Cyrus Showers

From the Biographical Review, Volume XXXIII, located at the Durham Center Museum.
Transcribed by Celeste MacCormack.

CYRUS SHOWERS, civil engineer, contractor, and builder, of Tannersville, N.Y., was born in this town, November 9, 1859, son of Isaac and Merilla A. (Loomis) Showers. He is the sixth generation of his family in America, the line being traced back through Isaac, Japhet, Michael, John, to the emigrant progenitor, who came from Holland and settled in New Jersey, there spending the rest of his life. A more extended account of his ancestors will be found in a sketch of Isaac Showers, which appears elsewhere in the REVIEW.

Isaac Showers, Cyrus Showers’s father, was born in Hunter in 1827, and spent his youth on farms in this locality. He later engaged in civil engineering, which he followed quite extensively, and became one of the largest resident land-owners in this section. He is now living in retirement. His wife, Merilla, was a daughter of Alvin J. and Harriet (Palmer) Loomis, of Windham. She became the mother of eight children, four of whom are living; namely, Cyrus, Emma, Henry W., and George Harding Showers. Emma married Edward Osborn, and resided in California. Henry W. is attending the Albany Law School. George Harding Showers is studying civil engineering at the Troy Polytechnic Institute. The others were: Jennie, who married Stephen Vining, of Windham, and died at the age of forty-one; Elmer, who died at thirteen; Isaac, who died young; and Irving, who died at the age of four years. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Cyrus Showers was educated in the common schools of Tannersville, and resided on the home farm of three hundred acres, of which he took entire charge at the age of eighteen. He kept fifty cows, made butter for the local market, and supplied Hotel Kaaterskill with milk for some years. At the age of twenty-five he went to Onteora Park to assist in building the cottages, and was made its superintendent. He later built a large number of houses, completing contracts amounting to one hundred thousand dollars in four years. He also built his present dwelling, and continues to follow the business of civil engineer, displaying a marked ability for that profession. He at one time engaged in mercantile business for a short period. Politically, he is a Republican. Appointed Deputy Sheriff in 1888, he served until 1891 and again from 1894 to 1898. He was an Assessor two terms and a member of the county committee for several years. He has been secretary of the village Board of Trustees ever since its establishment, and is also a member of the Board of Health.

In 1883 Mr. Showers was joined in marriage with Lillie E. Ford, who was born in Lexington in 1863, daughter of Charles L. and Harriet (Humphrey) Ford. Her father and grandfather were both natives of Jewett; and Charles L. Ford, who at one time carried on a farm and kept a boarding-house in Lexington, moved to Tannersville, where he was similarly engaged, and still spends his summers in that village. Mrs. Showers’s mother was a native of Lexington, daughter of the Rev. Eli B. and Emily (Cline) Humphrey, the former of whom was a well-known Baptist minister, and died at the age of eighty. Her grandparents had a family of twelve children, nine of whom are living, among them Hiram, Horace, Sabrina, Lucina, Susan, Harriet, Ophelia, Eudocia. The others were: Amasa, Mary, and Elizabeth. Charles L. and Harriet Ford are the parents of two children: Lillie, who is now Mrs. Showers; and Jennie E., who married Dr. Robert L. Graham, of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Mr. Showers is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a steward and trustee, and he served upon the building committee which erected the new church edifice. Mrs. Showers united with the church at the age of fifteen. She is a member of the choir, and was organist for eight years. 

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