Hudson-Mohawk genealogical and family memoirs, Volume II, Part 10

Author: Reynolds, Cuyler, 1866- ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 716

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Mt. Vernon Lodge. He married (first) Har- riet Newell Hood, of Knowlesville, New York. Children: 1. George H., died in Cali- fornia at the age of thirty, leaving a widow and daughter. 2. Charles Hood, see forward. He married (second) Sophia Ross Hartt, of Royalton, New York. Children: 3. Alexan- der, died in infancy. 4. Frederick, died in infancy. 5. Harriet Susan, married William C. Ten Eyck, of Albany, who died in 1890. Children : i. Sophia Janet, born May, 1880, married, in 1908, James Blocksidge, Jr., and has one daughter, Harriet Ten Eyck Block- sidge, born 1909. ii. Catherine Gansevoort Ten Eyck. iii. Mills Ten Eyck. iv. Herman Gansevoort Ten Eyck, deceased.

(VIII) Charles Hood, son of Borden H. (I) and Harriet N. (Hood) Mills, was born in Knowlesville, Orleans county, New York, June 21, 1851. He was five years of age when his parents settled in Albany, where he received his preparatory education in Profes- sor Cass's high school, and the Albany Class- ical Institute. He entered Union College, where he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1872. Choosing the profession of law, he entered the office of John M. Carroll, of Johnstown, New York, graduated from Al- bany Law School LL.B., in 1873, and in the same year was admitted to the bar. He be- gan the practice of his profession in Johns- town, where he remained until 1875, then re- moved to Albany, New York, where he has since been in continuous practice. In 1889 he formed a partnership with Charles F. Bridge, as Mills & Bridge, which connection continued until 1896. The ensuing four years he was in practice alone. In 1900 he asso- ciated with Joseph A. Murphy, of Albany, forming the law firm of Mills & Murphy, which still continues ( 1910). Mr. Mills does a general legal office business, principally re- lating to the law of property and probate, set- tlement of estates, corporations, etc. He has devoted a great deal of time and study to the compiling, rewriting and rearranging of stand- ard legal text books, including Thompson's "Law of Highways," which he revised and rewrote. He is the editor of "New York Criminal Reports," and of the "Digest of New York Court of Appeals Reports." He has now about ready for the press the 1910 edition of the "Charter Laws and Ordinances of the City of Albany," which he has compiled and rearranged. He is president of the Albany Union College Alumni Association, ex-presi- dent Masonic Veteran Association, member of Chamber of Commerce, the Aurania Club, James Ten Eyck Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Capitol City Chapter, Royal Arch

.Masons, Philip Livingston Chapter, Sons of the Revolution, and is clerk of the vestry of St. Andrews Episcopal Church. He has al- ways been a warm friend of the Y. M. C. A., and served as president of the association dur- ing the years 1883-84, and as director for a great many years. During his term as presi- dent, the present elegant building of the asso- ciation was erected. Politically he is a Re- publican, and in 1893 was president of the Excise Board of Albany that accomplished many reforms in license methods and mate- rially added to the city income. He married (first), in 1878, Harriet Brewster Gorton, de- scendant of the old Rhode Island family of that name. (See Gorton. ) She died January, 1890. Children : I. Borden Hicks (2), see forward. 2. David Gorton, born March 16, 1882, died March 20, 1898. 3. Charles Hood, born August 16, 1884, died in infancy. 4. Marie Francis, born December 13, 1886, un- married. 5. Charlotte Rosa, born September 13, 1888, died February, 1902. He married (second) Mary E. Steele, September 14, 1896.

(IX) Borden Hicks (2), son of Charles Hood and Harriet Brewster (Gorton) Mills, was born in Albany, New York, August 16, 1879. His early education was obtained in the common schools of Albany, after which he entered the high school, graduating in 1897. He chose law as his profession, read in his father's office, entered Albany Law School, from which he was graduated LL.B., class of 1903. He was admitted to the Albany county bar at the June term, 1903, and to practice in the United States district and circuit courts in 1904. He began professional practice in Albany in 1903, where he continues. April 30, 1909, he was appointed United States commissioner for the northern district of New York. Mr. Mills is an ardent lover of na- ture, and the beauties of forest and stream particularly appeal to him, not with the sports- man's desire to kill and destroy, but to enjoy and protect. His vacations are spent in the open, exploring and investigating. For many years he has been a contributor to the pages of "Recreation," "Country Life in America," "National Sportsman," and other periodical publications devoted to outdoor life. He is a member of Albany County Bar Association, the Aurania Club, Albany Yacht Club, Capitol City Republican Club of Albany ; is secretary of Philip Livingston Chapter, Sons of the Revolution, to which he gains membership through the patriotic service of his great- great-grandfather, George Mills, and he is the only male descendant living of this gen- eration bearing the name of Mills. He served for twelve years in Company A, 10th Regi-

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ment, New York National Guard, and is a member of the "Old Guard" 'Albany Zouave Cadets, Company A. Politically he is an active Republican, and is secretary of the 5th dis- trict, 19th ward organization. He is a mem- ber of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church of Albany ; is unmarried.

(The Gorton Line).

Harriet Brewster Gorton descends in the eighth generation from Samuel Gorton, born in Gorton, England, 1592, landed in Boston, March, 1636-7, and settled in Plymouth, Mas- sachusetts, where he was unjustly persecuted and sentenced, December 4, 1638, to "depart from Plymouth, his hired house, his wife and children, and to be beyond the utmost confines of it within fourteen days." He went to Rhode Island, settled at Providence, founded the town of Warwick on lands purchased from the Narragansett Indians in 1642. In 1643 he was taken a prisoner by soldiers sent by Massachusetts magistrates who coveted the land, was tried for heresy and confined in Charlestown. Immediately upon his release he was chosen a magistrate. In 1644, upon the return of Roger Williams from England with a charter, a government was formed, with Williams as governor and Samuel Gorton, assistant. In 1645 he took ship from Man- hattan for England. In 1646 he secured a mandate from the Parliament commissioners which effected a union of the settlements. In 1649 he was chosen a member of assembly. In 1651, during the absence of Williams in England, he was chosen president of the col- ony, from 1664 to 1667 he was deputy, a judge in the high court, and was again chosen in 1670, but declined on account of his age, sev- enty-nine years. He died in December, 1677. He married in England, Mary, daughter of John Maplet, "gentleman," of St. Martins Le Grand, London. They were the parents of nine children.

(II) Samuel (2), son of Samuel (1) and Mary ( Maplet) Gorton, married Susanna Bur- ton, and had three children.

(III) Samuel (3), son of Samuel (2) and Susanna (Burton) Gorton, married Freelove Mason, and had nine children.

(IV) Joseph, son of Samuel (3) and Free- love (Mason) Gorton, married Mary Barton, sister of General William Barton, who cap- tured the British general, Prescott, at New- port during the revolutionary war. Joseph served in Captain Millard's company, Colonel Waterman's regiment, Rhode Island militia. They were the parents of three children.

(V) David, son of Joseph and Mary (Bar- ton) Gorton, married Alice Whitford. They

settled in Mansfield, New York, where he- died in 1830. They were the parents of twelve children.

(VI) John, son of David and Alice ( Whit- ford) Gorton, was born April 19, 1801. He married (first) Johanna Sheldon, at Rome, New York. He had two later wives and twenty children by his three marriages. He removed to Flushing, Michigan, in 1866.

(VII) David Allyn, son of John and Jo- hanna (Sheldon) Gorton, was born November 27, 1832, at Mayfield, New York. He married,. in 1855, Maria Frances Graham, daughter of Horatio and Harriet (Betts) Graham. He was a physician of Brooklyn, New York, and author of "Monism of Man," "Ethics, Civil and Political." Children: Harriet Brewster, see forward; Eliot, married Bertha Fonda ; Annie M., married Dr. Wm. P. Spratling.

(VIII) Harriet Brewster, daughter of David Allyn and Maria Frances (Graham) Gorton, was born December 18, 1856, at New Woodstock, New York. She married, Octo- ber 2, 1878, Charles Hood Mills. (See Mills- VIII.)

CULVER

The family name of Culver is. said to signify a pigeon or a dove. The progenitor of this

family in America was Edward Culver, who emigrated from Groton, England, in 1635, and' settled first in the valley of the Connecticut river. He may rightfully be considered as one of the founders of Connecticut, and his deeds have the true ring of valor, at a time when the settler had to protect his family and his town from the savage.

(I) Edward Culver was born in the year 1600, in England, and died in 1685. His name is found early in the oldest records of the ancient town of Dedham, Massachusetts, where he married Ann Ellis in 1638, and . where their first three children were born, between 1640 and 1645, after which he re- moved to Roxbury, Massachusetts, where at least two other children are known to have been baptized, and doubtless they were also born there, between 1648 and 1651. He seems to have removed to Pequot, Connecticut, about the time of this latter date, in order to enjoy the use of about six hundred acres of land acquired there in 1653, as a reward for ser- vices rendered in the Pequot war, 1636-38. He purchased the house lot of Robert Bur- rows, becoming baker and brewer for New London, Connecticut. On November 20, 1652, or 1653, he had a land grant of farming tract at Mystic, Connecticut, and a house lot in the town, the Indians calling his farm Chepadaso, and he located thereon in 1664,.

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and was then a "wheel-right of Mystic." That year he released his homestead to his oldest son John, and removed to a place near the head of the Mystic river, in New London. In February, 1661-62, a small grant of a portion of the water side, next south of the fort land, was made to John Culver. May 7, 1663, John was elected to drum on Sabbath days for the meetings, that instrument being employed in- stead of church bells in summoning the people to worship. He resided in New Haven some time, where his daughter, Abigail, was born, in 1676, and James, in 1679; but John re- turned to Mystic, and in 1695 confirmed to Thomas Lamb the land sold by his parents to John Lamb, his father. Edward Culver was a noted soldier in King Philip's war (Hart- ford). In 1675 the council "ordered John Stedman and Edward Culver, with som of the Indians, to goe forth upon the scout be- twixt this and Springfield, to make what dis- covery they could upon the enemie to the east- ward of the river," and he had considerable influence with them. He is spoken of as "Ed- ward the Senior" because from the name it is believed that Edward Culver, living in Nor- wich, Connecticut, in 1680, was born in New London after his father removed there.

Edward Culver Sr. married, in Dedham, Massachusetts, in 1638, Ann Ellis. Children : I. John, born in Dedham, Massachusetts, April 15, 1640. 2. Joshua, born in Dedham, Mas- sachusetts, January 12, 1643; married, De- cember 23, 1676, Elizabeth Ford, of New Haven, Connecticut. 3. Samuel, born in Ded- ham, Massachusetts, January 9, 1644-45 ; mar- ried (by elopement) the wife of John Fish, about 1674. 4. Gershom, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, December 3, 1648; see for- ward; there also seems to be an entry under the name Joseph at about the same time, which is thought to be the result of a mistake on the part of some one in writing of the name of the child last mentioned. 5. Hannah, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, April II, 1651; married, December 14, 1670, John Burrows. 6. Edward, born in New London, Connecticut. (II) Gershom, son of Edward and Ann (Ellis) Culver, was born in Roxbury, Massa- chusetts, December 3, 1648, died in 1716. He married Mary Howell, and by her had a son named David.

(III) David, son of Gershom and Mary (Howell) Culver, was born in 1680. He had a son named after him.

(IV) David (2), son of David (1) Culver, was born in 1736, died August 3, 1814. He married Mary Youngs, and by her had a son who was named after him, and the same name as his father before him.

(V) David (3), son of David (2) and Mary (Youngs) Culver, was born in Hebron, Tolland county, Connecticut, September I, 1758, died in Pottersville, New York, March 4, 1848. He married Abigail E. M. Curtice, and by her had a child named James.

(VI) James, son of David (3) and Abigail E. M. (Curtice) Culver, was born in Hebron, New York, September II, 1796, died in Sandy Hill, New York, April 15, 1872. He married, in Sandy Hill, June 19, 1823, Kezia Lee, born May 12, 1803, died May 23, 1886, daughter of Colonel Stephen and Mary (Little) Lee. Her father, born November 7, 1773, died Au- gust 23, 1856, was the tenth child and sixth son of Thomas and Mary (DeWolf) Lee, and was counted a man of ability, was energetic and influential both as a magistrate and mili- tary officer at Lyme and New London, Con- necticut. His ancestry is traced through his father, Captain Thomas Lee, born August 26, 1734; married Mehitable Peck, July 14, 1757; son of Colonel Stephen Lee, born Lyme, Con- necticut, January 19, 1699. died New London, May 21, 1783; married Abigail Lord, Decem- ber 24, 1719; son of Lieutenant Thomas Lee, born in England, died December 5, 1704, the first of the name in Lyme, Connecticut, and owner of one-eighth of that town, and was ensign of the train band ; son of Thomas Lee, who died in 1641, and who was the progeni- tor of that family in America. Another in- teresting fact in this ancestry is also included in the Lee line. Colonel Stephen Lee's wife, Abigail (Lord) Lee, born in Lyme, Connec- ticut, in 1700, died September 19, 1742, was the daughter of Richard Lord, born in Say- brook, May, 1647, died, Lyme, August 20, 1727, whose grandfather, Thomas Lord, was born in England in 1583, and as progenitor of his family, settled in Newton, Massachu- setts, and became an original proprietor and settler of Hartford, Connecticut. Kezia Lee traces ancestry of her grandmother, Mehitable Peck, born January 12, 1738, married Captain Thomas Lee, July 24, 1757, and three other generations (Benjamin, born March 6, 17II; Samuel, born July 29, 1678; Joseph, born New Haven, Connecticut, January, 1641) to Wil- liam Peck, who was born in England in 1601, and was a founder of New Haven, signed the fundamental agreement or Constitution, June 4, 1639, and where he died in 1684. Children, born in Sandy Hill, New York: I. Cyrus Lee, March 29, 1824, died in Albany, New York, January 23, 1899 ; married, in Hudson, New York, April 12, 1855, Mary Ann Bul- lock, by whom one child, Dr. Charles Mor- timer. 2. Charles David, April 5, 1826; died in New York, New York, March 7, 1886;

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married, Sandy Hill, December 28, 1858, Louisa A. Bellamy, born June 9, 1833, died Denver, Colorado, August 10, 1903, by whom one child, Charles Bellamy, born in New York City, March 10, 1864; married Caroline 3. Emily Kezia, October 12, 1828, died February 10, 1829. 4. John Oscar, May 2, 1830; married, in Burlington, Wisconsin, May 2, 1860, Minnie Bliss, by whom five chil- dren: i. William Lee Bliss, born March 17, 1861 ; married, in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, Au- gust 6, 1885, Margaret Amelia Day ; ii. Paul Bliss, January 18, 1865 ; iii. Julia Louise Bliss, June 3, 1868; iv. Richard Keith Bliss, Jan- uary 21, 1873; v. George Bliss, January 21, 1873. 5. James Lee, November 30, 1832, died in Fort Edward, New York, August 8, 1890. 6. George Bradley, January 16, 1836, died in New York City, December 6, 1908; married, in Comstock Landing, New York, December 23, 1869, Lucy Comstock Baker, daughter of Isaac V. and Laura (Comstock) Baker, born September 21, 1840, died September 17, 1900, by whom one child, Laura Baker, born in North Granville, New York, September 8, 1872, died October 17, 1901 ; married, Lake George, New York, June 3, 1901, Frederick William Aldous. 7. Maria Eliza, May 21, 1838; married, Sandy Hill, September 24, 1857, Eber Richards, born May 6, 1836, son of Orson and Julia Ann (Fisk) Richards, by whom four children, all born in Sandy Hill, New York: i. Caroline Berry Richards, born July 23, 1858, died October 2, 1890; ii. Nelson James Richards, December 14, 1861, died May 5, 1862; iii. Frederick Barnard Richards, Au- gust 1, 1865 : married, in Granville, New York, June 12, 1895, Constance Emily Zorn, born in Jamaica, West Indies, April 1, 1873, daugli- ter of Rev. Joseph Theophilus and Anna Ros- ina (Liebfreid) Zorn, to whom were born, at Ticonderoga, New York, three children : Dor- othy Richards, born August 14, 1896; Con- stance Richards, August 12, 1899; William Lee Richards, February 15, 1901 ; iv. Orson Culver Richards, born June 7, 1873 ; married, Sandy Hill, April 25, 1900, Mabel McLaren, born in Sandy Hill, August 22, 1875, daughter of William McLaren and Mary Caroline Barkley. 8. Stephen Berry, July 19, 1841, died in New York City, January 20, 1902 ; married, in Port Chester, New York, Sep- tember 20, 1887, Georgianna Peck, who died March 16, 1901, and by whom two children: Mary Richards, born in New York City, June 11, 1889; Edward Peck, born in Mt. Vernon, New York, November 4, 1892. 9. Thomas Lee, May 31, 1844; married, in Fort Miller, New York, June 3, 1885, Anna De Garmo, born September 15, 1862, died Au-

gust 30, 1892, by whom two children: i. Stew- art Lee, born in New York City, August 9, 1887, died July 13, 1889; ii. James Lee, born in Jersey City Heights, New Jersey, March 25, 1891, died April 8, 1892. 10. William Lee, September 24, 1846, drowned in the Hud- son river at Sandy Hill, August 1, 1860.

(VII) Cyrus Lee, son of James and Kezia (Lee) Culver, was born in Sandy Hill, New York, March 29, 1824, died in Albany, New York, January 23, 1899. He received his education at Sandy Hill (in 1910 called Hud- son Falls), Washington county, New York. He was not famous nor did he seek fame. Those who knew him best knew the high standard of conduct he exemplified. Harrison E. Webster, president of Union College, said that Cyrus L. Culver was one of the best Christians of his (Webster's) acquaintance. Clinton Meneely, of Liberty Bell renown, said that if there were ever an unselfish man, Cyrus L. Culver was that man. Eber Richards de- clared that "Cy was as good a friend as any- body ever had." His school education ended when he was but thirteen years of age. It was to him, however, that Mr. John Spicer, of Troy (himself a collegian and cultured) re- ferred when he said: "I don't go to the ex- pense of keeping an encyclopedia up to date ; when I want to know anything, I go over and ask Culver !" He read much of the best liter- ature and remembered an astonishing amount of the best that he read. Dr. Joseph Culver, of Jersey City, the heir of the four hundred acres, near New London, Connecticut, that were granted to Edward Culver for his valor- ous part in Queen Anne's and the Pequot wars, said that Cyrus Lee Culver's researches in the New York State Library had contrib- uted some of the most valuable of the data requisite for the actual extent of the family genealogy. Cyrus Lee Culver married, in Hudson, New York, April 12, 1855, Mary Ann Bullock, born in Hillsdale, New York, September 18, 1833. Her father was Major Mead Bullock, born March 20, 1805, and her mother was Sally Ann (Rodman) Bullock. Major Bullock's ancestry is to be traced through Comfort Bullock, born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, March 9, 1762; Comfort Bul- lock, born April 4, 1741; Isaac; John, born May 19, 1664, to Richard Bullock, born in England in 1622, died Rehoboth, Massachu- setts, November 22, 1677, and was a land- owner in Middlebury, Long Island, being taxed in 1656. The mother of Mary Ann Bul- lock, who was Sally Ann Rodman, traces her ancestry through six generations, ending with John Rodman, born in England and banished to the Barbadoes for his Quaker principles,

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where he died about 1686. One child was born to Cyrus Lee and Mary Ann (Bullock) Culver, Dr. Charles Mortimer Culver, see for- ward.

(VIII) Dr. Charles Mortimer Culver, son of Cyrus Lee and Mary Ann ( Bullock) Cul- ver, was born in West Troy, New York, later known as Watervliet, September 28, 1856. His elementary education was acquired at the public schools in Hillsdale, Sandy Hill and Troy, after which he attended the Troy high school, Claverack College, Hudson River In- stitute, and the Rensselaerville Academy. He entered Union College, and was graduated with the degree of A. B., in 1878, in 1881 receiving the degree of A.M. from his alma mater. He next studied at the Albany Medi- cal College of Union University, and was graduated in 1881, following which he de- voted two years to serious study abroad, at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin, Prussia, and at the Sorbonne, of Paris. When he returned to this country, in 1883, he con- fined his practice to the eye, and from 1892 to 1905 was the ophthalmic surgeon to the Albany Orphan Asylum, all the time progress- ing in skill and acquiring a reputation as among the foremost practitioners in his spe- cialty for this part of the country. He has received a number of appointments, among them trustee of Union University, 1888-92 ; first vice-president of the American Academy of Medicine, 1900-01 ; United States pension examining surgeon, 1887-1905 ; member of the surgical staff of the Albany Orphan Asylum, 1892-1905; member of the council of the American Academy of Medicine, 1901-04; historian of the Philip Livingston Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1896- 1900. He is a member of the Albany County Medical Society, New York State Medical Society, American Ophthalmological Society, Albany County Medical Association, New York State Medical Association, American Academy of Medicine, of the Psi Upsilon, Theta Nu Epsilon and Phi Beta Kappa fra- ternal societies, and a member of the Albany Institute and Historical and Art Society. He has written and translated a number of works. among which may be cited his translation of Landolt's "Refraction and Accommodation," 1886; Landolt's "Modern Treatment of Cata- ract," 1893; and "Anomalies of the Motor Apparatus of the Eyes," 1900, in Norris and Oliver's "System of Diseases of the Eye."

Dr. Culver has been a "Mugwump" since the presidential election of 1884, and has fig- ured prominently in the work of the Albany Civic League, of which he was one of the principal founders and has been one of its

most aggressive spirits in the endeavor to better affairs in Albany. He is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church. He is an agreeable companion, but his manifold duties absorb most of his time. His residence for some years prior to 1910 was at No. 36 Eagle street, Albany.

He married, in Albany, May 10, 1887, Jes- sie Munsell, born in Albany, January 2, 1859, daughter of Joel and Mary A. (Reid) Munsell. Her father was born in Northfield. Massachu- setts, April 14, 1808, died in Albany, Jan- uary 15, 1880, son of Joel and Cynthia (Paine) Munsell, and was one of a family of seven children. He gained fame as a publisher of histories, as a genealogist and the author of "Annals of Albany" and other historical works. (See Munsell VII.) Mrs. Culver was educated at the Albany Female Academy, and is a member of a number of local organ- izations, among them the Albany Musical Association, the Gansevoort Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Albany Female Academy Alumna Associa- tion, and the Albany Institute and Historical and Art Society, and is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church. She is a per- son of cultivated tastes and always ready to co-operate with those seeking to uplift hu- manity. Children: Cyrus Lee, born in Scho- dack, New York, May 26, 1888; Mary, born in Albany, New York, January 29, 1895.

MUNSELL The family name of Munsell is believed to have been de- rived, according to the orig- inal spelling, "Monsall," from a dale in Derby- shire, England, or else signifying a person originally from Mansle in France. An idea also prevails that the name is derived from the French word, "maunche," a sleeve, and on the coat-of-arms appear three sleeves. It is certain that branches of the one family wrote it Maunsell, Mansell, Monsell, Monsall, Mun- sill. Mansel, Moncil, Munsel and Muncil; but despite the variations in orthography, the fam- ily history shows that they are of one lineage alone, originating in Sir Philip de Maunsell, who came from Normandy as one of the companions of William the Conqueror, and on whom was bestowed the manor of Ox- wiche, in Glamorganshire, and his grandson, Sir John Maunsell, was constituted lord chief justice of England in the time of Henry III.

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Hudson-Mohawk genealogical and family memoirs, Volume II, Part 10

Author: Reynolds, Cuyler, 1866- ed Publication date: 1911 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 716

Author: Reynolds, Cuyler, 1866- ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 716