USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 27
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Wilson S. Andrus has been married three times. In 1844 he espoused Azubah Trask, of Silver Creek. She died, leaving one child, a
son, the Hon. Leroy Andrus of Buffalo, this State. For his second wife, he chose Percy E. Tucker, of Silver Creek. His third wife, was Mrs. Almena (O'Donaghey) Smithi, a daughter of William S. O'Donaghey, who came from Batavia, Genesce county, this State, to this county and was a farmer in the town of Stock- ton. He died in Silver Creek in 1878, in his eighty-seventh year. He was in his latter years a democrat. The present Mrs. Andrus has also been married three times. Her first hus- band was Tracy Walker of Hartfield, this county. And her second Porter B. Smith, of Hanover.
D AVID RUSSELL is a sturdy, self-reliant son of the land of Robert Bruce and Robert Burns, and has, by his own merits, reached the position he now occupies-that of superintendent of the largest manufacturing establishment in Dunkirk, and one of the largest in the State of New York, an establishment which employs a thousand men, whose earnings arc more than twelve thousand dollars a week, whose annual output of various kinds of locc- motives and cars is valued at two and a half millions of dollars, and the excellency of whose work is not surpassed by any other manufactory of its kind in the world.
David Russell was born in St. Andrews, Scot- land, May 30, 1826, and is a son of Thomas and Jane (Russell) Russell, His father was a native of historic old Edinboro' Town, Scotland, and was a tinsmith by trade, which business he followed in his native land until his death, He was a member of the Scotch Presbyterian church. His wife (mother) was a native of St. Andrews, and she was born in 1802. She now lives in St. Andrews, Scotland, and is a member of the Presbyterian church.
David Russell was reared in his native town and received a common school education. After leaving school he learned the trade of a machin- ist, and has always worked in that useful indus-
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trial pursuit. In 1845 he came across the Atlantic to America, and located in Paterson, New Jersey, where he at once secured work. Here he remained until 1852, when he came to Dunkirk, this county, and went to work as a machinist in the Erie railroad shops, and con- tinued in their employ until October, 1869, when H. G Brooks, the general manager, suddenly received an order from the president of the road to permanently close the works. Instead of doing so, however, he immediately reorganized them under the name of the Brooks Locomotive Works, with himself as president, and by that name they are now known all over the civilized world. Mr. Russell entered their employ, and was steadily and deservedly promoted from one position to another, going a stride or two each time, until he was appointed superintendent, a position in which he commands the universal respect of the employees and the commendation of his employers. Politically he is a republi- can, and in his religious principles is a Scotch Presbyterian, of which church he is a member and trustce. He is a member of Irondequoit lodge, F. & A. M. He is a member of the board of water commissioners of Dunkirk and also a member of the school board. A man of firni convictions and of a kind and generous disposition, he is ever ready to devote his best efforts in aid of any movement conducive to the welfare of his fellow-citizens. He owns a fine residence and understands how to get the most out of life in a practical and sensible manner.
David Russell was married, March 15, 1847, to Eliza Russell, daughter of James Russell, of Montrose, Scotland, and by her has seven chil- dren, five sons and two daughters: Thomas, James, Mary J., David, George, John and Nellie.
T HOS. A. JONES, a Union veteran of the late civil war and a gallant soldier in the Army of the Potomac, who was wounded at the terrible battle of the Wilderness, where in the three days fight, May fifth, sixth and
seventh, thirty-seven thousand, seven hundred and thirty-seven others of the army to which he was attached, were either killed, wounded, or made prisoner, is a son of Robert and Mary (Manning) Jones and was born May 10, 1845, in the village of Westfield, Chautauqua county, New York. The Jones family is of Englishi extraction, the immediate ancestors upon both sides being children of " the mother of the new world." Robert Jones was born in England about 1800, and came to America about 1825. He first located at Lyons, Wayne county, then came to Westfield and then went to Ohio, where he died. Upon familiarizing himself with our political institutions, he allied himself with the republicans and was a factor in local politics. In 1820 he married Mary Manning, by whom he had eleven children, six of whom are still living. Jacob H., entered Co. G, 49th regiment New York Infantry, August 17, 1861, and was killed April 2, 1865, at the storming of Petersburg. He served with his regiment all through the war and lost his life just one week before General Lee made his final capitulation of the Confederate armies under his immediate command. The battle in which he fell, while not as disastrous to either side as many others, was hard fought and fiercely contested, no less than three thousand of his comrades at arms falling in the struggle, either killed or wounded.
1
Thomas A. Jones was educated at the com- mon schools. When the 49th regiment New York Infantry was organized lic joined Co. G, August 17, 1861, and served until 1864, a total of three years and eleven months. Being at- tached to the Army of the Potomac he was en- gaged in nearly all of the important battles of this renowned organization. He was wounded the first day of the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864, and was confined to the hospital until the following February. Mr. Jones was a valiant soldier and made an honorable record. Upon returning liome at the closc of his enlist-
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ment he settled back to farming and has been so engaged ever since.
On December 17, 1864, T. A. Jones married Maria Perdue, a daughter of William Perduc, and reared a family of five children : Frances, wife of Michael Decker, a Ripley farmer ; Fred L .; Addie A., married Jolin Burgen, who tills the soil at Northcast, Erie county, Pa, ; Bellc and Roy A.
T. A. Jones has been identified with the Re- publican party and is now a postmaster at South Ripley, receiving his appointment April 1, 1891. Having served so long and so loyally in the Federal army, it is not surprising that he is an enthusiastic member of John Braiden Post, No. 488, Grand Army of the Republic, which meets at Northeast, Erie county, Pa. He is a good citizen and has the confidence and csteem of his neighbors and townsmen.
C HARLES W. MORGAN is one of those practical, sagacious, enterprising business men who constitute a very welcome and import- ant factor in the material welfare and progress of a community, and Jamestown is fortunate in possessing such a man. He is a son of Harvey and Amy (Crawford) Morgan, and was born in Randolph, Cattaraugus county, New York, August 12, 1855. Caleb Morgan, (great-grand- father) was born July 19, 1740, and died at Randolph, Vt., September 9, 1810, in the sev- enty-first year of his age. He married Ann Brooks, who was born March 18, 1745, and died December 11, 1816, by whom he had sev- cral children. Rufus Morgan (grandfather) was born in Brattleboro, Vt., May 4, 1781, and died in Randolph, Vt., October 17, 1827. He married Ruth Kibbe, who was born April 9, 1783, by whom he had eleven children : Laura, born September 5, 1806 ; Maria, born March 22, 1808 ; Norman, born June 30, 1809 ; Cath- erine, born February 23, 1811; Caleb, born July 19, 1812; Frederick, born October 12, 1814; Nancy, born March 12, 1816; Elijah,
born September 29, 1817 ; Heman, born Sep- tember 2, 1819 ; Harvey (father), born August 13, 1821 ; and Israel, born February 12, 1825. The maternal grandfather, William Crawford, was born in Hebron, Washington county, this State, April 5, 1798, was a farmer by occupa- tion and died in Napoli, Cattaraugus county, same State, October 27, 1875. He married Betsy Shaw, of White Creek, N. Y., by whom he had thirteen children, all of whom were born in this State: Susan, born in Hebron, Wash- ington county, April 19, 1820, and died in Middleburg, Schioliarie county, September 12, 1859; Matilda M., born in Hebron, February 20, 1822, and died in Napoli, Cattaraugus county, October 15, 1880; John, born in Hebron, December 10, 1823; Amy (mother), born in Hebron, August 30, 1825; William, Jr., born in Bethany, Genesee county, August 23, 1827, and died in Java, Wyoming county, April 5, 1849; Harriet, born in Bethany, January 1, 1829; Phobe R., born in Bethany, September 1, 1831; James, born in China, Wyoming county, July 21, 1833 ; Dolly B., born in China, July 2, 1835 ; Cornelius, born in Java, May 5, 1837 ; Ira, born December 23, 1842, and died in Napoli, September 10, 1857; Franklin C., born in Java, November 3, 1845 ; and Daniel S., born in Java, December 26, 1847. Mrs. Crawford was born in White Creek, Washing- ton county, August 15, 1802, and died in Napoli, November 4, 1878, bothi husband and wife being in their seventy seventh year when summoned to join the silent majority. Harvey Morgan (father) was born in Randolph, Vt., August 13, 1821, and when a young man emigrated to Cattaraugus county, this State, and thence to Allegany county, where he still resides, having retired from business, his profession being that of a dentist. In politics he is a republican, and on June 6, 1844, he married Amy Crawford, a daughter of William Crawford, by whom lie had four children : Henry, born January 3, 1846, died February 22, 1867, who entered the
x
Chas . Morgan.
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army during the late civil war, was taken pris- oner and imprisoned at Cahawba, Alabama, during the last eightcen months of the war, from the effects of which incarceration he died shortly after his release ; Alice, born May 18, 1850, married to George T. Berry, had two children, Fred. N., born, Dec. 8, 1867; and Lewis A., born April 14, 1870, who died, and she mar- ried for her second husband C. H. Kilburn, who is one of the members of the North American Photo Copying Co., of Jamestown ; Charles W .; and Julia, born Nov. 8, 1857, died Feb. 6, 1862.
Charles W. Morgan was educated in the common schools of Randolph, this State, sup- plemented by a commercial course in Chamber- lain Institute, from which he graduated when sixteen years of age, and afterwards accepted a position as book-keeper and clerk in a grocery store in Randolph, where he remained until February, 1874, when he went to Blue Rapids, Kansas, and engaged in the grocery business, but becoming dissatisfied returned to Randolph in the autumn of the same year, taking a posi- tion as clerk and book-keeper in a hardware store, where he remained several years. In January, 1881, he came to Jamestown and en- gaged in the plumbing and steam-heating busi- ness in which he was very successful. In May, 1885, his health being seriously impaired, he sold out and remained inactive until January, 1886, when he organized the Maddox Reclining Chair Co., which was afterwards reorganized under the firm name of Morgan, Maddox & Co., and engaged in the manufacture of polished centre tables, with wood, marble and plush tops, which he also made an emphatic success ; but being interested in three land companies in Buffalo, owning twelve lots of valuable real estate in JJamestown and a farm of one hundred and twenty-five acres in Cattaraugus county, he was unable to devote an adequate amount of time to the table business and therefore sold out his interest in that firm in July, 1890. In
October of the same year he commenced the erection of a large factory to be devoted to the manufacture of furniture, the building being located midway between the Erie and the Chau- tauqua lake railways, and on the bank of the Chautauqua lake outlet, a few rods from the wharves of the large steamboats, rendering the facilities for receiving material and shipping products unsurpassed. He then organized the Morgan Manufacturing Co., associating with him L. C. Jagger, thus forming one of the strongest practical business firms in western New York. Their specialty is the finest grades of library and parlor tables and their factory, which is 50x120 feet and five stories in height, with an addition of thirty-one feet for the boiler, engine and dry kiln, is equipped with the most modern and best makes of machinery, mostly located on the second floor, which is four inches thick and so rigid that there is scarcely a tremor when all the machinery is in motion. The bench work is done on the third floor, the tops finished and the tables set up on the fourthi floor and the frame finishing on the fifth floor. Everything has been done to facilitate the busi- ness which large practical experience and in- genuity could suggest. The firm employs from one hundred to one hundred and fifty men, ac- cording to the season, and are bound from the nature of things, their enterprise and experience and their reputation, to achieve a phenomenal success. In the winter of 1889-90 Mr. Morgan aided in organizing the Tousley Harvester Co., of which he is president.
On May 26, 1875, Mr. Morgan united in marriage with Stella, daughter of Thaddeus Cornell, of Randolph, Cattaraugus county, by whom he has two children : Ray Hart, born March 17, 1876, and Alice Marie, born De- cember 11, 1885.
In politics Mr. Morgan is an independent republican and in religion is a member of the Independent Congregational church. He is a member of Randolph Lodge, No. 448, I. O. O.
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F., of Randolph ; Mt. Moriah Lodge, No. 145, F. and A. M .; Western Sun Chapter, No. 67, R. A. M .; and Jamestown Commandery, No. 61, K. T., of Jamestown. Having cared for him- self since he was fifteen years of age and accu- mulated a handsome property by his own un- aided efforts, he may be safcly ranked as a most successful self-made man, who enjoys the con- fidence, respect and esteem of all who know him.
D R. JOSEPH C. GIFFORD, a successful and one of the oldest dentists of West- field, Chautauqua county, has been successful in three widely different kinds of business, ex- hibiting a versatility and powers of application quite unusual in a single individual. He is a son of William and Phoebe (Cornell) Gifford, and was born in the town of Ellery, Chautau- qua county, New York, September 18th, 1826. His paternal grandfather, Jeremiah Gifford, was one of the early settlers of this county, remov- ing hither from Washington county, this State, and settling on lot No. 23, in the town of Busti, where he pursued farming until his death. Wil- liam Gifford (father) was a prominent man of Chantauqua county ; he was born in Washing- ton county in 1797, and came here in 1824, settling in the town of Ellery the following year, where he engaged in farming and lumber- ing. In 1832 he was appointed keeper of the poor-house, and held that position until 1841, and then moved to Mayville, where he lived until death called him, in 1885, when he had reached the age of cighty-cight years. He held the offices of county superintendent of the poor, 1840-1843; county treasurer, 1847-56, a pe- riod of nine years, and was then elected justice of the peace, and held that office for a number of years. Originally he was a whig, but after the war he voted with the democrats. When a young man he became a member of the Method- ist church, and throughout his life held many offices in that body, being always an active and influential member, and making his house the
temporary home of every traveling preacher. He married Phoebe Cornell, of White Creek, Washington county, by whom he had five sons: Edson, Horace H., George W., Joseph C. and James. His wife, Phoebe Cornell Gifford, sur- vived her husband three years, and died in 1888, aged eighty-five years.
Joseph C. Gifford, after receiving his educa- tion in the common schools and the Jamestown academy, left the farnı to engage with his bro- ther, Horace H. Gifford, in the carding and cloth dressing business at Panama, this county, and they afterward moved to Wrightsville, Warren county, Pennsylvania, of which latter place he was a resident for eight years. In 1852 he came to Westfield and engaged in the hardware business; he followed it for four years, in the meantime studying dentistry, and began to practice this profession in 1856, and by close application to business in a few years he succeeded in establishing an extensive prac- tice, which he has maintained ever since. In religion Dr. Gifford is a member of the Method- ist Episcopal church at Westfield, in which body he has been recording steward for thirty-nine years. Politically he is a democrat, and is a member and Past Master of Summit Lodge, No. 219, F. and A. M., of Westfield ; he is also chaplain and Past High Priest of Westfield Chapter Royal Arch Masons.
Joseph C. Gifford is one of Westfield's best citizens in every sense of the word, broad and liberal-minded, kind, genial and generous, fore- most in good works and with a large array of friends.
On January 19, 1848, he married Rachel R. Messenger, a daughter of Chauncey Messenger, of Wrightsville, Warren county, Pa. Their only child, Clarence, who was a young man of bright promise, died upon the eve of his gradu- ation from Amherst College, in 1877, when in the twentieth year of his age. His untimely death was a source of great and lasting sorrow to his parents.
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
D AVID O. SHERMAN, the only son of Merritt and Laura (Barnes) Sherman, was born in Westfield, Chautauqua county, New York, May 7th, 1833. His grandfather was Abram S. Sherman, a native of Albany county, this State. From there he went to Cayuga county, and then came to Chautauqua at an early date, where he followed farming and be- came prosperous. He affiliated with the Whig party, which at that time was dominant. He married and reared a family of six sons and two daughters. Merritt Sherman was born during his parents sojourn in Cayuga county. He learned farming and followed it through life. He came to Chautauqua county and settled, and lived for a number of years, but died in James- town in 1891. His sympathies and votes were cast with the followers of Hamilton, but he refrained from active political life. He mar- ried Laura Barnes, a daugliter of John Barnes, who lived at Ashville, Harmony P. O., this county. They were the parents of three chil- dren, two daughters and one son. One daugh- ter married W. W. Eddy, and lives at James- town, N. Y. ; the second sister married Samuel Cowing, and resides at Lakewood, N. Y.
David O. Sherman, the subject of our sketch, was reared on the farm and passed his early days in the usual manner which country boys do. The public schools, that bulwark of the nation's safety, furnished him an education which has stood him in good stead throughout his long and honorable life. In April, 1857, he married for his first wife Miss Amanda Currier, who was a native of Arcade, Wyoming county, this State, and after her death he mar- ried Mrs. Carrie (Bailey) Sabin, a daughter of Gambriel Bailey, of Hadden, Conn., who died in Holyoke, Mass., in 1826. He was a shoe- niaker by trade, at which he worked in connec- tion with his farming. Politically Mr. Bailey was a Connecticut democrat and married Lucy Phelps. They reared a family of nine children, two sons and seven daughters. Mrs. Sherman
has been three times married : first to Hector L. Bodwell ; second to David Sabin, by whom she had one daughter, Nettie, now the wife of Martin Harrington, a farmer in the town of Ripley ; and last to David O. Sherman, on September 25th, 1889. Mr. and Mrs. Sherman have a very happy and pleasant home. He is courteous, hospitable and generous, and a man of well-known integrity both in public and private life,
For twenty years he was in mercantile life at No. 207 Main Street, Buffalo, in the wholesale grocery trade, and for the same length of time at other places. He established himself in Buffalo in 1857, and remained until the year following the nation's Centennial of Indepen- denee.
C HARLES N. WILCOX, was born in Charlotte, Chautauqua county, New York, October 2, 1851, and is a son of Elisha and Caroline (Barnum) Wileox. His paternal grandfather, Samuel Wilcox, was born in Chenango county, New York, and at an early age he learned the trade of mill-wright and worked at it nntil 1830, when he moved to this county, and settled in the town of Char- lotte, where he bought a farm, which he culti- vated in connection with his trade until 1840, in which year he went to Kentucky to build a mill, where, in a short time, he died. He was married to Amanda Savage and liad eight children, five sons and three daughters : Alonzo ; Eliab ; Joseph ; Elisha (father) ; Lonis ; Abi- gail, who married first, Frecman L. Link, then Charles Ripley ; Louisa, married Morgan Link ; and Amanda, who married Albert Warner. Mrs. Wilcox died in 1849, aged fifty-five years. The maternal grandfather of C. N. Wilcox was Eliakim Barnum, who was born in Chenango county, New York, in 1800 and in 1816 came to this county and settled in the so-called " Pickett District " in Charlotte, being one of the first settlers in that town. The original
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Barnums of America came from England. Two brothers were stolen, placed on board a man-of- war and sent to Virginia, and from these sprang the family. Phineas T. Barnum, the famous showman, was a relative of Eliakim Barnum, who bought one hundred and fifty acres of land in the Pickett district, cultivated it for thirty years and sold it to his son. His grandson, Charles H. Barnum, now owns the place. Eliakim Barnum was considerable of a specula- tor in real estate and made large sums of money. He died April 25, 1875, and Mrs. Bar- num died in February, 1878, aged seventy-seven years. He was married in 1824 to Sophia Underwood and by her had five children, three sons and two daughters : Eliab ; Noah ; Charles ; Caroline (mother) ; and Mary, who married Brainard Kappell. Elisha Wilcox (father) was born in Chenango county, this State, September 15, 1827, and came with his parents to this county, in 1830, settling in Charlotte. He worked on his father's farm until he was four- teen years old, when his father died and the farm was sold April 1, 1851 ; when he was twenty-four years of age he bought a farm of one hundred and twenty-one acres in the Pickett district in Charlotte, and lived there until 1871, when he moved to Pomfret, where he bought a farm of fifty-nine acres, lived on it eighteen years and then moved to Cassadaga and bought a house and lot, where he now resides. In re- ligion he is a member of the Christian church at Arkwright, of which he was trustce several years. Elisha Wilcox was married December 22, 1850, to Caroline Barnum ; by her he had two sons, Elisha and George O., the latter being a merchant in Cherry Creek, this county, who married first, Lizzie Todd and second, Mira Hartley, and has two children. Both parents are still living.
Charles N. Wilcox was educated in the dis- trict schools of Charlotte, until he was eighteen years of age, when he entered the State Normal school at Fredonia for a term, after which, he
taught school for one term. After his marriage he settled on his father's farm in Charlotte, where he lived four years and then moved to Cassadaga, and bought a half interest in the hardware store of C. S. Shepard, with whom he remained a year, when he bought him out and has since continued the business, carrying four thousand dollars worth of stock on an average, and having a patronage of twelve thousand dol- lars a year. He has a general line of hard and tin-ware, stoves and everything one would ex- pect to find in a first-class hardware store. As a secret society man, he is a member and W. M. of Sylvan Lodge, No. 303, F. and A. M. of Sinclairville, and a charter member of Cassa- daga Lake Lodge, No. 28, A. O. U. W. of Cassadaga.
Charles N. Wilcox was married to Alice Sears, a daughter of Lyman and Anna (Pier- pont) Sears, the father being a farmer in Gerry, this county, whither he came from Franklin county, Massachusetts, in 1868. By this union there has been one son, Ernest H., who is now in school.
H ON. LORENZO MORRIS, a prominent lawyer of Fredonia and an ex-State senator of New York, was born in Madison county, New York, August 14, 1817, and is a son of David and Abigail (Blodgett) Morris. David Morris and his wife were both natives of New England, and settled in the town of Chau- tauqua, this county, in 1829. After some years they removed to Sherman, where Mr. Morris died in 1868, aged seventy-seven years. His wife passed away in 1873, at eighty years of age.
Lorenzo Morris attended the common schools, then entered the old Mayville academy, from which he was graduated in 1836, and was after- wards engaged in teaching for a few years. In 1837 he turned his attention to the study of law, and read for two years with Hon. Thomas A. Osborne, one of the five judges of which the
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