My Genealogy Hound

JOHN GIFFORD, who is the subject of this sketch, is one of the leading farmers living in the vicinity of Lakewood, Chautauqua county, New York. He is a son of Jeremiah and Deborah (Tallman) Gifford, and was born in Washington county, New York, December 25, 1806. Like most citizens of western New York, he traces back his lineage to New England ancestry. Here, in New England, while it was yet dominated by the iron rule of Puritanism, was born Bial Gifford, our subject’s paternal grandfather. He pursued the vocation of farming and later in life migrated to Washington county, New York, where he died. Mr. Tallman (maternal grandfather) was also a native of the east. Subject’s father was born in the State of Massachusetts and emigrated to Washington county, New York, in the year 1825; from thence he removed to Chautauqua county, where he settled in the town of Busti. Here he obtained one hundred and twenty acres of land from the Holland Land Company, which, at that time, was a veritable wilderness, untouched as yet by the transforming hand of the settler. His time and energies were devoted to the clearing, fencing and general preparation of his farm for plow and seed. He saw the alternation of harvest and seed time for a period of seventy-nine years, when, on February 4, 1854, he was quietly laid to rest. Politically he was a devotee of the Republican party; religiously a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

He was joined in marriage to Deborah Tallman, which union resulted in a family of nine children, five boys and four girls, all of whom are deceased except the subject.

John Gifford passed his childhood amid the wild scenic mountains and lakes of his native county — in which it is difficult indeed to find a single spot totally devoid of interest. In this county, rich in martial memories to the old settler and full of historic interest to the young, our subject also received his early education, which in those days was chiefly confined to “readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmetic” — the three R’s of the primitive school. Upon leaving school he took up the occupation of farming and is at present engaged in that business on the old homestead. He is numbered among the intelligent supporters of the Republican party, and deems it one of the first and highest privileges of American citizenship to intelligently exercise his right of suffrage. Mr. Gifford is a good citizen, generous, public-spirited and liberal to a fault; he is well posted upon current events, issues and problems and endeavors to live with an intelligent, modern conception of life.

John Gifford was married to Catherine Cornell, a daughter of Joseph Cornell, of Washington county, New York. The result of this union was two children: Jeremiah, who was first married to Henrietta Alexander, by whom he had three children — Leroy, Irving and John. He was married the second time to Caroline Briggs, but without issue. He now lives with his father and is engaged in farming; and Jennie, married to Thomas Nelson, formerly a farmer but at present in the merchandising business in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have been blest with two children — Frank and Kate — both still in childhood.