USA > New York > Suffolk County > Portrait and biographical record of Suffolk county (Long Island) New York, Pt. 1 > Part 8
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The silver question precipitated a controversy between those who were in favor of the continu- ance of silver coinage and those who were op- posed, Mr. Cleveland answering for the latter, even before his inauguration.
On June 2, 1886, President Cleveland married Frances, daughter of his deceased friend and part- ner, Oscar Folsom, of the Buffalo Bar. Their union has been blessed by the birtli of two daugh- ters. In the campaign of 1888, President Cleve- land was renominated by his party, but the Republican candidate, Gen. Benjamin Harrison. was victorious. In the nominations of 1892 tliese two candidates for the highest position in the gift of the people were again pitted against each other, and in the ensuing election President Cleveland was victorious by an overwhelming majority.
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
B ENJAMIN HARRISON, the twenty-third President, is the descendant of one of the historical families of this country. The first known head of the family was Maj .- Gen. Harrison, one of Oliver Cromwell's trusted followers and fighters. In the zenith of Cromwell's power it be- came the duty of this Harrison to participate in the trial of Charles I., and afterward to sign the death warrant of the king. He subsequently paid for this with his life, being hung October 13, 1660. His descendants came to America, and the next of the family that appears in history is Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia, great-grandfa- ther of the subject of this sketch, and after whom he was named. Benjamin Harrison was a mein- ber of the Continental Congress during the years 1774, 1775 and 1776, and was one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was three times elected Governor of Virginia.
Gen. William Henry Harrison, the son of the distinguished patriot of the Revolution, after a successful career as a soldier during the War of 1812, and with a clean record as Governor of the Northwestern Territory, was elected President of the United States in 1840. His career was cnt short by death within one month after his in- auguration.
President Harrison was born at North Bend,
Hamilton County, Ohio, August 20, 1833. His life up to the time of his graduation from Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, was the uneventful one of a country lad of a family of small means. His father was able to give him a good education, and nothing more. He became engaged while at college to the daughter of Dr. Scott, Principal of a female school at Oxford. After graduating, he determined to enter upon the study of law. He went to Cincinnati and there read law for two years. At the expiration of that time young Har- rison received the only inheritance of his life-his aunt, dying, left him a lot valued at $800. He regarded this legacy as a fortune, and decided to get married at once, take this money and go to some Eastern town and begin the practice of law. He sold his lot, and, with the money in his pocket, he started out with his young wife to fight for a place in the world. He decided to go to Indian- apolis, which was even at that time a town of promise. He met with slight encouragement at first, making scarcely anything the first year. He worked diligently, applying himself closely to his calling, built up an extensive practice and took a leading rank in the legal profession.
In 1860, Mr. Harrison was nominated for the position of Supreme Court Reporter, and then be- gan lis experience as a stump speaker. He can-
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BENJAMIN HARRISON.
vassed the State thoroughly, and was elected by a handsome majority. In 1862 he raised tlie Seventeenth Indiana Infantry, and was chosen its Colonel. His regiment was composed of the raw- est material, but Col. Harrison employed all his time at first in mastering military taetics and drill- ing his men, and when he came to move toward the East with Sherman, his regiment was one of the best drilled and organized in the army. At Resaca lie especially distinguished himself, and for his bravery at Peachtree Creek he was made a Brigadier-General, Gen. Hooker speaking of him in the most complimentary terms.
During the absence of Gen. Harrison in the field, the Supreme Court declared the office of Supreme Court Reporter vacant, and another person was elected to the position. From the time of leaving Indiana with his regiment until tlie fall of 1864 he had taken no leave of absence, but having been nominated that year for the same office, lie got a thirty-day leave of absence, and during that time made a brilliant canvass of the State, and was elected for another term. He then started to rejoin Sherman, but on the way was stricken down with scarlet fever, and after a most trying attack made his way to the front in time to participate in the closing incidents of the war.
In 1868 Gen. Harrison declined a re-election as Reporter, and resumed the practice of law. In 1876 he was a candidate for Governor. Although defeated, the brilliant campaign he made won for him a national reputation, and he was much souglit after, especially in the East, to make speeches. ! In 1880, as usual, he took an active part in the ! campaign, and was elected to the United States Senate. Here he served for six years, and was known as one of the ablest men, best lawyers and strongest debaters in that body. With the ex- piration of his senatorial term he returned to the practice of his profession, becoming the head of one of the strongest firms in the State.
The politieal campaign of 1888 was one of the most memorable in the history of our country. The convention which assembled in Chicago in June and named Mr. Harrison as the chief stand- ard-bearer of the Republican party was great in every particular, and on this account, and tlie at-
titude it assumed upon the vital questions of the day, chief among which was the tariff, awoke a deep interest in the campaign throughout the nation. Shortly after the nomination, delegations began to visit Mr. Harrison at Indianapolis, his home. This movement became popular, and from all sections of the country societies, clubs and delegations journeyed thither to pay their re- spects to the distinguished statesman.
Mr. Harrison spoke daily all through the suin- mer and autumn to these visiting delegations, and so varied, masterly, and eloquent were his speeches that they at once placed hint in the fore- most rank of American orators and statesmen. Elected by a handsome majority, he served his country faithfully and well, and in 1892 was nom- inated for re-election; but the people demanded a change and he was defeated by his predecessor in office, Grover Cleveland.
On account of his eloquence as a speaker and his power as a debater, Gen. Harrison was called upon at an early age to take part in the dis- cussion of the great questions that then began to agitate the country. He was an uncompromising anti-slavery man, and was matched against some of the most eminent Democratic speakers of liis State. No man who felt the touch of his blade desired to be pitted with him again. With all his eloquence as an orator he never spoke for ora- torical effect, but his words always went like bul- lets to the mark. He is purely American in his ideas, and is a splendid type of the American statesman. Gifted with quick perception, a logi- cal mind and a ready tongue, lie is one of the most distinguished impromptu speakers in the nation. Many of these speeches sparkled with the rarest eloquence and contained arguments of great weight, and many of his terse statements have already become apliorisms. Original in thought. precise in logic, terse in statement, yet withal faultless in eloquence, he is recognized as the sound statesman and brilliant orator of the day. During the last days of his administration Presi- dent Harrison suffered an irreparable loss in tlie death of his devoted wife, Caroline (Scott) Har- rison, a lady of many womanly charms and vir- tucs. They were the parents of two children.
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SUFFOLK COUNTY, (LONG ISLAND)
NEW YORK.
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INTRODUCTORY
HE time has arrived when it becomes the duty of the people of this county to perpetuate the names of their pioneers, to furnish a record of their early settlement, and relate the story of their progress. The civilization of our day, the enlightenment of the age, and the duty that men of the present time owe to their ancestors, to themselves and to their posterity, demand that a record of their lives and deeds should be made. In biographical history is found a power to instruct man by precedent, to enliven the mental faculties, and to waft down the river of time a safe vessel in which the names and actions of the people who contributed to raise this country from its primitive state may be preserved. Surely and rapidly the great and aged men, who in their prime entered the wilderness and claimed the virgin soil as their heritage, are passing to their graves. The number remaining who can relate the incidents of the first days of settlement is becoming small indeed, so that an actual necessity exists for the collection and preservation of events without delay, before all the early settlers are cut down by the scythe of Time.
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To be forgotten has been the great dread of mankind from remotest ages. All will be forgotten soon enough, in spite of their best works and the most earnest efforts of their friends to preserve the memory of their lives. The means employed to prevent oblivion and to perpetuate their memory have been in proportion to the amount of intelligence they possessed. The pyramids of Egypt were built to perpetuate the names and deeds of their great rulers. The exhumations made by the archæologists of Egypt from buried Memphis indicate a desire of those people to perpetuate tlie memory of their achievements. The erection of the great obelisks was for the same purpose. Coming down to a later period, we find the Greeks and Romans erecting mausoleums and monuments, and carving out statues to chronicle their great achievements and carry them down the ages. It is also evident that the Mound-builders, in piling up their great mounds of earth, had but this idea-to leave something to show that they had lived. All these works, though many of them costly in the extreme, give but a faint idea of the lives and character of those whose memory they were intended to perpetuate, and scarcely anything of the masses of the people that then lived. The great pyramids and some of the obelisks remain objects only of curiosity; the mausoleums, monuments and statues are crumbling into dust.
It was left to modern ages to establish an intelligent, undecaying, immutable method of perpetuating a full history-immutable in that it is almost unlimited in extent and perpetual in its action; and this is through the art of printing.
To the present generation, however, we are indebted for the introduction of the admirable system of local biography. By this system every man, though he has not achieved what the world calls greatness, has the means to perpetuate his life, his history, through the coming ages.
The seythe of Time cuts down all; nothing of the physical man is left. The monument which his children or friends may erect to his memory in the cemetery will crumble into dust and pass away; but his life, his achievements, the work he has accomplished, which otherwise would be forgotten, is perpetuated by a record of this kind.
To preserve the lineaments of our companions we engrave their portraits; for the same reason we collect the attainable facts of their history. Nor do we think it necessary, as we speak only truth of them, to wait until they are dead, or until those who know them are gone; to do this we are ashamed only to publish to the world the history of those whose lives are unworthy of public record.
S
JUDGE J. H. TUTHILL.
BIOGRAPHICAL
(
UDGE JAMES H. TUTHILL. It is not possible that the formal biographer should be able to make as satisfactory an outline of per- sonal history as the family and friends who offer spontaneous and loving tribute to the memory of a dear one who has passed away. Thus it is that we prefer to quote largely from the local press, and a prepared memorial, concerning the career of the gentleman whose name appears above.
Mr. Tuthill's career is as familiar to Suffolk County people as a book thoroughly read, but a few words touching its most prominent points may not be out of place. September 28, 1886, a number of the best minds of Suffolk County came together and organized a society whose object was to preserve and care for the documents relat- ing to the history of the county. Mr. Tuthill was chosen to be its President. A better idea can be gotten of his personal history and useful- ness as an officer of that body from the address which was delivered in Riverhead after his death, at the annual meeting of the Suffolk County His- torical Society, by Rev. Epher Whitaker, D. D., the first Vice-President of the society:
"It is eminently proper that this meeting of our society should be in part a commiem- oration of the Hon. James H. Tuthill, lately its first and only President. He was born in Wading River, February 19, 1826. His presence gave delight to one home then, and it has given joy to many a home since that day. His descent is purely English and American. His earliest American ancestor came with his wife from
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England, and appeared among the first founders of Southold, about 1640. During the two hun- dred and fifty years since that date, the Tuthill family has held a foremost place among their fel- low-townsmen. The sum of their property on the Assessor's books of Southold, during recent years, exceeds that of any other family.
"The Hon. James H. Tuthill's father, Capt. Nathaniel Tuthill, and his mother, Mrs. Clarissa (Miller) Tuthill, surpassed in many good qual- ities most of their associates. They removed from Wading River to Greenport in April, 1837, the latter being the better place for business. Captain Tuthill was vigorous, active, resolute, enterprising, venturesome and diligent in trade and commerce by sea and land; hence he was efficient, prosperous and influential. Mrs. Tut- hill was intellectual, vital through and through, spiritual and tasteful. She had the attractions of shapeliness of form and beauty of countenance even after mature age had given her large stores of experience and wisdom. They had five sons and one daughter, namely: George Miller, Frank- lin Charles, James Harvey, Ellsworth and Sarah Strong.
"Judge Tuthill's parents gave their sons and daughter the best educational advantages; in a Christian home first of all, and afterwards in otlier places. The two eldest sons were gradu- ated at Amherst College; the daugliter at Mt. Holyoke Seminary, where she had the higli privilege of the guidance and instruction of Mary Lyon. James won distinction in the Miller's Place Academy, where he studied three years
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
with excellent companions, among them being William H. H. Moore, of New York. At seventeen years of age, Mr. Tuthill entered the Sophomore Class in Williams College, where, three years later, he was graduated with honor. His eldest brother, George Miller, had chosen the ministerial profession, and became eminent therein. The second brother, Franklin, had studied medicine, received his diploma, and com- menced practice in Southold. He subsequently represented the east end of Long Island in the New York Legislature. He became one of the origin- al editors of the New York Times, with Henry J. Raymond, and afterwards proved himself a win- ner of wealth and fame as an editor and owner of the San Francisco Bulletin, and historian of Cal- ifornia. Mr. Tuthill's sister became an artist, and especially a teacher of art. The youngest brother, Capt. Ellsworth, survives. He preferred a non-professional education, and obtained a part of it on board one of his father's ships. He is a prominent man of business in the old town of Southold, which has been the place of his resi- dence from his young boyhood. James gave him- self to the legal profession, and studied first with Judge George Miller, a kinsman of his mother's, at Riverhead, and later with Judge Joseph S. Bosworth, of New York, both of whom were also legislators.
"The diligent student was in due time ad- mitted to the Bar, and began to practice in 1849, making his home in Riverhead. The next year he formed a partnership with Judge Miller, his learned preceptor, and this relation continued with harmony and profit until the close of the senior's active life. On the 16th of January, 1850, he entered into another, a dissimilar, a more inti- mate, and more important partnership. Miss Maria F. Foster, the only daughter of Herman D. and Betsey (Woodhull) Foster, became his wife. She is a half-sister of Nathaniel W. Fos- ter. The happiness thus attained caused Mr. Tuthill to accelerate that course of activity, use- fulness and increasing wealth and honor which ended only with the abrupt termination of his life on the 18th of January, 1894.
"In 1861 Mr. Tuthill represented the eastern
part of Suffolk County in the State Assembly, which opened on the 7th of January. The most infamous treason had been long plotting the most atrocious rebellion in the history of the world. The war had at length openly begun, but it was so wicked and monstrous, its chief objects were so inhuman and diabolical, that many persons could not believe it possible for it to grow, en- dure and prove so terrible as it was sure to be- come. Not a few, therefore, were in doubt as to what measures should be taken in order to end it. Perhaps our young legislator had no un- certainty of mind in respect to the matter, but with his characteristic forethought and prudence, he began, as early as the rith of January, to send from Albany brief and eager letters of inquiry to those of his friends in whose intelligence and judgment he had confidence. He desired to know their views of the condition of public affairs, and especially what they deemed should be done by the Legislature. The main points of one reply to his inquiries are well remembered. They presented the chief reason why it was necessary to fight the rebellion with as much force as pos- sible, and as soon as possible. The writer had lived in southern Virginia; he personally knew many Southerners, and he did not hesitate to say, immediately after the assault on Ft. Sumter, that the war would continue until after the re-election of President Lincoln, should he live through four succeeding years. Mr. Tuthill was diligent and faithful, and as efficient as a new member could be in promoting the enactment of such laws as were necessary to put the whole power of the greatest state of the Union into full and vigorous action, in order to crush the rebellion and save the imperiled life of the nation.
"When the slave holders' confederacy had been put to death, with untold expenditure of treas- ure, suffering and life in order to do it, there was need of sincere patriotism, wide intelligence and practical wisdom to bring the might of our com- monwealth into efficient action for the perform- ance of its share of the work of rebuilding the peaceful authority of the nation in the broad region which had been subject to a traitorous military despotism. In this condition of the state
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PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
and nation, the east end of Long Island elected Mr. Tuthill a second time to represent it in the Legislature. So in 1866, with the advantages of experience, he served faitlifully and well. He thus heightened the honor which he had fairly won five years before. Ever after that service, intelligent and considerate men delighted to call him honorable.
"The next year, 1867, the county called him to be its efficient representative for the mainte- nance of justice in the civil courts. How worthily lie fulfilled the duties of the office for nine con- secutive years, from 1867 to 1875, inclusive, the gentlemen of his profession can attest. They will doubtless indicate, also, how he rose in the pro- fession until he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. Soon after ceasing to be County Attorney, he was elected Surrogate, a very responsible office. With what learning and uprightness he discharged its duties for ten or twelve years will be related by otliers, who transacted business under his jurisdiction. It was meet that the last employment of his life should be, as it was, in the Surrogate's Court. That life's employments on earth ceased January 18, 1894.
"We suppress the flow of our tears caused by our great sorrow and painful bereavement, for we must give attention to his philanthropic career. He had scarcely gained a footing in his profes- sion, with mature and able men for his compet- itors, when he began to show his public spirit for "As the legal adviser and attorney of the Riverhead Savings Bank, Judge Tuthill has conferred benefits on hundreds of persons, whose interests have been in many cases entrusted to his watchful care and capable guardianship. He was a Christian man, worthy of high lionor in all his manfold relations in human life. He was a dutiful and affectionate son, a kind and generous brother, a faitliful and loving husband, a wise, tender and provident father. He was a true and zealous patriot, a good citizen, a pleasant neighbor. a genial companion, a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just. He was a lawyer, well read, thoughtful and honest, a Judge whose administration of justice was marked by purity the improvement of his fellow-men, and especial- ly for the betterment of his county. He was a leader in organizing the County Teachers' Association in 1852. In 1860 he became the President of the County Sunday-school Associ- ation. It had then been recently formed, but soon grew to be the efficient organization which he made it. Its frequent meetings, held here . and there, in all parts of the country, were large, faithful, beneficent and attractive just so long as he continued to be its President. He bore it on- ward for ten or twelve years, and when he with- drew its head was gone and it had to die. It fluttered for a while thereafter, and then ceased to move. He sustained it until his duties as | and uprightness, by sincere courtesy and the
Surrogate constrained him to leave it to the fate which awaited it.
"The Long Island Historical Society was in- corporated in 1863. When it held its first an- nual meeting he was elected one of its counsel- lors, and his re-election occurred every year thereafter. He took the most prominent and laborious part in the preparations for tlie bi-cen- tennial celebration of the formation of Suffolk County, and the proceedings of that celebration in 1883 were subsequently published in a volume.
"His hand was skillful and efficient in that matter. He was prominent and active in the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth an- niversary of the old town of Southold, in 1890, . being the Chairman of the meeting, at which thousands were present in the afternoon. He worthily represented the society in the two hun- dred and fiftieth anniversary of the town of South- ampton in the same year. When this county's Historical Society was organized, eight years since, no other person was thought of for its President, and his election has been unanimous every year. He made his court room the inu- seum for its treasures of literature, antiquities and art. All who desired its prosperity and marked its course knew well how greatly its ad- vancement was due to his wise direction of its proceedings, his generous activity for its welfare, and his cordial devotion to its increasing useful- ness.
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most thorough fairness. The influence of his good deeds will live forever. Those deeds best proclaim his praise. Let them cherish his men- ory evermore. He rests from his labors. His works follow him."
Judge Tuthill left a widow and one daughter, Ruth H., who is still at home with her mother.
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ACHARIAH HALLOCK. Suffolk Coun- ty is a prosperous farming district, and among its most prominent and substantial agriculturists we make mention of Mr. Hallock, who ranks high in the esteem of his fellow-citi- zens. He was born on the farm where he is now living, January 23, 1849, and is the youngest in the parental family, which included four children. George W. is a successful farmer, residing near Smithtown, this county. Matilda, who was born in 1837, departed this life October 13, 1866. Henry L. is a well-to-do farmer of this coninmu- nity, and will be spoken of at length on another page in this volume.
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The parents of this family were Zachariah and Arletta (Young) Halloek, the former of whom was born in the town of Riverhead, March 15, 1809. He was reared . to farming, and followed this vocation through many years of his active life, being fairly successful in all his ventures. As he was very fond of fishing, he made consid- erable money by supplying the markets with fish. which he caught in Long Island Sound. Prac- tically he was a self-made man, winning an hon- orable position among the citizens of his commu- nity, and lived to be fifty-five years old. For many years he was a member of the Congrega- tional Church, and devoted much time to charita- ble and worthy enterprises. In politics he always supported Democratie candidates at the polls.
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