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_Daniel SKINNER _____________|
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|--Chester SKINNER
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| _Joseph SKINNER _
| _Joseph SKINNER _|
| | |_Abiah - ________
|_Hannah Harriet Day SKINNER _|
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|_Anna DAY _______|
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!Report of the Committee on Genealogy 20 February 1915 Of Chester SKINNER there is much to be said. He was the oldest son of Daniel and Harriet/Hannah (SKINNER) SKINNER [JH 1462/1453] of Connecticut, born in Norwich, Chenango County, New York 14 Jan 1799. In 1819 he decided to make Portland (Chautauqua) NY his home and taking his ax on his shoulder and all his goods in a roll under his arm he made the journey on foot in company with his brother Alfred; arriving at his unclešs, Reuben TAYLOR, March 14, 1819. The boys were received by their uncle with that hospitality known only in pioneer life. He settled on a farm which is part of lot 16, Township 5 where he built a log house and set out an orchard and commenced frontier life in earnest. The next winter hearing of his fatheršs death and knowing that within this parental home there were nine fatherless and motherless children he returned with great haste to care and provide for the little ones. Finding that his father, whom he supposed to be rich, had died a poor man he resolved to take the family to his new home in the forests of Portland, NY, and accordingly bought a yoke of oxen loaded upon a rude sled, as many of the household goods as his team could draw with the younger children who were too small to walk, besides the load and provisions enough to last them through. He rose early in the morning, bid his old home a tearful goodby and commenced the long and anxious journey. For twenty-one days this little band plodded through the snow, mud and storm; crossed Buffalo Creek the dense forests of Erie and Chautauqua till on the 21st of February just as the sun was going down the eyes of this boy once more rested on his cabin home. Though he rejoiced that he had a home for them all, what must have been his feelings as he looked upon the task of clothing, feeding and providing for them and only a yoke of cattle, a sled and $1.50 in money and a few household goods to begin with. Fortune had laid a heavy burden on the shoulders of this boy, but God had provided his servant for the task with a powerful physical strength, industrious habits and a heart as kind and generous as ever beat in the breast of man. The next season he went to Norwich, married Betsey GOODRICH and returned to Portland, in 1821, an with his wife built the second cabin on the farm in which they lived until 1823; when he bought and moved into a farm now the center of the village of Brocton, where he lived until 1876. He and his brothers with the TAYLORS, BURTONS, MARTIN and FAY and others of the first settlers with such counsellors as David EATON and Elijah FAY subdued the forests, built the schools and churches and prepared this beautiful land of Portland for the homes that their children and grandchildren now enjoy. When his brothers and sisters are old enough to provide homes for themselves and needed his supervising cares no longer, he sent to Norwich for his wifešs aged parents Mr. & Mrs. GOODRICH who shared his hospitality, his home and all he could provide as long as they lived. No man asking bread went hungry from his door. Many of us can look back when misfortune had overtaken us, to the time when his liberal hand and sympathizing heart had gone out to us. As idoler (idler?) was his especial abomination. As an artizen [sic] his mallet could be heard from the rising to the going down of the sun, that ŗUncle Chester built the house˛ was an assurance that all was safe. He died in the 85th year of his age on the 29th day of June 1883.