USA > New York > Chenango County > Book of biographies : this volume contains biographical sketches of leading citizens of Chenango County, New York > Part 35
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horses in the Western States and shipped them to eastern markets, until this has be- come a leading feature of his business. He also carries a general line of agricultural im- plements, which he added to his other busi- ness about four years ago.
When the black cloud of the recent Rebel- lion was hanging over our land, threatening to overthrow our government and destroy our institutions, Mr. Aylsworth was among the first to answer the call of his country. Leaving at home his newly wedded bride, he enlisted on August 8, 1862, in Co. H., 114th Reg. N. Y. Vol. Inf., and marched to the seat of war, where he served until the fratri- cidal conflict came to an end. The last two years of his service were spent as receiving clerk in the commissary's office.
After leaving the army he returned to his family and the more quiet pursuits of private life, but not for long was he left to the enjoy- ment of this quiet. He had always been a Republican, and his many friends were not slow to appreciate his executive ability, and soon called upon him to serve them in the capacity of constable. That his manner of discharging the duties of that office was in every way satisfactory to his constituents is clearly proved by their continuing him in the same capacity for a term of twenty-six years. He has also served as deputy sheriff one term, and has ever been active in the af- fairs of his party, frequently representing it in county conventions as a delegate. He is a member of Susquehanna Lodge, No. 167, F. & A. M., and also belongs to the Improved Order of Red Men. While full of push and energy, yet Mr. Aylsworth always has time
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to devote to his many friends, and this cour- teous, affable bearing has no doubt had much to do with the success hc has met with, both in business and social life. We are pleased to present his portrait on a preceding page.
LEXANDER ROSS, proprietor of the Ross Cotton Mills, and an exten- sive land owner in the village of Sherburne, Chenango County, N. Y., was born at Morris, Otsego County, N. Y., June 25, 1845. He is a son of Hector and Ellen (Edwards) Ross, and grandson of John and Isabella (Melville) Ross. John Ross was a moulder by trade, and after his death his wife and children, William, George, and Belle, moved to Binghamton, N. Y.
Hector Ross was born in Greenock, Scot- land, in 1811 ; upon emigrating to this coun- try he settled in Canada, where he worked in a foundry. Later he moved to Rochester, N. Y., but finding no work he started east on foot, and at Brownells, Oneida County, N. Y., he engaged in his old trade as a mule spinner. From there he moved to New Bcr- lin, this county, whence, failing to find em- ployment, he went to Morris, Otsego County, where he worked at his former trade, receiv- ing $18.00 per month. He remained in this business for twenty years, and the last six years he had full control of the mill. In 1838 he was joined in marriage with Ellen Ed- wards, daughter of John Edwards, a native of Wales, who emigrated to the United States in 1833 or 1834. Mr. Ross, upon leav- ing Morris, moved to New Berlin, and with
his brothers Daniel and William Clinton pur- chased the mills located there ; later, in 1861, Hector sold his interest to his brother Dan- iel. He then bought a farm, upon which he built a large and handsome residence, and otherwise improved the land; in 1864 he sold this property and moved to Sher- burne, where, in 1863, he had erected the cot- ton mills now owned by our subject. The planning of the structure was placed in the hands of Mr. Ross, and the first brick of the tall chimney, which is 108 feet in height, was laid by our subject on his birthday, June 25, 1863, and the first brick on the factory was laid by our subject's father on his birthday, May 6 of the same year. The mill is a three story structure, 163 feet by 46, and has an ell in the rear 57 x 26; the boiler house is 51 by 23 and the office 42 by 22. The mill and seven tenement houses were completed, and the first cotton was run through December 23, 1863. The mill was at first run in the inter- est of the stockholders, but later the entire mill was purchased by our subject's father. Mr. Ross died June 24, 1872, and the mill was left to his heirs. Mrs. Ross died at the age of seventy-four years. Their children were: Catherine ; Amelia ; Mary ; Alexan- der; John; Ellen; Lucy; Melville; and Minnie.
Our subject entered his father's mill and mastered the varied details of the business, but desiring to learn the trade of a wagon- maker, he left the mill. Later on, however, when his father was in need of his assistance he was taken from his trade, and in 1872 was placed in full charge of the mill. Mr. Ross purchased the different shares of the heirs,
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and in 1893 he became sole proprietor, since which time he has put in new and improved machinery, and now has an output of three million yards of cloth fabric per year, and has employed at one time over one hundred men. Mr. Ross deals extensively in real es- tate, and is the owner of twenty-one fine houses, which he rents in great part to his employees; he also conducts a general store, in which he has a large, paying patronage.
Mr. Ross chose for his life companion Liz- zie E. Horner, daughter of William Horner of Camden, N. J., and they are the parents of one child, Mary E., who is one of the most skilled artists in the county. She is proficient in painting, etching, and teaches needle work. Our subject is an avowed Re- publican, and is an active and popular leader in his community. He has been elected as president of the village four terms, which mark of favor shows his popularity and the esteem in which he is held by his fellow-citi- zens. Socially, he is a member of the F. & A. M. Lodge of Sherburne; the R. A. M. Chapter; Binghamton Consistory, Thirty- second Degree ; and the Knight Templars of Norwich. He is also a member of the A. O. U. W.
HARLES CLINTON, the able and well-known attorney of Smithville Flats, holds a high rank in his pro- fession and is a man of recognized intellectual attainments, which have not only been shown in his legal actions in the course of Chenango County, but also in high educational circles
of the Empire State. He is a son of Ormond D. and Almira (Payne) Clinton, and was born in the town of Willet, Cortland County, N. Y., August 2, 1858.
The grandfather of our subject, John Clin- ton, third of that name, was a grandson of John Clinton (1), who was born in New Haven, Conn., November 8, 1721. John Clinton married Elizabeth Beecher in No- vember, 1746, and among their children was John Clinton (2), who was born May 4, 1752. This son married Mary Scribner, which union resulted in the accession to the family of three sons and one daughter, namely : John, the grandfather of our subject ; Simeon ; Joel; and Phebe. Mary (Scribner) Clinton died September 16, 1805, in her fifty- seventh year, and was buried in the old cemetery at Fly Creek, Otsego County, N. Y. John Clinton (2), was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. On page twenty-two of a manuscript volume, entitled " Military Register," in the custody of the Regents of the University of the State of New York, in the State Library, he is recorded as a private soldier in the Fifth New York Line, or Regi- ment, of Continentals in the company com- manded by Capt. F. John Hamtranck, and served, as there stated, from May 21, 1779, to January 1, 1780. On page eleven of Vol. 2, Treasurer's Certificates, a manuscript volume. he is also recorded as a sergeant in a regi- inent of levies raised in 1781. The records show that these regiments were in active service in the War of the Revolution.
John Clinton, the grandfather of our sub- ject, was born on March 25th of the year of the Declaration of Independence, and died at
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the home of his son, Ormond D. Clinton, in Willet, June 17, 1858, being buried at Haz- zard's Corners, Triangle, Broome County, N. Y. On December 22, 1800, at South Wallingford, Vt., he married Lemira Doty, who died June 19, 1835, in German, Chc- nango County, N. Y., at the age of fifty-two years. In early life he taught school and worked at the carpenter trade. He came into Central New York from Ballston Springs, Saratoga County, first settling in Triangle, Broome County, and afterwards taking up his residence in the town of Ger- man, Chenango County. His family con- sisted of seven children, in the following order: Orille, who died in the State of Iowa ; Polly Shaft, who died in Chautauqua County, N. Y .; Ormond D., the father of our subject ; Joel, who died in Springfield, Brad- ford County, Pa .; Phebe Doty also passed from life in the same town; Elias D., born September 22, 1815, died in Willet, N. Y., May 6, 1891 ; and David, who is supposed to have been lost on the Phoenix propeller, which was destroyed by fire on Lake Michi- gan within sight of Racine, Wis.
Ormond D. Clinton was born in Triangle, Broome County, N. Y., December 4, 1807. On August 9, 1840, he was united in marriage with Almira Payne at the village of Virgil, Cortland County, N. Y., by Hiram Green, a minister of the Universalist Church. Almira Payne was born in Leicester, Providence County, R. I., November 17, 1816, and was a daughter of William and Lydia (Barnes) Payne. Our subject's father departed this life in the town of German, June 18, 1881, and lies buried in Sylvan Lawn Cemetery,
Greene, N. Y. The mother still lives; she held a reunion of the family on November 17, 1896. There were seven children in the family, of whom six survive. De Witt, born March 3, 1847, died October 18, 1849. Jane, born April 12, 1849, married Lorenzo D. Lcach September 19, 1871, and they are the parents of five children, namely : Elmer C., born September 8, 1872 ; Albertus, born Janu- ary 23, 1874, died September 10, 1880; Elpha, September 18, 1878, died September 17, 1880; Mattic C., born August 7, 1880; and Carl, born Junc 26, 1886, died July 17, 1887. Phebe, born May 20, 1852, was united in marriage to George Schouten, June 13, 1874, and five children blessed their home, namely : Gertie, born December 5, 1876, dicd Sep- tember 22, 1880; Alta, born April 29, 1879, died March 22, 1895; Lennie, born January 20, 1885 ; Bertie, born November 12, 1888 ; and Mary, born August 15, 1890. Eugene, born January 13, 1855, was joined in the bonds of matrimony January 10, 1884, with Bertha L. Johnson of Greene, N. Y. He was admitted to the practice of law in the state courts May 4, 1880, at Ithaca, and in the Su- preme Court of the United States December 5, 1888. Mary, born September 19, 1856, married Charles C. Curtis of McDonough, N. Y., February 8, 1877; they have two chil- dren-Bertha, born May 28, 1885, and Lillian M., born July 8, 1895. Our subject is the next in order of birth. Emma, the youngest member of the family, was born June 2, 1861, and was united in wedlock with John S. Mason of McDonough, this county, No- vember 30, 1880.
Our subject attended the common and se-
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lect schools until sixteen years of age, and then engaged in school teaching until he was twenty years old. After studying law with his brother, Eugene Clinton, of Greene, he was admitted to the bar, September 17, 1885. He immediately entered upon the practice of his profession at Smithville Flats, and being an untiring worker and a man of great ability, he was soon recognized as a coming attorney, and to-day he ranks among the most distin- guished lawyers of Chenango County. Per- haps one of the most important cases of which our subject has had charge was the defense of John H. Dingce, in 1888, for the murder of Jerome Perrington, one of the most exciting murder cases that ever came up before the Chenango County courts. He succeeded with the aid of his associates, John W. Church, and his brother, Eugene Clinton, in getting the accused murderer off with a sentence in the second degree.
September 15, 1880, Mr. Clinton and Emma Fosgate, daughter of William Fosgate, a far- mer near Greene, were happily united in marriage. They are the parents of three sons and two daughters, who are as follows: Almira L .; Hattie M .; Charles D .; George C .; and Julian B. Socially, Mr. Clinton is a member of the Eastern Lodge, No. 126, F. & A. M., of Greene. Our subject takes a deep interest in educational institutions, and in 1894 State Superintendent Croker called upon him to assist in establishing a new method in keeping the records of examina- tions. He is now advocating the adoption of a certificate for teachers, which will not com- pel a teacher to be examined every year after she has once taken and passed successfully
an examination. In politics our subject is proud of the record he has made since he has been identified with the Grand Old Party, and upholds Republicanism both by ballot and voice. He has served as town clerk for four years, and in 1890 he was elected school commissioner of the second district of this county, and is now filling his third term in that office.
AMUEL A. ROGERS, a stationary engineer on the N. Y. & O. W. R. R., who makes his home at Oxford, was born in the town of Pitcher, Chenango County, N. Y., June 30, 1827. He is a son of John C. and Ann (Finch) Rogers, and a grandson of Amos Rogers.
Amos Rogers was a native of Connecticut, and came to Chenango County when it was mostly a wilderness. He settled in Preston, and purchased a tract of land on what is now Rogers Street. He cleared and improved it and became one of the prosperous farmers of the town. In political belief, he was a Whig. Religiously, he was a Seventh Day Baptist. His companion in life was Mary Chapill, whose father was a Presbyterian minister of Pharsalia, N. Y. They were the parents of the following children : Elsie; John C., the father of our subject; Hannah; Mary ; Davis ; Polly ; Juliette ; Phoebe ; Tryphenia ; Amos; Abigail; and one that died in in- fancy.
John C. Rogers was born in Stonington, Conn., and at an carly age came to this county with his father. He received his
CURTIS E. KNICKERBOCKER.
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education in the common schools of Preston, after which he tilled the soil in connection with carpenter's and joiner's work. He was a well read man and posted on all subjects of interest to the people. He was a leading politician in the county and was active in helping his friends to office, but would never accept one himself. He was united in mar- riage with Ann Finch, a native of Pitcher, and a daughter of Samuel Finch. Samuel Finch was a lieutenant in the War of 1812, and at one time was judge of Chenango County. He was one of the prominent men of the county. His nephew is now judge of Broome County, N. Y. This union resulted in the birth of the following children : Samuel A .; Mary ; Thomas ; H. B .; Silas R .; Daniel L .; John E .; Aurelius D .; and Apgar. Mrs. Rogers passed away in 1882, and her husband survived her eleven years. They favored the Seventh Day Baptists, in their religious belief.
Samuel A. Rogers attended the common schools of Pitcher, after which he took a course in Pitcher Academy. After complet- ing his schooling, he learned the trade of a carpenter and builder, also that of a bridge builder. He followed his trade until 1880, when he entered the employ of Miller & Per- kins of Oxford, N. Y., as traveling salesman. He remained with them for eight years, and then he accepted his present position, as stationary engineer on the N. Y. & O. W. R. R.
In April, 1854, Mr. Rogers was united in marriage with Susan (Kinney) Lake, a daugh- ter of Samuel Kinney of Oxford. Her first husband was Israel Lake, by whom she had
three children, namely : Whitman E .; Mary E .; and one that died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers' union was blessed by the birth of three children, whose records are as follows : George married Catherine Butts of De Ruy- ter, N. Y., and they are the parents of two children, Bessie E. and Jessie A .; Anna A. married Lyman Judd of Delaware County, N. Y., and reared one son, Frank H.,-her second husband is Romain Jackson of Tread- well, N. Y .; James H. married Anna Hutch- ins of Otselic, and has two children, namely, Henry O., and Mildred S.
URTIS E. KNICKERBOCKER, a resident of the village of Norwich, and assistant civil engineer for the O. & W. R. R., is a son of Edwin Knicker- bocker of Morrisville, Madison County, N. Y., grandson of Harley Knickerbocker, a native of Connecticut, and great-grandson of John Knickerbocker.
Our subject's great-grandfather was born in the suburbs of New York City of an ances- try, which several generations before came from Holland to New Amsterdam, now New York. The father of John Knickerbocker fought on the side of the colonists in the Revolutionary War, and surrendered his life in the blessed cause of freedom. Soon after his father's death, John Knickerbocker went to live with an uncle in Connecticut, and re- sided in that state until 1804, when he emi- grated to the State of New York, making the entire journey with a team of oxen. He set- tled in what is now the town of Eaton, Madi-
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son County, purchased a tract of land cov- ered with timber near Leland's Pond, built a log house, and began the hard and serious labor of clearing a farm, and preparing the land for the cultivation of crops. At that early day, there were neither railroads nor canals, even in the Empire State, which was one of the first states of the Union to give attention to internal improvements. Of man- ufactures there were few, except those rude and simple ones that were carried on in the domestic circle. For many years after set- tling in this new country, John Knicker- bocker was obliged to travel one hundred miles to Albany to market the farm products and to obtain in exchange such supplies as were needed in the household and on the farm. The round trip required one week for its completion ; on his return he was accus- tomed to bring with him various kinds of goods required by the pioneer merchants in their stores. With the assistance of his sturdy sons, he managed to effect a clearing of some 150 acres of his property, and con- tinued to reside on his first purchase for many years, finally selling his estate, and thereafter making his home with his son, Henry, at Cincinnatus, Cortland County, and living to the remarkable age of one hundred years. His wife's name before her marriage was Lydia Jackson.
Harley Knickerbocker, the grandfather of our subject, was eight years of age when the family removed to this state. His youth was passed in agricultural pursuits on his father's farm. His first marriage took place in Pot- ter County, Penn., the bride being a Miss Stannard, a native of the Keystone State.
After their union, the young couple settled on a farm in Potter County, where, after a married life of less than two years, Mrs. Knickerbocker died, leaving one daughter, Cordelia, who grew to womanhood, married and reared quite a large family, she, herself, dying in Chicago, Ill. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Knickerbocker removed to Madison County, and in Eaton township was married for the second time. Purchasing a portion of the old homestead near Leland's Pond, he moved into the farm-house already erected thereon, and began the life of a farmer on his own account, and under very auspicious circumstances, for he possessed better advantages than his father had for- merly enjoyed, one of which was a market at Utica, only thirty miles distant. After resid- ing a few years on this property he disposed of it to good advantage, and bought another farm near the present site of Morrisville Sta- tion, upon which he lived upwards of sixty years, and then retired to the village of Mor- risville, where his death occurred at the age of eighty-seven. The maiden name of his second wife was Henrietta French ; she was born in the State of Rhode Island, and was a daughter of Abel and Mary (Wilson) French. She died on the farm at the age of seventy- two. Seven children constituted the family, who were named as follows: Julia A .; Edwin, our subject's father ; Maria ; Jeanette; Sophia ; Susan; and Jackson J.
Edwin Knickerbocker received his early education in the district schools, and later attended the academies of Morrisville and Hamilton. He began teaching at the age of twenty, and followed that occupation for a
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portion of each year, until he settled down to farming. In 1852 he purchased a farm two miles north of Morrisville, upon which he resided until 1867, when he moved to the village of Morrisville, where he lived until his death in October, 1896. He was born in the town of Eaton, Madison County, January 5, 1824. In 1852 he was united in marriage with Mrs. Mary T. Stafford, neé Curtis, who was born in Nelson, Madison County, March 20, 1829. Her father, Ransom Curtis, died in Chittenango while yet in the prime of life, being about forty years old, and when his daughter, Mary T., was but fourteen. Mr. Curtis was born in Nelson, Madison County, in 1803, and was a son of Jonathan Curtis, a native of Connecticut, and of New England stock, who after his marriage to a Connecti- cut lady, Miss Johanna Wilkinson, emigrated in the most primitive and rude fashion to Madison County, N. Y., and settled on a farm in the town of Nelson in the closing years of the last century. Some years later, Johanna Thankful (Wilkinson) Curtis died, leaving a family. Some time after the death of his first wife, Jonathan Curtis formed a second matrimonial alliance with a Mrs. Newell, who survived him several years, and died in Waterville, N. Y., at the home of a son by the first marriage, Ebenezer Newell, after having attained to a good old age. Jonathan Curtis died in the town of Nelson when quite advanced in years. He was the father of five children, of whom Ransom was the third in order of birth. The latter grew to manhood in Nelson and became a farmer, in middle life removing to the village of Chit- tenango, where he died in 1843, being only
forty years of age. He was a Whig in poli- tics, and in religion a member of the old school Baptist Church, his father before him being a deacon in that church. Ransom Cur- tis was married in the town of Nelson to Miss Aurelia Billings, who was born, reared, and spent her married life in Nelson and Chittenango, after the death of her husband residing some years with her daughter, Mrs. Edwin Knickerbocker, the mother of our subject, and dying in 1862. She was born in 1803, and was a daughter of Lemuel and Pris- cilla (Locke) Billings, pioneers of Madison County. Like her husband, she was a mem- ber of the Baptist Church, and a devoted. Christian woman. Mr. Edwin Knicker- bocker was a Democrat in his early life, was then a Free-Soil Democrat, and upon the or- ganization of the Republican party became a Republican, to which party's principles he ever afterwards remained true. Education, the mainspring of civilization, the force that sets in motion and regulates the complicated machinery of human action in its various spheres of labor and lines of development, ever found in him a friend and champion. Mrs. Knickerbocker died in September, 1896.
Curtis E. Knickerbocker, the subject of this history, graduated from Cazenovia Acad- emy in 1887, and from Princeton College with the class of 1891. He then located at Middletown N. Y., in the city engineer's office, with Charles Everson, in July, 1891 ; in October, 1891, he advanced to the chief en- gineer's office at Middletown, and remained there until March, 1893, when he came to Norwich, and located as assistant civil engin- eer for the O. & W. R. R. He is well versed
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in all the details and intricacies of the civil engineer's profession, and is capable of filling almost any position in the engineering line. His work claims his whole time, so that though he is a loyal Republican and a con- sistent member of the Presbyterian Church, he has never found the time or requisite opportunity for engaging in either politics or religious work to any great extent. He is a whole-souled, genial fellow, and has any num- ber of warm friends, who unite in wishing him the best of success through life.
On November 16, 1893, in New York City, he was united in marriage with Miss Jennie E. Wilkinson, a young lady of intelligence and varied accomplishments, who grew to maidenhood and was educated in the place of her birth, Middletown, N. Y. They have one child, Kenneth E. The publishers of this work present Mr. Knickerbocker's por- trait on a preceding page, in connection with this sketch of his life.
R. LEWIS E. DIXSON, a disciple of ÆEsculapius, within the length of time during which he has fol- lowed his chosen profession among the people of Chenango County, especially of New Berlin township and its vicinity, has made for himself a place and won a standing that may well be envied. Belonging to a class of men whose duties compel them to be not only healers, but also counsellers and ad- visers as well in matters of the most delicate nature, he has done well by his large clientele. That his name is respected and his individu-
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