USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. II > Part 16
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James N. Robinson, second in order of birth of the children of Hon. Frank H. and Jennie (Nichols) Robinson, was prepared for college at Dr. Stone's school at Cornwall-on-the Hudson and spent three years at Yale, his studies being interrupted by his recall home because of the illness of his father. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1909, and took up his father's practice. He is a Mason, an Elk and a Knight of the Maccabees. In politics he is, as was his father, a Republican. At this time he is ably filling the office of justice of the peace.
In 1908 Mr. Robinson married Miss Mary Schuyler Hurd, daughter of Walton and Anna (Ide) Hurd, an attractive and win- ning young woman who is doing much to aid him in his advance- ment. He is a stockholder in the Bank of Steuben and in the Bank of Canisteo, is secretary of the Maple City Co-operative Savings and Loan Association of Hornell and secretary and treasurer of the Hurd Real Estate Company of Hornell. His interests in the real estate line are considerable. His political activities, as treas- urer of the Republican City Committee and otherwise, have gained him wide recognition as a man of potential usefulness and prom- inence in a public way. In all things he is essentially helpful and public spirited.
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
ALBERT W. BARTON .- The present chief of police of the thriv- ing little city of Hammondsport, where he is also rendering effec- tive service as street commissioner, is a native son of Steuben county and a scion of one of its honored families. He was born in Bath township, this county, on the 5th of November, 1862, and is a son of Leonard and Caroline (Bateman) Barton, the former of whom died in 1885, at the age of fifty-seven years, and the latter of whom died in 1894, at the age of sixty-six years. Leonard Bar- ton was born on the old homestead farm in Bath township and his entire active career was one of close identification with agricultural pursuits. He was a son of Jeremiah Barton, who came to Steu- ben county and secured a tract of land in Bath township in the pioneer days, there passing the residue of his life, as did also his wife, whose maiden name was Ellen St. Clair. Mrs. Caroline (Bateman) Barton was a daughter of Samuel and Caroline Bate- man, who were born at Egypt, Monroe county, New York, whence they came to Steuben county many years ago. Concerning the children of Leonard and Caroline ( Bateman) Barton the follow- ing brief record is entered,-Ida is the wife of J. L. Davis, who is a carpenter by trade and who resides at Dresden, Yates county ; Samuel is a successful carpenter and builder in the city of Roches- ter; Jeremiah resides on the old homestead farm in Bath town- ship; Harley S. is a contractor and builder at Utica; this state; William J. is a successful farmer in North Dakota; Allen H. is engaged in farmning in Avoca; Andrew J. is a farmer and rural mail carrier in North Dakota; and Albert W., of this review, was the eighth child in order of birth.
Albert Wheeler Barton was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and his early educational advantages were those afforded in the district schools. He was but twelve years of age at the time of his father's death and thereafter he continued to be associated with the work of the home farm until he had attained to his legal majority. After his marriage be continued to be ac- tively identified with agricultural pursuits in Howard township until 1895, when he established his residence in Hammondsport, where he was engaged in the grocery business for one year, at the expiration of which he opened. a meat market. Later he was for three years in the employ of the Lake Keuka Navigation Company and since 1900 he has served as chief of police and street commis- sioner of Hammondsport, offices in which the best evidence of his effective administration ' is that given by his continuous incum- bency. He is a stanch Republican in his political proclivities and. while in Howard township he served two terms as township. col- lector, besides which he has been a delegate to the county conven- tions of his party. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, in which he is chief counsel of the Hammondsport or- ganization, and he also holds membership in the Improved Order. of Redmen. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Metho- dist Episcopal church. In the year 1883, shortly after attaining'
Vol. II-9
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to his legal majority, Mr. Barton was united in marriage to Miss Georgiana Sharp, who was born in Howard township, this county, on the 4th of October, 1864, and who is a daughter of David and Mary (Briscoe) Sharp, the father a native of Steuben county, and the mother of England. The father showed his loyalty to the land of his birth by his service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war and he died while in service. Mr. and Mrs. Barton have five children : Bertha is the wife of Ard Dye, who is engaged in the plumbing business at Hammondsport, and they have two chil- dren,-Barton and Clifford; Blanche is the wife of Floyd Barnes, who is engaged in the plumbing business at Corning, and their only child, Ronald, died in infancy; and Evelyn, Martin Van Buren and Le Roy are attending the public schools of Hammonds- port.
CHARLES M. HUNTER, proprietor of a livery establishment and a dealer in stock at Bath, New York, was born in Bath township, Steuben county, July 16, 1845, a son of James and Catharine (Velie) Hunter and grandson of Peter and Lucinda Hunter. The Hunters have long been residents of the "Empire state." James Hunter was born in Orange county. His surviving children, three in number, are Giles, engaged in the hardware business at Rock- ford, Illinois; Velie, a farmer near Bath, New York; and Charles M., the immediate subject of this sketch. A son Henry is de- ceased.
Charles M. Hunter was reared on a farm and remained with his father, engaged in agricultural pursuits, until he attained his twenty-second year. Then he went into the neighboring state of Pennsylvania and found employment as a clerk in a dry goods store, where he remained thus occupied for three years. About this time he was married, and from Pennsylvania he went to Ohio, where he was engaged in the mercantile business with his brother Henry for several years, and from there he returned to Bath and was eight years in the grocery business. He then turned his at- tention to the livery business. In 1887, having disposed of his livery establishment, he went to Colorado, and at Greeley, that state, accepted a position as manager of an opera house. This place he filled for six years. At the end of that time, returning to his native state, he settled at Bath, where he has since conducted a livery and dealt in horses and other stock.
Mrs. Hunter, formerly Miss Mary Cass, is a native of Bath and a daughter of Daniel Cass, deceased, for many years a farmer and stock dealer of Steuben county. To Mr. and Mrs. Hunter have been given two children: Byron T., who married Maude Osgood and who is engaged in the jewelry business at Greeley, Colorado; and Nellie, wife of Daniel McBride, cashier of the Hollock Bank at Bath.
Mr. Hunter has always been a stanch Republican. For years he has been elected and served as constable of Bath, and he served
Otto K Stewart M.Q.
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
one term as chief of police. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
OTTO K. STEWART, M. D .- One of the brilliant and reliable representatives of the medical profession, and still to be counted among the younger generation, is Dr. Otto K. Stewart, a native of Steuben county and especially deserving of representation in this volume as one of the citizens who stand for the progress and up- building of the community in which their interests are centered. He has an interesting ancestry, the Stewart family having been founded in this country by the great-grandfather of the subject, one John Stewart, born in Ireland in 1775. Possibly inspired in some occult manner in his cradle by the spirit of those stanch Colonists who in the year following that of his nativity signed that famous document, the Declaration of Independence, he at any rate was in his youth drawn to cross the blue Atlantic in quest of the freedom and opportunity of the new world. His wife, Jane White, was also a native of the Emerald Isle, where she was born in 1777. They were married in their native country in 1797 and came to America in 1805. They stopped for a time in Albany, New York, and then came on to Argyle in Washington county, where they located, making it their home until the year 1818, the head of the family making his livelihood and that of his wife and children as a stone mason and bricklayer. The agricultural re- sources of the state proved a temptation sufficiently great for him to abandon his trade and he brought his goods, chattels and children to Howard, Steuben county, where he bought a farm of one hun- dred and fifty acres, which was quite unimproved. He proceeded to build a house and to clear his land, with the assistance of his stalwart sons, and in course of time he came to enjoy comfortable fortunes, occasionally reverting to his trade, by which he earned many an honest dollar. He reared a family of seven sons and two daughters, by whom his name and his revered memory were per- petuated. When about sixty-five years of age, a team ran away with him and he received injuries which resulted in his death, this worthy pioneer and emigrant being gathered to his fathers in 1842.
William Stewart, grandfather of the subject, was the fourth son of John Stewart. He was educated in the public schools of Towelsville and spent some of his early years engaged in farm work. He was inclined toward the medical profession, and being of that indefatigable type which knows no difficulty and stands erect under tasks which would have dislocated the arm of Hercules, he studied at night, working hard by day upon the farm. He had reached the age of forty years before he was prepared for his practice, which he inaugurated in Buena Vista, Steuben county, New York. His was an active and useful life and he continued in practice in the above-mentioned town until his death in 1898. He was born in 1816, at Argyle, and married Miss Susan L. Ford, who was born in Howard, February 3, 1819. His widow survives
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and is living, at the age of ninety-one years, at Buena Vista. The grandmother of this estimable lady was a first cousin of President William Henry Harrison. She and her husband were married January 8, 1838, and reared a family of thirteen children, seven of this "baker's dozen," being sons and six daughters, and eight of the number being alive at the present day.
James H. Stewart, father of him whose name initiates this review, is the ninth child born to the foregoing couple. His eyes first opened to the light of day on March 4, 1853. He received his educational discipline, of an elementary character, at the pub- lic school of Howard, later entered Canisteo Academy, and began his career as a farmer. This he continued for three years, and then took up the musical instrument business, selling pianos, or- gans and music. He has continued in this line ever since and enjoys a thriving patronage, possessing that most enviable of gifts, the confidence of his associates, and being modern and progressive in his ideas. On December 14, 1875, he married Miss Rachel J. Stevens, born March 25, 1855, a daughter of Joshua and Hannah (Abbie) Stevens, and they have a family consisting of two sons and two daughters. The former are both professional men. Pauline Adelaide, the elder daughter, has pronounced musical talents and holds the position of musical instructor in the Ohio University at Athens, Ohio, in which institution of learning the younger daughter, Mabel Emma, is a student and a member of the class of 1911, specializing in elocution and piano. The son Harry is a Democrat in his affiliations. Politically Mr. J. H. Stewart, the father, is a Republican, and he has given efficient service in public office as a member of the school board, and the village board. He was town clerk for several terms and town col- lector for two. In his lodge relations Mr. Stewart is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masons, in the latter holding membership in Steuben Chapter. He and his fam- ily are Baptist in religious conviction.
The subject, Otto K. Stewart, was born in Steuben county on February 20, 1878, and he is the second son of his parents. The Canisteo public schools afforded him his preliminary education and later he entered the Canisteo Academy, from which he was graduated. In the fall of that year, 1898, he matriculated in the medical department of the University of Buffalo, from which in- stitution he was graduated in the spring of 1902. After spending one year as interne in the Erie County Hospital he came with high recommendations to begin upon his career. He initiated his prac- tice in 1903 and in the ensuing years has built up a large practice. He is a hard worker and a constant student of his profession, realizing to the fullest degree the importance of keeping in touch with the latest discoveries in this most important of sciences. On August 16, 1904, he married Miss Alice G. Valentine, a native of Hamilton, Canada, born in the month of April, 1878, and a daugh-
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ter of Charles and Alice (Arland) Valentine. Mrs. Stewart previous to her marriage was a trained nurse.
Dr. Stewart has numerous affiliations, of professional and other character. He is a member and president of the Hornell Medical Society ; also president of the Steuben County Society ; a member of the State Medical and Surgical Society; belongs to the American Medical Association; the New York and New England Railway Surgical Association and the Keuka Lake Medical Surgical Asso- ciation. He is a Mason, belonging to the chapter at Hornell, and is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America. He is examining physician for several life insurance companies and surgeon for the New York and Pennsylvania Railroad. He is Methodist in his religious views, and gives his sympathy and support to the men and measures of the "Grand Old Party." 1.
AARON F. WILLIAMS, the leading hardware merchant of Corn- ing, New York, is a son of one of the prominent and highly re- spected citizens of Steuben county-Holland B. Williams, who was born at Prattsburg, Steuben county, New York, April 12, 1834, and died at Corning, April 30, 1889. He began life as a clerk in a general store in his native town. Later he clerked at Bath, in Steuben county. Returning to Prattsburg, he was ap- pointed postmaster, and soon afterward bought a general store, which he conducted in connection with the office. In 1873, after being elected sheriff of Steuben county, he sold his mercantile business. Previous to this time and afterward he was more or less interested in produce business. In 1880, he purchased Mr. Goff's interest in the dry goods store of Goff & Robinson, and continued in that business until his death. In the meantime, in 1887, he built the Williams block on Market street, Corning. After his removal to Corning he was nominated for the state legislature but was defeated, he being a Democrat and the county largely Republi- can. In his religious faith he was a Presbyterian, and in this faith reared his family. March 19, 1874, he married F. Amanda Barber, who was born in Avon, Livingston county, New York, June 15, 1843, daughter of Aaron and Lois (Stevens) Barber. Aaron Barber was born in Onondaga county, New York, February 4, 1806, passed his life as a farmer and died June 4, 1869, at Avon. Lois (Stevens) Barber was born June 30, 1807, and died at Avon, September 17, 1903. Mrs. Williams has a brother, Aaron, and a sister, Mrs. Mary L. Jenks, both residents of Avon, New York. To Holland B. Williams and wife were born three children, namely : Frank Barber Williams, born April 13, 1875, died January 25, 1905; Aaron F., the subject of this sketch, and Lois, born June 18, 1879.
Aaron F. Williams dates his birth in the town of Bath, Steu- ben county, November 13, 1876. He was educated at Corning Academy and the University of Rochester, in the latter institu- tion spending two years. At the age of eighteen he began his
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
business career as an employe in his uncle's meat market at Corn- ing, where he remained about two years. Then he succeeded his brother in the firm of Frost & Williams, hardware dealers, and was associated in business with Mr. Frost until July 1, 1904, when he purchased Mr. Frost's interest, and has since continued alone.
Mr. Williams is an enterprising young man, progressive and up-to-date in whatever he undertakes, and the success he has achieved is due to his individual efforts, which have always been backed by integrity and high purpose. He is a lover of sports, especially of the turf, and has for years been identified with the prominent horsemen of the country, he himself owning many fine harness horses. Fraternally, he is a member of the Order of Elks, and, politically, like his father before him, he is Democratic.
HENRY DAVIDSON .- At this juncture attention is directed to a brief review of the career of the present efficient and popular super- intendent of the state fish hatchery at Bath, Steuben county. Mr. Davidson has shown marked ability in the handling of the affairs of this interesting business and under his administration distinc- tive progress has been made.
Henry Davidson was born at White Lake, Oneida county, New York, on the 30th of December, 1866, and is a son of John and Jane (Edgar) Davidson. John Davidson was born in Scot- land and was a boy at the time of his parents' emigration to America. He was a son of John and Elizabeth Davidson, who settled in the vicinity of the city of Albany, where John Davidson, Sr., engaged in farming and gardening for a time. He then re- moved to White Lake, Oneida county, where both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. John Davidson, Jr., father of him whose name initiates this review, was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and he continued to be actively identified with agricultural pursuits and the lumber business for many years. He passed the closing years of his life at White Lake, where he died in 1892, at the age of seventy-four years. He was a stanch Republican in his political allegiance and was called upon to serve in a number of local offices of public trust,-incum- bencies that well indicate the high esteem in which he was held in his home community. He was a zealous member of the Presby- terian church, as is also his widow, who is now a resident of White Lake, and who has attained to the venerable age of eighty-six years. Of the eight children the subject of this sketch is the youngest; John is a railway engineer by vocation and resides at Schenectady ; William is engaged in farming at White Lake, Oneida county; Samuel is a successful farmer of Lafayette town- ship, Onondaga county; David is a carpenter by trade and re- sides in the city of Syracuse; James is a farmer in White Lake township, Oneida county: Robert is a railway engineer and re- sides at Schenectady and George is a successful carpenter and builder at Oswego, this state.
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
Henry Davidson passed his boyhood days on the home farm and waxed strong in mental and physical powers, through the invigorating discipline involved. He continued to attend the public schools of his native county until he was sixteen years of age and thereafter was identified with agricultural pursuits until he attained to the age of twenty-one years. He then learned the carpenter's trade, to which he devoted his attention until January, 1895, when he established a private fish hatchery at Fulton Chain, Herkimer county, where he remained four years. For the en- suing three years he followed the same line of enterprise in Frank- lin county and then he was transferred to the state fish hatchery at Fulton Chain, where he remained four years. He then, in 1905, came to Bath, where he has since been superintendent of the well equipped fish hatchery here conducted under the auspices of the state. In politics Mr. Davidson gives his allegiance to the Repub- lican party and he has been an active worker in its local ranks, though the only public office of which he has been incumbent is that of notary public.
CHAUNCEY G. HUBBARD, M. D., who has a wide and valuable acquaintance throughout Steuben county, was born in Cameron, that county, October 16, 1845. Chauncey P. Hubbard, his father, was a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, born in 1803. He came to the county in 1828, settled in Woodhull and became success- ful and well known as a pioneer farmer and lumberman. He died at Fredonia, New York, in 1894. Nathan Hubbard, father of Chauncey P. Hubbard and grandfather of Chauncey G. Hub- bard, was born near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1775, became a merchant and lumberman, moved to Middlebury, Vermont, in 1803 and died there. He was a son of Zadoc Hubbard, who was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, in 1749, and Zadoc Hubbard was a son of Captain Daniel Hubbard, born in 1714, who died at Pitts- field, Massachusetts. Captain Hubbard had four sons in the patriot service. Dr. Hubbard is descended from ancestors who came over from England on the Mayflower. Among his forbears were William Brewster and Richard Warren.
Chauncey P. Hubbard married Mary Wells, a native of Lenox, Massachusetts, daughter of Stephen and Lois (Hubbard) Wells. Some of her ancestors fought for the cause of the Colonies in the Revolutionary war. She, too, was of English descent. She died in 1896, aged ninety-two years. She bore her husband nine children, seven of whom lived to manhood and womanhood and three of whom were living in 1910. Mrs. Emily Hubbard lives at Syracuse, New York. Alma Rose Hubbard lives at Fredonia, New York. Chauncey G., the immediate subject of this notice, was the seventh of his parents' children in order of nativ- ity. He spent his boyhood days in Cameron, and was educated in schools there and at Corning, Steuben county; at Alfred Uni- versity, Alfred, Allegany county, and at the New York Univer-
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sity Medical College. He was graduated from the last named institution in 1871, and after spending a year as a physician in the Blackwell's Island asylum for the insane he came in 1872 to Hornell, where he has practiced his profession ever since and is referred to often as the oldest active physician in the city in point of period of continuous service. He is a member of the Steuben County Medical Society.
In 1880 Doctor Hubbard married Miss Florence N. Prentice, of Jasper, Steuben county, New York, and they have two sons- Chauncey P., of Avon, Livingston county, New York; and Harold C., of Ithaca, New York. The Doctor is a member and an elder of the Presbyterian church. His brother, Rev. Albert Hubbard, was a missionary in Turkey and died there in 1889, after a residence there of twenty-six years. Theodore S. Hubbard, another of the Doctor's brothers, became prominent as a nurseryman and died in 1906. He was a liberal supporter of religious and temperance work and his gifts to charities amounted to one hundred thousand dollars.
DR. EDITH KIMBALL NEEL, of Hammondsport, has the dis- tinction of being the only woman member of the Steuben County Medical Society. Her undoubted ability as a physician and her usefulness to the community have made her an ornament to her profession and a credit to her sex. She is a native of the state of New York, her birth having occurred at Deansboro, Oneida county, February 22, 1861. Her father was Charles W. Kimball, who was born at Manlius, New York, February 24, 1824, and died February 25, 1907. He was a farmer by occupation and he chose as his wife, Jane Waterman, also of Oneida county, where she was born on Christmas day in the year 1825. Dr. Neel's grand- parents on the maternal side were Joseph and Polly (Ritter) Waterman and on the paternal side they were Nathaniel and Emma (King) Kimball. She is of fine American stock which in- cludes good citizens, soldiers and patriots. Of the children of Charles W. and Jane ( Waterman) Kimball we are enabled to write as follows: Frances L. is at the old Kimball home; Mary Ella is the wife of Robert Hare, a farmer, residing at Perry, New York. Alice J. became the wife of T. Hare and is deceased; Charles N. an architect lives at Attica, New York; Dr. Neel is next in order of nativity; William and Willis, twins, reside at Linden, New York, where both are engaged in agricultural pur- suits ; Edwin J., the youngest member of this large family has not been heard from for fifteen years. His last residence was Stockton, California.
Edith Kimball spent his girlhood amid the scenes upon which her eyes first opened to the light of day, and attended the public schools until her fourteenth year. She then attended the select school of Emily Thrall, Batavia, New York, for about a year, Middlebury Academy for two years, and then began upon a career
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