Major John C.
Backus Dies |
MAJOR
JOHN C. BACKUS & MARY A SARTWELL BACKUS Residence (Deceased). Among the leading and representative men of Smethport, no one has held a higher place in the affections and esteem of its people than the late Maj. John C. Backus, who for nearly half a century was closely connected with all their efforts for its welfare and improvement. Maj. Backus was generous almost to a fault, no one needing help ever applying to him in vain; naturally positive and energetic, he pursued with untiring zeal ever cause he championed, and ever work he undertook. He was born in 1817, at Lee, Berkshire Co., Mass., and had seven brothers and two sisters, of whom Cornelia (the eldest, born in 1801), William and Seth survive him. His fourth year his parents, Thomas and Rebecka Backus, removed to Lansing, N.Y., where his childhood and youth were spent. He was a graduate of Oberlin College, Ohio. After attaining his majority, he with his older brother Seth, engaged in the lumbering business at Wellsville, N.Y. and in 1845 they came to Turtle Point, McKean Co., Penn., where they purchased a saw-mill (the remains of which are still to be seen), and continued their lumbering operations at that point, until 1848, when, becoming tired of the business, John C. removed to Smethport, and commenced the study of law with N.W. Good rich, a then prominent lawyer of the country. Mr. Backus was admitted to the bar in 1851, and to practice in the supreme court in 1856. For over twenty-five years he was engaged in nearly every important case tried in the county and at the time of his death, which occurred October 26, 1888, he had practiced law for a longer time than any other attorney in McKean county, except for Hon. B.D. Hamlin. In politics Mr. Backus took an active part, being a life long democrat, and in 1851 was elected register and recorder of McKean county; was burgess of Smethport borough about ten years, and was a member of the legislature in 1875 and 1876. He was one of the first to answer the nation's call to arms in 1861, and in December of that year was commissioned captain of the Company E, Fifty-eighth Regiment, P.V.I., afterward rising to the rank of major; he participated in all the engagements of his regiment until he was compelled to resign on an account of ill health, in 1863. In 1877 Sheridan Gorton, of Friendship, N.Y., became his law partner, continuing with him until the major's decease and succeeded to his extensive law practice. He was a charter member of McKean Post. No. 347, G.A.R. and its second commander. In 1857 he married Mary, the only daughter of Solomon Sartwell, one of the oldest residents of the county, and to them were born two children: Frank, who died in infancy, and Cora, who died in 1880. This wife died in 1860, and in 1861 Major Backus married Mary A. Windsor, daughter of Ebed and Mary A. Windsor, who, with eight children -- six sons and two daughters -- was left to mourn his loss. His funeral obsequies were conducted by the Masons, of which order he was prominent member. No more fitting tribute can be paid his memory than that said of him by his brethren of the bar. "In him his country has lost one who proved, by his acts, that he fully appreciated the duty of a good citizen and true patriot. In him his wife has lost a kind husband, children and indulgent father, and kin of every degree a generous friend." |
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