Our county and its people : a memorial record of St. Lawrence County, New York, Part 68

Author: Curtis, Gates
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1328

USA > New York > St Lawrence County > Our county and its people : a memorial record of St. Lawrence County, New York > Part 68
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > Our county and its people: a memorial record of St. Lawrence County, New York > Part 68

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

DAN SPAFFORD GIFFIN.

The subject of this sketch is a descendant of Simon Giffin, one of the pioneers of Nova Scotia, born in 1711.

Simon Giffin, jr., son of the above, born in 1740, was a quartermaster of the Third Connecticut Regiment in the war of the Revolution. A diary and quartermaster's record of rations issued, kept by him at that time, is still in existence. His brother John, born in 1748, was in the battle of Bunker Hill.

David Giffin, son of Simon, jr., above, born in 1766, was a captain in the War of 1812. His commission assuch, dated April 30, 1811, signed by Daniel B. Tompkins, governor, is in the possession of the subject of this sketch.

Nathan Ford Giffin, born in 1805, was a son of above David. He located at Heu- velton in 1830 and was a successful business man at that place for over sixty years. When he was about sixteen years of age he and his brother William dug the grave and buried the body of one Truax, who was one of the party that threw overboard the cargo of tea in Boston harbor. Truax was drowned in the St. Lawrence River.

The above Dan S. Giffin is the fourth child of the above N. F. and Mary Galloway, his wife, born May 19, 1838. He was educated at the district school of Heuvelton, Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary, and Union College. He was admitted as attorney and counselor at law in 1861; married, March 3, 1862, Mary C. Shepard, daughter of Rev. Hiram Shepard, a pioneer Methodist preacher of Northern New York, grand- daughter of Gideon Shepard, a major in the War of 1812, and grandniece of General William Shepard, who was active in suppressing Shays's Rebellion after the Revolu- tion.

Dan S. Giffin enlisted as private in Company G, 142d N. Y. Vol. Infantry in the War of the Rebellion, was promoted to first lieutenant and captain in said company, and was discharged for a wound received in action at Drury's Bluff, Va. Since his discharge from the army he has resided at Heuvelton, where he first engaged in merchandise and manufacturing and now has a law office. He has been active in pub-

HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY.

lic matters pertaining to his town and county, and has held several minor official po- sitions.

He has three children-Gertrude T .. Clarence S. and Nathan F.

HENRY L. KNOWLES.

LIBERTY KNOWLES was born in Woodbury, Conn., November 5, 1784. He was a graduate of Williams College and studied law with Dorance Kirtland, in Coxsackie. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court in 1809 and in the same year set- tled in Potsdam. In 1812 he was married to Melinda Raymond, of Richmond, Mass. Although he was successful in his law practice, he was forced to abandon it in middle life through ill health. He was one of the earliest to interest himself in the Potsdam sandstone for building, and was prominent in the affairs of the village and county. He belonged to the Presbyterian church, and in politics was a Federalist and a Whig. For thirty years he was president of the Board of Trustees of the St. Law- rence Academy, and was a munificent supporter of the institution. Mr. Knowles left a record of a useful life, and died January 7, 1859.

Henry L. Knowles, born in Potsdam, June 23, 1815, was a son of Liberty Knowles. His early education was obtained in the academy, which he left in December, 1831, when sixteen years old. After a period of study in Burlington University of Ver- mont, he entered Union College and graduated in 1836, at the age of twenty-one. His preparatory study of law was prosecuted in Potsdam and he finished in New York city, being admitted in 1839. Hc cast his first vote for William Henry Harrison and his last for Benjamin Harrison. Returning to Potsdam he began his long and hon- orable career with high ideals and a determination to succeed upon the principles of justice and right. 1

By continued diligent study he acquired a knowledge of law that was second to that of no other person in Northern New York, and his ability and integrity were such that had he been morc self-reliant and self-assertive he might have attained to almost any public station. Without these qualities to a paramount degree, he won a position of eminence in his profession, and without solicitation on his part and solely because of his fitness, he was in 1863 elected judge of the county, and held the office until 1872. The duties of this office he discharged with ability, fairness and impar- tial justice to all. He was an earnest and practical Christian, united with the Pres- byterian church at the age of sixteen, and during the sixty year of his after life he never regretted nor dishonored his profession. In 1867 he was elected a ruling elder of the church and held the office until his death. He often represented his church in the Presbytery and the General Assembly, and it is as an enthusiastic worker in the cause of Christ that he is most remembered. His death occurred in March, 1892.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

ABRAHAM X. PARKER.

ABRAHAM X. PARKER was born in Granville, Addison county, Vt., November 14, 1831, and has been a resident of St. Lawrence county since 1839. His great-grandfa- ther, Joseph Parker, was born in Andover, Mass., October 9, 1735. He served in the provincial ariny during the Revolutionary War and was in camp at Cambridge May 24, 1775, as his " powder horn record," duly made and preserved, attests. At the close of the struggle for independence the family went to New Hampshire, and later to Vermont.

Isaac Parker, the father of Abraham X., was a farmer of means and respectability and at one time a member of the Vermont State Legislature. In 1839 he removed to St. Lawrence county where he became a leading farmer ; was a trustee of St. Law- rence Academy, a school superintendent, and supervisor of the town of Potsdam. His death took place March 4, 1856.

Until he reached the age of eighteen years young Parker worked upon his father's farm, attending the common schools in the regular seasons. He finished his education in the St. Lawrence Academy, and during two winters taught a conimon school. Active and intelligent, he took a prominent part in local affairs from early life, doing his full share of such unpaid labor as usually falls to the lot of those to whom a com- munity looks for leadership and direction. He was repeatedly made chief of the lo- cal fire department, president of the village of Potsdam, and president of the Raquette River and St. Regis Valley Agricultural Society.

As was, perhaps, natural under the circumstances of his early career, he turned his attention to legal study, and after prosecuting it under favorable auspices in Pots- dam for about a year, he attended the Albany Law School and in 1854 was admitted to the bar. In 1856 he began practice in Potsdam, having occupied the intervening two years in close study, first under Cook & Fithian, of Buffalo, and subsequently with the late Judge Noxon, one of the foremost attorneys of Syracuse, N. Y. In 1861 Mr. Parker resigned the office of justice of the peace, which he had held since 1858, and in 1863 took a seat in the Assembly, having been elected the preceding autum11 by the Republican party, of which he made himself a conspicuous member. In the Assembly he served as chairman of the Committee on Claims, which, under the con- stitution then in force, had a laborious and responsible task in hearing and passing upon the numerous "canal claims" which came before it. A report at length-which became a permanent printed document-was made by Mr. Parker in this capacity as to every claim, save one, that came before the committee in that year, and his report was almost universally concurred in by the action of both houses. Re-elected to the Assembly, he served in 1864, as chairman of the Committee on Commerce and Navi- gation, and as a member of that on Federal Relations, doing important work upon both. Towards the close of this term he was unanimously renominated to the As- sembly, but declined to accept the candidacy. In 1865 President Lincoln appointed him postmaster at Potsdam, but as he publicly opposed the "policy" of President Johnson, he was superseded in the fall of 1866. A year later he was elected to the State Senate and served during the 91st and 92d sessions of that body, as chairman of the Committees on Insurance and Public Health, and as a member of the Commit- tees on Finance, Engrossed Bills and Railroads. In the Senate Mr. Parker made few

HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY.

set speeches, but he took an active part in all important debates, was regarded as a skilled parliamentarian by his colleagues, and, when Judge Folger left the Senate for the Bench, he was generally accorded the delicate position of leader of his party in the Senate. In the presidential campaign of 1876 he was first "elector-at-large" up- on the Republican ticket. In 1880 he was unanimously nominated by his party to represent the 19th district in the XLVIIth Congress, and was elected by about nine thousand votes over the Democratic nominee. The Nineteenth, or St. Lawrence district, then comprising the counties of Franklin and St. Lawrence, has long been famous for its large majorities. Among the famous men who have represented it in Congress are Silas Wright, Preston King, Francis E. Spinner, William A. Wheeler, and many others. Mr. Parker's term began on the 4th of March, 1881. A change in this Congressional district gave it the XLIXth session, Jefferson county, with St. Lawrence. Mr. Parker was re-elected in 1882, and his rapidly-rising rep- utation in that body of eminent men and the conspicuous position taken by him in the proceedings, gave him a re-election in 1884 and in 1886-a continuous service in Congress of four terms, which closed in 1889. In the XLIXth Congress he was a member of the Judiciary Committee and of the Committee on Private Land Claims, and of the committee which investigated and terminated the great southwestern railroad strikes. In the Lth, he was a member of the Judiciary Committee and of a special committee for the investigation of the labor difficulties which were then con- vulsing the coal region. The investigations of the labor troubles were personally pursued in four different States and were of great public interest.

During his congressional service Mr. Parker was also one of the foremost in initiat- ing and carrying through the legislation relating to the control of the production and sale of oleomargarine, a measure of great benefit to the agricultural interests of the country. He obtained apporpriations for deepening the steamboat channel in the Grasse River: and secured important improvements in Ogdensburg harbor; and provided for the fine United States Public Building which now ornaments the city of Watertown.

Returning to Potsdam at the close of his long public service, Mr. Parker resumed his law practice, which he continued until his appointment as assistant attorney-gen- eral for the United States by President Harrison, for which high office he qualified September 8, 1890. This office was created by an act passed in July, 1890, and Mr. Parker was therefore the first incumbent. Its duties involved the study and prepa- ration of cases and their argument before the United States Supreme Court, when brought before it on appeal or writ of error; and the preparation of opinions for sub- mission to the attorney-general in response to requests from the heads of departments made by authority of statute, and from the president. The office is one of the staff positions with the administration in power. As is well known, the administration changed on the 4th of March, 1893. One who prepares legal opinions upon pending governmental questions submitted upon written inquiries by the heads of the great departments, has, necessarily, the policy and purposes of the administration before his eye; this made it incumbent upon Mr. Parker to tender his resignation, which he promptly did on the 13th of March. It was as promptly accepted, and his suc- cessor was appointed on the 15th in the person of Edward B. Whitney, of New York. It is extremely complimentary to Mr. Parker that he was requested by the attorney- general to remain in the office until May 1st, 1893, to complete the important work

CrmClair

BIOGRAPHICAL.

necessary before the adjournment of the Supreme Court. Mr. Parker returned to Potsdam at the close of his official labor in that position and resumed his law practice.

Mr. Parker has been an active member of the Republican party since its formation in 1856, and prominent in its ranks for twenty-five years. He has been what may be termed a "regular", never swerving from his support of its principles, its policy and standard-bearers. His labors in its behalf have been able and persistent, and place him among the few conspicuous political leaders of Northern New York. He has been upon the platform in nearly every important political campaign from 1856 to the present time, and his views upon current public issues are always listened to with re- spect.

Mr. Parker takes a deep interest in educational matters, and was for several years secretary of the State Normal School in Potsdam; he was also a trustee of the St. Lawrence Academy for some years. In 1880 he was honored with the degree of Mas- ter of Arts by Middlebury College. Living in the valley of the beautiful Raquette River, which laps the Hudson and reaches far into the depths of the wonderful Adi- rondack region, he has made a close study of the vast wilderness, is familiar with its physical characteristics, its routes and waters, and a lover of its solitudes.

Mr. Parker is a working member of the County and State Bar Associations, has, when relieved from public duties, been actively and successfully engaged in practice, which has called him into every grade of court from that of justice of the peace to the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 1857 Mr. Parker was married to Mary J. Wright, of Potsdam, daughter of Al- pheus Wright, late of Heuvelton, N. Y. She still lives to share his labors and his fortunes; they have four children living.

CHARLES W. McCLAIR.

CHARLES W. McCLAIR was born in the town of Macomb, March 26, 1847. He re- ceived his early education in the district schools, and during his boyhood and youth gave evidence of the modest worth and sterling qualities that have marked his riper years and made him a successful business man.

At the age of fifteen he began his commercial career as a clerk in a general store, and worked in this capacity till the fall of 1863, when he enlisted in the 11th New York Cavalry and served till the close of the war. Returning home he took a course in the Gouverneur Academy and then resumed his mercantile carcer as a clerk in the store of Nathan Frank. He worked for this house seven years, and became thor- oughly familiar with all the details of the business, and popular with a large class of customers.

In the spring of 1876 he formed a partnership with R. L. Seaman, and embarked in the dry goods business under the firm name of Seaman & McClair. This part- nership continued for thirteen years. In the spring of 1889 Mr. McClair purchased his partner's interest, and since then the business has been conducted under the firm name of C. W. McClair & Co.

In addition to raising himself to the position of one of the leading merchants of St. Lawrence county, Mr. McClair has found time to devote his abilities and energies to

HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY.

public and social affairs, and few men have been able to secure the confidence and esteem of their fellowmen to the high degree that he has.

A Republican by education and war experience, he adhered to that party till 1884, when he voted the Prohibition ticket for president, and since that date he has been actively associated with this party.

In 1892 he was elected inayor of Ogdensburg, and his incumbency of the office was marked by that cleanness and thoroughness which characterize the able executive of- ficer and the upright man.

Socially Mr. McClair is known as an active member of the Presbyterian church, of which he is an elder; an earnest worker and supporter of the Young Men's Christian Association, always manifesting a lively interest in every effort to help young men to a higher and truer life.

In 1872 Mr. McClair married Rachel J. Pollock, an estimable lady, whose excellent business abilities are rarely equaled. Mrs. McClair has conducted the millinery de- partment of the business all these years with marked success, and in no small degree helped to build up the reputation of this popular and prosperous firm.

THOMAS B. STOWELL.

THOMAS BLANCHARD STOWELL was born in the town of Perry, Wyoming county, N. Y., March 29, 1846. He is a son of David P. Stowell, who has been a farmer by occupation and a native of that county. He is at the present time the oldest living resident of Wyoming county. His wife was Mary Ann Blanchard; she is also living. Thomas B. Stowell was given opportunity to obtain an excellent education, graduat- ing from Genesee College (now the Syracuse University) in 1865. Since that time, during a period of twenty-eight years, he has been a teacher, and to-day is in the front rank of public educators. His professional life began with one year of service in the Addison (Steuben county) Academy. This was followed by a year in the Un- ion School at Morrisville, Madison county, and one year in teaching mathematics in the Wesleyan Seminary at Lima. He then went to Leavenworth, Kansas, and con- ducted the High School one year. His next change placed him in a position of im- portance and influence, which he filled with eminent success for twenty-one years and down to 1889; this was the chair of natural sciences in the State Normal School at Cortland, N. Y. From that position he came to accept the principalship of the Nor- mal School in Potsdam. Here he has met the highest expectations of his friends and the State authorities, and the school has became one of the most prosperous in the State. In 1868 the degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by the Syracuse University, and in 1881 the degree of Ph D., by the same institution, on examination. Dr. Stowell has performed a vast amount of work, both in the direct line of his pro- fession and in branches analogous to it. He has long been an ardent worker in teachers' institutes and associations, before which his addresses have been too nu- merous to mention, and embracing all phases of educational problems. His work in microscopy has also been extensive and conscientious, and in the field of neurology few men have performed more valuable labor. In that connection his study and pub-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

lications (the latter embracing eight separate pamphlets illustrated by his own draw- ings) upon the origin of the cranial and special nerves of the domestic cat, with ref- erence to making this mammal the standard of study of comparative neurology, have commanded wide-spread and favorable attention, and his conclusions are adopted by advanced students and thinkers. Dr. Stowell's position in the educational world is an enviable one. He is a member of the American Society of Microscopists; a mem- ber and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which he joined in 1879. and was made a fellow in 1885; an original member of the Ameri- can Society of Anatomists, in which connection he has done a vast amount of work ; a member of the National Educational Association and the New York State Teacher's Association.

Dr. Stowell married in 1869, Mary Blakeslee, of Lima, N. Y. They have one son.

WILLIAM A. DART.

HON. WILLIAM A. DART was born at Smith's Corners, now known as West Potsdam, October 25, A. D. 1814, and died at Potsdam on the 8th day of March, A. D. 1891, having resided in that town the whole of his long and useful life.

His father, Simeon Dart, came of sturdy New England stock. He emigrated from Hartford, Conn., to Williston, Vt., where he married a Miss Allen and resided until he moved to Potsdam in 1808. He was one of the earliest pioneers of that town.

He lived many years on his farm at West Potsdam and died there at the age of more than ninety years. He was a farmer in fairly comfortable circumstances, with a fam- ily of six children, of whom William was the youngest. During his boyhood he worked on the farm, attending district schools in the winter, until he was seventeen years of age, when he attended the St. Lawrence Academy in Potsdam, boarding him- self in his room in the institution, supplying eatables from home. In the early part of his academical studies he taught school winters to obtain money for tuition, and a few articles of clothing that home could not supply. This continued until the spring of 1834, when he entered the law office of the late Hon. John L. Russell, at Canton, where he remained a year. In the spring of 1835 he entered the law office of the late Hon. Horace Allen, at Potsdam, then first judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and surrogate of the county. He remained with him until May, 1840, when he was ad- mitted to the bar of the Supreme Court, and opened an office in Potsdam.

In September, 1841, he married Judge Allen's only daughter, Harriet S. Dart. About that time the judge withdrew from practice, and Mr. Dart succeeded to his business, which was large for a country business.

In the spring of 1845 he was appointed postmaster at Potsdam, and district attorney of the county. The latter appointment then came from the judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the county. The constitution of 1846 made the office of district at- torney an elective office. Mr. Dart declined to be a candidate.

In the fall of 1849 he was elected to the Senate from the then 15th district, com- posed of the counties of St. Lawrence and Franklin, to succeed Hon. John Fine, of C

HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY.

Ogdensburg, and took his seat January 1, 1850, and served in the Senate during the years 1850 and 1851.

He took active part in the proceedings of that body, and was one of the celebrated twelve Democratic senators who resigned in order to prevent a quorum, thus for the time defeating a bill to enlarge the Erie Canal on credit, which they deemed uncon- stitutional, and which was afterwards declared so by the Court of Appeals.

Mr. Dart's position was sustained by his constituents, and he was re-elected by more than double his former majority. He declined to be a candidate in the fall of 1851, preferring to follow his profession, in which he had gained a high position, and an extensive practice.

In February, 1853, he entered into copartnership with Edward M. Dewey and Charles O. Tappan, the firm namc being Dart, Dewey & Tappan. Mr. Dewey with- drew in August, 1856, and established himself in law practice at Chicago, where he died in 1860. The partnership with Mr. Tappan continued until 1869.

In early life Mr. Dart's affiliations were with the Democratic party. He always de- tested the institution of slavery, and was among the earliest of the younger Demo- crats in this State to join the Barn-burners, whose creed was " no more slave States," and acted for a number of years as a State committeeman of that organization, which embraced the late Samuel J. Tilden, Andrew H. Green, John Bigelow, William Cas- sady, Peter Cagger, Sanford E. Church, and almost every prominent young Demo- crat in the State.

The young Whigs, in hopes, through the split in the Democratic party, to elect a Whig president, refused to join the Barn-burner Democrats. After their defeat with General Scott in 1852, and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, during the admin- istration of President Pierce, the anti-slavery men in both parties were willing to unite, and a meeting of committees representing the Barn-burners, and the Woolly- head Whigs, was held at Albany and a union agreed upon ; the late Chief Judge Folger and Mr. Dart drawing up the articles for the Barn-burners, and Edward Dodd, of Washington county, and others acting for the Whigs.

At that time the name "Republican Party" was adopted. At each presidential election since that time, during his life, Mr. Dart labored actively for the success of the Republican nominee.

In April, 1861, he was appointed by President Lincoln attorney for the Northern District of New York, which embraced the whole State except the counties of New York, the counties on Long Island and Staten Island and the Hudson River counties south of Albany, and Rensselaer.

With the War of the Rebellion came the enrollment and internal revenue laws, and laws authorizing United States notes, and fractional and national bank currency, which greatly increased the duties and responsibilities of the office. Under the Internal Revenue Bureau there were created eighteen assessment boards and as many collect- ors' offices, with their numerous deputies and assistants, and the War Department created eighteen enrolling boards, all within his district.

The reader can form an estimate of the business of that office when he recalls the fact that almost every business required a United States license. That notes, bank checks, receipts, deeds of conveyance, and agreements had to be stamped, and that omitting a stamp thereon when issued was a misdemeanor. That spirituous and fer- mented liquors and tobacco were heavily taxed, and that the violation of the law in

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Our county and its people : a memorial record of St. Lawrence County, New York, Part 68

Author: Curtis, Gates Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1328

Author: Curtis, Gates
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1328