Zeh article by Karen Cuccinello
Lewis/Louis Zeh
By Karen Cuccinello
I have glanced at these photos from the Stamford Village Library history room quite a few times. The folder labeled them as Captain Zeke which I tried to search for and found nothing. Then I looked at the backs of the photos again and discovered the chicken scratch really said Captain Zeh which made more sense because that is a local name; BUT there was no first name. I was almost stumped until I finally found a little article that listed him as Cap Zeh which lead to a 1904-05 Jefferson Courier article that listed his first name. There is still not much to tell but I did at least put a name to the photos.
Lewis was born in Schoharie County about 1835 to Anna and a father that was dead or gone before the 1855 Fulton, Schoharie County census. He was still in Fulton in the 1865 census with his mother and four of his brothers who all listed as farmers. The siblings I found in census reports were Peter, Marcus, Jane, Adam, Daniel, Philip and Anna.
Lewis married Mary Colwell, a dozen years his junior, about 1870. She was born in Meredith, NY to Clark and Sarah M. (Fuller) Colwell. They lived in South Jefferson and had 10 children; Ira, Jay, Clark, Georgianna, Mariette, Elizabeth/Libbie, John, Fannie, Jennie and Julia.
In an April 1894 Jefferson Courier (JC) – Jacob VanBuren purchased a new team of oxen of Cap Zeh of Stamford. He must have lived right on the town line because he was often listed as living in Stamford.
Then believe it or not I found this article that must refer to the photo with the bear or bear skins in it and implies that it was a farce.
June 24, 1897 (JC)- Stamford- Stamford readers of the N. Y. Journal were disappointed last Sunday by not finding in the columns a big, blood-curdling report of a great Bear-Hunt that was imagined to have taken place, about a week ago, in the woods on Cap. Zeh’s Rocky mountain farm on the Dugway road, near South Jefferson. Perhaps the lady reporter found the weather too cool for such a warm story this early, before the arrival of summer boarders.—[Mirror].
In February 1900 Mary’s mother died at her home and only four months later, on May 25, Mary died of diabetes, age 52. At the time of her death, her youngest daughter Julia was only 11 years old. In the 1905 Stamford census Julia is living with her siblings Clark, John, Minnie/Mariette and Frances (Lewis is living by himself in Jefferson) and in 1910 she and her brother John are living together. Julia married Herman J. Coulter in 1912.
This is the little article that told me his name. 1904-05 (JC)- Louis Zeh, familiarly known as Cap Zeh, of South Jefferson, met with the misfortune of a broken leg, the result of a slight fall. He is being cared for at the home of M. Z. Wardwell of Stamford, at whose home the accident occurred.
September 25, 1909 (Hobart Independent)- Lewis Zeh died September 21 of cancer of the liver, aged 81 years (this puts his birth year at 1828, Hum). He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. W. R. Brock, on Roses Brook, where he had been living for some time. He is survived by 10 children. Burial in Stamford Cemetery with his wife.