Portal:Syracuse, New York/Selected biography

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James Geddes (July 22, 1763 - August 17, 1838) was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and was a prominent engineer, surveyor, New York State legislator and U.S. Congressman who was instrumental in the planning of the Erie Canal and other canals in the United States. He was also at the forefront of development of the salt industry at Onondaga Lake near Syracuse, New York, beginning in 1794.

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Comfort Tyler (February 22, 1764 - August 5, 1827), one of the original settlers of modern Syracuse, New York, brought his family in the spring of 1788 to what became the hamlet of Onondaga Hollow on the future Seneca Turnpike, south of the city's center today. He joined Asa Danforth and Ephraim Webster, the first whites to settle there, who had obtained permission to live there from the Onondaga nation. Tyler built the more ambitious house in Onondaga Hollow and contributed his engineering skills to the development of Central New York.

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John Wilkinson (February 11, 1868 - June 25, 1951) was born in Syracuse, New York. He invented the air-cooled motor which was used in the Franklin (automobile) produced by H. H. Franklin Manufacturing Company where he was chief engineer and designer from 1902-1924. He was a native of Syracuse and a member of an established, respected, wealthy family. His grandfather, John Wilkinson (1798–1862), was one of the original pioneers of Upstate, New York. As a young man, Wilkinson Sr. was a city planner and named the newly incorporated village, Syracuse.

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John Wilkinson (September 30, 1798 - September 19, 1862) was a lawyer and first Postmaster of community known as Bogardus Corners, Cossit's Corners and Salina in Central New York. As a young man, Wilkinson took inspiration from a poem about an ancient city and named the new village Syracuse, just in time for the opening of the Erie Canal. Wilkinson was a prominent citizen in Syracuse and was an original town planner and helped lay out and name the village streets. He also served as an assemblyman and founded the Syracuse Bank in 1838.

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Theodore E. Hancock (May 30, 1847 Granby, Oswego County, New York - November 19, 1916 Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York) was an American lawyer and politician. In 1873, he commenced practice in New York City in the office of Bangs & North. A few years later, he removed to Syracuse, New York, and opened the office of Gilbert & Hancock. During 1879, he established the firm of Hancock, Beach, Peck and Devine in Syracuse. His son, Stewart Hancock, was considered the "modern-day founder of the firm."

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DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769 – February 11, 1828) was an early American politician who served as United States Senator and the sixth Governor of New York. In this last capacity he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal. Unlike his adversary Martin Van Buren, who invented machine politics, Clinton became the leader of New York's People’s Party. Clinton is an authentic but largely forgotten hero of American democracy, according to Daniel Walker Howe (2007). Howe explains, "The infrastructure he worked to create would transform American life, enhancing economic opportunity, political participation, and intellectual awareness."

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Horatio Seymour (May 31, 1810 – February 12, 1886) was an American politician. He was the 18th Governor of New York from 1853 to 1854 and from 1863 to 1864. He was the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States in the presidential election of 1868, but lost the election to Republican and former Union General of the Army Ulysses S. Grant. Seymour was born in Pompey Hill, Onondaga County, New York. His father was Henry Seymour, a merchant and politician; his mother, Mary Ledyard Forman (1785–1859), of Matawan, New Jersey, was the daughter of General Johnathan Forman and Mary Ledyard.

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Bert E. Salisbury was born in the town of Geddes, New York. He was the son of Henry Oscar Salisbury (1839–1891) of Columbus, New York, and Celia Seaman Salisbury (1841–1926) of Connecticut. His father was a well-known builder and contractor and had worked as a foreman in the local salt industry. The family home stood across the Erie Canal in sight of the Onondaga Pottery Company.

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L. Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a host of other works (55 novels in total, plus four "lost" novels), 82 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts and many miscellaneous writings), and made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen. His works predicted such century-later commonplaces as television, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work). Baum was born in Chittenango, New York, into a devout Methodist family of German (paternal line) and Scots-Irish (maternal line) origin, the seventh of nine children born to Cynthia Stanton and Benjamin Ward Baum, only five of whom survived into adulthood.

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Herbert H. Franklin founded the H. H. Franklin Manufacturing Company in 1893 in Syracuse, New York. The company specialized in machine die-casting and made small parts such as gears and bearing caps. In 1901, Franklin teamed up with engineer John Wilkinson who developed an air-cooled engine and in 1902, the Franklin (automobile) was born. Because he was the primary investor, Franklin assumed control of the company, and named the auto manufacturing division the Franklin Automobile Company. As president, he managed the company finances and business administration. Wilkinson was named as chief engineer and granted control of the engineering and manufacturing operation.

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Harvey A. Moyer founded the H. A. Moyer Carriage Company in Syracuse, New York in the 1876 with only $20 in his pocket. The company later changed assembly to luxury automobiles in 1908 and was renamed to H. A. Moyer Automobile Company. The company manufactured 100 automobiles a year until they ceased production in 1914. Moyer also owned a working dairy farm called Moyerdale in Liverpool, New York and was a Holstein-Friesian cattle breeder.

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John Wilkinson, American colonist, was a direct descendant of Lawrence Wilkinson who fled the oppression of Oliver Cromwell in 1652 and emigrated to America and the son of Roger Wilkinson, an early colonist, who settled in Rhode Island where Roger Williams offered a startling new concept, freedom of religion. Son, John Wilkinson, Jr. was the first postmaster of Syracuse, New York, and gave the city its name. Great-grandson, John Wilkinson invented the air-cooled engine.

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Ephraim Webster was the first European settler in the Central New York area later named Syracuse. He arrived in 1786 searching for the "wilderness" and quickly adapted to the region and lifestyle of the Onondaga nation. For three decades, the Onondagas trusted and relied on him more than any other white man. Webster was a translator and acted as an agent for the Onondagas on several land transactions with New York State.

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Doris Kenyon (September 5, 1897 – September 1, 1979) was a popular actress of motion pictures and television. She grew up in Syracuse, New York, where her family had a home at 1805 Harrison Street. Her father, Dr. James B. Kenyon, was a Methodist Episcopal Church minister at University Church. Kenyon studied at Packer College Institute and later at Columbia University. She sang in the choirs of Grace Presbyterian and Bushwick Methodist Churches in Brooklyn, New York. Her voice attracted the attention of Broadway theatrical scouts who enticed her to become a performer on the stage. She first appeared in the Victor Herbert operetta The Princess Pat.

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Frank Harris Hiscock (16 April 1856 - 2 July 1946) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1917 to 1926. He was the son of L. Harris Hiscock, a lawyer and assemblymen who founded the Hiscock & Barclay law firm in Syracuse, New York, and who was murdered on 4 June 1867, by General George W. Cole, a brother of Cornelius Cole. Hiscock graduated B.A. from Cornell University in 1875, where he was a member of The Kappa Alpha Society.

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Edward Carl Stearns, born July 12, 1856, was the son of George N. Stearns (1812-1882), a wagon maker, who also invented several tools and patented many of his innovations including a boring and mortising machine and auger. The elder Stearns went into the hardware business and founded George N. Stearns Company in 1864. After his death, Stearns, along with his sister, Avis Stearns Van Wagenen (then Mrs. Avis Mead), assumed the duties of the hardware company and the hardware company name was changed to E. C. Stearns & Company and moved from Oneida, New York, to Syracuse, New York. Stearns later was the founder of several companies in the late 19th century including Stearns Automobile Company, Stearns Steam Carriage Company, Stearns Typewriter Company and E. C. Stearns Bicycle Agency.

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George Noble Stearns George Noble Stearns (September 29, 1812 - July 19, 1882) was a tool designer and founded the George N. Stearns Company, a hardware business, in 1860 in Syracuse, New York. After he became seriously ill in 1877, his son, Edward C. Stearns and daughter, Avis Stearns Van Wagenen took control of the firm and renamed it to E. C. Stearns & Company.

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Matilda Joslyn Gage (March 24, 1826 – March 18, 1898) was a suffragist, Native American activist, abolitionist, freethinker and prolific author, who was "born with a hatred of oppression". Gage became involved in the women's rights movement in 1852 when she decided to speak at the National Women's Rights Convention in Syracuse, New York. She served as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1875 to 1876. As a result of the campaigning of the Association under Gage, the state of New York granted female suffrage for electing members of the school boards. Gage ensured that every woman in her area (Fayetteville, New York) had the opportunity to vote.

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"Hiawatha" by Thomas Eakins Hiawatha (also known as Ayenwatha, Aiionwatha, or Haiëñ'wa'tha; Onondaga) was a legendary Native American leader and co-founder of the Iroquois confederacy. Hiawatha lived sometime between the 15th and 16th centuries and was a leader of the Onondaga or the Mohawk, or both. According to some versions, he was born an Onondaga, but also adopted into the Mohawk. Hiawatha was a follower of The Great Peacemaker, a Huron prophet and spiritual leader, who proposed the unification of the Iroquois peoples, who shared common ancestry and similar languages. Hiawatha, a skilled and charismatic orator, was instrumental in persuading the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks, to accept the Great Peacemaker's vision and band together to become the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy. Later, the Tuscarora nation joined the Confederacy in 1722 to become the Sixth Nation.

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Engraving of J.W. Loguen from his 1859 Autobiography Jermain Wesley Loguen (February 5, 1813 – September 30, 1872), born Jarm Logue in slavery, was an African-American abolitionist and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. At age 21, he successfully escaped bondage on his second attempt, stealing his master's horse and following the Underground Railroad north, finally crossing into Canada. Loguen learned to read, worked various jobs in Canada and New York, studied at the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, New York, opened schools for African-American children in Utica and Syracuse. Loguen settled in Syracuse, where his house became a major depot (stop) on the Underground Railroad. He was involved in rescuing William Henry, a cooper and a freed slave. On October 1, 1851, Henry, known as "Jerry", was arrested under the Fugitive Slave Act. The anti-slavery Liberty Party was holding its state convention in the city, and when word of the arrest spread, several hundred abolitionists broke into the city jail and freed Jerry. The event came to be widely known as the Jerry Rescue.

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Adolph "Dolph" Schayes (born May 19, 1928) is a retired American professional basketball player and former NBA coach. A top scorer and rebounder, he was a member of the 1955 NBA champion Syracuse Nationals and a 12-time All-Star. Schayes played his entire Hall of Fame career with the Nationals and their successor, the Philadelphia 76ers, from 1948 to 1964. In his 16-year career, he led the team into the post-season 15 times. He is the father of retired NBA center Danny Schayes, who played in the NBA for 18 seasons. In 1948 Dolph Schayes settled in Syracuse, where he first played in the NBA and still makes his home.

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Laurie Davidson Cox (August 18, 1883–October 1, 1968) was an influential landscape architect, Hall of Fame coach, and contributor to the sport of lacrosse. He was professor of Landscape Engineering at the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, where he was responsible for establishing Syracuse University's men's lacrosse program in the spring of 1916. As a landscape architect, Cox advocated for a new kind of park in the US National Park system that balanced the desire for recreation and preservation. Cox's vision included a concept of a "skyline drive". In 1929, the Administration Building at Green Lakes State Park, near Fayetteville, was built according to plans by Cox. A multi-sport athlete at Harvard University, Cox thought of field lacrosse as a gentleman's game that could rise to prominence among collegiate sports. His advocacy of the game led some to refer to him as the "father of American lacrosse." Cox was elected to the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1957, part of its inaugural class.

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Frank J. "Buck" O'Neill (March 6, 1875 – April 21, 1958) was an American football player, coach and lawyer. A star athlete at Williams College, in 1902 O'Neill resurrected the Syracuse Athletic Club, to take part in the 1902 World Series of Football, held at Madison Square Garden. Syracuse A.C. defeated the "New York" team in what has been called the first indoor professional football game; Syracuse won the Series with a 36–0 victory over the Orange Athletic Club. After serving a couple of stints as head coach at rival Colgate University (1902, 1904–1905), O'Neill coached the Syracuse University Orangemen from 1906–1907, 1913–1915, and 1917–1919. In his final three years at Syracuse, he acted more as an advisor than a full-time coach. Even with this arrangement, he was successful including in 1919 when the Orangemen gave Pittsburgh their first loss in five years. His cumulative record at Syracuse was 52–9–6. O'Neill was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951.

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