97th New York State Legislature

97th New York State Legislature
97th New York State Legislature
	The Old State Capitol (1879)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	January 1 – December 31, 1874
Senate
Members	32
President	Lt. Gov. John C. Robinson (R)
Temporary President	William H. Robertson (R)
Party control	Republican (18-12-2)
Assembly
Members	128
Speaker	James W. Husted (R)
Party control	Republican (71-53-3)
Sessions
1st
1st	January 6 – April 30, 1874

The 97th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 6 to April 30, 1874, during the second year of John A. Dix's governorship, in Albany.

Background[]

Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1846, 32 Senators and 128 assemblymen were elected in single-seat districts; senators for a two-year term, assemblymen for a one-year term. The senatorial districts were made up of entire counties, except New York County (five districts) and Kings County (two districts). The Assembly districts were made up of entire towns, or city wards,^[1] forming a contiguous area, all within the same county.

At this time there were two major political parties: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The Liberal Republican Party also nominated a ticket.

Elections[]

The New York state election, 1873 was held on November 4. The statewide elective offices up for election were carried by five Democrats and two Republicans, all of which had been nominated also on the Liberal Republican ticket.

Sessions[]

The Legislature met for the regular session at the Old State Capitol in Albany on January 6, 1874; and adjourned on April 30.

James W. Husted (R) was elected Speaker against Smith M. Weed (D).

On April 7, the Legislature elected as Superintendent of Public Instructions, with 87 votes against 51 for Abram B. Weaver, to succeed Weaver for a term of three years.^[2]

State Senate[]

Districts[]

1st District: Queens, Richmond and Suffolk counties
2nd District: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 19th and 20th wards of the City of Brooklyn
3rd District: 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th wards of the City of Brooklyn; and all towns in Kings County
4th District: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th and 14th wards of New York City
5th District: 8th, 9th, 15th and 16th wards of New York City
6th District: 10th, 11th and 17th wards of New York City
7th District: 18th, 20th and 21st wards of New York City
8th District: 12th, 19th and 22nd wards of New York City
9th District: Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties
10th District: Orange and Sullivan counties
11th District: Columbia and Dutchess counties
12th District: Rensselaer and Washington counties
13th District: Albany County
14th District: Greene and Ulster counties
15th District: Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, Saratoga and Schenectady counties
16th District: Clinton, Essex and Warren counties
17th District: Franklin and St. Lawrence counties
18th District: Jefferson and Lewis counties
19th District: Oneida County
20th District: Herkimer and Otsego counties
21st District: Madison and Oswego counties
22nd District: Onondaga and Cortland counties
23rd District: Chenango, Delaware and Schoharie counties
24th District: Broome, Tompkins and Tioga counties
25th District: Cayuga and Wayne counties
26th District: Ontario, Seneca and Yates counties
27th District: Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties
28th District: Monroe County
29th District: Genesee, Niagara and Orleans counties
30th District: Allegany, Livingston and Wyoming counties
31st District: Erie County
32nd District: Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Members[]

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued in office as members of this Legislature. John C. Jacobs, Frank Abbott, Benjamin Ray and Franklin W. Tobey changed from the Assembly to the Senate.

District	Senator	Party	Notes
1st	John A. King	Republican
2nd	John W. Coe	Lib. Rep./Dem.
3rd	John C. Jacobs*	Democrat
4th	John Fox	Democrat
5th	James W. Booth	Republican
6th	Jacob A. Gross	Democrat
7th	Thomas A. Ledwith	Democrat
8th	Hugh H. Moore	Democrat	contested by Walter S. Pinckney (R), decision postponed to the next session
9th	William H. Robertson*	Republican	re-elected; elected president pro tempore
10th	Frank Abbott	Lib. Rep./Dem.	contested; seat vacated on February 4^[3]
10th	Edward M. Madden	Republican	seated on February 5
11th	Benjamin Ray*	Democrat
12th	Roswell A. Parmenter	Democrat
13th	Jesse C. Dayton	Democrat
14th	Henry C. Connelly	Republican
15th	Webster Wagner*	Republican	re-elected
16th	Franklin W. Tobey*	Republican
17th	Wells S. Dickinson*	Republican	re-elected
18th	Andrew C. Middleton	Ind./Lib. Rep./Dem.^[4]
19th	Samuel S. Lowery*	Republican	re-elected
20th	Archibald C. McGowan*	Republican	re-elected
21st	Charles Kellogg	Republican
22nd	Daniel P. Wood*	Republican	re-elected
23rd	James G. Thompson	Republican	contested by William Yeomans Jr.^[5]
24th	John H. Selkreg	Republican
25th	William B. Woodin*	Republican	re-elected
26th	William Johnson*	Democrat	re-elected
27th	George B. Bradley	Democrat
28th	Jarvis Lord*	Democrat	re-elected
29th	Dan H. Cole	Republican
30th	Abijah J. Wellman	Republican
31st	John Ganson	Democrat	died on September 28, 1874
32nd	Albert G. Dow	Republican

Employees[]

Clerk:
Sergeant-at-Arms: Daniel K. Schram
Doorkeeper: Frederick M. Burton

State Assembly[]

Assemblymen[]

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued as members of this Legislature.

District		Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	1st		Republican
	2nd		Democrat
	3rd	Terrence J. Quinn	Democrat
	4th	Waters W. Braman	Republican
Allegany			Republican
Broome			Republican
Cattaraugus	1st	Commodore P. Vedder*	Republican
Cattaraugus	2nd	*	Republican
Cayuga	1st	*	Republican
Cayuga	2nd		Republican
Chautauqua	1st	Francis B. Brewer*	Republican
Chautauqua	2nd	*	Republican
Chemung		Edmund Miller	Democrat
Chenango			Republican
Clinton		Smith M. Weed*	Democrat
Columbia	1st		Democrat
Columbia	2nd		Republican
Cortland		*	Republican
Delaware	1st		Republican
Delaware	2nd	*	Republican
Dutchess	1st	James Mackin*	Democrat
Dutchess	2nd	Harvey G. Eastman	Republican
Erie	1st		Democrat
	2nd		Democrat
	3rd	Franklin A. Alberger*	Republican
	4th	*	Republican
	5th	*	Republican
Essex			Democrat
Franklin		John P. Badger*	Republican
Fulton and Hamilton			Republican
Genesee		*	Republican
Greene		*	Democrat
Herkimer		Warner Miller	Republican
Jefferson	1st	*	Republican
Jefferson	2nd	^[6]	Republican
Kings	1st	James F. Donahue*	Democrat
	2nd	John J. Allen	Republican
	3rd	Michael J. Coffey	Democrat
	4th	Theodore N. Melvin	Democrat
	5th		Republican
	6th	Jacob Worth*	Republican
	7th	Stephen J. Colahan	Democrat
	8th	George C. Bennett	Republican
	9th	John McGroarty	Democrat
Lewis			Democrat
Livingston			Republican
Madison	1st	*	Republican
Madison	2nd		Republican
Monroe	1st	*	Republican
	2nd		Democrat
	3rd	*	Republican
Montgomery			Republican
New York	1st	*	Democrat
	2nd		Democrat
	3rd	*	Democrat
	4th	*	Democrat
	5th		Republican
	6th		Democrat
	7th	Alfred Wagstaff Jr.	Democrat
	8th		Rep./Apollo H.
	9th		Republican
	10th		Democrat
	11th		Republican
	12th		Democrat
	13th		Republican
	14th	James Daly	Democrat
	15th	Joseph Blumenthal*	Democrat
	16th	*	Democrat
	17th	*	Democrat
	18th	Bernard Biglin*	Republican
	19th	Thomas O'Callaghan	Democrat
	20th		Democrat
	21st	vacant		Assemblyman-elect Henry W. Genet (D) forfeited his seat^[7]
	21st			elected to fill vacancy
Niagara	1st		Republican
Niagara	2nd		Republican
Oneida	1st		Republican
	2nd		Republican
	3rd		Republican
	4th		Republican
Onondaga	1st	Thomas G. Alvord	Independent
	2nd	^[8]	Republican
	3rd		Democrat
Ontario	1st	Stephen H. Hammond	Democrat
Ontario	2nd	*	Republican
Orange	1st	*	Republican
Orange	2nd		Democrat
Orleans		Elisha S. Whalen*	Republican
Oswego	1st	George B. Sloan	Republican
	2nd	Willard Johnson*	Democrat
	3rd	*	Republican
Otsego	1st		Democrat
Otsego	2nd		Lib. Rep./Dem.
Putnam		Hamilton Fish II	Republican
Queens	1st	L. Bradford Prince*	Republican
Queens	2nd	James M. Oakley*	Democrat
Rensselaer	1st	*	Democrat
	2nd		Republican
	3rd		Democrat
Richmond			Democrat
Rockland			Democrat
St. Lawrence	1st		Republican
	2nd	Dolphus S. Lynde*	Republican
	3rd	^[9]	Republican
Saratoga	1st	George West*	Republican
Saratoga	2nd	George S. Batcheller*	Republican
Schenectady		*	Republican
Schoharie			Democrat
Schuyler			Republican
Seneca		William C. Hazelton	Democrat
Steuben	1st		Democrat
Steuben	2nd		Republican
Suffolk		Nathan D. Petty	Republican
Sullivan		George M. Beebe*	Democrat	on November 3, 1874, elected to the 44th U.S. Congress
Tioga		*	Republican
Tompkins			Republican
Ulster	1st		Republican
	2nd		Democrat
	3rd		Democrat
Warren			Democrat
Washington	1st		Republican
Washington	2nd		Democrat
Wayne	1st		Democrat
Wayne	2nd		Ind. Rep.
Westchester	1st	William Cauldwell	Democrat
	2nd	*	Republican
	3rd	James W. Husted*	Republican	elected Speaker
Wyoming			Republican
Yates			Democrat

Employees[]

Clerk: John O'Donnell
Sergeant-at-Arms: Frederick C. Fiske
Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms: DeWitt Griffin
Doorkeeper: Eugene L. Demers
Assistant Doorkeeper: James Hogan
Assistant Doorkeeper: Michael Maher
Stenographer: Worden E. Payne

Notes[]

^ Except New York City where the wards were apportioned into election districts, and then some whole wards and some election districts of other wards were gerrymandered together into Assembly districts.
^ Journal of the State Senate (1874; pg. 568)
^ see Abbott vs. Madden in Utica Daily Observer on February 5, 1874
^ Middleton was nominated as an Independent by a convention of farmers in favor of reform, and then endorsed by the Liberal Republicans and Democrats; and defeated the Republican incumbent Norris Winslow at the election.
^ THE STATE LEGISLATURE; SENATE in NYT on February 5, 1874
^ Hugh Smith, brother-in-law of State Senator James A. Bell
^ Genet was elected on November 4, but was convicted in December 1873 for fraud, and fled from justice before sentencing. He thus forfeited the right to the seat, and a special election was called for January 20, 1874.
^ George Barrow (born 1839 NYC), brother of (c.1829–1857) who was assemblyman in 1854
^ Jonah Sanford (born 1821), son of Congressman Jonah Sanford

Sources[]

Civil List and Constitutional History of the Colony and State of New York compiled by Edgar Albert Werner (1884; see pg. 276 for Senate districts; pg. 290 for senators; pg. 298–304 for Assembly districts; and pg. 374f for assemblymen)
Journal of the Senate (97th Session) (1874)
REPUBLICAN ASSEMBLY CAUCUSES in NYT on January 6, 1874
THE STATE GOVERNMENT in The Newtown Register on January 15, 1874
Life Sketches of Government Officers and Members of the Legislature of the State of New York in 1874 by W. H. McElroy and Alexander McBride

[1] Except New York City where the wards were apportioned into election districts, and then some whole wards and some election districts of other wards were gerrymandered together into Assembly districts.

[2] Journal of the State Senate (1874; pg. 568)

[3] see Abbott vs. Madden in Utica Daily Observer on February 5, 1874

[4] Middleton was nominated as an Independent by a convention of farmers in favor of reform, and then endorsed by the Liberal Republicans and Democrats; and defeated the Republican incumbent Norris Winslow at the election.

[5] THE STATE LEGISLATURE; SENATE in NYT on February 5, 1874

[6] Hugh Smith, brother-in-law of State Senator James A. Bell

[7] Genet was elected on November 4, but was convicted in December 1873 for fraud, and fled from justice before sentencing. He thus forfeited the right to the seat, and a special election was called for January 20, 1874.

[8] George Barrow (born 1839 NYC), brother of (c.1829–1857) who was assemblyman in 1854

[9] Jonah Sanford (born 1821), son of Congressman Jonah Sanford

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