Javan Fox Clark (1852-1938)

                                       Portrait courtesy of the Lucy Bensley Center/Concord Historical Society.

  Possessing a unique first name, Javan Fox Clark was for many years at the forefront of political and business doings in his native village of Springville in Erie County, New York. A local sawmill operator, Clark was a church deacon and board of trustees member and entered politics with his service as superintendent of highways and village assessor. He earns placement here on the site for his time as village president of Springville, which he held for one term. Credit goes out to the Lucy Bensley Center and the Concord Historical Society for their aid in yielding further information on Clark, as well as the photos of both he and his wife shown in this write-up.

  A native of Ashford, Erie County, New York, Javan Fox Clark was born on August 31, 1852, the second of eight children of Frederick (1826-1906) and Corinna (Fox) Clark (1830-1913). He removed to Springville with his family at age 17, and in the early 1870s enrolled at the Griffith Institute in that village, where he excelled in arithmetic. Following graduation, he married on June 3, 1874, to Ann Elizabeth "Libbie" Churchill (1853-1925), and the couple's fifty-one-year union produced two daughters, Jessie (1877-1893) and Jennie Mabel (Clark) Glass (1879-1954). In that same year, Clark was named an overseer of highways for the town of Concord; his first public office.

  In the late 1870s Clark operated a sawmill at Morton's Corners, and in 1882 sold his property to Nicholas Bolender. Prior to its sale, Clark suffered a health scare in 1881 when he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his nose. After the sale of his mill, Clark assisted his father Frederick on the latter's farm, and in the mid-1880s is noted as dealing in "runners for log boats" on Main Street in Springville. In 1901 he was a candidate for highway commissioner for Concord and won the election that November. He served in that capacity until at least 1903 when he garnered the Republican nomination for village assessor. Described as a man "well qualified to estimate the value of property", Clark was one of three assessors elected that November, and in the year following Clark and his wife were gifted a new couch on the occasion of their thirtieth wedding anniversary. A gift from friends, the couch was followed by an ice cream and cake social.

  Javan Fox Clark was reelected as village assessor in November 1905 and continued in that post into 1909. In that year he was elected as superintendent of highways, where he served until 1911. In March 1915 he was elected as village president of Springville, and soon afterward saw a proposition voted on that saw $2000 appropriated for the "purpose of purchasing and installing a new pump in the pump station of the village waterworks."

From the Buffalo Evening News, March 17, 1915.

Libbie Clark (1853-1925), wife of Javan F. Clark. Courtesy of the Lucy Bensley Center.

  Following his term, Javan Clark is mentioned as an employee at the sawmill of L.J. Shuttleworth, and in 1917 watched as his employer's building was destroyed by fire. Also destroyed was the company's planing mill "and all the tools and machinery." No lives were lost in the fire, and through the actions of the Borden Fire Company, adjacent buildings and lumber were saved.

  In June 1924 Clark and his wife Libbie celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, a gathering that was attended by over sixty relatives and friends. The couple was gifted $100 in gold and were serenaded by piano and vocal accompaniment. Libbie Clark died one year later on August 27, 1924, and Javan never remarried following her death. The latter portion of Clark's life was spent devoted to working with the local Free Baptist Church, serving as chairman of its board of trustees. He was a church deacon for over thirty years and had first joined that church during his youth.

  Javan Fox Clark died in Springville on June 18, 1938, at age 86. He was survived by his daughter Jennie and was interred alongside his wife and daughter Jessie at the Maplewood Cemetery in Springville.

From the Springville Journal, June 30, 1938.

Englehard Oehm (1835-1919)

From the Lancaster Enterprise, July 24, 1919.

   Obscure Erie County, New York resident Englehard Oehm earned distinction in local politics and fraternal groups following his resettlement in that county in the 1860s, being a multi-term township supervisor and village president of Lancaster. Additionally, Oehm led in the construction of the International Order of Odd Fellows Lodge in that town in 1879. He earns a place here on the site not only for his service as village president but for his candidacy for the New York State Assembly in 1892.

   The son of Bernard and Christina (Steppeth) Oehm, Englehard Oehm was born on August 10, 1835. There is some confusion as to Oehm's birth-place, with the 1877 History of Buffalo and Erie County giving it as Ohio, and that state is also recorded by Oehm's Wikitree genealogical webpage. However, the 1905 and 1910 New York state census records his birthplace as Germany (along with the birthdate of 1836) and further denotes Oehm's year of immigration to the United States as 1851. His possible birth in Germany is further strengthened by a notice on his 1892 run for the state assembly, where he is remarked as a "German by birth."  Oehm's first name also has variations in its spelling, being given as both Engelhard and Englehardt. All in all, very confusing! 

  While nothing could be found on Oehm's formative years or education, he is recorded as making a journey to California for the Gold Rush in the early 1850s, making the trip via "the isthmus of Panama." In 1864 Oehm married to Catherine Kolb (1841-1897), a native of Cheektowaga, New York, and by 1866 is recorded as having resettled in Erie County. Oehm and his wife would have at least ten children, daughters Wealthy, Barbre, Bertha, Amelia Elizabeth, and Katherine, and sons Englehard Jr. (1877-1923), Frankie, Willie, Jacob, and Erwin (1881-1897). 

  Sometime following his marriage Oehm had another extended stay in California, where in San Francisco he became affiliated with the International Order of Odd Fellows. After his return to Erie County, Oehm led the way for the establishment of the Loyal Lodge No. 480 of the I.O.O.F in Lancaster, and at the same time as that lodge's founding attained the rank of Noble Grand in that organization. 

  Employed as a building contractor and planing mill owner, Oehm entered Erie County politics when he was elected to the first of four terms as Township Supervisor of Lancaster in 1883. He was returned to that office in 1884, 1886 and 1887, and in the early 1890s served as foreman of the Erie County grand jury, holding that post for an indeterminate length of time.

From the Buffalo Evening News, November 2, 1892.

   In 1892 Englehard Oehm sought the Republican nomination for the New York State Assembly, from Erie County's Fifth District. Acknowledged as a "man widely known in the district and thoroughly respected for business integrity and sound judgment," Oehm made a "thorough and well-directed canvass" of the district he hoped to represent, and that year faced off against incumbent Democrat Henry Guenther, who had represented that district since 1887. When the votes were tallied that November, Oehm polled an admirable 5,287 votes, but still lost out to Guenther, who polled 6,024 votes.

   Following his assembly defeat Oehm continued work as a building contractor until his retirement, and in 1908 was elected as Village President of Lancaster. He celebrated his 80th birthday in 1915 and died in Lancaster on July 16, 1919, aged 83. His wife Catherine had predeceased him in 1897 and both were interred at the famed Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York.

Devoe Pell Hodson (1856-1932)

Portrait from the 1916 New York Red Book.

   After a nearly month-long break (in which there was ample time to process the results of the recent presidential election), the Strangest Names In American Political History returns with a post highlighting Buffalo, New York jurist Devoe Pell Hodson, who would go on to further political prominence as a New York State Public Service Commissioner (beginning service in 1913) and as an unsuccessful candidate for state Attorney General.

   Although a resident of distinction in Erie County for many years, Hodson was a native of Tompkins County, New York, being born in Ithaca on March 23, 1856. The son of Horatio and Harriet Ward Pell Hodson, Devoe Pell Hodson attended school in the city of his birth and also at the Ithaca Academy. He would later enroll at Cornell University, attending from 1873-1874. In the late 1870s, he began reading law in the offices of Samuel Holliday and Marcus Lyon of Ithaca and in 1879 was admitted to the New York bar at Saratoga Springs. 

   Soon after his admittance, Hodson returned to Ithaca to establish his law practice, which he would continue to operate for several years. He married in December 1880 to Mariette Wood (died 1937), a native of Painted Post, New York. The couple would remain childless through the entirety of their marriage. Hodson entered political life for the first time in 1882 when he began a year-long stint as clerk of the Tompkins County Board of Supervisors. In 1887 he entered the publishing field, purchasing an interest in the Ithaca Republican newspaper. His connection to that paper later led him to spend a brief period in California, where he and a partner established the Morning Telegram in San Diego. 

   After several months of residence in California, Hodson returned to Ithaca, but his stay proved to be short-lived. Hodson removed to Buffalo in February 1889 and returned to practicing law, operating a solo practice until 1893, when he joined with George B. Webster in the firm of Hodson and Webster.

  Following his relocation to New York's "Queen City", it didn't take long for Hodson to become active in Erie County public life. Within a short period of his resettlement, he was named as a non-resident corporation counsel for Niagara Falls, NY, and was later talked of as a potential candidate for Buffalo city attorney and delegate to the 1900 New York Constitutional Convention. Hodson became a member of the Buffalo Board of School Examiners in 1900 and served a term of three years, later refusing to be a candidate for renomination. 

  In 1905 Devoe Hodson launched his candidacy for Judge of the Municipal Court of Buffalo and was elected in the fall of that year. Taking his seat at the start of the new year, Hodson was selected as an alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1912 and served on the bench until his retirement in December 1913. Hodson's retirement was met with a profound show of respect, with the Penn Yan Democrat later reporting that:

"More than 150 lawyers, headed by Adelbert Moot, former president of the Stae Bar Association, and Carlton E. Ladd, then president of the Erie County Bar Association, crowded into his courtroom. Speeches were made declaring Judge Hodson an able lawyer, a good judge and an honest man. His loss from the bench was deplored by many."

Portrait from the Buffalo Evening News, February 7, 1913.

  Following his early retirement from the bench, Hodson returned to practicing law for a short period but was called to public service once again in February 1913 when he was appointed by Governor William Sulzer to the New York State Public Service Commission. Hodson's fellow lawyers and Buffalonians lauded this appointment, making light of Hodson's fair-mindedness and judicial temperament while on the municipal court. Amongst the contemporaries who weighed in on Hodson's appointment was former Erie County District Attorney Edward E. Coatsworth, who noted that:

"The appointment of Judge Hodgson should be gratifying to all citizens regardless of politics, who desire to see the public service commission render valuable service to the people. It should be especially gratifying to the people of Buffalo, a city so vitally interested in the proper adjustment of important problems that come under the jurisdiction of the commission."

   Hodson's time on the Public Service Commission extended four years (1913-1917), during which time he represented the state's 2nd district. Hodson resigned his seat in 1917 and was later succeeded by John Barhite, a former County Judge of Monroe County, New York. In the same year as his resignation, Hodson became the Democratic nominee for New York State Attorney General, competing against Republican Merton Elmer Lewis (1861-1937), who had been acting attorney general since the resignation of Egburt E. Woodbury. Despite his status as an "eminent lawyer" and past service as a judge and commissioner, Hodson would place second on election day. While having a heavy lead early in the balloting, Hodson's vote count would later be usurped by Lewis, who bested him by a vote of 696, 969 to 541, 385.

From the New York Sun, August 8, 1917.

   After his defeat for Attorney General Hodson returned to his law practice, continuing with the firm of Hodson and Webster until his retirement. In 1923 Hodson and his wife moved to Yates County, New York, eventually settling in the town of Penn Yan. For a number of years afterward, they owned a home on Lake Keuka, where he died on May 16, 1932, at age 75. Hodson was later cremated and his ashes were interred in the Hodson family plot at the Ithaca City Cemetery. Curiously, no gravestone looks to have been carved for Hodson, as the Find-A-Grave page for him notes that he currently rests in an unmarked location in the Hodson family plot.