NORTHERN NEW YORK
Genealogical and family history of northern New York: a record of the achievements of her people and the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation.
New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co. 1910.
LEE
The surname Lee, in common with those of Lea and Leigh, is derived from the Saxon word Lay or Leah, meaning "the pasture or place." The Lees are included among the ancient families of England. Launcelot Lee, a follower of William the Conqueror, received from that sovereign as a reward for his services in the conquest a large estate in the county of Essex. During the twelfth century two families of this name settled at what became known as High Legh, in Cheshire. Lionel Lee accompanied Richard Coeur de Lion in the third crusade, A.D. 112, as commander of a select company of cavalries, and was created Earl of Litchfield for gallant conduct at the seige of Acre. In all nineteen gentlemen named Lee, Leigh, Leigh, etc., were honored with coats-of-arms. Have these webpages helped you?
HOME
John Leigh, of Agawam (Ipswich) Mass., came over in 1634, and between the latter year and 1765 no less than ten immigrants name Lee arrived in America from the mother country. The family mentioned below are evidently descended from an immigrant who arrived at a much later date.
(I) Charles Lee was born upon the ocean, and his parents, on their arrival in this country, settled in Massachusetts or Connecticut. He married, for the first wife Susan Gilmour, and for his second wife Maria Waters.
Children: Sally, Polly, Edward, Nancy, James, Pamelia, Charles, John S., Olive, Martha, died in infancy, Lafayette, Warren.
(II) John S., eighth child of Charles and Susan (Gilmour) Lee, settled in Turin, Lewis county, N.Y., and engaged in farming. He married Lucy, daughter of Davis and Sarah (Prior) Hubbard.
Children:
1. Angelia, born April 29, 1846, died June 28, 1868; married Charles French, who enlisted in the Thirty-first Regiment, New York Volunteers, for service in the civil war.
2. Amanda, Feb. 3, 1847; married Edgar Morrell Salmon (see Salmon IV).
3. Harvey, Sept. 12, 1849; married Celesta Crandall, who died Oct. 20, 1889, leaving five children: i. Raymond H., born Aug. 29, 1873; married Anna Versneder; ii. Florence, May 8, 1876; married Arthur J. Ingersoll. iii. Carmine E., Sept. 4, 1877; married Charles T. Abbey. iv. Clifford H., May 1, 1881; married Rose Marion and has one daughter: Carmine. v. Robert E., Aug. 14, 1884; married Mary Marion and has one son, Francis.
4. Lavinia, again referred to.
5. Susie, Feb. 12, 1855, died July 27, 1886; married William Conger.
(III) Lavinia, named Lavinia Martin for the wife of Judge Martin, this founder of Martinsburg, fourth child of John S. and Lucy (Hubbard) Lee, was born in Turin, Nov. 16, 1850. She was educated in the public schools and at the Hilltop Institute, Martinsburg, N.Y., and studied music in Boonville, this state.
May 30, 1871, she married John Henry Salmon, born in Turin, May 30, 1841, son of John and Lucretia (McDonald) Salmon (see Salmon III). After her marriage she ably assisted her husband in managing the Salmon homestead farm in Turin for a number of years, and upon relinguishing that proeprty they purchased the estate in Martinsburg known as the Alfred Arthur farm, containing some one hundred and eight acres. This property they subsequently inceased to about one hunderd and sixty acres by the addition of adjoining land, and they gave their special attention to dairy farming, keeping an average of twenty-five cows.
Mr. Salmon was an unusually capable and industrious farmer who availed himself of modern agricultural methods, and he applied them with success. He possessed numerous commendable qualities, and his death, which occurred June 12, 1906, was sincerely regretted by his fellow-townsmen.
He was a member of Glenfield Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, and in politics he was a Democrat. Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Salmon has assumed the entire charge of the farm, and is displaying much natural ability in its management. She was formerly a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, but became a Christian Scientist and is now a member of the "Mother Church" in Boston. Mrs. Salmon is the mother of three children:
1. Erdine, born Dec. 2, 1875; married William Moffatt.
2. Ernest, June 14, 1877.
3. Grover C., Aug. 29, 1886.
She also has three grandchildren:
John Moffatt, bornin Martinsburg, April 19, 1899.
Isabelle, born in Montreal, Province of Quebec, Jan. 21, 1906.
Gloria Lavinia, born in Martinsburg, June 23, 1909.
SECOND ENTRY:
Walter Lee, the immigrant ancestor, was born in England about 1630, died at Westfield, Mass., Feb. 9, 1718, "at a great age." He settled first in Connecticut, and was admitted a freeman there in 1654, removed to Northampton in 1658, and to Westfield in 1665. In 1664 he had a grant of four acres for a house lot and thirty-three acres of meadow at Westfield.
He married (first) (name not known), who died at Westfield, Feb. 29, 1696; (second) Hepsibah, widow of Caleb Pomeroy.
Children of first wife, born at Northampton:
John, Jan. 2, 1657, mentioned below.
Timothy, Aug 8, 1659, died young.
Stephen, March 5, 1662.
Nathaniel, Dec. 25, 1663.
at Westfield:
Mary, Jan. 15, 1665.
at Springfield:
Elizabeth, Feb. 28, 1667, died young.
Hannah, born Jan. 9, 1668.
Abigail, Dec. 11, 1670.
(II) John, son of Walter Lee, was born Jan. 2, 1657, in Northampton, and died Nov. 13, 1711, at Westfield. He was a soldier in King Philip's war, and took part in the fight at Turner's Falls in 1676.
He married (first) Dec. 9, 1680, Sarah, daughter of William Pixley; (second) Elizabeth, daughter of Dennis Crampton. She and his son John administered the estate.
Children, born at Westfield:
John, July 8, 1683, died Aug. 2, 1683.
Children of second wife:
John, born Aug. 2, 1687, mentioned below.
Elizabeth, Dec. 14, 1689.
Sarah, April 24, 1692.
Abigail, Oct. 29, 1694.
Ruth, April 1, 1697.
Joanna, 1702.
Samuel, 1704.
Margaret, 1707.
(III) John (2), son of John (1) Lee, was born in Westfield, Aug. 2, 1687. He spent his life in Westfield, and his death probably occurred in that town.
(IV) Ichabod, son of John (2) Lee, was born in Westfield, in 1725-26, and was a prominent citizen of that town. During the revolution he was a Royalist, like many of the older and prominent men, who were unwilling to engage in armed rebellion against the existing government. He married Martha Root, of Westfield.
(V) Enoch Lee, descendant of Ichabod Lee, was born at Westfield, Sept. 8, 1796. He married (first), at Middletown, Conn., Feb. 12, 1824, Alma Baldwin, born at Middletown, July 7, 1798, who came to Turin with her parents when she was a young girl. He married (second) Olive Bush.
(VI) Alfred H., son of Enoch Lee, was born at Martinsburg, N.Y., Nov. 6, 1824, and died April 21, 1908. His early years were passed on his father's farm. He attended the public schools of Martinsburg and Turin, and took one term of study at Lowville Academy. For three years he was a clerk in a store, and afterward devoted his time and attention to farming. From 1864 to 1868 he was senior partner of the firm of Lee Brothers, owning a line of stages from Boonville to Lowville, Boonville to Port Leyden, Boonville to Constableville, and Turin to Rome, all in New York. he was a straightforward, honorable, earnest and successful man, a worthy son of a worthy sire. He was a justice of the peace for the town more than seventeen years. For more than twenty-five years he was an officer of the Lewis County Agricultural Society, filling in succession the offices of treasurer, director and president. He was loan commissioner for the town, and for several years a member of the board of education. He was trustee and also president of the incorporated village of Turin.
In religion he was a Presbyerian, and served as trustee and treasurer of the First Presbyterian Church of Turin.
He married, Feb. 19, 1851, Elizabeth Hunt, born May 9, 1826, died Dec. 19, 1900.
Children:
Homer, born Nov. 27, 1851, died July 25, 1857.
George Maurice, born June 3, 1855.
Kate Alma, Dec. 26, 1857, died Oct. 25, 1869.
Carrie Hunt, born April 5, 1860.
Mary Lizzie, Aug. 15, 1863.
Homer, Dec. 4, 1869.
THIRD ENTRY:
This name first appears as Leya, De Le, De la Lee, and of various spellings, gradually taking the present form, Lee. In the "Domesday Book" Lega and Lee are often used to denote the same family. The name has also sometimes assumed still other forms, as Lea, Leight, Lay or Ley. The word "Lee" signifies a "pasture, meadow or grass land." Previous to the use of surnames, persons were designated by the place of their residence, or some other epithet desriptive of their personal character or occupation. The family of Lee is one of the most ancient in English history. In the eleventh century Launcelot Lee was associated with William the Conqueror, and in the division of estates by that chieftain, a fine estate in Essex county was bestowed on him. Lionel Lee "raised a company of gentlemen cavaliers," at the head of which he accompanied Richard, Coeur de Lion, in the third crusade, A.D. 1192. For gallant conduct at the siege of Acre, he was made Earl of Litchfield, and another estate was given to the family, which was later called "Ditchly."
The Lees were devoted followers of the Stuarts, and distinguished for loyalty to the crown, and for their acts of valor received various honors and distinctions. Two of the name have been Knights of the Garter, and their banners surmounted by the "Lee Arms," may be seen in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.
The late John Stebbins Lee, of Canton, New York, had a tradition that the family was descended from John Leigh, who came to Ipswich, Mass. in 1634. This John Lee died in 1671. No further account of him can be found. An excellent authority on New Engand genealogies asserts that Samuel Lee of Watertown, Mass. was a son of Samuel Lee, of Malden, same colony. For purposes of identification we will assume Samuel Lee to be the progenitor of this family. His parentage will probably be ever shrouded in mystery.
(I) Samuel Lee was born in 1640, and resided in Malden, Mass., where he married Dec. 4, 1662, Mercy Call, born Nov. 7, 1643, in Charlestown, Mystic side, daughter of Thomas (1) Call. Samuel Lee died in Malden, in August, 1676, and his widow married (second) John Allen, and died in 1678, the same year as her second husband.
The only children of Samuel and Mercy (Call) Lee, found of record were:
1. Mary, born 1663.
2. Elizabeth, 1670, married Jonathan Howard.
3. Mercy, married Richard Weeks.
4. Hannah, 1673.
There were undoubtedly other children.
(II) Samuel (2), probably son of Samuel (1) and Mercy (Call) Lee, was born about 1668, presumably in Malden and lived in Watertown or Weston, Mass, whence he removed to Killingly, Conn., in 1717, having sold his Watertown property that year and purchased in the same year in Killingly. His farm in Watertown was in that part which is known now as Weston, but all his children are recorded in Watertown.
He was chosen surveyor of highways in that town in 1708 and 1709, and in the former year a road was laid through his land. His wife's name was Mary, and their children were:
Elizabeth, John (mentioned below), Mary, Phineas, Isaac and Abigail.
The first was born Jan. 8, 1696, in Watertown, and Isaac was baptized April 8, 1711, in Weston, on which date Samuel Lee and wife owned the covenant in the Weston Church.
(III) John, eldest son of Samuel (2) and Mary Lee, was born 1701-02, in Weston, and died 1784 in Killingly, where he was a large landholder. He married about 1724-25, Margaret, daughter of James and Margaret Wilson, born Nov. 21, 1706, probably in Leicester. Just before his death he removed to South Vernon, Vermont, to join his son Jesse, and lived but four days after his arrival there. His body was deposited in the Miller Cemetery at South Vernon.
Children:
Samuel, Margaret, Phebe, John, Job, Simeon, Jonathan, James, Jesse (mentioned below), Hannah, Benjamin, Wilson and Sibyl.
(IV) Jesse, seventh son of John and Margaret (Wilson) Lee, was born Aug. 17, 1741, in Thompson, Conn., formerly part of Killingly, and died in Vernon, Vermont, July 11, 1816. A deed preserved by the family shows that he purchased his farm in Vernon in 1780. The house built by him in 1782, was still standing in 1907.
He married, Jan. 2, 1769, Eunice Morgan, born March 13, 1747, died in Vernon, July 22, 1824, having survived her husband a little over eight years. They had ten children:
Asa, John, Benjamin, Joseph, Mary, Lucy, Eunice, Jesse, Eli (mentioned below), and Caleb.
(V) Eli, sixth son of Jesse and Eunice (Morgan) Lee, was born Dec. 16, 1785, in Vernon, and died Nov. 12, 1881. He was the second child born in the house built by his father at South Vernon. He served as lister, selectman, justice of the peace, and was six years representative in the state legislature. He was a farmer "on the mountain" in Vernon, and the house in which he lived has been removed.
He married, Dec. 5, 1816, Rebecca Stebbins, born Feb. 29, 1792, daughter of Eliakim and Rebecca (Hawkes) Stebbins.
Children:
Amanda, Arethusa, John Stebbins (mentioned below), Marshall, Harriet, Rebecca, Eunice and Diana.
(VI) John Stebbins, eldest son of Eli and Rebecca (Stebbins) Lee, was born Sept. 23, 1820, in Vernon, and died Sept. 18, 1802, in Canton, St. Lawrence county, N.Y. His early education was obtained in the common schools of his native town, where he began to prepare for college. At the age of sixteen years, he was a student at the High School in Brattleboro, Vermont, and afterwards went to Deerfield, Mass., and Shelburne Falls, same state. He complete his college preparation at West Brattleboro, Vermont. In the meantime, he engaged in teaching to procure the means for carrying on his studies. In the winter of 1838-39, he taught a school in Guilford, Vermont, and the following winter taught two terms in Vernon.
In 1841 he entered Amherst College, and was graduated in 1845, ranking among the first ten students in a class of thirty. Immediately after his graduation, he took charge of Mount Caesar Seminary in Swanzey, New Hampshire.
In July, 1846, he began the study of theology with the Rev. Dr. Hosea (2) Bellou, of Medford, Mass. He preached his first sermon Feb. 22 of that year, in Vernon, and in June, 1847, he was ordained in West Brattlebobo as a minister of the Universalist Church. In the same year he took charge of Melrose Seminary, a new academical institution located in West Brattleboro. Here a large number of students gathered under his instruction, and some of them afterward became distinguished in professional and business life.
Mr. Lee moved to Lebanon, New Hampshire, in 1849, becoming pastor of the Universalist Society, and taught one term in the institute there. Two years later he took up his residence in Montpelier, Vermont, and became associate editor, with Rev. Dr. Eli Ballou, of the Christian Repositoryh. In the midst of his editorial duties he supplied preaching to several societies, and officiated as one of the chaplains during a session of Vermont Legislature. By this time he had gained an enviable reputation as a teacher, and the trustees of Green Mountain Institute invited him to become principal of that school in the spring of 1852. With some reluctance he accepted this invitation and moved to South Woodstock, Vermont, where he labored with phenomenal success for twenty-one successive terms. This labor made heavy drains upon his vitality and he was compelled to resign his position.
In May, 1857, he moved to the village of Woodstock, and for two years was pastor of the Universalist Society there. In April, 1859, he moved to Canton, N.Y., to accept the professorship of Greek and Latin in St. Lawrence University. At this time none of the students were sufficiently advanced to enter upon a college course and he took charge of the collegiate department. In a short time, however, a college class was formed, and in the next ten years, five classes were graduated in the regular college course. His arduous labors in placing this institution upon a sound basis compelled him to seek rest, and in July, 1868, he was granted leave of absence and made a trip to Europe, consuming about eight months. In addition to traveling Central Europe, he visited Italy, Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor, Constantinople and Greece.
Refreshed and invigorated, he returned, and in April, 1869, took a position as professor of Ecclesiastical History and Biblical Archaeology in the theological department of the University, to which he had been elected during his absence.
In 18__ he became president of the University and continued to fill that position until his death. For more than sixty years he had taught some portion of each year, with the exception of three years while he was in college.
He married, Feb. 22, 1848, at Westmoreland, New Hampshire, Elmira Bennett. Their silver wedding was celebrated in Canton in 1873, and their golden wedding at the same place in 1898. Of their six children, five are now (1910) living, and all are graduates of St. Lawrence University in the classical course. After graduating, all took special courses and all have been teachers, as well as their father and mother.
1. Leslie Alexander Lee, born 1852, graduated in 1872, taught in Goddard Seminary at Barre, Vermont, and Dean Academy, Franklin, Mass., whence he was transferred in 1876 to Bowdoin College as instructor in Biology and Geology, afterwards becoming a professor.
2. John Clarence, born 1856, graduated in 1876 from college, and from Harvard University in 1878. He entered Canton Theological School, and after two years, graduated in 1880. He was ordained in Perry, N.Y., Feb. 22, 1881, and served subsequently as pastor of St. Albans, Vermont, whence he was called in 1885, as a member of the faculty of Lombard University, Galesburg, Illinois. For twelve years he remained with that institution, during a part of the time as president and was invited to become president of his alma mater, St. Lawrence University. He entered upon his duties in 1896, and continued until he was succeeded by Dr. Almon Gunnison, in 1899. He is now (1910) located at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received the honorary degree of Ph.D. from St. Lawrence University in 1895, and that of D.D. from Tufts College in 1896.
3. Frederick Schiller Lee, is mentioned below.
4. Florence Josephine Lee, born in 1862, graduated from college in 1882, and taught biololgy two years at Fort Plain Institute, succeeding her brother in that position. With her brother Frederick, she went abroad and spent three years at Leipsic, Germany, in the study of music with a private teacher and the professors of the musical conservatory. She subsequently became a teacher of Galesburg, Illinois, where she remained five years in the consevatory connected with Knox College. In 1895 she became the wife of Edmund A. Whitman, an attorney of Cambridge, Mass. She still engages in teaching vocal music, and is a member of the school board of her home city.
5. Lulu Gertrude Lee, born in 1864, graduated from college in 1884, was three years a student in the Conservatory of Art in New York, taught two years in the Fredonia Normal School, and went to Paris in 1892. Nearly three years were spent there in the study of art, and for some years she maintained a studio in New York City. She has been a teacher of art in public and private schools for more than fifty years.
(VII) Frederick Schiller, third son of John S. and Elmira (Bennett) Lee, was born June 16, 1859, in Canton, N.Y. and graduated from college in 1879, receiving the degree of A.B., and two years later received the degree of A.M. He was an instructor in Biology for two years at Fort Plain Institute, and entered John Hopkins University, Baltimore, in 1882. Here he spent four years, a portion of the time as assistant to the professor of Biology, receiving the degree of Ph.D. in 1885. After this he pursued post-graduate studies, specializing in Physiology. He spent a year at Leipsic University, Germany, 1885-86, under Ludwig.
In 1886-87 he was instructor in Biology at St. Lawrence University, and in 1887-88, instructor in Physiology and Histology at Bryn Mawr College. In 1888 to 1891 he was associate professor of the same, and became demonstrator of Physiology at Columbia University in 1891. From 1895 to 1904 he was adjunct professor of Physiology, and since the later year has been professor of Physiology.
He is a member of the American Society of Naturalists; American Physiological Society; Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, of which he was the fourth president, 1908-10; Harvey Society; New York State Science Teachers' Association; American School Hygiene Association; American Nature Study Society and New York Zoological Society. He is an associate fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine; fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the American Ethnological Society, and New York Academy of Science. He is scientific director of the New York Botanical Garden; a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology and Columbia University Quarterly.
He is the author of various essays and lectures embodied in medical journals, in the history of Columbia University and the Harvey lectures. He has been translator and editor of "General Physiology, an Outline of the Science of Life," by Professor Max Verworn. He was the reviser and editor of "Lessons in Elementary Physiology," by Professor T. H Huxley. His contribution to scientific journals, of papers on physciological topics, have been numerous.
His college fraternities are: Sigma Xi; Beta Theta Pi and Phi Beta Kappa, and he is a member of the Century Club of New York.
He has a summer residence at Woodstock, Vermont, and resides in a beautiful home on East Sixty-fifth street, New York City. The proceedings of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine, Volume VII, says of Dr. Lee:
"In his boyhood a love of nature was developed in him, and a scientific career was foreshadowed early. From the first he lived in an academic atmosphere. He received his college training at St. Lawrence University, of which his father had been president, and obtained his A.B. in 1878. After a few years of scientific teaching he became one of the band of young men who felt the stimulus of the newly created Johns Hopkins University, and at that institution had his first adequate opportunity of gratifying his ambition for the best scientific training. The four years, from 1881 to 1885, he spent at Johns Hopkins under Newell Martin and William Keith Brooks, and was successively assistant, graduate scholar and fellow in biology. He recieved his doctorate in philosophy there in 1885. During the following year he engaged in physciological research at Leipsic with Carl Ludwig and von Frey.
Professor Lee entered upon the study of physiology from the standpoint of general biology, and this fact has influenced his whole subsequent career. He has constantly viewed physiology as primarily a biological science. While rigidly insisting upon a large knowledge of it as the indispensable condition of scientific medicine, as a university study he has deprecated its almsot exlusive development in medical schools, and has constantly urged its inclusion also among the scientific courses of the university. He was instrumental in opening the department of physiology at Columbia to post-graduate students in the School of Pure Science, an example which was soon followed by other medical departments, and he was one of the first in this country to offer courses in general physiology.
His contributions to sciene have also been mainly in the field of general physiology. During his student life he invetigated the action of intermittent pressure, defibinated blood and certain salts, upon the tone of arteries, and his doctor's dissertation was on the subject of arterial tonicity. At Leipsic he investigated the electrical phenomena of contracting muscle, and showed, for the first time, that there exists a close parallelism between the electical and the mechanical phenomena. The former continue nearly, or quite, through out the latter, and like the latter arfe extended and diminished in fatigue. Professor Lee spent several summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Holl, and there made the most exact and detailed study that has yet been made of the role of the parts of the ear in the maintenance of bodily equilibrium, correlating the results with observations on the nerves of the lateral line, and studying the hearing of fishes. He has examined, experimentally, the theory of the phototactic response, and has shown that the distinction hitherto made between the organisms to the intensity of light and their esponse to the direction of its rays, is not justified. The phototactic response is conditioned by the distinction of light, and the distinction between phototaxis and photopathy, as different forms of irritability, is unwarranted. He has studied the action of alcohol on muscle and has emphasized the fact that in small quantities alcohol is capable of increasing the working power of that tissue. He has studied the phenomena of rigor mortis and the survival of mammalian muscle after somatic death. By the use of very exact experimental methods he has contributed to our knowledge of the phenomena of mental and pathological fatigue and their causes. He has explained the treppe of muscle as being dur to the augmenting action of small quantities of certain metabolic products, such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid, the same substances which, in larger quantities, are depressing or fatiguing to muscle. He ascribes the phenomenon of the summation of stimuli to the same substances, which are produced even though the course of subminimal stimulation. He has investigated the variations in the irritability of muscle under various conditions. In these various ways he has thrown light upon many of the general and fundamental phenomena of protoplasmic action."
He married, in New York City, June 5, 1901, Laura Billings, daughter of Frederick and Julia Billings.
Children:
Julia, born 1904.
Frederick, born 1906.
Please let us know in the Guestook.
[ Read / Sign my guestbook ] Get a free Guestbook
Jane's Site with over 2000 free databases!
These records (NNY) are part of her website.