Martin B. Luther, son of Elisha and Love (Coit) Luther, was born in 
Clarendon, Vt., May 12, 1803, the youngest of five children.  
When he was twenty years of age, he came with his parents to this 
county, and settled in District no. 15, town of Unadilla, on the 
farm where they and he lived and died.  Mrs. Love Luther died 
when fifty-six years of age, and Elisha Luther in June, 1846, at 
the age of ninety-one, he having been born December 13, 1755.  
They were both natives of Connecticut, and were married in New 
London, that State.  For some years, first in Connecticut and 
later in Vermont, he followed his trades of a tanner and currier 
and shoemaker, also serving as an artificer through the 
Revolutionary War.  After the death of his first wife, named 
above, he married Mrs. Lucy (Kelley) Randall, who survived him 
many years, and died in 1871, at the age of eighty-five. She was 
born May 29 1786.

The father of Elisha Luther was Ellis Luther.  He was born in Rhode 
Island in 1711, and died in Vermont in 1798.  He was a son of 
Edward Luther, who died in Rhode Island, and was supposed to be 
the son of one of the three brothers who came from Wales to 
America, though the family originally emigrated to England from 
Germany, and was of the same stock as the great religious 
reformer, Martin Luther.  An old carpenter's square owned by 
Edward Luther, bearing the date 1704, is now in the family of 
Mrs. Martin B. Luther, and is of course a valuable relic and 
heirloom.  Also a chest that belonged to Nathaniel Coit (a sea 
captain, father of Mrs. Love Luther), which was broken open by 
Benedict Arnold's men, when his house in New London, Conn., was 
rummage during the Revolutionary War.  Captain Coit saved his 
house, and perhaps his life, by giving the Masonic sign to a 
British officer.

Martin B. Luther, as has been stated, was nearly of age when his 
parents came into this county.  Here he entered the mercantile 
business in Sidney, continuing it in Sangerfield, Oneida County, 
until failing health obliged him to return home, when he pursued 
his favorite occupation, surveying, devoting his leisure hours to 
the study of law and medical science.  After the death of his 
father, he applied himself more to farming.  He was a very 
prominent man, for many years an ardent Mason, a deep and sound 
thinker, fond of science, and a man whose influence was felt in 
his community.  While he was in most things firm and decided, he 
was in all things reasonable and consistent.  In politics he was 
a Democrat, and was somewhat of a politician.  He held to no 
church creed, but respected the religious opinions of his 
fellowmen.  His death took place June 4, 1890.  He was married on 
the farm where he spent his last days, and in the house in which 
he died, to Miss Harriet K. Randall, the youngest daughter of 
Eliab and Lucy (Kelley) Randall.  She was born in Wardsboro, Vt., 
June 25, 1815, and came to Bainbridge, Chenango County, with her 
mother in 1822, removing to Unadilla when her mother married 
Elisha Luther, the father of Martin B.

After their marriage Martin B. Luther and wife settled on his farm, 
where Mrs. Luther still resides.  This farm contains 160 acres, 
and is well improved, with good farm buildings.  Mrs. Luther is 
the mother of one daughter, Mary C., who is well educated and has 
been a teacher in the public schools.  She is an accomplished 
young lady, and is a member of the Episcopal Church.  Martin B. 
Luther was for some years a Justice of the Peace, and Supervisor 
of his town; he was a well educated man, and a competent surveyor.