USA > New York > Genealogical and family history of northern New York : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume II > Part 20
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general farming. a departure from estab- lished custom in this locality which had not previously been attempted in any material proportions. He accordingly acquired and maintained a fine hierd of sixty cows, al- together the largest herd in the county, and made his main business the production of milk, butter and cheese. This method of farming was a decided innovation in the county and gained for its exponent, who became generally known as "Farmer Jake". considerable local celebrity. He may in- deed be said to have been the father of prac- tical dairying, which undoubtedly owed its inception and origin to him, in this county, a section, including adjacent counties, since famous the world over for its dairy prod- ucts. He was a staunch Democrat, a man of unquestioned probity, and in later life of considerable means. In religion he was of the Baptist denomination and attended the "Old Line Church" of Denmark. Of · his children all were girls except the eldest. Nelson. Besides this son there were five daughters. Maria, Minerva, Nancy. Viola and Eunice.
So inevitable are the ravages of time. however, that notwithstanding the number and long prominence of these two families in the earlier history of Lewis county, few are now left to do them reverence. Of the Kitts family none of the name is left in this locality, while of the other, with whom it was so closely intermingled, the only dis- tinguished bearer of the name familiar to this generation is Ira Sharp, the subject of this sketchi.
(III) Ira Sharp was born on the old Sharp homestead about eight miles north- west of the village of Lowville, February II, 1847. As a boy the foundations of his education were laid in the nearest country district school. Later he attended a select school in the village of Denmark, complet- ing his studies with a course at the Low- ville Academy. then a notable institution of learning. Quitting the academy with what was at the time pretty generally considered
a liberal education, he turned to the infor .: serious concerns of life. Like his forbear, he chose as an avocation that of the lius bandman and tiller of the soil, his father's acres furnishing him plenty, of employment for his talents. In this occupation he di -- played immediate aptitude and practica: knowledge. soon becoming quite indispensa- ble to the home establishment. At the age of twenty-seven years he united in mar- riage with Ella S., a daughter of Uri Brad- ley and Sophia ( Shumway ) Curtis, of Mar- tinsburg, a most estimable and popular young woman, and. upon his father's retire- ment, with advancing years, from active business and removal to Lowville village. he took over complete charge of the home farm, which he conducted with marked suc- cess for a number of years. During this time he made a specialty of hops, when hop- growing was at its zenith in this county, and many fertile acres were devoted to their culture, and became one of the most exten- sive growers in the entire region. Besides his large farm, he owned and operated a sawmill, doing a considerable local business. and for a time dealt quite extensively in live-stock. in which business he greatly en- larged his acquaintance and gained the re- spect and confidence of all with whom he came in contact.
Already he was well known as a man of large and varied enterprise and a person of means and importance in the community He had amassed a by no means insignificant property and many interests demanding his closer personal attention, and he remove ! with his wife to the village of Lowville in 1894. leaving the personal charge of his farm to a tenant, though he continued and still continues to concern himself with it- general supervision and management. I: the village he purchased a fine old place of Elm street, and immediately set about im- proving and beautifying the house and grounds. So effectively and with such ex- cellence of detail did he accomplish this that his efforts were soon rewarded with one of
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the most handsome and complete modern residences in Lowville.
Himself an extensive and enterprising farmer, Mr. Sharp had previously become deeply interested in and impressed with the advantages and importance of united effort among farmers under the guidance and in- telligent direction of a regular organization in their common interest. Convinced of the need and practicability of this, he imme- diately allied himself with those already en- gaged in the project. Joining the local grange, Lewis County Patrons of Hus- bandry, he at once assumed the active and conspicuous part in the direction of its af- fairs for which his abilities so peculiarly fit- ted him. and soon became widely and well known as an earnest and influential advocate and worker in its behalf and in the promo- tion and betterment of agricultural methods and conditions generally. The many im- portant offices and positions of trust to which he has been successively elected with- out opposition bear irrefutable testimony to his personal popularity and the esteem in which he is universally held no less than to the commendable and eminently satisfactory manner in which he has unvaryingly ful- filled his duties. He was for three terms master of the Lowville Grange and for sey- eral years past has been its treasurer. For twenty-two years he has served continu- ously as a director of the Fire Relief Asso- ciation of Jefferson and Lewis counties. a grange organization, and one of the largest. best conducted and most reliable mutual fire insurance societies in the state of New York. During eight years he was presi- dent of this association. He has also been one of the executive committee of the State Grange sixteen years and for twelve years chairman of that committee.
Coincident with his connection with the grange, he has been prominently identified with the management of the Lewis County Agricultural Society, a local association for the promotion of kindred objects, for many years. His capable services in this com-
mendable enterprise have been manifold and various, having in the past fifteen years in- cluded the offices of a director, chairman of the board of managers, and treasurer, in which last important capacity he at present has entire charge of the expenditures and receipts of the society and virtual manage- ment of its annual fairs and expositions. In fact, since his removal to Lowville he has devoted a large share of his time and at- tention to these two organizations and more to his personal activities and capable and well directed efforts in their interests than to any other man do both of them owe their notable success and material prosperity.
Four years ago Mr. Sharp suffered the saddest bereavement of his life in the death of his wife. which occurred in January. 1906, after a severe illness. At the begin- ning of the new year, fraught with pros- pects of continued and even more signal success and prosperity. the grim-visaged. funereal-garbed and unwelcome messenger of death and desolation ravaged his beauti- ful and hitherto peculiarly felicitous home. and, though combated to the bitter end with whatever of skill and resource modern med- ical science could devise. would not be foiled of his victim. He has never ceased to re- gret her loss or cherish her memory, and in this he has the profound sympathy of a host of friends whose grief was only second to his, who knew her best and loved her most.
Mr. Sharp early took an active personal interest in politics. Like his father. his in- stincts were Republican, and these led him to affiliate himself with that party. Before he had attained his majority. he was ten- dered the nomination for justice of the peace of his town in his party primary, and accepting this, in the meantime having passed the legal age, was elected at the en- suing town meeting by a gratifying vote. That he served his constituents satisfactorily in that capacity is indubitably attested by the length of his service, which extended over a period of twenty years successively. Subsequently he received the nomination of
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his party for the office of supervisor for the town of Lowville. His election followed. and he was continued nine years in that im- portant office of trust, enjoying the confi- dence and esteem of his associates in such a marked degree that during the latter terms of his service on that body he was elected its chairman, in which position of authority he served with unvarying impartiality and distinction. At the expiration of his service as supervisor he was unanimously chosen chairman of the Republican county com- mittee for the county of Lewis, in which place he served for three years. Governor Higgins, knowing something of his experi- ence and ability in kindred matters, in 1906 appointed him one of the superintendents for the State Fair held at Syracuse. In this position he served with such distinction that he was later appointed one of the com- missioners by the same governor. He served on this hody for three years without pecuniary compensation, and later, when Governor Hughes was casting about for suitable candidates to serve upon the State Fair commission under the recent legislative act creating that body as regularly salaried officials of the state. knowing Mr. Sharp's superior qualifications and undoubted integ- rity, had no hesitation in selecting him to act in that capacity. He then appointed him to the place for a term of two years at the recent expiration of which he immediately reappointed him for a term of three years. Though much of his time is necessarily spent in Albany and Syracuse in the ful- filment of his duties. Mr. Sharp continues to maintain his handsome home on Elm street in Lowville. In this he takes con- siderable pride, and its well kept and spa- cious lawns are an ornament to the village. He also takes considerable interest in horti- culture, and when at home spends a good deal of time among his flowers and berries. of which he has a great variety and shirt- dance. For a number of years he has been a trustee of the Watertown Savings Bank. in which position he has served conscien-
tiously and with a due regard for the tra .. imposed in him. He is a member in exce! lent standing of the Lowville Lodge. X 134. Free and Accepted Masons, and ti. Lowville Lodge. Independent Order of O : Fellows. He is an attendant of the Baptist church and a liberal supporter of that . - ciety. At the time of the erection of tis .present Baptist church in Lowville he was a member of the building committe charged with its supervision, and took a" active personal interest in overseeing and directing the work.
HENDERSON
The Henderson famil: are of Scotch-Irish origin, and several vi
the name came to Boston with those Prut- estant Irishmen who settled at Colerain. Massachusetts. about 1740. John Hender- son's name is found among the proprietor .. who signed the petition for the first tow: meeting of Colerain, dated January 27. 1741-42, in the fourteenth year of the reig: of King George, the second.
(II) Edward, son of John Henderson. was born in 1745. and he used to say that the only thing he could remember of his father was that he sat on his lap when I :: was dressed in soldier's clothes, just be- fore he went off into the Indian war and was killed. When Edward was about five years old his mother died, and the family became scattered: Edward was bound o ::: to a Mr. Sweeney, and his sister Jenner married Daniel Clyde. Edward Henders grew up sturdy, brave, adventurous, at . possessing the peculiar characteristics of the race from which he sprang. Before the revolutionary war he was engaged in the fur trade: starting in the early spring in a flat boat loaded with goods and supplic . at Albany the traders went up the Huds : to Cohoes, and carrying round those fali -. literally pushed their boats with poles a the Mohawk to a point near Rome, Wie. there was a short carry over to Wool Chi thence down that stream through O:
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Lake and the Oswego River into Lake On- tario, and up through that lake round Ni- gara Falls, on to Detroit. It took all sum- mer to make the journey, a trip which can now be made in twelve hours. After trad- ing there with the Indians during the win- ter, the next summer was spent in the re- turn. Edward Henderson was among the patriots at the breaking out of the revolu- tionary war and we find him at Benning- ton, and his name on the roster of Captain Samuel Robinson's company in. General Stark's army. A great-grandson. Hi- ram T. Henderson, of Himrods, Yates county, New York, now owns the pow- der horn the hero carried in the Ben- nington battle, with the inscription carved thereon "Edward Henderson. his horn. 1775." The adjutant-general of Ver- mont writes that the name Edward Hender- son appears nine times in the records of revolutionary soldiers of that state, and it also appears several times in the New York records ; at one time he was a lieutenant of militia; he is on the list of revolutionary pensioners. Shortly after the close of the revolutionary war. Edward Henderson came to New York and stopped for a short time near Schenectady, but in 1792 pushed on and settled in the town of Norway in the then wilderness of northern Herkimer county. Avoiding the valley lands for fear of the ague, he bought a farm on the hills of about two hundred acres, covered with forest. Here he built a log house, and reared his family. He was thrifty and in- dustrious, and took a leading position in the new community.
Edward Henderson married Mary, born in 1744, daughter of Joseph Mathias, who when a boy was one of the defenders of the famous siege of Londonderry in Ireland. They had six children, two of whom died in infancy. and the others were: I. Jennet. born June 3. 1776. died October. 1848: he taught the first school in the town of Norway: she married John Sherwood: they removed to Urbana, Steuben county, Ohio:
they reared a large family ; some of her de- scendants still reside at Hammondsport, New York: one granddaughter, Mrs. Car- cene Dildine. bears the family name Jen- nette. 2. Hugh, born February 5. 1779, died about IS10: he removed to Watertown, New York, and was sheriff of Jefferson county in 1808: he was a candidate for . congress, and died during the canvass: he left one daughter Eliza, who married a Mr. Woodruff. 3. John Mathias, see forward. 4. Daniel Clyde, born December 8, 1784, died May 30, 1860. The father of these children died in 1811, aged sixty-six; his wife died in 1826; they are buried in Norway.
John Mathias, second son of Edward Henderson, was born June 27, 1782, died November 29. 1857. He was one of the early graduates of the Fairfield Medical Col- lege and went to Jefferson county, New York, to practice his profession. After serving as a surgeon at Sacketts Harbor during the war of 1812, he removed to Wil- loughby. Ohio, in 1814, and later to Elk- horn, Wisconsin, where he practiced medi- cine with his son, Dr. Samuel Henderson, until his death. By his first wife, Rebecca Wirt, he had one son, Samuel W .. who died May 6, 1857, a few months before his father. By his second wife, Samantha Hine, he had one daughter, Rebecca, who married L. Tubbs, of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Rebecca Tubbs died in 1908, leaving five children : Henry H., Frank W .. Eva S., Willis J. and Edward H. By his third wife, Hattie Find- lay, who was a widow with one daughter, Mary, he had two daughters, Jeanette and Virginia H., and one son Edward. Dr. John M. Henderson was a man of strong character and a skillful physician. The death of his son Samuel W., was a great shock to the father and both will long be rement- bered in Elkhorn. Samuel W. left three sons : John M., who enlisted in the Union army in 1863 and lived after the war in Elk- horn, died several years ago, leaving one daughter Cora and three sons, Eugene, who
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lives in Tacoma, Brick, and John M., who lives in Janesville, Wisconsin; Edward G., married and had two children, Catherine and Wells; Edward G. died at Evanston, Illinois, June 30, 1909. Samuel W., Jr., lives in Delevan, Wisconsin.
Jeanette Henderson, daughter of John Mathias Henderson, married Chipman Hol- ley, who served in the war of the rebel- lion in the Nineteenth Wisconsin regiment, was taken prisoner at the battle before Rich- mond and confined in Libby Prison. He was six feet seven inches in height; his widow Jeanette resides with her daughter, Mrs. Harle, in Boise City, Idaho; her children are: Claribelle M. Harle, Amelia Jeanette Mitchell, Hetty Maude Holley, Bertha F. Elder, wife of Robert H. Elder, assistant district attorney of Kings county, New York, and Robert D. Holley. Vir- ginia H. Henderson, daughter of John Mathias Henderson, is unmarried, and re- sides with her sister, Mrs. Bunker, at Elk- horn, Wisconsin. Mary Findlay. step- daughter of Dr. John Mathias Henderson. married Hiram S. Bunker, of Elkhorn, and lived for many years in Chicago. They had two children : Findlay S., married a Miss Swift, and died in 1877, aged twenty- seven, leaving one daughter, and Frank Davis, married Harry H. Hallett, of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The Halletts live in Chicago, and have two children: Louie B. and Harold B. Hallett.
Edward Henderson, son of Dr. John Mathias Henderson, was born July 24. 1844. He served with distinction throughout the war in the Union army. He married a Miss Swan and lived some time in Missis- sippi : came to Chicago and practiced medi- cine: went on an exploring expedition for a mining company to Honduras, Central America, and died there at Minas De Ora, October 8. 1897.
Daniel Clyde Henderson, son of Edward Henderson, married Margaret Carpenter in 1804. She came from Rhode Island. but was of the Rehoboth, Massachusetts, fam-
ily, and her line is given in "The Carpenter Memorial" by Amos Carpenter, as follows : "ist John Carpenter, 1303: 2nd Richard, born 1335: 3d John S., Town Clerk of Lon- don; 4th John, born 1410; 5th William of Homme, born in 1440; 6th James; 7th John: 8th William, born 1520; 9th Wil- liam. born 1540; Ioth William, born 1570. came to America with son William in the ship "Bevis" and went back to England : IIth William, born 1605, came over with his father in ship "Bevis" in 1638 and set- tled at Rehoboth, Massachusetts; 12th Sam- uel, born 1644, married Sarah Readaway; 13th Solomon, born 1677, married Elizabeth Tifft : 14th Daniel, born 1712, married Re- newed Smith ; 15th Daniel, born 1744, mar- ried Ruth Cornell; 16th Daniel, born 1764. married Susan Champlain; 17th Margaret. born 1776, married Daniel C. Henderson. Daniel C. Henderson was a captain and adjutant and was with his regiment at Sack- etts Harbor in the war of 1812 and after- wards became a colonel of militia. He served his town for many years as schon! commissioner, justice of the peace and super- visor and was member of assembly from: Herkimer county in 1827; his mother live. with him after the death of her husband on the homestead farm at Norway and died in 1826. She is said to have been a woman of great intellectual ability, an earn- est Episcopalian : has left a marked impre -- on her family, and has ever been held i. high esteem by her descendants. Danit C. was for a long time a vestryman of Grace Episcopal Church at Norway, a member .. old "Sprig" Lodge of Masons, and a life. long Democrat. Late in life he sold ti. farm and moved into Norway village, where he died May 30, 1860; his wife Margatt' died December 31, 1861. They are burs at Norway.
Of their children, Dryden was born Oc tober 15. 1805: Nathaniel S., June 2. ISO: Hugh, June 27. 1809: Mary Ann, May 15 1812: Jolin D., December 13. 1814: Jub ... December 25. 1824: Sarah, May 14. 18-'
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Dryden taught school and practiced survey- ing, became a carpenter and builder, married Maria Coe, of Norway, and removed to Hammondsport, New York; there he lived many years, was a vestryman in the Episco- pal church, a leading Democrat, held many town offices, was member of assembly from Steuben county in 1853. and died in 1879. leaving three children : Frances. Minerva and Nathaniel S .; Frances married Judge Goodspeed in November, 1867, one of the circuit judges of Illinois, and resided at Joliet. He died in 1897, his widow still lives at Joliet. Minerva married George Benham, who was a soldier in the civil war and died while in the service ; one daughter, Jennie, died when about nineteen, unmar- ried, and one son, Harry Benham, lives at Joliet. Minerva died at Joliet in 1904: Na- thaniel S., born in 1848, lives in Seattle, Washington. He married Dora Hepner in 1882 and they have two children : Augustus, born in 1885, and Frances, born in 1890.
Nathaniel S., second son of Daniel C. Henderson, was born in Norway, June 2, 1807 ; married Angeline Ayres, February 12, 1835: Angeline was the daughter of Stephen and Roxana (Snow) Ayres, of Fairfield, New York, and was born August 29, ISII ; Captain John Ayres, a resident of Ipswich. Massachusetts, from 1648 to 1672. married Susannah, daughter of Mark and Johanna Symonds; Mark was born in England in 1584, died at Ipswich, 1659. Captain John Ayres was killed by the Indians at Brook- field, Massachusetts, August 3. 1675. and left a large family. His third son Samuel, married Abigail, daughter of William Fel- lows, April 16, 1677. Jabez, their sixth child. was born December 27, 1690, and married Rebecca, born October 12. 1694. daughter of Henry Kimball, at Newbury, Massachusetts, December 8. 1718. Tradition has it that this Rebecca, when an infant. was found after an Indian raid, scalped and thrown among the dead. but still living. They moved from Rowley to Brookfield, Massa- chusetts. Their seventh son. Jabez, was
born April 26, 1737, at New Braintree, Massachusetts, married 1766, Persis, daugh- ter of Antipas Stewart, and removed to Salisbury, Herkimer county, in 1792. He was a soldier in the French-Indian and revolutionary wars and was a member of Captain Whipple's company of Massachu- setts militia. He built the first frame house in the town of Salisbury, which was still standing near Burrill's Corners, in 1910. He died in 1824 and his widow died in 1833; they are buried in Manheim. Their third son, Stephen, was born at New Brain- tree, Massachusetts, February 16, 1770, married Roxana Snow, of Chesterfield, New Hampshire, December 8, 1795. Roxana was descended from Richard Snow, of the Mas- sachusetts Bay Colony, who settled at Wo- burn, Massachusetts, and died November 1 I, IT11; his son, John, died November 25, 1706: his son, Zerubbabel, was born at Woburn, July 19, 1672, married Jemima Cut- ler and died November 20, 1733. Their son, John, was born at Woburn, March 30, 1706; his son, Warren, born at Southboro, Massachusetts, February 12, 1734, married October 25. 1759, at Lancaster, Massachu- setts, Amy Harvey, had one son Pliny, and several daughters; lived at Chesterfield, New Hampshire. When Roxana Snow mar- ried Stephen Ayres in 1795 and left her father's house in Chesterfield to take the then long journey on horseback to her new home in Ilerkimer county, New York, her mother mourned for hier as for one going to the ends of the earth. Several of the descendants of Warren Snow reside at Brattleboro, Vermont, which is just across the Connecticut river from the old town of Chesterfield.
The new home in Herkimer county was very modest. but Steplien Ayres was a man of force. a land surveyor and had plenty of work at fair pay for those times; $2.50 per day was large money then, and he soon became the owner of a fine farm in Fair- field, which is now owned by a great-grand- son, Charles R. LaRue. Esq., attorney-at-
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law, of New York City. Stephen Ayres became the trusted adviser of all his neigh- bors, the arbitrator of all differences; he surveyed their lands, drew their deeds and mortgages, made their wills, and settled their estates. He held many important town and county offices, and was member of assembly from Herkimer county in 1836. He died in 1850 and his widow in 1852; they are buried at Salisbury.
Nathaniel S. Henderson and wife lived for a time after their marriage at Prospect, Oneida county, but removed to a farm in Norway, Herkimer county, in 1840. He was a prosperous farmer, an active and influ- ential Democrat, and was often the candi- date of his party for public office ; he served his town several terms as supervisor. ran for the assembly several times, leading a forlorn hope. as his party was then in the minority ; was a delegate to many conven- tions, county and state, was on the war com- mittee of his town during the civil war. removed to Himrods, Yates county, in 1867. and died there March 13, 1869. His widow died at Herkimer. February 11, 1888. Na- thaniel S. and Angeline Henderson were the parents of five sons; two died in infancy and . one. Daniel C., died when fourteen months old.
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