USA > New York > The men of New York: a collection of biographies and portraits of citizens of the Empire state prominent in business, professional, social, and political life during the last decade of the nineteenth century, Vol. I > Part 17
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His extensive manufacturing interests have naturally made him an ardent pro- tectionist and a Republican, but he has never held public office. In his native town he belonged to the Wesleyan Meth- odist church, and on his removal to Jamestown he joined the Methodist Epis- copal church, as most like the Wesleyan. He was a strong abolitionist, however, and when his church endorsed slavery, before the war, he left it and formed a Wesleyan society. This organization was given up some years itter, and Mr. Broadhead then became a member of the First Congregational Church. He is a man of
exemplary habits, and is especially proud of the fact that never in his life has he used tobacco or liquor.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - William Broadhead was born at Thornton, Yorkshire, Eng- land, February 17, 1819 ; emigrated to the United States in January, 1843 ; married Lucy Cobb of James- town, N. Y., October 29, 1845 ; was a manufacturer of edge tools in Jamestown, 1847-61; conducted a merchant-tailoring establishment in Jamestown, 1864- 78 ; built, with others, the Jamestown Worsted Mills in 1873 ; built worsted mitts himself in Jamestown in 1876, and has conducted the same since.
Jason D. Case, one of Franklinville's most prominent and public-spirited citizens, has been all
J.ISON D. CASE
his life a resident of Cattaraugus county. Born in the town of Lyndon, and educated in the district schools of that town and in Rushford Academy, he settled in Franklinville at the age of twenty-six,
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immediately after his marriage, and has made that town his home ever since.
His first knowledge of business was gained in aiding his father, an extensive dealer in farm produce, when but sixteen years of age. For two years he traveled about the country, buying butter, cheese, eggs, wool, etc., and at eighteen assumed charge of his father's large dairy farm. Four years later he was engaged as superintendent of an oil company near Pleasant- ville, Penn., which he managed for three years to the entire satisfaction of the company ; and at the ex- piration of that time he succeeded in disposing of the property most advantageously.
In December, 1872, Mr. Case was asked to take the management of a private bank then organizing in Franklinville. He undertook the work, and soon made it evident that he had found his true vocation. When, in 1877, this private enterprise was succeeded by the First National Bank of Franklinville, the second institution of its kind in Cattaraugus county, Mr. Case became its cashier and active manager ; and he has held that responsible position until the present time. He has devoted to the work keen business foresight and a special aptitude for financial affairs ; and the remarkable success of the institution ever since its organization is due to his indefatigable efforts more than to any other one cause. This bank easily holds the first place among similar institutions in its vicinity, and is to-day one of the solid financial establishments of western New York. When the Bank of Ellicottville was started, a year after the First National Bank of Franklinville, Mr. Case be- came one of its directors, and he has held the posi- tion ever since. In addition to this, he has been president of the Citizens' Bank of Arcade from its organization in 1883 ; and he makes frequent visits there, in order to maintain an active supervision of all the details of its management. It will thus be seen that Mr. Case is a prominent figure in banking circles in the neighborhood in which he resides, and it is not surprising to learn that he is a large owner of bank stock in that vicinity. He is also a director of the People's State Bank of Mazo Manie, Wis.
Although Mr. Case has devoted his best energies to banking, he has been interested in the production of oil ever since his early experience as superintendent of the company in Pennsylvania ; and more recently he has been instrumental in forming the Manufactur- ers' Gas Co. of Bradford, Penn., of which he is a director. In connection with W. H. Odell and A. K. Darrow he has operated some Pennsylvania oil prop- erty very successfully. He was influential in forming the canning company of Franklinville, and is a director of the new Conklin Wagon Co. at Olean.
Franklinville possesses one of the most beautiful cemeteries in western New York, and this is due largely to Mr. Case's efforts- first, in promoting the organization of the Cemetery Association in 1878, and ever since in the active interest he has taken in its management, as trustee and treasurer.
Mr. Case has been for many years a prominent member of the Free and Accepted Masons.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Jason D. Case was born at Lyndon, N. Y., October 3, 1847 : was educated in the district schools and in Rushford ( N. Y.) Academy ; began business in 1863 as assist- ant to his father, an extensive produce dealer ; accepted a position as superintendent of an oil company in Penn- sylvania, in 1869 ; became manager of a private bank in Franklinville, N. Y., in 1873 ; married Heten C. Morgan of Cuba, N. Y., January 27, 1873 ; has been cashier and manager of the First National Bank of Franklinville since 1877, and president of the Citizens' Bank of Arcade, N. Y., since 1883.
.Josepbus . Clark presents a career interest- ing in various ways. An active business man in Jamestown, N. Y., for fifty-five years, the war-time president of the board of trustees of the village, a member of the board of education for twenty-one consecutive years, and a trustee of the First Baptist Church for forty-four years -- such a man must have led a life of great usefulness, and must have com- manded the respect and confidence of his towns- people in an unusual degree.
Mr. Clark is a representative of that sturdy New England stock from which so much of the best blood of western New York has come. He was born in Worcester county, Mass., in President Monroe's first term. He attended the public schools of his native village, and was afterwards sent to school at Salem, Mass., and at Winchester, N. H., thus obtaining a good education in the common branches of learning. His studies were interrupted, however, at an early age, when he went West, as New Englanders of that time regarded western New York. He arrived in Chautau- qua county in 1830, and obtained a little more schooling before taking up the serious business of life.
Mr. Clark settled in Jamestown in 1835, and has lived there since with the exception of about two years in his early manhood, which were spent in New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Pittsburg. When only twenty-two years old, he engaged in the foundry and machine-shop business in Jamestown. He had two partners at first, and there were frequent changes in the firm during its early years ; but he retained his interest throughout, and since 1857 he has conducted the business alone.
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Mr. Clark was early recognized as a public-spirited citizen who had the interests of his town at heart. Two years before the war his townspeople elected ham a member of the board of trustees - Jamestown was a village then - and he held this office continu- ously for ten years. Throughout the war he served a> president of the board. The duties of the position at such a crisis were far more important than in the ordinary times of prace. Jamestown, as one of the princi- jal places in Chautauqua county, was naturally a center for enlistment and for the collection of the heavy taxes made necessary by the war. Moreover, when the nation was calling for so great sacri- tices, unusual prudence and conservatism were necessary in the management of local affairs. Jamestown justly looks upon Mr. Clark as one of the men who laid the foundations for the present prosperity of the city.
Mr. Clark takes a characteristic New England interest in the welfare of the public schools. In 1870 he was elected .1 member of the board of education, and xrved in this office for twenty-one con- xecutive years : for fifteen years he was president of the board.
From early life he has been an attend- ant of the Baptist church. He was chosen a trustee of the First Baptist Church of Jamestown in 1852, and still holds that position. He is also a mem- lor of the Chautauqua County Historical Society, and is one of its executive com- mittee.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Josephus H. Clark was born at Petersham, Mass., December 1, 1819 ; was educated in the public schools ; moved to western Vete York in 1830 ; married Jane E. Marsh of Panama, N. Y., July 13, 1851 ; was trustee of Jamestown, N. Y., 1859-69, and member of the Ford of education, 1870-91 ; has conducted a foundry Jamestoron since 1841.
Asa Stone Couch has devoted his life to the Sply, teaching, and practice of medicine. He mks among the foremost expounders and defenders "; homeopathy in the United States. In medical conventions, in the press, and before legislative committees, he has vigorously upheld the tenets of the " new school," and has demanded for its practi- Loners, against fierce opposition, the public rights
and opportunities accorded to the "old school." The warfare between allopathy and homeopathy has lost much of the intensity that characterized it when the renowned Hahnemann first enunciated his famous principles of medicine. The new school has dem- onstrated its right and its power to exist, and has
JOSEPHUS H. CLARK
obtained a recognized standing before the law. It may be said without exaggeration that this condition of things has been brought about by Dr. Couch as much as by any one man. His voluminous writings on this burning question in medical science have given him fame and reputation wherever the contro- versy between the old school and the new has been carried on. In addition to his controversial works he has written numerous books and pamphlets on the doctrines and methods of homeopathy, besides occasional papers and articles on subjects connected with the education and qualifications of physicians.
Dr. Couch has an ancestry noted in the fields of medicine and education, and he inherited in an
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unusual degree those qualities of mind that mark the patient investigator and man of science. After an academic and a classical training in the Westfield Academy and the Chamberlain Institute, he took up the study of medicine under the supervision of two eminent physicians of Vermont. He attended
ASA STONE COUCH
courses of study at both allopathic and homeopathie institutions, and graduated from the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1855. He immediately entered upon the practice of his profes- sion in association with Professor Gardner of Phila- delphia. In the same year his alma mater appointed him demonstrator of anatomy and assistant surgeon.
With this rich experience added to his theoretical studies, the young doctor concluded to devote his entire time to practice. He returned to his native county in New York, and opened an office in Fre- donia, where he has practiced for forty years. The esteem in which he is held in his profession and in the community in which he lives, is best attested by
the positions of trust and honor to which he ha- frequently been summoned. He was for several years vice president of the Homeopathic Medica! Society of the State of New York, and for one year its president. He was one of the founders of the Chautauqua County Homeopathic Medical Societ; and of the Homeopathic Society of West. ern New York.
In 1877 he was appointed professor o: special pathology and diagnosis in the Hahnemann College and Hospital in Chicago, where his lectures were noted for depth of thought, broad knowledge. and painstaking research. His profe sional brethren showed their estimation of his ability by recommending him to the regents of the University of the State of New York for the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine, which was promptly conferred upon him, in 1879; and in 1891 the Homeopathic Society of the state nominated him for the state board of homeopathic medical examiners, to which he was duly elected by the state regents. Dr. Couch was chosen president at the first meeting of the board, and was appointed examiner in pathology and diagnosis.
In 1894 by Governor Flower, and again in 1895 by Governor Morton, Dr. Couch was commissioned one of the man- agers of the Collins Farin Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane. He is very much interested in the work of this institution. and means to make it, so far as he can. second to no similar establishment in the world in perfection of detail for hospital purposes.
As a popular lecturer Dr. Couch enjoys a wide reputation, presenting complicated subjects in a simple, intelligible way. He has lectured before the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, and he delivered the opening address before the World's International Homeopathic Congress held at Atlantic City in 1891. Dr. Couch's whole life has been one of unceasing activity in the prac- tical and theoretical branches of his profession : and he is to-day, in consequence, justly regarded as a complete, all-round physician and scientific man.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Asa Sio. Couch was born at Westfield, N. Y., October 22. 1833; was educated at Westfield Academy an: Chamberlain Institute ; graduated in medicine fres. the Homeopathic Medical College, Philadelphia, 12:
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1855 ; married Martha L. Sherman of Westfield! April 2, 1857, and Mrs. Ellen S. Barrett of Dun- kirk, N. Y., February 6, 1878 : was appointed a member of the state board of homeopathic medical examiners in 1891 ; has practiced medicine in Fre- donia, N. Y., since 1856.
Albert G. Dow of Randolph, N. Y., was born of Puritan parents at Plainfield, Cheshire county, N. H., August 16, 1808. He was the eighth of the ten children of Captain Solomon and Phoebe Dow, who removed from Hartland, Vermont, to Genesee county in 1816.
Albert Dow's father died in Pembroke, N. Y., in 1822, and soon after Mr. Dow, in his fifteenth year, began the battle of life on his own account, and commenced a business career that has continued uninterruptedly for over seventy years. He lived a year in Batavia, where he learned the shoemaker's trade ; next went to Panama for a short time; and then settled in Silver Creek, Chautauqua county, in 1827, which continued to be his home for nearly twenty years. Here he conducted a shoe business until Jan- mary, 1840, when he entered the hard- ware business, having George D. Farnham for a copartner. This partnership con- tinued about a year, and on its dissolution Mr. Dow opened a hardware store at Sin- clairville. In the fall of 1842 he resumed the business at Silver Creek in partner- ship with Horatio N. Farnham, and this continued until his removal to Randolph in 1845. In 1843 he had opened a dry-goods store at Randolph, his nephew, James Nutting, being associated with him. This store they conducted as co- partners until 1851. Upon his removal to Randolph he opened there a hardware store that he continued until 1863: his son Warren was his partner during the last three years.
In 1860 he established a private bank in Randolph, which was the first institu- tion of the kind in that section ; and from that time he has been prominently identified with the banking interests of Cattaraugus county. From 1875 to 1880, the last five years of Mr. Dow's banking in Randolph, his son, Charles M. Dow, now of Jamestown, N. Y., was an active partner. In 1881 Mr. Dow organized the Salamanca National Bank at Salamanca. He was the principal stockholder and
president of the institution until 1890, when he re- signed the presidency, but continued to be a director.
Since then he has not been actively engaged in business, but has devoted himself to the care of his investments and the enjoyment of a well-earned rest.
All through his extended business career he has found it a pleasure and deemed it a duty to interest himself in public affairs, and he has discharged faith- fully and well the duties of various public offices. He was a Democrat np to the time of the Civil War. Like so many others he changed his party affiliations at the outbreak of the war, and since 1861 he has been a Republican and an active and unswerving member of that party. He was early elected to local offices in Silver Creek, and acted as justice of the peace for eight years in Randolph. He served as supervisor of that town for ten years. In 1863 and
ALBERT G. DOW'
1864 he served as a member of the legislature from the 2d district of Cattaraugus county, and in 1872 he was elected state senator, representing what was then the 32d senatorial district. In all these positions
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he displayed the good sense and faithful devotion to duty that characterized him in private affairs.
Mr. Dow has always been actively interested in religious work and in educational movements. When a young man he united with the Presbyterian church in Silver Creek, and upon his removal to Randolph
GRANT DUKE
he joined the Congregational church of that village, of which he has ever since been a member, and in which he has often served in official capacities.
In 1850 he was active in the organization of the Randolph Academy (now Chamberlain Institute), which has been a power in the intellectual and moral development of western New York ever since its foundation. He was one of the original trustees of this school, and has held that office uninterruptedly up to the present time.
Mr. Dow's strong personality, sound judgment, purity of character, honesty of purpose, and con- scientiousness in the discharge of duty, has won the respect and admiration of a large circle of
acquaintances and the friendship of all classes in the community in which he lives.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Albert Gal- latin Dow was born at Plainfield, N. H., August 16, 1808 ; carried on a shoe business in Silver Creel :. N. Y., 1827-40, and a hardware business, 1840-45 : married Freelove Mason of Batavia, N. Y., October 4, 1829, and Lydia A. Mason April 23, 1850 ; engaged in the hardware business in Randolph, N. Y., 1845-63 ; established a private bank in Randolph in 1860 ; was member of as- sembly, 1863-64, and state senator in 1873; was president of the Salamanca (N. Y.) National Bank, 1881-90.
Grant Duke is one of the most prominent figures among the younger generation in his native town of Wells- ville, N. Y. So large a majority of our promising young men follow Horace Greeley's advice and " go West," or turn their backs on the country to seek the more extended field of activity offered by some large city, that it is a pleasure to read the story of a life like Mr. Duke's. It is a fortunate thing for the prosperity of the nation that there are cases, like this one, where young men of ability and enterprise are content to devote their talents to the development of the smaller towns.
After attending the common schools of Wellsville, Mr. Duke spent two years at the Pennsylvania Military Academy at Chester, Penn., and one year at Alfred University, and finally took a course at a business college in Rochester. He was thus well equipped as regards both general culture and practical commercial training when he began the business of lumbering and oil producing with his father. The name of Duke is well known in southwestern New York and northwestern Pennsylvania, for in that region William Duke, the father of our subject, and four of his brothers, had been engaged all their lives in these industries. The town of Duke Center, Penn., was named for them, and practically owned and controlled by them for many years. At present Mr. Duke and his two brothers are associated with their father, and their interests throughout Allegany county are varied and extensive.
Mr. Duke is an ardent Republican, and is devoted heart and soul to the interests of his party. He Is full of enthusiasm for all plans looking toward the
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improvement of the village of Wellsville and the county of Allegany. When the Allegany County Firemen's Association was organized he was made the first president ; and he is president of the Wells- ville hose company, which is named in his honor. His popularity in his native place was abundantly proved by his election, in 1894, as president of the village, although his opponent was deemed one of the strongest men in the town. He was re-elected in 1895, and his fellow-townsmen have every reason to be satisfied with his successful administration of the affairs of the village ; for he has displayed great executive ability, and has made one of the best presidents the village ever had.
Mr. Duke has traveled extensively in the United States, and has thus expanded his sympathies and interests, and gained that knowledge of men and affairs which is so desirable, and which the man who has lived all his days in a small community sometimes fails to ac- quire. His genial good-fellowship is amply evidenced by the number of clubs and fraternal organizations to which he belongs. He is a member of the Horn- ellsville Club, the Acacia Club of Buffalo, the Genesee Club of Wellsville, DeMolay Commandery, No. 22, of Hornellsville, the Damascus Temple of Rochester, the Knights of St. John and Malta, and other organizations. He is an Episcopalian.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Grant Duke was born at Wellsville, N. Y., June 1, 1863 ; was educated at the Pennsylvania Military Academy and at Alfred University ; married Anna B. Taylor of Wellsville March 24, 1884; was president of the village of Wellsville, 1894-95 ; has been engaged in business in Wellsville and Allegany county, as lumber merchant and oil producer, since 1883.
John E. Dusenbury has expended the efforts of a vigorous and varied busi- ness life upon interests centered in Port- ville, N. Y., where he was born and has always resided. He had only the edu- cation afforded by district schools and a course at Binghamton Academy, but he was endowed with a generous equipment of common sense and sagacity. He has recognized each opportunity that came to him, and has made the most of it, until he now controls extensive and varied concerns.
Mr. Dusenbury's father, in partnership with William F. Wheeler, carried on for many years a country store in connection with a large lumber business, and young Dusenbury, on attaining his ma- jority, became proprietor of this store. Two years later, on the death of his father, Mr. Dusenbury, to- gether with his brothers, succeeded to a partnership in the firin, which then became known as Wm. F. Wheeler & Co. Later on, the firm added the manu- facture of leather to its previous undertakings, and finally the production of oil. In these successive developments Mr. Dusenbury has contributed a large share of enterprise and executive ability.
The qualities that make a man successful in manu- facturing pursuits or in general business are likewise of great value to a bank official, and it is not strange that Mr. Dusenbury was a prime mover in the estab-
JOHN E. DUSENBURY
lishment of the First National Bank of Olean, twenty- odd years ago, and that he has been actively connected with the institution ever since. Upon the death of his father's old partner, William F. Wheeler, in
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1893, Mr. Dusenbury succeeded him as president of the institution.
Mr. Dusenbury has no liking for the scramble in which those desirous of the emoluments of office too often engage ; but he has been willing to serve the public when called upon, as is proved by his ten
MILTON M. FENNER
years' incumbency of the office of town supervisor. He has also remained aloof, as a rule, from all so- cieties or fellowships, which many men find necessary to satisfy the social instincts of their nature. He is, however, an attendant of the Presbyterian church.
One diversion in which Mr. Dusenbury finds re- laxation from the perplexities of a complicated business is that of horse raising and training. With a particular liking for the fine points of well-bred horse flesh, he has given some attention to horse breeding as an avocation, and now owns an estab- lishment of this kind.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-John E. Dusenbury was born at Portville, N. Y., June 10, 1836 ; was educated in common schools and at
Binghamton ( N. Y. ) Academy ; commenced busine. as a country merchant in Portville in 1858 ; engaged 17 lumbering in the same place in 1860, and later in tic manufacture of leather and in the oil business ; marru. Hattie A. Foster of Chili, N. Y., in February, 1881. aud Delle V. Mather of Southwick, Mass., in Jus .. 1869 ; established, with others, the Fir .: National Bank of Olean, N. Y., in 18:2. and has been president of the same since 1893.
Milton MD. ffenner is a farmer'. boy who has risen to success in medicine. business, and politics. He was born at South Stockton, Chautauqua county, and until he was eighteen years old divided his time between farming and such schooling as he could get in the district schools. Then he set himself in earnest to obtain an education. He went to Ellington Acad- emy at Ellington, N. Y., and then to Allegheny College at Meadville, Penn. Finally he entered the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati, and graduated therefrom in 1860, at the age of twenty. three, with the degree of M. D. Through- out his school career he paid his way by teaching.
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