Fort Klock Historic Restoration

Chapter Twelve, Benton's History of Herkimer County

CHAPTER XII.

Biographical Sketches of Stephen Ayres, Alexander H. Buell, Robert Burch, Stephen W. Brown, Benjamin Bowen, Dan Chapman, Atwater Cook, William H. Cook, Rufus Crain, Henry Ellison, John Frank, Simeon Ford, David V. W. Golden, Gaylord Griswold, Joab Griswold, Elihu Griswold, John Graves, David Holt, Michael Hoffman, Stephen Hallett, Philo M. Hackley, Henry Hopkins, Sanders Lansing, John Mahon, Thomas Manly, Jacob Markell, John Mills, Michael Myers, William Petry, George Rosecrants, Nathan Smith, Ephraim Snow, Henry Tillinghast, Stephen Todd, Abijah Tombling, Edmund Varney, Richard Van Horne, Evans Wharry, George Widrig, Westel Willoughby, Chauncey Woodruff, Sherman Wooster, Samuel Wright.

The writer has indulged in some personal gratification in collecting and writing out the biographical sketches presented to the reader's attention in this chapter. That gratification would have been greatly increased, if the means of doing more ample justice to the subject had been within his reach, and he could have included every name found in the official list printed in the appendix. He was familiarly acquainted with very many of the individuals of whom he has written, and take them as a class, or individually, with one exception, for purity of character, elevated and patriotic purpose in action through life, they should not have a second place on the scroll of fame. Their sphere of action was limited, but they bore the same relation to the people of the county, that others filling higher and more elevated positions held in respect to the communities they represented. There have been and always will be, I suppose, grades of excellence in official men; some may have no excellence at all, but this can not be said of those whose biographies are found in the succeeding pages of this chapter.

Was a native of Massachusetts, and born at Braintree, February 16th, 1770. He came into this state with his father, Jabez Ayres, in the year 1792, who settled in the town of Salisbury, where he made his clearing, raised his family, and went to his final rest, leaving the subject of this notice to inherit a good farm and a large share of his energy of character. Mr. Stephen Ayres purchased a lot of land in the then town of Norway, now Fairfield, in the fall of 1792, which he brought under cultivation and on which he lived until his death. He was a practical surveyor, an occupation he occasionally pursued until age incapacitated him from service in the field. In the course of a long and active life he had traced many of the lines of lots on the patents on the north side of the river, and could designate the boundaries of lots, and describe and locate the corner trees from memory, many years after be had quit the active pursuits of his profession, and indeed many years after he had made his survey. His son, Hiram Ayres, was called on, not many years before his father's death, to trace the lines of a lot at a distant point on the Royal grant, from the family residence, and when told the number and location of the lot, Mr. Ayres described to his son with particular exactness, the corner of the lot where the survey commenced, and lest these landmarks might have been removed or destroyed, he also described a peculiar witness tree, and its course and distance from the true corner, when surveyed about twenty years before and not since visited by him.

In 1836, Mr. Ayres represented this county in the Assembly, with Frederick Bellinger and Thomas Hawkes. He was not ambitious of political preferment, although he deservedly enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. In stature he was full six feet, and "well proportioned." He was of that class and school of men who reasoned well and endeavored to act wisely. He chose to be governed by the results of his own reflections, and the dictates of a sound judgment, rather than hazard a novel experiment directed and controlled by a sudden excitement. It required no " sober second thought " to bring himself to a position he deemed it his duty as a citizen to occupy, under any and all circumstances. I may have plaaed a false estimate upon the character of Mr. Ayres, but I think not. He lived in the easterly part of the town of Fairfield, where he also pursued the occupation of husbandry through a long and well spent life, and having by industry and frugality gathered and enjoyed a competence of this world's goods, he closed his earthly pilgrimage on the 17th of September, 1850, in the 81st year of his age, respected by all who knew him.

ALEXANDER H. BUELL

Was a native of Fairfield, in this county. His father, Roswell Buell, a native of Killingworth, Connecticut, came into the county at an early day, and seated himself on the spot now known as Fairfield village. In 1795, he married Sarah Griswold, daughter of Daniel Griswold, also a native of Killingworth, who settled in Fairfield about the year 1790, and has now numerous descendants residing, in that town.

About the year 1800, Mr. Roswell Buell opened a store in Fairfield, and was some time engaged in the mercantile business. He was distinguished for his enterprise and benevolence. He donated an acre of land to the trustees of Fairfield academy, in 1802, on which the first academic edifice was erected. In the midst of an active and useful life, he fell a victim to the epidemic which prevailed in the winter of 1812-13, aged 40 years. His affairs were somewhat involved by this sudden event, and after the settlement of his estate was effected, only a small patrimony remained to the surviving members of his family. His widow still lives, and at the close of 1855, has attained the venerable age of 86 years.

Alexander Hamilton Buell, the subject of this notice, was born July 14th, 1801. The loss so early in life of the counsel and sustaining aid of a father, when both were so much needed, was no doubt viewed by young Buell as a severe calamity. He soon seemed to appreciate the circumstances which surrounded him, and was fully impressed with the idea that he must be the artificer of his own fame and fortune; that success could only be looked for through his own exertions. The position in which he was placed had great influence in molding his character and developing those traits which led to his subsequent success in life as a merchant. His opportunities for an accomplished academic education were somewhat limited by his engagements as a clerk in the store of Mr. Stephen Hallett, then one of the principal business men at Fairfield. His time at school was however well employed, and he sought to make up by diligence and studious application during his leisure hours, what he lost while engaged in the store of his employer.

A marked feature of young Buell's character is developed in the following facts: During the first three years of his employment with Mr. Hallett, and he commenced at the age of 14, he was diligent and attentive as a clerk in the store, supporting himself by his own exertions, and at the same time superintending the affairs of his widowed mother with all the efficiency of a man of mature years, and with a kindness and solicitude that carried with it a sweet and soothing solace. Nor was this all; his sisters, orphaned like himself, were not infrequent recipients of presents from the surplus of his earnings. He had become so accomplished in business, several years before he reached his majority, that he was repeatedly sent by his employer to the city of New York to purchase goods to replenish his store.

Mr. Buell, at the age of 21, became a partner in business with his former employer, and at Mr. Hallett's death, assumed the sole proprietorship of the business at Fairfield. He subsequently, in connection with different individuals, extended his mercantile business into the neighboring town and villages in the county; afterwards, giving scope to a clear and comprehensive mind, and the exertion of an excellent business talent, his commercial operations were extended to counties in this state remote from his native home; and he did not finally stop until he reached the distant shores of the Pacific ocean ; even California was not neglected by the accomplished and successful Fairfield merchant. I am not aware that Mr. Buell ever thought of removing to New York, where fortunes are so rapidly made and marred in commercial pursuits. He was several times gratified and honored by the confidence of his townsmen, in electing him to local offices of trust and confidence. He was a member of the assembly from this county in 1845. This, I believe was his first appearance at Albany as a legislator. He was placed at the head of the important committee on banks and insurance companies, in a house in no respect destitute of men of talents. Although it is not usual to select the chairmen of the leading committees from new members, the appointment in this instance was judicious, and the compliment well deserved. In this new and untried position, Mr. Buell sustained himself in every respect to the satisfaction of the house and his friends. An ardent politician of the Herkimer school, and I use this term because our neighbors in other counties charge us with being "of the strictest sect," it was his duty and his pleasure to square his official conduct to suit the feelings and opinions of his constituents.

Mr. Buell was chosen member of the 32d congress from the 17th congressional district, composed of Herkimer and Montgomery counties, at the November election, 1850. His competitor was a personal friend, and then the member from the district, Henry P. Alexander. The canvass was briskly conducted and adroitly managed by the contestants and their friends. The district was one in which there could not be much doubt when the whole vote was polled and party lines strictly drawn as "in olden time." He was married to Miss Harriet E. Gruman, of Clinton, Oneida county, November 9, 1840. Before taking his seat in the congress, to which he had been elected, Mr. Buell closed his connection with most of the mercantile establishments in which he had been interested, over which he could not well exercise a personal supervision. He won and enjoyed the confidence and regard, not only of the business community, but of his political friends and associates. By his industry, application and unwearied exertions, he accumulated a fortune, enough to satisfy the reasonable desires of an ambitious man a little removed from the commercial and financial emporiums of our state, where few men are counted rich who are rated under a million of dollars, where comparisons serve only to stimulate to hazardous experiments, and even wild and imaginary speculations. He must, of course, have been punctual in all his pecuniary engagements, and prompt in all his other business relations. His surviving townsmen have cause to remember him for his public spirit, and the worthy recipients of charity never solicited his aid in vain.

Mr. Buell died at Washington city on the 31st January, 1853, after a brief and painful illness, in the 52d year of his age. The house of representatives passed the usual resolution of condolence; and while a monument in the congressional burying ground commemorates his official connection with that eminent body of American statesmen and his death, his mortal remains, distinguished by a suitable memorial, have found a final resting place in the grounds of Trinity church, Fairfield, by the side of which repose the remains of a father, brother and an infant daughter. His wife, two sons and a daughter, survived him.

ROBERT BURCH

Was born in Killingsly, Connecticut, December 3d, 1761, emigrated from Berkshire county, Massachusetts, into this state, seated himself in the present town of Schuyler in 1799, and died on the farm he had opened and reduced from a wilderness state, on the 26th of June, 1830, in the 69th year of his age.

Devoted to agricultural pursuits, Mr. Burch bore the even tenor of his way through life unobtrusively, and left several sons, who are among our prominent and active business men.

He was one of the members of the assembly from this county at the sessions of 1811 and 1812, at a period when national and state politics very much engrossed public attention. He possessed a quick apprehension and a sound and discriminating judgment. He was diligent and attentive to his public duties, and was careful in those times of high party strife to be prepared to vote promptly when the question was propounded by the speaker. I have heard an anecdote repeated of him to this effect. His seat in the house was near that of Mr. Brayton, a member from Oneida, with whom he was on terms of friendly, social intercourse, although they differed on political subjects. My. Burch was always in his seat and prompt to respond in a pretty audible tone of voice when the roll was called on a division. Mr. Brayton may have been, and probably was, classed among the leading men of his party. Now for the anecdote. On one occasion, after a pretty stormy debate and close vote on a division, Mr. Brayton accosted his political adversary and said to him, " Burch, how does it happen that you are always so prompt and ready to vote, your party friends following your load to a man, and you seem to give yourself but little trouble in regard to matters before the house ?" Mr. Burch coolly remarked, "I'll tell you, sir, how it is; your name being called next before mine, I am careful to notice how you answer, and, always on questions of this sort, vote against you, and feel assured I am quite right." The question may have been prompted by some momentary feeling of irritation under defeat; the answer shows that the respondent was fully satisfied he had done his duty.

A few years after Mr. Burch settled in Schuyler, some of his former neighbors "at the east" sent him some branches of a dwarf evergreen, too frequently found in the soil of New England, not only to remind him of his former home, but as they said, "to keep him from being homesick." A pretty good antidote that for any such ailment in one then reposing in the luxuriant valley of the Mohawk.

STEPHEN W. BROWN

Was a native of Williamstown, Mass. He was several years engaged in mercantile business, in the town of Salisbury, in this county, which resulted favorably. He removed to Little Falls in the year 1830, with a view to a more extended field of business operations, and to give a wider scope to a mind fertile in expedients. He was liberal and public spirited, if not to a fault, so far as regarded his pecuniary resources, it may well be said, lie indulged his generous feeling to the extremist limit of prudence. He was active, ardent and almost incessantly engaged in business. Always among the first, and with the foremost, in any local business

enterprise that required associated capital, and combined personal exertion, to carry it forward to a successful result, or in founding and rearing some public institution, permanently beneficial to the locality where it was to be established. After his removal to Little Falls, he was several years engaged in trade at that place, which he finally relinquished, and devoted his whole time and attention to the affairs of a manufacturing establishment, which had been brought into existence mainly through his personal exertions. He closed his mercantile business in 1843.

He was chosen sheriff of the county at the November election, 1837, and held the office one term. He was a popular officer; kind and agreeable in manners, and cheerful in disposition, he had many friends, and very few, if any, enemies. With an almost inexhaustible flow of kindly good feelings, and hopeful in the extreme, anticipated results were sometimes counted as accomplished, when in fact actual realization was not within the measure of a fair probability. His character, as a man, was irreproachable, or if not so, the tongue of blame has not blazoned his faults to the world. He was a reformer in almost every thing relating to politics and civil government, and exerted his influence, effectual at times, to correct some of the flagrant abuses of the bad men of the legal profession, which were oppressive. I say bad men, for I know that only a few of that honorable class, would descend so low as to commit the faults which, through his agency, were immediately and successfully remedied by legislative interference. He was suddenly and violently attacked, when absent from home on business, with a fatal malady, from which he did not recover. He survived but a few days, after his return to his family at Little Falls.

The monument erected to his memory by those who knew him well and appreciated worth, bears this inscription:

STEPHEN W. BROWN
Died May 30th 1846,
Aged, 49 years.
This stone is erected by his
neighbours to evince their
high estimation of his character.

BENJAMIN BOWEN

Was a native of Rhode Island. He came from Newport, in that state, to Fairfield, in 1787, where he purchased a farm and settled. He remained at Fairfield until 1792, when he removed to Newport, and commenced the erection of mills at that place, and laid the foundation of the prosperity of that pleasant and thrifty village. He was a man of great activity and enterprise. He was a member of the legislature in 1798, elected on the same ticket with Gaylord Griswold, Henry McNeil, Nathan Smith, Mathew Brown, Jr., Lodowick Campbell and Isaac Foot. This was the only time that I find lie was chosen a member of either branch of the legislature. He was appointed one of the judges of the county courts October 30th, 1800, and held the office nearly five years, and probably as long as his political friends had the bestowment of patronage. He died at a somewhat advanced age, leaving no male descendants in this county. His only son emigrated to Alabama with his family in 1819, and died there. I believe Judge Bowen also died in Alabama, but I am not certain of this fact. Thus the name of one of the earliest and most enterprising pioneers of the northern part of the county has become extinct, but a memorial of his active and zealous efforts to make the " desert blossom as the rose " still remains.

DAN CHAPMAN

Was a native of the state of Connecticut. He came into the county at an early period after its erection, and settled on the Stone ridge, Herkimer village, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits, but the ledger balances showing a deficit, he abandoned the weights and measures of merchandising, and betook himself to those of the legal profession. He must have been admitted to the bar previous to May, 1804; his name does not appear on the roll of attorneys commencing at that date. He was appointed surrogate of the county March 23d, 1803, superseded in 1807 by an adverse council of appointment, reappointed in 1808, and held the office until November, 1816. He seems to have escaped some of the political vicissitudes of the times during his last period, that appear to have been visited upon the sheriff and county clerk. The federal party held the appointing power of the state in 1810 and 1813, and if political conformity preserved to him the seals of probate and administration, Mr. Chapman must have been exceedingly adroit and flexible. He quit the profession about the year 1820, and removed to Oneida county. He again returned to this county, and after remaining here a short time removed to Montgomery county, where he died a few years since at a very advanced age. He was a subaltern officer in the revolutionary army, and enjoyed the gratuity of his country in his old age, which softened and assuaged the "ills that life is heir to." He was not successful in accumulating wealth, although his life was morally and religiously irreproachable.

ATWATER COOK

Was born in the town of Salisbury, in this county, December 17, 1795, of parents in moderate circumstances in life, who were of English or Anglo-Saxon extraction. His father lived to attain a pretty advanced old age.

Like most young men of that day, Mr. Cooks education was limited to the course instruction taught in country schools time but he endowed with a strong and vigorous mind sound discriminating judgment much practical good sense. Experienced some vicissitudes life charms its varieties were not unknown him at commencement his career manhood. He resolved, by just laudable efforts overcome all obstacles attainment reasonable competence enjoyment confidence will fellow citizens. He early turned attention dairy among first our farmers who abandoned grain-growing resorted grazing. His exclusive given agriculture. At different periods engaged mechanical mercantile pursuits.

Mr. Cook was many years one of the justices of the peace of his town; the duties of the office he discharged with ability and satisfaction to the people. He also held other town offices of confidence and trust, and exerted, when he chose, no inconsiderable influence among his fellow citizens. When in the prime of life, he bestowed considerable attention, by reading and study, to the cultivation of a sound and vigorous understanding. At the general election in 1830, he was chosen one of the members of assembly for the county. Nicholas Lawyer, of Danube, and Olmsted Hough, of Schuyler, were his colleagues. Mr. Cook was an attentive and industrious member of the house during the session of 1831, and was active and efficient in his exertions to promote the interests of his constituents in regard to local legislation, and especially in removing the alien dead weight which had many years pressed so heavily upon the village of Little Falls.

Although not trained to public debating, he spoke several times during the session on important subjects before the house, and was listened to with great attention. He was much respected, and his familiar acquaintance with the internal local affairs of towns and counties, made him a useful member. In 1839, Mr. Cook and Benjamin Carver, represented the county in the assembly. This time his party was in a political minority in the house.

It may truly be said of Mr. Cook, he possessed a mind of considerable conservative tendencies, still be was a man of progress. He lived in a progressive age, and belonged to a progressive race, and he failed not to meet the exigencies of the day and the hour when action was called for. He was among the first in the town of Salisbury to initiate the temperance movement, and he continued, through life, to give the cause his warmest advocacy and most hearty support. He was equally active, prompt and devoted to every movement which would tend to ameliorate the condition of his race, or promote the welfare and best interests of the community where he lived.

Mr. Cook's health was quite infirm during the latter years of his life, and he suffered much and acutely, from severe sickness; nevertheless, his death was sudden, and unexpected to his friends at a distance. He died at his family residence, in Salisbury, February 14th, 1853. He was then the oldest male inhabitant, born in the town. By industry, strict application to business, and a watchful providence of his yearly gains, he had accumulated a competence of wealth, for all human purposes, which he left to be enjoyed by his family.

WILLIAM H. COOK

Was a native of this state, and came into Norway, in the fall of 1792, from Dutchess county. He settled a short distance westerly of Norway village, where he devoted him self to farming and merchandising, pretty extensively, and if I have not been misinformed, made some effort at the milling business, which did not in the end amount to much, in the way of increasing his wealth. He was appointed sheriff of the county, March 17th, 1802, and was annually thereafter appointed, until 1806; when be was left out of

commission but was again appointed sheriff, in 1807, and held the office one year longer. This ended his official career in this county, and it might have been well for him if he had never tasted office.

Mr. Cook was in the battle of Tippecanoe, fought on the night of the 6th of November, 1811, between a small American force, under Gen. Harrison, and a numerous body of northwestern Indians. He died at Vincennes, Indiana. Jabez Fox, a native of Connecticut, came into this county about the year 1810, married a daughter of Mr. Cook. He was admitted as an attorney, at the Herkimer county common pleas, in January, 1813. Mr. Fox pursued his profession a few years at Herkimer, and then removed to Little Falls, in 1818, or about that period. He was elected county clerk, under the then new constitution, at the general election, in 1822, to hold for the term of three years, from the 1st day of January following. He died at Herkimer, in January 1825, at the age of 35 years.

Was a native of Western, Worcester county, Massachusetts, and the second son in a family of ten children. His father, Isaac Crain, was born in Coventry, Connecticut, and his mother, whose maiden name was Putnam, and a near relation of Gen. Israel Putnam, was also a native of Western. His early education was entirely sufficient to enable him to study and practice the medical profession with much success. He studied under the direction of Dr. Ross, of Colerain, Mass., who is spoken of as an eminent and successful practitioner, and after completing his course, formed a connection in business with his late tutor, which terminated when he came to this state in 1790.

His first object was to fix himself at Cooperstown, Otsego county, but passing through Warren on the route to his place of destination, being pleased with, the country and the inhabitants, and finding many of them from New England, he changed his determination and seated himself in Warren, which at that time was destitute of a physician. Here he devoted himself to his profession with the characteristic zeal and assiduity of a young New Englander, and in a few years found himself enjoying the rich fruition of an extended and lucrative business. His position in a country town containing as good lands as any in the county, enabled him to engage in agricultural pursuits, which lie prosecuted with success in connection with his professional business, which received his chief attention, to nearly the close of his life. Doctor Crain came into the state early in life and formed a connection by marriage with an influential family of the town in which he died. He was one of the early patrons of the Medical college at Fairfield, and devoted himself earnestly and efficiently to its success. He, like hundreds of others who left the then over populated and not very prolific soil of New England, near the close of the last century, had determined to try his fortune in Western New York, as then called, and became, as be once told me when we were riding together from Herkimer to Little Falls, resolved on success. Yes, sir," said he, in reply to a remark of mine, "a young Man with a good profession and a fair share of talents, need not not fail, he can not fall in a new country, if he is prudent, industrious and attentive to business. He can, if he wills to do it, establish a reputation and accumulate a competence." With a mind so constituted, success in life could only have been prevented by a series of disastrous events, beyond the control of the individual whose fate is affected by them, and against which human foresight could erect no guards.

Although uniform and decided in his political principles, Doctor Crain did not usually take an active part in the contests which agitated the country, and especially his adopted state, during many years of his life, in reference to public measures. He preferred to devote himself to the more peaceful and congenial pursuits of his profession, and these were not often affected by the success or defeat of his party friends.

In the course of a long and useful life, Doctor Crain was often called upon by the confidence and partiality of his townsmen to perform the duties of various local offices in his town. He was appointed one of the judges of the court of common pleas of the county on the 24th of February, 1817, and superseded in March, 1820, for political causes. He was again reappointed in March, 1821, February, 1823, and April, 1828, and held the office until 1833, when he was left out of the commission at his own request. The doctor was enough of a politician to be struck down whenever his opponents, could reach him.

In the presidential contest in 1828, between President Adams and General Jackson, Doctor Crain was the democrat candidate for elector in this congressional district, and was chosen to that office. The presidential electors were own chosen by districts. When I say he was the democratic candidate, I suppose the fact that he favored Jackson's election is sufficiently indicated. If it is not, then I will say he was one of the twenty electors of this state who voted for the general in December, 1828. The selection of Dr. Crain to perform the great and important trust of declaring the will of a constituency in the choice of the highest elective office in the world, was alike due to his social position and political standing. Do Toequeville thinks we have adopted a most happy expedient in our mode of electing a chief magistrate, combining, as it does, the "respect due to the popular voice with the utmost celerity of execution, and those precautions which the peace of the country demands." The last part of the sentence might have been omitted, for the American people have not yet seen the time when they would go seriously to work cutting each other's throats for the sake of any candidate for the presidency, and probably never will.

Doctor Crain possessed a large fund of anecdote, and was very social and hospitable. He died in the town of Warren, September 18th, 1846, having arrived at the mature age of three score years and over, leaving a handsome estate to the inheritance of two descendants, a sea and a daughter.

HENRY ELLISON

Was, I believe, a native of one of the New England states. He came to this county, and settled in the town of Herkimer, at an early period of its history, on the West Canada creek, several miles north of Herkimer village, where he was many years successfully engaged in farming and tanning. He was a sagacious, intelligent man, although, like most of his compeers in age and occupation, his early school education was limited. A sound judgment, industry and frugality, make ample amends for the absence of mental adornments, in the industrial pursuits of life, where the letter can have but little application.

Mr. Ellison was chosen an elector of president and vice president, in 1836, and gave his vote in the state college of electors for Martin Van Buren, as the successor of Gen. Jackson. To him a most grateful office, the remembrance of which he long cherished. This selection was due to his character, as a man, and his political standing with his party. He was a strict economist, in public affairs, as well in his domestic relations. He accumulated an ample estate, which be left to his posterity. Mr. Ellison died about six years ago, at his residence in Herkimer, at a pretty advanced age.

JOHN FRANK

Was the son of Conrad Frank, a Palatine emigrant, and one of the patentees of the grant commonly called Staley's 3d tract. John was appointed a justice of the peace for Montgomery County, March 27^th, 1790, and afterwards commissioned as one of the justices of Herkimer county, February 17th, 1791, and appointed one of the judges of the county courts, March 27^th, 1794, and held that office until 1799 or 1800. From my recollection of him, he was small in stature and when young, must have been a remarkably energetic man. He was in the prime of life and vigor of manhood, during the dark and calamitous period of the revolution, and one of the committee of safety, in the German Flats and Kingsland districts, The name is spelled Frick, by Campbell and Stone, when giving a list of the members of the committee, from different districts of Tryon county.

When the news of the destruction of Andrustown, by Brant and his dusky servitors, on the 18^th of July, 1778, reached Fort Herkimer, Judge Frank was among the foremost and most zealous of the resolute patriots, who volunteered to repel and punish the marauders. Brant, having the advantage in time, was too wary and nimble-footed for his pursuers. He had accomplished his objects, and had no wish to encounter, in a hand to hand fight, an exasperated and resolute foe, although not his equal in numbers.

Brant's escape being fully ascertained when his pursuers reached the Little lakes, their mortification and disappointment was distinctly manifested in plundering and burning the habitations of Young and Collyer, two decided Tories who had given "aid and comfort" to the enemy, on his way to Andrustown, and who had not been molested or injured by Brant and his followers. This application of the lextalionis would be would be considered rather severe at this day, when not provoked by some active participation in aggression, on the part of the sufferers. But let it be remembered, that the Tory inhabitants of the country, although they might, from policy, refrain from being seen with arms in their hands, making making war upon their liberty-loving neighbors, were at all times active and diligent in conveying intelligence to their hurt; and ever ready to supply the king's adherents with provisions, and shelter them from pursuit, when required or needful, and whose humanity was never known to give a sympathetic tear of sorrow or regret, at the manifold and unspeakable sufferings inflicted upon their nearest neighbors, and former fellow subjects; and we can not, and should not condemn them for any acts of retaliatory severity, short of taking life. I crave, indulgence, for justifying by argument, what some may from tenderness set down in the catalogue of wrongs.

There is not, in my judgment, any grounds for supposing Judge Frank disapproved of the conduct of his companions, in their dealings with Young and Collyer. What had he seen within a few hours? A small, secluded hamlet of seven families, remote from the track of war, invaded for the mere object of plunder, everything valuable that could be removed carried away, five of the inhabitants killed, the remainder driven into captivity, and every house and other building in the settlement, reduced to ashes by the invader's torch.

Judge Frank closed a long and eventful life, in the town of German Flats, about 15 years ago. When the infirmities of age had bowed his venerable head, so that he could no longer stand or walk erect, he retained to the last, and in a remarkable manner, the full possession of a sound, vigorous and intelligent mind. His residence was near the south bank of the Mohawk river, nearly opposite to Herkimer village, and a few rods west of the site of old Fort Herkimer. He had seen the infant German settlement, on the north side of the river, twice destroyed. Once, by the French and Indians, in 1757, and again, by the Indians and Tories, in 1778; he had also seen the settlements on the south side of the river, devastated by the French and Indians, in 1758, and again by Brant and his followers, in 1778. He lived to see his country again involved in the war of 1812; the patriotic alacrity of his countrymen, as they marched to the frontiers for her defense, and he saw that struggle closed by an honorable peace. And, he lived to see what cheered the ardor of his noble heart, and soothed the anxieties of his declining years, his country free, prosperous and happy.

SIMEON FORD

In 1816, when I came into the county, this gentleman was a prominent and leading member of the bar, a position he had held several years. He came into the county previous to 1797, and after his admission to the bar, was associated in the profession with Mr. Gaylord Griswold, until the death of the latter. Being the junior member of the firm his partner, as was then the fashion, stood first on the list, as the recipient of political favors and promotion. Mr. Ford was appointed district attorney of the county, early in the year 1819, and held the office until May, 1823, the duties of which he performed with ability, and most untiring fidelity. He was a sound, well read, criminal lawyer, and a good advocate, and in saying this, I must not be understood as intimating he was not in other respect eminent in his profession. He always conducted his prosecutions as if he believed, and felt, the prisoner was guilty, and it was his duty to convict. The rogues often stood appalled, when the grand-jury came into court with true bills against them. Mr. Ford again hold the office of district attorney a short time in 1836. He had, previous to 1820, been several times a candidate for popular suffrage, more with a view, as I suppose, of gratifying his political friends, than with a confident expectation of success. Not because the candidate was unpopular with his party, or was in any respect unfit for the place. The reader familiar with the history of Herkimer county politics, in former times, can well understand, why Mr. Ford should be defeated in a popular election, at the times referred to.

No name, in the county had stronger hold upon the feelings of party friends, or stood higher in their estimation, than Mr. Ford, and they were ever ready to place him as a candidate before the people, when a chance of success should occur. At the annual elections, in the spring of 1820 and 1821, he was chosen a member of assembly. His legislative career was limited to the two sessions of 1821 and 1822, during which, if he was not the party leader, he was an influential and prominent member of the house. He was attentive, watchful and industrious, and Governor Clinton could not have had a more ardent and devoted supporter of his policy, than Mr. Ford was. Old associations, and long tried attachments, clustered around him, and he could not bear to see them dissipated, without making an effort to prevent it. He had always been the advocate of the canal policy, enunciated by Mr. Clinton, which was strongly assailed by many of the governor's opponents. He was moreover, deeply imbued with a conservative feeling, in regard to the existing judiciary. It was those views and opinions, commendable in any man, which brought Mr. Ford into the position, a false one, as respected the public feeling, of attempting to stem or turn aside a popular torrent, which eventually swept him and his friends from power for a time. If we claim to justify our own conduct, in public affairs, on the basis of an honest conviction, that what we advocate is right, we must allow the same immunity to an opponent. What the majority may say, in respect to the merits of the question debated, is quite another matter. This much has been said, because many worthy citizens of the county believe Mr. Ford was entirely conscientious in the course he pursued, and they could not but admire his courage and devotion.

Mr. Ford became pecuniary embarrassed by the purchase of some lands in the Hassenclever patent. Perhaps, other real estate purchases, near Herkimer, were connected with it. At any rate, if he had held the lands in the patent, a few years longer, the result would have been quite different. Instead of suffering a loss, he would have realized a handsome profit by the rise in prices.

In the year 1825, he was appointed by Governor Clinton to an office at the salt spring, Syracuse. He remained there several years. He resigned his post at Syracuse, and removed to Rochester, where he remained five years and then he returned to Herkimer, and resumed his profession in 1832, with all the ardor and buoyancy of a vigorous young man. But his professional business had been broken up, and his former clients has been compelled, in his absence. To seek professional aid and advice in other quarters and among his successors. He remained, however, at Herkimer until about the year 1836, when he removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where he pursued his profession successfully several years, giving much of his attention to the office of prosecuting attorney, which he received when he went to Cleveland, and held at the time of his death, which took place in the year 1839, at the age of 62 years. He was a native of Berkshire, Massachusetts, and removed from Berkshire county into this state. He was high-minded, honorable and generous, almost to a fault. His office was the chief resort of students in the legal profession in this part of the state for nearly twenty years. Few men in the legal profession have been more highly respected in the circle of their acquaintance than Mr. Ford, and few have better deserved it.

DAVID V. W. GOLDEN

Was a native of Beekmantown, Dutchess county. In 1792 he removed to Niskayuna, in this state, where he was several years engaged in the mercantile business. In 1798 he came into this county, and established himself in the present town of Columbia, where he carried on his mercantile business until his death, which took place on the 11th of February, 1814, aged 41 years. Mr. Golden opened the First store in the town, and is reputed to have been quite successful in business.

He was appointed one of the judges of the county courts in March, 1810, and commissioned first judge of the county, March 21st, 1811, and held the office until his death. The records of the courts show that Judge Golden was attentive to the duties of his office. He was a man of considerable note in the county, and was regarded for his honorable conduct and fair dealing.

GAYLORD GRISWOLD

Was a native of Windsor, in the state of Connecticut. He settled in the county soon after it was erected, if not before. He is said to have been a man of rare endowments and great energy of character. Thomas R. Gold came into the then western country about the same time, and Mr. Griswold and Mr. Gold made an arrangement that one of them would stop at Herkimer, and the other at Whitestown; the courts in the county then being held alternately at these two places. Mr. Gold, it seems took the most expanded field of operations, though he was not Mr. Griswold's superior in legal talents. The reader may recollect, that in the chapter devoted to that object, reference has been made to the supposed political feeling of the population of the county at its first organization. Mr. Griswold was one of the strong and vigorous men who aided largely in holding the popular vote subservient to the views of his own party. We find him, in 1797 and 1798, a member of the assembly from the county, having for colleagues men, some of whom afterwards acted with the political party which he opposed. Party lines may not then have been so strictly drawn as they were two or three years afterwards.

We next find Mr. Griswold elected a representative in congress, about the year 1802, from the 15^th congressional district, composed of the counties of Herkimer, Oneida and St. Lawrence. It appears, from the recorded events of the times, that Mr. Griswold lived and was in public life at a period when one of those political ebullitions which not unfrequently visit our state, was about making its appearances, in a contest between Aaron Burr and Morgan Lewis, as candidates for governor. Mr. Hammond, in his Political History, states that "Gaylord Griswold, then a member of congress from Herkimer county, wrote a letter, which was published, in which he urged his friends to support Mr. Burr, as the only means of breaking down the democratic party, and charged the opposition of Gen. Hamilton to personal resentment against Burr."

We must not inflict an injury on the memory of Mr. Griswold, by allowing it to be supposed that this was other than a private letter, written to a political friend, and that its publication was a breach of confidence. However well disposed he may have been to embrace the ordinary or extraordinary means often resorted to by political partisans to break down their opponents, he could not have willingly sought an opportunity of openly charging Gen. Hamilton with being governed by private hatred in his opposition to Col. Burr. Small men will often be guilty of mean and dirty acts, but Mr. Griswold was not of that clan. He was ardent, it is true, high-minded and generous, and knew too well what belonged to his position and character to commit such an act of indiscretion.

Since writing the above, a friend has put into my hands a handbill containing the letter referred to by Mr. Hammond. The letter was written at Washington, in February, 1804, and was not made public until April 23d, 1807, three years after the contest between Lewis and Burr, and when the latter was being proceeded against for treason and high misdemeanor, in attempting, as was charged, to subvert the government and setting on foot a hostile expedition against a power with whom we were at peace. This letter does not show that Mr. Griswold upheld Col. Burr's conduct which led to his arrest as an offender against the laws of the United States, nor does Mr. Griswold charge the opposition of Gen. Hamilton "to personal resentment against Burr." The letter contains this expression, in reference to Hamilton, and nothing more: "It is a matter of surprise among our federal friends here, how Hamilton can take so important a part. Report says, Hamilton made a long speech in favor of Lansing, and against Burr. I fear his personal resentment to Burr, and not policy, governs his conduct." The object of the publication at the time was not to inflict a personal injury upon Mr. Griswold, but to damage the leading federalists in the public estimation. Having placed Mr. Griswold rectes in curia, on this point, I leave the subject. He was connected by marriage with the Hooker family, in Connecticut, several of whom emigrated into the state, and were largely engaged in mercantile business. He died at Herkimer March 1^st, 1809, aged 41 years, 2 months, and 11 days, leaving a handsome estate, and a family to enjoy it.

JOAB GRISWOLD

Was born at Goshen, Connecticut, June 29^th, 1769, and died at Herkimer, August 20^th, 1814, aged 45 years. He came into the county at an early period after its erection, and settled at Herkimer. Joab, Elihu and Gaylord Griswold, although natives of the same state, emigrating about the same period, and seating themselves in the same locality in another state, did not claim any relationship or affinity. The subject of this brief notice was also one of the active and influential men who exerted themselves so successfully and efficiently in upholding the federal party in the county the first ten years of its organization.

He was rewarded for his devotion and services with the office of county clerk, conferred upon him by his political friends, on the 19^th March, 1798, which he held six years, when he was visited by the adverse turn in political affairs. The office building in which the county records and papers were kept, was burned down with all the contents, the night before he was to deliver possession to his successor. This was a singular and probably unavoidable occurrence. Mr. Griswold was a lawyer by profession, engaged in agricultural pursuits while he lived at Herkimer, and these constituted his chief engagements, aside from his official employment. He left a family; some of them were residents of Herkimer village until recently, if they are not at this time.

Was a native of Windsor, Connecticut, and he also came into the county and settled at Herkimer at an early period. He was educated in the medical profession, and was therefore called Dr. Griswold, by way of distinction, although he did not pursue his profession after he settled in Herkimer. When he first came into the county, and for some years afterwards, he, like Gaylord and Joab, was attached to the federal party; but as man is not bound always to adhere to one side in politics, even though he may have been nurtured in a particular school, and at this present writing, floods of people seem to be looking out for new political homes, the doctor placed himself in antagonism to his former political friends, about the year 1801, and made gallant fight with his republican compeers to bring about a political revolution in the county.

Mr. Griswold was appointed county clerk, April 6^th, 1803, by Governor Morgan Lewis, or rather by the council of appointment, about the time Governor Lewis was elected. He held the office six years, when he was superseded in 1820; was again reappointed in 1811, when he was succeeded by his son-in-law, Aaron Hackley, Jr., Esq. He was born August 17^th, 1756, and died at Herkimer, January 12^th, 1812, aged 55 years. He was educated and accomplished; a man of considerable energy of character, courteous, generous and social. It is worthy of notice that all three of these Griswolds died in the prime of life and vigor of manhood. Among Doctor Griswold's descendants were several daughters, all of who were respectably connected by marriage to prominent and influential citizens of the county. I depart a little from my rule to say one of them married a Mr. Townsend, a merchant in the village of Herkimer, who meeting with reverses in business, made up his mind to seek a home in the far west, and lay the foundation anew of a fortune for his family, be devoting himself to farming.

About the year 1817, Mr. Townsend, with his resolute and devoted wife and several small children, left a home where ease, refinement and elegance had surrounded them, bade a sorrowing adieu to relatives and friends, and started on their journey to the interior of Illinois, over land to Olean point in this state, thence down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers in a flat boat, and from Shawneetown, or some point on the banks of the father of waters, to their haven of hope and rest amid the broad, smiling prairies of the embryo state. An intimate friend of the writer, who visited the family in the spring of 1820, said he found them seated about thirty miles northeast of Edwardsville, on a beautiful prairie, containing several hundred acres, not far from a considerable stream of water, near which is usually found an adequate supply of woodland. Mr. Townsend had erected his log dwelling, farm buildings and yards to secure his farm stock during night, from such pestilent poachers as bears, foxes and prairie wolves, and sometimes two-legged animals called thieves. The visitor, after a brisk ride of forty miles over broad prairie fields, redolent with the wild flowers of spring, encountering often herds of deer, with nostrils distended and antlers erect, not unfrequently followed in full chase by a brown, cowardly prairie wolf, whose voracious gaze was fixed upon a fawn; then the sharp rattle of the usually dull snake, giving timely notice of its dangerous proximity, ever and anon enlivened by the brisk flight of the prairie hen, and the awkward but rapid stride of the wild turkey, arrived near nightfall at Mr. Townsend's place, just as he, with his farm aiders, had returned from the field of labor and were housing the cattle and stock. Although his acquaintance with Mrs. Townsend before she left the state had been slight, he approached the door of the cabin and met a lady on whose countenance he had never seen a more happy and gladsome expression. "O! Mr. S.," said she, extending her hand to him, "I can not express how much satisfaction I feel in meeting one from Herkimer, the dear, dear home of my youth, where still live many cherished relations and friends, and where too is found the revered resting place of an honored and loved father and mother." But turning to her husband and laying her hand upon his arm, she in a subdued and firm tone, "I am happy with you and my children, and happy in this house. I have resolved to be contented and am."

My friend was fed and lodged as sumptuously as could be hoped for or expected by one who had become fully acquainted with the ways of a frontier life and new beginners. The short evening soon passed away in social chat, in which many questions were asked of friends and acquaintances, and many responses given. Just before retiring, Mrs. T. said to her visitor, "We sometimes have nightly doings here which the eastern people, generally, are not accustomed to, and you will not, I hope, be frightened at any unusual noises. Our log walls are a perfect protection. Indeed, the music of our midnight serenaders will not, I dare say, convince you that 'all discord is harmony not rightly understood.'" In the course of the night my friend said he was awoke by sounds more resembling what he would imagine to be the dismal and frantic yell of infernals; than living animals. "Do you hear the music," asked Mrs. T. of her guest, "and what do you think of it?" "Think of it?" he replied, "you must be more than a Roman matron, if you bear these tormenting wolf yells." The concert was soon ended by the crack of a rifle, and the prowling serenaders fled from the habitation of man. After overhauling his defensive weapons, and breaking his fast, my friend left this family, happy in the enjoyment of the present and hopeful of the future, and turned his face towards St. Louis.

JOHN GRAVES

Was a native of Dutchess county in this state and removed into the town of Russia in 1795, where he selected and purchased by contract a lot in the "wild woods" which he designed to convert into a farm, and make it his abiding place and home. At the age of 19 years he had paid the contract price for the land, when calling for his deed the seller could not make him a title, and he was compelled to find the true owner and again bargain and pay for the lot, which he did. This was a hard and discouraging beginning in life to be encountered by one so young and in a new and wilderness county, but he no doubt believed it better for him to combat the adversities which had overtaken him, where he then was, than to try any new locality or other expedient. The sequel of life with him proved he acted wisely and prudently.

He was elected member of assembly in this county in 1812, on a ticket with Rudolph I Shoemaker and Hosea Nelson. His majority, although he had the largest vote of any candidate on his ticket, was only 40; and the average majority of the successful candidates was fifty-three. This was at the eve of the eventful period of the war with Great Britain when political party lines were stringently drawn. Mr. Graves supported the war policy of the then national government. He was again chosen member of assembly at the November election in 1823, with Christopher P. Bellinger and Caleb Budlong, and was consequently a member of the house during the storm session in the winter of 1824, and at the extra session in the following November. The subjects which engrossed public attention at this time are noticed in another portion of this work. He favored the claims of William H. Crawford to the presidency and acted throughout with the republican party of this state in the fruitless effort of securing his election.

Having been chosen sheriff of the county, he entered upon the duties of the office on the 1^st day of January, 1829, which he discharged with great fidelity and satisfaction to the public. At the end of his official term her retired from public life to the enjoyments of a domestic home, surrounded by competence and the society of friends who knew and appreciated his worth. He died at Gravesville in the town of Russia on the 16^th of February, 1855, aged 76 years, leaving a widow and two sons, one of whom is the Hon. Ezra Graves of Herkimer.

The obituary notice of his death disclosed the fact that he died of consumption after a protracted and painful sickness. Mr. Graves was among the first of the hardy and resolute pioneers who penetrated the wilderness to the northwesterly portion of the Royal grant, where for sixty years he marked the times and seasons as they came and went, and noticed the exit of his compeers as they passed life's threshold to their long rest and silent home. But few remain of those, who, before the years 1800, emigrated into the county for the purpose of settlement, and the sod of the valley shall soon mark the place where that few must rest.

I can give only an outline of the official character of Mr. Holt, for although nearly half a century a resident of the county, where he raised a pretty numerous family in our midst, he is now gone, and they have emigrated to that great field of eastern enterprise, the far west. He was a practical printer, came into the county in 1805, from the city of Hudson, and commenced the publication of a republican newspaper, which he continued a few years and then was compelled to abandon it for want of patronage. He was a short time engaged in editing a republican paper at Herkimer, not far from the year 1811. He held the office of post master at Herkimer may years, and collector of the internal revenue under the general government. He also acted as a justice of the peace, an office conferred by the state government, and was esteemed an excellent magistrate.

He was appointed one of the judges of the county court on the 24^th of February, 1817, and first judge of the county in February, 1821, and held the latter office until March, 1825. He adhered to the fortunes of Governor DeWitt Clinton, as he had, I believe, to those of George Clinton, and was stricken down in the political revulsions which overtook the former. This was a dark period in Judge Holt's life, but like a true man and one resolved to do his whole duty, he resumed his mechanical trade, and again managed bank and handled quoins although he was poor.

Judge Hold was engaged for a brief period in printing the Republican Farmer's Free Press at Herkimer; he then removed to Little Falls, and printed the Mohawk Courier while that paper was published by C. S. Benton & Co. He may have remained a short time in the office after Mr. Noonan bought the establishment, but I think he did not. He then removed to Albany where he was engaged in type setting more than ten years, and from thence he went to Wisconsin where some of his sons had settled. Now he no longer "moves the lever that moves the world."

He met the reverses of life with resignation and fortitude. He many years, as the reader must conclude, from a perusal of this brief notice, enjoyed a large share of the public confidence, worthily bestowed, and exerted an influence in political affairs not yet forgotten.

In attempting a brief sketch of the life and public career of Mr. Hoffman, I feel some embarrassment at the outset. Our personal and political relations for many long, long years had ripened into a deep seated and almost fraternal regard, but in the evening of his, and I might say of my own days, it was our fortune to differ on some questions of domestic policy, that in no respect to say knowledge disturbed in the least our personal relations, and that circumstances can in no respect induce me to do the least intentional wrong to his character or fame. I know I am touching a delicate subject to speak of myself in this connection, and only do it to enter a broad and unqualified disclaimer at the threshold to meet all ungenerous cavilings and unkind surmises in regard to the motives and objects that induced me to perform a labor which should have been undertaken by abler hands.

Mr. Hoffman was born on the 11^th of Oct., 1787, at Half Moon, Saratoga co., in this state. His father was a native of Germany, and his mother though born in this country was of Protestant Irish descent. Her parents emigrated directly from the Green isle, and by this means the pure blood of the Teuton and the Celt mingled in his veins. He commenced the study of medicine in 1807, and obtained the diploma of M. D. in 1810. For some cause, and what I am unable to state, he abandoned the pursuit of this profession, commenced the study of law in 1811, and was admitted as an attorney in 1813. This must have been the date of his admission in the supreme court, or at the common please of some other county than Herkimer. His name is found on the rolls in this county entered December 14^th, 1815. My acquaintance with him commenced soon after the month of March, 1816; he was then in an office with Aaron Hackley, Esq., at Herkimer, and probably as a partner. It was about this time, and also afterwards, that papers came to the office in which I was a student at law endorsed "Hackley & Hoffman, Attys," Mr. Hackley had established himself at Herkimer in 1807, and at the time I now speak of was county clerk. As Mr. Hackley was chosen member of assembly in the spring of 1817, and left the clerk's office at the commencement of that year, the partnership I speak of may not have commenced until that period.

By his assiduous attention to his profession, the force of a strong native talent, very much improved and cultivated in after years, aided by the desire of his partner to promote his welfare, Mr. Hoffman had reached the front rank in his profession in the county when about thirty years old. He had lost four years in his medical pursuits.

He was an earnest and zealous advocate, and conducted the trial of his causes, from the opening to the close, with unabated ardor and confidence, and although beaten by the ruling of the court, or the finding of the jury, he would never admit he was conquered. He seldom failed to bring forward all the points of fact and law applicable to his case, and to present the strongest in such a form as to attract the attention of the court and jury. He was prone to adhere to the technicalities and precision of legal precedents, and in urging them he might waive points that involved, to some extent, the substantial merits of the case. At any rate, he seldom, if ever, failed to do full justice to his cause and his client to the extent of his duty as counsel.

Mr. Hoffman's constitution was neither robust nor firm, and the labor of a long and intricate trial at the circuit would sometimes nearly exhaust him; but he always bore up under these infirmities with an almost unconquerable resolution. He was afflicted many years with an internal chronic affection, which eventually proved fatal.

I am not aware that Mr. Hoffman had participated, to any great extent, in the political contests of the day previous to 1819; in the spring of that year, he attended a political meeting held at the Court House in Herkimer, and offered a series of resolutions disapproving the course of Governor DeWitt Clinton, and urged their adoption by the meeting in an able and eloquent appeal. The resolutions were adopted, and the disruption of the republican party in the county into Clintonians and bucktails took place at that time. After the nomination of a federal assembly ticket, the disjointed sections attempted to coalesce, but were defeated at the election.

About this time, Mr. Hoffman removed to Waterloo, Seneca county, which had recently been established as a county seat, and opened an office in connection with Mr. Bartow, a young gentleman who had studied with him, and who, I believe, was a relative; but owing to the impaired state of his health, and some severe domestic afflictions, he returned again to Herkimer, and resumed the practice of his profession, after an absence of a few years. He was appointed district attorney of the county, by the county court, at the May term, 1823, and held the office until the December term, 1825. He was again reappointed in March 1836, and resigned the following September.

I have elsewhere noticed Mr. Hoffman's election to congress in 1824. This was his first appearance before the people of the county as a candidate for popular favor. He sustained himself nobly through an excited and stormy canvass, and was vigorously and efficiently supported by as resolute and active body of friends as ever, in this or any other state, and brought out to support a candidate. He was known to be a man of the first grade as to talents. His character was beyond and above reproach of any sort; he was moreover a sound democratic republican. If he at any after period of his life thought differently on the subject of national politics, it matters not; he was then a firm national democrat. He came out of the contest a victor, beating his competitor by only 246 votes, while every other democratic candidate running on the same ticket, or voted for at that election in the county, were beaten by majorities ranging from 43 to 138. There were then sixteen towns in the county; he obtained small majorities in then of them, and his opponent in six. The peculiar circumstances which attended this election, and the marked public favor with which Mr. Hoffman's name was received, could not and did not fail to place him in the front rank of the democratic party in the county, and among the prominent men of the state, which position he maintained seemingly without any effort, while he lived. He was again chose member of congress in 1826, 1828, and 1830. In 1828, he was elected without opposition. His course during eight years' service in the house of representatives was marked by an able and assiduous attention to his public duties, and the places assigned to him on the different committees of that body showed the distinguished appreciation in which he was held by the presiding officer of the house and his colleagues from this state. I do not propose to notice the particulars of his congressional career. This may be the proper place for an extended review of that subject, but my limits will not allow it. It must suffice to say, the favored the election of General Jackson to the presidency in 1828, and his antecedent political action was directed to that object. He was a decided advocate for free trade, and opposed to protective tariffs; against the reincorporation of the United States bank, and sustained the Maysville veto message of the president. Although a state rights republican in the strictest sense of that term, when applied to a northern politician, he strenuously upheld President Jackson's administration, even to an approval of the celebrated nullification message, sent to congress in January, 1833, calling on the two houses to pass the necessary laws to enable the government to collect the national revenue in the state of South Carolina.

While in congress, he occupied prominent places on important standing committees of the house of representatives, and during his last term he was chairman of the committee on naval affairs, a position which brought him into confidential communication with the executive departments of the government. It has been usual in the practice of our government, and especially when the speaker of the house accorded in political sentiment with the president, to consult the heads of the executive departments in respect to the constitution of the five executive or strictly departmental committees. This course enables the government at all times to designate the individual member with whom, as the organ of the house, it would be thrown into confidential communication on delicate and important national questions, when the public interests require that the intentions and objects of the government shall not be promulgated to the world, and that the popular representative branch of the government shall sustain the executive department.

Mr. Hoffman was very averse to being placed at the head of the committee on naval affairs. The subject was spoken of at the time, but his friends were not able to find out any satisfactory reasons for his objections. The administration at this time possessed his unlimited confidence, and the president, General Jackson, could not fail to consider Mr. Hoffman an able and efficient supporter upon the floor of the house. His objections must have been purely personal, as he finally consented to accept the post.

The political struggle was very active, acrimonious and bitter during the whole eight years of General Jackson's administration, but I am not aware that Mr. Hoffman, in public debate, indulged in personal allusions to his political opponents, or denounced the individual conduct of his antagonists. He assailed the policy and measures of the opposition with so much zeal as to provoke the ire of George Poindexter, a senator from the state of Mississippi, who called on Mr. Hoffman for an explanation or retraction of words spoken or written by him. This being declined, Poindexter challenged him to single combat with mortal weapons. There were two reasons, and pretty strong ones, why he could not fight, even if he had been the aggressor; the laws of this state were extremely severe against dueling, and a deep seated religious conviction forbade his making an effort to take the life of a fellow being by single combat, or to expose his own by being shot at, without an attempt to cripple his opponent. His personal friends at Washington insisted, however, that Poindexter was not justified by the code of honor in calling him out, and that he might decline the challenge without violating the duello. The whole matter was referred to southern gentlemen, who, without any hesitation, decided that under the circumstances of the case, Mr. Hoffman could with honor decline to meet the challenger. There were not ten electors in his district at this time who did not approve of his conduct, as well in regard to this duel, as his course in other respects, as their representative, which was emphatically declared at a county convention of his political friends not long after the affair happened; yet when an election for member next came round, he did not command voices sufficient for a renomination, and his name was not presented as a candidate, nor did he, by any means known to me, seek a renomination. The known hostility of the president to a renewal of the United States bank charter, Mr. Van Buren's rejection, as minister to Great Britain, by the senate, and the pretty evident indications of General Jackson's preferences in respect to his successor, had produced an almost unexampled excitement at Washington, and in the public mind throughout the country, on the subject of politics, and the aggressive action of intemperate partisans appeared to find no restraint in the courtesies of civilized life. In giving Mr. Hoffman's statement of this affair, which the reader will find below, I am not aware that I violate any confidence or do any act disrespectful to his memory. It is a brief and terse summary of the transaction, and placed him on high, honorable grounds.

"Washington City, Feb'y 26, 1832

"Dear Sir: The public papers advise you of the manner in which I have been hunted and abused. Illness, which still confines me, has prevented my early expose to you of this matter.

"My first letter was a full and satisfactory answer: 1^st, that I had not procured the publication. 2d, that the conclusions of the editors, sometimes called in the correspondence, imputations, were not made on any request or suggestion of mine. 3d, a brief statement of what Clement had said to me. 4^th, that I had spoken of these in conversation with my colleagues, who had informed me that he had made similar statements to them; and 5thly, that for the truth of his statements I had at no time vouched.

"Davis' note objects that the 2d paragraph of that letter was irrelevant and exceptionable. I know that what is relevant can not be exceptionable or offensive. In my first note on that 4^th point, I had not been as explicit as I might be. To obviate his objection to irrelevancy, and to render that part of my former note too explicit for cavil, I stated that it was relevant, and added in express terms, as I had before said in substance, that I had repeated these statements made by Clement to me, in casual conversations. After this no objection is made on the ground of irrelevance.

"Indeed, it had been made and waived in Davis' first note, because in that note, after making that objection, he expressly narrowed down the controversy to the single point of agency in procuring publication. Asking an answer to this alone was a waiver of all other matters either of exception or inquiry.

"The concluding paragraph of my second note, repeats by express reference the denial in my first. I contend then, that by this reply, P. was concluded in his only inquiry and excluded from all other inquiry whatever.

"But it is right that you should understand all this miserable quibbling. The printed card, as well as the violent and intemperate "call" on me and others, was a design to muzzle the press, cut out the tongue and prevent the utterance of what Clement had stated. Meantime he was almost daily employed in making denials in the Telegraph on the subject, not only of the truth of what he had stated, but also that he had made any such statement. After these denials, however clearly it may be proved that he made these statements, he can not, I think, be successfully employed as a witness to prove that his statements to us were true.

"In this view of the subject you will duly appreciate the reason why the second paragraph of my first letter was deemed exceptionable; why it was not published in the Telegraph, and why I was challenged because I would not make my answers in substance and form as my "inquisitors" in their holy office thought proper to order.

"My concluding note sums up the matter as it then stood. But these honorable men, after they were told the correspondence must close, push in a reply. To understand, answer and refute its sophistry and falsehood, it is only necessary to underscore the words "statements," which always mean the relations of Clement, and "Imputations" which throughout the correspondence, and in the very nature of things here, means the "conclusions" of the editors from those statements.

"Davis had required me to say that 'you do not vouch or believe the truth of the imputations cast on Governor Poindexter,' &c. I declined this as unnecessary. He did not ask me either in relation to the statements. I did not decline doing either as to the statements.

"But in this supplemental letter he argues while he states that I was required to vouch or believe as to the imputations, and refused to do either, it left it to be inferred that I believed the statements of Clement, and for that single cause I was challenged. But I had in my very first note said I had at no time vouched for the truth of his statements.

"So much for the sophistry of that supplement on its face.

"Suppose I had said I believed every word that Clement stated to me; ought I to be shot for yielding a belief to a man whom Mr. P. had introduced tot he senate as the witness of truth against Mr. Van Buren? According to Clement's letter the senator had sought him out, and in his character of senator asked in a letter for the precious information; and this man, who admits he raised the corpse of Hicks, reluctantly yields to the solicitations of the senator and makes the disclosures. Yet the senator reads that letter, and I was to be shot for merely hearing the same witness speak.

"I am sick and too fatigued to write more, and must lie down.

Yours, Michael Hoffman.

N.S. Benton.

Mr. Hoffman was very urgent that Mr. Sandford should be reelected to the senate of the United States, in 1831, and wrote several letters to the members of the legislature on the subject; but a strong belief that he was interested in the Untied States bank, coupled with a desire to bring out a man who would be available as a candidate for governor, induced the republican members to select with great unanimity another individual. Another fact had strong influence upon the democratic members of the legislature, in induce them to bestow the office upon William L. Marcy. He was known to be the confidential friend of Martin Van Buren, and the war waged against that gentleman by the combined opposition, gigantic in intellect and power, did not fail to draw around him at that time, the deep sympathies of the friends of Andrew Jackson, in this state as well as elsewhere, and they were therefore prepared to throw around him as strong a bulwark as could be erected.

On Mr. Hoffman's retirement from congress, he was appointed one of the canal commissioners of this state, in the year 1835; he held the office but a short time. He suffered a heavy pecuniary loss by having been a surety for a young man, a distant family connection, I believe, and he surrendered all, or nearly all, his property in arranging the unhappy affair, and procuring a final discharge from his liability. This occurrence reduced him from comparative ease and comfort in pecuniary matters, to the necessity of again resorting to the labors of his profession, which continued to engross his attention until the year 1836, which he was appointed by the president and senate, register of the land-office, for the Saginaw district, in Michigan where he remained until after the general financial explosion, in 1837. I have to say, that Mr. Hoffman was appointed first judge of the county, in June 1830, and held the office until April, 1833; and that he again held the office of district attorney of the county, a short time, in 1836.

He represented the county in the assembly, with Arphaxad Loomis, in 1841 and 1842, and with Peter H. Warren, in 1844. His party was in a minority in the house, in 1841, but, it had regained the ascendancy in both branches, in 1842, when democratic state officers were elected, and a series of financial measures were initiated and carried through the legislature, for the avowed purpose of reviving the credit of the state, which had suffered pretty severely from causes not necessary here to discuss, and concerning which the two political parties of the day did not agree. A direct tax was levied to aid the funds, appropriated for the Erie canal enlargement, and the construction of the lateral canals. Mr. Hoffman was at the head of the committee of ways and means, and labored assiduously to perfect and carry through his favorite measures. He was willing to levy a tax, to resuscitate the credit of the state, and keep its faith unimpaired with its creditors, in regard to existing obligations and indebtedness, but he was not disposed to go one step beyond that. The financial officers of the state, A. C. Flagg, then recently elected comptroller, favored this policy. The consequence was, that the further progress of the public works on the canals was suspended, for the time being, and the state stocks, and the state credit, soon regained their former healthful position. These measures were approved by William H. Seward, then governor of the state, and ardent and enthusiastic advocate for the speedy completion of the canals. It was repeatedly stated during the discussion of these measures, that the people would not willingly be taxed to support or aid the construction of the canals, or even to bring the finance and credit of the state into a healthful condition. Mr. Hoffman and his friends, it seems, did not misjudge the public feeling on this subject, Governor Seward convened an extra session of the legislature, in the summer of 1842, to provide the means for carrying on the public works, but the majority was intractable, and adjourned without doing anything, but to take the per diem and mileage allowed by law.

The session of 1844, was not prolific of any great or interesting questions of legislation, and although a majority of the democrats elected to the assembly was friendly to what was called the "canal policy," and elected a speaker who was known to differ from Mr. Hoffman in regard to the "stop and pay law, " there are few, if any, instances in the history of the legislation of this state, when a single member exerted such powerful influence as did Mr. Hoffman during this session. He did not trouble himself to advocate many of the measures brought before the house, but he took unwearied pains to oppose and defeat every project he considered unsound, impolitic or mischievous, and he seldom failed.

The election of Mr. Polk, in 1844, brought into the executive chair of the United States an individual with whom Mr. Hoffman had served in congress; and this intimacy, it is said, was the reason why the president nominated Mr. Hoffman to the senate as naval officer in the city of New York against the remonstrances of a member of his cabinet from this state. During the progress of the controversy on the tariff question, and with South Carolina, he felt, and often expressed, a deep anxiety in regard to the issue of events and the fate of the country. His mind not unfrequently foreboded an appeal to force, which he deprecated in the strongest terms, and urged the adoption of conciliatory measures so far as these could be tendered, by a modification of the tariff, in order that confidence might be fully restored between the antagonistic sections of the country. Happily his fears and somber anticipations were not realized, nor could they well be under the wise and energetic administration of Andrew Jackson, The man who, by one sentence from his pen, could compel the ruler of thirty-four millions of people, and one of the first continental powers of Europe to fulfill the obligations of a solemn treaty, whose conditions had been violated, was not to be "frightened from his propriety" by any threats of domestic treason. His advice to his countrymen to "ask for nothing but what was right, and submit to nothing which was wrong," and his known patriotic devotion to the best interests of his country, had seated him too firmly in the hearts and affections of the American people, to be disturbed by the denunciations or threats of sectional politicians. But is is not any purpose to eulogize General Jackson in this place, or speak of him outside of the nullification controversy.

Mr. Hoffman's appointment to the lucrative post assigned him by the partiality of the president, and in my judgment it was not undeserved under the circumstances of its bestowal, placed him in a condition where, by the application of the prudential regulations which had governed him through life, he soon retrieved his fortunes, and he was enabled to leave his family, on, his demise, possessed of an ample competence. His former connections with the financial policy of the state, as settled by the legislation of 1842, no doubt produced his election in Herkimer county, in 1846, to revise the constitution of 1821, although he was then a resident of the city of New York. The convention met at the Capitol, in the city of Albany, on the 1^st day of June, 1846, and it is probably needless for me to state, that Mr. Hoffman participated largely in the initiatory proceedings of that body, or that his course in the convention in any respect disappointed the public expectation, founded upon the antecedents of his public career.

Although every portion of the fundamental law, when under revision, presents questions of the most grave consideration, there are no doubt some points of more engrossing importance than others. Mr. Hoffman was named chairman of the committee to which was referred that part of the constitution relating to

"3. Canals, internal improvements, public revenue and property; public debt, and the powers and duties of the legislature in reference thereto; and the restrictions, if any, proper to be imposed upon the action of the legislature in making donations from the public funds; and in making loans of the moneys or credit of the state."

Broad and comprehensive inquiries, imposing great labor to analyze and digest, and much power in debate to illustrate and defend the details of a constitutional article involving such varied and deeply interesting subjects. Mr. Hoffman, from this committee, reported two articles, each comprising several sections, on the 30^th July, 1846. They were the outlines of the existing 7^th or financial article of the present constitution. The debate was opened by him on the 11^th of September, by an able and elaborate argument, showing the condition of the finances and debt of the state, its inability, except from taxation, to meet any increased liabilities, and urged upon the convention the necessity and expediency of placing some restraint upon legislative discretion over the subject, which, he insisted, was not to be depended on. He occupied the whole of one day in elaborating his views on this occasion. I can not even attempt a synopsis of his argument. The debate which followed was highly interesting, and exhibited much talent in the members who participated therein, and was finally closed on the 7^th of October, when, having been considerably modified while under discussion, the tow originally reported articles were incorporated into one, and was adopted by a vote of 77 to 9. Some of the most important modifications to the original reports were moved by Mr. Loomis, but whether with Mr. Hoffman's assent, I do not know. If he felt it incumbent on him to carry through this favorite proposition, he did not confine his whole attention to this one subject. He participated largely in the doing of the convention generally, and evinced great ability, research and experience. He voted for the restricted right of suffrage imposed by the constitution upon the colored population; and voted for the separate submission of the articles conferring free suffrage on this class of citizens. There was no incongruity in these votes.

Mr. Hoffman's legislative career closed with the adjournment of the convention. It had been an unusually long and varied one, twelve of the twenty-one years since his first election to congress; and it may with truth be said, he occupied, during this period, a distinguished and prominent position on the political stage. He was nearly twenty years the recipient of official favors of some kind, and enjoyed the popular confidence of the citizens of this county in a somewhat remarkable degree. His health, which had been rather infirm some time previous to 1847, gave way more rapidly under the accumulated difficulties of deep seated chronic disease, about that period, and he closed his earthy pilgrimage at Brooklyn, Kings county, on the 27^th day of September, 1848, aged 61 years.

He held the post of naval officer when he died, and his remains were brought to Herkimer for interment. He was a man of generous impulses, strong personal attachments and unwavering political principles. In private life, his character was wholly blameless; as a public man his reputation was unsullied by an acts of peculation upon the public, or any effort to further the prospects or promote the interests of his political friends or his party, by a prostitution of patronage, or the partial appropriation or application of the public treasure to promote similar objects. While in congress, he represented a district which called for no appropriation for local objects, and that was the condition of this county when he was in the legislature. I do not mean to say he was more pure than any other man living in his day; but he was not assailable on points that some men have been.

Was a native of the town of Salisbury in the county, and was born there in the year 1787. He was the son of Major Jonathan Hallett, and officer of the revolutionary army. What business he was engaged in antecedent to the year 1820, I am not informed of; he that year removed to Fairfield village, where he engaged in merchandise and also carried on the same business in the town of Norway. Mr. Hallett was appointed by the council of appointment, sheriff of the county in 1821. The designation of the candidate was made by a county convention, and the recommendation of that body was approved by the council. He was reappointed in the winter of 1822, and at the November election of that year was chosen sheriff of the county under the provision of the constitution of 1821. His term of office expired on the 1^st of January, 1826. He was a prompt and efficient public officer, and possess a pretty full share of the "irrepressible energies" of a Herkimer politician of the dominant party. He was intelligent, public spirited and humane. He died at Fairfield, November 19^th, 1827, aged 40 years, leaving a family to mingle tears for their bereavement, with the regrets of friends and neighbors for their loss.

Was born at Wallingford, New Haven county, Connecticut, in October, 1776, and died at Allegan in the state of Michigan, the 24^th of October, 1849, aged 73 years. Aaron Hackley, his father, removed into this state with his family and settled in the town of Salisbury, in 1795. Within a few years of this event, Philo M., the son, removed to the village of Herkimer, and established himself in the mercantile business, which he pursued with varied success, nearly twenty years. He had been well educated, was gentlemanly in his deportment, and a high-minded and honorable man. He was a federalist in politics, and not ashamed to avow it on all proper occasions; was one of that talented and influential body of men, who early established themselves at the county seat, who during several years exerted a potent political influence in the county. He was well informed on most subjects, and active and zealous in promoting the success of his party. His political friends were not unmindful of this, but sought out several occasions to show their grateful attachment to a true and worthy adherent of a cause which they no doubt believed was worthy of their best efforts to sustain. He was appointed surrogate of the county in 1807, but a political revolution displaced him the following year. He was appointed sheriff in 1810, another change in the appointing power transferred the office to a political opponent.

The succeeding ten years found him enjoying the comforts of private life, although a period of very considerable political excitement, and during which the country had passed through a foreign war, and its institutions had been subjected to the severest tests. At the spring election in 1819, he was chosen member of the assembly on a ticket with James Orton and Jacob Markell. The election of three old fashioned, although highly respected federalists, was an unusual occurrence in the county. The causes which produced this change in the ascendancy of parties in the county at the above and two succeeding elections are explained in another chapter. He did not after this hold any prominent office. He lived several years at Little Falls, and removed from thence with his family to Auburn, in this state, about the year 1839, where he remained five years and then went to Michigan. He met the vicissitudes of life with the characteristic resignation of a Christian. He left several children at his death, who had settled in different parts of the country, none of whom, however, were residents of this county. The American people, and especially the descendants of the old Puritan stock, are, I believe, the greatest antigregarians of any in the world.

Emigrated into the county at an early day and settled in the village of Herkimer, where he engaged in merchandising, and carried it on for some time. He received the appointment of sheriff of the county in 1815, and had the good fortune to hold the office two years against John Mahon, the perpetual successor of federal sheriffs in those days. He was intelligent, gentlemanly, kind and social, and personally very prepossessing in appearance. Full six feet high and very "well proportioned." He was quite popular as a public officer, and being highly regarded by his fellow citizens of all classes, he did not fail to attract the special attention of his political associates.

He was put in nomination for the assembly in the spring of 1815 by his party, with Thomas Manley and Mathew Myers, and was elected.

He was put in nomination for the assembly in the spring of 1815 by his party, with Thomas Manley and Mathew Myers, and was elected. One of the republican candidates, George Paddock, died only five or six days previous to the election, and there was not time in those days of bad roads and tardy movements to assemble the county convention and present another candidate previous to the election, and the voting went on as usual. Mr. Hopkins led his ticket by a few votes, and beat his dead competitor by 19 majority. The canvass shows that 1368 votes were cast for Hopkins and 1349 for Paddock. The election was a very close one, and each party appears to have placed their most prominent and popular men before the people. The average majority of the two highest on the republican ticket was only 22 ½ over their two highest opponents. I notice a fact which presents the remarkable uniformity of the freehold vote of that day. There were then eleven town in the county, and each federal nominee received an equal number of votes in every town except two, and so it was with the republican candidates. The losses and gains among the candidates running on the same ticket were in Herkimer and Schuyler, and those losses and gains between the candidates running on opposing tickets were equal. The difference being only four in about nine hundred cast by each party. A greater uniformity prevailed in 1809, when there were six candidates, three supported by each party, and a variation of only two votes between the highest and lowest of each set. Mr. Hopkins was a candidate for reelection the next years, 1816, but failed of an election by 133 votes, although the highest on his ticket. He died at Herkimer in November, 1827. I have not found any memorial of his final resting place, except in the fond recollection of those who knew him, nor am I aware that he left any descendants.

Was born at Albany June 17^th, 1766. He was the youngest of four brothers: John, formerly chief justice of the supreme court, chancellor, and delegate to the convention of 1787, which formed the constitution of the United States; Abraham G. and Garret G., late of Oriskany. He had one sister, Mrs. Barent Bleecker of Albany. On the 10^th of December, 1789, he married Catharine, the eldest daughter of Abraham Ten Eyck of that city. He was educated to the legal profession, and was appointed register in chancery on the promotion of his brother to the chancellorship. He was of the ancient Dutch lineage, who came from Holland in the glorious days of Petrus Minuit, Wouter Van Twiller, Willem Keift or Petrus Stuyvesant, representatives of their high mightinesses, the states general. It matters not, however, when they came or where they were from, their descendants were her on the day of our nation's birth, and claimed the right to be numbered among her children.

Mr. Lansing removed into the county with his family, in 1820, and settled at Little Falls, where he was several years engaged in closing up some extensive land agencies, in which the collateral branches of his family were interested. He was chosen delegate to the convention, in 1821, with Sherman Wooster and Richard Van Horne, called to revise the constitution of 1777, although quite a stranger to the great mass of the electors. The name was no doubt familiar to a considerable portion of the population, but he was known individually to only a few of them. His course in the convention was marked by that cool deliberation, and sound judgment, which great experience and a practical knowledge of the working of our system would very naturally head him to adopt. He was not a visionary theorist; nor was he opposed to a change in the fundamental rules of government, when that change was required to conform them to present exigencies, and advance the best interests of the state. He did not often engage in protracted forensic debate; and this was probably owing to his withdrawal from practice in the courts, soon after he came to the bar. A majority of his constituents in the county approved of his official acts, and he lived many years after this event, to mark the upward and onward progress of his native state, endeared to him by grateful recollections of the past, and hopeful prospects for the future.

Mr. Lansing was appointed one of the judges of the county courts, in March, 1821; reappointed, in 1823, by the governor and senate under the new constitution, and held the office until 1828. I can venture to say, that he never neglected attendance at court a single term, during this whole period, unless prevented by sickness. His rule was, that no man ought to accept a public office and neglect to perform its duties, whatever they might be.

Judge Lansing also held the office of master in chancery, and commissioner to perform certain duties of a justice of the supreme court at chambers. The latter appointment was conferred after he left the common pleas bench. He was a gentleman of great purity of character, and held in strict observance those rules of conduct that diving revelation enjoins, as the believed, on all who would secure a happy future. He left only two sons. My attention was always attracted to the uniform exactness, and methodical precision, in which he transacted all his business, whenever I made professional calls upon him. This I attributed to early training. Some would say this was a national characteristic. Well, if this be so, the peculiarity is the child of education, and is called "national," when applied to the people of Holland, because they uniformly observe the thorough rules of instruction, and an exact method of training as far as they go. I can not regard Dutchmen, native or a descendant, as the only people of all the Caucasian races who are constitutionally or by nature endowed with the particular mental faculty of attaining method and exactness in the transactions of life.

Mr. Lansing resided in the town of Manheim, several years preceding his death, and died there, September 19^th, 1850, aged 84 years, 3 months, and 2 days; his beloved and respected consort died on the 23d; a grandson, on the 20^th, and a granddaughter on the 24^th of the same month. Within the period of a week, four members of a family were placed in the silent grave. This occurrence was somewhat remarkable, in regard to the rapid succession in which the events happened, as there was not at the time any epidemic diseases that touched three of the cases.

Was born in Ireland, and came to this country when quite young. After remaining here a few years he went back to Ireland and again returned to this country. He crossed the Atlantic three times before he was sixteen years old. He lived several years with "blind John Smith," who carried on merchandising in a small way at or near Utica. He was in this county some years before 1800, and acquired all his education after he left Ireland His first wife was a daughter of Judge John Frank, of German Flats, in which town he resided, some years acting as constable and deputy sheriff. Being connected by marriage with a German family, he acquired and spoke the provincial dialect with all the fluency of a native German of the Mohawk. He was a man of much energy of character and great native talent. I knew him well more than thirty years, and in all that time never heard him speak in any other terms than of strong dislike an execration of the government and institutions of his native country. My curiosity was sometimes so strongly excited as almost to tempt me to inquire of him the particulars of his parentage, but he was not a man to gratify other people's curiosity only when it suited himself. I always imagined his ancestors had suffered some deep wrong, or what he believed to be so, from the British government in Ireland.

He said he was indented out to service for a limited time to pay the expenses of his first passage. I am not aware that this practice continued after the revolution. He was appointed sheriff of the county in 1808, and held the place till 1813; and in 1815 he was again reappointed and held two years more. He seems to have come into office and gone out on every political change in the council of appointment. He was an active and efficient public officer, and a very ardent politician, as the reader will probably conclude by this time. He never asked any favors from this political antagonists, and was very careful not to be too liberal in granting them. From 1817 to 1821, he was engaged to some extent in private pursuits, and upon the restoration of the republican party to political power in the state, in the latter year, he was appointed clerk of the county, and held the office until January, 1823. In 1819, he was actively engaged in organizing an opposition in this county against Governor DeWitt Clinton. He was the prime mover and leading spirit in that movement, and did not fail to extend his exertions to the close of the election in 1820, when Clinton and Tompkins were rival candidates for the gubernatorial chair.

On his exit from the clerk's office he was appointed one of the county judges in February, 1823, and held that office until 1822. This was the close of his active political career. Judge Mahon died at Herkimer in October 1851, aged 78 years. He left one descendant, a son, Patrick Mahon. I am not aware he had any attachments for the predominant religious faith of his native country. I do not think he had any; and it is this circumstance which seems to throw obscurity over his origin and early life. This is one of the many cases often presenting themselves to our view, which exhibits in bold relief some of the striking peculiarities of American institutions. An alien orphan, destitute alike of money and education, immigrates to our country, and by application and industry acquires both. But this is not all. He does not loiter at the foot of the official ladder. He secures the confidence and good will of the people whom he can rightfully call his fellow citizens, and enjoys for nearly forty years high and important official trusts, and only leaves them when about to go on a last and final resting place. Judge Mahon possessed some very marked peculiarities. I never heard that the vigor of his intellect had been in the least impaired from the time he quit public life to his death. But this is no place for questions not relating to public life and character. The grave throws a mantle over our foibles, and let that be the end.

Was a native of Dorset, Bennington county, Vermont. He came into the present town of Norway, in the spring of 1789, opened a small clearing, and erected his log cabin, and brought his family into the town the next year, 1790. It will probably be noticed, that Norway was first organized in 1792, but its territory has been subsequently very much circumscribed. Mr. Manley being among the first settlers on the northern part of the Royal grant, and a man of energy and force of character, was a prominent man in this town. He held the office of supervisor fifteen years, and was twice commissioned by Governor John Jay superintendent of highways in the county of Herkimer. These commissions respectively bear date April 4, 1798 and March 8^th, 1800. One of his sons, Dr. Manley, of Richfield, Otsego county, told me his father, the first year he came on to the grant, put up a bark hut as a sleeping place for himself and his hired man, and a store room for such few things as they had, requiring protections from the weather. They used a blanket to cover the entrance of their primitive lodge. The needful cooking was done at the fire outside. As they were then quite destitute of such substantials, in the way of food, as beef, pork, mutton and lamb, the forest was resorted to, to supply deficiencies, and the white rabbit being numerous, were taken whenever occasion required. Not having the fear of cholera before their eyes, and being intent in felling the forest and opening their clearing for a small crop, they did not stop to enquire into the origin and causes of diseases, but threw their culinary offal down near the door of the hut, where a considerable quantity of rabbit bones had of course been accumulating. Mr. Manley and his companion were one night disturbed by an unusual noise outside, but near their hut: listening a moment, they concluded, from the cracking of the rabbit bones, that some strong mouthed native of the forest was making a night meal of them. Manly took his gun, and moving the blanket door gently aside, fired in the direction of the heap of rabbit bones; a terrific growl was the only response, except the echo of the discharge in the surrounding dense forest. The night was dark, and having struck up a light with steel and flint, and recharging their gun, they cautiously examined the ground about the hut, but found nothing except some traces of blood. The animal, although wounded, was not disabled from making its escape. Early the next morning, Mr. Manley and his companion took the blood trail into the forest, and in about an hour found a good sized bear, weary and faint from the effects of his late night feast, and the unkind treatment he had received. The bear was killed, in the hope that the meat would give the captors a savory change in animal food. But it was poor, and the meat was coarse, dark and tough.

Mr. Manley was an agriculturist, and highly respected in his town and in the county. He was elected a member of the assembly in this state in 1799, on the ticket with John Mills and John Myer; again in 1809, with Rudolph Devendorff and Christopher P. Bellinger; and again in 1820, with Simeon Ford and Daniel Van Horne. He was uniform and adhered with unwavering tenacity to his political principles and party in this county more than sixty years. It is no slight evidence of the good feelings of his friends, or of his standing in the county, that his name was often presented by them as a candidate for member of assembly, as well when there was a fair prospect of success, as when this chance was quite doubtful. He died in Norway, where he lived 63 years, on the 21^st of January, 1851, aged 88 years and six months. He was born in August, 1763. In closing this notice, I need hardly add, that such a man as Mr. Manly must have been highly esteemed while living, and died regretted by all who knew him.

JACOB MARKELL

Was born in the county of Schenectady, on the 8^th of May, 1770, about tow miles west of the city. His parents were Germans, or of German descent. He received his English common school education, while quite young, at Schenectady. This name is found in the list of Palatine immigrants, who came over in 1710, but his ancestors were not among the Burnetsfield patentees. Judge Markell's father came to Stone Arabia, in the present town of Palatine, Montgomery county, at an early period, but whether before or at the close of the revolution, I have note been able to ascertain. Young Markells health was not robust, and he was placed in Maleys store, in Albany, where he served out a clerkship. He married, when twenty years old, at Palatine, and removed to Manheim, and commenced farming, which be carried on during the remainder of his life, until he became too infirm, in consequence of age, to attend to the laborious duties of that occupation. When he first came to Manheim, he opened a small country store, and manufactured potashes, a business that yielded a good re turn while the country was new, and timber plenty. He was an acting justice of the peace, almost time out of mind, and held the office of supervisor in the town of Manheim twenty-seven years. When that town remained attached to Montgomery county, he held the office of judge of the court of common pleas, and was elected to congress for one term, during Mr. Madison's administration, and in the war of 1812. He was elected one of the members of assembly from Herkimer county, in 1819, on the same ticket with James Orton and Philo M. Hackley, and closed a long and well spent life at the residence of his son, John Markell, Esq., in Manheim, with whom he had lived the two