My Genealogy Hound

EDMUND C. ALGER. Conspicuous among the young men of sterling worth of Cortland County, whom business or professional work has given a wide acquaintance throughout the county, and whose public services are ever highly esteemed, is Edmund C. Alger, the town clerk of Cortland, and a rising young attorney with a good practice and excellent prospects. He was born in the town of Cortlandville, Feb. 9, 1870, and was a son of Silas J. Alger, and grandson of Joseph C. Alger. Our subject’s common school education was finished with a course at the Normal School of Cortland, where he graduated in the class of 1890. He then attended Cornell University Law School at Ithaca, N. Y., graduating in June, 1893, and was admitted to the bar in September of the same year. He had for some time fixed on Cortland as a suitable field of practice, and immediately upon his graduation from the law school, he located in the village, and proceeded to build up a practice that would be a credit to his exceptional abilities, in which undertaking he has been remarkably successful, for he now ranks among the ablest attorneys of the county, and enjoys a prestige that is well earned and deserved. He is a Republican in his politics, and secretary of the Republican County Committee. He was elected town clerk in 1894, and at the present writing is serving his second term to the complete satisfaction of his fellow-townsmen. Socially, he has allied himself with one of the first organizations in the town, being a member and ex-senior warden of the Cortlandville Lodge, No. 470, F. & A. M.

Our subject comes from sturdy, down-east Yankee stock, for his grandfather, Joseph C. Alger, was a native of the Nutmeg State, and made that state his home until he moved to Cortland County, and settled in the town of Cortlandville, about two miles east of the village of Cortland. The wife of his youth, a Miss Card of Cortland County, left him at her early decease two children, Wesley and Charity (McElheney). His second wife, Mary Cole of Cortland County, still survives him, and lives in McGrawville, N. Y. This second union was prolific of these six children: Silas J., our subject’s father; William; Charles O.; Alice; Helen (Burlingham); and Rocelia.

Silas J. Alger was born in Cortlandville, June 22, 1839. He was reared and educated to agricultural pursuits, which he followed until his death. He married Ellen A. Conger, daughter of Beman S. Conger of Cortland. His demise took place in 1876, and he left his widow and one son, Edmund C., to mourn his loss. Mrs. Alger a few years after this bereavement took to herself a second husband in the person of Samuel L. Palmer of Cortland. To this worthy gentleman, who became our subject’s step-father, Edmund C. Alger is indebted for many practical lessons in life.