Knight Russ Ockside (1830 - 1898)

Edward Underhill, "stenographer, lawyer, author, poet, was born April 20, 1830 in Wolcott, N.Y. He was one of the first court reporters in the United States; and in 1860 procured the passage of a law that made stenographers officers of the courts in New York City, which practice has since been adopted by the county courts and by nearly every state in the union. He has been official stenographer of the legislature for five years, of the constitutional convention in 1867-68, of the state supreme court for eight years, and of the surrogate's court in 1872-98. He died June 18, 1898, in New York City." [Thomas William Herringshaw (ed.), Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography 518 (Chicago: American Publishers' Association, 1905)(vol.5)]