|
NAVAGATION
Genesee County Biographies
Names A to B
Names C
Names D to E
Names F to G
Names H
Names I to L
Names M to N
Names O to R
Names S
Names T to Z
===========
Genesee County History
New York History
Erie County Biographies
History at Rays Place
Linkpendium Genesee County
|
Wheaton Carpenter was born in Scatuate, R. I., in 1788. At mature age he went to Scranton, Pa., then a wilderness
and resided a few years, and married there Nancy Dickerson. In 1808 he, in company with Elisha Miller, came to
Byron on foot, with knapsacks on their backs, in which they carried their provisions for the long and tiresome
journey. Mr. Carpenter located a farm of 100 acres about one-half mile southwest of Byron Center. He then returned
to Scranton, and two years later came with his wife and two infant daughters to the wilderness of Byron. In the
meantime his claim was forfeited, and he procured another of 100 acres, 80 rods west of a log tavern Pept by Ben
Hall, on Black Creek, where he resided until the ensuing spring (1811), when a freshet swept away his pig, fowls,
and all movable property, and left only his cow and horse. Thus warned off he never returned, and never again owned
real estate in Byron. He participated in the War of 1812, and went with the militia to Buffalo when they were called
out He was a miller and resided in "Sodom," a location in Byron, and in thecold season of 1816 found
his increased family destitute. On a Monday morning he wended his way to where A. W. Graves's flouring-mill is
now located, and where was one of the most primitive grist-mills, con structed of logs and without an iron cog
wheel in it; in fact nothing but wooden trundle-heads to drive the stones, which were made of a rock from an adjacent
field. He turned the bolt with one hand and fed it with the other. This mill was built by one Williams and was
the first in town. He engaged to run this complicated machine for half the toll, and at once went to work, remaining
until Saturday, when he returned to his family with meal, who all this time knew nothing of his whereabouts. He
found his wife roasting a few beans for her children's supper, the last edible morsel in the house. On Monday he
removed his family to the vicinity of the mill, and fortunately placed them beyond want the remainder of their
lives. He continued a miller for 40 years, in different parts of Genesee County, and died in Byron, at the house
of his daughter, Mrs. Nancy Gaines, in the fall of 1876, aged 88 years. His. son, M. D. L. Carpenter, born in 1827,
resides one fourth of a mile from North Byron.
FROM:
Gazetteer and Biographical Record
of Genesee County, New York
Edited by: F. W. Beers
J.W. Vose & Co., Publishers, Syracuse, N. Y. 1890
|
|