Page 10 - The History of Watertown Savings Bank_Neat
P. 10
Early Influencers
of WSB History
Allen C. Beach, who served as New York because of its strong Republication stronghold,
State Lieutenant Governor, played a vital role in and even when he tried to run for an open county
helping Watertown Savings Bank to obtain its judge position, he was defeated.
certificate of authorization from the New York Mr. Beach served as a delegate to many
State Banking Department. county and state party conventions, and to the
Mr. Beach, a lawyer and politician, had
Allen C. Beach developed many important connections within the Democratic National Conventions twice – his
first time as a delegate for Stephen A. Douglas
Founding Trustee of state government during his service as lieutenant to the 1860 convention, and later in 1876, when
Watertown Savings Bank governor from 1869 to 1872, and later as New Samuel J. Tilden was announced the Democratic
York Secretary of State from 1878 to 1879. presidential nominee.
Born in Herkimer County in 1825, the son of In 1868, Mr. Beach was nominated for
the Rev. Allen R. Beach and Amy Brown Beach, lieutenant governor on the first ballot, with “the
he began working at age 12 on a farm. But even vote being 68 for Beach and 56 as the aggregate
as a young boy, he continued to read and study to vote for all other candidates,” according to a
the extent that he was “fitted’ to teach school at historical account.
the age of 16, according to a historical account. Historical records described him as someone
“While he worked, he thought; and the limited who rose from “a completely obscure boyhood to
education which he had received in the village school his present position of trust and power, not by
gave him determination to acquire sufficient knowledge the appliances which wealth, inherited from an
to rise to a higher sphere of usefulness,” it stated. aristocratic ancestry, can afford, but by the sheer force
of industry and genuine uprightness of character.”
Mr. Beach spent time both teaching and
studying during his youth, preparing himself After helping WSB obtain its certification
to enroll in Union College, Schenectady. He form the state, he joined the bank’s first board
graduated with distinguished honors in 1848, and of trustees. He also served as president of the
studied law under Joshua Moore, a well-respected Watertown Board of Education.
lawyer. Mr. Beach was admitted to the bar in 1852. His first wife, Abby Woodruff, died in 1856.
He also developed a keen interest in politics, He later married his second wife, Olivia H.
and later served as chairman of the Jefferson Pickering, and they had one daughter, Amy.
County Democratic Committee. But he had Mr. Beach died on Oct. 17, 1918 in Rochester.,
difficulty running for offices in Jefferson County New York.
8