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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
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Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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Memorial and Family History of Erie County, New York
Vol. I, Biographical and Genealogical
The Genealogical Publishing Co., Buffalo; 1906-8

   [27-28]

        GEN. GAIUS BARRETT RICH, former President of the Buffalo Commercial
     Bank, and for many years President of the Bank of Attica, has long
     occupied a leading place among the financiers of Western New York.
     The RICH family, long numbered among the leaders in Buffalo's busi-
     ness and social circles, are purely English in origin. Among their
     ancestors are counted RICHARD RICH, Lord Chancellor of England in the
     reign of HENRY THE EIGHTH, ROBERT RICH, Earl of Warwick, and ROBERT
     and HENRY RICH, Earls of Holland, all sprung from one common stock.
        The American branch of the family traces its lineage back to
     Massachusetts, where the name first appears in 1625, this being the
     year of the earliest settlement of the family, on Cape Cod, in the
     town of Eastham. Here lived THOMAS RICH, who married MARY TAYLOR at
     Springfield, Mass., March 29, 1696.  They resided in Brookfield,
     Mass., where were born to them four children, of whom the eldest,
     THOMAS, married RUTH NICHOLS in that part of the town now called
     Warren but incorporated as Western. This THOMAS RICH, the second of
     the name, was a deacon in the Congregational Church and a man of
     substance in the community. To this day the legal title to the village
     common of Brookfield belongs by descent to his heirs, barring the
     possibility that the claim may be outlawed by lapse of time., THOMAS
     RICH was the father of six children, of whom the second son was
     SOLOMON, born August 2, 1726, and whose house in Brookfield still
     stands as an interesting memorial of Colonial days. At Western, in
     September, 1753, SOLOMON RICH married PHOEBE WEEKS. There were eight
     children of this marriage, of whom the fifth child and the second
     son was SOLOMON, born November 23, 1766. This SOLOMON RICH married
     SOPHRONIA BARRETT, thus bringing into the family a name which has been
     handed down to the present generation. About 1800 SOLOMON RICH removed
     to the northern part of the State of New York, and settled at De Kalb,
     St. Lawrence Co. His children were three, GAINS BARRETT, born Septem-
     ber 26, 1790; GEORGE H., born in 1802, and SOPHRONIA, born in 1816.

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