USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 45
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Politically, a republican, he is serving as poor-master and constable.
June 2, 1844, he married Mary Lyon, a daughter of William Lyon, of Le Roy, Genesee county, and they have been blessed with nine children : C. Electa ; Melvin L .; Florence A .; Francis Marian ; Alvorsee J. ; Orin H., died when twenty-four years old ; Lizzie M. living, and Franklin, dead.
years. Subject's father was born at Pine Grove, Warren county, Pa., on May 5, 1817, and re- moved with his father to the town of Busti, and settled upon the farm which he now occupies. He was a farmer and stock-raiser by occupation and continued such up to the date of his death, August 8, 1885. His wife, whose maiden name was Lucy A. Palmer, was born March 8, 1824, at Norwich, Chenango county, New York, and bore him six children, all boys : Martin G., Eliakim, Samuel, Joseph, Amos P. and Whit- man P., the two latter being twins. Three of the children, Martin G., Amos P. and Whitman P. are now deceased. Joseph Garfield, Sr., and his wife were married March 3, 1841, and both are steadfast members of the Methodist Episco- pal church. Mrs. Garfield still survives and makes her home with her son Joseph. For many years Mr. Garfield was a devotee of whig ( principles, but with the organization of the
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Republican party, he changed his political alle- giance to the new party.
Joseph Garfield, whose name heads this sketch, on November 15, 1876, was united in marriage with Miss Ella A. Northrop, of the town of Busti. Their union has been blest by the birth of five children : Flora E., Floyd A., Lucy B., Lizzie M. (deceased) and Hazel Ruth. Mr. and Mrs. Garfield have a very comfortable and pleasant home situated one and a quarter miles from Jamestown, near the line between the towns of Ellicott and Kiantone. Mrs. Gar- field is a daughter of Hon. William Northrop, Jr., of Busti.
Joseph Garfield, is now engaged in the breeding and raising of Clydesdale horses and Shetland ponies in partnership with B. F. Hazel- ton, of Bradford, Pa. The firm known as Gar- ficld & Hazelton, embarked in business four years ago, but Mr. Garfield has recently sold his interest to Hazelton and assumed the general superintendency. The efforts of these gentle- men to introduce fine and fancy stock into Chautauqua county have been highly encouraged and supported. At the present time they have twenty-eight head of registered Clydesdale horses (several of which have been imported and are very valuable) and have no fears from compe- tition. Mr. Garfield is an adherent of the Re- publican party, but is in no sense a partisan in politics. He recognizes the fallibility of all parties and crecds and holds himself free to at all times support the cause representing the highest principles and the most humanitarian and equitable policy. In his religious views the same principle of freedom obtains. He places conduct, action, life, above doctrine and dogma, and instead of believing in a religion of dead formalism and absolute ritualism, he ad- vocates a rational religion upon the basis of honesty, sincerity, purity, conscientiousness and law.
R ALPH H. HALL has been one of the most extensive farmers and providers of fat cattle for the market in this section, and is now enjoying a hale and screne old age, surrounded by the fruits of his success. He is a son of Ahira and Laura (Palmer) Hall, and was born in Portland, Chautauqua county, New York, November 3, 1821. James Hall, his grand- father, was born in Upbridge, Massachusetts, April 19, 1757, was a farmer all his life, and owned a large tract of land at that place, which he tilled up to the time of his death, which occurred July 29, 1835, in Croydon, New Hampshire. He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and fought under General George Washington throughout that world- famous struggle for the liberty and the rights of man, and after the war drew a pension. In religion he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and among the most influen- tial. James Hall was married at the age of nineteen to Huldah Cooper, aged sixteen, a niece of Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and by this marriage had twelve children, seven sons and five daughters: Abijah, Ahira (father), Sherman, James, Carlton, Albina, Lyman, Chloe, married to Menassah Sawyer; Huldah, married Elijah Darling; Dilla, married Benjamin White; Sarah, died in infancy ; and an infant. The mother of these children died in 1847, February 19th, aged eighty-eight years, and was buried at Croydon, New Hampshire. John Palmer, who was the maternal grandfather of Ralph H. Hall, was born at Tolland, Connecticut, in 1755, and when quite a young man moved to Charlotte, Vermont, where he took up a large tract of land, all forest, which he cleared, improved and tilled until his death in 1835, and the house he built is still standing. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war under General George Wash- ington and was awarded a pension. In religion he was a member of the Baptist church of Char- lotte, of which he was a deacon for several years.
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John Palmer was married to Ruth Chapman, by whom he liad ten children, four sons and six daughters : John, James, William, Chapman, Malinda, who married Zimri Hill; Abigail, who married Edward Allen ; Laura (mother); Ruth, who married Ancinius Jones ; Charlotte and Lovica. The mother of these children died in 1827, aged sixty ycars. Ahira Hall (father) was born in Croydon, Sullivan county, New Hampshire, December 21, 1784, and remained on the farm until he was twenty-one years old, when he emigrated to Charlotte, Vermont, where he remained but a few years when he removed to Massena, St. Lawrence county, New York, where he took up a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land, all of which was unbroken forest. At the breaking out of the war of 1812, he was among the first who were drafted into the service in the army of the War of 1812, and served throughout the war. His wife determined not to stay alone in this wilderness, packed all the effects she could upon a horse, and buried all else in the ground, and with her three children returned to her father's home in Vermont. In October, 1815, after the close of the war, Mr. Hall came to Chautauqua county, journeying thirty-one days through the wilderness, and occupied a log house owned by Abel Palmer, which, with fifty acres of land, came into his possession at the death of Mr. Palmer, the land being located in what is now the town of Port- land and near the Brocton line, and is now owned by T. S. Moss. In politics Mr. Hall was a whig, and for fourteen consecutive years was elected justice of the peace on that ticket. He was a man of uncommon ability and enjoyed the confidence of the community. In religion he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was also steward for a long time. Ahira Hall was married in Charlotte, Vermont, October 18, 1807, to Laura Palmer, by whom he had fourteen children, six sons and eight daughters, twelve of whom reaclied maturity : Ezra, died in infancy ; John, a
farmer in Fredonia, who married Mrs. Jane Ann Miller; Albina, a Methodist clergyman, who married Nancy Quigley ; Ruth, who mar- ried Richard Reynolds, a farmer in Portland ; James, a physician in Portland, who married Caroline Herrick ; Laura, married to Charles Fay, a farmer in Portland ; Samuel, a farmer in Pomfret, married to Miranda Kip ; Ralph H. ; Nancy, married to Henry Flint, a farmer in Portland; Livia, married John Green, a merchant in Sherman ; Lodoiska, married Wil- liam Martin, a farmer in Portland; Sarah, married John Merritt, a druggist in Silver Creek ; Jane, married Frank Ellis, an under- taker in Forestville; and Chloe, died in infancy. Ahira Hall died February 24, 1858, in his seventy-fourth ycar, and was buried at Brocton, and his widow died December 18, 1863, in her seventy-third year.
Ralph H. Hall was educated in the public schools of Portland, and attended the high school at Jamestown and the academy at Paines- ville, Ohio, for several terms. After leaving school in 1842, he became a teacher and taught twelve terms, being principal of a school in Westfield one year, and two years in Silver Creek. He exchanged the pedagogue's chair for the business of a cattle broker, and continued in the latter vocation until 1870. In 1852 he and his brother John bought a farm of two hundred and twenty-five acres of land in Pom- fret, this county, and added to it until they had reared and fattened their cattle for market. Mr. Hall is a director of the Fredonia National Bank and one of the finance committee of that institution, and was a member of the board of directors of the Oswego National Bank, Oswego, Labette county, Kansas, until it was sold out. In religion he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Fredonia, in which he has always held some office, and is a member of the board of control of Allegheny college, at Mcad- ville, Pennsylvania. In 1880 he was a delegate to the general conference of the Methodist
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Episcopal church at Cincinnati, Ohio. He has aided in building two churches on the frontier through the Freedmen's Aid Society, one in Nebraska and the other in Dakota. He is a very intelligent, agreeable man, very highly respected by the community in which he dwells, and his wife is a most estimable and refined lady.
Ralph H. Hall was married March 29, 1852, to Caroline Hall, a daughter of James and Ruth (Hall) Hall, of Newport, Sullivan county, New Hampshire, her father being a farmer there. This marriage resulted in the birth of one son, who died in infancy.
W ILLIAM K. VANDERGRIFT, JR., a son of William K. and Sophia (Sarver) Vandergrift, was born in Pittsburg, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, in 1835, and died in Jamestown, Chautauqua county, New York, on the 17th day of September, 1888, aged fifty- three years. William K. Vandergrift, Sr., was a native of Pennsylvania, born near Phila- delphia, and while in his young manhood moved to Pittsburg, where he married. Sophia Sarver. Both of them were of German de- scent.
William K. Vandergrift, Jr., was educated in the common schools of Pittsburg, and studied especially to fit himself for an engineer. He followed that line of business until the com- mencement of the oil excitement, when he re- moved to Oil City, and. remained until April, 1881. He then came to Jamestown, and began manufacturing washing-machines, -an article which is as useful and almost of as much a necessity as the sewing-machine, which he con- tinued until his deceasc. Mr. Vandergrift was an active politician, and his proclivities were decidedly republican ; but he was satisfied to be a party worker instead of an office-seeker, and attended steadily to his business.
On December 1, 1859, he was married in the city of Pitttsburg to Martha R. Carson.
She was the daughter of John A. H. and Susan (Borrett) Carson, the former an Ameri- can, and the latter of English birth, and had a family of five children,-two sons and three daughters. To Mr. and Mrs. Vandergrift were born six children. Four of them attained mature growth, and are now living: Etta, Victoria, William and Henrietta. The former is the wife of William Duffur, resides at Oil City, Pa., and has three children-Florence, Elsie and Sarah. The latter three reside with their mother at her fine home on Allen street, Jamestown.
LBERT S. WATSON, of Scotch and English descent, and one of the largest and most prominent grape growers of the town of Westfield and Chautauqua county, was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, June 4, 1847, and is a son of Jeremiah and Parmelia (Rockwell) Watson. His grandfather, James Watson, was of Scotch extraction, although born in County Armagh, Ireland, from which he came to America in 1792, and settled in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, in 1807, where he purchased a farm and lived until his death in 1850, when eighty years of age. He married Sarah Lounsbury, of New York city, in 1800. His son, Jeremiah Watson, was born in Susquehanna county in 1812, and removed in 1863 to Broome county, this State, where he died in 1878. He was a farmer by occupation, a presbyterian in religious faith and a democrat in political opinion. He held several of the offices of his town, and married Parmelia Rock- well of eastern New York. She was of Eng- lish descent, a member of the Presbyterian church, and died in 1889, aged eighty years.
Albert S. Watson was reared on a farm, and attended the common schools and an academy, in which he received a good practical English education. At thirteen years of age he went with his parents to Broome county, where he remained until he was past twenty-one years
De Malon
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old, when he entered the employ of the Pull- man Palace Car company. Four years later he left their service to become a traveling sales- man for the Mount Hope Nursery of Roches- ter, New York, which position he held for three years. He then (spring of 1878) bought a small stony tract of fourteen acres of land in the town of Portland, on which he commenced growing and propagating grape vines. In 1884 he came to Westfield, where he has a very comfortable home, and owns one hundred and fifteen acres of bearing vineyards. He gives constant employment to about twenty-five hands, makes a specialty of propagating grape vines, and in 1891 delivered seven hundred thousand vines for vineyard planting. He also is engaged in raising small fruits, and during one year grew more than thirteen hundred bushels of strawberries. He has been the architect of his own fortune, and has done much for the advancement of grape-growing in western New York.
On April 10, 1879, he united in marriage with Mrs. Mary E. Mack, of the town of Port- land. Mr. Watson assigns a large share of his success in life to the sympathy and assistance of his wife, who has rendered tireless and in- valuable aid. Their union has been blessed with three children : Edward C., Charles G. and Leonard A. Mr. Watson has two step- children : Fred J. and Kate M. Mack.
A. S. Watson is a democrat in politics. He is an active and successful business man, and was elected in 1888 as manager of the Western New York Grape-growers' Shipping association, which position he still holds.
H IRAM A. BURTON is now a prosperous farmer and grape grower living in the town of Ripley, but formerly was a teacher of ability, whom the children of the generation now just reaching fifty years of age will remem- ber as having taught for a number of years. He is a son of Hiram and Harriet (Skinner)
Burton, and was born in the town of Portland, Chautauqua county, New York, October 22, 1822. John Burton, the grandfather of the sixth generation remote, was a subject of King Charles II., and lived at Durham, England, where he died. He had a son John, who was born in 1685, and emigrated to America, finally settling in Massachusetts, where he died in 1763. He also had a son John, who was born at Danvers, Mass., in 1726, and lived until 1798, when he died at Sutton, the same State. One of his sons, too, was named John, the great-grandfather of Hiram A. He lived until September 30, 1837, and passed away at the same place. Simon Burton (grandfather) was born at Sutton, Massachusetts, November 19, 1769, and came to Chautauqua county soon after the close of our second war with England, in which, with four of his sons, he gallantly served his country. Although he was a mill- wright, he bought a farm and followed these occupations in conjunction with each other until he died in 1842, in the town of Portland. Simon Burton was possessed of an education and intellect far above the average of his day. He was a prominent universalist, and enjoyed the distinction of being editor of the church paper called Gospel Advocate. In politics he favored the Whig party and gave them such assistance in their campaigns as he could. He married Margaret French and reared a family of seven sons and three daughters. Two of the former lost their lives in the war mentioned above. Hiram Burton (father) was born in Croydon, New Hampshire, November 22, 1799, and came with his father to Portland in 1816. He had learned the trade of mill- wright but, like his father, also owned and op- erated a farm. He was a whig and afterwards a republican, and served as commissioner of highways for a number of years. He belonged to the Universalist church, and served in the war of 1812 with his father. He married Har- riet Skinner, who was born in Chenango
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county in 1805. After the death of her parents she came to Chautauqua county with a large family of brothers and sisters and located near Brocton, and died January 14, 1890. They reared a family of five sons and three daughters.
Hiram A. Burton received a superior educa- tion for his day at the district schools and the Fredonia academy. Succceding his school life he taught for a number of years, and ranked high as an instructor and disciplinarian. After- wards he engaged in farming and fruit growing which he still follows, having come to Ripley in 1868.
He married Ellen M. Harris, who was born May 27, 1820, and is a daughter of Jonathan G. and Lucy (Miller) Harris, and came from a family of seven children, all born in Vermont, but who afterwards came to Chautauqua coun- ty. One, Gilbert D., entered the civil war and lost his life at the bloody battle of the Wilder- ness. Mr. and Mrs. Burton are the parents of four children, all daughters : Lucy, born May 18, 1845, married to Talmage B. Little, a grape grower of this town; Sarah, born July 28, 1855, is the wife of T. J. Walker, who is en- gaged in the same business in the same town ; Maria M., born January 22, 1858, is the wife of George W. Onthank, in Ripley, also grow- ing grapes ; and Cora Annette, born August 21, 1865.
Hiram A. Burton is an energetic, pushing man who enters into everything he takes hold of with life and vim. He belongs to the Re- publican party, the Universalist church, is a member of the Equitable Aid Union, and other co-operative and fraternal organizations.
G EORGE LEE. The name of Lee has ever. been prominent on the pages of Ameri- can history-as pioneer, soldier and patriot. Our subject, George Lce, has the honor and pleasure of tracing back his lineage to this re- markable and historic family. He is the son of
James and Polly (Gates) Lee, and was born November 9, 1824, in the town of Ellicott, Chautauqua county, New York. His grand- father, Benjamin Lee, was a native of Rhode Island, whither his ancestors had emigrated from England before the march of civilization had reached our shores. From Rhode Island he changed his residence to Rensselaer county, New York, and thence to Chautaqua county, March 20, 1811, where he located in the town of Ellicott at a point near the line between the towns of Ellicott and Ellery. Here he pur- chased a tract of land containing two hundred and ninety-seven acres, from the Holland Land Company, upon which he resided until his death. He devoted his life to clearing and im- proving his land, and was also a hunter of con- siderable note, since in those days the forests and rivers were more productive than the farms. He married Catherine Simmons and reared a family of seven children, four boys and three girls. He was a supporter of the Whig party. James Lee (father of subject) was born in Rens- selaer county, New York, June 6, 1796, and came with his father to Chautauqua county, where he has since lived and died. He was a pioneer farmer, and felt all the experiences and endured all the privations of pioneer life, so that the heritage of the old homestead, to which his children succeeded, was one fraught with memorable incidents and significant of toil and self-sacrifice. He cast his vote with the Whig party during its existence, but upon the incep- tion of the Republican party, he at once affili- ated with it. He was radical in his political views, and firmly believed in being more than a merely nominal partisan. "At one time he held the office of assessor. He also had the distinction of having assisted in the erection of the first building in the city of Jamestown. His brothers served in the war of 1812. His wife, who was a daughter of Zephaniah Gates, a native of Connecticut, but by adoption a citi- zen of Chautauqua county, New York, bore
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him three children : Louisa, now dead ; Ada- line, also dead ; and George (subject).
George Lee married Julia Hollenbeck, a daughter of Edward Hollenbeck, originally of Madison county, New York, but more recently of Chautauqua county, same State ; where he has since died. Their union resulted in the birth of three children : Mary (now dead), mar- ried to Charles M. Bentley, a farmer of the town of Ellicott, Chautauqua county ; Eva A. (also dead), married to Mark A. Griffith, who lives near subject ; and Frank O., married to Carrie Benney. Frank O. now resides near Waynesville, Missouri, where he is engaged in farming and stock-raising. He has one child, Marguerite.
George Lee was educated in the common schools, began life as a farmer, and has since pursued that business in connection with mill- ing. His farm and mill are located in the town of Ellery near Lake Chautauqua. The mill was built by John, Seth and Samuel Grif- fithis about 1835. Mr. Lee is an adherent of the Republican party and, as such, has held the position of highway commissioner for a number of years. He is also a member of the I. O. O. F.
C AREY BRIGGS belongs to that class of intelligent, enthusiastic and progressive men, who, by their personality and inherent force of character, have made lasting impressions upon those with whom they have come in con- tact. He is a descendant of an old and noted family of Briggs, who came to New England as early as 1709. His father, Francis Briggs, at the time of his birth, April 21, 1818, was a resident of Berkshire county, Massachusettts (of which he was likewise a native) but seized with the desire to try his fortunes elsewhere, he removed to Cayuga county in 1825. He remained here until 1832 when he emigrated to Chautauqua county and located first in the town of Gerry and later (the next year) in the
town of Ellington, where he purchased a farm upon which he continued to reside until his death in 1844. In his church affiliations he was a Baptist and for many years was an attendant of the church at Clear Creek. He was a supporter of the old-line Whig party and served in the war of 1812. Francis Briggs was known as a man of mild, even temperament, possessing the qualities of a man of deep relig- ious convictions. At the same time he was a man of strong will power and conservative mind. He married Miss Betsey Hakes, of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, who died in 1867 at the age of seventy-uine. Subject's father was a cousin of Governor George N. Briggs of Massa- chusetts. Grandfather James Hakes was born at Stonington, Connecticut, March 25, 1752, and participated in the struggle of the Revolu- tion.
Carey Briggs came to Chautauqua county with his father, received his education and grew to manhood. in that county. In early life, after making a careful inventory of his mental apti- tudes, he decided to take up the profession of teaching. This he did and continued his work as teacher for some twenty years. In 1849 he received a certificate from the State superintend- ent of public schools at Albany, giving him the prerogative of teaching in any district school in the State. Subject has made a careful study of pedagogy in its application to the primary schools and this, together with long and varied experience in practical teaching, has given him a high standing in his profession and in educa- tional circles. Mr. Briggs was the organizer of the stock company which first gave form and reality to the project of building Ellington academy. He has since been strongly identi- fied with education and educational interests in his county.
In 1844 he was married to Miss Diantha, daughter of Daniel Gould of Pomfret, Cliau- tauqua county, who died in 1855, leaving three children-all girls : Clarissa ; Caroline, married
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to Jerry Gifford of Lakewood, N. Y. and Mary Frances, wife of Arthur C. Wade, a prominent lawyer of Jamestown (see sketch). Carey Briggs was married the second time in 1858 to Miss Martha Staples, daughter of Rev. S. Staples of Clymer, New York. By this union he had three children, two sons and one daughter : Charles Francis Adams died at the age of six years, October 5, 1870; William C., of the drug firm of Hatch & Briggs of Jamestown, New York ; and M. May.
Carey Briggs is a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has been steward for over fifty years. In his political views he is an unmistakable republican, and has filled very acceptably the offices of supervisor and school trustee at the hands of that party for a number of years. On current events, educational matters, political relations, literary and scientifie topics and general intel- ligence, Mr. Briggs is a well posted man and, judging from his career and teachings, is the happy possessor of a high, idealistic conception of life.
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