My Genealogy Hound

HON. WILLIAM C. HAZELTON, County Judge and Surrogate, is a man whom the people of Seneca County have delighted to honor. He was born near Trumansburg, Tompkins County, September 1, 1835. His father was also a native of that county, while his mother came from Rutland County, Vt. Elijah and Mary Ann (Clark) Hazelton were, like the great majority of the people of the early part of the century, unfavored by outward circumstances, and had to make their way, not to fame or fortune, but to a home and a living by the very hardest kind of labor and the most persistent economy. That they met the issues of the hour and showed forth a grand and lofty courage, the history of the changed condition of this entire country from the Great Lakes to the ocean is ample evidence. The father of our subject, Elijah Hazelton, was left an orphan at an early age, and was thrown upon his own resources. He was reared a farmer, and made his home in his native county until 1842, when he removed to Covert, Seneca County, where he continued farming until he died, in 1877. He was a Democrat in politics, and in his day held several local offices, and was a man much respected by all who knew him. His wife is still living on the old homestead in Covert, at the age of eighty years. The parents’ family included two children. Sarah Ann married William S. Robinson, and died in this county. She left one daughter, Edith, who is now the wife of John Halford, and resides on the old home farm in Covert.

Mr. Hazelton passed his early life on the farm, attending the common school and academy, and teaching school in the winter until he was twenty years of age. Then he entered the law offices of Dana, Beers & Howard, of Ithaca, and in the year 1858 was admitted to the Bar. For the next four years he was a clerk in the law office of H. A. Dowe. In the spring of 1862 he returned home, and to his surprise was nominated and elected District Attorney of Seneca County, and served three years. In 1868 he was re-elected, and served a third term in 1880. In 1873 he was elected a member of the Assembly, serving one term, and for six years was elected County Judge and Surrogate. Politically he is a Democrat, but has never been known as a party worker or as a manager of fine politics. Rather, with that fine sense of the fitness of things that belongs to the judicial temperament, he has preferred to keep much to himself, and trust the people to decide for themselves what is best and most desirable. He has never been an office-seeker, and only when the sentiment became earnest and emphatic would he consent to be a candidate for any position. Of him it is always true that the office has sought the man, and not the man the office, as he has preferred to practice law at Ovid, where for a time he was Justice of the Peace.

In January, 1876, Mr. Hazelton united his destinies with those of Miss Sarah Pratt, a native of Orange County, and they have become the parents of three children, Laura, Emma and Charles P. Besides his fine brick residence at Ovid, our subject also owns a farm of one hundred and eighteen acres. The Judge is not a member of any church or lodge, but has given his entire attention to law, and it must be said that the law has rewarded his devotion. He has made his way in the world, and has won a high standing in the life of his generation.