Landmarks of Orleans County, New York, Part 24

Author: Signor, Isaac S., ed
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1084

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Gideon Freeman was born in Saratoga county, N. Y., in 1787. In 1799 he went with his father to Cayuga county, and in 1812 came to Albion and settled in the northwest part of the town. He was the first settler there, and the place was called from him the Freeman Settle- ment. He removed to Ypsilanti, Mich., where he died in 1832. His son, Chester Freeman, was born in Cayuga county in 1807, and came to Orleans county with his father in 1812. During most of his life he resided on lot 31, 2d range, in Barre.

Nathan Paine, the father of Stephen (the first settler in Barre), Nathan, Samuel, Christopher and Asa, was a resident of Rhode Island, where his sons were born. He removed with his family to Richfield, N. Y., whence, after some migrations, they came to Orleans county. Asa Paine was noted for his ready wit Samuel finally moved to Yates, where he died.

Elijah Shaw, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1787, came to Or- leans county in 1812, but returned to Cayuga county, and was drafted in the war of 1812-15, in which he served until its close. In 1815 he settled permanently in Albion, on lot 50, in the west part of the town, where he died.

Nathan Whitney was born in Massachusetts in 1791, came to Or- leans county in 1813, and took up a part of lot 33, one mile south from Albion. In 1814 he was at the taking of Fort Erie. He was the first supervisor of the town of Barre, and held the office of justice of the peace several years. He was active and efficient citizen, was often placed in positions of trust, and always discharged his duties faithfully. In 1827 he removed to Elba, Genesee county, and afterward to Illinois.

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Rev. Francis B. Tanner, a Baptist clergyman, came to Orleans county in 1815, and took an article for 100 acres of lot 29 in Gaines, northeast from Albion village. He removed to Albion in 1818, and located on lot 19, east from the village. He was the first of the Tanner family that came to the town. After a few years he removed to Chautauqua county, where he died. His nephew, Samuel N. Tanner, came to Al- bion in 1819, and purchased a part of lot 19. opposite Mt. Albion Cemetery, where he died. His father, William Tanner, a shoemaker, also died here, as did also his grandfather, William Tanner, sr.

Jesse Mason, a native of Cheshire, Mass .. settled on lot 17, range 2, in Albion, in 1815, but subsequently removed to Ohio, where he died. He was an able and energetic man, and public spirited in all social matters.

Jonathan Clark was born in Rockingham county, N. H .. in 1790 At the age of fifteen he went to live with an uncle in Salem, Mass., whence, in 1812, he started on a voyage to the East Indies. He had his share of the experiences of sea life, and reached Salem on his return January 1, 1816. In July of the same year he started on foot for Western New York. After reaching Auburn, he rode to Gaines with Gideon Freeman. He soon purchased the farm on which he afterward resided, a part of lot 50, in the western part of Albion. On this he cleared a small area, built a log house and returned to Salem. In that autumn he was married to Abigail Simonds, a native of Salem, and they returned to their future home with a span of horses and a wagon, making the journey in twenty-one days, and arriving January 1, 1817. They had neither table, chairs, nor bedstead, but Mr. Clark made these " in true genuine pioneer style." Mrs. Clark died in 1824, and he married, in 1825, Elizabeth Stevens. In the same year they moved " out of the old home into the new," where they afterward resided. They became members of the M. E. Church in 1829.

Christopher Crandall came from Truxton, N. Y , in 1816, and settled on lot 19, east from Albion. He had then a young but numerous family, most of whom grew to adult age. One of his daughters died young, and it is remembered that her coffin was made of a wagon box cut up for the purpose. Mr. Crandall resided on the farm where he first settled till 1840, when he removed to the western part of the town of Gaines, where he died.

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Ebenezer Rogers, a native of Norwich, Conn., was born in 1769. His wife, also a native of Connecticut, was Betsey Lyman. They re- moved to Onondaga county, N. Y., in 1812, and to the place where he passed the rest of his life, in the south part of the village of Albion, in 1816. There were but few settlers in the present town then, and many who came afterward made their homes with him while building their cabins, in some instances several miles away. Of a strong physical constitution, he lived to the great age of ninety-six. He had strong religious convictions, and was active in the formation of religious so- cieties of the New England creed, and was one of the constituent mem- bers of the First Congregational Church of Barre, afterward located at Barre Center, and subsequently of the First Presbyterian Church of Albion, of which he was long a ruling elder and a deacon.

Joshua Porter, the father of Allen, Elkanah and Samuel Porter, pur- chased by article for these sons nearly 300 acres on lot 40, 14th town- ship, and lot 33, 15th township, 2d range, west from the county almshouse at what was afterward known as Parker's Corners. Samuel died early, and the land became the property of the other brothers. Allen Porter served in the War of 1812 under Maj .- Gen. Brown and Col. Peter B. Porter at Buffalo, and volunteered to assist in the defence of Fort Erie. He came to Albion in the spring of 1816, and during the remainder of his life lived on a portion of the land purchased by his father. Stephen Porter, a brother of Joshua, moved to Chenango county, N. Y , from New England, about 1812, with his wife and six children, and one year later came to Ontario county, whence he removed in the fall of 1815 to Albion, where he settled on 100 acres of lot 40, range 2, to which he brought his family in 1820. Luther Porter, second son of Stephen, was born in Ashfield, Mass., in 1805. He came to the farm in Albion, which his father purchased, and passed his life there. He was for five consecutive years supervisor of the town of Barre, and was twice married. His wives were Miss Lydia Scott, of Ontario county, and Caroline, daughter of Orange Culver, of Barre. Amos Porter, a half brother of Joshua and Stephen, was born in Tolland county, Conn., in 1788. He was drafted in the War of 1812, and served a short time. In 1815 he married Mary Geary, also of Connecticut. They removed to Orleans county in 1836, and located on lot 38, three miles west from Barre Center. There he died in 1866. His wife died in 1868.

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Avery M. Starkweather, a native of Connecticut, came to Albion in 1816 and located on lot 35, near Eagle Harbor. For thirteen years he was an assessor in Barre and was supervisor of that town in 1842 and 1843.

Zenas F. Hibbard was of Scotch descent and was born in Scroon, N. Y., in 1804. His father afterward removed to Brandon, Vt., whence he came with his family to Albion in July, 1816, and settled on lot 10, one mile west of the village, where he lived sixteen years, when he moved to Barre Center, where he died in 1853. Zenas F. Hibbard at - tended the first school taught in this town where Albion village now stands. In 1828 he married Amanda Wrisley, in Barre, who was born in Massachusetts in 1809.

Jacob Annis, a son of Thomas Annis, of New Hampshire, was one of eighteen children. He was born in New Hampshire in 1790, and served three months as a teamster in the war of 1812. He came to Albion in 1817, and took up 100 acres of lot 10, two and one-half miles southeast from Albion village. On this, in 1818, he built a log house without nails, glass, door, or chimney; roofed it with bark and split the plank for a floor. In 1819 he married Mary Loudon, of Mont- gomery county, N. Y., and they commenced life together on the farm where they passed the rest of their lives. Their son, Joshua W. An- nis, inherited the old homestead where he was born. He married Mary Hill, of Barre Center. He is now dead.

John Minckley was born on Grand Island, in Lake Champlain, in 1794. In 1817 he came to Orleans county, and in 1819 took an article for a part of lot 2, on the Transit line, four miles west from Albion. He afterward purchased other land on the same lot, and resided there till his death in 1875. In 1820 Mr. Minckley married Miss Amy Smith, a native of Massachusetts, who died in 1860. In 1820 Joel, Enoch, William and Elijah Minckley came to Albion. Of these the first remained about fifteen years and went west. Elijah died here in 1829.

Artemas Loveland, born in Massachusetts in 1795, removed to Smith- field, Madison county, N. Y., where he married Phoebe Paine, who was born in 1794. In 1817 they came to Albion and settled two miles west from the village, where they remained till their deaths. He came with

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a yoke of oxen and a sled, and on his arrival had $6 in money. He died in 1888. Azariah Loveland came some time after Artemas, and at first worked for him. He finally settled in the same neighborhood and remained during his life. He was twice married; the last time to Celestia Wells, of Shelby. They had five sons. Mr. Loveland was drowned in the canal in 1858. Mrs. Loveland died in 1871.

Mrs. Mabel Peck, a widow with six sons, settled in the town of Al- bion two and a half miles west of the Oak Orchard road in the autumn of 1818. They lived in a rude cabin, twelve by sixteen feet, during the first winter. Her elder sons labored to clear their land, and she, with her spinning wheel and loom, earned the means to gradually im- prove their buildings and surround her family with such comforts as could then be procured. She reared her sons to respectable and worthy manhood.

Nathaniel Braley was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, in 1796. In 1802 he removed with his parents to Palmyra, N. Y., where his father soon afterward died. He resided with married sisters till the age of six years, when he and his mother resumed housekeeping. In 1819 they returned to their home on what was afterward known as the Cady place. They built a log house, covered with bark, and which when first occupied had neither door, window, nor chimney. Mr. Bra- ley married Sarah Wickham, who was born in Columbia county, N. Y., in 1799, and came to Gaines in 1816 with her brother, Dyer Wickham, and her uncles, Daniel and Jonathan Brown. They had ten children, seven of whom were born in their original log house. These were : Charlotte, William S., Jolin W., Alfred, N. Russell, Mrs. Cynthia E. Packard, J. Duane, Jeanette R., Mrs. Sarah B. Nichols, and Byron B. Byron B. Braley is now the owner and occupant of the paternal home- stead. Nathaniel Braley brought with him a quantity of apple seeds, which he had washed from some pomace at a cider mill, and these fur- nished many of the pioneers with their first orchards. To his first pur- chase of eighty acres he added an adjoining lot of fifty acres, and on this built a frame barn and a substantial brick house. In 1836 he and Alfred H. Rice purchased the clothiery and saw mill of Smith & Lee. This afterward became the woolen factory of Braley & Northrup, suc- ceeded by Braley & Sons, and latterly the grist mill of Robert Van

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Stone. In 1837, by an exchange with Palmer Cady, Mr. Braley be- came the owner of what had been the Crandall farm, on which he re- sided till his death in 1880. There also his mother died in 1841, at the age of eighty seven, and his wife in 1870.

Joseph Root, a native of Connecticut, and a Revolutionary soldier, moved to Whitestown, N. Y., where he married, and came thence to Genesee county, whence he removed in 1820 to Albion. He settled on lot 50, in the west part of the town, where he died. He had ten children.

William Penniman was born in Hillsboro county, N. H., in August, 1793, nnd received there a good common school and classical educa- tion. In 1816 he emigrated to Ontario county. N. Y., and in 1820 to Shelby. After eight years' residence in that town he removed to the village of Albion, and two or three years later to a farm near Eagle Harbor, where he ever afterwards resided. He was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1825 and served five years. He also held the offices of justice of the peace, and commissioner, in- spector, and town superintendent of common schools. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1846. He was much in- terested in the subject of common schools and was for many years a teacher. He was a firm, just and impartial judge, and was upright, sagacious, and true in all his relations.

Alban Spencer was born in Litchfield, Conn., in 1786. He came first to Alexander, Genesee county, and in 1820 removed to Albion. He purchased a portion of lot I, in the southeast part of the town. He married Miss Abigal Griswold, of Litchfield, prior to his removal to Alexander, and reared nine children to adult age. Of these S. S. Spencer, an attorney and the present postmaster in Albion, is the only surviving son. Mr. Spencer died in 1861. His wife died some two years later.

Thomas W. Allis was born in Ontario county, N. Y., in 1798, but was reared from the age of seven years in Hampshire, Mass. With a younger brother, he came to Kendall in 1820, and located a mile east of the Transit line and three and one-fourth miles north from the Ridge road. They kept bachelors' hall on their ranch four years. In 1824 he married Miss Elizabeth Clements, of Warren county, N. Y. He added

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to his first purchase of 100 acres till he was the owner of 250 acres of land, on which he made substantial improvements and acquired a com- petence. He held various town offices, including that of justice of the peace. In 1860 he sold his farm in Kendall and removed to Albion. where he passed his declining years.

Adonijah Bond was born in Conway, Mass., in 1788. In 1802 he went to Lenox, N. Y., and in 1816 he married Sally Jennings, of Sara- toga county. N. Y. In 1820 he came to Albion and located on lot 24, a mile west from the County Almshouse, where he resided till his death, in 1854. His wife died in 1874. They reared seven children.

Mrs. Caroline T. Achilles, the daughter of Joseph Phipps, was born in Rome, N. Y., and came, with her father's family, to Albion at an early age. She was educated at home under the superintendence of her father, and afterward at the Gaines Academy, and at a ladies' school in Whitesboro, N. Y. She had already been a teacher in a common school, and on leaving Whitesboro she became an assistant in a classical school in Albion. This school, which was kept in a building on the present site of the county clerk's office, was transferred to her, and, with an elder sister, she commenced teaching on her own account in 1833. The school was at once a success, and was soon converted into a female seminary. By the aid of prominent citizens of Albion a large brick edifice was erected in 1836, and the Phipps Union Seminary was in- corporated in 1840. Miss Phipps was married to Colonel H L. Achilles in 1839, and for ten years they resided in Boston. In 1849 they returned and she resumed charge of the seminary, which became again prosperous under her administration. In 1866 she again trans- ferred it to others, and three years later took charge of it once more. In 1881 the property was sold to the county of Orleans. The build- ings were torn down, the grounds were graded, and the county clerk's and surrogate's office was erected thereon. Mr. and Mrs. Achilles both died in 1881.

Luke Hitchcock came to Albion at the beginning of the construc- tion of the Erie Canal, of which he was a contractor on that portion passing through the western part of the town. In 1821 he bought a part of lot 51, but after finishing his work he returned to Oneida county, where he died His farm here descended to his son, Lee A. Hitchcock, who still owns and occupies it.

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Jeremiah Ingersoll was born in Dutchess county, New York, in 1876. At the age of thirty he removed to Batavia, and a year or so later to Elba, Genesee county. In company with James T. Smith and Chil- lian J. Buckley he purchased from William Bradner for $4.000 100 acres of land in Albion, fronting on Main street one-half mile, bounded on the north by the south line of Gaines and extending east 100 rods. Mr. Ingersoll soon became the sole owner and had a large part of it laid out in village lots. He erected a warehouse at the foot of Pratt street, which was for a time carried on by him and Lewis T. Buckley. He also erected a wooden store building on the corner of Main and Canal streets, and in company with Dudley Wells conducted mercan- tile business there several years. He was active in procuring the loca- tion of the county seat at Albion, and donated to the county the grounds where the court house stands. He came to Albion to reside in 1826, and remained till 1835, when he removed to Detroit; thence, in 1845, he went to Oneida county, New York, where he remained till his death in 1868. He always manifested a deep interest in the welfare of Albion and Orleans counties, and at his request his remains were in- terred in Mount Albion Cemetery. His first wife was Miss Polly Hal- sey, of Columbia county, New York. She died in 1831. His second wife was Miss Elizabeth C. Brown, of Oneida county, who died in 1869. She shared her husband's attachment to Albion, and in her will be- queathed $10,000 to the Episcopal church of that village, of which she and her husband were members.

Justus Ingersoll, a brother of Jeremiah, was born in Dutchess county, New York, in 1794. In his youth he learned the trade of a tanner. In 1818 he removed to Elba and soon afterward to Shelby Center, where he conducted a tannery and shoe shop. On the completion of the canal he removed to Medina and erected there a large tannery. In 1835, after the destruction of his tannery by fire, he went with his brother to Detroit, where they engaged largely in the leather business, but were not successful. He was a magistrate at Shelby Center, an Indian agent and a postmaster while at Medina, and was also a judge in Orleans county. He was an active, upright and courteous man. He died in 1845. Of his military career Judge Thomas says: "On the breaking out of the war with Great Britain in 1812 he entered the army as an

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ensign in the 23d Regiment of Infantry. He served on the northern frontier in several engagements, and was in the celebrated charge on Queenston Heights. He was promoted to the rank of captain for meri- torious service. In one of the battles in Canada in which he served as captain of infantry, he was wounded in the foot. Refusing to leave his company and being unable to walk, he mounted a horse and continued with his men. In another engagement he was shot through the body, the ball lodging in a rib. He refused to have it removed, as he was in- formed that a portion of the rib would have to be cut away, which would probably cause him to stoop ever after in his gait. He was a favorite with his company and much esteemed by General Scott, under whom he served."

Abraham Cantine was born in 1790, in Ulster county, N. Y., served as a captain in the war of 1812, and was wounded in the sortie at Fort Erie. After the war he served a term as sheriff of his native county, and about 1822 removed to Murray. In 1827 he was a member of the State Legislature, and in 1829 was appointed to resurvey the land be- longing to the Pultney estate in the 100,000-acre tract. He was an associate judge of the Orleans County Court of Common Pleas during five years, and in 1835 was collector of canal tolls at Albion, to which place he had several years before removed, and where he died in 1840.

Asa Parker, a brother of Thomas, sr., came to Albion in 1821, and settled on the same lot (18) with his brother. Some years afterward he removed to Shelby, and still later to Michigan, where he died at the age of ninety-three. Elisha Parker, another brother of Thomas, sr., came to Orleans county ten years later, and settled near the line be- tween Barr and Shelby, where he died. Richard Parker, son of Thomas, sr., was born in 1815, and came with his father's family to Albion when eight years of age. In 1848 he married Angeline Love- land, who was born in 1823, and who survives him He died in 1894. Thomas Parker, another son of Thomas, sr., was born in Albion, and was sheriff of the county and postmaster of the village.

Jonathan Sheldon, a native of Massachusetts, settled in Albion on a farm west of the county almshouse in 1823, where he and his wife both died. The place where he located has since been known as Sheldon's Corners.

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Roswell S. Burrows was born in Groton, Conn., in 1798. At the age of twenty he entered Yale College, but because of ill health did not complete his college course. The honorary degree of A. M. was con- ferred on him by his alma mater in 1867. His first business enterprise was in the manufacture of cotton, but this did not prove profitable, and in the sale of his factory he was defrauded of the capital he had in- vested. He came to Albion in 1824, and established a store in a small wooden building on the east side of Main street, on the present site of the Burrows block. In the same year his younger brother, Lorenzo, came, and in 1826 the firm of R. S. & L. Burrows was formed. In 1827 Mr. Burrows built the warehouse on the canal, next east from Main street, and the firm added warehousing and produce dealing to their mercantile business. About 1837 they sold their stock of goods. They established the Bank of Albion in 1834, which was the first bank in Orleans county. In 1863 Mr. Burrows founded the First National Bank of Albion, the first bank organized in the State west of Syracuse under the national banking system Of both these banks Mr. Burrows owned a majority of the stock, and was their president and principal manager. During his long business career he was concerned in many business enterprises, and was director and trustee in several corpora- tions His clear-headedness, sagacity and coolness always led him to safe investments, and he accumulated an immense fortune. He was a munificent benefactor of the Rochester Theological Seminary. After the death of Professor Neander, of Germany, he purchased the library which that eminent scholar had collected, and presented it to that in-

stitution. He also donated to that seminary the sum of $100,000 as an addition to its endowment. Lorenzo Burrows, previously mentioned, is noticed at length on another page of this volume. He was county treasurer in 1840, assignee in bankruptcy for Orleans County Bank under the law of 1841, supervisor of Barre in 1845. elected to Congress in 1848 and re-elected in 1850, elected comptroller of the State in 1855, became one of the Regents of the University of the State of New York in 1858, and was appointed one of the commissioners of Mt. Albion Cemetery in 1862. He discharged the duties of all these positions with singular ability and strict fidelity.

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Harvey Goodrich, a son of Zenas Goodrich, who was a native of Massachusetts, was born in Herkimer county, N. Y., in 1791. While a young man he removed to Auburn, N. Y., where he worked at his trade of a hatter. In partnership with his brother-in-law, George W. Stand- art, he became a contractor on the Erie Canal, and in 1824 they came to Albion and engaged in the mercantile business. After the death of his partner, he was for many years a hatter and furrier and produce dealer in Albion. He was active and energetic and was an earnest Christian, and was active in the organization of the Presbyterian Church in Albion, and from the time of its formation till his death he was one of its ruling elders. He was commonly known as " Deacon Goodrich," though he was never chosen to that office. He was particularly noted for his kindness to the poor and to the sick, and was highly esteemed by all who knew him He was stricken with apoplexy in 1861, and died in 1863.

Hiram Sickels, a hatter by trade, came to Albion village in 1824 and opened a hotel. Later he became a merchant and still later went into partnership with Harvey Goodrich in the manufacture and sale of hats. More is said of Mr. Sickels and of his family elsewhere. William G. Sickels, a brother of Hiram and the father of Perry Sickels, was also an early resident of Albion. Peter F. Sickels, another brother of Hiram, settled in Albion in 1828, and was for many years a grocer. His son, Henry J. Sickels, was long a prominent citizen and an active business man, and was also an influential Democratic politician. He died about 1880.

Asa Howard came to Albion in 1825 and engaged in business as a cabinet-maker. From 1831 till 1838 he resided in Genesee county, but excepting that period he lived here until his death. In 1843 he en- gaged in the produce and forwarding business in a warehouse on the canal at the foot of Clinton street.

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Landmarks of Orleans County, New York, Part 24

Author: Signor, Isaac S., ed Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Syracuse : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Signor, Isaac S., ed
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1084