Sebeus Colver Maine (1812-1887)

   Bearing a remarkable resemblance to literary icon Charles Dickens, Massachusetts state senator, judge, and inventor Sebeus Colver Maine looks every bit the dapper 19th-century man-of-affairs. This interestingly named man carved quite a career for himself in a number of different vocations, but despite his impressive stature in Massachusetts public life, very little information could be found on him.

   Born in North Stonington, Massachusetts on June 22, 1812, Sebeus was one of thirteen children born to Jabish Breed Maine (1774-1856), a stone and plaster mason, and his wife, Freelove Edwards (1776-1856). No information could be located as to Maine's childhood or education, although it has been found that he taught school in Herkimer County, New York, and during the early 1840s operated the law office of Benton and Maine in the town of Little Falls. He married in Pittston, Maine on September 18, 1843, to Julia Octavia Stevens (1806-1881), a native of Kennebec County. The couple later became the parents of two children, Annie Evans (birth date unknown) and William Stevens Bartlett (birth date unknown) who later became a painter of landscapes.

   Maine was admitted to the Suffolk, Massachusetts bar in February 1845 and spent the next decade in the practice of law. In 1854 he won election to the Massachusetts State Senate, representing the county of Suffolk. His name appeared in an 1855 Massachusetts State Register and is shown below. 

  In the year following his term in the senate, he was named as a commissioner of Insolvency in Boston and in 1858 was appointed as Judge of the Boston Police Court, serving on the bench until 1866. During his tenure on the court, Maine had to contend with numerous instances of draft protests in Boston during the Civil War period, and is acknowledged by a 2012 Foxboro Reporter article as coming "down hard on those who protested the draft during a time of great peril for the nation." Maine's reputation for doling out harsh sentences to protesters garnered him a number of threats, and he eventually had to leave Boston for a short period out of concern for his safety!

   Following his tenure on the Boston police court, little else could be found on Maine's life. In addition to serving in the above capacities, Maine was also an inventor, being awarded patents for "inventions relating to disinfection, cooling, and ventilation" between 1866 and 1872. He also was awarded patents for a "cabinet bedstead" and a fire extinguisher in June 1869. Maine's wife Julia died in 1881 at age 75 and he died on November 25, 1887, at the same age. The Genealogical Record of Nathaniel Babcock, Simeon Maine, Issac Miner, Ezekiel Main notes that Sebeus Maine was buried in Stonington, but fails to mention a name for the cemetery in which he was interred. Julia Octavia Maine was buried in Pittston, Randolph County, Maine following her death in 1881.

   From the Genealogical Record of Nathaniel Babcock, Simeon Maine, Issac Miner, Ezekiel Main, 1909.

Wickliffe Hayes Waterhouse (1857-1930), Wickliffe Campbell Lingle (1847-1927), Wickliffe Bond Dashiell (1835-1910), Wickliffe Buren Stratton (1869-1936)

   Endowed with a rather ostentatious sounding name, Westminster, Massachusetts resident Wickliffe Hayes Waterhouse represented the county of Worcester in the Massachusetts General Court from 1910-1911. He was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on April 3, 1857, a son of Joseph and Lydia Perkins Waterhouse. W.H. Waterhouse married on April 30, 1880, to Nellie Cook (1854-1916), and the couple would later have three children, Marcus (1880-1936), Clara M. (1883-), and Bertha (1888-). Waterhouse spent a good majority of his life farming and is listed by sources of the time as being a successful breeder of American Devon cattle and Shropshire sheep. In addition to farming, Waterhouse also participated in Westminster's 150th-anniversary celebration on August 25, 1909, marching in the celebratory parade as an aide to Chief Marshal (and then-incumbent state representative) Frank W. Fenno. 

   Active in Westminster public life, Waterhouse was elected as a selectman for that city in 1909 and had earlier served as a member of the board of assessors. In 1909 he was elected as a Republican to the Massachusetts State House of Representatives and served during the 1910-1911 session, holding a seat on the committee on agriculture during his brief tenure. 

   Following his legislative service, Waterhouse remained a leading light in Westminster, holding memberships in the local Odd Fellows lodge as well as the Grange. Little else could be found on his life, except mention of his death on August 12, 1930, at age 73. The portrait of him shown above was found in the 1910 edition of  A Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators, which features portraits and brief biographies of all senators and legislators who served in the General Court during that year's session. Also found here was Savillion W. Longley, a one-term representative from Middlesex County profiled here back in January 2012.

Portrait courtesy of www.legis.state.pa.us.

   One-term Pennsylvania state assemblyman Wickliffe Campbell Lingle was a native of Centre County, being born there on December 19, 1847, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Harvey) Lingle. A student in the public schools of that county, Lingle would for the majority of his life being engaged in his state's mining industry, being at various times a mine boss, superintendent, and operator. 

  In the late 1890s, Lingle served as superintendent of the Lingle and Magee Mine Co. in Cambria County and in 1898 was elected as one of two Cambria County representatives to the Pennsylvania General Assembly, polling 6,379 votes on election day. During the 1899-1901 session, he was a member of the committees on Accounts, the Bureau of Statistics, Federal Relations, Mines and Mining, and was defeated for reelection in November 1900.

  Little else is known of Lingle's life following his service, except mention of his death in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania on September 7, 1927, aged 79. He was survived by his wife Permelia Howe Lingle (1851-1939) and daughter Virginia (1880-1958) and was interred at the Union Cemetery in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

Portrait from the Texas Legislative Reference Library webpage.

    Another "Wickliffe" who made his name known politically was Wickliffe Bond Dashiell of Kaufman County, Texas. A one-term representative to the Texas State Assembly from that county, Wickliffe B. Dashiell was born on January 9, 1835, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Alfred and Ann Dashiell. His family moved to Shelbyville, Tennessee during his childhood and he returned to Pennsylvania during his adolescence to study at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned a medical degree from that institution in 1856 and in the following year married in Shelbyville to Catherine Greer, a daughter of John Alexander Greer (1802-1855), a former Lieutenant Governor of Texas.

   In the same year as his marriage, Dashiell and his wife removed to Kaufman County, Texas. Here he would farm and practice medicine and at the dawn of the Civil War aligned with the Confederacy, serving as a surgeon with the Nineteenth Texas Cavalry Regiment. He resigned from that post in 1864 out of health concerns and two years later was elected to represent Kaufman County in the Texas State House of Representatives. His one term (extending from 1866 to 1870) saw him chair the house committee on education and after leaving office returned to his farming and business interests.

   Wickliffe B. Dashiell relocated to Terrell, Texas in 1881 to accept the post of representative for the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company. He remarried here in 1883 (his first wife having died in 1867) and later had two children, including Amos Jones Dashiell, who died in infancy in 1882. Dashiell died in Terrell on August 14, 1910, at age 75 and was later interred at the Oakland Memorial Park in that city.

Portrait courtesy of www.atg.wa.gov.

   Wickliffe Buren Stratton was a Wisconsin native who made his mark, politically speaking, in Washington, where he would be elected as prosecuting attorney of Pacific County and in 1900 won election as state Attorney General. Born in Polk County, Wisconsin on July 31, 1869, Wickliffe Buren Stratton was the son of John Buren and Anna (Anderson) Stratton. His early education occurred at the Shell Lake High School, and following graduation was employed as a telegraph operator, law office clerk, and, later, a department clerk in the offices of the Washburn County circuit court.

  In 1887 Stratton enrolled at the University of Wisconsin and turned his attention to the study of law. He graduated from that university's law school in 1890 and shortly thereafter relocated to South Bend, Washington to begin his practice. He married in April 1894 to Georgina Irving Rodd (1872-1940) and had at least one son, Irving Rodd Stratton (1899-1970).

   Following his settlement in South Bend Stratton would win election as city attorney on four occasions and in the late 1890s was elected as prosecuting attorney for Pacific County, serving a two-year term. In 1900 he won the Republication nomination for state attorney general and in November of that year went on to defeat Democratic nominee Thomas Vance by a vote of 54, 841 to 45, 307.  

  Stratton's four-year term saw him especially devoted to "preserving and promoting the power of the state to collect taxes" and saw to it that even the mighty Northern Pacific Railroad paid its fair share of property taxes. Stratton wasn't a candidate for reelection in November 1904 and following his term formed a law partnership in Seattle with Henry McBride, who had served as Washington's governor at the same time Stratton was attorney general. Wickliffe B. Stratton died in Seattle on December 13, 1936, at age 66. He was survived by his wife and son and later was interred at the Acacia Memorial Park in that city.

Clarentine Ervin Ferson (1845-1898)

   We continue our week-long stay in Massachusetts, traveling from Hampshire County to Worcester County to profile the life of Clarentine Ervin Ferson, a little known resident of the city of Fitchburg who served two terms in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives beginning in 1894. Mr. Ferson served in the same legislative session as Alvertus Willard Morse, who was profiled yesterday, and one can wonder if these two oddly named legislators ever worked together on legislation passed during their respective terms!

  Clarentine E. Ferson was born in Francestown in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire on May 19, 1845, one of six children born to Levi Ferson (1805-1863) and Prudence Phelps Colby. The Ferson family is recorded as removing from New Hampshire to Lowell, Massachusetts when Clarentine was two, and he and his siblings were educated in the public schools of that city. In February 1862 the then sixteen-year-old Ferson joined in the ongoing war effort, enlisting in Co. L. of the 1st Regiment Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. He was promoted to sergeant in May 1864 due to his "bravery and meritorious conduct" during battle and was honorably discharged from this unit in February 1865 after three years of service. He is also noted by the 1895 History of Francestown, N.H. as "having participated in twenty-one engagements with the army of the Potomac."

  After returning home from the army Ferson married Clara A. French in July 1869 and had one daughter, Aimee Colby Ferson, born in December 1878. Ferson and his wife resided in Greenville, New Hampshire during the mid-1870s before moving to Fitchburg, Massachusetts in October 1879. Following his resettlement he found employment as a blacksmith at the Fitchburg Machine Works, holding the position of foreman. Ferson first became active in Fitchburg politics during the late 1880s, serving as a common councilman for the fifth ward from 1888 to 1889.

  In 1893 Clarentine Ferson began a campaign for a seat in the Massachusetts General Court and on election day emerged victorious, defeating his Democratic opponent John Heagney by a vote of 2,114 to 1,225. Ferson was named to the house committee on Labor during his service, and in November 1894 won re-election to the legislature with a vote of 2,075. He continued to serve on the labor committee during his second term and is remarked as taking an active part in ongoing legislation during that year's session.

  Following the conclusion of his second term, Ferson returned to Fitchburg and maintained memberships in the American Order of United Woodmen, Masons, and Odd Fellows lodges. Ferson died on his 53rd birthday, May 19, 1898, and was later interred at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Fitchburg, which is also the resting place of his father, mother, and two of his siblings.

Alvertus Willard Morse (1841-1912), Alvertus Jason Morse (1872-1949)

Portrait from the Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators, 1894.

   A distinguished resident of Belchertown in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Alvertus Willard Morse served one term in the Massachusetts General Court beginning in 1894 and in addition to his legislative service was a Civil War veteran, farmer, and businessman. Born in Belchertown on January 21, 1841, Alvertus W. Morse was the son of Jason (1810-1873) and Betsy (Williams) Morse (1810-1851). He would receive his schooling in his hometown and as an adolescent enrolled at the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts. In 1862 he signed on for service in the 46th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers and served with this outfit until being discharged on July 1st of the following year. He reenlisted in the army that same day, and joined the Second Regiment Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, serving until the close of the Civil War.

    Morse received his discharge in September 1865 and on October 1, 1868, he married Martha "Mattie" Stockwell (1849-1903). The couple's marriage extended nearly four decades and saw the births of five children, Bertha Elizabeth (1869-1927), Bessie Lovina Morse (1871-1912), Alvertus Jason (1872-1949), Raymond E. (born 1874), and Ransom W. (born 1880). In the years following his marriage, Morse became active in Belchertown politics, holding a seat on the local school committee from 1871 to 1880. In 1884 he won election as town selectman (serving until 1888) and pulled double duty as town overseer of the poor until 1888. Morse also held the post of superintendent of the Belchertown Creamery beginning in 1889. This creamery is acknowledged as being known across the state for its butter production and did a successful business until its closing in 1917.

    In November 1893 Alvertus Morse won election as a Republican to the Massachusetts State House of Representatives from Hampshire County, defeating Democratic candidate Loman Augustin Smith (1833-1914) by a vote of 725 to 352. Serving in the session of 1894-95, he held a seat on the house committee on Libraries. 

   Following the conclusion of his term in 1895, Morse became the Secretary of the Massachusetts Creamery Association and served in this capacity for several years. He was also active in Belchertown fraternal organizations, being a past commander of the E.J. Briggs Post of the Grand Army of the Republic and a chaplain of the Mt. Vernon, Massachusetts Lodge of Masons. He died in his native Belchertown on September 28, 1912, aged 71, and was interred at the Hillcrest Cemetery in that village.

  

   From the 1894 Massachusetts General Court manual.

Portrait courtesy of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries Special Collections.

  In an update (December 13, 2019) to an already six-year-old article, Alvertus Jason Morse, the son of Alvertus Willard Morse, is profiled. With the help of Morse descendant Moriah Morse, this author was made aware of the fact that political service (as well as odd names) continued in this family in Alvertus Jason Morse, who served three consecutive terms as Mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts. Born in Belchertown on July 15, 1872, Morse would attend local schools and later enrolled at the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst.   

  Graduating in the class of 1894, Morse embarked upon a teaching career that extended several years, and in 1900 married to Lillia May Davis (1875-1960), to who he was wed for nearly five decades. The couple would have two children, Alvertus Davis (1904-1982) and  Martha (1912-1985). At the turn of the 19th century Morse turned his attention to law studies, and in 1901 graduated with his degree from the Boston University Law School. Soon after he established himself in practice in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he resided for the remainder of his life.

  Beginning his career in city politics as a member of the city board of aldermen, Morse also sat as a member of the city council in 1915-16 and in the last-named year was elected as mayor of Northampton. He would be reelected to that office on two more occasions (1917 and 1918) and in 1918 was unopposed at the ballot box.

  Active in the civic and fraternal life of Hampshire County, Morse served as treasurer of the Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden County Agricultural Society beginning in 1914, was treasurer of the local YMCA chapter, and before his mayoralty served as secretary of the Northampton Board of Trade. Morse would also log twenty-five years of service as secretary of the Three County Fair Association, serving from 1924 until his death.

  After his mayoralty, Alvertus J. Morse continued in his law practice, and in 1928 was joined by his son Alvertus Davis. Morse died at a city hospital on May 31, 1949, aged 77, and was survived by his wife and children. He was later interred at the Bridge Street Cemetery in Northampton.

Ludovicus French Wild (1825-1889)

Portrait from the Massachusetts State Library Archives.

    An interestingly named resident of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Ludovicus French Wild was the son of local boot maker Ludovicus (1802-1884) and Mehitable French Wild (1803-1859), being born in the village of Randolph on August 1, 1825. Little could be found on Wild's early life, but notice is given as to his following in his father's footsteps, becoming a boot manufacturer. Ludovicus F. Wild married on October 4, 1849, in Braintree, Massachusetts to Charlotte Ellen Thayer (1830-1920), with whom he had three children, Marietta H. (birth date unknown), Lizzie Ellen (birth date unknown) and Henry Weston (1852-1894).

   Wild's life in the years following his marriage is sketchy at best, with little being known on what he was up to during this time. He served as collector of taxes for Randolph in 1872, and in that same year was Randolph's representative to the Massachusetts General Court, holding a seat on the house committee on the Pay Roll. He was later excused from this committee by an act of the legislature, and New Bedford Representative Ellis Perry was appointed in his place.

   Little else is known of Wild's life, excepting note of his death on August 3, 1889, in Holbrook, Massachusetts. His wife Charlotte survived her husband by over three decades, dying in 1920 at age 90. Both were interred at the Union Cemetery in Holbrook. The rare portrait of Wild shown above was featured in an 1872 Massachusetts General Court legislative portrait album, currently located in the archives of the Massachusetts State Library in Boston.

Lament Bacon Corbin (1813-1872)

Lament Bacon Corbin, from the collection of the Massachusetts State Library Archives.

  With beard aplenty and a curious name to match, we visit Worcester County, Massachusetts to highlight the life of Lament Bacon Corbin, a little-known shoemaker who served two terms in his state's House of Representatives. The life of this obscure Bay State resident began on September 1, 1814, in the town of Dudley, Massachusetts. The son of Timothy (1780-1845) and Ruth Albee Corbin (1781-1848), it has been lost to history why the couple decided to bestow the unusual name "Lament Bacon" upon their seventh born child, and it will most likely remain a mystery! Nothing is known of Corbin's early life or education, and it is presumed that the latter occurred in schools local to his hometown of Dudley. 

  Bacon married in Oxford, Massachusetts on May 31, 1840, to Melezenda Pierpont Stone (1819-1898), a resident of that town. Lament and his wife were married for over thirty years and had one son, Luman Boyden Corbin (born 1843) who died at age 20 in June 1863. 

   Despite the dearth of information mentioning him, Corbin was a prominent cobbler in Worcester County for the majority of his fifty-eight years and founded the L.B. Corbin Co. with partner Allen L. Joslin in 1860. This Oxford-based shoe-making business is recorded by Duane Hamilton Hurd's History of Worcester County, Volume II as employing "forty-five workmen, and produces shoes to the value of $80,000 a year", a considerable sum for the time. Corbin also served as a director of the Oxford National Bank for a number of years. 

   Active in public affairs in addition to his business, Corbin served as a selectman for the town of Oxford for nearly sixteen years, holding his seat from 1855-1868 and 1870-1871. He was elected to his first term in the Massachusetts General Court in 1856 from his home county of Worcester, serving in the following year's legislative session. During his term, he held a seat on the joint standing committee on Manufactures, appropriate when one considers his successful shoe-making business.

   The early 1860s saw Corbin continuing in his business pursuits. Despite being too old to enter military service, Lament Corbin did his patriotic duty during the early months of the Civil War, serving as first selectman as well as town recruiting officer. Mary DeWitt Freeland's Records of Oxford, Massachusetts (published in 1894) gives note that "through the efficiency of Lament B. Corbin, first selectman, as recruiting officer, all demands for men were promptly met. In June 1864, the town by unanimous vote expressed its thanks to him for the ''energetic, faithful, and patriotic manner'' in which he had performed the duties."

   In November 1867 Corbin was elected to a second term in the General Court and began his term at the beginning of the new year, being named to the committee on Parishes and Religious Societies. At the conclusion of his term in 1868, Corbin returned home to Oxford, and in 1870 the partnership between he and Allen L. Joslin was dissolved, with Joslin later continuing in the manufacture of shoes under his own name. In May 1870 Corbin is recorded as serving as Chief Marshal in a Memorial Day Procession occurring in Oxford. Sources of the time acknowledge that Corbin was "an active and respected citizen of Oxford" and was a "liberal supporter of the Methodist Church."

   Lament Bacon Corbin died in Oxford on July 1, 1872, at age 58 and was shortly thereafter interred at the South Congregational Church Cemetery in that town. His wife Melezenda survived him by twenty-six years, dying in 1898 at age 79. She too was interred at the South Cemetery, alongside her husband and son.

From the 1868 Journal of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Nesbit Gamaliel Gleason (1872-1948), Nesbit Sargent Ross (1858-1926)

From Bridgeman's "Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators", 1917 edition.

    An active civic leader and political figure in Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts, Nesbit Gamaliel Gleason was for many years one of Andover's leading citizens. A one-term member of the Massachusetts State House of Representatives as well as a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of 1917-18, Gleason also attained high rank in two different Masonic lodges in Massachusetts. Born in the city of Lawrence on November 11, 1872, Nesbit G. Gleason attended the public schools of that town and was employed by the American Express Co. and later, the American Woolen Company. He married on June 7, 1894, to Alice Christie, who was born in Scotland. They became the parents of one daughter, Elsie Grosvenor Gleason in March 1895.

   In 1901 he was elected as Andover town auditor and served in this capacity for over fifteen years. In addition to his serving as town clerk, Gleason was also the chairman of the Andover Republican town committee from 1909 to 1910.  In 1915 he was elected as one of Essex County's representatives in the Massachusetts General Court. Taking his seat in January 1916, Gleason was named to the house committees on Counties, Social Insurance, and chaired the committee on Municipal Insurance. During his legislative term, Gleason was also a member of the Massachusetts State Constitutional Convention of 1917-1918. 

  Prominent in the local Masonic fraternity, Gleason held memberships in two lodges in the Essex County area. He was a Past Master of the St. Matthews Masonic Lodge, a member of the Mt. Sinai Royal Arch Masons, the Ancient Order of the Accepted Scottish Rite, the Andover Odd Fellows Lodge, and a member of the Aleppo Temple of the Mystic Shrine. The remainder of Nesbit G. Gleason's life following his term in the legislature is totally unknown. He is recorded in the 1940 U.S. Census as a 67-year-old residing at Mt. Vernon Street in Boston with his wife and daughter, whose death dates also remain unknown at this time.

  As this article "went to press", as it were, it was lacking a death date for Mr. Gleason, and despite my best attempts at perusing my usual archived newspaper resources and genealogical web pages, one could not be found. I'd like to offer a hail and hearty thank you to the Strangest Names In American Political History Facebook follower John Mark Woodbury for locating Mr. Gleason's date of demise, courtesy of the ever-useful Ancestry.com. Nesbit Gleason passed away on June 19, 1948, in his 76th year, three decades after his service in the Massachusetts legislature. 

From the York Daily News, November 11, 1911.

  Long a distinguished lawyer in York County, Pennsylvania, Nesbit Sargent Ross made his first move into politics in 1885, with his service as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Republican state convention. He emerged on the national political scene seven years later with his unsuccessful candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives, and nearly two decades following his defeat Ross won election as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of York County, serving on the bench until his death in 1926. Recorded by most sources under the abbreviated name "N. Sargent Ross", Ross was born in Northumberland, Pennsylvania on May 3, 1858, the son of Rev. Joseph A. (1816-1888) and Mary Jamison Harvey Ross (1824-1892).

  As the son of a prominent Methodist minister, Ross' education was obtained in various Pennsylvania schools due to his father's frequent ministerial travels. He would attend seminaries in Juniata County and in Williamsport and later enrolled at Dickinson College in Carlisle in the 1870s. After a year spent teaching in 1874-75, Ross turned his attention to reading law and began study under Mifflintown attorney Jeremiah Lyons. He was admitted to the Juniata County bar in 1882.

  Establishing himself in practice in Mifflintown, Ross moved to York, Pennsylvania in 1883 and through the succeeding years gained distinction in law circles in that county, along with" a profitable clientele." N. Sargent Ross married Susan W. Sanks (1858-1925) in April 1890 and had one daughter Ruth Sanks, who died in infancy in 1892.

   A lifelong Republican, Ross was elected as a delegate from York County to the Republican State Convention of 1885, beginning his political career. In 1892 he entered into the race for U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania's 19th congressional district, and after winning the Republican primary opposed Democrat Frank Eckels Beltzhoover (1841-1923), who had served three previous terms in Congress. The general election of November 1892 brought defeat for the Republicans in the district, with Beltzhoover besting Ross by a vote of 21,963 to 16,198.

From the Harvey Book, 1899.

  In 1895 Ross partnered with attorney H.C. Brenneman in the law firm of Ross and Brenneman, which extended until Ross was elected judge. In the same year as that partnership began, Ross was named as a director for the City Bank of York and continued in that post until his elevation to the bench. Active in the fraternal clubs of York County, Ross was for many years a Mason in his region, holding the office of Past Master of York Lodge No. 266 of Free and Accepted Masons. In addition, he was a past high priest in the Howell Chapter No. 199 of the Royal Arch Masons, and a member of the Knights Templar and the Mystic Shrine. 

  N. Sargent Ross returned to politics in 1911, announcing his candidacy for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of York County. In a campaign notice touting his nearly three decades of experience in the courts, The York Daily acknowledged that:

"The elevation of a man with the character of Mr. Ross to the bench of the common pleas court of York County will be a deserving honor to one qualified to fill the highest office in the gift of the people of the county."

  That November Ross won election as judge and took his seat in 1912. He won a second ten-year term on the bench in 1921, and following the retirement of Judge Nevin Wanner in January 1926 succeeded to the post of President Judge of the county court system. Early in 1926 Ross's health began to fail, the effects of "endocarditis and arterio-sclerosis". In February 1926 he left Pennsylvania to seek the war climate of Florida, traveling to St. Augustine. His health continued to ebb following his arrival, and he died in that city on March 3, 1926, aged 64. His wife Susan had preceded him in death the previous year, and both were interred at the mausoleum at the Prospect Hill Cemetery in York.

Beveridge Colin Dunlop (1879-1961)

From the March 2, 1951 edition of the Orangetown Telegram.

   A one-term New York State Assemblyman and businessman in the county of Rockland, Beveridge Colin Dunlop was one of the aforementioned county's most highly regarded citizens. Bestowed a truly unusual first name upon his birth, Dunlop didn't let his odd name keep him from having a successful career in both business and politics. One of nine children born to Scottish immigrants John and Jeannie (Beveridge) Dunlop, Beveridge C. Dunlop was born in Paterson, New Jersey on April 28, 1879. 

  Bestowed the name "Beveridge" due to it being his mother's maiden name, Dunlop and his family resided in the Paterson area until 1887, when they moved to Rockland County, settling in the town of Spring Valley. He received his education in schools local to that town and around 1892 relocated back to New Jersey with his family. He graduated from the State Street High School in Hackensack in 1895 and thereafter returned to Spring Valley to join the family business.

  John Dunlop Sons Inc. was one of the largest silk manufacturing companies in New York and New Jersey and had a branch established in Spring Valley by John Dunlop in 1887. He retired from the business in 1890 and the company was taken over by the two eldest Dunlop sons, George and John. Beveridge joined this company when he was still a young man and continued to be connected with the company until it closed its doors in 1937. Beveridge served as a vice president and secretary of this company, and in addition to his involvement, he was instrumental in the manufacture of rayon (artificial silk) for many years. In 1927 he was named as a vice president and director of the North American Rayon Corporation and four years later became a vice president of another rayon manufacturer, the American Bemberg Corporation in New York City. 

   At the dawn of hostilities with Spain in 1898, Dunlop joined in the war effort, enlisting in the New Jersey Volunteer Infantry regiment at Hackensack. This company was later encamped in Florida for a time, but Dunlop's time in the outfit was short-lived. A fellow serviceman of his, Mr. George M. Edsall, recalled that Dunlop became seriously ill at the camp after eating spoiled beef, and that "his condition became so serious that his family chartered a special train equipped with two nurses to bring him home from the camp." Despite his illness, Dunlop later entered the military once again, serving with the Y.M.C.A's "Rainbow Division" during the First World War. Following his service in the Spanish-American War, Dunlop married in Albany on September 6, 1904, to Anna Norton Marvin (1880-1980), with whom he would have four children, John (born 1906), Janet (born 1909), Dudley Marvin (1913-1962) and Mary Dunlop Dedel (1916-2004). 

   With his name firmly established in the Rockland community, Dunlop entered state politics in 1913 when he announced his candidacy for the New York State Assembly. Although formerly a Republican, Dunlop jumped aboard the then-popular Progressive Party bandwagon, running on that party's platform. On election day 1913, he eked out a narrow victory over Democratic candidate Frederick Grimme with a vote of 4,347 to 4,287. Taking his seat in January of the new year, Beveridge Dunlop was named to the house committees on Ways and Means, Public Printing, and during his service is listed by a state assembly report as introducing legislation advocating the establishment of a "Minimum Wage Commission to protect minors under eighteen years of age and women from employment at wages insufficient to supply a necessary cost of living and maintain the health, morals and efficiency of the workers, defining the powers and the duties of the commission and appropriating $25,000."

   Dunlop ran for a second term in the assembly in 1914 and again was the Progressive Party nominee. He was defeated for reelection in November of that year, garnering 1,463 votes to winning Democratic candidate Frederick Grimme's total of 3,481.  

Dunlop's portrait from the 1914 New York Red Book.

  While he may have lost his assembly seat, Dunlop continued to be active in the public affairs of Rockland County, being named as a Republican Presidential elector in 1916. He continued an active schedule throughout the remainder of his life, holding an impressive number of positions in businesses located throughout New York and New Jersey, including the directorship of the U.S. Testing Company in Hoboken, director of the First National Bank of Spring Valley, director of the Allied Products Corporation of Suffern, New York and was a trustee of the Manhattan Savings Bank. Dunlop was also the chairman of the Spring Valley Board of Education for several years.

This portrait of Beveridge Dunlop appeared in a 1960 edition of the Orangetown Telegram.

  In addition to his business activities, Dunlop maintained a membership in the Athelstan Lodge #839 of the Free and Accepted Masons and was honored as a Past Master of that lodge. Active in the American scouting movement, Dunlop served as an Honorary President of the Rockland County Council of the Boy Scouts of America during the 1940s. The Pearl River Orangetown Telegram also notes that he was "an ardent sportsman and has hunted game in all parts of the country." Beveridge Dunlop died on July 2, 1961, at age 82. He was survived by his wife Anne, who, following her death at age 99 in 1980, was interred at the Brick Church Cemetery in New Hempstead, New York.

Ophir LeRoy Haring (1878-1943)

   Once in a while a certain city, town, or village is discovered that has an oddly named individual listed amongst its roster of past mayors. The city of Three Rivers, Michigan is a special case, as it has had the good fortune to have two men serve as mayor (twenty years apart) with truly unusual names. The first of these men was Cadalzo Dockstader (profiled yesterday) who held the job from 1897-1899. Following in his stead was Ophir LeRoy Haring, who is profiled today. This man with the intriguing first name was a lifelong Michigan resident and is presumed to have inherited the name "Ophir" from the like-named region in the Bible, an area known for gold, mineral wealth, and other precious resources.

   Ophir L. Haring was born in a log cabin on February 15, 1878, in the township of North Shade in Gratiot County, Michigan, the last of five children born to Hiram (1844-1905)  and Susan Foltz Haring (1843-1925). He spent a good majority of his adolescence engaged in farm work and attended schools local to the village of Hubbardston. After the completion of his education, he went to serve as a school teacher in the village of Beebe, Michigan, and was employed here for only a few months. He left this employ and later went on to a short career as a general merchandiser in the store of William D. Iseman. Haring married in Ithaca, Michigan in November 1904 to Else Harriett Hill (1875-1932) with whom he would have two daughters, Madelon Elaine (1914-1992) and Donna Jean (1918-1976). Ophir and Elsie are also recorded as adopting a third child, Doris Eileen Van Aken (1914-1992) in 1915.

  Two years following his marriage Haring decided upon a career as an undertaker, enrolling at the Williams School of Embalming in Chicago. After completing the curriculum he worked as an undertaker and embalmer in Cassopolis, Michigan, and Elkhart, Indiana before relocating to the Three Rivers area. Once settled, Haring formed another undertaking business with Frederick W. Balch, a prominent local furniture dealer. This partnership lasted for over a decade, and Haring himself is noted as opening the first funeral parlor in Three Rivers in 1919.

   Ophir L. Haring's activities weren't limited to just operating a funeral home. A member of several local fraternal organizations, including the Salathiel Chapter No. 23 of the Royal Arch Masons, Haring also made his name known politically, becoming a member of the Three Rivers City Commission in 1921. Two years later he was elected as Mayor of Three Rivers, and after serving a term of one year returned to his earlier career as a funeral director and embalmer. In his later years, Haring held a seat on the St. Joseph County Welfare Commission and is recorded as resigning from this board for unknown reasons. He died on December 29, 1943, at age 65 and was later interred at the Riverside Cemetery in Three Rivers. Haring's wife Elsie predeceased him eleven years previously and was interred in the same cemetery as her husband. 

  The rare portrait of Ophir LeRoy Haring shown above was featured on a 1932 poster featuring all of the past Three Rivers mayors who had served from 1908-1932. The original poster is located in the collection of the Three Rivers Library archive and can be seen on the Library's Flickr page at the following link. 

Cadalzo A. Dockstader (1861-1944)

   Possessing a truly unique first name, Cadalzo Dockstader was a locally prominent citizen in both St. Joseph County, Michigan, and later, Syracuse, New York. Born in Nevada County, California on July 2, 1861, Cadalzo was one of three children born to Giles Fonda and Mary Louise Keller Dockstader. Giles and his wife had migrated from Michigan to California sometime previously, and at some point following their son's birth removed back to the Michigan area, settling in the county of St. Joseph.

  Cadalzo Dockstader enrolled at the Michigan State Agricultural College at East Lansing, graduating from this school in August 1882. A short while later he became engaged as a druggist in the city of Three Rivers, becoming a partner of Henry Hall in the pharmacy office of Hall and Dockstader. Their business is recorded as being "one of the oldest drug stores in Three Rivers" as well as being dealers in peppermint oil. Dockstader himself is referred to as a "dealer in domestic essential oils, farmer and druggist" in a publication by his Alma mater. In the late 1880s, Dockstader married Eva Belle Jackson (1865-1917) with whom he would have one daughter, Mary Jane (1889-1922). 

  While prominent as a druggist in his community, Dockstader gained further notoriety in 1896 when he was elected Mayor of the city of Three Rivers, which had been incorporated as a municipality a short while before. Dockstader was the second man to serve as mayor of the city (succeeding Marvin H. Bumphrey) and held office from April 1897 to April 1899. Two years after his term as Mayor had concluded, Dockstader won election as a Probate Judge for St. Joseph County, serving on the bench until 1905. 

   A few years after the conclusion of his term as judge, the Dockstader family removed from Three Rivers to Syracuse, New York, where they would reside for the rest of their lives. Within a few years of his relocation to the Empire State Dockstader had established business roots in Onondaga County, becoming an "apple orchidist" and was Secretary of the Onondaga Orchid Co. in the town of Fabius. He served in the capacity of Secretary-Treasurer of the North Syracuse Light and Power Company during the early 1920s and in addition to the proceeding held the Presidency of the Cicero State Bank at Cicero, New York for an indeterminate length of time. Eva Dockstader died of an undisclosed illness in Syracuse in November 1917 at age 52, and Cadalzo never remarried following her death. Five years following his wife's passing Dockstader was dealt another tragedy when his only daughter Mary Jane died at age 33. 

  In 1929 Dockstader reentered the political forum, launching a campaign for Mayor of North Syracuse, New York. Dockstader ran as a "non-partisan candidate" and faced off against Republican Ernest Conway during the contest. On election day Dockstader emerged victorious, besting Conway by a close vote of 312 to 302. Two newspaper snippets concerning the election (both of which appeared in the Syracuse Journal in March 1929) are located below. Dockstader's one term as Mayor ended in 1931, and it is worth noting that he is the first oddly named politician profiled here on the site who served as a Mayor in two different states.

  Little else is known of Dockstader's life after he left office, and one can presume that he carried on with his earlier agricultural and banking interests in Onondaga County. Cadalzo Dockstader died at the Duryee Nursing Home in Syracuse on December 15, 1944, at age 83 and was shortly thereafter cremated. His remains were later interred at the North Syracuse Cemetery. The rare portrait of him shown above was found in the 1895 work Headlight Flashes Along the Michigan Central Line, which highlighted important civic and business leaders in the Three Rivers area.

From the December 16, 1944 edition of the Syracuse Journal.