Oxford Times, Oxford, NY, December 31, 1879
Marriages
STANTON - JACOBS: In Oxford [Chenango Co. NY] Dec.3d by Rev. R.T. Jacobs, Mr. T.G. Stanton and Miss Alice Jacobs both of Oxford.
HOLLENBECK - MACK: In Oxford [Chenango Co. NY], Dec. 24, by Rev. William R. Baldwin, Mr. Luke Hollenbeck of Greene [Chenango Co. NY] and Mrs. Emily C. mack of Guilford [Chenango Co. NY].
BURCHARD - BRUCHHAUSEN: At the residence of the bride's father, Dr. C. Bruchhausen, in Norwich [Chenango Co. NY], Dec. 23d, by Rev. L.M.S. Haynes, D.D., Mr. Fred H. Burchard of Oxford [Chenango Co. NY] and Miss Ella Bruchhausen.
A very pleasant event took place at the residence of Dr. Bruchhausen on Tuesday evening, the occasion being the marriage of Miss Mary Ellen Bruchhausen to Frederick H. Burchard of Oxford. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Dr. Haynes of the Baptist church in the presence of a number of invited guests. At the conclusion of the ceremony the happy couple left for Oxford, where a home was all prepared for the reception for the bride and where they will at once establish housekeeping. Telegraph
BECKWITH - MORSE: In McDonough [Chenango Co. NY] Dec. 10th, by Rev. A.W. Barrows, Mr. Fred D. Beckwith and Miss Ella A. Morse.
McDonough, Chenango Co. NY: Frank Norris and Miss Oresta Lewis broke the monotonous chair of celibacy on Christmas.
Deaths
DIMOCK: In Bainbridge [Chenango Co. NY] Dec. 18th, Ursula V. [Dimock] wife of Brown Dimock, aged 72 years.
DAY: In Greene [Chenango Co. NY] Dec. 20th, Hannah [Day] wife of Mr. Alexander Day, aged 70 years.
ENGLISH: In Greene [Chenango Co. NY] Dec. 18th, May Belle [English][ daughter of John English, aged 8 years.
ECCLESTON: In Norwich [Chenango Co. NY\] Dec. 24th, Margaret [Eccleston] wife of Ansel Eccleston, aged 44 years.
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McNEIL: In Oxford [Chenango Co. NY] Dec. 23d, Luman McNeil, Esq. aged 88 years.
Luman McNeil died at his late residence about two miles below Oxford on Tuesday of last week. Mr. McNeil was born at Hillsdale, Columbia Co. N.Y. on the 31st day of January 1792. His father, John McNeil, removed from Hillsdale to Oxford in February 1793, the child Luman being then little more than one year old, and first settled near Warn's pond. a few years thereafter John McNeil removed to the farm next below the Lobdell farm, where he died many years ago.\
Mr. McNeil was a blacksmith by trade, which he learned from his father. He married in the year 1810, Fitche Church, with whom he lived until about three years since, when Mrs. McNeil died, their married life extending over a period of more than sixty-five years.
In 1815 he went with his family to Coventry East Corners, now known as Coventryville [Chenango Co. NY], and there worked at his trade until 1815, when he returned to Oxford and took up his residence in the village. Here he remained for a period of nearly thirty years, until about 1843, when he retired to the farm where his long life was peacefully and quietly closed.
Not seeking any preferment, he was nevertheless occasionally the recipient of the confidence of the people to being designated by them from time to time for town offices and was in 1849, appointed to the office of Postmaster in this village and held the same until superseded by change of Administration in 1853.
The early life of Mr. McNeil was passed at a time when, but a lodging place had been made in our village and all around it was dense forests in which roamed wild beasts from which at night their roar and angry cries could be heard. Culture and early education were not in those days open to children and young men in his circumstances. The rough and tumble of the wilderness and of the sparsely populated and newly settled country, with but few inhabitants possessing little means, were all the advantages open to him. Of an ardent temperament, strong natural powers and determined will, he was well calculated for an early pioneer. Opinions once formed, he adhered to them with great tenacity. A Whig during the days of the party by that name, he started as a Republican with the life of that great party, as its warm, earnest and uncompromising supporter, and if we mistake not, never failed to vote for its nominees at any election, his last ballot being given last month, a privilege he could not forego, notwithstanding the infirmities of his advanced age and the effects of a then recent accident. In all the relations of life he was guided by correct principles and in all his actions aimed to do right. His long life was uneventful in any public point of view, but he always secured and retrained the respect and esteem of his fellow men, and died with the conviction in the mind of everyone, that a good citizen and honest man had closed his career.
Mr. McNeil was the last survivor of the earliest settlers, and residents of the town and village. All the others in their time have, one by one, gone the way of all the living, until a representative of the last century and of the struggles, privations and sufferings of the early settlers, he alone remained. His time also came to depart in the ordering of Providence and in view of his new made grave, those left behind may profitably inquire are we doing our work as well as those fathers have performed theirs? Are we discharging our duty in the sphere of life in which we are assigned, as thoroughly as did those who braved the forest, the wild beast and privation in fulfilling the duties which circumstances forced upon them? Nothing is hazarded in saying, it is no exaggeration to say that the living, the present generation may profitably study and well follow the example of many of those early pioneers, in their industry, their sincerity, their simplicity, their integrity and their devotion to duty.
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Last week we copied a notice from an Elmira daily announcing the sudden death, from heart disease, of Rev. Benjamin F. Balcom, near Corning, Steuben County, N.Y. A letter from his brother confirmed the sad intelligence and was followed in a few hours by a postal card announcing that on the next morning Rev. George Balcom, of Cawker City, Kansas, had died from hernia after a protracted illness, so that Dec. 20th and 21st, 1879, must be a day of sad memories to the relatives and friends.
Benjamin F. Balcom was born at Oxford [Chenango Co. NY] Jan. 10th, 1810, and spent his early years in this town and Greene [Chenango Co. NY], but the great pine woods of Steuben County [NY] offered strong inducements to all lumbermen, and he with his family left here to make a home in an almost unbroken section of that county, and his strong right arm and indomitable industry soon cleared the way and he lived to see beautiful homesteads taking the place of the woods which fell swiftly before the axe of the pioneers while the wolves and panthers were driven to seek safer localities out of range of unerring marksmen.
George Balcom, the youngest of nine children, was born at Oxford, in February 1823, and lived in this county most of the time until within the past fifteen years. Neither of these brothers evinced in early life any desire to enter the ministry, but both of them, entered upon the work soon after conversion. Benjamin was not a settled pastor, but widely and favorably known, was often called to attend funerals, or officiate at weddings and kindred occasions among his townsmen and carried the same earnestness and will to do good to the service of his Master. George took a wider field and traversed a great portion of the North and West in his mission as an evangelist.
Hon. Ransom Balcom, late justice of the Supreme Court, died Jan. 6th, 1879 in Binghamton [Broome Co. NY] and was brought to Oxford for interment. Mrs. Calvin Cole, sister of these three, died April 1st, 1879 in Oxford, and is buried near her brother and Benjamin is buried in Steuben County, while George sleeps the last sleep in the historic soil of Kansas where he leaves a widow and the three younger children, a son residing in New York.
Two brothers, Lyman, of Painted Post, and Uri T. of Chicago, and two sisters, Mrs. Pearsall of Owego, and Mrs. Rhodes, of Fond Du Lac, Wis., are the survivors of this family and may truthfully say:
"And we on divers shores now cast, / shall meet when life's dark storm is passed / Safe in our Father's home at last."
Chenango American, Greene, NY, June 3, 1880
Marriages
In Oxford [Chenango Co. NY] May 26th, by Rev. R.M. Duff, Mr. Frank Willcox and Miss Ella C. Balcom.
In Evanstown, Ill. May 19th, by Rev. J.M. Hatfield, Mr. John H. Hamline and Miss Josephine J. Mead, formerly of Norwich [Chenango Co. NY].
Deaths
In this town [Greene, Chenango Co. NY] May 26th, Mrs. Sarah M. [Tracy] widow of the late Capt. Tracy, aged 75 years.
In this town [Greene, Chenango Co. NY] May 30th, Mr. Samuel Williams aged 80 years.
In Norwich [Chenango Co. NY] May 24th, John [Fleming] son of John and Margaret Fleming, aged 2 years and 11 months.
In Guilford [Chenango Co. NY] May 18th, of diphtheria, Balcom A. [Bradley] only child of Henry A. and Emily L. Bradley, aged 8 years and 7 months.
In Coventry [Chenango Co. NY] at the residence of her grandson, Mr. Hamilton Ingersoll, May 12th, Mrs. Hannah Ingersoll aged 84 years.
In Smyrna [Chenango Co. NY] May 18th, Ellen [Kinyon] wife of Deloss Kinyon, aged 45 years.
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