Chen Co Famous People, Part 4 John Tracy

Famous People Chenango Co. Has Given to the World

Mrs. Archie D. Gibbs

The Norwich Sun, February 3, 1921

Part 4 - John Tracy

John Tracy

1783-1864

Lieutenant Governor John Tracy, who was greatly honored and respected not only in his home county, but in the councils of the state, came to the town of Columbus at an early age from Norwich, Conn.  He moved to Oxford in 1805 to become deputy county clerk.  In Oxford he began the study of law, and soon became a successful practitioner and on account of his ability, integrity and sound judgment was persuaded to enter public life.  In 1815 he became surrogate of the county and held office for four years.  He later was chosen as member of assembly and held other county offices.  In 1832 he was elected lieutenant governor, with William L. Marcy as governor, and with Mr. Marcy was re-elected in 1834 and 1836.  He was elected a delegate to the convention for revising the constitution of the state and was chosen by the convention as its presiding officer.  He later returned to private life in Oxford, where he died in 1864.

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Obituary

Chenango Telegraph, June 22, 1864

TRACY:  In Oxford [Chenango Co., NY], on Saturday morning, the 18th inst., the Hon. John Tracy.

He had been in feeble health for some months, but the immediate occasion of his death was a shock of paralysis during the week previous.

Mr. Tracy was born in Norwich, Connecticut, on Oct. 26, 1783.  He removed with his father to Columbus in this county [Chenango Co., NY] about the year 1800, and in 1805 he went to Oxford, to be Deputy Clerk under his kinsman, Uri Tracy, the County Clerk, and to study law with Stephen O. Runyan, Esq.  On his admission as an attorney of the Supreme Court in 1808, he commenced and continued the successful practice of the law in the village of Oxford.  He was appointed an Examiner and Master in Chancery.  In 1821 he received the appointment of Surrogate, and in 1823 that of First judge of the court of Common Pleas, which offices he held until he resigned them in 1838.  In the years 1821 and 1822 he was a member of the House of Assembly in association with Wm. Mason and Edmund G. Per Lee, and again in 1826 with Robert Monell and Tilly Lynde as his colleagues.  In 1830 he was appointed by the Legislature a Regent of the University of the State of New York, a trust which he held until 1839.  In 1831 he was, upon the nomination of the Governor, appointed by the Senate, Circuit Judge of the Sixth District in place of the Hon. Samuel Nelson, promoted to be Justice of the Supreme Court. He declined the appointment and it was conferred upon Robert Monell, Esq.  In 1832 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of the State upon the ticket with William L. Marcy as Governor and with him was reelected in 1834 and in 1836.  They were both renominated for a fourth term in 1838 and both defeated.  In 1840 he was an unsuccessful candidate of Congress from this District against the Hon. John C. Clark.  In 1846 he was elected from this County, with the late Col. Elisha B. Smith, a delegate to the Convention for revising the constitution of the State and was chosen President of that distinguished body. For fifteen years he was the commissioned Post Master of his village.

Politically Gov. Tracy was a firm adherent of the old Republican and Jackson parties.  In 1818 when the Southern oligarchy sought to coerce the National Democracy into the extension and establishment of Slavery, his sympathies and conviction induced him to warmly support Mr. Van Buren with his platform of Free Soil and Free Men.  Since then he has wholly retired from public affairs and his participation in partisan politics has been passive and nominal.

The chief characteristics of Gov Tracy as a public man were caution, patience and integrity.  He was a man of method and system and possessed the now obsolete virtues of punctuality and patience.  He investigated one fully.  His understanding was clear, his judgment strong, and his decisions marked by undeviating honesty and purpose.  In his long career suspicion never breathed a taint on his character, nor was the smell of corruption found in his garments.  The tongue of scandal that rarely spares the prosperous and the powerful was silent over him.  In private life he was equally pure.  He was courteous and estimable as a man.  His rate as a citizen attached as a friend, kind and considerate as a neighbor, exact in his deal, truthful in his work, and faithful in his trusts.

He was buried on Monday afternoon from the Episcopal Church in Oxford of which he was an exemplary member.  The places of business and public schools were closed.  A large assemblage, including many of the elder and prominent citizens of this and the neighboring towns, attended to pay a tribute of honor to his memory.  All felt that in his departure an ancient landmark, one of the best and foremost men of the county, had been withdrawn from sight.