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Below is a family biography included in Book of Biographies: Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, Cortland County, New York published by Biographical Publishing Company in 1898.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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AUGUSTUS W. KINGSBURY is justice of the peace and a well known citizen of Homer village. His life has been a long one, and it is filled with a record of labors well done. Whether his duties led him to farming pursuits, to the shouldering of his musket and offering his life in his country’s cause, or to the performance of his functions of a magistrate, all branches of service have received his attention, and have been carried out with a fidelity which has borne to him the merited good will of his fellow-men.

Mr. Kingsbury was born in Homer, November 30, 1824. He is a son of William Kingsbury, Jr., grandson of William Kingsbury, and great-grandson of Ephraim Kingsbury. The latter was born March 17, 1740, in Coventry, Tolland County, Conn., and spent his entire life there engaged in farming. He married Phoebe French, who was born October 5, 1741, and died May 25, 1828. Ephraim Kingsbury’s life came to its close March 20, 1826. He served in the Revolution, and after General Washington became Commander-in-Chief, and was directing the operations in Eastern Massachusetts, that led to the evacuation of Boston by the British, Ephraim Kingsbury took his son on horseback with him to Boston, where they saw George Washington. He reared the following family: Andrew, who was born April 24, 1759, and died October 7, 1837, and who married Polly Osborne, who was born in 1763 and died in 1847; Oliver, who was born June 13, 1761, died in the Revolutionary Army of small-pox in December, 1781; William, the grandfather of our subject, who was born February 9, 1764, in Coventry, Conn., and who died March 10, 1849; Phoebe, who was born March 22, 1766, and died July 18, 1800; Jabez, who was born October 22, 1769, and died October 15, 1854, and who married Freelove Utley, who was born in 1771, and died in 1823; Ephraim, Jr., who was born June 18, 1775, and died in 1855.

William Kingsbury, grandfather of Augustus W., was born, as already noted, in Coventry, Tolland County, Conn., where he spent his life until 1 830, when he came to Homer, N. Y., whither two of his sons had preceded him in 1820. In his early life he was a tanner and shoemaker by trade, but after settling in Homer, he followed farming as a means of securing a livelihood, and laying up a competence. He married Abigail Richardson, who was born in 1770, and died in 1826. They reared these children: Eleazer, who was born November 25, 1788, and died in 1873; William, the father of our subject; Erastus, who was born December 23, 1792, and who died in 1810; Augustus, who was born in 1796, and who died in 1872; Charles, who was born in 1802, and lived until 1887.

William Kingsbury was born in Coventry, Conn., August 27, 1790, and died in Homer, N. Y., September 1, 1867. As a scion of a patriotic and loyal family, we are not surprised to find that he volunteered his services in the War of 1812, and saw considerable fighting. He was reared and trained to agricultural pursuits, but as a young man he took up the trade of tanning, in which he was very proficient, and which he followed all the remainder of his life. With his brother Eleazer, he came to Homer, Cortland County, in 1820, and set up a tanning business, which for a number of years was conducted under the firm name of Kingsbury Bros. Eleazer finally dropped his connection with the tanning establishment, and purchased a farm, where he devoted all of his attention to agricultural operations. Our subject’s father, however, continued the tanning business, and also engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes. He married Hilpah Winchell, who lived to attain the same age as her husband, both dying at the age of seventy-seven. Two sons were born to them: Augustus W., our subject; and Henry C., an attorney of Westfield, N. Y.

Augustus W. Kingsbury attended the Homer schools during boyhood’s years, and as soon as he was old enough was initiated into the secrets of the tanning industry by his father, and followed that trade until 1859. In those days this was an industry of the first importance all through Central New York, for the necessary bark was at hand, and the pasture lands furnished the best of hides and skins. At his country’s call in 1862, he put on the blue uniform and went to the front with his soldier-comrades. He had enlisted as a private in the 157th Reg. N. Y. Vol. Inf., and with that organization he remained the whole war through. He was with the Army of the Potomac and was one of the men who passed through all the vicissitudes of that noble army. In 1863, he received a commission as quartermaster of his regiment, signed by Gov. Horatio Seymour. After the battle of Gettysburg had been fought, he went on south, and followed the fortunes of the army until after Lee’s surrender, and the practical close of the war in 1865. He then resigned his commission at Georgetown, South Carolina, and started home. He was engaged in various pursuits of peace in Homer, until Gen. Grant, who had been elected to the Presidency, appointed him to the postmastership of Homer. This office he held for the usual term, filling it most acceptably both to his superiors and to the patrons of the office at large. He was elected justice of the peace in 1887, and has received three successive elections, and is acting in that capacity at this date. He is very active both socially and fraternally, being a member of Homer Lodge, No. 352, F. & A. M., and also of the Union Veteran Legion.

In 1852 Mr. Kingsbury was united in the bonds of matrimony with Miss Mary Fish. She departed this life at the age of thirty-eight, leaving her sorrowing husband and a son and daughter: William H., who died in 1878; and Frances J.

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This family biography is one of numerous biographies included in Book of Biographies: Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, Cortland County, New York published in 1898. 

View additional Cortland County, New York family biographies here: Cortland County, New York Biographies

View a map of 1897 Cortland County, New York here: Cortland County, New York Map

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