James Wadsworth was a community builder and pioneer in public school education.
Background
James Wadsworth was born in Durham, Connecticut, the youngest of the three sons of John Noyes and Esther (Parsons) Wadsworth, and a descendant of William Wadsworth, who settled in Cambridge, Massachussets, about 1632 and accompanied Thomas Hooker to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1636. His father had died while the son was in college, leaving a fair estate to his children.
Education
James graduated from Yale College in 1787 and spent the winter of that and the following year in teaching at Montreal, Canada.
Career
At the suggestion of a relative, Jeremiah Wadsworth of Hartford, Connecticut, who had secured holdings in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase in western New York, James and his brother William bought a portion of his land there and became agents for the remainder. The property acquired by them was on the east bank of the Genesee River, in what are now the townships of Geneseo and Avon. In the summer of 1790 they started on their journey from Durham to their wilderness possessions, William with an oxcart, a few men, and a slave woman, traveling overland; James, in charge of household effects and provisions, taking the water route to Canandaigua. They established themselves a little below the present town of Geneseo, and as time went on prospered remarkably. They constantly extended their cultivated land, raised corn, hemp, which they manufactured into rope, and some tobacco; maintained herds of cattle; bred mules; and in later years prosecuted woolgrowing on a large scale. Their operations both as agriculturists and land agents ultimately brought them substantial returns, with which they increased their own holdings until they were among the largest land owners of cultivated areas. Their influence in developing the Genesee country was unparalleled. William was the practical man of affairs, James the thinker, planner, and counselor. Most of the agency work fell to him. From February 1796 to November 1798 he was in Europe, with the cooperation of Robert Morris, Aaron Burr, DeWitt Clinton, and others, interesting foreign capitalists in American investments. He was a student of political economy and the physical sciences, and sought through the application of the latter to improve agricultural methods. With a view to instructing others along these lines, he frequently arranged for the insertion of articles in newspapers and agricultural periodicals, and for the preparation of pamphlets on scientific subjects. These he was in the habit of distributing gratuitously. His chief interest, in fact, outside his business affairs, was in public education. He urged the establishment of county academies for the better training of schoolmasters; was instrumental in securing the enactment of legislation authorizing the sending of Lectures on School-Keeping by Samuel Read Hall to the trustees of each school district; and sought to interest persons in preparing suitable textbooks, setting aside $30, 000 for that purpose, a part of which was to be offered in premiums for the best treatises on prescribed subjects, and the remainder to be expended in stereotyping the works selected. Through his tireless efforts the school district library system was finally established in New York State. When certain educational papers were started he contributed liberally to their support, and frequently bore the entire expense of large editions containing special articles. He gave freely toward the erection of schoolhouses and churches, and toward the maintenance of lecture courses on scientific subjects. For the town of Geneseo he built and endowed a public library, and it is reputed to have been in part through his influence that his friend John Jacob Astor, 1763-1848, provided for the founding of the Astor Library in New York City.
Achievements
Connections
On October 1, 1804, he married Naomi, daughter of Samuel and Jerusha (Wolcott) Wolcott of East Windsor, Connecticut At his death, in Geneseo, he left two sons and two daughters. One of the sons was James S. Wadsworth.