History of Cuba, (Allegany County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

William Orton, publisher and financier, was born in Cuba, N.Y., June 14, 1826; son of Horatio and Sarah (Carson) Orton; grandson of John and Ruth (Norton) Orton; great-grandson of Samuel and Ruth (Mason) Orton, and a descendant of Thomas and Margaret (Pratt) Orton. William Orton was graduated at the State Normal school, Albany, N.Y., in 1847, and engaged in teaching school until 1850, when he was married to Agnes J. Gillespie of Buffalo, N.Y., and entered the employ of George Derby & Co., publishers, taking charge of the business in Geneva, N.Y. On the death of George Derby in 1852, the firm became Derby, Orton & Co. In 1856 the business, as Miller, Orton & Co., was transferred to New York city and in 1857 went into liquidation. Mr. Orton subsequently became managing clerk for J. G. Gregory & Co., publishers; was appointed collector of internal revenue for the sixth district of New York by President Lincoln in 1862, and U.S. commissioner of internal revenue, with headquarters at Washington, D.C., in 1865. He resigned this office after a few months, to accept the presidency of the United States Telegraph company, and after the consolidation of that corporation with the Western Union Telegraph company in 1866, was vice-president, 1866-67, and president from 1867 up to the time of his death. He established the Journal of Telegraphy in 1867, and secured for the Western Union Telegraph company a monopoly of telegraph lines in the United States, making the earnings of the company very large. He died in New York city, April 22, 1878.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Charles Henry Morgan, representative, was born in Cuba, Allegany county, N.Y., July 5, 1843; son of Henry C. and Lurancy (Swift) Morgan and grandson of Col. Samuel H. Morgan, a native of Vermont, who settled in Allegany county in 1811. He removed to a farm in Wisconsin with his parents in early childhood, and was educated in the public schools and at the Fond-du-Lac high school. He enlisted as a private in the 1st Wisconsin infantry in 1861, and was sergeant and sergeant-major, and in 1862 was transferred to the 21st Wisconsin volunteers, where he rose to the rank of captain; served with the Army of the Cumberland until taken prisoner at Chickamauga, Sept. 20, 1863; escaped from prison five times, being recaptured four times and reaching the Union lines near Columbia, S.C., Feb. 22, 1865. He was gradated at the Albany, N.Y., Law school, in 1866; settled in practice in Lamar, Mo.; was prosecuting attorney of Barton county. 1868-72, and a representative in the state legislature, 1872-74. He was a Democratic representative from the twelfth district of Missouri in the 44th, 45th and 48th congresses, 1875-79 and 1883-85; and from the fifteenth district in the 53d congress, 1893-95; a delegate to the Democratic national convention of 1880, and a Democratic elector-at large for Missouri in 1888. He was lieutenant-colonel, 5th Missouri volunteer infantry, in the war with Spain, 1898.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

James Burton Pond, lecture manager, was born in Cuba Allegany county, N.Y., June 11, 1838; son of Willard Elmer and Clarissa (Woodford) Pond; grandson of Philip and Anna (Adams) Pond and of James Woodford; great-grandson of Jonathan Pond, and great-great-grandson of Phineas Pond, who came from England in 1794 and settled in Branford, Conn. James Burton Pond removed to Illinois in 1844 and in 1847 to Fond du Lac, Wis., when in 1853 he learned the printers' trade. In 1856 he traveled in the west as a journeyman printer, and in 1860-61, he published the Journall at Markesan, Wis. He joined the 3d Wisconsin cavalry as lieutenant in 1861, and served throughout the civil war, rising to the rank of major. After the war he engaged in business as a merchant until 1874, when with George Hathaway, he purchased the Redpath Lyceum Lecture bureau, Boston. In 1879 he removed to New York, and established business on his own account. Among the many noted lecturers introduced and managed by him may be mentioned: Emerson, Lowell, Gough, Phillips, Sumner, Talmage, Mrs. Livermore, Anna Dickinson, Mrs. Stanton, Henry M. Stanley, Thomas Nast, Max O'Rell, "Mark Twain," "Bill Nye," Sir Edwin Arnold, W. D. Howells, F. Marion Crawford, Hall Caine, the Rev. Dr. John Watson ("Inn Maclaren"), Ernest Thompson Solon, and Sir Robert Ball. He was twice married: first, Jan. 21, 1859, to Ann Frances, daughter of Thomas and Anna Lynch of Janesville, Wis.; she died in December, 1871. He was married secondly, March 10, 1888, to Martha Marion, daughter of William H. and Sabina Glass of Jersey City, N.J. He was elected to membership in numerous patriotic and social organizations. He is the author of: A Summer in England with Henry Ward Beecher ; Eccentricities of Genius (1900). He died in Jersey city, N.J., June 21, 1903.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor