USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. II > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Mrs. Kemp, formerly Miss Amanda H. Chandler, was born at Bradford, Pennsylvania, in 1854, daughter of Nathaniel and Cath- erine Chandler. While Mr. and Mrs. Kemp have no children of their own they have an adopted daughter, Nora (Kemp) Wetmore, she being a daughter of Mrs. Kemp's sister, Emma (Chandler) Weles, who died when Mrs. Wetmore was an infant. This daughter was born May 10, 1883, and in 1900 became the wife of Irving Wetmore, of Wellsborough, then an employe of the New York Cen- tral Railroad Company and now associated with Mr. Kemp in the shoe business. Mr. and Mrs. Wetmore have two children: Victor Milner Wetmore, born in August, 1901, and Ellen, February 2, 1903.
Since he became a resident of this country Mr. Kemp has fre- quently visited his parents and brothers and sisters in the old home, having made fifteen different trips to England for that purpose. He belongs to the Sons of St. George, an English organization, of which he is grand trustee for the New York state organization. Also he is an Odd Fellow and a Mason, having reached the thirty-second degree in Masonry, and maintaining membership in the Corning Council and Chapter and in the Mystic Shrine of Elmira. In his political views he is what may be termed an Independent ; religiously he is a Baptist.
HENRY F. CAMFIELD has borne to the full the "heat and burden of the day" and has marked the passing years with worthy and defi- nite accomplishment. Mr. Camfield is now running a paper route and sells all the popular daily papers. He is well known in Steuben county and here has a strong hold upon the confidence and good will of the community. A considerable part of his life has been passed in this county, with whose annals the name has been identified for more than half a century.
Henry F. Camfield was born in Urbana township, this county, on the 1st of January, 1853, and thus became a right welcome New Year's guest in the home of his parents, Eben and Mary Ann (Mills) Camfield. His father was born in Vermont, where he was reared and educated, and he was a scion of a family that was founded in New England in the colonial days. In 1848 he came to Steuben county and located in the village of Bristol, where he was engaged in the work of his trade, that of cooper, for the ensuing two years. Thereafter he was engaged in farming near Mount Washington for one year, at the expiration of which he located on a farm in Poul- teney township. After his marriage he continued to be identified with farm work and other lines of manual labor and eventually he took up his residence in Howard. At the inception of the Civil
760
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
war he tendered his services in defense of the Union, having enlisted as a member of an Ohio regiment, and he sacrificed his life in the cause, as he was killed in the battle of Fair Oaks. His wife was born in Seneca county, New York, and she long survived him, as she was summoned to the life eternal in 1897, at the venerable age of eighty-two years. She was a daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Bulmer) Mills, of Vermont. Eben and Mary Ann (Mills) Cam- field became the parents of five children, of whom three are de- ceased, and of the two surviving the subject of this review is the elder ; his brother, Charles B., is a resident of Bath, New York.
Henry F. Camfield was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and his boyhood and youth were passed in Howard, Urbana township, Steuben county, on the homestead of his maternal grand- father, who was seventy-four years of age at the time of his death. He was afforded the advantages of the district schools, but early began to depend upon his own resources, so that his education was limited in scope, though he has well overcome the handicap through the lessons gained in the school of experience. After the death of his grandfather he was engaged in farming and railroad work for three years, and in 1873, when twenty years of age, he went to Hillsdale, Michigan, in which state he was variously employed during the ensuing thirteen years, at the expiration of which he secured a position with the Hillsdale Gas Company, with which he continued to be connected for eleven years. In 1897 Mr. Camfield returned to Steuben county and engaged in market garden- ing in Wayland township. Later he was employed for three years in the factory of the Gunlocke Furniture & Cbair Company, in the village of Wayland, and thereafter he was employed as a mail car- rier from the postoffice to the D. L. & W. R. R. Since 1900 he has been engaged in the newspaper business. He was reared in the faith of .the Baptist church, is a member of the Wayland tent of the Maccabees of America, and in politics he maintains an independent attitude.
In the year 1885 Mr. Camfield was united in marriage to Miss Mary Jane Evans, who was born and reared at Grass Lake, Jack- son county, Michigan, and who was a daughter of Frank Evans, a respected citizen of that county. Mrs. Camfield was summoned to the life eternal in 1890, at the age of thirty years, and the only child, Junius, died at the age of three and one-half years.
J. M. GREIG .- Prominent among the foremost merchants of Steuben county is J. M. Greig, who is widely and favorably known as president, treasurer and general manager of the J. M. Greig Com- pany of Corning. A man of keen foresight and of sterling integrity, he is a most successful business man, his prosperity being entirely due to his persevering industry, his quick perception of character and to his native good sense and his sound business tact and judg- ment. Coming from a long line of thrifty Scotch ancestry he was born on the 20th of September, 1853, in bonnie Scotland, and was
761
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
there reared and educated, completing his early studies at a busi- ness college.
With a keen desire to try the hazard of new fortunes he emi- grated to America in 1885, and for three and one-half years was in the employ of the Adam Medrum & Anderson Company of Buffalo, New York. Having become familiar with the business methods of this country while there, he then opened a mercantile establishment in Le Roy, Genesee county, New York, where he remained four years. Locating in Corning in 1891, Mr. Greig stocked a small building, twenty-one feet by seventy feet, with dry goods, and as a merchant established such a good trade that he was forced from time to time to seek more commodious quarters, in the course of the next fifteen years occupying three different buildings. In 1906 his business was incorporated under its present name, the J. M. Greig Company, of which he is the official head, being the president, treas- urer and general manager. The building occupied by the company covers twenty-four thousand square feet, is five stories in height, in- cluding the basement, and is well filled with a complete and choice assortment of general merchandise, being the largest and best- equipped department store between Buffalo and Binghamton.
Mr. Greig, June 13, 1889, married Antoinette Mitchell, a daugh- ter of Dr. John Mitchell, of Addison, New York, and into their pleas- ant household two children have been born, Beatrice and Gertrude. Fraternally Mr. Greig is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of Corning Lodge, No. 1071, B. P. O. E., and of the Knights of Pythias.
ADSIT BAILEY, farmer, grape grower and banker, is well known and highly respected throughout the greater part of Steuben county. He is a native son of old Steuben, born at his present home January 8, 1842, a son of David Bailey, of Baileytown, on Geneva Lake, who died in 1872, aged sixty-seven years. David Bailey came to Urbana when he was three years old and the family settled on the present Adsit Bailey farm. That was in 1808. His father, whose name also was David, brought his family and their belongings across Seneca Lake by means of a raft. A part of its cargo was two horses and eight sheep. The undertaking must have presented difficulties, but it was successful, and that is the test of the sanity of all ven- tures. Mr. Bailey cleared the land of its timber and improved it till it was one of the best farms in his part of the county. David grew up on the farm, gained an education such as was available to him and married Subrina Stone, a daughter of Captain Amos Stone, one of the early pioneers in the town of Urbana. Adsit Bailey has two sisters living : Elzina is the widow of James Ordway of Hornell ; Edna is the widow of Douglas Lockwood of Virginia. The father of these children was an Episcopalian. He was a man of character and of action, who thought things and did things, and his children are brainy and intelligent and efficient.
Adsit Bailey, after he left school in 1861, took up farming and grape growing on the home farm with his father and mother, and
762
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
has continued the business successfully since the property came to him. He is a stockholder and director of the Hammondsport Bank, being at this time vice-president of the board. He is well known as as active and influential Republican, having attended state conven- tions of his party as a delegate. He was assessor for the town of Urbana in 1876-81 and supervisor, 1881-85, and has since filled the office of highway commissioner.
In 1872 Mr. Bailey married Miss Edna E. Depew, who was born in 1840, a daughter of Peter and Eleanor (Brundage) Depew. Mr. Depew was an early settler in the town of Urbana. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey have no children, but have adopted two-Fanny Depew, Mrs. Bailey's niece, who lived with them from the time she was five years old till she married C. L. Drew, a farmer; and Geneva, now the wife of Daniel Gillette, a farmer in Urbana.
EDMUND G. STEVENS .- A native born citizen and a life-long resident of Steuben county, Edmund G. Stevens has spent three score and ten years of his life in Hornell, for upwards of half a century having been associated with the management of one of its leading industrial plants. By means of industry, thrift and the exercise of good judgment he has accumulated a goodly share of this world's goods, and is now living retired from business activities, en- joying the fruits of his many years of toil, at his pleasant home at 94 Maple street. Coming from English stock, he was born March 29, 1836, in Bath, New York. His father, John Stevens, a native of England, emigrated to this country when young, locating first at Bath, Steuben county, New York, where he lived several years. Com- ing to Hornell in 1840, he followed his trade of a tailor for a long time, afterward living retired until his death, at the venerable age of ninety-two years. He was a man of good education, an especially good student in history, and while in England was a landholder. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Gill, was born in England and died in Steuben county when but sixty-three years old. Of the four children born of their union but two are living, Anna, the oldest child, born eighty-three years ago, and Edmund G., the youngest child.
Scarce four years of age when he came with his parents to IIornell, Edmund G. Stevens obtained his early education in the public schools, after which he served an apprenticeship of four years at the carpenter's trade. On April 1, 1855, he entered what was then the Morris Smith Planing Mill, but which has since been merged into the McConnell Manufacturing Plant, and was there- after connected with that organization until 1909. For many years he was foreman of the yard, from 1902 until his resignation, how- ever, being superintendent of its coal office. Resigning the position January 1. 1909, he was succeeded by his son, E. J. Stevens.
Mr. Stevens married first, July 3, 1857, Clara Palmer. She died in early womanhood, leaving six children, namely: E. J., born March 11, 1858; Fannie, born October 3, 1861, is the wife of D. F.
Echmand & Stevens
765
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
Potter; Anna, born April 10. 1863, married June Oaks; Fred, born October 5, 1866, is foreman in the McConnell Manufacturing Plant; Alvah, born November 23, 1870 ; and Flora, born November 26, 1873, is the wife of J. O. Reynolds. Mr. Stevens married for his second wife, January 15, 1882, Alice C. Hemingway, who died October 12, 1895. On November 24, 1896, Mr. Stevens married his present wife, Mary G. Hart, of Ithaca, New York.
WALTER E. HODGMAN .- Among the successful business men that Steuben county has contributed to New York city is numbered Mr. Hodgman, who is incumbent of the office of purchasing agent for the Otis Elevator Company, with headquarters at 559 West Twenty- sixth street. He was born at Bath, Steuben county, on the 21st of May, 1858, and is a son of Lansing D. and Abby C. Hodgman, the former of whom was born at Stillwater, Saratoga county, this state, and the latter at Cohocton, in Steuben county. The father became a resident of Steuben county when a young man and was long and prominently identified with business interests at Bath. In the public schools of his native town Walter E. Hodgman secured his early educational training, and for several years he was engaged in the hardware business at Bath, where he continued to maintain his home until 1890, when he disposed of his interests there and re- moved to New York city, where he entered the employ of the Otis Elevator Company, one of the most important concerns in this line of enterprise in the entire country. In 1894 he became purchasing agent for the company, and he has since continued incumbent of this important office, the manifold details of whose duties he has dis- charged with marked discrimination and executive ability. He is also one of the principal stockholders of the Multiple Woven Hose & Rubber Company, of Worcester, Massachusetts, and is president of this corporation, which controls a successful industrial enterprise. He is aligned as a supporter of the cause of the Republican party, is essentially progressive and public-spirited in his civic attitude and he is actively identified with the Steuben County Society of New York city.
In 1897 Mr. Hodgman was united in marriage to Miss Ruth Kellogg of Orange, New Jersey, and they have one son, Whitney C. The family home is located at Yonkers, Westchester county, New York.
JOHN B. MCBURNEY. who owns and occupies the old McBurney homestead at Corning, New York, is a representative of a family whose identity with this place dates back over a hundred years. Great-grandfather Thomas McBurney, the progenitor of the family in this country, was a Scotch-Irishman. On coming to America he settled in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, where in 1796 his son John, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born. A few years later they removed to New York and took up their resi- dence in Steuben county, on a tract of land adjoining the town of
766
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
Corning. And here, more than a century ago, was built the two- story, frame farmhouse, with its sixteen rooms and half a dozen fireplaces, which has been kept in a good state of preservation and which stands to-day as a landmark. Here in 1820 was born James McBurney, the father of John B. He was a farmer nearly all his life. When a young man he went west to Illinois, where he married Miss Lucy Bryant, who was born in 1823, in Gilbertsville, Otsego county, New York. When their son John B. was seven years old they returned to New York and took up their residence at the old homestead; and here he grew to manhood and has since made his home. The farmi comprises two hundred and ninety-six acres and is utilized as a dairy farm, the dairy averaging about twenty-five cows, and the milk all being sold to regular customers in the city.
John B. McBurney married Miss Rose Bryan, who was born in Canajoharie, New York, in 1868, and who is a cousin of the celebrated William Jennings Bryan. Mrs. McBurney has a brother, James S. Bryan, who for twelve years was employed as cashier by the Philadelphia Times, one of the oldest papers published in the state of Pennsylvania. While Mr. and Mrs. McBurney have never had any children to enliven the house, they are jovial, hos- pitable people, and their spacious old home, with its broad hearths and bright fires, is the scene of many festivities.
James McBurney, a brother of John B. McBurney, was born in 1857. For twenty-two years he has been engaged in the manufacture of cigars as a wholesaler, employing eight people in his establish- ment at Corning, which he himself represents on the road, traveling and selling his own goods. He married in 1878 Miss Mary A. Gor- ton, who was born in Corning in 1856, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Decatur Gorton, who passed their lives on a farm near Corning. Her father, born in 1814, died in 1885; her mother, born in 1820, died in 1862. To James McBurney and wife were born four children: Grace, born in 1878, in 1899 married Howard Ryal, and resides in Corning ; Thomas Bryant, born in 1879, died in 1884; Raymond Earl, born in 1891; and Marion Lucille, born in 1893.
Politically the McBurneys affiliate with the Democratic party. Their religious creed is that of the Presbyterian church, with which they are identified.
DAVID J. ROFF .- Residing in the old homestead place in which he was born, Mr. Roff is one of the successful grape growers of Steuben county and one of the valued and popular citizens of Pul- teney township, where he gives his attention to the fine vineyard of twenty-five acres that was established by his honored father many years ago.
David Roff was born in Pulteney township on the 15th of May, 1850, and is a son of Elisha and Mary (Moore) Roff, the former of whom was born in the state of New Jersey and the latter in Yates county, New York. Upon coming to Steuben county, more than half a century ago, Elisha Roff located in Pulteney township, at the foot
767
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
of Keuka Lake, where he secured a tract of land and established his home. The place became familiarly known as Roff's Landing, as it is on the shore of the lake. He reclaimed his land to cultivation and made upon the same excellent improvements of a permanent order. He finally started a vineyard and eventually he became one of the successful grape growers and shippers of this county, whose reputation in connection with this interesting line of industry is of the highest order. Upon his homestead he continued.to reside, one of the sterling citizens of the county, until his death, which occurred in 1898. His wife was summoned to the life eternal in 1878 and both were zealous members of the Presbyterian church. Of their nine children four sons and two daughters are living.
He whose name initiates this review has well upheld the prestige of the name that he bears and is a successful representative of the industry of grape culture in his native county. He was afforded the advantages of the public schools and early became familiar with the various duties of the home farm and vineyard, so that he was well equipped for the carrying forward of these lines of enterprise on his own responsibility. After the death of his father he pur- chased the vineyard of twenty-five acres, and the same is one of the best in Pulteney township, its location being specially eligible and great care being taken in keeping the property up to the highest standard of productivity. He has shown a lively interest in all that has touched the civic and material welfare of his home township and county and in politics he is found aligned as a stanch supporter of the principles of the Democratic party. Though he has never been ambitious for official preferment he served for three terms as assessor of his township, showing much of care and discrimination in the discharge of the duties of this position. Both he and his family hold membership in the Presbyterian church in the village of Pulteney.
In the year 1882 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Roff to Miss Alice A. Stryker, who was born and reared in Prattsburg township, this county, and who is a daughter of the late William Stryker, an honored citizen of the county. The pleasant home of Mr. and Mrs. Roff is notable for its generous and gracious hospitality, and it is pleasing to record that they have given to their children the best of educational advantages. Otto, the eldest of the three children, was graduated in Penn Yan Academy and in the Bliss Electrical School, of Washington, D. C., and he is now holding a responsible position as an electrical engineer in the city of Schenec- tady, New York ; Harry V., who was born on the 7th of July, 1889, and who was graduated in the Kentucky Military Institute and also in a business college in the city of Rochester, is now employed as a stenographer in the division freight offices of the New York Cen- tral & Hudson River Railroad; and Lucile, who was born on the 9th of August, 1892, was graduated in Penn Yan Academy in June, 1910, and is now attending Elmira College at Elmira, New York.
768
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
M. R. LAKE .- This prominent representative of real estate loan and insurance interests in Steuben county was born in Fremont, that county, September 9, 1855. His father was Israel Lake, a native of Tompkins county, New York, who was an early settler and a farmer well known in his time and who died aged about seventy- two years. His wife was Clarissa White, born in New York state, who passed away when she was about forty-eight. They had five daugh- ters and four sons, all of whom grew to womanhood or manhood, of whom M. R. Lake was the fifth born.
Mr. Lake spent the days of his childhood and boyhood on his his father's farm and in the common school in his native town. He made a start in life for himself at the early age of eighteen and farmed in Fremont till 1880. Then he went to Canisteo and was clerk in a hotel there under three successive managements. Then he put in seven years as a farmer near there. Returning to that village he was engaged in merchandising there until 1896, when, still mak- ing Canisteo his headquarters, he began buying and selling farms. To this business he devoted himself profitably about four years, meanwhile having in hand some other interests, among them a bakery and grocery in Canisteo. In 1901 he still had a farm in operation near there. In 1906 he opened a real estate, loan and in- surance office in Hornell and has prospered as a business man and financier. Some time since he sold his farm near Canisteo.
In 1884 Mr. Lake married Miss Addie Curtis, daughter of John and Catharine Curtis, old residents in Steuben county. She was born at Canisteo and was well known and popular there. She has borne her husband two daughters-Catharine, wife of Frederick Hull of Canisteo, and Lorena, who was twelve years old in 1910. Mr. Lake is a Republican and as such has wielded a recognized political influence. He very ably filled for one term the rather exacting office of justice of the peace. He is an Odd Fellow and a past grand of his lodge.
JAMES O. SEBRING .-- A commanding figure in the professional and business life of Corning, James O. Sebring has won fame and distinction as a skillful and able lawyer, and as a man of financial and managerial ability has acquired considerable property, and has become identified with several of the large manufacturing industries of Steuben county. He was born November 4, 1860, in Pulteney, Steuben county, which was also the birthplace of his father, Charles W. Sebring. His grandfather. Daniel Sebring, a native of Schuyler county, New York, was an early pioneer of Steuben county, taking up wild land and clearing and improving a homestead in Pulteney.
Brought up on the home farm, Charles W. Sebring succeeded to the occupation of his German ancestors, and spent his entire life in Pulteney and Prattsburg. He died recently. He married Cath- erine A. Miller, who was born in Putnam county, New York, of substantial New England stock, her ancestors having come to this state from Connecticut in pioneer days. Her father, Thaddeus A.
M.R. Lane
771
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
Miller, came with his family from Putnam county to Steuben county about 1836, making the removal with an ox-team. Taking up land bordering on Keuka Lake, he cleared and improved a good farm, and there spent his remaining years. Mrs. Charles W. Sebring died on the home farm in Pulteney in 1909, aged seventy-seven years. To her and her husband four children were born, as follows: Frank A., wife of Willard Wallis, of Prattsburg, Steuben county; John C., engaged in farming in the town of Wayne, Steuben county; James O., the special subjeet of this brief sketch; and Burt, of Corning.
Completing his education in the distriet schools of Pulteney and the Franklin Academy at Prattsburg James O. Sebring remained with his parents until attaining his majority. Starting then in life for himself he taught school during the winter terms for several years, working as a farm laborer during seed time and harvest. While thus employed he began reading law in the office of J. K. Smith, of Prattsburg, afterwards continuing his reading with Hon. I. W. Near, completing his studies under the instruction of John F. Little, of Bath. Being admitted to the bar in June, 1885, Mr. Sebring began the practice of his chosen profession in the autumn of that year at Hammondsport, where he met with fine suceess, re- maining there ten years.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.