business was made by the purchase of the Earll, Tallman & Co. distillery, which was remodeled and converted into another paper mill. It is run as a stock company and known as the Lakeside Paper Co. In this mill are manufactured mill wrappers, building paper, carpet paper, felts, etc., turning out about six tons per day. These comprise four of the largest mills on the stream. Besides these Mr. Weeks in company with Mr. Edwin R. Redhead established what is now known as the Victoria Mills Paper Co. at Fulton, Oswego county, N. Y. The company a little later bought the upper power on the Fulton side of the falls and erected thereon a large wood pulp mill, now producing thirty-five tons of pulp per day. In 1890 Mr. Weeks and Mr. Redhead separated, Mr. Redhead taking the Vic- toria Mills and the former the Upper Falls Pulp Mill, which he still owns. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Weeks is one of the largest manufacturers of the paper product in the United States.
Associated with Mr. Weeks in his many business enterprises are his three sons, Charles G., Forest G., jr., and Julius S. Besides these there is Mr. H. L. Paddock. formerly of Wolcott, Wayne county, N. Y., who married Mary L., eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Weeks, She is a graduate of Cazenovia Seminary. They also have another daughter, Sara L., who graduated at the Syracuse University. Mr. Weeks married in September. 1859, Sarah A. Monell of Mexico, Oswego county, N. Y.
Mr. Weeks is also a stockholder and director in the Thousand Island Park Asso- ciation at which place he together with his family spend the summer. He is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church and represented the same in the General Con- ference of 1880. He is, besides this, one of the trustees of Syracuse University and Cazenovia Seminary. The deep interest he has always taken in educational institu- tions, and especially those named, has been backed by his upbuilding influence and a generous contribution of money. Mr. Weeks has always been an active, earnest Republican in politics and had he been so inclined would have been honored by an election to almost any office within the gift of the citizens of Onondaga county. In this as in all other matters he has the confidence and esteem of all who know him.
Q
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HENRY H. LOOMIS.
The progenitor of the Loomis family in America was (1) Joseph Loomis, a woolen draper by trade, who was born in Braintree, Essex county, England, about 1590, and sailed with his wife, five sons, and three daughters from London, April 11, 1638, in the good ship Susan and Ellen, which arrived in Boston on July 17 of that year. They settled in the town of Windsor, Conn., and purchased land there in 1640. His descendants to the subject of this sketch are (2) Joseph, a native of England; (3) James, who was born in Windsor in 1669; (4) Nathaniel, born in Windsor in 1712; (5) Jabez, born in Coventry, Conn. ; (6) Ebenezer, born in Westmoreland, N. Y., in 1765; (7) Chester, born in Westmoreland in 1785; and (8) Henry H. The preserva- tion of the records of this family was due to the invaluable labors of Elias Loomis, LL.D., professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in Yale College, whose ex- cellent book, "Genealogy of the Loomis Family," published at New Haven in 1870, contains the names and residences of 4,305 descendants of the original American ancestor.
Chester Loomis (7) married Abby Adams and moved from Westmoreland to Cen- tral Square, Oswego county, where he settled on a farm, and where seven children were born to them In 1823 they removed to the town of Cicero, Onondaga county, and purchased and located upon a farm of 150 acres, on which a Mr. Lynch had built a house in 1809. There his parents spent the remainder of their lives, and added five more children to their previous family of seven, all of whom they reared to ma- turity, giving them every advantage and many of the luxuries which the period afforded. That they succeeded beyond the average is manifest by the honorable careers that these children wrought for themselves, as all have filled a conspicu- ous sphere in life and taken an active part in the community in which they resided. Chester Loomis died on the homestead September 7, 1851; his death occurred Janu- ary 28, 1860.
Henry H. Loomis, the youngest of this family of twelve children, was born in Cicero on the 20th of April, 1833, and spent the early years of his life amid the blessed surroundings of a good home, where his impulsive, buoyant boyhood ex- panded into youth and rounded into manhood. He attended the old-fashioned dis- trict school and finished with a few terms at the Homer Academy, and possessing a naturally bright intellect he acquired, by diligent study and close observation, a large fund of varied knowledge, to which he has never ceased to add valuable infor- mation upon the current events of the day. In 1854 he married Miss Clara Merriam, of Cicero, and the same year, in company with his brother Addison J., purchased the interests of the heirs in the paternal homestead. Ten children were living, two daughters having died before their father, one of whom left a family. The two brothers ran in debt for nine-elevenths of the estate, but within five years they paid every dollar, a fact which they viewed with commendable pride. In 1859 Mr. Loomis sold his interest in the farm to his partner-brother, Addison J., and left the home- stead upon which the first twenty-six years of his life had been so happily spent. He then started for Pike's Peak, traveling with a party of seven by rail to Jefferson City, Mo., from there to Kansas City by a Missouri River steamboat, and thence by ox- teams to Denver, Col., then a settlement of five sod houses. The latter portion of
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the journey occupied seven weeks. Everywhere in that western wilderness he met swarms of adventurers eagerly seeking fortunes among the mountains of America's Eldorado. With pack horses and mules the party traveled one hundred miles farther to the mines, where they joined the ranks and dug for gold. They met with only modest success, and on the approach of cold weather in the fall Mr. Loomis returned home, bringing a little more money than he had when he started and much experi- ence of practical value. During the next fifteen years he followed farming in his native town.
Meanwhile he had become prominently identified with politics, and in the fall of 1875 was elected superintendent of the poor for Onondaga county on the Republican ticket, which caused his removal to Syracuse, where he has ever since resided. In 1878 he was re-elected to a second term, which expired December 31, 1881. His service in this capacity was characterized by rare faithfulness and great executive ability. In 1887, while still discharging his official duties, he interested himself in the canning industry, and forming a company, built a large canning factory at Cic- ero and afterward another in Syracuse, in both of which he is still interested. In 1882 be formed a partnership with Hoyt H. Freeman, under the firm name of Free- man & Loomis, and engaged extensively in the manufacture and sale of willow baskets, an industry in which theirs soon outranked any similar enterprise in the State, and which they still conduct on a constantly increasing scale. Making a sec- ond trip to Colorado in 1889 Mr. Loomis became deeply interested in the rich mining lands there, and organized the Oro Mining and Milling Company at Breckenridge of which he has since been the president. He was also for some time president of the American Bleach and Chemical Company, the Onondaga Coal and Oil Company, the Eastern Building and Loan Association of Syracuse, and the Onondaga County Loan and Trust Company, and for four years-from 1882 to 1885 inclusive-he served most efficiently as president of the Onondaga County Agricultural Society.
Mr. Loomis has long taken an active interest in the progress and welfare of the city, and especially in the material advancement of the First ward, where his home and business interests are mainly centered. In benevolent and charitable affairs, and in all inatters affecting the general public, his means and personal influence are potential factors. He is liberal, public spirited, and enterprising, and is eminently endowed with all those sterling qualities which make the successful man.
Mrs. Loomis's wife, a lady of rare attainments, died in 1888, leaving three chil- dren: Edwin L., a prominent business man of Syracuse; Dora, the wife of Dr. Dwight H. Murray, of this city; and Anna Grace, at home. In July, 1892, Mr. Loomis was married, second, to Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Wheeler, widow of Dr. W. A. Wheeler and eldest daughter of the late Thomas Nicholson, of Syracuse.
PETER BURNS.
HON. PETER BURNS only child of David and Mary (Dempsey) Burns, natives of Dublin, Ireland, was born in that city July 30, 1814, and in the spring of 1819-his mother having died the year previous-came with his father in a merchant vessel to America. After a stormy passage the vessel was wrecked off Sandy Hook, but
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nearly all the passengers were saved. They located in Delaware county, N. Y., on the east branch of the Delaware River, where the lad remained for several years, most of the time in a French family, his father returning to New York city to follow his previous business of brewer and distiller. Five years later David Burns settled in Ulster county, where he died in 1850, and where he was joined by his son when the latter had reached the age of twelve.
Mr. Burns, during his boy- hood and youth, enjoyed only the very limited advant- ages for obtaining an educa- tion which the new and un -. settled country afforded. He early learned to speak the French language fluently, and later, upon going to Ul- ster county, spent five years in a family of Hollanders, working on a farm and ac- quiring such knowledge of books as fell in his way, but obtaining by experience well- formed habits of industry, economy, frugality, and per- severance, as well as careful discipline in the doctrines of the Reformed Dutch church. From this period of five years in that model family he dated the real beginning of his subsequent career. When seventeen he was ap- prenticed to the saddlery trade in Ulster county, and PETER BURNS. remained there and at Wood- stock, N. Y., until he attained liis majority, when he went to New York to still further perfect his mechanical skill. In 1836 he came to Syracuse, where he spent the remainder of his life, and where he died June 20, 1895.
After following his trade as a journeyman until 1840, and returning from a west- ern tour he spent two years in Onondaga Academy and obtained a teacher's di- ploma, but instead of teaching he was induced to accept a position as bookkeeper in a saddlery hardware store in Syracuse, where he remained five years. He then started a small saddlery hardware store for himself in the old Granger block and successfully continued business until 1853, when he formed a copartnership with the late Kasson Frazer, and began the manufacture of saddlery hardware, which the firm conducted with steadily increasing success until the death of Mr. Frazer in 1876, when it had become one of the leading industries of the kind in the county. One
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year later Mr. Burns retired, leaving his son, Hon. Willis B., in full possession of his interest.
Mr. Burns was originally a Whig and afterward a staunch Republican, and after filling several positions of trust in the city he was elected to the Legislature, where he served on various important committees during the sessions of 1871 and 1872. As a member of the Committee on Railroads he was instrumental in effecting legisla- tion of much importance, notably the preparation and passage of the Open-Cut and Viaduct bill, which gave the New York Central Railroad Company its present en- trance to the Grand Union depot in New York city from Harlem. He was super- visor of the Sixth ward of Syracuse in 1859 and 1860, several years chairman of the board of inspectors of the Onondaga County Penitentiary, and one of the first police commissioners of the city, and as chairman of that board assisted in organizing the present police force. He was for more than thirty years a director in the Merchants' National Bank long a director and at one period vice-president of the Trust and Deposit Company of Onondaga, and for several years a trustee and member of the executive committee of Syracuse University. He united with the Reformed Dutch church at the age of twenty, but upon coming to this city joined the First Presbyte- rian church, and for a time served as its Sunday school superintendent. He was one of nine persons to organize the James street Reformed Dutch church, contrib- uted liberally to the erection of the present Plymouth church, and for more than thirty years was president of the board of trustees of the last named society. He was also president of the board of trustees of the Onondaga County Orphan Asy- lum, and gave to this and various other charitable institutions of the city continued watchful care and much pecuniary and. He largely supervised the construction of the Orphan Asylum building. He was a consistent Christian gentleman, esteemed, and honored, and exerted in the community a wide and wholesome influence. He was charitable, energetic, and progressive, and took great pride in the city's material and moral advancement.
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