USA > New York > Erie County > Sardinia > History of the original town of Concord : being the present towns of Concord, Collins, N. Collins, and Sardinia, Erie County, New York > Part 55
USA > New York > Erie County > Collins > History of the original town of Concord : being the present towns of Concord, Collins, N. Collins, and Sardinia, Erie County, New York > Part 55
USA > New York > Erie County > Concord > History of the original town of Concord : being the present towns of Concord, Collins, N. Collins, and Sardinia, Erie County, New York > Part 55
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Joseph Palmerton was born in Collins, where he has always resided in the capacity of a farmer. He has been three times elected Commissioner of Highways of Collins. His wife, Ruth Allen, daughter of Isaac Allen, a prominent pioneer of Collins. They have three children :
Durant A., Eunice A. and Frank. Durant is proprietor of
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the " Linden Lawn Apiary," which has produced some seasons as high as four thousand pounds of surplus honey, Eunice is a teacher. Frank, at the present writing (October. 1882), is a student of the college at Lima, N. Y.
David Pound.
Mr. Pound was a Quaker and came to Collins from New Jer- sey in 1811, locating where the Collins railroad depot stands. He erected a saw-mill on his lot. Mr. Pound and his wife died in Collins years ago, as did four of their children, a remaining one dying since at the west, leaving the family extinct.
William P. Pratt.
William P. Pratt. son of John and Lovinia Pratt, was born in the town of Concord, Oct. 6, 1847. When about nine years of age he removed to Collins with his parents where he has ever since resided, living at the present time at Bagdad, where he owns and occupies a farm. June 15, 1870. he married Flora Rolfe, daughter of Reuben and Rachel Rolfe of Collins. His wife was brought up by Augustus Smith. They have no chil- dren.
Nathan Pierce.
Nathan Pierce, son of Charles and Eliza Pierce, is a native of Collins and was born Jan. 12, 1843. March 12, 1868, he married Julia A. Bartlett, daughter of Seth and Aurilia Bart- lett. Since his marriage he has mostly been engaged in the manufacture of cheese for William A. Johnson, being now employed in the Collins Center cheese factory. He has but one child. Lena May, born Sept. 13, 1870.
Merritt R. Palmerton.
Merritt R. Palmerton, son of Elisha and Lydia Palmerton, was born in the town of Sheridan, Chautauqua county, N. Y., March 1, 1847. Nearly his whole life has been passed in Col- lins, where he has been engaged in farming and the manufac- ture of cheese. He now owns and conducts a meat-market at Collins Center. In Sept., 1864. he married Hattie Tanner, daughter of Anson and Lucy Tanner. The names of their children are as follows :
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Anson P., born Aug. 13, 1868 ; James M., born Jan. 31. 1871. and Edith, born March 13, 1877.
Joseph Potter.
Joseph Potter, an old and highly respected citizen of Collins. was born in the Town of Providence, Saratoga county. N. Y .. in 1804. He married Persus Hayden and came to Collins in 1836 and bought the farm which he now owns and occupies of the Holland Land Company. Mr. Potter is a man of quiet and domestic habits, spending his time almost wholly with his family. He has many years been a worthy member of the Free Methodist Church. His name should ever be remembered as being associated with those who encountered so many diffi- culties and hardships in subduing the great forest to prepare a home for themselves and their descendants.
His children are three: Moses, Charles and William. Moses married Helen Ferris and lives in Collins. Charles married Lydia Lenox and lives in Collins. William married Dora Knight and resides with his parents and works the farm. His oldest son, Moses, has for many years been afflicted with the consumption and has for the greater part of his sickness been confined to the house.
Joseph W. Potter.
Mr. Potter was born in Collins, in 1844, where he has ever since resided, a thriving farmer. His father, Peter Potter, came to Collins from Vermont in 1843.
Joseph W. Potter was married in 1872 to Ann Eliza Havi. land They have two children. viz : George H. and Herbert J. .
George Parkinson,
George Parkinson, son of James and Sarah Parkinson, was born in Collins, Dec. 24, 1826, where he has ever since resided. now owning and occupying a farm located three miles south of Collins Center. Oct. 28, 1848. he married Prusha Allen, daugh- ter of Isaac and Lydia B. Allen, of Collins. They have a family of three children : James, born April 22, 1850, married Sarah Ann Tyrer, and lives in Collins. Horace, born Jan. 13, 1855. married Ida Adams, and resides in Colden. Erie county. N. Y .. and Nellie, who is an adopted daughter, born March 22. 1863.
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Philander Pierce.
Philander Pierce, son of Charles and Betsy Pierce, was born in the Town of Hamburg, Erie county, Aug. 31, 1818. In 1836 he came to Collins and engaged in farming until 1877, when he removed to Collins Center, where he now resides. Jan. 10, 1841 he married Rhoda Albee, daughter of Adolphus and Polly Allen. The names of their children are as follows : Lyman, born Jan. 22, 1842, and died young. Myron, born Oct. 26, 1842; married Abbie Ford, and now owns and occupies the farm formerly owned by his father. Abigail, born April 11, 1847 ; married Luzerne Clark and resides in Collins. They also have an adopted daughter, Alice, who was born Dec. 1, 1853, and married Milton B. Sherman and lives in Collins Center. He is a peaceable, quiet citizen, a kind and obliging neighbor.
Nehemiah Reynolds.
Nehemiah Reynolds, son of Abram and Hannah Reynolds, was born in Oswego county, N. Y., April 14, 1810. When eighteen years of age he came to Collins, where he has since resided and is now living with his son-in-law, William H. Vail. In the Fall of 1836, he married Julia Woodward, daughter of Enos and Anna Woodward. His children are :
Sylvester, born Dec. 16. 1838; married Fanny Gould, and resides at Forestville, N. Y. Francis, born Sept. 30, 1841 ; married Lola Gilson ; is a dentist and resides in Pleasantville, Pa. Byron, born Jan. 3, 1845 ; married Amelia Vail, and lives in Ohio. Alice, who married William H. Vail, and resides in Collins.
Mr. Reynolds is respected by all who know him, and he has been among the' worthy and useful inhabitants of the town. He came to Collins at a time when it was but thinly settled, but he has had the pleasure of seeing the town become thickly populated, and supplied with the advantages of an enlightened and prosperous community.
Humphrey Russell.
Humphrey Russell is a son of Thomas Russell, who was born in Easton, Washington county, N. Y., of Quaker parentage. At an early age, his parents removed to Scipio, Cayuga county,
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and after residing there awhile they removed, about 1817, to Collins, and located on lot thirty-nine. He lived here until 1869, when he moved to Farmington, Mich., where he died aged seventy-two. He was a member of the Baptist church forty-five years. While a resident of Collins, he was school in- spector and justice of the peace, and also supervisor in 1846, '47 and '48.
Humphrey Russell was born in North Collins, Feb. 13, 1828, where he has always resided as a farmer, with the exception of four years-1869 to 1872, when he became a merchant ; two years at Collins Center and two years in Michigan.
He was married in 1848, to Ruth A. Knight. They have one son Casper L. Russell, who married Ellen L. Harris.
Augustus Smith's Statement.
I was born in Danby, Rutland county, Vt., April 27, 1792. My father's name was Nathan, and resided in Massachusetts, and in the fore part of the Revolutionary War he served as a soldier. He afterwards removed to Vermont. My mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Rogers.
I and my wife and two children came through from Danby, Vt., to Collins in March, 1816, with horses and wagon, and landed at Stephen Wilber's. We had made preparations to come with a covered sleigh ; had victuals cooked up and the neighbors came in to make a farewell visit, and that night it rained and the snow all went off, and we had to make different arrangements and come in a wagon.
My wife's maiden name was Elizabeth White, sister to Isaac White. Ezra Nichols, then a young man, came into the coun- try with us. I took an article of my farm in April, 1816, and built a house on it that Summer, and moved into it in the Fall.
At that time, there was no road past my place or ncar it, I have resided on this farm from that time to the present, being a period of about sixty-seven years.
The first Summer after I came to Collins I lived in Stephen Wilber's old log house, with a bark roof and puncheon floor. lle had built him a new log house. I cleared off an acre of land on Stephen Wilber's lot that Spring and had the use of it,
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and also of another acre that was already cleared. I raised corn enough that Summer to keep my family. Job Irish and wife and one child came into the country when we did from Vermont. He had been here the Summer before and located some land over near Poverty Hill. 1816 and 1817 were very hard years. Many families in Collins had no bread to cat for weeks together. Sometimes the children went into the woods and dug roots to cat.
In 1817, Stephen Wilber had corn to sell, and asked seventy- five cents per bushel. A man came over from Perrysburg and offered to take all he had at that price, and Mr. Wilber refused to let him have it because he wanted to take advantage of the necessities of the people and speculate on it.
When I came to Collins, the Friends had a church organiza- tion and a log meeting-house just over the line in North Col- lins on Nathaniel Sisson's land. Afterwards, they had a log meeting-house near Bagdad. The Friends never had any hired preachers. The Friends' meeting-house standing on my place was built about 1840. During the first five years after I came to Collins, I spent one hundred days attending raisings and they were mostly log raisings. There are about one hundred and twenty persons now living entitled to call me father, grandfather or great grandfather. I had four grandsons and grand sons-in-law in the Union Army in the time of the Rebel- lion, and one of them was killed.
Augustus Smith born April 27, 1792; married Elizabeth White, Oct. 29, 1812. Elizabeth White, born Sept. 21, 1793 ; married in the Order of Friends, Danby, Vt : she died April 27, 1875, in Collins. He is still living.
THEIR CHILDREN,
Rhoda, born Oct. 9, 1813, in Danby ; married Caleb Tarbox, who died ; she lives in Collins. Rachel, born Oct. 20, 1814, in Danby: married Isaiah Monson ; lives in Iowa. Maria, born May 13, 1819, in Collins; married Abram Southwick ; died in Farmington Feb. 19, 1840. Reuben, born Sept. 11, 1821, in Collins; married Mary White; died in Leon, Cattaraugus county, April 19, 1868. Lydia, born Aug. 7, 1823, in Collins. Amy W., born June 10, 1825, in Collins; married William
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Tyrer ; lives in Pontiac, Mich. Hannah, born Sept. 26, 1827, in Collins: married John Wood; lives in Leon, Cattaraugus county. Stephen W., born Sept. 6, 1829, in Collins : married Mahala Douglas ; second, Mary Knight ; third, Knight, resides on the old homestead in Collins. Phæbe L., born March 8, 1832, in Collins; married Richard Bartlett; lives in Pontiac, Mich.
Sisson Family.
Nathaniel Sisson, Sr., was a Quaker who came from Dart- mouth, Mass., and settled in Glens Falls, Warren county, N. Y. From there his two sons, Stephen and Nathaniel, Jr., and son-in-law, Moses Tucker, started for Western New York in 1814, with their wives. Their outfit and mode of convey- ance consisted of a wagon and a single yoke of oxen. Arriv- ing at Buffalo, they followed the lake shore until Silver Creek was reached, when they struck out boldly through the Indian Reservation for what is now North Collins ; they were three days wending their way through the wilds of the Reservation, their broad brims (they were Quakers) affording them a safe pass through the Indian country. Stephen located on lot fifty, where he always lived until his death, Aug. 17, 1869. Nathan- iel, Jr., and his brother-in-law, Tucker, located on lot forty-nine. They brought with them apple seeds, which they planted on their new possessions, and at the present writing (October, 1880,) apples are growing upon some of the identical trees which grew from those seeds.
George Sisson was born in Collins in 1817, where he has always resided. He was married in 1838 to Huldah Potter. They have had nine children, viz .:
Stephen L. Peter P., died in 1865. Rachel, married Wil- liam Munger; after his death she married Charles R. Eddy. Caroline, died in 1844. Reuben, George F., Annie H. Emma J., died in 1846. Ambrose D.
George Sisson, in company with James Wilber. Ansel F. Conger and Enoch Taylor built the first cheese factory in Erie county. Messrs. Sisson and Taylor went to Herkimer county and Rome to obtain information from the best dairymen of that section on the manufacture of cheese. In 1862 a factory
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was built on the north-east corner of lot sixty-one, Collins ; its dimensions were one hundred feet in length by thirty-three in width, consisting of a basement and two stories ; it was opened for the reception of milk May 5, 1863; it was called the Sisson factory. By the middle of the Summer, twenty-five cheese, weighing 108 pounds each were manufactured daily. The fac- tory is now owned by William A. Johnson.
Stephen L. Sisson, son of George Sisson, was born in Collins March 4, 1840. He is a farmer. Was married in 1863 to Anna H. Haviland. They have three children, viz .:
Lydia A., Anna E. and Alice.
HOW STEPHEN SISSON WENT TO MILL.
Soon after Mr. Sisson located in Collins he had occasion to go to mill. The mill easiest of access to him was situated a mile or two below what is now Water Valley, distant fifteen miles. He loaded his grain on to a conveyance which was termed a crotch or drag, constructed by cutting off the body of a tree just below the forks and rounding up one side so that it would pass over obstacles. On to this V-shaped contrivance Mr. Sisson hitched his oxen and went to mill. Returning the next day, following the Indian trail along through the wilder- ness, night overtook him within four or five miles of home: fearing he would lose his way if he attempted to proceed in the darkness and not wishing to remain over night in the woods, he resorted to this novel plan : Believing that his oxen would instinctively follow the trail home, he unyoked them and placed them onc ahead of the other, the leader ahead, and seizing the hindmost bovine by the tail, Mr. S. was piloted safely home, returning next day for his grist. The very owls must have laughed from their perches to see the good Mr. Sis- son conducted along through the darkness in this manner.
Stephen A. Sisson.
Mr. Sisson's father, William Sisson, a brother of Stephen Sisson, came to Collins from Washington county, in 1818, and located on lot sixty, where he resided until his death in 1863. aged seventy-eight years. He was married to Lydia Lapham. She died in 1873 aged eighty-six. They had a family of six, as follows :
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Clarinda, born 1813: married Thomas J. Kerr and resides in Collins. Charles L., born 1816 ; died in 1876 in North Collins. Amanda, born 1820; married Abram Foster and resides in North Collins. Stephen A., born 1822 ; married Irene Wilson, and died in Jan. 1875.
Stephen A. Sisson was a man of no ordinary business capac- ity. Early in life he resolved to be the architect of his own fortune, and long before he had touched the meridian of life he had, by judicious management, surrounded himself by afflu- ence. These sterling business qualifications were recognized by the electors of his town and for three years he represented Collins on the Board of Supervisors. In 1852, he was united in marriage to Miss Irene Wilson, and two children were born to them, viz. :
Laura A., and Herbert S.
Mr. Sisson died in January, 1875, and Mrs. Sisson still resides on the homestead with her two children.
Edwin T. Slaight.
Edwin T. Slaight was born near Sodus Bay at a place called Sodus Corners, March 22, 1828. His father moved to Otto, Cattaraugus county, when he was two years old. His father was a carpenter and joiner and also worked at clearing land and farming. His father was born on the Mohawk and was Cap- tain of a militia company in the war of 1812, and served at Sackett's Harbor. His father moved to Buffalo in 1837, where his mother died in 1839. Edwin peddled newspapers five or six years, and in the meantime was bound out to learn the cooper's trade to a man by the name of Stevens, in Dunville, Canada. Stayed a year in Dunville, then Stevens took him across the lake to Dunkirk, in a yawl boat, and coasted up the lake to Ashtabula, and when they arrived there the waves rolled so high that they were carried right over the top of the pier. After leaving Dunville, he came to Buffalo and engaged in selling and delivering newspapers. In 1846, went to learn the tin smith's trade of Varrum Hodge of Buffalo; remained with him till 1850, then went to Springville and worked with P. G. Eaton ten years. He married Waitee Eaton, in 1851. She died in 1870. Had two sons and three daughters, two are
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living. Was married in 1871 to Hattie A. Springer, daughter of Samuel C. Springer of Gowanda. Have three children, two dead. In 1861, Mr. Slaight opened a tin shop at Otto, and remained there until 1865, when he removed to Jamestown and engaged in the same business until 1870, when he came to Gowanda and engaged in the tin and hardware business. Mr. Slaight, in 1850, made the first apparatus for manufacturing cheese put up in Cattaraugus county. Mr. Slaight has one brother living in Buffalo ; one sister, Mrs. George W. Shultus, now resides in Carson, Minnesota ; another sister, Mrs. E. W. Allen, resides in Persia, Cattaraugus county.
J. A. Southwick.
Abram Southwick, brother of J. A. Southwick, was born in Mount Holly, on the Green Mountains, in 1809, where he lived until seventeen years old, when he came to Collins. He came over the Erie canal and was twenty-one days making the trip. He has resided in Collins ever since, except four years spent in Michigan. His wife, Elizabeth Smith, came from Danby, Vt., the same year with her father, Berrick Smith ; she was then six years old. Her father settled where Harris' mills now are. He was a Quaker, and a noted Abolitionist. He made it a point to assist fugitive slaves in their escape, and his house was a well-known refuge for the pursued negro on his way to Canada. Mr. Smith was a mechanic and built many of the oldest residences in Collins. He died in Iowa in March, 1869. His wife, Mary Calmer, died in 1874.
Mr. J. A. Southwick is a farmer and prominent citizen of Collins. In the Fall of 1881 he was the candidate of the Greenback party for State Senator.
Solomon L. Soule.
Solomon L. Soule, son of William and Ruth Soule, is a native of Collins, and was born June 26, 1852. In 1872, he married Amelia Van Slike, daughter of John and Sally Van Slike, of Sardinia, Erie county. He is a carpenter and builder and resides in Collins Center. He is a man of quiet and indus- trious habits, being sociable and amiable in all his relations. He had one son, William J., born Oct. 19, 1873, and died Jan. 4, 1874.
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Milton B. Sherman.
Milton B. Sherman was born in Evans, N. Y., Oct. 22, 1848. He was a son of Benjamin W. Sherman ; his mother's maiden name was Anna C. Shaw. When he was a child the family moved to Collins Center, and when ten years of age to Buf- falo, remaining there three years. They removed to Ham- burgh, N. Y., and back to Collins again about 1864.
Milton attended school at the Hamburg Academy two years. He has been a very successful teacher, having taught twenty- four terms, all in the Town of Collins except the first, which was kept in the Park's district, Hamburg, in the Winter of 1864 and 1865. He has been Collector of his town four years. Mr. Sherman was married in 1870 to Allie Pierce. They have one child, Elma A. Mr. Sherman is at present engaged in trade at Collins Center. His father came here from Dartmouth, Mass .. and settled at first in what is now North Collins. He was at one time Supervisor of the Town of Collins.
Silas Schoonover.
Silas Schoonover was born in Cayuga county, N. Y .. in 1820. He married Elizabeth Hopkins and came to Collins in 1846, and now owns and occupies a farm formerly owned by Amos Hopkins. He has but one daughter, Alida, who married Wallace Wood, who lives with his father-in-law and assists in running the farm.
Lucus Studley.
Mr. Studley was born in Franklin county, N. Y., Jan. 5, 1829: moved from there with his parents to Yorkshire, when five years old. Came to Collins in 1857 and located on the farm he now owns at Bagdad. Mr. Studley was married Jan. 12. 1854 to Olivia H. Pratt, by whom he has four children, viz :
Lovina L., born March 12, 1855. John D., born March I, 1858; married Hortense Parsells. Sumner W., born July 10, 1861. George E., born Jan. 16, 1865.
Mr. Studley was married a second time, Nov. 13, to Sally S. Bump, by whom he has two children : Lois O., born Feb. 21, 1874; Lucie L., born June 3, 1879.
Mr. Studley's father, Jonathan Studley, died in Yorkshire, N. Y., in 1878, aged ninety-one years.
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Mrs. Studley's brother, George Bump, was one of the patriotic number that did excellent service in the rebellion. He enlisted from Yorkshire in the Ellsworth Zouaves; was in three years ; was Commissary-Sergeant of his company and participated in twenty-seven engagements.
A. J. Setter.
Mr. Setter was born in Eden, N. Y., in 1847. His paternal ancestors were from Prussia. His grandfather lived to the age of ninety-eight. His father, Antoinette Setter, is a mill-wright residing in Eden. Mr. A. J. Setter is one of a family of eleven children, ten of whom are living, all brothers and mechanics.
Mr. Setter lived in Eden until eighteen years of age when he traveled about two years in the western states; returning in 1866 he was employed by Sellew & Popple, foundry proprietors at Gowanda, to manufacture mowing machines. At the expi- ration of two years he moved to Brant and was employed by the Erie Preserving Company, as machinist ; remaining there a while he next bought the mills at Taylor Hollow in 1873. While there he invented a mill-wheel known as Setter's Tur- bine Wheel, which is quite generally used. From Taylor Hol- low Mr. Setter removed to Fenton's Mills, where he is now engaged (1882) in general mill business. He was married in 1867 to Angeline Averell. They have two children : Joseph A and Alonzo G.
John Schoos.
Mr. Schoos was born in Luxemburg, Germany, in 1826; re_ sided there until twenty-seven years old ; then came to Collins, where he has since resided ; has always been a farmer. Was married in 1857 to Catharine Babbinger. They have three children, viz .:
John, born July 8, 1862. Rosa, born Aug. 7, 1863. Mary, born March 2, 1869.
Anthony Shinover.
Anthony Shinover is a native of Prussia, and was born in 1834. He came to America in 1857 and located in North Col lins, where he resided four years, after which he removed to Brant, Erie county, where he lived six years, and in 1867 he
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came to Collins, and now owns and occupies a farm formerly owned by Orton .J. Knight. In 1860 he married Mary Ritter. They have a family of six children, namely :
Francis, Joseph, Lena, John, Louise and Anna.
Francis displays a marked mechanical ability.
C. C. Torrance.
Cyrenus C. Torrance, Attorney and Counselor at Law, Go- wanda, Erie county, N. Y., was born at Mt. Clemens, Mich., July 21, 1825. His parents were from East Middlebury, Vt., and settled in the Town of Lancaster, Erie county, in 1808. they removed from there to Michigan in 1824, and returned again in 1826 to Western New York, settling near Gowanda, in Cattaraugus county. Mr. Torrance studied with Hon. Chester Howe, and was admitted to practice as a lawyer in 1848, and then associated himself with Mr. Howe as a partner in the law business at Gowanda, N. Y., where he has ever since continued in the successful practice of his profession as a lawyer. He was married in 1851 to Miss Mary Curtiss. They have now three children living :
Jared S. and Lewis C., sons, both in business at Gowanda, and Jennie, a daughter.
C. C. Torrance was appointed by the Governor as Attorney for the Seneca Nation of Indians in 1852, for three years. He ran upon the Democratic ticket for County Judge of Erie county in 1860, but was defeated with his party in the county. In 1862 he again ran upon the Democratic ticket for District Attorney of Erie county, and was elected by about 2,200 ma- jority, and he very ably discharged the duties of that office for three years. He again ran upon the Democratic ticket for the office of State Senator for Erie county in 1875, but was de- feated, the whole Republican ticket being elected. In 1879 Mr. Torrance was elected Supervisor of the Town of Collins, and was again re-elected in 1881, representing his town on the Board for three years, at the end of which time he declined to serve any longer.
As a lawyer, Mr. Torrance stands in the front ranks of the profession in Erie county.
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Judson L. Tolman.
Mr. Tolman's ancestors were of English descent. His grand- father, Nathaniel Tolman, came from Stockbridge, Mass .. in 1805 to Lincoln, Chenango county, N. Y,, and bought a large tract of wild land which he divided among his four sons Mr. T.'s father, Nathaniel Jr., lived on his portion eight years ; then in March, 1814, having previously married, he moved with an ox team and sled to Evans, Erie county, N. Y., via Buffalo ; there being no road cut through the forest, he reached Evans by traveling on the beach of the lake ; he located near what is now Evans Center. At that time he had three children :
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