USA > New York > Onondaga County > Syracuse > Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York : pictorial and biographical > Part 13
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Geo Denison Whedon
George Denison Whedon, M. D.
D R. GEORGE DENISON WHEDON, who for many years was an active practitioner of medicine and sur- gery in Syracuse but is now living retired, was born in Camillus, Onondaga county, on the IIth of May, 1832, his parents being Denison and Sarah (Blodget) Whedon, of Deerfield, Massachusetts. His great- great-grandfather, Denison Whedon, served in the Revolutionary war and Dr. Whedon has today in his possession a seven dollar bill that was paid to his ancestor for service in the war. This bill is numbered 16,735 and was issued at Philadelphia, July 22, 1776. He also has a note issued for forty shillings, No. 3,376. It was also printed at Philadelphia, November 3, 1775. The patriot soldier was likewise given a farm at Camillus as compensation for the aid which he rendered the colonists in their struggle for independence and this tract of land has been the homestead of three generations of the family.
Dr. Whedon, having completed his literary education, qualified for the profession which he determined to make his life work by study in the Berk- shire Medical College of Massachusetts. He is a graduate of the Albany Medi- cal College, completing his course on the 30th day of May, 1853. He then located for practice in Plainville, New York, where he remained for a year after which he was a member of the medical fraternity of Wayne county until the fall of 1861, when he became army surgeon for the Tenth New York Cavalry, acting in that capacity for more than a year. He was the sole medical officer of the regiment for eight months and afterward was the organizer of the field hospital near Stafford, Virginia, of which he was given charge. He was com- missioned by Governor Hoffman as surgeon of the staff of the Twenty-fourth Brigade of the National Guard of New York and continued as such until the death of General Green, commander of the brigade. During the progress of the war Dr. Whedon rendered most valuable aid to his country through his profes- sional services and afterward came to Syracuse, where he located for practice. He soon demonstrated his ability to successfully cope with the intricate prob- lems which continually confront the physician and his practice grew and claimed his time and attention until the Ist of January, 1901, when ill health forced him to retire. His health has much improved since then, yet he has never resumed active professional duties but is enjoying a well earned rest at his pleasant home.
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On the 18th of January, 1871, Dr. Whedon was married to Ella Marie Kellogg, who for nearly her whole life has been a resident of Syracuse. Mrs. Whedon has been very closely identified with all its charities, and its clubs, and particularly with all efforts to retrieve the conditions of working women. They have two daughters, Ethel and Florence Kellogg Whedon. For a long time Dr. Whedon was the loved family physician in many a household in Syracuse and his patrons were loath to give up his services, for he was accorded wide recog- nition as one of the able and successful physicians of the city and his labors, his high professional attainments and his sterling characteristics have justified the respect and confidence in which he is held by the medical fraternity and the local public.
Dr. Whedon has always been a great lover of the sport of fishing and was one of the first to recognize the possibilities of the St. Lawrence river along the lines of its recuperative powers and as a pleasure resort. Over thirty years ago he purchased five acres at the head of Round island now known as the "Frontenac" and with his family helped build up the cottage life now so magnificent in its proportions. The place was named "Ethelridge" in honor of his elder daughter. Dr. Whedon wielded a strong and forceful as well as graceful pen and his numerous articles on subjects pertaining to his pro- fession have always been original and comprehensive in treatment and have met with marked approval. He also possessed pronounced ability as a busi- ness man, his judgment in valuing real estate being widely sought for through- out the community. The development of his home city and its environments was of paramount interest to the Doctor. He loved its parks, its trees and its public buildings, and its philanthropies; he was a student of the woods, know- ing every tree and every wild flower by name. So did he round out the life of a physician, adding to other requisites those subtle qualities which blossom into richest optimism in the chamber of illness and of despair, and which ennoble the profession he served and loved through a long and notable career.
James a Brown
James A. Brown
1 AMES A. BROWN, who for many years was identified with mercantile interests at Kirkville and spent his last days in the enjoyment of well earned rest in a beautiful home in Syracuse, was born near Evans Mills, New York, February 14, 1835, and was a son of George Brown, whose birth occurred in Dolge- ville, Herkimer county, New York, in 1811. The father was a tanner, currier and shoemaker in early life and later followed farming and merchandising. In 1837 he removed to Manlius, where he established a shoe shop and store on the old canal. He lived at Pool's Brook for about ten years and then located at Kirkville, where he spent the remainder of his life, dying at a ripe old age. He served as deputy sheriff of his district. In early manhood he married Maria Crouse, and to them were born eight children.
James A. Brown, the second son, acquired his education in the common schools but developed a character and secured his success by his own energy and good judgment, supplemented by Christian principles which made his life record an example well worthy of emulation. When in his teens he went to sea and followed that life for about two years, when he and five of his shipmates, having taken a strong dislike to their captain on account of his cruelty and unprincipled actions, determined to leave him and the ship. Accordingly they perfected their plans and in a small open boat at the dead of night they rowed away for some place-they knew not where. His five companions were all drowned in the attempt, Mr. Brown being the only sur- vivor. He clung to the boat and was rescued on the shores of Valparaiso, South America. The Spaniards watched him closely and tried hard to keep him a prisoner but after a few days he stole away from them on an American ship and sailed for home. This closed the sea-faring chapter of his life history.
At the age of eighteen years, Mr. Brown became associated with his father in business as a member of the firm of George Brown & Son, proprie- tors of a general store and dealers in lumber, coal and various supplies needed by the farmers and others living in the surrounding country. The store was located at Kirkville, Onondaga county, and the business relation between father and son was continued for fifteen years, at the end of which time George Brown retired from business. James Brown then became sole pro- prietor and conducted the business in its various departments with constantly
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growing success until the year 1898, when he withdrew from commercial life to spend his remaining days in the enjoyment of well earned ease. At that time he purchased a beautiful residence in Syracuse, where he continued to reside until called to his final rest, his death occurring February 13, 1901.
In 1859 Mr. Brown was united in marriage to Miss Mariam Hoag, who was born in Onondaga county in 1837 and is a daughter of Joseph Hoag, who was engaged in the shoe business in Kirkville. One child blessed this union: Elizabeth Mariam, who is now the wife of M. Burton Coe and lives with her mother in Syracuse.
In his political views Mr. Brown was a stalwart republican, prominent in the ranks of the party, but in early life supported the democratic party. For fourteen years he served as justice of the peace, was justice of sessions, post- master and deputy postmaster at Kirkville for three terms, and notary public for a number of years. He was always active in public work and did all in his power to promote the success of his party. Fraternally he was connected with Fayetteville Lodge, No. 578, A. F. & A. M., and Kirkville Lodge, I. O. O. F., and was a charter member of Chittenango Lodge, A. O. U. W. His religi- ous faith was that of the Universalist church, and he was a man of charit- able disposition and broad views, whose honorable life commended him to the confidence and esteem of his fellowmen, gaining him warm admiration and many friends.
William D. L. Smith
T HE LIFE span of William H. H. Smith covered the period of Syracuse's pioneer development and much of its later progress, and his history was closely inter- woven with its development and upbuilding in many substantial ways. He was among those who shaped its policy during its formative period and in later years he stood for all that wrought for improvement in a material way and for the social. educational and moral progress of the community as well. Thus his name is engraven on the roll of prominent men as one of the honored citizens.
He was born at Litchfield, Herkimer county, New York, June 5, 1814, and his death took place at Syracuse, New York, August 8, 1901. He was descended in the paternal line from English ancestry, tracing the line back to Richard Smith, of Smithtown, Long Island, of whom histories of an early period made prominent and honorable mention. His father was the Rev. William Smith, who in 1793 removed from West Farms, Long Island, to Herkimer county, New York. In the maternal line William H. H. Smith was descended from the Brush family, who were Huguenots and lived in Hunting- ton, Suffolk county, Long Island. They and the Smith family warmly espoused the cause of the colonies at the time of the Revolutionary war and suffered many hardships during the British occupation of Long Island.
William H. H. Smith remained a member of his father's household until he attained his majority and during that period was connected with general agricultural pursuits. After he had reached adult age he took charge of and conducted for two years a wholesale grocery house at Utica, New York. In the spring of 1839 the first locomotive was placed on the Auburn & Syracuse Railroad and in September of that year Mr. Smith accepted the position of collector on that road, which was extended to Rochester and now constitutes a part of the New York Central system. Mr. Smith continued as collector for thirteen years and for eight years made his home at Syracuse House. His brother, Albert G. Smith, was chief of the Utica ticket office and opened the Syracuse Railroad office, with Dudley P. Phelps as ticket master. He also established the Auburn ticket office, ultimately becoming its chief. W. H. H. Smith and Dudley P. Phelps furnished rooms in the depot (Black Nathan in charge) in East Fayette street. John Wilkinson was president of the Utica & Syracuse Railroad and was the moving spirit locally of the new railroads. His
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office was in the depot and there his protege, George Barnes, was installed. Following upon the opening of the Auburn & Syracuse Railroad patronage was slow in developing and Mr. Smith suggested to General Chedell, of Auburn, and Mr. Wilkinson, that free excursions, picnics, etc., might have a good effect. The suggestion approved, a favorite resort became the district near Camillus and Marcellus with its picturesque scenery, and Miss Bradbury and her scholars, with others under Mr. Smith's superintendency, appreciated the novel entertainment.
Syracuse in 1839 was a village of six thousand inhabitants and its hotels were the Syracuse House, with P. N. Rust as landlord; the Exchange, with William Winton in charge; while in 1847 the Globe Hotel opened under Mr. Stevens.
During the early years of his residence in Syracuse, Mr. Smith won the friendship of the Rev. Henry Gregory, Rev. Dr. Adams, Dr. Storer, Rev. John A. Cornell and Rev. E. D. Maltbie. Intimate comradeship was formed with R. W. Washburn, who became the trusted agent, in California, of the Wells Fargo Express Company, having the sole power to sign for the company-and there were Martin Burt, Dr. Durand, Silas F. Smith, Thomas A. Smith, E. J. Foster, Dr. Martin M. White, Jasper Smith, George Raynor and the Sherman brothers. Religious, educational, philanthropic and social movements were active. The Franklin Institute library and lectures, agricultural societies and fairs were features in the early life of Syracuse, and the Onondaga Historical Associa- tion and Pioneer Society were organized. The Hutchinsons and Ole Bull gave serenades for Mr. Smith "under Bounibell's window" and favorite forms of amusement were horseback parties and sleighrides.
When gold was discovered in California Mr. Smith and Mr. Washburn fitted out and sent a "forty-niner" in quest of fortune. A never to be forgotten event in the history of early Syracuse was the gunpowder explosion which plunged the whole village into mourning and Mr. Smith, with the ready action which always characterized him in an emergency, made a quick trip to Auburn for doctors to aid in caring for its victims. He figured again in an event of general interest when in the spring of 1846 he was one of the party that, by invitation of Governor Seward, accompanied the chief executive to North Bend and other points.
It was later in the same year, on the 23d of September, 1846, that Mr. Smith and Miss Margaret Tredwell Redfield were united in marriage. In 1851, purchasing a tract of land on the southeastern highlands of the city, he built his residence, known as 755 Irving avenue, and occupied it from 1854 until his death. The tract was then farm land, enclosed with rail fences, and the possessor must needs pay the early city taxes without city privileges in case of fire, etc. The quiet of the country, the song of wood birds and the glorious panorama of the hills and the valley and the lake of Onondaga, unrolled, were ample compensation for the lack of city advan-
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tages. Liberal views and practical ideas marked the course followed in the development which was undertaken in the improvement of this section of the city.
In September, 1865, the Genesee & Water Street Railroad Company was organized, with a capital of sixty thousand dollars, by George F. Comstock, W. H. H. Smith, C. T. Longstreet, O. T. Burt and James P. Haskins. The road was built in 1866 and ultimately comprised the Fourth Ward Railroad and the Chestnut Street (now Crouse avenue) branch, extending to the north boundary line of the campus of Syracuse University.
Subscriptions were made to the University Avenue Methodist church, which was built, conditioned by Mr. Remington, to be forever free sittings. Mr. Smith entered with hearty interest into the work inaugurated by Bishop Huntington-which was substantially aided by Judge Comstock-in building the Hospital of the Good Shepherd and Grace church. He always mani- fested a warm sympathy for the Onondaga County Orphan Asylum wards- most substantially when the location in Syracuse was decided upon, by the university powers, to be on these highlands, Mr. Smith making a donation of twenty-one hundred dollars and Judge Comstock a donation of twenty thousand dollars, which was paid in land. Thus the story is only in part told of the development of one of the most beautiful parts of Syracuse.
A republican patriot, Mr. Smith stood with his party from 1861 until 1865, and ever afterward supported that ticket. He was interested in Amer- ican history, in good literature and in various sources of amusement and entertainment, including the theatre and whist. He greatly enjoyed, too, the sport with the rod, and this and his love for nature led him often into the wilderness. He seldom missed a year during half a century in which he did not each spring visit the streams of northern New York and the famous lake region. His was indeed a well rounded character and to him was allotted a fullness of years that made his an honored old age. He passed away in Syracuse, August 8, 1901, leaving a name deeply engraved on the roll of the prominent citizens of Syracuse and the promoters of her development and her greatness.
Charles William Bardeen
C HARLES WILLIAM BARDEEN, known through- out the land as an educator, and as author and pub- lisher of books on education, has been since 1874 editor and publisher of The School Bulletin and New York State Educational Journal at Syracuse. He was born in Groton, Massachusetts, August 28, 1847, the oldest child of William Thomas and Mary Ann (Farnsworth) Bardeen. At an early age he moved with his parents to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and was educated at the Fitchburg high school and at the Orange County Gram- mar School, Randolph, Vermont. While a boy of fourteen he enlisted as a drummer, July 21, 1862, in the First Massachusetts Volunteers, and served till the regiment was discharged, May 25, 1864, being present at the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spott- sylvania. On his return he entered Lawrence Academy, Groton, of which his mother was a graduate, and upon graduation in 1865 entered Yale, from which he was graduated in 1869. He was one of the contributors to "My Schools and Schoolmasters" series in The Educational Review, and a racy account of his schooldays is given in the number for October, 1901 (xxii. 228-39).
While a junior in college he served for a term as principal of the high school at Meriden, Connecticut, and before graduation he became principal of the academic department of the boarding school at Weston, Connecticut. In 1870 he was vice principal of the Connecticut State Normal School, and in 1872 became superintendent of schools at Whitehall, New York. In 1874 he established The School Bulletin at Syracuse and has been ever since its editor and publisher, making it one of the leading educational papers of the country. This publication, together with his writings published elsewhere, have brought him national reputation. In 1893 he was put in charge of the department of educational publications of the International Congress, Chi- cago, and in 1907 he wrote the chapter in Educational Journalism for the Jubilee volume of the National Educational Association. From 1891 until 1895 he served as a director of the National Educational Association and since 1900 has been president of the Educational Press Association of Amer- ica.
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His book publications began with the reprint from The School Bulletin of papers he had written on school law, and have grown till he is by far the most extensive publisher in the world of books on teaching. His list has numbered more than fifteen hundred titles, and his books are ordered from every country. His publications have received awards at every interna- tional exposition since that at Paris in 1878, including a gold medal at the Paris exposition of 1889, two gold medals at the Paris exposition of 1900 and medal and diploma at the Chicago exposition of 1893. He has recently become also an extensive publisher of maps for schools, his Peerless series being exclu- sively adopted for use in the rural schools of New York. He has his own printing and binding establishment and gives employment to a large force of workmen.
Mr. Bardeen's success in business is due partly to his habit of retaining employes who prove valuable. The foreman of his bindery has been with him twenty-four years. The foreman of his printing office came to him twenty-seven years ago, and though at the time of the printers' strike he felt obliged to go out with the union after two years in other offices he withdrew from the union in order to come back. This keeping men is due not only to good wages and good treatment but also to the fact that when need arises Mr. Bardeen is always ready to take a hand himself in any department of the business. In the old Clinton street store he happened to come out of the office just as a new errand boy was refusing to take a wheelbarrow of paper around the corner to Garrett's. "I am a high school graduate," the boy was saying, "and I didn't hire out to do menial work." "Quite right," assented Mr. Bardeen cheerfully, "these distinctions should be preserved. Always maintain your dignity, my boy. Now I am going by Garrett's, and as the paper must be got there I will wheel it; you come along with me." At this the boy offered and begged and almost cried to wheel it, but Mr. Bardeen was already between the handles. He lifted them and wheeled the barrow along, chatting pleasantly with the boy, but paying no heed to his protestations. When they reached the store he said, "Now this paper must be carried in; will you do it or shall I?" "O, you needn't rub it in, Mr. Bardeen," the boy said, "I've learned my lesson." And thereafter he proved efficient help.
Mr. Bardeen is himself the author of some of the most successful publi- cations, including a Manual of School Law, 1875; Roderick Hume, 1875; The Song Budget, 1878; Some Facts About our Public School System, 1878; Educational Journalism, 1881; A System of Rhetoric, 1884; Verbal Pitfalls, Outlines of Sentence Making, 1884; The Teacher's Commercial Value, 1885; A Shorter Course in Rhetoric, 1885; Dime Question Book of Temperance, Physiology, Bookkeeping, Letter Writing, 1884, 1888; Organization and Sys- tem vs. Originality, 1890; Effect of the College Preparatory High School upon Attendance and Scholarship in the Lower Grades, 1890; The Tax Payer
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and the Township System, 1891; The Teacher As He Should Be, 1891; The Song Century, 1888; The Song Patriot, 1892; The Little Old Man, or The School for Illiberal Mothers, 1893; History of Educational Journalism in New York, 1893; The Song Budget Series Combined, 1894; Geography of the Empire State, 1895; Fitting Teachers to Places, 1897; Teaching as a Business, 1897; Author's Birthday Exercises, 1897-99; Some Problems of City School Management, 1899; Educational Journalism, An Inventory, 1899; Continuous Contracts for Teachers, 1900; Dictionary of Educational Biography, 1901; A Manual of Civics, 1902; Fifty-five Years Old and Other Stories, 1904; The Woman Trustee, 1905; The False Entry, 1906; The Cloak Room Thief, 1907; John Brody's Astral Body, 1908. In addition to all this Mr. Bardeen has been a frequent contributor to magazines on education and literary sub- jects. He has visited Europe eleven times and Africa three times and his illustrated magazine articles may some time be gathered into book form.
He was the first president of the Syracuse Browning Club, and one of the founders of the University Club, of the Players Club (afterward the Syracuse Club, now merged in the Century Club), of the Syracuse Tennis Club, and of the Onondaga Golf and Country Club. He is now president of the Syracuse Yale Club, and of the Syracuse Typothetae. He is also a fellow of the American Geographical Society and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the American Social Science Associa- tion.
In 1868 he married Ellen Palmer, daughter of Charles and Eliza Jane Dickerman, of New Haven, Connecticut. The family home has been since 1879 at No. 1109 East Genesee street. To Mr. and Mrs. Bardeen have been born two sons and three daughters. The eldest, Charles Russell Bardeen, was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, February 8, 1871. After graduation from the Syracuse High School he spent a year at the Teischmann School at Leipsic, Germany, and was graduated from Harvard College in 1893. In college he was successively secretary, treasurer, and president of the Harvard Athletic Association, and the chapter on The Jerry Rescue in Stray's History of Syracuse was written by him as a regular theme in college. He was grad- uated from the Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1897 and became assist- ant professor there. Since 1904 he has been in the University of Wisconsin, where he is now dean of the medical school. He is also a member of many scientific societies, and an authority upon anatomy in Europe as well as in America. He is just publishing in connection with a professor in Giessen, Germany, a work on embryology that appears simultaneously in America and in Germany, in both English and German. He is already recognized, like his father, as one of the successful men of the country by the annual publica- tion of his name in "Who's Who in America." The younger son, Norman, is secretary of the Lee Paper Company, conducting an extensive business at Vicksburg, Michigan. Of the daughters, Beatrice is the wife of Dr. David
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Hastings Atwater, of Rochester, New York, and Bertha and Ethel are at home.
It is unnecessary to add that Mr. Bardeen is a man of broad intellectual and scholarly attainments, for these have been shadowed forth between the lines of this review. He has studied closely the great sociological and political problems, but his attention has been chiefly concentrated upon educa- tional subjects. His presentation of ideas has been so forcible and enter- taining that he has always commanded a wide audience, and he has left his mark on the school system not only of the state but of the nation. He has especially sought to introduce higher ideals for the teacher, and his books and addresses on this topic are quoted wherever the subject is discussed.
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