USA > New York > Essex County > Elizabethtown > Pleasant Valley : a history of Elizabethtown, Essex County, New York > Part 26
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born orators ; both were of peculiarily tender and gentle nature; and each was extremely simple in manner, speech and dress, never ceasing to be and rejoice in being 'A man of the people.' It would be strange if it were not true that, in the dark days of 1863 and 4, the President derived from the optimism, the courage, the genial sympathy and ceaseless flow of wit of Or- lando Kellogg, relief and hope and renewed strength."
It is recalled that President Lincoln said during the dark, trying days of the civil war: "If it were not for Mr. Kellogg's stories I should get blue sometimes."
Truly, Orlando Kellogg's wit, his intense sympathy with and intuitive reading of all classes of people and an exception- ally rare gift of eloquence overcame every obstacle, made him a leader of men and placed him on a high plane of power and fame. At the Lincoln memorial exercises held in Elizabeth- town in April, 1865, Orlando Kellogg was the principal orator and four months later the people of central Essex County fol- lowed that great-hearted speaker to his grave in Riverside cemetery, the expression on every face, the appearance on every side iudicating both public and private loss.
Three of Orlando Kellogg's sons became lawyers. Rowland Case Kellogg (born in Elizabethtown Dec. 31, 1843) served in the Union army during the civil war, rising to be Major. After the civil war Major Kellogg attended the Albany Law School, being a fellow student there with Major William McKinley, the late lamented President of the United States. Major Kel- logg was admitted to the bar in 1867, served as District At- torney of Essex County from January 1, 1877, to December 31, 1885, inclusive, and as State Senator from January 1, 1886, to December 31, 1889, inclusive. He was appointed Essex County Judge by Governor LeviP. Morton in 1895, elected to the same office in November, 1896, and re-elected in November, 1902.
Company K (38th N. Y. Vols.) Survivors May 27, 1899.
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Robert Hale Kellogg, born 1847, also attended the Albany Law School and was admitted to the bar. He resides in his native Elizabethtown but does not practice law.
William Roger Kellogg was admitted as an attorney in 1877 and as counselor in 1879. He is at present practicing law in Westport.
Robert Wilson Livingston, born in Hebron, N. Y., April 2, 1810, studied law in Judge Augustus C. Hand's office, being admitted to the bar in 1837. From 1837 to 1842 he practiced law in partnership with Judge Hand. In 1844 he was ap- pointed Surrogate of Essex County, succeeding Orlando Kel- logg, and continuing in that position until under the Consti- tution of 1846 the duties of Surrogate were transferred to the County Judge. He also practiced law with Jesse Gay, the firm being Livingston & Gay. In November, 1857, he was elected Essex County Clerk and served as such three years. In 1862 he went into the Union Army as Captain of Company F, 118th New York Vols., and became a Major. After his terrible military experience Major Livingston came home wrecked in health and gradually yielded his life to the persist- ent attacks of disease. His soul, great as it was gentle, pos- sessed in patience, waited for the hour when the good God he loved and served should give to His beloved sleep. Glad to have served his dear country, glad to have given his life to his fellow men, with a smile upon his gentle and refined face, he calmly "crossed the bar" January 27, 1886, his remains being buried in Riverside cemetery. Dignity, ease, complacency, the gentleman and the scholar, were agreeably blended in Major Robert W. Livingston, modesty marking every line and feature of his face.
Jesse Gay and William Higby practiced law here in the lat- ter 40s. Gay went to Plattsburgh and Higby to California.
Byron Pond was born in Elizabethtown February 3, 1823,
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being a son of Ashley Pond and a grandson of Hon. Benjamin
Pond, both of whom served at the Battle of Plattsburgh. In 1838 Byron Pond entered Judge Augustus C. Hand's office to study law and remained there as a student seven years. After his admission to the bar he formed a partnership with Judge Hand and after the latter's elevation to the Supreme Court bench Mr. Pond was in partnership with Clifford A. Hand. In 1858 Mr. Pond was elected District Attorney of Essex County, serving one term of three years. In November, 1864, he was elected Essex County Judge, an office which he cred- itably filled for 14 successive years, the longest continuous service since the constitution of 1846 went into effect. Judge Pond was an industrious, temperate, dignified man, upright and fearless upon the bench, a gentleman of the old school, a worthy scion of the patriotic stock from whence he came. In- deed, he exemplified the sterling virtues of a family to whom Essex County owes much and was the last to survive of the old school of lawyers, those who sustained the dignity of Eliz- abethtown at home and gave the place an enviable reputation abroad. Judge Pond's wife was Mary Hinckley, who died about 30 years ago. Judge Pond died at his Elizabethtown home July 6, 1904, in the 82d year of his age and his remains were buried in Riverside cemetery where Judge Augustus C. Hand, Congressman Orlando Kellogg and Judge Robert S. Hale had gone before. Judge Pond is survived by four sons- Ashley, Byron G., Benjamin S. and Levi S., the latter hav- ing served as Essex County Surrogate's Clerk for nearly 10 years, and four daughters, Miss Cordelia Pond, Mrs. W. S. Brown, Mrs. William H. Abel and Mrs. William A. Hathaway.
Alembert Pond, a native of Elizabethtown, brother of Judge Byron Pond, practiced law here in the early 50s, after which he went to Saratoga, and became head of the famous law firm of Pond, French & Brackett.
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The three Hale brothers long familiar in Elizabethtown- Safford Eddy, Robert Safford and Matthew-were the sons of Harry Hale, Esq., of Chelsea, Vermont, and of Lucinda Eddy, his wife. Harry Hale's earliest ancestor in this country was Thomas Hale who with his wife Thomasine came from the parish of Watton in Hertfordshire, England, in 1635, and who settled in Newbury, Mass.
Lucinda Eddy was also of Puritan descent, five of her lineal ancestors, among whom were both Captain Miles Standish and John Alden, having been members of that ever to be re- membered company who came to the New World from the Old in the ship Mayflower.
Robert Safford Hale was born September 24, 1822, and graduated from the University of Vermont in 1842, Henry J. Raymond being one of his college mates. He taught school in Vermont and afterwards in Elizabethtown. Admitted to the bar in 1846, Mr. Hale shortly afterwards commenced prac- tice in partnership with Orlando Kellogg. In 1856 he was elected Essex County Judge and held the office eight years, two four year terms. In 1859 he was made a Regent of the University of the State of New York. In 1860 he was a Repub- lican Presidential Elector and in 1865 he succeeded Orlando Kellogg in Congress from this district. In 1868 he was em- ployed as special counsel of the Treasury before the Court of Claims of the United States. In 1871 he was appointed agent and counsel of the United States before the mixed Commission of Claims under the Treaty of Washington. In 1873 he was again elected to Congress. To the discharge of his various professional and public duties Judge Hale brought a singular combination of powers. His fine natural ability was admirably trained by various study and accomplishments. His mind was alert and accurate, his memory being a treasury of well ordered knowledge and his ability to speak and write clearly
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and forcibly was known and recognized at home and abroad. His political like his professional career was distinguished by that independence which is as rare as it is manly and which of itself is a public influence of the highest character.
Judge Hale died at his Elizabethtown home Dec. 13, 1881.
Judge Hale's only son, Harry, became a lawyer and for the past few years has been junior member of the firm of Hand & Hale.
Frederick C. Hale, eldest son of Dr. Safford Eddy Hale, after serving as a soldier in the Union army, studied law in Judge Robert S. Hale's office, was admitted to the bar in 1867 and is now one of Chicago's well-known attorneys.
Matthew Hale practiced law in Elizabethtown, served as State Senator, went to Albany and became one of the distin- guished lawyers of the State.
Oliver Abel, born in Elizabethtown Nov. 11, 1830, was ad- mitted to the bar when about 23 years of age. In 1872 he was elected Essex County Treasurer, holding the office nine years in succession. He afterwards built the famous Westside Hotel, Lake Placid. He died suddenly in 1892.
Arod Kent Dudley was born in Keene in 1838. He studied law with Orlando Kellogg. He served as District Attorney of Essex County from 1868 to 1876, inclusive, and again from 1892 to 1897, inclusive, fifteen years in all, and also served as Essex County Surrrogate for a short time in 1895. He died in October, 1904.
Two of Mr. Dudley's sons, Fred W. and Robert B., are law- yers, the former practicing in Port Henry, the latter in Eliz- abethtown, occupying the office which the elder Dudley built over 30 years ago.
Milo C. Perry, born in Elizabethtown village in 1844, was admitted to the bar in 1868. He was once associated with A. C. and R. L. Hand, the firm being Hand & Perry. Mr. Perry
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served as District Attorney of Essex County from 1898 to 1904, inclusive.
W. Scott Brown, born in Elizabethtown, January 9, 1854, studied law with Arod K. Dudley, was admitted as an attor- ney in March, 1877, and as counselor in 1879. He has served as Sup't of Adirondack Mountain-Reserve since the latter 80s.
Franklin A. Rowe, now a prosperous Glens Falls, N. Y. lawyer, studied with Arod K. Dudley.
De Witt Stafford, now a well-known New York lawyer, stud- ied law in Judge Augustus C. Hand's office, being admitted in 1867, previous to which he had served as a soldier in the Union army.
Sidney F. Rawson, a law partner of Mr. Stafford in New York, studied law with Judge Byron Pond and was admitted to the bar in 1867. He has served as District Attorney of Rich- mond County. Mr. Rawson served in Company E of the 118th Regiment, N. Y. Vols., during the civil war.
George C. Markham studied law with Judge Robert S. Hale, being admitted in 1869. He is now one of the best known and most prosperous lawyers in Milwaukee, Wis. Mr. Mark- ham married Rose Smith, a Boquet Valley lady, who died several years since.
Francis Asbury Smith was born in East Salisbury, Massa- chusetts, November 29th, 1837, the second son of Reverend James G. Smith, for many years a Methodist Clergyman of the New Hampshire Conference. His father retired in 1846 on account of ill health, to a farm in Plymouth, New Hampshire, where the subject of this memoir resided until the age of sev- enteen. He prepared for college at the Plymouth Academy, and entered the Wesleyan University in 1855. He graduated in 1859, taught a select school in Canaan, New Hampshire, in 1859 and 1860, and there commenced the study of law with Counselor Weeks.
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He came to the State of New York in 1860, taught a select school at Carmel, Putnam County, and continued the study of law and was admitted to practice in 1861 at Poughkeepsie, New York, and commenced practice in the summer of 1861 in the office of his relative, Hon. Horace E. Smith, at Johnstown, New York.
Patriotism was too strong for ambition, and in October, 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier at Albany, in the Third New York Volunteers, and served as a private and Corporal in Company F, of that regiment until July, 1862, during which time the regiment was stationed in Fort McHenry and Fort Federal Hill in Baltimore, under the command of General Dix. During the winter of 1861 and 1862, he was one of a detailed guard over government property on the boats plying between Baltimore and Fort Monroe. During this service he witnessed the fight between the Monitor and Merrimac. On the 18th day of July, 1862, he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the Third New York Volunteers by Governor Morgan, with rank from the 10th of May of that year. Shortly before that date the regiment had been ordered to Suffolk, Virginia, under the command of Major General Mansfield. In the autumn of the same year the regiment was transferred to Fortress Monroe, and garrisoned that fort during the winter of 1862-3, under General Dix.
In the spring of 1863 the two-years men of the regiment were discharged, but the recruits who joined the regiment sub- sequent to its organization were held for three years service. This portion of the regiment was united with the three-years men of Hawkens's Zouaves, and subsequently until his dis- charge, Lieutenant Smith commanded Company F, but never mustered as Captain because the Company did not have the requisite number of men.
On the 11th of April, 1863, he married Julia A. Scott, a
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daughter of Reverend Elihu Scott, late of Hampton, New Hampshire. Returning to his regiment shortly before the discharge of the two-years men, he was stationed with it for a short time at Bowers Hill, near Portsmouth, Virginia. From thence he accompanied the regiment to Yorktown, the White House and other points on the Peninsula, under General Dix, and in July of the same year the regiment was ordered to Folly Island, South Carolina, under General Gilmore, and did duty in the trenches on Morris Island in front of Fort Wagner, where there was some gunpowder burned on both sides. He was sent to General Hospital on Folly Island suffering from fever in the early autumn of 1863, and there lost track of him- self for several days. On his partial recovery he was given a sick leave, and reached his wife's residence in New Hampshire weighing ninety-eight pounds. On account of protracted ill- ness, he was honorably discharged from the service by Special Orders No. 603, dated 13th November, 1863, issued by Major General Q. A. Gilmore.
During the winter of 1863-4, he with his wife remained at his father's residence in Plymouth, New Hampshire, and in the spring of 1864 went to Fonda, Montgomery County, New York, and opened a law office.
During the second Lincoln canvass in 1864, he took some part as a "spell-binder," in the Counties of Montgomery, Scho- harie, Otsego and Fulton.
In February, 1865, Mr. Smith formed a partnership with his wife's uncle, Hon. Robert S. Hale of Elizabethtown, which continued until the 1st of January, 1879. During this time Mr. and Mrs. Smith adopted as their daughter Louise Scott Smith, the infant daughter of Mrs. Smith's deceased sister.
Mr. Smith was elected County Judge of Essex County in the fall of 1878, and re-elected without opposition and with the endorsement of the opposing party in the fall of 1884, re-
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tiring at the end of his second term on the 31st day of Deceth- ber, 1890. He has since that time continued in the practice of law at Elizabethtown, with Patrick J. Finn during a por- tion of the time, and Frank B. Wicks of Ticonderoga during the remainder.
Aside from those already named George W. Perry, Mal- colin Neil Maclaren, Jr., (the man who introduced modern base ball in Elizabethtown) Robert G. Shaw, George Henry Nicholson, George W. Patterson, Lawrence Flinn, Percival G. Ullman, Samuel B. Hamburger, Henry P. Gilliland, 2d., and A. W. Boynton studied law in Robert S. Hale's office.
John Emmes studied law with Orlando Kellogg.
Orlando Kellogg, Jonathan Tarbell, William Higby, Hugh Evans, Jesse Gay, Robert S. Hale, Sewall Sargeant, Melville A. Sheldon, James C. Rogers, Kleber D. Taggard, Frank A. Nay- lor, Scott G. Sayre, Charles H. MLenathan studied law in Judge Hand's office and since the latter's death, George W. Smith, John J. Ryan, Fred E. Frisbie, Charles A. Marvin, Augustus Noble Hand, Charles W. Morhous, Fred Higgins, James M. Singleton, LeRoy N. French, Roy Lockwood, Milo A. Durand, Arthur B. Smith, and Charles David Kennedy have studied law with Richard L. Hand. Milo A. Durand now represents the Right of Way Department of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.
Patrick J. Finn, Essex County's present District Attorney, and Frank B. Wickes studied law with Judge Francis A. Smith.
Edward S. Cuyler practiced law in Elizabethtown after his service as Essex County Clerk.
Martin F. Nicholson also practiced here as a contemporary of Mr. Cuyler.
Elizabethtown village, never I suppose having a population of 600 souls, has furnished the following :
Block Built by Jacob H. Deming 1895.
The Windsor, Orlando Kellogg & Son, Proprietors.
HOSONIM
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One Delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Matthew Hale ; six Members of Congress, Ezra C. Gross, Augustus C. Hand, Orlando Kellogg, Robert S. Hale, John Chipman (from Michigan), William Higby (from California); one Judge of the Court of Appeals, Samuel Hand; one Justice of the Supreme Court, A. C. Hand, who was also a Member of the Court of Errors, prior to 1847; one Judge of District Court in North Dakota, Charles A. Pollock; one Regent of the Uni- versity, Robert S. Hale ; three State Senators, A. C. Hand, Matthew Hale and Rowland C. Kellogg ; one Member of As- sembly, Theodorus Ross ; one Presidential Elector, Robert S. Hale ; five County Judges and Surrogate, John E. Mc Vine, Robert, S. Hale, Byron Pond, Francis A Smith and Rowland C. Kellogg, and six Surrogates before the change in 1847, Ezra C. Gross, Ashley Pond, John Calkin, A. C. Hand, Orlando Kellogg and Robert W. Livingston, besides one Special County Judge and Surrogate in 1857, Martin F. Nicholson ; four District Attorneys, Byron Pond, Arod K. Dudley, Row- land C. Kellogg and Milo C. Perry, and last but not least a President of the New York State Bar Association, Richard L. Hand.
Is it any wonder that surrounding towns turn green with envy when such a long and distinguished list is surveyed ? Again, has any country village of similar size in the Empire State or elsewhere furnished such a commanding list?
Abijah Perry.
Abijah Perry, son of Nathan Perry and Rebecca Brown, was born in Lewis, Essex County, N. Y., January 16, 1807. In 1814 he moved with his father to what is now locally and familiarly known as "Durand Farm," where the Perry family resided several years. It was from this farm that Nathan
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Perry went to the Battle of Plattsburgh. Abijah Perry grew up among the pioneers, receiving only a common school edu- eation. September 6, 1832, he married Eliza Kellogg, only daughter of Rowland Kellogg, and sister of Congressman Or- lando Kellogg of Elizabethtown. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Perry : Ellen R., Mariette E., Lafayette, Byron A., Milo C., Evelyn S., Louisa A. and Carolyn E.
Ellen R. Perry married William H. Burbank, who was a clerk in the War Department during the civil war and Mrs. Burbank passed some time in Washington, being there at the time of the assassination of President Lincoln. After the war Mr. Burbank was a merchant in Boston, Mass., but his health failing, he came to Elizabethtown, where he died March 10, 1892.
Byron A. Perry is one of Elizabethtown's merchants and Milo C. Perry is ex-District Attorney of Essex County.
Miss Louisa A. Perry is Critic Teacher in the Model De- partment of the State Normal School at Plattsburgh.
Miss Evelyn S. Perry died in January, 1903, and the other brother and sisters reside at the Perry homestead on the Plain in Elizabethtown village.
Abijah Perry served as Constable, Justice of the Peace, Un- der Sheriff, Essex County Treasurer and Essex County Sheriff besides Superintendent of the State Arsenal. In all official capacities Mr. Perry honestly tried to do his duty regardless of fear or favor. He was a natural detective and woe unto the law breaker upon whose trail "Uncle Abijah" camped, as the faithful official never came home empty handed. In the days when there was no telegraph, no telephone or railroad Mr. Perry went through the woods like an Indian, guided by instinct, and it is safe to say that if he lived to-day he could give Pink- erton's force points. He was a large and powerfully built man and it is said that the descendants of the criminal classes of
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his day still tremble at the very mention of his name. Abijah Perry died at his Elizabethtown home September 20, 1882, and was buried in Riverside cemetery.
Elijah Simonds.
Originally the various hillsides of Elizabethtown were clothed to their summits with giant pines, hemlocks, spruces and the many varieties of hard and soft woods peculiar to this latitude, alike giving beauty to the landscape and afford- ing food and shelter for every kind of northern game. When the pioneers first came, here were wolves, panthers, bears, beavers, otters, small game too numerous to mention, and last but not least the noble moose, his choice of quarters being regulated by the change of seasons. Of course the pioneers and their sons learned to handle the muzzle loading rifle effec- tively.
Elijah Simonds, the greatest hunter and trapper the Adiron- dacks ever produced, was a son of Erastus Simonds and was born on Simonds Hill February 10, 1821. Elijah Simonds had three elder brothers who were passionately fond of hunting, fishing and trapping and he took to the woods as naturally as a duck takes to water. When 6 years old he caught his first mink (in an old "wood trap") and at 8 years of age caught his first fox. At 10 he caught his first wolf and at 11 captured a bear. When 17 he went west, going by canal from Whitehall to Buffalo. He went from Buffalo by way of the Great Lakes to Spring Harbor, Mich. He trapped otter, etc., on the Kala- mazoo River, his only companions there being Indians. Re- turning east, he was commissioned Captain of a "Lumber Raft on the Great Lakes."
In 1840 he caught 8 otter on the Salmon River. In 1842 his father died. This year he first visited Saranac Lake, Tup-
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per Lake, etc., being accompanied by his brother William and Alonzo McD. Finney. They went there to fish, catching a barrel of trout, four of which weighed 100 lbs.
In 1843 Elijah went to Blue Mountain Lake, the forests around which were then in their thrifty prime, not having been disturbed by the hand of the white man. In 1850 he caught his first panther near Ampersand Pond. The second panther that fell a victim to his prowess was caught near Moose Pond. The last named panther had "kits," one of which, a spotted little fellow, was sent to Elijah's intimate friend, Spencer F. Baird, the great naturalist, and the speci- men is said to be still on exhibition in the Smithsonian Insti- tution at Washington, D. C. Elijah visited Michigan, Minne- sota, Wisconsin and Iowa in 1853 but shortly returned to Elizabethtown. He next went to the Boreas region and while hunting there shot and killed six deer without moving from his tracks. He hunted for the New York market several years. He once took 102 deer (saddles) to New York at one time, all having been killed by himself.
In 1860 Elijah visited Michigan again. This time he trapped in Michigan waters for beaver, catching 26. A few years later he went to Michigan for the last time, finding that the advancing wave of civilization had destroyed his old hunt- ing grounds.
Soon after the close of the civil war Elijah married Miss Rosamond Gowett of Lewis, by which union two daughters, Mary and Nellie, were born. The last years of Elijah's life were peacefully and happily passed on his little place on the east side of Mt. Raven. Elijah differed from most hunters, as he was the beau ideal of the old time country gentleman, noth- ing in the nature of uncouthness being in his make up. A visitor to that happy home invariably found Elijah neatly dressed, his white starched shirt and collar being noticeable,
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as few old hunters don such habiliments even upon extraordi- nary occasions. His clean shaven face, high forehead and classical features generally impressed one as being unusual accompaniments of a man who had killed 3,000 foxes, 2,000 deer, 150 bears, 12 wolves and 7 panthers and who had with- out doubt caught more mink, otter and marten than any other man who ever lived in the Adirondacks.
Elijah died April 3, 1900, and was buried in Brainard's Forge cemetery, one of the most sincere mourners outside the Simonds family at the funeral being the author of Pleasant Valley, who had known the venerable hunter long and inti- mately.
The Stock From Which the Browns of Elizabethtown Descended.
Thomas and Edmund Brown, brothers, came from Bury St. Edmunds, England, about the year 1638 and settled at Sud- bury, Mass., Edmund being the first preacher there.
Thomas Brown with his wife Bridget, went to Concord, Mass., about 1681 and died there in 1688. On page 123 of the 1st edition and on page 171 of the 2d edition of a book by George Madison Bodge of Leominster, Mass., called "Soldiers in King Philip's War" is given a list of men who were slain and wounded in Capt. Nath'l Davenport's Company. In the list of wounded, among 11 names, appears the name "Tho. Browne of Concord." Bodge refers to the Mass. Archives, Vol. 68, page 104.
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