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History of Tioga County, PennsylvaniaIf You Have Photos of People Mentioned on the Page, Send Them In For Inclusion Return to 1883 Table of Contents |
B I O G R A P H I C A L A P P E N D I X.
BRIEF SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND LEADING CITIZENS.
SAMUEL P. BABCOCK, father of Buel Babcock, was born in 1805, in Chenango county, N.Y., and married Miss M. Tallman, of that county. Two of their three children are living. Mrs. Babcock died in 1835, and in 1836 he married Miss Betsey Caneff, of Chenango county, by whom he had eleven children, of whom five are living. He came from Southport, Chemung county, to Farmington in or about 1838; took up 122 acres of wild land, and lived thereon until 1873, when he went to Nelson and lived retired until his death, in 1879. His wife died in 1877.Many other biographical sketches, embraced in the body of the work, may be found by reference to the Table of Contents.
FARMINGTON TOWNSHIP.
BUEL BABCOCK, son of S.P., was born in the year 1844, on the farm of 122 acres where he now resides, in Farmington township. He married Miss Mary D. Elliott, of Greene, Chenango county, N.Y. He served the first year of the civil war in the 44th N.Y., and the last year in a New York engineer corps, and was often under fire while constructing bridges, earthworks, etc.
WILLIAM BABCOCK was born in Chemung county, N.Y., in 1838, and married Mary A. Whitfield, from Gloucestershire, England. He is a farmer. He enlisted in 1864 in Company L 22nd N.Y. cavalry and served to the close of the Rebellion.
LEWIS A. BEAVER, son of Isaac L. and Sarah Beaver, was born in 1828, in Berks county, Pa. In 1849 he came from Dauphin county to Nelson, and was engaged in tanning there until 1862. He then bought a 60-acre farm in Farmington, and he now owns 140 acres. He served in Company H 207th Pennsylvania during the last year of the Rebellion. In 1857 he married Miss Eliza Lugg, of Farmington.
JAMES BEEBE, son of Anson and Lucy Beebe, is one of the prosperous farmers of Farmington, owning 250 acres which he bought in 1852. He was born in 1826, in Lawrenceville, and in 1850 married Miss Margaret Stokes, of Farmington; they have two children. He was elected a magistrate in 1863 and 1868.
OLIVER H. BLANCHARD, son of Charles and Lovina Blanchard, was born in Lawrence township, in 1822. In 1850 he took up 220 acres of wild land, of which he has 100 now under cultivation, with good buildings. He was the first Republican treasurer of Tioga county (1857, 1858). He married Miss Emily J., daughter of H. B. and Myra Blanchard, and has four children.
HEZEKIAH G. BOWDISH came to Tioga county in 1844 and located where he has since lived, and is engaged in farming. He was born in the town of Clarence, Erie county, N.Y., in 1818. In 1846 he married Miss C. Heysham, of Canisteo, N.Y., by whom he had two children. She died in 1855, and in 1856 Mr. B. married Priscilla Field, of Avoca, N.Y.
WILBUR BROWN located on his present farm in 1871. He was born in 1830, in Tioga township, and in 1850 married Miss Lucy Sharp, of Campbelltown, N.Y. He served in the 207th Pennsylvania, and was wounded at Petersburg. His father, Joseph Brown, came from Connecticut before 1830 to Tioga and married Miss Eva Ward, of Painted Post, N.Y., by whom he had five children, of whom three are living. He died in 1847.
REV. DANIELS BUCKBEE was born in 1800, in New York city, and died in 1864, in Farmington, where about 35 years ago he bought 200 acres of wild land. For 21 years he was engaged in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church. He married Miss Catharine Wood, of Sugar Hill, N.Y., in 1823, and they had twelve children.
GEORGE M. BURTCH came to this county in 1848, and located first at Crooked Creek, but for 25 years has lived in Farmington, where he has a farm of 65 acres. He was born in 1819, in Vermont. His first wife (Mary E. Frost, of Schroon, Essey county, N.Y.), to whom he was married in 1841, died in 1849, and in 1851 he married Miss Alvina Roberts, of Farmington. They have seven children.
JOHNSON BUTTS was born in Canterbury, Windham county, Conn., in 1790, and is supposed to have located in Tioga county about 1811, with his brother Loren. For many years he kept a high school in his own house at Lawrenceville. In 1835 he married Miss Lucy Beebe, of that place. Their children are O. L. Butts and Mrs. P. P. Close, of Farmington. Mr. Butts came to this township in 1841 and lived the rest of his life on the farm now owned by his son at Farmington Hill. He was largely interested in building the Presbyterian church, and one of the chief supporters of that society.
OTIS L. BUTTS, son of Johnson and Lucy Butts, was born in Lawrenceville, in 1839, and in 1869 married Miss Edith Hall, of Farmington. He is a farmer, owning 107 acres. He served the last year of the civil war in the 207th Pennsylvania.
SIMEON CADY is one of the farmers of this township. He was born in 1822, in Osceola, and married Miss Jemima Baxter, of Tompkins county, N.Y. His father, Lemuel Cady, of Connecticut, married Ruth Gleason, by whom he had eleven children, and came to Farmington about 1812. He bought 200 acres of wild land here, but shortly removed to Osceola and worked at his trade as a carpenter and joiner. About 1823 he returned and bought 100 acres near his first purchase. In 1822 he went to Iowa, where he died in 1878, aged 84.
WILLARD CASS is a farmer, and has held many township offices. He was born in New Hampshire, in 18l7, and in 1848 came with his brother to Farmington. His first wife, Esther L., died in 1850, and in 1851 he married Olive Lent, of Bradford county.
REUBEN H. CLOSE, son of Peter and Lucretia Close, was born in Locke, Cayuga county, N.Y., in 1833. In 1847 he came with his parents to Tioga county. In 1864 he married Miss Esther Hurlburt, of Lawrence township, and they have six children. Mr. Close was a lieutenant in Company H 45th Pa. during the first year of the Rebellion. He has been township clerk and treasurer six years, secretary of the board of school directors eight consecutive years, and assessor, He is a farmer, owning 80 acres.
AMOS CORWIN, farmer, is a native of Starkey, Yates county, N.Y., and married Eliza Jane Chase, of that county. He was born in 1822, and since 1856 has lived in Tioga county.
JOHN CRIPPEN, a native of Delaware county. N.Y., married Caroline Foster, of Saratoga county, N.Y. He lived in Rutland, this county, from 1824 to 1827; then bought 50 acres of wild land on Farmington Hill. He cut his way through the woods to that place, where he was one of the first settlers. He served in the war of 1812 at New York. His widow lives at the old homestead.
LEONARD H. CRIPPEN, son of John and Caroline Crippen, was born in Farmington, in 1832. His wife was Abby L. Henry, of Steuben county, N.Y. Hle has been constable and collector, judge of election, etc. He has a farm of 53 acres.
BENJAMIN DAVIS, son of John and Mary Davis, is a native of New Jersey. He was born in Roxbury, Sussex county, in 1851, and in 1871 came to this township, where his farm is located. The next year he married Miss Augusta Harrison, of Farmington, formerly of New Jersey. They have five children.
FRANK L. DUNHAM has a farm of 73 acres in Farmington, where he was born in 1849. In 1879 he married Miss Mary E., daughter of Noah and Elizabeth Hammond, of Middlebury. His father, James S. Dunham, of Herkimer county, N.Y., married Miss Nancy Brown, of Tompkins county, and after her death Janetta Root, of Cayuga county. N.Y., who survives him. By his first wife he had eight children. He came to Farmington in 1849, having bought 66 acres of wild land, on which he lived till his death (1878).
MONROE ELLISON came in 1878 to Farmington, where he has a farm of 62½ acres. He was born in Tyrone, Schuyler county, N.Y., in 1845, and in 1874 married Helen Gee, of Farmington. He served the last three years of the civil war in the 161st N.Y; was sounded at Sabine Cross Roads April 8th 1864.
ALTON C. EVANS, son of Allison and Laura M. Evans, was born in 1852, in Lawrence township. In 1875 he married Phebe D., daughter of Robert and Rebecca Lugg, of Farmington; and in 1877 he removed from Lawrence to the farm where he now resides.
ANSEL J. FISK, physician and surgeon, is a son of Lyman and Betsey (Stowell) Fisk. He was born in 1829, at Schroon Lake, Essex county, N.Y., and is a graduate of the Medical College of Detroit. He located in Farmington in 1863; bought 1,100 acres of land, and built a steam saw-mill thereon, which was destroyed by fire in 1881. He has done an extensive lumbering business, having on account of poor health abandoned all but office practice of his profession. His father came from Essex county, N.Y., to Mitchell's Creek in 1844; built the first gang saw-mill in the State, and invented the shave-tooth saw. He removed to Tioga, and died there in 1857, aged 56.
ANDREW GEE, son of Thomas and Margaret (Hewey) Gee, owns 50 acres of land in Farmington, in which township he was born in 1848. He was married in 1871 to Miss Mary Leonard, also of Farmington. They have two cliildren.
JAMES GEE, brother of Andrew, was born in 1832, in Orange, Schuyler county, N.Y., in which town his father (a native of Dutchess county, N.Y.) settled at an early day. Six of the father's family of eight children are now living. The family came to this township in 1832. Mr. Gee taking up 130 acres of wild land, which he cleared up and lived on until he died, in 1877, aged 72. James Gee married Miss Julia Warren, of Corning, N.Y. He has a farm of 90 acres.
ROBERT GEE, another of the sons of Thomas and Margaret Gee, is a farmer, owning 118 acres of land in his native township of Farmington. He was born in 1839, and married Miss Mary Hoyt, of Nelson.
HENRY GLEASON was born in Chatham, this county in 1849, and in 1871 married Miss Mary E., daughter of Luke B. and Philena Maynard, formerly of New Hampshire. She died in 1880, leaving two children. He was elected magistrate in 1879, but declined to serve. . He is carrying on a farm of 67 acres.
REUBEN T. HALL has been a resident of Farmington thirty years, He was born in Hancock, Mass., November 24th 1825. He is a farmer, and has been postmaster at Farmington Hill ever since the office was established. In 1864 he enlisted in Battery H 152nd Pennsylvania regiment (light artillery), and served to the close of the war. In 1849 he married Martha L. Perry, of Aurora, Cayuga county, N.Y. She died shortly after their marriage, and he subsequently married her sister Mary Ann.
RHODES W. HALL is a native of Berkshire, Mass., and was born in 1823. In 1852 he came from Rensselaer county, N.Y., and in company with his cousin George Hall took up a farm of 167 acres. Two years later he sold out to his cousin and bought part of his present farm of 375 acres at Farmington Hill. He has been a steward in the M. E. church 27 years, also trustee, class leader, etc. In 1852 he married Miss Jane A. Knight, of Rensselaer county, N.Y. Five of their nine children are now living.
ABRAM HARRISON, son of Joel and Almeda Harrison, is a native of New Jersey, born in West Milford, Passaic county, in 1829. In 1856 he married Miss R. Best, of Morris county, N.J., by whom he has seven children. In 1872 he came from New Jersey to this county, and located on his present farm.
WILLIAM HOYT, son of Edmund and Mary A, Hoyt, was born in Fairfield county, Conn., in 1832. In 1841 he removed from Tompkins county, N.Y., to Farmington, a year later to Nelson, thence to Steuben county, N.Y., and after ten or twelve years to his present farm of 60 acres. He served nine months in the 207th Pa. volunteers, and has been supervisor, school director, etc. He married Miss Phoebe Campbell, of Nelson, in 1858, and they have two children.
MIRON A. JOHNSON is a native of Tioga county, N.Y., and was born in 1816. He has been assessor (two years), judge of election, etc. His wife, Sarah, was the widow of William Mourey; they have five children. Wait Johnson, father of Miron A., was also a native of Tioga county, N.Y., as was also his wife, Lydia Stephens. They had twelve children, most of whom are living. The family came to Stokesdale in 1832, and in 1837 or 1838 to the present farm of M. A. Johnson, containing 86 acres. The father removed to Potter county in 1864, and died there in 1869.
ALBERT D. KEMP is a son of John A. and Phoebe (Cook) Kemp. He was born in Farmington, in 1839, and married Miss Aurelia Shaw, of Farmington, formerly of Moravia, N.Y. They have two children. Mr. Kemp served in the 207th Pa. during the last year of the Rebellion, He is a farmer, and has been constable and collector two years, treasurer, etc. His father, born in Scipio, Cayuga county, N.Y., in 1800, came to Lawrenceville in 1820 and engaged in cabinet making. In 1834 he removed to a farm of 160 acres on the Cummings Creek road in Farmington, where he died in 1876, and his second wife, Phoebe, in 1880. By her he had five children and by his first wife two. He was a magistrate fifteen years, treasurer, etc.
DAVID C. KEMP. brother of Albert D., owns a farm of 117 acres. He was born in Lawrenceville, in 1831, and married Harriet Parks, of Nelson. He has been supervisor, school director, etc. He was a member of the 207th Pa. volunteers in 1864-5.
JUSTUS LEONARD has been a school director, and is a deacon in the First Baptist church of Middlebury. He was born in Greene, Chenango county, N.Y., in 1823, and married Nancy Young, of the same place. He removed to Paw Paw, Mich., in 1849 and staid a year and a half; then came to Tioga county and after living fourteen years on Sobres Hill bought his present farm of 100 acres.
HARVEY LITTEER, son of John and Sarah Litteer, was born in Sussex county, N.J., in 1825, and when a child was taken to Bradford, Steuben county, N.Y. From that place in 1854 he removed to Farmington and bought 81 acres of his present farm of 110 acres, He married Miss Jane C. Ballard, of Wayne, Steuben county, N.Y., and they have two children.
JOHN E. LITTEER, son of Harvey above mentioned, was born in 1855, in Farmington, where he has a farm of 66 acres. Two children have been born to him and his wife Ella Wilson, to whom he was married in 1876.
CHARLES LUGG was born in Gloucestershire, England, in 1791, and was married in 1818 to Miss Mary Ann Chandler, of the same county. They had eight children, of whom five are now living. In 1830 Mr. Lugg brought his family to New York and proceeded to Tioga county, Pa.., locating in the town of Elkland, on Thorn Bottom Creek, one and a half miles west of Nelson or Beecher's Island. There he rented a farm; but, being disappointed in his conceptions of this country, returned with his family to England in 1831. In 1833, however, he returned to Tioga county, locating on what is known as Sobres Hill, in the town of Farmington, where he bought 100 acres of land, with a log house and barn, and about 4 acres cleared. He added 150 acres to this, cleared up 200 acres, and remained on this farm until his death. He died in 1874, aged 83. His wife died in 1873. Both had been members of the Presbyterian church for 60 years.
ANTHONY W. LUGG was born in 1825, in Gloucestershire, England; came to this country in childhood with his parents, and passed his early life as a farmer. From 1855 to 1881 he was in trade at Nelson. He then retired, and made a journey to California for the benefit of his health. He has been a magistrate more than fifteen years. He married Miss Ann Seeley, of Osceola. He owns a farm of 280 acres.
ROBERT S. LUGG is a native of Farmington township, in which his farm of 130 acres is located. He was born in 1835, and in 1858 married Miss Rebecca Bottom, daughter of Charles and Phoebe Bottom, of Farmington. He was elected a justice in 1879, receiving all but two of the votes cast, although the township is Republican and Mr. Lugg is a Democrat.
JOSEPH MCCOLLUM was born in Albany county, N.Y., in 1814, and died at his residence in Farmington in 1881. His wife was Amanda Colegrove, of Cortland county, N.Y. Nine of their fourteen children survive the father. Mr. McCollum's parents, John and Sarah McCollum, removed from Albany county, N.Y., while he was a small boy to Naples, Ontario county, N.Y., and in 1828 to Farmington. James B., son of Joseph McCollum, enlisted in 1861 in Company H 45th Pa. volunteers, and died at Otter Island, S.C., in 1862.
JOSHUA G. MCCOLLUM, son of John and Sarah McCollum, was born in 1833, in Farmington, where he has a farm of 80 acres. In 1870 he married Elizabeth Cady, of Farmington, and they have four children. Mr. McColum has held the office of supervisor.
LORENZO D. MCINTIRE came from Steuben county, N.Y., to Farmington, in 1854, having bought 91 acres of new land, with a clearing of three or four acres and a log house. He now has 50 acres cleared, a frame house, etc. He was born in Candor, Tioga county, N.Y., in 1815, and married Melinda Morse, of Avoca, N.Y.
ELSON MOORE is a native of Jackson township, and was born in 1840. In 1861 he enlisted in Company H 45th Pa. volunteers; re-enlisted in 1864 and served through the war, becoming a corporal; was wounded at South Mountain and in hospital six or eight months. In 1866 he married Miss Imogene Hoyt, of Farmington, and they have one child.
CHARLES MOURIE was born in 1850, in Farmington, and in 1873 married Miss Laura Bosard, of the same township, in which his farm is situated. His father, William (a son of Peter and Betsey Mourie,) was from Montour county. He married Sarah, daughter of William and Rachel Baxter, and had two children. He was killed by the falling of a tree, in 1850.
DANIEL MOUREY came to Tioga county with his parents, Peter and Betsey Mourey, and when 18 years old bought half of his present farm of 200 acres. He was born in Montour county, in 1816, and married Eliza House, of Farmington.
JACOB S. MOUREY, another son of Peter and Betsey, was born in Montour, in 1819, and in 1840 married Miss Esther, daughter of John and Sarah McCollum, of Farmington; he has eight children. He came to Farmington in 1830 with his parents, who were early settlers here.
REV. WILLIAM PECK united with the M. E. church in boyhood, and about the year 1831 became an exhorter, and subsequently a minister. He has performed the duties of the sacred office to some extent to this time, although carrying on a farm. He was born in Delaware county, N.Y., in 1814. His first wife was Harriet Paul, of Nelson, and his second, Sarah J. Judd, of Potter county.
FREEMAN D. PIERCE, farmer, is a son of Michael and Catharine Pierce, and was born in 1840, in Farmington. He enlisted in 1861 in the 2nd Pa. cavalry; was severely wounded at St. Mary's Court-house, and confined to a hospital nearly a year, but served through the war.
JAMES PRESTON claims to have been the first male child born in Farmington, the year being 1829. In 1852 he married Miss Deborah Young, of Greene, Chenango county, N.Y. He has a farm of nearly 500 acres. His father, Asa Preston, born in Onondaga county, N.Y., in 1800, came to Farmington in 1822 and married Miss Polly Cady; seven of their ten children are living. He bought 137 acres of wild land, and cleared about 100. He died in 1847.
CHARLES H. STARR, farmer, is a native of Madison county, N.Y., and was born in 1839. His wife was Elsie Van Vliet, of Addison, N.Y. He was a member of the 207th Pa. volunteers. His father, Franklin Starr, was born in Massachusetts in 1783; came from Madison county, N.Y., in 1847, and located in Farmington, where he died in 1849, and where his widow still lives.
JEREMIAH SYLVIA has a farm of 86 acres in Farmington His father, David Sylvia, born in Connecticut, early located at Unadilla, N.Y., and there married Miss Lucretia Penfield, by whom he had one son. In 1837 she died, and Mr. Sylvia came to Farmington, where in 1838 he married Miss Rosannah, daughter of David and Huldah Bryant, pioneers here. By his second wife he had five children, three of whom are living. George and Willard died of wounds received in the civil war. The father died in 1854, aged 68; his widow still survives. Jeremiah was born here in 1849, and married Miss Clara Palmer, of Corning. They have two children.
ABRAM TEACHMAN came to this county with his parents in 1835, and has since lived here, now engaged in farming, though a shoemaker by trade. He was born in Bergen county, NJ., in 1810. His first wife was Huldah Van Zite, of Big Flats, N.Y.; and his second Miss Louise Brumner, of Woodhull, N.Y.
CHARLES W. VAN DUSEN is a farmer in Farmington township, where he was born in 1853. Mrs. Van Dusen was Miss Alice Seeley, of Osceola. Mr. Van Dusen's father, John, was born in Schoharie county, N.Y., and came to Farmington in 1836, where he died in 1862.
G. M. VAN DUSEN is a son of Walter Van Dusen, a native of Schoharie county, N.Y., who in 1836 came from Greene county, N.Y., to Farmington, where he lived during the more active portion of his life, dying in 1878 at Wellsboro, at the residence of his son Andrew. Mr. Van Dusen was born in 1832, in "the Black River county," N.Y., and married Frances C. Falkerson, of Cayuga, N.Y. He was wagon master in the army a year during the Rebellion.
WILLIAM VANDUSEN owns a farm of 160 acres. He was born in 1823, in Schoharie county, N.Y. Mrs. Vandusen was Emily Cady, of Farmington.
LAWRENCE WATSON was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1828; removed to Orange county, N.Y., in 1845; thence to Horseheads, Chemung county, to Goodhue, Steuben county, and in 1854 to Tioga, Pa. In 1858 he removed to his present farm. He was a member of the 207th Pa. volunteers in 1864-5. He has been supervisor, judge of election, etc. He married Francelia McCollum, of Farmington, in 1857.
CHARLES WEBSTER has a farm of 50 acres. His father, Abner Webster, was born in "the Black River country," N.Y., and in early life located in Fabius, Onondaga county, N.Y. There he married Clarissa Hurlburt, by whom he had seven children. He removed to Farmington in 1843, and died here in 1879, aged 74. Charles Webster was born in Fabius, in 1827, and in 1847 married Miss Maria Phelps, of Farmington.
ASHBEL C. WHEELER came to this county in 1857, from Otsego county, N.Y. In 1862 he enlisted in Company D 16th Pa. cavalry, and served nearly three years. In 1865 he married Miss Janetta White, of Farmington, in which township he has a farm of 65 acres. He was born in Herkimer county, N.Y., in 1836.
JASPER R. WHITE is a native of Nelson township; was born in 1836, and married Pauline Putnam, of Orange, Steuben county, N.Y. He enlisted in 1861 in Company G 45th Pa. volunteers, and participated in sixteen battles; was wounded at Blue Springs, Tenn., October 10th 1863, and also before Petersburg, July 1st 1864; was captured in September 1864, and held five months in Salisbury prison.
JOSEPH E. WHITE, son of Joseph M. and Hannah White, was born in 1851, in Nelson, and in 1875 married Miss A. Boardman, of Clymer. He began his general mercantile business in 1879; was elected township clerk and treasurer in 1881 and 1882, and now holds those offices.