A Centennial Memorial History of Allegany county, New York, Part 39

Author: Minard, John Stearns, 1834-1920; Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Alfred, N.Y., W. A. Fergusson & co.
Number of Pages: 1102

USA > New York > Allegany County > A Centennial Memorial History of Allegany county, New York > Part 39

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0 NE HUNDRED YEARS AGO Allegany county was an unexplored wild- erness, inhabited only by wild beasts and savages. By the former alone in Southern Allegany, for the red man never really lived in Wellsville or the other south towns. He came only periodically to hunt or fish, and in the spring to make black maple-sugar. In the Pigeon Woods, eight miles up the river from Wellsville, there was an established camp of rude wig- wams for use in the pigeon season. Both north and south of us along the river signs of a (so-called) pre-historic race have been unearthed. Within the boundaries of Wellsville, however, no such remains have been discov- ered, and even of the Seneca-Iroquois possession of Wellsville we know little but the fact.

Southern Allegany lies in the northern limits of the Alleghany range of the Appalachian Mountain system. The Alleghanies reach their highest altitude less than 50 miles south at the headwaters of the West Branch of the Susquehanna river. Our location prevents northeastern storms from reaching us. For rain we depend on the west, which gathers the residue of vapers brought up the Mississippi valley from the Gulf of Mexico, and precipitates it in a rainfall which averages, perhaps 22 inches annually. As a result of the wholesale destruction of the forests along the Genesee and its tributaries disastrous spring floods are of common occurrence.

"Wellsville; 42 deg., 7 min. north latitude, 6 deg., 5 min. 25 sec. west longitude; " is situated on the Genesee river, 91 miles from its mouth, and

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11 miles from the point in Pennsylvania where the headwaters fork to pro- duce the stream .* The river valley here averages a half mile in width. Dike's Creek enters the river from the northeast through a valley, which, for some distance, is as broad as that of the river. Cold Brook, Crowner Creek, Chenunda Creek and several other very small streams, and that nameless tempest of angry waters which, every flood time, tears down across Madi- son, Pearl and Briggs streets and the Erie railroad, thence south across Main street, and through the Bradley property to the river, join the Genesee within our township limits. This last is a typical mountain stream, dry in summer, but full and raging in the rainy season. In less than 2 miles it falls 300 feet.

The country surrounding Wellsville rises abruptly on each side of the river valley, which averages 1,525 feet above sea level. Less than a mile northeast of West-Main street river bridge the hills rise 1,900 feet above the sea. Niles Hill, three miles distant in the southwest, attains an altitude of 500 feet above the river. This is the highest land in the township. A point on the river bank at the Scio boundary, 1,460 feet above tidewater, is the lowest. The highest point in the corporate limits of the village lies 1,850 feet above sea level. It is on the hill above Briggs street, 1-5 of a mile north- west of the junction of Pearl with Main street. The lowest land, 1,485 feet in altitude, is where the old B. E. & C. railroad bridge crosses the river. There are points in Lewis' Grove and Applebee's flat which have about the same altitude. The highest residences in the village are those of W. C. Ross and R. H. Lee, 1,700 and 1,850 feet respectively above tidewater. Main street averages 1,514 feet in height, being 1,496 at its lowest or northwestern end, 1,520 at Madison street, 1,500 at Dike's Creek, and 1,540 at the corpora- tion boundary above the Catholic Cemetery. Wellsville lies in the Chemung Shales with a bit of conglomerate, old red sandstone and the Catskill for- mation cropping out on some of its hilltops. There is also a quantity of northern drift. The Chemung does not give a generous soil, lacking lime and other valuable ingredients, and containing not a great quantity of pot- ash. Silicate of alumina is its principal constituent. Compact enough in its nature, however, to hold water and containing sufficient potash, it is well adapted for grass-raising and grazing purposes. Hemlock, maple, beech and the like, characteristic of potash lands, grow in abundance, while those trees that require a quantity of lime are conspicuous for their absence.

* In 1872 Captain Eldridge, of Boston, made scientific observations here in Wellsville. He found that the Erie railway station is geographically situated: Latitude 42 degrees 7 min. north from Washington, lon- gitude 6 degrees 5 min. 25 sec. west from Washington, height above the sea 1,480 feet ; on the Genesee river, 91 miles from its mouth, by the river road, air line distance south from Rochester 76 miles; on the Erie rail- way 358 54-100 miles from New York City, from Dunkirk 102 miles; air line distance from Pennsylvania state line 10 miles, 15 miles to headwaters of the Genesee river. Location of the Baptist church spire is: air line distance from spire to the City Hall, New York City, 22873 miles, bearing south of the spire 64 deg., 22 min. E. To the State House, Philadelphia, Pa., 21174 miles, bearing south 44 deg., 15 min., east. To Capitol building, Washington, 230 3-5 miles, bearing S. 12 deg., 42 min. E. Difference of time City Hall, New York, and spire of Baptist church 15 min., 52 seconds. Capitol at Washington and spire, 3 min., 52 sec. Old State House, Philadelphia, and spire, 11 min., 16 sec.

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There is noticeable, however, a somewhat remarkable contrast in the nat ural productions of the neighborhood. This is due to the presence in our supersoil of compact clayey loam, and subsoil of tenacious gravelly clay, of a large admixture of northern drift materials, among which may be recog- nized the pebbles of different limestones, of Medina sandstone, and granites. Much of this has been finely comminuted and thoroughly mixed with the Chemung formation. The lime in our soil. which gives us hard water, comes entirely from this drift. Up the Dike's Creek valley, where there is very little if any drift, no hard water is to be found, nor are the natural productions such as demand the presence of lime. Along the river flats we find an alluvial soil, the richest and most fertile in the township. Mr. E. B. Hall has a valuable and interesting collection of local geological specimens, his efforts in search of fossil sponges having been especially favored with great success. A new species bears his name, and he has in his possession the largest fossil sponge ever found.

Advent of the White Man .- In 1793 Capt. Charles Williamson, acting for the Pulteney estate, settled at Bath. The lower Genesee was becoming celebrated as a land of promise. The upper "Genesee Country " was en- tirely unknown except as containing the Seneca-Indian village at Caneadea and the famous oil-spring near Cuba. The territory now the township of Wellsville was useful but to the Indians, and to them only as the haunt of deer and other game, and the location of a part of their trail along the river from Caneadea to the headwaters of the Susquehanna. It is doubtful if the foot of any white man ever voluntarily pressed the soil of our town previous to the coming of the pioneer Nathanael Dike; as a prisoner of the Indians, however, the celebrated Iroquois' interpreter, Capt. Horatio Jones, passed through Wellsville in 1781, and, though it may not be possible to verify the inference, there can be no question but that many captives from the awful massacres in Northwestern Pennsylvania were taken by the Seneca trail down the Genesee and to Niagara. The life of Moses Van Campen relates how he and others were taken prisoners by the Indians on the headwaters of the Susquehanna and conducted along the trial down the Genesee to Caneadea.

Not till 1795, twelve years after the United States had achieved their independence from Great Britain, did the first white settler place his foot upon the territory of Wellsville. For many years after the treaty of peace had nominally put an end to the American Revolution, Indian border warfare continued. Urged on by their British allies the savages had tasted blood and it was impossible to restrain them. The dread of Indian butchery, added to other pioneer hardships and perils, delayed for years the settle- ment of Western New York. Thus it was not till 1795 that Nathanael Dike, the first white settler. came to Allegany. He erected a cabin, a saw and grist mill and a tannery at Wellsville. French says that the mills, which were erected in 1802, were the first in the county. The tannery undoubtedly was the first one in Allegany. Thus the "Tanbark City " at the very earliest day was

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the most important manufacturing town in the county, though it did not long remain so, as after the first few years of the century, and until nearly 1850, there were several larger and livelier towns. But, as she once was the cradle which fostered the first manufacturing, she, at length, again be- came the nucleus of Allegany's wealth and commerce, and to-day is the county metropolis in population as well as in manufacturing.

What led Nathanael Dike, once a student at Yale College, and afterward an aide on the staffs of Generals Warren and Washington, to settle in the heart of a wilderness can only be conjectured. Originally from Connecticut, he had been in the Mohawk Valley and at Tioga Point, Pa., before striking off into the unknown country of the Upper Genesee. Crossing the lands of the Pulteney estate on the Canisteo River Dike must have passed through Al- mond by way of McHenry Valley, across the hills to Elm Creek, and thence down the valley to the broad level where it unites with Dike's Creek. Here Allegany's first white settler prepared to build his rude hut. The valley at the point chosen was particularly attractive. It was timbered with hard- wood, which was so much easier cleared than the dense pine forests that covered most of Southern Allegany. The land was promising for farm pur- poses, for the soil consisted of rich alluvial deposits, and the full and rapid stream afforded a good waterpower. And so it happened that the first bit of Allegany's virgin forest was cleared at Elm Valley, five miles from the site of the county's metropolis, and four from the thriving village of Andover. All but one of these inviting features of landscape, soil and waterpower, which led Dike to settle where he did, existed in greater degree where Wells- ville now stands. The land at Elm Valley, however, was covered with hard- wood, at Wellsville the growth was mostly pine and hemlock. How condi- tions change. Half a century after Dike's coming the great forests of pine were a gold mine of value.

The first settler, however, who had no opportunity to market either logs or lumber, must select a hardwood district. He had to clear the land im- mediately, for it was necessary to subsist on the soil. A hardwood stump is as easily pulled as a first tooth. It is a perfect nightmare to attempt the extraction of a great pine root with the rude appliances of the early settler. It is necessary for the pioneer to turn some products into cash. One can im- agine how Dike, during the first year in Allegany, " cleared up " the beech. elm and hickory, and rolled the trees (branches, logs and all) into one great pile which he burned; more hardwood was piled in the same place and the ashes were carefully gathered and converted into lye. " Black-salts " were made by "boiling down" the lye. These found a ready sale, for, after a through baking, the pearlash, from which was manufactured soda or sale- ratus, was produced. Thus the clearing of hardwood land wellnigh paid for itself. Dike's cabin became the nucleus of a small settlement situated at Elm Valley which had no influence whatever on the location and growth of the present village of Wellsville. It is interesting because it affords a brief chapter of first things in the township. French's Gazetteer of 1860 is

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authority for the statements that the first white person born in Wellsville was Rachel Dike in 1805, that the first death was that of Thomas Brink in 1807, and that the first school was kept by Ithamar Brookings in 1814. It was 20 years after these events, however, before the river valley within the village of Wellsville received a settler. There were several families living in Scio. who, along about 1810, came through Wellsville to Elm Valley for supplies. There was then not a settler in what is now our village. In 1816 William and Asa Foster settled about a mile and a half up the river towards Stannard's Corners.

The Village Pioneer .- It would seem from tradition and the meager record of the early days of the century that the corporation wherein now 4,000 people reside was one of the last locations in the town to be selected by the pioneers. At Riverside, Stanards, Brimmer Brook, Elm Valley and other points, lonely settlers had built cabins, but in that part of the Genesee Val- ley which was destined to become the most thickly settled spot in all Alle- gany there is not even vague tradition of any settler previous to the coming of the squatter Job Straite in 1822. "Uncle Billy " Weed, a most original character, "squatted " on the hill west of Samuel Hanks' residence in 1824. "Billy " always maintained that Job Straite, Sr., was the first settler, and that his log cabin was the first white man's habitation in corporate Wells- ville. The house was situated within the present Farnum Cemetery, east of the Fair Association grand stand. Mrs. Job Straite, Jr., who for years lived in the old log house, was interviewed a few years before her death. She stated that her father-in-law, her husband and herself came to Wellsville in 1822. There is no tradition of any previous settlement and we must con- clude that Job Straite, Sr., the "Lost man " of our early history, was the village pioneer. These very early settlers were "squatters " not particu- larly celebrated for virtue, sobriety, or religious zeal. However, the Dikes at Shoemaker's Corners (Elm Valley), the Knights and Palmers at Scio, and other men of energy and good judgment, purchased their lands and never claimed title by virtue of possession.

Rogers' Survey of 1826, etc .- A map of Wellsville (then a part of Scio) and the original notes of Jesse Rogers' survey of 1826, in the possession of Mr. R. H. Lee, furnish the earliest absolutely authentic information relative to the early settlement of corporate Wellsville. The map and notes were sworn to and subscribed before Alvan Burr, commissioner in Allegany county. Nov. 22. 1826. The notes state that the object of the survey was the subdivision into small lots of the Willing-Francis tract of the Morris Reserve by John M. Wilson and Jesse Rogers. It is very unfortunate, from an his- torical standpoint. that the names of settlers who came later than 1826 have evidently been placed upon the map. The original notes, however, are pre- served. Lot 4, of 131 acres, marked "occupied by Job Straite." is de- scribed as " beech, maple, and pine, first quality upland and pine flats." Lot 5. of 110 acres, consisting of beech, maple, butternut and pine upland and flat, was occupied by Job Straite, Jr. Other occupants of land up the

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HISTORY OF ALLEGANY COUNTY, N. Y.

river were Samuel Warner, Amos Lane, Enda and Johnson. The notes mention no settlers in the village other than the Straite family. The map has the names of many of the township's pioneers. Some of them were in Wellsville in 1826. Others must have come later, but it is likely that all settled here previous to 1832, for several who came in that year are not mentioned. Starting from the south line of the town we find by the map that J. Mallory occupied the Cobb farm on the east side of the Genesee; that Wm. and Asa Foster owned what is now the valuable Ackerman farm; that Valentine Bowen lived across, on the west side of the river. A. A. Adams, H. and R. Hall and H. Rogers had settled on the east side of the Genesee and S. Hills near Duke's Mill on the west. A. Dunham. R. Wells, Gardiner Wells, W. D. Spicer, G. B. Jones, the Rowleys and M. Johnson were recorded as occupants of the soil. The highway on the east side of the river was marked "Pennsylvania Road." This main line of travel along the Genesee was located farther away from the river than the business portion of our present Main St. Both the east and west ends of Main St., however, follow closely the old Indian trail that in 1826 had become the Pennsylvania Road. From the making of the Rogers' survey until 1829 there is no evidence of the advent of settlers. The first few years of the century had been pros- perous ones, but the war of 1812, the cold and backward season of 1816 with the financial panic of 1818 and 1819, the failure of corps and the European wars retarded immigration and rendered the condition of the settlers one of extreme hardship. From 1825 to 1830 the Erie canal, so diffusive in its ben- efits and so stimulating to life and activity in Northwestern New York, served only to prevent the coming of new settlers and to crush the hopes and depress the energies of the pioneers in Southern Allegany. Gradually and remotely, however, even before the construction of the Genesee Valley Canal to Dansville in 1840, the benefits of this mighty enterprise began to reach Allegany. "No new country " says Turner, " has probably ever been opened for settlement, that had as rugged features, as much of difficulty to overcome, as the territory which comprises Allegany county. * If the entire county can be so characterised, how about Wellsville and the other south towns? Situated in the precipitous ridges of the northern spurs of the Alle- ghanies and heavily timbered with pine, the lands had little attraction. New settlements were extremely isolated, and, when the settlers began to have anything to dispose of, there was no market. The pioneers who came pre- vious to 1830 subsisted largely on fish and game. Asa Foster used to say that he paid for his farm by hunting, trapping and fishing. As late as 1835 he killed a female panther near Duke's Mill, captured her two cubs and sold them in

* The " rugged features " of our township territory and soil do not conspire to give us the very best of farms. However, they are by no means poor and all in a state of improving cultivation. Quantities of hay, oats and potatoes are produced and exported. Cattle and sheep are raised to a considerable extent and butter, cheese and wool are yearly shipped away. Buckwheat, corn, millet and wheat, as well as garden truck in great variety, is raised for home consumption. The improved farms along the river and the Dikes' Creek Valley, valued at $100 per acre are rich and productive. The average value of improved farm lands per acre is perhaps $40.

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Rochester for $300. In 1842, only 53 years ago, a partridge, than which thereis no wilder game, was shot opposite the VanBuren tavern on Main street. In 1827 Billy Weed killed 24 deer, a bear and a wolf with his old flint-lock gun and one pound of powder. He bought the rifle in the spring of that year of Miami York and gave 200 pounds of maple sugar for it. In the early days, next to black salts and pot and pearl ashes, maple sugar could be used best in trade. In 1840. John Cline. then of Hallsport, traded a Cortland manufac- turer 500 pounds of maple sugar for a two-horse wagon to be delivered in Dansville in 1841.

Butter. cheese and lumber were the products which the early settler next sought to market. Ruinous cost of transportation over long woods- roads, and up and down steep hills, rendered it impossible to realize a profit. At one time Baltimore, now so far away, seemed destined always to remain the great market for this section. Reached easily by water commu- nication from Arkport down the Canisteo, Chemung and Susquehanna rivers, it received the grain. the lumber and other products of a great country which now never communicates directly with that city. The Allegany waters, reached from Cuba and Olean, furnished a means of communication with Pittsburgh. A map of the "Church Tract " made in 1804 says that "Produce can be transported from within 16 miles of the Tract, down the Susquehanna in Arks to Baltimore at two shillings per bushel." It was not till 1840, when Dansville became the lumber market for this region and there was a prospect of the construction of the Erie railroad, that immi- grants were especially attracted to Wellsville. Settlement on the Morris Reserve, except on the Church Tract, was never pushed as the Holland Company and Pulteney estate "hustled " matters west and east of middle Allegany. No land owners ever systematically "boomed " Wellsville. Its natural situation as the outlet for the rich lumber and farming country to the south and the topography of its surroundings rendered its growth steady and sure despite the slow progress of its settlement. In 1830 a dozen Allegany towns surpassed Wellsville in population. Since the completion of the Erie railroad however it has always remained the shipping point for great quantities of produce, and therein lies the secret of its business life. As late as 1830 Wellsville village was so isolated that primitive corn-mills were still in use. A great contrast to its present easy means of communi- cation! Job Straite had a corn-cracker at his cabin, made by cutting down a large maple and using the stump for a bowl. Corn was ground in this novel mill by raising and dropping in the bowl the heavy pestle which had been constructed from a section of the tree.

The life of the pioneer was invariably one of privation. In 1829 Bar- tholomew Coats, the father of our townsman Ambrose G. Coats, came from Independence to Wellsville and located at Riverside on the Church Tract. He reached here guided only by a blazed track through the forest. An ox team hitched to a wood sled (constructed like a stone-boat) brought along a few necessities. His experience was similar to that of the other hardy

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pioneers. Those who came from '29 to '40, perhaps one might say to '50, laid the foundation on which present Wellsville so firmly stands.

They had not come for rest or leisure ; They had not come for ease and pleasure, They came to struggle and to toil, To battle with the giant trees that occupied the soil.

They came to build a town. Gardiner and Robert Wells, Reuben Kent, Daniel Tuttle, Harmon VanBuren, Silas Hills, Nelson and Cornelius Seeley, Dr. George B. Jones. James Fosbury, Chas. Rowley, Justus Brimmer, and Joseph Crowner settled here between 1827 and 1832. The year Gardiner Wells came is not known. It was sometime previous to 1830, and certainly not before 1826. It was for him that the village was named. In June, 1829, John Cline walked with his father from Bath by way of Towlesville, Hor- nellsville, Almond and Andover to Hallsport, in Independence. He still retains (1895) a remarkable recollection of the journey. A promising section of land was selected, and in the fall, with oxen and cart, tools were brought from Bath, a small place cleared and a cabin built. Mother and sister came in the next March. "There was not much at Wellsville then," said Mr. Cline. "In fact it really had no existence as a village. The Straite's clear- ing on the flat was the largest anywhere about. A spot opposite the Roman Catholic Cemetery looked to have been cleared for years. There were ruins of a mill on the Adams property (now Rixford place) that had long ago been 'run out.' There may have been two, perhaps three houses on Main street, but my recollection is dim. One was Gardiner Wells' I am sure. W. D. Spicer was Wellsville's first fiddler, wire walker and play actor."

Prices in '32, the First Store, etc .- 1832 was the year of village beginnings. The first tavern, the first school house, the first saw and grist mill and the first store were opened in that year. In the early spring Silas Hills came from Swanzey, N. H., where he had been a storekeeper and carpenter. He drove across country and brought, in a two-horse wagon, a small stock of merchandise and groceries. The goods were exposed for sale in the Van Buren tavern. The old account book, well preserved and in a legible and careful handwriting. is the property of Chauncey Hills, youngest son of the pioneer. It is the oldest written record of the village and verifies many dis- puted dates and facts. The first item, dated May 12, 1832, is: "Thomas Straight Dr. to 3 lb. Tobacco .13; 1 qr. Tea, Y. H. . 31. Cr. by Potatoes, 1} bu., .38." May 14th Anthony Seeley is credited 20 cents for 2 pounds of butter. May 16th Stephen Palmer is credited "by mill irons $5.00." No other mention of either grist or sawmill is made until November, 1832. when Silas Hills is credited, "to cash paid for whiskey to raise grist mill 80.75." Nothing is said of the construction of the sawmill, but Feb. 8, 1833, appears "John Foster Dr. to 211 ft. boards," and Feb. 10, "Shubel Spicer Dr. to sawing 7,931 ft. boards at 150 cents a thousand." The first mention of the work of the grist mill is a charge, Feb. 18, 1832, "Gardiner Wells Dr. to 683

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A Centennial Memorial History of Allegany county, New York, Part 39

Author: Minard, John Stearns, 1834-1920; Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Alfred, N.Y., W. A. Fergusson & co. Number of Pages: 1102

Author: Minard, John Stearns, 1834-1920; Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Alfred, N.Y., W. A. Fergusson & co.
Number of Pages: 1102