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(III) Thomas C., son of Nathaniel and
Martha (Clark) Ring, was born at Cornwall,
Orange County, New York, October 21, 1804,
died May 8, 1889. His early life was passed
at home where he enjoyed the advantages of a
common school education. At the ge of
thirteen he left the care of his parents and
with no other capital than strong hands and
an industrious and ambitious spirit he
started out to encounter the duties of
life. His first position was that of clerk
in a general store owned by Oliver G. Burton
at West Point, in which place he remained
for three years. He then returned home and
assisted his father in his brickyard. In
1821 he came to Newburg and was a clerk for
M. G. Miller, a general trader. About 1825
he was appointed to a clerkship in the
Newburg Bank, a position which he filled
about two years, and in 1831, he was a clerk
on the steamship "Albany," and in 1832 on
the steamship "New Philadelphia," running
between New York and Albany. In 1833 he
became cashier of the Highland Bank of
Newburg and served until 1838, and in the
following year he became cashier of the
Powell Bank, a position which he held until
1864, in which year they went out of
business. In 1858 he was made treasurer of
the Newburg Savings Bank, in which office he
served until his death. In 1858 and the year
following until 1864 he was superintendent
of the ferry between Fishkill and Newburg.
He was treasurer for the village of Newburg
from 1854 until 1868. He was a member of
the first board of education, and from 1867
until 1881 was secretary of the Newburg Gas
Light Company. He participated in the
reception to General Lafayette in 1826, and
was a member of the militia under Captain
John D. Phillipse. Mr. Ring was recognized
as one of the old, substantial citizens of
Newburg and was held in high esteem by all
classes of people. Starting out in life
with small means and at a tender age, he by
close application to duty and industrious
regular habits achieved success in various
undertakings in which he engaged and won for
himself a reputation as an upright and
honorable man. When he first entered the
Newburg Savings Bank the total deposit at
the institute aggregated about twenty-eight
thousand dollars. This amount, owing to
careful management, judicious investment and
the confidence of the public, increased to
many millions.
Mr. ring
married (first) Mary Ann Osborne, who died
in 1833. He married (second) Catherine
Speir. Children: 1. A. Smith, mentioned
below. 2. Anna, married a Mr. Muir. 3.
Clara, died in infancy.
(IV) A.
Smith, son of Thomas C. and Catherine (Speir)
Ring, was born at Newburg, Orange County,
New York, march 17, 1838, died at his summer
home, "Wood Lake," Orange county, New York,
July 8, 1893. He was educated at the
Newburg Free Academy, and at an early age
entered the Powell Bank, where his father
was employed and when the latter became
treasurer of the Newburg Savings Bank he
went with him and was connected with that
in-
Page 96
stitution until a few
years before his death. He was a
staunch Democrat. He was a member
of the Ringold Hose Company, was treasurer
of Washington's headquarters and trustee
of the Newburg Skating Association.
In 1875 he was elected city treasurer,
serving for two years. Much of his
time in later life was devoted to philanthropic
work and he was much interested in the
Board of Associated Charities, being one
of its managers. He was a man of more
than ordinary ability, and one whose liberality
and kindness will long be remembered by
the recipients of his bounty. He
married, October 5, 1881, Frances Ludlow,
born April 1, 1864, daughter of George
W. Kerr, of whom further. There
was one son of the marriage: Thomas
Ludlow, who is unmarried and is employed
in the Newburg National Bank.
George W.
Kerr, father of Mrs. A. Smith Ring, was born
in Warren County, New Jersey, February 15,
1810, died June 3, 1890. He was for more
than half a century an officer of one of
Orange County's strongest financial
institutions. His ancestors were originally
from Scotland, but Mr. Kerr's father was
born at Freehold, New Jersey. His parents
removed to Ithaca, new York, where he
obtained a position in the branch of the
Bank of Newburg. In 1830, when the branch
was withdrawn, and the Bank of Ithaca
established, Mr. Kerr entered the new bank
and remained there until October, 1831, when
a position was offered him in the Bank of
Newburg, with the officials of which he had
become acquainted through his connection
with the branch bank. In 1836 Mr. Kerr was
promoted to the position of cashier, and in
1854 he was elected president to fill the
vacancy caused by the death of John
Chambers. In 1864, when the old Bank of
Newburg was re-organized under the National
banking act as the National Bank of Newburg,
Mr. Kerr was again honored with the
presidency. He continued in that position
until his death, having been cashier of the
bank for eighteen years, and president for
thirty-seven years. Mr. Kerr was a trustee
and vice-president of the village in 1856,
and a member of the board of education in
1852 and the years following up to 1854.
For forty-seven years he was a vestryman of
St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church,
and for thirty-one years treasurer of the
board.
Upon his
death the directors of the bank adopted the
following minute:
"His sound
judgment, perfect integrity, and eminent
ability, have been long recognized in
financial circles, and his excellence in all
the relations of life will belong remembered
in this community. By us his immediate
associates, and by all in any capacity
attached to this bank, his memory will be
cherished. He has left to his family and to
this community, where he has spent so many
years of a long and useful life, a legacy
better than earthly riches--a good name."
The vestry of
St. George's Church adopted resolutions
recording their
"very high
esteem for his character and life-long
devotion to the church and her interests.
It is with grateful feeling that we remember
the steady consistency of his Christian
walk, his uprightness as a business man, his
value as a citizen, his zeal as a
churchman. We owe him no slight debt for
his faithful service as our treasurer for
thirty-one years, during which time his
unflagging attention to the affairs of the
parish has contributed essentially and in a
large degree to its stability and
prosperity."
Mr. Kerr
married (first) Emeline Ross; (second)
Margaret T. L., daughter of the Rev. John
Brown, D. D. There were twelve children of
the latter marriage, of whom six daughters
and two sons survive. The two sons are John
B., of whom further, and Walter, who is
vice-president of the New York Life
Insurance and Trust Company, New York City.
John B. Kerr,
vice-president of the Ontario & Western
railroad, located at New York City, was born
October 1, 1851, at Newburg, New York. he
was educated in the public schools of his
native town and Trinity School, New York
City. He read law in the office of Eugene
A. Brewster, of Newburg, was admitted to the
bar in 1872, and began the practice of his
profession, which continued until 1881, and
during that time, from 1874 to 1878, served
as recorder of city of Newburg. During the
construction of part of the Ontario &
Western railroad in Orange County in 1881,
he became connected with that corporation.
In 1883 he moved to New York, still in their
service, and in 1888 became attorney for the
road, and also director of the same. In
1891 was elected vice-president, a position
he still retains. He is a Republican,
member of New York State Bar Association,
and of the Newburg City Club. He is an
Episcopalian. He
Page 97
married, November 16,
1881,. Elizabeth R., daughter of Robert
L. Case, of Newburg; two daughters and
a son, Marian M., Katherine and
John Kerr.
LEEPER.
This family sprang from French ancestors,
said to have gone from France to Scotland
in the train of Mary Queen of Scots.
The name has undergone radical change,
but may be identified through its carious
changes from La Pierre Lapeare, Leiper,
and in this branch as Leeper.
(I) The
earliest authentic record of the Newburg
family is of William Leeper, of Sylvania,
believed to have been born in Virginia. The
first mention of him in Pennsylvania is in
1740, when he was a resident of the then
small village of Shippensburg, where he was
the original purchaser of lot No. 45. In
the year mentioned he built a log flouring
mill on the west bank of the stream south of
the town. he continued milling for many
years, and was the owner of other mills in
the neighborhood. He married (first) (name
Unknown, and by her had a son and daughter,
the former becoming a lawyer and moving to
the west. The daughter married Joseph
Arthurs, an iron master of West Virginia,
He married (second) Mrs. Hannah (Blythe)
Reynolds. Children: 1. George Reynolds,
of whom further. 2. Elizabeth Heron. 3.
Jane Blythe, married Rev. Joseph McCarrell,
D. D., of Newburg, New York.
(II) George
Reynolds, only son of William Leeper and his
second wife, Jane (Blythe-Reynolds) Leeper,
was born in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania,
October 6, 1799, died in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, April 6, 1861. He was
educated and grew to manhood in Cumberland
county, and rendered service in the war of
1812, although but a boy. Later he settled
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was
engaged in the iron and salt business. He
married, September 28, 1820, Juliet Buchanan
Galbraith, born April 1, 1803, died 1847
(see Galbraith VI). Children: !. William
Edward, born November 23, 1822, died
February 8, 1828. 2. Elizabeth Herron,
August 16, 1825. 3. Bartram Galbraith,
born May 30, 1827, died November 16, 1870,
at Carson's Landing, Mississippi; was a
soldier of the Mexican War in Company K,
First Regiment Pennsylvania volunteers, also
lieutenant-colonel, First Regiment Kentucky
Volunteers, in the war between the States;
he married Hannah Elizabeth McCarrell, and
had a son, Rev. Joseph McCarrell Leeper, now
living at Blauvelt, New York. 4. Edward
Shippen, born November 21, 1830, died at
Louisville, Kentucky, in May, 1863; was a
soldier of the Union Army, serving in a
Pennsylvania regular 5. Joseph McCarrell,
of whom further. 6. Juliet Abbie, born
September 3, 1839; married David Kuhn, of
Norwalk, Ohio.
(III)
Colonel Joseph McCarrell Leeper, fourth son
of George Reynolds and Juliet Buchanan
(Galbraith) Leeper, was born in Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania, June 6, 1835, died in Newburg,
New York, April 6, 1906. He was twelve
years of age when his mother died and
shortly afterward he came to Newburg, where
he made his home with his uncle, Rev. Joseph
McCarrell, then pastor of the Associate
Reformed Church and a professor in the
Theological Seminary at Newburg. He
obtained a good classical education, his
preceptors being Thomas McKissock, E. A.
Brewster, and W. C. Hasbrouck, all eminent
lawyers of their day. He was admitted to
the bar in 1857 and began practice in
Newburg. In 1858 he was elected police
magistrate, serving for three years. In
1861 he journeyed southward, and while in
Louisville, Kentucky (where his uncle,
Edward Shippen Leeper, resided) he enlisted
in Company F. First Regiment Kentucky
Volunteer Infantry, of which his uncle was
lieutenant-colonel. He was hard service
with his regiment in the west and rose
rapidly in the service. In the fall of
1861, he commanded the guard which escorted
the first detachment of Confederate
prisoners sent to Camp Chase at Columbus,
Ohio, and in 1862 was promoted first
lieutenant of Company G, of his regiment.
While a lieutenant he was hotly engaged wit
his regiment at the battle of Shiloh
(Pittsburgh Landing) and saw other hard
service. He then passed through an attack
of typhoid fever and on his recovery was
transferred to Company E, One Hundred and
Fortieth Regiment, New York Volunteers, with
the
Page 98
same rank, first lieutenant.
At the battle of Fredericksburg he won
a captains commission "For gallant
and meritorious conduct."
He was in constant service until Chancellorsville,
where he was wounded and again at the
battle of Gettysburg, where he was seriously
injured in the head, narrowly escaping
sudden death. After recovery he
was transferred to the veteran service
as Captain of Company G, First Regiment,
First Army corps (Hancock's). He
was honorably discharged at the close
of the war, in which he had borne so conspicuous
a part, and returned to New York.
He first
settled on a farm at Montgomery, Orange
county, where until 1889, he engaged in
farming. In the latter year he moved to
Newburg, and again engaged in legal
practice, continuing in successful practice
until his death. He served three years, as
recorded in Newburg, from 1858 to 1861, on
the Democratic ticket, nevertheless his cast
his vote for Abraham Lincoln. In later
years he served as justice of the peace of
Montgomery. He was breveted a colonel. He
was a member of Calvary Presbyterian church
of Newburg, of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and Grand Army of the Republic. He
was man of influence in his community,. He
was an excellent lawyer, a brave soldier,
and in private life an exemplary citizen,
wholly devoted to his family.
He married,
in Brockport, New York, October 12, 1850,
Mary Garrison Decker, born at Blooming
Grove, New York, June 16, 1836, died in
Newburg, November 6, 1908, daughter of Jonah
Decker, of Blooming Grove, New York, a
descendant of Jan Broersen Decker, of
Kingston, New York, who settled there in
1639. Jonah Decker married Maria Ann
Miller, a descendant of Johannes Miller,
also an early ditch settler of the Hudson
Valley. Mrs. Leeper also was a descendant
of the Hasbrouck family, and of John
Wilkins, born in 1614, a one time bishop of
London, England, and of the Ten Eycks, Tem
Broecks, Hasbrouck and of other families of
early colonial fame Children: 1. Anna
Decker, married Joseph V. Jordan, of
Newburg, New York. 2. Bartram Galbraith,
born in Newburg, May 22, 1863, member of the
firm of Varney Rod & Reed Company of
Poughkeepsie; married, June 30, 1887, Kittie
Lefferts, daughter of Milton and Phoebe
(Ford) Pembelton, and resides in New Haven,
Connecticut. 3. Jane Miller, married,
February 5, 1895, Thomas Denton Wilkin, a
lawyer of Rochester, New York. 4. Mary
Garrison, died in infancy.
(The Galbraith Line).
The Galbraith family is of remotest antiquity,
the name being derived from the Celtic.
It was in the Parish of Baldunoch, country
Sterling, that the Galbraiths of Baldunoch,
chiefs of the name, had their residence.
In Frazier's statistical account of the
inhabitants of the Isle of Gigha the following
occurs: "The majority of them
are the names of Galbraiths and McNeil,
the former reckoned the more ancient."
The Galbraiths in the Celtic languages
are called Breatannieh, that is Britons,
or the children of the Briton, and were
once reckoned a great name in Scotland,
according to the following lines, translated
from the Gaelic: "Galbraiths
from the Red Tower, Noblest of all Scottish
surnames."
(I) the
first of this branch of whom there is
definite mention is John Galbraith, who
probably died before the emigration of his
sons to America. Sons: 1. James, of whom
further. 2. John, who married and left
issue. After his arrival in this country he
spent several years in Philadelphia, but
little is known of him.
(II) James,
son of John Galbraith, of Scotch parentage,
was born in the North of Ireland in 1666,
died in Chester county, Pennsylvania about
the year 1718, settling in Conestoga,
(afterwards Donegal) then in Chester
County. He was one of the founders of the
old Derry church, a man of prominence and
the founder of a remarkable family. He is
buried in the old churchyard at Derry. He
married Rebecca, daughter of Arthur
chambers. Children: 1. John, born in
Ireland, 1690, died in Donegal township,
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in October,
1753; he was a miller by trade and in 1721
built a grist and saw mill at the run along
the "Great Road"; kept an "ordinary"; was
sheriff of Lancaster County in 1731, and a
member of the first grand jury drawn in that
county; he married Jane ------- and left
Page 99
issue. 2.
Andrew, born 1692 in Ireland; came to
this country wit his father; he was the
first coroner of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
one of the justices of the court of common
pleas and quarter sessions, serving six
years; in 1732 he and his neighbor, John
Wright, were candidates for the assembly;
none but freeholders then could vote and
the only polling place was in the town
of Lancaster; Mr. Galbraith took no active
part in the canvas, but his wife did;
mounting her favorite mare, Nelly, she
rode through the Scotch-Irish settlement
and persuaded the voters to go with her
to the polling place; she appeared at
the court house leading a procession of
mounted men whom she halted and addressed,
the result was--her husband triumphantly
elected; after his first election he seems
to have had no opposition, serving several
years; he was one of the first ruling
elders of the old Donegal Church, appointed
justice of the peace in 1730, holding
seventeen years, when he moved west of
the Susquehanna. 3. James,
of whom further. 4. Eleanor,
married, February 27, 1737, Patrick McKinley.
5. Isabel, married, October 21, 1735,
Alexander McMillan. 6. Rebecca,
died 1748, married ---------- Stewart.
(III) James
(2), son of James (1) Galbraith, was born in
the North of Ireland in 1703, died June 11,
1786, in East Pennsboro township, Cumberland
County, Pennsylvania, and is buried in Derry
Church graveyard with his father. He took up
a tract in (now) Derry township, Dauphin
County, on Spring Creek, which was warranted
to him March 13, 1737. He became a man of
not on the frontier, and the early
provincial records of Pennsylvania contain
frequent references to him. He was elected
sheriff in October, 1742' was for many years
one of the justices of Lancaster County;
served as an officer during the Indian Wars
of 1755-63. Prior to the Revolutionary
period he moved to Cumberland County. He
married, April 6, 1734, in Christ Church,
Philadelphia, Elizabeth Bartram, born 1718,
in New Castle-on-Tyne, daughter of Rev.
William Bartram, who was born in Edinburgh,
Scotland, February 2, 1674, died May 2,
1746, a graduate of the University of
Edinburgh and a faithful minister of the
Presbyterian Church, licensed by the
Presbytery of Bangor, Ireland, and came to
this country about 1730. He married, 1706,
Jane Gillespie, widow of Angus McClain. He
is also buried in the old Derry Church
graveyard. Elizabeth, his daughter, a woman
of rare accomplishment and womanly
excellence, sleeps wit her husband and
father in the same burial ground. Children
of James (2) and Elizabeth Galbraith: 1.
William, born 1736. 2. Bartram, of whom
further. 3. Robert, born 1740, died
January, 1804; was commissioned presiding
judge of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania,
November 23, 1787. 4. Dorcas, born 1744;
married John Buchanan. 5. Thomas, born
1748. 6. John. 1748. 7. Andrew, 1750;
married Barbara ------. 8. Elizabeth, born
1758, married Charles Torrance.
(IV) Colonel
Bartram Galbraith, son of James (2)
Galbraith, was born in Derry township,
Lancaster (now Dauphin County),
Pennsylvania, September 24, 1738, died March
9, 1804, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
while on a visit to his brother Andrew and
is buried in the Donegal Church graveyard.
He received the best education the schools
of his day afforded, and became a proficient
surveyor, following that profession for many
years. during the French and Indian Wars
Colonel Galbraith served as an officer of a
company of rangers, formed for the
protection of the frontier. From 1760 to
1775, acting in his professional capacity,
he surveyed the greater portion of the lands
located in the present counties of Dauphin,
Perry and Juaniata. He was a member of the
provincial convention of January 23, 1775,
delegate to the provincial conference of
June 18, 1776, and member of constitutional
convention of July 15, 1776. During that
same year he was elected colonel of one of
the Lancaster battalions of associators,
and was on duty in the Jerseys during the
greater portion of that year, serving also
as a member of the Pennsylvania assembly in
1776-77. On June 3, 1777, he was appointed
county lieutenant, a very responsible
position; November 8, 1777, one of the
commissioners to collect clothing for the
army; on December 16, 1777, appointed by the
assembly to take subscriptions to the
continental loan. He was one of the
commissioners who met at New Have,
Connecticut, November 22, 1777, to regulate
the
Page 100
prices of commodities
in the colonies. After four years
of hard and exhaustive labor he was compelled
to resign the office of county lieutenant,
but remained an officer of the militia
until peace was restored. In 1789
he was appointed one of the commissioners
to view the Juniata and Susquehanna rivers
and mark the places where locks or canal
were necessary to make these streams navigable.
He was appointed state deputy surveyor,
November 4, 1791, and while acting a such
took up large tracts of land in Lykens
Valley. He died before patents were
issued to him and in the litigation that
followed his heirs lost all the magnificent
estate intended for them by their father.
Colonel
Galbraith married (first) Ann Scott, born
December 26, 1741, died June 29, 1793,
daughter of Joseph Scott. Of Donegal. He
married (second) February 15, 1798,
Henrietta Huling, of Isle Benevue. Children
by first wife: 1. Josiah, married and left
issue. 2. Samuel, of whom further. 3.
Elizabeth, married Dr. Lecky Murray. 4.
Mary, died unmarried. 5. Henrietta, died
prior to 1804; married David Cook, and had
issue. 6. Jean, born 1772, died January 13,
1842; married David Elder, and had issue.
7. Ann, married Thomas, son of John Bayley;
no issue. 8. James, married April 6,
1810, Rosetta Work and had issue. 9.
William Bartram, born October 19, 1779, died
November 24, 1835, married Sarah, daughter
of John and Eleanor Elder Hays. Children by
second wife: 10. Sarah, married Samuel
Morris, of Philadelphia and has issue. 11.
Bartram Gillespie, born May 9, 1804, married
Eliza Fager Bell. Colonel Galbraith was
survived by his second wife who married
(second) George Green, of Easton,
Pennsylvania.
(V) Samuel
Scott, second son of colonel Bartram
Galbraith, and his first wife, Ann (Scott)
Galbraith, was born about the year 1765, he
was a physician, and one of the founders of
the town of Bainbridge, Pennsylvania. He
married (first) Margaret ------------, born
1772, died April 29, 1801; no issue. He
married (second) Juliet Buchanan, born 1774,
died April, 1813, daughter of John and
Dorcas (Galbraith) Buchanan, Dorcas a
daughter of James (2) Galbraith (see
Galbraith III). Children of Samuel S. and
Juliet Galbraith: 1. Juliet Buchanan, of
whom further. 2. Bartram, a physician,
married (first) a Miss Riegart, of
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, (second) a Miss
Lehman, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 3.
James.
(VI) Juliet Buchanan, eldest child of
Samuel Scott Galbraith and his second
wife Juliet (Buchanan) Galbraith, was
born April 1, 1803. She married,
September 28, 1820, George Reynolds Leeper,
(see Leeper II).
EDMONSTON.
James Edmonston, the founder of this
family, emigrated in 1729 from Enniskillen,
County Tyrone, Ireland, to America.
He landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts,
where he remained for seven years and
then removed to New Windsor, Orange County,
new York, where he bought two hundred
acres of land located just west of Vail's
Gate. Here he built what has for
many years been known as the old stone
Edmonstone house, which with some of the
land purchased by him is still owned by
his descendants. For this property
James Edmonston gave the Widow Ingoldsby
twenty shillings an acre. His first
house was of logs, and when built was
the only house between New Windsor and
Washingtonville. He married, in Ireland,
Margaret smith, who with her nephew, Benjamin
Smith, the founder of the family of his
name in Newburg, accompanied her husband
to America. Children: 1.
William referred to below. 2.
Sally, married Patrick McDaniel.
(II) William,
son of James and Margaret (Smith) Edmonston,
was one of the old settlers of new Windsor
township, Orange county, new York, during
the Revolution, and owing to his great
acquaintance with the country roundabout.
General Washington selected him to accompany
himself and colonel Pickering and help to
select a suitable camp ground for the army.
Edmonston took the two along the old Indian
path until they came to the Square which was
chosen as the site of the camp. While here
the soldiers commandeered all except about
sixteen bushels of Edmonston's large field
of potatoes, and show down sixteen of his
hogs. The hospital stores, while the army
was encamped at the Square, were kept in his
house, which was also the headquarters of
Generals Fates and St. Clair. He mar-
Page 101
ried Jane, daughter of
Davis Sutherland, of Centerbury, Cornwall.
Children: Four daughters, names
unknown. 5. William, married
Mary, daughter of Daniel Tompkins, of
Westchester; 6. David, married Margaret
Dunning, of Scotchtown, Orange County,
New York.
(III) James
(2), son of William and Jane (Sutherland)
Edmonston, was a farmer near Newburg, New
York, where he died in 1844. He served as a
major in the Revolution. He married
Gertrude Harris, of Poughkeepsie. Children;
1. Samuel, a physician in New York City.
2. DeWitt Clinton, a physician in Newburg.
3. Harris, a physician, first in
Washingtonville, and then at Newburg. 4.
William H., a physician at Jacksonville,
Florida. 5. Thomas, referred to below.
(IV) Thomas, son of James (2), and Gertrude
(Harris)Edmonton, was born on the homestead
near Newburg, New York, March 13, 1804, died
at Chester, Orange County, New York, March
11, 1852. He studied medicine with Dr. J.
M. Gardiner, of Newburg, and established
himself in the drug business there. January
20, 1829, he was granted a license to
practice medicine by the Herkimer medical
Society and he then settled himself at
Chester where he built up a large practice
and became the most prominent physician in
that section of the country. He was a
member of the Presbyterian Church at
Chester. He married Drusilla, daughter of
John and Christina (Welles) Decker, who on
her father's side was a descendant of the
early settlers of Esopus, Ulster County, New
York, and on her mother's side came from
Sarah Welles, the first white women settler
in the town of Goshen, New York. Drusilla
Decker had one sister, Cornelia, wife of
George G. Mitchell and one brother, Theodore
Welles Decker, a graduate of Rensselaer
Polytechnic at Troy, New York. Children of
Mr. and Mrs. Edmonston: John Decker and
Cornelia Mitchell, both of whom reside in
Chester.
GOODSELL.
There is an English surname of Goodsell,
but in the case of the family here dealt
with the name is German in origin.
In this case it is possibly a modern form
of the German family name of Goetschel,
which is related to the other name Gotsch,
Gotsche, Gottsch, and Goedschel.
The British name is Goodsell, which is
not very prevalent, is hypothetically
deduced by one authority from the local
name of Godshill in the Isle of Wight.
By another etymologist it is thought to
be derived from the personal name, Goesilus,
the name of an early Burgundian king,
and may thus quite likely have a Norman
origin. The name is now a well known
American one. One of the leading
representatives in the earlier records
was Thomas Goodsell, of East Haven, Connecticut,
who is thought to have been born in Somerset
County, England, in 1646, died in East
haven in 1713. He was a graduate
of Trinity college and was for a time
at Oxford University. He married,
June 4, 1684, Sarah, daughter of Samuel
Hemenway, the largest taxpayer, elector
of the colony, and selectman.
(I) Theodore
Goodsell, the paternal ancestor in Germany
of the Goodsell family in America here dealt
with, was born at Baden, Germany, in 1801,
died in Baden, Germany, in 1848. He was a
butcher by occupation, but probably in a
very large and prosperous way, for he
eventually held high office and public
position. He was a burgomaster in his
native land, a position akin to that of
mayor in this country, but not usually
elective, and one of the great
responsibility and honor. He married Rosa
Goodsel, born in 1801, died in 1884. They
had ten children, among whom were: Theresa,
deceased; Rosa, died December, 1912, married
George Stevens, of Highland Falls, New York,
who is also deceased; Anthony, who belonged
to Regan's Battery, and was killed at the
battle of Fair Oaks; Martha; Joseph,
deceased; Catherine, deceased; Louis F.,
mentioned below.
(II) Senator
Louis F. Goodsell, son of Theodore and Rosa
(Goodsel) Goodsell, was born at Baden,
Germany, January 30, 1846. He spent his
first four infant years in Germany and was
brought to this country, July 4, 1850. He
was educated in Tracy's Military Academy, at
Ossining, New York. At the early age of
seventeen and while still attending school
he enlisted in Company F, Forty-seventh
Regiment, New York Volunteers, and was
mustered
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out in May, 1867.
During the period when he saw active service
in the civil war he was present in the
engagement at Bentonville, Smithfield
and Fort Fisher. He was mustered
out on august 30, 1865, and re-entered
school. In May, 1867, he graduated
from Eastman's business College at Poughkeepsie,
new York. the next two years were
spent in Omaha, and Nebraska, and from
1860 to 1878 he was a resident of Newburg,
and then five year at Savannah, Georgia.
In 1885 he was engaged in the oil business
in Chicago, and the lumber business at
Ottumwa, Iowa. In 1887 he returned
to Highland Falls, New York. there
he was a member of the board of supervisors
for eighteen years, and in 1894 was elected
a member of the assembly first district,
Orange County, being re-elected in the
years 1895-96-97. In 1898 he was
elected state senator from the twenty-third
district, and re-elected in 1900-02-04.
He has always been a firm believer in
the principles of the Republican party.
He married,
October 19, 1869, Frances A., daughter of
David and Mary (Gosling) parry, of Bucks
County, Pennsylvania. Children: 1..
Edith. 2. Harry, born January 1, 1887, he
married Jennie Mandigo, born and living at
Highland Falls, New York.
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