Landmarks of Albany County, New York online

lu 1854 he married Jane Anne Bearcroft, and they have seven children, two sons
and five daughters.

McNamara, John W., son of Hugh and Ellen McNamara, who came to America
from Ireland in 1832, was born in Watervliet, Albany county, January 9, 1839, and



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moved with the family to Albany in 1844. He' was educated in the private schools
of Michael O'SuUivan and the late Thomas Newman and at the State Normal Col-
lege, from which he was graduated in 1858. In 1855 he was selected as an assistant
in the compilation of the State census. He taught school for three years and in 1861
became a law student in the office of Courtney & Cassidy. He finished his legal
studies with L. I). Holstein. On the death of Mr. Holstein in 1864 the business was
continued by Cheever & McNamara until 1868, when the latter formed a copartner-
ship with S. Y. Hawley, which continued until Mr. Hawley's death in 1887. In 1869
Mr. McNamara was elected police justice, vice Hon. S. H. Parsons resigned, and in
1870 was re-elected for a full term of four j-ears. In 1864 he was chosen secretary of
the Albany Railway Company to succeed Mr. Holstein, deceased, and held that posi-
tion until 1880, when he was elected treasurer and general manager, which offices he
still fills. In January, 1881, he became a charter member of the Committee of Thir-
teen. He is first vice-president of the Law and Order League; was long a member
of Mountaineer Co., No 5, of the volunteer Fire Department; was an incorporator
of the Albany Stove Company; was one of the incorporators and a trustee of the
Catholic Union of St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum and a member of the advisory board
of managers of St. Peter's Hospital. In 1863 he married Martha J., daughter of
Rev. Frederic Ramsey, of Lawyerville, N. Y.

Page, Edward N., manager of the Cohoes Rolling Mill, has been associated with
the iron industry since he was ten years of age. He was born in England in 1826,
coming to America in 1848. and to Cohoes in 1862, when he became one of the firm
of Simmons & Page (Jonas Simmons). In 1863 James Morrison bought out Jonas
Simmons's interest, and the firm of Morrison, Cohvell & Page was then formed, and
the business is still continued under the same firm name and management. Mr.
Morrison died June 11, 1893. Mr. Page is a master of the details in iron and steel
making, and is a man of wide experience in the work, having devoted his whole life
to the closest study of all the branches pertaining to America s greatest industry.

Bell, Horace S., son of Horace and Jane (Seaman) Bell, was born at Stuveysant
Falls, Columbia county, February 8, 1845, and received a public school education at
Castleton, N. Y. His mother died in 18.50 and his father in 1858, and in the latter
year he became a clerk in Albany for James R. Hadley, with whom he remained
eight years. In 1866 he purchased of Minor J. Veeder the retail grocery and grain
business at No. 168 South Pearl street, where he has since been located. In the
same year he formed a partnership with William L. Coffin, under the firm name of
Bell & Coffin, and so continued until Mr. Coffin's death on February 25, 1896, when
he succeeded to the business. Mr. Bell is a director in the First National Bank, a
trustee and first vice-president of the Albany City Savings Institution, a director in
the Equal Rights Insurance Company of Albany since its organization in 1882, one
of the organizers and a director of the Albany County Loan Association, and for
several years an elder in the Madison Avenue Reform church. • He was married in
1873 to Mary, daughter of John McHarg of Bethlehem, N. Y., and thev have three
children: Jessie, Horace and Mildred.

Parsons, Francis Marion, of Scotch and German descent, was born in Camillus,
Onondaga county, August 19, 1848. He is a son of David Henry Parsons, a farmer
residing at Weedsport. N. Y. His mother was Emiline Mills, daughter of the late



Samuel and Phoebe Mills, of Coeymans, Albany couuty. Her grandfather, another
Samuel Mills, was a Revolutionary soldier. The grandfather of the subject of this
sketch, Joshua Parsons, came from Scotland and settled in Dutchess county, N. Y.
He later removed to Granby where he was supervisor of the town. In 1866, after a
residence in Granby of seventeen years, the Parsons family removed to Camillus.
Francis M., the subject of this sketch, attended the public schools for some time and
entered the Baldwinsville Academy, meanwhile teaching school in the counties of
Cayuga and Onondaga and working for a time in a Memphis store. While teaching
school he read law with William B. Mills of Weedsport, and in 1871 he was admitted
to the bar at the General Term of the Supreme Court held in Rochester, N. Y. He
opened an office in Weedsport and soon became the leading lawyer in the northern
part of Cayuga county. In 1879 he was elected special county judge on the Repub-
lican ticket and retained the place for three years. In 1886 and 1887 he was elected
and re-elected to the Assembly where he was both years a member of the ways and
means committee. Mr. Parsons has also been a justice of the peace and has acted
as town clerk for the town of Brutus. About January 1, 1894, he was appointed first
confidential clerk to the attorney-general of the State. July 1, 1894, he wjts made
deputy attorney-general of the State and now holds that office. He is a member of
Weedsport Lodges of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, and of the Unconditional
Republican Club of Albany. He is also a tru.stee of the Methodist society. In 1871
he married Hattie Eliza Bibbens of Brutus, N. Y., and they have three children:
Minnie L., Frederick Jay and Eva Hattie. The family residence is at Weedsport,
N. Y

Tucker. Luther Henry, jr., was born in Albany, X. Y., September 9. 1869. He
received his preparatory education at the Albany Academy, after which he entered
Yale University and graduated in the class of T891. While at Yale he was a speaker
in the junior exhibition for the H. J. Ten Eyck Prize. Mr. Tucker was also a speaker
for the De Forest Medal in his senior year, and hence a Townsend prize man. He
was class poet, editor of the Yale Literary Magazine, and a member of the Zeta Psi
fraternity. Immediately after graduation Mr. Tucker sailed for Europe and visited
Ireland, England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Holland and Bel-
gium. He returned in December, 1891, and took a post-graduate course at Yale in
1892 and 1893 (Foote scholarship) in English literature; in June, 1894, he received the
degree of A. M. December 1, 1893, he entered the lirm of Luther Tucker & Son,
since which time he has been an editor of the Cultivator and Country Gentleman.
March 28, 1894, he married Florence Barnard, daughter of the late Stephen P.
Barnard, M. D., of Hudson, N. Y., and Grand Rapids, Mich. They haveone daugh-
ter; Katharine Barnard.

Corliss, Stephen Potter, was born in Albany, N. Y., July 26, 1842, and received his
education there, which was completed about the time of the breaking out of the war
of the Rebellion. He at once enlisted as a private, was promoted through the reg-
ular positions to that of captain, was brevetted major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel
for great gallantry and distinguished bravery at the capture of the Southside Rail-
road, April 2, 1865, and was also voted a medal by the Congress of the United States
for his conduct at this time; spent about three months in Libby Prison in Richmond,
Va., .served upon the staffs of Brig. -Gen. John Ramsey and Major-Gen. Nelson A.



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Miles— with the latter went to Fortress Monroe, Va., to assist in the care of Jefferson
Davis, then a prisoner there; finally upon his own request was discharged from the
United States army, December 16, 186G. Returning to his native city, he was soon
occupied in the pursuits of a mercantile life. March 1, 1866, he entered the employ-
ment of Charles H. Strong, then a wholesale clothier in Albany, N. Y., as a com-
mercial traveler, and covered the territory of Michigan, Ohio and Illinois. In Jan-
uary, 1869, Mr. Strong retired from business and Colonel Corliss was at once engaged
by Messrs. Davis. Craft & Wilson, at this time one of the largest manufacturers of
clothing in our country. He remained through the various changes in this firm untii
July 1, 1887, when he entered the service of Hackett, Carhart & Co., of New York,
whom he now represents. He has from the time he entered the ranks of the com-
mercial travelers been a conspicuous member and foremost in advocating and work-
ing for whatever shall tend to add to their good name and advance their interests as
a class; was a charter member of, and for ten years has been president of the Albany
Commercial Travelers Club; is first vice-president Commercial Travelers Home
Association of America, and also holds the same position in the Commercial Travelers
Mutual Accident Association of the United States; is also a prominent member of
the Masonic order, of the military order of the Loyal Legion, andof the Grand Army
of the Republic, of which he was department commander in 1873 and 1874; also
served up