GOUVERNEUR MUSEUM - Key Persons
B.O. Kinney was a fixture in Gouverneur community. Small children in town knew that if they "went to Mr. Kinney" they would receive the same consideration that adults did. And they might also find a horehound drop or a piece of hard candy slipped into their hands. Many children obtained spending money by collecting bottles and taking them to Kinney's to exchange for a few pennies.
Burt Kinney graduated from the Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary. He worked for a short time at a local furniture factory, pulling lathes at the Van Duzee saw mill. As a very young man he started working for the Dewey and Perrin Drug company then located in the "old Whitney drug store". In those days work began early in the morning often before 7 am with the mopping of the establishment, the icing of the refrigerators and the making of the ice cream, and continued until 10 or 12 o'clock at night.
Burt Kinney was also a talented baseball player, playing shortstop on the Gouverneur team. His interest in golf helped bring about the founding of the Gouverneur Country Club. He loved to fish. He had a camp at Trout Lake where the family spent time in the summer.
He recognized the need for a hospital in the community and when the Van Duzee hospital building was given to the village, he worked many hours to set it up. He served on the hospital board of directors for many years. He served as a village trustee, director of the Gouverneur Savings and Loan and was a life member of the Gouverneur Lodge F & AM. He waited on customers up to six weeks before he died in 1966 at the age of 92.
Kathleen (Kittie) Draper (1877-1962) was one of six children. She was educated in Gouverneur schools. Her father was considered a master in the trade of plumbing and his industry has become legendary among the older people in the village. Kittie married Burt Kinney when she was nineteen. First they lived in an apartment over the old Gouverneur Reading Room. They were among the first residents of Sterling Street and lived there for more than 50 years. They had 2 children, Harold and a daughter, Bessie Frances, who died in childhood.
Emery W. Abbott (1819ยท1909) came to Fowler in 1836 as a boy of 17 to clerk in the store of Justus Rickit at a salary of $50. per year, plus board. In 1839, he married Hannah, the youngest daughter of his employer. He continued in business with Rickit until his death in 1842. Abbott moved to Gouverneur in 1871 and engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods.
Abbott held almost every office of responsibility and trust in the town. For many years, he was the Justice of the peace and represented the town as Supervisor from 1860-64 and the First Assembly district of St. Lawrence County in the State Legislature in 1856 and 1857.
Conger, born in Canandaigua in 1847, was a private in Battery D, 1st N. Y. Light Artillery (Winslow's Battery) and participated in many Civil War Battles, including Appomatox.
Winslow's Battery, 1st New York Artillery, Battery B, was the only artillery in the the Wheatfield, which was part of the Battle of Gettysburg. All other artillery was positioned in the outside areas of The Wheatfield. Conger received a shell wound in the left knee at Bethel Church. His father and three brothers were also in the service; together they participated in 50 battles.
Mr. Conger was a member of the G. A.R. and was repeatedly elected Commander of Barnes Post. Jane Parker, in her book Gouverneur, A History 1805-1890, says that "the Erwin H. Barnes Post established through the indefatigable labors of our townsman, G. S. Conger, who may well be termed the sponsor of the movement." He was Junior Vice Commandant of the Department of NY in 1884. He was also attorney for the Legislative Committee that investigated Expenditures of Armories & Arsenals of the State.
Harvey Smith (1789 - 1864) was born in Pawlet, Vermont. Smith arrived in Gouverneur in 1824 and opened the first "Apothecary" store which operated until 1850. He held many positions of public trust. He was the Town Clerk for most of his adult life. He was elected Justice of the Peace in 1827, holding the position until his death.
James C. Dolan was one of Gouvemeur's most respected attorneys. When James C. Dolan, former St. Lawrence County Judge, died on Oct. 26, 1937, he had served seven years as assistant district attorney, six years as district attorney, 13 years as county judge, and 12 years as the First Judge of the Children's Court.
Ever interested in education Judge Dolan was a member of the Gouverneur board of education for 32 years and served as the board's president for 27 years. The annex at Dean High School, dedicated on October 6, 7, 8, 1937, was named the Judge James C. Dolan annex in honor of the Judge's continued service to education.
James C. Dolan was born in the town of Macomb on Sept, 4. 1870. son of Patrick and Catherine Gallagher Dolan. His father having died earlier, Mr: -- Dolan and his mother lived on the DoIan farm until the late '80s. "It was a rough, stubborn farm that he and his mother left," according to a 1937 Times article. "and the struggle of mother and only child to obtain an education for him is a story of courage. privation and planning seldom equalled... After he graduated from the High school (Gouverneur Union Free school) James went on to St. Lawrence University at Canton in 1892 and was graduated four years later."
James Otis Sheldon was the son of Henry and Martha Thompson Aldus Sheldon and the grandson of Timothy Sheldon. He must have been very proud of his grandfather, Timothy. Timothy had been born in 1788 in Pawtucket, R.I. and came to Gouverneur in 1808. He took up a farm three miles from the Village of Gouverneur on the Richville Road. The farm today is owned and run by the Parent Family. This farm was once owned by Judge Paul Graves, son of Rhoda Fox Graves. James' uncle John is also credited with being one of the very first settlers in the Gouverneur area.
James Otis Sheldon went on to do very well for himself. He was the Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Gouverneur, had been the Postmaster and the organist for the Presbyterian Church. James' sister, Julia Sheldon Neary, was instrumental in the founding of the Gouverneur Reading Room. Her portrait hangs in the Women's Room to commemorate her work.
John W. Rouse, one of eight children, left his home in Truxton, near Tully, in 1916, at age 15, to make a life as a carpenter and builder and to Improve his lot in life. After working for a while for Joseph Lonergan Constructors in Tully and Syracuse, he and a friend formed their own company which John Rouse continued to operate after his friend had dropped out. With headquarters in Gouverneur, the village which John Rouse had adopted as home in 1938, the company was incorporated in 1947 as the John W. Rouse Construction Corp.
Mr. Rouse's construction company grew into a multi-million dollar empire which included Cives Corporation, comprised of four steel fabricating divisions. It also included, Northeast Constructors, Gouverneur, an industrial contractor;
Justice Paul Graves was born in Gouverneur in 1907. His father was Perle Atwell "PA" Graves, administrative clerk to Assemblyman Frank L. Seaker and the first cousin of Frank's wife, Nora. Frank Seaker and PA Graves were partners in the Seaker Graves Motor Company. Paul Graves' mother was Rhoda Fox Graves, who served in both houses of the state legislature for 22 years and held the distinction of being the first woman ever elected a member of the New York State Senate.
Justice Graves was considered by his colleagues in Albany as one of the ablest lawmakers in the state and masterful in politics. While in the senate, he was expert in many fields and was regarded one of the best authorities in matters dealing with dairy legislation and problems affecting farmers. In 1953, he was appointed to the state supreme court. He continued on the supreme court until his death at age 64 in 1972. He was survived by his widow, Jane Anderson Graves and a son Christopher.
Mira Aldrich Dean was a sister of Newton Aldrich. Her husband was a business partner of her brother's. Mira's husband, Orison Dean became a member of the lumbering firm of Weston, Dean and Aldrich in 1866. The business later became the main industry in the Gouverneur area. The firm's business expanded, their holdings increased, and the Dean family also assumed a major role in the development of Gouverneur before the turn of the century. (See The Dean Family)
Newton Aldrich was born June 6, 1830, in Luzerne, Warren County, New York. His father. Seth Aldrich, was a successful farmer and a prominent citizen of Warren County. Newton was reared to farm life and educated in public and private schools of Luzerne and Glens Falls.
In 1852 he began as a merchant in Luzerne and became one of its leading businessmen. At the age of 21 he was elected Town Supervisor which he was until 1862 when he was elected Assemblyman from Warren count, a nomination he refused the next term. In 1858, he was married to Catherine Griffing of Washington County. They had one son, Herbert G. Aldrich.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Lumbering Firm of Weston
Orison Dean became a member of the lumbering firm of Weston, Dean and Aldrich in 1866. The business later became the main industry in the Gouverneur area. His wife, prior to her marriage, was Miss Mira Aldrich, a sister of Newton Aldrich, an associate of Mr. Dean in the lumbering trade. She was very proud that she could trace her ancestry back to the Mayflower. As the firm's business expanded, their holdings increased, and the Dean family assumed a major role in the development of Gouverneur before the turn of the century.
Following their father's death in 1903, Jennie and Cora Dean became important benefactors in Gouverneur and Northern New York. The Memorial Arch in the Gouverneur Village Park was dedicated on August 30, 1905 as part of the Town's Centennial Celebration on top the arch is a bronze eagle that was not part of the original design. It was commissioned by Jennie Dean and mounted in 1906.
Mira, Cora and Jennie Dean were important benefactors in the building of the new High School in Gouverneur with their $58,000 donation. Opening in April of 1915, it is often referred to as Dean Academy. The Dean sisters also funded the Dean Oratorical Contest which still exists, as an annual speaking contest at the high school.
Both Cora and Jennie attended Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary but they were exceedingly generous to St. Lawrence University. In 1926, Jennie Dean gave $50,000 and Cora gave $25,000 toward erection of a St. Lawrence University dormitory, Dean Eaton Hall, in memory of their father. Two years before this, Cora Dean established a book fund at the University's Herring Library known as the Cora Dean Book Fund. The income from the fund is used to purchase books.
The sisters were also benefactors of the First Presbyterian Church in Gouverneur, they built the Manse. Also receiving assistance was the Stephen B. VanDuzee Hospital and the A. Barton Hepburn Hospital in Ogdensburg. Upon Jennie's death she left bequests to the five Gouverneur churches and to Hepburn Hospital.
Paul Graves attended Gouverneur schools and graduated from Storm-King Preparatory School, Cornwall-on-Hudson, attended Colgate University, and received his law degree from Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1935. He worked for the law firm of Rann, Vaughn, Brown and Sturtevant and the firm of Babcock, Hollister, Newbury and Russ in Buffalo, NY.
In June, 1944, he was commissioned a lieutenant JG in the Naval Reserve and ordered to Active duty in the South Pacific. Following his discharge, he returned to Gouverneur, established a law practice, and managed the family farms.
Timothy Sheldon, coming from RI at an early day, 1808-1810 took up a farm three miles from the village on the Richville Road. He built the house now occupied by his son, Gray B. Sheldon in 1823, moving to the village later as advancing years came on. An original character, quaint, humorous, incisive in speech; he could condense in a word the salient characteristics of those he knew by a change in their names, or a title or prefix derived from some peculiarity. He had opinions and expressed them; he was latterly, much interested in reading for information, and he could remember and repeat in new words what attracted him most.
Once he became a convert to O.S. Fowler's system of concrete building and always wanted to construct an octagon house of cement and gravel. Probably he was the only farmer in town who bought a complete set of Appleton's Cyclopedia, at the current price of $80, and he became familiar with much of the information it contained. His younger manhood was marked by a trip to Alabama with a relative after coming to Gouverneur. They went to Olean, NY, built a flat-boat and with their belongings reached their destination by way of the Allegheny, OH and Tennessee Rivers. He was not attracted by what he found in Alabama and he came back to Gouverneur on horseback, riding the entire distance, swimming and fording rivers, the first bridge on the journey home being one near Buffalo. This journey was characteristic of the spirit which actuated the man. He enlisted in the war of 1812 and went to the frontier.
In 1812, James' grandfather, Timothy, enlisted in the War of 1812 and went to the frontier. He returned to Gouverneur after the war. He built a house on the property in 1823. An "original character, quaint, humorous, incisive in speech." Reading was a favorite pastime and he was interested in learning new words. You can imagine him reading to his grandson, James. That is, if he had time... his Grandfather and Grandmother, the former Nancy Bowen, of Pawtucket, R.I. had twelve children. James' father, Henry, had eleven brothers and sisters.
The story of James' grandparents (Timothy and Nancy) speaks to their early role in the settlement of Gouverneur. They came on horseback to Cambray, (Now Gouverneur) with their first child on August 1, 1829. Ann Carey Morris, executrix of her late husband, Gouverneur Morris, gave Nancy Sheldon, a deed of 50 acres, where the house stands. Later, Timothy, purchased more parcels. Using ox teams, he cleared the trees and built a log cabin, predecessor to the house that still stands today. He also had his own blacksmith shop, sawmill and private creamery for manufacturing butter and cream.
After Nancy and Timothy died, the farm went to Sheldon descendants. The last Sheldon who owned the farm was LeRoy Sheldon, who operated the farm until 1935, when he sold it to Perle and Rhoda Fox Graves.