USA > New York > Madison County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Madison County, New York > Part 12
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Thomas Ensign was twenty-six years old when he bought his first tract of land, which
consisted of twenty acres. By diligence and thrift he has added to it, until he now owns a farm of two hundred and twenty acres. He has been a good, practical farmer, 'and for many years has ranked among the leading men of his town.
Having the misfortune to lose all but one of their children by death, some of them at a very early age, Mr. and Mrs. Ensign bore their affliction with Christian resignation, seeing, with the eyes of divine faith, that these little ones had gone to the Blessed One who had said, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." The names of the departed children were as follows: James H., aged eight years; Albert E., four years; Anson M., one year; Cornelia, two years ; Amelia, aged twenty-five. Until quite recently Mr. and Mrs. Ensign, both members of the Methodist Episcopal church, enjoyed in their beautiful home the delights of a serene old age as the reward of well-spent lives. Mr. Ensign has of late been bereft of his cherished companion, his wife having died November 20 of the present year, 1893, aged seventy years and six months.
Mr. Ensign is an ardent and venerable sup- porter of the Republican party. His son, George Henry, the surviving member of his family, born March 2, 1852, who with a wife and three children resides on the home farm, makes a specialty of breeding Holstein cattle, having one of the finest herds in Madison County. In June last twenty cows averaged thirty-five pounds of butter a day, or one and three-fourths pounds for each cow. They
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produced six thousand pounds of butter during the season. The largest yield of milk was eight hundred and eighty pounds in a day, or forty-four pounds from each cow.
LANSON C. WILCOX, a retired farmer, living on his one-hundred- acre farm at Clockville, was born in the town of Lenox in 1818. Though now in his seventy-fifth year, and having been a most active, industrious man, he is still well preserved, and is enjoying his declining years as only those can enjoy them who have striven to do their duty as it came from day to day, and who have satisfaction in reviewing the past, which, according to Socrates, is the manner in which old men spend their leisure hours. It was a saying of that great philoso- pher that young men look forward with hope, old men backward in memory, from which it follows that a serene and happy old age is im- possible unless youth and middle life are well spent. Alanson Wilcox, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in the town of Can- ton, Conn., September 10, 1787. He was a son of. Colonel William Wilcox, a Connecticut farmer, who reared a family of eleven chil- dren, all but one of whom" married and had families. Colonel Wilcox died of old age in Connecticut.
Alanson Wilcox married Irene Johnson, of Connecticut. In 1815 they removed to Che- nango County, where they lived two years, and then removed to Madison County, settling in the town of Lenox, two miles south of
Clockville. Mr. Wilcox rented a farm and ran a grist-mill, and also made barrels in the mill of Horace Case, to whom he was related. Living on rented land until 1823, he then made his first purchase of forty acres, which now form a part of the farm of his son, Alan- son C. Wilcox. Afterward he added fifty acres to the forty, and still later added thirty acres to the ninety, and thus at length had a farm of one hundred and twenty acres. In the winter of 1835-36, "the winter of the deep snow," Mr. Wilcox, Sr., erected the large, two-story frame house in which his son resides. He died June 30, 1849, killed by a kick from a vicious horse. At the time of his settlement in this county the country was new and wild, mostly covered with timber, the woods being full of various kinds of wild beasts and game.
Many were the privations and the hardships undergone by the pioneers. Railroads there were none until about 1845, and common roads were very poor. Newspapers and books were very scarce; and musical instruments were not to be found in every house, as now. Still there were pleasures, doubtless, that modern society does not enjoy. According to accounts that have come down from that early day, there would seem to have been more of sociability and a closer sympathy among neighbors than now exists. Some have argued from this that the former days were better than these, that people are growing more selfish than they were in pioneer times. In view of the generous philanthropy that extends its hand of help across continents and
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oceans, the sweet charity that encircles the globe, it can hardly be a just judgment which says the generation of the day that now is has receded from the spirit of the new command- ment - "Love thy neighbor as thyself " - instead of approaching it. Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox had eleven children, eight of them daughters. One of their sons they buried in infancy in Connecticut ; and one son, Orville, died at the age of two years, in 1824. Four of the eleven are still living, namely: Alan- son C., the subject of this sketch; Laura, his twin sister, now Mrs. Bull, living in the same vicinity ; Hulda, widow of Judge B. F. Chap- man; and Maria, of the village of Clockville. The mother of these children died in 1867, when seventy-five years of age; and she and her husband lie buricd in the cemetery at that place.
Alanson C. Wilcox was well educated in his youth, attending the district school and one term at Fayetteville Academy. Remain- ing at home until his marriage, November 9, 1842, with Catherine Huyck, of Lenox, Madi- son County, daughter of Jacob and Maria (Harden) Huyck, he then began life for him- self. Mrs. Wilcox was born in Columbia County, January 7, 1821. Her parents had ten children, all daughters but one, -- Philip, a farmer in the town of Fenner, now aged about sixty-six. Four of the daughters are still living, namely: Christine, wife of Henry Cotton, of Iowa; Sarah, widow of Osbert Mes- senger, living at Oneida Lake; Elizabeth, wife of James New; and Clysta, wife of H. D. Winchell, of Onondaga County. Mr.
Huyck died July 1, 1868, when upward of seventy years of age. Mrs. Huyck died August 1, 1880, at the age of eighty-six.
Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox have buried three children, namely: Irene, a beautiful and ac- complished young lady of nineteen years; Charles A., aged sixteen months; and an infant daughter. Their children now living are as follows : Mary, wife of Allen S. Whit- man, of Oneida, who has three children; Sarah, wife of George W. Chapman; and Frances L., wife of Wesley Foster, a farmer dwelling near by, who has one daughter. In politics Mr. Wilcox is a Democrat. He has never been an office-seeker, and is free to admit that there are good men in all parties. His occupation while engaged in active pur- suits was general farming. He is now resting from his labors. Mrs. Wilcox is con- nected with the Methodist Episcopal church, and both she and her husband are valued members of society.
OHN O. WHEELER, born in Co- lumbus, Chenango County, N.Y., Oc- tober 12, 1829. The subject of this sketch is descended from one of the early settlers in Herkiner County. His grand- father, Moses Wheeler, a native of Worcester, Mass., had the experience of all the pioneers going into the interior of the State, in finding none but heavily timbered land, and being obliged to fell the trees and make his settle- ment remote from any human life but the casual meeting of the aborigines of the forest,
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and hearing no sounds save the growl of the bear and the screech of the night-owl. His father, Prentice Wheeler, was born in the above-named county, and there carried on agricultural pursuits until his death, at the age of sixty-five years. His wife was Miss Sarah Hill, of Brookfield, N. Y. Four chil- dren were born to them, of whom John O. was the youngest, being only three years of age when his mother died. Some five years later his father married for his second wife a Mrs. Warren, of Columbus. She reared four chil- dren, - Mary, Dwight E., Tracy B., and Lynn S. This lady died in Utica, N.Y.
On the death of his mother John O. Wheeler went to live with an aunt, with whom he remained until about his eighth year, from which time until he was twenty- one he had a home with his step-grand- father, Nathaniel Spurr, in Columbus. In his younger days he attended the district schools, and at the age of fourteen went to the academy at New Berlin, N. Y., graduating at the age of seventeen. He then commenced teaching, and followed that vocation until he was twenty-two years old. He spent one summer in Washington, D.C., having 'a posi- tion there as clerk for a road company. In this capacity he met some of the great men of the day, including Henry Clay, Daniel Web- ster, Robert Toombs, of Georgia, and many other noted statesmen.
When twenty-three years of age, Mr. Wheeler began as clerk and book-keeper for the Leonardsville Manufacturing Company, a large concern of its kind, with whom he con-
tinued till the incorporation of the Leonards- ville (State) Bank, in 1856, into which he went as book-keeper and teller. Nathan T. Brown was the President, and Dennis Hardin was the Cashier. He remained in this bank until its close, when a National Bank was opened, and he entered it as Cashier, Dennis Hardin being made the President and Luke Hoxie Vice-President. After some years Mr. Wheeler, with Mr. Hardin, opened an office and conducted business as bankers, under the name of the "Leonardsville Bank," which continued until April 1, 1869. On that day he was elected Cashier of the First National Bank of West Winfield, N. Y., and has re- mained there ever since. He is also a stock- holder and director in this bank, as are his sons, Henry H. and Charles D.
On June 16, 1856, Mr. John O. Wheeler married Miss Rebecca E. Hardin, only daugh- ter of the President of the bank at Leonards- ville. Her mother, Eliza Brown Hardin, was a native of Brookfield, her grandfather, Daniel Brown, having been the first settler of the town, going to Leonardsville from Stoning- ton, Conn. He bought nearly all the land upon which the town is now situated. Her grandfather Hardin, who was also born in Connecticut, went at an early day to the town of Plainfield, Otsego County, making the journey by ox-team, and clearing the land to make his farm. He had a family of twelve children. From Plainfield they removed to Winfield, where they remained until the grandfather's death. His eldest son, General Abner C. Hardin, was a wealthy man, resid-
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ing in Monmouth, Ill. During the war Gen- eral Hardin raised a regiment in the surround- ing country of the city of Monmouth, Warren County, Ill., and equipped them for the field, besides assisting in the formation of other regiments at his own expense. He also built a part of the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad.
At one time Mr. Wheeler was very deeply interested in politics, and belonged to the Whig party. Since the dissolution of that party he has uniformly supported the Republi- can ticket. He was Supervisor of the town during the year 1863-64. He also enlisted fifty men for the late war to fill his town's quota. In his busy life our subject fills many important offices. He is Director of the First National Bank of Richfield Springs, a stock- holder and Director in the Agricultural and Insurance Company at Watertown, N. Y., also a stockholder of the Utica City and First National Banks at Utica, N. Y., Commercial National Bank of Saginaw, Mich., and the City National Bank of Corsicana, Tex.
Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have four sons. Henry Hardin, born December 29, 1857, is now and has been for many years the First Assistant Cashier of the bank at West Win- field, N. Y. He married Miss Julia, daughter of John Tyler, of West Winfield. They have four children, - Harry, Louise, Stuart, and Agnes. The second son, Charles D., who was born April 18, 1859, married Miss Fan- nie A. Spencer, of West Winfield. They have two children, - Henry H. and Fred S. John S., the third son, born June 21, 1864,
married Miss Mary C. Harter, niece of Dr. Getman, of Richfield Springs. They have one son, Robert Lawrence. Lynn, the fourth son, born June 19, 1870, is teller and book- keeper in his father's bank. Charles is Vice- President of the West Winfield bank, and has held the position for fifteen years. He is a thirty-second degree Mason. John S. is much engaged in literary work.
Mr. Wheeler is a member of the Masonic Lodge Western Star, No. 15, and Warren Chapter, No. 22, and is a Royal Arch Mason. While Mrs. Wheeler is a member of the Seventh Day Baptist church, her husband, with characteristic benevolence, assists all of the denominations of his town, proving by his generous liberality that his creed is "char- ity, the greatest of all virtues." As one of the leading men of the town of Brookfield, Mr. Wheeler receives the respect of the citi- zens of the whole county of Madison.
HILANDER A. SPAULDING was born in Chenango County, New York, in 1818. His father, John Spaulding, came to Chenango County from New England, and settled there when quite a young man, marrying about the year 1812 Miss Margaret Peterson, daughter of Philip Peterson, of the Mohawk Valley. They came to the town of Stockbridge in 1827, and, buy- ing a small farm, were able to add to it later, making in all about eighty acres. The nearest market to the farmers then for their produce was at Albany, N. Y., which was one
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hundred miles away; and, as there were none of the modern conveniences of travel that we now enjoy, the journey had to be made by wagon, with horses or oxen. This pioneer couple had thirteen children, eleven of them growing to manhood and womanhood. At the present time there are seven living. The mother died at the age of seventy-five. (For further notice see sketch of Ira Spaulding.)
Mr. Philander A. Spaulding has known no other life but that of the hardest work on a farm. When only nine years of age, he went into the field with his father to hoe corn and labor as any other workman. Very few advantages in education were given him. Scarcely did he have the opportunity to attend the brief terms of the small school of the dis- trict. When he was twenty years of age, his father, in recognition of his faithful services, telling him that, while he could give him no money, he would give him his time, allowed him to start out for himself. He obtained work on a farm for ten dollars per month, and for the second year received thirteen dollars a month. For four years he continued in this position, when he married Miss Miranda Parker, of Madison County, daughter of Joel Parker, a farmer, and one of the earliest settlers from the Eastern States. The mar- riage took place March 10, 1842.
Mr. Spaulding worked a farm on shares for one year, and then bought about thirty-two acres of land for thirty dollars per acre. Two years later he sold this at an advance of one hundred dollars, and purchased another farm of one hundred and eighteen acres in the town
of Stockbridge, N.Y. In 1863 he went to his present home in the town of Lenox, first buy- ing one hundred and eight, and afterwards one hundred and sixty acres, together making a goodly farm of two hundred and sixty-eight acres. He has another large one near the "Five Chimneys," in the town of Stock- bridge, and also various tracts elsewhere, being one of the largest land-owners of the county.
Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding had four daugh- ters: Rosalie, wife of David L. Davis, a farmer of Munnsville, has four children; Idalia, wife of Herman Cooper, a railroad employee, five children; Sarah B., wife of R. Holdridge, five children; Emeline, wife of Warren Vedder, one daughter. The mother, Mrs. Miranda P. Spaulding, died April 5, 1855. The second wife of Mr. Spaulding was Miss Sarah M. Marshall, whom he married December 24, 1856. Her children were: William P. Spaulding, a farmer of Augusta, N. Y .; and Judd M., a resident of Oneida, who has a wife and five children. Mrs. Sarah M. Spaulding died October 4, 1867. In 1869 Mr. Spaulding married a third wife, Elizabeth A. Kirk, of Oswego.
Mr. Spaulding does general farming, and also has from five to seven acres of hops, which pays him the best of any of his crops. In politics he is a sturdy Republican, de- cided and unflinching in his adherence to the principles of that party. He has been Con- stable for eighteen years, Deputy Sheriff for six years, and was at one time Assistant Rev- enue Collector of his town. In 1870 Mr.
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Spaulding, in company with three others, Milton Barnett, James D. Kilborn, and Wal- ter E. Northrup, started the Central Bank of Oneida. Mr. Barnett dying in 1874, Mr. Kilborn sold out to Messrs. Spaulding and Northrup, by whom the bank is still run. Mrs. Spaulding is a faithful Episcopalian, a communicant of St. John's Church, Oneida.
Although in his seventy-fifth year, Mr. Spaulding is an active and vigorous man yet, looking after the interests of his dairy and his stock of twenty-six cows, and going through frost and snow to inspect his farm and see that everything is in order. His constitution is still robust, despite the hardships of his childhood and his many years of toil; and there seems no doubt that he will live to a green old age. Noted for his good common sense and practical knowledge of affairs, which have served him in good stead in the lack of scholarly attainments, he is a favor- ite among his fellow-citizens, being widely known and deservedly respected.
EORGE B. PALMER, M.D., who has for many years enjoyed a successful practice in East Hamilton and vicinity, is one of the oldest and foremost representa- tives of the homeopathic school of medicine in this county. A native of Brookfield, the Doctor was born February 28, 1832. His father, Albion Palmer, was born in the town of Columbus, and was a son of Amos C. Palmer, who is said to have been the first white child born in Stonington, Conn.
During his early life Amos C. Palmer was a sailor, and rose to be first mate of a vessel of which his brother Nehemiah was captain, their voyages being to the West Indies in the merchant service. After abandoning sea-far- ing life, he removed to West Edmeston in this State, and entered upon the manufacture of pearlash. He was assisted in this vent- ure by Joshua Pratt, with whom he was in partnership in conducting the business of a country store. They bought the ashes to make the pearlash of the early settlers, who, in clearing their land, had to burn the trees to get them out of the way. Mr. Amos Palmer continued in that business for several years, but finally turned his attention to farm- ing in the town of Brookfield, where he leased a tract of land from the Morgan estate. He developed a good farm, erecting a comfortable set of buildings. His last years were quietly passed in Hamilton, his death occurring at the advanced age of ninety-six years.
The father of our subject was educated in the local schools, and was trained to the life of a farmer by his father, with whom he con- tinued to live after he attained manhood, rendering him great assistance in clearing the land and improving it. He lived to be eighty- seven years old, and died at the home of his son, of whom we write, in East Hamilton.
Dr. Palmer is one of five sons. His brothers are: Horace R., who is a lawyer at Hubbardsville, N.Y .; Charles W., who is County Treasurer of Dickey County, N.D .; Anson N., of Syracuse; and Joseph H., deceased. The Doctor remained with his
Big& Dy ERHat's Sons NewYork
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father until his twenty-first year, and in the mean time laid the foundation of a sound edu- cation in the public schools and in the acad- emy at Sherburne. He began the study of medicine with Dr. I. C. Owen, and in the four years that followed was well grounded in the principles of the homoeopathic school. But, desiring to still further fit himself for his chosen calling, he entered the Homœo- pathic College at Cleveland, Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1856. He entered upon his career as a physician at Norwich, where he continued to live until August, 1862, when he removed to his present resi- dence in East Hamilton. He has been in constant practice here for more than thirty years, and has secured a large patronage in the village and surrounding country, his ex- perience, thorough knowledge of modern methods in the medical world, and personal qualities that mark the true physician having early gained him the confidence of the people. He is the oldest homeopathic doctor in Madison County. There are but two who have practised longer in Oneida County, and but one of the school older in Chenango County.
The subject of this sketch was married in 1863 to Miss Sara, daughter of Isaiah and Phebe Clarke. They are very pleasantly situ- ated in regard to their home life, and are among the leaders in social circles in the village. The Doctor is a prominent member of the Homeopathic County and State Medi- cal Societies and of the National American Institute. He has been active in the affairs
of the County Society since he first became connected with it, and has held various offices of trust ; and he has also been Vice-President of the State Medical Society. He is likewise known as one of the leading Masons of this part of the State, having been identified with the order for thirty years. He belongs to Hamilton Lodge, No. 120, of which he has been Master for seven years, and Deputy Dis- trict Grand Master of the 17th District. He is also a member of Cyrus Chapter Royal Arch Masons, and is Past High Priest of that body. Politically, he is an unswerving advo- cate of the Republican party, with which he has voted ever since he cast his first ballot for John C. Fremont.
DWIN KNICKERBOCKER, a resident of Morrisville, has for many years been a representative citizen of Madison County. Agriculture, the first and most necessary oc- cupation of man, long received his attention ; and education, the mainspring of civilization, the force that sets in motion and regulates the complicated machinery of human action in all its various spheres of labor and lines of devel- opment, has ever found in him a friend and champion. Mr. Knickerbocker was born in the town of Eaton, Madison County, January 5, 1824, and is a son of Harley Knicker- bocker, a native of Connecticut. John Knick- erbocker, the father of Harley, was born in the suburbs of New York City, of ancestry which, several generations previously, came from Holland. The father of John Knickerbocker
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fought on the side of the colonists in the Rev- olutionary War, and in the cause of freedom surrendered his life. Soon after his death his son John went to live with an uncle in Con- necticut, residing in that State until 1804, when he emigrated to the State of New York, making the journey with a team. Settling in what is now the town of Eaton, he purchased a tract of land covered with timber, near Le- land's Pond, built a log house, and began the hard and serious labor of clearing a farm. At that early day there were neither railroads nor canals, even in New York State, which was one of the first States in the Union to give attention to internal improvements; nor were there any kind of manufactures except those rude and simple ones carried on in the domes- tic circle. For many years after settling in this new country he was obliged to travel one hundred miles to Albany to find a market for his surplus products, and a place where he could purchase such supplies as were needed in the household and upon the farm. A full week was required to make the round trip, and upon his return he was accustomed to bring back with him various kinds of supplies re- quired by the merchants in their stores. With the assistance of his sons, he cleared about one hundred and fifty acres of his land, and continued to reside upon his first purchase for a number of years, after which he sold his possessions, and made his home with his son Henry at Cincinnatus, Cortland County. He lived to the remarkable age of one hundred years. The maiden name of his wife was Lydia Jackson.
Harley Knickerbocker, the father of our subject, was eight years old when the family removed to this State. He was reared upon his father's farm, and was first married, in Potter County, Pennsylvania, to a Miss Stan- nard, who was born in the Keystone State. After their union they settled on a farm in Potter County, where, after a married life of less than two years, she died, leaving one daughter, Cordelia, who grew to womanhood, married, and reared quite a large family, she herself dying in Chicago, Ill. Soon after the death of his first wife Mr. Knickerbocker re- moved to Madison County, and later (in the town of Eaton) was married for the second time. Purchasing a portion of the old home- stead near Leland's Pond, he moved into the frame house already erected thereon, and began the life of a farmer on his own account, pos- sessing better advantages than his father had formerly enjoyed, one of which was a market at Utica, only thirty miles distant. After residing a few years on this farm, he sold it, and bought another near the present site of Morrisville Station, upon which he lived for nearly sixty years, and then retired to the village of Morrisville, where he died at the age of eighty-seven. The maiden name of his . second wife was Henrietta French. She was born in Rhode Island, and was a daughter of Abel and Mary (Wilson) French, and died on the farm at the age of seventy-two. She reared seven children; namely, Julia A., Edwin, Maria, Jeanette, Sophia, Susan, and Jackson J.
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