'successful career at the bar unravelled and solved business complications and intricacies with an ease that was a constant source of astonishment to his contemporaries.

Mr. Bingham's great business ability was abundantly recognized, and as executor, administrator, trustee, guardian, assignee and receiver was almost continuously utilized by the courts, government and his neighbors. In his later years and to his intimate friends he was wont to say with no little satisfaction, that in all his experience as trustee for others in various capacities, he had never been sued, never censured by the court, and that he never went to bed without the abiding consciousness that if that should be his last sleep his affairs were in order and could be readily settled by his executor.

The banking firm of Bingham Brothers & Brace after seven years of continuous, successful existence was dissolved, Mr Brace retiring, Messrs. C. L. and L. C. Bingham continuing the business under the firm name of Bingham Brothers; after 8 years Charles W. Bingham, the only surviving son of C. L. Bingham, entered the firm and in 1889 Mr. L. C. Bingham's death left the father and son as the survivors of the business which was and still is securely established in the confidence of the people of his locality.

Mr. Bingham was courteous almost courtly in manner, of handsome, commanding presence and graceful figure. As a public speaker he was always forcible, fluent and pleasing; he was in active demand as chairman of assemblies of various sorts, and always discharged his duties fairly and well. Although a man of multifarious and important business engagements, his time and ripened judgment were always at the disposal of those who needed help. His death removed the trusted counselor of many a widow and orphan, while many an honest poor man missed the ready money Mr. Bingham freely advanced to relieve his necessities.

Of unswerving integrity himself, Mr. Bingham would brook no duplicity in others, and abhorred commercial dishonesty with the whole force of his nature.

As a man and citizen Mr. Bingham has left an enduring impression upon his day and generation, and his name will live as a synonym of all that is good and true in business circles.

Socially Mr. Bingham was cordial, urbane and pleasing to an unusual degree, and while charming the senses with his grace, he enriched the mind from his abundant stores of information.

Mr. Bingham married Miss Charlotte Wood of Columbus, Ohio, in the year 1857; three children were born of this union, one only Charles Wood Bingham surviving. Mr. Bingham died on Oct. 29, 1892, in the full strength of his manhood after an illness of only a few hours. Mrs. Bingham still survives him carrying, with the help of a large circle of sympathetic friends, her load of bereavement as best she may.

PRESIDENTS OF THE SOCIETY, WITH DATES OF ELECTION.

Livingston County Historical Society.

CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION.

ATION.

We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Livingston County, in the state of New York, of the full age of twenty-one years and upwards, and citizens of the United States, do, in pursuance of the statute in such case made and provided, hereby associate ourselves together for historical purposes.

The name or title by which such society or corporation shall be known in law is the LIVINGSTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. The particular business and object of such society and its general design is to discover, procure and to gather up and preserve whatever may relate to Western New York, and the respective towns and villages of Livingston County in particular, whether it relates to the preoccupancy of the country by the red man or to the white race, and to gather such statistics of population, education, manufacture, and business of the county as shall be of public utility and of use to the society. The officers of such society shall be a President, a Vice President, a Secretary and Treasurer, and nine Councilors who shall constitute a board of managers of said society as aforesaid, and their names for the first year of its existence, are as follows:

D. H. BISSELL, President.
M. H. MILLS, Vice-President.
NORMAN SEYMOUR, Sec. and Treas.

L. B. PROCTOR, L. J. AMES, D. H. FITZHUGH, G. W. ROOT, S. P. Allen, B. F. ANGEL, RICHARD PECK. J. F. BARBER, E. H. DAVIS, Councilors.

The principal office and place of business of such society shall be located at Geneseo, the county seat of Livingston county, but nothing herein contained shall prevent the society from holding its meetings as provided and specified in its bylaws.

We, the undersigned members, officers and managers of such Society, do hereby certify the matters above stated, to the end that we, our associates and successors may, pursuant to the statute of the state aforesaid, in such case made and provided, be a body politic and corporate, by the name above stated, and in witness whereof we have severally hereunto subscribed our names, the thirteenth day of February, 1877.

LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MT. MORRIS, N. Y.

On this 13th day of February, 1877, personally appeared before me M. H. MILLS, NORMAN SEYMOUR, LOREN J. AMES, LEVI PARSONS, D. H BISSELL, A. O. BUNNELL, L. B. PROCTOR, severally known to me to be the persons described in and who executed the above instrument, and they severally acknowledge the execution of the same.

REUBEN WALLACE,

Dated February, 1877.

Justice of the Peace in and for Livingston County.

Filed in the office of the Secretary of State of the state of New York, and in the office of the clerk of the county of Livingston,