USA > New York > Livingston County> A history of Livingston County, New York : from its earliest traditions, to its part in the war for our Union : with an account of the Seneca nation of Indians, and biographical sketches of earliest settlers and prominent public men > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
Red Jacket, who had acted a double part through- out, came privately to Mr. Morris on the night previous to the signing of the treaty and asked that a place be reserved near the top of the parchment for his signa- ture after the others had signed. He had pretended to oppose the cession, he said, and to be consistent he could not publicly affix his name, but would do so before it went to the President, for it would not answer to have the treaty sent off to Philadelphia without his formal approval to it, as General Washington might think he had lost his rank and influence with the Senecas.
The consideration paid to the Indians doubtless exceeded the expectations of Robert Morris, who had fixed the price in his own mind at $75,000. He had directed his representatives at the treaty to conduct everything on the basis of a "liberal economy." He had himself provided two pipes of wine, which he dispatched overland from Philadelphia to Geneseo by wagons. The presents distributed, a list of which I am enabled to furnish,* and the rations supplied,
* The following were provided as presents :
1,500 Rations of beef, one day, at five dolls. per hundred, 75 dolls.
1,500 = of flour at 2} dolls. per hundred, 38
Do of whiskey, 25 gallons, at 1} dolls., 37
Do = tobacco, 5
For thirty days would be
4,650
237
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
added more than $15,000 to the purchase cost.
No sooner was the Indian title extinguished than preparation was made for careful surveys of the whole tract. Joseph Ellicott, a gentleman eminently qual- ified professionally and otherwise to superintend the work, had been commissioned in July preceding the treaty by the company's agent to send forward sup- plies of provisions during the fall for his surveying parties, and was prepared in the spring of 1798 to run the principal lines. David Rittenhouse, the eminent American philosopher, had personally attended to the preparation of the compass and other instruments for use in the survey. It had been decided to divide each township of six miles square into sixteen subdivisions to be called sections, and the latter into twelve lots each, three-fourths of a mile long and one-fourth of a mile in width and containing about 120 acres ; but the surveyors soon found that the location of the larger streams and other causes would render this course
750 3 ft. blankets at $2 each, 1,500
1,125 2,625 750 2} ft. " " 1} " - - 150 pieces blue strouding, 24 yds. in piece, at $1, 3,600
100 = green legging stuff, of 18 yds. in piece, twilled, ¿ wide, at 6s., - 1,350
200 com. calico at 4s., 14 yds. per piece, -
- 1,370
50 com. Holland at 4s., 24 yds. per piece, - 600
500 Butcher or scalping knives, 35
50 Bags vermillion, 100
300 1b. Powder, 600
800 1b. Lead, 50
100 Small brass kettles of 4 to 6 qts., 100
50 Brass kettles of 12 qts., 100
100 Black silk handkerchiefs, 80
Presents for the chiefs in broadcloth, red or green, of good
quality,
100
Dolls. 15,360
Several cows were also given to the squaws.
238
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
impracticable. The plan was therefore early aban- doned, and the lots were laid out into farms of three hundred and sixty acres each, as nearly as was prac- ticable.
This done the Holland Company lost no time in developing the rich country which had come into their possession. Roads were constructed, mills were erected, and encouragement offered to actual settlers by a fair adjustment of terms of payment. The investment of the Holland Company in Western New York proved more fortunate for the development of the region than for the capitalists themselves, for it is understood that when the affairs of the association were finally settled, their investment had paid them a profit of no more than five per cent.
The conduct of the several great purchasers was eminently wise, and Turner justly concludes that Western New York "could have hardly fallen into better hands. Both the English and the Dutch com- panies, under whose auspices as proprietors, three- fourths of the whole State west of Seneca lake was settled, were composed of capitalists who made investments of large amounts of money in the infancy of the Republic, when its stability was by no means a settled point. They were satisfied with reasonable returns for their vast outlays, and patient under the delays of payment, as all must concede. Their cor- respondence reveals no disposition to oppress the settlers, or wish to have their business conducted in any other than a fair, honest or liberal manner."
CHAPTER IX.
SETTLEMENTS COMMENCED -BRITISH INTERFERENCE.
It was fortunate for this county that the earliest settlers here represented the enterprise, the culture and refinement, as well as the patriotism of the three States of Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland, coupled with the proverbial independence, religious spirit and forecast of the Scotch emigrants. The
Wadsworth brothers, and the Finleys, Jones, Fitz- hughs, Carrolls and Rochesters, and the Scotchmen of Caledonia, may be mentioned as types of those who were first to establish their homes in this new country. Ireland, Germany and England were soon represented, and every Atlantic State added its quota to the daily growing settlements within the boundaries now prescribed to this prosperous shire.
Captain Williamson, speaking of the settlement of this region attempted by Oliver Phelps in 1789, says it " was attended with great, almost insurmountable, difficulties. There was no access to the country but by Indian paths, and the nearest settlement was above one hundred miles distant. The Alleghany moun- tains, then never passed, lay on the south, and Lake Ontario on the north, while to the west was one bound- less forest. By the census of 1790, there were only
240
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
960 souls, including travellers and surveyors with their attendants, within the bounds" of the State west of the pre-emption line .*
The large share which James Wadsworth had in developing the Genesee country will be recognized by all. He was graduated at Yale College at the age of twenty. About that period his father died. He went to Montreal and taught school a year, and then re- turned to the paternal home at Hartford, Connecticut. An uncle had administered upon the estate, and the property, about $45,000 in all, (and at that time a large sum,) was divided equally among the three brothers, himself, William, and a third who remained in Connecticut. On his way home from Montreal James had seen some very fine land on the Onion river in Vermont, and made up his mind that he would go back there and make an investment, but his uncle, Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth, who had taken an inter- est in the Phelps and Gorham purchase, offered his nephews James and William one-half of his interest, or about one-twentieth of the reserved portion, at cost, and proposed to the former to give him the agency of the other half if he would remove to the Genesee. To this the brothers assented. It had been agreed that any co-proprietor who would settle on the lands might locate one thousand acres at the cost price, which was eight cents per acre. Phelps and Gorham had availed themselves of this provision in 1789 and located at Canandaigua. The Wadsworth brothers, the succeed- ing year, took their two thousand acres at Geneseo, at a cost of one hundred and sixty dollars. In the spring of 1790 they purchased a new and substantial ox cart and three pairs of oxen, and after many farewells William, with two or three hired men and Jenny, a
* See Williamson's Letters to a Friend. Doc. Hist. N. Y.
241
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
favorite colored slave belonging to the family, started across the country for Albany, while James went to New York to purchase an outfit for the new settlement, including a small quantity of "store-goods" and household furniture. He then took passage on board a sloop for Albany. The trip up the Hudson occupied a week. Mr. Wadsworth had for a fellow passenger at this time John Jacob Astor, who was making his first trip to Canada and the North-west to purchase furs. The acquaintance then formed between these two remarkable men, ripened into intimacy and con- tinued through life. At Albany Mr. Wadsworth found his brother with the men and team, ready to take the supplies to Schenectady, where they pur chased a boat. This the men poled up the Mohawk to Little Falls, whither William had preceded the water party overland, ready to draw the boat and its cargo around the falls. Another day's poling brought the boat to Rome, where they found two log houses, though there was but one as yet at Utica. Another portage by the ox team and cart brought them over to Wood creek ; and when William saw all on board the boat at that point he started through the woods with his slow-moving team for Canandaigua, following the trail traveled by Phelps and Gorham's party the pre- ceding year. West of Whitestown the road, little more than an Indian path, was full of impediments. Fallen trees had to be removed, the approaches to small streams often to be laid with logs, and standing timber to be cut away before the cart could proceed. So well, however, was the work done that the road- way thus improvised was used for some time, and to this day William Wadsworth enjoys the credit of opening the first road through the wilderness between Whitestown and Canandaigua.
"Arriving at Cayuga lake, there was no ferry scow,
242
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
and the party chartered two Indian canoes which they lashed together, and making a deck of poles, suc- ceeded in crossing. Between Whitesboro and Canan- daigua their average progress was twelve miles a day .* On reaching Canandaigua William expected to find his brother and the boat, but was disappointed. In going down Wood creek the party had run the boat upon a snag, and it was there held fast for three days and until overtaken by Augustus Porter, the brother of General Porter. He took a part of Mr. Wads- worth's cargo on his boat, and so far reduced the burthen that little trouble was now experienced in getting it again afloat. The two parties now started in company down the creek into Oneida lake, thence through the lake and river to the Oswego river, and up the latter stream to the outlet of Cayuga lake, thence to Mud creek. Passing up Mud creek to the outlet of Canandaigua lake, they then found their way to the lake, and the cabin of Phelps and Gorham at Canandaigua. William had reached that hospit- able roof several days before the arrival of the boat, and becoming very anxious about his brother, fearing that he had been killed by the Indians, had gone down the outlet several miles and taken his position in the top of a tree'which leaned over the stream. He saw them a long distance below, and joyfully wel- comed them as they came under his lofty perch. Stowing a part of their supplies at Canandaigua and learning that there was a fine tract of unoccupied land on the Genesee near Big Tree, they started for that point, following Sullivan's route a portion of the way, and camping the first night at Pitt's flats, and the second night a little east of the foot of Conesus lake. The next morning William, keeping charge of the ox
* Turner's Phelps and Gorham's Purchase.
243
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
team, set out for the spot that had been described to them for a home, by the Indian trail leading to the Oneida village, while James, with a part of the men, shouldered axes and started on foot for the same place, through the woods by the Big Tree trail. Reaching a point on the western edge of the table land west of the present village of Geneseo, he began cutting down trees for a log cabin. The location of this cabin was about 105 rods west of the Mt. Morris road and 40 rods south of the lane leading from the Park to the "Home Farm" boarding house. Mr. James Wads- worth marked the spot by erecting there a small stone house now used in connection with the "Home Farm."
William, getting lost in a swamp two miles north- east of the present village of Geneseo, tied his cattle to saplings and there passed the night. This delay causing some anxiety, James got on their track the next morning, and finding the bewildered party, con- ducted them to the spot selected by him for the cabin, where they arrived on the 10th of June, 1790. The party slept in the cart and upon the ground for two or three nights until their hut was ready to afford them shelter. The unwonted sound of axes brought to their camp Lemuel Jennings, the only white man in that vicinity who had preceded them, who had erected a cabin and was herding some cattle on the flats in their neighborhood for Oliver Phelps .*
The Wadsworth brothers followed their first pur- chase of 2,000 acres at Geneseo for eight cents per acre, by a second of 4,000 acres the same season at fifty cents an acre, which was the price fixed by the company for the land in the vicinity of Geneseo. A
* James returned to Canandaigua on the first day of their arrival, and on his way back was benighted, but was guided to his home by a light held by Jenny, the colored woman, for William, who was hewing some planks for the cabin.
244
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
portion of the latter purchase was situated on the out- let of Conesus lake, where they had encamped the second night out of Canandaigua, and where they subsequently built a grist-mill.
In August, 1790, General Amos Hall, who had been appointed to take the census of Ontario county, then embracing the whole of the Genesee country, reported the population embraced within the present limits of Lima, at four families, comprising 23 persons ; Sparta, one family of five persons ; Geneseo, eight families, embracing 34 persons ; Avon, ten families, 66 persons ; Caledonia, ten families, 44 persons ; Leicester, or "Indian lands," as it was designated in the return, four families of whites, 17 persons.
In September of the same year the new settlers had their first experience with fever and ague. The Wadsworth household, with the exception of the negro woman Jenny, were all brought down with it.
The brothers Horatio and John H. Jones had pre- ceded the Wadsworths a few weeks. On the arrival of the latter they were occupying an Indian cabin at Little Beardstown, while a cabin they had begun the year before was being completed. "They had come from Geneva by way of Canandaigua and Avon with a cart, Horatio's wife and three children, household furniture and some hired men. Their cart was the first wheeled vehicle that passed over that route. From Avon they had no track, but picked their way along the ridges and open grounds. Besides Horatio Jones's family, there were in August, 1790, west of the river in what was then called the 'Indian lands,' the fam- ilies of William Ewing, Nathan Fowler and Jeremiah Gregory."
Immediately after the Revolution all that part of the State lying west of a line running north and south and passing through the center of the present county
245
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
of Schoharie, was called Montgomery county, and the town of Whitestown embraced all that region west of Utica. In 1789 the county of Ontario was formed from the western part of Montgomery, but, notwith- standing this, town elections, for the town of Whites- town, continued to be held in all this region until 1791. At the election held in the latter year, Trueworthy Cook of Pompey, in the present county of Onondaga, Jeremiah Gould of Salina, and James Wadsworth of Geneseo, were chosen pathmasters. The district of the latter embraced the territory west of Cayuga lake, covering an area large enough for a State.
Ontario county was at first divided into districts, the second district, Genesee or Geneseo, "embracing all west of the east line of the present towns of Pitts- ford, Mendon, Richmond." The first town meeting for this district was held on the 5th of April, 1791, at Canawaugus.
Captain John Ganson, an officer of the Revolution, was elected supervisor ; David Bullen town clerk. The assessors chosen were Deacon Gad Wadsworth, a Revolutionary soldier from Connecticut, Israel Stone of Stonetown (now Pittsford), General William Wads- worth of Geneseo, General Amos Hall of West Bloomfield, an officer of two wars, and Nathan Perry of Hartford, now Avon. The constables were Jasper Marvin and Norris Humphrey.
Roads opened slowly and settlements made small progress west of the river. Thomas Morris says that in 1791, and for several years thereafter, there was only an Indian path leading from Canandaigua to the Niagara river, and there was not a habitation of any kind between the Genesee river and Fort Niagara.
The Revolution had left the Indians broken in strength, and the growing power of the government held them under restraint ; but it was well known that
246
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
influences unfriendly to the Republic were at work among the western tribes, and to some extent among the natives occupying the villages along the Genesee, although the latter claimed to be friendly and gener- ally deported themselves properly. The apprehension of an Indian war deterred settlers from crossing to the western side of the river .* In the latter part of the summer of 1791, James Wadsworth went on horse- back to Niagara for the purpose of informing himself as to the prospect of an Indian war. To a friend he wrote on his return : "You will not suppose that we are under much fears from the Indians when I tell you that I started from the Genesee river without company, and reached Niagara in two days without difficulty. But, sir, it was a most solitary ride. I had an excel- lent dinner with Colonel Butler at Niagara. We were served with apples, chestnuts, hazelnuts and walnuts, but what surprised me most, was to see a plate of malacatoon peaches as good as I ever ate."
The summer of 1792 witnessed a large addition to the population of the Genesee country. In July of that year the Albany Gazettet says : "We are
* There are two sides to most public questions, and it cannot be denied that the Indians had many provocations, which artful men could use to influ- ence them. In the summer of 1790 two of the Senecas of Little Beardstown, minor chiefs, were murdered on Pine creek, in Pennsylvania. A reward was offered by the Governor of that State for the apprehension of the murderers. Little Beard and Red Jacket, in a letter of thanks to the Executive, " hoped that the murderers might be taken and that they might see them executed, for it is natural to look for revenge of innocent blood. You must not think hard if we speak rash. The words come from a wounded heart as you have stuck the hatchet in our head, and we can't be reconciled until you come and pull it out. We are sorry to tell you that you have killed eleven of us since peace, and we never said anything until the other day when in liquor."
The letter is dated at "Geneseo River and Flats, August 12, 1790," and signed Little Beard (of Beaver Tribe); Sangoyeawatau (Red Jacket), Gisse- haske (of Wolf Tribe) and Caunhesongo.
t Albany Gazette of July 9, 1792.
247
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
assured of the rapid increase of settlements there, encouraged by the situation, climate and soil-equal in goodness to any part of the United States-and that the fever and ague, which it is common to sup- pose is epidemical there, has scarcely been known the present season. The Indians are very friendly, attending solely to their domestic concerns, and grad- ually acquiring civilized habits." The population had so far increased that at the fall election in that year the canvass for governor was quite animated. The candidates were George Clinton, the incumbent, and John Jay, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The poll of the town of Canandaigua stood three to one for Jay ; and it is said that the complexion of the vote in Geneseo, where fifty ballots were cast, was the same, but owing to the fact that the tally list was transmitted to Albany without being signed by the inspectors, the returns were rejected. The result in the State was rendered so close by the rejection of Geneseo and certain other towns in the State, and the irregularities were so great, that the courts, after a heated controversy by the partisan press, were called upon to decide the question. The office was awarded to Clinton, against the earnest protest of Jay's friends.
Postal facilities, as yet, were meagre indeed. Twice a month a mail was carried on horseback between Albany and Whitestown. In July, 1792, "several patriotic gentlemen of the Genesee country established a post to meet the one from Albany at Whitestown, which once a month will pass through Geneva, Can- andaigua and Canawaugus to Williamsburgh on the Genesee river."* In September of that year, the
* Albany Gazette, July 9, 1792. The proprietor of the Gazette took charge of packages intended for the Genesee country free of expense.
248
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
Postmaster General, Timothy Pickering, advertised for proposals for the extension of the post road from Canajoharie to Whitestown and thence to Canandai- gna.
Eastern newspapers, as early as 1792, contained advertisements of Genesee lands. Captain William- son, in August of that year, published an answer "to numerous applications for farms." He says,* "to those who wish to make actual settlements on his lands, that he has surveyors employed in laying off some hundred thousand acres which will be ready to be viewed by the 10th of September. It will be neces- sary for persons to receive instructions from Mr. Williamson at Williamsburgh. The price fixed on the land is one dollar per acre."
In the fall of 1792, William McCartney bought a farm of 320 acres in the southerly part of what is now the town of Sparta, near the Steuben county line, and was the first white settler in that region. Indeed, for more than a year there was not a white man within ten miles of him. Mr. McCartney was born in Bar- locks, Dumfrieshire, Scotland, on the 2d of April, 1770. He came to America in the year 1791, in com- pany with Andrew Smith, the latter settling at Bath, while the former, as stated, settled in Sparta. With little or no assistance he set to work to clear his purchase of the dense growth of oak, walnut and underwood with which he found it covered, and was the first to raise a crop of grain at the head waters of the Canaseraga. In the summer of 1796 he married a sister of James McCurdy, who resided within the limits of the present village of Dansville. Mr. Mc-
* Albany Gazette, Aug. 16, 1792. James Abeel, in the Gazette of Aug. 20, advertises " 13,000 acres of most excellent land in Phelps and Gorham's purchase in the Genesee country."
249
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
Cartney was mild and frank yet firm, in his dealings with his fellow men, and the pioneers speak of him as a man of strong good sense, and qualified not only to manage his own interests with wisdom but to administer in public affairs with great success ; and the local records show that, continuously, for more than a third of a century, he was called by the almost unanimous voice of his neighbors and towns- men to hold office. In 1796 he was made a commis- sioner of public roads, and directed the laying out and establishing of the highways of Sparta. This burthensome position he held for a number of years, as well as that of town clerk and commissioner of schools down to 1806, when he was made supervisor, to which office he was re-elected for twelve successive years. In 1817 he was sent to the Assembly, to which body he was re-elected the following year. In 1819 he was again made supervisor and held the office con- tinuously until his death which occurred in 1831 .* The same sterling business qualities that enabled him to lay the foundation of a competency, he carried into the discharge of his official duties, and in the board of supervisors, where he so long held a seat, composed of such men as Colonel Fitzhugh and General William Wadsworth, Mr. McCartney was notably one of the leading men.
In 1793 Thomas Morris and Oliver Phelps each built a small frame house at Canandaigua, and, when completed, these were the only two frame houses west of Whitestown in the present county of Oneida.
By January, 1793, letters and newspapers were con- veyed by stated private posts, though at infrequent intervals, through all the Genesee settlements and as far west as Canandaigua. Writing to his father on
* He died on the 9th of Feb., 1831, and was buried in the cemetery near the South Sparta meeting house.
250
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
the 4th of February, 1793, Thomas Morris says, "our post goes (east) once a fortnight," and speaks of the great mildness of the passing winter and of the influx of settlers. In May of that year Moses Beal com- menced running a weekly stage from Albany through Schenectady to Johnstown and Canajoharie, "at three cents a mile for passengers and fourteen pounds of baggage gratis." And the same month a stage was established between Canajoharie and Whitestown to connect with Beal's stage. This essentially increased the postal facilities of the pioneers of the Genesee.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.