Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y, Part 75

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 75
USA > New York > Livingston County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y > Part 75

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Since the discontinuance of the Laws of Life, a monthly magazine published in the in- terests of the world-renowned Jackson Sanato- rium at Dansville, the Dansville Advertiser has added a Sanatorium department to its col- umns, and has been made the sole authorized periodical representative of this great health institution. It has thus added to its constit- uency a large class of enterprising and criti- cal readers. In addition to publishing a newspaper which has been an educating and

uplifting force to its readers and a great bene- fit to advertisers, in which it has ever kept its original interest, Messrs. Bunnell & Oberdorf are conducting a job printing-office, whose unusual facilities have attracted work of a State and national character, including books and pamphlets the artistic printing of which has been rarely attempted outside the large cities.

INFIELD SCOTT OBERDORF, a journalist and member of the firm of Bunnell & Oberdorf, proprietors and editors of the Dansville Advertiser, was born in this village on January 12, 1861. He is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter John Oberdorf, further mention of whom will be found in a sketch of his brother, Bernard H. Oberdorf. His early life was spent alternately between the farm of his grandfather and the village of Dansville. At fourteen he entered the office of the Dansville Advertiser to learn the printer's trade, where he remained three and one-half years. In the latter part of his ap- prenticeship he prepared for examinations to enter the Geneseo State Normal School, the money he had saved contributing toward his school expenses. At Geneseo his class exami- nations never fell below ninety, a percentage of seventy-five indicating good work. He was active in the Delphic Literary Society, and was chosen to appear in the annual public entertainment every June he was in attend- ance, being selected twice as President, the second time to deliver the valedictory on the literary programme. A well-established precedent permitted a member to occupy that office only once, and the exceptions to this practice were rare. Although during the four years from 1878 to 1882 he was absent twenty weeks or more for the purpose of teaching, be- sides being engaged, during vacations, teach- ing or working to pay expenses, he completed the four years' classical course with his class in the spring of 1882, and, within a year after being graduated, repaid the money that he had been obliged to borrow.

Before his senior year at school had closed, he being then twenty-one years of age, he was

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offered the editorship of the Livingston Re- publican, a paper published at the county seat, and having at that time the largest circulation in the county. This was accepted, and his editorial work began soon after the commence- ment exercises of June. In a little less than two years a copartnership interest in the Dans- ville .Advertiser was tendered to him by A. O. Bunnell, in whose employ he had learned his trade. Accordingly, on March 1, 1884, Dans- ville again became his home. Becoming iden- tified with various local organizations, he pro- gressed from secretary of Union Hose Com- pany, one of the best associations of the kind in the State, to foreman, and to Chief Engi- neer of the whole fire department, from scene supporter in the Odd Fellows to Past Grand, and through various positions of other socie- ties. He is a member of Phoenix Lodge, F. & A. M., and a Presbyterian. In June, 1891, he appeared first at a State encampment of the Sons of Veterans. The same summer he went to Minneapolis as one of five delegates representing that order in this State at the na- tional encampment ; and next June at the State encampment in Amsterdam he was elected without opposition to the highest place in the gift of that body, Commander of all the camps in the State. This year the order had a most successful career, the membership in the State reaching a point never before and never since attained. The gold cross of the order was conferred upon him for meritorious service by the next national encampment.

As a business man Mr. Oberdorf aims to be exact, thorough, and progressive. He is never content with things as they are, but insists upon a steady advance along the whole line. He possesses excellent executive ability, and is conscientious in the discharge of the duties of any position which he has gained or ac- cepted, whether the work be gratuitous or remunerative.

Mr. Oberdorf is a journalist of the progres- sive school, productive of ideas, which he turns to the very best account - a live editor of a live newspaper. The reports of the Lester B. Faulkner trials-the first held at Rochester, where about two weeks were con- sumed in continuous day and night sessions of

the court, and the second at Buffalo, where a still longer period was required - were from his pen. The editor of the Rochester Demo- crat and Chronicle, a daily spectator at the Rochester trial, declared this account to be the best reportorial work ever coming to his notice; and after the Buffalo trial he published an editorial paragraph which contained the following: "The Dansville Advertiser, in its last two issues, has a notable report of the Faulkner trial in Buffalo, as full, as accurate, and as graphic as that which it published upon the Rochester trial. The report is by W. S. Oberdorf, junior editor and proprietor of the Advertiser, who might easily trust his reputa- tion as a most accomplished journalist to the reports he has made of the trials in which Liv- ingston County felt the deepest interest."

Mr. Oberdorf has fine oratorical talent, and has made a wide reputation as both a political and after-dinner speaker. A Republican in politics, and always active in promoting the interests of that party, he first appeared as a campaign speaker in 1888, when he went on the stump for Benjamin Harrison. In 1893 he was Memorial Day orator at Utica, having that year received no less than fifteen invita- tions to deliver memorial addresses. Thor- oughly in earnest in whatever he says, brimming with ideas and talking for a pur- pose, he impresses himself upon others by the irresistible logic of fact and argument rather than by the use of honeyed words or florid rhetorical phrases. Not that he confines him- self to barren statement : rather may it be said that, with something of the poetic in his tem- perament, and he being a faithful student of history and biography as well as an active force in current events, his addresses mingle the perfume of the flowers culled from the fields of literature with the feeling and inten- sity inspired by the deeds of the great men and women of the past, and a love for country growing out of his familiarity with the glow- ing pages of that country's history. He never tries in speech simply to amuse or entertain, but to interest, edify, and inspire.

A man of positive convictions and irrepres- sible industry, and a stanch friend of all who struggle to rise, he has not only fairly won his

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way to his present position of wide influence and great responsibility, but his interest and his example have proved a help and an inspira- tion to many young men with whom he has come in contact.

RANKLIN R. BARROSS, M.D., a resident physician and surgeon of At- tica, who has practised in this town for over thirty-nine years, was born in 1832 at Linden, Genesee County, where his father, Volney C. Barross, was born in 1811. The Doctor's grandfather, Calvin Barross, prob- ably a native of Connecticut, settled in Beth- any, in Genesee County, as a pioneer about the year 1800. He married Olive Patterson, whose mother died, leaving several small chil- dren; and she, being the eldest, assumed charge of her father's household, and reared her younger brothers and sisters.

Calvin Barross established himself as a wool carder and cloth dresser at Bethany, and became a prominent business man and a Jus- tice of the Peace. When ready to erect his mill, in order to insure a successful raising, according to the custom at that day, he walked nine miles to Batavia for the purpose of pur- chasing a keg of whiskey, which he brought home upon his back; and he was obliged to provide another in the same manner before the mill was completed. On building his dam, which was about a quarter of a mile below a saw-mill on Little Tonawanda Creek, he floated the logs and timbers himself to the scene of operation. In spite of these difficul- ties he succeeded in establishing his mill, and successfully conducted it for many years. His office in which he transacted public busi- ness as Justice of the Peace was a popular resort, and the peach brandy which he dis- pensed upon special occasions was held in high repute. His method of making this seductive stimulant was to fill a barrel with choice peaches, adding as much of the best whiskey as it would hold, and allowing the mixture time to macerate.

Grandfather Barross lived to be over ninety years of age. Although he was very gray, a short time before his death a growth of jet

black hair appeared above his forehead. His wife died at the age of eighty years.

They were the parents of seven children, two of whom, a son and daughter, died young, the others being the following: John Barross, who died at Linden, aged forty-five, leaving one son, James C., now residing upon his father's farm; Volney C., the father of Franklin R. ; William H., for many years a merchant in Attica, now an octogenarian, liv- ing at Batavia; Sextus T., a farmer, who now resides at the old homestead in the house erected by his father nearly one hundred years ago; and Evander H., a merchant in Hills- dale, Mich. The dwelling of Sextus T. stands on the site where, at the time the old farm was cleared, was built the log house, which was destroyed by fire on a cold winter's night, turning the occupants out into the snow with nothing but their night-clothes to protect them.

Volney C. Barross married in 1831 Elvira Richards, daughter of Paul Richards, of Orangeville, a prominent dairy farmer of that town and the first Judge of Wyoming County. She was the child of Judge Richards's first wife, whose maiden name was Stone. After the death of her mother, the Judge married a second time, the lady being a widow named Salisbury, who had six children, which group, added to the seven left by the first Mrs. Rich- ards, made a family of thirteen children, all of whom attended the district school at the same time. It was customary, when the roll was called at night by the teacher, for the el- dest member of the family to tell how many were present; and Elvira would call out "thirteen," and then hide her head, being ashamed of such a large number. Mrs. El- vira ( Richards) Barross died when forty years of age, in 1852; and her husband married for his second wife a Miss Locke, who is now deceased. Mr. Volney C. Barross died in 1879, at the age of sixty-eight years. He purchased in 1853 and operated for twenty- five years the Attica Mills, formerly the prop- erty of the Folsoms, grandparents of Mrs. Grover Cleveland. The four children of Vol- ney C. and Elvira Barross are the following : Franklin R. ; Olive Jennett, wife of D. W.

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Richardson, a Buffalo business man, whose home is in Attica; Luellyn, who married I. E. Jefferson, of Attica; and Elvira, wife of William Hall, also of Attica.

Franklin R. Barross commenced his educa- tion at the Wyoming Seminary; and after completing his course there be entered the medical school at Ann Arbor, Mich., where he was graduated in 1853. He was Dr. John G. Meachem's first pupil, and practised with Dr. Potter, of Cowlesville, later one year in Linden, and also one year in Varysburg. On June 7, 1857, Dr. Barross married Harriet Sargent, daughter of John Sargent, of Cowles- ville, a pioneer of the western part of Wyo- ming County, who resided nearly sixty years upon the farm which his own labors had cleared and improved. Dr. and Mrs. Barross have one son, John V., and two daughters - Grace H. and Carrie B. John V. Barros, a broker and banker in Washington, D.C., who is a successful business man and unmarried, was connected with the Loomis Bank for ten years, and held the position of private secre- tary for R. S. Stevens a like period. Grace H. Barross has been a teacher in Attica. Carrie B. is the wife of Eugene P. Norton, proprietor of the Pineapple Cheese factory in Attica. They have an infant daughter, a prize baby of eight months, a very precocious child.

Dr. Barross is a physician of long and varied experience, being one of the oldest and most successful practitioners in the county. He firmly adheres to the old school or regular practice, and also has a wide reputation as a surgeon. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, as were both his father and grand- father before him, they being of the Royal Arch degree and Masters of the lodge. They passed through the Morgan excitement, firmly adhering to the principles of the order. The Doctor is a Democrat by inheritance, his father having been of that political party ; and he remains true to the example which was set before him. He is a quiet, genial gentle- man, generally absorbed in the cares and duties of his large practice, and whenever he has an hour to spare prefers to spend it over a game of draughts, at which he is an expert.

RS. ALICE B. KNIBLOE, who resides at her pleasant home near Hunt's, town of Portage, Living- e ston County, is descended from an early pioneer of Cayuga County, her great - grandfather on the paternal side being Jared Beardsley, who, with three brothers, John, Sherman, and Roswell, and one sister, Ann, came to Cayuga County, New York, from Connecticut about 1806, at which time the western part of New York State was thickly wooded and the settlements few and far be- tween. They made the journey in their pri- vate conveyance, and their experiences were similar to those which usually fell to the lot of pioneers in a new country. Jared Beards-

ley settled in the town of Scipio, Cayuga County, and built a tavern, which he kept for thirty-five years. His wife's name before marriage was Betsy Bennett. Their son, Bennett, grandfather of Mrs. Knibloe, was born in Scipio, receiving his mother's family name. By his marriage with Mary Tabor he had three sons, Jared, George, and Augustus.

Augustus was born in Michigan, to which State his parents had moved about 1829, and where they resided about six years, when they moved back to Cayuga County, New York, and afterward to Livingston County, where they died. Of their children Jared died in 1888, leaving a wife and four children, only three of whom are now living. George died in 1890, leaving a wife and two children. Augustus now resides in Portageville.

AMES W. DUNBAR, a prosperous hardware merchant of Attica, N. Y., was born in the town of Darien, Gen- esee County, February 7, 1839. His father, James Dunbar, who died in Attica February 20, 1895, was born at Hartford, Conn., in the year 1811. Early in the twen- ties, when he was twelve years old, his par- ents, Ruel and Elinor (Rogers) Dunbar with their six children migrated from Connecticut to this State, travelling with an ox team, James and his elder brother and their father walking, while their mother and the four younger children rode in the wagon with the

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household goods. The family were in limited circumstances. They settled in Genesee County, one mile north-west of Attica. Here the grandmother died at the age of seventy, while Grandfather Dunbar lived to be eighty- eight.

James Dunbar, son of Ruel and Elinor, and father of James W., of the present sketch, on beginning life as a farmer, purchased about fifty acres of land, ten acres of which was cleared. This he improved, and by his indus- try and thrift added to it little by little, until he possessed a farm of two hundred acres. In 1837 he married Olive Bowen, a daughter of Peleg Bowen, of Darien, who came from Montgomery County in 1808. Her father was a farmer and also a veteran of the War of 1812. He died in 1862, at the age of sixty- five, after having reared a family of eight children, of whom all but one attained their majority, and six of whom are now living, the youngest being now (1895) fifty-four and the oldest seventy-five years of age. James W. Dunbar, the subject of this sketch, is the el- dest of five children of James and Olive Dun- bar, four of whom are still living. Amy L., one sister, wife of Charles Meacham, of Ca- yuga County, died January 8, 1895. His only brother, Henry R., is a farmer residing in Clay County, Minnesota. The living sis- ters are Flora E., who married Thomas Chap- pell, residing in the vicinity of Attica, and Alice, now residing with her mother on Buf- falo Street, Attica. Mr. Dunbar's father conducted until the time of his death his farm of seventy acres at Darien, although he re- sided in town.

After receiving his education at the dis- trict schools, James W. Dunbar assisted his father in farm work ; and at the age of twenty- one he purchased a farm of eighty acres on credit at twenty dollars per acre. This he conducted for some years, adding to his pos- sessions later and erecting suitable farm buildings. In the spring of 1877 on account of failing health he sold his farming property ; and a year later he moved to Attica, where in 1880 he established himself in business for the sale of agricultural implements. This enterprise was attended with so much success

that in 1884 he added a general stock of hard- ware; he also keeps carriages, wagons, paints, and oils, and has created for himself a very prosperous trade, his store being located at No. 33 Market Street, in a building which he erected for that purpose.

On January 12, 1865, he married Cecilia Sumner, daughter of John Sumner, of Darien, her parents having been early settlers in that section. Mr. Dunbar is a Democrat in poli- tics, and is serving his fifth year as Justice of the Peace. He has been Secretary of the Baptist church for fifteen years, both himself and wife being members. Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar have no children. They occupy a very comfortable residence on Buffalo Street.

ORDELIA A. GREENE, M.D., has for nearly thirty years been sole pro- prietor and medical director of the Sanitarium in the village of Cas- tile, Wyoming County, N. Y. Her parents, Jabez and Phila (Cook) Greene, were married

September 30, 1830. Her mother, a native of Uxbridge, Mass., was a direct descendant of the Southwick family of whom Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick were early members. Her father, Jabez Greene, was a son of David Greene, of Rhode Island, where the Greenes have been among the leading citizens from early times. He removed from Lyons, Wayne County, N. Y., to Wyoming County in the year 1847 and to Castile in 1849.

At the age of sixteen Cordelia commenced nursing the sick, and two years later took up the general study of medicine under the su- pervision of her father. After a three years' course of study, two years of which she was in the Woman's Medical College of Philadel- phia, she was graduated at the Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, taking the degree of M. D. from that institution in the year 1856. Dr. Greene is a member of the regular State and County Medical Association.

The Castile Sanitarium, for the treatment of women and children, was established in 1865. From the first the general plan of medical practice adopted has included the broadest scientific principles. While the

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treatment has been largely hygienic and hy- dropathic, the remedial measures chosen have embraced every well-authorized surgical and medical aid to the restoration of health. During the entire history of the institution no advertisement has ever been issued. The patients have invariably been sent by friends who have at some time received benefit in the Sanitarium. The building gives accommoda- tion to about thirty-three invalids, and the adjoining boarding-houses receive from twenty- five to thirty more. Among those who have been treated here may be counted persons from nearly every State in the Union and from many foreign countries. The Sanitarium is always full, a vacancy rarely occurring which has not been pre-engaged. Every effort is made to combine quiet and elevated home life with the most skilful medical care.

ILLIAM E. HUMPHREY, Clerk of Livingston County, residing at Geneseo, was born in Springwater, N. Y., October 15, 1851. His father, Cor- nell, and his grandfather, Ozias, were natives of Simsbury, Conn. The Humphreys trace their origin back to Michael Humphrey, who came from Lyme Regis, England, about the year 1643, and settled in Windsor, Conn., a few miles east of the town now called Sims- bury. His wife was a daughter of Matthew Grant, of Windsor, Conn. In 1884 his lineal descendants numbered seven thousand six hundred and twenty-six. The ancestors of Michael came from Normandy with William the Conqueror, and settled in England in the eleventh century.

Ozias Humphrey, the grandfather of Will- iam E., was born in Simsbury in 1787, and married Parnel Douglas, of New Hartford, Conn. Shortly after their marriage they re- moved to Otsego County, New York, whence in 1817 they went to Madison County. Five years later, however, they returned to Sims- bury, Conn., where Cornell M. was born in 1829. The same year they came back to New York State, and in 1836 migrated from Ca- yuga County to what was then the "West," and settled in Springwater, Livingston

County, where in 1856 Ozias Humphrey died, on the farm now owned by C. M. Humphrey. They had nine children, as follows: Harvey D., now living at Webster's, Livingston County ; Amanda H., deceased, of Birdsall, Allegany County; Correll M .; Charles, of Almond, N. Y. ; Leora (Mrs. John Wilhelm); Lucy (Mrs. Willis Clark ); Esther (Mrs. John Crittle), the last three now deceased; Eu- phrasia (Mrs. John H. Baird), of Holly, Mich .; and Mary, who died early.

Correll M. Humphrey has always followed farming, and since 1887 has occupied the farm where he now resides, in the west part of the town of Springwater. He married in 1850 Emily J. Erwin, eldest daughter of Jared Erwin, a native of New Hampshire, who there followed the trade of a wool carder and cloth dresser. When Emily was seven years old, Mr. Erwin removed with his family from Piermont, N.H., to Rochester, N. Y., and the following year to Tuscarora, in the town of Mount Morris, in this county, where he lived several years, and about the year 1843 bought the farm in Springwater, where he passed the remainder of his days. They reared a family of five children, as follows: William E., the subject of this sketch; Edwin D., now of El- reno, Oklahoma Territory; Amelia E., who married Charles Swick, and resides in Abi- lene, Kan .; Herbert L., of Kansas City; and H. Wilson. The parents of the subject of this sketch are members of the Methodist church, in which the father has been promi- nent many years.

William E. Humphrey's boyhood was spent in Springwater, where he was educated in the district schools, later attending the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima. He remained with his father on the farm until of age, after which he worked for a time at carpentry and lumbering, and for about two years was asso- ciated with George F. Scott in carrying on a handle factory at the old tannery south of Springwater village. In the spring of 1877 he with his brother Edwin D. went to Naples, Ontario County, N. Y., and leased the Ontario Mills, which business they carried on until April, 1878. The year following he was in the employ of F. W. Beers & Co., and in

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September, 1879, bought the interest of George A. Miller in the hardware business of Allen, Whitlock & Miller at Springwater. He was associated with Allen & Whitlock for a time and later with Allen B. Becker, who bought their interest; and since 1884 he has been in company with Mr. Charles H. Mar- vin, under the firm name of Humphrey & Marvin, the continued growth and prosperity of the business at Springwater evincing the close application and business qualifications of the firm.

On December 31, 1879, Mr. Humphrey married Miss Carrie Robinson, daughter of Edmund and Mary Monk Robinson, of Spring- water. Mrs. Humphrey's ancestors were early settlers in Springwater, coming from Cayuga County, New York, in 1825. Her father died in November, 1892, at the age of sixty-three, having raised a family of five children, namely: Frank, who died at an early age; Carrie; Stella, the wife of Ezra Gleason, of Urbana, Steuben County; James M., of Springwater, Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture of New York State; and Min- nie, who married Charles Wiley, of Spring- water, and who now resides in the State of Washington. Mrs. Humphrey was graduated from the musical department of Genesee Wes- leyan Seminary, and taught music for several years previous to her marriage. The married life of Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey has been an exceptionally happy one; and they have four children - Nellie, Edward Robinson, Will- iam E., and Solon C. The family attend the Methodist church, of which Mrs. Humphrey is an active member. She is also an earnest worker in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Socially, they are highly esteemed. In the years 1883, 1884, and 1885 Mr. Hum- phrey was Supervisor of the town of Spring- water, and in 1892 was elected County Clerk, and changed his residence from that town to Geneseo in January, 1893. He is Republi- can in politics, and has been active in for- warding the interests of his party in his locality.

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Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming counties, N.Y, Part 75

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

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