USA > Vermont > The Lake Champlain and Lake George valleys, Vol. III > Part 4
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On August 21, 1919, at Pocono, Pennsylvania, Dr. Diebolt married as his second wife, Katherine Milliman. There are three children: I. Alfred Leo, Jr., born February 15, 1921. 2. Craig Witte, born March 23. 1929. 3. Mark Thomas, born December 16, 1932.
HON. O. BYRON BREWSTER-As a lawyer and judge, the Hon. O. Byron Brewster, of Elizabethtown, has distinguished himself in his com- munity and district. He is now a justice of the Supreme Court, Fourth Judi- cial District of the State of New York.
Judge Brewster was born July 23, 1886, in North Elba, Essex County, New York, son of Byron Remembrance and Bidney (Conoboy) Brewster. His father was a farmer.
O. Byron Brewster attended the schools of his native district and in 1904 was graduated from Lake Placid High School. He then became a student at Amherst College, in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1904 and 1905, and from 1905 to 1908 was a student at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. From 1908 to 1910 he was at Albany Law School, in Albany, New York, where he took the Bachelor of Laws degree. On October 1, 1910, Mr. Brewster began his practice of law in Elizabethtown, where he continued his professional work until January 1, 1928.
Meanwhile, he had been becoming increasingly active in politics and public affairs, and the culmination of these activities was his accession to the Supreme Court bench in 1928. Beginning his judicial duties on January I, that year, he has continued them down to the time of writing. He has figured prom- inently in Republican party affairs in the State. From 1911 to 1915 he was a Republican member of the Essex County Board of Elections. And con- tinuously from 1916 to 1928 he was district attorney of Essex County, so serving until he was made judge.
Judge Brewster is noted for his impartiality and fairness, as well as for the dignity of his bearing as a judicial officer. He is a member of the Amer- ican Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and the New York State District Attorneys' Association. He is a member of the Mohawk Club of Schenectady, New York. During his student days he joined the Phi Delta Theta and Phi Delta Phi fraternities, in which he still retains his memberships. In the Free and Accepted Masons he is affiliated with Adirondack Lodge, No. 602, Cedar Point Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, Lake Champlain Com- mandery, No. 74 of Knights Templar, and Oriental Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (Troy, New York). He belongs to Ticonderoga Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of the Methodist Church, though his family are of the Catholic faith.
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In December, 1911, at Albany, New York, Judge O. Byron Brewster mar- ried Marie Georgia Herie. The children of this marriage were: I. Byron Gregory Brewster. 2. Martha Warren Brewster. 3. Jane Herie Brewster. 4. Patricia Sumner Brewster. 5. Nancy Nash Brewster.
EUGENE LIONEL ASHLEY-Almost forty years ago when the electric light had not yet come into general use, and electricity was just meeting popular favor as a substitute for the horse in moving street cars, and public utilities as we now have them were still unknown, a man had visions of har- nessing no less than the Hudson River at Spier Falls and forcing it to create immense quantities of electrical energy that could be distributed to supply civic and industrial needs of even distant cities and towns. Against the greatest odds, and overcoming great difficulties, he persisted to the day when his visions were a reality. By the irony of fate he did not profit largely from what was one of the major achievements of his time, neither did he live . see the full realization of his ideas, but he was the man who constructed the largest hydro-electric plant after that at Niagara Falls, and goes down in the history of New York State as one of its outstanding benefactors. That man was Eugene Lionel Ashley, of Glens Falls, a lawyer, not an engineer, by profession.
The life story of Mr. Ashley has been told from many angles, whether under the caption "From Newsboy to Capitalist," or "The Lawyer-Power Magnate," or simply as that of a man who served his day and generation exceptionally well. Following closely one of the most factual accounts : Eugene Lionel Ashley was born July 20, 1863, in the little hamlet of Dewey's Bridge, in the town of Fort Ann, Washington County, New York, the son of Jefferson and Demis Ann (Snow) Ashley. His father was a highly esteemed citizen who made a livelihood as a carpenter. The family moved to Glens Falls when their boy was ten years of age, and here he acquired his education in local elementary schools and the Glens Falls Academy. Early in life Mr. Ashley determined to achieve a professional career, and after the custom of the times he read law in the office of Melville A. Sheldon, one of the ablest lawyers in the State. Admitted to the bar at Albany in 1885, Mr. Ashley practiced his profession at Glens Falls, soon after being taken into partner- ship with Mr. Sheldon, and later, with the addition of H. Prior King, the firm became widely known as Sheldon, King and Ashley, Mr. Ashley being the youngest partner. In 1892 deafness, previously of slight account, became acute, interfering with his work as a lawyer, and so he interested himself in water power development, negotiating the storage of water of seven ponds in the West Fort Ann country. Kane's Falls, bringing the water to the plant
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as needed. The Sacandaga River water power and storage work, in 1928, being constructed by the State, is on the exact lines that Mr. Ashley projected many years ago, and which the State then rejected. This project stores water for power purposes and prevents the usual spring flooding of Albany and other Hudson River Valley towns.
Mr. Ashley was the prime mover, and it was wholly due to his energy that the new dam was built at the foot of Indian Lake, in Hamilton County, for years of great aid to the mills and the lumbermen of the vicinity. His widow's grandfather, Jeremiah Finch, built the first dam there to flush his logs down the river. This was one of Mr. Ashley's earliest undertakings, in the conservation of water power. In 1890 he obtained the rights of Kane's Falls, and operated a pulp mill there from 1892 to 1900; and in 1898 he con- tracted to furnish the village of Whitehall with electricity, from which time dated his entry upon large enterprises.
It was in 1898 that Mr. Ashley conceived a plan for damming the Hudson River about ten miles above Glens Falls, and soon afterward he, together with the International Paper Company, controlled all the water rights between Sherman's Island and Palmer Village. He broke ground for the dam June 20, 1900, and on September 8, 1903, the first electricity was generated at the plant, the project costing millions of dollars, and presenting great obstacles which he was enabled to overcome. He named this dam in honor of William E. Spier, of Glens Falls, a warm friend of his early years and a supporter of the project. On September 24, 1903, several hundred citizens of the Hudson and Mohawk valleys gave him a testimonial dinner at the United States Hotel at Saratoga Springs, when he was presented with a silver loving cup. He was president of the Hudson River Water Power Company from the time of its institution in 1900 until it was taken over by the Adirondack Electric Power Corporation in 1909.
With C. Elmer Smith, of York, Pennsylvania, and Charles E. Parsons, of New York City, Mr. Ashley organized, in 1909, the Atlanta Power Company, with a capital of $10,000,000 and the Georgia Power Company, of Gaines- ville, Georgia, thus controlling 200,000 horse power. He developed Tallulah Falls in 1913, thus delivering 100,000 electric horse power to Atlanta, Georgia; two dams each one hundred feet in height, were constructed, and one and one-half miles of tunnel, long pipe line, one of the greatest engineering feats of the day, at a cost of $9,500,000.
While a young lawyer, Mr. Ashley served as clerk of the Glens Falls Board of Education, and he took a leading part in upbuilding the school system. A Democrat, and active in politics, he never sought public office. He was a prominent member of the Baptist Church.
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Mr. Ashley married, January 8, 1889, at Glens Falls, Elizabeth Hitchcock, who was born in Saratoga County, on a farm near Fort Edward, a daughter of Alfred Freeman Hitchcock, a Saratoga and Washington County farmer, a supervisor in Saratoga, who was born in 1818, and died in 1872, and Phoebe Ann (Finch) Hitchcock, daughter of Jeremiah Finch. Their daughter, Kat'ı- erine Robertson Ashley, born April 21, 1891, married Arthur Chapin Hast- ings, Jr., now of South Yarmouth, Massachusetts. An adopted son, Domnic C. Ashley (q. v.), is engaged in civil engineering at Glens Falls.
Eugene Lionel Ashley died February 3, 1917, at Glens Falls, after a long illness. From the many personal and press tributes of that day, only parts of two editorials are here appended :
From the "Glens Falls Times":
Eugene Lionel Ashley was no ordinary sort of man. Indeed he was as unusual as was the determination with which he kept everlastingly at the ful- fillment of some great undertaking until all that human ingenuity and per- severance could do had brought that undertaking as near perfection as was possible for any one man to do.
Eugene L. Ashley was a big man ; he conceived big projects and he set about mastering them in a big way. He was ambitious, and herein, perhaps, lay his greatest fault, if fault it may be called, for it was this ambition, this almost unconquerable determination to accomplish the goal of an ambition beset with great handicaps, which brought this Napoleon of Industry to an early grave.
To know Mr. Ashley, to understand the laudable motives which actuated him in his endeavors to triumph over the forces of nature, was to become aware of the fact that here was the sort of man in whom perseverance and determination were personified.
The editor of "The Post-Star" wrote :
The life of Eugene L. Ashley should be an inspiration to the young men of this community for many reasons, but more particularly by reason of its furnishing a glowing example of what may be accomplished through deter- mination and persistence.
Reared under no better conditions than, yea, with but few of the advan- tages of, the average boy of today, he gained for himself an education, and fought his way, step by step, until he completed a great undertaking, which will be of lasting benefit to this community, as well as to the surrounding territory.
The great dam at Spier Falls, as permanent as the mountains which sur- round it, stands today, and will stand forever, as a monument to his bulldog determination, without which determination its benefits would have been unknown.
Regardless of their personal destinies, the debt the public owes such builders cannot be overestimated, since time cannot obliterate the good their works accomplish.
Edward M. Parrott
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DOMNIC C. ASHLEY-Well known in the civil engineering field for almost twenty-five years, Domnic C. Ashley is at present a member of the firm of Coulter and Ashley, a concern which is recognized as one of the leaders of its kind in this section.
Mr. Ashley, the adopted son of the late Eugene L. and Elizabeth (Hitch- cock) Ashley, is a native of Italy. Eugene L. Ashley, a native of Glens Falls, and for many years a prominent lawyer and water power developer in this section, died February 3, 1917.
Domnic C. Ashley began his early education in the Italian schools, but came to the United States when twelve years of age, and then entered the Glens Falls schools. He completed his high school education in 1908, and then matriculated at Dartmouth College, where he continued for two years, after which he transferred to the Georgia Institute of Technology, at Atlanta, Georgia, graduating in 1913 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He then went to work for the Kanes Falls Electric Company, and became vice-president and general manager in 1913 ; this company supplies power to Whitehall and Granville. This business was sold in 1919 to the New York Power and Light Corporation, and from then until 1923 Mr. Ashley worked in various positions, and in the latter year he became a member of the engineering firm of Meyers, Bowers and Ashley, Inc. This partnership was dissolved in 1935 and then, together with Mr. Coulter, the present firm of Coulter and Ashley was organized, and has continued most successfully in this field to the present day. During the World War, Mr. Ashley enlisted for service at Schenectady, and was assigned to the Field Artillery at Camp Zachary Taylor. He joined the American forces October 3, 1918, and received his honorable discharge December 5, 1919.
Mr. Ashley is an active member of the First Baptist Church, where he has served as deacon for many years. Fraternally, he is a life member o Lodge No. 81, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, and he is a former member of the Lake George Association.
He is married to Katherine Romeyn, of Keeseville, New York, and they are the parents of three children : I. Eugene. 2. Peter. 3. Margaret Ashley.
REV. EDWARD M. PARROTT, D. D .- Of the years which he has served in the active ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Rev. Edward M. Parrott, D. D., has spent almost thirty at Lake George. He is rector of St. James' Episcopal Church in this community and an influential figure in the general life of the town.
Dr. Parrott was born at Arden, Orange County, New York, on October 26, 1873, a son of Edward M. and Julia Paulding (Fountain) Parrott. His father, who was also born in Arden, was a mining engineer and died in 1902.
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His mother was born in New York City. Dr. Parrott received his preliminary education in the public schools of his birthplace, attended St. John's College Preparatory School and Columbia University and afterward entered the General Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1897. Fol- lowing his ordination, he served as curate at Grace Episcopal Church in New York City for two years and went from that parish to Bayonne, New Jersey, as curate of Trinity Episcopal Church. He was then appointed missionary of St. Stephen's Church, at Woodlawn, New York, and two years later went to Trinity Church at Rochester, New York, where he served for five years. In 1906 he first came to Lake George as pastor of St. James' Episcopal Church, continuing his ministry here without interruption until 1921. From 1921 to 1925 he was rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church at Jackson, Michigan, but in the latter year returned to Lake George, resuming his old pastorate in 1926. His second pastorate at St. James' Church has now extended over a period almost as long as the first.
As a Christian leader, Dr. Parrott's influence is not confined to his own denomination. He has had an active part in many other aspects of the com- munity life and has won and retained the respect of its people. He has answered the call to public service as the duties of his ministry have permitted and for a quarter of a century has served as a member of the Lake George School Board, during much of this time as president. Dr. Parrott is also past president of the Warren County Farm Bureau. He has always been inter- ested in the farmer's problems and as a lover of the soil himself, finds his principal recreation in gardening. Dr. Parrott is a Democrat in politics and is affiliated fraternally with St. Sacrament Lodge, No. 1029, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is Past Master. He is also a member of the Dinner Club of Lake George. During the World War, Dr. Parrott was commissioned second lieutenant in the New York State Militia and was active as chairman of the Liberty Loan drives and as a "four-minute speaker" in rallying support for his country's cause in this community. In recognition of his long and devoted career in the ministry, St. John's College has conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
In 1908 Dr. Parrott married (first) Edith May Miner, a deaconess of Grace Episcopal Church in New York City, who was born at North Adams, Massachusetts, and died in 1923. They became the parents of five children : Edith Wilbur, who was graduated from Cornell University in 1922 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and married Chilson H. Leonard, Ph. D .; Martha Toscan, who was graduated from Cornell in 1922 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and married George Christo Starche, now living in Greece with her husband; Elizabeth Paulding, who took the degree of Bachelor of Arts at the University of Michigan in 1925 and married Dr.
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Charles S. Higley ; Mary Miner, who married Walter C. Young ; and Elanor Arden, who was graduated from Skidmore College in 1931 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and married Robert M. Lumianski.
Dr. Parrott married, second, in 1925, Ruth Lee, who was born in Pierre- pont Manor, New York, and was graduated from Cornell University with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1921. There are four children of this second marriage : Julia Fountain, Ruth Lee, Priscilla, and Edward Moore, 4th.
MORTIMER YALE FERRIS-Both in his professional career as an engineer and through his services in public life, Mortimer Yale Ferris has had an important part in the development of the Lake Champlain area. He has been associated with many of the largest projects of the district, sat for eight years in the New York Senate, where he was conspicuous for his interest in the State highways, and since that time has continued his public service as chairman of the Lake Champlain Bridge Commission.
Senator Ferris was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on March 29, 1881, son of Edward Mortimer and Marion Eliza (Yale) Ferris. He is descended from an ancient family whose history in England dates back to the Norman Conquest when Henry de Feriers, son of Guillaume de Feriers, master of the horse of the Duke of Normandy, received from the Conqueror large grants of land in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire. The American progeni- tor was Jeffrey Ferris, who came from Leicestershire to Watertown, Massa- chusetts, where he was admitted as a freeman on May 6, 1638, and subse- quently went with the Watertown company to Wethersfield, Connecticut. He died on May 31, 1666. His son, John Ferris, born in Leicestershire, also moved from Massachusetts to Connecticut, and in 1654 left Fairfield, Con- necticut, to establish his home in Westchester, New York. He died in 1715. From him the line is traced through James Ferris, his son, of Throckmorton Neck, who married Anne Sands; John, their son, of Groves Farm, West- chester, New York, born in 1733, died in 1814, married Anna Hunt; Jona- than, their son, who was born in 1765, married Ursula Catlin, of Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1803, moved to Swanton, Vermont, in 1808 and died in 1829; and Mortimer Catlin Ferris, of Brookline, Massachusetts, who was the grand- father of Senator Ferris. Mortimer Catlin Ferris was born in 1818 and died in 1889. He married, in 1852, Mary Elizabeth Raymond, born June 20, 1832, died June 2, 1911. Edward Mortimer Ferris, eldest child of this mar- riage, was born on December 23, 1853, and died on September 16, 1890. He became a physician and was engaged in general practice at Brookline, Massa- chusetts, until his death. On December II, 1879, he married Marion Eliza Yale, born January 13, 1856, and a descendant like himself of one of the oldest New England families. They became the parents of three children : Mortimer Yale, of this record; Cyrus Yale, and Raymond West.
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Mortimer Yale Ferris received his preliminary education in the public schools of Newton, Massachusetts, where he was graduated from high school in 1899, and subsequently entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology to prepare for his chosen profession. He was graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a civil engineer in 1903 and in the same year be- came associated with the Pennsylvania Railroad in an engineering capacity at New Castle, Pennsylvania. In 1905 he came to Ticonderoga, New York, his present home.
From the time when he first came to Ticonderoga, Mr. Ferris became increasingly an influential figure in the life of this district. He took an active part in civic affairs, became prominent in local councils of the Republican party and in 1919, as the candidate of his party, he was elected to the New York State Senate. He served for four terms in the upper house of the Legislature and firmly established his reputation as an able and public-spirited member. While he was interested in all aspects of the State's business, he was especially concerned with the improvement and extension of the State highways and served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Highways until his retirement from the Legislature in 1926. In that capacity he did much to bring into existence the present excellent system of highways in Northern New York. When the Lake Champlain Bridge Commission was established, Senator Ferris was an obvious choice to head the Commission because of his Senate experience, his keen interest in the matter and his record as an able administrator and engineer. Accordingly, in 1927, he was appointed chair- man of the commission. Under his leadership the Lake Champlain Bridge was completed in 1929, at a total cost of $1,100,000. In 1935, the Rouses Point Bridge was begun, also under the jurisdiction of the commission. This span was completed in 1937, at a cost of $780,000. Operation of the two bridges, which have greatly enhanced travel facilities in the affected area, continues under the control of the commission and will remain so until the cost of both has been recovered from toll fees. Senator Ferris was a dele- gate to the Republican National Convention at Cleveland in 1928 and since that time has served continuously as chairman of the Essex County Republi- can Committee.
Senator Ferris is a member of the Lake Placid Club and many other local organizations and is a member of the Episcopal Church. He is affiliated fraternally with Ticonderoga Lodge, No. 794, Free and Accepted Masons, and a member of all higher bodies of both York and Scottish Rites, including the thirty-second degree of the Consistory, and a member of the Shrine.
He married, on February 14, 1905, at Newton, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Leavitt, daughter of John Leavitt, who was born at Portland, Maine, and Jeanette Arnold (Huff) Leavitt. Senator and Mrs. Ferris are the parents of
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two daughters: 1. Mary, born February 6, 1906, married Donald Francis La Pointe. 2. Elizabeth, born July 2, 1911, married Karl Joseph La Pointe.
HENRY GORDON BURLEIGH-As manager of the Ticonderoga Electric Light and Power Company, Henry Gordon Burleigh continues the association of the family name with the operation of this enterprise and the tradition of prominence which the Burleighs have maintained for several gen- erations in the life of Essex County and Northern New York.
Mr. Burleigh was born at Ticonderoga on November 23, 1903, a son of Henry Gordon and Susie Tisdale (Sanborn) Burleigh and member of a family distinguished in the history of the old world and the new. He is a direct descendant in the ninth generation of Giles Burleigh, who came from England and was a resident of Ipswich, Massachusetts, as early as 1648. There are many references to him in the Ipswich records, where his name appears in a wide variety of spellings. From him and his wife, Elizabeth (sometimes referred to as Rebecca), the line is traced through their second son, James, born at Ipswich, February 10, 1659; died in Exeter, New Hampshire, about 1721. He married (first), on May 25, 1685, Rebecca, daughter of Thomas and Susannah Stacy, who died on October 21, 1686. Her mother was a daughter of the Rev. Witham Worcester, of Salisbury, Massachusetts. His son, Thomas, was born on April 5, 1697, and his son, also named Thomas, was born on July 2, 1723, and died on June 1, 1805, at Epping, New Hamp- shire. The second Thomas Burleigh married Sarah Haley, daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Gordon) Haley and granddaughter of that Sergeant Haley who was killed by the Indians near Saco Fort in 1695. She was born on August 10, 1725, and died on December 2, 1809.
General Joseph Burleigh, fourth child and eldest surviving son of this marriage, was born on August 7, 1755, in Dorchester, New Hampshire, and died in 1838, at Franklin, New Hampshire. He served in the Revolution, holding an important command under General Stark at the battle of Benning- ton, and at the close of the war settled in Dorchester, relinquishing his previ- ous residence in Epping, where he had been a farmer, merchant and tavern keeper. He became the owner of the largest local farm in Dorchester and served the town for several years in the State Legislature. In 1820 he ex- changed his farm for one in Franklin. He married Mary Hilton, of Epping. who died on February 6, 1821, and they became the parents of thirteen chil- dren. of whom the seventh in order of birth was Gordon Burleigh, born August 25, 1795, in Canaan, New Hampshire, died on January 17, 1864, in Middleton, Ontario. About 1847 he moved to Ticonderoga, New York, and entered the lumber business, which occupied him until his death. He married Elizabeth Pickering Weeks, born in Greenland, New Hampshire, September
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