My Genealogy Hound

SYRENUS SYMONDS, a retired farmer of Homer village, is a son of Shubel and Mary (Baker) Symonds, and was born in the town of Summer Hill, Cayuga County, N. Y., November 23, 1817.

The family is of English origin, three brothers having emigrated to this country and settled in the State of Connecticut. One of these brothers was John Symonds, the grandfather of our subject. During the Revolutionary war he enlisted in the Continental Army from Connecticut and served most of his time under General Washington. After the war he moved to Syracuse, where he died about 1798 at an advanced age. He was a cooper by trade and followed that occupation the greater part of his life. For the gallant services he rendered during the war, he received from the Government a tract of land bordering on Lake Skaneateles. He was the
father of eight childen: John; Shubel; Joseph; Burt; Clinton; Anna; Melinda and Lucinda, twins.

Shubel Symonds was born in 1798 in the State of Connecticut, and came to New York State with his parents and settled in Summer Hill township. During the War of 1812, he was among the first to offer his services to the country in its hour of peril. After remaining in the army three years, he contracted the measles, from the effects of which disease he never entirely recovered. After spending the greater part of his life on the farm, he moved to the town of Wellsville, Allegany County, N. Y., where he died at the advanced age of eighty-five years. He was an active and consistent member of the Christian Church. Politically, he was a Democrat of the Jacksonian type. His first wife was Miss Foote, and one child was born to them, which died in its infancy. After the death of his first wife, he married Mary Baker, and they reared a family of five children, four sons and one daughter. They are as follows: Syrenus, who heads this personal sketch; Comodore; Lorenzo; John; and Marenus.

Syrenus Symonds is mainly self-educated, having left the public schools at the age of nine years. He is a man of natural mechanical ability, and took up carpentering and mill-wright work and followed it until the Civil War broke out, when in September of that year he enlisted in Co. F, 160th Reg., N. Y. Vol. Inf. His company was composed of sharpshooters, and they were soon placed on board a gun-boat that navigated the Mississippi River. During an engagement that took place at New Orleans, March 28th, 1863, he was severely wounded and was taken to the New Orleans Charity Hospital, thence to the University Hospital. Upon his recovery he returned to his regiment, but being disabled was sent home in January, 1864. He then turned his attention toward the tilling of the soil in his native town, where he owns 130 acres of highly improved land. In 1886 he moved to the town of Homer and there has lived in retirement. He was married to Miss Delila Evans, and two children were born to them, Sarah, the wife of Burdette Griffith of Homer; and Charles, deceased.