USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 42
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Mrs. Morian is a direct descendant from Gen- eral Bradford, on her mother's side, who came from England in the "Mayflower," and was governor of the Plymouth Colony until his death. Alexander Morian is a democrat and has served his distriet by filling the local offices. He is also a member of the Baptist church, being one of its trustees.
B ENJAMIN S. SWETLAND, M.D., a well-established and successful physician of Brocton, is a son of Sanford and Rhoda (Moore) Swetland, and was born at Middlefield, Otsego county, New York, March 15, 1854. The Swetlands are of Welsh descent, and are one of the old families of Massachusetts. Sanford Swetland, the father of Dr. Swetland, was born in East Longmeadow, Hampton county, Mas- sachusetts, and moved with his father, when a small boy, to Otsego county, New York, but left there when thirty-five years of age, and canie
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to the village of Portland in 1858, where he died in 1884 when in the sixty-second year of his age. He was a mason by trade, an aboli- tionist and republican in politics, and a Meth- odist in religious belief. During the late civil war he enlisted twice in a Federal company, but was rejected both times on account of phy- sical disability. He married Rhoda Moore, of Scotch-Holland-Dutch descent, and a native of Otsego county, who was born in 1821, and is a consistent member of the Methodist church of Portland, where she now resides.
Benjamin S. Swetland was reared principally in the town of Portland, where he received his early education in the public schools, and then attended the Westfield High School. Leaving school, lie read medicine, and then entered the medical department of the University of Buffalo, from which he was graduated February 26th, 1878. In the same year he opened an of- fice at Portland, where he practiced until the spring of 1883, when he went to Boston, Mass., and became a traveling solicitor and corres- pondent for the Boston Journal of Commerce. During his four years successful experience in that capacity he learned much valuable know- ledge of human nature. In the spring of 1887 he returned to the practice of his profession and came to Brocton, where he has been in active and successful practice ever since.
On May 14th of the Centennial year Dr. Swetland united in marriage with Eva C., daughter of Milton Munson, of Portland. To their union have been born three children, two sons and one daughter : Mabel E., J. Minor and Herbert.
Dr. Swetland is pleasant and courteous, gives close attention to the practice of his profession, and has been for some years a member of the Chautauqua County Medical Society. He is a republican in politics. He is a member of Brocton Castle, No. 284 Knights of Pythias.
C
HARLES E. SHELDON, editor and pro-
prietor of the Chautauqua News, at the village of Sherman, was born in the town of Westfield, Chautauqua county, New York, June 7, 1844. The ancestry of the Sheldon family will be found in the sketch of Hon. A. B. Shieldon which appears in this volume.
Charles E. Sheldon after obtaining a good English education came, in 1869, to Sherman where he embarked in the grocery business which he continued for three years when he opened a hardware store. Three years later he lost his entire stock of hardware by fire and in 1879 became editor and proprietor of his pres- ent paper, the Chautauqua News, which was founded in March, 1877, by E. W. Hoag.
On October 28, 1868, Mr. Sheldon united in marriage with Emily M. Wood. They have three children, one son and two daughters ; Lura A., Nellie A. and Frank C.
Under Mr. Sheldon's management the Chau- tauqua News has attained a circulation of nine hundred copies. It is stanchly republican in politics, printed in clear type and its different departments are so carefully edited as to interest" every member of the family.
B REWER D. PHILLIPS, one of the solid business men of Brocton and prominent in the Republican party at that city is a son of William W. and Celestine (Ely) Phillips, and was born at Cassadaga, Chautauqua county, New York, December 5, 1859. Sawyer Phil- lips (grandfather) was a native of Connecticut but came to and settled in Stockton, in May, 1816, taking section No. 15, Town 4, Range 12. He followed farming and was also a cooper. He married and had children. William W. Phil- lips was born at Cassadaga where he now resides. He is a prosperous farmer and a lead- ing citizen in his community. He married Celestine Ely and had a family of children. He is a republican and takes an active interest in the welfare of his party and the just and
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economical administration of the county's affairs. He is sixty-two years of age and still enjoys good health. His wife is a native of Stockton town.
Brewer D. Phillips stayed on his father's farm until seventeen years of age, attending the winter schools as the work would permit. In 1876 his uncle, who was a general merchant in Cassadaga, offered him a clerkship which was aceepted and filled for three years. It was here that he laid the foundation of his business knowledge. He went to Buffalo in 1879 and spent a season as clerk in a dry goods house. From there he went to Sinclairsville for a year working for A. Putman & Son, general mer- chants, and then they transferred and promoted him to manage a braneh store in Stockton, staying there three years and giving excellent satisfaction on account of his ability and integ- rity. In the spring of 1885, Mr. Phillips came to Brocton and bought his father-in-law's interest in an old established store and entered business with his brother-in-law, T. C. Moss, the style of the firm being Moss & Phillips. They have an immense trade and carry a big stock of general merchandise, with a branch store in Portland. They also handle grapes in season and real estate.
In 1883, Mr. Phillips married Ida M. Moss, a daughter of T. S. Moss, of Brocton, and they have one child: Jessie W.
He is a strong member of the Republican party and by it was twice elected supervisor-in 1889 and 1890, and belongs to the Knights of Pythias. Socially, Mr. Phillips is a pleasant and companionable gentleman and in business he is recognized as among the best in Brocton,
THOMAS R. COVENEY, one of the older business men of Chautauqua eounty and the present postmaster of Sherman, was born in County Kent, England, June 12, 1824, and is a son of Thomas and Sarah (Relf) Coveney. His father, Thomas Coveney and maternal
grandfather William Relf, were natives of England where the former, who was an Epis- copalian in religious belief, married Sarah Relf, by whom he had four sons and two daughters, and followed farming; while the latter, who was a farmer and surveyor, came in 1830 from the Mother Country to the town of Mina where he and his wife, whose maiden name was Fran- cis Ballard, both died and left four sons and. three daughters, who survive them. Thomas Coveney, the father of Thomas R. Coveney, came in 1841, from England to the town of Mina, but afterwards removed to the north- western part of Pennsylvania, where he died. He was a democrat and married Sarah Relf in England, who died at that place in 1839. Three sons and one daughter came with him to America, where he married for his second wife, Sarah Chambers, who bore him two children.
Thomas R. Coveney received his education in England, from which he came with his father, in 1841, to the town of Mina, where he became a clerk in a store of the village of Mina. He afterwards left Mina and went to Barcelona Harbor, where he was in the forwarding and commission business for several years. He then returned to Mina where he was engaged for six years in the general mercantile business, during which time he bought butter and cheese throughout the county, on joint account and commission. He came, in 1871, to Sherman where he has followed the produee and com- mission business ever sinee.
On January 27, 1850, Mr. Coveney married Rhoda A. Taylor, who died in February, 1891, aged sixty-one years. To their union were born eight children, three sons and five daugh- , ters : William R., married Rosalia Bly and is engaged in farming ; John T., married Sadie Stukins and is an oil operator of Washington, Pennsylvania; Sarah A., wife of Edwin Ripley, of Sherman ; James Alfred, a telegraph con- structor, of Tacoma, Washington ; Fannie;
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Louetta ; Clara P., unmarried ; and Delia Ann, married to Dr. C. H. Waterhouse.
Politically Thomas R. Coveney is a republi- can and served for quite a number of years as supervisor of the town and postmaster of the village of Mina. He was active during the late war in securing recruits for the Union ar- mies. He is a member of Olive Lodge, No. 575, Free and Accepted Masons, and the Meth- odist Episcopal church of Sherman, of which he is steward and treasurer, and has been class- leader. In 1889 Mr. Coveney was appointed by President Harrison, as postmaster of Sher- man, which is now a third-class post-office, with a salary of twelve hundred dollars per year. He has acceptably discharged the duties of the office to all interested in postal matters at Sherman.
E DWARD AMES, M.D., a well-read and successful physician of Sherman, was born in West Rutland, Vermont, January 28, 1851, and is a son of Charles and Adelia D. (Ward) Ames. The Ames are of English ori- gin while the Wards are of Scotch descent. Charles Ames, the father of Dr. Edward Ames, was born in Vermont where he married Adelia D. Ward, who is a native of the sanie State, and removed in 1855 to Kane connty, Illinois, where he still resides and is engaged in farm- ing. Mr. and Mrs. Ames have five children, four sons and one daugliter.
Edward Ames received his early education in common and select schools, attending Jen- nings seminary at Aurora, Illinois, for one year and then entered Wheaton college of the same State, where he studied for one year. From Wheaton college he came, in 1871, to Sherman, where he prosecuted his classical studies with Rev. W. L. Hyde and also read medicine with Dr. H. B. Osborne, now of Kal- amazoo, Michigan. He then entered the medi- cal department of Yale college from which he was graduated in 1874, after which he inimed- |
iately opened an office at Sherman. Six years later he left a large practice temporarily to take a special course in the medical department of the University of New York, from which he was graduated in 1881. He then returned to Sherman and resumed his practice which has steadily increased ever since.
On October 25th, of the Centennial year, Dr. Ames united in marriage with Annette Hoyt, of Kaneville, Illinois, and their union has been blest with two children : Jessie H. and Thad- deus H.
In his medical courses Dr. Ames had special opportunities for the study of diseases and has a very fine office practice in addition to his general practice. He is a member of the Chau- tauqna County Medical society of which he was president for three terms, and is one of the founders of the New York State Medical asso- ciation in whose proceedings he takes a deep interest.
S AMUEL P. WILLIAMS, one of the lead- ing and industrious farmers of Sheridan, New York, was born April 29, 1819, in Butler county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of Stephen and Polly (Horton) Williams. He is a de- scendant of the famous Roger Williams, who has passed into both the secular and ecclesiasti- cal history of our country, as the founder of the State of Rhode Island, and as the first ad- vocate of heterodoxy in America, Subject's grandfather was also named Roger Williams, and claimed Vermont as his native State, though he emigrated to the Black river country in the State of New York, where he spent the greater portion of his life and died. Stephen Williams (father) was also a native of Ver- mont, born near Danbury, and came with his father to northern New York. Later he re- moved to Hanover town, Chautauqua county, taking up four hundred acres of land known as " Oak Hill." He entered the army during the war of 1812, served till its close as a private,
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
and died in the town of Hanover in 1838. In education he ranked considerably above the average of his day, and in addition to his occu- pation of farming, he added that of teaching school. His qualifications as a successful peda- ' gogue gave him a well deserved prestige in the neighborhood in which he lived. Though strongly republican in his political views, yet he was devoid of all political aspirations, and firmly believed in fidelity to party for the sake of the party and not for mere official aggrand- izement. As a result of his marriage he had ten children, nine of whom grew to maturity, two boys and seven girls.
Samuel P. Williams was united in marriage to Charity Slocum, a daughter of Jonathan Slocum, by whom he had four children : Geor- gianna, died in childhood ; Newton S., a farm- er by occupation, married to Cornelia Cock- burn, and now living with subject ; Rhoda, dead; Elizabeth L., married to J. C. Russell, a machinist employed at the Dunkirk Locomo- tive Works.
Samuel P. Williams received a very limited education in the schools of his day, but made the best of his poor advantages. He com- menced life as a farmer, purchased a farm of some two hundred and thirty acres near the centre of Sheridan town, and devoted himself to its improvement and cultivation. He now has one of the most highly improved and well kept farms in Chautauqua county. In addition to operating his farm, he has also dealt largely in real estate, and has been quite successful in his ventures, always conducting his enterprises with tact and business skill. He has always zealously advocated the principles of the Dem- ocratic party, and has been frequently impor- tuned to let his name go before his party as a candidate for official preferment, but has always steadily refused. Upon the great issnes of the day Mr. Williams is thoroughly conversant, and keeps fully abreast of the best political and literary thought. Mr. Williams is also the pos-
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sessor of a cabinet of much prized relics, among which is a rolling-pin made from the famous black walnut tree that grew near the present site of Silver Creek, and was transferred to the national museum at London, England, where it was destroyed by fire when the famous Crystal Palace burned.
ALBERTE BIRD is an enterprising and prosperous farmer of Poland Centre, this county, and was born in Poland Centre, Chau- tauqua county, New York, to his parents, Nel- son and Clarissa (Griffith) Bird, on August 28, 1853. One hundred and thirty years ago, in 1761, Col. Nathaniel Bird, the great-grand- father, was born in Salisbury, Connecticut, and when sixteen years of age entered the colonial army, and served through the war with great distinction, being advanced to the rank of colo- nel. He married, after the close of the war, Hannah Ballard, at New Marlborough, Massa- chnsetts, where he resided until 1815, and then moved to the town of Westfield, this county, where he died January 12, 1847. Prior to his coming to Chautauqua county, he was engaged in the boot, shoc and general merchandise busi- ness. The same year in which he arrived here he took up a tract of land, upon which Amos Bird settled.
Amos Bird, grandfather of subject, was born in New Marlborough, Mass., in 1789, and after coming to Chautauqua county, settled near Jamestown upon a tract of land purchased by his father. He followed farming, and died in 1824. John Griffith was the father of our subject's mother. He was a native of Con- necticnt, where he was born June 2, 1785, and came to Madison county, New York, in 1800. Five years later he removed to this county, and, in connection with the well-known Bemus family, was one of the pioneer settlers of the county. John Griffith was a son of Jeremiah Griffith, who was born in Norwich, Connecti- cut, July 28, 1758, and married Mary Crop-
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sey, who was born February 8, 1764. He left Norwich, and moved to Rensselaer county, New York, thence to Madison county in 1800, and in February, 1805, he started with his wife and six children, an ox team and a wood- shod sled, a few cows and sheep driven by the boys, to go to Ohio. At Batavia he met some acquaintances, who persuaded him to go to Chautauqua lake instead. When they arrived at the head of the latter place, the family were left while Mr. Griffith and his oldest son started out to find a location, finally deciding upon what is now known as Griffith Point. Their first year was one of continual privations and hardship. Provisions were scarce, and the winter was cold. A pen cannot paint the pic- ture of their suffering, the imagination even of one without the experience being unable to depict the extremity to which they were re- duced. And yet, stout-hearted, they pulled through, and to-day their children are enjoying the comforts-yes, the luxuries-they suffered to secure. John Griffith married Tryphena Bemus on February 9, 1809, and had twelve children. Mrs. Griffith died February 19, 1851, and was followed by her husband, Sep- tember 23, 1868, when he was eighty-four years old.
Nelson Bird first saw the light within the boundaries of Busti town on July 17, 1814, and spent his childhood and youth on the farm. He went to the public school, and ac- quired an education superior to the average of that day. Succeeding this, he learned carpenter working, and followed it for a few years. He then began to farm in the town of Poland, and pursued that occupation until he died, July, 1888. January 29, 1843, he married Clarissa Griffith, and she bore him nine children. Six are dead: Amos J., George W., Adelaide, John B., Charles and Emma A. Three are living : Willard F., Dora and Alberte. Nelson Bird was a republican, and held a number of the minor town offices. He belonged to the Uni-
versalist church, and was a devout attendant upon its services. In business he was atten- tive, honest to the penny, and succeeded in accumulating considerable property.
Alberte Bird was born and reared on a farm in the town of Poland; attended the village schools and the Jamestown academy, securing a liberal education, after which he began and has since been engaged in farming.
On February 6, 1889, he married Nettie Jenks, a daughter of Monroe Jenks, of Elling- ton. His wife was given an advanced educa- tion, by her father, at the Randolph academy.
Mr. Bird is a republican and a member of the Patrons of Husbandry, and in addition to his farming he is a large stock-raiser, paying attention to the better grades.
C APT. JOSEPH S. ARNOLD, of the city of Jamestown, who commanded the First Battalion of New York Sharp-shooters in the Army of the Potomac, is a son of David and Rhoda (Rush) Arnold, and was born in the town of Ellery, Chautauqua county, New York, October 6, 1822. His paternal grandfather was a native of England and came to New England where he afterwards died. Of the sons born to him at Woonsocket, Rhode Island, one was David Arnold, the father of Joseph S. Arnold, and who removed to Saratoga Springs, New York, from which place he came in 1812 to Chautauqua county and settled near the line between the towns of Ellery and Ellicott. He afterwards removed to the lake shore, near Bemus Point, where he purchased four hundred acres of land from the Holland Land company. He was a farmer by occupation, and a whig and republican in politics. He died in 1862, aged eighty-three years. He married Dorcas Waters who died and left him six children. For his second wife he married Rhoda Rush, by whom he had four sons : David, Alexander, Lewis and Joseph, all of whom are dead but Joseph.
Joseph S. Arnold attended the Jamestown
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
academy and Quaker seminary and then com- menced farming in the town of Ellery where he remained until 1852 when he went by the " Overland Route" to California. The trip took one hundred days and after arriving at the gold mines he mined for a time, but soon went to Sacramento, where he was engaged in busi- ness until 1855. In that year he returned to this county and purchased his present farm of thirty-four acres in the town of Ellicott, where he has followed farming until the present time.
On May 21, 1843, he married Mary, daughter of Arthur Phillips, a native of Con- necticut and a shoemaker by trade, who came in 1825 to the town of Busti, but afterwards removed to the town of Ellicott where he died. Capt. and Mrs. Arnold had one child, George C., who enlisted as a private in the first Bat- talion of New York sharp-shooters in the autumn of 1862, and died of fever in the City Point hospital July 27, 1864.
Capt. Arnold is a democrat in politics. He entered the Union service in 1862 as captain of the 7th company of New York Sharp-shooters, took his company to Suffolk, Va., where they were joined by the 6th, 8th and 9th companies of New York Sharp-shooters, and the four companies united into the First Battalion New York Sharp-shooters. Capt. Arnold com- manded this battalion until 1864. He was sun- struck on the Rappahannock river on August 1, 1863, and failing to recover entirely from its effects was by recommendation of the surgeon- in-chief of the Fifth Army Corps, discharged on April 21, 1864, on account of physical dis- ability. Hc is a member of James M. Brown Post, No. 285, Grand Army of the Republic, at Jamestown.
W ILLIAM MACE, one of the enterprising and prosperous boot and shoe dealers of Jamestown, was born in Coveney, Cambridge- shire, England, July 29, 1816, and is a son of William Jr., and Mary (Cox) Mace. The
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Maces for three generations back have been largely residents of Cambridgeshire, where they have been engaged principally in farming. William Mace, Sr., the paternal grandfather of William Mace, was born in Cambridgeshire where he followed farming, married, and rcared a family of three sons : James, John and Wil- liam, Jr., all of whom followed agricultural pursuits in the native shire. William, Jr., (father) the youngest son, married Mary Cox, a daughter of David Cox of Cambridgeshire, who lived to number three years on the second century of his life.
William Mace grew to manhood in his native shire, attended the rural English schools and learned the trade of tailor, which he followed in England until the spring of 1845, when he came to Jamestown, where he has resided ever since. About 1873 he quit tailoring, which he had followed continuously for twenty-six years, and embarked in the shoe business. Four years later he removed to his present place of business on the corner of Third and Main streets, where he associated his son Charles W. with him as a partner. Their establishment is twenty-two by sixty feet in dimensions and contains a first- class stock of boots and shoes, which have been selected to meet the requirements of their large city and country trade. William Mace is a republican in politics and a member of Ellicott Lodge, No. 221, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Jamestown.
On April 12, 1847, Mr. Mace married Cor- nelia P. Deland, daughter of Alvin Deland, a native of Chautauqua county. Mr. and Mrs. Mace have two children : Charles W., now in the boot and shoe business with his father and married to Kate Faulkner, by whom he has two children, Willie M. and Mary E .; and Mary Eppie, wife of Major Edgar P. Putnam, clerk of the courts of Chautauqua county and whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume.
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TRA C. NICHOLS. Of the various great industries of the United States, few have more capital invested or more people employed in its different branches than the lumber busi- ness, beginning at the standing tree and follow- ing the log through its various processes of manufacture and sale until the finished stock is delivered to the carpenter, who skillfully man- ipulates his tools and leaves the result of his labors in a place of usefulness. A leading rep- resentative of this great business is Ira C. Ni- chols, of Kennedy, who is a son of Andrew and Cordelia (Holcomb) Nichols, and was born at Clayton, Jefferson county, this State, March 16, 1840. His ancestors came from New Eng- land to northwestern New York. David Ni- chols was born in Claverack, New York, about 1780, and emigrated to Jefferson county during the first decade of the present century ; he was a tiller of the soil, and died, about 1830, at Cape Vincent. He married a Miss Dimmick, and their union resulted in six children. Dur- ing the war of 1812 he served in the capacity of an ammunition charger. Mr. Nichols was a man of thrift, energy and economy, and cast his sympathies with the whigs. Sullivan Hol- comb was the father of subject's mother, and came to Jefferson county from the State of Con- necticut, where he was born about 1776; set- tling at a point near Cape Vincent, he prepared him a beautiful home and lived ninety years to enjoy it. Having married Abigail Lee, a daugh- ter of Seth Lee, he became the father of five children. Like subject's paternal grandfather, he served in America's second fight with Great Britain, and took a prominent part as private and officer. Andrew Nichols was a native of western Oneida county, New York, where he was born April 2, 1806. He went with his parents to Jefferson county, and thence, in 1870, to Chautauqua county, and settled at Kennedy. He died May 13, 1891, in the last mentioned village at the unusual age of eighty-five years. He followed farming and lumbering, the latter
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