BIOGRAPHY: George Benjamin Delamater; Whitehall, Washington co., NY
surname: Delamater. Le Maitre, 

submitted by Teri Brown (sanchoinc at houston.rr.com) 
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Submitted Date: October 25, 2004
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Author: Directory of Crawford County, PA, 1879-80
G. B. DELAMATER.

George Benjamin Delamater was born at Whitehall, N. Y., Jan. 14, 1821; is in 
the 7th generation in the line of his paternal ancestors in this country, 
being a son of the late Thomas Delamater, who established himself and family 
in Richmond in 1825, and whose ancestor, Captain Isaac Delamater, (Le Maitre), 
a Huguenot, having left France on account of the religions and political 
troubles of the times, had settled at Esopus, (Kingston), Ulster Co., N. Y., 
(then New Netherlands), about 1658. This occurred about the time when Antoine 
Le Maitre (Delamater), a savant of Port Royal, near Paris, distinguished in 
literature, and as an orator, died; and when his brother Louis Isaac, known as 
De Sacci, (having transformed the syllables in Isaac as a nomme de plume), by 
his publications and teachings at Port Royal, incurred the hostility of the 
Jesuits, and the powers that controlled Church and State in France, and as a 
consequence suffered about two years imprisonment in the Bastile.

There had been a John Delamater (Le Maitre), President of the French 
Parliament, who in 1593 enforced its authority against the policy and some of 
the tyrannical and offensive measures of the Duke of Mayennce.
Count Joseph Le Maitre, (Delamater), distinguished in literature, who died at 
his seat in Piedmont in 1821, after having represented that Government as 
Minister in Russia, when he wrote the "Soirees of St. Petersburg, was a native 
of Chambery, in Savoy, France.

The New Netherlands having been transferred to England by treaty with the 
States-General, the Delamaters took the oath of allegiance to the new 
Government in 1683. Isaac Delamatre, a grandson of the first settler, not with 
standing his French ancestry, led a company, as Captain, in the invasion of 
Canada in the old French war; and his grand son, Captain Benjamin Delamater, 
who died at Whitehall, N. Y., about 1817, was honored at his funeral with a 
volley fired over his grave by a company of which he had been Captain, which 
had been called into temporary service in the war with Great Britain of 1812. 
The grandson of the latter George Benjamin, the subject of this sketch, 
received in private and common schools, and in classes in Academy and College, 
at Waterford, Oberlin, and Meadville, a good practical education, and having 
read law with the late Hon. John W. Farrelly, was admitted to the bar of 
Crawford Co. in 1847; and soon after to the bars of Erie and Warren Counties.
He married in 1847, Susan C., a daughter of the late Noah Town, Esq., and his 
residence which had been mainly in Meadville from 1840 was continued till 
1850, when in pursuance of business plans he removed to Youngsville, Pa., and 
thence in 1872 to Townville, in this county, where he resided engaging in 
various business enterprises till the Spring of 1864, when he returned to 
Meadville, which has since been his home. While he never devoted himself 
exclusively to the law as a profession, he accumulated good law and 
miscellaneous libraries, and acquired experience in various departments of 
business, including law, journalism, real estate, merchandize, manufactures, 
and operations in coal, iron, oil, etc., in most of which he has been 
successful. He is a stockholder and director in various corporations, a 
Trustee of Oberlin College, and a Trustee and Vice President of Allegheny 
College, in which institutions he takes much interest.

As a politician, he was one of the Conferees who at Georgetown in 1848 
nominated the late Hon. John W. Howe as a candidate for Congress, under circum 
stances which secured his election from the District composed of Mercer, 
Venango and Crawford counties, thus overcoming the then Democratic majority in 
the District; and he was also the same year one of the Delegates to the 
Buffalo National Convention which nominated Van Buren for President on the 
anti-slavery platform.

He served three years in the Senate of Pennsylvania, having been elected in 
1870 by the district composed of Craw ford and Erie counties, and his record 
in matters of special and general legislation and on various important 
committees shows faithful service, though he declined to be a candidate for
re-election; and in 1875 built the Delamater Block in Meadville, a structure 
which is admired for its arrangement and architecture. He is connected with
the well known Banking firm of Delamater & Co.. of Meadville.

Directory of Crawford County, PA, 1879-80, pages 237-238.

Additional Comments:
Submitted in conjuntion with the Crawford County USGenWeb site:   
http://www.rootsweb.com/~pacrawfo