My Genealogy Hound

GILES CHITTENDEN, JR., now deceased, whose portrait* appears on the opposite page, was in his life-time one of the sterling merchants of Cortland County. He lived out a long and useful life, every act of which was marked by such innate honesty of purpose and by such strict adherence to the highest principles of probity, that he left a name that is honored, and influences which are even now felt, in his chosen community.

Mr. Chittenden was born in New Milford, Conn., November 21, 1800. His father was a bearer of the same given name, and his mother was Lavinia Todd (Baldwin) Chittenden; both of them were natives of the State of Connecticut. Giles Chittenden, Sr., was taken by death before the birth of the son who was named in memory of him. The widowed mother kept her son — the subject of this history — with her till he was ten years of age, making her home a part of the time in Chatham, N. Y. In 1810 she took him to Hudson, N. Y., and placed him in the care of a good Quaker family, that he might have the advantages of study in the academy of that place, while she went to Greene, Chenango County, N. Y., to live with Israel Baldwin (her son by a former marriage). Giles remained in Hudson four years, spending the last two summers in work for his board. When fourteen he joined his mother in Greene and entered his half-brother’s store as clerk. Two years later a merchant in Greene started a branch store in Lisle and put young Chittenden in charge of it. At the end of a year he was offered a position as teller in the Chenango Bank, at Norwich, which he accepted and filled for nearly three years.

At the age of twenty he struck out for himself in a mercantile career, putting in what money he had, together with some borrowed capital. By economical and careful management, this indebtedness was very soon cleared away and he began to prosper, and his prospects began to take on a roseate hue. His line of trade covered general merchandise, and he had for a silent partner a Mr. Fenton, brother of Gov. R. E. Fenton. Mr. Chittenden remained in Norwich for seven years, during which period he built up the largest mercantile enterprises of the village. In 1824, having a fine offer for his store and goods, he sold out and moved to Homer, where he made a home for his mother and established himself anew in business. He continued thus until 1837, when he brought his successful business career to a close, and retired to less active pursuits. Mr. Chittenden was an extremely honest man. That he might know just how he stood with the world, he was accustomed to take an invoice of his stock every quarter, while working on borrowed capital. He watched carefully every chance for loss or waste of whatever description, and knew always just how his business was prospering, and how much progress was made from time to time.

With all his economical business methods, he was a liberal man, though so modest that few outside of his family and the recipients of his gifts knew of his benefactions.

It was largely on account of his failing health that he retired from active business. A notable feature of his life was his great care for and devotion to his mother, and after relinquishing mercantile pursuits it was his greatest pleasure to minister to the wants of his invalid family, and especially to give a large amount of personal attention to his mother in her declining years.

Mr. Chittenden was always a loyal citizen. Politically, his sympathies were on the Whig and the Republican side. He was for sixteen years a justice of the peace. He was such a counsellor of peaceful settlements of all controversies brought to his attention, that a lawyer once remarked that he would be glad when ‘Squire Chittenden was out of office, for the lawyers were starving to death. As a supervisor he served his town three terms, and was an influential member of the board. He was also a trustee of the Homer Academy from 1853 until 1873.

He married his first wife, Samantha McWhorter, in 1836. She was a daughter of Dr. John McWhorter, one of the first settlers of Cincinnatus, Cortland County. She died in 1838 at the age of twenty-seven, leaving one daughter, Lavinia, who still resides in Homer, N. Y. The second wife was Mary Ann McWhorter, a sister of his first wife. She lived only a few years, dying in 1842 at the age of twenty-eight, and leaving one daughter, Catharine. In 1848 Mr. Chittenden married a third time, the union being with Mrs. Olivia (Munson) Penny, who lived until March, 1893, when she passed away at the advanced age of eighty-three years. The beloved mother of our subject attained the ripe age of seventy-five years, departing this life in the year 1843. Mr. Chittenden’s life was terminated by the grim reaper, Death, on the fifth day of May, 1885, and he was borne to his last resting-place, mourned by his two surviving daughters, his wife, and a large circle of friends, whom his honorable life had brought to him.

*A portrait was included in the original printed volume.