USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 49
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On July 26, 1829, he married for his first wife Sophia Osborne, a daughter of Philip Os- borne, of Oswego county, and had eight chil- dren : Permelia, born in Granby, N. Y., October 6, 1830, died young ; Cornelia, born May 9, 1832, married Benjamin Christy, who was a farmer in the town of Ripley; Sylvester, born April 20, 1834, died when three years old ; Lo- renzo, born February 9, 1836, died young ; Alfred D., born June 27, 1837, is a boot and shoe dealer at Sharpsville, Pa .; Frank L., born April 9, 1840, died an infant ; Sophia, born September 3, 1842, married John W. Morris, a merchant in Ripley ; Chloe, born July 26, 1844, died September 9, 1889, was the wife of A. B. Lacey, of New Wilmington, Pa., and Asa, born February 11, 1847, died in 1863. Mrs. Palmer died March 25, 1848, and Mr. Palmer married for his second wife Mrs. Catherine Rogers (née Christy), who was born in July, 1813, and who died on May 25, 1870. He married for his third wife, in 1871, Adaline Siggins, a daugh- ter of John Siggins of Ripley, N. Y., who was born July 10, 1830, and died on July 19, 1884. He then. married Mrs. Betsey M. (Smallwood) Skiff, a daughter of William Smallwood, one of the first settlers of Wyoming county, with whom he is now living.
Politically Mr. Palmer is a republican and was the first avowed abolitionist in the town of Ripley. Mr. Palmer is a strictly temperate man and with his wife is a member of the
Methodist church, having for over fifty years been the steward and at times trustee, and lay delegate to the annual conference.
w ILLIAM T. CLARK. The late Wil- liam T. Clark, one of the. reliable cit- izens and prosperous farmers of the town of Ellicott, was a son of William and Anna (Mar- tin) Clark, and was born in Chautauqua coun- ty, New York, November 24, 1825. His pa- ternal grandfather, William Clark, Sr., married Jeannette Thompson, who was a native of Scotland, and came from that country to New York with Mrs. Agnes (Thompson) Prender- gast. One of their sons was William Clark, the father of the late William T. Clark, and who was a life-long resident of New York.
William T. Clark was reared on the old homestead farm in the town of Ellicott, where he was engaged in farming and stock-raising until his death, March 25, 1878, at fifty-three years of age. He was a substantial citizen, an industrious farmer and a strong republican in politics. He was a Sir Knight of a Masonic Commandery, had been for several years a mem- ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his remains lie interred in Levant ceme- tery.
He married Nancy S. Chandler, of this coun- ty. They were the parents of two children : James P., a member of the grocery firm of Clark & Jones, of Jamestown, and a prominent Grange advocate, who married Anise Washburn, and owns two hundred acres of good land ; and Annie, who married H. L. Fairbank, and died leaving three children : Harvey C., Henrietta and Emily N.
Mrs. Nancy .S. Clark, who resides in James- town, is a daughter of Wocdley W. Chandler, who was born in Virginia, February 14, 1800, and came to Jamestown about 1820. He was engaged for a short time in the lumber business and then built a carding and cloth-dressing es- tablishment on the site of the present woolen
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
factory of Preston & Bradshaw. After some years he retired from the woolen business, and removed to Levant, where he died on his farm, April 22, 1854. Mr. Chandler was a promi- nent citizen as well as an early settler of the county. He married Phobe Winsor, daughter of Abraham, Winsor, an old and highly respect- ed resident of Ellicott. Mr. and Mrs. Chand- ler were the parents of six children : Phebe Pardee, wife of James Pardee; Gen. Martin S., an active republican of Redwing, Minne- sota, who served twenty-two years as sheriff of the county of Goodhue, and afterwards was sur- veyor-general of Minnesota; John W., who also resides at Redwing, and was formerly en- gaged in the folding department of the House of Representatives; Nancy N., the widow of the subject of this sketch ; Winsor A., a jewel- er, who died in Erie, Pa. ; and Williamson B., a Union soldier of the late war, who was taken prisoner, exchanged and discharged for physical disability in 1863, after which he bought a ticket for California, but has never been heard of since by his people.
JOHN LANGFORD, a real estate dealer, and one of the older business men of Jamestown, was born in Wales, May 20, 1822, and is a son of John, Sr., and Rebecca (Rob- erts) Langford. His paternal grandfather, Ed- ward Langford, was a life-long resident of Wales. He married and one of his children was John Langford, Sr., the father of the sub- ject of this sketch. John Langford, Sr., like his father before him, made the land of his nativ- ity the land of his life-long residence. He died in 1846, aged fifty-nine years. He.was an in- dustrious man and married Rebecca Roberts. They were the parents of nine children, four sons and five daughters : Edward; Ann, dead ; Merab, deccased ; John, Elizabeth, now a resi- dent of St. Louis, Missouri ; Mary, who died at an early age; Sarah, who lives in Jamestown ; Thomas, a painter by trade, and now a resident
of Baltimore, Maryland ; and Rebecca, now de- ceased.
John Langford was reared in his native coun- try, and was carefully trained to good business methods. He received his education in the rural schools of Wales, and was variously en- gaged until he was twenty-eight years of age, when, in 1850, he embarked on board a vessel bound for America. After landing at New York he pushed westward in the Empire State until he arrived in this county, where he has resided ever since in the city of Jamestown. He was formerly in the meat business, but of late ycars has been engaged in farming and dealing in real estate. He has been successful in business life, and now owns two good farms, one of which is situated in the town of Elli- cott, and the other lies in the adjoining town of Ellery. Since coming to the United States, Mr. Langford has supported the principles of the Democratic party, although he has never allowed political matters to engage any of the time that rightfully belongs to his business af- fairs.
On June 28, 1854, he married Laura Heath, daughter of James Heath, and a native of Chautauqua county, N. Y. They have five children, one son and four daughters: Anna, wife of George Maltby, now superintendent of the Jamestown street rail-way ; Mary ; Re- becca ; Edward, a jeweler of Jamestown, who married Mattic Lakin ; and Blanche.
H ONORABLE THEODORE A. CASE, a banker and sterling citizen of the town of Ellington, is a son of Salmon T. and Sophia (Ayers) Case, and was born June 17, 1841. His father was originally a citizen, as well as a native of Massachusetts, but at a very early day moved west to the county of Chautauqua, New York, where he purchased land and took up his residence in the town of Ellington. His father's experiences there were those of the pioncer set- tler ; he cleared, improved and tilled until his
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
farm was brought into a fair state of cultivation and productiveness, so that those who might succeed him would be spared the privations and inconveniences incident to pioneer life. His earthly carter ended in 1864, when, at the age of fifty-four, he serenely passed away. Salmon T. Case was a Calvinist of the strictest type and a life-long member of the Presbyterian church. In politics he was first a whig and then a re- publican, under both of which parties nc held local offices. He was a man of fine intellectual attainments, and when young engaged in the vocation of school teaching. He was an invet- erate reader, and always endeavored to keep fully abreast of all the issues then agitating the political, literary and social world. Grandfather, Eliphalet Case, also born in the "Bay State," and removed to Chautauqua county, shortly after the arrival of his son. His occupation was that of farmer, which claimed his life-long attention. In the year 1847 he died at the age of eighty-two. The Cases are of English de- scent, and came to America during the coloniza- tion of the New England States. Our subject's mother was born in Massachusetts, and died in September, 1890, at the age of seventy-seven years.
Theodore A. Case passed his childhood and yonth upon his father's farm, alternating his time in school and farm duties. His education in the district schools was supplemented by a course of study at the Ellington academy, upon the completion of which he entered the law office of Hon. Obed Edson, of Sinclairville, with a view to fitting himself for the profession of the law. In 1862 he left the law office and en- listed in Company G, 9th New York Cavalry, as a private, and served till the close of the civil war. He was wounded by a minie-ball at the battle of Old Church, Virginia, on the day preceding the battle of Cold Harbor, May 30, 1864, but soon resumed his place in the regi- ment and took part in all subsequent engage- ments. After returning from the war, he fin-
ished the study of law with Hon. Charles B. Green, of Chautauqua county, and was admitted to practice before the various courts of New York State in June, 1871. Mr. Case first opened an office in Ellington, where he continued to practice until 1886, when he engaged in private banking business in his native village. He has practically given up the law, and now devotes his time to banking interests. Politi- cally Mr. Case is a republican, and for some eight or nine years was a member of the board of supervisors of Chautauqua county. In 1876 he was elected to succeed Hon. Obed Edson as a member of the New York Legislature, and served in that capacity with honor and distinc- tion for two years, 1876-77.
He was united in marriage in 1865 to Miss. Lucy, daughter of Allen Bagg, of Ellington. Mr. and Mrs. Case have one daughter, Cora E., married to Clyde C. Hill, of Clymer, Chautau- qua county.
Theodore A. Case is an attendant of and contributor to the Methodist Episcopal church, and member of the A. O. U. W., of which he has been twice elected Grand Master for the State of New York, and for four consecutive terms Supreme Overseer of the Supreme Lodge, composed of the United States and Canada. He is a man of fine address, great versatility and withal a marked geniality, and as a citizen, as an advocate, as a man, enjoys the entire confi- dence and respect of his fellow-citizens.
F LINT BLANCHARD. Among the most prominent farmers and business men of the town of Ellicott must be placed Flint Blan- chard, whose name heads this sketch. He was ushered into this life in the town of Wales, Erie county, New York, October 17, 1825, and is the son of Amos and Eunice (Flint) Blanchard. The grandfather of Flint Blanchard, whose name was Caleb Blanchard, claims, as the place of his nativity, the village of Antrim, New Hampshire ; and here, also, amid the granite
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
hills, beautifully set with nestling lakes and ragged peaks, he finished the toils of life and passed out into the mystic realms beyond. His life was one of uprightness, honesty and sim- plicity, which attributes were not only inherent in his nature but also extended out into all his business transactions and relations. In occupa- tion he was engaged in the operation of a farm, merchandising and the allied branches of busi- ness. The father of our subject, Amnos Blan- chard, was born in the town of Antrim in the year 1799, and died June 16, 1891. He came to Erie county, New York, about 1824, and re- moved from there to the town of Ellicott, Chautauqua county, in 1834, where he resided until the time of his death. He purchased a large farm and has devoted his life to its im- provement and operation. Mr. Blanchard was a democrat in politics, and in religion a devoted member of the First Presbyterian church of Jamestown, in which he held the office of dea- con. His marriage resulted in the birth of eight children, seven boys and one girl.
Flint Blanchard received his education in the common schools of his native town and the academy at Jamestown. In early life he de- voted several years to school teaching and at a later period took up the occupation of farming B ICKNELL D. FENTON, an industrious farmer and respected citizen of the town of Ellicott, was a son of Captain Berry B. and Fanny (Demming) Fenton, and was born in the town of Ellery, Chautanqua county, New York, September 12, 1816. The Fentons are of English extraction, and are descended from four Fenton brothers who were Puritans and came from England to New England, where they settled in a very early day. Berry B. Fenton (paternal grandfather), a descendant of one of these brothers, was a life-long resident of Saratoga county, this State. He was a democrat, married, and had two sons, Captain Berry B. and Thomas, and four daughters. Captain Berry B. Fenton, in all probability, and dairying, in which business he is now en- gaged .. He owns a farm of three hundred and seventy-five acres in the town of Ellicott, in a high state of cultivation and productive- ness. He has always cast his fortunes, politic- ally, with the Democratic party, and has de- voted much time and energy in party work. He lias been a candidate for State Assembly and also for the Senate, and, although he suf- fercd defeat, succeeded in redneing the republi- can majority from eight thousand to two thon- sand six hundred in the counties of Chautauqua and Cattarangus. When but twenty-one years of age he was elected justice of the peace. Mr. Blanchard is a member of the First Presbyterian church at Jamestown in high standing, and for was born in the town of Greenfield, Saratoga
many years served as an elder. He is also a member of the Patrons of Husbandry. In his moral, social and business life Mr. Blanchard enjoys the esteem and confidence of his friends and fellow-citizens. Uniformly kind and cour- teous in his deportment toward those with whom he comes in contact, he is eminently de- serving of the epithets genial and social.
Flint Blanchard was united in marriage to Sarah Jane Allen, a daughter of Sumner Allen, of Jamestown, New York. To them were born seven children, five boys and two girls : Henry L. is at present a resident of the State of Wash- ington, a lawyer by profession (having gradu- ated from the College of Law at Seattle) but more largely engaged in lumbering and manu- facturing than in the active practice of his pro- fession ; Charles, a farmer, lives in Ellicott ; Jennie D., died when quite young; Dr. Robert Newland, a practicing physician of Jamestown, New York (see his sketch); Mary E., married Fred A. Bentley, vice-president of Chautau- qua County National Bank, and lives at Lake Wood ; Amos F., a graduate of Buffalo Medical College, and now a practicing physician in Frewsburg, New York ; and Clarence, dead.
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
county, and in February, 1816, came to the town of Ellery, where he purchased fifty acres of land of the Holland Land company, near Chautanqua Lake. He was a farmer by occn- pation, a democrat in politics, and commanded a company in the State militia for several years. He married Fanny Demming, and reared a family of fonr sons and three daugh- ters : Bicknell, Almira, Lodica, Hibbard, Dan- iel, Barry and Fannie.
Bicknell D. Fenton obtained a practical English education for himself in the primitive backwoods schools of his day, and was engaged in farming until 1852, excepting three years spent in the mercantile business at De Witt- ville. He then went back to Ellery, and owned a farm of two hundred and fifty acres, kept a dairy of from thirty to forty cows, living there till 1867; then came to Jamestown, and remained here until 1870, when he purchased the farm of seventy-six acres in the town of Ellicott, upon which his widow now resides. Mr. Fenton was a republican in politics, and had been a member of the Patrons of Hns- bandry for some years. He was frugal, indus- trious and careful. He was prosperons as a farmer, and successful as a business man. He died on July 11, 1889.
He married Cordelia A. Ide, daughter of Thomas and Laura (Chamberlain) Ide. To Mr. and Mrs. Fenton were born five children: George T., formerly a hardware dealer, but now treasurer of a loan association in James- town, who married Lelia Yates, and has two children,-Lonis G. and Lncy; Lanra, born in 1847, and died in 1854; Fannie, who married O. H. Carpenter, a farmer and dairyman of Ellery, and has four children,-Belle A., Edith C., Janie and Lelia ; Eugene S. and Edward L., who both died in childhood, and Hibbard, who died in 1876, aged nineteen years.
Mrs. Cordelia A. Fenton's father, Thomas Ide, was a native of the town of Milton in Saratoga county, and came in 1820 to the town
of Anrora, Erie county; in 1834 came to Ellery, where he died in 1851. He was a- prosperous farmer and good citizen. He was married three times. His first wife was Debo- rah Eldridge, who bore him four children, and after her death he married Sarah Howe, by whom he had one danghter. For his third wife, he married Mrs. Laura (Chamberlain) Scofield, widow of Seth Scofield. By his third marriage he had five children : Chauncey, Cor- delia A. (Mrs. Fenton), George, Henry and Seth, who died in infancy. Mrs. Fenton re- sides on the farm owned by her husband at his death, where she lives in comfort, and intelli- gently and successfully manages all of her farming operations and business affairs.
W ILLIAM F. L. F. REED, one of the leading manufacturers and citizens of Chantanqua county, is descended from a long line of Reeds prominently identified with the early military and political struggles of Colonial and National America. He is the son of Wiley Hamilton and Margaret Lockhart (Wilkey) Reed, and was born in the capital city of Ottawa, Canada, June 16, 1844. His paternal grand- parent, John Savage Reed, was a native of Massachusetts, and in the early part of his career emigrated to the town of Mexico, Oswego county, New York, where he lived the remain- der of his life and died. He was a man of good education, a lawyer by profession and a success- ful practitioner. His sympathies were with the Whig party-the prevailing party of that time -to which he gave earnest and liberal support. Under the whig administration he was created a magistrate, which office he filled with marked efficiency. He served in the War of 1812, while many years before his father had served as a general in the Revolutionary war. His grandfather had been a soldier in the English army with the rank of colonel, in the old French and Indian war, took part in the engagements at Quebec and Louisburg, and, in fact, the entire
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Canadian campaign. His father, General Reed of Revolutionary fame, was once the recipient of certain overtures from the British commander to desert the colonial cause and deliver np certain strongholds which he held-being offered ten thousand pounds as an inducement. But with haughty indignation at the very thonght of dis- loyalty, he proudly made the reply, long since passed down in history, " I am poor, very poor, my all has been given to the cause of colonial freedom, but I thank God that King George is 'not rich enough to hire me to desert the cause of the colonies." The reply was indicative of the man. Loyal to the very core in moments of darkest National gloom, loving country and a free, untrammeled system of democratic insti- tutions more than home or life or fame, he has justly merited the universal respect of those who now enjoy the blessings and security of self- government. The father of our subject is a native of the State of New York, born in the town of Russia, Herkimer county, in the year 1807. He afterward removed to Ottawa, Canada, and died in Packenham in 1859. He ; learned the trade of tanner, and afterward engaged quite extensively in the manufacture of leather. In matters of politics he was a whig adherent, and in religion a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. His marriage to Miss Wilkey, who died in 1890, resulted in the birth of nine children, three boys and six girls. Two of the sons died young, and only one daughter is now living, her home being in Brockville, Ontario.
W. F. L. F. Reed received a common school and academic education, worked with his father and learned the trade of tanner and currier. In May, 1886, he came to Chautauqua county, New York, and purchased what was known as the old Martin tannery, at Smith's Mills, then owned and operated by Martin & Co., of Buffalo, New York. Since purchasing he has newly equipped the works, and nearly doubled their capacity both for manufacturing and storing
leather, placing the tannery casily at the head of that industry in Chautauqua county. The firm, which is known as Nast & Reed, employs about thirty men the year round, and pays out yearly wages to the amount of fifteen thousand dollars. The annual output of the tannery is about fifty thousand sides of leather, most of which is shipped to Boston. The dry-house is a large building, one hundred and ten feet by forty feet, and three and a half stories in height. The main building of the establishment is about one hundred and seventy-five feet long by seventy-five feet in width, part of which is three and a half stories in height and part one and a half. In addition to these there are large accessory buildings for finishing, etc., equipped with the latest improved machinery, offices and storage houses for bark-altogether a singularly complete plant. Mr. Reed is politically a demo- crat, and, while at Hornellsville, was a member of the board of education. He is also a Free and Accepted Mason, belonging to the Consistory at Dunkirk (of which he is a charter member), Blue Lodge, Conncil and Commandery. Mr. Reed united in marriage with Margaret Louisa Prindle, of Hornellsville, N. Y., to whom has been born three children : Josephine P., Charles M. and Ernest J.
V ICTOR A. ALBRO is a son of James R. and Sophronia (Taylor) Albro and was born October 10, 1846, in Westfield, Chautau- qua county, New York. His grandfather, John Albro, was a resident for many years of Catta- raugus county, this State, but emigrated to Wayne county, Illinois, where he died. Hc was a hotel-keeper and served as a soldier in the war of 1812, participating in the battle of Fort Erie, August 15, 1814. In religion he was a methodist. John Albro was married to Martha Morrison, by whom he had six children, four sons and two daughters. The maternal grandfather of V. A. Albro was Thomas Tay- lor. James R. Albro (father) was born in
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June, 1812, and in 1838 came from Gowanda, Cattaraugus county this State, to Westfield, re- mained there a short time, returned to Catta- raugus county, and after awhile came back to this county, locating at Fredonia, going thence to Sherman. He was by occupation a cloth dresser and carder and also a fine penman, having taught writing schools. In politics he was a republican, and in religion was, with his wife, a member of the Methodist church. James R. Albro married Sophronia Taylor and had four children, three of whom are living, two daughters and a son, Victor A.
Victor A. Albro was educated in the common schools, learned the trade of a cabinet-maker and worked at it until 1862, when he enlisted in Company E. 112th Regiment New York Volunteers, and served until the close of the war, participating in the siege of Suffolk and nearly all the battles in which his regiment ap- peared, but was never seriously wounded. After he was mustered out of service, he worked at his trade of cabinet-maker until 1867, when he went into the office of the county clerk, Charles L. Norton, as clerk, served through Norton's term and also through that of his successor, Richard Willing, and as special deputy clerk under Willing's successor, John R. Robertson, and his successor, Herman Six- bey, and again under Sixbey's successor, J. J. Aldrich, for two terms or six years. He served under T. D. Baldwin in the same office as deputy clerk and occupied the same position under A. H. Stafford, continuing under the present administration of E. P. Putnam. In politics he is a republican, and besides his offi- cial position in the county clerk's office, he has served Mayville as town clerk for six consecu- tive terms. He belongs to Peacock Lodge, No. 696, F. and A. M .; to E. T. Carpenter Post, No. 308, G. A. R. ; and to Mayville Council, No. 111, Royal Arcanum, all of Mayville.
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Victor A. Albro was married in 1866 to Maria Benson, a daughter of Thomas Benson,
and by her had one child, a son, Frank E., married to Ruby Lonnen, and is in the hard- ware business in Mayville. The mother died January, 1868, and Victor A. Albro married for his second wife, Cordelia L. Kelsey, of Chautauqua.
A NDREW KELSEY JR. is a descendant of one of the old settlers of Portland town, and the deed to the property he now owns shows no transfer on the recorder's books since the original purchase. He is a son of Andrew and Elizabeth (House) Kelsey and, was born in this town July 18, 1829. Grandfather James Kelsey lived in bonny Scotland, enjoying the quiet and uneventful life of his people, but when the English had need of soldiers they took him among others to assist in subduing the rebelling colonies. He stoutly asserted that he would not fight against the Americans, and at the first opportunity deserted the British forces and joined their opponents and fought through the war. At the close of the struggle lie went to Massachusetts but died in Connecticut in 1822, aged about seventy-five years. He mar- ried Catharine Brown and had a family consist- ing of four children, one son and three daughters. Andrew Kelsey, Sr., was born in Tyringham, Massachusetts, August 17, 1789, and came to Chautauqua county in 1811, set- tled in the town of Portland and took up ninety- six acres of land. The heavy work of clearing was at once commenced, but the next year, when the demand was made for men to whip the British the second time, he fought as his father had fought in the first struggle and work was, for the time being, discontinued. At the close of the war he returned to the farm and conducted it until 1858, when he died. Mr. Kelsey was a man of the strictest integrity, a member of the Congregational church and an old-line whig. He was industrious, economical and frugal and lived a life commendable in every respect. He married Elizabeth House, a
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