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Westcotts Meant Business in Utica

As she searched online libraries, historical societies and, of course, E-Bay for artifacts and documents for Westcott-named businesses and inventions, long-time SSWDA Historian Betty Acker dug up ad specialties and trade cards for four among our kin doing business in Utica, New York in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. The cousins represented on this page are an interesting mix. Send along any additional information you might have about this trio or other Westcott businesses to Betty’s successor at historian@sswda.org.

Frank Dwight Westcott, Entrepreneur

The New-York Historical Society Museum and Library catalogue offers this description of the inkwell on the left that was used by Westcott & Parker to promote its coal and wood business in Utica from the 1880s into the twentieth century:

Westcott & Parker Inkwell, Object Number: 2002.1.2272, Date: 1890-1920;  Medium: Ceramic; Dimensions: 3 x 3 3/4 in. diameter.
This gray conical ceramic inkwell has a textured exterior and is inscribed and highlighted in blue on the front and back “Westcott & Parker/ Dealers in Coal & Wood./ Utica, N.Y./ Opposite City Hall/ Telephone 236.” with a blue bottom border.

The coal and wood business was one of many ventures for Frank Dwight Westcott (1858-1914), accountant, serial investor and community leader. The Utica business man was born on September 7, 1858 in Oneonta, N.Y., the oldest child of Stephen Stukely and Philinda (Brown) Westcott. He was a ninth generation descendant of Stukely and Juliana Westcott in two lines as his 3x great grandparents, Stukely and Bethiah Westcott were cousins:

  • Frank Dwight Westcott9, Stephen Stukely8, Stukely7, Benjamin6, Stukely5,  Stukely4, Stukely3, Jeremiah2, Stukely1
  • Frank Dwight Westcott9, Stephen Stukely8, Stukely7, Benjamin6, Stukely5, Bethiah4, Benjamin3, Jeremiah2, Stukely1

Frank Westcott’s business interests included Westcott & Killian, publishers, Miller & Westcott (later Westcott & Parker) coal dealers, and the Westcott Laundry Co. In 1893, he helped found the Utica Carriage Company and served as secretary and a director, all this according to a history of the Willoughby Carriage Company, which acquired the company later in the decade. A biographical sketch in the History of Oneida County, New York, Volume II (1910) focuses on Frank’s successful commercial laundry.

Frank Westcott was a distinguished graduate of Hamilton College. After his death on May 26, 1914, the Hamilton Literary Magazine ran a three-page profile of Westcott, detailing not only his business career, but also his leadership role in numerous community and fraternal organizations, such as the Odd Fellows, F.&A.M., and most extensively, local Royal Arcanum circles and the Arcanum National Council. The article concludes with, “Mr. Westcott married Miss Libbie Cronkhite, of Little Falls, February 21, 1882, and their only child, William Carlton Westcott, was graduated from Hamilton College in 1911. Since then he has been associated with his father in business” (but of course).

Sources: CoachBuilt.com article on Willoughby Co.; Henry J. Cookinham. History of Oneida County, New York: from 1700 to the present time. Chicago: S.J. Clarke, 1912 ;Edna Lews, The Wescott Family Tree (see index 56, 130, 447); Hamilton Literary Magazine, June 1914; New-York Historical Society Museum and Library Westcott and Parker Inkwell

Westcott & Reusswig, Fine Custom Tailors
The image on the left is a 3” by 4 ¼” trade card for Westcott and Reusswig, “Fine Custom Tailors,” located at 88 Genesee Street, Utica, New York, the same partnership that advertised on the perimeter of the back cover of the 1889 Utica City Directory (center). The directory page on the right identifies the principals: A.J. Westcott and E.H. Reusswig.

Merchant tailors Albertus (sometimes “Alburtus”) J. Westcott and German-born Ernst Heinrich Reusswig (1839-1895) formed a partnership in 1880 in Utica and remained in business together until 1891 or ’92 when it appears that Westcott retired. Westcott was the son of David Westcott, who moved from Killington, Connecticut to Oneida County and became a successful merchant in the Utica area. Reusswig was the son of a tailor. Westcott and Reusswig had each been in business with other partners prior to 1880. In 1883, Reusswig and his wife Maria named their sixth child Albertus John Reusswig.

Albertus Westcott (1842-1925) was the son of David and Polly (Winsor) Westcott. He was a descendant of Stukely and Juliana Westcott in the eighth generation: Albertus J. Westcott8, David7, Joseph6, Captain James5, Benjamin Jr.4, Benjamin3, Jeremiah2, Stukely1.

Sources: Ancestry.com for access to Utica City Directories; Family Search Shared Genealogy (K8YW-FM4), FindAGrave.com memorials for David Westcott and Ernst Heinrich Reusswig.

George Westcott & Co. for Hats, Caps and Furs

The Utica City Directories list a George Westcott and sons William and Frederick operating a “hat, cap and fur” business just down the street from Westcott and Reusswig, but Albertus Westcott’s relationship with these other merchants has not been resolved.

George Westcott was born on April 3, 1813 in Eaton, New York, the son of George Westcott (1787-1857) and Asenath (Palmer) Westcott (1784-1848). On August 27, 1844, he married Amy Lucretia Benedict (1827-1880) in Utica. They had three children: Frederick (born about 1845), William Benedict (1848-1887) and Frances (born about 1851). In December 1889, Fur Trade Review carried this account of the fur merchant’s life and career:

George Westcott died at his home in Utica, N.Y., on November 6. He was born in Eaton, Madison County, April 3, 1813, and went to Utica when a young man twenty-two years of age. Mr. Westcott started in business in a small store; later he joined with Charles Symonds, later with Ira A. Button, and then with E.A. Hammond and W.S. Wightman, and latterly alone. He began in small way, and finally built up a large business and amassed a comfortable fortune.

Sources: Ancestry.com for access to Utica City Directories; Family Search Family Tree  (KZPK-916); Find A Grave for George Westcott and Lucretia Westcott; Fur Trade Review (December 1899).

Addison Westcott’s Garage

If we are to believe a biographical sketch in History of Oneida County, Addison Harvey Westcott (1883-1967), grandson of George Westcott and son of William B. Westcott, purveyors of hats, coats and furs in Utica, operated “one of the finest automobile garages in the state,” right there on Cornelia Street west of Utica City Hall. Here is the text of the 1910 tribute to Addison (and his brothers William and Reginald):

ADDISON HARVEY WESTCOTT

Addison Harvey Westcott, who is operating in Utica one of the finest automobile garages in the state, was born in this city on the 21st of July 1883, and is a son of William B. and Mary (Hopkins) Westcott, also natives of Utica. His paternal grandfather, George Westcott, was one of the pioneer settlers of this city, where for over thirty years he was engaged in the fur business. To Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Westcott were born two other sons, William Benedict, on the 14th of September 1887, and Reginald Ainsworth, whose birth occurred on the 25th of June 1881. They are both associated with their brother in the automobile business, the former being secretary and treasurer of the company.

The elementary education of Addison Harvey Westcott was obtained in private schools of this city, after the completion of which he attended the Free Academy for a year; then he went to St. John’s Military School at Manlius, New York, at which place he began having trouble with his eyes to such an extent that the physicians recommended a change of climate. He traveled from Chicago to New Mexico on horseback, thence to Los Angeles, California, by rail where he was employed by the Title Insurance & Trust Company. His eyes improving, he returned to Utica and after being connected with various enterprises entered the automobile department of C. H. Childs & Company. In 1908 he organized the Westcott Garage Company, having acquired the automobile business of C. H. Childs & Company. He improved and remodeled the entire building and now has one of the best equipped and most thoroughly modern garages not only in Utica but the entire state. His storage facilities are excellent, while his salesrooms most attractively display a full and complete line of Lozier and Chalmers models, of which he is the exclusive agent. Nor has he in any way neglected the equipment of his repair department, here being found every known device and tool required in the setting aright the most intricate mechanism, while he engages the services of the most skillful workmen he can secure. The venture has proven to be most successful in every sense of the word, and the fine judgment, sagacity and executive ability exhibited by Mr. Westcott thus far in the conduct of his business gives assurance of a most promising future.

On the 1st of February 1909, in Utica Mr. Westcott was united in marriage to Miss Theodora Huntley Childs, a daughter of Charles H. and Leila Childs, whose history appears at greater length under the sketch of C. H. Childs elsewhere in this work.

Mr. Westcott is very popular not only in the business, but social circles of the city and is affiliated with the Fort Schuyler Club, Utica Curling Club, Chamber of Commerce, Automobile Club of Utica and the Oneida County Historical Society. He is becoming recognized as one of the progressive and enterprising young businessmen of the city, whose future as gauged by his past would seem to be most promising.

Ancestry.com. History of Oneida County, New York: from 1700 to the present time [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: Henry J. Cookinham, History of Oneida County, New York: from 1700 to the present time. Chicago: S.J. Clarke, 1912; Volume II, page 64.

 

 

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