USA > New York > Oneida County > Rome > Our city and its people : a descriptive work on the city of Rome, New York > Part 21
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Dr. West was married November 6, 1861, to Miss Felicia H. Williams, daughter of Jesse Williams, the father of the cheese factory system in America and the proprie- tor of the first cheese factory in Oneida county. Their children were Olive D., Jessie J., Dr. Calvin B., F. May and Florence Mary. Dr. Calvin B. West, born in Rome, March 29, 1867, was graduated from the Rome Academy in 1885 and from Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass., in 1886, spent three years in Amherst College, and was graduated with the degree of M. D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York city in 1893. After filling the position of house physician and surgeon to the Paterson General Hospital one year he came to Rome in August, 1894, and began the active practice of his profession.
JOHN STRYKER.
IN the early history of New Amsterdam the name of Stryker appears somewhat conspicuously in connection with numerous offices of trust and responsibility. It is found in the lists of high sheriffs, and in government councils as well as in business and commercial enterprises, and invariably commanded wide respect and confidence. Originally of Holland Dutch etymology, Van Strycker, it came in time to be Americanized and contracted into Stryker, the form under which several genera- tions have flourished and prospered. Very early in the settlement of New Amster- dam Jan and Jacobus Gerritson Strycker, Dutch burghers, obtained a grant of land on Manhattan Island, and from them descends the families bearing the name in this
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
country at the present time. The line from Jan (1) is Pieter Strycker (2), Jan Strycker (3), Pieter Stryeker (4), John Stryker (5), Daniel Perrine Stryker (6), and John Stryker (7), the subject of this memoir. October 25, 1673, Jan Strycker (3) was chosen captain of a company that was raised in the town of Midwout (Flushing), to respond to the call for troops issued by Governor Stuyvesant to resist the encroachments of the British. In 1773 John Stryker (5) was commissioned captain of a troop of light horse cavalry in Somerset county, N. J., and when the Revolutionary war broke out he offered his services to his native State. He fought with his company all through the Revolution. In 1863 his lineal descendant, John Stryker, jr., became a captain of New York State volunteers in the war of the Rebellion. Daniel Perrine Stryker (6), a merchant in New York city, married Harriet Pierson and had three sons and two daughters, of whom the last two and one son died young. Those who attained maturity were John (7) and Rev. Isaac Pierson Stryker. The latter is a retired Presbyterian clergyman residing in New Jersey and the father of Melancthon Woolsey Stryker, president of Hamilton College.
Hon. Jolin Stryker (7) was born in Orange, N. J., December 7, 1808. His father died a few years later and at the age of seven his mother brought him to Whitesboro, Oneida county, N. Y., where he received his education in the local academy. Ile began active life as a clerk for William G. Tracy, a leading merchant of Whitesboro, but soon developed decided inclinations for a professional career. He read law with Thomas R. Gold and later in the office of Storrs & White, and was admitted to the Oneida Common Pleas in 1829, before he had reached his majority. In the same year he came to Rome, N. Y., and formed a copartnership with Allanson Bennett. Sub- sequently he was associated in the practice of law with Hons. Henry A. Foster, Calvert Comstock, Charles Tracy, B. J. Beach, George H. Lynch, and others. In 1835 he was elected member of assembly. In 1837 he was appointed surrogate of the county and held that office ten consecutive years, or until the constitution of 1846 made it elective. In 1847 he discontinued the practice of law, in which he had been very successful, and thenceforward devoted his attention to building up railroads and other important enterprises. He was one of the original movers in the Utica and Syracuse railroad project, was the first attorney for the company, was one of its directors until the lines were consolidated, and was largely instrumental in securing its location through Rome and in defeating the attempt to locate it through the southern part of the county. Afterward he was closely identified with many railway lines, including the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana, the Terre Haute and Alton, and others, pushing them to completion and placing the corporations upon a sound working basis. He was engaged extensively in railroad operations until the fall of 1867, when he suffered a stroke of paralysis. He died at his home in Rome on April 30, 1885.
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Mr. Stryker was a shrewd business man and investor, one of the foremost railroad financiers of his time, and intimately associated with such noted men as Samuel J. Tilden, Erastus Corning, Dean Richmond, and others in railway projects. His counsel and advice were regarded as reliable, his word was as good as his bond. A man of great business capacity and of unswerving integrity he retained through life the respect and confidence of every one who knew him. He was heavily interested in numerous local corporations and landed investments, and being public spirited and
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
enterprising always took a just pride in the prosperity of the city. He was one of the founders of the Rome Locomotive Works, one of the incorporators and a director of the Merchants Iron Mill, a director in the Rome Iron Works, and one of the originators and for some time president of the Rome Gas Light Company. He was a director in several banks and for many years officiated as president of the old Bank of Rome. He was one of the founders of the Deaf Mute Institute of Rome, and was especially active and influential in securing the Black River Canal and in changing the course of the Erie Canal for the benefit of the city.
In politics Mr. Stryker was a life-long Democrat, and during many years enjoyed a wide and intimate acquaintance among all the noted politicians of the United States, and especially among such men as James K. Polk, Gov. William L. Marcy, Governor Seymour, Governor Bouck, Edwin Croswell, Silas Wright, and other equally prominent statesmen of the country. He was remarkably familiar with political history. His shrewd management as a leading politician was manifest far and near, especially in the county of Oneida, where he practically controlled his party's operations. He was long the center of the famous " Rome Regency," which represented the principal Democratic influence in this section in its time. But he did not seek office; he pre- ferred to manage politics and direct his party's movements, for which he had a natural taste and ability and in which he was eminently successful. He probably attended more district, county, state, and national conventions than any other man of his day in New York. He was a delegate to twelve state and four national con- ventions and for ten years was a leading member of the Democratic State Commit- tee. In 1867 he ran for Congress against the late A. H. Bailey and was defeated in a Republican stronghold by a very small majority.
Mr. Stryker was a great reader, and was at all times thoroughly posted, and possessed a wonderfully retentive memory, especially in political affairs, Genial, kind, and generous by nature he was a liberal benefactor to all religious, charitable, and educational objects, and for twenty years was one of the wardens of Zion Epis- copal church of Rome. He was the architect of his own fortune and wisely em- ployed it for the advancement of his city. His family homestead, which he erected about 1839, occupies the northeast corner of the historic site of Fort Stanwix and stands wholly or partly on the site of the old blockhouse.
In 1839 Mr Stryker married Miss Frances Ehzabeth Hubbard, daughter of Hon. Thomas Hill Hubbard, of Utica. [Mr. Hubbard was the first surrogate (in 1809) of Madison county, deputy attorney-general of the district comprising the counties of Oneida, Otsego, Chenango, Herkimer, and Lewis in 1816-18, district attorney of Madison county in 1818-21, member of congress six years, and presidential elector in 1812, 1844, and 1852.] She died April 17, 1891, aged seventy five years. Their children were John, deceased; Phebe, of Rome; Harriet P., wife of Edward H. Butler, a banker, and ex-state treasurer, of Detroit, Mich .; Grace, wife of Rev. E. Bayard Smith, rector of Trinity Episcopal church, of Troy, N. Y .; and Thomas Hubbard Stryker, of Rome.
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
DAVID UTLEY.
THE Utley family is of English extraction, and for several generations imbibed those sterling habits of thrift and frugality which characterized native New Eng- landers. David Utley, sr., father of the subject of this memoir, was born in Con- recticut, and came from Dutchess county, N. Y., to the town of Western, Oneida county, about the year 1795, guiding himself through the wilderness from Fort Stanwix by the aid of a compass and blazed trees. An ambitious pioneer, though broken in health, he managed to clear a farm and died there when comparatively a young man.
David Utley, son of David, sr., was born of Quaker parentage in Western on February 12, 1802, and spent his youthful life upon the parental acres, attending the district schools as opportunity afforded. He remained, a farmer, in that town until 1847, and for fifteen consecutive years served his townsmen as supervisor. In this latter capacity he was one of the influential members of the board and retained the confidence and respect of all with whom he came in contact. In 1847 he became a permanent resident of Rome, where he originated and founded the Fort Stanwix (now the Fort Stanwix National) Bank, which commenced business in December of that year on the corner of James and Dominick streets. Mr. Utley was elected its first president, a position he held by re-election until it became a national bank in 1865, when he was chosen to the same office in the reorganized institution, and served in that capacity until his death on June 20, 1882. He was succeeded by his son, Harmon G. Utley, who had entered the bank as teller in 1847 and subsequently became also its vice president. Mr. Utley was one of the ten founders of the Rome Exchange Bank and served as a director of that institution and its successor, the First National Bank, for many years. Ile was also a director for some time in the City Bank of Oswego and in the Rome & Watertown and Mobile & Ohio Railroad Companies, and was largely instrumental in securing the location of the R., W. & O. Railroad shops in Rome. He was one of the founders and long a director of the Rome Iron Works and Merchants Iron Mill and for many years a member and ves- tryman of Zion Episcopal church.
Mr. Utley was widely recognized as an able financier and occupied a prominent . position among leading bankers of Central New York. He was closely identified with various measures which owe a large measure of their success to his personal direction or valued counsels. He was shrewd, sagacious, and somewhat prophetic, a man of excellent business ability and sound judgment, and a powerful factor as a banker, and in local financial affairs. Unostentatious, quiet, and mild-mannered, but firm and decided in his opinion, he was a close student of human nature, a good diplomatist, a man of even temperament, and a prosperous and influential citizen. Hle took a keen interest in the welfare of his city and was always a liberal contrib- utor to charitable and benevolent objects. A life-long Democrat he never sought public office, yet in Western he was pressed forward by his townsmen year after year to the highest elective position within theirgift.
Mr. Utley was married, first, to Miss Amy Beckwith, daughter of Lemuel Beck- with, the first settler in 1789 of the town of Western, Oneida county, where she died leaving four children, of whom George P. and Harmon G. (of Rome) survive. His second wife was Miss Catherine Marsh, of New York city, who died without issue.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
VIRGIL DRAPER.
THE first American ancestors of the Draper family were James Draper and Miriam Stansfield, his wife, of Heptonstall Parish, Vicarage of Halifax, Yorkshire, England, who came to this country and settled in Roxbury, near Boston, Mass., about 1650. James Draper was a son of Thomas and was made a freeman of Roxbury in 1690. The line of descent from Thomas to the subject of this memoir is as follows: (1) Thomas, (2) James, (3) James, (4) James, (5) Josialı, (6) Josialı, and (7) Virgil. James Draper (3) was born in Roxbury in 1654, married Abigail Whitney, of Dedham, Mass., February 18, 1681, and died April 30, 1698. He was a soldier in King Philip's war in 1675. James Draper (4), son of James (3), was born in 1691, married, first, Rachei Addis and, second, Abigail Child, and died in 1768. He was captain of the Trained Bands of Militia in his district. Josiah (5), son of James (4) and Abigail (Chikl) Draper, was born in Stoughton, Mass., September 12, 1727, and married Sarah Ellis. Their son, Josiah (6), was born in Dedham, Mass., October 14, 1753, and died in Attleboro, Mass., May 17, 1819. He married Miss Mary Mann, daughter of Dr. Bezaleel Mann, of Attleboro, and sister of Newton Mann, whose portrait and biog- raphy appear in this work. September 25, 1778, he enlisted as a drummer in Captain Plympton's company of Medfield, Mass., volunteers, and served ereditably in the war of the Revolution. He had thirteen children, of whom Virgil was the eighth.
Virgil Draper, born in Attleboro, Mass., January 4, 1789, inherited all the sturdy characteristics of his long line of worthy New England ancestry, and besides was liberally endowed with those native attributes which make the successful man. Ile acquired his rudimentary education in the public schools of his birthplace, interspers- ing it with a practical experience which proved valuable in after life. In 1806 he came to Whitesboro, Oneida county, N. Y., to live with his maternal unele, Dr. Seth Capron, and immediately entered the newly established cotton mills there to learn the manufacture of cotton goods in all its branches. The principal owners of these mills were Dr. Capron and Newton Mann, and in them Mr. Draper remained until 1822, when he came to Rome, N. Y., as superintendent of Dominick Lynch's mill. About two years later he went to Stittville, Oneida county, and established a cotton mill, which he sold out in 1827. Returning then to Rome he purchased the Lynch waterpower and mill property at what is known as " Factory Village" and engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods on an extensive scale, having also a general store in connection with the establishment. He continued this business with marked suc- cess until about 1840, when he retired. In 1827 he also purchased the property on the corner of Spring and Dominick streets, where the Lynch residence had stood and which was in 1825 destroyed by fire, and erected the present dwelling, which is occu- pied by his daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. II. K. White. The Lynch house was the first structure built on the historie site of Fort Stanwix after that mil- itary stronghold had been demolished, and which embraced the site where the Draper homestead now stands.
Mr. Draper always manifested a lively interest in the growth and prosperity of Rome, to which he liberally contributed through various important enterprises. He was one of the founders of the Fort Stanwix (now the Fort Stanwix National) Bank and served as its vice-president until his death, which occurred in Rome on April 6,
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
1867. He was heavily interested in Rome real estate and numerous business proj- ects, which materially promoted the general welfare and advancement. He was always a conspicuous figure in local elections and in political affairs, not for the pur- pose of seeking office, for that he steadfastly refused, but for the good of his party and town. Originally a Whig and subsequently a Republican he was one of the few who contributed towards and procured the establishment of the Roman Citizen as a Whig newspaper in 1840. He unflinchingly stood by his convictions, and possessed a keen discrimination between right and wrong. He was a constant attendant of the Presbyterian church and required the same regular attendance of his family. Firm in friendship, cautious in expressing opinions, an earnest advocate of temper- ance, and a man of strict integrity, uprightness of character, and singleness of pur- pose, he was successful in every sphere of life. He was a man of few intimate friends but to those he was closely attached. Starting without a dollar he accumu- lated by his own industry an ample fortune, and in every respect was a self-made man.
He married Miss Eliza Holmes, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Bullard) Holmes, of Attleboro, Mass., who died July 3, 1872, in the eightieth year of her age. They had three children: Frances, born December 1, 1822, married Joseph A. Dudley (died in 1884), an early and prominent druggist and business man of Rome and later a whole- sale druggist in New York city, and died in 1872; Mary, who married, first, Henry S. Hill (died in 1854), a druggist of Rome, and second, Henry K. White, of Spencer & White, one of the oldest dry goods merchants in this city ; and Julia H., who mar- ried her second cousin, Sidney R. Kinney, grandson of Newton Mann, who was en- gaged in the drug business in Rome until his death in 1861. Mr. Draper's three sons-in-law-Messrs. Dudley, Hill, and Kinney-occupied one after another the same drug store and dwelling house, and all were representative business men.
EDWARD HUNTINGTON.
THE first American ancestor of this branch of the Huntington family of which there is any authentic record was Simon, who spent his youth in Windsor, Conn., but removed to Norwich in 1660, where he passed the remainder of his life. Ben- jamin Huntington, one of his descendants and the grandfather of the subject of this memoir, was born in Norwich, Conn., April 19, 1736, graduated from Yale in 1761, and soon became a prominent lawyer in his native town. He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1780-84 and 1787-88 and in 1789 was chosen from Connecti- cut to the first Congress of the United States. From 1781 to 1790 and from 1791 to 1793 he was a member of the Upper House of the Connecticut Legislature; in 1784 he became the first mayor of the city of Norwich, an office he held till he resigned in 1796. In 1793 he was appointed judge of the Superior Court and served in that capacity until 1798. During the Revolutionary war he rendered valuable service to the State and was a member of the convention held at New Haven for the regula- tion of the army. On one occasion, in the absence from home of Judge Huntington, his patriotic wife, in response to a pressing call on the part of the army, sent all
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
their bedding and available clothing to the heroie soldiers, supplying their place on the bed by blankets cut from carpets on the floor. His son, George Huntington, was born June 5, 1770, and was married May 21, 1794, to Ilannah Thomas, of Nor- wich, Conn. He came to Whitestown, Oneida county, in 1792, and in 1793 removed to Rome (then Fort Stanwix), where in partnership with a brother, Henry, he estab- lished the first store at Fort Stanwix, now Rome, opening their goods for sale in the tavern of John Barnard, which stood just northeast of the present court house. Both were natives of Connecticut. In 1794 George Huntington built a frame store and dwelling on Dominick street and the firm continued mercantile business till about 1816. He was the first supervisor of the town of Rome in 1796, and held that office also in 1804, 1814, and 1817. In 1798 he was appointed one of the first side judges of the Common Pleas for the new county of Oneida, and was reappointed in 1801 and 1804. In 1810 he was elected to the Assembly and in 1813 defeated for the office of lieutenant governor on the Federal ticket. In 1815 and again in 1822 he ran for State senator, but was defeated. He was elected to the assembly in 1818, 1819, 1820, and 1821, and from 1797 to 1819 officiated as collector for the Western Inland Canal. He was trustee of Rome village in 1820, 1821, 18222, 1826, and 1827, and died, universally respected and esteemed September 23, 1841. He reared a family of eight children, of whom Edward was the youngest.
Hon. Edward Huntington was born in Rome, June 23, 1817, and died here April 17, 1881. Ile prepared for college at Oliver C. Grosvenor's school, but failing health compelled him to abandon the idea of a collegiate training and turn his attention to civil engineering for the sake of outdoor exercise. In this occupation he found an ample field for the development of his talents and the congenial employment of his native energy. He afterward spent some time in Cuba, where, with Benjamin II. Wright, he was engaged on railroad surveys. Returning to Rome he became one of the engineers on the Utica and Schenectady Railroad and in 1839 was made chief of a corps of engineers employed on the enlargement of the Erie Canal, with headquar- ters at Fort Plain. Upon the death of his father in 1841 he resigned this position and returned to Rome to look after the large landed and other property comprising the estate, which with his own interests commanded his attention ever afterward. Hle was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1816 and rendered valuable service in that important body. He was also for several years president of the vil- lage of Rome.
In 1855 Mr. Huntington was elected president of the Rome Savings Bank to suc- ceed the late Hervey Brayton and held that position until he resigned in 1878. Upon the death of Robert B. Doxtater in 1863 he was made president of the Rome Ex- change (now the First National) Bank and officiated in that capacity until his de- cease. He was one of the prime movers in organizing the Rome Iron Works Com- pany in 1866 and served as its president till his death. He was also largely instru- mental in forming the Merchants Iron Mill, of which he was continuously a valued trustee. In all benevolent and charitable enterprises Mr. Huntington was ever a foremost participant and in every movement which promised benefit to the com- munity his name was conspicuous. He was one of the moving spirits in founding the Central New York. Institution for Deaf Mutes in Rome in 1875 and was a mem- ber of its board of trustees from the organization until his death, He was also a C
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
trustee of the Rome Cemetery Association, a director in the Rome & Clinton Rail- road Company, and for many years a director and vice-president of the First National Bank of Utica.
Mr. Huntington always manifested a deep interest in educational matters and was especially prominent in establishing the Rome Academy, of which he was long a trustee. He was also influential in organizing the Rome free school system and be- came a member of the first Board of Education, a position he filled with singular ability and universal satisfaction. He was a faithful friend of and identified with the Young Men's Christian Association from its inception, being its first president and a member of its board of directors until his death. Throughout life he was a prominent member of the Presbyterian church.
Edward Huntington was first a Whig and later a Republican, a man of quiet and retiring disposition, and neither sought nor desired public office, yet he never shirked responsibility. He discharged every duty with an impartiality and fearlessness born of love of right and justice. He was a man of strict integrity, unswerving fidelity, and of great uprightness of character. A devout Christian, a life-long. friend of popular education, a staunch supporter of the moral and public welfare, he was ever a generous promoter of all projects which promised advancement to the community. He had the best interests of Rome at heart, and contributed of both time and means toward building up the city and furthering its prosperity. He was widely respected and esteemed, and retained the confidence of all with whom he came into contact. Being heavily interested in real estate and numerous business enterprises he was one of the largest taxpayers, and in every capacity his counsel and advice carried the prestige of conviction.
September 4, 1844, Mr. Huntington was married to Miss Antoinette Randall, daughter of William Randall, of Cortland, N. Y., who survives him, as do also a son and four daughters.
ALBERT SOPER.
ALBERT SOPER was the eldest son of Philander and Jerusha Martin Soper, and was born in Rome, in February, 1812. His father had settled in Rome about 1809, hav- ing emigrated from Long Island. His mother had emigrated from Rhode Island about the same year.
Albert grew to manhood on the farm of his father, attending the common school winters, and finishing his education at Mr. Grosvenor's Academy. At the age of eighteen he learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed for several years. A little later he began contracting, and while thus employed built the first planing mill erected in Rome. His earliest partner was Adam Van Patten, who was succeeded by William Simmons, an extensive lumber yard having been added to the business.
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