George Benjamin Delamater    

G. B. DELAMATER. George Benjamin Delamater was born at Whitehall, N. Y., Jan. 14, 1821; is in the 7th generation in the line of his paternal ancestors in this country, being a son of the late Thomas Delamater, who established himself and family in Richmond in 1825, and whose ancestor, Captain Isaac Delamater, (Le maitre), a Huguenot, having left France on account of the religions and political troubles of the times, had settled at Esopus, (Kingston), Ulster Co., N. Y., (then New Netherlands), about 1658. This occurred about the time when Antoine Le Maitre (Delamater), a savant of Port Royal, near Paris, distinguished in literature, and as an orator, died; and when his brother Louis Isaac, known as De Sacci, (having transformed the syllables in Isaac as a nomme de plume), by his publications and teachings at Port Royal, incurred the hostility of the Jesuits, and the powers that controlled Church and State in France, and as a consequence suffered about two years imprisonment in the Bastile.
There had been a John Delamater (Le Maitre), President of the French Parliament, who in 1593 enforced its authority against the policy and some of the tyrannical and offensive measures of the Duke of Mayennce.
Count Joseph Le Maitre, (Delamater), distinguished In literature, who died at his seat in Piedmont in 1821, after having represented that Government as Minister in Russia, when he wrote the “Soirees of St. Petersburg, was a native of Chambery, in Savoy, France. 
The New Netherlands having been transferred to England by treaty with the States-General, the Delamaters took the oath of allegiance to the new Government in 1683. Isaac Delamatre, a grandson of the first settler, not with standing his French ancestry, led a company, as Captain, in the invasion of Canada in the old French war; and his grandson, Captain Benjamin Delamater, who died at Whitehall, N. Y., about 1817, was honored at his funeral with a volley fired over his grave by a company of which he had been Captain, which had been called into temporary service in the war with Great Britain of 1812. The grandson of the latter George Benjamin, the subject of this sketch, received in private and common schools, and in classes in Academy and College, at Waterford, Oberlin, and Meadville, a good practical education, and having read law with the late Hon. John W. Farrelly, was admitted to the bar of Crawford Co. in 1847; and soon after to the bars of Erie and Warren Counties.
He married in 1847, Susan C., a daughter of the late Noah Town, Esq., and his residence which had been mainly in Meadville from 1840 was continued till 1850, when in pursuance of business plans he removed to Youngsville, Pa., and thence in 1872 to Townville, in this county, where he resided engaging in various business enterprises till the Spring of 1864, when he returned to Meadville, which has since been his home. While he never devoted himself exclusively to the law as a profession, he accumulated good law and miscellaneous libraries, and acquired experience in various departments of business, including law, journalism, real estate, merchandize, manufactures, and operations in coal, iron, oil, etc., in most of which he has been successful. He is a stockholder and director in various corporations, a Trustee of Oberlin College, and a Trustee and Vice President of Allegheny College, in which institutions he takes much interest.
As a politician, he was one of the Conferees who at Georgetown in 1848 nominated the late Hon. John W. Howe as a candidate for Congress, under circum stances which secured his election from the District composed of Mercer, Venango and Crawford counties, thus overcoming the then Democratic majority in the District; and he was also the same year one of the Delegates to the Buffalo National Convention which nominated Van Buren for President on the anti-slavery platform.
He served three years in the Senate of Pennsylvania, having been elected in 1870 by the district composed of Craw ford and Erie counties, and his record in matters of special and general legislation and on various important committees shows faithful service, though he declined to be a candidate for re-election; and in 1875 built the Delamater Block in Meadville, a structure which is admired for its arrangement and architecture.
He is connected with the well known Banking firm of Delamater & Co.. of Meadville. 

Directory of Crawford County, PA, 1879-80, pages 237-238.
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