WILLIAM WOMBOUGH. 



The personal history of William Wombough is so intimateiy 

 connected with the settlement and growth of the Tuscarora 

 Valley, where now is located the thrifty village of Addison, that 

 it forms no unimportant part of the general history of this part 

 of the county of Steuben. 



He was born in Monmouth Co., N. J., in the year 1769. 

 His parents were of German birth, and his father came to 

 America about the year 1765, settling in New Jersey. He had 

 no opportunities for any education from books, and could neither 

 read nor write, but his very eventful and successful business 

 career demonstrated that a practical education as often secures 

 financial success. 



While a young man he settled in Delaware Co., N. Y., and 

 engaged in lumbering, rafting his lumber to Philadelphia. There 

 he remained eleven years, and in the year 1804 removed to the 

 Tuscarora Valley, and settled in the almost wilderness and 

 Indian country, where the now beautiful and cultivated fields vie 

 with the best in the State in point of agriculture. He at once 

 purchased one hundred and eighty acres of land, where now his 

 son William resides, built a saw -mill, and in 1806 erected a 

 grist-mill on the Tuscarora Creek ; where in 1830 he erected a 

 second one, which is still standing. By this time he had added 

 to his original purchase, so that he owned some two thousand 

 acres of land. In 1833 he removed to Woodhull, and purchased 

 some five hundrt^d acres of land where the village of Newville 

 now is, and there erected a grist-mill. In the year 1835 he re- 

 moved to Troupsburgh, purchased some five hundred acres of 

 land, and erected a saw-mill and grist-mill. There he remained 

 until 1842, when he returned to Addison, and a few years after- 

 wards erected a grist-mill (it being the fifth) on the present site 

 of the sash-factory now owned by Messrs. Mackay & Hill. 



In order to furnish his first grist-mill with the proper ma- 

 chinery he was obliged tg go to Philadelphia, which he did in a 

 lumber wagon, and returned with wagon loaded with weighty 

 machinery. The incidents connected with such a trip through 

 forests, rough roads, its privations, and necessary economy and 



hardships, are in striking contrast with the rapid transit of the 

 railroad car of the present day. Being now at the advanced age 

 of eighty, he never after engaged in any new enterprises. After 

 a brief illness of only four days he died from the effects of a 

 paralytic stroke, at the ripe age of eighty -four, in the year 1853. 



It is impossible in a short space to do any more than give an 

 outline of his history. He came into this valley, moving his 

 goods in boats up the Susquehanna, Chemung, and Canisteo 

 Rivers, and lived during that period of the settlement of the 

 country when there was little or no machinery to lessen manual 

 labor ; and about the time of his death the completion of the 

 Erie Railway, and the introduction of mowing and other ma- 

 chinery, made a radical change in the mode of rapid transit of 

 persons and goods, and in the time to accomplish a given amount 

 of work. It is worthy of note here that the Indians were in 

 the neighborhood, and that they were known to come to the 

 settlement and purchase powder, but never to make purchase of 

 any lead ; hence, it was always supposed by the settlers that there 

 was a lead mine near by ; but the secret, if there was one, was 

 never disclosed by the natives, and no information of its location 

 discovered. 



Mr. Wombough was strong in his political inclinations, and 

 a staunch member of the Whig party. In the war of 1812 

 he was drafted, but hired a substitute, paying therefor sixty 

 dollars. The progeny of this most remarkable business man 

 is quite numerous in and about Addison, and makes up many 

 of the representative families of the village. 



His wife was Elizabeth Towsley, who did her part well, and 

 trained her children in all that makes true manhood and woman- 

 hood. She died at the age of seventy-nine. 



His children were Henry, born 1800 (deceased) ; Mrs. Ruftis 

 Baldwin, 1802 (deceased); William, 1811 ; Mrs. Ira P. Ben- 

 nett, 1813; Mrs. Peter Striker, 1815; Mrs. James B. Mui^ 

 dock, 1818 (deceased); Mrs. Col. George Farnham, 1823 

 (deceased) ; Mrs. Gilbert B. Brewster, 1828 ; and Addison 

 Wombough, 1831. 



