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HISTORY OF PERRY, N. Y.
FRANK D. ROBERTS
Gc 974.702 P42r 1348162
M.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00826 0538
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STATUE OF MARY JEMISON, "THE WHITE WOMAN OF THE GENESEE," LOCATED IN LETCHWORTH STATE PARK AT PORTAGE
HISTORY
OF THE TOWN OF PERRY NEW YORK
CF
PUBLIC LIBRARY
COMMODORE OLIVER HAZARD PERRY THE HERO OF THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE IN WHOSE HONOR THE TOWN WAS NAMED
COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY
X FRANK D. ROBERTS IN COLLABORATION WITH CARL G. CLARKE REPRINTED FROM THE PERRY RECORD, PUBLISHED BY C. G. CLARKE & SON 1915
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PERRY, NEW YORK C. G. CLARKE & SON, PUBLISHERS 1915
INTRODUCTION 1348162
About one hundred and seven years ago, several of the energetic and enterprising settlers from Massachusetts, Ver- mont, Maine and other States, emigrated from their native homes and established themselves within the bounds of the present Town of Perry. The wilds rapidly gave way to civili- zation; the forests fell as the dwellings arose; soon the unob- structed streams were arrested, their currents made subser- vient to the will and comfort of man, and the conquering power of industry and science, with the profuse bounties of Nature, combined to render this one of the most beautiful and prosperous abodes of man.
With what delight would these same pioneers gaze upon the Perry of today! Their retrospective view would begin at the time when they felled the first tree, turned the first fur- row, raised the first log cabin, and then the modern frame house. They would remember the first few houses which formed the nucleus of our present village; they would con- template with deep satisfaction the fruit of their labor, toil and early sacrifices, which now have resolved themselves into a common heritage to us of the Perry of today.
On this One Hundredth Anniversary of the incorporation of our Town, I take pleasure in submitting facts concerning its early and general history. It has been my aim to seek out the facts from every available source, recognizing as I do the his- torical importance of the subjeet. However, errors may prob-
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ably be found; many things of real importance may be miss- ing; but not until one undertakes a work of this kind can the amount of labor and the difficulty of obtaining substantiated facts be realized. This is not given with the idea that it is even considered a complete history, but rather a collection of arti- cles dealing with past local events. These have been gleaned from reliable sources of information : old letters, files of the Perry Herald, Perry Record, miscellaneous copies of The Countryman, Silver Lake Sun, Wyoming Times and other newspapers. Beer's History of Wyoming County, published in 1880, has been consulted extensively. The Life of Mary Jemison by Seaver, and J. W. Merrill's History of the Twenty- Fourth New York Battery, have also furnished much material.
The writer presents the work with the belief that it is as correct as it is humanly possible to produce it at this late period. Moreover, the present has seemed to be the opportune time for preparing a history, as the sources of trustworthy in- formation are rapidly disappearing.
FRANK D. ROBERTS
Perry, New York, 1914.
At the request of the author, the editor of the Record will add such facts of local history as are of his intimate knowledge during the past quarter century.
CHAPTER I
Early History of Wyoming County-How It was Formed-Mary Jemison, the "White Woman of the Genesee"-First Settlers in the Several Towns.
The land now embraced in Wyoming County was a part of Albany County from 1683 to 1772; Tryon County from 1772 to 1784; Montgomery County from 1784 to 1789; and Ontario County from 1789 to 1802.
Genesee County was formed from Ontario County on March 30th, 1802. It comprised all that part of the State lying west of the Genesee River and a line extending due south from the point of the junction of that river and Canaseraga Creek ; to the south line of the State. Allegany County was taken from Genesee in 1806; Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Niagara in 1808; parts of Livingston and Monroe in 1821; Orleans in 1824, and Wyoming on May 14th, 1841. Wyoming County is an interior county and contains 590 square miles.
The eastern tier of towns, with the exception of a portion of Castile, belonged to the Ogden, Silver Lake and Cotringer tracts of the Morris Reservation, and the remaining part of the county to the Holland Purchase. The Gardeau Tract, contain- ing 17,927 acres on both sides of the Genesee River, was re- served for Mary Jemison by the Seneca Indians in their treaty with Robert Morris in 1797. About one-half of this tract lies in the present Town of Castile. Mary Jemison and her de- scendants continued to reside upon this tract until 1816, when she sold all but two square miles on the west side of the river to Micah Brooks and Jellis Clute, and removed to the Cattar- augus Reservation.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PEFRY
From a Painting by the late Carlos Stebbins of Pike
Mary Jemison, known as "The White Woman of the Genesee," was the first white woman to reside in this region. She was of Irish parentage, born in 1743, during the voyage across the ocean. The family settled upon the western frontier of Pennsylvania. where they remained in peace until the brea1 .- ing out of the French War in 1754. In the summer of 1755 their home was surrounded by a band of Indians and French- men, who plundered all that was valuable and carried away the whole family as captives, except two brothers who were work- ing in the barn, and who, knowing that their aid could accomp- lish no purpose, made good their escape. The captives were · taken into the forests, and in a day or two all were murdered and scalped, except Mary and a small boy, who were carried to Fort DuQuesne. She was soon afterwards adopted by two
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EARLY HISTORY OF WYOMING COUNTY
Indian sisters and taken to an Indian settlement on the Ohio River to supply the place of a brother who had been slain in battle. She was given the name of "De-he-wa-mis," meaning "A beautiful girl." The sorrow consequent upon being torn from her friends gradually wore away and she became quite reconciled to her new condition.
After arriving at a suitable age she was married to a young Delaware Indian named "Shenenjee." In 1759 she changed her residence, traveling on foot to the Genesee, and locating at Little Beard's Town, near the present site of Cuyler- ville. During this long journey she carried her little son on her back the entire distance of 600 miles. Her husband did not accompany her on the trip, having previously joined a war party traveling in another direction, the understanding being that at the close of the campaign he was to join his family at their new home on the Genesee. Shortly after her arrival she received word that her husband had been taken sick and had died soon after her departure. Two or three years later she married an Indian named Hi-ok-a-too. Four children were born of this union.
When General Sullivan invaded the country, her house and fields shared the fate of the rest. Seeing them all des- troyed, she set about preparing for the coming winter. Tak- ing her two younger children on her back and bidding the three others to follow, she sought employment, where, by husking, she paid for 25 bushels of shelled corn, enough to supply her family through the winter.
At the close of the French war she had the privilege ex- tended to her of returning to the English, but she chose to remain with the Indians, as she knew that her half-breed child- ren would not be welcomed among her English friends.
After the close of the Revolution she received a grant of
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PERRY
the Gardeau Reservation, which was about six miles in length and five miles in width. Although she adopted the customs and habits of the Indians, she retained her knowledge of the English language and remembered the early instructions of her mother. Toward the close of her life she embraced the Christian religion, and died on September 19th, 1833, aged 90 years. She was buried in the old Mission burial ground near Buffalo, but in March, 1874, her remains were taken up and re-interred on the Letchworth Estate. What was left of the old headstone was also taken up and erected near the head of the grave. Near this, at the present time stands a marble monument-a square block-some six feet in height. Upon one face of this is carved the inscription which originally appeared on her tombstone. It also bears other historical facts. Sur- mounting this is a magnificent bronze statute of Mary Jemison in her Indian costume, bearing on her back a babe, just as she came to the Genesee Valley.
Here, on the banks of the Genesee River, to the murmur of which she listened during seventy-two years of her eventful life, lie her honored remains. She passed through such trials as fall to the lot of but few people in this life.
The first white man who lived in this county was Eben- ezer Allen, a notorious Tory, commonly known as "Indian Allen." He was a native of New Jersey and joined the ma- rauders who, under the leadership of Brandt, scourged with fire and sword the Susquehanna Valley, and toward the close of the Revolutionary War settled upon the Genesee, cultivating for a time the fertile river flats belonging to Mary Jemison. He afterward erected mills at Rochester, and later lived for a time on the Oatka Creek, until his removal to Delwarton, West Canada, where he died in 1814. Few characters mentioned in either history or fiction have approached so nearly the idea of total depravity as this blood-thirsty monster. He was an
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EARLY HISTORY OF WYOMING COUNTY
open polygamist, murdered several persons while professing the greatest friendship for them, and while upon the war trail he amused himself by dashing out the brains of infants.
The greater part of Wyoming County is embraced in the tract known as the "Holland Purchase," some of the eastern towns being included in the Morris Reserve. The territory known as Western New York was originally claimed by the State of Massachusetts by virtue of a charter granted by the King of England to the Plymouth Colony. The same territory was subsequently granted to the Duke of York and Albany. Without giving a history of the disputes which arose between the States of Massachuestetts and New York, we will say that the question was settled by a convention of Commissioners who met at Hartford, Conn., on December 16th, 1786. According to the stipulations entered into, Massachusetts ceded to New York all her claim to the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the territory lying west of the east boundary of New York, and the State of New York ceded to Massachusetts the right of pre-emption to the soil of all that part of New York lying west of the meridian passing through a point in the south boundary of the State, 82 miles west of the northeast corner of the State of Pennsylvania, excepting a strip one mile wide, extending along the east bank of the Niagara River, from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.
In April, 1788, Massachusetts contracted to sell this ter- ritory to Nathaniel Gorham and Oliver Phelps for 300,000 pounds in the consolidated securities of that State, which were at a discount of more than 50 per cent at that time. The rapid advance in the value of these securities rendered Phelps and Gorham unable to fulfill their contract and a large part of the purchase reverted to the State. The part retained and subsequently known as the "Phelps and Gorham Purchase" was bounded east by the pre-emption line already described,
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PERRY
and west by a meridian passing through the point at the junc- tion of the Canaseraga Creek and the Genesee River, south by the south line of the State and north from this point along the Genesee River to a point two miles north of the Village of Canawagus (Avon,) thence west 12 miles, thence northerly to Lake Ontario at a distance of 12 miles from the Genesee River. On March 11th, 1791, the State of Massachusetts sold the ter- ritory west of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase to Robert Morris, the assignee of Samuel Ogden. Mr. Morris sold to the Holland Company all the tract lying west of a meridian pass- ing through a point 12 miles west of the southwest corner of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase.
The territory lying between the Holland Purchase and Phelps and. Gorham purchase was called "Morris Reserve" and was sold to various parties in large tracts. The sale was made to the Holland Company before the Indian title was ab- rogated, but with an agreement on the part of Morris that it should be annulled as soon as practicable. This was effected by a treaty made at Big Tree (near the present site of Geneseo) in September, 1797. The meeting of the Com- missioners and the Indians was exceedingly interesting. Full accounts of its proceedings have been published and form an important part of the history of the Genesee Country. A sec- tion of the original Big Tree, at which this council took place, may be seen at Portage, near the grave of Mary Jemison, where it was placed by the late Hon. Wm. Pryor Letchworth. In this treaty the Indians retained certain reservations in different parts of the purchase, some of which they continue to occupy.
Preparations were soon made to survey this tract, and a line run with a transit instrument, between Morris' Reserve and the Holland Purchase, was called the "Transit Line." This line ran near the present Transit Road on the west boundary of the Town of Perry. Theophilus Cazenove, of Philadelphia,
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EARLY HISTORY OF WYOMING COUNTY
Pa., was the general agent of the company, and Joseph Elli- cott was the principal surveyor. It was surveyed into ranges numbered from east to west and into townships about six miles square, numbered from south to north. The townships were sub- divided into lots three-fourths of a mile square and numbered from south to north, beginning on the east tier. The survey was begun early in the Spring of 1798. Among the surveyors were : Joseph and Benjamin Ellicott, John Thompson, R. M. Stoddard, George Burgess, James Dewey, David Ellicott, Aaron Oakford, Jr., Augustus Porter, Seth Pease, James Smedley, George Eggleston and William Shepard.
Previous to the sale of the tract to the Holland Company, Mr. Morris had sold the triangle tract of 87,000 acres to LeRoy, Bayard & McEvers, and 100,000 acres directly west of this to the State of Connecticut and Sir William Pulteney. Upon ar- riving at the south line of the Connecticut tract, Mr. Ellicott found that the east side of the Holland Purchase would inter- sect that tract, to avoid which he moved west about two miles and then ran the line due north to Lake Ontario.
In 1799 Theophilus Cazenove was succeeded by Paul Busti as general agent of the Holland Land Company. He remained in charge of the affairs of the company until 1824, when he was succeeded by John J. VanDer Kemp, who continued in charge until 1837, when the business of the company was closed up.
The first land office in this section was located at Pine Grove at the home of Mr. Asa Ransom. In 1802, Genesee County was formed and the land office was moved to Batavia. The building which the Holland Land Company then erected is standing on its original location on Main street, Batavia, a memorial to the pioneer land-owner of Western New York.
Joseph Ellicott received the appointment as Local Agent
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PERRY
and continued as such until 1821. During that year he was succeeded by Jacob S. Otto, who held office until his death in 1827. David E. Evans was local agent during the remainder of the company's business career. In the year 1811, Ebenezer Mix entered the service of the company as clerk and had control of the sales and sub-divisions of the land. It was through these men that the pioneers of Wyoming County, west of the Transit Line, made their original land purchases. Those de- siring land on the east side of the line were obliged to go to Canandaigua to secure their proper titles.
The opening of this new region to settlement, under the auspices of a rich and liberal company, instituted a new order of things in the general history of the county and was of great benefit to the settlers. Roads were constructed, bridges erect- ed, and everything done to promote settlement and to remove difficulties in the paths of the settlers. The affairs of the com- pany were always conducted in a most honorable way. Lands were sold at moderate prices with a small cash payment and liberal terms were given for the balance. In consequence of the richness of the land and the moderate prices asked by the company, settlers came rapidly, and soon the entire region was well filled with an enterprising and industrious population.
On March 19th, 1808, Warsaw was formed from Batavia and then comprised the present towns of Middlebury, Warsaw and Gainesville. Middlebury was set off from Warsaw in 1812; Gainesville in 1814. Sheldon was also formed from Batavia on March 19th, 1808. In 1811, Attica was formed from Sheldon and embraced the present towns of Attica, Orangeville and Wethersfield. Orangeville was formed in 1816 from Attica, and Wethersfield from Orangeville on April 12th, 1823. Ben- nington was formed from Sheldon on March 6th, 1818, and China on March 6th, 1818. On April 20th, 1832, Java was formed from China, and in 1866 the name of China was
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EARLY HISTORY OF WYOMING COUNTY
changed to Arcade. Eagle, Pike and Genesee Falls were an- nexed to Wyoming County from Allegany in 1846. Perry was set off from Leicester in 1814, and Castile from Perry in 1821. Covington was formed in 1817 from Perry and LeRoy.
First Settlers in Each of the Towns of Wyoming County :
Town
Date
By Whom Settled
Arcade
1809
Silas Meech
Attica
1802
Zerah Phelps
Bennington 1802
John Towles, Jacob Wright, Wm. Barber Daniel Mckay
Castile 1808
Covington 1807
Jairus Cruttenden, and three others
Eagle 1808
William Hodges
Gainesville 1805
Charles Bristol, William Richards
Genesee Falls 1804
John, Seth and Saml. Fields
Java 1808
William Richardson, T. Kirby
Middlebury 1802
Jabez Warren
Orangeville
1805
.John Duncan
Perry 1807
Pike
1806
Joseph Woodward Peter Granger, Ely Griffith, A. Newcomb, P. Harvey, Caleb Powers came at the same time Roswell Turner
Sheldon
1804
Warsaw
1803
Eleazur Webster
Wethersfield 1810
Lewis Hancock, Guy Morgan, Calvin Clifford
CHAPTER II
Various Names by Which the Town was Known-How Formed-Its Acreage-Early Settlers and Where They Came From-Rivalry Between the Inhabitants-Anecdotes.
Perry was named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of the Battle of Lake Erie. This was not the first name given the place. It was originally called "Slab- town," which was soon changed to Shacksburg, and after- wards to Beechville. At the time of the incorporation of the Town of Perry the village was known as Columbia. Later, this was changed to Ninevah, but gradually the village assumed the name of Perry.
An anecdote of the days when the place was called Nine- vah may be of interest. At that time Perry Center and Perry were about of equal size and there was a great deal of rivalry between the inhabitants of the two hamlets. The story goes that one year there was a serious drought, when all of the wells at the Center became dry, with the exception of one on the place owned by Deacon Howard. Residents of Ninevah went to the Center, cut a log, and with it plugged the Deacon's well. Some one wrote a poem about the incident, which we have been unable to secure, but these last few lines have been given to us as illustrative of the thought of the poem :
And those Ninevites came As sure as Hell And dropped a log In Dea. Howard's well.
Perry was set off from Leicester and incorporated as a town on March 11th, 1814, and at the time of its corporation
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EARLY SETTLEMENT OF PERRY
ineluded Castile and a part of Covington. At this time, and until the formation of Wyoming County on May 14th, 1841, Perry was a part of Genesee County. Castile was set off from Perry in the year 1821. The portion of Covington was taken off in 1817. The Village of Perry was incorporated by a special aet of the Legislature on May 17th, 1830. The charter then adopted was given up and a new one was granted by a special act of the Legislature in 1864, to meet the requirements due to changed circumstances. The village was governed under that charter until 1901. Its provisions were somewhat indefin- ite, and as the Legislature had adopted a General Village Law which greatly simplified matters and made the duties of the governing powers explicit, by vote of the residents of the vil- lage, taken on February 19th, 1901, the decision was in favor of adopting the General Village Law and it became effective in March, 1901, since which time the village has been governed by its provisions.
There are 21,120 aeres of land in the Town of Perry. This is included in a tract of 50,000 which was sold by Robert Mor- ris to Samuel Ogden and which has always been known as the "Ogden Traet." The northern part of this traet, which in- cludes about one-third of the town, was divided by Mr. Ogden and sold to several different parties. The entire western por- tion of the northern part was sold to Mr. Guernsey, who divid- ed the land into small parcels and sold it to many of the in- coming settlers. The eastern part was sold to Jacob Ely and others. Between them, on account of a discrepancy in the sur- vey, was created what became known as "The Gore." The southern portion, which includes more than one-half of the Town of Perry, was called the "South Ogden Traet, " and some- times the "Lake Traet.
In 1807 the latter portion was surveyed by William Shep- ard of Canandaigua and soon afterward was placed upon the
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PERRY
market. John Greig, who had established a land agency at Canandaigua, had charge of the sales and sold most of the land in small lots to the settlers.
Immigration to Western New York did not become rapid until after the Revolutionary War and for several years was principally confined to the regions nearest Lakes Erie and Ontario. In the year 1800, Buffalo was still a small town and there was not a house on the present site of the City of Roch- ester. It was not until about this time that the sturdy pioneers began moving up the fertile Valley of the Genesee.
In the early Spring of 1807, a certain Joseph Woodward arrived from the eastern part of the State, made a small clear- ing in the virgin timber and erected thereon the first log cabin to be constructed in the Town of Perry. This was one of the usual block style and stood on the land now owned by Mr. Thomas Wright, about one-half mile east of Perry Center. In
One of the few remaining Log Cabins built by the Pioneer of this section; situated about three miles east of Perry, and the only one in this locality that is occupied at the present time.
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EARLY SETTLEMENT OF PERRY
1809, evidently dissatisfied with his location, Mr. Woodward moved to Mount Morris. Deacon Butler, who arrived in Perry in 1810, purchased the land and occupied the house.
The first permanent settler of the town, however, was Mr. Samuel Gates. Mr. Gates was born in Colchester, Conn. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War he had promptly enlisted in a militia regiment which was soon attached to General Gates' Army. He participated in a number of engagements and was present at the surrender of Burgoyne. About a year after the close of the war, he started on foot for the far west. Arriving at Canajoharie in the Mohawk Valley, he found em- ployment and remained there for four years. In 1787 he mar- ried a young lady of 16 years and took up the occupation of boatman, transporting goods as far west as Seneca Lake, when there were none but Indian traders to supply. Being favorably impressed with the country lying at the head of Seneca Lake, he erected a cabin and moved his family there. Although there were no whites residing in that vicinity, Mr. Gates and his fam- ily continued to live there during eight years. The next six years Mr. Gates and his family spent at Caneadea. In the Spring of 1807 he learned that the country around what is now Perry was being surveyed, and hearing that the land in this vicinity was excellent, he journeyed here to see it. Finding that it was all that had been claimed for it, he erected his cabin on the hill overlooking the northwest end of Silver Lake, near the pres- ent residence of Parris Andrews, and returned to Caneadea for his family. Mr. Gates raised the first crop of wheat and set out the first orchard in the Town of Perry. His daughter Nancy was the first white child born in the town.
As might be expected, hired help was not to be procured at this period of the town's history, and the settlers had to de- pend upon their wives to assist them in their work. In August, 1812, while Mrs. Gates was assisting her husband in piling up
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PERRY
some logs, she ruptured a blood vessel and died very suddenly. Her remains were buried near the center of the old cemetery where the Perry Public Library now stands. In January of the following year, the infant town was visited by an epidemic which carried away a number of the settlers, and Mr. Gates fell as one of its vietims. He was buried beside the remains of his wife.
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