USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 44
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In 1870, he married Caroline L. Winslow, a daughter of Myron D. Winslow, of Angola, and they have one daughter living : Edna H., born January 15, 1876; and Mabel E., born October 22, 1873-died in September, 1889.
Ira D. Rowley is a member of the Methodist church ; a steward and trustee, and belongs to the following fraternal bodies : Silver Lodge, No. 757, F. and A. M .; Silver Creek Lodge, No. 10, A. O. U. W .; Silver Creek Council, No. 39, Royal Arcanum ; and the Knights Templar degree of the Masons. He is a repub- lican, has served as president of the village, president of the sehool board and is now a member of the last named body. He belongs to the progressive, pushing and wide-awake element upon whom the work of developing a town or city falls, but being public-spirited Mr. Rowley cheerfully gives of his time and means to everything that will advance the interests of the village.
R OBERT M. HALL, a farmer of the town of Westfield and one of the Union sol- diers who was a prisoner at Andersonville, is a son of Asa and Pauline (Mack) Hall, and was born in the town of Westfield, Chautauqua county, New York, February 5, 1833. His paternal grandfather, Asa Hall, Sr., was born June 20, 1767, in Rhode Island, where he was an importer and jobber for some years in the city of Providence. He came to the town of Westfield in 1811, served in the War of 1812 and died March 14, 1832. His children were : Sophy, wife of Jonathan Cass ; George, who served in the War of 1812; Harrict; Asa; David; and Silas F., who died in Illinois. Asa Hall, the second son and father of Robert M. Hall, was born at Thompson, Connecticut,
December 26, 1796, removed with his parents to Stratford, New Hampshire and in 1811 came with them to Westfield. "At sixteen years of age he enlisted in the American army, was at the burning of Buffalo and on his way home had fever and ague from the effects of which he never recovercd. He purchased land from the Holland Land company and when not engaged at his trade of carpenter and builder was em- ployed in farming until his death, June 8, 1868. He was a ruling elder of the Presbyterian church and on December 20, 1820, he married Pauline Mack, a native of Genesee county, a very intelligent woman, who died May 4, 1861, at sixty years of age. Young, in his history of Chautauqua county, says : Mr. and Mrs. Hall are spoken of as having been persons of exem- plary piety, and shedding a hallowed influence alike upon the members of the family and of the society in which they moved." They had five children : Charlotte, wife of W. P. Culbert- son, of Illinois; Robert M .; Sophy C., who married A. C. Crane, of San Francisco, Califor- nia; Emma M., wife of Judge S. G. Nye, of Oakland, California; and Frank A., for ten years publisher of the Westfield Republican and now in the manufacturing business, the factory being located in northeast Pennsylvania-resi- dence, Westfield. Mrs. Hall was a daughter of Capt. John Mack, who kept the old Mack tavern and the ferry on Cattaraugus creek, when the British had possession of Lake Erie, and by the assistance of the Indians prevented the English from molesting him.
Robert M. Hall grew to manhood on the Westfield farm and received a common school and academic education. He has given his time and attention to farming and now has a vine- yard of twenty-five acres on his farm, which is situated one and one-half miles west of the vil- lage of Westfield. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in Co. I, 9th New York cavalry, was promoted to quarter-master sergeant and after three and one-half years of active service was
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honorably discharged at Elmira, New York, February 6, 1865. In a cavalry charge at Brandy Station, Virginia, he was wounded and captured by the Confederates and spent four hundred and nine days in seven different pris- ons, one of which was Andersonville, in which he was confined for the most of his time before being exchanged. Mr. Hall is a republican in politics. He is a member of the Westfield Presbyterian church and William Sackett Post, No. 324, Grand Army of the Republic. He has always been active and useful in his sphere of life and enjoyed the reputation of being a public-spirited citizen.
January 30, 1867, he married Flora A., eld- est daughter of Milo A. Driggs. To their union have been born five children : Louise, who died at eleven years of age; Florence, who possesses good artistic ability, has done some fine painting and graduated in 1891, from Ing- ham university, at Leroy, New York; Paul- ine; Mary ; and Asa.
C APT. JAMES P. BENNETT, a well- known citizen and prosperous fariner of the town of Westfield, is a son of James and Elizabeth (Ensign) Bennett, and was born in the town of Portland, Chautauqua county, New York, August 2, 1824. His paternal grandfather, Capt. Banks Bennett, was of French descent, and served in the Revolutionary war, and the maternal grandfather, Otis Ensign, also served in the Revolutionary war and afterwards left his native State of Massachusetts to become one of the early settlers of the town of Pomfret, where he died at the advanced age of ninety-six years. James Bennett, the father of Capt. James P. Ben- nett, was born in the town of Pawlet, Rutland county, Vermont, June 6, 1785, and came to the town of Sheridan in 1816; two years later he re- moved to the town of Portland, where he followed farming until his death January 29, 1858. He was a whig and a republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he
was an active worker ; while his word was as good as his bond. He married Elizabeth Ensign, a consistent member of his own church, who was born in Susquehanna county, Penna., and died June 10, 1850, when in the sixty-third year of her age.
James P. Bennett was reared on the farm in the town of Portland until he was fourteen years of age and received his education in the common schools. He then went on board a lake vessel and worked his way up until he became a captain and commanded several vessels that plied on the lakes between Buffalo and Chicago. At twenty-eight years of age he left the lakes and spent three years as a grain weigher in an elevator at Buffalo. He then conducted a grocery and meat market for five years and at the end of that time embarked in the butchering business, which he continued successively in the Elk street market for twenty- two years. When he quit butchering (1882) he returned to this county, where he purchased a farm in the town of Westfield and has been engaged ever since in farming and grape cul- ture.
In 1850, he married Sarah A. Drury, daugh- ter of John Drury of Detroit, Michigan. They have two adopted children : Lottie and Susie.
Captain James P. Bennett is a democrat in politics, was elected supervisor in 1862 of the third ward of Buffalo and served for three years as captain of the police in the third precinct of that city. When he quit butchering in Buffalo, the butchers of the Elk street marked presented him a gold-headed ebony cane as a slight token of their esteem and respect. He is a member of Erie Lodge No. 161, Buffalo Chapter No. 71, and Buffalo Coun- cil No. 17 of the Masonic Fraternity of Buffalo.
F RANK O. BRIGGS is a well educated, bright, energetic and active young busi- ness man, who is appreciated for his worth in the community. He is an only son of George
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W. and Sallie A. (Tarbox) Briggs and was born in Arkwright, Chautauqua county, New York, September 21, 1863. His grandfather, Joseph R. Briggs, was born in Massachusetts, July 24, 1795, and owned quite a large farm, which he sold, and came to this county in 1830, where he bought a farm of fifty acres in Arkwright and carried on a dairy business, manufacturing large quantities of butter up to the time of his death, which occurred November 25, 1876. In re- ligion he was a member of the Christian church, and politically he was a republican. Joseph R. Briggs was married January 1, 1817 to Rhoda Sabin and by her had eight children, two sons and six daughters : Olive, born July 11, 1818, married to Palmer Dennison; George W. (father) ; Dorcas B. born May 10, 1822, mar- ried Wilder Fisher ; Louis J., born June 20, 1824, married Hannah Lewis; Susan, born October 8, 1826, married John Griswold ; Rhoda F., born November 26, 1829, married Abner Mattoon; Mary I., born April 27, 1832, married Joel Parker ; Anna M., born July 25, 1834, married Myron Dewey. The maternal grandfather of F. O. Briggs, Dudley Tarbox, was born in Hebron, Connecticut, January 9, 1785, where he owned a farm and cultivated it until 1835, (except when he was serving as a soldier in the war of 1812), when he sold it and moved to this county, settling in the town of Arkwright, where he bought a farm of sixty acres and pursued the vocation of an agricultur- ist until his death, which summons came to him in Stockton, this county, June 3, 1851. His wife died April 10, 1857. Religiously, he was a member of the Christian church in Ark- wright, and politically he was a republican. Dudley Tarbox was married March 16, 1812, to Polly Waters and by her had ten children, six sons and four daughters : Mary S., married Leonard Dalrymple ; Phebe S., born September 8, 1813, married Benjamin House; William W., born December 28, 1816, married Sarah A. Wood ; Henry C., born November 18, 1818,
died young ; Harry M., born March 19, 1820, married Cornelia Rebbels ; Augustus C., born March 9, 1822, died young ; Sallie A. (mother) born July 4, 1824; Albert G., born December. 3, 1826, married Hercy Rebbels ; Hannah J., born February 6, 1829, married Ranster Luce Salina, born May 6, 1831, died young. It is a singular coineidence that grandfather and grand- mother Tarbox, grandmother Briggs and George W. Briggs died aged sixty-six years each. George W. Briggs (father) was born in Massa- chusetts June 19, 1820, and became a farmer, owning two hundred and fifty acres of land at the old homestead. He came to the county in 1835, settling in Arkwright, where he bought land, until at one time he owned seven hundred acrcs. In 1875 he sold all his Arkwright land except three hundred and eighty acres, moved to Fredonia and in 1876 bought a prop- erty on Temple street and retired from active life. The land he owned in Arkwright was unimproved, nearly all woods, and he improved it. The first year he was married he worked for a man named Strong at Sinclairville for one hundred and twenty dollars a year and house rent. At the time of his death he was worth thirty thousand dollars, showing what an in- domitable will, added to Yankee shrewdness and pluck, will accomplish. During the war he had charge of filling the quota of the town of Arkwright, but was never in the army. In re- ligion he was a member of the Christian church in Arkwright, of which he was also deacon and trustee. After coming to Fredonia, he joined the Disciple church, of which he was afterward a trustee or minister and was a very active church worker. In politics he was a republican and an active party man. He was assessor and supervisor of Arkwright in 1875, 1876, 1877. George W. Briggs was married to Sallie A. Tarbox January 1, 1843, and the union was productive of four children, one son and three daughters : Ellen J., married C. W. Cardott, a mechanic in Jamestown ; Katherine P. married
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C. B. Wilson, a farmer in Charlotte, this Tent, No. 81, Knights of the Maccabees, and county ; Ida B., dead ; and Frank O. The of Fredonia Grange, No. 1. Frank O. Briggs father died November 23, 1886. His death was married June 4, 1879 to Sophie M. Lee, a was caused by a hurt in the hand, which he had daughter of Uriah and Eliza Lee of Fredonia, and has two children, a son and a daughter : May L. and George W. received seven years previous and which had resulted in blood poisoning. The best physi- cians were consulted and he was taken to the hospital at Ann Arbor, Michigan, but his life could not be saved. His widow is still living, in her sixty-seventh year, having been born in 1824.
Frank O. Briggs was educated at the district school in Arkwright and at the union school in Jamestown, which latter he had attended four terms when his parents moved to Fredonia and he attended the State normal school six terms, taking the regular normal course, but did not graduate. He then went to clerking for D. L. Shepard in the hardware business, where he re- maincd three years, and then bought a fruit farm of twenty acres in Pomfret, which he occu- pied two years, being very successful. Then he returned to Fredonia and resumed his place in Mr. Shepard's store, still owning the farm, remained here about sixteen months and then traded the farm and bought out Mr. Shepard in connection with Case & Zahn in 1882. In October 1886 he sold out his interest and started in the shoe business at No. 53 Main street, Fredonia, where he carried a stock of eight thousand dollars worth of all varieties of boots, shoes and rubber goods, and did a busi- ness of sixteen thousand dollars a year until April 11, 1890, when he sold out his boot and shoe business and embarked in the hardware trade, associating with Fred R. Ford ; they purchased the west end of what is known as the Park House and by January 1, 1892, ex- pect to have the finest line of hardware in stock to be found at Fredonia. In religion he is a member of the Presbyterian church of Fre- donia, and in politics is an active working re- publican. He is secretary of Forest Lodge, No. 166, F. A. M., a member of Grapevine | hope belonged to the Baptist church, and reared
E LY DAVIS is a vencrable gentleman living at Fredonia, who has been an extensive farmer ; is now interested in the cultivation of grapes, and makes politics a study, believing that the affairs of the Nation should command the attention of all patriotic citizens. He is a son of Harry and Mary (Stanhope) Davis and was born at Scio, Allegany county, New York, November 24, 1817. The paternal grandfather, James Davis, was a native of the old Bay State and was born about 1744. By trade he was a shoemaker and followed it in the town of Conway, then Hampshire county, Massachu- setts, and served through the Revolutionary war, rising to the rank of major and served on Gen. Washington's staff. Mr. Davis was the leader of a sect called the San Dominicans, and exercised a great influence for good over them .. In 1767 he married Irene Ticnor, who bore him ten children, six girls and four boys : James, Cyrus, Harry, Charles, Eunice, Lucinda, Philana, and three whose names are lost. His wife died about 1810 and he then moved to the. home of subject's father in Allegany county in 1812, where he died four years later. The maternal grandfather, Samuel Stanhope, was born in Massachusetts in 1755 and was a life- long farmer. He married Mary Goodenough in 1773 and moved to Genesee county, New York, where his wife died in 1828, aged seventy-one years, and she is buried at Attica. Mr. Stan- hope then removed to Monroe county and lived with a son until his Maker called him in 1839. He too served under Washington in the Rev- olutionary army and, at the time of his death, was drawing a disability pension. Mr. Stan-
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
a family of six children, Levi, Charlotte, Mary, Teresa, Luther and Zatta. Harry Davis, sub- ject's father, was born at Conway, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, August 24, 1780, and for a number of years was reared by Deacon Ware. When he attained his majority he moved to Whitestown, Oneida county, N. Y. and lived there for a year and then went to Angelica, Allegany county, on the Genesee river, where he got one hundred and sixty acres of land for two dollars and fifty cents per acre. The land was heavily timbered and the Indians were his only neighbors, while the howling of wild beasts at night made the music that lulled him to sleep. That was in 1805, and he remained upon the same property until he died, October 18, 1864,when eighty-four years of age. Prior to the second war with Great Britain, he joined a rifle company that was called into service but soon after discharged, so that the members could return home to protect their families from the ravages of the Indians. For service ren- dered the government, Mr. Davis received a land warrant, which he presented to the Bap- tist church. Politically he was a whig and was elevated to nearly all the town offices in the gift of the people, filling with special credit the positions of assessor and road commissioner and was also elected captain of militia. For many years he served as deacon in the Baptist church and at its organization in 1817 he was the first to be baptized in that country. On October 5, 1801, he married Mary Stanhope and she be- came the mother of eight children, five sons and three daughters: Charles was born April 27, 1803, and married Jemima Van Campen in In 1873 Mr. Davis came to Chautauqua county and bought a desirable property in Fre- donia, leaving his son to manage his farm at his former home, but four years later he sold it to the latter and now attends to a grape orchard of ten acres in the town of Pomfret and some interests in timber lands located in New York and Pennsylvania. Politically Ely Davis was 1825-he is dead ; Wells was born April 14, 1806, now dead, married Polly Wightman, July 21, 1825; Philana, born September 23, 1808, married Samuel Wheeler, February 22, 1825, and is dead ; Nathan W., born February 19, 1811, married Sarah Waters, September 11, 1833, and is dead; Stata, born May 1, 1813, married John B. Norton, April 9, 1834, she a whig as long as that party was an organiza-
too is dead; Lovina, born November 13, 1815, is dead, married Horatio N. Crandall, Novem- ber 12, 1840; Ely Davis; Luther was born February 29, 1820, married Delana Rogers, June 17, 1847, dead; and three others died in infancy. Harry Davis lived to be eighty-four years old and died October 18, 1864; his wife survived until September 10, 1870, and passed away, aged ninety years.
Ely Davis was educated at the district schools, which in pioneer times were seldom held more than two or three months in each year and the scholars were often obliged to walk three and four miles to attend; during the summer he worked on the farm. In 1845 he bought his father's farm and then secured the adjoining tracts until he owned two hundred and ninety- five acres in one piece.
September 14, 1843, he united with Mari M. Mosher, a daughter of Seba Mosher, of Otsego county ; by their union came two children : Eliza Ann, died when six years of age, two days after her mother, who passed away October 25, 1851, and both were buried in the same grave at Bel- mont, New York; and Elizur I., a hardware merchant at Belmont ; he married Evangeline S. Lamphere, September 11, 1872. On Decem- ber 1, 1853, Mr. Davis wedded Betsey M. Reed, a daughter of Robert Reed, a farmer of Allegany county. By her, three children were born : Eliza M., born April 5, 1855, and died November 8, 1856; Harry E. is a book-keeper, stenographer and telegrapher in a machine shop at Belmont-he married Eliza E. Ryman; and Ella, at home.
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tion but is now a stalwart republican, and since 1839 has been a communicant of the Baptist church.
E LIAS BECKER is one of the farmers of
Busti town who pays strict attention to his agricultural work and thereby usually has good crops. He is a son of Abram and Mar- garet (Stom) Becker and was born in the town of Ellery, this county, October 28, 1825. The paternal grandfather, Adam Becker, was of German extraction and came to Chautauqua county from Herkimer county when this country was new and comparatively wild. He secured a farm and continued to till its soil until his death. Abram Becker was a native of Herkimer county, and came to Chautauqua when a boy with his father. They lived for many years in Ellery town, where he followed farming until well advanced in life, wlien he retired from active business and moved into the village of Fluvanna, where he died, aged sixty-seven years. Abram Becker was a democrat, a sterling, pushing, energetic man, and he died when sixty-seven years old, con- soled by his faith in the Christian church. His wife, Margaret Stom, was a native of Ellery town ; she too was a communicant of the Christian church and died in 1851, aged forty- six years.
Elias Becker was reared on his father's farm where he worked during the summer and at- tended the common schools in the winter, thereby securing the education which has car- ried him through life. He is the owner of a highly improved farm of one-hundred and six and one-half acres in the town of Busti, located on the road running from Jamestown to Busti.
Ellery ; by this last union they have one child living, a daughter Lena, who is now the wife of Lorenzo Denn, who was a farmer living near subject's home. Elias Becker belongs to the Baptist church at Busti, in which he holds the responsible and honorable position of trustee ; he is also a member of the Grange, a society devoted to advancing the interests of farmers ; politically he is a republican, wide- awake, enterprising and public-spirited and all improvements calculated to benefit the section of the country in which he lives find him a ready and enthusiastic supporter. Mr. Becker has attained the position he now occupies by industry and economy and he appreciates the fact that all wealth is derived from toil.
B ENJAMIN FRANKLIN MATHEWS, a
gallant defender of his country's flag and successful in the pursuits of peace, is the oldest living resident of the town who is a native of Gerry. Benjamin F. Mathews is a son of Caleb and Margareth (Salisbury) Mathews and was born in the town of Gerry, Chautauqua county, New York, March 24, 1822. His grandfather was of English descent and came from one who crossed the ocean on the Mayflower. He was born in the State of Rhode Island and lived to be eighty-seven years and six months old. By occupation he was a shoemaker and for many years followed the sea. He died in the town of Gerry in 1855. Caleb Mathews came to this town in 1821 and secured four-hundred acres of land from the Holland Land Company. He was a potter by trade but made farming his principal work His place, when he first moved his family on to it, was two and one-half miles from his nearest neighbor, but soon after, the country began to populate rapidly. He married Margareth Salis- bury, reared .eleven children, and lived until his death, which occurred November 17, 1869, when eighty-two years old, upon the original
Mr. Becker has been married twice, first in Ellery to Mary M. Wiard, a daughter of Plum Wiard ; she died in 1851, leaving no children. For his second wife he took Elenore L. Miller, a daughter of John Miller, of the town of farm. Politically a republican, he held several
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town offices and was a member of the Baptist church.
Benjamin Franklin Mathews was reared in the town of Gerry and attended its public schools. When he arrived at that age in which young men were put to work, he began farming and helped to clear considerable new ground. Shortly after, he went to Le Roy, Genesee Benjamin Franklin Mathews is a member of the Free Methodist church, a gentleman of upright character and a citizen to whom the community may point with pride. county, and was interested in a machine shop for two years, when he returned to Gerry and settled on a farm adjoining his present home and now does general farming. In 1862 Mr. Mathews enlisted in company F, 112th regi- J OSEPH GARFIELD, a leading stock-raiser and dealer in pedigree horses, was born August 27, 1853, and is a son of Joseph Gar- field, Sr., and Lucy A. (Palmer) Garfield. His ancestors on both sides belonged to the race of English pioneers, who came to the shores of New England to escape monarchical rule. His grandfather, also named Joseph, was born near Rutland, Worcester county, Massachusetts, April 17, 1780, and was a liberal supporter of the National cause during the war of 1812, and ment, N. Y., Infantry, and was first engaged at the Deserted Farm, Virginia. After this engagement, battles and skirmishes followed one another in rapid succession, in all of which, he' proved himself a gallant soldier and a patriot. He was present at the siege of Suffolk and from there went to White House Landing and after service at that place, moved on to Hanover Junction. Returning to Portsmouth, Va., and thence to Bowers Hill, he was ordered from the latter place to Charleston, S. I held the office of justice of the peace for fifteen C., and remained there until the following spring. Then in succession he was at Jackson- ville, Yorktown, Bermuda Hundred, Peters- burg and Cold Harbor. During the election his regiment was ordered to New York, and when their duty was performed there, in the order named, they were transferred to Deep Bottom, Fort Fisher under Gen. Butler Ber- muda, and under Gen. Terry, went back to Fort Fisher and "took it." Wilmington, N. C., surrendered to them on February 22, 1865. Mr. Mathews was then detailed as manager of the hospital at Wilmington, N. C., and served as such for eight weeks, when he was discharged and came home. He began farming at once and has now a very fine place. His herd of cows are superior ; and, among other items of produc- tion, is about 1500 pounds of cheese annually.
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