Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y, Part 69

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 69
USA > New York > Livingston County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y > Part 69

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

tensive business in the course of time in the locality known thereafter as Humphrey's Hol- low. All of these children married and be- came heads of families except one daughter, Electa, who died at sixteen. The only sur- viving one is Nelson Humphrey, the youngest born, now an old man of seventy, living in Le Roy, Ill. Mrs. Cynthia Humphrey died at about sixty-five years of age, and her hus- band was again married. He outlived his second wife, dying in 1851, aged seventy-five.

Lester Hayden Humphrey, son of Theoph- ilus, was born in Simsbury, Conn., December 28, 1799. He married Hannah Blakeley, a daughter of Deacon James and Huldah ( Haw- ley ) Blakeley, of Aurora, Erie County, N. Y., her mother being a native of Greene County. Mrs. Humphrey, who was brought as a small child to Erie County, remembers distinctly when there were only three houses in the city of Buffalo, just after the burning of that town by the French and Indians in 18.12. Her marriage to Mr. Humphrey was solemnized on the 5th of July, 1827. The young couple lived for a number of years in Sheldon, where Mr. Humphrey became a large land owner, and conducted the largest tannery, harness and shoe manufactory in that section. His career was one which gradually developed from small beginnings to what seemed in those early days to be large ends; and those who knew him and a younger brother, a pedler of Yankee clocks through the rural districts of New York and Pennsylvania, noted with astonish- ment and commendation the success which attended their efforts. Lester moved to War- saw in 1866, and engaged in tanning and in the leather trade until 1870, when he retired from business. Mr. Humphrey was firm in the faith of his fathers, who for several gener- ations on both sides were Deacons in the Congregational church. He was an active member of that church both in Sheldon and Warsaw. He died on the 14th of December, 1884, lacking only a fortnight of eighty-five years.

Mr. L. Hayden Humphrey is the youngest of five children, the others born to Theophilus and his wife being Harriet, wife of the Hon. Orange L. Tozier, residing on the old home-

stead in Sheldon; Samuel B., a farmer of Warsaw and Supervisor of the town; Electa, widow of Asa Baldwin, living in Lockport; Minerva, the wife of Charles A. Kellogg, of Carthage, Mo. At thirteen years of age I .. Hayden Humphrey left the district school, and entered the academy at Arcade, from which institution he came to Warsaw, where at seventeen years of age he finished his course of study. At the age of nineteen he engaged in the leather trade, in which he was reasonably successful, and which he sold out in 1872, to accept a position in the Wyoming County National Bank. This bank was first established in 1851 by Joshua H. Darling, and in 1865 was reorganized as a national bank. In January, 1873, Mr. Humphrey was elected Vice-President, and from that time until 1888 he was its executive officer.

In 1885 he became associated with W. C. Goninlock in the manufacture of salt at War- saw. In 1887 salt was discovered in Kansas. Believing that this discovery was bound to revolutionize the salt trade of Kansas and other trans-Missouri States, Goninlock and Humphrey promptly decided to erect a salt plant at Hutchinson, a prosperous city in Central Kansas. This industry, established first by them in 1888, has grown so that now Kansas ranks next to New York and Michigan in the amount of salt produced, the present annual output being nearly one million bar- rels. In 1888 Mr. Humphrey resigned his position in the bank at Warsaw to devote him- self more closely to his salt interests; and for two years thereafter he spent fully one-half of his time in Kansas, he having special charge of that branch of the firm's business until it was sold out in 1890. On January 22, 1890, his fortieth birthday, Mr. Humphrey was elected President of the Wyoming County Na- tional Bank, to succeed his uncle, Wolcott J. Humphrey, deceased. This position he has since held. In 1891 Mr. Humphrey disposed of a portion of his salt interests in Warsaw : and in 1893 his copartnership with Dr. Goninlock was dissolved, Mr. Humphrey re- tiring from the firm. Previous to this he be- came associated with Marcus E. Calkins in the erection of a salt plant at Pavilion in

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Genesee County, to which business he now devotes a portion of his time.

Mr. Humphrey was married May 18, 1875, to Miss Maud Wilton Skinner, of Quincy, Ill., a daughter of Judge O. C. Skinner, who was a contemporary on the Circuit Court with Abraham Lincoln, of whom he was a close friend. Mrs. Humphrey was educated at Knox College, Galesburg, Ill., and at Ivy Hall, Bridgeton, N.J. She is the mother of three children: Onias Skinner Humphrey, a young fellow of eighteen, who is at Andover, Mass., preparing for Cornell, which he enters in 1895; Elizabeth, a girl of fifteen, prepar- ing for college under a tutor; and Maud, who is just eight years old.

Mr. Humphrey has never been a candidate for and has never held an elective office; but he is an earnest, active, aggressive Republi- can, who believes thoroughly in the principles of his party, and who is always found in the thick of the fight for its candidates. For four years he has been chairman of the Republican County Central Committee, and during that time no Democrat can boast of having been elected to an office in Wyoming County. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1888, which nominated Benja- min Harrison for President. Mr. Humphrey is genial, social, and unostentatious. He is an excellent judge of character and a man of unusual executive ability.

HARLES T. DIBBLE is an influen- tial citizen of Lima, Livingston County, N. Y. He was born and educated, however, in East Bloom- field, N. Y., his advent into this world occur- ring on August 19, 1830.

His grandfather was Joseph Dibble, who came from Connecticut to this part of the Empire State in 1803, accompanied by his wife and six children, and bringing his goods in an ox team. They settled in East Bloomfield, buying eighty acres of wild land. The usual log house was speedily thrown up; and, as the new-comer was a cooper, his trade enabled him to add substantially to the family income. There he lived all the rest of his days, indus-

trious and happy, dying at the age of seventy- six, in 1836, having been born in 1760. The six Dibble children born in Connecticut were Spencer, Osborne, Horace, Alanson, Polly, and George Dibble; but the seventh, Ralph Dibble, was born in the new home.

The sixth of these children was the father of our special subject. George L. Dibble was a babe at the time of the family removal from Connecticut. His schooling was therefore re- ceived in the primitive school-house of East Bloomfield; and he naturally grew up a suc- cessful farmer, a profession he never relin- quished. He and four of his five brothers, there being only one girl in the household, lived and worked in East Bloomfield till each was able to own a farm for himself. The youngest brother, Ralph, though born there, did not prefer East Bloomfield for a home, but went to Michigan, where he spent the remainder of his life. George I .. was sixty- one at the time of his death, in 1864. His first wife was Lydia Ann Smith, the daughter of Charles Smith, of Rhode Island. She be- came the mother of two children : Charles T., who is our subject; and his sister Eliza, who died at the early age of twenty-two. His wife, Lydia A., having died, Mr. Dibble mar- ried again. Six children were the offspring of the second marriage, and their mother is now eighty-nine years old.

Charles T. Dibble attended the school in his native town, and worked on his father's farm till twenty-four years of age, when he married; and his father gave him a farm in Bloomfield, not far away. The marriage took place in 1854; and the bride was Marietta Smith, the daughter of William and Juliet (Sage) Smith. Mr. Smith came from Con- necticut, like Grandfather and Father Dibble, the removal taking place when he was only a child of six. Like the elder Dibbles, he always remained a farmer in East Bloom- field, where he died, though his widow is still living, aged eighty-three. Mr. and Mrs. Charles T. Dibble remained on the Bloomfield farm eleven years, and there were born to them three children. In 1865 they decided to re- move to Lima, where they purchased a farm of two hundred acres in the south-west section of

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the town. It was in Lima, therefore, that their children grew to adult age. The eldest, William I. Dibble, born in. 1855, married Lena Durkee, of Conesus; and they have one child, named Maud Dibble. Minnie Eliza Dibble, born in 1860, died before she had reached her twentieth year. Edward F. Dibble, born in 1866, president of the Dibble Seed Company in Honeoye Falls, married Grace Deal, of Lima, and has a son - Harold Dibble. Both the brothers, William L. and Edward F. Dibble, have large farms, and are very successful men.

"One of the greatest of a great man's quali- ties is success. 'Tis the result of all the others; 'tis a latent power in him, which compels the favor of the gods, and subjugates fortune." Such are the wise words of the celebrated English novelist, Thackeray; and they apply to such men. Besides the home farm, Charles T. Dibble owns another in the town of York, of three hundred and sixty-five acres, one for every day in the year. In poli- tics they are Republicans, and an honor to their party.

HESTER W. DAVIS, a prominent merchant in North Java, N. Y., was born in Varysburg, September 6, 1837. His parents, Salem and Julia (Dodge) Davis, left four children, of whom Chester is the eldest. One brother died in the prime of life, leaving a family of five children. When the winter terms of the district schools were over, it was the custom of the boy's father to take him into his card- ing-mill, where habits of industry might be acquired, and where the encouragement of the wages earned would be an incentive to further effort as well as a factor in developing inde- pendence and self-reliance.

Soon learning the value of these lessons in self-support, Chester Davis, who began to earn wages at the age of twelve years of age, started out for himself in his eighteenth year. His first trip to Green County, Wisconsin, was the forerunner of many long journeys; for Mr. Davis has lived in various sections of the Far West, and has seen "all sorts and condi-

tions of men." In Wisconsin, where he se- cured a clerkship, he remained for a year and a half, returning home after that time, and becoming a salesman for his father, with whom he remained until he reached his majority. He then went to Missouri, where he lay claim to a quarter section of one of the many lots that were offered at that time by the govern- ment to settlers. Unable, however, to stand the frequent attacks of malaria, Mr. Davis was forced to seek a more hospitable climate, and started to go to Pike's Peak. Hearing adverse news from that quarter, he changed the course of his journey, and joined a company of travel- lers whose goal was California. The party was six months en route, arriving there in the autumn of 1859. The first year he was em- ployed in a placer mine, and afterward opened a livery business, which was a great finanical success. In 1863 he took a part of his stock to Nevada, and traded it there for a silver mine. This proved a bad investment, and was abandoned three years later, three hundred dollars and a coyote pony being all that was left of the three thousand dollars which had been engulfed in the empty "pockets " of the Nevada mine.

From Nevada he went to Montana, and pro- spected extensively, going thence to Idaho, where he worked a placer gold mine until 1870. Wearied at last of the hard work of the mining camp and the uncertain fortunes of those who are waiting to "strike a vein," he at last returned to his native county, and bought a half interest in the store of general merchandise owned by his brother, D. S. Davis. Two years later he sold out to his brother, and opened a mercantile house in Strykersville. This enterprise he conducted for nineteen years, when a desire to once more visit the regions of the Sierras grew strong upon him ; and, selling out to Mr. Hay, of that place, he took his family to Los Angeles for the winter season. Despite the delights of balmy air and soft skies and luxuriant vegetation which have made this city famous all over the world, he returned in July, 1892, to Varysburg, bought out his brother's stock and trade, and in the following autumn opened a store in North Java, where he is now engaged in a business

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the annual trade of which is valued at twenty- one thousand dollars.

In July, 1873, he was married to Miss Ellen Waterman, of Bennington, a daughter of Mr. Harry Waterman, who lives with his daughter, having, at seventy-six years of age, laid aside the active duties of life. Mrs. Waterman died in 1869, leaving two children - Mrs. Davis and another daughter. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have two children. The son, Arthur W. Davis, is a young man of nineteen, who gives promise of a useful and honorable career. H attended the Aurora Academy, and afterward graduated from the Bryant and Stratton Busi- ness College in Buffalo. Their daughter Emma is a little girl of twelve years, who has not yet outgrown a taste for rope-jumping and dolls.

Mr. Davis is a member of the Masonic order and a Republican. The many climatic changes he has had during his somewhat adventurous career have, no doubt, been of physical bene- fit ; for he has never been a man of robust health or strong constitution, and his excessive energy and mental activity have been entirely disproportionate to his bodily strength.

AMUEL BONNER, a leading citizen and office-holder of the town of Lima, Livingston County, N. Y., was born in another town of the same county, Sparta, in 1836, on November 22, son of Ben- jamin and Jane (Logan) Bonner. Whether his grand-father, Samuel Bonner, for whom he was named, was born in Scotland or Ireland, is uncertain ; but at an early day and in early life the elder Samuel came to Sparta, and set- tled down as a farmer, clearing the land where he passed the rest of his life in hard work.

His son, Benjamin Bonner, was born in that town, and educated in its common schools. Of course, he was trained to agricultural labor, and in this continued till 1855, the homestead having meanwhile come to be his own, partly by inheritance and partly by purchase. Hav- ing been born in 1807, he was now nearly fifty years old, in the very prime of life, and be- lieved he should find a better outlook for his ability in Lima. Therefore, selling the pater-

nal acres, he came hither, buying a farm a mile and a half east of the village, and thereon remaining till 1865, when he felt the need of rest from arduous labor, and took up his resi- dence in the village, where he died in 1891, aged eighty-four. His wife was the daughter of Edward Logan, of Sparta, and named Jane after her mother; and they had three children. The second son, Edward Logan Bonner, born in 1839, was about twenty-two years old when the Rebellion broke out. Enlisting in the One Hundred and Thirtieth New York Infan- try, afterward changed to the First New York Dragoons, he was killed on June 12, 1864, in the battle at Trevilian Station. Rose J. Bonner, the only daughter, born in 1849, lives at Lima.

The elder son, Samuel Bonner, the special subject of our sketch, was educated in the Sparta schools, like his father before him; but he also attended the Genesee Wesleyan Semi- nary at Lima, N. Y. He returned to agri- culture, however, and has always cultivated the soil, at present owning three fine farms, with an aggregate of over four hundred acres, though he has retired from active work, his land being occupied by tenants.

His marriage took place in 1865. The bride was Cornelia Goodrich, the daughter of Erastus C. and Sarah (Clark) Goodrich. Mrs. Bonner died in 1875, leaving three sons - Ed- ward L., Frank C., and William S. Bonner.

Their father was again married, to Mary Elizabeth Peck, daughter of Richard and Re- . becca (Jefferds) Peck, natives, respectively, of the towns of Lima and Rush, Mrs. Bonner being a direct descendant of William Peck, one of the founders of the New Haven Colony in Connecticut. Her parents were pioneers in Livingston County; and further facts about the Peck genealogy may be found in the able compendium by Darius Peck, published in 1877 in Hudson, N. Y. In 1890 and 1894 Mr. Bonner was chosen Supervisor, though the town is strongly Democratic and he a life-long Republican, having cast his first vote in 1860 for President Lincoln. He has served as School Trustee, and for over thirty years has been School District Clerk. Well has it been said by the German poet Schiller : -

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"It is not the mere station in life that stamps the value on us, but the manner in which we act our part."

O RS. LOUISA PRINE ALLEN, widow of the late Seth P. Allen, is an esteemed resident of Gaines- ville, Wyoming County, N. Y. She was born in Java, in this county, being the daughter of Peter Prine, a native of Sche- nectady, whose father, Daniel Prine, was also a native of that place. Daniel Prine followed for a time the trade of a carpenter, but at length moved to Cayuga County, where he set- tled as a farmer, and died after having reared a large family. His children were Peter, Daniel, Aaron, Jane, John, Sarah, Polly, and Luke.

Peter Prine learned the trade of a cabinet- maker, carpenter, and joiner, working for some time as a journeyman at Auburn. He had been educated in the district schools, and was a great reader. After his marriage he con- tinued to reside in Auburn four years, then purchased a farm on the Holland tract, which he cleared and improved. The farm, which was situated on the town line between Weth- ersfield and Java, was bought by Mr. Prine in 1831 ; and there were then several Indian huts upon the site now occupied by the town of Gainesville. He lived upon this farm for some years, afterward trading for one in the vicinity, where he resided until his deccase, at the age of seventy-eight.

The maiden name of the wife of Peter Prine was Phobe La Dow. She was a daughter of Jacob La Dow, and was born in Charleston, N. Y., where her father was a farmer for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Peter Prine reared three children - Gertrude, who died at the age of seventeen years; Louisa, the subject of this sketch; and Phoebe, who married Edward Burkhart, of Mount Morris. The mother passed her declining years in Eagle or Bliss, a village in that town, and died at the age of seventy-nine years.

Louisa Prine was married January 3, 1856, to Seth P. Allen, son of Matthias Allen, a farmer, formerly of Penfield, Monroe County, but later of Java, where he cleared and im-

proved a tract of land, and resided for the re- mainder of his life. His wife, who was in maidenhood Anna Peck, was born in Durham, Greene County, N. Y., and moved to Camden, N. Y., with her parents when a little girl. Seth P. Allen was one of eleven children. He was born at Penfield in 1833, and was reared to agricultural pursuits. He was well educated, and at the age of nineteen began teaching school, which he continued to do for nine terms. He resided with his wife's father for six years, then purchased a farm, which he conducted for five years, after which he formed a partnership with his brother in mercantile business in North Java, which con- tinued for eighteen months. He next engaged in storekeeping at Smith's Corners, in the town of Wethersfield, where he did a profitable business for seven years, and whence in the spring of 1877 he removed to Gainesville. Here he built the residence now occupied by his widow, and established himself in business as a private banker. He was a member of the Masonic lodge at Smith's Corners, and a Dem- ocrat in politics, also a Notary Public and Justice of the Peace. Mr. Allen was for thirty-seven years an earnest and devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he faithfully filled all the offices at different times, and was exceedingly active in church work. He was a class leader for tif- teen years. He was converted at a revival service held in Java under the leadership of the Rev. W. M. Webber, and his whole life thereafter testified to the fact that he was a sincere Christian. He was an honor to the church of his choice, being singularly con- sistent and exemplary in his conduct.

Mr. Allen for many years did a large busi- ness as a shipper of produce for the farmers in Wyoming County, and was regarded as thor- oughly honest and upright in all his dealings. His death at his home in Gainesville, on De- cember 13, 1894, was a shock to the entire community ; and his widow has been the re- cipient of much sympathy and condolence from a large and sorrowing circle of friends.

A portrait of this good man, whom those who knew him accounted faithful, is one of the illustrations of the present volume.

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EWIS J. CHAMBERLIN, who has been for forty years a Deacon of the Baptist church at South Livonia, N. Y., was born in Livonia, January 30, 1818. His grandfather, Elias Chamber- lin, was a native of Connecticut, from which State he enlisted as a soldier in the Revolu- tionary War. He moved to Livonia, where he died at an advanced age, having attained more than fourscore years.

Lomis Chamberlin, son of Elias, was born in Vermont, and came to Livonia with his father and brothers in the year 1810. The journey to New York was made in a covered road-wagon, and must have been a long and rough one. Lomis worked out by the month when a young man, and gradually accumulated enough money to buy a small piece of land, upon which he built a log house. By dint of honest toil and careful economy he added yearly to his possessions, and when he died, in 1828, was in good circumstances. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was a wit- ness of the burning of Buffalo. His wife, Roxey Lewis, was a daughter of Jabez Lewis, who followed the fortunes of war during the Revolution as General Washington's cook. Lomis and Roxey (Lewis) Chamberlin reared eight children, of whom Lewis J. was the fourth.

A home-loving and contented nature has dis- played itself in Mr. Chamberlin's strong at- tachment to the scenes of his youth, which he has never left, having always lived on the premises he now occupies. He was married in 1851 to Charity Hart, a daughter of John and Lorania (Chapin) Hart, of Conesus. Their children -- Lewis H., John L., Edith L., Guy -are all occupying honorable posi- tions and leading useful lives. Another daughter, Ellen A., is deceased. Lewis H. is depot master at South Livonia, on the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad, is also engaged in the coal and general produce busi- ness, and, besides fulfilling the duties which the foregoing work entails, he is an agent for the Wells Fargo Express Company. He mar- ried Alice A. Townsend; and they have one child, who bears his mother's family name - Martin Townsend Chamberlin.

John. L. is First Lieutenant in the First United States Artillery; and Edith is a teacher in the public schools, and is also one of the most popular music teachers in this sec- tion of the country. Guy is an electrician, and is at present located at Lynn, Mass.

Mr. Chamberlin and his wife are both mem- bers of the Baptist church, of which the former has been a Deacon for forty years. He cast his first Presidential vote for William Henry Harrison in 1840, and has always held fast to the faith of the Republican party since its formation.

IMOTHY GALLIGAN, a farmer of North Java, in the western part of Wyoming County, New York, was born in the adjacent town of Wethersfield. His grandparents, Edward and Bridget (Prior) Galligan, reared a family of five sons and four daughters, all of whom became in turn heads of families. Their son Thomas, born in County Leitrim, Ireland, in 1810, came to America in 1849, bringing his wife, Cathe- rine Prior before marriage, and three chil- dren. One child, a daughter Mary, had died in Ireland. The voyage from Liverpool to New York consumed six weeks; and, when the Galligans arrived, they settled in Haver- straw, where they lived for only a year. Having but scant means, Mr. Galligan deter- mined to go to the western part of New York, where the wild land was sold at a nom- inal price, and where he could clear away the timber, develop a small farm, and establish a humble home. Acting upon this determina- tion, he came to Wethersfield, and bought a hundred acres of land, which he cultivated and improved year by year. When he died, in his sixty-sixth year, on December 2, 1876, he left a good property of two hundred acres to his widow and four children.

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Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y, Part 69

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

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