Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 73

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 73

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But it was outside of his commercial relations and among the people of his native city that Mr. Curran left the most indelible impress of his true character and manly worth. He was best known and appreciated by those who were the least aware of his private business affairs, for in these he was largely brought into contact with men at a distance. At home he was pre-eminently a public benefactor, taking a lively and an active interest in all important projects which promised general ad- vancement and permanennt good. He was a stockholder and director in the First National Bank and from 1888 until his death its vice-president, and was also a trus- tee of the Utica Savings Bank and a member of its executive committee. In all these capacities he manifested a rare knowledge of financial affairs and ably assisted in directing them.

Mr. Curran was the founder of the Homestead Aid Association of Utica, one of the largest and most successful organizations in the country for the benefit of the local wage-earner and home-builder. The idea of developing this field was suggested to him by F. Leroy Smith, who was familiar with its operations in other eastern cities. but the inception, maintenance, and success were due to his indomitable efforts and sagacious management. He was its father, its prime mover, and its watchful guard- ian, and upon him during the first ten years of its existence devolved the heaviest duties and proper direction. To its development he devoted his best efforts, and that they were entirely unselfish is evidenced by the fact that they were without re- muneration or hope of reward other than that which came from doing good. In its interests he labored early and late ; he was its staunchest champion; his advice and counsel guided its affairs and the actions of his associates; and often he advanced payments for worthy men who through misfortune were unable to make them them- selves. The association was organized by himself and others in February, 1884, and he served as its president from that time until his death, performing much of its de- tail work, and conscientiously guarding its ever growing interests. He contributed numerous articles in its behalf to local newspapers which were widely copied by journals devoted to savings and loan organizations. The association has now an invested capital of $700,000, and during its career has proved inestimably valuable to many a small property owner. In the prayers that have gone up from the large

BIOGRAPHICAL.

number of little homes which this noble man's labor builded there is a volume of un- written gratitude and reverence, which in the hearts of those benefited is a living monument to the memory of the association's founder.

It was one of Mr. Curran's chief ambitions to make others happy. To the poor and unfortunate he unostentatiously gave liberally and cheerfully of his not over abundant means, and in this respect no man enjoyed a brighter record. He was well known for his charitable acts, and equally well known for his kindness, consid- eration, and good deeds. He was a wise giver, possessing a keen discrimination between the worthy and unworthy. In 1880 he was elected a charity commissioner, an office to which he was three times re-elected, and served with signal ability and universal satisfaction. In this capacity he resolutely stood for economy, but as firmly for justice and right. He was one of the founders and president of the Utica Free Dispensary, one of the first officers of Faxton Hospital, and secretary of the Home for the Homeless at the time of his death. He was also a member of the ad- visory board of the Woman's Christian Association, and the first president of the Young Men's Christian Association, with which he was long actively and prominently identified. During the early history of the last named institution he was not only its guiding officer, but one of its chief and most liberal supporters. Mr. Curran was always fond of athletic sports, and at one time the firm established on the top floor of their place of business a finely appointed gymnasium, where they were wont to admit schoolboys in considerable numbers, and where he often participated in their exercises with the keenest enjoyment. He was a member and for several years an elder of Westminster Presbyterian church, and was actively interested in its Sunday school. His devotion to church work was akin to that displayed in the interests of charity, and his influence in both was of the purest, noblest, and most elevating character. He was one of nature's noblemen, a man whose Christian spirit spoke in his deed and action-a model citizen, a kind, affectionate husband, and an indul- gent yet firm father.

In politics he was a staunch Republican, but steadfastly refused to accepted polit- ical office. Without his solicitation he was often urged to go upon his party's ticket, particularly for mayor of Utica, but he invariably declined. He was appointed by Governor Cleveland and confirmed by the Senate without opposition as one of the trustees of the Utica State Hospital, but declined the honor on account of other duties. In 1884 he was appointed a member of the board of civil service examiners at Utica. He was a member of the Oneida Historical Society and on June 6, 1890, was elected a member of Epsilon Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa of Hamilton College. He died in Utica, where he had spent his entire life, on the 4th of June, 1894, widely mourned and universally respected. His remains were interred in the family lot in Forest Hill Cemetery. Touching resolutions, glowing tributes to his memory, were passed by every organization with which he had been connected, and in addition scores of letters were received by the family from persons all over the country, each bearing a tender encomium of his rare worth and high personal character.

Mr. Curran was married on October 20, 1864, to Miss Lucy Helen Doolittle, who was born in Utica October 26, 1836, and who survives him. Her father, Charles R. Doolittle,1 was born in Whitestown, August 4, 1799, and died in Utica October 9,

' Gen. George Doolittle, father of Charles R., was born in Wallingford, Conn., June 13, 1759,

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

1841. Her mother, whose maiden name was Abigail Pickard Obear, was born in Beverly, Mass., March 26, 1811, and died in Utica July 27, 1890. Mr. and Mrs. Cur- ran's wedded life was peculiarly a happy one. Their home was the center of tender- ness, affection, and Christian influence, and from its sacred precints radiated those virtues which elevate and inspire men to noble action. They were the parents of two sons: Richard Langford Curran, born September 26, 1865, who is engaged in the general advertising business in New York city; and Sherwood Spencer Curran, born September 12, 1867, who is secretary of the Homestead Aid Association of Utica, succeeding William P. Carpenter on the latter's death in May, 1895.

DAVID CURTIS STODDARD.

THE first of the Stoddard family in America was john Stoddard, who appears on record as a landowner in Westfield, Conn., as early as June 18, 1645. Two years before this he had married Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Foote. Their descendants became conspicuous in the civil and commercial life of New England, and for gener- ations were acknowledged leaders in the affairs of their communities. From them descended Aaron Stoddard, the great-grandfather of David C., who was born July 15, 1739. He enlisted in Capt. Bezaleel Beebe's company from Litchfield, Conn , and served in the Revolutionary war until his death on January 12, 1777. His only son, David Stoddard, was born in Litchfield November 15, 1723, was married in 1793 to Dorcas Kent, and in 1803 moved to De Ruyter (now Otselic), Chenango county, N. Y., where he engaged in farming and also in buying and driving cattle. Dorcas, the wife of David, died in Otselic October 11, 1830, while his death occurred in Groton, N. Y., May 5, 1848. Their son, David D. Stoddard, was born in Litchfield, Conn., October 1, 1795, and was married in Otselic, N. Y., on October 19, 1823, to Mary Salome Warner, who was born in Ballston Springs, N. Y., August 15, 1795. David D. Stoddard was originally a Whig in politics, but very early became an active abo- litionist, and in 1840 cast the only vote of that party in his town. In November, 1859, he moved to Mazeppa, Minn., where he died June 1, 1870. His wife died there in 1878. Their children were William Harmon, born September 12, 1824, deceased ; Albion, born February 14, 1826, of South Shore, S. Dak .; Eliza Ann, born October 29, 1827, died in 1892; Salome Jane, born July 13, 1829, of Mazeppa, Minn. ; David Curtis, the subject of this sketch; Lyman, born January 19, 1833, killed in the army

enlisted at the age of seventeen, in response to Washington's first call for troops in 1276, in the Sth company, Capt. Joseph Churchill, 3d battallion, Connecticut line, and served in and about New York and Long Island, being caputured by the British in the retreat September 15, 1776. On May 1, 1278, he re-enlisted in the 6th Conn. Regt., regular line, raised to serve three years or during the war. He was with the main army under Washington at White Plains and during the year 1779 served on the east side of the Hudson River, participating in the battle of Stony Point July 15th. Three or more of his brothers also enlisted in the Revolutionary army. January 1, 1783, he was made adjutant. About 1787 he removed to Whitestown and became the first com- missioned officer of militia in Oneida county. He died here February 21, 1825. He married Grace, daughter of Capt. Amos Wetmore, a Revolutionary soldier in Colonel Comfort's regiment Con- necticut line. She was born in Middletown, Conn., December 3, 1766, and died in Whitestown August 27, 1836, being the mother of twelve children.

D. C. STODDARD.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

December 28, 1862; Mary Caroline (Mrs. Charles Duncan), born October 17, 1834, deceased; Emily, born June 8, 1838, died January 7, 1854; and Charlotte, born August 18, 1843, died August 21, 1849.

David Curtis Stoddard was born August 3, 1831, in the town of Otselic, Chenango county, N. Y., upon a farm his father had subdued from the primeval forest, and which was surrounded in part by the same unbroken wilderness. It was a rough, hilly, stony country-hard to clear of timber and hard to cultivate afterwards- producing not bountifully in the best seasons, and very scantily often, with long cold and severe winters in which was consumed all the product of the summer. Educational facilities were very scant in quantity and quality; the school-house was half built and poorly furnished; seats were made of slabs or planks, unplaned and without backs; the stove or fireplace was supplied with wood, green and just cut and hauled from the forest, which the fire refused to feed upon, but the well-seasoned and oft used rod of the master often supplied the heat the fire should have made. It was under these circumstances that he received what education this school could give; but when grown to a young man he added to this three or four terms at select or private schools, with two terms in an academy, so that at nineteen years of age he commenced the teaching of these district schools in the winters. These advant- ages only resulted in fairly perfecting him in the common branches of learning without the benefit of a higher culture. Books were scarce, and but for the little district library just before established, would have been few indeed, as those hard- working men and women had to struggle for bread and could spare nothing for books. What books could be reached he thoroughly read and they have been of great advantage to hini, but he has always felt the want of an early education, and the want of books of general information at that time in his life.

In early manhood he became a Whig in feelings and at majority cast his first vote for General Scott in the presidential election of 1852, and at each election sustained it by his vote until its disappearance in the Republican party, which he has sup- ported and sustained till the present time. In January, 1853, he commenced to study law in the office of Hon. Sidney T. Holmes, the county judge of Madison county, and finished his studies and was admitted to the bar at Utica, N. Y., in January, 1853, commencing at once the practice of law at that city, which he continued until Sep- tember, 1861.

After the first battle of Bull Run and the call for 500,000 volunteers immediately thereafter, although knowing nothing of military matters, like thousands of other young men in those stirring times, he resolved to do what was in his power to aid his conntry to put down that cruel rebellion against the best government the world had then seen. He associated with George Klinck and John S. Hunt (son of Hon. Ward Hunt) to recruit and have mustered into service an artillery company, which was done in the short time of two weeks, and, on the organization the company, was chosen and then commissioned second lieutenant of said company which formed Co. E of the 2d N. Y. H. A. Vols., and was soon afterwards commissioned first lieutenant in place of Hunt. Early in the next November this regiment was at the front and formed part of the garrison of the chain of forts defending Washington from the south side of the Potomac River, where it remained (except taking part in the battle of Second Bull Run) drilling, making forts and perfecting itself as a regiment until

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

May, 1864, when it had 2,000 men in its twelve companies of first-class officers and soldiers, it was ordered to join General Grant in that celebrated campaign against Richmond; and the dead bodies of these brave men were left upon every battlefield from the Wilderness to Appomattox Court House. On arriving at the front the regiment was attached to and formed a part of the First Brigade (commanded by Gen. Nelson A. Miles, now commander-in-chief of the U. S. A.), First Division (commanded by Gen. Francis C. Barlow), Second Corps (commanded by Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock), all then and ever since celebrated as brave and superior officers. He served with this company and regiment, participating in all its battles, long marches and hardships until his discharge in October, 1864, by reason of expiration of term of service, and during his whole service in the army was not obliged to go to a hospital. In August, 1864, he received a commission as captain in the regi- ment, but his health being temporarily impaired by the hardships of that summer, he declined to muster under it and was honorably discharged after three years of service. Returning to his family and home his health improved rapidly and with strength came the desire to return to the army. He could not content himself with business, and in December, receiving a commission from the secretary of war as first lieutenant in the 1st Regt. U. S. Vet. Vols. (Hancock's Corps), he again en- tered the service and was stationed at Utica to recruit veteran soldiers who had served at least two years and were physically sound; and during the following win- ter recruited 150 veterans who were mustered into the service and formed part of the 20,000 veterans which General Hancock was authorized by the war department to raise throughout the United States and to command in the field. Early in March he was ordered to join his regiment, then serving in the Shenandoah Valley, and on arriving immediately took part in an expedition against General Mosby, the celebrated guerrilla of the Blue Mountains of Virginia, and here he heard the last hostile bullet in a short skirmish with this brave and daring leader. After the sur- render of Lee his regiment was sent to the Wilderness to collect the bones of the unburied dead of that fierce struggle and bury them, mark the graves of the dead there and at Spottsylvania Court House, and then returning to Washington was the guard inside the prison at the execution of Mrs. Surrat, Harold and others for the assassination of the lamented Lincoln. In July he was ordered to Baltimore and promoted to be captain of Co. C of the same regiment. He was in command of Fort Federal Hill and Camp Distribution in that city, and was honorably discharged at the muster out of service of his company and regiment in February, 18655.

Returning to Utica, after long and valiant service in the army, Mr. Stoddard re- sumed the practice of law, and in 1871 formed a copartnership with Edwin H. Risley, which continued until 1884. Since then he has practiced his profession alone. Having been elected in the fall of 1871 he qualified and entered upon his duties as district attorney of Oneida county on January 1, 1872, and served in that capacity for a term of three years. Among the many important trials which he conducted as prosecuting officer was that of Josephine A. McCarthy for shooting and killing Henry H. Hall, of Ogdensburg, while riding in a Genesee street car in Utica. This was one of the most celebrated cases in the criminal annals of the State and lasted three weeks, and out of it grew the indictment, trial, and conviction for libel of the editor of the Daily Bee for printing an attack upon the presiding justice. In 1878 Mr.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Stoddard was candidate for surrogate on the Republican ticket, but owing to an organized effort to carry the office to Rome he was defeated by Stephen Van Dreaser by a very small majority. After this he retired permanently from politics and devoted his attention wholly to his profession, in which he has won brilliant achievements and a wide reputation.

Mr. Stoddard is a member of Utica Lodge. No. 47, F. & A M., and Oneida Chap- tor, No. 57, R. A. M., and a charter member of Yah-nun-dah-sis Lodge of Perfection Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. He is also a charter member of Post Bacon, No. 53, G. A. R., and has served as its quartermaster and commander two terms each. For a time he was judge advocate-general on the staff of General Barnum, Department Commander State of New York. He has always taken a lively interest in public affairs, and in the progress and prosperity of the city of Utica, where he occupies a prominent place both as citizen and lawyer.

July 13, 1859, Mr. Stoddard was married to Miss Sarah B., daughter of Leonard Gibbs, of Utica. She was born in Boston, Mass., in 1833. Their children are David Curtis, jr., born March 6, 1862, and George Lyman, born May 26, 1869, both of Utica.

THE WHITE FAMILY.

IN preparing the history of the County of Oneida it becomes necessary to outline briefly the history of the White family, and the proprietary settlement of this county by this family and the development of the commerce of the State through its water ways by Canvass White, one member of the family, and a similar development of its commerce by railroads by William Clark Young, another member of the family ; and in fact the family's continuous association with the growth and development of Cen- tral New York ever since the original settlement here, June 5, 1784.

The family trace their descent from Elder John White, one of the first settlers of Cambridge in Massachusetts, of Hartford in Connecticut and of Hadley in Massa- chusetts. Elder John White landed in Boston, Mass., on the good ship Lyon, Sep- tember 16, 1632, and his home lot was on the street called " Cowyard Row" not far from Gore Hall, where the beautiful library building of Harvard University now stands. The standing of the family was that of the well to do middle class, their home life in England had been one of comfort, and their departure for this country was on account of religious intolerance.

John White and his family moved, as one of the followers of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, to what is now the city of Hartford, Conn., where he assisted in founding the settlement, and where he died in 1684 about the age of eighty-one years. He held several offices of importance, such as magistrate, selectman, member of the General Court (Legislature), and lived an active, useful and Christian life, respected by all who knew him. He was the founder of a numerous family, many of whose members became prominent and influential factors in civil, social and business af-

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

fairs. His descendants, without exception have held high rank in their respective communities, and are numbered to-day among the most patriotic and useful citizens.

HUGH WHITE.

HUGH WHITE, the pioneer settler of Whitestown, was the fifth in descent from Elder John White above mentioned; he was born in Middletown, Conn., January 25, 1733, and married Mary Clark of the same town, by whom he had ten children, two daughters dying in infancy. and his five sons and two daughters came with him and settled Whitestown. Hugh White served during the Revolutionary war as a quartermaster, and in that capacity, with the self sacrificing devotion of the many heroes in that first struggle of the country for national independence, expended his fortune for the maintenance of the army, receiving in its place continental paper money that became worthless in his possession.

At the close of the Revolutionary war he joined in the purchase of Sadaquada Patent with Zephaniah Platt, Ezra L'Hommedieu, Melancthon Smith and General William Floyd, the last being one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and Mr. White was sent to make the preliminary settlement and survey of the new purchase. The trip was made from Albany up the Mohawk River in flat bottom boats, which were propelled by means of poles. When they reached German Flats, a few miles east of Utica, where there was a small clearing, they halted long enough to plough the ground and plant corn, and then proceeded up the river until they reached the mouth of the Sauquoit Creek, where they landed and a clearing was at once started from the mouth of the creek, toward the present site of the Whitestown village square; that fall they returned to German Flats and harvested the corn which they planted in the spring time, and the following spring Mr. White and his sons were joined by their wives and families, and the settlement of Whitestown was completed.

The Legislature, by an act passed March 7, 1788, among other things, created the town of Whitestown in the county of Montgomery. This town was laid out on a magnificent scale; its boundary was a straight line crossing the river a short distance below Genesee street bridge at a log house then standing there, and running thence due north to the river St. Lawrence, and also due south to a small stream near Penn- sylvania, and down that stream to the Pennsylvania line, all parts of the State lying west of that line were constituted the town of Whitestown. It contained more than twelve million acres of land, the navigable waters of the Mohawk, the Delaware, the Susquehanna and the Ohio rivers, the Salt Springs of Onondaga, the chain of the Finger lakes and the Oswego river, the entire valley of the Genesee, with its upper and lower falls, and also the grand cataract of the Niagara. Its frontage of great lakes and rivers was not short of four hundred miles in length. After the ar- rival of the judge's family, and his children and their families, he purchased of Will- iam Floyd his interest in Sadaquada Patent, the various interests having been allotted to the partners in the enterprise by lot, and General Floyd's portion being that on the east side of the Sauquoit creek where is now situated the village of Yorkville and New York Mills. The price paid for this land by Mr. White was three pipes of wine, which was sent to the general at his house in Western, a short dis-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

tance from Rome, but the general having no bottles in which to place the wine at that time, sent to England and had the bottles blown with his initials and the date, and some of these bottles are now in possession of the descendants of the general in the old mansion at Western.

At the time of Hugh White's arrival the Indian complications on the frontier were in a very delicate condition, the Indians having been under large pay from the English, and hostility focused against the settlers during the entire war. It needed a pecul- iar strength to gain their friendship and trust. Hugh White was a fearless, yet cautious leader, and exerted a powerful and wholesome influence upon the entire community. He was especially a firm friend of the Indians who had possessions on all sides for miles around, it being the home of the Six Nations, and the Iroquois Confederacy. Forewarned of the craft and treachery of these tribes, he sought to conciliate their good will by frankness and fair dealing, and by unaffected assurances of friendship for the well being of their tribes, oft times accompanying these pro- fessions by kindly offices and with gifts judiciously distributed to their women and little ones. Yet a latent incredulity seems to have clouded the leading chief of the Confederacy, Han Yerry, as to the sincerity of these friendly advances, and on one of his frequent visits to the family of the patriot of the Pale Faces, this chief asked to be allowed the favor of carrying an interesting little girl, a granddaughter of Judge White's, home to his squaws at their tribal wigwam as they would be delighted to see and handle the papoose of the Pale Faces. Defining that the crafty purpose of the chief, was to obtain a hostage as a pledge of the good favor of the Whites' friendly regard toward the natives of the forest, the judge decided that the child should go; the mother was, of course, frantic at the bare idea of her tender offspring being carried off by the savages, and the father of the child, Joseph White, son of the judge, protested that the shock would be either the death of his wife or drive her into lunacy, but the judge was firm in his purpose, and told his son' that the child must go, and it was intimated to his son that he should lock up his wife until the child be brought back. The child was carefully carried off by the chief who pledged his word to bring her back on the morrow. The grief of the mother can be better imagined than described, and it was a night of anxiety to her and her husband, and most of the following day wore away without bringing relief to their doubts whether the child would ever be restored to them alive. It was not until the sun was on its western decline and near the horizon setting across the pathway leading over the bluff from Oriskany, that the chief with a retinue of chiefs and squaws, were discovered wending their way along the forest trails in all their native dignity, and with them the beautiful little waif perched high on the chief's shoulders decked out in all the splendor of barbaric feathers and wampum, and thus decked the little hostage was safely restored by the elated chieftain to its mother. The heroine of this adventure afterwards married Captain Ells of Whitestown.

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Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 73

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