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.


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