GILBERT BOGART, a veteran of the Grand Army of the Republic, now peacefully engaged in general husbandry and dairying in the town of Masonville, Delaware County, N.Y., was born in Catskill, Greene County, January 23, 1823. His parents were Peter and Mary A. (Chidester) Bogart, his mother being a native of Catskill, his father of Dutchess County, where his grandfather was an early settler. The latter, Peter Bogart, Sr. was a soldier in the War of 1812. He moved from Dutchess County to Catskill, Greene County, and settled on a farm which is now owned by Edgar Bogart, and which is located near the Catskill House. The land was then in a wild state. The elder Mr. Bogart cleared the farm and made a home for his family, although he only held a lease. He saw eighty-four years of life, most of them years of toilsome activity. His wife also labored and lived to a good old age. They were well-to-do people for those days and reared a large family of children, all of whom have now passed away.

Peter Bogart, Jr., grew to manhood in Catskill. He came to Delaware County in 1836, several years after his marriage, making the journey with teams, and bringing his wife and family and all his worldly effects. He bought at first fifty acres of heavily timbered land, and making a small clearing, built a house for their home. A man of push and thrift, he worked hard, was financially successful, and bought more land until he possessed a farm of one hundred and sixty acres. He was a member of the Baptist church, and in politics was an adherent of the Republican party. He died on his homestead at the age of eighty-one, his wife having preceded him to the silent land at about sixty years of age. Of their thirteen children, six are now living, as follows: Benjamin Bogart, a farmer in Sullivan County; Gilbert, of Masonville; Sarah, wife of J. Henry Beach, residing with her brother Gilbert; Abram and Jeremiah, farmers in the town of Sidney.

In the district schools of the town of Catskill, where Gilbert resided till thirteen years of age, he received his first schooling. He was quick to learn, and made rapid progress in his studies, which he continued in Delaware County after coming here with his parents. Teaching one term of school in Pennsylvania was a part of his juvenile experience. Ambitious, pushing and self-reliant, he started in life for himself at sixteen, and gave his father forty dollars a year from that time till he was of age. He had worked out for a while on a farm not far from home for eight dollars a month. Thinking to do better than this, he went back to Greene County, making the journey on foot, and worked there eight months. Returning then to Delaware County, he continued thus laboring by the month till twenty-three years old, in1846, when he was enabled to buy the farm of one hundred acres, where he now resides, paying fifty dollars down. A log house was on the place, only a few acres of which were cleared. Mr. Bogart has lived here nearly half a century. That he toiled early and late, under the summer sun and amid the winter snows, clearing and ploughing, planting and harvesting, and building, and that he has been a good manager, are abundantly indicated by the appearance of his well-tilled fields and the excellent condition of his neatly kept premises. He made successive purchases till at one time he owned two hundred and thirty acres. He now owns one hundred and thirty, on which he has made all the improvements. He has devoted much attention to dairying, keeping sometimes as many as forty-five head of cattle. He now has thirty.

A true patriot, Mr. Bogart enlisted in September, 1861, to help quell the Southern Rebellion. He served in Company E, Sixty-first New York Volunteer Infantry, under Captain David Jackson, and was in the campaign of Rappahannock, and in the siege of Yorktown, and in several other engagements, enduring fatigues and hardships to the detriment of his health. He was honorably discharged on account of disability in 1862; and in August, 1864, he re-enlisted in the Engineer Corps, in which he served until he was mustered out, after the close of the war, July 4, 1865, at Hilton Head. His experiences in the army resulted in permanent injury to his health. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Post No. 180, of Masonville. Mr. Bogart was married, September 1, 1847, to Hannah M. Beach, who was born in Connecticut, March 30, 1827. They have had five children, only one of whom now survives, Will E. Bogart, born July 31, 1864. He received his elementary education at East Masonville, and at Walton, and then at Colgate University, Hamilton, Madison County, N.Y., where he is now studying for the ministry. He was married March 11, 1885, to Anna Fuller, a native of Masonville, daughter of William Fuller, whose biography is contained elsewhere in this volume. The other children of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Bogart were: Amanda, who died at three years of age; Ellen, who became Mrs. John Mattison, and died at the age of twenty-one years, leaving three children - Lillie, Clarence, and Clara - another son, Leon, having died; and Adelia Bogart, who died at sixteen years.

Mrs. Hannah M. Bogart, wife of Gilbert Bogart, died May 12, 1894. She was a thoroughly estimable woman, and a member of the Baptist church; as is her husband. Mr. Bogart is a Republican in politics, and has always taken an active interest in the welfare and progress of his town. He has served four years a Poor Master.

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