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Edgerton

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Edward Edgerton, son of Nathan and Emily (Howell) Edgerton.

 

born:

April 26, 1829; Sidney, Delaware Co., NY.  (GI)

died:

November 30, 1900; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.  (NY State DC #48068) (GI)

buried:

Ouleout Valley Cemetery; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.  (GI)

 

married:

December 25, 1851; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.

 

Lucy Mellor, daughter of John and Ann (Barnett) Mellor.

 

born:

October 4, 1828; Derbyshire, England.  (GI)

died:

March 4, 1905; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.  (NY State DC #10052) (GI)

buried:

Ouleout Valley Cemetery; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.  (GI)

 

Children:

  1. George Henry, b. July 4, 1852; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.
  2. Agnes, b. September 27, 1855; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.
  3. Edward Floyd, b. November 8, 1862; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.
  4. Samuel Lloyd, b. November 8, 1862; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.

 


The following biography of Edward Edgerton is extracted from Biographical Review of the Leading Citizens of Delaware County, New York (Biographical Review Publishing Company; Boston, Mass., 1895; pg. 146):

 

“Edward Edgerton, a leading citizen of Franklin, Delaware County, was born in Sidney Plains, on April 26, 1829. Nathan Edgerton, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch…had a son, to whom he gave the same name. The second Nathan was born in Connecticut, but came early to the region where the town of Franklin now stands.  The nearest mill was at Cooperstown; and, when there was a bag of corn to be ground, he rode with it as far as the port of Unadilla, on the river, where he took a canoe.  This involved a trip of two or three days; and on his return his wife would meet him at the landing, with the horse, and they would ride home together. Their son Thomas was the first white child born in the town of Franklin.  Nathan Edgerton was at one time Sheriff of Delaware County.  He died some years before his wife, who lived to within four years of the century. They were industrious farmers, and able to pass their declining years in comfort; and their bodies rest in the family burial-yard.  The grandmother was Sally Belshaw, a lady with some Irish blood in her veins; and her seven children all lived to a good old age, having families and farms of their own. One son, John, lived to be eighty-six.  Grandfather Nathan had a brother Roger, who fought in the Revolution, and was captured at New York, but later became a Coventry farmer, on land won by his military services, where he died.  His son, Albert Edgerton, is now a lawyer in St. Paul, Minn., and was one of the veteran’s two sons to be present at the family reunion, recently held in the metropolis.

 

Grandfather Nathan Edgerton had a son Nathan, the third to bear this name.  He was born in Franklin in 1790, and died in Walton in 1856.  His wife was Emily Howell, of Franklin, the daughter of Simeon Howell.  Their only son was Edward, though he has had three sisters, of whom one survives, Maria, the widow of W.T. Dart, of Des Moines, Iowa.  One sister, Sally Ann, died in the prime of life, unmarried; and the other sister, Harriet, died in Walton in 1857, the wife of Andrew Steele, leaving three sons and three daughters.  Mrs. Emily Howell Edgerton died in 1851.

 

Till he was sixteen Edward Edgerton stayed at home, going to school, and working on the farm.  He then went to work with his uncle, John Edgerton, a prominent storekeeper in Franklin, who was also in public life as Supervisor and Sheriff.  Six years later, in 1851, at the age of twenty-two, Edward took to himself a wife on Christmas Day.  She was Lucy Mellor, of Middlefield, Otsego County, a daughter of John Mellor and his wife, Ann Barnett, both of whom came from Derbyshire, England, in 1830, though her father crossed the seas in advance of his wife, in order to have a home ready when the mother came over with her three boys and five girls.  She died in 1867, aged seventy-seven, and he in 1875, ten years older; and they both now rest in Ouleout Valley cemetery, he being the first person interred in that beautiful spot.  A cousin of our subject, Erastus S. Edgerton, the son of Erastus Edgerton, did much for this cemetery.  He was a banker in St. Paul, Minn., was interested in several other banks in different States, and was one of the few business men able to withstand the financial panic of 1857.  At one time he was Deputy Sheriff, and in this capacity was active in suppressing the anti-rent riots, and barely escaped with his life, having a horse shot under him and a bullet passing through his hat.  At the same time the Under-sheriff, Mr. Steele, was killed.  Erastus S. Edgerton left provision in his will for a family monument to be erected in the Ouleout Valley cemetery, which provision has been fully carried out, the monument costing ten thousand dollars.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Edgerton have lived in Franklin since their marriage, and from 1853 to 1857 kept the hotel, but have now been farming for nearly forty years, except during two years, when Mr. Edgerton was engaged in lumbering.  They have lost two children.  Agnes married Isaac Birdsall, and died in April, 1877, just as she reached the age of twenty-one, leaving an infant son, Edward Ira Birdsall, who has been adopted by his grandparents, and received the patronymic, Edgerton.  He is a young man of great promise, having been graduated with honors from the Delaware Institute in the class of 1894, at the age of seventeen, receiving a gold medal for declamation.  Edward F. Edgerton was graduated from the medical department of the University of New York, and also from the Homeopathic College in the same city.  He was enjoying a successful practice when his death occurred, at the age of thirty-one, in Chicago, at the Lincoln Park Sanitorium, November 21, 1893, just at the close of the Columbian Fair.  The eldest son is George H. Edgerton, who has a wife and five children.  Samuel Lloyd Edgerton, a twin brother of Dr. Edward, is married, and resides at Unadilla, being connected with the Hanford Wagon Company.

 

Mrs. Edgerton is an Episcopalian.  Mr. Edgerton is a Mason and a Democrat, though not an office-holder.  The records of such families as the Edgertons suggest such praise as James Russell Lowell bestowed on President Garfield, “The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for, and to be buried in.”

 

The household of Edward Edgerton was recorded in the 1860 Federal Census of Franklin, Delaware County, New York (pg. 12; dwelling #93; family #92; enum. June 15, 1860), as follows:

 

Edward Edgerton

31

b. NY

farming     $3,000 real estate / $700 personal estate

Lucy

30

b. England

 

George H.

6

b. NY

 

Agnes

5

b. NY

 

Arthur Buell

21

b. NY

farm laborer

 

The household of Edward Edgerton was recorded in the 1870 Federal Census of Franklin, Delaware County, New York (pg. 150; dwelling #14; family #14; enum. June 13, 1870), as follows:

 

Edward Edgerton

41

b. NY

farming     $6,000 real estate / $2,700 personal estate

Lucy

40

b. England

keeping house

Geo.

16

b. NY

works on farm

Agnes

14

b. NY

attending school

Edward

7

b. NY

attending school

Lloyd

7

b. NY

attending school

James Sixby

19

b. NY

works on farm

 

The household of Edward Edgerton was recorded in the 1880 Federal Census of Franklin, Delaware County, New York (pg. 172; dwelling #631; family #721; enum. July 2-3, 1880), as follows:

 

Name

Rel.

Age

Bp

F Bp

M Bp

Occ

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edward Edgerton

 

51

NY

NY

NY

farmer

Lucy

wife

50

England

England

England

keeping house

Edward F.

son

17

NY

NY

England

at home

Lloyd

son

17

NY

NY

England

at home

Ira Birdsall

gson

3

NY

NY

NY

 

 

The household of Edward Edgerton was recorded in the 1900 Federal Census of Franklin Village, Delaware County, New York (pg. 158; dwelling #216; family #239; enum. June 16, 1900), as follows:

 

Name

Rel.

Birthdate & place

Age

Marital

Parents’ birthplace

 

 

 

 

Status

Father

Mother

-----------------------

--------

------------------------

--------

-----------

----------

----------

Edward Edgerton

head

Apr. 1829

NY

71

M 47y

NY

NY

Lucy

wife

Oct. 1829

England

70

M 47y

England

England

 

According to the above census record, Lucy was the mother of four children, two of whom were still living.  Under occupations, Edward was listed as a “day laborer” and Lucy as a “servant”.

 

Edward Edgerton died on November 30, 1900 at Franklin, New York; a copy of his death certificate was filed with the New York State Department of Health (year 1900; certificate #48068).  He left a Last Will and Testament, dated November 8, 1900, which was proved at Delhi, New York on December 17, 1900 before John P. Grant, Surrogate.

 


 

Original Source Documents:

 

1860 Federal Census – household of Edward Edgerton; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.

1870 Federal Census – household of Edward Edgerton; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.

1880 Federal Census – household of Edward Edgerton; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.

1900 Federal Census – household of Edward Edgerton; Franklin, Delaware Co., NY.