USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 38
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Charles B. Sturdevant, although born in the Keystone State, spent his early days at Trux- ton and Fabius, New York. He attended the public schools, and worked upon his father's farm until 1862, and then went back to Penn- sylvania and worked on a farm until 1863, when he joined Company I, 15th New York Cavalry, commanded by Col. R. M. Richard- son, and was assigned to service in the Army of Northern Virginia. Col. J. J. Coppinger succeeded Col. Richardson in command of this regiment, and it operated in the Shenandoah and parallel valleys. Mr. Sturdevant served twenty-three montlis as a private and corporal.
The regiment was attached to the Second Brig- ade, Third Cavalry Division, which was suc- cessively under Generals Hunter, Sigel, Sheri- dan and Custer, and was frequently engaged during 1864. Early the following year they left Shenandoah valley, and marched to White House Landing, where they combined with General Grant's army, and moved towards Petersburg via City Point. From this time on, Mr. Sturdevant was in all the cavalry engage- ments up to Lee's surrender in 1865. He did special service in the adjutant general's office at brigade and division headquarters, and was discharged at Louisville, Kentucky, August 9, 1865. Following his discharge, he came to Union City, Pennsylvania, and began railroad- ing in 1866-67 as baggage master; then from 1868 to 1873 as agent at Stamburg, Cattarau- gus county, and since the latter date-a period of eighteen years-lie has been stationed here in Kennedy, where he is station agent for the N. Y., L. E. and W. Railway.
The day before Christmas, 1867, he was married to Sarah Agnew, a daughter of Andrew Agnew, of Union City, Pa., and they have had two children. The elder, born in 1869, died when three years of age, and Clara B., now married to Rev. W. A. Heath, a Methodist minister stationed at Sugar Grove, Pa. They have two children,-Mabel Arline, born De- cember 26, 1889, and Charles Vincent, born June 14, 1891. Rev. W. A. Heath was born at Brockport, N. Y., in 1864, and received his theological education at Wesleyan University. His first charge was at Russell, Pa., Erie Con- ference.
Charles B. Sturdevant identifies himself with the Republican party, and is prominent in the Methodist church, taking an active part in its affairs. For seven years he sat in the Board of Education, and is connected with Kennedy Lodge, No. 86, A. O. U. W., the Royal Tem- plars of Temperance and H. C. Sturdevant Post, No. 282, G. A. R., being especially ac-
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tive in the latter. He is president of Chau- tauqua County Veteran Union and G. A. R. of Western New York and Northwestern Penn- sylvania for 1891.
w ILLIAM L. SMITH, a leading mer- chant and the present postmaster of Portland, was born in Mercer county, Penn- sylvania, December 20, 1850, and is a son of George and Mary (Henderson) Smith. His paternal grandfather, George Smith, Sr., was of English descent and removed from his native county of Trumbull, Ohio, to Mercer county where he died in 1864, aged eiglity-one years. He was a farmer and veterinary surgeon, and one of the sons born to him in his Mercer county home was George Smith, the father of William L. Smith. Geo. Smith learned the trades of carpenter and cabinet maker, which he followed until September, 1865, when he came to the town of Portland and engaged in farming. Within the last few years he has re- tired from active life and resides at Portland, although he still retains the supervision of his farm, on which is a good vineyard and several acres of small fruits. Mr. Smith was born in 1824, and is a republican in politics. He is a member of the Congregational church, the Knights of Honor, and the Chautauqua Mutual Insurance Order. He married Mary Hender- son, a native of Crawford county, Pennsylva- nia, who was a member of the Congregational church and died in 1886, when in the sixty- fourth year of her age.
William L. Smith was reared in his native county until he was fifteen years of age, when he came to Chautauqua county with his father. He received his cducation in the common schools of Pennsylvania and New York and the Fredonia State Normal school. Leaving school, he learned blacksmithing and carriage- making, which he followed successfully at Portland from 1873 to 1883. In the fall of the latter year he formed a general mercantile
partnership with G. D. Conner, under the firm name of Conner & Smith, which firm continued eighteen months, when Mr. Conner sold his in- terest to Mr. Smith's father and the firm name then changed to W. L. Smith & Co. On April 30, 1889, Mr. Smith purchased his father's in- terest and since that time has conducted a very successful and remunerative business. His general mercantile establishment is on Main street and is conveniently arranged for the large business which he docs. He carries a widely varied and carefully selected stock of dry-goods, groceries, notions, clothing, shoes, hardware and lime, feed and everything else to be found in a first-class store. His stock, which is the largest in Portland, is worth over eight thousand dollars, and has been enlarged from year to year to meet the demands of a constantly in- creasing patronage.
On January 24, 1874, Mr. Smith married Hattie Springstead, daughter of Benjamin Springstead now of Missouri. To their union have been born two children, Julia Leona and Herbert G.
W. L. Smith is a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge, No. 284, Knights of Honor Lodge, No. 461, Knights of Maccabees Lodge, No. 38. He has been active in political affairs, as well as in business circles, and has been an earnest worker for several years in the interests of the Republican party of his town and county. He has served as constable, collector and justice of the peace of the town of Portland and on May 21, 1889 was appointed by President Harrison, postmaster of the vil- lage of Portland, which position he has filled faithfully and efficiently ever since.
C HARLES BLOOD, now serving his fifth consecutive term as coroner of Chautauqua county and whose embalming board and fluid are used by the leading undertakers of the United States, was born in the city of Ottawa, Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada,
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October 30, 1835, and is a son of William and Harriet (Burpee) Blood. The Blood family is of Irish descent, and one branch of it settled in Vermont, where, of its descendants, one was William Blood, who was born in 1811. He removed in early life to Ottawa, Canada, where he resided for some years and afterwards in 1852 settled at Lockport, New York, which he made his place of residence until his death in 1876 at sixty-five years of age. He was a re- publican and in early life had met with the sad loss of his wife, who died in Ottawa in 1841. Mr. Blood was engaged during the greater part of his life in the manufacture of chairs in the cities of Ottawa, Canada, and Buffalo and Lock- port, New York.
Charles Blood was reared, until he was six years of age, in Ottawa, when his parents re- moved to Buffalo, N. Y., where he resided until 1852, when he went with the family to Lock- port, N. Y. At the latter place he learned the trade of upholsterer and in 1858 came to Dun- kirk where he embarked in the furniture busi- ness, to which he added undertaking in 1866. His success as an undertaker and funeral director was so complete, that he soon disposed of his furniture business and has given his at- tention ever since to undertaking. A leading paper says :
" He is not only one of the leading under- takers of New York but is a thoroughly repre- sentative man of the most generous impulses and genial qualities."
He is one of the nincteen undertakers who signed the call to organize the New York State Undertakers' Association, which owes much of its effectiveness to his efforts. One of the most important events of Mr. Blood's life is his in- vention and patenting of the " Folding Em- balming Board." It is undoubtedly one of the most convenient and scientific contrivances for handling the dead which has ever been intro- duecd in the United States and has received the commendation of every undertaker who has ex-
amined it, as attested by the many flattering letters in the possession of its manufacturer. In addition to the invention of his popular em- balming board, he has compounded an " An- tiseptic Embalming Fluid," which has met with marked success wherever it has been used. It is injected into the arterial circulation. These two inventions are not only sold in all parts of the United States but also in many foreign countries.
He is a republican in politics; has been elected five times as one of the coroners of Chautauqua county, and is a member of St. John's Protestant Episcopal church. He is a Past Master of Irondequoit Lodge, No. 301, Free and Accepted Masons, and a member of Dunkirk Chapter, No. 191 Royal Arch Masons, Dunkirk Council, No. 26, Royal and Select Masters and Dunkirk Commandery, No. 40, Knight Templars.
On November 30, 1860, he married Emily DeWitt, daughter of Alvin DeWitt of Dun- kirk. They have two children : Thompson H. and Myrtle.
In speaking of Mr. Blood, a history of Dun- kirk city pays him the following well merited tribute as a public official :
"One of the enterprising and successful cit- izens of this place is Charles Blood, who is serving on his fourth (now fifth) three years' term as coroner, in which position he has made a very acceptable officer, his former promptness and efficiency causing him to be elected by a flattering vote."
He has been the recipient of many favorable press notices, one of which said :
" For twenty-four years Mr. Blood has been a successful undertaker. His experience in this line is of great service to him as coroner and has enabled him to save an expense to the county in many ways. As an embalmer he has no superior and when the body of an unknown person has come under his charge, he has always embalmed the remains free of charge and kept
17
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
them for several weeks, while he made every effort for their identification. Often friends from distant States have identified the remains from a photograph taken several days after the body had been embalmed."
Charles Blood is a man of energy and busi- ness capacity, as is attested by the flourishing condition of his undertaking trade.
E LISHA H. FAY, of the town of Portland, who has been actively and successfully engaged for some years in fruit and grape cul- ture, is a son of Lincoln and Sophrona (Peck) Fay, and was born on the farm on which he now resides, in the town of Portland, Chautauqua county, New York, June 27th, 1844. Among the early settled families of Portland were five Fay families, four of whom were founded by Elijah, Elisha, Nathaniel and Hollis Fay, sons of Nathaniel Fay, Sr., who never came to Chau- tauqua county. Elisha Fay, the second son and grandfather of Elisha H. Fay, who was born at Farmingham, Massachusetts, June 2d, 1783, came in June, 1806, to Portland, where he pur- chased lot 25 from the Holland Land Company. He served in the war of 1812, was at Buffalo and Black Rock while out, and died in 1881, aged ninety-eight years and nine months. He was an early member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and at the time of his death was the oldest settler in the town of Portland. In 1806 he married Sophia Nichols, of Massachusetts, who died in 1850. Their children were Lin- colu, Eddie, Charles and Otis N. The eldest son, Lincoln, (father) was born in 1807 and died in May, 1881. He followed farming and fruit growing. He was one of the pioneer fruit- growers of Chautauqua county, and, with a Mr. Moss, of Fredonia, New York, purchased a dozen of Concord grape-vines, from which have originated thousands of acres of vines, in the town of Portland and Chautauqua County. Lin- coln Fay was the originator of " Fay's Prolific Currant," which is now well and favorably
known all over the United States and Canada, and many parts of Europe. He was one of the first abolitionists in the county, had served for many years as a trustee and class-leader in the Methodist Episcopal church, and owned one hundred and forty acres of well-improved land. He married Sophrona Peck, daughter of Ashel Peck, a native of Connecticut and an early resi- dent of Portland, where he was an industrious farmer and an active local preacher of the Meth- odist Episcopal church. Mrs. Fay is a Meth- odist, resides on the home farm, and is now in the seventy-fifth year of her age.
Elisha H. Fay was reared in his native town, received his education in the common schools, and has always followed farming. He now owns the old Fay homestead that was pur- chased from the Holland Land Company, and has one hundred and thirty-three acres of land in the edge of the village of Portland, where he is engaged in farming and fruit-growing. At the present time he is planting out a large vine- yard on his Portland farm, where his neat and tasteful residence is heated by steam, supplied with hot and cold water, provided throughout with telephone connections and lighted by natural gas from wells on his land. He is a republican in politics, has served as supervisor (two years) and assessor (one year) of his town, and is a pleasant and courteous gentleman. Mr. Fay has been general manager of the Chautauqua Grape Growers' Association, and is a member of a natural gas company, which is now en - gaged in drilling wells at Brocton.
May 5th, 1868, Mr. Fay married Ada Dodge, daughter of Walter Dodge, of this county. Mr. and Mrs. Fay have two children : M. Birdina and Maxwell L.
C APT. JAMES BUTLER, of Brocton, who has owned and commanded nearly fifty vessels on the " Great Lakes," was born at Then- ford, in Northamptonshire, England, November 25, 1817, and is a son of Joseph and Ann
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(Batchelor) Butler. His parents were natives of Northamptonshire and united at an early age with the Methodist Episcopal church. They were an honest, hard-working couple, and came in 1832 to Ashtabula county, Ohio, when the cholera was raging in that section of country. Joseph Butler was a shepherd in England, but after coming to the United States he followed farming until his death, which occurred April 11, 1855, at the age of seventy-one years and three months. Mrs. Butler was a kind Christian woman, and passed from the scenes of this life at Geneva, Ashtabula county, Ohio, in 1878, at the ripe old age of ninety-five years.
James Butler, at fifteen years of age, came with his parents to Ohio, and on September 1, 1833, went to Lake Erie, where he resolved upon a sailor's life for himself and embarked as a hand on a small schooner called the " Par- rot," on which he remained until it was laid up for the winter. The next spring he was offered a berth on the " Parrot ". which some unaccount- able impulse caused him to decline, and as the vessel sank when three hours out from harbor with all on board, lie thinks it was a providen- tial interposition that caused him not to go on board. He then worked his way to Detroit, where he spent his last ten cents for a loaf of bread and some cheese, upon which he managed to live for ten days, while a workshop afforded him a sleeping place. At the end of this time he went on board a steam-vessel and worked liis way to Buffalo where he soon obtained the posi- tion of chief cook on a schooner at twelve dollars per month. In six months he obtained a pro- motion, and was successively promoted until he became captain, which position he held on differ- ent vessels for seventeen years. After forty years of active service on the lakes, during which time he never lost a vessel or a sailor, he came in 1876 to Brocton, where he built and now occupies one of the finest brick residences of that village. Of late years Capt. Butler has turned his attention to grape-growing at Brocton,
where he has a very fine vineyard. He has owned twenty-three vessels, including everything from a scow to a brig. In 1861 he built the bark " A. P. Nichols " (named for his Buffalo attorney), and in the succeeding year the " Red White and Blue." They were said to be the fastest vessels then on Lake Erie, and the latter- named one was pronounced when it was launched to be the largest and finest vessel on Lake Erie. He was also a ship merchant for some years in Buffalo. He has wrought out for himself the success of his life, and the commendable ambi- tion of the poor boy has been more than realized in the position of the respected and influential citizen.
On June 12, 1876, Captain Butler united in marriage with Mrs. Sarah (Skinner) Maloney, of Brocton, and they went on a bridal trip to the old world, where they visited England and many other countries of Europe. They have one child, a daughter named Annie M.
Captain Butler is a republican politically, has been for fourteen years a trustee and steward of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is one of the substantial citizens of Brocton.
R ALPH A. HALL, a member of the bank- ing firm of Dean & Hall, of Brocton, was born at Sedgwick, Hancock county, Maine, June 5, 1844, and is a son of Dr. James A. and Caroline (Herrick) Hall. Of the early settlers of the town of Portland one was Ahira Hall, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and who came from his native State of Connecticut in 1818. He was a lawyer, served as justice of the peace for some years and man- aged his farm until his deatlı in 1856, at eighty- two years of age. He was an ardent methodist in religious faith, and all of his thirteen children were members of the M. E. church. His son, Dr. James A. Hall, was born in Connecticut in 1815, and died April 8, 1865, at Brocton. He was a graduate of Bowdoin college, read medi- cine, and located at Brocton in 1844, and shortly
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afterwards graduated from the medical depart- ment of Bowdoin college. He served during the late civil war as surgeon of the 49th regiment, Maine Vols., was a methodist and republican. He had a large practice, and married Caroline Herrick, of Brooklin, Maine, who was born in 1823, and is a consistent member of the Metho- dist Episcopal church.
Ralph A. Hall was reared principally at Brocton. He received his education in the public schools and Fredonia academy, and then obtained a situation as a clerk in a mercantile house at Sherman where he remained for three years. He then (1870) engaged in the hardware business at Brocton, in which he continued until 1881, when he became a traveling salesman for a wholesale hardware house in Buffalo. Three years later he left the road and became a mem- ber of the present banking firm of Dean & Hall, of Brocton. They are conservative and safe as financiers, and the management of their bank is based upon correct and economical financial principles.
In 1870 Mr. Hall married Mary J., daughter of Mark Haight, of Brocton. They have one child, a daughter named Eva H.
In addition to his investment in the banking business Mr. Hall owns a good grape farm and is interested in a land syndicate which is known as the " Brocton Land and Improvement Com- pany." He is a republican, and a member and trustee of the Brocton M. E. church. He is a member of Castle Hall, No. 284, Knights of Pythias, which was organized February 19, 1864 ; Brocton Council, No. 18, Royal Templars of Temperance, organized in 1877, and Brocton Lodge, No. 8, Ancient Order of United Work- men, the oldest order of its kind in the United States, having been established at Meadville, Pa., October 28, 1868.
H ERMON J. DEAN, M.D., a resident physician for the last thirty-four years of Brocton, is a son of Rev. Robert and Aman-
da (Stebbins) Dean, and was born in the town of Royalton, Niagara county, New York, July 8, 1832. The Deans are of English national- ity and were resident in eastern New York dnr- ing the latter part of the eighteenth century. Rev. Robert Dean, the father of Dr. Dean, was born in Putnam county, in 1799, and died in Niagara county, in February, 1876. He was an ordained minister of the Baptist church, following farming for some years in Niagara county and was an old-line whig and republi- can in politics. His wife, a native of the town of Conway, Massachusetts, and a member of the Baptist church, died in Niagara county in 1872, aged sixty-two years.
Hermon J. Dean grew to manhood in his native town, received his early education in the public schools of Niagara county and com- menced the study of medicine in 1854. After completing the required course of reading he entered Miami Medical college, of Cincinnati, Ohio,from which he was graduated in 1857. In the same year he came to Brocton, where he has had a large and remunerative practice until the present time. Dr. Dean is a member of the Chautauqua County Medical society, was one of the founders of the New York State Medical association and takes a deep interest in the progress of his profession.
On October 30, 1861, Dr. Dean married Eda T. Fay, a daughter of Lincoln Fay, a son of Elisha Fay, one of the earliest settlers and 'substantial citizens of the town of Portland.
Dr. H. J. Dean is a republican politically and has held the office of supervisor of the town of Portland for five terms in succession. He is a member of Brocton Lodge, No. 8, Ancient Order of United Workmen. Dr. Dean is also interested in the material develop- ment and financial prosperity of his village. He is a stockholder in the Brocton Land and Improvement company and has been for several years a member of the banking-honse of Dean & Hall, which they founded to advance the
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business interests of their village and section of the county. This bank has fully realized the expectations of its founders, and has been of great benefit to the business interests of the town of Portland and surrounding towns.
GEORGE F. HURLBURT. There is more
genius necessary to properly and success- fully conduct a hotel, than, probably any other business, as the work brings the proprietor in direct contact with characters and dispositions seldom found and not often displayed outside of the home or at the hotel. Mine host, Hurl- burt, of the popular Dunkirk hotel bearing his name, seems to be possessed of this characteris- tic in a large degree. George F. Hurlburt was born in Forestville, Chautauqua county, New York, September 13, 1860, and is a son of John F. and Anna Maria (Griswold) Hurlburt. John Hurlburt (paternal grandfather) was one of the Chautauqua county pioneers. He came from New Jersey and settled at Forestville in 1840. He was a wagon-maker by trade and carried on this business in Forestville, at the time of his death which occurred in 1858. John F. Hurlburt (father) was a native of Forestville and for many years carried on a large carriage and wagon factory there. After quitting this business he opened a hotel in the same town, which he conducted until 1870, when he moved to the oil district and continued the same occupation there until 1882 when he died, aged fifty-six years. Mr. Hurlburt was a member of the Baptist church, the Masonic fraternity and of the Republican party, being an active and energetic worker in the latter, and very popular among his friends and acquaint- ances. He married Anna Maria Griswold, a native of Westmoreland, Oneida county, New York, in 1854, by whom he had three children. She resides with her son, is a member of the Baptist church and is actively engaged in the church work, although she has reached the age of fifty-nine.
George F. Hurlburt spent his first ten years in Chautauqua county and went with his father when he moved to Petroleum Centre, Pennsyl- vania, in 1870. His education was acquired at the public schools and then he went to Buffalo, securing employment in the large cracker works of George Mudgridge & Son, which place he retained until 1880, when he resigned to join his father in the hotel business at Knapp's Creek, Pennsylvania, where they remained for two years and then went to Farnsworth where the father died in 1882. In 1884, G. F. Hurl- burt came to Dunkirk and opened the Hurl- burt House at the time of the Congressional convention of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties and entertained one hundred and fifty guests. He continued proprietor of this house until 1886 when he went to Youngstown, Ohio, and with G. R. Baker opened the Todd House, a building containing one hundred and fifty rooms, and elegant in all its appointments. Under the new management it developed into a big success and was run for a year when they sold out on a good offer. Negotiations were then commenced for the Sherman House of Jamestown, but the proprietors flunked and Mr. Hurlburt was in a fair way to secure the Brazell House at Buffalo, just at the time of the disastrous fire resulting in the loss of life. He then went to Kansas City, Missouri, and engaged in the real estate business making con- siderable money, finally trading some property there for a hotel in Chicago, which he ran on the European plan for one year. The Arling- ton Hotel at Eric, had passed through many vicissitudes, many of which were depressing. Mr. Hurlburt took charge of it in 1888 and placed it on a footing equal to the best, but the owners sold it and he went to Van Buren Point and conducted a summer resort for the season. But his greatest triumph is the Hurlburt House in Dunkirk, with which he has been connected since 1889 and which is now said to be the best hotel between Buffalo and Cleveland. The
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