Theodore Faxton

Theodore S. Faxton was born in Conway, Massachusetts on January 10, 1794. He was a penniless lad when he came to Utica and broke stone on the Miller turnpike leading to the village. He became a resident in 1812 and was employed by Jason Parker as a stage driver on the line running between Albany and Buffalo. He was such a good employee that he was made superintendent of the lines. He made frequent trips, inspecting the drivers and equipment. If he found incompetence, he would dismiss the driver on the spot, take his seat on the box and finish the run himself.

It was some time about the winter of 1822-23 that Faxton performed a feat which gave much notoriety to Parker & Co. He held the reins over a four-in-hand turn-out belonging to the company which carried James Platt, Richard R. Lansing, John H. Ostrom, Charles P. Kirkland, Joseph S. Porter and William Williams from Utica to Albany and back in eighteen hours. They started at midnight, had relays of horses, reached Albany before the opening of the morning session of the Legislature, rested an hour, returned to Utica, pushed on to New Hartford and returned to make the distance 200 miles and left the stage in Utica by early bedtime.

After the death of Parker in 1830, Faxton carried on the business until the railroad drove the stage lines off the road east of Utica. The stage company gradually closed its business, and Faxton thereafter engaged in other business enterprises and made great contributions to the growth of the city.

When Faxton married in 1826 (the daughter of William Alverson, brewer and grocer) he went to live at what was 24 Seneca street. In connection with John Butterfield, Hiram Greenman and others he was involved in the operation of the packet boats on the canal. Captain Greenman then owned a fine residence and property on the northwest corner of Lafayette street and Broadway, the house having been built in the early years of the century. In 1837, Mr. Faxton and Captain Greenman exchanged properties, and Faxton took up his residence on Lafayette street, where he resided until his death, November 30, 1881.

The first commercial telegraph operation in the United States was opened between Utica and Albany by Theodore Faxton in January of 1846. Faxton’s company was the N.Y., Albany & Buffalo Telegraph Co. and was to link these cities when it was completed. The central office of the company was located in Utica at Dudley's Triangle on the South-West corner of Genesee and Whitesboro streets on Bagg's Square.

The first news dispatch via commercial telegraph was printed in the "Utica Daily Gazette" on February 31 1846. As the completion of the entire telegraph line from hew York City to Buffalo approached, Mr. Faxton decided that a better system of dispatching was needed. A meeting of Utica and Syracuse editors was held to discuss the matter at Syracuse June 1, 1846. The result of this meeting was a decision that a plan could be evolved to furnish upstate newspapers with telegraphic news service on a cooperative basis, for Northway & Co. sent a circular out to twenty newspapers calling for a meeting of editors to discuss the plan in Utica on August 5, 1846. Betweeen this first meeting and the proposed second meeting, the line from Utica to Buffalo was completed on July 4. The group was known as the New York State Associated Press.

On November 19, 1866, a charter was granted under the name of the “Home for the Homeless in the City of Utica” to take care of the aged, indigent and infirm women who were unable to support themselves. The home was opened in a building on Whitesboro street, opposite the State hospital, in May 1867. Theodore S. Faxton, contributed $20,000 and two acres of land on Faxton street toward the erection of a new home there. Citizens contributed an additional sum of $26,000 and B. F. Jewett and his sisters donated four lots adjoining those of Faxton and a new building was opened on December 26, 1870 at a cost of $30,000 and in 1879 an additional building was added at a cost of $6,000.

Faxton Hospital, a gift from Theodore S. Faxton, opened in 1875. The growth of Faxton Hospital for the first ten years was slow. In 1892, a training school for nurses was established and in 1895, Dr. Fred J. Douglas was appointed the first resident physician of Faxton. In 1897, a home for the nurses was opened and in 1926 a new addition was added to the hospital.

In 1867 Faxton purchased the former residence of DeWitt C. Grove and the adjoining land, located on a triangular plot on the north side of Court street where Varick intersects, for the purpose of erecting a building dedicated to public use. He commissioned Azel Lathrop to design an appropriate structure. It was decided to construct a two story brick building with a stone foundation, in the French style of architecture.