USA > New York > Niagara County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
232
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
county, this State, June 28, 1776, and came to Otsego eounty with his parents and en- gaged in farming, which he followed suc- eessfully throughout his life. He adhered to the religion of his father and lived and died a Quaker. He was a democrat, and adhered elosely to his party through victory and defeat as long as he lived, believing always that the principles it held were for the best interests of the eountry. He mar- ried Ann Powell, by whom he had thirteen children, ten sons and three daughters, but three of whom are now living.
Franeis Hoag was educated in the eom- mon sehools, but he received a good English edueation which qualified him for a merean- tile life. After living thirty-one years in Otsego county, he came to this eounty in 1849, and settled in the town of New Fane. He afterwards moved to Hartland, and then to Royalton, and finally to Middleport. At Johnson's Creek he entered the mercantile business with his son, in which he eontinued sueeessfully for a number of years, but has now retired and is living quietly, engaged in no business.
On June 6, 1842, Mr. Iloag married Phobe A. Shove, and two children have been born unto them : Mary, who is still at home ; and Harvey, who married Sarah Morse, and is now a merchant of Medina. His religious views are somewhat different from his aneestors-who adhered to the rigid Quaker faith-he being a Spiritualist. Politieally, he adheres to the demoeratie faith of his fathers, and is an influential member of the Democratic party in Middle- port. He has never sought for office, or had any political ambition to gratify, his only interest in polities having always been to promote the welfare and prosperity of his country, and to faithfully discharge the
duties of good eitizenship. Mr. Hoag ranks socially among the best eitizens of Middle- port, and commands the respeet of the eom- munity in which he lives.
A LFRED MORGAN, one of the ener- getic business men, and a member of the ship and boat building firm of Morgan Brothers, of Loekport, was born in Pem- brokeshire, Wales, in the kingdom of Great Britain, October 21, 1843, and is a son of Enoch and Margaret (Elliott ) Morgan. IIis paternal grandparents, Morgan, were na- tives of and life-long residents of Wales, and his father Enoch was reared in that country, where he was engaged for some time in the hotel and livery business. He afterwards beeame a shoe manufacturer, and married Margaret Elliott, by whom he had five children : Two daughters, who died in infaney ; William, a resident of Wales, who quit shoe manufacturing to engage in the butchering business, and married Jane Mabe, by whom he has nineteen children; George H., who came to Lockport in 1862, where in 1869 he married Nancy Chatfield, a Ver- mont lady, by whom he had five children, and where in 1887 he beeame a partner with Alfred in the dry-doek and boat-build- ing business ; and Alfred.
Alfred Morgan was reared in Wales, where he received his education in the British schools of that country. Leaving school he learned the trade of ship builder, and in 1864 he joined the East India Trading Com- pany for three years in the eapaeity of ship earpenter, and in 1868 came to Lockport and worked for some time in the ship-yard at St. Catharines. He next went to Tona- wanda, where he worked in the ship-yards one year, and then returned to Loekport,
Alford Margen.
235
OF NIAGARA COUNTY.
and in 1878 became a member of the boat- building firm of Morgan & Sutton. In 1887 he purchased the interest of Mr. Sutton and associated his brother, George H., with him under the firm name of Morgan Brothers. They build canal boats, steam propellers and yachts for the home trade, as well as a large number of boats and dredges for the Canadian government. During the busy season of their trade they employ a force of thirty-five men, together with machinery adapted to boat-building purposes.
January 7, 1870, he returned to Wales, and married Sarah, daughter of David and Esther (Evans) Johns, of Wales, and came back to Lockport in May, 1870, and has since resided here. To Mr. and Mrs. Mor- gan have been born seven children, two sons and five daughters: Jessie Ida, who died when quite young ; Nettie B. (dead); Harry Wolverton (dead ) ; Ella Jane, Alice Estelle, Grace Ethel, and William Richmond.
Politically Mr. Morgan is a republican, and was elected alderman in 1882 for a term of two years, from the second ward, which is strongly democratic, and where no other republican candidate for office has received a majority for the last fifteen years. Ile served one year (1884) as supervisor, and was appointed water commissioner for three years in 1884 by a democratie mayor and council, and in 1889 was elected as an alder- man of his city. In 1891 he was elected a member of the board of education (by the board), to fill a vacancy. He is a member, and has been for three years a vestryman of the Lockport Protestant Episcopal church. He is a member of the Order of Elks, Red Jacket Lodge, No. 646, Free and Accepted Masons, John Hodge Lodge, No. 69, An- cient Order of United Workmen, and Lock- port Council, No. 307, Royal Areanum.
JOHN T. MURRAY, a prominent mem-
ber of the Niagara county bar, is a son of Allen S. and Isabel (Cody) Murray, and was born near "Pompey Hill," in the town of Pompey, Onondaga county, New York, February 24, 1819. The Murrays are of Scotch-Irish descent, and came from the north of Ireland to America. They pos- sessed those qualities for which the Scotel- Irish are noted, and by perseverance, energy, and thrift, sought to build for themselves fortunes and honorable reputations in the new world. Reuben Murray, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, came at an early day to Pompey, New York, where he acquired, by purchase, a consider- able body of land, which he divided into large farms for his sons. One of these sons, Allen Murray (father), was born at New Canaan, Columbia county, New York, in 1782, and in the early years of the present century came to Pompey, which he left many years afterwards- to settle at Clinton, Rock county, Wisconsin, where he died in 1876, when lacking but six years of being a centenarian. He was a farmer and a democrat, and possessed mental faculties unimpaired up to the hour of death. Ile was well known for his honesty and good judgment. Three of his nephews, Addison, Leonard, and Lawrence Jerome, were bank- ers and brokers in Wall street. His wife was Isabel Cody, a native of Kinderhook, Columbia county, New York, and a cousin of Hon. Daniel Cody, a well-known lawyer. She died at Clinton, Wisconsin, where she sleeps in a cemetery by the side of her husband. Mr. and Mrs. Murray were the parents of six sons and two daughters, all of whom have passed away, except John T. and Noah, now a resident of Beloit. Rock county, Wisconsin.
236
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
John T. Murray resided with his parents until he was thirteen years of age, when he entered the employ of Judge Jonathan L. Woods, then of Cortland, Cortland county, this State, with whom he came, in 1836, to Lockport. He received his education in the schools of Cortland and as a private student of Hon. Robert Stewart, then of Cortland and afterwards governor of Missouri. IIe read law with Judge Woods, and was ad- mitted, in 1842, to practice in chancery and the supreme court of the State. He com- menced the practice of his profession at Middleport, but four years later came to Loekport, where he has been actively en- gaged until the present time. Some of this time has been given to dealing in real estate. He has always enjoyed a good practice, and was successively a member of the well- known and able law firms of Woods & Mur- ray ; Dayton & Murray; Woods, Murray & Greene; Murray & Greene; and John T. & S. Cody Murray. His partners were, respec- tively, Judge Jonathan L. Woods, Judge Nathan Dayton, George C. Greene (now attorney for the Lake Shore roads), and S. Cody Murray (recently deceased).
In 1844 he married Mary D., daughter of Judge J. L. Woods. They have no children but an adopted daughter, Carrie D., now Mrs. Walter G. Barker, of Chicago, Illinois.
In politics Judge Murray is a democrat. He has always been active in the best interests of his party, both in his county and State. He was a trustee of Lockport when it was a village, has served as a mem- ber and chairman of the board of super- visors, and in 1867 was elected as surrogate of Niagara county over Brigadier General Andrew Brazee, the republican candidate. Judge Murray has frequently served as a delegate to democratic county and state
conventions, and in 1860 was a "Hardshell " delegate to the Charleston convention, whose action was so largely instrumental in tem- porarily disrupting the Democratic party and hastening the war between the States. A contesting delegation of "Free Soilers" from New York was recognized by the convention, and Judge Murray and his colleagues were denied seats. In financial matters he has always taken considerable interest, drafting, in 1870, the law under which the present Savings bank is incorpo- rated, and is the only original trustee of that institution now living, excepting Col. Lewis S. Payne. He has also acted as its attorney for several years, and is still such attorney, and is in active practice, notwith- standing his advanced age, with every faculty unimpaired, and has physical ability exceeding that of most men at forty-five or fifty years of age.
CHARLES W. COOK, the senior mem- ber of the well-known manufacturing firm of Cook, James & Co., of Lockport, is a son of Joshua and Dorcas S. ( Rice ) Cook, and was born in Genesee county, New York, December 31, 1837. Joshua Cook, in all probability, was a native of the town of Chester in Vermont, from which he re- moved, in 1825, to Genesce county, this State, where he followed farming until his death in 1862. He served as a soldier in the war of 1812 ; was a whig and republi- can in politics, and met with good success in farming. He married Joanna Fisher, who bore him four children, and after her death he united in marriage with Dorcas S. Rice, by whom he had four children; two sons and two daughters, the latter of whom are both dead. Two sons by his first mar-
237
OF NIAGARA COUNTY.
riage, Albert and Elliott, served in the late civil war. Albert served in Bank's Red river expedition, in which he lost his health from continuous exposure. Elliott, was a non-commissioned offieer in the 3d Michi- gan cavalry, and after serving for some time under Kilpatrick, was killed at the battle of Culpeper Court-house. One of the two sons by the second marriage, James M., served in the 8th New York heavy ar- tillery, and died at Baltimore of brain fever.
Charles W. Cook attended the public schools and Wilson's academy of this county, and then became successively a clerk and a traveling salesman, in which capacity he served successfully for thirteen years. At the end of that time, in 1878, he came to Lockport, where he embarked in the shirt manufacturing business, which he followed in the Chase block for six years, when he associated with him, as a partner, Reming- ton James, under the firm name of Cook, James & Co. Their establishment is on Pine street, where they ocenpy four floors with their stock and machinery, while their work-room is 60 x 125 feet, and lighted from four sides. They employ, at times, from two hundred to three hundred hands. Their specialty is fine white shirts, for which they have a steady and constantly increasing demand from different parts of New York and adjoining States. In con- nection with their manufacturing, they own and operate the only steam laundry in the city of Lockport. Mr. Cook is also con- nected with several other important indus- tries of Lockport, and has always taken an active interest in any enterprise for the material prosperity of his city. He is a republican in politics, a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and an active, thorough-going business man.
On October 15, 1873, Mr. Cook married Mary E .; daughter of Jonathan Bailey, of Yates county, New York. To their union have been boru four children ; two sons, who died in infancy ; Ethel Mi., and Eleanor Van Dyne, still living.
B ENTON BEMENT, D. D. S., a suc- cessful dentist of Lockport, is one who left the "Great West" with its muuerous opportunities, and cast his fortunes with the people of western New York. He was born in De Witt, Michigan, March 29, 1850, and is a son of Andrew J. and Caroline (Cobb) Bement. Andrew J. Bement was of French extraction, and left his native State of Massachusetts at seven years of age to become a resident of Chautauqua county, this State. In 1842 he went to De Witt, Michigan, where he made his home until his death in 1876, when he was in the sixty-second year of his age. He was a shoemaker by trade and a democrat in poli- ties. Ilis widow, Mrs. Caroline (Cobb ) Bement, is a native of Connecticut, and in September, 1891, entered upon her fifty- fifth consecutive year of teaching. She teaches three terms per year, and although seventy-three years of age, vet is as quick and active as a woman of fifty. She still resides at De Witt, Michigan, where she has done the most of her teaching.
Bentou Bement was reared at De Witt, Michigan, where he obtained his education in private schools. Ilis first employment in life for hhuself was that of teaching, which he followed interruptedly for several years. In 1871 he went to Muir, Michigan. where he was editor and proprietor of a weekly newspaper, the Grand River Herald, for several years. He sold that paper,
238
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
and in 1878 formed a partnership with Charles S. Hampton for the publication of the Emmet county Independent at Har- bor Springs, that State, then known as Little Traverse. The change of name of the town was at the instance and sug- gestion of Mr. Bement. In 1882 he dis- posed of his interest in this paper to Mr. Hampton, and came to Lockport, this county, where he commenced the study of dentistry with Dr. L. T. Dickinson. Six years later, after having considerable ex- perience in dentistry, he entered the dental department of the Iowa State university, from which he was graduated March 10, 1890. Immediately after graduation he re- turned to Lockport, where he opened his present dental rooms, and has been busily engaged in his profession ever since.
On July 13, 1871, he married Emma A. Chase, of Lockport. Their union has been blest with one child ; a daughter, Lotta Marie.
Dr. Bement is a member of the Univer- salist church, of which he is a trustee. He is also a member of the Equitable Aid Union, and Lockport City Lodge, No. 35, Independent Order of Good Templars. In politics he is independent, but has been identified with both the greenback and prohibition movements.
ERRY STOWELL, the general fore- man of the extensive shops of the great Holly Manufacturing Company, is a son of Samuel and Anna (Goff) Stowell, and was born in what is now the town of Catlin, Chemung county, New York, March 1, 1832. Among those Revolutionary soldiers of Vermont who settled in New York was Asa Stowell, the paternal grandfather of
the subject of this sketch. He was an early settler of Chenango county, where he fol- lowed agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred some years after he became a resident of this State.
Perry Stowell received a good academic education, and leaving Elmira academy he learned the trade of machinist in the shops of Downs & Co., of Seneca Falls, New York. At the expiration of his apprenticeship he was given work by the company, who re- tained his services for fourteen years, during the latter part of which time he acted as foreman of one of the departments. In 1865 he came to Lockport, and became foreman of the shops of the Holly Manufacturing Company in 1869, which position he has held ever since. This company had been incorporated in 1859, and since Mr. Stowell's connection with it, and under his careful attention, its business has grown to immense proportions. Under his personal super- vision there are over five hundred hands employed in the different departments of the huge plant, with an area of two whole
blocks. These works are the largest of their kind in the Empire State, excepting one giant plant in the city of Brooklyn. The company are builders of the Holly sys- ten of water works, invented by Birdsell W. Holly, and manufacturers of the highly prized Gaskill pumping engines. Mr. Sto- well has contributed no little to the success of the company, in which he is now a stock- holder. The patronage of this company extends throughout the United States and Canada, and to several foreign countries, and Mr. Stowell is always careful to see that first-class work is sent out to sustain the well earned reputation of the company, both at home and abroad, for superior and useful machinery.
239
OF NIAGARA COUNTY.
On May 29, 1854, he married Arvilla Owens, daughter of Simcon and Eliza Owens, of Seneea Falls.
Perry Stowell is a democrat in political opinion, and has served for the last few years as a police commissioner of Loekport. He is a member of Red Jacket Lodge, No. 646, Free and Accepted Masons; Bruce Council, No. 15, Royal and Select Masters ; Ames Chapter, No. 88, Royal Arch Masons ; Genesee Commandery, No. 10, Knights Templar; and Ismailia Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of Buffalo.
F FRANKLIN WARREN, one of North
Tonawanda's highly respected citizens, is a son of Isaac A. and Abigail (Hadley) Warren, and was born in the town of Pen- field, Monroe county, New York, October 5, 1821. His father was a native of the State of Massachusetts, and came into Mon- roe county, this State, in 1812, where he remained twelve years and then went to Canada. In 1827 he came to North Tona- wanda, and located on Tonawanda creek, about two miles above the village of Tona- wanda, and after remaining there for some time, moved into the village of North Tona- wanda in 1840. Hle resided here until a short time before he died, when he went to his daughter's, Mrs. Van Loon, in Canada, where he departed this life at the age of seventy-seven years. He was a prosperous farmer, a member of the Baptist church, and a democrat in politics. He was elected to and discharged the duties of some of the town offiees, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. In 1812 he married Abigail Had- ley, by whom he had seven children, and who was a native of Vermont. She died in 1878 at the advaneed age of eighty years.
Franklin Warren was reared on the farm, received his education in the district schools, and came to Tonawanda in 1827, where he has resided ever since. He engaged some in farming, in his younger days, but from 1865 to 1879 he was assistant superintendent on the section of the canal between Buffalo and Sulphur Springs, and occasionally acted as superintendent of the same. During all of this time he was located at North Tona- wanda, but since 1879 was engaged in farm- ing up to 1888. He has served as street commissioner for several years, and for the last two years has had charge of the sewers that are being constructed in the village.
On January 1, 1846, he married Nancy Conley, who died in 1854, leaving three children : George M., who is engaged in the tailoring business, with which he has connected a gentlemen's furnishing goods store; William F. is engaged with and is a partner in the canal supply store of C. Swinger & Co .; and Matilda J., wife of Acy Booth, of Tonawanda. In 1856 Mr. Warren married for his second wife Ellen Moore, of Tonawanda, who died in 1859, and after her death he married, in 1862, Phoebe J. Brazee, of Tonawanda. She died in April, 1890, leaving three children: Jennie B .; John D., book-keeper for the Tonawanda Water Works Company ; and Harry E., who is attending the military academy at Corn- wall-on-the-Hudson.
In politics Mr. Warren is a democrat, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of Tonawanda Lodge, No. 247, Free and Accepted Masons, and is the oldest past master living in this lodge. He is president of the Business Men's Association, which was organized about four years ago, and has been president of the village at different times. He has also been a member of the
240
BIOGRAPHIY AND HISTORY
board of school directors for several years, and is a director of the Homestead Building & Loan Association of this village. He is of English extraction, and the genealogy of the family is traceable to ante-Revolutionary days. He is a relative to General Joseph Warren, who is enrolled as one of the his- torie American patriots. In 1775 he was made a major-general, and fell while serv- ing under General Putnam at the battle of Bunker Hill. Mr. Warren resides in a very pretty home on the corner of Paynes avenue and Goundry street. He may well be proud of the fact that he is related to the Revolu- tionary patriot, General Joseph Warren.
W ALTON L. COLLETTE, a grandson. of N. L. Collette, and a son of Leon A. and Eliza (Berry) Collette, was born in Buffalo, New York, May 26, 1854. N. L. Collette (grandfather), was a native of Franee, and a soldier under Napoleon. After the overthrow of the Napoleonic dynasty he came to the United States, locating at Buffalo, being one of its first settlers, and was the first jeweler of the place, and also the first to manufacture briek in Tonawanda. He donated the ground on which the St. Louis church, of Buffalo, now stands. He was over six feet in height, was one of Na- poleon's body-guards, and died in Buffalo in 1862, at the age of sixty-five years, his remains being interred in Forest Lawn cemetery. Leon A. Collette (father), was a native of Buffalo, where he died in 1868, at the age of forty-five years. He was an ardent republiean, and always took a deep interest in the success of his party. He was employed in the money department of the American Express Company, a position of trust and great responsibility, which he
held for fifteen years uninterruptedly. He had the respeet and confidence not only of his employers but of the entire community. In 1852 he married Eliza Berry, who was born on the beautiful banks of the Hudson, opposite the city of Albany, in Greenbush. She died in 1881, at the age of sixty-two years.
Walton L. Collette was reared in the city of Buffalo, and received his education in the publie and high schools. At the age of fourteen he began as a clerk in a drug store, and has continued in the business ever sinee. At the age of twenty-two he went across the line into the oil region of Pennsylvania and engaged in the drug business for him- self, where he remained until 1882, when he returned to North Tonawanda and opened a drug store. He has the finest drug store in the town, and has an excellent patronage.
On May 10, 1881, he united in marriage with Mabel, daughter of William Parkman, of Forestville, New York. He is a member of Tonawanda Lodge, No. 247, Free and Accepted Masons, and Tonawanda Chapter, No. 278. Mr. Collette is just in the business prime of life, and with pleasant surround- ings, good habits, application to business, knowledge of men and things, he will sue- ceed and become a man of affairs in the community. He descends from good blood where fidelity, integrity and industry are conspieuous traits of eharaeter.
S. WRIGHT MCCOLLUM, of Lock-
port, a strong demoerat, and one of the leading fruit growers of New York, is a son of Hiram and Fidelia (Scovell) Me- Collum, and was born in the house where he now resides in Loekport, Niagara eounty,
241
OF NIAGARA COUNTY.
New York, December 23, 1846. The name of MeCollum is common in Scotland, where his great-grandfather MeCollum lived to be one hundred and six years of age. His son, Robert MeCollum (grandfather), came in 1790 from Scotland to New York, where his wife, a native of England, and whose maiden name was Susanna Horten, died at Lockport, aged ninety-two years. They had eleven children, of whom. Hon. Joel McCollum was the first judge of Niagara county, and in partnership with Gov. Hunt, owned the land upon which the castern part of Lockport is built, besides large bodies east of the city. Their youngest son, Hiram McCollum (father of S. W. McCollum), was born at Scipio, east of Rochester, New York. At nineteen years of age he and his brother engaged in merchandising in Rochester, but two years later went to New York city, where he was engaged for fifteen years as agent in the wholesale flour and commission business. This was prior to the era of railroads, and immense quantities of flour and grain passed over the Erie canal. He was also ticket and freight agent for one of the leading packet lines, and attended to any required insurance of goods and pro- perty passing over the water highway of the Empire State. In 1842 Mr. MeCollum came to Lockport, where he was engaged for a few years in farming and horticultural pursuits. In 1861 he established himself in the market gardening, fruit and ice busi- ness, which he conducted successfully until ยท his death, which occurred in 1877, at seventy-two years of age. At the time of his death he was the largest strawberry grower in the State, having picked as high as one hundred and twelve bushels in one day. He was reared a Presbyterian, but in 1850 became a member of the Catholic
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.