History of Cortland County
Biographies

    The earliest appearance of the family in this country was in about 1644. At this time, for political reasons and to avoid the confiscation of property, etc., during the contest between the Parliament and the unfortunate Charles I, John Salisbury and Edward Salisbury, his brother, sons of Henry Salisbury, Esq., and younger brothers of Sir Thomas Salisbury, quietly got themselves away from Denbigh and emigrated to this country. The former settled at Swansea, Massachusetts, and the latter near Mount hope, in Bristol, Rhode Island. Thomas Salisbury of Llanrwst, Denbigh county, either came with them or followed soon after, and settled in Cranston. From family records and traditions, Thomas was supposed to be a brother of John and Edward, but it appears from English records that he was probably not a brother, but a cousin. John and Edward derived from Henry Salisbury, second son of John Salisbury, who became heir of Lleweni by reason of the death of his elder brother, Thomas, who suffered death September 20th, 1586, for endeavoring to deliver Mary Queen of Scots, from imprisonment. Thomas derived from Robert Salisbury, fourth son of Thomas Salisbury, heir of Lleweni.

    The branch of the family to which the subject of this sketch belongs derives from Thomas Salisbury, who settled in Cranston. "The Salisbury family took its rise in Germany, and long before the conquest of England its head resided in Bavaria. The original name of the family was Guelph, and its leading member, Henry Guelph, was in the year1024 made Duke of Bavaria, by the emperor, Conrad the Second. The first duke had several sons, the youngest of whom, Prince Adam, came over to England in the train of William of Normandy, in the year 1066. This young prince did not, however, come with William as a subject of his Norman dukedom, for he owed him no allegiance; but he came in the character of a soldier of fortune, and in that character took his part in the great battle of Hastings. For his service on that occasion he was rewarded by King William with a grant of an extensive tract of land in Richmondshire, running southwards to the river Ribble in Lancashire, and it was in this place the younger branch of the royal family of Bavaria first settled in England.

    "Adam Guelph soon dropped his German surname. He followed the Norman fashion of taking up the name of a particular place for a surname, and thus became a de Saltzburg, or Adam of Saltzburg---Saltzburg being the name of the place in Bavaria from which he came. He settled upon his new possessions, built himself a home at no great distance from Preston, called it after his new name, and by that name---Salmesbury Court or Salebury Hall---it is known to this day. Adam de Saltzburg was not, as many of his descendants proudly supposed, a Norman, but a pure Saxon, having the same origin as the house of Saxony." The time of Adam de Saltzburg's death is uncertain, but in the year 1102 his eldest son, Alexander de Saltzburg, had succeeded to the father's vast possessions. Alexander died in 1153. He left two sons, Alexander and Henry. The eldest succeeded to the Lancashire property, and Henry to an estate in Cheshire.

    The following curious document may be of interest. It is copied from Mr. William's Records of Denbigh:

    "Rand. Polme of Chester, Ald., Deputy to the Office of Armes.

    "To all xtain people to whom this present writing shall come to be scene or read, Greetinge, in our Lord God Everlastinge,---Know ye that whereas Mr. Foulke Salisbury, one of the 24 alderman of the City of Chester, and also one of his Majesties Coroners for the said Citty is desirous to have a Certyficate of his descent, that the same may appear by good Testimony, for to remayne upon record for his future posterity, and also to cleare all doubtes and questions, that eather now are or hereafter may arise conserninge his progeny, hath requested vs his kinsmen, beinge descended of the same blood and family, vnder our hands for to Certifie the truth thereof, by this our Testimoniall to wch his lawful request and desire wee have yealded, as Christian Charity byndeth vs thereunto, to declare and relate the same when and so often as wee be thereunto desired. Wherefore we do Certyfie that the said Mr. Foulke Salisbury was borne Evenighted in the County of Denbigh and was second sonne by birth, but now heyre, to Henry Salisbury of Evenighted aforesaid, in the County of Denbigh, Gent., lawfully begotten of Margery his wife, dau. to Peirs Salisbury of Llanrayder, in the said County, Gent., wch sayd Henry dyed in Chester, 6th October 1637, beinge of great age; and was youngest sonne to Foulke Salisbury of Maes Kadarne in the sayd County Gent., lawfully begotten by Morvith his wife, daughter of Merideth Lloyd of Havodynos, in the County of Carnarvon, Esq., and the forsayd Foulke Salisbury was 3 sonne to Peirs Salisbury of Brachymbydd, or Ruge, in the County of Denbigh, Esquire, lawfully begotten by Margaret his first wife; daughter and heyre to Evan Ap Holl, Ap Rees of Ruge, in the said County, Esqr., and sayd Piers Salisbury was sonne and heyre to John Salisbury of Brachymbydd, in the County aforesaid, Esqr., lawfully begotten of Lowery his wife; dau. and heyre to Robt. Ap Meredith Ap Tudyr Esqr., and the sayd John Salisbury was a younger sonne of Thomas Salisbury Hen of Lleweny in the County of Denbigh, Esqr., and brother to Sir Thomas Salisbury: who was Knighted at Blackheathfield, 1464, of whom is decended Sir Thomas Salisbury of Lleweny, baronet now livinge, both beinge lawfully begotten of the body of Ellen daughter to Sir John Done of Vtkington in the County of Chester Kt. And the said Tho: Salisbury Hen was sonne and heyre to Henry Salisbury of Lleweny, Esqr., lawfully begot of Agnes daughter and heyre of Sir John Curteys, Kt. And the said Henry was sonne and heyre to Rafe or Rawlyn Salisbury, sonne and heyre to William, sonne and heyre to Henry, sonne and heyre to Sr. John, sonne and heyre to Thomas, sonne and heyre to Alexander, sonne and heyre to Adam Salisbury, all of whose Matches remayne to be seen in the severall pedigrees of the said famileys, from weh this lyne mentioned in this Certyficate was care-fully and diligently extracted, at the request of the sayd Foulke Salisbury, and for more verity hereof, wee have hereunto subscribed our names the 14th day of November 1638.

    "THO. POWELL of Berkhead, baronett.
    "JOHN CONWAY, Kt., de Botry Dan.
    "THOMAS MYDDLETON, Kt., de Chirk.
    "ROGER MOSTYN, Kt., de Mostyn.
    "THOMAS MOSTYN, Kt., de Cilken.
    "SIMON THELWALL de Placeward, Esq.
    "WILLIAM WYNNE de Llanvayre, Esq.
    "JOHN LLOYD de Llanryder, Esq.
    "PETER EVANS of Northop, Esq.
    "HUGH NANNY of Nanny, Esq.
    "JOHN LLOYD of Ruedock, Esq.
    "WILLIAM SALISBURY of Ruge, Esq.
    "JOHN SALISBURY of Brachegrigh, Esq. [sonne.
    "JOHN SALISBURY of Brachegrigh, Esq., his
    "WILLIAM SALISBURY of Llanraydrer, Esq.
    "WILLIAM THOMAS of Carnarvon, Esq.
    "JOHN JEFFREYS of Royton, Esq.
    "WILLIAM CONWAY of Perthekensey, Esq.
    "EDWARD CONWAY of Sughton.
    "HUGH PARRY of Chester, Doctor.
    "ROULAND GRIFFITH of Carnarvon.
    "JOHN POWELL of Llwynskotog.
    "JENKIN CONWAY.
    "JOHN LLOYD of Llanynys.
    "FOULKE SALISBURY of Denbigh.
    "THOMAS SALISBURY of Denbigh.
    "JOHN THELWALL of Ruthen.
    "GABRIELL GOODMAN of Ruthen.
    "JOHN EATON of Lleeswood, Esq.
    "THOMAS MOSTYN of Rhed, Esq.
    "PIERS CONWAY of Ruthland, Esq.
    "RIGH. PERRY of Combe, Esq.
    "PETER WYNNE of Tythen, Esq.
    "THOMAS SALISBURY of Ledbrooke, Esq.
    "HUGH LLOYD of Foxhole, Esq.
    "JARRATT EYTON of Eyton, Esq.
    "EDWARD NORRIS of Speke, Esq.

    James H., the subject of this sketch, received his early education at Homer Academy, Cortland county, New York, then presided over by the justly celebrated Professor Samuel Woolworth, who was for many years---up to his recent death---secretary of the board of regents of the University of the State of New York. He received the degree of Batchelor of Natural Sciences (B. N. S.) at the Polytechnic Institute of Troy, New York, in 1846, previous to which he had been appointed assistant under professor Ebenezer Emmons, in the chemical department of the Geological Survey of the State of New York, which place he filled till January 1st 1849, when he was made principal, with his brother, Charles B., as assistant, until 1852.

    Dr. Salisbury received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Albany Medical College in January, 1850, and that of Master of Arts from Union College, Schenectady, New York, in August, 1852. He was elected a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1848, and the same year was also made a member of the Albany Institute. In 1853 he was elected corresponding member of the Natural History Society of Montreal. In 1878 he was chosen president of the Institute of Micrology, a position he continues to hold. In 1857 he was elected member of the American Antiquarian Society, and in 1876 was made vice-president of the Western Reserve Historical Society. In 1879 he was elected a member of the Philosophical Society of Great Britain. In 1848 Dr. Salisbury received the prize gold medal from the Young Men's Association of Albany, for the best essay on the "Anatomy and Histology of Plants." In 1849 he won the prize of three hundred dollars, offered by the New York State Agricultural Society for the best essay on "The Chemical and Physiological Examinations of the Maize Plant, during the various stages of its growth." This made a work of over two hundred pages, and was published in the New York State Agricultural Reports for 1849, and subsequently copied entire in the State Agricultural Reports of Ohio. In 1851 and 1852 he gave two courses of lectures on "Elementary and applied Chemistry" in the New York State Normal School. He also conducted a series of experiments on different subjects, which were embodied in several papers read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1851, and were published in their transactions, and also in the New York Journal of Medicine of a later date.

    While in charge of the State Laboratory of New York from 1849 to 1852, he was constantly engaged in chemical and medical investigations, the results of many of them being published in the Transactions of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in State Geological and Agricultural Reports, and in the various scientific and medical journals of that period. In 1849 he began his studies in Microscopic Medicine, in which he has been so successful. He has persevered in these studies, with scarcely any intermission, ever since, devoting much of his time daily to microscopic investigations. In 1858 he began the study of Healthy and Unhealthy Alimentation and the influence the latter has in producing the various chronic diseases that are supposed to be incurable. He has found by his long continued and persistent researches in this direction that consumption, Bright's disease, diabetes, mellitus, rheumatism, gout, nearly all abnormal growths, the various paralytic diseases---aside from those which are the result of injury---and nearly all cases of mental derangement and fatty disease of organs, arise from unhealthy feeding and drinking. He

was the pioneer in demonstrating that the various infectious and contagious diseases were produced by specific germs, each kind always producing its special disease. He began these investigations, connected with the various germ diseases, in 1849, and was vigorously criticized both in Europe and this country, up to 1865, when Professor Ernest Hallier, of Jena, Prussia, an able cryptogamic botanist, in reading his papers, became so interested that he began investigations in the same field, and in 1868 he wrote him with much enthusiasm that he had confirmed every investigation that he (Salisbury) had made and published, and if desired he would come on and join him in these interesting labors, he taking charge of the botanical and Dr. Salisbury the medical. Soon after this Pasteur, and then Huxley and Tyndall, became interested in this line of labor, and now no one doubts the truth of the so-called "Germ Theory" of disease.

    Farther on will be given a list of the papers on the various germ diseases he has investigated, with the dates of publication. In 1860 he began a series of investigations to discover if possible where blood was made, and the office and offices it played in the organism. Strange as it may appear, no one up to this time had explored this field with any success. A large share of his time for two years was devoted to this work, all the microscopic work being conducted upon living, healthy animals, which were placed under the influence of chloroform, and kept there while the necessary dissections and microscopic examinations were going on. After a long, tedious, persistent and painstaking labor, during which several hundred animals had fallen a sacrifice to the work, the mystery was solved, and the great blood gland was found to be the spleen, and the smaller ones the mesenteric and lymphatic. These investigations were embodied in a paper, and published in the American Journal of Medical Sciences, Philadelphia, for April, 1866.

    The extended labors of himself and brother, C. B. Salisbury, on the "Ancient Earth and Rock-writing" of this country, in connection with the earth and rock works of the ancient mound-builders, have been embodied in a large quarto volume with thirty-nine plates, which is in the hands of the American Antiquarian Society, and is only partially published.

    The great labors of his life, comprising, as he claims, an explanation of the causes and successful treatment of nearly every chronic disease that is suppose to be incurable, are yet unpublished. In January, 1864, Dr. Salisbury came to Cleveland to assist in starting "Charity Hospital Medical College." He gave to this institution two courses of lectures in 1864-65 and 1865-66 on physiology, histology, and the microscope in disease. From January, 1864, to the present time, he has been constantly engaged in treating chronic diseases---especially those which have hitherto been considered fatal, and his success in this field is widely known.

    The following list of his published and unpublished works and papers will serve to give some idea of the extent and variety of his labors:

    1. Analysis of Fruits, Vegetables and Grains. New York State Geological Reports. 1847-48-49.

    2. Prize Essay. --- Chemical Investigations of the Maize Plant in its various stages of growth, with the temperature of the soil at various depths, and that of trees in different seasons of the year. Two hundred and six pages. State Agricultural Reports of New York and Ohio. 1849.

    3. Chemical Analysis of Five Varieties of the Cabbage. 1850.

    4. Rheum rhaponticum. Chemical examination of the various parts of the plants. 1850.

    5. Chemical Examination of Rumex Crispus. 1855.

    6. Experiments and Observation on the Influence of Poisons and Medicinal Agents upon Plants. 1851.

    7. Chemical Examination of the Fruit of five varieties of Apples. 1850.

    8. Chemical Investigations connected with the Tomato, the Fruit of the Egg Plant, and Pods of the Okra. 1851.

    9. History, Culture, and Composition of Apium Gravolens and Cichorium intibus. 1851.

    10. Some Facts and Remarks on the Indigestibility of Food. 1852.

    11. Compositions of Grains, Vegetables and Fruits. Ohio State Agricultural Reports. 1861.

    12. Microscopic Researches, resulting in the discovery of what appears to be the cause of the so-called "blight" in apple, pear, and quince trees, and the decay in their fruit; and the discovery of the cause of the so-called "Blister and Curl" in the leaves of peach trees; with some observations on the development of the peach fungus. Illustrated with six plates. Ohio State Agricultural Reports. 1863.

    13. Chronic Diarrhœa and its Complications, or the diseases arising in armies from a too exclusive use of amylaceous food, with interesting matter relating to the diet and treatment of these abnormal conditions, and a new army ration proposed, with which this large class of diseases may be avoided. The Ohio Surgeon-General's Report for 1864.

    14. Something about Cryptogams, Fermentations and Disease. St. Louis Medical Reporter. February, 1869.

    15. Probable Source of the Steatorzoon folliculorum. St. Louis Medical Reporter. January, 1869.

    16. Investigations, Chemical and Microscopical, resulting in what appears to be the discovery of a new function of the spleen and mesenteric and lymphatic glands. Do., August, 1867. Twenty-nine pages.

    17. Defective Alimentation a Primary Cause of Disease. Do., March and April 1st and 15th, 1868. Seventy pages and two plates of illustrations.

    18. On the cause of Intermittent and Remittent Fevers, with investigations which tend to prove that these affections are caused by certain species of palmellæ. American Journal of Medical Sciences, 1866. Also, in Revue Scientifique. November, 1869.

    19. Some Experiments on Poisoning with the Vegetable Alkaloids. American Journal of Medical Sciences, October, 1862. Twenty-eight pages.

    20. Discovery of Cholesterine and Seroline as secretions in health of the salivary, tear, mammary and sudorific glands; of the testis and ovary; of the kidneys in hepatic derangements; of mucous membranes when congested and inflamed, and the fluids of ascites and that of spina bifida. Do., April, 1863. Two plates. Seventeen pages.

    21. Remarks on Fungi, with an account of experiments showing the influence of the fungi of wheat and rye straw on the human system, and some observations which point to them as the probable source of camp measles, and perhaps of measles generally. Do., July, 1862. One plate. Twenty pages.

    22. Inoculating the Human System with Straw Fungi to protect it against the contagion of measles, with some additional observations relating to the influence of fungoid growths in producing disease, and in the fermentation and putrefaction of organic bodies. Do., October, 1862. Eight pages.

    23. Parasitic Forms developed in Parent Epithelial Cells of the Urinary and Genital Organs, and in the Secretions. With 34 illustrations. Do., April, 1868.

    24. Remarks on the Structure, Functions, and Classification of the Parent Gland Cells, with microscopic investigations relative to the causes of the several varieties of rheumatism, and directions for their treatment. One plate of illustrations. Do., October, 1867. Nineteen pages.

    25. Microscopic Researches relating to the Histology and Minute Anatomy of the Spleen and Lacteal and Lymphatic Glands, showing their ultimate structure and their organic elements, of their highly interesting and important functions, with some remarks on the cause of ropiness of mucus and the tendency of all healthy and many diseased cells to be metamorphosed into filaments. One plate. Thirty-four pages. Do., April, 1866.

    26. Description of two new Algoid Vegetations, one of which appears to be the specific cause of syphilis and the other of gonorrhoea. With 16 illustrations. Do., 1867. Also, Zeitschrift für Parasitenkunde. 1873.

    27. Geological Report of the Millcreek Canal Coal Field. With 1 map and 2 plates. Published in Cincinnati, 1859.

    28. Analysis, Organic and Inorganic, of the Cucumber. Cultivator. 1849.

    29. Experiments on the Capillary Attractions of the Soil, explaining some important and interesting principles and phenomena in agriculture and geology. The American Polytechnic Journal. 1853.

    30. A New Carbonic Apparatus. Do., 1853.

    31. Analysis of Dead Sea Water. 1854.

    32. Two interesting Parasitic Diseases; one we take from sucking kittens, and the other from sucking puppies---trichosis felinus and trichosis caninus. Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, June 4, 1868. Six illustrations. Also, Zeitschrift für Parasitenkunde, Hallier, Jena, 1875.

    33. Pus and Infection. Boston Journal of Chemistry. January, 1878.

    34. Microscopic Examinations of Blood and the Vegetations found in Variola, Vaccine, and Typhoid Fever. Sixty-six pages and 62 illustrations. Published by Moorhead, Bond & Co., New York. 1868.

    35. Vegetations found in the Blood of Patients Suffering from Erysipelas. Hallier's Zeitschrift für Parasitenkunde. 1873. Eight illustrations.

    36. Infusorial Catarrh and Asthma. Eighteen illustrations. Do., 1873.

    37. Analysis, Organic and Inorganic, of the White Sugar Beet. The Albany Cultivator. October, 1851.

    38. Analysis, Organic and Inorganic, of the Parsnip. New York State Agricultural Report. 1851.

    39. Ancient Rock and Earth Writing and Inscriptions of the Mound Builders, with a description of their fortifications, enclosures, mounds, and other earth and rock works. Thirty-nine plates. In the hands of the American Antiquarian Society, and only partially published in their transactions and in the Ohio Centennial Report. 1863.

    40. Influence of the Position of the Body upon the Heart's action. American Journal of Medical Science. 1865.

    41. Medical Application of Chemistry to Agriculture. Albany Cultivator. 1851.

    42. Analysis, Organic and Inorganic, of the Several Kinds of Grains and Vegetables. The Albany Cultivator. August, 1849.

    43. Drinks, Food, Bathing, Exercise, Clothing and Medical Treatment in Consumption. Virginia Medical Monthly. September, 1879.

    44. Drinks, Food, Bathing, Exercise, Clothing, and Medical Treatment in Bright's Disease. Virginia Medical Monthly. November 1880.

    45. Drinks, Food, Bathing, Exercise, Clothing and Medical Treatment in Diabetes Mellitus. Virginia Medical Monthly. 1880.

    46. Diet Lists in Consumption, Bright's Disease, and Diabetes Mellitus. 1881.

    1. Diphtheria, its cause and treatment. Three plates of illustrations. 1862.

    2. Asthma, the various forms of, and their causes and treatment. Three plates of illustrations. Ready for press in 1866.

    3. Consumption, its cause and treatment. Four plates. Ready for press in 1867.

    4. Hog Cholera, its cause and prevention. 1858.

    5. Ultimate Structure and Functions of the Liver. 1865. Three plates.

    6. Ultimate Structure and Functions of the Kidneys. 1864. Two plates.

    7. Geological Report of the Coal Fields of Virginia and Kentucky. 1857. With maps and many illustrations.

    8. Histology of Plants. Prize essay. Sixty-five illustrations. 1848.

    9. Causes and Treatment of Bright's Disease. 1865.

    10. Causes and Treatment of Diabetes. 1864.

    11. Causes and Treatment of Goitre, Cretinism, Ovarian Tumors, and other Colloid Diseases. 1863.

    12. Causes and Treatment of Locomotor Ataxy. 1867.

    13. Cause and Treatment of Fatty Diseases of the Heart, Liver, and Spleen. 1864.

    14. Cause and Treatment of Paresis. 1865.

    15. One of the most Common Causes of Paralysis, with treatment. 1867.

    16. Microscopic Examinations Connected with Spermatozoa and Ova, with contents of pollen grains and modes of development of zoosporoid cells. 1860.

    17. Cryptogamic Spores in the Tissues of the Living Animal. Their development in food one source of disease, and a cause of fermentation, gangrene, or death and decay in organized bodies. Seven plates and 102 illustrations.

    18. Microscopic Investigations Connected with the Exudation and Expectoration of Angina Membranacæ and Gangrenosa and Scarlatina Anginosa, resulting in the discovery of the true source of and the pathological progress by which the exudations are produced; and the further discovery of a peculiar fungus belonging to the genus peronospora, developing in the sloughs and membranes, the spores of which are infectious and produce the disease; also some general conclusions on the etiology of fevers, the peculiar functions of the epithelial cell envelope, and the probable way in which the system receives a more or less permanent protective immunity by one attack of certain contagious diseases against a second invasion of the same. Three plates. One hundred and sixty illustrations. 1862.

    19. Description of several new species of ascaridae found on and in the human body, and a brief account of several new entozoa. Two plates and 30 figures. 1865.

    20. Investigations connected with the Cause and Treatment of Paralysis of the Will, Paralysis of the Memory, and Paralysis of the entire Intellectual and Moral Faculties, causing a peculiar mental state and insanity.

    21. Uterine Fibroids, Ovarain Tumors, Cancers, and Fibrous Growths generally. Their treatment and cure by drinks and diet.

    He was married on the 26th of June, 1860, to Clara Brasee, daughter of Hon. John T. Brasee, of Lancaster, Ohio. She was born April 26th, 1839. They have the following children: Minnie B. Salisbury, born August 27th 1866, and Trafford B. Salisbury, born January 22d, 1874.

JAMES S. SQUIRES, of Cortland, is descended from one of three brothers who emigrated from England in the earlier history of our country, and located at Saybrook, Connecticut. His grandfather, Samuel Stent Squires, was born in Saybrook in the early part of the eighteenth century and participated in the French and Indian War, particularly in the conflicts of Braddock's defeat and at Fort Du Quesne. He received his discharge at Perth Amboy, N. J., at the close of that war. He also served the full period of seven years in the Revolutionary War, entering into the spirit of those times and fighting as all others did, and sacrificing as many had to, for our liberty and independence. He married Margaret Cook, the mother of the father of our subject, John S. Squires. The latter was born in New Haven, Conn., in 1771, and removed to Farmington, Conn., in 1793, when twenty-two years old, and there married Huldah Hadsell. Her father, James Hadsell, was also a Revolutionary soldier, and his wife was a teacher who supported her family and seven children during those long years of anxiety and privation by teaching a common school. In 1800 John S. Squires moved to Choconut, Broome Co., where he remained one summer, removing thence to near Marathon, where he located just below the present village. His trip westward from his native town was made with an ox team and one horse. He crossed the Hudson on the ice and made his way to the State turnpike leading west at a time when there was no other road except a line of marked trees. He accomplished this trip in about three weeks.

    In 1800 there was one saw-mill and one grist-mill only in the vicinity where Mr. Squires first located in Broome County. These were patronized after the Squires family removed to Marathon, the settlers generally going to and from the mills in frail and rudely constructed canoes or "dug-outs" up and down the Tioughnioga. There was a mill at Cayuga lake, twenty miles distant, but this was not so easily reached, the journey being overland.

    The first house erected by Mr. Squires in Marathon and Virgil had no door save a blanket, and the only windows were openings covered with paper. The floor was made of planks or "puncheons" split from logs.

    In 1807 John S. Squires moved to Virgil and took up four hundred acres of land, where he resided until his death June 24th, 1835.

    He was a man of splendid physical proportions, weighing about two hundred and fifty pounds, active and energetic, and was thus able to accomplish much towards subduing the wilderness and bringing it under cultivation. He was lieutenant of a company of aged men which was organized in 1813 for frontier defense against Canada. Simeon West was captain and Wm. Powers ensign. Mr. Squires reared a family of 12 children, six sons and six daughters. The daughters were all married and became mothers of families, and lived to be over sixty years old. The three oldest sons all died before they were twenty-one years old. John A., his fourth son, was a prominent resident of Iowa, where he died some years ago. Dann C. Squires, member of assembly in 1864, and again in 1874, and who was for thirty years justice of the peace and forty-four years district clerk, was the next son. He died in the old homestead in what is now Lapeer, December 17th, 1874.

    James S. Squires, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest member of the family, and was born in Virgil, Jan. 31st, 1819. His early life was spent on the farm, toiling early and late, going to school only on such days as he could not work out on account in inclement weather. His school privileges were therefore limited to a few days or weeks in winter of each year. His zeal for learning was great, and notwithstanding the difficulties in the way, he diligently pursued his studies at home, often stretching himself before the open fire-place in the evening and pouring over his books by the light of the fire. When he reached the age of sixteen years his father died, leaving a large family of children, and James S. saw before him a life in which he must stand or fall by his own efforts. Accordingly in the following year he made preparations to start out into the world for himself. His mother was a devoted Christian woman from her girlhood, and changed her faith from Presbyterian to Baptist principles soon after her husband's death. She now, as her youngest son was about to leave her side, admonished and counseled him as to his future habits. She obtained from him promises that he would never use tobacco in any form; would abstain from intoxicating drinks; would never gamble in any way; would strictly observe the Sabbath day; and would in all things be guided by her Christian teaching and advice. These promises he has always tried faithfully to keep and they have, in his estimation, been the foundation stones upon which he has built up a successful career as a business man and gained the esteem and friendship of all his acquaintances. Following naturally upon the habits formed from those promises, came honesty, uprightness and a conscientious regard for the rights of his fellowmen. As a merchant he never permitted his clerks to misrepresent goods for the purpose of effecting a sale, and in all things endeavored to have them conform to his correct business methods; in short, he followed the only course through life upon which can be established a successful and justifiable record. When eighteen years old he attended school one full term, under the late Nathan Bouton, in Virgil, and made such rapid advancement that his teacher gave him a certificate to teach. In this occupation he afterwards learned more than he had been able to under his previous limited advantages.

    But Mr. Squires was a born merchant, and his characteristic showed itself when he had reached only the age of ten years; he then purchased a quantity of top-onion seed of his brother at six cents a quart, which he sold among his neighbors during evenings at ten cents. In this way he made fifty cents, which he invested in a lamb, which he let for a term of years to double, and from the increase of his investment he found himself the possessor at the time of his first marriage, when he was twenty-four years old, of thirty-two sheep. Of these he sold twenty-five for $50, a profit of a dollar for each original penny invested. The other seven sheep were sold to a tailor and served to pay for cutting and making his wedding suit, himself furnishing the goods.

    In the year 1843 Mr. Squires began mercantile business for himself in Virgil; but through endorsements for the accommodation of others, this venture failed, leaving him twenty-two hundred dollars in debt. Contrary to the advice of his friends and others he devoted his best energies to the payment of his heavy burden, which he accomplished within a few years. The wisdom of this course was shown when the people of the town made him postmaster

soon after the failure, and the next year superintendent of schools, which office he held while he remained in the town.

    He subsequently (1853) removed to Cortland village, where he engaged in mercantile business of a general character and succeeded in building up an annual trade of about $100,000 a year. His store was known as the largest in the county at that time and the most successful, employing much of the time ten clerks, several of whom remained with him fifteen years and are now numbered among the foremost business men of Cortland and other places.

    In 1869 Mr. Squires became president of the Bank of Cortland, which responsible position he filled with ability for fifteen years until 1884, when he resigned to devote all of his time to his personal business. He was prominently instrumental in securing the location of the State Normal School at Cortland, and has also done much to encourage the establishment of manufacturing interests in the place, contributing liberally of his own means to this purpose. He was made treasurer of the Ithaca and Cortland railroad and of the Utica, Chenango and Cortland railroad, which offices he has held until the present time. He gave liberally, also, to the fund for the erection of the Baptist Church in Cortland, of which he has for many years been a faithful and consistent member. He was elected trustee of the society in 1858 and has held the office ever since. He was appointed treasurer in 1860 and still holds that position. He has been one of the pulpit committee since 1861 and was elected deacon in 1875, still holding the office. In 1876 he was elected president of the board of trustees and now holds that office.

    Mr. Squires built his handsome residence in Cortland on the corner of Tompkins and Prospect streets in 1871. It is one of the most attractive private dwellings in the village and has been greatly improved by the addition of conservatories, piazzas, etc. In 1876 he purchased the site of the Old Eagle store, built early in the century by General Roswell Randall, and erected thereon the handsome and valuable Squires building at a cost of about $40,000, containing seven stores, eight offices and ten flats.

    Mr. Squires has been married three times, the first event occurring on December 24th, 1843, when he was united with Miss Lucia Chamberlain, formerly of Otsego County. She was born Feb. 5th, 1821, and died March 16th, 1862. She was a devoted and Christian wife and mother, and died strong in her faith of Jesus. The oldest child of this union was Lucia Verdine Squires, who was born Aug. 5th, 1847. She was married to Jerome R. Hathway in 1868, and died May 28th, 1877. The second child was Francesca Eudell Squires, born Dec. 6th, 1849; she is now the wife of Geo. W. Edgcomb, of Cortland. Two sons were born of this marriage also; the oldest is James Duane Squires, now a member of the law firm of Thornall, Squires & Constant, 120 Broadway, New York City. He was born in Cortlandville, Feb. 8th, 1855, attended school at the Cortlandville Academy and later at the Normal School, where he graduated at the age of sixteen. After teaching one season he took an extra course at the Rochester Collegiate Institute where he graduated and took the first prize for commencement oration.

    In 1873 he entered the Rochester University where he graduated in 1877. After studying law a short time in Cortland he went to New York City and entered the office of Hon. Everett P. Wheeler as a student. He afterwards became a clerk in the office of Deane & Chamberlain, one of the largest real estate law firms in the city. He was admitted to the bar in May, 1881, and in May, 1882, was made a junior member of the firm of Deane & Chamberlain. This firm dissolved in the early part of 1884, when he became a member of the law firm above mentioned.

    The other son is Earl Frank Squires, born in Cortlandville Aug. 2d, 1857. He was educated at the Normal School, and afterwards engaged as clerk in the mercantile business and to some extent in farm work in his native town. In 1877 he became a member of the firm of Stoker & Co., grocers and provision dealers, which was very successful. In 1882 the firm of Squires & Co., was organized for the same business in Cortland, of which he is now the junior member. He was married to Miss Ophelia Evans, daughter of W. R. Evans, of Dallas, Texas, July 30th, 1879.

    Mr. Squires' second marriage occurred on the 8th of Aug. 1865, to Miss Libbie Adelia Purinton, daughter of Dr. Purinton, of West Virginia, and granddaughter of Elder Purinton, of Truxton. She was born in Truxton May 13th, 1839, and died November 30th, 1871, and was a lady of excellent qualities. Vernon P. Squires, the eldest son born of this union, was born Nov. 4th, 1866, and is now in the Cortland Normal School preparing for college. Emma Maud Squires was born May 25th, 1869, and is now in the Normal School, preparing for Vassar College. Louis Almon Squires, born Nov. 24th, 1871, is now in the Normal School, pursuing his regular course of studies. Mr. Squires was again married on the 14th of May, 1873, to Mary Elizabeth Lester, of Binghamton, who had been a teacher many years and principal of the primary department of the Cortland Normal School. Their children by this marriage are Mary Louise, born July 19th, 1875, died Aug. 17th, 1876; and Fred Dann Lester, born Feb 2d, 1877, now in the Normal School.

    Mr. Squires lives to enjoy the fruits of his well spent life, in a domestic circle which is in all respects one to be envied. He is a man whose taste lead him to the enjoyment of home, and hence he has freely bestowed of his wealth to make the surroundings and interior of his dwelling-place as attractive as possible, with a conservatory and its numerous plants and flowers for winter, and his beautiful yard for summer, with which he and his family have ever taken much pleasure.

    The accompanying illustration gives a good view of the new Squires building, erected by James S. Squires in the summer of 1883. It occupies the historic corner (Tompkins and South Main street) where stood what was known as the old Eagle store, a portion of which structure is embraced in and built around, so to speak, by the new building. The old Eagle store was built by Gen. Roswell Randall nearly seventy years ago, and was then one of the most pretentious buildings in the State west of Albany. There was an arcade or rotunda in the center, from which a winding staircase led to each of the three stories. In that building Mr. Randall kept a store for many years which was well known throughout the county. The new Squires building has seven stores on the ground floor, all of which are now occupied. The second story is divided into offices and flats. The ten suits of offices are also all occupied. The third story is designed for flats, or suits of living rooms, for which it is admirably fitted and supplied with all modern improvements. A handsome tower surmounts the corner of the building in which is an illuminated clock. As a whole the Squires building, occupying as it does one of the most conspicuous and convenient corners in the village, is a handsome structure and is a credit to the village and an honor to its owner.

    In the year 1853 Mr. Squires purchased of David R. Hubbard the lot numbered 44 Tompkins street, Cortland village, on which he built a frame house that he occupied until 1871, and this was the first dwelling house on the north side of that street, west of the Randall property (with the exception of some untenable buildings), and in 1871 this house was removed and his handsome brick residence was erected on the same street. The street is now one of the finest in Cortland village, with respect to the character of its private residences and grounds, and is one of the most popular and attractive thoroughfares in the place. Mr. Squires residence, as will be seen by the engraving herein, is characterized by its modest elegance and plain, yet symmetrical architecture. The grounds are handsomely laid out and carefully attended.

CALEB BARDANO HITCHCOCK, the subject of this sketch, is one of the representative business men of Cortland county. His grandfather, Noah Hitchcock, was among the pioneer settlers of Homer, N.Y. His father, Caleb Hitchcock, moved to Dryden, N.Y., where Caleb B. was born March 30th, 1839. In 1841 his father died, leaving his mother with six children, of whom Caleb was the youngest, being only two years of age. Mrs. Hitchcock then removed to Homer with her young family, and by her own industry and economy secured to her children the advantages of a good education. When thirteen years old, Caleb B. went to Venice, Cayuga county, and worked on the farm of Jesse Tillet for two years, attending the winter terms of the district school. Returning to Homer at the end of this time he attended the academy four terms, which completed his school education. Thus, at the age of seventeen, he started out to begin the battle of life and to win a position among men. Two years later found him an employee in the then celebrated carriage factory of S. W. Cately, at Tully, Onondaga Co., N.Y., where he obtained a thorough knowledge of all parts of carriage work.

    At the end of three years' service he went to Cincinnatus and worked in the shop of Larabee & Gee, where, a year later, with the earnings which his frugality had enabled him to save, he purchased an interest in the business, afterwards becoming the sole proprietor.

    After a time he disposed of his carriage shop and opened a furniture, undertaking and livery business, in which he remained until about 1877. During this time he occasionally finished a few cutters and conceived the idea of the large manufacturing interest which now bears his name.

    Recognizing the limit and inconvenience placed upon business in an inland town, and observing the growing impulse for extensive manufactories developing in Cortland, he removed there in the spring of 1877, to attempt to put into practical execution some of the plans he had been maturing to build up a large wholesale manufactory for cutters and sleighs. To this end he rented the Gee property on Port Watson street, and the first year, having five employees, made and sold one hundred cutters---a business not exceeding four thousand dollars. The following season he purchased what was then known as the old church property on Elm street, and each year thereafter more than doubled the business---buying lot after lot and putting up building after building of immense proportions, until the business, of four thousand dollars in 1877, reached nearly half a million in 1884.

    Mr. Hitchcock is emphatically a self-made man. Being a good judge of human nature enabled him to gather about him as employees men well fitted to aid him in his great enterprises. During his business career he has made no misstep through defect of his own judgment. He is an expert buyer, and it is this superior quality, perhaps, more than any other, that has enabled him to keep pace and even surpass many older and more experienced manufacturers.

    Believing in the justice and equity of giving an interest to those who aided him while building up his large business, he organized, in March, 1884, as his successor, "The Hitchcock Manufacturing Company," with a capital of $150,000, and a charter for fifty years with C. B. Hitchcock as president, H. L. Gleason, secretary, and H. C. Henry as treasurer. This company, on the first day of January, will have built and sold 3,500 wagons and 10,000 sleighs, shipping in the busiest times a sleigh every five minutes, and are fully sustaining their well earned reputation of building the largest number of cutters of any factory in the world. It is their intention next year to build 5,000 wagons and 15,000 sleighs, thus pushing the business close to a million dollars.

ALONZO D. BLODGETT. Following is a brief genealogy of the Blodgett family, of which the subject of this sketch is a member:---

    The Blodgett family came from Lexington, Mass. Thomas Blodgett came from London in 1635; settled at Cambridge. Children, Daniel, Samuel, Susan. Samuel born in England, 1633; died 1687; married Ruth Ingleden, 1655. Children, Ruth, Samuel, Susan, Sarah.

    2. Thomas, born 1660; removed to Lexington 1699; married Rebecca Tidd 1684. Children, Thomas, Rebecca, Joseph, Abigail, Saul.

    3. Joseph, jr., son of Joseph, born 1696; married (first wife) Sarah Stone, who was born at Lexington 1700; died 1735; second wife, Sarah Ingersoll, 1738; she was born at Springfield 1718. Joseph, jr., died June 10th 1783. Sarah Ingersoll Blodgett died April 24th, 1774. Children of Sarah Stone and Sarah Ingersoll; Joseph, April 17th, 1721; Sarah, November 12th, 1722; Anna, April 10th, 1724; Abigail, July 18th, 1726; Ruth, March 1st, 1728; Benjamin, June 9th, 1730; Abner, June 6th, 1732; Thomas, September 26th, 1734. Sarah Ingersoll's children, Samuel, May 17th 1739; Lydia, February 7th 1741; Jonas, November 12th, 1743; Azubah, April 12th, 1746; Caleb, November 24th, 1748; Elijah, October 25th, 1750; Marsena, March 4th, 1754; Nathan, November 3d, 1756; Admatha, December 15th, 1758.

    Children of Nathan Blodgett (born 1756), who married Abigail Bliss, born August 3oth, 1760: Loren, born April 22d, 1782; Rachel, born July 4th, 1785; Lot, born August 20th, 1787; Lewis, born March 10th, 1790; Lydia, born September 27th,

1792; Abigail, born June 9th, 1795; Franklin, born January 21st, 1798; Eliza, born May 5th 1800; George A., born June 26th, 1804; Dwight F., born March 31st, 1806.

    Franklin Benjamin married Achsah Dewey, born August 8th, 1798; married November 1st, 1821. Children, Orissa Blodgett, born July 24th, 1823; Alonzo Dwight, born June 14th, 1825; Lewis Gaylord, born May 14, 1827; J. Randolph, born March 12th 1829; Jane Amelia, born March 28th, 1831; Mary Louisa, born April 15th, 1833.

    Alonzo D. Blodgett, the well-known farmer and stock raiser, is a grandson of Nathan Blodgett, an old colonial soldier who settled on the present Blodgett homestead in 1805. Nathan Blodgett was born near Lexington, Mass., and bound out until twenty-one years old, for which service he received one hundred dollars. On the 10th of September, 1778, he was appointed sergeant in the third company of the first regiment of Worcester, Joseph Putnam, jr., captain; and on the 2d of July, 1792, was appointed by John Hancock, then governor of the State, as ensign of the same company, and on May 15th, 1794, he received an honorable discharge; thereafter he was a pensioner until his death. In 1804 he came Whitestown, N.Y., and in 1805 he built his log cabin near the site now occupied by Alonzo Blodgett's house. During the following year he erected his forge and was one of the earliest blacksmiths in the town. On the homestead stands an elm tree planted by him about the time of his settlement, which has attained a circumference about its base of nearly eleven feet. He was for a number of years commissioner of highways and was one of the first to take active steps towards securing a public library for the village of Cortland. His son, Franklin B. Blodgett, was but seven years old when his father came to this place. He was an unostentatious man, and sought no official honors or public station; he turned rather to those domestic comforts that are found in congenial and religious households of the character of his own. He was a carpenter and in 1816 assisted in building the "Blodgett's Mills" at the hamlet of that name; and in 1850 the old part of the house now occupied by Alonzo D. Blodgett. He became a member of the Presbyterian Church in Cortland in 1832; was soon after made an elder and then a deacon; these offices he held for forty years, until 1872; he was a member of the session thirty-seven years. In his death the church lost one of its most valuable members and one who had been most devoted to the great work of advancing the cause of religion. He died as he had lived, strong in the faith.

    Alonzo Dwight Blodgett, the eldest son of Franklin Benjamin Blodgett and Achsah Dewey, was born in the town of Cortland, June 14th, 1825, and now resides on the homestead that has been the patrimony of the family for eighty years, and which is one of the most attractive and valuable farms in the county. Mr. Blodgett spent a portion of the earlier years of his life at school, but being the oldest son, his advantages in this respect were limited, for his services were of too much consequence at home. Musical talent is inborn in the family, and especially in the subject of this sketch; the study and practice of the divine art became a passion with him, and being possessed of an excellent voice, he soon took the position in the community to which he was thereby entitled---a leader in all musical matters. As early as 1844, when he was nineteen, he joined the choir of the Presbyterian Church in Cortland, and in the following year became its leader. This position he has held constantly since that time---a period of forty years. No higher

testimonial is needed than this, not only to his musical ability and devotion, but to his faculty for organization, for harmonizing the discords that often arise in church singing bodies and for promoting the general musical interests of the community. About the time that he became the choir leader he also commenced teaching vocal music through this portion of the State, which arduous work he followed a large portion of fifteen years. But the exposure of attending night schools and his practice of fulfilling his engagements, regardless of inclement weather or the state of his health, finally produced such ill effects upon his physical system that he was compelled to abandon traveling altogether. For two years he was the advance agent of "The Amphions," a popular concert company that enjoyed an excellent reputation wherever they appeared.

    But although Mr. Blodgett gave up traveling and teaching, his musical labors were not by any means abandoned. In the numerous concerts that have been given in Cortland, Homer and vicinity, he has always been looked to as the first one to depend upon for success. Whatever the cause that has needed support---temperance, charity, schools, churches, or any laudable undertaking---Mr. Blodgett has been found not only willing to contribute his talents and time and almost invariably to the success of the event. In Cortland alone he has taken part in thirty-six concerts, twenty-one of which he conducted in person, and most of which were for charitable objects. During the late war he was generally foremost wherever money and troops were to be raised, monuments erected, or widows or orphans of soldiers to be provided for, the tuneful strains of patriotic melodies often serving effectually for these purposes where other means failed.

    Before the late war Mr. Blodgett received the appointment of adjutant of the Forty-second Regiment New York State Militia, and afterward was enrolled in the same in the National Guard. He was subsequently promoted to major and then to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Seventy-sixth Regiment National Guards, which office he now holds.

    Mr. Blodgett has always taken an active interest in the County Agricultural Society, holding the office of secretary seven years, and elected president in 1870 and again in 1881. As a farmer he has kept abreast of the times; was the first president of the Farmer's Club, which office he has held continuously to the present time, and which organization he has done much to support and improve.

    Mr. Blodgett was united in marriage to Miss Eleanor Dickinson on the 13th of June, 1860; she is the daughter of Obadiah Dickinson and his wife, Eleanor, of Onondaga Valley. Her father was a native of Hatfield, Mass., and came to this State in 1844; he died in 1879. Her mother is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Blodgett have two children living; Edward D., the elder, is in the class of '87 at Amherst College, and Frank D. is attending school at home. The family now have one of the pleasantest suburban homes in the town.

JAMES H. TRIPP, the banker and capitalist of Marathon, N.Y., was born in Ancram, Columbia county, N.Y., January 17th, 1832. His grandfather was Daniel Tripp who was born in the town of Pawling, N.Y., in 1771, where he and his wife, Elizabeth Akin, became prominent in the sect of "Friends," of Quaker Hill, Duchess county, a religious society which has had an existence of over one hundred and fifty years. He afterwards removed to Ancram, Columbia county, N.Y. In 1838 he removed to Dryden, Tompkins county, N.Y., where he died in 1856.

    Daniel A. Tripp, father of James H., was born in the town of Ancram, August 31st, 1804. In 1828 he married Loritta Haviland, daughter of Benjamin H. Haviland, of Athens, Greene county, N.Y. Benjamin H. Haviland was for a number of years captain of a sailing vessel on the Hudson river. In 1837 Daniel A. Tripp removed to Dryden, Tompkins county, and in the following year moved across the town line into the town of Harford, where he lived until his death, December 5th, 1883. He was a man of great industry and strict integrity. His wife died in 1873 at the age of sixty-seven. She was an estimable woman, a great reader, and possessed remarkable powers of memory, even in her later days. Their children were Mrs. E. H. Lampman, of Coxsackie, Greene county, N.Y.; J. H. Tripp, of Marathon; Miss C. H. Tripp, of Harford; Miss E. C. Tripp, of Harford; Mrs. Louisa Thomas, of Dryden; D. B. Tripp, assistant cashier of the bank of Marathon; Mrs. Mary Wheeler, of Washington, D. C.; E. W. Tripp, of Homer; and John C. Tripp, who died in Syracuse in 1881.

    James H. Tripp, when five years of age, came with his parents to this section of the State and received his early education in the schools of Harford, with one term in the Cortland Academy. When nineteen years of age he began teaching, which occupation he followed in district schools during the winter months of five years. In 1856 he came to Marathon and engaged as clerk for Peck & Adams, a well known firm of general merchants at that time. He remained with them in this capacity until 1859, when he was admitted to partnership under the firm name of Peck, Adams & Tripp, in which relationship he continued till the winter of 1862. It was at this time that the attention of H. J. Messenger was attracted towards Mr. Tripp and discovering in him superior business ability, induced him to take the responsible position of cashier in his Marathon bank. Up to this time Mr. Tripp was totally ignorant of banking business and did not even know the methods employed to detect counterfeit bank bills, although the country was flooded with spurious paper. His success, however, was so marked that in six months time he was promoted to the position of cashier in the large bank at Canandaigua, of which Mr. Messenger was president. He remained in the employ of Mr. Messenger for a period of four years, as cashier and as superintendent of his general affairs in Marathon, Canandaigua and Geneva.

    In the fall of 1865, he entered into partnership with his old employer, Lyman Adams, under the firm name of Tripp & Adams, buying out the interest of Mr. Peck. This business relationship has continued to the present time, a period of twenty years, eighteen and a half of which were devoted to general merchandising and private banking. In June, 1884, such had been their success as bankers, they felt justified in the organization of the First National Bank of Marathon, of which Mr. Tripp is now president.

    On the fifth of October, 1865, Mr. Tripp was married to Sarah Remington, a daughter of Chauncey Remington, a druggist of Ontario county. She died in 1871, and on November 11th, 1873, he married Mrs. Louisa Bogardus, daughter of Edward Farrington, a native of Duchess county, N. Y., who removed to near Cortland village while young and at a later date to De Ruyter, Madison county, where he still resides; he is a prominent farmer at that place. Louisa Farrington was first married to Martin D. Bogardus, one of the leading farmers of the town of Cuyler. He died about three years after their marriage. Their daughter, Anna, who was born in 1870, has been adopted by Mr. Tripp and is a loved and cherished member of his family.

    Mr. And Mrs. Tripp are now in the enjoyment of a beautiful home and the luxuries of life to which they are entitled; and as members of the society in which they live are tendered the respect and friendship of all.

JAMES HARMON HOOSE was born January 24th, 1835, near Warnerville, Schoharie county, N.Y., where his parents then lived. His father, Abram Hoose, was born October 6ht, 1808, and was of Holland ancestry that settled upon lands now included in Columbia county, N.Y. He was a man of much force of character, industrious, upright, and possessed a deep regard for that liberty which was established for citizens by the American Independence. Mrs. Abram Hoose, whose maiden name was Rosanna Miller, was born January 26th, 1809, and belonged to German lineage that settled upon land near Florida in Montgomery county, N.Y. She was a woman of unusual force of character, and possessed rare aptitudes and love for literary attainments, losing no opportunity to avail herself of the limited advantages for mental improvement which the country then afforded. She died June 6th, 1867.

    Mr. Abram Hoose and family moved in 1836 to the town of Parish, Oswego county, N.Y., where he purchased wild land; he became a very prosperous farmer, and was held in high estimation as a public spirited citizen; he was always the friend of the common school. The children in the family were James, who was the eldest; Jedidiah, five years younger, who is now a prominent business man in Mexico, N.Y.; and Janette who was seven years younger than Jedidiah; she lived on a farm near the homestead until her death, which occurred Oct. 7th, 1884. The three children were brought up to be industrious and persevering; they were taught obedience and to be respectful to others; they were taught good habits of temperance; they were sent to the district school during their earlier years, and to higher schools in subsequent years.

    The elder son, the subject of this sketch, applied himself diligently and successfully to his studies in the school district; he was a constant reader, reading through the old district-school library and as many other books as he could find in the neighborhood. He taught his first term of school when he was eighteen, in the district where he had always attended school; the term was a winter school of four months, and his wages were twelve dollars per month and "board around." In the following spring and fall he went to school at Mexico Academy and attended also at Mexico his first Teachers' Institute. He taught, in New York and in Ohio, district schools in winter, in Teachers' Institutes in the fall, and classes in the academy occasionally, and studied in the academy a couple of terms each years, assisting his father upon the farm during vacations. He pursued his studies, classical, mathematical, and scientific, in this way, at Mexico Academy and at Warnerville Seminary, until he entered Genesee College in the fall of 1859. While connected with the college he taught school winters, but by pursuing his studies as a private student with Dr. John R. French, now Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Syracuse University, he kept his rank in the college, and was graduated from it in June, 1861. While in college he took very high rank as a student, especially in the higher mathematics. He held at Pulaski in the spring of 1860 a select normal school for teachers of Oswego county. He afterwards became principal of Pulaski Academy for a short time.

    Dr. Hoose was one of the prominent movers in organizing the Oswego County Teachers' Association, serving for a time as its corresponding secretary. He attended for the first time the New York State Teachers' Association at its session held in Syracuse, in 1860; he has attended nearly every session of the association since that date; he was its president when the session was held at Saratoga Springs, in July, 1872. He has attended for years the meetings of the National Educational Association, being a life member of it; he was one year president of the normal section of that association. He is a member of the National Council of Education. He has been an alumni trustee of Syracuse University ever since its establishment, and was re-elected in June, 1884 for a third term of six years.

    He was conductor of Institutes from 1866 until 1869, holding sessions in nearly every county of the State, although he was employed occasionally from 1857; he conducted Institutes now and then from 1869 to 1877, and has delivered addresses in them from time to time ever since. He visited Europe in 1877 to investigate educational affairs in the old world. His pen has been busy as an educational writer. He was appointed in 1862 one of the editors of The New York Teacher. He has written many articles for publication, and many addresses. His books are: Notes on the Educational System of Great Britain; Hints to Americans visiting Europe; Studies in Articulation; On the Province of Methods of Teaching; The First Year Text-Book in Number, based upon the Pestalozzian System. He was for one year, 1881-82, editor of the department of "Notes" in Education.

    Dr. Hoose has held in the State of New York the following positions as teacher since he was graduated from college: Professor of Mathematics in the Susquehanna Seminary, Binghamton; principal of a large select at Sharon Springs; principal of Warnerville Seminary, Warnerville; teacher in charge of the English department in Cortland Academy, Homer; professor of Mathematics in the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, Lima; principal of Ward School No. 4, Oswego, and assistant in Science in the Oswego Normal School; professor of Theory and Practice and of English Language and Literature in the State Normal School at Brockport. He entered upon his duties as principal of the Cortland Normal School in February, 1869, the first term opening March 3d, 1869. He was acting principal of the Fredonia State Normal School two months in the fall of 1878, upon the death of Dr. J. W. Armstrong, who had been principal there up to that date. He was superintendent of public schools of the city of Binghamton in 1881-82, during ten months of the school-year.

    He was married in 1861 to Miss Lemoyne A. Hale, of New Haven, N.Y., who died in 1871. He afterwards married Miss Helen K. Hubbard, of Norwich, N.Y.

    The following brief history of the important events transpired in the life of Dr. Hoose from 1880 to 1884, is from the pen of Prof. C. W. Bennett, D. D., of Syracuse University. [For many details of the history of these years and for an account of the continued prosperity of the school, the reader is referred to another page of this volume which contains the history of the Cortland Normal School.]

    Says Dr. Bennett:---

    For years had been felt the need of the unification of the educational system of the State, and the removal of educational interests from the realm of partisan politics. To the double headship of this system an unworthy feeling of jealousy and antagonism had been clearly attributable. The colleges, academies and academic departments in the high schools were amenable to the Board of Regents of the University, while in other respects in the public schools the superintendent of public instruction had supervision and control. Thus a double set of reports must be prepared, and a wide difference of opinion on the part of these two growing authorities at times divided the sentiment of teachers even in the same room. These interests were also represented by two different annual educational gatherings, viz., the State Teachers' Association and the convocation of the Board of Regents. At times there was a manifest tendency to indulge in unfavorable criticism, and there was sometimes wanting that hearty sympathy and frank co-operation that were needful to secure the best results.

    The election of the superintendent of public instruction by the joint ballot of the two houses of the legislature, made this officer the creature of a party; hence the temptation was often strong to use his immense official influence and patronage for partisan purposes. Moreover there was an autocratic centralization of legislative, judicial and executive power: from his decisions there was no appeal; he could undo to-day what had been done yesterday; he had absolute power over all schools and school officers; he had control of $3,000,000 of school funds; he controlled all normal schools and school institutes, etc., etc.

    Many of the closest thinkers and most earnest educators of all political parties believed that the system of educational superintendence in the State of New York was most vicious, and they desired its reconstruction after the model of the systems of Massachusetts, Connecticut, or Pennsylvania, where a non-partisan board of education appoints its own superintendent or secretary, who shall serve at the pleasure of the board and be subject to its instruction, and amenable to its authority. Thus, it was believed, would the educational interests of the State be most wisely administered and the partisan element be most largely eliminated.

    The mental characteristics and educational experience of Dr. Hoose would not permit him to be an indifferent spectator of this movement. He threw all his energies on the side of administrative reconstruction and unification. From time to time he was appointed by important educational associations to write and speak upon this vital question. His utterances were clear and unequivocal. He was a stranger to those prudential maxims that govern the politician. He was the earnestness and indifference to personal consequences that characterize the true reformer.

    This was the state of public feeling in the beginning of 1879. The New York State Association of School Commissioners and Superintendents, at their meeting in Ithaca in February, 1879, appointed a committee of correspondence on the revision and consolidation of the two systems of school supervision and superintendence in the State of New York. Of this committee Dr. Hoose was made chairman. The report was given December 1st, 1879. It was thorough and exhaustive. Facts gathered from most extended correspondence with school officers in many States, from wide examination of educational supervision in the various States, from the convictions of the best men in New York who had recommended the needed reform, from the work accomplished under other systems as contrasted with the meager results attained under the New York system, especially in the great centennial exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, and from the partisan action of the then incumbent of the office of superintendent of public instruction, were made the basis of a most complete, instructive argument resulting in these conclusions:---

    1. That the legislature of the State of New York shall revise and consolidate all school supervision and administration under a State Board of Education.

    2. That this board of education shall appoint the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who shall serve at the pleasure of the board, and be subject to its direction and instruction.

    3. That these changes be introduced in the organic laws of the State at the earliest date that is practicable.

    To this entire reform the then Superintendent of Public Instruction, Neil Gilmour, was persistently opposed. Both in private conversation and in public utterances and acts, this opposition was manifest. This is conspicuous in his remarks before the National Educational Association at its session in Washington in Dec., 1877. The Deputy Superintendent, also the editor of a daily journal at Albany, as early as 1874 fiercely attacked gentlemen of purest character and widest educational experience, who were laboring to effect wise legislation in the interests of reform. His conduct and utterances had shown him to be in thorough sympathy with the superintendent himself.

    It was at this stage of public discussion that strong efforts were made to discontinue the Normal School system in the State of New York. The friends of the system rallied and succeeded in appointing a committee to investigate and report to the legislature. Upon this committee was placed Hon. John I. Gilbert, of St. Lawrence, who was very zealous in defense of the system, and to whom more than to any other one man is due its defense and salvation from the attacks of its adversaries. During the legislative session of 1880 Mr. Gilbert was a candidate for the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction as against Neil Gilmour, the then incumbent, and Dr. Hoose advocated the election of Mr. Gilbert.

    On the 28th day of the following June, (1880) Mr. Gilmour, the superintendent, wrote Dr. Hoose demanding his peremptory resignation of the principalship of the Cortland Normal School. The suddenness and unexpectedness of this demand was startling to everybody. It was the more strange because no charges had been made and most positive commendations of his management had been repeatedly made. Dr. Hoose replied to the superintendent, declining to resign, and the local board, after notification of this action by Mr. Gilmour, inquired of him whether, and what charges had been preferred. Thus began the Cortland Normal School controversy, that has become so famous and that was watched with deep interest by the educators of New York.

    On the 12th day of July, 1880, Mr. Gilmour wrote to the local board, also to Dr. Hoose, purporting to withdraw his approval of the further employment of Dr. Hoose in the Normal School. To this communication the local board replied by stating their non-concurrence with the superintendent in the removal of Dr. Hoose, and expressing their opinion of the eminent fitness of that gentleman for his responsible office. The issue between the local board and the superintendent was thus distinctly made: the former holding that the joint concurrence of the superintendent and the local board was necessary to the removal of teachers who had already been appointed; the latter holding (and this was the opinion of the Attorney General) that in the superintendent resided the sole power of removal.

    The local board refused to recognize the appointment of a successor to Dr. Hoose, holding that as no vacancy had occurred, no new principal could be appointed. Notice was served by the superintendent upon the other teachers of the school, ordering them to report to his appointee. Six obeyed this summons, while six continued in the school under the direction of the local board. The six vacancies were supplied, and the year opened as usual under the principalship of Dr. Hoose. Persistent attempts were made by Mr. Gilmour to interfere with the prosperity of the school by withholding the certificates of the appointments of students that had been made by the county authorities, by diverting the students to other Normal Schools, and by withdrawing his approval of the further employment of the six teachers who had continued under the local board.

    On the 7th day of September, 1880, the superintendent peremptorily ordered the School to be closed, which order the local board declined to obey, since at that time nearly six hundred pupils, many of whom were from distant parts of the State were in actual attendance, and eminent legal counsel had expressed the opinion that the superintendent had no right or authority to close said school. At the same time, however, a proposition was made to Mr. Gilmour to submit the questions of difference to the Supreme Court and get its early judgment thereon. This reasonable proposition was rejected at first, then accepted with threatening conditions, but afterwards again rejected by the superintendent.

    On the 7th day of February, 1881, the superintendent caused to be served upon the local board a peremptory writ of mandamus issued by the Supreme Court to compel said board immediately to terminate the employment of Dr. Hoose and recognize the appointee of the superintendent. This mandamus was issued by the Court solely on the ground that the superintendent had withdrawn his approval of said Hoose; the merits of the case were in no sense canvassed. Dr. Hoose immediately retired from the principalship under protest, not resigning but only waiting the final decisions of the courts. For some months he was engaged as superintendent of the public schools at Binghamton, where his efficient services were greatly prized.

    On the 18th day of April, 1882, the Court of Appeals by decision set aside the order of the Supreme Court that had granted the mandamus, and declared Dr. Hoose the legal principal of the said Normal School, which declaration was duly filed April 26th, 1882. Immediately after this decision had been rendered Dr. Hoose resumed his duties as principal to the great gratification of the educators of the State. This decision of the Court of Appeals was made the ground of a claim against the State for the amount of salaries due Dr. Hoose and the teachers who had acted with him in the interval between their ejection Feb. 7th, 1881, and their restoration April 26th, 1881. On May 3d, 1884, the Board of Claims, after careful review of the case, awarded the salaries, amounting to $10,217.81, and on the 24th day of May, 1884, Gov. Cleveland signed the bill making appropriation to pay the award of the Board of Claims. Thus ended this famous controversy.

    Amid it all Dr. Hoose maintained a dignity and quietude truly admirable. The persistence of the attack upon him (for this was the real animus of the entire movement) was only equaled by the coolness and earnestness of the defense. At no stage of the controversy did he loose courage; for he firmly believed that the law of the Empire State had not been so loosely framed as to permit the interests of great institutions of her own founding to be imperiled by the caprice or the animosity of a single officer.

    To him and to the local board do all the teachers of the State owe a debt of gratitude. The decisions resulting from the controversy have given greater dignity to the teacher's profession, and have done away with a craven spirit of fear that must otherwise have taken possession of all teachers in the public schools. These decisions have also showed that the State will carefully guard the reputation and interests of its faithful school servants, and will curb the hasty action of nervous or jealous officials, who would attempt to curb generous and manly discussion of public questions.

THE FREER FAMILY. The immediate ancestors of this prominent Cortland county family was John A. Freer, who, with his wife, Rachael De Puy Freer, daughter of Joseph and Mary De Puy, of Rochester, Ulster county, N.Y., with his family of three children, started on the 1st day of November, 1802, for Homer (then in Onondaga county), now Cortland county, N.Y. The family came by way of Kingston, Catskill, Coxsackie, Albany, Schenectady, Kaghnawaga, Utica, Wampsville, Manlius, Pompey Hill (then called Butler Hill). One team was driven by the hired man, and the other by Joseph De Puy, jr., a brother of Mrs. Freer. There were also in this company, Maria De Puy, a sister of Mrs. Freer, and a hired man named Jacobus Clearwater. The night John A. Freer reached Butler Hill, he bought a cow for twenty dollars. Upon reaching the north part of Homer they stayed at the house of Peter Vanderlyne; this was on Saturday night, and the next day they came to the now village of Cortland (then consisting of only one house), where they attended meeting under the preaching of Rev. Nathan Darrow. In the afternoon of the same day they reached their destination and located on the south-east corner of lot 74. This land he had previously purchased, but to his great disappointment found no house in which to take shelter. This was on the 13th day of November. He had been on the road thirteen days. The snow on the morning of their arrival was eight inches deep, and with no house for the family nor shelter for the teams the outlook was indeed cold and gloomy. It was the wish of Mrs. Freer, that the tents should be taken from the wagon and set up by the side of a large hollow stump, but it was finally decided that they would stop at the house of Nathaniel Knapp, whose family consisted only of himself, wife and child; but the cabin was only 18 by 20 feet---certainly not a very commodious one---but here they found shelter until a log house could be built; this, however, was commenced the very next day. But the house was without a door, had few boards overhead, no windows save holes in the sides of the cabin covered with blankets, and lacked many other conveniences we would now consider as indispensable to housekeeping.

    The neighbors at this time were the Messrs. Lee, Budd, Chase, Morse, Scott, and the two Mr. Knapps. Upon the morning after the removal into the new quarters, Anthony Freer was standing about two rods from the door place, when an animal passed by. He ran to tell his mother that a large black hog was near the house, but the tracks of the animal proved it to be a bear, which had passed within two rods of the boy.

    John A. Freer and his retired man next built a hovel of logs and covered it with poles and brush, large enough to shelter the teams and the cow. After this they constructed a fire hearth in the cabin to burn wood, and after making some other simple provisions for the further comfort of the family, Mr. Freer started out to return to his former home to get his sleigh and another load of goods. He started on Christmas day, 1802, and took his hired man with him, intending to be gone three weeks, going by way of Oxford. When he reached Unadilla the snow had melted off the ground and he was forced to leave his small wood sled and go on horseback.

Upon reaching his destination he had to wait until the last week in February before he could start on his return, and reached home on the 2d of March following. This long absence of the father, without word of any kind, naturally caused much uneasiness on the part of the wife, and was to her a trying time, with no earthly protector save a faithful dog and the kind assistance of the neighbors, and from the Lee family especially. She spent these three months almost in solitude, save the howling of wolves at night and the storm and wind by day, around the newly constructed log house; yet her faith and courage was equal to the emergency. All kinds of conjectures had been indulged in as to what had become of the father. With no mails, and no post-office nearer than Onondaga, it seemed an impossibility for her to obtain news without going in search of it herself with three small children, the oldest but seven years of age. She began to make preparations to return in quest of her husband. Difficulties, however, (and the main one was in selling her cow---the difference of two dollars in the price decided her to stay), prevented the consummation of her plans, and before the day of her departure was at hand she was joyfully surprised by the return of her husband.

    The family of John A. Freer and wife consisted of ten children, two of whom died in infancy. The remaining eight were named as follows, Maria, Anthony, Jane Low, Joseph De Puy, Catherine R., John James, Sarah R. and Stephen Decatur. Maria, the eldest, was married to Lyman Mallery in 1817, and removed to Seneca county, where she died in 1845, leaving two children; the youngest, Elias De Puy Mallery, now lives in Cortland village. Anthony, a sketch of whose life is given herein. Jane Low died in 1883. Joseph De Puy, who was admitted to practice at law in 1834, as attorney and solicitor in Chancery and as counselor in the Supreme Court in 1838, died in 1850. Catherine R., who still owns property and resides there. John James, the fifth son, spent his life in Cortland county as a farmer. He was a man of strong constitution, excellent habits and successfully accomplished whatever he undertook. He was twice married, his first wife being Alice Whitney, who died leaving a family of five boys; four now are living. He afterward married a Mrs. Tarble, of Freetown, by whom he had four children, three of whom survive him. He died in October, 1884. Sarah R., widow of James W. Sturtevant, whose biography appears in this work, still resides in Cortland.

    John A. Freer and wife were both active members of the Presbyterian Church, and were among the original members on forming the first Presbyterian Church and Society, which consisted of only seven members on its organization.

    John A. Freer died in 1826, and Rachel Freer died in 1852.

    ANTHONY FREER was the second child of John A. Freer and Rachael De Puy Freer and was born August 21st, 1797. His parentage on both sides can be traced back to the Huguenots, who came to this country about the year 1680, on account of religious persecutions.

    Anthony Freer spent his early life on his father's farm on lot 74, about one mile south of the village of Cortland. He was the oldest of the family of boys, and received his education from the limited schools then afforded in a newly settled country. While a young man and years before his father's death (which occurred in 1826) he was noted as a man of strong mind, and of positive character, and possessed of a remarkably retentive memory. He was frequently employed by drovers of hogs, cattle and horses, and made a number of trips to New York, Hartford, Connecticut and other routes east, and it has been said he could remember every mile board on the old Newburg and Catskill turnpikes after one of his trips. His career as a farmer was continued very successfully until 1837, at which time he engaged in the foundry business in Cortland village.

    He was active and energetic in the various callings of life. He was a strong supporter of common schools and of the various interests connected with the growth of the village. He was also active in politics and a warm supporter of the Democratic party. In 1828 he was one of the first in securing a division of the town of Homer, going to Albany as a lobby member for this purpose. He held the offices of county treasurer and superintendent of the poor at various times and was surrogate of the county from 1836 to 1840, and then from 1844 to 1847, when the new constitution went into effect requiring the office of surrogate and county judge to be consolidated and to be held by a practicing lawyer. He was an active member of the county agricultural society from its organization and in 1852 was elected its president. His associates in the political field were such men as Wm. Mallery, John Gillett, General Hathaway, Oliver Kingman, William Bartlett, and men of that stamp, all of whom were always present at the preliminary meetings and wise in their counsels.

    His motto and principle was always to do right, and never would consent to yield his principles of right and justice for expediency or policy under any circumstances whatever.

    Mr. Freer was also an active member of the Presbyterian church of Cortland village, and served efficiently as trustee of this society for many years. He died September 12th, 1871. He was a bachelor and spent sixty-nine years of his earthly pilgrimage in this place. As stated by the Rev. Mr. Howe in his funeral disclosure: "He has been in our midst watching as he was able to do the growth and development of the place through all the successive stages of its progress to the attainment of its present prosperity and beauty; with whose history he has been identified and to whose prosperity we may believe he has in no small degree contributed."

    He also bears testimony to his honesty and integrity in the following words: "Afterwards he was with his brother (Stephen D. Freer), for a term of years, engaged largely and prosperously in business, building up and carrying forward one of the most important manufacturing enterprises of the place, in the conduct of which, and in all his business transactions, he bears an unblemished reputation for incorruptible integrity and honesty. That he was a truly honest man is the verdict of all, from which perhaps no dissent was ever uttered."

    JOSEPH DE PUY FREER.---At the opening of the Cortland County Circuit, June 13th, 1850, Horatio Ballard, in a few appropriate remarks, announced the death of Joseph De Puy Freer,---formerly, and till his death, a member of the bar of the county, and recommended a meeting of the lawyers at the court-house that day for the purpose of paying a proper respect to the memory of the deceased. In pursuance of this recommendation, a meeting was held at the appointed time when it was

    Resolved, That we have received with deep regret information of the death of Joseph De Puy Freer, Esq., for several years a member of the bar of Cortland county.

    Resolved, That the amiable deportment, known firmness of character, unblemished integrity, and the legal attainments of the deceased, had justly acquired for him the regard and respect of the community and more especially of the profession who was most intimately associated with him, and insures that his name and character will long be remembered and respected.

    Resolved, That as a mark of respect for the memory of the deceased, we will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days.

    Resolved, That we sympathize with the relatives of the deceased in the loss which they have sustained, and that a copy of these resolutions be communicated to them."

    These resolutions were also published in the newspapers and the members of the bar also attended the funeral in a body. Henry Stephens was chairman of the meeting and Lewis Kingsley was secretary.

    This expression of his professional associates is, perhaps, the most deserved and just tribute that we can here pay to the memory of Joseph De Puy Freer. His loss to the village was looked upon by the community as one that could scarcely be repaired. Had he lived he would, without a doubt, have attained an eminent position before the public and won a still larger circle of friends.

    STEPHEN DECATUR FREER, the youngest of the ten children, was born in 1815, and has passed his already long life in Cortland. His younger days were spent on his father's farm. When fourteen years of age he began attendance at the village school, and attended for one year the high school kept there by Orlin Oatman, on the plan of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, of Troy. As an indication of his proficiency in study, it is related that he was called on while a boy in school at fourteen, by Samuel Hotchkiss, then county clerk, to make a map of the then town of Homer, locating in full the lot boundaries, roads, streams, business points, etc. This map was made and was used in procuring the subsequent division of the town.

    At the age of seventeen Mr. Freer entered the postoffice, then kept by Canfield Marsh, as a clerk and apprentice at the hat finishing trade. He did not remain there long, however, and in 1834 entered General Randall's store on the southwest corner of Main and Tompkins streets, as a clerk. In 1837 he went into the employ of his brother, Anthony, in the foundry business, and in 1838 the firm of A. & S. D. Freer was formed. They conducted the foundry and a large hardware store until 1861, when they sold their goods to Chamberlain & Benton. In the mean time he had engaged in the coal trade, upon the opening of the S. B. & N. Y. railroad, in 1854, and also conducted that business until 1865. He was a member of the firm of Sears, Freer & Cottrell, organized in 1864, who manufactured flax-seed oil in the old paper-mill for a few years; and entered the coal business again, after the failure of this industry to prove a success, in 1873. His last venture proved a decided success, and in 1874 he purchased the large frame building on the corner of Railroad street and the S. B. & N. Y. railroad, where he successfully continued in this business until August, 1883, when he removed to the new coal buildings and offices just completed, opposite the Cortland Wagon Company's works. The buildings are the finest in this section, the coal pocket structure being one hundred and eighty-eight feet in length and forty-eight feet in height, with a capacity for dumping fifteen cars at one time. It is supplied with all the improvements in screens, sieves, etc., for preparing the coal without labor while loading on wagons, and is a model of its kind.

    Mr. Freer was married in 1841 to Miss Sarah M. De Puy, of Ulster county, N. Y. She was a daughter of Joseph De Puy, jr. They have four children.

    Mr. Freer has been a resident of Cortland for three-score and ten years and has been a member of the Presbyterian Church for a long period. He was the chief officer of the County Agricultural Society, and it was mainly through his influence that the fair grounds were purchased and the temporary buildings erected in 1858. In 1862 he was again elected chief officer, when he successfully planned and carried into effect the erection of the buildings now on the ground, and was re-elected in 1863. He has always been noted for his energy and activity in all things that have demanded his attention. It has been aptly said that with him, "The best is never too good." This may account, in a measure, for the reputation he has always had, of keeping the best of goods in his store, while his character for integrity secured a rapid extension of business. When he left the foundry and hardware business in 1861, he had 2,200 names on his books, and unsettled accounts of about $11,000. Of this amount he has collected but about $1,000.

1885 History of Cortland County
Cortland County AHGP
Cortland County NYGenWeb