Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 83

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 83

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In 1883 there was in Utica Post B, of the Commercial Travelers Life Association of Syracuse, whose officers met every four weeks in the Butterfield House. At one of these meetings, held early in March, Mr. Trevvett introduced the subject of start- ing an accident association here. A circular was issued, signed by ten or twelve men, and the next week fifty persons met and formally adopted a constitution and by-laws which Mr. Trevvett had drafted. On March 20, 1883, the Commercial Trav- elers' Mutual Accident Association was incorporated with forty-nine charter mem- bers, eight being non-resident, the name of Edward Trevvett heading the list. The object, as set forth in the preamble, was "to secure voluntary contributions to mem- bers of our brotherhood, who, through accident, have sustained bodily injuries which wholly disables them from following their occupation, or to the widow and orphans, or such other beneficiaries as may be designated, in case of death by accidental means." Henry D. Pixley has been the president since the organization. The first secretary and treasurer was Edgar H. Wheeler, who died in July, 1883, when Edward Trevvett, who was a member of the first board of directors, was elected to the posi- tion and has ever since filled it with ability and satisfaction. This is the largest accident association in the world for a distinct set or class of men, all of its members, numbering about 17,000, being bona fide commercial travelers. Mr. Trevvett was alone in the inception and founding of the institution, and to him is mainly due the success which it has attained. Through its thirteen years' existence he has labored assiduously and in the face of trying difficulties for its welfare, has given it his entire attention, and has triumphantly placed it upon a sound and lasting basis. Others have been instrumental in its development, but his personal activity and business skill have carried it successfully to a benevolent, co operative, and fraternal end. During the thirteen years the average cost of insurance, exclusive of entrance fees, has been $6.75 per year. Its permanent home is in Utica, a fact which eminently identifies it and its founder with the history of the county

Mr. Trevvett is president of St. George's Society of the city of Utica, which was organized February 4, 1858, and of which he became a member about 1880. He is also president of the North America St. George's Union for 1895-7, being elected to this high position in the order at the sixteenth convention held in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, August 20 to 23, 1895. He is a 32d degree Mason, holding membership in

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

Faxton Lodge, No. 697, F. & A. M., Oneida Chapter, No. 57, R. A. M,, Utica Coun- cil, No. 28, R. S. M., Utica Commandery, No. 3. K. T., Central City Consistory, A. A. S. Rite, and Ziyara Temple, A. A. O. Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is junior warden and treasurer of St. George's church, Utica, and treasurer of the second convocation or missionary district of the diocese of Central New York, which em- braces all of Oneida and a part of Madison county.

Mr. Trevvett married the youngest daughter of Dr. John P. Simpson, of Leices- tershire, England, and they have four children living, viz. : Florence, of Tacoma. Wash. ; Annie (Mrs. Charles H. Davidson), of Utica; Herbert E., special traveling agent for the Southern Pacific railroad with headquarters at Tacoma, Wash. ; and Sidney A., a graduate of Cornell University and now with the Union Casualty and Fidelity Company of New York city.

BENJAMIN HALL.

HON. BENJAMIN HALL, son of Jason C. and Permelia Hall, was born near Ingham's Mills, Fulton county, N. Y., March 9, 1846, and remained on his father's farm until 1870. He was educated in the public schools of his native town, and inherited those sterling characteristics which mark the successful man. In 1874 he removed to Utica, where he has since resided, and where he established in the same year his present hide, wool, and fur business, which since 1880 has been located on the corner of Bleecker and John streets. Here he has successfully built up a large and profit- able trade, and is one of the oldest dealers in this line in the city. He is one of Utica's most enterprising business men, and is well and favorably known throughout the county and State. By honest dealing, strict attention to details, and continued industry he has steadily increased his establishment until now it is one of the lead- ing houses of the kind in Central New York. As a business man, and socially, too, he is held in high esteem, and enjoys the confidence of all who know him.

Mr. Hall has for many years been an active Republican, and in the councils of his party is a recognized leader. In 1885 he was elected to the Assembly from the first district of Oneida county and was re-elected in 1886 by a largely increased majority. In the Legislature he was devoted to the interests of his constituents and to the State at large, and was elassed with the working members of that body. His pru- dence and efficiency while in office secured for him the honor of being the first Republican in his district who was nominated and elected for two successive terms. As assemblyman his vote and influence were always in the interests of wholesome legislation for the elevation of society and the promotion of good government. He served on many important committees, being chairman of those on canals and joint library, and introduced about fifty bills, most of which became laws. He was well liked by his associates, and his counsel was often sought by older members.

In the city of Utica Mr. Hall is prominently connected with various institutions and societies. He is a member of Oriental Lodge F. & A. M., Oneida Chapter, No. 5%, R. A. M., Utica Commandery, No. 3, K. T., Utica Consistory, No. 2, A. & A. S. Rite, and Ziyara Temple Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, 32 , Northern jurisdiction.

Benjamin Hall

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

He is also a member of Imperial Council R. A., and was one of the first members of the Arcanum Club and one of its original board of governors. He is a member of Oneida Lodge I. O. O. F., an honorary member of the Utica Citizens Corps, and a member of the Merchants and Manufacturers Exchange and one of its board of di- rectors. He is also a member of the Utica Chamber of Commerce and of the Oneida Historical Society. In all these as well as the general prosperity of the city he takes a keen interest. Public-spirited and progressive he is a self-made man, and owes his success in life almost wholly to his individual efforts.

Mr. Hall was married on February 27, 1872, to Miss Catherine P., daughter of Hon. Archibald McDonald Harrison, of Cressy, Ontario, Canada. Mr. Harrison was distantly connected with ex-President Benjamin Harrison and a cousin of the late Hon. John A. McDonald, who for many years was at the head of the Dominion gov- ernment of Canada.

ALFRED MUNSON.

ALFRED MUNSDN was a son of Ephraim (1753-1826) and Hannah (Wetmore) Mun- son (1749-1815), of Berkhamstead, Litchfield county, Conn., a grandson of Samuel Monson, of Northford, New Ilaven county, Conn., and a lineal desendant of Lieut. 'Thomas Monson, the first of the name in America and one of the signers of the Plantation Covenant of New Haven. Thomas Monson was of English birth, and came to the New World, one of those four thousand exiled servants of God, between 1629 and 1634 to secure liberty of conscience. Alfred was born in Berkhamstead, Conn., May 21, 1793, and with the exception of one year spent in Hartford with the Todds lived in the family of his brother Samuel until he reached the age of thirty. On June 29, 1813, the two brothers purchased one-half of their father's farm and buildings and two years later they bought the remaining half of this homestead of their brother Reuben J. In 1817 they purchased of their father a one-half interest in a saw mill and six years afterward one-half of a grist mill. On June 5, 1823, Alfred sold one-half of the farm, "where my father lives," with one-half of the buildings, to Samuel for $500, one half of the saw mill with eighty acres for $700, and one-half of the grist mill for $800. He immediately removed to Utica, N. Y .. having with his wife $2,900 in money. He had previously visited this section and arranged for business. According to Samuel A. Munson it is stated that while one of the Munsons was on a journey between New York and Hartford he came upon a French- man who claimed that he " had run away from some revolution in France." As he was skilled in making millstones he was brought to Berkhamstead. The Munsons set him to work on buhr stones, which were brought from New York city. The first pair was used by themselves, the second by a mill in Simsbury, and the third went to New Hartford. Alfred Munson " and a Hartford man" began the manufacture of French buhr stones in Utica-the first establishment of the kind in this country. To assist in disguising the material employed they mingled brimstone with the plaster of paris which was used. Mr. Munson was engaged in this business in Utica for fifteen years, and it is said that he bought up all the canal boats on one section

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

of the Erie Canal, and that he and his partner at one time, perhaps in 1830-35, owned all the steamboats on Lake Ontario. His first shop was in the basement of the Kirkland block on the corner of Liberty and Hotel streets, but he soon removed from there to the east side of Washington street where it crosses the canal. With untiring energy he steadily enlarged the business until it came to be the chief de- pendence of millers throughout a wide territory. Martin Hart was his bookkeeper, partner, or executor of his estate for upwards of forty years.

Mr. Munson was from boyhood of a frail constitution and suffered much from bodily infirmities, but his mind was unusually active and clear. He was prudent, penetrative, and sagacious, and was possessed of sound common sense discriminat- ing judgment, and remarkable wisdom. Bold, foresighted, and eminently calculat ing, bis plans, when matured, needed only will of execution-his most conspicuous and commanding trait to overcome every obstacle and insure success. He was in- fluenced by purity as well as vigor of purpose, and was liberal minded and public spirited. He loved to engage in large but strictly legitimate business enterprises, and especially in such as tended to promote the welfare and prosperity of the com- munity. The rare combination of business elements in his character-his resolute determination, his constant watchfulness, his self-reliance-lent a prestige of success to every scheme in which he embarked. For several years he engaged in the pass- enger traffic by canal and by steamers on Lake Ontario, and was trustee and treas- urer of the Ontario and St. Lawrence Steamboat Company until within a few weeks of his death. He was one of the builders of the Utica and Schenectady, the Syra- cuse and Utica, and the Syracuse and Oswego Railroads, and served as a director of the first named corporation from 1834 to 1844. He was also one of the active build- ers of the Utica and Binghamton Railroad and held the office of president at the time of his decease. This line followed very nearly the course of a State road which he, as one of the commissioners, had laid out thirty years before He was president of the Canton Real Estate Company of Baltimore, Md., and also engaged in the manufacture of iron in that city. Later he was one of a company to establish iron works in Clinton, N. Y. He purchased extensive coal fields in Pennsylvania to save himself from loss, and for more than twenty-six years they were not a source of rev- enue, but a constant drain upon his estate. He foresaw their future value, however, and enjoined upon his heirs to keep them.

No one did more than Mr. Munson to promote the manufacturing interests of Utica. By the application of his means he early became the efficient advocate of introducing and testing the value of steam power in the making of cotton and woolen goods, and was the first president of the original boards which managed the Utica Steam Cotton and the Globe Woolen Mills. He was one of the instigators and early managers of the Utica Water Works Company, the Utica Mechanics Association, and the Utica Female Academy. When the United States Bank with its twenty-five branches was flourishing he was a director in 1833 of the Utica branch. He was the first president of the Oneida Bank and held the office for seventeen years. From its inception he was a manager and chief of the board of managers of the New York State Lunatic Asylum, now the Utica State Hospital, and from 1842 until his death its firm and generous friend. He was the richest man in Oneida county and proba- bly the first Munson in the country to become a millionaire.

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

In politics he was originally a Democrat and later a determined Abolitionist, but he never sought and only twice accepted public office-that of supervisor in 1832 and 1833. Enterprising, progressive, and public-spirited, deeply interested in every worthy and important movement, he was at one time the foremost citizen of Utica. Through his beneficence Grace church had its origin and present edifice, the plans for which he supervised a few years before his death. He was a prominent member and vestryman of this society, and bequeathed to the parish $10,000 for the lot and church building, $1,000 for a Sunday school room, $500 for a Sunday school library, $1,500 for a church organ, 8500 for a bell, and $500 for church furniture, etc. The church has received from his estate and from his heirs about $31 500. He also be- queathed to the Utica Orphan Asylum $5,000 for the erection of a new building, $25,000 for an endowment fund, and his coal lands in Pennsylvania, valued at $4,000. The whole amount left by Mr. Munson for charitable and religious purposes, and in remembrances of remote relatives, aggregated about $60,000.

Mr. Munson was taller than his father-"was tall and slim, and had dark eyes and dark hair." His very long nose was a feature which would commend him to the favor of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was in every sense the architect of his own fortune. Though not possessing the advantages of a finished education he had, nevertheless, talents of a high order and exerted them for high and useful ends. Coming hither with slender means he worked his way to a leading place among the business men and benefactors of Utica. He was of the seventh generation from Thomas Monson (1612-1685), a carpenter, a civil officer, a lieutenant in the Pequot Indian war of 1647-for which latter service he received a land grant in Hartford, Conn. Lieutenant Thomas became a member of the New Haven plantation and a member of the first church there as early as 1640. He was captain of the New Haven colony soldiers in King Philip's war, a member of the General Council, and one of the leading and valuable citizens.

Alfred Munson died in Utica on the 6th of May, 1854. May 29, 1823, he married his cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of Asahel and Ruth (Hart) Munson, of Northford, Conn., -a lady whose chief characteristics were a retiring and home-loving disposi- tion, conscientiousness, independence, refinement, industry, and economy. She was born in Branford, Conn., December 23, 1798, and died in Utica September 14, 1870, leaving two children: Samuel A. Munson and Helen E., widow of J. Watson Williams.

JOHN MILTON BUTLER.

THE Butler family, of which the subject of this sketch is a member, descends from Deacon Richard Butler, who came from County Essex, England, with the so-called Hooker company in 1632, and first settled in Newtown, near Boston, Mass. His brother William emigrated to America about the same time, but died leaving no chil- dren. Before 1639 Richard and William Butler moved with Rev. Thomas Hooker to Hartford, Conn., of which Deacon Richard was one of the prominent founders. By his integrity he held several offices of trust. He was a man of influence, a devout

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Christian, and repeatedly served as a representative to the general court of the colony. He married Elizabeth Bigelow, and their fourth son, Joseph married Mary Goodrich. Benjamin, the second son of the latter, wedded Thankful Sage, and their fourth child, Eli Butler, was born in Middletown, Conn., January 26, 1740, married Rachel Stocking, of the same place, and had four sons and seven daughters, of whom Sylvester, John, and Eli, jr., have descendants living in Oneida county. In the spring of 1789 Capt. Eli Butler visited his old neighbor and kinsman, Judge Hugh White, the proprietary founder of Whitestown, and before returning east pur- chased lands in what is now the town of Paris, N. Y., whereon, in the fall of that year, he settled three of his sons, Ashbel, Sylvester, and John. In 1792 Captain Eli visited these sons, with another son, Eli, jr., and was so pleased with the country that he bought a farm, just south of the village of New llartford, from Solomon Kellogg, the deed being dated April 17, 1795. This is well known as the Butler homestead, and passed successively to Eli, jr., and the late Morgan Butler, and is now owned by the lat- ter'swidow. Eli, sr., was a captain of volunteer cavalry in the Revolutionary war, and died in New Hartford April 19, 1802. Ilis wife was born January 29, 1743, and died September 1, 1805. Their children were Ashbel, born November 28, 1765, married Sarah Williams; Sylvester, born April 18, 1767, married Lydia Wetmore; John, born March 28, 1769, married Hannah Todd, daughter of Capt. Asa Todd, who came on horseback from Wallingford, Conn., to Oneida county, at a very early day, and settled on a farm in Paris; Eli, jr., born on March 28, 1779, married Rachel Kellogg, and was the father of the late Morgan Butler, of New Hartford; Rachel (Mrs. Richard Sanger), born April 10, 1774; Lucy (Mrs. Benjamin Morris); Martha, who married her cousin, Joseph Butler; Clarissa (Mrs. James Berthrong), born April 3, 1785; Sarah (Mrs. Asa Eames), born March 1, 1981; Perey, born in 1783, married Hezekiah Eames, twin brother of Asa; and Chloe, who married Moses Maynard. John Butler, the third of these children, was one of the builders and owners of the Franklin cotton factory. He also built and owned a large woolen mill and was an extensive land owner, all on Sauquoit Creek.

Chauncey Sage Butler, the fourth child of John and Hannah ('Fodd) Butler, was born in Paris, Oneida county, December 27, 1802, became a civil engineer and sur- veyor, and located most of the mill powers along Sanquoit Creek. When twenty- one he purchased a farm adjoining his father's In 1843 he built a house in Sauquoit which he occupied until his death on March 25, 1893. Ilis principal busi- ness during his long life was that of a farmer. When Michigan was first settled and began raising wheat he spent much time in that and other States buying wheat for eastern markets. In 1853, with Charles H. Doolittle and others, he organized the Oneida County Bank in Utica and was its vice-president from 1855 until his death, and the last of the original stockholders. Hle was highly respected by his townspeople, and the position he occupied among them was something like that of a country squire in England. Ilis counsel and advice were often sought in business, and though not a lawyer he drew many wills, deeds mortgages, etc., settled estates, and frequently acted as assignee. In 1844 he took an active part in the Washingtonian temperance movement, and for many years served as trustee of the Sauquoit Pres- byterian church. He was for ten years in the cavalry arm of the State militia, and by Gov. De Witt Clinton was commissioned cornet March 16, 1825, second lieu-

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

tenant July 14, 1825, and captain July 21, 1826, and by Gov. E. T. Throop, lieuten- ant-colonel June 20, 1829, and colonel January 21, 1831-all in the 6th Regiment. In 1852 he represented the second Oneida district in the Assembly, as a Whig. Later, on the organization of the party, he became a staunch Republican. He was public spirited, progressive, and charitable, and long gave nearly all the produce from his farm to the poor. May 9, 1826, he married Elizabeth Mosher, of a French Huguenot family, Mosier, who died March 29, 1836, leaving three children: John Milton, Charles A., and Mrs. P. V. Rogers. October 3, 1844, he married Julia Sherrill, of New Hartford, who died August 22, 1878, leaving one daughter, Julia Henrietta.

John Milton Butler was born in Sanquoit, Oneida county, on the 9th of July, 1827, and inherited from these worthy ancestors those sterling characteristics which dis- tinguish the successful man. He spent his youth in attending the district schools of his native town. In 1844 he entered Hamilton College and was graduated there- from with honor in the class of 1848. Two years later he obtained his first business experience as a partner of S. A. Millard, of Clayville, Oneida county, in the mann- facture of farm tools, but this continued only until 1852, when the precarious con- dition of Mr. Butler's health compelled him to abandon the undertaking and seek rest and restoration in travel. The following year was accordingly spent in the South. Returning home with health restored he was invited to come to Utica and accept the position of bookkeeper in the Oneida County Bank, which he did in 1853. In 1854 he was made teller and in the succeeding year cashier; he held the latter office thirty-two years, or until 1887, when he was elected president of the institution, which position he still fills. He is also a manufacturer of agricultural tools in Clay- ville, having succeeded the S. A. Millard Manufacturing company in 1895, and is also the successor of the Hubbard, Babcock & Millard Axe Company in the same place.

The year 1853, the date of the organization of the Oneida County Bank, was not a very auspicious time for the launching of a financial institution, for three years later saw a panic such as has not since been experienced, and many banks which were ac- counted strong went down in the crisis. But under the prudent and sagacious direction of Mr. Butler and his associates this bank weathered the storm safely, and most of the detail and a large share of the general management of the bank have since that time fallen directly upon Mr. Butler's shoulders. He applied from the start a firm, conservative hand to the conduct of the institution, has enabled it since the beginning of his administration to accumulate a surplus of $225,000 on a capital of $125,000, and has always made it pay larger dividends than most banks. The Oneida County Bank did not pass into the national system with the many others which adopted that course, chiefly because it had been uniformly successful as it was, leading a number of directors to favor its remaining a State bank, although Mr. Butler favored the change.

It has been Mr. Butler's policy and belief that a man in his position should give his whole time and energies to the bank of which he is manager, and carefully watch over its interests. His life is an excellent example of faithfulness to duty, and he has met with a degree of success which gives himself and his friends the right to regard his record with complacent satisfaction. He has never married,

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()UR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

OTHNIEL S. WILLIAMS.

OTHNIEL S. WILLIAMS was born at Killingworth (now Clinton), Conn., November 22, 1813, and moved with his father, Othniel Williams, to Waterville, Oneida county, in 1814, and thence to the neighboring village of Clinton in 1820. His mother was Mary Eliot, daughter of George Eliot, of Killingworth, Conn., a descendant of John Eliot, " The Apostle to the Indians." The line has been traced to Sir William de Aliot, who entered England with William the Conqueror in 1066. Mr. Williams's school days were spent in the Clinton Academy. At the age of fourteen he entered the sophomore class in Hamilton College, then under the presidency of Dr. Davis, and was graduated in 1831. In college he was a great reader, a student of ancient as well as of modern languages, and his wonderful memory enabled him to retain to the close of his life the rich literary and historical attainments of his student days. After leaving college he resided as private tutor for two years in the family of a Mr. Gibson in Virginia. From there he visited Washington, saw the great statesmen of that day on the floor of Congress, and heard the address of John Quincy Adams on the death of La Fayette. On his return to Clinton he was admitted in 1837 by Chief Justice Samuel Nelson to practice as an attorney in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. Three years later he received his diploma as counselor. In 1842 he was admitted to practice in the District and Circuit Courts of the United States for the Northern District of New York. Soon afterward he was chosen jus- tice of the peace, which office he held for a number of years. For one year (1837-38) he gave instruction in modern languages in Hamilton College and also in the Young Ladies' Seminary at Clinton. In 1846 he was appointed county judge and in 1848 was chosen surrogate of Oneida county, an office he held for eight years. In 1847 he was chosen a trustee of Hamilton College, an office in which his father had served before him from 1827 to 1832. In 1850 he became treasurer of Hamilton College, a position of great responsibility in which he served with unsurpassed fidelity and de- votion to the close of his life.

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Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 83

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