STICKNEY, TYLER, was born in Shoreham, Addison county, Vt., December 10, 1799. He was descended from William Stickney, who came to this country from England about 1640, from whom has descended a large family of men noted for sterling worth, energetic and persevering character and honorable integrity. His father was Tyler Stickney, who was a practicing physician in the town of Shoreham from 1798 for two or three years. He was one of the sixth generation from William, above named. Tyler Stickney married, March 13, 1828, Lora, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Wright) Treadway. She was born in Shoreham March 24, 1806. This union has been blessed much beyond the average – eleven children – seven sons and four daughters having been born to them, as follows, in the order of their birth:
Julius T., Lora Eluthera, William Wirt, Emma A., Joseph T., Charles Carroll, John Quincy, Mary Elizabeth, Saraph A., Edgar E. and Mallory N., all living except Saraph A. and Mallory N. All were married and raised families with the exception of Emma A., Joseph T. and Saraph A. All are honored and respected citizens in the communities in which they reside. In 1878 Mr. and Mrs. Stickney celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage at the homestead at East Shoreham, now owned and occupied by Edgar E. Stickney. On the occasion of their golden wedding all the children then living and many of their thirty-four grandchildren were present.
No less than six of Mr. Stickney’s sons are breeders of Merino sheep, and are members of the Vermont Merino Sheep Breeders’ Association. Naturally retiring, very industrious, and devoted to his calling; never sought office or public notoriety; but endowed with great common sense and good judgment, he gave the best of his time, thought and attention to his own business, in which he was very successful. He was a good farmer, but as a breeder of sheep he was most successful; by the great improvements he accomplished in his flocks he not only made it famous, but made his own name to be as widely known as the race of improved Merino sheep are scattered: one of the leading and generally recognized best lines of Merino blood is universally known by the name of Stickney blood. To the improvements made by him and continued by his sons Vermont is indebted for many of the honors she has won at numerous exhibitions of sheep and wool, including the prize for the best flock of Merino sheep exhibited at the Centennial, at Philadelphia, with a large number of excellent and celebrated competitors. He commenced his flock of sheep in 1834, and from the ewes then purchased, aided by his excellent judgment in the selection of rams, in thirty-four years he was able to produce a ram that cut thirty-four pounds and fourteen ounces of unwashed fleece, much the largest fleece to that time grown on one ram in one year. He retained his interest in his sheep to the day of his death. His memory was good, and all had confidence in his words and statements.
Tyler Stickney was apparently as well as usual on the morning of January 31, 1882, he having taken breakfast with his family as usual, after which he was out of doors and to the barns; but about 9 o’clock he was stricken with apoplexy and died in the afternoon. His aged partner survives him. Mr. Stickney commanded, during his life, the entire respect and confidence of the community in which he spent his life, and in death was sincerely mourned, not only by the large family which he left, but by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
All the sons that are living have kept up their interest in the raising and breeding of Spanish Merino sheep, and wherever located have fully sustained the reputation enjoyed by their father in this leading industry of Addison county. All have bred from the original “Tyler Stickney” flock. Julius T. and Charles Carroll are successful farmers living in the town of Wheeler, Steuben county, N. Y.; William Wirt, in Lapeer, Mich., is a lawyer by profession and is Circuit Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Michigan; Joseph T. is a large farmer and a very successful sheep breeder in Shoreham, Vt.; and John Quincy, in the town of Whiting, Vt., is also a successful farmer and sheep breeder. Edgar E., who owns and occupies the homestead, and who for ten years prior to the death of his father had the immediate charge of it, became, perhaps more than any of the sons, the natural successor of his father in keeping up the reputation of the “Stickney” name as a successful breeder of Spanish Merino sheep. Lora Eluthera is the wife of John Preston, a farmer living in Leicester, Vt. Emma A., who for thirty years has been blind, resides with her mother at the homestead. Mary Elizabeth is the wife of Charles Cox, living in Lapeer, Mich.