George Washington Cuyler, son of William Howe Cuyler and Eleanor Shekell, was born on February 17, 1809 in Schenectady County, New York. His father, William Cuyler, was an attorney in Palmyra. While serving as a major in the War of 1812, his father was killed at the Battle of Black Rock on October 9, 1812.[1] The large estate that his father had acquired in Palmyra was signed over to George Cuyler (a young son) by his mother and brother William. This action proved a thorny family problem when George reached maturity.
Soon after the death of George’s father, his mother married Thomas P. Baldwin, an attorney and judge in Palmyra. Thomas moved into the Cuyler home, which was owned by his step-son George Cuyler. From the start, there were problems in the relationship between Thomas Baldwin and George Cuyler.
In the 1820s, George and his brother William Cuyler hung out with Dick Williams, known as the town bully of Palmyra. In his youth, George expressed a youthful resentment against Joseph Smith. He viewed Joseph Smith as a liar and vowed to drown him.
At age seventeen, George left Palmyra to pursue an education at the West Point Military Academy. West Point was not to his liking. George left the academy to study law under the tutelage of Herman Bogart in Geneva, New York.[2]
By 1831, George had returned to Palmyra and married CarolinePorter, daughter of Chauncey Porter Esq., in the Zion Episcopal Church. To their union were born three daughters. Each daughter died before the death of George and his wife.
Soon after his marriage, George demanded that his step-father Thomas Baldwin leave the home and acreage that had earlier been signed over to George by his mother and brother. Thomas Baldwin begrudgingly left the premises.
By March 27, 1833, Thomas Baldwin was living in Rochester, New York, and reporting that family matters were “quite contrary.”[3] In December 1833, Baldwin attempted to return to the Palmyra home but was rebuffed, for it was now the residence of George Cuyler and his wife.
George was financially successful in all his endeavors. He practiced law with William M. Bayard in the Hendee Building in Palmyra and ran a local hardware store.[4] The sign on his hardware store read, “George W. Cuyler’s Hardware Store. Oils. Paints.”[5] In 1833, he disposed of the hardware store to his brother William (1812–1889), who turned the business into a hat and fur store.
George joined in partnership with T. R. Strong and Pomeroy Tucker in publishing the Wayne Sentinel. The partnership ended two years later.[6] According to the town minutes of Palmyra, George was next appointed a justice of the peace. By 1844, he had abandoned his civic position in favor of banking.
Pliny Sexton reported, “1844 went into the Banking business in a small way.”[7] Pliny entered the banking business with George Cuyler, conducted under the name of Cuyler’s Bank with offices in the old Wayne County Bank.[8] George served as president of the bank, Pliny Sexton as vice president, and Stephen Seymour as cashier. By 1864, the bank was known as the First National Bank of Palmyra, and George was known as president and co-owner.[9]
George was a magnet for financial opportunities. He had large real estate holdings, bank capital, stocks and bonds, and railroad stock.[10] He was the director of the Palmyra Gas Company, and treasurer and director of the Star Paper Company.[11] By August 1868, George was a trustee of the General Theological Seminary. In that same year, he was elected treasurer of the Palmyra Christmas Fund.[12] He was later named director, then president, of the Canandaigua Railroad Company.[13]
George owned lumber property near the Straits of Mackinac and Lake Huron in Cheboygan, Michigan. George had hired laborers to cut lumber from Michigan and transport the lumber via the Straits of Mackinac and Lake Huron to the Erie Canal and then to Palmyra. His transported lumber added greatly to his extensive wealth, even though in 1873 he lost lumber in a fire at a shipyard near his lumber mill in Palmyra.[14] George was so successful in his lumber enterprise that he donated the acreage needed for building the St. James Episcopal Church in Cheboygan.
In 1870, George built an entire block in Palmyra known as the “Cuyler Block.” This is a photograph of the towboat owned by George—
In 1873, George was a democratic candidate for state senator in the district of Wayne and Cayuga counties. He did not receive a majority of votes. Nevertheless, he remained active in civic affairs. He was president of the Palmyra Village and represented Wayne County at state and national conventions.[15]
In July 1873, George paid for a spire to be placed atop the Zion Episcopal Church in Palmyra. The spire was a memorial for George’s three deceased daughters.
Two years later on July 8, 1875, George and Pliny Sexton were believed to be “worth to Palmyra a whole barnyard full of men.”[16] In 1876, when returning from the Democratic National Convention in St. Louis, George suffered from an inflammation of the stomach and bowels.[17] On July 20, 1876, inflammation took his life. George died in his home in Palmyra at age sixty-seven. His funeral was held in the Zion Episcopal Church.[18] He was buried in the Palmyra City Cemetery.
On September 18, 1888, his widow Caroline Porter Cuyler died in Palmyra at age seventy-six. She had been sick for a year and was unconscious for two weeks before her passing. Her funeral was held in the Zion Episcopal Church.[19] Following her funeral, all her real and personal property passed to her grandson, Cuyler C. Hunt.
[1] “Century Old Home changes Ownership,” Newspaper clipping, February 24, 1955, in Palmyra Community Library.
[2] “Death of George W. Cuyler,” Durfee Scrapbook, no. 3, 1876–1883.
[3] Rare Book Collection, Cornell University.
[4] “Death of George W. Cuyler,” Durfee Scrapbook, no. 3, 1876–1883.
[5] Cook, Palmyra and Vicinity, p. 87.
[6] “Death of George W. Cuyler,” Durfee Scrapbook, no. 3, 1876–1883.
[7] Pliny Sexton File, in Palmyra Community Library.
[8] Pliny Sexton File, in Palmyra Community Library; “Sexton,” in Durfee Scrapbook No. 3, 1876–1883.
[9] “Death of George W. Cuyler,” Durfee Scrapbook, no. 3, 1876–1883.
[10] Palmyra Community Library.
[11] Directory of the Town of Palmyra.
[12] “The Diocesan Convention, Second Day,” Buffalo Daily Courier (Buffalo, NY), August 21, 1868.
[13] “Palmyra Affairs,” Newark Courier, March 21, 1872.
[14] “Our Palmyra Letter,” Democrat and Chronicle [Rochester, NY], February 21, 1873.
[15] “Death of George W. Cuyler,” Durfee Scrapbook, no. 3, 1876–1883.
[16] “Local and Miscellaneous,” Newark Courier, July 8, 1875.
[17] “Death of George W. Cuyler,” Durfee Scrapbook, no. 3, 1876–1883.
[18] “Death of George W. Cuyler,” Durfee Scrapbook, no. 3, 1876–1883.
[19] “Death of Mrs. George W. Cuyler,” Durfee Scrapbook, no. 3, 1876–1883.