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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York published by John M. Gresham & Co. in 1891.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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JAMES H. MINTON, ex-deputy-sheriff and coroner of Chautauqua county, and the proprietor of the well-known “Minton House,” of Westfield, is a son of James and Theodosia (Reeves) Minton, and was born in Auburn, Cayuga county, New York, January 3, 1816. He traces his paternal ancestry back to his grandfather, Stephen Minton, who was, in all probability, a native of New Jersey, and whose son James Clinton (father), was born in 1783. James Minton was a stone-mason by trade, and assisted in building the old State penitentiary at Auburn. He was an excellent mechanic and died in 1826, aged forty-three years. He married Theodosia Reeves, who was a native of Connecticut, and whose father, Israel Reeves, the first jailer of the prison at Auburn, served in the Revolutionary war, and experienced all the hardships of being a British prisoner of war for several months. Their eldest daughter, Emily C. (now eighty-two years of age), married Lewis Pullman, and three of her sons are: George M. Pullman, inventor of the “Pullman Palace Car,” and Revs. James Minton and Royal Henry Pullman, distinguished ministers of the Universalist church. Another daughter, Hannah M. Da Lee, resides in Illinois. Mrs. Theodosia Minton survived her husband until 1856, when she passed away, in the sixty-sixth year of her age.

James H. Minton, at fourteen years of age came with his mother to Brocton, this county, where he attended school for some time, cut cord-wood and assisted his mother in maintaining her family. At eighteen years of age he commenced to work with Lewis Pullman at the trade of carpenter and joiner, which he followed for ten years. He then erected a hotel building and store-room at Brocton, where he kept hotel for twenty years, and was engaged for fourteen years of the time in the mercantile business with his brother, William L., who was postmaster of that village for seven years. During the late civil war he served as a revenue assessor, and was also deputy marshal of Westfield. He was coroner of Chautauqua county for fifteen years, and in 1875 held the inquest on the twenty-two dead bodies which were recovered from the railroad disaster at “Prospect,” and officiated in the same capacity at the inquisition held on the bodies of the seven people killed by the explosion on Chautauqua lake of the old steamboat Chautauqua. In 1884 he served as deputy-sheriff under Sheriff L. T. Harrington.

In 1836 he married Sarah W. Lake, daughter of Nicholas and Eunice (Houghton) Lake, of Erie county. Mr. and Mrs. Minton are the parents of five children: Maria A., William L., who is in the real estate and hotel business; John C., of Burlington, Iowa; James V., druggist, of Westfield, and Waldo L.

In political affairs he supports the Republican party, and in every position of trust and responsibility which he has ever occupied, he has always faithfully performed his duty. He is one of the old and well-respected citizens of southwestern New York, and his hotel is well arranged and specially fitted up for the accommodation, convenience and comfort of his numerous guests.

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This family biography is one of 658 biographies included in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York published in 1891. 

View additional Chautauqua County, New York family biographies here: Chautauqua County, New York Biographies

View a map of 1897 Chautauqua County, New York here: Chautauqua County, New York Map

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