Edward Judson

Hon. Edward B. Judson, of old New England ancestry and Connecticut parentage, was born in Coxsackie, N.Y., January 11, 1813, and received the rudiments of a business training as clerk in the banking house of his mother's brother, Ralph Barker, in his native town. When twenty-two he engaged with his brother, W. A. Judson, in manufacturing lumber at Constantia, Oswego county, and subsequently the two carried on a lumber commission business in Albany for about twenty years. At Constantia he also engaged in the manufacture of iron, and when twenty-four he was elected to the Assembly, serving in the sessions of 1839 and 1841, and being chairman of the committees on cities and villages and the State Lunatic Asylum. In 1849 he came to Syracuse, where he has ever since resided, and in 1850 became one of the organizers and the first vice-president of the Merchants' Bank. Two years later he was elected an original director and the first cashier of the Salt Springs Bank. In 1857 he resigned to aid in organizing the Lake Ontario Bank of Oswego, of which he became cashier and chief executive officer. This institution was remarkable for the character and position of its stockholders, among whom were John A. Stevens, president; C. H. Russell, vice-president; Henry F. Vail, cashier of the Bank of Commerce, New York city; Erastus Corning and H. H. Martin, president and cashier of the Albany City Bank; Rufus H. King and J. H. Van Antwerp, president and cashier of the State Bank, of Albany; J. B. Plumb, president of the Bank of Interior, Albany; Hamilton White, Horace White, John D. Norton and Thomas B. Fitch, presidents respectively of the Onondaga County Bank, the Bank of Syracuse, the Merchants' Bank, and the Mechanics' Bank, all of Syracuse; G. B. Rich, president of the Bank of Attica, Buffalo; Luther Wright, president of Luther Wright's Bank, Oswego; and Thurlow Weed, John L. Schoolcraft, David Hamilton, John Knower, Frederick T. Carrington, George Geddes, and William A. Judson.

When the Federal government, in 1863, perfected and carried into operation the present national banking system Mr. Judson's experience and counsel were sought by Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, who invited him and a few other prominent bankers of the country to Washington for this purpose. At the request of the secretary, Mr. Judson, immediately after his return, organized the First National Bank of Syracuse, which stands as No. 6 in the archives at the nation's capital, and which he has ever since served as president. He was for eleven years, after 1864, chairman of the executive committee of the National Banking Association, and for about eighteen years interested in the manufacture of glass, being for some time president of the Syracuse Glass Company. He was one of the first two vice-presidents of the Trust and Deposit Company of Onondaga, which was organized in 1869; has served as trustee of the Metropolitan Trust Company of New York city since its organization; in 1870 was one of the incorporators and the first treasurer of the Syracuse Northern Railroad; was for several years a director in the Syracuse and Oswego Railroad; was formerly a director in the New York Central Railroad Company, Bank of Syracuse, and American Express Company; and is a trustee and vice-president of Wells College at Aurora, treasurer of St. Joseph's Hospital, trustee of the Old Ladies' Home, and president of board of trustees of May Memorial church. He is one of the oldest bankers in the State, and still guides the affairs of the institution which hewas instrumental in founding. He is, or has been, interested in various business enterprises, including the Salt Springs Solar Salt Company, which he assisted in organizing, and has served ever since as a director, and has always taken a keen interest in the growth and welfare of the city.

Mr. Judson has had little time or inclination for political life since his early membership of the Legislature, but in 1868 he allowed his name to be presented as a candidate for presidential elector, and was defeated, that being the year Governor Hoffman was elected.

October 15, 1846, Mr. Judson married Miss Sarah, daughter of Coddington B. Williams, of Syracuse, and they have one son, Edward B. Judson, jr., a man of enterprise and thorough business qualifications.


Source: Bruce, Dwight H. (Ed.), Onondaga's Centennial. Boston History Co., 1896, Vol. II, Biographical, pp. 53-54