Our county and its people. A descriptive work on Jefferson County, New York, Part 93

Author: Emerson, Edgar C., ed
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1368

USA > New York > Jefferson County > Our county and its people. A descriptive work on Jefferson County, New York > Part 93

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He obtained his first knowledge of large business affairs under the direction of Henry Keep, the well known capitalist, who had married Miss Anna Woodruff, a sister of Mrs. Flower. After Mr. Keep's death he removed to New York city and took charge of the Henry Keep estate, then worth in the neighborhod of $1.000,000. This has increased

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under his careful and able management until it is now worth over $4,000,000, Much of the estate was in the West where Mr. Flower was a frequent visitor, gaining a personal knowledge of the vast resources of almost every section of the western country. It would be well per- haps to state here that Mr. Flower's private fortune, which is estimated in the millions, was not made by speculation in Wall street, but by the shrewd purchasing of properties, which, by careful and prudent man - agement, have developed and proved valuable investments.

In 1872, after Mr. Flower's serious illness, the firm of Benedict, Flower & Co. was dissolved and Mr. Flower confined his attention to the conduct of the large estates which had been placed in his care. In connection with this work he soon found it necessary to establish a New York office at 84 Broadway, and at this time Anson R. Flower, a younger brother, was brought from Watertown in order to become acquainted with the business that he might take charge of it in Mr. Flower's absence. However, it was difficult for a man of his great in- sight into the larger business enterprises of the day to readily withdraw, and without any attempt being made in this direction the firm soon found itself doing a large commission trade, and to further provide for these increased cares another brother was admitted (John D. Flower), together with a nephew (Frederick S. Flower). Mr. Flower did not, however, retire from active participation in the management until 1890, when he became a special partner.

The sterling Democracy of Roswell P. Flower is too well known to need comment here. Some one paid him a just compliment in saying that "His Democracy is ingrained not grafted." He cast his first vote for Buchanan and from then on was a worker in the Democratic party Even as a young man he showed himself to be possessed of the great gifts in organizing and handling men. He was chairman of the Jefferson County Democratic Committee for several years and helped to start the organization which became known throughout the State as one of the best equipped political organizations within its borders. In 1827 he was chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee when the party won the campaign notwithstanding the bolt against the ticket. It will be remembered that Levi P. Morton was elected to Congress from the Eleventh District by 4,000 majority, and held the seat until appointed minister to France. To fill the vacancy, William Waldorf Astor was nominated by the Republicans, while Mr. Flower was in . duced by his friends to accept the Democratic nomination after Orlando

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B. Potter had declined. He accepted it on the platform that he would not purchase a vote to secure his election, and took the seat with the surprising majority of 3,100.

In the Forty seventh Congress he was a member of the Committee on Banking, and leaped at once into prominence as a financial legislator. He also during his first term made notable speeches on the reduction of taxes, the Chinese question and the River and Harbor bill. At the Democratic State Convention in 1882 General Slocum and Roswell P. Flower each received 134 votes for the gubernatorial nomination, and Grover Cleveland 61. But at this time it was thought better to nom- inate a man outside of New York city, and he withdrew in favor of Cleveland. In the same year he refused a renomination for Congress, although offered the unanimous support of both factions of the party, and in addition being assured that should he consent to run the Repub- licans would make no nomination. Orlando P. Potter, who was nom- inated and elected in his place, received Mr. Flower's hearty support. In 1885 he declined the nomination for the lieutenant-governorship, and the honor fell to "Jones of Binghamton." In 1882 he was made chairman of the Democratic Congressional Committee, and his man- agement resulted in a majority of fifty in the House. In the presi- dential campaign of 1888 he was one of the four delegates at large, and in this same year, for purely. unselfish and almost self-sacrificing mo. tives, accepted the nomination for Congress from the Twelfth district. In the Fifty first Congress he was a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means and also a member of the committee on the World's Fair. Mr. Flower's efforts to keep the fair in New York State will not be readily forgotten. As a legislator he was a success, pri- marily because he made it his business to master the details of the sub- ject in hand. He often created surprise in the committee rooms through the remarkable knowledge which he possessed of the different sections of the country. His speech on the irrigation question attracted wide attention, as did the original and thoughtful position which he took on many of the important legislative problems of the times. In 1890 he was chosen to act as chairman of the Congressional Campaign Commit- tee, and no student of politics who recollects the outcome of this cam- paign and the lines on which it was conducted, fails to give credit for this triumph, largely attained by his shrewd and capable management.

In 1891 the party which he had so faithfully served from early man- hood honored him with the gubernatorial nomination, and he was

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elected to the highest office within the gift of the people of the Empire State, obtaining a plurality over J. Sloat Fassett of 14,932 votes, In the memorable campaign of 1896 he followed his convictions by taking a firm stand with the Gold Democrats.

In this brief synopsis of the life of Mr. Flower we can not presume to adequately write of his well known philanthropy. A gift which must appeal strongly to all was the St. Thomas House in New York city, for which he donated $50,000. The building contains rooms occupied by American, German and Chinese Sunday Schools, a diet kitchen, institution for the instruction of young girls in sewing and mending, a library and a boys' club room. A slab of marble reads: "Erected to God by Roswell P. Flower and Sarah M. Flower, in memory of their son, Henry Keep Flower." Other notable gifts are the Memorial Presbyterian Church at his boyhood home, the Flower Hospital in New York city, and the Trinity Church in Watertown (associated with his brother, Anson R. Flower). Mr. Flower has made his life a blessing to many, for he is a man of the noblest emotions. No one will ever be able to enumerate his private charities, and although he has always been an exacting busi- ness man and a strong partisan, his personal popularity is great. Even in his youth his character was strongly developed, and those who knew him then call to mind many instances which prove that he must have been a manly boy. He came of good Puritan stock, the family having settled near Hartford, Conn., in 1696.

ROBERT P. GRANT.

ROBERT P. GRANT, who for more than twenty years has been closely and actively identified with banking and other business enterprises in northern Jefferson county, was a native of Sullivan county, N. Y., born in Neversink, May 6, 1844, and was the eldest of eight children in the family of Isaac and Hannah (Le Roy) Grant. His father was a me- chanic, and as the oldest child in the family upon Robert fell nearly all the boy's work to be done about the house, but he also attended district school and succeeded in getting two terms' attendance at the High School. He then learned the tanner's trade, at which he was employed when, in 1863, he recruited Company C of the 92d Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y., and was elected its captain. Indeed, Captain Grant had previ- ously taken much interest in military affairs and was well versed in

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"Ilardie's tactics." This gave him an excellent standing with the commissioned officers of the regiment, who depended on him to drill the troops, and ultimately led to his promotion to the rank of colonel, in 1865, he then being the youngest officer in the command. In 1863 the 92d was ordered to the State line when the Confederate army invaded Pennsylvania and threatened the country farther north.

In the mean time Mr. Grant had acquired a third interest in a tannery, and after returning from military service devoted himself wholly to business. From that time to the present he has been constantly occu- pied in various pursuits, in a career so interesting as to be worthy of more than passing mention. In 1866 he sold out the tannery interest and engaged in farming and managing a store at Neversink, N. Y., at which he was occupied about a year. In 1869 he went to Hawkins- ville, N. Y., and operated a tannery store for another year, and in 1870, at the request of Thomas E. Proctor, hide and leather dealer, of Bos- ton, he removed to Lycoming county, Pa., and carried on a general store in the heart of the lumber and tannery regions for which that State was then noted. At the end of another year Mr. Grant went to Cameron county, Penn., and bought the bark on a 10,000 acre tract of land, and also built a tannery at Sterling Run, on the tract, he then acting as the managing partner in the firm of Grant, Clark & Co., and having then saved as the result of his previous labors some six or seven thousand dollars.

Mr. Grant continued in business at the place last mentioned until five days previous to the panic of 1874, when he sold out and removed to Fort Madison, Iowa, where, in partnership with Senator W. G. Kent, he started the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank. In the course of the next six or seven months other similar enterprises were either started or projected. which threatened injury through over-competition, whereupon Mr. Grant sold his banking interests and in 1876 returned east and went to Boonville, Oneida county. Here he arranged to take the cashiership of a bank at Lincoln, Neb., but was dissuaded from this purpose through the arguments of friends. Then, at the suggestion of President Dodge of the First National Bank of Boonville, N. Y., Mr. Grant came to Clayton and established the Bank of Clayton, in partnership with A. F. Barker. This was a fortunate enterprise both for the founders and for the town. In 1880, as is stated in the history of the village, the insti- tution was changed into a State bank, called the Bank of Clayton, but four years later Mr. Grant (who had been cashier and manager), and

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fifty others bought out the Barker interest and organized the Exchange Bank. The history of this successful enterprise is elsewhere written at length, hence needs no repetition here. It did business until January 1, 1898, and then became the National Exchange Bank, with more than one hundred share holders, and with Mr. Grant as cashier, which posi- tion, as well as that of manager in fact, he held in connection with its predecessor banks.

Thus in brief is narrated the leading events of a busy life; one which had its beginning in a small way and with very little original capital other than good capacity and judgment and a determination to succeed, but one which from the beginning has grown and enlarged until its principal factor and founder has acquired a position of prominence in business and financial circles. About 1880 Mr. Grant became interested in the manufacture and sale of cheese, adding one factory after another as years passed, until he is now the managing owner of seven such en- terprises. Since May, 1897, he has been president of the Board of Cheese Trade, an organization of about one hundred members. In ad- dition he is the owner of a large fire insurance agency business, and is otherwise interested in local enterprises. He is one of the trustees of the Thousand Island Park Association; treasurer of the Anglers' Asso- ciation of the St. Lawrence River (an association of more than three hundred members and the strongest body of its kind in the United States); and was also one of the incorporators (and now vice-president) of the Fish, Game and Forest League, which was organized during the winter of 1897-8.

In politics Mr. Grant was originally a Democrat, and in Pennsylvania was offered and declined a nomination (which was equivalent to an election) for the Legislature. Since returning to this State he has not taken an active part in political affairs and acted independent of party dictations until the presidential campaign of 1892, since which time he has been identified with the Republican party. For many years he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is a liberal con- tributor to its support, and as well to other worthy enterprises. In his business life Mr. Grant has been abundantly successful, the reward of industry, perseverance and straightforward honesty. When only twelve years old he had saved about $20, which he invested in sheep and in the course of five years produced a good flock, accumulating thereby the sum of $500. This was his real starting capital in actual business life.

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On September 14, 1870, Robert P. Grant was married with Lettic C., the danghter of Daniel Hayes, of Boonville. Of this marriage one son was born, Robert D. Grant, assistant cashier of the National Exchange Bank of Clayton.

HIRAM HIERRING.

HIRAM HERRING was born in Denmark, Lewis county, N. Y , Jan- uary 18, 1817, and was the eldest of seventeen children, thirteen of whom lived to grow up. The writer of this sketch knew seven of the brothers and sisters. They had all taught school when young, and always took the greatest interest in educational, scientific and social subjects. They were great readers, and their retentive memories made their own their favorite books. The works of Emerson, Carlyle and Herbert Spencer were at their tongues' end. They felt with these writers the same hatred for falseness and shams, and strove with them to get at the very bottom of all facts and fancies. Vigorous, earnest, outspoken, honest, independent-they left their mark upon the com- munities in which they lived.

The father of this interesting family, William Ilerring, was a native of Wiltshire, England; the mother Cynthia Buck, of Argyle, Wash- ington county, N. Y. After a four years' residence in Denmark, N. Y., William Herring went to Champion, where he engaged in the brewing business with Lyman, father of Orlin Holcomb. Closing out his busi- ness in 1826 he went to Gouverneur, St. Lawrence county. llere he bought a tract of land and was a farmer until his death. The inci- dents of the removal made an indelible impression upon the mind of Hiram Herring, and he was fond of relating that at nine years of age he drove a team of oxen through the wilderness from Champion to Gouverneur. He attended the village school until seventeen, when he left home to work in a neighboring village, Oxbow. From there he went to Watertown, where he arrived with the traditional ten cents in his pocket to seek his fortune.

After four years' apprenticeship with Jason Fairbanks was completed he went to Rochester, well instructed in the manufacture of leather. For two years he worked at his trade in summer and taught in a school in winter. While in Rochester he made the acquaintance of Paulina Prosser of Clarkson, Monroe county, and they were married October

Kram Henning Gering

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23, 1813. Two years previous to his marriage he purchased a tannery of Joseph Brown in Rodman, where he resided until his death, forty years later.

During those forty years he was respected by his business associates for energy, ability and uprightness of character. As to those whom he employed-it is interesting in these days of labor troubles to note that one of his workmen, Elijah Wolcott, served him for forty years.

Hiram Herring was built on a broad plan-a patriarchal type that the conditions of another day made possible. He possessed to an extreme degree the positive qualities attributed to his brothers and sisters; was of fine physique, sunny nature and quick temper. An indefatigable reader and brilliant conversationalist, it was his special pleasure to ex- pound the principles of the old Jeffersonian Democracy, in which he was a lifelong believer. ITe died on July 26, 1881, at the age of 61 years. His wife, Paulina, survived him three years, and died on All- gust 9, 1884. Much might be written of her many excellent qualities. Without appearing in the least to rule, she was yet the guiding influ- ence in the lives of her husband and children. One son and three daughters survived the parents: Ella, wife of Levi Washburn, of Rod- man, N. Y., Mary E., wife of B. L. Barney, of Hanford, Cal., Jennie P., wife of Dr. Charles Douglass, and William P. Herring, of Water- town, N. Y.

FRANK A. HINDS.

FRANK A. HINDS, civil engineer, is a native of Watertown, and a son of Earl B. and Almira (Allen) Hinds, both born in northern New York. His father was a farmer of Pamelia, moving into that town from the , town of Watertown in 1845, and was a resident of Jefferson county from his youth. Earl B. was a nephew of Corlis Hinds, the first supervisor of the town of Watertown from 1805 to 1808. Frank A. is the older of two sons, and his brother, Oscar E., lives in Pamelia, on one of the farms which his father owned.

Frank A. began the study of engineering in Jefferson county, and at the age of twenty-one went to Portland, Oregon, where he continued his studies under the county and city surveyor of that place for two years; the next year he passed in the engineering department of Yale College, then a year with an engineer in New York city, whose specialty

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was landscape work and drainage, and returned to Jefferson county where he was married on Christmas Day, 1567, to Mary R. Thomson of Watertown, who, with her parents moved to Watertown from House- ville, Lewis county, about ten years before. Her parents were William and Mary (Peabody) Thomson, the mother descending in a parallel line with the philanthropist George Peabody, from a common ancestor. She being of the sixth generation, descended from William Peabody, of Plymouth, Mass., and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins of the Mayflower, whose story Longfellow has told in poetry.

Longfellow's mother was a descendant of Priscilla, whom he quotes as saying, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John," when John Alden was sent to ask her hand for his Captain, Miles Standish. She declined the Captain's offer, and John and Priscilla were married afterward.

During the year 1868 Mr. Hinds was engaged in the early surveys of the Black River and St. Lawrence Railroad (now the Carthage and Adirondack) under Mr. Octave Blanc as chief engineer. After com- pleting the preliminary surveys of this road Mr. Hinds was made chief engineer of the Carthage, Watertown and Sackets Harbor Railroad, which position he held to the completion of the road. Later he laid out and mapped the Thousand Island Park, Westminster Park, Round Island, Central Park and numerous others of the great summer resorts of the St. Lawrence River. He had charge as engineer of the con- struction of the Kingston and Pembroke Railway in Canada, and after that was placed in charge of the surveys of the New York and Boston Inland Railway, serving this latter corporation for two years. He was city engineer of Watertown for a number of terms, and made the sur- vey for the city boundary when it was first incorporated.

His next operations were building and operating water works for supplying cities and towns. He formed an association with J. F. Moffett and later took H. C. Hodgkins and J. V. Clarke, under the firm name of Hinds, Moffett & Co., and established water works in a number of cities and villages in the United States. In 188> Mr. Hinds sold his entire interest in the business to his partners and his connection with the firm then ceased and the firm became Moffett, Hodgkins & Clarke. In 188; and 1888 the organization and construction of the Ontario Paper Mills near Brownville occupied his attention, and he is at present a director in that company; he is also vice-president of the Board of Water Commissioners of the city of Watertown, which position he has

MAN PHOTO AL٢٢

LA Hines

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held for the past ten years, having served on the Board of Water Com- missioners since 1880; he has also been one of the vestrymen of Trinity church, Watertown, N. Y., since 1887.

In 1889 he formed a copartnership with Mr. E. A. Bond for the con- struction of water works and general engineering, and under their direction as engineers, water works were built in the villages of Ant- werp, Theresa, Philadelphia, West Carthage and Cape Vincent, in this county, and also several water works were built under franchise in Canada This copartnership was dissolved in 1896 and Mr. Hinds has since been engaged in general hydraulic and mechanical engineering, principally among the various mills and water powers of the Black River valley.

The family are of New England stock. John Hinds, the son of James, born in 1659, married Mary Butler in 1681 and lived in Lancas- ter, Mass., where their son, John, was born in 1683. He married Han- nah (Whitaker) Corlis, of Haverhill, Mass., and they had thirteen chil- dren, of which one was Corlis; he married Janet MeMaster on the 6th of September, 1742, and lived in Barre, Mass., where he owned and operated a saw mill and grist mill on the Ware River. Ile is reputed to have lived to the age of 105 years, and died in Barre in 1821; they had nine children, one of whom, Corlis, jr., was born in Barre in 1648. Hle married Susannah Henry. Her father was an Englishman and was taken prisoner at Oswego, N. Y., during the French war and sent to France, where he died on a prison ship. Corlis served in the American army in the Revolutionary war. He and Susannah had eight chil- dren, of whom one was Corlis, who went from Barre to Mt. Holly, V't., where he married Polly Bent, daughter of David Bent of that place, and then came to the Black River country, now Jefferson county, and as stated at the beginning of this article, was the first supervisor of the new town of Watertown, after the organization of Jefferson county. He settled on a farm just south of Watertown Center, on the road lead- ing to Rices.

Thomas Hinds, a brother of the last mentioned Corlis, was born in. Barre in 1780, and also journeyed to Vermont, and there married Phoebe, another daughter of David Bent in the year 1800, and estab- lished a mercantile business in the town of Mt. Holly. In 1809, late in the autumn, he also came to New York State. The route then was by way of the Mohawk and Black River valleys, and the way was often beset by dangers, of stream and forest; the little party had a narrow

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escape from drowning in crossing the West Canada Creek near Tren- ton, Oneida county; the teamster missing the fording place, the wagon was swept down the stream, then swollen by the late November storms, and was barely rescued with its load of household goods, wife and children; the youngest (Carlos), now an aged resident of Adams Center, was then only about six weeks old. They stopped in Denmark, Lewis county, where they resided for two or three years, near the home of Peter Bent, sr., who was a brother of Phoebe, and who had previously emigrated from Mt. Holly. Later on Thomas moved into the town of Champion, Jefferson county, where he settled on a farm between Tyler- ville and Copenhagen; he served in the war of 1812 and was at the battle of Saekets Harbor. They had twelve children, one of whom was Earl Bent, born in Denmark, N. Y., October 25, 1811; he married Almira M. Allen, of Hammond, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., and lived in the town of Watertown on what is known as Dry Hill, where Frank- lin Allen, the subject of this sketch, was born November 17, 1843. The family moved to Pamelia in 1845, where on August 18, 1849, Oscar E. was born.

Almira was a daughter of Reuben Allen, who was a son of Major Benjamin Allen, of Cheshire, Mass., a Revolutionary soldier, and a son of Barnabas, who was born in Seekonk, R. I., about 1840-he being a son of Barnabas, who came from Scotland to Gloucester, Mass., in the early part of the eighteeth century.

Frank A. married Mary R. Thomson, December 25, 1887; they had one son, Earl William, born October 22, 1870, and died June 3, 1822.

In business Frank A. has always taken a deep interest in the young men of his employment, and has been generally successful in encourag- ing habits of usefulness in their profession, himself furnishing an example of temperate personal habits. There are a number of success- ful business men, engineers, contractors, &c., now about the country, who commenced their career in his office, and who look back with pleasure to their early experience.

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Our county and its people. A descriptive work on Jefferson County, New York, Part 93

Author: Emerson, Edgar C., ed Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Co. Number of Pages: 1368

Author: Emerson, Edgar C., ed
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1368