George H. Lasher

Biography courteously provided by Joyce Riedinger, Delaware County Coordinator.

GEORGE H. LASHER is a prominent resident and inn-keeper at Griffin's Corners, Middletown, Delaware County. He was born at Brush Ridge, in the same town, on May 22, 1853. His grandfather was Conrad Lasher, who married Anna Maria Sagendorf. They came from Dutchess County to Delaware County, where he bought a farm on Brush Ridge of one hundred and thirty-five unreclaimed acres. On that land he built a log house and barn. He died at the age of eighty-eight, in the town of Lexington. Greene County; but his wife died at eighty-three near their old home. Conrad Lasher was a liberal in religion, a Democrat in politics. and the father of eight children - Robert, Edward, Frederick. Catherine, Abraham, Allen, Maria, and Susan.

His son Frederick was born in Dutchess County in 1816, and he was only fourteen when the family came to Delaware County. He married Anna, the daughter of John Rickert. John Rickert and wife had four girls and two boys. One girl died in babyhood; but John, George, Anna, Emeline, and Helen grew up. After marriage Frederick and Anna Lasher lived two years on the farm of a hundred acres across the road from the homestead at Brush Ridge, in an old log house; but subsequently he erected new buildings. In politics Mr. Lasher was a Republican. His wife died when she was seventy, and he died at sixty-seven. They had fourteen children, briefly named below. Margaret Lasher married Marchant Van Valkenburg, of Halcott, Greene County, and bore three children. Conrad, named for his grandfather Lasher, died at twenty-four. Jane Lasher, deceased, was the wife of Edward Angle, who lives at Brush Ridge. Their fourth and fifth children died young. Philip Lasher, a Delhi farmer, married Jane Townsend, who died, leaving one son, Isaac, two children having died previously. John Lasher married Mary Johnson, is a Middtetown farmer, and has six children. Anna K. Lasher is the wife of Avery Boughton; and they now live at the Mountain Star House, in Halcott, Greene County. Isabella Lasher married Philmore Berger, a Rhinebeck farmer in Dutchess County. Frances Lasher, deceased, married Francis Enist, of Olive, Ulster County, and had a child, no longer living. Of the eleventh child, George Lasher, more will be said hereafter. Albertina Lasher married James Hicks, a blacksmith at Fleischmanns. Henrietta Lasher, deceased, was the wife of Daniel Boughton, a farmer, and had one child. Jeannette Lasher married James Gill, of Margarettville, has three children; and they live at the Bird House.

George H. Lasher went to district school, and worked on the home farm till he was thirtv-three years of age. Then he went to Kingston, where he lived awhile, and afterward came to Griffin's Corners. There he bought the old hotel of his uncle, Allen Lasher, remodelled the house, and has now become the principal hotel-keeper in this region, at the same time owning the Brush Ridge homestead of one hundred and twenty-five acres and a house and lot across the creek in Fleischmanns. In 1883 George Lasher married. It is a curious coincidence that grandfather, father, and son should all three marry women with Anna for their first name. Evidently they liked it. Mrs. George Lasher was Anna Crawford, daughter of Dr. Crawford; and they have three children--Herbert, Rose, and Crawford, the latter, of course, bearing his mother's family name. In politics Mr. Lasher is a Republican. Like his progenitors, he is liberal in his religious views.

It is fitting that here should be given some idea of the family to which Mrs. Lasher belongs. Dr. W. H. Crawford was born in Delhi, N.Y., on New Year's Day, 1829. His wife, Margaret Amos, was born a year earlier, August 24, 1828. The Doctor's parents were John and Mary Ann (Shaw) Crawford. The grandparents were Robert Crawford and Jeannette Forsyth, and came from Scotland, after they were married, to Schoharie County, where Robert followed his trade as a miller,-but died young, having three children--John, William, and Jeannette Crawford. The widow then married James Brown, of Bovina, and at her death, in 1833, left three children by this second marriage--Andrew, Thomas, and IsabeIle Brown. John Crawford, the Doctor's father, worked on the farm and attended school, like other boys. Starting at last for himself, he went to live in Bovina. He had four children William Henry, Isabella, Robert, Jeannette. John Crawford died young, only thirty-three; but his widow, Mary A. Crawford, lived to be seventy-four. Like their forefathers, they were Presbyterians in religion. William H. Crawford was only eleven when his father died, and had to begin self-support very young; but he worked hard summers, and went to the Delhi Academy in the winter, and was finally able to graduate at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1854. After a brief practice in Meredith he came to Griffin's Corners, where he obtained a large patronage during eight years. Thence he went to Andes, where he labored to great advantage for thirty-two years - in fact, until his death, at the age of sixty-five. The Doctor was Democratic in politics, and spent a year as Army Surgeon during the Rebellion. His wife died at the age of sixty, leaving three children: Margaret Anna, now Mrs. Lasher; and Mary and Jane, both living in the dear Andes home. The Crawfords, like their family predecessors, belonged to the Presbyterian church ; and in this respect Mrs. Lasher is in sympathy. with her sisters.

To both the special subject of this sketch and to his father-in-law might be applied the words of that distinguished literary son of New York, Washington: Irving, --

"It is interesting to notice how some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage, and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles."

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