Lottie Webster
Poland, Town of Russia Herkimer County, NY
According to the 1880 census, Lottie Webster was born approximately 1863 in New York
State. In the 1880 census of Russia, Herkimer County, NY, 17-year-old Lottie resided with her father
John R. Webster, a 52-year-old farmer born in NY, mother Eliza J., age 47 and born in NY, and
sister Eva, age 15, also born in NY.
John R., Eliza, Lottie, Allie and Eva Webster are found residing in the Town of Russia in the 1870 census. Lottie's
father is also listed in the Gazetteer and Business Directory of Herkimer County, N.Y. 1869-70,
(published by Hamilton Child & Co., Syracuse, NY 1869) as:
Webster, J.R. (Poland) dairyman and farmer 68
I didn't find any members of the family in the 1860 census.
An LDS christening record says that Lottie was born August 13, 1862 in Poland, Herkimer
County, to John Robert Webster and Eliza Jane Schermerhorn. Another LDS record states that her father was born
November 5, 1828 in Deerfield, Oneida County, NY to John Goodwin Webster and Lucretia Brainerd, and that he died December
18, 1906. They record John Robert Webster as having married on January 30, 1853. Lottie's mother Eliza Jane is said to have been born January 2, 1833 in Deerfield, Oneida County to
Uriah Schermerhorn and Sally.
The book Our County and It's People, by Daniel E. Wager, notes that Lottie's maternal grandfather
Uriah Schermerhorn, the eldest son of Jacob H. Schermerhorn of Rensselaer county, settled in Deerfield, Oneida County, in 1803. Uriah's brothers, Daniel and
Cornelius, settled near North Gage, close to the present village of Poland. The book Schermerhorn Genealogy and Family Chronicles, by Richard Schermerhorn,
Jr. goes into more detail about Lottie's mother, her immediate family, and ancestry. Eliza Schermerhorn Webster, was the
second child of Uriah, or Ryer, Schermerhorn and his third wife Mrs. Sally Miller Tiffany. Lottie's mother Eliza was born
January 3, 1833, died June 8, 1904, and is said to have married John Robert Webster on January 3, 1853.
The LDS records database gives the following children as having been born to John R. Webster and Eliza J. Schermerhorn:
1. Allie T. Webster, born in Poland NY August 22, 1855
2. Cora L. Webster, born in Poland NY August 28, 1857
3. Curtis G. Webster, born in Poland NY January 25, 1860
4. Lottie M. Webster, born in Poland NY August 13, 1862
5. An unnamed child - this is likely Eva of the 1870 and 1880 censuses
6. An unnamed female child, born in Poland NY, August 19, 1868 and died August 24, 1868
The interment records of the
North Gage Cemetery in Deerfield, Oneida County (located on the Oneida County NYGenWeb site) list Cora Webster, died December 5, 1864 and
Curtis Webster, died September 13, 1863, as well as an infant male child, Robert Webster (Infant) who died August 24, 1868,
the same date that the LDS records give for an unnamed female child of John R. and Eliza Webster. I had no luck tracing the
fate of sister Eva.
This notice from the 7 January 1903 edition of the Herkimer Democrat might be for Lottie's parents:
- Mr. and Mrs. Robert Webster celebrated their fiftieth anniversary Saturday afternoon. A large company of relatives and friends were present.
Lottie's name might have been Charlotte or Carlotta, but tracing by those names has been unproductive as well. Although Lottie's fate is currently unknown, her sister Alice, or Allie, and nieces married prominent Herkimer County
businessmen. Click here to read a bit more about the Webster family in the biography of banker and U.S. Congressman Charles S. Millington.
Allie's daughter Harty Millington married Henry Munger, of the village of Herkimer's famous Munger Department store.
We have many profiles on this site of people whose photographs haven't survived. Here is a lucky find of a surviving
picture of "Miss Lottie Webster," dated May 16, 1886, and her adult life is so far untraceable. If you have any information about Lottie to share, please
do, so that it can accompany this photograph, which will be donated to the Kuyahoora Valley Historical Society's permanent collection.
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