Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y, Part 67

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 67
USA > New York > Livingston County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y > Part 67

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On September 18, 1889, Mr. Hawley was united in marriage to Grace Hubbard, of Ful- ton, Ill., daughter of Dr. N. W. and Mary (Coe) Hubbard. Her father was born at Ran- dolph, Portage County, Ohio, in the year 1810, and died in Fulton in 1883. His father and mother were Bela and Phoebe (Ward) Hubbard, natives of Connecticut, and pioneers in the early days of Ohio. Bela Hubbard died at the age of ninety-six years. Dr. Hubbard graduated from the Columbus Medi- cal College, Ohio, and practised medicine in Newark and in Elyria, Ohio, from which place he removed to Fulton, Ill. He was the in- ventor of surgical appliances which were of great benefit to the profession. His children were: Frances, now the widow of H. K. Bel- lard; Lester C., who is engaged in journalis- tic work in Chicago, Ill .; Frederick H., who died in 1888 at Brooklyn, N. Y., being en- gaged in the practice of medicine in that city ; and Grace, wife of Mr. Hawley. Mr. and Mrs. Hawley have one child - Frederick W., born January 7, 1893.

J OHN C. COE, an intelligent and pros- perous Livingston County farmer of a past generation, was born in Durham, Conn., on the 15th of June, 1787. His father, Simeon Coe, who was also a native of Connecticut, came as an early settler to Paris, Oneida County, N. Y., where he pur- chased a farm, and remained thereon as long as he lived. The son of Simeon and Eunice Coe, John C. Coe, who is the subject of this sketch, was educated in the common schools of Paris and at Fairfield Academy. He began life for himself on a farm which he bought in that vicinity, but which after a few years he sold; and he then moved to Livingston County, in 1815, with a horse and cutter, bringing his wife, their three children, and a dog. He purchased at first one hundred acres of cleared land in Livonia, and afterward

invested in a farm in South Livonia. Every energy was now employed in the arduous but cheerful task of making a home, in which effort Mr. Coe was so successful that his es- tablishment was counted among the most com- fortable and attractive of the county. Here he died, aged sixty-five years.

Ilis wife, before marriage Miss Anna Dix- son and a daughter of Robert and Sarah Dix- son, was, like himself, a native of Connecti- cut. They reared a family of eleven children -Almira C., Sarah A., Laura M., George F., Flavius J., Amos D., Mary J., Nancy C., Amanda M., Julia C., Helen I. Amos D. married Miss Mary J. Jerome, and has two children - John F. and Alice C. He is a widower, and lives in Conesus, of which town he has been Supervisor. Helen L. married Peter G. Frutchey, and resides at the paternal homestead. Flavius, who also lives on the old homestead, has always been a farmer. Laura M. married Solomon Hitchcock, of Conesus, and died, leaving one son - Solomon E. Hitchcock. Julia C. (deceased) married Manson F. Gibbs, of Livonia. She left three children - Gardiner A., John M., and Julian C. Gibbs. George F. married Alta A. Stone, of Livonia. They have three children - Anna F., John C., and Flavius J .- and live in Conesus. Anna F. Coe, the grand-daughter, married John Webster, and has one child, a son, who bears the name of George C. Web- ster. Flavius J. Coe has never married. He held the office of Supervisor in his town for five successive years, from 1887 to 1891 in- clusive. He has always been strong in his fealty to the Republican party, with whose principles he is clearly and intelligently con- Versant.

The mother of this large family lived to be eighty-seven years of age, surviving her hus- band for some years. Mr. John C. Coe was a supporter of that political party which was known in his time under the appellation of the Whig party, but which afterward was merged into another, bearing a different name and distinctive tenets. John C. Coe's life of quiet effort and successful fruition is an en- couragement as well as an example to those who come after him.

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D AVID PORTER ROOD, a retired resident of Johnsonburg, Wyoming County, and veteran of the Civil War, was born in Wethersfield, July 21, 1829. His father, Eli Rood, was born in Vermont, October 13, 1797, and was the son of David Rood, a pioneer in Wyoming County, who came here with wife and children, set- tling at Orangeville, on the line of Johnson- burg, in 1817. David Rood was one of the early residents who felled trees for the purpose of cutting a road from Wethersfield Springs to HIall's Corners. By his wife, Sarah Rogers, David Rood became the father of four sons and three daughters, all of whom attained their majority, married, and became heads of fami- lies. He improved a good farm in Orange- ville, and later moved to Wethersfield Springs, where he died about the year 1834, having passed beyond the fourscore limit. His widow survived him some fourteen years, dying at considerably over seventy years.

Eli Rood married Eliza Tanner, who was born at Cooperstown, Otsego County, N. Y., in 1805, and removed to Warsaw in 1809. Mrs. Eliza T. Rood died October 21, 1840, at the age of thirty-five years, leaving two sons and one daughter. She was a strong Presby- terian, and died firmly adhering to that faith. Eli Rood again married, and died at Wethers- field Springs in 1877, aged eighty years. A Whig, and afterward a Republican, in politics, he served forty years as Justice of the Peace - consecutively, with the exception of one term and was also County Superintendent of the Poor. His children by his first wife were the following : Zera Tanner Rood, who was born at Wethersfield Springs, February 21, 1827, married Rosetta Brown in 1849, and resides at Grand Rapids, Mich., where he is a carpenter and millwright, having four children; David P. Rood, the subject of this sketch; and Helen E., deceased.

David Porter Rood was educated at the dis- trict school near the home of his boyhood, and, when he married at the age of twenty- one, began farming on rented land in the vicinity. In the fall of 1854 he moved to Fort Dodge, la., where he settled upon one hundred and forty acres of wild land on the

Des Moines River, being among the early comers, when buffalo, deer, and elk were plenty. In 1855 Mr. Reed returned East, where he engaged in the sale of the State Gazetteer, and later was in the map business. Having continued in this and the real estate business until the year 1864, he enlisted for service in the Civil War, being commissioned as Second Lieutenant of Company E, Sixty- third Regiment, New York Infantry, in the Irish Brigade. He enlisted for three years, but was discharged as disabled from the offi- cers' hospital at Annapolis, September 16, having been severely wounded at the battle of Cold Harbor by a bullet which entered his forearm. At the battle of Spottsylvania, Va., May 12, 1864, Lieutenant Rood, after charg- ing the breastworks, was deployed with a file of men to head off the escaping rebels. Leav- ing his men to return to his company, alone and unaided he captured thirteen rebel sol- diers, and marched them in as prisoners.

On February 26, 1850, David P. Rood mar- ried Miss Elizabeth Boddy, who died on Octo- ber 24, 1855. The fruit of this marriage was one son, Eli, who now is a railroad man at Niagara Falls, N. Y., having a wife and four children. On October 7, 1856, Mr. Rood married his second wife, who was Nancy Truesdell, of Warsaw, and on September 5, 1885, was again called upon to mourn the death of his consort. She left three children, as follows: Mary, wife of Adelbert Cook, a farmer at Wethersfield Springs, having three children ; Dora B., wife of William Burch, of Warsaw, having two children ; and Lillian A., wife of Charles B. Nutting, of Johnsonburg, having one son.

On November 9, 1887, Mr. Rood married his present wife, Helen A. Royce, of Orange- ville, daughter of Orin and Amanda (Eddy) Royce. She was a teacher in the public schools eleven terms, and now presides over her pleasant, modest home in Johnsonburg with that skill and quiet dignity which is the result of intellectual cultivation. Mr. Rood's last marriage is blessed with one son, a bright boy, David Porter Rood, Jr., born in 1888.

In 1874 he was appointed Deputy Collector of customs at Suspension Bridge, N. Y., and

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served four years. He also served two terms at Wethersfield as Justice of the Peace. Mr. Rood owns a farm of twenty-five acres, with a feed and saw mill, at what is known as Springwater Lake, or Rood's Pond. He owns at Warsaw a house and lot, for which he ex- changed one of his farms, and also two farms near Wethersfield Springs, besides real estate in Buffalo and at Niagara Falls. For about six years he has now been free from the cares of business. He is a comrade of Buford Post, No. 238, Grand Army of the Republic, of Johnsonburg, in which he has held some of the offices, and is a Republican in politics. His wife is a member of the Methodist church.

ILLIAM E. HALL was born in North Bloomfield, N. Y., November 10, 1810, and died at Avon, De- cember 3, 1890, at the age of eighty years, for fifty-five of which he had been united in the holy bonds of matrimony to Esther M. Mather Hall. Nearly five years have passed since he was taken away; but he is still severely missed by many, and always will be missed as long as there remains remembrance of his many sterling qualities. He was of New Eng- land ancestry, his father having been a Con- necticut man by birth, and his grandfather a life-long resident of that State. The grand- father's name was Abel, and the father's name was Isaac; for in those days Biblical names were almost universal. Both his father and his grandfather were equally unknown person- ally to the subject of this sketch, and his mother was known to him but little better ; for he lost his father when he was but three years old, lost his mother when he was but seven, and had practically no property await- ing his coming of age when he went to live with his uncle, Mr. Brockaway, who resided at Lima.

William E. Hall received his education in the district schools of that town, and was a bright, industrious young man, who made good use of his opportunities, and proved himself at a very early age to be fully capable of shift- ing for himself. He quickly learned his trade as tanner and currier, and soon set up in that

business for himself in the town of West Bloomfield, where he carried on operations as a tanner and currier for about five years, and then removed to Avon. He settled on the Wadsworth farm, and soon started a saw-mill and a wood-turning shop, in addition to his tanning and currying business. Finally, he bought the Judge Hosmer p'ce, where he passed the rest of his life. Some of the finest buildings in the town of Avon were erected by Mr. Hall. Unquestionably, the most im- porant and the most beneficial occurrence during his long and busy life was that of September 17, 1835, when he was married to Esther M. Mather, daughter of Guerdon and Eunice M. Mather, of Connecticut. The Mather family removed from Connecticut to New York State about 1815, coming in wagons laden with all their goods. Mr. Mather took up a farm, built him a log house, and lived therein about a score of years, when he re- moved to Mount Morris, and lived on a farm to the south of the village for a considerable period, after which the family came to West Bloomfield, and settled on a farm, where the head of the family died, at the age of forty- nine. His widow survived him many years, and died at the residence of Mrs. Hall, her daughter, in Avon.

William E. and Esther M. Mather Hall had six children - Caroline B., Sophia P., Frances M., William E., Lizzie, and Charles. Caroline B. married Aaron Barber, of Avon (a sketch of whom will be found on another page of this work). Sophia P. married Will- iam Clendenning, and has two children --- Frank and Eugene. Frances E. married Smith Newman, and resides at Hornellsville. Lizzie married George F. Smith, lives at home with her mother, and has two children - Frances and Elmer. William E. lives at Grand Rapids, Mich., and married Edith B. Torrance, who has been removed by death. She left him two children - Belle and Pliny. Charles is not married, and resides at home with his mother. In 1885 William E. Hall and his wife celebrated their golden wedding ; and it had proved a "golden wedding " in fact as well as in the number of years which they had been united, for it was one of those unions

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in which the greatest possible strength is found. Friends came from every section of New York State; and children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were in happy attend- ance. Mrs. Hall enjoys the possession of four great-grandchildren, who were born to Frank and to Eugene, the children of her daughter Sophia. Frank married Minnie Andrews, and was presented with twin girls - Edith and Ina. Eugene married Mary Dwyer, and has two children - Sophia and Claribel.

Mrs. Hall is a member of the Presbyterian church at Avon; and her husband, the subject of this sketch, was also deeply interested in the Presbyterian faith. And it was but nat- ural that such should be the case; for he came from sturdy Presbyterian stock, that played a most important part in the development of this country. Both his parents were descend- ants of old English families, who came to the New World between the time of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth, Mass., and the great uprising of the English people which resulted in Oliver Cromwell being placed in full possession of the executive powers of the government of England. Mr. Hall's father was an earnest adherent to and advocate of the Presbyterian doctrines. His grandfather was a Deacon in the Presbyterian Church. In fact, the farther back his ancestry is traced, the more evident it becomes that inherited nature, habit of thought, and what may be called pre-natal training combined to make the subject of our sketch a consistent member of the Presbyterian church, and helped him greatly in the courageous and successful strug- gle for a living into which he was obliged to enter at so early an age.

m RS. JULIA M. LOOMIS, an es- teemed resident of Bennington, N. Y., was born in the adjoining town of Sheldon. Her parents, Dr. Benjamin and Phebe (Eastman) Potter, who were both natives of Oneida County, and were there married in 1806, came to Wyoming County in 1808, and, after sojourning for two years in Attica, removed to Sheldon in 1810. Dr. Benjamin Potter was educated at Fairfield

Medical College, was a physician of high repute, and served as a surgeon in the War of 1812. He had a large practice, and died at the age of forty years, leaving a widow, four sons, and one daughter, the subject of this sketch. Two of his sons, Lindorff and Milton E. Potter, were physicians of Varysburg and Attica, and are now deceased. Philo W. Pot- ter was a merchant in the town of Java, where he died in 1890. The other son, Myron ". Potter, also deceased, was a merchant in Elgin and Algonquin, III.

Julia M. Potter, having in her younger days attended the district schools of Sheldon, spent a year studying the higher branches of learn- ing at the Attica Seminary. She taught school three terms previous to her marriage to John Loomis, which occurred October 17, 1841, at the age of eighteen years. After a wedded life of more than half a century her husband died, March 12, 1893. John Loomis was born upon the farm where his widow now resides, his father, Justin Loomis, having cut the first tree thereon in 1807. It was after the death of their father, who was a farmer in the town of Windsor, Conn., that Justin Loomis and his brother Chauncey, with their widowed mother, came to Wyoming County, making the long journey in a wagon drawn by horses, travelling together with two other fam- ilies named Hoskins and Case. The two brothers purchased jointly several hundred acres of wild land of the Holland Company, having brought with them, as is said, more than ten thousand dollars apiece for the pur- pose of investing in real estate and establish- ing homes for themselves.

Justin Loomis married Polly Rolfh, of Sheldon, daughter of Dr. Rolfh, who came to Sheldon from Canandaigua, Ontario County, about the time the Loomises arrived there, in 1807. Justin Loomis and Miss Rolfh were married in 1808, and three of their children were born previous to 1812. The brothers and sisters of Mr. John Loomis who attained their majority were as follows: Justin, an octogenarian, a resident of Lewisburg, Pa., nominally retired from the Presidency of the Bucknell University ; Mary O., who married Charles Throop, both of whom are now de.

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ceased; Lucy, who married the Rev. Alvin Plumley, both also now deceased. The home farm of four hundred and forty acres was a part of the original large tract which the Loomis brothers purchased jointly at one dollar per acre, and from which were sold many of the now flourishing farms in the section. Chaun- cey Loomis was married to Rachel Evans, a sister of the Hon. David Evans, of Batavia, and was appointed a judge in 1809.

Since her marriage Mrs. Loomis has lived upon the farm she now owns and conducts, the present comfortable residence, which is one of the most attractive houses in the town, having been planned and erected by her late husband in 1860. The Loomis farm, which consists of three hundred and sixteen acres, is in two parts; namely, two hundred and eight acres in the homestead lot, occupied by Mrs. Loomis, and one hundred and eight acres across the way. Mrs. Loomis keeps about seventeen cows, which is one-half the former number, and carries on a very fine dairy.

The first-born child of Mrs. Loomis, Milton P. Loomis, died at the age of seven months. She has two children living, both of whom are married, namely: Myron A. Loomis, who is a resident of Weems, Lancaster County, Va., and is in the oyster and canning business; and Jennie C., wife of P. S. Tyler, a musician and music-dealer, residing on their farm opposite, and having four children --- John Loomis, aged thirteen ; Augusta, aged eleven ; Margaret, aged two years; and William Gregg, an infant son. Mrs. Loomis is a lady of energy and prompt decision, which enables her to successfully conduct her farm in a manner both creditable and profitable. She is a mem- ber of the Baptist church.

RVING B. SMITH, who has been Prin- cipal of the Warsaw Union School and Academy for the past ten years, was born in Attica, N. Y., September 30, 1845.

Mr. Smith's grandfather, Isaac Smith, was born in 1763, and enlisted while yet a mere lad in the Continental Army during the Revo- lutionary War. He was army cook for one

year, but before age would properly admit went into the ranks, exchanging soup-ladle and frying pan for a musket, which he wielded with equal facility and far more fatal results. When an old man, he was fond of relating his experiences, which were full of interest to patriotic young Americans who used to gather about his knees during the long winter even- ings, eager to hear the reminiscences of 1776. He died in 1856, aged ninety-three years. His wife, who was a Miss Hawley, bore him seven sons and three daughters, of whom Haw- ley Smith, born in Oneida County in 1805, was the youngest child but two. The grand- mother died at eighty years of age, between 1840 and 1845.

Mr. Hawley Smith, the father of Irving B., was married at the early age of eighteen, while his child wife was but sixteen. Her maiden name was Fanny Bailey; and she was a daughter of Aaron Bailey, whose wife was a Wallingsford. This youthful union was a happy one, and extended over sixty years, spent, for the most part, in Attica and Middle- bury, where he followed the carpenter's trade, and where she was faithful in the love of hus- band and children and in the discharge of wifely duty and maternal cares. The shadow of death often darkened their home, for seven of their children died before reaching seven years of age. Of those who survived are Betsey, who was the first-born of the family and twenty years older than her brother Irving, the wife of Judson Kelley, a farmer of Middle- bury; Roena, the widow of Howel Jones, also of Middlebury; Edwin S., a school- teacher, a School Commissioner, and a car- penter, of the same place; and Irving B. There is a touching beauty and pathos in the life-story of the father and mother, who have spent the spring and autumn of life together, and whose lives ended almost simultaneously. For many months Mrs. Smith had been ill of creeping paralysis, and only lived a day and a half after her husband's sudden death from pneumonia. Both bodies were buried in one grave.

Irving B. Smith began working out upon a farm at fourteen years of age - compensa- tion, six dollars per month - and had an ample

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opportunity of testing Mr. Carnegie's theory that "poverty is a young man's best legacy." The boy showed an indomitable determination to acquire an education ; for, after studying in the district schools, he entered the Wyoming Academy, six miles distant, at first taking a week's supply of food at a time upon his arm, and afterward working twenty hours a week in Professor Morse's garden for his board. Between the school terms he taught, which was, perhaps, the best sort of education in itself. At Middlebury Academy, which was one of the earliest and most popular schools of Western New York, he received, under Profes- sor Monroe Weed, ideas of education and dis- cipline which were of great value to him in after life. From this academy many brave soldiers enlisted in New York's muster rolls during the Civil War; and it was from the class-rooms to the ranks that Irving B. Smith went when he joined the Eighteenth New York Independent Battery -"Mack's Black Horse Battery" -- in 1864, not yet having completed his nineteenth year. During his one year's service he participated in some of the military events of the war in the far South -- the capture of Mobile, the siege of Spanish Fort, and the capture of Fort Blakely. After receiving an honorable discharge at Rochester, he entered Hillsdale College in Michigan in the autumn of 1866; and there he remained until 1868. He then taught the Middlebury academy for three years, returning at the end of that time to college with one unshaken and inflexible purpose-to win a diploma. This end was attained in 1873, in which year he graduated. His first work was to fill the pastorate of the Free-will Baptist church in Pike, where he also became Princi- pal of Pike Seminary, a position he held for eight years, a part of which time he was still engaged in ministerial work. He was elected School Commissioner of the First District of Wyoming County in 1881.

On the 3d of December, 1869, he was united in marriage to Miss Amelia R. Miller, a daughter of Hiram Miller. Mrs. Smith's family on both sides belonged to the early set- tlers of Middlebury. Her mother's maiden name was Deborah Howes. The father and

mother passed their many years of married life upon the old farm on "Miller Hill, " and were taken to their last resting-place from the old homestead now owned by Mr. Smith, which was bought from the Holland Company by Mrs. Smith's father. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have lost two children -- Nellie Amelia, an infant ; and Alice Dott, a child of two years. The surviving children are: Monroe Weed Smith, now a student in Williams College, class of 1895, a young man of promise; Fan- nie May, a girl of eleven ; and Irving Blaine, a precocious little boy, who has as yet only counted three birthdays.

Mr. Smith is a member of Gibbs Post, Grand Army of the Republic; and Mrs. Smith, a member of the Relief Corps. They attend church services at the Congregational church of Warsaw, where M. Weed and Fan- nie are members, while the parents hold their old membership at Dale. Mr. Smith some- times yields to invitations to fill vacant pul- pits of the different denominations of Warsaw and vicinity when school duties are not too pressing.

LOYD W. CROSSETT, a retired drug- gist of Geneseo, N. Y., the esteemed representative of one of the early pioneers of Livingston County, was born upon the old family homestead, which is situated about one mile south of the village, October 5, 1847. His father, John Crossett, also a native of Geneseo, having been born here February 13, 1817, was a son of William Crossett, born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1763, who came to America in 1794. He es- tablished a store in Geneseo for the sale of general merchandise, and traded with the Ind- ians.

Mr. John Crossett at an early age became a farmer, and after the death of his parents retained for himself a portion of the land that had belonged to them. At a later period he purchased the homestead now owned and occu- pied by his son, and resided here until his decease, which occurred February 11, 1890, at the age of seventy-two. The maiden name of his wife was Jane Leonard. She was a native

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Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y, Part 67

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

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