USA > New York > Delaware County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Delaware County, New York > Part 28
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His first wife was a Miss Maben, a daugh- ter of Benjamin Maben, of Greene County. She died in her youth, leaving two sons, namely : James R., a physician, who married Miss Hattie Newton, of Greene County; and Hamblin L. Allaben, a clergyman, who mar- ried Hannah Cave, and died in Lebanon, Madison County, being the pastor of the
church of that place. The second wife of the Rev. Mr. Allaben was Miss Martha Todd, a daughter of Isaac Todd. She died, leaving one son, who bears his father's name, and is a farmer in Iowa. William N. Allaben, Jr., married a Miss Redmond, who has borne him two children. Mr. Allaben's third wife was Josephine Leora DeWitt, an orphan who was adopted by Robert Palmer, a kindly farmer of Sullivan County. Mr. Palmer was one of the first settlers of his section, where he erected the first log habitation.
Mr. Allaben has reached an age when it seems desirable to live a quiet life, free from the demands of business and professional cares; but, being of an active mind and strong character, he still shares in the in- terests of his fellow-citizens, and attends somewhat to his office practice. He is much beloved and respected.
B ELL BROTHERS. Edmund Rob- erts Bell, Dr. Howard Bell, and Walter Langdon Bell, of Delhi, Delaware County, N. Y., are sons of the late Calvin H. Bell and his wife, Frances Lear Roberts. Their grandfather, Joseph Whiting Bell, emigrated from Connecticut, the State of his birth, which occurred in the town of Litchfield, to Delaware County, and was among the early pioneers of Harpersfield. He took up a tract of wild land situated in the heart of the primeval forest, and, building a log house, improved a homestead, in which he and his faithful wife, who shared with him the arduous labors of life in the new country and the deprivation of their earlier comforts, spent their remaining years. They reared a large family of children, the following being their names: Louisa, Charles, Richard, Cal- vin, Lyman, Roxey, and Altania.
Calvin H. Bell, the father of the Bell brothers, of Delhi, was born in the log house in Harpersfield, and assisted on the home farm until fourteen years old; but, not being sufficiently strong to carry on the labors of an agricultural life, and being a bright scholar with an ardent desire for knowledge, he then left Harpersfield to continue his studies in Delaware Academy. He subsequently began
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the study of law in the office of the Hon. Stephen C. Johnson, of this town, and, being admitted to the bar, afterward practised here for a time. With a view to improving both his fortune and his health, he made a trip to Missouri, where he was engaged for a while in teaching school. When the California gold excitement broke out, he joined a band of Forty-niners and journeyed to that State on foot, a distance of twenty-four hundred miles, through an almost impassable wilderness. After mining for gold for about two years, succeeding only in a measured degree, he returned to Delhi and resumed the labors of his profession. In 1870 he established in connection with his law practice a banking business, and continued it until the time of his death, which occurred in 1890, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. He was a very prominent and influential man, and one of the best known citizens in Delaware County. In a history of the county issued in 1880 an ex- tended sketch of his life may be found.
Frances Lear Roberts, wife of Calvin H. Bell, was the youngest daughter of Edmund and Catharine Whipple (Langdon) Roberts, of Portsmouth, N.H. Her parents reared a large family, the following being their names: Catharine, Sarah, Mary Ann, Harriet, Caro- line, Anna, Maria, and Frances. Catharine married the Rev. Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, late of Harvard University. Sarah married Dr. James Boyle, of New York City. Mary Ann married Charles E. Perry, of Delhi, N. Y. Harriet married Judge Amasa J. Par- ker, of Albany, N. Y. Caroline married Rob- ert Parker, a lawyer of Delhi, N.Y. Anna married Truman H. Wheeler, a lawyer, also, of Delhi. Maria joined the Sisterhood of Saint Mary, of New York City. Frances married Calvin H. Bell, of Delhi. The Rob- erts family are of English ancestry and na- tives of Portsmouth, N.H. Their grandfather was Captain Edmund Roberts, of the British navy; and their father was Edmund Roberts, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten- tiary of the United States to several Asiatic courts. He died at Macao, China, June 12, 1836, and was buried there.
Calvin H. Bell and wife reared three sons Edmund Roberts, Howard, and Walter
Langdon Bell. Edmund R. and Walter L. Bell, under the firm name of E. R. & W. L. Bell, bankers and real estate agents, with an office in Bell Block, nearly opposite the Edgerton House, Main Street, Delhi, are among the foremost business men of the town. They were educated in the district school and at Delaware Academy, and have passed the larger part of their lives in Delhi. Entering the office of their father as clerks, the brothers gained a practical and thorough knowledge of the business; and after the death of their honored sire they succeeded to its manage- ment. Under the present firm name the repu- tation of the house is well sustained as one of the most substantial and reliable in the. county. The firm are men of excellent judg- ment, stand well in financial circles and in the social world, and have a fine reputation for using systematic methods and conducting their affairs on sound business principles. Edmund R. Bell takes an intelligent inter- est in the welfare of his native town, is a member of the Board of Trustees, a fire- man, and also manages successfully his farm, situated near the village of Delhi. Walter L. Bell is identified with the Masons, be- ing a member of Delhi Lodge, No. 439, and as a fireman is a member of Active Hose, No. 5.
Dr. Howard Bell, an active medical practi- tioner, whose office is pleasantly located on Main Street, near Court Street, is an intelli- gent, finely educated man, thoroughly skilled in the science of medicine, and is rapidly working his way to an important position among the progressive physicians of Delaware County. He spent his boyhood days in Delhi, receiving the rudiments of his liberal education in the village school and academy. He afterward entered the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons in New York City, from which he was graduated in 1884, subsequently receiving a diploma from the University Med- ical College of that city, located on Twenty- sixth Street. Soon after his graduation Dr. Bell started westward in search of a promis- ing location, and began the practice of his pro- fession in Albert Lea, Minn., where he re- mained two years. Having acquired some valuable experience, he then returned to
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Delhi, where he has since attended to the duties of his profession. He has steadily gained the confidence of the people in this and adjacent localities, and has a large prac- tice. Besides being a physician in good and regular standing, the Doctor also holds a cer- tificate for the practice of dentistry, to which he pays some attention, although making no specialty of that branch of the business.
Dr. Bell is prominent in social circles, and is a member of the Delaware County Medical Society. He likewise belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and is Junior Warden of Delhi Lodge, No. 439, A. F. & A. M., and a mem- ber of Knights Templar Norwich Commandery, No. 46. Politically, he uniformly casts his vote with the Democratic party. The brothers are all communicants of St. John's Episcopal Church, as their parents were be- fore them, the same pew having been rented by the family for nearly forty-four years. At the present time (1894) they are all unmarried and living together, keeping old bachelors' hall.
RSON JENKINS, farmer, dairyman, and carpenter of the town of Tomp- kins, was born in Roxbury, Delaware County, August 21, 1831. Tradition says that his great-grandfather, Nathaniel Jenkins, was a descendant of one of three brothers who came to America from Wales in the old Colonial days. He was a farmer, and was also engaged in the occupation of a cooper. He died in Roxbury at the age of ninety years. His son, Nathan Jenkins, was born in Roxbury, and there throughout a long life gave attention to agricultural pursuits, dying when eighty-five years of age. He married. Lydia Morse, who passed away in her eightieth year. Horace Jenkins, son of Nathan and Lydia and father of the subject of this biography, was also born in Roxbury, where he was reared to farm life, removing in 1845 to the town of Tompkins. Here he purchased a farm, where he still resides, hav- ing reached the age of eighty-seven years. His wife was Anna Vermilya, daughter of Solomon and Susan (Mulline) Vermilya. She died at the age of seventy-four years, the
mother of the following children - Susan, Orson, William, Hosea, and Irene.
Orson Jenkins was bred to farming, but has likewise followed mechanical pursuits, for which he has a natural aptitude, although he never served an apprenticeship. For five years he resided in Walton, where he was en- gaged as a contractor and builder. With the exception of that time, his life has been spent on the farm; and he has been employed to some extent in the carpenter's and cooper's trade. In 1884 he settled on the farm he had purchased some time previous, and here he now lives. Mr. Jenkins is a reliable, up- right man, and is identified with all the good works of the town where he resides. In politics he is a Republican.
He married Miss Helen Chandler, who was born in Clifford, Susquehanna County, Pa. Mrs. Jenkins's grandfather, Robert Chandler, was a farmer and physician in Pennsylvania, and served in the Revolution- ary War. He was one of the first of his profession to settle in Susquehanna County ; and his practice extended for many miles, his visits being made on horseback. His son John, the father of Mrs. Jenkins, engaged in mercantile business in Clifford for several years, dealing extensively in game and furs, wild animals being abundant. He also dealt in farm produce, New York City being the market in which he sold his goods. In 1841 he removed to Long Eddy, Delaware County, where he purchased a mill and engaged in the lumber business, residing there until his death in his seventy-eighth year. His wife, Catherine Decker, was born at Port Jervis, Orange County, N.Y., daughter of Martin and Huldah Decker; and she passed away in her seventy-eighth year.
Mrs. Jenkins resided with her parents until her marriage, and learned, besides the regular duties of a housewife in these days, the art of spinning. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins have one son, Frank E., who was born No- vember 26, 1854, and, after attending the Walton Academy, entered Williams College, from which he was graduated in 1878. He then took a three years' course at the Hart- ford Theological Seminary and became a Congregational minister, being employed for
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some time as a missionary in the South. He is now engaged in pastoral labors in Palmer, Mass. He has been twice married, his first wife being Maria Bucklin, and his second Sarah Stanley, by whom he had one daughter, Helen C. Jenkins.
ALTER SCOTT, Eso., an able lawyer of Davenport, N. Y., whose qualities of mind have eminently fitted him for the bar, is a man of superior culture and attainments. Besides being well informed on general subjects, he is perhaps the best mathematician in the county. Mr. Scott is of New England origin, but is a na- tive of Delaware County, having been born in the town of Meredith, November 11, 1853. His father, Jesse Scott, was born in the town of Franklin, and was there reared, receiving a good education. He was for many years a noted instructor in the schools of Franklin and Davenport, and subsequently retired to a farm in the town of Meredith, where, before reaching the noon-tide of life, he passed to the world beyond, being then but forty-three years of age.
Walter Scott was but six years old when the death of his father occurred; but, al- though missing the care and influence of that parent, he received a judicious training from his mother, who gave him the benefits of a good education, fitting him for a teacher in the public schools, a position which he filled most satisfactorily for several years in his native town, also teaching one term in Andes and one in Maryland. In the mean time Mr. Scott had continued studying; and, desiring to enter the legal profession, he read law with Youmans & Niles, of Delhi, and after- ward with Edward O'Connor, of Davenport. From there he became a student in the Al- bany Law School, from which he was grad- uated in 1883. He began the practice of his profession in Davenport, where he has since continued in active work, and has built up a large practice, clients being attracted by the prudence of his counsel more than by the brilliancy of his forensic display.
The union of Mr. Scott and Miss Flora Livingston was celebrated in 1882. Mrs.
Scott is a native of Schenevus, Otsego County, being the daughter of Jacob Living- ston, a farmer of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Scott are the parents of two children, Edith and Hazel, both bright and accomplished girls. The eldest, Edith, now eight years old, has already made a reputation as an elo- cutionist, and is probably the youngest child who ever learned the art of stenography. The Philadelphia Stenographer for February, 1894, contains a fac-simile of a letter written by her in shorthand when but seven years of age. She has never attended school, but is being educated by her parents at home. Po- litically, Mr. Scott is a Democrat, and an ear- nest supporter of the principles of that party. He was its candidate for Member of Assembly in 1885, and for District Attorney in 1892.
RED P. BEERS, one of the leading hardware merchants of Delaware County, an influential citizen of Downsville, was born in the village of Frank- lin, Delaware County, N. Y., September 24, 1865, son of A. Nelson and Elizabeth (Par- ker) Beers. A. Nelson Beers was a native of Otsego County, and was educated in the dis- trict schools. Having much artistic talent, he was early led to undertake photography, in those days an art less commonly adopted than now; and in this business he was very suc- cessful, doing a large amount of work in both Delaware and Otsego Counties. He died in the prime of life, leaving but one son, the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Elizabeth P. Beers has since married Dr. Bassett, of Downsville, where she now resides.
Young Fred was educated in the Downs- ville and Deposit schools, graduating when very young and going into mercantile life as a clerk. At the age of twenty-one he started a small business for himself in Downsville, carrying a line of hardware and other commod- ities. Sagacious and enterprising, Mr. Becrs extended his business and his acquaintance with every branch of it, by careful manage- ment establishing a large trade, and soon was enabled to build the commodious store which he now occupies, and which stands on the corner of Main Street and Maple Avenue. It
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is seventy-five by ninety feet, and three sto- ries in height, with a tower forty feet high, and is to-day the largest and one of the most sightly buildings in Delaware County, and one of which the wide-awake town of Downs- ville is justly proud. A part of the first floor of the building is occupied by the post-office and F. W. Hartman's law office. The rest of the first floor is improved by Mr. Beers for the display and storage of his goods, which include a large stock of hardware, stoves, ranges, tinware, paints, oils, crockery, agri- cultural implements, and wagons. The sec- ond floor contains tenement rooms and offices. On the third floor is a large and beautiful hall having a seating capacity of five hundred. It has also a smaller hall occupied by the Grand Army of the Republic Post and a photograph gallery.
Mr. Beers is young and unmarried. He is a fine amateur musician, and it goes without saying that he is extremely popular in so- ciety, and is often called to exercise his tal- ents for its diversion. He is a member of Downsville Lodge, A. F. & A. M., No. 464, is a follower of the Republican party, and a member and officer of the Presbyterian church. He is also a member of the Republican town and county committees, and a director and stockholder of the Delaware Loan & Trust Company, and of several other enterprises. Mr. Beers is a man thoroughly in touch with the times, able in business, progressive in policy, and a man known throughout the county for his energy, his genial, social qual- ities, and his unsullied probity.
EYMOUR KNAPP, a representative citizen of North Franklin, and a valued member of the community, is pleasantly located in joint School District No. 18, of Meredith and Franklin, where he has spent the larger part of his long and useful life. His farm comprises some of the most valuable land in this vicinity, is under good cultivation, and is supplied with a comfortable set of frame buildings.
Mr. Knapp is a native of the Empire State, and was born in Hillsdale, Columbia County, January 20, 1825, being a son of Alanson
Knapp, who was born in Westchester County, New York, and died in Corning, Steuben County, March 10, 1884, at the ripe old age of eighty-four years. His widow, now an aged woman of ninety-one years, is a resident of Steuben County. They reared six sons and four daughters, all of whom are still living, with the exception of two daughters. A cousin of Seymour Knapp, Martin A. Knapp, a well-known and able jurist of Syracuse, was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison, one of the Commissioners of Interstate Com- merce, and now holds that office. Alanson Knapp was a skilful mechanic and a farmer, and was at one time possessed of considerable means; but, having lost the major part of his property, he came here from Columbia County, arriving in Franklin, May 9, 1835, with two teams, a pair of oxen, and a pair of horses. He bought a small piece of land at first; and, meeting with good success as a farmer, he afterward purchased more land until his home- stead contained one hundred and fifty acres, a part of which is included in the farm of the subject of this sketch. His father, Josiah Knapp, was for many years engaged in farm- ing near Hudson, and from there to the vicin- ity of Rochester, where he lived to a good old age. He reared a family of nine children, five of them being sons, namely: Josiah, who was for many years a judge in Columbia County ; Alanson; Augustus; Martin E .; and Chauncey. None of this family are now liv- ing, the last surviving member having been one of the daughters, Waitey.
Seymour Knapp was ten years old when he came here with his parents, with whom he resided until his marriage. In his boyhood he used to work on the farm through seed-time and harvest, and attend the district school in the winter seasons. Taking upon himself the cares and responsibilities of married life ere he attained his majority, he continued to work at farming as his means of earning a liveli- hood, and subsequently bought a tract of land in the town of Tompkins, where during the winter of 1852 and 1853 he cleared a piece of land in the woods, one mile from any dwell- ing. There he erected a log house for him- self and family, and in the course of the next seven years by unremitting toil he placed one
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hundred and ten acres of the land under culti- vation. In 1864, resolving to assist in the preservation of the Union, Mr. Knapp sold this farm of three hundred and fifty acres, and on January 1, 1864, enlisted for three years as a private in Company G, Second New York Artillery. Happily, after he had served a little less than eighteen months, the war closed; and he was honorably discharged, being one of the very first to reach home, arriving on May 19, 1865.
On December 31, 1845, Mr. Knapp was united in wedlock with Jane A. Greene, who was born March 11, 1829, in the town of Franklin. Her parents, Zadoc and Ruth (Dart) Greene, were both natives of this State, the former having been born in Hoosick, Rensselaer County, and the latter in Harpers- field. They were worthy farmers, and reared a family of daughters, four in number, three of whom are now living, namely: Mrs. Knapp; Emeline, the widow of Stephen Brad- ley, of Franklin; and Eliza, the wife of Leroy Lamphear. Into the household circle of Mr. and Mrs. Knapp four girls and three boys have been born, as follows: Eunice, who died at the age of ten years; Mary Jane, the wife of Franklin Munson, residing on a farm near here; Harriet, who married Henry J. Person, of Susquehanna, Pa., and has one son and two daughters; LeGrand, a farmer, married and living in this town; Laverge, a bright and ambitious student, who began teaching when quite young, and afterward entered the Uni- versity of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he took first the classical and then the medical course, and was graduated in June, 1894, with the degree of M.D .; Ellis, who is working on the home farm, who married Carrie Wattles, of Sidney Centre, and has two children - Ray and Marion; and Cora, who married Emmet C. Fisher, owner of the adjoining farm, and has three children.
In politics Mr. Knapp was a Democrat until the formation of the Republican party, when he joined its ranks and has never since swerved in his allegiance. He has served as Inspector of Elections, and is now filling the office of Town Assessor, this being his twenty-seventh consecutive year. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, belonging to
Post No. 132; and religiously he and his wife have been for about forty-seven years members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which during the most of that time he has been an officer.
R. H. WARD KEATOR, a youth- ful, but already brilliantly success- ful physician of Griffin's Corners, in Middletown, N. Y., was born in the adjoining town of Roxbury, December 13, 1870, and is the son of Henry M. and Anna (Shoemaker) Keator. Great-grandfather Isaac Keator, who married Esther White, was one of the early settlers in Roxbury, to which place he came from Dutchess County. He purchased a small estate near the present vil- lage of Roxbury, which was a mere hamlet at that time; and here he reared a family of six children, - namely, Jacob, David, Harmon, Beers, Caroline, and Jason. Harmon, the third son, was born August 20, 1817, and was by occupation a farmer. He married Sarah, a daughter of B. J. Cross, one of the first set- tlers of West Kill, Greene County, and died on the 8th of April, 1852, leaving four chil- dren - George W., Homer B., Elizabeth, and Henry M.
Henry M. Keator displayed at an unusually early age that energy and courage which are almost always marked characteristics in the lives of those men who win success in their chosen occupations. At fourteen he began to earn his own living, driving teams for the farmers in the neighborhood; but, with the wise precaution which was one of nature's gifts, he set himself steadily to work to master the carpenter's trade. By industrious effort and close economy amassing enough money to buy a lot, he erected a house in Roxbury in 1874, where he has since lived. He married Miss Anna Shoemaker, a daughter of Martin and Louisa (Rifenburg) Shoemaker. The father of Mrs. Keator was a progressive farmer of Ashland, Greene County, who went West in his old age, and died in Nebraska. Henry M. Keator is a member of the Reformed church, and also a member of the Roxbury Cœur de Lion Lodge of Masons, No. 571. Dr. H. Ward Keator, the son of Henry and
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Anna (Shoemaker) Keator, and the original of this brief memoir, received a plain educa- tion in the schools of Roxbury, and acquired a knowledge of his profession at the Baltimore, Md., College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he took his degree on the 15th of April, 1892. He immediately began to prac- tise medicine at Port Allegany, Pa., and in the course of two years had established himself as a successful physician.
At this time the death of Dr. Patterson, a noted medical practitioner at Griffin's Cor- ners, left a fine opening in that community for an intelligent and competent physician and surgeon; and so it came about that Dr. H. Ward Keator found himself following his profession in the familiar haunts of his child- hood, surrounded by old friends and home associations. As regards his religious con- victions, he is a member of the Reformed church; and taking an interest in politics, as all American citizens should, his political proclivities are toward the Republican party.
A NDREW PECK BARTOW, who was formerly engaged in farming in this section of Delaware County, is now living in ease and retirement in his pleasant home at No. 13 Griswold Street, in the village of Walton, caring as best he may for his physical health, which has been im- paired for many years. He is of New Eng- land birth, New Canaan, Conn., being the place of his nativity, and March 15, 1834, the date of his entrance into this world. His paternal grandfather, John Bartow, was a pio- neer farmer of North Walton. He reared seven children; namely, Stephen, John, Lewis, Chauncey, Jonah, Reuben, and Polly -all of whom married, with the exception of the daughter. None of this family are now living, the last survivor having been the son Reuben, who departed this life in 1890, hav- ing nearly reached his eightieth milestone. His widow resides in Oneonta.
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