Hon. St. John B. L. Skinner of Clinton County was Postmaster-General under Andrew Johnson.
Among the early settlers, who located in Plattsburgh, were Judge Zephaniah Platt, formerly of Poughkeepsie, member of the first Provincial Congress of New York and a member of the Convention called to consider the Federal Constitution and the advisability of its adoption; Judge Melancton Smith, a native of Queens County, member of the First Provincial Congress of New York from Dutchess County and an opponent of Hamilton and Livingston in the Convention called to consider the advisability of the ratification of the Federal Constitution; and Judge Thomas Treadwell, a member of the First Provincial Congress of New York and of the Convention called to formulate the First State Constitution, who was also a member of the Convention called to consider the Federal Constitution and the advisability of its adoption.
In a later period, it will be remembered that Hon. Matthew Hale, Hon. Francis Lynde Stetson, Hon. John I. Gilbert, Hon. Richard L. Hand, and others were natives of the Champlain valley.
Many judges have been natives of the Champlain valley. Some of them have served in the courts of Vermont and New York, but more have become residents of other states, and there filled judicial positions in the state and Federal Courts. It would be interesting to record the names of all such judges who had their birth in the Champlain valley, if space permitted. We must content ourselves, however, with giving the names of a few. The first of these to occur to one is Samuel Nelson, born at Hebron, N. Y., November 10, 1792, who was a member of the State Constitutional Conventions of 1821 and 1846, a Justice of the Supreme Court of New York from 1831 to 1845, and a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1845 to 1872, one of the longest judicial tenures ever held by a judge in this country.
The following may also be mentioned: Chancellor Reuben H. Walworth, Samuel Hand, Judge of the Court of Appeals, Judges, John C. Churchill, William Sweetland, John Lynde, Charles Henry Phelps, Aldace F. Walker, Wheelock G. Veazey, William P. Kellogg, Henry Chipman, Pliny Moore, John M. Parker, George Martin, Mark Skinner, Charles L. Benedict, John Alexander Jameson, Melville A. Sheldon, Eugene E. Sheldon, Walter C. Dunton, Perry G. Ellsworth, Joseph Potter, S. Alonzo Kellogg, Chester B. McLaughlin, Winslow C. Watson, Albert C. Barnes, Henry T. Kellogg, Jesse Walker, Thomas H. Noonan, John H. Booth, and John B. Riley.
Only a few of the lawyers, who were natives of the Champlain valley, can be mentioned out of the great number that have gone forth to take up their residences elsewhere. Many of them have located in New York and other Atlantic states, although a goodly number have located in the Central and Western states, and are among the persons heretofore mentioned as holding, or who have held official positions.
In addition to such, however, may also be mentioned George L. Clarke, Hon. Smith M. Weed, Hon. George M. Beckwith, Hon. Robert D. Benedict, Hon. Thomas F. Conway, Elroy N. Clark, Charles W. Waterman, George Murray Wright, John C. Clark, Hon. John J. Allen, James M. Gifford, William L. G. Smith, Hon. Benjamin E. Hall, Charles E. Shaw, James B. Ross, Hon. Henry W. Hill, member of the New York Constitutional Convention of 1894 and State Senator from 1901 to 1911, Julius H. Seymour, George W. Alger, Adelbert W. Boynton, Hon. Daniel Roberts, Charles C. Farnham, Samuel B. Botsford, Harold J. Adams, Hon. Lucian L. Shedden, Oliver D. Barrett, Rome G. Brown and Charles F. Blair.
Among the natives of the Champlain valley who entered the Army and Navy during the Civil War and since that time were Gen’l Wm. F. Smith, Gen’l George J. Stannard, Gen’l William Wells, Col. Frank Palmer, Col. George F. Nichols, Lieut. Matthew M. Standish, Gen’l Stephen Moffitt, Col. John Hammond, Rear-Admiral John W. Moore, Commodore A. V. Wadhams, Admiral George Dewey, and many others, who maintained the high standards of efficiency and bravery exhibited by those who a century earlier participated in the engagements at Ticonderoga, Bennington and Saratoga, and in the naval engagements of Valcour and Plattsburgh Bay.
In addition to those already named, there have come from the Champlain valley many to fill positions of responsibility in the state and nation, of whom only the following few need be mentioned, viz., Loyal L. Smith the philanthropist, Hon. John H. Converse, President of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Thomas Waterman Wood, President of the National Academy of Design in 1891, Hon. Stephen A. Walker, at one time Commissioner of the Board of Education of the State of New York, Hon. Darwin P. Kingsley, President of the New York Life Insurance Company, the late Dr. Abel Mix Phelps, the orthopedic surgeon, Henry H. Vail, publisher of school books, Samuel Sheldon, expert in electric science, Charles F. Longworth, expert in food products, Augustus Torrey, chief engineer of M. C. R. R., Rt. Rev. Bishop Edgar P. Wadhams of Ogdensburg, Rev. Byron Sunderland of Washington, D. C., the late Rev. Constans Liberty Goodell, D. D. of St. Louis, Mo., Rev. George F. Herrick, D. D., author of many Biblical works, located in Constantinople, Rev. George F. Hunting, D. D., President of Alma College, author of many papers and poems, Rev. George B. Spalding, President William Nelson Ferrin of Pacific University, Prof. Warren H. Landon, the late Prof. Walter E. Howard, Prof. John Dewey of Columbia University, Prof. Davis R. Dewey of Boston, Prof. Frank E. Woodruff of Bowdoin College, the Hon. Edwin Ferry Johnson, civil engineer and educator, James R. Chapman, General Manager of the Metropolitan District Electric Traction Company of London, England, Charles A. Catlin, expert in chemistry, and others.
Among the prominent educators of the Champlain valley have been Presidents James Marsh, Joseph Torrey and Matthew H. Buckham, all of the University of Vermont; Presidents Benjamin Larabee, Ezra Brainerd and John M. Thomas, all of Middlebury College, Captain John Alden Patridge, and Presidents Allen Danvers Brown and Charles Horace Spooner, all of Norwich University. These were and are representatives of the higher culture of its educational institutions.