Misc. Biographies

for the Town of Wilmurt

Jesse E. Jones

Jesse Jones, brother-in-law to Harry S. Long below (mentioned in his biography below) worked for a time with my great-grandfather, John M. Richard, who owned and operated a sawmill in Wilmurt on Four Mile Creek along side of West Canada Creek. He is living with the family in the 1892 NYS and 1900 Federal census and to have later purchased the home from my great-grandfather. The biography of Harry S. Long given herein, mentions Jesse and some of his ancestors. I would enjoy hearing from anyone with further knowledge of Jesse Jones - Lisa K. Slaski, Town of Wilmurt, editor

HARRY S. LONG

Harry S. Long now owns and cultivates one hundred and ninety-six acres of the old Long homestead, which has never been out of possession of the family since it was entered as a claim from the government. His birth occurred on section 20, Big Rock township, August 22, 1863. His father, Edward R. Long, was a native of Greenfield, Massachusetts, born in September, 1827. When in his thirteenth year he came to Kane county, Illinois, in June, 1840, with his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Silas Long. The father purchased the farm of one hundred and ninety-six acres from the government, paying the usual price of a dollars and a quarter per acre. The property has since been known as the Long homestead, and its many substantial improvements are monuments to the enterprise and labors of those who have owned and cultivated the place. Silas Long was the first to break the sod and till the soil and continued to reside upon the farm until his death, which occurred about 1855. In the meantime he had extended the boundaries of his property until it comprised three hundred acres, and at his death this was divided between his two sons, Lewis and Edward Long. The latter always remained upon the old homestead, there carrying on general agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred May 17, 1895. In early manhood he wedded Emma Dale, a native of England and a daughter of Thomas and Ann Dale. Mr. And Mrs. Edward Long became the parents of four children: Fred E., who was born March 24, 1858, and lives in Big Rock, Big Rock township; Carrie A., who was born May 4, 1860, and is the wife of William Price, of the same township; Harry S., of this review; and Minnie E., who was born April 15, 1869, and is living in Big Rock township. The father died May 17, 1895, and the mother’s death occurred on January 21, 1905.

Harry Long, spending his boyhood as do most farm lads, worked in the fields, enjoyed the pleasures of the playground and performed the duties of the schoolroom. At the age of eighteen years he permanently put aside his text-books and then engaged in assisting his father upon the home farm until twenty-six years of age, when he rented the place and cultivated it on his own account for fourteen years.

On the 17th of November, 1897, Harry S. Long was married to Miss Abbie Jones, a native of Oneida county, New York, born June 16, 1871. Her parents were Richard and Winifred (Davis) Jones, the former a native of New York and the latter of North Wales. Their family numbered the following named: George W., living in Frankfort, New York; Jennie J., the wife of David T. Evans, a farmer of Big Rock township; Robert R., living in Chicago; Jesse E., whose home is at Wilmurt, New York; Oscar W., of Prospect, New York; and Mrs. Long. The mother of these children died when Mrs. Long was eight years of age, and the father is still living at Prospect, New York. In early life he learned the carpenter’s trade and for many years was identified with building interests but is now living retired.

The home of Mr. And Mrs. Long has been blessed with two children, Edward Russell, born November 18, 1900, and Winifred, October 2, 1904. The family residence is the old homestead farm and throughout his entire life Mr. Long has carried on general agricultural pursuits, meeting with good success in his undertakings. In the midst of his land stands a comfortable residence and many other substantial buildings. In 1906 he built a barn forty-two by seventy feet with twenty-four foot posts and having a capacity of one hundred and forty tons of hay. It also gives shelter to fourteen horses and twenty cows. There is a concrete floor and every convenient arrangement and equipment. The barn is unsurpassed in Big Rock township. While Mr. Long is leading a busy and useful life in the management and conduct of his farming interests, and is meeting with success in his undertakings, he has also been somewhat active in community affairs and for eleven years has served as constable. He holds membership with the Knights & Ladies of Security at Hinkley. His entire life has been spent in this county on the farm where he yet resides and thus for forty-five years he has been a witness of the events which have transpired and the changes which have occurred. As time passes he has kept abreast with the progress made by the representatives of agricultural life and is today numbered among the leading farmers of Big Rock township.

From this biography, census and other online records, I have pieced together the following information:

1. Jesse Jones, b. Feb 1867, son of Richard and Winifred (Davis) Jones of Oneida county in 1908. Winifred was a native of North Wales and Richard was a native of NY. Jesse is listed as a teamster in the 1900 census and owned a dairy farm in the town of Wilmurt in the 1910 and 1920 census. He was married about 1897 to Sarah E. (surname unknown). In 1900 he is a boarder in the home of John M. Richards in Wilmurt, married but no wife or child living there with him.

They had the following children:

1.1. Wayland Richard Jones, b. 23 Feb 1898, d. 19 Oct 1961. He was a farmer in 1930 in the town of Ohio and presumably owned the family dairy farm which Jesse owned in 1920. His draft registration for WWI provides his birth date and middle name and the social security death index provides his death date.

1.2. Arthur J. Jones, b. abt 1903. He was a farmer in 1930 and as he was living with both brothers, it's assumed that he worked on the family farm.

1.3. Jay C. Jones, b. 2 Jun 1907, d. Jan 1980. He last resided in/near Cold Brook, NY. He was a school teacher in 1930 and was living with both of his brothers in the town of Ohio.

updated 1/14/06 Dr. William Seward Webb

Note: The town of Webb is named after this man.

Source: Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, Vol. XXV, Quarterly Journal Vol. VIII, 1927.

Dr. William Seward Webb, retired railroad builder and capitalist, died at his home in Shelburne, Vt., on October 29, 1926. He had been in ill health for some time but his condition was not considered serious until a few days before his death when he suffered an attack of heart trouble.

Dr. Webb came of an old and distinguished family, the earliest American member of which, Richard Webb, came to Boston from Gloucestershire, England, in 1632. His grandfather, Samuel B. Webb, fought at Bunker Hill, was private secretary and aide-de-camp to Washington, and later a Brigadier General of Infantry. His father, General James Watson Webb, was also a distinguished soldier before he became editor of the New York Courier and Enquirer. His mother was Laura Virginia, daughter of Jacob L. Cram, a leading New York merchant before the Civil War.

Dr. W. Seward Webb was born in New York City, January 31, 1851. He received his preliminary education at Churchill's Military School at Sing Sing, which has numbered among its graduates many prominent New Yorkers. He spent two years at Colmumbia and then from 1871 to 1872 he studied medicine in Vienna, Paris and Berlin. Returning to America, he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons (Columbia) and graduated from there in 1875.

For several years he practiced medicine, and then forsook the profession permanently for finance. He established the Wall Street firm of W. S. Webb & Co., and in 1883 he became President of the Wagner Palace Car Company, an office that he held for some years until the merger of the business with the Pullman Company. Dr. Webb was President of the Fulton Chain Railway Company, Fulton Navigation Company, Raquette Lake Transportation Company; a director of the Pullman Company, Rutland Railway Company, St. Lawrence & Adirondack Railway Company, and other corporations. He was the builder and former President of the Mohawk and Malone Railway, and long held a place on the board of the L. S. & M. S. Railway.

The Webb property at Shelburne on Lake Champlain comprises one of the finest country estates in America. Here he organized a famous breeding establishment for hackneys. He made a thorough study of this type of horse, and imported stallions and mares from England which for years captured blue ribbons at Madison Square Garden. Another magnificent country estate developed by Dr. Webb was the game preserve in the Adirondacks that he formed from a tract of 200,000 acres.

D. Webb served on the staff of the Governor of Vermont with the rank of Colonel. In 1891 he was Inspector General of rifle practice of the Vermont militia. He served a term in the Vermont Legislature in the nineties. He was a founder and former President of the national organization of the Sons of the American Revolution, a member of the Metropolitan, University, Riding, Church, New York Yacht, and Turf and Field Clubs.

In 1883 he married Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt, daughter of William H. Vanderbilt, and for thirty years they lived at 680 Fifth Avenue, New York. This house, a wedding gift from M. Vanderbilt to his daughter, was sold in 1913 to John D. Rockefeller and the Webbs were one of the first owners of an old Fifth Avenue mansion to move into a Park Avenue apartment.

Dr. Webb is survived by his wife, three sons - J. Watson, Seward, and Vanderbilt - and one daughter, Mrs. C. H. Jones.

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