150 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



married Evelina B. (born March 26, 1808), daughter of 

 Samuel Baker, who was one of the pioneers of the town 

 of Howard. 



In early life he began lumbering, and then, without 

 means, with three other young men, built a saw-mili in 

 Rathbone (then Addison). For some forty years he followed 

 this business quite successfully, shipping his lumber by 

 means of rafts down the Canisteo, Chemung, and Susque- 

 hanna Rivers to Port Deposit and Havre de Grace. For 

 a few years in the latter part of his life he has been con- 

 nected with the tanning business. 



With marked patriotism and loyalty, July, 1862, he 

 raised a company, of which he was made captain, and 



some four houses in the settlement, and is now able to 

 look back and, as he sees its growth to a thriving village 

 of some two thousand inhabitants, to say, " All of this T 

 saw and part of this I was." 



with the 107th New York Volunteers went to the front. 

 After the battle of Antietam, — in which his company was 

 engaged,— on account of failing health, he left the army at 

 Hope's Landing, and came to Ehnira, where he was made 

 commissioner of the board of enrollment, which position he 

 occupied for about one year and a half, and resigned his 

 place. 



Capt. Miles was formerly a member of the Whig party, 

 and has been active in the Republican ranks. For several 

 terms he has been chosen supervisor of the towns of Cam- 

 eron and Addison, as his residence has been in one of those 

 towns, and in the year 1851 he represented Steuben County 

 in the State Legislature, and served on the committee on 

 Charitable and Religious Societies. He and his wife have 

 been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church since 

 1830, and he has assisted in the establishment and build- 

 ing of nearly all the church edifices in and about Addison 

 and Cameron. As a member of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church he has for many years officiated as steward 



Capt. Miles remembers Addison when there were only 



MAJOR RUFUS BALDWIN. 



The family of Baldwin is descended from Benjamin 

 Baldwin, who emigrated from Buckingham Co., England, 

 in the year 1636, and settled in New London, Conn. His 

 grandson, Isaac Baldwin, Sr., removed with his family from 

 Norwich, Conn., to Wyoming Valley, Pa., where they re- 

 mained but a few years in consequence of the Pennamite 

 and Indian wars. They removed to the vicinity of Ulster, 

 and subsequently, in the year 1787, farther up the Chemung 

 River to what is now the town of Chemung, then a part of 

 Tioga Co., N. Y. He was born in Norwich, Conn., June 

 12, 1730. Was married to Patience Rathbun, November, 

 1751. They had eleven children, of whom Rufus, the 

 father of the subject of this narrative, was eldest, born 

 March 8, 1753. 



Of these children, Adah Baldwin, fifth child, born Oct. 

 31, 1762, was the last survivor of the Baldwin family that 

 settled in Chemung in 1787. She was taken prisoner in 

 the massacre of Wyoming, in 1778, at the age of sixteen ; was 

 painted, shaved, and sent barefoot over the mountains and 

 through the swamps to the Delaware, at Easton. Rufus Bald- 

 win, Jr., was born in Canterbury, New London Co., Conn., 

 1795. His minority was spent at home. In 1812 he was 

 connected with the Light Guards, and soon thereafter gained 

 the rank of major. About the year 1821 he came to Tioga, 

 Pa., where he remained one year, and went to the town of 

 Lawrence, Tioga Co., Pa., and purchased some eleven hun- 

 dred acres of timber land on the Cowanesque River, where 

 he built a saw-mill, and began lumbering. He remained there 

 about thirteen years, and during this time, in the year 1825, 

 was married to Pamelia, daughter of William Wombough, 

 who was a pioneer settler in the vicinity of Addison. 



In the fall of 1834, having disposed of his property in 

 Pennsylvania, he settled about one mile east of the village 

 of Addison, where he purchased some six hundred acres of 

 farming and timber land of his father-in-law. Until 1851 

 he was engaged in improving his property, and in general 

 agriculture, at which time he disposed of his farm, moved 

 into the village of Addison, and retired from the more 

 active duties of life. 



He was one of the prime movers in the founding and 

 erection of the Addison Academy, built in 1848. Through 

 his eff'orts the first sash- and blind-factory was established 

 at Addison. He was one of the projectors and stockholders 

 of the plank-road from Addison to Elkland. Maj. Baldwin 

 was a vigorous, active member of the Democratic party, and 

 was chosen to several important places of trust by the citi- 

 zens of Addison. He was a plain, unassuming man, in- 

 terested in every enterprise tending to improve and build 

 up society ; a genial and sociable man, and possessed of 

 strict integrity in all his business relations. He died in 

 1853. His wife died in 1867, at the ftge of sixty-five. 



Their children are Mrs. Rufus N. Weatherby ; William 



