Morning journal and courier., 1884-11-24
ALONG LIFE.

Death of Rev. Sheldon 0. Townsend- l
 "Reminiscences of New Haven Mer-
 chants-Pioneers fin the Far West of
 1872.
 The Rev. Sheldon Clark Townsend died at Lewiston, N. Y., November 18th, aged 84.
 Deceased was an early pioneer in Western
 New York, emigrating there with his father,
 Jacob Townsend, from New Haven city in
 1908. He was for many years a local
 preacher of the Methodist church, gentle
 man highly esteemed and useful in his day
 and generation. He possessed valuable
 fund of "reminiscences of New Haven in his
 boyhood days, some of which he committed
 to writing and are in this form possessed by
 highly esteemed New Haven residents. He
 was schoolmate in his boyhood days with
 such well known and prominent New Haven
 people as Chauncey WhittelseY, ex-President Woolsey of Yale college, Smith Joslyn, w. G. Webster, son of Noah Webster, Eben Howe, son of Hezekiah Howe, Jeremiah Townsend, and others. He had several of these for schoolmates in MT. Scranton's popular school, boarding school, we be- ieve, in North Milford. Deceased had lived to see wonderful change in the West, to see the 'sFar West'' of his early manhood trans formed into populous section of the Empire State, while the 'fFar West" had preceded to the Rocky Mountains.
 His father, Jacob Townsend, was
 born in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1769 and was for some time in the shipping business in New Haven with partner named Gillett. He in 1894 freight ed a vessel at this port with complete out ! fit for country store and sailed for Matta- l masl1et, North Carolina. He took several l ship carpenters and there cut timber and 1 built the ship 'fKeziah,' D which, when com | pleted, he loaded with lumber and re-em-
 parked the goods from the store unsold and ! sailed for the West Indies, where the cargo ! and goods were exchanged in part for a re- l turn cargo, which he sold in New Haven at 8 good profit. He was a large owner ill the Derby Fishing company and on account of losses by the Milan decree and the embargo settled his Connecticut business and removed to Lewiston, Niagara county, N. Y., in 1908 and in company with Alvin Bronson, after ward the first Mayor of Oswego, and Captain Sheldon Thompson, who had commanded the ship Keziah, engaged in transportation and trading on the lakes The Hon. Alvin Bron- son died at Oswego, N. Y., April 3, 1881, aged ninety-eight years. He had been en- gagged in the West India trade and was a New Haven man, or at least identified for some time with New Haven in his business interests. Jacob Townsend on his return from visit to the lake region, with view to removing these, met in New Haven MT
 Bronson, who had just got back from the West Indies and proposed to him to ''Go Vest" The proposition was at once accepted, and the two went West and formed a business connection there.
 Rev. Sheldon c. Townsend, the subject of this sketch, was also partner in the firm thus established, which continued long time. The firm, in addition to their coasting trade business, established two stores one in Lew iston, conducted by Townsend & Thompson,
 and one at Oswego, conducted by Bronson. In the war of 1912 Lewiston was burned and the firm suffered losses by the fire and the stop page of business by the war, losses which they afterward retrieved and more than made good MT. Townsend's father, Isaac, was part owner of the schooner Erie, the first vessel, that passed through the Welland canal. Two of his vessels, the Gov ernor Tompkins and the Fair American, were and at the wars close were bought of the United States government, by MT. Town sends firm, and placed again in the transpor- tation business. MT. Townsend bought an estate of 300 acres on the heights above Lewiston on which a battery was erected (Fort Gray), and regiment of ri1emen quar- tered in the war of 1872 The father re- moved to Buffalo in 1848 and died there in 1852, aged 83. The son, Shelden o., was mar ried at Niagara Falls in 1894 to Rachel Tomp- kins, of Niagara. He held many offices of
 business relations and his work in the minis trV