My Genealogy Hound

JOHN A. SKINNER, cashier of the National bank of Westfield, was born in the town of Lancaster, Erie county, New York, October 14, 1848, and is a son of Rev. Levi A. and Laura (Patterson) Skinner. John A. Skinner is of English and Scotch-Irish lineage. His paternal grandfather, Levi Skinner, was a farmer and Presbyterian of Connecticut, who removed to Oneida county, this State, where he died in 1850. (For additional history of him and his family, see sketch of Edward A. Skinner.) Rev. Levi A. Skinner, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in 1811 and died at his residence at Westfield, in 1876. He entered the ministry of the Presbyterian church and preached in Erie and Chautauqua counties until loss of voice compelled him to relinquish ministerial labors in 1854. From 1854 to 1876, he was connected with the Westfield bank and its successor, the First National bank of Westfield, as cashier and stock-holder of the former and as director, cashier and president of the latter. He married Laura, daughter of John Patterson and reared a family of several children. As a minister he was earnest and successful, as a bank officer prompt and reliable and as a financier was prudent and safe.

John A. Skinner, at five years of age, was brought by his parents to Westfield where he received his early education in the public schools of that place. In 1865 he attended school at Clinton, Oneida county, this State and in the fall of 1867 entered Kimball Union academy of Meriden, New Hampshire, from which institution of learning he was graduated in 1869. In the fall of the last named year he entered Hamilton college at Clinton, this State, but was compelled to leave when well advanced in his sophomore year on account of ill health. In February, 1871, he went to Ottawa, Kansas, where he became a clerk and book-keeper of the First National bank of that place, in which his eldest brother, Edward A. Skinner (now president of the Westfield bank), was then a stock-holder. He held that position until April, 1872, when he returned to Westfield and entered the First National bank of that place as teller. That position he held until 1876, when he withdrew to embark in the fire insurance business in which he was engaged until 1884. In April of that year, at the organization of the National bank of Westfield, he was elected cashier and has served as such until the present time. Mr. Skinner was clerk of the board of village trustees for eight years and treasurer of the village for nine years. He has been treasurer of the Westfield Union school for several years and is a trustee and deacon of the Westfield Presbyterian church of which he has been a member for many years. He is one of the charter members of the Royal Arcanum, which was organized in 1878, has been a director for several years in the National bank of Westfield and is a republican in politics. He understands banking in all of its many intricate details as well as the general principles upon which it is based. Mr. Skinner is pleasant and courteous and to all whom he meets, brings to the discharge of his duties years of valuable experience and always strives to afford every possible accommodation to the business public.

In October, 1873, he united in marriage with Jennie A. York, of Westfield. To their union have been born three children, two sons and one daughter: George York, Edward Levi and Grace R.