| Notes |
- The sketch of the life of a self-made man is always interesting, and is not without its useful lessons.
The grandfather of our subject, Ebenezer Ferrin, was a native of New Hampshire. He emigrated from the State to Concord, Erie Co., NY, and was on e of the pioneer settlers of that town. He located and cleared a farm near the village of Springville, where he closed his days in the year 1851. Upon that farm, also, his son Adna P., father of Augustine Ferrin, died in 1854, and there the subject of this notice was born, March 9, 1843.
Mr. Ferrin’s father moved to the town of Yoirshire, Cattaraugus Co., NY, about the uear 1845, but returned to the homestead farm in Erie County in 1851. He followed the pursuit oof agriculture, as had his father before him. He married (in 1842), Lucinda Sanders, daughter of William Sanders, of Erie Co., NY, but of Connecticut partentage. She died in 1861. Of this union, Augustine was the oldest child. Owing to the death of his father when young Ferrin was but eleven years of age, his advantages for acquiring an education – limited to a few years at the district school, and a few terms at the Springville Academy – were cut short. The maintenance of his mother and sisters depending largely upon his efforts, he started out in the life-sturggle at an earlier age than most youths, - being but thirteen years of age when he entered the printing office on his maternal uncle, Lucius C. Sanders, then publishing The American Citizen, at Springville. Six months later the office was sold, and the paper discontinued. Augustine returned to his books, and thus spent the year that intervened ere he entered the office of the Springfield Heald, as a apprentice to the “art preservative.: While serving his apprenticship, and with the consent of his employer, he issued from that office a small paper entitled the Penny Weekly, the labor of his own hands and brain, and the result of diligently employed leisure hours. This early manifestation of genius shows his penchant for journalistic honor.
He remained in the Herald office until August, 1962, when he enlisted in Company F, of the 116th Regiment of New York Volunteers. He accompanied the regiment to Baltimore, thence to Fortress Monroe and New Orleans, was with it at the siege of Port Hudson, and in the Donaldsonville campaign; but upon the return of the regiment to Baton Rouge, LA., he was sent to the hospital for disability, from whence he was honorably discharged in the fall of 1963. He returned to Springville December 1, and in the January following took charge of the Springville Chronicle, remaining its editor and publisher until April 1,1865, when he became the “city editor” of the well-known Buffalo Express. This honorable position he was, on account of failing health, compelled to resign in September 1965. The following year and a half were spent in efforts to regain his health. The summer of 1866 he passed on the farm of Rev. J. B. Saxe, thereby restoring his health sufficiently to justify him in returning to his chosen field of employment. He then purchased the Springville Herald establishment, and removed the press and materials to Ellicottville, where he started the Cattaraugus County Republican, the first issue of which was dated Feb. 7, 1868, he removed his officer thither.
Jan. 1, 1873, he associated with himself B. B. Weber as a partner, and a few months later they opened an office at Salamanca. The Republican thenceforward was dated at Salamanca and Little Valley, with offices at both places. In addition to the above, in February, 1876, Messre, Ferrin & Weber engaged in a pioneer newspaper enterprise in the oil region, - establishing the Bradford Semi-Weekly Era. The paper was continued as a semi-weekly until October, 1877, when it was changed to a daily issue, Mr. C. F. Persons becoming a partner in the business. To comprehend the magnitude of the enterprise of publishing a daily at Bradford, with full “press dispatches,” it must be remembered that at the time the place was but a city in embryo, and numbered less than five thousand inhabitants. The Daily Era was a success from its inception, and became at once the organ of the oil producers in the Northern oil field. In April 1877, the two first-named partners sold their interest in the Bradford establishment to Mr. Parsons.
Mr. Ferrin married (Sept 24, 1868) Miss Anna E. Weber, of Springville, NY. She died Feb. 15, 1872, and Jan. 1, 1874, he married Miss Flavilla J. Van Hoesen, Preble, Cortland Co., NY. The result of the latter union has been one son, - Augustine W. Ferrin, Jr., - and a daughter,, - Susie L. Mr. Ferrin’s residence is at Little Valley.
Thus far in his career, Mr. Ferrin has led an active and useful life, and now, in the prime of his manhood, enjoys an enviable reputation of a journalist not only in the home of his adoption, but throughout Western New York.
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- 1910
