USA > New York > Oneida County > Steuben > A narrative history of Remsen, New York, including parts of the adjoining townships of Steuben and Trenton, 1789-1898 > Part 27
USA > New York > Oneida County > Remsen > A narrative history of Remsen, New York, including parts of the adjoining townships of Steuben and Trenton, 1789-1898 > Part 27
USA > New York > Oneida County > Trenton > A narrative history of Remsen, New York, including parts of the adjoining townships of Steuben and Trenton, 1789-1898 > Part 27
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ROBERT HUMPHREY, son of Humphrey Jones, came from Aberdaron, Wales, in 1833, and settled at Ninety Six. His wife was Gaenor, daughter of Thomas Jones. Children: Catherine, John, James, Humphrey, Ann, and Thomas. Mr. Humphrey mar- ried, second, Rachel Reed. John Humphrey married Martha, daughter of Robert R. Jones. Children: Rob- ert, Jane, Lena, Ida, Ulysses S. and Lewis J.
NATHANIEL MANCHESTER, son of Stephen, came from Rensselaerville, Albany county, between 1830 and 1835, locating on a farm in Ninety Six, owned by Broughton White of Remsen. He married Hannah Lewis from the Mohawk Valley, who was of Holland Dutch extraction. Their children were Elizabeth, who became the wife of John Smith; Mary, first wife of James Michael; Lydiaette, wife of Peter Smith; George, a soldier of the civil war; William; John; and Lewis. The family removed to Syracuse in 1847, where Mr. and Mrs. Manchester died. Stephen Manchester, father of Nathaniel, born in 1762, was a revolutionary veteran, and a pensioner here in 1840, living at the home of his son.
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REV. EVAN EVANS was born March 25, 1803, at New Castle, South Wales. He was educated for the ministry at Newtown, married Mary J. Williams at Bangor, North Wales, April 6, 1827, and set sail for America, arriving at New York May 29, the same year. They had six children-four sons and two daughters. Mr. Evans' first pastorate in this country was at Riverhead, L. I., whence he came to Remsen as pastor of the Whitfield Methodist Church in the village. He died at Radnor, Ohio, near the close of the civil war. His son, Edward Payson Evans, who was born here, is the distinguished scholar and writer. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1854, and soon after went south, where he taught school one winter at Taylorsville, Ky., going from there to Herndon, Miss., where he took charge of an academy for boys, also teaching the graduating class of young ladies of the Mississippi Female College, located at that place. After a year there he was appointed to a professorship in Carroll College, Waukesha, Wis., where he was also principal of an academy for young ladies. From 1857 to 1860 he studied in Germany, principally at the Universities of Göttingen and Munich. Returning to this country he was appointed professor of modern languages and literature at the University of Michigan.
In 1868 Mr. Evans married Elizabeth Edson Gib- son, of New Hampshire, a woman of rare literary talent, who, in 1870 accompanied him to Germany, where he continued to live for thirty years, engaged in writing an elaborate history of German literature from the earliest times to the present day. Mr. Evans has also translated into English many German works of high character, and has written regularly for the North American Review, The Nation, the
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Atlantic Monthly, Unitarian Review, and many other American periodicals, being also a regular contribu- tor to many of the best journals in Germany. While residing abroad, he devoted much time to the study of Oriental languages, Sanskrit, Zend, and Modern Per- sian, and published many articles on Oriental subjects, both religious and literary. Mrs. Evans contributed verse and prose to newspapers and magazines, and her published books included several novels of merit.
REV. MORRIS ROBERTS was born in the parish of Llangower, near Bala, Merionethshire, North Wales, May 10, 1799, and came to this country in July, 1831, the first two years after his arrival being spent in Utica. He had attracted much attention in Wales as a brilliant and eloquent preacher, and, it is said, caused considerable agitation among the Welsh Cal- vinistic Methodists because he was alleged to cherish views in regard to the Confession of Faith that were unorthodox, views that in these days would seem to be as conservative as they were advanced at that time. However, he made answer to charges of heresy, and his theological opponents pursued him with their charges to this country. The family moved from Utica to Remsen in 1833, and Mr. Roberts, after serv- ing the Calvinistic Methodist Church here for two years, severed his connection with that body and affiliated himself with the Congregationalists, establishing a church in the village, where he labored with great zeal and success for thirty-two years. He had a com- pelling and natural eloquence, which, added to a pow- erful personality, made him not only a strong man in the pulpit, but a factor and leader in public life. He died in Remsen, June 30, 1878.
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Edward Roberts, son of Rev. Morris and Margaret Roberts, was born in Denbighshire, Wales, Decem- ber 21, 1828, and came to this country with his par- ents in 1831, and to Remsen two years later. He attended the public school here during his boyhood, afterward was a student at Whitestown Seminary, and later matriculated at Union College, Schenectady, from which he was graduated. For a time thereafter he was engaged in educational work, subsequently entering upon a business career in New York city. Later he was appointed to a position in the New York custom house, where he spent twenty-five years, and afterward engaged in business in Remsen, and Waterville, N. Y., and at Dalton, Ga. As a vocalist and composer he gained much distinction. While residing in New York he was director of the choir in the church presided over by the late Dr. Samuel Burchard, and was also singing leader for several years in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, during the pastorate of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. He gave instructions in vocalism, wrote note-books for use in singing-schools, composed the music for many of Miss Fanny Crosby's selections, and was the author of a Sunday school hymnal, and other musical works. The music of "Ninety and Nine," the popular religious song, was written by him, and his name may be found attached to many selections in church song books now in usc. He married Mary Abbott, of New York, and their children were Edward M., Josephine M., and Wil- liam Abbott. Mr. Roberts died at San Diego, Cal.
OLIVER HIGBY was an early resident of the township of Remsen, coming from East Creek, near Dolgeville, N. Y. For many years he was proprie- tor of a hotel located on the turnpike, five miles north
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of Remsen village. He married a Miss Hewitt, and they reared a family of twelve children, as follows: Sally, who married a Mr. Kibbe; Jeanette; Truman; George; Eliza, who married William E. Lewis; Maria; Mary Ann, who married a Mr. Knowlton; Merrill; William; Serena, who married a Dr. James; Richard; and James. After the death of Mr. Higby, his widow and sons conducted the hotel for several years.
DR. GEORGE POMEROY BRIDGEMAN was born at Northampton, Mass., November 2, 1813. When he was twelve years old his father removed with his family to Leyden Hill, Lewis county, and George walked the entire distance, except a ferry ride across the Hudson river at Albany, driving two cows. He was the son of Oliver and Elizabeth (Pomeroy) Bridge- man, the former, born in Northampton, April 23, 1786, and died in 1855; the latter, born in Westhamp- ton, Mass., March 22, 1787, died in 1853. On April 10, 1835, Dr. Bridgeman married Sarah Ann Hatch, bern February 11, 1818. Their children were James Henry, born November 2, 1836, married Cordelia Paddock, July 4, 1857; George Oliver, born April 13, 1841; Albert, born September 27, 1843, drowned at Remsen, November 9, 1847; Sarah E., born Sep- tember 5, 1850, married Albert E. Merrill, Novem- ber 17, 1868, and died August 25, 1910.
After practicing dentistry in Remsen for many years, Dr. Bridgeman removed to Carthage, N. Y., and later to Boonville, where he resided until his death, May 29, 1885, and his wife died September 1, 1900.
REV. ERASMUS W. JONES was born in the par- ish of Llanddeiniolen, Carnarvonshire, North Wales, December 17, 1817. On May 29, 1832, in company
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with his brother William, he sailed for America from the port of Carnarvon, and after a boisterous passage of nine weeks and two days landed in New York. Here he remained something over two years, when with the family of his brother John, who had preceded him to this country, he removed to Trenton. In the fall of 1838 he became a resident of Remsen, working here at his trade of tailor with the late John Edmunds. Mr. Jones was soon recognized as a singer of much merit, taking prominent soloist parts in concerts, and actively interesting himself as a worker in the tem- perance cause; also he identified himself with the anti- slavery movement, which then was decidedly unpopu- lar and called for no little moral courage in its adher- ents. The best citizens and most devoted church mem- bers viewed it with great displeasure, considering the Abolitionists a deluded and dangerous faction. But how these honest despisers of the anti-slavery cause eventually came to see their mistake, becoming fear- less defenders of what they had formerly denounced, are well known facts of general history.
In the summer of 1848, Mr. Jones entered the min- istry of the English Methodist Episcopal church, in which regular ministry he was actively engaged for thirty-eight years. In 1852 his conference gave him permission to visit his native land, after an absence of twenty years. In 1864 he was appointed chaplain of the 21st Reg't, U. S. colored troops, and was hon- orably discharged at Charleston, S. C., April 25, 1866. In the fall of 1882, he became afflicted with almost · total deafness, and was obliged to give up his regular pastorate. In 1885 he visited the Welsh churches of Ohio and Wisconsin, where he received the warmest welcome. During his absence of three months he preached on an average seven times a week, almost
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wholly in his native tongue. In 1887 he again visited Wales and the scenes of his childhood, a tour that gave him unbounded satisfaction.
In 1856, Mr. Jones published "The Captive Youths of Judah;" in 1872, "The Adopted Son of the Prin- cess;" in 1886, "Llangobaith, A Story of North Wales;" and in 1890, "Gold, Tinsel and Trash, Stories of Coun- try and City." He was always an ardent friend of the Utica Eisteddfod, and once acted as its conductor. From year to year his Bardic Addresses before that body were well received, and he won many Eisteddfod prizes. At the international festival at Chicago, during the World's Fair, he took the one hundred dollar prize for the best translation into English of Llew Llyfo's dramatic poem, "Gwenwyfar," the ad- judicators speaking of the English version in terms of the highest praise; and subsequently he won a prize at the Pittsburgh Eisteddfod, for the best translation into English of an "Ode on Sympathy." His later years were spent in Utica.
REV. ROBERT EVERETT, D. D., who in 1838 came to Steuben as pastor of Capel Ucha', the Welsh Congregational church, was born in the village of Gronant, Flintshire, Wales, January 2, 1791. His life is briefly outlined in the history of his Steuben church, given elsewhere in these pages. He was a man of scholarly attainments, exemplary piety, and conscientious devotion to duty. Always in advance of his age, he was an earnest reformer and a leader in every good cause, and therefore by many was con- sidered an extremist. He lived, however, to see most of the reformatory measures he had given his ardent support, or had inaugurated himself, bear abundant fruit. On the questions of slavery and temperance,
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in the beginning he stood almost alone, though a large percentage of the people throughout this section became in sentiment and prosecution of the work en- thusiastically with him years before his death. His house is known to have served on occasion as a "sta- tion of the underground railroad," and, aided by him the fugitive slave found his way to the next "station" in his flight toward that goal, where, if he did but touch the soil and breathe the air, his shackles fell and he was free.
Dr. Everett came to this country in 1823, in response to an invitation of the Welsh Congregational Church of Utica, and for nine years he was its pastor. His standing in this section was no less elevated nor his labors less fruitful of good than they had been in Wales, where the purity of his character and the earnestness of his ministry, combined with his scholarship, ren- dered him beloved and admired, his reputation ex- tending throughout the Principality. He was the author of a Welsh catechism for Sunday schools, first published in 1822, which has been in constant use since, and many editions have been issued in Wales and America; and, in collaboration with others, he compiled a hymnal which was long in use in Welsh churches. In January, 1840, he issued the first num- ber of "Y Cenhadwr Americanydd" (The American Messenger), a Welsh religious monthly magazine, and was its editor and publisher for thirty-five years. This periodical had a wide circulation throughout the states and territories, the Canadas, and Wales, reach- ing sometimes even to Australia and India.
He married Elizabeth Roberts, of Rosa, near Den- bigh, Wales, August 28, 1816. Their children were Elizabeth, who married Rev. John J. Butler, D. D .; John R., who removed to the Territory of Kansas in
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the days of the "Free Soil" controversy, and was closely associated with John Brown in efforts to restrain the extension of slavery into that territory; Robert, Jr., who died at the age of thirty-four; Lewis; Jennie; Mary H., a graduate of the New York Medical Col- lege and Hospital for Women; Sarah A., who mar- ried William Prichard; Henry M .; Anna L .; Cynthia; and Edward W., of Emporia, Kas. Dr. Everett preached his last sermon February 12, 1875, and died on the 25th of the same month.
REV. THOMAS T. EVANS, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Evans, was born in the parish of Trefeglws, Montgomeryshire, North Wales, January 10, 1807. Early in the year 1840 Mr. Evans emigrated to this country, his first stopping place being Utica. On December 7 of that year he married there Catherine Davis, a native of Merionethshire, Wales, and soon after they took up their residence in Remsen. While here he continuously served the churches of Pen-y- graig and French Road. In 1847 he moved to Floyd, where he resided for twenty years, and preached for the church at Camroden. In 1870 he removed to Holland Patent, and for more than twenty years he preached in the Welsh Calvinistic church at that place, and at Floyd, Marcy, Bridgewater, Oriskany, Rome and other places. He died in Camroden in 1898, aged ninety-one years. His children were Taliesin, formerly clerk of Oneida county; Gomer, of Angus, Minn .; Mrs. John Evans, and Mrs. Sarah Evans, of Camroden; Mrs. D. D. Williams, of Rome; and Mrs. D. Spencer Anthony, of Sioux City, Iowa.
BENJAMIN F. GRAY was for many years a prom- inent and useful member of society in Remsen, where
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he carried on the merchant tailoring business. He married Maria, daughter of Edward Jenkins, removed to Racine, Wis., and later to St. Louis. Their chil- dren were William, George, Benjamin F., Jr., Willis, and Olin. Mr. Gray died in St. Louis December 28, 1905, aged eighty-nine years; Mrs. Gray having died several years prior
ELISHA BOOTH, son of Alexander Booth-the latter a revolutionary soldier-married Nancy Smith and came from New Haven, Conn. to Grant, Herki- mer county in 1812. The ancestors of Mr. Booth came to New England in 1637. About 1835, Elisha Booth took up his residence in Remsen village, and lived here until his death, about 1861. His children were Huldah, Stephen, Sackett, Sarah and James. Huldah died in Remsen, a few years since. She was a woman noted for her religious zeal and fervor.
JOHN EVANS came here in 1839 from Llanerch- y-medd, Anglesey, Wales. His children were William S., Owen S., Ann and Mary. For about two years after their arrival here the family lived at Sixty Acres, when they moved to a small farm north of Remsen, thence to what is known as "Old Steuben Station," from there to Welsh District, and during the'50s took up their residence in the village. William S., born August 14, 1825, in 1851 married Mary Cornelia, daugh- ter of Jacob Lewis, of Remsen. On January 4, 1854, there was born to them a daughter, Mary Cornelia, who married Fayette Patterson, of Milwaukee, Wis., where she died, leaving two sons. Mr. Evans was an active man throughout his life up to within four years of his death, which occurred at Hudson, Wis., Decem- ber 29, 1899. For some years prior to his removal to
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Hudson, in 1864, he was engaged in mercantile business in Remsen, in connection with his brother, the late Owen S. Evans, and was acting postmaster under Nathan Phelps, during President Buchanan's administration. Owen S. Evans was born in Wales, and came to this country with the family in 1839. For many years he was a prominent business man of the village, was postmaster for two terms, and a jus- tice of the peace for forty-five years. In the latter especially he proved a most efficient officer, having but two of his decisions reversed. He married Cather- ine, daughter of the late Jacob Williams, who was an early and respected resident of the township, by whom he had four children: Manzie, who married first, David R. Davies, and second, Alfred Langley; Jennie S., widow of the late John B. Jones, 2d .; John W., of Oswego; and George E., who died in infancy.
THOMAS WILLIAMS, from Bryn Polyn, Carnar- vonshire, came here between 1835 and 1840. He mar- ried in Liverpool, England, Susanna Roberts, Novem- ber 26, 1821. Their children were Ann, (Mrs. Lewis) born December 16, 1823; John, born August 20, 1827, married first, Mary, daughter of Rev. David Morris; Caroline, born September 24, 1833; Thomas, January 18, 1836; Price, February 20, 1838; Elizabeth, who mar- ried Lewis Francis, born January 13, 1841; and Louisa. Mr. Williams was one of the most scientific farmers of his time who came to these parts.
JOHN PUGH was long identified with the business interests of Remsen, where he was engaged for many years in harness-making. He was born in Wales, and being left an orphan at an early age was adopted by the late Daniel Morris, of Prospect, with whose family
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he came to this country. He married Eleanor, daugh- ter of David Jones, a most estimable woman, who was ever first to lend a helping hand whenever sick- ness or death invaded the home of any in the com- munity. Their children were Maria, who died March 18, 1908, aged sixty-four years; Nellie, who married Henry Jones, and who died July 7, 1870, aged twenty- two years; George E., who married Anna Wiggins, and died December 28, 1887, aged thirty-seven years. Mr. Pugh died April 5, 1890, aged seventy-eight; and his wife died October 7, 1879, aged sixty-seven years.
JOHN R. JONES, son of Robert R. and Eleanor (Morris) Jones, of Steuben, married Jeanette, daugh- ter of Edward Jones. He was engaged in mercantile trade here for some years, but died a comparatively young man. Their children were Anson E., who served in the civil war, and who married Eugenia Slocum; John Rechab; Catherine A .; Margaret, who married a Mr. Beckwith; and Hon. Ray Jones, a for- mer Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota. Mrs. Jones was a woman of inestimable worth to the community, ever ready to proffer her services in sickness, and pos- sessing an aptitude and skill in the care of the sick to a degree that even trained nurses of to-day might envy.
MAJ. SAMUEL DUSTIN was a unique character, widely known throughout this section. Originally he came from Connecticut and located a short dis- tance south of Boonville, where in early manhood he had a fine, well-stocked farm. But this he lost through misfortune, or more correctly through mis- management, in the train of which misfortune quickly
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followed; for the Major was one of those good-natured, companionable men, who could not resist the calls upon his comradeship by numerous congenial and only too often convivial associates, and neglected his farm to join in their revelries. Finally, after most of his worldly possessions had slipped from his grasp, he came to Remsen and bought a small plot of ground located about half a mile north of the village and east of the creek; and after the abandonment for religious purposes of the old "Red Church" that had been moved from Steuben, the Major bought the building for a dwelling and had it placed on his new purchase, and here was his home during the remainder of his life. We would observe that the Major's title was a legacy from "General Training" days, when he was a prom- inent figure in directing the maneuvers of the local militia, and, were they only available, his reminiscences of those times would now prove most entertaining reading.
In stage-coach days it once occurred that a horse belonging to the Utica and Watertown line was ser- iously injured here in one of his hind legs, by stepping through the defective flooring of a bridge or a broken sluice, and was left by the stage-driver with instruc- tions that he be shot. It was a large, powerful animal of prime age, and the pity of it all touched the Major's tender heart; so he requested that the horse be turned over to his care, which was granted. Taking the horse home with him, he improvised a sort of tackle and sling in which he suspended the animal so that his feet barely touched the ground, and then he suc- cessfully set the broken or dislocated ankle, and thus gained for himself a horse that did him good service for many years, notwithstanding the fact that its injured foot "toed out" at an angle of about forty-
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five degrees, and its ankle was in circumference nearly the size of a four-quart measure. The Major never urged the steed to a gait faster than a walk, and it was generally supposed that this was his speed limit; but we were once slyly informed by one of the village swains, who had taken advantage of the Major's early retiring to "borrow" the horse from the pasture, to give a young lady companion an evening drive, that the animal was a fairly good roadster when put to it.
In his later years the Major made a very superior ointment, which he sold in this and adjoining towns, and "Dustin's Salve" was among the proprietary reme- dies in many households. He also devised numerous little schemes for supplying his purse with ready money, among whien we remember was the trapping of squirrels, which he sold to the village boys for pets. The Major was of medium height, stockily built, and somewhat round-shouldered as he became advanced in years. In cold weather he always wore a suit and overcoat made from the skins of animals, home-tanned with the fur on, and his snow-white head was usually graced with a silk hat of a style cotemporary with the Tyler administration, or possibly earlier. As he drove the large club-footed horse attached to a light wagon, or as he walked the village streets, he presented an oddly picturesque figure, thus clothed in the time- honored mode of the esquimaux dignified by that sym- bol of modern-day civilization, the silk hat.
With his friends, and all who knew him were his friends, he was never at a loss for a joke, a funny story, or an amusing reminiscence; and when relating these his rotund figure would shake with his peculiar chuck- ling laugh, and the tears of mirth roll down his smoothly shaven ruddy cheeks, when he would then sit for a
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time ruminating in silence, except for a quiet chuckle now and then, his mind apparently dwelling on the incidents he had just related-and possibly comparing the circumstances of his earlier life with those of his later, for he would finally rouse himself and brush away the tears laughter had brought, exclaiming: "Well, they can never take the good times I've had away from me."
Having become old and therefore unable to earn much, he found it necessary to ask for credit occas- ionally, and was forced now and then to borrow a little money. These favors were readily granted, and usually with little expectation on the part of those who favored him of his ever being able to repay the indebtedness. However, only a short time before his death, a sum of money unexpectedly fell to him, and without delay he sought out every creditor, pay- ing him in full. Although he kept no formal record of accounts, he missed none whom he owed, and he knew to a penny the amount of his indebtedness to each.
His wife was Betsy, daughter of John Phillips, an early settler and prominent citizen of Steuben. They had two sons, Laurentius and Samuel, and possibly other children, though we have been unable to get their record. The Major died here in 1869 or 1870, aged over eighty years, and his widow survived him only a short time.
WILLIAM HICKS, who for a long time was pro- prietor of the Black River House, four miles north of Remsen, on the turnpike, later kept a hotel in Remsen village, on the south corner of Main street and the road leading to the depot. This hostelry was generally designated "The Upper Tavern," or hotel. The children of Mr. Hicks were Ruth, Rensselaer,
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