Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from History of Chautauqua County, New York, and Its People, Vol. 2
The mother of Governor Fenton was Elsie Owen, daughter of John Owen, another of Chautauqua's early settlers, and a veteran of two wars. He served under Gen. Wolfe in the attack on Quebec during the French War, and was also a soldier, fighting for the liberty of the Colonies. He settled in the town of Carroll in 1808, upon the State line road leading into the State of Pennsylvania. He died at the remarkable age of 107 years.
It was from such honorable pioneering blood that Reuben E. Fenton sprang. He was intensely ambitious, and at first intended to become a lawyer, but prior to reaching his majority he adopted a business career, and as merchant and lumberman gained fortune, and fairly started himself along the road to fame, a road he trod so successfully. The marked executive ability, diligence, and sagacity which he displayed in his first business enterprise were but indicative of the qualities that so strongly characterized him in his later years. They marked him in youth as a man of superior quality, and compelled recognition at a very early age. He became a colonel of militia when barely twenty-one, and received at the hands of the voters of the town, district, and State, the highest political honors they could bestow. He combined the qualities of the successful politician with the loftiest ideals of the statesman, and at one time his name was mentioned in connection with the presidency. His rise was not through happy circumstance or favoritism, but he literally fought his way upward, Western New York not lacking in able, aspiring men to oppose him in both his own and the opposing party. He was originally a Democrat, but later became identified with the Re publican party; he received his first congressional election from the Democratic party.
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