USA > New York > Jefferson County > Genealogical and family history of the county of Jefferson, New York, Volume II > Part 60
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Mr. Hubbard married Jerusha Ensign, daughter of Lyman Ensign, one of the pioneer settlers of Champion. She was born in February, 1828, in Champion, and died in Wilna. The youngest of her six chil- dren died of whooping cough at the age of six months. The others are living, as follows: William, a farmer in the town of Wilna. De Witt C., who owns a farm in the same town and resides in Carthage. Sarah, who became the wife of Myron Austin and resides in Watertown. Marilla, who is the wife of Thaddeus Olds, of Adams, this county.
(VIII) Cyrus, youngest son of Samuel Hubbard, was born April 18. 1859. in the town of Wilna, at what is known as " Hubbard's Cor- ners," on the Alexandria road. He attended the district schools, con- tinuing during the winter months until he was twenty years old. He always lived on a farm and cared for his parents in their old age. He bought the homestead, the old " Felt place," and continued to reside there until 1893, when he bought a place on the River road, near Her- ring, where he lived until he sold the property to Herring for the com- pletion of his paper mill property. In the meantime he had made pur-
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chases of land on the opposite side of the road, amounting in all to eighty acres, and on this he built his present residence. He still retains the old home. and owns, altogether, about the same amount of land as that held by his father at death-eight hundred acres. Mr. Hubbard is a thrifty farmer, and conducts a large dairy. He is a member of Great Bend Grange and the Herring Court of the Independent Order of Foresters. Like all the members of his family, he is a Democrat in politics and attends the worship of the Methodist church.
Mr. Hubbard was married October 20, 1882. to Ida Myers, who was born in Wilna. a daughter of James and Charlotte Myers. She died in March, 1884. leaving a daughter, Lula May. In 1885 Mr. Hub- hard married Miss Lucy Palmer, born in Le Ray, daughter of Lorenzo and Pamelia ( Merritt) Palmer, of Evans Mills. Two children have blessed this union, namely : Raymond and Lee.
RUSSELL K. KNOWLES, an early resident of Champion, was descended from the early settlers of Cape Cod. a son of Willard Knowles and his first wife, a Miss Snow. Russell K. Knowles was born July 28. 1799. in Barnstable county, Massachusetts, and grew up there. ac- quiring a good education for the times and becoming master of the trade of carpenter and house-builder. On attaining his majority, he visited Champion and secured land, going back as far as Albany to meet his father and family, who joined him here. He walked from Albany to Champion, driving a yoke of oxen. The family included several younger than himself. Sarah, the second child of Willard Knowles, married Seymour Nash and passed her life in Champion. Mary, wife of a Mr. Hubbard who died in Ohio, returned to Champion, where she died. leaving a son, Edmund Hulbert. Samuel Knowles lived and died in Champion, and left a son. Hiram Knowles, who served as a soldier in the Civil war and died as the result of a wound in the head, at Roches- ter. New York. leaving two sons-Walter and Fred, the former now a resident of Rochester. Willard Atwood Knowles died here, leaving a son. Egbert, who now resides at Johnstown, New York. William died without issue. By his second marriage, to Lois Freeman. Willard Knowles had a son, Daniel, who settled in the west.
Russell K. Knowles settled on a farm five miles from Carthage. which he tilled many years. For fifteen years or more he lived in the town of Denmark. Lewis county, where he served as constable and collector, and was active. as was also his wife. in the Congregational
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church at Copenhagen. He was a Republican in politics, and acted in his later years with the Prohibition party. He died in West Carthage July 1, 1885, near the close of his eighty-sixth year.
He was married, November 29, 1827 (Thanksgiving day), to Wealthy A. Hubbard, daughter of Joel Hubbard ( see Hubbard), who was born April 1, 1803, and lived to be almost one hundred years of age, with clear memory of early events. Six of their seven children lived to maturity. Oliva Volucia became the wife of Frederick Sprague, and died at Rochester, October 17, 1897, aged sixty-five years ( see Sprague). Mercy Celestia, the second, lives at Carthage, the widow of Franklin B. Johnson. Samuel resides in West Carthage. Sarah Charille is the widow of Egbert H. McNitt, residing at South Cham- pion. Charles Lord lives in West Carthage, a bachelor. John, the sixth, died at the age of six months. Wealthy Sedate resides in West Carthage, unmarried.
FREDERICK SPRAGUE, son of Hubbard Sprague, who was an early resident of the town of Theresa, this county, died in Carthage September 18, 1877, aged forty-five years and twenty-two days. Hub- bard Sprague's wife, and mother of Frederick Sprague, was Philancy Loomis, second daughter of Alvin Loomis, of the sixth generation in America (see Loomis).
Frederick Sprague was born August 26, 1832, in Champion, and lived most of his life in Theresa, engaged in farming. During his later years he kept a grocery store in Carthage. He was a member of the Methodist church and very active in the society at Carthage, especially in Sunday-school work. He married Oliva Volucia, eldest child of Russell K. Knowles (see Knowles), who was born September 2, 1832, and died October 17, 1897. Three of their five children are living : Charles H., the first, went to Michigan on attaining his majority, and has never been heard of since a year following, and is supposed to be dead. Ellen M .. the second, is the wife of J. P. Harrington and resides in Rochester, this state. Wealthy died at the age of eighteen months. Grace V. is the wife of H. N. Bennett, a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio. Wayne Frederick is employed as a collector by Selmar Hess, a large publisher of New York, and makes his home in Rochester.
ROBERT O'NEILL. one of the genial and popular citizens of Carthage in early days, was born March 17, 1840, in Kingston, Can-
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ada, where he remained until he was nineteen years old. At that time he accompanied James Pringle ( elsewhere mentioned) to Watertown and thence to Carthage, and throughout his active life was engaged in hotel work. He died suddenly, of heart disease. December 13. 1872, while clerk in the Levis House. This was a severe blow to his young wife, who was left with two small children, and has remained a widow for more than thirty years. Like most large men. Mr. O'Neill was always of good humor, and he was a popular hotel man. He was very enthusiastic in the work of Freemasonry, and was among the leading members of Carthage Lodge No. 158, of that fraternity. In politics he was a Democrat, but never sought office, though he stood in high favor in the town. With his wife he attended the Episcopal church.
Mr. O'Neill was married in 1862. to Miss Cornelia Hubbard, daughter of Heman Hubbard (elsewhere mentioned). She was born in 1843. and is now the companion of her widowed mother, a remark- ably well preserved lady. Mrs. O'Neill reared her two daughters to be respected members of society, and herself enjoys the esteem of a wide circle of friends. The elder daughter. Minnie, is the wife of Fred W. Wescott. of Benson Mines, New York. Jettie Roberta. the younger, died in 1896, while the wife of Charles Lake. a merchant of Harrisville, this state.
ANTONIO FRANCIS MILLS, president of the village of Carth- age, and a successful lawyer, was born June 12, 1872, at Sterlingville, Jefferson county, New York, a village founded and built up by his ma- ternal grandfather. On the paternal side. he is descended from an old New England family prolific in scholars, theologians, soldiers and statesmen.
(1) In 1668 Peter Walter Van Der Meulen, a native of Holland, settled in the old English colony of Hartford, in the town of Windsor, Connecticut, and finding that the people there could not or would not pronounce or spell his name correctly he soon had it changed by legis- lative enactment to its English equivalent, Mills, and was thenceforward known as Peter Mills. There he died in 1756. aged eighty-eight years. His wife. Joanna Porter, bore him nine children.
( II) John, son of Peter Mills, born in 1707 in Windsor, died June 7. 1700, in Kent. Litchfield county. Connecticut. He was among the first settlers of Kent, about 1740, and cleared and tilled a farm there. Ile married Jane Lewis, who was born in 1712 in Stratford, Connecticut. Both united with the Congregational church at Kent on
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recommendation, May 29, 1741. He was drowned in the Housatonic river at Bull's Falls while attempting to cross in a boat. His widow married Rev. Philemon Rollins, of Branford, and after his death in I78I returned to the Mills homestead in Kent, where she died July 24, 1798. By her first marriage she was the mother of eight children. The fifth of these and fourth son, Rev. Samuel J. Mills, was long a minister at Torringford, Connecticut, noted for his eccentricity, wit, kindness and hospitality, and known as " Uncle Sam Mills." The youngest of his seven children, Rev. Samuel John Mills, conceived the idea of be- coming a missionary while a student at Williams College, and was among the first American missionaries in Africa. He died on his return voyage in 1818.
(III) Lewis, second son and third child of John Mills, was born October 18, 1738, in Kent, and was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary army. He was selected by Washington to cover the retreat of the American forces from New York when it was captured by the British. He was the last to leave the field, and escaped on a scow to the Jersey shore. He was wounded at the burning of Danbury by the British, and was carried home on a horse litter. He married Hannah Hall, July 26, 1759, and both joined the church in May, 1763. He died April 4. 1782, and his widow survived exactly twenty-two years, dying on the same day of the month. They were the parents of seven children.
(IV) Philo, second son and sixth child of Lewis Mills, was born September 5. 1774. He was married on the evening of Thanksgiving day, November 17, 1797, by " Uncle Sam Mills," to Rhoda, daughter of Isaac and Martha ( Merrills) Goodwin. She was born June 4, 1774, at Torringford, Connecticut. She united with the church in Novem- ber, 1812, and all their four children were baptized on the sixth of the following month. He became a member July 4, 1858, and died July 1, 1863. His wife died September 26, 1861. He was successively cap- tain, major and colonel of the Thirteenth Infantry militia, receiving the last appointment in 1816.
(V) Lewis Weston, eldest son and second child of Colonel Philo Mills, was born December 7, 1801, in Kent, and married Amanda Skiff in that town, September 15, 1825. She was born March 12, 1806, a daughter of Samuel and Prudence Skiff, and died December 4, 1837, leaving two sons-Lewis Henry and Ezra Skiff. The latter died May 29, 1849. The father was married a second time. October 13. 1845, to Harriet Pitkin, who died February 24, 1856. Some time previous
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to this date, he moved to Sterlingville, Jefferson county, New York, where he died in December. 1876. He was a dyer by occupation in Connecticut, and settled on a farm at Sterlingville.
(VI) Lewis Henry Mills was born March 25. 1827. in Kent, Connecticut, and died of heart disease in his store at Carthage, on Christmas morning, 1888. He was a very active business man, handling large affairs and giving employment to many men, in whom he always felt a friendly interest, and was widely mourned by all classes of the community. All the business places in Carthage were closed in his honor on the day of his funeral. He began his business life at the age of eighteen years, and was noted for his industrious habits through life. He drove market wagons from Dover to New York, and from the Connecticut to the Hudson valley. About 1852 he moved to Sterl- ingville, this county, and engaged in mercantile business with his uncle, Ezra Skiff, and was very successful. Subsequently he conducted stores at Harrisville and Lowville. In 1869 he went to Great Bend and there operated a mill and store, and gave an impetus to the life of that village. Soon after this he bought the Walton residence and store at Sterling- ville, of James Sterling. junior, and was soon extensively engaged in business there. In 1867 he purchased the Shurtleff iron mines near that place, and operated furnaces at Sterlingville, giving employment to 150 men and fifty teams. In 1869 he bought an interest in the Crescent flouring mills at Oswego, and subsequently lost ten thousand dollars by the burning of that property. In 1872 he became interested in business at Carthage. and took up his residence in West Carthage in November of that year. In partnership with Mr. R. M. Geer he acquired a fur- nace here and organized the Carthage Iron Works, which did a pros- perous business until the prostration of the iron industry in this section. After the iron business was closed he erected on the site of the furnace a large flour mill, and also engaged in the lumber business, having tim- bered lands in the vicinity of Jayville. The great Carthage fire of Octo- ber 20. 1884. swept away his mills, storehouse and lumber, even de- stroying his wagons and utensils, inflicting a loss of over $26,000 above the insurance. In April. 1886. he was appointed postmaster at Carth- age, and at the time of his death was conducting a store and the post- office, beside other business enterprises. He was one who could not be kept down by adverse circumstances. and made and lost several for- 1111 Cs. While at Sterlingville he acted as postmaster, under the admin- istration of Franklin Pierce. In politics he was a Democrat. He was
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always active in fostering improvements, and his loss was keenly felt by the commercial world as well as by his family and friends. Of kindly and hospitable nature, he was popular in every circle where known. Of large business capacity and unquestioned integrity, his credit was almost unlimited, and he was able to direct and foster many business undertakings, and was a source of strength to the communities where he lived. He was a vestryman of Grace Episcopal church of Carthage, and ever active in promoting the moral as well as material welfare of the community.
Mr. Mills was married May 16, 1851, to Fidelia Pitkin, of Hart- ford, Connecticut, a sister of his father's second wife. She died April 25, 1864, leaving two sons, Henry Hart and Ezra Fuller Mills, the former born May 21, 1853, and the latter September 13, 1854. The elder is a timber contractor, residing in Syracuse, New York, and the junior is a resident of Greater New York. On February 8, 1865. Lewis H. Mills married Miss Julia Annis Sterling, who was born August 14, 1838, at Sterlingville, New York. She bore him four children, as fol- lows: Louis Sterling, December 20, 1867; James Daniel, April 6, 1870, died May 29, following; Antonio F., June 12, 1872; and Frederick Huntington, October 5, 1874. The first three were born in Sterlingville and the last in West Carthage. The eldest is a farmer in the town of Champion. The youngest is an optician and jeweler, at Delhi, New York.
( VII) Antonio F. Mills graduated at the Carthage High School in 1890, from Philips-Exeter Academy in 1892, from the Albany Law School in 1895, and was admitted to the bar in 1896. He immediately began practice at Carthage, and conducts a general practice. He is attorney for the National Exchange Bank of Carthage, and a director and vice-president of the New York Lime Company, of which he is also attorney. In politics he follows the teachings of his father, and is a consistent Democrat. Despite this fact, he was elected by the strong Republican village of Carthage as president of the village, in March, 1903. He was the candidate of his party for state senator in 1900. He is a member of Grace Episcopal church, of Carthage Lodge No. 158, and Carthage Chapter No. 259, of the Masonic order; of Carthage Lodge No. 365, and Oriental Encampment No. 135, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; also of Massasaugus Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men. In 1897 he was married to Miss Amy E. Bachman, a native of Carthage, daughter of Louis F. and Malvina ( Shaffrey)
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Bachman. Louis F. Bachman was a veteran of the Civil war, was twen- ty years a merchant of Carthage, and is now deceased.
MARTIN RUGG was born August 7. 1818, in Martinsburg. Lew- is county. New York, a son of Elijah and Lovina Rugg. The father was a dissipated man. and the son had no advantages in his youth. but he conquered misfortune and became a successful and useful member of society. When only twelve years of age he left home and appren- ticed himself to a shoemaker and mastered the trade.
Mr. Rugg came to Carthage in 1836, and worked at his trade for a time. Husbanding his wages, he was able in time to purchase a building in which he commenced the shoe business. This he sold, and purchased a larger store in which he combined the grocery and shoe trade. This building was destroyed by fire, and in partnership with his brother, Silas Rugg, he built a brick structure, and they kept a shoe store five years, after which Martin continued alone until his retire- ment on account of advancing years. He was a member of the Meth- odist church, and a Republican in political principle. He was three times married. His first wife, Lucy Nutting, was the mother of two daughters, namely : Louise, now the wife of L. D. Thompson, of Carth- age, and Effie, widow of George Sylvester, residing at Colorado Springs. The second wife was a widow. Mrs. Hamilton, and the third, Julia Annis, survives him and makes her home in Carthage. She is a com- municant of the Episcopal church, as are her sons.
THE STERLING FAMILY. The family of Sterling (origi- nally Stirling) is traced to Sir Walter de Streverling, who lived between 1100 and 1160. The family has been for centuries prominent in the history of Scotland, and is found in many parts of the kingdom. ( I) John and David Sterling were Scotch prisoners of war and were de- ported to this country by Cromwell in 1652. (III) William Sterling, supposed to be a grandson of one of these, had eighteen children. The youngest. (IV) Jacob, was the father of (V) John (his eldest son) whose son ( VI) James, was the father of (VII) Daniel Sterling. The last named was born in 1769, and died June 13. 1828. Ile married Mary Bradford, who was born July 14. 1777. in Montville, Connecti- cut (see Bradford VII and VIII). She did not long survive her hus- band, dying October 12 of the same year. They settled in Antwerp. this county, in 1804. making their way from Champion by a trail marked
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by blazed trees. He was justice of the peace, supervisor and county judge, and was highly respected for his manly worth. His children were born as follows: Daniel Fitch, September 12. 1795: James, Jan- uary 25. 1800; John R., May 20, 1802; and Samuel G., June 26, 1809. The third lived on the parental homestead. where he was succeeded by his son, Bradford Sterling, who died December 7, 1901, in Gouver- nenr.
( VIII) James Sterling was a man of very large body, and weighed forty pounds when ten months old, and two hundred pounds at the age of fourteen years. Because of his large stature at this time he was reckoned as a man, and was made corporal in charge of a squad of men whom he conducted to Brownville, a distance of twenty-two miles, to assist in the military operations about Sackets Harbor. When they came within hearing of the guns in action some felt faint and de- murred about proceeding, but their youthful commander insisted that they go on, and proposed to put them in a wagon if they were unable to proceed on foot. This shamed them, and they went on to their des- tination with their brave young leader. The same force of character dominated his whole life, and he came in time to be known as the " iron king " of Northern New York. Of genial and kindly nature, he was popular with all, and especially with the poor, whose necessities and bodily ills were a source of constant care with him.
He married Annis Coleman, of Antwerp, October 9, 1826, and soon after moved to Rossie, St. Lawrence county, and later to Red- wood, this county, and back to Antwerp. Soon after 1830 he bought a mill in the town of Philadelphia and built up a village known as Sterl- ingville. He engaged in lumbering and built a blast furnace, and em- ployed many hands. He bought and developed an ore bed in Antwerp. near his father's farm, from which he took out more than one hundred thousand dollars worth of ore, and which is still being mined, and ulti- mately owned and operated three mines and had furnaces at Sterling- ville, Wegatchie, Sterlingbush and Lewisburgh. His weight in man- hood was 396 pounds, and his heart was large in proportion to his body. The slump in the iron business robbed him of most of his hard-earned possessions, and ill health overtook him in his last days. He died July 23. 1863, and his widow survived until April 6. 1875. Eight of their ten children grew to adult age, but nearly all are now deceased. Mary Bradford, the eldest, born April 12, 1830, was the author of several religious books and built two churches. She married George W. Clark,
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of Plessis, New York, where she died March 16, 1901. Alexander Pin- ney, born September 21, 1832, died in 1901, at Canajoharie, this state. James, born April 10, 1836, was a prominent business man of several localities in the state, and died at Ogdensburg, in March, 1902. Julia Amis was the wife of Lewis H. Mills, mentioned elsewhere in this work. Jane Antoinette, born January 23, 1841, is a well known prima donna, and is now in London, the widow of John McKinley. Rochester Hungerford, born July 4, 1844, was a soldier three years in the Civil war, and is now a resident of Enid, Oklahoma. Daniel Boone, born May 27, 1847, died at Great Bend, this county. May Lippard died at the age of twelve years. George Sherman, who lived only two months. Joseph Nathaniel, born August 3, 1854. is a prominent business man of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
September 14. 1897, Julia Annis, relict of Lewis H. Mills, was married to Martin Rugg, a pioneer business man of Carthage. who (lied January 13, 1902 (see Rugg).
(VIII) John Riley Sterling, son of Daniel and Mary ( Bradford) Sterling, was born May 20, 1802, in Goshen, Connecticut, and was two years of age when his parents brought him to Antwerp, in this county. Here he was reared and spent most of his life, enjoying such educational and other advantages as the pioneer period afforded. In early life he was associated with his brothers, James and Daniel, and Welland Ward, in executing improvement contracts, chiefly in Canada, such as making roads and clearing lands by the acre. He succeeded his father upon the homestead, and purchased other lands, being possessed of six hundred acres at the time of his death, May 2, 1867. He was a very successful farmer, and provided handsomely for his family, and was a progressive and useful citizen. He was a Democrat. but joined with his sons in allegiance to the Republican party upon the organization of the latter. He was a member of the Masonic order, and accepted Universalism as a religious faith. He served the town as highway commissioner, out of a sense of his obligations, but did not care for official station, prefer- ring to mind his own business, rather than that of the public.
Mr. Sterling was married January 27, 1828, to Roxana S. Church, born December 9, 1809, in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, daughter of Ezra and Mercy ( Farr) Church, natives of New Hampshire, and early residents of Antwerp. Mr. Church operated a sawmill in the village of Antwerp, subsequently built and operated a grist mill. and also kept the Proctor House, to which a story has been added since his time. He
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was a millwright by trade, and a very particular and accurate workman. He owned land where Howard Sterling now resides, and had an exten- sive sugar bush. Mr. Church died June 5, 1859, aged eighty-one years, and his wife January 6, 1844, at the age of fifty-five.
The children of John R. and Roxana S. Sterling were as follows : Howard, the eldest, receives further mention hereinafter. Bradford, born in 1832, died in Gouverneur. Frances died at the age of nine years. James Lloyd receives extended notice in this article. Jane married Allen McGregor, and resides in Gouverneur, this state. Ella is the wid- ow of Simeon Austin, residing in Gouverneur. Julia, now deceased, was the wife of Judge John C. McCartin, of Watertown.
(IX) Howard, eldest child of John R. Sterling, was born Novem- ber 8, 1828, in Antwerp, where he grew up on his father's farm. On attaining his majority he entered the employ of his uncle, James Sterl- ing, about his furnaces, in the capacity of foreman, and continued with him many years. His first land purchase was in the town of Diana, Lewis county, which he tilled a short time, but most of his time was spent about mines and furnaces until 1876. He then purchased the land on which he lives, embracing nearly three hundred acres, and is engaged extensively in agriculture. His homestead is within the village limits of Antwerp, and is an ideal farming location. He maintains a dairy of thirty cows, and produces hay for the market. His crop of oats often reaches three thousand bushels. He is known as one of the leading agriculturists of the town, and is respected and esteemed as a citizen and neighbor. He is a member of the Grange, and has been a Repub- lican since the organization of the party. He served two years as super- visor of the town of Diana, and five years as highway commissioner of Antwerp. Every duty that devolves upon the public-spirited and en- lightened citizen is cheerfully taken up by him, and his position is al- ways that disposed for progress and the general welfare.
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