Vital Records, Chenango County, NY, June 1875 (continued)

 Chenango Union, Norwich, NY, June 10, 1875

Marriages

WATSON - DAVIS:  At the residence of the bride's father in New Berlin [Chenango Co. NY], June 2d, by Rev. J.B. Robinson, Mr. Frank B. Watson of Spencer, Mass. to Miss Emma Davis.

SMITH - GAGER:  In Unadilla [Otsego Co. NY], May 30, by Rev. H. Halsted, Mr. W.A Smith of Unadilla to Miss O.O. Gager of Guilford [Chenango Co. NY].

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Silver Wedding:  The many friends of Mr. and Mrs. Orville Benedict met at their residence in Plymouth [Chenango Co. NY] June 5th, 1875, to celebrate the anniversary of their twenty-fifth wedding day.  Some one hundred and twenty-five guests assembled, and spent the day very pleasantly, the younger portion at various games of croquet, while the older members renewed their acquaintance with friends long severed, some of whom had not met for years.

The generous donors manifested their appreciation of the occasion, by valuable tokens of their regard, in the form of rich and beautiful articles of silverware for various uses, with suitable engravings and devices, valued at over $100.  the guests were served with oysters, fresh from Fair Haven, ice cream, and other luxuries which please the fancy, or pamper the taste.  The interest of the occasion was augmented by excellent vocal music rendered by the Dickerson Family, assisted by Miss M. Amelia Church, organist of the M.E. Church, Norwich, and other vocalists.  Altogether, the occasion was a very interesting one.

The host and hostess hereby tender their most grateful acknowledgements and thanks to the generous donors, for the many valuable tokens of their regard and esteem, and with joy anticipate the day when they may reciprocate the favor, meanwhile, wishing them long life and success, with the enjoyment of many occasions like the present.

"Printers remembered:" In this pleasant occasion, a large loaf of delicious cake having found its way to our sanctum, for which the thanks of "all hands" are hereby tendered - Editor.

Deaths

GALVIN:  In this town [Norwich, Chenango Co. NY], June 2d, Margaret [Galvin], wife of John Galvin, aged 38 years.  

SMITH:  In this village [Norwich, Chenango Co. NY], June 3d, Horatio W. [Smith], son of William and Margaret Smith, aged 7 months 3 days.

WESTERGREN:  In this village [Norwich, Chenango Co. NY], June 3d, Christine [Westergren], wife of Charles Westergren, aged 20 years.

CUMMINGS:  In this town [Norwich, Chenango Co. NY], June 4th, of diphtheria, Cora E. [Cummings] daughter of Stephen Cummings, aged 7 years.

GIBSON:  In this village [Norwich, Chenango Co. NY], June 6th?, of whooping cough, Maitland H [Gibson] son of Stephen and Harriet N. Gibson, aged 7 months and 6 days.

HITCHCOCK:  In Pitcher [Chenango Co. NY], June 1st, Mr. Norman P. Hitchcock, aged about 65 years.

SHAW:  In Oxford [Chenango Co. NY], June 3d, Elizabeth [Shaw] wife of Philander Shaw, aged 27 years.

WEEKS:  In Church Hollow, May 26th, Samuel Weeks, aged 16 years and 3 months.

LYON:  In Windsor, Fayette Co., Iowa, March 9th, Mr. John Lyon, aged 75 years, formerly of Smyrna [Chenango Co. NY] and brother of the late Reuben Lyon, formerly of this village [Norwich, Chenango Co. NY].

ROGERS:  In Nile, Allegany Co. [NY], April 27th, Mary Ann Eliza [Rogers] wife of Jessie D. Rogers, aged 41 years, formerly of Oxford [Chenango Co. NY].

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WHEELER:  In Guilford [Chenango Co. NY], June 4th, Mr. Thomas J. Wheeler, aged 71 years.

Guilford [Chenango Co. NY]:  Our citizens are called to mourn once more the departure of another of its old and highly esteemed residents.  Thomas J. Wheeler, for many years an inhabitant of our town, and for a considerable length of time a resident of our village, died on the afternoon of the 4th inst., after a short illness, of measles, at the age of 71.  The announcement of his death comes so sudden that we can hardly realize its truth.  But a few days since we saw him about his usual business.  He was, we believe, a native of the town of Oxford, his father being the late Henry Wheeler, who, in the days of our Turnpike, used to keep a country inn between our village and Oxford, and one of a large family of sons, endowed by nature with what is scarce now-a-days, strong, enduring constitution.  Couple with this natural blessing, he possessed in a marked degree that judgment of the "old school" order which rendered him a reliable, worthy member of society.  In his death our community have sustained a loss that cannot be repaired.  Mr. Wheeler was for many years a farmer, just south of our place, but for some years past he has rented his farm and resided in our village.  He leaves a widow, now in feeble health, by a second marriage, but no children.  The number of this class of men who have departed from us in a little over a year has been large indeed.  With the names of the lamented Clark, Bunnell, Root, Jewell, Cady, Smith, Haynes and Wheeler - all old and respected residents of our village - the roll is so thinned that but few remain.

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BERRY:  Suddenly, in Pharsalia [Chenango Co. NY], June 5th, Mr. Richard Wayne Berry, aged 67 years and 8 months.

An intimate personal friend of the deceased furnishes us with the following particulars of the tragic death of Richard Wayne Berry, of Pharsalia, which occurred on Saturday afternoon last, and was caused by his being crushed under a load of timber, upon which he was riding, and which was overturned upon him while he was turning from the highway into his grounds, near his residence:

On Saturday, the 5th of June, 1875, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Richard Wayne Berry of Pharsalia was instantly crushed to death by the upsetting of a load of timber piled upon his wagon, upon which he was riding, the whole load - bound fast to the wagon - rolling over onto his chest and vitals.  He had been drawing timber form Grant's mills and this was the last load.  His grandchildren - a daughter about six, and a son about four - had been watching for him, and as he came in sight came running out to meet him for a ride.  As the little girl had got down to the road, and was running towards him, she saw her grandfather standing upon the load, and the horses were turning off into the ditch.  She called to him, and whether his attention being directed to the neglect of his team, and then turning too short, bringing the hind wheel outside of a stone bridge, this causing the accident, or the abruptness of the ground from the road to the ditch was so great as to upset him, cannot be known.  Sure it is, the little girl saw the load as it began to tip, and ran to the house and gave the alarm, and when his daughters and visiting friends came where he was - which is but a few steps - they found the wagon completely turned upside down and Mr. Berry under it, except part of one shoulder and his face, which was partly turned aside.  The probabilities are, as the load was going over, Mr. Berry jumped - being almost as lithe and active as a boy - and partly fell or was knocked over, and the load rolled onto him.  The team was standing quietly by, still fastened to the wagon, and as soon as help could be procured were used to roll the load off from him.

Mr. Berry was born in Stonington, Conn., in the year 1807, where he passed some fourteen years, much in the society of the then -?- and rough sea captains.  He came with his parents and settled in Pharsalia, on what is known as the Gray farm, one half mile east of Grant's. Here he remained about four years, with surroundings well calculated to develop self-reliance and great persistency of will, and to beget in him a love of individual excellence.  Then he moved to Oxford and stopped on the Burgett farm, near the village, with his parents, for some five years.  In this time young Berry became a marked scholar in the Oxford Academy, earning the confidence and respect of his teachers and contemporaries - among others of Ex. Gov. Seymour, Ward Hunt and the late lamented Henry R. Mygatt - which he held to the last.  At length, rejecting many apparently more inviting locations, he settled down in the spring of 1836 upon the farm where he lived and died, then almost a wilderness, and called cold, hard and stony, for that section.  With the energy of a true man, and one determined to make his mark in the world, he closed into the performance of labors almost Herculean.  In 1836 he married Lucy, the third daughter of Dea. Luther Osgood of Preston.  In the short space of twelve years, with incessant toil and well directed industry, Mr. Berry had not only changed the entire face of his farm, making much of it smooth and productive, and erecting upon it fine buildings with his spacious dwelling, but had made himself a reputation of producing the best cheese manufactured in this part of the State. About this time his wife died, leaving seven small children, two of them twins a few days old.  The new and delicate duties devolving upon him as sole head of the family were readily met and discharged by him, with a tenderness and affection showing a large humanity and a high sense of parental duties.  In the meantime, the labors upon his farm were in no way abated and incessant toil under his strong will seemed to change his muscles of iron to steel.  Large square fields were plowed and worked over and manured, and cleared from stones from time to time, and these stones put into outside and division, straight, substantial walls, until an hundred broad acres show smother and fairer than a like quantity in one body in any part of the Chenango Valley. Additions and improvements were continued until Mr. Berry came to have probably the best ordered and cultivated farm in Chenango County.

He was of the Andrew Jackson and Silas Wright type in politics and a thorough scholar of Thomas Jefferson; was twice elected Supervisor of the town, served six years as Superintendent of the Poor of the county, and by the Board of Supervisors unanimously made Building Committee of the present County House and buildings; justly meeting and receiving the unbounded confidence of his constituents and of all good men in the County.  And withal, Mr. Berry was a great reader of the most solid literature, especially in his later years, reading many of the works of Plato, Timmes, &c., some of which he read over many times, especially Plato's Phaedon on the immortality of the soul. Amidst all his labors he was ever ready to give a glad hour in gusto to a friend.  He was always cheerful and happy, kind and benevolent, and in all things truthful, straight, and an out and out man.  As a reward for this industry, and clear and manly living, he has not only secured a large and much admired property but has earned the name which will live in honor and respect in after time, showing for the thousandth time that honesty, self-denial, well directed industry and perseverance, make the truly great man, in whatever calling or vocation he may be cast. notwithstanding the varied assortment of our lots by fortune.

Mr. Berry leaves two sons and two daughters him surviving:  Dwight W., a large and successful butter and cheese manufacturer in Orange County; Silas, at home on the old place, and now one of the County Superintendents of the Poor; Lucy O., wife of George D. Brown, of Norwich; and Delet, living at home with her brother, Luther O., the twin of Lucy, who attained to the age of twenty-five, and was a young man of superior promise, in whom the father's heart was much centered, fell a victim to the small pox at Buffalo, where he was engaged in a successful business, promising great usefulness in life.  Mr. Berry also leaves two fine grandchildren of Ariette, his eldest daughter, deceased, wife of Charles W. Scott, Esq., of Norwich.

On Tuesday, the 8th inst., his funeral was attended by a larger concourse of people than often assemble for like purpose in the country upwards of two hundred and fifty carriages from all parts of the town and adjoining towns and of the villages in the valley, Rev. R. Scoville officiating, to pay the last honors to the hero in the battle of life, who has laid off the harness so tragically and so triumphantly.  His remains were deposited int he Norwich Cemetery, by the side of those of his wife and children who had gone before him.  H.P.