My Genealogy Hound

HON. ALBURTIS ALANSON CARLEY. This distinguished resident of the village of Cortland, a native-born citizen of the county, and known and honored throughout this section as an able, upright and virtuous gentleman, is now enjoying the years of repose and contentment, that have come as a reward to him for years of successful endeavor and labor both in his own interest and in behalf of the town, county, state and nation. He was born in Marathon, January 6, 1833, and is a son of Hon. Alanson and Sally (Courtright) Carley, and grandson on his father’s side of Ebenezer Carley, and on his mother’s side of Thomas and Hester Courtright.

Hon. Alanson Carley, the father of our subject, was born in Butternuts, Otsego County, N. Y., June 6, 1797, but at the age of two he was taken with the rest of the family to Marathon, this county, where all his after years were spent, and where his memory as a pioneer of the early times is still green in the minds of the older residents. Ebenezer Carley, his father, located a home on the west side of the river, and died there after performing his part in the building up of this section, and in the transformation of the forest and wilderness into a cultivated and populous farming district. Our subject’s father received his education in the public schools, and took up the pursuit of farming, purchasing as an estate some 140 acres in the western part of the town of Marathon for $1.25 an acre. Commercial life held out great attractions to him, and, although he still kept up his farming, he also engaged in trade, opening the first dry goods store in Marathon in the early 30’s. He continued to operate this store until his death. He was very successful in a business way, and had a very large trade, for patrons learned to rely on his goods, and whatever representations he made were received unquestioningly, such was the confidence placed in his honesty and integrity of purpose. It was in this connection that he was enabled to show his kind heart to those in need, and to evince a generous liberality that is seldom equaled. When times were hard he sold willingly to those, who were in financial straits, and carried their accounts until they were better able to pay for the goods. Very frequently he gave goods outright to those really in need, and in other ways relieved distress, so that it is not strange to understand the esteem and affectionate regard that was extended to him from all sides. He was indeed a good man. In many lines of activity he was equally at home. He was one of the projectors of the Syracuse & Binghamton R. R. In the construction of the road he took an active and important part, and served as one of the directors until the road was completed and in running order.

He built the railroad depot at Marathon, and a large hotel near by, then known as the Carley House, but now generally referred to as Roger’s House. We should certainly expect a man of his standing and solid position in the community to be connected with some banking institution, and so it is with no surprise that we note that he was a director in the First National Bank of the neighboring village of Cortland, being one of the original stockholders. Before the late war, he was a Whig, but on the disruption of that party on the question of slavery, he cast in his fortunes with the Republican party. He was ever prominent in politics. In 1829 he was elected a member of the State Assembly, and represented Cortland County creditably in the Legislature. In 1840 he was elected sheriff of the county. He was also a supervisor and a justice of the peace of the town of Marathon for many years. During the war he was postmaster at Marathon, and at that time he exhibited a patriotism and ardent love of the nation, by pledging himself to support the widows of any of the volunteers who enlisted from Marathon, should it chance that they fell. In this as in all other of his actions he was as good as his word. What a relief it must have been to the Marathon volunteers, when they took leave of friends and loved ones, that, come what would, their wives would not know want during the life of this prominent citizen, and philanthropist! He was a Universalist in religious belief, and a true Christian gentleman, contributing in more than one way for the support of not only his own church, but of all. On April 8, 1879, he was called to his reward. His wife was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and an earnest worker in the Master’s cause. Benevolent and kind-hearted, she knew what it was to offer comfort to the sorrowing one, and to solace those who were stricken with misfortune or affliction.

Our subject was educated in the schools of Marathon, and in Homer Academy. He spent the early years of his life on the farm with his father, and assisted in conducting his father’s country store. In 1854 he embarked in the dry goods and general store business at Marathon, and continued in that line of activity until 1860, when for three years he was interested in the manufacture of barrel staves. His first public office was town superintendent of common schools, being elected in February, 1854, one month after arriving at the age of twenty-one. In December, 1863, he took upon himself the management of the Marathon Mills, owned by his father, and operated them until 1876, under the firm name of A. Carley & Son, doing a large and profitable business. During the war he was the enrolling officer for the towns of Marathon and Freetown, and was a special deputy marshal to assist in the draft at Syracuse, N. Y., in August, 1863. July 14, 1864, he was appointed First Lieut. Co. D., 76th Reg., 19th Brigade N. Y. N. G., by Gov. Horatio Seymour. He was appointed Captain of the same Company January 10, 1866, by Gov. R. E. Fenton. He resigned from this position September 26, 1866. In 1880, he was elected a Member of the Assembly from Cortland County, and was honored by a re-election in the following year. In the first year he served on the committees on Banks, Affairs of Villages, Charitable and Religious Societies, and Public Lands, and in the second term was a member of the committees on Affairs of Cities, and Banks. He has also served as supervisor of the town of Marathon, having been elected in 1880. The First National Bank of Cortland has had his name on its board of directors since 1879. Mr. Carley is an attendant of the M. E. Church, and was for a number of years trustee of the church society at Marathon, and had charge of the finances during the rebuilding of the church edifice in 1876.

Mr. Carley was joined in marriage with Miss Anna B. Friter on October 22, 1884, and removed to the village of Cortland in May, 1885, where he is now living a retired life. In the field of politics he has ever been aggressive and active, with no knowledge of defeat; from 1886 to 1890, he was chairman of the Republican County Committee of Cortland County, and in all this period there was not an election that resulted disastrously to his plans, nor was there one Republican candidate defeated. He takes a lively interest in educational matters, and is now serving a term on the Cortland village school board, having been elected in March, 1897. He is also a trustee of the M. E. Church of Cortland, and is vice-president of the Yale Land and Improvement Co. of Cortland. He is an unaffiliated member of the Masonic Order of Cortland. The citizens of Cortland County do not need to be told who the men of best reputation in the county are, for they have shown on more than one occasion, as they did when they honored our subject with high political office, that they were ever ready to recognize and reward true worth. A public man should have a clean, pure record in all respects, and this we can affirm with the friends of Mr. Carley that he has. He is widely known in this county and beyond its borders, having friends and acquaintances in every section of the state, who unite in ascribing to him every virtue of a public-spirited, upright, gentlemanly, and able citizen.