History of Little Falls, (Herkimer County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

Lester Anthony Beardslee, naval officer, was born at Little Falls, N.Y. Feb. 1, 1836. He was warranted midshipman March 5, 1850, and served in the East Indies until January, 1855, participated in one battle and several skirmishes with the Chinese at Shanghai, and from October; 1855, to June, 1856, was stationed at the naval academy at Annapolis. He was promoted passed midshipman June 20, 1856; master, Jan. 22, 1858, and lieutenant, July 23, 1859. From 1860 to 1863 he was on the sloop Germantown on the coast of Africa. He was promoted lieutenant-commander July 16, 1862, serving until 1863 with the North Atlantic squadron. He participated in the attack on the defences of Charleston harbor, April 7, 1863, and in October, 1864, assisted in capturing the Confederate steamer Florida, of which vessel he was made commander, taking her to Hampton Roads, Va. From 1865 to 1869 he served in the West Indies, in the East India squadron, and in the Pacific squadron. On June 12, 1869, he was commissioned commander. He served in the hydrographic office in the navy department at Washington, 1869-'70; on the steam-tug Palos, April, 1870, to January, 1871; in the hydrographic office, 1871-'72; in the navy yard at Washington, 1872-'75; on the United States board for testing iron, steel and other metals, 1875-'79; commanding the sloop Jamestown, 1879-'80. He was promoted captain, Nov. 26, 1880; commodore, Jan. 23, 1894; rear-admiral, May 21, 1895. He commanded the Franklin, the Powhattan and the Vermont respectively. In November, 1891, he was placed in command of the naval station, Port Royal, S.C., and was transferred to San Diego, Cal. He was retired Feb. 1, 1898, on which occasion a water carnival was given in his honor in the bay of San Diego, Cal., in which three British and six United States naval vessels took part, and a land parade which included upwards of sixty thousand soldiers and sailors.

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

James Cephas Derby, publisher, was born in Little Falls, N.Y., July 20, 1818; son of Benjamin and Lucetta (Smith) Derby; grandson of Benjamin and Constant (Hamilton) Derby, and a descendant from Roger Derby, the English immigrant, who settled in Ipswich, Mass., in 1671, and subsequently became a shipping merchant in Salem, Mass. James C. was educated in the grammar school at Herkimer, N.Y., and in 1833 was apprenticed to Henry Ivison as a bookbinder, soon finding more congenial employment as a clerk in the bookstore. On reaching his majority he was aided by Mr. Ivison in establishing a bookselling business on his own account. His brothers, George, Henry W., and Chauncey, subsequently established with him branch bookstores in Geneva and Buffalo, N.Y., Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ohio, and San Francisco, Cal. He established the first subscription book business west of New York and had as partners at various times, Nelson Beardsley, Norman C. Miller, William Orton and James Jackson. He removed his business from Auburn, N.Y., to New York city in 1853, and the firm of Derby & Jackson failed in 1861 by reason of a large credit extended to southern booksellers who were customers for his popular books by noted southern authors. He brought out a remarkable list of successful authors, publishing the first books of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Henry Ward Beecher, Phoebe and Alice Cary, Augusta J. Evans, S. G. Goodrich, "Marion Harland," B. P. Shillaber ("Mrs. Partington"), Mrs. F. M. Whitcher ("Widow Bedott"), Henry Wickoff, and many others. His intimate acquaintance with literary and public men and women extended to every section of the United States, and besides the prominent authors of his time included such public men as Millard Fillmore, William H. Seward, Alexander H. Stephens, Jefferson Davis, George Bancroft, Commodore Vanderbilt, William H. Appleton, Horace Greeley, William Cullen Bryant and George W. Childs. He was U.S. commissioner for the Paris exposition of 1868 and received from Napoleon III. gold and bronze medals "for services." He was U.S. dispatch agent for the state department at New York in 1864-65, and transmitted by steamer to Charles Francis Adams, U.S. minister to Great Britain, the official dispatches giving to the old world the intelligence of the assassination of President Lincoln. He was an associate National academician and one of the early members of the Century association. He was married in 1839 to Lavanchie White, daughter of Isaac and Belinda Fitch of Cooperstown, N.Y. ,who died Oct. 12, 1880. He wrote: Fifty Years Among Authors, Books and Publishers (1884). He died in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the home of his daughter, Mrs. John Howard Brown, Sept. 22, 1892.

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

Stephen Haskins Carpenter, educator, was born in Little Falls, N. Y., Aug. 7, 1831. He was graduated at the University of Rochester in 1852, when he removed to Madison, Wis., and served as a tutor in the University of Wisconsin. He did excellent service from 1858 to 1860 as assistant superintendent of public instruction for Wisconsin. In 1860 he was appointed professor of ancient languages in St. Paul's college, Palmyra, Mo. On the opening of the civil war the college was closed and he returned to Wisconsin, where for a time he earned his support as a compositor. He was city clerk of Madison from 1864 to 1868. Later he filled the chair of rhetoric and English literature in the University of Wisconsin, and afterwards that of logic and English literature. In 1871 he declined the position of president of the University of Kansas. He published many valuable treatises, including: Moral Forces in Education; twelve lectures on the Evidences of Christianity; The Metaphysical Basis of Sciences; The Philosophy of Evolution; English of the Fourteenth Century (1872); An Introduction to the Study of Anglo-Saxon (1875); and The Elements of English Analysis (1877). He died in Geneva, N. Y., Dec. 7, 1878.

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

Edward Chauncey Marshall, author, was born in Little Falls. N.Y., July 8, 1824. He was a descendant of Edward Marshall who settled in Boston, Mass., in 1634. He was graduated at Geneva college, valedictorian, A.B., 1843, A.M., 1846. He was a tutor in mathematics there, 1845-47; tutor at the U.S. Military academy, West Point, 1847-49; the New York Free academy, 1849-52, and professor in the Episcopal High school, Alexandria, Va., 1852-55. He was admitted to the diaconate of the P.E. church in 1855 and to the priesthood in 1856 and was deposed in 1867. He was an officer in the U.S. customhouse in Virginia, 1867-71, and in the New York custom-house, 1871-75. He was editorially connected with the New York daily newspapers, 1875-85, and in 1885 became a financial agent of the American Protective League. He invented the rubber arctic overshoe while at Geneva college and subsequently a dial plate for registering fares in street-car lines. He is the author of: Book of Oratory (1852); History of the U.S. Naval Academy (1862); Ancestry of General Grant (1869); Are West Polar Graduates Loyal (1862). He died in New York city, Nov. 5, 1898.

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