Edna L. (Skinner) Davis
Utica Saturday Globe, March 1915
Edna L. (Skinner) Davis
1890-1915
Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]: Edna L. Skinner, wife of Linn E. Davis, who recently passed into rest at her home in North Guilford [Chenango Co., NY], was ill for only a few days with grippe when peritonitis developed and brought her young life to a close. She was only 25 years of age. Her last hours were filled with intense suffering, which she bore without a murmur though conscious until the last moment, and bade a fond farewell to the friends gathered about her bedside. Mrs. Davis was a former student in the Norwich High School and a member of the First Baptist Church in this city. She was born in Susquehanna, Pa., February 28, 1890, and came to Norwich in infancy. September 29, 1909, she married Linn E. Davis, who with two small children, a son, Jay Edson, and a daughter, Mary Virginia, are left to mourn her loss. Her father, Fremont Skinner, of Philadelphia, Pa., and her mother, Mrs. Helen Warner, of Norwich, also survive. Funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon at 1 o'clock, rev. O.L. Wilcox, of Oxford, officiating. Burial was in Mount Hope Cemetery in Norwich.
Martha Green
Chenango Semi-Weekly Telegraph, January 20, 1877
On Wednesday, the 17th inst., the funeral services of Martha Green, wife of Benjamin Green, was held at their residence on Skinner Hill [Chenango Co., NY]. The services were conducted by Mr. Gordon of this place. He selected for his text these words, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." His remarks were truly powerful and impressive, and with the solemnity of the occasion rendered them pathetically delivered and also well received. After the conclusion of the services, the coffin containing her remains was deposited in a sleigh and conveyed to the North Norwich cemetery, and there the open tomb received into its bosom the sacred trust committed to its keeping in hope of the final resurrection. Mrs. Green leaves an affectionate husband, and four children and other relatives to grieve over her sad departure. She had lived five years over her three score years and ten, and those many years of constant care and anxiety as a wife and mother, for the welfare and prosperity of her children and grandchildren had marked deep the furrows of her face and brow. She gave evidence at the last, that these wearisome months she had lived, when conflicting with incessant suffering, and burdened with weighty afflictions, she properly longed after the promised rest, and welcomed the shadows of the evening, the assaults of sickness, the inroads of old age, and the prospects of dissolution; thus she has been borne to that state we are all hastening, our days pass away swifter than a weaver's shuttle, our lives are vanishing like the unstable cloud, and our earthly possessions will soon be in other hands, for others to enjoy.
"How sad to look upon a human face,
When features death hath set his signet on,
And hourly see depart each lively grave
That made it once so sweet to look upon
To see (once red) those purple fevered lips
Essay to speak a farewell word with pain,
To see the sad eyes close in death's eclipse,
And limbs to stiffen never to move again."
G.S.T.
Nelson B. Hale
Chenango Semi-Weekly Telegraph, January 17, 1877
HALE: In this village [Norwich, Chenango Co., NY] on the morning of Tuesday, the 14th inst., Nelson B. Hale, aged seventy years.
Though this announcement was unexpected to the public at large, it was not unlooked for by the family who had so carefully watched by his bedside, and so kindly administered to his every want, as they observed from day to day the sure indications of approaching dissolution.
Mr. Hale was a native of the town of Norwich, having been born within its limits December 25th, 1806 (Christmas). His father was Israel Hale, and lived in what is known as the north-east quarter, about one mile and a half south-west of the Chenango Lake. The ruins of the old homestead yet remain, and the old barn with the figures 1808, marking the date of its erection, still stands in a tolerably good state of preservation.
In the spring of 1810 Mr. Hale, senior, with his family, moved into the village and located in a house standing where Mr. John Mitchell's house now is; subsequently he moved to a lot he purchased, south of the Cook lot, lying between that and the Spaulding House. In 1815 he bought the Buttolph farm, just above the toll gate, on the west side of the creek, where he resided until 1818, when he returned to the village, and located on the lots now owned by Nelson O. Wood and Mrs. Duryea.
Nelson had only the advantages of a common school education until about 1820, when he attended a select school then kept by Rev. Edward Andrews, a Presbyterian clergyman, then residing in this village. This with a year or two at the Oxford Academy up to about 1823, comprised his scholastic education. Leaving school he entered the county Clerk's office where he served one year under Perez Randall, for so many years Clerk of this County. This was followed by a two years clerkship with Chapman & Smith, composed of the venerable Benjamin Chapman who yet survives, and Squire Smith. Here had laid the foundation for the success which marked his business career. In 1827 he went again to Oxford, and entered the store of Ira Willcox, for many years President of the Bank of Chenango, as clerk and accountant. There he remained until the fall of 1831, when he returned to Norwich and commenced business as a Dry Goods Merchant in the corner store where T.D. Miller's drug store now is. He subsequently removed to the corner opposite (Hill's) where he successfully prosecuted the business until 1846 when by reason of ill health he was compelled to relinquish it. With rest his energies were so far recuperated as to encourage him to again enter upon business pursuits and 1851,he became a partner with D. Maydole, in the manufacture of cast steel Hammers, a business then in its infancy. He remained there for three years bending his entire energies to the assistance of Mr. Maydole in building up this business of which our village is so justly proud. Since then he has been in no active business. He never sought others political station, but when called upon to fill various positions of honor and trust in the community, he never shrank from them, but always performed the duties entrusted to him faithfully and well. Thus he was a trustee of Norwich Academy from its early date, and was subsequently elected President of the Board, and held that position during its most prosperous years, and until 1865 when he resigned.
He was one of the Stockholders and Directors of the Bank of Norwich from its organization to 1856, and of the National Bank of Norwich as re-organized under the U.S. Laws. He was for several years Vice President of that institution and upon the death of Mr. Smith, he was elected President of the Bank in January 1873, a position to which he has been repeatedly re-elected, the last time being at the late annual meeting held last week, when the tribute was unanimously bestowed.
Mr. Hale was married in 1838 to Miss Mary W. Pratt, at Owego, N.Y., with whom he has happily lived, until she now survives him. He leaves six children, three sons and three daughters, all living, and in the enjoyment of the respect of the entire community.
In his later years he has often favored the readers of the Telegraph with sketches of the early history of our village which were always readable and truthful. His clear memory and accuracy of locality, etc., abundantly fitted him for the work.
Thus we have briefly sketched the career of a man who was born among us, spent his entire business and social career in or near our village, and whose energy and perseverance has done much towards its prosperity and growth, Mr. Hale was emphatically a business man, thorough going and systematic, who was always prompt himself and expected the same virtue in all with whom he had dealings. He was honest and upright in all his transactions, and while in a business point of view he looked well to his own, his hand was always open to the needy poor, and his aid was never refused to the worthy young man struggling for advancement. After his retirement from business he kept up the same methodical regular life that had characterized his younger years, and to this habit he was no doubt indebted for the power he had to wrestle with disease and thus prolong his life until the allotted time. Fortunately his business career has been so successful as, through a bountiful competency, to relieve him from the cares which generally attach to man, and like the fully ripe corn, he was gathered to his final resting place, in the enjoyment of the confidence and esteem of all who knew him, a pattern to the rising generation for his honest integrity, his untiring perseverance, and for those virtuous qualities which never fail to carry their reward.
His family in their affliction will share the kind remembrance and warm sympathy of our entire community in their bereavement.
His funeral will be attended form his late residence on Hayes St. on Thrusday afternoon, (Jan. 18) at two o'clock.
Chenango Semi-Weekly Telegraph, January 20, 1877
The funeral of the late Nelson B. Hale, whose death we announced in our last issue, was largely attended from his residence on Thursday last. The services were impressively conducted by Rev. S. Scoville assisted by Rev. Mr. Haynes, and in obedience to the request and taste of the deceased were simple and without ostentation. Notably in attendance was the large number of business men of our village, as well as those who were the associates of the deceased in his early days. The directors of the Bank of Norwich of which he was president at the time of his death attended in a body as well as the officers of the Bank of Chenango all uniting in tokens of respect and honor to the memory of the deceased. But a very few of his early associates in business in our village survive him.
