Transcript:Transcript, newspaper clipping:The Gage Family

Saturday, August 29, 1896. The Grape Belt (newspaper), Dunkirk, Chautauqua, New York, United States

The Gage Family An Historical Sketch - Gen. Thomas Gage, the Last Royal Governor of Massachusetts, Was One of the Ancestors.

Silver Creek, Aug. 26 - In honor of Mrs. Sabina Howard and in kindly remembrance of her deceased husband, the second reunion of the Gage family was called to assemble on Friday, Aug. 21, 1896, in one of the most delightful retreats up the Abbey and were most cordially received by Mrs. Howard and family. The following paper was read on that occasion by Mrs. Byron Record of Forestville:

  At the first Gage reunion which was held at Silver Creek on the 27th of June 1878, Rev. Nelson Gage was chairman of the day. In an address which he delivered on that occasion, he gave a short history of the Gage family. Only a brief synopsis of that address was procurable, but from it we learn some of the characteristics of this remarkable family. The mother of this family died in 1859 at the advanced age of nintynine years. Her maiden name was Mary Bolton. She married Asa Gage, Sr., in Bolton, Conn., a manufacturing [missing line of paper]

Their family consisted of 13 children of whom Rev. Nelson Gage was the youngest. "It was the nerve and Strategy of this mother that once drove the Indians from her house by imitating men in preparation for a fight. The family are connected with General Thomas Gage who was commander-in-chief of the British forces of America, and the last royal governor of Massachusetts born in England. He was an active officer during the Seven Years' war, was appointed governor of Montreal and succeeced Amherst. Being appointed to succeed Hutchinson as governor of Massachusetts, he arrived in Boston, May 1774, while people were preparing to resist the Port Act. He led the army under Braddock, with Washington as companion and aide in the battle of Fort du Quesne. There are many of this family who have done as great service for their country as this truly esteemed general. There are many who now sleep in the valley where no stone marks the grave, with no one to honor save the hand of God, who appoints the flowers to bloom and fade over their last resting place" This noble family is still going on to make itself history, and, while the times do not demand the shedding of blood for the country, yet if every one who stands for the right in these days is a martyr, then there are many such in the Gage family. In connection with this bit of history there is given me a task difficult to perform, yet it is a duty which we would not leave undone. We would hold in loving remembrance those whom the all-wise Father in His Providence has called one by one to occupy the mansions prepared for them in this home in the skies. Of the 200 who were present and registered at the reunion at Silver Creek 18 years ago, 31 have gone to their reward. The first to leave the ranks was Mrs. Persis Gage Talcott, who died about two months after the reunion. If the roll were called today, there would be no response to the names of Reuben Gage, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Gage, Cordelia Gage Horton, Calista Gage Chapin, Sullivan Gage, Mr. W.D. Talcott, Fanny Heaton Talcott, Myron Gage, Emma Meade Chapin, Robert Cursons, Zipporah Cursons, Nellie Havens, Mrs. Charles Gage, Merritt J. Shearer, Edson Livemore, Jane Howard Thomas, Rebecca Gage, Ellza Gage, Clarissa Livermore, B.P. Hutchinson, Mr. and Mrs. A.S. Nevins, Lucetta Howard, Mason Howard, Cora Howard, Lee Howard, Merritt Howard, Simon Shearer, Mary A. Cobb, Henry J. Sprague, Lyman O. Harrison. On the 23rd of last October, only a few short weeks after he was chosen vice-president of the organization, Mr. Sabinas Howard, after a period of most intense suffering, passed to his rest. The last name in this long list is that of Edson Howard who died on the 5th of July. Thus they have been called away, and thus shall we be called when God in His Providence sees fit.