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. II > Part 19
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From 1880 until 1884 Judge O'Brien was a member of the Democratic state committee ; and in November, 1883, he was elected attorney-general of the state of New York. He was re-elected in 1885, thus serving four years as the chief law officer of the state. In March, 1888, soon after his retirement from this po- sition, he was appointed one of the com- missioners to revise the excise laws. Judge ()' Brien had thus held important offices in city and state, and had devoted a good deal of time to the public ser- vice, when he was elected, in the fall of 1889, to the high position of associate judge of the Court of Appeals. He took his seat on the bench of that court Jan- uary 1, 1890, and has thus served about half of his term of fourteen years.
Judge O' Brien's brilliant public career has not come to him by chance, but as the result of favoring natural endowments and of honest and persistent endeavor. His most prominent mental characteris- tics are the power of analysis and the logical faculty, both so essential in the legal profession : and he has as well a fund of strong common sense, courage, sound judgment, and devotion to prin- ciple. He enjoys the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens of Watertown, where he has lived for thirty-five years, and of the general public throughout northern New York.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Denis O' Brien was born near Ogdensburg, N. Y., March 133, 1837; was educated at Ogdensburg Academy ; studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1861 ; married MMargaret T. McCahill of Utica, V. Y., January 8, 1863 ; was an alderman of Watertoren. V. Y., 1869-13, and mayor, 1878-19 ; practiced laws at Watertown, 1861-83: was attorney general for Vete York state, 1884-87 ; has been a judge of the Court of Appeals of New York state since January 1, 1890.
William Lawrence Proctor is widely recognized as one of the representative business men of northern New York, and foremost citizens of Og- densburg, where he has lived for nearly forty year .. Born in New Hampshire sixty years ago, he received his early education in the district schools of his
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DENIS O'BRIEN
native town of Last Washington, afterward attending Tubbs Union Academy at Middle Washington, and finishing his scholastic training at the academy at New London, N. H., at the age of twenty.
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Mr. Proctor began business life shortly before at- taining his majority, entering the employ of his uncle, Lawrence Barnes, a lumber dealer of Burlington, Vt. He has ever since been connected with the lumber industry, and his career illustrates the value of per- sistent application to a single calling. Sent to Og-
WILLTABI LAURENCE PROCTOR
densburg in 1859 to look after the interests of his employer in northern New York, he still makes his headquarters there ; though he has spent much time in New York, Washington, and Boston in behalf of the organized lumber interests of the northern and eastern states. The Skillings, Whitneys & Barnes Lumber Co., which he now represents, is one of the largest corporations of its kind in the country, and controls a great part of the lumber trade in the ter- ritory mentioned. They have a capital of over 81,000,000, with offices in Boston and New York city, and extensive yards at North Tonawanda, N. Y., and at Ogdensburg.
Mr. Proctor has not been too deeply engaged in business to permit him to take an active interest in
political affairs both at home and abroad : and he has been one of the strongest representatives of the best element in the Republican party in northern New York for many years. He served as a trustee of Ogdensburg in the early days of his residence there, when the place was still a village ; and when it attained the dignity of a city he be- came an alderman, and afterward held the office of mayor for seven years. He was one of the committee that had charge of the building of the town hall in 1880, and has ever since been a mem- ber of the committee for its care and custody. He has also taken an active part in the work of the board of educa- tion and the committee on public works. Indeed, no man in Ogdensburg has been more intimately connected with the pub- lic improvements, buildings, streets, and general government of the city, than Mr. Proctor. Since 1882 he has been a member of the Republican state com- mittee, and in 1888 he was a presidential elector. In 1884 he was chosen an alternate delegate to the Republican na- tional convention, and in 1896 he was one of the delegates to the Republican national convention at St. Louis.
Aside from business and politics Mr. Proctor has taken special interest in the building and development of the St. Lawrence State Hospital at Ogdensburg, which is deemed one of the finest insti- tutions of its kind in the world. He has given much time and thought to this subject ; and has been a member of the board of managers of the institution for the past ten years, and during a great part of that time has been president of the board, a position that he now occupies. He has been superintendent of the poor since 1882, and trustee and president of the Ogdensburg Cem- etery Association since 1880. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and is an active member of the Baptist church, of whose Sunday school he was superintendent for more than a quarter of a century.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-William Late- rence Proctor was born at East Washington, N. H., March 26, 18337; was educated in common schools and academies ; married Dolly Paulina Howard of Ogdensburg, N. Y., February 12, 1861 ; was mayer of Ogdensburg, 1871-75 and 1884-86 ; has been a member of the Republican state committee since 1882, and a member of the board of managers of the S !.
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Lawrence State Hospital since 1887 : has been con- nected with the lumber trade since 1857, and is at present vice president of the Skillings, Whitneys & Barnes Lumber Co.
Jobn JB. Riley, who for several years has ably occupied the position of consul general of the United States for Canada, is a native of Clinton county, New York, having been born there about forty-five years ago. After attending the district school of his native town of Schuyler Falls, and Plattsburgh Academy, he prepared for college at the Keeseville lligh School. He did not, however, take a colle- giate course ; but took up the profession of teaching. which he followed for several terms in the village of Au Sable Forks, N. Y. In 1875 he was elected school commissioner for Clinton county, and was re- elected in 1878; and during the years that he held this position he labored per- sistently and effectively for the good of the schools committed to his charge. He also helped to organize the Clinton County Teachers' Association, and acted as its president and secretary for several years.
Though greatly interested in the cause of education, Mr. Riley was not content to devote himself solely to it : and in the intervals of teaching and supervising he fitted himself for the legal profession. His progress in the attainment of the necessary knowledge was less rapid than it might have been under more favor- able circumstances, but it was none the less sure and steady ; and in 1879 he was admitted to the bar, and opened an office in Plattsburgh. In 1885 he formed, a partnership with T. F. Conway. under the style of Riley & Conway, that lasted for five years. The present firm of Riley & Healey was formed in 1895. In 1892 Mr. Riley was admitted to practice in the United States courts.
Mr. Riley has been much occupied with public service for many years. In 1884 and again in 1885 he was elected president of the village of Plattsburgh. In the latter year he was appointed by President Cleveland to the responsible post of superintendent of Indian schools - a position for which his active interest in edu- cational affairs and his practical knowledge of such matters fully qualified him. He resigned the post, however, in 1887, on his appointment as chief
examiner of the New York state civil-service com- mission. In 1893 he was appointed to his pres- ent position of consul general for Canada, in which . he represents his government with distinction at Ottawa, the Canadian capital. The close relations existing between the Dominion and the States render the post an important one, and Mr. Riley's appointment thereto may be regarded as a proof of the high estimation in which he is held.
Ever since his early days as a teacher and school commissioner, Mr. Riley has been deeply interested in educational work of all kinds, and he still devotes considerable attention to such matters. He is presi- dent of the board of managers of the State Normal School at Plattsburgh, an institution accommodating more than 200 students, and occupying a handsome building valued at 8125,000, of which the citizens
lise
JOHN B. RILEY
are justly proud. He is also a trustee of the Catholic Summer School of America, which for several years has held annual meetings at Plattsburgh, and is grow- ing in size and popularity year by year.
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PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY -John B. Riley was born at Schuyler Falls, N. Y., September 9, 185.2 ; attended Plattsburgh Academy and Keeseville High School : taught school, 1869-74 ; was school commis- sioner for Clinton county, 1875-81; was admitted to the bar in 1870, and began practice at Plattsburgh,
LESLIE A. RUSSELL.
N. Y. : married Genevieve Desmond of Plattsburgh September 25, 1882 ; was president of the village of Plattsburgh, 1884-85, superintendent of Indian schools, 1885-ST, and chief examiner of the New York state civil-service commission, 1887-93 ; has been consul general for Canada since 1893.
Leslie UO. Russell has an interesting lin- eage, extending back to early colonial days. His father and his grandfather were both lawyers, and his great-grandfather was Dr. Thomas Russch, a brigade surgeon in the revolutionary war. The original an- vestor of the American branch of the family was the Rev. John Russell, who sheltered Goffe and Whalley. of his abilities ; and for the next eight years he the regicide judges, at North Hadley, Mass.
Justice Russell was born in Canton, St. Lawrence county, New York, fifty-odd years ago. After at- tending the common schools and academy of his native town, he began teaching at the age of six- teen. and was so engaged for the next two years. Hle then began his law studies at Albany in the office of Hill, Cagger & Porter. Each of these gentlemen contributed his share to the prestige of this distinguished firm - Nicholas Hill, one of the greatest law- yers in the land ; Peter Cagger, the Democratic leader of the state; and John K. Porter, who afterward became chief counsel for the government in the Gnitean case. Justice Russell completed his studies in the office of Cary & Pratt at Milwaukee, Wis. He was just twenty- one when the war broke out, and he pre- pared to go to the front as a lieutenant in the 1st Wisconsin volunteers. This plan was thwarted by the sudden death of his father, which called him back to Canton, and necessitated his continued residence there.
Abandoning his patriotic intentions, therefore, Justice Russell applied for and obtained admission to the bar, and began practice at once in Canton. In 1862 he entered into partnership with William 11. Sawyer, a former justice of the Su- preme Court, with whom he continued to practice for the next fifteen years. For three years, beginning in 1869, he acted as professor of law in St. Lawrence University.
Justice Russell had long taken great interest in public affairs ; and during his active practice in Canton his ability as a lawyer had been recognized in his election as a member of the state constitutional convention of 1867, and as district attorney of St. Lawrence county for the term 1869-72. In the fall of 1877 he was elected county judge for a term of six years, and carried on his private practice alone while he remained on the bench of the County Court. In November, 1881, however, before the expiration of his term, he was elected attorney-gen- eral of the state, and resigned his position as county judge in order to take up his higher duties at Albany.
On returning for a time to private life in 1884. Justice Russell sought a wider field for the exercise practiced in New York city with distinguished
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success. Some of the cases with which he was con- nected attracted wide attention, notably the Stewart will case, in which he acted as counsel for Judge Hilton in suits with the heirs of Mrs. Stewart ; and the Paine will case, where he succeeded in over- throwing the alleged will of " Miser" Paine. He was also counsel for the state in the Broadway-rail- road litigation, and for the Kings County Elevated Railway Co., the Twenty-third Street Railway Co., and others, and for the receivers of the West Shore railroad.
During his residence in New York Justice Russell served in 1890 as a member of the constitutional commission. In the fall of 1891 he was nominated by both parties for justice of the Supreme Court from the 4th judicial district, and was duly elected, begin- ning his service of fourteen years in that high posi- tion January 1, 1892.
Since his election to the Supreme Court Justice Russell has made his home once more in Canton, though he serves nearly half the year on the bench in New York city. So far back as 1878 he was appointed a regent of the University of the State of New York, and filled the position for many years, resigning on his election as justice of the Supreme Court. Ile is a member of the Bar Association of New York city and of the Lawyers' Club of the same place. He attends the Episcopal church. St. Lawrence Uni- versity conferred upon him in 1877 the degree of L.L. D.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Leslie Wead Russell was born at Canton, N. Y., April 15, 1840 ; was educated at Canton Academy : studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1861 : married Harriet Lawrence of Malone, N. Y., Oc- tober 19, 1864 ; practiced lar at Canton, 1861-81, and at New York city, 1884- 91 ; was district attorney of St. Lawrence county, 1869-72, and county judge, 1878- 81: was attorney-general of New York state, 1882-833 : was a regent of the Uni- versity of the State of New York, 1878- 91 ; was elected justice of the Supreme Court of New York state in 1891.
George henry Beckwith was born in Plattsburgh, N. Y., somewhat more than sixty years ago, and has made his home there ever since. He received a thorough general and clas- sical education, beginning at the Plattsburgh Acad-
emy, and continuing at Amherst College, where he spent his freshman year, and at Williams College, from which he graduated in 1858. Having deter- mined to follow his father's profession, he studied at the Albany Law School, and afterward in his father's office - that of Beckwith, Johnson & Weed. In May, 1860, he was admitted to practice, and began his long term of service at the Clinton- county bar.
Mr. Beckwith began practice with his father in the firm of G. M. & G. H. Beckwith ; and though many changes have taken place in the personnel of the firm in the years since passed, the office still remains essentially the same which Mr. Beckwith entered as a student, and in which he began his work as a lawyer. Soon after his admission to the firm the style became Beckwiths & Johnson ; after
GEORGE HENRY BECKWITH
that Mr. Beckwith's brother was taken into partner- ship, and the firm became known as G. M. Beckwith & Sons ; then the two brothers practiced alone as G. H. & B. M. Beckwith : Beckwiths & Reilly,
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Beekwith, Barnard & Wheeler, and Beckwith & Wheeler were subsequent associations ; and the pres- ent firm of Beckwith & Botsford was established in 1892. Aside from the fact that it is one of the oldest in Plattsburgh, the firm is recognized as one of the most trustworthy and efficient ; and their clientage throughout Clinton county is extensive, and represents many large interests.
Public affairs have not claimed a large share of Mr. Beckwith's attention, but he served for six years as district attorney of Clinton county. At the expiration of this time he declined a renomination, preferring to devote himself to his private practice. Though he takes little interest in public work of a political nature, Mr. Beckwith is not a man who has no sym. pathies outside his profession, and who neglects his public duties. During each presidential election lie has freely given his services as a speaker in behalf of the Republican party. He is more deeply interested, however, in educational, religious, and philanthropic work ; and has done much in various ways to further such undertakings. He has written more or less for the press and the magazines on topics connected with these matters ; and has also delivered numer- ous addresses on publie occasions on social, political, moral, and religious subjects, not a few of which have been printed.
During his college course Mr. Beckwith became a member of the D. K. and D. K. E. societies at Amherst, and of the Alpha Delta Phi at Williams- town. He has for years been a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Plattsburgh, and is a trustee and elder of that body.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- George Henry Beckwith was born at Plattsburgh, N. Y., July 26, 1835 ; graduated from Williams College, Wil- liamstown, Mass., in 1858 ; was admitted to the bar in 1860; was district attorney of Clinton county, 1862-68 : married Emeroy E. Vilas of Plattsburgh September 17, 1860, who died July 29, 1891 ; mar- ried Mrs. Harriet Murchison of Baltimore, Md .. December 2, 1896 : has practiced law at Plattsburgh and New York city since 1860, maintaining an office in each place.
Alphonso Trumpbour Clearwater, county judge of Ulster county, and highly regarded throughout eastern New York in both public and private life, is descended from an old Dutch family that has won distinction on both sides of the ocean. His early ancestors took a prominent part in the eighty-years war that established the Dutch republic. The American branch of the family was founded by Jacobsen Klaarwater (according to the old Dutch
spelling, which remained in use until about a hun- dred years ago), who emigrated from Baarn, Hol- land, and settled in Gister county in 1664. Together with Rip Van Dam, governor of the province. Adolph Phillipse, Dr. Geradus Beekman, and Colonel William Peartree, he procured a patent of 7000 acres of land in the southern part of the county ; and the family has been prominent there ever since. Judge Clearwater's great-great-grandfather and his great-grandfather took part in the revolutionary war, and his grandfather was a soldier in the war of 1812. On his mother's side he is a descendant of Jean Baoudin. a distinguished Huguenot exile.
In professional and public life Judge Clearwater has ably maintained the prestige of the family name. Born at West Point, N. Y., less than fifty years ago, he was educated in New York city and in the acad- emy at Kingston, N. Y. He afterward studied law at the latter place with Judge Augustus Schoonmaker and Senator Jacob Hardenbergh, and was admitted to the bar in 1871. He has lived in Kingston ever since, and has practiced his profession there with uninterrupted success. During the last twenty years, in fact, he has taken part in nearly all the more important cases in Ulster county, and has gained a reputation as one of the most able lawyers in that section of the state.
Judge Clearwater was elected district attorney of Ulster county in 1877, and was re-elected in 1880 and in 1883, thus serving for nine years as the pros- ecuting officer of the county. In 1889 he was elected county judge, and has filled the office ever since, having been re-elected in 1895. He possesses an intimate and accurate knowledge of the law, especially as it relates to criminal cases ; and this knowledge was recognized and utilized by the late David Dudley Field, at whose request he took an active part in preparing the present code of criminal procedure of the state.
The Republican party has always had a strong supporter in Judge Clearwater. He has frequently served as chairman of the county committee, and has been sent as a delegate to national, state, con- gressional, senatorial, and judicial conventions. He is president of the Kingston Club, the Wiltwyck Rural Cemetery Association, and the Citizens Charity Relief Association of Kingston ; and a trus- tee of the Senate House Association of Kingston. He is a prominent and active member of many of the most exclusive clubs and societies in the country. including the Union League, Metropolitan, and Grolier clubs, and the St. Nicholas Society, all of New York city. He is vice president of the Huguenot Society of America, and was the first vice
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president for Kingston of the Holland Society. He was chairman of the Holland Society's committee in the matter of the construction of the monument at Delft Haven, Holland, to commemorate the sailing of the Pilgrims from that port in 1620. In 1888 he visited Europe, and was present at the dinner given to the Holland Society by the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Rotterdam, and delivered the response to the bur- gomaster's address of welcome. Judge Clearwater belongs to the society of the Sons of the Revolution, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, the Holland Society, the New York His- torical Society, the State Bar Associa- tion, and the Ex Libris societies of London and Washington. He has de- livered many historical addresses, and is a frequent after-dinner speaker at the meetings of the various societies to which he belongs.
Judge Clearwater has been for many years deeply interested in the preserva- tion and publication of data relative to the formative period of this republic, particularly that in which the residents of Ulster county bore a conspicuous part ; and at his request the board of supervisors of Ulster county have under- taken and are now carrying on under his supervision the translation of the Dutch records of the county, from 1614 to 1777. He has also taken an active in- terest in the preservation and publica- tion of the records of the Dutch churches of the county ; and it is largely due to his efforts that the records of two of the most famous churches in America, the . old Dutch Church at Kingston, and the Huguenot Dutch Church at New Paltz, have been translated and published. The further prosecution of this work is now being carried on by the Holland Society, of which Judge Clearwater was one of the founders, and of which he is one of the most active members.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Alphonso Trumpbour Clearwater was born at West Point, N. Y., September 11, 1848 : was educated in New York city and at Kingston (N. Y. ) Academy ; studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1871 ; married Anna Houghtaling Farrand, formerly of San Fran- cisco, Cal., September 20, 1875 : was district attorney of Ulster county, 1878-86 ; has been county judge of Ulster county since January 1, 1800.
Samuel Foster is well known in the legal profession of Troy, where he has practiced most of the time for the last quarter of a century. Born in Rensselaer county fifty years ago, at the age of five he began attending the little country school known in the neighborhood as the " Foster schoolhouse,"
ALPHONSO TRUMPBOUR CLEARWATER
from its situation near his father's farm. His school life ended when he was only eleven years old : but he studied persistently and successfully by himself, and by the time he was sixteen he was teaching Latin, French, algebra, and geometry. He was engaged in teaching most of the time for the next six years ; but in March, 1869, he moved to Troy. and began the study of law.
Admitted to the bar in September, 1871, Mr. Foster at once began to practice in Troy, and devoted himself uninterruptedly to his profession for upwards of fifteen years. During most of that time he was associated with Gilbert Robertson, Jr., and John C. Greene in the firm of Robertson, Greene & Foster. In the spring of 1888 he made a radical change,
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moving to Kansas City, and engaging in business in partnership with C. R. Hicks. The depressed financial condition of the country beginning in 1893 rendered this western venture unsuccessful ; and in 1896 Mr. Foster returned to Troy, and resumed his law practice. He at once renewed his association
SAMUEL FOSTER
with Gilbert Robertson, one of his former partners, but the connection was terminated in a few weeks by Mr. Robertson's death. Mr. Foster then esta !- lished with John P. Kelly and William Isenberg the firm of Foster, Kelly & Isenberg, which still con- tinue ..
Mr. Foster has always been a Republican in poli- tics, and has long been interested in public affairs. January 1, 1876, he was appointed assistant district attorney for Rensselaer county ; and in November, 1×75, he was elected district attorney for the term 1879-$1. He discharged the dates of the office so efficiently that in 1882 he was nominated as the Republican candidate for county judge, but shared in the general defeat of the party in that year.
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