The Union school established by his active zeal and determination was the first organized in the State under the act of 1853. For twenty-one years he was a member of the Board of Education, and for twenty years of that time clerk of the board. He was one of the first to anticipate the time when the t^parsely settled districts of Morrisania and West Farms would become thickly populated portions of New York City, ' and he was among the foremost in promoting the cause of annexation.
In all his views he has ever been greatly in advance of his times, and has had the satisfaction of seeing them in course of time adopted by the community, which at first opposed them. A strong advocate of temperance, his practical devdtion to the cause has been a prominent feature of his life, and the reward of his temperance is found in the fact, that at the age of seventy-two, and after a life of constant and severe labor, he is to-day as hale and hardy as a man of fifty. During his professional career his practice embraced a very large portion of the county, and there is no one who is a better representative of its local practitioners.
DR. JAMES BATHGATE.
The parents of Dr. James Bathgate, who is well known as the oldest resident physician in Morrisania, were Charles and Margaret Bathgate, who came from Scotland, and settled at West Farms. Their children were Charles and John (both deceased), Dr. James Alexander (now living in Morrisania), Jane, the wife