USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume II > Part 29
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BIOGRAPHICAL
go when told and come when called. You will toe the mark and face the music every time. I am really pleased to know you have made so good a selection and will not interfere."
At Fort Leavenworth he was fully equipped and taught a soldier's duties with about fifteen hundred other recruits, and later was assigned to Company D, Tenth Regiment, and in camp, bivouac, and battle shared the fortunes of that command on the western frontier in the Mormon War and Indian troubles. Finally his ordcal was over and he returned home, reaching the paternal home in Westfield at 3 a. m. He made a soldier's bed on the back porch, where his father, an early riser, found him. His welcome home was a royal one, and after his father, who would never tolerate anything dishonorable, was shown his son's honorable discharge from the army (although his five years had not expired) he gave him his hand and took him to his heart. He had been on the frontier in the Indian country, Utah, and the Rocky Mountains, for three years, and supposed his soldier experiences were over.
But when on April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired upon and President Lincoln called for three months' men, he enlisted in Jamestown, in Company B, re- cruited by Captain James Brown, a veteran of the Mexican War. Mr. Hale was the first man to sign the Company B enlistment paper, E. B. Barber and Delos White soon following his example. The com- pany left Jamestown, May 28, 1861, one hundred and twelve men strong, Mr. Hale probably now the last survivor. The company was a part of the Third Regi- ment, one-half of that regiment coming from Chan- tauqua county. The Third was a part of the Excel- sior Brigade, and on June 21, 1861, the regiment was sworn into the United States service for three years unless sooner discharged. Colonel Nelson Taylor commanded the Third Regiment, Captain James M. Brown commanded Company B, while the Brigade was commanded hy General Daniel E. Sickles. Two months were spent in camp on Staten Island, the regiment moving on July 24, and arriving at Camp Marsh, Washington, D. C., early on the morning of July 26. They were next at Camp Caldwell in Mary- land, where they constructed forts Carroll and Stan- ton, and guarded the roads leading to Washington. He was in skirmish at Boyd's Hole, was engaged at the siege of Yorktown, and with Company B was at the battle of Williamsburg, Virginia, May 5, 1862, and there Captain Darwin Willard, who had succeeded Captain Brown as commander of Company B, was killed. Mr. Hale was wounded in the hand at Wil- liamsburg, and was sent to Patterson Park Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, and was there until convalescent and mustered out of the service.
After Mr. Hale was honorably discharged from the United States army he went to Pine Island, Minnesota, where a married sister was living on a farm. There he spent the winter of 1862-63, hunting and trapping along the Zumbro river. In the spring he shipped as second steward on the steamboat, "Frank Steele," a Mississippi river side-wheeler. The Government char- tered the steamer as a transport, and for several months Mr. Hale was steward of the "Frank Steele," that
steamer being kept busy in transporting troops south, finally being discharged with all the crew at St. Louis. Later he was employed at the United States Arsenal as foreman of a department, but finally he was given a desk at headquarters, where he was very pleasantly situated. He however, longed for the old scenes, and returned to Chautauqua county, locating in James- town.
After the war, Mr. Hale became a traveling sales- man, and on January 30, 1870, was in the employ of the Syracuse Nurseries, Smith, Clark & Powell, pro- prietors, Syracuse, New York. He was sent with a party to the State of North Carolina, going to Smith- field, the capital of Johnson county. Mr. Hale had a series of most interesting experiences in his fruit tree selling campaign in the South, but was uniformly suc- cessful until ordered to return North. Later he was traveling salesman for the Jamestown Worsted Mills, Hall & Turner, proprietors; collector and reporter for the Jamestown "Journal;" agent for the Howe Scw- ing Machine Company; traveling salesman for the Gokey Boot and Shoe Manufactory of Jamestown; and for the Northwestern Shoe Company of Chicago, Illinois; agent and traveling correspondent for the "Trade Review and Western Machinist" of Cleveland, Ohio; bookkeeper for Wells & Whitcomb, founders and machinists of Jamestown. In politics, Mr. Hale is a Republican, his first presidential vote having been cast for Abraham Lincoln, and his ticket ever since having been voted "Straight." He was messenger in the department of the secretary of the interior at Washington, D. C., for four years, and served on the police force in Jamestown for some time. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he was secretary eight terms, and is a past noble grand, also a member of the Grand Army of the Re- public.
Mr. Hale married, November 1, 1865, in James- town, Eliza Jane Fenner, born in that city, May II, 1840, daughter of James Robinson and Lovina (Har- rington) Fenner, her father a shoe manufacturer and dealer. Mr. and Mrs. Hale are the parents of an only daughter, Helena Josephine, educated in Jamestown grade and high schools, and Collegiate Institute, now residing in Jamestown, a stenographer and typist.
Such in brief has been Mr. Hale's life, beginning as a wild adventurous boy, restive under restraint and discipline, but learning through that hard but capable teacher, experience, a manner and inode of life which has brought him the regard and respect of every com- munity in which he has lived and every firm with which he has been identified.
CHARLES LEONARD CASE-With the mar- riage of Charles Leonard Case and Marietta L. Gifford several prominent New England and New York State families were blended. Charles L. Case was the only son of Ira Fairbanks and Eliza (Forman) Case, the Case family tracing descent from William Case, of Newport, Rhode Island, who died in 1680, the For- mans from William Foreman, who arrived in Mary- land, in 1675. John Foreman, of the third generation, married Rebecca Chamberlain, daughter of Richard, son of Nathaniel, son of Joseph, son of Richard (I),
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son of Joseph, who is first mentioned in the records of Braintree, Massachusetts, December 19, 1642. The Forman family has produced scholars of note, artists, and authors, Justus Miles Forman, playwright, novel- ist, and magazine writer, going down with the ill-fated Lusitania, after being torpedoed without warning by a German submarine, in 1915. Three generations of Chamberlains, Richard, his son Richard, and grandson Abial, all served in the French and Indian War, while Nathaniel Chamberlain, father of Richard, was a frontiersman, and a son of Joseph Chamberlain, a sol- dier of King Philip's War. All of the sons of Richard Chamberlain, except the youngest, Eri, served in the Revolutionary War.
Rebecca Chamberlain, daughter of Richard Cham- berlain, married, at the age of fifteen, John Foreman, son of Joseph, and grandson of William Foreman, of Maryland. John and Rebecca (Chamberlain) Foreman were the parents of ten children, including a son, John (2), who married Esther Goodwin, and settled in Oneida county, New York. They were the parents of seven children, their eldest a daughter, Eliza Forman (as they wrote the name), born in Newbury, Vermont, March 20, 1800, died in Ellington, Chautauqua county, New York, May 15, 1879. She married, in Randolph, New York, September 5, 1831, Ira Fairbanks Case, born in Augusta, New York, died in Ellington, Chau- tauqua county, New York, March 6, 1893. Their only son to survive childhood was Charles Leonard Case, born November 27, 1832, now (1920) a resident of Jamestown, New York.
The line of descent of Charles Leonard Case from William Case, the American ancestor, of Newport, Rhode Island, and his wife, Mary Case, is through their son, Joseph Case, of Portsmouth and Kingston, Rhode Island, and his wife, Hannah Smith; their son, John Case, of West Greenwich, Rhode Island, and his wife, Elizabeth Sunderland; their son, John (2) Case, and his wife, Mary Hill; their son, Nathaniel Case, and his wife, Sarah Carr; their son, Esau Case, who died in Ellington, Chautauqua county, New York, and his wife, Mrs. Stacy (Witter) Porter; their son, Ira Fairbanks Case, and his wife, Eliza Forman; their son, Charles Leonard Case.
Ira Fairbanks Case, father of Charles Leonard Case, was born at Knoxville, Oneida county, New York, April 13, 1817, and died in the town of Ellington, Chautauqua county, New York, March 6, 1893. He married, September 5, 1831, Eliza Forman, born at Newbury, Vermont, March 20, 1800, died at Elling- ton, New York, May 15, 1879. Eliza (Forman) Case, in 1827, taught the first private school in Jamestown, New York, the school located at the southeast corner of Main and Fourth streets. She taught private school many other terms and in the district schools both be- fore and after her marriage. She was deeply inter- ested in Sunday school work, and was a member of the Congregational church.
Charles Leonard Case, son of Ira Fairbanks and Eliza (Forman) Case, was born at Abbotts Corners, near Randolph, Cattaraugus county, New York, No- vember 25, 1832. The family home was the usual log house of that day, simple, even primitive, but comfor- table, with a huge fireplace, into which were rolled logs
of the finest oak or birdseye maple, priceless to-day, but at that time to be had for the cutting by the pio- neer's axe. The family soon moved to another house in the near vicinity on Sample Hill, and here the child, hardly more than a baby, being only three years old, attended school taught by his mother. At the age of seven his parents moved to the southwestern part of the town of Ellington, Chautauqua county, New York, his father having purchased a farm from the Holland Land Company. Here the lad developed inte the man, attending the district school, enjoying the forbidden pleasures of the "old swimming hole," and knowing the delights of a stony, frozen apple, surrepti- tiously devoured behind the voluminous covers of the old-time school geography under the very eye of the master and his disciplinary ruler. In 1849 he entered the employ of his uncle, John Forman, in his old- fashioned general store in the village of Ellington Cen- ter. Here, too, was located the village post office, through which passed the incoming and outgoing mails, transported by a network of stage lines, embracing a territory as far north as Buffalo and west to Erie, Pennsylvania. Here he spent the greater part of two years.
The decade, 1853-1863, saw the departure of many young men for the West, and among them was Mr. Case. The epidemic of cholera which spread over the country in 1855 caused his departure from Castalia, Ohio, where he was employed as a post office clerk, and during the ten years he also held the position of bookkeeper for the commission house of Hamm & Company, of Toledo, Ohio. Toledo at that time was the usual western town of wooden construction, and consequently there were many fires, some of them most spectacular, while much lawlessness of various sorts was in evidence. Nevertheless there was a finer side to the life of the town, and there was ready and liberal patronage of the West in art and drama, good audiences gathering in the principal opera house to hear such artists as Gottschalk, Thalberg, and Jennie Lind. At this time (1856) he cast his first presidential vote, and during that period, too, he engaged for one season in a fishing expedition on Lake Erie, near San- dusky. He there witnessed the remarkable spectacle of the schooner "Emeline," George Booth, captain and owner, during a violent storm, with high seas running, sailing without difficulty into a cornfield, where she was found high and dry the next morning.
After his marriage Mr. Case purchased a farm ad- joining his father's in the town of Ellington, and for forty years engaged in farming. In 1899 he sold the farm in Ellington, the birthplace of his three children, and moved to Jamestown, New York, where for five years he was engaged in mercantile life in partnership with his son, Fred Jay Case. In 1905 he retired, and is now (January, 1920) living at the family home, No. 444 Buffalo street, Jamestown. Mr. Case has always been considered a good judge of property values, and was often appointed by the surrogate or probate judge to appraise estates, and he also served several terms as assessor, fixing the value of farms and other prop- erty in his own town. Since early boyhood he has ridden the congenial twin hobbies, numismatics and philataly. In politics he is a Republican.
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BIOGRAPHICAL
Charles Leonard Case married, January 13, 1859, Marietta L. Gifford, of Poland, Chautauqua county, New York, who died in Jamestown, December 19, 1917, daughter of Elihu and Mehitable (Shearman) Gifford. They were the parents of three children: Fred Jay, Alfred Burnette, and Martha Mary Case; all residents of Jamestown.
MARIETTA L. (GIFFORD) CASE-From long lines of purely American stock sprang Marietta L. Gifford, daughter of Elihu and Mehitable (Shearman) Gifford, and wife of Charles Leonard Case. she now deceased, her husband yet a resident of Jamestown, New York. The lines which united in this descend- ant of aristocratic New England blood include those leading to Isaac and Mary Allerton, Francis Cooke, and George Soule, of the "Mayflower," and Hon. Philip Shearman, of Rhode Island. Her father. Elihu Gifford, was a personal friend of Henry Clay, whose hospitality he often enjoyed at the former's Kentucky home. It is shown by the records that Benjamin Gif- ford, great-great-grandfather of Marietta L. (Gifford) Case, served as a member of Colonel Peter Yates' regiment of New York militia, during the Revolution- ary War. His name appears only on rolls, showing that he received £ 1, 18s. 6d., also a note for £ 1, 121/2d.
The Mayflower lines which in Mary Gifford, wife of Isaac Shearman, and mother of Mehitable Shearman, wife of Elihu Gifford, and mother of Marietta L. (Gif- ford) Case, are traced: I. Isaac Allerton and his daughter Mary, who came in the "Mayflower," in 1620; Mary Allerton, married Thomas Cushman; Eleazer Cushman, married Elizabeth Combes; James Cush- man, married Sarah Hatch; Ebenezer Cushman, mar- ried Zarviah Shearman; Jedidah Cushman, married Caleb Gifford; Mary Gifford, married Isaac Shearman; Mehitable Shearman, married Elihu Gifford: Marietta L. Gifford, married Charles Leonard Case. II. George Soule, who came in the "Mayflower," in 1620: George Soule: John Soule; Mary Soule, married Adam Wright; Mary Wright, married Jeremiah Gifford; Peleg Gifford, married Alice Cornell; Mary Gifford, married Isaac Shearman; Mehitable Shearman, mar- ried Elihu Gifford; Marietta L. Gifford, married Charles Leonard Case. III. Francis Cooke, who came in the "Mayflower," in 1620; Francis Cooke, married Hester Hester Cooke, married Richard Wright; Adam Wright, married Sarah Soule (his first wife); Mary Wright, married Jeremiah Gifford; Peleg Gifford, married Alice Cornell: Caleb Gifford, married Jedidah Cushman; Mary Gifford, married Isaac Shear- man; Mehitable Shearman, married Elihu Gifford; Marietta L. Gifford, married Charles Leonard Case.
The ancestor of Peleg Gifford, who appears in the foregoing lines as marrying Alice Cornell, was a de- scendant of William Gifford, who was living in Sand- wich, Massachusetts, and a member of the Grand In- quest at Plymouth, in 1650, who may have been the same William Gifford, who was living in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1647. William Gifford continued to reside in Sandwich until his death, with the exception of five years between 1665 and 1670, 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 pur- chased the land of the Indians, and to whom the Mon- mouth patent was granted April 8, 1665. Being ad- herents to the Quaker faith, they suffered severely by fines and vexaticus suits both in Massachusetts and New Jersey. William Gifford owned land in Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. His Massa- chusetts possessions consisted of lands in Sandwich, Falmouth and Dartmouth. The facsimile of deeds accompanying the record represents a forty-acre par- cel purchased of a Suckanessett (Falmouth Indian) named Job Attukkoo, July 24. 1673. He gave by will to his sons, Jonathan and James, lands in Falmouth, Massachusetts. He also deeded to his sons, Robert and Christopher, lands in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, both of whom erected homesteads upon their estates. Robert continued to live in Dartmouth, while Chris- topher moved later to Little Compton, Rhode Island. Both have many descendants now living in Southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. William Gifford probably deeded his Connecticut lands to his son John, who gave by will one hundred acres in the colony of Connecticut to his son Samuel, and two hundred acres to his grandsons.
Robert Gifford, son of William Gifford, was born in 1660, and died in 1730. He lived in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and married Sarah Wing, she born in February, 1668, died in 1724.
Jeremiah Gifford, son of Robert Gifford, was born in 1682, and died January 15, 1771. He married Mary Wright, who died March 12, 1780.
Peleg Gifford, son of Jeremiah Gifford, was born December 1, 1719. He married, February 19, 1740, Alice Cornell, who was born March 14, 1726, and died in 1811, daughter of William and Mehitable (Fish) Cornell.
Caleb Gifford, son of Peleg Gifford, was born Octo- ber 14, 1764, died January 10, 1832. He married Jedi- dah Cushman, November 9, 1782. She died October 7 or 8, 1848, daughter of Ebenezer and Zarviah (Shear- man) Cushman.
Mary Gifford, daughter of Caleb Gifford, was born March 29, 1792, died June 5, 1865. She married, May 25, 1810, Isaac Shearman, he born February 29, 1788, died October 5, 1860, son of Humphrey and Mary (Lapham) Shearman.
Mehitable Shearman, daughter of Isaac Shearman, was born March 25, 1812, died April 24, 1895. She married, in October, 1829, Elihu (4) Gifford, born July 16, 1808, died March 12, 1879, son of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Darrow) Gifford.
On the paternal side the record is traced to Benja- min Gifford, the Revolutionary soldier previously alluded to, who died February 26, 1791. He married Abigail Wing, who during the Anti-Rent riots in Dutchess county, New York, in 1766, so greatly sym- pathized with the colonists in their protest against the tyranny of the English Government that she loaned to her sister, Mehetable (Wing) Prendergast, a gown so that the latter might be pleasingly attired to appear before the Governor of New York and there plead the cause of her husband, William Prendergast, who was under sentence of death for his participation in the
Chau-8
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above mentioned riots. Her eloquence and pleasing appearance met with such success that he was par- doned by the English King. This item, as a published fact, is important as it establishes Abigail (Wing) Gif- ford as a "Recognized Patriot," and as such admits her descendants to the societies of the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution, the latter society defining the Revolutionary period as occurring between the dates of 1765, the date of the passage of the Stamp Act. and 1795, the date of the final or "Hay" Treaty of Peace.
Benjamin (2) Gifford, son of Benjamin (1) Gifford, was born March 13, 1758, died February 12, 1821. He married Esther Crandall, born March 13, 1753, died May 31, 1846, daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Casey) Crandall.
Jeremiah Gifford, son of Benjamin (2) Gifford, was born in 1787, died January 28, 1816. He married Eliza- beth Darrow, born in 1785, died October 15, 1850, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Darrow.
Elihu Gifford, son of Jeremiah Gifford, was born July 16, 1809, died March 12, 1879. He married Me- hitable Shearman, born March 25, 1812, died April 24, 1895, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Gifford) Shearman.
The Shearman line is traced from Thomas Shearman, of Suffolk, England, through his son, Henry, of Essex, England; his son Henry (2), of Essex; his son Samuel, of Dedham; his son, Hon. Philip Shearman, founder of the family in New England, who settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1634. After coming into conflict with Governor Winthrop over the Anne Hutchinson troubles, he went to Rhode Island, and there acting upon the advice of Roger Williams, he bought the island of Aquidneck (now Rhode Island) of the In- dians. The purchase was completed March 24, 1638, and on July 1, 1639, a regular government was estab- lished, Philip Shearman, secretary. He became member of the Society of Friends, was a man of wealth and influence in the new colony, a devout but very determined man.
He married Sarah Odding, the line of descent con- tinuing through their son, Peleg Shearman, and his wife, Elizabeth Lawton; their son, Daniel Shearman, and his wife, Sarah Jenney; their son, Seth, and his wife, Ruth Lapham; their son, Humphrey Shear- man, and his wife, Mary Lapham; their son, Isaac Shearman, born February 29, 1788, and his wife, Mary Gifford: their daughter, Mehitable Shearman, and her husband, Elihu Gifford; their daughter, Marietta L. Gifford, married Charles Leonard Case; their children: Fred Jay, Alfred Burnham, and Martha Mary of Jamestown, New York.
Marietta L. (Gifford) Case was born in the town of Busti, Chautauqua county, but when she was four years of age her parents moved to the Prendergast farm in the town of Kiantone, Chautauqua county, there remaining seven years, living a life whose glamour tinctured with gold all the years of her long and gracious womanhood. The Prendergast farm or estate, consisting of three thousand acres, in the rich- est part of Chautauqua county, was owned by James Prendergast, the founder of Jamestown, and a cousin of Elihu Gifford, Mrs. Case's father, who was its manager for several years. In 1848 the family moved
to Poland, Chautauqua county, to the farm Elihu Gif- ford had purchased the year previous. There Miss Gifford grew to womanhood, enjoying the social life of that day, with its many gatherings of young people, among whom she was known as an expert leader in the dignified and courtly dances of that day. She attended the public schools and the old Jamestown Academy, under the principalship of Professor Dickin- son. A contemporary writing many years later re- ferred to her as "Marietta Gifford, a pretty young girl who studied trigonometry." She taught in the public schools for many terms before her marriage, where her fearless adherence to right principles was well known. While a real aristocrat in the truest sense of that term, she conducted herself in a gracious, kindly way, winning hosts of friends to whom she was always ready to render any service. For nearly fifty-nine years (January 13, 1859-December 19, 1917) Mr. and Mrs. Case trod life's pathway together ere the bond was broken, and the gentle wife translated to another sphere. Mr. Case, who has recently (November 25, 1919) passed the eighty-seventh milestone of his life, continues his residence in Jamestown, a man honored and loved by all who know him.
LEVI LEWIS AMIDON, one of the most promi- nent figures in the industrial life of the prosperous and progressive city of Jamestown, Chautauqua county, New York, is a member of a family which has been settled in this region for many years and resident in the United States since early Colonial times. The Amidon family is of French origin, and the name be- longs to that large class of patronymics which have been derived from earlier place names. The early ancestors were French Huguenots, who were compelled to flee from their native country by the persecutions following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. From that country they were spread over a large part of the New World, and we now find their names under such various spellings as Amidon, Amadon, Amedon, Ami- down, Ammidon and Ammidown.
(I) The earliest form of which we have record was Amadowne, and it was one Roger of that name who left France for England early in the seventeenth cen- tury to seek religious freedom. He resided in that country for a number of years and then, as did so many of his fellow countrymen and the co-religionists, came to America, settling at the Plymouth Colony, at which place, and at Rehoboth, he resided during the remainder of his life. His name first appears in the records of Salem, Massachusetts, where in 1637 he was granted a small portion of land. In 1640 he was at Weymouth, where his daughter Sarah was born, and we next find him at Boston, where there is a record of the birth of his daughter Lydia in 1643. It was in 1648, five years later, that he appears at Rehoboth, where his name is the forty-third on the list of pro- prietors. He was the recipient of several grants of land, but in spite of this, died intestate, though we have no record of the date of his death. He was buried, however, November 13, 1673, which fixes it with sufficient accuracy. We know nothing concern- ing his first wife further than that her name was Sarah,
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