In the public utility circles of the Mohawk valley Albert D. Sheffield is well and favorably known as the president of the Fort Plain Gas & Electric Company and the business manager of the Mohawk Division of the Fulton County Gas & Electric Company, with which he has been identified for a good many years. He was born in the town of St. Johnsville, Montgomery county, January 8, 1860, and is the son of George and Caroline (Highby) Sheffield. His father was a lifelong resident of Montgomery county, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death in May, 1883, at the age of sixty-three. Mr. Sheffield's mother, a native of St. Johnsville, lived almost long enough to reach the century mark, passing away May 7, 1923, in her one-hundredth year.
The boyhood of Albert D. Sheffield was not essentially different from that of other farmer lads in central New York in the third quarter of the last century. He grew to young manhood on his father's farm and gained his early education in the schools of St. Johnsville. Later he attended the Fairfield Seminary, following which he entered the teaching profession and was connected with educational work for many years, rising to a position of prominence in his field. For fifteen years he was principal of the Nelliston schools and for six more served as county superintendent of schools for Montgomery county.
In 1916 Mr. Sheffield became the vice president and treasurer of the Mohawk Hydro-Electric Company and continued in that office until 1921, when the company was merged with the Fulton County Gas & Electric Company. Mr. Sheffield had already had some valuable experience in the public utility work before taking this position, for in 1911 he was elected president of the Fort Plain Gas & Electric Company, whose affairs he has managed with signal success to the present time.
Mr. Sheffield has been twice married. His first wife was Margaret Edwards, who died in 1886, leaving no children. On April 3, 1889, Mr. Sheffield was united in marriage to Miss Ella Miller, daughter of Garrett and Mary C. (Yerdon) Miller, natives of Tryon county, New York, a district now known as the town of Minden, Montgomery county. The family is a very old one in America, dating back to 1700 A. D., and claiming some of the heroes of the Revolution among its progenitors. Mrs. Sheffield is a member of the Eastern Star and Daughters of the American Revolution. Mr. Miller was baggage master for the New York Central Railway for a great many years. His widow, who survived him until August 7, 1922, lived to attain a ripe old age, having passed her ninetieth birthday when death claimed her. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield, of whom but one is now living. Ruth Mary Sheffield is a graduate of the Fort Plain high school and the Oswego (New York) Normal School and is now teaching in the schools of this village. She takes an active part in the social life of the community and is a member of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Katherine Sheffield was born in April, 1897, and died at the age of three.
Mr. Sheffield has long been one of the stanch members of the Dutch Reformed church of Fort Plain, in which he has held every office within the gift of the congregation and held the position of superintendent of the Sunday school for six years. For years he has been one of the directors of the Fort Plain Cemetery Association and was also president of the Knights Relief Association, a Knights of Pythias organization, for twenty-eight consecutive years, a period of office that speaks volumes for the confidence reposed in Mr. Sheffield by his fellow members. He belongs to Lodge No. 66, Knights of Pythias; and Fort Plain Lodge, No. 433, A. F. and A. M. His ballot has always been cast for the candidates of the republican party, whose principles he loyally upholds at all times. As may be gathered from this review the interests of Mr. Sheffield have been varied beyond those of most business men and indicate a certain versatility in his make-up that has enabled him to make a success in widely different lines of activity. His career demonstrates what may be accomplished when keen intelligence and determined effort are concentrated on any profession or business enterprise and seems to prove that ability, rightly directed, may be productive in more than one field of endeavor.