USA > New York > Wayne County > Landmarks of Wayne County, New York, Pt. 2 & 3 > Part 9
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Van Duser, Sylvester B., was born at Fairville, October 1, 1846. His early hfe was spent in his father's mill and on the farm, and received his education from the public schools. In 1863 he enlisted in Company F, Second Mounted Rifles, N. Y. Volunteers, and was mnstered into service February 4. 1864. He participated in all the engage- ments from Spottsylvania Court House to the siege of Petersburg, and was honorably discharged at Buffalo, August 10, 1865. He is a member of Vosburg Post No. 99, G. A. R., department of New York, and has held the position of commander three years, and was re-elected to the office of chaplain last December. Upon his return from the army in the fall and winter of 1865-66 he attended Marion Academy, and then occu- pied the position of clerk for E. P. Soverhill and for Soverhill & Nicholoy. February 22, 1872, Mr. Van Duser purchased E. P. Soverhill's interest and a copartnership was formed with W. H. Nicholoy, under the firm name of Nicholoy & Van Duser. This continued twenty years, when Mr. Van Duser purchased Mr. Nicholoy's interest and is conducting the general dry goods business on his own account with success. January 2, 1872, he married Ellen A. Eddy, of Taunton; Mass., and they had six children : S. Eddy, died in infancy, Sylvester B., jr., Orville B., Elizabeth E., Douglas II., and G. Rhodes. Mr. Van Duser's father, Robert Van Duser, was born February 9, 1821. For the greater part of his life he was a miller, but later took up farming. September 22, 1840, he married Phebe Rose of the town of Arcadia, and to them the following chil- dren were born : Elizabeth, Frances A., Sylvester B. (as noted above), Charles E., Emma C., Robert A., and Hiram A. Mr. Van Duser died March 16, 1882, but his wife is still living. Mr. Saul Eddy was born in Taunton, Mass., February 16, 1819. He was educated in the common schools of his town and then learned the mechanics' trade. His wife was Abby Clark, of Taunton, and the following children were born to them : Kinma C., Abby A., Ellen A. (above noted), and Alice E. Mrs. Eddy died in 1857; her husband sarvives and resides at the old home. Mr. Sylvester Van Duser is an of- ficial member of the M. E. church and one of its trustees. Mrs. Van Dnser is a mem- ber of the Baptist church.
Van Valkenburg, C. F., was born at Victory, Cayuga county, November 6, 1848. When eighteen years of age he learned the jeweler's trade at Port Byron, and in 1869 established himself at. Red Creek, where he remained five years. In 1874 he came to Wolcott as a partner for six years with W. D. Campbell, and in 1880 established an in- dependent business, now conducted by his son Lee. September 1, 1874, he married Alida Williams, of Red Creek, and they have two children: Lee, born July 14, 1875, and Genevieve, born July 4, 1878. Mr. Van Valkenburg was appointed postmaster of Wolcott, April 1, 1894.
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Veeder, Major A., A.M., M. D., was born at Ashtabula, O., November 2, 1848, lived at Schenectady, N. Y., from 1850 to 1871, graduating from the classical department of the I'nion School in that city in 1866, and from Union College in 1870, was principal of Ives Seminary at Antwerp N. Y. several years. Studied in Leipzig University, Ger- many, and graduated in medieine from the Medical Department of the University of Buffalo in 1883, then entered upon general practice at Lyons, N. Y., for three years in association with Dr. E. W. Bottom and subsequently alone. Dr. Veeder is a member in good standing of the Wayne County and Central New York Societies and has read and published many papers upon medical topics. He is also a member of the American So- ciety of Microscopists and has been employed as an expert to give evidence of this class in medico-legal and other cases. He was one of the earliest investigators to adduce positive evidence that freezing does not purify water from the presence of living mi- croscopic orgamsms, a point whose importa nee has since come to be very generally recognized. His contributions to Sanitary Science have won for him recognition, and he has recently been honored by a request to prepare a paper to be read at the Inter- national Congress of Hygiene and Demography to be held at Buda Pesth, Austria, Since 1887 he has been a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has presented to that body the results of his own original researches respecting certain phases of meteorologieal seience, which are beginning to attract wide spread at- tention. These results have been set forth somewhat in detail in a series of papers which he read before the Rochester (N. Y.) Academy of Science and which have been publish- ed by that institution, entitled "The Forces Concerned in the Development of Storms," "Thunderstorms," "The Aurora" and "The Zodiacal Light." As the result of the interest . aroused by these and other articles, he was invited to prepare papers which were presented at the International Congress of Meteorology held at Chicago in 1893 on the following topics, "Periodic and Non-periodic Fluctuation in the Latitude of Storm Tracks" and "An International Cypher Code for Correspondence respecting the Aurora and Related Conditions." These researches have led to the organization of a system of concerted observatories of the anrora in which the Aretie explorers, Lieut. Perry and Dr. Nansen, are co-operating with observers scattered throughout every part of the earth where this phenomenon is en- countered at all. The results of these organized efforts have been to establish an appar- ent relation of the aurora, not only to the disturbances of the earth's magnetism with which it has long been known to be associated, but also to thunderstorms, and to certain very definite solar conditions in a manner not heretofore suspected. If these results, which now seem highly probable, are verified completely by the earnest efforts being made to that end, it will revolutionize meteorology absolutely. In connection with the studies above indicated Dr. Veeder has become a contributor to many journals both in this and other countries and has entered into active correspondence with investigators connected with various societies and institutions in all parts of the earth. He is also a member of the Holland Society of New York, whose members are required to be de- scendants in the direct line of Hollanders who came to this country previons to 1675, he being a descendant at the eighth generation of Simon Volkertse Veeder, who was purser of the slip Prince Maurice of the Dutch navy, and who settled in New Amster- dam (now New York) in 1644, and who was a member of the pioneer party who went from Beaverwyek (now Albany) in 1662, for the purpose of founding what subsequent- ly became the city of Schenectady. Dr. Veeder at the age of twenty-four married Mary E., daughter of Peleg Wood of Schenectady, and they have four children, Albert F., Willard 11., Sarah E., and Martha A. Veeder.
Vroomnn, W. R., D. D.S., was born in Dixon, Ill., December 5, 1858, where his father, S. A. Vrooman, was engaged in the mercantile business. He is a direct descendant of the old Knickerbocker stock, amongst whom were the several Vrooman brothers who came from Holland to the United States and settled in the Mohawk Valley about 1760. At an early age he removed to Canada where he was educated at St. Catharine's
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Collegiate Institute and Toronto University ; and, graduating from Toronto Normal School, taught for a number of years in Ontario snecessfully, also a graduate of the Dental Department of Toronto University, member of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons and honor graduate of the Pennsylvania College Dental Surgery, receiving the honors of his class of 300 members. In 1888 he came to Clyde and estabhshed him- self in his profession in which he is actively engaged. At the age of thirty-two he married Jessie B., danghter of the late Hon. J. S. L'Amoreanx, of Clyde. They are the parents of one daughter, Marjorie Roselle. Thoroughly scientific in his attainments, he employs nothing but the latest and most scientific methods in his profession. A close student and lover of science, he is now pursuing a course of medical studies in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from which institution he expects to graduate at an early date. He is promi .. ently identified with the Masonic order, being a member of Clyde Lodge, F. & A. M., Griswold Chapter, R. A. M., and Zenobia Commandery Knights Templar of Pahyra, N. Y. .
Van Etten, J. W., was born in Lyons, March 11, 1833. His father, Cornelius W., was a native of Sussex, N. J., and removed to the town of Wolcott in 1835. He died in the prime of manhood at the age of thirty-five. His wife, Esther, daughter of Jacob Westbrook, of Sussex county, N. J., and four children were left: Margaret, Henry, John W., and Mary J., of whom John W. is the sole survivor. He was educated in the common schools, the Lyons Union School, and took business conrse at the Bryant & Stratton College at Buffalo, graduating in 1856, after which he read law with William Clark of Lyons, and was admitted to the bar in 1862, and subsequently admitted to the United States District Court as attorney and counsellor thereof. At the age of thirty- seven he married Sarah, daughter of George S. Zeilley, of Fort Plain. Subject is and always has been a Republican, and was appointed postmaster at Lyons, N. Y., in August, 1869, holding the office to February, 1879, also takes an active interest in edu- cational and religious matters. He is identified in advancing the best interests of his town, and is of conservative character and recognized worth.
Vanalstine, II. C .. is the son of John J., who was a very prominent man in this vicinity, holding for a period of thirty-five years the position of justice of the peace. Ile died in 1891, leaving a family of seven children, of whom only Henry and Jesse are now in Wayne county. Henry was well known as a builder for twenty-five years, and more recently as the proprietor of the Red Creek Hotel, purchased and converted from the Hotel Wood in 1883. Mrs. Vanalstine was before her marriage Cordelia Bogert, a daughter of Sammel Mason, of Manchester, Ontario county, N. Y., and has one daughter, Mary C. Bogert, now the wife of George Cairns, of Colorado Springs. Cordelia Bogert was widowed May 19, 1874, and five years later became the wife of Henry Vanalstine. Their hotel is headquarters for traveling men in Red Creek, and is justly renowned for the excellence of its cuisine, which is under the personal super- vision of Mrs. Vanalstine.
Van Der Veer, H. E. - The subject of this sketch is of Holland descent and traces the genealogy of his family for seven generations to Cornelins Jans Van Der Veer, who emigrated in the ship Otter in the spring of 1659 from the province of Alkmeer, Hol- land, and settled in Flatbush, Kings county, N. Y., and was the ancestor of the Van Der Veer family of New Jersey and Long Island. The grandfather of our subjeet was Garrett Van Der Veer, a native of New Jersey, born in 1765, who married Rachael Covenhoven, a native of Monmouth county, N. J., on whose father's farm the battle of Monmouth, of Revolutionary fame, was fought, when she, with others of the family, off'ered their help by furnishing water, and other offers of kindness during the battle and after it was over. Garrett Van Der Veer, the father, was born in Montgomery county, May 9, 1813. married Mary Allen, who was born June 4, 1814, removed to Wayne county in 1817, and settled at Marion. She died December 1, 1890. Mr. Van Der Veer has devoted much of his time in later years to the manufacture of machines of
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his own invention, for packing evaporated apples. He also kept a temperance hotel at Marion for several years. Henry E. Van Der Veer, the only child, was born in Mont- gomery county, April 27, 1843, was reared in the village of Marion, where he received his education at the Marion Collegiate Institute. At an early age he commenced busi- ness as clerk for F. & J. B. Reeves, which he followed in that place and Palmyra He was also clerk daring the war in the commissary department at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, and also traded and acted as clerk for Indian traders in Sonthem Kansas and Indian Territory. In 1866 he returned to Marion and engaged in the drug business for himself. In 1873 he removed to Ontario, where he has since conducted a successful business. He is a Democrat, and was appointed postmaster in 1893. He is a member of Wayne Lodge No. 416, F. & A. M., also of Cyrene Tent No. 203, K. O. T. M., in both of which he holds positions of honor. February 22, 1870, he married Ammette 1 .. , daughter of Jonathan and Clarissa (Jennings) Pratt, who were among the first settlers of the town of Williamson. Mr. Pratt settled in the northwest corner of the town of Wilhamson in IS11, where he became one of the largest land owners m the town. They reared a large family, and the oldest son, Aaron W., was the second male white child born in Williamson. In 1841 he sailed on a whaling ship under Captam Roise, and was on board the ship that first discovered the northwest whaling grounds. Another son. William W., was a whaler and merchant man for forty years. Of a large family that grew to maturity, none remained on the land for which their ancestors endured the vicissitudes of pioneer life.
Willoughby, S. E., was born in the city of St. Albans, near London, England, April 18, 1826, came to Clyde from London in 1848, and having learned the painter's trade, established the same business in Clyde, the firm in London keeping the position open for him if he should determine to return to England. For forty years the house has been the leading decorators in Wayne county, and is now carrying a large and fine stock of wall paper and house furnishing goods. At the age of twenty-four, subject married Mapelet, daughter of Jeremiah Finck. He is one of the oldest merchants in the town, taking an active interest in educational and religions matters.
Wells, Hon. E. B., was born in Prattsburg, Stenben county, April 22, 1834. His fathe, Ira Wells, was a manufacturer of fanning mills, and was one of the best known residents of Stenben and Wayne counties. He married Miss Pamchia Taylor, danghter of Elijah Taylor, and they were the parents of seven children, who lived to mature age. Mr. Ira Wells died in 1882 at the age of eighty-seven. E. B. Wells, after leaving school, learned the marble cutter's trade, and in 1855 went into business in Cherry Valley, N. Y. Hle afterward sold ont his business there, went to Fort Plain, N. Y., and in 1860 came to Clyde and established his present business as dealer in granite and marble cemetery work. He handles both imported and domestic stock and has required a well-deserved repuatation for fine work. At the age of thirty-two he mar- ried Miss Alice C. Gregory, daughter of Aaron Gregory, formerly of Mexico, Oswego county, N. Y. Mr. Wells has been very prominent in public affairs, having been post- master for two terms, supervisor for three years, and member of assembly two terms, 1872-1873.
Williams, Samuel, is a citizen of more than ordinary ability and prominence. Hle was born July 10, 1833, at Copake, Columbia connty, and his parents were Thomas and Polly Williams, both deceased. He lived at his birthplace until twenty-three years of years of age, received a good common school education, and after engaging in the grocery business at South Butler for several years, located in 1861 on a farm of 200 acres, five miles northwest of Savannah, and upon which he has erected an elegant residence. February 23, 1859, he married Henrietta, daughter of John and Polly Gor- ham, of South Butler, N. Y., and they had these children : Anna, born December 12, 1859, and wife of Millard Miller of South Butler; John G., born February 20, 1862,
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now operating the homestead farm. He married, Angust 20, 1893, Minnie Shoecraft of Butler ; George R., born August 19, 1864, now engaged in hardware business at Butler ; Mary E., born April 16, 1867; and Hattie, born February 6, 1874, died June 19, 1884.
Whitman, Irving A., was born in Lyons July 20, 1865. His father, William, also of Lyons, with HI. S. Moor, now deceased, established a drug business in 1863, and was one of the prominent business men of his town. Irvin A. was educated in the Lyons Union School. Taking up the study of stenography and typewriting, he served under Hon. George W. Cowles when surrogate, and afterwards entered the law office of Camp & Dunwell, and was private secretary to Hon. J. H. Camp for four years. While there he made the study of pension and war claims a specialty, and the first elaim prose- cuted was granted by the Bureau of Pensions, and which commenced payment July 20, 1865, the day, month and vear of his birth. He has achieved a success that is recog- mized throughout the United States, practicing in the bureau of pensions, the patent department and the treasury department. He also has been notary public for the past six years. In 1884 he invented an automatic freight car coupling device, which was patented July 21, 1885, and was submitted to a severe test by the Master Car Builders Association in September, 1885, at Buffalo, which was successful in meeting all re- quirements, In June, 1886, it was tested before the railroad commissioners at Albany and was again successful. At the age of twenty-three he married Mary Ellen, dangh- ter of Garrett Flavahan, of Lyons, and they have three sons; Stewart C., Irvin V., and Burnard C.
Wood, Charles, was born in Butler, June 25, 1838. His father, Horatio N. Wood, a native of Orange county, came to Wayne county in 1821 and died in 1861, aged fifty - eight years. He was a prominent farmer in his town, which he represented several years on the Board of Supervisors. Charles was edneated in the common schools, and finished at Red Creek Academy and Falley Seminary at Fulton, N. Y., afterwards coming to Savannah, where he established his present business of lumber, coal and grain, potatoes, apples, etc., of which he handles large quantities. He is a Democrat, and was elected supervisor from 1872 to 1875. At the age of twenty-eight he married Louise C. Bell, daughter of Charles Bell, of Jordan, Onondaga county, by whom he has three children : Charles H., of Syraense; Helen Mabel, a graduate of Syracuse Uni- versity, and at present a teacher in Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Pa,; and Marielle Ruth, a student at the same institution.
Whitlock, Levi J., was born in Lyons December 3, 1855. His father, Benjamin, was also a native of Lyons. The family came from Orange county in 1814, and bought the Peter Van Etten property. Benjamin married at the age of twenty-one, Jane, dangh- ter of Philip Swartwout of Orange county. Levi J. was educated at the Lyons Union School, after which he returned to his father's farm. At the age of twenty he married Grace, daughter of Cornelius Cuddeback, of Phelps, and they are the parents of four children, Cornelius A., Neva C., Hope and Grace. Our subject is now occupying the old Whitlock homestead, which has been in the family eighty years, raising hay, grain and stock and making a specialty of pure Jersey butter, and was one of the first to introduce the enstom of dehorning cattle (in Wayne county). The subject is an active energetic man, identified in advancing the best interests of the town.
Willits, E. D., born in Ontario, August 11, 1843, is a son of Jonathan and Hannah (Knowles) Willits, he is a native of Farmington, Ontario county, and she of Albany county, N. Y. The grandparents came from New Jersey to New York and settled in Ontario connty, where the grandfather died. The grandmother then came and lived with her son, Jonathan, in Ontario. Jonathan came to Ontario when a young man and purchased a farm, part of which subjeet now owns. Mr. Willits resided on this farm over fifty years. He was a Republican in politics, and in religion was a Friend. He
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died 1880, and his wife, 1878. E. D. was reared on the farm and educated at the com- mon and select schools. He has for twenty-six years followed teaching winters and worked his farm summers. He is engaged in fruit growing, having a general variety of fruits. His wife is Sarah (Allen) Willits, whom he married February 18, 1869. She . was a daughter of Freeman and Betsey Allen, of Ontario. In polities Mr. Willits is a Republican, has been justice sixteen years, justice of sessions sixteen years, and is now notary public. At present he is supervisor of Ontario. He is a member of the G. A. R., M. M. Fish Post, No. 406. In religion Mr. Willits is a liberal Christian.
Woodhams, R. A., was a native of England, born December 11, 1835, and came with his parents to America in 1850, and settled in Ontario, Wayne county, near Furnaceville. When they came to America the family consisted of Mr. Walter Woodhams, his wife Francis (Walters) Woodhams, and three sons and four daughters. They removed from Furunceville to the Ridge on the farm now owned by Mr. Howk, where they resided till his death, December 27, 1878. His first wife died in June, 1873, and he married in 1875, Hannah Hutson, who now resides with our subject. He and wife were Wesleyan Methodists, and a son, Roland, is a presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal church, and resides at Bay City, Mich. Walter Woodhams was a member of the Stli New York Cavalry, and was killed near Harper's Ferry in 1864. Subject commenced as a farm hand when about fifteen years of age, and has been very successful. He now owns three hundred aeres in Ontario, where he lives retired. He married in 1862 Dorcas C. Sahin, born April 13, 1837. She is a daughter of II. M. Sabin, a native of Connecticut, who came with his parents Samuel and Elizabeth (Gleason) Sabin, settled in Macedon and then in Ontario, where he died December 19, 1832, and his wife in 1846. Mr. and Mrs. Woodhams have no children, but reared an adopted son and daughter, George and Lizzie, who is the wife of C. E. Pound. Mr. Woodhams in early life was engaged in teaching. Her mother was Mary Ann, daughter of Isaac Hodges, one of the pioneers of Ontario. In politics Mr. Woodhams is a Republican, and is a member of the South Shore Grange, No. 513.
Winspear, Charles W .. was born in Elma, Erie county, July 6, 1856, was educated in the public schools and reared on a farm. January 1, 1877, he was appointed clerk in the Erie County Alins House and Insane Asylum, and at the expiration of a year was promoted to the position of deputy keeper, which office he held sixteen years, during ten of which he was a special agent for the State Board of Charities. In 1893 he re- signed these positions to accept the superintendency of the New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble Minded Women, nt Newark. In polities he is a Democrat, and is a member of Washington Lodge, No. 240, of Buffalo, F. and A. M., and is also a mem- ber of the Acacia Club (Masonic), and the Audubon Shooting. Club, of Buffalo. His wife, Gertrude E, is a native of Lancaster, Erie county, where she had a large expe- rience in teaching. She has the distinction of having passed with the highest percent- age over all contestants in the examination in the higher grammar grades in the public schools of Buffalo.
Weed, Luther, born in Galen, on the homestead, in 1835, son of Selleck Weed, a na- tive of Connecticut, whose father was Abram, a lumber manufacturer in Washington county, who was accidentally killed in his mill by a cake of ice falling on him. Selleck came to Galena in 1812, and married Temperance Owens. Their children were: Lu- cinda, Selleck, Lydia, Ann, Rhoda, Harry, Benjamin, Lewis and Luther. In 1853 onr subject purchased a farm in Oneida county, and two years later returned to Galen, where he conducted the homestead farm until 1865, when he came to Huron, where he has since resided. In 1853 he married Catharine, daughter of John and Catharine Wit- beek, born in Columbia county, in 1835. Their children are : Charles R., Ella (de- ceased), Stella, wife of Mortimer Cox, of Wolcott; and Cora, wife of Charles H. Wood- ruff, of Huron. Mr. and Mrs. Weed have two grandchildren, Bertha E. Weed and Harry (Weed) Woodruff. Subject is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and has
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served as commissioner of highways, and he and wife are members of the Huron Grange, which was organized in their house in 1873.
Wheeler, Justus J., was born upon the site of his present home, October 24, 1834. He is one of a family of five children, of whom only himself and one sister now sur- vive. His mother, Clara, died in 1857, and his father, Willard, two years later. Justns, until about forty years of age, was a carpenter and joiner, but has for twenty-one years devoted himself to the culture of the old homestead purchased in 1872. July 11, 1864, he married Alice, daughter of Elisha and Jey Woodruff, of Frankfort, Herkimer county, N. Y. Alice was born Mareh 4, 1848. They have two children, Jennie, born September 21, 1865, and Claude J., born May 30, 1872. Jennie was engaged for sev- eral years in teaching school, until July 2, 1893, when she married Andy W. Whitbeck, of Savannah, N. Y. Clande, also a school teacher, is now at home engaged in farming and the evaporation of fruits. Having developed considerable mechanical gemus, in 1893, he secured a patent upon a fruit bleacher of his own invention and construction, which has proved to be of peculiar merit.
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