USA > New York > Oneida County > Rome > Our city and its people : a descriptive work on the city of Rome, New York > Part 23
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Joseph I. Sayles, youngest son of Benjamin B. and Polly (Strong) Sayles, was born in Plymouth, Chenango county, N. Y., October 7, 1843, and remained on the parental farm and attended the district schools until he reached the age of seven- teen. He inherited in full measure the sturdy characteristics of his New England ancestry, and supplemented these by early acquiring those habits of industry and perseverance which ir ark the successful man. April 29, 1861, he enlisted in Co. HI, 17th N. Y. Vol. Inf., as a private, and served with the Army of the Potomac from its organization till after the siege of Yorktown, participating in all the engagements on the peninsula. At Chickahomony Swamp he was taken sick and sent to St. Elizabeth Hospital at Washington, where he was honorably discharged August 9,
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
1862. Returning home he resumed his common school education and soon began to read law in Norwich, N. Y. He was graduated from the Albany Law School in 1866 and in December of the same year was admitted to the bar at Albany. Im- mediately afterward he commenced the practice of his profession in Lee Center, Oneida county, where he served as justice of the peace and where he remained until 1870 when he moved to Rome. Here he formed a copartnership with Hon. M. D. Barnett, which continued until the latter's election as district attorney in 1876. Mr. Sayles's next partnership was in 1887, when the present firm of Sayles, Searle & Sayles, was organized by the admission of D. F. Scarle and A. F. Sayles.
Mr. Sayles has been a lifelong Republican, casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln for president in 1864. He represented the Fifth ward in the common council three years, has been a member of the Rome Water Commission four years, and in March, 1894, was appointed by Gov. Levi P. Morton one of the managers of the State Custodial Asylum at Rome for six years, being chairman of the executive com- mittee of that institution. He was a charter member of Skillen Post, No. 47, G. A. R. and for ten years officiated as its commander. He was also department commander of the G. A. R. for the State of New York, with rank of major-general in 1885, and judge advocate of the department three terms. In 1891 he organized and has since served as president of the Jones Elastic Enamel Paint Company of Rome. He is heavily interested in real estate, both at home and elsewhere, and has for many years been closely identified with the city's growth and prosperity.
But it is as a trial and criminal lawyer that Mr. Sayles stands out the most prom- inently in his career. Without the adventitious aids which wealth, family influence, and scholastic attainments can give he has, by courage, industry, perseverance, in domitable will power, and his own unaided ability, worked his way from a rustic school boy on the farm to the front rank in his profession as a trial lawyer, so that he stands to-day among the foremost criminal lawyers in the State. He is emphatically and in the fullest sense a self-made man. It is as a jury advocate, and the more especially as a criminal lawyer, that he has won his greatest triumphs and established his widest reputation. His shrewdness and taet in the management of trials, his acquaintance with human nature which enables him to judge how oral testimony will strike and impress the average juror, his experience and familiarity with the practice and intricacies of criminal law, and above and better than all his skill in the examination of his own and the cross-examination of unwilling and evasive witnesses all thoroughly equip him for a trial lawyer in both civil and criminal trials, and make him a formidable and most dangerous antagonist. He has tried causes in every county of this State but two, and has defended between thirty and forty prisoners (the trials taking place in nearly a dozen different counties) for capital offenses, and in none of them has the prisoner been executed, and in only one was there a convie- tion for the higher offense, and in that case the judgment was reversed and the prisoner subsequently acquitted. It is said of him that "he is a natural trial lawyer."
On the 2d of June, 1873, Mr. Sayles was married to Miss Sarah Castle, a daughter of the late Hon. John J. Castle, of Lee, who in 1852 was member of assembly from Oneida county. She died July 7, 1877, and in 1878 he married Mrs. Carrie M. Bond, daughter of George Potter, of Lee, by whom he has two children: Josie Irene, born
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
January 10, 1880, and General George W., born February 22, 1882. The first born, at the age of thirteen, wrote a book, worthy of one double her years, which was printed for circulation among her own immediate acquaintances and friends.
EDWARD COMSTOCK.
HON. EDWARD COMSTOCK, son of Hon. Calvert and Eliza Mann (Sill) Comstock, was born in Rome, N. Y., April 30, 1842. He first decided upon a legal career and read law, bu' abandoned this to become lieutenant and adjutant in the. 146th N. Y. Vols. in the war of the Rebellion. He was with the 146th N. Y. Vols. in the battle of Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. Afterward he was on General Ganard's staff, commanding division of cavalry attached to General Sherman's army in the advance from Chattanooga to Atlanta. Returning to his home in Rome he engaged in business with his father as a lumber manufacturer. In 1876 he established himself in the wholesale and retail lumber trade, with which he has since been identified.
Mr. Comstock is a prominent and an influential factor in the Democratic party, and like his respected father has always taken a keen interest in the welfare and prosperity of the city of Rome. . He was twice elected mayor, and is now a member of the Board of Education.
CALVERT COMSTOCK.
HON. CALVERT COMSTOCK was born in the town of Western, Oneida county, July 2, 1812, and died in Rome, N Y., October 10, 1877. He was carly dependent upon his own resources for both a livelihood and an education, and at the age of sixteen be- gan teaching school. In the intervals of this occupation and farm labor he prepared himself for college and in 1831 entered Hamilton College, where he spent two years. There lie was one of the founders of the Alpha Delta Phi Society. Compelled by circumstances to relinquish collegiate life he began the study of law with his cousin, Ichabod C. Baker, in Whitesboro, and in 1835 was admitted to the bar. He then formed a co-partnership with Mr. Baker, which continued until 1838, when he re- moved to Rome to fill a vacancy in the firm of Foster & Stryker, occasioned by the removal of Hon. Charles Tracy to Utica. The firm became Foster, Stryker & Com- stock and so continued until January 1, 1841, when Judge Henry A. Foster retired upon a re-election to the State Senate. The firm of Stryker & Comstock continued till July 7, 1846, when Bloomfield J. Beach became a member. In August, 1847, Mr. Stryker retired and Comstock & Beach continued until January 1, 1855, when Mr. Comstock retired permanently from the law, and at the earnest solicitation of his friends in the Democratic party removed to Albany to take charge of the Albany Argus, then the State organ of the Hunker wing of the Democrats.
As a lawyer Mr. Comstock distinguished himself in his profession, and during his twenty years of active practice won a high reputation among both associates and
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
elients. He was eminently successful-a man of honor, candor, courtesy, ability, and integrity, of discriminating judgment, sound common sense, and great love of justice. In 1845 he was appointed district attorney and by election held that office until 1850, when his extensive law business compelled him to resign. He was a member of assembly in 1845, and in connection with the State Constitution of 1846 won a state-wide reputation. He was chairman of the select committee on that sub- jeet, and took the ground that under the constitution of 1821 the Legislature had no right to submit to the people the question of calling a constitutional convention. On this point he made an elaborate report, the law and facts of which stood unchal lenged. He framed such amendments to the constitution as in his judgment were demanded, and urged their adoption by the Legislature and subsequent submission to the people, but he was beaten by a combination of Barnburners and Whigs. In the end his judgment was vindicated, for lawyers and statesmen conceded that the constitution of 1846 was inferior, as a whole, to that of 1821. Mr. Comstock had a large journalistie experience. From 1838 until the close of the campaign of 1840 he had charge as editor of the Rome Sentinel. In 1847 he became a partner in the firm of A. J. Rowley & Co., in its proprietorship, the editor being his brother Elon. In July, 1852, Calvert and Elon Comstock purchased the plant and established the Rome Daily Sentinel, which they successfully conducted until 1855, when they sold it to D. E. Wager and D. C. Rowley. Calvert Comstock then went to Albany and succeeded Edwin Croswell as editor of the Argus. The Atlas, then edited by Will- iam Cassidy, represented the other wing of the Democratic party. Shortly after- ward the uniting of the two factions brought about the consolidation of the two pa- pers and Messrs. Comstock and Cassidy continued in partnership until the former was compelled in 1866 to retire, his constitution having suddenly and completely broken down under the strain of constant labor. He returned to Rome and spent the remainder of his life.
Mr. Comstock always manifested a lively interest in the advancement and pros- perity of Rome. He was influential in the construction of the various plank roads which in 1848 were built from the city in several directions. He was largely inter- ested in the building of the Rome, Watertown and Cape Vincent railroad and for twenty years was a director of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad Company. He was president of the Boston, Rome and Oswego Railroad Company, a projected railroad intended to take advantage of the completion of the Hoosac tunnel, and personally superintended the entire survey of the line. About 1849 he purchased, in connection with Hon. Edward Huntington, a large traet of land in Rome from George Clarke and brought it into market as building lots. He was chiefly influential in securing the charter for the city of Rome and in 1870 was elected the first mayor. He also served for many years as president of the Board of Edu- cation.
April 27, 1836, Mr. Comstock married Miss Eliza Mann Sill, eldest daughter of Gen. Theodore Sill, of Whitesboro, the law partner of Thomas R. Gold. Mrs. Com- stock died in 1868, leaving four daughters and three sons, all of whom survived their father.
a
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
CAPT. JAMES S. ABEEL.
CAPT. JAMES STILLIR ABEEL was a lineal descendant of (1) Christopher James Abeel, who was born in 1621 in Amsterdam, Holland, whence lie came to this country in 1657 and settled at Fort Orange (now Albany), where he engaged in trade as agent for the , Dutch West India Company. The line of descent from that patroon to the subject of this memoir is (2) Johannes, (3) David, (4) James, (5) John N., and (6) James S. Johannes Abeel (2) was the second mayor and for several years recorder of the city of Albany, holding the first named office two terms. David (3) was a merchant and for some time assessor of New York city. James Abeel (4) was a colonel in the Revolutionary army and served through the war as deputy quarter- master-general on the staff of General Washington, under General Greene. It was largely through his exertions that the troops were provisioned and the army main- tained during the historical winter at Valley Forge, and a number of letters bearing his name are still extant. Ile married a daughter of Dr. John Neilson, a physician of Belfast, Ireland, who came to New York and practiced his profession with success. Rev. John Neilson Abeel (5), son of Colonel James, was born in New York city in 1769, was graduated from Princeton College in 1787 and read law with Hon. William Patterson, LL. D .. in New Brunswick. Later he studied theology, became a tutor in Princeton, and was licensed to preach in 1793; two years after he became one of the min- isters of the collegiate church (Dutch Reformed) of New York and remained there until his death in .1812. In 1804 Harvard College conferred upon him the degree of D. D. Dr. Abeel was a trustee of Queen's and Columbia Colleges and in 1804, with eleven other citizens, founded the New York Historical Society. He married, January 29, 1794, Mary Stillie, who died January 13, 1826. She was a member of an old and re- spected Swedish family of Philadelphia before the days of William Penn, when that city was known as New Stockholm and the State of Pennsylvania as New Sweden. Of their five children two daughters died in infancy; the others were James S. ; Neilson, born in 1797, married Caroline Lawrence, and died in 1827; and Gustavus, born June 6, 1801, graduated from Union College in 1823 and from the Theological Seminary in New Brunswick in 1824, and died in September, 1887.
Capt. James Stille Abeel was born in Philadelphia, Pa, November 15, 1795, and re- ceived his education in the grammar and select schools of New York city under Arthur Stansbury and John Borland. Upon the death of his father in 1812 he entered the counting house of Robert Lenox, but soon entered the United States army and was assigned to duty on the Niagara frontier in the war of 1812-15. May 3, 1813, he was made third lieutenant, and on February 20, 1815, President James Madison commis- sioned him first-lieutenant in the 23d Regt. Inf., to rank from October 1, 1814, at which time he and Gen. J. A. Dix were the youngest officers on the force. He was present at the sortie on Fort Erie and the taking of Fort George and was wounded at the battle of Lundy's Lane, where it was subsequently supposed his voice became impaired. At the close of the war in December, 1815, he was retained as second lieutenant with brevet of first lieutenant in the reorganized army and transferred to the 4th Artillery. April 20, 1818, he was made first heutenant of artillery, his com - mission signed by President James Monroe, being dated July 10, 1820. September 1, 1829, he was brevetted captain for ten years' faithful service in one grade, by Presi- dent Andrew Jackson, to rank from April 20, 1828.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
During this period he was stationed at Newport, R. I., Portland, Me., New York city, and Old Point Comfort, Va. In April, 1828, he was placed in command of the arsenal at Rome, N. Y., where he remained until December 31, 1834, when he re- signed. At this time he had been ordered to rejoin his regiment and proceed to Florida, but the health and care of his family compelled him to send in a resignation. He then engaged in farming near Trenton Falls until January 6, 1838, when npon the recommendation of Generals Scott, Wood, and Worth, he was appointed military storekeeper to succeed Capt. Samuel Perkins, deceased, in charge of the Rome arsenal, his commission being signed by President John Tyler and dated May 30, 1844. He held this post until May 7, 1855, when he turned over the arsenal to Capt. D. B. Sackett for a recruiting station. Captain Abeel was then in command of the Detroit U. S. arsenal at Dearborn, Mich., till April, 1863, when he returned to Rome and had charge as military storekeeper of the arsenal here until February 16, 1870, when he was placed on the retired list. Except the brief period spent in farming he served for fifty-seven years in the military service of the U. S. government. He died in De- cember, 1871, being at that time the oldest commissioned officer of the army.
Captain Abeel was an excellent soldier, an accomplished musician, and a man of extensive reading. Ilis dignified military bearing and habits of precision made him a conspicuous figure wherever he went. His profession was that of arms, yet hic possessed a natural love for agricultural pursuits. He was a typical gentleman of the old school. He was endowed with great natural wit and humor, a lively artistic and literary conception, and all the tastes of a warlike imagination. In common with nearly all men trained solely to army life he was ignorant of the complications of practical business affairs. He was quite popular, although noted for his pro- nounced personality, and throughout Central New York enjoyed a wide acquaint- ance and the respect of all. In person he was very particular, even fastidious, and in deportment he was as punctual as the clock.
November 16. 1826, Captain Abeel was married in New York city to Miss Mary Powell Seymour, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Powell) Seymour, of New- burg, N. Y., and niece of Jacob and Thomas Powell. merchants, of that place. She died December 28, 1888, aged eighty-three. They had seven children: John Neil- son and William Seymour, deceased; Isabella, of Rome; Thomas Powell and Al- fred, of Waco, Texas; Augusta, wife of Lieut .- Col. F. H. Parker, ordnance depart- ment U. S. A. ; and James M., deceased.
THOMAS G. NOCK.
THOMAS GILL. Nock was born at Brierly Hill, near Dudley, Staffordshire, England, February 11, 1829, his birthplace being his maternal grandfather's home. A few weeks later he was baptized in the parish church by his mother's rector, and received the name of his mother's father, Thomas Gill, who was a robust, fine appearing man, active, generous hearted, untiring in his work, and a firm believer in God. When fifty years of age Mr. Nock was the counterpart of Mr. Gill-having the same per- fectly shaped head, the high forehead, the intelligent face, the business foresight,
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
the untiring energy, the unselfish generosity. When three years old the child left Brierly Hill with his parents and came to America. In his eighth year he returned to England with hisfather on a visit to his birthplace, and this event proved a memorable one in his life, making a lasting impression upon his then youthful mind. When he returned to his home at Ramapo, N. Y .. he was sent to a private school for two years, after which a tutor was brought to the house for him. This teacher was James Stewart, a graduate of Edinburgh University, and he was continued in this capacity for several years. When fifteen young Nock went to New York city for special in- struction forone term in a private school. Returning to Ramapo he entered the office of a cotton mill, where he remained some months. His life in Ramapo wasreally one of studying the manufacture of steel, but he was often in the woods, on the "Tuxe- do," and along the mountain streams with rod and gun. He loved nature, and more than once climbed the noted "Torn," but he was learning the secret of the earth's metals. His father, George Nock a man of great ability, of strong will and charac- ter, and skilled in metallurgy, helped him to a practical knowledge of iron and steel. The father was true and sincere in his religious life, and taught his children and all men his faith and practice by example. The son learned much from this teaching, and slow- ly but finally strengthened that character and personality which in the man were so marked. There was that in his make-up which happily mingled the characteristics of his maternal and paternal ancestry. Joseph Nock, his paternal grandfather, was a country squire, an active, positive, and determined man in whatever he attempted. The family coat of arms suggests the character of the descendants. On the shield is a bend between three annulets, or, on a field of azure. The erest is a dexter hand brandishing a seimetar. The motto is "In tenebris servare fidem."
Mr. Noek removed in early life from Ramapo to Windsor Locks, Conn., where he married Miss Caroline M., only daughter of Royal Prouty, who survives him. There he was the assistant superintendent, bookkeeper and paymaster of the E. G. Ripley & Co. iron and steel works, which position he held until he removed to Syracuse, N. Y., assuperintendent of a large iron rolling mill, since converted intothe present Syra- cuse Tube Works. In 1864 he came to Rome, Oneida county, to supervise the erection of the Rome iron mill, and continued as its general superintendent until the building of the New York Locomotive works in this city in 1882, when he was elected presi- dent of that corporation, a position he held until his death on April 20, 1890. The ground for the locomotive works was broken September 17. 1881. and the company was formed in May, 1882. Mr. Nock was largely instrumental in starting that con- cern, which carried on under his supervision and management a successful business in the manufacture of railroad locomotives and engines. Ile was a man of great executive ability, of sound judgment and foresight, and of wonderful force of char- aeter.
lle was for many years prior to his death the president of the First National Bank, a director in the Central Bank, and in fact a stockholder in all the banks in Rome. As a financier his ability and integrity were widely recognized. He contributed materially to the prosperity and general welfare of the city, and sustained and en- couraged every beneficent enterprise. He was publie spirited and generous to a fault, and bore the confidence of the entire community. A Republican in politics he took a lively interest in the welfare of his party and never failed to work for its ad-
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
vancement. He was the first fire commissioner appointed in Rome and served con- tinually as the president of the board from its organization until his death. Ile gen- erously supported the cause of religion and education, and in all matters of a public nature was ever foremost and active. He was very kind hearted, benevolent to the poor and needy, and never missed an opportunity of aiding the unfortunate.
Mr. Noek was survived by three brothers: Revs. Edwin Gaines and Joseph A. Nock, Episcopal clergymen in Philadelphia and Jersey City respectively, and George F. Nock, a commission merchant of New York. He is also survived by four sisters. Of his five children three are living, namely: Dr. Thomas G., jr., a practicing physician, one of the coroners of Oneida county for several years, and one of the fire commissioners of Rome; George P., of New York city; and Mrs. Claude C. Coan, of Clinton, Iowa. His widow resides in Rome.
CYRUS DAN PRESCOTT.
The first American ancestor of the Prescott family of which the subject of this sketch is a lineal descendant, was John, a grandson of Sir James Prescott and his . wife, daughter of Roger Standish, lord and lady of the manor of Dryby in Lincoln- shire, England. John Prescott, (1) settled in Boston, Mass., in 1640, and the line of his posterity is as follows: (2) Jonas, (3) Jonas, (4) Ebenezer, (5) Oliver, (6) Oliver, (7) Jeremiah, (8) Cyrus D. Oliver (5) was born May 5, 1725. married Bethiah Under- wood, served in the war of the Revolution, and died January 1, 1803. Oliver (6) was born in Westford, Mass., February 22, 1760, married Keziah Howard, and moved to Jeffrey, N. H., and thence in 1793 to New Hartford, Oneida county, where he pur- chased 500 acres of unbroken forest land. He was a life- long farmer, and died in that town in December, 1843. Jeremiah Prescott (7)was born in New Hartford on Au- gust 4, 1806, was first a farmer and subsequently a tin and iron manufacturer, and afterwards admitted to practice as attorney and counselor at law in 1864, and died there May 12, 1872. He was a justice of the peace about thirty years, at one time under sheriff of the county, and held several other local offices. His wife, Deb- orah Linnemann, was born near Amsterdam, N. Y., December 15, 1805, and died May 5, 1874. Her father, Johan Linnemann, was born in Viele, Denmark, February 16, 1759, was brought to America in 1768, and settled near Amsterdam, where he died. He served in the Revolutionary war, and married for his wife Catherine Six- berry, who died in Ohio, December 19, 1863, aged 101 years, six months and thirteen days.
Ilon. Cyrus D. Prescott, son of Jeremiah, was born in New Hartford, on the 15th of August, 1836, and finished his literary education at the Utica Free Academy. He then spent about one year each in the law offices of O. G. Kellogg and Hurd & Brown, in Utica, and at the end of that period entered the county elerk's office, where he re- mained a little more than two years as search clerk. In 1858 he came to Rome and resumed his legal studies in the office of Johnson & Boardman, which firm soon became Foster, Johnson, Boardman & Lynch. Mr. Prescott was admitted to the bar at the Syraeuse General term in the summer of 1859, and began the practice of his profess
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OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE.
ion in the spring of 1860 in Rome under the firm name of Greene & Prescott, which . continued until January 1, 1865. After spending the years 1865 and 1866 in travel- ing through the South and West he went to New York in January, 1867, as financial clerk for a wholesale establishment. In the spring of 1868 he returned to Rome and in June formed a co-partnership with D. Minor K. Johnson, formerly of the firm of Foster, Johnson, Boardman & Lynch, under the style of Johnson & Prescott. This firm continued a large law practice until Mr. Johnson's death in July, 1886. Mr. Prescott remained alone till August 1, 1895, when the present copartnership of Pres- cott & Titus was formed by the admission of Charles T. Titus.
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