Biography
of JOHN J. LAMOREE, LAWYER,
Town of MEXICO,
N.Y.
Many thanks to Esther Rancier
for sharing her information on the Lamoree family. Esther is researching
in Richland and Mexico the Soul/Soule, Brace and Daniel
P. Smith families, and would appreciate hearing from anyone researching
these surnames. Esther Rancier at: [email protected]
French Huguenot families form one of first ethnic streams that flowed into
New York along with the Dutch and English. Andre L’amoureaux, a Huguenot,
fled to England about 1687. He eventually immigrated to New York
City taking his family with him, including Daniel Lamoreaux [sic], Sr.
who settled there with his wife, Jeanne Masse. Early family records
can be found at the New Rochelle, NY Huguenot Church.
Daniel’s son Andre*, born 10 January 1720/21, married Elizabeth Covert.
They resided at Yorktown, NY. Their oldest son John Lamoreau [sic],
born 14 November 1745, wed in 1770 Charity Hill, born 1750 at Red Mills,
NY. One of their sons was James Lamoree, born 1775 in Dutchess Co.,
NY. He changed the spelling of the name probably because it was at
the time that Dutchess County switched from Dutch official records to English
records. As many Dutch anglicized their names so apparently did John.
At the end of the Revolutionary War there was a push in the Hudson River
Valley for rivaling Dutch, German, French and Yankee ethnic groups to become
Americans. They were no longer colonists or refugees of little interest
to the far-away British government.
Some of the branches of the family, however, still use the old form and
other variant spellings. Lamoree in the earliest records was often
written as LaMoree.
James Lamoree, Sr. married
Amy Thorne in 1798. They removed to Coxsackie, NY by 1799.
When the War of 1812 began they lived in New Baltimore, NY. In 1833
a widowed James arrived in Oswego County, NY with his five children.
His brother Peter Lamoree settled in the City of Oswego. After settling
James married Mary Ellen Castor of Oswego. She had six children before
James’ death in 1847.
Son John, born 1802 in Coxsackie, married in 1830 Electra Hungerford from
New Hartford, NY. They had four children before the death of Electra
during September 1833. She probably died as a result of the birth
of her youngest son John J., born 12 September 1833.
John remarried quickly to Roxie Wilmarth before the end of 1833.
Roxie became the mother of two more Lamoree children. John died before
1839 at Mexico, NY where he had joined his father James. Roxie died
in 1866 according to her tombstone in the Mexico Primitive Cemetery.
Of John’s six children only two seem to have survived into adulthood.
Electra, born 1832, married Leonidas Rood. She had four children
in Kalamazoo, MI.
Her brother John J. became known in Mexico as J.J. Lamoree. In 1858
he married Elizabeth A. Hadley, daughter of Abraham and Jemina (Townsend)
Hadley of Mexico.
He practiced law, but there is no record with whom he studied. In
1860 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace. He was an Oswego County
District Attorney in 1873. He had earned a reputation as trustworthy
which allowed him to be named the Collector of Customs for the Port of
Oswego during 1882-85.
J.J.’s keen observations of the local Mexico scene were sought after by
reporters especially in his later years when he would recall the turbulent
times just prior to the Civil War. Historian Elizabeth Simpson included
in her Mexico book some of J.J.’s remarks about politics in 1861, “We were
all statesmen in that day and shook our excited and terrible fists at each
other at times like Roman gladiators. Some were Buck-tails, some
were Barnburners. They came to Silver-greys, the Abolitionists, the
Hard-shells and the Soft-shells, Union men and copperheads. There,
too, were the Know-nothings who met at Goit’s; some were hide-bound, some
were not.”
J.J. earlier in 1856 talked about the changing political alliances in Mexico.
Simpson quoted him, “Whigs and Democrats and Free-soilers, Hand-shells
and Soft-shells, Hunkers, Barn Burners, and Americans were coming together
to swell the ranks of the new anti-slavery Republican Party.”
Some of his observations about his fellow citizens were more personal as
cited by Simpson, “Wise sayings of the racy Downing, the suave Smith, the
spirited Weed, the hilarious Tullar, the cautious Bradbury, the quiet Butler,
the determined Bowen, the eager and implusive Webbs, the positive Ames,
the shouting Simons, the nervous but noble Clarks, the Pecks, Conklins.
The Whitneys, the Snells, the Dayton….”
He must have been interesting in a courtroom with his fluent language.
He probably was a smoke filled cloakroom insider in local politics.
In the 1860 Mexico census, the only census which J.J. ever participated,
there was the following enumeration:
Lamoree, John J. 27 b.NY
lawyer net worth $250
E.A. 25
“
Willard 3 mos.
“
Plus 2 other unrelated
women.
Since there were no further census listings about J.J., other avenues were
used. The Mexico Village Cemetery had two Lamoree tombstones: Elizabeth
d. 1869, age 34 and Willie A. d, 1864, age 4.
But the 1870 Mexico census revealed some more. J.J. was not enumerated,
but his mother and father-in-law were. In their household, there
was the following:
Hadley, Abraham 61 b.NY
Jemina 58
“
Maggie 11
“
Lamoree, Marshall 4 ‘’
Elizabeth 1 “
J.J.’s wife Elizabeth likely died in childbirth of their infant Elizabeth.
The two small children were placed in the home of their grandparents.
The Hadleys were good people. They cared for others. The child
Maggie in their home in 1870 was an adopted child. On 1 June 1881
Margaret M. Hadley married Norman W. Woodruff, son of George W. and Martha
(Truax) Woodruff. After 1875 Norman ran a grocery store in Mexico.
This couple had one son, George Norman Woodruff, born 25 April 1894.
Marshall Lamoree became a dentist. Born on 27 August 1865, he married
during March 1890 at Otwego, Allegan Co., MI Lena T. Strutz.
She was born in Germany. They had a daughter, Mildred H. born before
1907 when Marshall died.
Jemina (Townsend) Hadley died in 1878. Then Abraham lived with relatives
until his death in 1894. Both Hadleys were buried in the Primitive Cemetery,
Mexico. The young Lamoree children may have been back with their
father. J.J. remarried on 13 December 1870 Mary A. Hetzel born in
Florida, NY. Nothing further has been found on Elizabeth Lamoree
born in 1869.
At some point J.J. and Mary began residing in Oswego. His law offices
were at 139 E. Third. He was a member of the bar for Oswego County
for many years. He died 6 November 1910, leaving his uncle Peter’s
son, Orlando A., the surviving Lamoree.
*Andre L’Amoureux is a qualified Huguenot ancestor. All his descendants
can join the National Huguenot Society.
SOURCES:
Cemetery Census of the Town
of Mexico, Oswego County, New York. Mexico: Mexico Historical
Society, 1984.
Churchill, John C. Landmarks
of Oswego County, New York. Syracuse: Mason, 1895.
Lamoreaux Family Genealogy
Forum. Available [online] http://genforum,genealogy.com/lamoreaux/
[15 May 2003].
Lamoureaux Family – Lamoreaux.
Available [online] http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/l/a/m/Terry-L-Lamoreaux/00T6L0001.html
[14 May 2003].
Oswego, New York Directories.
Available [online] http://ancestry.com
[14 May 2003].
Pelletreau, William S. Historic
Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Family History of New York,
v. 1. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1998.
Simpson, Elizabeth M. Mexico;
Mother
of Towns. Buffalo: Clement, 1949.
U.S. Census Mexico,
Oswego
Co., NY 1850, 1860, 1870 & 1880.
WorldConnect Project.
Available [online] http://worldconnect.genealogy
[14 May 2003].
Back to Biography Page
Back to Town of Mexico
Back to Oswego County NYGenWeb
Copyright ©
Nov. 2003 Esther Rancier
All Rights Reserved
|