USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 28
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Lorenzo Morais -
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
court of common pleas of Chantauqua county then consisted. In 1840 he went to Jamestown where he read for one year with Judge Cooke, and after being admitted to practice in the court of common pleas became a partner of his pre- ceptor. The law then required seven years of practice as a requisite for admission as an attor- ney before the supreme court of the State, but made a reduction of time in favor of those who had pursued classical studies, and Mr. Morris having a certificate of a classical course of read - iug, was admitted as an attorney of the supreme court in 1844, at the end of only three years practice in the lower courts. In the same year he removed to Mayville and practiced until 1852, when he came to Fredonia where he has been in active and successful practice ever since. In 1838 he was commissioned by Gov. William H. Seward as lieutenant-colonel of the 207tlı regiment, N. Y. militia, in which he had served as adjutant. He was elected colouel during the next year and commanded the regiment until 1842, when he resigned.
On October 5, 1843, he married Fannie E. Strong, daughter of Walter Strong, an early settler and prominent citizen of the town of Westfield. She died June 2, 1873, and left three children : Mrs. Ellen M. Russel, Mrs. S. H. Albro, and Walter D. Morris, cashier of the Citizens Bank of Watertown, South Dakota. On May 28, 1885, he united in marriage with Mrs. Marian H. (Hovey) Stillman, of Fredonia.
In politics Senator Morris is an old-time democrat who is opposed to measures antago- nistic to the principles of Jefferson and Jackson. He was appointed in 1871 as one of the trustees of the asylum for the insane at Buffalo, which position he resigned in 1875. His political career commenced in 1867, when he was nomi- nated by his party as their candidate for State senator in the twenty-sixth district, composed of the counties of Cattaraugus and Chautauqua. Although the district was largely republican, yet he was elected by two hundred and three
majority over his two republican competitors, and served creditably in the State Senate during its session of 1868-69. In 1872 he was a member of the convention which met that year in Albany to revise the State constitution. Senator Morris has always taken great interest in the common schools and all geueral matters of public improvement. While serviug in the State Senate he procured the abolition of the local board of managers of the Fredonia Normal school, the school having closed for want of harmony, and placed the school under the con- trol of the State superintendent until 1873, when he was made president of a new board of trustees which has been harmonious and the school prosperous, and is now justly recognized as one of the best of the normal schools in the State.
W ILLIAM BROADHEAD was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, Febru- ary 17, 1819. While still a lad he was appreu- ticed for a year to learn the trade of a weaver. At the end of that year he began working in the smithy with his father, and continued with him until he became of age.
In January, 1843, being dissatisfied with his prospects in England, he emigrated to America, going first to Busti, where his uncle, the Rev. John Broadhead, was living. Seeing that Jamestown offered a much more favorable open- ing to a young man, he sought employment there and found it in the shop of Safford Eddy. But he was too ambitious to remain a day laborer long. Ever on the lookout for some- thing more profitable, he soou fouud the oppor- tunity of forming a partuership with Adamı Cobb, whose daughter Lucy he had married in 1845. The firm of Cobb & Broadhead, scythe snath manufacturers, continued in existence for nine years, and was then dissolved, Mr. Cobb continuing in the manufacture of snaths aud grain cradles and Mr. Broadhead in that of axes and forks.
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When his eldest son, Shelden, was about twenty years old, Mr. Broadhead opened a clothing store, taking this son into partnership with him, and a few years later he gave his younger son, Almet, an interest in the business. Under the firm-name of William Broadhead & Sons their business increased rapidly, until they soon had the largest merchant tailoring estab- lishment in Jamestown or the surrounding country.
In 1872, Mr. Broadhead, accompanied by his wife and eldest daughter, visited his native home. Great changes had taken place dur- ing his thirty years absence, especially in the neighboring city of Bradford, which had be- come the centre of the worsted manufactur- ing interests in England. His early interest, awakened when as a boy he learned to weave at a hand-loom, was now re-kindled by the signs of prosperity and success due to these mills. He returned to Jamestown thoroughly imbued with the idea that the establishment of a mill for the manufacture of dress goods in Jamestown, was feasible and would be most beneficial to the town as well as profitable to the owners. While he had by industry, eco- nomical habits, close attention to business and successful investments in real estate acquired a considerable sum, he felt that so large an undertaking demanded more money than he could personally command, and so he set about to interest some of his moneyed townsmen in his project. The result of his efforts was the formation of the firm of Hall, Broadhead & Turner ; Mr. William Hall to assist him in furnishing the money, and Mr. Joseph Turner, of England, who had had some experience in the business.
The alpaca mill erected by the firm in 1873, continued for one year and a half to be owned by them, and then Mr. Broadhead withdrew. A short time afterward he erected another mill, for the manufacture of simi- lar cloths, this time having for partners his
two sons. When the business was well es- tablished, William Broadhead & Sons disposed of their clothing store and turned their entire attention to the manufacture of ladies' dress goods. The mills have been enlarged from time to time as the business demanded.
Early in the spring of 1880 Mr. Broad- head again visited England for the purpose of buying some of the latest improved ma- chinery for his mills.
The mills in their present condition con- sist of six large buildings, covering about four acres and giving employment to seven hundred operatives. Their salesmen traverse nearly every State and territory in the Union, and such is the reputation of their goods that it is at times difficult to supply the de- mand.
As Mr. Broadhead foresaw, these mills have contributed immeasurably to the growth and prosperity of the city. Much of the steady in- crease in population is due to their continued demand for skilled workmen. The good wages and constant employment have attracted hither family after family of intelligent and industri- ous English people, who have proved them- selves most acceptable citizens.
Mr. Broadhead is politically an ardent re- publican and a strong protectionist, believing that policy to be even more necessary for the welfare of his employees than for himself.
In his native town Mr. Broadhead was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist church and a superintendent in its Sabbath school. On settling in Jamestown, he joined the Methodist Episcopal church as the denomination nearest like the Wesleyan. Before the war, when the Methodist church was divided on the subject of slavery, quite a number of abolitionists, among them Mr. Broadhead, left the Methodist church and formed a Wesleyan organization which continued in existence until 1862, when the church building was destroyed by fire. Since then Mr. Broadhead has been an active member
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of the First Congregational church, contribut- ing liberally to its support.
To William and Lucy Broadhead six chil- dren have been born : Shelden Brady, associ- ated with Mr. Broadhead in business, who was married in 1870 to Mary Woodworth ; Her- wood, who died at the age of seven years ; Almet Norval, also a partner with his father, who was married in 1886 to Margaret Allen Bradshaw; Mary T., who married Adna H. Reynolds and now resides in Tacoma, Wash- ington : Stella Florine; and Mertie M., wlio re- side with their parents.
C ARLOS EWELL. One of the foremost business men in the village of Silver Creek at the time of his death was Carlos Ewell, who was born in Middlebury, Wyoming couuty, New York, in 1833, and died at his home in Silver Creek about noon on the 27th day of October, 1887.
On the 10th day of January, 1856, he mar- ried Annette Wilson, of Wyoming county, aud the union resulted in a family of three children : Mrs. George Moore resides in Fredonia; Ernest. graduated at the Buffalo Medical University and is practicing in that city ; and Josephine, a miss now six years of age.
Carlos Ewell came to Silver Creek in 1866 and bought a one-fourth interest in the manu- facturing establishment of Howes, Babcock & Co., and the style of the firm was changed to Howes, Babcock & Ewell; later Mr. Babcock retired and the house was known as Howes & Ewell. During the first ten years of his con- nection with this company Mr. Ewell becane quite prominent in local politics, but in 1877 he was severely attacked with nervous prostration, which entirely unfitted him for business of any kind for a period of six years, when he seemed to secure a new lease of health and from that date until his death he was apparently on the high- way of longevity; aud he again assumed the ar- duous duties of purchaser and general overseer of
the works that had grown to large proportions and in which he had acquired a half interest. He applied himself diligently to business, in fact too closely, and it was not long before his kidney trouble again displayed its presence and soon developed into acute Bright's disease, which compelled him to abandon, one after the other, the duties he had been accustomed to perform until exhausted vitality gave way and his life expired. Carlos Ewell was a man of positive character, as exacting in his requirements npon those whom he employed as he was rigid in the discharge of those duties that he himself was expected to perform, yet he possessed the faculty of commanding the respectful attachment of his employees, and withal was popular with his men, neighbors and fellow-townsmen. By his untiring attentiou to business, although so many years compelled to relinquish its active superin- tendence, he secured a substantial fortune. So- cial pleasures had but small attraction for him, his chief happiness appearing to centre in his business and his family. After his decease his interest in the machinery factory, then known as the Eureka works, was disposed of to his for- mer associate, Simeon Howes, who still contin- nes the business.
For fifteen years Mr. Ewell was a member of the Presbyterian church and was a liberal con- tributor to its support. Iu 1882 he erected at Silver Creek one of the finest residences in Chantanqna county, a model of convenience and architectural beauty, in which his widow, who has since married Gilbert B. Brewster, now re- sides. Mr. Brewster was formerly of Addison, New York. He was born in Elmira, Chemung county, New York, in 1828, removing to Ad- dison in 1845. Mr. Brewster has been engaged in various business enterprises in Addison but has now retired from active business and resides in Silver Creek.
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FREDERICK A. FULLER, an old and well-known citizen of Jamestown, who has been identified with the progress and pros- perity of that thriving city for over fifty ycars, is a son of Frederick A. and Rachel (Gordon) Fuller, and was born in Rutland, Vermont, May 24, 1813. Frederick A. Fuller, is a lineal descendant of Dr. Samuel Fuller, who was one of the "Pilgrim Fathers," who came over in the Mayflower and who was one of the signers on board of that historic bark of the immortal civil compact of the Puritans, the oldest as well as one of the noblest written con- stitutions of the new world. Dr. Fuller was the grandfather of Ebenezer Fuller of Ply- mouth, whose son, Ebenezer Fuller, Jr., was born in 1695, and died in 1759. He settled in 1731, at Hebron, Connecticut, where his farm is still in the hands of his descendants. He married Joana Gray and had one child, Eben- ezer Fuller (great-grandfather), who was born September 25, 1715, in Massachusetts and died at Hebron. Hc married, on September 30, 1738, Mary Rowley, by whom he had four sons and two daughters. One of these sons, Roger Fuller (grandfather), was born September 25, 1773, and died September 24, 1819. He was a farmer, lived on the home farm at Hebron and was married four times. His wives were Martha Phelps, by whom he had five sons and four daughters; Violetta Taylor, who bore him one son and two danghters; Louisa Taylor and Louisa Kenney. The third son by the first marriage was Frederick A. Fuller (father), who was born in Tolland county, Conn., March 1, 1775, and removed to Rutland, Vermont, where he was a successful merchant and where he died July 20, 1832. He was a federalist and whig, married January 20, 1811, Rachel Gordon and reared a family of five children : Samuel G., born in 1811, and lost on "The Home" on his return to Charleston, S. C., where he was a merchant ; Frederick A., Frank, born May 20, 1815; Dudley B .; and Mary
Ann. Mrs. Fuller, who died in Jamestown, October 28, 1856, was a daughter of Capt. Samuel Gordon, a Revolutionary officer, who was at Yorktown and afterwards commanded a company in the war of 1812. He died at Troy, this State, aged ninety-four and was a son of John Gordon, who came from Scotland to America as a British soldier in the French and Indian war, and afterwards settled at Belch- town, Conn, where he died. He had four children, one son and three daughters.
Frederick A. Fuller received a common school education at Rutland, Vermont, wlicre he learned the jewelry business with Benjamin Lord. After an apprenticeship of five years he went to New York city, where he was employed for three years in the jewelry establishment of H. & D. Tarbox. In 1836 he returned to Rutland where he remained three years. He then returned to this State, and in July, 1841, came to Jamestown, where for forty years he conducted one of the leading jewelry houses of western New York. In 1881 he transferred his jewelry business to his eldest son, Frederick A. Fuller, Jr., in order to retire from active life. He has been a member of the First Pres- byterian church of Jamestown since 1857, and is a republican in politics.
At Rutland, Vt., on June 19, 1838, he married Emily Rathbone, who was a daughter of Waite and Betsy Rathbone, of Tinmouth, Vt., where « Mr. Rathbone was a prominent iron manufac- turer. Mrs. Fuller died February 5, 1886, and on October 3, 1890, Mr. Fuller married Mrs. Martha B. Marsh, daughter of Dr. Boyer, of Clarendon, Vt. By his first marriage Mr. Fuller had four children : Frederick A., Jr .; Dr. Dudley B., born March 10, 1848, served throughout the last war as an assistant surgeon and died in 1889, at San Quentin, California, where he had practiced medicine from 1866 ; William Rathbone, born February 1, 1843; and Dr. Charles Gordon, who was born August 7, 1856, graduated from a medical college in
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
Chicago, then took a full course at a leading medical college in New York and is now a practicing physician of the former city.
Hon. Frederick A. Fuller, Jr., the eldest son, and a prominent democrat of western New York, was born in Rutland, Vermont, April 10, 1839, but was reared at Jamestown where he received his education in the academy of that place and then learned the trade of jeweler with his father, with whom he remained in business from 1857 to 1866. He then went to New York city, where he was engaged for nine years in importing and in doing a jobbing busi- ness in diamonds and fine watches. In 1881 he returned to Jamestown and became proprietor of his father's large and important jewelry establishment which he has condneted success- fully ever since. On May 24, 1866, he married Cornelia Ludlow Benediet, of Brooklyn, a daughter of Roswell S. Benedict, formerly senior member of the old and well-known shoe manufacturing firm of Benedict, Hall & Co., of New York city, and a member of the English Benedict family of Canaan, Conn., which came to Brooklyn in an early day and is one of the old families of that city. Mr. Benedict is one of the original members of Plymouth church, whose influence has been National in extent and character. To Mr. and Mrs. Fuller have been born three sons : Roswell Seymour and Clif- ford Rathbone, born in Brooklyn, August 1, 1871, and February 17, 1873; and Gordon Carter, born in Jamestown, August 3, 1884. He and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian church. He is a member of Mt. Moriah Lodge, No. 145, F. & A. M., and a director of the City National Bank of James- town, and the Rochester Mutual Relief society. Frederick A. Fuller, Jr., has always been a democrat in politics, is serving his third con- secutive term as a member of the board of edu- cation and has frequently been a delegate to Democratie State conventions: In 1884 he was elected as the Cleveland and Hendricks presi- 13
dential elector representing the Thirty-fourth Congressional District, composed of the coun- ties of Chautauqua, Allegany and Cattarangus. At the meeting of the Electoral College held at the Capitol in the City of Albany, on the third day of December, 1884, Mr. Fuller, with Hon. Erastus Corning, of Albany, were ap- pointed the special messengers to convey the sealed Electoral vote of the State of New York, for President and Vice President of the United States to the seat of government.
A SHBILL R. CATLIN. Among the gen- tlemen of the old school who have adopted and put in active practice the modern method of transaeting an honorable and legitimate busi- ness Jamestown is prond to number the gentle- man whose honored name stands at the head of' this tribute to his successful career. He sprang from an honest, rugged, hard-working, honored and honorable ancestry, who were enrolled in the ranks of that first of man's vocations-tillers of the soil. He was born in North Hudson Essex county, New York, July 7, 1827, when Taurus was in the midst of his reign among the planetary orbits, and is a son of Linus and Sabrina (Jones) Catlin. His grandfather, Theran Catlin, was a native of Vermont, but during his early manhood he removed to and purchased a farm in Wyoming county, Pa., and there spent the remainder of his life. He married and was blessed with eight children four sons and four daughters. Peltiah Jones (maternal grand- father) was born in Schroon, Essex county, this State, where after reaching man's estate, he bought a farm, married, reared a family of children, tilled the earth, led an honest, healthy, happy life, and obeyed, without a murmur, the summons to join the silent majority. Linus Catlin (father) was a native of Vermont and was born in 1799, almost at the very bluish of the dawn of the nineteenth century-that era which was to witness the most gigantic strides in the development of science, art, education and labor,
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the world had ever seen. When he attained his majority, he removed to North Hudson, this State, where he spent the prime of his life in the vocation of his immediate ancestors, and when the pulse slowed and the heart beat serenely even, he transferred his lares and penates to Jamestown and there, when he passed the ninth decadal point of a century's life, was gathered to his fathers. He was a Jacksonian democrat and was steadfast in the faith. He inarried Sabrina Jones, who bore him one son and three daughters, and only the son, Ashbill R., survives.
Ashbill R. Catlin received his education mainly in the Jamestown academy, and resolved to supply a portion of mankind with more of the necessaries of life than did even his ances- tors and in pursuance of this determination, he opened a grocery store in Jamestown in 1850 and has steadily pursued that business to the present time, having built up a large and lucra- tive trade. He also sells large quantities of salt, provisions and grain. He inherited the democratic proclivities of his father, tempered withal by the softening and broadening influence of the generation now asserting itself.
On November 20th, 1851, Ashbill R. Catlin exercised his usually sound judgment, when from among the scores of womanly women, lie chose as his life companion Ruth A. South- wick, a daughter of Alwin Southwick, of Busti, this county. She bore him six chil- dren, two of whom were early enrolled among the angels. Of the survivors, Frank L. married and resides in Denver, Col., where he is a wholesale confection manufacturer ; Ada E., wife of John C. Palmer, who is in the oil well supply business in Pittsburgh, Pa. ; John B., married to Maude Steirly, of Jamestown, and is in business with his father ; and Agnes, wife of Charles W. Warrington, of Denver, Col., who is engaged in the meat and provision business.
A. R. Catlin is a relative of George Catlin, the famous delineator and historian of the
Indian races of North America, whose books are read wherever the English language is spoken.
J OHN J. STERNEBERG is a worthy ex- ample of a stranger in a strange land who has by perseverance, sound business methods aud close application won an enviable position for himself. He is a son of John T. and Mary C. (Smith) Sterneberg, and was born in Prussia, Germany, March 3, 1841. William Sterneberg (grandfather) was also a native of the same locality, being born and living all his life in a house which had been owned and occupied by the Sterneberg family for three hundred and fifty years. By trade and occupation he was a cooper and farmer. He married Johanna Hol- link, by whom he had six children, two sons and four daughters, two of whom came to America ; also John T's. father, and John W., died with cholera in 1850 in Chicago; and sis- ter Hannah, also died in Chicago in 1849 with cholera. The maternal grandparents and their ancestors were Hollanders, none of whom, with the single exception of an uncle and aunt, (now living in Holland, Michigan,) of John J., came to the United States. This uncle was James Smith, who located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin ; the aunt Elizabeth (Smith) Bos, eighty-three years old; mother Mary C. (Smith) Sterneberg, born October 13, 1811, died December 28, 1883; John T. Sterneberg (father) was born at the old homestead house in Prussia, Germany, October 19, 1811, came to America in 1847, and after remaining six months in Chicago, located in Grandville, seven miles below Grand Rapids, Kent county, Michigan, where he bought a farm of twenty acres, with a good house and barn and ont-buildings on it, and to this he added lots in the suburbs of Grandville, until he owned sixty acres, now crossed by two railroads. On this farm he lived seventeen years and in August, 1862, he came east to Buffalo, where he lived one year, moving thence
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to Mina, this county, where he died February 15, 1889. He had been a republican in pol- itics from the time he stepped on American soil, and in religion was a member of the Dutch Reformed church during his early years, but later in life became a Baptist. In 1837, he married Mary C. Smith, by whom he had two children : John W., who was born March 24, 1839, married Christina Terhauer, by whom he has had nine children, two of whom are dead, and is an extensive farmer of Mina, this county ; and John J.
John J. Sterneberg acquired a common school education, but considering the limited facilities he then had, sought to expand his learning more thoroughly and succeeded so well that few of our adopted citizens, are better or more widely read, and more conversant with current and past events. He writes and speaks Holland (the Dutch language), and speaks and reads German very readily. He learned the trade of a carriage-maker at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Came to Panama and continued to work at it until 1883, when he united with it the hardware business and conducted both until 1888, in which year he discontinued carriage-making and has since devoted his time and attentiou to hardware, entlery, paints, pict- ure-framing and undertaking, having a fine trade built up by his own exertions. He is an exceptionally good business man, buying and selling for caslı, and is affable and agreeable in all his business and social relations. In poli- tics he is a republican, lias served as excise commissioner two terms in Panama, and in re- ligion is a member of the Baptist church. He is also a charter member of Lodge, No. 52, Ancient Order of United Workmen.
John J. Sterneberg was married on Febru- ary 21, 1864, to Joanna G. Terhaner, a dangh- ter of Henry and Mary (Heller) Terliaucr, of Mina. This union has been blest with four children, two sons and two daughters: Mary, wife of Merle D. Powers, a salesman and de-
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