My Genealogy Hound

JAMES RUSSELL WEBSTER. For more than a half-century the subject of this article has been numbered among the citizens of Waterloo, to which place (then an insignificant hamlet) he came in the year 1842, and of which he has since been a highly honored resident. For twenty-five years he was engaged in the coal business, and at intervals he made extensive purchases of western grain and stock, aggregating within a few years five hundred thousand bushels of wheat, and four hundred thousand barrels of salt. In lumber, wool, sheep and tallow, he has also been a large dealer.

The family to which our subject belongs is one of the largest in the United States, and has had among its members many men of prominence, including Daniel and Noah Webster. The first of the name to settle in Ontario County, N. Y., was James Webster, who in 1812 removed from Litchfield, Conn., and settled near Oaks Corners. He was of direct Scotch descent, and was the last of six generations that resided in Connecticut. After coming to New York, he served as a Deacon in the Baptist Church of Phelps for many years.

The father of our subject, James, was a son of the original founder of the family in Ontario County, and was a farmer by occupation, which calling he followed in Phelps for many years. He was a man of firm religious convictions, and a devoted member of the Baptist Church. His wife, Sabrina Catlin, was born in Litchfield, Conn., and died in Phelps in 1820; her father, Isaac Catlin, was of English parentage. Our subject’s father attained an advanced age, passing away in 1868, at the age of ninety. His immediate family comprised four sons and two daughters, the eldest of whom is the subject of this sketch. Catlin, another son, was a life-long resident of Phelps, where he served as an Elder in the Presbyterian Church for a long time. The other children are Chauncey L., a retired farmer living near Phelps; Walter B., a resident of Nebraska; Julia Ann, wife of Oscar Hartwell, of Nebraska; and Anna, who married J. Young, of Phelps.

Our subject was born in Phelps, Ontario County, N. Y., January 20, 1812. The early years of his life were passed on his father’s farm, and the rudiments of his education were obtained in the common schools of Phelps. Afterward he was a student in an academy, and later attended one of the best military schools of that day. In youth he was engaged considerably in military service and was one of the participants in the reception to General La Fayette in his memorable trip through this section. At one time he was Adjutant of the rifle regiment of Ontario and Yates Counties, which was composed of one thousand men, and which at the last general raining at Canandaigua was pronounced one of the best regiments in the state.

In 1827 Mr. Webster married Miss Elizabeth N. Mullander, who died in Waterloo, December 20, 1889, sixty-two years after their marriage. She was a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church. Six children blessed their union, namely James, deceased; John N. C.; Charles D., deceased; Ann, who is her father’s housekeeper, and affectionately cares for him in his declining years; Sabrina, deceased; and Mary G., wife of J. Y. Moore, of Johnstown, N. Y.

Soon after his marriage, Mr. Webster removed to the town of Perry, Wyoming County, where he engaged in farming, and also had other important interests, including a fur trade with the Indians in Canada, and extensive real-estate and building transactions. At one time he owned a section of land one mile square, where the city of Kalamazoo, Mich., now stands. In 1842 became to Waterloo, where he still resides. Through the exercise of good judgment as well as unerring wisdom and stanch integrity, he accumulated a valuable property, and is now numbered among the wealthy men of the village.

While Mr. Webster has gained a competency, yet his life has been a very unselfish one, and while enriching himself he has also blessed and helped many others. Among the young men whom he assisted to start in life, was Ezra Cornell, of Ithaca, to whom his timely assistance was most fortunate. While living in Perry, he manufactured on his own farm, to which he moved for that purpose, the brick used in the construction of the beautiful Presbyterian Church of that place. He also superintended and built this church from his own means, and donated the same to the congregation at Perry. In 1851 he assisted in erecting the Waterloo Presbyterian Church, and was a member of the Building Committee, giving $1,000 or more to the structure.

Mr. Webster was present at the unveiling of the statue of his kinsman, Daniel Webster, at Concord, N. H., in 1892, and was a distinguished guest of the committee. Politically he is a Republican. In 1836 and 1840 he voted for William Henry Harrison, and in later times he cast his ballot for Benjamin Harrison, A man of patriotic impulses, and realizing the value of the services rendered the Union by the soldiers in the Civil War, he has used his influence in behalf of pensioners, and has been to Washington ten times in their behalf. Mr. Webster was a strong Abolitionist, and has labored for the colored race for over sixty years. In 1887-88 he was Vice-President of the Republican State Convention. The vigor of mind and body which he still enjoys is largely due to his habits of temperance, sobriety and right living. His form is as erect, his eyes as bright, his mind as clear and his step as elastic as though he were but sixty years of age.