USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 83
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citizen. He held the office of justice of the peace for sixteen years continuously, at the hands of the Republican party, and was also an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church. His first wife, Sophia Ward, bore him five children : Jane married to Walter Strong, a farmer of the town of Gerry; Lavina, mar- ried to L. F. Hadley, farmer and stock-dealer, now living in Jeffrey county, Missouri ; Andrew W., married to Minnie Scofield, lives at Panama, Chantauqua county, but is engaged in the real estate business at Lakewood; he was assistant librarian of the New York Assembly in 1890 and is active in the politics of his party ; and John W., (adopted son) graduated from Cornell University and is at present superintendent of city schools of Dunkirk, New York. By his second wife, Asenith Corl, he had two children : Mary, married to Francis Rose, a farmer living in the town of Gerry; and Etta, unmarried. James H. Wicks was married a third time to Eliza Pickard.
After passing through the common schools of his native county, Charles H. Wicks, our sub- ject, supplemented his education in the James- town High school. He first took up the profes- sion of teaching, became principal of the Clymer and Panama Union schools successively, and held the same for ten years. In 1878 he was elected school commissioner for the first district of Chautauqua county and held that office until 1891, the longest continuous service of any commissioner in the State. At the ex- piration of his term, he embarked in the real estate business at Lakewood in conjunction with his brother Andrew, which business they have pushed with vigor and advantage ever since. The business outlook for this energetic firm was never brighter than at present, and they are looking forward to a still more pros- perous and profitable era. Both members of the firm belong to the I. O. O. F. at Panama.
Charles H. Wicks married Florence R. Rob- bins, a daughter of Levi H. Robbins of Clymer,
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
New York, and has two children : Carrie Jane, of repairing mowers and reapers, and have for born March 12, 1883; and Mary E., born sale repairs for, and parts of, the Buckeye mow- ers and reapers. November 4, 1889.
ILLIAM H. WILSON, the inventor of some very practical labor-saving machinery, and a member of the firm of Wilson & Usborne, is a son of John and Elizabeth (Borne) Wilson, and was born at Westfield, Chautauqua county, New York, August 7, 1834. John Wilson was a native of England, where he learned the trade of carpenter, and spent seven years of his apprenticeship in working on Canterbury cathedral. In 1831 he came to Westfield, where he made his home from that year until his death in 1857. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church and always supported the Democratic ticket after becoming a citizen of the State of New York. His widow, Elizabeth (Borne) Wilson, who was a native of Kent county, England, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, survived him until January, 1884, when she passed away.
William H. Wilson was reared at Westfield, where he attended the public schools until he was fifteen years of age, when he went to learn the trade of painter, at which he worked for three years. He then run a stationary engine for three years, and at the end of that time learned the trade of engine finishing. After completing that trade he became foreman of the Chautauqua agricultural works, which position he held until 1861, in which year he formed a partnership with George P. York and Abel Patchen, under the firm name of Patchen & Co. They embarked in the manufacture of engines and made the first oil tools that were used in the oil region. In 1863 Mr. York purchased the interests of Mr. Patchen and Wilson, and the latter served as foreman of the works until Mr. York's death, August 19, 1888. In 1889 Mr. Wilson formed a partnership with Mr. Usborne (see his sketch) and they erected their present machine shops on North Portage street, where they make a specialty
On March 9, 1858, he married Emma A. Sweet, daughter of Ralph Sweet, of Westfield. They have three children : Clarence E., Mary C., and Ralph W.
William H. Wilson is a liberal democrat and a vestryman of the Protestant Episcopal church, and has served his village as trustee for two terms. He has not only studied carefully the construction of machinery for the purpose of its construction and repair, but has given much thought and time to its improvement, and the invention of new machines. In 1873 he took out a patent on a machine which he had invented for grinding mowing knives, and on February 20, 1877, he received a patent for another of his inventions in the shape of a base-burning and self-feeding boiler, which he improved in 1884, and received a patent on the improvement. He secured a patent for his " Wilson's Vertical Tube Boiler." In 1888 he took out patents on his inventions of a saw gauge and a double tube radiator. Mr. Wilson's five inventions are prac- tical and useful, and have given satisfaction wherever they have been used.
E ELMER H. WIGGINS, the present respon- sible and efficient postmaster at Forest- ville, and a successful and highly respected busi- ness man of German extraction, is the son of Jacob and Catherine (Case) Wiggins, and was born in Hannibal, Oswego county, New York, January 22, 1853. His father, Jacob Wiggins, was born in 1825, and for a number of years was engaged in the hotel business in the counties of Oswego, Cattaraugus and Chautanqua, but has now retired from active business, and resides with his son in Forestville. He is a republican in politics, married Catherine Case, who was born in Geneva, Ontario county, this State, in 1835, and died in 1889, at the age of sixty- four years.
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Elmer H. Wiggins was reared in Newark, Wayne county, this State, receiving a common school education. After leaving school he was engaged in clerking, and continued in that avo- cation until 1879, in Newark and Forestville, when he opened a hardware store in Forestville and has continued in that business until the present time. He enjoys a large and constantly increasing business, built up by his own unaided efforts and square and honorable dealing, and on September 1, 1889, was appointed postmaster of Forestville, and still holds that office. He is a republican in politics, and has held several village offices. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, Ancient Order United Workmen, and also the Chicago and North- western Masonic association. He is one of Forestville's substantial merchants, and all affable, genial gentleman.
In 1873 Elmer H. Wiggins united in marriage with Josephine Barnum, of Newark.
S AMUEL WOOD came to Jamestown with his father in 1839. He was born at Chesterfield, Massachusetts, on March 28, 1826, and is a son of Tabor and Eliza (Fuller) Wood. His grandfather, Gideon Wood, came from English parents but was born in Mass- achusetts, and died at New Bedford, same State, in 1837. His life employment was clotlı manufacturing, the mysteries of which were also learned by his son. He married Thankful Tabor, a representative daughter of a promi- nent New Bedford family of Quaker proclivi- ties, who are still the leading people of their town. She became the mother of chil- dren. His grandfather, Samuel Fuller, was a farmer in western Massachusetts, where he died. His wife was a Miss Haskell. Tabor Wood (father), was born in New Bedford, March 4, 1800, and came to Jamestown with his family in 1839, having been married to Eliza Fuller, who bore him seven children. One son, Edwin A. Wood, was a soldier in the
struggle between the states, entering the service in the 108th Ohio regiment. After his arrival here he formed a partnership with Daniel Hazeltine, and engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods. The mill they operated is the same one now occupied by the Jamestown Woolen Mills. They were in partnership about six years when Mr. Wood sold his interest and went to Buffalo, where he remained a short time engaged in the same business, after which he removed to Alerio, Ohio, and began to farm which he followed continuously until 1887, since which time he has been quietly enjoying the pleasures of the accumulations of a well spent life. While in Ohio, Mr. Wood was an active politician belonging to the Republican party, and was elected to the office of county commissioner in Shelby county. He was also interested in educational matters and assisted in the organization of the Union schools of Loramie's. A practical supporter of the church he was rightly known as a Christian gentleman.
Samuel Wood secured his early education in the common schools and at the Jamestown academy, and began life as a book-keeper and clerk for a railroad contractor, in which capacity he was employed for about ten years. At one time he engaged in the furnishing goods busi- ness, but soon returned to book-keeping which has mainly been his life employment, but for the five years preceding this writing he has been manager for the Acme Oil company at Jamestown, a branch of the Standard Oil Trust.
Mr. Wood united in marriage with Sarah Harrington.
Samuel Wood is an unassuming republican and a member of Mt. Moriah Lodge, No. 145, F. and A. M., with additional membership in Encampment, No. 61, Knights Templar of Jamestown.
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RESIDENCE OF MRS. R. S. LIVERMORE, SILVER CREEK.
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
EMORY W. LIVERMORE, a successful grape culturist, of Silver Creek, was born in Vermont in 1824. In early life he came to Chautauqua county, where he has resided ever since. He has an exceedingly fine grape farm of thirty acres at Silver Creek, and is a suc- eessful farmer.
In 1873 he united in marriage with Miss R. S. Bailey, and they have one child, a son, Carl- ton B., who was born in 1874. Mrs. Liver- more is a daughter of the late William Bailey, who died at her residenee at Silver Creek on February 8, 1883, aged eighty-nine years and eleven months.
William Bailey was born at Shoreham, Ver- mont, Mareh 11, 1793. He learned the trade of mill-wright, was a volunteer in the war of 1812, but did not reach his regiment until fighting had ceased, and at twenty-two years of age, on December 29, 1814, married Juliette Rawson, of Townsend, who died in 1873, at Nashville, this county. In 1815 he removed to the site of the village of Morley, in St. Lawrence county, which he left in 1830 to settle in Onondaga county, where he resided for half a century, during which time he was postmaster of Brewer- ton. From Manlius, in that county, he came to Nashville in 1880, and two years later passed away at Silver Creek, where he resided with his youngest daughter, Mrs. E. W. Livermore, who supplied everything that could make his deelining years happy and free from care. He was a strictly temperate man, and in early life became an intimate friend of Silas Wright, to whom he suggested the idea of our free schools. At twenty-one years of age he was initiated into a Masonic Lodge in Vermont, and in 1868 di- mitted from Military Lodge No. 93. Accord- ing to his expressed wish his remains were interred in Nashville cemetery, with Masonic honors by Silver Creek Lodge, No. 757.
His youngest daughter, Mrs. E. W. Liver- more, is a lineal descendant through her moth- er, of Sir Edward Rawson, who came to
America nearly three centuries ago. She is a woman of good taste and judgment, and was the arehitect of her present neat and tasteful home at Silver Creek, which contains eight rooms in the first and seven in the second story, all of which are well furnished. Mrs. Liver- more has been actively interested for many years in temperance. She is a member of the Free Air society which seeks to obtain tempo-
rary country homes for city children, and the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, of Dunkirk, whose object is mutual co-operation and sympathy among women, and to secure their educational, industrial and social advance- ment.
C TOHN M. ZAHN, of the hardware firm of Case & Zahn, is of German parentage and a man who, though very modest concerning himself, has, by his own energy and industry, gained the reputation of being a successful busi- ness man. His father, Joseph Zahn, was born in Germany in 1827, but his parents emigrated from the Vaterland to America before he had attained his first birthday anniversary and set- tled in Collins, Erie county, New York, where Joseph was educated in the public sehools. He went to Buffalo when he was sixteen years of age and learned the blacksmith's trade with Chamberlain Brotliers. He served a three years' apprenticeship with them as a carriage blacksmith and a journeyman until 1862, in which year he came to Fredonia and went to work for Taylor and Day, carriage manufac- turers, with whom he remained two years. He then engaged with Obed Bissell, who was in the sanie business, and continued in his employ until his death, which occurred in 1870. The succeeding firm was Mullet, Green & Bissell and Mr. Zahn was employed by them for six years, when they sold out. He then moved to Silver Creek and entered the employ of August Heine, who owned a third interest in the Ex- eelsior Machine works, which manufacture the
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
excelsior disintegrating middlings purifier. Their machines are sold all over the United States, England, Ireland and Scotland, Canada and the South American States. He is still in their employ and enjoys the reputation of being one of the best blacksmiths in America. He is a member of the German Catholic church in Silver Creek. He was married to Mary Schefley, a most estimable lady, in 1850, and there have been born to them four sons and four daughters, of whom John M. is the first- born. Following were Samuel S., a butcher in Fredonia; Louisa, married to Albert Scheller, a baker in Syracuse, Onondaga county, New York ; Stephen, in a hotel in Dunkirk, this county, who married Carrie Long ; Amelia, married to Herman Morganstein, a machinist at Westfield ; Albert, a mechanic, married to Lida Quigley ; and Carrie, who married Michael Zahn, a brewer in Syracuse, Onondaga county, New York.
John M. Zahn, son of Joseph and Mary (Schefley) Zahn, was born in Buffalo, Erie county, New York, April 23, 1853, and was educated at the district school in Fredonia, which he attended until he was fifteen years old, when he went to learn the trade of a tinsmith
with Allenbrand & Groff, at Dunkirk, this county, with whom he served a three years' apprenticeship. He then went to Silver Creek and worked one year in the Excelsior Machine works, and in 1872 came to Fredonia and en- tered the employ of W. W. Scott & Co., re- maining with them two years, after which, he was employed by D. L. Shephard, in the store where he is now partner, with whom he re- mained seven years, at the expiration of which time, he engaged in the hardware business, as- sociating with F. W. Case, under the firm name of Case & Zahn.
He started in the battle of life with nothing but untiring energy and indomit- able pluck and has acquired considerable property, and no citizen is more highly and generally respected than he. For three years he was chief of the Fredonia Fire department. He married Florence Knight, a daughter of Henry Knight, a blacksmith of Silver Creek, April 6, 1873, and has one child, a bright and promising son, Sylvester J., born March 28, 1874, and who is now in school. The mother died a day or two after the birth of the son, and November 25, 1877 Mr. Zahn married Mary Zinck, of Fredonia, who is still living.
CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY COURT-HOUSE
CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY COURT-HOUSE.
By the act of 1808 creating the counties of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus, the Governor of the State was required to appoint three commis- sioners to fix on sites in these counties for the crection of court-houses, and to make report of such to the Clerk of Niagara county, New York. The commissioners appointed to locate the county sites were Isaac Southerland, Jonas Williams and Asa Ransom. The aet also re- quired the supervisors of each county to raise the sum of one thousand five hundred dollars for the erection and completion of county buildings. A contract was accordingly made with Winsor Brigham to build a court-house and jail of wood ; and the house of John Scott, in the village of Mayville, was designated as the place for holding courts until the court- house should be completed.
The first court-house in the county was the two-story frame building built between 1811 and 1818, the war of 1812 having retarded its completion. The June term of the court in 1814 was held in the unfinished building, but not the fall and winter terms. In 1815 the building was finished and occupied, the lower story containing three prison cells,-two for criminals, and one for debtors. In front of these, and divided from them by a narrow hall, was the dwelling part of the jailor and his family. The upper story was for court and jury rooms and the accessory usc of the judi- ciary.
In 1832, the prison rooms being too con- traeted, and having become dilapidated and | rior of the building. The work was done the
36
unsafe for the detention of prisoners, the Legis- lature required the supervisors to provide for the erection of a new jail. They had been authorized the preceding year to do so ; but, notwithstanding the fact that in their present- ment they had adjudged the old jail to be inse- cure and unsafe, yet they refused to provide for the building of another. The recommend- ation, however, was finally made, and three thousand five hundred dollars in three annual installments was appropriated for the erection of a new jail, which was completed in 1833.
In 1834, on the petition of many citizens, an act was passed directing the building of a new court-house. It is not strange that county buildings eosting but one thousand five hun- dred dollars were, after the lapse of more than twenty years, insufficient for the various county purposes. The commissioners appointed by the act to contract for and superintend the erection of the court-house were Thomas B. Campbell, William Peacock and Martin Prendergast. The supervisors were required to assess and collect, therefor, five thousand dollars in five annual installments, commencing in 1837. This time was fixed in time to allow the jail instalments to be fully paid before additional taxes were imposed. The money for building was loaned to the county by the State at six per cent. in- terest, the first installment to be paid March 1, 1838.
The commissioners contracted with Benja- min Rathbun, of Buffalo, for crecting the extc-
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CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY COURT-HOUSE.
same summer, and was accepted by the com- missioners. The plan was submitted to the Board of Supervisors in 1834, and a committee was appointed with instructions to report to the board at the next meeting. At an adjourned session held the next month (December, 1834), the committee reported resolutions declaring that all the money borrowed had been expended on the exterior of the building, disapproving the acts of the commissioners as tending to burden the county with a heavy expense for a larger and more costly building than was needed, with the purpose of advancing the in- terests of Mayville at the expense of the county, and asking the Legislature to remove William Peacock and Martin Prendergast, and appoint Elial T. Foote and Leverett Barker as commissioners in their stead. The report was accepted.
The action of the next Legislature upon the subject was the passage of a law requiring the additional sum of four thousand dollars to be raised to complete the building, and author- izing the comptroller of the treasury to loan it as before; and instead of removing the two commissioners, Elial T. Foote, of Ellicott, and Leverett Barker, of Pomfret, were appointed additional commissioners. With this appropri- ation the building was completed, the five com- missioners discharged, and the court-house which is in use to-day as the seat of Chautau- qua county's judiciary was formally accepted by the people. The first president judge to occupy the new court-house was Zattu Cush- ing, who was assisted by Matthew Prendergast, Philo Orton, Jonathan Thompson and William Alexander, associate judges. The present county judge is the Hon. Almon A. Van Dusen.
SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY
OF
CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY,
BY
HON. OBED EDSON.
BOUNDARIES .-- Chautauqua county lies in | of the water-shed extends in an irregular line the extreme western part of the State of New substantially parallel to the shore of Lake Erie, and at a distance varying from three to six miles. From the foot of these hills north- ward is an undulating region gradually dc- scending as it extends toward the lake where it terminates in a bluff, of the average height of twenty feet above its waters. York. It is bounded on the east, for a distance of twenty-five miles, by the county of Cattarau- gus. On the south, twenty-four miles, and on the west, eighteen miles, it is bounded by the State of Pennsylvania. On the north-west by Lake Erie, which extends along that border of the county about forty miles. A distance of about four miles on the north-east, it is bounded by the county of Erie, from which it is sepa- rated by the Cattaraugus creek. The county contains 1099 square miles. It is nearly as large as the State of Rhode Island, more than one-half as large as the State of Delaware, and has a territory greater in extent thian many of the smaller German states.
TOPOGRAPHY .- A belt of grass covered hills extends through the central portion of Chautau- qua eounty, from its eastern boundary south- westerly to the State of Pennsylvania, forming a water-shed that divides the waters that flow into Lake Erie, from those that flow into the tributaries of the Mississippi. The more pre- eipitous face of this water-shed is presented to- wards Lake Erie, where steeply rise irregular hills, to a considerable height above the low jands that border the lake. The northern side
As Lake Erie is 573 feet above the sea level, no part of the county is less than that height above the ocean, while the hills that extend along the northern border of the water-shed, known as the ridge, rise to an altitude of 1000 to 1200 feet above the lake, equivalent to 1600 or 1800 feet above the ocean. From the sum- mit of these hills, a fine and extended view of the surrounding regions may be had. To the north lie cultivated fields that extend from the foot of the hills to the shore along the northern border of the county. Beyond is Lake Erie, so distant that the waves and surf fade from the sight. In the summer time the lake is as blue as if it had been painted upon canvas, with nothing to relieve the monotony of color, but the long black lines of smoke from the propellers and the white sails of the lake craft, which thickly speck the surface-distanec rendering them motionless, apparently as " Painted ships upon
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SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY
a painted sca." Over beyond the lake, and forty miles away, the distant shores and hills of Canada are visible from Fort Erie to Long Point, while southward at some points, the hills of Pennsylvania can plainly be seen.
The water-shed of the county is deeply fur- rowed into a series of wide valleys that extend in nearly parallel lines across it, at right-angles with the shore of Lake Erie. Between the val- leys, extending in a like direction, are high ridges which the waters have seamed and scored into chains of hills. These hills as they extend to the south-east slightly decrease in altitude, and finally quite abruptly terminate in the south-eastern part of the county. There these long and wide depressions between the ranges of hills merge together, forming the broad val- ley of the Conewango.
The valleys that cross this highland region have all the same level with scarcely any descent, as they extend to the south-west into the larger valley of the Conewango, each being a little more than 700 feet above Lake Erie. In each, near its northern terminus, are one or more lakes and ponds. In these little lakes all of the principal streams of the county that flow southward into tributarics that feed the Mississ- ippi, have their origin. These lakes all lie very near the northern face of the ridge, so near that a few rods of low land only intervene and but a little labor would be required to turn their waters northward to be discharged into Lake Erie. In the wide valley that extends along the eastern part of the county, flows the Cone- wango, the principal stream in Chautauqna county. It empties into the Allegheny ncar Warren, Pennsylvania. It has its source in two of these lakes that lie near the northern verge of the ridge, known as Mud lake and East Mud lake.
Pennsylvania line. The Cassadaga has its source in a cluster of little lakes, five or more, that sparkle near the northern declivity of the highlands, the largest one so near that many years ago its waters were, by the labor of a few men, in a short time, almost turned north ward into tributaries of Lake Erie throngh a ditch surreptitiously cut for that purpose. The law was invoked in season to prevent the change. Bear creek flows through another of the valleys into the Cassadaga. It has its source in Bear lake which also lies very near the northern verge of the ridge.
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