Biographies
from
The History of Otsego County, New York
1740-1878
D. Hamilton Hurd
Published by Everts & Fariss, Philadelphia
EMMONS, Carleton - Oneonta
Major Asa EMMONS, father of the subject of this memoir, was
married to Eunice PRENTICE, and was during the latter part of the
eighteenth century a merchant in Harpersfield, Delaware Co., N.Y.
About the year 1800 he removed to the town of Oneonta, Otsego County,
and purchased several hundred acres of timber and land bordering on
the banks of the Susquehanna river, and engaged extensively in
lumbering, and by means of rafts on the river transported his lumber
to Baltimore and other ports. He also, after clearing the land, carried
on farming. He was an active business man, possessing that resolution
and energy so characteristic of the men of that day. He died in
Maryland, while the making sale of his lumber, in the year 1820.
Amid all his business Major Emmons did not forget the education
of his children, but gave them the advantages of the schools at Hudson,
Cooperstown, and other places. He received his title of major by
regular gradations from the rank and file in the State militia, and was
familiarly associated with the military parades on Fourth of July
celebrations, and as far back as 1819 the Otsego Herald says, "After
making a few pertinent remarks, Major Emmons read the Declaration of
Independence, followed by the orator of the day, Wm. S. STOW, Esq."
Major Emmons was well read in the current events of his times,
and his son, Carleton, has preserved until 1878 some of the choice
papers, one of which is The Balance, a paper printed At Hudson in 1808.
The Emmons family is supposed to be descended from English
stock, and to be of New England extraction. Mrs. Major Emmons was
a native of Harpersfield; survived her husband some nineteen years;
re-married (her second husband's name being William FAIRCHILD),
and died in the year 1839.
Carleton was third child in the family of seven children; a native
of Otsego County, born Feb. 26, 1804. He has lived through the various
changes from a wilderness to the present improvement in agriculture,
wealth, and enterprise. He spend his early life on the farm at home,
and at the death of his father, when he was only sixteen years of age,
he assumed the responsibility and charge of his father's business (his
elder brother having been educated for a profession); also carried on
largely the lumbering interests, shipping to Washington, Philadelphia,
and other markets. This, with farming, he carried on until the year
1840, when, the estate being settled, he bought 200 acres of land near
East Oneonta, to which he has since made additions of several hundred
acres, and is now one of the largest land-owners in the county.
For some sixteen years, Mr. Emmons kept a public-house at
East Oneonta, where his hospitality, his genial disposition, his
unostentatious manner, and general good cheer were ever ready
to meet the stranger and welcome his friends.
The result of a life of activity, showing his improvements and
surroundings and one of the most desirable localities in the town,
may be seen, together with the portraits of himself and wife, on
another page of this book. In politics Mr. Emmons has been an
unswerving standard-bearer of the Democratic party; a firm supporter
of the constitution and the Union cause during the late Rebellion. Held
in such esteem by his fellow-citizens, he has held the office of justice
of the peace for some four years, and was elected to the office of
supervisor several terms.
Feb. 3, 1828, he married Miss Maria, daughter of Wm. FAIRCHILD,
of Cooperstown.
Mrs. Emmons early in life became identified with the Episcopal
church, remaining warmly attached to its interests until her death, Aug.
1, 1871. She was a devoted wife and mother, and especially honored
and respected by all who knew her for her many virtues.
To Mr. & Mrs. Emmons were born two children, Delos W., who
married Miss Mary STODDARD, of Oneonta, and now resides in
Huntingtoin, West Virginia, and is the general superintendent of the
Chesapeake and Ohio railroad lands at that city; Roxy A., widow of
the late Julius T. ALDIN, of Little Falls, N.Y.
Mr. Emmons is now in his seventy-fourth year, retaining to a
remarkable degree the activity of both body and mind common to
men much younger in years.
Excerpt from History of Otsego Co., NY, page 237--
[Note: East Oneonta in above sketch is Emmons, located at the
east end of Oneonta. Also Carleton & his wife, his mother Eunice
Emmons Fairchild, and his daughter Roxey A. Emmons ALDEN &
husband, with son Julius, Jr. & Mary Emmons Alden which may be
Julius Jr.'s wife) are all buried in Riverside Cemetery in Oneonta.]