Edgar Truman Brackett
Civic Leader, Businessman, Preservationist
Born July 30, 1853, in Wilton, N.Y., Edgar Truman Brackett spent his youth in Iowa, returning to Saratoga Springs after finishing college. Admitted to the New York State Bar in 1875, he soon became a prominent lawyer, business and civic leader and dominant political figure in Saratoga, functions he fulfilled for many decades.
He once served as attorney for the “Prince of Gamblers,” Richard Canfield, but later became of of the most effective anti-gambling crusaders in Saratoga history, helping to lead a crackdown on gambling and corruption in Saratoga Springs around 1920.
His accomplishments in the civic life of Saratoga were many. He founded the Chamber of Commerce and the Adirondack Trust Company, where he served as the first president from 1901 to 1924. With two partners he founded the G.F. Harvey pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Saratoga Springs in 1889 and was also a founder of the McGregor Links Golf Club in 1921. He was also instrumental in lobbying for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to build a sanatorium at Mount McGregor, which opened in 1913. Thoroughly involved in local life, he generously aided his own Methodist Church and many other religious and fraternal organizations.
He served as a Republican in the New York State Senate from 1896–1906 and again from 1909–1912, serving as minority leader in 1911 and 1912. Sen. Brackett led a long and difficult campaign against corruption in the insurance industry during his time in Albany. When the mineral springs in Saratoga were threatened by commercial over-pumping, Senator Brackett led the campaign to protect the springs and establish the State Reservation in 1909, which later became the Saratoga Spa State Park.
Sen. Brackett and his wife Mary Emma Corliss lived at 605 Broadway, where he died on February 27, 1924. Portraits of his sons Edgar T. Jr. and Charles are displayed in the Saratoga Springs History Museum. The citizens of Saratoga Springs have honored Sen. Brackett with the erecxtion of the Brackett Memorial Gate at the entrance to Congress Park. He is buried in Greenridge Cemetery.