USA > New York > Saratoga County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Saratoga County, New York > Part 59
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Aside from his business interests, he is a prominent Mason, being a member of Rising Sun Lodge, No. 103, F. & A. M., Rising Sun Chap- ter, No. 131, R. A. M., Cryptic Council, No. 37, Washington Com- mandery, No. 33, Knights Templar of Saratoga Springs, and Oriental Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Troy, N. Y. He is also a member of the Royal Arcanum, Improved Order of Red Men, Associ- ation of the Tribe of Northern New York, and the Tri-County Under-
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WILLIAM M. MARTIN.
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takers' Association, and is secretary of the latter. Mr. Martin is a member of the National Association of Embalmers and one of the membership committee. He served as a trustee of the village of Sara- toga Springs during 1896-97.
Mr. Martin has been twice married; first on June 29, 1892, to Eliza- beth M. Wandell, who died April 2, 1894. On June 3, 1896, he mar- ried Jeanne B., daughter of Judge Elias H. Peters, one of the prominent citizens of Saratoga Springs.
JOSHUA PORTER, M.D.
DR. JOSHUA PORTER was the first president of the village of Saratoga Springs, and for many years was one of the principal physicians of the place, the contemporary of Dr. John H. Steel. He was born in 1759 at Salisbury, Conn., the eldest son of Col. Joshua Porter, a prominent man in his day, for more than fifty sessions judge of Probate and rep- resentative in both the Colonial and State Councils.
Joshua Porter was educated at Yale College, and after taking his M. D. degree was appointed a surgeon's mate in the Continental army. In this service he received a wound, which was the cause of his removal to Saratoga Springs, in the hopes of deriving benefit from the cura- tive properties of the waters. He resided here until his death, which occurred in 1831.
LUCRETIA AND MARGARET DAVIDSON.
THESE talented women were residents of Saratoga county, but both were born in Plattsburg, Lucretia on the 27th day of September, 1808, and Margaret on the 26th day of March, 1823 They were the daugh- ters of Dr. Oliver Davidson. Lucretia Maria entered Mrs. Willard's Female Seminary at Troy in 1824 to complete her education. She died August 27, 1875. Margaret Miller was a very prolific writer; her poetical writings, which have been collected, amount to two hundred and seventy-eight pieces. Her poems were introduced to the public under the kind auspices of Washington Irving. They were first pub- lished in 1828, with a memoir by Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse. They were noticed in a highly laudatory manner by Southey, the British poet.
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A. R. McNAIR.
LIEUT. COMMANDER ANTOINE de REILHE MCNAIR, U. S. Navy, was born in the city of New Orleans, La., September 15, 1839. He was appointed acting midshipman to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, September 22, 1856, from the First Congressional District of Missouri, and was graduated therefrom in the class of 1860. He served on the sloop of war "Preble " in 1857, and the "Plymouth " in 1859, and on June 15, 1860, was graduated and promoted to midshipman. The subject of this sketch is one of the Southern born officers of the Navy who stood true to his oath of allegiance to the United States in 1861. His older brother, Fred. A. C. McNair and himself, turned their backs on kith and kin and all worldly possessions, and drew their swords in defense of the right. Fred. A. C. McNair sealed his devotion to the old flag with his life. Mr. McNair was on the sloop of war " Seminole " from June, 1860, to July, 1862, and during that time saw service along the coast of Brazil and other parts of South America; was on blockade duty off Charleston, S. C .; on the Potomac river, attacking the Confederate batteries at Freestone Point, Va., and Evansport, Va .; participated in the battle of Port Royal, S. C .; had boat service in the sounds of Georgia and South Carolina; was at the cutting off of Fort Pulaski, Ga., and the attack on "Thunderbolt Battery," Skiddaway Island, Ga .; was in Hampton Roads against the "Merrimac " and participated in the cap- ture of Norfolk and the destruction of the "Merrimac." In August, 1861, he was promoted to the grade of master for faithful services in battle, and in July, 1862, was promoted to lieutenant for "gallant and meritorious " services at Port Royal, Fort Pulaski, the capture of Nor- folk and destruction of the " Merrimac," and served on the steam frigate "Powhatan " from July, 1862, to June, 1864. From July, 1862, till April, 1863, he was engaged in general service at the front and participated in the attacks on Fort Sumter and Charleston in April, 1863. In July, 1863, he was wounded at the capture of Morris Island, S. C., batteries, and in September, 1863, was at the attacks on Charleston made by Ad- mirals Du Pont and Dahlgren. From October, 1863, to June, 1864, he was serving in the West Indies, convoying mail steamers and searching for the " Florida " and "Alabama, " in command of the U. S. S. " Gemsbok." He was at the attack on Fort Fisher, entrance to the Cape Fear River, N. C., in December, 1864, and at its capture, in January, 1865, on board the U. S. frigate "New Ironsides." In February and March, 1865, he
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was in front of the Confederate rams in James river; was present at the grand smash up in front of Richmond, Va., April, 1865. In July, 1866, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-commander for "gallant and meritorious " services in the late war, and during 1866-67 was naval in- structor at the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. He served on different commands from 1867 to October, 1872, when he was retired, owing to an injury received in the line of duty in the West Indies. De- cember 13, 1871, Commander McNair married Frances Clarke, daughter of Benedict Clarke and Maria Brattle Clarke of Saratoga Springs, and they had three children: Frederick Park McNair, private and corporal in the Second N. Y. Vols., on duty in the Spanish-American war, Jessie McNair, and Alexander McNair, who was killed by an accident in his fifth year. Frederick Park McNair was promoted second lieutenant Two Hundred and Second N. Y. Infantry Vols., September 29, 1898, and died October 18, 1898, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., from pernicious malarial fever contracted in camp at Tampa, Florida, in his twenty-fifth year. Commander McNair is a son of Antoine de Reilhe and Elvina (Johnson) McNair. For five generations, members of this historic family have served in the uniform of the United States, and Commander McNair is justly included in the list of this country's most faithful defenders.
LIEUT. FREDERICK P. McNAIR.
The name McNair is one of the honorable ones which adorns the his- tory of our country; and the subject of this sketch, although his life was short, did honor to that name; upholding all the patriotic and soldierly qualities of his race; finally losing his life for his country.
"The shortest life is longest, if 'tis best;
'Tis ours to work-to God belongs the rest. Our lives are measured by the deeds we do, The thoughts we think, the objects we pursue. A fair young life poured out upon the sod In the high cause of freedom and of God, Though all too short his course and quickly run,
Is full and glorious as the orbèd sun ;
While he who lives to hoary-headed age Oft dies an infant-dies and leaves no sign,
For he has writ no deed on history's page, And unfulfilled is being's great design."
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Frederick P. McNair was born October 27, 1873, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., and was educated at private schools and the Saratoga High School, from the academic department of which he was graduated in the class of 1892. His standing in the academy is well indicated by the fact that he was president of his class. Subsequently an opportu- nity offered to take a course at West Point, and he entered a competitive examination at Johnstown, Fulton county, N. Y., for the position. There were twenty-two candidates for the appointment, and as only one could receive it, General Curtis, the member of congress, decided upon this method (competitive examination) of selecting the fittest. Mr. McNair proved himself easily the best and received the appoint- ment.
He thereupon entered West Point, class of 1898, and commenced his military studies, which he continued for two years, when he was attacked with tonsilitis, from which he had previously suffered, and on account of his sickness losing much time and advantageous study, he resigned. His record as a soldier at West Point was high and his deportment un- impeachable.
Returning to Saratoga Springs he took up the study of law, first in the office of Hon. J. W. Houghton, Saratoga County Judge, and after- ward with A. W. Shepherd, esq. In the fall of 1897 he received the offer of a very lucrative position as secretary of a fruit company in the Ozark country, Missouri, and on February 14, 1898, he went west to enter upon the performance of his duties there.
This position he was filling with ability, and satisfaction to his em- ployers, when the war with Spain broke out in the spring of 1898. He had been a member of the " Saratoga Citizens Corps" (officially known as the 22d Separate Company, N. G. N. Y.) for over six years and was a corporal in that body at the time he went west; and although his removal from the State severed his connection with this company, no sooner was war declared than he was filled with patriotic ardor and an irresistible desire to join his old comrades and accompany them to the front. He waited for one thing only-his father's consent and approval -which was quickly obtained.
He came at once to Saratoga Springs and enlisted as a private, ask- ing neither for rank or favor, although his long service with the corps and his military training at West Point, to say nothing of his splendid act of patriotism in abandoning a fine position for his country's cause, warranted his asking a commission. He offered his services with a
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patriotic heart, making no stipulation as to the capacity in which he went. He had charge of the recruits from Saratoga to Camp Black who were required to fill the places of those rejected by the examiners, and turning them over to the command, fell into his place in the ranks with his ever smiling face and readiness to perform every duty imposed upon him.
He was with Company L, Second Regiment, New York Volunteers, at Camp Black, N. Y., Chickamauga Park, Ga., Tampa, Fla., Fernan- dina, Fla., and Camp Hardin, N.Y. Throughout all the hardships, pri- vations, disease and death of those camps, the horrors of which have stirred the country more even than the suffering and death of the battle field, he was ever the patient, willing, uncomplaining soldier; bright and cheery; strict in the performance of every duty. The ills of others touched him more than his own. His sympathy was con- stantly with the sick and ailing; he would give them his delicacies when he had any; he would lighten their work by assisting them. One of his characteristic acts, just before he was prostrated by what proved to be his last illness, was to wrap in his own coat and bear to a place of safety a comrade whom he found chilled and in a state of collapse from fever. The delicacies sent to him he distributed among the weak and sick, - saying when remonstrated with for being careless of his own health : "Oh, I'm strong, and can rough it." Through all he manifested that spirit which made the name of Sir Philip Sidney sublime when he turned the cup of water from his own dying lips to those of a wounded soldier.
When made a corporal at Tampa he still shared the work of his squad and encouraged them by his example with axe, pick, shovel or rifle. His fidelity to duty and his burning patriotism were unconsciously ex- pressed by himself when he was sick at Tampa, and his father wrote to him to come home and recuperate. His reply was, "No one can tell how soon the thin blue fighting line in Cuba may need support, and it would have a bad effect if such as I -- a trained soldier, should leave this Army of Reserve, when to-morrow the country may need me. No, please God, I will stay, for I am strong and accustomed to roughing it. If any go home let it be the young boys and feeble men; but as for me, my place is here, and here I must remain, so long as there is any possi- bility of my services being needed."
Many will recall his tall soldierly figure that beautiful autumn after- noon when "Our Boys" came marching home from the war in the
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pride of their young manhood, as they swept through the principal street of the village on the way from the train to their Armory. Many will miss his always genial greeting, sympathetic and kindly for each one, old or young, of high or of low estate.
On September 29, 1898, he was commissioned second lieutenant in the 202d Regiment, N. Y. Infantry Vols., stationed at Camp Meade, Middletown, Pa. But the malarial poison under which for weeks he had stood up, reasserted itself in virulent form, and after three weeks of sickness this splendid soldier laid down his nobly acquired sword.
He died October 18, 1898, and was buried with military honors; be- sides which the citizens of Saratoga Springs came out in such numbers to pay their last tribute to his worth, that it is doubtful if a greater concourse ever accompanied any member of the community to his last resting place.
In the last eight years of his short life Frederick P. McNair was connected with military organizations; in the cause of his country he gave up his life; so as a soldier he will live in history. In searching among his papers after his death, the following motto was found, many times repeated in English and Latin-" Not self, but country." " Non sibi, sed Patria." He seems to have adopted this as his rule of action in life as in death.
His epitaph is, "He did liis duty." No greater honor can be paid to any man than this.
MICHAEL P. SNYDER.
MICHAEL P. SNYDER was born in Narrowsburgh, Sullivan county, N. Y., April 13, 1857, educated in the public schools and has been a devoted railroad man for the past twenty-five years. He began as telegraph oper- ator in the employ of the Lake Erie Railroad Company, and in 1883 came to Mechanicville and entered the employ of the B., H. T. & W. Railroad Co. as night train dispatcher (after absorbing the Troy & Boston Rail- road, it is now known as the Fitchburg Railroad Co.), and in 1890 was made train master. In 1893 he was promoted to the position of super- intendent of the western division of the railroad, succeeding Joseph Crandall. Through sobriety, industry and integrity, he attained this position, which he has filled with satisfaction to the company and with credit to himself.
MICHAEL P. SNYDEP.
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October 15, 1881, Mr. Snyder married Frances E. Townsend of Car- bondale, Pa., and they had ten children, four now living: William R., Fredericka M., Albertina J., and Marion P. Wilhelmina died in her eleventh year; Bessie F., died in her seventh year; Irene died in her second year; Frances died in her second year; and two infants not named.
Mr. Snyder's father, Jacob Snyder, was born in Germany and came to the United States when a young man, locating in Sullivan county, N.Y. He married Wilhelmina Lachebmeyer, and they had ten children : Michael P. (as above), Pauline, Katherine, Margaret, Fredericka, Louise, Louis, George, William and Paul. Mr. Snyder died in 1884; his widow survives at this date, 1898, on the old homestead in Sullivan county.
Michael P. Snyder is a member of On-da wa Lodge of Mechanicville, N. Y., No. 820, F. & A. M .; of Montgomery Chapter of Stillwater, No. 257, R. A. M. ; of Bloss Council of Troy, N. Y., No. 14, R. & S. M. ; of Apollo Commandery of Troy, No. 15, K. T .; Delta Lodge of Per- fection, A. A. Rite, of Albany Sovereign Consistory of Albany, S. P. R. S., of Oriental Temple, and A. A. O. N. M. S. Mr. and Mrs. Snyder are active members of the Royal Chapter of Mechanicville, O. E. S.
RANSOM SUTFIN.
RANSOM SUTFIN, the head of the Sutfin family of Schuylerville, was a native of Northumberland township, and was born April 13, 1812. His early life was one of hardship and toil engendered by the care of a large family. He was imbued with that spirit of honesty which re- stricts one's possessions to that which is honestly obtained, preferring poverty to the acquirement of property possessed by dishonest meth- ods. After his removal to Schuylerville he was for many years en- gaged in the coal business and died there April 13, 1889. His wife, Nancy McEchron Sutfin, was a native of Hebron, Washington county, and was born on the 28th day of February, 1820, and died in Schuyler- ville, March 5, 1897. With her estimable husband she was a member of the Refomed church of Schuylerville, and is buried by his side in the Prospect Hill Cemetery. Deacon Sutfin and his wife were known as among the good people of the village, and when called to their reward
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left names unblemished, and lives untarnished, a perpetual mentor to their surviving children and the community wherein they had spent so many years of their lives.
Of their six children, George was the oldest, having been born Jan- uary 2, 1840. He was a soldier in the late war and served in the Forty-fourth New York Volunteers, and was killed May 10, 1864, at the battle of Spottsylvania Court House, Va .; Margaret, the second child, was born March 16, 1843, and died August 27, 1848; John, born June 23, 1845, died July 19, 1847; Lucy, born July 26, 1848, died Feb- ruary 13, 1873; and David, born September 4, 1854, who with his sis- ter, Julia, are the sole survivors.
Julia was born in Schuylerville and has always resided there. Her maternal grandfather, David McEchron, was a soldier in the war of 1812 and saw service against the British during those stirring times when Saratoga county was a stamping ground for the British and In- dians. Miss Sutfin enjoys the confidence and esteem of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances; is a member of the Reformed church and is active in Christian work.
WILLIAM W. WORDEN.
WILLIAM W. WORDEN is a native of Saratoga county who has been prominently connected with both county and village for over a third of a century. He served in the war of the Rebellion with the celebrated Seventy-seventh New York Volunteers, rising from a private to the rank of lieutenant. He was wounded three times at the respective battles of the Wilderness, Winchester and Cedar Creek.
After the war closed Mr. Worden located in Saratoga Springs and engaged in the lumber business, to which he added a planing mill, an enterprise which he conducted for several years, furnishing the sash, doors, blinds, etc., for nearly all the great hotels of Saratoga.
In 1883 his planing mill was burned and in 1885 he opened the Wor- den hotel, which he still conducts and which is known all over this country as a hostelry of high rank.
Mr. Worden has been a staunch Republican and is a valued man in his party. He is almost invariably a delegate to the State conventions ; was a presidential elector on the Garfield ticket in 1880, and delegate to the National Convention at St. Louis, Mo., which nominated Presi-
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dent Mckinley in 1896. At the Republican State Convention at Sara- toga Springs in September, 1898, he was made State committeeman. In 1891 Mr. Worden was elected sheriff on the Republican ticket and during the three years of his office proved himself an able and energetic official.
Mr. Worden is a prominent Mason, being a member of the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Commandery and Oriental Temple.
CHARLES SMITH LESTER.
CHARLES SMITH LESTER, the son of Charles Gove Lester and Susan Wells Smith, his wife, was born at Worcester, Mass., on the 15th day of March, 1824. He is a descendant of Andrew Lester, who came to this country about the year 1640 from England and in 1651 settled in New London, Conn. Simeon Lester, his grandfather, was born in Connecticut and there married Sally Gove, daughter of Nathaniel Gove, who was a lieutenant in the Seventeenth Continental Regiment during the Revolution and who marched under Washington, was engaged in the battle of Long Island, taken prisoner and confined on a prison ship in the Hudson where he imbibed the seeds of incurable disease. Sim- eon Lester and his wife emigrated to Vermont, where his son, Charles Gove, was born. Charles Gove Lester was reared in the State of Ver- mont and was a graduate of Vermont University. He subsequently became a leading merchant in Montreal, but the business failures that followed the war of 1812 swept away the capital of the firm to which he belonged and overwhelmed him with reverses, from which he never recovered.
The subject of this sketch was left at an early age to the care of his mother, through whom he is related to some of the best New England families. He was educated at the Washington Academy in Salem, N. Y. In September, 1841, he entered the law office of Crary & Fairchild at that place as a clerk, and removed to Saratoga Springs in October, 1843, continuing his studies in the office of his uncle, John Willard, then Circuit Judge and Vice Chancellor of the Fourth Circuit. On his twenty-first birthday he was admitted as solicitor and counsellor in Chancery by the late Chancellor Walworth, and in May following was admitted as attorney of the Supreme Court. He first formed a law partnership with William Cullen Bockes, a talented and eloquent law- 36
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yer and the youngest brother of Hon. Augustus Bockes, for many years one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. This partnership was dissolved a few months later by the death of Mr. Bockes.
In 1849 he was married to Lucy L. Cooke, daughter of Timothy Cooke of Milford, N. Y. Her grandfather, James Westcott, was a sol- dier in the Revolution and was present at the execution of Andre, the sorrowful incidents of which tragedy he was wont to recount to his grandchildren. Mrs. Lester inherited, in a remarkable degree, from her father, who was a soldier of the war of 1812, a calm kindliness of demeanor coupled with inflexible integrity of character. Of this mar- riage four children were born, all of whom survive. Charles Cooke Lester, Willard Lester and James Westcott Lester, the sons, having studied law in their father's office and been admitted to the bar, have ever since been connected with him as partners in the practice of their profession. Susan Lester, the only daughter, is now the wife of Bernadotte Perrin, professor of the Greek language and literature in Yale University.
In 1859 Charles S. Lester was elected district attorney on the Dem- ocratic ticket by a considerable majority, although his party was then in a political minority in Saratoga county. In the presidential campaign of 1860 he was an admirer and supporter of Stephen A. Douglass; but upon the breaking out of the Rebellion, in common with thousands of like political faith, he cast in his lot with those who desired the main- tenance of the Union, and has ever since been thoroughly identified with the Republican party. Incapacitated by a serious defect of vis- ion for services in the field he assisted in the labors which devolved upon those who remained at home. He refused, when supervisor, in spite of threats of personal violence, to pay the extravagant bounties which the excited taxpayers of his town thought necessary to avert a draft; and finally, with great effort and at no small personal risk, filled its quota, thus effecting a saving to his town of many thousand dollars. In 1870 he was elected County Judge and filled the office for six years with credit to himself and satisfaction to the public. In 1875 he was named by his political friends as the candidate of the Republican party for Justice of the Supreme Court, and, after the most hotly contested and exciting nominating convention ever known in his judicial district, was defeated by a single vote.
Judge Lester has enjoyed a large and varied practice, The law firm
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composed of himself and his three sons, is one of the oldest in Northern New York. Judge Lester's fidelity and devotion to his clients has made him a popular and trusted, as well as a successful advocate. He has found leisure, amidst the cares of an engrossing profession, to perform the duties incident to such public offices of trust and honor as super- visor of the town, president of the village and president of the Board of Education of Saratoga Springs. He has traveled extensively, both in this country and in Europe. He has not neglected general literature. He is a direct and forcible speaker; and many addresses delivered by him on occasions of historical interest, have been published. In 1854 the corporation of Yale College conferred upon him the honorary de- gree of A. M. He has been for many years a member of the First Presbyterian church of Saratoga Springs and for nearly half a century one of its trustees.
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