Genesee County NY

Biography of Clarence Heath

Clarence Heath, president of the Shortsville Wheel Company, is one of that class of citizens who have developed our great manufacturing interests, spread our commerce and assisted in improving and enlarging our cities. Clarence Heath was born in Darien, Genesee county, New York, March 30, 1857. He attended the district schools of Darien, and for a time was a student at Canandaigua Academy. Upon the termination of his school days he at first learned the trade of hand turning and the making of wagon and buggy wheels. In 1879 he established himself in business in Shortsville, New York, manufacturing hubs … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Adrian Dwight Joyce

Joyce, Adrian Dwight; Sherwin-Williams Co., mgr.; born, Sumner, Ia., Nov. 18, 1872; son of M. H. and Anne Hotham Joyce; educated, Olivet College and University of Michigan; married, Stafford, N. Y., June 9, 1879, Anna Page; issue, Marion, born March 11, 1898, Dwight, born May 31, 1900, Dorothy, born Jan. 27, 1902, Phyllis, born July 23, 1909; lived on a farm until he was 17 years old; taught country school, after leaving home; also village school for three years, unable to finish college course because of poor health; went into the wholesale hay and grain business in Memphis, Mich., in … Read more

Letter from C. Dewey to Henry R. Schoolcraft

Letter from C. Dewey to Henry R. Schoolcraft, Fort Hill. This is celebrated as being the remains of some ancient work, and was supposed to have been a fort. Though the name is pronounced as if hill was the name of some individual, yet the place is a fort on a hill, in the loose use of the word. The name designates the place as Fort Hill, to distinguish it from the hills which have no fort on them. Neither is it a hill, except as you rise from the swale on the north, for it is lower than the … Read more

Biography of George W. Vaughn

George W. Vaughn. Constructive enterprise in America had had its most notable triumphs in railroad building. In that field American ingenuity, indomitable energy and resourcefulness, have been displayed at their best. The history of railway building on this continent had many splendid names, and some of the greatest of them belong to Kansas. Not least among them was the late George W. Vaughn, or Major Vaughn, as he was more generally known, who died at Leavenworth February 3, 1916. He had a national reputation in engineering circles, and was a man, who, from the common walks of life, attained wide … Read more

Biography of Seth Ingalsbee

Seth Ingalsbee is now living retired at Wheaton, Kansas. His had been a long and useful career, and he is now past eighty-eight years of age. He served as a soldior during the Civil war, and came to Kansas a few years later and identified himself with the homesteading era in Pottawatomie County. Mr. Ingalsbee is of early English and of Revolutionary stock. There is a record of military service in almost every generation. The founder of the family and his remote ancestor was John Ingoldsby, who came from England and was a Colonial settler. Mr. Ingalsbee’s great-grandfather was Ebenezer … Read more

Letter from Frederick Follet to Henry R. Schoolcraft

Letter from Frederick Follet to Henry R. Schoolcraft Batavia, Oct. 25, 1845. Dear Sir My private and public duties together prevented my making a visit to “Fort Hill,” until the 22d inst. and I proceed to give you my ideas of that formation. The ground known as “Fort Hill” is situated about three miles north of the village of Le Roy, and ten or twelve miles northeast from Batavia, the capitol of Genesee county. The better view of “Fort Hill” is had to the north of it, about a quarter of a mile, on the road leading from Bergen to … Read more

Five Nations Burial Customs

Writing of the Iroquois or Five Nations, during the early years of the eighteenth century, at a time when they dominated the greater part of the present State of New York, it was said: “Their funeral Rites seem to be formed upon a Notion of some Kind of Existence after Death. They make a large round Hole, in which the Body can be placed upright, or upon its Haunches, which after the Body is placed in it, is covered with Timber, to support the Earth which they lay over, and thereby keep the Body free from being pressed; they then … Read more

Biography of Marsena St. John

Marsena St. John. A residence in Kansas of sixty years is in itself a distinction. In the case of the venerable Marsena St. John of Ottawa those years have been filled with honorable accomplishment and in all this time he had been one of the mainstays in Franklin County. He was born at Linden, New York, April 20, 1831, and had already passed his eighty-fifth birthday. His parents were Jasper and Julia Ann (Reynolds) St. John, who lived near Saratoga Springs, New York. From New York the family went to Huron County, Ohio, where the father was for ten years … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Frank Mason Comstock

Comstock, Frank Mason; college prof.; born, LeRoy, N. Y., May 20, 1855; son of Samuel Frances and Mary Mason Turner Comstock; A. B., C. E., Union College, 1876; A. M., 1879; Ph. D., 1891; married, Louise Brown, of LeRoy, N. Y., June 29, 1882; on New York Adirondack survey, 1876 principal LeRoy Academic Institution, 1879-1891; prof. natural history and descriptive geometry, Case School of Applied Science, since 1891; member American Forestry Ass’n, Canadian Forestry Ass’n, National Geological Society, etc. Contributor to technical periodicals.

Biographical Sketch of David Meacham

David Meacham was born in Genesee County, New York, May 3, 1835, and was reared at Geneseo, learning the carpenter’s trade. In 1858 he came to California, crossing the plains with General Harney, shortly after the Mountain Meadow Massacre. He helped to gather up the bones of the murdered emigrants, and assisted in building the monument erected by the Government on the scene. Arriving in California, he located at Bloomfield, Sonoma County, where he followed his trade five years. In 1863 he came to San Bernardino, and here followed the building trade. He rode to Riverside on the first load … Read more