My Genealogy Hound

WALTER THORP. The gentleman whose life history it is our pleasure to relate has passed from the scenes of earth, but his memory is dear to his surviving friends, and a record of the prominent residents of Seneca County would be incomplete without this notice of his life.

Like many of the best citizens of this section, he is of foreign birth, his home having been Holmforth, Yorkshire, England, where his birth occurred April 25, 1842. His parents were Jonathan and Esther (Brook) Thorp, also natives of the British Isle. The father was an extensive manufacturer of woolen goods, and when Walter was old enough he was sent to Ireland and Scotland as representative of the firm. He thus took advantage of the opportunities granted him for acquainting himself with the language of these countries and at the same time very materially enlarged the business of the company.

When about twenty-one years of age our subject came to America on a visit, but was so well pleased with the country and the prospects which it had in store for a wide-awake and ambitious young man that he concluded to make it his future home. Before settling down he visited thirteen different states, and also took a course in the business college at Cincinnati. He then became connected with the large woolen-mill at Munnsville, N. Y., and after severing his interest with that concern, was employed by other large firms of the state at different times. In 1867 or ‘68 he came to Seneca Falls and was engaged as shipping clerk in the mills here. During this time he became acquainted with Miss Harriet Jane Cross, to whom he was married December 23, 1868. She was born in the town of Tyre, July 1, 1842, and was the daughter of William H. and Lucy A. (Boardman) Cross. Her father was a well-to-do resident of this place and followed farming the greater portion of his life. In 1872 Mr. Thorp moved to Cornwall on the Hudson, but, his wife failing in health, he returned to Seneca Falls and continued to live here until removing to the farm now occupied by the family. There he purchased one hundred acres, besides a tract of thirty acres, which is within the corporate limits of Seneca Falls. On the former place he established a dairy business, daily disposing of the milk from thirty cows. The place is known as “Fairview.”

To our subject and his estimable wife there were granted three sons. Jonathan Walter, born in Seneca Falls, October 26, 1869, is well educated and is now manager of the home place; George Brook, born in Cornwall on the Hudson, August 9, 1872, is at home, as is also Josiah Albert, born in Seneca Falls, December 14, 1876.

Mr. Thorp took out his naturalization papers in due time after coming to America, and identified himself with the Republican party in politics. He was an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he filled the official position of Steward. His wife was greatly interested in Sunday-school work, and together they had charge of the infant department. His death, which occurred April 28, 1889, was the occasion of universal mourning, and in him the community lost one of its best citizens.

The father of Mrs. Thorp, William H. Cross, was born in Greene County, N. Y., October 28, 1809, and his wife, Lucy A. Boardman, was born in Seneca Falls, April 21, 1818. They were married December 23, 1833. In early life Mr. Cross learned the carpenter’s trade, but followed it only a few years, when he abandoned it in order to give his attention to farming. He lived for a time in the town of Tyre, where Mrs. Thorp was born, but took possession of the estate which the latter now owns when she was a little girl of five years. This tract he rented a few years of Denning Boardman, the grandfather of Mrs. Thorp, but afterward purchased seventy-five acres in the town of Seneca Falls, and later became the possessor of a good farm in Fayette. Some time thereafter he disposed of the farm in Fayette and traded the property in Seneca Falls for the place where Mrs. Thorp now lives. Mr. Cross was a Republican in politics, voting that ticket from the organization of the party until his death, in April, 1886. His good wife had preceded him to the land beyond, dying in 1878. Mr. Cross and five sons fought in the Civil War, in which conflict three of the sons lost their lives and were buried on Southern soil. The father became a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, belonging to Cross Post in Seneca Falls, which was named in his honor. Mrs. Thorp is connected with the Woman’s Relief Corps and was sent as a delegate to the state convention at Saratoga. While there she visited Mt. McGregor and saw the house where General Grant spent his last days. She is also a member of the National Grange.