USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 18
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pressed with this county that he decided to settle in it. He then read law with Stephen Snow, of Fredonia, was admitted to practice in the Su- preme Court of New York in 1849, and four years later opened an office at Fredonia, where he practiced until 1861. In that year he came to Dunkirk, where he soon acquired a lucrative practice, and where he now stands in the front rank of the resident lawyers of the city. He is an active democrat and was city counselor for several years, but resigned in 1882 in favor of his son, Walter D. Holt.
He married, in 1845, Mary S., daughter of Stephen Stewart, of Warren, N. Y., and who died in 1853, leaving one child, a daughter, Isabella S. On October 3, 1855, he united in marriage with Sarah S. Brown, daughter of Enos Brown, of Utica, New York. To this second union was born one child, a son, Walter D., who read law, was admitted to the bar, served as city counselor since 1883, and since 1879 has been a partner with his father in the practice of law.
In early life Mr. Holt was engaged in several extensive business enterprises, and furnished the stone used in the construction of several sections of the Erie & Lake Shore railroads, besides building a plank walk from Dunkirk to Fre- donia. He has been the counsel of the Chau- tauqua Assembly for over twelve years, and is also counsel of the Free Association of Cassa- daga Lake.
where he followed farming and harness-making and where he died in 1885, at the advanced age of ninety years.
William H. Walker was reared at Warsaw, where he received an academic education. In 1861 he enlisted in Co. K, 17th New York as a private and was afterwards promoted to ser- geant major of his regiment. He was at Han- over Court-house, Second Bull Run and Antie- tam, and was honorably discharged in June, 1863, having served the full term of his enlist- ment. He returned to Warsaw where he was in business until 1866, when he came to West- field and became a partner of L. Parsons in the drug business. Mr. Parsons died eighteen months later and Mr. Walker pur- chased the interest of Mr. Parsons' heirs in the business and since then has successfully con- ducted his drug store. He has a large stock of pure and carefully selected drugs, and en- joys a liberal patronage. Having received the appointment by President Harrison, as post- master of Westfield, he assumed the duties of the office on March 3, 1890, which office he has held with credit to himself ever since.
On September 3, 1863, he married Jeannette A. Taber, of Warsaw, New York. They have two children : Charles T., a graduate of Wil- liams college, now a teacher in the " Berkely school," New York City ; and Edward T., book-keeper of the National Bank of Westfield.
William H. Walker is a republican in poli- tics, but was never an office seeker, and as post- master of Westfield has endeavored to discharge faithfully every duty of his office. The West- field postoffice is the successor of Chautauqua postoffice, the first postoffice in the county, and was established on May 6, 1806, on the west side of the creek, with Col. James McMahan as postmaster. It continued until June 15, 1818, when it was discontinued, and Westfield post- office was established as its successor, with Fenn Demming as postmaster. The postmasters since
W ILLIAM H. WALKER, postmaster of Westfield, and a past commander of Wm. Sackett Post, No. 324, Grand Army of the Republic, was born at Warsaw, Wyo- ming county, New York, July 18, 1838, and is a son of William and Abigail E. (Ensign) Walker. His parents were natives of St. Albans, Vermont, where his father, William Walker, learned the trade of harness-maker. He served as a soldier from Vermont, in the War of 1812, and afterwards came to Warsaw, , then have been : Orvis Nichols, William Sex-
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ton, Rev. H. W. Beers, Dr. M. Kenyon, David Mann, Byron Hall, F. C. Borger, W. E. Wheeler, C. U. Drake, F. A, Hall, J. La Due, and the present incumbent, W. H. Walker. Mr. Walker is an active member of Wm. Sack- ett Post, No. 324, Grand Army of the Repub- lic, and the present secretary and past regent of Westfield Council, No. 81, Royal Arcanum.
H ARVEY MONTGOMERY is a descen- dant of a very old family in Ireland, which has sent several representatives to Amer- ica, who have become distinguished in military, naval, religious and political fields. He is a son of Ezekiel and Fidelia (Martin) Montgoin- ery, and was born in Hanover, Chautauqua county, New York, October 8, 1843. His father was a native of the eastern part of New York, born in 1800, and came to Chautauqua county, locating in Hanover in 1832.
By trade he was a mill-wright, and for a number of years was engaged in the manufac- ture of milling and grain-cleaning machinery, in partnership with two of his sons, Henry and Martin, under the firm name of E. Montgom- ery & Co. They continued in this business un- til 1866. He died in 1868, aged sixty-eight years. Politically he was a republican. Eze- kiel Montgomery married Fidelia Martin, by whom he had eight children. One son, Bald- win, lives in Silver Creek; another, Henry, died in Buffalo, October, 1887; and a third, Martin, in Newark, Ohio. Mrs. Montgomery was a native of eastern New York, born in 1806, and died in the autumn of 1886, aged eighty years. She was a member of the Pres- byterian church.
Harvey Montgomery was brought up in Sil- ver Creek, this county, and received a common school education. After leaving school he learned the machinist's trade, which he followed for the last thirty years. In March, 1886, he engaged as foreman in the establishment, where he still holds that position, and is considered
an expert, skillful and reliable workman with excellent executive ability. He is a member of the fire department, and also of Silver Creek Council, Royal Arcanum, No. 139.
Harvey Montgomery was married Novem- ber, 1871, to Helen Horton, a daughter of Albert Horton of Silver Creek.
JOSEPH W. HUNTLEY is a son of Michael and Mercy R. (Higgins) Hunt- ley, and was born in Lyme, Connecticut, April 21, 1812. His grandfather, Reuben Huntley, was also a native of Connecticut, but emigrated to Chenango county, this State, where he passed the remainder of his days as a farmer. In politics he was a democrat. Sylvanus Higgins (maternal grandfather) was a native of Lyme, where he spent his life on a farm. Michael Huntley (father) was born in Lyme on October 27, 1777, and for a few years followed farming as an occupation. He then sought the sea for a livelihood, and became captain of a merchant vessel running between New York city and the West Indies, and during a passage home from the latter port, died of yellow fever, January 23, 1818. Politically he was an old-line whig. In 1800 he married Mercy R. Higgins and had five children, all of whom are dead except Joseph W.
Joseph W. Huntley was educated in the com- mon schools of his native town, and after leav- ing school began the life of a sailor, which he followed until twenty-three years of age, when, in 1836, he exchanged the tempestuous king- dom of Neptune for the more quiet and peace- ful realm of Ceres by coming to Sherman, this county, and buying a farm of two hundred acres in the primeval forest, where an axe had never been scen, which he cleared and cultivated until April, 1881, wlien, feeling he was justly entitled to enjoy the harvest of his labors in a serene old age, he moved into the village of Sherman, where he has since resided. In his political opinions he is a republican, and lias-
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held the offices of road commissioner and assessor several terms.
Joseph W. Huntley was married on October 10, 1835, to Mary E. Reed, a daughter of Ely Reed. To this union have been born three children, two sons and one daughter : Sylvanus H., who died at seven years of age; William R., who married Delia Frost, of Cherry Creek, and is a farmer in Sherman; and Elizabeth M.
A LBERT C. WIDMAN, one of the suc- cessful and enterprising young business men of this city, was born in Dunkirk, Chau- tauqua county, N. Y., September 15, 1860, and is a son of Charles and Sabina (Hiller) Wid- man. His father was a native of Heiningen, Germany, and was born in 1827. He was brought up in his native country, receiving his education in the schools there, after which he taught school. He then learned the trade of a pattern-maker, and in 1853 emigrated to Can- ada, where he resided in Quebec for one year. He came to the United States in 1854 and located at Dunkirk, where he spent the re- mainder of his life. As a pattern-maker he worked in the Brooks locomotive works for twenty years, at the expiration of which time hc engaged in the grocery business with William Wyman, the firm-name being Widman & Wy- man. At the end of two years he withdrew from the firm and went into the same business alone, in which he remained during the rest of his life. He was a very successful business man, and built a handsome two-story briek block, using the ground floors for his business and tlic second story as his private residence. The block was erected in 1874 at the corner of Railroad Avenue and Courtney Street. Politi- cally he was a democrat, and dicd July 25, 1889. In 1847 he married Sabina Hiller, a native of Ulm, Germany, who was born July 21, 1822, and now resides in Dunkirk with Albert C. They were the parents of four chil- dren, two sons and two daughters.
Albert C. Widman was reared in Dunkirk, received his education in the public schools, and in 1889 bought his father's saloon and groecry business and still continues at the old stand. He not only has a most excellent trade, but adds materially to his revenue by handling flour and feed. In politics he is a democrat, has served as inspector of cleetion boards, and is a promising and popular young man.
Albert C. Widman was married, May 28, 1889, to Nellie Westerberg, daughter of S. J. Westerberg, of Hartfield, this county. This union has been blest with one child, Barbara L., who was born September 16, 1890.
JOHN HILLIARD is one of the men to whom several of the best citizens and firms of Dunkirk owe the solidity and durabil- ity of their residences and places of business. He was born on Staten Island, New York, October 26, 1842, and is a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Tims) Hilliard. His father, Samuel Hilliard, was of Quaker ancestry, born in New Jersey, in 1808, spending his early youth in that State and in Philadelphia, Pa. He was a contracting mason by occupation, moved to Staten Island in 1839, where he worked at his trade until 1844, moved to and resided in Buffalo until 1849 and then came to Dunkirk to complete the Loder House, which was opened to the public late in 1850, when the Erie rail- road was completed to Dunkirk. He moved his family here in 1850, and for twenty-three years was foreman of the masons in the employ of the western division of the Erie railroad. In religion he was an attendant at the Episcopal church and politically was a democrat. He was a member of the Board of Education at Dunkirk for two years and was a very energetic man. In 1839 lie married Elizabeth Tims, a native of England, who came to America when quite young, and they were the parents of ten children, six sons and four daughters. Mr. Hilliard died in 1882, at the age of seventy-four
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years, and Mrs. Hilliard in 1884, aged sixty- three years.
Jolin Hilliard came to Dunkirk with his parents in October, 1850, and received his edu- cation in the common schools of that place. He then learned the trade of a mason and for the last twenty years has been engaged in con- tracting and building, and among the buildings which show his handiwork are the Avery, Book- staver, Brooks and Hinman residences, St. Mary's Retreat, the offices and additions of the Brooks Locomotive Works and scores of others. Since the organization of the Brooks Locomo- tive Works in 1869, he has done all their mason work and is accounted as skilled a workman as this section affords. He is a member of St. John's Episcopal church, of which he is also a vestryman, is a democrat in politics and has been a member of the common council. He is a member of Dunkirk Chapter, No. 191, R. A. M., and Dunkirk Council, No. 25.
John Hilliard, on May 1st, 1872, was mar- ried to Alice Cruser, a daughter of Samuel Cruser, of Dunkirk, and to their union have been born three children, one son and two daughters : Maud, Ethel, and John, whose ages are respectively, eightcen, sixteeu and nine years.
F RANK EDWARD GIFFORD, a son of Horace H. and Rhoda (Steward) Gifford, was born November 6, 1845, at Wrightsville, Warren county, Pennsylvania. His paternal grand father was William Gifford, one of the pio- neers of Chautauqua county, and one of its most respected citizens.
Frank E. Gifford received his education, after the common schools, at the Fredonia Academy, and at Fort Edward, New York. He developed marked business tastes early in life, and at the age of sixteen began a career for himself. During the war he held a respon- sible position in the quartermaster's depart- ment at Albany, N. Y. After business ven- tures in New York City and elsewhere, he |
returned, in 1870, to Jamestown, where his family all reside, giving his attention to the Jamestown Cane-seat Chair Works. In 1880 he, with his brothers Charles H. and William S. Gifford, bought the entire plant, and F. E. Gifford became president of the company, which office he still holds.
On June 29, 1881, Mr. Gifford was married to Miss Josephinc Fenton, daughter of Gov- ernor R. E. Fenton, of New York. To them have been born two children. Governor Fenton died August 5, 1885, leaving a large estate, of which Mr. Gifford was executor. He succeeded Govcruor Fenton to the presidency of the First National Bank of Jamestown, and still retains the office.
Mr. Gifford is a democrat politically, a man of large ideas and wide influence.
H' UGH W. THOMPSON, editor and pro- prietor of the Westfield Republican, the seventh established and now oldest newspaper of Westfield, is a son of Hugh W., Sr., and Eliza (McDowell) Thompson and was born at Westfield, Chautauqua county, New York, October 2, 1858. His parents are natives of County Down, Ireland, and came in 1851 to Westfield, where his father has followed car- pentering.
Hugh W. Thompson was reared at West- field, where he attended the academy of that place until he was eighteen years of age, when he went to Mayville and learued the trade of printer in the office of the Sentinel. In July, 1885, he returned to Westfield and worked on the Republican until May 13, 1889, when he purchased the paper of A. E. Rose, then its proprietor, and has published it ever since. The Republican was started April 25, 1855, by a company composed of G. W. Patterson, W. H. Seward, Alvin Plumb and Austin Smith. Its first editor was M. C. Rice, and its circulation under his charge was about one thousand copies.
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
Hugh W. Thompson has always been inde- first went to Genesee county, New York, and there married Elizabeth Kenyon, and a few pendent in politics, and is a member and for the last three years has been an elder of the : years after they removed to Monroe county, Westfield Presbyterian church. His paper is a folio, 30 by 44 inchies in size, has a circu- lation of one thousand copies and is a reliable weekly ; crisp, attractive and interesting.
The Westfield Republican, as its name im- plies, has always been and is republican in politics. It has always been aggressively re- publican, and has never been neglectful of the interests of Westfield or Chautauqua county. It has been so edited and conducted by Mr. Thompson as to command attention and re- spect from his political opponents, as well as to win support and advocates within his own party. He has succeeded in giving his county a clean and newsy sheet while establishing a fearless and successful organ in the interests of the party of Lincoln, Grant and Garfield.
JOHN K. DERBY, an aged citizen of Jamestown, Chautauqua county, New York, has resided here since 1836, and for many years was a painter, and conducted a paint and oil store here until 1866; he then sold out the business to his brother Silas S. Derby, who had been a partner for a number of years. Mr. Derby is the third son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Kenyon) Derby, and was born near Batavia, Genesee county, New York, Feb- ruary 9, 1816. He comes from two very old families. Phineas Derby (paternal grandfather) was one of two brothers who came from Eng- land and settled in Vermont ; he' followed farming until his death. He was active, politi- cally, and served in the Colonial army ; the maternal grandfather, Rouse Kenyon, was a native of Rhode Island, but removed to Gene- see county, near Batavia. Joseph Derby was born in the State, whose bosom holds the form of the glorious Ethan Allen, and he remained there until reaching manhood, when he left the place of his nativity and saw it no more. He
this State, and still later he removed to Warren county, Pennsylvania, and died there March 14, 1837. Mr. Derby gained a livelihood by farming and stone mason work. His marriage resulted in five children : Phineas, died October 6, 1887; Sylvanus, died in 1886; John K. and Silas S. Derby (see his sketch) reside in Jamestown, New York; William R. Derby resides in North Warren, Pennsylvania, where he is engaged in the butchering business.
John K. Derby was educated in the common schools of Monroe county, acquired the paint- ing trade at Rochester, New York, and was em- ployed in that city five years. He afterward, in 1836, came to Jamestown, and for twenty- eight years was proprietor of a paint and oil store. He then went out of active business, but since then has not been idle, but has been en- gaged in building and repairing his houses and has done considerable joiner's work and painting, besides building two steam yachts and a few row-boats for his own use on Chautau- qua lake.
He has been twice married, first to Ruth Smith, of Busti, New York, December 13, 1837, by whom he had two children, a son, Ami, died at the age of thirteen months ; and a daughter, Edna, who married N. A. Arnold and dicd when twenty-three years of age. His second was L. Antoinette Dill, by whom he has one child, I. Frederick Derby, born May 30, 1882. J. K. Derby is in more than comfortable circumstances, owning considerable real estate, houses and lots. Politically he is a repub- lican, his first vote being cast for Martin Van Buren, when that gentleman ran for Presi- dent. He has held no office except that of poor-master for ten years, and a trustee of the Jamestown schools. Mr. Derby is a member of Ellicott lodge, No. 221, I. O. O. F., of which he has been a member for eighteen years.
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A LFRED A. STARRING, a member of the well-known and enterprising firm known as the Silver Creek Step-Ladder company, is a son of Sylvanus S. and Grace A. (Stearns) Star- ring, and was born in Barry county, an agri- cultural region in southwest central Michigan, September 24, 1860. His father, Sylvanus S. Starring, is a native of Utica, Oneida county, this State. When a young man he followed the avocation of a sailor on the lakes for seven years, until he was wrecked on Lake Erie by the burn- ing of the boat on which he was employed. He then started for the west, but fell in with a party expecting to work for the Detroit & Milwaukee railroad, then being constructed. He worked on the road-bed until it passed through Lowell, where he quit and, going five miles south, he cleared a farm from the wilderness in Barry county, Michigan, which he cultivated until 1861, and then enlisted in Co. D, 3d regiment, Michigan Infantry, serving until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged, on June 3, 1865, at Washington, D. C. He was with Berdan's Sharpshooters one and one-half years, and rose to the rank of captain, and while with them was wounded in front of Petersburg, Va. In 1866 he moved to Irving, this county, with his family, where he remained until 1879, engaged in the blacksmith's business. In that year he came to Silver Creek and resumed the same trade, which he followed until 1884, and then organized the Silver Creek Stcp-Ladder company, which manufactured the Starring pat- ent truss step-ladder, the shelf-lock and half- truss step-ladder, the folding wash-bench and wringer stand, and the standard ironing-table, in which business he is at present engaged. In politics he is a republican, and in 1890 was elected a coroner, which office he is now holding. In religion he is a Methodist, being a member and steward of the church of that denomination. He is a member of Lodge No. 757, F. & A. M. In 1856 he married Grace A. Stearns, a native of Bergen, Genesee county, this State, by whom
he had five children. Three are deceased. Mrs. Starring is a member of the M. E. church, and is now in the forty-ninth year of her age.
Alfred A. Starring came to this county with his parents, was educated in the public schools, learned the trade of a blacksmith with his father and in 1880 became his father's partner in that business. In the spring of 1885 he bought out his father's interest and continued the business alone until 1888, when he bought a half-interest in the Silver Creek Step-Ladder company, the firm-name remaining the same. They have a large and rapidly-increasing trade, will double their capacity, and are now erecting new build- ings for the purpose of manufacturing fine parlor furniture. They expect to have this plant in operation July 15, 1891, and will then employ fifteen additional men. They have a branch office in Baltimore. About fifteen men are employed. Mr. Starring is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, politically is a republican and takes an active part in politics.
Alfred A. Starring was married, on October 26, 1881, to Jennie M. Fuller, a daughter of Albert C. Fuller (deceased), of Silver Creek. To this marriage have been born four children, one son and three daughters: Albert, Beulah, Gertrude and Vera.
TEWIS ROESCH was born in Baden, Ger- many, January 4th, 1851, and is a son of Philip and Mary (Glaser) Roesch. His parents are both natives of Baden, where his father was born in 1825. His youth was spent in his native home among the foot-hills of the Black Forest, in the beautiful valley of the Wiese, celebrated for the numerous large cotton, wool and other mills that line its banks, as well as by its own native poet, J. Peter Hebel, the Robert Burns of that country.
There Mr. Roesch received a common-school education and in 1868 came to Albany county, N. Y., and the year following to Fredonia, where he has resided ever since. Having no
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
particular trade or occupation, he followed his natural bent and soon drifted into the growing of fruit and vegetables, which business he started with a capital of two hundred and eighty dol- lars. This he soon developed beyond the re- quirement of the home market, and he opened a line of trade along the Erie and D. A. V. & P. railroads. This trade in turn was pushed be- yond the ability of his own gardens to supply, and he became a dealer in country produce, which trade by the year 1880 amounted to over $10,000 a season.
The growing of strawberries, raspberries, etc., incidentally got him into the small fruit plant trade, which he also developed and added to it, dealing in general nursery stock. In 1879 Mr. Roesch contracted to grow grape-vines for an- other nursery on a larger scale for four years, at the expiration of which term he continued the business on his own account. This trade flourished and in a couple of years became of such magnitude that he decided to drop that of grow- ing and dealing in fruit and vegetables, which by the way had grown poorer and more unsatis- factory every year, owing to over-production, southern competition and the failure of canning factories. Mr. Roesch continued to increase the grape-vine and small fruit nursery, and has re- cently extended the same to include general nursery stock. At present Mr. Roesch's busi- ness consists of forty acres of grape-vines, cur- rant and gooseberry plants, etc., ten acres of fruit and ornamental trees, four acres in experi- mental and sample vineyard and some two acres of lawn and ornamental grounds, fruits and vege- tables, etc., all in a higli state of cultivation and fertility.
He has a fine office ; a cellar 60 by 100 feet for the storage of grapc-vines and other nursery stock ; a large packing-house and grading-room connected and under one roof. He employs from ten to forty men and boys, according to the season. His market extends all over this country and Canada, but principally in the 9
grape-growing section east of the Rocky Moun- tains.
In 1879 Mr. Roesch married Sophia Miller, of Dunkirk, N. Y. To their union have been born three children, two sons and one daughter : Flora M., Sidney C. and Milton E. Without political aspirations, Mr. Roesch is a business man ; he gives most of his attention to business and personal affairs, is careful, patient and methodical, and never embarks in any enter- prise without a thorough investigation embrac- ing every possible detail of the same. To these qualities as well as to his enterprise and push is due the large degree of success attained in a business for which he had no special education or preparation.
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