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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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SIMEON CLINTON was well known to the early citizens of Arkwright town, having for many years followed the profession of surveying, and thereby coming in contact with most of the early settlers. He was born in Saratoga county, this State, on the third day of February, 1779, and went from there to Otsego county, from whence he came to Chautauqua and settled in the town of Arkwright in 1813. Being a bright and intelligent man and of a companionable disposition, he attained considerable prominence in the northeast portion of the county and about 1825 it is said that he made the first survey and plot of the village of Dunkirk; he performed a similar service for Sinclairville some years later. Mr. Clinton kept the first tavern in the town of Arkwright and was also the first postmaster, holding the position for twenty years; politically he was a whig and was town-clerk and justice of the peace for several terms. In 1859, during a thunder shower, he and an only son were in a barn and upon leaving the building, when just in the act of closing the door, he was struck by lightning and killed. The son was prostrated but soon recovered. Simeon Clinton had a family consisting of a son already mentioned and five daughters. The last of the latter being triplets, all of them are now dead. A grandson of Mr. Clinton, Charles Cole, a son of Milton Cole, has been town-clerk of Arkwright, a highly respectable man.

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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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