My Genealogy Hound

MRS. JULIA E. HYATT, president of the Cortland Hospital, and widow of the late Dr. Farmington O. Hyatt, is a lady held in the highest estimation in and about Cortland, her home.

Dr. F. O. Hyatt, her beloved husband, was a man in his day of many marked attainments, and he was the possessor of many varied talents and accomplishments. As a dental practitioner of experience, and as an artist and musician of great merit, he was a useful and popular member of society. Dr. Hyatt’s birthplace was Otego, Otsego County, N. Y. He came into the world September 14, 1829, and was a son of Rev. Lewis and Electa (Stewart) Hyatt. The father was born in Norwalk, Conn., and the mother in Schoharie County, N. Y.

Rev. Lewis Hyatt in early life was a teacher and a writer of great attainments. He wrote and published several booklets, which at that time had quite an extended circulation. Later in life he became a minister of the gospel, which profession he followed all his remaining active days. His last charge before he retired was at McLean. His latter retired life was passed at Marathon, where he died.

Dr. Hyatt struck out in life for himself at an early age. He was a bright student and had a natural aptitude for art. This latter talent he so cultivated that it brought him remunerative returns as a skilled teacher. Following up this vocation for some time successfully, he determined to go into business, so with a Mr. Cummings, father of the present congressman, Amos J. Cummings of N. Y., he went into the watch and jewelry business at Honesdale, Penn. A little later he located at Towanda, Penn., and studied dentistry under the noted Dr. McIntosh, and with L. B. Hyatt. He speedily became very proficient in this line, and remained at Towanda, engaged in practice until 1848, when he removed to Marathon, Cortland County, where he followed his profession some six years. He then settled in Cortland, where in a comparatively brief period he became known as the best and in every way most reliable dentist in Central New York. He enjoyed the best of prosperity as a result of his labors, and still found time to follow up his aesthetic talents. His landscape and portrait work gained flattering recognition from competent critics. Besides painting many valuable pieces, he found time to impart instruction to such pupils as he thought gave evidences of real talent. The Doctor was a great lover of music, and spent much time in its study and mastering its bewildering details. He organized and was the leader of a band, which indeed had more than a local reputation. In civic affairs, Dr. Hyatt was also alert. He served for five years in the volunteer fire department, and was a stockholder and a director in the Desk Manufacturing Co. He was never a very rugged man, but was active really beyond his strength. With scarcely an exception he won the warm love and real esteem of everyone who knew him. He built the handsome home at 182 Main Street about 1865. He died September 23, 1895, at the age of sixty-six years. His wife, the subject of our history, was a daughter of Nathaniel and Julia (Southworth) Bouton.

Nathaniel Bouton was born in Virgil, Cortland County, and was a son of a gentleman having the same given name, who was a native of West Chester, N. Y. The senior Nathaniel came in 1801 on horseback into Cortland County, and selected a farm in the town of Virgil. He took up a tract of land near where his brother Enos had located in 1799. This land he cleared as fast as he could, and in 1808 set out the first orchard of grafted fruit in Cortland County. He had found his way into this section by means of a trail, marked out by “blazed” trees. Over this route he began advocating the building of a railroad, and it is a matter of history that he was the man who first projected the building of the N. Y. & E. R. R. from New York City to Lake Erie. Nathaniel Bouton prepared and published the outlines of his plans, and placed them in the hands of people along the proposed route. The road finally went through and very near to the line projected by him, but he never lived to witness its completion, dying on the day of the celebration of the completion of the road to Binghamton, aged sixty-eight years. His wife lived to the age of eighty-six years. Their children were: Nathan; James; Lewis; William; Rachel; David; Milly; Nathaniel; and Joseph. Mr. Bouton learned the cabinet-making business, and worked at it during his early life in Marathon. Later he became the representative of several standard life and fire insurance companies, and was a justice of the peace. Being a man of extremely sound judgment, and unbiased by strong prejudices, his advice and counsel were held in high repute by his fellow-townsmen. He departed life at the age of seventy-three, but his devoted wife is still alive at the age of eighty-four. Their children were named: Julia E. (Mrs. Hyatt), our subject; Charles H.; Jane M.; Amanda G.; Eleanor C.; and Mary A.

To Dr. Hyatt and his wife Julia were given four children, but they all died very young, Louise, who lived the longest, only reaching the age of four months.

Mrs. Hyatt has all her life been a kind and benevolent woman, and since her widowhood she has tried to accomplish, besides what lay in her own field, as much good as her husband would have done had his life been spared. She is one of the leading workers in benevolent societies, and when the Cortland Hospital was established, she was chosen vice-president. She was, of course, a member of the King’s Daughters, to which order belongs the credit of founding the hospital. The hospital was started February 23, 1891 with Mrs. J. H. Hoose as president, our subject as vice-president, Mrs. Hugh Duffey, secretary, and Mrs. A. D. Squires, treasurer. On April 3, 1891, the hospital was opened in a cottage on Clayton Avenue. After four years, the association was enabled to purchase a spacious building, surrounded by wide lawns and many shade trees, in fact an ideal site. Here the present hospital was opened March 27, 1895. Its growth and success have been steady and marked since its first beginnings. Money contributions and other things of value are always coming in in appreciable quantities. Mrs. Hyatt has been president since 1891, having filled the unexpired term of Mrs. Hoose. Since that time, on her has devolved the main work of caring for the institution. To her ability as a manager, a tactician, and a financier, is mainly due the present prosperous state of affairs. The people of Cortland are proud of this institution, and are glad to honor each and every one of the loyal women, through whose efforts the hospital has become an assured fact.

Excellent portraits* of Dr. and Mrs. Hyatt may be found on preceding pages, where they will be viewed with interest by those who knew the Doctor in life, and by those who appreciate fully the noble work being performed by Mrs. Hyatt.

*Portraits were included in the original printed volume.