My Genealogy Hound

HARVEY BEMIS is a son of Stephen and Clarissa (Huntley) Bemis, and was born at Moscow, Livingston county, New York, September 15, 1814. Stephen Bemis was a native of Connecticut. From there he moved to Livingston county, thence to Genesee county, N. Y., and in February, 1825, he came to Chautauqua county and located in the town of Clymer, and engaged in farming until his death, which occurred in December, 1847, after he had passed the age of seventy-four years. Mrs. Bemis was a native of Vermont, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and died in 1859. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bemis were of English descent, and they reared a family of eight children, seven sons and one daughter.

Harvey Bemis was a boy of eleven years when his father came to this county. He was reared on the farm and educated in the public schools, which were equal to any of the country schools of that day. Farming has been his life-long occupation, and today he owns seventy-two acres of very fine land lying on the Nettle Hill road, two miles east of Westfield. Grape culture receives a portion of his attention, and in the spring of the year, for sixty-five years past, he says, he has helped to make maple-sugar and syrup.

On May 8, 1837, he married Melissa Ann, a daughter of Nathaniel Dowley, who lived in Greenfield, Pa. By her he has three children, one son and two daughters: Emma, wife of Perry Saunders, who lives in Wisconsin; Mary is the wife of Charles E. Flitner, who lives in St. Paul; and Alton is an attorney-at-law in Cleveland, Ohio.

Harvey Bemis is a venerable and respected old gentleman, who has the esteem of his neighbors and acquaintances.