USA > New York > Delaware County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Delaware County, New York > Part 30
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"The day before New Year's the sick were placed in a boat for the city. She had lost a piece of a plank from her bottom; but it was
filled with ice, and we were taken in tow. The boat began to leak, and, before we had gone far, was half filled with water. When the boat touched the dock, she struck level with the water; and we held on with our hands to the dock and a small boat by our side to keep from sinking. The sailors reached down from the dock, took hold of our hands, and drew us up. I remember that I was drawn up with such violence that the skin was taken from my chest and stomach. We were taken to the hospital in Dr. Rogers's brick meeting-house (as it was then called, after- ward Dr. Spring's church, and now the Times building occupies the same ground). From the yard I carried one end of a bunk, from which some person had died, into the church, and got into it, exhausted and overcome. The head nurse made me some tea, and piled blankets on me, till I sweat profusely and fell asleep. When I awoke in the morning, they gave me some mulled wine and water. Wine and some other things were sent in by our government for the sick; the British furnished nothing. I then lay perfectly easy and free from pain; and it appeared to me that I never was so happy in my life, and yet so weak that I could not get out of my bunk had it been to save the Union. The doctor (who was an American surgeon and a prisoner, had been taken out of the prison to serve in the hos- pital) told me that my blood was breaking down and turning to water from the effect of small-pox. He said I must have some bit- ters. I gave him what money I had, and he prepared some for me; and, when that was gone, he had the kindness to prepare some for me at his own expense. I began slowly to gain, and finally to walk about. While standing one day in March by the side of the church in the warm sun, my toes began to sting and pain me excessively. I showed them to the surgeon when he came in. He laid them open. They had been frozen, and the flesh had wasted till little more than the bone and tough skin remained. I had now to remain here for a long time on account of my feet. And of all places that was the last to be coveted. Disease and death reigned there in all their terrors. I have had men die by the side of me in the night, and have seen
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fifteen dead bodies sewed up in their blankets, and laid in the corner of the yard at one time. Every morning at eight o'clock the dead-cart came, the bodies were put in, the men drew their rum, and the carts were driven off to the trenches of the fortifications that our people had made. Once I was permitted to go with the guard to the place of interment, and never shall I forget the scene that I beheld. They tumbled the bodies into the ditch, just as it happened, threw on a little dirt, and then ran away. I could see a hand or a head washed bare by the rains. One day, about the first of May, two officers came into the prison. One of them was a sergeant by the name of Wally, who from some cause, and what I never knew, had taken a great dislike to me; the other, an officer by the name of Blackgrove. They told us there was to bc an exchange of the oldest prisoners. They began to call the roll. A great many names were called, but no answer given: they had been exchanged by that Being who has the power to set the captive free. Here and there was one to step for- ward. At last my name was called. I at- tempted to step forward to answer, when Sergeant Wally turned and frowned upon me with a look of demoniacal fury, and motioned me back. I dared not answer. All was still. Then other names were called. I felt that, live or die, that was the time to speak. I told Officer Blackgrove that there were but eleven older prisoners than myself. He looked at me, and asked why I did not answer. I told him I attempted to answer, but Ser- geant Wally stopped me. He turned and looked at him with contempt, and then put my name down. But of the twelve prisoners taken with me only two now remained: my- self and one other were the only ones to be exchanged.
"I was now returned to the prison; and from that time forward I enjoyed comfortable health to the close of my imprisonment, which took place in the May following. One day I was standing in the yard near the high board fence. A man passed in the street close to the fence, and, without stopping or turning his head, said in a low voice: ‘Gen- eral Burgoyne is taken, with all his army. It is a truth, you may depend upon it.' Shut
out from all information as we had been, the news was grateful indeed, and cheered us in our wretched prison. Knowing nothing of what was taking place beyond the confines of our miserable abode, we had been left to dark forebodings and fears as to the result of our cause and the probabilities of our government being able to exchange or release us. We knew not whether our cause was even progress- ing or whether resistance was still continued. On May 8, 1778, we were released from our wretched abode. They, as if to torment and trouble us, took the Southern prisoners off toward Boston to be discharged, and the East- ern prisoners were taken to Elizabethtown, N.J. From there we went to Newark. There everything was clad in the beauty of spring, and appeared so delightful that we could not forbear going out and rolling on the green grass. The luxury appeared so great, after a confinement of fourteen months in a loathsome prison, clothed in rags and filth, and with associates too numerous and offen- sive to admit of description.
"From here we travelled as fast as our en- feeblcd powers would permit. We crossed the Hudson River at Dobb's Ferry. Here we began to separate, each for his own home. The officers pressed horses and went on. My companion and myself were soon wending our way slowly and alone. As we passed on, we saw in the distance two men riding toward us with each a led horse. It did not take me long to discover the man on a well-known horse to be my father, and the other the father of my comrade. The meeting I will not at- tempt to describe here; but, from the circum- stances and the nature of the case, you may imagine it was an affecting one. And espe- cially so, as my friends had been informed some time before that I had died in prison. They had had prayers offered up, according to the custom of the times, and the family had gone into mourning. They therefore felt as if they had received me from the dead. The officers had carried the news of our return, and our fathers had ridden all night to meet us. We procceded on our way; and, ere the shades of evening closed around us, we were once more in the bosom of friends and the enjoyment of the society of those we loved
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and the sweets of home. And may my heart ever rise in gratitude to that Being whose preserving care has ever been over me, and has never forsaken me."
As soon as he had regained his health, Levi Hanford again took his position in Cap- tain Seymour's company, and continued in active performance of his duty to the termina- tion of the war. He was present at the tak- ing and burning of Norwalk, Conn., and assisted in driving the British and Tories back to their ships. At another time he was one of a body of troops that was called out to repel a large British force that was advanc- ing from King's Bridge, foraging, marauding, and burning everything in their way. The American army marched in two divisions, one taking the Post road, and the other a more circuitous route, and coming together at a designated place near the enemy. The night was excessively cold, and the men suffered. The detachment to which Hanford belonged reached first their place of destination, and halted near a public house. Hanford and a few others of his party soon entered the house and found their way to a fire. While they were engaged in warming themselves, an officer, whose name is not now recollected, came in, chilled and shivering with the cold, and placed his hands over Hanford's shoulders to warm. While thus engaged, he and Han- ford were led to notice each other, and with a mutual half-recognition. Soon after this Hanford was standing at an outer door of the house; and, while there, that officer walked past him several times, each time eying him closely. Finally, coming up to Hanford, he thus addressed him: "Sir, I think I know you. I recognize you as one of my fellow- prisoners of the old Sugar House Prison in New York. I thought I knew you when I first saw you. I was with you for a while in that den of human suffering." After a mutual greeting he asked Hanford how he liked his present position, to which the latter replied that he was not particularly attached to it. The officer then told him that he had letters and despatches to the Secretary of State at Hartford, and he would like him to go and deliver them. But he would have to furnish his own horse, pay his own expenses, and,
when he had performed the duty, he must make his report, when he would be reim- bursed and draw his money. To this Han- ford readily assented. The duty was accord- ingly performed by him after the battle and the return of the British.
In the mean time the troops passed on; and, after several skirmishes and a running fight, the British were finally driven back over King's Bridge. About that time another party of British and Hessians commenced the erection of a redoubt on the Harlem River; and a body of men, of which Hanford was one, was sent to stop their operations. The troops marched all night, intending to sur- prise the enemy, and make the attack at early dawn. They reached their destination before daylight, unobserved, and took a position from which they could take the redoubt with their small arms, aided by one piece of artil- lery, loaded with grape. In front of and near the redoubt was a vessel lying at the dock, loaded with fascines (fascines were bundles of brushwood bound together, like sheaves of grain, with their ends sharpened; they are laid in, in the building of breastworks, with their sharp points out), a portion of which had al- ready been landed. The Americans were hid from view when lying down; but, when they arose, the whole scene was open before them. At daylight a detachment of Hessians made its appearance, and soon came to the water for fascines. The Americans lay perfectly still until each Hessian had shouldered his bundle, and was about to return to the fort, when the command was given in a loud tone of voice: "Attention, men! Ready! Aim! Fire!" Quick as thought each man sprung to his feet ; and a volley of musketry and a discharge of grape was poured in upon the enemy. The scene that followed was ludicrous in the ex- treme. The enemy were taken completely by surprise and were terribly frightened. In their confusion and terror they threw down their bundles, and used every effort to run. Although they jumped and sprung, and swung their arms, and made desperate strides, yet for a time they seemed to have lost all ability to move forward; for, when one leg started in one direction, the other went off in an exactly opposite direction, and it was only by the
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most desperate effort of springing and jump- ing that they effected their eseape. This they were enabled to do at last by reason of the river being between them and their pur- suers. The Americans, however, succceded in carrying out the objects of the expedition. They destroyed the redoubt, made a prize of the vessel and eargo, and captured some prisoners.
On another occasion, when a party of Brit- ish and Tories eame on an expedition of plun- der and destruction, Hanford was again called out, with others, to repel them. They met the enemy, and after a skirmish suceceded in driving them back. The Americans pur- sued the retreating foe until the engagement became a running fight. The British finally made a stand in a favorable position; and, when their pursuers eame up, they found a rising ground before them, partially conceal- ing the enemy from their view. The division that Hanford was in had to pass over the ridge amid a galling fire, and the bullets flew among them thiek and fast. Hanford found shelter behind a large rock, under cover of which he used his gun for some time for a purpose, till finally, in attempting to reload it, the eartridge stuck in the barrel, and, in striving to force it down with his rod, he in- advertently leaned baek to give more force to the rod, in doing which a part of his person became exposed to view. At that instant a ball whizzed past, just missing his head; and, looking up, he perceived a British soldier in the act of dodging back to his eovert. The Americans firmly maintained their ground, and after a fearful charge repulsed the enemy and drove them in disorder and confu- sion within the British lines, and bore off the honors of the day.
After the war was over, Levi Hanford bought a farm, and built a house, and in 1782 married Mary Mead, of Horseneek, in Green- wich, Conn., the daughter of General John Mead, an officer of the American army. His house and farm wcre between the American and British lines, and were repeatedly plun- dcred, his cattle driven off, and his property damaged by British and Tories. At one time the house was surrounded by a company of light horse. The table was set in the dining-
room for breakfast, and the family were just going to sit down to breakfast. An officer rode into the house and into the dining-room by the side of the table, and, putting his foot under the leaf, upset the table; and erockcry, provisions, and all went to the floor with one general erash. He then with his sword broke and haeked to pieces all the mirrors, pietures, and furniture of the room and all over the house. The soldiers ripped open feather- beds, and emptied hives of honey, bees and all, in theni, and rolled them all up together. They destroyed all they could find that they could not carry away. At another time when it was very dry, and the water had failed at the house, they had to go to a spring some distance in the field to do their washing. One morning very early Mary (afterward the wife of Levi Hanford) went to that spring to rinse some clothes. Her brother John, who was an officer in the Ameriean army, had becn taken prisoner, and paroled and exchanged. He had returned to duty, but was taken sick and sent home on a furlough. While Mary was at the spring, she saw her brother run from a back door of the house, in his shirt- sleeves, and run through an orchard and to where a hollow hiekory-tree had been cut, and had sprouted from the roots into tall brush. He ran into that thicket, and ran his white sleeves into the hollow stump. Very soon after a company of British and Tory light horse rode up, and surrounded her; an officer presented his sword to her breast, and de- manded where her brother was, declaring he would take her life in an instant if she did not tell. She said: "How can I tell? I came here as soon as it was light enough to see, and before the family were any of them up, and have not been from here sinee I eame. Then how can I know?" After many more questions and terrible threaten- ings he became satisfied that she did not know, and they all withdrew. By her cool firmness and intrepidity she saved her brother, though his place of concealment was plainly in sight, and almost within the sound of her voiee. After many such scenes of excite- ment and danger the family found a home in what is now New Canaan, then a part of Norwalk.
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When the war closed and the family re- turned to their former home and farm, they found it in a most wretched condition, the house torn to pieces, partitions torn out and walls broken, and the farm fences burned for fuel. The State of Connecticut made General Mead some amends for his losses by granting him a large tract of land in what was then known as the fire land of Ohio. It was not considered of great value in those early days, but since has become the richest part of Ohio. General Mead was elected to the State legislature for nineteen consecutive years. He also received the appointment of Judge of the Court of Probate, and was acting in that office when he died. It was while General Mead's family were refugees from their home, and were living in New Canaan, that Levi Hanford and Mary Mead formed their first acquaintance. He bought land and built a house, where all their family of five sons and four daughters were born. After a residence of about twenty-five years in that place he sold his farm and removed with his whole family to Walton, N. Y., where he purchased a large farm, and built a good house. They were exemplary members of the Baptist church, and highly respected and esteemed as good citizens by all who knew them. She was born in Horseneck, in Greenwich, Conn., December II, 1759, was married in 1782, and died September 15, 1847, in Walton, aged eighty-eight years. Hers was the first death in that family. He was born in Norwalk, Conn., September 19, 1759, and died in Wal- ton, October 19, 1854, aged ninety-five years. He was a pensioner under act of Congress, and his interment was in the family cemetery in Walton, N.Y.
John, third son of Levi Hanford, Sr., was born in Norwalk, May 16, 1762. His early childhood was passed with his parents. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in the Conti- nental army, and served to the end of the war. He was a good soldier, and became an officer, and saw much of the hardships and privations of that war, and participated in many of the hardest battles of the Revolution. He was a man of unusual cool courage and perseverance. For that reason he was always one selected when anything was undertaken that required
daring firmness and resolution. After the close of the war he returned to his home, pur- chased his father's farm, and soon after mar- ried Miss Sally Weed. They had two daughters. But the hardships and exposures of the war had broken him down, and his health failed; and in November, 1807, he died of consumption. Mary, second daughter of Levi and Sarah Elizabeth Carter Hanford, was born 1767, and died 1776, aged nine years.
ENRY EUGENE GANUNG, now a
very prominent citizen and trader in Arkville, in Middletown, was born in Roxbury in the same county, January II, 1859. His great-grandfather was John Ganung, and his grandmother before marriage was Miss Devough Kniffin. John Ganung came from near Croton Falls, Putnam County, and settled at Batavia Kill, a pioneer in that section. After the death of his first wife he married the Widow Sloat. He lived to a good old age, and finally died as the re- sult of a broken arm. His children were Harry, Sniffin, Devough, Hannah, Sally, Ebenezer, Reuben. Three belonged to the first wife, and the others to the second. He was a committee-man of the Revolutionary War.
His son Devough, the grandfather of the special subject of this sketch, was born in Putnam County, whence he was taken to Dela- ware County. His wife was Hattie Gregory ; and they raised nine children: Hannah, Polly, John, Thomas, Sally, Sniffin, Jane, Edward, and Julia. It is Sniffin Ganung who is connected with this biography by his marriage with Electa Kelly. He was born at Batavia Kill. After working with his father till the age of twenty-five, he began business for himself, farming, speculating in land, and selling the timber cut therefrom. In 1870 he made a change of base, going into mercantile business at Roxbury, where his marriage took place. His wife was the daughter of Hiram and Sally (Borden) Kelly and the grand- daughter of David and Susan (Baker) Kelly, and more about the Kelly family may be found under that name. David Kelly was
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born in Putnam County, and found his way into Delaware County by following the blazed trees in the forest. He decided to take up land in what is now Halcottville, where he lived the rest of his days. Besides a farm- house he built a grist-mill. He also served in the Revolutionary War, and lived to be ninety-nine, his wife dying at eighty-four. Their children were David, Norman, Reuben, Hiram, Elizabeth, Susan, Marcia. Hiram
Kelly was born in Putnam County, but came to Delaware County, and eventually took the homestead, caring for the farm and mill as long as he lived. There were three hundred acres of land, whercon his ten children grew up - Judah, Jane, Caroline, John, Electa, Emeline, Deborah, Hiram Borden, Norman, and Lorenzo Kelly. Their father lived to be seventy, and his wife died only a year younger. He was a Republican and a Baptist.
Sniffin Ganung lived to be seventy-five, and was an old-line Democrat. At his death he left only two children. The elder, Bogordis Ganung, was born June 3, 1846. He married Josephine Aken, has one child, and carries on a saw and planing mill in Roxbury. In that town was educated the other son, the subject of this sketch, Henry Eugene Ganung. He remained with his father in the grocery till 1887, when twenty-eight years old. Then he became station agent on the Ulster & Delaware Railroad. One year he worked at the station called Big Indian and another year in Stamford. Since then he has been five years at the Tannersville station, Kaaterskill Railroad, and has also spent one year in the general office of the New Jersey & New York Railroad. Later he was at Fleischmanns two years and three years at Arkville. While a young man, hc had learned surveying, and now took it up for a short time as a trade, but soon left it to engage in general merchandisc in a store on Doctor Street, where he has a fine location. In 1892 he built himself a beautiful home near Main Street, leading to Kelly's Corner, where reside so many of his kinsfolk. He did not marry till 1890, when thirty-one years old. His wife was Ella Kil- quest, the daughter of John D. and Hannah Kilquest. Her father came from Sweden to
America, settled in New Jersey, and then came to Ulster County, where he worked in a tannery. Later they moved to Halcott, in Greene County, then to Beaver Kill, where they bought a farm now numbering a hundred acres, one of the best in town. The Kil- quests have four children, - Ella, Tilla, Emil, and William. Mr. Kilquest is a Republi- can, and the family attend the Methodist church.
Mr. and Mrs. H. Eugene Ganung have only one child, a daughter, Nora, born July 24, 1892. He is a Democrat, and has held the offices of Notary Public and Pension Agent. Masonically, he belongs to the lodge in Mar- garettville; and he is also a Knight of Pythias. In religion he holds very liberal opinions. Active in temperament, he is sure to become a still more important factor in the commun- ity as time adds to his experience and wisdom.
EORGE E. SMITH, M.D., the lead- ing physician of Masonville, was born in this town, December 28, 1858, son of Phineas W. and Lucretia (Haight) Smith. His father was born in Massachusetts, and his mother in the town of Tompkins, Delaware County. The Doctor's grandfather, Darius Smith, was from New England, and was one of the first settlers of Masonville. He was engaged extensively in the lumber trade for many years, and held several public offices in the town. He died here at the advanced age of ninety years. He had six children, one of whom is now living, Justine M. Smith, of Corning, N. Y.
Phincas W. Smith, son of Darius, was edu- cated and brought up in Delaware County. He was a prominent farmer, owning a fine farm of one hundred and thirty acres, and was also a well-known raiser of stock. In politics he was a Republican, and held the office of Justice of the Pcace. He reared two chil- dren, George E., the subject of this biograph- ical mention, and Calista, who died at the age of eighteen. His wife, Lucretia, died in 1860, aged thirty-two. He survived her seventeen years, dying in 1877, aged sixty- eight.
George E. Smith attended the district
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schools of Masonville, afterwards giving his attention to the study of medicine, for which he showed an early predilection. When about twenty years of age, he studied with Dr. I. J. Whitney, of his town, remaining with him about three years. He attended the New York Medical College for two years, graduat- ing in 1882. After receiving his diploma, he came to Masonville, and bought out the prac- tice of Dr. Whitney. He then went to New Berlin for two years, afterward going to Val- entine, Neb., staying there one year. His next location was at Hornellsville, N. Y., whence in 1889 he returned to Masonville, where he has remained ever since, and has built up a very large practice. He was mar- ried September 12, 1882, to Miss Betsey A. Mckinnon, a daughter of Daniel and Adeline S. Mckinnon, of this town.
Dr. and Mrs. Smith have no children. Mrs. Smith is a member of the Presbyterian church. In politics the Doctor is allied with the Republican party, and is not one who shirks the responsibilities of office. He was elected Supervisor in 1892, and re-elected in 1894. He is a member of Masonville Lodge, No. 606, A. F. & A. M., of which he is Master. Dr. Smith is an extremely capable and popular man, well informed and practical, an ornament to his profession, and a highly useful, public-spirited citizen.
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