My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES B. STURDEVANT officiates as station agent for the Erie railway at Kennedy, and by his courteous and obliging manner has become popular with the traveling public and highly esteemed by the company which he serves. He was born on the 28th of December, 1844, near the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, and is a son of Asel O. and Sarah (Hall) Sturdevant.

Levi Sturdevant, the paternal grandfather, was a native of Connecticut, and was born about 1765. He emigrated from his native State to Onondaga county. New York, in 1790, and about thirty-five years later again moved, this time to Erie county, Pennsylvania, where he died after having spent his entire life farming. He married and reared a family of nine children, — five sons and four daughters. John C. Hall, who was the maternal grandfather of subject, was a native of Onondaga county, born about 1770, and died in Lafayette, the same county, when sixty-five years of age. He followed farming, and married a Miss Conkling in 1790; she bore him eight children, — one son and seven daughters. He belonged to the Whig party, and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Asel O. Sturdevant was born at Fabius, Onondaga county, January 6, 1812, and spent his childhood and youth on a farm. Later in life he purchased a property, and conducted farming in connection with some mechanical work. He married Sarah Hall on January 1, 1833, who bore him nine children: Chandler D., dead; John W., dead; Clarissa A., married William Briggs, of Union City, Pa.; Henry C, killed at White Oak Swamp, Va., June 30, 1862, a member Company I, 6lst N. Y. Vols.; Guy H., died in Andersonville, Ga., Sept. 4, 1864, a corporal Company I, 1,5th N. Y. Cav.; Charles B.; Orlando J., resides at Jamestown; Harriet A. is the wife of George Ames, of Jamestown, and S. Jeannette, who also lives at the last-named city with her husband, Alonzo L. Moore. Asel O. Sturdevant voted with the Republican party, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and belonged to Clement Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Union City, Pa. He was of a modest and retiring disposition, and assiduously attended to his personal affairs, and died at Jamestown, N. Y., April 16, 1888, at seventy-five years of age.

Charles B. Sturdevant, although born in the Keystone State, spent his early days at Truxton and Fabius, New York. He attended the public schools, and worked upon his father’s farm until 1862, and then went back to Pennsylvania and worked on a farm until 1863, when he joined Company I, 15th New York Cavalry, commanded by Col. R. M. Richardson, and was assigned to service in the Army of Northern Virginia. Col. J. J. Coppinger succeeded Col. Richardson in command of this regiment, and it operated in the Shenandoah and parallel valleys. Mr. Sturdevant served twenty-three months as a private and corporal. The regiment, was attached to the Second Brigade, Third Cavalry Division, which was successively under Generals Hunter, Sigel, Sheridan and Custer, and was frequently engaged during 1864. Early the following year they left Shenandoah valley, and marched to White House Landing, where they combined with General Grant’s army, and moved towards Petersburg via City Point. From this time on, Mr. Sturdevant was in all the cavalry engagements up to Lee’s surrender in 1865. He did special service in the adjutant general’s office at brigade and division headquarters, and was discharged at Louisville, Kentucky, August 9, 1865. Following his discharge, he came to Union City, Pennsylvania, and began railroading in 1866-67 as baggage master; then from 1868 to 1873 as agent at Stamburg, Cattaraugus county, and since the latter date — a period of eighteen years — he has been stationed here in Kennedy, where he is station agent for the N. Y., L. E. and W. Railway.

The day before Christmas, 1867, he was married to Sarah Agnew, a daughter of Andrew Agnew, of Union City, Pa., and they have had two children. The elder, born in 1869, died when three years of age, and Clara B., now married to Rev. W. A. Heath, a Methodist minister stationed at Sugar Grove, Pa. They have two children, — Mabel Arline, born December 26, 1889, and Charles Vincent, born June 14, 1891. Rev. W. A. Heath was born at Brockport, N. Y., in 1864, and received his theological education at Wesleyan University. His first charge was at Russell, Pa., Erie Conference.

Charles B. Sturdevant identifies himself with the Republican party, and is prominent in the Methodist church, taking an active part in its affairs. For seven years he sat in the Board of Education, and is connected with Kennedy Lodge, No. 86, A. O. U. W., the Royal Templars of Temperance and H. C. Sturdevant Post, No. 282, G. A. R., being especially active in the latter. He is president of Chautanqua County Veteran Union and G. A. R. of Western New York and Northwestern Pennsvlvania for 1891.