Chancy Lamb 1816-1897

LAMB, BEVIER, WARE, YOUNG, MCGILL, POMEROY, WILL, GATES, ELLIS, ANKENY, CARPENTER, BINGHAM, POOL

Posted By: Michael J. Kearney (email)
Date: 12/31/2002 at 09:53:57

The Clinton Morning Age Vol. 14 No. 94 Tuesday July 13, 1897 "Uncle Chancy is dead!" This was the word that passed from one to another Monday morning. It shows how Chancy Lamb was regarded by the people of Clinton for the kindly old gentleman was beloved by all. There is sorrow in many homes today, for no citizen of Clinton was ever more honored and respected by the citizens at large than was Chancy Lamb. For more than two score years he had been identified with Clinton and its growth. It was to him as a child and this city owes much to the memory of the man who did so much to the memory of the man who did so much for it. Many an enterprise was fostered by him and his name came to be known as a synonym for reliability and enterprise. His fame was not confined to the limits of a city, nor a state, but throughout the west he was well and favorably known. Here in this beautiful city, which has been the witness of his toils and his successes - a city he did so much to create, and which he loved with fatherly affection - surrounded only by firm and faithful friends, with a home blessed with all the comforts of life, he lived the happiest of mortals, until on March 5, last, death entered the household and claimed for its own the wife of his youth. From that day he seemed to realize that his life work was ended and though surrounded by a devoted family and friends most true, his spirits never rallied. Slowly he failed in health, but surely. Medical skill was of no avail. There was no disease. The noble spirit chafed under the fetters which bound it to this life and on Monday morning at five minutes before two the final summons came, and the soul of Chancy Lamb passed out into the great beyond, there to share the blessings of life eternal with her who shared his joys and his sorrows through his earthly career. Mr. Lamb lived to see four generations of his descendents come into the world. His children are Messrs. Artemus and LaFayette Lamb, Mrs. Edward Ware and Mrs. W.E. Young. To Mr. and Mrs. Ware were born six children; Jennie, who married Thos. G. McGill, Jr., Fred, who married Mamie Pomeroy, Will, Celeste, Edward and Artemus. Mr. and Mrs. Artemus Lamb are the parents of five children: Emma, now Mrs. Marvin Gates, Garrette who married Gertrude Ellis, Dwight who married Mollie Ankeny, Clara and Bert. The children of Mr. and Mrs. LaFayette Lamb are Merette, now Mrs. Eugene Carpenter, and Chancy R., who married Florence Bingham. Mr. and Mrs. W.E. Young have one daughter, Grace, now Mrs. Marvin B. Pool, and her little daughter, Dorothy - the great grand-child of Chancy Lamb - was the last person he recognized. Chancy Lamb was born in Ticonderoga, Essex county, New York, on the fourth day of January, 1816. His early days were devoted to farm life, spending an occasional winter in school and struggling along year after year, with plenty of work to do, and doing it with a will, and having but little to show for his industry and toil. In the year 1836 in company with his father's family he moved to Benton, Yates county, in the same state. In that county he set himself to work manufacturing wagons and also in learning the millwright trade. In 1838, he moved to Bradford, Steuben county and went to work by the month in a saw mill, in which employment he remained until 1841, during the greater part of which time he was engaged in sawing lumber by the thousand. In the summer of 1841, he commenced the construction of a saw mill for Mr. R.L. Chapman, of Steuben county, which mill was completed in the spring of 1842. In the erection of this mill, Mr. Lamb was assisted by Mr. S.B. Gardiner, now of this city. This mill was built in Yates county on the outlet of Crooked Lake, now known as Lake Keuka. The season of 1842 Mr. Lamb ran the mill by contract with the owner. On the 16th of November, 1939, he was married in Bradford to Miss Jane Bevier, who for 58 years was the faithful partner of his joys and his sorrows - sharing with him all there was of adversity and enjoying with him all that peace and prosperity brings to a happy and contented fireside. In November, 1842, Mr. Lamb moved his family back to Bradford and there he went to work in a saw mill, by the year, for Cameron, Thurman & Co. During the winter of 1842-3 Mr. Lamb and Mr. Gardiner were engaged in repairing the mills of Cameron & Co., and in 1843 Mr. Lamb superintended the running of those mills. In the summer of 1844, Mr. Lamb, his wife and two children - Artemus Lamb and the wife of Capt. Ed Ware of this city - together with his father and mother and two brothers, and S.B. Gardiner and wife, came to Carroll county, Illinois. Mr. Gardiner remained until 1847, when he returned to Yates county to superintend the running of the mill which had been built by Mr. Lamb. In Carroll county Mr. Lamb had engaged in farming and was as successful in making money as any of his neighbors, which is not saying much when the price of farm produce then is considered and the difficulties in getting it to market. Of course there were no railroads in Illinois and the Mississippi river furnished the channel for shipping farm produce. Then Carroll county had a population of some 1,500 inhabitants, now it numbers about 25, 000 people. Then Illinois contained 376,000 inhabitants, now it has more than three million. Then the population of Clinton county was about 1,000 and the state of Iowa less than 50,000. In the spring of 1849, Mr. Lamb having tired of farming, packed his world's goods and instead of going west with the tide of emigration, he went east to Williamsport, Penn., where for the year following he was employed in superintending the mill of J.C. Cameron & Co. At the end of the year he returned to Chemung county, New York, where he was also employed by J.C. Cameron & Co., who engaged him to run a mill and saw by the thousand. Here he remained until November, 1856, when he concluded he would try his fortune again in the west, and this time he brought up at our neighboring city of Fulton. He stopped in Fulton only a few months, leaving that place early in 1857 to take possession of a saw mill in this city, which he had purchased of Gray & Lunt and which he had helped to build. The mill was situated near the end of the present railroad bridge and was considered quite a mill in those days, though it possessed the capacity to saw only about ten thousand feet of lumber per day. Mr. Lamb put in considerable new machinery, ran the mill himself, was doing a fine business and was just settling down to earnest work for himself when the mill was destroyed by fire. The mill was burned October 6th 1857. The same year and in fact while the smoke was still rising from the charred ruins of the burned mill, he commenced the erection of the mill which was destroyed by fire on the 14th of November 1876. This mill was put in operation in the spring of 1860. It was a fine large structure, compactly and solidly built, and furnished with all the improved machinery. In March, 1868, Mr. Lamb laid the foundation of the large stone mill, and he had it in operation the September following, the two mills having always done a very large business, and they have been run on an average of nine months each year. In the same year Mr. Lamb purchased a three-fourths interest in the Bomgardner mill, situated in the south part of the city, formerly Chancy - the remaining fourth was owned by S.B. Gardiner and John Byng. It was this mill that was destroyed by fire on the morning of January 4th, 1877. The firm of Lamb, Byng & Co. purchased in 1879, the saw mill of Wheeler & Warner, which was rebuilt, and was in every respect a first-class mill. C. Lamb & sons have for some time owned both of the mills in South Clinton, which mills have been enlarged and the most modern machinery put in. All the Lamb & Sons' mills are supplied with a full complement of band saws. Mr. Lamb was among the first to employ steamboats to tow logs down the river. Seeing the necessity for a quicker method of running logs than floating them with the current, he from time to time built what may be termed a full fleet of steamboats expressly for the towing business. In the year 1864 Mr. Artemus Lamb was taken into partnership with his father and in the year 1873 Mr. Lafayette Lamb was taken into partnership. The incorporated name is C. Lamb & Sons and the two sons have been identified as partners, respectively, with all the improvements, investments and business, since they became partners and before such admission as partners, they were identified with their father as important factors in all his business undertakings. Chancy Lamb was emphatically the architect of his own fortune. He experienced the ups and downs of life as much as any man of his age, but amid all his adversities he never recovered from any of them by doing a dishonorable act; and in his days of prosperity he seemed to remember that he was surrounded by people who were struggling as he had struggled and who wanted help as he had wanted help and his hand, with open palm, was always extended in noble and generous and practical sympathy. In business affairs he was ever prudent, careful and conservatively cautious, but never parsimonious or niggardly. Though limited in early education he made his head contribute the lion's share to his successes; and one can hardly see where he could have made brains play a more important part in his business even though had he been blessed with the learning of the highest college. He possessed an inventive turn of mind and as farmer of millwright, he was never contented unless he had something different from everybody else; and his inventions and theories always ran in the direction of labor saving. We understand that some of the most important features of the reaper and mower were the fruits of his brain. He never sought the protection of the law for his brain work, and of course, there were many sharp men to pick up his ideas and appropriate them to their own use and profit. Some of the machinery in common use in the saw-mills throughout the country was thought out by Chancy Lamb, and in some instances donated to the lumber manufacturing fraternity. In some instances patents had been obtained and assigned for the benefit of a needy friend. One of the most jovial and companionable men was Chancy Lamb. He delighted in telling stories, he was a good listener, but usually had a story to match any that he heard. He loved a good horse and a good home and he knew how to enjoy both. He was generous and open hearted as the day was long and he never lacked for opportunity of being constantly reminded that the poor we have with us always. No person ever appealed to him for aid and was turned away empty handed. Though past 81 years of age, he really did not appear to be old. His intellect was intensely keen up to the time of his last illness, as those who have had to do with the mill of C. Lamb & Sons can attest. In later years with his two competent sons to look after the details of the business, and surrounded by experienced and trustworthy clerks and assistants, he was in a large measure relieved of those burdens and toils which hurry active business men into a decrepit old age, not rightfully theirs. We do not believe a community can anywhere be found which could better appreciate the enterprise and labor of such a citizen as Chancy Lamb, than have the people of Clinton. Besides his large interests here, Mr. Lamb was heavily interested in mining properties in the west, and his loss will be felt in business circles and among the friends he made everywhere he went, almost as keenly as in Clinton. To his employees, Mr. Lamb was always kind and he took a personal interest in the welfare of every man in his employ. That they may be given the opportunity to view for the last time the face of their beloved employer, the men will meet at the upper and lower offices of C. Lamb & Sons, Wednesday morning at nine and proceed thence to the residence. The funeral will be held from the late residence at two Wednesday afternoon. The life of Chancy Lamb was that of a noble man. He was such at all times and his transition to a better sphere was calm and peaceful. The words of Bryant in "Thanatopsis" are unusually appropriate. "So live that when thy summons come To join the innumerable caravan, That moves to that mysterious realm where each shall seek his chamber in the silent halls of death. Thou go not like the quarry slave at night Scourged to his dungeon; But sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust. Approach thy grave like one who wraps the draperies of his couch about him, And lies down to pleasant dreams." Thus it was that Chancy Lamb lived and died. His days were filled with generous deeds and kind thoughts and his life record was such that all mankind might stand up and say: "This was a man."