My Genealogy Hound

ALONZO C. HORTON belongs to the progressive and substantial class of farmers in Hanover town. His parents were Benjamin and Ada ( Angell) Horton and he was born May 14, 1828, in the town of Hanover, Chautauqua county, He sprang from a New England ancestry of Scotch descent, where (in New England) his grandparents on both sides were born, lived and died. Benjamin Horton (father) was born in Massachusetts, town of Cheshire, and emigrated to the town of Hanover, Chautauqua county, New York, about 1819, where he settled on the farm now occupied by subject. At that time it was entirely unimproved, and all the improvements in the way of clearing, etc., which have since been made on the eighty acres then secured from the Holland Land company, has been through the hard toil and untiring industry of Benjamin Horton. He has held different town offices at the hands of the Republican party and was numbered among the regular members of the Baptist church. His marriage resulted in the birth of ten children, all born in Chautauqua county, except two born in Massachusetts. They all grew to maturity except one child who died in infancy. Benjamin Horton was a life-long farmer, a man of good practical common sense and a kindly disposition. He stood high in the respect of his neighbors.

Alonzo C. Horton’s education was limited to the common schools of his native county, and was obtained under great disadvantages, in fact, most of it in the hard school of practical experience. He had a brother who took up the study of medicine and was a prominent and successful practicing physician for many years.

Alonzo C. Horton was united in marriage with Cordelia Gage, a daughter of Sullivan Gage, a native and citizen of the State of Vermont. To them were born three children: Mary, wife of Elgin Keith of Silver Creek, New York, at present in the employ of Simeon Howes of that place; Willis B. (married to Lina Cushman, a daughter of Mason Cushman, of Hanover, Chautauqua county, New York) now living on his father’s farm, and engaged in its management; Ella, wife of Mason Shearer, now residing in Hanover town, Chautauqua county, a short distance west of Smith’s Mills.

Alonzo C. Horton occupies and was reared upon the old homestead, for which he has naturally a great attachment. He has added his efforts to those of his father in the improvement of the old farm and now possesses one of the best cultivated and improved farms in the town of Hanover. He is a modest, unassuming man, with the rare faculty of being contented with his lot in life.