Today is the 197th Anniversary of the birth of my 3x great grandfather, William Almaron Starr. He was born on 20 May 1828 in Lee Center New York, Oneida County. He was the oldest of Marilla Amelia Warner and Asa Starr’s four children. Asa had inherited his father (Thomas Starr)’s farm and homestead and William lived and worked on that farm with his father until 1860. Asa was a devout member of the Methodist church, a member of the old Oneida Conference. Thomas had come to Oneida County just before the turn of the century from Middletown Connecticut where he was born in 1763, along with his father, the revolutionary war Captain, David Starr. Land in central New York was given as a reward for the service of many revolutionary war veterans. The Starr’s were among the first white settlers of Lee Center.
William attended the Black River Literary and Religious Institute for high school in 1841 in nearby Constableville, NY along with distant cousins Fanny, Sam and Sarah Starr (children of Chauncey Starr descended from Samuel Starr). The school was coeducational. At the Institute, boys and girls attended in almost equal numbers. One auditor remarked that the “two sexes were receiving lessons together on light, refraction and reflection.”
In 1849, at age 20 he married Sarah Lucretia Brown. Their first son, named Asa after his grandfather, died in infancy. Three years later another son, Henry was born. The following year Lucretia died. Less than 3 weeks after Lucretia died William married her sister, Susan Brown, in Ava New York on 28 April 1854. Susan and William had one son together on 13 August 1856, George A Starr. In 1860 the family was listed as living in Lee Center NY, now with a Blacksmith shop. Like his father, William was a devout Methodist, and served as the Recording Steward for the church for 17 years.
In January 1864 Susan died and in November of that year William married Amelia Annette Billings from nearby West Leyden, New York. William was 36 and Amelia was 23. Thirteen months after their marriage Amelia gave birth to Emory Alfred Starr, my 2x great grandfather.
Emory may have been named for a cousin, Emory C Starr, who went to fight in the civil war in 1862. In May of 1864, just months before my 2x grandfather Emory was born, Sgt Emory C Starr was captured during the Battle of the Wilderness, near Spotsylvania Virginia and taken to Andersonville Prison in Georgia. He was held in the infamous prison for more than 7 months. Twenty eight percent of inmates of the prison died from disease and starvation. After the war the commander of the prison was tried and executed for war crimes. Emory’s health never fully recovered and two years after returning home to Lee Center he died. Starr post 56 G.A.R. in Lee was named after him in 1876.
The family settled into the small community of Ava, NY in Oneida county, William running a blacksmith shop, was also appointed the postmaster for Ava in 1867. Amelia’s next two children, Marilla and Chauncey, died in infancy.
In 1869 Susan Eleanor Starr was born, followed by Elmer Romayn Starr in 1871. George and Henry worked with their father in the blacksmith shop according to the 1870 census.
In November of 1873 William’s father Asa died after a prolonged illness of “dropsy” – extreme swelling likely from heart, kidney or liver disease and the family farm was sold out of the family. The following month William’s youngest child, Hattie Starr, was born 4 days before Christmas.
In November of the following year William, only 46 years old, died, followed by his teenage son George, just 3 days before Christmas of 1874.
