USA > New York > Seneca County > Fayette > Centennial historical sketch of the town of Fayette, Seneca County, New York > Part 10
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His father, Nathaniel Bryant, removed to the Town of Romu- lus in 1802, and first located for a time on the bank of Cayuga Lake, upon Military Lot No. 71, known as the "Indian Orchard " farm.
Daniel received his first schooling in a log school house with slab floor and seats made of slabs without backs, rates of tuition being $1.50 per scholar for a term of thirteen weeks. That he well improved his meagre educational advantages, his career as a public man, abundantly bears out.
He early took interest in public affairs, and was chosen to sev- eral official positions in the Town of Romulus.
Locating in the Town of Varick, he was elected supervisor of that town in 1838 and 1844, besides filling the position of town clerk, justice of the peace and collector.
In November, 1844, he was elected county clerk of Seneca County and served as such for a full term of three years at Ovid.
Soon after the expiration of this term of office he removed to the Town of Fayette, where he was elected supervisor in 1850,and in November, 1851, was elected and served a full term as county treasurer.
Several years after the death of his wife, he removed to Len- awee County, Michigan, where he died at the residence of his daughter near Clayton, June 11, 1891, in the 91st year of his age. A son and two daughters now reside in this county, and three daughters in the State of Michigan.
ALANSON WOODWORTH (son of Hon. Erastus Woodworth of Covert), was born in that Town, May 23, 1800.
Soon after his marriage, in early manhood, he removed to the Town of Ovid, where he located upon a farm.
In the spring of 1844, he was elected supervisor of Ovid, and in November, 1845, while residing in that town, was elected Member of Assembly for Seneca County, serving in the Legisla- ture of 1846. In 1849, he removed to Bearytown in the Town of Fayette, where he had purchased a farm.
He was elected supervisor of Fayette in 1851, 1853, 1854 and 1855, and served as chairman of the board in 1853 and 1854.
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In April, 1856, he purchased and removed to the Samuel Lerch farm in the Town of Varick, where he died June 22, 1856,-his wife having died previous to his removal to Fayette.
Several of his daughters and a son are still living in Western States, and one daughter, Mrs. Emma Flickinger, widow of the late Dr. John Flickinger, at Trumansburg, N. Y.
The father of Mr. Woodworth, above named, and a brother, Hon. Augustus Woodworth of Lodi, also served in the State Legislature of New York.
JAMES McLEAN, son of John McLean, a native of Scotland, was born in the Town of Caledonia, Livingston Co., N. Y., November 22, 1818, and removed in childhood with his parents to the Town of Junius, Seneca County.
Removing in early life to Waterloo, he engaged for some time in mercantile pursuits and afterwards in the lumber and milling business in South Waterloo, and for a time also in Phelps, N. Y. He gave much attention to public affairs, and in 1858, and again in 1866, was elected supervisor of Fayette.
In 1853, he was elected and served a term as superintendent of the poor of Seneca County, and in November, 1862, was elected Member of Assembly and served Seneca County as such in the Legislature of 1863.
In 1868 he was chosen one of the Electors of President and Vice-president, and voted in the electoral college of New York, for Hon. Horatio Seymour, for President of the United States, who carried the electoral vote of his State, although failing of election.
Mr. McLean married Miss Frances M. Hubbard, daughter of John L. Hubbard, Esq., of Waterloo, in November, 1850. He died Feb. II, 1877. His wife survived him, and died Feb. 13, 1899. Two sons and one daughter are still living.
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WILLIAM THOMAS MCLEAN, son of John McLean and brother of Hon. James McLean, was born in Junius, Seneca County, April 3, 1825.
In youth he taught school and in March, 1847, married Miss Elizabeth Vandemark, daughter of Silas Vandemark, Esq., of Junius, and soon after removed to South Waterloo, where he engaged in business, in the management and conducting of a saw mill and lumber business.
He was elected and served as supervisor of Fayette in the year 1861.
He died January 8, 1863, at the early age of thirty-seven years. His mortal remains repose in Maple Grove Cemetery, Waterloo. Two daughters, residents of the city of Rochester, N. Y., still survive him.
WILLIAM W. STACEY-son of James George Stacey and Hannah Weyman Stacey was born in the city of Philadelphia, Penn., Jan. 25, 1828, and in his youth received a liberal education.
He removed about 1846, with his father to "Aubrey Farm," the east part of the Rose estate, in the northwest corner of the Town of Fayette.
He devoted much attention to agricultural affairs, and was chosen for several years as secretary and afterwards as president of the Seneca County Agricultural Society.
In 1864, he was elected and served as supervisor of the Town of Fayette, and he also served many years as overseer of high- ways in the road district in which he resided.
In or about the year 1883, he removed to the village (now city) of Geneva, Ontario County, where he died April 3, 1886, and is buried there in Glenwood Cemetery. His wife and two daughters survive him-also one brother and three sisters.
JAMES GEORGE STACEY-the father of William W .- was born in Philadelphia, Penn., Oct. 24, 1796, removed to Fayette in the year 1846, and settled upon "Aubrey Farm," a part of the Rose estate and died there July 9, 1855, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. A grandson, bearing the name of his grandfather, served as a commissioned officer in the war with Spain, 1898-99.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH
WARREN P. KUNEY, son of John and Hetty Kuney, and grandson of the pioneer settler John Kuney, was born at Kuneytown, in the Town of Fayette, May 2, 1841. His father was a successful farmer, and brought up his son to follow that pursuit.
Taking an interest in public affairs, he was chosen to several local positions and in 1867 and 1868 was elected supervisor of Fayette.
He died at Seneca Falls-to which place he had removed several years previous-Dec. 3, 1889, in the forty-ninth year of his age.
He married early in life, Miss Margaret C. Troutman of Fayette, who survived him several years and died in Decem- ber, 1895.
ISAAC BELLES, son of Uriel and Catherine Belles, was born in Hunterdon County, State of New Jersey, Dec. 24, 1824- where his education began in the public schools. When he was about ten years old, his father removed with his family to the Town of Fayette, where the education of his children was com- pleted in the district schools of the town.
Mr. Belles, upon arriving at manhood, devoted himself to farming and stock raising, in which pursuit he was eminently successful. He married, November 13, 1847, Miss Harriet P. Ruggles, of New York City.
Mr. Belles was an intelligent observer of events, and early manifested great interest in public affairs.
He was twice elected assessor of his town and afterwards in the year 1869, 1870, 1872 and 1873 was elected supervisor of Fayette, serving also as chairman of the board in 1873.
He was a prominent member of the Farmers Grange and for a time an officer of the Patrons of Husbandry.
After a brief illness, Mr. Belles died Dec. 3, 1898-survived by his wife, with whom he had lived in wedlock more than fifty years,-and four daughters. A sister, Mrs. Catherine Schott of Fayette, and a brother, Uriel D. Belles, Esq., police magistrate of Waterloo, also survived him.
SKETCHES OF CERTAIN LEGISLATIVE OFFICERS.
ROBERT S. ROSE was born in Henrico County, State of Vir- ginia, Feb. 24, 1774.
He married Jane Lawson in 1796, and in 1803 or 1804 removed with his family to the Town of Fayette having purchased in October, 1802, nine hundred (900) acres of land in the northwest corner of the town, on Seneca Lake near its outlet, which farm had been occupied and partially improved by Dr. Alexander Coven- try, who settled upon it already in 1792, and to which Mr. Rose afterwards made additions.
This finely situated tract of land, now divided into several farms, is still locally known as Rose Hill, the late Robert J. Swan having in after years owned the west end of the farm, (where Mr. Rose had resided), which once took a State premium, as did likewise the farm of the late John Delafield, which was a portion of the original farm of Mr. Rose. The J. G. Stacey farm was also taken from the Rose farm.
Mr. Rose early took a prominent part in public affairs, and in 18II and again in 1820 and 1821 served Seneca County in the State Legislature as a Member of Assembly.
In 1821 he was elected and served as a delegate to the conven- tion to revise the Constitution of the State of New York.
He was also elected and served as Representative in Congress for the 26th District of New York in the eighteenth and nine- teenth Congress of the United States from March 4, 1823 to 1827, and again represented the same district in the 21st Con- gress from March 4, 1829 to 1831. The town of Rose, Wayne County, organized in the year 1826, was named in honor of Robert S. Rose.
In the State and National halls of Legislature, Mr. Rose was known during his long terms of service as an intelligent, prac- tical legislator, industrious and ever mindful of the best interests of his constituency and of the public.
He was a man of great executive ability, and found time to devote also to the improvement of his large farm. He was one
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HISTORICAL SKETCH
of the first farmers in this part of the State to introduce improved breeds of sheep, by importation.
After a career of great activity and usefulness Mr. Rose died suddenly Nov. 24, 1835. A family of five sons and two daugh- ters survived him, and some of his descendants are still living in Ontario, Wayne and Yates Counties and in western States.
Robert Lawson Rose, one of his sons, born in this State, Oct. 12, 1804, and who became a farmer and a resident at Allen's Hill, Ontario County, represented the 29th District in the thir- tieth and thirty-first Congress of the United states, from March 4, 1847 to 1851, and died at Hagerstown, Md., in March, 1877.
The district represented by him in Congress comprised part of the territory represented by his father twenty-five years previous.
George W. Nicholas, son of Hon. Robert C. and Mary Rose Nicholas (a grandson of Robert S. Rose, and born at Rose Hill in Fayette, in 1830), was educated to the law, and locating in Geneva, engaged in a successful practice thereof. He served as Member of Assembly for Ontario County in 1871.
Much information for this life sketch was obtained from an interesting Paper read before the Geneva Historical Society Dec. 3, 1883, by Arthur P. Rose (a grandson of Robert S. Rose), a prominent lawyer and for many years an active and efficient member of the board of education of Geneva.
Other grandsons of Hon. Robert S. Rose, residing in Geneva, are Prof. Charles J. Rose, Hugh L. Rose, H. Norton Rose, and Robert R. Nicholas.
DANIEL RHOAD was born near Selinsgrove, then Northumber- land County (now Snyder County), State of Pennsylvania, in the year 1772.
He removed to the Town of Fayette in, or about the year 1809, and purchased a farm a short distance southwest of South Waterloo, and afterwards engaged in business in that village, as a saddle and harness maker.
He served for a time as an officer in the War of 1812, and afterwards took considerable interest in military affairs, rising in rank from a captain of cavalry to colonel.
He served for a time as coroner of Seneca County, and was
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appointed by the board of supervisors and served as county treasurer from October, 1821, to 1829.
He represented Seneca County in the State Legislature at Albany, as Member of Assembly in 1825 and again in 1827.
Colonel Rhoad removed to Niagara County, N. Y., in the year 1831, where he died Dec. 27, 1834, aged sixty-two years.
In early life Col. Rhoad married Miss Susan Snyder of Penn- sylvania, a niece of Governor Simon Snyder of that State, and she survived him several years.
JACOB G. MARKEL, son of John Markel, was born in the Town of Fayette, N. Y., July 7, 1807, his father, an extensive farmer, being one of the early Pennsylvania German settlers of the town.
He was educated in the public schools, and engaged in farm- ing in his native town. Having studied surveying he became proficient as a surveyor, and his services as such were often called into requisition.
In local affairs he served as town clerk and commissioner of common schools, also as commissioner of deeds.
In local military circles he advanced from rank to rank until he reached the position of brigadier-general.
In the latter years of his life he removed from his farm to South Waterloo, where he engaged in the milling business, and continued to reside there until his death, November II, 1854.
General Markel was elected Member of Assembly for Seneca County in November, 1848, and served as such in the State Leg- islature of 1849.
He was married in early life to Miss Hannah Gilliland of Fay- ette, who survived him a number of years with several children.
None of his immediate descendants now reside in Seneca County.
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DANIEL S. KENDIG, son of Martin and Leah Bear Kendig, and a descendant of a German-Swiss family which located in Lancaster County, Penn., about 1710, was born Feb. 19, 1803, in the Town of Fayette (where his father located about 1795). His mother was a sister of Samuel Bear, the founder of South Waterloo.
He received his education in the schools of that early period, and was brought up to mercantile pursuits, his father having removed to the Town of Waterloo (then Junius) when Daniel was less than ten years of age.
For a period of fifty years, Mr. Kendig was actively engaged in mercantile business in Waterloo, and for a short time in Seneca Falls.
Upon the incorporation of the Village of Waterloo in the year 1824, he was chosen one of its first officials, and afterwards served his village and town in a number of public capacities.
In November, 1854, Mr. Kendig was elected to the State Legis- lature while a resident of the Town of Waterloo, serving as a Member of Assembly for Seneca County for the year 1855.
He died at Waterloo Sept. 17, 1887. He was twice married, and his second wife and several children and grandchildren sur- vive him.
CHESTER VOST, son of Casper and Rachel Yost, was born in Fayette, May 12, 1806.
He was educated in the public schools of his native town, and was brought up as a farmer. While a resident of Fayette he was chosen to fill several public positions, including that of jus- tice of the peace, and of overseer of the poor.
He removed to Michigan about 1850, and settled at first upon a farm in Washtenaw County, removing after a few years to the city of Ypsilanti, where he engaged in mercantile business.
He also served a number of years as justice of the peace in his new home. He was elected to the State Senate of Michigan in 1859, and served as State senator for two terms.
He died May 24, 1874 ; his wife, Susan Abers of Fayette, dying several years previous.
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MILLARD F. FRANTZ, son of Lewis S. and Sarah A. Frantz, and grandson of John Frantz, of Canoga, was born in Fayette, Oct. 31, 1848.
He was educated in the public schools and reared upon a farm in his native town.
In early manhood he married Miss Louisa Southwick, of Jun- ius, daughter of Hon. Orrin Southwick, and to them were born two sons.
When about thirty-five years of age he removed to the State of Nebraska, and located at Tobias, Saline County, in that State, where he engaged extensively in farming.
In 1887 he was elected to and served in the State Legislature of Nebraska, as representative from Saline County.
He is at this time yet living in his western home, beyond the Mississippi.
PROMINENT LAWYERS AND JUDICIAL OFFICERS.
HENRY RIEGEL, a descendant of one of the pioneer Pennsyl- vania German families of Fayette, was born in that town, Feb. 22, 1825.
In his boyhood he attended the public school at the "Burgh " school house, and afterwards enjoyed several years of academic educational advantages.
Upon arriving at his majority, he commenced to read law in the office of Hon. Wm. A. Sackett at Seneca Falls, completing his course of study with the eminent law firm of Noxon, Leav- inworth & Comstock, in the city of Syracuse, in which city he was admitted to practice at the bar in 1851. In November, 1862, when only thirty-seven years of age he was elected county judge of Onondaga County, a position in which he gave so great satisfaction that he was repeatedly re-elected during a period of twenty consecutive years.
After the close of his judicial service, Judge Riegel, in 1883, resumed the practice of law in the city of Syracuse, were he died May 14, 1897.
In early manhood Judge Riegel married Miss Mary Hoster, of Fayette, who, with a son and daughter survive him.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH
CHARLES F. IRWIN, was born in the Town of Fayette, upon a farm on Lot No. 48, West Cayuga Reservation, situate upon the Ridge road, running from Bearytown to Canoga, May 5, 1828.
His educational advantages were limited to a few years in the public schools, the first of his teachers having been Wm. Ross, at a school house in the Town of Romulus, in 1832.
For a time during his boyhood he drove horses upon the State canal and also carried the U. S. mail from Ovid to Geneva.
When eighteen years of age, he apprenticed himself to Thomas. J. Fritz of Farmer Village, N. Y., to learn the carpenter's trade. and received his board and twenty-five dollars for his first year's work.
During this time of service, he assisted to build the first steam mill at Bearytown, in 1846, and in the building of several dwell- ing houses in the Town of Fayette.
In February, 1853, he took passage from New York City for Panama, thence by the Isthmus route to the Pacific coast and. again by steamer for San Francisco, Cal. The steamer upon which he last embarked was shipwrecked near the Golden Gate® on March 9th, but the passengers reached land in safety. He at once proceeded to Sacramento, and thence to Diamond Springs, Eldorado County, Cal., where he engaged for a time in gold mining and afterwards in the construction of a ditch or artificial channel in connection with gold mining. In 1857, he was elected a justice of the peace, and was several times re-elected and was. selected to serve as associate justice of the court of sessions. At this time he began the study of law, and so assiduously did he pursue his studies that in 1860 he was admitted to the bar in Eldorado County.
In 1867 he was elected county judge of that county and was twice re-elected, holding the position for twelve years.
In 1882, Judge Irwin was elected Member of Assembly and served in the Legislature of California in 1883 and 1884. In 1885, he was elected district attorney of his county and held the posi- tion for a term of two years.
Upon the retirement of Judge Irwin from that position, he continued the practice of law at Placerville, Cal., where he still resides.
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In 1855, he married Miss Eunice Garfield, who is still living with one son, a law partner of his father, and two daughters, one residing at Placerville and the other, a married daughter, residing in Brooklyn, N. Y.
The eminent and successful career of Charles F. Irwin affords a striking illustration how a young man, of energy and integrity, may rise from humble life to distinction in a country like ours.
MARTIN L. STOVER, son of Rev. M. J. Stover, of Paletine, German ancestry, was born at South Waterloo, in Fayette, Oct. 19, 1845, and as a lad attended the public school at that village. Afterwards he entered Wittenberg College at Springfield, Ohio, from which he graduated. His collegiate course was interrupted by military service in the Civil War, in the 86th Ohio Infantry and in the 17th Ohio Battery.
Returning to the State of New York, he read law, was admit- ted to the bar in 1870, and entered upon the practice of his pro- fession at Amsterdam, N. Y.
In November, 1873, he was elected Member of Assembly for Montgomery County and served as such in the Legislature of 1874.
He soon became eminent in his profession as a lawyer, and built up a large and lucrative practice.
In November, 1891, he was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court for the Fourth Judicial District of this State, for a full term of fourteen years which he is now serving.
Judge Stover in the year 1874, married Miss Helen E. Shuler, daughter of David W. Shuler, Esq., a prominent manufacturer of Amsterdam, and they have an interesting family of four children.
DANIEL MORRIS was born near West Fayette Station of the Lehigh Valley Railway, Jan. 4, 1812.
His father-Joseph Morris, a farmer, served for a time as a commissioned officer in the War of 1812.
Daniel, in his youth received an education in the public schools and at Canandaigua Academy.
He taught school for a time, and subsequently read law and was admitted to practice in the courts of this State, in January 1845-when he located at Rushville, Yates County, N. Y.
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HISTORICAL SKETCH
Becoming prominent in the legal profession, he was already in 1847 elected district attorney of Yates County for a full term.
In November, 1858, he was elected Member of Assembly for Yates County and served as such in the Legislature of 1859.
In his public career, he was also elected to serve the 25th Con- gressional District in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth Congress of the United States, from March 4, 1863 to 1867.
Mr. Morris was married in 1845 to Miss Lucy Torrey of Wayne County, N. Y. He survived his wife several years, and died April 22, 1889, at Penn Yan, N. Y.,
Several children and grandchildren survive him.
EARLY SETTLERS, ETC.
JOHN RUMSEY, son of Simon and Jerusha Knapp Rumsey, was born in Cornwall Precinct, Orange County, N. Y., in the year 1753.
He married in early life Miss Mary Russell, daughter of Thomas Russell, a soldier of the Revolutionary War-and located in 1777 on a farm at Smiths' Clove in the county of his birth.
Orange County, being in the neighborhood of West Point, was the sceneof many conflicts with the British and their Indian allies, and although Mr. Rumsey did not enter the Continental army as a soldier, it is known that he was true to the American cause, and bore his part in defense of his locality in emergency duty.
As early as 1775, Mr. Rumsey signed the Roll of Associators of Cornwall,-an enrollment of men of military age, in which they associated " to adopt and endeavor to carry into execution, whatever measures may be recommended by the Continental Con- gress, or resolved upon by Provincial Congress, for the purpose of preserving our Constitution, and opposing the execution of the several arbitrary and oppressive acts of the British Parliament," etc.
In 1783, at the close of the Revolutionary War, he sold his farm and removed with his family to White Deer Valley, then in Northumberland County, Pa., where he resided for several
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and until he and his family moved to Fayette, the exact ·f which removal is not known, but it was undoubtedly 0 1790 and 1793. He purchased and located upon v Lot No. 23, Romulus, now Fayette on Seneca Lake, d been allotted to his wife's father-Thomas Russell, es in the Revolutionary War. Here, Mr. Rumsey public inn, the first one established in town, and he active part in the opening of public roads and the ment of his farm.
96 and the two following years, Mr. Rumsey was elected .rseer of highways of the Town of Romulus.
1796, Mr. Rumsey sold the east half of his farm to James lung and in 1805, sold the residue to William Gamber, and loved about two miles east from Seneca Lake, on Military Lot No. 25, where he continued to reside until his decease, Aug. 10, 1829.
He was the father of nine children, six sons and three daughters. Some of his descendants still reside in Fayette. Two of his grandsons, John. A. Rumsey and Moses Rumsey, both now deceased, located at Seneca Falls, becoming prominent manufacturers, and leaving children who are well known and respected citizens of that town.
SAMUEL BEAR was born in Lancaster County, Pa., near Har- risburg, of German parentage, Aug. 18, 1770. Of his youth nothing has been ascertained. He doubtless early heard of the fer- tile country in the lakeregion of Western New York, as we learn that in the fall of 1792, soon after arriving at legal age, he made a trip to Skoiyase, and made a location on the south side of the river, in Fayette, opposite to the Indian village, located on thesite of that part of the present Waterloo Village which is in the town of same name. He returned for the winter to his Pennsylvania home, and early in 1793 located permanently at South Waterloo.
In 1796 he married Miss Mary Snyder, of Pennsylvania, and brought her, on horseback, to her new home.
He began the erection of a log grist mill in 1793, upon his location, and was assisted in the mechanical work by the Yost brothers, John, Casper and George. This mill was ready to
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