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GEORGE ACERS.
The early records of Delaware county
make frequent mention of the name of Acers. In talking with
old settlers concerning events of an early day in the county the
time or place of a given transaction is often fixed by referring
it to the starting of the Acers' settlement or the building of
the Acers' mill or the founding of the old town
Acersville, and so on. One of the
handsomest shafts in Manchester's city of the dead bears in
large letters the name of Acers. The stranger is naturally led
to suppose from these things that among the men who sought homes
in this locality at an early date and who were actively
identified in some way with the upbuilding
of this community there must have been some strong armed
and strong hearted pioneers by the name of Acers. And
this, on investigation, proved to be true. There were
three brothers of that name: John, Henry, and George, who
cast their worldly fortunes with the scattered settlers of
that locality early in 1850 and labored long and arduously
with them in their efforts to subdue the wildness of the
country and render it fit for the arts and industries of
civilization. Of these |
three
brothers only one now remains a resident of the county, that one
being the youngest, George, a brief biographical sketch of whom
is here inserted, preceded by some more general facts concerning
his ancestry for the benefit of those of his name who may come
on in after years to read this record.
The name of
Acers is traced in this country to Massachusetts. It is an
English name, and probably the first one bearing it in America
was among the early settlers of the Old Bay State. William E.
Acers, the father of George Acers, was born there. This was more
than a century ago. He started the name West when a young man,
going when about thirty years of age to Herkimer county, N. Y. He married a young lady of Alamont,
Grand Isle county, Vt. He was always
engaged in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. There was
nothing remarkable in his personality or his history. He was a
man of plain tastes and quiet habits, led an active, industrious
and fairly successful life, dying in the home of his adoption, a
place in which he always took much interest and for which he
always exhibited much attachment. His first wife bore the maiden
name of Atta Scott. She was a
daughter of Henry Scott and was born in Grand Isle
county, Vt. She died in Herkimer
county, N.Y., in the year 1828. The
seven children of this union are: Elliott, now deceased; John,
well and favorably remembered by the citizens of Delaware county
as Dr. Acers, being now a resident of Clay county, Tex.;
Christiana, formerly wife of Orso
Inglis, being now deceased; Henry,
whose remains now rest in the cemetery at Manchester, he having
spent the greater part of a long and active life here; George,
whose name heads this notice; William, a resident now of Clay
county, Tex., and Allen, living in Port Byron, N. Y. William E.
Acers, father of our subject, married, the second time, a sister
of his former wife, Margaret her Christian name, she having been
born in Grand Isle county, Vt., who died in 1852, leaving one
child, a daughter, Atta, who died in
Herkimer county, N. Y., at the age of nineteen, in 1847. His
last marriage was to Caroline Duel, who was a native of New York
and who died in 1884. The issue of this union was one son,
Frank, now residing in New York.
George Acers,
the subject of this biographical notice, was born in the town of
Warren, Herkimer county, N. Y., April
23, 1818. He was reared on a farm and resided in his native
place till 1850, when in company with his two brothers and his
and their families he emigrated West, coming direct to this
state and making his first stop at Ead's
Grove, Delaware county, June 7, that year. In the latter part of
the same month he made a selection of a homestead and settled
where the town of Manchester now stands, before, however,
Manchester had an existence. He resided there till October,
1852, when with a desire of getting nearer to timber and water,
and combining with this as much prairie land as possible, he
moved further up the river and located on the place where he has
since resided. In selecting homesteads in those days the
settlers found themselves very much
like our first parents, "with all the world before them where to
choose a place." A magnificent body of land of more than a
thousand acres lay around the spot where Mr. Acers erected his
primitive dwelling, and this he might have had under the
liberal laws of that date had he so desired. But land was then
almost as free as air and water, and the large hearted settlers
never thought of the crowding for elbow room, which a few years
would bring. He contented himself with a small patch compared
with what he might have had. Locating near the river and in
the timber for the benefit of wood and water, his
farm started out from that point towards the prairie, and as the land had to
go through the painful stages of clearing, grubbing, burning and
breaking, the more desirable prairie land was mostly seized upon by the incoming settlers before his farm reached
the prairie in its outward growth. He had to finally content
himself with a tract of about two
hundred and eighty acres. It was and is, however, one of the
finest bodies of land in the county. Mr. Acers has
reduced nearly all of it to cultivation, clearing and
grubbing out nearly half of it with his own hands. Beginning,
as all did, with a small frame dwelling, fifteen by twenty, and
a small truck patch, his homestead
grew from year to year, the log, pole and small frame buildings
being replaced with frame ones and the small clearing in the
timbers widening, until now his farm is one of the best
improved and truly most desirable places in Delaware county.
Mr. Acers has certainly been a
builder if nothing else. His place shows this. His neat and substantial dwelling and his large
and conveniently arranged barns and outbuildings
tell at once to the passerby of the years of patient toil and
planning, and the gradual but steady steps by which his place
has come to be what it is. Like a wise husbandman Mr. Acers has
put the accumulations from his farm back into the soil from which they came. He has given all the
years of a somewhat long and active life to his farming
pursuits, and he has succeeded far beyond the average man. Mr.
Acers knows something of pioneer life. When he settled in
Delaware county the county was almost
as it was when it came from the hand of the Maker. It is true
that the settlers had no savages to contend with as did the
early pioneers of the central and southern states, but
the wildness of nature, the savagery of the elements, the
distance from markets, the inconveniences of the modes of
transportation, the bountiful lack of the necessaries
of life, the incessant toil and the thousand other
trials of the first settlers proved greater impediments to the
settlement, growth and development of the country than the
savages could, had they been here even in considerable numbers. All these early trials Mr. Acers went through with, bearing his part courageously and discharging his whole duty as a
citizen with faithful exactitude, never aspiring to be more than
an humble citizen, his life having been singularly free from any
evidences of that grasping, overreaching spirit by which
many men are prompted in seeking a foothold in a new country.
In the labor of making for himself a home out of the rude and
inhospitable elements of the West Mr. Acers has been ably assisted by his
faithful wife, and this record would fail of one of its chief
purposes if it did not preserve this fact in connection with his
history. Mrs. Acers accompanied her husband to this country, and
she has stood by his side helping him in all his struggles
since, having borne him the companionship he sought with her
hand for more than forty years. Mr. and Mrs. Acers were married
in Herkimer county, N. Y., April 23,
1848. Mrs. Acers was born in Duanesburg,
Schenectady county, N. Y., July 6,
1828. She is the eldest child of Jesse D. and Hannah (Tallman)
Scott, both of whom were also natives of
Duanesburg, Schenectady county,
N. Y., the former born there May 31, 1806, and the latter March
10, 1810. These were also early settlers of this, Delaware
county, coming here in 1853. The
mother died here May 5, 1858, an industrious, pious, good woman.
The father is still living, being at present a member of Mrs.
Acer's household.
Although in
his eighty-fifth year, he is still in sound health, vigorous in
body, and his mind is as bright and his spirits as elastic as
when he was a youth, a condition which he ascribes to his
temperate habits, the outdoor life he has led, and his simple
democratic ways in all things. Mr. Scott passed his
mature years in farming. He has
lived an easy and in many ways an eminently satisfactory life,
one that has been as free from disappointments and petty
annoyances as that of the average man, albeit it has had its
heavier shadings, not the least of which was the loss of his
companion many years ago. Mr. Scott is an ardent democrat,
having cast his first presidential vote for Andrew Jackson in
1828, and he has voted the democratic ticket steadily since. Mr.
and Mrs. Scott had born to them a family of thirteen children,
of whom Charlotte (Mrs. Acers) is the eldest. The second,
Melissa, now wife of Charles Sanders,
resides at Rockford, Ill. Rebecca, who became the wife of
William Hosnell, died in this
county. John is living in Manchester, this county. Matilda is
the widow of Albert Raymond, a former well known citizen of this
county. She resides in North Manchester. Austin married and
settled in New York and there died. Eliza Ann became the wife of
Henry Edmunds and died in this county. Cornelius lives in
Manchester. Aristides lives near
Earlville, this county. Sonoma was married to David
Saulspaugh, of Chicago, and is now
deceased. Allen went to southern Kansas in the early
"seventies," and it is believed became a victim of the
treacherous Bender family. Demosthenes resides in Harrison
county, Ohio, and Margaret, the
youngest, is the wife of Charles Uttley,
of this county.
Mr. and Mrs.
Acers are the parents of four children, all of whom are grown,
married, and themselves the heads of families.
Attie M. was first married to
Captain James M. Noble, who was one of Delaware
county's best citizens and faithful
soldiers in the late war. After his death she became the wife of
Chauncy Sager, and now resides with
her husband in Milo township, this
county. Mary is the wife of Luther Sly, of Delaware
township, this county. Owen lives in
Concordia, Nebr. Albert C. lives near the old home place and is
engaged with his father in farming.
Mr. and Mrs. Acers have a pleasant home and are
surrounded by all the comforts and conveniences of life. In
that home friend and stranger alike find welcome, both
preserving much of the old-time hospitality and being of that
generous, open nature that renders them keenly alive to all
those social amenities that go to sweeten life and make it worth
living. They are both home people, being very domestic in their
tastes and strictly attentive to their own affairs. Mr. Acers
has never been in public life to any extent, restricting his
attentions in this respect to the exercise of his franchise as a
citizen. He is a republican in politics, being in former years
a Whig.
He cast his first presidential vote for William Henry Harrison,
and he voted the Whig
ticket as long as that party was existence, and after the rise
of the republican party he has steadily adhered to its
teachings. Although past his seventy-second year he is still
active and works every day on the farm. He is pleasant in
manner, genial, and companionable, a good neighbor, and as this
sketch will show, a valuable citizen. |
