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- 1895 Landmarks of Oswego
Muzzy, L. R., is of Scotch ancestry, the first of the family having come to this country before the Revolution. One of the number, Isaac, was killed in the first battle with the British at Lexington. His great-grandfather was born in New Hampshire in 1738, served as first lieutenant through the war, and died in Sandy Creek in 1831. The grandfather, Robert, was born in New Hampshire in 1769, married Martha Morse, and in 1816 settled in Sandy Creek with their twelve children. There he died in 1829 and his wife in 1835. The father of our subject was Lawson Muzzy, born January 12, 1812 in New Hampshire. Orrilla S. Read, his wife, was born at North Brookfield, Madison county, and died at Edmeston in 1876. Their children were: Elijah W. and Eliza W. (twins), who died in 1844; Lawson R., born in Deep River, Conn., March 3, 1846; Thomas H. who died in infancy; Jessie M., wife of Rev. H. S. Schwartz of Boonville. The father of our subject was educated at Colgate University, and was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1841, and although not in active service, being in his eighty-fourth year, is able to preach occasionally. Lawson R. Muzzy was educated at Pulaski and later at Belleville Academy. Subsequently he became the half owner of a grocery store in Henderson, N. Y., after which he taught school, and still later was in business in Madison county. He bought the Pulaski Democrat in 1869 and has continued to publish and edit the paper ever since. It has been made a nine column sheet, is in its forty-fifth volume, and is regarded as among the best and most flourishing weekly papers in the State. Mr. Muzzy has twice been elected a member of the Pulaski Board of Education, was four times chosen as supervisor, unanimously nominated and elected with an ever increased majority over the previous year; a member of the Republican District and County Committees, and has represented his county in the Congressional and State Conventions. He was chairman of the Building Committee in the erection of the Pulaski Court House annex, and was one of the first five postmasters named by President Harrison, serving four years. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in Co. C, 186th N. Y. Vols., and served till the close of the war. He has passed most of his life in Pulaski. He is a member of the Masonic Fraternity No. 415, Pulaski Chapter No. 275, R. A. M., J. B. Butler Post G. A. R., and Pulaski Lodge, 255, A. O. U. W. He was married in 1869, at King's Ferry, Cayuga county, to Miss Alma P. Witt, a native of that county and a lady of rare womanly graces. Their children are: Beulah W. born June 10, 1870; and Lawson J., born July 1, 1876, who died aged six. Beulah W. married Dr. G. F. Adams, a graduate of Hahnemann College, Chicago, and now first assistant physician of the Westboro State Hospital, of Massachusetts. She was educated at Pulaski Academy and later spent four years at Rutgers Female College in New York, of which she is a graduate. There is hardly a newspaper man in Northern New York who has for the past twenty-five years devoted more earnest effort towards the successful prosecution of his business and the reputation of his journal than has Mr. Muzzy. Through these efforts he has won universal respect, and at the same time brought about a financial result which must be extremely gratifying to him and his family.
Newspaper Obituary - Wednesday, October 7, 1896 Pulaski Democrat - Pulaski, New York - A Godly Man Passes - Rev. Lawson Muzzy Dies at a Ripe Old Age - In the Service of his Master He Has Run a Good Race - He Goes to a Rich Reward - The deceased was born of Revolutionary parentage, in Dublin, New Hampshire, January 12, 1812. He was the youngest in a family of twelve children. In the spring of 1816, his parents came to the town of Sandy Creek, in this county, locating upon what is now known as the Newton Thompson farm, two and a half miles north of Pulaski_ The house now standing on this farm was erected when he was but a youth with the pension money coming from the grandfather of the deceased, who was in the Revolutionary Army. This house, when new, was regarded as one of the finest residences in this part of the country. Here he toiled early and late. When a young man he was engaged as a schoolteacher and many of the older surviving residents of this town where his pupils. He gave his heart to the Savior when about eighteen years of age and united with the Pulaski Baptist church. In relating his Christian experience has been heard to say: "I had spent the evening away from home, with young people. As I returned late at night I saw a light in my mother's room and listened at the door. My mother was in prayer. It was deeply convicted of sin and soon began to pray for myself" Not long after his conversion he felt it was his duty to enter the ministry and from that time forward he has been truly a "Man of God," unselfishly devoted, for sixty-five years, to the holy work whereunto he was most certainly called. He entered what was then called Madison University, but now Colgate University, where he received careful training for eight years and was graduated from the University and also the seminary at the head of his class and was easily one of the best educated men of his time. He married Miss O. E. Read, of Madison County, August 15, 1841. She was a young lady of high Christian character, who proved herself to be admirably adapted to the cares and duties of a pastor's wife. This sainted co-worker was twenty years since called to her reward. Father Muzzy, as all loved to call him, had his first pastorate in Brooklyn, where he was the first pastor of the new and struggling church. Many times he has been recalled to visit that church, his last visit being to assist in its semi-centennial anniversary. Subsequently he labored in Connecticut. His last pastorate in that state was at Norwich. In 1851, forty-five years ago, he received and accepted a call from the Pulaski Baptist church. Here he lived and labored for eight years, crowned of God with honor and blessing. Scores of the older citizens yet remember with tender emotion his ministrations at the marriage feast, at the bedside of the sick, the house of the mourning and in the house of God. He was subsequently pastor of the following churches: Henderson, Jefferson County, Mexico, and Edmeston, Otsego County. His last pastorate, humanly speaking, was the most successful. The Edmeston church had its membership and financial ability more than doubled under his ministry. Wherever known his memory is revered. His life, his work, his Christian character furnish most striking examples of that stalwart type of religious life so characteristic of the early men who offered themselves as servants of the Most High. Father Muzzy has not been actively engaged in the ministry for a number of years, yet he has maintained his mental figure to a remarkable degree, as evinced in religious gatherings and more especially in the pulpit. He preached his last sermon three weeks since while visiting his former Otsego County parishioners, and it was regarded by them as fully equal to his earlier and best efforts. He contributed, while at college, toward the erection of the first Baptist church in Pulaski and, with his mother, was enrolled among its earliest members. He has always been on intimate and friendly terms with the pastors of the Baptist church and of other churches of this village, and active in all the social meetings. He was especially gifted in prayer and remarkably so in earnest exhortation. He attended the funeral of Rev. Norman Guiteau, the first pastor of the church, and has been called to preach many times at ordinations, dedications and anniversaries throughout the state. He often wrote articles for the religious press and his little book on Baptist Principles is highly regarded by his brethren, the clergy, as authority. He officiated at the marriages of his two children, who survive him, and solemnized the nuptials of two grandchildren. How natural it is to say that had it not been for the unfortunate accident of less than two weeks ago, when he met with a severe shock caused by a fall, that Father Muzzy might yet have been spared for a still riper old age. But one remains out of this family of twelve children, Rev. Addison Muzzy, a graduate of Hamilton College and a resident of Ottawa, Kansas, who is now eighty-eight years of age and in feeble health. Of his immediate descendants there is still living one son, Mr. L. B. Muzzy, of this village, and a daughter, Jessie Marie, wife of Rev. H. S. Schwartz, of Holland Patent. There are also eight grandchildren and one geat grandchild. Friday morning the chariot came for him in Christ threw open the gates of the Golden City and the spirit of this sainted man passed through to be crowned. Just as a river sometimes turns its eddying currents back towards its source before it enters the sea, so there comes an echo from the "Homeland of the Soul" whispering of the meeting with his Savior, in the language of the poet: "Servant of God, well done, Rest from thy loved employ; The battles fought, the victory's won, Enter the Master's joy." The funeral was very appropriately held in the Baptist church on Sunday last at 2:30 p.m., in the presence of a large number of people, all of whom held the deceased clergyman in highest esteem and profound respect. There was a large number of aged men present to pay their last respects to one whom they had known for so many years. Rev. D. J. Bailey, pastor, conducted the impressive service, and gave an interesting historical address. This text was from 2 Tim. 4:7, "I have fought a good fight ... Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." He read the Scripture lesson from a pastor's handbook which had been used by the deceased at similar services for nearly fifty years. Rev. A. D. Webster, of the M. E. Church, related a most interesting reminiscence in the life of the aged man of God, followed by Rev. A. S. Emmons, who also spoke very feelingly of the grand qualities of the deceased and offered the closing prayer. The clergyman named, with Rev. Schwartz, acted as pallbearers. Interment took place in Pulaski Cemetery.
Newspaper Obituary - Wednesday, October 7, 1896 Pulaski Democrat - Pulaski, New York - Died - Muzzy - In Holland Patent, New York, at the home of his son-in-law, Rev. H. S. Schwartz, October 2, 1896, Rev. Lawson Muzzy, aged nearly 85 years.
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1812 - 1896 (84 years)
d. 2 Feb 1829, Sandy Creek, New York