Cherry Valley Gazette, Cherry Valley, February 5, 1822
Marriage
In this village [Cherry Valley, Otsego Co. NY] on the evening of the 30th Jan. by the Rev. Stephen W. Burritt, Mr. Dwight R. Waldo of Sharon [Schoharie Co. NY], to Miss Abby Mather daughter of Mr. Stephen Mather, of this village.
Cherry Valley Gazette, Cherry Valley, February 19, 1822
Deaths
In Middlefield [Otsego Co. NY] on the 11th inst. Mr. James Thomas Hutchinson aged 24 years and son of Mr. John Hutchinson.
The deceased had been for some time a professor of the Christian religion and during a painful and protracted illness of a year, he evinced a calm resignation to the will of his Divine Master, and in his death, it was apparent that to the Christian, the king of terrors is terrorless.
At his residence in Cazenovia [Madison Co. NY] on the 9th inst. Col. John Lincklaen in the 54th year of his age. His remains were interred on the 13th in the most respectful manner and were attended by a concourse of citizens which in point of numbers and respectability we do not recollect to have seen exceeded upon any similar occasion in the country. The virtues of the deceased will long be remembered and respected by the inhabitants of this place and its vicinity who seemed anxious to embrace an opportunity of evincing their esteem upon this last and solemn occasion. Cazenovia Pilot.
Bainbridge Republican, Bainbridge, NY, April 24, 1879
Death
PERKINS: In Bainbridge [Chenango Co. NY] April 19, 1879, Mrs. Lucretia Perkins age 62 years.
Mrs. Lucretia Perkins was a sister of Mrs. A.B. Smith of this village [Bainbridge] and has been an invalid and great sufferer for a number of years. She was formerly of Fort Huron, Mich and came to this place after her husband's death about two years and a half ago, and made her home with her sister, where she died on Sunday last.
CLIZBE: In Athens, Pa. March 14, 1879, Samuel C. [Clizbe] oldest son of S.C. and Charlotte Clizbe, aged 23 years. The following beautiful verses were written by the decease but a few days before his death:
Reverie
The snow is drifting around our dwelling, and within the wind is swelling; / And the sound seems like the knelling of a dreary passing bell; / Suffering and low in spirit, I lift my voice, that God may hear it, / And reward me as I merit, and as seemeth to Him well.
In from every crack and cranny the wind mourns with its sad soprano, / Any my comforts are not many in which every way I look. / And from out the dim recesses of my heart there ever presses, / Longing that perhaps transgresses precepts of the Holy Book.
And thus, as I sadly ponder, I cannot help but wonder / Why the rich man over yonder sings as he gaily rides by; / On his face there rests contentment, yet his ways are unrepentant. / Yet no stroke of thy resentment falls on him, on Most High!
All my days I've tread the thorny paths that form the Christian's journey, / And there ne'er escaped a murmur from my uncomplaining lips; / Yet to sinners and the scoffers thou dost all thy richness proffer, / And they gaze upon their coffers and their cups of pleasure sip.
And lamentations ever press the great throne of the giver, / All whose dispensations savor of a mystery born of love, / Though I cannot understand them, through my faith I can defend them, / Knowing well that He who sends them reigheth justly from above!
News Item
Our Businessmen, Sidney Plains, Delaware Co. NY
Mr. Horace G. Phelps, Esq.
It would perhaps be a difficult task to present the name of a person more entitled to the respect of this community for his just and honorable dealings as a businessman and a worthy citizen, than the one whose name stands at the head of this article. He was the son of Burr Phelps, Esq. and was born in Dutchess County, this state [NY], Nov. 3d, 1834, and belonged to a family of 11 children all of whom are now living and are now settled down in life with families of their own. And it is perhaps a circumstance, without scarcely an example in the history of families, that so many children should arrive at such advanced ages (the youngest being 36 years old and the oldest 60) without the circle ever being broken by death.
Horace G., was only one year old when his father moved to Guilford, Chenango County, N.Y., where he remained some twelve years, then changed his residence to a farm in what is known as Spencer Street. And it was here that Horace commenced working out by the month, summers, receiving $6 per month wages and going to district school winters; and he continued working out more or less until he was able to command $15 per month, which was regarded at that date as a superior remuneration for the services of farm hands. At the age of 22 years, he commenced farming for himself by hiring the Charles Parsons farm in Bainbridge, near the junction of the Unadilla river, and also what was known as the Myers farm in the town of Unadilla [Otsego Co. NY], which he leased for three years, and after one year's experiment in which his farming proved remunerative, he enlarged his business by hiring in addition the Hughston farm containing 400 acres and from that time continued to extend his interest by leasing more or less outside lands for pasture.
It was about this time that he commenced the system of stock farming, which has since proved so successful and placed him at the head of the cattle and stock trade of this section of the country. His first mode of stock farming commenced in buying sheep in the spring, and summer them over after shearing, and selling both sheep and lambs in the fall. He also cut considerable hay and raised more or less grain, which he used to sell at what was considered fair prices in those times, as for instance oats sold for from 35 to 50 cents and corn from 75 to $1.00 per bushel. He, of course, availed himself of he opportunity of taking advantage of the market, by threshing oats early if scarce or holding them over if cheap and plenty.
In 1857, he purchased the farm which he now occupies, and formed a co-partnership with A.W. & R.N. Mills for the purpose of driving stock to New York. They commenced business in 1858, R.N. Mills and himself doing the buying and A.W. Mills the droving and marketing which usually took about two weeks for each drove, as they were driven to Catskill on foot. Their stock for the first few seasons was mostly sheep and lambs, and they used to keep a drove on the road all the time during the droying season and generally sent from 600 to 800 at a time and handled on an average about 5000 a year. They sometimes sent through a drove of cattle, but mostly their stock consisted of sheep.
Mr. Phelps commenced buying wool for a firm when he was but 23 years of age and continued purchasing for the same parties for a number of years, which gave him a good knowledge of the value and quality of wool and aided him in selling his own which often amounted to the clippings of 500 sheep. He has also bought of late years for himself and is now carrying over some 10,000 pounds bought last year, and from which he expects to suffer quite a loss. During war times and through the building of the Albany & Susquehanna and Midland railroads he not only handled cattle but bought and sold real estate quite extensively and now owns about six hundred acres.
His trade in stock the last few years has been mostly cattle, usually keeping 100 or more milk cows and summering about the same in stock cattle. He frequently buys cattle through the year, handling from 500 to 1,000 head. He furnishes customers in Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and other markets, but always selling at home, whenever a good opportunity is offered, and seldom misses selling to a customer the second time. He often sells at home from 50 to 100 head in lots to single customers.
He has also lumbered more and less, making business for men and teams during winter and usually keeping lumber on hand for sale the year through and now has some 50,000 feet now waiting market. He has also done a considerable building, having not only built all the buildings on his present homestead but has built two good sets of buildings in Sidney [Delaware Co. NY] one of which he traded off for a farm West, upon which he now runs a cheese dairy of 25 cows. He also handles more or less grain from the west, through a store and often by car lots and is now engaged in a provision store in Carbondale, Pa., under the firm name of Phelps & Brunson where they have had quite and extensive trade the past winter, selling some 300 barrels of flour per month and about 3,000 pounds of feed and meal per day, besides port, butter, lard, cheese, eggs, baled hay, &c. They also deal in hides and pelts.
Mr. Phelps has usually a partner in many of his business transactions and with one or two exceptions has ever been successful in the choice of good men of the right qualifications for that branch of business to which they were assigned. He sometimes handles a few horses in company with Mr. Oliver Fleming of Unadilla. but in all his business relations with men he has never had but one law suit, believing that lawyers as a general rule are comparatively a useless class to the community.
Mr. Phelps is now only in the 45th year of his age and still from the constant exertion of keeping business moving, stopping not for storms or sunshine, heat or cold, or even many times not resting for the night, he begins to feel that depression of physical energies peculiar to an overtaxed constitution. In February, 1861, he was married to Miss Isabella Talcott daughter of Adney Talcott Esq. of East Guilford, Chenango County, by whom he had one child, a daughter, which only lived to be about three years old. And the death of this child proved the greatest sorrow ever laid upon him. Mr. Phelps previous to his marriage, hired himself and help boarded. His father and mother died several years ago. In his social relations he is honored and respected, while his heart beams with kindness towards all who feel disposed to do right. He is also free and charitable to the unfortunate and has strong attachment for friends. While in his religious views he is a "liberal," believing in the "normal and abnormal" conditions of men, holding that man should be held strictly accountable to man for all his acts of injustice and wrong to fellowman. And no one could be more greatly missed from this community for his noble and generous acts, his moral and exemplary business life, than the one who forms the subject of this sketch.
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