My Genealogy Hound

HON. FRANKLIN PIERCE SAUNDERS, whose portrait,* executed from a recent photograph, we take pleasure in presenting on a preceding page, is the present representative of Cortland County in the Legislature of the State of New York at Albany. Besides being a public man of more than the ordinary prominence, he is engaged in several important lines of business activity, and throughout his life has brought to bear upon all his operations a skill and natural executive capacity that has made him a successful man.

Mr. Saunders is a native of Fabius, Onondaga County, N. Y., and began his earthly career February 27, 1849. His ancestry runs back to Jonathan Saunders, who was his paternal great-grandfather, and who was born on English soil. Our subject, in his younger days, was a student at the Seventh Day Baptist Seminary of De Ruyter, and also the Cazenovia Seminary. His first business, as a young man, was dealing in nursery supplies. In this line he worked for seven years, then began to moderately deal in stock, buying throughout this section and shipping to Philadelphia, Pa., and New York City. Mr. Saunders located in Cortland in 1892, where he has since pursued the same business, along with other accumulating interests. From his youth, Mr. Saunders has been interested in civil and political affairs, and as he attained prominence in the business world, his influence in politics began to be felt. While a resident of Truxton, this county, he was elected, in 1887, to serve on the board of supervisors, and in the following two years was given re-elections. He refused a further re-election in 1890, not being able to afford the time. Mr. Saunders’ influence continued to be used for the well-being of his party, and in 1895, at which time he was a resident of the village of Cortland, he was nominated and elected, by a vote of 3,690 to 1,637, to represent his district in the legislature. How well he served his constituency is evidenced by the vote that returned him to the legislature in 1896, — this time it was 4,812 to 2,580. In his service in the Assembly, Mr. Saunders was active and effective, introducing and obtaining the passage of several bills of great moment to his own people and the state at large. His work and his record will stand the closest scrutiny with honor to himself and to his district.

Franklin P. Saunders is a son of Perry H. Saunders, who was a son of Cyrus Saunders, and a grandson of Jonathan Saunders, before referred to. The latter was a Seventh Day Baptist preacher, who achieved wide reputation as an eloquent and pious divine, even before he came to America. Feeling that a wider and more appreciative field lay beyond the sea, he bade farewell to friends and home, and eventually arrived in this country, locating at Stephenstown, R. I. At that place he married a Miss Sisson, a beautiful lady of rare accomplishments, and became the father of seven children, namely: Benjamin; Cyrus; Jonathan, Jr.; Henry; Ziba; Bina; and Elisha. The latter made an honorable record in the War of 1812, as captain of the Eighth Artillery, and was killed nobly fighting for his country at Lundy’s Lane, Ont. Ziba and Benjamin settled at Unadilla, N. Y. Henry and Jonathan went to Ohio. Cyrus, born May 19, 1772, at Stephenstown, R. I., at the age of twenty-two married Miss Nancy Hiscock, of Connecticut, and came to Cortland County, settling at Cincinnatus, now Freetown, on Lot 5, arriving here in 1795. He was the first settler in that town. After toiling hard for fifteen years, during which time he had erected a log house, cleared a large tract of land, and experienced almost every possible hardship, he found to his sorrow that his title to the land was defective. He had saved carefully, and his last payment had taken away the last dollar that he possessed. In this unfortunate and forlorn condition did he find himself — without home, land or money. But with undaunted courage and belief in better things to come, he faced his hard lot, removed his family to Factory Hill, town of Homer, and there made a home, in which he lived until 1815. By thrifty methods he had by that time accumulated some money, with which he bought a fifty acre farm in Solon township on Lot 81. This new place was undeveloped, so he had to go through all the arduous toil again of felling trees, building a log-cabin home, and clearing the land and preparing it for the crops. Cyrus Saunders lived on the place for nineteen years, at the end of which time he sold the property, and with his son, Perry H., bought the carding and cloth-dressing mills at McGrawville, which had been previously conducted by Eben Wilcox and John Peat. The grandfather of our subject then moved to what is now Cuyler township, then included in Truxton, settling in what is known as Keeney’s Settlement; later he changed his residence to Chautauqua County, N. Y., where he died in 1856. His wife was the true type of a woman for a pioneer’s wife. The year following their settlement in Cortland County, she took her infant baby, Nabby, and on horseback made the long journey back to Rhode Island to pay her old home a visit, for a year’s residence in the wilderness, where she had seldom seen a white woman, had given the young wife a feeling of home-sickness, which she imagined would only be dispelled by a residence, however brief, among the familiar and dearly loved scenes of her girlhood days. Her only company through the lonely and wild woodland trails was a neighboring woman, who made the trip with her. Mrs. Saunders was born in 1772 and died in 1853, being interred at Keeney’s Settlement. The children born to this pioneer couple were: Nabby; Catharine; Almeda; Lavina; Cyrus; Nancy; Perry H.; and Elisha. Elisha, the only one of the family now living, resides in Westfield, Chautauqua County, N. Y.

Perry H. Saunders, who became the father of our subject, came into life May 11, 1811. He followed the usual round of duties that fell to the lot of a pioneer lad, but eventually became interested in the cloth manufacturing industry, which he and his father conducted at McGrawville. When he finally disposed of his interests in that line, he reverted to the life of a farmer, following that independent and honored calling in Cuyler township and in Keeney’s Settlement. He prospered in life, and retired a very successful man. His last home was at Homer, where he died in 1890. On April 23, 1835, he was united in marriage, by Rev. Reuben Renaldo, with Sarah Emerson, a daughter of Dearborn and Sally (Brooks) Emerson. Mrs. Perry H. Saunders, the mother of Franklin P., was born January 22, 1816, and her life extended until July 5, 1889. Their children were: Edwin; Samuel E.; George E.; Sarah; Nettie; Mary; Charles W.; Franklin Pierce; William; Lucea B.; and Frederick J. On April 23, 1885, our subject’s parents celebrated their golden wedding at the family residence.

Franklin P. Saunders deserted the state of single-blessedness October 22, 1879, and took to himself for a wife Hattie L. Peck, who was a daughter of Mr. Platt Peck of Solon. To this union there have come five bright children: Carrie; Arthur Franklin; Anna Harriette; Fannie Sarah; and Helen Peck. All are alive save Carrie, who died when a child of five months. Mr. Saunders is the type of a man who is bound to rise, and is sure to succeed in any community where he may reside. Of many varied talents and attainments, he is always available and ready for the emergency. Ever persistent in a good cause, he, like his honored grandsire, knows no discouragement. The respect and trust of his fellow-citizens he richly merits and certainly deserves.

*A portrait was included in the original printed volume.