Whose statue sits in front of the Broome County Courthouse? Here's the 100-year-old story

It is always hard when someone you know turns 100 years old, and no one paid any attention of that important event.

Worse still is when this writer, who has steeped himself in the history of the area for decades, is one who forgot to celebrate this milestone. Now, I must note, before someone thinks I was callous and forgot to mark the life of a centenarian – that I am not talking about a live person.

No, I am referring to a work of art – a piece of metal of which everyone should be more aware.

By now, I have some of you wondering of what I am referring. One more clue to the readers of this column.

A few days ago, I gave a walking tour of downtown Binghamton, which starts at the Broome County Courthouse. To some of my former students who suffered me as their professor for more than a decade, they might recall that I refer to this object as the green man who stands in front of the courthouse all day long.

I am referring to the statue of Daniel S. Dickinson, the area’s leading politician.

Daniel S. Dickinson was born in 1800 in Connecticut but moved as a child to Chenango County. It was there that he studied for the law and began his practice in 1828 at a time when he was Guilford Postmaster.

By the early 1830s, Dickinson moved to the fledgling settlement of Binghamton and serves as its first president (mayor) in 1834. That was the start of his meteoric rise in politics.

He was elected as a New York State Senator, the Lieutenant Governor of New York and then appointed, and later elected as United State Senator for New York from 1844 to 1851.

This was a time of the Compromise of 1850, when the country headed toward Civil War. Dickinson was a states' rights Democrat, yet during the Civil War, he gave more than 1500 speeches in support of the union.

Attempts were made in 1852 to have Dickinson nominated by the Democrats for the presidency, but he withdrew from those attempts. For a while Lincoln considered him as a possible running mate in the 1864 election, but instead chose Andrew Johnson.

He was rewarded, though, when Lincoln appointed him as United States Attorney for the Southern District which he held until his death in 1866.

Despite his death, his national political reputation was not forgotten, and in the early 1920s, the Exempt Firemen’s Association began to raise funds for the design and creation of a stature of Dickinson that could be placed in front the county’s courthouse.

It was not long before the $10,000 cost of the statue and its installation was met. The men in charge of the project; Charles Tupper, John Irving, Judson Newing, Herbert Bolles, and S. Foster Black, assigned the design of the statue to Allen G. Newman, a sculptor working in New York City.

Newman collaborated closely with John H. Duncan, formerly of Binghamton, who was the architect who designed Grant’s Tomb. The bronze statue was cast by the John Williams Company of New York City.

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The statue was completed and shipped to Binghamton on April 15, 1924. The unveiling celebration was planned for Memorial Day with a large parade and officials to speak, including Charles M. Dickinson, who had studied law with Daniel Dickinson. The event also included the remaining surviving members of the Civil War veterans living in Broome County.

The base and statue were placed only a few feet from the steps of the courthouse and the sidewalk was widened to go around the new art piece in Binghamton. There he stood, for many years.

At some point in the late 1970s, a brown coat was painted over the natural green patina, which has taken years to undo that effort. In 1991, there was a failed attempt to move him to the west side of the courthouse (which this historian opposed).

Now, the 100-year mark has occurred, and no big celebration for the statue. Yet, I think Dickinson himself would rather we focus on what he did during his life, and not his statue which deserves a belated happy birthday.

Gerald Smith is executive director of the Tioga County Historical Society and a former Broome County historian. Email him at historysmiths@stny.rr.com .

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Whose statue sits in front of the Broome County Courthouse? Here's the 100-year-old story