USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. II > Part 36
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Henry V. Pratt attended Franklin Academy at Prattsburg, where he was duly graduated in 1885. In 1890 he was graduated from Cornell University and in 1891 was admitted to the bar and entered upon the practice of his profession at Wayland in February, 1892, and has there won a commendable success. From 1894 to 1906 he was junior member of the law firm of Clark & Pratt, the other member of the firm being William W. Clark, now a justice of the supreme court. He has been a director of the First National Bank of Wayland since it was incorporated and is interested in one way or another with other enterprises at Wayland in the country round about. He is now and for many years has been corporation attorney for Wayland, served as president of the village, and is high in the counsels of the Democratic party in Steuben county.
In 1896 Mr. Pratt married Miss Amelia C. Folts, of Wayland, daughter of George Folts, now at Pasadena, California, but formerly a merchant at Wayland. Two children have been born to them: Kathryn C., born October 31, 1897, died September 12, 1899 ; Schuy- ler B. was born October 31, 1902.
In many ways Mr. Pratt has demonstrated the public spirit that makes him so good and patriotic a citizen. In all his career at Wayland, covering a period of nearly a score of years, he has never failed to yield hearty co-operation and support to any measure that has appealed to him as likely to be conducive to the public good. In office and out of office he has done all that has been within his power to advance the best interests of his fellow citizens, and espe- cially as an official has he commended himself by his fidelity and indefatigable devotion to public duty to the good opinion of all who have watched his course with commendation of his past and friendly predictions of success for his future.
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H. BURR WILLARD, druggist and postmaster, Campbell, Steuben county, was born at Hornell, September 1, 1849. His father, Henry G. Willard, a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, was brought as a little boy to Steuben county by his parents. Stephen Willard, father of Henry G. and grandfather of H. Burr Willard, came of an old Massachusetts family and was a pioneer in Steuben county. He located in Thurston township about 1832, having bought a large tract of land there. He bought much timber land and came in time to own many thousand acres. He was a blacksmith by trade, and also owned land, but he himself, did very little farming. Henry G. Willard resided in Steuben county until 1867, when he moved to a farm near Lansing, Michigan. His wife was Miss Jane Love Eddy, a native of Tompkins county, New York. They had three sons and a daughter, all of whom grew to maturity.
H. Burr Willard, the eldest of the children just mentioned, re- members his removal with his father's family to Cameron Mills when he was about nine years old. A year later they moved from Cameron Mills to Thurston. At fourteen he went to Bath, where he remained some years. Going to Michigan, he attended the agri- cultural college at Lansing, and remained with his father until he attained to his majority. After living about a year and a half in Kansas he went to Avon, New York. In 1873 he returned to Steu- ben county and in 1874 entered upon employment in the Curtis lumber office at Curtis, New York, in which he continued some vears. In 1883 he located at Campbell, engaging in the drug trade, in which he has since continued with much success. He has been postmaster there since 1899. He has been in business twenty-eight years in Campbell.
Mr. Willard married Miss Amelia Northrup, daughter of Nor- man and Marilla (Harwood) Northrup, representatives of a family long prominent in the county, closely identified with its earlier his- tory. They have four children. Harriet married E. C. Peebles, of Springfield, Massachusetts. George Northrup Willard lives in New York city. Frances is Mrs. Darius L. Dean, of New York city. May is a member of her parents' household. A strict and active Repub- lican, Mr. Willard is influential in local affairs. He was for many years a member and a part of the time president of the school board, and held the office of supervisor six years. He is president of the Hope Cemetery Association and a member of the board of trustees of the Presbyterian church. In all ways in which a man of broad views may do so, he has demonstrated his public spirit, and it has had much to do with the advance of Campbell during the two decades last passed.
PETER JOHANNES KIMMEL .- The commercial interests of Way- land are in part vested in the capable hands of Peter Johannes Kim- mel, who is one of the important factors in the Kimmel Hardware Company, one of the thriving business interests of this progressive and up-to-date center. He is a native of the place, his birth having
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occurred here on September 15, 1871, and his parents being Martin and Clara (Vogt) Kimmel. The father had his nativity in Ger- many, that country which has given to America one of her finest sources of emigration, and shortly after becoming a citizen of the land of the stars and stripes he settled in South Danville, and made his living as a day laborer. He married and gave to the state a number of boys and girls who developed into good citizens and who are, to enumerate, as follows: Martin, a farmer residing near Way- land; John, of Wayland, manager of the Cohocton Canning Com- pany ; Frank, a farmer living near Wayland; Jacob, of the Cohocton Canning Company ; Catherine, who married Edward Ritz, engaged in the tailoring business in Rochester; Anna, wife of William San- bier, a resident of Wayland; Clara, wife of Frederick Schmitz, of Wayland; Elizabeth, bookkeeper and cashier of the Kimmel Hard- ware Company, and Helen, who resides upon the old homestead.
Peter Johannes Kimmel received a public school education, at- tending both the common and high school of Wayland and later securing employment with the company of Whitted & Jervis, dealers in dry goods, with whom he remained in the capacity of clerk for four years. Ambitious for a more thorough education Mr. Kimmel matriculated at the Canisius College in the city of Buffalo and pur- sued his studies at that institution. His father had established a dry goods business and upon his return home he entered the store and remained for a year. He then left for Cohocton, where a branch hardware store had been opened by the Kimmels, and for two years he had charge of this branch, showing a great deal of executive capacity for a young man of his years. He subsequently bought his brother's interest at Cohocton. The Wayland house had been changed to M. Kimmel & Sons and it thus remained until March, 1909, when the business was incorporated as the present firm, known as the Kimmel Hardware Company, which consists of Mr. Kimmel and his brothers, John and Jacob, the subject serving in the capacities of secretary and treasurer. He was associated with his father for eleven years and greatly profited by that gentleman's excellent commercial ideas. His interests are not limited to the hardware enterprise, but likewise extend to the Cohocton Canning Company, which was founded by himself, his father and his broth- ers, John and Martin.
Mr. Kimmel inaugurated a happy and congenial life companion- ship, when on December 4, 1894, he was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Merz, who was born in 1871. She is a daughter of Christian Merz, a native of Cohocton, and a mason and contractor by trade. To Mr. and Mrs. Kimmel has been born one child, a son, Cornelius, born November 17, 1896, and now in attendance at the high school of Wayland. Mr. Kimmel and his wife and son are members of St. Joseph's church and the former belong to the Catho- lic Mutual Benefit Association. His political inclinations are with the Democratic party, but he is not an office seeker, having no desire for the honors and emoluments of public station.
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FRANK R. AULLS, proprietor of the Campbell Roller Mills, was born in Bradford, Steuben county, August 7, 1878. Frank Aulls, his father, born near Urbana, this county, was reared, educated and married in "Old Steuben." His father, Ephraim Aulls, was born in Connecticut, became a pioneer in Steuben county and settled at Pleasant Valley as a farmer and lumberman. Frank Aulls, a farmer and lumberman in his turn, married Mary E. Rowlett in Wayne, Steuben county, in 1863. She was a daughter of the Rev. James Rowlett, a native of Scotland and educated in Dublin. He early settled in Steuben county, where he labored as a minister of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Aulls dicd, aged fifty-three years. His widow is living at Bath in 1910. They had five children. Leslie died at the age of twenty-four. Fred died when he was eight years old. Velnett married Dr. J. P. Longwell, of Wellsboro, Pennsyl- vania, and died when she was about thirty-four. Anna is the wife of D. Beach Bryan, deputy postmaster at Bath. Frank R. Aulls, youngest of this family of children, lived in Bradford until he was twenty-one years old, attending the common schools there and the Haverling High School at Bath. After farming about two years he built a feed mill at Bradford in 1898. He operated it about two years, then sold it and in 1900 bought the water-power roller mills at Campbell, which have a daily capacity of fifty barrels of wheat flour and thirty-five barrels of buckwheat flour. He is interested also in the Steuben County Creamery at Campbell.
In 1900 Mr. Aulls married Miss May Charlton, of Peekskill, New York, who died in 1906 .. His present wife, whom he married in 1909, was Miss Marguerite E. Cox, daughter of William O. and Anna E. Cox, of Cleveland, Ohio, and a native of that city. He is a Republican, active and influential in the local work of his party, and a member of the Campbell school board. An alert, up-to-date business man, he is at the same time a public-spirited citizen, gener- ous in support of all progressive movements.
VINCENT L. TRIPP .- The subject of this sketch, Vincent Leroy Tripp, was born at Cohocton, New York, October 24, 1869. As a lad he removed with his parents to Cambridge, Maryland, in 1876, where he attended the boys' school. Later the family returned to New York state and became residents of Hammondsport, which nestles among the vine-clad hills at the head of Lake Keuka. It was here he grew to young manhood, attending the Hammondsport High School, formerly the old academy.
In 1887 Mr. Tripp entered the office of the Hammondsport Herald, then as now ably conducted by Llewellyn H. Brown, to learn the newspaper and printing business. Upon the completion of his apprenticeship he worked as a journeyman printer in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo and other cities. In 1892 he went from Buffalo, where he was employed in the office of the Buffalo Express, to Atlanta, New York, where with his brother, Milton R. Tripp, as a partner he purchased and conducted the At-
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lanta News. In the following year, 1893, the business was removed to Cohocton, New York, and the name of the paper changed to the Cohocton Index. This partnership continued until 1899, when, ow- ing to poor health, his brother sold his interest in the business to Mr. Tripp, who has since successfully conducted it. In October, 1902, Mr. Tripp bought the plant and good will of the Cohocton Valley Times, which was established in 1871, and consolidated that paper with the Index, changing the name to the Cohocton Valley Times-Index, under which title it is still published.
The building which is the present home of the paper was pur- chased by Mr. Tripp in 1908. The paper enjoys a wide circulation and holds the good will of its readers to a remarkable degree. It is printed all at home on its own presses and in its own building. The job printing department has attained a splendid reputation for the execution of artistic printing.
Mr. Tripp was united in marriage with Miss Emma Zimmer, December 6, 1893, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Zimmer. Mr. Zimmer is a prominent vineyardist of Lake Keuka, New York. To this union one son, Harold Curtis Tripp, was born November 27, 1896. He died January 30, 1911, after a short illness with scarlet fever, being fourteen years of age.
To glance at the parentage of Mr. Tripp, he is the son of Sidney Reynolds and Jane Jenks Tripp, both natives of the Empire state, but now residents of Delta. Colorado. The former was born in Cohocton, New York, and the latter in Sparta, New York. The family of Sidney R. and Jane Tripp consisted of six children, four of whom survive at the present day. Bertha S. is a trained nurse at Delta, Colorado; Vincent L. is the subject of this sketch and resides at Cohocton, New York; Milton R. is engaged in the poultry business at Delta, Colorado, and Earl C. conducts a newspaper at Kennewick, Washington.
Mr. Tripp's paternal grandfather was Job Tripp, a native of Seneca county, New York. The Tripp family history in this country dates back to the early settlement of Rhode Island.
MONROE D. RAY .- For a number of years has Monroe David Ray been actively identified with the viticultural interests of Steuben county, New York. Energetic, enterprising and successful in a ma- terial way, he is also honored and respected as a citizen, and has so in- delibly stamped his individuality upon the community as to become a potential factor in its civic and public affairs. Mr. Ray was born in Pulteney, Steuben county, New York, on the 7th of May, 1887, a son of Thomas and Minnie (Hughes) Ray, both of whom were residents of Pulteney, New York, at the time of their marriage. Thomas Ray claims Port Hope, province of Ontario, Canada, as the place of his birth, the day of his nativity being May 17, 1860, and the mother was born at Mexico, Oswego county, New York, on the 5th of January, 1865. Mr. and. Mrs. Thomas Ray now reside at Hammondsport, the father being a vineyardist by occupation, and their only child is him whose name initiates this review.
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Monroe D. Ray was reared to adult age in the place of his birth and as a youth he attended the district schools, rounding out his education by a course of two years in the high school at Ham- mondsport. When sixteen years of age he entered the office of the Columbia Wine Company, at Hammondsport, in the capacity of clerk and at the present time he has risen to the important position of bookkeeper in this thriving industrial concern. The Columbia con- cern is one of the most important of its class in the town. In pol- itics Mr. Ray accords an unswerving allegiance to the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor ; he is a man of great public spirit and one who lets no opportunity pass to aid to the extent of his ability any movement which in his good judgment promises to benefit a considerable number of his fellow citizens. Fraternally he is affiliated with Keuka Tribe, No. 386, Improved Order of Red Men, and he is also connected with the Hammondsport Hook & Ladder Company, No. 1. In his religious faith Mr. Ray is a devout communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, in which he is a member of St. James' parish, at Ham- mondsport.
HENRY B. NEWELL .- For fully three decades was Henry B. Newell engaged in the newspaper business at Wayland, Steuben county, New York, and during that time he was editor of the Union Advertiser, which was a paper of broad influence in this sec- tion of the state. He was born in Wayne county, New York, on the 4th of July, 1847, and is a son of Cyrus and Sally (Edwards) Newell, both of whom were born at Sodus, New York, and both are now deceased. The father was a shoe manufacturer by trade and he settled at Avoca, Steuben county, in 1848. Some time later he removed to Wayland, where he erected a tannery, the first and for a number of years the only tannery in Wayland. Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Newell became the parents of eight children, seven of whom are now living. The father was summoned to eternal rest in 1908 at the patriarchal age of ninety-five years and his devoted wife passed away February 8, 1898, at the age of seventy-four years. Both were prominent and influential citizens in this county during their lives and they held a secure place in popular confidence and esteem.
Henry B. Newell, the immediate subject of this review, received his early educational training in the public schools of Steuben county and he was apprenticed at the shoemaker's trade for a period of two years, at the expiration of which he was associated with his father in the work at the tannery for the ensuing three years. There- after he turned his attention to the newspaper business and in 1874 he became editor of the Union Advertiser, at Wayland, which he continued to conduct for thirty years. Under his management the Union Advertiser became one of the most important publications in Steuben county, and it is now run by other parties, who pur- chased it at the time of Mr. Newell's retirement, in 1904. During the last few years Mr. Newell has been engaged in literary work, writing extensively for many of the best periodicals in the country.
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In politics he endorses the cause of the Democratic party and he is affiliated with many fraternal and social organizations of repre- sentative order. His religious faith is in harmony with the tenets of the United church, and he has ever been a liberal contributor to all matters projected for the good of humanity. He is a man of fine mentality and broad information, is possessed of considerable lit- erary talent and is public-spirited and loyal in the largest sense of the word.
Catherine, wife of Mr. Newell, was horn at Sandy Hill (this county) in 1852. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Engel, reside in Wayland. He is over ninety years of age and his wife some years younger. Eight children were born to them, and all yet survive. Two children were born to Henry B. Newell and his wife, Katie, born in 1882, and Julia, born in 1886, both living.
MARTIN A. TUTTLE, who has been for nearly fifty years one of the active citizens of Hornell, was born in Columbus, Chenango county, March 2, 1842. His ancestors immigrated from England in 1635 and settled in New England. His grandfather, Uri Tuttle, was one of the pioneers of this state, having moved from Connecticut to Columbus, Chenango county, in 1798, where he made a home for himself and family. He died in 1859. His father, Harley Tuttle, was an active and prominent man in his native town. He died in 1851, aged forty-four years.
Mr. Tuttle's mother was Alma M. Adsit, a daughter of Leonard Adsit and Fannie Davenport, also pioneers of Chenango county. His mother died in 1843 at the age of thirty-three years, leaving six children. Alma M. Adsit's maternal ancestors were English and her grandfather, Noah Davenport, served as a private soldier during the Revolution ; her paternal ancestors were Welch, and her grand- father, Martin Adsit, and her great-grandfather Benjamin Adsit, were soldiers of the Revolution.
Martin A. Tuttle, the youngest child, received his educa- tion in the common school of his native town. Taking charge of the home farm at sixteen years of age, from that time he has passed a life of continued activities. In 1864 he came to Hornellsville and entered the general store of Martin Adsit & Co. as clerk. In 1868 he became a member of the firm of Adsit & Tuttle. In 1874 this partnership was dissolved. Mr. Tuttle with Messrs. John and Ira Davenport of Bath, having the year before bought the Erastus Stevens farm in the southern part of the village of Hornellsville, which they laid out into city lots with Mr. Tuttle in charge.
Six years later the dry goods firm of M. A. Tuttle & Co. was formed, L. W. Rockwell being the company. `In 1882 a branch store was started in Wellsville. The following year Mr. Rockwell withdrew from the firm, taking the Wellsville store. In 1889 the firm of Tuttle & Rockwell Bros. was formed, which was a few years later incorporated as the Tuttle & Rockwell Co. with M. A. Tuttle, president, and L. W. Rockwell, treasurer.
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Mr. Tuttle's activities in other lines have been numerous, as farmer, produce buyer, temperance advocate, president of the Business Men's Association, member of Board of Managers for Hornell Fair, and of the Hornell Chamber of Commerce, at present president of the Maple City Land Co. of Hornell. As an active party Prohibi- tionist he has done much hard work in no license campaigns and for the Prohibition party.
In 1869 he married Malene Hart, daughter of Charles N. and Eliza Allen Hart of Hornellsville, who were among the earliest set- tlers of the town of Hartsville, where Mr. Hart became prominent as an extensive lumber dealer and buyer of fat stock. The town of Hartsville takes its name from the Hart family. Both the Harts 'and Allens are of English origin and were represented in the Con- tinental Army by Jeremiah Hart and Barnabas Allen. Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle are the parents of ten children, eight of whom are now living. As follows,-Alma E. (Mrs. Mark H. Milne), Madelia Hart, Gertrude S., Charles N., Marion Bell, Abbie Allen, Edith A. (Mrs. Adam L. Davidson), Ruth Hart.
ALLEN M. BURRELL is one of the veteran attorneys of Steuben county, a man of ability and sterling character, whose record of more than half a century is an ornament to the profession. Now, crowned with years and honor, he is gradually transferring his practice to his son, Charles Burrell, who is in partnership with him; the firm of Burrell & Burrell enjoying high prestige in Steuben county. Mr. Burrell is a native son of New York, his birth having occurred at Lansing, Tompkins county, April 8, 1828.
Allen Burrell spent his early years on a farm near Greenwood, in Steuben county, and there acquired those habits of industry and thrift which have insured his success in life. At a later date he was associated with his brother in the carriage building industry, their establishment being in the village of Greenwood. It was suc- cessfully conducted for some seven years. During this period Mr. Burrell commenced to realize his youthful ambition by reading law with Hon. Martin Grover and Lewis Simons, who were then engaged in the practice of their profession at Angelica, Alleghany county, as among the foremost members of the bar of that section of the state.
In the fall of 1854 Mr. Burrell became a resident of Hornell, concluding his law studies in the office of John K. Hale, a well known attorney of that place, and in December of the year named was admitted to the bar at Rochester. Having mastered his profes- sion, in 1855 he entered into another distinct phase of his life by marrying; and still another in the spring of 1860, when he moved to Canisteo, which has since been his home and the main field of his professional advancement. As before mentioned, his son Charles is in partnership with him; the junior member of the firm also holds the office of justice of the peace. In politics Allen M. Burrell is a Republican.
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In the month of June, 1855, Mr. Burrell's happy married and domestic life was inaugurated by his union with Mary A. McClay, whose father was a prosperous dairyman of Greenwood, and the parents have been residents of Canisteo since May 10, 1860. During this period of more than half a century, both they and their chil- dren have earned deep respect and high honor. Two of their off- spring died in infancy, the living sons and daughter being Glen, Harry, Ella, William and Charles. The only daughter of the family married Fred C. Goff, a resident of Racine, Wisconsin.
JOHN MILNE .- The parents of John Milne were born in Scot- land and many of the good traits associated with the citizens of that country belong to him. In every nook and corner of the wide world the traveler will find the Scotchman; everywhere plodding, patient, determined, steadfast, reliable, prosperous. It is of such stock that this estimable business man, engaged in gas plumbing and fitting, comes, and the name alone would divulge the secret of his nationality. David Milne was born in Glasgow, and the mother, Catherine McDougall Milne, in another part of the land of the thistle. When they were still young people they emigrated to the Land of Promise lying across the Atlantic and their union was sol- emnized in Oswego, New York. David Milne was engaged in busi- ness similar to that which occupies his son, the subject of this sketch, for he was a builder of gas light plants. He was superintendent of a gas light plant at the time of his death, which occurred in 1873.
John Milne was born on February 15, 1867. He received his education in Hornell and early concluded to follow in the paternal footsteps in the matter of choosing his life work. In 1871, when he was a lad about fourteen years of age, he began to learn this im- portant and intricate business in which so much skill is required. The steadiness of his race has been with him and he has climbed up the ladder, until he is now the superintendent of the Hornell Gas-Light Company and has filled this position since May, 1896.
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