USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 71
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Alexander H. Doty was twice married; first to Emily Cummins, a daughter of the late
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
Charles Cummins of Floyd, Oneida county, New York, who bore him one child: Smily Holmes. His second wife was Abbey Scott, daughter of the Rev. John Scott of Gerry, New York, to whom he was united on November 9, 1882.
W ILLIAM E. MONTGOMERY has had a somewhat strange and varied career. When he was only five years of age, that dread disease and swift messenger of death, cholera, swept away in less than twenty-four hours, his father, mother and four brothers. He was born in Manchester, Lancaster county, England, May 12, 1827, and is a son of William and Mary (Calverley) Montgomery. In 1832, after the terrible calamity to his parents and broth- ers, he was taken to Dublin, the capital of Lein- ster county and of Ireland, where he remained until he was seventeen years old, receiving a common school education. In 1844 he came to the United States and located in Albany, in the county of the same name, this State, where he sccured employment in a piano manufactory, where, however, he remained but a short time before he went down the Hudson and shipped as a common sailor on a whaling vessel, on board of which he spent nearly four years, during which time he sailed entirely around the world and assisted in slaying a great number of the ceta- cean monsters of the deep. In the latter part of 1848 he returned to Albany and engaged in the Britannia metal and silver plating business, in which he continued until 1857, when he went to Rochester, a manufacturing town in Fulton county, Indiana, and operated a farm a short time. In 1860 he came to Dunkirk and secured employment in the Erie Locomotive Works, working for them five years and then enlisting in the United States Navy, but was never ordered to report for duty, as the war closed immediately after his enlistment. He continued in the employ of this company until it was succeeded by the Brooks Locomotive
works in 1869, to which he transferred his ser- vices and worked there until 1878, when he went to Bradford, McKcan county, Pennsylva- nia, where he kept a hotel until 1884, and then returned to Dunkirk and engaged in the gro- cery business, erecting a handsome and commo- dious two-story structure at the corner of Deer and Sixth streets, in which he placed an exten- sive general supply of staple and fancy grocer- ies, provisions and beer, where he still continues having a large patronage. In politics he is a republican, and in Masonic orders he is a com- panion of Dunkirk Chapter, No. 191, R. A. M., having been a Royal Arch Mason twenty-five years; is also a Sir Knight of Dunkirk Com- mandery, No. 49, K. T. From his world-wide experience and observation, he has naturally im- bibed philosophical and broad-minded views of meu and events, and is a pleasant and enter- taining gentleman to meet.
William E. Montgomery was twice married; first to Elizabeth Chapman, of England; and second to Mary C. Erb, of Centre county, Pennsylvania.
RANCIS B. JACKSON, foreman of the boiler department of the Brooks' Locomo- tive works, of Dunkirk, was born in York- shire, England, August 24, 1825, and is a son of Robert and Elizabeth (Smith) Jackson. Robert Jackson was born in 1799, in York, England, where he learned civil engineering. He was in the employ of the English govern- ment for some time during which he was sent to the United States and made several land sur- veys in New Jersey and other States. He and his brother Anthony were engaged in business in the cities of York and Londou for several years and in 1828 came to Troy, New York, where they remained but six months. He then removed to Schenectady and was one of the sub-contractors on the Schenectady & Albany Railroad. He was a whig and an active mem- ber of the Protestant Episcopal church, and
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died at Syracuse in 1882, aged eighty-three years. His wife, Elizabeth (Smith) Jackson, who died at forty-five years of age, was a native of the same place and a member of the same church as her husband.
Francis B. Jackson was reared principally at Schenectady, and after leaving school went to learn the trade of machinist. After working for some time in the machine shops he discov- ered that he preferred boiler-making to the trade of machinist which he abandoned to become a boiler-maker. In 1848 he went to Albany, New York, where he had charge of Townsend's boiler shops for ten months. He then left the State capital to locate at Troy where he had supervision of all the boilers used on the R. & S. and T. & S. railroads until 1850 when he resigned to become foreman, at Syracuse, of the large boiler department of the locomotive works of the Saratoga & Utica rail- road. Five years later he was offered and ac- cepted employment under the Erie Railroad company, in Dunkirk, where in 1869 he was offered and accepted his present position of fore- man of the boiler department of the Brooks' Locomotive works.
January 18, 1846, he married Sarah A., daughter of Henry Powfit, of Oxford, England. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have three children : Robert H., a boiler-maker; Dr. Frank S., a practicing physician of Dunkirk ; and Mary E., wife of Edward B. Osborne of Mt. Morris, New York.
In religious belief Francis B. Jackson is an episcopalian and a member and warden of St. John's church of that denomination in Dunkirk. He is a republican and served several terms as alderman of his city when it was but a village. He is a member of Dunkirk Lodge, No. 767, F. & A. M., Dunkirk Chapter, No. 191, H. R. A. M., and Dunkirk Commandery, No. 40, Knights Templar. Mr. Jackson in 1847 vis- ited the land of his nativity where he spent six months in Yorkshire and other parts of
England. He visited, during this trip, many places that are famous in history and became well acquainted with the customs and usages of the English people,
M ICHAEL PAULUS, JR., was born in the southern part of Prussia, December 6, 1842, and is the son of Michael and Barbara (Bewen) Paulus. His father was a native of the same section and came to the United States in 1852, locating in Buffalo, Erie county, New York, where he remained until his death, which occurred in 1860, at the age of fifty-four years. He was a member of the Roman Catho- lic church, and married Barbara Bewen, also a native of Prussia and a member of the Catholic church. They had several children, one of whom was Michael. Mrs. Paulus resides alter- nately with her children in Buffalo and Dun- kirk.
Michael Paulus, Jr., came to America with his father and acquired an education in the pub- lic schools. After leaving school he was em- ployed as a clerk in a general store until 1878, when he entered the mercantile business on his own account, at which he has continued ever since. He carries a large stock of dry goods and groceries at his place of business on Lyon street, and enjoys a large trade. In politics he is a democrat and in religion a member of the Roman Catholic church. He is an enterprising man and very pleasant and agreeable in his manners.
Michael Paulus, Jr., was married in 1871, to Margaretta Elker, daughter of Frederick Elker, of Dunkirk. Two children have been born to this marriage : Pauline and Laura.
C HARLES EHLERS, one of the largest and leading furniture dealers and up- holsterers of Dunkirk, was born in Mecklen- burg Schwerin, now one of the northern provinces of the German empire, January 22, 1839, and is a son of John and Mary (Penn)
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Ehlers. His parents were born in Mecklen- burg Schwerin, where his father, who was a Lutheran and a tailor by trade, died in 1878, at the age of seventy-eight years. John Ehlers married Mary Penn, who was born in the closing year of the last century and is a mem- ber of the Lutheran church. She came in 1871, to Dunkirk, where she has resided ever since with the subject of this sketch and is now well np in the ninety-second year of her age.
Charles Ehlers was reared and educated in his native province where he learned the trade of an upholsterer. Seeking a wider business field with more favorable opportunities than those presented in Germany, he came to the United States, in. 1865, and settled in Dun- kirk where he worked at his trade until 1872, . when he established himself in the furniture business to which he added undertaking in 1879. In that year he associated George E. Philipbar, a German and native of Virginia, with him in the furniture business under the firm name of Charles Ehlers & Co. They are manufacturers and dealers in cabinet ware and upholstering, besides paying particular attention to undertaking and making a specialty of pictures and picture-frames. They are ex- perienced mechanics, who are thoroughily ac- quainted with every detail of their business from the factory to the salesrooms. They not only have a splendid stock of furniture but manufacture all ordered work. Their stock embraces all kinds, styles and qualities of furn- iture from the practical and useful to the artistic and ornamental. Their large furniture establishment on East Third street is a double fronted building 22x60 feet in dimensions and its second floor is devoted to one of the finest and most fashionable selections of upholstery to be found in the western part of the State. The success obtained by the establishment is due to the energy, perseverance and ability of Mr. Ehlers, who commenced life with no capi-
tal but his trade, yet has achieved good com- mercial standing and ranks among the repre- sentative business men of his city. He founded his business upon the eve of the greatest panic that has ever occurred in the history of this country, yet by judicious management he came safely through that distressing period which brought rnin and downfall to so many old and substantial business firms. Year by year since 1872, he has steadily increased his stock and his patrons until the former is of ample pro- portions while the latter are spread over a wide area of surrounding territory.
Charles Ehlers has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in 1866, was Caro- line, daughter of George Philipbar, of Dunkirk. She died in 1875, leaving four children : Ferdinand, Emma, Flora and Herman. After her death Mr. Ehlers, in 1876, united in mar- riage with her sister, Mary Philipbar. By his second marriage he has one child, a daughter named Mildred.
In politics Mr. Ehlers is a democrat. He attends regularly and contributes liberally to the Baptist church of Dunkirk. He is a mem- ber of Ancient Order of United Workmen, Chautauqua Castle, No. 188, Knights of Pythias and Point Gratiot Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
TRANK F. STAPF is another man in whom the inherent genius and industrial habits of his Teutonic ancestors are simply synonymic of success. He is a son of Paul and Rose (Vogel) Stapf, and was born in Pitts- burg, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, Decem- ber 6, 1864. Paul Stapf was born in 1822, in Aschaffenburg, Lower Franconia, Germany ; came to America when a young man, and located in Pittsburg, where for most of his life he has been a foreman in an iron works. In religion he, as well as his wife, is a consistent member of the Catholic church, and in politics is a democrat. He married Rose Vogel, who
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
was born in Bavaria in 1830, and they have been the parents of several children.
Frank F. Stapf spent his boyhood in Pitts- burg, attending the public schools of that place, and after leaving school learned the jeweler's trade with his brother, John A., who was then a manufacturer of jewelry in the Iron City. In 1886 he left his brother's factory, and came to Dunkirk, where he went into business for himself at No. 83 Third street, where he has since remained, having built up a very success- ful trade, carrying a fine stock of jewelry, etc., and making a specialty of fine watch and jew- elry repairing.
Politically he is independent, a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of Maccabces.
Frank F. Stapf was married in 1888 to Emma Allgaier, a daughter of Joseph All- gaier, of Dunkirk, and their union has been blessed with two children : Mabel and Laura.
J OHN A. STAPF. is a man whose natural energy, industry and ingenuity would be a guarantee of ultimate success in whatever he might undertake. He was born in Pittsburg, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, November 30, 1856, and is a son of Paul and Rose (Vo- gel) Stapf. Paul Stapf is a native of Aschaf- fenburg, a manufacturing city in Lower Fran- conia province, Germany, being born in 1822, and emigrating to the United States when quite a young man, located in Pittsburg, where he has since resided, and where he has been em- ployed most of his life as a foreman in an iron works. He married Rose Vogel, who was born in Bavaria in 1830, by whom he has had several children. Politically he is a democrat, and he and his wife are devoted members of the Catholic church.
John A. Stapf was reared in Pittsburg, where he received his education in the public schools. When he was eleven years old, he began to learn the jewelry business, working
in the best establishments in that city until 1874, in which year he engaged in the manu- facture of jewelry on his own account. Two years later he removed his business to Parker City, Pa., where he remained two years, and then came to Dunkirk, this county, and con- tinued in the same business until 1879, when he engaged in the retail jewelry trade, in whichi he still remains. He carries a fine large stock of everything pertaining to a first-class jewelry house, and enjoys a very flourishing patronage.
John A. Stapf was married in July, 1875, to Mary Zobel, of Pittsburg. Their nnion has been blessed with two children,-one son and one daughter: John W., born February 4, 1876 ; and Flora M., born January 29, 1882.
In politics he is a democrat, and is a mem- ber of the Free and Accepted Masons, Knights of the Maccabees, Knights of Pythias, the Equitable Aid Union, the Germania singing society, and is an affable and popular man.
R EV. JOHN BANDINALLI was born in Genova, or Genoa, as it is commonly known, in the province of Liguria, kingdom of Italy, August 27, 1835, and is the son of Dom- inick and Francesca (Ricci) Bandinalli. He was reared in his native country, educated in the monastic schools, and ordained as a priest in 1858, emigrated to the United States the same year and located in Pittsburg, Pa., where he acquired the English language in the only mon- astery then in existence in this republic. In 1860 he came to Dunkirk and assisted in estab- lishing a monastery to be conducted by the Pas- sionists order, of which he was a member. This order had been first planted in America, at Pittsburg, in 1852, and now has thousands of members scattered in every State and territory of the Union. In 1861 the order at Dunkirk incorporated the Dunkirk Literary, Scientific and Missionary Institute. Father Bandinalli remained in Dunkirk until 1866, when he was appointed by the bishop of that diocese, rector
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
of St. Michael's monastery at West Hoboken, N. J., where he remained three years when he was appointed rector of St. Joseph's monastery at Baltimore, Md., where lie remained six years, and was then appointed provincial counselor at St. Michael's church at West Hoboken. In 1880 he returned to Dunkirk where he has since resided and is rector of St. Mary's Catholic church and monastery. This parish he assisted in organizing in 1860 but the church edifice had been dedicated in November, 1854. The present church build- ing is a superb structure, with an elegant inter- ior, the church and monastery costing over forty thousand dollars, The congregation includes over four hundred families. The Passionist or- der also built, in 1868, Columbus Hall, at a cost of twenty thousand dollars, which is the loca- tion of the parochial schools, where nearly three hundred pupils are enrolled. Father Bandin- alli is very popular among his parishioners.
REV. ANTHONY KLAWITER, pastor of St. Hyacinth church. of Dunkirk and who planned and built in Buffalo, N. Y., the first Byzantine church ever erected in the United States, was born at Posen, Poland, November 13, 1836, and is a son of Augustine and Joseph (Telarska) Klawiter. He was reared in the his- toric city of Warsaw, whose struggle in the cause of Polish independence has become a part of the history of the world and received a lib- eral education. In 1860 he was ordained as a priest at Warsaw where he was the pastor of a Catholic church for fifteen years. In 1875 he came to the United States where he was stationed in Chicago and had charge of St. Stanislaus Catholic church for one year. He then went to Howard county, Nebraska, where he was pastor of St. Paul's church for four years at the end of which time, in 1881, he came to Dunkirk and became pastor of St. Hyacinth's church which was erected in 1875. After three years service he went to Buffalo and liad charge of St. Stan- islaus church for two years. In 1886 he built !
St. Adalbert's church with a seating capacity of sixteen hundred and a school building to accom- modate one thousand children besides a fine par- sonage. The church and school were both in one building which he erected in the wonder- fully short space of three months. This church was burned on January 26, 1889, and within the same year Father Klawiter planned and com- menced thie erection of the present splendid St. Adalbert church of Buffalo. In 1890 he re- turned to Dunkirk where he has charge of St. Hyacinth church with a congregation of three hundred families, and is erecting a tasteful par- sonage in addition to daily visiting and instruct- ing in his parochial school of two hundred and fifty children. Reverend Father Klawiter is a man of fine education and refincd tastes, who is an earnest and successful church worker.
The St. Adalbert Catholic church which Father Klawiter planned and built in Buffalo is a stone and brick structure of the Byzantine style and consists of a grand portico, vestibule, nave and two aisles, transept, 52x106 feet ; sanctuary, two vestries, two chapels for the sis- ters and a large choir with accommodations for six hundred singers. This church is in the form of a Latin cross 86x235 feet in total width and length, with two large towers one hundred and thirty-five feet in height and an imposing cupola of one hundred and sixty-five feet, whose in- terior is frescoed in Byzantine colors and paint- ings, representing scenes from the life of St. Adalbert. It has imposing altars, organ, chancel, the statues of the Apostles and the fourteen stations of the crucifixion. St. Adalbert church will be visited not only by worshipers but also by amateurs of art. The head of this grand undertaking was the Reverend Father Andrew Klawiter, then rector of St. Adalbert congrega- tion, through whose incitation, sacrifice and love of art, one of the sublimest monuments for Christian worship, was erected to the pride of the Polish nation and as an ormament to this country.
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M IRZA N. BENJAMIN, M.D., one of Dunkirk's successful physicians and sur- geons, was born in Oroomiah, Persia, and is a son of Rev. Mirza N. and Theresa (Gillett) Benjamin, He who reads of the Grecian re- public aud the Roman empire should not fail to learn the story of the Persian power which was supreme in western Asia for several centuries by means of the superior civilization and mili- tary genius of its people; and to become ac- quainted with the history of modern Persia, which now ranks as one of the foremost Asiatic countries. The Benjamiu family is oue of the old and respected families of Persia, and Rev. Mirza N. Benjamin, the father of Dr. Benjamin, was born in Oroomiah, where he served for many years as an Episcopalian minister. He died in 1852. His widow was a native of the same towu, where she died in 1866.
Mirza N. Benjamin received his education at the university of his native town, and after he was graduated, commenced reading medicine with Dr. Franklin H. Young, who was a grad- uate of the Kings Medical college, of London, Eugland. At twenty-one years of age he accompanied Dr. Young to London, where he took one course of lectures at Kings Medical college. In January, 1863, he came to New York city, where he took a course of lectures at Bellevue Medical college, and then entered the medical department of the University of Ver- mont, at Burlington, in that State, from which he was graduated in 1864. Two days after graduation he entered the Uniou army as a contract assistant surgeon, was soou promoted to surgeon and was stationed respectively in Louisville, Nashville and Memphis. After the close of the war he came in September, 1865, to Fredonia, and was in active practice there until 1882, when he came to Dunkirk, where he has been in the continuous and successful practice of his profession ever since. He is a member of the Chautauqua County Medical society, and in addition to his large practice in Dunkirk, has
retained a portion of his Fredonia practice. While serving in the departments of the Cum- berland and Tennessee he was one of the few contract surgeons.
Dr. Benjamin united in marriage with Julia Salsbury Spencer, daughter of Seneca Spencer, of Oneida county. Their nniou has been blessed with one child,, a daughter, named Caroline Harriet.
Dr. Benjamin is a republican in politics and a member of the Protestant Episcopal church. He was offered the position of surgeon general of the Persian army, besides other distinguished positions in Persia, but he declined to return to his native country, as he does not like the : present form of Persian government, and has declared that he would rather be in King's county than to be king of Persia. Dr. Benja- min has never met any of his countrymen since coming here, and is probably the only Persian physician.
F ETER F. VALENTINE is a remarkably skillful workman in his line of business, for he can make any part of a watch, under- stands the repairing of tower clocks and can regulate the movement of the most delicate chronometer or the most ponderous clock, and is also a fine practical machinist. He was born in Austria, July 9, 1851, received his education in the common schools of his native country which he attended until he was sixteen years old, when he sought the land of equality and freedom, where he landed in 1867 and located in New Jersey, where he acquired the trade of a machinist. In 1870 he came to Dunkirk and secured employment as a machinist at the Brooks' Locomotive works, where he remained until 1880, when he was engaged by the Fre- donia Watch company of Fredonia, this county, which erected the first watch factory in the State of New York. After working for them one and one-half years he was made foreman of their machine shop and continued here until the
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
factory was moved to Peoria, Illinois, whither he went and remained with them until 1888, when he returned to Orange, N. J., where he was employed for six months in Thomas A. Edison's works on the latter's famous phono- graph. From there he came to Dunkirk, this county, and engaged in the jewelry business on his own account, in which he is still having a fine stock and a large and constantly increasing trade, his store being located at No. 19 Railroad avenue. He is liberal in his political opinions and always votes for the man he considers best fitted for the office.
P. F .. Valentine, in 1872, united in marriage with Sophia Widman, a daughter of Charles Widman, of Dunkirk, by whom he had five children, three sons and two daughters : Carl, Sabina, Ferdinand, Grace and Albert, all of whom are living except Ferdinand, who died in 1888, aged nine years. Mrs. Valentine was killed in the great railroad disaster at Chat- worth, Illinois, in 1887, and Mr. Valentine was married a second time, in 1889, to Dora Wid- man, a sister of his first wife.
J OHN BOURNE has entered the second half of a century, and, during the last quarter through which he has passed, has witnessed more changes of scene and covered more territory than ordinarily falls to the lot of man. He was born in Fredonia, Chautauqua county, New York, August 22, 1839, and is a son of Thomas and Huldah (Cooley) Bourne. His father was a native of England and cmigrated to America in 1832, when he married Huldah Cooley, a native of Vermont, and a school teacher, by whom he had several children. He was a born sailor, graduating from the English service as passed-midshipman when fifteen years of age and eventually becoming a captain in the mer- chant marine, making twenty-nine trips from England to American ports. In his religious principles he was episcopalian and a member of that church. He died in Fredonia August 31, 1
1839, nine days after the birth of his son John. His wife (mother) was a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal church and died, aged seventy- three years.
John Bourne was reared in Dunkirk until he was thirteen years old, and then in the country round about, receiving his education in the com- mon schools. At the first extension of the Eric canal he secured a position as ax-man in the engineer corps, with which he remained three years. In 1859 he went to Sheridan, this county, and engaged in farming operations until the summer of 1861, when he enlisted, in Au- gust, in Co. D, 72d N. Y. Vols. and served until the close of the war, being honorably dis- charged at Kingston, New York, in July, 1865. He participated in all the principal battles in which his regiment was engaged and was wounded twice, once in the neck at the battle of Gettysburg by a minie-ball and once by a spent ball at the battle of the Wilderness, which knocked him senseless. Neither wound was sufficiently serious to cause him to be sent to the hospital. After his discharge from the army he came to Dunkirk and was employed as clerk in the office of the United States Express company until 1866, when he went West, where he was employed as messenger and ronte agent by the same company for three years, and afterward as agent at Paoli, Kansas, for nine months, after which he was engaged in the transfer business for a year at Fort Scott, Kansas. In the latter part of 1870 he was engaged by the Overland Transportation company and placed in charge of the men employed in the transfer of their business to the M. K. & T. R. R., and remained in this position until the M. K. & T. reached Denison, Texas, in 1872 when the contract of the O. T. company was completed. He was then employed by the M. K. & T. R. R. Co., and continued with them until April, 1873, when, at the request of John Buckley, ticket agent at thic Eric railroad station in Dunkirk, he came here and accepted a position as clerk and
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