USA > New York > Orange County > Wallkill in Orange County > The Wallkill Valley in art and story > Part 3
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Henry Suydam.
H ENRY SUYDAM was born on Long Island in 1826, son of Moses and Mary Schoonmaker Suydam, whose early ancestors all came from Holland. He was educated in Brooklyn, graduated under Doctor Campbell, who later, became Professor of the Theological Seminary of New Brunswick, N. J. The occupation of his early life, was raising produce for New York markets. In 1852 he married Lemma Anna, daughter of Henry Bergen of Long Island, later, of Orange County. In 1854, while visiting with his uncle, the late Rev. M. V. Schoonmaker of Walden, he decided to locate in the Wallkill Valley, and bought the farm of the late Joseph Hasbrouck Decker, two miles south of Walden, where he continued farming for thirty-five years, bringing his farm to a high state of cultivation-after which time, his four children being married, he retired from farming, coming to the village of Walden where he and his wife reside with their youngest daughter, Mary Ella, wife of T. D. Barker. After coming to Orange County he became an active member of the Reformed Church at Walden, serving for many successive years as an Elder. In 1860. the Wallkill Valley Cemetery Association was formed, he being one of the trustees, and continued a trustee until 1888, when he was elected its President, and has since then devoted much of his time personally, overseeing and helping to beautify the city of the dead. In 1888, about twenty-five additional acres were bought, and have since been paid for by the Cemetery Association, and at the present time, are undergoing extensive improvements, it being the aim of the Association to make it one of the finest cemeteries in Orange County.
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James T. Irwin.
JAMES T. IRWIN was born in the town of Montgomery, January 14th, 1830, the youngest son of the late Edward Erwin and Rachael Traphagen, and grandson of John Irwin of Revolutionary fame, his father being a farmer. He acquired some knowledge of farm life until 1845, when he removed to Newburgh, and learned the trade of a carriage trimmer, in which business he is engaged at No. 7 South Water Street, Newburgh, N. Y. In June, 1852, Mr. Irwin married Miss Catharine La Tour of Newburgh. Mrs. irwin died April 3, 1863. He was again married to Miss Prudence McMinn, of Newburgh, October 19, 1865. Mr. Irwin has been a member of Trinity M. E. Church for the past fifty years. and for many years a member of the official board of the church. He is a member of Highland Lodge of Odd Fellows, and is a past Noble Grand, and past District Deputy Grand Master of Orange District, No. 1. Mr. Irwin is an active and earnest worker in the Order, in which he takes much pride. He is frequently called upon to deliver addresses at public meetings of the order in Newburgh, as well as in other places, and is well and favorably known to the past and present Grand Officers of the State.
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James W. Barnes.
1417553
J AMES W. BARNES was born at Middle Hope, Orange Co., N. Y., April 15th, 1859, and passed his boyhood days on the farm of his parents, Nathaniel and Martha Waring Barnes. He obtained his early education at the district school at that place, afterward attending the Newburgh Academy, finishing with a special course at W. L. Chapman's private school. He began his business life by accepting the employment of Gillies & Needam, afterwards Gillies, Needam & Sands, February 1st, 1876, continuing with them until September 1st, 1880, when the firm was dissolved. Mr. Sands withdrew to form a partnership with Mr. Barnes, under the firm name of Sands & Barnes, which started in the general dry goods business at the present location No. 99 Water Street, and continued five years. Mr. Barnes succeeding to the business, formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Mr. W. N. Owen, which continued for one year, since which time he has conducted the business alone. He married Miss Sarah F. Owen, March 29th. 1SS2. They have one son, N. Waring Barnes, who has just taken his examinations for admission to Columbia University, New York City, Mr. Barnes has been prom- inently identitied with Trinity M. E. Church for a long time. He has been assistant superintendent of the Sunday School, Steward, and for the last eight years a member of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Barnes is a man of uncommon common sense, of dignified and polite demeanor. He is kindly in spirit, is true as steel to his friends. He is tireless in his integrity-he is incompatible in his integrity. He has business ability, has good business habits, commanding the esteem of his fellows, and deserves the success with which he has been favored.
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George B. Harris.
G EORGE B. HARRIS, the youngest son of George F. Harris and Eveline Youngblood, was born near Pine Bush, N. Y. After graduating at the public school, he attended the Albany Business College, and entered his brother's store at Bullville, N. Y., and conducted the same for several years. April, 1898, he succeeded James S. Eaton in an old established business at Walden, N. Y., where Mr. Harris now conducts an extensive grocery store. September, 1894, at Circleville, N. Y., he married Miss Minnie W. Shaw, daughter of Robert W. Shaw. Mr. Harris is a member of the Reformed Church at Bloomingburgh, N. Y., and of the Masonic Lodge of Walden.
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Alex. Goldberg.
A LEX. GOLDBERG, of whom the above is a strikingly good likeness, was born in Kingston, N. Y., in 1861, and at the age of four years removed with his parents to Poughkeepsie. He was educated in the public schools at the latter place, and entered the clothing business at the age of 15 years, and removed to Newburgh in 1882, where he was engaged in the same line as partner, and finally sole owner of the recognized leading establishment of the city. In the winter of 1897-'98, he removed his business to the store No. 83-85 Water Street-a much larger and more modern building, where he now conducts an establishment without a peer between New York and Albany, and prides himself as an Outfitter for man or boy, and greatly enlarged the scope of his business. The mammoth show windows of Mr. Goldberg's store are one of the attractions of the city. He has always been accredited as one of the city's most substantial and enterprising business men, with the interests of his adopted city uppermost in all his efforts. He is prominently identified with social and fraternal interests in the city, and his intelligence and good fellowship make him a popular citizen with many warm, personal friends.
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M.NICO
John Schwartz.
A MONG the prominent citizens of German birth in the city of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., none holds a higher place in the estimation of the community than the gentleman whose name introduces this sketch. He is extensively engaged in the tobacco business, and has an enviable reputation for integrity and fair dealing as well as for thrift and enterprise.
Mr. Schwartz was born in Bavaria, Germany. September 9th, IS39. His father, John Schwartz, died when our subject was a child; when ten years of age he came with his mother to New York City. In January, 1850, they came to Poughkeepsie, and after attending school for a short time, he entered the cigar business, which he has made his life work.
On May 6th, 1860, Mr. Schwartz married Miss Bayer, a native of Troy, N. Y. They have four children, all sons. On May Ist, 1864, he succeeded Mr Joseph Bayer, his father-in-law, in the business of manufac- turing cigars and tobaccos. This business is now carried on, in greatly enlarged proportions by Mr. Schwartz and three sons, constituting the firm of John Schwartz & Sons, they having become partners February 1st, 1889.
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Adam Wiley.
T HE subject of this sketch, Mr. Adam Wiley, was born at Croton Falls, Westchester County, New York, on the 9th day of May, 1849, his father being James Wiley and his mother Rebecca Ritchie.
Several years of Mr. Wiley's early life were spent at school at Croton Falls. N. Y., and Mill Plains, Ct., but, his father dying when he was fourteen years of age, without leaving any means of support for a large family, young Adam found it necessary to discontinue his school career and seek remunerative employment.
The first few years of his new venture were spent at farming, but learning of a position open in one of the livery stables in Brewster, and as his mind possessed a natural bent for horses, he made application and procured the situation. His employment here lasted five years, and during that time he had an opportunity to study veterinary under Dr. Amos Smith, a then well known veterinarian. The instruction thus received has proved of such value to Mr. Wiley, that he has won a meritorious record as a highly competent doctor of horses and cattle, and for which proficiency he was recently awarded a Diploma by the N. Y. State Board of Regents.
For the past twenty-two years Mr. Wiley has worked for the Borden interests, and for the last fourteen years he has been employed directly by the Borden family, the latter five years of which, as superintendent at " Home Farm."
On November 8th, 1873, he was joined in marriage with Rebecca Sweetman, of Brewster, Putnam County, New York, and as a result of such union, there were four sons and two daughters, three sons and one daughter still living.
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James L. Crawford.
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JAMES L. CRAWFORD, the subject of this sketch, was born at Searsville, Orange County, N. Y. He developed much mechanical skill early in life, and when his school days were passed, naturally chose the carpenter's trade, at which he made very rapid progress, and soon had the reputation of being a very skillful and proficient workman, which naturally led to his rapid advancement in his chosen work, now extending over four decades. In 1870 Mr. Crawford became a resident of Walden, since which date he has been largely identi- fied with its building interests. He built the Episcopal Church at Walden, constructed the tall spire on the Brick Church at Montgomery, and at different periods made many extensive repairs and additions to the New York and Walden Knife Works. He has erected a great many of the residences of Walden and its environs. Mr. Crawford has always been a loyal Republican and an earnest and effective worker in behalf of his party. He served as town Assessor for a term of years, and filled the position in a fair and impartial manner. For about thirty years he has been a member of the Odd Fellows, and has passed the chairs, is prominent in the order of the K. of P., and a representative citizen of the Valley of the Wallkill.
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James R. Mccullough.
JAMES R. MCCULLOUGH, whose portrait is given above, is a native of the Wallkill Valley, being born near Walden, April 25th, 1839, and continued to live there (with brief intervals) until September, 1887, when he removed with his family to Newburgh where he still resides. Mr. Mccullough spent many years of his life in the grocery business in or near Walden. In 1870 he was appointed U. S. Census Enumerator for the towns of Montgomery and Crawford, and for the five years following was employed by J. S. Taylor & Co., lumber and coal dealers. He is and always has been an ardent Republican, was twice elected Collector of the Town of Montgomery, and for many years was elected Clerk of the Board of Trustees of the village, also Inspector of Election for the town. He was active in the Fire Department, being a member since 1860; he was a charter member of Enterprise Steamer Co., when it was organized in 1872, and his name still appears on their roll of honorary members. He joined Freeman's Lodge, No. 170, I. O. O. F. in 1863, filled all the different chairs in the Lodge, and was chosen in 1876, D. D. G. M. for the District then comprising the counties of Orange and Sullivan, containing seventeen Lodges. He was a charter member of Orange Lodge, No. 2470, Knights of Honor, and the first Dictator of the Lodge, and being a veteran of the Civil War, was a charter member of Fair- child Post, No. 564, G. A. R., and is at present a member of Newburgh Lodge, No. 309, F. & A. M. Mr. Mccullough is now, and has been for some years employed by the Board of Public Works of the City of Newburgh, as Assistant Superintendent of Streets. In his leisure moments he still takes great interest in the fraternal, religious and political organizations of his adopted home.
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Philip Ayers.
THE subject of this sketch was born at Libertyville, Ulster County, New York, November 3rd, 1857. His parents were Phillip and Sarah A. Ayers, who were direct descendants of the French Huguenots, the sturdy pioneers who planted a christian civilization in the Hudson River and Wallkill Valleys. Early in life Mr. Ayers chose the millers trade, and under the instruction of H. Weed, of the Royal Mills, Loyd, N. Y., soon be- came proficient in his business, remaining for a period of seventeen years. In 1893 Mr. Ayers, with his family, moved to the Borden Home Farm, and has charge of one of the largest and best equiped mills in the state; hav- ing the latest and most improved machinery. The products of the St. Elmo Mills are noted for their purity and great excellence.
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Wesley Wait. D. D. S.
W ESLEY WAIT, D. D. S., was born near Montgomery, N. Y., May 15th, 1861, son of Thomas and Mary Mould Wait. He received his education at the district school and Montgomery Academy. In 1881 he entered New York College of Denistry, and eight months after was appointed first assistant to Professor J. B. Littig. In 1883 he graduated one year ahead of his class, his degree not being conferred until 1884, and began the practice of his profession at Newburgh in 1885. He is the proprietor of the Consumers Ice Company, now leased to the Muchattoes Lake Ice Company, also of the Newburgh Floral Company, having store on Second Street and greenhouses at West Newburgh, which contain thirty thousand feet of glass. He still practices the profession of denistry. From 1890 to 1893 he represented New York State in the American Association of Invent- ors and Manufacturers, and in 1891 represented this Congressional District at the Patent Centennial at Wash- ington, D. C., being the inventor and owner of several valuable inventions. In 1885 Mr. Wait was married to Emily S. Rawlins, youngest daughter of General John H. Rawlins, chief of staff to General U. S. Grant, and ex- Secretary of War. Mrs. Wait died March 25, 1897, leaving one child, a daughter, Lucille R. His residence is on Grand Avenue, Balmville, N. Y.
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Harrison Wheeler Nanny.
H ARRISON WHEELER NANNY, whose monograph of Brant appears in this annual of the Souvenir, is a well- known Goshen lawyer. Beside his reputation as such, he is reckoned by the "canny kin" as their con- gener in classical and literary scholarship, also being conceded a foremost place among the younger historians of Orange county. His many addresses before historical and literary societies and on occasions of public cere- monies, have won high encomiums from critical scholars and historians. Mr. Nanny was born in the town of Warwick where his family settled long prior to the Revolution. He received the baccalaureate degree at Union College where he graduated in the class of 1868, and immediately began the study of the law. He is of direct Welsh descent and of family devoted for generations to the profession of arms. His ancestor Capt. John Nanny raised a company, in the year 1645, for service against King Charles 1, which was captured at Dolgelly, North Wales, and had presented to him the alternative of a political trial or an embarkation to America. Each suc- ceeding generation in this country has been engaged in its wars, and to Mr. Nanny is due the organization of the Orange County Chapter, of the Sons of the Revolution. His father Capt. Abram L. Nanny was well known during the days of the Civil War, as the Provost Marshal of the then 11th District, composed of the counties of Orange and Sullivan, under whose direction an enrollment of those liable to military duty, and a draft of 2,000 men therefrom, was made at Goshen, during a period of fierce political excitement, in 1863, at which time he was sustained by the 5th Regiment of Wisconsin and the 2d Connecticut Battery.
It was Mr. Nanny's desire to enter the Military Academy at West Point, but an affliction which resulted in permanent intirmity intervened on the eve of his appointment, and the would-be soldier was sent to College and reluctantly turned to another pursuit.
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James M. Walker.
JAMES M., son of Jacob Walker and Mary C. Durkee, was born at Walker Valley, Ulster Co., February 28, 1845. He was educated in the public schools and completed a course of training in the Newburgh Business College. He assisted his father in all his business interests, in the store, on the farm, at the saw- mill and in all kinds of lumbering. In 1865 he took charge of the market wagon route from Walker Valley to Newburgh, selling farm produce and shipping butter to New York by way of Wm. K. Mailler's barge. In 1868 and '69, he filled the same position for Mr. C. Barnhart, to whom his father had sold the store and business in Walker Valley. In 1870 his father built the three-story brick building on Montgomery Street, Walden, and on May 9th of that year it was opened for business under the firm name of Jacob Walker & Son. In 1877 they enlarged the building, and in 1880, Jacob Walker, the senior member of the firm retired and James S. Eaton took his place, and the firm of Walker & Eaton was formed. Again the building was enlarged and the drug department added. They bought the grocery stock from A. S. Tears and from Hiram B. Wooster in 1885, and conducted two stores until February 1st. 1894, when the firm was dissolved by mutual consent, J. M. Walker remaining at the old stand on Montgomery Street. The same year he adopted the cash system and now finds it necessary to enlarge his space.
He was a member of the board of village trustees for a period of about five years. He has been an officei in the Walden M. E. Church twenty-five years, was president of the board of trustees and superintendent of the Sabbath School for about five years. He has also been a trustee of the Wallkill Valley Church for the past ten years. He has never engaged to any extent in matters pertaining to politics, but his influence has always been thrown in the temperance side of the question at issue.
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Whitfield Gibbs.
W HITFIELD GIBBS was born at Hope, N. J., January 28, 1851. He is a son of Levi B. and the late Ellen Vanatta Gibbs. He was given a common school education in his native village. The first four years of his business career was spent clerking in a store. He then went to Newton, N. J., where he learned the print- ing business in the office of the Sussex Register, and later worked at his trade in Newark and New York. In 1878, with J. J. Stanton, he purchased the Deckertown Independent, and after conducting that for four years, he disposed of his interest to his partner. He afterwards held the position of city editor of the Jersey City Daily Argus, and also editor of the Passaic Daily Times. Previous to purchasing The Walden Citizen, he was Purchasing Agent of the Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie and Boston R. R. In July, 1898, he purchased The Walden Citizen, which was then a folio, but he at once converted it into a quarto, which is a live local weekly newspaper.
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Alexander Kidd.
A LEXANDER KIDD was born at St. Andrews, a beautiful hamlet in the town of Montgomery, N. Y. (The historical events of its past have been graphically described by one of its residents on page twenty-four of this volume). Mr. Kidd's parents were Lotan Kidd and Eliza Woodruff, honored citizens of their day and generation. Early in life he inclined to an active life, and during years spent at Newburgh, N. Y., he served as a member of the old Cataract Engine Company, No. 3, and was also a member of the Washington Continental Guards under Captain Isaac Wood, receiving an honorable discharge; he served full time in the Nineteenth Regi- ment of Orange County under Captain Peter Latourette. Later Mr. Kidd enlisted in the Fifty-sixth N. Y. S. V. under Colodel C. H. Van Wyck. At the expiration of two years, on account of illness contracted, he was honor- ably discharged at Seabrook, S. C. In 1866 he began a general grocery business at Newburgh, N. Y., under the firm name of A. & T. Kidd. In 1875 he removed to Orange Lake, Orange County, N. Y., and conducted a hotel, and in 1880, at the same place, opened the Lake Side House, at that time a noted resort for summer tourists. During his management of seven years a very large and prosperous business was established. In 1887 Mr. Kidd removed to Walden, N. Y., and has since conducted a large and modern hotel. At St. Andrew's is a large tract of fertile land known as the " Old Kidd Homestead," which has been in possession of the Kidd family since early in the seventeenth century; recently it passed to the ownership of the subject of this sketch, who bears the name of his honored grandfather. In 1865 Mr. Kidd was married to Miss C. B. Smith, of Montgomery, N. Y. Their only child, Lewis W., resides at Walden, N. Y.
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In Memoriam,
OR THE
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS BEYOND THE LIMITATIONS OF THIS LIFE.
" We are quite sure That He will give them back, Bright, pure and beautiful.
We know He will but keep
Our own and His, until we fall asleep,
We know He does not mean
To break the strands reaching between Me here and there.
He does not mean though Heaven be fair
To change spirits entering there.
That they forget the eyes upraised and wet,
The lips too still for prayer, The mute despair.
He will not take
The spirits which He gave, and make
The glorified so new,
That they are lost to me and you, I do believe They will receive
Us-you and me-and be so glad
To meet us, that when most I would grow sad,
I just begin to think about the gladness And the day, When they shall tell us all about the way That they had learned to go, Heaven's pathway shore.
My lost, my own and 1,
Shall have so much to see together by and by,
I do believe that just the same sweet face
But glorified, is waiting in the place
Where we shall meet if only 1
Am counted worthy in that by and by.
I do believe that God will give a sweet surprise
To tear-stained, saddened eyes,
And that His heaven will be
Most glad, with joy for you and me.
As we have suffered most. God never made Spirit for spirit answering shade for shade,
And placed them side by side,
So wrought in one, though separate, mystified And meant to break, The quivering threads between. When we shall wake I am quite sure we shall be very glad That for a little while we were so sad."
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In Memoriam.
John Gail Borden.
J OHN GAIL BORDEN was born in Galveston, Texas, January 4, 1844. He was the youngest son of that great public benefactor, Gail Borden. Coming north with his father when but a lad of thirteen he attended one of the public schools of Brooklyn for a time, and from there went to Winchester Center, Conn., where he entered the Winchester Academy. From Winchester a business college was the next step in his educational course, but this was interrupted by the Civil war; for, like many of " Our Boys" in the recent Spanish-Ameri- can war, he left the school room in response to his country's call for volunteers. He enlisted in the 150th New York Volunteers and served under Colonel (later General) John Henry Ketcham for two years and a half, during
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which time he worked his way to the rank of SecondLieutenant. The long, continued active service and exposure brought on an illness, compelling retirement from the army for several months, when he recovered sufficiently to again resume his duties, and was transferred to the Forty-seventh New York Volunteers, with which regiment he remained until the close of the war, participating with it in the Florida campaign. Returning to his home in Brewster, N. Y., when mustered out of service, Mr. Borden became identified with the New York Condensed Milk Company, where his inventive genius and energy played a conspicuous part in the perfecting of his father's inventions. Later he was elected president of the company and filled this position most successfully until 1885. In 1881 Mr. Borden moved from Brewster to Wallkill, Ulster County, where he built the condensery for the N. Y. C. M. Co., at the same time beginning on an extensive scale the farming operations which have made the Borden's Home Farm one of the model practical farms of this State. Failing health in 1885 compelled retirement from an active business life, when he turned his whole attention toward improving and beautifying his farm, trying, as he often expressed it, " to make two blades of grass grow where but one grew before." How well he suc- ceeded has been demonstrated by the bountiful crops gathered from year to year on the "Home Farm." Mr. Borden's intense patriotism led him to become one, if not the first, of the pioneers in the work of inculcating a love of country and the "Stars and Stripes" in the hearts of the children, and to this end made a practice on Decoration Days of presenting each child in the public schools in his vicinity, both North and South, a small American flag, as he felt the future of our country rested with the rising generation. Devotion to home and country were among Mr. Borden's strong characteristics. The good he accomplished in his forty-seven years of life cannot be recorded here. He left an enviable record-that of an energetic, Christian gentleman who devoted his time, talents, and means to the uplifting of humanity. Mr. Borden died in October, 1891, at his winter home in Ormond, Fla. We close this brief sketch with a quotation from an obituary taken from The Coast Gazette, an Ormond paper :-
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