My Genealogy Hound

HERMAN SIXBEY is a son of Charles and Mary Ann (Sherman) Sixbey, and was born in Montgomery county, New York, September 8th, 1838. His grandfather, John Sixbey, was of Dutch extraction, of good family and was born in the State of New York, in the Mohawk valley, where his father had been one of the original Knickerbockers. From New York he emigrated to the State of Michigan, where he died, being at the time of his death a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. His wife was a woman of like extraction and birth and bore him fourteen children. Maternal grandfather, John Sherman, was of English extraction and lived and died in Schoharie county, where he occupied himself farming. During the war of 1812 he was captain of a detachment of cavalry and served in that war with bravery and merit. He united in marriage with Tirzah Smith, of English lineage and a descendant of an old Revolutionary family. She bore her husband six children. Charles Sixbey, father of Herman, was given birth in the Mohawk Valley, New York, and, like his father, emigrated to Michigan, where he died at the early age of thirty. He was a wagon-maker by trade, voted with the whigs and communed with the methodists. He was the father of three children: Charles, killed on the D. A. V. & P. R. R. while employed as brakeman; Mary A., wife of Fred Dutton, of Sherman; and Herman.

On August 3d, 1863, Herman Sixbey was united in marriage to Marianna R. Buck, daughter of Edwin Buck, by whom he has the following children: De Witt, an assistant in his father’s store; Mary Adelia, Carlton B. and Arthur W.

Herman Sixbey was educated in the common schools and at the age of twenty engaged in the mercantile business at Westfield, New York, where he remained about three years. On August 1st, 1862, when the peace of our country was disturbed by the outbreak of the civil war, he enlisted in the 112th regiment, N. Y. Volunteer Infantry, and served until February 3d, 1865. During the first year of his service he was advanced from the rank of a private through the several official gradations to the rank of first lieutenant and finally received the recommendation for a captaincy. He took part in the following battles and engagements: The siege of Suffolk, the skirmishes around Richmond, battle of Cold Harbor, Drury’s Bluff and the siege of Petersburg (at which he received a severe wound in the face through the famous mine explosion), and for three years his life hung by a mere thread. After his discharge from the service he returned to civil life at Westfield, where he received the appointment of assistant collector of internal revenue. He served one term of three years as clerk of Chautauqua county, at the expiration of which he embarked in business in Mayville, where he conducts one of the largest general stores in that village, carrying a stock of some fifteen thousand dollars. He is a stanch republican in politics, a Royal Arch Mason, and present Master of Peacock Lodge, at Mayville, a member of the A. O. U. W. and a member of the G. A. R.