Chenango & Unadilla Valleys Fifty Years Ago

The Chenango and Unadilla Valleys Fifty Years Ago

S.S. Randall

Chenango Telegraph, April 24, 1872

 

Oxford

 

Continued from posting of August 31, 2017

 

Samuel Miles Hopkins was the first lawyer of the infant settlement.  He opened an office within two years after the advent of Judge Hovey, in 1791, and write the draft of this first legal document on the head of a barrel under a roof of poles, and in a rain storm from which he was only partially protected by a broad-brimmed hat.

 

Nathaniel Locke represented the county in the Legislature on 1810, and was an estimable and enterprising citizen.

 

David Prentice succeed to the Principalship of the Oxford Academy, about the year 1821, and remained in charge of the institution for several years.  He was an excellent man, and thoroughly versed in Scholastic lore.  Among the pupils of the Academy, during his Principalship--many of them boarders in his own amiable family--were John W. Allen, formerly member of Congress, and the first mayor of Cleveland, Ohio; John Clapp of Binghamton; Daniel H. Marsh, of Oswego; William W. Dean, of New York; ex-Governor Horatio Seymour then of Onondaga county; Ward Hunt, of Utica; ex-Judge of the Court of Appeals, William M. Fenton; ex-Lieutenant Governor of Michigan, then of Norwich, Joseph G. Marten; ex-Judge of the Supreme Court of Buffalo, Henry W. Rogers of Buffalo; Henry R. Mygatt, and Charles Oscar Tracy, of Oxford; William M. Patterson, of Greene; Nelson K. Wheeler, of Delaware; Erasmus D. Robinson and William Whitney, of Binghamton; George Clark, of Otsego; Reuben Tower, of Oneida; Nelson B. Hale, of Norwich; and myself.  Among the earlier graduates of the institution were Richard Morris, of Otsego; Richard W. Juliand, of Bainbridge; Samuel Miles Tracy, of Ohio; Charles F.T. Locke, of Oxford; Henry Stephens, of Cortland; Gurdon Hewitt, of Owego; Lyman Balcom, of Stuben; and Roswell Judson, ex-first judge and Surrogate of Chenango. After the retirement of Mr. Prentice, Daniel H. Marsh occupied the position of Principal for a brief period, and was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Edward Andrews, formerly of Norwich, William D. Beattie, and Merrit G. McKown, when the institution was transferred in 1854, to its present site, on the east side of Fort Hill square, in a new and tasteful building erected for the purpose.

 

On the occasion of the sixteenth [sic*] anniversary of its foundation, and in view of the completion of the new edifice, a jubilee celebration was held at the Academy and Presbyterian church, on the 1st and 2d of August, 1854, by its former and present teachers, students, trustees and patrons.  Addresses were delivered on the evening of the first by Henry R. Mygatt, and Henry W. Rogers, of Buffalo; a dedicatory sermon preached by the Rev. George Richards, of Boston, formerly a student in the Institution and an ode, written b y the Rev. Daniel Washburn sung.  On the second in the large area in front of the Academy, an ode, written by Miss Lucy A. Balcom, was sung; a historical discourse delivered by William H. Hyde, an oration pronounced by the Hon. Ward Hunt, of Utica, a student of 1822; a poem read by the Rev. Roswell Park, DD, President of Racine college, Wisconsin, a student in 1825; another ode, written by Dr. Washburn sung, when the exercises at the Academy were closed.  A procession was then formed, and marched to an arbor on Washington Square, where a sumptuous dinner was partaken by nearly five hundred guests.  Appropriate addresses and speeches were made by Judge Rogers, who presided, Henry Stephens, of Cortland, a student of 1807, Lieut. Gov. Tracy, Henry Van Der Lyn, Esq, the Rev. Dr. Edward Andrews, and Senator Daniel S. Dickinson, of Binghamton, Judge Charles Mason, of Hamilton, Daniel H. Marsh, of Oswego, a student in 1821, William Stuart, Esq., and Edward Tompkins, of Binghamton, the latter of whom read a facetious but will written poem, descriptive of several of the more prominent graduates of the institution.  The exercises here concluded with a brief speech from Merit G. McKoon, the Principal of the Academy, in response to a complimentary sentiment.  Letters expressive of regret for inability to attend on this festive occasion, were read by Mr. Mygatt, from John L. Newcomb, Esq., of Syracuse, David Prentice, L.L.D., of Geneva, former Principal of the Institution, the Hon. John W. Allen, of Ohio, John Clapp, Esq., of Binghamton, the Rev. George R.H. Shumway, of Wayne county, Gov. Horatio Seymour, of Utica, A.R. Corbin and S.S. Randall, of New York, former pupils.

*The school was established in 1794.  Therefore this was the celebration of its 60th anniversary.

 

To be continued