USA > New York > Erie County > Memorial and family history of Erie County, New York, Volume I > Part 14
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Col. Weber is the author of many reports and special articles dealing principally with canal and immigration questions. He is a member of the G. A. R. and the Loyal Legion. He is a Mason, member and former President and Treasurer of the Ellicott Club, and a life member of the Young Men's Association.
January 7, 1864, Col. Weber married Elizabeth J. Farthing,
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daughter of James and Christina Farthing of Buffalo. The surviving children of the union are: Mary F. (Mrs. Howard O. Cobb); Elizabeth H. (Mrs. G. L. Carden); Jean B. (Mrs. F. M. Brinker); Miss Laura C. Weber and Ethel G. (Mrs. Edward Meinel). Mrs. Weber died in 1900.
JOHN J. McWILLIAMS is one of the most substantial busi- ness men of Buffalo. He is, moreover, a citizen deserving of distinguished credit for his useful services in many matters of high public importance, the range of his activities including municipal, benevolent and social concerns.
The McWilliams family is of Scotch origin. The founder of its American branch was John McWilliams, who was born in Scotland, came to this country at a period near the Revolution, and settled in Long Island, afterward removing to Scotchitown, N. Y. The wife of John McWilliams was Sally Haffee. Their son, Andrew, the grandfather of John J. McWilliams of Buffalo, was born at Scotchtown, March 5, 1778, and died March 8, 1839. His wife was Mary Jagger, who was born September 20, 1779, and died April 9, 1845. Their children were: Sarah Haffee, David Jagger, Mary Millington, John, James, Henry, Andrew S., Isabella, Ann Atwater, Nancy Jane, and Elizabeth.
John McWilliams, the father of John J. McWilliams, was born in Orange County, N. Y. He was a railroad man by occu- pation, and at the time of his death, November 14, 1881, was a resident of Buffalo. He married Susan Ann Wilkin, a daughter of Daniel and Marion Elizabeth (Rose) Wilkin. The family of Susan Ann Wilkin came from Montgomery County, N. Y., and several of its members participated in the Revolution. Her ancestry may be traced back to the time of Cromwell.
John James McWilliams was born at Cornwall on the Hudson June 16, 1842. He was educated in Elmira, N. Y., and at the State Normal School at Albany. For some time after finishing his studies Mr. McWilliams taught school in Elmira. In 1869 he came to Buffalo and obtained employment in the coal depart-
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ment of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company. This was the beginning of a long business connec- tion, notable on one side for efficient and reliable service, and on the other for satisfaction with Mr. McWilliams' capability and with the results achieved by him. After continuing for a considerable period in the coal department of the Delaware & Lackawanna, Mr. McWilliams became Western sales agent for the company, in which responsible position he remained until his voluntary retirement in 1903, since which event he has devoted himself to his large invested and manufacturing interests. Besides his functions as President of the Niagara Cordage Company and President of the Niagara Lithograph Company, Mr. McWilliams is President of the Provident Loan Company, President of the Christian Homestead Association, and a trustee of the Erie County Savings Bank.
In politics Mr. McWilliams is a Republican. In 1905 he served as Chairman of the Civil Service Board, and has given much valuable time and effort to the cause.
Mr. McWilliams is among the foremost officials and workers of the Buffalo Y. M. C. A. He has been a trustee of the organiza- tion for years, and he is at present also its Treasurer. The philanthropic activities of Mr. McWilliams are of wide scope. He is a willing giver, both of money and work. Much of his time is spent in dealing with the needs of the charities which demand his attention, and Buffalo benevolences owe much to his munificence and to his sound advice in practical questions. Among the social and other organizations with which Mr. McWilliams is connected may be mentioned the Buffalo, Ellicott and Republican clubs. He is a member of the Buffalo Historical Society, and is one of its managers. He has for many years been a trustee of the First Congregational Church, and is Vice-President of the Buffalo Orphan Asylum.
Mr. McWilliams married Esther Keeler, daughter of Philander Norton of Elmira, N. Y. Mrs. McWilliams is a descendant of William Norton, whose family settled in Salem,
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Connecticut, in 1628, several members of a later generation serving in the Revolutionary War. Mrs. McWilliams is in sympathetic and earnest accord with her husband in his philan- thropic work. She is officially identified with several benevolent organizations and is unwearied in her devotion to their interests. The children of Mr. and Mrs. McWilliams are two, S. N., and Mary. Mary, the daughter, is the wife of Horace Reed, who is Treasurer and General Manager of the Niagara Lithograph Company. They have three children, John McWilliams, Horace Wasson and Carl Norton.
S. N. McWILLIAMS, son of John J. McWilliams, was born in Buffalo March 17th, 1871. He was educated at the Buffalo High School and at Princeton University, graduating from the latter in the class of '94.
After leaving college Mr. McWilliams became connected with the coal department of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. He then became Treasurer of the Niagara Cordage Company, a thriving enterprise established in 1903, and he has since continued to hold that position. The company was organ- ized to supply the needs and obtain the advantages of a manifest opportunity in the field of local manufactures. The venture has been amply justified by results. The concern at present employs forty people; its output is large and its patronage steadily increasing.
September 29, 1896, Mr. McWilliams married Miss Mabel L. Johnson, a daughter of Walter L. and Susan Elizabeth Whit- comb Johnson, the bride belonging to a very old and distin- guished New England family. The children of the marriage are: Esther Elizabeth, Mabel Leetta, Georgiana, and John James McWilliams.
Mr. McWilliams is prominent in club life. He is a member of the University Club, the Oakfield Club, the Princeton Club of New York, and the Tiger Inn Club at Princeton University.
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CARL AUGUSTUS STRANGMANN, President of the German-American Brewing Company, and well-known in busi- ness circles in Buffalo and throughout the State, is a man who has been able to combine success in life with those pursuits which mark the individual of culture. Mr. Strangmann is thor- oughly practical, but with him enterprise has always gone hand in hand with love of learning. In a busy career he has found time to lay up a store of knowledge which enrolls him in the ranks of scholars. He is an ardent student of literature and social and economic ques- tions, and he possesses one of the finest private libraries in Buffalo.
Mr. Strangmanu comes of one of the oldest Ger- man families, his ances- tors having lived for at least three hundred years in North Germany. Henry Strangmann, the great- grandfather of Carl A. Strangmann, resided at Wagenfeld in Hanover CARL A. STRANGMANN. and was by occupation a farmer. Henry Strangmann's son, Henry C., and the latter's son, Carl A., father of the subject of this sketch, were both born on the same estate at Wagenfeld.
On the mother's side Mr. Strangmann is descended from the Portner family, who live at Rahden, in Westphalia, not far from Wagenfeld in Hanover. Col. Hermann Portner, Mr. Strangmann's maternal grandfather, was an officer in the Prussian army, and served under Marshal Blucher in the last campaign against Napoleon. Col. Portner distinguished himself
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at the battle of Waterloo, and as a reward the King of Prussia decreed that all of his sons should be educated at the expense of the Government. In addition the King decorated him with a military order of high grade. After the war, Col. Portner occu- pied a judicial position in the Prussian kingdom. He died in 1850.
The senior Carl A. Strangmann was born in Wagenfeld, Han- over, in 1817. In his youth he came to America, settling in New York City in 1835. Here he remained ten years, returning in 1845 to the old country. While in New York he was a manu- facturer of furniture, and was also one of the pioneer sugar refiners of New York City. Upon his return to Saxony he mar- ried Augusta Portner, daughter of Col. Hermann Portner. Mrs. Strangmann was unwilling to cross the Atlantic, and so the couple remained in Rahden.
Their son, Carl A. Strangmann, Jr., was born in Rahden in May, 1860. Until he was twelve years old he attended elemen- tary schools, and later studied at a college preparatory school. Coming to this country in 1875 the youth first worked for a year as a grocery clerk in New York City. He then went to Alexandria, Va., where his uncle, Robert Portner, owned a brewery. Here the young man learned the brewing business, and in 1883 he was made manager of the concern, a position which he filled until 1895. He then went to Cleveland, where he engaged in brewing, having Mr. John M. Leicht for his partner. In 1899 the industry was absorbed by a syndicate, and in 1900 Mr. Strangmann removed to Buffalo, where he purchased a controlling interest in the German-American Brewing Company. Under his guidance the company was quickly established on a firm foundation, and today has one of the finest plants in the State. Mr. Strangmann's position in the brewing industry is well recognized. He has served as an officer of the United States Brewers' Association, is a trustee of the New York State Brewers' Association, and a member of the Brewers' Exchange in Buffalo.
Mr. Strangmann is one of the best read men in Buffalo. For
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many years he has been an enthusiastic collector of books. His library contains hundreds of volumes comprising the stand- ard productions of German and English literature, as well as works on social and political economy, of which subjects he is an earnest student. Mr. Strangmann is a great lover of music, and an exponent of sound musical culture. He at one time organized and successfully conducted an orchestra.
Mr. Strangmann is a member of the Orpheus and Saenger- bund singing societies, and of the German-American Alliance. He is also a Mason, being a member of the Alexandria-Wash- ington Lodge No. 22, of Alexandria, Virginia.
NORRIS MOREY, senior member of the law firm of Morey, Bosley & Morey, is an eminent lawyer and citizen of Buffalo, where he has practiced his profession for forty years. Records of the Morey family appear at an early period in the Colonial his- tory of New England. The spelling of the name ex- hibits the diversity which is common to that time, but finally assumes two distinct and generally per- manent forms, Morey and Mowry, the former pre- vailing among the repre- sentatives of the family in Plymouth, Mass., and in Southern Rhode Island, the latter in Boston.
Roger Morey of Ply- MORRIS MOREY. mouth, Salem and Provi- dence, was the founder, in America, of the branch of the family dealt with in the present sketch. He was a follower of Roger
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Williams, and the evidence goes to show that they both sailed . from England in the ship " Lion," which left Bristol December 1, 1630, and arrived at Boston February 5, 1631. Roger Morey's wife was Mary, daughter of John and Margery Johnson. Roger Morey became a landholder of Salem, and in 1643 removed to Providence, R. I.
Jonathan Morey, son of Roger, was born in 1637. He married in 1659 Mary, widow of Richard Foster, and after her death married his second wife, Hannah, whose maiden surname is unknown.
Jonathan Morey (2), son of the preceding, married Hannah Bourne in Plymouth. They were the parents of nine children. Their fifth child was Jonathan Morey (3), born in 1699, married Elizabeth Swift in 1725. Thomas Morey, second son of Jonathan Morey (3), and Elizabeth Swift, was born in 1732. He emigrated from Rhode Island to New York State at the begin- ning of the Revolutionary period. In the Calendar of the New York Historical MSS. his name is given as one of the signers of . the "Association," June, 1775. Prior to 1778 he was a resident of Albany County, and a member of the Thirteenth Albany County Regiment, under Col. Van Vechten. Later he bought one hundred acres of land in Milton, Saratoga County, and established himself as a farmer. He married three times, but the maiden names of his first two wives are unknown. In his will, drawn in 1798 and proved in 1810, he mentions his wife, Sarah, and five children.
Samuel Morey, third son of Thomas, was born June 14, 1770, and lived in Greenfield, N. Y. He married October 8, 1794, Mary Freeman, who died April 30, 1813, and he married in 1814 Mrs. Ruth Elmes. Samuel Morey was for some years a miller and farmer in Greenfield. Thence he removed to Fabius, N. Y., where he owned a farm and was justice of the peace. In 1832-3 he removed to Cazenovia, N. Y., where he died March 10, 1852.
Joseph Morey, eldest son of Samuel Morey and Mary Freeman, was born January 24, 1796. He married October 16,
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1823, Anna C. Kinney. Their children were: Emily, born August 22, 1824, died September 14, 1824; Edwin, born October 19, 1825; Reuben, born March 22, 1828, died September 10, 1828; Samuel, born August 1, 1829; William F., born September 20, 1831; Ellen, born November 20, 1833, died January 1, 1834; Elias W., born January 7, 1836; Norris, born July 20, 1838; Horace, born December 1, 1840; Ann Maria, born February 25, 1843, and Eliza Jane, born October 20, 1846.
Norris Morey of Buffalo, son of Joseph Morey and Anna C. Kinney, is seventh in the line of descent from Roger Morey, the immigrant ancestor.
Mr. Morey was born in Brant, Erie County, N. Y., July 20, 1838, being the son of Joseph Morey, a farmer and well-known resident of that place. He received his education in the public schools, and at Oberlin College, O., from which institution he was graduated in 1863. His college career was interrupted by the Civil War, and he served in the Union army in 1861 and 1862, later re-enlisting and continuing in 1864-65. Deciding to enter the law, he pursued a course in the Albany Law School, and in 1866 was admitted to the bar. The same year he removed to Buffalo.
In 1870-71 Mr. Morey was Assistant City Attorney of Buffalo, and from 1872 to 1874 Assistant District Attorney of Erie County. In 1882 the Republican City Convention nominated him for Mayor, but for professional reasons he declined the proffered honor.
Mr. Morey was in 1885 and 1886 chairman of a committee of nine who framed new rules for the guidance of Republican caucuses and conventions in Erie County, these regulations being designed for the protection of the rights of the voters at primaries and to secure proper representation of the people at Republican conventions. The rules were adopted by the Republican County Convention of 1886, and proved very effective in securing the objects for which they were intended. In the winter of 1892-93 Mr. Morey, representing various com-
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mittees on cities, at Albany, in behalf of the repeal of certain bills, popularly known as "sneak legislation," which had been hastily passed by the Legislature, and which had changed, in an extraordinary and unjustifiable manner the political control of the Buffalo Police Board. The outcome was a remarkable uprising of public opinion, which registered itself by a great political change at the next city election.
In recent years Mr. Morey's activities have been mainly devoted to his law practice. June 3rd, 1868, Mr. Morey was united in marriage to Annette Williams of Avon, Ohio, who was deceased January 12th, 1899. To this union were born the following children: Isabel R., the wife of Edward A. Eames of Buffalo, who have one child, Edward W. Eames II .; Joseph H., an attorney-at-law of the firm of Morey, Bosley & Morey of Buffalo; Arthur N., and Howard W. Joseph H. Morey married Katrina Van Tassel Williams, and they have one son, William Irving Morey.
WILLIAM H. CUDDEBACK, the well-known lawyer and former corporation counsel of Buffalo, is a man of diverse activities and has made his mark both in professional and political fields.
Mr. Cuddeback is of French and Dutch ancestry. The founder of the family was Jacques Caudebac, a Huguenot, who in 1686 fled from Caudebac, in Normandy, France, at the time of the repeal of the Edict of Nantes. Jacques Caudebac landed in Maryland and afterward went to New York City, where he married Margareta Provost, who was of Holland Dutch descent. From them the Cuddebacks of America are descended. Though the first head of the family was Norman French, through inter- marriage the stock became almost wholly Dutch.
Jacques Caudeback engaged in mercantile pursuits. Later he obtained in Deer Park, Orange County, a grant of land which is to this day owned by his descendants. Jacques had ten chil- dren, six sons and four daughters. The fifth son was William.
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He and his five brothers served as officers in the Revolutionary War, as did their sons. William Cuddeback at one time had command of a fortification at West Point.
William Cuddeback had six children, of whom the fourth, Benjamin, was a soldier in the company of New York militia commanded by his brother, Capt. Abraham Cuddeback, in the Revolutionary War. Benjamin Cuddeback had a son, William Cuddeback, who lived at Deer Park, N. Y., and was survived by thirteen children, among them Lewis Cuddeback, the father of William H. Cuddeback of Buffalo.
Lewis Cuddeback resided at Deer Park, Orange County. His wife was Caroline Thompson, daughter of the Rev. Andrew Thompson, a Presbyterian minister of Nyack, Rockland County, N. Y. Lewis Cuddeback was by occupation a merchant. He was prominent in the Democratic politics of fifty years ago, and served as Assemblyman, Member of the State Constitu- tional Convention of 1843, County Clerk of Orange County, and in other political capacities. He died in 1889. His surviving children are: Augustus T. Cuddeback of Passaic, N. J .; William Herman Cuddeback of Buffalo; Mary T., now Mrs. Joseph Merrit of Goshen, Orange County, N. Y., and Catherine C., now Mrs. Aaron V. D. Wallace also of Goshen.
William Herman Cuddeback was born in Deer Park, N. Y., March 25, 1854. His earlier education was obtained at the academy in Goshen, later entering Cornell University, where he spent four years. In May, 1877, he was admitted to practice, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., first practicing for a short time at Goshen, where he became a justice of the peace. For the suc- ceeding seven years he was a law partner of Henry A. Wads- worth of Orange County. In 1885 Mr. Cuddeback removed to Buffalo, where he became successively associated with Hon. . Daniel J. Kenefick, Joseph V. Seaver and Eugene P. Onchie. Mr. Cuddeback soon rose to a high position at the bar of Erie County.
Meantime Mr. Cuddeback became active in Democratic
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politics and for the last ten years has been an acknowledged leader of the Western New York Democracy. In 1895 he was chosen Chairman of the Democratic General Committee, which office he held for three years. During this time the party was successful in electing a Democratic Mayor and other city officials. In 1897 Mr. Cuddeback was elected Corporation Counsel, which office he held until January 1, 1902. He is con- ceded to have been one of the best officials that ever served Buffalo in that office. Mr. Cuddeback was chosen manager of the Craig Colony for epileptics at Sonyea, N. Y., by Governor Flower, and in spite of his being a strong Democrat was twice reappointed by the Republican Governor Morton. In 1906 he became interested in the Independence League movement, serving as Chairman of the Executive Committee in Erie County.
Mr. Cuddeback is unmarried. He is prominent in club circles, being a member of the Ellicott, Saturn and Acacia clubs. He his elevation to the bench had won high reputation as a lawyer of erudite attainments and superior capability.
HON. CHARLES BARKER WHEELER, Justice of the Supreme Court, is one of Buffalo's ablest jurists, and prior to his elevation to the bench had won high reputation as a lawyer of erudite attainments and superior capability.
Mr. Wheeler is of New England descent and Puritan stock. The first ancestors of the American branch of his family were John Wheeler and Ann, his wife, who in 1634 came to Massa- chusetts Colony in the ship "Mary and John." Henry Wheeler, son of John Wheeler, had a son, James, who had a son, James, who had a son, Jeremiah, who had a son, Jeremiah, whose son, Cyrenus Wheeler, Sr., was the grandfather of Hon. Charles B. Wheeler. For generations the family were farmers and culti- vated the same farm at Rehoboth, Mass. The New England Wheelers were a patriotic family. Several of the name appear in the records as Revolutionary soldiers. To this day the
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ancient homes of the family show traces of British ravage. Cyrenus Wheeler, Sr., married Thirza Dillingham Evans, a daughter of Robert Evans of Bristol, a veteran of the Revolu- tionary War. Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr., was born near Rehoboth March 21st, 1817. When twelve years old the lad went to work in the cotton mills, and became master of the cotton weaving industry. Upon the removal of his father to New York State, young Cyrenus Wheeler began to learn farming. In the intervals he busied himself inventing hay-forks, hay-cutters and other farm implements. Soon after reaching his majority Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr., became the owner of a farm, and for many years he was a skilful farmer, having a scientific concep- tion of agriculture altogether remarkable for that day. But he was always more of a mechanic than a farmer. In the summer of 1852 there was held at Geneva, N. Y., a trial of a mower which proved unsatisfactory. Mr. Wheeler thereupon set about making a successful horse mower and reaper, and for practically the rest of his life devoted himself to the invention, manufacture and improvement of reapers and mowers.
Mr. Wheeler was four times elected Mayor of Auburn, serving from 1880 to 1890. For years he also served as Chair- man of the Auburn Board of Water Commissioners. While Mayor he became convinced that the city should own its own water works, and when he left office he began and carried to success a struggle to this end, being made President of the Water Commission, which office he held for the rest of his life. For many years Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr., was one of the most prominent and useful citizens of Auburn. As a financier he held relations with many of the Auburn banks. He strongly encouraged the National Guard movement, and the Wheeler Rifles of Auburn are named after him. For a long period he was a trustee of the Auburn Central Presbyterian Church, to which he was a liberal contributor.
In 1838, Mr. Wheeler married Susan Kendall, daughter of Charles Kendall of Cayuga County. Their children were Lucy
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M., and Dexter Wheeler. In 1842 Mrs. Wheeler died, and a few years later Mr. Wheeler married Susan Frary of Bethany, N. Y. Their issue was one daughter, Harriet. After a few years of wedded life Mr. Wheeler's second wife died, and on the 26th of December, 1850, he married Jane Barker, daughter of John A. Barker and Phoebe Ogden of Ledyard, Cayuga County. Mrs. Jane (Barker) Wheeler, was a sister of the late Judge Barker, Justice of the Supreme Court of New York. Of the children of Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr., only Charles B. Wheeler of Buffalo survives.
Charles Barker Wheeler was born at Poplar Ridge, Cayuga County, N. Y., December 27th, 1851. He enjoyed superior educational advantages, studying at Williams College, from which he graduated with the class of '73. After his gradu- ation, Mr. Wheeler came to Buffalo and entered the office of Sprague & Gorham, with whom he read law for three years. In 1876 he was admitted to the bar; immediately thereafter beginning the practice of his profession in Buffalo. The early maturity of Mr. Wheeler's legal talents and his exceptional thoroughness and industry attracted the notice of elder lawyers and led to his connection with those eminent practitioners, Sherman S. Rogers and Franklin D. Locke, by whom he was admitted to partnership in 1882, the association lasting three years. In. 1885 Mr. Wheeler began practice alone, and con- tinued until his elevation to the bench, by appointment to suc- ceed Hon. Daniel Kenefick, who resigned, assuming office December 1st, 1906. Mr. Wheeler was appointed a member of the Civil Service Commission, by Mayor Becker, and he served so acceptably that he was reappointed by Mayor Bishop. During the administration of Mayor Jewett he again served two years, and being reappointed by Mayor Diehl he served another two years, resigning on the expiration of his tenth year in office. Again appointed a member of the Civil Service Com- mission, by Mayor Knight, he served three years more, making
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