Roswell Beardsley (1809 - 1902)

Born 5 Jul 1809 in Scipio Center, Cayuga County, New York

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 7 Nov 1902 at age 93 in North Lansing, Tompkins County, New York

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Roswell Beardsley is a descendant of the immigrants William Beardsley and Mary Harvie.

Biography

Roswell was born in 1809. He was the son of John Beardsley and Alice Booth. He passed away in 1902.^[1]

He conducted a General store at North Lansing, New York, and was post-master there for seventy-five years; was appointed by John Quincy Adams, and was kept in office by every president until he died. When Charles E. Smith was Postmaster General under President McKinley he invited Rosewell to come to Washington, D.C. as his guest and he gave the Oldest Postmaster of the United States as good a time as his advanced age would permit. [Holt] ^[2][3]

Roswell Beardsley was appointed postmaster of North Lansing, New York, in 1828, at the age of 18, and served until his death in 1902 at the age of 93.

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Sources

• Beardsley Genealogy: The Family of William Beardsley, One of the First Settlers of Connecticut. Compiled and edited by Nellie Beardsley Holt and Charles Eleazer Holt. Published at West Hartford, Connecticut, 1951. Roswell Beardsley is Holt Record #557, Pg. 236.
• The Beardsley's of Auburn, NY, by T. L. Warren^[4]
• 1880 US Census: Lansing, Tompkins County, NY, Jun 1880, Enumeration District 238, Pg. 35
• Find A Grave: Memorial #41447782; Burial at North Lansing Cemetery, North Lansing, New York, Unitedt States

Footnotes

1. ↑ Information from Beardsley family researcher Nick Dann, 14 Nov 2015.
2. ↑ According to an article in the New York Times, 24 Nov 1901, he did not make that trip to Washington, as Holt suggests. [New York Times]. See also the article in: Press and Horticulturist, Riverside, California, dated 9 Sep 1902.
3. ↑ Longest-Serving Postmasters United States Postal Service Historian, August 2012
4. ↑ The Beardsley's of Auburn, NY The author incorrectly listed Roswell's date of birth '5 Jul 1807'.

Research Notes

• A second Roswell Beardsley is mentioned in History of the Town of Catharine, Schuyler County, NY, and Rutland, VT, by Mrs. Mary L. ( Caitlin) Cleaver, Tuttle Publishing, 1945, Pg. 424, as having lived in Lansing, and being the oldest postmaster in the state in 1893. This is incorrect. That Roswell was a house carpenter, and had moved to Wisconsin. The author confused the two. The two Roswell's are actually third cousins.