Landmarks of Monroe County, New York : containing followed by brief historical sketches of the towns of the county with biography and family history, Part 50

Author: Peck, William F. (William Farley), b. 1840; Raines, Thomas; Fairchild, Herman LeRoy
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Boston : Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1160

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

of the British army, who inherited a large estate in Canada, where Charles H. Car- roll, their son, was born in 1851.

Charles H. Carroll was educated for the law, but his father, through bad invest- ments, lost all his property, and he turned his attention to mercantile pursuits. He entered the dry goods house of G. Doeltz & Brother in Detroit, Mich .. and remained four years, when he went to the establishment of Barnes, Bancroft & Co. in Buffalo, N. Y., and remained five years. He then (1881) came to Rochester and established business for himself under the firm name of Carroll, Beadle & Mudge, which still continues, and of which he has always been the senior member. This concern is now one of the largest, best known, and most prosperous in the city, and carries a com- plete line of dry goods, millinery, cloaks, upholstery, etc. As a business man Mr. Carroll has been very successful. He is a member of the Rochester Club and the Rochester Yacht Club.

HENRY E. STANLEY.

HENRY E. STANLEY, the second son and child of Erastus and Lucy Ann (Dicken- son) Stanley, worthy representatives of an English ancestry, was born in New Hart- ford, Oneida county, N. Y., February 18, 1808. His parents, who were liberally en- dowed with all the habits of thrift and energy which characterized old-time New Englanders, removed to that town from Hartford, Conn., at a very early day. There the lad received his education, which was necessarily confined to the district schools, the advantages for obtaining a knowledge of common English at that period being few and meagre. While yet a youth his father removed with the family to Monroe county and settled on a farm on Allen's Creek, in the town of Brighton, where Mr. Stanley, pere, built one of the first saw mills in the neighborhood. There the father died in 1852 and the mother in 1864. Both were prominent and active members of the old Brighton Congregational church, and well qualified for the duties of pro- gressive pioneers. Their abundant traits of native energy were transmitted in full measure to their five children, of whom four were sons. Erastus Stanley took a quiet but effective interest in town affairs, lending to every good movement an in- fluence and public spirit which placed him among the leading men of his time. He was long connected with the old State militia and ever foremost in annual trainings.

Upon the death of his parents Henry E. Stanley succeeded to the homestead, pay- ing off the other heirs and living there until 1870. He also conducted the saw mill previously mentioned, and successfully maintained and improved the business inter- ests his father had founded. He was always a great worker and a life-long farmer, and for many years assisted in the support of the family, being virtually its head and manager. In 1870 he purchased and removed to the farm of seventy-five acres on the same stream in Penfield, which his heirs now own, and which is situated about two miles northeast of the old homestead. This he greatly improved and beautified, making it one of the best farms in the county. It was bought by C. W. Austin in 1847 and conducted by him for twenty-three years. Early in 1877, his health failing, Mr. Stanley moved to Brighton village, where he died on the 7th of September fol- lowing.

LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY.

In all the relations of life Mr. Stanley sustained the confidence, respect and esteem of every person who had ever enjoyed his acquaintance. His word was as good as his bond. Charitable, kind and generous to a fault, his deeds and acts of benev- olence are imperishable monuments to a just man. The poor were special objects of his goodness and always testified their gratitude in marks of respectful admiration. His character and reputation were above reproach. His tastes were emphatically domestic. In the bosom of his family he found that sweet happiness and celestial enjoyment which a refined and trustful nature invariably craves. . There all his aspirations centered, and there he was best known and most appreciated. He was an earnest and constant Christian, but never made a parade of his religion. His habits, his whole life, were unostentatious, yet from them there emanates a lasting influence for good. He was a life-long member of the Congregational church and for many years one of its honored trustees. He always manifested a keen interest in town affairs and favored every movement which had for its object the advance- ment and good of the community. Educational, religious, social, business and public matters constantly received his encouragement and assistance. Being a great reader, he was well posted upon general topics. He lived the life of a quiet citizen, and, dying, was mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.

On December 3, 1862, Mr. Stanley married Miss Mary A., daughter of C. W. Austin, who survives him. She was born in 1841, and moved with her parents from Ontario county to Penfield in 1845. They had born to them three daughters: Addie E. (Mrs. W. E. Burrows), who resides with her husband on the farm in Penfield; Minnie A., of the same place; and Cora L. (Mrs. W. H. Salmon), of Rochester.

ICHABOD LEONARD.

ICHABOD LEONARD, JR., the subject of this memoir, was of the seventh generation in direct descent from Solomon Leonard, the founder of the family in America, who emigrated with the Puritans from England in 1620. Ichabod Leonard, sr .; youngest of thirteen children of Dan Leonard, originally settled in Eastern Massachusetts, whence he subsequently removed to Pittsfield, in that State. He was born July 11, 1771, and on October 15, 1795, married Sarah Stearns, whose birth occurred April 9, · 1775. Their children. all natives of Pittsfield, were Samuel, born July 27, 1796, died in Michigan; Ichabod, jr., born April 26, 1798; Friend, a carpenter and bridge builder, born September 28, 1800, died in Indiana, January 20, 1850; Nathaniel W., born February 27, 1804, died June 25, 1834; Mary Ann, born September 4, 1808, died April 11, 1840; and Chauncey, born June 19, 1816, died in Michigan in 1893. Samuel, the eldest, served in the War of 1812, while his ungle, Dan Leonard, jr., partici- pated in the American Revolution.

In 1816 Ichabod Leonard, jr., removed to the then wilderness of Western New York and thus became the pioneer of the family in the Genesee country. Soon after- ward his parents and brothers and sister joined him, and all settled on a farm in the town of Brighton, Monroe county. Friend, Nathaniel W., and Chauncey engaged in carpentering and building while the others followed farming. Ichabod, jr., also found employment in hauling stone from the quarries near the falls of the Genesee

James Na

BIOGRAPHICAL.

for the first court-house in Monroe county, which was erected in 1821, and in after years he was fond of relating his experiences with rattlesnakes, then so plentiful among the rocky banks of the river. In 1823 the family removed to Penfield, where Mr. Leonard purchased of Samuel Rich the farm on which his son George R., now resides. There the parents lived the residue of their lives. Ichabod Leonard, sr., died August 30, 1856, surviving his wife a little more than twenty-three years, her death occurring February 27, 1833.

Ichabod Leonard, jr., was a life-long farmer. Receiving only the limited educa- tion which the public schools of his day and generation afforded, he was nevertheless possessed of a large fund of general knowledge, and always sustained the reputa- tion of being well posted upon current events. He was emphatically a self-made man. Youthfully inured to the hard and wearying labors of a frontier farmer, and endowed with the strong constitution and rugged physique that characterized old- time New Englanders, he was thoroughly equipped for the career he so successfully followed, and in which he accumulated a comfortable competency. Coming into this section at a period when the forests were in their primitive condition he im- bibed a love and reverence for nature, and throughout life advocated with shrewd foresight the preservation of natural timber. This was long before any organized effort had been inaugurated for the purpose. He was first and last a private citizen, preferring the quietude of home to the strife and turmoil of public preferment, yet he ever manifested a lively interest in town affairs and in the general progress of the community. Charitable, kind and public spirited, he sustained the reputation of an honest, upright citizen, and at his death, February 18, 1867, was mourned by a wide circle of warm friends and acquaintances. In politics he was an old-time Whig and afterward a Republican. During the days of the old State militia he was prominent in general trainings and received a lieutenant's commission. He was an influential factor in local education and was one of the originators of the old Pen- field Seminary, of whose board of trustees he was for several years a member. His activity in sustaining this worthy institution placed him among the leading advo- cates of advanced education in the county.

July 3, 1834, Mr. Leonard married Miss Laura H. Northrup, who was born in Smith- field, Madison county, N. Y., in 1798. She was endowed with rare qualities of head and heart, and was an active member of the Penfield Presbyterian church, with which the whole family have been connected either as communicants or attendants. She died March 10, 1846, leaving four children: Charles N., Laura E. (since de- ceased), George R. (residing on the homestead). and Sarah E. The three living re- side in the town of Penfield.

JAMES HARRIS.

JAMES HARRIS has been a life-long resident of the town of Penfield, Monroe county, where he was born July 7, 1821. His paternal ancestors were Scotch, and possessed all the rugged and thrifty characteristics of their race. William Harris. sr., a man of great native ability, married Mary Kilpatrick, whose family were prom- inent in the highlands of Scotland and date back to the times of Wallace and Bruce

LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY.

In 1802 they came to America and settled with their children in Fulton county, N.Y. William Harris, jr., their eldest son, was married in April, 1806 (at the age of twen - ty-two) to Sally Shoecraft, oldest daughter of John Shoecraft. Mr. Shoecraft entered the continental army from Ulster county and served in the Revolutionary war under General Washington. At the close of the war he married in Washington county, N. Y., Betsey McKee, whose family were among the most prominent and earliest settlers in that section. They subsequently settled in Fulton county. In June, 1806, Will- iam Harris, jr., and his newly wedded wife and John Shoecraft with his family em- igrated to the Genesee country and made settlements in what is now the town of Webster, where Mr. Shoecraft and two sons were participants in the State militia during the war of 1812, There Mr. Harris taught the first organized school in 1810. A few years later he removed to a farm in the town of Penfield, where he resided the residue of his life, dying in December, 1842. He was possessed of an excellent ed- ucation, which he had received amid the " banks and braes" of old Scotia. Endowed with the attributes of a fine nature and gifted with an unusual amount of intellectual ability he was a man of rare judgment, of deep penetration, and of great energy. He was often consulted on difficult problems and his opinions were seldom questioned. Although a Scotch Presbyterian he was at all times a liberal minded and conscientious believer in the doctrines of universal freedom and ever maintained the right of in- dividual convictions. He industriously got at the truth by studying and reading both sides of a subject. In politics he was a Whig, a strong Clintonian, an ardent admirer of Henry Clay, and a staunch supporter of General Harrison, and his aid and influence were constantly given in the promotion of public movements, both State and local. He always took a prominent part and an active interest in town . affairs, and although in no sense an office seeker yet he served for several years as assessor. Of his eleven children the eldest, a son, died in early manhood, and the youngest, a daughter, in infancy; the others lived to maturity and old age, viz. : Mary K. (Mrs. Abner P. Osborn), Betsey M. (Mrs. John M. Watson), Sally, (Mrs. Albert Raymond), William, (a successful farmer and owner of the homestead upon which he died in September, 1886), and Martha (Mrs. Hiram W. Allen), all deceased ; and James, George F., Robert, and Peter, all substantial farmers in Penfield.

James Harris, the subject of this memoir, was educated in the district schools and finished with two terms at a select school in Penfield village. His opportunities in this connection were limited, but by persistent study, back of which was a worthy ambition, he succeeded in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the ordinary English branches. His father was an able teacher, and through him the youth attained a fair degree of proficiency. At the age of nineteen he taught a district school, and continued teaching for seven winters, working on the paternal farm summers. The two vocations gave him a good opportunity for development, which he improved to the fullest extent. Before he was twenty-two, and while yet engaged in teaching, he was elected a justice of the peace and held that office four years. Afterwards he served as town clerk and town superintendent of schools. In 1843 he was appointed by William C. Bouck, governor of New York, as captain of a uniformed company of militia attached to the 52d Regiment, and in that capacity made many valued ac- quaintances. His experience as a teacher abundantly qualified him for an able ad- vocate of local education, in which he has always manifested an active interest, and for the progress of which he has been a generous benefactor. He was an incorpo-

BIOGRAPHICAL.

rator of the old Penfield Seminary in 1857 and served as trustee during the existence of that institution, being the first president of the board and holding that office many years. When the seminary had outlived its usefulness he was made a member of the committee to procure the passage of a legislative act authorizing the sale of the property to the Penfield graded school. Prior to this, between 1850 and 1857, he was successfully engaged in general merchandising in the village, where he conducted a large trade.

In the political arena of the town Mr. Harris was long a prominent and influential factor. Originally a Whig and then a Republican he has given his party and his constituents the service of a conscientious, faithful, and honest citizen, working for both with a fidelity born of true public spirit and patriotism. No man sustains a better reputation. Earnest, active, and consistent, advocating and supporting the cause of his party and its candidates, and taking the keenest interest in the general welfare and advancement, he has always been recognized as one of the able. and trusted leaders. In 1853 he was elected supervisor of Penfield by a large majority and satisfactorily held that office by successive elections for fifteen out of the fol- lowing twenty-two years. When the war of the Rebellion broke out in 1861 himself and brothers took an active part in promoting the Union cause. Immediately after the fall of Fort Sumter a special town meeting was called for the purpose of adopting suitable measures and appointing a committee of public safety, of which Mr. Harris was one of the three members, a position he held until elected supervisor again in the spring of 1864, when the business of that organization was placed entirely in his hands and so contintinned until the close of the war and during the " reconstruction period" which followed. His valuable labors in this connection are worthy of more than a passing notice. Supported and aided by a majority of the leading citizens of the community he filled the town's quotas without a single inhabitant being drafted, save a few who were drafted early in the war under the act conferring option of service or payment of $300 each. His method was purely a business transaction. The call had been for one year men, and the town offered a bounty of $500 to each volunteer. Realizing that men could be had for three years without increasing the bounties if the bonds were converted into cash, he wisely discriminated in favor of the longer term of enlistment, raised the necessary money, and filled the quota with three years' men to the number of sixty-three and bonds were issued to the amount of $31,500, and when the war closed the State, under the law equalizing bounties, paid back nearly two-thirds of this sum, or about $20,000, to the town. All this occurred while Mr. Harris was in charge of the business as supervisor, and reflects just credit upon his ability and shrewd management. He was continued in the office for several years afterward and satisfactorily carried out the plans and obligations he had in- augurated during those " times that tried men's souls." As a member of the board of supervisors and chairman of its finance committee he was prominent aniong the instigators of the law which changed the system formerly pursued in the county treas- urer's office to its present status, and which involved not only the disposition of pub- lic moneys but of returned taxes as well. And he was the first treasurer of the county to promulgate and place in operation the new law he had been instrumental in fram- ing, being elected to that office by a handsome majority in the fall of 1875, taking it October 1, 1876, and serving acceptably and efficiently a term of three years. Upon

LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY.

the expiration of that term he retired permanently to private life, and has ever since devoted his time to his property interests.

Mr. Harris was never in any exclusive sense a politician, but has ever taken a lively interest in public affairs, and in every capacity has added lustre to his reputa- tion as an able and upright citizen. Charitable, fair minded, and honest, imbued with all the sterling characteristics of his race, and possessed of a keen discrimination for right and justice, he is an illustrious example of a self-made man, and has lived a life worthy of emulation. He has always been a liberal contributor to the cause of education and religion, sustaining and encouraging every movement which had for its object the welfare and advancement of humanity. With his family he sustains regular relations to the Baptist church of Penfield. Having been practically a life- long agriculturist he has ever given to rural interests an enthusiasm formed in early boyhood, and in matters of good government, good roads and good morals his aid and support is always foremost. He settled upon his present farm a little east of Penfield village on April 1, 1866; he also owns two other farms near by, or a total of 2.0 acres, upon all of which are substantial buildings and fruitful orchards. He takes a great interest in matters of local history and is a member of the Monroe County Historical Society. He was a charter member of the Association of Supervisors and ex-Supervisors of Monroe County, and at its annual meeting on August 7, 1895, was unanimously elected its president.

December 1, 1847, Mr. Harris married, first, Martha M., daughter of William Pope, of Penfield. She died January 1, 1880, leaving four children: James Darwin, a far- mer living in Fairport village; Robert, who died in November, 1887, aged thirty-one; George H., junior member of the law firm of Werner & Harris, of Rochester, who resides at home; and Mary K., at home. Mr. Harris's present wife, whom he mar- ried February 21, 1883, was the widow of Horace P. Lewis and a daughter of Charles Lacey, formerly of Poughkeepsie, N. Y. They have two children, Charles Lacey and Angie K.

W. H. STOKES.

W. H. STOKES, second child and oldest son of Jonathan A. and Maria (Van Valk- enburg) Stokes, was born in the town of Ontario, Wayne county, within four miles of his present residence at Union Hill in Monroe county, on August 26, 1859. His great-grandfather, Jonathan Stokes, a native of Scotland, was a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary war and was taken prisoner by the British. He settled in Dutchess county. N. Y., where his son Richard was born on the 2 st of February, 1800. Richard Stokes was a man of great intellectual ability. About 1824 he emi- grated to Western New York and settled in the town of Ontario, Wayne county, where he died June 10, 1878. He was a life-long farmer, and being a constant reader was well posted on current events. He married Eliza, daughter of Augustus Norton, by whom he had four children. Mr. Norton came to Ontario from Greene county, N. Y., in 1810, and died there in 1859. Jonathan A. Stokes, the eldest child of Rich- ard and Eliza, was born in Ontario September 13, 1827, and lived there a farmer, during his active life, dying at Union Hill, Monroe county, March 28, 1891. Origi-

IF It. Stoke.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

nally a Whig and afterward a Republican he was long a prominent fator in local pol- itics, and upon attaining his majority was elected town superintendent of schools, which in those days was an important office. He was subsequently assessor, high- way commissioner, deputy sheriff, etc., and in every capacity bore the reputation of an honest, upright, and influential citizen. In February, 1862, he enlisted as a pri- vate in Co. H, 22d N. Y. Vol. Cav., and served until the close of the Rebellion, par- ticipating in all the engagements of his regiment. He was the first commander of Myron M. Fish Post, G. A. R., of Ontario, of which he was one of the originators. November 3, 1856, he married Maria Van Valkenburg, of Walworth, N. Y., who sur- vives him and resides with her son at Union Hill. They had seven children, as fol- lows; Jennie E. (Mrs. James D. Parker), deceased; W. H., of Union Hill; George, Frank A. and Carrie, deceased; Minnie F. (Mrs. James Olbright), of Ontario Center ; and Anna E., of Union Hill.

W. H. Stokes, after attending the district schools of his native town, finished his education at Walworth Academy in Wayne county. Inheriting the sterling charac- teristics of a long line of sturdy Scotch ancestry, and endowed by nature with a good constitution, he early developed all the attributes which make the successful man. After leaving the academy he engaged in teaching school, a vocation he continued for five terms. His tastes and inclinations, however, were of a business trend, and resolving to enter mercantile trade he came, in 1884, to Union Hill, in the town of Webster, where he became a clerk in the store of F. M. Jones. In the fall of 1886 he purchased the stock and leased the premises, and entered into active business for himself. Four years later he bought the store property, and in 1894 enlarged the building to its present proportions, making it one of the largest, neatest, and best general country stores in Western New York. Besides this and the residence ad- joining he owns an attractive lot and dwelling in Union Hill which he purchased and built in 1893. Being a Republican he has always taken an active interest in town affairs, and is popular not only in his own community but wherever he is known. As a general merchant he has been very successful, attaining through strict attention to business a wide and favorable reputation. On June 25, 1889, he was appointed postmaster at Union Hill, which office he still holds.

October 6, 1886, Mr. Stokes was married to Miss Mattie L., daughter of John and granddaughter of Byron Woodhull, both of Webster. Byron Woodhull was one of the earliest settlers of the town. He had a grist and saw-mill on the lake road for many years, and at the time the old court house was built he was judge of Monroe county. He was long a prominent Whig in political affairs, and was known throughout Western New York. Of his five sons four are living, three of them, Benja- min, William and John, in the town of Webster. John Woodhull was born here October 11, 1824. An only daughter died young.

JAMES H. THATCHER.

JAMES H. THATCHER, a veteran of the Rebellion, was born in the town of Ontario, Wayne county, N. Y., September 17, 1840. His grandfather, Peter Thatcher, a na- tive of Rhode Island, served along Lake Champlain during the Revolutionary war,

LANDMARKS OF MONROE COUNTY.

and about the beginning of this century settled with his wife, Phebe, on a farm in Ontario, where both lived and died. He also participated in the war of 1812, serving on the Niagara frontier. They had twelve children, of whom Cyrus was the third. Cyrus Thatcher was born in Ontario and spent his entire life there, dying July 23, 1890, aged seventy-six. He was always a farmer and succeeded to a part of the original homestead, but during some thirty years preceding his death resided on a farm an the Ridge road, where his widow now lives. He married Mercy, daughter of John Gage, of Ontario, and had five children Ellen Sophronia (wife and widow of Dr. Edson J. Whitcomb, now Mrs. Oscar F. Whitney), of Ontario; James H., the subject of this memoir; Riley L., who enlisted in the 146th N. Y. Vols. and died in the army in 1865 at Warrenton, Va .; Amelia Lurissa (Mrs. Albert Hathaway), of Lansing, Mich .; and Frank P., who died aged twenty-two.

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Landmarks of Monroe County, New York : containing followed by brief historical sketches of the towns of the county with biography and family history, Part 50

Author: Peck, William F. (William Farley), b. 1840; Raines, Thomas; Fairchild, Herman LeRoy Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Boston : Boston History Co. Number of Pages: 1160

Author: Peck, William F. (William Farley), b. 1840; Raines, Thomas; Fairchild, Herman LeRoy
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Boston : Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1160