History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches, Part 76

Author: Young, Andrew W. (Andrew White), 1802-1877; Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. fmo; Huntington Free Library. fmo
Publication date: 1875
Publisher: Buffalo, N.Y. : Printing House of Matthews & Warren
Number of Pages: 948

USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches > Part 76

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Calvin Plumb

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business 4 miles below Jamestown. He was in 1833 a member of assembly, and again in 1837. From Jan. 1, 1843, he was county clerk for the term of 3 years. At the expiration of his official term, he removed to Westfield, where he was engaged for many years in the purchase and sale of lands in the county. He was among the first to propose the running of a steamboat on Chautauqua lake. A company was formed for this purpose ; and a boat commenced running from Jamestown to Mayville the 4th of July, 1828. On the 4th of August, 1871, as the steamboat Chautauqua was about to land at Mayville, her boiler exploded, killing 8 persons, and severely injuring several others, among whom was Mr. Plumb, who was badly crippled for life. He has been an active friend of the temperance and anti-slavery causes. He was married in 1832 to Mary Ann Davis, of Westfield, and had 5 children, of whom two died young. The living are : I. Elizabeth, wife of Capt. Harmon J. Bliss, who was in the late war, and killed in the battle of Chancellorsville, leaving a son, Harmon J. 2. Arthur R., who also was in the late war, and was severely wounded in the second battle of Bull Run. He resides at Carthage, Missouri. 3. Samuel Davis, who married Sarah Ingraham, and resides in Niagara Co., N. Y.

JAMES PRATT, from Pawlet, Vt., settled, in 1829, on lot 43, tp. 3, r. 14. He was married, first, to Philena, daughter of Seth Sheldon, and had 3 chil- dren : Sarah Jane, wife of Ira Marshall, of Clymer; Merritt, deceased, who had been married to Jennett Case; and Dewitt C., who resides in Montana. Mr. Pratt's second wife was Sarah T. Pulman ; his third, Mary Matilda Clark, of North-east. He was several times elected an assessor of the town ; and held the office of justice of the peace about 15 years. In 1868, he removed to the village of Westfield, where he resides.

DANIEL ROCKWELL, from Hampton, Washington Co., N. Y., came to Warsaw in 1820 or 1821, where, for several years, he, in connection with John Crocker, [Rockwell & Crocker,] carried on the hat manufacture, when he sold out his interest, and, early in r825, removed to Westfield and rees- tablished himself in the same business, which he continued many years. During the latter part of this time, he was associated with Augustin U. Bald- win, in the mercantile business, both branches of business being carried on by the firm. Mr. Rockwell was married, in Warsaw, to Clarissa Hough. They had 4 children : Lansing, who died in infancy; Rollin D., who married Helen Elizabeth Mann, and resides in Westfield ; Walter, who died at 19 ; and Frederick A., who married Alice Magrath, Rouseville, Pa., and died May 18, 1874, aged 31.

STEPHEN RUMSEY was born in Woodbury, Conn., June 1, 1785, and re- moved to Vermont. In 1827, he removed to Washington Co., N. Y .; thence to Westfield in 1831. He served as Ist lieutenant in the war of 1812. He was a merchant in early life, and pursued that business many years in West- field, and was for a time interested in the manufacture of leather. He made a profession of religion at the age of 15, and was thenceforward a faithful laborer in the cause of his Master. He was regular in the observance of the

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appointments of the church, and actively cooperated in every good work, especially in the cause of sabbath schools. In the summer of 1833, he superintended four, and in 1834 five, sabbath schools in the hill country in this town. In the summer of 1834, he changed his relation from the Baptist to the Presbyterian Church. He died in Westfield, July 31, 1873, aged 88 years.

WILLIAM SEXTON, born April 11, 1796, came from Manchester, Vt., to Westfield in 1817, and has resided here to the present time. He bought land in Ripley, and was engaged for several years in farming, and in running a saw-mill in Westfield. He was for many years a constable and collector, and afterwards supervisor. He was sheriff of the county for 3 years, from January, 1834 ; and for about 20 years a justice of the peace. He had 4 sons, of whom George and Charles both died at 23. William, who married Lydia Starr, and Edwin, who married Jennett Averill; both reside in the village. He had 2 daughters : Electa, widow of Edgar A. Robbins; and Mary S., widow of Hon. Henry A. Prendergast. Mrs. Sexton died in May, 1875.

HERMAN SIXBEY was born in Montgomery county, Sept. 8, 1838, and re- moved with his parents to Michigan, about the year 1839, where his father died. The family soon after removed to Chautauqua county, Herman being about 6 years old. He served as clerk in the store of Miller, Cooley & Mor- ris in Sherman. At the age of 18, he went to Westfield, and was for several years a clerk in the store of Jared R. Babcock. In 1860, he engaged in trade on his own account. In 1862, he enlisted in the 112th regiment, company E, of N. Y. volunteers, as a private, and was promoted to the offices of sergeant and ist lieutenant. At the explosion of the mine in front of Petersburg, Va., July 30, 1864, under Gen. Burnside, Lieut. Sixbey fell in the engage- ment, his face shattered by a bullet. He was disabled from further service ; conveyed to the hospital, and received his discharge, Feb. 8, 1865. He was in 1866 appointed assistant assessor of the United States internal revenue, which office he subsequently resigned. In 1873, he was elected county clerk, which office he still holds. He was married, Aug. 3, 1863, to Mary Ann, daughter of Edwin Buck, of Westfield, and has had 4 children, of whom De Witt and Mary Adelia are living. Mr. Sixbey's father, Charles Sixbey, was of Holland descent; the ancestors of his mother were from England, and were among the early settlers of Massachusetts.

AUSTIN SMITH was born at Lansing, Tompkins Co., N. Y. His father had emigrated to that place the year before from Peekskill, N. Y. He was a farm- er and had a large family of children. Austin early determined to procure a classical education, and to study law. This he accomplished by his own ex- ertions. He graduated at Hamilton College, in July, 1826, having taken the second honor in his class, the salutatory address. He was employed the same year as principal of Fredonia academy ; being its first teacher, and that being the first academy in the county. The school soon acquired a high reputation, which it maintaine 1, almost uninterruptedly, until it was

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Austin Smith

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merged into the Normal school. Some of his students who have become prominent men, were Douglass Houghton, since state geologist of Michigan ; Judge Samuel Douglass, of Detroit ; Hon. Madison Burnell, of Jamestown ; Judge Franklin Waite, of Wisconsin ; all of whom are duly noticed in other parts of this history. Mr. Smith entered the office of Mullett & Crane as a student, soon after he came to Fredonia, and pursued his law studies while teaching. In February, 1830, he was admitted to practice in the common pleas of Chautauqua county, and soon after in the supreme court. In April, he removed to Westfield, and commenced practice as a partner of the late Hon. Abram Dixon ; and he has continued in the practice of the law in that place ever since. He is the oldest member of the bar of this county now living, except Hon. Abner Hazeltine, of Jamestown.

In 1850, he was elected a member of assembly, and reelected in 1851. In 1851, he was a member of the judiciary committee; and, in 1852, he was chairman of the committee of ways and means. In 1839, he was appointed, by Gov. Seward, surrogate of Chautauqua county ; but the senate, a majority of its members being of the democratic party, did not concur in the appointment. In 1840, he was reappointed, and held the office four years. On recommendation of Secretary Chase, he was appointed, in 1853, examining agent of the treasury department for South Carolina and Florida ; and afterwards tax commissioner of Florida, etc. In 1828, Mr. Smith was married to Sarah A. McMahan, daughter of Col. James McMahan, whose name is conspicuous in this history.

SILAS SPENCER was born in Windham Co., Conn., Dec. 16, 1788. After a residence in Ogdensburgh, N. Y., he came to Westfield, in December, 1817, where he settled as a physician, and where he still resides, at the age of 87 years. He was married to Harriet Goodrich, daughter of Gideon Goodrich, of Ripley, and had six children, two sons and four daughters, of whom the following are living : John, a physician in Westfield; Mary, wife of Butler G. Noble, employed in the New York custom-house; and Sarah, wife of Rev. Henry W. Beers, of Ogdensburgh. Dr. Silas Spencer served in the war of 1812, and receives a pension for such service.

JOHN SPENCER, son of Dr. Silas Spencer, was born May 3, 1821, in the village of Westfield, where he still resides. He spent the year 1838 in trav- eling, treating deformities of the feet and limbs, with a surgical apparatus, for which he had a patent. The last two years of his medical studies were spent under the instructions of Doctors Delamater and Ackley, of Cleveland, Ohio, where he completed his medical education, graduating from Cleveland Medical College, in 1842. He soon after commenced the practice of his profession in Westfield, paying more particularly his attention to surgery. In 1843, he was elected professor of surgery in Franklin Medical College, at St. Charles, Illinois, in which his old instructor, Dr. Delamater, occupied the chair of Practice. The college was soon after removed to Chicago, and re- organized ; and a professorship proving far from remunerative, he resigned the position, returned to Westfield, and resumed practice there. In 1861,

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he was appointed, by Gov. Morgan, examining surgeon for the 9th regiment of cavalry, which was organized and mustered into the United States service, in Westfield. In the fall of that year, he was commissioned regimental sur- geon of the 9th cavalry, with Dr. George Bennett, of Erie, Pa., as assistant- surgeon. He was with Mcclellan during the early part of the campaign; but for reason of continued ill health, he resigned his commission in the spring of 1863. Dr. Spencer, from the competence which he has accumulated, has contributed to the attractiveness of his native village, by building a fine resi- dence and the "Spencer Block," in the second and third stories of which is constructed " Virginia Hall," a fine and commodious audience room, named after his daughter. He has been president of the village, and for a number of years a member of the board of education of Westfield academy ; and he has been United States examining surgeon for invalid pensioners, since 1865. He was married, in 1848, to Amelia Hillibert, only daughter of John Hillibert, a merchant of Washington Co., N. Y., and has three children : John H., an officer and stockholder in the National Bank of Warren, Pa. ; William G., an assistant surgeon in the regular army of the United States, commissioned in January, 1875, ordered to Nashville, Tenn., and is now post surgeon at Lebanon Barracks, Kentucky ; and a daughter, Virginia, residing with her parents in Westfield.

PHILIP L. STEPHENS, from Schoharie Co., N. Y., came, in 1809, and set- tled in the north-east corner of Ripley, lot 2, on the lake road, farm lately owned by James Nixon, now by Matthew Wallace. He removed, a few years after, to the main road, in Westfield, near the west line, on the land now owned by his sons, Hugh C. and Lanson P. In the year 1859, he removed to the village of Westfield, where he died in 1861. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. He was married to Elizabeth Hale, by whom he had 13 chil- dren, all of whom but one reached mature age. Hugh C. married Jennett Russell, and has a son, Walter, and a daughter, Jessie. Lanson P. married Eunice Whitehill, and has 3 children, Elizabeth, Philip L., and George. P. L. Stephens married for his second wife Jane Cochran, who survives him, and resides in Ripley.

EBER STONE was born in Guilford, Conn., Sept. 7, 1773 ; removed in 1797 or 1798 to Cortland Co., N. Y., and was married in 1800 to Betsey Atwater. In the winter of 1813-14, with his wife, 5 sons and I daughter, he came to Westfield, where a 6th son was born. Mr. Stone was for several years engaged in the milling business, in partnership with Amos Atwater, his brother-in-law. The mill stood on, or nearly on, the site of the present Westfield Mill. Mrs. Stone died Oct. 3, 1841. Mr. Stone was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and died Nov. 2, 1845. On his way homeward from a religious meeting in a very dark evening, he stepped from the high, perpendicular bank of the Chautauqua creek, near the site of the present bridge, and was killed. His children were : 1. Austin, who married Harriet Tinker, and had two children. After her death, he married Maria Moore. They live in Westfield, Wis. 2. Russell, who married Julia Ann Tower,

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Portland. They live in Fairwater, Wis. 3. Rhoda, who married Hiram Couch, whose family is elsewhere noticed. 4. Lester, who married Julia Bradley, daughter of Wm. Bradley, formerly of Westfield, who removed to Broadhead, Wis., where he died. The children of Lester Stone are Lydia W., who lives with her father ; Robert L., partner of his father in the woolen manufacturing business ; Lavinia, a professional teacher ; and Julia M., at home. 5. Asa A. died at Cincinnati, unmarried. 6. Amos M. removed to Tennessee, thence to Texas, where he died. 7. Joshua, a physician, who married Eliza, daughter of Charles J. J. Ingersoll, formerly editor of the Westfield Messenger.

HIRAM TIFFANY came, in 1831, from Vermont to Mayville, where he es- tablished himself in the manufacture of leather and boots and shoes. He subsequently bought the tannery of Philip Lazell, in Stockton, and removed to that town. About a year afterward he sold his establishment, and came to Westfield, and built a tannery on the west side of the creek, where the present tannery of Gardner & Wannenwiths is located, and which is still con- ducted by them. Mr. Tiffany has two children.

REUBEN TINKER was born in Chester, Hampden county, Mass., August 6, 1799. His father, although a farmer, was for thirty years the schoolmaster at the center of the town, and did considerable business in the sale of books, which revealed his taste for literature. His mother, whose maiden name was Maria Bliss, of Springfield, Mass., was of a large and influential family, whose record in the state will never be forgotten ; and being a devoted Christian, she early "lent him to the Lord," and desired that God would so control and modify the circumstances of his future life, that he should enter the sacred ministry. At the age of 14, he found employment in his native town, which he held four years ; after that, with the exception of one term in Westfield (Mass.) academy, he was occupied at Winsted and Hartford, until he reached his majority. During the last year of his apprenticeship, in a revi- val at Hartford, he was hopefully converted ; and, under a controlling desire to serve his new Master, as soon as the necessary arrangements could be made, he entered the preparatory school at Amherst, and, in 182 3, he entered Amherst College, and graduated in 1827. During his college course, he was sustained, almost entirely, by his own self-denying efforts. His penman- ship was remarkably fine ; and he often turned his skill in this to his pecuni- ary advantage. In October, 1827, he entered Auburn Seminary, and during his three years' course, a constantly increasing desire to serve the Master in a foreign field took possession of him, and culminated in his senior year, in his offering himself to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, as a missionary to the heathen. His services were accepted ; and although he had expressed a desire to be sent to Greece, he acquiesced in the decision of the prudential committee, when they designated the Sandwich Islands as his field of labor. In his seminary course he ranked high as a scholar and a genius; so that, when Tinker's turn came to deliver an address or a sermon, all expected such a treat as none but Tinker could

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furnish. He clothed his thoughts in language peculiarly his own; and his fertile imagination enabled him to illustrate and enforce his utterances by metaphors which only his genius could bring to his aid. These characteris- tics of him may be best exhibited by an anecdote. One Sunday he occupied the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in Erie, Pa. On Monday morn- ing, the sermons of the sabbath were a general subject for conversation where friends met. At a furnace, where a large number of men were employed, all had something to say about the preacher and his sermons. At length one, a veteran among them, and perhaps their oracle, ended the talk by saying : "Shop-mates, I also will give my opinion. When God made that man, he broke up the pattern." Mr. Tinker had seven children ; the first five of whom were born at the Sandwich Islands. 1. Samuel Hubbard, who resides at Westfield. 2. Joseph Emerson, a Presbyterian minister, now at Portville, Cattaraugus Co. 3. Sarah Hills, married, and has a daughter. 4. Robert Hall, a manufacturer of agricultural implements, at Rockford, Ill. 5. Mary Wood, who married Dr. Leon F. Harvey, and resides in Buffalo. 6. Abbie Marina, who was born April 18, 1841, on the Atlantic ocean, during the voyage home; was married to Rev. Henry Pierson, now at Titusville Pa. 7. Elizabeth, born at Madison, Ohio ; married Dr. George T. Moseley, and died in March, 1871, at Titusville.

WILLIAM VORCE came with his father, Jedediah Vorce, from Saratoga county to Ellery, in 1810. In 1850, he removed to Westfield, on the farm on which Col. James McMahan first settled, subsequently owned by the Johnstons, and where Mr. Vorce now resides. He was sheriff of the county for the constitutional term of three years, from January, 1858. He married Caroline Leet, and had 3 sons : Hiram, the eldest, who married Mary Ann McGinness, and was killed in the late war, at Petersburg, Va., January 28, 1864; La Fayette, another son, who died at Cleveland, O., in 1854.

AUSTIN L. WELLS was born October 6, 1800, in Canada, during a briet residence there of his parents. His father was a native of Brattleboro', Vt. A. L. Wells went to Utica in 1810; thence to Erie Co., in 1824. In 1828, he removed from Buffalo to Westfield, and worked there at the hatter's trade for several years, part of the time in partnership with Daniel Rockwell, to whom he sold his interest in 1839. He was four years a justice of the peace; since which time he has been engaged in the insurance business. He was married at South Wales, Erie Co., N. Y., to Fanny Russell, daughter of John Russell, and has a daughter, Harriet E., wife of James N. Matthews, one of the proprietors of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser.

REUBEN WRIGHT, a native of Connecticut, removed to Redfield, Oswego Co., N. Y., and thence to Ohio. After a short residence there, he came to Westfield, in 1814, and established the carding and cloth-dressing business on the west side of the creek, near the present site of Rorig's mill and brew- ery, which business he continued until 1829. He then bought a farm about a mile east from the village, where he died in 1847; the farm now owned by James O. Guile. A public house was for many years kept there by a son of

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Mr. Wright, and was distinguished as the "Drovers' Home." Reuben Wright had 7 children, the first of whom died in infancy. The others, all living and married, are Allen, who married Emily Persons, and resides in Westfield ; Betsey, the wife of Thomas Knight; Charlotte, wife of Edward Bradley ; removed to Illinois, where he died, and where she still resides ; Reuben G., who married Cora E. Pierce; Franklin M., who married Eliza- beth Royce, of Ripley ; and Martha, wife of Warren, removed to California -all but two residing in Westfield.

SHERMAN WILLIAMS, son of Alexander Williams, of Glade, Warren Co., Penn., was born March 10, 1842, in Harmony, Chautauqua Co., where his father then resided. He received an academic education at Westfield acad- emy, where he was attending school when he enlisted, Sept. 28, 1861, in company G, 49th regiment N. Y. S. volunteers, commanded by Capt. (after- ward Col.) Jeremiah C. Drake. He served in the 49th regiment till Feb., 1864, participating in the siege of Yorktown, and in the battles of Williams- burg, Mechanicsville, Garnett's Farm, Savage's Station, White Oak Swamp, and Malvern Hill. On account of continued illness, brought on by exposure in the swamps of the Chickahominy and in the field, he was unable to en- dure the hardships of field duty, and was then transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps, and detailed as clerk, in the office of Gen. William Hayes, provost marshal-general for the southern district of New York, and stationed at New York city, where he was honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of service. In 1865-66, he was cashier of the Western Union Tel- egraph Company. He returned to Chautauqua, and was engaged in teaching school. In the spring of 1869, he was elected collector of the town of Westfield. In 1871, he was appointed under sheriff of the county, and held the position three years. In November, 1869, he was elected treasurer of the county. He is now serving his second term of three years, which will expire at the close of the year 1875.

CHURCHES.

The Presbyterian Church of Westfield was formed in 1808, the Rev. John Lindsley, a missionary, officiating on the occasion. This was the first organ- ized church in the county. It was called the Chautauqua Church, being then in the town of Chautauqua, which included the western part of the county ; Pomfret having been formed in March of the same year and em- bracing the remainder of the county. The church was attached to the Presbytery of Erie. Its early records having been lost, little of its early history can be obtained. It seems to have begun early to decline, and con- tinued to decline, until it had little more than a nominal existence. It ap- pears, however, that, in 1817, efforts were made for its revival. On the 25th of June, was formed, in pursuance of a general law of the state, the " First Presbyterian Society in the 4th township, 14th range, in the County of Chau- tauqua." Eber Stone, James Montgomery, Nathaniel Bird, David Higgins, William M. Riddell, and Jonathan Harmon were elected trustees; Jonathan

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Cass, clerk ; Calvin E. Macomber, treasurer ; Fenn Deming, collector. The members resided in Portland and Ripley. On the 7th of November, 1817, a new organization of the church was effected. There was probably no longer a regular session ; for we find in the minutes, that "a session was formed, consisting of Rev. Johnston Eaton, Rev. Phineas Camp, James Montgomery, and Thomas Robinson." In their minutes they refer to the previous condition of the church, as having been "but poorly and irregularly supplied with preaching," and " become worse than extinct," and add : "God having lately, in a remarkable manner, revived his work within its bounds, it was deemed expedient to examine into its state, and if found to have a real existence, to correct and restore its discipline." The following is copied from its minutes : " Having endeavored, after much deliberation on the sub- ject, to correct its disorders in part, and rebuild the Presbyterian Church in this place, we resolved to consider as united in church fellowship, the follow- ing original members, they having been previously examined : James Mont- gomery, Sarah Montgomery, Sarah McMahan, Eleanor Bell, Charlotte Parker, Anna Andrews. Thirteen additional members were then admitted on examination and certificate, namely: Martha Royce, Harriet Peck, Joel Loomis, Jennet Stetson, Alexander Lowry, Judith Talcott, Eber Stone, Bet- sey Stone, John Fay, John Gibson, Eleanor Gibson, Hannah Bird. Twenty- fout others were admitted on examination only. A meeting-house was built in 1821 or 1822, on South Portage street, near the site of the present resi- dence of Alfred Patterson. It was subsequently sold for a dwelling and re- moved to Pearl street, near the residence of George W. Holt, its present owner. The second church edifice was a brick structure on the site of the present one ; was erected in 1832, and burned in April, 1872. The present church building was commenced in June, 1873, and completed in October, 1874, at a cost of $35,000. The trustees of the society at the time of its erection, were Thomas D. Strong, Joseph H. Plumb, Henry C. Kingsbury, James Johnston, Reuben G. Wright, and George W. Patterson. The trus- tees of the society, at the time of its organization, June 23, 1817, were James Montgomery, Eber Stone, Nathaniel Bird, David Higgins, Wm. M. Riddle, and Jonathan Harmon. The settled ministers of the church, since its re- organization in 1817, were Phinehas Camp, Isaac Oakes, David D. Gregory, Timothy M. Hopkins, Reuben Tinker, Charles F. Mussey, James P. Fisher, R. S. Van Cleve, Sanford H. Smith, and Rufus S. Green, the present pastor.

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