USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. II > Part 43
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Ervilla (Ingham) Chamberlain is a daughter of Isaac and Mary (Lewis) Ingham. She was married to Jesse Mark Cham- berlain October 25, 1860, and they are the parents of two sons and a daughter, namely: Joseph Redington, William Henry and Mrs. Lucy C. Baker, of Springfield, Massachusetts. Joseph R. married Hope Sommerell and resides at Raleigh, North Carolina. Their children are Mary Mitchell, Jesse Mark and Gratia.
William Henry Chamberlain graduated at high school in 1885 and at Cornell University in 1889, after which he went to North Carolina, where he spent four years employed as secretary to John T. Patrick, commissioner of agriculture. Returning to Kanona in 1893, he settled on the old home place, where he has since resided. For years he has been interested in fine stock, breeding and raising horses, cattle and sheep, making a specialty of Morgan horses and Jersey cattle. For three years he was secretary of the New York State Breeders' Association, and he served as vice-president of the Steuben County Agricultural Society. Also he was elected and served as one of the expert judges of cattle for the state conven- tion. And in addition to his interests in his home county he owns a large amount of property in the southern states.
For years Mr. Chamberlain has been prominent in Republican politics. In 1905 and again in 1907 he was elected to the General Assembly of the state, the last time receiving a majority of over one thousand seven hundred votes, and in the legislature he figured prominently, serving in such responsible positions as chairman of the committee on the Soldiers' Home, member of the taxation, pub- lic lands and forestry committees, and member of the state forest commission, also the committee on state fishing, game, etc. In addi- tion to his Greek fraternity, Kappa Alpha, be belongs to the Grangers and to the Masonic order at Bath.
On October 27, 1898, Mr. Chamberlain married Miss Carrie Belle Stickney, who bore him three children: William Henry, Vol 11-23
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born January 3, 1901; Julius John, May 31, 1903; and Melina Erville, May 20, 1904. William Henry died March 5, 1903. Mrs. Chamberlain was born March 10, 1873, a daughter of Julius and Katie (Aulls) Stickney, natives of Steuben county, and she died October 1, 1907. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and in every respect a most estimable woman, loved by all who knew her.
DANIEL SHOEMAKER .- This well-known, highly respected and venerable farmer of Steuben county is a native son of the Emerald Isle, which has given to America some of her most progressive stock. His eyes first opened to the light of day in county Limerick, Ireland, the date of his nativity being April 26, 1826. His father, Philip Shoemaker, was born in 1798, at the time of the Irish rebellion, and farmed in Ireland, on land, which it is extremely interesting to note, was granted by William of Orange, the estate having been in the subject's family during successive generations. The father came to "the new land of promise"-America-in 1852, some few years after the arrival on these shores of the son whose name initiates this review, and with his family he located on land in Steuben county where his son Daniel had previously settled. His wife, Mary Kinney, born in 1798, died in 1889, when more than ninety years of age. Of these seven children of this worthy couple only two are living-Daniel and his brother Amos, the latter a citizen of Rochester, New York. One of his brothers was coach- man for Archdeacon Warburton, of the church of England.
Daniel Shoemaker was the first of the family to hear the call of opportunity from the shores of the new world, and after arriving in the United States he first located in Seneca county, New York, subsequently removing to Keuka, Steuben county, where he was living when he sent for his parents and others of his family. From that place he came to Bath, where he was employed by the late Judge Rumsey, his term of service for that gentleman lasting until 1867, and being of fifteen years' duration. He then bought a farm near Kanona, to which he made additions until he owned four hundred and fifty acres, which he eventually deeded to his chil- dren. He is a Republican and was formerly active and influential in local political movements. During the administration of Presi- dent Hayes he was postmaster at Kanona, and then relinquished the office in favor of his son Daniel. In the matter of religious conviction he is affiliated with the Episcopal church.
Mr. Shoemaker laid the foundation of a happy married life, when Elizabeth Kelley, a young woman of the North of Ireland, became his wife. She was a daughter of Owen Kelley, and was the. scion of a family very old and of high honor in Ireland. The demise of this worthy woman and faithful wife occurred in 1885, her years at the time numbering fifty-eight. She bore to her husband a num- ber of children, concerning whom it is possible to include the fol- lowing facts of biography. Clara married F. Evans and through
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her the subject has two grandchildren and three great-grandchil- dren. George, of Kanona, married Cora Shultz, and through him Mr. Shoemaker has three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Kate is the wife of William Goodman, a shoemaker of Kanona. Daniel, a farmer and postmaster at Kanona, married Eva Snell, and they are the parents of one child. Phillip, not married, is a farmer near Kanona. Mary is the wife of C. Woods, of Hammonds- port, Steuben county.
Mr. Shoemaker is peacefully passing the closing years of a long and well-spent life, happy in the knowledge that he possesses a prosperous and estimable family, sons and grandsons who have done honor to his name. He confidently looks forward to the reward due to the man who lives honestly and usefully. He has done his part in the development of the county and the advancement of its inter- ests and gladly lays the burden on younger shoulders, not doubting that the Providence that has watched over the making of our his- tory thus far will favor even greater and better things in the years to come. In his more than sixty years of residence in this section he has witnessed great change and progress, while at the same time contributing in due measure to the same and he is very loyal to the adopted country, which has been the scene of the greater part of his active and successful life.
FRANK O. GAY, a farmer of Bath, New York, was born March 8, 1861, in the township of Pulteney. He is a son of Andrew and Ma- rietta (Rice) Gay, both natives of Steuben county, New York. An- drew Gay was born in Howard, October 12, 1835, the son of John and Permelia (Lounsbury) Gay. John Gay was born in Rochester, New York, and his father, Joseph Gay, had his nativity in Balti- more, Maryland, April 14, 1779, the latter settling first in Rochester and subsequently removing to Steuben county. Joseph Gay was a relative of the Gay who, according to the records of history, raised a company at his own expense at the time of the Revolutionary war and assisted Lafayette on his progress south through Virginia. Joseph Gay married Sarah Laffler, July 26, 1801, and they were the first of the Gay family to settle in Prattsburg, Steuben county. He died in 1832 and his son, John Gay, was born October 26, 1813, and followed farming all his life.
Andrew Gay, father of him whose name initiates this review, was engaged in farming for forty years in Steuben county, and he is now living retired in Avoca village. His marriage to Marietta, daughter of Henry and Eliza (Smith) Rice, was solemnized March 16, 1858. His wife traces her ancestry back to the Puritans of New England and she is of the seventh generation of the family who came to Boston in 1629 with Endicott. The subject is one of two sons, the younger, Benjamin R., being a produce dealer of Avoca, New York.
Frank O. Gay is a graduate of Haverling High School, of Bath, and as a young man he took up the work of school teaching, an oc-
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cupation in which he was engaged for three years. Then he settled down to farming and has carried on farming and stock raising, of which he has made a success, on his farm one mile north of the vil- lage of Bath, on the Hammondsport road, to the present time.
Mr. Gay has always been a stanch Republican, active in party work, and has filled various party offices, at present being town superintendent of highways. He is the present county committee- man, having held that office for several years.
In 1882 Mr. Gay married Miss Adela Durnian, who was born in Bath, Steuben county, October 10, 1861, a daughter of Richard and Elizabeth (Stewart) Durnian. Mrs. Adela Gay died March 2, 1905, after more than twenty years of happy married life, in which she knew the joys of motherhood, and her beautiful Christian char- acter was a potent influence for good not only in her own home but also in the circle of her acquaintance. She was a devoted member of the Methodist church, as also is Mr. Gay. They were the parents of three daughters and a son. Lillian, born in 1884, is the wife of M. H. Taylor, a farmer of Bath township; Edna and Edwin, twins, were born in 1886, the former being the wife of F. B. Quinby, of Elmira, New York. The latter, a pharmacist and a graduate of Brooklyn College, is manager of a drug store. Marietta, born in 1895, is a student in the Bath high school.
For his second wife Mr. Gay married Louise, daughter of William Allison, of Bath. In his church the subject has long been prominent and active, for years having filled the office of steward. Fraternally he is a Mason and belongs also to the Grange.
MRS. MARTIN ARGUS, of Urbana, Steuben county, has a double claim to honorable mention in this historic picture of sectional progress and individual achievement. For some three decades she performed, with faithfulness and love, the many and exacting duties of a helpful wife and the mother of a large family, and, as has always been the case since family records commenced, took upon herself the greatest weight of the burdens involved in rearing the sons and daughters to useful and honorable manhood and woman- hood. Then when all this had been accomplished, the husband was taken from her in the strength of his middle age, and she assumed the responsibilities of his business, which she had successfully car- ried for more than twenty years. The result could not be less than it is, namely-that no member of the community is more respected for her ability and more revered for her good works than the widow of Martin Argus, the venerable but still active proprietor of one of the best vineyards in Steuben county.
Mrs. Argus is a native of Rheinpfalz, Germany, born on the 24th of October, 1834, and is a daughter of Matthew and Gertrude (Hubschmitt) Rieks. Her father died in 1847, at the age of forty- four, a man of high intelligence who had filled for many years the office of notary. The mother, who passed away in 1872, in her seventy-third year, was a daughter of Sebastian and Apollina
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(Ochsner) Hubschmitt, who cultivated their vineyard with con- tentment and profit during all the years of their quiet married life.
In 1857, when a sturdy young woman of twenty-three, the subject of this review emigrated to the United States and com- menced her life of industry in her adopted country near Roches- ter, New York. Later she migrated westward and became a resi- dent of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, where she met and married the late Martin Argus. Two years afterward the young couple moved to Urbana, where husband and wife engaged in the culture of grapes; and it may be that Mrs. Argus had inherited a cer- tain liking and skill in this branch of horticulture from her ma- ternal ancestors of the Fatherland. Mr. Argus continued as active head of the business until his death in 1890, since which it has been conducted by his faithful and capable widow.
The deceased was a successful and honored man; a member of the Roman Catholic church, and strictly moral in the con- duct of life. His fraternal relations were with the Knights of Honor, and his Democracy was never questioned, although he never proclaimed it as an office-seeker.
To Mr. and Mrs. Martin Argus were born the following: Apollina, who is now a widow with three children-Cecelia, Eugene and Maynard; George, deceased; Charles, a resident of Rochester, New York; Mary, who married S. Kueffen, of Urbana, and is the mother of Walter, Harry and Paulina; Fred, who married Lottie Eaton and has two children; Catherine, an artist and a member of her mother's household; and Martin, who is a machinist residing at Bath. Mrs. Argus has a brother and three sisters still living. The first named, Thomas Reiks, is a resident of New York city, and of her sisters the following facts may be mentioned : Catherine is the wife of J. Gordon; May married J. Ropelt, the piano manufacturer; and Lizette has never left the old family home in Germany.
J. B. CONRAD is prominently known in Wayland as a produce dealer, with which line of business he has been associated since 1904 and in which he has been very successful. In addition he also owns sixty acres of good farming land in Perkinsville. On both the paternal and maternal sides he descends from German fam- ilies. His paternal grandparents, Philip and Elizabeth (Schwen- gel) Conrad, on emigrating to this country settled in Steuben county, New York, where they became the owners of a farm. They were upright members of society and loyal citizens of their adopted country, as well as acceptable members of the German Lutheran church. The maternal grandparents, Philip and Eliz- abeth Dentz, after coming to this country prospered in their chosen calling of farming. Philip and Elizabeth (Dentz) Conrad, the parents of J. B., are living in Steuben county, the place of their nativity, and he is the youngest of their three children, the other
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two being daughters, Ida, now Mrs. Hickey, and Mary, Mrs. Mahenbacker.
J. B. Conrad was born at Perkinsville in Steuben county in 1879, and he received his education in the Cohocton high school. His earlier years were spent in agricultural pursuits, and in course of time he won and wed Miss Elizabeth Dides, their wedding occur- ring in 1910. Both are members of the German Lutheran church in Perkinsville.
THOMAS HASSETT .- He whose name initiates this paragraph is a native son of Steuben county and a scion of one of its old and honored families. At the present time he maintains his home in the city of New York. He was formerly associated in no insig- nificant way with municipal affairs in the national metropolis, and he is recognized as a progressive and reliable business man and able executive, the while his course has been so guided and governed by the principles of integrity and honor as to retain to him the confidence and uniform regard of those with whom he has come in contact in the various relations of life.
Mr. Hassett was born at Bath, the judicial center of Steuben county, on the 7th of February, 1865, and is a son of John and Ann (Coyle) Hassett, both of whom were born and reared in Ire- land. John Hassett established his home in Steuben county about the year 1860, and the major portion of his career was one of active identification with normal lines of productive business en- terprise, through the medium of which he gained a due measure of success. He was a man of sterling character and alert mentality, and he ordered his life in such a way as to merit the high esteem in which he was held in the community that so long represented his home. He was a Democrat in his political proclivities and both he and his wife were zealous communicants of the Catholic church, in whose faith they carefully reared their children. Both continued to reside in Steuben county until their death. They became the parents of four sons, all of whom attained to years of maturity : Frank is deceased; Edward, who became a represen- tative member of the bar of New York city, died on the 23rd of February, 1910; and to whom a special memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work; Hugh is a resident of Buffalo, New York ; and Thomas, whose name forms the caption of this article, is the youngest of the number.
Thomas Hassett is indebted to the parochial and public schools of his native town for his early educational training, which was supplemented by a course of study in Haverling Academy, one of the excellent educational institutions of Steuben county. As a young man Mr. Hassett went to Albany, the capital city of his native state, and there remained for three years, as official stenog- rapher in the general assembly of the state legislature. At the expiration of the period noted, in 1896, he removed to New York city, where for a time he was associated with his brother Edward.
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Edward / fassett
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Upon the election of Hon. George R. Mcclellan to the office of mayor of the national metropolis this honored executive appointed Mr. Hassett his private secretary, and the latter continued incum- bent of this positon during Mayor McClellan's first term. In 1905 Mr. Hassett was appointed secretary of the board of water supply of the ctiy of New York, and after serving a few years in this capacity he resigned the office.
In politics Mr. Hassett accords a stanch allegiance to the Democratic party, and he has given effective service in behalf of its cause. He is identified with various social and fraternal organi- zations, is an appreciate member of the Steuben County Society of New York City, as well as of the Manhattan Club, and is a com- municant of the Catholic church. Mr. Hassett is a bachelor.
EDWARD HASSETT .- Pure, constant and noble was the spiritual flame that burned in and illumined the mortal tenement of the late Edward Hassett, who was large of heart and large of mind and who marked the passing years with accomplishment of dis- tinguished and benignant order. He gained prestige as one of the able members of the bar of New York city, and this mere state- ment bears its own significance. Though not a native of Steuben county he was but an infant at the time when his parents estab- lished their home in Bath, the judicial center of this county, and here he was reared to manhood, so that he may well be claimed as a true son of the county which he so greatly honored by his worthy life and worthy deeds. He was a son of John and Ann (Coyle) Hassett, both of whom were born and reared in the fair Emerald Isle, whence they came to the United States in their youth. John Hassett located at Bath, Steuben county, in the early '60s and in this county both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. It was not theirs to attain to wealth or prominence, but industry and worth of character were theirs, and they made the most of their lives under the conditions that compassed them, thus gain- ing and deserving the respect and confidence of their fellow men. They were devout communicants of the Catholic church and showed forth their faith in their daily lives. Frank, the first born of their four sons, is deceased. Edward, subject of this memoir, was the next in order of birth; Hugh is a resident of the city of Buffalo, this state; and Thomas is individually mentioned on other pages of this volume. No better estimate of the life and character of Edward Hassett could be desired than that given by one familiar with his career and fully appreciative of his worth to the world; therefore it is deemed fitting to reproduce and perpetuate, with but slight paraphrase, in this work the estimate thus given.
Of the many sons of Steuben county whose gifts and services shed luster on its history, none better deserves perpetual memory that Edward Hassett. Born to no other heritage than that of intellect and honor, by his own unaided effort he carved for him- self an enviable niche among the great lawyers of the state of
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New York and a still rarer place in the affections of all who know him.
Although born outside of Steuben county, he was but an infant at the time of the family removal to Bath, where he spent his youth and early professional years, and ever afterward he was one of Steuben county's most loyal sons. He studied law in the office of Ruggles & Little, commenced practice at Bath, and from the first he met with flattering success. His view of the law was a broad and noble one. If he could not deserve success he did not want it. He looked at the law as a means of righting wrongs, and he applied its principles with that end in view. From the outset he shunned all efforts to compass undeserved success by arts of sophistry or tricks of rhetoric. In his hands the exposition of legal principles seemed the light of pure reason. If he avoided the arts of the orator it was only that he might set forth his con- tentions, as he did, with the logic of a master and the force of a mind honest with itself. So he came, even in his early years, to enjoy the confidence of the courts and the complete respect of associates and opponents alike.
In 1889 Mr. Hassett removed to the city of New York, and in this field of wider opportunities he repeated, in larger measures, the professional triumphs of his earlier years. Not seldom did he take charge of great issues where lawyers of high repute had failed, and by applying his profound learning and logical meth- ods quietly worked out to complete success problems that had seemed impossible of solution. The famous Barber asphalt pav- ing case was one of these, although by no means the only one. In this case Mr. Hassett succeeded in recovering more than eight hun- dred thousand dollars where some of the most distinguished law- yers in the country had failed to reach satisfactory results. Con- cerning his connection with this cause celebre another authority has given the following statements: "One of the great cases in which he was employed was that of General Averill versus the Barber Asphalt Paving Company-a case that had been before the courts for more than ten years. This case was originally brought by ex-Governor Hoyt, of Pennsylvania, and after his death was continued by Hon. Thomas Ewing. These great lawyers failed to bring the matter to a successful conclusion and it was turned over to Mr. Hassett, who, after several years of most incessant labor and deep thought and in contest with able and eloquent counsel, obtained from the referee a judgment of eight hundred thousand dollars. The appellate division unanimously sustained the referee's report and the case was finally settled by General Averill's receiv- ing a large sum of money-beyond the legal fees, which amounted to over one hundred thousand dollars."
But to view Mr. Hassett only as a lawyer would be unjust to one of the noblest of men. If he was broad in his profession he was even broader and nobler in all his relations to his fellow men. A devoted son, a loyal brother, a consistent churchman, a
ZENAS L. PARKER
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friend without a peer-he has left a wealth of loving memories such as is given to few men to earn. For his friendships, his charity, his hospitality, his kindly thought for others far outran the limits of creed or sect, party or class. Firm in his adherence to that which he believed, he extended to the convictions and belief of others the same generous consideration which he claimed for his own. So he came to a wonderful place in the affections of all who knew him. A prince in all but the title, with all the graces that adorn a noble soul, he was the chief spirit in every gathering. It is no idle speech to say that he symbolized in his life the true idea of the brotherhood of man.
All too soon his closer friends noted the resistless approach of man's one implacable adversary, death. The splendid form slowly yielded to malignant disease, till, in the very prime of his life, he was summoned home. He passed to eternal rest on the 23rd of February, 1910, in his fifty-second year. On a bitter win- ter day the cemetery and the Catholic church at Bath were thronged with sincere mourners who had known him long and loved hiu well for what he was his whole life through-one of the purest and best of men, an honor to his country, his state, his profession and his race. The breeze which fans the flowers in the valley of his early home sings a gentle requiem over his last resting place, but no song of bird or breeze or chanted hymn can equal in eloquent harmony the loving memories which live and speak in the heart of every friend who knew Edward Hassett as he was in life.
ZENAS L. PARKER .- One of the most interesting and highly esteemed residents of Steuben county is its well-known poetical writer, Professor Zenas L. Parker of Bath. He was born in Charle- mont, Franklin county, Massachusetts, on February 10, 1819, has just passed his ninety-second birthday, and is the only survivor of a family of ten children born to Captain James Parker and Lucretia Fales, who were married on April 9, 1795.
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