Charles Eugene Selover, Sr.: From Niles Farm Boy To New York City Banker To San Franciso Importer - Part I

Family History of Charles Eugene Selover, Sr. in Cayuga County, New York

The ancestry of Charles Eugene Selover, Sr. in Cayuga County, New York extends back to the earliest settlement of the area around Owasco Lake by families of Dutch ancestry in the last decade of the 18th Century. Charles would represent the 4th generation of his family in Cayuga County.

Isaac Selover (1760-1843), Mary McGee Selover (1769-1831), and Mary Young DeWitt Selover (1774-1852)

Isaac Selover removed from Middlesex Co., New Jersey where he had been born in 1760 and settled in the Town of Sempronius east of Owasco Lake in 1793. This was only a year after the earliest settlers (e.g., the Brinkerhoff family) had arrived, and Sempronius was then part of Herkimer County, New York. Sempronius next became part of Onondaga County in 1794, finally coming to rest in Cayuga County when it was formed in 1799. The portion of Sempronius in which Isaac settled became the Town of Niles, Cayuga Co., New York in 1833.

Whether or not Isaac's wife, Mary McGee, and oldest child, Catherine, accompanied him from New Jersey in 1793 isn't clear. One source shows Isaac and Mary's second child, Abram, being born at Cranbury, Middlesex Co., New Jersey in the fall of 1794. It is possible that Mary and the children remained in New Jersey until Isaac had built suitable shelter in what was then the wilderness. Isaac and Mary eventually had at least eight children, all but Catherine and perhaps Abram born in present-day Niles.

Isaac was a member of the Reformed Dutch Church of Owasco, serving as a Deacon in 1810. Mary McGee Selover died in 1831. She is buried in Selover Cemetery #150 in Niles. Isaac then married (2nd) Mary Young DeWitt and lived until 1843. He also is buried in Selover Cemetery, as is his second wife who died in 1852.

William Selover, Sr. (1797-1862), Gertrude Duryee Selover (1798-1817), and Margaret Post Selover (1795-1880)

Believed to be the second son of Isaac and Mary McGee Selover, William Selover, Sr. was born 25 December 1797 in Sempronius. He married (1st) Gertrude Duryee (1798-1817), probably in 1814 or 1815. Gertrude bore a son, Isaac Selover, apparently before January 1816 based on Isaac's age at death, but she died about 2 years later on 16 November 1817. Gertrude also is buried in Selover Cemetery.

William married (2nd) Margaret Post 1818-1819. Margaret was the daughter of George Post and Anna Groom who had followed George's father, Christopher Post, from New Jersey to settle in the Town of Aurelius (later Fleming), Cayuga Co., New York on the western shores of Owasco Lake in May 1798. Margaret joined William on his farm near the southwest corner of Niles (Sempronius before 1833) where they lived through 1855. They were censused in the Town of Moravia, Cayuga Co., New York in 1860 living in the southern part of Moravia Village near the Cady residence. William and Margaret had four children:  George, Mary Ann, Gertrude, and William, Jr.

William Selover, Sr. died in 1862. He is believed to be buried in the Selover Cemetery. Margaret lived with her granddaughter, Eveline A. Thornton Calhoun, in the Town of Throop, Cayuga Co., New York and in the City of Auburn, Cayuga Co., New York before her death in 1880. Margaret also is buried in the Selover Cemetery.

William Selover, Jr. (1828-1920), Ann Elizabeth Welty Selover (1827-1866), Eliza M. Harris Selover (1842-1898), and Ella C. Hicks O'Donnell Selover (1857-1916)

Like his father, William Selover, Jr. began his career as a Farmer in Niles, a bit north of his father's farm. William married (1st) Ann Elizabeth (aka A. Elizabeth) Welty ca. 1851. Ann Elizabeth was the daughter of Philip Welty and Nancy Decker and a granddaughter of Adam Welty, Sr., an early settler of the Town of Owasco, Cayuga Co., New York who had come in from Pennsylvania by 1800. Adam Welty, Sr. was among the men who subscribed to the Building Fund for the "Meeting House of the United Congregation of the Reformed Low Dutch church at the Owasco Outlet," informally known as Sand Beach Church. His son, Philip, was closely associated Peter Bogart, his brother-in-law and a  son of another early settler of Owasco, Dr. Jacob Bogart.

William and Ann Elizabeth only had one child, Charles Eugene Selover, Sr., before Ann Elizabeth's death in May 1866. She was buried in the Auburn Section of Soule Cemetery in the Town of Sennett, Cayuga Co., New York. William seems to have removed from Niles to Moravia after the death of his first wife. One source states that William married (2nd) Eliza M. Harris in September 1869. She was a young School Teacher, daughter of William Harris and Elspy S. Douglas of Moravia. William and Eliza were censused together in Moravia in 1870. William's occupation at that time was Spoke Manufacturer. He later would be listed as Proprietor of the Selover Milling Company in Moravia, an operation that appeared under several other names over the years.

Eliza and William had a son, William Harris Selover, 21 years the junior of his half-brother, Charles Eugene Selover. Eliza died in 1898 and was buried in Indian Mound Cemetery in Moravia. William married (3rd) Ella C. Hicks, the widow of Fred O'Donnell, ca. 1902. They continued to reside in Moravia. Ella died in 1915 and also is buried in Indian Mound Cemetery. William had removed to Brooklyn, Kings Co., New York by 1917 where he resided with his son, Charles, until dying in 1920. William's remains were brought back to Moravia for burial in Indian Mound Cemetery.