Stories in Stones: Stories from Oneida County, NY Cemeteries

    Pratt Giles Smith was born in June 1858 in Deerfield, NY to Giles and Elizabeth Cole Smith. He attended Advanced School and Academy in Utica and Whitestown Seminary.       In 1873(or 8 it was hard to read in the obituary) Pratt G. Smith worked in Troy, NY as a salesman in a Hardware and Seed store. He later went into partnership with M.C. Chapin of Poultney, VT and manufactured and sold dairy supplies. Pratt G. Smith later brought Mr. Chapin's interest and took his brother-in-law Milton T. Jones as partner. They moved the business to Utica and opened a store in the Mosher Building on Bleecker Street. The partnership continued for 16 years. They later moved the business to North Genesee Street. The firm dissolved in 1902. Mr. Jones took the retail business in selling seeds and agricultural implements. Mr. Smith continued the rennet extract and cheese color business. In 1915, Pratt G. Smith sold his equipment and retired.      Pra...

       Alexander Mathieson Fraser was born Sept 13, 1820 in Glasgow, Scotland. From 1834-1842 he worked in a Cotton Mill in Glasgow. In March of 1843 he married Jane Buchanan, that same month he started for the United States. He first settled in Lexington, Missouri, where he remained for about five years then because of Jane's health he returned to Glasgow. When he returned he went back to work at the same cotton mill. Jane died in 1855.     Alexander M. Fraser returned to the United States in 1864 this time with his family. They left New York City and intended to settle in Ottawa, Canada but was impressed with the appearance of Utica they decided to settle here. He worked at the lower mill at New York Mills from Jun to October 1864. 1865-1873 worked in the Utica Steam Cotton Mills most of the time as overseer in the dressing room. In 1873, Mr. Fraser returned to New York Mills and worked a number of years in the dressing room.     In 18...

      Col. Benjamin R. Robison was born in New York City in December 1825. He graduated from Mechanic's Institute in New York City. He studied Medicine under his father for a year before joining the firm of Platt, Start & Ingoldaby, Importers of English Heavy Hardware as a clerk. Mr. Robison stayed with the firm for around five years before entering the Commission Business with a Mr. Cooper.    After the Commission Business Benjamin R. Robison went to Amsterdam, Holland as supercargo of a ship. He was gone two years. When he returned he entered the shipping business for himself. He owned a sailing vessel called the Strafford, he sailed it everywhere doing business in about every port in the civilized world. Benjamin R. Robison got shipwrecked sailing from Leghorn with a cargo of Italian Marble (which at the time of his death was in the Merchant's Exchange Building in New York City).    Benjamin R. Robison was married twice. First in 1846, he m...

      Charles Webster Hutchinson was born July 4, 1826 (the same day that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson passed away as well as the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence) in Providence, Rhode Island. The family moved to Utica the following year.       After leaving school Charles W. Hutchinson became employed at the office of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad Co. as a clerk from where he resigned in 1847 to become teller in the Fort Plain Bank. After three years there he came back to Utica to take charge of the interests of his father and Horatio Seymour in the firm of E.K. Browning and Co. A few years later he conducted the business in his own interest. He stayed there until 1865 when he disposed of his interest. For the the next three years he and his wife (the former Laura Clark Beckwith whom he married on Oct 9, 1851) traveled around Europe.     Charles W. Hutchinson was a director of the Utica Mechanics Association...