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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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JOHN HILLIARD is one of the men to whom several of the best citizens and firms of Dunkirk owe the solidity and durability of their residences and places of business. He was born on Staten Island, New York, October 26, 1842, and is a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Tims) Hilliard. His father, Samuel Hilliard, was of Quaker ancestry, born in New Jersey, in 1808, spending his early youth in that State and in Philadelphia, Pa. He was a contracting mason by occupation, moved to Staten Island in 1839, where he worked at his trade until 1844, moved to and resided in Buffalo until 1849 and then came to Dunkirk to complete the Loder House, which was opened to the public late in 1850, when the Erie railroad was completed to Dunkirk. He moved his family here in 1850, and for twenty-three years was foreman of the masons in the employ of the western division of the Erie railroad. In religion he was an attendant at the Episcopal church and politically was a democrat. He was a member of the Board of Education at Dunkirk for two years and was a very energetic man. In 1839 he married Elizabeth Tims, a native of England, who came to America when quite young, and they were the parents of ten children, six sons and four daughters. Mr. Hilliard died in 1882, at the age of seventy-four years, and Mrs. Hilliard in 1884, aged sixty-three years.

John Hilliard came to Dunkirk with his parents in October, 1850, and received his education in the common schools of that place. He then learned the trade of a mason and for the last twenty years has been engaged in contracting and building, and among the buildings which show his handiwork are the Avery, Bookstaver, Brooks and Hinman residences, St. Mary’s Retreat, the offices and additions of the Brooks Locomotive Works and scores of others. Since the organization of the Brooks Locomotive Works in 1869, he has done all their mason work and is accounted as skilled a workman as this section affords. He is a member of St. John’s Episcopal church, of which he is also a vestryman, is a democrat in politics and has been a member of the common council. He is a member of Dunkirk Chapter, No. 191, R. A. M., and Dunkirk Council, No. 25.

John Hilliard, on May 1st, 1872, was married to Alice Cruser, a daughter of Samuel Cruser, of Dunkirk, and to their union have been born three children, one son and two daughters: Maud, Ethel, and John, whose ages are respectively, eighteen, sixteen and nine years.

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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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