Olds, Lewis W.

LEWIS W. OLDS, proprietor of the Wood Pump and Pump Log Factory, Erie, was born in East Mill Creek, Erie Co., Penn., July 21, 1822, son of Asa Gilbert Olds, a native of Alstead, N.H., born Nov. 15, 1793, and who when a child was taken to Williamstown, Vt., where he resided until the spring of 1816, when he came to East Mill Creek, this county. Here he died Dec. 8, 1871. He married, April 17, 1821, Lucy Church, a native of Winchester, Conn., who bore him five children, all now living, viz.: Lewis W., our subject; Nelson, married and living in Greene Township, this county; Erskine, married and residing on the old homestead in East Mill Creek; Clarissa E., married to Isaac Keeler May 2, 1882 (they together publish a monthly religious paper, called the Banner of Love, now at Washington, D.C.), and Emily J., teacher in the public schools, Erie City. John Church, father of Lucy (Church) Olds, enlisted when eighteen years of age during the Revolutionary war, at Saybrook, Conn., and went with Arnold to the Siege of Quebec in 1776. He was present at the battle of Saratoga, and assisted Arnold off his horse when there wounded. Our subject received a part of his early education in a small log school-home in the country, with a slab bench for a seat. He finished his academic course at the Erie Academy, and was married in Erie City, May 9, 1848, to Louisa E. Ackerly, born in Middletown, N.Y., March 11, 1826. To this union were born Inez L., married to Eugene M. Tayntor, now live in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Clark, who graduated from the University of Michigan in 1870 after a four years’ course, and when under twenty years of age; for several years he was in the United States Topographical Corps of Engineers, engaged in a survey of the upper lakes; having resigned, he went to Germany, and studied for a time at Leipsic University, and on his return to Erie he studied law, and is now practicing at the Erie bar; he married, Dec. 13, 1876, at Cortland, N.Y., Elizabeth L. Keator (have one son— Romeyne K. Olds); Nettle, an artist by profession, and now attending the Cooper Institute, New York; Phila., a graduate of Erie high School, at present at home; William C., married in Spence Creek Valley, Huntingdon Co., Penn., Jan. 9, 1884, to Mary Porter Brown, live in Erie, Penn.; Florence, now at home, and Charlotte Marion, also at home. Mr. Olds commenced the manufacture of pumps in East Mill Creek in 1844, and moved his pump works to Erie in 1853, and was the first man in the United States, and probably in the world, to reduce the old log pump to an article of commerce, and has stood in the front ranks of manufacturers ever since. His pumps have had an extensive sale in all parts of the country.