BoM/TWS/SB Wiki

From Wikipedia: Historic and Notable Characters

Charlene Albright
[from Wikipedia]

Charlene Albright (born 1969) is an American visual artist. She is best known for producing large scale photographic mosaics using shaded and colored sequins and glass beads.

Early life and education
Charlene Elizabeth Albright was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California, but dropped out in 1989. She moved to New York that year.

Work and career
Albright began her work with sequins in 1988 after undertaking experiments with pinhole photography. To bring greater vivacity to the black and white images, she began gluing sequins, each shaded slightly differently, to the images. Later, she expanded her palette to include color. Her work has been compared to that of George Seurat, whom she acknowledges as an influence.

Beginning in the 2000s she expanded her technique to include three-dimensional sculptures built up out of sequins and glass beads of varying size and hue. Her 2007 installation, Water in Three Phases, which uses her glass technique to depict mist rising off a waterfall as it pours into a frozen pond, was sold at auction for $450,000.

Albright's images draw upon a personal iconography and is deliberately apolitical and acultural, with the intent of capturing the immediacy of an image or experience.

Personal life
In 1989, Albright married Bruce K. Van den Berg, a real estate developer. They currently live in Saratoga Falls, Vermont.

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Elizabeth Quayle Ansell
[from Wikipedia]

Elizabeth Quayle Ansell (April 3, 1918 - September 10, 1998) was an American film and stage actress.

Early Life
Ansell was born in Newport, Rhode Island, to Thomas W. Ansel II and Florence Grace Henderson. Her paternal grandmother was Regina Quayle Van den Berg Ansell, one of the New York "Four Hundred," and a victim in the Titanic disaster. Her paternal grandfather, Thomas W. Ansell, was the heir to a dry goods fortune and the owner of a stock investment firm. Her father inherited his father's business upon the latter's death, but the family's firm and most of its fortune were wiped out in the stock market crash of 1929. Her father committed suicide that year.

Ansell attended the Packer Collegiate Institute and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, training which helped her debut on Broadway at the age of 19 in a musical, Sarah Longlegs. She performed in a number of musical comedies before moving to Hollywood in 1940. She made her film debut in an uncredited part as a salesgirl in City for Conquest (1940). Her first credited part came later that year in Love Comes Through.

Career
Ansell freelanced her entire career, almost always in minor supporting roles as a pretty girl. Her films include Flames of the Congo (1941), I Love Money More (1941), Young Robin Hood (1941), The Lady from Tombstone (1941), Tuxedo Nights (1942), Playmates in the Tropics (1942), When Yesterday Comes (1943), No Love for a Widow (1943), Be Good, Jo (1943), Hollywood, Here I Come! (1943), The Cock-Eyed Quarterback (1944), She's in the Navy Now (1945), Come Back Linda (1945), The Pearl of Manila Bay (1946), The Invisible Enemy (1948), and Music Hath Charms (1951).

From 1953 onward, Ansell appeared exclusively in television, including episodes of My Friend Irma, I Love Lucy, The Twilight Zone, Burke's Law, My Son the Witch Doctor, Bonanza, and Here's Lucy. Ansell was slated to play the role of Anan 7 (a role originally conceived for a woman) in the Star Trek episode "A Taste of Armageddon," but was forced to drop out due to illness. The role was rewritten and recast with David Opatoshu.

Ansell retired from acting in 1973.

Social Llfe
Because of her family history and connections, Ansell was able to attain an insider status in Hollywood soon after her arrival there, and despite the patchiness of her career she was regularly in demand as a dinner guest, and gained a reputation as a raconteur and impressionist. By the 1950s, however, her chaotic personal life had alienated many of her acquaintances, and she retired from the social scene. In 1984 she underwent treatment at the Betty Ford Center for alcohol dependence.

Personal life
Ansell was married four times. She was married for six months to actor Franchot Tone following his divorce from Joan Crawford. From 1940 to 1953 she was married to movie executive Douglas Cavanaugh, by whom she had one child. From 1954 to 1960 she was married to newspaper publisher Robert R. Dallas. From 1965 until his death in 1975 she was married to the owner of a chain of car dealerships, Gregory O. Allen.

Ansell died on September 10, 1998, of congestive heart failure. She was interred in the Columbarium of Remembrance at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.

Ansell's uncle, Robert T. Ansell, died on the Titanic with her grandmother. Her uncle, William T. Ansell, was a big-game hunter and explorer. Her brother, Thomas W. Ansell III, was a broadcast anchor and game show host (Make Me a Match; Mystery Date) with NBC for several decades. Her grandson, Nicholas S. Cavanaugh, is an agent and executive with Enterprising Artists Agency, LLC.

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Regina Ansell
[from Wikipedia]

Regina Quayle Van den Berg Ansell (February 7, 1866 - April 15, 1912) was an American socialite and hostess.

Early life and marriage
Regina Quayle Van den Berg was born on February 7, 1866, in Saratoga Falls, Tennessee. She was the only surviving child of Hiram Brown Van den Berg of Saratoga Falls and Edith Huntingdon Quayle of Baltimore.

She married Thomas W. Ansell of Chicago on June 23, 1885. The groom was the heir to Palmer, Ansell & Company, then Chicago's largest dry goods firm. In addition, the Ansell family owned significant investments in Chicago-adjacent railroads.

Society life
Despite her husband's roots in Chicago, the couple moved east, and by 1892 were being included in Ward McAllister's Four Hundred, purported to be an index of New York's best families. The family owned a townhouse at 606 Fifth Avenue, and a second house at 8 West 49th Street. In 1897 the Ansells commissioned Grosvenor Court, a chateauesque mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. The home was built at a cost of $4.2 million, and was the third largest mansion in Newport. In 1931 the house was bought by Floyd Odlum of the Atlas Corporation following the bankruptcy of Ansell & Co. in the wake of the stock market crash of 1929.

Personal life
Regina and Thomas had three children, but by 1905 the couple had separated and her husband was living with a succession of mistresses in England. In 1907 he drowned in a yachting accident off Cowes. Regina never remarried.

Titanic
In April of 1912 Regina was returning to New York from England in the company of her son Robert (1890 - 1912) and his new wife aboard the RMS Titanic. She and her companions were among the victims of the sinking when the ship hit an iceberg.

Descendants
Her husband's merchant banking business, Thomas W. Answell & Company, was inherited by her eldest son, Thomas W. Ansell II (1886 - 1929), by whom she was the grandmother of broadcaster Thomas W. Ansell III (1916 - 1983) and actress Elizabeth Quayle Ansell (1918 - 1998). Her youngest son, Warren Taylor Ansell (1894 - 1937) was an explorer who disappeared in China during the civil war.

Talk:Regina Ansell
Descendants section edited

Someone thought it relevant to note that one Owen Ansell, the owner of a car dealership, is descended from the entry subject through the second son of Thomas W. Ansell III. I have removed the sentence. 2 May 2008 [reply]

May I suggest the reference is relevant, as it shows that the family has returned to its roots in Saratoga Falls? 12 May 2008 [reply]

Aside from the fact that there is doubt elsewhere that Saratoga Falls even exists, it seems too trivial a fact to be noted. I have removed the reference again. 13 May 2008[reply]

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Wilson W. Baker
[from Wikipedia]

Wilson W. Baker (October 29, 1877 - August 12, 1944) was an American attorney and mayor of Saratoga Falls, Nevada, from 1912 to 1920.

Biography
Baker's father, Thomas Calloway Baker., was county commissioner for Van Dief County from 1871 to 1883. His maternal grandfather, William Henry Hocking, was an author and poet.

Baker received an LL.B. degree in 1897 from Kansas City Law School and began practicing law Saratoga Falls in 1904. He soon became a prominent criminal attorney, known particularly for successfully defending in 1911 a local woman, Harriet Sedley, on the charge of murdering three boarders at her boarding house. On the strength of this success, he was elected mayor in 1912. [Citation needed]

In 1915, Baker invited Roy E. Davis, one of the founders of the latter-day incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan, to hold a series of religious revivals in the city. He was much criticized for it at the time and afterward, as a series of lynching were perpetrated during the revival, but he was re-elected mayor by a substantial majority in 1916.

In 1917 he worked with the United States Department of War to centralize quartermaster operations in Saratoga Falls, leading to the establishment of the Mohegan Quartermaster Depot, which eventually evolved into Fort Suffolk.

After leaving office, Baker returned to law, until he was appointed a federal district judge by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. He served for seven years until his retirement.

Baker married Xenia Anderson Lea on July 6, 1909. The couple had three daughters. Xenia died of cancer in 1934. Baker died of a heart attack on August 22, 1944.

Talk:Wilson W. Baker

Citation needed for Sedley case
Wikipedia does not contain entry on this Sedley murder, and I cannot find any citations in the literature I have reviewed that refer to it. Can we find and add such here? 17 October 2008 [reply]

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Andrew Adams Batcheller
[from Wikipedia]

Andrew Adams Batcheller (January 10, 1808 - September 1, 1866) was an American politician.

Background and career
Andrew Adams Batcheller was born in Edinburg, New York, to a prosperous family. He was named for Elbridge Gerry, who was a family friend.

In 1825, following the death of his father, uncle, and grandfather in a fire that consumed their estate, Batcheller accompanied his uncle, Philip Sherman Batcheller, and cousin, Nicholas Biddle Batcheller, westward to found a religious colony. Batcheller served as the third mayor of Saratoga Falls, Michigan, from 1836 to 1856 following the death of his uncle. During his tenure, Saratoga Falls surpassed all other townships in Von Dief County to become the chief population center of the area. It also became the county seat, displacing Acheson, and secured a rail link to the national rail network. It ceased to be a religious establishment in 1847.

Personal life
Batcheller married Mercy Fletcher in 1827. They had one daughter, Emily.

Batcheller died on September 1, 1866.

Career

* * *

Nicholas Biddle Batcheller
[from Wikipedia]

Nicholas Biddle Batcheller (March 3, 1815 - February 11, 1887) was an American politician and businessman.

Early life
was born in Edinburg, New York, to a prosperous family. He was named for Elbridge Gerry, who was a family friend.

Career
In 1825, following the death of his father, uncle, and grandfather in a fire that consumed their estate, Batcheller accompanied his uncle, Philip Sherman Batcheller, and cousin, Andrew Adams Batcheller, westward to found a religious colony.

Batcheller worked closely with his cousin, who became mayor of Saratoga Falls in 1836, following the death of their uncle, to develop Saratoga Falls. By 1847 the town had outstripped its religious character and was rechartered. Batcheller also worked with his cousin to secure a rail link to the national rail network. He organized and managed a timber harvesting company and founded the Batcheller Iron Co. (later renamed the Jackson-Brill Iron Co.) From 1864 to 1868 he served as mayor of Saratoga Falls, and from 1870 to 1874 he served in the United States House of Representatives.

Personal life
Batcheller was married Charlotte Davenport in 1833. She died later that same year in childbirth. He never remarried.

Batcheller died on February 11, 1887.

* * *

Philip Sherman Batcheller
[from Wikipedia]

Philip Sherman Batcheller (July 5, 1802 - February 25, 1833) was an American religious leader and politician.

Early life
Batcheller was born in Edinburg, New York, to a prosperous family. He was named for Roger Sherman, who was his father's uncle. By the age of fifteen he was supporting himself in various lines of work and no longer living with his family.

Religious leader
By the age of 20 Batcheller had become associated with the First Synod of the Tabernacle of Jehovah, a Christian Restorationist sect. In 1824 he was elevated to the rank of Knight of the Tabernacle.

In 1825 Batcheller led an expedition westward to found a religious colony on behalf of the sect. The expedition settled upon a tract of land on the Mohegan River in the Indiana Territory, and established the current-day city of Saratoga Falls. In accord with the colony's charter, Batcheller served as mayor from the time of the city's founding until his death. He was accompanied by his nephews, Andrew Adams Batcheller and Nicholas Biddle Batcheller.

In addition to serving as mayor, Batcheller also executed the office of High Prophet of Elochaim of the Tabernacle.

Philip Batcheller never married. He died in Saratoga Falls in 1833. His burial site is unknown.

Talk:Philip Sherman Batcheller

WTH did the crazies come out tonight?!
Got an alert about edits, came in and found that Jack Chick's crazy minions have been all over this entry denouncing the man as a Satanist who literally tried opening a doorway to Hell. Left it unchanged for most part but cleaned up language in case some of statements can be substantiated. 16 June 2009 [reply]

Only substantiation I can find comes from crazies themselves. Though some of the non- supernatural allegations can probably be saved if identified as "allegations" with citations to literature, most of these (particularly the doctrinal ones, such as that the angel Elochaim was worshipped as the brother and vicegerent of Lucifer) are not relevant to item subject himself but to the Tabernacle sect. But the most salacious and personal allegations (as for example that he took every woman in the colony as wife in polygamous marriage, and that he was ritually murdered and buried at a crossroads at his own request) have no substantiation and so I have removed them. 4 July 2009 [reply]

Good call. To anyone today all them people were nutters at least as nutty as the nutters who defaced the original entry and personally I don't think they're more nutty than most mainline "Christians" today. 17 May 2011 [reply]

Can we please keep the name calling out of it? I think we can all agree that no good will come from trying to parse and settle charges and counter-charges between religious communities that bear an animosity to each other. Simply cite the facts. 21 August 2012 [reply]

Hi, I have removed all but the most basic facts related to the subject's life. If an editor would like to review my work please do thanks! 4 January 2013 [reply]

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Terrence Cook
[from Wikipedia]

Terrence Cook (born August 7, 1958) is an American politician currently serving as the mayor of Saratoga Falls, Alaska. He has previously served on the city council and was president of the Chamber of Commerce. Via his grandmother, he is a descendent of Theodore Van den Berg, one of the city's founders.

* * *

Paul Samuel Griffin
[from Wikipedia]

Paul Samuel Griffin (born [missing info]) is an American actor known for portraying Simon Magus on the CW series Enchanted U.

Griffin was born and raised in Saratoga Falls, Texas. He moved to Los Angeles, California, when he was 18. He appeared in supporting or uncredited parts in Children of the Dark 4; Sliver Man; When Love Came Along; Move Along, Lover; and Christmas by Candlelight. He also had a supporting part in an episode of Roomies and Roofies, and a recurring part on the Disney Channel series Ws and Ls as P.E. coach Taylor Drake.

He is best known for playing the role of Simon Magus in Enchanted U, during which he accumulated a significant fanbase. He is known for his close attention to the fans and his numerous con appearances around the country.

Griffin is currently unmarried.

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George Curtis Hansen
[from Wikipedia]

George Curtis Hansen (April 17, 1852 - September 30, 1923) was an American businessman and politician

Life and career
Hansen was born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, the son of Frederick and Laura Hansen. He moved to Saratoga Falls, Connecticut, and served in the state house of representatives from 1887 to 1889, and in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1893, to March 3, 1897. He died in Saratoga Falls on September 30, 1923.

Hansen was a prominent industrialist, partnering with Silas Winfield Stuart to form the Hermes Car and Foundry Co., in 1881. The company specialized initially in the construction of mine carts before expanding its line to include railroad hopper cars. The company's shops were destroyed in a fire on May 1, 1885; the facilities were rebuilt and expanded, increasing the size of the workforce from 150 to 250.

After Stuart's death in 1889, Hansen, who had been serving in the state house of representatives, took over as president; in 1892, following his election to the House of Representatives, Hansen sold the company to a rival, the Ensign Manufacturing Co. After moving to New York City following his electoral defeat in 1896, he returned to Saratoga Falls in 1907 following the death of his wife. His final years were spent as a recluse.

Personal life
Hansen married Charlotte Roberta Van den Berg in 1896, despite being more than twenty-five years her senior and her being only 17 years old at the time. The marriage, which was regarded locally as a scandal, was one factor in his electoral defeat later that year. They had one son, Thomas Gustav (1897 - 1918), and a daughter, Christina Sarah (1900 - 1962).

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Richard C. Hartlein
[from Wikipedia]

Richard C. Hartlein (May 14, 1927 - May 7, 2001) was an American academic and politician who served two terms as mayor of Saratoga Falls, Nebraska, from 1972 to 1980.

Hartlein was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He joined the United States Marine Corps at the age of 17 and served with the 1st Marines in the Pacific theater during World War II. After the war, under the G.I. Bill, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he obtained a BA degree in Literature, and Yale Law School, where he obtained a law degree in 1951. He was hired by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and worked as an agent for seven years in Saratoga Falls, Nebraska.

In 1959 he resigned from the FBI and joined the faculty of the Keyserling College of Mining Technology, teaching English literature from 1960 to 1971, and from 1981 to 1992. He served as chair of the English Department from 1985 to 1992.

Political career
In 1972 he took a leave of absence from the college to run for mayor of Saratoga Falls and was elected after winning the Democratic primary against the incumbent, Henry L. Carson, following the latter's indictment for solicitation of a bribe, and then defeating the Republican candidate in the general election. Hartlein ran on a progressive platform emphasizing mass transit and the replacement of industry with service jobs. He was reelected in 1976.

Yarber murder
In 1973, during Hartlein's first year in office, a 17-year-old resident of Saratoga Falls, Sarah Yarber, was found dead in an empty field east of the city, amidst indications that she had been ritually tortured to death. Harlein procured the aid of the FBI during the investigation. The case, however, was never solved.

Personal life
Hartlein was the great-great-grandson of the fifth mayor of Saratoga Falls, Seymour Hoffman Van den Berg. Hartlein married Elaine Duncan in 1956. They had three children.

In addition to teaching, Hartlein authored two novels and a collection of short stories.

Hartlein died of a stroke on May 7, 2001.

Talk:Richard C. Hartlein

Author ... really?
Did Hartlein publish his works pseudonymously? Because I can find no indication that he authored anything, not even any academic papers. If he did author books and short stories, can we get some titles and citations? 28 May 2009 [reply]

Peculiar disclaimer
Recently added section on "Yarber murder" seems unrelated to article as a whole, unless more indication is given as to why said murder is especially noteworthy. 3 August 2010 [reply]

Section is relevant because of infamy of case and Hartlein's almost frantic efforts to find the killer, to the point of specially bringing in the FBI to investigate. I have added that information to the section. 9 September 2010. [reply]

"There was never and has been no indication that Hartlein was involved in the crime." WTH? Since when does an article go out of its way and come out of nowhere to say that someone was NOT involved in a crime? 10 September 2010 [reply]

Concur with above. The line is so utterly gratuitous as to be borderline libelous. I have removed it. 18 October 2010. [reply]

* * *

Gregory Holland
[from Wikipedia]

Gregory Holland (born 1983) is an American politician in the U. S. state of Alaska.

Life and career
Holland was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and graduated from Louisiana State University in 2006 with a degree in wildlife management. He served as an assistant of state parks in Arkansas between 2007 and 2014, and director of the Suffolk Wilderness and Preservation Area in Nebraska from 2014 until 2017.

In 2017 he was elected to the state senate, representing Von Dief County in Alaska, as a Republican. He serves on Agriculture and Wildlife Committee, the Energy Committee, and the Judiciary Committee. In recognition of his "advocacy and support of the environment" he was the recipient of the 2019 Distinguished Service Award for the Environment from the Von Dief Conservation Society.

Personal life
Holland lives in Saratoga Falls, in Von Dief County, with his husband, Arthur Lingle. Lingle is the founder and president of the Cluck for a Buck chain of fast food chicken restaurants.

* * *

Arthur Lingle
[from Wikipedia]

Arthur Lingle (born 1971) is an American entrepreneur and founder of Cluck for a Buck, a fast food restaurant specializing in fried chicken finger meals.

Early life and career
Lingle was born and raised in Saratoga Falls, Louisiana. He attended the Agape Christian Academy for eight years, then attended and graduated from Eastman High School in 1989. He attended Louisiana State University, graduating with a business degree in 1993.

In 1996 Lingle opened his first Cluck for a Buck restaurant in Redway Plaza, in Saratoga Falls, directly across the street from his old high school. Within twenty years the company had expanded to more than 125 restaurants in the United States.

Politics
Lingle served one term on the Saratoga Falls city council from 2014 to 2016. He is active in Republican politics and is a major donor to conservative causes.

Personal life
Lingle married his husband, Gregory Holland, in a civil ceremony in 2014. They live in Saratoga Falls.

Talk:Arthur Lingle
Unnecessary and personal?
Sentence: "In 1996 Lingle opened his first Cluck for a Buck restaurant in Redway Plaza, in Saratoga Falls, directly across the street from his old high school, in an intentional rebuff to one of his teachers there, Kay Cussler, who allegedly told him during his school days that he would never amount to anything." Though it seems relevant to the choice of location for the first restaurant, it seems weirdly ... personal, specific, and antagonist 3 May 2008 [reply]

I agree. If the article were longer, with more personal history and anecdotes, it might have a place. But this article is almost a stub. 19 June 2009 [reply]

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Simon T. Rutherford
[from Wikipedia]

Simon T. Rutherford (May 5, 1878 - November 12, 1973) was an American politician, mayor of Saratoga Falls, Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, and a United States district judge.

Early life and education
Born in Shelbyville, Ohio, Rutherford moved to Saratoga Falls, Missouri, with his parents in 1880. He attended public schools and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tennessee in 1899. He received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Texas Law School in 1902 and was admitted to the bar in 1903, becoming a prosecuting attorney in Saratoga Falls from 1904 to 1911.

Professional career
Rutherford was the prosecuting attorney in the case of Harriet Sedley, the owner of a boarding house who was accused of murdering three of her boarders. Despite evidence that was considered overwhelming at the time, and which has since been regarded as fairly conclusive [citation needed], Sedley was acquitted. Rutherford resigned as prosecutor shortly afterward. From 1912 to 1914 he served on the board of directors of the First Merchants Bank of Saratoga Falls.

In 1915, Rutherford was elected to the United States House of Representatives in a special election, but declined to run for re-election and returned to private law practice, serving as a commercial attorney from 1917 to 1920.

In 1920 Rutherford was elected mayor of Saratoga Falls, succeeding his brother-in-law, Roger Van den Berg. He was reelected in 1924.

In 1931 he was appointed a federal district judge by President Herbert Hoover. He served in this capacity until his death.

Personal life
Rutherford married Olivia Cooper in 1905. They had two children, both of whom died in childhood. Olivia died in 1943 of a heart attack. Rutherford married Lucille Surrey in 1951. They had no children. He died of congestive heart failure on June 1, 1973.

Talk:Simon T. Rutherford

Citation needed for Sedley case
Wikipedia does not contain entry on this Sedley murder, and I cannot find any citations in the literature I have reviewed that refer to it. Can we find and add such here? 7 October 2008 [reply]

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Edgar D. Stanchik
[from Wikipedia]

Edgar Dewey Stanchik Sr. (March 28, 1917 – February 10, 1979) was an American politician who served as the 44th governor of Missouri from 1967 to 1971. He was defeated for reelection in 1970 by attorney John T. Hearnsy. He was subsequently appointed president of the University of Missouri and served until 1978, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died of complications of lung cancer two months after retiring from the university.

Early life
Edgar Dewey Stanchik was born to Donald A. and Jessie Stanchik in Saratoga Falls, Ohio. Stanchik graduated from Princeton University with an undergraduate degree in geological engineering in 1941. He enlisted in the Navy and served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a dive bomber during World War II in the Pacific theatre. After the war, he moved to Joplin, Missouri, where he started and owned the Joplin-based Kleener Oil and Gas Company.

Political career
Prior to becoming governor, Bartlett served in the Missouri Senate from 1962 to 1966.

As governor, he made major changes to the Missouri Department of Corrections, pushed for school consolidation, and vetoed a school dress code bill. In 1970, he was challenged by then-Laclede County Attorney John T. Hearnsy. He was defeated by a vote of 339,328 to 321,197.

Following his defeat for reelection, he was appointed as president of the University of Missouri from May 1971 to November 1978. He also served on the boards of directors of AMR Corporation (then parent company of American Airlines) and Gulf & Western Industries.

Family
Stanchik married Ann Nichols on April 12, 1945. They had three children.

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Richard B. Terrell
[from Wikipedia]

Richard Benjamin Terrell (September 28, 1907 - July 25, 1982) was a United States Lieutenant General.

Early life
Terrell was born in Saratoga Falls, Illinois, on September 28, 1907. He was educated in Boston, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1930 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Infantry.

US Military
Terrell was initially assigned to the Field Artillery branch, but in 1935 he transferred from Artillery to the Signal Corp. He served as communications officer for the 24th Infantry Regiment at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

In 1938 Terrell was assigned as an instructor at the Signal School. In 1940 he received a master's degree in communications engineering from Yale University.

During World War II, Terrell served in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer before being assigned to the Signal Supply Service. Later, he served as executive officer of the Army's Signal Corps Laboratories at Fort Suffolk, Illinois. After the war, he was promoted to Chief of Engineering at the Laboratories.

Terrell retired from the Army in 1967.

Civilian career
After leaving the Army, Terrell founded Technical Electronics Laboratories (TEL) in Saratoga Falls, near Fort Suffolk. In 1978, a three-way merger of TEL with Dynamic Electronics and Spartan Manufacturing created Spartan Techadyne, Inc., in which Terrell served as non-executive chairman of the board. In 1980 he retired as chairman but served as an executive consultant with the company until his death.

Personal life
In 1931 Terrell married Jean Turner. They had two children.

Terrell died of throat cancer on July 25, 1982. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

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Cornelius Van den Berg II
[from Wikipedia]

Cornelius Van den Berg II (June 1, 1821-December 10, 1875) was an American businessman and financier.

Early life and education
Cornelius Van den Berg II was born June 1, 1821. He was the son of a major Hudson Valley land owner and speculator, Cornelius Van den Berg, and Abigail Cutter. He was educated at Columbia University.

Canals and railroads
In 1841, the newly matriculated Van den Berg convinced his father to invest $5000 into a planned railroad to connect the Hudson Valley at Saratoga with the recently opened Farmington Canal, which connected Northampton, Massachusetts, to New Haven, Connecticut. When other financing fell through and his father backed out, Van den Berg financed half the railroad himself with borrowed money and secured the rest of the backing from the Farmington Canal, which was struggling and hoped to improve its traffic by opening a connection to the Hudson. Though the railroad consistently lost money, Van den Berg's father made a considerable fortune through land speculation on and alongside the right of way.

In 1855, the Hudson & Northampton changed its name to the Hudson & Hartford when it extended its line to Hartford, Connecticut. Traffic burgeoned, and Van den Berg sold the company to the New York and New Haven Railroad in 1861 at a considerable personal profit. He continued to invest in area railroads, including the New York, New Haven, and Hartford after its formation in 1872.

Stock speculation
In the 1860s Van den Berg became a noted speculator in the stock market. He was an early associate of Daniel Drew and Jay Gould, and it is believed that he made several hundred thousand dollars in the so-called Erie War of the 1860s before withdrawing from the market. He is thought to have lost most of his profits in the Black Friday stock market panic following the failure of the Fisk-Gould attempt to corner the the gold market.

Politics
Van den Berg was an ardent abolitionist and supporter of New York's William H. Seward. From 1863 to 1865 he served as a state senator in the New York legislature.

Personal life
Van den Berg married Jane Cabot of Boston 1844. They had three children. His eldest son and namesake, Cornelius Van den Berg III, was killed at the Battle of Fredericksburg, in December 1862. His daughter, Jane Abigail, died of pneumonia at age 9.

* * *

Gustav Aaron Van den Berg
[from Wikipedia]

Gustav Aaron Van den Berg (October 14, 1856 - February 3, 1928) was an American businessman and politician.

Career
Gustav Aaron Van den Berg was born in Saratoga Falls, Montana, to Seymour Hoffman Van den Berg and Emily Adams Batcheller. He attended Princeton University and received a law degree from Yale.

From 1878 until 1887 he was employed by the American agents of Grenfell Guaranty Trust. He resigned from the firm to return to Saratoga Falls to administer the estate of his late father.

In 1890 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, serving until 1892, when he was succeeded by his future son-in-law, George Curtis Hansen. In 1896 was elected mayor of Saratoga Falls. He was reelected in 1900 and 1904.

In 1912, he moved to Wyoming for reasons of health. He was elected governor of the state in 1916, but resigned following a heart attack in 1919. In 1922 he was named honorary chairman of the Wyoming Cattle Growers Association.

Personal life
In 1880 he married Letitia Keyserling. They had one son, who died infancy, and one daughter.

Van den Berg died in Kalispell, Montana, on February 3, 1928. He was interred in family crypt in Saratoga Falls.

* * *

Hamilton Henry Van den Berg
[from Wikipedia]

Hamilton Henry Van den Berg (March 23, 1825 - December 18, 1889) was an American educator.

Life and career
Hamilton Henry Van den Berg was born on March 23, 1825 in Porters Corners, New York.

Van den Berg was educated at Columbia University, graduating in 1844. He founded and taught a boys' boarding school, Ruyter Academy, in Lowell, Massachusetts, with money left him by his father. The school was named for his father's father, Ruyter Van den Berg.

In 1867 he transferred ownership of the academy to his son, Ruyter Cornelius, and moved to Saratoga Falls, Minnesota, at the behest of his cousin, Seymour Hoffman Van den Berg, to organize a land-grant college. The Van Dief Agricultural College opened and operated under his presidency until 1877, when a catastrophic fire destroyed almost the entire campus, putting the college into bankruptcy. Though the assets were acquired by a private corporation and reopened under another name, Van den Berg elected to return to Massachusetts, where he resumed teaching at the Ruyter Academy.

Personal life
Van den Berg married Harriet Alice Adams on July 1, 1846. They had three children. He died on December 18, 1889, in Boston, Massachusetts.

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Hiram Brown Van den Berg
[from Wikipedia]

Hiram Brown Van den Berg (October 5, 1836 - April 8, 1885) was an American politician and businessman.

Life and career
Hiram Brown Van den Berg was born on October 5, 1836, in Saratoga Falls, New Jersey, the son of Theodore Van den Berg and the brother of Seymour Hoffman Van den Berg. He attended Harvard University, graduating in 1857. He joined the Union Army in 1861 and served for one year in the Army of the Potomac before being transferred to the War Department. He resigned from the army in 1865.

In 1866, after serving briefly in the New York Custom House, he returned to Saratoga Falls, where he founded the Mohegan Traction Company, a horsecar service that connected Saratoga Falls with Acheson. He also rebuilt and operated a warehouse complex and loading facility adjoining the Appalachian & Pacific rail line. He also built one of the first four-story buildings in Saratoga Falls at 100 Twentieth Street.

In 1868 he was elected mayor of Saratoga Falls and served until 1880.

Van den Berg married Edith Huntingdon Quayle on June 15, 1865. They had three children, including twin sons who died in childhood. He died on April 8, 1885, of a stroke and was survived by his wife and a single daughter, Regina Quayle Van den Berg Ansell.

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Nelson D. Van den Berg
[from Wikipedia]

Nelson D. Van den Berg (January 1, 1916 - May 23, 1989) was an American businessman, politician, and philanthropist.

Early life and education
Nelson D. Van den Berg was born in Saratoga Falls, Ohio, to Simon Arthur Van den Berg and Wilhelmina Hochstetter. He was educated at the Ruyter Academy of Lowell, Massachusetts, and Harvard University, graduating with a degree in economics in 1936.

Professional career
In 1936, upon graduation, Van den Berg moved to London, where he joined Grenfell Guaranty Bank as a junior partner. In 1939 he resigned Grenfell Guaranty to take a position at the United States embassy in the United Kingdom, and in 1942 he resigned to join the newly formed Office of Strategic Services. At the conclusion of World War II he was posted to Fort Suffolk, near Saratoga Falls, before resigning his commission in 1954 to take over as president of the First Merchants Bank following the death of his father.

In 1960, Van den Berg was elected mayor of Saratoga Falls, serving for two terms. He was the fifth member of the Van den Berg family to be elected mayor, and the first Van den Berg to be elected to the position since 1920.

During his tenure Interstate 62 was extended to Saratoga Falls, and the privately owned Cox Air Field was acquired by the city and renamed Saratoga Falls Municipal Airport. A second high school was also constructed on the western side of the city.

Fort Suffolk Procurement Scandal
In 1967 a federal investigation uncovered a variety of bribery and kickback schemes involving the city, Fort Suffolk, and land that became the Suffolk Wilderness and Conservation Area. Although Van den Berg was never charged, it was widely believed that he escaped prosecution due to preferential treatment [citation needed]. The scandal led to a fundamental reorganization of the city government, with the mayor's office being stripped of most of its administrative powers.

Subsequent philanthropic work
Following his departure from government, Van den Berg established the Van den Berg Foundation, which finances local literacy programs in a variety of cities, including Saratoga Falls. He served as its president until his death.

Personal life
Van den Berg married Diana Metcalf of Staffordshire, England, in 1938. They had no children, and divorced in 1957.

Van den Berg died on May 28, 1989, in New York City. With his death, ownership of the family house built by his great-grandfather passed out of the line of direct descendants and to his fourth cousin, Richard Van den Berg.

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Roger Charles Van den Berg
[from Wikipedia]

Roger Charles Van den Berg (January 25, 1849 - February 18, 1928) was an American politician and businessman.

Life and career
Roger Charles Van den Berg was born on January 25, 1849, in New York City, New York. He was the second son of Cornelius Van den Berg II and Jane Cabot Van den Berg.

Van den Berg was educated at Yale University, graduating in 1870. He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1872 and founded a construction company. In 1875, on the death of his father, he sold his firm and moved back to New York, where he liquidated the estate. With the assets from these various sales, he returned to Boston and opened a merchant bank, Van der Berg, Burnham & Company. He served on the boards of directors of several companies, including Carnegie Steel, American Smelting and Refining, the Appalachian & Pacific Railroad, and the Murray-McDougal Manufacturing Company.

In 1907 Van den Berg retired from the bank and moved to Saratoga Falls, Indiana, to assume the position of chairman of the board of Murray-McDougal. He retired as chairman in 1914 while remaining on the board, then retired from the board in 1919.

In 1920, Van den Berg was elected mayor of Saratoga Falls, serving for one term. He was the fourth member of his extended family to serve as mayor of the city, the others being cousins.

Personal life
Van den Berg married Emily Rose Rutherford on June 12, 1877. They had four children. He died on February 18, 1928, in San Francisco, California.

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Seymour Hoffman Van den Berg
[from Wikipedia]

Seymour Hoffman Van den Berg (August 15, 1831 - November 8, 1887) was an American politician and businessman.

Life and career
Seymour Hoffman Van den Berg was born on August 15, 1831 in Saratoga Falls, Iowa. He was the son of Theodore Van den Berg, one of the town's original founders.

Van den Berg was educated at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1855, at the age of 24, after returning home to Saratoga Falls, he organized the First Merchants Bank serving as its president until his death. In this capacity he was instrumental in financing and directing the economic growth of the city. In 1856 he was elected mayor of Saratoga Falls following the death of his brother-in-law, the former mayor, Andrew Adams Batcheller. He served until 1864.

In 1868, working in partnership with his cousin, Hamilton Henry Van den Berg, he arranged for the opening of a land grant college near the city. For nine years the college operated under Hamilton's presidency as the Van Dief Agricultural College. A catastrophic fire in 1877, however, forced the college to close. Van den Berg, however, arranged for the remaining assets to be transferred to a private corporation, which reopened the institution as the Keyserling College of Mining and Technology.

Charitable and philanthropic enterprises
Van den Berg was also responsible, in both his official and business capacities, for the establishment of various philanthropic endeavors, most notably including Hochstetter All Saints Hospital, which began its existence as an asylum for the indigent and the insane.

He also built, as a private funded institution, the city's first library. Its collection, as well as the private collection that Van den Berg had accumulated during his life, were folded into the Carnegie-endowed Madison Memorial Library upon its opening.

Relations and Centrality to Saratoga Falls
Van den Berg married Emily Adams Batcheller on May 18, 1854. She was the sister of the city's mayor at the time, Andrew Adams Batcheller, and cousin of its first mayor, Philip Sherman Batcheller, who with her husband's father, Theodore, had co-founded the city. In his family thus were united the strands of two of the city's first and most prominent citizens. Their children included a daughter, Christina Elisabeth, who married another mayor of the city, Silas Winfield Stuart; and a son, Gustav Aaron, who would become mayor. A grandson (Nelson David) and a great-grandson (Richard C. Hartlein) of another son, Adolphus Magnus, would also become mayors. Van den Berg's younger brother, Hiram Brown, would also serve as mayor. The current mayor, Terrence Cook, is also descended through Gustav Aaron from Van den Berg.

Esoteric interests
As a result of a friendship struck while at college, Van den Berg became fascinated by Sweden and the Swedish nobility, and annually from 1869 to 1886 he would spend three months during summer in Sweden. During these travels he acquired a substantial catalog of volumes on alchemical and other esoteric subjects, including the personal library of the 17th century Swedish nobleman Magnus Julius de la Gardie.

Van den Berg's fascination with Sweden may be seen in the names he gave to his children: Christina, Gustav, and Adolphus.

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Theodore Van den Berg
[from Wikipedia]

Theodore Van den Berg (August 5, 1793 - January 23, 1856) was an American religious leader and businessman.

Life and career
Theodore Van den Berg was born on August 5, 1793, in Saratoga, New York. He was the second son of Ruyter Van den Berg, a prosperous landowner in the Hudson Valley.

By 1813 Van den Berg had become an intimate associate of Irving Henry, the founder of the First Synod of the Tabernacle of Jehovah, a Christian Restorationist church. In a letter to his father dated July 7, 1813, Van den Berg reported that he had been ordained in the new church and denominated as its "Second Principality." The exact nature of this office is not known, but in other letters Van den Berg is described as one of the five senior governors.

By 1822, thanks in part to Van den Berg's energetic leadership and the financial support of his father, who otherwise remained aloof from the new church, the number of adherents had grown to more than a thousand, and plans were laid to found a new colony in the west. Though Irving remained behind in New York, Van den Berg and another governor of the church, Philip Sherman Batcheller, led more than a thousand colonists westward. They settled on the Mohegan River, in Illinois, where they founded the town of Saratoga Falls.

While Batcheller devoted himself to the governance of the community and the church, Van den Berg apparently applied himself to its commercial development. In 1827 he founded the Covington Mining Company, and also built a paper mill and organized a timber harvesting company. In 1835 he helped organize the Allegheny & Western Railroad, which was bought in 1837 by the Appalachian & Pacific Railroad, thereby connecting the city to the burgeoning national rail network. By the 1840s, thanks to these efforts, Saratoga Falls had become the locus of economic activity in Van Dief County.

Personal life
Van den Berg married twice. He married Martha Jane Van Buren on May 11, 1823. They had two children, both of whom died in childhood. After her death in 1829, he married Emily Virginia Van Dief on May 5, 1830. They had three children: Seymour Hoffman, Hiram Brown, and Benjamin Arthur. He died on January 23, 1856.

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Vanstetter T. Van den Berg
[from Wikipedia]

Vanstetter Theodore Van den Berg (February 16, 1888 - June 13, 1959) was an American businessman and politician.

Early life and education
Vanstetter Van den Berg was born in Saratoga Falls, Florida. His grandfather and namesake, Theodore Van den Berg, was one of the town founders. In 1907 Van den Berg graduated from Princeton University with an economics degree.

Career
He joined the banking firm Grenfell Fane Guaranty as a junior partner immediately after graduation. He left the firm in 1917 to serve in the United States Department of the Treasury as an undersecretary until 1919, after which he was named United States ambassador to Austria. He resigned the ambassadorship in 1920 to rejoin Grenfell Fane, and was named chairman of the board of the company in 1927. He retired from the company in 1934 following a reorganization and established his own merchant banking firm, Van den Berg, Nichols & Company in the United States. He relinquished his partnership in the firm upon his retirement in 1954.

Among other positions, Van den Berg served on the boards of directors of Murray-McDougal Manufacturing (later Murray-Huemler Avionics), the New York Central Railroad, and RKO Radio Pictures.

Personal life
Van den Berg never married. He was known for his close male friendships, and allegedly it was an open secret amongst his friends that he was gay. However, it was also rumored that he fathered at least two illegitimate children.

He was the cousin of socialite Regina Quayle Van den Berg Ansell.

Van den Berg died in Los Angeles, California, on June 13, 1959, of stomach cancer.

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John P. Wallace
[from Wikipedia]

John P. Wallace (September 15, 1915 - March 8, 1998) was the mayor of Saratoga Falls, Michigan, and a U.S. ambassador to Paraguay.

Career
He was born in Acheson, Michigan, and attended the Keyserling College of Mining and Technology. He joined the county commissioners office of Van Dief County in 1937 as an accountant and served for four years before being drafted into the Army in 1941. He served in the U.S. Army Air Force and was stationed on the east coast. He left the service in 1945 with the rank of major. He was elected county clerk for Van Dief County in 1948.

In 1952 he was elected mayor of Saratoga Falls, unexpectedly defeating incumbent Edgar H. Pruitt after the latter was caught by a police raid while participating in a homosexual orgy. He served until 1960, being reelected by a substantial margin in 1956. During his tenure he helped facilitate a major campus expansion by the Keyserling College of Mining and Technology. The new college's new library was named after him.

In 1970 Wallace was appointed ambassador to Paraguay by President Richard Nixon. He resigned in 1976 to join the board of directors of Murray-Huemler Avionics, a major employer in Saratoga Falls. He retired from the board in 1986.

Personal life
Wallace married Cynthia Teller in 1946. They had two children, the eldest of whom (Beatrice Wallace) served as president of the Keyserling College of Mining and Technology from 1991 to 2002.

Wallace died on March 8, 1998, of pneumonia in Sherman Oaks, California.

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Jonathan Westfell
[from Wikipedia]

Jonathan Westfall (born 1946) is a politician and aviator.

Biography
Westfall was born in Austin, Texas, and served as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War. In 1974 he was stationed at Fort Suffolk, near Saratoga Falls, Texas. Upon resigning the military, he was appointed administrator for the municipal airport from 1976 to 1984. He founded a flight school at the airport in 1985.

In 1988 Westfall was elected mayor of Saratoga Falls, and became the first mayor in ninety years to serve three terms. He retired as mayor in 2000 to become the non-executive chairman of the board of Salopek Engineering.