USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 17
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JAMES VINCENT is one of the largest dealers in cattle, and is one of the prosper- ous and enterprising farmers of this county. Hc is a son of Sampson and Rhoba (Smith) Vincent, and was born in Herkimer county, New York, December 14, 1818. His grand- father, Caleb Vincent, was a resident of Herk- imer county for a number of years, but was born in Providence, Rhode Island. By occu- pation he was a farmer, and died in Crawford county, Pennsylvania. He married, and had five children, four sons and one daughter. The maternal grandfather of James Vincent was a Mr. Smith, who was born near Utica, Oneida county, this State, where he died. Sampson Vincent (father) was born in Rhode Island, and came to this county in 1825, and located on a farm of three hundred and fifty acres in Sherman, which, with the help of a few hired men, he cultivated, in connection with running a saw-mill, the remainder of his life. In re- ligion he was a member of the Free Will Bap- tist church, and in politics belonged to the whig party first, then became an abolitionist, and later on joined the republican party. He served a short time in the war of 1812, being sta- tioned at Sackett's Harbor, this State, on the cast shore of Lake Ontario. Sampson Vin- cent married Rhoba Smith, by whom he had eleven children, eight sons and three daughters, all the daughters and two of the sons being dead. Of the sons living, Dressor B. lives in Cold Water, a manufacturing city in Branch county, Michigan, and having studied medicine, is a practicing physician there; Jeremiah H. is a farmer in Wyoming county, this State ; Walker B., William B., and Stephen D., are all farmers in Sherman ; also James.
James Vincent was educated in the common schools, and began his business career as a farm- er and a cattle dealer, having nearly always
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dealt extensively in cattle. He owns a farm of four hundred acres in Sherman, which he oper- ates. Some years he has bought and sold two thousand head of cattle. When the Sherman bank was organized in 1883, he was one of the first board of directors, and has been a promi- nent member of the directorate ever since. In politics he is a republican, and has served two terms as road commissioner. When he was twenty-five years old he was elected a jus- tice of the peace, but would not serve. James Vincent was married in 1845 to Ann Price, a daughter of Alexander Price, of Owaseo, N. Y., and by her has had three children, one son and two daughters : Jay S., who is a grad- uate of Eastman's business college in Pough- keepsie, New York, and a hotel-keeper at Eureka Springs, Ark. He is married, and has one son, Claude; Mary, married to Cornelius Myrick, formerly a hardware merchant, and now owns two large farms in Sherman; they have one child, a son, Preston R .; Adelaide, a graduate of Syracuse University, who is mar- ried to Almon Taylor, the principal of the Union school at Westfield, and has one son and one daughter : Vincent and Katheryn.
Jo JOSEPHUS H. CLARK, well known to
the citizens of Jamestown, for a number of years as president of the Board of Education, was born in Worcester eounty, Massachusetts, December 1, 1819. He attended the common schools of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in 1830 removed to Chautauqua county, to the town of Carroll. Five years later he came to Jamestown and learned the trade of foundry- man, at which he worked for about eight years as a day workman. In 1851 he purchased the foundry on Fourth street and has run it, and a machine-shop in connection with it ever since, employing some fifteen men. July 13, 1851, he married Jane Marsh, a daughter of Moses Marsh, formerly of Sutton, Massachusetts. Jo- sephus H. Clark is an active member of the
Republican party in Jamestown, and has served as one of the Board of village trustees, of which board he was president. For twenty-one years he had been prominently connected with the educational interests of Jamestown, and for fif- teen years has been president of the Board of education. He attends the Baptist church and has been one of the trustees of that church for over thirty years.
R EV. WILLIAM LYMAN HYDE, a min- ister of the Presbyterian church and a graduate of Bowdoin college, is a son of Capt. Henry and Maria (Hyde) Hyde, and was born at Bath, Maine, December 27, 1819. The first record that we have of the Hyde family in the United States is in 1636, when the name of William Hyde appears in the municipal affairs of Hartford, Connecticut. He soon thereafter removed to Norwich, that State, where he was frequently elected and served as a selectman. From him was descended General Elijah Clark Hyde, the paternal great-grandfather of Rev. W. L. Hyde, who was born on June 14, 1735, at Lebanon, Connecticut, where he died on the last day of the first year of the present century. He was the confidential friend of Gov. Trumbull and served as Washington's quartermaster-general during the Revolutionary war. His son Zabdial (grandfather) was born June 4, 1762, at Lebanon, served at cigliteen years of age in the closing struggles of the revo- lutionary contest and afterwards removed to Bath, Maine, where he died May 15, 1842. He married Mary Lyman and reared a family of eleven children, one of whom was Capt. Henry Hyde (father), who was born at Lebanon in 1792, and died at Bath, Maine, November 4, 1873. He was a book-seller by occupation, served as captain of an artillery company in the Maine militia for several years, held the office of notary public for several terms and was a whig in politics. He was twice married. His first wife was Maria Hyde, his third cousin, by
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whom he had one ehild-Rev. W. L. Hyde, and after her death he married Elizabeth Lov- ett, of Beverly, Massaelinsetts, who bore hin
William Lyman Hyde received his education at Bowdoin college, from which he was gradu- ated in the elass of 1842. Leaving college he completed his theologieal studies, entered the ministry of the Presbyterian church and was ordained May 4, 1849. He was first settled as a minister over the church at Gardner, Maine, in 1849, where he remained until 1856, when he aceepted the call of the Presbyterian church of Dunkirk, this county, of which he had charge for six years. At the end of that time (1862) he beeame chaplain of the 112th regiment, New York Vols. and served until the close of the war, when he aeeepted a call from the Presby- terian church at Ripley. He left Ripley in 1871 to become pastor of Sherman Presbyterian ehureh, with which he labored until 1874. For the next ten years he was principal of the high school at Ovid, N. Y. In 1884 he came to Jamestown, where he has been principally en- gaged in journalism ever sinee. Mr. Hyde is a republican in polities and a member and the chaplain of James M. Brown Post, No. 285, Grand Army of the Republic.
On May 4, 1852, Rev. W. L. Hyde married Franees E. Rice, granddaughter of Dr. Thomas Rice, circuit court judge of Wiscassett county, Maine. To their union have been born three sons-Dr. Henry Warren, a practicing physi- cian of Omaha, Nebraska, who married Naney Plato, of Sherman ; Wallace E., who died in infancy, and Captain Frederick W., born at Dunkirk, N. Y., and who is in command of the Fenton Guards of Jamestown, where he has been editor of the Jamestown Evening Journal for fourteen years.
C ORNELIUS W. MYRICK is a son of
Nehemiah and Abba D. (Reed) Myriek, and was born May 31st, 1846, in Chautauqua, three children-Henry, of Maine, and two who | Chautauqua county, N. Y. His grandfather died young.
was John Myriek, who was a native of Putnam county, N. Y., where he was a life-long resi- dent and a farmer by occupation. John Myriek married Hannah Merritt, by whom he had six children, three sons and three daughters. The maternal great-grandfather of C. W. Myrick was John Reed, who was a native of Middlesex county, Connecticut, where he spent his entire life, being by oceupation a farmer and blaek- sniith. He married Abbie Whitney and by her had four children, three sons and a daugh- ter. One of the sons was Moses Whitney Reed (maternal grandfather of C. W. Myrick), a native also of Middlesex county, where he ended his days. He studied for the ministry, but was compelled to abandon the idea of preaching on aceount of ill health and turned to teaching school for a few years. In his religious views he was a Presbyterian, being a member of the church of that denomination. Moses Whitney Reed married Polly Middle- brook and they had one child, a daughter. His wife dying, he married for his second choiee Hannah Haight, whose father was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and by her he had two children, both daughters : Miriam, married to William Dougherty, who is in business in New York; and Abba D. The mother of these two children died November 17th, 1886, aged ninety-three years. Nehemiah Myrick was born in Putnam, New York, September 3d, 1806, and for a few years was engaged in the river business on the Hudson, eoming to this eounty in May, 1838, and settling in Sherman, where he died August 6th, 1876. He entered the mereantile business in Sherman, but for several years followed farming in the town of Chautauqua. Politieally he was a republican, and firm in his convictions. Nehemiah Myriek was married October 24th, 1831, to Abba D.
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Reed, a daughter of Moses Whitney Reed, and a native of Connecticut, where she was born Jannary 16th, 1814, this union being blessed with four children, three sons and a daughter : Sylvanus H., who was born June 5th, 1833, married Mary L. Hawley, and lives on the old homestead in Chautauqua, where he cultivates the farm ; he served in the 112th regiment New York Volunteers a few months during the late civil war; Elmore, born March 10th, 1836, married to Martha Dutton, and lives in Sharps- burg, Pennsylvania, where he is a retired mer- chant ; Marion E., born December 9th, 1840; and Cornelius W.
Cornelius W. Myrick was educated in the common schools of this county, and began his business life as a hardware merchant in Sharps- burg, Pennsylvania, where he remained five years, and then came to Sherman and continued in the same business an equal length of time. He is now engaged in farming, owning two large farms. Politically he is a republican. Cornelius W. Myrick is married to Mary P. Vincent, a daughter of James Vincent of Sher- man, by whom he has one son, Preston R.
J. D. MAYNARD is one of the leading drug- gists and pharmacists in Fredonia, and has, by his own exertions, accumulated a very comfortable competency. He was born in On- tario county, New York, June 19, 1820, and is a son of John and Sarah (Putney) Maynard. His paternal grandfather, John Maynard, had four sons and one daughter : Elisha ; Needham ; John (father) ; Permelia and Joseph. The last named son was a house joiner in Lockport, Niagara county, this State, acquired considerable property and was one of the influential men in his section. John Maynard (father) was born in Goshen, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, in 1783, and was a mechanic and contractor until 1830, when he came to this county and settled in Charlotte, where he bought a farm of one hundred and forty acres. Prior to this trans-
action he had built a mile and a half of the Erie canal under the administration and super- vision of Governor DeWitt Clinton. He oc- cupied and cultivated this farm until his death, in 1862, aged seventy-six years. He was col- onel of a regiment in the war of 1812, and wor- shipfnl master in a lodge of F. & A. M. in Niagara county. In religion he was a member of the Christian church, first in Niagara county and then in Sinclairville, this county, of which he was a deacon for several years. He was always a conscientious and able man and filled local offices in his town. John Maynard mar- ried Sarah Putney, in 1805, and by her had seven children, four sons and three daughters : Abigail, who married Pascal Darling, a farmer in Michigan ; Almeda, married to Daniel Bur- gess, a merchant and extensive farmer in Wis- consin, where he owns eight hundred acres ; Needham, a farmer in Niagara county, this State, where he owns one hundred and sixty- five acres, was keeper of Loekport poor-house two years, married first, Polly Buzbee, second, Elmira Culver; Addison, a farmer in Gerry, and merchant in Ellington, this county, and re- moved to Michigan, married to Amanda Bron- son ; Adeline married Evison Maynard, a far- mer and speculator in Milwaukee, Wisconsin ; Elisha, who died young ; and J. D. Mrs. May- nard died in 1823, and John Maynard, the fol- lowing year, married Charity Andrew, a daugh- ter of Loudon Andrew of Royalton, Niagara county, this State, by whom he had six children, three sons and three daughters : John, a farmer in. Iowa, married to Lydia Smith ; Harrict married James Lacker, a farmer in Niagara county ; Daniel, a farmer in Wisconsin, married to Mary King of Niagara county, this State; Eliza married Jocl Fletcher, a farmer of Grecley, Colorado; Perry, farmer, but now a merchant in Iowa, married to Mary Fletcher ; Martha married to Job Reynolds, a wealthy re- tired gentleman in Iowa. The second wife of John Maynard, dicd in 1870.
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J. D. Maynard was educated at Sinclairville, this county, attending the common schools until he was eighteen years old and spending two years in the select schools. Being brought up on a farm, he worked at farming until he left school in 1840, and then labored at the bus- iness of carpenter and joiner in summer and taught vocal music in winter for eighteen years, two years in Pennsylvania and the remainder in this State. In 1862 he enlisted in Co. B., 112th regiment, New York Volunteers, of which he was first lieutenant, and served one year, during which time he was besieged twenty days by General James Longstreet's army, and par- ticipated in the battle of Deserted House, where the first man of the 112th regiment was killed. Lieutenant Maynard's health failing so as to in- capacitate him for service, he was honorably discharged May 28th, 1863, and in the follow- ing September he engaged in selling musical instruments, which business he continued for three years, then bought an apothecary store in Fredonia, a very fine three-story brick, now known as Maynard's drug-store, and has con- tinued in the drug business ever since, having one of the best selected and most complete lines of drugs, chemicals, etc., in the county, his average stock being worth seven thousand dol- lars. A farm of one hundred and thirty-eight acres in Sinclairville, is also owned by him. In religion he favors thie Presbyterian church, (Mrs. Maynard being a member), is a constant attendant upon its meetings, and contributes toward its support. He is a member of Holt post, G. A. R. in Fredonia.
J. D. Maynard was married September 30, 1845, to Amelia Bronson, a daughter of Samuel. Bronson, a farmer and mechanic of Sinclairville, this county, and this union was blessed by the birth of a daughter, Margaret, who was born Feb., 1847. She married Charles P. Ingersoll, a merchant at Jamestown, who is now in politics, having been in the Assembly for several years. He is also interested in the insurance business
in New York city. Margaret was drowned in Cassadaga lake with her three-year-old son, July 3, 1876. Mr. Maynard then took an orphan boy, three years old, who is a bright young man and has taken the name of Maynard.
H ON. HENRY C. LAKE, a successful finan- cier of Fredonia and an ex-member of the Assembly of New York, from the Second dis- trict of Chautauqua county, was born in that part of Gerry which is now included in the town of Charlotte, Chautauqua county, New York, May 30, 1823, and is a son of Calvin and Sarah (Mathers) Lake. The numerous Lakes throughout the United States are de- scended from three Lake families, one of which was of English origin, another of German lin- eage and the third of Irish descent. The sub- ject of this sketch traces his paternal ancestry back to three brothers by the name of Lake, who came from England to Massachusetts soon after the voyage of the " Mayflower" and the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Two of- these brothers returned to England, while the third brother remained and was afterwards killed by Indians. One of the descendants of this third brother was Henry Lake, grandfather of Hon. Henry C. Lake. Henry Lake was a resident of New Hampshire, and served in the Revolutionary war, and his son, Calvin Lake (father), was born in 1792 and died in Septem- ber, 1851. Calvin Lake was a native of New Hampshire, and in 1819 removed to the town of Gerry. Some years previous to his death he lost his sight. He married Sarah Mather, daughter of Ensebius Mather, of Vermont, who was a Revolutionary soldier and a lineal de- scendant of the celebrated Rev. Cotton Mather, who figured so conspicuously in the early history of Massachusetts and New England.
Henry C. Lake was reared on the farm, at- tended Fredonia academy, and after leaving school taught several terms in the public schools. While teaching he read law for the purpose of
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fully qualifying himself for business pursuits and not with any intention of entering the legal profession. In 1851 he removed to Charlotte Centre, in the town of Charlotte, where lie opened a general mercantile store and engaged in the manufacture of a wood-sawing machine for cutting railroad wood, besides giving some attention to various other lines of business. In 1865 he came to Fredonia, where he has resided almost uninterruptedly ever since and been en- gaged in various business enterprises. He was weigher for two years at the New York custom- honse, and then was appointed assistant surveyor of that port, which position he held for over four years. Mr. Lake was interested for some years in financial matters. He was one of the proprietors of the Union bank of Fredonia. He was also interested in the Chautauqua County Savings bank for several years as vice-president and director.
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On August 31, 1847, he married Margaret M. Ames, who is a native of New Hampshire. Their children are : Clarence H., assistant cash- ier of the Chautauqua County National bank and ex-sheriff of Chautauqua county ; Nellie C. and Mary M.
In political matters Mr. Lake is a republican and has held the various offices of his native town. He was elected in 1862 as a member of the Assembly from the Second district of Chau- tauqua county, was re-elected in 1863 and served two full terms as an assemblyman at a very try- ing and stormy period in the history of New York, when the duties and responsibilities of that position were as numerous and important as at any other time within the career of the Empire State since its colonial days.
H ONORABLE GEORGE BARKER, who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of New York, in the Eighth Judicial District, from 1868 to 1889, is one whose career well il- lustrates the great lesson that there are few ob- stacles which industry, energy, integrity and in-
tellectual ability cannot overcome. He was born at Venice, Cayuga county, New York, Novem- ber 6, 1823, and is a son of John A. and Phebe (Ogden) Barker. His parents were both of English ancestry, and his paternal grandfather served in the Revolutionary war, in Connecti- cut, and removed to Long Island, where he was widely known for his kindness, generosity and hospitality. His son, John A. Barker (father), was born in 1787 and died in Cayuga county in 1858. He learned the tanning business, whichi he followed in connection with farming, after removing, in 1810, to New York. " He was a man of activity and energy, of great force of character, prosperous in his business pursuits, of good repute and of considerable local influence in public affairs." In 1810, at Chenango Forks, Broome county, he married Phebe Ogden, who was born at Elizabeth, N. J., and passed away in 1860 in Cayuga county. She was a member of that Ogden family of New Jersey, which has produced so many eminent and distinguished men. One of the able jurists of this family was David Ogden, a graduate of Yale college and a judge of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, whose son, Hon. Abraham Ogden, one of the great jury lawyers of his day, was the founder of Ogdensburg, New York, and the father of Thomas Ludlow Ogden, who was the law part- ner of Alexander Hamilton and the legal ad- viser of the Holland Land company. Among the many other Ogdens of New Jersey who were distinguished divines, inventors and states- men, was United States Senator Aaron Ogden, who graduated at Princeton and served under Washington in the Revolutionary war.
George Barker grew to manhood on his father's farm and received his education in the common and select schools of his neighborhood and Aurora academy. He commenced the study of law in 1844, with David Wright, of Auburn, aud was admitted to the bar of that place in November, 1847. In January, 1848, he came to Fredonia, where he cutered upon the practice
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of his profession and where he has resided ever since. He was clerk of the village in 1850, 1851 and 1852, and served as president of the village in 1853, 1857 and 1858. In 1853 he was elected district attorney of Chautauqua county and again in 1862, but resigned before the ex- piration of his second terni. He devoted his time assiduously to the practice of his profession with good success until 1867, when he served as a member of the Constitutional convention of New York, of that year, and rendered good ser- vice on the committee of " the judiciary " and " the legislature and its organization." His colleague from Chautauqua county was Augustus
F. Allen. After the close of his labors in the Constitutional convention, he returned home and was elected during the same year as a justice of the Supreme Court of New York in the Eighth Judicial District, composed of the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Nia- gara, Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming, to suc- ceed Hon. Martin Grover, whose second term was then expiring. Judge Barker served his full term of ciglit years, was re-elected in 1875 for a term of fourteen years, and at its expiration, in 1889 retired from the bench. In the fol- lowing year, 1890, he was appointed and served as a member of the commission, consisting of thirty-eight members, created by an act of the legislature, to propose amendments to the article of the constitution relative to the judiciary sys- tem of the State, and to report their recommend- ations to the legislature for their action.
On October 13, 1857, Judge Barker married Achsah Elizabeth Glisan, of Frederick county, Maryland. They have one child, a daughter, Mary E., who is the wife of John Woodward, of Jamestown.
Judge Barker has never been a politician in the popular sense of the term, and while quiet and unostentatious in manner, he has never been lacking in the courage to express his convictions on public questions.
W ALTER W. HOLT, a lawyer of over forty years active practice before all the courts of the State of New York and senior member of the legal firm of Holt & Holt, of Dunkirk city, was born at Springfield, Otsego county, New York, September 24, 1821, and is a son of General Walter and Sarah (Van Benschoten) Holt. The Holts of New York trace their English lineage through the Connecticut family of that name, of which their family is a branch, and was founded by Deacon George Holt (grand- father), who removed from Connecticut to Ot- sego county, where he followed farming until his death, when eighty-six years of age. He was a democrat and an active member of the Baptist church. His son, Gen. Walter Holt (father), was born in 1791 and came with his parents about 1796 to Otsego county, where he died in 1867. Gen. Holt was an extensive farmer aud a large stock-raiser. He was a deacon of the Baptist church, served as a major- general in the New York Militia and was a man of energy and unusual will-power. He was a democrat until 1856, when he became a repub- lican and afterwards served for seven years as a justice of the peace. His wife, Sarah Holt, was a member of the Van Benschoten family of Ot- sego county, and a Baptist in religious belief ; she died in 1857, aged fifty-six years.
Walter W. Holt spent his boyhood days on the farm and received his early education in the common schools. He then entered Gilbertsville academy, but completed his academic course at Clinton academy of Oneida county, where the principal gave him charge of several classes while he attended there. Leaving Clinton academy he became principal, in 1845, of Akron High school, Ohio, and while there that year he aided in establishing a union school, and organ- ized the first teachers' institute ever held in the State of Ohio.
In 1847, while on his way to visit his father, he was taken sick at Fredonia, and after recov- ering from his sickness he was so favorably im-
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