USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 22
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business blocks, etc. In religion he was a Methodist, being a member of the church of that denomination, and also a trustee for a number of years. He was married in September, 1844, to Maria Smith and had seven children, five sons and two daughters. The first-born died in infancy ; the second was W. S .; then came George W., a carpenter and joiner in Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, who was married first to Frances Redman, second to Mary Eason, and third to (name forgotten) ; Mary J., married to T. H. Wolfers, a carpenter and joiner, now fore- man in a shop in Buffalo ; Laura, who died aged twelve years ; Charles died at four years of age; Harvey, a sewing machine agent, who married Ada Corlett and died September 20th, 1888. Mrs. Sly is still living at the age of 65 years.
seven years as a carpenter and joiner, which trade he followed the remainder of his life, working as a contractor in Oswego and St. Lawrence counties, New York, building mills, years alone. In 1873 he returned to Fredonia
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and entered the employ of White & Wells, manufacturers of doors, sash, etc., with whom he remained until May 15th, 1890, when he entered into partnership with S. O. Codington, buying the White & Wells plant, which firm is still doing business, manufacturing sash, doors, blinds and building material, etc., and contract- ing and building. W. S. Sly is a member of Temple No. 49, Fredonia, Temple of Honor, at Fredonia, of which he is Select Templar. He is also a member of Lodge No. 314, American Legion of Honor; No. 104, Equitable Aid Union, and the Life Union, all at Fredonia. In religious matters he is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Fredonia, of which he has been steward three years.
W. S. Sly was married September 16th, 1869, to Ella B. Smith, daughter of La Fayette and Arabella (Hinkley) Smith, her father being a dealer in live stock in Laona, this county. By this union there have been three children, all sons : G. Eugene, who is a clerk for the grocery firm of Belden O. Leworthy, of Fredonia ; Fred. S., who is at school ; and J. Sidney, de- ceased.
who married a Charles Dyer. Nicholas Lap- liam married Marcy Arnold, who bore him five children :' Nicholas; Abigail; Arnold; Rebec- ca; and, following the line of succession, Solo- mon, who was born August 1st, 1730, and died June 24th, 1800. He married his second cousin, Sylvia Lapham, and reared seven children : Dutee, married first, Mary Caldwell, second, Mrs. Amanda Wheeler; William united with Susannah Ballou, of Burrillsville, Rhode Island; Ruth ; Rhoda became the wife of Mar- tin Harris; Rebecca was first the wife of Ben- jamin Smith and then of Elisha Brown; Zodock, born in 1764, died when five years old; and Thomas.
Arioch Lapham is the son of Arioch and Eu- nice (Sherman) Lapham and was born near Sherwood, Cayuga county, New York, January 16th, 1821. His grandfather, before mentioned, Thomas Lapham, was born at' Smithfield, Rhode Island, on April 3d, 1761, and moved to Cayuga county, New York, some thirty-four years after. About 1800 he bought a farm of two hundred and fifty acres of land near Sher- wood and followed farming all his life, dying between 1835-40. Thomas Lapham was a member of the Baptist church, in which he was a deacon. He married Thankful Smith, a daughter of John Smith, of Gloucester, Rhode Island, and by this union there came nine child- ren : Cynthia married Elijalı Kemp; Sally wedded Benjamin Waldron; Amalek united with Charlotte Bullard; Sinai became the wife of Nathaniel Tibbels; Winsor married Elmina Dunham ; Sidney was the husband of Jane Mc- Comber; Cyrene was the wife of Jesse Moss; Alva married Laura Hanna ; and Arioch, father of subject. The maternal grandfather of Arioch Lapham, Jr. was Charles Sherman, a native of Massachusetts. He moved from Dartmouth about 1800 and settled in the town of Venice, Cayuga county, where he owned a
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A RIOCH LAPHAM. Of the many old families, of which Chautauqua county lias an abundant supply, none has kept its record more accurately, nor extends farther into anti- quity with indisputable clearness than that of Arioch Lapham, whose grandfather of the seventh generation, John Lapham, was a weaver at Devonshire, England, and came from there about 1650 and settled in Providence, Rhode Island. He married Mary Mann, a daughter of William Mann, who lived at the future cap- ital of the little state, and after beginning to keep house, had it burned on the night of March 29th, 1676, by a band of Indians who belonged to King Philip's red-skinned warriors. He was the father of four sons and one daugh- ter: Thomas; William; John ; Nicholas (six gen- | farm of one hundred acres. He also had a erations remote from our subject) ; and Mary, tract of four hundred acres in Ohio, in what
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was known as the Connecticut Fire Land. He spent his life in farming and died about 1820. Mr. Sherman's wife's maiden name was Lois West, who became the mother of six children : Jonathan was a farmer in Indiana; Charles died yonng ; Benjamin was an agricultorist in Erie county, New York; Ennice is subject's mother ; Edith became Mrs. Dorcey Roberts ; and Lois married Samuel Rogers. Arioch Lapham, Sr., was born in Smithfield, Rhode Island, and, moving with his parents to Cayuga county, New York, worked upon his father's farm until he was twenty-one years of age. He afterward joined David Thomas' engineer corps, then en- gaged in the construction of the Erie canal. While this work was in progress he sickened and died at Middleport, Niagara county, in No- vember, 1820, two months before the birth of our subject. He married Eunice Sherman about 1815 and three children, all sons, were born : Charles, a farmer in Iowa, married Olivia Win- ship, but is now dead; George was a farmer of Erie county, New York, living in Eden. He married first, Lurena Newell and second, Mrs. Mary A. Rogers. Many years after the death of her husband, Mrs. Lapham married Deacon Benjamin Seamons, and died in 1868.
Arioch Lapham was educated in the public schools of Cayuga and Erie counties and at the age of twenty, entered the store of Thomas Rus- sel, of Collins, Erie county, as a clerk. After working two years he bought his former em- ployer out and conducted the business himself for four years and then selling out to B. W. Sherman, he went to Buffalo and clerked for Pratt & Co. One year after he moved to Green- wich, Huron county, Ohio, and embarked in mercantile life, continning for four years. He then came back to Erie county, where, in con- nection with his brother-in-law, Charles Smith, he built a large tannery. A year after, he sold out to Mr. Smith and returned to Ohio, the scene of his first home, and again followed mer- cantile pursuits until 1859. Then Mr. Lapham
bought a farm of fifty acres in Erie county. For eighteen years he was a member of the firm of Smith & Lapham, wholesale grocers, on Sen- eca street, Buffalo. In 1882 he purchased a handsome property in Fredonia and moved into it, where he now lives a retired life. While living in Ohio, he served as postmaster under both Presidents Pierce and Buchanan.
On December 30th, 1842, Mr. Lapham mar- ried Sylvia Smith, a daughter of Humphrey and Deborah (Kniffen) Smith, a farmer, tanner and currier, at Collins, Erie county, New York, and by this marriage there has been one daugh- ter, Ella C., a graduate of Vassar College in the class of 1876.
Arioch Lapham is a member of the Univer- salist church and a gentleman of upright char- acter. Few, if any, families of the United States can produce an ancestral tree with the trunk so strongly intact, or with its escutcheon so free from blemish.
A NDREW BURNS, a resident of West- field, and one of the largest manufac- turers in the United States of grape baskets and fruit barrels, was born in Hanover, now one of the northwestern provinces of the great German empire, June 3, 1853, and is a son of Theodore and Sophia (Caring) Burns. Theo- dore Burns was a native of Hanover, one of whose electors became king of England and founded the present royal family of that king- dom, and was born in the first half of that period which is known in the history of Ger- many as the Interregnum, which extended from the subversion of the German empire by Napo- leon Bonaparte in 1806 until its re-establish- ment in 1870 by William I., Bismark and Von Moltke. Theodore Burns was a cooper by trade, served as a soldier in the German army, and married Sophia Caring, who was a native of the same electorate as himself. He came in 1853 to Batavia, Gencsee county, where, after remaining a few months, he went to Cattarau-
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gus county, and afterwards removed to West- field, where he now resides, aged sixty-four years. His wife was born in 1828, and they have reared a family of four sons and three daughters.
Andrew Burns was reared in Hanover, Ger- many, until he was six years of age, when his parents brought him to Batavia. He received his education in the public schools of Cattarau- gus village. He learned the trade of cooper with his father, with whom he worked for some time at Cattaraugus. He then (1871) removed to Westfield, where he worked at his trade until 1875, when he and J. F. Wass engaged in the manufacture of staves, headings and fruit bar- rels. In 1880 they started a branch factory at Sherman, N. Y., and at both places employed a total of sixty-five hands. In 1883 they dis- solved partnership and Mr. Burns continued alone. In 1886 he added to his business the manufacture of grape and berry baskets. Mr. Burns is the patentee of some very valuable machinery for the manufacture of staves and baskets, by the use of which much labor is saved and the work considerably expedited.
He has served his village for the last few years as one of its trustees and is a member of the Junior Order of American Mechanics. He owns one hundred and ten acres of land in the towns of Westfield and Sherman.
On September 16, 1874, he united in mar- riage with Eva Page, daughter of Calvin Page, a carpenter of Westfield. To this union have been born three children, two daughters and one son : Jennie ; Adelbert ; and Mabel.
His present fine residence on Union street, which he erected at a cost of over five thousand dollars, is a frame structure of modern style with slate roof. Mr. Burns' plant for the manufac- ture of grape and berry baskets, and fruit bar- rels covers nearly three acres of ground. He employs a regular force of thirty hands, and does a business of thirty thousand dollars per year. The basket making department of his
works has a capacity of one million per year, while his barrel mills and shops are run steadily during the entire year. His baskets and bar- rels are largely used throughout Chautauqua county, which is rapidly becoming one of the foremost grape and fruit counties of the United States. His orders also come from many other counties of New York, and from adjoining States, and at times tax the utmost capacity of his works to fill them. He is one of the lead- ing pioneers in a manufacturing industry that must ere many years assume proportions of con- siderable magnitude, as large orchards and vine- yards are being planted in every section of the Union which has been found adapted to fruit and grapes.
T THOMAS C. JONES is one of the enter- prising and successful citizens of Dunkirk, who has an undoubted right to feel an honest and just pride in the success he has achieved in his business career, as he practically began the battle of life at the age of eleven years without a dollar. He was born in Buffalo, Erie county, New York, September 16, 1840, and is a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Dear) Jones. His father was a native of London, England, and was born in 1797. He married Elizabeth Dear, of Bedfordshire, England, and had twelve children. He came to the United States in 1835, located at Buffalo, this State, and worked at making soap and candles. In 1851 he came to Dunkirk, and engaged in the same business for Camp Bros. Politically he was independent, and in religion was a member of the Episcopal church, as was also his wife, who died October, 1881, aged seventy-three years. In August, 1886, he joined her in another and a better world at the age of eighty-nine years.
Thomas C. Jones attended the public schools in Buffalo until he was eleven years old, and then received employment in a grocery store, where he remained one year, and then began to learn the butcher's trade, at which he worked
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RESIDENCE OF A. BURNS, WESTFIELD.
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until 1862, when he enlisted in company D, 72d New York Volunteers, served until the close of the war, and was honorably discharged at Kingston, New York. In 1866 he opened a butcher shop in Dunkirk, in which business he still remains, and now has the largest and best- equipped shop and the largest trade in Dunkirk. He also owns some valuable real estate here. In politics he is a Republican, has once been mayor of Dunkirk, and has served four years in the City Council, where he now has a seat. In the fire department, where he has been seventeen years, he has held every position from ladderman to chief engineer. In religion he is a member of the Episcopal church. He is a member of Dunkirk Chapter, 191, R. A. M., Dunkirk Commandery, No. 40, and has received the thirty-second degree A. and A. Scottish Rite.
Thomas C. Jones, in 1869, married Mary L. Andrews, a daughter of Horatio Andrews, of Pomfret, this county, by whom he has had two children (sons), George H. and Charles C.
C ORYDON A. RUGG, a citizen of James- town and assistant superintendent of the knitting mills of A. F. Kent & Co., is a son of Dr. Corydon C. and Fidelia (Goodell) Rugg, and was born at Irving, Chautauqua county, New York, April 1, 1853. The Ruggs point to Scotland as the land of their origin where their ancestors were known as the "Strong Men of Scotland." Isaac Rugg, the great- grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born near Bloody Point, in Vermont, served in the Revolutionary war and died in his native State at Ruggtown, which was named in honor of his family. He was a Methodist and was married three times. His first wife was Katie Gates, who bore him one child, Jonathan (grandfather), and after her death he wedded Emma Matoon, who died and left two children, John and Aurelia. His third wife was Abigail Skinner, by whom he had ten children. Jona- than Rugg (grandfather) was born at the head
of Bloody Point, on Lake George and after a residence of some years in Genesee county, he removed, in 1818, to what is known as the Rugg settlement near Perrysburg, Cattaraugus county, where he was a large landholder. He was a farmer and a Democrat and served in the war of 1812 during which he distinguished himself at the battle of Sackett's Harbor. He married Maria Tousey and reared a family of four sons and two daughters: Carlos A., of Silver Creek, a veterinary surgeon in the Union Army ; Milton V., was one of the California forty-niners and died in 1853 ; Dr. Jonathan G., of Gowanda, N. Y .; Mariette, wife of Dr. C. G. Cowell, of Meadville, Pa., who is a graduate of Hahnneman Medical college, of Chicago; Dr. Corydon C., died January 14, 1891 and Ann M., who died August 20, 1888. Dr. Corydon C. Rugg (father) was born at Rugg- town, Cattaraugus county, May 3, 1822. At twenty years of age he commenced the study of medicine under the Thompson who founded the Thompsonian Eclectic system of Medicine and was graduated in 1848, from the Cincinnati Medical College. He practiced at Gowanda in his native county for twenty-five years and then in Rutland, Vermont, for four years, after which he came, in 1877, to Jamestown where he has practiced ever since. He was surgeon of 154th regiment, N. Y. Vols., was taken pris- oner at Gettysburg and after liis release served at Lookout Mountain and under Sherman in his march to the sea. Dr. Rugg married Fidelia Goodell and to their union have been born two sons and four daughters : Adella D., married John F. Clark, a real estate dealer of Detroit, Michigan ; Loella V., wife of Orris F. John- ston ; Corydon A. ; Estella F., wife of Walter D. Russell, formerly of New York City ; Clay- ton A., who married Catherine M. O. Donnell and is engaged in the clothing business ; and Minnie M., wife of Fred. Jay Shearman, son of Rufus Shearman of Jamestown.
Corydon Rugg attended Oneida college and
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upon completing his course read medicine for some time with his father. He then entered Hall's worsted mill where he remained for ten years and served successively as shipping clerk, inspector of cloth, and travelling salesman. During the next two years he was in the Rey- molds' knitting mill and upon the mill shutting
down he practiced medicine with his father for a short time. On September 1, 18-, he be- came assistant superintendent of the knitting mills of A. F. Kent & Co., which position he still holds. He is a Democrat in politics. Mr. Rugg well understands every part of the busi- ness in which he is now engaged and discharges efficiently the duties of his important position.
On April 30, 1887, he united in marriage with Jennie M. Merrit, daughter of Benjamin G. Merrit, of Vermont. Their union has been blessed with one son and one daughter : Louise, and Corydon Harrold.
H ENRY SEVERANCE, of Dunkirk, author of " John Bull in America," and a forth- coming work entitled "Chautauqua," was born in the town of Cazenovia, Madison county, New York, January 30, 1808, and is a son of Elihu and Triphena (Gunn) Severance. The Sever- ance family is of French descent, and came from France to New England about the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, or a little later, say 1635. Elihn Severance was a native of Montague, Massachusetts, where he married Triphena Gunn and in 1799 removed to Madi- son county, in which he died on March 7, 1834, aged sixty and a half years. He cleared out a farm in the woods, was an unassuming man and served his town for a number of years as super- visor. His widow survived him twenty years, and passed away in 1854, when in the seventy- ninth year of her age.
Henry Severance grew to manhood in his native county, and attended the limited schools which a new country could only afford. Leav- ing school he served an apprenticeship at wool
carding and cloth dressing, and in 1835 came to Dunkirk during the boom of the New York, Lake Erie and Western railroad. In a short time he went back to Madison county, but in 1851 returned to Dunkirk, where he has resided ever since, and followed the trade of carpenter, excepting eight years that he served as keeper of the Dunkirk light-honse.
May 23, 1833, he married Helen J., daugh- ter of Alford and Mary Wooley, of Madison county. Mr. and Mrs. Severance have two children : Harriet, wife of E. M. Lucas ; and Emma H., principal of the Intermediate de- partment of School No. 2, of Dunkirk.
He is a Republican, and was three times elected justice of the peace, twice in Cazenovia and once in Dunkirk, which last office he re- signed after holding the office for a short time. He also served as corporal in the New York militia. Mr. Severance has devoted a portion of his leisure time to literary pursuits, and has written and published an interesting and in- structive book entitled " John Bull in America," and has in press his forthcoming work of " Chautanqua," which is intended to give the world at large an adequate idea of the resources and advantages of this county which is now so largely attracting public attention. In an epic poem, published in 1891, he tells in verse the story of the races past and gone who dwelt in Chautauqua county, narrates present facts and indulges in speculations for the future that are acceptable to Chautanquans.
OSEPH LANDSCHOOF, JR., is a native of
Holstein, Prussia, a territory over the pos- session of which much blood and treasure has been spent. It was a duchy of Denmark, but now is a part of Schleswig Holstein, Prussia. He was born August 17, 1830, and is a son of Joseph and Margaret (Radden) Landschoof. His father and mother were natives and life- long residents of the same place, and they were the parents of three children, two sons and one
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daughter. Mr. Landschoof was a roofer by trade at which he worked until his death, which occurred in 1864, in his native land, at sixty-seven years of age, and Mrs. Landschoof died in 1848, in her fiftieth year. In religion he was a member of the Lutheran church.
Joseph Landschoof, Jr., was reared in his native country, and his education was received in her common schools, after leaving which he served an apprenticeship for four years in a mercantile store. By the laws of the country he was then drafted for the army, and had scarcely had time to be drilled when the war with Denmark broke out, and he was ordered to the front. In a year Holstein was conquered, and he was forced into the Danish army, where he served five years, and after his discharge he was employed as a clerk in a dry goods store until 1857, in which year he emigrated to Can- ada, where he remained but a few months, coming to the United States, landing in Buffalo' whence he traveled to Silver Creek, this county' where he worked on a farm by the month until 1861, when he came to Dunkirk and secured employment in the car repair shops of the Erie railroad with which he remained until 1869, being steadily promoted from one responsible position to another. In the latter year he was employed by the Brooks Locomotive Works, as foreman of the lumber yard, which position he held until the panic of 1873. In May, 1874, he was placed in charge of the store-room in the Brooks Locomotive Works, where he has been ever since.
In 1884 he engaged in the mereantile business in Dunkirk, which is managed by his wife, and they have built up a very flourish- ing trade. In politics he is a Democrat, and in religion a member of the Lutheran church. He has been an Odd Fellow since 1862, and is now a member of Point Gratiot Lodge, No. 181, of that order. In November, 1863, lie made a visit to his native country, renewing old friend- ships and returned in the spring of 1864. He night train-dispatcher and operator of the Erie
is a genial gentleman and commands the re- spect and esteem of all who know him.
October 27, 1861, Mr. Landsehoof united in marriage with Minnie, daughter of Frederick Peters, a retired watchmaker of Silver Creek, this county, and their union has been blest with three children, two sons and one daughter : Emma, Charles and William, whose ages are, twenty-nine, twenty-seven and twenty-two years respectively.
S AM. J. GIFFORD, who is the proprietor of the oldest insurance agency of Dunkirk and Chantauqua county, and who dispatched the first train ever run over the Lake Shore road by telegraphic orders, was born at Ashtabula, Ohio, May 14, 1834, and is a son of Samuel and Rose (Fraser) Gifford. Samuel Gifford was born in 1797 at Banbridge, near Belfast, Ireland, where he learned the trade of cutter in the tailoring business. He came to the United States in 1831 and settled at Ashtabula, where he con- dueted a large shop, and at one time employed twenty-two journeymen tailors. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, had been a freemason for sixty-two years, and died at Ashtabula, November 11, 1877. He married Rose Fraser, a native of Belfast, Ire- land, who was an Episcopalian, and died Feb- ruary 16, 1874, aged seventy-four years.
Sam. J. Gifford was reared at Ashtabula until he was eighteen years of age, received his edu- cation in the public schools and then was engaged for a short time in grinding bark in a tannery. On October 1, 1848, he became the first devil in the office of the Ashtabula Weekly Telegraph, which was established on the above named day. He learned telegraphy on the old Speed line while in that printing office, which he left on June 1, 1852, to become a telegraph operator in the New York and Eric railroad. He was first stationed at Dunkirk, bnt worked all along the line, and on June 1, 1854, he was appointed as
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road at Dunkirk, which he left in February, 1855, to accept the position of cashier and operator in the freight department of the Buffalo and Erie (now Lake Shore and Michigan Southern) railroad. He was the first operator on this road, on which he dispatched the first train ever run over it by telegraphic orders. On February 26, 1869, he resigned and acted as agent of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York until 1872, when he became a member of the Skinner & Gifford Manufacturing Company, which erected a large iron works at Dunkirk for building engines, boilers and rail- road fixtures. In 1875 and 1876 this firm built the Texas and New Orleans railroad (now Southern Pacific), after which they failed in business and sold their iron works. From 1876 to 1879 Mr. Gifford assisted in running these iron-works, and then became a partner with his brother-in-law, J. H. Van Buren, in the insur- ance business. Their partnership lasted until 1882, when he again became cashier on the L. S. & M. S. R. R., and served as such until April 1, 1885. He then formed a second in- surance partnership with his brother-in-law which existed until 1888. In that year he pur- chased the insurance business of the late Otis Stillman, which was the first insurance business established (1850) in the county.
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