Our county and its people : a descriptive work on Erie County, New York, Volume II, Part 3

Author: White, Truman C
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Boston] : Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 684

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Mr. Cleveland was succeeded as president by Benjamin Harrison, who was nominated for a second term in 1892, and Cleveland was again selected as the standard bearer of the Democracy as his opponent. His popularity among the people was further demonstrated in the ensuing campaign, in which he was elected for the term from which he has only recently retired.

CHARLES DANIELS.

CHARLES DANIELS, whose death took place while this work was in press, occupied for many years a conspicuous position at the bar and on the bench. He was a son of Welsh parents and was born in New York city March 24, 1825. His father was a shoemaker and of him the son learned that trade. The family subsequently removed to Toledo and there both parents died. At the age of seventeen years, with limited education, the young man was forced to depend upon his own efforts for a livelihood and advancement in life. While laboring as a journeyman shoemaker he stopped in Canandaigua and in the court house in that village he one day listened to a speech by the eloquent Mark H. Sibley, which made so forcible an impression upon him that he at once formed the determination to become a lawyer. Great as was the task he thus set before himself, he attacked it with all the zeal of his ambitious nature. By reducing his expenses to the least possible amount he saved money with which to buy books and began study, which he pursued late at night and kept an open book on his bench be- side him through the day. By the same persistent and unceasing study he acquired such a knowledge of the classics while in Canandaigua that he was permitted to finish his course of law study in five years in- stead of seven, as was then required. As he advanced in professional learning he entered the law office of Clinton & Nichols and also studied with Eli Cook, one of the former mayors of Buffalo. He was admitted

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

to the bar at the age of twenty-two years and was taken into partner- ship with Mr. Cook, with whom he remained until 1850. After that he continued in practice alone.

From the beginning his legal career was brilliant and honorable. In 1863 he was appointed by Governor Seymour to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court bench caused by the death of Judge James G. Hoyt. In November of the same year he was elected to fill he unexpired term, which ended in 1869. He was then re-elected for a full term of eight years, at the expiration of which he was again elected for the term of fourteen years. This long period of judicial service expired in 1891. The amount of arduous labor performed by Judge Daniels as Supreme Court justice was enormous, sometimes involving the de- cision of 500 cases in a year; and his judicial ability was so great and his knowledge of law so profound that his decisions were rarely re- versed. He was appointed associate justice of the General Term, first department, in 1873, by Governor Dix, and was appointed to the same position in 1880 by Governor Cornell. By this time, through his sitting on the trial of the canal frauds, under appointment by Governor Til. den, and his decisions in the famous case against Tweed, Genet and others of the notorious New York city ring, Judge Daniels had ac- quired a national reputation.

In 1892 he was elected to Congress to represent the Thirty third Dis- trict, and was re-elected in 1894. In that body he added to his high reputation. He was the leading spirit in founding the Buffalo Law School in 1887, which became the law department of the University of Buffalo. He was elected dean of the school and professor of constitu- tional law, both of which positions he held until his death. Judge Daniels died suddenly in his office on December 20, 1897.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

GEORGE WASHINGTON TIFFT.

THE man of whom the following is a brief biography was for more than forty years closely and prominently identified with the business interests of Buffalo. He was born on the 31st of January, 1805. He was the youngest of a family of twelve children, whose parents were natives of Rhode Island, and removed to Rensselaer county, N. Y., where the subject of this sketch was born. John Tifft, father of George W., was a man of sterling qualities, strong character, and high moral convictions. His excellent business qualifications enabled him to ac- quire considerable means, though confined to the operation of a farm. He died in 1813, at the age of fifty six years.

When this event took place the son was eight years old, and he re- mained on the farm with his mother until he was sixteen, receiving about two months' schooling each year. About this time the farm was sold to his older brothers, for whom he worked until he was of age at a compensation of $4 per annum for his current expenses, with three months' schooling each year, and upon his coming of age he was to have a yoke of oxen and a horse. This was not an alluring prospect and although the young man accepted the position, it did not long curb his ambition to better himself. At the end of the first year the con- tract was canceled, and the young man began work for another brother on a farm, at $10 a month. Even this improved condition did not long prove attractive to the ambitious youngster, who chafed under the re- straint of laboring under another person. He longed to be his own master and to do business for himself. Ere long an opportunity pre- sented itself and in connection with another brother a contract was taken to clear some land of its timber, the profits of which in the sale of wood were divided with good results. This was the first money Mr. Tifft ever accumulated. He then went to New Lebanon in Columbia county, and attended school four months, which closed his school studies.

Mr. Tifft was now eighteen years old and his own master. The first enterprise in which he engaged after leaving school was the purchase of five acres of timber land near his old home in Rensselaer county, which he cleared and sold the wood at good prices, making a good profit. In this task he soon found that he could make larger gains by

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

hiring help and directing their efforts, than by chopping himself-a lesson which he turned to good account in later years. He continued in this kind of business until he was twenty-one years old, when he had accumulated $1,200; at the same time he received $1,000 from his father's estate.

In 1826 Mr. Tifft made a journey westward across the State, in the belief that there were better opportunities for advancement than were offered in his old home. He purchased an unimproved farm in the town of Murray, Orleans county, and then returned to Rensselaer county, where he again went into the wood-cutting business and traded considerably in real estate with success. On the 14th of March, 1827, Mr. Tifft married Miss Lucy Enos. When he reached the age of twenty five years he removed to and occupied his Orleans county farm, which he conducted two years. He then began buying and selling grain and carrying on the milling business, depending upon hired help for his farm work. His business ventures were generally successful, for they were made with the rare good judgment that characterized his after life.

In the course of time he outgrew his surroundings and in the belief that he had not settled far enough west, he went in 1841 to Michi- gan City, at the foot of Lake Michigan, in Indiana. There he engaged in grain buying and shipping eastward. There were no railroads at that time, all grain going down the lakes. He carried on a large busi- ness for those times, and it was very remunerative. While thus en- gaged he formed business acquaintances in Buffalo which subsequently led to his settlement in that city. Selling out at Michigan City he made a tour of the northwest, during which he was attracted by the fact that settlers had begun to enter lands along the shore of Lake Michigan, and to gratify his inherent love of real estate he purchased in the vicinity of Kenosha 1,100 acres of land for which he paid the government $1.25 per acre. He made a contract with a man to sow the tract with winter wheat, for which he received the laughter and sneers of those who thought that that grain could not be grown in that locality. Mr. Tifft harvested an average of twenty bushels to the acre and sold his land in the following season at a profit of $6,000.

In 1842 Mr. Tifft located in Buffalo, where he formed a partnership with the late Dean Richmond in the milling business. This made a strong and successful business firm. In 1843 Mr. Tifft made an ar- rangement with Gordon Grant, of Troy, owner of the transportation

BIOGRAPHICAL.

line known as the Troy and Michigan line; that is, they did not run on Sundays. A branch was opened in Buffalo under the firm style of George W. Tifft & Co. The usual success followed and this enterprise still further added to his accumulating fortune. In 1844 Mr. Grant sold his line of boats and Mr. Tifft formed a partnership, which con- tinued one year, with Henry H. Sizer, in produce and commission business. A year later he sold out to his partner and again joined Dean Richmond in the purchase of the Erie Mills, which they operated in connection with three other mills at Black Rock.

During the ensuing nine years Mr. Tifft gave his attention almost exclusively to milling operations, doing a very large and successful business and securing a foremost position among the leading moneyed men of the city. In 1854, upon the establishment of the International Bank in Buffalo, largely through his efforts, Mr. Tifft was chosen its first president; this position he filled until 1857. In the memorable financial crash of that year, when failure among business men with va- ried interests was the rule rather than the exception, Mr. Tifft, who was a heavy endorser of the Buffalo Steam Engine Company, had to pay nearly $100,000 and was forced to suspend. The creditors of the com- pany gave him an extension of four years and he took charge of its af- fairs. Under his management, energy and financiering skill, the whole indebtedness was paid off in two years.

As another consequence of the financial panic, large interests in coal lands in Mercer county, Pa., came into his possession. In order to utilize this property he built two blast furnaces, in addition to one al- ready in existence, and conceived the idea of smelting Lake Superior ore with mineral coal. His experiments were successful and to him belongs the credit of having demonstrated the practicability of using mineral coal in blasting this ore. He purchased a fleet of vessels and transported the ore from Lake Superior to Erie, and thence it was car- ried to the furnaces. In 1858 Mr. Tifft was chosen president of the Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad. At about the same time he be- gan giving his attention to the purchase and improvement of Buffalo real estate and soon became one of the most extensive builders in the city. In 1863 he erected seventy-four dwellings, besides the Tifft House and an elevator. He afterwards built a great brick, fireproof elevator at a cost of $700,000. He bought some 600 acres of land in the south- ern part of the city which became well known as the Tifft farm. This tract subsequently passed to his children, and a large part of it was

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

transferred under lease to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company for a high rental.

During the last twenty years of his life Mr. Tifft gave the greater part of his attention to the management of the Buffalo Engine Works, a private stock company, the shares of which were in possession of members of his family. This industry reached a high level of success under his direction. Mr. Tifft also built a large block of stores on the corner of Washington and Mohawk streets, where he established a large and prosperous furniture business.

Mr. Tifft always evinced a deep interest in public affairs, particular- ly as they related to the welfare of Buffalo and Erie county. He never held public office because his tastes led him in other directions. He was an active supporter of the Republican party, an admirer of Presi- dent Lincoln and gave liberally in support of the Union cause during the last war. His home charities were unostentatious but generous towards every good cause. The building and site of the old Ingleside Home on Seneca street was donated by him. In business circles no man stood higher; his credit was never for a day impaired, no matter what the impending prospects. He was bold in business operations, yet submissive to the dictates of cool judgment. His mind and tem- perament were such as enabled him to grasp a number of large enter- prises at one time and carry them through, while his industry and determination were unconquerable.

Mr. and Mrs. Tifft were parents of seven children. Mrs. Tifft died in 1871, and Mr. Tifft on the 24th day of June, 1882. Two children survive; Mrs. Sarah A., widow of the late Dr. C. C. F. Gay, and Mrs. Mary A., widow of the late George D. Plimpton, both of Buffalo.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

ELBRIDGE G. SPAULDING.

ELBRIDGE GERRY SPAULDING, was born at Summer Hill, Cayuga county, N. Y., February 24, 1809. His ancestry is traced back to those hardy and conscientious Puritans, who came across the Atlantic in 1630 for conscience sake; one of these was Edward Spaulding, seven genera- tions removed from the subject of this sketch. The parents of El- bridge G. Spaulding were of moderate means ; the father, Edward Spaulding, was a pioneer of Central New York, where he settled with his New England wife, Mehitable (Goodrich) Spaulding. If the family were denied many of the luxuries of life, they had most of its comforts and were able to give their children good practical education. At the age of twenty years Elbridge G. Spaulding determined to enter the legal profession, for which purpose he began study in Batavia in the office of Timothy Fitch. After three years there he entered the office of Hon. Harvey Putnam, of Attica, and was soon afterward admitted to practice. In 1834 he settled permanently in Buffalo, where he served as clerk in the law office of Potter & Babcock, then the leading attorneys of the city. In 1836 he was admitted to practice in the Su- preme Court and the Court of Chancery. He was soon admitted as partner with George R. Babcock, one of his principals, and subse- quently held the same relationship with Heman B. Potter, the other member of the firm, and continued with him until 1844, when the part- nership was dissolved and the business assumed by Mr. Spaulding. His practice had by that time become large and remunerative.

In 1837 Mr. Spaulding married a daughter of Gaius B. Rich, of Attica. Mr. Rich was proprietor of the Bank of Attica, and employed Mr. Spaulding as his attorney. In 1846 Mr. Spaulding prevailed upon the late John Ganson to leave Canandaigua and settle in Buffalo as a member of the firm of Spaulding & Ganson, attorneys ; this business connection continued four years and until Mr. Spaulding left the pro- fession. It was through Mr. Spaulding's counsel that his father-in-law, Mr. Rich, removed the Bank of Attica to Buffalo, the name of which was, in after years, to be changed to the Commercial Bank of Buffalo. Again, about the time of his retirement from law practice, Mr. Spauld- ing was prominently instrumental in securing the removal of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank from Batavia to Buffalo ; this institution

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

was organized under the State law and continued thus after its removal. Mr. Spaulding became a stockholder in the bank and was soon after- ward elected its president. Upon the passage of the Federal banking law this bank was reorganized with the name Farmers' and Mechanics' National Bank, of which Mr. Spaulding remained president until his death. In his banking experience and from his habit of wholly mas- tering every subject with which he came in actual contact, Mr. Spauld- ing became an acknowledged authority on all financial questions and gained a reputation which was subsequently to place him in a position of the largest possible financial responsibility.

Meanwhile Mr. Spaulding was called to fill various public positions. Two years after he settled in Buffalo he was appointed city clerk, and in 1841 was elected alderman, in which body he served as chairman of the finance committee. In 1847 he was elected mayor of Buffalo by the Whig party, of which he was an adherent until the organization of the Republican party. During his administration as mayor the organiza- tion of the Buffalo gaslight company was effected, the general sewerage system of the city was adopted, and plans were consummated for the construction of the Erie and the Ohio basins for the extension of com- mercial facilities. In 1848 Mr. Spaulding was elected to the Assembly and served as chairman of the canal committee. In 1849 he was elected to the Thirty-first Congress, where he served on the committee on for- eign relations. In Congress he acted with the factions of the Whig and the Democratic parties that opposed the extension of slavery ; he also sup- ported the policy of President Taylor, favoring the admission of Califor- nia into the union of States as a free State, and opposed the compromise measures for the adjustment of pending difficulties in 1850, for which he received the expressed approval of President Millard Fillmore after Mr. Taylor's death.

Mr. Spaulding was elected State treasurer of New York in 1853 and became ex officio a member of the canal board, serving in 1854-5. During his term he secured the adoption of plans for canal enlargement, involving an expenditure of $9,000,000 by the State. In the exciting political times of 1854-56 he was a conspicuous figure, opposing the Missouri compromise and lending his strong personality to the forma- tion of the Republican party. He was for many years a member of the Republican State Central Committee, in which position his counsel was always for the best. In 1860 he was a member of the Congressional committee conducting the political campaign in which Abraham Lincoln was elected president.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

In 1858 Mr. Spaulding was again elected to Congress and re-elected in 1860, serving four years on the important Ways and Means Com- mittee. In the Congressional legislation growing out of the Rebellion he was foremost. His superlative knowledge of banking laws and financial affairs led to his being made chairman of the sub-committee of Ways and Means, in which position he was entrusted with the duty of preparing the necessary bills to meet the imperative financial needs of the government. The result was seen in his drafting of the green- back, or legal tender act, and the national currency bank bill. These were urged as war measures and they proved to form the basis of the best financial system ever adopted by any government. His promi- nence in this legislation gave him the title of the "father of the green- back." Most of the subsequent legislation during the war for obtaining loans, originating in the Committee of Ways and Means, was prepared by Mr. Spaulding. In 1869 he prepared and published a volume en- titled, "History of the Legal Tender Paper Money issued during the Great Rebellion," which is a standard authority upon the subject. In every way Mr. Spaulding was an earnest supporter of the war and was honored with frequent councils with the president, with whom his relations were friendly and intimate.

In the promotion of the material, literary, scientific and charitable interests of Buffalo, Mr. Spaulding was always among the foremost citizens. Possessed of ample means and with a generous heart and cultivated taste, he added much to the advancement of the various institutions for which the city is noted. He was a life member of the Young Men's Association, a life member of the Buffalo Historical Society, a member of the Society of Natural Sciences, a member of the Buffalo Club and many other literary, social, and charitable organiza- tions. He was influential in placing the Buffalo street railway system upon its modern plane of efficiency; was president of the International Bridge Company and a stockholder in several of the city banks. In all of the various positions of honor and trust to which he was called he exhibited rare traits of character and practical qualifications of a high order.

Mr. Spaulding was a member of the First Presbyterian church. He was thrice married; first to the daughter of Gaius B. Rich, his wife living but a short time after marriage. His second wife was Miss Strong, who bore him three children, Edward R., Samuel S., and a

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

daughter who married Frank Sidway of Buffalo. His third wife was the widow of the late Clark Robinson, a sister of his second wife.

Mr. Spaulding's death took place on May 7, 1897.

RT. REV. WILLIAM HEATHCOTE DE LANCEY, D. D., LL.D., D. C. L.

RT. REV. WILLIAM HEATHCOTE DE LANCEY, D. D., LL. D., D. C. L., bishop of Western New York, was a son of John Peter De Lancey, and was born at Mamaroneck, N. Y., October 8, 1797, and died in Geneva, N. Y., April 5, 1865. His education began in the village schools of his native place and continued in the academy at New Rochelle, a pri- vate school at Hempstead, L. I., and another under charge of Rev. Dr. Lewis Ernest Eizenbrodt, at Jamaica, L. I., by whom he was fitted for Yale. He graduated from that institution in 1817. He studied divinity under Rt. Rev. John Henry Hobart, then Bishop of New York, and was ordained deacon December 28, 1819, and priest March 6, 1822. As deacon he was chosen by the vestry of Grace church, New York, in the spring of 1820 to take charge temporarily of that parish, which service he continued until January, 1821. He was then chosen by the vestry of Trinity church, New York, to fill a vacancy for three months; but before the close of 1821 he was called to St. Thomas church, Mamaroneck, N. Y., a parish he had founded while in Yale, with the aid of his father and Peter Jay Munro, where he served ten months without pay. In March, 1822, when he was ordained priest, he went to Philadelphia on invitation of the venerable Bishop White and became his personal assistant in three churches. This was the begin- ning of a long and intimate friendship between these two men, Bishop White looking upon the younger minister as his adopted son and so calling him. On March 23 of the year last named he was elected assistant minister of the parish by the vestry of the three churches. In May, 1823, he was chosen secretary of the Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and was annually re-elected until 1830; in the same year (1823) he was chosen secretary to the house of bishops and was re- elected in 1826. In 1827 he was called to St. Thomas church, in New York city, and declined. In the same year, while still under thirty years of age, he was elected provost of the University of Pennsylvania,

BIOGRAPHICAL.

an office that he reluctantly accepted. In 1827 he received the degree of D. D. from Yale. He remained in his office in the university . five years, during which time he brought the institution up from a condi- tion of decline, to prosperity. In 1833 he was elected assistant minis- ter of St. Peter's church, Philadelphia; this was one of the three churches before mentioned, which had now become separated, and with the reversion of the rectorship on the death of Bishop White, he took that office in 1836, continuing until 1839, when the Diocese of New York was divided and he was elected Bishop of Western New York. His consecration took place at Auburn on May 7, 1839. He moved to Geneva and there resided during his episcopate. His field of labor was a large one; there were no railroads and travel over the ex- tended field with the manifold duties of his office rendered the position one of constant and arduous toil.

In 1852 he and the Bishop of Michigan were sent by the house of bishops as delegates to the celebration in London of the 150th anniver- sary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. This was the first time that the American church was represented in England. The University of Oxford, England, conferred upon him the degree of D. C. L. Again in 1859 he went to Europe and was shown high honors in many places.

During all of the twenty-six years of Bishop De Lancey's episcopate the American church felt and responded to his labors and bore the impress of his judgment, his foresight, his influence, and his firm yet ever courteous treatment of those with whom he came in contact. He first proposed the adoption of the provincial system in the American church, and the change in the organization of the General Theological Semi- nary, though it did not take place until twenty years after his death, was inaugurated by him. Western New York owes to him the exist- ence of Geneva (now Hobart) College, the endowment that saved it from extinction being the result of his personal labor with the vestry of Trinity church. The founding of De Veaux College at Niagara was also almost wholly his work. He was an eloquent and forcible speaker, possessed an imposing presence and manner, and was unfailing in courtesy to all. He was married November 22, 1820, to Frances, daughter of Peter Jay Munro.

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Our county and its people : a descriptive work on Erie County, New York, Volume II, Part 3

Author: White, Truman C Publication date: 1898 Publisher: [Boston] : Boston History Co. Number of Pages: 684

Author: White, Truman C
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: [Boston] : Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 684