USA > New York > Genealogical and family history of central New York : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation, Volume II > Part 13
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The earliest records of this family CASE state that in the year 1200 certain of its members moved from York to Aylsham, England, where they are now rep- resented by wealthy tanners and farmers who own so much land around Aylsham that it is said to be "Cased in." These lands surround those which were once the property of Anne Boleyn, one of the wives of Henry VIII. The Case and Boleyn families were closely con- nected by intermarriage. The records are also said to show the names of several Cases who were locally prominent associates and sup- porters of Oliver Cromwell, under whose pa- tronage they accumulated much property by furnishing leather to the English army.
(I) Richard Case, ancestor of the American family, a native of England, was an inhabitant of Hartford, Connecticut. The date of his settlement is not certain, but he bought ninety acres of land on the east side of the Connecti- cut river, June 31, 1669, of William Edwards and Agnes his wife, and bounded as follows: "North by William Pitkin ; south on John Bid- well's; east on the wilderness; the rear on the swamp." He became a freeman at Hart- ford in 1671, and died March 30, 1694. His will, made September 8, 1690, was witnessed by William Pitkin and Thomas Olcott. The
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executors were "my wife" and "my kinsman, Mr. Thomas Olcot." Richard Case married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Joan Pur- chase. This Mr. Purchase (or Purkas) was in Hartford before 1639. Children of Rich- ard and Elizabeth Case: Richard, John and Mary.
(II) Richard (2), eldest child of Richard (1) and Elizabeth (Purchase) Case, died in East Hartford, February 22, 1724. The Hart- ford land records show that the estate of Rich- ard Case was settled among his heirs by deed dated November 6, 1729. He married, before 1703, Sarah Children : Sarah, Joseph and Elizabeth.
(III) Joseph, son of Richard (2) and Saralı Case, was born in East Hartford, December 27, 1705, died there May 26, 1791 ; was buried in the East Hartford Center cemetery. Like his father he was a farmer. He married, 1731, Esther, daughter of Ebenezer Hills, of East Hartford. Children: Joseph, David, Richard, Abigail, Thomas, Sarah and Hannah.
(IV) David, second son of Joseph and Esther (Hills) Case, was born in East Hart- ford. Record, volume 25, page 269, contains record of grant of administration on estate. of David Case, late of East Hartford, to George Griswold. Distribution of the estate was made (no date given) to widow not named, sons Uriah, William and David, and daughters Tryphena and Assenath Keeney. He owned land in Glastonbury. He married Abi- gail Among their children were, in addition to those above named: Abigail, died January 26, 1774, aged three; Abigail, died November 20, 1789, aged sixteen.
(V) Joseph (2), son of David and Abigail Case, was a farmer of the Mohawk Valley, near Schenectady, New York. He married a Miss Whitney, of Prescott, Ontario, Canada. Children: Levi James ; Whitney A. (of whom further) ; Lucy, married Robert Bailey ; Chloe, married James Lewis, the engineer who ran the first steam engine, "John Bull"; when the railroad company exhibited the old engine on the rails at the Chicago Exposition, Mr. Lewis was invited to go to Chicago and ride in his old engine; Cynthia, married John Barnum ; Mary, married Stephen P. Porter.
(VI) Whitney Asa, son of Joseph (2) and (Whitney) Case, was born at Ogdens- burg, New York, 1825, died at Carlsbad, Ger- many, July 12, 1892. He was educated in the public schools, and after completing his studies
learned the trade of coppersmith at Schenec- tady. In 1850 he located in Buffalo, where for three years he was foreman for Dudley Brothers. In 1853 he started in business for himself at the corner of Washington and Ohio streets. He made a specialty of heavy copper smithing for steamboats and locomotives. He soon established a good reputation for the ex- cellence of his work and at one time did all the work in his line for the New York Cen- tral Railroad. In 1881 he admitted his son. Edward A., to partnership, later his son, Whit- ney G., under the firm name W. A. Case & Sons, and to his original lines added engineers' supplies, wholesale and retail, and later added plumbers' supplies. The firm has always been a prosperous one, and is now (19II) known as the W. A. Case & Son Manufacturing Company. In 1892 Mr. Case was ordered to take a foreign trip by his physicians, his health having broken down. He died at Carlsbad, where he had gone for the benefit of the baths and treatment. He was a man of good busi- ness ability, generous to a fault and highly re- garded by his associates. He was a member of the Masonic order, the Methodist Episcopal church, and a Republican. He married (first) Freda Felthausen. He married (second) Mary Emigh. Children : Whitney Gaylord (of whom further) ; Mary, married William H. Collins ; Edward A., died at the age of twenty-eight years ; Lilla, married R. W. McCready ; child, Florence, deceased.
(VII) Whitney Gaylord, eldest son of Whit- ney Asa and his second wife, Mary (Emigh) Case, was born April 21, 1856. He was edu- cated in the Buffalo schools and after gradu- ating from the high school entered his father's shop and learned copper smithing. He was a hard worker, often spending from fifteen to seventeen hours out of the twenty-four in the shop. From the shop he went to the office of the firm, then on the road as salesman. When he was twenty-five years of age his father admitted him to partnership, but this did not mean easier times for the young man. His father's health was on the decline and the extra burden fell on the younger man, who bravely shouldered it. After the death of his father, Whitney G. continued the business, which was growing very fast, and. in 1903 formed it into a corporation, W. A. Case & Son Manufacturing Company, with Whitney G. Case president, J. P. Fell vice-president. The business has grown from a total of sixty
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thousand dollars in 1892 to that of two mil- lion dollars in 1910, and is the largest store in the United States devoted exclusively to their line of goods. Since 1906 Mr. Case has relaxed his strenuous business somewhat and now takes needed recreation. He has the satisfaction of knowing that he has borne his full share of burden, and to his own energy, industry and perseverance he owes the success that is his. He is a trustee of the Erie County Savings Bank, director of the Commonwealth Trust Company, director of the Buffalo Club, ex-treasurer of the Ellicott Club, ex-president of the Park Club, director of the Buffalo Yacht Club and member of the Wanakah Golf Club. In the Masonic order he is affil- iated with Queen City Lodge, Free and Ac- cepted Masons ; Keystone Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Buffalo Council, Royal and Select Masters; Hugh De Payen Commandery, Knights Templar ; Buffalo Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, a thirty-second degree. He is a member and trustee of Westminster Presbyterian Church. In politics he is a Re- publican.
He married, October 26, 1881, Martha Fran- ces Allen, born January 17, 1860, daughter of Wesley D. Allen. Children: I. Cyrena, born June 6, 1884; married, March 27, 1906, How- ard Kellogg ; children : Martha, born January 17, 1907; Howard, born November 4, 1908. 2. Edward Whitney (of whom further).
(VIII) Edward Whitney, only son of Whit- ney Gaylord and Mary Frances (Allen) Case, was born in Buffalo, New York, June 17, 1888. He graduated at Heathcote school, 1905, pre- pared for college at Lawrenceville, New Jer- sey, entered Cornell University, academic course, class of 1910, but before graduating accepted a position with the Buffalo Radiator Company, in the foundry and machine shop. He is a member of the Buffalo Canoe and Auto clubs, Zeta Psi fraternity of Cornell, Westminster Presbyterian Church, and is a Republican in politics. He married, April 19, 1911, Geraldine Armstrong Thompson, daugh- ter of Augustus A. Thompson.
ABBOTT Charles Stuart Abbott, of Jamestown, New York, whose death occurred March 1, 1905, was a descendant in the ninth generation from George Abbott, of Rowley, Massachusetts, from whom have descended some of the most eminent of their day in the arts and sciences,
including scholars, divines, jurists, statesmen, soldiers, educators, authors, philanthropists, business men, diplomats, politicians and trusted leaders and representative persons in almost every useful occupation in life.
(I) George Abbott was probably born in England and died in 1647, in Rowley, Essex county, Massachusetts, where he had lived about five years after coming from England with his family about 1642, being one of the first settlers. The early records of Rowley are missing and not much is known of him. The inventory of his effects amounted to £95 2s. 8d. He had three children born in Eng- land: Thomas, died at Rowley, Massachu- setts, September 5, 1659; George (see for- ward); Nehemiah.
(II) George (2), son of George (I) Ab- bott, was born in England, about 1631, and came to New England with his father's fam- ily, probably about 1642. He lived in Rowley, Essex county, Massachusetts, about fourteen years, and in 1655 he settled in that part of Andover afterwards North Andover, but now Andover Center. He was a husbandman and tailor, very thrifty and industrious, and for that day was financially well-off, being, ac- cording to the tax list, one of the five wealth- iest men in Andover. He was a member of Sergeant James Osgood's militia company, 1658-59. He was made a freeman, May 19, 1669, and was elected constable, June 3, 1680. He was much respected, and for many years had charge of North Meeting House, Andover. He was married, in Ipswich, Essex county, Massachusetts, by "Mr. Bradstreet," April 26, 1658, to Sarah Farnum, who was probably born in Massachusetts about 1638, youngest of five children of Ralph and Alice Farnum, of Andover. George Abbott and wife had ten children, born in Andover, Essex county, Mas- sachusetts. George, January 28, 1659: Sarah, September 6, 1660; John, August 26, 1662; Mary, March 20, 1664-65 ; Nehemiah, July 20, 1667; Hannah, September 22, 1668 : Mehitable, February 17, 1671; Lydia, March 31, 1675; Samuel (see forward) ; Mehitable, April 4, I680.
(III) Samuel, son of George (2) and Sarah (Farnum) Abbott, was born in Andover, Es- sex county, Massachusetts, May 30, 1678, died at Sudbury, May 17, 1739. He was eighteen years old when his brother John settled in East Sudbury, now Wayland, Massachusetts, in 1696, and doubtless went there with him about
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that time to live. He was constable for the east side of Sudbury river, 1717-18 ; selectman, I727-29-30-31-32-33-35-36; highway surveyor, 1707-22 ; town treasurer, 1720; fence viewer, 1724; and assessor, 1730. He was well-to-do, highly respected and influential. He married, in Sudbury, June 26, 1705, Joyce, born there, August 3, 1681, daughter of Deacon Edward and Joyce (Russell) Rice. Samuel Abbott and wife had five children, born in Sudbury, Middlesex county, Massachusetts : Joyce, August 13, 1706; Martha, March 10, 1712; Samuel, February 25, 1713-14; Samuel (see forward) ; George, died in infancy.
(IV) Samuel (2), son of Samuel (I) and Joyce (Rice) Abbott, was born May 24, 1716, in East Sudbury, now Wayland, Middlesex county, Massachusetts. He virtually inherited the homestead farm in East Sudbury, and lived in the house built by his father, on the left side of the road from Wayland Center to Concord, Massachusetts. Owing to his pre- mature death, but little is known of him. The Massachusetts archives credit him with the following colonial war service: According to vol. XCV, p. 310, his name appears in a list dated April 25, 1757, pertaining to Captain Moses Maynard's first Sudbury foot company. He was also in Captain Samuel Dakin's com- pany of Sudbury, 1758, in General Abercrom- bie's expedition against Fort Ticonderoga, and as far as known, is numbered among the un- known dead, probably in the disastrous and unwise assault of July 8, 1758, by Abercrom- bie, with about fifteen thousand men, on that stronghold, which was garrisoned by about three thousand French troops under Montcalm. He was about forty-two years old.
His marriage was published in Weston, Massachusetts, in 1737, to Abigail Myrick, born April 10, 1719, daughter of John and Abigail (Herrington) Myrick, of Weston. They had ten children, born in East Sudbury, Wayland, Massachusetts; John (see for- ward) ; Ephraim, May 27, 1740; Jason, Octo- ber 6, 1742; Samuel, September 27, 1743; Sarah, February 27, 1745 ; Rebecca, March II, 1748-49; Abigail, May 7, 1751; Abraham, January II, 1754; Abijah, July 11, 1756; Amos, 1759-60.
(V) Lieutenant John Abbott, son of Samuel (2) and Abigail (Myrick) Abbott, was born in East Sudbury, now Wayland, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, June 5, 1738. Lieu- tenant Abbott is mentioned in old records as
blacksmith, yeoman, lieutenant, and latterly for many years as "gent." He started in life as a blacksmith, living in Sudbury until twenty-three years of age. He probably moved to Holden, Worcester county, Massachusetts, about 1761, as on April 15th of that year he bought of Joseph Davis, in Holden, for £17 6s. 8d., about nine acres near the church, south of the county road, on which in 1763 he built the celebrated and now historic old "Abbott Tavern," which although one hundred and thirty-four years old (1906) is still in a good state of preservation. It was at this old tavern, and with Lieutenant John Abbott, that the covenant entered into by the loyal citizens of Holden to sustain the committee chosen by them to watch for the public safety, etc., was left for a month, during the early days of the revolution, for the inhabitants of Holden to sign, Lieutenant Abbott being one of the six forming the committee of safety. It is stated upon good authority that Lieutenant John Ab- bott helped to throw the package of tea over- board into the waters of Boston Harbor on that memorable and historic occasion on the eve of the revolutionary war, December 16, I773.
According to Massachusetts archives, vol. XXVIII, p. 52, John Abbott was com- missioned during the revolutionary war as sec- ond lieutenant, March 5, 1779, in Captain Sam- uel Hubbell's (Third) company of the First Worcester County Regiment, commanded by Colonel Samuel Denny. His resignation was accepted by the council, March 13, 1780. The records of Holden show that he held the fol- lowing local public offices: Highway sur- veyor, 1769-74-82-83-84-85-86-91-92-93-94-96; fence viewer, 1770-72-73; warden, 1771; juror, 1770-74; field-driver, 1775; constable, 1777; and sealer of weights and measures, 1777-81-87-88-89. His will, dated October 22, 1796, was probated November 5, 1799. Lieu- tenant John Abbott died May 23, 1799. His widow died in Holden, August 9, 1814.
He married, September 25, 1760, by Eben- ezer Roby, Mary, born in Weston, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, October 25, 1734, daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth (Glesson) Allen. Their children were all born in Holden except Sarah, who was born in Sudbury. Chil- dren: Sarah, December 16, 1761 ; John, 1762; Lemuel, November 3, 1763; Cyrus, January 16, 1765; Isaac, October 2, 1766; Mary, April 9, 1768; Elisha (see forward) ; Jason ; June
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28, 1772; Abijah, October 3, 1773; Samuel, July 25, 1776; Betsey, September 7, 1778.
(VI) Elisha, son of Lieutenant John and Mary (Allen) Abbott, was bornin Holden, Massachu- setts, June 6, 1770. He was a blacksmith, and lived in Weybridge, Addison county, Vermont, where he died May 30, 1822, aged fifty-one years. His widow married (second)
Dixon, and is said to have died at an advanced age in Western New York. The records at the county seat have been destroyed by fire, and but little is known of Mr. Abbott's history. He married Mehitable Parmelee, who was born in 1773. They had three children : Zenas, born 1798, died in Weybridge, Vermont, Feb- ruary 7, 1879; Ezra (see forward) ; Aretas, born November 24, 1806.
(VII) Ezra, son of Elisha and Mehitable (Parmelee) Abbott, was born in Claremont, New York, January 28, 1801. In 1827 he re- moved to Onondaga county, New York, and in 1829 to Chautauqua county, where he died January 23, 1892, at the venerable age of ninety-one years. He was a farmer, and a man of great nobility of character. In early manhood he united with the First Baptist Church of Troy, and on his removal to Chau- tauqua county became connected with the Bap- tist church in Panama, in which he was for many years a deacon, and to the end of his life one of its most consistent, useful and honored members. . He married, April 29, 1824, in Fair Haven, Emeline Stewart. Their children were: Edwin Elisha (see forward) ; Samuel H., Elvira E., Sarah M., and Mary Eliza, the latter of whom married George W. Windsor, and resided in Jamestown, New York.
(VIII) Edwin Elisha, son of Ezra and Emeline (Stewart) Abbott, was born in Am- ber, Onondaga county, New York, September 27, 1827, and died in Jamestown, New York, August 31, 1881. When he was two years old his parents removed to a farm near Pan- ama. He attended the common schools, and was a student for two years in Westfield Aca- demy. He entered upon his active career when twenty years old, and at that early age gave striking evidence of the qualities which char- acterized him during his whole life. He began as clerk in charge of a branch store of Joseph Hoyt, at Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, showing the confidence even then reposed in him. He was afterwards clerk in the stores of John Stewart and John Pray, in Panama, until 1850,
when he became a partner with Mr. Hoyt, his first employer, in the firm of Hoyt & Abbott. In 1852, when in New York purchasing goods for his house, he was solicited to relinquish his country business and take a situation in that city, which he did, but falling a victim to malaria, he was obliged to abandon his po- sition, after a long and severe illness. He was in business with Stephen W. Steward, at Clymer, for two years, and then became asso- ciated with Gilbert Smith, at Panama. In 1859 he entered a large silk house in New York, doing an almost exclusive southern trade, which failed at the outbreak of the civil war. He then went to Jamestown, where he engaged with the firm of Kent & Preston. In 1865 he returned to New York City, and formed the hat and fur house of Kingsbury, Abbott & Company, which, through deaths and retirements, became successively Kings- bury, Abbott, Gay & Company, and Kingsbury, Abbott & Hulett. The house was very suc- cessful until the financial panic of 1873, which it was unable to withstand. largely owing to the physical prostration of Mr. Abbott, who was the guiding spirit in the firm. The books of the house on examination by a committee of the creditors were pronounced clear and honest, and its failure was accepted as un- avoidable. So great was the confidence in which Mr. Abbott was held, that the creditors, with former partners in the firm, and several bankers, tendered sufficient capital for resump- tion of business, but this generous offer was declined by Mr. Abbott. At the time of the failure, Mr. Abbott held considerable sums left with him for investment ; these also were lost in the failure, but he made repayment as he could, the final payment, in one case, being made only a short time before his death. In 1877 he had finally closed up the affairs of his defunct firm, and he took charge of the sales department of the Jamestown Alpaca Mills, and which he conducted successfully un- til overtaken by his final illness. His death was widely and deeply deplored, and fervent tributes to his memory were uttered by both pulpit and press. Mr. Abbott married Mary Sanderson, who survived him.
(IX) Charles Stuart, only child of Edwin Elisha and Mary (Sanderson) Abbott, was born in Panama, New York, December II, 1858. In his infancy his parents removed to New York City, where he was educated in the public schools, and the famous Flushing
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(Long Island) Institute. He was preparing to enter Columbia University when his father's financial reverses obliged him to abandon his plans and enter upon his life's career. From the first he gave evidence of the paternal traits -untiring industry, indomitable perseverance and unwavering integrity-and he commanded the confidence of all with whom he became associated. In his youth he engaged in va- rious employments, among them being that of captain of the "Waukegan," a favorite steamer on Lake Chautauqua, and he became so enamored with that beautiful region that he procured renewal of his license from year to year until the end of his life. At one time he studied law at Warren, Pennsylvania, and was later business manager of The Country- side, a weekly educational and agricultural journal. He subsequently returned to New York City, and for a time was associated with Allen Brothers in an advertising agency which was afterward removed to Jamestown.
Mr. Abbott's independent business career, however, dated from 1889, when he engaged with Hon. Porter Sheldon in the manufacture of photographic paper. They later formed the American Aristotype Company, with Mr. Sheldon as president and Mr. Abbott as sec- retary and treasurer. This business they rapidly developed, making it one of the leading houses in its line in the country, and one of the principal industries of Jamestown. In 1899 the General Aristo Company was formed, embracing a number of other similar concerns, and which were afterward consolidated as the Eastman Kodak Company, of which Mr. Ab- bott was vice-president, and to whose interests he devoted himself in Europe for two years, and with phenomenal success. He was also president of the Seed Dry Plate Company of St. Louis, Missouri, and a director of the Chautauqua County Trust Company. In all his business relations he was eminently suc- cessful, and he was held in high estimation for abilities of a high order, and unflinching integrity, and was recognized as a prime leader among those whose energy and enterprise gave Jamestown its nation-wide fame as an indus- trial city.
While pre-eminently a man of business, Mr. Abbott was also favorably known for his fine personal traits-kindliness, sympathy and gen- erosity-and his home was a center of social life. He was a member of Mt. Moriah Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; Jamestown Lodge
of Elks; the Jamestown Club, of which he was for several years president; and he was for several years commodore of the Chadakoin Boat Club.
Mr. Abbott married, .February 4, 1880, Pauline Allen, of Jamestown. Of this mar- riage were born a daughter, Marguerite, and a son, Charles Stuart Abbott Jr. Mr. Abbott fell into a decline early in January, 1905, and went to North Carolina, and while his family were solaced with hopes of improvement, he suddenly succumbed and died March 1, 1905, in his forty-seventh year. The remains of the honored dead were brought home for inter- ment, and the funeral services were attended by a great concourse of mourning friends, and signal honors were paid to his memory by the officiating clergymen, and subsequently by the press and the various business, fraternal and social bodies with which the deceased had been identified.
THOMPSON The name Thompson is an ancient one in England, Scotland and Ireland. In
England the name was Tomson; in Ireland it was Thompson ; and in the south of Scotland Thomson. The American ancestor of the fam- ily was born in the north of Wales near the border of Scotland and is considered a Scotch- man, although the signature to his will has the English spelling Tomson. The letter "p" was not introduced into the name by any of his descendants until a century and a half later. The fourth generation in America added an "h," making it Thomson, although many adhered to the original form. In the fifth generation Thompson began to be used and is now the almost universal form, and will be used in this record as though that had been the original form.
(I) Lieutenant John Thompson was born in Wales in 1616. Tradition says his father died soon after his birth and that his mother married again. He was but a lad when he was brought to America, not being more than seven years of age, probably coming in the ship, "Little James and Anne," which arrived at Plymouth in August, 1623, with sixty pas- sengers. Nothing is known of his youth, but after reaching manhood his career can be traced in full from Plymouth records. From his will it is learned he was a carpenter, and besides building for others he built a house for himself in each of the places where he settled
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and one each for his sons John and Jacob. In association with Richard Church, he built the first framed meeting house in Plymouth in 1637. As compensation, the town gave a deed for a piece of land, now called Spring Hill. March 3, 1645, he purchased of Samuel Eddy a house and lot in Plymouth near Spring Hill and in December of that year was married. After removing to Sandwich he abandoned his trade and became a farmer. He purchased land in Nobscusset, where he lived several years, then removed thirteen miles west of Plymouth, where he made large purchases of land from Welispaquin, the Neponset Sachem. He built a log house on this purchase (Mid- dleborough), twenty rods west of the Ply- mouth line, where he lived until it was burned by the Indians. During King Philip's war he was appointed lieutenant commandant of a small company of men and rendered valu- able service. He was equipped with a gun, brass pistol, sword, and halberd, now to be seen in Plymouth at Pilgrim Hall. The whole length of the gun was seven feet four and one-half inches, using balls weighing twelve to the pound; weight twenty pounds. The sword was three feet five and one-half inches. After the war was over John Thompson and the other families who had been driven from their homes returned. In 1677 he replaced the log house burned by the Indians with a frame dwelling thirty-eight feet front and thirty feet deep with loop holes and lined with brick. Here he lived the remainder of his life. This house was the residence of his descendants unto the fifth generation. It was taken down in 1838 after having been inhabited for one hundred and sixty years. John Thompson was constantly engaged in the public service. He was selectman many terms; deputy to the gen- eral court from Middleborough term after term : served on juries, committees, and per- formed many public duties. In the church he was a faithful, zealous worker, bringing his children up according to the strictest interpre- tation of the Scriptures. He died June 16, 1696, aged nearly eighty years, and is buried in the first burying ground in Middleborough, where a stone marks his grave, bearing this inscription : "In Memory of Lieutenant John Thompson, who died June 16th ye 1696 in ye 80 years of his age.
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