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Ancestry
Chart showing the ancestors of Donna, Mardon and Marsha Erbland,
who were the children of Donald Erbland and Marion Brown.
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This is a photograph of the marriage announcement
of Elisha Brown and Marion E. Hill(s) that appeared in the "Northern Citizen"
newspaper in Jamestown, NY, No. 48, Vol 2, WHOLE No. 100, Oct. 24, 1849 edition.
The original newspaper was photographed by Mardon Erbland (Great Grandchild of
this couple) at the Fenton Historical Society in Jamestown, NY on
2002-01-07. The Northern Citizen was the successor newspaper to
the Liberty Star in 1847 and was itself succeeded by the Chautauqua Democrat
in 1855. This announcement indicates that Rev. J.C. Allison of Perrysburg
officiated and that the marriage took place on Oct. 10, 1849 in Versailles,
Cattaraugus County. (The entire marriage announcements section of the
paper is available if you click on this image.)
The masthead for this Oct. 24, 1849 edition is also available. (Click
image for full width masthead.)
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Estimate Sheet when
Will Lincoln Brown purchased the sole interest in the store in Versailles
following the death of his father, Elisha Brown, on 1893-08-25. This is
the document that calculates how much he had to pay and to whom he paid
it. The paper was saved by Marion Brown, who wrote this
explanation. The total value of the store is shown as
$1600. Will already owned 1/2, or $800 and he had to buy the remaining 1/2
from Elisha's heirs: M.E. Brown, Alice Brown, and himself (will Brown).
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This is an Advertisement / Business
Card for the store operated by Elisha and Marion Eliza Brown ("E.
& M. E. Brown"). Elisha Brown died in 1893, so this card
presumably predates that year. The picture is on the Front
of the card and the printing is on the Back.
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Marriage Ceremony Certificate
for Stephen Jeffery & Susanah Terry. The ceremony took place 26th August
1856 in New York City before an officiating "Police Justice" who was
Matthew Brennan and the witnesses were Michael Whalen and Mary Conway. Susanah
was 24 years old and Stephen 25 years at the time according to the certificate.
(See the item regarding Stephen Jeffery's Apprenticeship
for a description of source of this document.)
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This
Deed to Norman B. Hills is dated Sept 8, 1839. It is available
at the Cattaraugus County Court House, Cattaraugus County Deeds, 1817 - 1870,
Liber 13,
pp. 255- 256. The property is located in Versailles and is conveyed to Norman B.
Hills from Martin Lindsley & wife. A transcription
of the deed is available in PDF
format.
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Deed
dated 02-FEB-1849. Cattaraugus (NY) County Deeds, Liber. 24, Page 423, Versailles
Village. Hiram Chapman and his wife Marion of the Village of Versailles sold this property
to Simeon Brown & Brothers of Brant, Erie County and Versailles, Cattaraugus
County.
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This 1854
Deed records the sale of the Versailles property from Levi & Simeon Brown and their wives to their brother Elisha
Brown. The deal was signed in October 1854 but the transaction was
not recorded until 1855. It is in the Cattaraugus County Deeds at the
courthouse in Little Valley, NY at Liber. 40, Pg. 49-50. A transcription
of the Deed in PDF
format is available
here. This deed references an 1841 Map by W.
L. Stork that is shown on our Maps Page. The
property conveyed by this deed is also shown on the Beers
& Co. 1869 Atlas map as reference number 3: "3. E. Brown
Store & P.O." At the time
this Conveyance was signed, Levi Brown was living in
Erie County (Brant Twp.) and Simeon Brown was living at Great Valley, Cattaraugus
County. Elisha was living in the Village of Versailles.
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Deed of House and Land from
Susan Jeffery to Stephen Jeffery. The transfer was dated 28th November
1892 but it was not recorded until 26th April 1899 in "Liber 176 of Deeds
at page 503". The description of the land is given and the price was
"One Dollar".
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The Invoice
for the funeral expenses of Stephen Jeffrey's burial is shown here. It
was paid by his son, Eulice Jeffrey. The photocopy of this document was
obtained from the Valley Hill Mortuary in Sunnyside, Yakima county, Washington
state, who have the original burial records of the Ball Funeral Home. Many
thanks to the Randon Acts of
Genealogical Kindness volunteer (who I won't name in public here) for
her help in obtaining this record!
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The "GAZETTEER AND
BUSINESS DIRECTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, N. Y. FOR 1874-75, COMPILED
AND PUBLISHED BY HAMILTON CHILD."
The
Perrysburg section appears on Pages 85-86.
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Page 598
of "The Historic Annals of Southwestern New
York", Editor-In-Chief and Editor of Cattaraugus County Section; William J. Doty, Editor of Cattaraugus County Section, Charles E. Congdon; Volume II; Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc.; New York, NY,
1940, contains a brief summary of important people in the settling of
Perrysburg.
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Sections of the "HISTORICAL
GAZETTEER AND BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORIAL OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, N.Y.
WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS. EDITED BY WILLIAM ADAMS. SYRACUSE,
N.Y. LYMAN, HORTON & CO., LIMITED OCTOBER, 1893." have
been transcribed.
Chapter XLI is devoted to
Perrysburg with specific comments about Versailles. This chapter is entitled "HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PERRYSBURG."
Dr. W. M. Ward,
is referred to on page 110 of the Gazetteer.
This is presumably the same "Dr.
Ward" whose photograph is marked as a friend of W. L. Brown.
Likewise, Dr. James W. Peebles, who is listed on page
160 of the Gazetteer, is probably the same "Dr.
Peebles" whose photograph is in the Brown family photo collection. Return to Index, Top
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Elisha Brown's role as
Justice of the Peace is shown on page 755 of the book "Indian
Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II.",
complied and edited by Charles J. Kappler, LL. M., and published in 1904
by the Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. This
partial transcript, includes page 755 which quotes an 1856 affidavit
signed by Elisha Brown in his role as Justice of the Peace for Perrysburgh,
Cattaraugus County, NY. This affidavit was associated with the
Treaty with the Stockbridge and Munsee Indians in 1856. The
affidavit was issued by Elisha to verify that a Power of Attorney had been
freely signed before him by 10 persons from New York who were authorizing
their attorneys to handle the money and paperwork associated with the
Stockbridge and Munsee Treaty. They were expecting to receive money
from the Treaty that would allow them to move from New York to new homes
in Wisconsin.
According to Adam's 1893 Historical
Gazetteer of Cattaraugus County, Elisha Brown served as Justice of the
Peace for Perrysburgh in the the following years: 1852, 1856, 1860,
1864, 1870 and 1871.
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The "HISTORY OF
CATTARAUGUS CO., NEW YORK. WITH Illustrations and Biographical Sketches OF
SOME OF ITS PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS." by L. H.
Everts, 1879.
A brief
biography of William M. Brown appears on the page following Page
210. William M. Brown has no known relationship to Will Lincoln Brown and
Elisha Brown.
The Perrysburg Section spans pages 239 to 248 of Everts'
History and includes several pages of lithographs that are unnumbered. A
transcription of the Perrysburg section of Evert's is available in Adobe
Acrobat (pdf) format. Two files are available. You may want to be
selective about these documents depending upon the speed of your Internet
connection.
Perrysburg
Section of Everts's History - Complete (Warning - Large File -
Approx. 3 MB.)
Perrysburg
Section of Everts's History - Without Lithograph
Images.
(Notice: File is approx 700
KB.)
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The "History
of The City of Buffalo & Erie County, With Illustration and
Biographical Sketches of Some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers In Two
Volumes", Edited by H. Perry Smith
and published by D. Mason & Co., 1844.
Page 627 of this book mentions Simon Brown and Levi
Brown. They are both said to have served as Town Clerks: Simon from
1845 to1847 and 1850 to 1853 Levi from 1848 to 1849. Levi Brown and
Simeon Brown were two of the brothers of Elisha
Brown, of Versailles, Cattaraugus County. When the book mentions
Simon, it is thought to have been Simeon.
Brant
Section Transcription
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The "History of
Versailles" was taken from an oral presentation made by Eber
Russell to a gathering in Versailles about 1962 and is available
here in Adobe Acrobat format. A short Bio
for Eber Russell is available here.
The source material for this
transcription was photocopies of documents prepared by Joyce Ferris Swan (now
deceased). This source material is available at the Patterson Library, 40 S. Portage Street, Westfield, NY 14787-1496.
The Call Number is (NIC)NYCH96M-640-0030.
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Postcard -This card is believed to
have some connection with Eulice R. Jeffrey, son of Stephen Jeffrey, who
died 1904-04-24 at Sunnyside, Yakima County, Washington. He is buried
in Sunnyside Cemetery. The handwriting on the postcard is dated 2/28/23.
The reverse side is the "Show
Place" refered to in the note.
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U.S. Serial Set, Number 4015,
56th Congress, 1st Session. The first June 30th entry shown on Pages
662 and 663 contains the Holland Land Company grant to the Seneca nation
that created the shape of the Cattaraugus Reservation as it existed at the time
of Elisha and Will Brown. Page 663
refers to areas 36, 37 and 45 of a map that is on the
maps page of this site. The existence of the
reservation in this form, containing 21,680 acres, was confirmed on January 15,
1838 as recorded in the U.S.
Serial Set, Number 4015, 56th Congress, 1st Session, Pages 768 and 769.
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Page images from a Daybook of a Versailles Blacksmith.
These images are scans of black and white photocopies made on 2002-01-07.
The pages shown here are dated 1842 and March 2, 1843. They are typical of the
other pages in the book. The name of the Blacksmith could not be
found. The pages of the original book were very orangish-brown in color. This
book was at the Fenton Historical Society in Jamestown, N.Y. and catalogued as
item MA449. [The NY State catalogue numbering system reference is: (NIC) NYCH44R-230-0001
Account books, 1827-1860,] It was donated to the Fenton Historical Society
in 1964 by a resident of Jamestown.
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Souvenir Program from the
"Versailles Farmers' Club" meeting and house warming, held on February
24, 1912, at the Rheinland Farm, the home of Mr. & Mrs. H. J. Colvenbach.
This program lists the names, ages and community of residence for all the people
who attended this meeting.
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Versailles
anecdotes from past years fill this
transcription of oral reminisces about Versailles history (click
here to view). The transcribed discussion is thought to have taken place
about 1983 or 1984. As per our privacy statement,
we avoid including material on this web site that relates to living persons or
modern-day information. Since the discussion transcribed in this tape took place
"only" 2 decades ago, it would not normally be presented here.
However, because the subject of the transcribed material is Versailles's
history, and because the people involved obviously held this discussion as a way
of preserving the village's history, the inclusion of this transcript seems appropriate. If anyone has concerns in this regard, please send
us an email.
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This drawing was sent to Don
and Marion Erbland (nee Brown) in 1950 by Walter Browne Hayward, the son of Alice Brown, making him the first cousin of Marion Erbland.
The letter containing this drawing was dated "June 23 - 9:30 P.M."
In addition to the drawing, the envelope (postmarked at Versailles, June 26)
contained a one page letter that included the following sentences, "Don am sending a card so you can see we have some small reptils here. Perfectly harmless though. Had you not been so afraid and gone ahead as Marion & I you might of seen
one."
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The Olean Democrat
(newspaper) for 25-JUN-1885, on page 4, contains a list of real estate transfers
that had been filed in the office of the County Clerk, Cattaraugus County,
during the week ended Saturday, June 20, 1885. Among the transfers listed
is one dated
Aug. 6, 1859, in Perrysburg, for $350 to Norman B. Hills, from Joseph Taylor
and another [person], and a second transfer in Perrysburg to Elisha Brown and
another [person] from
Hiram Chapman, dated April 111, 1879, for $550.
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"The Longfellow Birthday
Book" was given to Will Lincoln Brown on 22-SEP-1884. In it
are marked the birthdates of many of Will's friends and relatives. A
transcription of a small portion of the book is available by clicking on the
image below. As time permits, more pages will be added to the
transcription. In the meantime, all of the hand-written names
and dates have been transcribed into a PDF
document..
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Donald Erbland's family history
notebook contains this page that reads, "Elisha Brown / June
15,1950, Nina Morehead told me that Elisha Brown had a / brother Levi and a
sister Mary who married a man named Willis. / Donald Erbland".
"Nina" was the name commonly used for "Anirah Agnes Morehead (nee
Hayward)", granddaughter of Elisha Brown. This refers to "Mary
W. Brown" who married "Zennius Willis." They had a son
named "Orlando N. Willis," who was born about 1852 in Erie County NY.
The family is listed in the 1850 census as "Zenas Willis", Buffalo Ward 2,
Erie County, NY, Page 187, Roll M432_501. In the 1855
census, Mary was living in the same house with her brother Levi Brown.
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