My Genealogy Hound

ELISHA E. KILBOURN is the miller upon whom many of the farmers of Cherry Creek depend for their grinding. He is a son of William and Lydia (King) Kilbourn, and was born in this town August 24, 1836. William Kilbourn was born February 25, 1801, at Sandisfield, Berkshire county, Mass., and came to Cherry Creek March 22, 1824, where he built the first saw-mill in the town, the location being near the present site of our subject’s feed-mill on Cherry creek. He was a miller and farmer, and incidentally made linnet wheels and all kinds of spinning wheels. Politically he was a whig, and served two terms as supervisor of the town; religiously, he was a Second Adventist. William Kilbourn, on October 7, 1824, united in marriage with Lydia King, a daughter of Ward and Sallie King, who came with ox teams through the woods from Hancock, Mass., to Cherry Creek in 1817. Lydia King was born at Hancock, Berkshire county, Mass., June 11, 1804. The fruit of their union was six sons and two daughters: William R., born June 15, 1825, died November 26, 1885; Hiram, born October 21, 1827, married Lydia Carr, June 17, 1849, and is a machinist by trade, and served in an Iowa regiment during the civil war; Lydia M., born October 10, 1829, married Samuel H. Carr, of Cherry Creek, December 27, 1848, and died May 27, 1858; Mary C., born March 29, 1832, married Ozro A. Hadley, of Cherry Creek, February 17, 1849; (Mr. Hadley was Governor of Arkansas one term after the war, and is now a large ranch owner and cattle dealer at Springer, New Mexico); Leonard W., born August 14, 1834, dead; Elisha E.; Norman G., born January 29, 1839, married Phoebe A. Graves, of Ellington; and Benjamin W., born April 3, 1841, died December 20, 1865. William Kilbourn died May 17, 1875, and his wife followed him September 23, 1886; both are buried in Cherry Creek.

Elisha E. Kilbourn was educated in the common schools and brought up in the mill, thereby becoming a thorough, practical miller. He spent from 1860 to 1883 (excepting the period from 1862 to 1865) in other towns in this county and in Pennsylvania, being employed by Sellew & Pople, who own extensive iron works at Dunkirk and other cities. Mr. Kilbourn returned to Cherry Creek in 1883, where he has since resided and built a feed-mill near the site of his father’s old saw-mill, and is operating the former. In addition to this, he has a small farm, which he has brought into a high state of fertility.

Elisha E. Kilbourn is a square-dealing, highly-respected business man and citizen. Kilbourn’s Hills are two mound-shaped piles of earth which were islands in a lake that once occupied the site where the village of Cherry Creek now stands, and marks of the waves are distinctly visible on the sandy beach skirting the base of the hills. Mr. Kilbourn was a sergeant in Company A, Sixty-eighth Regiment, New York Volunteers, served throughout the war, and is a member of Bullock Post, No. 304, G. A. R., of Cherry Creek, and has been its commander for one term. He also belongs to Lodge No. 54 of the Equitable Aid Union and Cherry Creek Lodge, No. 42, Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a republican.

On May 4, 1856, he married Philetta M. Gage, daughter of Reuben and Nancy Gage, of this town, and they have had one son and one daughter: Xenophon E., born September 21, 1860, is in business with his father; and Nellie B., born June 7, 1867, married Bradner H. Slawson, of Dunkirk. Mrs. Kilbourn died February 25, 1890, aged fifty-seven years.