History of Chatham, (Columbia County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

John Delamater, physician, was born in Chatham, N.Y., April 18, 1787. His early life was passed in Duanesburg, N.Y., where he studied medicine, and was licensed to practise in 1806. He practised in his native town until 1815 when he removed to Sheffield, Mass. In 1823 he became a professor in the Berkshire medical institute, and resigned his chair in 1827 to accept one in the medical school at Fairfield, N.Y. He was professor of the theory and practice of medicine at Bowdoin college, Maine, 1829-32, and 1840-41, and held a similar chair in Dartmouth, 1836-38. In 1835 he removed to Willoughby, Ohio, where he taught in the medical institute. In 1842 he went to Cleveland, where he helped to found the Cleveland medical college, in which he became a professor. He resigned in 1860, was elected professor emeritus, and received the degree of LL.D. from Western Reserve University. He died in Cleveland, Ohio, March 28, 1867.

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

Amos Eaton, botanist, was born in Chatham, N.Y., May 17, 1776; son of Capt. Abel and Azuba (Hurd) Eaton; grandson of Nathaniel and Esther (Perry) Eaton; and great-grandson of Thomas and Lydia (Gay) Eaton. His father was a farmer, and his cousin, William Eaton, two years his senior and afterward the celebrated general and U.S. naval agent, was a college graduate. This fact induced Amos's parents to give their son an equal start in life. He had delivered a Fourth of July oration in his native town when fourteen years old, was a skillful land surveyor and was advanced in natural philosophy. He was graduated at Williams college in 1799 and established himself as a lawyer in Catskill, N.Y., in 1802. He was diverted from his law practice by his appointment as surveyor and agent for the Livingstons in the management of their estates in Columbia and Dutchess counties, N.Y. This gave him leisure for study and he became advanced in botany, chemistry and mineralogy. He was popular as a lecturer on these sciences and besides speaking in the various cities in New York and New England and before the state legislature of New York at the request of General Clinton in 1818, he was appointed lecturer before the classes of Williams college, 1817, and professor of chemistry, natural history and natural philosophy in the Castleton, Vt., medical college in 1820. He was employed by Stephen Van Rensselaer in 1820 to make a geological and agricultural survey of the line of counties between Albany and the Niagara Falls and in 1824, when the Rensselaer school (afterward the Rensselaer polytechnic institute) was projected by his patron, he was selected as its first principal and senior professor, holding the office, 1824-42. He was thrice married: first in 1803 to Sally, daughter of Eleazer and Tryphena (Beebe) Cady, and sister of Judge Daniel Cady; second, Oct. 20. 1816, to Anne, daughter of Lewis and Lydia (Woodin) Bradley; and third, Aug. 5, 1827, to Alice, daughter of Benjamin and Alice (Smith) Johnson. He received his A.M. degree from Williams in 1802. A list of his books includes: Art Without Science (1800); An Elementary Treatise on Botany (1810); Manual of Botany (1817); Botanical Dictionary (1817); Index to the Geology of the Northern States (1818); Geological and Agricultural Survey of the County of Albany, N. Y. (1820); Botanical Exercises (1820); Chemical Notebook (1821); Chemical Instruction (1822) ; Cuvier's Grand Division (1822); Zo?logical Syllabus and Notebook (1822); Geological Nomenclature of North America (1822); Geological and Agricultural Survey of the District adjoining the Erie Canal (1824); Philosophical Instruction (1824); Geological Text-Books (1830); and Directions for Surveying and Engineering (1838). He died in Troy, N.Y., May 6, 1842.

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

Ariovistus Pardee, philanthropist, was born in Chatham, N.Y., Nov. 19, 1810; son of Ariovistus and Eliza (Platt) Pardee; grandson of Dr. Calvin Pardee, who served in the Continental army as a surgeon, and of Capt. Israel Platt, who served in the New York line, and married Abigal Scudder; and a descendant of George Pardee, of Huguenot descent, who settled in New Haven, Conn., in 1644, and of Martha Miles his wife. Ariovistus Pardee, Jr., was brought up on a farm, attended the district school, and was a employed as rodman and assistant engineer on the Delaware and Raritan canal in New Jersey, 1830-33. He was chief engineer in the survey of the Beaver Meadow railroad, Pennsylvania, 1833-37, and builder and superintendent of the Hazelton railroad, 1837-40. He founded the city of Hazelton, Pa., in 1836; settled there in 1840, bought anthracite coal properties in the Jeddo district, and in a few years became the largest shipper of anthracite coal in the state. He also engaged with Asa Packer in the development of coal mines, manufactures and railroads in the Lehigh Valley. He built a gravity railroad to Penn Haven in 1848, as an outlet to the product of the mines, which was abandoned in 1860 for the improved facilities of the Lehigh Valley railroad. He became interested in iron manufactures, and acquired control of the blast furnaces in Stanhope, N.J., and subsequently of others in New York, Virginia and Tennessee. He purchased a tract of forest land in Canada, as large as the state of Rhode Island, and another tract in North Carolina. He was president of the Secaucus and the Musconetcong Iron Works in New Jersey; the Allentown Rolling Mills, and the Union Iron Works of Buffalo, N.Y., and a director of the Lehigh Valley, and other railroads. He fitted out at his own expense a company of U.S. volunteers commanded by his eldest son Ario Pardee, who attained the brevet rank of brigadier-general, Jan. 12, 1865. Through the influence of William C. Cattell, president of Lafayette college, he contributed in 1864 the sum of $20,000, which prevented the college from closing its doors for want of funds. He endowed the professorship of mathematics in 1864, and the Pardee scientific department in 1866. This was followed by further donations amounting in 1869 to $200,000. He afterward gave $250,000 for Pardee Hall, the corner stone of which he laid in 1873, and for the scientific equipment of which he gave $50,000 in all. The building was destroyed by fire in 1879, when it was rebuilt. He was president of the board of trustees of Lafayette college, 1882-92; president of the state board controlling the second geological survey of Pennsylvania, and a presidential elector in 1876. His benefactions extended to various charitable organizations of which he was an officer. He was married, first, to Elizabeth, daughter of John and Ellen Jacobs of Luzerne county, and secondly, in 1849, to Anna Maria, daughter of William Robinson of Bloomsbury, Pa. He died while on a visit to Rock Ledge, Indian River, Fla., March 26, 1892.

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