Hank Martin -- An Olean Character

Almost every community may be said to have one or more persons who are referred to as “characters”, persons who for some peculiarity or other are known to almost everybody in the community. In this respect, Olean was no exception in 1899.

Olean had one person not only well known here, but also throughout a large section of the surrounding territory. This reference was made about Hank Martin. If he were spoken about as Henry, his friends would not recognize the appellation. Without any reservation, Hank Martin was the character of Olean, and to see him as he was met on the streets of the City back then, hands in his pockets, cap on the back of his head and a smile that for all the world approached a laugh, aloud, one cannot repress a smile in return. At such times, Hank Martin looked as though he had not a care in the wide world, as though he were bon comrade with everyone, and was one of the happy-go-luckiest fellows on earth.

In the years of his early manhood, Henry Martin was possessed of an unusually bright intellect, and was far in advance of his classmates in nearly all his studies. He was the fourth son of Judge Frederick Stanley Martin, and was born in Olean in July 1833. The house in which he was born stood on North Union Street just about opposite what is now the Olean House. His boyhood was spent in the city.

Hank Martin had reached the age of somewhere between 18 and 19 when he was appointed to a cadetship at West Point. He passed his examination, standing at the head of the list. It must have been upon his father’s recommendation that he secured the appointment to this famous military institution, as Judge Martin was in Congress in 1850, at which time Henry was between 17 and 18 years of age. He entered with the class of which General O.O.Howard was a member, but he never graduated. After spending some time at West Point, he was expelled. It was said that his offence was committed in an attempt to conceal the boyish pranks of a comrade. An attempt was made to have him reentered, and much influence brought to bear in his favor, but without avail. The matter was brought before Jefferson Davis, who was then Secretary of War, but he refused to sanction his reinstatement.

Finally, Hank drifted towards the docks and shipped as a sailor, in which capacity he knocked about the world for several years, visiting many foreign lands. He became a slave to the drink habit, as shown by some quotations from a letter given before. This letter was written to the Olean Record, from the port of Fayal, one of the Azores group, while he was on a whaling voyage. In this letter, he told frankly of the whole cause of what had been the downfall of one who had the making of an intellectual gentleman, a man who would have been an honor to himself, his friends and his native city and state. Among other things he said: Hank's Explanation
Thus with his eyes open, Hank Martin went straight ahead towards the rocks that were to leave him as he was known to his friends then—a stranded wreck, bereft of his intellect, wandering about the streets without home or even stated place of shelter; his only care being that the next drink shall be forthcoming. Occasionally he had periods of almost completer sobriety and at such times, there were flashes and gleams of a brightness of by-gone years. Recently in 1899, a friend met him during one of these sober periods and commenced a conversation in French, which was taken up with surprising fluency and correctness of pronunciation. The friend then switched to German, and Hank followed right along without pause or hesitation. In mathematics, he was a wonder. How much longer he was able to weather the gale was but a matter of conjecture, but in all human probability, it would not be very long before he would drop anchor in that haven whence and put out to sea. There was not a windward, which would hold him to the Rock, where through all time and eternity he would “dwell in safety”, where though the fiercest storms shall rage and the waves roll mountains high, it “shall not come neigh him.”
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