Margaret Urling Sibley

Notes:

“Urling,” the youngest child of Hiram Watson Sibley and Margaret Durbin Harper Sibley, was born during Emily Sibley Watson’s 1892-1893 trip to Egypt. She was near in age to and a close friend of Emily Sibley Watson’s son James Sibley Watson, Jr.

Margaret married O'Donnell Iselin 4 Mar 1919. O'Donnell was born 6 Oct 1884, New York; died 7 Nov 1971, New York. [Group Sheet]

1. Peter Iselin
2. Emilie Iselin Wiggin

Notes:

Emily Sibley Watson's brother, son of Hiram Sibley and Elizabeth Maria Tinker. He was named after Hiram Sibley's partner Don Alonzo Watson. He was a business man, and served as a trustee of the Rochester Savings Bank, Security Trust Co, and the Rochester Homeopathic Hospital (now Genesee Hospital), which his mother Elizabeth Sibley helped found.

Died:
Died at his home on East Avenue in Rochester of a broken him he sustained when he fell in the bathroom.

Hiram married Margaret Durbin Harper 1873. Margaret (daughter of Fletcher Harper, Jr. and Margaret Cook Durbin) was born 14 Feb 1852; died 28 May 1939. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Margaret Durbin Harper Sibley was married to Hiram Watson Sibley, making her Emily Sibley Watson's sister-in-law. She was the only child of Fletcher Harper, Jr., and Margaret Cook Durbin Harper. Her grandfather, father, uncles, and cousins comprised the Harper Brothers publishers. The mother of six children, of whom only three would live to adulthood, Margaret was frequently ill during the early years of the marriage, but went on to become a leader in the field of health care and hospitals in Rochester. She was president of Genesee Hospital for 25 years, and first president of the Nurses Training School board. Mrs. Sibley built the first children's ward and the first nurses home.

Notes:

Entrepreneur and capitalist, nurseryman and founder of Western Union, Hiram Sibley was born in North Adams, Massachusetts. He moved to Western New York around 1829-1830, and by 1835 he and his lifelong friend and partner Don Alonzo Watson had opened a machine shop in Sibleyville (now Mendon). He was elected Monroe County Sheriff in 1843 and began to invest in local nurseries in 1844.

Before the Civil War he was active in Republican (anti-slavery) politics.

After the invention of the telegraph in 1844, Sibley’s interests turned to telegraphy and railroads. He organized and invested in patents and companies, consolidating his interests through the formation of Western Union in 1856.

During the Civil War, Western Union consolidated its hold on northern and western telegraph lines. Sibley traveled to Russia in late 1864 to negotiate with the Tsar for an undersea telegraph cable that would cross the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia, uniting the Americas, Europe and Asia. The plan was stymied by the ultimate success after several failures of an Atlantic cable in 1866.

In his later years, he again invested in nurseries, purchasing the largest farm in the country and founding Hiram Sibley & Co., a seed company based in Rochester and Chicago. He was a prominent supporter of both the University of Rochester and Cornell University in Ithaca.

Hiram married Elizabeth Maria Tinker 24 Jan 1833, North Adams, MA. Elizabeth (daughter of Giles Tinker and Zilpha Knight Tinker) was born 11 Aug 1815; died 11 Jul 1903, Rochester, New York ; was buried , Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York . [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wife of Hiram Sibley; Emily Sibley Watson’s mother. She was one of the founders and early benefactors of Genesee Hospital, and a quiet philanthropist who helped many individuals.
—more—

Benjamin married Zilpha Davis. Zilpha (child of Samuel Davis) was born 13 Apr 1771, Oxford, MA; died 10 May 1824. [Group Sheet]