Stories in Stones: Stories from Oneida County, NY Cemeteries

      George W. Beatty was born on May 7, 1851 in Cherry Valley, NY. When he was four his family moved to Albany. He was educated at a private school until he was 11, when financial circumstances made him leave and go to work. He became employed at a retail clothing store where he worked for two years. After the retail clothing business he went to work in the hardware business. He became a traveling salesman for Pruyn and Son, his boundaries were between Albany and Binghamton. He stayed with them for five years before moving to Detroit where he found success in the same field of work.     George W. Beatty married Emma Bush in 1875. They had one son.     George W. Beatty came to Utica in 1877 and became an employee of oil merchant O.C. Thayer. He soon was practically on charge of the business. When Mr. Thayer sold the business to Standard Oil in 1896, Mr. Beatty became manager of a large territory which included: Oneida, Madison, Montgome...

       George W. Wrightson was born in 1842 in Yorkshire, England. He came to this country when he was three years old.     When he was 15 years old George W. Wrightson was employed by the New York Central Railroad as a fireman on a freight but he soon advanced to be a fireman on a passenger train.     George W. Wrightson was one of the fireman in the train that smuggled Abraham Lincoln into Washington D.C.     George W. Wrightson was promoted to engineer in a passenger train. In 1865, he was one of the engineers who carried Lincoln's body in its way to Springfield (different articles say he was engineer in the trip from New York City to Albany other articles says it was the trip from Utica to Syracuse).     George W. Wrightson drove the first "crack train" on the West Shore from Ravena to Syracuse. Also drove the first Continental West Shore train which was one of the fastest railroad locomotives.  ...