Joseph Brown Jameson 1832-1912

Joseph Brown Jameson was named for his father’s brother, and his maternal great-grandfather.

Joseph Jameson, along with his younger sisters Louisa and Annis was raised by his older stepbrother Isaac and his wife Jane. In fact their families intertwined thereafter. The roles were reversed in 1869 when Isaac died. Isaac's son Albert lived with Joseph and Cecelia when they remained in Jacksonville, Florida.[1]

Mrs. Jameson, then Cecelia Howell of Bergen, New York, was employed by Isaac Jameson as a servant in their household in the mid 1850’s.[2]

Mr. and Mrs. Jameson lived in Churchville, New York, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada,[3] and Jacksonville, Florida.[1] They returned finally to Rochester, New York, by 1874,[4] where they resided at 93 Jefferson Street.

Mr. Jameson was the proprietor of the Rochester Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida in the late 1860’s and early 1870’s. He had gone there, with his brother Isaac and others, a few yeaes after the Civil war on the new wave of tourist interests in what was that time a sparsely developed and settled area. Isaac had bought this property in 1868. Prior to that Joseph worked at the oil refinery (where his brother Isaac was Superintendent), in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada,[3] while living there in the early 1860's. This was most likely the J. M. Williams & Company (later the Canadian Oil Company) one of the very earliest petroleum oil companies in all of North America.[5] Later, after returning to Rochester, New York, he was a cabinetmaker and a manufacturer of agricultural machines. He was remembered as a man of "fine bearing and attractive personality."[6]

Mr. & Mrs. Jameson were members of Epiphany Episcopal church on Jefferson Street in Rochester, New York. About 1968 a new Epiphany church was built in Gates, New York and the old church torn down. Many of the artifacts in the old church were moved to the new church. Among those things moved were a series of brass plates with names of parishioners, including one that reads “Cecelia Howell Jameson”. This and the other plaques surround the alter in the new church. Although the exact meaning of these plaques and the where and why of their origin is no longer known, it can be observed they are all names of women. It is thought they may have once been part of a “mothers wall’ donated in their honor by their children.