STATE GEOLOGIST AND PALEONTOLOGIST. JAMES HALL, B. N. S., A. M., M. D., LL.D.* mained in the school as Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Natural Sciences until 1836, when he was made Professor of Geology, a title which he still retains, although he has retired from active participation in instruc tion. This distinguished man of science | sults of his work in this special departwas born of English parents at Hing- ment of natural science are embodied ham, Mass., September 12, 1811. In- in eight (bound in thirteen) quarto terested as a boy in all phases of volumes, the last of which appeared natural science, at the age of 20 he in the year 1894. One of the most imentered the Rensselaer School at Troy portant results of the long-continued (now the Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti- investigation has been the fortificatute), where the inspiring instruction tion and establishment of the classifiof Prof. Amos Eaton, supplemented tion and nomenclature of the New by the encouragement and wise coun-York rock formations as proposed by sel of the founder, the Hon. Stephen the geologists of the original survey. Van Rensselaer, directed his activity This comprehensive study of New permanently into the field of geology. York geology demanded an extension Upon his graduation, in 1832. he re- of his investigations beyond the limits of the State, and the prosecution of these in the Mississippi Valley and the Northwest led to his appointment as State Geologist of Iowa in 1855, and of Wisconsin in 1857. In 1855 he was offered by Sir W. G. Logan, the Government Geologist of Canada, the charge of the paleontological work of that survey, but declined the position. Notwithstanding, he undertook certain work under the auspices of the survey, and has made reports at various times for explorations and surveys conducted by the Federal Government, e. g., Fremont's Exploring Expedition (1845), Stansbury's Expedition to the Great Salt Lake (1852), Emory's United States and Mexican Boundary Survey (1857), U. S. Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel (1877). In 1866 he was made Director of the New York State Museum of Natural History, and in 1893 was recommissioned by Governor Flower State Geologist and Palæontologist, this appointment having been for twenty years previous in the control of the Regents of the University. At the organization of the Geological Survey of the State of New York, in 1836, which may be regarded as in a large degree the direct outcome of the influence of the Rensselaer School upon public sentiment, Prof. Hall was appointed by Governor Marcy Assistant to the Geologist in charge of the Second District (the Adirondack region), and in the following year, when the four districts of the State were redrawn, he was made State Geologist in charge of the Fourth District, which included the region from the meridian of Cayuga Lake to the west line of the State. After a series of annual reports, he made his final report, a large quarto volume, in 1843. In the same year, upon the resignation of Mr. T. A. Conrad, the Palæontologist of the Survey, Prof. Hall was appointed by Governor Bouck to take charge of this work. The re * Hamilton College, Harvard University, McGill University. Prof. Hall has been the recipient of Wollaston medal of the Geological many academic degrees and titles Society of London, in 1881 the Recordo of distinction. Harvard, Hamilton, di Benemerenza, and, in 1882, the Union, The College of Maryland and Order dei Santi Maurizio Lazzaro, from the Rensselaer Institute has conferred the King of Italy; in 1884 the Walker these. He has been President of the prize of $1,000 from the Boston Society American Association for the Ad- of Natural History, and in 1890 the vancement of Science, and of the Hayden medal from the Academy of Geological Society of America, and Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Vice-President of the International Besides his larger works he is the Congress of Geologists. He is a mem- author of about 250 separate papers on ber of about forty scientific societies, subjects pertaining to geology and in many of which his membership is palæontology, honorary. In 1858 he received the THE SUPERINTENDENT OF INSURANCE. LOUIS F. PAYN. Louis F. Payn, the Superintendent | adherence, but Payn declined to give of the Insurance Department, was any pledge of support. To all resoluborn on January 27, 1835, in Chatham, tions of instructions telling him to Columbia county, where he still lives. vote for Conkling, he would reply in For many years he has been the lead- the county convention by a motion to ing Republican politician of the county. proceed to ballot for delegates to the Before he was of age even, he was a State Convention, at which delegates power in Columbia county politics. were to be elected to the National The Republican who had been elected Republican Convention. Mr. Payn carSheriff waited from January 1, 1856, ried his own county and the rest of the until January 27th, before appointing Congressional district, and, therefore, a deputy, in order that Mr. Payn was able to elect himself a delegate to might become of age and take the Cincinnati. In the convention he voted. place, which was, of course, his first for Roscoe, Conkling until he saw that political office. Reuben E. Fenton, as the latter could not be nominated, Governor, in 1867, appointed Mr. Payn when he, with some other members of a Harbor Master of New York. As the New York delegation, voted for might be expected, therefore, Harbor James G. Blaine. Master Payn zealously supported Mr. Fenton when he was a successful candidate for United States Senator in 1869. When the Democrats came into power under Governor Hoffman they appointed a Democrat to succeed Mr. Payn as Harbor Master, and the latter went back to Chatham. In 1872 he parted from Mr. Fenton on account of the latter's support of Horace Greeley for President. Although separated from Mr. Fenton, Mr. Payn did not join the Republican faction of which Roscoe Conkling was the head, and he resisted successfully all the efforts of Conkling and his supporters to oust him from the leadership in Columbia county. In 1876, when Conkling was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President, a desperate attempt was made by the Conkling machine to secure his Mr. Conkling did not like this support of Blaine by Payn, and soon showed his resentment by declining to suggest to President Grant his appointment as United States Marshal for the southern district of New York. But when President Grant nominated Mr. Payn for the place, Conkling seemed to recollect Mr. Payn's support of himself for President, and, whirling about, he asked all the Democratic Senators as a personal favor to him to vote for Mr. Payn's confirmation. Mr. Payn was confirmed as United States Marshal, in February, 1877, just before President Hayes assumed office. Mr. Payn recently recalled an interesting episode connected with this appointment. "I was badly in debt," he said, "and it was deemed best for me to go through a bankruptcy court before my name was submitted to the Senate. I, therefore, was put in a labored hard to bring about their rebetter position to withstand any at-election. Mr. Payn's intimacy with tacks upon me. During my term of Mr. Conkling and Mr. Platt can be office as United States Marshal I paid appreciated when it is remembered off $90,000 of debts, which, in view of that he carried their letter to Govthese bankruptcy proceedings, I could ernor Cornell resigning their places as have avoided paying. But they were Senators. Up to the very moment in debts of honor, and, therefore, I paid the Republican caucus when Warner Miller was nominated over Roscoe After the long fight was ended, Mr. at them." Mr. Payn's term as United States Marshal expired in March, 1881, just before President Garfield assumed office, and he was reappointed by a 66 Mr. Payn and Frank S. Black were always warm friends. They resided in the same Congressional district when Mr. Black was sent to Congress and Mr. Black's nomination then as well as his nomination for Governor at Saratoga in 1896, were due largely to the friendship and clever political work of Mr. Payn. Between Mr. Payn and Mr. Platt they gained the support of thirty Senators and Assemblymen for the latter for United States Senator in 1881, and Mr. Platt was elected. Mr. Payn supported Senators Conk-nor Black and the following day the ling and Platt in their attitude toward nomination was confirmed by the the Garfield administration, and also Senate. Upon February 1, 1897, Mr. Payn was nominated for Superintendent of the Insurance Department by Gover THE SUPERINTENDENT OF BANKS. FREDERICK D. KILBURN. Frederick D. Kilburn, Superintend- | Twenty-first Senate district, which ent of the Banking Department, was then held territory containing the born in Clinton county, New York, on counties of Franklin, Fulton, HamilJuly 25, 1850. His parents took him ton, Essex, Clinton, Washington and to Franklin county when he was nine Warren, in the northeastern angle of years old and he has since lived at the State. He received 27,159 votes, Malone in that county. and had a plurality of 12,450 over John B. Haggerty, his Democratic opponent. Mr. Kilburn was educated at the Franklin Academy, Malone, and afterward graduated from the Albany Law School. He practiced law, but since 1885 his chief business has been that of the management of the People's National Bank of Malone. Early in life he became a member of the Republican party, and has ever since supported its candidates for public office. He, also, has received distinguished honors at the hands of the Republican As a member of the Senate Mr. Kilparty. He has been Clerk of the burn especially concerned himself Board of Supervisors of Franklin with bills relating to the State Forest county, and Treasurer also of that Preserve in the Adirondacks. One of county. In 1893 he was elected a Sen- his bills prohibited the sale of State ator on the Republican ticket for the lands outside of the preserve to a In the Senate of 1894 and 1895 he was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Miscellaneous Corporations, of the Committee on Poor Laws, and of the Committee on Grievances, and he also was a member of the Committee on Finance, of the Committee on General Laws, and of the Committee on Agriculture. greater extent than 1,000 acres. Another appropriated $50,000 for the purchase of a block of forest land in Essex county. Mr. Kilburn also brought about a compromise between claimants of alleged State lands and the State. THE STATE COMMISSIONER OF EXCISE. HENRY H. LYMAN. Henry H. Lyman, State Commis- the Oswego water works, during which sioner of Excise, was born in the time the same were largely rebuilt and town of Lorraine, Jefferson county, improved. N. Y., April 15, 1841, his parents being from New England. He worked upon his father's farm, attending the district school, when in session, until 1856, from which time to 1859 he attended the Pulaski Academy, teaching school winters. Having made a special study of surveying and engineering, he was employed in that business from 1859 to 1862. In January, 1896, Governor Morton appointed Mr. Kilburn as Superintendent of the Banking Department in place of Charles M. Preston, who had resigned his office. Mr. Kilburn, a little later, in the same year, was appointed for a full term of three years. At the close of the war he engaged in the hardware trade at Pulaski, N. Y., where he held several town and village offices. Having been elected Sheriff of Oswego county in 1872, he removed to Oswego, N. Y., where he now resides. In 1895, upon the consolidation of the Fish and Game Commission with the Forest Commission, thereby organizing the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission, he was appointed a member of the new commission, and, although serving on said commission only one year, he has the credit of having materially assisted in instituting needed reforms and establishing better methods for the management of its affairs, and the protection of the State's interests. In the summer of 1862, he enlisted as private in the One Hundred and Forty-seventh New York Volunteers, and served with that regiment until On the passage of the Liquor Tax its discharge in 1865, having been Law, March 23, 1896, which placed promoted through various grades to the excise matters of the State under that of adjutant and brevet major. In State control, Mr. Lyman was ap1866, he was appointed lieutenant-pointed by Governor Morton as State colonel by Governor Fenton to organ- Commissioner of Excise, and notwithize a second regiment of National standing the obstacles placed in its Guard in Oswego county; but early in way, and the embarrassments attend1868, it having been decided to re- ing its hurried organization, has adduce rather than increase the Guard, ministered the affairs of the new his regiment was disbanded and he Department of Excise smoothly and left the service. with satisfactory results, having collected and turned into the State and local treasuries over $11,000,000, during the first year of the department's existence. He is vice-president of the First National Bank of Oswego, N. Y., trustee of the Oswego City Savings Bank, Under President Harrison, he was director of the Oswego Gas Company, Collector of the Port of Oswego. For and director and secretary of the several years he was superintendent of Oswego Water-Works Company. GOVERNOR'S MILITARY STAFF. Biographies of the Several Officers Their Civil and Military Life. The Adjutant-General. The Adjutant-General, C. Whitney Tillinghast, 2d, of Troy, is a native of Troy and a son of the late Thomas A. Tillinghast, being a member of one of Troy's oldest and best known families. He is a graduate of Trinity College, and has for years been connected with the wholesale hardware business of J. M. Warren & Co., of which corporation he is a member and general manager. He has been identified with the National Guard for eighteen years. Mr. Tillinghast has been one of the most influential members of the Troy Citizens Corps (Sixth Separate Company), and has held the office of first lieutenant in that organization. He was warmly indorsed for the office of Adjutant-General by the military men of that city and by many of the commandants throughout the State. Mr. Tillinghast is married, and, with his wife, is prominent in the social affairs of Troy and its vicinity. He has long and ardently served the Republican party, giving his time freely to the advancement of the party's interest, although never having held public military service of the United States office. Mr. Tillinghast was one of in 1861 as Captain of Company A, Mr. Black's most active lieutenants Twenty-eighth Regiment, N. Y. V., in the reform movement in Troy. and served with his command until He is a member of the Troy Club February, 1862, when he was deand the Pafraets Dael Club, of Troy, tailed as Acting Assistant Adjutantand is popular among all classes. General of the First Brigade, First The Commissary-General. Commissary-General and Chief of Ordnance, Capt. Benjamin Flagler, of Niagara Falls, with rank of Brigadier-General. Gen. Benjamin Flagler entered the The Inspector-General. Brigadier-General Edward M. Hoffman, the Inspector-General, entered the National Guard as a private in Company D, One Hundred and Tenth Battalion, October 1, 1874. The command's designation was changed to the Thirtieth Separate Company on November 22, 1878. It saw active duty in the railroad riots in July, 1877, and in Buffalo, at the switchmen's strike in August, 1892. General Hoffman's record shows that he became second lieutenant on April 7, 1877; first lieutenant, Thirtieth Separate Company, November 29, 1881; lieutenantcolonel and assistant adjutant-general, Fourth Brigade, December 6, 1884; supernumerary, August 5, 1886; first lieutenant, Thirtieth Separate Company, May 11, 1887, and captain, September 4, 1890; and then in 1897 he became Inspector-General. |