My Genealogy Hound

ALFRED PALMER, is a son of Solomon and Hannah (Williams) Palmer, and was born October 17, 1809, in the town of Davenport, Delaware county, New York. His grandfather was Solomon Palmer, Sr., a native of Litchfield, Conn., where he conducted a wagon-shop, married and reared six children, and died. Thomas Williams was the maternal grandfather, also a native of Connecticut. He was one of those “Yankees” who went to the Wyoming Valley and settled on its fertile lands, prior to the Revolutionary war. Being a mill-wright by trade, he built a mill, the site of which is now occupied by another. It too is over eighty years old and is fast going into decay. He married and had four children, one of whom, Thomas, was a lieutenant in the little band that went forth to meet Butler and his Indians, above Forty Fort, and were slain on July 3, 1778, less than a score escaping. Thomas Williams, Sr., although not in the battle, was slain in the horrible massacre that followed the fight and which has come down in history to be known as the Wyoming Massacre. Mrs. Williams and her three small children became much alarmed some days before the fight and started over the mountains from Wilkes Barre to go to her former home in Connecticut, a distance of three hundred miles. She escaped the vigilant eyes of the Indian scouts and after terrible hardships, lasting several weeks, she reached her destination in safety.

Solomon Palmer (father) was born in Litchfield about 1775, and died in Delaware county, New York, in 1817, having married Hannah Williams, one of the children who made the perilous trip mentioned above, in 1796. He kept a hotel in Delaware county, and during the war of 1812 he was in the recruiting service of the American government. He was a federalist and a member of the Methodist church. The fruit of his union was five sons and three daughters.

Alfred Palmer was left an orphan when but nine years of age, and as he was obliged to provide his own sustenance, opportunities for an education were not plentiful, but he managed to secure a practical business knowledge with no other tutor or instructor than experience. He came to the town of Ripley when sixteen years of age, and worked as a day and monthly laborer for three years and then engaged in carrying the mail between Westfield and North East, Pa. Following this he went to Oswego county, this State, and engaged in lumbering. Returning to Ripley he bought a tract of land and cleared up three farms. He then went into the fanning-inill business as an agent which he continued six years. Succeeding this he was a constable and deputy sheriff under Sheriff Muzzey. He then began his most extensive business operations in lumbering, owning several saw-mills up to 1857, when he entered mercantile life at Ripley. Mr. Palmer erected a fine large store building, which he occupied until 1885, when, having reached seventy-six years of age, he retired from active business and has since lived in retirement.

On July 26, 1829, he married for his first wife Sophia Osborne, a daughter of Philip Osborne, of Oswego county, and had eight children: Permelia, born in Granby, N. Y., October 6, 1830, died young; Cornelia, born May 9, 1832, married Benjamin Christy, who was a farmer in the town of Ripley; Sylvester, born April 20, 1834, died when three years old; Lorenzo, born February 9, 1836, died young; Alfred D., born June 27, 1837, is a boot and shoe dealer at Sharpsville, Pa.; Frank L., born April 9, 1840, died an infant; Sophia, born September 3, 1842, married John W. Morris, a merchant in Ripley; Chloe, born July 26, 1844, died September 9, 1889, was the wife of A. B. Lacey, of New Wilmington, Pa., and Asa, born February 11, 1847, died in 1863. Mrs. Palmer died March 25, 1848, and Mr. Palmer married for his second wife Mrs. Catherine Rogers (nee Christy), who was born in July, 1813, and who died on May 25, 1870. He married for his third wife, in 1871, Adaline Siggins, a daughter of John Siggins of Ripley, N. Y., who was born July 10, 1830, and died on July 19, 1884. He then married Mrs. Betsey M. (Smallwood) Skiff, a daughter of William Smallwood, one of the first settlers of Wyoming county, with whom he is now living.

Politically Mr. Palmer is a republican and was the first avowed abolitionist in the town of Ripley. Mr. Palmer is a strictly temperate man and with his wife is a member of the Methodist church, having for over fifty years been the steward and at times trustee, and lay delegate to the annual conference.