Frederick Stanley Martin

Some Facts Regarding the Life
of this Remarkable Man
In 1818, a young man, fresh from Yankee Land, and thoroughly imbibed with the Yankee spirit, came to the little settlement, which Adam Hoops had planted near the mouth of Olean Creek. He was travel-stained and weary, yet vigorous and alert, with sharp blue eyes that took note of everything worth seeing, and a nose like the beak of an eagle. He had come to stay. Every movement of his slight but sinewy form betokened energy and enterprise. He had found in that little huddle of roughhouses what he was in search of, a place in the world of honest labor, and thenceforth his life was bound up with that of the people he found there. He was twenty-five years of age and through his training and his contact with men, had gained an experience and acquired business habits, which he turned to good account in his new location, Olean, NY.

His advent was singularly fortunate, both for the budding village and for himself. He was just the man needed there, and the need was ripe. The high hopes that had inspired Hoops to start the settlement, which was to grow quickly to the magnificent dimensions of a city, had been quenched in his misfortune. Good men even there in growing numbers, but all were straitened in means and no one of them stood at the lad. Mr. Martin, when he arrived, was as poor as the poorest. He had neither money nor its equivalent, but he had something better. He possessed qualities of mind and will, which fitted him to take the lead and were sure to bring him wealth in the not distant future.

It is rare indeed to find a man so conspicuously influential in a community and so completely identified with its life and movement, as was the fact in this instance. From the time he set foot in the village until the day of his death, he became and remained a dominant factor in its progress. Though he knew his own worth, he was neither arrogant, nor presuming. He made no effort to push himself into prominence. He did not need to do so. It was the natural result of his force of character. Nor was his control, (if such it could be called), due to any lack of character or independence on the part of his fellows. No place in the state could boast of a largest proportion of spirited and self-respecting citizens. One would look in vain for sturdier men more self-reliant than Dr. Finn the physician, Henry Bryan the lawyer, and Timothy H. Porter the soon to be made judge, who had settled there, or Reuben O. Smith, Nelson S. Butler and C. V. Barse, who came long afterwards. Yet none of these envied Martin’s prominence or attempted to detract form his well won and undeniable precedence. His position was in fact patriarchal, took on more of that character as the years went on. The deference paid to his wishes and his opinions was the willing tribute rendered to his pre-eminent services and worth, honorable to both. There shall never be a like tribute better deserved.

The business of the town at the time of Frederick S. Martin’s coming was inconsiderable and ran within narrow lines. There was a store or two, a tavern; a small sawmill and a gristmill with one run of stones. At certain seasons of the year the place was made lively by the accession of emigrants on the way to the further west, but they had little money, and the amount they left was much less.

Mr. Martin was a man of quick and penetrating sagacity, and had a habit of reflection, which prefaced every important undertaking of his life. What led him to settle in this isolated outpost? He had migrated from a region where marketable timber was scarce. He saw at a glance that in the vast forests of beautiful white pine, that surrounded him her, were enormous possibilities of value. He grasped the fact that the Allegany River was waiting to float the white pine to an unfailing market, and that the tributary streams were ready to furnish the power to cut the timber into boards. His views took practical shape forthwith. He entered the sawmill as an employee, and soon graduated as a master of the art of manufacture. He built and owned a mill of his own, then built another, naming them the “Town Mills”, and ran them to their utmost capacity. He bought, improved and operated the gristmill, and when that burned down, he put up enough for one man’s time and care, but they did not satisfy him. He added to them a stare, filled it with goods, and maintained it for many years with extraordinary success. He bought the small tavern, standing on the site of the present Olean House, enlarged and refurnished it, and managed it himself. In all these lines of business, he employed the best assistance he could find, paying promptly and generously, and thus gaining willing and energetic service. In every direction, he was successful. He bought the great tract of nearly a thousand acres, on a part of which East Olean now stands, and incidentally became a farmer. There he built the house in which he spent the residue of his busy life.

Aye, busy indeed and surely here was enough to keep one man busy, but though energetic for himself, he was, during all the years of his honored life, almost as active in the service of other. There was o public improvements suggested (and they owed their origin to him) that he did not push, aiding with his means, giving to them time, which it was a sacrifice to spare. His interest in the schools was such as befitted a man of his sagacity and intelligence.
“WE MUST GIVE OUR CHILDREN,” he said,
“THE BEST INSTRUCTORS OUR MEANS CAN COMMAND.
THIS IS NO PLACE TO BE NEGLIGENT”.When he thought the time was ripe for an institution of a grade higher than the district or common had instituted at the time, (graded schools had not been thought of yet), he started the project of an academy. Mr. Martin urged it, gave for its site, the spacious enclosure on the hill, where now stands one of the city school buildings, contributed lumber and money for the necessary structures, spent his time without stint, and gloried in its success. He was by no means alone in the great work. Nearly every businessman in the village took hold with him and shared his pride in the result, but he was the leading spirit.

The construction of the first Episcopal Church building was largely due to his liberality and his labor of love and it is not doubted that during his lifetime, he gave generously toward the erection of every church built.

He planned and labored for the project of the Genesee Valley Canal, years in advance of any legislative action, and when completed, he regarded his struggle in its behalf as the crowning labor of his life. Every office that he held, except one, was a sacrifice to him, because it imposed a tax upon his time, but he would not decline. As he said,
“FOR A RIGHT-MINDED MAN WILL ALWAYS, AND AS A DUTY,
ACCEPT, EVEN AT A SACRIFICE, ANY PUBLIC POST
THE PEOPLE DESIRE HIM TO FILL.”Acting upon this principle, he served as supervisor many time, as postmaster nine years, as an officer in the state militia for four years, as judge of the Court of Common Pleas five years, as member of assembly one term, and as state senator one term. Gratified as he was by these tokens of confidence and approval, every one of them involved for him serous inconvenience.

Frederick S. Martin’s election to Congress in the fall of 1850 was the source of gratification from which there was nothing to detract. It was pleasure without a drawback. He was nominated, amidst irrepressible excitement and against the most determined opposition, in the last congressional convention of the Whig Party ever held in this district, and in spite of the growing rupture between the two factions of the party, he was triumphantly elected! Never did a member of congress make a cleaner record. Though name of his constituents were bitterly hostile to the policy he approved, no man of them questioned his immaculate integrity.

He was getting on in years, those years had been years of unmerited toil, and he had of late longed for a little rest. Now it came. Though every day in Washington had its duties, his work there was a change and the change itself was rest. He enjoyed his life there, as only a toil-worn man could, yet when his term ended, he was glad to get back to his old round of labor and his home, Olean, NY.

A man’s home life mainly settles the question of his character. Certainly, never did a fireside’s cheerful light play upon a kindlier spirit than his. For him, home signified something more than a place to feed. It meant rest for the wearied frame, balm for the sorrowing soul, a refuge from gathering cares, a shelter from wintry storms, and a radiant center of affection at all times. There, he loved to spend what hours he could spare from the exactions of his many-sided business and the requirements of his duty to others.

In his early life, he married Miss Cornelia Martin, who survived him, and raised a family of four sons and three daughters, on whom he lavished a wealth of affection, that never failed. He spared no endeavor, shrank from no sacrifice that could minister to their well-being or their happiness. When at the ripe age of seventy-one years, he became enfeeble, and saw that the end, which comes to all, was drawing near to him, he called them around him and spoke to each, solemn and tender words that can never be forgotten.

There was another and a larger family, mourning outside, almost as deeply grief-stricken as they were. It was made up of those with whom he had lived and prospered, had toiled, enjoyed and suffered, through many eventful years. Truly, he had been as a father to the town, and it was their right to sorrow.

So died this good, strong man, as every Christian hopes he may be privileged to die, sense-possessed and conscious, with his family gathered at his bedside, and his lips instinct with the breath of prayer and faith.

D. H. B. -- Olean Herald, January 26, 1903

Researched by Eileen McCartan Smith

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