USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume II > Part 26
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(III) Richard Lush Stone, son of Ozial and Abi- gail (Bowen) Stone, was born at Ballston Spa, Sara- toga county, New York, August 15, 1815, and died in Buffalo, New York, March 13, 1894. He was a man of good education, and taught school a few terms in early life. After his marriage in Chautauqua county, in 1844, he was engaged for many years in the lumber business, then cleared land, and farmed in a small way. For many years he was a justice of the peace, town superintendent of public schools, and for several terms was postmaster at Oneville, Cattaraugus county, New York. He resided for many years at Carroll, New York. Politically he was a Republican, and during the Civil War times was active in enlisting men for the service, and was helpful in many ways. In old training days he was a member of the local company, holding the rank of second lieutenant. He was partial to the Baptist faith, but was liberal in his Christian belief. He was married, September 19, 1844, at Frews- burg, Chautauqua county, New York, by his brother, Rev. Arza Stone, a Baptist evangelist, to Elizabeth Lydia Thayer, born near Brattleboro, Vermont, May II, 1819, died in Buffalo, New York, March 13, 1894, a descendant of the ancient Thayer and Aldrich fam- ilies so prominent in New England history. She was a graduate of Charlestown Ladies' Seminary (Massa- chusetts), and for several terms taught in the public schools of Ellery and Carroll, Chautauqua county, New York. She was a devoted member of the Baptist church, and active in Sunday school and charitable work. Children: Martin Veranus, of whom further; Arza Ozial, born November 7, 1847; Flora Jane, born
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November 9, 1849, died January 10, 1918; Julia Eliza, born June 29, 1851; Nina Ellen, born December 9, 1854; Eda Belle, born October 13, 1856; Anson Wilbur, born January 6, 1859; Mary Aurilla, September 6, 1861.
(IV) Martin Veranus Stone, eldest child of Rich- ard Lush and Elizabeth Lydia (Thayer) Stone, was born in the town of Carroll, near Frewsburg, Chan- tauqua county, New York, December 6, 1845, now, 1920, living retired in Jamestown, New York. He attended the district schools during the winter months until twelve years of age, then for half a term attended Jamestown Academy. He next entered Chamberlain Institute at Randolph, New York, attending that ex- cellent institution three and one-half terms. At Cham- berlain he was awarded the "Otis Prize" at the close of his third term, his subject, "The History of the World Written in Light," there being six competitors striving for the prize. While this was his school preparation, he had from early life read the best books, magazines, and papers obtainable, and wrote essays upon the subjects which most interested him. During the last term and a half at Chamberlain he acted as assistant tutor in Natural Science, then for three years taught a district school. His chief employment, how- ever, during those years of early manhood, was the making of shaved shingles of pine, hemlock, and chest- nut, a portion of which was sent South to cover the many buildings of the large Jenkins estate in Kentucky, Mr. Stone being selected by the contractor to prepare the shingles.
In August of 1864, he enlisted in Company A, 112th Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of the war. He was at the siege of Petersburg, in action on Bermuda Hundred front, at Chapin's Farm, New Market Heights, was in both expeditions against Fort Fisher, the unsuccess- ful and successful, was engaged in the capture of Wilmington, Faisons Station, and Mount Olive Sta- tion, North Carolina, and was constantly in the field from enlistment until the close of the war.
After the war, in addition to his work as a maker of shingles, Mr. Stone also followed farming for a few seasons. In the meantime he prepared for the minis- try of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in the autumn of 1871 he was admitted to the Erie Confer- ence of that church. He continued in the active minis- try for forty-one years, serving as pastor of the Methodist churches at Kane, Sheffield, Garland, En- terprise, Centerville, Harmonsburg, Cochranton, Espy- ville, Saegerstown, Mount Hope, Townville, and Erie, all in Pennsylvania, and Frewsburg, Findley Lake, and Falconer, in New York State. During that period his work was wonderfully blessed, and many hundreds were converted and added to the church under his ministry. This was most noticeably true in Eric, Enterprise, Centerville, Mount Hope, Saegerstown, Frewsburg, Falconer, and Findley Lake, where the leading professional and business men became the leaders in Christian activities. New churches and par- sonages were built through his efforts in Centerville, Mount Hope, Kane, Erie and Findley Lake. In addi- tion to his work as pastor and preacher, Mr. Stone bore his full share of the annual conference burden. He was conference treasurer one year; statistical secretary
nine years; minute secretary twelve years; and per- formed much service on boards and committees. Mr. Stone was also first vice-president of the first district Epsworth League ever organized, and was later presi- dent of the same body for one term. He also lield almost constant official relation with county Sunday school and normal work, was a graduate of the first C. L. S. C. class of Chautauqua, and is now, 1920, engaged in normal work in the city of Jamestown.
In November, 1856, when a boy of eleven years, and the Republican party but newly born, Mr. Stone de- cided that his votes should be cast with that party. His resolution was adhered to from his first vote in 1867 until the year 1880, when he decided that the claims of the cause of prohibition were paramount, and he acted and worked for the constitutional prohibi- tion of the liquor traffic which became an accomplished fact through the amendment to the Constitution of the United States forbidding the manufacture and sale of liquor, an amendinent which ratified by the neces- sary number of State Legislature (and more) became the law of the land January 1, 1920, and hallelujahs went up from all over a nation freed from a curse of centuries. During his years of devotion to a cause then despised, but now triumphant, he allowed his name to be used as a candidate for Assembly and Con- gress, not with hope or desire for office, but for the good of the cause. With prohibition an accomplished fact, he returned to his former party allegiance.
In connection with his ministerial and pastoral work, never light, Mr. Stone has always taken a deep inter- est in the societies of the villages and cities in which he was stationed and there were many, for the law of the itinerary to which every Methodist minister loyally subscribes makes short pastorates ranging from one year to the present five year rule. He is a mem- ber of the Grand Army of the Republic; Northeastern Association of Pennsylvania of the Grand Army of the Republic; Chautauqua County Veterans' Union; Independent Order of Good Templars; Independent Order of Odd Fellows; company and regimental organ- izations of his old army comrades; cemetery and his- torical societies, and in many of these served as chap- lain and as delegate to county, district and state con- ventions. He served as president of the Frewsburg Lodge of Good Templars; also president of Chau- tauqua County Lodge for three years; was president of the Chautauqua County Veterans' Union five years in succession; chaplain of the county and regimental societies; and is now commander of James M. Brown Post, No. 285, Grand Army of the Republic; and aide-de-camp to the state department commander. His entire family, save the second son, are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, that son an active member of the Congregational church.
Rev. Martin V. Stone married, at Union City, Erie county, Pennsylvania, July 2, 1872. Mary Belle Shreve, born in Union township, Erie county, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1852, now, 1920, residing in Jamestown. She is a daughter of James Shreve, a farmer of Erie county, Pennsylvania, and active in township affairs, serving for many terms as school director, commis- sioner of highways, assessor, and township treasurer. He was ruling elder of the Presbyterian church at Union City, Pennsylvania, for many years, his wife,
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Hannah Ann (Sturgis) Shreve, and all their children being members of that church. Rev. and Mrs. Stone are the parents of seven children: I. George Haven, born August 8, 1873, a graduate of Frewsburg High School, Sheldon's School of Applied Business Methods, Chicago, Illinois, now an efficient engineer and in- structor. 2. James Richard, born June 14, 1875, died April 3, 1876. 3. Ara Vincent, born July 18, 1877, educated in Sacgerstown High School, Allegheny Col- lege (two years), Jamestown Business College of Graduates. now a merchant and supervisor-at-large for the city of Jamestown. 4. Rae Warren, born Septem- ber 19, 1879, died August 31, 18SI. 5. Arthur Martin, born April 20, 1882, a graduate of Sugar Grove Insti- tute and Seminary (Pennsylvania), now financial sec- retary with Bing & Nathan, wholesale furniture dealers of Buffalo, New York. 6. Harold Shreve, born July 16, 1886, educated at Sugar Grove Institute and Semi- nary, now a clerk in his brother's store at Jamestown. 7. Mary Grace, born August 9, 1889, educated in Frewsburg High School and in special instruction in music in Jamestown, now a saleswoman in the art de- partment of the Abrahamson & Bigelow store in Jamestown.
Such is the record in brief of a life given almost entirely to the service of the church and his fellow- men. Although now past the scriptural allotment of years, it is still used in the service of others, and the good that has come from it only Eternity can reveal.
HARRY CLAY WILLIAMSON, LL. B., graduate of Cornell University Law College, admitted to prac- tice at the legal bar of Chautauqua county, New York, 1905, and since that year associated in general practice of his profession with a well known attorney of West- field, Gerald G. Gibbs, is an attorney of promise, hav- ing in the fourteen years of his practice within the county worthily held creditable place as a lucid advo- cate, and a logical adviser in matters of law.
He was born on August 3, 1880, at Willow Grove, West Virginia, the son of James W. and Alice (Keeney) Williamson. For many years prior to the birth of Henry C., his father, James W. Williamson, had been a farmer in the vicinity of Willow Grove, West Virginia, but during the years of the Civil War he had an honorable, indeed distinguished, record in military activities. His regimental rank was that of captain, of Company K, Eleventh Virginia Regiment, and he saw battle service in the Shenandoah Valley and at Gettysburg, but his military record includes a long period of staff service, with the acting rank of inspector-general. He was a man of good estate and station, and was able to educate his children well. Besides Harry C., the children of James W. and Alice (Keeney) Williamson were: Bertha W., now the wife of a prominent dentist of Westfield, New York; Jerome H., who is in commercial life in their home State; and Eleanor E., who is with her parents.
Harry Clay Williamson was educated in the graded and high schools of Ravenswood, West Virginia. Thereafter, for one year, he was a law student with Ottaway & Munson, of Westfield, New York. After reading law in that office for about one year, he en- tered the law college of Cornell University, and gradu-
ated with the degree of LL. B. He was admitted to practice at the bar of Chautauqua county, New York, in the same year, 1905, and for a while associated in practice with Messrs. Ottaway and Munson, at West- field. Before the close of that year, however, he formed a law partnership with Gerald G. Gibbs, a rising young Westfield attorney, who at that time had only been in practice for about three years. These two partners have since been associated, and have de- veloped an extensive and satisfactory general prac- tice, their law office being at Westfield, New York, and their practice extending over the county. Mr. Williamson is a Republican, and is taking increasing part in public movements. He and his wife are mem- bers of the Presbyterian church, and are esteemed and known to many of the leading Chautauqua county families.
On November 25, 1913, Harry C. Williamson was married to Lucy Bucker Post, of Canton, Ohio. They have one child, Henry Benham.
WILLIAM HENRY PROUDFIT-Among the prominent business men and influential citizens of Jamestown, New York, with the life of which city he has been closely identified for many years, is William H. Proudfit, a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where his birth occurred December 15, 1841, and a son of William Pitt and Maria (Freeman) Proudfit, the for- mer a practicing physician of Milwaukee for a number of years.
William H. Proudfit was but two years of age when his parents removed with him to Western New York, and settled at Jamestown, and it was with the latter city that his entire life has been associated. His carly education was received at the public schools of Jamestown and at the Jamestown Academy, but even as a youth he was exceedingly ambitious to begin his business career, and it was when only fifteen years of age that he gave up his studies and secured employ- ment in a local dry goods and clothing store. He soon proved his ability and value to his employers, and held a number of positions, including that of cashier and that of bookkeeper in several similar con- cerns hereabouts.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Mr. Proufit put all thought of personal interest behind him and en- listed in 1862 in Company F, of the One Hundred and Twelfth New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He served with that body until the close of hostilities, being honorably discharged from the service, June 13, 1865. During the last year of the war he was sta- tioned at General Grant's Headquarters at City Point as chief clerk in the Post Office Department. Here, in the last week of the conflict, he was introduced to President Abraham Lincoln, who was visiting Gen- eral Grant's cabin. At the close of the war Mr. Proud- fit was offered a permanent position in the Post Office Department at Washington, but declined the appoint- ment.
In 1866 Mr. Proudfit engaged in the clothing business on his own account, establishing the firm of Proudfit & Osmer, in partnership with R. A. Osmer, of James- town, buying out the firm of Andrews & Preston in order to gain a fair start. The death of Mr. Osmer
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in 1880 left Mr. Proudfit the sole proprietor of what had grown to be a considerable business, and from that time to the present he has continued to operate it alone, at the same location where it was founded in December, 1866. On January 1, 1903, Mr. Proudfit organized the Proudfit Clothing Company, and under this name has continued the old business up to the present time. Although he is now approaching the completion of his seventy-eighth year, Mr. Proudfit is still as active as any employee in his establishment, and takes entire charge personally of the entire detail of his business.
Mr. Proudfit, in addition to his private enterprise, has been long associated with the general business and financial interest of Jamestown, and has held the posi- tion of director with the National Chautauqua Bank since 1896. He has always maintained a keen and active interest in local public affairs, but although he has discharged consistently all his duties as a citizen, he has never been ambitious for public office of any kind, and has consistently refused nominations which have been suggested to him by his colleagues. He is a staunch supporter of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and his voice carries no little weight in the councils of the same. He has justly earned a reputation for great public spirit, and has always been a liberal supporter of every movement which has been calculated to advance the interests of the community, especially in connection with philan- thropic and benevolent undertakings of all kinds. Mr. Proudfit is a Presbyterian in his religious belief, and is one of the most prominent members of the First Presbyterian Church of Jamestown, of which he has been an elder for upwards of forty years. He was one of the principal organizers of the Jamestown Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association, and was elected a member of its first board of directors, a post which he has continued to hold up to the present time. He is regarded, indeed, as the young man's best friend in this region, and is always active in advancing their best interests wherever possible. Another work in which Mr. Proudfit has been greatly interested, and which he has done much to advance, has been the James Prendergast Free Library Association, he being appointed one of the first trustees of the institution, and was made a life member by the Prendergast fam- ily. He is also a trustee of the Cemetery Association and of the Grand Army of the Republic, and a direc- tor of the Chautauqua County Trust Company. Mr. Proudfit is a man of unusually strong character, and charming personality, and has made hosts of friends in Jamestown and the surrounding region, his genial manners and courtly demeanor gaining for him the well deserved title of a "gentleman of the old school."
William Henry Proudfit married, October 2, 1866, at Jamestown, Ellen E. Hall, a daughter of Lewis and A. Augusta Hall (q. v.), old and highly respected residents of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Hall are the par- ents of two children: Augusta Maria, born December 26, 1868, and Gertrude Ellen, born November 29, 1871.
LEWIS HALL was born September 12, 1815, in the town of Carroll (now Kiantone), Chautauqua county, New York, and died at his home in James-
town, New York, April I, 1902, son of James Hall, a Chautauqua county pioncer. He was a graduate of Yale College, class of '39, and studied law in St. Louis, Missouri, under the direction of Roswell Field, father of the poet, Eugene Field. He was admitted to the bar in 1843, but an injury sustained by his father caused him to give up brilliant professional prospects and return to the farm in Kiantonc. He managed his father's business through a long period of invalidism, and at his death, took charge of the large estate. He developed large business interests and was identified with the growth and development of Jamestown and vicinity.
Modest and unobtrusive, Mr. Hall never sought office, but did serve on the Board of Supervisors, the Board of Education, and was assessor of internal revenue. In politics he was a Republican, and he regularly attended and generously supported the First Presbyterian Church of Jamestown.
During his college vacations, and later, he traveled extensively in Nova Scotia and in the Lake Superior region, and at one time dwelt and journeyed with the Chippewa Indians without seeing a white person. His later life tales of life among the Indians were of fascinating interest, his retentive memory preserving the detail of countless incidents unfamiliar to most persons. He rafted lumber down the creeks and rivers to Pittsburgh, making these trips solely for the interest they had for him. In his latter years he delved deep into historical and genealogical research and became an authority on old Chautauqua families. He was a member of the Chautauqua Society of His- tory and Natural Sciences, the Sons of the Revolu- tion, and the Society of Colonial Wars. He took an abiding interest in the Woman's Christian Associa- tion Hospital, and he was a pillar of strength to that institution so long as he lived. He was the friend of everyone in distress, administered many estates, and his long life here was no instance of faithlessness. It is a noteworthy fact that as an executor of estates he refused to avail himself of his legal right to fees. He was the safe counselor of the widows and orphans whose rights he safeguarded, and in a spirit of pure neighborliness gave his services. He was one of the most familiar figures in Jamestown streets after the death of his wife in 1883, and no man was held in higher esteem. Openhanded and generous, he helped many a young person to an education, and he was ever the loving, tender, and solicitous friend.
Lewis Hall married, May 4, 1843, A. Augusta Davis, of St. Louis, Missouri, who died December 4, 1883, leaving a daughter, Ellen E., the wife of William Henry Proudfit, the now Nestor of Jamestown mer- chants. Mrs. Hall was the companion of her hus- band in many of his trips and journeys, even on some of his voyages down the rivers on a raft.
MAJOR CHARLES A. SANDBURG, one of the outstanding heroes of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, holder of the Distinguished Service Cross "for extraordinary heroism in action," the French Croix de Guerre, and also many citations in French and American orders, is not a native of Chau- tauqua county, New York, but may almost be claimed
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as such, for he was only four weeks old when his parents came to live in the county, And the people of Jamestown, and of Chautauqua county, have appar- ently evidenced more than one inclination during the last year to claim him as their own. His war record, which will be referred to later herein, was such as to make those who knew him proud of him, and proud of their association with him.
Charles A. Sandburg was born in Youngsville, Penn- sylvania, February 21, 1874, the son of Lewis and Nellie (Pearson) Sandburg, both of whom have lived to re- joice in the brilliant military record of their son. The family is of Swedish origin, the parents of Charles A. Sandburg having both been born in that country. When Lewis Sandburg first came to America he set- tled in a western State, and there met and married Nellie Pearson. He was a farmer, and eventually ac- quired a farm in Youngsville, Pennsylvania, where Charles A. was born. Four years later, however, the family removed to Busti township, Chautauqua county, New York, Lewis Sandburg having purchased a farm in that township. There Charles A. was reared in the wholesome atmosphere of farm life. He attended in- dustriously to his school lessons at the Sugar Grove district school until he was about twelve years of age, although the facilities afforded at the district school were not of very wide scope. His school days closed at that early age; as a matter of fact, young Sand- burg had been initiated into the proper method of doing many tasks connected with the farm operation very much earlier in his life, for many little chores were allotted to him for execution before he had reached his seventh year, and his duties became heavier as he grew older, so that he was almost a skilled farm hand when he left school at the age of twelve. Two years later, in 1888, the family removed to James- town, and young Sandburg found employment in the worsted mills of that place. Three months later, he took work on the stock farm of A. M. Kent. There he remained for more than three years. Upon return- ing to Jamestown, he became night clerk at the Green- hurst Hotel on Chautauqua Lake, and later at a James- town hotel, for a while, subsequently entering the shoe store of J. F. Peterson, as salesman. As such he re- mained in steady employment in Jamestown until the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, when he joined the One Hundred and Thirteenth Separate Company of the New York State National Guard. That company was organized in the early spring of 1898, to take the place of the Thirteenth Separate Company, which had been called to the colors with the Sixty-fifth New York Infantry, National Guard. It was expected the One Hundred and Thirteenth Sepa- rate Company would be Federalized and used in the national emergency. As there was delay in this, however, young Sandburg and many others resigned and joined the Two Hundred and Second Regiment, which was organized at Buffalo, in July, 1898. Sand- burg was assigned to Company K, and sent to Camp Black for training. After training at Athens, Georgia, the unit shipped at Savannah, Georgia, for Havana, Cuba, where it did garrison duty for a short time and was then sent to Guanajoy, Cuba, where it did garri- son duty until March, 1899. At that time there were
about 47,000 Spanish troops in the vicinity, but the war was practically over. Eventually he was returned to the United States and discharged April 15, 1898, his entire service having been in the grade of private.
Throughout his life, however, Major Sandburg has manifested a keen interest in military activities. Scarcely a month after he had been mustered out of the Federal service he rejoined the National Guard, and from May 25, 1899, until the unit was mustered into the Federal service in 1917, after the outbreak of war with Germany, Sandburg was one of the most faithful members of Company N, which later became Company E, First Battalion, and later Company E, Sixty-fifth Regiment of Infantry, National Guard, and still later Company E, Seventy-fourth Infantry, Na- tional Guard, New York. During the almost two decades of service, he rose from the grade of private to that of captain. As such he saw service with the unit on the Mexican border, during the trouble with Mexico in 1916. He served with the Seventy-fourth Infantry, National Guard, New York, on the Mexican border until February 14, 1917. The company returned to Jamestown on the last day of that month, and from then until March 28, 1917, Captain Sandburg found military matters to completely occupy his time. On the latter date, with the declaration of a state of war looming near, the unit was again mustered into the Federal service and assigned to guard duty on the New York Central Railway and the Pennsylvania road between Westfield, New York, and Buffalo, New York. In this military duty the company continued until August 15, 1917, when it rejoined its regiment, there to become part of the Twenty-seventh Division, which later, in France, became famous. After a winter of hard training and the Federalizing of the troops, most of the organizations, as well as Captain Sand- burg's unit, left for Camp Stewart, Newport News, Virginia, and embarked for France. Captain Sand- burg sailed on May 18, 1918, and eventually landed at Brest, France, May 30, 1918. At that time the British had, as Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig stated in his historic order, "their backs to the wall," fighting desperately against the wellnigh overwhelming strength of the German attack, and all the troops possible had to be rushed to their aid. Captain Sandburg's regi- ment was among those sent, and saw desperate fighting in the Arras sector of the British front. Brigaded with the British, the Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth American divisions won fame during the next few months at Ypres, Kemmel Hill and other places. Eventually, the Twenty-seventh Division was with- drawn to Doullens for an intensive training of two weeks' duration. Then it was rushed east, into the Betincourt sector, where the battles for Cambrai and St. Quentin were raging. Here the Twenty-seventh Division thrilled the nation and cheered its allies by breaking through the "invulnerable Hindenburg Line," on September 29, 1918.
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