A Centennial Memorial History of Allegany county, New York, Part 41

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 41

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HISTORY OF ALLEGANY COUNTY, N. Y.

Wellsville was erected, Scio had a population of 3,184; in 1860 it had but 1,631. In 1860 Wellsville had 2,432 inhabitants; in 1865, 3,070; in 1870, 3,781; in 1875, 4,243; in 1880, 4,259; in 1890, 4,765. The state enumeration of 1892 record- ed 5,000 residents. It was said at the time that it was not growth as much as inaccuracy in the federal census of 1890 accounted for the difference. The town has had a steady and prosperous growth during every decade. From 1865 to 1875 there was a considerable boom, in the first 5 years after the war 711 people were added to our population. From 1870 to 1875 there was little growth but no backward tendency, from 1869 to 1875 was our era of build- ing and substantial improvement. The census of 1890 gives the assessed valuation of real and personal property of the town as total, $1,277.472; per capita $268.09; total tax levy $27,478, rate per $100, $2.15, per capita $5.77, true value of real estate $1,928,582, assessed value of real estate taxed $1,- 142,722. The state, county and town tax laid upon the town in 1895 is $13,- 296.13. With the return and non-resident taxes, the total amount to be col- lected is $13,929.70. The assessed value of real estate is $1,266,755; of per- sonal property $322,500. Total equalized value $1,426,746. Amount assessed to corporations $410,670.

Business Men .- Between '50 and '60 there came to Wellsville scores of men the effect of whose lives are indelibly impressed on the character of our town. Julius Hoyt and Henry N. Lewis succeeded Conklin & Lee in the dry goods and grocery business. E. B. Tuller, Frank and George Russell, H. G. White, Samuel and John Carpenter, * Alexander Smith, Libbeus Sweet, Daniel Dobbins, Dickenson Clark, H. M. Sheerar, R. & J. Doty, O. L. Mather, A. A. Howard, H. G. Taylor, A. S. French, Harvey Alger, Alfred S. Brown, James Swift, L. D. Davis, I. W. Fassett, A. A. Goodliff, Duncan McEwen, A.N. Cole, Thomas L. Smith, Wm. F. Jones, Henry L. Jones, Dr. H. H. Nye. W. H. Stoddard, Joseph Macken, and later his sons, and many who came before the war expended their energies in establishing prosperous professions or branches of trade, which, though perhaps not now conducted under the original firm names, will continue so long as the village exists.

War Times .- Fron '60 to '65 local events were overshadowed by the awful War of the Rebellion. The intense excitement of the presidential campaign of '60 was followed by the firing on Fort Sumter in the spring of '61 and the defeat at Bull Run in July. Within Wellsville were felt and enacted the tragedies of the times. Men went wild and there were many volunteers, boys and men, rich and poor; Capt. J. A. Brown raised the first Wellsville company which joined the 85th N. Y. The gallant Capt. Hiram A. Coats went out as a lieutenant and Charles Farnum was one of the non-commissioned officers.+ President Lincoln's call in '62 for 300,000 men

* Samuel Carpenter was born in 1828 in Orange county. In 1855 he came to Wellsville, and with his brother John formed the mercantile house of J. & S. Carpenter. He continued in trade until November, 1893 and was justice for many years.

+ Company G of the 64th New York was organized in Wellsville in the fall of 1861, with Joshua Pettin- ger, captain ; I. W. Fassett, Ist lieutenant ; George Rowley, 2d lieutenant ; and James Meservey, orderly sergant. It saw active service first at Fair Oaks in the summer of 1862.

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was handsomely responded to. Companies of the 27th and 64th N. Y .; the 130th N. Y. or 1st Dragoons. 93d N. Y., 5th N. Y. cavalry, and the 13th artillery were in part composed of our people. Public meetings were held, the news of battle was received with bated breath, wounded, dying and dead men were brought home. fathers, brothers and lovers languished at Libby, An- dersonville or Belle Isle. One night a "copperhead " was carried through the streets on a rail. The windows of another were painted black. Enlist- ments were made in the Baptist church, where the Deity was implored to favor the armies of the North against slavery and secession. In '61 and '62 General McClellan was cursed for his inactivity. In '63 and '64 Sheridan was applauded and blessed for devastating the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Such was war. It purged us of the National disgrace of slavery and main- tained our Union, but it awoke the beast in man. America will never again see such a struggle. The news of the final surrender of Lee, though antici- pated, came like an electric shock of joy to the North. Bells were rung, guns fired, parades organized, meetings held, speeches made, and, most de- lightful and enjoyable of all, the "Boys in Blue" were welcomed home. Welcomed, however, with decimated ranks, ruined in health, and blasted fortunes, and yet to-day there lives a class of unpatriotic agitators who be- grudge the volunteers of 35 years ago a pension from the richest, most pros- perous and most powerful government on earth, which owes its life to the heroes of the Rebellion.

The 10 years succeeding the war period witnessed a very great change locally. Values shot rapidly upward. Many business men of energy, in- telligence and honesty became citizens. Among them was C. H. Simmons, who came in April, 1864, from Oswayo, Pa., where he had been in business. His goods came via. the Erie to Wellsville and thence by the old plank road to Oswayo. For 15 years this road had been in use, extending down the present Plank-road street (better called West Main) and up the river. It was of immense benefit to Wellsville. In '64, however, it was getting out of repair and Simmons, who always acted on impulse, decided one day that there was no use carting goods over a bad road when he could do more busi- ness by moving to Wellsville. He came and conquered. The volume of his trade became remarkable. Tke first day's business aggregated $400, and it was not long before he had made a $3,000 sale in one day. In April, 1874, the month's business was $25.000, and in the year $200,000 worth of goods were sold by him. "Charlie " Simmons, as he was familiarly known, did more for the town than any other man who has ever lived here. Though his career was short, only 10 years in length, for he died in April, 1875, his business influence and his name will live forever. As public-spirited as he was shrewd and sharp in business, he made the interests of the municipality his own. After the great fires of '67, which swept away at least 40 build- ings, in fact almost the entire Main street, Simmons was the first to begin to build. He erected Pioneer block, a two-story brick building. This was not completed however so soon as the York and Barnes block (the Beever

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HISTORY OF ALLEGANY COUNTY, N. Y.

meat market), which was the first brick store finished in the village. Sim- mons built the 3-story Opera House block in 1871, and several other brick buildings about the same time. He purchased considerable property at Riverside and began a systematic "boom " of that locality, erecting a splendid residence and other dwellings, and contemplated building a street railway to Riverside from Wellsville. He was the founder of Riverside Col- legiate Institute, which had a prosperous and useful existence for many years. Simmons was certainly a man of extraordinary business ability. He amassed a large fortune, which after his death disappeared as rapidly as he had made it. But the marks his career left in this community will never disappear. His energetic life erected his monument.

In 1870 the Howard tannery employed 75 men and was our principal in- dustry. Hill's tannery employed about 40 men and the Baldwin tannery 15 hands. Hatch's tannery was the smallest, though the oldest in the village. In '70 the principal industry was lumbering, though the forests were rap idly disappearing. In 1854 Carlton Farnum noted in his diary that the yearly shipment of pine was 50,000,000 feet. E. J. Farnum, I. W. Fassett and A. A. Goodliff were extensive lumber dealers. L. D. Davis, E. J. Walker, Clark & Easton ran planing mills. Coats Bros. cabinet shop employed 13 hands. The McEwen machine shops and Swift's grist mill did a good busi- ness. James Thornton, who had come to Wellsville directly after being mustered out of the service at the close of the war, employed 10 men in the manufacture of harness. R. & J. Doty kept a wagon shop which employed several men and the L. Sweet machine shop did a large business. In 1868 the amount of freight forwarded from here via. Erie railroad was 12,553 tons against 7,478 received. An article published in the Free Press, April 29, 1868, says:

Wellsville, though one of the youngest towns in this section, is already the largest town in the county, and to-day contains more inhabitants than any village between Hornellsville and Dunkirk. There are more goods sold here than at any other point on the Erie between Elmira and Dunkirk. It is not likely that trade will ever be diverted from this point. It is peculiarly adapted to manufacturers, and should a railroad ever open to the cheap fuel lying south of us, we should become a large manufacturing town. We now have one of the best markets for all kinds of farm produce. The town has suffered severely from fire and presents a ragged and rather outre appearance, but we soon shall have sidewalks, shade trees and graded streets. We now have churches, a good school, two daily mails each way, and daily lines of stage to the country south of us.

The Free Press had good reasons to thus wax eloquent, for Wellsville was at the time growing more rapidly than ever before or since. In 1871, 12 brick stores and the Fassett House were erected and 150 buildings put up in various partsof town. From '66 to '71 inclusive the town added 1,000 inhabi- tants, and enumerated 4,000 people. It has taken near five times as long since '71 to gain another thousand. The growth, however, has been sure and steady with never a backward step .* The decade from '70 to '80 was both ushered

* Some might think this history incomplete with no mention of the earthquake shock which frightened the school pupils (and others) in the summer of 1870. It was so slight as to merit nothing more than a mere mention.

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in and concluded with a boom. Business activity, lumbering and farming made things hum until the panic of '73 which quieted, though it did not seriously affect, our business. In June, 1879, petroleum was discovered in paying quantities in Scio, 43 miles away. Great things were predicted and there began an era of excitement and speculation. In the production of oil much money was made, but in the speculative exchange hundreds of thou- sands of dollars were lost by our business men. There was a considerable influx of monied men, and, though we were only on the border of the oil field, the oil business did much for us in many ways. The era of substantial improvement, the decade from '80 to '90, was one of the most remarkable in the history of Wellsville, characterized as it was by the erection of a number of brick blocks. the purchase of our beautiful park, the construction of water-works, the introduction of natural gas, the building of a fine theatre, a new church and two new railroads.

Railroad Boom .- The location of Wellsville on the direct line of the New York & Erie railroad, which was in its early days the greatest railroad in the world, gave a wonderful impetus to the growth of the town. The com- ing of the railroad had been heralded since the early thirties, but bankruptcy and misfortune had overtaken it so many times that the people had despaired of its final completion, and, so when in 1851 the line was formally opened with a jubilee at Dunkirk at which the great Daniel Webster was the orator, all the Erie towns in Southern New York went suddenly wild with ideas of their importance. The boom, however, had a substantial foundation. Wells- ville became the shipping point and general market for the country south of here and has so remained. Carlton Farnum wrote in his diary in 1850, that "Our village, under the expectation of the early completion of the New York & Erie, is growing rapidly. The census for '49 gives us a population of 400. Village lots are selling briskly and many cheap buildings are being erected." In March, 1851, he wrote, "Pine lands are changing hands and Eastern lumbermen are erecting mills and building roads, etc., in order to manu- facture the pine. Tradesmen are rushing in and stores and wooden blocks are springing up like mushrooms in all parts of the village."

The Wellsville, Coudersport & Pine Creek R. R. was chartered Nov. 14, 1881. The company was capitalized at $100,000, and stock to the amount of $68,554 in actual cash, was sold in and about Wellsville. The road was con- structed along the west bank of the Genesee, 10.45 miles to Genesee Forks, Pa., and later to Perryville. The road began immediately to do a paying business. In 1894, 25,512 passengers were carried, earning the road $5,809. Freight receipts amounted to $19,899, making the total net income. $10,234. Six per cent. annual dividends were declared. The officers were John Mc- Ewen, president and general manager; W. B. Coats, vice president; E. C. Bradley, secretary; Oak S. Duke, treasurer; Chas. E. Davis, auditor and general freight agent; C. A. Farnum, attorney. In September, 1895, F. H. and C. W. Goodyear of Buffalo purchased the road for $110,000. It makes a northern extension of their Buffalo & Susquehanna system and affords a

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direct connection with the Erie at this place. In the fall of 1895 25 miles of road were constructed, connecting Galeton with Perryville, and Jan. 1, 1896, the new system was opened to the public. Wellsville was thus made the northern terminus and Erie connection of a line of railroad tapping the rich forest lands and mines of Potter county, and connecting Gold, Austin, Gaines, Galeton, etc., and Ulysses and Coudersport by an intersecting line. This road may ultimately run to Buffalo. The Buffalo & Susquehanna affords the best connections for all points south via. Williamsport, and the shortest, though not the quickest, route to New York City, and restores the old supremacy of Wellsville as the business supply point for Potter county.

The Bolivar, Eldred & Cuba narrow-guage railroad, chartered May 11, 1881, connecting Wellsville with the oil field became a source of considerable profit to the merchants in bringing trade this way. The main line was originally from Cuba to Little Genesee. The line from Wellsville to Petro- lia, Allentown, Bolivar and Ceres (24 miles) came at length to be the main division. The company owned 584 miles of road, including branches and sid- ings, costing $600,000. In 1883 the road was abandoned and the iron removed.

United Pipe Line Station .- Three miles from the village, on the Andover road, the Standard Oil Company, as the National Transit Company, in 1883, erected a station of the United Pipe Lines. Hundreds of men were employed that summer in putting up the 35,000 barrel iron tanks. The 70 tanks now standing have a storage capacity of 2,500,000 barrels. Oil from the Allegany field and from the main pipe line is received.

The Duke Lumber Company's mill, a mile and a half up the river, man- ufactures great quantities of hemlock timber. This firm employs 22 men in this mill, and many more in their other plants, doing one of the largest hemlock lumber businesses in the Empire State. Wm. Duke of this place and Charles Duke of Duke Centre, Pa., comprise the company. A mill on the site of this mill and the Hull & Morse plant at Riverside were very early sawmills. Of the score or more of these mills once doing a thriving busi- ness but one other than the Duke remains, the Matthew Mess plant on Brimmer Brook, where several hands are employed. The days of remuner- ative lumber manufacturing here are about ended, as the hemlock, like the pine of long ago, has been pretty thoroughly cut from our forests. Hakes & Williams' mill on Dike's Creek; Mead's mill 3 miles east of the village; Lewis' mill and the Johnson mill, all established at quite early dates, cut at least 5,000,000 feet annually in the seventies.

Crowner Cheese Factory, situated on Dike's Creek, was built in 1892 by Samuel Cornelius. It is owned by William Wahl. The milk of 250 cows is used.

Riverside .- Our beautiful residence suburb, appropriately called " River- side, " is an ideal place for a home. Located on high ground above the river, hills rise yet hundreds of feet above and beyond giving a grand view. Riverside extends practically from the western boundary of the village cor- poration to and beyond Scio line. Central Riverside is one and a half miles

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from the postoffice. It lies along the river road, comprises rich farms, many comfortable homes, and several elegant residences. The Robertson man- sion, valued at $30,000, one of the finest houses in the county, the Barnes' home with its well-tilled acres and pleasant house and grounds, the Baldwin, Wilcox, Coats, King, Woodward, Sheerar and Burt places and scores of other houses make up the settlement. Prosperity began when the energetic Charles H. Simmons purchased the district, erected a house and began to systematically "boom " the neighborhood. In 1873 he built and endowed the Riverside Collegiate Institute. Rev. J. S. Bingham, the first president, was succeeded by Prof. A. G. Slocum. In 1877 Rev. A. W. Cummings pur- chased the institution and successfully conducted it for several years. The buildings burned in 1888 and were not rebuilt. At intervals there has been a sanitarium at Riverside. Dr. Dargitz conducted one with a goodly number of patients for some years. Destroyed by fire in '92 it was not rebuilt.

We have had three great and many lesser floods. Sept. 20, 1861. the river and tributaries rising rapidly tore out dams and bridges. Half Brook- lyn was under water. Cattle and horses were drowned, Dike's Creek bridge carried away and water filled the road from Hanrahan's shop to the Advent church. The water cut a channel 93 feet in width beyond the State street bridge. The awful flood of 1865 occurred March 17th. A warm rain melted the four feet of snow. The State street and lower bridges and several dams were swept away. Jacob Weaver lost his life while trying to cross the rope and one-plank footbridge temporarily strung across where the lower bridge had been. In June, 1889, the storm that produced the Johnstown, Pa., disaster caused the most disastrous flood in our history. Both our railroads were greatly damaged, crops and many cattle were destroyed, numerous buildings carried away or injured and dams swept down the river. The water covered the fairground and park, marking 14 feet above the stream's bed. Edmond Fitterer was drowned in the rear of his residence opposite " Brooklyn " schoolhouse.

Supervisors. - J. Milton Mott, 1856 ; Zenas H. Jones, 1857 ; C. L. Farnum, 1858 ; Wm. S. Johnson, 1859-1861 ; 1. W. Fassett, 1862 ; Hiram York, 1863 ; Adolphus Howard, 1864-5-6; Sumner Baldwin, 1867-8 ; Tie vote, 1868 ; Sumner Baldwin, 1869-70-1-2 ; John Carpenter, 1873; Sumner Baldwin, 1874 ; Wheeler Hakes, 1875-6 ; Dickinson Clark, 1877-8-9; Wm. R. McEwen, 1880-1; Hiram A. Coats, 1882 ; Thomas O'Connor, 1883; A. A. Almy, 1884-5; Wm. Duke, Jr., 1886; E. A. Osborn, 1887-8 ; Harry W. Brecken- ridge, 1889 : O. D. Browning, 1890-1-2 ; G. H. Witter, M. D., 1893-4-5.

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HISTORY OF ALLEGANY COUNTY, N. Y.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

WELLSVILLE VILLAGE.

THE TOWN had existed but a short time when the question of village

T incorporation was agitated, and in October, 1857, application was made to the state for power to submit the question to the people for decision. It was made in the names of James V. Brown, Mason M. Hill, Geo. W. Russell, C. L. Farnum, and Isaac W. Fassett. An election held at the public house of J. C. Stannard, Nov. 26, 1857, decided to incorporate by a vote of 142 to 8. Upon the filing of the necessary certificates, Mar. 20, 1858, the incorporation took effect, and Feb. 23d, at Stannard's Hotel, these officers were elected: Trustees, C. L. Farnum, Hiram York, I. N. Stoddard, Henry Taylor, Julius Hoyt, Angus Williams; Clerk, G. W. Russell; Assessors, Jesse C. Easton, Wm. E. Armstrong, Samuel Carpenter; Pound Master, Eli Potter.

The proceedings of the village trustees contain much matter of general interest. In 1858 an appropriation of $100 was voted to the owner of "the small fire engine called 'Union' which has been for several years at the service of this village." This was the first fire engine used. The records, by showing the number of votes cast at the different elections, demonstrate how greatly from year to year interest varied in village affairs. In '58, Stoddard received 164 votes. For the next ten years the vote averaged about half of that. In '63, but 23 ballots were counted. In '65, 13; in '66, 12; in '68, 246; in '72, 237; in '73, 444; in '85, 1,275. The first bylaw of the village adopted by the trustees was: "No person shall at any time allow any of his cattle, horses, sheep, or swine (except milch cows) to run or be at large in any of the roads, highways, or streets of this village; nor shall any person allow any such cow to run or be at large in any such road, highway or street except in the day time between the first day of May and the first day of November in each year. Whoever shall offend against this provision shall forfeit for each and every offense one dollar." Another of the early bylaws read: "Each owner of an occupied building shall procure a wooden or leather fire bucket for each fire kept in such building, with the initials of owner on bucket, which shall be kept in some place of easy access. Also a ladder of sufficient capacity to reach roof shall be kept on premises." The early bylaws granted a rigid power of quarantine to the Board of Health. This was a wise provision, for in March, 1861, small pox visited the village. There were 23 cases and one death. A second epidemic broke out in Nov- ember, 1862. By prompt action of the board of health the scourge was con- fined to about a dozen cases and one death. During these visitations the town was panic stricken and business paralyzed.

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The village in 1841 and in 1845 .- Mrs. Harriet Hills came here in 1841 with her father David June. She says:

A man named Gibbs lived where Gardiner Wells had resided. James Fosbury's was across the road. The father of Henry Gordon lived where Dr. Macken's house now is, next the Ackley House. Sam'l Shingler's tavern stood on the same side near State street. The dwelling of Dan'l Tuttle was opposite the hotel. Norman Perry had a store on the corner of State and Main. The store of Thos. Conklin and Hezekiah Lee stood about where McEwen's office now is. Speaking of Conklin, it was he, who with Johnson in 1840 built the first mill where the Duke sawmill now stands. Trees had been felled on the land between State and Mill, along Main street, but the lots had a sorry appearance. The VanBuren tavern,- Henry Gordon's store and Myron Fuller's house were on the corners of Mill and Main. The Taylor house was not far from Fuller's on the same side. Dr. G. B. Jones lived in a frame house opposite the Thornton Block. W. H. Coats' dwelling was just opposite the present site of the Ist Nat'l Bank. Jonathan Seeley lived near the present Johnson (Genesee St.) cemetery. There were three painted houses ; VanBuren's and Shingler's taverns had white fronts, and Taylor's house had the front and one side painted white. W. D. Spicer lived quite a distance up State St. David June had a dwelling where Opp's residence is. Lewis Foster lived where I. N. Fassett's house stands. There was a bridge across the river on State St., built by Silas Hills and others in 1833, and was carried off by a flood in 1842. The river had previously been crossed by rafts and boats. For many years, Joe Crowner, Justus Brimmer, Billy Weed and Mr. Dunham were the only residents south of the Genesee. About a mile down the river there was a bridge near the Hull and Morse gang sawmill. Our Main street then was a rough country road and the settlement was of little account.

In 1845 Mr. G. B. Gordon came with his father Groves Gordon. He says:

At that time E. A. Smith had a store near where Scoville, Brown & Co.'s is now. Stumps and trees, heaps of rubbish and refuse on partly cleared land lay between State and Mill streets. Across Mill from VanBuren's stood the Gordon store. This remains today about as when erected, one of the few relics of early Wellsville. The Taylor, afterwards the England House, erected in 1835, stood east of the gas company's office. Enlarged and remodeled it is now the oldest structure in town. It is now in the rear of the gas company's office. For years it was the only tenement house and all newcomers between 1840 and 1870 lived in it. Samuel Palmer's house and blacksmith shop stood just above the present Baldwin Block. A. E. Bron- son's wagon shop was near it. The Bronson residence was near the site of the First National Bank. There was no Madison street. The frame schoolhouse of '42 was near the site of the Academy.

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A Centennial Memorial History of Allegany county, New York, Part 41

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