USA > Wisconsin > Walworth County > History of Walworth county, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 50
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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
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
a large grant of public land in aid of railway building. He voted for its bill. but refused its present of bonds, though that was the share of a senator. In two of his congressional terms the unending debate on the admission of Kan- sas, with all its wanderings, overshadowed other proceedings, and in his third term the consideration of war measures was always in hand. In the first four years he found occasions to use his fists with much practical and some scenic effect in Homeric battles on the floor of the House, in which he left the marks of his peculiar grace on the godlike countenances of William Barksdale, Reu- ben Davis and Lucius Q. C. Lamar-all of Mississippi. "Potter, the wiry, from woody Wisconsin." lives sub-immortally in Punch's hexametric story of these congressional diversions. Mr. Potter never quite liked that so much import- ance should be given to his affair with Mr. Pryor, which grew from a cor- rection and counter-correction of a passage in the record of a previous day's debate. The matter was wholly personal, but the excited state of partisan discussion prepared men's minds to take fire over-easily. Northern opinion justified Mr. Potter's acceptance of the foolish challenge. He always spoke appreciatively of General Pryor's personal and professional qualities, and similarly of General Barksdale and Colonel Davis-but not so of Judge Lamar. Near the end of his last session, in 1863, Mrs. Potter died of typhoid fever contracted while trying to better the conditions of a badly managed mili- tary hospital. She was a high-minded, intelligent and brave-spirited woman. December 7, 1865, he married her sister. Sarah Lewis Fox, who died in 1882. In 1873 the Greeleyan bolters of the year before, with the Democrats of the county, needlessly mistaking his position, named him as their candidate for state senator. He was not fully aware of this action until election day, when he disclaimed such political fellowship. Taking an open Republican ballot, he folded it before all men present and thus voted for Mr. Weeks, his quasi- opponent. He died May 18, 1899. He was a ready, easy speaker, without tricks of elocution, and cared more to convince his hearers than to electrify them or to stir them to transient emotion.
ROBERT KNIGHT POTTER ( Joseph", Thomas5, John+ 3 ", Robert1), son of Joseph Potter and Anna Knight, was born at Cranston, Rhode Island, April 11, 1791. Two of his brothers, Alonzo and Horatio, were bishops of the Epis- copal church ( the first of Pennsylvania, the other of New York ), and Para- clete was eighty years ago editor of the Poughkeepsie Journal. Mr. Potter married Sarah, daughter of Daniel and Phoebe Pine, December 25, 1813, and lived many years at Beekman, Dutchess county, where four children were born. In or about 1825 he moved to Monroe county, and thence in 1843 to sections 18, 19, Lafayette, with his twelve children. In 1857 he left the farm to his
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
son Joseph and built a house at Elkhorn, where he died March 15, 1883. Mrs. Potter was born in 1793 and died July 6, 1887. Their children were long known in half of the county: Emeline ( Mrs. Cyrus Cole) ; Russell (married Lavinia Avery ) : Amelia (Mrs. Gain R. Allen ) : Joseph (married Rosina Ells- worth; 2d, Mrs. Caroline (Randall) Penny) ; Rebecca (Mrs. Marcus C. Rus- sell) : Alonzo (married first. Laura Pitkin ; second. Adelaide Merrick) ; Rob- ert (married Mary E. Patterson) ; Horatio; Monroe (married Eliza Emily Bemis ) : Lorenzo Dow; Paraclete (married Arabella M. Seymour).
DAVID J. POWERS was born in southeastern Vermont, June 3, 1814 : had a common school education : was apprenticed to a machinist ; married and came in 1838 to Milwaukee. Here he met Willard B. Johnson, who told him of golden possibilities at Whitewater, and he came at once to see, and to buy half of section 12 (in his wife Caroline's name). Dr. Tripp gave him a hotel site in the new village, and he built and occupied the first hotel at Whitewater. He was also postmaster. but he had a wider and larger aim. In 1842 he bought a mill-site at Palmyra and platted that village. He was member of Assembly in 1853, and for the next fifteen years tarried at Madison to publish and edit the IL'isconsin Farmer, and to serve as secretary of the State Agricultural Society. He next went to Chicago, and thenceforth became of that city and its manu- facturing interests a part. His career was, on the whole, prosperous, and Whitewater is yet pleased to remember him as one of its founders.
SAMUEL PRATT, son of Samuel and Hephsibah, was born at Enfield, Massachusetts, October 6, 1807: his wife was a daughter of Thomas Miller; he came to White Pigeon in 1829 and to Spring Prairie in 1837. He was Assemblyman in 1849. elected over Ansel A. Hemenway and James Porter; in 1855 over Thomas Russell, in 1863 over Hollis Latham; senator in 1870 over Latham. in 1872 over Capt. John Tuttle. He died March 23. 1877. David Pratt. an early settler, was his brother and there were Pratts of the next generation at Spring Prairie related to him. He was an upright. intelligent. self-respecting man and a reputable legislator. His only son. Orris Pratt, served in the Assembly of 1883, having been chosen over Dwight S. Allen, who had been defeated in the nominating convention.
FREEMAN LIBERTY PRATT, son of Asaph and Hannah, was born at Eaton. New York, July 31. 1814; married at Smithfield, March 24. 1836, Melinda M .. daughter of Terry Mack and Catherine Demott : came with his brother Norman in 1839 to section 5. Whitewater. Their father came and built a mill. He ‹lied in 1844. The Pratt brothers built the first log house,-the only other buikling at the time being a shanty, filled with unmarried roysterers. Free- man died February 18, 1880. Mrs. Pratt was born April 17. 1820, and died July 18, 1898. She was Whitewater's kind and useful "Aunt Melinda."
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
OTIS PRESTON, son of Samuel and Mary Preston, was born at Lanesboro, Massachusetts, May 13, 1813 ; apprenticed to a tailor at Sheffield ; was foreman of one of the best shops at Great Barrington : and came in 1834 to White Pig- eon. His education was mainly from good reading and from contention in debating schools. He received from Stevens T. Mason, the "boy governor" of Michigan, a captaincy for possible service in the "Toledo War"; and, as a member of Assembly in 1841 he was a stalwart adherent of Gov. John S. Barry. His business at White Pigeon as tailor and dealer in general goods flourished for a time : but in 1846 he came to Spring Prairie village, and in 1848, having been chosen sheriff over George W. Dorrance ( Whig) and Perry G. Harrington (Democrat ), he came to Elkhorn, this his last removal. In 1855 he failed of nomination ( on the Barstow ticket ) as state treasurer. but was placed the next year on the Buchanan electoral ticket. He served three terms as member of the county board, and so closed his official life. Though never a farmer he was an enthusiastic member of the Agricultural Society and five times its president. He had opened a store for the sale of dry goods and groceries, at the close of his sheriffalty, first with lloratio N. Hay, and later with Benjamin FF. Pope as partner. His voice as a town officer and as a business man was always for village improvement. He would have moved the village a half-mile eastward and new-named it "Centralia." His firm built a grainhouse, and across the track southward platted an addition which he named "Byzantium." The business panic of 1857 demolished his and many another's air-castles, and he ended his long life of honest and hopeful poverty January 10, 1890. His wife, Julia Ann, daughter of Sinieon De Witt Corbin and Amanda Pratt, was born in Ohio, July 2, 1818: married at White Pigeon, May 18, 1836: died November 9, 1892. They had three children : Orville Marshall, who died while yet a minor,-full of promise for business activity : Lydia Louise (Mrs. Henry Cousins ) : Robert Clark, long his father's associate in the business of the once locally famous "Shanty," died at Eau Claire June 4, 1907. Mrs. Preston was a woman "nobly planned." Mr. Preston was a clean-living, kind-hearted, broad-minded, public-spirited man. An earlier ambition had been to make himself an orator, for which his figure. manner and voice fitted him fairly. His later aspiration was toward editor- ship, for which he lacked nearly everything.
JOSIAHI OSGOOD PUFFER was son of Sammuel Puffer and Eunice ( Osgood ) Osgood. His mother's ancestors were John1. Stephen", Hooker", David4. Capt. Josiah3 and wife Jane Byington. Her first husband, Samuel Osgood, son of Jonathan, Jr., was her second cousin. Their son Samuel Stillman Os- good, was a good man of Elkhorn. Josiah O. Puffer was born at Sunderland,
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Massachusetts, October 22, 1814: came to Spring Prairie and prospered in shoe-shop, on farm, and in business at the village ; married successively Han- nah M. Whitmore and Mrs. Mary Whitmore Hatch. Hannah was born April, 1820; died February 11, 1862, leaving six sons. Mary died January 31, 1897. Mr. Puffer was a deacon in the Baptist church. In the church and out of it he was a man of action, for he was sound and energetic in body and in mind, and had his share in the direction of local affairs. Ile died March 16, 1895.
ADAM E. RAY was a son of Martin Ray (born 1779) and Caroline Phelps (born 1781). He was born at Kingston, New York, in 1808. He came about 1837 to Milwaukee, and served for Milwaukee and Washington counties in the territorial Legislature ; lower house from 1839 to 1842; upper house in 1845. About 1846 he settled in section 6 of Troy with wife Eliza, and was four times a county supervisor. At the legislative session of 1851 he was an assemblyman, chosen over Timothy Mower and Mellen Berry. About 1858 he went to Alabama with intent to try northern ways of farming there. He and his money were made welcome, but within a year or two the political atmosphere became so over-heated that he returned and soon afterward moved to Waukesha, where he died September 20, 1865. His children were Patrick Henry, Eliza, Mary, Augusta, Jane, Fred, Ira. Ida. P. Henry Ray enlisted in April, 1861, and served in Company K. Second Infantry, as corporal; in Company A. First Heavy Artillery, as senior first lieutenant ; in Company L. same regiment, as captain ; entered the regular service in 1867 as second lieu- tenant ; was retired as brigadier-general ; and died in 1911.
GEORGE AUGUSTUS RAY, son of Martin and Caroline, was born in Dela- ware county, New York, April 23, 1819; came to Mukwonago by way of Mil- waukee about 1837; to East Troy about 1842: to Lagrange about 1860; to Whitewater in 1870, where he died February 23, 1893. He served for seven terms as county supervisor for Lagrange, and in 1868 was assemblyman, hav- ing defeated Henry B. Clark. October 31, 1844, he married Fanny, daughter of Jonah Wicker and Fanny Compton. She was born in Vermont, March 31. 1826; died at Whitewater, October 25, 1906. Their children were Mary ( Mrs. William R. Taylor) ; James W .; Frank P .; Ada (Mrs. Arthur R. Cook) ; Margaret (Mrs. Roby).
HENRY M. RAY, son of Martin and Caroline, was born in April, 1806, at Kingston. He came to Darien before 1860. In 1865 he was one of the incorporators of the First National Bank of Delavan. He died November 5. 1866. Mrs. Mary S. Ray, his wife, was born in Saratoga county; died at Delavan, April 23, 1892. Their children were Asa W .; W. Augustus; Henry : Mary E. ( Mrs. Warren W. Sturtevant ) ; Platt. W. Augustus was colo-
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WALWORTHI COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
nel of the Fortieth Infantry, and Henry E. was a lieutenant in the same regi- iment.
EDWIN MORTIMER RICE, son of Jones Rice and Hannah Hemenway, was born in Addison county, Vermont, February 13. 1817 : married December 24. 1 840, Laura E .. daughter of Ira Wicker, of Bridgeport ; came in 1841 to section 5, Richmond : was member of the county board in 1855 and in the same year began six years of service as superintendent of the poor. In 1867 he moved to Whitewater, where he died May 19. 1904.
ERASMUS DARWIN RICHARDSON, son of Caleb Richardson and Clarissa Knight, had ancestors Thomas1, Nathaniel?, John". Caleb', John". He was born at Burlington, New York, November 26, 1810: in 1834 married Eliza- beth W., and in 1843 Alma O., daughters of Abraham Spafard and Sarah Williams. He came to section 31 of Lyons in 1842, and from his farm was taken the addition of five acres to Lake Geneva. He began his banking busi- ness at Lake Geneva in 1848 and continued in it until his death, January 2. 1892. His affairs were found somewhat involved, most likely because age had impaired his earlier sound judgment. He had served the town as clerk. and the village as president, and was a member of the Assembly of 1849. He was regarded as one of the safest business men of the county. His one child. Elizabeth, was wife of Charles E. Buell.
ARD STARR ROCKWELL was a son of Benjamin Sperry Rockwell and Try- phena Starr. Jabez Rockwell, his grandfather, was of Danbury, Connecticut, where his children were born. These were Levi, Eli, Benjamin S .. and Ezra. Benjamin S. Rockwell was born May 19. 1762; married May 4, 1783 : died October 30, 1835. at Butternuts, New York, whither he had removed in 1795. Tryphena was daughter of Jonathan Starr, Jr., and Lucy, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Ruggles. Her earlier ancestors were Thomas1, Dr. Comfort". Thomas3, Josiah4, John5, Jonathan". She was born May 12, 1762; died March 23. 1851. Their children were Ard Starr, Keziah, Ashbel Ruggles, Amos, Andrew. Asahel, Rachel, Laura, Anson, Almon. Ard S. was born December 5, 1783; married Betsey Shaw in 1809; died at Elkhorn, July 4. 1866. Mrs. Rockwell was born in 1795 : died December 5, 1875. Their sons were John Starr, LeGrand, Lester Ruggles. Henry; and there were four daughters.
JAMES OLIVER ROSENCRANS (Simeon', Col. John3, Alexander2, Herman Hendrick1) was son of Dr. Simeon Rosencrans and Sarah Shoemaker. He was born at Walpack. Hunterdon county, New Jersey, June 3. 1803 ; married Susannah, daughter of James Van Campen and Cecelia Decker, March 3. 1824; came to early Whitewater-several namesakes and relatives also to
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
Troy, Sugar Creek and other towns; died May 5, 1883. His wife was born November 6, 1805, died September 1, 1892. Their daughter Cecilia was mar- ried to Augustus C. Kinne.
CYRUS RUGG, son of David Rugg and Eunice, daughter of Solomon Gleason, was descended from John1, Daniel2 3, Reuben4. He was born at Heath, Massachusetts, January 20, 1811 ; married October 7, 1835, Lucinda F., daughter of Zenas and Abigail Taylor. She was born February 29, 1816; died November 2, 1884-having known but seventeen birthdays. Cyrus died at Logan, Iowa, February 2, 1894. In 1860 they had six children. Mr. Rugg came to Bloomfield in 1841. He served the town three terms as its member of the county board. A few of his townsmen remember him as a competent farmer and man of town affairs, and speak of him as one of the best men of his town-and, therefore one of the best of the county. His brother, Erastus Root Rugg, was born November 2, 1820; came to Bloomfield in 1841 ; mar- ried December 25, 1844, Lucy Elizabeth Hatch; went westward in after years; was killed at Portland, Oregon. September 20, 1889. Mrs. Rugg was born January 18. 1827: died September 4. 1900.
SILAS SALISBURY, if, as here supposed, he was son of Duty ( or Dutee) Salisbury and Cynthia Smith, had ancestors : William1, Cornelius2, Jonathan3, Edward4. He married Lydia Dodge and their children were born in Cortland county between 1807 and 1830. These were Amanda. Ansel. Oliver, Nelson. Rhoda, Elisha, George, Mary Jane, Christopher, Silas, Samuel, Lydia Ann. Three of the sons came to Whitewater.
Ansel Salisbury was born May 15, 1809 : came to Spring Prairie in 1837; married Olive Dame at Northport, Michigan, in 1843; went to Lima in 1846; to Whitewater in 1854; owned the branch mill 1858-1865 ; died November 24. 1884. Ilis children were: Egbert (married Jean Galbraith) : Edgar ( died aged [3) : Winfield Scott ( married Mary Earll) ; Stella ( Mrs. Clarence J. Partridge ) : Effic ( Mrs. Mannering De Wolf) ; Willard (married Atlanta Schrom) ; Jessie (married Fred Hurlbut, Jr.).
Nelson Salisbury was born December 31, 1812, at Marathon; came to Wisconsin in 1839: married Esther, daughter of Prosper Cravath and Miriam Kinney. She died April 16. 1845, leaving a child Helen ( Mrs. Luther L. Clark ). In January, 1880, he married Mrs. Julia Hemenway and died Sep- tember 14, 1880.
George Salisbury was born April 10, 1819; came to Spring Prairie in 1840; to Lima in 1841 : married in 1849 Philena Matilda, daughter of Levi Kinney and Adah Cravath : moved to Whitewater in 1854 : died April 7. 1889. His wife was born July 22, 1829 ; died July 9. 1902.
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
DANIEL SALISBURY suspected some not assignable degree of cousinship between himself and his namesakes. He was born at Ilomer, January 25. 1814: came to Spring Prairie in 1836: married Harriet, daughter of Isaac U. Wheeler, April 1, 1841 ; she died August 16, 1843 ; he married Lucinda Bryant June, 1848; she died May 14, 1878, leaving children : Wayland (1848-1866) ; Alice (Mrs. Hugh Paden) ; Harriet (Mrs. Frank J. Palmer) ; Celia ; Rollin D. : Elsie. He died March 29. 1888, having been for a few years the oldest living settler. Rollin Daniel Salisbury was graduated from Beloit College: was for some years assistant to the state geologist and was or is a geological professor at the Northwestern University, at Chicago. He has made some contributions to geological science and his reports and other works have been published.
ARTHUR LOOMIS SANBORN ( Ebenezer Simpsons 7. John". Ebenezer3. Enoch+, John3 2 1), son of Ebenezer Simpson Sanborn and Harriet Blount, was born at Brasher Falls, St. Lawrence county, New York, November 17. 1850. His father died in 1862, leaving two bright boys to be led to honorable and useful manhood by their mother-one of the best and most capable of women. The family had lived some years at Lake Geneva. Mr. Noyes gave Arthur a clerkship in the office of register of deeds, and the mother and sons made their home at Elkhorn. In 1875 the clerk became chief, and his spare hours were given to thorough study of the law. In 1879 he was admitted to practice, and at the close of his term of office he went to Madison, to take a subordinate place in the office of Gregory & Pinney. A dissolution and re- composition of partnerships made the new firm of Pinney & Sanborn. He was later a partner of John C. Spooner and others. Another firm, Berryman & Sanborn, became widely known as annotators of the Revised Statutes, and a younger Sanborn is still engaged in that work. The death of Judge Romanzo Bunn made a place for Mr. Sanborn in 1905 on the federal bench of western Wisconsin. Judge Sanborn, while struggling at Elkhorn, married Alice Eliza- beth, daughter of Isaac Golder and Sarah Merritt, and has three sons and a (laughter.
JOSEPH WARREN SEAVER was born at Arlington, Vermont, July 23. 1793: married Mary Long: lived in Washington and Genesee counties, New York ; came to Darien in 1837 ; was first town clerk and served in all six terms ; in 1852 he was chosen member of Assembly over Gaylord Blair and Pliny Allen : died August 1, 1864. His wife was born July 21. 1793; died August 30. 1850. Their children, as nearly as found, were Horace Everett ( 1832- 1897). married Orinda C., daughter of Cyrus Lippit and Lydia ( Bruce ) De- witt : Van Ness : Warren : Solon.
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WALWORTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
LYMAN HUNT SEAVER, a brother of Joseph W., was born at Arlington, Vermont, October 26, 1796; lived in Washington and Genesee counties : came in 1837 to Darien; was one of the first town board of supervisors, in 1842: was a member of the constitutional convention of 1846 and was one of the com- mittee on schedule for organization of state government (Article XIX) ; died June 1, 1864. Sarah, his wife, daughter of Archibald Woodard and wife Anna, was born at Hebron, New York. April 10. 1797 : died August 28. 1878. Of their eleven children three died early. The others in uncertain order of birth were William ( married Alice Bentley ) : John Woodard ( married Helen, daughter of Joseph Chamberlain) ; Henry Warren ( married Mary Jane, daughter of William Harper) ; Julius Horace ( married Martha Jane Herron ) ; Lyman 11. ( married Lavina, daughter of . Aaron E. Bell and Julia Armstrong ) : Rodney (married Myra .A. Dean) ; Mary Ann ( Mrs. States K. Corning). There may be some error of detail as to the two Seaver families or wrong as- signment of children to them, though some effort was made to find the whole truth.
ROBERT THOMPSON SEYMOUR ( Harvey H.", Abijah3, Thomas+, Mat- thew3, Thomas", Richard1), was son of Harvey Hine Seymour and Arabella Thompson. ( Harvey H. Seymour was born July 13, 1790, at Wilton, Con- necticut, and died at or near Elkhorn July 20, 1878. His mother was Eliza- beth Hine). Robert T. Seymour was born at Rhinebeck, July 13, 1814: had a fair education ; had kept a hotel ; was for a term sheriff of Dutchess county, and was once required to execute the sentence of the law upon one convicted of murder in the first degree. No defense had been made in court, except to show circumstances which would now be thought to warrant much less than the extreme penalty. While in jail, the prisoner and sheriff formed a warm friendship, and it needed more than common fortitude to carry out the last act. In 1854 Mr. Seymour bought the Rockwood farm in Lafayette, and also took part in county affairs, and in the business of the Agricultural Society, of which he was president in 1856. In the legislative session of that year he was member of Assembly, chosen over Stephen G. West. He was five times a member of the county board and twice its chairman. He died at Elkhorn. February 20, 1879. llis wife was Harriet, daughter of William Jaques and Mary Cooper. She was born at Rhinebeck, October 29, 1812, married March 26, 1835. and died October 19. 1878. They had seven children. Capt. Alex- ander Thompson Seymour served in Company I, Twenty-eighth Infantry, and died in 1907. William Harvey Seymour was a business man at Lake Geneva: he died in 1804. Mary Catherine is wife of Eli W. Garfield. at Elkhorn.
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WALWORTHI COUNTY, WISCONSIN.
ELISHA MATTESON SHARP, son of Capt. John Sharp and Sarah Mather, was born at Reading, Schuyler county, New York, October 21, 1832 ; came to town of Delavan in 1850, and later to the village : was a teacher and then a dealer in dry goods, etc. ; married September 30, 1862, Sarah .\., daughter of Roswell and Martha Williams, of Darien: member of Assembly in 1872, elected over William A. Knilans, and in 1875, having defeated Uriah S. Hol- lister. In 1878 he was appointed consular agent at Paris, Ontario, that office a dependency of the consulate at Hamilton, Ontario. He died October 8, 1891, and his wife followed March 5, 1901.
JOHN SHARP, son of Jacob Sharp and Esther Matteson, was born in Hun- terdon county, New Jersey, February 5. 1801 ; his family went in 1812 to Tompkins county, New York ; he married November 27, 1827, Sarah Mather. At some date between 1833 and 1839 he was commissioned as captain of militia, in the regiment of Steuben county. In 1850 he came to the town of Delavan, southeastern shore of the lake; in 1867 he made a home in the village, where he died December 20, 1871. Mrs. Sharp was born in Orange county, New York, October 12, 1809; died July 13, 1789. Her parents were Silas Downs Mather and Mary, daughter of Capt. Cotton Mather, and older an- cestors were John1, Thomas2. Rev. Richard3. Timothy4, Rev. Samuel5. Rev. Nathaniel", Ebenezerī, John. Her children were: Mary E. ( Mrs. Charles \'. Bassett ) : Elijah M. : Susan ; lliram Terry : Elisha ( killed in military ser- vice ) : John Mather; Sarah A. ( Mrs. William M. Shepard; Clara ( Mrs. Winn ) : Elizabeth A. ( Mrs. Edward Powers).
GEORGE SIKES was born in Connecticut, December. 1816; his family moved to the state of New York ; in 1843 came to section 23 of Sharon. In 1850 he was member of Assembly, having defeated Amos Older. His wife was .Alvira, daughter of Wesley Perkins, of Boone county, Illinois. Charles A. Sikes, their son, was first and only supervisor of assessors. George Sikes died November 29, 1881.
JAMES SIMMONS, son of John Simmons and Laura Bell, was, as under- stood, of an old and often honored family of Rhode Island. He was born at Middlebury, Vermont, June 11, 1821 ; was graduated from Middlebury Col- lege in 1841 ; studied law ; came to Geneva in 1843 and was admitted in the same year to law practice. He married November 12, 1848, Katherine, daugh- ter of James and Jeannette McCotter. She was born at Orwell, Vermont, November 29, 1822: died February 14, 1895. They had five children, of whom two died early. The others were John Bell ( married Miss Sarah Bernard, daughter of George Sturges and Ann Maria Humphrey) : James; Mary E. Mrs. Simmons was what is called a "superior woman." That is, she was edu-
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