History of Cooperstown, (Otsego County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

Joseph Francis, inventor, was born in Boston, Mass., March 12. 1801. He developed a peculiar skill as a boat builder and when eleven years old exhibited his handiwork. In 1819 he was the prize winner for a fast row boat, exhibited at the Mechanics' institute fair, Boston. When he reached his majority he established a boat-yard in New York city. He built wooden life-boats for the Santee and for the Alabama at the Portsmouth navy yard, but won his greatest reputation as designer of life-boats, life-cars and surf-lifeboats adopted by the life saving service and constructed from iron. At this time, 1842, only wooden boats were supposed to be practicable. His metallic life-car was built at his own expense and furnished to the life-saving station at Squan Beach, N.J., the crew saving 200 of the 201 persons on the Ayrshire, which was wrecked on the beach in January, 1850; and during the first four years, 1850-53, of the use of his life-boats, 2150 lives were saved. His inventions were adopted by the governments of every civilized nation in constructing life-saving apparatus, steamships, floating docks, harbor-buoys, pontoon bridges and wagons and other marine devices, from corrugated sheet-metal. The sovereigns of Europe recognized his genius long before the U.S. congress honored him, and in 1842 he was presented with medals and diplomas by the life-saving societies of France, of England and of the Imperial Royal European society. He received a gold snuff box set in diamonds, valued at 17,500 francs, from Napoleon III. in 1856, and was made a Knight of St. Stanislaus in 1861. The congress of the United States recognized his "life-long services to humanity and his country" in March, 1887, and in August, 1888, ordered a special gold medal to be struck and presented to him as "the inventor and framer of the means for life-saving service of the country." President Harrison presented the medal, which cost $3000, April 12, 1890, when Mr. Francis was in his ninetieth year. He published Life Saving Appliances (1885). He died at Cooperstown, N.Y., May 10, 1893.

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

Omar Dwight Conger, senator, was born at Cooperstown, N.Y., April 11, 1818; son of the Rev. Enoch and Esther (West) Conger. He was taken to Huron county, Ohio, in 1824, and was prepared for college at Huron institute. He entered the Western Reserve university from Plymouth, Richland county, Ohio, and was graduated in 1841. He was employed on the geological survey of the Lake Superior copper and iron regions, 1845-47, and in 1848 settled at Port Huron, Mich., as a lawyer. In 1850 he was appointed judge of the St. Clair county court and in 1855 was elected state senator, holding the office until 1859, acting as president pro tempore of that body during the last year of his service. He was a presidential elector in 1864, and a member of the state constitutional convention of 1867. He was a representative from Michigan in the 41st-47th congresses, 1869-81, becoming an acknowledged leader in the house. In 1881 he was elected U.S. senator, and after the expiration of his senatorial term in 1887 he opened a law office in Washington, D. C., where he practised until his death. Western Reserve conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. in 1879. He died in Ocean City, Md., July 11, 1898.

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

Theodore Lewis Mason, physician and surgeon, was born in Cooperstown, N.Y., Sept. 30, 1803; son of David and Mary Elizabeth (Lewis) Mason; grandson of the Rev. Dr. Isaac Lewis, and a descendant of Maj. John Mason, the founder of Norwich, Conn. After receiving a classical education he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York city, registering his name in the office of Dr. David Hosack. His degree of M.D. was conferred in 1825. He practised in Wilton, Conn., for a few years, and returned to New York city, where he married, in 1833, Katharine Van Vliet, daughter of Peter De Witt, lawyer, and removed in 1834 to Brooklyn, N.Y., in which city he was a practitioner, 1834-82. He was president of the Kings County Medical society, 1842-43; a founder of Brooklyn city hospital, 1845; the Long Island College hospital, 1861, and president of the collegiate department, 1861-82; a member of the Citizens' association of New York to further the passage of the Metropolitan health bill in 1864; an incorporator and first president of the Inebriates' home of Kings county, 1866; a founder of the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates, 1870, and president of the association for several years from 1875. He was also a permanent member of the Medical Society of the State of New York; resident fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine; delegate to the international medical convention, Philadelphia, 1876, and founder, life member and director of the Long Island Historical society. He was a member of the Reformed Dutch church. His address, Inebriety a Disease, was quoted as authority in the British house of commons in arguments supporting a bill for the establishment of inebriate homes. He died in Brooklyn, N.Y., Feb. 12, 1882.

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

Rensselaer Russel Nelson, jurist, was born in Cooperstown, N.Y., May 12, 1826; son of Judge Samuel and Catherine Ann (Russell) Nelson; grandson of John Rogers and Jean (McArthur) Nelson and of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Russell, and a descendant of John Nelson, who emigrated from Ballingarry, Ireland, and settled in Salem, N.Y., in 1762. He was graduated at Yale, 1846; was admitted to the bar in 1849; began practice in Buffalo, N.Y.; in 1850 removed to St. Paul, Minn., and engaged in practice there. He was appointed associate judge of the supreme court of Minnesota territory in 1857, and upon its admission as a state was appointed district judge of Minnesota by President Buchanan, May 11, 1858, holding the office until May 16, 1896, when he resigned. He was at the time the oldest Federal judge in the service of the United States. He was married, Nov. 3, 1858, to Emma, daughter of Washington Beebee of New York state. In 1901 he was made the candidate of the Democratic party in the Minnesota legislature for U.S. senator.

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