Watts Sherman Lansing    (b:17 Sept 1850)
    + (21 Jul 1877)    Agnes Maud Henrietta Watt    (b:1855, Ontario Canada)
    + (20 Oct 1890)    Julia M. Watt    (b:1851, Ontario Canada)

Mr. Lansing remained in the bank with his father-in-law for a number of years, and then went with his family to Detroit, Mich., where he accepted the cashiership of the bank called "The Michigan Insurance." Remaining only a year or so in this bank Mr. Lansing was called to the cashiership of the Oliver Lee & Company Bank, Buffalo, N. Y., which institution he remained in as cashier, and afterwards as president, until the bank was forced, in the great panic of 1857, to shut its doors.

Some time after the failure of the bank, Mr. Lansing accepted the office of treasurer and secretary of the Buffalo and Erie Railroad, with its office at Buffalo. This position he held for a number of years, filling the office with great acceptability to the directors of the company. Resigning his office, Mr. Lansing, about the year 1873, purchased a charming country place at Niagara, Ontario, and there he passed his summers until the time of his death in 1889.

A member of New York's Military Association, he rose to the rank of Brigadier General of the 31st New York Militia during the Civil War.

Mr. Lansing was essentially. a domestic man, he was fond of his home and devoted to his family. He was ever led to seek the highest happiness in his own domestic circle and possessed in a high degree those social qualities which belong to the refined and cultured gentleman. In a certain sense Mr. Lansing was the fruit of hereditary culture his father and grandfather on the paternal and materna1 side were bon vivants and connoisseurs. He prided himself upon his accurate judgment and discrimination in the choice of and selection of fine wines, and was an epicure in the best sense of the word, a lover of life's good things.

In one particular, in which business men are too generally negligent, Mr. Lansing excelled; he had cultivated the art of letter writing until his epistolary style became of rare excellence. He could express himself in the readiest and neatest way with great apparent ease, his letters were bubbling over in sentiment, expressed with great felicity and beauty, as all who ever received them will bear testimony.

Mr. Lansing was extremely fond of the sylvan sports, was an exceedingly good shot and an expert fisherman. In the years gone by, in order to indulge in the latter sport, he was compelled to make his own flies, and it was that accomplished gentleman and skillful sportsman, Alexander Jeffrey of Lexington, Ky., but who at that time lived in Canadaigua, who taught him how to make and use them, and it was this same gentleman who taught Seth Green, of Rochester, N.Y., who became the State's most expert fisherman, all he knew about angling. [On the 3rd of July, 1839, Alexander Jeffery married Delia, the daughter of Maj. Gen. John Albert Granger. Delia's sister Julia married Sanders Irving, the nephew of Washington Irving. Alexander Jeffery's second wife was Rosa Vertner, a Kentucky poet descended from a Declaration Signer, who gave a series of lectures on Robert Browning during their sojourn in D.C.]

Mr. Lansing was a most delightful companion and enjoyed good company, but it had to be the best in order to afford him any pleasure. He was extremely fond of poetry and had no end of quotations upon his tongue's end, and possessed the unusual faculty of being able to repeat from memory whole pieces, no matter how long they were, provided they awakened a responsive chord.

Mr. Lansing, coming as he did from a military family, very naturally inherited military tastes, and shortly after the outbreak of the Civil war was appointed by the governor of New York chairman of the Senatorial Committee of his Senatorial District, which was composed of the following very prominent citizens of Buffalo: Nathan K. Hall, Stephen G. Austin, Jacob Beyer, John Ganson, Philip Dorsheimer, and Alexander W. Harvey. At this time Mr. Lansing was brigadier-general of one of the brigades attached to the Eighth Division of the State militia. Mr. Lansing served faithfully upon this committee and through its efforts Colonel Chapin's regiment, the One Hundred and Sixteenth New York Volunteers, and McMahon's Irish regiment, the Corcoran Guards, were organized, recruited, and sent to the front, where they did most excellent service.

Mr. Lansing departed this life, after a tedious illness which he bore with great fortitude, at Canandaigua, on the morning of the 30th of September, 1889, and left him surviving a widow and two sons, Livingston and Watts Sherman Lansing. He was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, N.Y.

Proceedings of the Military Association of the state of New York, Newburgh, June 1857 "Col. Lansing suggested that prizes should be offered to companies for drill and discipline -- one was offered to the best regiment and one for the best encampment, and he desired to go farther."

The Chair appointed on such Committee:--
    Col. Lansing

CITY OF CANANDAIGUA:
    Henry Lansing House, 72 East Gibson Street, (HABS # NY- 212)

Then, in 1860, Henry shows up as the Treasurer of the Buffalo and Erie Railroad, and his address is now 106 Delaware. The family stays in that house until 1868, the year after their daughter Sarah marries General Henry L. Burnett, one of the special Judge Advocates at the Lincoln assassination trial, when they move a block to 274 Delaware.

From 1868 to 1876, the family stays in their third house, though Henry retires fron his position as Secretary and/or Treasurer of the Railroad in 1870. For several years they overlap the home in Buffalo with their new summer house in Niagara-on-the-Lake, but in 1876 they move out of Buffalo in a massive move. From the 25th of October to the 4th of November, they pay James Craise and Samuel Courtney to move 30,010 lbs of furniture, etc.

Though Henry and Catharine's address changes often over the 25 years they lived in Buffalo, they never had to move. It was the city that did the changing. The home that they bought was located at the corner of Delaware and Johnson Place. And when they finally DID move out of it, they moved 30,000 lbs of furniture and life accumulations.

The view from the Tourlaine Hotel, built on the site of their home

Delaware Avenue was a good address. The houses around them were large, and filled with families with whom they had much in common - emigrees like them from Western New York. Relatively close to the center of Buffalo, they were surrounded with other bankers, lawyers and railroad men. To one side of their house was the Johnson "Cottage" (cottage, as in Newport Cottage), later the Female Seminary. Strange considering the proximity of the school, granddaughter Catharine was sent to the Utica Seminary. On the other side was the home of John Ganson. Like Henry, Ganson was president of a bank and he, too, was hard hit by the panic of 1857. Ganson eventually sold his home and left Buffalo, but Henry stayed on. Both his father-in-law, Henry B. Gibson, and Henry's first cousin, Watts Sherman, had invested heavily in Henry's bank, so the pain from the collapse of the Oliver Lee was felt throughout the family. Gibson tested the new bankruptcy laws all the way up to the NY Appeals Court from the NY Supreme Court but, in the end, the stockholders carried the responsibility for the debt incurred by the bank.

Given the size of the houses, it wasn't surprising that Ganson's brother-in-law, John Sibley lived with the Gansons in the north end of the house. John Sibley's father was the jurist and politician Mark Hopkins Sibley. His wife was Catharine Gibson Lansing's sister, Mary Young Gibson, named for Henry B. Gibson's brother-in-law, Colonel Samuel Young, the speaker of the New York Assembly and a failed candidate for governor.

At the end of the block past the Cottage was the residence of Archbishop Arthur Cleveland Coxe, whose daughter Grace married Catharine and Henry's son Livingston, and moved in with the Lansings. Also nearby were the Seymour and Jewett families, names later aligned with the Lansings by marriage.

1848	Henry L. Lansing	Cashier, The Michigan Insurance bank	.
1849	Henry L. Lansing	Cashier, Oliver Lee & Company Bank	Delaware cor. Johnson Place
1850-51	Henry L. Lansing	Cashier, Oliver Lee & Company Bank	Delaware cor. Johnson Place
1852-7	Henry L. Lansing	President, Oliver Lee & Company Bank	Delaware cor. Johnson Place
1858-9	Henry L. Lansing	Delaware cor. Johnson Place	.
1860-62	Henry L. Lansing	Treasurer Buffalo and Erie Railroad 3 Harvey block	106 Delaware
1863	Henry L. Lansing	Sec&Treas Buffalo and Erie Railroad 3 Harvey block	106 Delaware
1863-64	Henry L. Lansing	Secretary Buffalo and Erie Railroad 3 Harvey block	106 Delaware
1865-66	Henry L. Lansing	Treasurer Buffalo and Erie Railroad 3 Harvey block	106 Delaware
1868-69	Henry L. Lansing	Treasurer Buffalo and Erie Railroad 3 Harvey block	274 Delaware
1870-74	Henry L. Lansing	.	274 Delaware

Catharine's mother lived in Canandaigua, in the bank building that became their home after they retired the Ontario Bank. Upon Sarah's death in 1881, they were back to living in two homes - the Gibson home in Canandaigua, and Woodlawn in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Then, when Henry died in 1889, the Niagara house passed to his son Watts, then passed to Watt's brother Livingston's daughter, Katherine Cleveland Lansing McDonald (23 July 1878-?).

Both Henry and his wife Catharine died in their Canandaigua home.

After the death in 1881 of Catharine Gibson Lansing's mother, Henry and his wife Catharine inherited the large Gibson house in Canandaigua, which had previously been the Ontario Bank building. After Henry's death in 1889, Catharine sold Randwood and continued living in the Gibson home. On Catharine Lansing's death in 1898, the house was willed to the neighboring church, just visible on the right of the picture. The house was torn down to allow expansion of the church.

Ontario County Journal, 29 October 1897
On Monday night occurred the demise of Mrs. Catharine Olivia Lansing, widow of the late Gen. Henry L. Lansing of this place. Deceased was aged about 80 years. Death was the result of a chronic disease of long standing. Mrs. Lansing was the daughter of Henry B. Gibson, a well-known banker of this place, who died about 1860. Mrs. Lansing was the last surviving near relative of Mr. Gibson. Survivors are two sons, Watts Sherman Lansing of Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Livingston Lansing, of this place. Grandchildren surviving are Harry L. Lansing, Catharine C. Lansing, Cleveland C. Lansing, and Ernest Lansing, children of Livingston Lansing; Sarah Gibson Lansing, daughter of Watts S. Lansing; Mrs. Robert Mercur, daughter of the late Mrs. Henry L. Burnett; Catharine O., and Karl H. Lansing, children of the late Charles M. Lansing. The funeral services were held from the late residence at 2 p.m. yesterday, conducted by Rev. C. J. Clausen. The remains were removed to Buffalo for interment.

First: I give and bequeath to my wife Catharine Olivia, all the furniture, paintings, engravings belonging to me, also my library and all my horses, harnesses and carriages all of which are now in "Woodlawn" Canada.

Second: I give and bequeath to my sister Manette, wife of C.W. Morse of Saybrook, Connecticut, two thousand dollars, par value, of the stock of the Erie & Pittsburgh Rail Road Co (that is, forty shares at fifty dollars per share.)

Third: I give and bequeath to my grandson and namesake Lansing Burnett, son of my deceased daughter Sarah, my gold watch chain and locket, two pairs of gold sleeve buttons and two gold scarf pins.

Fourth: I give and bequeath to my grandson and namesake Harry Livingston Lansing, son of my son Livingston, my double-barreled breechloading shotgun and all the traps belonging thereto with gun xx, also all my fishing rods and tackle and artificial flies and bait.

Fifth: I give and bequeath to Ellen Gillen who has been a faithful servant in my family for many years, Five hundred dollars par value