Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y, Part 27

Author:
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review
Number of Pages: 1256

USA > New York > Wyoming County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y > Part 27
USA > New York > Livingston County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y > Part 27

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The wife of John Sowerby was Jane, daugh- ter of Thomas Brown, who was a native of England, settled in Wyoming County, and lived to be about eighty years old. His chil- dren were named John, Thomas, George, Sarah, and Jane. The children of John and Jane Sowerby were ten in number, John, of whom this history is given, being the eldest. The others are: Elizabeth, Mary A., Sarah, Jane, Emma, Martha, Harriet, Clara, Ellen. Mrs. Sowerby, who had so many "olive branches " about her table, lived to rejoice in them all and to receive their grateful care in her later years, which reached the sum of seventy-seven.

John Sowerby received an education in the district schools, and learned many a secret of good management from his father's example while growing up in his boyhood on the farm. On reaching manhood he bought fifty acres of land adjoining his father's domain, and later bought the homestead. Now he has all to- gether two hundred and fifty-six acres. In 1887 he built a large and commodious dwell- ing-house with capacious barns, also a house for rental purposes, besides other small buildings.

Mr. Sowerby was married in 1860 to Har- riet P. Hutton, who was born in the town of Perry, near Warsaw, April 25, 1834, daughter of Jonathan and Harriet (Watrous) Hutton. Her father belonged to the carly and intelli- gent race of farmers who flourished in that section. He lived to be eighty-five years old, and his wife reached the age of eighty-six. Their children's names were Frances, Elvira, Lucinda, Frederick, Bradock, Mary, Jonathan,

Harriet, William, and Emma. The parents were both members of the Congregational church.

John Sowerby and his first wife, Harriet, were blessed with five children. Alice, born December 13, 1861, is now married to Thomas C. Sowerby, of Perry Centre. Their residence is in Perry; and their three chil- dren are Grace, Clara, and Alice. (See sketch elsewhere in this volume.) Walter, born August 17, 1866, is now married to Flora Bliss, and lives on a part of the old homestead, with one child, named Bessie. Clarence died at the age of twenty years. Mary, born August 7, 1871, is the wife of Newton Clark, a farmer on the reservation. Jessie, the youngest, was born July 21, 1876, and has her home at the farm. The domes- tic hearth was shadowed a few years ago in the loss of Mrs. Harriet Sowerby, who died July 15, 1892. She had happily lived to see her children grown and most of them settled in life, the younger daughter thus far remain- ing at home. On February 25, 1895, Mr. Sowerby married Mrs. Emma Hutton Jones, a sister of his first wife.

The farm of Mr. Sowerby has a most choice situation on the western side of Silver Lake, affording a beautiful view of its waters and of the surrounding country. Its well-tilled fields each year bring forth large crops of wheat, oats, barley, corn, besides succulent vegeta- bles and a choice variety of large fruits and berries. The country may well be proud of such development of its natural resources. That it should aid by protective legislation every effort farmers may make toward a higher standard of agricultural production is an article in the political creed of many highly intelligent and patriotic citizens, in- cluding, doubtless, Mr. Sowerby, who is a Republican in politics, though not at this time an office - holder.

ARIUS HI. WELLS, a native of Genesee County, now Wyoming, New York, was born March 17, 1825. His father, James Wells, was born in Montgomery County, and came

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to Genesee County in the year 1812. His farm contained about three hundred acres of land, and occupied the site of the present vil- lage of Peoria. The estate was sold after some years ; and he came to Livonia, where he spent the latter part of his life with his daughter, at whose home he died in the eighty-seventh year of his age. He married Miss Nancy Wells, of Montgomery. Three children were born of this union - James H., Adeline, and Darius. James H. married Miss Mary J. Ripley. He died, leaving a widow and two daughters -- Florence and Josephine. Adeline, who is now Mrs. C. A. Gorton, of Lakeville, has no children.

Darius H., the younger of the two sons of James and Nancy Wells, was educated in the district schools of Genesee County, and began his career in Peoria, where he engaged in mercantile business. From Peoria he re- moved to Livingston County, and was there in business for ten years. At the end of this period he went to Chicago, and joined his brother in a business enterprise, which con- nection was continued until 1864, the date of his brother James's death. Mr. Wells then conducted the business alone until 1880, when he sold his interests, and returned to Lake- ville, where he has recently built a handsome residence. He has spent two years in Da- kota, but has found the State which was the home of his early years sufficiently attractive to draw him back from his wanderings, and induce him to remain as a land-owner and cit- izen within its precincts.

In 1852 Miss Cornelia Kimbark became his wife. She was a daughter of Adam C. and Sarah (Masten) Kimbark, of Ulster County, but residents of Livonia. The married life of Mr. and Mrs. Wells has not been entirely cloudless; for they have suffered inconsolable bereavement in the death of their only son, Charles J., who had just reached the threshold of manhood when he died in Chicago in 1877, aged twenty years. Mr. Wells is a member of the Masonic Lodge, and both he and his wife are members of the Union Park Congregational Church of Chicago. Mr. Wells cast his first Presidential vote as a Whig in 1848, for Zachary Taylor. He is now a stanch Republican.

R. EDWIN L. WOOD, resident physician and surgeon in charge at the Dansville Jackson Sanatorium, was born in Eden, Erie County, May 18, 1860.

The paternal grandfather, Jonathan Wood, came from Saratoga County to Erie County, and settled upon a farm in 1797. At that time Buffalo had but one frame building, and young Wood was one of the very first of the pioneer settlers. He put up a rough log cabin; and after two years was able to per- suade the maiden of his choice to share his humble home in the forest, which gradually developed a domestic charm under womanly guidance. Here a family of children were born and reared, three sons and four daughters. Here Jonathan Wood lived out far more than the old time-allotted threescore years and ten, dying at the advanced age of eighty-four years.

Cyrenius Wood, the second child and el- dest son of Jonathan, and the father of Dr. Wood of this memoir, was educated in the district schools of Erie County, and, remain- ing under the paternal roof-tree after attain- ing manhood's estate, came into possession of the homestead, where he passed the rest of his life. He died at fifty-nine years of age. The wife of Cyrenius Wood was Miss Ellen Claghorn, a daughter of James Miller Clag- horn, of Erie County, New York. Mr. Clag- horn came originally from Eastern Massachu- setts, and settled in North Evans many years ago, purchasing a large tract of land and build- ing a house. He was a contractor and bridge builder in his younger days, and took con- tracts for the erection of a number of bridges, in which line of work he was widely and fa- vorably known. He is now a hale old gentle- man of ninety years of "shade and shine" within his memory. The mother of Mrs. Wood was one of a family of eight children. She reared six children - Carrie, who married Mr. Lucas Carter, of Eden, Erie County, N. Y. ; Lyrdon Dwight, a lawyer in Buffalo, who married Miss May Stanclift; Adelaide and Helen M., teachers, graduates of the State normal school; and J. Le Verne. Mrs. Wood spent the last years of her lite in Eden, and died at the age of forty-seven.

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Edwin L. Wood was nineteen years of age when his father died. The care and responsi - bility then thrown upon the youth, who was standing upon the threshold of manhood, was, no doubt, an important factor in developing his character upon the lines in which it has taken distinct shape and form, the lines of manly strength and unselfish purpose. He took charge of the home farm at Eden for two years, and then moved with his mother to North Evans, where he took a farm. Previ- ous to this period he had taught school during the winter seasons, when there was compara- tively nothing to do on the farm, and had laid up a small sum for himself in this way. In the autumn of 1883 he went to Hayward, WVis., and took the position of shipping clerk for the North Wisconsin Lumber Company, but gave up the clerkship the following year, and came to the Dansville Sanatorium, where he worked his way through the various de- partments as a student. The practical knowl- edge acquired in this way soon fitted him to enter the school of medicine in the Buffalo University, where he remained for several years. In the spring of 1888 he entered St. Barnabas' Hospital at Minneapolis, where he for two years and a half devoted himself with untiring zeal and devotion to the work. Dur- ing the entire period of his stay at St. Barnabas he spent only two nights outside of the institution's walls, an almost unprece- dented record of professional devotion. His services were recognized by the faculty of St. Barnabas; and he was appointed Assist- ant Surgeon of the Sault Ste. Marie Branch of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and was also House Surgeon in the hospital. In 1890 he returned to the Sanatorium, from which place he went to Boston, and took a course in anat- omy, and attended lectures.

Dr. Wood's talents seem to run in a me- chanical as well as an intellectual line; and on the 4th of December he patented in the United States, Canada, and England a method of packing surgical dressings, which he after- ward sold to Seabury & Johnson, of New York. At the Jackson Sanatorium he con- ducts all surgical operations, and is regarded as a permanent member of the faculty of that

institution. Dr. Wood is a member of the Livingston County Medical Society. The pressure of many professional duties has not made him forgetful of religious duties, social claims, or public interests; for he is a warm partisan of the Republican party, a loyal friend and kind neighbor, and a faithful com- municant of the Presbyterian church.

"A" LBERT P. GAGE, a resident of the village of Warsaw for the past nine- teen years, was born in the town of Eagle, in the same county of Wy- oming, March 17, 1838. His widowed grand- mother came to Eagle from Vermont in 1814 with her son, Platt K. Gage, then a child of seven years, and three other children, one having died. She was twice the mother of twins. Two of her sons, Almond and Alva- rous, who were twin-born. lived to be respec- tively eighty-one and eighty-two years of age. His mother was a woman of remarkable physi- cal and muscular strength, who retained her activity to the close of her life, and of whom it is recorded that she walked four miles some time in the year before her death, which oc- curred at the rarely reached age of ninety-two, in Sandwich, Ill.

Platt K. Gage, who had been thus early left fatherless, was taken by his uncle, Jethro Grover, with whom he lived until he was twenty-one. In 1830 he was married in Eagle to Miss Adaline Keyes. Here they took up their abode on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, where their five children were born. One little daughter, Livonia, died at three years of age, on June 16, 1835. The four who grew up were: Andrew, a farmer of Rushford, Cattaraugus County, where he now lives, aged sixty-four; Alta, Mrs. Marshall Haskins, of Iowa, who died in that State, Sep- tember, 1884, of lingering consumption, which finally developed itself, and ran its fatal course within six weeks, and of which fell disease her two children were soon after victims; Albert P., of this memoir; and Au- rilla, who married Mr. Jacob Shell, and who died at the pathetically youthful age of twenty-two years, leaving one daughter. Mr.

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Platt K. Gage died on April 19, 1860. His widow survived him nearly thirty years, dying January 5, 1890, aged eighty-two years. Mrs. Gage was a woman of fine physique, broad mind, and noble nature, a woman to be loved and admired, and a mother whose children may remember her with pride as well as ten- derness.

Albert P. Gage received a district-school education. He was in his twenty-fifth year when he left his home to enlist, August 8, 1862, as a private in the One Hundred and Thirtieth New York Volunteer Infantry, in which he served until he was stricken with a fever. He was discharged from the hospital on the Sth of March, 1865, as a Corporal. Returning to his farm immediately upon his discharge, he was married a month later, April 27th, to Miss Mary Baker, of Eagle, a daughter of Philip and Betsey (Leavenworth) Baker, both deceased. They left five chil- dren, one of whom, Leverett Baker, resides in Eagle; and Emily, now Mrs. James Flint, is living in Warsaw. Mr. and Mrs. Albert Gage left the farm in 1876, and moved into the village of Warsaw, he having been elected Sheriff in November, 1875. Mr. Gage was elected twice to this office, and between terms was Under Sheriff to Mr. Day, who was in turn his Under Sheriff. The two alternate incumbents of this office are very warm friends, having been closely associated in their army life. The farm which fell to Mr. Gage's inheritance at his father's death, and which has been a family possession for eighty years, is still owned by him, though culti- vated by a tenant. He spends most of his summers in North Dakota, where he owns an equal partnership in an estate of sixteen hun- dred acres. Since these lands were pur- chased, in 1882, he has journeyed thither twenty-three times. Abundant crops of grain and potatoes are annually produced from the fertile Western soil; and in 1894 two thou- sand bushels of the latter and over twenty-two thousand bushels of the former were sold.

Mr. Gage is a Trustee of the Congrega- tional Church of Warsaw, of which his family are all members. He is a member of the Gibbs Post, of Warsaw, Grand Army of the

Republic, is a Chapter Mason, and belongs also to the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows. The family circle, which consists of a son and daughter, besides the parents, is still unbroken. The son, Burt P., a very popular young man, who is engaged in the shoe trade as one of the firm of Lewis & Gage, married Carrie Otis, a daughter of George Otis, of this city. His sister, Belle Gage, whose graceful tact and pleasing manners have won for her general affection and consideration, is still at home.

Mr. Albert P. Gage, who stands five feet eleven, and weighs two hundred and forty-five pounds, is remarkably athletic, inheriting his Herculean strength and catlike agility perhaps from the great-grandmother, whose legacy of physical prowess has come down through the generations with an accession of force. It is worthy of mention that on the Gage farm is an apple orchard, famous for its apples, which has grown from the seed planted there eighty years ago by the grandfather of its present owner; and "grandpa's" apples are choice dainties among the descendants.

USTIN W. WHEELOCK, an old and respected farmer of Leicester, in Liv- ingston County, N. Y., was born in Geneseo, in the same county, on May 8, 1827. His lineage is thus traced back to the originator of the family, so far as this country is concerned.

Ralph Wheelock was born in Shropshire, England, came to America in 1637, and be- came one of the first settlers of the town of Medfield, now Norfolk County, in South-east- ern Massachusetts, on the level meadow land skirting the winding Charles River, where it is yet a narrow stream. Goodman Wheelock, as he was then called, was a member of the first town Board of Selectmen, selected because of their fitness to regulate the affairs of a new-born community. He died in 1683, hav- ing lived in Medfield nearly a half century, and there reared his nine children. It is worthy of mention that one of Ralph's great- grandchildren was the Rev. Eleazer Wheel- ock, D.D., a Congregational clergyman, who

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AUSTIN W. WHEELOCK.

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was born in Windham, Conn., and died in 1779, amid the patriotic throes of the Revo- lution. Dr. Wheelock is celebrated as the founder and first president of Dartmouth Col- lege, in Hanover, N. H., established for the benefit of the Indians.

Ralph Wheelock's son Benjamin was born in Medfield in 1640, married Elizabeth Bull, and reared five children. One of these five was another Benjamin Wheelock, born in the same town in 1678. On December 9, 1700, he became the husband of Huldah Thayer; and they had four children. Among the four was Silas Wheelock, who was born in Med- field in 1718, and who had eight children. One of them was Simeon Wheelock, born in Medfield on March 18, 1741. He died in the Concord fight, in the opening battle of the Revolution, April 19, 1775, at the early age of thirty-four, being one of the earliest to enlist as a minute-man; but he was already. the husband of his cousin, Deborah Thayer, of Mendon, and was the father of eight children.

Evidently the Revolutionary patriot became a resident of Uxbridge, for Royal Wheelock, one of his sons, was born in that good old town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, in 1766. He married Lydia Taft, of the same place; and in 1794, a little over a century ago, Royal Wheelock came with his wife and two children to New York State, making the entire journey overland with teams, and set- tling in Ontario County. By trade he was a blacksmith, and erected a log house and shop in what is now known as West Bloomfield, having bought there a tract of timber land. He made by hand all the nails needed in his building operations, and also supplied these indispensable articles, as well as horseshoes, to the neighboring pioneers. His wife died January 13, 1847, after they had reared nine children; and he died November 24, 1856. He was always a homekeeping man, despite the fact of his early flitting from the old Bay to the Empire State. He never once travelled by rail, and never saw but one train of cars.

Royal Wheelock's son Harry was only two years old when the family removed from Ux- bridge, where he was born, October 20, 1792, about the time of General Washington's re-

election to the Presidential office. Harry served in the War of 1812, but afterward worked on the homestead till 1819, when he was twenty-seven years old. He then came to Livingston County, and purchased a tract of land in Leicester, whereon a log house was the only improvement. After this purchase he returned to Ontario County, and married Judith Gillett. The young couple commenced life in the log cabin; and within its lowly walls was born Austin, the special subject of this sketch. In due time a frame house took the place of the more primitive residence ; and here Mr. Harry Wheelock remained till his death, which occurred on June 13, 1873, when he had passed his fourscore years, and had seen the county develop from wilderness to wealth. His union in marriage with Miss Gillett took place in 1819. She was born February 4, 1797, in Lyme, Conn., and died January 28, 1867, aged threescore and ten. From this marriage came four children - Charles Augustus, Austin W., Martha, and Ira Wheelock.

Austin W. went to the district school, to the school at Temple Hill, and to Leicester Academy. Till his marriage he lived and worked on the home farm; but then he re- moved to another farm, in what is now old Leicester, four miles from Geneseo and three miles from Mount Morris. Besides attending to general farming, he was at one time an extensive dealer in apples, which he shipped to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia; but since 1875 he has devoted himself mostly to market gardening. On November 10, 1853, at the age of twenty-six, he was married to Mary Louisa Francis, a native of New York City, the daughter of Harley and Sarah (Blakeslee) Francis. From this union have come eight children - Helen G., born Sep- tember 3, 1855; Minnie F., born December 12, 1857; Ruth I., born March 3, 1860, and dying at the early age of two years ; Harry II., born September 26, 1862; George F., born November 29, 1864; Alice M., born January 30, 1868; Charles Austin, born November 15, 1871; Martha Lucille, born February 20, 1879. The family are loyal adherents of the Bovina Presbyterian church.

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Enthusiasts in genealogy, of whom there are many in these days, recall with satisfac- tion the words of the great Macaulay, "People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve any- thing worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants." The annexed portrait of Mr. Wheelock shows a worthy scion of a well-rooted and vigorous family tree.

ISS CATHARINE M. AUSTIN, a clear-sighted, womanly woman, of sterling worth and good common sense, is a descendant of one of the oldest and most honored pioneer families of the county, and is of New England origin. Her father, Russell Austin, was the son of Joseph Austin, of New Hartford, Conn., which was the place of his nativity. Russell Austin grew to mature years in his Connecti- cut home, and was well drilled in agricult- ural labors on the home farm. When a young man, he wedded Miss Phoebe Hills, the daughter of Augustus Hills, of Connecticut, and a few years after, in 1815, came to Gen- esco to take charge of the dairy farm of William Wadsworth.

Before they had been in the town many months Mr. Austin purchased a tract of wild land, and began the improvement of a farm from the forest. The settlements in this vicinity were then scattered; and nearly the entire communication between them was by foot or horseback over the bridle paths, marked out by blazed trees. Mr. Austin materially aided in developing the agricult- ural resources of this part of the county, and was very influential in the management of the town and county affairs. In 1828 he was elected Sheriff of the county, and in 1832 and 1833 served as Supervisor of Geneseo, con- tinuing a prominent and respected resident of the town until his death, at the age of seventy- seven years. He was a member of the Whig party during his earlier years, but subse- quently joined the ranks of the Republicans. Religiously, both he and his wife were faith- ful members of the Presbyterian church, of which he was an Elder for many years.

Mrs. Austin died at their home, where their daughter still resides, to which they moved in 1850, a little over a year before her husband, at the advanced age of seventy-five years. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Austin; namely, Mary I .. , Norman E., Riley J., Zimri H., and Catharine M., of whom we write.

Miss Austin and her youngest brother are the only members of the parental household now living. The former was educated in the town of Geneseo, where she has spent her en- tire life, having completed her studies at Temple Hill Academy. She taught school one term, and afterward taught instrumental music, and for eleven years was organist at the Presbyterian church, of which she is a valued member. She is very active in relig- ious circles, being a working member of the Ladies' Missionary Society and a faithful teacher in the Sunday-school.

ALTER B. FARGO, a successful farmer and respected citizen of Warsaw, where he was born in 1834, is a grandson of Nehemiah Fargo, who settled in this locality in 1804. His wife and six children made the journey by teams, and upon their arrival invested some of their small means in a farm of one hundred and sixty acres of uncultivated land. A log house was erected on the bank of a creek by the old dam, and here the family lived in peace and contentment. Nehemiah died, aged sixty, at his son's house, which was near the old cabin. His wife survived him but a few years. They were both within the fold of the Presbyterian church.

Their youngest son, Allen, who was born in Barrington, Mass., April 4, 1802, married on October 30, 1822, Miss Polly Merchant, who was a native of Connecticut, born in 1800. Their first child, John M. Fargo, was born in November, 1824, and is a farmer in Warsaw. Two children died; and one daugh- ter and four sons reached maturity, the young- est being Walter B., of whom this biography is written. Mrs. Polly Fargo died in 1863, aged sixty-three. Her husband died Decem-

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ber 26, 1888, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. The grandparents left some prop- erty, which increased in value under the careful management of the parents. A large portion of the original land was sold in lots, and is now . occupied by village homes. Mr. Allen Fargo inherited a small estate from his grandfather, which, together with his lands in Iowa and other parts of the West, was valued at one time at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He was a man of strict morals, and was closely identified with the best interests ot his town and county, in which he held sev- eral public offices, notably that of Supervisor. He was for years a Deacon in the Baptist church in Warsaw, and gave two thousand dollars toward the erection of the new church building, the sum being paid after his death.

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Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y, Part 27

Author: Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review Number of Pages: 1256

Author:
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Boston : Biographical Review
Number of Pages: 1256