6 Monroe Heights Cortland

"Walter Halbert Angell was born in Union Valley in 1864, the son of Dr. Jerome Angell and Mary Halbert Angell. Union Valley is in Cortland County in the Town of Taylor, where it borders Chenango County. Not much is left of the community these days, but in the late 1800’s, it was a thriving little hamlet with a post office, church, and a cheese factory. Dr. Angell graduated from Geneva Medical College in 1858 (one of six in that class) and came back home to marry and hang his shingle. As an only child, Walter might have been expected to follow in his father’s footsteps as a physician, but apparently, he was not interested in the prospect of more schooling.  The big city of Cortland was calling and the challenges and opportunities of owning a business were more appealing and from the time he was twenty-three, that was what he sought out. For the next twenty-five years, Walter would own, run, and then sell, a meat market, a couple of grocery stores, a shoe store, a bakery, and a livery service. He would also marry Harriet Kinney in 1892, start raising a family, and take care of his widowed mother when his father died suddenly in 1896. 

That is a very brief summary of Walter H. Angell’s life and how he made a living up until the time of the 1910 federal census. But Walter was also interested in contributing to his community in other ways. His father set the example here; Dr. Angell served in many public offices and ran for many more. From what I can find, Walter first served in a public capacity in 1892, when he was appointed as a deputy sheriff. Later, he would serve a two-year term as Cortland’s mayor (1913-14). But it was in 1909 that Walter would begin what would turn out to be his longest running job and the one that would have the greatest impact on his community; he became the superintendent of the Humane Society. 

Nowadays, when people talk about the Humane Society, the reference is to an organization that is involved in the protection, care, and ethical treatment of animals. But in the late 19th/early 20th century, the humane societies organized in communities across the country had a broader remit. The one formed in 1909 in Cortland County was typical. First, a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) was organized and then, after evidence of a need, the community would push for the formation of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC). Since these were non-profits run by a local committee and sustained by memberships and fundraising, they would often merge so as not to compete for limited community resources, becoming just the Humane Society. Before governments stepped up with Departments of Social Services, these volunteer-led organizations filled a need. 

Walter worked as agent for the Humane Society for twenty-four years, until his death in 1933. Initially, it was an unpaid position; it wasn’t until 1920 that money was appropriated by the county to pay him a small salary. In 1911, he was also appointed as the city’s Probation Officer. As Humane Society superintendent, it was his job to investigate complaints made by the public about cruelty to animals or children and, if necessary, collect evidence and work with local police to make arrests and testify in court.  Reading newspaper articles of the time about cases that Walter was involved in makes you see that viewing the past through the prism of nostalgia can often mask the social problems that a community had to deal with; these included an underbelly of dire poverty, crime, and children that were subjects of physical and mental abuse. Even though Walter saw some appalling things over the years and had quite a bit of power over the families that crossed his path, you get the impression that he did not abuse that power and that he remained relatively empathetic and progressive in how he carried out the work. He was seen as a man of great integrity and his obituary in the Cortland Standard is proof of the esteem that the community held for him. After his death, the Cortland Rotary Club (of which Walter was a member) set up a fund for a family in need that would be distributed annually for many years."

HistoryForge: Stories from the 1910 Census – Post #3, by Taryn Evans, CCHS volunteer and HistoryForge transcriber.