Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 88

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 88

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

Charles C. Kellogg was born in Utica September 2, 1828, was educated at Ham- ilton College, and became a partner of his brother Palmer V. in the mercantile business. He subsequently engaged in the lumber business, founding the present firm of Charles C. Kellogg & Sons' Company. Mr. Kellogg has been for many years one of Utica's most prominent business men.

CHARLES MILLAR.

CHARLES MILLAR was born in Greenwich, England, March 9, 1808, and received a good education in the parochial schools of London. In 1835 he came to America and first located in Williamsburg, near New York city, whence he removed in 1839 to Utica, where he spent the remainder of his life. He had been educated as an archi- tect and master builder, and here he at once commenced business in that line, secur- ing large and important contracts. He erected many of the most prominent of the older buildings in Utica, among which were the court house, the Mohawk street jail, the Tibbitts block, several public schools, and John Thorn's residence. His career as a contractor and builder continued successfully for about seventeen years. From 1857 to 1860 he was the agent and manager of the Utica Screw Company. When he assumed charge of its affairs the company, suffering from the prevailing financial depression, was virtually bankrupt, but through his efforts it rapidly recovered and became such an important competitor that the American Screw Company, of Provi- dence, R. I., offered to buy its stock at par, which, contrary to Mr. Millar's advice, was accepted by the directors. The soundness of his views was subsequently con- firmed by the advance of the Providence company's stock many hundredfold. In 1861 Mr. Millar was made superintendent of the Utica and Black River Railroad, which position he held six years. He laid the foundation of the future prosperity of that important line, and made many improvements in the property, notable among which was the filling of the immense trestle work at Trenton, N. Y., a work of great magnitude, occupying several years and requiring several million yards of sand and gravel. His management of the affairs of the company was so energetic and char- acterized by such good judgment that the road was enabled to pay its first dividend.

In 1861 he had purchased the wholesale tin, plumbing and steamfitting business which he continued to conduct until his death, and to which he commenced to devote his whole attention in 1867, when he resigned his position as superintendent of the railroad. In the latter year he erected the Millar building in Genesee street in Utica, and here has since been conducted one of the most extensive establishments of the kind in the United States. In 1866 he admitted his son, Henry W. Millar, to full partnership, under the firm name of Charles Millar & Son. The business continued to grow rapidly. The firm became extensive manufacturers of cheese and butter- making apparatus and many of the appliances were Mr. Millar's invention. This machinery was sold all over this country and large quantities were shipped to Europe, Australia, Canada, and South America. In 1883 the firm commenced the manufac- ture of lead pipes in Utica, which proved a success from the start. A large factory and warehouse on Main street was erected for the purpose in 1885, and soon after-

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

ward Mr. Millar's son-in-law, John L. Murray, was admitted to the firm, the name remaining the same. In 1889 the firm, with Nicholas E. Kernan, Irvin A. Will- iams, and the late William M. White, organized the Utica Pipe Foundry Company, of which Mr. Millar was elected the first president, a position he held until his death, which occurred when the company was about to cast its first pipe, the buildings hav- ing been erected under his direction. His son succeeded him as president and still holds the office.

Mr. Millar was a man of rare business thrift and ability, and no one ever left a more honorable record or one more worthy of emulation. The enterprises which he started and with which he was connected are among the most important in Utica. His steady and persistent application to business brought him success. Scrupu- lously upright in his dealings, farsighted and comprehensive in commercial and financial conditions, he conquered fortune, and at the same time held the confidence of the community and the esteem of all who knew him. For more than half a cen- tury he was an active force in the business, social, and public life of the city, whose interests and welfare he helped to increase and further. He was a man of the strict- est integrity, progressive, public spirited, and benevolent, and gave liberally to all worthy objects. In politics he was a strong abolitionist and a Free-Soil Democrat, and affiliated with the Republicans upon the organization of that party, whose prin- ciples he ever afterward supported. He was alderman from the Fourth ward for two years, at the time of the incendiary fires, and was himself a sufferer from the burning of his carpenter shop in Division street. He was president of the Utica Mechanics Association one term and for several years chairman and manager of their fairs, which at one time were so popular.

Mr. Millar was married in England in 1833 to Miss Jane Quait, who survives him. On September 15, 1883, they celebrated their golden wedding. He died in Utica February 23, 1890. Their children were Frances S., widow of Edwin Johnson, of Utica; Julia A. (Mrs Charles L. Blakeslee), of Albany; and Henry W. Millar, Miss Louise A. Millar and Carrie E. (Mrs. John L. Murray), all of Utica.

Henry W. Millar, born July 20, 1845, was placed in charge of his father's business in 1861 and five years later became a full partner. John L. Murray entered the firm as a clerk in 1882 and in 1885 was admitted to partnership. Since Mr. Millard's death the two have carried on the business under the old firm name, making it exclusively wholesale since 1890.

Henry W. Millar is president of the Utica Pipe Foundry Company, also of the Whitesboro Canning Company and the Sauquoit Canning Company; a director of the Utica City National Bank, the George Young Bakery, the Utica and Mohawk R. R. Company, the Utica Paving Company, and the Utica Mechanics Association ; a manager and president of St. Luke's Home and Hospital, a trustee of the Sol- dier's Monument Association and the Forest Hill Cemetery Association, and one of the managers of the Utica Chamber of Commerce. He is also interested in and an officer of a number of Water Works Companies in different villages in New York State and New England; and is junior warden of Calvary Episcopal church. In 1879 he married Miss Kate Wagner, of Whitesboro, and of their five children four are living.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

GEORGE E. DUNHAM.

GEORGE EARL DUNHAM, editor of the Utica Daily Press and president of the Press Publishing Company, was born in Clayville, Oneida county, April 5 1859, the only child of Rev. Moses E. Dunham, D. D., Ph. D., and Harriet (Hughston) Dunham. He was graduated from Whitestown Seminary in 1875 and from Hamilton College in 1879, being the youngest member of his class at both institutions. He was for a year a clerk in the office of Edwin Baylies at Johnstown, N. Y., one of the ablest law writers of his time, and the author of Baylies's Questions and Answers, Baylies on Guaranty and Suretyship, and several other standard works. In 1880 Mr. Dun- ham was admitted to practice law and became a member of the firmn of Baylies & Dunham. The firm did much work in the line of law book writing, being employed on various editions of William Wait's publications and several other legal books. A year later Mr. Dunham returned to Oneida county to become vice-principal of Whitestown Seminary, of which his father was principal. In 1882 he came to Utica as a reporter on the Press and has since remained with that paper. The Utica Daily Press, from anything but an auspicious beginning, has become one of the leading and most prosperous papers in Central New York. It was started in March, 1882, by printers who had left the Herald two days before, and whose facilities were decidedly limited. The first number had four small pages by no means of attractive appear- ance. Mr. Dunham went to the Press the following July, and at one time or an- other has held every situation on the editorial staff. In 1886 he became president of the company and editor of the paper and has continued in these positions ever since. At the same election T. R. Proctor was chosen vice-president and Otto A. Meyer secretary treasurer and business manager. The improvement and growth of the Press have been steady and permanent, till now it enjoys the largest circulation in its field.

The Press has become a potent factor in local politics, and has won the respect and confidence of all classes of citizens. In 1888 Mr. Dunham was appointed a manager of the Utica State Hospital for the Insane and was reappointed by Gov. . Flower and three years later by Gov. Morton. He was appointed by Mayor Kinney chairman of the Utica Electric Light Commission and served three years. He was elected a trustee of Hamilton College in 1891 and was re elected in 1895.

Mr. Dunham was married to Miss Helen L. Jones, of Utica, January 9, 1881. They have had one child, a daughter, who died in infancy.

E. PRENTISS BAILEY.

E. PRENTISS BAILEY, editor of the Utica Observer and president of the corporation of E. P. Bailey & Co., was born in the town of Manlius, near Fayetteville, Onon- daga county, N. Y., August 15, 1834 and is a grandson of Rev. Elijah Bailey, of Vermont, an able Methodist preacher and writer, one of his books, "Bailey on the Trinity," being still preserved. Mr. Bailey's parents were Wesley and Eunice (Kinne) Bailey, his mother's being one of the oldest and most respected families in

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the town of Onondaga. Rev. Wesley Bailey spent most of his time as a journalist, and in this profession achieved no little prominence. He established the first news- paper, called The Luminary, in the village of Fayetteville. In 1842, at the request of Alvan Stewart and other prominent Abolitionists, he moved with his family to Utica and founded a new Abolition paper, called the Liberty Press, to take the place of the Friend of Man, which had been mobbed. The Liberty Press, under the Rev. Mr. Bailey's able guidance as editor and proprietor, gained what was then re- garded as a wide circulation and from the first exerted a marked influence in its field. He remained in active charge until 1849, when the name of the paper was changed to the Utica Tetotaller and its purpose to the temperance cause, in defer . ence to the great Washingtonian movement which swept over the country during the middle of this century. Rev. Mr. Bailey was grand Scribe of the Sons of Temper- ance when that organization was at its height, and continued editor of the Tetotaller until he was elected State prison inspector in 1856. His official duties then occupied his time until the close of his residence in New York State in 1860, when he removed to Iowa, where he died in February, 1891, at the age of eighty-three.

E. Prentiss Bailey received his preliminary education in a private school and Hyde's Academy of Fayetteville, and in 1842 came with his father's family to Utica, where he has ever since resided. Here he continued his studies in the Advanced school and in Barrett's Latin Grammar School, and when twelve years of age entered his father's office to learn the printer's trade. He remained with his father, acquir- ing a practical knowledge of the business, until 1853, when he was invited to accept a position in the office of the Utica Daily Observer, then published by De Witt C. Grove and edited by John B. Miller. Mr. Bailey's duties embraced those of reporter, telegraph editor, and general all round journalist, and that he discharged them to the satisfaction of all concerned is evident from the responsibilities subsequently placed upon him. In 1857 Mr. Miller was appointed by President Buchanan U. S. consul to Hamburg, and thereafter for nearly ten years Mr. Bailey was the only person employed on the Observer. During this period he performed nearly all the reportorial and editorial work, a task almost incomprehensible in this age of specialists. In 1867 he purchased an interest in the paper, and with Mr. Grove formed the firm of Grove & Bailey, which continued the publication until 1875, when the firm was succeeded by a corporation bearing the same name, with Col. Theodore P. Cook as stockholder and secretary. The relations of Messrs. Grove and Bailey were most felicitous from December, 1853, to September, 1883, a continuous period of nearly thirty years, and ceased only because of the fatal illness of Mr. Grove, who died in New York city in March 1884. In 1883 the corporate name of the firm was changed to E. P. Bailey & Co., which still continues, the executive officers at this time being E. Prentiss Bailey, president ; Thomas F. Clarke, vice-president ; and Lansing C. Bailey, secretary. In March, 18844, the most destructive fire that Utica has ever known included the Observer office and plant, which stood on the site now occupied by the Martin block on Genesee street. This was a serious blow, but the enterpris- ing owners quickly recovered and purchased a suitable lot in the rear of and adjoin- ing the government building, whereon the present handsome brick structure was erected and occupied solely by the Observer the same year.

Mr. Bailey's career in the field of journalism, either as printer, reporter, or editor,

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

covers half a century, and during a large part of that time he has held not only the foremost place in his profession in Oneida county, but a leading position among the eminent journalists of the State, and he also enjoys a high reputation throughout the country. For forty-three years he has been connected with the Observer, for nearly thirty years he has been one of its proprietors, and for more than a dozen years the editor-in-chief. He has seen the circulation of both the daily and the weekly increase twenty-fold, and to him is mainly due its wonderful progress and prestige. His brilliant pen has guided it triumphantly through many political campaigns and public movements, while his able mind and sound judgment have directed its course as an educational medium. He has always stood for reform, for good government, for honesty, for justice, and for the rights of the people. Fearless in his utterances, candid, logical, and broad in the expression of his views, conservative yet progressive in all that affects the welfare of the community, he has conscientiously represented the best interests of the people and staunchly advocated the highest principles of civilization. As a writer he is terse and comprehensive, critical, sarcastic, or laudatory as the subject may demand, and always strikes at the very root of the case under consideration. Endowed with talents of a high order and imbued with lofty ideals he has long wielded a powerful and wholesome influence in political, social, and civil affairs, and enjoys the respect and confidence not only of his con- stituents but of his opponents as well. In politics he has always been an unswerving Democrat, consistent, true to his convictions, and a leader among leaders. In his editorial capacity he has ably supported such eminent statesmen as Seymour, Tilden, and Cleveland. He has made the Observer a power for right and justice, for purity of morals, and for reform in municipal affairs, and among the numerous contests growing out of its representations of corruption and bad conduct a large number of libel suits have been brought against its management. In this respect the Observer has probably encountered more libel suits than any other paper in Central or West- ern New York. But it has never compromised, never settled a prosecution for libel, and never lost a case, facts which admirably illustrate its fearless and honest advocacy of purity in politics and in society. The Observer office, during Mr. Bailey's long and able management, has been one of the leading schools for journalists in the State, and counts among its graduates a number of newspaper men who have attained distinction. Harold Frederic, the talented author, and the London cor- respondent of the New York Times, began his eminently successful career on the Observer's staff. E. M. Rewey, afterward the editor and proprietor of the Worcester (Mass.) Daily Press and at present one of Charles A. Dana's lieutenants in the New York Sun office, commenced his journalistic work here, as did also Edwin Atwell, recently the editor of the Albany State, and John B. Howe, the able editor of the Rochester Herald. Others who have won honor in the field of journalism might be included in the list, and it may be safely stated that success and reputation have attended their efforts.

As a citizen Mr. Bailey has always taken a keen and often an active interest in public affairs, and no man is more thoroughly identified with'the city's growth and prosperity. His first public office was that of school commissioner, which he held six years. In 1886 President Cleveland appointed him a commissioner to examine a newly completed part of the Pacific Railroad in Washington territory. In 1887 he

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was appointed postmaster of Utica and held the office until February 1891, or nearly four years, one-half of the time under President Harrison and Postmaster General Wanamaker. On Governor Flower's reorganization of the State Civil Service Com- mission Mr. Bailey was appointed a commissioner and became president of the board, resigning December 31, 1895. In March, 1896, President Cleveland ended a long local contention by again appointing him postmaster of Utica, although he was not at that time a candidate for the office. Mr. Bailey early became identified with the management of the New York State Associated Press and was for four years, be- ginning with 1887, its president and for many years a member of its executive com- mittee. He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for more than thirty years, is a charter member of Faxton Lodge F. & A. M., and a member of Yah-nun-dah-sis Lodge A. & A. S. Rite. For many years, from about 1860, he was a director of the Utica Mechanics' Association and for seven years its president. He was one of the incorporators and is a manager of the Utica Homeopathic Hospital.

Mr. Bailey was married, first, on September 23, 1857, to Miss Julia S. Wetherby, of Dewitt. Onondaga county, who died July 9, 1860, leaving one daughter, now Mrs. Edward H. Wells, of Utica. He was married, second, in Brooklyn, N. Y., on June 24, 1868, to Miss Hannah Chapman, who is vice-president of the Utica Homœopathic Hospital, and who has long been prominent in charitable and church work in the city. They have had four children: Lansing C., secretary of the cor- poration of E. P. Bailey & Co. and a member of the editorial staff of the Observer ; Clinton Grove, who died in infancy; Prentiss, who is connected with the business department of the Observer; and Bessie Carleton, at home.

CHARLES W. HUTCHINSON.

The records and traditions of the Hutchinsons are that the founder of this old family is traced back to the tenth century and came from Cranborg, in the Danish island of Zealand, with Harold Harefoot, as he was then designated in Latin Uiton- enis, meaning a native of Witton. The family settled in England at or near Mid- dleham, in the bishopric of Durham, and they were free tenants of the Prince Bishops of that manor, particularly Cornforth and Humber Knowles, after the Conquest. Eleazer Hutchinson, the ancestor of this branch of the family, came to America in 1633 and afterward settled at Lebanon, now Andover, Conn. There were four of his name in direct descent. Eleazer the second married Ruth Long. They had seven children, Amaziah, the father of Holmes Hutchinson, being the third son, who was born December 14, 1762. He married Elizabeth Mack. March 30, 1991. They had ten children, Holmes being the second son. His mother's godmother was Sy- bella Browne, the only daughter of Sir John Browne. Viscount Montague, of London- derry, Ireland, who married John Mack, who with his wife and William, his son, came from the town of Armagh to America in 1732 and settled at Londonderry, N. H. Tradition records that Isabella Browne, the cousin of Sybella, was married to the grandfather of Gov. George Clinton, of New York.

Hon. Charles W. Hutchinson's father, Holmes Hutchinson, was born in Genoa,

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Cayuga county, N. Y., January 5, 1794, became an eminent civil engineer, removed to Utica in 1819, and was almost constantly employed as an engineer on the Erie canal and its enlargement and other canals of the State from that date until 1835, when he was appointed chief engineer of the middle division, which position he held until 1841. During this period he made the maps and surveys of the Erie canal from Canastota to the Hudson River; the Black River, Cayuga, Crooked Lake, Chemung, and Seneca Canals; the Glens Falls feeder and the Rochester aqueduct; and of a proposed canal on Long Island uniting Jamaica Bay with Rockaway Inlet. His re- port to the Legislature, dated March 26, 1826 says "that constructing nine miles of canal through the inland bays forms a continuous navigation from Sag Harbor to the city of New York, a distance of 115 miles," and he recommended its construction. In 1889, after a lapse of sixty-three years, this project was again brought into prominence. In 1825 he was engaged as chief engineer by the Connecticut River Company upon the recommendation of Gov. De Witt Clinton, of New York, to sur- vey a route of water communication from Barnet, in Vermont, to the city of Hart- ford, Conn., a distance of 219 miles. Upon receiving his report the directors of the company said "that Mr. Hutchinson had fully justified their high-wrought anticipa- tions." In 1826 he was appointed by the authorities of the State of Rhode Island chief engineer of the construction of the Blackstone Canal from the city of Provi- dence to Worcester, Mass. In 1828 he was chief engineer of the construction of the Oxford and Cumberland Canal in Maine. Ile married, February 15, 1824, Maria Abeel Webster, the second daughter of Joshua Webster, M. D., of Fort Plain, N. Y., who was one of the most prominent among the early physicians of the Mohawk Valley. Dr. Webster was a lincal descendant of Thomas Webster, of Ipswich, England, and was a son of John Webster, of Scarboro, Me. He was surgeon of the 138th Regt. N. Y. Vols. during the war of 1812 and was a member of the State Legislature in 1822. Dr. Webster married Catharine Wagner, whose mother was the daughter of John Abeel, the Indian trader, whose father, Johannes Abeel, resided in Albany, and was recorder and mayor of that city during the years 1694 and 1695 and also during 1709 and 1710. He was also one of the commissioners of Indian affairs from 1706 to 1710. Mrs. Webster's great-grandfather was Johan Peter Wagner, who, with William Fox, had the distinction of being the first of the Palatinates who settled in the Mohawk Valley, easterly of the Garoga Creek, in the town of Palatine, in 1723. Mr. Wagner's son, also Johan Peter, was a member of the committee of safety during the Rev olution, and was lieutenant-colonel in the regiment of Colonel Cox at the battle of Oriskany, August 6, 1777, in which battle two of his sons, Johan Peter and Johan Georg, and other members of the Wagner family, were also engaged. After General Herkimer was wounded and Col. Ebenezer Cox was killed tradition says that Colonel Wagner took command of the brigade, which resulted in the victory so decisive for the American forces. Mr. Hutchinson was prominent in many of the early enterprises in the State. He was one of the early directors of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad, of the Lake Ontario Steamboat Company, of the Bank of Utica, and other corporations; and was for some years president of the Syracuse and Oswego Railroad. He was quiet in his demeanor and courteous in speech and manner, and all who were brought in contact with him accorded him their respect and esteem, and acknowledged his high sense of honor and sernpulous integrity. He died

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suddenly at his residence in the city of Utica, February 21, 1865, aged seventy-one years.

Hon. Charles Webster Hutchinson, son of Holmes and Maria Abeel (Webster) Hutchinson, was born July 4, 1826, in Providence, R. I., where hisparents were then temporarily residing. His birth took place at the residence of Maj. Samuel McClel- lan. Mr. Hutchinson has been a resident of the city of Utica from the year 1827, and here he received his early education under such prominent instructors as Thomas Towell, William Backus, William Williams, William C. Barrett, David Prentice, LL. D., George Perkins, LL. 1)., and others. At the age of fifteen he entered the Sci- entific Department at Geneva College, devoting himself principally to these studies and the modern languages. He was afterward appointed to a position as clerk in the office of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad Company at Utica. He resigned this posi- tion in 1847, having been appointed teller of the Fort Plain Bank, and acted for the three subsequent years in that capacity. Returning to Utica he assumed charge of the combined interests of his father and Hon. Horatio Seymour in the manufacturing firm of E. K. Browning & Co., but after few months he took charge under his own name and devoted himself to its interests until the autumn of 1865, when he dis- posed of the business and went to Europe with his wife, passing between two and three years in travel upon the continent and a winter in Africa and Egypt, returning to Italy by the Mediterranean and Sicily. Upon his return to Utica he took an active interest in matters of a public character, and for several years was a director of the Utica Mechanics Association. He was vice-president and presiding officer of the New York State Sportsmen's Association for several years from its organization, and was a member of the first committee who presented a revision of the game laws to the Legislature of this State, which were adopted, and in 1871 he was elected its presi- dent. He was elected mayor of the city of Utica in 1875, and during his term of office a number of important local measures were successfully inaugurated and con- pleted. Several artistic fountains were erected in the public parks, and the latter beautified and reclaimed from their former neglected condition ; several ‹ ulverts were built, and the work of filling the streets over them was rapidly pushed forward, the benefits of which were soon proved by the rapid improvements and growth of the easterly part of the city. His administration was marked by a judicious economy in public expenditures, and many improvements were inaugurated to the ultimate ad- vancement of the interests of the city. The year of his mayoralty, being notable as the centennial year, was a period which brought into more than ordinary prominence the local executive officials throughout the country. During that year the citizens of Utica extended the hospitalities of the city for the ninth annual reunion of the Army of the Cumberland, which invitations were accepted for the dates of September 15th and 16th. Mayor Hutchinson, in his official capacity as chief magistrate, made the ad- dress of welcome in the opera house, and addresses were also delivered by Hon. Horatio Seymour, Hon. Roscoe Conkling, and other citizens. Among those present were President Grant, Vice-President Henry Wilson, several members of the national cabinet, and judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, while the army was represented by General Sherman and his staff, and Generals Joseph Hooker, H. W. Slocum, H. A. Barnum, J. G. Parkhurst, Henry M. Cist, Daniel Butterfield, J. S. Fullerton, David S. Stanley, A. G. McCook, James McQuade, J. B, Kiddoo, Frank

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Our county and its people; a descriptive work on Oneida county, New York;, Part 88

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