NORTHERN NEW YORK
Genealogical and family history of northern New York: a record of the achievements of her people
in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation.
New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co. 1910.

SLOSSON

Transcribed by Coralynn Brown

The origin of this name seems to be somewhat doubtful, and it is found in several localities in northern New York, with varying spellings. In some cases it is spelled Slawson. It probably came from England it this country in its present form about the beginning of the eighteenth century. The first of the name, now known, died in Gouverneur, before 1854. He was a farmer.

(I) Stephen William Slosson was born in 1828, in Gouverneur, and died about 1900, in Dayton, Hennepin county, Minnesota.
He grew up in Gouverneur, and when a young man went to De Kalb, same county (St. Lawrence county), where he conducted a general store and also dealt in ashes and lumber. He was very successful, and removed to Ogdensburg, where he kept an hotel known as the Morton House; removing thence to Cairo, Michigan, he again engaged in the drygoods business, with good success, and then removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he opened a grocery business. He purchased land at Dayton, near Minneapolis, and also opened a general store there. He was prosperous as a business man and left a competence at his death.
He was a member of the Presbyterian church, and of the Masonic order. In early life he was a Democrat, later a Whig, and finally supported the Republican party.
While residing at DeKalb he was village clerk, and also postmaster.
He married (first) Mary Cooper, a granddaughter of William Cooper, one of the early residents of De Kalb, and a niece of J. Fennimore Cooper. He married (second) Orilla P. Rice, of DeKalb.
Children by first marriage:
Stephen William, died at an early life at De Kalb.
Mary, married Henry Palmer, a steamboat engineer of Heuvelton, and died in Minneapolis.
Charles Clinton, lived in New York City, where he died in 1900.
Leslie Eugene, retired, dry-goods merchant, residing in Chicago.
George F., mentioned below.
Clifton, adopted when small boy by D. A. Moore, and died at De Kalb.

(II) George Franklin, fourth son of Stephen W. and Mary (Cooper) Slosson, was born March 5, 1854, in De Kalb. At the early age of eight years he left home and went to Ogdensburg, where he was employed in a billiard room. He subsequently served in the same manner in Watertown, Rochester, and Cleveland, Ohio, going to the latter place when fifteen years of age.
Although his opportunities for attending school were very limited, he has been a reader and student of men and affairs, and is thoroughly well informed and abreast of the times. At sixteen years of age he became cashier of the largest billiard room in the world, located at Chicago.
His total attendance at school did not exceed thirty days, but he was accustomed to study while riding on trains and at night. He was accustomed to work in the billard room from eight in the morning until one o'clock of the following morning, yet in the midst of this strenuous life, and in spite of the temptations to idleness attendant on such a life, and as a natural consequence of his short hours for rest, he kept on with his studies, and is among the best informed men of the present (1910) day.
He first opened a billard room on his own account in a small room on Vesey street, New York City, and subsequently conductred a billard room at 171 Monroe street, Chicago, and Oct. 9, 1887, took possession of his present place, which had been opened in 1863, at 22d street and Broadway, New York City.
In the meantime his fame as a billardist had become world-wide, and he traveled about the world entering contests, and crossed the ocean thirty times, and has long been known as champion of the world in all styles of billiard playing. His establishment in New York is one of the finest of its kind, having the best equipment that money can procure, and is daily thronged by people interested in that line of amusement. Mr. Slosson is a man of open and candid nature, of democratic habits, and is known and esteemed by many people on both sides of the Atlantic ocean.
He is liberal in religious belief, and classes himself as independent in politics, usually voting the Democratic ticket in local matters and sustaining the Republican party in general elections.
He married (first) October, 1886, in Chicago, Helen Foley, a native of that city, who died in 1887, leaving daughter, Katherine, who now resides with her father. He married (second) 1881, in St. Louis, Missouri, Helen Hogan, born in Chicago, daughter of John and Mary Hogan of that city.
Children: George F., Clinton, Henry and Marion.

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