My Genealogy Hound

JOHN SMILEY, one of the old and highly respected citizens of the town of Ellery, is a son of Joseph and Sarah (Lewis) Smiley, and was born in the town of Norwich, Chenango county, New York, April 2, 1808. His paternal great-grandfather, William Smiley, Sr., was born in Ireland, and was pressed into the British naval service for a term of seven years. When his vessel anchored in Long Island Sound, on a trip to New York, he and two of his cousins escaped by swimming to the Connecticut shore. He settled at Farmington, in that State, where he married one year later and afterwards went to Savannah, Georgia, in which city he died. His son, William Smiley (grandfather), was born at Farmington, to which he returned from Georgia, after the death of his parents, and was engaged on a farm until the opening of the Revolutionary war, in which he served as a soldier. After the declaration of peace he went to Exeter, Rhode Island, where he married Hannah Wilcox. He then resided successively in Vermont, and Broome, Chenango and Chautauqua counties, New York. He was the third settler, in 1796, in the town of Norwich, Chenango county, which place he left in 1810 to come to the town of Ellery. He died in 1825, and his widow survived him until March, 1831, when she too passed away. Their children were Joseph, William and Lucy. Joseph Smiley (father) was born in Vermont in 1781, and died in the town of Ellery November 8, 1862. He was a farmer, a whig and republican and a member of the Christian church. He married Sarah (Lewis) Groton, widow of a Mr. Groton, who bore him one child, the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Smiley at the time of her marriage to Mr. Smiley had a family of three sons and eight daughters.

John Smiley came with his father and grandfather to the town of Ellery, where he received his education in the rural schools of that day. He has always followed farming for a livelihood and owns thirty-two acres of land three miles south of Bemus Point, where he and E. P. Young are the owners of a valuable flour and feed mill. He is a republican in politics, and served his town as assessor for four consecutive terms. He has also held the office of justice of the peace for thirteen years.

On September 10, 1853, he married E. Minerva Briggs, a daughter of Col. Stephen Briggs, a farmer and active whig of Otsego county. Mr. and Mrs. Smiley have one child, a daughter, R. Belle, who was born November 10, 1856, and on November 14, 1857, married E. P. Young, of Bemus Point, who is in charge of the mill owned by him and his father-in-law. Mr. and Mrs. Young have two children: Carrie M., born July 4, 1882, and one born June 3, 1891.