History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 78

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1340

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C. A. CHILD, merchant, Franklindale, was born in Smithfield, Bradford. Co., Pa., March 8, 1857. He is the son of A. E. and Marian A. (Phelps) Child, the former of whom was born in Warren, R. I., the latter in Smithfield, Pa. His father is the son of Edward Child, a ship-builder, of Rhode Island, who removed to and settled in Smith- field in 1819. His father and family moved to Smithfield at the same time, and were obliged to come by water to Newberg, N. Y. and then by lumber wagon to Athens, Pa .; there were four families altogether, and thirteen in number. At that time land was of- fered them, anywhere between Athens and South Waverly, at $1.00 per acre. Edward Child engaged in farming, having a family,

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later, of eleven children, but only six of them grew to maturity, and but three are now living. For quite a number of years Edward Child went to Warren or Bristol, R. I., and worked at ship-building from April to December, and a part of the time on ships engaged in the slave trade. After working as above at Bristol, R. I,, Chas. Child's father commenced learning the wagon-maker's trade, but after two years was obliged to discontinue on account of poor health, and was, later on, clerk in different stores, taught school, etc., and carried on the grocery business in Smithfield from 1877 to 1889; he sold out at the age of seventy years, on account of poor health.

Chas. A. Child, the subject proper of these lines, who is the second in the family, was educated at the common school in Smithfield; at the age of fourteen he went to clerk in a store at Emporium, Cameron Co., Pa., which he followed successfully until he now owns and controls a large establishment. In 1878 he went in business for himself in Smithfield, and in 1880 he removed to Franklindale, where he now commands an extensive business in drugs and general merchandise. At the age of twenty-two he married, in Sheshequin, April 23, 1879, Miss Aline, daughter of Elisha and Eliza Newell, the former a native of Sheshequin, and the latter of Orange county, N. Y. To them has been born one child, Harry, born May 24, 1886. In conjunction with the store Mr. Child has held the office of postmaster eleven years; politically he is a Republican.

RUFUS W. CHILD, farmer, P. O. East Smithfield, was born April 12, 1845, in East Smithfield, a son of Christopher and Harriet (Wright) Child, the former a native of Rhode Island. They came to this county in early life, and settled on a farm near where Rufus W. now resides. The grandfather, Christopher Child, was a sea captain, born in 1775, and a descendant of the Welch nobility ; the family have a crest, printed in London in 1797, presented to the captain by his relative, Sir Josias Child, which indicates that the name of Child was one of considerable note in England. Rufus W. Child, when seventeen years of age, enlisted in the service of his country, in Com- pany K, One Hundred and Forty-first P. V. I., and went to the front ; his brother Christopher was also in the War of the Rebellion. Mr. Child went west in 1879 to Dakota, where he dealt largely in cattle, remaining in the West ten years. He was married August 20, 1885, to Franc A., one of a family of ten children, six of whom are living, born to George and Elizabeth (Smith) Bartholomew, of Ulster, natives of this county ; her father's family were of the pioneers of Sheshequin. Mr. Child owns a fine farm of two hundred acres in East Smithfield township, and is principally engaged in dairying and stock raising, his cattle being of the Durham and Holstein breeds. He is a thorough and prosperous farmer. In politics he is a Republican, was elected county commissioner, and served several years while in Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Child have had no children.

FRANCIS CHILSON, miller and farmer, P. O. Macedonia, was born in the town of Asylum, this county, May 20, 1844, and is a son of David and Jane (Bennett) Chilson, natives of Asylum township, this county, and pioneers of Macedonia. Grandfather Bennett was

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in the War of the Revolution. The subject of this memoir was reared on his father's farm, and educated in the schools of the neighborhood. When twenty years of age he enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Forty-first P. V. I., and was in sixteen battles of the war for the Union, acquitting himself with distinguished honor at all times. At the close of the war, he returned home and commenced farming on his own account. He was first married, in 1864, to Ella Benjamin (now deceased), and they had one son, Glennie B., born July 27, 1874. Mr. Chilson afterward married Adelia, daughter of S. P. Henson, of Burlington, and there have been born to them three children, as follows: Carrie L., born August 29, 1882 ; Jennie, born November 29, 1886 ; and Leon H., born June 8, 1890. Mr. Chilson now owns the Smith Mills where he does a business in milling, sawing lumber and making shingles and also cider in its season. He now manufactures more buckwheat flour than any other miller in the county ; he is a member of the Patrons of Industry, and in politics he is a Republican. Mr. Chilson and family are widely known as being among our most prominent and highly respected people.

L. S. CHUBBUCK, farmer and stock grower, Orwell, was born in Orwell, this county, February 20, 1822, and is a son of Nathaniel Chubbuck, Jr., who was born in Connecticut, September 5, 1789, a son of Nathaniel, Sr., born October 16, 1764, married November 27, 1788, to Chloe Eaton, and died March 13, 1825; she was born March 4, 1768, and died October 11, 1832, and had a family of twelve children, as follows : Nathaniel, Aaron (born August 4, 1791, married to Matilda Dimmick, and died August 19, 1881), Hannah (born February 16, 1793, married to Joseph Hamilton, and resided in Windham where she died August 7, 1865), Dr. John (born February 22, 1797, a physician of note, and surgeon of the First Regiment of Engineers, Corps d' Afrique, in the service at Bragos and Santiago, Texas, in 1863-64; he died in Binghamton, N. Y., March 18, 1878), Jacob (born March 5, 1797), Shelden (born June 3, 1799, died March 22, 1804), James (born April 5, 1801, married to Pamelia Keeney, and died February 7, 1873), Chloe (born December 8, 1803, married to Levi Frisbie, and died August 20, 1860), Daniel O. (born May 17, 1805, married Polly Oak- ley ; was a farmer of this county for many years, but finally removed to Mount Vernon, Iowa, where he died June 3, 1880), Hollis S. (born March 13, 1809 ; he practiced medicine at Orwell Hill many years, and removed to Elmira, N. Y. where he built up a very large practice and died there March 4, 1883), Austin E. (born June 16, 1810, was first a farmer then a merchant at Elmira, and became a successful Metho- dist minister of the Genesee Conference, and died in Elmira, April 15, 1882), Francis S. (born March 10, 1812 ; he followed farming in Orwell until 1849, when he joined the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church; for many years was a successful and brilliant preacher; was chaplain of the First Regiment of Engineers, Corps d'Afrique, in service at Bragos and Santiago, Texas, in 1863-64 ; he died at Nichols, N. Y., May 15, 1890). Nathaniel Chubbuck came to this county in 1811, and after a short absence, when he returned in the spring of 1812, he found the roof of his log cabin crushed in by the

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snow, but with the assistance of neighbors this was soon repaired, and with a chest for a table and shingle blocks for chairs, he began housekeeping in the wilderness. He lived in the old log cabin thirteen years, and there the first Methodist sermon ever delivered in that township was preached in 1813 by Marmaduke Pierce, who came from the oldest settlements down the river at Mr. Chubbuck's invitation. Mr. Chubbuck shortly after joined the church and preached to his friends and neighbors many years. Soon after coming he built a tannery, and combined tanning and shoe-making with farming and lumbering. To him and his wife were born eight children, four of whom reached maturity, as follows : Nathaniel J. (born 1812, and died in 1890; had passed the greater portion of his days at Monroe- ton, and commanded the respect of all who knew him), H. J. (born March 8, 1819, and is now a prominent farmer of Warren township), L. S., Hollis L. (born August 23, 1828, in the employ of the Govern- ment teaching the Indian schools).

L. S. Chubbuck was born and reared on the farm he occupies, receiving a common-school education, and a course at Towanda Academy. At the age of sixteen he began teaching, and followed it many years ; during his earlier years he would teach in the winters, farm during the summer, and attend the Academy of Towanda during the fall term. Completing his academical course, he continued teaching and farming nearly thirty years, then quit teaching and devoted his entire attention to farming; has always made his home on the old homestead, and has assisted in clearing over 100 acres thereof ; now owns 176 acres of fine farm land, which his son assists in managing, and which is well stocked. Mr. Chubbuck was united in marriage August 21, 1845, with Phoba, born September 1, 1822, the fifth of a family of nine children of Daniel and Deborah (Richardson) Gleason, of Connecticut. To Mr. and Mrs. Chubbuck have been born four children : Mary E. (born February 1, 1847, married to Dr. O. D. Stiles, of Elmira, N. Y.); Melville E. (born June 17, 1852, married to Stella Pitcher, and is now bookkeeper in the employ of D. T. Evans, of Towanda): Clara E. (born April 17, 1854, married to C. W. Stevens) ; Ephton E. (born February 3, 1862, married to Jennie Manley ; he is a school teacher, also assists his father on the farm; he was married February 17, 1888, and has one child, Manley Eaton. Besides their farm business the father and son are extensive drovers, ship- ping to markets in the southern part of the State. Mr. Chubbuck has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Orwell, since his sixteenth year, and is an earnest worker in the same; he now holds the position of recording steward and secretary of the board of trustees ; he is a Republican, and has held the office of auditor of the township for thirty years, with the exception of three years, when he held the office of town commissioner.

O. J. CHUBBUCK, Towanda, was born in Orwell township, this county, May 7, 1825. His father, Jacob Chubbuck, was the fourth child in afamily of twelve-ten sons and two daughters-of Nathaniel and Chloe Chubbuck. Jacob Chubbuck was born March 5, 1797, in Ellington, Tolland county, Conn., whence he came, in 1814, with his

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brother Aaron to Orwell. He returned to his native place where he was married to Minerva Tupper, October 7, 1819, and then brought her to the Orwell farm, where he lived until about a year before his death in 1873. At the time of his coming there was a small log house, and a clearing of about one acre, all else around him being an unbroken for- est. Here he reared his family of six children-three sons and three daughters. The subject of this sketch being the second. The Chub- bucks are of English stock; two brothers, Charles and Nathaniel, immigrants, landed at Plymouth, Nathaniel settling at Wareham, Mass. His son, Ebenezer, was in the French-Indian War, fighting under the British flag, and afterward was in the Revolutionary War, rising to the rank of lieutenant in the line; he died in 1810. His son Nathaniel (grandfather of subject), with his wife, Chloe, and daughter Chloe (Mrs. Levi Frisbie), cameto Orwell in 1818 and settled near his sons, Nathaniel, Aaron and Jacob. He purchased a large tract of land in Orwell, which, in time, became the farms of O. J. Chubbuck, E. C. Bull, Charles Pendleton and C. J. Chubbuck. The family came from Connecticut in the primitive pioneer way-an ox-cart, driven by their son James, while the other boy, Daniel, drove the cows. Nathaniel, grandfather of O. J. Chubbuck, was born October 16, 1764, and died March 13, 1825; his wife, Chloe, was born March 14, 1768, and died October 11, 1832. Nathaniel Chubbuck, Jr., was born September 5, 1789, and died August 1, 1865.

O. J. Chubbuck, the subject of this sketch, was reared in Orwell township, at the old family home, receiving his education in the pub- lic schools and in an Academy. In the winter of 1844-45 he com- menced teaching, but as the wages of teachers were small here, he went to Schuylkill, Berks and Columbia counties. He was, from the first, one of the most active school men of his day, and took a promi- nent part in organizing the Bradford County Teachers Association, which first met in January, 1855. In 1857 he was secretary of the Orwell School Board, and sent a request to the county superintendent of schools (Charles R. Coburn) to hold a County Teachers Institute at Orwell, and the first Institute in the county was in Orwell commenc- ing September 7, 1857, of which Mr. Chubbuck was president and one of the principal teachers and lecturers therein. It is not amiss to explain here that he was, in his school work and in much of his educa- tion, a self-made man, one who rapidly rose and was widely honored as one of the leading educators in the county. In 1863, during his second term as justice of the peace, he was elected county superintend- ent of schools; he served his term and was re-elected in 1866, serving two full terms, and was a chief factor in organizing the graded schools of the county. At the Institute of 1857, of which he was president, he exhibited a school-room globe of his own make and pattern, con- structed and mounted very much as are those now found in our Public Schools. His devotion to his office and interest in the schools of the county are visible in the effects still in force. In 1872 he was elected register and recorder of Bradford county, filling this as other offi- cial positions, with fidelity, ability and eminence. In an active, busy life he has not been a man of merely one idea. He, early in life,

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espoused the cause of temperance, being an active and zealous member of the I. O. G. T., and a representative of his Lodge in the Right Worthy Grand Lodge at Ithaca, before the Grand Lodge of Pennsyl- vania was organized. Since the repeal of the "local option law," in 1875, he has been an open and avowed advocate of prohibition. His addresses on the subjects of education for the young and temperance for all have become a part of the county's literature. Earnest in his convictions and fearless in their defense, he has never been touched with bigotry or fanaticism. And in the patient years of his active life he has been enabled to evolve a system of mental philosophy, which, in his mind, bears a like relation to the truths of mental science, as the Copernican system of astronomy does to the movement of the Heavenly bodies. A study of the form and motions of the earth led to a correct system of astronomy ; so the study of the motions in one's own mind may lead to a knowledge equally as con- clusive and satisfactory. This seems true in his case, and seems in line with Scripture. This rather abstruse subject he has not pushed upon the public ; he is content at present to leave the whole to the future, merely with this suggestion, confident it will at some time be taken up and carried to the full. He will remain more prominent as a chief promoter of our schools, and as an organizer and lecturer on schools and temperance, in his writings and published addresses. He was a delegate to county and State conventions, and as a member and officer in society meetings, and as a promoter of the prohibition party, he has stood as a central figure. Before the Prohibition State Conven- tion in 1882 he delivered an address that attracted wide and favorable notice. Mr. Chubbuck has been twice married : his first wife was Eunice Hicks, to whom he was married June 28, 1849 ; she died December 10, 1857, and he married, May 5, 1859, Ann E. Keeney, the daughter of Simon Z. Keeney, of Scotch and English descent. The fanily are active members of the Methodist Church, and he takes a prominent part in the Sunday-school, of which he was superintend- ent in Orwell, and a Church trustee. He is a member of the K. of P. Lodge, No. 290, and has served as deputy and keeper of records and seal, and representative to the Grand Lodge.

REV. S. A. CHUBBUCK, minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Orwell, was born August 9, 1830, on the farm now owned by O. J. Chubbuck, in Orwell township, and is a son of Jacob and Minerva (Tupper) Chubbuck. His grandfather, Nathaniel Chubbuck, was a native of Connecticut, who came to Orwell in early times, and located in the neighborhood, purchasing a large tract of land. He had a large family of children, many of whom distinguished themselves in their various professions. John was a physician of note ; Hollis also was a physician, and practiced many years in Orwell, then in Elmira ; A. E. was a Methodist Episcopal minister of the Central New York Con- ference ; F. S. was also a minister of the Wyoming Conference, and died in Nichols, N. Y., in 1890, being the last of that family; Aaron was a justice of the peace in Orwell many years and associate judge, occupying the bench with David Wilmot; and Jacob (the father of S. A. Chubbuck), a farmer, was one of the best-known citizens of the

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county. He reared a family of children as follows: Harriet M., mar- ried to George Crowfoot, whom she survives; O. J., of Towanda ; Chloe E., married to P. W. Champion, of Lanark, Ill .; S. A .; Ellen M., mar- ried to Leonard O. Brown ; Tracy J .; Julia M., who died, aged twelve years. S. A. Chubbuck was born and reared on a farm, and received his education in the common schools and at Orwell Hill Academy. He became a surveyor, followed that occupation some time, and has done a large amount of surveying in this county ; went West about 1854, and located in Minneapolis, Minn., working at the carpenter and joiner trade a short time ; then entered mercantile business there. He joined the church, and feeling a Divine call to preach he sold out his business and began his ministerial work in 1859 ; was ordained deacon in the fall of 1860, and for ten years was an earnest worker on the

western frontier. He returned to his native State, entered the Cen- tral New York Conference, with which he was connected about twenty years, and in 1890 he was superannuated ; he then purchased his pres- ent farm, which was a part of his grandfather's estate, and contains 100 acres of fine land. Mr. Chubbuck was united in wedlock, Septem- ber 21, 1862, with C. B. Pendleton, daughter of Charles and Aurelin M. (Buffington) Pendleton, and to them have been born two children : Allie L. and Charles P. Mr. Chubbuck is a Prohibitionist, an earnest worker in the vineyard of the Lord, and his labors have been crowned with noted success. Surrounded by an interesting family and a host of friends, he is now enjoying a well-earned repose.

TRACY J. CHUBBUCK, farmer, P. O. Orwell, was born on the old homestead in Orwell township, this county, January 1, 1840, and is a son of Jacob Chubbuck. He passed his boyhood on the farm, and received his education in the common schools. On August 6, 1862, he enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Forty-first P. V. I., and served in the ranks until just before the battle of Chancellorsville, when he was detailed on detached service, as a member of the brigade band. He was in the battle of Fredericksburg, while in the ranks, and was under fire in almost every engagement of the regiment sub- sequent to that ; although scratched several times by both ball and shell he was never seriously wounded, though, being on detached duty, he was in many dangerous foraging expeditions. After seeing as dangerous and as hard service as almost anyone in the army, he was mustered out with his regiment, returned home and resumed farming, the first summer with his brother, O. J. Chubbuck, the next season on the Erie canal with his brother-in-law, George Crobutt, then for some time was in the West. Returning home, he was united in marriage, February 3, 1869, with Nancy M., daughter of Peleg and Mary (Seely) Tripp, of New York, whose family consisted of eleven children, of whom six reached maturity, viz .: Seymore, Nancy M., William, Jonathan (deceased), Jacob and Emma (married to Nathan Grant). In 1869 Mr. Chubbuck purchased his farm where he has since resided. Rheumatism and heart trouble came to him through exposure during his term of service, which renders him unfit to do manual labor, but he oversees his farm which contains ninety acres of fine farm land. To Mr. and Mrs. Chubbuck have been born two children: Clarence T.

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(a jeweler, born January 24, 1872), and Cora E. (born February 24, 1877). The family worship at the Methodist Episcopal Church of Orwell Hill. He is a member of the Stevens Post, No. 69, G. A. R., at Rome, and has filled the chairs of junior and senior vice-commander ; is a Prohibitionist, and has held the office of school director. Mr. Chubbuck has passed his life, with the exception of the time spent in the army, in this section, where he and his estimable lady have built up a large circle of friends, and are noted for their geniality and hospitality.

CALVIN W. CHURCHILL, retired farmer, Granville township, P. O. Le Roy, was born in Stockbridge, Berkshire Co., Mass., July 23, 1809, a son of Alvah (who was a son of Jacob Churchill) and Aurelia (Andrus) Churchill, who settled in Granville township, this county, in 1817, locating near Granville Centre, where the father worked at the tinsmith's trade and farmed on a small scale until his death. Alvah Churchill and his wife, Aurelia (daughter of Elisha Andrus, formerly of Berkshire, Mass., who settled in Granville township in 1820), had four children: Achsah (Mrs. Dunham Ross), Calvin W., Amanda (Mrs. Harry Bailey) and Fayette. Calvin W. Churchill, from nine years of age, was reared in Granville township, where he has since remained; he cleared and improved the farm of eighty acres he now occupies. He has been twice married ; his first wife was Lura, daughter of Hugh and Prudence (Bailey) Holcomb, of Le Roy town- ship, and by her he had three children, who grew to maturity : Olney, Lutilia (Mrs. Hollis A. Holcomb) and Martha (Mrs. D. S. Sherman) ; his second wife was Mrs. Mehitable (Ralyea) Gee, of Granville town- ship. Mr. Churchill is one of the oldest living residents of Granville township; he is a member of the Christian Church, and in politics is a Republican.

JOHN CLAPPER, farmer, Tuscarora township, P. O. Silvara, was born in New Baltimore, N. Y., a son of William P. and Catherine (McCarg) Clapper, the former of German lineage and the latter of Irish, both being natives of New York. His father, who was a car- penter and joiner by trade and a soldier in the War of 1812, reared a family of nine children, as follows: Hannah M. (deceased), married to David Jav, of Broome county, N. Y .; Peter, a farmer in Tuscarora ; Margaret (Mrs. P. F. Hardee); John, the subject of these lines ; Will- iam, a farmer in Tuscarora; Sally Ann (Mrs. Edward Merbaker), of Rome; Mary Jane; Julia (Mrs. William Featherly), and Abram, a farmer in Michigan. Mr. Clapper learned the carpenter and joiner's trade and worked at it with his father until 1840, when he settled on a farm in Tuscarora township, and has since been engaged chiefly in farming, but occasionally working at his trade. He married, for his first wife, Harriet, daughter of J. C. and Margaret (French) Culver, of Sheshequin, by whom he had ten children, viz .: Elmer L., a merchant in New York; Amelia (deceased); James, a farmer, in Tuscarora; Icelda (Mrs. Nathaniel Strickland, in Tuscarora); Margaret (deceased) ; Daniel L., a farmer in Tuscarora ; Catherine (deceased) ; Harriet (Mrs. Joel Carter, of Montrose) ; John F., a farmer in Pike, and Angeline, married to Wallace W. Gaylord, of Wyalusing. Mr. Clapper married,

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for his second wife, Malvina, daughter of George and Fannie (Phelps) Maxfield Bennett, of Tuscarora. Mr. Clapper is a stanch Republican, and has held the office of school director nine years ; constable, six years ; assessor, three years; commissioner, six years, and several minor offices ; he is a friend of honest government, and a man of whom the community may well be proud.

BENJAMIN CLARK, farmer, P. O. East Canton, was born in Orange county, N. Y., August 25, 1822, a son of Samuel and Hannalı (Van Fleet) Clark, also natives of Orange county. Our subject came to Bradford county in 1847, locating where Lindly Stone now lives, in Le Roy, where he resided five years, after which he removed to his present residence. He was reared and educated in Orange county, N. Y., and on February 9, 1841, he was united in marriage with Arminda, daughter of Noyse and Nancy Wickham, of Orange county. He enlisted in the Twelfth New York Cavalry, Company I, serving one year, after which he was honorably discharged, and he now draws a pension of $8.00 per month. He is the father of four children, three of whom are now living : Nancy M., married to Holcey Clark; Elmira J., married to John Shoemaker; and Harding, married to Ella M. Dunbar, by which union there is one son, Harry Ashton, born May 18, 1875. Mr. Clark resides on a farm of fifty-two acres of well- improved land, all of which is under cultivation ; he raises grain, stock and butter. He is a member of the Church of Christ, and of the G. A. R. Politically he is an Independent Republican, and has been honored with several town offices, all of which he discharged with credit.

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections, Part 78

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.) Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Bradsby, H. C. (Henry C.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1340