USA > New York > Yates County > History of Yates County, N.Y. : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers > Part 47
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On the IIth of November, 1863, George R. Cornwell was married to Catharine E., the daughter of Dr. James Hermans, then of Penn Yan, but formerly of Potter.
The children of George R. and Catharine E. Cornwell are William S.,
H.J.O. ENC. CO. SYR.
John GiScheetz
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Mary E., James H. (married Maud E. Whitaker), Frances E., (wife of Remsen M. Kinne), Catharine E., George R., jr., Sarah H., Hermans Hart, (who died in infancy), and Henry B. All of these children who have attained their majority have received a thorough education. Will- iam S., the eldest, is county clerk of Yates County, James H., the sec- ond son, remaining with his father in business.
Mr. Cornwell is still in the prime of life- the measure of success achieved by him has been wrought by well-directed thought and action. His family is his greatest ornament, and with that he is content.
S CHEETZ, JOHN C., was born in Norristown, Montgomery Co., Pa., on the 23d of January, 1813, and was the eldest of a family of five children. His parents were Daniel and Sarah Scheetz, who were born in the same county and State. His grandparents on his mother's side were natives of the same county and State, but his grandparents on his father's side came from Germany. When a boy he went to school and received a common school education.
His father owned a grist-mill and farm, and in 1831 young Scheetz went to work in the mill and continued there until the spring of 1837, when he left home and came to Penn Yan, N. Y. Ezekiel Casner and Aaron Remer then owned the mill known as the Wagner mill, and he went to work for them and continued in their employ until the death of Mr. Remer, after which he purchased his interest in the mill in 1843, and entered into co-partnership with Mr. Casner, under the firm name of Casner & Scheetz, which co-partnership was continued until the death of Mr. Casner in October, 1882.
When they came in possession of the mill the machinery was all wood and pretty well used up (having been built in i824), so that very soon they were obliged to make a complete repair, which they did in 1846, substituting iron in place of the wood machinery, and adopting all the late improvements at that time. The dam and flume were all of wood, and as the timber was beginning to decay and hardly to be depended upon to hold back the waters of the lake, they decided to construct a stone dam and flume, which they did in 1860 in connection with Jere- miah S. Jillett, who then owned the mill on the south side of the stream.
On the 27th of October, 1841, Mr. Scheetz married Mary Pugh,
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daughter of Michael and Jane Pugh, residents of Montgomery County, Pa., and went to housekeeping in Penn Yan, N. Y. The fruits of this marriage were three children, two boys and one girl. The boys died when quite young, but the girl grew up to womanhood and married Leonard A. Clark, of East Saginaw, Mich. In the summer of 1872 his wife was taken sick, and on December 22 died at Avon Springs, N. Y., where she had gone for treatment. In 1875, October 5, Mr. Scheetz married Lizzie S Yerkes, daughter of William and Sarah Yerkes, all residents of Norristown, Pa. No children by this marriage. In 1883 they sold the mill to Messrs. Russel, Fox & Co., and since then Mr. Scheetz has not been engaged in any active business.
During his residence in Penn Yan he has held a number of town offices, such as trustee of the village, member of the Board of Education, and was several times elected supervisor of the town of Milo, and served in that capacity nearly all through the war, being most of the time chair- man of board. Mr. Scheetz is a stockholder and director in the First National Bank of Penn Yan, and he was the first president of that bank.
Mr. Scheetz has been as is still one of the most substantial men of this county, his word being as good as his bond, and has the respect and esteem of all who have the pleasure of knowing him.
B RIGGS, HON. WILLIAM S. The subject of this sketch was born in the town of Milo, on the 30th day of October, 1820, and has lived continuously in the same town from his birth, being one of the best known and distinguished citizens of the county. His parents were David and Anna Briggs, old and respected residents of the county, whom to know was to love.
Judge Briggs entered upon school teaching at the early age of seven- teen years, and continued in that work for about four years, during alternate terms of which period he attended school as a student in Lyons, in this State.
In the spring of the year 1840 he took up the study of the law in Penn Yan in the office of the late David B. Prosser, with whom he con- tinued until the year 1844, when he commenced the active practice of his . profession with the late Hon. Abraham V. Harpending, although he was not admitted to the profession until January, 1845. In the fall of the year
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1846 the law firm of Harpending & Briggs terminated because of the failing health of the latter, which caused him to engage in agricultural pursuits for three years.
In October, 1849, the co-partnership law firm of Prosser & Briggs was formed, Judge Briggs having regained his health and sold his farm. At the general election in the year 1855, Judge Briggs was elected County Judge and Surrogate of Yates County, and was continued in that office by virtue of three additional elections thereto. In 1871, he declined a proffered fifth election, preferring to again resume his place at the bar.
Judge Briggs and John T. Knox, who had read law in his office, commenced doing a general law business on the first day of January, 1872, under the firm name of Briggs & Knox. This co-partnership continued for six years, and proved to be both pleasant and profitable alike to both members, and the firm arose to the first rank in the law business of the county.
But the people demanded that Judge Briggs should again be their servant in the office of County Judge and Surrogate. It, therefore, so happened that Judge Briggs was again nominated to fill that office in the fall of the year 1877, and his partner was at the same time placed in nomination for District Attorney.
The election of either followed almost as matter of course, and so Judge Briggs served a term of six years in that office, the official term having been lengthened since he occupied the office before. At the first of January, 1884, the firm of Briggs & Baker came into existence, the junior member being Charles S. Baker, and continued until Mr. Baker's death, March 27, 1891. After the death of Mr. Baker, a part- nership was formed by Judge Briggs and Judge Martin J. Sunderlin, which still exists under the name of Briggs & Sunderlin.
Judge Briggs was called upon to fill several important offices. He was clerk of the village for several years, a trustee of the village, clerk of the board of supervisors of the county from 1852-56, a member of the board of education of Penn Yan Union School District for many years, and vice-president of the First National Bank of Penn Yan from the time of its organization in April, 1873, until the fall of 1885.
Judge Briggs has been three times married. In 1843 he married
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Elizabeth S. Dorman, a daughter of the late Joel Dorman. This estima- ble lady died in the month of May, 1877. By this marriage four chil- dren survive : Mrs. Wilson W. Quackenbush, Mrs. Charles H. Ross, Mrs. George R. Wheeler, and William S. Briggs, jr. The second mar- riage was in April, 1883, with Adelaide L. Post, widow of the late John Post of Geneva, N. Y. This lady died very suddenly on the 19th day of May, 1888. The third marriage occurred in the city of Chicago in October, 1889, with Joanna M. Oliver, widow of the late Gen. John M. Oliver. The parties to this union now have one of the happy homes of Penn Yan.
Judge Briggs is easily one of the first in the profession of law in Yates or neighboring counties of the State. He possesses a sound, reasoning, judicial mind. The ability to weigh legal questions is possessed by him in a pre-eminent degree. Well grounded in the principles of the com- mon law, equity has become his strong point in the practice. His deep research and strict application to the duties of the judicial offices he has filled have tended to make him a sound and safe adviser and counselor. In all these points his ability and penetrating knowledge have become so well known that he has enjoyed the rare distinction of being a chosen referee by the members of his profession in an exceedingly large num- ber of important litigated cases in Yates and surrounding counties.
As a neighbor and friend he has the admiration of all his acquaint- ances. Clever, kind, tender, all appreciate and love him. He is ever ready to aid the young, while those of his years have his full confidence. As was pronounced of Brutus, so may be truthfully said of Judge Briggs: " His life was gentle ; and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world ' This was a man.'"
F CARL, JEPHTHAH, SR., was from Wilkesbarre, Pa., where he married, in 1779, Bridget Arthur, he being twenty-two and she being fifteen years old. They settled soon after on two hundred acres, bought of Charles Williamson, about two miles southwest of Geneva, in the town of Seneca, N. Y. He paid four dollars per acre for his land. He worked for Samuel Latta, sometimes for four dollars per month, to raise money to make payments. Their family numbered thirteen, ten of whom reached adult age : Jesse, Clarry, Zeruah, Susan, Fanny and Ste- phen (twins), Jephthah, Arthur, Matilda, and Laura.
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In 1821 Jephthah Earl, sr., purchased the mill property and sixty acres of land at Bellona, which he put in charge of his son Jesse. They afterwards purchased a farm known as the Lynn lot, where they re- moved and remained till 1836, when Jesse sold his interest to his brother Jephthah.
Jephthah, jr., the subject of this sketch, was born June 26, 1806, in Seneca, Ontario County, N. Y., and came to Bellona when he was about seventeen years of age, and worked on the mill property with his brother Jesse, of which they became joint owners by gift of their father. In 1827 he became sole owner, by purchase of his brother. He re- mained at Bellona until 1830, when he sold the property there and purchased a farm on the west side of Seneca Lake. These premises were but little improved and there was only a log house and frame barn. This barn was one of the oldest, if not the first, built in the town. He erected a distillery and run it on an extensive scale for several years, and also built a storehouse at Kashong Landing, and established a grain market, which proved a great benefit to that community. His brother Arthur was for several years associated with him. They frequently purchased seventy-five thousand bushels of grain in one season, and they were regarded as dealers of probity and responsibility.
In politics Mr. Earl was a lifelong Democrat, but he never had any aspiration for public office. He married Eliza Hutchinson, October 21, 1829. . Their children were seven in all, of whom three survive : George W., Edwin L., and Katy A. Mr. Earl was a man of good judgment, a kind neighbor, and a man very much respected by all who knew him. He died September 30, 1891.
P URDY, STEPHEN, the subject of this sketch, was born in Fishkill, Dutchess County, N. Y., September 17, 1787. Although a native of Dutchess County, yet through a residence of more than forty years in the town of Benton he had endeared to himself his friends and neigh- børs, and all with whom he held intercourse, by his honest, upright, and conscientious dealings. Being scrupulously nice that every one with whom he dealt should have perfect justice done him, he was soon re- garded as one of the safest and best of men to adjust difficulties and differences that arise between man and man in their strife after the
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things of the world. Hence his counsels were sought and listened to, and appreciated for their justice, impartiality, and conciliatory bearings. Peace and good neighborhood he always regarded of far more value than pecuniary considerations, whenever his own interests were con- cerned.
Susan Haight, his wife, was born in Putnam County, N. Y., Decem- ber 12, 1791; they were married December 22, 1810. In 1812 he came to what is now Yates County, and purchased the farm of Martin Kendig, about a mile southeast of Bellona, in this State. It was a spot " beautiful for situation," overlooking Seneca Lake, where in 1813 he came with his wife and commenced farming on the farm now owned and occupied by his granddaughter, Helen J. B., wife of Cornelius S. Van Wyck, of Dutchess County, and where he was a successful farmer, and died on the farm he originally purchased, at the age of sixty-five years, leaving to his children about 300 acres of land. Stephen Purdy died on January 4, 1853, leaving Susan, his wife, and five children him sur- viving. Susan, his wife, died at the "old homestead," March 30, 1882, in the ninety-first year of her age.
Maria, the eldest, married Anson C. Loomis, of Phelps, N. Y., who . died in 1856, leaving Maria, his wife, who died in 1883. Their children were Van Wyck, William H., and Lafayette.
James H. Purdy, his son, married, first, Harriet Pembroke; she died, leaving one child, a daughter, Jane A., now the wife of George H. Banks; his second wife was Mary A. Lewis, who died, leaving one child, a son, Stewart L. Purdy ; he married Josephine B., the daughter of H. Spen- cer Barnes, who now resides with his father, James H. Purdy, on a part of the original homestead of Stephen Purdy.
Caroline married Henry Barden, M.D. They settled in Penn Yan, Yates County, where he became greatly respected as a man, and in his profession, and died in 1871, leaving his wife Caroline, and two children, a daughter, Helen J., and one son, W. W. Barden, M.D., now occupy- ing his father's place and profession in Penn Yan; the wife now residing with her daughter at the original homestead of Stephen Purdy.
Jane A. married Charles Van Voorhees, of Dutchess County, and re- mained on the homestead until her death in 1866, leaving no children.
Mary F., the youngest child, married Justus B. Johnson, of Seneca
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Falls, where he was a successful business man, and during his later years was a successful banker, accumulating a fine property. His death occurred in 1885.
A NDREWS, HON. J. T. In the year 1812, on the day that war was declared by the United States against England, Ichabod An- drews purchased of Phelps and Gorham 200 acres of land in the town of Reading, five miles south of Dundee. In the spring of the following year the Andrews family, consisting of the parents, five sons and one daughter, removed from Greene County to their new home. The country at that time was an almost unbroken wilderness. Other families from the same locality, including a brother (Amherst Andrews), soon settled in the same neighborhood, which was then and is still known as the An- drews Settlement. The genealogy of the Andrews family reaches back to the early settlement of the country and numbers among its members such names as Aaron Burr and Jonathan Edwards. The family was from sturdy English stock. The mother's family, the Tuttles, was more in the clerical line, and has among its members two bishops and several clergymen, mostly Episcopalians. The primitive Andrews house was a " double " log building, larger and better than the houses of most of the settlers. It was a pleasant place of resort for the neighborhood, and to it all were welcome. The nearest post office was at Havana, twelve miles distant. The only newspaper taken in the settlement was The Catskill Recorder, and Mr. Andrews was the only subscriber. Every Saturday John was dispatched to the post-office for the mail; the dis- tance traveled going and returning twenty- four miles. Sunday after- noon the neighbors would congregate and the paper would be read aloud, beginning at the title and ending at the last advertisement. It was during the time of the last war with England and people were eager for the news.
John Tuttle Andrews was born in the county of Greene, N. Y., near Scoharie Creek on the 29th day of May, 1803. His early years were passed among the Catskill Mountains. His early education was obtained in the district school. . He was fortunate later in having for his teacher Street Davenport, a whimsical old bachelor, though a thorough scholar and a graduate from some eastern seminary. Under his instruction Mr. Andrews studied the higher branches. . In his early years he was en-
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gaged in teaching school, and was clerk in a country store. Later he was in the mercantile business with Hiram Chapman as partner, in Ire- landville and Watkins. The business was not a success, and in closing it up Mr. Andrews was a heavy loser.
He was married to Ann Eliza Andrews, April 12, 1832. The union was a happy one and continued for forty-three years. Mrs. Andrews died in the year 1875 on the anniversary day of her marriage. One child was born to them, which died in infancy.
Mr. Andrews's political career commenced early in life. His first office was justice of the peace, which office he held until his election to the office of sheriff. He was elected sheriff in 1835 and the following year Representative to the XXVth Congress. Mr. Andrews was the youngest member of that body, and is now the only one living.
He lived several years in Bath, N. Y., where he made many friends, not one of them now remaining. Among those friends were John Magee, ex-Lieutenant-Governor Robert Campbell, Judge Edwards, General Marshall, Judge Rumsey, and many others. Mr. Magee was the first to propose his candidacy for representative to Congress. The proposition was a surprise to Mr. Andrews and he reluctantly accepted. There was some dissatisfaction among the older members of the party. They thought that for so young a man he was unduly crowded to the front, that he could afford to wait for political honors. After he had secured the Congressional delegates Mr. Andrews handed to the editor of the Farmer's Advocate a note declining the nomination. After con- sultation with Mr. Magee, Governor Campbell and others, a change was considered not advisable and Mr. Andrews was nominated and elected. He served the two regular sessions and the memorable extra session called by Mr. Van Buren. At that time John Quincy Adams was fighting for the right of petition and the Senate was composed of such giants as Webster, Clay, Calhoun, McDuffee and others.
'He came to Dundee somewhere in the " forties." He did not engage in any active business until 1866, when he became a member of the firm of Martin Vosburgh & Co. In 1877 he retired from the firm, and since then has not engaged in business, employing his leisure in caring for his personal estate, and with his library, which is one of the most extensive in the county.
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What wonderful changes have occurred during this long life, " look- ing backward " almost to a former century ! The forests have disap- peared, generation after generation has been born, has lived and passed away. State after State has been added to the Republic. The map of the world has been changed. At the date of Mr. Andrews's birth Ful- ton had just perfected a steamboat that would make the magnificent record of four miles an hour. Ocean navigation by steam was not con- sidered possible. Of the present great railroad system there was noth- ing. Not a railroad, or telegraph, or telephone, or an express company on the earth. What of the next century ? Few of us will see it, but we can speculate, and the speculation is bewildering.
S TRUBLE, HON. HANFORD, was born in the town of Milo, Yates County, on May 14, 1842, and was the eldest of three children born to Levi and Mary (Misner) Struble. He was also the grandchild of Adam and Mary (Dean) Struble, pioneers of Milo.
The young life of our subject was spent on the farm, in the common schools of the town, and at the old Starkey Seminary. In 1858 he entered the sophmore class at Genesee College, but left that institution to take charge of the Dundee Academy, as its principal, where he was during the first year of the war of 1861-65. In July, 1862, he enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Forty-eighth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, and in the designation of company officers, was chosen first lieutenant. After a few months Lieutenant Struble was appointed to a position on the staff of Gen. Egbert Viele, with the rank of major, and served as provost-marshal of the city of Portsmouth, Va. Later he served in the same capacity at Norfolk, on the staff succes- sively of Generals Barnes, Potter, Wild and Voges, and still later as permanent aid on the staff of Gen. George F. Shepley. In February, 1865, he was on duty before Richmond, under General Weitzel, and entered that city with President Lincoln on the 3d day of April follow- ing. Major Struble was mustered out of service in December, 1865.
Returning from the South, our subject commenced a course of law study in the office of James Spicer, of Dundee, where he continued one year, then entering the Albany Law School, and from which, he was graduated in the spring of 1868, receiving the much coveted "sheep
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skin " from the General Term of the Second Department, at Albany. Counselor Struble at once commenced the practice of law at the county seat of Yates County, in partnership with A. V. Harpending, a leading lawyer of the place. In 1871 Mr. Harpending died, after which Mr. Struble continued practice alone until was formed the law partnership with the late Charles Baker, followed by another of the same character with James Spicer, the latter being formed in 1877, and continuing until Mr. Spicer moved to Dundee to organize the National Bank at that place.
In the fall of 1869, and again in 1872, Mr. Struble was elected district attorney for Yates County. In 1874 and 1875 he represented the county in the lower house of the State Legislature. In the fall of 1883 he was elected county judge and surrogate, and re-elected in 1889 at the expiration of his first term of office.
It will be observed from this that Judge Struble has not been a passive actor in Yates County politics, and he himself would hardly care to be known in that uncertain political relation. As a matter of fact Hanford Struble is a frank, outspoken and aggressive Republican, and one whose voice has been heard on the stump in every town in the county, and occasionally beyond its borders. On all the political ques- tions of the day he entertains clear and well settled convictions, and is perfectly free in the expression of them ; yet he is never abusive of the opposite party, its candidates or principles. And what is true of him in the field of politics, will also apply to his character as a lawyer, or as a judge upon the bench. In the latter capacity especially is Judge Struble considerate of the rights of the contending parties, his rulings fair and his charges clear and close to both facts and law.
Hanford Struble commenced his political career almost immediately upon his admission to the bar. In 1868 and 1869 he was clerk of the Board of Supervisors. In the fall of the latter year he was chosen chair- man of the Republican County Committee, and held that position six or eight years. The same fall he was elected public prosecutor for the county, serving thereafter two full terms; was next elected to the Assembly, followed by his final elevation to the County Court bench, as has been narrated.
On June 30, 1868, he was married to Laura Backus, the daughter of Clinton C. Backus, of Canandaigua. Of this marriage one child, Clin- ton Backus Struble, has been born.
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E LLSWORTH, SAMUEL STEWART, was born at Pownal, Vt., October 13, 1790, and came to this county in the year 1819. His father, Capt. Wanton Ellsworth, was a Rhode Island man, and his mother, Sabra Stewart, was a Connecticut woman. He was first asso- ciated with the brothers Stewart (Samuel and George) as clerk, but very soon purchased their stock in trade and became their successor in Penn Yan, they removing to Bethel, Ontario County.
It was in January, 1820, that " Samuel S. Ellsworth " became known and identified as a business man in the village of Penn Yan, and from that time until his death no man was more generally known or more widely recognized as a leading spirit in all that related to the advance- ment of the general interests and prosperity of the village or the county than he; and in thus presenting him it may be inferred that there was. something in the man that rendered him at once conspicuous, familiarly associated with and universally known to a very wide circle of acquaint- ances and equally as wide circle of friends.
Briefly he may be said to have possessed the native elements of a gentleman and by self-culture to have qualified himself to fill that sphere in the true sense of the term ; eschewing all semblance of both pedantry and aristocracy he was equally accessible to the peasant and the scholar, and especially was he open to the approach of those who needed the uplifting hand of a friend in time of need. He was an early student and always an ardent lover of books, devoting as much of his time to them as his engrossed and busy life would permit. As a business man he was active and ready, judging men accurately and adapting himself to their demands, and always so deported himself as to establish con- fidence and command respect. No one who became acquainted with him feared to trust and never was that confidence disappointed. His kindness and geniality were proverbial, and although often led into im- prudences in aid of others by trusting too hopefully, yet in his own business affairs, that were under his personal care and direction, it sel- dom occurred that he was not fully sustained in the judgment he had formed.
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