CHARLES H. PHILO
Charles H. Philo, son of Elisha and Phoebe (Newell) Philo, was born in the town of Frankfort, Herkimer county, N. Y., October 3, 1845, and is a lineal descendant of John Fillow, a French Huguenot and a colonial settler of Connecticut before 1700. Elisha R. was born in Genessee county, N. Y., October 23, 1812, and died at West Frankfort,, Herkimer county, November 9, 1864. His wife, Phoebe, a native of Frankfort, died in Washington Mills, Oneida county, in 1884, aged sixty-eight. Her father, Edward Newell, was a soldier of the War of 1812, and her mother died in Utica, N. Y., at the great age of 103.
Charles H. Philo is the fourth in a family of nine children, all of whom are living, and was educated in the district schools and at Whitestown Seminary. His father was for many years engaged in canal boating and it was but natural that the subject of this sketch should first seek that employment. When only eleven years of age he began active canal life, which he followed summers until his father's death in 1864. Afterward he was engaged in boating alone until 1872, when he sold his boats and moved to the town of New Hartford, Oneida county, where he purchased a farm and stone quarry. Three years later he sold the farm and purchased the old stone store at Washington Mills, where he carried on a successful general mercantile business for eight years. Meanwhile he bought his present farm of 120 acres in the southeast corner of the town, where he has twenty acres of hops and also conducts a large dairy business.
In 1885 Mr. Philo purchased an interest in the Utica Tool Company, located at Washington Mills, and has since been connected with that successful enterprise, being now the treasurer. This business was founded at Unadilla Forks, N. Y., by Henry H. Babcock, in 1840, when he began the manufacture of hoes by hand on an anvil. Later Charles B. Brown and others became interested with him under the firm name of Babcock, Brown & Co. In 1865 the concern was moved to Washington Mills in the town of New Hartford, Oneida county, where the works were enlarged and forks and rakes added to the production. In 1871 Porter S. Huntley and Mr. Babcock, under the firm name of Huntley & Babcock, became the sole owners and continued the business until 1883, when the Huntley & Babcock Agricultural Company, Lmtd., was incorporated. This name was changed to Lewis & Babcock manufacturing Company in 1887, and that to the present Utica Tool Company in 1892. The works cover an area of ten acres and employ from seventy-five to 100 skilled mechanics, while the mechanical appliances and equipment of the factory are such as to insure rapid and perfect production, which is shipped throughout the United States and to all parts of the world. The Utica Tool Company has a world-wide reputation as manufactures of the best grades of coke, coal, oyster, manure, spading, barley, hay, and stone forks; planters', cotton, street, mortar, field, onion, wedding, meadow, sprouting and cultivator hoes; turf edgers, walk cleaners, ice chisels, coal, garden and lawn rakes, potato hooks, manure drags, clam hooks, corn knives, floral sets, garden cultivators, hollow tine forks, self-closing fruit and vegetable supports, etc. The active management of the company's affairs is under Charles H. Philo and Ladd J. Lewis, treasurer and secretary respectively, and both representative and influential business men.
Mr. Philo is an active Republican, and has held the office of town clerk of New Hartford, was for six years postmaster at Washington Mills, and for two years served the town as supervisor. For several years he has been a valued member of the Board of Equalization for the county. In all these capacities he has distinguished himself for his thorough business management and executive skill and ability. He is public-spirited, enterprising, and progressive, and takes a keen interest in the welfare of the community. No worthy object escapes his liberal support and encouragement. He is a member of the Amicable Lodge, No. 664, F. & A. M., and of the M. E. church, both of Washington Mills.
Mr. Philo was first married in December, 1869, to Miss Lina, daughter of Nathaniel Hulser, of Frankfort, N. Y., who was drowned in the Hudson River by falling overboard from his canal boat in June, 1871. She left a daughter who died in infancy soon afterward. In September, 1873, he married, second, Miss Mary J., daughter of Nicholas and Mary Ann (Sterling) Staring of Frankfort, and they have six children: Lena E., Lotta R., Virgie E., James C., Grace A., and Addie S.
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