USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. II > Part 21
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In the year 1883 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Harri- son to Miss Carrie E. Griswold, a daughter of Linus Griswold, a representative citizen of Addison. They have two children: How- ard G., born in 1884, was graduated in Cornell University as a member of the class of 1907, with the degree of Civil Engineer ; and Celestia G., born in 1889, remains at the parental home. The Harrison family is one of prominence in Addison and their spa- cious and attractive home is a recognized center of gracious hos- pitality and refinement.
GEORGE S. GOFF, M. D., manager of the Crystal City Gas Company, Corning, New York, has been a resident of Corning since 1894 and has lived in Steuben county all his life. He was born at Cameron Mills, this county, December 7, 1853, son of Finla Goff. He received his early education in the schools of his native town, and upon reaching manhood decided to prepare himself for the practice of medicine. Accordingly, in the fall of 1875, he en- tered the medical department of the University of New York and graduated there in the spring of 1877. Immediately after his graduation he opened an office in Tollsville, New York, where, how- ever, he remained only a few months. Returning to Cameron Mills he established himself in practice among the people who had known him from childhood, and there for a period of seventeen years he successfully conducted the practice of medicine. In 1894 Doctor Goff moved to Corning. Here he continued his practice for a time, but of recent years has abandoned it. From time to time he has made profitable investments. He was the promoter of
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the Crystal City Gas Company, in which he is a heavy stockholder, and for the past five years has been general manager of the com- pany.
Dr. Goff has been twice married. His first wife, Lucinda (Northrop) Goff, was born March 12, 1852, and died December 7, 1890. By her he had three children: Mrs. Josephine Almy, a resident of Oklahoma; Raymond F. Goff, of Oklahoma City, Okla- homa; and George Victor Goff, of Olean, New York. For his sec- ond wife, on October 25, 1891, he married Miss Claribel Alexander, who was born March 7, 1875. The only child of this union is M. Winifred, who lives at home.
Dr. Goff has membership in the Steuben County and the New York State Medical Associations, and also is a member of the City Club of Corning. Politically he is a Republican. He served eight years as health officer and nine years as coroner. He and his fam- ily are worthy members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
S. GILMORE HAIGHT .- A native son of Steuben county who has attained success and prestige as one of its representative business men is Samuel Gilmore Haight, who is engaged in the drug busi- ness at Hammondsport, where he is also operator for the Western Union Telegraph Company and incumbent of the office of township clerk. He was born in Urbana township, this county, on the 27th of January, 1873, and is a son of Samuel Charles and Mary E. (Gil- more) Haight, the former of whom was born in Dutchess county, New York, and the latter in Urbana township, Steuben county, be- ing a daughter of Richard and Martha ( Osborn) Gilmore. Samuel C. Haight became one of the representative farmers of Urbana town- ship, where he continued to reside until 1885, when he removed to the village of Hammondsport, where he lived retired until his death, which occurred on the 25th of April, 1909, at which time he was seventy years of age. He was a lad of fourteen years at the time of his parents' removal from Dutchess county to Steuben county and he was a son of David W. and Sarah (Tompkins) Haight. His father became a prosperous farmer in Urbana township and there continued to reside until his death, as did also his wife. Mrs. Mary E. (Gilmore) Haight now resides in Hammondsport in the home of her son, S. Gilmore, the subject of this review, and she has attained to the venerable age of seventy-four years. Samuel C. Haight served two years as a loyal soldier of the Union during the Civil war and while in service he was struck by lightning, though the injury did not prove fatal. He was commissioned cap- tain of his company but the result of his injuries from the stroke of lightning compelled him to resign his commission. He was a member of Company E, First New York Artillery. He was a Re- publican. His daughter, Nancy E., is the wife of M. A. Hoyt, of Hammondsport, and her sister, Mary, is the wife of Rev. John Hickok, who is a clergyman of the Methodist church; he now has pastoral charge of the church at Ashville, Chautauqua county.
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S. Gilmore Haight gained his early educational training in the public schools of Steuben county and as a youth he learned the art of telegraphy. When eighteen years of age he became identi- fied with railroad interests at telegraph operator at Rheims, Steu- ben county, where he also served as station agent for two years. He then came to Hammondsport as telegraph operator and station agent and here he served in this dual capacity for four years, at the expiration of which he entered the service of the Great Northern railway, near Spokane, Washington. He remained in the west one year and he then returned to Steuben county, where he had charge of his father's farm for the succeeding year. Since that time he has been engaged in the drug business in Hammondsport with his brother-in-law, Maurice A. Hoyt, and who controlled a substantial and representative enterprise in this line. Mr. Haight is also serving as operator for the Western Union Telegraph Company at Hammondsport and he has been incumbent of the office of clerk of Hammondsport township, having been elected on the ticket of the Democratic party, of whose principles and policies he is a stanch advocate. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Improved Order of Redmen. He takes a lively interest in all that touches the welfare of his home city and county and is essen- tially progressive and public-spirited.
In the year 1902 Mr. Haight was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Relyea, who was born and reared in Steuben county and who is a daughter of Frank Relyea, who is now engineer of the city water works of Elmira, New York. Mrs. Haight as graduated in the high school at Prattsburg, later attended Franklin Acad- emy and finally was graduated in the state normal school at Gene- seo. Prior to her marriage she was a successful and popular teacher in the public schools for several terms. Mr. and Mrs. Haight have no children.
HERBERT A. HEMINWAY .- One of the best known and most successful attorneys that ever graced the Steuben county bar is Herbert A. Heminway, of Corning, who has the rare logical faculty of applying the standard principles of law with wonderful power to the cases he may have in hand, never being led astray from the point at issue. A son of the late Allen Heminway, he was born August 25, 1875, in Nunda, Livingston county, New York, being the third child in a family of four children that grew to years of maturity.
Allen Heminway was born and brought up in New York state and during his active career was variously employed. He lived in different places, spending his last years in Pownal, Vermont, where he passed away at the age of seventy-two years. He married Caro- line D. Underwood, who was born three score and ten years ago, and is now living in Pownal, Vermont.
Spending the days of his boyhood in Bennington county, Ver- mont, Herbert A. Heminway was graduated from the Bennington
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High School in 1895, and subsequently attended the Boys' High School in New York city. Entering then Cornell University he was graduated from the law department with the class of 1900, and the same year located in Corning. As a general practitioner he has been exceedingly fortunate, his breadth of wisdom and fertility of resource winning him a noteworthy position among the lawyers of prominence and eminence. He is now attorney for the towns of Erwin and Hornby, and as a leading member of the Re- publican party he takes an active interest in public affairs. Fra- ternally Mr. Heminway is a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to the lodge, chapter, council and consistory; is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and belongs to Corning Lodge, No. 1071, B. P. O. E.
Mr. Heminway married, June 25, 1902, Ella May Daley, a daughter of John P. and Jane Daley, of Bennington, Vermont, and of their union two children have been born, Caroline Ella and Marion Louise.
DR. PHILO L. ALDEN was born in the town of Howard, Steu- ben county, New York, August 27, 1856. His father, George V. Alden, was born May 17, 1824, and died in 1887, aged sixty-three years. He was a native of Yates county and came to Howard with his father in 1830. He became a millwright, a lumberman and a civil engineer and did much work as a draftsman. He died in Howard, after a life of activity and usefulness. He took little practical interest in politics, but was well known as a Mason. He married Ann C. Chapman in 1847. She was born in Moskow, New York, in 1825, a daughter of James and Lavinia (Utter) Chap- man. Dr. Alden had the following brothers and sisters: Josie died at the age of two; George died at the age of fifty years; Frank died at the age of sixty years; Henry D. died in infancy ; Charles is a machinist at Warren, Ohio; Emma is the wife of Charles Hubbell, of Union City, Pennsylvania; Omar resides at Warren, Ohio. The subject's grandfather on the paternal side was Barney Alden, a cabinetmaker, carpenter and builder, who with his brother erected the two churches in Howard. He died August 2, 1871. His wife, who was Nancy Devoe, was born September 11, 1800, and died November 9, 1876. Manoah Alden, father of Bar- ney Alden and great-grandfather of Dr. Alden, settled in Steuben county in 1776 and made a success as a pioneer undertaker and cabinetmaker. His wife lived to be one hundred and three years old. Dr. Alden of this review has a history of John and Priscilla Alden family of the Pilgrims down to 1865, and which includes his grandparents, thus making the Doctor a direct descendant of this historic family.
Dr. Alden completed the course of the public school, was then graduated from the high school and later attended Alfred University at Alfred, Allegany county, New York. Froni 1878 to 1883 he was a salesman at Buffalo, New York. Then, at Pulteney,
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he began the study of medicine, and in 1887 was graduated from the medical department of the University of Buffalo. He began his professional work in Wayne, remaining there until 1889, when he located at Hammondsport, where he has won high rank both as physician and surgeon. He spent the season of 1905 abroad to better prepare himself for his practice and in England he visited many Alden families, notably in Oxford, the home of the Aldens. He is a member of the Lake Keuka Medical Association and has been for twenty years a member of the Steuben County Medical Association. He is a member of the New York State Sanitary Officers' Association, also president of the Hammondsport Busi- ness Men's Association, Incorporated, and was appointed by President Cleveland president of the pension board and filled the office six years.
Dr. Alden finds time from the exacting demands of his pro- fession to keep in touch with the progress of the times. As a Democrat he has been active in party work and has been called to several offices, notably to that of health officer of the town and corporation, which he held ten years. He is a member of the Corning lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
In 1885 he married Miss Mary Emma Nichol of Pulteney, born November 20, 1865, a daughter of Dr. Lyman and Harriet (Thompson) Nichol, who are living at Pulteney, aged respectively seventy-five and seventy-four years. Dr. and Mrs. Alden have had two children: George Lyman, born in 1887, a trained nurse and a graduate of Portsmouth; and Edna May, born in 1891, who died in infancy.
There is nothing of public import at Hammondsport and in the surrounding country in which Dr. Alden is not helpfully in- terested. His profession has made him more observant than the ordinary citizen in many things affecting the public health and the physical well-being of residents in particular localities, and he is, in truth, a model health officer. His public spirit is such that he seldom turns a deaf ear to any proposition looking to the general good. In all that affects Hammondsport and its people he has keen interest and there is no local movement which in his judgment promises to benefit any considerable number of his fellow citizens that does not have his cordial advocacy and his generous support.
WILLARD S. REED .- A man of scholarly attainments, posses- sing good business tact and judgment, Willard S. Reed is well qualified for the responsible position he now holds as cashier of the First National Bank of Corning. A native of Steuben county, he was born May 1, 1871, at Hammondsport, of English ancestors. His father, Walter Reed, was born and bred in Honesdale, Penn- sylvania, from there coming as a young man to Steuben county. Locating at Hammondsport, he embarked in the grape-growing business, in which, notwithstanding his burden of eighty-two years, he is still successfully engaged. He married Catherine Smith, who was born eighty-two years ago in Tompkins county, New York, a
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daughter of William Smith, whose father was one of the original settlers of Tompkins county. Of the children born of their union five survive, namely : Lawrence F .; George W .; Elizabeth, wife of Theo. Bennett; Mary, wife of Asa Robbins; and Willard S.
After receiving his diploma at the Haverling Free Academy in Bath with the class of 1892, Willard S. Reed studied law in the office of Charles F. Kingsley, of Bath, and in 1896 was admitted to the bar. Coming directly to Corning Mr. Rced was here engaged in the practice of his profession for eleven years. Accepting the position of cashier in the First National Bank of Corning in 1907 he has since retained it. This bank is one of the substantial in- stitutions of Steuben county. On November 10, 1910, its liabilities included a paid-up capital of $100,000; a surplus fund of $50,000; undivided profits, less expenses and taxes paid, of $27,956.31; with individual deposits subject to check, demand certificates of deposit, certified checks, cashier's checks outstanding and United States de- posits, amounting to $868,225.93. Its resources at the same time, including loans and discounts, overdrafts, bonds and premiums, house, furniture and fixings, stocks, money due, checks, notes, money on hand, bank reserve fund, specie, legal tender notes and redemption fund, amounting to $1,146,140.25. The bank officers are men of recognized financial ability and integrity, James A. Drake being president; George B. Bradley, vice-president ; Willard S. Reed, cashier; and Charles M. Hyde, assistant cashier, while the directors are James A. Drake, George B. Bradley, Willard S. Reed, John L. Lewis, C. Glen Cole, Eran F. Williams and Charles M. Hyde.
In his political affiliations Mr. Reed is a Democrat, and in 1897 and 1898 was city attorney, while in 1900 and 1901 he served as city judge. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolu- tion, and belongs to Lodge No. 1071, B. P. O. E.
Mr. Reed married, July 24, 1893, Estelle Brush, a daughter of James and Malvina Brush, and into their home two children have been born, Walter and Charlotte.
LEE VERNE ROSENKRANS, justice of the peace and dealer in real estate, Wayland, Steuben county, New York, was born on the old Rosenkrans homestead, September 22, 1871, a son of Hamilton S. and Helen M. (Davis) Rosenkrans. His father died December 14, 1897, leaving a widow, three sons and two daughters as follows: Maynard H., of Wayland, is a painter; Merton J. is in the employ of the Standard Oil Company at Kansas City; Lee Verne of this sketch ; Jennie J. married Bert Goodno, a farmer living in Roch- ester, New York; Hattie J. is the wife of Hugh Mckay, of Drury's Bluff, Virginia.
Lee Verne Rosenkrans left the public school at eighteen and took a commercial course under the preceptorship of Professor Pangborn of Wayland. To the education thus acquired he has added very extensively by a system of self study, and it was broad-
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ened by his study of the law. The latter he carried on while he was managing the manufactory of cider vinegar established by his father and laying the foundation for his present fine business in real estate.
Throughout Steuben and adjoining counties Mr. Rosenkrans is known as a devoted and active and influential member of the Democratic party. For a decade he has been prominent in the public business of the town of Wayland. When he had but just attained his majority he was honored by his fellow citizens with the responsible post of inspector of elections, and at twenty-eight he was elected justice of the peace, which office he has held by suc- cessive reelections to the present time. He was a delegate to a state senatorial convention and at numerous important conventions has been placed on committees where the finest ability was demanded and in the work of which he acquitted himself with the greatest credit. It is to such men of the younger class as is Mr. Rosen- krans that Steuben county looks for the carrying forward of the traditions of its glorious past, and nobly are they rising to the re- sponsibility. There is not in Wayland a man of better developed public spirit than that always exhibited by Mr. Rosenkrans in all his dealings with his fellow citizens. Indeed, it is not to be be- lieved that he would refuse his generous support to any measure which in his opinion promised to benefit the general public.
A. D. STEVENS, a stockholder in and superintendent of the Painted Post Lumber Company, was born in Avon, Livingston county, New York, January 19, 1864, a son of Edwin and Juliette (Deming) Stevens. His father, born in Orleans county, New York, devoted his active life to farming and now lives in retire- ment at Painted Post, aged about seventy-four years. His mother, who first saw the light of day in Livingston county, New York, lived about forty-five years, all of the time at Avon, the place of her birth. She bore her husband children named as follows: A. D., the immediate subject of this notice, and John D., who is a resi- dent of Chicago, Illinois. The former spent his boyhood days in Livingston county and was educated in the Union school at Avon. He began his business career in the lumber trade in his native town, where for about three years he was employed by the firm of Watkins & Bennett. From Avon he came to Painted Post in 1886 as foreman for the lumber firm of Stanton, Crandall & Company. After the dissolution of that concern he was for about two years in Mr. Stanton's employ, and when the firm of Stanton & Brewster was organized he passed into its service, remaining with it till he became one of the organizers and superintendent of the Painted Post Lumber Company, with the management of which he has been efficiently prominent to the present time. This concern, employing in its yards and planing mill about twenty-five men, is one of the leading business institutions of the town.
Not alone in connection with the Painted Post Lumber Com- pany is Mr. Stevens active in the community. With W. A. Clark Vol. 11-12
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he is concerned in real estate transactions of considerable im- portance, they having platted and offered for sale to home builders a two and one-half acre tract on the street car line near the center of the village. For many years he has taken an active interest in the affairs of Painted Post. He was village trustee four years and then was elected a member of the village board. In 1909 and again in 1910 he was elected to the presidency of the body just men- tioned. Throughout the county he is known as a prominent Odd Fellow, having been noble grand of his lodge at Painted Post, district deputy of District No. 1, and a member of the Encamp- ment and of the Rebekahs. As a Mason he is no less well known, having passed from the Blue Lodge into the Royal Arch and Chap- ter degrees. His connection with Masonry began about eighteen years ago. He was the first noble grand in the local history of Odd Fellowship, and was a member of the building committee that had supervision of the erection of the Painted Post Odd Fellows' temple. His identification with the village hook and ladder com- pany has been long. In fact, there is no important local interest of a public character to which he has not been helpful to the extent of his ability. In political alliance he is Republican, doing all that he can to advance the interests of his party in village, county, state and nation. In 1894 Mr. Stevens married Miss Lydia Fan- cher, daughter of Delos Fancher, of Corning, New York.
FRANK H. LAWRENCE, M. D., a well known and successful physician of Kanona, New York, is a native of Steuben county, born at Arkport, April 14, 1857, a son of Hiram and Jane ( Hill) Lawrence, natives respectively of Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Hiram Lawrence was a farmer and upon coming to Steuben county opened the second grocery store in Hornell, but afterward engaged in farming near Arkport. He was active in political affairs and was a strong .Democrat. Besides Frank H. he and his wife had another son, who is a farmer and lives near Arkport. Mrs. Law- rence was a daughter of Joseph Hill. Hiram Lawrence died in 1866, at the age of fifty-two years.
After completing the course in the public schools of his locali- ty Frank H. Lawrence attended Rogersville Seminary two years and afterward entered a medical college of Cincinnati, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1880, with the degree of M. D. He immedi- ately took up his residence at Kanona for the practice of his pro- fession and has built up a large and gratifying practice. He is recognized as a physician of considerable skill and readily wins the confidence and esteem of his patients. He served seven years as a member of the medical pension board of the county, and is active in the medical societies of both county and state, having belonged to both several years. In politics he is a Democrat and interested in every movement for the progress or well-being of the community. He served four years efficiently as postmaster of Kanona, assuming office in 1882. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic lodge at Bath and of the Elks Lodge at Hornell.
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Dr. Lawrence married, in 1874, Lulu Dagert, daughter of Horace and Nancy Dagert, of Avoca, who died in 1891, at the age of thirty-two years, leaving one child, Robert, who lives at home. Dr. Lawrence married for his second wife Jennie Bonney, daugh- ter of John Bonney, a carpenter living at Prattsburg. No chil- dren have been born of this union.
EDWIN CLARKE ENGLISH .- The name of English is well and honorably known in Steuben county, and Edwin Clarke English, one of Corning's leading attorneys, is a native and a life-long iesi- dent of this progressive portion of the Empire state. He was born October 27, 1837, at Caton, and is the son of Amzi and Sally (Gorton) English. On his mother's side he comes of a family whose identification with the affairs of the American nation was very soon after the landing of the historic Mayflower. The founder of the family on the shores of the new world was Samuel Gorton, who was born in 1592 at Gorton, within the limits of the city of Manchester, England, and landed at Boston in the month of March, 1637. He was a man prominent in the affairs of the budding New England and one of the early founders of the colonies of Providence and Rhode Island.
Edwin Clarke English, the son of a farmer and Methodist Episcopal minister, passed his youth in Steuben county and re- ceived his preliminary education in the public schools, later ma- triculating in Alfred Academy. He devoted the gifts of an eager intellect principally to the English branches and when his school days were over devoted himself to agriculture, which for a time he thought of adopting as a life work, but abandoned owing to his health being impaired in the army. In the year 1874 he made a radical step by removing from his native town of Caton to what was then the village of Corning, and it has been his pleasure to witness the steady growth and improvement of said village into one of the state's most prosperous centers, at the same time assist- ing in full measure towards this result. A long cherished desire to become a lawyer had meantime reached fruition, his training for the profession having been acquired in the law office of Spencer & Mills, where he read law for three years. He was admitted to the bar in 1877 and to full practice in 1879, and ever since that date has practiced law here, being recognized widely as conserva- tive, reliable and well-read, and, in short, one of the able repre- sentatives of a high calling.
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