History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 80

Author: Schenck, J. S., [from old catalog] ed; Rann, William S., [from old catalog] joint ed; Mason, D., & co., Syracuse, N.Y., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 1020


USA > Pennsylvania > Warren County > History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 80


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JOHN WALTON.


675


JOHN WALTON.


where he lived until after the death of his first wife, and his marriage to the second.


Thus has the subject of this sketch, by virtue of industry and thrift and honesty, been able to accumulate property. Starting with no means or capital but his own energy and faith in himself, he has added one acre to another and one farm to another until he is accounted a wealthy man. The acres which he now owns do not represent a tithe of what he has had, for it has been his method to buy land when it was cheap and by his own efforts increase its selling properties and its value, and sell it at a profit. In this way he has bought and sold land all his life. His farming now consists principally in dairying. He owns in all about twenty-eight cows, besides other live stock, several colts and horses. His last home farm is now run on shares by his son Frank. Has a small farm of about sixty-five acres north of Columbus, which is chiefly devoted to the raising of hay for his horses and cows. Another farm of seventy-two acres adjoining his old farm is used for pasturing.


Mr. Walton cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson, and has been pretty true to the Democratic party ever since. He has held several important town- ship offices, but has not been politically aspiring. He was reared in the Meth- odist Episcopal faith, but has become more liberal in his views as he has grown older, and at this writing is devoting some thought to the mysteries of spirit- ualism-that fascinating system which, like Glendower of Wales, “ can call spirits from the vasty deep." Whatever his creed, wherever he is known, Mr. Walton is esteemed for his sterling and undeviating honesty. His note is un- necessary ; for an oral promise is as binding on his conscience as is a note in the eyes of the law. More than once he has exerted an energy seemingly far beyond his power for the purpose of meeting an obligation which was fast coming due.


By his first wife he was the father of the following children : Charles Henry, born June 14, 1829, now living in Columbus ; Laura Ann, born June 17, 1831, now the wife of Washington Colegrove in this township; Lucinda Maria, born September 26, 1833, now the wife of Lawrence Colegrove, in Concord, Erie county, Pa .; Darius Seth, born February 10, 1836, living now in Concord, Pa .; Louisa Jane, born November 13, 1836, first the wife of Albert Dewey, who died about a year after the marriage, and now the wife of Lawrence Madison, of Concord ; Spencer Aaron, born July 8, 1841, now of Columbus; Frank Denham and Franklin Ferdinand, twins, born December 20, 1845, the latter dying in about three months, the former still living in Columbus ; and Lucretia Emma, born May 7, 1848, died unmarried at Hudson, Wis., November 12, 1873, whither she had gone for treatment.


Mr. Walton married the second time on the 15th of September, 1880, his wife being formerly Elizabeth Lackey, daughter of Robert Lackey, a native of Scotland, as is Mrs. Walton, but for years a resident of Port Hope in Can-


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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


ada West. Her mother, Agnes Parker, died when Elizabeth was eleven years of age. Previous to their marriage, Mrs. Walton had resided in Columbus for some nineteen years.


SANFORD, JOEL G. The ancestors of J. G. Sanford are traceable sev- eral centuries in the past. The Sanford and Hoyt families, both his an- cestors, were among the very earliest settlers of New England. One of the great-grandfathers of the subject of this sketch, named Ward, was a sea cap- tain in the War of the Revolution. During that struggle he was taken pris- oner and confined in one of the British prison-ships. He jumped overboard with a companion and attempted to swim ashore, but was drowned, though his companion escaped and lived to tell the story. John Sanford, grandfather of J. G. Sanford, was born in Connecticut in 1772, came to Warren county with his son in 1838, and died at Rome, Crawford county, Pa., in 1856. His son, Samuel Ward Benedict Sanford, was born in Reading, Fairfield county, Conn., on the 22d of August, 1796, and the record of his birth is still en- grossed on the town books. He removed to Onondaga county, N. Y., in 1819, and four years later went to Batavia, Genesee county, in that State. Just pre- vious to his removal to Batavia, he married Esther Hill, daughter of John Green, who was a soldier of the Revolution, was with Washington at Valley Forge, and after living for a time in Vermont, died in Onondaga county, N. Y., not far from 1840. Samuel and Esther Sanford had four children, three of whom are now living. These three, besides the subject of this sketch, are Nancy Irene, wife of Calvin Nichols, of Spring Creek; and Orsamus Orland, living in Eldred township. The one that died was Washington Sobrieski, his death occurring on the 6th of June, 1862, when he had reached the age of thirty-one years.


Samuel W. B. Sanford came to Eldred township from Batavia in the spring of 1838 with horse and wagon, reaching that township on the 6th of May. He immediately built a house on the site now covered by his present dwelling, and began to clear his farm of seventy-six acres. During the summer he en- gaged in farming, and to some extent in lumbering, and in the following win- ter taught school in Garland, in Pittsfield township. From then to the present he has continued his farming. He is now an old man, but bears the respect and estecm of all who know him. He has for more than fifty years been a consistent member of the Methodist Church. He was a member of the old Whig party until its dissolution, when he united himself with the Republican party. He has been at all times a prominent man in town affairs, having held all the offices which it is within the power of his townsmen to bestow. He has been a justice of the peace three terms, school director seventeen years, and has also been prominent in county elections. It was chiefly through his efforts that the township was formed and the post-office established here. His


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677


JOEL G. SANFORD.


wife, who was born on the 25th of March, 1801, in Grafton, N. Y., is still liv- ing.


Joel Green Sanford was born in Batavia, Genesee county, N. Y., on the 3d day of September, 1824. He accompanied his parents to this county, and re- ceived the education that could be given to all the children in a new country. He kept his home with his parents until he was twenty-five years of age, work- ing on his father's farm. On the 10th of July, 1850, he married Nancy Ann, daughter of Samuel Moore, of Pittsfield township, and she lives to crown his latter days with comfort, as she did his earlier days with joy. At the time of their marriage Mr. Sanford removed to a piece of land containing eighty acres, embraced partly within the farm which he still owns and occupies. This farm now contains only seventy-five acres, Mr. Sanford believing in thorough culti- vation of a small farm rather than in loose management of a cumbersome tract. He owns another piece of land, however, of thirty-four acres. He built a house on the site of the one that he now occupies, which gave place to the present one in 1870. He has made his agricultural labors as general as the soil and climate will admit, refusing to confine himself to any specialty. He also engaged quite largely in lumbering until about 1880, when he allowed the saw- mill, which he had operated for years, to run down. Previous to the oil pe- riod he used occasionally to run down the river, though his suspension of these trips did not result from any interest he had in oil, as he has kept free from the entanglements and exciting fevers that disturb the oil operator's peace of mind. He is a natural mechanic, moreover, and though he was never apprenticed to the carpenter's or blacksmith's trade, or, indeed, any but the farmer's, he has done admirable work in all these branches of business and more. He built a number of the finest dwellings and barns in this part of the town. Besides this, he has a wagon or wheelwright's shop in which, at leisure moments, he manufactures some of the best wagons in the world. In fact, he seems at home in any branch of the mechanic arts.


Mr. Sanford is a Republican of the uncompromising type, believing that the nature of Democratic institutions like the United States demands the perpet- ual though peaceful collision of two opposite parties, the one conservative and the other radical. He favors the Republican principles because he thinks that party to be the one of moral force and ideas. He is well adapted for the ad- ministration of public affairs and is a natural leader. He has held all the offices within the gift of his township, and was, indeed, school director for thirteen consecutive years. He has been postmaster at Sanford post-office for five years. He is not a member of any church, but favors the establishment and rejoices over the success of churches, and contributes to their support with- out regard to creed.


J. G. Sanford and wife have had five children, four of whom are living - Samuel Myron was born on the 12th of September, 1851, and resides in El-


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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


dred township; Ida Ianthe, born November 2, 1854, died July 6, 1878 ; Mary Jane, born February 14, 1858, now lives at the home of her parents; Wash- ington Aaron, born January 19, 1862, now at home; and Etta Irene, born October 23, 1866.


0 RR, RICHARD S., was born in Halifax, Windham county, Vt., on the 7th day of June, 1810. He was of Irish descent, his grandfather, Isaac Orr, being born of Irish parents in Boston, and emigrating to Halifax a short time previous to the Revolution. His father, Isaac, jr., was a native of Halifax, where he passed his life, dying in 1818, aged forty-five years. Susan (Sum- ner), wife of Isaac Orr, jr., survived him a few years. The subject of this sketch attended the excellent common schools in his native place, and finished his education in a high school at Wilberham, near Springfield, Mass. After leaving school he took a partner and opened a hotel in Hartford, Conn., but this enterprise proved ephemeral. A short time previous to 1835 he went to Black Rock, Erie county, N. Y., where he engaged again in the hotel business. Not liking the place he soon removed to Jamestown, N. Y., where he passed a brief period as clerk in a hotel. After visiting Ohio City for a few months, he made Jamestown another abiding place pro tempore. At the solicitation of his brother, Henry Orr, who was in Warren then and is here now, he came to this borough to inspect some property for sale, and ended by renting the Mansion House, which is described in the history of Warren. This was in 1839. The owner of the property was the well-known Archibald Tanner, one of the largest property owners ever in the county. Mr. Orr remained the lessee of this hotel for a little less than ten years. Meantime he had become somewhat interested in the lumber trade, which then formed so prominent an industry in northwestern Pennsylvania, and in the spring of 1849 he severed his connec- tion with hotel life, and devoted more attention to the lumber trade. He did not allow that to absorb his sole attention, however, but formed a partnership with Frank Henry, and opened a store between the Mansion and Carver Houses, under the firm style of Orr & Henry. Mr. Orr continued his interest in the lumber trade until his death, on the 10th of January, 1860. The mer- cantile establishment was abandoned one or two years previously.


Richard S. Orr was one of nine children, who were born in the order named- Abner, the first born, died in infancy ; Annis, Lydia, Lurancy, Eu- nice, Henry, Elizabeth, Richard S., and Thomas. Of these only two are now living-Henry, who was born in 1806, and now resides in Warren, and Eliza- beth, who was born in 1808, married Robert Barber in 1831, and has resided in Warren since 1846.


Mr. Orr was at first a member of the old Democratic party, but when the Republican party was formed he gave it his allegiance and support. He was actively interested in politics, keeping himself well informed upon all the


679


RICHARD S. ORR. - HENRY R. ROUSE.


questions of the day, and entertaining opinions which he fearlessly expressed, and which evinced his intelligence. He was a regular attendant at the Pres- byterian Church, though not a member of any denomination. The most prom- inent trait in his character, probably, can be described only by the statement that " he was a lovable man." He was the soul of geniality. He was open- hearted and had the faculty of everywhere and always winning friends.


He was especially felicitous in all his domestic relations, and was a kind and affectionate son, brother, husband, and father. He was very public spirited and charitable, contributing generously to the material, and no less to the moral prosperity of the community in which he lived. He was always ready to help those who needed help and were worthy of it. He was never morose. Although he possessed a temper somewhat impetuous, he learned before at- taining manhood to keep it well curbed. He liked to have the good opinion of his fellowmen, but would never sacrifice his self-respect or a principle on the altar of popularity. Finally, he was faithful in every relation of life. When he was a young man in the employment of others, he was remarkable for his unrivaled fidelity. He would perform every duty with punctilious promptness and completeness, and this faculty seemed to increase with the ap- proach of years, rather than moderating.


On the 8th of January, 1839, he married Jane, daughter of Alexander and Lucinda Bostwick, who lived near Jamestown, N. Y. His widow now resides in Warren. They had five children, only three of whom are now living- Richard B. Orr was born July 11, 1841, and now in Warren; Sumner E., now in Warren, was born December 11, 1842; Henry S., born May II, 1844, died May 27, 1845; George P., now in Warren, was born on the 25th of Sep- tember, 1846; Frank Henry, born September 15, 1855, died April 16, 1856.


R OUSE, HON. HENRY R., was born in Westfield, Chautauqua county, N. Y., in 1824, and was killed on the 17th of April, 1861, by the explo- sion of an oil well on his farm in Southwest township. He was the son of Samuel D. and Sarah Rouse, and received a good academical education in his native town, though it was gained almost entirely by his own exertions. In early life he was in very indigent circumstances, and was unable to raise even the amount of his tuition bills at the academy, yet such were his energy, dili- gence, and exemplary conduct, and so great the promise in him of superior abilities, that he secured the regard of his teachers, who took a deep interest in him, and most of them remitted his tuition. Having afterward become wealthy, he particularly remembered his early teachers, some of them in his will. Not long before his death, meeting one of them, residing in Westfield, Mr. Rouse asked him for the old tuition bills, and said he was ready to pay them ; and he did pay them, principal and interest for more than twenty years. He was remarkably proficient in his studies, and displayed thus early the traits


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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


of character, the energy and the loving disposition for which he was noted in after life.


Having completed his academical course, he began the study of law in the office of Abram Dixon, of Westfield, but after about two years he relinquished his purpose because of a slight impediment in speech, which his diffidence led him to feel disqualified him for public speaking, though the impediment van - ished as soon as he became warmed with the subject of discussion. In the fall of 1840 he removed to Warren, Pa., traveling most of the distance on foot, and having when he reached Warren but one small piece of money in his pocket. But he was gifted with indomitable energy, and perseverance, and fertility of resource, and seemed to feel no discouragement. The first winter he taught school in the village of Tidioute. Being obliged to collect his own school tax, and times being hard, he took his pay partly in shingles. Laying out the rest of his money in shingles, he put the whole on a raft and sent them to Pitts- burgh, and with the proceeds the next spring purchased more shingles, shipped them in the same manner to the same market, and thus in a ycar or two was able to own a raft, and begin the accumulation of his fortune. Soon after he purchased an interest in a saw-mill, and produced his own lumber, and ran his own fleet of rafts. In company with R. M. Brigham he established a store at the village of Enterprise, which was built up largely by his exertions. Here he exchanged goods for lumber, and pressed on with such diligence and energy that in the course of fifteen years he became the owner of more than a thousand acres of valuable pine lands and a large farm which he had cleared himself. In the summer of 1859 his attention was called to the discovery of coal oil in his neighborhood, and with his usual sagacity and decision he set himself about the determination of its value. In October he opened a well on the Buchanan farm and on the Barnsdale tract in the vicinity of Titusville. Having satisfied himself of the value of the discovery, he proceeded to invest in oil lands, and with his partners became the owners of some of the best tracts in the entire region. His wealth now began to increase with almost fabulous rapidity, and the resources of his oil territory at his death were but partly developed.


In the fall of 1858 he was a candidate for political honors, and was elected by a large majority to represent Crawford and Warren counties in the Legisla- ture of the State. His public duties were discharged with ability, with honor to himself and fidelity to his constituents The next year he was again elected to the Legislature, though his increasing business made it extremely difficult for him to absent himself from home.


Foremost among his many noble traits of character were energy and de- cision. He was rather small in stature and of a light frame, but the energy of his will seemed to be unbounded. He never knew fear, and with him to re- solve was to execute. His public spirit was of the noblest and most unselfish kind. There was no enterprise by which the public was to benefited ; the re-


681


HENRY R. ROUSE. - BENJAMIN NESMITH.


cources of the region developed ; facility of intercourse increased, in which he did not prominently figure. He spent much time, money, and labor in opening and improving roads, constructing bridges, and helping on every work which tended to develop the wealth of this new country. How dear to him was the ac- complishment of these is evident from his will, which appropriated one-half of his property, after the payment of legacies, to the construction and improve- ment of roads and bridges in Warren county.


Mr. Rouse was a man of much literary taste and culture, and for a busi- ness man was a great reader. The impulse which he received in this direction while in attendance upon the academy was never lost. He kept himself in- formed on national affairs, and had collected a beautiful library of standard works in history and general literature. He was moved by warm impulses, and fostered strong personal attachments. He loved his friends with his whole heart, and never forgot them. This love for his friends was probably intensi- fied by his isolation from family attachments, as he was never married. He was continually showing kindness to families, and the children of his neighbors, making them presents, taking them to ride, and he surprised a number of them by legacies in his will. Many of his early friends were also thus re- membered, and to each of the persons who picked him up when he was insen- sible, and carried him to a place of safety he gave a legacy of one hundred dollars. To the poor he was proverbially liberal, dispensing his favors with a lavish hand. The anecdotes of his timely and sympathizing aid are many. He never forgot that he was once poor, and he had a strong sympathy with indigent merit, always lent with an open hand to its encouragement, and in his will he showed the liberality of his heart by giving a large part of his princely fortune for the support of the poor of Warren county. He was loved by, all who knew him, and in his death Warren county lost a most valuable and pub- lic-spirited citizen, his fellow-townsmen an energetic and a liberal-minded busi- ness man, the cause of virtue and sound morals a firm supporter, and the poor a sympathizing and most helpful friend.


N TESMITH, BENJAMIN, the subject of this sketch, derives his name from


a prominent family of Nesmiths that removed from Scotland to Ireland in 1690. In 1718 James Nesmith emigrated from Ireland to Londonderry, N. H. There he settled and reared a family of four sons and a daughter, viz .: Arthur, James, John, Thomas, and Mary. Benjamin Nesmith, of whom we are writing, is four generations in direct descent from the original settler in Amer- ica, and three generations from the son Arthur. Benjamin Nesmith, the grandfather of the subject of our notice, removed as far west as Buffalo, where in the course of nature he died. Two of his sons, James and John, emigrated from Buffalo to Mayville, N. Y., thence to Jamestown, and in 1825 to Warren, Pa., by canoe, as early as 1804. John Nesmith married Hannah, daughter of


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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


John Shirley, of New Hampshire. Shirley was also a pioneer in Warren, had served in the war of the Revolution, and died here about the year 1826. John Nesmith died at Warren about 1829, and was followed by his widow in one year. They had a family of nine children, all but three of whom are yet living.


Of this family, Benjamin Nesmith, the sixth, was born in Mayville, N. Y., on the 22d of January, 1820, and accompanied his parents to Warren in a canoe, in 1825. At that day there were only five or six houses in Warren, and they occupied a log structure on the bank of the Allegheny River. Here he received such limited education as was provided for all the young people of the time. Being very young when his father died, he was bound out without his own knowledge, by the township of Conewango, to Colonel John Berry, for whom he worked four or five years. As soon, however, as he found that he was looked upon as a ward of the town, his independent spirit revolted, and he took " French-leave" of his town-constituted master. He worked out by the month until 1843, when he learned the trade of harness making, and con- tinued to work at that business himself until 1848, and even until 1860 he re- tained an interest in the business which he had established. In 1848 he opened a store in Warren, and at the same time embarked in the lumber trade. His interest in the store he disposed of in 1871, but he has not yet relinquished his connection with the manufacture and sale of lumber. From small beginnings he has increased operations, until he now manufactures about about 30,000 boards every day. He has been pre-eminently a busy man all his life, and in- herited from his father a strong frame and great powers of endurance. He has been a builder, also, and has erected all the school-houses in Warren but one. He managed the construction of the magnificent Methodist house of worship, and encouraged the work of constructing it, not only with his unremitting personal efforts, but with much of his money and time. Most of the brick buildings in the business part of Warren were built by him, and he still owns three of them. His timbered lands, situated in Warren, Forest, and Kane counties, number some three thousand acres. He is at the same time an extensive operator in oil. He holds a number of honorable positions in the business world, among them being that of vice-president of the Warren Savings Bank, which he has held ever since he himself erected the building. His interest in educational matters is shown in the fact that he was school commissioner for twenty-one consecutive years until his resignation four or five years ago. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a trustee in its society. The secret of his success lies in the disposition which he has always owned that he would never leave for another to do what he himself could do. He is, as he always lias been-a hard-working man. Until within four or five years, when he has listened to the admonition of wasting years, he ran rafts down the river. He has never sought nor held political office, though he keeps informed upon all topics of national or State importance. He was formerly a Democrat, but since the organization of the Prohibition party has joined its ranks.


683


BENJAMIN NESMITH. - ORREN C. ALLEN.


He has been twice married. He was first united in marriage with Louisa, daughter of John Dickinson, of New Hampshire. She died on the 4th of Oc- tober, 1848, leaving two children, Alonzo and Ozro, still living and in business in Warren. In March, 1851, Mr. Nesmith married Arrilla Norton, his present wife. They have one child, Lurinda.




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