USA > New York > Onondaga County > Syracuse > Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York : pictorial and biographical > Part 9
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apparent to others the beauty that has awakened their own admiration." The Advocate added: "Ensign McChesney possessed both the spirit and purpose, so that we would be compelled to number him with both classes." G. P. Eckman said of him: "By the very constitution of his mind he was destined to be an instructor of men. His training in the ministry, no less than his travels and persistent study, prepared him for the teaching of youth. And when he was chosen for the exalted position which he occupied at the time of his death he hailed the event as a Providential opportunity for enlarged usefulness in a congenial field. An artist of no inconsiderable merit and always a student in the realm of aesthetics, he was singularly qualified by nature, inclination and training for the high calling of his late years. Under his intelligent guidance and executive masterfulness the depart- ment committed to his care steadily grew in distinction and efficiency. He drew about him a large body of earnest and devoted students, and his removal from their company creates a vacancy difficult to fill."
As a leader in the religious world Dr. McChesney became recognized as one of the most distinguished divines of the Methodist Episcopal ministry. From his early youth he was a student of religious problems and was ever a fearless and independent thinker. He frequently contributed to the litera- ture of the church in articles that attest the virility of the author's mind and the clearness of his moral judgments. One who knew him well said of him: "In the pulpit Dr. McChesney presented a rare combination of the intellectual and emotional types of preaching. He delighted in the discussion of the great fundamental doctrines of our faith, and when these themes fully engaged him in public discourse he rose to veritable heights of eloquence and power. He possessed also the unique ability to impart to his published utterances the effectiveness of the spoken message. His style was chaste, vigorous and incisive. He trained his congregation like a master and gave to the people a solid and invigorating philosophy of life which developed in them a deeper intelligence and a more robust faith. In the pastorate Ensign McChes- ney disclosed a nature of unusual warmth and kindliness. No just appeal to his humane spirit ever failed of a quick and generous response. To the needy he gave of his substance; to the sinful he proclaimed a gospel of divine forgiveness; and to the troubled he proffered a ministry of consola- tion. Exquisitely sensitive to suffering, he entered into the sorrows of other men with keen and sympathetic appreciation, which, expressed in words of cheer, often healed the wounds of the stricken by their very gentleness and grace. A man of such a fiber will evince the highest qualities of com- radeship, and those who really knew Ensign McChesney found in him a com- panion of the most genial and engaging character. Herein lay the essential manliness of the man. The soul of honor himself, he could not endure duplic- ity and equivocation. For ignorance, weakness and even waywardness he had compassion and tenderness, but bigotry, narrowness, prejudice and
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insincerity awakened in him an honest loathing. He was genuineness itself, and he could bear with little patience evidences of artifice, intrigue, com- promise. He was true and righteous altogether, a shining pillar in the tem- ple of the Lord, standing erect and stately, a figure of strength, solidity and grace."
Death came to Dr. McChesney when he was in his sixty-second year. He had up to that time grown in mental power and strength and in his work had continually advanced until he was upon a high plane of activity. When he was called from this life the university with which he was connected, the church of which he was a representative and the city in which he resided suffered an almost irreparable loss, which, however, came with deepest force in his home and in the circle of his intimate friends. Men of learning sought his companionship and found him a peer, yet he had a heart that reached out to the humblest and a ready sympathy quick in response. Those who were associated with him and came to know the full reach of his nature in its intellectual and spiritual development speak of him in words only of the high- est praise.
Chancellor Day of the Syracuse University, who had been his associate in pastoral work in New York city, as well as in the school, said: "The Uni- versity has sustained a serious loss in the death of Dean McChesney. He was a true man, four-square, transparent and loyal to his friends and to any cause in which he was interested. He was a man of large sympathies, to whom anything that took the form of a sham or was insincere was intol- erable. Socially he was a delightful companion and was welcomed in a large circle of friends. He was an entertaining story-teller and drew his stories from a large fund. He was a rare man to meet and know inside. For that matter, he was all inside. There was only one side to Ensign McChesney. He had exceeding tenderness, kindness, sympathy and love. I know no man who was more of an offering to his friends."
His pastor said: "I have seldom found a man whose heart was more open or one who could strengthen a man more than Dean McChesney. So that I feel certain that every sermon I preached in the First Church was a little better when he was present. He was a man great and able, true and kind, and his life was as white as the sunlight." While there is no doubt the world is struggling upward, there are as yet comparatively few who have reached the heights, both spiritual and intellectual, that Dr. McChesney at- tained. Breathing the pure air and gaining the broader view of such exalted altitudes, at the same time he ever had a hand down-reaching to lift others to the position that he had attained.
Screenly and faithfully than, Charles di Bihill,
Charles de Berard Mills
C HARLES DE BERARD MILLS, clergyman, scholar, writer and reformer, was born in New Hartford, New York, January 15, 1821. He was the eldest of the four sons of Abiram and Grace de Berard Mills. His father, after following for some years the calling of a farmer, entered the ministry of the Presbyterian church. The founder of the family in America was Simeon Mills, who came over from England and settled in Salem, Massachu- setts, about 1630. Five years later he removed to Windsor, Connecticut. His grandson, Elkanah Mills, settled in Litchfield, Oneida county, New York. Abiram Mills was his son.
On the maternal side Mr. Mills was of French descent. His grandfather, Charles Joseph de Berard, for whom he was named, was a member of an ancient and noble family of southern France. He was educated in the same military school with General La Fayette and was his warm friend. Through the influence of this friendship his interest in the American Revolution was intensified and he came to America as a naval officer of subordinate rank in one of the French fleets. At the close of the war, Mr. de Berard settled in Connecticut for a time and there married Polly Johnson of Branford. Thence he removed to New Hartford, New York, where the remainder of his life was spent. He was a man of marked characteristics, a scholar and a gentleman, who was greatly beloved among the people of the county. Suffering an accident, it became necessary for him to have several fingers amputated. As there were no anesthetics known in those days, some one suggested that a friend hold his hand. Mr. de Berard refused such aid and said laughingly, "There are no cowards in my regiment." With these words he put his hand down on the block and held it there unflinchingly until the operation was over. His wife was a strict Puritan. But he kept to his French dress until his death and lost none of his grace of manner among the surroundings of a more primitive life in a new country. His silk stockings, knee breeches, embroid- ered waistcoat and courtly bearing made him a marked figure among the country folk. A former resident of Syracuse who remembered him used to say that he was specially fond of children, a crowd of whom would often run after him to talk and play, as he walked. He had a fine French library which he did not teach his daughters to read. When they asked why he did not, he
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replied, smiling, "One tongue is enough for a woman." His letters show that he had mastered English and used it with unusual facility.
The daughter, Grace, reared her children after her mother's faith and was a strict instructor in all the tenets of the old creed. Each boy had his own little testament as soon as he was able to sit up at the table and was expected to read his verses before every meal. Sunday was a busy day for the house- hold, though no work could be done between sunset Saturday and the same hour Sunday. The day was filled with long sermons and services. Church in the morning, Sunday school at noon and afternoon and an early evening service absorbed the day which seemed very long to small boys of lively temperaments. The district schools afforded few opportunities for education.
As he grew older, Charles showed a strongly intellectual bent and a quick mind. He found time in the hours of leisure between his tasks on the farm to pursue his studies beyond the school curriculum. He read every book within reach by the light of the back log and was eager for more. His parents decided to make a minister of him. In 1838 he entered Oneida Institute at Whitestown, New York. The president, Rev. Beriah Green, was a man of strong personality and unusual intellectual power who exerted a marked influence upon his students. He had no more devoted follower than Mr. Mills, who used often to say in later life that he owed much to Mr. Green. In two years he had covered the ground of the full college course of four years. Desiring to make a special study of oriental languages, he left Oneida Institute in 1840 to enter Lane Seminary at Cincinnati, Ohio. He was at- tracted to Lane by the fame of two most distinguished scholars of the day, Dr. Lyman Beecher and Professor Calvin E. Stowe, Dr. Beecher's son-in-law. Under Professor Stowe, Mr. Mills studied Arabic, Sanskrit and other eastern tongues, gaining an acquaintance with these languages that in later life led him to a deep study of oriental literature. He had prepared himself thus carefully and at great sacrifice, being obliged to practice the utmost economy, in anticipation of a professorship in oriental languages at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. The president had known Mr. Mills at Oneida Institute and had offered the place to him because of his enthusiasm and accurate schol- arship. But, when he was a student at Lane Seminary, the young man had taught a colored school evenings and had frequently spoken at anti-slavery gatherings. The trustees of Knox decided that a professor of such pro- nounced abolition principles would not be acceptable to the sons of southern- ers who attended the college and so failed to engage him. Thus came the first sacrifice to higher truth. It was but one of many such sacrifices that Mr. Mills made through his life.
Absolutely unswerving in his devotion to what seemed to him right, he never counted the cost of such devotion nor considered worldly losses of any moment in comparison with loyalty to conscience. Denied the place he had hoped to have and for which he was so eminently fitted, he went bravely on. He
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began teaching at the academy in Sherburne, New York. But in those days that tried men's souls the spirit of persecution was rife in many places. At Sherburne, Mr. Mills' college associate and friend, Rev. James Sayles Brown, preached in the Presbyterian church. It was not long before both minister and teacher were deposed by the pro-slavery element which would not brook any difference of opinion. Then and there Mr. Mills resolved that he would never again be subject to a board of trustees who would hamper his work or try to dictate to him as to his personal beliefs. Mr. Brown decided to take the church at North Pitcher, Chenango county, and persuaded his friend to go with him and open a private school. One of the chief patrons was David Smith, a wealthy farmer who had planned to send two of his daughters to the Emma Willard School at Troy. But Mr. Brown had told him that there was not a teacher in Troy to equal Mr. Mills. So the girls staid at home. This step brought momentous consequences for one of them.
In the following June, the younger, Harriet A. Smith, then nineteen, married Charles de Berard Mills at North Pitcher, New York. Both taught a private school at Smyrna, New York, the next winter. Then they removed to Ohio, living there for six years, first at Brownhelm and later at Elyria. At Brownhelm Mr. Mills preached to an independent branch of the Congrega- tional church which was organized to inquire into truth unhampered by any outside authority. He had first been invited to become pastor of the regular Congregational church of that village. But some of the conservatives scented heresy in the fearless utterances of the young preacher and refused to sup- port him. The majority of the congregation followed him and persuaded him to form this new society. Moving to Elyria he opened a private school in the academy and still continued to preach at Brownhelm for three years. The boys who went to college from the Elyria school were so much better prepared than those from other schools that one of the professors of Western Reserve College inquired about this superior teacher and made overtures toward secur- ing him as one of the teaching staff of the college. Of this advantageous opening he did not avail himself, saying "It would be of no use. They would not let me express my convictions and I cannot be false to them." His work in Elyria was remarkably successful and he might have remained there but for the ill health of Mrs. Mills. This led him to leave Ohio. He came east and settled in Syracuse in 1852. In that city he lived for the remainder of his life, forty-eight years. He was during that time one of its most public-spirited and best known citizens, taking an active part in its civic, intellectual and philanthropic life.
His reason for selecting Syracuse as his home was characteristic of Mr. Mills' desire for the real rather than the outside shows of life. He did not consider the financial advantages. He had heard of Samuel J. May, the city's foremost citizen. "Let us go to Syracuse," he said to his wife. "A com- munity where such a man as Mr. May can work must have a circle of people
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whom we shall like to know." So to Syracuse the family came, finding Mr. May, uniting with his church and forming with him a close friendship that ended only with his death. When the one hundredth anniversary of Mr. May's birth was celebrated in the May Memorial church, Mr. Mills was intro- duced as his closest living friend and was able to take part in the service, although he was then in failing health. For many years these two citizens la- bored together in reforms. They joined hands with other friends in the anti- slavery struggle. The night that Mr. May was burned in effigy in Hanover Square, Mr. Mills was with him at the hall. There they were mobbed and were forced to escape to the house of Dr. R. W. Pease, where the meeting that the mob had interrupted was continued. Many times he spoke with Mr. May and other leaders of the anti-slavery cause in different towns of the state. For years he presided over the annual gatherings of the society of Progressive Friends in Waterloo, New York. He was also the leader of the Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, meetings for some years. His home was a station on the under- ground railroad. It was open to all earnest reformers and intellectual leaders. Wendell Phillips, A. Bronson Alcott, Louisa Alcott, Lucy Stone, Gerritt Smith, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ednah D. Cheney, Parker Pillsbury and many more were welcome guests within those portals. Whoever came with a message to deliver was gladly received.
Setting aside his scholarly tastes and his special training in literature, for which there seemed no demand on account of his advanced faith in political and religious freedom, Mr. Mills turned his hand to the first work that offered in Syracuse. It happened to be bookkeeping. He accepted a position with the nursery firm of Thorp, Smith & Hanchett. For twenty-two years he re- mained connected with this business, though several changes were made in the membership of the firm. Giving his days to this confining work, he still found time for literary activity. His nights and mornings, his holidays were given to the study and writing which he loved. During this period he was a fre- quent contributor to magazines, writing articles upon Pythagaras (the Radi- cal, September, 1868), the Eleatic School, (the Radical, October, 1869), Zoroaster and his religion, (the Radical, October and November, 1871), Bruno, Fichte, Des Cartes, and other philosophers.
The two strongest literary influences upon his life were Emerson and oriental thought. He was a personal friend of the Concord seer and knew his writings most intimately. There was a similarity in their minds and in their catholicity of spirit as well as in their philosophy of life. For a number of years Mr. Mills conducted an Emerson class of adults in the May Memorial Unitarian church of the city. He was a guest in Mr. Emerson's house many times and lectured in Concord.
With oriental thought as with Greek philosophy he was very familiar. Reading both ancient and modern languages with ease, he was able to go to the source of earlier thought and modern criticism. His library was carefully
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selected, containing the real gems of such literature. He lectured on Emerson, Greek philosophy and other themes in many cities both east and west of Syracuse, in Chicago, Detroit, Boston, New York, etc. He was an earnest advocate of temperance and woman suffrage, often speaking for these reforms. On the platform he had great elegance of diction combined with an elo- quence and earnestness that carried conviction. His style of writing was terse and clear. In the year 1876 he published the Indian Saint or Buddha and Buddhism, which was pronounced by a great critic "one of the best things ever said of that noble life." It was the first presentation to the American public of this founder of a great religion. An English author wrote at about the same time, neither he nor Mr. Mills knowing of the other's effort until the books appeared. Since then many others have treated this theme. The whole edition of Mr. Mills' book was soon exhausted. Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient, a collection of precious bits in prose and verse, ap- peared in 1882. In 1883 the Tree of Mythology was published. It was the result of many years of careful and comparative study of the myths and folk lore of different peoples. A study of Carlyle and Emerson and an estimate of Tyndall were left unfinished at Mr. Mills' death.
For fourteen years and up to the time of his failure in health, he was general secretary of the Bureau of Labor and Charities and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Syracuse. Here he labored most untiringly in rescuing children from unfit surroundings and in redeeming from idleness and dependence older classes in the community. He believed that, as the new science teaches how to prevent disease, so the new charity or philanthropy should teach the prevention of crime and pauperism. Mr. Mills' personal influence among the poor was a strong one and his broad sympathies combined with a keen sense of justice made him a wise counselor to those who sought him in distress. More than once a poor man, led from drink and shift- lessness to be self-supporting, has come back to Mr. Mills to thank him for what he had done for him in his hour of trouble.
Professor Horatio S. White, formerly of Cornell and now of Harvard University, writing at the time of Mr. Mills' death, said: "His loss will affect deeply others beside his immediate circle. He stood always for a noble inde- pendence in life and character and his own personal ideals were not only high but realized in himself. And so he was able to absorb the best in the writings of the leaders of the race. I have never met any one who seemed so permeated with the highest thoughts of mankind. And yet his personality was so gentle and cordial that he won all hearts. I look back upon him and Mr. May as two of the strongest influences surrounding my boyhood in the church. It was a rich privilege to have known men of such sterling worth."
Rev. William C. Gannett, pastor of the Unitarian church, Rochester, said: "Those who knew him best will remember him for his successful brotherhood
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to them. That word belongs to him in the highest sense-a successful life as measured by the real life values."
A simple service on a beautiful May day of 1900 testified to the love and esteem in which Mr. Mills was held by the foremost citizens of Syracuse. The Rev. S. R. Calthrop, pastor of the Unitarian church, conducted the serv- ice. He said: "This friend worked until his body almost dropped down, always in the service of humanity. His life is a benediction. Here is a man who was true, I will not say, to his convictions, but true to the highest principles from the dawn of his morning until the evening of his life.
"Those who knew him well, as some of us did, knew that he was a priest and a prophet; one who had the right to speak glowing words of hope and truth and progress to mankind."
Others who spoke words of appreciation were: Miss Susan B. Anthony, Miss Emily Howland, Mr. Salem Hyde, Rev. E. W. Mundy and Mr. E. A. Powell. Mr. Powell said of him: "Those who have known him in his home, with his family and friends in social life, have known him best and we, his neighbors, especially feel that we have lost a true friend, a delight- ful associate, a sympathetic and beloved neighbor. Here was a true man, true to every trust, true to his friends, true to country, true to principle, true to himself, true to every obligation of life."
Mr. Mundy quoted the following lines as most appropriate to the life of his friend:
"Those souls that of His own good life partake, He loves as His own self.
Dear as His eye they are to Him. He'll never them forsake.
When they shall die, then God himself shall die. They live, they live in blest eternity."
The Syracuse Browning Club, of which Mr. Mills was a charter member, held a memorial meeting when addresses were made by Mr. C. W. Bardeen and others. Mr. Mills was also a member of the Fortnightly Club at its for- mation and of the Syracuse Political Equality Club. His character was re- markable for its strength of principle, its versatility, its breadth of interest, its gentleness and its unselfishness. Nothing human was foreign to him and he regarded people of all ranks and conditions as his brothers, giving to all the same sympathy and interest.
The children of Harriet A. and Charles de Berard Mills are William Hough Mills, M. D., and Harriet May Mills, both of whom are residents of Syracuse.
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hon. William L. Gallup
H
ON. WILLIAM H. GALLUP was born in Marcellus, New York, May 27, 1858, and was the oldest child of George and Mary (Clements) Gallup. George Gallup came from Somersetshire, England, to Mar- cellus in 1850, where he engaged in the teasel busi- ness until his death in 1882. He was a citizen highly respected, influential and esteemed, and possessed sterling qualities of head and heart, which William H. inherited to a marked degree. Mary (Clements) Gallup was also a native of Somersetshire, England. She survived her hus- band by scarcely two years. William H. Gallup was educated in his native town and later was graduated from the Law College of Union University at Albany. He was admitted to the Onondaga county bar in June, 1879. After practicing his profession for three years in Marcellus, upon his father's death, he succeeded to the teasel business.
It was at this time that he became most identified with both village and county politics. Always active and energetic in whatever he undertook and with never failing good judgment, the many progressive features in the Marcellus village improvements date back to his administration and stand as a memorial to his liberal views and undaunted courage in executing the same. In politics he was a stanch republican and twice represented the old second district of Onondaga in the legislature. At his second election-in 1889-his plurality was two thousand and fifteen, the largest ever given to any candidate in that district. In the assembly he was an acknowledged leader.
In 1892 Mr. Gallup removed to Syracuse, where he organized the Syra- cuse Improvement Company for the laying of asphalt pavements, he, himself, acting as its secretary, treasurer and general manager, and making it emphat- ically successful. Later, in 1895, the Columbia Construction Company was formed for the importing and refining of asphalt. With him were associated in this enterprise Charles M. Warner, P. R. Quinlan, Hendrick Holden, Edward Joy, George M. Barnes, the late W. Judson Smith and others. It was while the refinery for this company was being built there, that at Jones Point on the Hudson, Mr. Gallup met his death June 29, 1896.
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