USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Rochester and Monroe County, New York : pictorial and biographical > Part 8
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over forty-two years ago, and there is still mourning in the land, and a pen- sion roll of one hundred forty-one million, four hundred sixty-four thousand, five hunded and twenty-two dollars and ninety cents, attesting the destruction of human life nearly half a century ago. What are we, as a state, doing to avert this terrible sacrifice of human life? It is gratifying to note that some of our large cities have already awakened to a realization of their responsi- bilities and are now conducting suitable hospitals for the care of a limited number of incipient and advanced cases of tuberculosis. It is well that the work of prevention and cure is now taken up, but it would have been better if some activity in this direction has been manifested years ago in compliance with the repeated demands of this conference. It is a matter of record that each of the preceding conferences rang out the cry of alarm throughout the entire state, yet, as a commonwealth, we have not adopted any concerted action or determined upon any measure to control this agency of certain death to so many thousands of our citizens. I am satisfied that there is a large element of human sympathy in mankind, and it needs only an awakening to arouse it to an intensity of action that will brook no delay in granting a full measure of justice and charity to the afflicted members of our common family. Let New York's proud pre-eminence among the sisterhood of states rest on the con- sciousness that her highest ambition is to faithfully conserve the health, hap- piness, peace and contentment of all her citizens."
Mr. Murphy is a charter member of the National Association of Credit Men and was one of the prime movers in its organization at Toledo, Ohio, in 1896. This association has a membership of about ten thousand of the ablest financial men in the United States. He returned home from that conference and organized a local association in Rochester, which is noted over the country as one of the strongest in existence. He was also chairman of the investiga- tion and prosecution committee of the national association, which raised ten thousand dollars for the prosecution of fraudulent debtors. He is a trustee of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce and was nominated and elected its president, but refused the honor on account of the manifold duties devolving upon him in other connections. He was recently the guest of honor at a large banquet of the New York Conference of Charities and Correction and he has made many notable addresses and speeches on different occasions, many of these having been printed and used as a powerful argument in support of the cause advocated. His speech against Governor Odell's policy in reference to the control of state hospitals for the insane caused universal comment and was used throughout the gubernatorial campaign, being in large measure the means of keeping politics out of state charitable institutions. His address before the Rochester Credit Men's Association on April 17th, 1900, attracted wide attention throughout the United States and was endorsed and adopted for circulation by the business literature committee of the National Credit Men's Association and sent throughout the country, the subject being, "The
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Object and Possibilities of Credit Men's Associations." The address before the Buffalo Credit Men's Association was also adopted and ordered printed.
Mr. Murphy has made many other notable addresses, including one to the Rochester Retail Grocers Association, May 26, 1902; to the graduates of St. Mary's School, Dunkirk, New York; to the Rochester Chamber of Commerce on raising the salaries of the local public school teachers. His speech on the magnitude of failures startled business men throughout the country. In his speech before the Chamber of Commerce, in which he vigorously protested against the demand of the Rochester Railway Company to compromise its share of the payment of street pavement claims, he stated that, "inasmuch as it has been determined that this is a valid and legitimate claim against this rail- way corporation, its collection should be enforced to the last farthing, includ- ing interest." This forceful presentation of the facts convinced the city author- ities that it was their duty to collect the amount of indebtedness, which was three hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars, instead of accepting one hun- dred and forty-six thousand dollars in compromise.
While a most public-spirited man, Mr. Murphy prefers to work in the ranks rather than hold office. He has his hand constantly on the public pulse, study- ing conditions and working for the healthfulness of the body politic.
In July, 1874, Mr. Murphy was united in marriage to Miss Mary B. Gavin; of this union eight children have been born, six of whom are living. He has traveled extensively, through Europe, also visiting Egypt, South America and other countries. On a trip to the Bermudas in 1903 he was shipwrecked on the Madiana, which went ashore, but he was rescued without injury. He was also at Martinique sixty days before the ill fated city of St. Pierre was destroyed by volcanic eruption in 1902. Mr. Murphy has many pleasant mem- ories of different trips to Europe, when courtesies were shown him by Justin McCarthy, John Dillon and other members of the working house of the Eng- lish legislative body. Unmindful of the honors of office, he has nevertheless won the honor and respect of his fellow-men wherever his work is known and his influence is felt.
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L. Co. Taylor
George C. Taylor
N O RESIDENT of Fairport is more uniformly esteemed and respected than George C. Taylor, whose activity has touched the various lines which contribute to the material, political, intellectual and moral development of the community. There has also come to him the attainment of a distinguished position in connection with the great material industries of the county and he is now successfully engaged in the manufac- ture of patent medicines and flavoring extracts.
He was born in Cato, now Meridian, Cayuga county, New York, September 20, 1835, his parents being Alonzo L. and Lona (Potter) Taylor, of whose family of eight children George C. alone survives. The father was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, and was there reared, learning the trade of a hatter. In early life he was a schoolmate of and workman with P. T. Barnum, the great showman, of whom he became a close personal friend. As a young man he removed to Auburn, New York, to work at his trade and in Cayuga county was married. Later he engaged in the hat business in Cato and in 1848 removed to Ira Hill in the same county, where he resided up to the time of his death, which occurred in May, 1861. He served as constable and deputy sheriff of his county for fourteen years and it was he who captured the negro Freeman, the murderer of the Van Ness family of Auburn in the late '40s, the history of which is well known in connection with criminal annals in New York. Dur- ing the later years of his life Mr. Taylor was engaged in the manufacture of patent medicines and peddled his own product. This was the foundation of the present extensive business built up by Mr. Taylor after the death of his father.
George C. Taylor was reared under the parental roof and acquired a public school education. He succeeded to the business upon his father's death and in 1868 removed to Fairport. During three or four years after the close of the Civil war business was slack in all departments of industrial and commercial activity and it was not until 1871 that the enterprise assumed proportions of any magnitude. From this time on, however, the volume of trade has stead- ily grown and Mr. Taylor's power was felt in the manufacture of proprietary articles for the drug trade, in which line he has been very successful. His efforts have been so discerningly directed along well defined lines of labor that
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he seems to have realized at any one point of progress the full measure of his possibilities for accomplishment at that point.
Mr. Taylor is not only controlling a business of magnitude but is recognized as one of the best known men of this section of the state. A gentleman of sterling character, he is classed as a model citizen of Fairport. He never tastes either liquor nor tobacco and is strictly temperate in his life, never run- ning to extremes in any particular. In politics he is a democrat but he accords to others the right of forming their own opinions.
In 1862 was celebrated the marriage of George C. Taylor and Miss Wealthy A. Fuller, of Springboro, Crawford county, Pennsylvania. He belongs to no church or societies but is a most liberal supporter of all church and charitable work. The consensus of public opinion regarding Mr. Taylor is altogether favorable. Young and old, rich and poor, business and social associates, all speak of him in terms of high praise, and he is a man whom to know is to respect and honor.
John Van Voorhis
John Dan Doorhis
O F THOSE who knew the Hon. John Van Voorhis were called upon to name the strongest characteristic of his useful and honorable career, by the consensus of public opinion fidelity would be the response. His loyalty to his home, his friends, his city and his coun- try, to his beliefs and his convictions made him trust- ed wherever known and gained him the unqualified confidence of the lowly and those high in the coun- cils of the nation, of the distinguished members of the profession in which he figured so prominently and of those with whom he came in contact through the ties of friendship. His strong intellectual endow- ments, well directed, made him a leader at the bar and in republican ranks in the state of New York and never was he known to waver in his allegiance to a cause he espoused, for his championship was ever based upon a belief in its righteousness.
John Van Voorhis, a native son of New York, born in Decatur, Otsego county, October 22, 1826, was of Holland lineage, descended from Stephen Coerte Van Voorhees, who was a son of Coert Alberts of Voor Hees (so called because he lived before the village of Hees, in Holland, hence the origin of the surname. In April, 1660, Coert Alberts was a passenger on the ship Boutekoe (spotted cow) which sailed for the new world. He was accompanied by his wife and seven children and settled at Flatlands, Long Island, where he pur- chased from Cornelius Dirksen Hoogland nine morgens of corn land, seven of woodland, ten of plain land and five morgens of salt meadow for three thousand gilders; also the house and house-plot in the village of "Amesfoort en Bergen" (Flatlands) with the brewery and all the brewing apparatus. He died at Flat- lands in 1702.
One of his grandsons, Johannes Coerte Van Voorhis, removed to Fishkill, Dutchess county, in 1730, and purchased a farm of twenty-seven hundred acres, for six hundred and seventy pounds sterling. Before his death in 1757 he changed the spelling of the name to its present form, which has since been retained by his descendants.
John Van Voorhis, of this review, was the great-grandson of Johannes Coerte Van Voorhis and the son of John Van Voorhis, who was a farmer and a local preacher of the Methodist church. He was reared upon the old home-
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stead farm and acquired such education as he could obtain in the common schools, through the school library and a few terms spent at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima. He was seven years of age at the time of the father's removal to Otsego county and after residing for a few years in the town of Scott, Cortland county, and in the town of Spafford, Onondaga county, he became a resident of Mendon, Monroe county, New York, in March, 1843. He took up his abode upon a farm at Mendon Center and in the summer months aided in the work of the fields, while in the winter seasons he taught in the district schools of Victor until 1850. In the summer of that year he became a law student in the office of John W. Stebbins, of Rochester, and in the suc- ceeding winter taught Latin and mathematics in the East Bloomfield Acad- emy. He was connected with that institution until the spring of 1852 and in the meantime continued his law reading as opportunity offered until in Decem- ber, 1851, he successfully passed the examination that secured him admission to the bar.
Mr. Van Voorhis began in law practice in Elmira in 1853 as a partner of Hon. Gilbert O. Hulse but in 1854 became identified with the Rochester bar. Here he soon won recognition as a lawyer of wide learning, of thorough famil- iarity with the principles of jurisprudence and of notable force in argument and in the presentation of his cause.
In 1858, Mr. Van Voorhis was married to Frances Artistine Galusha, a daughter of Martin Galusha and a granddaughter of Jonas Galusha, who was for nine successive terms governor of Vermont. Soon after his marriage he purchased the home on East avenue, where he lived for many years. For a long period the law firm consisted of his brother, Quincy Van Voorhis, and himself, while later he admitted his two sons, Eugene and Charles, under the firm name of John Van Voorhis & Sons.
From the beginning of his connection with the bar Mr. Van Voorhis main- tained a prominent place in the ranks of the legal fraternity and as an attorney for the plaintiff or defense he was connected with almost every important liti- gated interest tried in the courts. His ability, too, well qualified him for offi- cial service, he was from the beginning of his residence here a prominent factor in public life, being first elected a member of the board of education from the old Fifth ward in 1857. In 1859 he was appointed city attorney and in 1863 received appointment as collector of internal revenue from President Lincoln. He was a delegate to the republican national convention which renominated Lincoln in 1864 and was ever a stanch supporter of the martyred president. In 1878 and again in 1880 he was elected to congress but was defeated in 1882, when there was a democratic landslide. In 1892 he was once more chosen to represent his district in the national law making body and upon the close of that term he retired from active political life. He was one of the most earnest workers on the floor of the house, connected with much of the constructive legislation which finds its inception in the committee rooms. An indefatiga-
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ble worker for his constituents, Rochester owes to him its public building at the corner of Church and Fitzhugh streets. He made a desperate fight for this, one of his first public acts, in the forty-sixth congress being the presenta- tion of a bill for a public building at Rochester. The bill was reported favor- ably by the committee on public buildings, but the house was democratic and he was unable to pass it. Elbridge G. Lapham, of Canandaigua, who was one of the house leaders, opposed the bill vigorously on the ground that Canandai- gua was less than thirty miles from Rochester and had a United States court- house. When the forty-seventh congress met in December, 1881, Mr. Van Voorhis again presented his bill and secured its passage in the house after a long and strenuous contest. In the interim Mr. Lapham had been elected United States senator and in the upper house he again opposed the measure even more vigorously than he had before. He was supported in his opposition by the late Charles J. Folger, secretary of the treasury, who lived at Geneva and was inter- ested in Canandaigua's efforts to prevent Rochester from obtaining sessions of the United States court. Congressman Van Voorhis enlisted the support of Senator Warner Miller and the late Senator John J. Ingalls, of Kansas, until finally, after the bill had brought about a factional line-up in the senate, it was passed over the heads of Senator Lapham and Secretary Folger. Every mem- ber of congress for twenty-five years before that time had fought in vain for a public building for Rochester and the success of Mr. Van Voorhis was notable.
During his congressional career and as an attorney he was a champion of the rights of the Seneca Indians and it was largely due to his opposition that the claim of three hundred thousand dollars of the Ogden Land Company against the lands of the Indians was defeated. In 1895 a council of the Seneca nation was held on the Allegany reservation and resolutions of thanks to Mr. Van Voorhis were adopted. The resolution was engrossed and framed. The parchment on which it is written is decorated with a tomahawk and a pipe of peace and bears the nation's seal. It was always regarded by Mr. Van Voor- his as one of his most valuable possessions.
For half a century Mr. Van Voorhis remained an active practitioner at the Rochester bar and attained marked distinction. He was thoroughly informed concerning all branches of the law and his practice extended beyond the bor- ders of New York. He was particularly strong in argument and in the presen- tation of his cause, which he ever contested with the qualities of a warrior. His ready sympathy was easily enlisted in the cause of the weak and oppressed and when he once espoused a cause it received his untiring efforts to the end, regardless of the fees accorded him. He was deeply interested in young men who were starting out in the profession, was always ready to assist and encourage them and they entertained for him the greatest admiration and sin- cerest affection, feeling that they had lost a stalwart champion and friend when he passed from this life.
Too broad minded to confine his attention and interest to his home local-
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ity or even to his state, he was concerned in all matters of national importance and in those events which were framing the history of other nations. He firmly believed in the cause of the Boers in South Africa, gave to them his ready sympathy and addressed many public meetings in their behalf, being one of the speakers at the great Boer meeting held in the city of New York. He was equally ardent in his championship of Cuban independence and thrilled an audience with his presentation of the question at a large mass meeting in Rochester. He continued one of the world's workers until called to his final rest October 22, 1905. Perhaps no better proof of the initial statement of this review that one of his strong characteristics was his unfaltering fidelity may be best shown in quoting freely from the statement of many of the public expressions that were made at the time of his demise.
The Monroe County Bar Association adopted the following memorial: "Hon. John Van Voorhis died at his home on East avenue, in the city of Roch- ester, on the 20th day of October, 1905.
"Mr. Van Voorhis was born in Decatur, Otsego county, New York, Octo- ber 22, 1826. He was of Dutch descent, his earliest ancestor in this country, Stephen Coerte Van Voorhees, having emigrated from Holland in the year 1660 and settled at Flatlands on Long Island.
"In 1843 Mr. Van Voorhis removed with his father's family to Mendon and since that time had been a resident of Monroe county with the exception of two years spent in the city of Elmira. His early education was obtained in the common schools, in the East Mendon Academy and the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, New York. He came to Rochester in 1848, entered the office of the late John W. Stebbins as a student of law and was admitted to the bar in 1851. In 1853 he opened an office in the city of Elmira but removed to Rochester in 1854, and from that time until his death had been continually engaged in the practice of his profession in this county. In 1854 he married Miss Frances Artistine Galusha, a daughter of Martin Galusha, of Rochester, and a granddaughter of Jonas Galusha, who for nine successive terms was gov- ernor of the state of Vermont.
"Mr. Van Voorhis during his lifetime filled many public offices to which he was elected by his fellow citizens. In 1857 he was a member of the board of education of the city of Rochester; in 1859 he was the city attorney; in 1864 he was a delegate to the republican national convention at Baltimore; from 1879 to 1883 he was a member of congress from this district and again from 1893 to 1895.
"His life had been active, strenuous and full. He had no advantageous aids in making his career. What he has achieved he has achieved by his own labor and efforts.
"As a lawyer his practice was largely in the courts and he had been engaged in many important and hard fought cases which reached their final decision in
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the court of last resort. His practice was large, at times reaching into other states.
"His clients were for the most part individuals; corporate interests he sel- dom represented and he may with justice be described as the people's lawyer. He possessed ample knowledge of the law and had large experience and great ability in the trial of causes. His fearlessness in asserting his client's cause and his persistence in pressing it to a final conclusion were marked character- istics of the man.
"To his clients he gave his best efforts, the benefit of his large knowledge and large experience, with untiring diligence worked for their interest.
"Mr. Van Voorhis possessed a strong personality in keeping with his mas- sive form and powerful and striking features that made him the most pictur- esque member of our bar. He thought vigorously and expressed himself with vigor. In the heat of conflict, somewhat brusque in manner, he was at heart kindly. He will be remembered by the members of the bar as a strong man and an able lawyer, and in social intercourse as a genial and pleasant com- panion.
"Full of years the last of his own generation of lawyers, he rests from his labors."
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle said editorially :
"Mr. Van Voorhis was a born fighter, a fighter who never took an unfair advantage of an adversary, but who never gave up a battle until the issue was finally adjudicated. When he was assured that his cause was just, he would never admit the possibility of ultimate and final defeat. It has been often said of him that he was a loyal friend; he was at the same time a stalwart and vig- orous adversary. In common with all truly strong men, he was positive in his likes and in his dislikes; but at the same time he was generous towards all with whom he came into professional conflict. But he always stood for that which he regarded as right, and stood steadfast to the end, and his friendship was abiding. He was trained in the school of integrity, and he had no patience with departures from the path of uprightness in which his course unswerv- ingly lay, through the world that now is to that world which is to come.
"It was perhaps in his home life and in his library where Mr. Van Voor- his shown the brightest. He never gave up his early friendship for that which was noblest and best in literature. Fortunate in his early studies of the clas- sics, he could always retire from the strife of the bar and the political arena to communion with his favorite authors; a communion which he loved to share with his friends. Although, as has ben said, he never relinquished the active duties of his profession, with the later years of a more than usually successful life came leisure and opportunities for travel and purely literary enjoyment which were more infrequent in the earlier portions of a long and strenuous career.
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"As a friend and counselor of the younger members of his profession, and indeed of other professions, Mr. Van Voorhis will be long and gratefully remembered. When sought, his advice and assistance were always lavishly bestowed, and many men largely owe their success in life to his wise and timely advice.
"It was vouchsafed to John Van Voorhis to come down to the close of a long and well spent life in the full possession of all his mental faculties. With him there was no fireside period, in the common acceptation of the term. His sun set suddenly. To him came not the partial mental eclipse which sometimes clouds the closing days of men who were physical and mental giants among their fellows. The end found him in the buckler and armor which his friends and his antagonists knew so well."
The Rochester Evening Times said editorially:
"At the ripe age of seventy-nine, in full possession of his remarkable men- tal faculties, Hon. John Van Voorhis, one of Rochester's foremost lawyers, characterized by his virility of thought, his forcefulness and his sturdy indepen- dence, passed suddenly away yesterday, leaving a vacancy in the city's public life that cannot be easily repaired.
"Mr. Van Voorhis was a giant mentally and physically. When he was once convinced, the cause which attracted his support was fought for earnestly but fairly until the conclusion of the issue was reached. His wonderful mental courage, his disregard of influence, his unwavering devotion to the interests of the people rather than special interests or classes were logical products of his Dutch ancestry.
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