(VIII) Justus Brayton, second son of Emory W. and Hannah (Pickit) Abbott, was born Oct. 23, 1842, in Fowler, N.Y., and was educated at Gouverneur Seminary and Eastman's Business College at Rochester, N.Y. Early in life he went to Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and opened a general store there, and also at St. Cloud, same state, in partnership with his cousin, Justus Pickit. Returning to Gouverneur, in partnership with his father and brother, he engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods at Hillsboro, N.Y., also making up the goods into clothing, chiefly trousers, the mills being known as the Abbott Woolen Mills. In 1880 he removed to Spragueville, N.Y., where he conducted a general store under the firm name of Sprague & Abbott, and continued business there nine years. At the end of that period Mr. Abbott removed to Gouverneur where he engaged in the grocery business for two years. He was appointed postmaster at Gouverneur by President McKinely in 1900, and continued in that position until the spring of 1909, since which time he has been retired from active business, except that he manages extensive real estate interests, chiefly in farms owned by himself and other members of the family, the property lying in St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties.
He is a member of the Presbyterian church, of the Masonic fraternity and the Temple Club, and is a consistent Republican in politics.
He married, at Spragueville, May 5, 1864, Frances A. Wight, born Oct. 30, 1841, in Fowler, N.Y., only daughter of Abner and Clarissa (Shumway) Wight, of Fowler (see Wight VII).
SOURCE: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hubbard/NNY_index/abbott.html
Steve Shumway - shumways@@petershumway.org
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