My Genealogy Hound

JAMES H. WARD is a veteran school-teacher, who, in his later years, has turned his energies in an entirely different channel and looks after the personal belongings of thousands of travelers each year. He was born in Rupert, Bennington county, Vermont, August 4th, 1821, and is a son of Reuben and Azubah (Taylor) Ward. His grandfather, Humphrey Ward, was a native of Connecticut and a farmer by occupation. He married a Miss Grise and had four children, two sons and two daughters. He died in Washington county, this State. The maternal grandfather of J. H. Ward was Jonathan Taylor, who died in Rutland county, Vermont. Reuben Ward, (father) was born in Washington county, this State, in 1792.

He served as a substitute in the war of 1812 and participated in the battle of Plattsburg, September 11, 1814. In 1826 he came to Cattaraugus county this State, and took up a farm in the wilderness in the town of Perrysburgh, being one of the earliest settlers there, cleared it and lived on it the remainder of his life. One of his sons now lives upon that farm. In politics he was a democrat and held the office of justice of the peace for twelve consecutive years in Perrysburgh. He married Azubah Taylor in 1818 and had ten children — seven sons and three daughters, one son and two daughters dying young, the others reaching maturity.

James H. Ward was educated in the academy at Springville, Erie county, New York, and at Fredonia, this county, and then taught school about twenty years in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties, being a very successful and enthusiastic teacher. Locating in Versailles, Cattaraugus county, after his experience as an educator, he devoted about six years to the manufacture of shoes and then came to this county and engaged in the railroad and express business, first at Brocton, where he had charge of freight and baggage at the B. P. & W. depot, and then at Mayville, where he was appointed express agent. When the Chautauqua Association was organized in 1875 he was appointed general baggage-master, which position he held seven years. In politics he was a democrat up to the administration of Martin Van Buren in 1837, when he became a free-soiler and in 1856 a republican. He has held the office of justice of the peace continuously since 1877. In religion he, as well as his wife, is a member of the Methodist church. He is Worthy Master of Peacock Lodge, 696 F. & A. M., named in honor of Judge William Peacock, and secretary of Westfield Chapter, No. 239, R. A. M., in which he has occupied many of the chairs.

James H. Ward was married September 29, 1847, to Harriet Blaisdell, a daughter of Rev. William Blaisdell, a minister in the Christian church, who went to Iowa, enlisted in what was known as the “Gray Beard Regiment” and entered the civil war, where he died. By this union there have been born three sons: William T., who married Ellen Fuller and is a farmer in Kansas, has two sons — Samuel and Jonathan; Reuben F., who married Mary Wing, had four children — Lillian M., James H., Hattie M., and Nellie who died young and was killed by lightning in Kansas at the age of twenty-six years; George F., married to Hattie Healey, a traveling salesman for a factory supply company and lives in Jamestown.