USA > New York > Onondaga County > Syracuse > Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York : pictorial and biographical > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
After graduation Dr. Comfort for three years taught art and natural science in the Amenia and Fort Plain Seminaries and in the Van Norman Young Ladies School in New York, also giving a portion of his time to paint- ing and to perusing such books upon art and archeology as were then found in the Astor Library. In 1860 he entered upon his long-cherished plan of giving some years to travel and study in Europe and the Orient. He took passage, by the then entirely unfrequented route by American travelers, for the Mediterranean, on a large Italian packet and merchant ship, which, with its twenty-six Italian, Austrian and Hungarian passengers, touching at Gibral- tar and Messina, landed at Trieste, at the head of the Adriatic, a most favor- able starting-point for a journey to the Orient. Dr. Comfort always speaks of his long ocean voyage on a first-class sailing vessel as beyond comparison more delightful than a trip on any ocean steamer can possibly be.
From Trieste, beginning with the highly interesting, but rarely visited eastern litorale of the Adriatic, the border land betwen the Orient and the Occident, including Istria, Dalmatia, Montenegro and the Ionian islands, he devoted six months to this region, Greece and the Mediterranean Orient, stop- ping two months each in Athens and Constantinople, of which city he has
29
Dr. George Fisk Comfort
written that "In its peculiar combination of beauty of situation, scenic attrac- tions and historical, political, religious, racial, linguistic and commercial relations, Constantinople stands unrivaled in weird interest among all the cities of the world." He next spent sixteen months in Italy; of this time three months were given to Sicily, Naples and vicinity, and other cities and regions of classic interest in southern Italy (ancient Grecia Magna) ; five months to Rome, then having peculiar attractiveness, as being yet under papal rule, with all the stateliness of ecclesiastical and regal ceremonial, and not yet encroached upon by recent extensive unpicturesque modern construction, since it became the capital of Italy; three months in Florence, whose endless treasures of the art and architecture of the renaissance were not disturbed by the brilliant life incident to this city having just been made the capital of united Italy; three months to Venice, Padua and Verona, whose people, remembering the glories of their old art and their lost commerce and military power, were then groaning under the harsh rule of Austria; and the remain- ing time to other picturesque and artistic Italian cities. As railroads were yet but sparsely built in southern Europe, and bicycles were not yet invented, he made many pedestrian trips, generally alone, thus visiting many cities and regions of great artistic, historic and scenic interest and beauty, out of the usual line of diligence travel, as: From Rome to Florence, by Terni, Orvieto, Assisi, Perugia, Cortona, Sienna, etc .; from Florence over the Apennines to Rimini and Ravenna by way of the three ancient sanctuaries of Vallom- brosa, Camaldoli and LaVerna, and the ancient little mountain republic of San Marino, and crossing the headwaters of the Tiber, the Arno and the Rubicon; from Lake Como over the Alps, by way of the Stelvio pass to Innsbruck, the capital of the Tyrol, and many minor pedestrian trips, the whole aggregating over five hundred English miles, all through cities and regions of peculiar beauty and interest, perhaps enhanced by not being in the usual regulation line of tourist travel.
After thus studying for two years the regions where the great ancient civilizations and the medieval renaissance were chiefly developed, and exam- ining the monuments of those periods in situ or as gathered in museums, Dr. Comfort spent three years in the countries north of the Alps, where mod- ern education and culture are most highly represented, with special refer- ence to studying the organization and methods of the institutions by which this modern education and culture have been developed and stimulated. To more effectively center his work, he spent two years in Berlin, then even more distinctively than now, as the Germans called it, "Die Geistige Welt- stadt"-the intellectual capital of the world. He divided his time between the university, the academy of art, the royal library, the museums, and the schools of every kind and grade in that remarkable center of modern learning. He also traveled extensively in other parts of Germany, as well as in France,
30
Dr. George Fisk Comfort
Belgium, Holland and Great Britain, visiting the great museums of their cities and studying the organization and methods of the educational systems of those countries. He expressed himself as "overwhelmingly impressed by the vast gulf, wider and deeper than the Atlantic Ocean, that separated the institutions and conditions of education and culture in continental Europe from those in America," speaking especially of that time, the early '60s. And he felt impelled to dedicate his life, as far as his circumstances should permit, to awaking a more active interest in higher culture, especially in esthetic and artistic lines, in his native country, particularly by establishing institutions, as schools and museums, for promoting and diffusing artistic education and culture in the people at large. He also made extensive trips to Europe in 1879, 1887, and 1891.
In 1865 Dr. Comfort accepted a call to the professorship of esthetics and modern languages in Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, on the borders of the then new and wonderful oil region, some of the patrons of the college having "struck oil," with prospects of immense wealth. In this college he inaugurated the first course of lectures upon esthetics and the history of the fine arts ever given in an American college. Great embarrass- ment having come upon this institution by the then unexplained bankruptcy of some oil magnates, he resigned his chair in 1868 and went to New York, to take the lectureship on Christian art and archeology in the Drew Theologi- cal Seminary, and to devote himself to preparing a series of text-books for the study of the German language, published by Harper & Brothers, and to other literary work. With approval of a number of prominent linguists and professors of language he called a preliminary meeting in the chapel of the New York University, in September, 1868, to consider the formation of an American Philological Association, similar to a society in Germany, several of whose meetings he had attended. By unanimous vote he was requested to proceed with the organization of such a society, which held its first meet- ing in 1869, he being its secretary till 1874, when his increasing work on art lines necessitated his declining further election to this secretaryship.
Conferences which he held with artists and connoisseurs in 1869 resulted in a meeting attended by several hundred prominent citizens on November 16, 1869, to consider the organization of a museum of art in New York city. Dr. Comfort gave the main address, other speakers being William Cullen Bryant, W. M. Hunt, Rev. Dr. J. P. Thompson, and Rev. Dr. H. W. Bellows. From this meeting sprung the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of which Dr. Comfort was a member of its board of trustees and of its executive committee till September 20, 1872. As the attack upon the Tweed Ring delayed the development of that museum for several years, he accepted the call to the professorship of esthetics and modern languages in the newly founded Syra- cuse University. Dr. Comfort organized a course of public lectures upon
31
Dr. George Fisk Comfort
the fine arts, mostly by eminent speakers from outside of Syracuse, given in the Wieting Opera House in the winter of 1872-3, this being the first public course of lectures upon art ever given in America. He conducted similar courses of lectures upon art, by himself and other university speakers, during eight succeeding winters. In May, 1873, he laid before the faculty of Syra- cuse University, Dr. Alexander Winchell being chancellor, a plan for a Col- lege of Fine Arts, which plan, upon recommendation of the faculty was adopted by the trustees of the university, at their annual meeting in July, and the College of Fine Arts was formally inaugurated in September. The entire scheme of this college is to include courses of study, four years in length, with entrance studies covering at least two years, in each of the formative arts (architecture, painting and sculpture) and of the phonetic arts (music, belles lettres literature and oratory). For the graduates he originated the corresponding bachelor's and master's degrees in each of these courses. The courses in architecture and painting were inaugurated at the opening of the college, in 1873; the course in music was added in 1877; and the course in belles lettres in 1894; and the courses in applied art and in normal art in 1904. At this writing (1908) the faculty numbers twenty-six professors and instructors and there are over eight hundred students. This College of Fine Arts (which Dr. Comfort conducted as its dean for twenty years), the first of its kind in America, and in some respects the first in the world, a very important innovation in university organization in America, is one of the leading departments of the Syracuse University. This college has been copied, in whole or in part, and the degrees in the fine arts here origi- nated by Dr. Comfort have been adopted by various American universities in the east and the west; it is the most unique and may properly be called the most important contribution of Dr. Comfort to education and culture in America.
In 1896 Dr. Comfort originated and organized the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, on the same plan as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the two distinctive features of which are: the co-operation of the city, as a municipality, and of individual contributors in its support; the museum being a separate corporation, with a board of trustees of its own election, and being independent of the exigencies and the animosities of current parti- san politics. Under Dr. Comfort's able superintendence, as its director, the Museum of Fine Arts conducts continuous exhibitions (chiefly by loans) of works of art by eminent artists, American and foreign, living and dead, having an average attendance of over sixty thousand a year. The museum already owns several pictures of world-wide fame. Dr. Comfort has intro- duced an important innovation in museum work by frequently displaying exhibits of regular work in art done by pupils in public and private schools in Syracuse and other cities, from the first efforts in the kindergarten, up through the grammar and high schools; and, further, by students in the
32
Dr. George Fisk Comfort
College of Fine Arts and the College of Applied Science of the Syracuse University, thus making this museum peculiarly educational and instructive in its function and character. This educational feature is being copied in other museums. He also organized in 1901, the Central New York Society of Artists, which has held exhibitions in this Museum.
Professor Frank Smalley said of him: "Professor Comfort came to Syra- cuse University the year after it opened its doors to students. He came directly from his long training in Germany and was full of contagious enthusiasm. He came with broad views of the higher education and a just appreciation of educational values. His movements were free from that uncertainty, that tentative quality that characterizes the man whose educational horizon has not been cleared by careful study, not only intensively within the limits of some special field, but broadly and with a discriminating survey of the whole field. It was just the place for a man of his training and he came at the opportune moment. The institution was in its very early stages. It is at such a time that a man of genius becomes creator and stamps himself indelibly on his creations. That is not too much to say of Professor Comfort. He seized the opportunity to organize a College of Fine Arts, an innovation in American Education. Its plan was to present courses of study in the various branches of the Fine Arts similar in breadth and scope to the courses in the College of Liberal Arts in our country. There were no models to follow. All was new. Everyone now sees that the idea was a grand one, an inspiration. But the University could spare but little money at first to develop the new College. This would have discouraged most men, but Dr. Comfort, already dean of the College of Fine Arts, managed to keep his College at the front and to gradually develop it despite this discouraging handicap. He wrote afterwards with no note of complaint, 'At the outset the faculty of instruction was formed from such helpers as were found in the city of Syracuse. As the improved financial con- dition of the University gradually permitted, accessions to the faculty were made from Europe and America.' That tells the story in brief.
"This college has shared the financial experiences of the University, but has constantly advanced in the grade and quality of instruction and the standard for graduation and has exerted an immense influence in art education in the higher institutions of learning in America.
"For twenty years Dr. Comfort was dean of this college. That gave him the opportunity of devoting to the enterprise the fostering care it needed at the beginning and during the early years of its growth and of guiding it at the time when a less skillful director and a less earnest and enthusiastic lover of arts would certainly have handled it less wisely, and might have ended in failure. It is an invaluable asset to the institution and will exist in the future, firmly established, essential to the integrity of the institution and a monument
33
Dr. George Fisk Comfort
to immortalize its founder. More than four hundred students cherish its diploma and more than twice that number are now enjoying its instruction.
"Dean Comfort is a man of unusual gifts and ability. His intelligent enthusiasm in anything he undertakes invariably interests others and makes an ardent following. No other man that has wrought in this field could have done what he so ably did. No other man could so interest men of the highest standing and influence in his plans. His whole college was centered in him. The faculty was devoted to him and loyally followed his lead. His name and his accomplished work constitute a part of the heritage of the past of which every friend of the University is proud."
Dr. Comfort has contributed many articles upon art criticism and histor- ical subjects to cyclopedias and the periodical press, and was art editor of the Northern Christian Advocate from 1872 to 1893. The University of the State of New York conferred upon him the degree of L. H. D. in 1888; the Syracuse University, the degree of L.L. D. in 1893. He is corresponding member of the Archeological Institutes of Rome, Berlin and Paris; honorary Fellow for Life of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts; honorary member of the American Anthropological Society and the Texas Historical Society; charter member of the American League of Museums; one of the directors of the American Free Art League; member of the National Arts Club, the Municipal Art Society of New York, the Society of American Authors, the Graduates Club of New York, the Syracuse Uni- versity Club, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Alpha Delta Phi fra- ternity, and other clubs.
On January 19, 1871, Dr. Comfort married Dr. Anna Manning, of Nor- wich, Connecticut, who graduated in the first class of the New York Medical College for Women in 1865 and was the first woman graduate to practice medicine in the state of Connecticut; author of Woman's Education and Woman's Health, and of fugitive articles in prose and poetry in the periodi- cal press. Of their children Ralph Manning Comfort, born in Norwich, Connecticut, January 6, 1872, is engaged in library architecture in Boston, Massachusetts. He married Ethel Nutt, of New Orleans, June 16, 1902, and they have one son, Lowell Rutherford Comfort, born in New York, May 8, 1903. Frederic Price Comfort, born in Syracuse, December 18, 1874, is en- gaged in architecture and building in New York city.
Frank Toplay
1481032
Franklin Purse Ryder
F RANK P. RYDER, deceased, was a well known capi- talist of Syracuse, whose investments were largely in residence property, in the management and control of which he displayed marked business capacity and energy. He was born in Dewitt, New York, Janu- ary II, 1854, and his life span covered the interven- ing years to the 27th of October, 1905. His parents, N. C. and Phonora Ann (Thompson) Ryder, were
also natives of the Empire state. The father was engaged in extensive blasting operations and was also president of the Kemp & Burpee Manufacturing Company of Syracuse, manufacturers of manure spreaders. He likewise became connected with other important industrial and commercial interests of the city and contributed largely to its business devel- opment in an earlier day. His political allegiance was given to the repub- lican party and his fraternal relations were with the Masons.
Frank P. Ryder acquired his education in the schools of Syracuse and took up the study of law, which he found to be of great value to him in the conduct of his business interests. He was admitted to the bar although he never practiced as an attorney. His business affairs centered in the owner- ship and control of valuable realty in Syracuse and he owned about seventy houses in different parts of the city. He did much for the improvement of Syracuse in this way and at all times his investments were judiciously made, so that a most gratifying annual income resulted.
In 1894 Mr. Ryder was married in Syracuse to Miss Julia Fauth, a daughter of Joseph and Dorothy (Hudson) Fauth. The father came from Baden-Baden, Germany, to America when about nineteen years of age, and the mother, who was born in the same locality, crossed the Atlantic when a maiden of fourteen years. They were married in Syracuse and Mr. Fauth followed the shoemaker's trade in early life. In Syracuse he became a vol- unteer fireman, also served as health inspector and was otherwise connected with public interests, being at one time salt officer of the city. He died about sixteen years ago at the age of sixty-two years, while his wife passed away about seven years ago at the age of seventy-five. They were devoted mem- bers of the Lutheran church. Their daughter Julia was the seventh in order of birth in a family of twelve children and in the schools of Syracuse acquired her education. She is a consistent member of the First Methodist Episco-
35
36
Franklin Purse hipder
pal church. By her marriage she became the mother of one son, Frank, who is twelve years of age and is a member of the Sons of the American Revolu- tion, having had seven ancestors in the Revolutionary war.
Mr. Ryder gave his political allegiance to the republican party. He belonged to no lodges, for he found that his time was fully occupied by his business interests. He was, however, a great lover of books and his leisure hours were devoted to reading and study. He thus became a man of broad general information and culture, qualities which rendered him a favorite companion of those whose mental attainments are above the average.
M. M. Branchauf
Reb. Talilliam Al. Beauchamp
R EV. WILLIAM M. BEAUCHAMP, scientist, author and divine, was born at Coldenham, Orange county, New York, March 25, 1830, a son of William and Mary Beauchamp. The father came to America in 1829 and in that year visited Skaneateles but did not take up his abode there until April, 1831. He was the founder of the Skaneateles Democrat in 1840. His son, William Martin Beauchamp, pursued his education in the academy of the village and pre- pared for the ministry in the De Lancey Divinity School, at Geneva, New York, from which he was graduated, while from Hobart College in 1886 he received the S. T. D. degree. For many years he was examining chaplain of the diocese of central New York. In 1862 he became deacon and in 1863 became connected with the priesthood. He served as rector of Calvary church at Northville, New York, from 1863 until 1865 and was rector of Grace church at Baldwinsville, New York, from 1865 until 1900-a period of thirty- five years-becoming recognized as one of the eminent divines of the Episco- palian church in the Empire state.
Dr. Beauchamp is perhaps even more widely known as an author and scientist. His writings include Iroquois Trial, published in 1892; Indian Names of New York, 1893; Shells of Onondaga County, New York, 1896; His- tory of the New York Iroquois, now Commonly Called the Six Nations, 1905, together with eleven archeological bulletins. He has given much attention to all branches of local natural history, having prepared full lists of fishes, reptiles, quadrupeds and birds of Onondaga, besides publishing a descriptive list of its shells. He is also an active botanist, and corresponding mem- ber of several botanical societies. He is archeologist for the New York state Museum and a member of the American Folk Lore Society. In Indian philol- ogy he has attained a prominent position. In his own denomination he is well known as a writer of historical and other subjects and has been an occa- sional contributor to religious periodicals.
Dr. Beauchamp was married November 26, 1857, to Miss Sarah Carter, of Ravenna, Ohio, and has four children, Virginia, Ellen, Grace and Howard C. Beauchamp.
37
.
2hours Lively , A. S. While .
hamilton Salisbury White
S YRACUSE, his native city, owes to Hamilton S. White a great debt which it can never repay, for who can measure the value of a service such as his in connection with the fire fighting interests of the city. He was born December 21, 1853, a son of Hamilton White, who was born in Cortland county, New York, May 6, 1807, his parents being Asa and Clarissa (Keep) White, who in 1798 settled in Cort- land county, where Hamilton White was educated. At the age of sixteen years he began teaching but soon afterward secured a situation in a mercantile establishment at Cortlandville, where he remained about ten years, acquiring a comprehensive knowledge of business methods which proved the foundation upon which he built his success in later years. When twenty-nine years of age he removed to Lockport, New York, where he made wise and profitable investments. The year 1839 witnessed his arrival in Syracuse and he became cashier of the Onondaga County Bank, of which Captain Oliver Teall was president. He and Captain Teall were thus associated by reason of banking interests and also through connection with other institutions. Manufacturing industries, business projects and many other concerns felt their aid and influence and they were closely asso- ciated with the commercial growth and prosperity of the city. In 1849, asso- ciated with three others, they incorporated the Syracuse Water Works Company. Mr. White was also instrumental in forming with his brother and Robert Geer the Geddes Coarse Salt Company and other industries. He was a prominent factor in promoting railway interests centering in Syra- cuse and became a promoter of many railroad companies. Any movement which he deemed would promote the development and growth of Syracuse was sure to receive his endorsement and many times his active cooperation.
It was not alone the splendid success which he achieved that entitled Hamilton White to distinction but the work which he did for the ameliora- tion of hard conditions of life for others. Few good works done in the name of charity or religion in Syracuse did not receive substantial benefit from him. He was for many years treasurer of the Onondaga County Orphans Asylum, was a generous supporter of the Old Ladies' Home and with others donated the grounds for the New York State Asylum for Idiots on its removal to Syracuse in 1855. In 1856 he assisted in organizing the Onon-
39
40
Hamilton Salisbury White
daga County Agricultural Society and in 1859 the Oakwood Cemetery Asso- ciation, serving as treasurer of the latter. His own church and various others received from him generous contributions and he never allowed the accumulation of wealth to in any way warp his kindly nature or bias his con- sideration of others. At the time of the Civil war he was active in raising troops for the Union arms and gave freely of his time and money in support of the administration. He was indeed a public benefactor and those who knew him personally entertained for him the warmest love because the salient traits of his character were such as to win the highest confidence and admir- ation. In 1862 he was elected president of the Syracuse National Bank but was obliged to resign on account of impaired health the following year. He sought recuperation in foreign travel and in 1864 went to the West Indies, where he remained until the following June, returning thence to Syracuse, where he died September 22, 1865.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.