USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume III > Part 54
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In addition to his duties as a druggist, and his interest in politics, he acquired an interest in agricul- ture and became a grape-growing farmer. In addition to looking after his own small farm, he was made ad- ministrator at one time and another of estates in the grape belt and managed them as successfully as he did his own business. As a grape grower he hecame vitally interested in the marketing of his product, was instrumental in the organization of the Chautauqua & Erie Grape Growers' association, was for some years a director in this organization, and for several years has been the secretary-treasurer and manager of the asso- ciation, having direct charge of marketing millions of dollars' worth of grapes each year, to the great advan- tage of the grape farmers of the region.
He was elected member of Assembly from the Sec- ond Chautauqua District in 1915, as the candidate of the Republican party, and immediately took a place of influ- ence in the Assembly at Albany. He has held that position down to the present time, and is now recog- nixed as one of the leaders of that body, a man whose judgment is trusted by his associates and whose knowl- edge of State affairs is recognized in the Assembly and in the various departments of the State government. lle has taken deep interest in the matter of assessment and taxation, and is regarded as one of the best posted men in the Legislature on these important subjects. In the session of the Legislature for 1918 and 1919 he was
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made chairman of the special committee on war prep- arations; he is also a member of the committee on ways and means and on taxation, and has been a mem- ber of several of the most important special committees of the Legislature during the past five years. He was elected chairman of ways and means committee at the session of 1921. He is a member and supporter of the Presbyterian church of Ripley. He is a member of the various Masonic bodies from the Blue Lodge up to the Commandery, having filled the chairs of each order; he has held the important post of deputy master for the Fortieth Masonic District. He is a member of the Odd Fellows, the Encampment, the Maccabees, and the Eagles.
On Jan. 7, 1884, he was united in marriage with Anna Brockway, a member of one of the old and influential families of the town of Ripley. They are the parents of one daughter, Clara Elizabeth, who was educated in the Ripley schools and also at the University of Syracuse, where she was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. She was united in marriage, in 1919, to Park J. Johnson, and they also reside in the town of Ripley.
LEN ROSS FRANCIS, postmaster and well known citizen of Ripley, Chautauqua county, N. Y., is a native of the town of Mina, in this county, born Dec. 19, 1874. the son of Elihu and Elnora (Ross) Francis. His father was a contractor and builder at Mina and Ripley for a number of years, and his mother, Elnora (Ross) Francis, was a descendant of one of the earliest of Chautauqua county families, and her father was a well known lawyer in Mina.
Len R. Francis received a good education in the graded and high schools of Ripley, finishing with a course at Clarke's Business College at Erie, Pa. After graduating, he entered the grape basket manufacturing business at Ripley Crossing. He kept the plant in operation for about five years, and conducted his farm on which he cultivated grapes. Later he went into grape growing more extensively, and managed Farrell's vineyard for four years, after which he purchased a good fruit and grape farm, giving his entire time to its management. He has been actively interested in the political affairs of his town, being a member of the Democratic party. From 1912 to 1914, he was highway commissioner of the town, resigning that appointment when he became postmaster of Ripley in 1914. From 1914 to the present, he has held this post, giving the town efficient service. He is a member of the official board of Ripley Methodist Church, member of the local Grange, and his fraternal organizations are the local lodges of the Masons, Odd Fellows, and Eastern Star societies.
Len Ross Francis was married, Dec. 10, 1903, at Rip- ley, to Ada C. Bentley. They have one child, a son, Ellsworth Ross.
EDWARD N. TEALL has been since Jan. 1, 1920, the head of the Press Department of Chautauqua Insti- tution and managing director of the Chautauqua Press. He is a graduate of Princeton University, class of 1902, with the degree of A. B. and A. M .; for fourteen years was a member of the editorial staff of the "New York
Sun;" for two years connected with the Princeton Uni- versity Press; and before coming to Chautauqua was secretary of the publishing firm of Marshall Jones Company, of Boston. He has for two years written the "Watch Tower" of the "St. Nicholas Magazine." He is author with Edgar O. Achorn of a novel, "The Un- known Quantity," published in September, 1919; and of "Vagrom Verses," published in 1915. During the war he was a member of all the Liberty Loan commit- tees at Princeton, and edited a weekly paper under the title of "Bonds and Bullets." An historical poem by Mr. Teall took one of the prizes in the competition held in connection with the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of Newark, N. J.
Chautauqua Press issues the books and bulletins for the home reading course, publishes the "Chautauquan Daily" and the "Chautauquan Weekly;" has charge of the editorial, secretarial and pedagogical conduct of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, and the advertising and publicity work of the Institution in all its branches. As an agency for publicity it publishes and distributes the many Quarterlies, which include the "Summer Program," the "Schools," "C. L. S. C.," etc. The increased number of readers of the "C. L. S. C." of about twenty-five per cent. over the previous year, involved the reprinting of one thousand sets of all the books.
PERRY ADDISON MASON is one of Chautau- qua county's representative business men, who for more than twenty years has been town clerk of Ripley, and for a longer period has been a leading merchant of that place. In addition he has operated a good sized farm in the vicinity. The fact that he has been reelected regularly to the office of clerk of the township testifies to his stability and his community spirit. He is a native of Ripley, born June 25, 1876, son of Clarence and Florence (Perry) Mason, the former a farmer and latterly a merchant. Clarence Mason died in October, 1897, but his widow still survives.
Perry Addison Mason received his education in the schools of his native place, and for more than three years after leaving school was a clerk in the Ripley National Bank. His father, however, having on Jan. 1, 1897, purchased the merchandizing business in Ripley of a Mr. Burrows, caused him to leave the bank and join his father in business. They took over the store he still conducts, and for twenty-one of the twenty-two years of its operation it has been managed wholly by him, for his father died in October, 1897, as previously mentioned. Perry A. Mason is a man of commendable industry, for in addition to the store business, and the public duties, he has also maintained in successful and skillful cultivation the farm he inherited from his father. The Masons are Presbyterians by religious conviction. Mr. Mason is a Republican in politics, and has taken active part in political affairs in the section of New York State in which he lives, and had he more time to devote to such matters he would probably have taken a more prominent part. He belongs to the Ma- sonic order, Blue Lodge, Royal Arcanum, and Eastern Star. Of the last-named, his wife is also an active member.
On Jan. 12, 1898, Perry Addison Mason was married
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to Lillian Platte, of Warren, Pa. Mrs. Mason is prominent in all home activities, and is a member of the Literary Club of Ripley, of which she is president. In her religious views she is an Episcopalian, but attends the Presbyterian church of Ripley. Mr. and Mrs. Ma- son have two children: Harriett Clair, who now attends the Ripley High School; and Elizabeth Rose, who is in the lower grades.
FRANCIS BEATTIE BREWER, M. D .- Brewer is a name of antiquity in England, from whence came the ancestors of Dr. Francis B. Brewer, of Westfield, N. Y., a son of Ebenezer Brewer, grandson of Colonel Ebenezer Brewer, an officer of the Revolution, serving on the staff of General Jonathan Chase, whose daugh- ter Mary he married; great-grandson of Thomas Brewer, a shipbuilder of Boston, Mass., in 1760.
Ebenezer Brewer, father of Dr. Francis B. Brewer, was a soldier of the War of 1812. He married, in 1817, Julia Emerson, of Windsor, Vt., and settled in Keene, N. H., where his son, Francis B., was born, but later moved to Western Pennsylvania. There he became a member of the firm of Brewer, Watson & Company, and engaged extensively in lumbering on Oil creek, a name which later became so familiar in connection with the discovery and production of petroleum.
Dr. Francis Beattie Brewer, son of Ebenezer and Julia (Emerson) Brewer, was born in Keene, N. H., Oct. 8, 1820, and died at his home in Westfield, N. Y., July 29, 1892. He studied in good preparatory schools, entered Dartmouth College, where he was graduated in 1843. going thence to Dartmouth Medical College, whence he was graduated M. D. in 1845. He began practice in Barnet, Vt., but in 1850 moved to Plymouth, Mass .. and the same year he visited his father in West- ern Pennsylvania. He was greatly impressed with the country and its opportunities, so much so that in 1851 he moved to Titusville, Pa., and there practiced his profession for ten years. He also became a member of the firm of Brewer, Watson & Company, and during his entire ten years was engaged with that firm in their lumbering and mercantile operations. The firm owned several thousand acres of timber land on Oil creek and its tributaries. On this land was an oil spring which attracted his interest to such an extent that in the sum- mer of 1854 (long before the discovery of oil) he wrote to business friends in New York describing it as "a peculiar oil, surpassing in value any other oil now in use for burning, for lubricating machinery, and as a me- dicinal agent. The yield is abundant and the supply inexhaustible."
This letter to Eveleth & Bissell also contained a proposition from Brewer, Watson & Company, looking toward the formation of a company in New York for producing and marketing the oil. Dr. Brewer soon afterward went to New York, taking a quantity of oil which he had pumped from the spring, which was sub- mitted to experts for chemical analysis. There was no difference of opinion as to the quality of the oil, but no one could believe that it could be taken from the ground in quantity. Dr. Brewer, however, did so believe, and his arguments, backed by a large consignment of the oil, at last convinced the New York men, and on Nov. 6,
1854, Eveleth & Bissell wrote Dr. Brewer that the organization of a joint stock company was nearly com- plete. Dr. Brewer in the meantime was pumping oil from the spring, which was used in the company's lumber mills as an illuminant and a lubricant, and was the founder of the oil business. The first recorded oil lease was made July 4, 1853, between Brewer, Watson & Company and J. D. Augier. Eveleth & Bissell in New York accomplished the formation of the first oil company, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, certi- ficate of incorporation being filed with the recorder of the City of New York in 1854. Dr. Brewer was one of the incorporators and directors of that company, which operated on the lands of Brewer, Watson & Com- pany. Colonel E. L. Drake was sent out from New Haven as a representative of the eastern stockholders of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company to sink a well, which he accomplished, but not until Aug. 26, 1859; Dr. Francis B. Brewer was really the pioneer in the oil business, and Brewer, Watson & Company the first to introduce petroleum in large quantities, and to them the birth of a new business must be credited.
On May 1, 1861, Dr. Brewer moved from Titusville to Westfield, N. Y., and did not again resume medical practice. In 1864 he aided in organizing the First Na- tional Bank of Westfield, becoming its first president, an office he held for ten years. He continued a direc- tor of the bank as long as he lived. The same year, 1864, he joined others in organizing the Townsend Man- ufacturing Company, of which he became president in 1865, and sole owner in 1870, the name then being changed to the Westfield Lock Works. In 1864 he offered his services to the government as field surgeon, and in April, 1865, was sent to the Army of the Potomac as medical inspector for the State of New York, Gov- ernor Fenton making the appointment, which carried with it the rank of major. He continued in the service until honorably discharged at the close of the war.
Dr. Brewer took a very active part in the public life of the village and State, serving for ten years as supervisor, 1868-78, and for three years was chairman of the board. He was also president of the village; dele- gate to the Republican National Convention at Phila- delphia in 1872; representative from the first Chautau- qua district to the Legislature in 1873-74, serving on the committee, Ways and Means, both terms; appointed a director of the Union Pacific Railroad on behalf of the government by President Grant in 1874; appointed a manager of the Buffalo State Insane Asylum by Gov- ernor Cornell, 1881-82, and by Governor Hill, 1886-87; elected representative to the Forty-eighth Congress of the United States from the Thirty-third New York Congressional District in 1882, serving on the Pen- sions Committee. In all of these offices he served with honor, and until his health failed never declined any duty or trust imposed upon him, although he never sought political preferment.
Dr. Brewer was a member of Summit Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Westfield. He was a man of kindly heart and ready sympathy, quickly responding to any demand upon his time or purse. He was public- spirited and so uniformly courteous and considerate that he was generally beloved. Upon the day of his
2. B. Braun
F. R. Brown Jr.
M.E. Bene
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funeral all business houses of the village closed, and throngs attended the last services.
Dr. Brewer married Susan Hooper Rood, at Haver- hill, N. H., July 20, 1848, daughter of Rev. Heman and Frances S. (Moody) Rood. To Dr. and Mrs. Brewer were born the following children: I. Eben, born May 14, 1849, at Barnet, Vt .; he was a journalist in Erie, Pa .; he was the first United States postal agent in Cuba, where he died in 1898; he married Mrs. Eliza- beth Courtwright Lowry, of Erie, Pa. 2. Frances M., born Oct. 16, 1852, in Titusville, Pa .; she married William C. Fitch, a lawyer, of Buffalo, N. Y .; chil- dren : Francis B., Roger S., and Frances E. 3. Francis B., born Oct. 16, 1852, in Titusville, Pa .; he was a merchant early in life and later an agriculturist; now retired and living at the homestead of the family in Westfield; married Caroline E. Selden, of Erie, Pa .; children : George S., Francis, and Selden. 4. George E., born July 28, 1861, in Westfield, N. Y .; he is a sur- geon in New York City; during the World War he served in the medical corps of the United States army with the rank of colonel; married Effie L. Brown, of Chester, Pa .; children: Leighton, and George E., Jr.
GEORGE FRANCIS OPDYKE-The patent of nobility which rested its honors and distinction in the person of the late George Francis Opdyke came from high authority, since it was based on fine character and large and worthy achievement. His measure of tem- poral success in important fields of enterprise was large, but greater than this was the intrinsic loyalty of prin- cipal, the deep human sympathy and tolerance, and the broad intellectuality that designated the man as he was. His career in the world of business was such as to advance the welfare of others as well as himself, and he had a high sense of personal stewardship, though at all times he was significantly free from ostentation. His was the gracious reserve which indicates fine mental and moral fiber, and in usefulness to the community he surpassed many another man who has attained to more of publicity. To those who came within the sphere of his influence, his life was a veritable benefaction, and its angle of usefulness was comprehensive to a degree not superficially apparent. He broadened his intellectual horizon to become a man of culture and mature judg- ment, and in him was that sincere simplicity that be- tokens true greatness of character and of ideals.
Mr. Opdyke was a resident of the city of James- town, Chautauqua county, N. Y., at the time of his death, which occurred Oct. 1, 1913, and he was a scion of a family whose name became identified with the his- tory of the Empire State in the earliest part of the Colonial era, so that, prefatory to the more specific record of his career and tribute to his memory, it is but consistent that there be entered concise but notably interesting data concerning the history of the Opdyke family in America.
There are two distinct families of Opdyke in the United States, tracing from the earliest period in New Amsterdam, the sturdy little Dutch city that formed the nucleus of our present great national metropolis. One branch of the family is of pure German origin, and its first representative in America was Op der Dych
(as he personally signed his name), who occupied high position in the Dutch West Indies Company and in the early government of New Amsterdam under Dutch oc- cupation. He was of the eighth generation in line of direct descent from Op der Dych, who was born in 1297, and who was magistrate of Wesel, a town on the banks of the Rhine, in the Province of Rhennish Prussia, Germany. Representatives of this family settled in Holland, and there is no doubt of its relationship to the family of- which the subject of this memoir was a scion. The latter branch traces descent from Lewis Jansen Opdych, who was a Hollander, and concerning whom little information is now available prior to his appearance in New Netherland in 1653.
Lewis Jansen Opdych was born in Holland within the first two decades of the seventeenth century, and about the middle of that century he purchased land at Graves- end, in what is now Kings county, N. Y. He became the owner of this property in 1655; he resided in Fort Orange, the nucleus of the city of Albany, in 1653-54, and he died on his estate at Gravesend in 1659. He was a man of some financial resources, and early in his residence in America he made his way up the Hud- son river to Fort Orange, where he engaged in the fur trade, his residence in what is now the city of Albany being opposite the present postoffice building and on the corner of Broadway and State street. This vigorous pioneer left three sons: Peter, Otto and Johannes, and the last mentioned was next in order of descent to the subject of this review.
Johannes Opdych was born in 1651, and died at Hope- well, N. J., in 1729, he having been a prosperous farmer. After his marriage he removed with his large family, in 1697, to New Jersey, and settled in what is now Law- renceville, Mercer county. He purchased a tract of thirteen hundred acres of land, including the present site of the village of Pennington, where is established Pennington Seminary, maintained under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal church. He acquired much real estate, and within his residence of thirty-two years in New Jersey he became one of its most wealthy and influential citizens. His will, bearing date of Feb. 12, 1729, is still preserved in the archives of the New Jersey capitol, at Trenton. His six children were: Foyntje, Engettje, Annetje, Lawrence, Albert and Bartholomew.
Albert Opdych, the second son, was born at Dutch Kills, Queens county, N. Y., about 1685, and died at Maidenhead, N. J., in 1752. He resided at Hopewell, N. J., during the major part of his life, and was the only one of the family to retain the original orthography of the patronymic, all other representatives having adopted in his generation the form of Updike. His sons are the ancestors of all the Opdyckes, Opdykes, Op- dyches and Obdykes in the United States. He became a member of the Baptist church. His eight children were: John, Joshua, William, Benjamin, Sarah, Cath- erine, Frank and Hannah.
Joshua Opdych was born in Hopewell township, Hun- terdon county, N. J., in 1713, and died in 1749. Though he was the second son he inherited a double portion of his father's estate, and settled in Amwell, Hunter- don county, in the watershed district of the Delaware and Raritan rivers. He retained the ancient Aryan love of the soil, and purchased warrants for fractional
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parts of allotments held by Quaker "proprietors," through which means he became the owner of lands in Hunterdon, Morris and Sussex counties, N. J. He never sold any of his land, and from his land and from his great estate he gave valuable tracts to each of his children who attained maturity. His old homestead at Amwell comprised 500 acres and eventually became known as Kingwood. His first house was a log building, but the substantial stone dwelling which he finally erected as the family domicile is still standing. He was a zealous Baptist and was the leading spirit in founding the church of this denomination at Baptistown, near his home. In 1739 he was a delegate from Kingwood to the Baptist General Convention in the city of Philadel- phia. Joshua Opdyke was tall, well proportioned, cheer- ful and even of temperament, but firm in his convictions and resolute in all things. Two of his sons were val- iant soldiers of the Continental Line in the War of the Revolution. In 1738, he married Ann Green, and they had eight children : Richard, Luther, Sarah, Elizabeth, Margaret, Frances, Hannah and Catherine. Richard, the elder son, was a substantial farmer, and served forty years as justice of the peace at Kingwood, be- sides which he presided eleven years on the bench of the county court. He was a true patriot, a man of much influence in public affairs, and represented his county in the Colonial Congress.
Luther Opdycke, the younger son, was born March 29, 1740, and died in 1838. He held the office of justice oi the peace for half a century, and it is a matter of record that within this long period none of his decisions was ever reversed by a court of higher jurisdiction, while during a portion of the time he served as asso- ciate judge or surrogate of the Court of Common Pleas. He was the administrator of many estates and was commonly known as "Squire Opdyche." He re- ceived a regular commission as ensign, and served as a gallant soldier during the major part of the War of the Revolution, to the tension and vicissitudes of which he fully lived up, as he took part in various battles and endured his share of hardships. In 1770, he erected the "old red house" in which all of his children were born and in which he continued to make his home until his death. He was a man of strong character and great energy, and that he was progressive in his day and generation is indicated by the fact that he became the owner of several farms, and owned and operated two mills and a distillery. He was thrice married, and his wife, whose maiden name was Gertrude Hall, was the ni ther of his seven children. He was a zealous mem- ber of the Baptist church and frequently served as a preacher in the same. Of his children the eldest was George, the ancestor of him to whom this sketch is dedicated.
George Opdycke was born in the old homestead of which mention has just been made, and the date of his nativity was Dec. 6, 1773, his death having occurred on June 15, 1651. Concerning him the following state- ment las løen written :
He wa a man of contented disposition, took keen Interest in pa sing events but had no desire to become active in public affairs. lle was held in unqualified respect by his neighbors, who said that he "knew more than all the schoolmasters." He stood six feet in height, weighed one hundred and eighty pounds, and was a man of impressive appearance. He inher-
Ited the old red house in which he was born, and there he lived a quiet, peaceful life. In 1793 he en- rolled in the Hunterdon Militia, and at Kingwood he served as sehool trustee, assessor, overseer of the poor, and as a member of the grand jury.
At Baptistown, Hunterdon county, N. J., George Op- dyke married Mary Stout, and of their ten children George (second of the name), was the third in order of birth, he having been born in the historic old home- stead, Dec. 7, 1805.
George (2) Opdyke passed his early life on the farm, and at the age of sixteen years he assumed the dignified position of schoolmaster, in which connection he served as instructor to a number of his former school- mates, who obeyed him only after he had flogged them into submisssion. At the age of eighteen years he be- came clerk in a general store at Baptistown, and he sedulously saved his earnings. When twenty years old he borrowed $500.00 and in company with one of his chums made his way, hy river, canal and Lake Erie, to Cleveland, Ohio, where for a short time he was engaged in the grocery business. He then continued his journey to the city of New Orleans, La., where he formed a partnership with another young man, Fitch Falger, and opened a clothing store, in which they manufactured their own goods. The enterprise proved very success- ful, and through this means Mr. Opdyke always main- tained that he laid the foundation of his fortune, besides which he gained many of the Southern mannerisms of speech and deportment which characterized him through the remainder of his life. In 1832, Mr. Op- dyke disposed of his business interests in New Orleans because of yellow fever, and engaged in the clothing trade in New York City, his first establishment having been on Cherry street, when he later removed to Nas- sau street, near the site of the old Dutch church. He continued his successful business operations as a clothing merchant for several years, and then engaged in the drygoods business, in connection with which he became an importer and made frequent trips to Europe, each foreign sojourn having recorded his visitation to Switzerland and the historic Rhine country of Ger- many.
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