USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. II > Part 11
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In a political way Mr. Wright is an active Republican, zealous for the success of his party and its principles and nominees. He has held important places on the Republican county committee and he has been sent as a delegate to several important party conven- tions. For twenty-two years, by repeated re-election, he has held the office of justice of the peace. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with various representative organizations and both he and his wife are devout communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church, to whose charitable institutions he has been a most generous contribu- tor. Mr. Wright's brother John was a gallant soldier in the Civil war. He enlisted in Company I, Thirty-fourth New York Volun- teer Infantry and saw much active service until his death, at Fort- ress Monroe, after one year in the army. Another brother, Will- iam W. Wright, enlisted in Company F, Seventy-eighth New York Volunteer Infantry, in February, 1862. He served under Sher- man and was promoted to a captaincy. After valiant and faithful service until the end of the war, he was mustered out in North Carolina. He immediately returned to Hammondsport, where he practiced law during the remainder of his active business career.
In May, 1876, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wright to Miss Mary Irene MeLean, who passed to eternal rest in 1895, at the age of forty-two years. She was a daughter of George and Cather- ine (Riley ) McLean, of Prattsburg. George McLean was a lawyer of note in Steuben county and he was a man of the utmost public loyalty and usefulness. Mr. and Mrs. Wright had seven children, five of whom are deceased. Of those living,-Nancy is manager of the Bell telephone office at Hammondsport; Preston, a printer, who resides at Geneva married Esther Sponable and they have a daughter, Grace Martha, seven years of age.
MAURICE A. HOYT, Hammondsport's popular druggist, is a son of Warren J. Hoyt. The latter was born in Litchfield county Connecticut, a son of Ira Hoyt, also a native of the Nutmeg state. He was a prosperous farmer and was gathered to his
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fathers in the years 1862, his years numbering seventy-seven. His wife, Anna (Shove) Hoyt, died in 1888, in her ninety-first year. Warren J. Hoyt married Jeanette Manchester, who was born in Chenango county, New York, in 1834. Her parents were Milton and Emeline (Stilson) Manchester. Her father, who was a gard- ener and basket maker, died in 1884, aged eighty-one years. Her mother died in 1850, aged forty-one years.
Warren J. Hoyt, born in Torington, Connecticut, in 1834, set- tled at Halsey Valley, Tioga county, New York, and worked there at his trade, that of a cooper, later going into merchandising. In 1881 he came to Hammondsport. Some years before his death he engaged in the vineyard business and became a stockholder in the Hammondsport Cooperage Company. These interests commanded his attention to the end of his life. He was an active Republican, not an office seeker, but a worker for the principles represented by his party. He lived a quiet,, Christian life, devoted to the family, and in a public spirited way to the good of the community. His son, Gordon G. Hoyt, is manager of the Hammondsport Cooperage Company.
Maurice Adrian Hoyt was born in Tioga county, New York, April 10, 1874. He began his education in public schools near his home. At fifteen he entered high school at Chicago, Illinois, and also took up the study of pharmacy. A part of his preparation for the business career he contemplated was a six years' clerkship in a drug store. For a time after his return to Hammondsport, he was employed by the Hammondsport Cooperage Company. Then he became local station agent for the Bath & Hammondsport Rail- way Company. Then, after two years clerkship in the old Ham- mondsport drug store of James Smellic, he bought the drug store of Hobart J. Moore in 1892 and has since conducted it with much success. He is a man of public spirit, devoted to the upbuilding of the village, and is now a member of the town committee. As a Republican he is an active worker in the local political field and has been called to several town offices. He is a member of the Presby- terian church and helpful to its various interests. He is a Mason, a member of the Blue Lodge, Commandery and Shrine, and has held high office in some of the organizations. He is a member also of the Improved Order of Red Men and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Mr. Hoyt married Nancy E. Haight, who was born April 9, 1872, and has borne him one daughter, Mary Lenore, the date of whose nativity was December 2, 1900, and who is now in the fifth grade at school; and one son, Maurice Gilmore, born November 7, 1905. Mr. Hoyt's sisters are Ella, who is Mrs. Lemual Schutt of Halsey Valley, New York: Addie M., the wife of Dr. H. M. Corey of Chicago; and Vesta C., the widow of Lewis B. Scott of Chicago.
JOHN W. CURTIS, a dealer in farm implements at Bath, New York, was born at Hornellsville, Steuben county, January 15, 1864, his father, Samuel R. Curtis, having taken up his residence in this
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county in 1860. Here Samuel R. Curtis lived and prospered, carry- ing on agricultural pursuits, for more than thirty years. He died February 22, 1892. His widow, Martha (Parker) Curtis, daughter of W. G. Parker, is still living, now sixty-nine years of age. To them were born four children, namely : Harry, a farmer at Elmira, New York; William, a mechanic, Buffalo, New York; Agnes, de- ceased, and John W.
John W. Curtis passed his boyhood on the farm, receiving his education in the schools near his home. He continued farming until, on account of ill health, he sold the home farm and turned his attention to other occupations, finally becoming interested in the sale of farm implements, with Steuben and adjoining counties as his field of operation, in which he is meeting with marked success. And in connection with this business he makes a specialty of buying and shipping potatoes. Previous to his taking up this line of occupation, he was for a time interested in the insurance business at Buffalo.
Mr. Curtis married, in 1890, Miss Emma Rooch. She died in 1902, leaving no issue. His religious creed is that of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a worthy member.
GEORGE WASHINGTON MARTS, who is now living virtually re- tired in the attractive little city of Wayland, is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of Steuben county, though he himself was born in Dansville township, in the adjoining county of Livingston, on the 20th of October, 1838. He is well known in this section of the state and his course has been so guided and governed as to justify the unqualified esteem in which he is uniformly held in the community. Mr. Marts is a son of Daniel Marts, who was born in the home now owned by Judge William Clark, in Wayland township, Steuben county, and the date of whose nativity was May 8, 1816. He was a son of George Marts, who was born in Pennsylvania, of stanch German lineage, and who came from the old Keystone state to Steuben county in an early day, becoming one of the substantial agriculturists of Wayland township, where both he and his wife continued to reside until their death. Of their nine children only G. W. Marts is now living.
Daniel Marts was reared to the sturdy discipline of the pioneer farm and was afforded the advantages of the somewhat primitive schools of the locality and period. As a youth he went to Dansville, Livingston county, where he entered upon an apprenticeship at the trade of paper-making, but one year later he returned to Steu- ben county and purchased a farm in Wayland township, near the village of the same name. There he continued to be actively en- gaged in agricultural pursuits for the ensuing seven years, at the expiration of which he sold the farm and removed to the village of Wayland, where he assumed charge of the loading and shipping of lumber for a leading firm engaged in the lumber business at this point. Later he engaged in the draying and general transfer busi- ness and also conducted independent operations in the lumber trade,
George Washington Marts
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with which lines of business he here continued to be actively con- cerned for seventeen years. After the railroad was completed through the village he found it inexpedient to continued his busi- ness, as the railroad provided better facilities for the transfer of freight and produce, and thereafter he lived retired, save that for a number of years he had the supervision of the Wayland cemetery. He was a man of impregnable integrity and ever commanded the unequivocal confidence of all who knew him. His political al- legiance was given to the Democratic party and he was an earnest exponent of its principles and policies. He served as poormaster of Wayland township for a number of years and also held other local offices of minor order. He was a most zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as was also his wife, and he was specially active in the work of the Sunday-school, in which he was an able and valued teacher for many years. In recognition of his many years of service in connection with the freighting and team- ing business prior to the construction of the railroad through Way- land and Dansville the citizens of the latter place presented to him, in 1872, a fine silver watch, which was purchased with money secured by popular subscription and which was given him as a token of confidence and esteem. This watch is now the property of his son George W., of this sketch, and is treasured as a valued heirloom. As a young man Daniel Marts was united in marriage to Miss Martha Wilson, who was born at Loon Lake, Wayland township, this county, on the 24th of May, 1819, and who was a daughter of Jeremiah Wilson, a well known pioneer of this section of the state, where he continued to reside until his death. Daniel and Martha (Wilson) Marts became the parents of nine children, of whom the subject of this review is now the only survivor.
George W. Marts was reared to maturity on the home farm and early began to assist in its work, finding ample demand upon his services while still a mere boy and such demands being so in- sistent as to render it impossible for him to attend school except at intermittent intervals of brief duration. He has, however, effect- ually overcome this early handicap through the lessons gained un- der the direction of that wisest of headmasters, experience. He endured his full quota of hardships and privations in his youth, and the record of the family in the early days was that expressed by Lincoln concerning his parents,-"the short and simple annals of the poor." Mr. Marts continued to assist in the work and management of the home farm until he had attained to his legal majority and soon afterward he responded to the call of patriotism and higher duty when the integrity of the nation was menaced by armed rebellion. On the 16th of November, 1861, he tendered his services in defense of the Union, by enlisting as a private in Com- pany I, Sixth U. S. Infantry, with which he proceeded to the front and with which he participated in many important engagements, his regiment having been assigned to the Army of the Potomac. One the 7th of July, 1864, he received his honorable discharge, but
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on the following day he re-enlisted for three years more as a veteran in the same company and regiment, with which he con- tinued in service until some time after the surrender of General Lee. For some time his regiment was in service on the Pacific coast and other portions of the west, and he took part in numerous conflicts with the Indians while protecting emigrants who were making their way across the plains. During the last three years of his service he was sergeant of his company. His military rec- ord is one that redounds to his credit as a loyal soldier and he maintains his association with his old comrades by retaining mem- bership in the Grand Army of the Republic. After the close of his military service Mr. Marts returned to Steuben county, where he was associated with his father in the express and freighting busi- ness until 1872, after which he devoted two years to the manu- facturing of shingles. Thereafter he was in the employ of the Erie Railroad Company for a time and finally he entered the em- ploy of the firm of Capen & Fowler, engaged in the produce busi- ness. For seven years he had charge of the branch establish- ment of the firm at Atlanta, this county, and he then returned to Wayland, where he had the supervision of the street lights of the village for two years. For five years he was employed at the local station of the Erie Railroad, and for the ensuing four years he was identified with the operations of the Wayland canning factory. Since that time he has lived practically retired, having an attrac- tive home in the village of Wayland, where he is held in uniform confidence and esteem. In politics he gives his allegiance to the Democratic party.
In the year 1876 Mr. Marts was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Fox, who was born and reared in Steuben county, and who is a daughter of the late Jesse Fox. Mr. and Mrs. Marts have no children. Mr. Marts is very active in educational work. He speaks to the school children two or three times each year, and gives liberally of his means to school purposes.
MRS. MARY E. PLATT, widow of the late Cephas F. Platt and mother of state senator Frank C. Platt, is a life-long resident of Painted Post, having been born there June 20, 1831, a daughter of Francis E. Erwin. Her father, also a native of Painted Post, born in 1806, passed his entire life there, identified with leading interests of the community, giving his attention principally to farming and real estate and amassing a considerable fortune for his time, chiefly in land, of which he left about two hundred and fifty acres to each of his five children. His wife was Miss Sophia McCall, born east of Corning, in Steuben county. For a year after their marriage they conducted a public house. That business was not to the taste of either of them, however. They had seven children, of whom five grew to manhood or womanhood and of whom these four are living: Samuel S., Mary E., Platt, Francis, and Mrs. Harriet Wilkes of Bath.
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Mrs. Platt was educated at the Troy, New York Seminary. In May, 1852, she married Cephas F. Platt, a native of Otsego county, New York, and they settled down to wedded life in a house which they built at Painted Post that year and in which she has lived ever since. Mr. Platt was a lawyer, a banker and a man of affairs of the best judgment and ability, well and widely known and highly respected wherever known. In the course of his active life he accumulated a fine property including about eighteen hundred acres of good farming land. He died in 1883. Mrs. Platt bore him three children-Mrs. Sophia E. Tousey, Mrs. Elizabeth Ham- ilton of Campbell, Steuben county, and Hon. Frank C. Platt. Her home at Painted Post is one of the most beautiful in that part of the county, and she has always dispensed a generous hospitality that has made it sought by the most refined people in "Old Steuben." The prominence of her late husband and of their son has kept her in touch indirectly with the leading spirits of her part of the state, and those who know her own family speak of her as of pioneer stock.
GUY H. MCMASTER .- One who conferred honor and dignity upon the bench and bar of the Empire state was Judge McMaster, who passed virtually his entire life in the attractive little eity of Bath and who ever commanded the affectionate regard and high esteem of the people of Steuben county. His character was the positive expression of a strong and noble nature and he left upon the annals of his native state the record of distinguished service as a legist and jurist and as a man he "kept himself unspotted of the world."
Judge Guy H. McMaster was born at Clyde, Wayne county, New York, on the 31st of January, 1829, and he died at Bath, Steuben county, on the 13th of September, 1887. He was a son of Judge David and Adeline (Humphreys) MeMaster, who re- moved from Wayne county to Bath, Steuben county, when he was about one year of age. Here he was reared to maturity and here he continued to maintain his home until he was summoned from the scene of life's mortal endeavors. He received excellent edu- cational advantages in his youth and in 1847, when eighteen years of age, he was graduated in Hamilton College, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was a member of the same class as were Senator Joseph R. Hawley, Charles Dudley Warner and Colonel Emmons Clark. Soon after leaving college Judge McMaster began the study of law and in 1852 he was ad- mitted to the bar. He forthwith engaged in the active practice of his profession in Bath and for some time he was associated in practice with Colonel Charles W. Campbell, as was he later with Hon. Clark Bell. For the last twenty years he was senior member of the firm of McMaster & Parkhurst, the junior member of which was his son-in-law, the late Judge John F. Parkhurst, to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work. In 1863 Judge
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McMaster was elected to the office of county judge and surrogate of Steuben county and at the expiration of his first term, in 1867, he was elected for another term of four years. In 1877 he was elected to the same dual office for a term of six years. In 1883 when the offices of county judge and surrogate were separated, he was elected surrogate for a term of six years and he was nom- inated for this office by acclamation. As surrogate he had no superior in the state. His knowledge of the minutia of the science of jurisprudence and of precedent was of the most profound order and his knowledge of surrogate practice was specially ample and accurate so that he was able to define clearly the duties and lia- bilities of administrators, executors and guardians. On the bench he was invariably dignified, courteous and forbearing and these qualities won to him the admiration and high regard of lawyers, litigants, witnesses and jurors. He frequently interfered to shield flurried witnesses from unnecessary annoyance at the hands of attorneys. His rulings were given with promptness and clarity of diction and so accurate were his judgment and knowledge of the law that during the fourteen years that he presided upon the bench of the county court no new trial was ever ordered by the supreme court in any case tried by him. Judge McMaster iden- tified himself with the Republican party at the time of its organi- zation and ever continued an able and effective exponent of its principles and policies. He was a devout member of the Presby- terian church, as was also his wife, and he found his greatest solace and pleasure in the associations of an idyllic home. He was a man of exalted character and, knowing well the springs of human thought and motive, he was tolerant and charitable in his judgment of his fellow men, ever striving to aid and uplift those who needed such succor and being specially earnest in his charities and benevolences. He was a man of fine literary ability and ap- preciation and his reading covered a wide realm of classical and modern literature. He had great poetical talent and was the author of many poems that are chaste and beautiful in thought and metrical form. These alone would give him enduring reputa- tion as a man of great literary genius. His published work, "Car- mena Bellicosum," contains many poetical gems and the work has met with high commendation on the part of both critics and lovers of poetry.
In 1853 was solemnized the marriage of Judge McMaster to Miss Amanda Church, daughter of Robert W. Church, of Bath. Mrs. McMaster was summoned to the life eternal on the 29th of November, 1883, and of their four children three are living- Humphrey, who is at the present time clerk in the office of the sur- rogate of Steuben county at Bath; Alice, who is the widow of Judge John F. Parkhurst and who resides at Bath, and Katharine, a resident of Bath. As has been stated, a review of the life of Judge Parkhurst appears elsewhere in this work.
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WILLIAM J. BRUNDAGE .- As a scion of old and honored fam- ilies of the central eastern part of the Empire state and as one of the representative business men of Steuben county, Mr. Brundage is well entitled to recognition in this publication. He is prom- inently identified with viticulture and wine manufacturing and is the owner of a fine vineyard in Urbana township, besides which he is a stockholder in the Urbana Wine Company. His postoffice address is Keuka. 11
Mr. Brundage was born in Urbana township, Steuben county, on the 2nd of August, 1864, and is the only child of David J. and Anna' J. (Douglass) Brundage. The father became one of the successful representatives of the agricultural industry in Yates county, where he owned a finely improved farm of two hundred acres, upon which he continued to reside until his death. He was a stanch Republican in his political proclivities, having been in- fluential in local affairs in Yates county and having ever com- manded the unqualified esteem of all who knew him.
William J. Brundage is indebted to the public schools of Yates county for his early educational discipline and he continued to be associated in the work and management of the home farm until he had attained to the age of twenty-four years. After the death of his father he assumed charge of the old homestead, of which he has since maintained a general supervision. This farm comprises two hundred acres and is one of the valuable places of this section of the state. Mr. Brundage is a stockholder in the Urbana Wine Company and he is also actively identified with the grape-growing industry and with diversified agriculture on the old home farm lying on the border near the line dividing Yates and Steuben counties, besides which he owns his fine vineyard near Keuka, in Urbana township, Steuben county. Mr. Brundage is known as a progressive and public-spirited citizen and while he has never had any aspiration for political office he accords a stanch support to the Republican party. He is a member of the Presby- terian church, is a bachelor and is recognized as one of the suc- cessful business men and sterling citizens of his native county.
CHARLES A. AVEY .- After having been successfully identified with agricultural pursuits for more than a quarter of a century Mr. Avey is now living virtually retired in the attractive little village of Wayland, though he still retains the ownership of his fine homestead farm, located in Springwater township, Livingston county, near the border of Steuben county. He is well known throughout this section of the state, where the major part of his life has been passed, and his course has been such as to entitle him to the unequivocal confidence in which he is held.
Mr. Avey was born at New York on the 12th of February, 1865, and is a son of Chester and Henrietta (Milliman) Avey, the former of whom was born in Steuben county. Chester Avey was a son of Andrew Avey, who removed to Steuben county from
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Pennsylvania and who became one of the prosperous farmers of the county, where he continued to reside until his death. Chester Avey gained his initial experience in connection with the work of the home farm and received such advantages as were afforded in the common schools of the locality and period. As a youth he learned the carpenter's trade, as well as that of painter, to both of which he devoted his attention until his death, which occurred at Dansville, Livingston county, in 1875, at which time he was forty-two years of age. His wife was summoned to the life eternal in 1883, at the age of fifty-six years. She was a daughter of Nicholas Milliman, who passed his declining years in the home of his grandson, Charles A. Avey, of this review, and who died at the venerable age of eighty-six years. Of the children of Chester and Henrietta (Milliman) Avey, Charles A. is the younger of the two surviving, and his sister, Mary, is the wife of John Moore, of Flint, Michigan.
Charles A. Avey was about ten years of age at the time of his father's death and about three years later, in 1878, he accom- panied his sister and her husband to Michigan, where he re- mained until 1883 and where he continued his studies in the public schools. He then returned to his native state and entered the high school at Dansville, where he continued his studies until he had attained to the age of eighteen years. Thereafter he was a success- ful and popular teacher in the district schools for a period of four years, thus putting his scholastic attainments to practical use after his graduation in the Dansville high school. After his re- tirement from the pedagogic profession he assumed the manage- ment of the farm of his maternal grandfather, Nicholas Milliman, in Springwater township, Livingston county, and of this fine prop- erty he eventually became the owner. He made many improve- ments on the place and brought it up to the highest standard of productiveness. There he continued to reside until 1910, when he rented the farm and removed to the village of Wayland, Steuben county, where he purchased an attractive residence property and where he is now living essentially retired, enjoying the rewards of former years of earnest toil and endeavor. He still gives a general supervision to his farm, which yields him a satisfactory income. Mr. Avey has never been animated with aught of ambi- tion for public offices but he is found aligned as a stanch sup- porter of the cause of the Republican party and he has not denied his influence and co-operation in the support of measures and en- terprises tending to advance the general welfare, both civic and material. He is not formally identified with any religious organi- zation but is a liberal supporter of the United Evangelical church, of which Mrs. Avey is a member.
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