to Clinton, Oneida County, gave him additional educational advantages
in the academy there. In his seventeenth year he became a clerk and an
assistant teacher in the New York Institution for the Blind, in New York
City, in which his elder brother, William, a Presbyterian clergyman,
was then a teacher. In 1855 he left Holland Patent, in Oneida County,
where his mother at that time resided, to go to the West in search of
employment. On his way he stopped at Black Rock, now a part of Buffalo,
and called on his uncle, Lewis F. Allen, who induced him to remain and
aid him in the compilation of a volume of the American Herd Book,
receiving for six weeks' service $60. He afterwards, and while studying
law, assisted in the preparation of several other volumes of this work,
and the preface to the fifth volume (1861) acknowledges his services.
In August, 1855, he secured a place as clerk and copyist for the law
firm of Rogers, Bowen & Rogers, in Buffalo, began to read Blackstone,
and in the autumn of that year was receiving $4 per week for his work.
He was admitted to the bar in 1859, but for three years longer remained
with the firm that first employed him, acting as managing clerk at a
salary of $600, a part of which he devoted to the support of his widowed
mother, who died in 1882. Was appointed assistant district attorney of
Erie County January 1, 1863, and held the office for three years. At
this time the Civil War was raging. Two of his brothers were in the
Army, and his mother and sisters were largely dependent upon him for
support. Unable himself to enlist, he borrowed money and sent a
substitute to the war, and it was not till long after the war that
he was able to repay the loan. In 1865, at the age of 28, he was the
Democratic candidate for district attorney, but was defeated by the
Republican candidate, his intimate friend, Lyman K. Bass. He then became
the law partner of Isaac V. Vanderpool, and in 1869 became a member of
the firm of Lanning, Cleveland & Folsom. He continued a successful
practice till 1870, when he was elected sheriff of Erie County. At the