My Genealogy Hound

JAMES COCHRANE, who for eighty years was a resident and farmer of the town of Ripley, living in the village, was a son of Alexander and Nancy (Martin) Cochrane, and was born in the town of Ripley, Chautauqua county, N.Y., April 4, 1811, and died May 14, 1891. His paternal grandfather, Hugh Cochrane, was a native of Ireland, where he lived and died, the scene being Woodgrange, County Down. He belonged to the peasant class in which he was a representative man. He married Nancy Beatty and reared a family of eleven children; but three are mentioned: Alexander, Robert and Hugh. The maternal grandfather was John Martin, also a native of Ireland, where he passed his life and died. The three brothers mentioned above all came to America and settled in Ripley, Chautauqua county, New York. Robert was twice married, had thirteen children, and died in October, 1854. Hugh married Sarah Nesbit before he left Ireland, and reared eight children; he died early in 1854.

Alexander Cochrane was a protestant, or what is known as a Scotch-Irishman. He was the first settler in Ripley town, having bought his farm in October of 1804. Some authorities state that he entered the town in 1802, which may be correct. His is the first name that appears on the Holland Land Company’s books as a purchaser in this town, He took a tract of three hundred acres and built a house, in which his entire family of thirteen children were born. Politically he was a whig, and an elder in the Presbyterian church. Alexander Cochrane was born at Woodgrange, County Down, Ireland, where he married Nancy Martin shortly before leaving for America. Their children were: John, Nancy, the wife of W. A. Robinson; Hugh, Alexander, Robert, William, Samuel, Margaret, who married Jediah Loomis; James, Martin, Andrew, David and Eleanor. The number of his grandchildren reached sixty-four. All of the above-mentioned are dead except Eleanor, who married a Mr. Dickson. Alexander Cochrane died in l856 at Ripley, New York, aged ninety years.

James Cochrane was reared on his father’s large farm. He married Nancy Johnston, a daughter of John Johnston, who was a native of Woodgrange, County Down, Ireland, brought his family to Westfield, this county, and died in 1852. James Cochrane and his wife reared nine children: Joseph A. resides in Rochester, New York; Elizabeth A. lives in Eureka, Kansas; Francis Johnston resides on a portion of the old farm; Catherine is living in Eureka, Kansas; Mary E. is living in the old home, so long made bright by her kind parents; Sarah A. married Alexander Cochrane, who lives on a farm in East Ripley; Julia Etta died in 1878, aged twenty-three years; James Alexander owns the east part of the farm that belonged to his grandfather and lives upon it; and Charles F., who resides on a portion of the farm formerly owned by his father.

Farming was the steady employment of James Cochrane all his life, until he bought the property where he died in Ripley village, and moved there in 1887. Mrs. Cochrane died May 9, 1891, only five days before her husband.