My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE B. DOUGLASS, a descendant of the Scotch family of Douglass, who were among the earliest settlers of Chautauqua county, is a son of Arnold and Nancy (Baldwin) Douglass, and was born on the farm on which he now resides, in the town of Dunkirk, Chautauqua county, New York, January 14, 1833. His grandfather, Richard Douglass, the pioneer, was a native of Connecticut and removed with his family, in 1806, to Chautauqua county, this State. He purchased a large tract of land, to which he added from time to time, until he owned 750 acres of the finest farming land in the county. He was a Free Mason, a member of the Baptist church, and died in 1845. His son, Arnold Douglass (father), was born in Connecticut, December 14, 1802, and accompanied his parents to Chautauqua county in 1806. He was a successful farmer, a supporter of the Democratic party, and died July 6, 1838, when in the thirty-sixth year of his age. He married Nancy Baldwin, daughter of Samuel Baldwin, of Pawlet, Vermont. They had three children: George B., Sarah, wife of Russell Jones, of Dunkirk; and Betsy, who died at the age of five years.

George B. Douglass was reared on his father’s farm, attended the subscription schools of Chautauqua county, and learned the trade of carpenter. In 1856, he went to Illinois and entered the employ of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, in the capacity of delivery clerk. He remained with them some time and then engaged in farming and afterwards in carpentering, until 1861, when he returned to Dunkirk, where he bought a productive farm of sixty-five acres (the old homestead), on which he has since resided, and has erected a good house, barn, and other necessary out-buildings. He has also a vineyard of four acres.

In 1850 he married Aurelia E. Blakely, daughter of David Blakely, of Springville, Erie county, New York; she was the twelfth child of fifteen children. They have four children: George M., a resident of Dunkirk, in the employ of the American Express Company; Frank E., who is engaged in farming near his father; Clarence E., baggage master on the Dunkirk & Warren R. R.; and Lilly V., who died in 1868, at the age of eleven years.

George B. Douglass is a member of the Baptist church of Dunkirk, and an active republican. He has held several of the most important of the offices of his town. He is a prosperous farmer and law-abiding citizen of the town of Dunkirk.