ROME, ONEIDA CO., NY - BIOGRAPHIES, PRESCOTT to WEST

Biographical Sketches
Extracted From
OUR CITY AND ITS PEOPLE
A descriptive work on the city
of Rome, New York.
1896

[Transcribed by Coralynn Brown]

CYRUS DAN PRESCOTT

The first American ancestor of the Prescott family of which the subject of this sketch is a lineal descendant, was John, a grandson of Sir James Prescott and his wife, daughter of Roger Standish, lord and lady of the manor of Dryby in Lincolnshire, England.
John Prescott, (1) settled in Boston, Mass., in 1640, and the line of his posterity is as follows:
(2) Jonas,
(3) Jonas,
(4) Ebenezer,
(5) Oliver,
(6) Oliver,
(7) Jeremiah,
(8) Cyrus D.
Oliver (5) was born May 5, 1725, married Bethiah UNDERWOOD, served in the war of the Revolution, and died January 1, 1803.
Oliver (6) was born in Westford, Mass., February 22, 1760, married Keziah HOWARD, and moved to Jeffrey, N. H., and thence in 1793 to New Hartford, Oneida county, where he purchased 500 acres of unbroken forest land. He was a life-long farmer, and died in that town in December, 1843.
Jeremiah Prescott (7 ) was born in New Hartford on August 4, 1806, was first a farmer and subsequently a tin and iron manufacturer, and afterwards admitted to practice as attorney and counselor at law in 1864, and died there May 12, 1872. He was a justice of the peace about thirty years, at one time under sheriff of the county, and held several other local offices.
His wife, Deborah LINNEMANN, was born near Amsterdam, N. Y., December 15, 1805, and died May 5, 1874. Her father, Johan Linnemann, was born in Viele, Denmark, February 16, 1759, was brought to America in 1768, and settled near Amsterdam, where he died. He served in the Revolutionary war, and married for his wife Catherine SIXBERRY, who died in Ohio, December 19, 1863, aged 101 years, six months and thirteen days.

Hon. Cyrus D. Prescott, son of Jeremiah, was born in New Hartford, on the 15th of August, 1836, and finished his literary education at the Utica Free Academy. He then spent about one year each in the law offices of O. G. Kellogg and Hurd & Brown, in Utica, and at the end of that period entered the county clerk's office, where he remained a little more than two years as search clerk. In 1858 he came to Rome and resumed his legal studies in the office of Johnson & Boardman, which firm soon became Foster, Johnson, Boardman & Lynch. Mr. Prescott was admitted to the bar at the Syracuse General term in the summer of 1859, and began the practice of his profession in the spring of 1860 in Rome under the firm name of Greene & Prescott, which continued until January 1, 1865. After spending the years 1865 and 1866 in traveling through the South and West he went to New York in January, 1867, as financial clerk for a wholesale establishment. In the spring of 1868 he returned to Rome and in June formed a co-partnership with D. Minor K. Johnson, formerly of the firm of Foster, Johnson, Boardman & Lynch, under the style of Johnson & Prescott. This firm continued a large law practice until Mr. Johnson's death in July, 1886. Mr. Prescott remained alone till August 1, 1895, when the present copartnership of Prescott & Titus was formed by the admission of Charles T. Titus.
Mr. Prescott has been a staunch Republican since the organization of that party. He has always taken an active interest in political affairs, and has frequently been called to positions of trust and responsibility. He was adjutant of the 101st Regt. N. Y. State Militia for a time, was alderman from the Fifth ward of Rome one term, member and secretary of the Board of Education three years, and in 1878 represented this district in the assembly, where he was chairman of the committee on railroads. In the fall of 1878 and again in 1880 he was elected to Congress by handsome majorities, which attested his popularity throughout this congressional district. In the 46th Congress, during his second term, he was chairman of the celebrated committee on apportionment and brought in the bill for reapportioning the membership of the various States. This was the leading feature of that session, and the part Mr. Prescott bore in the long and bitter fight which ensued redounds to his lasting credit. So far as New York State was concerned his bill was passed without material change. He drew up and secured the passage in the 45th Congress of a bill authorizing the appropriation of $5,000 for the construction of the Oriskany monument in honor of General Herkimer. Among the various important cornmittees of which he was a member was the committee on the improvement of the Mississippi River, and in this connection he was one of five commissioners appointed by Congress to inspect and report upon the condition of the levees along that stream below St. Louis. In both Congresses he had charge of several measures affecting his county, all of which became laws. His legislative career, both as assemblyman and as representative, was characterized by untiring faithfulness to public trust and by continued watchfulness over the interests of his constituents. As a citizen he has always encouraged every project which promised benefit to the community.

June 21, 1861, Mr. Prescott was married to Miss Eliza F. CADY, a native of Madison county, and a daughter of Daniel Cady, of Yonkers, N.Y., but formerly of Rome. They have four children :
G. Linnemann, a graduate of the Rome Academy and now a resident of Rome ;
Elizabeth C. (Mrs. Clifton B. White), of Brooklyn, N. Y. ;
and Mabelle T. and Ruth Andrea, at home.

CHRISTOPHER C. REID, M. D.

CHRISTOPHER C. RIED, M. D., was born in the town of Westmoreland, Oneida county, N. Y., November 1, 1838, and is the sixth in a family of fifteen children of James and Rebecca (ROBINSON) Reid, who were born of Scotch parentage in the north of Ireland. James and Rebecca Reid, after their marriage in their native country, came to America about 1837 and first settted in Kirkland, this county, but subsequently moved to a farm in Westmoreland. Mrs. Reid died in 1879, aged about seventy years. Mr. Reid's death occurred in Albion, Oswego county, in November, 1887, at the age of eighty seven. Thirteen of their children attained maturity. James Reid and his brother Christopher constituted the family of William Reid grandfather of the subject of this sketch.

Dr. C. C. Reid left home at the age of nine years to live with his uncle Christopher in Kirkland, N.Y., where he was reared on a farm. He was graduated from Whitestown Seminary in 1862, and while attending that institution began the study of medicine with Drs. Henderson, father and son. After his graduation he went to Albany, read medicine under Dr. William Bailey, and was graduated with the degree of M. D. from the Albany Medical College in 1864. The same year he commenced the practice of his profession in the town of Western, Oneida county, where he remained until 1870, when he moved to Rome, where he has since resided, enjoying a wide and successful professional business.
Dr. Reid is a member of the Oneida County Medical Society and was one of the founders and has always been a member of the New York State Medical Association. He is the first president of the Rome Medical Society, which he was largely instrumental in organizing in February, 1895. For twenty consecutive years, or, since 1876, he has acted as examining surgeon for the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. Co. his labors in this capacity extending along the entire line and frequently outside the State. He is consulting physician to the Rome City Hospital, a director in the Rome Brass and Copper Company, and was one of the originators and the first president of the Washington Street Oper. House Company, serving as president two terms during the erection of the handsome opera house in 1889 and 1890. He joined the Masons in Vienna and is now a member of Rome Lodge P. & A. M. and Rome Commandery K. T. In 1879 he visited Europe and traveled extensively over Great Britain and the Continent, visiting not only the chief points of general interest, but many hospitals and medical institutions.
Dr. Reid was married on April 4, 1893, to Miss Katherine Melissa SPENCER, daughter of Harvey D. Spencer, of Rome, N. Y.

JOSEPH I. SAYLES

Descandants of the Sayles family in America trace their lineage to John Sayles, (1) and Mary WILLIAMS, his wife, who were married in Rhode Island in 1650, settled in Providence, and are buried in the Easton burial ground in Middletown near Sachuest Beach. He was born in Scotland in 1633, his father being of Scotch and his mother of Irish parentage, and died in 1681. His wife, who was born in 1638 and died also in 1681, was a daughter of Roger Williams, first governor and founder of the Rhode Island colony, and Mary, his wife. Mr. Sayles was made a freeman in 1655, and held the offices of commissioner, town clerk, warden, town treasurer, auditor, deputy, and councilman. His posterity in a direct line to the subject of this sketch is as follows:
John (2), born August 17, 1654, deputy, tavern keeper, died August 2, 1727 ;
Richard (3), born October 24, 1695, died in 1775;
Israel (4), born March 17, 1726 ;
Israel (5);
Benjamin B. (6), who married Polly STRONG ;
and Joseph I. (7).
The foregoing, prior to Benjamin B. Sayles, lived in Rhode Island, where many of the name occupied responsible positions in business, social and official life, manifesting at all times great patriotism and individual ability, and becoming substantial and useful citizens.
Isael (5) came to Norwich, N. Y., early in 1800, and there Benjamin B. (6) was born and learned the trade of blacksmith. Benjamin B. Sayles moved to the town of Plymouth, Chenango county, and followed farming many years. He had four sons and one daughter.
Joseph I. Sayles, youngest son of Benjamin B. and Polly (STRONG) Sayles, was born in Plymouth, Chenango county, N. Y., October 7, 1843, and remained on the parental farm and attended the district schools until he reached the age of seventeen. He inherited in full measure the sturdy characteristics of his New England ancestry, and supplemented these by early acquiring those habits of industry and perseverance which mark the successful man. April 29, 1861, he enlisted in Co. H, 17th N. Y. Vol. Inf., as a private, and served with the Army of the Potomac from its organization till after the siege of Yorktown, participating in all the engagements on the peninsula. At Chickahomony Swamp he was taken sick and sent to St. Elizabeth Hospital at Washington, where he was honorably discharged August 9, 1862.
Returning home he resumed his common school education and soon began to read law in Norwich, N. Y. He was graduated from the Albany Law School in 1866 and in December of the same year was admitted to the bar at Albany. Immediately afterward he commenced the practice of his profession in Lee Center, Oneida county, where he served as justice of the peace and where he remained until 1870 when he moved to Rome. Here he formed a copartnership with Hon. M. D. Barnett, which continued until the latter's election as district attorney in 1876. Mr. Sayles's next partnership was in 1887, when the present firm of Sayles, Searle & Sayles, was organized by the admission of D. F. Searle and A. F. Sayles.
Mr. Sayles has been a lifelong Republican, casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln for president in 1864. He represented the Fifth ward in the common council three years, has been a member of the Rome Water Commission four years, and in March, 1894, was appointed by Gov. Levi P. Morton one of the managers of the State Custodial Asylum at Rome for six years, being chairman of the executive committee of that institution. He was a charter member of Skillen Post, No. 47, G. A. R. and for ten years officiated as its commander. He was also department commander of the G. A. R. for the State of New York, with rank of major-general in 1885, and judge advocate of the department three terms. In 1891 he organized and has since served as president of the Jones Elastic Enamel Paint Company of Rome. He is heavily interested in real estate, both at home and elsewhere, and has for many years been closely identified with the city's growth and prosperity.
But it is as a trial and criminal lawyer that Mr. Sayles stands out the most prominently in his career. Without the adventitious aids which wealth, family influence, and scholastic attainments can give he has, by courage, industry, perseverance, in domitable will power, and his own unaided ability, worked his way from a rustic school boy on the farm to the front rank in his profession as a trial lawyer, so that he stands today among the foremost criminal lawyers in the State. He is emphatically and in the fullest sense a self-made man. It is as a jury advocate, and the more especially as a criminal lawyer, that he has won his greatest triumphs and established his widest reputation. His shrewdness and tact in the management of trials, his acquaintance with human nature which enables him to judge how oral testimony will strike and impress the average juror, his experience .and familiarity with the practice and intricacies of criminal law, and above and better than all his skill in the examination of his own and the cross-examination of unwilling and evasive witnesses all thoroughly equip him for a trial lawyer in bath civil and criminal trials and make him a formidable and most dangerous antagonist. He has tried causes in every county of this State but two, and has defended between thirty and forty prisoners (the trials taking place in nearly a dozen different counties) for capital offenses, and in none of them has the prisoner been executed, and in only one was there a conviction for the higher offense, and in that case the judgment was reversed and the prisoner subsequently acquitted. It is said of him that "he is a natural trial lawyer."

On the 2d of June, 1873, Mr. Sayles was married to Miss Sarah CASTLE, a daughter of the late Hon. John J. Castle, of Lee, who in 1852 was member of assembly from Oneida county. She died July 7, 1877, and in 1878 he married Mrs. Carrie M. BOND, daughter of George POTTER, of Lee, by whom he has two children :
Josie Irene, born January 10, 1880,
and General George W., born February 22, 1882.
The first born, at the age of thirteen, wrote a book, worthy of one double her years, which was printed for circulation among her own immediate acquaintances and friends.

JAMES H. SEARLES

The subject of this sketch was born in Belleville, Jefferson county, N. Y., August 6, 1832. He was the son of Martha Gott RANSOM and James H. Searles, who was a leading merchant in the town of Ellisburgh many years. Mr. Searles came to Rome January 1, 1867, since which time he has been in the banking, real estate and insurance business. A zealous, broad natured citizen, always in sympathy with any good and able enterprise that might be for public advancement.
He was twice married. First, to Frances Barrilla, daughter of Ebenezer and Mollie Stark WEBSTER, June 19, 1859. Three children were born by that union�
James Webster Searles, of Salt Lake City, Utah,
Katherine Mary, wife of Dr. Jay Hathaway Utley, of Los Angeles, California,
and Jenny Frances, born April 29, 1860, at Kalamazoo, Mich., died October 12, 1880.
Married second to Eloise Catherine, daughter of John Milton and Mary Abbott RUMNEY, April 18, 1872. Four children were born to them:
John Rumney Searles, Charles Noble Searles, Elizabeth Porter Searles, and Martha Eloise Searles, born February 4, 1879, at Rome, died February 23, 1880.
Eloise C. Searles is a grand niece of Newton Mann.

WILLIAM E. SCRIPTURE

HON. WILLIAM E. SCRIPTURE, justice of the Supreme Court, was born in the town of Westmoreland, Oneida county, N. Y., November 2, 1843. He descends, on his father's side, from Sterling Welsh ancestry, whose first American representative emigrated to this country and settled in New Hampshire about the year 1700. His grandfather, Hiram Scripture, was a native of Tolland county, Conn., and in 1797 came to Westmoreland, where he married, in March, 1798, Miss Elizabeth PARKER, a native of Boston, whose parents were born in Ireland. He died there, aged seventy-seven, as did also his wife, at the age of ninety-three. Her family settled in Westmoreland about 1794.
Parker A. Scripture, son of Hiram, was born in that town October 23, 1814, spent his life upon a farm there, and in 1874 came to Rome, where he was accidentally killed October 26, 1875. He married Miss Harriet Standish SNOW, daughter of Wilson Snow, who survives him. She was born in Plymouth, Mass., and is a lineal descendant of Capt. Miles Standish, one of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower and captain of the Plymouth colony, whom Longfellow immortalized in the celebrated poem, "The Courtship of Miles Standish." She is also descended from the Murdock family, whose ancestor came over soon after 1620. They had three children :
Sarah E. (Mrs. C. H. Steele), William E., and Phebe P.

Judge Scripture was reared on the parental farm in Westmoreland and in early life attended the district schools of that town. He was graduated from Whitestown Seminary in 1865 and in the fall of that year entered Hamilton College in the class of 1869. Illness. however, compelled him to give up a cherished collegiate course and turn his attention to healthier exercise. By the autumn of 1866 his health was sufficiently restored to enable him to enter the Albany Law School, where he was admitted to the bar in May, 1867. He then came to Rome as managing clerk in the law office of Beach & Bailey, whence he left in January, 1868 to begin the active practice of his profession in Canastota, N. Y., under the firm name of Hutchins & Scripture. In the fall of that year he returned to Rome, where he has ever since resided. Here he first resumed practice under the name of Weld & Scripture, but one year later formed a copartnership with Homer T. Fowler as Scripture & Fowler. Subsequently he was associated with George H. Weaver, E. M. Pavey, and O. P. Backus, and since 1892 has practiced alone.
Judge Scripture is widely recognized as an able, conscientious, and reliable counselor, well versed in the practice of the law, and qualified by nature for a successful and influential advocate. An unswerving Republican he has for several years taken an active part in politics, working for the good of his party as one of its popular leaders. For nearly four years he served as postmaster at Rome under President .Harrison, and in November, 1895, was elected justice of the Supreme Court by the largest majority given to any candidate in this district on the Republican ticket.

In August, 1867, Judge Scripture was married to Miss Emma C. GOODWIN, daughter of Israel F. Goodwin, of Westmoreland. They have had eight children :
May Standish, Mina Emma, Ella Goodwin, Emma Harriet, Ruth, Vina, Parker Fairfield, and William.

SAMUEL O. SCUDDER, M. D.

SAMUEL OSBORNE SCUDDER, M. D., was born on a farm in Roxbury, Delaware county, N. Y., March 31, 1818, and died at his home in Rome, N. Y., March 2, 1895. His grandparents were William S. and Elizabeth Scudder, who were born respectively January 14 and September 14, 1743. David Scudder, his father, was born October 2, 1783, and married, first, February 17, 1807, Phebe OSBORNE, who was born July 7, 1788, and who died March 10, 1822. Their children were:
Elizabeth, born April 5, 1809 ;
Cynthia, born March 16, 1812 ;
Abigail, March 14, 1814 ;
Edalinah, January 3, 1817;
Dr. Samuel 0., the subject of this memoir;
Mary Ann, May 24, 1820;
and David 0., March 10, 1822.
He married, second, February 17, 1823, Mrs. Sally (PATTERSON) Yeomans, who was born May 31, 1795. They had seven children.

Dr. Scudder remained on the parental farm and attended the district schools until he reached the age of fourteen, when, with seventy-five cents in money, he started out jnto the world to seek a fortune. Endowed with a strong constitution for a lad of his years, combined with pluck, perseverance, and clear ideas, he eagerly took advantage of the first opportunity to increase his knowledge as well as his little store of wealth. He learned successively the trades of tinsmith, hatter, and furrier, mastering each with a skill and rapidity that demonstrated his capacity for learning. All this time, however, he cherished an ambition for something higher, saved every penny possible, and devoted all his spare moments to study and self-improvement. Leaving these occupations, one after another, he was for four years a clerk in a general store in Hudson, N.Y., where he matured plans to make himself a physician and surgeon. He went to Palmyra, N. Y., and entered the office of Dr. Durfee Chase, an eminent practitioner of the homoeopathic school, and from there he became a student during the winter of 1846-47 in the medical department of the University of New York City, in which the noted physician, Dr. Valentine Mott, was a professor. He was graduated from the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania on March 10, 1849. He contributed many valuable papers on medical subjects to the county society, and was the first of the class of six graduates (and the last survivor) who received the first diplomas granted by any homoeopathic institution in this country. After a brief residence in Waterloo, N. Y., he came to Rome, Oneida county, where he remained until his death, a period of nearly forty- eight years, being at the time of his demise the oldest physician in the city.

Dr. Scudder was devoted to his profession and probably did as much for the advancement of homoeopathy as any other physician in Central New York. His practice grew to extensive proportions, and throughout a wide section of the county he retained the respect and confidence of all with whom he came in contact. He became somewhat celebrated as a specialist in lung and throat troubles, in the treatment of which he was often called long distances, either as consultant or as physician in charge. He laid particular stress upon the importance of good nursing, and in this respect he acquired a reputation. He was a quick and almost unerring diagnostician and possessed a keenness of perception that was remarkable. Kind, patient, and cheerful, his presence in the sick room was always welcome, while his geniality and friendliness made him a desirable companion. He joined the Oneida County Homoeopathic Society on June 21, 1859, and became its president October 17, 1865. In fact he was one of the pioneers in homoeopathy in this part of the State. He was one of the founders and a lifelong member of the New York State Homoeopathic Medical Society, and during the war and afterward served as United States examining surgeon for the pension department.
As a financier Dr. Scudder enjoyed an enviable reputation both at home and abroad. He was for some time a well known and successful operator in Wall street, and in local business affairs he became an authority. He was a close personal friend of John B Jervis, the noted civil engineer, and of many other influential men of his day. He was largely instrumental in founding the Rome Brass and Copper Company and was its president from soon after the organization till his death. Mainly through his able management it was placed upon a sound business basis. He was also one of the founders of the Champaign (Ill.) Water Works Company, at one time its president, and for several years controlled its financial affairs.
Dr. Scudder was married, first, on December 24, 1845, to Miss Harriet Fidelia CHASE, daughter of his clinical preceptor, Dr. Durfee Chase, of Palmyra, N. Y.. After her death he married, in October, 1856, Miss Elizabeth CRAMPTON, who survives him. His children were:
Mrs. A. B. Southwick,
Dr. Nelson C. Scudder,
and Miss Elizabeth C., of Rome ;
Fred B. Scudder, of New York ;
and Samuel, deceased.
Dr. Nelson C. Scudder was born August 14, 1853, was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1879, and is now a practicing physician in Rome.

J. ARTHUR SMITH, V. S.

J. ARTHUR SMITH, V. S., was born and reared in the town of Westmoreland, Oneida county. He now owns and occupies the homestead of both his father and grand-father. They came to the town in 1842 and purchased the farm lying southwest of Rome in the most fertile and attractive part of the county. They came from Chester, England, and were from the most intelligent and thrifty stock of that country. James Smith, father of the subject of this sketch, was also a veterinary surgeon before coming to this country, having attained an advanced standing in the profession. He continued in the practice during his life in Westmoreland and was counted one of the most successful in Oneida county. He was well known throughout a wide region of territory. Besides this he was among the foremost farmers of the State. He was industrious, prudent and prosperous, and moreover an upright, respected citizen. His ideas of thrift in farming, which had been a part of his education in England, were applied in the same line here, with the result that he made and developed one of the finest and most valuable farm properties to be found among the many attractive farm realties in the town. He was also an extensive dealer in horses, and invested considerable money in the business. He married Mary Ann GYPSON, of Westmoreland, by whom he had three sons, Willard R., Charles G., and James Arthur.
Willard R. is a resident of Buffalo, N. Y.,
and Charles G. is in business in Chicago.
Dr. James Smith, the father, died in 1891; Mrs. Smith, his wife, is still living.

Dr. J. Arthur Smith was born on this homestead May 11, 1861, where he has spent the greater part of his life. He received the rudiments of his education at the district school in Westmoreland and afterwards took a course at the old Whitestown Seminary. Subsequently he attended the New York Veterinary College with the view to continuing the profession in which both his father and grandfather had achieved success. He has therefore grown up in the practice, and this long experience and thorough knowledge of the science has given him the foundation for his unusual success. But in addition to this he carries on the farm with quite as much or more ability as those who devote themselves to that one industry.
Dr. Smith is an earnest Republican in politics and always takes a deep interest in the party's behalf.

ALBERT SOPER

ALBERT SOPER was the eldest son of Philander and Jerusha Martin Soper, and was born in Rome, in February, 1812. His father had settled in Rome about 1809, having emigrated from Long Island. His mother had emigrated from Rhode Island about the same year.
Albert grew to manhood on the farm of his father, attending the common school winters, and finishing his education at Mr. Grosvenor's Academy. At the age of eighteen he learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed for several years. A little later he began contracting, and while thus employed built the first planing mill erected in Rome. His earliest partner was Adam Van Patten, who was succeeded by William Simmons, an extensive lumber yard having been added to the business.
The financial storm of 1857 forced the firm to assign, and Mr. Soper continued as manager of the business for the assignee till 1865, when he removed to Chicago, when with characteristic energy he threw himself into the flood of lumber development and was soon on top. The firm name was Park & Soper until 1878, when Mr. Park sold his interest to James Soper, the younger brother of Albert, and the business was continued under the title of Soper Bros. & Co. until 1884, when it was consolidated with the Soper & Pond Co., and incorporated as the Soper Lumber Co., with Albert Soper as president, with mills in Michigan and extensive yards in Chicago. The business grew to large proportions, their trade reaching from Massachusetts to Colorado.
Mr. Soper died in May. 1890. He was preeminently a business man, devoting his entire attention to development of his interests, with an energy that was tireless. He was an excellent citizen, with correct and comprehensive views on law and life, and established a most honorable name in the business world. He took an ardent interest in politics, and was a staunch Whig in his earlier years, and a Republican when the latter party was organized. He never sought nor held a political office.
Mr. Soper was for many years a director of the Hide and Leather National Bank of Chicago.
In 1836 he was married to Esther FARQUHARSON, who was a native of Cherry Valley, in New York State. Mrs. Soper survived her husband nearly four years. Seven children were born to them, of whom two died in early youth. Of the remainder Arthur W., the eldest, now resides in New York city; Mary Adelaide, wife of George Merrill, died in Chicago in 1890; Alexander C., James P., and Etta A. (wife of William Penn Smith), now reside in Chicago.

ARTHUR W. SOPER

ARTHUR W. SOPER, eldest son of Albert and Esther Soper, was born in Rome, N. Y., July 16, 1838. He was educated at Rome Academy under Prof. Frank Moore, and at the age of seventeen, began work in his father's office and lumber yard. In 1858 he entered the railway service, beginning as clerk in the Rome freight office. At the end of three years, he was appointed Superintendent's clerk. This position he held two years, when he was made a passenger conductor, and the following year appointed Assistant Superintendent of the R. W. & O. Ry., under Addison Day. Some four years later, Mr. Day was called to St. Louis as Superintendent of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Ry., and soon after his arrival there, offered Mr. Soper the office of Assistant Superintendent, which he accepted, leaving Rome in February, 1871. At the end of a year, Mr. Day resigned, because of ill health, and Mr. Soper was made General Superintendent, and afterwards for several years, General Manager.
Under his efficient and energetic management, the road was greatly prospered, and became most important and helpful to the business of St. Louis. After some ten years service, Mr. Soper resigned his position as General Manager, to engage in business in New York City. No man ever had more sincere friends and admirers among the leading citizens and business men of St. Louis, than Mr. Soper, as was evidenced by their resolutions accompanying a handsome service of silver, which they presented to him upon his retiring from active railway service.
Upon his arrival in New York, he took up, with characteristic energy, the management. of several important business interests in connection with railroads, which prospered and grew rapidly to large proportions.
About 1889, he became President of the Safety Car Heating & Lighting Co. of New York, which he has managed with remarkable success.
In April, 1871, he married Hettie, daughter of Samuel WARDWELL, of Rome, N. Y. They have one child, Mary Theresa.
Mr. Soper was endowed with unusual force of character, supported by extraordinary mental and physical vigor. With these are united personal qualities which endear him to his friends, who are a host in number. Such a man was bound to be successful in any career he might have chosen. In politics he has always been a stalwart Republican, but has never sought or held office. Mr. Soper's two brothers, Alexander C. and James P., are the head and front of the Soper Lumber Co. of Chicago, and that sagacity and energy which they share with the subject of this sketch, have made their firm in its department one of the foremost representative houses of the West.

JOHN STRYKER

In the early history of New Amsterdam the name of Stryker appears somewhat conspicuously in connection with numerous offices of trust and responsibility. It is found in the lists of high sheriffs, and in government councils as well as in business and commercial enterprises, and invariably commanded wide respect and confidence. Originally of Holland Dutch etymology, Van Strycker, it came in time to be Americanized and contracted into Stryker, the form under which several generations have flourished and prospered. Very early in the settlement of New Amsterdam Jan and Jacobus Gerritson Strycker, Dutch burghers, obtained a grant of land on Manhattan Island, and from them descends the families bearing the name in this country at the present time. The line from Jan (1) is:
Pieter Strycker (2),
Jan Strycker ,(3),
Pieter Strycker (4),
John Stryker (5),
Daniel Perrine Stryker (6),
and John Stryker (7), the subject of this memoir.
October 25, 1673, Jan Strycker (3) was chosen captain of a company that was raised in the town of Midwout (Flushing), to respond to the call for troops issued by Governor Stuyvesant to resist the encroachments of the British. In 1773 John Stryker (5) was commissioned captain of a troop of light horse cavalry in Somerset county, N. J., and when the Revolutionary war broke out he offered his services to his native State. He fought with his company all through the Revolution. In 1863 his lineal descendant, John Stryker, jr., became a captain of New York State volunteers in the war of the Rebellion. Daniel Perrine Stryker (6), a merchant in New York city, married Harriet PIERSON and had three sons and two daughters, of whom the last two and one son died young. Those who attained maturity were John (7) and Rev. Isaac Pierson Stryker. The latter is a retired Presbyterian clergyman residing in New Jersey and the father of Melancthon Woolsey Stryker, president of Hamilton College.
Hon. John Stryker (7) was born in Orange, N. J., December 7, 1808. His father died a few years later and at the age of seven his mother brought him to Whitesboro, Oneida county, N. Y., where he received his education in the local academy. He began active life as a clerk for William G. Tracy, a leading merchant of Whitesboro, but soon developed decided inclinations for a professional career. He read law with Thomas R. Gold and later in the office of Storrs & White, and was admitted to the Oneida Common Pleas in 1829, before he had reached his majority. In the same year he came to Rome, N. Y., and formed a copartnership with Allanson Bennett. Subsequently he was associated in the practice of law with Hons. Henry A. Foster, Calvert Comstock, Charles Tracy, B. J. Beach, George H. Lynch, and others. In 1835 he was elected member of assembly. In 1837 he was appointed surrogate of the county and held that office ten consecutive years, or until the constitution of 1846 made it elective. In 1847 he discontinued the practice of law, in which he had been very successful, and thenceforward devoted his attention to building up railroads and other important enterprises. He was one of the original movers in the Utica and Syracuse railroad project, was the first attorney for the company, was one of its directors until the lines were consolidated, and was largely instrumental in securing its location through Rome and in defeating the attempt to locate it through the southern part of the county. Afterward he was closely identified with many railway lines, including the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana, the Terre Haute and Alton, and others, pushing them to completion and placing the corporations upon a sound working basis. He was engaged extensively in railroad operations until the fall of 1867, when he suffered a stroke of paralysis. He died at his home in Rome on April 30, 1885.

Mr. Stryker was a shrewd business man and investor, one of the foremost railroad financiers of his time, and intimately associated with such noted men as Samuel J. Tilden, Erastus Corning, Dean Richmond, and others in railway projects. His counsel and advice were regarded as reliable, his word was as good as his bond. A man of great business capacity and of unswerving integrity he retained through life the respect and confidence of every one who knew him. He was heavily interested in numerous local corporations and landed investments, and being public spirited and enterprising always took a just pride in the prosperity of the city. He was one of the founders of the Rome Locomotive Works, one of the incorporators and a director of the Merchants Iron Mill, a director in the Rome Iron Works, and one of the originators and for some time president of the Rome Gas Light Company. He was a director in several banks and for many years officiated as president of the old Bank of Rome. He was one of the founders of the Deaf Mute Institute of Rome, and was especially active and influential in securing the Black River Canal and in changing the course of the Erie Canal for the benefit of the city.

In politics Mr. Stryker was a life-long Democrat, and during many years enjoyed a wide and intimate acquaintance among all the noted politicians of the United States, and especially among such men as James K. Polk, Gov. William L. Marcy, Governor Seymour, Governor Bouck, Edwin Croswell, Silas Wright, and other equally prominent statesmen of the country. He was remarkably familiar with political history. His shrewd management as a leading politician was manifest far and near, especially in the county of Oneida, where he practically controlled his party's operations. He was long the center of the famous "Rome Regency," which represented the principal Democratic influence in this section in its time. But he did not seek office, he preferred to manage politics and direct his party's movements, for which he had a natural taste and ability and in which he was eminently successful. He probably attended more district, county, state, and national conventions than any other man of his day in New York. He was a delegate to twelve state and four national conventions and for ten years was a leading member of the Democratic State Committee. In 1867 he ran for Congress against the late A. H. Bailey and was defeated in a Republican stronghold by a very small majority.

Mr. Stryker was a great reader, and was at all times thoroughly posted, and possessed a wonderfully retentive memory, especially, in political affairs. Genial, kind, and generous by nature he was a liberal benefactor to all religious, charitable, and educational objects, and for twenty years was one of the wardens of Zion Episcopal church of Rome. He was the architect of his own fortune and wisely employed it for the advancement of his city. His family homestead, which he erected about 1839, occupies the northeast corner of the historic site of Fort Stanwix and stands wholly or partly on the site of the old blockhouse.
In 1839 Mr Stryker married Miss Frances Elizabeth HUBBARD, daughter of Hon. Thomas Hill Hubbard, of Utica. [Mr. Hubbard was the first surrogate (in 1809) of Madison county, deputy attorney-general of the district comprising the counties of Oneida, Otsego, Chenango, Herkimer, and Lewis in 1816-18, district attorney of Madison county in 1818-21, member of congress six years, and presidential elector in 1812, 1844, and 1852.] She died April 17, 1891, aged seventy five years. Their children were:
John, deceased ;
Phebe, of Rome.
Harriet P., wife of Edward H. BUTLER, a banker, and ex-state treasurer, of Detroit, Mich. ;
Grace, wife of Rev. E. Bayard SMITH, rector of Trinity Episcopal church, of Troy, N. Y. ;
and Thomas Hubbard Stryker, of Rome.

DAVID UTLEY

The Utley family is of English extraction, and for several generations imbibed those sterling habits of thrift and frugality which characterized native New Englanders. David Utley, sr., father of the subject of this memoir, was born in Connecticut, and came from Dutchess county, N. Y., to the town of Western, Oneida county, about the year 1795, guiding himself through the wilderness from Fort Stanwix by the aid of a compass and blazed trees. An ambitious pioneer, though broken in health, he managed to clear a farm and died there when comparatively a young man.

David Utley, son of David, sr., was born of Quaker parentage in Western on February 12, 1802, and spent his youthful life upon the parental acres, attending the district schools as opportunity afforded. He remained a farmer in that town until 1847, and for fifteen consecutive years served his townsmen as supervisor. In this latter capacity he was one of the influential members of the board and retained the confidence and respect of all with whom he came in contact. In 1847 he became a permanent resident of Rome, where he originated and founded the Fort Stanwix (now the Fort Stanwix National) Bank, which commenced business in December of that year on the corner of James and Dominick streets. Mr. Utley was elected its first president, a position he held by re-election until it became a national bank in 1865, when he was chosen to the same office in the reorganized institution, and served in that capacity until his death on June 20, 1882. He was succeeded by his son, Harmon G. Utley, who had entered the bank as teller in 1847 and subsequently became also its vice president. Mr. Utley was one of the ten founders of the Rome Exchange Bank and served as a director of that institution and its successor, the First National Bank, for many years. He was also a director for some time in the City Bank of Oswego and in the Rome & Watertown and Mobile & Ohio Railroad Companies, and was largely instrumental in securing the location of the R., W. & 0. Railroad shops in Rome. He was one of the founders and long a director of the Rome Iron Works and Merchants Iron Mill and for many years a member and vestryman of Zion Episcopal church.

Mr. Utley was widely recognized as an able financier and occupied a prominent position among leading bankers of Central New York. He was closely identified with various measures which owe a large measure of their success to his personal direction or valued counsels. He was shrewd, sagacious, and somewhat prophetic, a man of excellent business ability and sound judgment, and a powerful factor as a banker, and in local financial affairs. Unostentatious, quiet, and mild-mannered, but firm and decided in his opinion, he was a close student of human nature, a good diplomatist, a man of even temperament, and a prosperous and influential citizen. He took a keen interest in the welfare of his city and was always a liberal contributor to charitable and benevolent objects. A life-long Democrat he never sought public office, yet in Western he was pressed forward by his townsmen year after year to the highest elective position within their gift.
Mr. Utley was married, first, to Miss Amy BECKWITH, daughter of Lemuel Beckwith, the first settler in 1789 of the town of Western, Oneida county, where she died leaving four children, of whom George P. and Harmon G. (of Rome) survive. His second wife was Miss Catherine MARSH, of New York city, who died without issue.

DANIEL WARDWELL

The Wardwell family in America descends from a name prominent in the early days of the Massachusetts colony and in Revolutionary times, and numbers among its members many representatives who have been conspicuous in State and Nation. William Wardwell, who was born in England in 1604, immigrated to this country with the Pilgrims and became a member of the first Congregational church of Boston, which was organized in 1633. His son Urial, born in February, 1639, settled in the town of Bristol, R. I., in 1681, and married Grace GIDDINGS, by whom he had a son John, who married Phebe, daughter of Samuel HOWLAND, on October 11, 1741. Samuel Howland was born in Bristol, R. I., May 24, 1686, and on May 6, 1708, was married by Rev. Mr. Sparhawk to Abigail CARY. Mr. Howland's father, Jabez, born in 1649, was a very active and enterprising officer under Captain Church in King Philip's war, and in 1681, after the conquest of Mount Hope, settled in Bristol. He was a son of John Howland, who married Elizabeth, daughter of John CARVER, the first governor of Massachusetts. John Howland and Governor Carver were both members of the immortal band of Pilgrims who came over in the good ship Mayflower and landed on Plymouth Rock on December 22, 1620.
The children of John and Phebe (Howland) Wardwell were:
John, born in June, 1742, married Sally SWAN ;
Nathaniel, born March 29, 1744;
Joseph, born March 21, 1747, married Betsey MAY;
Phebe, born January 23, 1749, married James SMITH ;
Susannah, born January 15, 1751, married Daniel GLADDING;
Mary (Mrs. Sanford MUNROE and afterwards Mrs. Jonah SMITH) and Elizabeth, twins, born January 6, 1753 ;
Samuel, born - April 25, 1755 ;
Tabitha, born November 25, 1757, married Samuel BOSWORTH ;
Daniel, born March 29, 1760, died at sea ;
Allen Cary, born June 5, 1752 ; and Allen, born March 1, 1765, married Abigail SMITH.
Of this large family Joseph, the third, served in the General Assembly of Rhode Island in 1803. An ardent patriot during the Revolution his name appears in a list of subscribers to a fund raised by the people of Bristol, R. I., for the relief of the sufferers in Boston caused by the enforcement of the Boston port bill. Samuel, the eighth, was a member of the Rhode Island Assembly in 1791-93, 1793-97, 1809, and 1810, or nine years in all. Subsequent assemblymen bearing the name were Nathaniel in 1821-23, Hezekiah C. in 1849-51, and William T. C. in 1870-71 and 1875. The latter was State senator in 1872.

Samuel Wardwell, above mentioned, father of Judge Daniel Wardwell, enlisted at the age of twenty in the Rhode Island militia and served two years in the Revolutionary war, being taken prisoner by the British and confined in a prison ship in New York. After the war he became prominent in the military service of Rhode Island.
In June, 1794, a charter was granted to the Bristol Train of Artillery, the charter members being Mr. Wardwell, William De Wolfe, Samuel V. Peck, and John Bradford, and at the first election of officers on April 7, 1796, Samuel Wardwell was chosen captain with rank in the militia of lieutenant-colonel. This company, by its charter, was made independent of all regiments ; when in active service it was to be under the command of the governor of the State only. Its members, which, exclusive of officers, " must not exceed sixty-four in number," were exempted from bearing arms or doing military duty in the militia of the State. In 1797 two brass field-pieces, said to have been captured from the British at the surrender of Burgoyne, were presented to the company by the State, " to be fired on all public occasions," and they are still used for the purposes specified.
Col. Samuel Wardwell, under the firm name of Bourne & Wardwell, was also prominently identified with the commerce of Bristol prior to the beginning of this century. The firm owned at one time forty-two vessels and for many years carried on an extensive shipping business. The year Oneida county was formed (1798) Colonel Wardwell purchased in one body 4,000 acres of land in the town of Ellisburg (now Jefferson) then in the county of Oneida. This purchase included the site of the present village of Mannsville. In 1812 he settled at what is known as the " Ridge " in Rome, N. Y., where were then located a grist mill and saw mill. There he purchased 285 acres of land, tore away the old grist mill and erected a new one (on the site of the Rome water works), which stood until 1868. In 1815 he sold forty acres and the business part of the ''Ridge Mills" to David DRIGGS, and the remainder of his land to the grandfather of the late Dr. M. Calvin West.
The children of Col. Samuel and Lydia (Wardwell) Wardwell were:
Nathaniel, born September 20, 1778, married Dolly FALES, and died in Ellisburg, N. Y., November 16, 1857;
Nancy, born September 25, 1780, married John M. BOURNE, and died at Providence, R. I., in 1856 ;
Jonathan, born January 30, 1783, died at sea in 1805;
Sarah, born January 21, 1785, married Thomas PECKHAM;
Lydia, born September 10, 1786, married Allen SMITH;
Samuel, born June 14, 1788, married Hannah MONROE, and died at Mannsville, N. Y., in 1857 ;
Mary, born November 28, 1789, married Joseph C. WOOD, and died at Ellisburg, N. Y., in June, 1819 ;
Daniel the subject of this memoir, hereafter mentioned ;
Henry, born July 9, 1792, was made lieutenant on board the privateer " Yankee " in October, 1814, in the war of 1812-15, and died at Havana, Cuba, in August, 1816 ;
Abby, 1st, born September 17, 1793, died in infancy ;
Abby, 2d, born December 31, 1794, married Henry WRIGHT ;
and three who died in infancy.

Hon. Daniel Wardwell was born in Bristol, R. I., May 28, 1791, was graduated from Brown University in his native State in 1811, and in 1812 removed with his father to Rome, Oneida county, where he entered the law office of Judge Joshua Hathaway, one of the pioneer lawyers of Fort Stanwix. In 1813 Mr. Wardwell became a student in the office of Gold & Sill, of Whitesboro ; in 1814 he was admitted to the Court of Common Pleas in Jefferson county; and in January, 1815, he was admitted to the Supreme Court as attorney. In those years he was residing in Adams and Ellisburg, looking after the large landed interests and other property of his father in that part of Jefferson county. In 1816 he became a resident of Rome village, where he practiced his profession during that year and 1817. He then returned to Jefferson county and remained until 1821, when, in January, he was admitted to the Supreme Court as counselor. Early in 1821 he opened a law office in Utica and in August was admitted as counselor to the U. S. District Court. In 1822 he took up his permanent residence in Mannsville, N. Y., where he and his brother-in-law, Major H. B. MANN, erected a large cotton factory, which was totally destroyed by fire in 1827, when just ready to begin operation. Its destruction entailed a loss to the owners of $10,000.

In 1824 Mr. Wardwell was appointed by Governor Yates side judge of Jefferson county, where he was elected to the Assembly in 1825, 1826, and 1827. In 1826 he caused considerable commotion in Albany, New York, and the river counties by introducing and advocating in the Assembly a resolution favoring the removal of the State capital to Utica or some other central point. In 1828 there was great political and anti-Masonic excitement in this State. Gen. Andrew Jacksen was running for president, De Witt Clinton for governor, and Judge Daniel Wardwell for State senator�all strong Masons high in the order. It was one of the anti-Masonic years. The State was then divided into eight districts, with four senators from each district, and one senator was elected in each district every year. The Fifth district then comprised the counties of Oneida, Jefferson, Herkimer, Lewis, Madison, and Oswego. The term of Charles Dayan, of Lewis county, as senator, expired, and in 1828 Judge Daniel Wardwell and William H. Maynard, of Utica, were opposing nominees. Mr. Maynard was one of the brightest legal luminaries of the Oneida county bar; the anti-Masons endorsed him ; and as Judge Wardwell was never afraid to " wear his principles on his coat sleeve," he was defeated by about 300. In return the Jefferson county congressional district elected him to Congress for three successive terms, beginning in 1830. He had as his colleague during his entire congressional service his first fellow law student. Hon. Samuel BEARDSLEY, with whom he retained a warm personal and political friendship for many years, especially during Andrew Jackson's stormy administration, of which they were staunch supporters, both being warm personal friends of the president. Judge Wardwell was elected for the fourth time from Jefferson county in 1837, and that year was a member of the committee on ways and means. In 1860 he removed to Rome, where he died; universally respected, in March, 1878.

In politics Judge Wardwell was a staunch Democrat of the Jacksonian school until the division of the Democracy in 1848, when he affiliated with the " Free Soil " wing. In 1856 he was a delegate to the Pittsburg convention which nominated John C. Fremont for president, and ever after was as firm a Republican as he had been a Democrat in the palmy days of "Old Hickory." Judge Wardwell was not a legal advocate, nor did he engage to any extent in the argument of causes in courts ; but he was a good, sound lawyer and a safe counselor, one whose judgment and legal advice were sought after by a large clientage and always relied upon as entirely safe to follow. He was widely known and esteemed, not only for his profound knowledge of the law, but also for his many attributes of head and heart. His integrity was never questioned. As a legislator he always labored conscientiously and unceasingly for the interests of his constituents and fully merited the trust and confidence which he received at their hands. He was kind, generous, and indulgent to the poor, a friend whose advice and counsel were often sought, and a man upon whom was placed the utmost reliance.

Judge Wardwell was married at Whitesboro, N. Y., on July 20, 1815, by the Rev. John Frost, to Miss Hetty MANN, daughter of Hon. Newton Mann (whose sketch appears in this work). She was born at Attleboro, Mass., December 16, 1796, and died at Mannsville, N. Y., September 28, 1858. Their children were:
Abby Mann, born April 11, 1817, married Robert B. DOXTATER, and died in 1884 (Mr. Doxtater was the first superintendent of the Rome and Watertown railroad and held that position until his election as president of the Michigan Southern railroad ; while riding over that line, attending to his duties, he was stricken with apoplexy, and died suddenly at La Porte, Ind., May 15, 1853, aged thirty-nine years, at the early dawn of a bright and auspicious future ;
Henry, born July 11, 1819, deceased ;
Newton Mann, born February 12, 1821, married, first, Elizabeth JONES, deceased, and second, Mrs. Antoinette (WAITE) Sutton ;
Samuel, born November 14, 1822, admitted to the bar in 1847, married Mary A. STILLMAN in 1848, and now cashier of the Farmers National Bank of Rome.
Julia Doolittle, born January 13. 1828, died June 11, 1881 ;
Charles Carroll, born December 4, 1829, died May 7, 1859 ;
William Wilberforce, born January 15, 1834, married in January, 1860, Elizabeth W. SMITH, and now a leading hardware merchant in Rome ;
John Howland, born December 29, 1837, married Cornelia COMSTOCK ;
and Edward Herbert, born April 28, 1841 married, first, Josephine HITCHCOCK, of Utica, deceased, and second her sister Harriet.

October 4, 1859, Judge Wardwell married for his second wife, at Adams, N. Y., Letitia W. Smith, who survives him and resides in Rome.

M. CALVIN WEST, M. D.

The West family, of whom the subject of this memoir was a worthy representative, is of English origin, and for generations imbibed the noble characteristics of their mother country. John West, Sr. , born in Shaftsbury, Vt., April 25, 1770, settled in the town of Western, Oneida county, N. Y., in 1790, and there his son, John, jr., was born December 26, 1796. In 1816 the family moved to Rome, N. Y., where the pioneer John died July 28, 1834. His wife, Harriet STEPHENS, whom he married January 26, 1792, was born in Connecticut on November 11, 1768, and died August 21, 1818.
They had ten children, four sons and six daughters, of whom John. jr., was the fourth child and oldest son. November 26, 1821, John West, jr., married Mary J., daughter of John DRIGGS, who was born in Stafford, Conn., January 22, 1800, and who died January 30, 1882. Mr. Driggs came to Rome in 1804 and engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods, having a satinet factory at Ridge Mills, and also operated grain and lumber mills until his death in 1855. Mr. West died February 6, 1860.

Dr. M. Calvin West, youngest son of John jr., and Mary (Driggs) West, was born in Rome on the 11th of September, 1884, and obtained his education in the district schools and Rome Academy, graduating from the latter institution at the age of eighteen. For a few years thereafter he assisted his father in agricultural pursuits, but his inclinations soon took a professional turn. In 1857 he went to Hagerstown, Ind., and read medicine in the office of his paternal uncle, Dr. Calvin West. In 1860 he was graduated with the degree of M. D. from the Medical Department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and during the following year continued his scientific and clinical studies with his uncle at Hagerstown. In the fall of 1861 he began the active practice of his profession in Floyd, Oneida county, where he remained until 1863, when he settled permanently in Rome. [Dr. Calvin West, born in Western. Oneida county, August 9, 1806, became a prominent physician in Indiana and a surgeon in the Union army in the war of the Rebellion, and died at Hagerstown on August 25, 1863.]
While in Indiana he was a prominent member and for a time president of the Wayne County Medical Society, and prepared and read before that body a practical paper on Hypodermic Injection, which was published in the Cincinnati Lancet. He was an active member of the Oneida County Medical Society, a delegate to the New York State Medical Society, a member of the New York State Medical Association, and a permanent member of the American Medical Association. In 1865 and 1866 he was one of the faculty of Rome Academy and delivered a series of lectures on physiology and kindred subjects.

Dr. West was a physician of high standing and rare ability, and enjoyed an extensive practice. He possessed a cheerful and restful personality, an underlying current of humor, a keen discrimination, a large fund of information, and a sense of justice which carried the weight of conviction. Tenacious of friendship and endowed with great kindness of heart, he won universal respect and the confidence of all with whom he came in contact ; careful, shrewd, and wise in business affairs he was generally successful in everything he attempted. He early won professional recognition from his associates and esteem from all classes of citizens and held them to the end. His advice and counsel were often sought. He was thoroughly identified with the prosperity and advancement of the city of Rome and always took a lively interest in public affairs. In July, 1881, he was made a member by Mayor Comstock of the first board of fire commissioners and in October following he was elected a commissioner of the Rome free schools, and held each position three years, being president of the board of education a part of the time. He was physician to the county poor house during the term of Superintendent Theodore S. Comstock, was long a director in the Central National Bank, and in January, 1891, became president of the Rome and Carthage Railroad Company, a position he held at the time of his death, which occurred in Rome on October 20, 1891. He was also a member of Rome Lodge, No. 266, I. O. 0. F., and trustee of the First M. E. church of this city.

Dr. West was married November 6, 1861, to Miss Felicia H. WILLIAMS, daughter of Jesse Williams, the father of the cheese factory system in America and the proprietor of the first cheese factory in Oneida county. Their children were;
Olive D., Jessie J., Dr. Calvin B., F. May and Florence Mary.
Dr. Calvin B. West, born in Rome, March 29, 1867, was graduated from the Rome Academy in 1885 and from Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass., in 1886, spent three years in Amherst College, and was graduated with the degree of M. D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York city in 1893. After filling the position of house physician and surgeon to the Paterson General Hospital one year he came to Rome in August, 1894, and began the active practice of his profession.

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