USA > New York > Wyoming County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y > Part 36
USA > New York > Livingston County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y > Part 36
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Jesse Beardslee, one of the nine sons of Jabez and Eunice, was born in the year 1802. This gentleman was married twice. His first marriage, with Miss Adeline Angell, was blessed by the birth of one son and two daugh- ters. His second wife, Miss Mary Ann Chat- field, became the mother of one son, Nathan S. Beardslee. Mr. Jesse Beardslee was for many years a successful dry-goods merchant in New Berlin, and became in later years the owner of one of the cotton-mills which his
father had been instrumental in establishing. In agricultural matters he was an undisputed authority, having successfully managed seven large farms during his busy life. His last years were spent in tranquil retirement on the homestead farm, where he died in 1879, aged seventy-seven years. His widow survived him a half-dozen years, dying in the June of 1885, having attained the age of seventy-five years.
At twenty years of age Nathan S. Beardslee, who had profited by the educational advantages offered in the neighboring schools, and had been a studious pupil, became a teacher in the school of his own town, having for pupils the children of the cotton-mill hands. In 1869 he joined the engineering corps at that time engaged in the construction of the New York, Oswego & Midland Railroad, taking a subordi- nate place, from which he worked up to his present position. After fifteen months with this corps he went to Michigan on the survey of the Chicago, Milwaukee & Lake Shore Railroad, then in projection, and at the early age of twenty-one was made Assistant Engi- neer in this work. A year later he went to Olean, N. Y., where he held a position on the Buffalo, New York & Philadelphia Road. In May, 1872, he was engaged on the Rochester & State Line Road, and in the September of the same year came to Warsaw in charge of the heavy construction work on this road.
May 19, 1874, Mr. Beardslee was married to Miss Caroline Bristol, a daughter of Mr. William Bristol. His whole life, though not covering a long period of years, has been both busy and eventful; and in his engineering he has tramped over the greater part of New York State, with which he is entirely familiar. He had charge of the laying of the double-track line of the Erie Road, and was chief engineer in the building of two hundred miles of other railroads. In 1877-78 he located one hundred and fifty miles in Illinois. In 1883 he and Mr. F. B. Kearney built fifteen houses in the village of Warsaw. A year later he embarked in salt manufacturing, being one of the origina- tors of the Empire Dairy Salt Company, of which he became President ; and three years later, in connection with Judge Farman, he founded the Warsaw Bluestone Company. He
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was President of the company until he sold out his interest in 1894. In 1882 Mr. Beards- lee was a delegate from this Congressional dis- triet to the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis, to nominate James G. Blaine, of whom he was an enthusiastic admirer and ardent supporter.
The spacious and handsome house in which he resides was built in 1891 of bluestone from the quarry which he partly owns. As a build- ing material this stone is as durable as it is effective, and his dwelling is one of the most imposing in Warsaw. Mr. Beardslee is one of the leading citizens of Warsaw, and takes great interest in the welfare of the town.
HRISTOPHER MCCORMICK, a pros- perous farmer in Java, was born in the town where his life has been passed, on November 29, 1838. Mr. Mc- Cormick's grandparents, Richard and Cather- ine (Clyne) McCormick, reared four sons and one daughter, none of whom are now living. One of the sons, Richard McCormick, Jr., born in Longford, Ireland, was the first of the name to cross the Atlantic. He took passage in a vessel bound for America in 1826; but the vessel was wrecked, and passengers and crew were cast upon an island, where they re- mained for three months before they were rescued by a passing ship. Nine months were consumed in this fashion before the young emigrant landed at New York. Having no means, he set out immediately to find work, and was fortunate enough soon to secure a position as book-keeper. In New York he made the acquaintance of a young girl, Ann Hamm, who was a native of the same county in which he had been born; and this chance acquaintance of the two young people from the Emerald Isle resulted in a marriage, which was solemnized in 1831. The young husband was time and book keeper in public works until 1835, when he moved from New York City to Java, coming hither by canal, and buy- ing a farm of one hundred acres of partially improved land lying a mile east of Java Centre, and for which he paid twelve dollars an acre. This farm was in a highly improved
condition at the time of its owner's death, December 29, 1846. .
When Mr. and Mrs. McCormick came to Java, they had a capital of two thousand dol- lars, and with this financial basis they began farming. The citizens of Java were not slow to perceive that the new-comer was a man of character and judgment, and elected him to the office of Assessor, the duties of which he performed with conscientious care. Both hus- band and wife were Catholics in religion, and Mr. McCormick did much toward building the old church at Java. Mrs. McCormick was left a widow with seven children when her hus- band died. The following grew to maturity : Richard, who died February 7, 1886, at fifty years of age ; Ann, the widow of William Denny, who died September 29, 1894, aged fifty-three, leaving one son; Margaret, the wife of Hugh Kerwin, a farmer in Java, who has one daughter and two sons; Christopher, of this memoir ; Thomas, who is living on the home farm, and has four sons and two daughters; Cornelius, a far- mer, who died January 20, 1895, leaving one son and six daughters. The mother of this family died on November 2, 1881, aged seventy-three.
Christopher McCormick received his educa- tion in the common schools of Java, and re- mained under the paternal roof-tree until his marriage, April 25, 1865, to Miss Bridget Prescott, a daughter of Mary (Gibney) and John Prescott. Mrs. McCormick's father was of English birth, and her mother of Irish. The Prescotts were large landholders, keeping from forty to fifty cows, and making cheese in large quantities for those days. Their family consisted of five daughters and two sons, of whom four are now living -- Mrs. Christopher McCor- mick ; John and Catherine, the twin brother and sister ; and Anna, who lives in Rochester. Mr. Prescott died from the effects of a fall from a wagon in 1854. He was fifty-four years of age. His widow, who still retains much of the vigor and vivacity of youth, is living in Java Centre.
The farm of eighty acres upon which the newly wedded pair began their married life was increased to an estate of five hundred and sixty-five acres. The domestic life of the Mc- Cormicks has been singularly free from the shadows of death and separation; for all of
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the thirteen children born of this union are living, and the parents are happy in the near presence of most of their sons and daughters. They are: Richard, who is unmarried and at home, though he manages his farm, which ad- joins that of his father; Edward W., who is married and farms in the neighborhood; John, who is at home still; Thomas, a farmer ; Annie; Walter; Charles Hugh, a student at Alleghany College: Cornelius, who is at school in Java; Mary A., a little maiden of thirteen ; Sylvester; Catherine L. ; Frank, aged six ; and Alice, who is just five years old. These chil- dren are all unusually bright and intelligent ; and the parents are giving them the lighter accomplishments, as well as the more useful and practical knowledge of housewifery and outdoor occupations. As a result of this training, Annie is quite an accomplished pian- ist and a famous little cook and housekeeper.
Mr. McCormick raises hay, oats, and pota- toes, of the latter crop some years producing more than two thousand bushels. His dairy supplies the factory with milk, and the butter from McCormick's farm is of wide reputation. The commodious barns on the three farms oc- cupied by father and sons were all built by the former, and are models of what such buildings should be. Mr. and Mrs. McCormick have made but one move during their wedded life - from the old house into the new, handsome one, completed in 1892. The large barn, whose dimensions are one hundred by thirty- three feet, was finished in 1894. The old house was not, however, discarded, but was removed to the rear, to be used as a place of storage. The offices of Justice of the Peace and Assessor have both been filled by Mr. Mc- Cormick for many years, and he has the con- fidence and regard of the community. The suc- cess which has crowned his efforts is the just re- ward of patience and unremitting toil. In poli- tics Mr. McCormick is an unswerving Democrat.
HARLES SHEPARD, a prominent and respected citizen of Dansville, was born in that place, March 15, 1818. His ancestor, Ralph Shepard, came from England to Massachusetts in the year
1635, dying in Charlestown in 1693, at the age of ninety, and was buried in Malden.
Our subject's father, Joshua Shepard, was born in April, 1780, in Plainfield, Conn., where he passed his carlier years, and later came to Western New York and became a merchant in that section. He came to Dans- ville in 1814, and engaged in mercantile busi- ness, also carrying on a large farm, and continued to conduct both successfully up to the time of his death, which occurred Septem- ber 12, 1829. In February, 1817, he married Elizabeth Hurlbut, whose ancestors emigrated to the State of Connecticut in the year 1637 and settled in the town of Saybrook. She was born in Hanover, Pa., in April, 1791. Her father, Christopher Hurlbut, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He moved with his family to Steuben County, New York, in 1797, and was the founder of the village of Arkport. Mrs. Elizabeth Shepard died in Dansville, April 24, 1870, at the age of seventy-nine. She was a member of the Pres- byterian church. Her husband gave the site and one-third of the cost of building of the church here, which was destroyed by fire, March 31, 1854.
Charles Shepard was educated at select schools and the Canandaigua Academy, an institution founded in 1795. After leaving school, at the age of eighteen, he engaged in farming and other pursuits. For several years he was a Trustee of the village, and of the Dansville seminary from its foundation in 1857 until it was merged in the union school some years since. He has had many im- portant and expensive buildings erected in Dansville, and maintains a warm interest in local, State, and national affairs.
On October 7, 1846, Mr. Shepard married Katherine R. Colman, daughter of Anson Col- man, an early and leading physician of Rochester, and Katherine K., daughter of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, founder of the city of that name. Col. Rochester was promi- nent in the War of the Revolution, and after its close lived many years in Hagerstown, Md. From 1810 to 1815 he resided in Dansville, where he was a large land owner. In 1815 he removed to Rochester, engaging in bank.
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ing and other business. One of his sons became a leading banker of that city. Mr and Mrs. Shepard have had five children, three of whom are living. Charles E. is a graduate of Yale College and a lawyer in good practice, living in Seattle, Wash. He mar- ried Alice M. Galloway, of Fond du Lac, Wis., in June, 1881. Thomas R. is also a lawyer in Seattle, and one of the firm of Burke, Shepard & Woods, counsel of the Great
Northern Railway Company. In October, 1879, he married Caroline E. McCartney, of Dansville, who died in December, 1893. He has one son, Arthur M. The daughter, Mary, resides with her parents in the house built by Mr. Shepard's father in 1824. On an accompanying page may be found a pleasing portrait of Mr. Shepard.
EVI B. CALKINS, a retired hotel- keeper residing in the village of Ar- cade, N. Y., was born at St. Albans, Vt., October 13, 1820. His father, Jonas Calkins, and his grandfather, whose name is unknown to the present writer, were both natives of the Green Mountain State, and were both farmers by vocation. Jonas Calkins came to Buffalo, N. Y., in his early manhood, bringing with him his wife and child. He followed farming for a while in Aurora, Erie County, and later removed to Boston, origi- nally a part of Aurora, where he died at seventy-two years of age. Jonas Calkins mar- ried Miss Lucy Bently, of Vermont, whose father, a native of that State, died in this locality, having reached the advanced age of ninety-six. Mrs. Lucy Calkins bore her hus- band three children - George, who died in Michigan in 1890; Charlotte, who died when a young girl; and Levi B. Calkins. Mrs. Calkins was married a second time to Seth Sprague, of Aurora, by which marriage one son, Charles Sprague, was born.
Levi B. Calkins was sent to the district schools of the neighborhood in which he lived in his early years. He was a child of twelve when his father moved to Buffalo, which was at that time a very small village. Mr. Cal- kins adopted the miller's trade for his life
work, and was successively engaged in this business in Aurora, Java, Wales, Warsaw, Pike, and Wethersfield. In Warsaw he re- mained for ten years, and was for shorter periods in the other places of his residence. Milling was after a time abandoned; and Mr. Calkins made his first venture in hotel-keep- ing, purchasing the Arcade House, which was under his personal management for three years, and was then sold by him to a Mr. Reed. Mr. Calkins then purchased a piece of property in Lockport, and opened a small hotel, which he conducted for three years. At the expiration of this time he bought a farm of three hundred and fifty acres in Wethersfield. After three years of agricultural life he sold this property and returned to Arcade, where he repurchased the hotel property, which he remodelled and entirely renovated before opening to guests. This enterprise was successful and remunera- tive, and Mr. Calkins continued to entertain the travelling public until he felt justified in re- tiring from the somewhat arduous duties of host. The handsomely equipped establishment found a ready purchaser ; and he moved to his pleasant home in Arcade, where he has since remained.
He was married to his first wife, Miss Ma- tilda Wiley, the daughter of Mr. Seth Wiley, a cabinet-maker in Vermont, in 1840. The five children who were the offspring of this union were: Theodore, who married Miss Addie De Ronee, of Lockport, and who died at five-and-thirty; Judson; Ann D. ; Eddie; and one who died in infancy. Judson died aged eleven years, Ann D. died aged twelve years, and Eddie A. aged three years; and the mother died in the August of 1855. The sec- ond wife of Mr. Calkins was Emily Farrington Reed, who died in 1888. The subject of this memoir is carnestly Democratic in political convictions. He has held for three terms both the offices of Village Trustee and Excise Com- missioner.
® OBERT G. PATTERSON, for many years a very successful merchant tailor and dealer in gentlemen's furnish- ing goods, of Geneseo, Livingston County, N. Y., and now living in retirement,
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having by his business ability procured a hand- some competency, was born in St. Andrew's, Fifeshire, Scotland, July 15, 1809. The land of Wallace and Bruce, Scott and Burns, seems to have contributed largely to the honest and thrifty people of Western New York, either directly or through ancestral descent ; and well may she be proud of the record of her sturdy sons across the sea. Both the father and grandfather of Mr. Patterson (all three bearing the favorite Scotch name Robert) were natives and life-long residents of St. Andrews, where a paternal uncle, the Rev. John Patterson, was a well-known clergyman and instructor. The second Robert Patterson was a tailor, and fol- lowed that occupation through his entire life, which terminated in the month of April, 1809. The maiden name of his wife was Clementina Ratterry. She was a native of Edinburgh ; and she lived to be eighty years of age, dying in St. Andrews. She reared two children - Clementina, who married John Patterson, and spent her entire life in the place of her birth ; and Robert G., who is the only member of the family that ever came to America to reside.
At the age of thirteen Robert G. Patterson began to learn the trade of a tailor, and, after serving a five years' apprenticeship, worked as a journeyman at Dundee. In 1842 he decided to go to America, and, embarking with his wife upon a sailing-vessel at Glasgow in June of that year, landed five weeks later at Mon- treal, where he remained two months, and then went to Burlington, Vt., and opened a tailor's shop. After staying three years in that city, he came to Geneseo, and here engaged in his vocation, being successful from the very start. He soon augmented his tailoring business with a stock of ready-made clothing and gentle- men's furnishing goods. Mr. Patterson from this time forward enjoyed a substantial pros- perity in business, and in 1884 relinquished his interest in favor of his son, James F., by whom it is now conducted. In 1888 Mr. Pat - terson erected his present home, which is a handsome and commodious house, delightfully situated at the corner of Elm and South Streets. It is tastefully furnished, and its sur- roundings are both desirable and healthful.
Mr. Patterson was married August 20, 1834,
to Miss Allison Fenwick, a native of Dundee, Scotland. Her father was an only son, and inherited his father's estate in Dundee, where he was a life-long resident. The maiden name of Mrs. Patterson's mother was Barbara Downie. She was a life-long resident of Scot- land. She reared six children - Peter, John, James, William, Belle, and Allison. John emigrated to America, and settled in Montreal, spending his last years there. His son, the Rev. Kenneth M. Fenwick, was for thirty years pastor of a church in Kingston, Canada, and now lives retired at Montreal. Another son, George S. Fenwick, an importer of goods, lives in Kingston, Ontario. The two daugh- ters of John Fenwick are Jessie and Isabel. Jessie is the wife of Ira Breck, and Isabel the wife of Malcomb Sutherland, also of Kingston. No other member of her family ever came to America, except to visit.
Mr. and Mrs. Patterson have five children living - William, James F., Barbara, Clem- entina, and Alice F. Robert F. died in his thirty-second year, and Frank at the age of twenty-two years. James F. married Barron Rhoode; and they have three sons -- Robert, Jonas, and James. Barbara married John E. Landerdale; they have four children - Henry, Charles, Clarence, and Alice. The entire family are members of the Presbyterian church. An honor to the historic land that gave him birth, and a most acceptable addition to the citizens of worth who form a part of an intelligent community in the land of his adop- tion, Mr. Patterson can look with a just pride upon his successful career, and should enjoy his well-earned rest from the cares of business.
R OBERT BARNETT, a retired farmer in Warsaw, Wyoming County, N. Y., was born near the Erie Railway station in this village, July 12, 1839. His grandparents, Jonathan and Ruth (Merrill) Barnett, came from New Hampshire to Orangeville, N. Y., in 1820, bringing their family with them, the journey being made by slow stages with a team. Two of their elder sons, Amos M. and William D. Barnett, had come a few years previous, and were engaged
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here in the manufacture of fanning-mills. Jonathan Barnett was a descendant of Scotch- Irish immigrants who settled in Londonderry, N. H., in 1720. He was born in that town September 13, 1767. He died August 27, 1842. Mrs. Ruth Barnett survived her hus- band several years, and died March 29, 1855.
Their son Robert, the father of the original of this sketch, was born in Londonderry, N. H., in 1798, and was twice married. His first wife, Sally Nevins, died, leaving one son, James Nevins Barnett, who was for some time a commercial traveller in the interests of the fanning-mills and Miller's blacking, but who later became a farmer. He died aged fifty- two years. Mr. Barnett's second wife was Miss Hetty Foster, to whom he was married in 1837. She was the daughter of Luther and Ruth (Hedges) Foster. Her father was from Eastern New York, and her mother was a na- tive of Long Island. Of Mrs. Hetty Barnett's brothers and sisters, Solon Foster, an octo- genarian in Salt Lake City, and Mrs. Ruth E. Cleveland, who is eighty-one years of age, and resides in Warsaw, survive. Robert Barnett, Sr., was a farmer in comfortable circum- stances. He and his wife, Hetty Foster Bar- nett, were both members of the Congregational church. They had but one child, the present Robert Barnett, of Warsaw. The father died in May, 1870, the mother in March, 1875, at seventy-five years of age.
Robert Barnett received a good, plain edu- cation in the schools in Warsaw, and was early trained to a practical knowledge of farming. He remained at home until 1862, when he enlisted in the One Hundred and Thirtieth New York Volunteer Infantry, Company D, but was transferred to the First New York Dragoons, in which he served three years. During the campaign in the Shenandoah valley he received a gunshot wound at Stras- burg, which resulted in many weeks of suf- fering in various hospitals, and finally in the amputation of his leg just above the knee joint. Mr. Barnett was seven weeks at the Brick Church Hospital in Winchester, Va., a fortnight at the hospital in Frederick City, Md., and was finally sent to the Central Park Hospital, which was under Dr. Shrady's
charge, and had for its nurses the Sisters of Charity, whose gentle ministry always brought comfort, and whose calm, sweet faces seemed to leave a benediction upon cot and ward. He was discharged August 22, 1865, when he returned to his parents, who while they lived were his principal care. Mr. Barnett has always been engaged in agriculture, and has owned three farms, all of which he has disposed of by sale or lease. In recognition of services rendered his country, he receives a monthly pension of thirty-six dollars. He is a member of Gibb's Post, No. 130, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was Commander for a year, and is a member of Crystal Salt Lodge, No. 505, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Barnett cast his first vote for the mar- tyred President, Abraham Lincoln; and he has ever since been loyal to the Republican party, to which his early allegiance was plighted.
J OHN H. ADAMS, farmer, and some- time teacher, of Livonia, N. Y., was born in Richmond, Ontario County, June 27, 1858. His grandfather, Isaac Adams, a native of Connecticut, was one of the first settlers of Ontario County. He came to this State with a family by the name of Reed, for whom he worked; and the journey was made with an ox team. The young pio- neer worked faithfully, and was at last able to buy a small farm of improved land, upon which he built a log house. This was after some years replaced by a frame dwelling, under whose roof the remaining years of his life were passed. His wife was Miss Lucretia Holmes, by whom he had ten children - Cyrus, Willis, John, Lydia, Susan, Timothy, Lucina, Esther, Isaac, and Chester.
Isaac Adams, son of Isaac and Lucretia, obtained his education in the district schools of the village, and made himself useful about his father's farm until he was of age, when he bought a farm at Springwater. Here he lived five years, after which time he sold his prop- erty and moved to Richmond, his place of birth, where he remained until 1872. In that year he disposed of the Richmond farm, and came to Livonia, where he lived until the date of his
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death, January 26, 1887. He was married to Miss Hannah Becker, a daughter of John and Lurana Becker, to whom two children were born --- a daughter, Helen, and a son, John H. Adams. Helen is now Mrs. Alden Adams, and has one daughter, who bears the name of Ella. She lives in Livonia.
John H. Adams attended the district school near his home, and afterward pursued a course of study at the normal school in Geneseo. Having completed his education, he taught school for three years in Livonia and Richmond. In 1883 he bought a small farm of seventy acres ; and, finding the outdoor exercise and free, in- dependent life of the farmer more agreeable than the sedentary and patience-taxing exist- ence within the four walls of a school-room, he has since followed the former occupation, and has extended the boundaries of his prop- erty until his estate now covers two hundred and fifty acres. In 1880 he was married to Emma Wemett, a daughter of William and Hulda (Gaines) Wemett, of Livonia. The birth of three children has blessed this mar- riage - Clifford, Fannie, and Gladys.
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