1.) NOTES: Charles' birthplace of West Farms, NY was in the town of Westchester prior to 1846. It is now in Bronx County.
His obituary (below, not the photo) states he died in Erin but was buried in Breesport. Based on the local map, this cemetery is the only one IN Breesport. Charles was also a man of faith, so it would follow he would want to be buried in a churchyard. Confirmation or correction would be welcomed.

2.) HISTORICAL.
A few Incidents in the Life of our Father,
Charles Underhill – Masonic – Pioneering –
Scenes among the Mormons with Joseph Smith,
Forty Years ago.

At the request of friends, we have prepared the following sketch of pioneer life, as experienced by our Father, Charles Underhill, Esq., who died at Erin, in Chemung County, March 29th, 1879, aged 85 years. It may in part, prove interesting to the present generation.

He was born in the city of New York in 1794, and given a liberal education in the State of Connecticut, and in 1810 was sent by his father to Canandaigua, to engage in mercantile life with an older brother. In 1814, he married Miss Caroline Hart, four children being born from this marriage, two of whom are living.

During his residence in Canandaigua, occurred the notorious abduction of Wm. Morgan, a member of the Masonic Fraternity, charged by his companions with having violated his obligations in publishing to the world the ritual, or ceremonies of initiation. Father U. was a prominent Mason. The excitement was intense, the citizens in their frenzy burning the building and rooms of the Masons. At the trial of the abductors the jury were questioned as to their masonic relations, and but two masons, Father U. being one, were excepted. He considered this a mark of great respect for his honesty of purpose. The jury rendered a verdict, "guilty" against the abductors.

In 1827, he married a second wife, Miss Portia M. Brooks, of Bloomfield, and soon thereafter removed to the tow of Veteran, Chemung County. He bought a farm and followed farming for a few years, when he located in Horseheads, Chemung County, at that time a larger place than Elmira, engaging in merchandise and the sale of lands for an English estate, accumulating a handsome property.

In 1839, a desire to assist in developing the then but little known "great west" induced him to emigrate to the State of Missouri, with his family. A younger brother had preceded him, and located on the Missouri river, at a point four miles above Fort Leavenworth. The certainty of amassing a fortune in building a large town at that location, he then thought demanded his removal there.

We well remember the bright morning in May 1839, with what boyish pleasure we climbed upon an old fashioned Pennsylvania wagon, attached to a train that conveyed the family and goods from Horse Heads to Jefferson (now Watkins) ---where we took steamboat for Geneva, and thence by canal to Buffalo. Railways in 1839, did not cover the land like network, as now, the stage coach and the canal boat making an average of four miles an hour, which in 1839 was regarded fast traveling.

Reaching Buffalo, the trip to Chicago was made by steamer, and after a weary passage of seven days and nights, that little village was seen in the distance. It was located one mile at least from the landing, and our party were taken in wagons over what was termed by the "Hoosiers" a "corduroy road" laid upon the marshy ground to Chicago village. This road obtained solidity by being covered with logs, thus preventing the teams and wagons from sinking into the mire and swamp. It was indeed a "rough road", and Father U. remarked that it reminded him of a portion of his masonic experience, so nearly did the ups and downs thereof resemble it.

It was decided to await here for a few days rest, and while doing so, a messenger came from Missouri bringing intelligence that decided a year's residence in Illinois. The message was that General Kearney had sent a company of soldiers and taken possession of the improvements made, burned down the buildings, and forbade further occupations of the lands. Father U. procured emigrant wagons, with cattle, laid in a stock of provisions for a family of nine persons, and located near Rockford, ninety miles from Chicago.

Farming, so great a distance from market, proved disastrous. Corn, the principal product, brought but ten cents a bushel, and butter but three cents a pound, in Chicago, and it cost more than that to haul it there. As the corn could not be sold, it was used as fuel, making a hot fire. In the fall of 1840, word came from Washington that through the efforts of Hon. Thomas H. Benton, the Secretary of War had ordered Gen. Kearney to release the lands he had taken from the proposed city plot, and that he had done so. Father U. at once decided to continue his journey to Missouri.

Accordingly, in November 1840, the family started upon the overland route to Galena, a lead mining town on the Mississippi river, to obtain water transit to St. Louis. Again were the old fashioned, high box Pennsylvania wagons, brought into use, and family and household goods arranged therein for travel over a wild prairie destitute of human habitations, save at occasional intervals. Progress was necessarily slow, as there was no beaten track; at night, animals were "hoppled" and turned out to graze, as grass cost nothing and grew to an enormous height. The traveler's fire was made, a temporary "crane" improvised, and a warm meal prepared, as the "spit" and the "tin bake oven" were carried along.

Galena was reached in December, the Mississippi full of ice, and but two steamers at the dock. The best boat was too heavily loaded with passengers, and passage could not be obtained upon her. The other belonged to the Mormons, then located at Nauvoo, Illinois, and passage was engaged upon her. The Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, and his associates Brigham Young and Sidney Rigdon were passengers, and a number of Mormon converts on their way to the then Mormon Jerusalem. In running the rapids where the water was shallow and the bottom rocky, the steamer ran upon a rock, and was fastened there for sixteen long days and nights, ---and they were long, especially to a family in haste to reach St. Louis.

During our imprisonment, the prophet Smith preached the new religion to the passengers, expounded the law from the Mormon Bible, and gave his hearers a full account of the finding of the mysterious plates near Palmyra, Wayne County, N.Y., from which he claimed the new divine law was obtained. Smith, was a fluent talker, impressive in manner, and worshipped by those he had around him. They sang the usual revival hymns, and the meetings were conducted the same as the revival meetings of the present day, save that Joseph Smith was presented as the divinely appointed servant of God to bring the new religion to earth, since the religion of Christ had through priest-craft been perverted from its original purity.

Great efforts were made by Smith to induce Father U. to embrace the Mormon faith. But the Prophet was not exemplary --- he was a patron of the wine cup, indulging to excess, and at times became drunken, acting like other wicked men. Father U. told Smith he was an impostor; that he knew his history in Wayne County, N.Y., and his end was certain to be a tragic one. This prediction was afterwards fulfilled in his incarceration and assassination in a jail in Illinois. Seventeen days from the boat's lodgment upon the rock, a passing boat was signaled, and with her assistance our boat was released from her fastening.

Reaching Nauvoo, the Mecca of the Mormons, a landing was effected. It was Sabbath morning, the sun shining brightly. Our steamer had two flat boats loaded with pig lead in tow. One boat dipped and sank as we neared the shore, and necessity demanded she should be unloaded and raised that the journey could be continued on the morrow. Smith and his boat officials offered every inducement for laborers to enter the ice cold water and hoist the lead from the boat. Not a man would undertake the work.

The prophet Smith, standing on the bow of the steamer, appealed once more for help, but in vain. Then went Smith, head first into the river, and quicker than a flash went a dozen or more Mormons after him, to save him from what they supposed would be death by drowning. But Smith had only played a ruse upon them; he swam around the boat and mounted a portion of the sunken boat, ordered whiskey for all. The boat was then speedily raised and reloaded. The Prophet next invited one and all to ascend the hill and enter the Mormon Temple. The crowd went up, including Father U. and the writer.

Nauvoo was then a village of note. Smith had a bank there taking gold and silver from his dupes, who took in exchange his worthless wild cat notes. The Temple was a costly and very handsome building. Smith preached to the people, but did not advocate the plurality of wives, that revelation of Mormon divinity had not then been received. At the close of the services Smith invited Father U to enter the private rooms of the Temple. In one room, the "sanctum-sanctorum" as Smith called it, we were shown "the body of Abraham" (a well preserved mummy), which the Prophet exhibited as evidence of his divinely appointed mission. His sophistries failed to convince Father U. of his truthfulness, and we returned to the boat leaving the Prophet Joseph to his thoughts. We have related these incidents to add a morsel of testimony to the history of that terrible imposture, Mormonism.

The journey was continued for a day, when the boat officers declared it impossible to go on because of ice, and the family were transported to Quincy by wagon and from there to St. Louis by steamer, arriving a day or two before Christmas. Navigation had closed on the Missouri, and the pioneer train was the conveyance to Fort Leavenworth, a distance of five hundred miles. The hardships and privations of that long and weary journey will never be forgotten. In a land of strangers, unaccustomed to the habits of life in that new country, at that early day, the family passed through untold hardships. But a vision of a future city --- of wealth, through enterprise and indomitable perseverance, kept the mind of Father U. centered upon the undertaking, and he clung to his idol until sickness and the welfare of his family advised him that he must retrace his steps.

The town he laid out he called "Rialto", naming its various streets after public men. The principal avenue, "Benton Avenue", after his friend, Hon. Thomas H. Benton. He built large docks and warehouses, and for a time all the tobacco and hemp of northwestern Missouri came to Rialto, to be shipped. This did not last but a year or two, when the Missouri river in a great flood, changed its channel, leaving Rialto so far distant from the main river that the enterprise had to be abandoned. Father U. and family, thereupon returned to New York, in the year 1845, locating again at Horseheads. Here he engaged in mercantile business with the Hon. Peter Wintermute, and the two were partners until advancing years compelled his retiring to farm life.

Five children were the issue of his second marriage, all of whom are living. In 1851, he married a third wife, Mrs. S. M. Miller, of Horseheads, who survives him. His third family, six children are also living.

Father U. was a devoted Christian man, and in all his long life of business and care, whether in prosperity or adversity, maintained his faith in the Saviour of men. While a resident of the West, far from churches and religious influences, it was his custom to gather together his scattered neighbors at stated times, and engage them in religious exercises, which he continued to do until the regular clergy filled the field.

Kind and affectionate, he did what he could for the best interests of all his children, and has gone to his reward, honored and respected by all who knew him. Peace to his memory.
SOURCE: 11 April 1879
The Steuben Courier and Farmer's Advocate Newspaper
(published by his son Anthony Lispenard Underhill)
Bath, Steuben County, New York.
(Appreciation for this goes to Matthew F. Carney III.)

MOTHER: Clarina Bartow
FATHER: Anthony Lispenard Underhill

1st WIFE: Caroline Hart
CHILDREN:
Angelina Underhill, 1819 - 1897
Emily Hart Underhill, 1824 - 1879
Clarina Bartow Underhill, 1825 –

2nd WIFE: Portia Maria Brooks
CHILDREN:
Anthony Lispenard Underhill
Caroline Hart Underhill, 1832 - 1901
Charles Augustus Underhill, 1834 - 1884
Octavia S. Underhill, 1837 - 1917
Portia Maria Underhill, 1842 - 1913

3rd WIFE: Sarah Miranda Colegrove
CHILDREN:
Eliphalet Howard Underhill, 1853 - 1926
Sarah Ella Underhill, 1853 –
Olive Clemerta Underhill, 1855 - 1894
Theodore Reginald Underhill
George Herbert Underhill, 1860 - 1921
Benjamin Robert Underhill, 1864 - 1930

FURTHER INFORMATION:
1. Obituary
Died, in Erin, Chemung County, Saturday, March 29th, 1879, CHARLES UNDERHILL, aged 85 years. His funeral was attended from his farm residence in Erin on Tuesday last; burial at Breesport. The deceased was the father of the editor and publisher of the ADVOCATE, and passed away in peaceful slumber, having lived to a good old age; dying with full hope of the life that is to come through the atonement of the Saviour of mankind. Another week we shall endeavor to present a more lengthy obituary.
SOURCE: Advocate, 4 Apr 1879

2. 885 CHARLES UNDERHILL, son of (340) Anthony Lispenard and Clarina (Bartow) Underhill, was born Aug. 25, 1794, and married first, Caroline Hart of Canandaigua, N.Y.; second, Portia M., daughter of Birdsey Brooks of East Bloomfield, N. J.; third, on Aug. 26, 1851, Sarah M. Miller of Elmira, N.Y., in which place he resided. He died in Horseheads, N.Y., at the age of 85 years.

Issue (by first wife):
2245 Angelina, married E.S. Hart and resided in San Francisco, Cal., as Angelina Hart Dana in 1897.
2246 Caroline, died 1824.
2247 Emily Hart.
2248 Clarina Bartow.

Issue (by second wife):
2249 Anthony Lispenard, born May 9, 1830.
2250 Caroline Hart, born 1832, died Oct. 16, 1901, in Buffalo, N.Y., where she resided at 103 15th Street.
2251 Portia M.
2252 Charles A., born June 14, 1834, married Ada Parks in 1860.
2253 Octavia, born April 14, 1837, married in 1871 George W. Field and resided in Omaha, Neb.

Issue (by third wife):
2254 Eliphalet.
2255 Theodore W.
2256 George H.
2257 Benjamin K.
2258 Sarah E., married Frank Starr.
2259 Olive C.

Deeds in Winnebago County, Ill., show that on Nov. 9, 1840, Charles Underhill was residing there; and on the same day, Charles Underhill and wife Portia M., conveyed property; that on April 4, 1846, he and his wife are called of Luzerne County, Penn.; that on Jan. 15, 1848, of Elmira, Chemung County, N.Y. (Winnebago County Deeds, Illinois, Liber C, p. 18, Ibid., 107; H. pp. 18, 85; M, p. 87; N, p. 313.)

The United States Census of 1850 shows that Charles Underhill aged 56 years, merchant, was residing in Elmira, N.Y., with his wife Portia M., aged 43 years, and the following children all born in New York State by Portia, born in Missouri: Caroline, aged 17 years, Octavia, 13 years and Portia 7 years, son Charles 15 years, who was a clerk in a boarding house.
SOURCE: Underhill Genealogy Vol II. Sixth generation pgs. 389-390