History of Auburn, (Cayuga County) New York United States of America

AUBURN, a beautiful city, capital of Cayuga county, New York, on the line of railroad connecting Albany and Buffalo, 174 miles W., from the former, and 152 miles E. from the latter. It is 2? miles N. by W. from Owasco lake, the outlet of which flows through the town. Lat. 42? 53? N., lon. 76? 40? W. The site of this town is somewhat uneven, and the streets present some deviations from a rectangular plan. They are generally wide, well shaded, and furnished with good sidewalks. The city on the whole is very handsomely built, and adorned with beautiful gardens, as well as with ornamental shrubs and trees. The principal public buildings and mercantile houses are on Genesee street. They are mostly built of brick or stone, and have 3 or 4 stories. Auburn is the seat of a theological seminary, founded in 1821, under the direction of the Presbyterians, with a library of 6000 volumes. The whole number educated in this institution is 580. It contains 8 churches, viz. 2 Presbyterian, 1 Episcopalian, 1 Methodist, 1 Baptist, 1 Universalist, 1 Second Advent, and 1 Roman Catholic, the Auburn Academy, 3 banks, and 6 or 7 newspaper offices. The Auburn State Prison has acquired much celebrity for its peculiar system of prison discipline. The building is a large and costly stone structure, enclosed by a wall, which measures 500 feet on each side, and about 30 feet in height. The number of convicts sometimes amounts to more than 600. They are employed in a variety of manufactures, the annual proceeds of which are generally sufficient, it is said, to defray the expenses of the establishment. The Auburn Academy has from 75 to 100 students, and is furnished with good apparatus and cabinets of natural history. There are 5 public free-schools, all in a flourishing condition. The principal hotels are the American, the Auburn House, and the Western Exchange. The Owasco outlet furnishes extensive water-power, which is employed in the town or its immediate vicinity, in manufactories of cotton, wool, carpets, iron, and paper, and in mills of various kinds. A railroad is in course of construction from Auburn to Ithaca, a distance of 40 miles. Population, in 1850, 9548 1853, about 10,500.

Biographies:

Frederick Rogers Graves, fifth missionary bishop of Shanghai and 168th in succession in the American episcopate, was born in Auburn, N.Y., Oct. 24, 1858; son of Samuel S. and Elizabeth A. (Willson) Graves. He was graduated at Hobart, A.B., 1878, A.M., 1881, and from the General theological seminary, New York, B.D., 1881. He was made deacon by Bishop Horatio Potter at St. Paul's chapel, New York city, June 12, 1881, went to China as a missionary, and was ordained priest in the church of Our Savior, Hong-Kew, Kiangsu, Oct. 28, 1882, by Bishop C. M. Williams. He was for a short time at St. John's college, Shanghai, and was then appointed to Wu-chang, China. He was elected missionary bishop of Shanghai at a special meeting of the General convention held in New York city in March, 1893, and was consecrated June 14, 1893, by Bishops Littlejohn, Lyman, Dudley, Scarborough, Peterkin. Coleman, Kinsolving and Barry. The degree of D.D. was conferred on him by the General theological seminary in 1893. He published Missionary Reports and Translations.

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

Susan A. Edson, physician, was born in Auburn, N.Y., Jan. 4, 1823. She was graduated at the Cleveland homoeopathic college, March 1, 1854, and established herself in practice in Auburn. Upon the outbreak of the civil war she volunteered as a nurse and went to Washington, D.C., where she worked in the hospitals about the national capital, extending her visits to Fort Monroe and the camps on the peninsula. At the close of the war she returned to Auburn, where she again took up her practice, and in 1872 she removed to Washington, D.C., and there answered such professional calls as the condition of her failing health permitted. When President Garfield was shot she was summoned to his bedside where she was a continuous attendant. For this service congress voted her $3000. She was for many years before and after the assassination physician of the Garfield family. She died in Washington, D.C., Nov. 12, 1897.

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

Frank Landon Humphreys, clergyman, was born in Auburn, N.Y., June 16, 1858; son of Dr. Frederick and Frances (Sperry) Humphreys; grandson of Dr. Erastus Humphreys, and a descendant of Col. David Humphreys, aide to Washington, 1780, and of Capt. Michael Humphreys, who raised the first company of light dragoons in colonial service, 1643-1690. He attended Columbia college, New York, and Oxford university in England; was ordained a minister in the Protestant Episcopal church in 1879; was rector in New Jersey, 1879-85; precentor and minister in charge of the Cathedral of the Incarnation at Garden City, Long Island, N.Y., 1885-90; general chaplain of the Society of the Cincinnati from 1896; and chaplain of the veteran corps of artillery and the naval order of the United States. He was also made chaplain of the U.S. Military academy in 1896, and of the New Jersey State Society of the Cincinnati. He was elected general secretary of the church university board of regents in 1894, and was made canon of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York city, in 1899. He received the degrees of A.M. and Mus. Doc. from St. Stephen's college in 1888, and that of S.T.D. from Hobart college in 1894. He is the author of: The Evolution of Church Music (1896); Men of Understanding (1897); Mystery of the Passion (1898); Carols and Caroling (1899) and contributions to church periodicals.

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

Dio Lewis, reformer and author, was born in Auburn, N.Y., March 3, 1823; son of Maj. John C. and Delecta (Barbour) Lewis. He received a limited education; worked in a factory, 1835-38; taught school, 1838-41, and studied medicine in Auburn, N.Y., 1841-44, and in the medical department of Harvard, 1845. While in Boston, Mass., he assisted in editing The Genius of Christianity. He settled in the practice of medicine at Port Byron, N.Y., where he married, July 11, 1849, Helen Cecelia, daughter of Dr. Peter Clark. He removed to Buffalo, N.Y.; adopted homeopathy and published The Homeopathist there, 1848-53. He lectured on hygiene and physiology in New York, Virginia and Kentucky, 1853-55, and settled in Boston, Mass., in June, 1860, where he founded the Boston normal physical training school in 1861 and established a sanitarium which was transferred to Lexington, Mass., in 1864, where he also established a school. He built Hotel Bellevue on Beacon street, Boston, in 1868, and leased it as a temperance hotel, and he also opened the first Turkish baths in Boston. He published Today at Philadelphia, Pa., 1871-72. He was in California, 1875-78, and in 1879 established a sanitarium at Arlington Heights, Mass., which he conducted, 1879-81. In 1881 he removed to New York city and later to Yonkers, N.Y. He travelled extensively lecturing on hygiene and temperance, and he originated the women's temperance crusade in Ohio. In 1883 he established Dio Lewis's Monthly, and also Dio Lewis's Treasury in 1886. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Amherst college in 1864. He is the author of: New Gymnastics (1862); Weak Lungs and How to Make Them Strong (1863); Our Digestion (1865); Talks about People's Stomachs (1870); Our Girls (1871); Chastity (1872); Young Women (1874); Prohibition a Failure (1875); Gypsies (1881); In a Nutshell (1883). He died in Yonkers, N.Y., May 21, 1886.

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

History of Auburn, (Cayuga County) New York

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