BIOGRAPHY: George Senior; Montgomery, Orange co., New York

transcribed by W. David Samuelsen for USGenWeb Archives

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Portrait and Biographical Record of Rockland and Orange Counties New York
Containing Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens of the Counties.
Together with Biographies and Portraits of all the Presidents of the United
States.
New York and Chicago; Chapman Publishing Co., 1895

GEORGE SENIOR. For many years this gentleman was identified with the business
interests of Montgomery as the senior member of the firm of George Senior &
Co., later of the film of George Senior & Son; but in 1885 he retired from the
business, being succeeded by his sons, who have since conducted the enterprise
with efficiency and success. While during the course of his long business
experience he met with some losses, yet he was fortunate in escaping financial
panics and disasters, and was never hampered by lack of funds. It is a fact
worthy of note that he never sued any one and never had a law case in court.

In Dorsetshire, England, George Senior was born February 10, 1814, being the
son of William and Sarah (Harvey) Senior. His father, who was born in 1785,
came to the United States in 1830, and after having spent three years in
Dan-bury, Conn., he removed to Dutchess County, N. Y., where he stayed twelve
years. His closing days were spent in Montgomery, where he died in 1863. His
wife survived him until 1886, dying at the age of ninety-three years. They
were the parents of twelve children who attained years of maturity, three
having died in childhood. William, who settled in Connecticut, engaged in
farming there until his death at fifty-five; John, a farmer of New Milford,
Pa., died when sixty-five years old; Sarah, Mrs. William Blackman, died in
Danbury, Conn., at the age of seventy; George was next in order of birth;
Thomas, a retired business man, lives in Montgomery; Christopher is a farmer
near the Mississippi River in Illinois; Ann married John Houck, and died in
middle life; Ed-ward died at the age of twenty-five; Joseph lives in
Bridgeport, Conn.; Louisa is the wife of John Ayres, of Middletown; and Henry
is living in Danbury, Conn. Of the six now living, three reside in Orange
County.

At the age of twenty-one our subject began to deal in stock in Dutchess
County. In 1844 he opened a store, and, being prosperous, he continued in
business about thirty years. October 6, 1842, he married Miss Mary Ann Lawson,
who was born in Walden, May 30, 1819, but at the time of her marriage was
residing in Dutchess County, this state. Her parents, Robert and Jane
(Thompson) Lawson, were born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States, he
when twenty-one and she at nine years of age. They were married in Orange
County and spent their last years in Montgomery, where he died at the age of
eighty-one and she when ninety-one.

Mr. and Mrs. Senior became the parents of the following children: William H.,
who is a member of the firm of William H. Senior & Co. in Montgomery;
Augustus, formerly a merchant of New-burgh, who died April 6, 1892, at the age
of forty-seven; Mary E., who married Cornelius D. Hawkins, and died at the age
of forty-one; Sarah F., who died in childhood; George Edward, who is in the
store at Montgomery; John L. , an attorney at Waverly, Coffey County, Kan.;
and James Renwick, a merchant of New York City. Since the organization of the
Montgomery & Erie Railway Company, Mr. Senior has served as one of its
Directors. For thirty-five years he has been Trustee of the Presbyterian
Church at Montgomery, to which his wife also belongs.