James Douglas

James Douglas was the second of a family of nine children, and son of John Douglas, who came here with his father, Alexander Douglas, a Scotchman and lineal descendant of the Douglas family. He landed in America during the Revolution; on the very day, in fact, when the tea was thrown overboard in Boston harbor. He died at Albany, at an advanced age. John had just attained his majority when he arrived here, and served throughout the Revolutionary war, and finally settled in Palatine, Montgomery county, New York, where he married Miss Martha Taylor. He died in Canada. The subject of our sketch was born in Palatine, December 13, 1791. He first married Miss Hannah Edwards, of Montgomery county, in July, 1815, by whom he had one son, William, who died May 15, 1875. His wife has seven brothers in the War of 1812 at one time. She died on the 3rd of May, 1817. After his first wife’s death, he married Miss Susanna Pettit, daughter of Hermon and Martha Pettit, who settled in Watertown in the year 1801. Mrs. Douglas was born the same year, being the first birth in the town.

Mr. Douglas was a very industrious man, having acquired good habits from his father, with whom he lived until he was twenty-two years of age. He received but a limited education at the then inferior district schools. He began life as a farm laborer, and shortly after the battle of Sacket’s Harbor he came to Jefferson county, with the view of locating a farm. He worked a short time, and then returned to Montgomery county. In the year 1819 he came to Brownville, accompanied by his family. He worked a farm for two years, and then purchased the farm upon which he remained during the rest of his life. The following ia the record of the issue of his second marriage: James Chester born March 29, 1821; he is now a prominent farmer of Brownville; married Miss Lucilda Cady, of Ellisburg. John P., born Aug. 10, 1825, a prominent merchant and speculator, and a large land owner in Jefferson county; resides in New York city. Norval E., born Aug. 8, 1830, an extensive farmer in the town of Lyme.

By hard work and exposure to all sorts of weather Mr. Douglas contracted sever rheumatism, and was a cripple for the last thirty years of his life. He bore his infirmity with Christian resignation. He was a thrifty farmer and a close calculator, and very successful in all his operations. He was an earnest Christian, and a worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which also his second wife belonged. He died May 10, 1876, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, respected by all, and very generally lamented as a man of sterling integrity and unswerving probity.

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Transcribed by Holice B. Young from Jefferson Co. History by L. H. Everts.