USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume II > Part 33
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Harry Benjamin Lyon was born March 15, 1873, on a farm in Angelica, New York, and is a son of Willard and Jane (Hooker) Lyon, the former a farmer on a small scale but a printer by trade. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lyon are now deceased. The earlier education of Harry Benjamin Lyon was received in local district schools, and when he was eight years old his parents moved to Dunkirk. After passing through the public schools of that city he graduated from the high school, in 1891, and then, having been employed for two years, he entered the dental department of the University of Buffalo, graduating in 1897 with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. Entering at once upon the prac- tice of his chosen profession, he has continued in the same up to the present time (1920).
In 1893 Mr. Lyon (as he then was) enlisted in the State National Guard at Olean, New York, becoming
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a member of the Forty-third Separate Company. In June, 1912, a division of the Naval Militia was organ- ized and he was placed in command. At this post of duty he continued to serve until the outbreak of the recent war, when he at once volunteered, receiving his commission on December 1, 1916. On April 7 of the following year he was called into service and was attached to the battleship "Wisconsin" for about a year. After that he rendered detached service as teacher and lecturer at the naval school at Hampton Roads, giving instruction in navigation and on similar subjects until May 10, 1919. His name is still on the reserve list, and on reaching home he returned to his position in the State Naval Militia.
In the sphere of politics Mayor Lyon gives his allegiance to the principles advocated by the Repub- lican party, and for a number of years has been an influential factor in local affairs. At one time he repre- sented the Second Ward in the Common Council, and served several terms on the Water Board. In 1911 he was elected mayor, serving through 1912-13, and in 1919 he received the tribute of a reelection for the term of 1920-21. Among other offices which he has held is that of State committeeman.
Among the professional organizations to which Mayor Lyon belongs are the National Dental Society, the State Dental Society, and the Eighth District Den- tal Society. He affiliates with the Masonic order- chapter, council, commandery, consistory, and shrine, and is past master and past deputy of his lodge. His religious affiliation is with St. John's Protestant Epis- copal Church.
Mayor Lyon married (first) April 25, 1899, Marjorie Alling, daughter of Dr. David G. and Juliette (Col- man) Alling. Mrs. Lyon passed away on July 10, 1902, and Mayor Lyon married (second) April 9, 1917, Jane C. Connolly, of Gowanda, New York.
Both as soldier and citizen, Mayor Lyon has proved himself a loyal American, and he enters for the second time upon the duties of the mayoralty possessing the full confidence and staunch support of his friends and neighbors of Dunkirk.
GEORGE JOHN CORNELL, who for thirty years operated, with marked success, an ice business of such considerable proportions as to need a cutting force each year of one hundred and fifty men, is one of the representative successful men of Chautauqua county, New York, and although he has now retired altogether from business, his labors for thirty years brought much money and employment into the county. And his in- terest in the affairs of his home town, Mayville, Chau- tauqua county, New York, has been so marked, and of such long standing, that he is highly regarded by the majority of the people of that section of the county.
He was born at Bemus Point, New York, February 8, 1854. on the ancestral homestead. His parents were John W. and Ann (Durfee) Cornell, and his genealogy, in both paternal and maternal lines, connects with old pioneer families of New York State. His father was a farmer, as was his grandfather, W. E. Cornell, who was, in fact, one of the pioneer settlers in that section of Chautauqua county. W. E. Cornell, paternal grand- father of George J. Cornell, first settled in Washington county, New York, in 1808, and about 1850 John W.
Cornell came to Chautauqua county, taking up an un- developed tract of land at Bemus Point. Since that year the Cornell family has been prominently identi- fied with the development of that section of the State.
George John Cornell attended the district school nearest to his home, and eventually became a student at the Mayville High School, from which in due time he graduated. He then began to assist his father in the operation of the home farm, and continued steadily in farming operations until he was twenty-five years old, when he became connected with boating and steam- boating enterprises on Chautauqua Lake. He was so employed for almost thirty years, and had also entered into the ice business at Mayville. That enterprise, which ultimately became his chief business, he began in a small way, selling the ice he had cut in Mayville and the vicinity. In course of time his business had so developed that he was supplying a considerable quan- tity of ice yearly to distributors in the city of Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, where in course of time Chau- tauqua Lake ice came much into demand. Of late years, the business found work during the cutting sea- son for about one hundred and fifty men, and the prop- erty of the company included several very large ice houses along the lake side. His success in the ice business was so substantial that when he retired from active business in March, 1919, he found that his finan- cial interests were many, his investments including many tenements in Mayville and other places in New York State, and some farming properties in addition. Mr. Cornell is a Republican, but has not taken active part in political affairs, being too closely tied to busi- ness to have been able to afford time for such activi- ties. But he has long been connected with two of the principal fraternal and benevolent organizations, the Masonic order and Elks. He is a member of the May- ville Blue Lodge of Masons, and belongs to the James- town lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Mr. Cornell married, July 30, 1879, Ida L. Wilcox, of Mayville, New York. Their only child, John George, who was born on October 4, 1892, and whom they had reared through a creditable youthdom, and commendable adultage, to an energetic, useful man- hood, succumbed to the ravages of influenza in 1918, his demise occurring October 14, 1918. He had been well educated, passing from the Mayville Grammar School to the Mayville High School, and from these to the Jamestown Business College, after which he en- tered with a zest into the affairs of his father's busi- ness, proving himself to be a business man of distinct capability, and a tactful, respected handler of men. He was the superintendent of his father's business, and gave promise of being able to efficiently continue it when the time came that his father would hand over to him the full direction of its affairs. But such was not to be, and his passing for ever from all the affairs of this life was a crushing calamity to his father and mother, who had centered their love in the life and wellbeing of their only child. Some solace, however, is still theirs in their grandchild, Madeline E., daugh- ter of their dear deceased son and his wife, Edna (Hall) Cornell, of Mayville. And in their grandchild they see their son, which is wealth and comfort greater than all their material possessions can bring them.
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ARTHUR H. GREENLUND-There is no name more closely associated with the business interests of Jamestown, Chautauqua county, New York, than that of Arthur H. Greenlund, who for many vears was closely identified with the life of this community and whose death here, October 14, 1917, was felt as a severe loss by his fellow citizens and a great host of personal friends.
Mr. Greenlund was born December 21, 1862, at the town of Randolph, New York, but came as a child with his parents to Jamestown, where he made his home up to the time of his death. He attended as a lad the public schools of Jamestown, but abandoned his studies at the age of seventeen, in order to begin his business career. Upon leaving school, Mr. Green- lund took up the study of furniture carving and design- ing, and after a number of years of apprenticeship secured a position as traveling salesman in the eastern territory for a number of local furniture firms. In 1888 he became an employee of the Jamestown Lounge Company, which was founded in that year by the late H. L. Phillips, the late T. D. Hanchett and L. F. Cor- nell. For some time he acted as traveling salesman in New England for this concern, and made so great a success in this line that he was eventually called to the central office to superintend the manufacturing end of the business. From that time until the close of his life he was closely identified with the Jamestown Lounge Company, and it was due in no small degree to his unusual executive and organizing ability that the concern has reached its present large proportions and occupies so important a place in the business in- terests of the community. Indeed he was possessed of a most extraordinary capacity for practical affairs in every line, and it is often stated that no manufacturer of this community was ever more widely or favorably known than Mr. Greenlund during the days when he represented the firm as a salesman. He was popular with furniture manufacturers throughout the country, and continued to hold their friendship after his retire- ment from the road and his devotion to the industrial aspect of the business. In 1901 the Jamestown Lounge Company was incorporated with Mr. Greenlund as vice-president, an office which he continued to hold until the spring of 1914, when the death of Mr. Han- chett, up to that time president of the concern, left that post vacant. Mr. Greenlund was immediately elected president and continued to fill that office with the highest degree of ability and efficiency until his untimely death. Another concern with which Mr. Greenlund was intimately connected was the Youngs- ville Manufacturing Company, of Youngsville, Penn- sylvania, in the management of which he took a promi- nent part for a quarter of a century. It was he who was largely responsible for the development of its great business, it being his function to look after the marketing of its products, and although he was never a stockholder in the concern, he was more intimately connected with it than any one man.
In addition to his business activities, Mr. Greenlund was always actively interested in the public life of the community, and was justly regarded as one of the leading Republicans in this region. He was, however, quite indifferent to public office of any kind and refused
to be a candidate for any office, though he served for a number of terms on the water and lighting commis- sion, of which he was a member at the time of his death. He was a member of the Manufacturers' As- sociation of Jamestown, and at one time served as its president, in which capacity he did a great deal to promote the material advancement of the community. He was also a director and treasurer of the Union Trust Company, and was one of those who promoted the furniture exposition building here. For a number of years Mr. Greenlund suffered from ill health, but this fact did not interfere to any extent with his varied activities until about nine months before his death. He was prominent in social and fraternal circles : here, and was a member of the Sportsman's Club of Jamestown, the Jamestown Club, the Lakewood Country Club, and many similar organizations. He : was also a conspicuous figure in Masonic circles and was affiliated with Mt. Moriah Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Western Sun Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Jamestown Council, Royal and Select Masters; Jamestown Commandery, Knights Templar: and Aleppo Temple, Boston, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; and other Scot- tish Rite bodies. He was a member of Jamestown Tent, K. O. T. M. He was a regular attendant of the First Presbyterian Church, and served as usher there for a number of years.
Arthur H. Greenlund was united in marriage, June 28, 1894, with Jessie Ormes, a daughter of Dr. Francis D. Ormes, a prominent physician of Jamestown. They were the parents of one daughter, Leona Ormes Green- lund. It will be appropriate to close this sketch of one of Jamestown's most prominent citizens with a number of tributes which were paid to him at the time of his death in the local press of Jamestown. In the course of a long obituary article on Mr. Greenlund, in the Jamestown "Evening Journal," the following occurs:
With the demise of Arthur H. Greenlund. James- town has lost one of the most conspicuous figures in its industrial life, one of the most popular members in its fraternal circles, and one of its best citizens. Mr. Greenlund was a self-made man and he enjoyed a phenomenal success from the beginning of hts career.
It has been said that no manufacturer in the City of Jamestown ever has been more favorably or more widely known than Mr. Greenlund was in the days he traveled. All the trade knew him and many outside. When he retired from that work he fostered the acquaintance of his fellow manufacturers by attending the Grand Rapids market and keeping in touch with his customer friends.
It is a noteworthy fact that while he was helping make a world-wide reputation for the Jamestown Lounge Company, Mr. Greenlund always found time to listen to the news of his employees. Without osten- tation, he helped every workman in need of assist- ance. The men associated with him in business have said that his liberality and generosity were remark- able, and that always he was the loyal friend of those in his employ.
Inquiry as to Mr. Greenlund's chief characteristics bring forth the response that he was the sort of man who never seemed so happy as when he was provid- ing pleasure for his friends.
Mr. Greenlund had suffered a number of years, but only a few months before his death gave up hope of recovery from the fatal illness. His sunny disposition asserted itself through all his great suffering. and he maintained his good cheer until the end. Certainly Mr. Greenlund was one hundred per cent. optimist. With his family he had returned to town just four days before his demise, from his summer home on the shores of Chautauqua Lake.
As. Granlund
1
A. D. Ormes M. d.
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Mr. Greenlund was a lover of nature and of every kind of athletics. In his young manhood he was a noted performer both on ice and roller skates. He hunted, fished, bowled, played baseball and engaged in other sports, in all of which he distinguished him- self. He had the ability to mix business and pleasure in such proportion that each only added to the zest of the other.
In the "Evening Journal" also appeared the follow- ing editorial :
It is seldom that a death has left a greater vacancy In the life of this community or greater sorrow in more hearts than came with the death of Arthur H. Greenlund early Sunday morning, and it is hard to feel that the kindly friend, the capable business man, the genial host and ideal husband and father, has passed on. Spending most of his fifty-five years in this community, he was long an active part of its best life. A real lover of his fellowmen, kind-hearted and genial, he won a host of true friends, who watched without fear or jealousy his steady rise to positions of business success and personal influence in the affairs of this growing city.
As one of the organizers of the Jamestown Lounge Company, when he had scarcely reached his majority, he had long taken a leading part in the industrial development of Jamestown. and from a small begin- ning he saw the plant to which he and his companions devoted their best thought and energy and hard work develop from a small shop to one of the largest plants of its kind in the world, an establishment that has done much toward advancing the name of Jamestown as a furniture center, and to raise the standard of business integrity and honest workmanship that has made this city famous in the furniture markets of the world.
Full of life and energy, full of the high spirit of youth, he was one of the leaders of his school and boyhood days in amateur athletics of Jamestown, and the Chautauqua Lake region. He was a lover of all honest sports and this kept his heart young as the years advanced. Up to a short time before his death, nothing delighted him more than a day at the Sport- man's Club, or in fishing or hunting with clean heart and cheerful companions. He was one of the few men who could mix business and pleasure, without dulling the edge of either. He entered into every form of clean sport with the enthusiasm of business, and he enjoyed his business with the enthusiasm of the pur- suit of pleasure. His clear business judgment did much toward the development of his own manufac- turing establishment, of which he was the president for some years before his death.
But there was nothing selfish about Arthur H. Greenlund. He gave freely of his means and his tal- ents for the good of the community. He served as president of the Manufacturers' Association; he had been for some years a member of the Jamestown Mu- nicipal Water & Lighting Commission; he had been a director and treasurer of the Union Trust Company, a member of the Jamestown Club and the Sportman's Club. He was deeply interested in Free Masonry, and had advanced through the lower branches of the Order, through the Knights Templar and Scottish Rite to the 32nd degree in this great order. But best of all, he was the ideal friend, husband and father, and it is in the home circle where his cheerful spirit will be most greatly missed. In times like these it is hopeful to recall that "Death is but another life." We how our heads at going out and enter straight another golden chamber of the King's, larger than this we leave. and lovelier.
FRANCIS DENMAN ORMES-Dr. Francis D. whose name heads this biographical record, devoted his life to his profession, and he has been deservedly crowned with its choicest rewards. He was born in the village of Panama, Chautauqua county, New York, April 2, 1838, a son of Dr. Cornelius and Angeline J. (Moore) Ormes. The American ancestor so far as known at present of the Orms or Ormes family of Jamestown, New York, was John Orms, of Water- town and Spencer, Massachusetts. The name has been spelled in different ways by his descendants, Orme,
Ormes, and Orms. This family has furnished the world with many noted physicians, beginning with the second generation, continuing up to the present. Dr. James Orms, who lived in 1709-85, was the first prac- ticing physician of Spencer, Massachusetts. Dr. Cor- nelius Ormes, for thirty years a practicing physician of Panama, Chautauqua county, New York, is credited with being the first surgeon in the United States to successfully operate on and remove the ovaries and uterus.
(I) John Orms settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1706. He bought land in Spencer, Massachusetts, where he moved, and in this town he died in April, 1755. He was united in marriage, March 20, 1705, with Elizabeth Philipps, who survived him thirty-nine years, and died May 19, 1785, at the age of one hundred years, five months and nine days. To this union were born six children: 1. John, born October 16, 1706. died July 16, 1715. 2. James, born October 19, 1709, died 1785; he was the first practicing physician of Spencer, Massachusetts; married (first) 1733, Frances Hinds, (second) 1736, Rachel How, (third) 1742, Tabitha Wright. 3. Jonathan, see forward. 4. John, born July 24, 1716. 5. Sarah, born February 24, 1721. 6. Eliza- beth, born February 2, 1725.
(II) Jonathan Orms, son of John and Elizabeth (Philipps) Orms, was born in Watertown, Massachu- setts, October 27, 1712. He settled in Spencer, Massa- chusetts. He married and among his children was a son Jonathan, see forward.
(III) General Jonathan (2) Orms, son of Jonathan (1) Orms, was born October 20, 1764, at Windham, Connecticut. He was a carpenter and millwright. He settled in Fair Haven, Vermont, in 1788, stopping for a time at Pittsfield, Vermont. He was engaged by Dr. Simeon Smith in building a forge on the west side of the falls, which he afterwards owned, and on which he built the saw and grist mills, so long known as "the Orms Mills." After his marriage hie settled on the West Haven part of town, afterwards lived for many years south of the highway, in Fair Haven. He filled many town offices, and was general-in-chief of all the militia in Vermont during the War of 1812, and had his headquarters in Bennington. He moved to Castleton Corners in 1842, and died there August 4, 1850, aged eighty-five years. He married (first) 1790, Eunice Hines, who died in West Haven, March 27, 1824, aged fifty-five years; married (second) a widow, Annah (Doyle) Gaines, who died January 14, 1837; married (third) a widow, Lura (Lyman) Weston, who survived him. Children by first wife: I. Pamalia, born 1792. 2. Allen, removed to Northampton, Iowa. 3. Sophia, married Alanson Loveland. 4. Alanson, died aged three years. 5. Betsy, married John Ransom, of Poult- ney, Vermont, and removed to Cleveland, Ohio. 6. Caroline, married Ezra Greenough. 7. Dan, born Feb- ruary 13, 1804; married (first) Amelia Gaines; (sec- ond) Mrs. Sarah S. Cook. 8. Jonathan, removed to Whitehall, New York. 9. Cornelius, see forward).
(IV) Dr. Cornelius Ormes, son of General Jona- than (2) and Eunice (Hines) Orms, was born at West Haven, Vermont, August 4, 1807. After receiving a thorough academic education, he entered upon the
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study of medicine with Professor Theodore Wood- ward, at that time the most noted surgeon of the East- ern States, receiving liis degree of M. D. from Castle- ton Medical College in 1832. After practicing for a time with his preceptor, he removed to Chautauqua county and opened an office in Panama, February 13, 1833. In that early day the inhabitants of this por- tion of the county and the adjacent parts of Pennsyl- vania were largely engaged in lumbering, and Dr. Ormes' surgical experience, obtained under Professor Woodward, peculiarly fitted him for the exigencies constantly arising in that occupation. His practice soon extended into Northern Pennsylvania, then al- most a wilderness, and his duties entailed upon him great hardships from the bad roads which he was com- pelled to traverse, and the severe exposure to which he was frequently subjected. The success which at- tended his practice, however, soon gained for him a high reputation, which was unceasingly enhanced down to the time of his death. During his life Dr. Ormes made a special study of ovarian diseases, and soon established a national reputation for the treatment and removal of ovarian tumors.
In 1863 Dr. Ormes removed to Jamestown, and the better field greatly enlarged his already extensive prac- tice. In 1872 he was called to the Chair of Obstetrics and Uterine Surgery in the Detroit Homoeopathic College, and discharged its duties with marked ability, and advantage to the cause of homoeopathy. Dr. Ormes was at the time of his death, and had been for many years, president of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, he was also one of the physicians from Western New York who assisted in reorganizing the state society in 1861, and in which he was a permanent member at the time of his decease. Dr. Ormes was a member of the new Homoeopathic Medical Society of Western New York, and "Senior" in the American Institute of Homoeopathy, he having been elected a member in 1856. In all these societies he occupied a prominent place, and in all was the frequent recipient of positions of responsibility and of honor. Few physicians have ac- quired as extensive and enviable a reputation, and none will be more missed by the profession for those genial and excellent qualities of manhood which shed an additional lustre upon the achievements of an intel- lectual life. Dr. Ormes died April 20, 1886.
Dr. Ormes married, May 4, 1835, Angeline J. Moore, born September 15, 1814. died August 13, 1893. Chil- dren: I. Francis Denman, see forward. 2, William H., born January II, 1843, died July 4, 1854. 3. James C., born August 15, 1845, died January 16, 1870. 4. Julia E., born December 23, 1846, died April 19, 1888; married David N. Marvin; children: Isabelle and Maud.
(V) Dr. Francis Denman Ormes, son of Dr. Cor- nelius and Angeline J. (Moore) Ormes, received his preparatory education in the schools of Panama, and in 1853 entered Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, com- pleting his studies in Fort Edward Collegiate Institute, at Fort Edward, Saratoga county, New York. He re- turned to Panama and began the study of medicine with his father, entering the Homoeopathic Medical College at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1862. He graduated
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