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BELGIANS IN AMERICA: Biographies of Belgian settlers
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John KLEIN, an energetic,
industrious, and prosperous farmer, owning one hundred and eighty-five acres of
land lying in District No. 13 in the town of Sheldon, Wyoming County, N.Y., was
born on the other side of the broad Atlantic, being a native of the town of
Dehachy, Belgium, six miles from the city of Arlon, where his birth occurred in
1833, on the 24th of March.
His parents, Francis and Catherine (Leffering) Klein, came to this country with
their two children, Charles and John, leaving Havre, France, in a
sailing-vessel, and being fortyfour days on the water. From New York City they
came by canal to Buffalo, and thence to Sheldon, where the father bought thirty
acres of woodland, paying six dollars per acre. Having but nine dollars in money
when he reached Sheldon, he had to run in debt for the property; but with the
assistance of his two sons he cleared and improved the land, paid off the
indebtedness, and bought another thirty acres, for which he gave nine dollars an
acre. On the farm which he redeemed from the wilderness Francis Klein lived
until called to the brighter world, April 12 1859. His widow, Catherine Klein,
who Outlived him a quarter of a century, retained her faculties to the last, and
died at the advanced age of ninety-one years.
John Klein, the second of the two sons named above, obtained a good practical
education in the country of his nativity; and, after leaving the parental roof,
he worked out as a farm laborer by the year, being four years in the employ of
Ephraim Durfee, of Orangeville, receiving thirty-six dollars wages the first
year, fifty dollars the second, seventy-five dollars the third, and the fourth
year he was given one hundred dollars and a pair of boots. He afterward worked
for his former employer's son, Burton Durfee, nine months, receiving nine
dollars a month. He continued thus laboring until the death of his father, the
highest compensation he ever received having been one hundred and forty dollars
per year. Forty-five acres of the paternal homestead fell to his share. He paid
his brother for one-half of it, and farmed on this for twelve years before
buying the farm where he now resides, which forms a portion of his one hundred
and eighty-five acres. This he bought in 1870, and the following year moved on
to it with his family. Mr. Klein carries on mixed husbandry, raising the staple
grains of the county, and keeping a dairy of twenty cows, sending the milk to
the factory. Diligent in his calling, honorable and upright in his dealings with
others, he is held in high respect throughout the entire community, and is one
of the valued citizens of the town. In politics he is a stanch Democrat; and,
religiously, he and his family are members of the Roman Catholic church.
Mr. John Klein was united in marriage in 1859 with Catherine Redding, a native
of Belgium. Of the ten children born to them, one, Lucy, died October 26, 1889,
at the age of eight years. The record of the others is as follows: Lany, the
wife of Michael D. George, of Sheldon, has four children. Frank, a single man,
resides in Batavia. Edward lives at home. Mary lives in Batavia. Eva is at home.
Albert is a farm laborer. John resides on the home farm. Henry works in Batavia.
Willis, a boy of fourteen, lives at home with his parents.
Source :
Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading
citizens of Livingston and Wyoming Counties, New York; Boston: Biographical
Review Pub. Co., 1895, 685 pgs.