KETCHUM BIOGRAPHY, YATES CO., NY Copyright (c) 1999 by Bonnie Bunce (bmbunce@juno.com). ************************************************************************ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ************************************************************************ Excerpt from HISTORY AND DIRECTORY OF YATES COUNTY, NEW YORK by Stafford C. Cleveland published in 1873 in Penn Yan, New York, pages 296-299 in the chapter on the Town of Benton, as well as additional excerpts from the other pages indicated in brackets. Note: One of the daughters of John Jay and Margaret (Murdock) Kress, Margaret Harriet Kress married William L. Ketchum, and had a son James L.; they emigrated to Wisconsin. See p. 920, vo1. 2. William L. is not mentioned in the following account of the Ketchum family of Yates Co., but he may have been a child of Elias Ketchum, or a relative of this family who later immigrated to Yates Co. KETCHUM FAMILY. Locey Ketchum married Susannah Scofield, and lived in the town of Kent, Putnam (then Dutchess) Co. The family was originally from Long Island, and of German descent. Their children were Elias, Jonathan, Joseph, James and Sarah. Elias settled near Hammondsport, where some of his descendants still reside. The others became residents of this county about 1812. Jonathan, born in 1788, married Matilda Cushman, of Frederickstown, Dutchess Co. She was born in 1789. They came to this county with one child, Charles, and settled first on Flat street, but subsequently located on the Pre-emption road, where he died leaving five children, Charles, Darius, Rhoda, Alvah and Charlotte. Mrs. Ketchum is still living, and resides with her daughter Charlotte, in Prattsburg. She is a daughter of Consider Cushman, of Duxbury, Mass., who was of the sixth generation from Robert Cushman, born in England, in 1580, and one of the Plymouth colony of 1620, coming in the second vessel that brought over the liberty seeking Puritans. He was prominently associated with the leading characters of the colony, and preached the first sermon printed in America, in the English tongue. This sermon was preached from the text, "Let no man seek his own, but every man another's worth." This was a discourse of two parts; the first proposition of the text a dehortation, and the second an exhortation. It was a pointed homily, and has become memorable, having been printed in London, in 1622, and re-published in Boston in 1724, and several times since at Plymouth and other places in New England. It is reprinted in the "Historical and Biographical Genealogy of the Cushmans," descendants of Robert Cushman. Charles, the eldest son of Jonathan Ketchum, born in 1813, married Aurelia A., daughter of Dr. Nathan L. Kidder, of Benton, and is a resident of Penn Yan. [From pp. 239-40: "Aurelia A., daughter of Dr. Nathan L. Kidder [who was a son of Ephraim and Sarah (Spencer) Kidder], and Mary (Stone) Kidder] married Charles Ketchum of Benton."] He is a Machinist, Inventor and Patent Solicitor. They have one son, George A., who married Ida Haviland, of Middlesex, and also resides in Penn Yan. They have a son, Charles. Darius was a physician, married Clarissa Vandenburg, of Jackson, Mich., and died in Penn Yan in 1854. Rhoda, born in 1818, married Erastus B. Miller, of Pultney. They reside near Seneca Lake, in Milo, and have four children, Lee, Jonathan, Adelaide and Mary. Alvah, born in 1821, married Augusta D., daughter of Isaac D. Gage, of Benton, and resides at Bellona, a mechanic. [From pp. 232, 234: "Isaac D. Gage, the youngest son of Moses Gage, born March 8, 1773, married Huldah Benedict of South Salem, N.Y., born March 19, 1779. . . . Their family of fourteen children all reached adult age, viz: Sally, Betsey, Moses B., Mariam, Isaac N., Nancy M., Charlotte C., John M., Seneca H., Henry H., Huldah A., Lewis D., Armida J. and AUGUSTA D. . . . Augusta D., born in 1822, married Alvah, son of Jonathan Ketchum, a harness maker at Bellona. . . . Isaac D. Gage died in 1854 at the age of eighty-one, and his wife in 1833 at the age of fifty-four." Emphasis added.] Charlotte, born in 1824, married Lucas Voorhees, of Benton. They reside in Prattsburg, and their children are Matilda, Augusta, Emma and Horatio S. Joseph Ketchum, born in 1790, married Mercy, daughter of John Randall. She was born in Dutchess Co., in 1790. [From p. 293-94: "John Randall was from Frederickstown, Dutchess Co., where he married Elizabeth Buckbee. He was born in 1746, and died at the age of eighty-six. They came to this county and settled between Flat street and the South Centre road, bringing but one unmarried daughter of their family, their daughter Mercy, who married Joseph Ketchum, in 1812. Their sons were Elijah, John, James B., Lewis and Samuel; their daughters, Esther, Elizabeth, Anna and Mercy. . . . Mercy born in 1790, became the wife of Joseph Ketchum."] They settled on lot 45, on Flat street, where he died in 1860, at the age of seventy. They had thirteen children, of whom eight reached adult age; Abel, Norman, George R., Celina B., Anna M., Oliver J., Caroline E. and Charles H. Norman and Oliver C. died in early life. Abel married Phebe Ann, daughter of Lewis Boyd, of Michigan, formerly of Benton. [From p. 299: "Lewis Boyd [one of three children of Ebenezer Boyd of Kent, Putnam, Co., who came to Yates Co. in 1813] married Sophia Cushman, a sister of Mrs. Jonathan Ketchum, and settled on the Pre-emption road, and finally in 1834, emigrated to Washtenaw Co., Michigan, where he died in 1848, and where his widow has since died. Their children are Emeline, Harvey, PHEBE A., Mial, George, Sarah, Ebenezer, Robert, Almira, Mina and Adaline." Emphasis added.] He was a merchant in Penn Yan, and afterwards lived on the Jonathan Ketchum farm, in Benton, where he died leaving five children, Henry W., Sophia, Frank, Emma C. and Edward. Norman and Oliver, sons of Joseph Ketchum, died single and the remaining children are unmarried, and reside on the homestead with their mother. The sons are enterprising farmers, and noted for raising choice and thorough-bred stock, especially short horn cattle. Charles H. is the present President of the Yates County Agricultural Society. Joseph Ketchum was by trade a tanner and shoemaker. He served his apprenticeship with Abel Peck, and came to this county under his patronage, two years before Judge Peck. He started a tannery, and established the shoe and leather business, which, on becoming twenty-one, he assumed on his own account, and conducted prosperously for many years. His industry and economy were such, that wealth could not resist his grasp, and he had the sagacity to invest his gains chiefly in adjoining lands, sometimes at prices others thought high, until his home farm embraced five hundred acres; and he was the owner of other farms of much value, amounting to twelve hundred acres. He was elected Sheriff of Yates county in 1834, and served three years in that office; and in the militia rose from corporal to colonel. His life was remarkably busy and laborious, though he was identified with the Democratic party, and finally with the Republican. Religiously, his tendencies were toward the Quakers, having been reared within their influence. He was a man of integrity, and highly honorable character. His wife, who has survived him ten years, is still in the enjoyment of health and vigor of body and mind, and has evidently been a strong stay to her husband and family in their remarkable history. James Ketchum married Clarrissa Dean, of Putnam Co., settled first in Benton, and subsequently in Barrington, where he owned the Old Teeples place, and kept a tavern many years. His widow still resides on the homestead. Their children are Susan, Harriet, Joseph and Tyler. Susan married Joshua D. Corey. They reside on part of the Ketchum homestead, in Barrington, and have one child, Hattie. Harriet married Lewis McConnell, of Barrington, and resides on the homestead, occupying the house long used for a hotel. Joseph married Angelina DeGraw, of Barrington, and resides near Hammondsport. They have two children, Edmund and one other. Tyler married Miss Ellis, of Barrington, and emigrated to California. Sarah Ketchum died single at Prattsburg. The Ketchums were noted for patriotism in the revolutionary struggle. In August, 1775, an association was formed in Dutchess and adjoining counties, for prosecuting the war. Twenty-eight of this name signed the compact of this league, in the counties of Dutchess, Orange and Suffolk. (See Appendix to Cushman's Genealogy.)