My Genealogy Hound

ELBERT J. WARFIELD, a representative citizen of Cortland, and a member of the firm of Beers & Warfield, general contractors, builders, and dealers in mason’s supplies, cement, brick, tile, chimney caps, etc., is a son of Thurber and Rhoda (Little) Warfield, and was born March 27, 1855.

The name is English. The grandfather, Joshua Warfield, was born in the State of Massachusetts, near Springfield, whence he moved to Tompkins County, N. Y., and followed farming, retiring, however, several years before his death. He was a Republican and a member of the Presbyterian Church, of which he was a deacon for many years. He was a member of the old militia. Seven children, four boys and three girls, comprised his family.

Thurber Warfield, a retired farmer of Cortland, and the father of our subject, was born near Springfield, Mass., and came with his parents to Tompkins County. There he attended the public schools, and then engaged in agricultural pursuits with his father for a time. He came to Cortlandville township, this county, about forty years ago, and engaged in farming on the farm upon which he now resides. He was shrewd, self-reliant, and very successful in all his business ventures, thus enabling him to secure a sufficient competency that placed him in a position to give up the more arduous duties of life, and enjoy a peaceful, quiet existence during the declining years of his career. He married Rhoda Little, and their union was blessed by the birth of two children: H. Catherine, the wife of George Calkens; and Elbert J. Mrs. Warfield was a good wife and mother, and her death was a sad bereavement to the family. She entered into eternal rest July 12, 1874.

Elbert J. Warfield received a common school education, which included one year at the State Normal School in Cortland village. At the age of twenty he left the farm to engage in the manufacture of butter and cheese, which business he followed for three years. As he always had a desire to see something of the great western country, he then went to Kansas, and there engaged in farming for a short time, raising broom corn and manufacturing brooms. He next went to Northern Nebraska, from there to St. Paul and Stillwater, Minn., at the latter place taking up the mason trade, which he followed in the summer time, and was engaged in lumbering in the pine woods for winter work. He returned to New York in 1882 and settled at Cortland, where he still pursued his vocation. He was married October 3, 1883, to Miss Eva F. Townley, and they have a family of children, as follows: Louise M.; Claude T.; and Mildred I.

About this time he took a partner in his business, D. C. Beers, and under the firm name of Beers & Warfield they have been doing a large business in masonry construction, contracting and building. Our subject is a first-class workman. He is known as a conscientious, honorable man. He is an enthusiastic Republican, and has served as trustee for Cortland village for four years. He is a member of the A. O. U. W., also Vesta Lodge, No. 255, I. O. O. F., of which he is past grand. The Cortland volunteer fire department includes him among its members.