1890 Buchanan and Delaware Counties History pgs. 367-371
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 maturer 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.
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