USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester county in history; manual and civil list, past and present. County history: towns, hamlets, villages and cities, Volume II > Part 26
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Credit is given lawyer Hunt for " rapid firing " that brought down his game (he is a hunter for pastime). He started in on Saturday, followed it up on Monday, was not disconcerted by a knock-out, was at it the next day, on Wednesday he suc- ceeded in getting the ear of the Court of Appeals, on Thursday the highest Court rewarded him, and on Friday he brought down his game and went away with it.
Mr. Emmet lived but little over a month to enjoy his victory, he died February 9, 1897; no election was held to fill the vacancy.
Members of Assembly serving this County in years past, in many instances were promoted to higher official positions :
Elijah Lee, Assemblyman 1799, County Judge 1802; Wil- liam Requa, Assemblyman in 1816, County Clerk in 1820; Eben- ezer White, Jr., Assemblyman in 1817, Surrogate in 1821; Wil- liam Nelson, Assemblyman in 1821, District Attorney in 1823; Jared V. Peck, Assemblyman in 1848, Congressman in 1853 and Presidential Elector in 1856; William H. Robertson, first an Assemblyman in 1849, State Senator, Congressman, Senator, Collector of the Port; Daniel Clark Briggs, Assemblyman in 1851, District Attorney 1872; Abraham B. Tappan, Assembly- man in 1858, became a Supreme Court Justice; E. G. Suther- land, in 1858, became Senator; James S. See, in 1859, a Justice of Sessions ; N. Holmes Odell, of 1860-61, County Treasurer and Congressman; Chauncey M. Depew, of 1862-63, Secretary of State and various offices, last United States Senator; Alsop H.
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Lockwood was Sheriff before he was Assemblyman in 1864; Franklin W. Gilley, of 1864, a School Commissioner; Henry C. Nelson, of 1868, became Senator; G. Hilton Scribner, of 1871, became Secretary of State; William Cauldwell, of 1874, became Senator; D. Wiley Travis, of 1879, Village Counsel and Police Justice; William H. Catlin, of 1880-81, became State Superin- tendent of Highways in 1911 ;* George W. Robertson, Assembly- man in 1882, later became a Senator; Charles P. McClelland, of 1885-6, later became Senator and a General U. S. Appraiser; J. Irving Burns, of 1887-8, became Senator; William Ryan, of 1891-92, became a Congressman; W. J. Graney, of 1898, became a Senator ; Alfred W. Cooley, of 1900-01, became a United States Civil Service Commissioner, and later an Associate U. S. Attor- ney-General; J. Mayhew Wainwright, of 1904-5-6-7-8, became a Senator in 1909.
.NOTE -- William Francis Moller, who represented the Second Assembly Dis- trict of this county in the State Assembly in the years 1877-78, died, at the age of sixty-three years, on February 15, 1910, at his home at Jamaica Plain, Boston, Mass. He was a son of the late William Moller. To enable him to engage in. business in Boston he declined re-election after 1878. He was always popular.
* William H. Catlin died suddenly in Albany on October 5, 1911.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
JAMES W. HUSTED, SR.
James . William Husted, lawyer, Member of Assembly, Speaker of the Assembly, and the holder of various public offices and one of the most distinguished citizens of the county where he was born, at Bedford, on October 31, 1833.
His parents were Americans, who were descendants of English and French immigrants.
He was prepared for college at Bedford Academy, where he later be- came an instructor; he graduated from Yale College in 1854; one of his classmates being Chauncey M. Depew, of Peekskill, afterward one of his most intimate friends. He was admitted to the bar in 1857
For over thirty years Mr. Husted was in active political life. He be- came a member of the Republican party in 1859, and attended its na- tional conventions as a delegate -in 1876, 1880,- 1884; and in 1888. In 1881 he was the unsuccessful candi- date of his party for State Treasurer,
the only State office he ever ran for. After that he confined his running to his own locality and was always suc- cessful. He first became a Member of Assembly from this county in 1869, and was continuously a mem- ber from the Third District until 1878. In the year 1878 he was elected an Assemblyman from Rock- land County, and was again elected from that county in 1879. Return- ing to his home county and the third district, he was again elected an Assemblyman in 1880. He suf- fered his first defeat when running for the Assembly in 1882, when John Hoag, Democrat, of Sing Sing, won over him. In 1883 he defeated Hoag. From that time, up to and including the year of his death, he served his district in the State Legislature as an Assemblyman.
He had the longest legislative ser- vice of any member of the Legisla- ture, and indeed the longest of any man in the history of the State, namely twenty-two years. He also
Gaya by HE. Han Sons Net Kort
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had the distinction of having been Speaker more times than any other man. He was Speaker in 1874-76- 78-86-87-90, six times.
He held many public offices; that
of Superintendent of Schools, School Commissioner, Deputy Super- intendent of Insurance, Harbor Master, Emigration Commissioner and Deputy Captain of the Port of New York.
Interesting himself in the State National Guard, he became Judge · Advocate of the Seventh Brigade and later Major-General of the Fifth Di- vision.
He belonged to numerous organiza- tions, civic and military. He was a distinguished Mason, belonging to several branches of that order; once held the exalted position of Grand Master of the Masonic fra- ternity; he wore the jewel of the thirty-third degree.
Mr. Husted died at his home in Peekskill, on September 25, 1892. (See biography, page 76, Vol. 1.)
John Hoag of Ossining, repre- senting the Third District as As- semblyman in 1883, defeated James W. Husted, the Republican nominee. Mr. Hoag was Supervisor of the town of Ossining in 1873-74-78-79-80-81. Was County Treasurer from 1891 to 1897. Later became president of the Westchester Trust Company at Yon- kers, and served as director of the Sing Sing National Bank and as trustee of the Sing Sing Savings Bank. (See biography, page 131, Vol. 1.)
Charles P. McClelland, of Dobbs Ferry, Assemblyman from the First District in 1885-86-91. Was first elected State Senator in 1895. (See biography, page 138, Vol. 1.)
BRADFORD RHODES.
age, in 1864, he made an effort to serve his country in the army by en- listing in the 134th Pennsylvania Volunteers. He passed the physical examination, but the mustering offi- cer would not swear him in, on ac- count of his youthful look. In 1872 he went to New York and engaged in newspaper work, but it was not long until he embarked in business for himself. About this time he became a resident of this County, residing in Scarsdale.
In 1877 he established "Rhodes' Journal of Banking," which soon be- came the leading bankers' publica- tion of the country. In 1895 he pur- chased the "Bankers' Magazine," the oldest financial publication in the United States, and consolidated the two periodicals under the title of the "Bankers' Magazine and Rhodes' Journal of Banking."
Being a man of affairs, he readily took a commanding position in his home County of Westchester. Though a specially busy man, he recognized that he had to make some sacrifices of time in the name of good citizen- ship. In 1887 he was prevailed upon to accept the Republican nomination for Member of Assembly to represent the Second Assembly District. The district had previously been repre- sented by Democrats continuously for many years, and the prospect con- fronting the Republican nominee was not very cheering. The energetic characteristics of Mr. Rhodes had the desired effect; he was elected, and for the two succeeding years was re-elected, serving during the years 1888-89-90.
Mr. Rhodes' record as a legislator reflects credit upon those whom he served as well as upon himself. The chief characteristics of Mr. Rhodes as an Assemblyman were his great industry and his unbending integrity. He was thoroughly devoted to the duties of the position and labored incessantly, both upon the floor and in committees, to perfect and elabor- ate legislation. Nobody ever sus- pected him of favoring a bill or ad- vocating a scheme from the impulse of selfish or mercenary motives. He regarded all questions from the broad, general stand-point of public expediency and justice.
Bradford Rhodes, former Assem- blyman, publisher, banker, etc., was born in Beaver County, Pa., Febru- ary 25, 1849. His father was farmer, of that sturdy Pennsylvania stock whence has come some of the best brain and physical workers of the nation, the son inheriting not a few of the father's characteristics. The son was educated at Beaver Academy, and soon after his gradua- tion became principal of Darlington He was urged to become a candi- Academy. When sixteen years of date for the State Senate, but he de-
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cided to devote his time to his pri- vate business. For the same reason, in 1892, he declined a unanimous nomination for Congress.
Mr. Rhodes is president of the First National Bank and the Union Savings Bank of Mamaroneck. He has several times been chosen chair- man of Group VI. of the New York State Bankers' Association, and has served as a member of the Execu- tive Council of the American Bank- ers' Association. In both these as- sociations he is known as an influen- tial worker, and has done much to increase their usefulness.
Besides the business connections mentioned, he is a director in several large corporations, and al- though he divides his time with every enterprise with which he is connected, he yet gives personal attention to the details of his private affairs.
Affable and pleasing in his ad- dress, unpretentious and unostenta- tious in his demeanor, yet with a quiet dignity and force of character that never fail to win him the place his merits claim, Mr. Rhodes is gen- erally and deservedly popular. The important trusts which have been committed to his charge, and the eminent position which he now occu- pies, furnish another instance of the successful self-made man which is the glory of our republican institu- tions.
He is a member of the Union League Club, the Larchmont Yacht Club, the Republican Club, the New York Chamber of Commerce, the Transportation Club and the Wyk- agyl Country Club, as well as of other organizations.
He was married on February 27, 1878, to Miss Caroline Augusta Fuller, eldest daughter of James M. and Jane A. Fuller, of Mamaroneck, this County.
James Irving Burns, of Yonkers, as Assemblyman represented the First District in 1887-88-90 and 1895. He first served as State Sen- ator in 1896. (See page 168, Vol. 1.)
Thomas Kevan Fraser, of Has- tings-on-Hudson, Assemblyman from the First District, two terms, 1892- 93. (See biography, page 139, Vol. 1.)
JAMES W. HUSTED, JR.
James William Husted, Jr., a former Member of Assembly, Presi- dent of the village of Peekskill, etc., was born on March 16, 1870, at Peekskill, the second son of Hon. James W. Husted, who had a longer legislative experience than any man in the history of the State, and also . had the distinction of having been Speaker more times than any other man, serving one time more than his nearest competitor. (See page 76, volume 1.) Mr. Husted, Sr., served his last term in the Assembly in the winter of 1892; he died the same year, before the next election, on September 25. Two years later his son, James W. Husted, Jr., was elected to take his lamented father's place in the Legislature, from the same Third Assembly District.
The latter was educated at And- over Academy and Yale University; graduating from Yale in 1892. Deciding to adopt the profession of law, he entered the New York Law Schood, from which he graduated in 1894. This same year he be- came the Republican nominee for Member of Assembly. The two years intervening between the year his father last represented the dis- trict and this time, from 1892 to 1894, the district had elected a Democratic Assemblyman; to re- deem the district, the promising son of "Westchester's Bald Eagle" Husted, was urged to run; he did what was desired of him; he was not only elected that year, but was re-elected in 1895-96, serving three years. Then he retired to devote his time to the practice of law. His re- tirement had the effect of permit- ting a Democrat to be elected in his stead.
He was given a prominent posi- tion in the Assembly the first year of his service, an unusual favor granted to a "youngster." In the second year he was made chairman of one of the most important com- mittees, that of Insurance, and was also on other prominent committees.
In 1897 Mr. Husted was again chairman of the Insurance Committee and member of other prominent com- mittees. He proved an intelligent legislator in whom his fellow mem- bers had entire confidence, as was shown by responsibilities assigned to
BRADFORD RHODES
JAMES W. HUSTED, JR.
y
ALFRED E. SMITH
HOLLAND S. DUELL
FRANK L. YOUNG
HARRY W. HAINES
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him, the youngest man among the , was asked by the latter to take legislative membership in those years.
Mr. Husted was elected President of the village of Peekskill, serving in the years 1903-4-5.
He has been a member of the Board of Education, district No. 7, since 1900, and president of the Board for the last eight years.
Mr. Husted's legal practice is ex- tensive and growing. He has ap- peared in many important cases that have attracted wide attention owing to intricate legal questions involved.
He is a member of numerous fraternal, political and social or- ganizations in his town, county and in the city of New York. He is president of the New England Pin Company, director of the New Eng- land Knitting Company, director of the Peekskill National Bank, treas- 'urer of the Mohegan Stove Com- pany, etc.
Mr. Husted was married June 12, 1895, to Miss Louise Wetmore Spaulding, daughter of Jay E. and Eliza Wetmore Spaulding, of Win- sted, Conn. There are six children, James William, aged 15 years; John .G. W., aged 14; Priscilla Alden, aged 12 years; David Raymond, aged 11 years; Ellery Spaulding, aged 10 years, and Robert, aged six years.
George L. Carlisle, of New Rochelle, represented the Second District in the Assembly in 1896. (See biography, page 140, Vol. 1.)
ALFRED E. SMITH.
Alfred Ebenezer Smith, a former Member of Assembly, Corporation "Counsel, President of Village of Bronxville, etc., was born in Bronx- ville, this County (where he has ever resided), on February 21, 1864.
Mr. Smith is a direct descendant of Capt. Ebenezer Smith, who as commander of a company of min- ute men fought at Bunker Hill :and throughout the War of the Revo- lution, only retiring when peace was ·established in 1783, being in active service eight years, eight months and nine days; he was the oldest captain in the Massachusetts line, "he being connected with a Massachu- setts regiment. He was stationed :at West Point when Andre was brought there. Capt. Smith, an in- timate friend of Gen. Washington,
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charge of Andre, to stand guard over him and prevent his escape, Gen. Washington adding that the times were such, and there was so much treachery all about that he did not know whom to trust, "but, Captain, I know I can trust you." To this the brave captain replied, "I will answer. with my life for his safety." André was under his charge in old Fort Putnam, at West Point, and at Tappan. During the still hours of night André became confidential and talked of his hopes and fears, to the sympathetic Cap- tain as he talked to no other.
Alfred E. Smith was educated in public and private schools and at Williston Seminary, at East Hamp- ton, Mass., from which he graduated in 1883.
His first position in the public ser- vice was that secured from Collector of the Port, William H. Robertson, for a temporary period; next he was appointed a Sanitary Inspector in the New York City Health Depart- ment, under Civil Service competi- tion. During leisure hours while holding these positions, he studied law, attending the late afternoon lectures at Columbia Law School. Relinquishing his position in the Health Department, he accepted a position on the New York Lumber Trade Journal and traveled about the Union for two and a half years; in 1889 he opened an advertising agency in New York and again took up the study of law, entering the of- fices of Fullerton & Rushmore; he graduated from the University Law School in 1890. Shortly after this he started in practice, on his own ac- count.
In 1896 Mr. Smith was elected a Member of Assembly, as a Repub- lican, to represent the First Assem- bly District.
He has been Attorney for the town of East Chester and corpora- tion counsel of the village of Bronx- ville.
At the Bronxville election held on March 19, 1912, he was the indepen- dent candidate for Village Presient; he was elected, his name having been written in on 142 ballots.
He has a general law practice both in New York and Westchester counties. His most notable victory
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in the Courts was in an action brought by him, as his own attor- ney, to have declared unconstitu- tional an act of the Legislature authorizing the Trustees of the vil- lage of Bronxville to care for cer- tain streets fourteen feet wide in that village.
He has championed the people in their efforts for just commutation and regular fare rates on the rail- roads running through the County.
Mr. Smith is truly a self-made man; what he is or has is due to his own exertions.
He is a member of Marble Lodge, No. 702, F. and A. M. of Tuckahoe, and was elected Master of that lodge in December 1911; a member of the Reformed Church; of the Sons of the Revolution and Society of the Cincinnati; of the Society of Medical Jurisprudence, and of the Republican Club of New York.
Mr. Smith is married and has two children, a boy, aged 7 years, and a girl, aged 3 years.
HOLLAND S. DUELL.
Holland Sackett Duell, patent law- yer, former Member of Assembly, 1907, 1909, Second Assembly Dis- trict, was born in Syracuse, N. Y., on January 29, 1881, a son of Charles H. and Harriet (Sackett) Duell. His father, a distinguished patent lawyer, began his political career representing the 13th New York City district in the Assembly of this State, in 1878-80; in 1898 he was called to Washington to ac- cept the important position of Com- missioner of Patents offered to him by President Mckinley; this office he held until 1901, when he resigned to resume his law practice. In 1904 President Roosevelt appointed him Associate Justice of the United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia, and after serving in this last named office two years he re- signed to resume practice of law in New York City.
The son received a thorough pre- paratory education before entering Yale University, from which he graduated in 1902, receiving the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts. Following in the footsteps of his illustrious sire, he chose the profession of law, graduating from the New York Law School in 1904, an LL. B. On being
admitted to the bar, in 1904, he en- tered the law office of his father; in 1905 became the junior partner of the law firm of Warfield & Duell of 60 Wall Street, New York; and in 1906 of law firm of Duell, Warfield & Duell, now established at No. 2 Rector street, New York city.
The subject of this sketch became a resident of Westchester County in 1904, making his home in the city of New Rochelle. Being interested in public questions and all that con- cerns the welfare of his fellows, he was not long in becoming identified closely with the locality into which he had come to reside. His genial nature and intellectual cleverness gained for him friends numerous; social and fraternal societies wel- comed him to membership; aquatic sports were to his liking and he be- came popular as a yachtsman. So active a young man could not fail to attract the notice of politicians. anxious ever to succeed by the nam- ing of popular candidates. In 1906, he was persuaded to accept the Re- publican nomination for Member of Assembly to represent the second Assembly District; and accordingly, when but twenty-five years of age, he was elected by one of the larg- est majorities given a candidate for Assembly in that district. Here, also, he resembled his father in be- ginning his political career by be- ing elected a Member of Assembly.
By close study of public questions, and possessing the ability to compre- hend the same intelligently, he- proved himself an able representa- tive of one of the most. important sections of the State. Though among the younger members of the Assem- bly, he held an honorable and promi- nent place in his official capacity, having been a member of the Judi- ciary and Railroad Committees and' chairman of the Committee on Fed- eral Relations, and was respected be- cause he had the integrity to resist corrupting influences. The next year he was unanimously renomi- nated for the same office; but, in consequence of a political landslide, he, with his party, met defeat. The following year he was again a can- didate for the same office, when he was elected by a majority more than double that given at the first elec- tion, and the largest ever given in
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that territory for the Assembly. The | third election he declinea, deciding that it was his duty to give his un- divided time to his home and the practice of his profession. It is interesting to note that Mr. Duell's political experience in re- gard to the Assembly was sim- ilar to that of his father, Judge Duell, who was first elected, then de- feated, and finally re-elected to that office.
It is believed by his numerous friends that his retirement from pub- lic life is but temporary, that still greater and higher honors are in store for him because he is known to be a man of unbending integrity, high sense of honor, and of great moral worth. In his political views he is firm, decided and uncompro- mising; yet so strong is the convic- tion of his entire honesty that his political opponents respect him as highly as do his most intimate party friends.
Mr. Duell is a member of the Yale Club, the Union League, the New York Republican Club, the American Yacht Club, the New York Yacht Club, the New Rochelle Yacht Club, the City Club of Yonkers, the Re- publican Club of New Rochelle, the Saegkyl Golf Club of Yonkers, New York; the Washington Patent Bar Associations, the Westchester County Bar Association, a director and chairman of Ex. Com. of Yonkers National Bank, director and member of Ex. Com. Noiseless Type-Writer Co., of Middletown, Conn .; director of Wm. A. Rogers, Ltd., Toronto, Can., director Klander-Weldors Dying Machine Co., Amsterdam, N. Y., and director of Rampo Co., Oakland, N. J.
Mr. Duell was married on Septem- ber 29, 1904, to Miss Mabel Halli- well, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Halliwell, of New York. Of this union there are four children. Charles Halliwell, born 1905; Helen, born 1906; Holland Sackett, Jr., born 1908, and Harriet- Anne, born 1910.
The family residence is "Arden- wold." North Broadway, Yonkers, N. Y.
HARRY W. HAINES.
Harry W. Haines, Assemblyman representing the city of Yonkers, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assembly,
former Supervisor, etc., was born in Newark, N. J., on September 18, 1876.
He was educated in the public schools of his native city; leaving. school he obtained employment in a large printing establishment in New York city, where he began learning the printing trade.
In 1890 he became a resident of Yonkers; he was given employment. on the Yonkers Daily Herald, and soon became foreman of the com- posing room. Later he entered the employ of the Yonkers Gazette Com- pany.
Taking an active part in politics, he was, in 1902, elected a Supervisor representing the Fourth Ward of the city of Yonkers, serving during the years 1903 and 1904.
The State Legislature, in 1906, re- apportioned the Assembly Districts of the State, and the Board of Su- pervisors divided the County into Assembly Districts; the city of Yon- kers was made one district, the first. In this new district Mr. Haines was elected an Assemblyman, as the Re- publican candidate, being the only nominee of his party who carried the city at that election. He served dur- ing the Legislature of 1907.
In 1907 he was re-elected as As- semblyman; and again re-elected in 1908, in 1909 and in 1910.
Mr. Haines, though one of the youngest men in the Assembly, was well favored by the Speaker in each session by being placed on important committees, and was in a position to be of special benefit to his County in the way of securing desired legisla- tion. Many important measures, af- fecting his city and the County at large, introduced by him, became laws.
His popularity with his colleagues made the way easy for him. He im- pressed one as being a man of ex- cellent ability, with a good deal of energy and enterprise; he had not long been a member before he had gained the reputation of being in- dustrious and persevering. He has many characteristics of a good legis- lator, and is of a disposition not to rust out.
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