He could have been President of the United States. Elmira His college campus has a building named after him. He presented a gold watch to the Korean emperor.
He has served as Chemung County District Attorney, Port of New York Collector, State Senator, Representative, and ran for Governor of New York.
Known as the “Father of Golf” at Elmira, he also published the Elmira Advertiser. At his funeral he was called “Elmira’s most eminent son”.
Jacob Throat Facet (November 13, 1853 – April 21, 1924) was a truly remarkable man.
His daughter, Jeanie Facet Learned, told the Rotary Club of Elmira on October 15, 1952, that early in the morning when she was doing the chore of moving the family’s cattle to pasture from her home at 460 West Church Street I’m talking about and she came home in the evening. According to her, he “brought a slate to school and studied the 3Rs thoroughly. He went to church and studied all the passages of the Bible. often quoted.”
Facet graduated from the Elmira Free Academy and graduated from the University of Rochester, graduating with honors in 1875. He then studied law at his father’s law firm. He qualified as a bar in 1878, and a year later, at the age of 26, Lucius was appointed Kemungu County District Attorney by Governor Robinson (Ermiran) to fill his vacancy. rice field. After his year of service, he went to Heidelberg, Germany to study law and political economy.
Facet’s political career took off in earnest when he was elected to the New York State Senate in 1883, a position he held for eight years. At this point, he became part of the political machine of the New York State Republican Party, which was put together by Owego’s “boss” Thomas C. Pratt. He also became a rival of Elmira Democrat David Bennett Hill, who would become governor and owner of the Elmira Gazette. Facet becomes the owner and editor of Elmira Advertiser.
In Congress, Facet chaired the Commerce and Navigation Commission and also chaired the Insurance Commission. He served, among other things, on the city committee.
When Hill became governor, Facet launched an aggressive campaign against corruption within the administration, and according to his daughter, “found notorious evidence of corruption in New York City ministries.” He also developed a rivalry with Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1891, President Benjamin Harrison appointed Facet as collector of New York Harbor. In the short time he was there, he seized William Vanderbilt’s yacht and caused a bit of a ruckus. The New York Republicans nominated Facet for governor in his 1891, resulting in Facet resigning from the post of tax collector. He played Roswell Flower and lost by 40,000 votes.
Facet married Jenny Crocker in 1879. She is from California and met her future husband while visiting her friend who attended her college in Elmira. She was a district attorney at the time.
The couple acquired 60 acres of Strathmont land and built a beautiful home. Their daughter described the place in a 1958 Star-Gazette as “a paradise for children…with secret staircases, a large attic to frighten young people, and a nine-hole golf course (faceted in the early 1890s). (designed after visiting Scotland in , earned the title of “Father of Golf” in Elmira and the “monster” humming in the basement – the dynamo that powers the estate.
Jenny Facet was a force in her own right. Her husband wrote her in 1916 to Elmira, rector of her college: I don’t know the details because I haven’t consulted with them. But what Mrs. Facet said or said is law and gospel as far as I am concerned. I personally don’t like the name “Fassett Commons”. ‘Clocker Hall’ is much better.”
Facet and his father served on the board of trustees of Elmira College. In 1917, Facet donated $30,000 for the construction of his commons in Facet. In 1925, after J. Slaught’s death, Jenny his facet donated his $60,000 to “finance and equip” a monument in the university library’s reading room, reported Elmira College His Weekly. I was.
In Facet’s letter to the university president, he also offered to donate his fortune to the university. this real estate? ”
Politics continued to play an important role in the life of J. Sloat Facet. His relationship with Boss Pratt was strained because of his reformist tendencies, and his daughter, Learned, said her father had won the vice presidential nomination alongside William McKinley in his 1900 election. I pointed out that I had been promised that Copies of letters obtained from Yale University Library manuscripts and archives between Pratt and Facet appear to have held nominations in effect. She indicated that at one point, friction with Pratt led to the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt instead. would suggest that he was more interested in
An October 1905 newspaper headline read: “Political leaders sign agreement against bribery.” Facet, chairman of the Republican County Commission, and his WH Lovell, chairman of the Democratic Commission, signed the agreement, known as the Elmira Compact. They promised that no “spending or promising of money for the purpose of buying or influencing votes” would be allowed. They also agreed to pursue the arrest and prosecution of those involved in bribery in polls.
Facet was a very successful businessman. He had gold mining rights in South Korea, a ranch in New Mexico. He was the president of Insular Lumber Company in the Philippines. He was also president of Facet Lumber Company in what is now Facet, Quebec. The municipality was named after the company. He served as Deputy President of the Second National Bank of Elmira.
Learned calls her father and his partner Leigh Hunt “the fathers of modern mining in the Far East.” In 1899 they traveled to Korea to inspect the mines and meet the emperor. Facet and Hunt presented the emperor with a “wonderful” gold watch. Room’s. “
Other Elmira History:The McCanns were prominent figures in the history of Elmira Heights and Kemun County.
Other Elmira History:Elmira Armory: Tragedy Under Construction, Final Collapse
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Facet served three terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1905 to 1911. He died in Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 21, 1924, while returning from a business trip to Japan and the Philippines.
An interesting aspect of Facet’s life in Elmira was his interest in urban issues. They were especially interested in children’s issues. During his speech at Rotary, Learned said: Schools and neighborhood soccer and baseball teams were ravaged from vacant lot to vacant lot and were usually barred from returning. My father cleared the area along Hoffman Street from the entrance of Strathmont (now Facet Road) to his avenue in Washington, and built a grill net and baseball diamonds and his tennis courts. He built a comfortable little clubhouse and it became the headquarters of his athletic club, whose football team is best known for his amateurs. Some great games were played between teams such as Toddyville Skippers, Dirty Dozen, Patch Hustlers, Pickaways, Froghollow Pets, Pigeon Point Stars and others as members grew and Throat Facet realized that his interest in boys had diminished. There were other team scores that came to congratulate. He is luckier than himself.
In 1908, the Federation Building opened where the Steele Memorial Library now stands. Former county historian Tom Byrne said it was “a project that will light the way for United Community Services today,” with Facet donating the site and Jenny Facet contributing to his $60,000 structure. donated $15,000. At the outset, she said its purpose was to provide “material assistance that would help them (poor people) get back on their feet and make them self-reliant.”
In Chemung County New York History 1890-1975, Byrne wrote that the building was “one of the pre-eminent buildings of its kind in the United States.”
Jim Hare is a former history teacher and mayor of Elmira City. His column appears monthly in the Star-Gazette.