The women and children whose lives, losses and family connections are an essential part of the history of this house.
The residence was built for Timothy Warner Skinner's household circa 1869. Dr. Avery Warner Skinner is specifically documented as having been born in the brick house on Railroad Street; where a surviving source does not directly place another family member inside this residence, the relationship is described as family context rather than confirmed occupancy.
The history of the Timothy Skinner House cannot be told only through the public careers of the men associated with it. It is also the story of wives, mothers and children whose family life gave the residence its meaning as a home.
Image associated with Elizabeth Viola “Lizzie” Skinner Stone, preserved through public family-history research.
Sarah Elizabeth Calkins Skinner
1833–1861 · Timothy's First Wife
Sarah Elizabeth Calkins married Timothy Warner Skinner in 1856, before this residence was constructed. Their daughters were Elizabeth Viola “Lizzie” Skinner Stone and Hattie Rose Skinner. Sarah died in Mexico in 1861 at the age of twenty-eight, and Hattie died in infancy that same year.
Although her death predates the building of the brick house, Sarah Elizabeth and her daughters belong in the family history that preceded and shaped Timothy's later household. Lizzie lived to adulthood and was remembered in Timothy's obituary as Mrs. J. B. Stone of Auburn.
Memorial image associated with Anna Grace Skinner, daughter of Timothy and Sarah Rose Skinner.
Sarah L. Rose Skinner
1833–1910 · Wife, Mother and Educator
Sarah L. Rose married Timothy Warner Skinner in 1862. Family and obituary records identify her as a former preceptress at Mexico Academy, connecting her directly with the educational life of the community before her son became a prominent statewide education official.
Her children with Timothy were Mary Eliza Skinner, Anna Grace Skinner and Dr. Avery Warner Skinner. The residence built during their marriage was a family home in which Dr. Avery was born in 1870. Sarah died in Mexico in 1910 and is buried in Mexico Village Cemetery.
The Children of Timothy Skinner
The children recorded in family memorial sources preserve a household history shaped by childhood, early loss, adulthood and continuing connections to Mexico.
Elizabeth Viola “Lizzie” Skinner Stone
1857–1943
Daughter of Timothy and Sarah Elizabeth; born in Mexico, later associated with Auburn, and buried in Mexico Village Cemetery.
Hattie Rose Skinner
1860–1861
Daughter of Timothy and Sarah Elizabeth; her brief life and burial in Mexico remain part of the family's early story.
Mary Eliza Skinner
1863–1864
Daughter of Timothy and Sarah Rose; remembered through family memorial records and burial in Mexico Village Cemetery.
Anna Grace Skinner
1868–1894
Daughter of Timothy and Sarah Rose; born in Mexico shortly before the house's construction and buried locally.
Dr. Avery Warner Skinner
1870–1937
Son of Timothy and Sarah Rose; documented as born in this house and later known for leadership in New York education.
A Family Home
Circa 1869 Onward
The brick residence preserves not only civic achievement, but the memory of the household for which it was built.
A Later Family Generation
Dr. Avery Warner Skinner married Nancy Brown Bates Skinner; their daughters were Margaret Rose Skinner Fullerton and Charlotte Huntington Skinner Taylor. Their inclusion extends the family story beyond the house's first generation and reflects the continuing significance of the Skinner home in family memory.
