My Genealogy Hound

A. H. LIBBY, who served for twenty-one years as foreman of the H. G. Brooks Locomotive works, of Dunkirk, was born in the town of Gorham, Cumberland county, Maine, December 20, 1819, and is a son of Daniel and Martha Ann (Morton) Libby. The Libby family is of English descent and some of its members were among the earliest and foremost settlers of the province of Maine. In a book compiled and published by Charles T. Libby of Portland, Maine, the history of the Libby family is accurately traced from 1602 to 1881. Simeon Libby, the grandfather of Albert H. Libby, was a Maine farmer, born September 3, 1755, and served as a soldier in one of the Indian wars of the frontier and in the War of 1812. He died March 11, 1830, when considerably past his four-score years of age. His son, Daniel Libby (father), was born on the home farm, March 18, 1792, and learned the trade of wheel-wright and carpenter, which he followed for some years before turning his attention to farming. He was an attendant of the Methodist Episcopal church, a strong democrat, like his father before him, and died in Gorham, Maine, May 11, 1826, at the early age of thirty-four years. His wife, Martha Ann Morton, was a Methodist and a native of Gorham, where she died in 1821, when but twenty-one years of age.

Albert H. Libby grew to manhood in his native town. As his parents died when he was quite small he was compelled to do for himself at an early age, and thus was able to secure but a limited education. He learned the trade of blacksmith and upon attaining his majority removed from Gorham to Portland, in the same State,where he was foreman of the Portland Company’s locomotive and machine works for twelve years. In 1860 he left his native State and came to Dunkirk where he became foreman of the H. G. Brooks Locomotive works, now the largest manufacturing establishment of the city, which position he held until 1881, when he resigned. Since leaving the locomotive works, Mr. Libby has been engaged to some extent in the real estate business, in which his investments have been reasonably profitable. He now resides with his son, Frank L. Libby.

On the 12th of August, 1845, he married Eliza A. Woodward, a daughter of Samuel Woodward, of Gorham, Maine, and who died in January, 1881, leaving three children, one son and two daughters: Josephine A., wife of Francis Lake; Clara I., married to Arthur J. Scott; and Frank L., who married Margaret J. Morris, and resides in Dunkirk. Mr. Libby has seven grandchildren: Florence I., daughter of Mrs. Lake; Emma L., Nettie L., and Gertrude A., daughters of Mrs. Scott; and Mabel S., Alice Gertrude, and Albert W. H., children of Frank L.

Politically Mr. Libby is a democrat like his father and grandfather before him, and has been a member of the common council, besides serving several terms as assessor of Dunkirk City. He is a Knight Templar in Masonry and holds membership in Irondequoit Lodge, No. 301, Free and Accepted Masons, Dunkirk, N. Y., Dunkirk Chapter, No. 191, High Royal Arch Masons and Dunkirk Commandery, No. 40, Knights Templar, and is a past master and a past high priest.