Jerusalem Biographies 

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History & Directory of Yates Co., Vol 1, Pub 1873, by Stafford C. Cleveland

Kindly transcribed by Donna Judge & Dianne Thomas

- A -

Pg 541

ALMY Family -  James T. ALMY and his family moved into Benton in 1817, and settled on lot 19, of the Green Tract, near the POTTER line, in 1823, buying their land of Abraham WAGENER. There James T. ALMY died in 1869, at the age of 78. His wife survives at the age of seventy-six. His mother resided in his family from his first settlement in this county, and died in 1853 at the wonderful age of 103 years; her mind remaining good till the last year of her life. Abigail, a sister of James T. ALMY, lives now on the old place with her nephew, Charles W. ALMY, at the age of 88. The children of James T. ALMY were John S., Elisha O., Perlona A., Clarinda A., Charles W., and Hannah Maria. John S. married Sarah Ann TRASK, and lived in Potter, moving after some years to Canadice where he died in 1867 at the age of fifty-three. His family now reside in Starkey. Their children are Hannah R., and James E.

Elisha O. married Nancy TRASK, sister of Sarah Ann. They reside in Starkey, and their children are Esther P., James, John W., George, Clarinda, Jane, and Stephen. Perlona A. married Bartholomew CONLEY. Clarinda A. married George W. FITZWATER, and died early. Charles W. married Amanda, daughter of Orren STEBBINS, of Middlesex. They reside on the ALMY homestead, and their children are Orpha J., and Willie C. Hannah Maria married Jacob J. SMITH, of Jerusalem. They have two children, Clarinda J., and James T.

Pg 512 - 513

The ANDERSON Family -  Alexander ANDERSON was a native of Scotland, and a Revolutionary soldier. His wife, Elizabeth HOLMES, was from Westchester Co. They settled on Bluff Point in 1813, and moved after a few years to Kinney’s Corners, and later still to the Benedict neighborhood where he died in 1835, at seventy, and his wife a few years earlier. Their children were Beecher, Rachel, Sarah, Hixon, John, Nancy, Augustine, Mary Ann, Dow F., and Susan. Beecher died in 1840 at the age of fifty.  He married first Rebecca VOSBURG, and second Hannah BUTLER. Isaac and Hixon F. were born of the first marriage. Hixon F. married Patty HOLLOWELL, and resides at Milo Centre. The children of the second marriage were Orcela, Albert, William, and Sophronia. Albert was a soldier of the recent war and his widow lives in Steuben Co. Orcela married Mr. SLINGERLAND, in Jerusalem, and lives in Michigan. William lives in Mich., and Sophronia married Amos RANDALL and lives in Milo.

Hixon ANDERSON, born in 1794, lived at an early period in Rochester and helped to build the famous Carthage Bridge.  In 1828 he came to Jerusalem and started a store at Kinney’s Corners. He has since owned several farms in that vicinity, and now lives at the corners. He married first, Rebecca GRAHAM, and has a second wife, Eleanor CARTER. The children of the first marriage were Dow F., William W., Anjanette, and Martha E. Dow F. died early. William W. resides at Rochester. Anjanette married William T. MOORE. Martha E. married Alfred DICKINSON, and both reside at Rochester. By the second marriage the surviving children are Sarah, Rosolpha, and Alvin W. Sarah married John G. Graham. They reside with her father, and have two children, Caroline and Nellie. Rosolpha married her cousin, William ANDERSON. Alvin W. married Hattie HAYES. They also live with the father, and have one child, William. Another daughter married Charles CARNES, and died at twenty, leaving a daughter, Mary Ellen, now seventeen.

John ANDERSON married Sylvia KINGSLEY, resides in Penn Yan, and has a number of children. Augustine was a Methodist clergyman, formerly resident in Jerusalem.

Mary Ann married Joshua SIMMONS, of Jerusalem. He still lives. Their children are scattered. Susan married Worthy PAYNE. They also had several children, and now reside at Phelps.

Pg 521 - 524

ANDRUSS Family - Benajah ANDRUSS was born in 1770, and married Abigail NASH, of Otsego Co., six years younger. In 1813 they settled on Bluff Point, on lot 5, of Hight’s Survey, and land now owned and occupied by John C. FITZWATER, then entirely new. But one or two other families then lived on the Point. Here they resided till they died, he suddenly in his wagon while returning from a visit to his son, Zabina C., in 1838, at the age of sixty-eight, and she a few months later at the age of sixty-two. Their children were James, Zabina C., Orra, Jason, Henry G., Rosson, Esther, Nancy, Emily, and Almira.

James and his wife, Sally, after living some time in Hornby, Steuben C., moved to Amboy, Lee Co., Ill. They had three children, Abigail, Sarah, and Jay.

Zabina C., born in 1794, married Almira GARLICK, of Norwich, N.Y., in 1818. They settled on a farm adjoining the homestead on Bluff Point, and afterwards moved to Kinney’s Corners, on a farm which included the tavern which he kept two or three years and lived on the farm about fifteen years. In 1841 he removed to Canadice and died there in 1868. His wife died in 1866. During his residence in Yates County he was a prominent citizen, and at one time Associate Judge of the County. Their children were Miles B., John P., George, and Charles Y. Miles B. married Mary A., daughter of Erastus COLE, senior. They reside at Branchport, and their children are Zabina C., Thera L., and Loretta J. Zabina C. married Amanda ARMSTRONG, of Pultney, and lives at Irvington, Iowa. John P. ANDRUSS, son of the elder Zabina C., married Thersa MILLS, of Canadice. George married Sarah T. BUSH, of Canadice, and died recently on the homestead in that town, holding the office of Supervisor. Charles Y. married first Ann Louisa BRIZEE, a widow, and daughter of M. BILLS, of Rochester. She died leaving a child, Ann Louisa. He subsequently married Lavina C., daughter of Dr. John B. NORTON, of Springwater. They have two daughters, Jane A., and Hattie A. The oldest daughter, Ann Louisa, married John HOLT, of Livonia. Charles Y. ANDRUSS is a druggist and grocer at Livonia.

Jason ANDRUSS, born in 1804, was twelve years old when his father came to Bluff Point. He became a teacher and a surveyor, and taught schools in Jerusalem, Middlesex, and Penn Yan. He was a law student with OLIVER & WISNER, cotemporary with Nathan B. KIDDER, Levi LYMAN, Patrick QUINN, and Ray G. WAITE. He abandoned law and practiced surveying with Jabez FRENCH. In 1826 he married Lydia, daughter of Joseph HERRICK, and remained till 1833 on Bluff Point, when he purchased five thousand acres entirely wild in Elk, Warren Co., Pa. The land had been purchased by William M. OLIVER, at a tax sale, for nineteen dollars. On this tract he has since remained, a surveyor, speculator in lands, and a public character of prominence. His wife died in 1862. Their children were Dwight, Nancy, George W., Lydia A., and Abigail. The daughters are married residing at Pine Grove, Pa. George W. died in 1867, leaving a widow and two sons. Dwight, the oldest, born on Bluff Point, married and emigrated to Woodstock, Ill. He served four years in the war of the Rebellion, in the 95^th Illinois Volunteers, and was noted as a remarkable sharp shooter, whose bullets were always fatal. He participated in many battles and in the siege of Vicksburg. His comrades alleged that “Dwight ANDRUSS never missed his mark.” His Colonel, Thomas W. HUMPHREY, one of the bravest men in the service, killed by a rebel bullet, was a native of New York and once lived on Bluff Point, and served as a constable in Jerusalem. Jason ANDRUSS married a second wife, Jane WILLIAMS, widow, of Warren, Pa., in 1865, and still retains seven hundred acres for a homestead. It is related of his school teaching days that when he was seventeen his father hired him out for a winter term for twelve dollars, the amount of public money, and ten bushels of wheat per month. The wheat sold in the spring for twenty-four cents a bushel.

Orra married Betsey DAVIDSON, of Jerusalem, and finally died at St. Louis. They had six children. Perceival, Charles, James, John, Elizabeth, and Sarah.

Henry G. married Pamelia WEED, and lived near Branchport on land now owned by Charles H. VAIL, where his wife died leaving two sons, William B., and Henry G. With a second wife, Polly WILLIAMS, he moved to Pittsford, N.Y., and there died. William B. married Dolly BELL, of Gorham, and resides at Amboy, Lee Co., Ill., an enterprising and prominent citizen. They have a son, Virgil. Henry G., jr., married Margaret WILLIAMS, of Pultney, and moved to Battle Creek, Mich. He was a merchant.

Rosson married Pamela, daughter of John TOWNSEND, and emigrated to Wisconsin. Their children were Esther, George, and two others. Esther married Joseph SUMMERS, of Butternutts, N.Y. They died there leaving three children, Emily, Melissa, and George.

Nancy married Jonathan OSMAN, of Jerusalem, and died at Ogden, N.Y. Their children were Edwin, Alonzo, and Melinda.

Emily married John GLOAD, who was an early mechanic and house and bridge builder in Jerusalem. He built a number of the first framed houses on Bluff Point, and the first frame bridge across the inlet at Branchport. They finally settled in Pultney and gave the name to Gload’s Corners, where he still lives. Their children were Eliza, Almira, Sarah Ann, Emily, John, James, and Frank. Two of the daughters, Almira, and Sarah Ann, married sons of Dr. Elisha DOUBLEDAY, and Eliza married Augustus PADDOCK, of Italy.

Almira B. married Alfred BROWN, brother of Asa BROWN, of Bluff Point, and moved to Michigan.

- B -

Pg 465 - 467

John BEDDOE. - Capt. John BEDDOE was born in West Wales in 1763, and there married Catharine JAMES. Soon after their marriage in 1798 they emigrated direct from Wales to Jerusalem. In May they landed in New York. He there bought a little three ton boat which he brought all the way with him by way of Albany, Geneva, and Seneca and Keuka Lakes to his destination, having it carried over places where navigation was impossible. This boat was an object of note and curiosity for years. Capt. BEDDOE left his family at Geneva and procured five young men to begin clearing and preparing a home on his tract in South Jerusalem. They landed their little boat on the east shore of the west branch of Keuka Lake in a beautiful cove, where the fine residence of R. Shelden ROSE now stands. Depositing their effects in the hollow of a large sycamore, they proceeded to erect a camp and commence a clearing. On this well chosen ground Capt. BEDDOE fixed the site for his buildings, marked reserves of fine trees and laid out a garden, giving the place the appearance of an English country seat. Henry BARNES, whose memory of the place goes back to 1802, states that they first had a framed house; that Capt. BEDDOE erected a house of hewed logs in 1807, and that he and his brother Julius attended the raising, he helping to cut the notches to fit the ends of the logs. This house was built by Benjamin DURHAM, and the logs were so nicely squared that no chinking was required.

Capt. BEDDOE cleared forty acres and had it sowed with wheat the first season, besides finishing his house for the reception of this family. It was a wild home for a family accustomed to the better conditions of English country life. In later years they erected a framed house which is still standing, some distance further back from the Lake. There was a fine grove of chestnut trees which he left standing on the bank by the Lake. They were very productive, and Capt. BEDDOE cut them all down, in vexation at the pilferers who carried off the fruit of his beautiful group of trees. A chestnut grove still adorns the same ground, sprouts from the original trees. Mrs. BEDDOE died in 1815 where they first settled, and her husband in 1835 at the residence of his son, west of the Lake, at the precise age of seventy-two. Their children were John Stone, Charlotte H., and Lynham J. John Stone died single on the west side homestead.

Charlotte H. married George STAFFORD, of Geneva, where she died leaving one child, John B., who resides with his uncle at Branchport, unmarried.

Lynham J. BEDDOE, born in 1807, married Eleanor, daughter of Col. Elias COST, of Phelps, who was born in 1811. They settled on the homestead, west side, and subsequently moved to a residence in Branchport, built by George BROWN, as his farm house. He is a hardware merchant. They have four children, James C., William C. J., Mary Cammann and Eleanor Cuyler.

At an early day Capt. BEDDOE sold one mile square of his land to George BROWN, a part of which reverted to him. This tract was west and north of the head of the west branch. Ten hundred and fifty acres lying east of the Lake was afterwards sold to John N. ROSE.

David MORSE accompanied Capt. BEDDOE in his first settlement in Jerusalem and remained with him several years. He subsequently married a daughter of Hugh BOYD and settled on a farm in that town. He and his wife both died there. Their  children were John, Joshua, David, Joseph and Mary. David, who remains in the County, married a daughter of William CULVER, of Bluff Point, and resides near Kinney’s Corners.

James SHERRATT, was hired by Capt. BEDDOE in New York, and came with him to Jerusalem. He was a noted carpenter and builder, and the original settler on the farm of Daniel SPRAGUE, in Benton, on lot 87. His grand-daughter is the wife of Perry DAINS, of Penn Yan.

Pg 484 - 486

The BENEDICTS - Wallace, Daniel, and Thomas were sons of Daniel and Mary BENEDICT, of Warwick, Orange Co. They were originally from Connecticut, and she was Mary WOOD, of Limestone, Ct. These sons came to this County in 1816, and settled with their families on lot 56, of the first seventh. The farm consisted of three hundred acres, entirely new, which they divided, each working his own land. After a few years of hard labor they found their title was so much encumbered by judgments against the original owner that they decided to give it up and abide the loss of all they had paid and their improvements. In 1822 Daniel and Thomas bought the place known as the Elder MUGG farm and some land adjoining, from which each carved homesteads for themselves, on lot 41, a short distance west of Penn Yan. Wallace, the older brother, born in 1776, married Rachel DEPEW, in Orange Co., and after losing their place in Jerusalem, removed to Wheeler, Steuben Co., and afterwards to Indiana. Their children were Mary, Peter, Sarah, David, Ruth and Rachel.

Daniel, born in 1783, married Mary MEAD, of Bergen, N.J. She died soon after they came to Jerusalem, leaving one child, Zilla, afterward the wife of Lewis SAYRE, who moved to Vernon, Mich. The second wife of Daniel BENEDICT was Emma, daughter of Samuel and sister of Ezekiel CLARK. Their children were Sarah, Daniel W., Mary, Ezekiel C., Deborah A., Emeline, and Caroline. Sarah married Ephraim WHEELER, of Fremont, Steuben Co., where they reside. Daniel W. married Olive, daughter of James PECKENS, of Jerusalem, and resides in Steuben Co. Mary married Jonathan PIERCE, of Jerusalem, and resides there. Ezekiel C. married Martha J., daughter of Thomas C. SUTTON. Deborah A. is single, and Emeline married Lewis, son of Thomas C. SUTTON. Caroline married Andrew, son of Martin BROWN, jr., of Benton, and resides in Jerusalem.

Thomas BENEDICT, born in 1785, married Lydia MEAD, of Bergen, N.J., five years younger. She died in 1852 at the age of sixty-two. Their children were James B., Mehetabel, Sally A., and Hannah, two of whom were born in this County, and the oldest, James, never resided here, but married and settled at Warwick. Mehetabel married John DAVIDSON, of Jerusalem. He died in 1847 leaving three children, Hannah, Francis, and Lydia. Hannah DAVIDSON married William BLONIN, a Frenchman of Canada, and died in Jerusalem. Frances DAVIDSON married Elizabeth BURTCH, of Jerusalem, where she died. He resides in Michigan. Lydia DAVIDSON married George SMITH, of Jerusalem, and moved to Holland, Mich. He was a soldier of the Second Mich. Cavalry, and was killed in battle in Kentucky. He left two children, Hannah and Ann. His widow married John WEEDMAN, of Mich., also a soldier and resides there. They have two children.

Hannah, daughter of Thomas BENEDICT, married James MILLER, of Urbana, N.Y. They reside on the BENEDICT homestead, and her father resides with them. Mr. MILLER is a good farmer, and supplies Penn Yan with milk. Their children are: Thomas B., Andrew C., and Susie A. Thomas B. married Mary E. SPRAGUE, of Urbana. They live on the Daniel BENEDICT homestead and have two children, Thomas E., and Elizabeth H.

Thomas BENEDICT, the grandfather, at the age of eighty-five retains his faculties well, enjoys life and awaits the future with a serenity that bespeaks a clear mind and a brighter hope. He relates that when he and his brother were negotiating for the MUGG farm, they found it needful to obtain some money of their friends east. He made the journey to Orange Co., and back on foot, carrying his provisions in his knapsack. His lodging cost six pence per night. His drink was water taken from a cup at the brooks and springs by the way, and his total expenses for the entire trip including ferriage and toll gates, was four and six pence each way. He returned with just enough money to secure the land, which has since been home.

Pg 538 - 539

BENEDICT  Family  - Nathan G. BENEDICT, now eighty-one years old, was from Saratoga County, and married Polly TOWNER, of Seneca, in 1812. She died at the age of seventy, in 1867. They settled first in Reading, and lived eleven years in Troupsburg, Steuben Co. In 1826 they bought out Jonathan WELDON, on lot 24, of the Green Tract, where the family still resides. Their children have been Anna Maria, Ezra, Florence, William N., Lucy P., Harriet A., Laurana, Nathan G., and Catharine E.

Anna Maria married Ira C. WILLIAMS. She died leaving several children, Francis A., Ezra B., Mary I., Forrest H.

Amanda, Theordore, Ira, and Charles. Francis A. married Jennie CLARK, and lives near Hammondsport. They have three children. Forrest H. married Lucy BABCOCK, of Prattsburgh. They have one child, Anna Maria.

Amanda married Edward VAN HOUSEN, of Prattsburgh. Their children are Malcomb and Maude.

Ezra BENEDICT was a school teacher of much distinction. His first school was taught in Yates County at the age of sixteen. He taught six years in Alexander, Genesee County, and afterwards twenty-one years in the public schools of Buffalo, where he was very highly esteemed. His death was very sincerely mourned. He married Olive LOOMIS, and their children were Mary T., Sarah, Florence, and Charles. Florence married Frederick PAINE, of Buffalo, and Charles married Martha BERNARD, of Le Roy. Mary died soon after her father.

William N. BENEDICT married Huldah, daughter of Clark GREEN, is a blacksmith and resides in Jerusalem. Their children are Clark, Abigail, Warren, Frank, Willie, and Edward. Abigail died at twenty-one, and Clark at sixteen.

Lucy P. married Daniel C. CRANE. They reside in Michigan.

Harriet married Asher T. STEVENS, who died in Kentucky during the Rebellion, a soldier of a Michigan regiment. He left four children, Helen E., Nathan D., Harriet L., and Richard.

Nathan G. BENEDICT Jr., is also a teacher of high worth, and has been thirteen years at the head of one of the city schools of Buffalo, equally esteemed with his deceased brother. He married Gracia SMITH, a teacher of Buffalo, and they have one child, Nathan L.

Laurana and Catharine are unmarried and reside at the homestead with their father. His place at one time included 300 acres. Mr. BENEDICT has been a firm advocate of Temperance and Anti-Slavery sentiment, which he supported when they were not popular doctrines.

Pg 531 - 533

BITLEY Family - Henry BITLEY and his wife Elizabeth DONALDSON, were natives of Moreau, Saratoga Co., and their son Peter H. BITLEY, was born in 1801. They were both of Dutch descent, except that the grandmother on the father’s side was Irish. Peter H. BITLEY came to this County early in 1833, employed by Paddock & Nichols, of Yonkers, N.Y., in the lumber business, on lands they had bought on the Beddoe Tract. He soon commenced furnishing them square timber and spars by contract, delivering the timber at their docks at Yonkers. After 1842 he operated independently, buying timber in Yates and Steuben and other localities, and buying timber ready for transport by way of the Erie Canal to the eastern markets; also dealing in all varieties of lumber and operating largely till 1867. He sent to market in a single year three hundred thousand cubic feet of hewn timber, and averaged for many years two hundred and fifty thousand cubic feet, or two and one half million feet of board measure. This business has required large outlays of money and labor, and Mr. BITLEY by care, prudence and economy has accumulated a substantial fortune. He has five hundred acres of land in Jerusalem, and still more in various portions of Stueben Co., from which he has taken the most valuable timber. He also owns the homestead farm of his father in Saratoga Co., (100 acres) which he prizes for its early associations. His business cares near home, at Branchport, require now the most of his attention. His excellent physical organization bespeak for him many years of life and vigor. He married in 1839, Mary J., daughter of Benjamin LAIRD, and sister of John LAIRD, of Branchport, who came to this County from Onondaga, N.Y. They had a daughter, Mary E., an amiable and accomplished young woman, who married in 1868, Henry B. HOWELL, of Niagara Co., N.Y. She died in 1870. An adopted daughter, and niece, Ella ROZELL, married in 1870, Frank L. B. KIDDER, son of Almon S. KIDDER, of Jerusalem.

Thomas S., a bachelor brother of Peter H. BITLEY, came about the same time with him to Jerusalem, and has always lived in his family.

Mary, a sister, married Nathaniel G. HIBBARD. They reside in Jerusalem, on lot 27, of the Beddoe Tract. Their children are Caspar, Henry, William, Peter H., Sarah, Hiram, George P., Harvey, and Eveline. Caspar married Rosetta LENT, and died in Jerusalem in 1862, leaving one child, Lizzie. Henry was a ship carpenter and lived several years on the Island of St. Helena, where he married his wife Louisa. He returned in 1865 after a nine year’s absence, a part of the time in the British service in India. His children are Charles L. and Elizabeth. William married Lucy WOODHULL, of Chemung. They reside at Addison, N.Y., and have four children. Peter H. is single. Sarah married John BELL, of Italy, a native of Scotland and a mason. They live at Branchport and their children are Ella, Charles, Lida, and one other. Hiram married Ellen OWEN, and lives at Muskegon, Mich. George is a Universalist clergyman at Hornellsville, N.Y., and is single. Harvey and Eveline are single.

pg 505 - 507

The BOYD Family -  Robert M. BOYD, was a native of Lancaster County, Pa., born in 1772, and was a blacksmith. He came to Bath in 1799 by way of the Susquehanna, Chemung, and Conhocton rivers, bringing his kit of tools with him. He worked at Geneva one year and then moved to Hopeton, where he married Rebecca, daughter of Tompkins WOODHULL, one of the earliest settlers of East Benton. She was born in 1783 and they were married in 1804. They lived in Hopeton till 1824. Both their house and shop were on the north-east Corner, at the road crossing in Hopeton. The school house remembered by the sons of Robert M. BOYD, was on the south-east Corner of the Public Square and was a log house. John L. LEWIS, the old teacher, lived on the north-east Corner. Mr. BOYD pursued his trade at Hopeton, except during two years he lived at Newark, N.Y., where he sharpened tools at his forge for workmen on the Erie Canal then in process of construction. He owned twelve acres of land at Hopeton, and seventy-five where Anthony RYAL now lives, about a mile west of Hopeton. In 1824 they moved to Jerusalem, near the present residence of Ezekiel CLARK, on lot 54, of the first seventh. Robert M. BOYD died on this place in 1839 at the age of sixty-seven. His wife survived dying at the age of seventy-one. She resided with her son, Tompkins W., in her later years. Their children were Alexander M., Tompkins W., Margaret, Robert McDowell, Martha R., Arabella R. M., and Mary E. Alexander M., born in 1806, married Rachel daughter of Samuel FITZWATER, of Jerusalem, in 1836. They resided in Penn Yan till 1850, when they moved to Livingston County, Mich. Their children are Margaret and Stewart.

Tompkins W., born in 1807, married Rebecca, daughter of Timothy VAN SCOY, in 1835. He had early bought twenty-five acres of land in Jerusalem, of Daniel HUSTED. They resided in Penn Yan at first and in 1839 moved to Harmonyville, in Pultney, where he kept a public house twenty years and was a prominent and influential citizen. His wife died there in 1866. Their children are Elizabeth, Robert, Elmira, Theodore P., Timothy V., George B., and Harrison V. Elizabeth is the wife of James L. TAYLOR, a lawyer of Branchport. Robert married Kitty, daughter of Spencer S. BOOTH, of Branchport, and resides a merchant at East Saginaw, Mich. The others are single.

Margaret BOYD died single at the age of twenty-three, in 1832. Martha R., born in 1816, became the second wife of Louis V. DURAND, a native of France and a physician of ability at Rochester. They were married in 1834. He died in 1857 and she still resides at Rochester. Their children were Adolphus, George and Robert. Adolphus died a soldier in the army during the war of the Rebellion. George is married and resides at Buffalo.

Robert McDowell BOYD, born in 1814, married Mary H., daughter of Elisha LUTHER, in 1840, and resides on the Friend’s Tract, lot 44, Guernsey’s Survey, in Jerusalem, on land once owned by the Luther family, and is a farmer. His wife died in 1866, at the age of forty-five. Their children are Sidney, Barrett A., Martha, Tompkins W., Charles, Albert, Ellen M., and Fred. Sidney married John WATEROUS, jr., of Pultney, and died in that town in 1866. Barrett A. married Jane, daughter of Joseph BRIGGS, of Potter, and lives in that town. The rest reside with the father, single.

Arabella R. M. BOYD, born in 1819, married Thomas B. V. DURAND, a son of Louis V. DURAND, by his first marriage. They were married in 1839. He is a superior physician, and they reside at Fairport, Monroe Co., N.Y. Their children are Susan Ann, Louis, and Rebecca.

Mary Elizabeth BOYD, born in 1825, married Levi DILDINE, of Pultney, and moved to Wayland, N.Y., where he died in 1854 leaving three children. She afterwards married Sampson DILDINE, brother of her first husband, and died in 1864, leaving a son Frederick, by the second marriage.

Robert M. BOYD was in the war of 1812, going as a minute man to Buffalo. He was also drafted and hired a substitute.

pg 462 - 465

Daniel BROWN Family - Daniel BROWN and Anna YORK, were descendents of early English Colonists, and were born near Stonington, Connecticut, where they were married. They were early members of the Friend’s Society, and with their sons, Daniel, George, and Russel were among the earliest residents of the New Jerusalem. Later in life they did not remain members of the Society, but held the Friend in high respect and continued to cherish the most friendly relations with her and her disciples.

By the appearance of the land still more by a remarkably clear and cold spring of water, he was attracted to the spot where he settled in the midst of the wilderness, erecting first a log house on lot 5, where De Witt C. COLE now resides. Here they made an opening in the woods, one of the earliest in Jerusalem if not the first permanent settlement. This was thence-forward their home through life, and they made it one of the most noted and hospitable resorts of the early days. The wild animals beset them very sorely, often carrying off their sheep and pigs, sometimes before their eyes. The Indians, too, were numerous and sometimes mischievous. On one occasion the senior BROWN had reason to believe the salvation of his life was due to his ability to speak in some degree the Indian dialect. He discovered an Indian watching him with an evident evil purpose and boldly approaching the red man addressed him as a brother. In this way he disarmed the hostile feeling of the savage.

It was long a lonely place in the woods where they settled. In one direction they could reach the Friend’s house and Judge Arnold POTTER’s, a distance of two to three miles away, and eastward Robert CHISSOM and Lawrence TOWNSEND were on the road to Benedict ROBINSON’s and the Friend’s Settlement. These were their neighbors as were the GILBERTs at Rushville, and John PIERCE on West River. Their roads were Indian trails. Sometimes the underbrush would be cut away and an occasional tree to allow a sled drawn by oxen to pass. The BROWNs held on and conquered the obstacles of the wilderness. They cleared an excellent farm of four hundred acres and enjoyed its benefits; and here the parents died well advanced in years. Susannah BROWN, the wife of Benedict ROBINSON, Lucy BROWN, a leading member of the Friend’s Society, and Temperance BROWN, were sisters of Daniel BROWN, senior. Russel, his youngest son, died early.

Daniel BROWN Jr., born in Stonington, Connecticut, in 1773, was sixteen years old when the family came to this County. In 1797 he returned to Stonington and married Lucretia COATES, who was one year his junior. They first settled where Hiram COLE resides, on lot 5, and a part of the paternal homestead. They sometimes resided at this place and sometimes at the residence of his father, known to his children as the
Grandfather house.” Daniel BROWN, jr. died at the age of fifty two at his own house, and his wife at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Gideon WOLCOTT, in Jerusalem, at the age of seventy. Daniel BROWN, jr., was an energetic man and thorough in labor and business. He kept a tavern at the “Grandfather house” several years which was for some time the only inn on the road to Prattsburgh after leaving TOWNSEND’s or CHISSOM’s He also established a distillery and made additions to the homestead extending to the road west of the creek, and south including the site on which his brother George had built a saw mill and grist mill, long known as Brown’s Mills and now owned by George ADAMS, on lot 18. The war of 1812 embarrassed his expanding operations and somewhat depressed his fortunes. He was the first Justice of the Peace in Jerusalem, as now organized, and held the office as long as it was filled by appointment. Having a fine physical form, he was noted for strength and activity and was conceded the best man of his time as a wrestler, especially at a side hold. His wife was a woman of warm attachments in social life and full of resources as a pioneer wife and mother. Their children were Alfred, Anna, and Mary.

Alfred BROWN, born in Jerusalem in 1798, was in his active years a man of nerve and energy. He was a surveyor and a noted deer hunter, as well as an efficient business man. He was elected Sheriff of Yates County in 1831, and was the first citizen born within the precincts of the County, elected one of its officials. He still lives at Penn Yan, a bachelor.

Anna, born in 1805, was the wife of Gideon WOLCOTT. Their only daughter Mary, born in 1827, married in 1858, Charles L. KILBOURN, a graduate of West Point, and an officer in the U.S. Army. He is a native of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, born in 1819, served with credit and efficiency under General Zachary TAYLOR in the Mexican War; was brevetted First Lieutenant at Monterey, and a Captain at Buena Vista for meritorious conduct. Captain BRAGG’s famous battery, to which he belonged was entitled by General TAYLOR to the credit of saving the day at Monterey. He was in all the battles of TAYLOR’s campaign. Afterwards he was appointed a commissary of subsistence and served in a Florida campaign against the Indians. In the great war of the Rebellion he was most of the time stationed at Cincinnati where he disbursed thirty millions of dollars for army supplies, without the discrepance of a dollar in his accounts. He has since been established in New York and Philadelphia and stands only third in rank in the commissary department of the regular army. General KILBOURN is the only surviving officer of the Battery to which he belonged, and excepting General William T. SHERMAN, the only officer remaining on duty that belonged to the batteries of General TAYLOR’s Mexican Army.

Mary, daughter of Daniel BROWN, jr., born in 1818, married Mordecai OGDEN, of PennYan. They subsequently moved to Elmira were he was largely interested in real estate, and where he died. Their children were Alfred B., J. Lorimer, and Louise. Mrs. OGDEN resides with her brother Alfred BROWN, at Penn Yan. Alfred B. married Sarah CARPENTER, of Missouri, and resides in the city of New York. J. Lorimer married Josephine GOUNDRY, of Dresden, and resides at Penn Yan. They have a daughter Mary. Louise married Smith H. MALLORY, son of Smith L. MALLORY, former Sheriff of Yates County. They reside at Chariton, Iowa, and have one daughter, Jessie.

George, brother of Daniel BROWN, jr., married Sarah, daughter of Judge William POTTER. They bought six hundred and forty acres of the Beddoe Tract west of the Lake, including the site of Branchport, where they settled, and where he died in 1820. His widow died in 1840, in Milo, now Torrey. George BROWN was renowned for his physical power and prowess. He was many years Supervisor of Jerusalem. Their children were Theda, Harriet, and John R. Theda married Jonathan PERRY, and they settled on the Esther BRIGGS’ farm at Norris’ Landing. Here he died leaving several children. John R. married Jane, daughter of Isaac BOGERT, of Dresden. He lived some years in Jerusalem, and afterwards moved to Chemung County, where he died. Their children were Sarah, Martha, and Isaac. Sarah is single. Martha is the wife of Wilson RICKEY, of Horseheads. Isaac is married and resides in Chemung County.

Pg 529 - 531

BUSH Family - Dr. Wynans BUSH was born in Florida, N.Y., in 1799. His father was William T. BUSH. The family was from Holland, with the original name of TERBOSS. The grandfather, William BUSH, was an Adjutant in the Revolutionary army. Wynans BUSH graduated a physician at the Medical College in Barclay street, New York. In 1824 he married Ann LOOMIS, of Coventry, Conn. Her mother who was a daughter of Martin DENSLOW, a Revolutionary Captain, of Windsor, Conn., lived with Mrs. BUSH at Branchport, and died there in 1869, at the age of eighty-seven. In 1825 they moved to Vienna, now Phelps, where Dr. BUSH began his practice as a physician. In 1832 they moved to Branchport, a village just merging from the wilderness, and there they still reside, the Doctor continuing his practice to the present time, with active powers of body and mind. Their children are Elliott N., Henry M., Irene, Caroline, Ellen, Harlem P., Frances, Robert P., and Julia G.

Elliott N., born in 1826, married Sarah LINDLEY. They moved to Belvidere, Ill., in 1854. He was a soldier of the 95^th Illinois Infantry, and Captain of Company G. He served at the siege of Vicksburg, under Banks on the Red River expedition, and fell at the battle of Germantown, Miss., June 10, 1864. His children are Clark J., Carrie, and Elliott N.

Henry M., born in 1829, married Mary VAN BENTHUYSEN, dopted daughter of Joshua HALL, of Pultney. They also settled at Belvidere. He was a teacher, and a volunteer in the 95^th Illinois, serving as First Lieutenant under his brother, the Company having been chiefly enlisted by them. He also served as an Engineer, and became Captain on the death of his brother. He aided in the pursuit of the rebel General HOOD, and the capture of Mobile. He settled near Montgomery, Alabama, where his wife died in 1866. He has since married Charlotte H. FOLLENSBEE, of Montgomery.

Irene, born in 1831, married Stephen W. CLARK, of Naples, brother of Gov. Myron H. CLARK, a teacher, and author of a text book of Grammar. They reside at Parma, Monroe Co. He is now a farmer and fruit culturist. Their children are Clara B., Anna B., and Ralph E.

Caroline, born in 1833, married in 1857, Henry H. JESSUP, missionary in Syria. She died on shipboard in 1864, near Alexandria embarked for a return voyage, and was buried there in the Missionary burying ground. Her children were Anna H., William, and Henry W., all born at Beyrout, in Syria.

Ellen, born in 1835, married Ralph W. HOPKINS, a miller of Prattsburgh, who with his brother Henry, owns the mill one mile below that village. Their children are Arthur W., Nellie I., and Ralph H.

Harlem P., born in 1837, married Semantha L. INGRAHAM, in 1863, and resides in Jerusalem. He was a soldier in the 15^th N.Y. Engineers and was at the surrender of LEE. Their children are Fred W., and Warner C.

Frances, born in 1840, is single.

Robert P., born in 1842, is a teacher and a physician. While a student at the Cortland Academy in 1861, he enlisted in the 12^th N.Y. Regiment, and served two years. He returned to the Academy one year and re-enlisted in the 185^th, for which he raised Company E, and was commissioned Captain. He was soon after, in December 1864, promoted to the office of Major. He was in numerous battles, finally a prisoner at Richmond and exchanged at the close of the war.

Julia G., born in 1845, married in 1864, Samuel C. BRADLEY, of Kings Ferry, N.Y., a nephew of Henry BRADLEY. He was a private soldier of the 111^th N.Y.V., finally promoted to the position of First Lieutenant of Company I. He was wounded at Gettysburg and Petersburg and finally discharged for disability. They reside at Mandeville, Carrol Co., Missouri, and their children are Dora, Wynans, and Edward G.

- C -

Pg 541 - 542

CARVEY Family  -  William CARVEY was from Goshen, Orange County. His wife was Elizabeth HAWLEY. They settled in 1825 on the Green Tract, making their home on lot 18, where he died in 1848, at the age of 70 years. His wife died the previous year at the age of 68. Their children were Hiley, Ellen, John, Jane, William, Isaac, Samuel P., and Francis. Ellen married Charles BELL. Both died in Jerusalem leaving five children. William C. BELL, on of their sons, married Sarah CHAMPLIN, and lives at Himrods. Charles BELL, another son, married a daughter of William S. GREEN, of Italy, and resides at Rushville.

Jane married Isaiah, son of Jared COHOON, and died in Jerusalem. Her children were William, Jared, Charles, and Mary. William married Mary SPANGLER, and lives in Jerusalem. Jared married a daughter of John G. LOWN.

William CARVEY married Eunice THOMAS, and moved west. Isaac married and is dead.

Samuel P. CARVEY married first, Hannah ROBINSON, of Springport, N.Y., and has a second wife, Phebe, daughter of AbrahamYOUNGS. He is a very industrious, enterprising, and thrifty farmer, owning three hundred acres under excellent culture, with good buildings, located on lot 20, of the Green Tract. The surviving children by his first marriage are Emily, and Lewis: by the second marriage, John, Judson, and Alice. Mr. CARVEY commenced first on the north verge of the Green Tract, and lived 14 years where he now resides. He has gained his estate by energetic industry and economy.

Pg 539 - 541

CHAMPLIN Family -  Rowland CHAMPLIN was a native of Rhode Island, where he married Susannah, daughter of Jonathan J. HAZARD, and sister of Griffin B. HAZARD. They emigrated to Vermont, and from thence to this County in 1810, settling on the place where Abner GARDNER now resides, on lot 22, in Milo, where he became the owner of three hundred acres, much of which he afterwards parted with, leaving finally but seventy-five acres. One hundred acres was sold to Jeffrey CHAMPLIN, his brother. He died in 1848 at the age of seventy-four, and was buried at City Hill. His first wife died many years earlier. Their children were Patience, Mary, Rowland, Jonathan J., and Mariam. Patience married Eli CRANE. They kept a public house in Bath, where he died. She afterwards lived in Italy, and died in Michigan. Their children were Daniel C., and a daughter who married a Mr. VOSBINDER. Daniel C. married Lucy P., daughter of Nathan G. BENEDICT. They live in Michigan and their children are George, Eugene W., Susan P., and Ely. Mary married Abner GARDNER.

Rowland CHAMPLIN, jr., married Mary, daughter of Eleazer INGRAHAM Jr. They lived thirty-six years in Jerusalem, on lot 10, of the Green Tract, where he died in 1868, upwards of seventy. His wife survives at the age of sixty-eight. Their children were Jonathan J., George W., Abner G., Mary S., Susannah, and Elisha. Jonathan J. married Julia Ann BROWN, and resides on part of the homestead. George W. married Araminta HENDERSON, and resides on part of the homestead. Their children are William, Rowland and Melvin. Abner G. married Semantha, daughter of Amos PERRY, and resides on the homestead in the house erected by his father, on lot 10, of the Green Tract. Mary S. married Robert COLEGROVE, and lives in Wheeler. Susannah married Charles, son of William W. WYMAN, and died leaving no children. Elisha married Sarah, daughter of William SISSON, and resides on a portion of the homestead.

Jonathan J. CHAMPLIN died at Natchez, Mississippi, many years ago, unmarried.

Mariam married Isaac OWEN, of Jerusalem. Their children were Mary S., Sarah, Helen, and Ira. Mary S. married Isaac Wilcox, of Italy, where she died leaving six children. Helen and Ira are single.

Pg 560 - 561

CHASE Family - Judah CHASE was a native of Saratoga and came to Bluff Point in 1820, buying a considerable tract of land where George HECK now resides on lot 64 of the first seventh. His wife was Hannah BAKER. He was a leading and important citizen in the town and resided many years on the Point. Afterwards he moved to west Jerusalem, where he died about 1850, at the age of eighty-seven, having enjoyed almost perfect health to day of his death. The children of this family were John, William, Judah, Ira, Christopher C., Elias, Levi, Hannah and Jane. John, William and Ira were all ministers of the Baptist Church. Ira is still living in Urbana, N.Y. Levi was a teacher of note in Jerusalem and Pultney, and died while yet a young man. Christopher C. married Phebe, daughter of John TOWNSEND, and is a farmer in Jerusalem. Elias married Rebecca, daughter of Samuel DAVIS, and is a farmer in Jerusalem. Their children are Melissa, Emeline, Levi, Morrison L. and Melinda. Melissa married Daniel SHERWOOD. They reside in Jerusalem. Emeline was the second wife of Henry W. HARRIS, whom she survives with one son, Eddie. Levi is a Methodist minister of the East Genesee Conference. He married Emily, only daughter of Judge LA RUE of Hammondsport. Morrison L. is a carpenter. He married Mary E. daughter of James A. BELKNAPP. Melinda married Elwyn, son of Ezra HAIR, and they reside in Jerusalem.

Jane, daughter of Judah CHASE, married Daniel SHERWOOD, senior, father of Daniel SHERWOOD, the present Class Leader in the Methodist Church at Branchport. Hannah married an army captain who was killed in the war of 1812.

Pg 481 - 483

David CLARK Family - Samuel and David CLARK were sons of David and Abigail CLARK, of Walkill, Orange County. Samuel married Sarah NEWMAN, of Saratoga, and moved to the locality since known as Penn Yan, in 1799. They finally settled on lot 56, of the first seventh, or township seven of the first range, on the farm now owned by Daniel B. STEVENSON, where he built the first framed house in the town. He purchased the land of Levi BENTON, senior, and after twenty years residence thereon, lost it from defective title after a bitter litigation with Herman H. BOGERT, who claimed by a deed from John LIVINGSTON all lands not conveyed by LIVINGSTON and his associate LESSEES previous to 1815. In many cases where parties had been negligent or ill informed in regard to the preservation of their titles, their lands were wrested from them by BOGERT. Mr. CLARK then moved on the farm since known as the BENEDICT place, about a mile west of Penn Yan, on lot 41 of the first seventh, where they continued through life. He was a carpenter and millwright and aided in the construction of Melchoir WAGENER’s Grist Mill where the Jillett Mill now stands in Penn Yan, also the mills built by Arnold POTTER and various others. He aided in the erection of the first mill at Niagara Falls, for one Judge ANNING. He with Nathan WARNER, of Potter, were the builders of the Potter mansion under Robert JORDAN, an architect brought from Rhode Island by Judge Arnold POTTER for that purpose.

Both Samuel CLARK and his wife were brave and sterling people meeting the hardships of the new country with industry and fortitude. They cleared two farms, and she while her husband was absent, as he was much of the time in the pursuit of his trade, was the sole director of home affairs at a time when Indians, wolves, bears and rattlesnakes were plentiful objects of terror to the pioneers; and none could have acquitted themselves better. Their children were Emma, Abigail, Laura, Ezekiel, Aurilla, and Sally. Emma, born in 1794, married Daniel BENEDICT, of Jerusalem, and lived on the CLARK homestead. Abigail, born in 1797, was the wife of Amos PERRY, whom she survives.

Laura married Garret MARTIN, of Jerusalem, and settled where they now reside on lot 44, Guernsey’s Survey, and their locality is known as the MARTIN neighborhood. Their children are Joel D., George W., Margaret, Melvin, Laura, Sarah, Caroline, Henrietta, and Mary. Joel D. married Caroline STILES, of Potter, and emigrated to California and thence to Australia. George W. married Emilla, daughter of Orrin STEBBINS, of Middlesex, and resides on the homestead. Margaret married Elisha BRIGGS, of Jerusalem and lives in Rock County, Wisconsin. Melvin married Mary, daughter of John A. GALLETT, of Jerusalem, and emigrated to Rock County, Wis. Laura married Abraham MOSHIER, of Jerusalem, and emigrated to Wisconsin. Sarah is single, and Caroline married William WHEELER, of Jerusalem, where they reside. Henrietta married Charles E. EVANS, of Jerusalem, and moved to Wisconsin. Mary married A. FISHER, of Prattsburgh, and moved to Dundas, Canada West.

Ezekiel CLARK, born in 1802, married Mary, daughter of Russel YOUNGS, of Benton, and settled on the Boyd Tract in Jerusalem, a new farm which he cleared and improved, but has ever since resided on the Dorman Tract, lot 54, of the first seventh. He has led a life of industry and gained a handsome competency. Forward and efficient in good works, he has the character of a good citizen and has been often charged with public responsibilities denoting the confidence of his fellow citizens.

Aurilla, born in 1805, married Raphael GUERNSEY, of Gorham. They had two children, and after his death she married William PERRY, of Jerusalem, and emigrated to Illinois, where both died leaving two children.

Sally married Aaron SCOFIELD, of Benton, and resides in Jerusalem. Their children are Lorenzo, Emma, Phebe, Newman, George, Perlina, Henry, and Sarah. Lorenzo married Martha WALKER, of Jerusalem. Emma married Stewart WILCOX, of Jerusalem. Phebe married John SINCLAIR, of Potter. George was a soldier in the war of the rebellion three years was severely wounded and in several battles. He married Isabella, daughter of John DAINS, of Jerusalem, and resides in that town. Perlina married Robert N. COONS, of Jerusalem, and resides in Penn Yan. Henry was an early volunteer in the war, and served to the end; was in many battles through the wilderness campaign with GRANT and at the surrender LEE. Bullets often rent his clothes, but he escaped with no serious injury. Newman and Sarah are single.

David CLARK, Jr., born in Orange Co., married Milly LIGHT, of Shawangunk. They settled on lands of his brother Samuel, in Jerusalem, where he died. Their children were Stephen, Jeremiah, Keziah, Betsey, David, Milly, Samuel, and Rebecca. David married Ann PECKENS, and resides in Jerusalem. Jeremiah married Catharine CRANK, of Benton. Rebecca married B. Franklin ENOS, of Jerusalem. The others are not citizens of Yates County.

Pg 495 - 496

Sanford COATES - Sanford COATES was born at Stonington, Connecticut, in 1799, and married Jerusha MINER, of the same place. They emigrated to Brookfield, Madison County, N.Y. and from thence to the town of Jerusalem in 1817, with their family of five children, which was increased to nine who reached adult age, Gilbert, Anner, Sidney, William S., Susan A., Lucretia, John L, Russel, and Minor.

Gilbert died single at Vicksburg, Miss Anner married Pratt BARNEY of Wheeler, Steuben County, and settled there. They have two daughters, Candace and Ella B.

Sidney married Sarah DECKER, of Milo, and died in Penn Yan.

William S. married Matilda B. WYMAN, of Potter, and resides in Jerusalem.

Susan A. married Anson WYMAN, of Richfield, Otsego County. They settled at Penn Yan, where he died leaving one child, Mary F. Mrs. WYMAN married a second husband Henry LARZELERE, of Jerusalem.

Lucretia married Albert LARROWE of Wheeler, Steuben Co., where they now reside. They have five children, Janette, Robert, John, Frederick, and George. Russel married Theodora BOWMAN, of Rochester, where they now reside. John died single at Coventry, N.Y.

Minor married Eliza DAVIS, of Rochester. They reside on the homestead, lot 6, Guernsey’s Survey, and have three children , Russ R., Jessie L., and Guy.

Sanford COATES was a second cousin of Mrs. Daniel BROWN, Jr. She was Lucretia COATES, of Connecticut.

Pg 496 - 497

Matthew COLE and Family - Timothy Tyler, Calvin, Erastus, Ezra M., and Milo COLE, were sons of Matthew COLE, of Sharon, Ct. He was a commissary in the Revolutionary army, and afterwards moved with his family to the vicinity of Unadilla, N.Y. He and his son Erastus came to this County in 1817, and his other sons at subsequent periods. He died here at the age of seventy-three and was buried on the James PECKENS farm, then known as Sabintown. His wife died in Chenango County. Timothy T., born in Connecticut, married Hannah STEWART, for a second wife, They settled near Branchport and shortly after moved to Steuben County, where he died. Among their children were Thankful, Lois, John, Erastus, Lydia, and Sutton.

Calvin COLE married Miss WHITTLESEY, of Broome Co., and settled near Painesville, Ohio, where she died. He returned and died in Italy. His daughter, Eliza, is the widow of Deacon Joshua TITUS, of Milo.

Erastus COLE, born in Connecticut, married Lois DICKINSON, of Chenango County, and settling first in Cayuga County, moved thence to Jerusalem in 1817, and located in Sabintown, on what is known as the LUTHER farm. He was a contractor in the construction of the Erie Canal and a man of energy occupying official stations in his town. He died in 1860 at the age of sixty-seven, and his wife in 1865. Their children were Hiram, Wolcott, Elizabeth, Cordelia, Mary A., Erastus, and Harris.

Hiram COLE, born in 1808, and now a prominent citizen of Jerusalem, married Sarah, daughter of Joseph COLE, of Jerusalem and resides on the old Daniel BROWN farm. His house is the frame erected by Daniel BROWN, senior. Their children are Allen N., Edwin A., Hiram, and Sarah J. Allen N., born in 1833, is a druggist at Virginia City, Nevada. Edwin A., born in 1835, married Susanna SPANGLER, of Jerusalem, and resides on the homestead. They have one child, Mary. The others are single. Hiram COLE, jr., was born in 1845, and Sarah Jane in 1848.

Wolcott COLE married Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin DURHAM, and died leaving a daughter, Rebecca Ann, now the wife of Chauncey MILLSPAUGH. Elizabeth is the wife of Alanson S. DUNNING, who resides on Bluff Point.

Cordelia is the wife of George A. PARKER, of Jerusalem, residing on lot 67, of the first seventh, in Jerusalem. Their children are George and Hattie.

Erastus COLE Jr., married Sarah, daughter of Henry LARZELERE. They also reside on lot 67, near Kinney’s Corners, and their children are Sarah L., George, and Ward.

Mary A. is the wife of Miles B. ANDRUSS.

Harris COLE married Mary DUNNING, of Steuben Co., and resides on lot 9, Guerney’s Survey. His wife died leaving four children, Henry, Emma, Fanny, and Frederick.

Ezra M. COLE married a Miss COLE, of Chenango Co., and settled near Benton Centre. Their children are Maria, Ursula, George, Rhoda, Polly, Israel, Charles, Amarilla, Julia, and Caroline. Maria married Israel CRITTENDEN, of Ontario Co., and Ursula married John WHEAT, of Benton. Both are now dead. George is married and resides in Ontario Co. Rhoda married Joseph C. GUTHRIE, of Benton. Charles married Semantha TUBBS, of Benton. They resided at Kinney’s Corners. He was killed by the caving of a gravel bank. Their children were Ezra, Charlotte, and George. Ezra married a widow RAPLEE, of Milo, and emigrated to Michigan. Charlotte married a Mr. DREW, and resides in Steuben Co. George resides with his mother near Branchport.

pg 498 - 499

Joseph COLE and Family -  Joseph COLE and his wife, Hannah WHITAKER, natives of Rhode Island, settled for a time near Rome, in the vicinity of Oneida, where the first earth was removed at the commencement of the Erie Canal. From thence they moved and settled in Jerusalem on the Benedict ROBINSON Tract, which included a large portion of lots 8, 17, and 32 of Daniel Guernsey’s Survey. Mrs. COLE died before they went on their new homestead at the house of Castle DAINS, in 1819, at the age of forty-four. He survived till 1860, dying at the age of ninety. Their children were Allen, John, Laura, Lydia, Simeon, Maria, Peleg, Sarah, Thomas, and James.

Allen died a bachelor in 1829, at the age of thirty-four. He was an active, efficient man in his day, a captain in the militia, and a prominent citizen. He owned the saw-mill now belonging To Simeon COLE.

John, born in 1797, married Rebecca MULTER, of Herkimer Co., and settled on lands of Jacob WAGENER, in Jerusalem. He died in 1862, leaving two children of his first wife, Elisha and Mary, and two of his second (Jane GILMORE), named Wolcott and William. The widow still survives in Jerusalem. Elisha married Maria LEWIS. Mary married William CARNES, and both reside in Michigan. Wolcott married Emma SMITH, of Seneca County, and William is single.

Laura, born in 1802, married Mr. HARVEY, of Chautauque Co. Lydia, born in 1800, married Aaron W. SHATTUCK, of Jerusalem, and moved to Chautauque Co., where both died leaving one child, Margaret.

Simeon COLE, born in 1804, married Jane ALBRO, of Jerusalem. He owns a saw mill in Larzelere’s Hollow, and a farm adjoining. He has been two terms County Superintendent of the Poor, and is a man widely and favorably known. Their children are De WITT C., Hannah, Edward, Delia, James A., Gilbert, David and Frank. De Witt C. married Harriet WHEELER, daughter of Nathan G. WHEELER, of Jerusalem. They reside on the old Daniel BROWN farm, more lately known as the  GOULD farm. Their children are Adelaide, Walter, and Ralph. Hannah married Noah DAVIS, son of Thomas R. DAVIS, of Jerusalem, and emigrated to Geneseo, Illinois. Edward married Mercy M., daughter of Willis PIERCE, and resides near Kinney’s Corners. He was a soldier in the 148^th Regiment, and became a captain, serving till the close of the Rebellion. Delia married John SPANGLER, who resides on the CRONK farm in Jerusalem. James A. married in 1867, Bethany, daughter of David SISSON, and is now a merchant in Chico, California. The others reside with their parents.

Maria, born in 1806, is the wife of Joseph GARDINER, a clergyman at Joliet, Illinois. They have four children.

Peleg, born in 1808, married Louisa, daughter of Russel BROWN, of Benton, and lived in Penn Yan, where she died leaving three children, Albert, Harvey, and Sarah. He married a second wife and for some time conducted a newspaper at Warren, Pa.

Sarah, born in 1810, is the wife of Hiram COLE, of Jerusalem. Thomas, born in 1812, went west, married and died in Missouri.

James H. COLE, born in 1817, emigrated to Missouri, married a daughter of Judge THURMAN, and soon after lost his wife and only child. He then went to California, returned to Missouri, married again and with his wife and a drove of cattle crossed the plains and mountains to Chico, Butte Co., Cal., where he and his nephew, James A. COLE, are in business  together.

pg 460 - 462

The COMSTOCKS. - Achilles, son of Samuel COMSTOCK, was born in Connecticut in 1757. He was a soldier of the Revolution and one of the rangers employed in the irregular warfare of the border, which was fraught with thrilling excitements. The Tories and refugees were accustomed to drive away the cows and other stock and this property was carefully watched to save it from pillaging bands. To thwart the cowboys led to many daring adventures and narrow escapes, in which Mr. COMSTOCK was a participant.

After the close of the war Achilles COMSTOCK married Sarah, daughter of Elnathan BOTSFORD, senior. They had one son, Israel, and two daughters, Apphi and Martha. The family came to the New Jerusalem in 1797. After abandoning an attempt made in company with his brothers-in-law, the BOTSFORDS, to make a settlement near Dundee, they made a purchase in 1799 of four hundred acres on the north side of the Friend’s estate in Jerusalem, which was a strip of land two miles long and one hundred rods wide. Their title to this land was involved in the long litigation which commenced in 1811 and ended in 1828, which caused them much trouble and cost and kept them in a long and wearying suspense.

Achilles COMSTOCK was a prominent citizen and most of the time in the early years from 1803 to 1815 held some town office, usually Commissioner of Highways. He was an early adherent of the Methodists and his wife was firmly attached to the Friend and her Society. The wife had her sabbath on Saturday and the husband on Sunday, a circumstance which never produced the least inharmonious result in the family. He died in 1832 at the age of 75, a much respected citizen. His wife died in 1845 at the age of 79. Their daughters belonged to the sisterhood of the Friend’s Society.

Israel COMSTOCK, born in Connecticut in 1794, was like his father a very worthy and exemplary citizen. He was eight years a Justice of the Peace, and held many town offices; was always a liberal and progressive man, and at the time of his death was President of the Yates County Historical Society. He was deeply interested in the objects of that organization, and resolutions expressive of high respect for his memory were published by the Society. For thirty-four years he was a consistent member of the Methodist Church, and most of the time an official and leading member. He married in 1821 Jane, daughter of Thomas SUTTON, of Jerusalem. Their children were Botsford Achilles, John J., and Sarah L.  Botsford A. born in 1823, is unmarried and occupies the homestead on which Achilles COMSTOCK settled in 1799, on lot 25. He is a worthy scion of the old stock, representing his ancestry with credit in the church and in civil society. Sarah Letetia, born in 1831, is unmarried. John J. married Mary, daughter of Robert MILLER, of Pultney, and grand-daughter of Melchoir WAGENER. They occupy a portion of the original homestead. Their children are Robert Israel, John Achilles, George Botsford, and Wilbur. Israel COMSTOCK died in 1866 at the age of 71, and his widow survives at the age of 71, sprightly and active to a remarkable degree for her years.

Pg 491 - 495

Jacob CONKLIN - About twenty years later than John RACE, came Jacob CONKLIN to the same locality; and Jacob was also a character. He and his wife Catharine BRAZIE were also reared under the life lease system of the Livingston Manor, of an ancestry moulded by generations inured to that condition of social existence. They were natives of the Copake Pond or Lake vicinity, and near the Livingston Manor seat. “Uncle Jake” was a favorite with his Manor Lord, receiving special favor and liberal bounties for obsequious compliance with his demands and attention to his wants. He made frequent visits to the Manor house with generous contributions of game and fish which his cunning craft procured from the surrounding hills and mountains and the prolific waters of the Lake; and often accompanied the younger members of the family as guide and director in their hunting and fishing excursions. He was therefore quite a lion among the COPAKERS, and thus being in the good graces of  both the landlord and tenantry, it seemed that he might be most content of all his associates, but such was not the fact. Like NORVAL in the play who had heard of wars, he had heard of the country of “the Lakes” and longed to breathe their free air and angle in their limpid waters, and own free from landlord’s claim for rent the soil on which his domicil might stand and his children should sow and rap their daily bread.

The title to their Copake home was fast running to its end in the uncertain lives of two old people just ready to step into the grave, and he and his good wife :Catarene” held frequent and deeply interesting consultations upon the subject of leaving their early and long cherished home and friends to seek their heart’s desire in that “far distant west” among the Lakes of New York.

Their first born son, “Cornalus,” as the father always called him, had already accompanied some to their adventurous neighbors to that country and sent back glowing accounts of its rich soil, beautiful waters and game-stocked hillsides. They pondered well and long, and finally determined to cast their fortunes into the scale and try what emigration would do for them. Hence the homestead farm bordering the famed “Copake Pond,” and within view of the rugged sides and tops of old “Tagconic,” was offered for sale and brought the full sum of five hundred dollars for their right and title to one hundred acres of “Lease Land,” with the improvements of a hundred years. This point reached and the crises passed of selling and starting, they soon wended their way by the Erie canal and partly by wagon, with their family of eight children, to this country. Stopping for a short season on Ketchem’s Point on the Keuka Lake, they soon purchased what was known as the “Father TOWNSEND farm,” on the Lake road, just two and a half miles south of Penn Yan, on lot 50, then pretty well cleared, with a double log house, orchard in bearing, with a narrow front of some fourteen rods on the Lake, and extending west to the next road, with a width to contain 114 acres, for the sum of one thousand dollars. This was 1828. Since, 25 acres has been sold and the balance is still retained in the family, and by will belongs to the oldest son of his son Peter, he being a namesake of the grandfather. Thus did he practice the odious system of entail, a part and parcel of the tenantry system, that he so hated as to flee from at the sacrifice of early home and life long associates. And here did this old couple with their offspring plant themselves and long rejoice in their escape from the thraldom of lease land tenantry.

Uncle Jacob was never suspected of having an undue attachment to the labors of the farm, and therefore contented himself to wear out the debt which he had incurred in its purchase by the annual wages on hire, of his son Peter, while he and the younger members endeavored to feed and clothe the family from the products of the farm and what could be gleaned from his fishing and hunting recreations. His love for those sports clung to him through life, and nothing suited him better than to share them with his many friends. He therefore spent much time with his gun and skiff; and the old homestead shows to this day the influence of early and long established habits, descending from father to son, in its dilapidated and antiquated appearance, and it must await the promised energies and modernized views of the grandson when he shall come into possession to redeem it from the VAN WINKLEISM of the tenantry system.

Uncle Jacob was a man over six feet in his stockings, broad-shouldered and rather bony than muscular in his build; his gait was that of a man never in a hurry, and in his hunting excursions he preferred to watch the runway rather than follow the track of the game. On the Lake he rejoiced in still fishing rather than trolling and well did he know the bedding places of the salmon trout and the white fish that so richly abound in the waters of the Keuka. Most heartily did he curse the splashing paddle-wheels of the first steamer that disturbed her placid bosom, for in that, to his prophetic mind, was foreshadowed the dispersing of the best schools of his finny pets that he had long fed and bated in certain localities known only to himself, and from which he could promise with great certainty a splendid fry to his special friends on short notice. Penn Yan was a favorite resort and often during the week he could be found of an afternoon seated in a bar room or on the more cheery front steps of some social resort, surrounded by eager listeners as he recounted in his good-natured and rollicking style the adventures of the past, with his predictions of the future, in which would be lost as he verily believed and taught, much of the valuable knowledge of his day and generation.

But Jacob CONKLIN’s was not a murmering spirit—far from it—for he and his good wife Catharine always seemed to think that their lives were cast in happy times and pleasant places, and that they were specially favored. They were therefore always thankful, and their anxieties for those who were to follow them were tinged rather with apprehension than envy. It was here that the mother died leaving eight children, Cornelius, Mary, Peter, John, Hannah, Elias, James, and Helen.

Uncle Jacob married a second wife, Hannah ANDERSON, widow of Beecher ANDERSON, of Jerusalem. She died some five years previous to his death, and he died in 1853, aged 78 years, and with his wives lies buried in the cemetery at Penn Yan. 

Cornelius married Ann BEVINS, at Copake, and preceded his father to this County, stopping in Potter for a time but finally settling near his father in Jerusalem, where he died leaving six children, Isaac, James, Jacob, Catharine, Cornelia, and John, most of whom reside out of the County. Catharine married Osborne MOORE, and resides at Kinney’s Corners, in Jerusalem. They have two children, Orman and Frederick. John married Jane STEVENS, of Milo, and resides there. They have several children.

Mary married John BENJAMIN, of Copake, N.Y., and settled for a time in this County, but emigrated to Illinois with their family of nine children, Sally, Porter, George, Emily, Catharine, Helen, Adelaide, and Mary J.

Peter married Lavina SHRINER, of Penn Yan. They reside on and have a life interest in the homestead, and have eight children, Jacob, Henry, John, William, Charles, Catharine, Emma, and Mary. Jacob, the oldest son, is sole heir by will to the homestead from the grandfather.

John died single. Hannah married Jeremiah CONKLIN, and went to Flint, Michigan, where they now reside and have three children, Walter, Elias, and George H.

Elias married Lydia FINGER, of Penn Yan, and both are dead, leaving two children, James and Frank.

James married Lydia CARR, of Jerusalem, and resides in Penn Yan. They have two sons Charles O. and William H.

Charles married Mary MANTEL, of Milo, and resides there They have one child.

Helen married John WHITBECK, of Copake. He died in the hospital in the Federal army in Virginia, and she has since died leaving two children, Foster and Conklin.

Pg 556 - 558

CORWIN Family -  Stephen CORWIN was born near Newark, New Jersey, in the year 1764. He married Betsey DREW, of New Jersey, and their children were John, Noah, Isaac, Nathan, Anna, Polly, and Abigail. He enlisted at the age of fourteen, in the Revolutionary army, and did good service. He died in 1849, at the age of eighty-five. Anna moved to Pennsylvania where she resides and has several descendants. Isaac lives in Michigan. Nathan lives in Chautauqua County. Noah, who many years ago lived in Jerusalem, is now living at Townsend Settlement, Schuyler County.

John Corwin, born in New Jersey, in 1786, remained there till the year 1814, when, at the age of twenty-eight, he came to Starkey. He married Elizabeth FRENCH, in 1808. He lived in Starkey from 1814 to 1826, during which time he pursued his trade—that of a carpenter—and in 1826 came to Jerusalem and settled on lot 27, of the Beddoe Tract, now owned by Peter H. BITLEY and occupied by Nathaniel G. HIBBARD. His wife, Elizabeth FRENCH, born in New Jersey, 1791, married at the age of seventeen, and died in Jerusalem in 1847.

John CORWIN first bought a farm consisting of 118 acres, a large part of which he cleared and put under a good state of cultivation; but being of a restless disposition, sold out at a loss of several hundred dollars and moved on a farm on lot 41, Guernsey’s Survey, which he again cleared and upon which he has ever since resided. Most of his elder children, including Rachel, now living in Jerusalem, and one or two other of the girls, assisted in the arduous labor of clearing the lands. The children of John and Elizabeth CORWIN were Ezra, Sarah, Rachel, Phebe, Noah, Miranda, Polly, Harvey, William, Amos, Lyman, Harriet, John and Lucelia.

Ezra married Jane WYCOFF, and their children were Almina, Lucretia, Delila, Elizabeth, and Theresa. He moved to Michigan where his wife died, then married Jane GORDON, and they have children. Sarah married, first, John ROUSE, of Bluff Point, who died, and she married Jacob HERRICK, of Bluff Point, then moved to Elkhorn, Walworth Co., Wisconsin, where he died and she subsequently married Aaron EELBECK, of Wisconsin. Rachel married Joseph N. DAVIS, and resides in Jerusalem. Phebe married Godfrey CHASE, of Penn., and their children are Permelia A., Cordelia L., Fidela J., Mary J., and Almeda. Noah married Eliza Jane BUCK, of Dix, Schuyler County, and their children are Delila Epitome, John, and Gideon. They reside in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Miranda married Elijah DEAN, and resides in Newfield, Tompkins County. Polly married Jesse H. DAVIS, and resides in Jerusalem. Harvey married Amanda BARRETT, and is a shoemaker in Penn Yan. William went to Michigan and married there. Amos married Eliza J. CHASE, of Jerusalem, where they lived many years; afterward moved to Tioga Co., Pa., where they reside. Their children were Perry W., (who died while in service of the Union army,) Charles, Henry, and Mary. Lyman married Adaline DRAKE, and moved to Elmira, where he died. His wife married again. Harriet died young. John married Olive TINNEY, of Jerusalem, and their children are Flora, Libbie, and Ebenezer. They live in Ontario Co. Lucelia married Hiram TINNEY, of Jerusalem, and their children are Rose, Archibald, Herbert, and Charles. Each of the three brothers of John CORWIN, learned the trade of carpenter with him, he being the eldest. He has been a hard-working mechanic and a thorough farmer.

Pg 549 - 552

The Beddoe Tract.- COWING Family -  James COWING born in 1740, in Old Rochester, county of Plymouth, Mass., was the father of 21 children, of whom Albert R. COWING was the 20th. He learned the trade of shoemaker, but followed the ocean as a whaler a number of years, after which he married a Miss (Mary) COTTLE and followed his trade. During the Revolution he was largely employed in making shoes for the soldiers and took his pay in continental money. The Government not redeeming its paper he lost all; but he was content as the cause of liberty triumphed. His first wife and the mother of 7 of his children died and he married a second wife, Sarah RANDALL, with whom he moved to Saratoga county, where they purchased a farm and improved it. He was again reduced to bankruptcy by becoming security for a merchant. In the fall of 1803, with his son Caleb and his nephew Jacob HACKETT, he traveled on foot to Canandaigua, a distance of more than 200 miles. They located on a farm five miles west of Geneva, where he brought his family the next spring. In 1807 his wife died of typhus fever, a fatal disease for many that year. The children by the first marriage were David, Oliver, James, Hannah, Eunice, and Mary; by the second, Phebe, Celinda, Caleb, Ruby, Sally, Asenath, Permelia, Betsey, Cynthia, Sophia, Marshall J., Sophronia, Albert R. and John P. James first settled in Oneida county, and had a family of 11 children. He moved to this county in 1830, and died in 1840 at the age of 72 years. Mary, in 1822 in middle life, married John AYRES of Phelps, a Catholic and a farmer, owning one hundred acres. The marriage was unhappy and he willed his property to the Catholic Church in Geneva. She, disgusted with the unequal laws in regard to woman, as early as 1830 circulated a petition to the Legislature for a grant of equal property rights. The petition was twelve to fourteen feet long, and was signed by many influential citizens. It was at that time made a subject of laughter and honored with an adverse report. But Mrs. AYRES was a pioneer in a just cause, which has since gained the triumph she did not live to see.

Phebe the oldest of the children by the second marriage, married Luke WHITMORE and died at the age of eighty in Michigan, the mother of five children.

Celinda married Gen. Parkhust WHITNEY. They commenced in 1814 keeping the Cataract House at Niagara Falls, and continued there many years, when it passed into the hands of their children. She died in 1860 nearly 78 years.

Caleb COWING, now living in Starkey, is 85 years old and it is believed has chopped over and cleared more new land than any man now living in this State. He was 19 years old when the family arrived at their new home in the woods, and soon commenced chopping by the job. The year he was 21 years old he cleared off 36 acres of land, heavily timbered, and fitted it for the harrow. He has frequently cut and put up six cords of wood in a day. He married Rhoda ROYCE of Reading, two years his senior, and settled and improved two farms in that town, now Starkey. He sold out and returned to Seneca where he improved two other farms and built a large brick house. Twenty-one years later he moved back and still lives in Starkey.

Four sons of Sophronia, who married Enos CLARK and moved to Michigan, were soldiers, three with SHEARMAN and one in the Army of the Potomac. She had 10 children. Cynthia married Asher TORRANCE, and died at 58 in Lockport, the mother of five children. John P. COWING, the youngest of the family, married Elizabeth MALLORY and is an extensive manufacturer of Fire Engines, Pumps, &c., at Seneca Falls. No others except Albert settled in this county.

Albert R. COWING born in 1804, married in 1825, Sally, daughter of E. B. TORRANCE, and in the fall of that year moved to Jerusalem, where he became the first permanent settler on The Beddoe Tract, or the 5000 acres separately surveyed by Jabez FRENCH and advertised by John BEDDOE. The tract was then a dense wilderness of pine and oak timber, as good as the State could afford, with a mixture of other timber. A man by the name of BURCHARD had squatted on lot 13, built a log house and sowed a little wheat, which the deer gnawed so close that it never amounted to anything, and he soon left the town. The principal product for a number of years was pine shingles styled by the people north and east “Jerusalem Currency.” The mints for the manufacture of this currency were common in the woods, and sturdy workmen applied themselves late and early in producing it, the shavings serving for fire and light. The outfit for one of these mints was an axe, a cross-cut saw, shaving knife and froe, and a wood horse. The shingle maker could take them all on his shoulder and establish himself in business anywhere in the woods. He had no license to pay and his shingles sold for one dollar per thousand—an article now worth six dollars. For some years the best markets were Seneca and Phelps, until the Keuka Lake canal was opened. Then lumbermen from the east bought timbered land, standing trees and lumber, and paid the people currency they could carry in their pockets. This soon destroyed the shingle currency, and the once beautiful pine forests shortly became ugly looking clearings.

Mr. COWING never engaged in the shingle business farther than to peddle the currency in his native town, but applied himself to chopping, and clearing his farm, and erecting buildings. In 1831 he built a barn 34 by 50 feet in size. James S. ROYCE was the Carpenter, and it was the first building raised in the county without spirituous liquor. Some came with a jug, but Mr. COWING ordered them away. They left taking others with them, and played ball at a neighbor’s near by, while a small and determined band of Temperance men, working with a will put up the frame of heavy timber. Refreshments were served more expensive than whisky, and the fashion afterwards prevailed throughout the country. Since then he has had seven raisings, and at each one a supper but no liquor. Their children have been Maria, Sophronia, Rhoda, Sarah, Eliza, Caroline, Mary, Albert A., Helen, and Celinda. Maria married Alfred BALDWIN and has one child, Oren R.  Sophronia married Charles BELLIS, had two children, Cornelia S., and Albert C., and died at 21 years.    Rhoda married Granger GATES and has two children, Mary S., and Grove C. They reside in Illinois. Sarah married Dr. Philo K. STODDARD of Prattsburg.   Eliza died single at 23. Albert A. married Alice, daughter of Luther MYERS of Watkins. They are living in Omaha and have one child, Fred M. Helen married Abram N. SLAGHT of Lodi, and is living on the old homestead. The others are single.

Albert R. COWING has led an active and laborious life, and his activity has been mental as well as muscular. At the age of twenty-six he united with the Methodist Church of which he was a leading member upwards of 12 years, much of the time a class leader and steward. Afterward, having Anti Slavery views and regarding the Bible as an authority for slavery, he gradually became a Free Thinker, and repudiated the Bible as a Divine Revelation. He has since been as zealous in his opposition to theological opinions as he was before in his support of orthodox sentiments. He has frequently wielded his pen in support of his views on religious subjects and other topics, and many of his articles have been printed in the newspapers.

- D -

Pg 467 - 472 

The DAVIS Families - Jonathan DAVIS, who died nearly ninety-three years old, in 1870, came to this County in 1792, at the age of fifteen, along with David WAGENER and a company of eight to join the Friend’s Settlement. After remaining a few years he went back to his native abode, about fifteen miles from Philadelphia, and there married Rachel UPDEGRAFF in 1801. After a short residence in South Milo they moved to Jerusalem and settled about half a mile west of Larzelere’s Hollow, where they remained. Mrs. DAVIS died in 1858 in her eighty-first year. They bought their land of Jacob WAGENER, who owned lots 29, 30, 31, and 42, in all over twelve hundred acres. Jonathan DAVIS was a peaceable, quiet citizen, whose old age was green, and blessed with a vivid memory of the early years of the Settlement. He adhered to the Friends for many years and afterwards inclined toward a sect known as Michaelites. He originally belonged to the Quakers. The children of this family were Mary, Isaiah, Leah, and Lydia. Mary married Joseph COGSWELL and they resided in Jerusalem, where she died in 1869, aged sixty-eight. Her husband survives her.

Lydia married John BROCKWAY. They lived in Allegany County, and their children were Hannah and Isaiah D. Hannah married Abraham V. DEAN, of Dansville, a son of Alexander V. DEAN, of Jerusalem. Isaiah D. was a soldier of Company L, 14^th N.Y. Heavy Artillery, and died in the service. He was a good soldier and a worthy young man. His funeral discourse was preached at Branchport by Rev. Frederick STARR, Jr., in August 1864.

Leah and Isaiah DAVIS are unmarried and reside on the homestead. John DAVIS, the father of Jonathan DAVIS, died in Jerusalem at the age of ninety-two. His wife was Leah ROGERS. The grandfather of Jonathan DAVIS, also John DAVIS, emigrated from Wales, and he and his son John were each respectively the only sons of families to which they belonged. The family of Jonathan DAVIS consisted of himself and his sisters Sinah, Anna, and Lydia. Sinah married Stewart COHOON, brother of Jared, and Lydia died single.

Anna, sister of Jonathan DAVIS, was the wife of Jared COHOON, who was one of the earliest pioneers and who still lives with his son Charles in Michigan, at the age of ninety-two. He came with his father, Nathaniel COHOON, when but few of the early settlers had arrived. He was the first settler on the place now owned by Thomas C. SUTTON, of Jerusalem. He remembers the Indians well and says he killed hundreds of rattlesnakes in Milo. The only live wolf he ever saw was in the path directly before him, where Main street now runs in Penn Yan. He was a hard-working man, laboring by the day and making shingles for a livelihood. He states that he worked many a day for Anna WAGENER, and at the Friend’s. His physical power was such that on one occasion he carried three and one half bushels of wheat on his back across the Big Gully, a great feat of strength. His sister, Jerusha COHOON, was the wife of Dennis DEAN, one of the early school teachers. 

Malachi DAVIS, a native of Wales, was a settler about 1720, some fifteen miles from Philadelphia, where he owned and occupied a mile square of land till his death. His son Malachi was born there in 1745, and married Catharine GILKERSON, eight years younger. He was a Quaker in sentiment and did not take part as a soldier in the war of the Revolution. In 1798 he moved with his family to Milo, then Jerusalem, with a train of forty immigrants with four-horse teams, a journey of one month, by way of Capt. WILLIAMSON’s road. He settled on the Gore north of the south line of Torrey, where he bought his land of Charles WILLIAMSON and resided till his death in 1832, at the age of eighty-seven. The children of this family were Tacey, Mary, Jonathan, Eleanor, Hannah, Samuel, Rachel, Malachi, Jesse, John, and Nathaniel. Tacey and Mary died in Philadelphia, quite wealthy, both upwards of seventy. Mary was unmarried and Tacey was the wife of Jacob STOUT.

Samuel was the only one that moved to Jerusalem. He was born in 1784, and in 1805 married Menty, daughter of Eleazer INGRAHAM. They settled the same year on the east part of lot 42, and some years later moved to the west part of the same lot where he still resides on a farm of thirty acres. His wife died in 1863 in her seventy-eighth year. She was a woman of remarkable industry and great benevolence. Samuel DAVIS has been an expert shingle-maker, and his shingles were eagerly sought for as being of superior quality. He has had the full experience of the pioneers with the wilderness and the early settlement. To keep the wolves from devouring his sheep and the bear the swine, was sometimes more than could be accomplished. He has his share of incidents that he relates in this connection. He is a hale, robust, large chested man of rotund figure, enjoying with zest, the comforts of life, at the age of eighty-six. The children of this pair are Rachel, Rebecca, Joseph N., Jesse H., Eliza, George W., and Lydia Ann. Rachel, born in 1806, married George SHATTUCK, of Jerusalem. Rebecca, born in 1808, married Elias CHASE. They reside where Samuel DAVIS first settled. Their children are Melissa, Levi D., Emeline, Morrison L., and Melinda. Melissa married Daniel SHERWOOD of Jerusalem. Levi D. married the only daughter of Judge Jacob LA RUE, of Hammondsport, and is a minister of the Methodist Church. They have a daughter. Emeline became the second wife of Henry W. HARRIS, of Jerusalem, deceased. She has one son Eddie. Morrison L. married Mary E., daughter of James A. BELKNAP. Melinda married Elwyn HAIRE, son of Ezra HAIRE, of Jerusalem.

Joseph N., born in 1809, is a local preacher, of the Methodist faith, and resides near his father. He married Rachel CORWIN, and their children are Edgar E., Harriet J., (deceased,) Miles A., Melvin J., and George. Melvin J. married Adaline, daughter of James A. BELKNAP. The others are single. Edgar E. owns and occupies a handsome farm of about sixty acres on lot 31. Miles A., is a printer and a contributor to the press, for which he writes with ease, taste, and ability.

Jesse H., born in 1810, married Polly CORWIN, sister of Joseph’s wife. They reside in the same vicinity. Their children are Joel L., Emergene, and Ann Janette. Joel L. married Sarah CRANE, of Wellsville, N.Y., and resides at Blossburg, Pa.  Emergene married Joseph LEWIS, of Prattsburgh, and resides there. Their children are Franklin L., William, and Jennie.

Eliza, born in 1816, married Henry LEWIS, a surveyor, of Prattsburgh. She died in 1866. They had one son, Joseph, who married his cousin Emergene.

George W., born in 1821, married Loretta ROSE, of Jerusalem, where they reside on lot 42. Their children are Margery Albina, Charles E., and Margaret Adellie.

Lydia Ann, born in 1827, married Samuel STRYKER, of Jerusalem. They reside in Larzelere’s Hollow, and have one son, Henry.

William DAVIS, brother of Malachi DAVIS, jr., born in 1748, married Nancy DAVIS, (not a relative) in Montgomery Co., Pa. They moved to the New Jerusalem in 1792. His name was on the first tax roll. He died in 1818 and his children were Israel, Nathan, Jesse, Lydia, Anna, and William. Israel, born in 1772, was a Baptist preacher and a man of excellent character. His wife was Nancy GOULD. He died in Indiana at the age of ninety-two. Nathan, born in 1774, died in Rochester at the age of seventy-seven. He was a carpenter and his wife was Martha GREY. He was the builder of many of the early schoolhouses, and of the third house erected in the city of Rochester. Lydia, born in 1780, married James ANWAY, and died in Ohio, at the age of fifty-nine. Anna, born in 1786, is still living in Jerusalem. She was the wife of John CRITISON, who died in 1866, upwards of seventy.

William DAVIS, Jr., born in 1782, married Sarah TOLBERT, of Milo, and resided in Jerusalem, where he died at the age of thirty-nine. He was a farmer, and on the day of his death went to Penn Yan with a load of ashes, and on his return, about two miles beyond Larzelere’s Hollow, his sled caught fast between two trees in the woods. Being unable to extricate it without an ax, he unhitched his oxen and let them proceed homeward while he followed on foot. Benumbed with cold, in sight of his house, he crawled on his hands and knees across the field, eager to reach once more his own fireside, but finally sank down unable to move but crying out to his wife, who heard his voice and went out to the barn. Not finding the oxen, which had strayed away to a neighbor’s barn, she concluded the noise she had heard was that of wolves, and returned to the house and retired for the night. The morning revealed the lifeless body of her husband a few rods from his own door. William’s only child was Sarah Ann, who married William CAREY, of Jerusalem, and died in Michigan.

Jesse DAVIS, born in 1778, married first Rebecca YATES, of Montgomery Co., Pa., who died in 1826. and in 1827 he married a second wife, Huldah, daughter of Elizur BARNES. He came to the Genesee country in 1791, with the family of David WAGENER. He and Abraham WAGENER were companions in eating, sleeping, and labor three years before he was eighteen. At that age he assisted Joseph JONES in a township survey where the village of Dansville now stands, and no settlement was yet begun there except two houses. Panthers screamed on their track, and the wolves were so voracious that one night they barely kept them at bay by beating them off with firebrands.

Jesse DAVIS was a Quaker in sentiment and a just and upright man. He settled in Jerusalem on a place adjoining that of Jonathan DAVIS, in 1815, where he was the first settler, and died there in 1862 in his eighty-fourth year. The children of his second marriage were William, Nathan, Charles, Sophia, and Joanna.

William married Mary, daughter of John DORMAN, of Jerusalem; and resides on the old homestead. They have three children, Bertha F., William S. and Morris W.

Nathan married Amanda HOSE, of Torrey, and resides in Iowa. Their children are Charles, William, and Nora E.

Charles married Elizabeth THORN, of Rochester, and resides in Iowa. Their children are Franklin, Ella, and Alice.

Sophia married Riley WELLS, son of George WELLS, of Potter. They reside in California. Their children are William, Charles, and George.

Joanna married Oscar STEVER, son of Peter STEVER, of Jerusalem. They reside in California, and have one child, Geneva.

Pg 472 - 476

Benjamin DURHAM - Among the most noted of the early settlers of Jerusalem, was Benjamin DURHAM, an excellent millwright. His ancestors were English, and early settlers on Long Island. He was quite early a resident of the Friend’s Settlement, coming with Richard HENERSON, of whom he learned his trade. He was never of the Friend’s Society, having early united with the Methodists and remaining through life a devout, consistent and earnest believer. In 1798 at the age of twenty-three, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Castle DAINS, who was two years younger. The marriage ceremony was performed by Benedict ROBINSON. In 1799 he purchased land of Mr. ROBINSON about one mile north of what is now Branchport, where William H. DECKER now resides, on lot 17. There they at once made their home in the woods and erected a log house, which was their abode upwards of twenty years. In the absence of churches and the scarcity of school-houses, their house was long a place for Methodist preaching and always the cordial home of the itinerant ministers. When meetings were not held at their own house they did not hesitate to go a long distance to attend religious service. Mr. DURHAM and his wife would frequently go on foot to Arnold’s Hollow, (now Yatesville) a distance of five miles, to attend prayer meeting. They also frequently went to Nettle Valley, in Potter, with an ox team to attend preaching. The religious enthusiasm of these days would hardly induce such efforts to reach the ministrations of the Gospel.

For some time after they settled on their place, the Indians, who held the occupation of the valley for a long time, had wigwams on their premises and sometimes were quite annoying. Their trusty dog, understanding the opinions of the household concerning the red-skins, was very adroit in driving them off and keeping them at bay. He did not hesitate to lay hold of them, and they finally regarded the courageous mastiff with mortal fear, a circumstance which had a notable effect in the improvement of their manners. The faithful dog had other and more ferocious enemies to ward off, in the multitude of wolves that roamed through the dense surrounding forests and made the nights terrific with their discordant howls. If no more than a small company of three or four made their appearance, the old dog would drive them off, but some nights they would come in such numbers as to compel him to take refuge in an out-door oven, from the mouth of which he defied their assaults and admonished them with his best tones. It was impossible to keep sheep for some years, and finally when they begun to do so, they were very carefully penned at night. With all their care, however, the wolves intruded into the fold over a formidable enclosure, and killed upwards of forty, nearly the whole flock, at one time.

Mr. DURHAM wrought at his trade, a good share of the time away from home, and built mills at Batavia, Niagara Falls, and other places. He paid for his land and finally owned about two hundred acres. His first wife bore him nine children, and he married in 1818, a second wife, Mary K. BATES, of Potter. By the second marriage there were five. Those of the first marriage were Ann, Rebecca, George, John James, Joanna, Abel, Albert, and Elizabeth. Of the second, Lucy C., Myron H., Benjamin, Mary C., and Charles M. Ann born in 1799, married Samuel GRISWOLD; they still reside in Jerusalem. Rebecca, born in 1800, was the first wife of Henry LARZELERE, and died in 1860. George, born in 1803, died single in 1829.

John, born in 1804, married Elizabeth HUNGERFORD, and was drowned in the Hudson River, near Troy. He left four children, James H., Mary M., Delia A. and John A. His widow has since married a Mr. JOHNSON, and resides in Ontario County.

James, born in 1809, married Alma HAMILTON, and resides in Norwich, Chenango County. They have had five children, Dwight, Cyrus, Helen M., George, and Emma A. The sons are all dead.

Joanna died young, and Abel, born in 1812, went to New Orleans in 1833, and has not since been heard from.

Albert, born in 1814, married Lucinda M. SCIPLES, and resides in Jerusalem. They have six children, Elizabeth A., Henry L, John W., James H., Harriet L., and George A. Elizabeth A. married John A. MILLER, of Branchport, and they have had five children, Henry L., John W., James H., Harriet R. and George A. Henry L. died young. John W. married Emma LOUNSBURY, and resides in Italy. They have one child. He served in the army, first a full enlistment in the 33d Regiment, N.Y.V., re-enlisted in the 178^th, and was wounded at Petersburg. A ball striking his right breast passed to his spinal column, and the wound has caused his right arm to wither and become useless. His brother James H. was a soldier in the 50^th Regiment of Engineers, and died at Alexandria, Va.

Elizabeth DURHAM, born in 1816, married first Wolcott COLE. They had one daughter, Rebecca Ann, who became the wife of Chauncey MILLSPAUGH, and is the mother of three children, Edward, Emma, and one other.

Mrs. COLE married a second husband, Linus DICKINSON, of Jerusalem. They have two children, Dwight W. and Mariette, both single, residing with their parents.

Lucy C., the oldest of Benjamin DURHAM’s children by the second marriage, was born in 1819, and married William H. DECKER, of Jerusalem, in 1838. They retain the old DURHAM homestead and reside on it, having remodeled the old farm house built by Benjamin DURHAM in 1820. They have had three children, George H., Anna E., and Charles D. George H. is a graduate of Hamilton College, and late Principal of the public schools at Middletown, Orange County, now a student at law. He has a high reputation as a teacher. Anna E. died in 1865, and Charles D. resides with his parents.

Myron H. DURHAM, born in 1821, married Chloe M., daughter of David DAINS, and resides in Jerusalem. Their children are Henry C., Mary C., Annette, and Sarah R. The oldest two died young. Annette married Henry L. GRISWOLD, and resides at Naples, N.Y. The remaining daughter resides with her parents.

Benjamin, born in 1823, married and resides in Michigan. He has one child. Mary C., born in 1826, died in 1845.

Charles M., born in 1830, married Helen CAMERON, and resides at Independence, Iowa. Their children are Maude A and Charles H.

Benjamin DURHAM, senior, died in 1832; his first wife, Elizabeth, in 1817, and his second wife, Mary K., in 1845, at the age of 46.  Benjamin DURHAM had a brother John who resided in Chemung County. Unlike Benjamin, he was a Presbyterian, but his son James became a noted minister of the Methodist church and a presiding elder. He was bred a printer, and at an early period was editor of the Elmira Whig. He passed the later years of his life at Benton Centre, where he served as Justice of the Peace, and died in 1861, aged sixty-one, and his wife, (Sophia DE LABARR,) two years later, at fifty-six. Of their ten children, four survive. Thomas formerly a sailor and now a farmer, moved recently from Benton to Seneca Falls, where Elizabeth, his sister, also resides. Mary is the wife of Alfred CROSBY, of Benton, and Ella is a Milliner in Penn Yan.

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Pg 528 - 529

GAMBY Family - Anna GAMBY was the wife of Hugh GAMBY, of Dutchess Co. He died there in 1812. Mrs. GAMBY, with several members of her family, came to this County in 1817, and resided for a time in the Lawrence TOWNSEND House on the road leading from Penn Yan to Dresden, and on the corner where the burying ground now is. She was a VAN LOUVEN. Their children were Betsey, Sally, Harriet, Laura, James H., Seth, and Isaac, that came to this County, Betsey married Solomon D. WEAVER. Sally married William B. LUCAS. She still resides in Benton, on the WEED farm. Harriet married William A. WEED, and resides on the WEED farm on Flat street. Laura married Daniel S. LEE, son of James LEE, and went to Michigan. James H. married Elizabeth FRENCH, of Jerusalem, and resides at Branchport. He is a drug and grocery merchant; was associated with John H. LAPHAM in the drug business at Penn Yan, many years since. They have one child, James. Seth resides in Steuben County.

Isaac was the oldest of the brothers mentioned. He married Mary SEARS, of Connecticut, and came to this County about the time of the mother or soon after. He was a blacksmith and tool maker. Having learned his trade in Connecticut in one of the shops of the once celebrated Seth HARRIS & Sons, scythe manufacturers, of Pine Plains, in Dutchess County, and also at Salisbury, Conn. He in connection with John DURFEE, who came from Connecticut with him, established a Scythe Factory on the outlet below Penn Yan, and near the old “Factory Mill,” since known as the Davison Moshier Mill. Their establishment was on the east side of the stream, and the remains are still visible. Here they conducted that business from 1818 to 1822; sold and removed to Sodus, where Mr. GAMBY died, leaving his widow and two children, Emily and Mary. The Scythe works passed through several hands, and finally were conducted by one HENDRICKS, and attained considerable celebrity for the quality of the scythes. It was continued to about the year 1832 or ’33, when it was finally abandoned. The last man who conducted it was one ASHLEY. Mr. GAMBY was in those days celebrated as an ax-maker, and it is said made in one day sixteen axes with the help of one man with the ordinary fire and tools of a blacksmith, and his partner made the same number at another fire.

Mrs. GAMBY, the mother, married a second husband, John WEED, of Benton, and resided on Flat street until they died.

GREEN Family and the Green Tract  -  Capt. Henry GREEN, who with Orrin GREEN, was the purchaser of the Green Tract and other lands in Jerusalem, was an early settler in Gorham near Rushville, and he died there in 1849 at the age of eighty-six. His children were William, John, Clark, Bingham, Hezekiah, Henry, and Erastus, besides three daughters, Esther, Jerusha, and Sally. John, Clark, and Henry were early settlers on the Green Tract, near Benjamin STODDARD, Ira GREEN, son of Hezekiah, (brother of Captain Henry,) also settled early in the same locality. Clark GREEN settled on lot 25, near the corners known as the locality of the “Green School House.” His widow, now Mrs. PETTEBONE, still resides there at the age of seventy-six, with her grand-daughter, Mrs. M. L. CHASE. Ira GREEN kept a tavern  about twenty years where Thomas SANDERS now lives, on lot 11. John GREEN settled on the farm next south of Ira GREEN, where George W. CHAMPLIN now lives, on lot 9. John GREEN married Anna, daughter of Henry Hutchins, a Revolutionary soldier. Of his family there are five surviving children, Harvey, Alvira, Hannah, Hezekiah, and Asahel H. Harvey married Sarah TEACHOUT, of Italy. They live in Italy and have one child William A. Alvira married Alanson L. PARSONS, son of Thaddeus PARSONS, of Italy Hollow, and resides in Middlesex. They have four children, John H., Anna S., Sabin A., and Wellington.

Hannah married Erastus G. CLARK, son of William CLARK, of Italy. Their children are Helen, Emma, John W., and Mary.

Hezekiah married Betsey Ann GEROULD. They reside in Vine Valley, in Middlesex, on the farm lately owned by Roswell M. LORD, engaged in grape growing and farming. They have one daughter, Alice V., who married William R. PERRY.

Asahel married Mary E. BENNETT, and resides in Vine Valley Middlesex. They have two children, Eva O., and Herbert.

Clark GREEN married Abigail, daughter of Joseph H. WILLIAMS, of Rushville. He died at the homestead in 1834. They have four children, Esther, Submit, Huldah, and James S.

Esther married Rev. Abel HASKELL, of Canandaigua, and they settled in Penfield, where she now resides a widow, with her family. They have four children, Sarah, Mary, James, and Franklin.

Submit married James A. BELKNAP, of Benton. Their daughter, Mary E., married Morrison L. CHASE, and resides on the grandmother GREEN farm. They have one child, Mitty R.

Huldah married William N. BENEDICT.

James S. married Helen SMITH, of Angelica, and resides there. He is a lawyer. They have one child, Mary C.

Mrs. Clark GREEN married for her second husband, Dr. Harvey PETTEBONE, of Naples.

Henry GREEN, jr., married Betsey, daughter of Elisha KELLEY, an early settler of the town of Potter. They settled on the farm now owned by Walter HENDERSON, on the “Green Tract,” but removed to No. 9, town of Canandaigua, Ontario County, where he died in 1835, leaving seven children. His widow died in 1869. Their children were Lydia, Erastus, Eliza, Kelley, Miles and Henry, (twins,) and Mary.

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Pg 542 - 544

HARRIS Family -  The original settler on lot 10, of the Green Tract, where Rowland CHAMPLIN Jr., afterwards lived, was Nathan HARRIS. He and his wife, Hancey BENTON, were natives of Connecticut and were married at Wethersfield. In 1819 they made their home in the woods on the Green Tract. In their later years they made their home with their son, John B. HARRIS, where the father died in 1860, at the age of eighty-two, and the mother in 1864, at the age of 78 years. Their children were John B., Henry, Marcia, Otis, Sally, Nathan, Maria, James K., Jane, and Charlotte. Henry married in Oneida Co., and lives in Minnesota. Marcia married Stephen I. TORREY, of Italy. She lives in Potter, a widow, and her children are Alson D., Addison, Violette, and Nathan.

Otis married Rhoda, daughter of Eleazer INGRAHAM Jr., and lives on the INGRAHAM homestead in Pultney. Sally died single.

Nathan married Phila, daughter of Henderson COLE, and died at St. Joseph, Indiana, leaving two sons, Dwight and Charles. Maria married William SUTTON, and after his death became the second wife of Michael GAGE, of Middlesex. James K. married Nancy IRWIN, lives in Pennsylvania and has four children. Jane married Alfred BROWN. Charlotte died at sixteen.

John B. HARRIS, the oldest of the children, born in Oswego Co., in 1801, married Abigail, daughter of Asa BROWN. They first kept a tavern at Italy Hill, where they had been preceded by Elisha PIERCE, Philip COOL, and Seth BAKER. After two years he started a store and kept a tavern, a short distance beyond Rowland CHAMPLIN’s on the road to Italy Hill, and there remained three years. They afterwards lived on the Friend’s Tract, and now reside on lot 28, Guernsey’s Survey. Their children have been Nancy S., Amanda M., Jane M., Rebecca, Harriet M., Charles B., and James K. Nancy S. married first, David BAKER, who died leaving one child, William E. She married next, James CROUCH, who was a soldier in Company of Capt. Martin S. HICKS, 148^th Regiment. He was wounded at Cold HARBOR, and died soon after. Their children were Charles A., Emily A., and John J. Nancy is also dead. Amanda married George M. BAKER. They reside in Woodhull, and their children are Ida May, Irene Hattie, Floyd, and Francis. Jane married George T. STEVENS, son of Oliver STEVENS, of Penn Yan. They have one child, Fred. Rebecca married John V. BROWN, and has two children, Minnie, and Charles. He was a soldier in a Pennsylvania Regiment of Bucktails and served through the entire war of the Rebellion. Harriet married Horace R. WHEELER, and has one child, Perley. James K. married Mary, daughter of Moses HARTWELL. They have one child, Olive G.

Asa BROWN, the father of Mrs. John B. HARRIS, was a son of Micajah BROWN, who formerly lived near Dresden, moved West a few years ago and died at a very advanced age. Micajah BROWN was a son of Benjamin BROWN, senior, of the Friend’s Society. Asa BROWN, still living in Pultney at the age of about 90, married Patience, daughter of Eleazer INGRAHAM, senior. Their children were Abigail, Rachel W., Chester, Alfred, John, Rebeca, and Ann. Robert W. married Jemima MAIDEN, resided in Jerusalem many years and finally moved to Michigan. Chester S. married Julia Ann SAGE, lived many years in Jerusalem, and died in Penn Yan several years ago. Alfred married Jane, a sister of John B. HARRIS, and lived in Jerusalem till quite recently. His daughter Phida married Marshall BABCOCK and lives in Middlesex. Rebecca BROWN is single, and Ann is dead.

pg 504 - 505

HARTSHORN Family  -  Samuel HARTSHORN, born in Amherst, Mass., in 1772, was a blacksmith. About 1800 he married at Exeter, Otsego County, Sarah GENUNG, of Newark, N.J. In 1817 they moved to Barrington and five years later to Jerusalem, settling on lot 68, of the first seventh, where Charles W. TAYLOR now resides and where they lived mostly thereafter. Samuel HARTSHORN died at the age of eighty-two, in 1854, and his wife nine years later, at the same age. Their children were Hiley, Betsey, Abigail, William W., Isaac W., and James H. Hiley married Hosea WILLIAMS, of Exeter. They settled in Jerusalem where he died in 1857, leaving three children who arrived at adult age, James, Sherman, and Abby. Sherman married Salena, only daughter of Joseph ABBOTT, of Jerusalem, and resides near the homestead.

Betsey married Robert BROWN, son of Russel BROWN, of Torrey, and after living some time in Jerusalem they moved to Dresden where he died. She now resides in Penn Yan.

Abigail married Azor BARRETT, of Jerusalem, and they resided in Jerusalem till 1869, when they moved to Penn Yan.

William W. HARTSHORN, married Mary, daughter of Abiel THOMAS, of Potter. They emigrated to Flint, Mich., where he died in 1868, leaving one son, William G.

Isaac W. HARTSHORN, born in 1810, married first Sarah, daughter of Ashbel BEERS, who died leaving no children. He married a second wife, Sarah, daughter of Amzi BRUEN. They reside on his homestead in Jerusalem, where he has a large estate in land on lot 68, of the first seventh. They have one child, Wendell Phillips.

James H. married Emily WILLIAMS, of Jerusalem, where they lived and where both died.

Pg 479 - 481

HARTWELL Family - Samuel HARTWELL was a native of Connecticut, and married Elizabeth WILKINSON, a sister of the Universal Friend. They came very early to the Friend’s Settlement, lived in the HENDERSON neighborhood north of Silas SPINK’s and about 1800 moved to No. 8, just south of Havens’ Corners, where they erected a log house. From there they moved to Canada and when the war of 1812 broke out were driven away, by an act of the British Parliament, allowing none to remain who were not loyal to the Crown. They came back and lived some years in Jerusalem and moved thence to Conhocton, where Samuel HARTWELL died at the age of ninety-one and his wife at about the same age. Their children were Samuel, Elizabeth, Amy, Stephen, Joseph, Elijah, Mercy, Moses, and Aaron. Samuel was supposed to have been drowned in Niagara River. He and his brother Stephen were taken prisoners at Hull’s Surrender of Detroit, and tried for high treason as British subjects. They were condemned to be hung, but during a respite of the sentence, each separately escaped, and endured great hardships and suffering in getting back to the protection of their country’s flag. The mother made the most heroic efforts to save her sons from the hard fate which seemed to await them, but did not succeed in getting a reprieve for them. Samuel broke jail at Kingston, Stephen passed his guards at another point, and both had noteworthy adventures in eluding a recapture.

Elizabeth HARTWELL married Abel LENT and lived on Lent’s Hill in Conhocton. They had several children. Rachel LENT, one of the daughters, married William RYNDERS, now a citizen of Branchport. Rosetta, her sister, was the wife of the late Caspar HIBBARD, of Jerusalem. Another sister, Maria, who was a school teacher, married John ATWELL and resides near Blood’s Corners. After the death of his wife Elizabeth, Mr. LENT married Abigail WILKINSON, a daughter of Jephthah WILKINSON, and sister of Mrs. John POTTER, thus a cousin of his first wife.

Amy HARTWELL was the mother of Samuel STREET, jr., long a resident of Jerusalem. She died in Jerusalem at an advanced age. Her son Samuel married Charity BAKER, and they have three children, Mary, Emma, and Samuel. Mary is the wife of Frederick P. GILDERSLEEVE. Emma married William WOLVERTON, and they reside in Missouri with her parents. Samuel married a Miss MATTICE, and is a carpenter at Liberty, Steuben County.

Stephen HARTWELL married Catharine LAMBERT, in Canada. They lived many years at Blood’s Corners, had a large family, and are now at the West.

Joseph married Polly, daughter of David KIDDER, and moved West where it was reported he became wealthy.

Elijah married Triphena BRAMBLE at Conhocton and died there leaving a number of children. His daughter Deborah married Elijah, son of Raphael GUERNSEY, now living in Jerusalem. Elijah HARTWELL, while a young man, resident in Jerusalem, was a very prominent and active citizen.

Mercy married John LAMBERT, a cousin of Stephen’s wife, in Canada. She died near Rochester many years ago, leaving three children, now residents of Canada.

Moses HARTWELL, born in 1798, married Honor, daughter of Stephen GERMAN, of Jerusalem, and resides on land of the Friend’s tract, on lot 1, Guernsey’s Survey, formerly owned by Elijah MALIN. Samuel STREET had fifty acres that belonged to Deborah MALIN, another sister of the Friend. The children of Moses HARTWELL have been Mary and Olive. The latter died in her sixteenth year, and Mary is the wife of James K. HARRIS.

Aaron HARTWELL, born in 1800, married Almira FOWLER, of Blood’s Corners, and after some years moved to Michigan, where his sons and daughters are married and living near him.

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Pg 479

Elizabeth KINNEY - One of the Friends who came from Connecticut, was Elizabeth KINNEY, a widow who was one of the earliest immigrants to the New Jerusalem and lived at first in the Friend’s Settlement, afterwards moving to Jerusalem. Her children were Samuel, Isaac, Ephraim, Statira, and Mary, Samuel married and made a clearing where the County Poor house now stands and built a log house there. He moved from there to Larzelere’s Hollow, where he had the care of the saw mill of Daniel BROWN, jr., for some years and then moved from the County. Isaac married Mercy, daughter of George BATES. He was a miller and attended the mill where that of George ADAMS now stands for several years, afterwards moving to Ohio. He was a leading Methodist and a Class Leader. Ephraim married Mary, daughter of Jonathan DAINS, senior, and settled in Potter, afterwards moving West. Statira lived with her sister Mary and died unmarried. Mary married a Mr. BUTLER and settled in Potter where they reared a family.

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pg 476 - 477

HENRY LARZELERE.  - Daniel Larzelere, born in 1757, married in 1786, Elizabeth BRAZIER, nine years younger. They moved from New Jersey in 1796, and settled near the Hopeton Mills. Their children were Abraham, Jacob, Sally, William, Julia Ann and Henry. The mother died in 1799 and was buried at City Hill. The father was a merchant at Hopeton, and soon after the death of his wife, moved to Geneva and thence to Detroit where he continued a merchant some years; returned to Seneca Falls, and again went to Michigan with his son William and died there in 1842 at the age of eighty-five. He married a second wife at Seneca Falls, Mrs. PALMER, and they had two sons Hiram and Daniel, both now residents of Michigan. Abraham, the oldest son, married and lived in Buffalo, a jeweller. Jacob married and lived in Geneva, a tailor, fifty years and then moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan. Sally married Thomas MOSHIER, of Seneca Falls, where both died leaving five children. William married Mahala BURRAS, of Seneca Falls, whence they emigrated to Michigan. Julia Ann married William DOBBINS, of Geneva. They resided in Waterloo where both died leaving seven children.

Henry LARZELERE, the youngest son of this family, was born in 1798, at Hopeton. Upon the death of his mother he was adopted into the family of Elijah BOTSFORD, and he still resides near the BOTSFORD homestead. At the age of twenty-three he married Rebecca, daughter of Benjamin DURHAM. In 1826 he commenced keeping a public house at the Corners in the Valley where he still resides, since known as Larzelere’s Hollow. He kept a popular house on the principal road leading to Prattsburgh and westward from Penn Yan, at a time when it was a much traveled route. The town meetings were held there several years and were finally voted to Branchport after a very hard struggle. They had two children, Sarah A. and William B. Sarah A. is the wife of Erastus COLE, now residing near Kinney’s Corners. William B. married Sarah A. SHEPHERD, of Italy, and resides in Gorham, near Rushville. Their children are Helen M., Florence A., Herbert and Herman, twins, and Adelia May.

Henry LARZELERE has a second wife, Susan A., widow of Anson WYMAN, and daughter of Sanford COATES. He still enjoys health and strength, the fruit of an industrious and temperate life.

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Pg 503 - 504

MERRITT Family -  John Merritt, born in 1771, in Amenia, N.Y., married Elizabeth HILL, fourteen years younger. Most of their children were born at Amenia. They came to this County in 1827, and both died in Jerusalem, he in 1850 and she in 1857. Their children were Chauncey, Sarah A., Eliza, Emma J., Rensselaer, John, Alanson, and La Fayette. Chauncey married Sarah WESTCOTT, of Dundee, and resides at Prattsburgh. Their children are Birney, Marietta, Daniel, and William.

Sarah A. married Thomas BLANSETT, and died leaving six children, Eliza, Triphena, Emma, Mary, Isabella, and John. Eliza is the wife of Ira O. SPRAGUE, of Penn Yan. They have a son Oliver. Triphena married Willis BARTHOLEMEW, of Sheffield, Massachusetts, where they reside. They have two children. Emma married John WHEELER, of Jerusalem. Mary married J. Wesley SHEPHERD, of Jerusalem. John married Adele COOPER, of Trumansburg, and Isabella is single.

Eliza MERRITT married D. Y. TEETS. They reside at Naples and have two sons, Volney, and William S. Emma J. married first Capt. William H. STEWART, and has a second husband, James T. DAVIS. Rensselaer married Julia PERRY, of Potter. They reside in Kansas and have four children. John married Jane OSGOOD, of Penn Yan, and settled in Barrington, where she died leaving one child, Josephine. He married a second

wife, Phebe DEAN of Barrington, and now resides on the BEAL farm on Bluff Point. Alanson married Susan, daughter of William C. KEECH, of Italy, and lived on the ARNOLD place on the Garter in Milo, where he died in 1870 leaving one son, William. La Fayette MERRITT married Hannah, daughter of Thomas BENNETT, of Milo. He owns and resides on the Capt. STEWART homestead, of Jerusalem.

Pg 517 - 518

MOORE Family - John MOORE, born in Schoharie in 1795, came to this County in 1815, and in the following November, married Sabra, daughter of John BEAL. They settled on one hundred acres of land now owned by Eli STEVER, east of what was known as the “Red School House,” and about four miles from Kinney’s Corners. They subsequently bought the BEAL homestead and made that their home as long as they resided on the Point. They afterwards lived some years at Warsaw in Barrington. Mrs. MOORE died at Penn Yan, in 1863. Deacon MOORE is a prominent and active member of the Baptist Church at Penn Yan. They had eight children, all born on the Point, Mary Ann, Phebe A., Beal, Lydia, Obera, Jane E., Sabra G., and George D. Deacon MOORE married a second wife, Margaret M. DOW, widow, of St. Anthony, Minnesota. She was originally from Calais, Maine, and her maiden name was Margaret DYER.

Mary A. married Richard B. SHEPHERD, of Jerusalem, and settled in Rathbun, Steuben Co., where he died. His widow now resides at Bethel, Ontario County.

Phebe A. married Oren CURTIS, of Bloomington, Ill., where they settled, but removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he died in 1869, leaving his widow and their children, Aggie, Henry, Carrie, Charles, and William.

Beal died single at the age of thirty-four, at New Orleans.

Obera married Charles COHOON, and resides at Lake City, Iowa. They have six children, Emma, John, Ida, George, Henry, and Abbie.

Jane E. married Daniel ROUSE, of Jerusalem, and emigrated to Hart, Oceana Co., Mich. They have five children.

Sabra married John ROGERS. She died leaving four children at St. Cloud, Minn., Clayton, Eddie, Minnie, Charles.

Sabra Genette married John ROGERS, of Bluff Point, as his second wife. They reside at St. Cloud, Minn., and have one child, Nellie.

George D. married Abbie D. DOW, of Little Falls, Minn., daughter of his father’s second wife. They resided till recently on a part of the old homestead farm on Bluff Point, and have three children, William, John, and Frank.

Lydia married John SUMMERS, of Illinois, and settled at Washington, in that State, where she died.

Deacon MOORE says that when he came to Bluff Point in the spring of 1815, there were more settlers on the Point than now. Many were squatted on small farms which were subsequently bought up by their more thriving neighbors, until those left were landholders of considerable extent.

Other prominent early settlers on the Point were Anthony ROUSE in 1813, and Timothy ROUSE in 1816. Rev. Elnathan FINCH moved there as early as 1812. He was a Baptist preacher and held the first religious meetings on the Point. A log schoolhouse was built near the present residence of Freeman FITZWATER, and a Baptist church was then organized, which is now merged in the Church at Branchport.

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pg 665 - 667

Eliphalet NORRIS - One of the noted men of the early settlement was Eliphalet NORRIS, who was born near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in

1763.  He was a merchant, and resolved to try his fortune in the Genesee Country.  Starting with a small stock of goods, he reached Fort Stanwix, and found his purse exhausted.  Here he was overtaken by Charles WILLIAMSON, who, ascertaining his destination, with characteristic generosity, loaned him money to proceed.  This must have been in 1792, the year that Mr. WILLIAMSON first visited the country.  Mr. NORRIS came on with his little store by means of batteaux, and finally landed at the point thereafter known as the Norris Landing, where he opened his store in a log 

structure of primitive character.  His trade was largely with the Indians, of whom he bought furs, giving them powder, lead, clothing and "fire water" in exchange.  His trade was profitable, and he soon paid the loan of Mr. WILLIAMSON, who was his warm friend.  It is related that the Friend, who was doubtless incensed by the bad influence of his whisky on the Indians, sent some members of her Society to remonstrate with him.  The story goes that he very adroitly avoided the subject, knowing their errand, and setting before them some of his best spirits, they were so much mellowed as to forget their mission and he escaped the threatened wrath.

In 1793 Eliphalet NORRIS married Mary, daughter of Thomas HATHAWAY, senior, a beautiful young woman of 23. He continued prosperous many years, and was a leading man, becoming an extensive landholder.  He was one of the early Supervisors of Jerusalem, and was a very active businessman.  But owing to bad luck in trade and habits that blighted him, like many others, he finally failed and moved to Maryland, living first at Havre de Grace and afterwards in Baltimore County, where he died in 1821.  The next year Mrs. NORRIS returned with her four surviving sons and settled on 200 acres left her by her father, on the Friend's Tract, about two miles north of Himrods.  There she died in 1847, at the age of 76.  Their 

children were Thomas H., Benjamin G., George W., James H. and Joshua F.

Thomas H., born in 1795, married Electa, daughter of Thomas RAPLEE. They settled on the mother's homestead, and now own his and two other shares of that estate.  Before dividing with his sons he had 300 acres, mostly adjoining.  Their children are John W., Thomas R., Mary Ann, Myron, Helen and Caroline.  John W., born in 1830, married Sarah, daughter of George W. Hazard.  They reside on a part of the homestead.  Thomas R., born in 1835, married Sarah, daughter of Abraham W. SHEARMAN.  They live near and north of Thomas R.  Mary Ann, born in 1833, is the second wife of Griffin B. Hazard of Torrey.  Myron, born in 1839, is unmarried and resides with his father, as do Helen and Caroline.

Benjamin E., born in 1797, married Orilla, daughter of Ezra RAPLEE.  They resided in Milo till 1850, when they moved to Hayward Co., Maryland.  All their children married and settled there except Oliver, the youngest son, who returned with his parents to Milo in 1868.  Their children are George R., Charles W., Amarillis, Ann, Almira, Mary J., Susan M. and Oliver G.  George R. married Eliza A. ALER, and they have three children.  Charles W. married Elizabeth A. MUNGER, and they have two children.  Amarillis married George CRESSWELL, and they have four children.  Ann married John J. BROWN, and they have three children.  Almira married John T. SMITH, and they have three children.  Mary J. married Washington GORSUCH.  Susan M. died single, and Oliver  G.  is unmarried.  

George W. died single in Maryland.

James H., born in 1801, married a daughter of William BASKIN of Starkey.  He settled in that town, and died there in 1819.  They had one daughter who was the first wife of Adam HUNT, and died early.  

Joshua F., born in 1808, married Semantha KRESS of Starkey.  They reside in Barrington, and their children are Nelson, John, James, Mary and Susan.  John is married and resides in Barrington.  The others are single.

Elizabeth, another daughter of Thomas HATHAWAY, senior, and sister of Mrs. Eliphalet NORRIS, married Judge Joshua FERRIS of Tioga County, a man of note and high public consideration.

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Pg 483 - 484  

Amos PERRY  - Amos PERRY was a native of Massachusetts, and came to this County at the age of 13 years. He married in 1823, Abigail, sister of Ezekiel CLARK, and they settled in 1830 where they have since resided through life, north of the farm of Ezekiel CLARK, on lot 55. Mr. PERRY was a wagon-maker, and made the first one-horse wagon ever used in Yates County. He followed that trade in Potter (then Middlesex) a number of years; built a saw-mill in Allegany County, and afterwards was a farmer. He was a just and upright man, and in all respects was a good citizen—was inclined to the Quakers in religious faith. Their children are Samuel, Alma, Semantha, Mary Jane, Ezekiel C., and Elizabeth. Samuel married Mary, daughter of Peter J. DINEHART, and resides on a farm adjoining the homestead. Alma is the wife of George T. MILLSPAUGH, of Jerusalem. Semantha is the wife of Abner Gardner CHAMPLIN, of West Jerusalem. Mary Jane is the wife of Cyrenus TOWNSEND, of West Jerusalem. Ezekiel C. married Sarah Ann, daughter of Isaac ADAMS of Jerusalem. They have one child, Anna Bell. Elizabeth is the wife of Daniel PLAYSTED, of Milo. They have three children, Daniel, Frederick, and Eva. Amos PERRY died in 1870, aged 70, his wife surviving at the age of 73 years.  

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The PURDY Family -  John PURDY was born in Philipstown, now Putnam County, in 1765, and married Esther BARTON, one year younger, of the same place. They resided in Fishkill, N.Y., where their ten children grew up. They were Abijah, Mary, Elizabeth, Isaac S., Joshua, Ann, Francis, Hannah, Abigail, and Miriam, most of whom came to Western New York, and some to Yates County. The father with his son Francis, and Daughter Mary, and their families, settled on the Green Tract on the south-west corner at what was designated Lightning Corners. He afterwards moved to East Bloomfield and thence to Sand Lake, Mich., where he and his wife died in 1846, upwards of eighty.

Abijah married Mary CHATTERSON, of Fishkill. They settled in 1834 on the HART farm, on lot 67, first seventh, formerly known as the MOORE farm, where his son Isaac now lives. He died there in 1856, and his wife still survives. They had three children, Cornelia J., Isaac, and John P. Cornelia J. married Hiram DEPEW, of Connecticut, and now resides in Geneva. They have four surviving children, Isaac P., Mary A., Abijah, and Julia.

Isaac PURDY, born in 1814, married Sarah, daughter of Capt. William H. STEWART. He has been an active and prominent citizen of Jerusalem. They reside on the paternal homestead, and own it. Their children are Isaac C., Francis H., Stephen C., Georgiana, Stewart A., and George D. Isaac C. married Amelia ST. JOHN, of Pultney, and resides on a part of the Capt. STEWART farm in Jerusalem. Their children are Harvey and Frederic. Francis H. married Emma, daughter of Henry HUSTED, of Potter, and resides near Kinney’s Corners. Stephen C. married Paulina RAY, and resides in the city of New York. They have one child, Vinton. Georgiana married Oliver DICKINSON, of Rochester, in 1869. John P. PURDY resides a bachelor with his brother Isaac.

Mary, daughter of John PURDY, married Henry MILLS, of Dutchess County, and settled on the Green Tract, afterwards moving to Bolivar, Ohio, where he died. She now resides at Saginaw, Mich., with a son. Their children, mostly born on the Green Tract, were Elizabeth, John, Esther, Ann, Sarah, Isaac, William, Francis, and Kilbourn.

Elizabeth married Samuel WYCKOFF, of Hopewell, Ontario County, and resides there. Their children are Joseph, Samuel, John P., and Isabel J.

Isaac S. PURDY, born in 1793, married Ann, daughter of Thomas OWEN, of Bedford, Westchester County, in 1817, she being nearly three years the older. They settled in 1827 on the farm now occupied by Reuben TURNER, on the Green Tract.

They removed from there in 1833 to the old homestead farm of John RACE, buying first sixty-two acres to which fifty acres have since been added. Their children are Thomas O., Sarah A., and Joseph. Thomas O. married Biancy A., daughter of Thomas BENNETT, of Benton. They reside on lot 50, on the HILL farm and Lake road, and their children are Sarah A., and Alice F. Sarah A., daughter of Isaac S. PURDY, is the wife of Samuel T. LAZEAR, of Barrington. Joseph PURDY, born in 1825, married Elizabeth LAZEAR, of Barrington, now deceased. His second wife was Margaret E. BENNETT, sister of his brother’s wife. They reside on the homestead and their children are Ella E., John, Ida G., Mary C., and George O.

Joshua married and lived at Cold Spring, N.Y. Ann married Robert WHITAKER, of Hopewell. Upon his death, she married a second husband, James WASHBURN, and moved to Jackson, Mich.

Francis married Ann GRIFFITH, of Connecticutt, settling first on the Green Tract, they moved from there in 1833, to Sand Lake, Mich., where he and both his parents and wife all died within eighteen months after they settled. Their children were Lucinda, Hannah, Arametha, Mary A., and William F. Lucinda married William WRIGHT, of Middlesex. Hannah was the first wife of Samuel WYCKOFF, of Hopewell, and her sister, Elizabeth, the second. Abigail married Lemuel WAGER, of Gorham. They settled on the Green tract and afterwards moved to Constantine, Mich., where both died. Their children were John, Esther, Cornelia, Ephraim, Francis, Joshua, Stephen, Abijah, and Elizabeth A. Mariam PURDY died single.

John PURDY, the head of this family, was a soldier of the Revolution, though but a lad, and his sons, Abijah, Isaac S., and Joshua, were soldiers in the war of 1812, stationed at Harlem Hights, near New York, for some time. John PURDY was one of the first two white children born in Westchester County, the other being Thomas LYON. Both were born in one night.

An Indian chief had promised a tract of land to the first child, and the LYON family received it, theirs being a few hours the oldest baby.

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John RACE - A character akin to that of Cooper’s Leather Stocking, was that of John RACE, who was a native of Columbia County and the LIVINGSTON Manor; and born of ancestors who lived under the “One or more life system” of that feudal family. He was subject to duty during the Revolution as a minute man though but a lad when it commenced. He married in 1795, at the age of thirty-six, Eleanor CORNICK, then but eighteen. Her ancestors belonged on the lands of the patroon of Rensselaerwyick where lenses held “while grass grew and water run,” subject to a specific annual rent payable in kind with forfeiture. Thus this pair were educated under the tenant system which they decided to leave, and in 1807 emigrated to the free and inviting country of the Lakes, locating on the bank of the Keuka about two miles from Penn Yan, where Isaac S. PURDY now resides, on lot 50. Here they erected their domicile of logs, the premises entirely wild, and for years lived and enjoyed the fruits of their labors and the bounties of the Lake and forest. In front of their happy home, lay the crystal waters of the Keuka, and back upon the hillsides and tops stretched extensive forests, the former inviting the angler with his hook and line to loll on its bosom in easy waiting for the nibble and bite, or the more active troller with his sweeping oar to skim its surface with dangling line, concealed hook and treacherous bait floating astern or swept over the waters by the strong arm of the oarsman. The forest teemed with the deer, wolf, and bear, and the stealthy Indian, all loving the vicinity of the Lake, as affording extra charms over the more remote and only wooded districts; thus doubly securing to John RACE the joys and profits of the trap, the hook and the chase. Dearly did he love and appreciate the haven of his anchorage. Indeed he was a happy man, for he loved the sports of the line and the spear, and dwelt with ecstatic pleasure in the scenes of promise and participation that the placid Lake held out to him; while in the chase he never tired and always seemed ready for and equal to its toils and dangers without regarding them else than the charms of life.

John RACE was more than an expert in both of these life duties of these days, and rare indeed did the finny aquatic nibble at his hook or glide along the pebbly bottom under the blaze of his torch-light within the range of his spear, and escape capture; nor could the lithe deer, wily wolf, or cunning fox venture within the range of his vision without detection by his keen, far-seeing eye and still finer sense of hearing. The sure aim of his unerring rifle never allowed them to escape the mark of his bullet. So perfect was his marksmanship that at the age of seventy-five he could center a twenty-five cent piece at a distance of thirteen rods, three times out of five, and often better, with his favorite rifle which he had purchased of Aaron REMER, and was reputed the “crack gun” of the County, while it was also the pride of “Uncle John.”

Gradually they cleared abut seventy acres and tasted the fruits of their own planting. The country merged slowly from the wilderness state and became a rich agricultural region. Penn Yan became a place of business and note. The steamboat puffed and paddled through the Lake to the terror of the trout and white fish, to the annoyance and disgust of John RACE and those of his ilk who had so long enjoyed its tranquil waters. Men of new and more efficient views of agriculture invaded the land, and in the whirl of the tide John RACE was induced or necessitated to part with portions of his two hundred acre homestead till it all passed into the hands of strangers. He removed farther up the hillside though not beyond the sight of his beloved Lake, to a small farm once owned by Elder STEAD, a Free Will Baptist preacher, and now included in the farms of John DORMAN and that recently owned by Gideon WOLCOTT. Here where his son Henry now lives, he died in 1849, at the age of 90. His wife, a most sympathetic companion, for 54 years survived him till 1861, when she died at the same humble homestead at the age of 84. Both retained their vigor and enjoyment of life without sensible dementation from age.  

John RACE had a strong, well-knit frame, with a uniform weight of about one hundred and sixty pounds. He was tall and muscular, with a very straight spinal column, rather flat than full abdominally, broad and deep in the chest, limbs rather short and light than large, yet sinewy and obedient to the will with a quickness and elasticity in his step that made him the observed of all who knew him. He could lay himself on his back on the ground and no man was strong enough to raise his head from its rest by taking a strong hold of his ears and lifting with all his power. He would permit the effort with seeming impunity as to pain or inconvenience, so strong was his muscular power and so perfect his control of both his nervous and muscular systems. His skin was as smooth as that of a child, and old age scarcely wrinkled it. He loved society, and like most men of his day, frequented public gatherings, and occasionally participated in the custom of the times by way of spiritual indulgence, but rarely to intoxication; nor did he use tobacco until he was an old man. In his home habits he was industrious, frugal and kind to a fault, to his family and neighbors; indeed, this together with his love of nature’s sports and scenes, was the prime cause of his never growing rich, for both he and his companionable wife were industrious and reasonably economical,--and a kindly and loving spirit pervaded the household of John and Eleanor RACE. In short, they were each of that temperament and organism fitted to float through this life bearing its vicissitudes with equanimity and enjoying its joys and comforts with a zest little known to fashion enslaved moderns. They both had received the advantages of the common schools of their time and were therefore enabled to enjoy the reading of the news of their day without worrying their minds and hearts with modern sensations or “Ledger stories.” She wore no high-heeled shoes, trailed dresses dragging in the mud, nor dead women’s hair in “waterfalls.” And he delighted in the simplest garb that furnished covering and comfort, and never indulged even in the luxury of a shirt collar or neck-tie to suppress the glorious inhalation of the free pure air.

John RACE was a perfect type of the earlier races of the Hudson and the pioneer of the Lake country, and justly denominated the “Leather Stocking” of his day and locality, for he was intimately acquainted with every avenue and recess of his section and was always ready to devote himself to the aid of any or all who needed and appreciated his services. Whether to his profit or loss, pecuniarily, it mattered not, so that it tended to the pleasure and gratification of those he called friends. His spirit knew no narrow self, nor conventional formality. His wife was a consistent Methodist from her early womanhood—and John leaned in that direction in his religious preferences, doubtless through the force of her example; but upon religious subjects he was never regarded especially orthodox, in the broadest interpretation of the term, and indeed, it was even believed by some and currently reported by the many, that John RACE—like the Chinese—deemed it quite important to conciliate the “evil one” as possessing powers not reached, or if so, not peremptorily stayed by the better God whom they worship. He, therefore, stood in great superstitious awe of his Satanic majesty, from, as they assert, having on a certain occasion entered into a league and agreement with him to save his life.

As the story runs, he was attacked most violently with some disease by which he was greatly distressed for breath, and very naturally reasoned that no really merciful power would thus afflict him, and came to the grave conclusion that the “subtle enemy” had a special design upon him. He imagined that Satan was in person setting on his breast and closely buttoning around his neck his shirt collar, thus agonizing him in a most effective and distressing manner. He, therefore, besought his potency to show a little mercy in relieving him just for that time, by tearing off the button and departing, pledging himself to acknowledge his right and supremacy over him forever as soon as he should fully recover and resume his collar and button. Thus did many credulous people assume to account for John RACE’s persistent opposition ever afterward to anything resembling a shirt button or collar—and certain it was that no winter’s blast or summer’s sun made any change in his fixed custom for all of his after days—and it was thus he died, without subjecting himself to the claim of his soul’s adversary, and to his own great joy, for his only hope of happiness in the “life to come” centered, as they believed, in his successfully cheating the devil by this strictly legal quirk. So reasoned these garrulous judges of John RACE’s soul vision of the future, while it is well attested by a large circle who knew him in his last moments, that a most peaceful and benignant smile encircled his countenance, and no pang of dread or resistance escaped him when he was authoritatively summoned to the spirit land.

Politically, he was reared in the Jeffersonian school, and later in life served with the JACKSON Democracy, and it is well-known that all GOLCONDA could not have purchased his vote. Yates County had but one John RACE, therefore may there be peace evermore to his ashes, while his memory and this imperfect pen portraiture of our “Leather Stocking” can only remain to us.

Their family of seven children were William, Jonathan, Joseph, Catharine, John Henry, Phebe, and Andrew Jackson.

William married Mary, daughter of Elder Samuel WIRE, an early Free Will Baptist preacher. They emigrated to Ohio, where he died leaving five children, Esther, Susan, Emily, Philander, and William.

Jonathan married Jane, daughter of Caleb TYLER, of Potter, and father of the late Benjamin and Henry TYLER, of Penn Yan. They resided in Woodhull, Steuben County, and had two children, Amanda and Alonzo.

Joseph married Almira GERMAN, of Jerusalem, and resides there. They have four children, George N., Charles, Levi, and Henrietta.

Catharine married Joseph BARNHART, of Jerusalem, and removed to Pultney, where she died leaving one son, William.

Phebe married Joseph LONG, of Benton. She died leaving several children. He with his family went west.

John Henry married Susan HISCOCK, of Jerusalem. They live on the last homestead of his father and have seven children, Helen A., William, Julia J., Georgiana, Henrietta, Charles and Ida May.

Andrew J. married Sarah M. MITCHELL, of Milo, and resides in Penn Yan. They have two children, Henry H. and William.

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ROSE Family - Robert Selden ROSE, who married Jane, daughter of Gavin LAWSON, in Virginia, emigrated from Stafford County, in that State, to Ontario Co. in 1804, and settled on eleven hundred and twenty-six acres of land opposite the village of Geneva, on the east side of Seneca Lake. The family were accustomed to the easy methods of plantation life in Virginia, and learned through some hardships the more rigorous exactions of a northern climate and northern modes of life. Their homestead soon became celebrated as a seat of genuine hospitality and refinement, and Mr. ROSE was a prominent and leading man of his time. He represented Seneca County in the Assembly in 1811, 1820, and 1821. He was also sent to Congress in 1823, 1825, and 1829. He died very suddenly in 1835, while attending Court at Waterloo, at the age of sixty-three. Mrs. ROSE survived him till 1849. Their farm has since been apportioned among noted men, including John DELAFIELD, Mr. SWAN, son-in-law of John JOHNSON, James G. STACEY, and the MAXWELLS, of Geneva, all more or less famous agriculturists, or nurserymen. Their children were Gavin Lawson, John Nicholas, Henry, Robert L., Charles A., Mary S., and Susan A. John N. and Henry ROSE became citizens of Yates County, and in more recent years Robert Selden ROSE, a son of Robert L. ROSE, purchased a part of the farm of John N. ROSE, and resides thereon.

John N. ROSE, born in Virginia in 1799, married in 1829, Jane E. MACOMB, of the city of New York, niece of General Alexander MACOMB. They made their home where he had previously purchased of John BEDDOE, and lived since 1823. His estate was so much of the Beddoe purchase as lies east of the west branch of Keuka Lake, including ten hundred fifty-eight acres. Then the Beddoe Tract west of the Lake was a wilderness, and Branchport was in the future. Mr. ROSE paid eight dollars an acre for his land. His title to 250 acres on lot 9, of Guernsey’s Survey, was found invalid by a trial at law, and the rest he retained. He has been a farmer of enterprise and taste, and a citizen of the highest personal worth. In 1838 he erected his fine stone mansion over-looking the Lake. Of the land he sold three hundred and sixty-two acres to his nephew, Robert S. ROSE, from the southside of the place; and he has since given one hundred and eighty-five acres to his wife’s nephew, John N. MACOMB Jr., who has been from infancy an inmate of their family, and is now the chief director of affairs on the premises. The old home of John BEDDOE is on his land. Another hundred acres is deeded to O. J. Camman ROSE, the oldest son of R. Selden ROSE, leaving but one hundred and ninety-five acres of the old homestead. John N. MACOMB, jr., is a grandson of Gen. Alexander MACOMB, who commanded the United States troops at Plattsburg in the War of 1812, co-operating with the fleet on Lake Champlain. His father is now a Colonel in the regular army.

Henry ROSE was born in Virginia in 1802, and married in 1832, Sarah L., sister of Mrs. John N. ROSE. She was born in the city of New York in 1801. They took up their residence in Jerusalem in 1836, on lands (500 acres) adjoining those of John N. ROSE on the east. He purchased several smaller farms originally owned by Israel, Jacob, and Nathan HERRICK, and Ezra WITTER, whose place included the location of the mansion of Dr. Henry ROSE. He sold to Jasper TRAVER 60 acres including the tavern property at Kinney’s Corners. Henry ROSE was educated a physician but has been a good farmer instead, a successful wool-grower and fruit culturist. Both John N. and Henry ROSE have been men of retiring and modest character who have aimed to discharge well their duties in society and in home life. They have eschewed ambitious participation in politics and preferred the quiet enjoyment of a refined social life. In their advanced years they have the undivided respect of all who share their acquaintance.

Robert S. ROSE, son of Robert L. ROSE, was born in 1827 at Allen’s Hill, in Richmond, Ontario Co. His mother was a daughter of Nathaniel ALLEN, one of the early Sheriffs of Ontario County. His father was two terms a Member of Congress, elected first in 1847. He purchased of his uncle John N. ROSE,  362 acres of his original homestead, closely adjoining the beautiful spot where John BEDDOE first settled. It is a fine location fronting on a picturesque landscape of Lake and hills beyond, with Branchport at the right on the corner of the Lake. He married Frances T., daughter of Oswald J. CAMMANN, who was born in the city of New York in 1830. Their children are O. J. CAMMANN:  Robert L., Edward N., Frederick D., George S., Catharine N. M., John Henry.

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SHATTUCK Family -  Ebenezer SHATTUCK was a son of Jonathan SHATTUCK and was born in Pepperell, Mass., in 1760. In 1784 he married Lucy WOODS, daughter of Aaron and Rebecca WOODS, of Pepperell. He was a farmer in his native town, moved to Mason, New Hampshire, in 1788, and to Jerusalem in 1816, where he was an original settler on lot 56 of Gurnsey’s survey, buying his land of the GREENS. Here he died in 1840 at the age of 79, and his wife in 1844 aged seventy-eight. Their children were Ebenezer, Sewall, Lucy, Mahala, Hepzibah, Aaron W. and George WHEELER, (twins,) Rebecca, and Clarissa.

Ebenezer born in 1785 came with his father to Jerusalem. He was a mason and married Cynthia SWEETLAND of Oneida Co. He died in Mendon, Monroe Co., in 1840. Three of his children are residents of Chicago.

Sewall SHATTUCK born in 1787, was a blacksmith. He married in 1820, Rebecca, daughter of Jacob UPDEGRAFF; four years his junior. She was a native of Berks county, Pa., and with her sister Eleanor came in a gig, by way of Captain WILLIAMSON’s road, to Jerusalem, a very few years later than her sisters Rachael, the wife of Jonathan DAVIS, and Nancy, the wife of John INGRAHAM who came with the Friends. Her father was buried very early in the Friend’s burying ground in Jerusalem. Sewall SHATTUCK remained on the land bought by his father in Jerusalem and died there in 1866 at the age of seventy-nine. His wife survived till 1870, dying at the age of seventy-eight. Their children were Darwin, Sewall, Emerson and Sarah Mahala. Darwin born in 1822 married in 1847 Christiana, daughter of James HENDERSON. She was born in 1827. They reside on the land originally owned by his grandfather, Ebenezer SHATTUCK. Their children have been Charles Emerson, Sarah Abigail and Mary Isabella, (twins), Lucy, and Hattie A. Mary died young. Sewall E. SHATTUCK born in 1825 is, a prosperous physician at Hornellsville, N.Y. He married in 1850 Harriet J. HINMAN. They have two surviving children. Sarah Mahala born in 1827, is the wife of John TOWNSEND of Jerusalem.

Lucy, daughter of Ebenezer SHATTUCK, born in 1789, married Joseph BAKER, a farmer of Pompey, Onondaga county.

Mahala SHATTUCK born in 1792, married Nathan BAKER, brother of Joseph. Both had considerable families.

Hepzibah SHATTUCK born in 1794, married first her cousin, David SHATTUCK. He died of consumption in Jerusalem in 1820 at the  age of twenty-six, leaving two children. She next married Thomas PHINNEY in 1823 at Rushville. They moved from Jerusalem to Bedford, Michigan.

Aaron Woods SHATTUCK, born in 1799, married in 1824 Lydia, daughter of Joseph COLE of Jerusalem. They moved to Jamestown, N.Y.

George Wheeler SHATTUCK, twin brother of Aaron W., married in 1824, Rachel, daughter of Samuel DAVIS of Jerusalem. He was a farmer and bricklayer. They moved in 1843 to Farmington, Michigan, and thence to Muskegon where they now reside. Their children are George K., Orin B., Joel D., Harrison W., Guy A., Caroline A., Angeline C., and William.

Rebecca SHATTUCK born in 1802, married first, Zadock BASS, an original settler on lands of Albert R. COWING on the Green Tract. Her second husband was Calvin COLE, brother of Erastus COLE, senior. She died at Porto Rico in the West Indies, leaving a daughter, Anna by her first husband who married a Spanish gentleman in New York.

Clarrissa SHATTUCK born in 1804, married Joseph FITCH of Fayetteville, Onondaga county, and was the mother of six children.

When Ebenezer SHATTUCK settled in Jerusalem he purchased 100 acres of land off the east end of lot 56, and his son Aaron 40 acres of the same lot, for which they paid six dollars an acre.

The SHATTUCK family is an extensive one, and Lemuel SHATTUCK, one of the most eminent of its members, published in 1855 a well-prepared book of memorials of the family, embracing, very full and valuable genealogical tables tracing their descent from William SHATTUCK of England, who settled early in the Colony of Massachusetts; and including the subsequent generations to the date of publication. The author belonged to various historical, antiquarian, statistical and genealogical societies and was well qualified for his work. He quotes the sentiment of BURKE, that “Those only deserve to be remembered by posterity who treasure up the history of their ancestors.” He adds, “A knowledge of those who gave us form, brought us into existence and made us what we are, seems required to satisfy the promptings of our nature.” He also quotes Daniel WEBSTER as follows: “There is a mortal and philosophical respect for our ancestors, which elevates the character and improves the heart. Next to the sense of religious duty and moral feeling, I hardly know what should bear with stronger obligation on a liberal and enlightened mind than a consciousness of an alliance with excellence that is departed.”

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Bartleson SHEARMAN - Among the Rhode Island adherents of the Friend was Ezekiel SHEARMAN, brother of the first wife of James PARKER. In 1786 at the age of twenty-six he came alone to the Genesee Country to look out a place for a new home for the Friend’s people, and afterwards was one of the first company that come to stay. He married in 1790, Mary, sister of John SUPPLEE, and widow of John BARTLESON, who came to the New Jerusalem with the first company of Friends from Pennsylvania, where her first husband and their two children were buried. They settled on fifty acres in the Friend’s Settlement and lived there four years. Finding that the Society were not to have the anticipated advantages of the original purchase near Seneca Lake, they removed in 1794 with the Friend to Jerusalem. There, for eighty dollars in silver, that Mary BARTLESON had advanced to aid in moving the Friend’s effects to the new settlement, she received from Rachel MALIN, on behalf of the Friend a deed for one hundred and sixty acres of land, the north half of lot 47. David WAGENER also deeded to Ezekiel SHEARMAN one hundred and fifty acres on lot 48, of which one hundred was a payment for his early explorations for the Society and fifty for the improvements made, ($150 in value,) on their first purchase in the Friend’s Settlement. This land is still owned by Bartleson SHEARMAN and a hundred acres more adjoining. A cluster of apple-trees, still thrifty and vigorous, stands near his house, planted there in 1794, before the surrounding forest had been cut down. The seed from which they grew was brought by Mary BARTLESON from Pennsylvania. She explored the land herself and selected their Jerusalem location, making a beautiful and advantageous choice, in which she was particularly attracted by a most excellent spring, which is one of the finest features of this old homestead. Ezekiel SHEARMAN died in 1824 at the age of sixty, and his wife in 1843 at the age of eighty-three. Their children were Isaac, John, who died young, and Bartleson.

Isaac born in 1792 married Susan, daughter of Thomas PRENTISS, and lived in Jerusalem till 1866, when he moved to Michigan, where he resides with his son George I. SHEARMAN. His wife died in 1861 at the age of sixty-two. Their children were John, Mary, George I., Rachel, Sarah, Elizabeth, and another daughter. John married in Michigan and died leaving two children. Mary married James LYNN, of Jerusalem, and moved to Michigan, where they have a family. George I. married Mary, sister of John UNDERWOOD. They have a daughter. Rachel married Martin HENSHAW. They live on the Isaac SHEARMAN homestead in Jerusalem, on lots 51 and 52. They have a daughter Elizabeth, and a son. Elizabeth HENSHAW married George HORTON and has two children. Sarah SHEARMAN married Jesse HOWARD, and her second husband is Mason WHEELER, of Potter, where they reside. Elizabeth SHEARMAN married Mr. WETHERBY, in Michigan, and died leaving one child. The youngest daughter of Isaac SHEARMAN married a brother of Elizabeth’s husband and lives in Michigan.

Bartleson SHEARMAN, born in 1797, married at the age of 48, Hannah POTTER, grand-daughter of Elder John POTTER, a minister of the Christian faith. They have two surviving children, Uriel and Mary. Uriel married Francis, daughter of Abraham WATKINS. Bartleson SHEARMAN has led a life of activity and is still at the age of seventy-three, blessed with a vigorous constitution. He attended Courts at Canandaigua both as a petit and grand juror before Yates County was erected. His recollection of early events is remarkably clear and accurate. He has held various town offices and the office of Justice of the Peace nine years. He says the first military training he attended was at Kinney’s Corners in 1815, and that Peter ALTHISER then kept a tavern at that place. He finally became a Second Lieutenant under Capt. Allen COLE, in the 103d Regiment, Col. AVERY.

He relates that the Friends when they started in Jerusalem cut hay on an open swamp in the southwest part of the town near the present residence of Albert R. COWING. This coarse hay by the aid of browse kept their cattle alive during the winter. The POTTERs also resorted to the same swamp for hay; and the Friends during their first years near Seneca Lake cut hay on the marsh at the head of the Lake which they brought down in boats to subsist their cattle. Of the extreme wilderness of the country within his recollection, Mr. SHEARMAN says the wolves were very numerous in their vicinity. He remembers on many occasions listening to their discordant chorus when in every direction one or more wolves was making night hideous with frightful howls. Sheep could only be kept when carefully penned. One Sunday when they returned from meeting the sheep were let out of the pen, and shortly an old brown wolf, which he knew as well as their dog, then absent, seized one of the sheep and disemboweled it within a few feet of the house door. With the fire-poker Mrs. SHEARMAN made such an attack on the ravenous beast as to drive him off. The brown wolves were deemed more ferocious than the black ones. In 1801 Jacob ARNOLD was attacked by wolves near the Old Fort early one evening. Ezekiel SHEARMAN and others ran to his relief, knowing from his cries and the noise made by the wolves what was going on. A large number were pressing upon him and he was backing away, when the new comers frightened them off. The wolves killed many cattle and sheep and were troublesome many years.

The bears were very numerous and quite troublesome too. One day the hogs ran home from the woods in great fright, closely followed by a bear, which killed one of them. He seized the dead hog and was making off with it, using his hind legs for locomotion while he carried his booty in the embrace of his fore paws. Mr. SHEARMAN pursued him with his ax, and made Bruin abandon his porker. A man by the name of CLARK, the first settler near the present residence of Hiram KEENEY, heard his only hog squeal in the night, and knowing what was up, ran out in his shirt, seized his ax, followed up the bear, and buried the ax in his skull, thus saving his hog.

John HOLTON finding that the bears made very destructive ravages in his corn, made a scaffold in the edge of his field, and laid down on it with his gun one night to watch for the bears. Being very tired he fell asleep, and during the night was aroused by a noise. Looking about he espied a bear close by him tearing away in the corn. He almost reached him with the muzzle of his gun, and banged away. The bear seized the post at one corner of the platform, and down it tumbled, directly on the back of Bruin himself, who was a very large member of the bear family. HOLTON was greatly frightened, picked himself up, and without thinking of his gun, made for home as fast as he could, expecting the bear to follow in hot pursuit. When daylight appeared he went back to the scene of the night’s performance, and found that the bear was dead and had never stirred after pulling down his scaffold. Bears were very destructive in cornfields, and were very plenty till 1812, some remaining till 1820.

Deer were also exceedingly plenty, and were killed in great numbers by the wolves, as well as by the inhabitants. Bartleson SHEARMAN says he has seen 27 deer come into a field of wheat at one time. They never troubled a wheat field except in the fall. They frequently had tame deer, on which they put bells. These deer would go and come at their pleasure, and when in the woods mingled with the other deer, and were a great assistance in hunting, the sound of the bell showing where the herd might be found. These tame deer were very familiar where they were wonted, but would not be teased or trifled with. They would eat up all the tobacco they could get access to,--and this refutes a statement often made that no animal has a relish for or will eat tobacco.

Squirrels were for many years very numerous and destructive to wheat and cornfields. Mr. SHEARMAN recollects shooting 103 squirrels, five hawks and six woodpeckers in one day, at a squirrel hunt in 1811. The captain of his party was William POTTER, son of Arnold POTTER, and Alexander SOUTHERLAND was the captain of the other side. The POTTER side beat by 1,500.

In 1815 there was a grand squirrel hunt, in which the town of Jerusalem hunted against the town of Middlesex, then embracing POTTER. A Mr. BASSETT was captain of the Middlesex party, and a Mr. FOX, at Kinney’s Corners, was captain of the Jerusalem party, and all the people of each town belonged to the respective sides. They hunted for a week, and the woods roared incessantly during that week with the sound of fire-arms. The squirrels had been very troublesome, and the people were thoroughly enlisted. They were notified by the handbills circulated through all parts of the country, and met at Rushville at the end of the week, and such a crowd of people has seldom been seen in any rural hamlet. They must have numbered several thousands. The hunters carried nothing but the heads of their game to the place of rendezvous. There were so many of these they did not attempt to count them, but measured them in large baskets. Jerusalem beat Middlesex about four or five baskets of heads. Rushville had made great preparations to feed the multitude, but was eaten to a perfect famine by the immense crowd that came together to celebrate the conclusion of the great hunt.

After this the squirrels were never very troublesome. The wolves were driven off by a great hunt, in which a line of men posted at about five rods distance from each other, extending from Penn Yan a distance of eighteen miles, reaching into Steuben, drove the vagabonds before them far into Ontario. Very little was ever heard of the wolves after that. This wolf hunt was in 1811.

A still lower branch of the animal kingdom also furnished a dangerous foe to the early settlers, in the rattlesnakes, which were very numerous; and but for the hogs, Mr. SHEARMAN thinks the early settlement of the country would have been difficult if not impossible, on account of those venomous serpents. He has known a half dozen or more to be killed in a day. Persons were frequently bitten as were the cattle. Castle DAINS performed many remarkable and effective cures of these bites, by means of a weed in the woods with which he was acquainted. If called in season, he would effect a cure in an hour. Old hogs would eat these snakes and track them as well as a dog would a fox, and the virus of the snake had no effect on the hog. By the aid of the swine the snakes were kept down and finally exterminated.

Bartleson SHEARMAN relates that the first school he attended was taught by Nathan KIDDER, an excellent teacher, whose school was in a log house near the residence of Walter P. HOBART, about two miles west of Yatesville. Among the pupils who attended this school were William, Arnold, and Penelope, children of Judge Arnold POTTER, Israel COMSTOCK, Polly and Betsey HOLSINGER, Joseph CHAMBERS, Stephen WYMAN, Joseph, Baxter, Hannah, Walter P., and Israel HOBART, Jacob, Joseph, John, Isaac, Abraham, and Rachel LANE. Another school he attended was at Larzelere’s Hollow in 1808, taught by James JACKSON who was also a good teacher, and afterwards taught in Penn Yan. JACKSON was a stammering man. At the school at Larzelere’s, Israel COMSTOCK also attended, also Peleg LUTHER, Henry LARZELERE, Alfred BROWN, Stephen LUTHER, Rebecca and Ann DURHAM, Ann BROWN, afterwards Mrs. Gideon WOLCOTT, Ann and Susan INGRAHAM, and others. He attended a school taught by Israel ARNOLD, near where Jareb D. BORDWELL now lives, and another taught by William GUERNSEY, a Methodist Class Leader, near Nettle Valley, in 1813. His school education was finished at a school taught in a log school house just above Simeon COLE’s residence, in the woods, four and a half miles distant from his home. The school was taught by David BAILEY, an accomplished teacher, and a relative of Rev. Mr. FARLEY. The BROWNs and LUTHERs and Henry LARZELERE attended this school. Mr. SHEARMAN boarded with Beloved LUTHER, and chopped wood for three large fires, and paid $1.25 a week besides for his board. Two nights in a week they had writing school, and improved very rapidly.

The Friend was the religious teacher of those days, and the SHEARMANs attended her meetings regularly. Mrs. SHEARMAN was a devout believer in the Friend’s doctrine all her days, and never fell away from the Society or the observance of their worship. Her husband dropped away when Elnathan BOTSFORD was alienated by the unhappy litigation which involved the Friend and her Society for so long a period.

Bartleson SHEARMAN has on his farm the finest grove of sugar maples in the county, and manufactures every year a large amount of excellent sugar on his own grounds.  His house is one of the finest and best built residences in the County and cost $11,000 to erect it in 1859.

pg 505 

SISSON Family - Jonathan SISSON was one of the sons of George SISSON, of the Friend’s Society. He was a cavalry soldier under Aaron REMER in the war of 1812, for which he received a warrant for one hundred and sixty acres of land. He married Catharine VOSBINDER, of Milo, and they settled first near City Hill, where most of their children were born. In 1827 they moved to Jerusalem and settled on lot 4, Guernsey’s Survey, where both died in 1857, he at the age of seventy-three and she at seventy. Their children were William, George, Joshua, David, Harrison, and Bethany.

William married Melissa, daughter of William GENUNG. They settled in Italy about one mile west of Italy Hill, and have two surviving children, Sarah M., and Esther J. Sarah M. married Elisha CHAMPLIN.

George SISSON is a resident of Addison, N.Y. Joshua died in 1867, unmarried, at forty-six.

David married Charlotte, daughter of Zachariah COONS, of Jerusalem. He died in California in 1850, leaving a daughter, Bethany, now the wife of James A. COLE. His widow became the wife of his brother Harrison.

Harrison SISSON, born in 1829, married in 1852, Charlotte, widow of his brother David. They have a son David H. Harrison SISSON resides on a portion of the paternal homestead and is a tidy and prosperous farmer.

Bethany was the oldest of the family. She married William GENUNG, jr. They reside in Italy and have three surviving children, Sarah M., Esther A., and Carrie. Sarah M. is the wife of Allen B. CHASE, of Italy. Esther A. is the wife of Major George W. WADDEL, of Penn Yan. They have two children. Carrie married a son of William SISSON.

Pg 520 - 521

SMITH Family -  Ira SMITH was a brother of the late Eben SMITH, of Penn Yan. His wife was Betsey RICE, of Saratoga Co., from whence they came in 1834. Their farm was near and south of the Heck School House, where he died in 1867, and she in 1859. Their children were Morgan, Rosalinda, Mary, Jane M., Eben S., William H., Eleanor, and Martha. Morgan married Anice JOHNSON, of Potter, and resides in Jerusalem. They have three children, Ira, Ebrel E., and Josephine. Rosalinda married Richard HENDERSON, jr., of Milo. Mary married Howland HEMPHILL, of Saratoga County. Jane M. married Elias F. CHASE, son of Rev. Abner CHASE.

Doctor Eben S. SMITH, married Mary, daughter of Henry HUNT, of Milo. They reside in Torrey. He is a farmer and physician, and represented this County in the Legislature in the sessions of 1865 and 1866. They have four children, Frank H., Charles, Mary, and George. Frank H. married Mary Emma PETERSON, of Wilmington, Delaware, and is a physician in Penn Yan.

William H. married Jane HEMMINGWAY, of Buffalo, and resides on the homestead farm on Bluff Point. Their children are Morgan, Dewitt, Willie, Emma, Newel, Herman, Alta, and Allen. Morgan married Anna SPANGLER, of Branchport and resides in that village.

Eleanor married John SHEPHERD, jr., of Jerusalem, and resided on Bluff Point where he died in 1866, leaving his widow and four children, Rosalinda, Jane, Lucy A., and Ellen.

Martha married Almon BEAL, and resides in Milo.

Among other early residents of Bluff Point were Reuben CORNWELL, John HOSMER, Enoch CHAPMAN, Bela RICHARDSON, now at Naples, Mr. CLOUGH, a Dutchman, Samuel KINGSLEY, father of John KINGSLEY, of Penn Yan, who was on the farm afterwards owned by Capt. James HARRIS; a Mr. BOYD who lived at what was called the Block House, on lands afterwards owned by David THOMAS, next by Mr. MILLS, and then by Mr. HASTINGS. Judah CHASE was another citizen of the Point, some of whose descendents are now residents of West Jerusalem. Leman DUNNING, father of Levi O. and Alanson S. DUNNING, was an early resident on the Point. So was David MORSE, who came with Capt. John BEDDOE, and Rouse LAMB, who lived on the HAIGHT place. On the east road were Elisha PHELPS, Daniel EARL, Melchoir SNAPP, and a Mr. ROSS. On the west, John SHOUL, Nathan COTHERN, who was a Justice of the Peace and a leading citizen; a Mr. WEED, and Nicholas BENNETT, who was a farmer and a school teacher. Some of his pupils it is said came barefooted to school even in winter.

John MCDOWELL grandfather of William MCDOWELL, the president Supervisor of Barrington, settled in 1795, on the west branch of Keuka Lake, buying his land of John GREIG, agent of the HORNBY estate. When a new line was surveyed for the boundary of Steuben County, which then included Bluff Point, it was found that the township line established by Hugh MAXWELL, where it crossed the Lake, was inaccurate. This threw a large part of Mr. MCDOWELL’s land into Ontario, instead of Steuben, where he had supposed it to belong, and his title did not cover it. His loss was not made good to him and he left there in 1803. Some graves of the family are still to be recognized in the woods on the land of R. Selden ROSE.

Pg 546

Thomas B. SMITH was a native of the town of Seneca. His father was Rufus SMITH, who married Milly, sister of Otis and George BARDEN. He married Betsey MARKS of Seneca. They settled in 1826 on the Green Tract, where he owned 300 acres, and in 1833 built a commodious framed house, one of the earliest and best on the Tract, on lot 4. In 1844 he moved back to Seneca, and ten years later returned; but died in Seneca in 1868 at the age of 63. Their children are Milly J., Rufus A., Jacob J., Thomas W., and Lewis M. Milly J. married James WINDNAGLE of Gorham. They reside in Prattsburg and have five sons. Rufus A. married Esther daughter of E. Otis ALMY. They live in Potter and have two children.

Jacob J. married Hannah, daughter of James D. ALMY. They live in Italy Hollow and have two children. Thomas W. born in 1834 married Emily, daughter of Samuel P. CARVEY. He was a prosperous farmer in Jerusalem, a Justice of the Peace, and resides now in Penn Yan. Their children are Charles, Jasper, Ella, Willie, and Lewis. Lewis M. married Janette HAWLEY of Middlesex and resides in Canandaigua. They have two children.

Pg 558 - 559

STEVER Family -  Peter D. STEVER was born in 1802, in Columbia County, N.Y., came into this County in 1830 and settled on the Beddoe Tract. He had at that time about four hundred dollars and struggled alone for two years when his brother James and family moved in and they worked in partnership for five or six years, in the meantime purchasing the farm where James now lives.

In 1837 he married Ann BAKER, and dividing the property each took his share, he taking the farm where he now resides. Peter D. STEVER was one of the first who pulled stumps by machinery. He has a farm of 140 acres mostly fenced with stumps, and is one of the best farmers in the town. He has a great abundance of fruit, plenty of good buildings, and much to make him comfortable in his declining years. He and his wife have had nine children, Hannah, Ruth, Franklin, Hester, Oscar, David, Cecelia, Annette, and Rupert. Hannah, Ruth and Cecelia died single. Franklin married Lydia, daughter of Meli TODD, and resides near Branchport. They have one child, Llewellyn. Oscar married Joanna, daughter of Jesse DAVIS, and moved to California. Hester married Russell CARR, and lives near her father. They have one child. Annette married William LACY and lives in Potter. The others are single.

James STEVER married Desire GOODSELL and like his brother Peter is a first class farmer, independent in means. He started with a small capital and has now a competency. They have 6 children. Leonard, Peter, Elizabeth, George, Joseph, and Jennie. Leonard married Susan, daughter of Robert MILLER of Pultney and lives in Jerusalem Hollow. They have three children, Lora, Elbert and Frederick. Peter married Jane Ann, daughter of James PARIS, and resides in Branchport. They have four children, Celista, Arthur, and another besides an infant. Elizabeth married Robert MILLER Jr., of  Pultney, and lives on the Beddoe Tract. They have one child. George married Olive, daughter of Howland HEMPHILL, and lives in Branchport. Joseph and Jennie are unmarried.

Eli R. STEVER, born in Columbia county in 1812, married in 1840 Louisa GOODSELL, a niece of James STEVER’s wife. They lived seven years in Chautauqua county, from whence they moved to Bluff Point, and have since resided there. Mr. STEVER has about 500 acres of the land formerly the property of Capt. James HARRIS. He is a thrifty farmer, and a successful stock and grain-grower. He has now on his premises a promising young vineyard of 52 acres, the largest on the borders of Keuka Lake. Mr. William H. OLIN is his partner in the grape culture. George and James STEVER were the only children of Eli and Louisa STEVER. George married Elizabeth, daughter of Gilbert T. STEWART, and died in 1869.

George W. STEVER who married Susan M., daughter of David TURNER, first settled on the Beddoe Tract, but has recently moved into Pultney. The STEVERs are remarkable for their peaceful disposition and industrious habits. They were sons of David P. STEVER of Columbia county.

pg 502 - 503

STEWART Family -  Captain William Henry STEWART, born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1780, followed a sea-faring life over twenty years and navigated most of the seas and oceans of the globe. For some years he was a captain in the packet service between Liverpool and New York, and in one of his trips occurred a romantic adventure. George RAGG, a wealthy merchant of New York, commissioned the captain to bring from England a daughter he had left there. During the passage she was washed overboard by a wave dashing across the deck. Captain STEWART bravely rescued her by plunging into the perilous deep, and she repaid him with gratitude that ripened into love which became a reciprocal passion. They were married in New York in 1817, and soon after in the same year settled on lot 50, near Keuka Lake, about three miles from Penn Yan, on land given them by Mrs. STEWART’s father. They purchased an additional lot of Thirty-one acres to reach the Lake and erected a house where La Fayette MERRITT has just finished an elegant mansion, taking the place of the old structure. They received an annual allowance from the estate of George RAGG and continued to reside there while they lived. She died in 1835. Their children were Ann E., Sarah W., Hannah, Abbie, Bethulia, Rachel, and Charlotte. Anne E. married Francis B. SHEARMAN, of Penn Yan. Sarah married Isaac PURDY, of Jerusalem. Hannah is single, residing at Prattsburgh. Abbie is the wife of Deloss PORTER, of Canandaigua. Bethulia married Dr. Jacob RUNNER. They reside in Wayne, Steuben Co., and their children are Olive F., and Hattie E. Rachel married Addison CHAPIN, of Prattsburgh. Their children are Bell, Stewart, Freddy, Eddie, and Nellie M. Charlotte married John WALDO, of Prattsburgh. They emigrated to Quincy, Ill., and their children are Charles, Lottie, Lucius, and Harvey.

Captain STEWART married a second wife, Emma J., daughter of John MERRITT, of Jerusalem. He died at the age of seventy-two, in 1852. Their children were John W., Eliza, William H., George B., Bell, and Saunders C. Though married young the mother proved a capable woman and guided the affairs of her farm and family with ability and discretion. She is now the wife of James T. DAVIS. Her son John W. married Helen, daughter of Caleb HAZEN. He is a teacher in the Penn Yan Academy and makes a special study of Botany. They have a son, Willie. Eliza is the wife of Joseph N. KENYON, residing on the farm lately owned by William S. HUDSON, on lot 82, in Benton. Their children are Herbert, Sarah, and Freddy and Eddy, twins. William H. died at twenty-two. George resides single at Pittsburg, Pa. Saunders C. resides single in Penn Yan. Bell is the wife of Edward HOPKINS, jeweler, of Penn Yan. They have one child, Freddie.

Pg 534 - 537

Benjamin STODDARD - The first settler on lot 12, of the Green Tract, in Jerusalem, was Benjamin STODDARD; and he and Daniel TURNER are all that remain of the original settlers on that entire Tract. He was born in 1796, in Cherry Valley, Otsego County. Henry and Oren GREEN had the Tract re-surveyed by Jabez FRENCH into lots of 154 acres, or half a mile from north to south and 154 rods from east to west. Benjamin STODDARD, and his brother Cyrenus, took lot 12, the latter living there 20 years when he moved to Michigan. It was then a complete wilderness, and Mr. STODDARD paid six dollars an acre for his land. He was then 21 years old, had pretty good clothes, an ax, a gun, a watch, and six dollars in money. Armed with youthful courage and a strong constitution, he entered upon the work of subduing the wilderness and earning on his land the wherewithal to pay for its title. His first crop of wheat, gathered in 1818, he sold for five shillings per bushel and his second crop for two and six-pence. He built the first frame barn on the Green Tract, in 1818, trading away his gun to get lumber. That barn still stands, as good as ever, with a new roof. He built first a log house, and married Hannah KELLY, in 1818. She also was from Otsego County, and few women have been a better support to a husband than she in the arduous labors of pioneer life and the care of a large family. In her advanced age of 71, she is still a vigorous woman, intent on the industries of a thrifty home. They have been an industrious couple, and their labors have been reasonably rewarded. Mr. STODDARD has been a useful and prominent citizen. He held a Captain’s commission in the 103d Regiment of Infantry, granted by Gov. Enos T. THROOP, in 1828, and a Lieutenant’s commission previously given by Gov. YATES. He also held various town offices. At the age of 74, he is still a man of strong and robust habit. Their surviving children are Chester, Survina, Charles, Philo K., Susan Ann, and Thomas.

Chester married Catharine, daughter of Abraham VAN TUYL. Their children are Alice and Ann. Alice married first James MILLER, of Italy, and after his death, Ebrel E. SMITH, son of Morgan SMITH, of Jerusalem. She has two children, Alida MILLER, and Chester SMITH. Ann married William ANSLEY, of Jerusalem. Their children are Clarence, Alice, and Lansing.

Survina married Thomas VAN TUYL, son of Abraham VAN TUYL. Their children are Benjamin, John, Eva, Ella, Ernest, and Mary. Benjamin married Kate CHEENEY, of Prattsburgh.

Charles married Diana COOKINGHAM. They had a daughter, Hannah, who married James WRIGHT, and lives in Jerusalem. Charles married a second wife, resides west and has two children by the second marriage, Ida, and Charles.

Philo K. married first, Sarah LEWIS, of Prattsburgh. They had one son, Lewis. His second wife was Sarah, daughter of Albert R. COWING. He is a popular physician at Prattsburgh.

Susan Ann married Richard LEWIS, of Prattsburgh. Their children are Mary, Esther, William, and Jennie.

Esther married Vroman B. LEWIS. They live in Wheeler, and their children are Charles, Benjamin, Clara, and Chester.

Thomas married Frances, only daughter of Daniel JOHNSON. They reside on the STODDARD homestead, and have one child, Kate.

Although the wolves had left before Mr. STODDARD settled in Jerusalem, other wild animals still roamed about. The deer were very plenty, and Mrs. STODDARD relates that one actually entered her house on one occasion. It had been tired in the chase, and she opened the gate to let it in. An occasional panther would stroll into the neighborhood, and one came almost to the house of Aaron CRAFT. Mr. STODDARD states that he followed one as far as Daniel BALDWIN’s, in Italy, as late as 1820. He was led on by the cry of a voice which he supposed was that of a woman that had left his house shortly before.When he reached Mr. BALDWIN’s he found that the lady had reached there before nightfall, and the cry then recognized as that of a panther, had passed still further on.

In 1817 there was no direct road from the head of the west branch of Keuka Lake to Italy Hill and Prattsburgh. The road passed around by Larzelere’s Hollow. In 1817 the people of Prattsburgh expended $300 in building log bridges on the road from Italy Hill to Shearman’s Hollow.

They had no schools in Mr. STODDARD’s neighborhood till 1820, when a school house was built nearly on the same ground where the present one stands. The first school teacher was Sophia PARKMAN, from near Rushville. She afterwards married Staats GREEN. The next was Alice WHITMAN, and the next Polly WILLIAMS.

An early preacher at the school house was John POTTER, a Christian, and grandfather of Mrs. Bartleson SHEARMAN. One of the earliest Methodist preachers there was Gideon LANNING.

Cyrenus STODDARD, the father of Benjamin STODDARD, settled in the edge of Potter, next to the Green Tract in 1816, where he died at the age of seventy. Philo, a brother of Benjamin STODDARD, settled near his father and afterwards moved to Ohio.

Henry B. STODDARD, (not a relative,) married Orra, sister of Benjamin STODDARD. He was a mason, and his death was caused by a fall from a building in Rochester. He was buried in the private cemetery of Benjamin STODDARD, where the father and mother of the latter are also buried.

Benjamin STODDARD belonged to the first Grand Jury called in the County of Yates. His neighbor, Jonathan WELDON, the first settler where Nathan G. BENEDICT resides, was another. Jonathan WELDON was an important citizen and the brother-in-law of Samuel BLACKMAN, the first settler on the Amsey HORTON place.

pg 507 - 508

SUTTON Family - Thomas SUTTON was a native of Eavesham, Burlington Co., New Jersey. He married Letetia HAINES, of New Jersey, and they settled in 1805 in Ulysses, N.Y., near Taghkanic Falls. He was a farmer for some time and a part of the time in business as a hatter. In 1816 they moved to Jerusalem and settled on lot 56 of township seven, first range, where John I. DURRY now resides, buying the land of Samuel SEELEY, a merchant of Penn Yan. Here they resided through life. Their children were Jane, Daniel, John, Thomas C., Lewis, William, Reuben, Albert, Hannah, Ann, and Emeline. Jane, born in 1799, was the wife of Israel COMSTOCK, and survives with well-preserved faculties and powers.

Daniel, born in 1801, married first, Ann, oldest daughter of Elnathan BOTSFORD, jr. Their children were Almon S., Aurelia Jane, and Lucy Amaretta. He married a second wife, Menty PIERCE. They reside in Benton. Almon S. SUTTON married Juliette MATHER, of Benton. He died leaving two children, Almeda A., and Daniel. Aurilla Jane married Oliver PERRY, of Potter, and died leaving a son Daniel. Lucy Amaretta married John DINEHART, and resides near Sparta, Wisconsin. John SUTTON died single at twenty-three.

Thomas C. SUTTON married Betsey BARRETT, resides on a part of the paternal homestead, and is a thrifty farmer and a good citizen. Their children are Lewis, Martha Jane, Thomas C., and Frank. Lewis married Emma BENEDICT. They have two children, Daniel C., and Emma E. Martha Jane married Ezekiel C. BENEDICT. They have a son Fred. Thomas C. SUTTON, jr., married Ellen COONS. They have one child.

Lewis SUTTON studied medicine with Doctors HERMANS, OLIVER, and SPENCE, and died suddenly in 1828.

William S. married Maria, sister of John B. HARRIS, and died in 1854 at the age of forty.

Reuben SUTTON was a young man of much ability and promise. He studied law at Kalamazoo, Michigan, with Charles E. STUART, afterwards U. S. Senator from that State. He died at the age of twenty-two. Albert, also a law student, died while attending the Seminary at Lima, N.Y., at the age of twenty-one. The others died young.

- T -

Pg 559 - 560

TAYLOR Family -  James TAYLOR born in 1798 in Ireland, married there Rebecca TAYLOR, (not a relative) born in 1801. They settled in Starkey in 1827, and two years latter on the Beddoe Tract, where they lived till 1850, when they bought the Beddoe homestead in Branchport where he died in 1869 at the age of seventy-one. His wife died in 1856 aged fifty-five. They belonged to the Episcopal Church. Their children who became adults were Mary, John, William D., James L., Thomas, Charles, Susanah and Eleanor E. Mary, Eleanor E., John and Charles are single residing at the homestead. William D. is a Methodist clergyman of the East Genesee Conference, a graduate of Union College, and formerly a teacher of eminence. He married Harriet, daughter of Dr. Chauncey HAYES of Prattsburg, and they have a son Charles.

James L. is a successful lawyer residing at Branchport, and one of the Loan Commissioners of Yates county. He married Elizabeth V., daughter of Tompkins W. BOYD of Pultney.

Thomas is a farmer, owning the farm purchased by his father on the Beddoe Tract. He married Caroline, daughter of John DORMAN of Jerusalem. Their children are Luna, Alice, Jennie, Minnie and Dora. Susanah married Loren B. SMITH. They reside at Lawrenceville, Pa., and have two children, Edward and Frederick.

Pg 519 - 520

THOMAS Family  -  David THOMAS came to Bluff Point from Cayuga County, settled on the farm now known as the VALENTINE farm, and removed to near Shearman’s Hollow. Their children were Frank, Eliza, Emily, Mary Ann, Sarah, David, and Loren. Frank married Lucinda, daughter of William L. HOBART. Eliza married John F. HOBART, son of William L. HOBART. Emily married Rev. Valorous BEEBE. They reside in Pennsylvania. David married Hannah, daughter of Samuel WYMAN. Loren married a sister of Mrs. Bartleson SHEARMAN, and resides in Jerusalem. Mary Ann married Mr. DECKER, and resides in Pennsylvania. Sarah became the second wife of John F. HOBART.

Pg 508 - 510

Elijah TOWNSEND Family  -  The first settlers at what is now known as Kinney’s Corners, were the family of Elijah TOWNSEND, who made a beginning there in 1793. Elijah TOWNSEND was a blacksmith and made cow-bells for the early settlers. He was from Susquehannah, Pa., and his children were Uriah, Hezekiah, Mary, Henry, Isaac, Phebe, Martha, Sarah, and Lydia. Hezekiah was the first blacksmith in Yates County, and has a record in the history of Milo. Mary married John COLE, and moved to Angelica. Henry died single. Isaac married Lucinda SLATER, lived near the Corners, and afterwards moved west. Phebe married Clement EARL and had four children; after his death she married Gilbert SUTPHEN, and other children were born of the second marriage. Sarah married Timothy PLYMPTON, who owned at one time lot 32, in Milo (276 acres) on which all the eastern part of Penn Yan is located. He died poor and his descendants are scattered. Lydia married Stephen BAGLEY. They lived at Kinney’s Corners and had five children.

Uriah TOWNSEND married Dolly FOX, one of a family of fifteen children of Randolph FOX. His family escaped from the Wyoming Massacre in 1778, and Dolly was at that time eleven years old. They afterwards returned to the scene of the massacre and found their house burned and the place desolated. Uriah and Dolly had five children when they settled at Kinney’s Corners and five more were born into their family thereafter. A part of the farm of Uriah TOWNSEND is now the property of Mrs. James CARR, and the orchard on that place was planted by Uriah TOWNSEND. Their children were Isaac, Elizabeth, Mary, John, Phebe, Daniel, Dolly, Catharine, Uriah P., and Henry M. Isaac married Pamelia Guernsey, and moved to Ohio. Mary married Whipple STREETER, and had three children. She had a second husband, Squier DRIGGS. They had two children and resided in Benton. John married Celesta FERRIS and moved to Ohio. Phebe died at 15 years. Daniel married Hannah OWEN, Dolly married Henry FERRIS, and Henry married Eliza TRUE, and all three moved to Ohio. Catharine married Terry ARNOTT, and Uriah married Miss BEAL, of Bluff Point. Martha married Simeon SPENCER, who died a few months later. His posthumous daughter Lydia married in Westchester Co.,

and her mother became the second wife of Abraham PROSSER. Elizabeth married Ashbel BEERS, who was born at Long Hill, Conn., in 1783, and came to this County in 1809. They were married in 1812, he 29 and she 19 years. For seven years they lived about three miles below Penn Yan, where he wrought at wool-carding in summer and at his trade as a tailor in winter. They afterwards lived three years on the farm of Uriah TOWNSEND near Kinney’s Corners, five years near the foot of the Lake in Milo, and thereafter on the farm in Jerusalem where he died and the family still reside on lot 2, of Grernsey’s Survey. Ashbel BEERS died in 1865, aged 81 years. His wife survives at the age of seventy-seven. He was fifty-one years an irreproachable member of the Methodist Church, and his wife has been 63 years an acceptable member. Their children were Harmon L., George T., James M., Benjamin F., Major A., Joel D., Elizabeth J., Sarah A., and Mary S. Harmon L. died single. George F. married Mchetabel MINOR, and has a second wife Mary GRAINARD. They live on the ADSIT farm two and one half miles south-west of Branchport. There were four children by the first marriage. James married Emma BARNES. They had one child and he died about one year after his marriage. Benjamin F. married Louisa HART, in Florida, where he went to improve his health. She died leaving one child, and he died in 1870. Major A. married Rachel QUICK, and has a second wife, Mariette GRAINARD. They reside on the homestead. Joel D. died single in Florida. Elizabeth married Rodney TAYLOR, and died in 1847, leaving one child. Sarah A. was the first wife of Isaac W. HARTSHORN. Mary S. married Rodney TAYLOR, the husband of her deceased sister, Elizabeth, and died leaving one child.

Pg 538

David TURNER, born in 1792, in Greenbush, Rensselaer County, married in 1812, Margaret PASSAGE, a native of the same place, born in 1798. They moved to Benton in 1815, and in 1818 took up their residence on lot 14, of the Green Tract, where they lived over half a century and where Mrs. TURNER died in 1870. They won their livelihood in this locality by unremitting industry and most self-denying economy, and their lives have been upright and blameless. Their children were Reuben, Maria, Hannah, Catharine, Susan M., Sarah Ann, and David H. Reuben, who resides near the homestead, married Esther Jane DRAKE, and their children are Hannah, Margaret, Maria, and Catharine.

Maria married Levi C. KNAPP, son of Matthew KNAPP, of Barrington, and they have two surviving children. Hannah married Joseph KEECH. They live west and have two children, David and Daniel. Catharine married Daniel ALBEE. They live at Addison and their children are Eva, and Henry. Susan M. married George W. STEVER, and died in 1858. David H. married Diana, daughter of Abraham L. ROBINSON, and resides on the SMITH place on lot 4. Sarah Ann is single.

- W -

Pg 518 - 519

Benjamin WAITE -  This family was from Saratoga County, and settled on the Point in 1816, on lot 75, of the first sixth, where Green KENYON afterwards lived. There both parents died. Their children were Polly, Ray G., Alfred, Albert, William, Stephen, Eliza, and Mercy. Ray G. is connected with the REMER family history. Eliza married a Mr. HOWE. Stephen lives in Kentucky. William, Mercy, Sarah, Polly, Alfred, and Albert died single. The WAITE family were excellent citizens, and much respected.

William CULVER and family were prominent among the early inhabitants of the Point. They settled on the east branch, east of the Lake road. Frank CULVER, a son of William CULVER, married a daughter of Daniel MORSE, and resides on lot 63, of the first seventh. Their children are Amanda, Harriet, Julia, John, and Franklin.

John DYKEMAN resides on lot 64, of the first seventh, where he and his father settled early. He has one daughter, Nancy, who married Mr. CASTALINE, and resides on the homestead. They have one child.

Howland HEMPHILL was an early settler and resides near his first location on lot 4, Hight’s Survey. His first wife was Mariette, daughter of Ira SMITH. They have two daughters, Lois, and Alice. Lois is the wife of Edward G. HOPKINS, of Penn Yan. They have two children, Ella G., and Bertha L. Alice married George STEVER, of Branchport.

The HERRICK families were early residents and sold to Dr. Henry ROSE. Jacob moved to Wisconsin, and Nathan to Ontario Co. His son Cyrus E. HERRICK, married Mary HAIGHT, of Bluff Point, and now resides on lot 73, of the first sixth. They have two children, Isaac, and Chloe. Isaac married Mary COHOON, and resides on the HAIGHT farm. They have one child.

George HECK was an early settler and has been a most industrious and prosperous farmer. His wife was Hannah HOFFSTRATER, of Fayette, Seneca Co. They reside where they first settled, on lot 64, of the first seventh, at the forks of the roads leading on the Point, and the place known as Heck’s School House. Their children are William, John, Aaron, Henry, George, and Stephen. William and John are married and settled in Michigan. Aaron married Ellen HUNT, of Branchport, and resides near the father.

pg 643 - 644

Joshua WAY - A native of Pennsylvania, Joshua WAY came to the county with Joseph JONES as soon as 1800.  He established himself in the business of wool carding and cloth dressing near the Friend’s Mill, owned by Richard SMITH.  The place became known as Way and Andrews’ Hollow.  The business was profitable and Joshua WAY became a prosperous citizen.  He married Reliance, daughter of John LAWRENCE Sr..  She died leaving four children, Anna, Mary, William L. and Eliza.

Anna married Benjamin BROWN of Milo, and emigrated to McHenry Co., Ill., where she died.  Their children were Henry, William, Horace, Reliance, Susan and Mary E.  He died in 1868, at the residence of his daughter, Reliance, in Missouri. 

Mary WAY was the wife of Dr. Jeremiah B. ANDREWS.

William L. WAY married Rebecca, daughter of Jesse and Mary ALFORD, and went with his brother in law, Benjamin BROWN to McHenry Co., Ill.  He died there before moving his family.  His widow died soon after.  Their children were Helen and Mary, twins, and Alford.  Helen married David B. ASPELL of Milo.  Mary is the wife of Chester M. BRIDGEMAN of Jackson, Michigan.  Alfred is single, residing in Illinois, near St. Louis.

Joshua WAY married a second wife, Sarah, daughter of Amos P. CHASE, a Baptist clergyman.  He died on his homestead in 1831.  The children of the second marriage were Joshua, Caroline, Jane, Sarah, Joseph, Spencer, and one more.  Joshua WAY Jr. is a popular physician at Naples, NY where he married a Miss CLEVELAND.  They have one daughter. 

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WEAVER Family  -  Josiah WEAVER and his son James moved from Saratoga to Dryden, N.Y., and thence in 1823 to Reading, now in Schuyler Co., each with their families, and both died there, the father at the age of eighty-eight, in 1832, and the son at the age of ninety-two, in 1864. The children of James WEAVER were Solomon D., James, Elizabeth, Hugh, Ransom, Nancy, Josiah, Davis, Moses, Lydia and Orville, (twins), and Alonzo. Solomon D. alone of this family became a resident of Yates County. He was born at Saratoga, near the Springs, in 1797. While yet young and previous to his marriage he worked for Way & Brown at cloth-dressing in Penn Yan, near Head street, the works being located on Jacob’s Brook. Afterwards he took charge of what was known as the Factory Mill, owned by John LAWRENCE, Benjamin SHAW, Aaron REMER, Abner WOODWORTH, Dr. Joshua LEE, and others, at whose solicitation he took charge of the business. This Mill was located where the Mill now owned by R. S. HALSEY is now. Mr. WEAVER took charge of it, leasing the concern and run it one year as he found it, with a complete loss of his time. He was encouraged to proceed by the men above named, on his own account. He made a large outlay for improvements and made it pay. To the unfaltering friendship of the men who then aided him he attributes his success in life. He married in 1820, Elizabeth GAMBY, born at White Plains, Dutchess Co., in 1800. She was the daughter of widow GAMBY, afterwards Mrs. John WEED, of Benton. In partnership with George SHEARMAN he purchased one hundred acres of land of John HALL, embracing a fine water power on Keuka Lake outlet, some distance above the Factory Mill, for which they gave sixteen dollars per acre. They erected two saw mills and one grist mill, with three run of stone, long known as the Shearman and Weaver Mill, located where the Paper Mill of William H. FOX now stands. They moved on successfully two or three years when they added two distilleries, and soon commenced to recede in prosperity, reaching the verge of bankruptcy in about six years.

In 1832 he moved to Branchport and engaged in the timber business, buying land on the Beddoe Tract, shipping away the timber and selling the land. He engaged largely in the timber business for many years with successful results, leaving him a good competency in his old age, after a life of hard labor and anxious responsibility in business. His first wife died in 1862. Their children were Myron H., Llewellyn J., Sherrel S., George S., and Helen E.

Myron H. married Mary E. BRIGGS, of Prattsburgh, and lived for several years a merchant at Branchport. He resides now at Havana, Schuyler Co., where he is also a merchant. They have three children, George, Dwight, and Durham. He was one of the Presidential Electors of 1864.

Llewellyn J. married Almeda, daughter of James P. BARDEN. They resided in Brooklyn where he engaged in the lumber business and died there in 1861.

Sherrel S. and his wife Viola, settled in Saginaw, Mich., when he removed to Kansas, where they reside.

George S. married first Eliza LANSING, of Greenbush, N.Y. She died leaving two children, Catharine, and Elizabeth. His second wife was Annetta THATCHER, of Brockport. They now reside at Albany, and have two children, George, and Corey.

Helen E. married Rev. George N. CHEENEY, in 1854, an Episcopal clergyman of worth and promise. Both are dead and also their two children.

Solomon D. WEAVER married a second wife, Mrs. Julia L. RIGHTER, of Lakeville, Conn., who died in 1870.

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WRIGHT Family -  Joseph WRIGHT and his wife, Lucy WOODS, were natives of Massachusetts. She was a daughter of a Revolutionary General whose brother boarded the ship and threw overboard the tea in Boston harbor when the quarrel with England begun. They settled in West Bloomfield in 1808, and in 1817 moved where Jewett MARINER now resides, on lot 27, of the Green Tract. He died in Middlesex at the age of seventy-three. Their children were Lucretia, Lucy, Jackson, Joseph W., William, and Catharine. Lucretia married William B. CULVER, of Reading, and died in that town. Lucy was the first wife of Michael GAGE, of Middlesex. They had twelve children, of whom four survive, Myron, Loraine, Lucretia, and Henry H.

Jackson WRIGHT married Maria BABCOCK, of Jerusalem, and resides there. Their children are Maria A., Lucy L., Phebe F., Adaline C., William and Lyman S. Maria A. married Chester FRENCH, and becoming a widow married a second husband, Thomas J. WHITE, the present owner and occupant of the Friend’s place in Jerusalem. Lucy L. married William CULVER of Reading. They have two children, Chester, and Alice. Adaline C. married S. Martin FRENCH, of Jerusalem.

Joseph W. married Adaline SECOR, of Benton, and lived most of his life in Jerusalem, but now resides in Benton. He has two surviving sons, James B., and Philetus. James B. married Hannah, daughter of Charles STODDARD.

William married Lucinda, daughter of Francis PURDY. They resided in Middlesex till recently, and now live at Canandaigua. Of their children, Edward, Mary, and Frank, Edward only survives. Catharine died single at 21 years.

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Samuel Hart WRIGHT, M.D., A.M.

Dr. Samuel H. WRIGHT, born in 1825, now a citizen of Jerusalem, is a native of Peekskill, N.Y. His father is a minister of distinction in the Methodist Church. His mother was Zillah HART, and died at Geneva in 1865. He followed farming till he was twenty-five years old, and in his boyhood had no educational aspirations, learning but little at the district schools. At twenty he was electrified by two carpenters who at the end of a day’s work took from their tool chest books on mathematics and philosophy for study and discussion. This lighted up a new ambition; he resolved to be his own educator, and made rapid advancement in the most solid acquirements. While plowing he carried on his studies, stopping occasionally to draw a diagram on the fresh upturned soil. He declined his father’s offer of academical opportunities, which he said would be soon enough sought when he found a science too difficult to master without aid. In 1845 he married Joana, daughter of William MC LEAN. In 1848, the third year of his study, he made his first set of astronomical calculations, which he sold in Rochester for fifteen dollars, getting cheated out of his pay, a loss which afterwards deemed a profitable one, because it gave him an idea that business had its importance as well as theoretical knowledge. In 1849 he made a set of astronomical tables for the four principal latitudes of the United States. In attempting to sell them in the city of New York, he was repulsed and disheartened till he applied at the Tribune Office, where he sold his manuscript. Ever since that time the Whig and Tribune Almanacs have made use of his calculations.

In 1850 he moved to Dundee and assisted Richard TAYLOR one term as teacher in the Dundee Academy. The next winter he taught a district school at Big Stream. David YOUNG who had long been almost the sole collector for almanacs in this county, died in 1822, and thenceforth Samuel H. WRIGHT took his place, and has done much of the same work for Cuba, Canada, Mexico, the countries of South America, China, Persia and Australia. He bids fair to hold a profitable business through life in working calendars alone. Speaking of his work he says:

“The great solar eclipse of May 26, 1854, afforded me the first opportunity of testing and witnessing the confirmation of my calculation of solar eclipses, which is conceded to be a problem of no easy dimensions. It was watched with anxiety and palpitation, as my reputation and possibly my fortune depended upon the result. The great solar eclipse of 1869 gave me no such feelings; my reputation was established, and had it failed it would have done me little damage, as ten thousand men would have sought some reason to excuse the blunder in me, but would instantly consign to obscurity a novice who might make such a mistake. So unfair is mankind.”

He commenced the study of Medicine in 1854 with Dr. Henry SPENCE, attended a course of lectures in New York and in 1865 received from the Geneva Medical College the degree of Doctor of Medicine by diploma. He has practiced in this profession to some extent. In May 1855 his wife died leaving three children Sarah Janett, Berlin Hart and Delia Bloomer.

Sarah Janette is the wife of Ezra TINKER, A.B., B.D., a Methodist preacher of the New York Conference. Their other children reside with their father. Dr. WRIGHT in November 1855, married Mary Jane, daughter of Jeremiah S. BURTCH, of Jerusalem. They have a daughter Florence.

In 1856 Dr. WRIGHT engaged in the study of Botany and in three years collected an herbarium of over three thousand specimens, added to which sixteen hundred species from Europe, and others from the South and West, gathered by exchange, constitute a collection of nearly six thousand plants valued at twelve thousand dollars. This has been the cause of an extensive correspondence with all the native botanists of the country. In 1866, Williams College conferred on Dr. WRIGHT the degree of Master of Arts. In April, 1865, he was drafted, and promptly informed the Provost Marshal he was ready; but as the war soon closed, the conscripts of that draft were not ordered forward. In 1866 he sold his home in Dundee, and has since resided at the home of his father-in-law in Jerusalem. Among his pursuits is that of land surveying. He has an admirable zeal as a student of nature and science, and has collected a fine scientific library.

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