USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 54
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
L., deceased : G. W .. deceased; Mrs. Axcie Gross; William L .: Mrs. Amelia Wood, deceased: Mrs. Sylvia A. Madison. deccased: John B .: George F .; Ettie S .; Eva E. and Addie L. John C: Baldwin died January 15, 1862, and his widow died November 22, 1902.
William L. Baldwin received his education in the local district school of his native town, and since that time has devoted himself to the pursuit of agriculture, in which he has been very successful. He owns one hundred and forty acres of fertile land, and makes a specialty of dairying; of his thirty-five head of cows, thirteen are milch cows. Mr. Baldwin makes use of the most modern machinery and appliances in the cultivation of his land. IIe is held in great confidence and esteem by his neighbors, and has served as township supervisor seven years, and township treasurer three terms.
August 17, 1886, Mr. Baldwin was married to Marion, daughter of John and Julia ( Stowe) Allen, and to them were born children as fol- lows : Choice, Maude, Orville and Calvin ; the eldest daughter is attend- ing Edinboro State Normal School, with a view of becoming a teacher and will teach in her home district. Mrs. Baldwin was born in Amity township. Erie county, August 2, 1861. Her father, John R. Allen, was born in Delaware county, New York, November 22, 1831, and mar- ried Julia Stone, December 30, 1858; he died in 1888, and his widow still lives in Union City, Pennsylvania. Mr. Allen came to Erie county about 1848, served the township in various offices, and was a faithful, loyal citizen. He was a skilled mechanic, working at the carpenter and blacksmith trade, as well as conducting his farm of one hundred and sixty acres, upon which his son Floyd E. now resides. His children were: Marion D., Eliza J., Minnie C. (deceased), Nathaniel J. and Floyd E. Politically Mr. Baldwin is a Republican.
ALLEN ENSWORTH. The Ensworth family was established in Erie county during an early period in its history, and the first of the name here was Tracy Ensworth, who came from near Boston. Among his children was Allen Ensworth, who established his home in Watts- burg of Erie county in 1836, and he, with other descendants of Tracy Ensworth, became prominent in the public life of the county. Allen Ensworth learned and followed the blacksmith's trade, and he married and became the father of the following children: Loren, Dexter, James and Porter.
Porter Ensworth was for many years a prominent business man in Waterford, and it is an authenticated fact that he at one time drew the largest salary of any traveling salesman that ever went out of Erie county up to that time. His death occurred in the year of 1896.
Dexter Ensworth, the second son of Allen, continued his resi- dence in Wattsburg until 1890, where he was both a hotel proprietor and a blacksmith, and from the time of his leaving Wattsburg until his death in 1900 he resided with his son, Frank E., in Waterford. He had the following children: Frank E .: Emory A., who was drowned when ten years of age; Clinton D., who died in infancy; and James Tracy.
Frank E. Ensworth came to Waterford in 1867, and has since been engaged in business here as a jobber and merchant. In 1882 he married Miss Mary A. Roberts, a daughter of Charles and Mary (Hill) Rob- erts, who came to the United States from Scotland in 1845 and lo- cated in Buffalo, New York. Charles Roberts died when his daughter
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Mary was quite young, and afterward her mother and the remainder of the family came to Waterford in 1859, she following later with her grandmother. Her grandfather had died in New York a short time after their arrival from Scotland. A daughter, Annice Gertrude, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Ensworth. Mr. Ensworth is a Mason and Shriner.
ROLLO MCCRAY is the mayor of Waterford, the highest office in the power of his fellow townsmen to bestow, and he is also one of the city's leading business men. He was born in Warren county, Pennsyl- vania, July 27, 1876, a son of William Alexander and Nancy F. (Copeland) McCray. The mother came with her four children to Waterford in 1884, when Rollo was a little lad of eight years, and he afterward attended the grammar school of this city and the Waterford Academy. During six years of his early business life he conducted a cheese factory here, and since that time he has been engaged in general mercantile pursuits, although his name did not appear in the present firm of Patten and McCray until 1906. During his residence here he has served as the town treasurer for one year, and as the mayor of Waterford elected in 1906, he has served his fellow townsmen well and favorably. He is a member and has for two years served as master of Waterford Lodge No. 425, F. & A. M. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 974, and of the National Protective Legion, Lodge No. 915. He is liberal in his religious views and attends the services of the Episcopal church.
The mother of Rollo McCray is also the mother of four other children, M. A. Patten, the Misses Ida and Lida Patten and Mrs. Stella Taylor.
HENRY LYTLE, a grocery merchant in Waterford, was born in Le Boeuf township, on the 11th of January, 1842, a son of Andrew Lytle, whose birth is also recorded in Erie county. The latter learned the tanner's trade in his early life, and conducted a tannery on his farm, for he was also a farmer, for about thirty years. He cleared his home- stead of one hundred and fifty acres, and died in Waterford, Pennsyl- vania, in the year of 1876. His father was a soldier in the war of 1812. in the commissary department, his grandfather served in the Revolu- tionary struggle, his son fought for the stars and stripes in the Civil war, and he himself, served his full time in the state militia and rose to the rank of a lieutenant. Another member of this family was Cap- tain Lytle, who was captain of Treemans Fort, a small fortress on the west bank of the Susquehanna river, which at that time was considered the far west. This French fort was captured by Captain McDonald, and his English and Indian soldiers, and its twenty-one men, all that were active soldiers, were taken prisoners, the women, children and the older men being allowed to go free, and they wandered back east to New Jersey and New England states. The prisoners were taken to Canada, and four years elapsed ere Captain Lytle was returned to freedom. In the meanwhile his wife, who had received forged letters announcing the death of her husband, had married another, but on the Captain's return the second husband fled from the law, he having been guilty of the forgerv. Captain Lytle and his wife spent the re- mainder of their days in Pennsylvania.
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Henry Lytle enlisted in 1862 for the Civil war and was assigned to Company E, Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac. He took part in the battles of second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness and Peters- burg, he having been wounded in the right leg at the last named engagement September 30, 1864. In July of 1865 he received his honorable discharge. He has been engaged in the grocery business in Waterford since 1876, being one of the city's oldest and best known merchants. In politics he upholds the principles of the Prohibition party, but votes independently at elections. He is a member of the United Presbyterian church.
T. W. BARTON, M. D. The Barton family for many years have been noted physicians and surgeons of Erie county, the name being synonymous with the medical profession here. The late T. W. Barton, M. D., of Waterford, was born in Weston, Windsor county, Vermont, in 1834, and was a son of Ira and Mary (Farrar) Barton, the latter from Vermont.
Dr. Ira Barton was born at Hoosick, New York, March 24, 1796, a son of Timothy S. Barton, a Revolutionary soldier. Dr. Ira Barton after his graduation from the medical college at Castleton, Vermont, began practice in the western part of that state, from whence he moved to Massachusetts, and in 1836 came to Erie City, Pennsyl- vania, and was in practice there for four years. Coming then to Waterford, he was a member of the medical profession here for forty years or more, gaining in that time a large practice and identifying himself prominently with the early professional history of Erie county. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, enlisting for that service when but a lad of sixteen years.
Dr. T. W. Barton, a son of this well known Erie county pioneer, graduated from the Buffalo Medical College in 1862 and began the practice of his profession at Hartstown in Crawford county, Pennsyl- vania, but in 1865 he left there and came to Waterford to form a partnership with his father, who retired from the profession in 1872. and his death occurred in 1884. The son continued on in the profession, and previously, in 1882, he had become associated with W. L. Kelly in the drug business, and was thus engaged until 1907, a few months before his death, which resulted from pneumonia. He died on the 15th of November, 1907, after many years of faithful and beneficent labor in the cause of his profession. He was a member of the Erie County Medical Society, of the Shrine of the Masonic order, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Dr. Barton married on October 4, 1864, Miss Emeline White, a daughter of Dr. James White of Hartstown, Crawford county, Pennsylvania. Their children are : Louie, died at eighteen years, Shirley McLean, Mary G. and J. Lloyd.
Dr. T. W. Barton resided at one time in Iowa, at Fort Dodge, and afterwards went with a party to lay out Webster City. He was also one of the rescue party who went to Spirit Lake, and was there a few months. He served as one of the county officers when he was a resi- dent of Iowa.
Dr. J. Lloyd Barton is worthily upholding the family prestige in the professional circles of Waterford. Born in 1876, he received his education in the Waterford Academy and in the University of Pennsyl-
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vania, and is also a graduate of the medical department of that institu- tion with the class of 1901. Since that time he has been in the practice of medicine in this city except during the school year of 1906-7, when he pursued special courses on the diseases of the eye in Philadelphia. Through his father's able influence, he became examiner for the United States Life Insurance Company within one year after his graduation, which was an exceptional case, for the company de- manded five years of experience on the part of their examiners before they were eligible to the office. He practiced with his father until the death of the latter, and he is now filling his place with exceptional skill and ability. During his college life lic was a member of the William Pepper Medical Society.
DR. CARL KIRSCHNER is a native of York county, Pennsylvania, born on the 19th of March, 1878, and is the only child of George and Elizabeth (Albreth) Kirschner. His father was of an old Virginia family of German blood, and his mother a native of one of the Rhine provinces, at the time of her birth a part of France. Previous to the commencement of the Civil war, George Kirschner migrated into Penn- sylvania, and served throughout that conflict in the Union army. It is somewhat remarkable that, although he passed through it alive, his five brothers who fought in the Confederate ranks were all killed. The father survived until 1878, dying when Carl was only nine days old. Following this bereavement, the widow returned to her old home in Europe with her infant son. But in the meantime, through the fortunes of the Franco-Prussian war. her home had become German soil, and the mother lived there with her own mother until her death, which occurred when the boy was but six years of age. As an orphan, he then became the charge of the German government and received his education at the State Gymnasium located at Eisnach, from which he was graduated in the special course in chemistry in 1896. In that year he returned to the United States and pursued special courses at the School of Technology and Temple College, Philadelphia, and then became a private in the regular army, seeing service in both Porto Rico and the Philippines. Returning to the United States, he entered the Medico Chirurgical College, Philadelphia, graduating there- from in the class of 1903.
Dr. Kirschner's first practice was at Erie, as interne at the Hamot Hospital, and after serving for ten months in that capacity engaged in general professional work at the corner of Eighteenth and State streets. In February he completed his residence and office at No. 1821 French street, which have since been the centers of his professional activi- ties and his social and domestic life. In 1908 the doctor was elected a member of the city school board, and, as a fraternalist, is affiliated with the Odd Fellows. Elks and Foresters. Dr. Kirschner's wife was formerly Miss Ruth Hausman, who is a daughter of Henry and Lissetta (Loesel) Hausman and a granddaughter of Michael and Anna (Jacobi) Loesel, all of whom are old and highly respected citizens of Erie, which is the birthplace of Mrs. Kirschner. Dr. and Mrs. Kirschner are the parents of a daughter, Marion, who was born in 1907.
SETH D. FEIDLER, who during many years has been numbered among the business men of Waterford, was born in the city of Erie, Pennsyl-
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vania. April 7, 1851, a son of Samuel D. and Lucinda ( Weidle) Feidler, natives respectively of Lancaster and Erie counties, but their families were both from Lancaster county. Samuel D. Feidler was a miller and operated for many years the Erie City Mills, while later he was the proprietor of the Bear's Mills in Fair View township, remaining at the latter place until his death. His wife died in the year of 1883. In their family were three children, two daughters and a son, but of the former the elder is deceased, and the younger resides in Erie county.
Seth D. Feidler, the only son in the family, received a good educa- tion in the Waterford Academy, and in his early life he learned the brick and stone mason's trade. He is now the local agent for several machinery companies, and has also done some farming, his home being now on a valuable little tract of four acres within the city limits of Water- ford.
Mr. Feidler wedded Miss Submit Phelps, July 4, 1872, and ten chil- dren, seven sons and three daughters, were born, as follows: Forrest Floyd, resident of Waterford, wedded Miss Lulu Graves and they have two sons-Sidney in high school, and Forrest: Fannie Fern, wife of T. H. Shutters of Dicksonburg, a butter maker and they have one daughter, Reva ; Fayette Ford, city clerk of Danville, Illinois, wedded Miss Force and had two children. Robert and Fayette Garth ; Ferland F .. a boot and shoe salesman in Erie. married Elizabeth Colberg, and has one daugh- ter, Helen Louise : Garth Phelps (deceased) ; Thora Estelle, wedded Elmer D. Maycook of Waterford, who is a farmer, and has two children, Josephine and Seth; Lawrence, a salesman in Waterford: Theodore B., at home. Mr. Feidler is a member of I. O. O. F. Lodge No. 964 and Mrs. Feidler is a member of the Maccabees. Mr. Feidler was tax col- lector for twenty-two years and constable for the same length of time and chief of the fire department for twenty years. He has been very efficient in the service of his country and town.
ALBERT LIEBAN, deceased, was for many years identified with the business interests of Erie, and he spent his entire business career as a salesman for the Mower Bakery. He was born in Saxony, Germany, which was also the birthplace of his parents, Frederick and Hannah Lieban, but in 1849 the family came to the United States and estab- lished their home in Erie, on Tenth street between French and Hol- land. But later Frederick Lieban bought a farm in Mill Creek town- ship, and there he spent the remainder of his life.
Albert Lieban married in 1874 Miss Wilhelmina Niemyer. a daughter of Henry and Wilhelmina Niemyer, who came from Germany in 1851 and located at the corner of Eighteenth and State streets in Erie, where Mr. Niemyer for a time was a hot house gardener. Later he was located on Parade street, and still later he became an agricultur- ist in Greene township. To Mr. and Mrs. Albert Lieban were born four children, John and George. both now deceased ; William, a salesman ; and Frank, who follows agriculture. John Lieban, the first born son, was during his business life a bookkeeper, and he married Miss Bertha Kisher. who bore him two children, Lenora and Marion. In 1903 Mrs. Albert Lieban and her son Frank moved to their farm of one hundred and sixteen acres in Greene township, where they are now engaged in dairying, gardening and general farming.
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FRANCIS J. KILBANE. Among the prominent and successful agri- culturists of Erie county is numbered F. J. Kilbane, who was born November 23, 1855, a son of Michael and Elizabeth (Turkington) Kil- bane, who came in their early lives from Ireland to the United States. and locating in New York they were married there in Erie county. From Brant, New York, they came to Erie county, Pennsylvania, in October, 1856, and locating in what was then Mckean township but which later became a part of Waterford township, they purchased one hundred acres of land. Their farm at the time of purchase was covered with timber, but in time they cleared the land and evolved a splendid home from the wilderness. There the wife and mother died in 1891, and in the following year of 1892 Mr. Kilbane left the farm and now lives with a son-in-law, Coyt Seymour.
On his parents' old farm homestead in Waterford township, F. J. Kilbane grew to sturdy manhood, receiving meanwhile his education in the nearby schools, and from the period of his school days until his marriage he was variously employed. Then turning his attention to agricultural pursuits in December of 1895 he bought the farm in Mckean township where he now resides. His present estate of one hundred and twenty-five acres was formerly the property of a Mr. Whiteman, who purchased it from a Mr. Burnet, and at his death it passed to the White- man heirs and a portion fell to Robt. Hanna, who married a Miss White- man and she died.
Mr. Kilbane bought his land from Miss Hannah Smith. He fol- lows a general line of farming, and has been very successful in his chosen vocation.
He married, January 30, 1883, Miss Emma Iona Osborne, a daughter of Gilbert and Elmira (Thomas) Osborne, who were among the early pioneers of Waterford township. The children of this union are : Charles E., at home with his parents; Dorothy, who was married in January, 1909, to Frank Woods ; Chauncy D., a student at the Edinboro State Normal; Bertha, who died when young; and Homer Leroy and Virgil Dewey. Mr. Kilbane is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Waterford, and of the Protected Home Circle. He is a stanch Republican.
ALSON M. BUTLER, who, except for a short period, has been con- tinuously engaged in farming in Mckean township for more than thirty- two years, is a native of Chautauqua county, New York, born on the 20th of December, 1853. He is a son of Oscar and Hannah ( Randall) Butler, both of whom were born in New York state. In 1862 the father enlisted in the One Hundred and Twelfth New York Infantry, and served therein until the close of the war. Ezekiel, the great-grand- father, was long a captain on the high seas, and the grandfather, Abel, served in the war of 1812. The paternal grandmother of Mr. But- ler was Polly (Morgan) Butler, and his maternal grandparents were Elisha and Amy (Brown) Randall. After the Civil war Oscar Butler, the father. continued farming in New York till about 1905 when he moved to Conneaut, Ohio. He is the father of the following children : Clarence, who studied art in Paris for several years, is now a successful member of his profession in Boston, and married Mrs. Harriet E. Friat ; Emma, who became Mrs. Taylor and the mother of Bertha and Alson ; Eugene, who married Miss Lulu Randall ; Alson M., of this sketch ;
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Julia, who married Gaylord Millard and became the mother of Clyde and Carl-the former marrying Mrs. Edith (Ward) Johnson and the latter, Miss Eva Risley, who bore him a daughter, Julia; Ernest, who married Miss Lois Foster-his first wife bearing him Ethel, Gladys, Lois, Oscar and Laverne-and, after her death, he wedded Miss Ada Austin, who became the mother of Eugene, the parents now residing in Madison county, New York; Lilian, who by her marriage to George Wellman has become the mother of Mada, Merle and George; and Edith, who is the widow of a Mr. Lewis and the mother of Mildred.
A. M. Butler, of this biography, has followed farming from his early youth, migrating from his New York home to Conneaut, Ohio, in 1877, when he was twenty-four years of age. He soon located in Erie county, however, and has since confined his agricultural pursuits to this section of the state, with the exception of a short time that he spent in Kansas. Mr. Butler's wife was formerly Miss Jennie L. Drown. daughter of John and Elvira (Grant) Drown ( for mention of whom, see sketch of C. B. Russell). Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Butler have become the parents of the following : Ruby D. and Rollo, who are now students at the Water- ford high school, and Hazel, living at home. Mr. Butler is a Republican. Mr. Butler's great-grandfather, Capt. Ezekiel Butler, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
JOHN W. VEITH, a well known farmer of Mckean township, is a member of that substantial pioneer family which was established therein by his grandparents in 1843. The ancestors named, John C. and Rachael Veith, were both born in Germany, and in that year settled on a farm of fifty acres, which was partially improved before they finally located in Fairview township. There they passed their last years on a fine country homestead of two hundred acres. The nine children of the family were : Wilhelmina. born,in the fatherland in 1833 (all the others being natives of Mckean township) ; Jacob, born in 1835, who became a millwright ; Christian, born in 1836, who became the father of John W., and was a farmer and a Union soldier : Mary, born in 1838; Caroline J., in 1840 ; Gottlieb, a farmer of McKean township, who was born in 1842; George, who was born in 1844 and died in infancy : William, born in 1845, and Louisa, in 1848. Christian Veith married Matilda Lininger, whose par- ents, John P. and Christina, established the family homestead in Summit township at a very early day.
John W. Veith, of this sketch, was born in Mckean township, July 30, 1863, and received his education at the Reed school at South Hill. The earlier period of his mature life was spent in farming and threshing. the latter business covering seventeen seasons. He then sold his farm, spent nearly a year in California and in 1900 returned to McKean town- ship, where for the succeeding seven years he operated a saw and grist mill and a cider factory. At the conclusion of this business period he purchased the farm of sixty-three acres which he now conducts and is his homestead. On September 26, 1900, Mr. Veith married Miss Millie Blount, and they have one child, Dorothea. Although a member of the I. O. O. F. Lodge No. 937, at Mckean, Mr. Veith is a man of domestic tastes, and usually finds an outlet for his sociability through the family circle and his individual friends. He is a Republican in politics.
ROBERT JAMES WADE. Noteworthy among the more enterprising and wide-awake business men of Edinboro, Erie county, is Robert James
TRE NEV YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
MATAAL
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Wade, owner and manager of a planing mill, which he is conducting with most excellent results. Industrious and thrifty, honorable in his dealings, he is meeting with unquestioned success in his work, and holds high rank among the citizens of worth and value. A son of William Wade, he was born February 23, 1849, in Canada, where he grew to man's estate. William Wade, born in England, came to America when young, and after his marriage with Margaret McDade, a native of Canada, set- tled in that country permanently.
At the age of seventeen years, Robert James Wade came with one of his brothers to Erie county in search of work. Locating in Edin- boro, both entered the employ of William R. Lewis, with whom they re- mained eight years, working in his planing mill. Becoming familiar with the management of the business, they then bought out Mr. Lewis, and for a quarter of a century carried on milling under the firm name of Wade Brothers, during that time being, likewise, interested in farm- ing. Buying out his brother's share of the business in 1901, Mr. Wade has since conducted it alone, keeping botlı mills in operation, and carry- ing on a very substantial and lucrative business.
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