USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92
Lucius Lombard was reared at Ripley, and received such an education at the common schools as fitted him for a good business man. He stuek to the farm until thirty years of age, and then went down into the oil country and passed through the vicissitudes of an oil man's life for one year. The succeeding four years were spent in the general store business at Rip- ley, which furnished less excitement but was more stable. Then two years more were passed in the oil country, followed by a return to Rip-
ley and a repetition of mercantile life, but the year succeeding the Nation's Centennial cele- bration he came to the farm on which he still resides, and owns one hundred and twenty-two acres, twenty of it being a well-kept vineyard.
On December 27, 1865, he united in mar- riage with Helen Hall, a daughter of David Hall. They have three children : Catherine, wife of Winfield A. Holcomb, the school com- missioner of Chautauqua county; Grace ; and Alice. Mrs. Lombard was called away in 1890. Her kindly disposition and domestic virtues made her loss felt and deeply mourned by many friends.
Lucius Lombard stands high in his commu- nity, and, while not an ambitious politician, is, nevertheless, a good democrat upon whom many of his party rely.
F RED. W. EDMUNDS. A prominent busi- ness man and one of the leading butter producers of Chautauqua county is a resident of the village of Sherman. He is a son of Salem and Caroline (Wright) Edmunds, and was born in the town of Villanova, this county, January 10, 1854. The ancestors of Mr. Edmunds came from the north of England and, coming to America in 1630, they settled first in the State of Connecticut and lived there for several gen -. erations. The first person of the name to come to this county was Salem Edmunds, Sr., who arrived liere about 1830, two hundred years after the name was first planted in the new world. The last naned gentleman located at Dunkirk and pursued farming in connection with his trade-stone masoning. He married Rachel Sabin and became the father of nine children, six sons and three daughters. The maternal grandfather was Orin Wright, who entered the world at Edwinston, Otsego county, and came from there to Villanova town, Chau- tauqua county, where he died. He was a farmer by occupation ; married Belinda Underwood, a native of Otsego county. She was a lady of
267
OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
superior attainments and attracted some atten- tion near her home. Mr. and Mrs. Wright were the parents of six children, three sons and three daughters, of whom Edwin served in the Ninth regiment, N. Y. Cavalry, went to the front as a private September 20th, 1861, and was mustered out July 17th, 1865, with a second lieutenant's commission. On the paternal side Austin Edmunds, an uncle to our subject, en- listed in the 112th regiment, N. Y. Infantry, and was taken prisoner, dying in the horrible, loathsome, notorious Andersonville prison. He entered the army early in the war and died just before it closed. Hosea Edmunds joined the 9th New York Cavalry and served one year. Salem Edmunds was born in Herkimer county, New York, while his father was en route from Connecticut. He finally located in the town of Villanova and now resides in Sheridan, aged sixty-six years. He was a farmer by occupa- tion and in politics for many years a republican, but is now in the ranks of the prohibitionists. He is a member of the Methodist church, and is the father of three sons and two daughters : Frank died in infancy ; Fred. W .; Walter, mar- ried Minnie Daniels and is living on the old homestead in Sheridan ; Persis died June 17, 1885; and Jennie, now the wife of Fred. C. Kruger, a farmer of Sheridan.
On the 2d of October, 1878, Fred. W. Ed- munds married Emma R. Swezey, a daughter of Leonard Swezey, a native of Herkimer, but later a resident of Chautauqua county.
He was educated in the common schools and academy at Forestville, Chautauqua county, and went to work in a cheese factory at Arkwright in 1873 and stayed one year, and then accepted the management of a cheese factory in Chautau- qua town. The next four ycars were spent in the same capacity at various places until 1878, when he opened a cheese factory near the village of Sherman, and then began the crection of . similar establishments all over the county until 1885, wlien lre owned thirteen in the vicinity
of Sherman. One year later he consolidated five of these into the Sherman creamery, which is devoted to the manufacture of butter and cheese, principally the former. Mr. Edmunds has pursued this business longer than any other who has ever undertaken it in that community. In 1882 he erected a fine grist-mill in Sherman and runs it in connection with his other busi- ness. During the summer of 1891 he will operate sixteen creameries adjacent to Sherman. The output of butter for the year 1890 aggre- gated three hundred and sixty thousand pounds of butter at the Sherman creamery alone, and during the summer season no less than forty- five men are employed to operate the different factories. Politically he is a prohibitionist, and belongs to the Presbyterian church. Mr. and Mrs. Edmunds have a pleasant family of three children, Edith, Bessie, and Raymond, all of whom are living with their parents.
F. B. WILSON is probably the most exten- sive dealer in meats and poultry who transacts business in this section. There is nothing in the line of meats and poultry which cannot be found at his completely equipped market at all seasons. He does an average business of twenty thousand dollars per annum. F. B. Wilson is a son of E. P. and Julia A. (Barber) Wilson, and was born in Pomfret, Chautauqua county, New York, August 11th, 1860. His great-grandfather, Ephraim Wilson, was born in Northbridge, Worcester county, Massachusetts, in 1760. When sixteen years old he enlisted in the American army and assisted in the capture of General John Bur- goyne. He was taken prisoner and carried to England and confined in that most infamous of all England's cruelties, the Dartmoor prison, until the close of the war, when, with the hun- dreds of other emaciated and almost dead men, he was exchanged and returned to Boston. Hc studied medicine and, after his marriage, moved to Princeton, at the base of Wachinsett moun-
268
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
tain, in Worcester county, Massachusetts, where he practiced medicine, surgery and dentistry. After his second marriage he removed to Barre, in the same county, where he engaged in farm- ing and raising beef cattle, which he drove to the Boston market, located where the famous Brighton market now is. After the death of his second wife he retired from active life, living to a ripe old age. He was of a cheerful dis- position and very successful as a physician. For his first wife he married Persis Gassctt, a daughter of Henry Gassett, a wealthy wholesale merchant of Boston. By her he had five child- ren, four sons and a daughter : Jonas, Henry, Lewis, Sally and Benjamin (grandfather). His second wife was Clarissa Gale, by whom he had cight children, six sons and two daughters: Leonard, Ephraim, Jr., Salome, Sophia, Luther, Charles, William and Calvin. The grandfather of F. B. Wilson, Benjamin Wilson, was born in Princeton, Worcester county, Massachusetts, August 25th, 1794, where he afterward owned a farm which he occupied and cultivated, and also dealt in live stock until 1828, when he sold out and removed to this State, settling in Pom- fret, four miles from Fredonia, Chautauqua county, on what is known as the Stockton road. Here he purchased a farm of one hundred and seventy-six acres, partially improved. Being seriously injured once at a raising and again while driving stock to Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, he traded this farm for one adjoining, containing but one hundred acres, in order to lessen his labors, and on this latter farm he spent the remainder of his life, dying October 30th, 1857, having nearly completed his sixty- third year. He was married May 20th, 1818, to Sally Perry, of Princeton, Massachusetts, and had nine children, three sons and six daughters : Sarah A., born February 17th, 1821, and mar- ried Blanchard Derby, April 20th, 1842, who was a farmer in Pomfret, this county ; Sally, born April 22d, 1823, and married William Derby, a farmer and teamster in Fredonia ;
Harriet P., born September 25th, 1825, and married August 31st, 1847, Jerome B. Lang, a blacksmith in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania ; Elizabeth B., born July 18th, 1828, and mar- ried April 15th, 1849, Charles Tarbox, a farmer in Pomfret ; Henry G., born April 25th, 1831, a farmer in Pomfret, who married March 18th, 1856, Nancy Cornwell; Ephraim P. (father) ; Mariette, born January 2d, 1837, and died in the early bloom of youth; Nancy J., born March 9th, 1840, and married Lewis L. Crocker, November 17th, 1857, who was a farmer in Pomfret ; Benjamin, Jr., born June 12th, 1842, and died in infancy. Mrs. Wilson was born November 3d, 1796, and died September 28th, 1882. Ephraim P. Wilson, (father) received a common-school education in Pomfret until he was twelve years old, when, on account of his father's disability, he was obliged to remain at home. But he is a man of wonderful intellect and exceedingly well read. He is often called upon to settle disputes on literary and historical matters. He lived on the farm with his father until the death of the latter in 1857, and with his brother, to whom, with himself, the farm had been given in consideration of their care of their parents during their life. In 1866 he sold his share in the farm to his brother and pur- chased one of one hundred acres in Portland, four miles from Brocton and half way to West- field. Here he lived until April, 1873, when he sold the farm and moved to Fredonia. In connection with farming he had been an exten- sive dealer in live stock, in partnership with Lewis L. Crocker, under the firm name of Crocker & Wilson, which business they con- ducted seven years, when he bought Mr. Crock- er's interest and admitted his son, F. B., as partner, and shortly afterward sold his own interest to Luman S. Barber. Since then he has devoted his time to dealing in live stock. He also owns a large grapery and a lot of pas- ture land. He was highway commissioner of Portland, this county, and also of Pomfret, hold-
269
OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
ing that office and also that of assessor fonr years. He was elected on the republican ticket.
He was married, September 16, 1858, to Julia A. Barber, daughter of Champlin and Malancey (Green) Barber, her father being a farmer in Pomfret for the past forty years. He had by this union four children-three daughters and a son, Fred. B. The daughters were Martha C., i
who married Gilbert P. Marsh, a real estate agent in Pittsburg, Kansas ; Mary J. and Julia I., who are both at home.
Fred. B. Wilson was cdueated in the public schools of Pomfret and Portland and in the State Normal school at Fredonia, where he re- mained three years, and at sixteen years of age began to learn the butchering business with Crocker & Wilson, remaining with them five years. Immediately upon attaining his majority he bought a half-interest in the business (Mr. Crocker's), and, on the retirement of his father, admitted into partnership L. S. Barber, under the firm-name of Barber & Wilson. In April, 1890, Mr. Barber sold his interest to Mr. Wilson, and the latter now owns the entire business. Coming from English and Irish ancestry, he nnites the best business qualities of both nation- alities.
Fred. B. Wilson was married October 23, 1889, to Augusta C. Schmeiser, a daughter of Jacob Schmeiser, of Fredonia, and has one son, Edward.
J OHN H. ANDERSON, a firmly-established hay and fruit shipper and merchant, is a native of western Sweden, where he was born to Andrew and Charlotte (Jacobson) Anderson, February 15th, 1855. The family have been natives and residents of Sweden from time im- memorial. Andrew Anderson was born at Ulrecksham, Sweden, about 1828, and served in the army for nearly thirty-eight years, and then took up the business of farming, at which he is still engaged. About 1849 he married Charlotte Jacobsou, and to them have been
born three sons : Claus, John H., and Oscar. The latter still lives in his native country, and the two former came to America in 1863.
John H. Anderson eame to Jamestown, New York, on June 20, 1871, and for twenty years has been a resident of Chautauqua county at Poland Centre and Kennedy, residing now at the latter place. He first engaged at farm work, and then, seeing an excellent opportunity for handling hay and fruit, he embarked in an independent business, and about 1886 added general merchandizing. In February, 1886, he was elected commissioner of highways for the town of Poland, and was re-elected in 1887, serving as such two years. He was educated in the Swedish common schools, and since coming to the United States has acquired a good knowledge of English. Politically he is a republican, and is now holding the office of postmaster of Kennedy, N. Y.
In 1884 he married Olivia Davenport, and now has three children : Maude, Merrill, and Hobart.
John H. Anderson is a careful, active and honorable business man, who by his own efforts has achieved what the world calls success.
N ATHAN J. HORTON. A prominent se- cret society man is Grand Recorder Hor- ton of the A. O. U. W., whose offiec is located in Dunkirk. Nathan J. Horton is the son of Truman and Betsy E. (Carr) Horton and was boru at Boston, Eric county, New York, July 25, 1841. The family is of English extraction but long established in America, the pioneer landing here during the seventeenth century. His grandfather, Jacob Horton, was born No- vember 5, 1770, in the town of New Lebanon, Columbia county, this State, and died in 1848. Truman Horton (father) was born May 29, 1796, at the last named town, and in 1818 went with his family to Boston, Eric county, New York, where he lived until his death which occurred in 1869. He was a licensed Baptist preacher,
270
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
and although a man of force and eloquence, was never ordained, yet he worked zealously for his church, and was most ably supported by his wife. In politics he was a whig, abolitionist and republican. He married Betsy E. Carr, of New Lebanon, on December 28, 1816, by whom he had ten children. Mrs. Horton died at her home in Boston, Erie county, New York, in 1886, aged eighty-six years.
Nathan J. Horton was reared near the scene of his birth and received a common school edu- cation. On August 5, 1862, he enlisted in Company F, 116th regiment, New York infan- try (Col. E. P. Chapin, commanding), and served until the close of the war; two years of the time being spent in the gulf department, partic- ipating at the siege of Port Hudson and in the Red River campaign. In the spring of 1864 his regiment was returned to Washington, at- tached to Sheridan's command and was with it in the Shenandoah Valley campaign. He was wounded at the battle of Fisher's Hill, Septem- ber 22, 1864, which prevented him from fur- ther active service. The latter part of 1865 and early part of 1866 were passed in the Penn- sylvania oil region. In August, 1866, he re- turned to this State and was engaged in teaching school and in taking a course at Bryant & Strat- ton's business college, Buffalo, New York, the better to fit himself for a mercantile life. In March, 1868, Mr. Horton located at Ripley, forming a partnership with Fletcher Dawson, under the firm name of Dawson & Horton, and conducted a general store for two years, when Mr. Dawson died and his interest was bought by our subject, who continued the business until 1874. After this date the ensuing six years were profitably spent in buying and shipping country produce. He has served his town in the capacity of supervisor, justice of the peace and town clerk. Mr. Horton went to Buffalo in 1881 and became a member of the firm of Oatman Bros., the name being changed to Oat- man Bros. & Co., doing a jobbing and commis-
sion business. They continned this partnership until September, 1883. In February, 1884, Mr. Horton, for a second time, attended tlie Grand Lodge, Ancient Order United Workmen, held at Syracuse, New York, and after a spirit- ed contest was elected to the responsible office of Grand Recorder for the State of New York and has been re-elected without opposition at every session held since.
Nathan J. Horton married Susie E., a daugh- ter of Hon. C. O. Daughaday, of Ripley, Chautauqua county, New York, on November 11, 1869; since which the village of Ripley has been their home. In all matters of a public and social character connected with the village and town, both Mr. and Mrs. Horton take a lively interest. Mr. Horton's interest in fra- ternal societies is attested by his position in the Grand Lodge A. O. U. W., as well as the fact that he is a member of Bidwell-Wilkinson Post, No. 9, G. A. R .; Summit Lodge, No. 219, F. & A. M., Dunkirk Commandery, No. 40, Knights Templar and intermediate orders and a thirty-second degree mason, being a member of Rochester Grand Consistory.
H ORACE H. SHAW. One of the represen- tative citizens of the town of Westfield, who has sprung from a family who settled here early in Chautauqua county's history, is Horace H. Shaw, a son of David and Sophia (Barney) Shaw, and was born in Cayuga county, New York, April 16, 1820, and was two years old when brought to Westfield by his parents. The family is of Scotch-English extraction. David Shaw was born in 1793, in Massachusetts and moved to Caynga county when twelve years old. He was reared a farmer and when twenty- two years of age, in 1815, married Sophia Bar- ney, a daughter of Daniel Barney, who lived in Cayuga county. They had seven children, six of whom are now living ; one died in infancy. The year 1882 saw him in this town which was then in Portland, and he charred a small tract
271
OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
of land (charring, is deading the trees prepara- tory to clearing), when he returned to Cayuga for his family whom he soon after brought back. The log house was built and a home establislied, clearing continued until enough land was con- verted into fields to raise food for the family. Mr. Shaw continued to farm until within a few years of his death, which occurred in 1880, when eighty-seven years of age. He was a com- municant of the Universalist church and a member of the Republican party, by whom he was elected to the office of assessor, but being of an unassuming and modest disposition he never essayed to higher political honors. Mr. Shaw served in the army during the war of 1812, and drew a pension until his death. Mrs. Shaw, too, belonged to the Universalist church and survived her octogenarian husband less than one year. She died in the spring of 1881, aged eighty-six years.
Horace H. Shaw was reared a farmer in Westfield by his parents, remaining there with the exception of the decade between 1864 and 1874, which time he lived in Huron county, Ohio. In 1874 he returned to the farm in Westfield, on which he now lives. He was educated in the district schools and prepared for the busy life which has followed.
In 1849, he married Sophrona Chatsey, a daughter of Benjamin Chatsey, a respectable farmer of the same town, and they had one child, a daughter : Adlade, who married, and now the widow of William Palmer, who died in Fitchville, Ohio, in 1887. They had two chil- dren : William A. and Horace D., who with their mother now lives with their grandfather ; in 1850 he lost his wife and in 1851 he married Phobe Chatsey, also a daughter of Benjamin Chatsey, by whom he had two daughters : Harriet and Mary ; Harriet S., is the wife of Eugene Waterhouse, M.D., a successful physi- cian of St. Louis, Mo .; and Mary I., is at lome.
the town in several offices. He is upright in character and his name is synonymous with in- tegrity.
e.
OHN MAWHIR is one of the wide-awake horticulturists of Portland town. He is a son of Thomas and Mary Mawhir, and was born on the farm adjoining, where he now resides, in Portland town, Chautauqua county, New York, August 31, 1858. Thomas Mawhir was born in Ireland in 1810, and came to America, locating at Westfield. In 1853 he moved to Portland and bought the farm where his son now lives, and followed agriculture until his death, April 16, 1889. He was a stirring, energetic man, and favored the Repub- lican party. His wife survives him and lives in Portland with her son. She is seventy-seven years of age and is a member of the Presbyte- rian church.
John Mawhir was reared on the farm and received his education in the common schools. He has always resided on a farm, thirty acres of which he owns, and has a fine grape orchard in the culture of which he takes great interest.
On December 15, 1880, Mr. Mawhir was wedded to Mary Guest, a daughter of William A. Gnest, who is a farmer in Portland. They have four children, one son and three daughters : Ella, Mynferd, Jennie and Anna.
He is an adherent to Republican principles and votes with that party, and is recognized as a most progressive farmer.
R OBERT NEWLAND BLANCHARD, M.D., a prominent and skillful physician and surgeon of the city of Jamestown, is a son of Flint and Jane (Allen) Blanchard, and was born in the town of Ellicott, Chautauqua county, New York, November 16, 1856.
Robert N. Blanchard was educated in the common schools, and at the age of eighteen graduated from Jamestown High School, after
H. H. Shaw is a republican and has served : which he entered the ranks of .the pedagogue,
272
BIOGRAPHIY AND IHISTORY
and taught school for two terms. He com- menced the study of medicine with Dr. H. C. Blanchard, his uncle, with whom he remained for four years, and entered the Medical Depart- ment of the University of Buffalo, from which he graduated in 1880, and, returning to the city of Jamestown, he began the practice of medi- cine with his uncle, who died August 6, 1884, when our subject succeeded to his practice, and has since built up the patronage of a large and paying class of people. R. N. Blanchard is a democrat in politics, and at the time of the or- ganization of the city of Jamestown, he was ap- pointed health officer of the city. Dr. Blanclı- ard belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Jamestown, and is a member of the Independent Congregational church, although both his father and grandfather were Presbyte- rians. The latter died Jan. 15, 1891, at the ad- vaneed age of 92 years. Dr. Blanchard is also at- tached to the Knights of Maccabees, Americau Legion of Honor and the Royal Arcanum.
The other members of his father's family are Dr. Amos Blanchard, a practicing physician at Frewsburg, this county, who is also a graduate of the Buffalo University ; Charles, a farmer who lives upon and tills the old homestead ; Mary E., who married Fred. A. Bentley, the vice-president of the Chautauqua County National Bank, and a prominent financier of this city ; Henry C., who married a Miss Foster, a daughter of Judge Foster, who resides in the State of Washington. Henry C. Blanchard graduated from the San Francisco, California, Law School, and is now living and practicing his profession in the city of Seattle, Washing- ton, where he is also engaged in the iron busi- ness.
Robert Newland Blanchard on the 14th day of June, 1882, married Belle B. Burtis, a daughter of William E. Burtis, who was an old settler of Chautauqua county. Dr. and Mrs. Blanchard have one son, Robert B., who was born on the 27th day of March, 1883.
Dr. Blanchard is an intelligent, educated physician and surgeon, who takes much pains to keep himself fully informed upon the ad- vancement which is being made in his profes- sion, and being skillful and uniformly success- ful in difficult and stubborn cases, he has the confidence of the people whom he serves. So- cially he is a pleasant gentleman, and he is pop- nlar in the community in which he resides.
G EORGE R. WEAVER is a son of Jolm and Anna (Benton) Weaver, and was born in Allegany county, New York, April 9, 1834. John Weaver was born in the eastern part of the Empire State, in 1804, but came to Chautauqua county in ,1840, when he located in Westfield town. He has made his residence at this place continuously for fifty-one years, and still lives, aged eighty-seven years. Fol- lowing farming when it was necessary to work hard to produce the same which improved ma- chinery will do by the expenditure of much less toil, he had but little time to waste with poli- tics, although his sympathies and votes were for the party of Jefferson, Jackson and Tilden. His wife was Anna Benton, whom he married in 1827. She bore him eight children and died in 1850, when only forty-four years of age.
George R. Weaver was six years old when he came to Chautauqua connty with his father. He was reared on a farm and received the edu- cation common schools could confer. Upon at- taining his manhood he decided upon agricul- ture and grape growing for his life's work, and now owns fifty-six acres lying three miles east of Westfield village admirably adapted for his uses in grape growing.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.