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Judson, John Work, who was prominent in the early history of Oswego, was born at Ashford, Conn., on December
29, 1810, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in the class of 1836, and was appointed
a lieutenant in the 2nd U. S. Artillery, which he declined, to take the position of Principal Assistant Engineer
of the Great Western Railway of Canada in 1837. From this he was promoted to be Chief Engineer of the Penobscot
River Railroad in Maine during 1837 and 1838, and in October, 1838, came to the village of Oswego, N. Y., as the
United States civil engineer in local charge of government harbor works at Oswego and in its vicinity. Mr. Judson's
ancestors were among the original Puritan settlers of Connecticut, the first one in America coming from Lancaster,
England, in 1634; his son being an ensign in the colonial Indian wars and a member of the first General Court of
Connecticut, and a signer of its "fundamental law," while his direct descendants were lawyers and ministers
of the church. Mr. Judson's great grandfather was a captain in the Revolutionary war. In 1840 he married Emily
Pierson of Le Roy, N. Y., and for many years the family home was the farm on the hill top next west of Oswego between
the present Fair Grounds and the lake. When Mr. Judson came to Oswego in 1838, it was to take charge of the construction
in cut stone masonry of the west breakwater, the remains of which at the foot of West Third street are now known
as the "old stone pier." During the next twenty years Mr. Judson had charge of most of the government
work for Oswego harbor improvement, as described in its history elsewhere, and in the intervals of these operations
he acted as the city surveyor and engineer of Oswego. His peculiarly accurate and reliable surveys for the preservation
of original landmarks and for the establishment of property lines have furnished accepted standards and reference
points for all subsequent city surveys, and have prevented much litigation over disputed boundaries. During this
period he was the captain of the Oswego Guards, and later lieutenant colonel of the 48th Regiment of New York State
Militia; military organizations to which his West Point training enabled him to give a degree of drill and discipline
which fitted many of their members to be the officers of the local regiments of volunteers during the war of the
Rebellion. In 1861, being one of the comparatively few educated military engineers who were available, he was engaged
with the U. S. Engineer Department during the first years of the war upon the construction of fortifications at
Sandy Hook for the defence of New York harbor, and in 1863 he was sent back to his home at Oswego in charge, as
the U. S. engineer, of the rebuilding of Fort Ontario as a casemated work of permanent masonry, Fort Ontario being
then considered a point of primary importance for the defence of the northern frontier in case Great Britain should
again attack the United States from Canada, as had been done in 1814, and as then seemed to be probable. He continued
in charge of the fort until near the close of the war in 1865, when he was relieved by Capt. Jared A. Smith, Corps
of Engineers, and wads then again engaged upon general engineering, including government harbor works at Ogdensburg,
New York, and at Green Bay, Wis., and as city engineer of Oswego, until his death, at his home in Oswego, in 1878.
His eldest son, Capt. John Andrew Judson, went to the front in 1861 as captain and assistant adjutant general,
and continued in active service until after the close of the war, when he was the assistant adjutant general of
the Department of North Carolina.
FROM:
Landmarks of Oswego County
New York
Edited by: John C. Churchill, LL.D.
Assisted by: H, Perry Smith and W. Stanley Child
Syracuse, N. Y.
D. Mason & Co., Publishers 1895
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