History of Washington County New York United States of America

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Biographies:

Benjamin Sprague Cowen, representative, was born in Washington county, N.Y., Sept. 27. 1793; son of Joseph (a Revolutionary soldier) and Phoebe (Sprague) Cowen, and brother of Judge Esek Cowen (1787-1844). He was a teacher, a soldier in the war of 1812, and a medical student and practitioner. He removed to Moorfield, Ohio, in 1820, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. He became editor of the Belmont Chronicle, St. Clairsrills, Ohio, in 1839, and was succeeded as editor in 1848 by his son, Benjamin Rush Cowen. He was a delegate to the Whig national convention of 1839; a representative in the 27th congress, 1841-43; in the Ohio legislature, 1845-46; and president judge of the court of common pleas, 1847-52. In congress, on the expulsion of Joshua R. Giddings, he succeeded him as chairman of the committee on claims. He opposed the extension of slavery, favored the tariff of 1842, and supported Van Buren for the presidency in 1848. During the civil war he served on the commission to examine and report upon political prisoners. He was married in 1820 to Anne (1794-1865), daughter of David Wood of Washington county, N.Y., and their son, Daniel Duane Tompkins Cowen (1826-1884), was a lawyer, lieutenant-colonel of volunteers in the civil war, and judge of common pleas in 1865. Benjamin S. Cowen died in St. Clairsville, Ohio, Sept. 27, 1869.

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

James Irvine, educator, was born in Jackson, Washington county, N.Y., in 1793. He entered Union college, May 1, 1817, and was graduated, A.B., in 1819. He studied theology with Dr. Banks in Philadelphia, was licensed in September, 1822, by the Miami presbytery, and ordained, July 7, 1824, by the Cambridge presbytery. He was professor of mathematics in the Ohio university at Athens, 1819-22, and its president, 1822-23, continuing to hold the. chair of mathematics. Owing to ill-health, he was granted leave of absence in 1823, and never returned to the university. He was pastor at West Hebron, Washington county, N.Y., 1824-31, and of the Second church, New York city, 1831-35. He died in New York city, Nov. 25, 1835.

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

Luther Day, jurist, was born in Washington county, N.Y., July 9, 1813; son of David and Rhoda (Wheelock) Day; grandson of Noah and Alice (Whiting) Day, and of Amriah and Hanna (Warren) Wheelock; and a descendant of Anthony Day who landed at Gloucester in 1650. Both his grandfathers were Revolutionary soldiers, and his maternal grandmother was a kinswoman to Doctor Warren who fell at Bunker Hill Luther studied law under Rufus Paine Spaulding at Ravenna, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in 1838, practising at Ravenna. He was prosecuting attorney for Portage county, Ohio, 1843-51; judge of the court of common pleas, 1851-57; state senator, 1864-65; justice of the supreme court of Ohio, 1865-75, and for four years chief justice; commissioner to codify the state statutes, 1875-76; and supreme court commissioner, 1876-79. He was married to Emily, daughter of Judge Rufus Paine Spaulding, and had two children: William Rufus Day, who became secretary of state in President McKinley's cabinet, and Emily Swift Day After the death of his first wife Judge Day was married in 1854 to Ellen I. Barnes, and had four children: Charles, David, Robert, and Anna. Judge Day received the degree of LL. D. from Mount Union college, Ohio, in 1868. He died in Ravenna, Ohio, March 8, 1885.

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

George Law, financier, was born in Jackson, Washington county, N.Y., Oct. 25, 1806; son of John Law, wire emigrated to America from county Down, Ireland, in 1784. He worked on his father's farm and attended the district schools until 1824, when he walked to Troy, where he obtained employment as a hod-carrier. He learned the trade of mason and stone-cutter at Hoosick, N.Y., and engaged in that business in Troy. He was employed on the Delaware and Hudson canal at Kingston, N.Y., in 1827; was a quarryman in Pennsylvania, and worked on a canal in Norfolk, Va., until 1828, when he removed to New York city and was employed on the construction of the Harlem canal. In 1829 he returned to Pennsylvania, and in a few years gained a high reputation as a contractor. In 1837 he entered bids for three sections of the Croton aqueduct, New York, obtaining two of them, and in 1839 he was awarded the contract for building the high bridge across the Harlem river. He was elected president of the Dry Dock bank in 1842, and he subsequently purchased the Harlem railroad and extended it from Williams Bridge to White Plains, N.Y., greatly increasing the value of its stock. In 1843 he engaged in the steamship business, and in 1849 was the first to carry passengers from New York to Ch?gres, Panama, and when the Pacific Mail Steamship company started an opposition route from New York to the isthmus, he organized a Pacific line to run from Panama to San Francisco. In 1851 he sold out his Pacific line to the Pacific Mail Steamship company, purchased their Atlantic line, and established a steamship route to Havana. He was interested in the project for the construction of a railroad across the isthmus of Panama in 1851; purchased the franchise of the Eighth Avenue street railroad in New York city in 1852, and completed the road within thirty days. He also built other street railroads, and became proprietor of the steam ferry between Staten Island and New York city and of two ferries between New York city and Brooklyn. In 1855 he was suggested as an available candidate for President of the United States on the Native American ticket, and was supported by several journals. He died in New York city, Nov. 18, 1881.

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

History of Washington County New York

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