Chenango Telegraph, Norwich, NY, January 14, 1875
The Past & Present of Norwich
by S.S. Randall
The "Worthies" of Norwich
Among the most prominent reading and influential of those men who fifty years ago, in the prime or Meridian of their usefulness and vigor, directed the political, social, moral and religious counsels of Norwich were Obadiah German, Casper M. Rouse, Edmund G. Per Lee and his brother Abraham, Thompson Mead, James Birdsall, Lot Clark, John F. Hubbard, David Buttolph, Joseph S. Fenton, Henry Mitchell, Jonathan Johnson, Freeman Enos, Jarvis K. and Samuel Pike, Dr Harvey Harris, Charles York, Benjamin Chapman, Perez, John and Charles Randall, Abial Cook, Bela Farr, John Clapp, Cyrus Strong, Elisha Smith, Peter B. Guernsey and Edward Andrews. These men, most of whom have long since gone to their rest in a green old age, leaving a few only of their contemporaries among us, as honored and revered monuments of the past, were half a century since, to their fellow citizens what your Hales, Thompsons, Beechers, Prindles, Folletts, Newtons, Teffts, Berrys, Johnsons, Rays, Browns, Walters, Chapman, Riders, Slaters, Hughsons, Per Lees, Scovilles, Youngs, Mitchells and many others that might be named are now [in 1875].
Gen. German belonged to the "old regime" of great and distinguished men - to the class of the Canton, Spencers, Livingstons, Suydams and Jays, of the olden time. He was a power in the State - exerting a controlling influence in the legislature - elevated to the Speaker's chair and deemed worthy to represent the State in the United States Senate. Dignified and courteous in his manners - of a stately and commanding presence - aristocratic in all his principles and ideas - he towered among his fellow men, as "an eagle in his pride of place." His intellectual abilities though not of the highest order, were such as to rank him among the "men of mark" by whom he was for so many years surrounded in the political councils of the State and Nation. During a period of extraordinary political excitement prior to and pending the war of 1812 with Great Britain he ranked among the leading and most trusted Statesmen at the head of public affairs. His memory and the recollection of his eminent services in the Legislative halls and tribunals of justice, should be faithfully preserved by the citizens of the town from whence he emerged into civic greatness and where in a good old age, in the order of Christianity he sank to rest.
Of Judge Rouse it is quite needful to speak, as tradition, handed down from generation to generation, has rendered his personal characteristics familiar. Though repeatedly honored with high stations on the bench and in the Legislative halls, and occupying an influential position in the town, village, and county of his residence he could scarcely be ranked among its greatest men. His personal, social moral and religious character was unexceptionable; his peculiarities and eccentricities harmed no one but himself, and it is due to truth to say that many of these were grossly exaggerated by the careless and reckless humor of his jovial contemporaries.
Edmund G. Per Lee: and Abraham Per Lee were residents of the same section of the town as their distinguished fellow citizen, Gen. German. the former, for many years worthily and ably represented the county in the lower branch of the State Legislature. He was a gentleman of high literary culture - of dignified appearance and manners - and possessed of great personal popularity and political influence. His brother Abraham, though never emerging or aspiring to emerge from the shades of private life, was equally respected and beloved. The family escutcheon has recently received additional brilliancy in one of its descendants who nobly sustained his country's flag during the late civil war.
Gen. Mead was also a resident of North Norwich, and although not a man of superior talents or marked abilities, long enjoyed the esteem and confidence of his fellow citizens generally. In his early youth he led into the field a gallant regiment of volunteers against the British in the well contested field of Chippewa, side by side with the youthful Scott in his first passage of arms and was subsequently repeatedly appointed and elected sheriff of the county.
James Birdsall was one of the most highly polished and highly cultured citizens of the town. Gentlemanly in appearance - with a flowing and all comprehending courtesy - an intellect equally adapted to grasp the most subtle and complicated mysteries of finance and to "govern men and guide the State" amid the noisy and turbulent warfare of politics, - his personal influence over those who came in contact with him was unequaled. He represented the district in Congress, and the county in the State Legislature with signal ability, and as Cashier and President of the Bank of Chenango ably and skillfully conducted that institution through some of its most formidable and threatening embarrassments. He possessed all the essential elements of intellectual greatness and under more favorable auspices could not have failed to take rank among the leading statesmen and financiers of the country. Perhaps no citizen of Norwich ever did more for the promotion of social amenities and graces of the circle in which he moved or contributed in a greater extent to its social enjoyment. Owing to a series of pecuniary troubles and ill health he transferred his residence, late in life, to Michigan, where he remained until his death. His wife was the daughter of Judge Stephen Steere, one of the earliest and wealthiest pioneers of Norwich, and his own eldest daughter became the wife of the late Lieu't Governor Fenton of Michigan.
Lot Clark - his uncompromising and formidable political rival - formed a striking companion figure to the polished and willowy Birdsall. No two persons could have been more unlike in all outward characteristics. The one smooth, versatile, gentlemanly, courteous, bland and companionable - the other, ungraceful, unpolished, gnarled, angular, inaccessible, outspoken and unfamiliar to all but a chosen few. But in a direct hand-to-hand intellectual, political or legal melee, the direct, well aimed, well planted blows of the lank, awkward, heavy jointed giant were more than a match for the glittering and polished weapons of his adversary. As a counsellor, Mr. Clark was invaluable - as a strategist in the fields of political warfare or legal combat unsurpassed. The magic gift of eloquence was denied him,, but his fertile brain furnished ample resources for every contingency of the forum or the hustings. He sought not the breath of popularity - possessed none of the sycophant arts of the demagogue - aspired to no official station - resorted to none of the devices of the ambitious office seeker; yet was he implicitly believed in and trusted by the democratic masses of the people. They took him on their broad shoulders and thrust him into the halls of congress, and there he instantly took root and flourished by the side of Henry Clay, William H. Crawford and Martin Van Buren, and became their life-long friend and trusted counsellor and coadjutor. A rough diamond of the mines! Or, rather shall we say a gnarled stout oak of the forest - tossing its broad branches hither and thither in response to the fierce winds and storms of heaven - pervious only to the poisonous worm hidden deep in its roots, and slowly but surely sapping and blighting its majestic heart.
The biography of John F. Hubbard remains yet to be written. contemporary with all these "worthies" herein commemorated, he is yet among us, loved, honored and esteemed. Intimately identified with all the important movements of the past half century - "quorum pars magna fuit" he remains - and long may he continue to remain, to enjoy his well won reputation, surrounded by "honor, obedience and troops of friend's." To the same category belong the names of Benjamin Chapman and Doctor Harvey Harris.
David Buttolph was a learned and astute counsellor in all legal matters - a quiet, modest, retiring citizen - a life-long Christian - an affectionate husband and father. His first law partner was Mr. Birdsall - his last, Charles A. Thorp - one of the best of men, devoted to his profession - and an ornament to the society in which he lived.
Abial Cook was of the suigeneris species. As an eloquent and successful pleader at the County Court and circuit Bar, he had no rival; as a legal scholar he was sadly deficient - relying too confidently on his own resources and disinclined to close application or exhaustive study. As a politician he was uniformly unsuccessful, and consequently universally disgusted with party tactics. In this field he was "everything by turns and nothing long." But it was as an ever-welcome member of the social circle that he shone conspicuously. There in the full abandonment of his fine intellect and genial appreciation of humanity in all its phases, he poured forth spontaneously his conceptions on all subjects discussed - whether pertaining to literature, politics, science, art or the passing events of the day. No party ties could bind him - no critical ipsedixit - no platitudes of orthodox divinity - no consideration of policy or prudence. and thus, he passed through the measure of his days, cordially attached to an interesting family - appreciating far beyond every market standard the value of his possessions - detecting and obsecrating all politicians - and at peace with all the "rest of mankind."
Bela Farr was a genuine philosopher - not certainly of the stoic, nor yet of the epicurean school - rather leaning to the latter - but in the old Greek days of Plato and the Sophists, he would, unquestionably, have been found early and late in the train of Socrates - gravelling all those pretenders to philosophy who ventured to enter the arena against him. Bela was a poor man, with a large and steadily increasing family around him, dependent upon his labors as a scientific optician inventor and watch maker, but no consideration of sordid gain could for a moment detain him from the social converse of that literary coterie which was wont to assemble in those early days of Byron, Shelley, Coleridge and the Waverley Novels, at the County Clerk's office, or Noyes' store, or other places of public resort. There he was sure to find the two Hubbards, Abial Cook, "Perez" and perchance some literary visitor, and there he was sure of "good talk," and of audience "fit though few." There Bathe, Nichol Jarvis, Edie Ochiltree, Rob Roy, The Antiquary, Kenilworth and Ivanhoe were discussed. Byron's nervous satires and misanthropic complaints appreciated, Dryden's "stalwart line" enjoyed, and ancient and modern literature criticized and sifted. What in comparison with this "Nectar of the Gods" were clocks, watches, spectacles and trusses - the drudgery of labor, and the balancing of weekly accounts with the "grocer the baker, and cabinet maker." Like his great prototype, he could immerse himself in profound study and reflection for hours, "taking no note of time" or worldly concerns. Enviable and happy man. His soul was filled, and expanded and grew apace - and now that fifty years have passed, and his mortal existence with them - was it not as well.
But we must defer the residue of our sketches of the "Worthies of Norwich" to another occasion and for the present take our leave of these kindly remembrances of the long ago past.
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