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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania with Biographical SketchesBy H. C. Bradsby, 1891If You Have Photos of People Mentioned on the Page, Send Them In For Inclusion |
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HARRISON CRUM P. O. Athens, was born in Spencer, Tioga Co., N. Y., January 3, 1820, a son of William and Lucinda (Hubbard) Crum, former of whom was a farmer living near Lake Champlain, and was an eye witness to the last naval battle between Great Britain and the United States, and with others was fired at by the British. In their family there were ten children (five of whom are living), of whom Harrison is the sixth in order of birth; Peter lives at Spencer, N. Y.; James in Windham; Delila was married to James Underwood, deceased; Amanda was married to David Watkins; William died at the age of seventy-five in Illinois; Lois died about the year 1835; Charlotte died about 1880; Emily died in 1884; McDonough died in 1887 at Candor, N. Y. Harrison Crum was reared in his native place, receiving his schooling in an old log school-house, which he attended in the winters until he was fifteen; at sixteen he commenced business for himself on a farm, working thereon four years, and for twenty years thereafter he was employed in carpentering and lumbering. In 1863 he purchased the farm he now occupies, which contains sixty-four acres, and the comfortable surroundings amply attest to the perseverance and industry of Mr. Crum, who, in his declining years, is now enjoying the fruits of his labor. He was married, in 1846, to Elizabeth Snyder, daughter of David and Hannah (Haner) Snyder, of Columbia county, N. Y., and they have four children; Avista, married to John Rifenburg, of Athens; Lueyette, married to Frank Rogers, also of Athens; Cassandra, married to Horace Rogers, of Nebraska, and G. W., married to Hattie Allen, and, in his father’s declining years, is assisting in conducting the farm. The family worship at the Baptist Church, and in politics Mr. Crum is a Republican.
GEORGE CUFFMAN, farmer, of South Creek township, P. O. Fassett, was born in Dryden, Thompkins Co., N. Y., December 16, 1819, a son of Asa Cuffman, a native of Germany. Asa Cuffman came to this country about 1813, locating in Dryden, Thompkins Co., N. Y.; where he owned and cultivated a small farm, living there the remainder of his life; he died in 1875, at the age of sixty-two years; his family consisted of six children, all of whom grew to maturity, four are now living. George Cuffman the youngest of the family was reared and educated in Dryden, Thompkins Co., N. Y.; he has followed farming as an occupation; starting at the age of nineteen for himself. When twenty-one years old he married, January 9, 1841, Susan, daughter of John Benjamin; they have had two children born to them, one of
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whom is now living, Thomas T., married to Mary Ameigh, and has five children. In 1862 George Cuffman entered the army as a private in Company G, One Hundred and Seventy-first P. V. I.; served nine months, was honorably discharged, and now receives a pension of $12.00 per month; he resides on a well-cultivated little farm of twenty acres, having completed a new and beautiful residence; when he first came to this county, in 1869, he settled near Troy, removing later to his present residence. Mr. Cuffman is a member of the G. A. R., Pettingill Post; politically he is a Republican.
RULANDUS CULP, farmer, P. O. Bently Creek, was born November 27, 1824, in Elmira, N. Y., a son of Samuel and Polly (Miller) Culp, former of whom was born of German ancestry, in Tioga county, N. Y., and latter on Long Island, N. Y. Samuel Culp was a farmer and lumberman. He reared a family of six children (of whom the subject of this sketch is the second), and died in 1884, at the age of eighty-three years, the mother having passed away in 1878 when aged eighty-one. Mr. Culp’s great-grandfather, Col. John Hendy, was a colonel in the Revolutionary War in Gen. Sullivan’s army, and was through Pennsylvania and New York States; he was one of the first settlers of Chemung county, N. Y., having located in 1781, at the place where Elmira now stands. Rulandus Culp was on the Erie and Chemung Canal from the time he was fourteen years of age until about the year 1857, when he settled in Springfield township on the farm where he now resides. He owns 220 acres of as fine prime land as there is in the township, and is one of the most successful and prosperous farmers, dairying being his principal business. On December 25, 1848, Mr. Culp was united in marriage with Maru J., daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Gibson) Mayhood, of Springfield. She was born June 2, 1824, in County Down, Ireland, and her parents came to America, about 1840, settling on the farm where Mr. and Mrs. Culp now reside; the father died aged eighty-six, and the mother at the age of seventy-three. Mrs. Culp had one brother, John Mayhood, in the Civil War, serving during the entire struggle. To Mr. and Mrs. Culp have been born six children viz.: Georgia, born July 25, 1850; Emma, born September 25, 1854; Joseph R., born July 25, 1857, married to Carrie Aber; J. Thompson, born August 2, 1860, married to Jennie Gonzales; Jennie, born November 21, 1864; Grant, born March 4, 1869. Mr. Culp is a strong Prohibitionist. Mrs. Culp is a consistent member of the Baptist Church, as are also her children: Georgia, Jennie and Jospeh R.
LAFAYETTE J. CULVER, farmer and stock-grower, of Sheshequin township, P. O. Sheshequin, is a native of the same, having been born May 23, 1831, a son of Daniel and Josephine (Horton) Culver. Timothy Culver, paternal grandfather of our subject, among the first settlers of Bradford County, participated in the Revolutionary War. The maternal grandmother, who was a sister of Dr. Jayne, of Philadelphia, was born on the Delaware river. Daniel B. Culver, father of Lafayette J., was born in Sheshequin township in April 1806, and died in the same township August 5, 1856, and his wife passed away in the following September, aged forty-nine years, both dying of typhoid
Lafayette J. Culver was educated in the public schools, and commenced work when very young, having to assist his father, with whom he carried on farming, until the latter’s decease. He then purchased the old homestead, which he cultivated seventeen years, when he sold the farm, moved to North Towanda and was connected with the flouring mill there, one year, although a resident two years; and thence went to Wysox, remaining six years. In 1881 he was commissioned by the Government Department of Agriculture, LeDuc, to raise the cane for the experiments in sugar-making, at Washington, D. C., and remained there one year. Mr. Culver then purchased and moved to the farm he now occupies - the old Gore homestead - one of the first to be reclaimed from the wilderness in the county. The house on it was built by Judge Gore nearly seventy-five years ago, and is nailed together with nails forged by blacksmiths. The farm had fallen sadly into decay when Mr. Culver took possession; but he repaired it, built new barns, put up fresh fences, and it is now one of the finest properties in the county, located in the lower portion of the valley and abutting mountains, replete with old historical associations, all combining to make it a most pleasant and desirable home. The farm consists of 400 acres, seventy-five of which are bottom land, only a small portion of it being unfit for cultivation. Here he grows about five tons of tobacco annually, and raises Oxford-Down sheep and Percheron horses.
Mr. Culver was united in marriage January 21, 1857, with Mary Patterson, a daughter of Abraham and Caroline (Ashman) Patterson. Her ancestry on her father’s side was Scotch-Irish, on her mother’s, German, and her paternal ancestors settled at Paterson, N. J., the place taking its name from him. Her maternal grandfather ran away from college in Hamburg, Germany, at the age of eighteen, enlisted with the Hessians on purpose to get to America, to help fight for our independence, and as soon as he arrived here he deserted and joined Washington’s army, with which he fought until the close of the war. Mrs. Culver’s father’s family consisted of six children, born in Orange county, N. Y., viz.: William, of South Waverly; Nancy Ellen, who married Lorenzo Dow Post, and died in Sheshequin; Henry C. (deceased); J. S., of the Exchange Hotel, Athens; Eliza, wife of E. J. Newell of Sheshequin, and Mary (Mrs. Culver). To Mr. and Mrs. Culver, have been born, two children, viz.: Josephine, married to P. C. Gore, of Sheshequin, and Carrie Ellen, who was married to Victor E. Piollet, but was left a widow within a few months. Mr. Culver was the first man to be drafted into military service in Sehshequin, but was rejected on account of physical disability. Politically he is a Republican, and was elected to the Legislature, in 1888, by a vote of 4,000 majority; he has held all the
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township offices. He is a member of the I. O. O. F and of the State Encampment, and has passed all the chairs.
JOHN M. CURRIER, farmer and stockman, Warren Centre, was born in Warren township, his natal day being June 29, 1839; he is a son of John M. and Anna (Underwood) Currier, natives of Vermont and Massachusetts, respectively, and of the rugged Scotch extraction. His father, who was a farmer, came to this county in 1815, being one of the earliest settlers in Warren township, and cleared his land and here made his permanent home; he died in 1861; his widow died in 1873; they had twelve children of whom John M. is the seventh in the order of birth. Our subject commenced life on his own account as a farmer, and has labored patiently in his chosen vineyard until the present time, being now the owner of 105 broad acres, all in a high state of cultivation, with ample and elegant farm buildings, and well stocked. Mr. Currier was married in Chenango county, New York, November 1, 1858, to Catherine Sleeper, daughter of Josephus and Maria (Bowen) Sleeper, natives of Vermont and Rhode Island, respectively; they had eight children, of whom Catherine was the eldest; she was reared in her native place and attended school at Greene village, N. Y. To Mr. and Mrs. Currier have been born children as follows: Anna (Mrs. George A. Bowen), of Herrick township, who has four children; Geo. E.; Olive S. and Maria R. (twins) (Olive S. married Fred E. Pitcher and has one child; Maria R. married James N. Clapp, of Tioga county, N. Y., and has one child); and Grace L. with her parents. The family worship at the Regular Baptist Church in which Mr. Currier holds the offices of trustee and collector; in politics he is a Republican and has held the offices of assessor and commissioner. When he purchased the elegant farm he now owns there were but twenty-three acres cleared and a little log house was all the improvement - but little, indeed, to indicate its present wealth and elegance. The family is one of the most highly respected in the county.
S. O. DAGGETT, proprietor of the "Stimson House," Athens, is a native of Daggett’s Mills, Tioga Co., Pa., and was born September 15, 1846; his parents are Louis and Ellen S. (Wells) Daggett, residing in Tioga, the former a native of Tioga county, N. Y., and the latter of Yates county, same State; the father has been engaged in the mercantile, lumbering and hotel business. Subject’s great-grandfathers, Daggett and Wells, were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. S. O. Daggett is the elder of two living children, and his brother, W. L. Daggett, is the proprietor of the "Bush House," Bellefonte, Pa. Our subject completed his education in Mansfield State Normal School, and when about seventeen years of age, engaged in the mercantile business in Tioga, and also in the lumbering trade. In 1870 he engaged in the hotel business with his father, in Lawrenceville, and was there six years; in 1878 in a hotel in Tioga, also with the "Brooklyn House" a short time, and then the Park Hotel (a summer resort), over two years; went to Horseheads and ran the "Rayant House" two years, and from there to Wellsboro in control of the "Wilcox House" six years; then to Blossburg, at the head of the "Seymore House" for about a year, and thence to Athens, March 2, 1890, and took charge of the
JACOB DANIELS, locomotive engineer, Sayre, is a native of Rhein, Germany, born October 27, 1835, and is a son of Jacob and Maria (Hilbert) Daniels, natives of Germany; the father, who was a farmer, died in his native home in 1838, in his thirty-seventh year; the mother died in 1837, in her thirty-fifth year. Jacob who is the second in the family of three children was reared in his native place until the age of eighteen, when he emigrated to New York city and from there moved to St. Clair, Schulkill Co., Pa., where he worked in the coal mines about three years, and then found employment on the Little Schuylkill Railroad for a short time, he then went to firing for the Catawissa Railroad, and was on that line about three years when he was promoted to engineer, continuing in that employ until 1871, when he went on the Lehigh Valley Railroad as engineer, and has been in this employ ever since. He was married in Pottsville in 1855 to Miss Maria, daughter of Fredrick and Hannah Henninger, natives of Pennsylvania and who was the fifth in a family of thirteen children; she was born in Catawissa Valley, October 10, 1837, and died December 1, 1889; she was a consistent member of the Episcopal Church. To Mr. and Mrs. Daniels were born seven children, as follows: Jacob F., a locomotive engineer, married to Ella Stevens; Hattie, wife of Eugene Finch, of Binghamton, N. Y.; William H., a locomotive engineer, married to Ella Miller; Charles, a locomotive engineer; George B., deceased; Jesse, a fireman, and Robert F., deceased. Mr. Daniels is a member of the Presbyterian Church; of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Sayre Divison, No. 380, and of the Knights of Honor, A. O. U. M. and Red Men; in politics he is a Democrat.
WILLIAM H. DANIELS, locomotive engineer, Sayre, is a native of Williamsport, and was born in November, 1860, a son of Jacob and Maria (Henninger) Daniels, the former of whom was a native of Germany and the latter of Pennsylvania. William is the third in order of birth, in a family of seven children; was reared in Williamsport until eleven years of age, and then came with the family to Waverly; received a public-school education, and in 1876 went on the Lehigh Valley Railroad as brakeman, and October 26, 1881, was changed to fireman, and was promoted to engineer, October 19, 1886, and has held that position since. He married, in Sayre, August 5, 1886, Miss Ella J., daughter of James and Rebecca (Albright) Miller, natives of Pennsylvania; her father was a locomotive engineer, and is now in the employ of the same road, at the round-house in Elmira; she is the
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eldest in a family of three children, and was born in Mauch Chunk, January 28, 1865. To Mr. and Mrs. Daniels was born a daughter, Mabel: they are members of the Episcopal Church. He is member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Sayre Division, No. 380, and No. 1817, and is a Democrat in politics.
CHARLES VIRGIL DARE, M. D., Troy, was born in Bridgeton, Cumberland Co., N. J., August 26, 1822, a son of John and Rachel (Watson) Dare, and is of Scotch descent. He was reared in his native State, and educated in the common schools of his day, and after serving an apprenticeship at the drug business and for a time being one of the proprietors of a drug store in Salem, N. J., he, in 1850, began the study of medicine with Dr. A. E. Small, of Philadelphia, and in the spring of 1854 was graduated from the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania. Same year he began the practice of his profession at Milville, N. J., and in December, 1854, he removed to Chester, Pa., remaining there until 1859, when he located in Troy, where he has since resided. He was in active practice up to September, 1864, when he enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Eleventh N. Y. V. I. And in February, 1865, was promoted to assistant-surgeon of the regiment, in which capacity he served until his discharge in June, 1865. On his return home he resumed the practice of his profession in which he still continues. On December 2, 1845, he married Harriett Osborne, daughter of Nathan and Sarah (Rose) Sheppherd, of Cedarville, N. J., by whom he had six children, four of whom grew to maturity: Laura V. (Mrs. John L. French), Kate S. (Mrs. E. F. Lummis), Charles W. and Mary S. Dr. Dare is a member of the Presbyterian Church and an ex-honorary member of the Hahnemann Homeopathic Medical Society, of Pennsylvania; in politics he is a Republican. His only son, Charles W. Dare, was born November 9, 1856, at Chester, Pa., and received an academical education, and for fifteen years has been engaged as a clerk in the drug business; was graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1882. Politically he is a Republican.
JABEZ G. DAUGHERTY, proprietor of "Daugherty’s Hotel," Wysox, was born in Belvedere, N. J., February 28, 1835, son of Ignatius and Sarah (Sidell) Daughtery, natives of New Jersey and of Holland origin. His father, who was a miller by trade, reared a family of eleven children of whom J. G. is the third. Our subject acquired a common-school education, and at twenty-one engaged in the milling business in Susquehanna county, where he remained one year, and then boated on the North Branch Canal two years; then again carried on the milling business five years in
Susquehanna county, and one year in Monroeton. In 1865 he purchased the VanBrunt mill at Wysox, where he did a general milling business eight years, then sold out to R. S. Barnes, of Rome, and engaged in the hotel business in Dushore, where he remained one year. He then located in his present place of business, where he has since remained. Mr. Daugherty was married March 6, 1859, to Miss Samantha, daughter of John and Martha (Sickler) Smith, of Wysox, and they have had born to them four children: Lillie R., born December 1, 1859, married to George Sill, a farmer, Orwell; George McClellan, born August 22, 1863 (was named
J. A. DAVIDSON, clerk with the Cayuta Wheel & Foundry Co., Sayre, is a native of Orange county, N. Y., born May 10, 1855, and is a son of George and Elizabeth Davidson, natives of County Down, Ireland, who immigrated to New York City about the year 1842; his father is a soap manufacturer; his mother died in 1859, in her thirty-eighth year. This gentleman is the sixth in order of birth of a family of seven living children; was reared in Orange county and received a fair public-school education; then clerked in a grocery store in Rockland county, N. Y., about six years, then in 1875, went to Rock Island, Ill., and worked in his uncle’s soap factory about two years; returned to Orange county, and remained there about a year, and then came to Sayre, and has been in the employ of the Cayuta Wheel & Foundry Co. Since. He married Miss Leora, daughter of John and Lucy (Wrigley) Bensley, the former a native of this county and the latter of England. His wife is the second in order of birth in a family of six children, and was born in this county May 6, 1859; to them were born three daughters, as follows: Margaret, Grace and Mildred. Mr. Davidson is a Republican.
THADDEUS B. DAVIDSON, farmer, Ridgebury township, P. O. Wilawana, was born in Ridgebury, this county, August 16, 1827, and is a son of Jonathan and Polly (Brown) Davidson, the former a native of Scotland, the latter of New York. In his father’s family there were nine children, of whom he is eighth. He was reared on a farm, educated in the common school, and began life for himself, farming, at the age of twenty-two, and has made this the chief occupation of his life. Mr. Davidson was married July 17, 1853, to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Mills and Sarah (Spencer) Carr, of Ridgebury, and they had one child, Wilmot, born April 7, 1857, and died February 28, 1879. Mr. Davidson may well be counted among the successful farmers of Bradford county. In his political predilections he is a Republican.
EVAN W. DAVIES, farmer, Pike township, P. O. Neath, was born February 8, 1811, in Languik, South Wales, a son of William and Elizabeth W. (Rees) Davies. His father, who was a tailor by trade, came to America in 1831, and started a tailor shop in Carbondale, Pa., where he died in 1833; in his family there were four girls and one boy. Evan W., the second in order of birth, and the only survivor. The subject of this sketch was educated in Wales, where he learned the tailor’s trade; he worked at this successively in Carbondale, Pa., Owego, N. Y., and Towanda, Pa., and he has owned, and partially cleared, several farms; he purchased his present home of sixty-nine acres, in 1871. He has been twice married: first time to Sarah, daughter of Samuel and Mary Thomas, and second time to Eleanor, daughter of John and Mary Perry, and she is still living; they have no children. Mr. and Mrs.
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Davies are members of the Congregational Church at Neath; he is a Republican in politics.
E. W. DAVIES, postmaster, Athens, is a native of the borough, born June 30, 1845, a son of Thomas R. and Ascenoth (Woodburn) Davies, the former a native of Wales, the latter of Cherry Valley, N. Y.; they died in Athens. E. W. Davies, who is the youngest in a family of ten children, received a public-school education, and also attended the academy at Athens. He commenced, in 1863, to learn the jeweler’s trade in Caledonia, Ontario, working there about five years, except the time he was in the Government service; from there went to Bay City, Mich., where he worked at his trade four years; then went to Ithaca, N. Y., and engaged in the jeweler’s trade with Mr. Phelps, under the firm name of Phelps & Davies, and continued there about five years, when he returned to Athens and embarked in the jewelry trade. He was appointed postmaster at Athens, March 20, 1890, and took charge of the office April 1. Being too young to enlist in the army, he joined the construction corps, and after the capture of Atlanta was discharged on account of sickness. Mr. Davies was married in Athens, in 1871, to Sarah, daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Tuttle) Wanzer (she was the eldest of two children who grew to maturity; she died in 1880 a faithful mother), by which union there were four children, one of whom is now living, Eugene W. Davies, Jr. Mrs. Davies was a member of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Davies was married, the second time, in Ithaca, N. Y., in 1882, to Miss Emma Hughes, the youngest in the family of six children of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hughes, natives of Wales. Mrs. Davies is a member of the Episcopal Church. He is a member of the F. & A. M., Rural Amity Lodge, No. 70, and also of the Sexennial League, Athens. Politically, he is a Republican.
JOHN D. DAVIES. In the year 1832, David Davies, a tailor at Languik, South Wales, bade farewell to his native land and, crossing the Atlantic, made his way into northern Pennsylvania there to make a home for himself and family, and enjoyed the advantages of our free and grand Republic. The eldest of his children, John D., who is the subject of this sketch, may well be counted among the successful farmers of Pike township. He was born May 31, 1822, and in 1834 he and his mother, Elizabeth (Howell) Davies, and five children followed their father to this country. John D. attended school in the old log house at South Warren, until his seventeenth year, and assisted the family in clearing a farm of 250 acres. At the age of twenty-four years he began life for himself, and engaged in mining at Carbondale, Pa., where he remained twelve years. In 1850 he purchased his prsent home of seventy-five acres in Pike township. Mr. Davies was married July 12, 1851, to Ann, daughter of John and Mary (Davis) Ellis of Carbondale, Pa., and this union has been blessed with the following children: David Henry, born February 28, 1853, an eminent physician of Nanticoke, Pa.; John Ellis, born August 8, 1855, a lawyer of Duluth, Minn.; Mary E., born May 23, 1857, married to Theophilus Farnells, a farmer, of Middletown; Emma, born April 23, 1859, married to Berton Jones, a farmer, of Pike township, and died Novem-
MONTAGUE A. DAVIES, veterinary surgeon, Troy, was born in Potton, Bedforshire, England. June 20, 1867, and is a son of Rev. B. T. and Jeannette (Packman) Davies, who came to America in 1871; the father, who is a clergyman of the Baptist Church, located in Troy in 1887, and for three years was pastor of the Baptist Church of that place. Our subject was reared in New York and Pennsylvania; was educated in the public schools, and in 1885 began the study of veterinary surgery, and was graduated from the Ontario College of Veterinary Surgery, Toronto, Canada, in 1889. Previous to his graduating he had practiced his profession in Tonawanda and Lockport, N. Y, and has succeeded in building up a business that is daily increasing; he is a member of the Veterinary Surgeons’ Society of Toronto. Politically he is a republican.
HON. WILLIAM T. DAVIES, Towanda, was born in Glamoreganshire, Wales, December 20, 1831, and when but two years of age came with his parent’s family to this country and located in Warren township, this county, and is both a fair specimen of the products of Bradford county as well as of the possibilities in this country of the average farmer boy in the race of life. His parents were David and Elizabeth Davies, who spent the remainder of their lives in this county, and whose family of children were ten, and in the order of birth as follows: John, Mary, Philip, Evan, Ann, William T. (these were born in Wales) and Thomas (died in 1881), Reese, Elizabeth and Catherine, born in Bradford county. Dr. Rees Davies is a prominent physician of Wilkes-Barre; Mrs. Mary Davies (husband and wife the same surname) lives in Wisconsin, and the others in this county - but a link in the circle gone, in this average of sixty years, of the sons and daughters of David and Elizabeth Davies; a strong and virile race, truly, whose coming and whose lives have added much and detracted nothing from the line of illustrious men and women of the county. The father an humble Welsh yeoman, who became a citizen by choice of adoption, and reared his sons and daughters true Americans, imbued with the spirit of liberty and restless ambitions and high purposes of the best in this favored land. In this household of strong and healthy children were impressed the lessons of industry, frugality and probity, that distinguishes our agricultural classes, and have proved the strong foundations upon which have grown this broad and marvelous Union and sisterhood of States. Gov. Davies is now in his sixtieth year, in the high meridian of his mental and physical life, and the once rustic farm boy of Warren township has just retired from the second highest office in the State councils, Lieutenant-Governor of the Commonwealth, and from the plow handle to the helm of State are the rising rounds
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of the ladder, commencing in the country school, the valedictorian of the class of ’53 at Owego Academy, N. Y.; a student in the law office, first of Judge Elwell and then in that of Judge David Wilmot; principal of the Towanda schools 1856 to 1860; responding to the call of his country as a private, and, by rapid steps, captain of Company B, One Hundred and Forty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers, and in 1863 reluctantly compelled from a long attack of typhoid fever to accept a surgeon’s certificate of disability, and return a private citizen; and again an active lawyer, forging his way to the front of the strong Bradford bar; called by the suffrage of the people in 1865 to the office of District Attorney; sent a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1876, and the same year elected to the State Senate, and re-elected in 1880, in which body he was fitly made chairman of the Judiciary General Committee; strongly supported for the office of State Treasurer in 1881; nominated in 1882 for Lieutenant-Governor, and defeated with the entire ticket, and again nominated for the same office in 1886 and elected. Step by step a busy and varied life, typical of the best features of our best form of civilization. William T. Davies and Mary Watkins were united in the bonds of wedlock. She is the daughter of William and Almira (Hulett) Watkins, of Vermont, who came to this county immediately after their marriage in 1828, and settled in Towanda on the premises now occupied by Gov. Davies as a law office. Of the Watkins family but two survive: Mrs. Davies and her brother, Hersey, of Oregon; another brother was the distinguished Col. G. H. Watkins who fell nobly battling for the Union at the head of his regiment in the charge on Petersburg, June 18, 1864, and her sister was Mrs. H. L. Lamoureux, who died in Towanda in 1885. The sons and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Davies, in the order of birth were are follows; Irene M., Thomas W. (deceased), Guy H., W. T., Jr., and Mary E.
A. M. DAVIS, conductor on the L. V. R. R., is a native of Fultonville, Montgomery Co., N. Y. and was born June 20, 1833. His parents were Benjamin H. and Eve (Vedder) Davis, natives of New York, the former of whom was a farmer, and died in Rockford, Ill., in 1873, in his seventy-sixth year; the latter died in 1871, in her sixty-fifth year. The grandfather, Valentine Davis, was a soldier in the War of 1812. A. M. Davis is the third in a family of four children, of whom two are lviing. He received an academical education in the old historic academy of Athens; was reared in Waverly from the age of four years until he reached his legal majority, and began his railroad career by braking on the Erie four years; then went to Rockford, Ill., in 1857, and farmed near the city. Responding to the call of his country, he enlisted in August 1862, Company C, Seventy-fourth Ill. V. I. and some of the engagements he took part in were the battle of Stone River, and all the battles of the Atlanta campaign, Chicamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and siege of Knoxville; and was taken prisoner at Jonesboro, but escaped the same night; was in the Army of the Cumberland under Gens. Rosecrans and Thomas; was mustered out at Nashville, Tenn., in June1865, and returned to Rockford, where he was engaged in mercantile trade for about three years;
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