USA > New York > Wyoming County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y > Part 25
USA > New York > Livingston County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y > Part 25
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ciples of the Republican party, and socially is a member of the American Order of United Workmen and the Grand Army of the Republic.
IRAM CRAPSEY is a foremost citi- 0 zen of Leicester, Livingston County, N. Y., and is one of the few who can personally recall the facts re- garding the settlement of the town. He was born in Dutchess County on December 16, 1816, the year of Monroe's election to the Presidency. His grandfather, Bastien Crap- sey, was a life-long resident of Dutchess County. Bastien Crapsey's son James was born and reared in the same county, and there remained till 1822, when, accompanied by his wife and three children, he came to Western New York, the removal being made with ox teams. Their first settlement was at Warsaw Hill, then within the lines of Genesee County ; but they soon after came to what is now Leicester, and bought a large tract of land where a small clearing had been made but no buildings erected. A log cabin was soon commenced, and therein the family quickly took up their abode, though as yet it lacked door, windows, and roof. After a few years Mr. Crapsey traded this place for an- other in the same town, whereon he resided till his death, in 1852. The maiden name of his wife was Elizabeth Marquoit. She died in 1824; and her husband was then married the second time to Elizabeth Selight, who outlived him many years. When the Crap- seys came to Western New York, Hiram was only a child of six, and well remembers the hardships of pioneer life, when Indians were roaming through the forest and their children were his playmates. Of course there was no railroad, and no convenient market. Wheat had to be taken to Rochester for sale, and the round trip cost three days of valuable time. Hiram remained in the home till he was thirty years old, and then settled on the farm he has ever since carried on. It has been improved greatly in every department, and is finely situated, within a mile of the Genesee River. In 1848, at the age of thirty-two, he was
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married to Fanny Summy, who was born in the township of Earl, Lancaster County, Pa., January 21, 1822.
Her father, David Summy, was born in the same county, and so was his father, John Summy. The great-grandfather, Hans Jacob Summy, was born in Europe; and one genera- tion farther back we come to Hans Peter Summy, of Swiss origin, who emigrated from Rotterdam, Holland, to America in 1733, and became a resident of the Keystone State, spending the latter part of his life in Earl township. He was a Mennonite in his relig- ious principles, and this partly accounts for his immigration. His son, Hans Jacob Summy, married Barbara (Heistand) Bear, the widow of John Bear; and they both spent their best years in Earl. Their son, John Summy, grandfather of Mrs. Crapsey, was twice married, the second wife, her grand- mother, being Anna Newcomer. John Summy was a farmer, and spent his life in Earl; and he also was a Mennonite in religion. His son, David Summy, the father of Mrs. Crap- sey, was born and grew up in the same town and religion. In 1824, with a wife and eight children, he removed with teams to Cayuga County, New York, buying land in Scipio, whereon, besides farming, the Summys kept a tavern. After a dec- ade they removed to Leicester, where they purchased land on the border line of Wyoming County. Mr. Summy's last years were spent in the household of his daugh- ter, Mrs. Crapsey; and he died at the ad- vanced age of ninety-six. His wife was Elizabeth Singer. She also was born in Earl, but died on the homestead, at the age of seventy-one.
Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Crapsey have three children - Elizabeth, born in 1849; Charlie, born in 1853; and Leslie, born in 1858. Elizabeth is the wife of Newton Rudgers, and has two children; but the son, Leslie, carries on the home farm with his father. Well has it been said by that inimitable novelist, George MacDonald :
"Age is not all decay. It is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk."
ARWOOD A. DUDLEY, proprietor and editor of the Western Now Yorker, a weekly paper published in Warsaw, was born in the town of Greenwich, Washington County, N. Y., on March 5, 1825. His grandfather, Joseph Dudley, was a cooper, following the trade in Londonderry, N. H., Greenwich and Perry, N. Y. He was one who was contented in the station of life in which he had been born, and discharged the duties thereof faithfully and conscientiously toward God and his fellow- man. Of his five children all grew up and reared families with the exception of one son, Harwood, for whom the original of this sketch was named.
The father of the latter was Edward Dud- ley, who was born in 1800 in Londonderry, and died thirty-seven years later in Perry. His wife was Miss Martha Force, of Green- wich, at which place the marriage was solem- nized. She was the daughter of David Force, who was of French extraction. Two children were born of this marriage --- Harwood A. and Mary Jane, who married Mr. Lloyd A. Hay- ward, and died in this village in 1886, aged fifty-nine, leaving two children - Edward and Mary Kate. The latter is the wife of Profes- sor Bartlett, a member of the Albany Normal School faculty. Mrs. Edward Dudley formed a second marriage in 1840 with James B. Farmer, of Perry, whom she survived eighteen years. She died at her son's residence in Warsaw in 1888, aged eighty-six years. At twelve years of age Harwood A. Dudley went into the printing-office of the American Citi- sen, a paper published in Perry by Mr. David Mitchell, with whom he remained four years. receiving the foundation of that practical edu- cation that fitted him for his future editorial work.
The Citizen was a strong antislavery sheet and a vehement advocate of the abolition party up to 1841, when it was purchased by a political syndicate, and became an organ for the Whig party and a strong supporter of William Henry Harrison. In June of the same year the paper was moved to Warsaw, the new county seat of Wyoming County. Mr. Dudley, then a lad of sixteen, followed
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the new fortunes of the publication for a year, and then went into a job printing-house in New York. One year later he went to Green- field, Mass., where he remained for a twelve- month, and then in 1848 returned to Warsaw, where he has been engaged ever since in news- paper work. For some years he was foreman of the Wyoming County Mirror, a paper which, after an existence of eight years, was merged in 1864 into the Western New Yorker, in the ownership of which William Henry Merrill and Harwood A. Dudley became joint and equal partners. A dozen years later Mr. Dudley bought Mr. Merrill's interest, and has since been the sole proprietor and editor of the paper, which he has edited ably and satis- factorily. This four-page folio has been de- voted to the dissemination of Republican principles since the organization of that polit- ical party. Besides its present owner and editor several men of note served an appren- ticeship on this paper in their boyhood, among whom Merrill E. Gates, President of Amherst College, and William H. Merrill, the present editorial manager of the New York World are conspicuous.
Mr. Dudley was married April 25, 1850, to Miss Sarah Jane Hogarth, of Geneva, a daughter of John S. Hogarth, of that place, and Mary Shethar Hogarth, whose father, Cap- tain John Shethar, acquired a military reputa- tion during the Revolutionary War. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley's marriage was blessed by the advent of seven children, two sons and five daughters - William, died while a student at Temple Hill School of Geneseo, where he gave promise of unusual cleverness; Mary, who graduated from the Warsaw Union School, and who taught for some years, is assistant editor on her father's paper; Martha, who attended school in Warsaw; and Eliza- beth, who married Mr. Charles E. Ketchum, of the same town. Two children died in infancy. The handsome residence on Park Street, in which the family now reside, was built in 1864. During the Civil War Mr. Dudley was a volunteer in Company K, Seventeenth New York Infantry, and was at the first battle of Bull Run and at the engage- ment at Fort Ellsworth, near Alexandria.
After serving one year as First Lieutenant, he returned and served as Provost Marshal until the end of the war.
Mr. Dudley has had besides his own busi- ness affairs various municipal and other public duties to fulfil. He has been Clerk of the Board of Supervisors fourteen years, Loan Commissioner three years, County Treasurer six years, and Deputy Provost Marshal three years. He is an Elder of the Presbyterian church in Warsaw. He was one of the char- ter members of the New York Press Associa- tion, formed in Elmira in 1856, where a close friendship was formed between Charles G. Fairman and himself. The prosperity which crowns and the energy which achieves success merit the "bravos" of the spectators who watch the life-play of the public man from the pit and gallery of the world's theatre; nor do well-deserved plaudits ever seem in bad taste. From this standpoint no hesitation is felt in awarding to the subject of this memoir the palm he has won from carly boyhood.
T HEODORE F. OLMSTED, Cashier of the Genesee Valley National Bank of Geneseo, a prominent and influential citizen of the village, was born at Lakeville, Livingston County, September 16, 1856. His father, Lucius F. Olmsted, who was born March 10, 1796, was a native of Vermont, as was also his grandfather, Asher, being a life- long resident of that State.
Lucius F. Olmsted was educated in the dis- trict schools of his native town, and reared to agricultural pursuits. While still a young man, he came to New York State, first set- tling at Cayuga Bridge, where he contracted for a portion of the Seneca Canal, two miles of which he constructed. In 1835 he erected the saw and Hour mills at Lakeville, still known as the Olmsted Mills, which he oper- ated until 1854. In 1858 he removed to Geneseo, where he lived in retirement until his decease, which occurred October 15, 1868, at the age of seventy-two. He was a man of much energy and of large business ex- perience, and was an enterprising and valued citizen. The maiden name of his wife was
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Emeline Willard. She was born at Cayuga Bridge, November 1, 1805, daughter of Lor- ing Willard, of that town. They were married at the above-named place during the period in which Mr. Olmsted was engaged in construct- ing the canal, the ceremony being celebrated April 9, 1822. They became the parents of nine children. The eldest, Loring W., born March 12, 1823, died January 4, 1868, aged forty-five; Frances A., Lucius Asher, and N. Frances E. are deceased; Franklin W. Olm- sted died about 1869, aged thirty-eight; Will- iam H., born 1828, died in 1884, aged fifty- six. The following sons and one daughter are still living: Mary L., wife of Asahel W. Daniels, of Geneseo, N. Y .; Theodore F., the subject of this sketch; and Charles Edward D., of St. Paul, Minn. The mother died April 4, 1887, aged eighty-two years.
Theodore F. Olmsted received the first rudiments of his education in the district schools. He then entered the Canandaigua Academy, where he studied for two years. Then after one year's clerkship at Geneseo he returned to the former institution, and finished the course. On August 16, 1853, he entered the employ of Bishop & Olmsted at Geneseo, and stayed with them until February 24, 1858, when he accepted a position in the Genesee Valley National Bank as book-keeper and teller. After more than twenty years of faithful service, on June 25, 1881, he received the appointment of Assistant Cashier, and on December 17, 1884, was made Cashier, which position he still holds, and has the entire con- fidence of the officials. June 9, 1877, he was elected a Director of the bank; and at the present time he is a leading power in all mat- ters relating to the institution. Mr. Olmsted is one of the foremost in all local public affairs. He is Secretary and Treasurer of the Temple Hill Cemetery, and Secretary and Treasurer of the Geneseo Gas and Electric Light Company, and Treasurer of the Geneseo Driving Park Association. He is a member of the Board of Water Commissioners, also Secretary and Treasurer of the board and Bus- iness Manager, to which he was elected in 1887, and is a director of the Geneseo glove and mitten factory. He is a member of the
Board of Health, and has been elected a Trus- tee of the village for several terms. He is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, and, having been elected to the office of County Treasurer, found time to serve in that capacity from 1870 to 1875.
On May 13, 1861, Mr. Olmsted married Miss Laura E. Bissell, daughter of the late Daniel H. Bissell, who was for forty years a practitioner of high repute in Geneseo. Dr. Bissell was for six years connected with the floating hospital in New York City, and had held many public offices in the village, where he was Assessor, Supervisor, and United States Assessor of Internal Revenues. He passed his declining years at the home of his daughter. Mr. and Mrs. Olmsted have had but one child, who died in infancy. They are prominent members of the Presbyterian church, Mr. Olmsted being a Trustee, and his wife an earnest worker in the Sunday-school and missionary matters. Mr. Olmsted is a man of progressive ideas, a skilful and judi- cious financier, a liberal contributor to all de- serving charities, and an enthusiastic worker for the general welfare of the community. His sturdy adherence to honesty and faith- ful attention to his duties have brought him to his present high position, which is in truth a just reward for an exemplary busi- ness career.
ILLIAM COGSWELL, the manager of an extensive lumber yard at the foot of Canal Street, Dansville, . N. Y., is held in high repute throughout this portion of Livingston County as a man of fair business dealings and upright personal charac- ter. He was born in Dansville, October 3, 1850, and is the offspring of an old Connecti- cut family, his father and paternal grand- father, both of whom were baptized Daniel Cogswell, being natives of that State. The senior Daniel remained there until of middle age, when he removed to Schuyler County, New York, where he bought and improved a small farm, on which he passed the remainder of his life. He was twice married, the father of William being a child of his second union.
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Daniel Cogswell, Jr., was reared to man- hood in Schuyler County, received a good common-school education, and was thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of agriculture on the parental homestead. Some time during the forties he came to this county, and lo- cated in Dansville, where for many years he kept a grocery store. In 1855 he began dealing in lumber, selling to the wholesale trade in Rochester. Four years later, having already secured a good start, he established the business now carried on by his son Will- iam, continuing it until the time of his de- cease, in February, 1876, at the age of fifty- seven years. While in Schuyler County he wood and won the affections of Miss Hettie Owen; and their happy union was gladdened by the birth of three children - Mary E., Elura, and the subject of this sketch. Mary is now the wife of J. J. Gilder, of Dansville; and Elura married Henry C. Fenstermacher. The mother is still living; and the son makes his home with her, devoting himself to her comfort and happiness. Daniel Cogswell, Jr., was quite prominent in this section of the county, actively interested in its political and religious welfare, and was for many years an ordained minister of the Advent church, preaching in Dansville and the surrounding towns. He held many high public offices, serving several years as Justice of the Peace, besides which he was village Trustee, Asses- sor, and Highway Commissioner, receiving the nomination of both political parties, although he was a stanch Democrat.
Since the death of his father William Cogs- well has carried on the lumber business, greatly increasing its extent, and has also suc- ceeded in a large measure to the position formerly occupied by his father in the man- agement of local and county matters, having served continuously the past twelve years as the village Assessor and town Assessor, and for many years was a member of the Protec- tive Fire Company of this town, but is now exempt from active duty, although an hon- orary member of the company. In politics he has followed the teachings of his youthful days, and is an ardent supporter of the Dem- ocratic ticket. Socially, Mr. Cogswell is a
member of the Maccabees, being at present Commander of the local society.
AVID ANDRUS, one of the leading business men of Perry, Wyoming County, N. Y., was born at Shafts- bury, Bennington County, Vt., Oc- tober 10, 1825, son of David, Sr., and Mary (Park) Andrus. His grandfather, Isaac An- drus, a native of Connecticut, and an early settler in the Green Mountain State, pur- chased a tract of land, on which he built a tavern, where he resided until he died, at the age of eighty. He had five sons, all of whom moved West very early except David, the youngest, who purchased his father's farm and tavern, and carried it on for forty years, making in that time several trips to Cayuga and Wyoming Counties, New York, moving families. While on one of these, in 1810, he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land, situated where the village of Wyoming now stands, and where his uncle Isaac had already located and had a log tavern.
In 1833 David Andrus, Sr., removed his family to Wyoming County, where he had some years before purchased a tract of im- proved land in the town of Castile, situated west of Silver Lake. There he remained until his wife died, and then removed to Perry, residing with his son David until his decease. He was born March 29, 1779, and died February 8, 1861. His wife was born January 9, 1787, and died March 2, 1839. They were members of the Baptist church. Of their children two died young; and the others were as follows: Abi, born February, 1803; Orretta, born February 13, 1805; Free- love, born June 15, 1807; John P., born May 22, 1809; Martin, born February 22, 1811; Nelson, born January 30, 1813; William M., born May 11, 1815; Columbus, born Septem- ber 8, 1822; and David, born October 10, 1825.
David was the youngest child of the family. He was educated in district schools, and at the age of twelve commenced work for one of his older brothers at one dollar per month and three months' schooling per year. His
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wages being raised, he continued thus em- ployed for seven years, and then went to Virginia, where he speculated in lumber, and remained three years. In 1849 he went to California by the water route, and there en- gaged in mining, making sixteen hundred dol- lars in four months, clear of all expenses. On account of the failure of the water supply he went to the north fork of the American River, and worked on the bars, but was at last taken ill, his companions being already dis- abled; and, giving away his interest, he started for the mountains, driving a team of mules, loaded with provisions, which he sold to the miners with some success. He con- tinued at this business until his wagon accidentally overturned upon the side of a mountain, causing him to lose about four hun- dred dollars. He then started to return East ; but, while in San Francisco, he decided to remain there, and, selling mules and outfit, he bought a cargo of hogs, and for two years successfully conducted a butchering business. Returning to Castile, N. Y., he purchased two hundred and sixty acres of land, situated on the west side of Silver Lake. This farm was improved by Mr. Seymour, and includes a large orchard grown from seeds planted by Mrs. Seymour. Mr. Andrus resided for some years on his farm, and then removed to the village of Perry, where he purchased forty- two and one-half acres, and raised hops for three years, after which he purchased the mill property of Wycoff & Tuttel. He remod- elled the mill, and now does job sawing, manufacturing sashes and blinds and doors, and deals in all kinds of lumber. His pleas- ant residence is located on Centre Street.
On January 19, 1854, Mr. Andrus married Harriet Palmer, of Castile, who was born May 20, 1831, daughter of Alton and Harriet (Beardsley) Palmer, a sketch of whom appears elswhere.
Mrs. Harriet P. Andrus died on June 2, 1865, leaving four children - William P., Charles A., Daniel S., and Ray. William P. Andrus, born April 12, 1856, married Mary White, resides in Perry, and has one child, D. Earl. Charles A. Andrus, born June 4, 1858, married Agnes Wiley, has one son,
Harry, lives in Saginaw, Mich., and is in the marble business. Daniel S. Andrus, born November 6, 1861, is an extensive hardware dealer in Castile. He married Mattie Sweet- ing; and they have one child, Bessie. The father of Mrs. Andrus was Professor Henry Sweeting, who was born in Holland, and died in Livingston County, at the age of sixty 'years. Ray Andrus, born May 18, 1865, is an able and enterprising young business man of Perry, taking a great interest in political matters.
In 1868 Mr. David Andrus married for the second time, the lady being Martha J. Palmer, who was born January 8, 1835. She is a member of Eastern Star at Perry, and admi- rably fills the place of mother to his children. Mr. Andrus is a Republican in politics, has been Assessor six years, and held other town offices.
OSEPH N. RIPPEY, a native of Sen- eca, Ontario County, N. Y., was born on January 31, 1828. His father, Hugh Rippey, was born in Pennsyl- vania, from which State he came to New York, and settled in Seneca at an early date of the latter place's history.
The farmer-bred young Pennsylvanian im- mediately purchased a piece of land in the vicinity of the village, and began the arduous task of clearing away the growth of timber. As soon as this was accomplished, he built a small frame house, in which he lived for the space of a dozen years. At the expiration of this period he sold that property, and bought a farm of one hundred and fifty acres near the town of La Grange. A new dwelling-house was shortly erected on the premises, and its owner remained here for another twelve years. His final place of residence was York, in Livingston County, to which place he came after disposing satisfactorily of the La Grange property. The York farm, of which he took possession in 1856, covered an area of one hundred and fifty acres, and lay in the south- east part of the town. Here he died in 1861, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.
His wife, Priscilla Bell, was, like himself,
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a native of Pennsylvania. From their mar- riage ten children were born - Mary A., John, William, Matilda, Joseph N., Hiram B., Hugh, Salina, Priscilla E., and James. Five of these are still living in the vicinity of their birthplace. Mrs. Hugh Rippey was seventy years old at the date of her death.
Joseph N. Rippey was educated in the dis- trict school of York. When a young man, he bought a farm in Covington, Wyoming County, but sold it three years later, and re- turned to York, where he has since resided. Some fortunate speculations in land made in his youth brought him quite a sum of money, and proved his sagacity in practical and finan- cial matters. He was married to Miss Mary Donnan, to whom two children were born. By a sad and somewhat unusual fatality his entire family was taken from him by the fell hand of death, and he was left a childless widower.
By a second marriage to Miss Hester L. Boyd, two other children were born to Mr. Rippey; namely, Harlan W., who is a grad- uate of the State normal school, and Joseph- ine E. Mr. and Mrs. Rippey are happily allied in Christian faith, both being members of the United Presbyterian church. Mr. Rip- pey was in early life a Democrat, but has lately voted with the Prohibitionists. His first Presidential vote was cast for Franklin Pierce in 1852.
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