USA > New York > Wayne County > Landmarks of Wayne County, New York, Pt. 2 & 3 > Part 7
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62
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LANDMARKS OF WAYNE COUNTY.
through his own exertions. His father's limited means afforded him only small assistance in a pecuniary way, and the struggle was all the more severe because of the apparent afilu- ence of classmates. He is, in consequence, a self-made man in every sense of the term, and exemplifies the courage, perseverance, and single-mindedness of trne American youth and manhood. With an ambition born of purpose and constancy he schooled himself not only in the vast field of literary and mathematical research but in all the requirements of life and advantages derived from a diversified knowledge. Leaving college he was for one year an instructor in Greek and Latin in Kirkland Hall, a boys' preparatory school at Clinton, N. Y., and in 1889 his alma mater conferred upon him the honorary degree of A. M.
In the autumn of 1887 Mr. Griffith came to Palmyra and associated himself in busi- ness with O. J. Garlock and Eugene Nichols, both men of exceptional ability and pecu- liarly adapted to the work which has since proved so successful. The firm, which was organized by these three gentlemen in September of that year, adopted the name of The Garlock Packing Company, which it still bears, manufacturing packings for steam, water, and ammonia. The business started with little capital and with an output of $1,500 monthly. It has steadily increased in volume and now produces about $350,000 worth of goods per annum. The firm has offices under their own name in all the princi- pal cities of the United States and also a branch factory in Rome. Ga. It is one of the leading manufacturing establishments in the county.
October 1, 1889, Mr. Griffith married Miss Mary E. Adams, daughter of M. C. Adams, a native of Oneida county and a farmer of Phelps, N. Y. They have one child, Fred- erick Adams Griffith, born September 7, 1894. Mr. Griffith is an elder in the Presby- terian church and thoroughly identified with every movement of public importance.
CHARLES H. FORD.
CHARLES HI. FORD, son of Harvey W. and Nancy (Little) Ford, now residents of Oneida county, was born in Utica, N. Y., October 19, 1861. He is the eldest of three children and spent his boyhood in the place of his birth. His education was acquired in the public schools, in Boonville Academy, in Whitestown Seminary, and in the Utica Business College, institutions which thoroughly equipped him with a practical knowledge of all the English branches and many of the classies. His first employment was as a clerk in a store. In 1877 he went to Auburn to fill a responsible position in a large wholesale tobacco house, where he remained four years. In 1881 he came to Clyde, Wayne county, where he has ever since resided, and where he engaged in busi- ness for himself under the firm name of Smith & Ford, wholesale tobacco dealers, a partnership that continued until September, 1893. Since then Mr. Ford has conducted the business alone.
During the period of fourteen years which Mr. Ford has spent as a citizen of this county he has become thoroughly identified with both public and business affairs. His private commercial operations have placed him among the leaders in finance and execu-
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tive management, while his active connection with other enterprises distinguishes him for rare ability and unerring judgment. He was one of the originators of the Clyde Electric Light and Power Company, of which he has been president and is now a direc- tor and a large stockholder. He is a Democrat in politics and has always taken a fore- most part in all political movements. He has served as trustee of the village of Clyde one term and as supervisor of the town of Galen two years. In the latter capacity he was instrumental in changing the sheriff's office to its present status, drafting the bill and fathering it to a passage and a law, thus fixing the extremely low salary now paid. He was influential also in changing the county clerk's office as it now exists. Both these changes have proven inestimably beneficial to taxpayers. He was appointed canal superintendent by Governor Hill and re appointed by Governor Flower, serving in all nearly three years, and in this capacity attained a large circle of acquaintances and great political power. He resigned this office in May, 1893, and in March, 1894, was appointed sheriff of the county to fill the unexpired term (to January 1, 1895) of Walter Thornton, deceased. He has frequently been a delegate to county and district conventions and represented his constituents in this capacity at the Democratic State conventions of 1891 and 1894. In all these positions Mr. Ford served with rare ability, with striet fidelity, and with shrewd political tact. He is in every sense of the term a publie spirited citizen.
He is a member of the Wheeler Rifles (Auburn) N. G. S. N. Y. and of Wayne En- campment, I. O. O. F., Newark. He is past grand of Clyde Lodge, No. 300, I. O. O. F., captain of Canton Galen, No. 49, Clyde, and for six years was foreman of Protective Ilook and Ladder Company, Clyde.
November 30, 1886, Mr. Ford married Miss Emily W. Gilbert, danghter of the late Horace Gilbert, who was connected with the post-office at Auburn for nearly a quarter of a century. They have had one son, Vivian C., born November 20, 1890.
MARVIN I. GREENWOOD.
MARVIN I. GREENWOOD is a son of Ira and Clarissa M. (Moseley) Greenwood, natives of Madison county, near Hamilton, and was born January 31, 1840, near Chittenango, N. Y. The father was of Scotch origin while the mother sprung from English ancestry ; they were farmers by occupation, the former being, however, a carpenter by trade. They moved with their family to the town of Marion, Wayne county, in April, 1840, but five years later settled in Palmyra. In the spring of 1855 they removed to Areadia, where both died-the mother in December, 1863, and the father in December, 1884, December being also the month of their marriage.
M. I. Greenwood was educated in the connon schools of Wayne county, in the Walworth Academy, and in the Newark Union Free School and Academy. Leaving the farm, on which he had been reared, he commenced reading law in the office of Hon. L. M. Norton in Newark, and in December, 1868, was admitted to the bar at Rochester, General Term. Mr. Norton was elected county judge and surrogate in November,
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1869, and Mr. Greenwood remained in his office during his term of four years, or until 1875, when he began the practice of his profession alone, in which capacity he has since continued. Born in the Harrison year of 1840 he has always been a steadfast Republi- can, and in various capacities has served his party with distinction and ability. He has been a justice of the peace several terms, and from 1877 to 1879 inchisive was district attorney of Wayne county.
In the Masonic fraternity perhaps no man in Western New York is better known or more properly distinguished than is Mr. Greenwood. Ilis connection with the order dates from February, 1865, when he joined Newark Lodge, No. 83, F. ard A. M., which he served as master during a period of fourteen years. He has risen to Knight Templar and a thirty-second degree Mason, being a member of Zenobia Commandery, No. 41, K. T., and of Rochester Consistory thirty-second degree. Besides holding all the minor offices he has been high priest of Newark Royal Arch Chapter twelve years, member of the commission of appeals of the Grand Lodge of the State three years, grand seribe and grand king of the Grand Royal Aich Chapter of the State of New York each three years, and prelate of Zenobia Conunandery, K. T., four years He is now deputy high priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the State and the repre- sentative of the Grand Lodge of West Virginia in the Grand Lodge of New York.
November 16, 1862, Mr. Greenwood united in marriage with Miss Laura F. Wads- worth, a native of Phelps, N. Y., and a daughter of Joseph Wadsworth of that place. They had two sons, Frank M. and Will W. Frank M. Greenwood was born May 4, 1864, graduated from the Newark Union Free School and Academy, and was accident- ally killed on the West Shore Railroad in Newark early on the foggy morning of Novem- ber 3, 1883, while performing his duties as timekeeper and clerk for Ryan & MeDonald contractors. He was a very promising young man and a general favorite every- where. Will W. Greenwood was born April 14, 1870, and is now the manager for the firm of George A. Horn & C., manufacturers of garment fitting machines in Newark. Ile served a term of three years in the Seventh Cavalry U. S. Regular Army and was orderly sergeant at the time of his discharge at Fort Hancock, Texas, in September, 1893. He participated m the fight at Pine Ridge Ageney and two or three days later was wounded in the leg at the battle of Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
JAMES W. DUNWELL.
Tirs ancestors of this sketch have been Americans for five generations.
The first of his father's family to come to this country was an English soldier, who served under General Wolfe in the campaign that terminated with the fall of Quebec. The advent of his mother's ancestors in this country, who came from Holland, antedates the Revolution, during which members of the family bore arms in the army of General Schuyler. Subsequently they settled in Connecticut and in the eastern counties of New York, some of whom migrated later to Western New York. His father's family settled in Wayne and his mother's family in Cayuga county.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
Almerin Dunwell, the father of James W., was born in Sodus, Wayne county, in 1815, and died at Lyons in 1866. He was a mechanic and at different periods of his life pursned the occupations of farmer, manufacturer and contractor. He married Elizabeth H. Storms of Mentz, Cayuga connty, whose death took place at Lyons in 1881. They had two children, Charles T. Dunwell of New York city, a lawyer by profession, and James W. Dunwell, the subject of this sketch.
James W. Dunwell was born at East Newark, Wayne county, N. Y., December 19, 1850. He acquired a good education, beginning in the district schools, later attending the Lyons Union School, and finishing with parts of three years (1869-71) in Cornell University. He left the university in June, 1871, to finish his law studies in the office of Col. Joseph Welling of Lyons. But it must not be inferred that this was the be- ginning of his law studies. He began when he was seventeen years of age in the office of John T. Mackenzie of Lyons, and followed him to New York city when he went thither to become a partner with the late General James W. Husted.
After two years of study with Colonel Welling, succeeding his course in the univer- sity, Mr. Dunwell was admitted to the bar at the General Term in Buffalo in June, 1873. During his studies he had begun to engage in the trial of cases in Justice's Court and to conduct appeals arising in his cases in County Court, his talents as a trial lawyer being thus early developed.
As soon as he was admitted to practice Mr. Dunwell formed a partnership with Colonel Welling, which continued about two years, and with gratifying snecess. Fol- lowing this period he practiced alone about two years and down to the time in 1877 when he became associated with the late Hon. John H. Camp in that harmonious and most successful partnership which closed only with Mr. Camp's death in 1892.
Mr. Dunwell is a trial lawyer. It is in active, spirited litigation, where the stakes are large and the interests great, that he feels most happily situated. For routine office work he has little taste except as it is connected with his litigated cases. With his partner he acted as attorney for the New York Central and West Shore Railroads, and since Mr. Camp's death the legal interests of the R. W. & O. road have been placed in his hands. He has recently acted as attorney for the county of Wayne and village of Lyons in highly important litigation, and is regularly retained by other corporate and individual interests in the territory over which his practice extends. He possesses in a high degree the intuitive faculty for anticipating the course of his opponent in a case and the best plan with which to meet it -- a qualification which, when coupled with his large general knowledge of law, acquired by years of experience in litigation, his thorough preparation, his quick and alert perception of every weak point in his adver- sary's case, and his power in impressing court and jury, render Mr. Dunwell a foeman at the bar by whom it is honorable even to be defeated.
Mr. Dunwell has never held a public office. Not for the reason that he might not if he had so aspired, for he is one of the most efficient and practical workers in the ranks of the Republican party ; but his aim to achieve a high standing in his profession has precluded all thoughts of political preferment. He serves on committees of his party and at conventions with the most delightful facility and with that broad influence that always follows the efforts of those whose single purpose is to promote their party's
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LANDMARKS OF WAYNE COUNTY.
eause. Political jealousy is an unknown sentiment to him, for his party service has always inured incidentally to the upbuilding of the political fortunes of others, without reward to himself except the delight he shares in his friends' prosperity.
He was working in caucuses and speaking at conventions by the time he reached his majority, and he has been at it ever since. As a delegate to county, district, assembly, senatorial and congressional conventions he has served constantly. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Minneapolis in 1892, and at the State Con- vention at Saratoga in 1894. These valuable services his fellow citizens stand ready to reward substantially whenever he will accept public preferment.
Socially, Mr. Dunwell is the courteous gentleman always. Peculiarly outspoken and open in his personal communications with his fellows; fluent and easy in conversation, his words always bear weight and render him an agreeable companion, whether for an hour or a day.
Mr. Dunwell married on May 22, 1873, Mary Ella Groat, daughter of Hon. Richard P. Groat, a prominent citizen of Newark, They have one daughter, born in February, 1870
THE GAYLORD FAMILY.
THIS family traces its ancestry back to the Huguenots who emigrated from France and settled in England. Dr. Levi Gaylord, the first of the family to settle in Wayne county, was a son of Chauncey, who came from Bristol, Conn., and settled at Otisco, N. Y. He was a member of Washington's staff in the Revolution. Dr. Gay- lord was a graduate of Yale, came to Sodus in 1823, and engaged in the practice of medicine. He was known throughout the State as one of the leading Abolitionists and temperance workers of the day. He married first, Dotia Merriman, by whom he had one son, Levi M., who studied medicine and located in Sodus, where he died in 1890. Dr. Gaylord married second; Artimesia Squires. She studied medicine, and for many years enjoyed an extensive practice. Dr. Gaylord died in 1852 and his wife in 1893, aged nearly ninety-five. Their children were Willis T., Charles D., Orrin F., and Dotia C., Artimesia G., Cornelia M. and Sarah S. Dotia married S. P. Hulett ; Artimesia married Dr. Alfred P. Crafts and settled in Wolcott; Cornelia married Prof. S. D. Hillman, of Carlisle, Pa. ; Sarah married a Mr. West of this town ; Willis T. on arriv- ing at manhood became a clerk, and in 1851 engaged in the dry goods trade in Sodus, and throughout his long and successful business career has maintained a reputation for the utmost integrity. He is a prominent member and officer of the Presbyterian church, with which he has been identified over forty years. He married first Elizabeth Landon, and had two children : Carlton D. and Elizabethi HI. In 1864 he married second Mary Preston, by whom he had three children, only Willis T. surviving. Charles D. Gaylord moved to Lyons on arriving at manhood, where he held a clerkship. In 1855 he went to Milwaukee, where until 1861 he conducted a hardware business. Returning to Sodus he engaged in the same line until 1881, when he retired and was succeeded by
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
his son, Frank D. In that year, with S. P. Hulett, he established the banking house of Hulett & Gaylord, which partnership was severed by the death of Mr. Hulett in 1884, and Mr. Gaylord has since continued the business alone. He was supervisor in 1876, is a member of Sodus Lodge No. 392, F. & A. M., and of Wayne Chapter, and also belongs to the R. T. of T., and has been a prominent member and officer of the Presby- terian church for over twenty years. In 1857 he married Jennie R. Gaylord of Lima, and their children are: Frank D., Charles W. and Dora T. Orrin T. Gaylord settled in Oswego and was a partner for several years with Irwin Sloane & Co., and later a mem- ber of the firm of Gaylord, Downey & Co., extensive grain dealers of that city.
LAMOTT M. BLAKELY.
LAMOTT M. BLAKELY, mayor of the village of Lyons, was born in Perry, Wyoming county, N. Y., November 19, 1828. His father, Jason. Blakely, a native of Vermont, settled on a farm in that county about 1816, and died there. [ Ezra Blakely, the father of Jason, was a Revolutionary soldier and lived and died in Manchester, Vt. Jason married Mary Ward, the daughter of a veteran of the Revolution; her mother, a Miss Butler, was a cousin of the late Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts. Mrs. Blakely died in Lyons April 22, 1879.
Lamott M. Blakely obtained his education in the district schools of his native county and in Honeoye and Richmond Mills in Ontario county, finishing in the academy at East Bloomfield under that celebrated instructor, Professor Clark, author of Clark's Gram- mar, etc. He inherited the Scotch characteristics of his father and the English stability of his mother, which, combined, make one of the strongest individualities known in human nature. In 1848 Mr. Blakely came to Lyons, but soon afterward went to Iowa and Illinois, where he engaged extensively in the lumber trade, becoming a heavy shipper from various places on the Mississippi River in Iowa to all points below St. Joseph on the Missouri. He continued the northwestern lumber enterprises until the breaking out of the Rebellion, which closed all traffic for the time on the Missouri River. The business brought him into wide prominence and into contact with representatives of immense interests everywhere. In 1862 he was sent as a delegate to the Iowa Republican State Convention at Des Moines. In 1864 he settled in Lyons, where he has ever since main- tained a legal residence. .
Ilis great activity craved broader fields of operation, and at the close of the Civil war he engaged in the cotton business at Atlanta, Ga., where he handled large quantities of that produet. From 1866 to 1870 he also carried on the trade at Washington, N. C., and at other places, including Newbern and Greenville. At one time he handled a large portion of all the cotton received at those points. In the meantime he resumed the lumber business and soon became one of the largest operators in the South, the principal varieties handled being pine, juniper, and cypress. These operations extended over a period of nearly twenty years, and brought him into personal contact with all the lead- ing men of the time. Georgetown, S. C., and Washington and Newbern, N. C., were
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the principal seats of these enterprises, which extended many miles inland. No man sustained a better or a wider reputation throughout the States of North and South Carolina and Georgia. His name became almost a household word, and his integrity and responsibility were never questioned. He won the good will and profound respect of every southern family and still counts many of their members on his long list of warmest friends. He disbursed hundreds of thousands of dollars among the inhabitants, and generously performed and received many acts of kindness. Scarcely a southerner passes through Lyons without halting for a visit to their old-time friend and co-laborer. His great business ability, his universal popularity, his steadfastness and unswerving integrity, his irreproachable character, his uniform kindness and liberahty, hts gemal temperament and rare social qualities are both recognized and remembered, and are cherished in the hearts of thousands of people in every station in life.
In 1888 Mr. Blakely rebuilt his house in Lyons into the present handsome residence, and since then has made that village his permanent home. He has during these few years taken a deep and active interest in public affairs and always lends his influence in promoting every good movement. His southern life compelled him, in a measure, to avoid political preferment, yet he staunchly maintained principles of right and ever possessed the courage of his convictions. In the village of his residence, however, he has freely mingled in politics, and being a Republican has served his townsmen in various positions of responsibility. In 1892 he was an alternate delegate to the National Republican Convention at Minneapolis, and has served two years as village trustee. In March, 1894, he was elected mayor of Lyons, an office be now holds. His administra- tion has been characterized by many publie improvements and the economical expendi- ture of money. Mr. Blakely is a vestryman in Grace Church, and in the broadest sense of the word a highly respected, progressive and public-spirited citizen.
DE WITT W. PARSHALL.
HON. DE WITT W. PARHSALL was born at Palmyra, March 23, 1812. His father. Nathan Parshall, of French origin, and a descendant of the Huguenots, was a native of Orange county, from whence he removed to Palmyra in 1790. In 1806 he married Mary Ann, daughter of James Galloway, a native of New York city, who had also re- moved to Palmyra with his family about 1790. Of this marriage were born four chil- dren, who hved to mature age, Elizabeth, the late Mrs. Cullen Foster, of Lyons; De Witt; Hendee, who still resides on the old family homestead at Palmyra ; and Schuyler, now a resident of Alabama. De Witt after a few terms at the Canandaigua Academy, where for a time he was a class and roommate of Stephen A. Douglass. chose the law as a profession, and entered at Lyons the law office of the late General William H. Adams. Young Parshall industriously pursued his law studies, and was admitted to the bar in 1838, having, since leaving his father's house and including his attendance at the academy, entirely supported himself by his own exertions. Teaching, surveymg, writing at odd spells in the county clerk's office, etc., were the means by which he met
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his living expenses. He first started a law office on his own account at Lyons; but in 1839 formed a law partnership with the late Judge Theron R. Strong, of Pahnyra and removed to that village, In 1840, feeling that he could make for himself a better field at the county seat, at his own request the partnership with Judge Strong was dissolved, and he returned to Lyons, where he has since remained. In addition to his law prac- tice he soon became extensively engaged in real estate, and down to the present time has continued to be the most extensive dealer in and owner of real estate in his county, the village of Lyons owing mnuch of its prosperity to his enterprise and public spirit. Iu 1852 he started " The Palmyra Bank of Lyons," in 1854 changed its name to " The Lyons Bank ; " and again in 1865, converted it into "The Lyons National Bank," under which name it is now enjoying a large and successful business. In April, 1838, Mr. Parshall married Susan Hecox, a lady of rare intellectual and moral excellence. Mr. and Mrs. Parshall have had three children : Henry, who died at the age of thirty-five, leaving a wife and three children ; De Witt, who died at the age of twenty-five; and Catherine, now Mrs. D. S. Chamberlin. Mr. Parshall has served as supervisor of the town. president of the village, and in 1868 represented the first Assembly district of Wayne county in the Assembly. He died in May, 1880.
BYRAM GREEN,
HON. BYRAM GREEN was born in Windsor, Vt., April 15, 1786. This family of Greens emigrated to America in 1638. Byram being a descendant of the early Plym- onth colonists of that name, one of whom was Samuel Green, who in the seventeenth century was a successor of Steven Day in the first printing establishment introduced into the colony. His father emigrated from Plymouth county to Windsor on the Green Mountains, became a farmer and held the office of selectman for many years. In 1800 he moved to Williamstown to educate his children. He was captain of a company in the Revolution, in which war he served until the surrender of Cornwallis. He was offered a pension, but declined it. Hon. Byram Green entered Williams College in his eighteenth year and graduated in 1808. After leaving college he studied for the minis- try at Andover, preached for a time, but owing to his ill health was compelled to give up the ministry, and accompanied by his brother, Dr. Joseph Green, he went to the island of Beaufort, S. C., in 1810, where he taught in the Beaufort College for one term, when he resigned (declining a brilliant offer to stay), and with his brother embarked for Western New York. The brothers finally decided to settle in Sodus and while their log house was building, made their home in a buttonwood log that measured seven feet at the base. In these days they endured the hardships incident to those early times. but were energetic and prospered. In 1827 Judge Green helped to draw the timber for the first Presbyterian clmurch in that region, and he and family were faithful attendants thereafter. In 1812, during the war with Great Britain, he engaged in a skirmish at Sodus Point at the time it was burned but escaped uninjured. He was supervisor of Sodus in 1827-40-42, assessor in 1813, juetice of the peace in 1827, school commissioner
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