USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. II > Part 9
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Mr. Christian married, May 14, 1884, Ida M. Redfield, an adopted daughter of William H. and Nancy J. Redfield. Their union has been blessed by the birth of two sons and two daughters, namely : Cora, wife of Ernest J. Thomas, of Elmira, New York; Sayre, in the employ of the Corning Glass Company; Ethel, and Charles Henry. Politically Mr. Christian is a stanch supporter of the principles of the Republican party, and fraternally he be- longs to Corning Tribe, I. O. R. M.
LEROY MCCORN .- As a grape-grower and wine manufacturer Mr. McCorn has gained a position of distinctive prestige in Steuben county, where he is associated with his brother, Van Buren, with headquarters in the thriving little city of Hammondsport. On other pages of this work is entered a brief review of the career of his
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brother and in that connection are given adequate data concerning the family history so that repetition thereof is not demanded at this juncture.
Leroy McCorn was born in Tompkins county, New York, on the 27th of August, 1855, and his early discipline in connection with the practical duties and responsibilities of life was that gained in connection with the work and management of the home farm. He was afforded the advantages of the public schools of his native county and at the age of eighteen years he went to the state of Illinois, where he remained five years. At the age of twenty- five years he came to Steuben county and located at Hammondsport, where he was employed for two years by H. O. Fairchild, a pros- perous fruit shipper. Later he secured employment in a vineyard near Hammondsport and after being thus engaged for one year he engaged in the growing of grapes on his own responsibility, de- veloping an excellent vineyard which was the nucleus of the present fine vineyards owned by the firm of which he is a member. For five years he gave his attention to the growing and shipping of grapes and he then initiated the manufacturing of wine on a modest scale. This branch of his industrial enterprise has been developed into one of large proportions and he and his brother are now numbered among the largest producers of high grade wines in Steuben coun- ty, besides which he is individually interested in several important manufacturing and commercial enterprises, his connection with which indicates conclusively that he is essentially a progressive business man and one with excellent initiative and administrative powers.
Mr. McCorn has ever been found ready to give his co-operation and influence in support of all measures tending to advance the general welfare of the community and he has been called upon to serve in various offices of public trust, including that of mayor of Hammondsport, of which position he was incumbent for three terms, during which he gave a most admirable administration of the municipal government. He had previously served as a village trustee and of this office he is incumbent at the present time, besides which he is a supervisor of Hammondsport township. He is affiliated with the lodge of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks at Hornell and he was reared in the faith of the Presbyterian church ; Mrs. McCorn is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church.
In the year 1877 was recorded the marriage of Mr. McCorn to Miss Sabina Bailey, who was born in Steuben county, New York, on the 8th of April, 1859, and who is a daughter of Charles L. and Amanda (Ide) Bailey. Mr. Bailey was a representative of one of the old and honored families of Steuben county, with whose annals the name became identified in the pioneer days, and he was a successful farmer and substantial capitalist of this county at the time of his death, which occurred on the 16th of December, 1896, at which time he was sixty-five years of age. Mrs. Amanda (Ide) Bailey died in 1865, at the age of twenty-nine years, and besides Mrs. McCorn she is survived by one son, Lafayette Bailey, who is a
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successful wine-maker at Hammondsport. Mr. and Mrs. McCorn became the parents of one son, Charles L., who died at the age of twenty-two months.
CLYDE E. SHULTS, lawyer and a prominent and influential citi- zen of Hornell, was born at Avoca, Steuben county, April 12, 1876. Alonzo Shults, his father, was born in the Mohawk Valley, a son of Josiah Shults, an early settler in his vicinity, who came to Steuben county in the early fifties, bringing his family and their few portable things by means of an ox cart. Alonzo came along, and was himself a pioneer. He married Gertrude Bush, daughter of Ira Bush. She was born in Steuben county, a child of early settlers.
Alonzo and Gertrude (Bush) Shults located in the town of Avoca, later moving to Wayland, where they were both living in 1910. They had two sons, I. J., the eldest, is a traveling salesman, whose home is in Detroit. Clyde E. was reared on his father's farm in Wayland and was graduated from the Wayland High School in 1892 and from the New York State Normal School at Geneseo, Livingston county, in 1894. He was graduated from the Buffalo Law School in 1898 and was admitted to the bar in that city. He located in Hornell that year and became a law partner of John Griffin. He was thus associated with Mr. Griffin about four years, then entered into partnership with Frank H. Robinson. About four years later he began an independent practice, which has been continued with much success to the present time.
Mr. Shults is secretary and chief active executive officer of the association having in hand the Hornell Fair. He was elected sec- retary of the Hornellsville Farmers' Club as long ago as 1903. Politically he affiliates with Republicans. He was for four years a justice of the peace. In 1902 he was elected secretary of the Hornell board of education, a position which he has filled with great credit to the present time. He is a director in the Bank of Steuben and treasurer of the F. A. Owen Publishing Company, of Dansville, Livingston county, New York, publishers of "Primary Plans," "The Normal Instructor" and other educational mag- azines. His social relations and wide acquaintance are indicated by the fact that he is a Mason, a member of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks and of the Knights of the Maccabees. In 1899 he married Miss Anna Sherman, a native of Plainwell, Allegan county, Michigan, and they have three children, named here in the order of their birth, Everett, Angeline and Sherman Shults. Enough has been said of Mr. Shults' business connections to give ground for the inference that he is a man of great public spirit, ready at all times to entertain any proposition for the advancement of his city and county, eager to do all in his power to promote it if it appeals to him as practical and far-reaching. All in all he is a citizen of whom Hornell is proud.
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W. R. GUILE .- Wayland has no more representative business man than W. R. Guile, the secretary and general manager of the Wayland Canning Company. He is a progressive business man, and under his fostering care and watchful eye the canning industry with which he is associated has been brought to a successful issue, and it adds much to the wealth and enterprise of both town and county. The factory was first established in 1899 under the man- agement of a stock company, co-operative in effect, but its system and working order was changed in 1901. Its first directors were Julian Morris, W. R. Guile, C. P. Newfang, Frank Hartz, P. H. Zimmerman, A. L. Huber and George E. Whitman, and its officers were as follows: President, P. H. Zimmerman; Vice-President, A. L. Huber; Treasurer, Julian A. Morris; and Secretary, W. R. Guile. Under this management the plant was put in operation on the 1st of October, 1899, with about thirty-five employes, but at the end of two years the enterprise proved a failure and a reorgani- zation was necessary, which took place in 1901. The company was then organized on a new basis, with a directorate as follows: Julian A. Morris, P. H. Zimmerman, C. S. Avery, W. R. Guile, George E. Whitman, C. P. Newfang and J. Kimmel, while the officers elect- ed were: P. H. Zimmerman, President; C. S. Avery, Vice-presi- dent; Julian A. Morris, Treasurer; and W. R. Guile, Secretary. P. H. Zimmerman resigned the presidency in 1904 and was succeeded by John Kimmel, and John A. Bennett was elected to the vice- presidency on the 6th of January, 1905, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of C. S. Avery. The present plant of the Wayland Canning Company occupies four acres of ground, the buildings are large and commodious, fitted with modern machinery for the ac- complishment of their growing business, and three steam engines, ranging from eighty-five to thirty and fifteen horse-power, are used, besides the electric forty horse-power from the city, and all these are called into active service during the canning season. One hundred and fifteen operatives are employed. The plant is prov- ing a great acquisition to Wayland's commercial industry, and directed by its present board of substantial and influential business men it is destined to attain to still greater proportions. In addition to their regular canning business they have six silos, which re- ceive and preserve the husks and offal from the factory, and the product finds a ready market in the farmers for stock feeding pur- poses. The plant is situated on the line of the Erie Railroad.
W. R. Guile, the secretary and general manager of the Way- land Canning Company, has been a resident of Wayland during the past sixteen years, and during twelve years of that time he has served on the city's school board and at the same time was the trustee of the borough. But he is a native son of Livingston coun- ty, New York, born September 12, 1855, and he was reared and educated there and yet owns the old Guile homestead of eighty- five acres. The family have for generations been loyal citizens of the old Empire state. W. R. Guile wedded Miss Linda Robinson in 1878, and their three children are Lucinda H., Florence B. and
W. R. Guile
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Orton R. He is a worthy member and one of the board of trus- tees of the United Evangelical church, and is also affiliated with the Masonic fraternity in Wayland.
CHARLES CADOGAN .- Among the older residents of Hornell, Steuben county, New York, who have not retired from active busi- ness life is Charles Cadogan, at the present time incumbent of the responsible position of president of the Citizens' National Bank. As the head of this popular financial institution he has done much to further its stability and to increase its scope of operation.
Charles Cadogan is a native of Steuben county and was born at Canisteo September 10, 1838, a son of Abram and Jennie ( Whit- wood) Cadogan, the former of whom was born in Cortland county, New York, and the latter in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Cadogan became the parents of four children-two boys and two girls-and of the number Charles was the second in order of birth. During the major portion of his active business career the father was engaged in building operations, and both he and his wife are now deceased, the former having been summoned to eternal rest in 1892 and the latter having passed away in 1889.
Mr. Cadogan completed the curriculum of the common schools of his native town and he initiated his independent business career as a clerk in the grocery establishment of Ely & Brown, located at the corner of Broad and Main streets, Hornell. Later he held the position of yard master for the Erie Railroad Company, with headquarters in Hornell, for a period of twelve years. In the autumn of 1868 he entered into a partnership alliance with J. W. Nicholson and they succeeded to the business established by Ely & Brown. For nearly a score of years the firm of Cadogan & Nichol- son carried on a successful mercantile enterprise and it rapidly gained precedence and distinctive prestige as one of the leading establishments of its kind in the county. In 1887 Mr. Cadogan became interested in the banking business and in October of that year he was elected president of the Citizens' National Bank, as already noted. The other officers of the bank are: J. M. Finch, vice-president ; and J. E. B. Santee, cashier. The bank was incor- porated under the laws of the state in 1882, with a capital stock of $100,000.00, its surplus and undivided profits amount to $52,000.00 and its deposits aggregate $565,000.00. Mr. Cadogan has gained recognition as one of the conservative business men of the county and he has a widespread reputation for fair and honor- able methods in all business transactions. He is a Republican in his political proclivities, warmly advocating the party principles, although he is not an active politician. He has devoted himself assiduously to his business interests and has not sought political office. He holds membership in the Universalist church, to whose charities and benevolences he has contributed in generous measure. As a man he is thoroughly conscientious, of undoubted integrity, affable and courteous in manner.
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In 1859 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Cadogan to Miss Corinne Sweetland, who was born and reared in Livingston county, and who is a daughter of David and Amanda Sweetland, long citizens of Hornell. Mr. and Mrs. Cadogan have five children, concerning whom the following brief data are here incorporated,- Mary is the wife of F. E. Williams and resides at Hornell; Anna C. married C. W. Etz, who is cashier in the Steuben Bank at Hornell; Bertha R. remains at the paternal home; Gertrude is the wife of J. H. Wynne and they reside in New York City; and Lucy remains at home. Mr. and Mrs. Cadogan reside at 103 Genesee street, Hornell.
JOHN F. PARKHURST .- One of the distinguished citizens of Steuben county was the late Judge John Foster Parkhurst, who was numbered among the representative legists and jurists of the state and who was a member of its supreme court at the time of his death, which occurred at his home in the city of Bath on the 21st of February, 1906. He was a man of scholarly attainments and one whose character was moulded on a large and generous scale. His course was guided on a lofty plane of integrity and honor, he viewed all things in their correct proportions, and an exalted de- votion to duty was emphasized in every stage of his long and use- ful career, so that he well merited the implicit confidence and esteem in which he was held by his fellow men.
John Foster Parkhurst was born at Wellsboro, Tioga county, Pennsylvania, on the 21st of February, 1843, and was a scion of distinguished Colonial families of our great American republic. George Parkhurst, the founder of the family in America, came from England to the New World in 1635 and established his home in Watertown, Middlesex county, Massachusetts. John Park- hurst, son of Josiah Parkhurst, Jr., and grandfather of the sub- ject of this memoir, was born in Massachusetts on the 2d of May, 1760. In 1777 he manifested his intrinsic loyalty and patriotism by enlisting for service in the Continental line in the war of the Revolution. He was first assigned to duty in guarding army stores at East Sudbury, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, and in April, 1878, he enlisted in Captain Holmes' company of the regi- ment commanded by Colonel Jonathan Reed. This was the first regiment assigned to duty in guarding British prisoners of war. John Parkhurst received his honorable discharge on the 4th of July, 1778, and he then re-enlisted, for a term of six weeks, in a company commanded by Captain Amos Perry. In July, 1780, he enlisted in Captain McFarland's company of Colonel Harris' regiment, with which he served in Rhode Island, and he received his final dis- charge on the 30th of October, 1780.
Judge Parkhurst was a son of Dr. Curtis and Jane Ann (Kas- son) Parkhurst, the former of whom was born at Marlborough, New Hampshire, on the 2d of July, 1794, and the latter of whom was born at North Adams, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, on
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the 5th of April, 1811. The parents passed the closing years of their lives at Lawrenceville, Tioga county, Pennsylvania, where the father died on the 5th of June, 1872, and the mother on the 20th of October, 1887. Dr. Curtis Parkhurst was a physician and surgeon of splendid ability, and during the many years of his de- votion to the work of his profession he maintained his home at Lawrenceville, where his name is held in affectionate memory. He was graduated in the Medical school of Dartmouth College as a member of the class of 1819. In 1828-9 he represented Brad- ford and Tioga counties in the state legislature, as did he also in 1830, after the consolidation of the two counties into one district. In 1840 he was elected sheriff to Tioga county, and in this office he served from 1841 to 1844. On the 15th of March, 1847, the governor of Pennsylvania appointed him associate judge of the court of common pleas of Tioga county, for a term of five years, and he made an admirable record on the bench, having been a man of broad mental ken, mature judgment and excellent knowl- edge of law. He was an influential and honored citizen and did much to further the progress of his home county and state. He was one of the prime factors in effecting the construction of Tioga Railroad from Corning, New York, to Blossburg, Tioga county, Pennsylvania.
Alvin Hall, maternal grandfather of Mrs. Jane Ann (Kasson) Parkhurst, was a loyal soldier of the Continental forces in the war of the Revolution, in which he served at Fort Champlain in 1777. He enlisted for a second term and in 1780 he took part in the bat- tle of Stone Arabia, New York, in which engagement his colonel and forty members of his regiment were killed.
Judge Parkhurst was the fifth in order of birth in a family of eight children, and he was afforded the advantages of a home of marked culture and refinement. He attended the schools of Lawrenceville and thereafter continued his studies under the direc- tion of a private tutor. In 1863 he came to Bath, Steuben county, where he began reading law under the effective preceptorship of Judge Guy Humphreys McMaster, one of whose daughters he later married. In 1865 he was admitted to the bar and he forthwith en- gaged in the general practice of his profession at Bath, where in 1872 he formed a partnership with his honored preceptor, Judge McMaster, under the firm name of McMaster & Parkhurst. This admirable professional alliance continued without interruption un- til the death of Judge McMaster, to whom an individual memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work, and thereafter Judge Parkhurst continued in individual practice, retaining a large and representative clientage. In 1897 Governor Black appointed him judge of the state court of claims, and this position he retained until 1901, when he was appointed to the bench of the supreme court of the state, for the seventh judicial district. In 1902 he was elected to this same high office, of which he continued incumbent until his death. The profundity of his legal knowledge and the
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eminently judicial cast of his mind made him specially strong as a jurist, and upon the supreme bench he rounded out a career of signal honor and distinction.
In politics Judge Parkhurst accorded an unwavering al- legiance to the Republican party, and he was an effective exponent of its principles and policies. From 1889 until 1902 he was chair- man of the Republican committee of Steuben county, and from 1889 until his appointment to the supreme bench he served as a member of the Republican state central committee of New York. He was a delegate to the national conventions of his party in 1888, 1892 and 1896, and was one of its recognized leaders in his section of the state. As editor of the Steuben Courier from 1890 until he was summoned from the scene of life's mortal endeavors he made that paper an effective exponent of the cause of the Republican party and of the general interests of the community. He wielded much influence in public affairs and also in connection with material enterprises of important order. He was vice-president of the Farmers' & Mechanics' Bank of Bath and vice-president of the Bath & Hammondsport Railroad Company. In 1894 he was a delegate from the state at large to the state constitutional conven- tion, in which he served as a member of the judiciary and suf- frage committees and as chairman of the committee on county, township and village offices. He was a zealons member of the Presbyterian church, as is also his widow, and was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Judge Parkhurst had traveled ex- tensively in Europe and throughout the United States, and he profited duly by the broadening influences of such diversion. His life was guided on the loftiest plane of integrity and honor and he brought to bear the splendid equipment of a broad intellectual- ity and high purpose in all the relations of life, so that his career offers both lesson and incentive.
On the 22d of July, 1886, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Parkhurst to Miss Alice A. McMaster, daughter of the late Judge Guy H. McMaster, of whom individual mention is made elsewhere in this volume. Of this union were born two children, - Juliet, who died at the age of eighteen months, and Guy McMaster Parkhurst, who is a member of the class of 1912 in Cornell Univer- sity, at Ithaca, New York. Mrs. Parkhurst is a prominent and valued factor in connection with the best social activities of her home city, and her home has long been a center of gracious hospi- tality.
GEORGE W. JOHNSON .- Noteworthy not only as a life-long resi- dent of Steuben county, and the son of a life-long resident of this part of the Empire state, but as one who has performed his full share in advancing the agricultural and industrial prosperity of his community is George W. Johnson, a son of Silas H. Johnson, born in Howard, November 29, 1848.
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Born and brought up in Yates county, New York, Silas H. Johnson came to Steuben county in 1843. The following two years he taught school in Howard. He married Adelia Bennett, Septem- ber 1, 1847. She was the daughter of Benjamin Bennett, one of the first settlers in Howard. They resided for many years on a farm in Howard, and late in life moved to Hornell. Silas H. John- son died August 7, 1900. His wife survived him but four days. They reared a family of five children: George W. Johnson (sub- ject of this sketch), Frances A., widow of Byron Kysor, Launa M., who died December 16, 1871, in the twentieth year of her age; Clymenia, wife of Daniel S. Kysor of Galesburg, Illinois, and Fred A., who was born May 10, 1861, and died May 1, 1889, unmarried.
George W. Johnson located in Fremont soon after his mar- riage to Bernice Jane Kysor, and successfully engaged in general farming until 1900, when he moved to the city. He takes an ac- tive and intelligent interest in public affairs and is a member of the Hornell Lodge No. 44 of F. & A. M.
Mr. Johnson married in 1872, Bernice Jane Kysor who was born August 22, 1847, at Woodsville, Town of Sparta, Livingston county, New York. Her father, Archibald Kysor, was born in 1805. He was a millwright by trade and he built the J. C. Will- iams' mill at Dansville; the Ullyette Mill at Woodsville; the Alley Mill at Howard; the Alley Mill at Hornell, and a large sawmill at White Hall, Michigan, and many others. He shipped much of his flour to Albany, by the old Erie Canal. He married Calista H. Sill, and eight children were born to them.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are the parents of three children, name- ly: Kittie Launa, Adelia Augusta and Jessie Benton.
MORTIMER W. READ is one of the honored and useful citizens of Wheeler, Steuben county, New York. This well-known farmer and jobber was born March 16, 1840, on the old Darius Read farm in Urbana, this county. This Darius Read, grandfather of the sub- ject, when a boy of twelve years came with his father from Massa- chusetts to Urbana, and near that point the elder gentleman took up a claim of two hundred and five acres of land, which he cleared from the forest and converted into a home for his family. There four generations of the family lived, the great-grandfather and grandfather, as above mentioned, and the subject and his father, both of whom were born on this estate. The father, Thomas M. Read, was born in the old house erected by his forbears and its ancient walls were the first scene upon which the young eyes of Mortimer W. opened. Thomas M. Read married Hannah Hill and became the father of four children and subsequently went west locating at Grand Rapids in the state of Michigan, and working at his trades, carpentering and blacksmithing. His wife, who was a native of Urbana, died October 4, 1854, at the age of thirty- nine years. Thomas M. Read was a veteran of the Civil war in
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