My Genealogy Hound

DR. JOSEPH C. GIFFORD, a successful and one of the oldest dentists of Westfield, Chautauqua county, has been successful in three widely different kinds of business, exhibiting a versatility and powers of application quite unusual in a single individual. He is a son of William and Phoebe (Cornell) Gifford, and was born in the town of Ellery, Chautauqua county, New York, September 18th, 1826. His paternal grandfather, Jeremiah Gifford, was one of the early settlers of this county, removing hither from Washington county, this State, and settling on lot No. 23, in the town of Busti, where he pursued farming until his death. William Gifford (father) was a prominent man of Chautauqua county; he was born in Washington county in 1797, and came here in 1824, settling in the town of Ellery the following year, where he engaged in farming and lumbering. In 1832 he was appointed keeper of the poor-house, and held that position until 1841, and then moved to Mayville, where he lived until death called him, in 1885, when he had reached the age of eighty-eight years. He held the offices of county superintendent of the poor, 1840-1843; county treasurer, 1847-56, a period of nine years, and was then elected justice of the peace, and held that office for a number of years. Originally he was a whig, but after the war he voted with the democrats. When a young man he became a member of the Methodist church, and throughout his life held many offices in that body, being always an active and influential member, and making his house the temporary home of every traveling preacher. He married Phoebe Cornell, of White Creek, Washington county, by whom he had five sons: Edson, Horace H., George W., Joseph C. and James. His wife, Phoebe Cornell Gifford, survived her husband three years, and died in 1888, aged eighty-five years.

Joseph C. Gifford, after receiving his education in the common schools and the Jamestown academy, left the farm to engage with his brother, Horace H. Gifford, in the carding and cloth dressing business at Panama, this county, and they afterward moved to Wrightsville, Warren county, Pennsylvania, of which latter place he was a resident for eight years. In 1852 he came to Westfield and engaged in the hardware business; he followed it for four years, in the meantime studying dentistry, and began to practice this profession in 1856, and by close application to business in a few years he succeeded in establishing an extensive practice, which he has maintained ever since. In religion Dr. Gifford is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Westfield, in which body he has been recording steward for thirty-nine years. Politically he is a democrat, and is a member and Past Master of Summit Lodge, No. 219, F. and A. M., of Westfield; he is also chaplain and Past High Priest of Westfield Chapter Royal Arch Masons.

Joseph C. Gifford is one of Westfield’s best citizens in every sense of the word, broad and liberal-minded, kind, genial and generous, foremost in good works and with a large array of friends.

On January 19, 1848, he married Rachel R. Messenger, a daughter of Chauncey Messenger, of Wrightsville, Warren county. Pa. Their only child, Clarence, who was a young man of bright promise, died upon the eve of his graduation from Amherst College, in 1877, when in the twentieth year of his age. His untimely death was a source of great and lasting sorrow to his parents.