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 77
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 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99
engaged in merchandise at Milledgeville, Georgia, but during the later portion of his life engaged in farming at Grafton, Massachusetts. He entered into rest in 1866, his wife having passed away six years prior to that time.
Dr. Dennis secured his preliminary education through the public schools of Grafton and Westboro, Massachusettts, a private school in Augusta, Georgia, and Worcester Academy, Worcester, Massachusetts. He read medicine with Dr. Lemuel Hammond of Worcester, entering at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1878, from which he graduated in 1881. He served in the out-patient departments of Pennsylvania and Jefferson Hospitals, the Catherine Street Dispensary, and for three years he served as assistant to Professor William Thomson in the ophthalmic department of the Jefferson College Hospital. After practicing for a brief period at Worcester, Massachusetts and Killingly, Connecticut, in 1885 he located in Erie. Since that time Dr. Dennis has confined his professional labors to the treatment of affections of the eye and ear. From 1886 to 1906 he was attending ophthalmic surgeon to Hamot Hospital of Erie, and in the latter year was made consulting surgeon to that institution. Through his efforts an eye and ear division was established, the only hospital in northern Pennsylvania to have a distinct division of this kind. At present he is president of the Board of Managers of the hospital.
The doctor is also a member of the Erie County Medical Society, where he has served as secretary and was twice elected president. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology. He is in affiliation with all the Masonic bodies of the city and belongs to the Erie Club and the Erie Chamber of Commerce, of which he is a director.
Dr. Dennis' wife was formerly Miss Camilla, daughter of Alex- ander and Mary (Yeager) Loder of Philadelphia. The father was born at Bellefont. New Jersey, and the mother at Allentown, Pennsylvania. This union has been blessed by three children: Edward Parker, Dorothy Moore and Camilla Elizabeth Dennis.
ABNER C. JOSLIN, the retired farmer and veteran citizen of Lundy's Lane, Erie county, has not only earned high honor as a faithful and able servant of the public, but has an especial claim to distinction in that he is the oldest living member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in the state of Pennsylvania. For fifty-seven years he was identified with the order at Albion, and for two decades has been an honored Mason. Mr. Joslin was born in Bennington, Genesee county, New York, on the 12th of December, 1821, and is a son of William and Hannah (Gelpin) Joslin. The father was a native of Oneida county, that state, who was born in 1797 and died August 7. 1870. His wife, who was the daughter of Caleb Gelpin, a Revolutionary soldier, was born September 8, 1801, and died April 5, 1891. The grandparents of Mr. Joslin were Nehemiah and Martha ( Chase) Joslin, both born in the Empire state. In 1830 William Joslin, the father, settled in Erie county south of Wellsburg and spent the re- mainder of his life as a farmer of that vicinity. He was cither an ardent Whig or Republican all his life ; a citizen who gave his honest and able assistance to the conduct of the various township offices to
545
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
which he was called, and who was steadfast in his adherence to the faith of Methodism. During the war of 1812 he performed a good service by hauling government supplies for the support and relief of American soldiers. He died as the good father of seven sons and two daughters, the former of whom are all deceased with the exception of Abner C., who also has two sisters living-Martha, who resides at Wellsburg, and Laura, also a resident of that place and the wife of William Kelsey, retired.
The first marriage of Abner C. Joslin was to Miss Olive H. Scott, March 22, 1825, and at her death December 20, 1868, she had become the mother of Cynthia (deceased). William (living at home) ; Lauren, who is a resident of Conneaut, Ohio ; Fred, also deceased ; Frank, who is a manufacturer located at Aurora, Ohio; and Flora Bell, now Mrs. J. Lydell. Mr. Joslin wedded for his second wife Miss Jane Harts- horn Godfrey, who was born November 27, 1863, and died November 29, 1906, an admirable and a beloved wife and mother. The deceased was the daughter of A. P. and Thursday (Bailey) Hartshorn, her father being a skilled cooper and a pioneer of Girard, Pennsylvania. The two children of this second marriage were Earl, who died in infancy, and Clare De Forest Joslin. Abner Joslin is a Republican and he cast his first presidential vote for William H. Harrison.
Clare D. Joslin was born near Wellsburg, September 29, 1878, and after leaving school, at the age of seventeen, engaged in farm- ing for three years. He then entered the employ of the Bessemer Railway and remained in its service for eight years. In 1907 he accepted the agency for Erie county of the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, and at the same time entered into the management of the paternal farm. Of both ventures he has made the most pronounced success. He is an active member of the I. O. O. F. lodge of Albion and the Knights of Pythias, of Wellsburg, and is also closely identi- fied with Grange No. 997. On June 28, 1906, Mr. Joslin was married to Miss Florence Bryan, who was born June 29, 1880, and is a daughter of Cyrus J. and Lucinda (Ester) Bryan. Her maternal grandparents were George A. and Hannah (Wilcox) Ester, the former holding the office of assessor of Erie for a period of twenty-two years. The Ester family originated in Germany, where was born the great- grandfather. George L. Ester. Mrs. Joslin is a graduate of the Edin- boro Normal School, and after completing the two years' course therein was a teacher for six years in Mckean township, two years. in the Wellsburg high school and one year assistant principal of the high school at Cochranton, Pennsylvania. She has a brother, Clar- ence F., who is a teacher in the Northeastern College, at Wellsburg, and a sister, Daisy, who is the wife of Frank Bayle, of Waterford, Pennsylvania. One child was born to Mr. and Mrs. Joslin, Paul Bryan, June 13, 1907.
CHARLES HAMOT STRONG has been an important factor in the in- dustrial, development of Erie, and he is recognized as one of the thorough- ly representative citizens of his ntaive city, where his business interests are of wide scope and varied order, besides which he has the distinction of being a scion of one of the old and honored families of Erie county, with whose annals the name has been identified for fully a century. Mr. Strong was born in the city of Erie, on the 14th of March, 1853, and is Vol. II-35
546
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
the only son of Dr. Landaff and Catharine Cecilia ( Hamot ) Strong. The Strong family genealogy as represented in the branch which was founded in Erie county, Pennsylvania, near the end of the eighteenth century, by immigration from East Windsor, Connecticut, is briefly traced in paragraphs following :
The founder of the family in Erie county was Martin Strong, who came from Connecticut, and, after traversing the mountains and making his way through the dense forests of northwestern Pennsylvania, finally made permanent location in what is now Waterford township, Erie county. Here he eventually became the owner of about one thousand acres of land, which he secured from the government and a very con- siderable portion of which he reclaimed from the primeval forest. The major portion of this extensive landed estate is still held in the posses- sion of his immediate descendants,-resident farmers near the old home- stead.
Martin Strong was born in East Windsor, Connecticut, on the 20th of November, 1270, and died in Erie county, Pennsylvania, March 24, 1858. He was the son of Timothy and Abi (Gowdy) Strong, of East Windsor, Connecticut. Timothy Strong was a son of Jacob and Abigail (Bissell) Strong, the former of whom was a son of John and Elizabeth ( Warrener ) Strong. John Strong. the great-grandfather, was a son of Elder John and Abigail (Ford) Strong, and Elder John Strong was, in turn, a son of Richard Strong, who was born in county Caernarvon, Wales, in 1561, and who died in Taunton, Somerset county, England, in 1613. The marriage of Elder John Strong and Abigail Ford was sol- emnized in 1630, and on March 20th of that year they set sail from Ply- mouth, England, with the Warham company comprising one hundred and forty persons, for America. They arrived at Nantucket. Massa- chusetts, on the 30th of the following May, and Elder Strong and his bride took up their abode soon thereafter in Dorchester, Massachusetts. In 1635 they removed to Hingham, and in the following year they took up their residence in Boston, where they remained until 1638, when they removed to Taunton, Massachusetts. Subsequently to 1644 they be- came residents of Windsor, Connecticut, where Elder John Strong had been appointed to bring about a settlement, in company with four others, -Captain John Mason, Roger Ludlow, Israel Stoughton, and Henry Wal- cott. From authentic data it appears that Elder Strong finally estab- lished his home in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Martin Strong, grandfather of Charles H. Strong, and familiarly known in Erie county by the courtesy title of captain, was twice mar- ried. In East Windsor, Connecticut, he wedded Hannah Trask, and they had one daughter, who died early in life. After the death of his first wife he was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Drake, in East Wind- sor, Connecticut, where she was born on the 10th of September, 1728. She died in Erie county, Pennsylvania, January 15. 1866. She was a daughter of Amasa and Lydia (Webb) Drake, of East Windsor, and in the paternal line was a direct descendant from John Drake who came with his wife Elizabeth ( Rogers) Drake, from England to Boston in 1630. lle purchased land at Taunton, Massachusetts, but prior to 1639 established his home at Windsor, Connecticut. The genealogy is further traced back in a direct line, through a number of generations in England. to a John Drake of Ashe, Devonshire, who married Christian Billett. in 1360. Captain Martin Strong and his second wife, Sarah (Drake) Strong, became the parents of seven children. of whom five attained to
THE NEW WIRE PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTEK, LEHOX TILBEN FOUNDATIONK 1
Martin Story
URIC LIBRARY
ANT LEN .X TILLEN FONHT.
547
FHISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
years of maturity : Sarah, the wife of the late Bethuel B. Vincent ; Major Martin Strong, of Summit township; Frank Strong, of the same town- ship ; Lydia, wife of the late Thomas B. Vincent ; and Dr. Landaff Strong, who was the youngest of the children, all now deceased. All were born in Summit township, Erie county, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Landaff Strong, son of Captain Martin and Sarah ( Drake) Strong, was born on the old homestead in Summit township, this county, on the 30th of December, 1821, and he died in the city of Erie on the 13th of July, 1869. He was a graduate of Washington ( now Trinity) College, in Hartford, Connecticut, in which institution he was a member of the class of 1842 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the medical department of the University of the City of New York he was graduated in 1846, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For several years he was engaged in the successful practice of his profession in Erie, but finally retired from active labors as a phy- sician and surgeon, after which he was associated with his brother-in-law, George W. Starr, in the ownership and conducting of the Reed House drug store, until the hotel and adjoining buildings were destroyed by fire. Thereafter he lived virtually retired until his death. He was a man of high intellectual attainments and was a citizen of prominence and in- fluence in his native county, where he ever held the unqualified con- fidence and esteem of all who knew him. Though never manifesting aught of ambition for public office, he was deeply interested in all that tended to conserve the welfare of his native county and home city, and his political support was given to the Democratic party, from the time of its organization until his death. In St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal church, on the 8th of May, 1849, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Catharine Cecilia Hamot, of Erie, and they became the parents of two children, Charles Hamot Strong, whose name initiates this article, and Kate, who was born in Erie, July 5, 1856, and who is now the wife of Edward Higginson, a representative member of the bar of Fall River, Massachusetts.
Catharine Cecilia ( Hamot) Strong was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of April, 1829, and here her death occurred on the 12th of August, 1856. She was a daughter of Pierre Simon Vincent Hamot, who was born in Paris, France, November 28, 1784, and her mother, Eliza- beth ( Keefer ) Hamot, who was born in Thorold, province of Ontario, Canada, November 18, 1797, died in Erie, Pennsylvania, December 29. 1866 : at the time of her marriage to Mr. Hamot, she was the widow of Dr. Asa Coltrin, of the United States Army.
Pierre Simon Vincent Hamot, was a son of Marie Simon Hamot and Cecilia ( Vandeperre ) Hamot. of Paris, France. He came to America in 1802, as private secretary to the French consul at Philadelphia. The first years of his residence in the United States were spent in eastern cities, including Philadelphia, New York and Newport, Rhode Island. He finally took up his permanent residence in Erie, Pennsylvania, which he had first visited while en route to Detroit, Michigan. He became one of the honored and influential citizens of Erie, where his activities were many and varied, and a noble and enduring monument to his memory is the Hamot Hospital in this city. By his second marriage five children were born, and concerning them the following brief data are incorpo- rated : Eugene Charles, who was born in Erie, September 15, 1826, died on the 3rd of October, 1827; Emily Elizabeth died in infancy ; Catharine Cecilia (deceased) became the wife of Dr. Landaff Strong, as already
518
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
noted: Mary Adeline (deceased), widow of George W. Starr; Miss Hortense Louise, also deceased, the youngest of the children. Mr. Hamot had one daughter by his first marriage to Adeline Woodruff. Her name was Josephine Mary, and she was the wife of Stephen C. Walker of New York City, both deceased.
Elizabeth ( Keefer) Hamot, the second wife of Pierre S. V. Hamot, was a daughter of George and Catharine (Lampinan) Keefer, of Thor- old, Ontaria, Canada. Her father was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, November 8. 1773, and died at his home in Thorold, Canada, June 25, 1858; there his wife died July 14. 1813, her birth having oc- curred in Niagara township, province of Ontario, Canada, April 26, 1778.
George Keefer was a son of George and Mary (Couck) Keefer, whose marriage was solemnized in Sussex county, New Jersey, in 1767. George Keefer (1st) was a son of Samuel and Ann ( Waldruff) Keefer, who were married in the province of Alsace, France, now a part of Germany. Samuel Keefer was born on the banks of the river Ill, in a valley of the province of Alsace and near the historic old city of Stras- burg. After his death his widow, a native of Westervallen, Germany. be- came the wife of Frederick Savarien, and they came from the south of France to America in 1749. George Keefer, the son of the first marriage, was two years of age at this time, and the family settled in Paulinskill, on Peppercorn creek, near Newton, province of New Jersey, where he was reared to maturity.
As indicated in the foregoing paragraphs Charles Hamot Strong has a lineage in which he may well take pride giving due meed of honor to those who have lived worthy lives and achieved worthy deeds in the past. He secured his preliminary educational discipline in the private schools of Erie, including the old Erie Academy, and in 1872 he went to New Haven, Connecticut, where for one year he pursued his studies under the tutorship of Thomas Thacher, who later became a prominent member of the bar of New York City. In June, 1873, he was matricu- lated in Yale University, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1877 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then returned to Erie, where he devoted about three months to reading law under the preceptorship of Judge Frank Gunnison. His intention at the time was to prepare himself for the legal profession, but he was soon drawn into another field of endeavor, and one in which he has attained to distinctive success and prestige. His business career was initiated by his assuming the position of shipping clerk in the rolling- mill department of the Mount Hickory Iron Works, in Erie, where he was thus employed about one year. At the expiration of this period a diametrical change was made in his position with this concern, as he then became president of the corporation operating the plant in Erie. He continued incumbent of this position until the mill was destroyed by fire, and a short time later he became president of the Union Coal Com- pany, which operated mines at Shamokin, Pennsylvania, under leasehold from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The major portion of the output of these extensive mines was shipped from Erie to the various important ports on the Great Lakes. He continued president of this company until its dissolution, occasioned by the final adjustment of the affairs of the W. L. Scott Company, in which latter he had been a di- rector and vice-president. He was also vice-president of the Spring Val- ley Coal Company, of Illinois, and has been interested as trustee and
549
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
executive officer in various other important corporations in which the late William L. Scott was interested. At the present time Mr. Strong is president of the Erie & Pittsburg Railroad Company Corporation, whose lines are operated under lease by the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany. He is also president of the Erie County Electric Company, which supplies the city of Erie with street lighting and power, and he is presi- dent of the Erie Dispatch-News Company, publishers of the city's only morning daily newspaper.
The interests of his native city and county are ever of paramount importance to him, and his influence and zealous co-operations are given in support of all enterprises and measures advanced for the material, civic or moral benefit of the community. He is a member of the Erie Board of Trade, and holds membership in the Erie Club, the Kahkwa Club and the Country Club, representative social institutions of his home city, besides which he is a member of the Manhattan, University and Yale clubs, of New York City, and the Alumni Association of his alma mater, Yale University. He and his wife are communicants of St. Paul's church, Protestant Episcopal, in which he was baptized as an infant and in which his confirmation vows were given, so that the church and parish represent the associations particularly dear to him.
On the 8th of September, 1881, Mr. Strong was united in marriage to Miss Annie Wainwright Scott, daughter of the late William L. Scott, one of Erie's most honored and influential citizens and one to whom a mem- oir is dedicated on other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Strong have one daughter, Matilda Thora Wainwright Strong, who was born June 24, 1882. On the 24th of February, 1906, she became the wife of Reginald Ronalds, of New York City, and they have one daughter, Thora Scott Ronalds, born December 14, 1907.
MRS. MARY JANE (SPIRES) GRACE. Possessing the mental vigor of heart and mind that characterized her earlier years. Mrs. Mary J. Grace, widow of the late Patrick Grace, is held in high respect as a woman whose kindness of heart manifests itself in her every day life. She was born on the parental homestead, in Washington town- ship, June 18, 1834, a daughter of John and Margaret (Morrison) Spires, natives of Ireland, and a sister of Hannibal L. Spires, in whose sketch, which appears elsewhere in this volume, further ancestral history may be found.
As a girl Mary Jane Spires attended the district school, and in assisting her mother in the many duties that come to a woman on the farm became familiar with the domestic arts. Becoming fitted for the responsibilities of a home maker, she married Patrick Grace, who was born March 17, 1830, in Ireland, and came as a young man to Pennsylvania, settling in Erie county. Wishing to further advance his knowledge of books, Mr. Grace attended the Erie Academy for a time, paying his expenses in the meantime by working evenings as a book-keeper. He subsequently bought the packet boat "Mayflower," which carried passengers and freight, on the canal, between Erie and Meadville. for four years living in Wellsburg, then called Cranes- ville. Going from there to Michigan, he was foreman and book- keeper at Stoney Island for a while, remaining there until his death, which occurred after a brief illness, his body being brought back to Erie for burial. While a resident of Cranesville, Mr. Grace had a
550
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
grocery store on the canal towpath, on the present site of the Bes- semer Depot, and carried on a substantial trade.
Four children blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Grace, namely : John E., a telegraph operator on the Pennsylvania Railroad, married, and has one child Walter E., who is a veterinary surgeon in Meridian. Mississippi ; Margaret Ellen, wife of W. W. Swalley, has two chil- dren, Grace and Harry ; Harry, a locomotive engineer, married Mary Backus, and they have two children, William C. and Margaret E .; Grace married Martin Grote, of Kinzua ; William, engaged in farming in Iowa, married Ida Wilson, by whom he has four children ; Frank, a twin brother of William, now a jeweler in St. Paul, Minnesota, married Gussie Shutinger, and they have one child, George; and Josephine, wife of William Peterson, of Cleveland, Ohio. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Grace, being left with a large family of children to support and educate, bravely turned her shoulder to the wheel, opening and managing a boarding house for a number of years, laboring cheerfully until hier little ones were grown to years of maturity, and were willing and glad to contribute towards her support and comfort. She now resides with her widowed brother, Hannibal L., on the old homestead, being his housekeeper and com- panion.
WILLIAM P. HAYES. As proprietor of the leading creamery of Elk Creek township, and an extensive manufacturer of cheese, Wil- liam P. Hayes is actively associated with the agricultural, industrial and manufacturing interests of Erie county, and is contributing his full share towards their advancement. A son of William M. Hayes, he was born December 1, 1858, in Crawford county, where his pater- nal grandparents, Heman and Mary (Hogle) Hayes, were early set- tlers, migrating there from New York state.
William M. Hayes was also born in Crawford county. A farmer from choice. he bought land in Erie county, on Hammett lake, and as a tiller of the soil met with good success. He married Harriett Ann Lake, a native of Pennsylvania, and they reared four children, namely: William P., of this brief sketch; Mary, wife of Martin Standlift, a farmer in Wilmington, Delaware; Frank, engaged in agricultural pursuits in Franklin township; and John, residing in Santa Rosa, California.
Having completed the course of study in the district schools, W. P. Hayes received a practical training in the various branches of agriculture on the parental homestead, and when old enough to choose an occupation selected that of a farmer. After farming for a while, he entered the employ of an uncle in Erie county, becoming foreman of a saw mill. Resuming his original occupation in 1881, Mr. Hayes bought his present farm in Elk Creek township, and has since car- ried on a most remunerative business, keeping in his dairy twenty- five cows. In 1906 he bought his present factory, known as the Ivory Ray Checse Factory and Creamery, and is managing it with satisfactory pecuniary results, in the manufacture of cheese, hand- ling on an average seven thousand pounds of milk a day. His creamery is up-to-date in every respect, equipped with the most modern machin- ery, and forms one of the leading industries of this vicinity.
551
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Mr. Hayes has been twice married. He married first Mary Payne, a daughter of James Payne, a farmer. She died in 1889, when but twenty-eight years of age. She bore him three children, namely : Clarence a farmer in Franklin township, married Emma Davis, and they have one child, Clarence Merle ; Seldon M., living in Los Angeles, California, married Miss Mae Gick; and Lydia, deceased, aged six- teen years. Mr. Hayes married second, on January 1, 1890. Viola Payne, a sister of his first wife, and to them ten children have been born, eight of whom are living, as follows: Martin; Beaulah, a graduate of the Edinboro Normal School; Elmer ; Mildred ; Aaron; Harold; Stella, and Deura. Two have passed to the life beyond, Howard, a twin brother of Harold, and Robert. Politically Mr. Hayes is a Republican; fraternally he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and religiously he is a member of the Baptist church.
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.