My Genealogy Hound

ARIOCH LAPHAM. Of the many old families, of which Chautauqua county has an abundant supply, none has kept its record more accurately, nor extends farther into antiquity with indisputable clearness than that of Arioch Lapham, whose grandfather of the seventh generation, John Lapham, was a weaver at Devonshire, England, and came from there about 1650 and settled in Providence, Rhode Island. He married Mary Mann, a daughter of William Mann, who lived at the future capital of the little state, and after beginning to keep house, had it burned on the night of March 29th, 1676, by a band of Indians who belonged to King Philip’s red-skinned warriors. He was the father of four sons and one daughter: Thomas; William; John; Nicholas (six generations remote from our subject); and Mary, who married a Charles Dyer. Nicholas Lapham married Marcy Arnold, who bore him five children: Nicholas; Abigail; Arnold; Rebecca; and, following the line of succession, Solomon, who was born August 1st, 1730, and died June 24th, 1800. He married his second cousin, Sylvia Lapham, and reared seven children: Dutee, married first, Mary Caldwell, second, Mrs. Amanda Wheeler; William united with Susannah Ballon, of Burrillsville, Rhode Island; Ruth; Rhoda became the wife of Martin Harris; Rebecca was first the wife of Benjamin Smith and then of Elisha Brown; Zodock, born in 1764, died when five years old; and Thomas.

Arioch Lapham is the son of Arioch and Eunice (Sherman) Lapham and was born near Sherwood, Cayuga county, New York, January 16th, 1821. His grandfather, before mentioned, Thomas Lapham, was born at Smithfield, Rhode Island, on April 3d, 1761, and moved to Cayuga county, New York, some thirty-four years after. About 1800 he bought a farm of two hundred and fifty acres of land near Sherwood and followed farming all his life, dying between 1835-40. Thomas Lapham was a member of the Baptist church, in which he was a deacon. He married Thankful Smith, a daughter of John Smith, of Gloucester, Rhode Island, and by this union there came nine children: Cynthia married Elijah Kemp; Sally wedded Benjamin Waldron; Amalek united with Charlotte Bullard; Sinai became the wife of Nathaniel Tibbels; Winsor married Elmina Dunham; Sidney was the husband of Jane McComber; Cyrene was the wife of Jesse Moss; Alva married Laura Hanna; and Arioch, father of subject. The maternal grandfather of Arioch Lapham, Jr. was Charles Sherman, a native of Massachusetts. He moved from Dartmouth about 1800 and settled in the town of Venice, Cayuga county, where he owned a farm of one hundred acres. He also had a tract of four hundred acres in Ohio, in what was known as the Connecticut Fire Land. He spent his life in farming and died about 1820. Mr. Sherman’s wife’s maiden name was Lois West, who became the mother of six children: Jonathan was a farmer in Indiana; Charles died young; Benjamin was an agriculturist in Erie county, New York; Eunice is subject’s mother; Edith became Mrs. Dorcey Roberts; and Lois married Samuel Rogers. Arioch Lapham, Sr., was born in Smithfield, Rhode Island, and, moving with his parents to Cayuga county,New York, worked upon his father’s farm until he was twenty-one years of age. He afterward joined David Thomas’ engineer corps, then engaged in the construction of the Erie canal. While this work was in progress he sickened and died at Middleport, Niagara county, in November, 1820, two months before the birth of our subject. He married Eunice Sherman about 1815 and three children, all sons, were born: Charles, a farmer in Iowa, married Olivia Winship, but is now dead; George was a farmer of Erie county, New York, living in Eden. He married first, Lurena Newell and second, Mrs. Mary A. Rogers. Many years after the death of her husband, Mrs. Lapham married Deacon Benjamin Seamons, and died in 1868.

Arioch Lapham was educated in the public schools of Cayuga and Erie counties and at the age of twenty, entered the store of Thomas Russel, of Collins, Erie county, as a clerk. After working two years he bought his former employer out and conducted the business himself for four years and then selling out to B. W. Sherman, he went to Buffalo and clerked for Pratt & Co. One year after he moved to Greenwich, Huron county, Ohio, and embarked in mercantile life, continuing for four years. He then came back to Erie county, where, in connection with his brother-in-law, Charles Smith, he built a large tannery. A year after, he sold out to Mr. Smith and returned to Ohio, the scene of his first home, and again followed mercantile pursuits until 1859. Then Mr. Lapham bought a farm of fifty acres in Erie county. For eighteen years he was a member of the firm of Smith & Lapham, wholesale grocers, on Seneca street, Buffalo. In 1882 he purchased a handsome property in Fredonia and moved into it, where he now lives a retired life. While living in Ohio, he served as postmaster under both Presidents Pierce and Buchanan.

On December, 30th, 1842, Mr. Lapham married Sylvia Smith, a daughter of Humphrey and Deborah (Kniffen) Smith, a farmer, tanner and currier, at Collins. Erie county, New York, and by this marriage there has been one daughter, Ella G, a graduate of Vassar College in the class of 1876.

Arioch Lapham is a member of the Universalist church and a gentleman of upright character. Few, if any, families of the United States can produce an ancestral tree with the trunk so strongly intact, or with its escutcheon so free from blemish.