"R. Holland Duell, born in Herkimer County in 1824, studied law in Syracuse, and opened a practice in Cortland in 1847. He soon entered politics and was elected district attorney (1850), county judge (1855), and congressman (1858, 1860, 1870, 1872), and was commissioner of patents for two years in the mid-1870s. One of the original members of the local board, he served as its third president from 1887 until his death early in 1891." -- Cortland College: An Illustrated History (Pg.30)