USA > New York > Dutchess County > The "Dutchess county regiment" (150th regiment of New York state volunteer infantry) in the Civil War; > Part 16
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Meanwhile he continued active service in the National Guard. In October, 1874, he had been chosen Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff in the Ist Division in this State, with the rank of Colonel. He was later elected Colonel of the 9th Regiment, but refused the honor, preferring to remain Assistant Adjutant-General. This latter position he held for more than twelve years. When the National Guard organization in New York City was reduced to a brigade, Colonel Gildersleeve was
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placed on the list of reserves, and thus ended his active military life.
His long and honorable judicial career began in 1875, when he was elected Judge of the Court of General Ses- sions in the city of New York by a large majority, running considerably ahead of the rest of his ticket. For four- teen years he sat on the Bench of that Court, disposing of over 15,000 criminal cases of every kind and descrip- tion; in that immense number only two of his decisions were reversed by a higher court. In 1889 his term of office expired, and he was renominated for the same posi- tion, but owing to political changes he was defeated by a very small majority. He consequently returned to the practice of law. This defeat, however, proved very fortunate, in opening for him the way to a higher court.
In May, 1891, Governor Hill appointed him to fill a vacancy in the Superior Court of the city of New York; and in the following November he was elected to the same position for a full term of fourteen years by a very substantial majority. In January, 1896, however, upon the abolition of the Superior Court, he was transferred by provisions of the amended Constitution to the Supreme Court of the State of New York, to serve the remainder of the term for which he had been elected to the former Superior Court.
Gifted naturally with a judicial temperament, and aided by his long experience on the Bench, he has performed the work of this position with such efficiency, fairness, dignity and courtesy that he has won the sincere respect and confidence of the entire Bar. Justice Gildersleeve has presided over every variety of trial known to our State Courts, and the law books contain many hundreds
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of his judicial opinions. In 1905, when his term in the Supreme Court expired, he was nominated by the Demo- cratic party and endorsed by the Citizens' Union, and also by the Bar Association of the City of New York.
He was re-elected by a very large majority, and con- tinues to serve as Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, and is the presiding Justice of the Appellate Term in the First Department.
Justice Gildersleeve still keeps up his interest in out- door sports. He enjoys fishing and hunting, and is a well-known golf player. He is a member of the Garden City Golf Club, the Oakland Golf Club, the Country Club of Westchester, the Robbins Island Hunting Club, the New York Athletic, the Manhattan and the National Democratic Clubs. He is an agreeable public speaker, and his services in this capacity are in much demand.
April 14, 1868, he was married to Virginia Crocheron, of New York City. They have two children, Alger Crocheron and Virginia Crocheron.
CORNELIUS N. CAMPBELL. By STEPHEN G. COOK.
Cornelius N. Campbell was born in the town of Ame- nia, Dutchess County, N. Y., just north of the line of the town of Dover, on July 7, 1825.
Although he has frequently referred to incidents in his early life, when in conversation with me, they are not clearly enough recalled to be incorporated in a work of this kind. It will suffice to say that his was like the ordinary story of most country-born boys, excepting that a lady of means very early in his life took great interest in his
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welfare, because of which he escaped the early privations of those similarly situated. His education was received from the district school in the vicinity of his residence and rounded out at the Amenia Seminary.
He graduated from the Medical Department of the New York University A. D. 1850 when he was 25 years old. For several years he practiced his profession in the towns of Dover and Pawling (Dutchess County), and then moved to the town of Stanford, where he soon gained an immense practice, and here he was when selected for Surgeon of the 150th Volunteer Infantry.
In 1860 he and "Pat" McIntyre engaged in the freighting business at Rhinebeck. This lasted a year or two, but was not a financial success. Neither of them could be considered good business men. As a conse- quence, the inevitable soon happened and the doctor re- turned to the town of Stanford to practice his profession.
For thirty-five years the life of the subject of this sketch, and that of the writer, ran along in parallel lines in professional and military friendships, without a single discord,-without one unpleasant word or deed to mar its perfect harmony.
In these remarks it seems proper that I should speak of him first (briefly), as a practicing physician, second, as a military surgeon, and third as a man,-as a comrade and as a friend.
As a physician his career was a success from the start, and added years only served to increase the confidence of the community he served.
He was not a respecter of persons, or rather, he respected all persons alike. A call to the poor man's humble home and to the rich man's mansion, coming to
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him simultaneously, the chances were that he would visit the poor man first.
Perhaps his success as a practitioner of medicine de- pended largely upon the influence he carried with him into the homes of his patients. A marked characteristic was his optimism, and this condition he carried with him into the sick room, where he imparted new aspirations into the minds of his patients. He filled them with an air of hope and left them with that feeling predominating. This is frequently half the battle in medical cases.
As a surgeon both in civil and military practice he ranked among the first in his profession. He fully ap- preciated the value of a limb or any fraction thereof, as well as of a life. If he erred at all, it was on the side of conservatism, and conservative surgery is as commendable for what it refrains from doing as for what it does.
Now, what shall be said of him as a man-a comrade and a friend?
Here the English language seems defective. It is in- adequate to give a character and tone to his transcendent qualities.
From life's sunrise until life's sunset he filled life's cup to the brim. Not that he was entitled to any extraordi- nary credit for so doing either, for he was so constituted that he could not help it; could not help being kind; could not help being true ; could not help being honorable ; could not help being just.
To those only having a casual acquaintance and seeing him with merriment in his eyes, jocularity on his lips and badinage in his speech, it might never occur to them but that this was all,-that the froth and bubbles on the goblet's brim was all the goblet contained; but one puff
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of generous appeal, and lo! the froth and bubbles were gone, and we find the goblet filled with all the qualities that go to make up life's poetry, beauty, sympathy, gen- erosity and manliness. We who knew him so well found underneath the froth and the bubbles a vein of admirable wit and humor, united with and welded to an excellent understanding, rare reasoning powers, a retentive memory, an indefatigable industry, a dauntless courage; and with it all there was a light in his eye; there was music in his voice ; there was a grasp in his hand, and a cheerfulness in his speech that lifted the burdens from the shoulders of the unfortunate, and cheered the pathway of the afflicted.
As the prince of innocent pleasantry his memory will linger in our hearts like a sweet song too soon closed; like a banquet too soon ended; like a beautiful picture over which too soon the curtain falls.
Blow off the froth and the bubbles from the goblet's brim, and you would have found underneath a character as firm as a rock, brilliant as a star; artless as a child, and as pure as a woman.
He had been endowed by his Creator with a keen sense of humor, but thank God he never used it as a caustic; never burned you with it; never stabbed you; never used it to hurt your feelings ; never to start a tear.
This life has ample facilities for developing tears, and he who can and will, with his wit and humor, drive them away is our friend.
He died near Christmas time in December, 1889, in the 65th year of his age. The days then were very short and the nights very long. It was a long and dreary night for his friends when they learned that life for him was no more.
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For a long time it seemed to me very difficult to think of getting along in this world without the presence in it somewhere of Cornelius N. Campbell. We had had him with us so long that he was as much a part of existence as any other ray of pure sunshine that streams into the dark and troubled places of life to cheer, to brighten, and to bring wholesomeness and health and happiness.
The writing of this sketch has been for me a labor of love, and recalled to my mind some of the pleasantest incidents of a long life, and as the Queen of Sheba said of King Solomon, "The half has not been told." "His life was gentle; and the elements so mixed in him, that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, This was a man."
THOMAS E. V ASSAR.
Thomas Edwin Vassar, son of William and Mary (Hageman) Vassar, was born at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., December 3, 1834. His grandfather, Thomas Vassar, came to Poughkeepsie in 1797, when the population of the place was barely five hundred. The Vassars were originally French Huguenots. They fled to England to escape religious persecution, and there the elder Thomas was born. He and his younger brother, James, landed in America in the autumn of 1796. James was the father of Matthew who more than sixty years afterward founded Vassar College.
Thomas E. Vassar was educated in the public schools of his native city, and began his business life as a dentist there. Later he chose the ministry as his calling and was ordained to that office in the Baptist Church of
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Poughkeepsie. Of that church his family had been members since its organization.
When the civil war broke out Mr. Vassar was pastor of the Baptist Church at Amenia, Dutchess County, N. Y., and his acquaintance with Colonel-now General- John H. Ketcham led to his selection as the first chaplain of the 150th regiment.
His church at Amenia declined to receive his resigna- tion as pastor of it, but finally consented to grant him one year's leave of absence, and he went out with the regiment in October, 1862. In the experiences of the regiment he participated until the autumn following the Gettysburg campaign, but when the 11th and 12th Army Corps were sent to the Western army he resigned, as he had promised his church to do, and returned to Amenia. His later pastorates have been at Lynn, Mass., Fleming- ton and Newark, N. J., and Kansas City, Mo. At the end of forty-five years of continuous service as pastor he retired from the active duties of his calling and is now residing at Elizabeth, N. J.
On the IIth of October, 1861, Mr. Vassar was married to Tamma, daughter of Phineas K. Sackett, of Stanford, Dutchess County, N. Y., and on the first anni- versary of the marriage he started with the regiment for the seat of war. He has four children living. One son is, like the father, a Baptist pastor. One is an electrical engineer; one daughter is married, and one is still with the parents in the home. The eldest child was born while the 150th lay in Belger Barracks at Baltimore.
In 1882, Madison-now Colgate-University, at Hamilton, N. Y., conferred on Mr. Vassar the honorary degree of D.D.
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For a man now seventy-two years old Dr. Vassar is well preserved and vigorous. His life work was well chosen, for he was endowed by his Maker with superior gifts ;- talents that have not been hid in a napkin. By his studious life of industry he has become not only a successful preacher, but also a most accomplished orator. As a " supply " for vacant pulpits he keeps almost con- stantly engaged, and in gatherings of old soldiers, and especially on Memorial Day, he is often called to speak. His lecture entitled "The Battle of Gettysburg " has been delivered in scores of places in the East and West, and is still frequently called for although half a lifetime lies between the present and that famous fight.
During his various pastorates he has received some two thousand persons into the membership of the churches served, has married nearly seven hundred couples, has attended more than a thousand funerals, has served on many boards of religious and educational societies, and has aided in raising something like half a million dollars for different departments of benevolent work.
His uncle, John E. Vassar, everywhere known as "Uncle John," was an agent of the American Tract Society, and while working in that capacity during the war often found his way within the lines of the " Dutchess County Regiment." Thousands of the boys in blue re- member tenderly even yet his tireless efforts and his in- terest in their behalf. Chaplain Vassar wrote the story of "Uncle John's " useful life, and the book is believed to have had more than a hundred thousand readers.
James H. Vassar, a brother of Chaplain Vassar, was band leader in the 150th, and a sketch of him is given elsewhere in this history.
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EDWARD OTIS BARTLETT.
EDWARD OTIS BARTLETT.
"Plant there some Box or Pine,
Something that lives in Winter, and call it mine!"
Rev. Edward Otis Bartlett was born in Utica, N. Y., February 18, 1835, the son of Joseph and Mary Ann (Otis) Bartlett. He is of the eighth generation in this country, for his paternal ancestor, Robert Bartlett, came over in the Ann, the second vessel of the Pilgrim Colony to arrive in America.
In 1840 his father, Joseph Bartlett removed to Pough- keepsie, establishing there the Poughkeepsie Cracker Bakery, now conducted by his youngest brother, William O. Bartlett.
Edward O. Bartlett's preparatory studies were in the Poughkeepsie Collegiate Institute, now known as River- view Academy, where in 1885 he delivered the semi- centennial address, and was elected president of the Alumni Association.
He entered Union College, N. Y., in 1856, receiving the degree of A. B. in 1859, the Master's degree in 1862, and D.D. in 1889. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Kappa Alpha Greek letter societies. In his senior year he was president of his class, which numbered 138 members.
After graduating he became principal of the College Hill School, jointly with Otis Bisbee. In September, 1863, he was drafted under President Lincoln's call for 300,000 men, and was appointed Chaplain of the 150th New York Volunteers, being mustered into the service and enrolled in the regiment (which then had its headquarters at Normandy, Tenn. ), November 20, 1863.
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He accompanied the regiment on the march, and from the time of his enrollment was present on the field in all the engagements in which it participated. He was present at the Grand Review in Washington at the close of the war, and was mustered out with the regiment.
After the war he was first settled over a church at South Deerfield, Mass., then at Providence, R. I., where he was married, November 28, 1868, to Anna Jane, the youngest daughter of ex-Mayor Amos C. Barston.
Both at South Deerfield and at Providence there were large accessions to the churches over which he presided, at the former place one hundred and thirty-nine being added in less than a year. In 1873 he was called to the First Church of Pittsfield, Mass., to succeed the celebrated Dr. John Todd. In 1887 he accepted a call to the Academy Avenue Congregational Church in Providence, R. I., where he remained until he retired from the ministry in 1895.
In the Grand Army of the Republic Chaplain Bartlett has been honored, first joining that organization by ad- mission to Slocum Post, No. 10, Department of Rhode Island, from which he was elected in 1868 to be the first Department Chaplain of that State. He is also a member of the Rhode Island Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical Society, and of the Sons of the American Revolution.
The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett has been blessed by the birth to them of seven children, two daughters and five sons, as follows: Josiah, born Febru- ary 2, 1870; Edward Otis, born August 10, 1871, married January 19, 1897, to Louise Ward Chapin; Emeline
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Barston, born April 30, 1873, married September 9, 1906, to Prof. John Nolen; Dwight Kellog, born March 18, 1876, married January 2, 1902, to Maud Orr; Louise Stevens, born December 16, 1877; Clarence Barston, born May 23, 1879, married June 9, 1903, to Jane Barnaby; Le Roy, born December 17, 1880, married August 29, 1905, to Mae Bowie Franklin.
The daughters are graduates of Vassar College, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., the elder three of the sons are graduates of Brown University, at Providence, R. I., while the youngest, Le Roy, graduated in 1905 at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N. Y., and has been commissioned Second Lieutenant of the 6th Battery of Field Artillery, now stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. In May, 1906, he was appointed Judge-Advocate of the United States troops located at that point.
STEPHEN GUERNSEY COOK.
The subject of this sketch was born in the town of Stanford, Dutchess County, N. Y., on the Ist day of July, 1831.
His parents' names were Seth Trowbridge and Eliza- beth (Clark) Cook.
From the hill on which the house stood in which he was born can be seen points in the States of Massachusetts and Connecticut; therefore he came near being by birth a New England Yankee.
The circumstances surrounding his early years were not over promising. At the age of eight his family moved from Dutchess to Broome County, N. Y., a few miles above Binghamton, on the westerly side of the
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Chenango River, where his father purchased a farm with a small equity and a large mortgage.
For two years everything went on nicely, when a ter- rible accident happened to his father which incapacitated him for labor for years afterward, and from which he never fully recovered.
The support of the family then devolved upon his mother and himself, as the products of the farm with hired labor would scarcely net enough to pay the taxes and the interest on the mortgage. His mother used to card the wool by hand, spin and dye the yarn, weave the cloth, and make all the clothing worn by the family. She was a skillful weaver, and earned considerable sums of money at her loom.
At the early age of ten, he had become quite skillful in handling horses, and was employed by the neighboring farmers as a driver of horses for all the uses that noble animal was called upon to do. For this he was paid a shilling ( 121/2 cents) per diem and his board. It seems very insignificant pay at this distance, but a "shilling " then would buy very nearly as much as a half dollar will now.
The Chenango Canal, extending from Binghamton to Utica, was then in full operation, and during the season of his twelfth year he was employed as a driver of the horses of one of the canal boats plying between the before-named towns. The distance as he now remembers it is a little over one hundred miles, and the round trip, together with loading and unloading, took just a week. For this work he was paid six dollars per month, with board and lodging, every cent of which was given to his mother.
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In the fall of that year, 1843, the inevitable came to pass. In those times farms were not paid for by hired. labor, and his father's went the usual way, by foreclosure. Enough was saved from the wreck to take the family back to Dutchess County.
From this time on everything went more desirably. He attended the district school (Tallmadge District), both summer and winter terms until he was fifteen years old. After that he worked summers and attended school winters until the fall of 1846, when, with the money earned by himself, he entered Amenia Seminary, from which he was graduated with high honors in 1850, paying his way by money earned in various occupations during the summer vacations. There are miles of stone walls still standing, "laid " by him during these vacations.
In the fall of the latter year (1850), he commenced as a school teacher in the town of Washington ( Dutchess County), near what is now known as Millbrook, but then known as "Washington Four Corners " and "Hart's Village." Here he spent four happy years, and left it reluctantly to take up the study of medicine, being gradu- ated with honors on March 9, 1857, from the Medical Department of the New York University.
As a practicing physician he spent one year at Hart's Village, and two years at Verbank. He then moved to Bangall Lane, as it was then called, and probably still is, where he resided until he joined the 150th Regiment in September, 1862.
For a time there was a friendly rivalry between him and Dr. Campbell as to which should be surgeon, and which first assistant surgeon, each party having warm supporters. This rivalry was soon settled when it reached
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Colonel Ketcham, who selected Dr. Campbell, with whom he had long been acquainted. He made a wise choice. Dr. Cook was, however, the acting surgeon of the regi- ment during considerably more than half of the time of his service, as Dr. Campbell's recognized popularity and skill as a surgeon caused him to be detailed as a Brigade or Division surgeon almost constantly.
After the war he took up the practice of his profession in New York City where he soon gained a fairly lucrative practice.
In 1872 he was appointed a trustee of the public schools of the Eighth Ward of New York City. After serving his term of five years, he was re-appointed for another five-year term, but was forced to decline it on account of the pressing needs of other duties.
In September, 1873, he was appointed a Surgeon of Police, and in January, 1884, was elected President of the Board of Surgeons, and Chief Surgeon, by his col- leagues, which position he still holds, having been elected annually since that date, without a dissenting voice.
In 1883 he was elected a trustee of the West Side Savings Bank. In 1887 he was appointed chairman of the Executive Committee, which position he held until January, 1896, when he was elected president of the bank, a position he still holds. Under his administration of its affairs the bank has prospered beyond all precedent.
About 1873 he was elected a member of E. A. Kimball Post, No. 100, Department of New York, Grand Army of the Republic, and was elected Commander of it for four consecutive years, and has declined repeated offers of re-election. He has been a delegate to the Depart- ment Encampment for the past twenty years, and still is.
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WILLIAM H. BARTLETT.
In 1888 he was elected by the Department Encampment the Medical Director of the Department.
In 1857 he married Caroline A. Pond, the daughter of Nelson A. and Amanda Pond of the town of Wash- ington, Dutchess County, who died in 1872. Two chil- dren were the result of this marriage, both of whom are now dead.
In 1876 he married Mary C. Hackett, a principal of one of the public schools of the city of New York, by whom he has three children, two daughters and a son, all living. Their names are : Cora, Jane, and Stephen Jr. Cora was married, November 22, 1905, to Joseph Rowan, and on the same date her sister Jane was married to Joshua F. Tobin.
WILLIAM H. BARTLETT.
William H. Bartlett was born in the town of Amenia, Dutchess County, N. Y., on February 14, 1839.
He was the second son of William S. and Jane (Reynolds) Bartlett.
He received his education at the district school and later at the Amenia Seminary, which he attended for four years, leaving it in 1859 to go as clerk in a hardware store in Brooklyn, N. Y., where he remained until the break- ing out of the war in 1861, and where he saw some of the first regiments depart for the seat of war, particularly the Brooklyn 14th.
During the year 1861 he returned to Amenia and accepted a position in the general store of Lawrence & Taylor.
When the Dutchess County Regiment was organizing he enlisted in Company A, September 5, 1862, and was
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mustered in as Corporal with the regiment October II, 1862.
He served until the close of the war having been mus- tered out with his regiment June 8, 1865. He was pro- moted Sergeant, January 2, 1863; Second Lieutenant, March 2, 1865; First Lieutenant and Adjutant, April 9, 1865.
An incident occurred in Baltimore which showed how Death's call may be avoided without serious injury. One of the guards on duty in the rear of his tent allowed some one to handle his gun without knowing it was loaded, with the usual result. The bullet entered the side of his tent in line with his head, but its course was deflected by an inkstand standing on a shelf, resulting in covering him with ink, and the loss of a piece of skin from the end of his nose, giving him a striking realization of what it might have been.
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