USA > New York > Genealogical and family history of western New York; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation, Volume III > Part 23
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(I) Alexander McCurdy, immigrant, was born in Ulster, Ireland, in 1744, died near livermore, Westmoreland county, Pennsyl- vania, about 1838. Coming to America in 1756, he settled first in what is now Indiana county. Pennsylvania ; he afterward lived near the Salt Works on the Conemaugh river. He served in the revolution, in Captain Matthew Scott's company, Thirteenth Pennsylvania Regiment, and was wounded in both arms at Yorktown. For a short time he accompanied his son Samuel in the war of 1812, and was employed in training soldiers in military ex- ercises. He possessed considerable wealth, was a noted musician, and was well known for his knowledge of the Scriptures. He married. about 1785. Jane Heridenon. Children : Wil- liam, of whom further: Alexander H., born in 1794, died in 1851, married, about 1820, Mary Doty: Andrew, Sammel, Keziah, Ann, Jane.
( II) William, son of Alexander and Jane ( Heridenon) McCurdy, was a farmer, and lived near Livermore. Pennsylvania. He mar- ried Child, Thomas Alexander, of whom further.
(III) Rev. Thomas Alexander McCurdy. son of William McCurdy, was born in west-
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ern Pennsylvania. He graduated from Wash- ington and Jefferson College with the degree of A. B. He studied theology at Allegheny Seminary, Pennsylvania, and is a Presbyterian minister. He received from Washington and Jefferson College the degrees of D. D. and LL. D. He has had charges in Ohio, at Wellsville, Steubenville and Wooster. In 1885 Macalester College was opened in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Dr. McCurdy was its president. He became pastor, in 1890, of the First Presbyterian Church, Peoria, Illinois, and in 1896 of the Central Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, Delaware. Ten years after this his health failed and he went to North Da- kota to live. He is now residing at Mandan, in that state, and has charge of the First Presbyterian Church. In the civil war he served as a chaplain from Pennsylvania. He married Elizabeth Smith Woodend, who died February 21, 1906. Children : Paul Erskine, living in Philadelphia, a graduate of Macales- ter, A. B., 1889: Allen Woodend, born June 23, 1874, a graduate of Amherst, A. B., 1893, has done graduate work at Princeton, now minister of the Morningside Presbyterian Church, New York City ; Earl Spaulding, of whom further; Elliott Steele, born June 5. 1882, graduate of the Columbia School of Mines, with the degree of M. E., living at Amador City, California, where he is a min- ing engineer.
(IV) Earl Spaulding, son of Rev. Thomas Alexander and Elizabeth Smith ( Woodend) McCurdy, was born at Wooster, Ohio, June 29, 1878. He attended the public schools at Peoria, and graduated from the high school in 1896. For five years he was in a national bank in Philadelphia. In 1901 he went to Tennessee and traveled as special agent for eastern capitalists in buying and selling prop- erties. He came to Buffalo in 1906, and deals in investments, including stocks and bonds. He is a member of the Buffalo, Saturn, Buf- falo Country and Automobile clubs. He is a member of the Westminster Presbyterian Church. He married, October 18, 1905, Hel- en, daughter of William G. and Sally ( Worth) Pennypacker, of Wilmington, Delaware.
GIFFORD
The family of Gifford is of high antiquity and was seated at Honfleur, Normandy, three
centuries before the conquest of England by Duke William (the Conqueror). At the bat-
tle of Hastings in 1066 "Sire Rundolph de Gifforde" was one of the Conqueror's stand- ard bearers, and was rewarded by him with estates in Somersetshire and Cheshire, which were created into a barony, from which his descendants had summons to parliament. In the reign of King Henry II., Sir Peter Gif- ford married Alice, daughter and heiress of Sir Grey de Corbuchin, with whom he had the Lordship of Chillington in Cheshire, which was the seats of the Dukes of Buck- ingham of this family. Sir Stephen Gifford was one of the barons accompanying Richard Cœur de Lion to the Holy Land, and was killed at the siege of Jerusalem; his son, Sir Stephen (2), was also wounded there. The family enjoyed great distinction at the Eng- lish court for several centuries, and at one time five peerages existed in the family name. Baron George Gifford was made Earl of Buckingham by King Henry V., but joining the house of York against that of Lancaster during the "War of the Roses," and being one of the prime favorites of King Edward V., he was created Duke of Buckingham and mar- ried the Princess Maude Plantagenet, cousin of the king. His son, George Gifford, Duke of Buckingham, was one of the favorites of the Duke of Gloucester, afterward King Rich- ard III, and being detected by that tyrant in the act of corresponding with the Earl of Richmond (Henry VII.) he was attainted of high treason and beheaded by Richard's or- ders. The duke left several small children, but as they had been deprived of their lands and titles, the king, Henry VII., found it more convenient not to restore them, and Humphrey Stafford, a powerful noble, hav- ing married the oldest daughter of Henry, was created by him Duke of Buckingham. The Staffords followed the fate of their ma- ternal ancestor and the grandson of Hum- phrey was beheaded, and his family deprived of their vast estates. Of the sons of the last George Gifford, Duke of Buckingham, George continued the first line and continually solici- ted the Crown and Parliament for his restora- tion, but from the powerful opposition of his brother-in-law (Stafford) was always de- feated. The Giffords in the reign of King Henry VIII. and Queens Afary and Elizabeth, lineffectually put their clauss before the Eng- lish Parliament, never, however, successfully. In the reign of James I., Sir Ambrose Gifford claimed before the House of Peers to be
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Duke of Buckingham, and in the second year of the reign of Charles I. his claims were dis- allowed on account of his poverty. Walter Gifford, the son of Sir Ambrose, emigrated from England to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, and was the progenitor of the Ameri- can branch of this ancient family.
Noted descendants of this family are the celebrated critic, Sir John Gifford and Lord Gifford, Amster of the Rolls, who prosecuted, while attorney general of England, the wife of George IV. (Queen Caroline) upon a charge of high crimes and misdemeanors. Coat-of-arms : Gules, three lions passant : Argent : Crest, an arm couped above the el- bow. vested or charged with two bars wavy azure, cuffed white, holding in the hand a stag's head cabossed, gules. Motto: "Noth- ing without the Divinity."
So far as is known, no one has been able to trace the descendants of Walter Gifford, son of Sir Ambrose, who is mentioned in the foregoing genealogy as having emigrated from England to Massachusetts Bay in 1630.
(I) The first Gifford whose line of geneal- ogy we are able to trace in this country is William Gifford, who according to "Hunting- ton's History of Stamford, Connecticut," was before the court of that settlement in 1647. The sentence of the court against him was that he be whipped at the court's discretion and banished. The supposition is that this William Gifford is the same William Gifford we find in Sandwich, Massachusetts, and a member of the grand inquest at Plymouth in 1650. He continued to reside in Sandwich un- til his death with the exception of five years between 1665-70, when he, with George Allen and the sons of Peter Gaunt, all of Sandwich, together with others, were first proprietors of and settled Monmouth, New Jersey, having purchased the land of the Indians and to whom the Monmouth Patent was granted, April 8, 1665. They being adherents to the Quaker faith, suffered severely by fines and vexatious suits, both in Massachusetts and New Jersey. William Gifford owned land in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. His Massa- chusetts possessions consisted of lands in Sandwich, Falmouth and Dartmouth. The facsimile of deed accompanying this volume represents a forty-acre parcel purchased of a Suckanessett (Falmouth) Indian named Job Attukkoo, July 24, 1673. He gave by will to his sons Jonathan and James lands in Fal-
mouth, Massachusetts. He also deeded to his sons Robert and Christopher lands in Dart- mouth, Massachusetts, both of whom erected homesteads upon their estates. Robert con- tinued to live in Dartmouth, while Christo- pher moved later to Little Compton, Rhode Island. Both have many descendants now living in southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. William probably deeded his Connec- ticut lands to his son John, who gave by will one hundred acres in the colony of Connecti- cut to his son Samuel, and two hundred acres to his grandsons. He died April 9, 1687.
The foregoing is borrowed from the "Gif- ford Genealogy" published by Harry E. Gif- ford, of Wollaston, Massachusetts, March 5, 1896.
The following, also taken from the same genealogy, is a copy of the Indian deed pre- viously mentioned. A photographic copy of the original deed is in the possession of Mrs. Alice Gifford Hayward, of Jamestown, N. Y.
To all people to who these presents shall come Job Natantero Indian of Suckanessett in the Gov- ernment of New Plymouth sendeth greet, etc. Know yee that I the said Job Natantero alias Natankoo for and in consideration of forty acres of upland in exchange given me and nine pounds and fifteen shillings to me in hand paid by William Gifford of Sandwich in the government aforesaid whereof and wherewith I do acknowledge myself fully satisfied and paid and thereof and of every part and parcel thereof do for myself my heirs executors and ad- ministrators exonerate acquitt and discharge him the said William Gifford his heirs executors admin- istrators and every one of them forever by these presents have freely and absolutely given granted bargained sold enfeofed and confirmed and by these presents do give grant bargain sell enfeofe and con- firm unto him the said William Gifford his heirs and Assigns for ever all that my parcell of land left by my father Thomas Noontakoo to me and my brother James whose interest I have bought as per deed under his hand dated 20 of March 1671 or 72 appeareth lying and being at Suckanessett aforesaid at a place called Sepuissett containing forty acres be it more or less as it was laid out by some of ye Inhabitants there viz. seven score and ten rods in length and forty five rods in breadth abutting west- erly by ye marsh, easterly, northerly and southerly upon the Commons together with all the privilages profits and appurtenances what govern thereunto belonging unto him the said William Gifford his heirs and Assigns and to the only proper use and behoof of him the said William Gifford his heirs and Assigns forever with warranties against all people whatsoever forever by or under me the said Job or James my brother aforesaid, mine or his heirs or Assigns claiming any right title use or in- terest of or into the said bargained premises or any part or parcell thereof And I the said Job do for myself my heirs, executors and administrators, Cov-
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enant and grant to and with ye said William Gif- ford his heirs and Assigns that at ye time of en- sealing and delivery of these presents I have full power just right and lawful authority to give grant bargain and confirm all the said premises in and by these presents mentioned to be given granted bar- gained and confirmed or intended to be granted, bargained and confirmed according to the true intent and meaning of the presents in manner and form aforesaid and that it may and shall be lawful to and for ye said William Gifford his heirs and Assigns by themselves or their attor- ney to enroll or record these presents or cause them to be enrolled or recorded in his Majesty's Court of New Plymouth or any other place of Records according to the usual custom and order of recording evidences in such case provided. In witness whereof I the said Jacob Nootenko have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of July Anno Dom one thousand six hundred sev- enty and three.
Signed Sealed and Delivered
in presence of Thos. Huskins.
Barnabas Cothier.
The within mentioned Job appeared and acknowledged these presents to be his act and deed the date above said be- fore me.
Thos. Hinckley, Ass'tt pen Job Attukkoo (Seal)
(II) Robert, son of William Gifford, was born 1660, died 1730. He married Sarah, daughter of Stephen and Mary ( Briggs) Wing ; she was born February 2, 1658, died 1725. They moved to Dartmouth, Massachu- setts.
( III) Jeremiah, son of Robert Gifford, was born 1682, died January 15, 1771. He married Mary Wright, who died March 12, 1780.
( IV) Peleg, son of Jeremiah Gifford, was born December. 1719. He married, February 19. 1740, Alice Cornell, born March 14, 1726, died 1811.
(\') Caleb, son of Peleg Gifford, was born October 14. 1764, died January 10, 1832. He moved from Dartmouth to Cambridge, New York, in 1790, where he lived until his death. He married. Jedida Cushman, who was of the sixth generation from Robert Cushman, who hired the "Mayflower." She died Oc- tober 7 or 8, 1848, at Albany, New York, bur- ied at Easton. Children : Alden, Gideon. Isaac, Theron, Mary, Calista.
(VI) Gideon, son of Caleb Gifford, was born April 18, 1789, at Cambridge. New York, died March 29, 1855, at Jamestown, New York. He married, in Cambridge, May 26, 1810, Millicent Cornell, born January 28, 1792. at Cambridge. New York, died July 30,
1866, at Jamestown, New York. They are both buried in Lakeview cemetery, Jamestown, New York. Gideon Gifford and family moved in 1828, with an ox team from Cambridge, Washington county, New York, to Chautau- qua county, New York, where he bought a large tract of land lying between Jamestown and Lakewood. He was a civil engineer, and surveyed much of the land in that part of the county. He and his wife, Millicent ( Cornell) Gifford, were of the Quaker faith, his mother being a Quaker preacher. He was a cousin of Lucretia Mott, who became famous not only as a Quaker preacher, but as an Aboli- tionist and an advocate of woman's suffrage. Mrs. Mott visited him at one time after he moved to Chautauqua county. Children :
I. Alice, born April 28, 1811, died Decem- ber 2, 1890: married Simeon Bentley, born February 22, 1813, died August 7, 1880.
2. Cyrus, born 1813, died 1832.
3. Daniel, born December 2. 1815, died January 31, 1889 : married Ann M. Sherman, born April 3, 1820, died February, 1885. Children: i. George Winslow, born August 31, 1842, died December, 1906; married, March 24, 1869, Anna Bisbee. ii. Charles Daniel, born July 16, 1846, died December 18, 1903 : married, September 22. 1869, Clemen- tine J. Hitchcock. and their children are: a. Marion H., married Melville Maltby Martin, June 26, 1895 : child, William Gifford Martin. born May 13, 1909 : b. Elmer C., married Pearl E. Terry. September 20, 1899, three children : Louise Janette, born August 19, 1904 ; Charles Jay, born June 9, 1907 : Corydon Daniel, born February 15, 1910.
4. Matthew C., born November 29, 1820, died June 2, 1866: married (first ) Charlotte Cowing. 1841, who died July 9, 1853: child : Clara, born 1851, died July 13, 1875; mar- ried Ernest Hunt, 1873: one son Jay, born 1875, and he had several children. Matthew C. married (second) 1857. Charity Hotch- kiss, died 1858. Matthew C. married (third) 1859. Rhoda Cook; one son, Melville, born September 24, 1860, married (first) Arvilla Newhouse, February 3. 1881, died November 4, 1883; married (second ) Melissa Wells, January 27. 1887, born January 31, 1863; child. Glenn M., born March 21, 1890.
5. Mary, born 1824, died 1889; married (first) Richard Stoneman, brother of Gover- nor Stoneman, of California: married (sec- ond) Stephen Hunt, 1856. Richard Stoneman
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went to California with the forty-niners and died there.
6. Jane, born May 17, 1826, died June 25, 1905; married Washington Palmeter, 1846; children : i. Willis Gaylord, born May 13, 1847. married in Kentucky, at Grassy Lick, Eliza Hardman, 1868, children : Frank, John, Fannie. Laura, Rezen, Clarence; ii. Jennie, born March 31, 1851, married, in 1878, Osden Thayer, children: a. Earl, born March 13, 1884, married, December 1, 1908, -, one child, Dorthy Ethel, born August 10, 1910, died September, 1910; b. Erie, born January 20, 1886: c. Edna, born March 30, 1888, mar- ried, September 1, 1909, Thomas Heald Jr., at Jamestown, New York; one child, Virginia Rae, born September 6, 1910. iii. Frank W., born January 26, 1858, married ( first) Edith Palmeter and had Mabel; married ( second ) Jessie Rice and had Minnie: married (third) Hattie Fisher.
7. Walter Cornell, mentioned below.
8. Cyrus Frisbee, born Angust II, 1832, died September 19, 1864; he went to Ken- tucky before the war to teach school ; he mar- ried Sarah Ann Hardman, born December 10, 1836, died March 24, 1898: children: i. Frank, born September 19. 1856, married Kate Genung, children: Bessie, Clara, born June 27. 1881, married, June 27, 1911, Adolph Woodward ; Dimple Estelle, born January 21, 1884: Arthur Henry, born September 7. 1893. ii. Edwin Pendleton, born October 24, 1859. died April 14. 1896, married Lettie Ann Wade, July 11, 1883 : child, Eva Anna, born May 27, 1884, married, May 1, 1902, Will- iam Mark. children : Ethel Gifford, born July 4, 1903, and Rosa Payne, February 12. 1907. iii. Mary Alice, born February 27, 1858, died February 1, 1895. iv. Lizzie Ann, born April 4, 1862, married John Wade, August 23, 1882. children : Eda May Wade. born August 9. 1883: Millard Gifford, April 28, 1885 : Elmer J., January 4, 1887: Cyrus David, August 15, 1890; Leo Weaver, September 5. 1892. died September 10, 1892; Arvilla Hargrove, December 22, 1901: Millard G .. married Gladys Eunice Miles. June 20. 1906; Elmer J., married Marjorie Jenner, August 31, 1909. (VII) Walter Cornell, son of Gideon and Millicent (Cornell) Gifford, was born near Jamestown, New York, May 8, 1829, died in Jamestown, August 10, 1909. He was reared on the farm of his father and was educated in the schools of his town. He married at
the age of twenty-three years and was a Chant- tauqua county farmer. well known and pros- perous until years warned him that his active work was finished. He then retired to James- town. New York, where his last years were spent. Hle had an active public life, and in the order of Patrons of Husbandry and in the state legislature made his worth known, and demonstrated once again that the farm produces our great men. When the grange was first organized he at once associated with the movement, believing that it meant nothing but good for the farmer. He with his wife became charter members of Union Grange, No. 244, and from that time until his death was an earnest, active member and official. He became county deputy, and in that office organized fourteen subordinate granges. His worth was so capably demonstrated in county work that he was elected to the different of- fices of the State Grange and finally master of the state, a position he worthily filled for four years. While master of the State Grange he visited nearly every county in the state and organized several Pomona Granges. During his administration the paying mem- bership in the state was nearly doubled. Chiefly through the warm advocacy of his many grange friends he was nominated for the state assembly in 1895. and was elected, succeeding Frederick Nixon. At this time he was master of the State Grange and was the recognized leader in all matters of legisla- tion affecting the interests of the farmers of the state, and he was looked up to by the leaders of the party and by the farmers them- selves as the special representative of the latter as well as the representative of his own constituency in Chautauqua county. He served on the committees: Public lands and forestry, agriculture and taxation and was a member of the New York state tax commis- sion. Though the Republicans were in a minority at that time in the house, he sic- ceeded in carrying through a bill. anthoriz- ing women to vote for school commissioners. under which women have gained increased influence in school affairs. He secured an amendment to the insurance law exempting co-operative fire insurance companies from the provision of the standard policy law, also legislation forbidding the adulteration of ma- ple sugar and maple syrup. He was active in defeating the local, option tax bill, de- signed to secure the exemption of personal
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property from taxation. Mr. Gifford was elected for a second term by an increased plurality and again served with honor and credit. From 1877 to 1891 he was secretary of the Chautauqua County Patrons Fire Re- lief Association and for a number of years was secretary of the New York Association of Co-operative Fire Insurance Companies. For four seasons he was in charge of the Grange Building at Chautauqua, assisted by his wife. Ile was delegate many times to the National Grange and introduced in that body some valuable legislation. After his retire- ment to Jamestown he retained his keen in- terest in public affairs and regularly attended the meetings of Union Grange as long as health permitted. To the very end of his long and useful life he enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his fellows, and passed away in the consciousness of a life well spent. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Jamestown, and lived a life in con- formity with his profession. He was always a Republican in politics, but never surrend- ered his independence and often supported nominees of opposite faith.
He married, March 18. 1852, Eliza Cor- nelia Robertson, born at Ellicottville, Catta- raugus county, New York, August 4, 1830, died May 9, 1911, at Jamestown. Both are buried in Lakeview cemetery at Jamestown. They passed a happy married life of fifty- eight years together, and March 18, 1902, celebrated their golden wedding at the Gif- ford homestead in Chautauqua county, when one hundred and fifty cherished friends brought congratulations, good wishes and many more substantial tokens of their es- teem. Children : I. Clarence E., born April 18, 1853. on farm in township of Busti, Chau- tauqua county, New York, near Jamestown, died January 22, 1909; he inherited a love for mathematics and surveying from his grandfather, Gideon Gifford, and a mechani- cal and inventive genius from his father. Very early in life the family called him "the Tin- ker." and the house was strewn with batteries, telephones and telegraph instruments. He built, and with Robert N. Marvin, owned the first telephone exchange in Jamestown. La- ter he was connected with the telephone, elec- tric lighting, and street car service of several large cities. In Buffalo he was known as Dr. Gifford, because the men said he could doc- tor up anything that was out of rig about the
street car system. He made a number of im- portant discoveries in the electrical world. He was by invitation a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, at that time limited to a membership of six hundred and has read papers at their national conventions. He was a contributor to several electrical journals and a great student in his chosen pro- fession. He was educated at Cornell Uni- versity. He married (first) August 10, 1881, L. Adelaide Kent, in the village of Busti, born 1858, died 1885, both buried at James- town : no children ; married (second) October 28, 1889, at Allensville, Pennsylvania, Jennie Keim ; no children. 2. Mary, born June, 1855. died August 16, 1871. 3. Willie, born Janu- ary 27, 1857, died May 12, 1882. 4. Milli- cent Cornell, born July 9, 1860: graduated from the Jamestown high school, class of 1878, and, when only eighteen years and three months old, went to Chittenango, Madi- son county, New York, to act as principal of the grammar school. Four years later, Oct- tober 18, 1882, she was married to Henry Bradford Jenkins, and for a number of years lived in New York. From there she and her husband with their two children, Alice E. and Frances Louise, moved to Dumont, New Jer- sey, twelve miles from New York City, on the West Shore road. Here their son, Henry B. Jr., was born. Mrs. Jenkins has always been very active in the church and social life of Dumont, and has been for a number of years president of the Home Missionary Society for Bergen county, New Jersey. She is a member of the Reformed church. Her hus- band is a vestryman of the Episcopal church in Bergenfield. Mr. Jenkins is a hay and grain commission merchant of New York City, and is a direct descendant of Governor Bradford, of Massachusetts; he was born June 15, 1849. Children: Alice Elizabeth, born October 21, 1884: Frances Louise, born October 26, 1889: Henry Bradford Jr., born March 8. 1894. 5. Alice Bently, born Octo- ber 29, 1866; was educated in the Jamestown schools and afterward studied art at Cooper Union, New York City. She is a member of the First Methodist Church of Jamestown, a member of both the Home and Foreign so- cieties, and of the Woman's Christian Tem- perance Union where she has done her best work. For a number of years she served as county and local secretary of the Loyal Tem- perance Legion, and has given much time and
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