USA > New York > Wayne County > Rose > Rose neightborhood sketches, Wayne County, New York; with glimpses of the adjacent towns: Butler, Wolcott, Huron, Sodus, Lyons and Savannah > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
From an article written by me at the time for The Clyde Times, I take the following: "After a hundred years of life we find her in her right mind, vividly recalling the days of old. To a lady past seventy, who recently visited her, she said : 'Why, Mrs. S., I am glad to see you. Do you remember my telling you, thirty years ago, 'You would live to be a fat old woman like me, yet ? ' She took her visitor's hand in both of hers and pressed the same in sincere pleasure over the meeting. A child of seven years accompanied the visitors, and, kissing the venerable lady, was kissed in return, Mrs. Tipple saying: 'You must always remember that you have been kissed by a woman a hundred years old.' The day itself, Saturday last, was one of the very hottest of an exceedingly hot season ; but the friends and relatives were present in large numbers. It was an afternoon of the liveliest kind of congratulations. The chief centre of all this scene of pleasure, Mrs. Tipple, clad in a plain black dress, with the whitest of lace caps upon her venerable head, sat in her favorite chair in the parlor, and received the many hand-shakes and cheering words of her numerous visitors. She recalled with wonderful quickness circumstances pertaining to those whom she had known, but had not seen for many years. My own visit of two weeks since, she immediately mentioned. In person, Mrs. Tipple shows her weight of years. Her form is somewhat bowed, but her hair is scarcely changed in hue from that of youth. She uses no glasses, though she reads but little, and then only in her Dutch Bible.
1
168
ROSE NEIGHBORHOOD SKETCHES.
Her chair is a small, straight-backed rocker with no arms. Here she sits contentedly many hours at a stretch. A year since she walked unaided, but now she requires a helping hand, as when she took a seat on the fron porch to sit for her portrait. Had the family of our centenarian been as prolific as those of years ago, she would now count her children and chil- dren's children by the many scores. Her son, Philip, had only two children, one of whom has three and the other two children. Mrs. Phillips, her daughter, has six children living. Of these, four were present. Mrs. Phillips herself will be seventy-eight in December ; but shows very few traces of infirmities. Her husband, Abram, died in 1884, at the age of eighty-two. The sum total of Mrs. Tipple's living descendants is twenty- six, and of these fifteen were present. John H. Phillips lives in Rose ; William resides in Fairhaven ; Charles in Rose; Mrs. Amanda Finch in Rose also. Those represent the third generation present. One grandson, Nathan Phillips, is in the south, and could not be present." (Died in Maryland, June 3, 1893. )
This fête day was her last, for when the next 30th of July rolled around she was lying by the side of the husband whom death had torn from her thirty-six years before. "Like flowers at set of sun " her eyes had closed in their last sleep, July 7, 1888, and gentle hands performed for her the last sad office. She had no illness. "She simply ceased to live." Mrs. Phillips is above eighty-one years, but she has wonderful strength of body, and may herself attain the great age of her mother. A son, who works for his brother, John, stays with her nights, otherwise she is alone, and she says that she misses her mother sadly. "Her chair sat right over there and she was always in it. I can't tell you how much I miss her." The old lady was placed by the side of her husband in the Collins cemetery. (In 1893 Clarence Phillips and wife are living here with Mrs. Phillips.)
Nearly opposite this house, a road leads southward, passing the home of Isaac Boyce and Horatio Baker, and coming out upon the next east and west road near John Blynn's. Just beyond, and on the south side, lives Darwin Miner, another son of Riley. His wife was Nettie Messenger of the Glenmark neighborhood. He bought of Charles Bradburn, who took from James Hunn.
As we go down into the valley, through which flows Thomas' creek, which was to mark the site of Gen. Adams' ditch, we may find a pleasant white house, looking northward out over the mint still, which John Phillips has planted down by the water. This is the Bradburn home. With an eye for the antique, we may be pardoned if reference is first made to an old log house, having two front doors, which stands to the left of the lane leading back to the barns. This is John Winchell's old house ; was first put up considerably further back and then taken down and moved to this place nearer the road and just at the point where the road takes a
169
ROSE NEIGHBORHOOD. SKETCHES.
short turn to the north to cross the creek. It may be as well to give a sketch of the Winchell family now, for we are approaching, in fact are in, what was once called Winchellville or Canada. Absalom Winchell was born in Egremont, Massachusetts, though the family was originally from Connecticut, married Byer (Abiah ?) Daly, and, in 1816, moved to the town of Galen, south of Ferguson's corners. His children were Jacob, John, Riley, Russell, Lany (who married Calvin Race, and lived and died in Phelps), Sally, Lucinda, Maria and Lovina. Except Lany, all of these children will be met as we journey through Rose. Jacob, the eldest, a soldier in 1812, settled first in Galen with his father ; his wife was Katie Bradburn, of Massachusetts ; he afterward lived where Leland Johnson now resides, a little east of John Phillips ; he died at the home of David Bradburn, brother of his wife and husband of his daughter Jane. John was twice married, first, to Mary Losier, and with her lived in a log house west of Philander Mitchell's present abode ; she died there; their children were : John, now living in Huron ; Catharine, the wife first of James Hunn, and last, of Albert Harper ; Sally Ann, married John Almond of Waterloo, moved to Indiana, and there died ; Mary, married a Harper; Lucretia, a Bennett, and went to Michigan. After the death of his first wife, Mr. W. married again, this time Margaret Ackerman, and moved to the log house near where we now are, on the Bradburn farm. By this marriage his children were : Lovina, who married Isaac Brewster, who died in the army during the Rebellion, leaving two sons-James and Eugene. Sarah Jane married James Van Amburg. John Winchell died in the log house, and was buried at Ferguson's corners. His widow died with Henry Ackerman in Galen. The place passed from the Winchells to Helon Ackerman, and from him through Smith, Van Amburg and Lyman ·Covell to Andrew Bradburn, who came from Gt. Barrington, Mass., in September, 1846, to the place formerly held by William Pixley on the Wayne Centre road. His wife was Harriet Jones, of New Marlborough, Massachusetts. The Bradburn children reared here were Thomas, now in possession ; Charles, who married Jane Brink of Huron, in which town he now resides ; Alice, who is Mrs. Gardner Barrett of Huron, and Edward, who married Georgie Smith of Rose, and lives in Clyde. Mr. Bradburn died in 1873, at the age of fifty-seven, and is buried north of the Valley. Thomas Bradburn found his wife in the person of Myra Johnson, a daughter of Leland. They have a son, Ray S., a black-eyed youngster, to gladden their fireside. In addition to his farm Mr. B. has long run a threshing machine. Mrs. Andrew B. makes her home with Thomas.
Crossing the brook, we are facing the house of John Phillips, who has, by successive improvements, made his home a very attractive one. As already stated, he is a son of Margaret, who resides a few rods west. The farm is the old German Van Amburg place. His daughter, Eliza Jane,
170
ROSE NEIGHBORHOOD SKETCHES.
married Mr. Phillips, who in time succeeded to the estate. The Van Amburgs were from Saratoga county, but German's wife was Elizabeth Finch of Yates county. Another daughter, Sarah Caroline, became Mrs. Harvey Clapper, once of Rose, but now of Wolcott. German Van Amburg died in 1878. The Phillipses have only two children-Clarence and Alice. The former married Ina, a daughter of Captain Daniel Harmon, formerly of the Valley, and the latter is Mrs. Luther Waldruff.
The region beyond is known in neighborhood parlance as Minerville, from the many Miners who live in the vicinity. On the outskirts of the Ville is the home of Leland Johnson, who came from Pownal, Vt. His wife was Minerva Goodell, of Williamstown, Mass. Their children are: Benjamin S., who married Kittie Van Gelder ; Edna we shall meet in Dis- trict No. 11 as Mrs. George Worden, and Rhoda, also, as Mrs. Horatio Baker ; Myra, we just passed as the mistress of the Bradburn home. They have an adopted daughter, Mabel Wooster. Before the Johnsons was Samuel Cox, from whom they bought, and his father, S. D., bought in 1868 of H. P. Howard, now of the Valley. Before him was Forte Wilson, a brother of Ephraim, a resident further east. The latter's holding must go back very near to the land office. By his improvements Mr. Johnson has transformed the house and its surroundings.
The next house has stood in the Bovee name for several years. Stephen was the first name, and his widow is still there. Her sons are George and Herman. The house belongs to Mr. Johnson. These last two places are on the north side of the road.
The Miners on this street are sons of Riley Miner, a son of that Elder Miner who was one of the first ministers of the Baptist denomination in the town. Riley was a stone mason by trade, and was well known in Rose. He had twelve children, eleven of whom were present at his funeral. There are ten sons in the Riley Miner family and, save John and Philo, all live in Rose. John lives in Manton, Michigan ; Philo lives in Summer Hill, N. Y. ; and Ursula, Mrs. Knapp, is in Weedsport; Dora, the youngest, died February 17, 1891, aged twenty-eight years. In the four Miner dwellings we shall find first, William, who married Adaline Richardson. They have children, Ida, Irwin (now in the west), Arthur, Agnes, Flora, Jennie and Leon. In the next resides the widow of Riley. She was, I believe, a Neal. (Here, too, live James Miner and his wife, Jennie Whaley, who was born in Onondaga county. They have one child, Blanche. Mr. Miner is a stone mason by trade.) Then comes Edward, who married Dora Stearns of Sodus. Their children are Augustus, Ezra, Pearl and Sidney. Finally, we have Fernando, whose first wife was Sally Ann Hunn, a daughter of James and Catharine. She died in 1875. His second wife is Mary Hendrick. A neat, new house makes a very comfort- able home and an ornament to the street. The children in this family are
171
ROSE NEIGHBORHOOD SKETCHES.
Minnie, who married Joseph Bishop of Galen; Margaret, who is Mrs. Chester Plumb, of Clyde, and Samuel. (Lovina died in May, 1893, aged 23 years. )
No part of the district has changed hands more often than these several holdings along this road. On a county map, published in 1858, I find names that to-day have no lodgment here. For instance, beginning on the south side of the road, just east of widow Phillips' home, we find J. O. Hunn, now Darwin Miner's home; then C. N. J. Van Amburg, one of the many owners of the Bradburn farm. "Mrs. Winchell " occurs, possibly the widow of John, and resident in the log house. Then came I. Churchill and J. Greatsinger, about whom I knew nothing. Then is the name of Mrs. Lyman, possibly the widow of Jesse, and finally, R. Winchell, just at the angle of the road, the site of Fernando Miner's house. This was the home of Russell Winchell, who died in 1859, aged forty-seven years. His wife was Lucinda Ackerman, a daughter of John Winchell's second wife, by her first husband. Their children were David, who married an Odell and lives in Galen ; Margaret Ann married, first, Alexander Harper, and second, Ebenezer Odell, both of Galen ; Clarissa, whom we have seen as Mrs. Charles Harper, of North Rose, and Betsey Maria, who was Mrs. Ebenezer Odell, of Galen.
Going back to Leland Johnson's house, we find there, near it, the names J. Sherman and H. P. Howard. Then D. Bradburn, brother of Jacob Winchell's wife. J. Winchell comes next, and lastly, at the angle on the north side, was Riley Winchell's home. His first wife was Clara Hines, and their son, James, married Esther Collins, Stephen's daughter, and lives in Huron. Another son, Calvin, wedded C. E. LaRock, and dwells in North Rose. Riley's second wife was Mary Alworth, a daughter of the second wife of that "Sammy " Jones whose eccentricities were dwelt upon in our treatment of District No. 7. Their children were: Walter, who married a Blakesley and lives in Michigan, and Sophia, who became the wife of Heman Bovee, a son of Stephen, and the next neighbor west. He married for the third time, his wife being Amanda Swift, of Sodus. Mr. Winchell is living south of Clyde. His house became the property of Ephraim Wilson, who used it for a time as a tenant house, but not liking all the neighbors whom this use brought him, he finally moved it to the back part of his yard, where, as a sort of catch-all, it stands to-day. We have reached the bounds of the district, for the remaining places on this road belong to the Valley neighborhood.
172
ROSE NEIGHBORHOOD SKETCHES.
DISTRICT No. 11 .- " JEFFERS."
May 1-June 19, 1890.
This district occupies the range south of No. 10, and extends from the Valley neighborhood to that of Wayne Centre. We shall enter it by the road leading to the latter place, turning westward just north of the Presby- terian Church. Our first stop will be at the home of Wilbur Osborn, a son of Abner, who lives in the next house west, and whom we will inter- view for facts pertaining to him and his. He is a native of Lincolnshire, England, a brother of Samuel, encountered in District No. 6. His wife is Adelia Hendrick, a niece of the late Dr. Hendrick of Clyde. She was, when she married Mr. Osborn, the widow of his brother, Isaac, who, as may be remembered, was killed by a stroke of lightning in the house now occupied by Samuel Osborn, Jr., and in which Abner and his wife began their married life. They came to this location about twelve years ago, buying of Eron N. Thomas. There have been many names here in the past. Originally the land goes back to the old Jeffers purchase, and it was James J. who built the house now standing. Some of the land also was held by William Pixley, who was connected with the Jeffers by marriage. A part also was owned by one of the Clappers. There are now in the farm two hundred acres. Mr. Osborn has improved all the belong- ings very much, and his barns may favorably compare with almost any in the town. His children are Wilbur, who married Jennie Sherman of the Valley, and John, who married Anna Fredendall, also of the Valley. Wilbur and his wife live in the pleasant white house first reached, which was built expressly for them. Mrs. W. Osborn is a daughter of Henry B. Sherman, deceased. They have one child, Edna, by name, and a boy born August, 1890. John Osborn's home is in the Valley.
Abner Osborn has in his possession a valuable Indian relic in the shape of a stone hatchet. It was found on the farm of Samuel Osborn, and, aside from arrow heads, is the second weapon to my knowledge found in the town. Mr. O. is a very pleasant talker ; quite willing to give me all the information desired. Among other items. he told me of a relative who, in 1841 or 1842, came to this town and bought the lot west of the Oaks farm, now belonging to the Welch brothers. This man, an uncle or cousin, had made an unfortunate marriage, and despairing, apparently, of happiness at home, had disappeared. His wife and others on the old English holding finally gave him up entirely, he having last been seen at a public house on his way to town. It was even reported that he might have fallen a victim to foul play at the hands of the unscrupulous bank- men, or those who kept the sea away from the fens. Much to the surprise of his American relatives he appeared among them as above, and abode
173
ROSE NEIGHBORHOOD SKETCHES.
with them for some years. He was a carpenter and joiner by trade and did some of the work on the McKoon stone house in Butler. His children had grown np, and he heard that two of his sons had emigrated to Quebec. His paternal instinct drew him there on what proved to be a futile search. There was a mystery as to how he had passed the years of his disappear- ance. He had with him much valuable material, filling certain trunks and boxes. Not finding his sons, he returned to England and there died.
Just beyond Mr. Jeffers' aud on the same side of the road is the home of John Jeffers, a son of Nathan, and himself a deaf mute. His wife, also a mute, was Mary Dougan, of New York. She had come to Wayne county to visit the Pimm family, and while thus visiting met her subsequent husband. They have three children, two girls and a boy, all having normal faculties. Before J. Jeffers, this place was in the possession of Joseph Andrus, whose wife was Henrietta, a sister of Ephraim Wilson. They have one daughter, and now live in Huron. In 1858 it was held by Abuer Garlick. An earlier resident, George Fisher, who married Betsey Jeffers, would carry us back very near, if not quite, to the Jeffers occupation.
Conspicuous on the south side of the road are the foundation walls of a house, while back of them is a barn. The walls mark the foundation of a house which some years ago was burned. Robert Jeffers is the owner, and it is claimed by some that the structure was burned by an irate applicant for the place on account of his being refused. Be this as it may, the cellar is there and that is about all. The site calls to mind the name of William Pixley, a former owner, whose second wife was Nancy Jeffers, and who long since went to Wisconsin. He had a large family. Before him is the name Pugsley ; but it is a name only. There is extant a deed to E. N. Thomas of four acres from William A. Pixley and Nancy, his wife, dated October 16th, 1849, bounded south by David Holmes, west by Ovid Blynn, north by east and west road. Quite likely this is the lot.
Our next stop is at the home of Ovid Blynn, and this we shall find on the north side of the road. We shall be very likely to find the old gentle- man at home, for his age forbids his straying far. He was born February 14th, 1803, in Canaan, Columbia county, one of the few who went from rather than to the happy land of Canaan. His wife was Hannah Haden- burg, her name proclaiming her German origin, which she owed to one of the Hessians, whom Britain sent to America during the Revolution. Her father, not liking his hireling business, deserted and became a reputable citizen of this Hudson river country. It was in 1844 that Mr. Blynn sought our town, coming here through his brother-in-law, John Phillips, a paper maker by trade, who had bought not the present home of Mr. B., but one further west of Samuel Way. Phillips never lived here, but his widow is now a dweller with her brother, the latter's wife having died in
174
ROSE NEIGHBORHOOD SKETCHES.
1886 at the age of eighty-three. This first home was a log house nearly opposite John H. Blynn's present house west of the corners. It was built by Samuel Way. Mr. Blynn tells me that during his first winter he kept his stock fully a mile and a half away, in the barn of the Ways, on the top of the hill to the westward, where the sky and the buildings apparently meet. There was then only one framed house in the vicinity, that of Robert Jeffers. The whole region was new, left to the very last on account of its low character and the heavy timber covering it. Roads were nearly impassable. In the spring it was a half day's task to drive to Clyde, and another half day's work to get back. In time Mr. B. built or improved his own framed house and barns. These are now in the possession of his elder son, John H., who married Catharine Braman, for some years an invalid. They have one daughter, Mrs. Etta McIntyre of Wolcott. (Ovid Blynn died July 12, 1891 ; Mrs. John Blynn in 1893, and Mr. Blynn has moved from the corners to this place. )
The locality so long unsettled rapidly filled up when the way was opened, and the vicinity became more thickly inhabited than the older portions of the town. About these four corners have dwelt people whose names only remain, and some of whom not even the names can be found. On the southeast corner was Robert Vandercook, a cousin of John and William H., living with his widowed mother in a log house and having twenty-five acres of land. A sister of R. Vandercook married James Ferguson. He sold out to Ovid Blynn and went west. There is now no trace of the house. Just south of the corners is a house built years since by Daniel Wiley for a fanning-mill shop, and I may state here that in this vicinity there were at one time, a long while ago, four places where these useful machines for the farm were made. The house in which John Jeffers lives was erected for that purpose, and in it work was done by Joseph Waring, who married Susan Jeffers, and who kept a toll-gate on the Clyde road, and his son-in-law, George Clapper. Through Henry Garlick this house south of the corners passed into Mr. Blynn's possession, as did also the present home of John H. B., which was built by one Peckham of Balsam fame. Mr. Peckham, on leaving this neighborhood, went east to Johnstown, Montgomery Co. There can be no middle-aged dweller in this part of Wayne county who does not recall the doses of Peckham's Balsam, whereby, in due time, his colds were supposed to be loosened and he restored to health and activity. There were only four acres in the holding. Mr. Blynn bought directly of Jeremiah Bennett, who may have taken from Peckham. After living in this house for many years, Ovid Blynn bought of David Lyman twenty-five acres and the house in which he now resides. To his original farm he also added fourteen acres of William Garlick, which must have joined him in the west. Mr. B. was a Methodist before coming to Rose, and for many years has been a prominent member of the
175
ROSE NEIGHBORHOOD SKETCHES.
Rose Church. His second son, Martin H., better known in Rose as "Matt," was one of the best known and most successful teachers in our town. In the fall of 1860, when the writer was just leaving for his first term at Falley Seminary in Fulton, " Matt " Blynn was beginning his winter's work in the old stone school-house in District No. 7. While not necessarily severe, he tolerated no nonsense, and insisted upon strict attention to business. Says one pupil, now a tradesman in Clyde : "He was the best teacher I ever had. He made me learn whether I wished to or not." Certain it was that his schools always stood well in the eyes of the community. Before the War he had studied medicine somewhat, and consequently when the strife came, he was ready to accept a position in the medical department, which he did as hospital steward of the Tenth New York Cavalry. But this place was not adapted to his active temperament, and he was early in 1863 commissioned as second lieutenant in the same regiment. Thence his progress upward was rapid, and he was finally mustered out in June, 1865, as brevet lieutenant colonel. Concerning his service and record as a soldier, I append extracts from a letter written by his comrade, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel N. D. Preston, Pittsburg, Pa. : "Captain M. H. Blynn's record as a soldier was an enviable one. He was
* * one of the most efficient and reliable officers in our regiment. * *
The first I remember of him he was hospital steward. From this position he rose rapidly, not by favoritism or influence, but by merit, until, as I have said, he came to be looked upon as one of the best officers in the regiment." After the War he finished his medical studies, graduating in New York in the spring of 1866. He then accepted a government medical appointment and was in South Carolina for some time, but coming north, finally he located in Cicero, Onondaga county, where he built up an excellent prac- tice and reputation. He there married Frank Douglas, but his career was suddenly ended December 10th, 1883, by the rupture of the artery of the stomach. He was at the time in his forty-eighth year. (The old Blynn place is now owned and occupied by Mr. Isaac Boyce.)
Our discussion of the Blynn family has led us on all sides of the very comfortable house situated on the northeast corner of the cross-roads. As usual in these parts, we are on early Jeffers ground, and this place was once the property of Mrs. Hannah Dodds. In 1858 it belonged to Judd B. Lackey, who long since went to Michigan. He was a brother of Mrs. Susan Wykoff, of the Valley district, and his wife was Martha Hurlburt, who died in Lanesburg, Mich., January 28, 1890, aged sixty-three years. He was for some time an employee of E. N. Thomas, in the latter's saw- mill. (Mr. L. died in Lanesburg, Nov. 4, 1890.) For some years the place has stood in the name of Fidelus Kaiser, who is German born. His wife was Magdalena Garling, a native of Alsace, one of the long fought for Rhine provinces. Their children were Elizabeth, who, as Mrs. Jacob
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.