A Sampling from
Bill Hecht's Treasury
of Auburn Images
Page 2 of 5


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A treasure trove of Auburn historical images accessible (for non-commercial use) at
http//freepages. genealogy.rootsweb. com/~springport/
pictures.html

( enter web address as one word )


The New York Correction History Society is honored to be permitted to present the following NYCHS sampling among Auburn-related entries from Bill Hecht's list of more than 5,000 Cayuga County images on the Cayuga County NYGenWeb Project site. To access the full versions of the images shown here as downsized samples, click on either the "thumbnail" images or the underlined URLs provided. Please use your back button to return to this page.

In mounting the original web presentation of his images, Hecht received significant assistance from Bernie Corcoran, coordinator of the Cayuga County NYGenWeb Project. Hecht's full-size scans -- of historical maps and texts, old photographs, vintage postcards and illustrations, newspaper clippings and special issues, gazetteers, and directories -- are accessible via:

http//freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~springport/pictures.html

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The above is a detail from a Hecht scan of one of a series of pages presenting biographical sketches and photo images of prominent leaders in the Cayuga County, NY, community of 1904.

Hecht's scans of "Men of Affairs and Professions" are from part of a 1904 Atlas Map Book titled The New Century Atlas Of Cayuga County New York. The Atlas Book was originally published by the Century Map Company, Otto Barthel Chief Engineer, Philadelphia in 1904.

What follows is a selective sampling of those pages, with certain details particularly underscored from a correction history-related perspective. A more generalized thumbnails interface to the "Men Of Affairs And Professions" section of The New Century Atlas of Cayuga County, New York 1904 is available on the Cayuga County NYGenWeb Project site.

Several of the 1904 atlas biographical pages are quite gender specific, referring to Men of Affairs and Professions. Only one page dropped the gender reference and included a photo and brief bio note on a woman: Mrs. Susan Olmsted, owner of "Twin Pines," a prominent homestead in Fleming. Others whose portraits and bio notes appear together on that page, simply entitled Sketches and Portraits -- Continued, include:

  • Andrew J. Trimble, (right) manager of the County Farm. In the 19th and into the 20th century, county farms were poorhouses with rural atmosphere. Able-body males worked the fields. Such farms were seen as being advantageous, even though -- or perhaps because -- their sites were often situated a regions quite remote from commerical, cultural and governmental centers as well as removed from the more affluent residental areas.

    The report on Cayuga County in the 1860 French's Gazetteer of the State of New York, transcribed by Steve and Pat McKay in July 1997, noted: "The county poorhouse is located upon a farm of 90 acres in Sennett, 3 mi. N.E. of Auburn. It is a poor, old dilapidated building, containing about 30 rooms. The average number of inmates is about 100, supported at a weekly cost of 70 cts. Each."

    For a report on the conditions of the county farm in 1857, go to The Poorhouse Lady's site.

    The historical linkage and proximity of public facilities for paupers and prisoners evident elsehwere in state and nation holds true in Cayuga. Though the nomenclature has changed, the county nursing home and county jail as well as the sheriff's office are situated on County House Road. The Cayuga County Farm Cemetery is located off County House Road, Town of Sennett.

    Elsewhere on this NYCHS site, Auburn Prison historian John Miskell notes in his monograph Why Auburn that after the 1929 riots some Auburnians wanted the prison dismantled and reconstructed on a 225-acre site owned by the state in the Town of Sennett that included the site selected of the prison farm which had been established in 1917. Pine Ridge Road off of U.S. 20 is also known as Prison Farm Road.

  • Joseph P. Koon, whose widow Cora was Mrs. Olmsted's daughter.
  • E. M. Sperry, prosperous farmer.
  • Herbert Lewis, dairy farmer.
  • Henry Tosh, who succeeded in many diverse business and farm-related ventures.
  • William Koenig, brewer.
  • H.D. Bowen, orchards owner.
  • W. S. Bowen.
  • Fred Dixon, Town of Sennet farmer.

The original 1.8 Mb digital image Hecht created from the Sketches and Portraits -- Continued page scan has a dpi of 96 and measures more than 22 inches wide and nearly 26 inches high. For the complete image, click on County Farm manager Trimble's portrait (above right) or on the full page's URL:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~springport/pictures49/4961.jpg


The text image right, showing a brief biographical sketch of prison reformer Thomas Mott Osborne, is a greatly downsized detail from one of the Men of Affairs and Professions pages. His family name is part of the Auburn&Osborne title for the NYCHS special web section you are currently visiting where about 85 pages carry references to him, his family, his career, his reforms and the organizations he founded or inspired. Auburn&Osborne section presentations include

The other men whose bio sketches appear on that same page are:

  • Rep. Sereno Elisha Payne, former District Attorney.
  • State Supreme Court Justice Adelgert C. Rich, also former DA.
  • William H. Seward, a banker. The youngest son and former private secretary of the famous Auburnian for whom he is named, he served as a Brig. General during the Civil War while his father served as Lincoln's Secretary of State.
  • Edwin D. Metcalf, D. M. Osborne & Company general manager since 1890.
  • County Judge Adolphus H. Searing.
  • James H. Foster, merchant.
  • William Henry Meaker, banker.
  • County Clerk George W. Benham.
  • Auburn Postmaster Paul R. Clark. also former DA.
  • George Hyatt Nye, banker.
  • Edward H. Townsend, banker.
  • Edward H. Avery, banker. He was the great-grandfather of Cardinal Avery Dulles who is the son of former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and the nephew of former CIA director Allen Marcy Dulles.

    John and Allen were sons of Auburn Theological Seminary professor Rev. Allen Marcy Dulles. After his death in 1930, property at 67 South Street was sold by Pastor Dulles' estate to NYS that coverted it to use as a residence for Auburn prison wardens.

  • Horace R. and William F. Wait, carpet-related businessmen.
  • Willis Judson Beecher, D.D., at Auburn Theological Seminary.
  • John Henry Osborne, brother of the founder of D.M. Osborne & Co. and its secretary.
  • Justin L. Barker, clothier.
  • U.S. Marshal for the Northern NY District Clinton Dugald McDougall. Was also a Congressman, a Auburn postmaster, and Civil War Brig. General.
  • Edwin R. Fay, banker.

The original 2.3 Mb digital image Hecht created from scanning the Men of Affairs and Professions page (that presented bio sketches of Thomas Mott Osborne, Edward H. Avery and the others named above) has a dpi of 96 and measures more than 22 inches wide and nearly 27 inches high. For the complete image, click on the Thomas Mott Osborne bio text image (above right) or on the full page's URL:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/
~springport/pictures49/4952.jpg

(if typing, enter web address as one word)

In the original publication, Photographic Reproductions of Men of Affairs and Professions appeared on a separate page (104) opposite the biographical texts page (105). The original 1.6 Mb digital image Hecht created from scanning the Photographic Reproductions of Men of Affairs and Professions page (that presented photo portraits of Thomas Mott Osborne, Edward H. Avery and the others named above) has a dpi of 96 and measures nearly 18 inches wide and more than 26 inches high. For the complete page image, click on either the Thomas Mott Osborne or Charles H. Avery B&W head&shoulders image (above right) or on the full page's URL:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~springport/pictures48/00004842.jpg


The bio text image right, concerning Dr. Frederick Shefton, is a greatly reduced detail from yet another of the Men of Affairs and Professions pages scanned by Hecht.

The brief biological sketch on Dr. Shefton notes his former service as senior medical officer at the State Asylum for the Insane at Auburn.

Before operation of the Lunatic Asylum for Insane Convicts moved in 1892-1894 to Fishkill where it became known as the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, it had been at Auburn from 1859 -- the state's first such mental hospital/prison. The Auburn facilities it had used were then converted into a women's prison. That operation continued until 1934 when it moved to Bedford Hills. The century-old buildings were demolished in 1958 to make way for a new educational building later called the Osborne School.

The other men whose bio sketches appear on that same page are:

  • Merritt D. Greene, lumber dealer.
  • John Hermon Woodruff, Auburn Button Works propreitor.
  • Rev. William Mulheron, pastor, St. Mary's Parish.
  • Edward T. Kelley, president Independent Brewing Company.
  • Saffrene L. Depew, Board of Supervisors ex-chairman.
  • William J. McMaster, NY Life Insurance agent.
  • Frank C. Smith, M.D.
  • Harrison L. Hoyt, real estate and insurance.
  • Ernest G. Tabor, Supervisor.
  • John G. Marshall, Auburn Extract Co. president.
  • John Joseph Gardner, contractor and paints dealer.
  • Lewis F. Leonard, coal dealer.
  • Levi T. Hamilton, Ex-supervisor.
  • J. G. Whitmee, Supervisor.
  • Thos. F. Dignum, Osborne House propreitor.
  • Dr. William Hughes, dentist.
  • Frank Parsons, farmer and stock raiser.
  • J.K. Bust, carriage dealer.
  • Charles Higgins, Supervisor and Justice of Peace. His bio sketch (right) makes mention of his being, all at the same time, the J.P., a Supervisor, and a Deputy Sheriff, an interesting combination of offices being held by the same person.

The original 1.7 Mb digital image Hecht created from scanning the Men of Affairs and Professions page (that presented bio sketches of Dr. Frederick Shefton, Charles Higgins and the others named above) has a dpi of 96 and measures more than 22 inches wide and nearly 27 inches high. For the complete image, click on the Dr. Frederick Shefton or Charles Higgins bio text image (above right) or on the full page's URL:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com~springport/pictures49/4959.jpg


The bio text image right, concerning Robert Loudon Drummond, is a greatly reduced detail from still another of the Men of Affairs and Professions pages scanned by Bill Hecht.

The brief biographical sketch on Drummond notes his service as trustee of the Home for the Friendless in Auburn. Unlike facilities with that euphemistic name in New York City and Rochester, this "group home" at 46 Grant Avenue, Auburn, had been started in the early 1870s to help Civil War widows and their children.

New York City's Home for the Friendless had been founded in the mid-1830s by the ladies of the New York Female Moral Reform Society with offices at 29 East 28th St. Similarly, the Rochester community in 1850 set up a Home for the Friendless as a jail alternative for prostitutes.

His involvement in post-Civil War related charitable work had special meaning for him. A Union soldier with NY's 111th Volunteer Infantry that had been organized by then Colonel/later General Jesse Segoine of Auburn, Drummond and others of the regiment became POWs during the Richmond-Petersburg campaign in October, 1864. They spent the next five months trying to survive conditions at two Confederacy hellholes: Libby Prison in Virginia and Salisbury Prison in North Carolina.

How Drummond's religious faith helped him through the experience and how the experience deepened his religious faith is retold in The Religious Pray, The Profane Swear: A Civil War Memoir.

It's a retelling because York College of Pennsylvania Professor Victor E. Taylor has taken Drummond's own little-known manuscript Personal Reminiscences of Prison Life During the War of the Rebellion and, without altering it, provided additional context, biographic and historical details, enhancing and revealing its real import as a story of the human spirit's struggle against humankind's own inhumanity.

How a Syracuse University class discussion about the Cayuga Museum of Art and History in Auburn led Taylor to take an interest in the Drummond manuscript is itself an interesting story told in the April 13, 2003 York Daily Record by Lori Badders and by a York College of Pennsylvania press announcement March 25, 2003. The Cayuga Museum's archives has a considerable amount of information and artifacts from Mr. Drummond's personal collection and its shop carries the book. Mr. Drummon's son headed the historic society for many years. Auburn has a street named Drummond Street where his farm used to be.

"The Home" -- as many Auburnians call it -- is still operating on Grant Avenue in Auburn, but as an assisted living facility for senior citizens. Cayuga Museum presents programs there.

The other men whose bio sketches appear on that same page are:

  • William Henry Hubbard, D.D., pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Auburn.
  • Albert W. Lawton, prominent in realestate transactions.
  • Charles G. Adams, Auburn Aldermanm, insurance agent, ex-County Clerk, .
  • William I. Baucus, businessman.
  • Sidney J. Westfall, ex-County Clerk, GOP leader
  • James G. Knapp, former railroad execeuctive.
  • John L. Alnutt, builder/contractor.
  • E. Clarence Aiken, Auburn Telephone Co. president, attorney.
  • George W. Nellis, former District Attorney.
  • H.T. Morrison, School Commissioner.
  • Edwin L. Thornton, retired from dairy and ice business.
  • Charles R. Carptenter, in lumber business.
  • Arthur E. Blauvett, secretary to Congressman.
  • Henry D. Parsell, attorney, ex-Supervisor.
  • James F. Ross, businessman.
  • Michael Patrick Conway, M.D., former Health Commissioner.
  • Frank Parsons, farmer and stock raiser.
  • Selah Cornwell Tallman, in livery, coach and undertaking businesses.
  • Danforth R. Lewis, Special County Judge.
  • Benjamin Martin Wilcox, State Senator. His bio sketch (right) makes mention of his being chairman of the State Senate Committee on Penal Institutions 1896 to 1902. He and his committee would have had interest and quite likely involvement in significant corectional developments during those years.

    A few key correction-related happenings in that timeframe include:

    • A 1896 law authorized recording and filing of measurements of all inmates (the Bertillon System) "confined or hereinafter received under sentence in the various State Prisons, Reformatory and penitentiaries." The Origins of the New York State Bureau of Identification by Michael Harling appears elsewhere on this site.
    • Starting in 1897 an amendment to the NYS Constitution required prison-made goods be "sold" to only state institutions. This "state-use-only" rule soom became the standard practice for prison industries in the nation.
    • Unlike the state's other reformatories, Eastern New York Reformatory at Napanoch in Ulster County was under the Prisons Department when it began operations Oct. 1, 1900. Its first older, stronger inmates from regular "hard labor" prisons -- 15 from Sing Sing and one from Auburn -- believed better able to perform the kind of work needed to complete construction of the new facility. In 1906, it was removed from the prisons agency's and placed under a special board of managers that also took on jurisdiction over Elmira Reformatory.

The original 2.2 Mb digital image Hecht created from scanning the Men of Affairs and Professions page (that presented bio sketches of Robert Loudon Drummond, State Senator Benjamin Martin Wilcox and the others named above) has a dpi of 96 and measures more than 22 inches wide and nearly 27 inches high. For the complete image, click on the Robert Loudon Drummond or tate Senator Benjamin Martin Wilcox bio text image (above right) or on the full page's URL:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com~springport/pictures49/4951.jpg

The original 1.6 Mb digital image Hecht created from scanning the Photographic Reproductions of Men of Affairs and Professions page (that presented photo portraits of Robert Loudon Drummond, State Senator Benjamin Martin Wilcox and the others named above) has a dpi of 96 and measures nearly 18 inches wide and more than 26 inches high. In the original publication, Photographic Reproductions of Men of Affairs and Professions appeared on a separate page (107) opposite the biographical texts page (106). For the complete page 107 image, click on either the Robert Loudon Drummond or State Senator Benjamin Martin Wilcox B&W head&shoulders image (above right) or on the full page's URL:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~springport/pictures49/4953.jpg

These digital images are copyrighted to William S. Hecht 2001 © and may be viewed and copied freely for non-comerical personal genealogy and family history research only.

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