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 31
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PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY -- George Eugene Priest was born at Auburn, N. Y., June 25, 1848 : studied law, but did not apply for admission to the bar; married Amelia E. Burritt of Ithaca, N. Y., October 22, 1865 ; was deputy county clerk of Tompkins county in 1870; served in the special agency of the treasury department at New York city, 1870-14 : has been editor and part owner of the Ithaca "Journal" since 187%.
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GEORGE E. PRIEST
Leroy G. Good, who was elected mayor of the city of Ithaca in March, 1895, is a native of Tompkins county, and has lived there always. He brought to the duties of the mayoralty an intelligent
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appreciation of its responsibilities, and a thorough acquaintance with the needs and possibilities of the community, acquired through a residence of over twenty years in Ithaca. The qualities that enable a man to manage his own business prudently, saga- ciously, and successfully are just the qualities needed
LEROY G. TODD
for the successful conduct of municipal affairs ; and thus the energetic, experienced business man, rather than the professional politician, is best fitted for responsible public offices.
Mr. Todd was born at Newfield, Tompkins county, in the mid. year of the century. He at- tended the district schools at the neighboring town of West Danby, and then took a course at Ithaca Academy. His education ended, he taught school for a short time, and then obtained employment as clerk and telegraph operator in a general store at Pond Eddy, Sullivan county. After remaining there a little more than two years, he returned to Tomp- kins county in 1872. and in the following March took up his residence at Ithaca. His experience at
Pond Eddy had convinced him that mercantile life was his vocation, and he now became general sales- man in the dry-goods house of Marsh & Hall. He remained with this firm ten years, and thoroughly familiarized himself with all the details of such an establishment. At the end of this time he helped to organize the firm of Hawkins, Todd & Co., successors to Hawkins, Finch & Co., dry-goods merchants, in Ithaca. In February, 1890, Mr. Rounseville, the " Co." of the firm, retired from the busi- ness, and it has since been conducted under the name of Hawkins & Todd.
Mr. Todd has always been a loyal citi- zen, interested in public affairs, and willing to devote time and thought to the welfare of the community where he has lived. His first public office was held in 1886 and 1887, when he acted as trustee of what was then the village of Ithaca. Later, in 1893-95, he represented the city of Ithaca on the board of supervisors of Tompkins county. He was thus well qualified to discharge the duties of mayor of the city, when subsequently elected to that office.
Business cares and public duties have occupied Mr. Todd's attention to the exclusion of any marked outside interests ; but he has not allowed himself to become so absorbed thereby as to neglect the social side of his nature. He is a member of Ho- basco Lodge, No. 716, Free and Accepted Masons ; Eagle Chapter, No. 58, Royal Arch Masons ; St. Augustine Command- ery, No. 38; Cascadilla Lodge, No. 89, Knights of Pythias, of Ithaca ; and Damas- cus Temple, Order of the Mystic Shrine, Rochester. He belongs, also, to Tornado Hook and Ladder Company, Ithaca fire department. PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY -- Leroy Goyne Todd was born at Newfield, N. Y., September 17, 1850; was educated in the district schools and at Ithaca ( N. Y. ) Academy ; was clerk and telegraph operator at Pond Eddy, N. Y., 1869-12: went to Ithaca in 1813, and acted as salesman in a dry-goods store until 1883 ; was village trustee of Ithaca, 1886-ST, member of the board of supervisors, 1893-95, and was elected mayor in March, 1895 ; has conducted a dry-goods store at Ithaca since 1883.
Quincy Vel. Wellington has scaled the Hadder of successful enterprise, and from an errand boy in a country store has become a banker and
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capitalist. His father came from the Green Moun- tuin State, and settled at Moriah, Essex county, N. Y., in the early part of the century. There Quincy was born in 1832. The opportunities afforded by a district school fifty years ago were meager indeed. The curriculum was limited to the " three R's." usually taught by some bright collegian who had taken up teaching as a stepping-stone to a profession. Mr. Wellington's school training con- sisted of this rudimentary drill, but like many others h. made this foundation support a lofty structure of varied knowledge gathered in later years.
After obtaining all the education afforded by the district school, Mr. Wellington spent several years in Pennsylvania as a clerk in mercantile houses, and for a time conducted a business of his own with the aid of a partner. When a little past his majority he went to Corning, N. Y., in the service of the New York & Lake Erie railroad. He terminated his connection with this road to enter a field for which, as events have proved, he was well fitted. He en- tered the employ of the Geo. Washington Bank at Corning in 1859, and after three years' practical training in that institution he organized, in company with Samuel Russell, the banking house of Q. W. Wellington & Co. For more than thirty years this concern has received the support and confidence of Corning's business men and citizens generally. Mr. Russell retired from the firm many years ago, and Mr. Wellington subsequently asso- ciated with him in the business his son, ex-Mayor Wellington.
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No profession or vocation demands a higher order of talent or more upright standards of morality than that of bank- ing and financiering. The care and in- vestment of other people's moncy, the fluctuations of the markets, the sliding scale of adjustment needed to meet the shrinkage and expansion of a commu- nity's commercial operations, impose re- sponsibility and labor that none can undertake and maintain year after year : unless specially equipped for that purpose. Mr. Wellington fortunately possesses the requisite talents, together with the tact so valuable and essential in the delicate relations oftentimes existing between a banker and his customers. To all patrons of the bank . Mr. Wellington is a safe custodian of their funds, a sagacious officer, and a trustworthy adviser.
The talents that have brought Mr. Wellington such prosperity in private pursuits have been exerted freely in behalf of public interests. He has grudged neither time. effort, nor means, in the advancement of enterprises having for their object the develop- ment of Corning. He is vice president of the Board of Trade, treasurer of the board of education, and takes an active interest in all local matters. Politics he eschews, beyond such participation as is required of every public-spirited man. He is a vestryman of Christ's Church, and a member of the Masonic order and of the City Club.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Quincy Win- throp W'ellington was born at Moriah, N. Y., Decem- ber 27, 1832; was educated in the district schools .; engaged in mercantile business, 1849-54 ; married Matilda B. Wickham of Tioga, Penn., May 13, 1857 ;
QUINCY HE WELLINGTON
was employed in the Geo. Washington Bank of Corn- ing, N. Y., 1850-62 ; organized the banking house of Q. W. Wellington & Co. at Corning in 1862, and has been president thereof since.
MMEN OF NEW YORK - CHEMUNG SECTION
Roger J6. Vailliams is a man who delights to devote his talent and energy to the advancement of the town in which he lives. The city of Ithaca has few more public-spirited citizens than he. In fact, he is one of the men who made the city, having been a member of the commission that framed and
ROGER B. WILLIAMS
helped to secure the adoption of its first charter. All movements for the civil and physical betterment of Ithaca receive his earnest assistance. He has been especially active in helping to solve the difficult sewerage problem that troubled the people of Ithaca for many years. A highly educated gentleman himself, he has taken especial interest in the work of public education, and has given much time to organizing and building up the public-school system of the city.
Love for Ithaca is natural to Mr. Williams, for he was born there, and has lived there all his years. It
was in the public schools and academy of Ithaca that he obtained his early training, and probably the only reason why he did not finish his education at
Cornell University is that Cornell was not opened in time for him. As it was, he went to Yale, where he received his B. A. degree at the age of twenty, in the same year that Cornell was first opened to students. He won the higher degree of Master of Arts at Yale three years later.
Young as he was, he became cashier of the Merchants' and Farmers' National Bank of Ithaca as soon as he had gradu- ated from college. He held the place for four years, and then resigned to enter the firm of Williams Bros., manufacturers of machinery and agricultural imple- ments. About two years later he was guilty of his first and only disloyalty to Ithaca, for he went to Brooklyn to secure a wife. The disloyalty can be easily forgiven, however, since he brought his wife back to Ithaca to become an addition to the social life of the city.
Mr. Williams is now the sole member of the firm of Williams Bros., his two former partners having withdrawn, at different times, many years ago. His early experience in banking naturally led him to look to the banking business as a good field in which to invest surplus capital ; and he has been for some ten. years president of the Ithaca Savings Bank, and is also a director of the First National Bank of Ithaca.
Mr. Williams is a Republican, and has repeatedly been asked to accept nomina- tions for various political offices : but he has always declined. He likes better to serve the public as one of those honorary commissioners, who, freed from the tur- moil of partisan struggles, are able to give their whole attention to municipal matters, and who find their reward in the conscious- ness of work well done. Thus he has been for the last six years president of the board of education, and chairman of the board of sewer commissioners since its creation in the spring of 1895, besides serving on various commissions that planned and put into effect the present sewerage system of the city.
Ile is frequently called on to assume private as well as public trusts, and has acted as executor and administrator of several important estates. He is a member of the Cornell Library Association and the Ithaca City Hospital Association, and is officially connected with various other corporations and asso- ciations of a public-spirited or philanthropic charac- ter. Ile belongs to the Presbyterian church, and is
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a member of the Alpha Delta Phi and Phi Beta > small country town is not the most effective weapon Kappa college fraternities.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY -- Roger Butler Williams was born at Ithaca, N. Y., May 8, 1848; graduated from Yale College in 1868 ; was cashier of the Merchants' and Farmers' National Bank, Ithaca, 1868-72 ; married Carrie L. Romer of Brooklyn, N. Y., December 17, 1874 ; has carried on the manu- facture of machinery and agricultural implements in Ithaca since 1872 ; has been president of the Ithaca Savings Bank since 1886.
Martin Hosit has lived a long, useful, and honorable life. He has had two distinct careers, each of which was complete in itself, and either of which alone would be deemed unusually successful. For the first half of his active life he was a merchant, and acquired a substantial competence in that calling. He then entered upon a new vocation -- that of a banker - and for the last thirty years he has been so engaged. A thorough mastery of busi- ness principles and long experience in the practical application of such princi- ples, constitute the best possible founda- tion on which to base a banking career ; and almost as a matter of course Mr. Adsit attained success from the begin- ning in his new sphere of action.
Martin Adsit was born in Columbia county, New York, so long ago that the date suggests strange conditions of life - in December, 1812, before a steamship had crossed the Atlantic, or a railway had been heard of, or numberless essen- tials of present-day existence had been even imagined. His people did not long remain in the Hudson-river county, moving to Chenango county when Mar- tin was a boy. He stayed there a few years, but went further west to Hornells- ville in December, 1826, to live with his uncle, Ira Davenport. Steuben county was then a wilderness, and Hornellsville had only twenty-five houses. Mr. Dav- enport was the only merchant in the place. Ilis nephew Martin entered the store at once, as a general-utility boy for the first two years, and after that as clerk. He worked so faithfully that his uncle, in 1833, gave him a half interest in the profits of the business. This arrangement continued until 1844, when Mr. Adsit, then only thirty-two years old, bought out his uncle. A general store in a
possible with which to carve out a fortune, and Mr. Adsit must have possessed rare business talent to accomplish so much under the given conditions. He retained his interest in the business until the '60's, finally selling out in order to devote his time to banking affairs.
In November, 1863, Mr. Adsit, his uncle Ira Davenport, and Constant Cook of Bath, organized the First National Bank of Hornellsville. They and two others constituted the first board of directors, who held all the stock. 850,000 capital was paid up, and the bank opened its doors May 1, 1864, with Ira Davenport as president and Martin Adsit as cash- ier. In June, 1865, on the resignation of the presi- dent, Mr. Adsit assumed the office, and has retained it ever since. Under his efficient management the
MARTIN ADSEE
institution prospered greatly, and in a few years he was able to buy out his associates, and to increase the capital stock of the bank to $100,000. Five per cent semi-annual dividends have been paid for many
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years, and a large surplus has been accumulated. Mr. Adsit's son Charles is cashier of the bank.
Martin Adsit has now lived in Hornellsville more than seventy years. He has seen the place grow from a part of the primeval forest. He has himself had much to do with this development, and has been in a degree the cause of it. His position in the business of the town ever since it had any business has made him universally known : while his honor- able and straightforward methods have made him as universally respected and trusted.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Martin Adsit was born at Spencertown, Columbia county, N. Y., December 26, 1812; went to Hornellsville, N. Y., in 1826, and worked in his uncle's store ; became a partner in the business in 1833, and bought out his uncle in 1844 ; married Esther Jane Charles, daugh- ter of Dr. Richard Charles of Angelica, N. Y., Sep- tember 8, 1841 ; helped to organize the First National Bank of Hornellsville in 1863, and has been president thereof since 1865.
Archie LE. Baxter, familiarly known in politi- cal and legal circles over a wide area as " Colonel Archie Baxter," was born in Port Glasgow, Scot- land, about fifty years ago. In early boyhood he was brought to this country, attending school in New York city about two years. Having moved to Corning, N. Y., in 1852, he continued his educa- tion there, and graduated from Corning Academy in 1860. In 1862, when less than eighteen years old, he enlisted in company E, 141st regiment, New York volunteers. He remained in the army through- out the rest of the war, rising rapidly in the service, and ultimately attaining successively the positions of first lieutenant, captain, and brevet major of volunteers. At the close of the war he was made adjutant of the 106th regiment, N. G., S. N. Y., and a few years later he became lieutenant colonel of that regiment. He retained this office for several years.
Beginning his war experience near Washington with picket duty at Long Bridge and historic Arling- ton, the former home of General Lee, Colonel Baxter spent the spring of 1863 under General John A. Dix. In the summer of the same year he took part in the battles of Wauhatchie, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge. In the spring of 1864 he was in the battles between Chattanooga and Atlanta, and was wounded at the battle of Resaca, Ga. During this engagement he was stationed near the part of the line where General Harrison made his memorable capture of a rebel battery, and in the Harrison campaigns Colonel Baxter often
described this famous exploit. Having passed through Atlanta, he set out with Sherman on the " March to the Sea," was present at the capture of Savannah, proceeded northward through the Caro- linas, and took part in the battle of Bentonville just after Lee's surrender. Near Raleigh, N. C., Colonel Baxter led a charge across a bridge at the head of his company, under a galling fire, and en- gaged the enemy while the bridge was being re- paired. This was the last fighting done by the 141st regiment.
Colonel Baxter's military career showed remark- able advancement for so young a man ; but his later achievements in the field of politics and law have eclipsed the brilliant record of bis earlier life. Having returned to Corning at the close of the war, he entered the service of the Tioga Railroad Co. As assistant to the secretary and treasurer, with the office of paymaster as well, he remained with the Tioga company from 1865 until 1872. At this early period Colonel Baxter was already beginning to interest himself in political affairs ; and in the fall of 1874 he was elected county clerk of Steuben county. He held this office three years, changing his residence from Corning to Bath. the county seat.
Somewhat later in life than would have been most advantageous, Colonel Baxter discovered that the legal profession was his proper vocation. While county clerk at Bath he filed his certificate as a law student in Judge William Rumsey's office, and in 1878-79 he attended the Albany Law School. Having graduated from that institution with the class of 1879, of which he was elected president, he formed a partnership with John W. Brown, and began practice at Elmira in the September follow- ing. The partnership with Mr. Brown continued until 1884; and for three years, beginning in 1890, Colonel Baxter was in the firm of Babcock, Baxter & Gibson. Otherwise he has carried on his legal work without the aid of associates. Though he did not begin practice until he was nearly thirty-five years old, Colonel Baxter quickly recovered lost ground ; and he has long been known as one of the ablest and most successful lawyers in the Southern Tier.
To the general public, however, especially to the public of the state at large as distinguished from the people of Steuben and adjoining counties, Colonel Baxter is best known for his prominence in politi- cal life. For the last thirty years he has taken an active part in the councils and the field work of the Republican party. He has gone on the platform in every important campaign since the close of the war, and has thereby acquired a wide reputa- tion as a powerful and convincing public speaker.
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Nominated for congress in 1882, he failed of elec- tion, but ran 2000 votes ahead of the party ticket. He was appointed United States marshal by Presi - dent Harrison on June 18, 1889, and held the office for five years from that date.
Colonel Baxter is greatly interested in Masonry, belonging to all the bodies of the order up to and including the 32d degree. He is also an Elk. His military career naturally makes him a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Hle attends the Episcopal church.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Archie Easton Baxter was born at Port Glasgow, Scotland, December 16, 1844; was educated in the public schools of New York city and at Corning (N. Y.) Acad- emy ; served in the Union army, 1862- 65 ; was in the employ of the Tioga Rail- road Co. at Corning, 1865-72; mar- ried Rosemond E. Wheeler of Cohocton, N. Y., April 9, 1873; was county clerk of Steuben county, 1875-77; has practiced law at Elmira, N. Y., since 1879.
Alexander C. Eustace, one of the most successful trial lawyers in Che- mung county, and prominent for many years in the councils of the Democratic party in central and southern New York, was born in Troy, N. Y., in 1855. His early education was obtained in private schools, and later he attended the public schools. When he was twelve years of age his parents moved to Elmira from Lewis county, whence they had gone from Troy ; and Elmira has ever since been his home. There he completed his education, graduating from Elmira Academy in 1873 with honors.
For the next two years Mr. Eustace was engaged in business, occupying his time outside of his em- ployment with a course of reading preparatory to the study of law. Later he entered upon this study zealously at Albany, in the office of the well-known firm of Smith, Bancroft & Moak. Admitted to the bar in 1879, he opened an office in Elmira the same year, and commenced the practice of his profession. In 1890 he associated with him his brother, Joseph P. Eustace, then just admitted to the bar, and the two have since practiced together under the firm name of A. C. & J. P. Eustace. Their office is one of the busiest in Elmira, and they have a large
clientage throughout Chemung and the adjoining counties.
Mr. Eustace's political career began at the un- usually early age of twenty, and he has taken a prominent part in the affairs of the Democratic party ever since. Elected state comptroller in the
ARCHIE E. BAXTER
fall of 1875, Lucius Robinson appointed Mr. Eus- tace an assistant in the tax department of his office. Mr. Eustace filled this position with such satisfaction to his superior that in 1878 he was called upon by Mr. Robinson, then governor of New York state, to fill a vacancy in the responsible position of county clerk of Chemung county. In the fall of the same year the Democratic party nominated Mr. Eustace to succeed himself ; but the local party organization was much demoralized that year, owing to the " greenback craze." and he was defeated by the Republican candidate, though he ran several hun- dred votes ahead of his ticket. Three years later he was again his party's choice for the office, and was elected over his former opponent, Theodore G.
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Smith, by a decisive majority. In December, 1889, Governor Hill appointed Mr. Eustace one of the state civil-service commissioners, and his colleagues on the board elected him president of the commis- sion. This position he hekl until February, 1893. For four years, beginning in 1889, he was a member
ALEXANDER C. EUSTACE
of the Democratic state committee, and in 1892 was a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Chicago. Since his resignation from the state com- mittee in 1893 he has been less active than formerly in political affairs.
In the social life of Elmira Mr. Eustace holds the prominent place to which his professional and political attainments entitle him. He is a mem- ber of the principal clubs of the city, and has many friends throughout the state in both public and private life.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Alexander Christopher Eustace was born at Tror, N. Y., May 1.2, 1855 ; was educated in private and public schools ; studied law in Albany, and was admitted to the bar in
1879; was county clerk of Chemung county in 1878 and in 1882-84 ; was state civil-service commissioner, 1889-93, a member of the Democratic state committee, 1889-93, and a delegate to the Democratic national convention in 1892 : has practiced law in Elmira, N. Y., since 1879.
George JE. Green, mayor of Bing- hamton, N. Y., is descended from Eng- lish ancestors who came to America nearly two centuries ago. His grand- father, Samuel Van Buskirk Green, was a gallant soldier in the war of 1812; and his great-grandfather was a civil engineer of repute, whose signature may still be found on the old surveying records of Baltimore. Born in the town of Kirkwood, Broome county, N. Y., in 1858, Mr. Green spent his boyhood on the home farm. Over fourtcen years of his early life were passed in a log house on a farm entirely surrounded by wood- land. lle acquired some fundamental knowledge in the district schools, but was obliged to devote a large part of his time to work on the farm. After the age of sixteen, indeed, he was forced by the ill health and financial reverses of his parents to give up in great part the benefits of home life, and even the mea- ger schooling previously enjoyed. Un- der such circumstances he turned to mercantile life as the readiest means of relief. Obtaining a position in a gen- eral store at Port Crane, N. Y., at a salary of three dollars weekly, without board, he learned the rudiments of com- mercial knowledge. Subsequently he engaged in the same business at Tusca- rora, Broome county ; and finally, in 1879, he be- gan his residence in Binghamton by taking a clerk- ship in a grocery there.
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