USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 48
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and Gershom, now living at Grand Rapids, Michigan, and engaged in the insurance busi- ness. He married a second time shortly before his death, but without issue.
William E. Powers received his education in the common schools, and has, since maturity, been engaged in various pursuits, though chiefly in farming. For three years he was engaged in the mercantile business at various points. He is a republican in politics, and for three years was post master at East Golden, Mich- igan.
William E. Powers was first united in mar- riage to Calista Mark, who bore him one son, Frank, a merchant and farmer, now married to Caroline Oyer, and living in Springport, Jaek- soll county, Michigan. His second wife, Mrs. Harriet Evans (née Clough), also bore him one child, Hattie C., who is now married to Frank A. Rider, a farmer.
Mr. Powers is a prominent secret society man, being a member of the Masons, Royal Templars of Temperance, Equitable Aid Union and I. O. O. F.
J OHN K. PATTERSON. Occasionally we find one of the old school railroaders who lias pulled coupling-pins, twisted brakes and punched tickets for over a third of a century and escaped with his life, but such men are scarce. He, of whom we are writing, is such a man, who began in 1856 and relinquished his punch on the first of the present year. John K. Patterson is a son of David and Eva (Kern) Patterson, and was born in Sheridan, this county, December 2, 1836. David Patterson was born in Perthshire, Scotland, March 11, 1794, and came to this country in 1812 in time to see the burning of Buffalo, although he was not a belligerent. He located at Buffalo, which he made his home for two years and then moved to Oneida, New York, and began to farm, and by this labor he lived until 1834, when he went to Sheridan and continued farm-
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
ing until old age compelled his retirement. Then he moved to Dunkirk and died January 17, 1877. He was early taught the Presbyter- ian faith but joined the Baptist church after coming to America, and died in its faith. Po- litically, Mr. Patterson was originally a demo- crat, but when the slavery question agitated the country, he transferred his allegiance to the whigs and afterwards to the republicans. He was active in politics and energetic in business, decided in his convictions and one so well in- formed, that it was difficult to touch a subject upon which he could not talk intelligently. He served five years in the British navy before coming to America, and married, on October 31, 1818, Eva Kern, who was a native of County Wicklow, Ireland, born July 8, 1802. Her father, John Kern, was a sea captain, who came to America some years after the Irish re- bellion of 1798, and died in Oneida county, New York, in 1839, aged ninety years. Mrs. Patterson is still living with her son in Dun- kirk, witli a mind unimpaired by age. She is a member of the Baptist church.
Jolın K. Patterson was reared in the town of Sheridan on a farm, and received his education in the Westfield and Fredonia academies, and after leaving school he taught the winter term 1855-56, in the spring of the latter year going to Davenport, Iowa, which at that time was in the far west. Soon after his arrival there he secured work on what is known as the Great Rock Island route, his division being between Davenport and Iowa City. He remained there two years, and in 1858 returned home, living on the farm until 1863, when he went to Brad- ford and took cliarge of the construction train on the Bradford branch of the Erie R. R., where he remained until August, 1864. The fall of 1864 found him in Marietta, Georgia, em- ployed in business until March, 1866, when, the soldiers having withdrawn, he came away. His business was providing supplies along the line. Upon his arrival at Dunkirk he hired a
vessel and engaged in trade between the latter city and Canada, and the next year, forming a partnership with O. R. Oakley, he began the dry goods business, the firm being Oakley & Patterson, and was continued until the fall of 1868, when President Andrew Johnson ap- pointed him postmaster, his being the last ap- pointment confirmed by the Senate, then in session. Upon assuming his duties he disposed of the dry goods business, and devoted his whole time to the execution of the duties of his office, which he held until 1871. In October, 1871, he took a passenger train on the D. A. V. & P. R. R., and ran as conductor until Jan- uary 1, 1891, when he was appointed special agent to collect statistics for the United States Government, Department of the Interior. Mr. Patterson is an active republican and a member of the Baptist church, of which he has been treasurer for many years. He belongs to Iron- dequoit Lodge, No. 102, Free and Accepted Masons, of Dunkirk ; has attained the rank of Sir Knight, and is a member of the Conductors' Insurance association.
John K. Patterson was twice married, first to Mary Seamans, of Poughkeepsie, New York, whom he married February 15, 1864. She came from a Quaker family, the daughter of Nelson Seamans. She died April 10, 1885, leaving four children, one son and three daugli- ters : John K., Jr., Mary H., Maud J. and Jennie F. On December 15, 1886, he married Lida Cronkrite, daughter of Rufus Cronkrite, of Pleasant Valley, Dutchess county, this State, and they have one child, Mildred K.
Mr. Patterson has a beautiful home on Cen- tral avenue, Dunkirk, and is a pleasant, fine- looking, social gentleman, whose friendship is esteemed by a wide circle of acquaintances.
T. FREDERICK R. GREEN, the efficient cashier of the Fredonia National Bank, one of the best managed and most prosperous banking institutions in western New York, is a
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
son of John T. and Livia P. (Hall) Green, and was born in Sherman, Chautauqua county, New York, May 10, 1861. His grandfather, William Green, was a native of Lincolnshire, England, and together with his wife and fam- ily, came to America in the year 1830, settling near Utica, New York, for a short time, and subsequently in the towns of Chautauqua and Sherman, Chautauqua county, New York. William Green was by trade a carpenter, held the office of supervisor of his town for several years, and died at the age of fifty-nine years. He was married to Miss Martha Tomlinson. Jolın T. Green (father of subject) was born in Lincolnshire, England, January 31, 1829, and, with his father, emigrated to America in 1830, so that nearly his entire life has been spent under the shadow of republican government. He was reared upon a farm, received a common school education, and in youth and early man- hood worked at the carpenter and joiner's trade. He then made a farming venture, and about thirty years ago embarked in mercantile pur- suits, which he has prosecuted with vigor and profit ever since. When he first engaged in merchandising it was entirely upon his own re- sponsibility, but later he received as a partner, Mr. W. F. Green, now cashier of the Sherman Bank. At present he conducts his business in- dependent of partnership alliances. He was united in marriage in 1851, and is the father of three children : William A., now in Australia as the representative of a manufacturing syndi- cate ; Frederick R., of Fredonia, New York ; and Florence, at home.
Frederick R. Green was reared in the village of Sherman, and attended the Union schools, where he acquired a good preliminary educa- tion. After leaving school he became a clerk in his father's store, where he remained until 1879, when, during that year, he accepted the position of assistant cashier in the Sherman Exchange Bank, the duties of which position he continued to discharge until 1882. During
that year he removed to Fredonia, New York, first became teller, and in April, 1884, cashier of the Fredonia National Bank, which he now holds. Mr. Green is a young man of great energy, careful habits and marked business ability ; and through his fidelity and spotless integrity, has been entrusted with his present responsible position. He possesses many good social qualities, and enjoys the esteem and re- spect of his wide circle of acquaintances.
A DDISON MASON is engaged in the culti- vation of grapes which has been found to make the largest returns proportionate to the amount of labor expended of any crop grown in Chautauqua county. Addison Mason is a son of Hezekiah and Rosanna (Rich) Mason, and was born in Washington county, New York, November 30, 1822. Great-grandfather Ma- son was a native of Nova Scotia where he was engaged as a Baptist minister, but came when an elderly man to Massachusetts, where he died. His son, too, was. a native of the land of the Acadians and they may have been allied to that honest, happy, but too confiding people whom the rude hand and merciless arm of the English victors tore from their homes in 1755. In any event grandfather Mason came first to Massa- chusetts and then pushed on until he reached Washington county, New York, where he met and married Hannah Mason, who, although of the same name was of no kin to him. They reared a family of six sons and three daughters. Upon the mother's side, the ancestors came from New England for some generations. Hezekiah Mason (father) first looked out upon the light of day within the confines of Washington county, this State, on an April day of the year which began this century. Twenty-four years later he passed through the almost interminable forests of central and western New York and finally reached Chautauqua county, where he made but a short stay and passed on into Penn- sylvania, locating near North East. Hczekialı
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Mason was a carder and weaver by trade but, grower living in Ripley and has two sons: leaving Pennsylvania, he returned to the south- : Frederick M. and Byron A. ern part of Ripley and followed farming until his Addison Mason is a republican and has been elected assessor and supervisor two terms. He is also a member of the Equitable Aid Union, has good judgment and is one of the foremost citizens of his town. death in 1848. He was a democrat, filled the offices of supervisor and justice of the peace and was a deacon in the Baptist church. He married Rosanna Rich and reared a family of five sons and two daughters : Addison ; Miranda, is the wife of Glover Wattles ; Diana, married to Ira Gay, of Ripley ; George, wedded Abbie Teller and is a tinsmith at Geneva, Ohio ; Judson, was born at what is called Rouse Well, Pa. ; and Edgar, married Ella Beatty and follows milling in Pennsylvania.
Addison Mason received an education which at the time was considered good and then he was apprenticed to and learned the secrets of carding and cloth-dressing, which trade he fol- lowed for eight years. In 1850 he began farming and has since been so employed together with doing more or less carpenter work.
On October 12, 1848, he married Harriet Rice, a daughter of Horace Rice who came from Massachusetts to North East, Pa., where he follows farming, and a granddaughter of John Rice, also of the Bay State. Her ma- ternal grandfather was Theodore Gilbert, of Connecticut, who married a Miss Cale, a daughter of a sea-captain, prominent in his day. Mr. and Mrs. Mason have had a happy union and were blessed with the following children : Oscar L., born November 19, 1850, married Flora Bell and now lives in the town of Ripley with a family of three children, Eva, Clara and Addison, Jr. ; Clarence H., born December 29, 1855, married Florence Perry, daughter of W. B. Perry (see sketch). He lives in Ripley and is a farmer and grape grower, owning about thirty acres of vineyard. Their children are : Perry, Ella, Horace, Effie and Harriet ; and Harriet E., born January 13, 1859, is the wife of Fred N. Randall, a son of Nelson Randall. Fred N. Randall is a merchant and grape
JOHN P. BAXTER. One of Chautauqua county's early residents, a gallant de- fender of the Nation, and whose early death may be attributed to exposure and suffering during his long term of service in the Union army was John P. Baxter, who died August 9, 1872. He was a son of Cyrus and Maria (Cooley) Baxter, and was born about 1828, in the town of Hanover, Chautauqua county, New York. The paternal grandfather, Baxter, was one of three brothers who came from England. Abner Cooley (maternal grandfather) was a native of New England but came to Chautau- qua county and settled in Hanover town about 1806, being among its earliest settlers. He was one of the most affluent men in the town and lived there the remainder of his life engaged in farming. The Whig party got his support in all matters where he considered them right. He married and reared four sons and two daughters. Cyrus Baxter was born in 18-, followed farming and died in the town of Hanover. He married Maria Cooley, by whom he had two sons and one daughter.
John P. Baxter as a boy showed marked ability. He attended the public schools and ac- quired a good business education. His mature life was passed in farming with the exception below noted. He lived at Forestville until he married and then went down into Warren county, Pa., where he lived for a time. In 1862 he returned to Chautauqua county and leaving his family at Ripley enlisted in Company I, 14th regiment, Pennsylvania Cavalry, and was sent to the front. Mr. Baxter was in many battles and skirmishes under General Averill
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and was wounded while engaged at Rocky Gap, August 26, 1863. When the war was over he returned home and followed farming until his decease.
On the 17th of January, 1850, Mr. Baxter married Marjorie Ferry, who was born May 6, 1831. She was a daughter of the late Captain Joe Ferry, a sailor of renown along the shores of Lake Erie about 1830 and subsequently till his death in 1844. Capt. Ferry was a mariner who knew the whole of Lake Erie like a book but at the last date mentioned his boat was caught in a storm and foundered taking with her all on board. Capt. Ferry married Polly A. Pattison, a daughter of John Pattison, who was one of the old settlers that located in Han- over and they had two children, both daughters : Helen, the youngest, married and is now the widow of Hiram Burrows. She lives in Rip- ley. The other is Mrs. Baxter who bore her husband two sons: Fred, married Nannie Aspinwall, and is now a farmer in Ripley, the father of five children-John, May, Ford, Carl and Marjorie ; and Frank, who resides at home.
From this brief history it will be seen that some of the oldest as well as the most loyal blood of the State of New York flows in the veins of the Baxter family. John P. Baxter was a man above reproach or suspicion. Since his death his widow has lived upon the farm he left, conducting it with her son's assistance. Mr. Baxter lies buried in Ripley cemetery.
stand first in the general manufacture of lumber in the county is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He was born in the town of Poland, Chautauqua county, New York, on April 5, 1859. His father was James Wilson, Jr., and his mother Maria (Lydell) Wilson, born respectively in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and Cooperstown, Otsego county, New York. Grandfather Lydell was a native of New York State and moved to the town of Poland in 1832. Grandfather Wilson was a native of Pennsylvania, took part in the war of 1812 and removed with his parents to Worksburg (now Falconer), New York, where lie secured a tract of land from the Holland Land company. The land was heavily covered with timber, hence the early part of his life was spent in lumbering and the preparation of his farm for cultivation. He was a resident of Falconer for over seventy years. At the battle of Chippewa, near Buffalo, New York, he was severely wounded. James Wilson was of Scotch ancestry and married Elizabeth Porter, an English woman of Philadelphia, Pennsylva- nia, in the year 1809. He belonged to the class of pioneer settlers of the town of Ellicott and was the founder of the old Methodist Episco- pal church in Jamestown, New York. He was a man of great strength of character, firm in his religious views and convictions, and honest in his deportment toward his fellow-men. James Wilson, Jr., (father of subject) had seven chil- dren: Laura M., Lilian W., Mary L., Ida M., Jennie M., Burton J. and Lydell L. He is and has always been a stanch supporter of the Republican party. Both he and his wife are still living in the town of Gerry at a ripe old age
L YDELL L. WILSON. Among the va- ried industries of Chautauqua county there has been probably none that have given more intelligent, successful and useful men to the citizenship of the county than that of lumber- ing. There are many reasons for this, too Lydell L. Wilson was reared in Poland town, county of Chautauqua, New York, and at- tended the schools of his native town. After about two years he went to the State of Michi- gan as an employee in lumbering, but returned many indeed to enumerate here; it is sufficient to say that the risk involved, the development of a trade and the multitude of details connec- ted with the business, all tend to develop man's many-sided business nature, With those who 'in about one ycar and resumed the same business
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
in his native State. At first he was connected with the Hortson mill for a period of two years, at the expiration of which time he leased a mill at Moon's station, New York, and oper- ated it until it was destroyed by fire in 1885. The mill was rebuilt in 1886, and his orders, meanwhile, were transferred to the Hortson mill. In 1888 Mr. Wilson put a new mill at Moon's station, removed to Gerry in 1890, and rebuilt a mill upon lands obtained from Levi Pratt, known as the "Wilson Mills." These mills have no superior in the county, either in equipment or capacity. They have a capacity of fifteen million feet per annum, the greater part of which is shipped to Buffalo, Jamestown and other large centres. Lydell L. Wilson is a man of untiring efforts, careful business habits and large business resources. He began life a poor boy, at the very bottom, and by his business acumen has accumulated from nothing his present great business.
On November 10, 1880, he was married to Anna Booth, daughter of James Booth of Buffalo, New York. Their union has resulted in the birth of four children : Alice M., Mertie D., Willis L. and Nellic S., all of whom are still young.
J
TOHN DONELSON, a prominent farmer of
Busti, who came from Sweden while a young man, is a son of Gust and Annie (Samel- son) Donelson, and was born in Sweden on the 15th of February, 1841, and is now in his fiftieth year. Gust Donelson was a farmer in the old country and possessed a fine voice, which he displayed in his village church choir for fifty years. He never came to America, being satisfied and contented with the home of his forefathers, and died in December, 1890, aged eighty-seven years. His wife Annie Samelson, died when fifty-two years old, trust- ing with a Christian's faith in the church of her country.
John Donelson was reared in Sweden and
acquired his education at its schools. In 1868 he came to America direct to the town of Busti, where he has since lived and followed farming. He owns a good farm of forty acres well im- proved, upon which he resides and makes a comfortable income.
One year after his arrival here (in 1869) he married Sophia Lawson, also a native of Sweden, and they are the parents of eight chil- dren : Henry A., Hattie, Elmer, Edward, Hilda, Alof, Esther and Arthur.
John Donelson is a republican and was elected to the responsible office of master of the poor in the spring of 1891 and is performing its duties creditably. He is a member of the Busti Swedish church, towards the erection of which he was a liberal contributor and served as a trustee for six years. He is one of the pillars of its support and is a liberal and gen- erous man. He merits and has the respect of all his neighbors and is a good citizen.
G EORGE W. MARSH .- Among a band of twenty families who left Hingham, Nor- folk county, Eugland, in 1633, under the leader- ship of Rev. Peter Hobort, and who landed at Charlestown, N. H., June 8, 1635, were George Marsh, his wife Elizabeth and their four children. From these, the original founders of the family in America, sprang George W. Marsh, who is a son of Charles A. and Annis D. (Whipple) Marsh, and was born in the town of Portland, Chautauqua county, New York, March 29, 1840. Omitting the long line of lineage from 1635 we will skip one hundred and forty-one years and say that the grandfather of our sub- ject, Isaac Marsh, was born in New Hampshire, August 3, 1776. He had a son, Charles A. Marsh (father), who was born at Nashua, N. H., April 15, 1815. The latter came to Chautau- qua county in 1831 and located in the town of Portland, where he farmed without intermission until his death, in 1882. Politically Mr. Marsh was a republican. (He married Annis D. Whip-
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
ple, a daughter of David Whipple, of Richfield, N. Y). Her parents both died when she was three years of age and she was adopted and reared by Samuel Brown of the same place, who eame to Chautauqua county and settled in the town of Portland in 1835. She died in 1868, aged fifty-three years. They were the parents of three children, two sons and one daughter.
George W. Marsh was taught practical life upon his father's farm and learned theoretical knowledge in the district schools. He later took a course at the Fredonia academy, and since 1865 has been engaged in raising grapes. Half of his well-kept farm of fifty aeres is a vine- yard from which large quantities of grapes are annually gathered. The home is a fine, large two-story frame building which is much better and more ornamental than the average house.
In 1866 he married Lillie La Due, daughter of Joshua La Due, a prominent resident of the town of Portland. They have three children, one son and two danghters: Charles J., Lena, wife of Clarence Arnold, an enterprising and pushing young man of Portland ; and Addie L.
George W. Marsh is a republican and has held the office of town-clerk and assessor-the latter for nine years, and has been seeretary of the Grape-Growers' association ever since it was organized. Of a stirring and philanthropic disposition Mr. Marsh is one of Portland's most prominent men.
A LFRED PALMER, is a son of Solomon and Hannah (Williams) Palmer, and was born October 17, 1809, in the town of Daven- port, Delaware county, New York. His grand- father was Solomon Palmer, Sr., a native of Litchfield, Conn., where he conducted a wagon- shop, married and reared six children, and died. Thomas Williams was the maternal grandfather, also a native of Connecticut. He was one of those " Yankees" who went to the Wyoming Valley and settled on its fertile lands, prior to the Revolutionary war. Being a mill-wright by
trade, he built a mill, the site of which is now occupied by another. It too is over eighty years old and is fast going into decay. He married and had four children, one of whom, Thomas, was a lieutenant in the little band that went forth to nieet Butler and his Indians, above Forty Fort, and were slain on July 3, 1778, less than a score escaping. Thomas Williams, Sr., although not in the battle, was slain in the horrible massacre that followed the fight and which has come down in history to be known as the Wyoming Massacre. Mrs. Williams and her three small children beeame much alarmed some days before the fight and started over the mountains from Wilkes Barre to go to her former home in Connecticut, a distance of three hundred miles. She escaped the vigilant eyes of the Indian seouts and after terrible hardships, lasting several weeks, she reached her destination in safety.
Solomon Palmer (father) was born in Litch- field about 1775, and died in Delaware county, New York, in 1817, having married Hannah Williams, one of the children who made the perilous trip mentioned above, in 1796. He kept a hotel in Delaware county, and during the war of 1812 he was in the recruiting ser- vice of the American government. He was a federalist and a member of the Methodist church. The fruit of his nnion was five sons and three daughters.
Alfred Palmer was left an orphan when but nine years of age, and as he was obliged to pro- vide his own sustenance, opportunities for an education were not plentiful, but he managed to secure a practical business knowledge with no other tutor or instructor than experience. Hc eame to the town of Ripley when sixteen years of age, and worked as a day and monthly la- borer for three years and then engaged in carry- ing the mail between Westfield and North East, Pa. Following this he went to Oswego county, this State, and engaged in lumbering. Return- ing to Ripley he bought a traet of land and
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cleared up three farms. He then went into the fanning-mill business as an agent which he con- tinued six years. Succeeding this he was a con- stable and deputy sheriff under Sheriff Muzzey. He then began his most extensive business operations in lumbering, owning several saw- mills up to 1857, when he entered mercantile life at Ripley. Mr. Palmer erected a fine large store building, which he occupied until 1885, when, having reached seventy-six years of age, he retired from active business and has since. lived in retirement.
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