Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Vital Records, Otsego County, NY, 1878

 Morris Chronicle, Morris, NY, June 26, 1878

Deaths

June 25:  In Morris [Otsego Co. NY], William Fleming aged 52 years.

May 25:  In Pittsfield [Otsego Co. NY], Ada [Davis] only daughter of Adelbert and Mary Davis, aged 11 months and 12 days.

Four little ones has Christ taken from these stricken parents, but safe are they within the enclosure of heaven.  May the parents thus sadly bereaved greet them in the sunny land.

"I take these little lambs says he / And fold them in my breast; / Protection they shall find in me, / In me be ever blest."

News Item

On Thursday last, Charles and Freddie Day, aged respectively thirteen and nine years, sons of James H. Day of Guilford [Chenango Co. NY], were out in a field with a rifle trying to shoot crows and squirrels.  The younger of the two was just recovering from a severe illness and was hardly able to be out.  While going through a field they were attacked by a ferocious bull and endeavored to run and thus escape the infuriated animal.  It would have been an easy matter for the older boy to escape, but Freddie was soon exhausted by his efforts which was noticed by his brother, and as he began to lag and could run no longer, Charles placed himself between the pursued and pursuer, just as the hot breath of the bull could almost be felt, and seeing that he could not turn the animal, drew his rifle and with wonderful nerve and coolness fired, killing the beast instantly and thus saving his brother. 

Oneonta Herald & Democrat, Oneonta, NY, june 21, 1878

Marriage

At Unadilla [Otsego Co. NY], June 13, by Rev. L.M. Purlington, A.W. Banker of Great Bend, Pa. and Mrs. Mary E. Butler, of Unadilla.

Deaths

In Walton [Delaware Co. NY], June 13, Clark [Launt] son of P.P. Launt, aged 18 years.

In Sidney Plains [Delaware Co. NY], June 10, Ester [Parsons] wife of Lucius Parsons, aged 25 years.

In North Harpersfield [Delaware Co. NY], June 13 Oscar Ellsworthy aged 32 years.

In Cooperstown [Otsego Co. NY], June 18th, Orra Peabody in the 79th year of his age.

News Item

Family Reunion

Tuesday, the 11th inst. was a most joyous and happy day to many of the descendants and their immediate friends of William Stevens, one of the pioneers of the town of Milford [Otsego Co. NY].  The occasion was the annual reunion of the numerous and honored living posterity of their worthy progenitor at the "old homestead" now occupied by Ezra Stevens, the younger son of the pioneer.

Prospectively the day was unpropitious, but before the sun had passed the meridian, brighter skies had dawned, and members and friends of the family had assembled to the number of one  hundred.  It was indeed a harmonious and happy reunion, one long to be remembered by all who participated.  The aged seemed to live in the golden past once more and the young listened with unwonted interest and delight to the thrilling reminiscences of their grandfather's days.

Here on the identical spot where William Stevens, the esteemed ancestor more than eight years before first set foot and braved the dangers and hardships of a wilderness home, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren join in happy greeting and in honoring the name of one that was as noble as he was brave, one in whose veins coursed "That blood of honest fame, / Which no tyranny could tame / By its charms."  Of the hardy New England stamp he was one of those to whom we owe so much for our glorious civilization.

A bountiful repast came in its order, after which the chairman, Alvin Lyon announced that the hour set apart for the intellectual feast had arrived.  Ezra Stevens than presented briefly an interesting genealogy which he had prepared of the family, dating several generations prior to the time of his father's family.  The history showed that the family had ever been marked for giving to the world men and women of sterling worth.

Of the immediate descendants of William Stevens, about one hundred and thirty are now living and are every way worthy to perpetuate the name and virtues of him whom they love to remember with veneration.

Rev. A.S. Clark spoke briefly of the lessons to be drawn from the occasion, while we admire the noble spirit of our fathers, we should pay our obligations to posterity in full.

Alvin Lyon, a son-in-law of the elder Stevens, for more than eighty years a resident of the town, spoke of his intimate acquaintance with the family for the greater part of his life.  He also related some of the stirring experiences of the early settlers.  A most interesting old man he is, apparently good for another decade or two.

The history of the Stevens family possesses a new interest just now, as we are on the eve of the one hundredth anniversary of the massacre of Wyoming. William Stevens, our hero, and the father of a numerous family, eight of whom are still living, was one of the survivors of this ill-fated hour.  Though only six years of age, he remembered to the day of his death, twenty years ago, the bloody scene there enacted.  In company with other survivors, he went to New England from whence he subsequently came to give the vigor of his manhood and the glory of his age, and better still, a noble posterity to bless the age in which we live.  

A.S. Clark, Laurens, June 17, 1878

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