Dennis Warner
1799 - 1826

Dennis Warner was born in Phelps, Ontario County, July 13, 1799, and was descended from New
England stock.  His grandfather, Dea. Jesse Warner, at a very early day, emigrated from
Connecticut to Phelps, where he bought a large tract of land at the nominal price of eighteen cents
per acre and subsequently gave to each of his boys a farm of fair dimensions.  Deacon Warner died
at the great age of ninety-six years.  

Dennis Warner resided in Phelps, until he was eighteen, when he went to Olean and entered the
store of Judge F. S. Martin as a clerk.  Feb. 8, 1820, he married Miss Clarissa Andrews, a niece of
the pioneer Luman Rice.  She was born in Homer, N. Y., Oct. 8, 1801.  

Soon after their marriage, they settled on the southern bank of the Allegany, opposite where the
village of Westons Mills is situated.  Mr. Warner purchased a saw-mill and engaged in the
manufacture and sale of lumber.  Allen Rice owned a saw-mill across the river, and both mills were
furnished power by the same dam.  

Mr. Warner died in Pittsburg, Pa., April 21, 1826, on one of his trips to that place to market his
lumber.  He was an active and prominent young man of pleasing address, and served the town of
Olean efficiently in town offices.  After Mr. Warner’s death, Mrs. Warner fought the battle of life
for herself and three children for many years until her children were of an age to lend her a helping
hand.  She died in 1850 at the home of her daughter in Gloversville, N. Y.


(From Lyman, Horton & Co's (Limited) Historical Gazetteer and Biographical Memorial of  
Cattaraugus County, N. Y., ed. by Wm. Adams, 1893, pp. 1019-1020)

Note that their home was in Westons Mills on the Allegany River, years before Portville was
formed from Olean in 1837.  Lewis Warner was only four when his father passed away.  He had an
older sister and a younger brother.
The Portville Historical and Preservation Society