Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 68

Author: Wager, Daniel Elbridge, 1823-1896
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston history co.
Number of Pages: 1612

USA > New York > Oneida County > Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York; > Part 68

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

Dr. Eugene Grove Carpenter, of Cleveland, Ohio, and moving with her husband to the latter city died there on August 25th of the same year. She had been for many years a member of the First Presbyterian church of Utica and a teacher in its Sun- day school; she had also been a teacher in the Utica Orphan Asylum Sunday school and for a time a member of the board of managers of the Home for Aged Men and Couples. Edward L. Wells was born in Utica March 1, 1852, was graduated from the Utica Free Academy in 1870, and in September of that year entered his father's dry goods establishment, with which he has ever since been connected. He is a director in the First National Bank, the Skenandoa Cotton Company, the Stand- ard Harrow Company, The Roberts Wicks Company, and Utica Mechanics Associa- tion, and is president of the Olympian Knit Goods Company, all of Utica, and the Yonkers North End Land Company, of New York.

ELLIOTT S. WILLIAMS.

MR. WILLIAMS was born at Clinton, Oneida county, N. Y., July 5, 1845. His father, Othniel S. Williams, moved to Clinton in 1814. His mother is Delia Avery, daughter of Dr. Charles Avery, for many years a professor in Hamilton College. The line has been traced to Sir William de Aliot, who entered England with William the Con- queror in 1066. Mr. Williams prepared for college at Dwight's Rural High School in Clinton. Heentered Hamilton College when eighteen yearsof age under the presidency of Dr. Fisher and was graduated in the class of 1867. At the close of his college term he entered the law office of his father, Othniel S. Williams, and graduated from the Hamilton College Law School under Dr. Ellicott Evans in January, 1868. In 1870 he was elected supervisor of the town of Kirkland which office he held for three years. In 1880 he was appointed assistant treasurer of Hamilton College under the late Publius V. Rogers, of Utica, and held the position for a number of years, and until Dr. Thomas B. Hudson was chosen treasurer of the college. He has held the office of trustee of the village of Clinton a number of times and for a number of years was chosen president of the village board. He succeeded his father as a director in the Utica, Clinton and Binghamton, and the Rome and Clinton Railroads, and held the office of secretary of the Clinton Cemetery Association for ten years and upward, of which organization he is at present a trustee. Mr. Williams has also acted as one of the water commissioners for the village of Clinton for a number of years. Mr. Will- iams was early elected a member of the Board of Education of his native town, and has always taken a deep interest in the work of that body, which has resulted in a thorough and complete free school system for Clinton, with one of the most con- venient and finest school buildings in the State, a result for which the people of Clinton may be and are justly proud. In February of the present year Mr. Williams was chosen president of the Board of Education to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles M. Everett, esq. In March, 1896, he was elected to the office of justice of the peace for the town of Kirkland, and is also at the present time police justice for the town of Clinton.

Mr. Williams had charge and care of the work attending the celebration of the

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

centennial exercises of the village of Clinton in July, 1887, when President Cleve- land visited Clinton, the success of which celebration is still fresh in the minds of the people of Oneida county. He has always resided in Clinton and since leaving college has devoted his time to the practice of law and to the insurance business. He has always taken great interest in the village of Clinton, constantly speaking in its favor, extolling its beauties and advantages and healthfulness as a place of resi- dence and the great inducements held out by it as a centre of education.

J. ARTHUR SMITH, V. S.

J. ARTHUR SMITH, V. S., was born and reared in the town of Westmoreland, Oneida county. He now owns and occupies the homestead of both his father and grand- father. They came to the town in 1842 and purchased the farm lying southwest of Rome in the most fertile and attractive part of the county. They came from Chester, England, and were from the most intelligent and thrifty stock of that country. James Smith, father of the subject of this sketch and portrait herewith, was also a veteri- nary surgeon before coming to this country, having attained an advanced standing in the profession, being a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons of London. He continued in the practice during his life in Westmoreland and was counted one of the most successful in Oneida county. He was well known throughout a wide region of territory. Besides this he was among the foremost farmers of the State. He was industrious, prudent and prosperous, and moreover an upright, respected citizen. His ideas of thrift in farming, which had been a part of his education in England, were applied in the same line here, with the result that he made and developed one of the finest and most valuable farm properties to be found among the many attractive farm realties in the town. He was also an exten- sive dealer in horses, and invested considerable money in the business. He married Mary Ann Gypson, of Westmoreland, by whom he had three sons, Willard R., Charles G., and James Arthur. Willard R. is a resident of Buffalo, N. Y., and Charles G. is in business in Chicago. Dr. James Smith, the father, died in 1891 ; Mis. Smith, his wife, is still living.

Dr. J. Arthur Smith was born on this homestead May 11, 1861, where he has spent the greater part of his life. He received the rudiments of his education at the district school in Westmoreland and afterwards took a course at the old Whitestown Semi- nary. Subsequently he attended the New York Veterinary College with the view to continuing the profession in which both his father and grandfather had achieved success. He has therefore grown up in the practice, and this long experience and thorough knowledge of the science has given him the foundation for his unusual suc- cess. But in addition to this he carries on the farm with quite as much or more ability as those who devote themselves to that one industry.

Dr. Smith is an earnest Republican in politics and always takes a deep interest in the party's behalf.

J. ARTHUR SMITH.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

TIMOTHY JENKINS.

THE HON. TIMOTHY JENKINS was a native of New England, a descendant from the hardy, conscientious, devout first settlers of that seminal part of our country. He was born January 29, 1799, in the town of Barre, State of Massachusetts, of parents whose genealogy showed them to be allied to the early Puritans of Plymouth. They were farmers, and intended for their son no other occupation in life. It was their wish that he and his only brother should own and till the same farm which had been bequeathed them by their father. Ere he had attained his sixteenth year his father had been removed by death. From that day he was left to maintain him- self, mark out and pursue his own plan of life. He soon determined to seek a higher intellectual culture, to penetrate some of the regions of science and learning of which he had, in his elementary studies, caught some glimpses. At the age of eighteen Mr. Jenkins removed to Washington county, this State; there he resided two years, attending the academies at Salem and White Creek. During that time he devoted himself assiduously to the attainment of classical and scientific learning. He then entered upon and pursued for three years the honorable employment of school- teacher, in the prosecution of which he was continually extending and perfecting his acquaintance with several sciences and classical literature. At that time he com- menced the study of law, the practice of which he had determined should be the profession of his life. Afterwards, having prosecuted his legal studies the required term under two distinguished lawyers in Utica, Mr. Jenkins was admitted to the bar in 1825. Soon after he opened an office in the adjoining village of Vernon, and in 1832 he removed and settled himself at Oneida Castle, where he continued to live till his death.

From that time until his death, which occurred December 24, 1859, he was con- stantly engaged in an ever-increasing legal business, extending into adjacent counties, and often into more distant parts of the State.

In 1840 Mr. Jenkins was appointed the prosecuting attorney of Oneida county, and he held that responsible office five years. During his term of service the criminal business of the county was unusually large, but his onerous duties were discharged with signal ability, and to the entire satisfaction of his legal brethren and of the people generally. .

For ten years, under the appointing power of the State, Mr. Jenkins held the office of attorney to the Oneida Indians, and to this remnant of a once noble tribe of the aboriginals of our country he faithfully extended the benefits of his talents and in- fluence. In 1844 he was elected a representative to the Congress of the United States; also in 1846, and again in 1850. During those six years in that exalted but often desecrated station, Mr. Jenkins served his constituents, his State, the republic, and the cause of humanity with a fidelity to principle and independence of party that gained for him universal respect, and made him a still greater favorite of the people. He is believed to have been one of those who devised the " Wilmot Proviso." If he did not originate the measure he was early in the counsels of those who did. He supported it with great earnestness, although he knew it was displeasing to many of his own party. Mr. Jenkins was from early life a Democrat in his political belief ; he nevertheless opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which repealed the Mis-

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

souri Compromise. In 1856 he joined the Fremont movement, and ever after acted with the Republicans. Mr. Jenkins was delegate-at-large to the convention which met in Philadelphia in 1856 to form the Republican party.

Mr. Jenkins was a man positive in intellect, disposition, and in heart. He com- menced life under disadvantageous circumstances, but there was no man who en- joyed more entirely the confidence and respect of the whole community. He was highly distinguished for his learning and industry in his profession, his great per- sonal resolution and perseverance, and he maintained aposition in the very first rank at the bar. Although not an orator as that term is generally understood, his speeches were always sound, logical and to the point, and in the preparation of his causes he had no superior. In his religious convictions he was earnest and decided, and took a prominent part in the formation of a Unitarian society in Vernon and the erection of an edifice. To those who knew him slightly he appeared cold and distant, but a better acquaintance showed him genial and communicative, with a heart brimful of love and kindness to all.

In 1822 Mr. Jenkins was united in marriage with Miss Florilla Tuttle, of Vernon, which marriage was terminated by the death of the wife about a year afterwards. In 18.9 Mr. Jenkins married Miss Harriet Tuttle, a sister of his deceased wife, who still survives him. She was a sharer of his earlier struggles and a partaker of his later successes. By his second marriage he had four children: Charles M., also a lawyer, who died aged twenty-six; Hiram T., also a lawyer, who died in 1868, aged thirty-five; he was also district attorney of Oneida county for three terms: Florilla. Mrs. W. J. Hickox, and one, Albert, who died in infancy.

JOHN WELLINGTON BOYLE.

BORN in Glasgow, Scotland, August 6, 1851, John Wellington Boyle was brought by his parents to this country in his infancy, and nearly his entire life has been passed in Utica and vicinity. He is the youngest child of John and Elizabeth (Sharpe) Boyle. The father had been thoroughly trained in the cotton industry, and on reaching America found employment at New York Mills, where the family settled, and where the mother, a woman of great strength of character and rare personal attainments, died in 1868.

During his childhood the boy attended the public schools of the village, but at the close of the civil war when labor was in demand and wages high, he obtained a posi- tion in the cotton mills, and while accumulating the means for further education, acquired also that habit of persistent effort and industry which has been so potent a factor in his subsequent success. As soon as his means warranted he entered Whites- town Seminary, and was fortunate in being enrolled as a pupil of that institution during the most flourishing period in its history. He then commenced the study of the law in the office of Doolittle & Swan, in Utica, and subsequently entered the Albany Law School, pursuing his studies in term time and working through the vaca- tions until 1872, when he graduated. On attaining his majority he was admitted to the bar and returned to Utica to enter upon the practice of his profession.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

For the first three years he was associated with the firm of Waterman & Hunt, but since 1875 he has practiced alone, making a specialty of corporation and commercial law, and counting among his clients numerous corporations and some of the oldest and most reliable firms in the State. He has also been connected as attorney or counselor with many well-known cases, notably the Woodford litigations, growing out of the burning of the village of Canastota, which remained in the courts thirteen years, and proved one of the most stubbornly fought legal battles in the history of Central New York. It drew into its several trials some of the best forensic talent in the State. As attorney for the plaintiff Mr. Boyle eventually won every point in- volved and secured verdicts aggregating about twenty seven thousand dollars.

It is in railroad litigation and affairs, however, that he has been especially promi- nent and successful. In 1886 the street railways of Utica, formerly operated by the Clinton and Binghamton Company as horse railroads changed hands, and Mr. Boyle became connected with the management as attorney for the new company. After securing valuable franchises, extending the old lines and constructing new ones throughout the city, the controlling interest in the Utica Belt Line Street Railroad Company was, in 1889, sold to a New York syndicate, one of the conditions of the sale being the immediate equipment of the property with electricity.

Mr. Boyle, as vice president and general counsel under the new management, still continued to represent the local minority interest. Early in 1890 the change of motive power in all its details was completed; but this was accomplished only after many serious obstacles and innumerable injunction cases had been successfully met and defeated, in all of which Mr. Boyle bore an active and prominent part, displaying tact, skill, excellent judgment and large executive ability. But the road under the control of non-resident owners had become financially involved, and in January, 1892, its embarrassments culminated in the appointment of a receiver.

At this juncture Mr. Boyle again came to the front. With the interests of the road itself at heart, as well as those of the Utica stockholders whom he represented, he most skillfully piloted the property through its many legal complications and financial difficulties, and in August, 1894, successfully effected a favorable and satisfactory re- organization. His services now met with their merited reward in his election to the presidency of the reorganized company, and by his appointment as trustee of the entire property for a term of years, which positions he still holds, and whose duties he discharges with pre-eminent success. It is due to his tireless energy and un- swerving faith in the future possibilities of Utica and the Belt Line property, that the city possesses to-day an electric railway system second to none in the State.

In politics Mr. Boyle has always been a Republican, and while devoting but little time to the subject, he is nevertheless regarded a shrewd adviser in political affairs. An excellent judge of human nature he quickly knows men and with almost unerring accuracy discovers their actuating motives. For a modern politician, however, he perhaps possesses too much boldness, individuality and independence of character. Mr. Boyle is prominent in Masonic circles, having been for three consecutive terms elected Eminent Commander of Utica Commandery No. 3, K. T., and for seven years prior to December, 1895, was Illustrious Potentate of Ziyara Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and declined a re-election to that position on account of pressing business duties. By special act of the Legislature of 1894, New York, he was made

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

one of the incorporators and a trustee of the Imperial Council, Nobles of the M. S., for North America. He is also a member of its committee on jurisprudence and law.

Mr. Boyle was married in February, 1879, to Miss Harriet E. Combs, daughter of Lucius and Sarah (Holmes) Combs, of Whitesboro.

THEODORE S. FAXTON.

THE ancestor of the Faxon family in America was Thomas Faxon, a native of England, who came to Massachusetts with his wife and three children before the year 1647. He was a man of means, and represented Braintree in the General Assembly in 1669. From him descended (1) Richard, (2) Josiah, (3) Thomas, (4) Thomas, and (5) Thomas. Thomas Faxon (4), son of Thomas and Ruth (Webb) Faxon, was born in Braintree, Mass., February 19, 1724, and died in Deerfield, Mass., in June, 1792. He married Joanna Allen, daughter of Abijah and Joanna (Bolter) Allen and a descendant of Samuel Allen, the immigrant. He was a private in Capt. Joseph Stebbins's company of Col. David Wells's regiment in 1777, and also in a body of six months men from Deerfield, Mass., in 1780. His son Thomas (5) was born in Braintree. Mass., February 19, 1755, settled as a farmer and shoemaker in Conway, Mass., and moved thence about 1802 to Whitestown, Oneida county, whence he removed about 1822 to York, Livingston county, N. Y., where he died January 3, 1827. He was married, first, to Rachel, daughter of Isaac and Rachel (Sheldon) Davis, of Somers, Conn. She was born April 15, 1756, and died in Con- way, Mass., in January, 1794. Their children were Fanny (Mrs. Justus Sackett), Alpheus, Rachel (Mrs. Ira Cook), Abigail (Mrs. John Parsons), Mary (Mrs. Willard C. Conkey), Isaac Davis, and Theodore Saxton. Mr. Faxon married second, Debo- rah, daughter of Prince and Jane (Delano) Toby, of New Bedford, Mass. They had eight children, of whom Thomas J., Emily, Ezra T., Josiah G., and an infant daughter, deceased, were born in Whitestown.

Theodore Saxton Faxton 1 was born in Conway, Mass., January 10, 1794, and was the youngest of seven children of Thomas and Rachel (Davis) Faxon. His early educational advantages were limited to the common schools of the period, supple- mented by six months at Clinton soon after taking up his residence in Utica in 1812. In 1813 he became a driver on the stage, and for four years, except the previously mentioned six months, held the reins of a four-in-hand every day. After 1817 he mounted the box only occasionally, yet such was his acknowledged skill as a reins- man that on occasions of ceremony, or when something extraordinary was required, he was invariably selected to do honor to the service. When Lafayette visited Utica in 1825 Mr. Faxton secured six dashing gray horses, harnessed them with silver- plated harness, borrowed the old Van Rensselaer carriage, and drove to Whitesboro, where the distinguished guest was to be received. After General Lafayette had left the boat and entered the carriage Mr. Faxton felt, as he expressed it, grander than

1 According to a History of the Faxon family Theodore S. Faxton was the first to insert the "t" in his name; he adhered to this style of orthography in writing his name throughout life.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Napoleon. After the year 1817 he had charge for a considerable period of a portion of the stage business of Jason Parker and a little later was offered an interest in the concern on the condition that he should pay for his share as fast as the profits would permit. In 1822 he became a partner, together with Silas D. Childs, in the firm of Jason Parker & Co. Notwithstanding the competition of the new Erie Canal the stage business through Central New York continued very large for a number of years, and at the death of Mr. Parker in 1828 there were eight daily lines running through Utica east and west and four lines north and south. The firm successfully managed this vast and intricate business for ten years after the death of the senior member, and Messrs. Faxton and Childs continued in partnership some time longer. Together they erected the Exchange building on the site of the old Canal Coffee House, and collected the rents of this, the Eagle Tavern, and other real estate which they held in common. Mr. Faxton also joined with John Butterfield, Hiram Green- man, and others in running a line of packet boats on the Erie Canal, and in connec- tion with Alfred Munson and associates he organized the first American line of steamers on the River St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, and for several years was one of the managing directors. He was one of the originators of the Utica and Black River Railroad, paid a larger subscription than any other man, and for a long time served most efficiently as president of the company.

Mr. Faxton always took a just pride in developing the village and city of Utica, and through various enterprises contributed largely to its material prosperity. He gave the first $100 to found the Utica Mechanics Association and held the office of president several terms. With Willett H. Shearman and Anson Dart he was one of the commissioners who completed the erection of the Utica State Hospital (then the State Lunatic Asylum) in 1843, and in 1852 was chairman of the building committee of the First Presbytarian church. He was also one of the originators of the Utica Water Works Company, the Utica Steam Cotton Mills, and the Second National Bank, and served the last two named corporations as president; and was interested in the Globe Woolen Mills, of which he was president from April, 1856, until his death. In 1845 he became a conspicuous factor in developing and adapting to wider use the then greatestinvention of the century, the telegraph, and in this respect he will forever merit particular credit. From the very first he was attracted to the possibilities of the wonderful invention, and soon after the success of the first line from Baltimore to Wash- ington he visited the latter city for the purpose of personally investigating for him- self and the few others who shared his confidence. He had learned from experience in. his Telegraph line of stages-a line fitted out by his company to carry a small number of passengers at the greatest possible speed, and which had been so popular that every seat was spoken for days in advance of departure-that men loved speed and would encourage and patronize the fastest stages, the fastest boats, and the fastest means of transmitting intelligence. While absent he secured the right to establish a telegraph line between New York and Buffalo, the owners of the patent to have one- half of the stock of the company when the line was complete. On his return to Utica he united with John Butterfield, Hiram Greenman, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Wells, and others, and formed a company with a capital of $200,000, and with himself as president and superintendent, in which capacity he continued to act for seven years. The company strung the first wire between New York and Buffalo; it

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

was of copper and cost about $60 per mile. His attention was called to the wire fence which had been in use on Colonel Walker's grounds for twenty-five years, and he concluded that if iron was good for fences for such a length of time it would also do for telegraphing purposes. The copper wire was taken down and sold for enough to put up the two iron wires, which cost only $18 per mile. Mr. Faxton labored hard against much opposition to make the enterprise a success, which it proved to be.

He never took a very active part in politics, but was frequently called to positions of honor and trust. He was a trustee of the village of Utica in 1831, and served as alderman of the city in 1836 and as mayor in 1864. In 1848 he was a delegate to the Whig National Convention which nominated Zachary Taylor for president. In 1842 lie became sheriff of Oneida county, but held the office only a few weeks when he was displaced by the governor purely for political reasons. His enterprise, public spirit, and generous benefactions not only built up stage, packet, steamboat, railroad, and telegraph lines, banks, manufactories, etc., which have added wealth and pros- perity to Utica, but established other monuments which perpetuate his name and honor his memory. These are the Old Ladies' Home on Faxton street, Faxton Hos- pital, and Faxton Hall at the junction of Varick and Court streets for the education of the children of factory operatives by day and night. He was the founder of each of these; and also of Faxton Lodge, No. 697, F. & A. M. Ile was a man of strict in- tegrity, of marked sociability, and of great kindness of heart, and was possessed of unusual business and executive ability.

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Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 68

Author: Wager, Daniel Elbridge, 1823-1896 Publication date: 1896 Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston history co. Number of Pages: 1612

Author: Wager, Daniel Elbridge, 1823-1896
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: [Boston] : The Boston history co.
Number of Pages: 1612