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 23
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said they, "that an annuity of $6,000 will be ready for us at the falling of the leaves." General Chapin wrote the Secretary of War, "I hope, sir, this busi- ness may be attended to, and that the money may be sent in dollars, as no other money can be divided among them to their satisfaction. To have it sent in silver dollars may occasion more expense, yet such, at the time the agreement was concluded, was the understanding of all parties."
The French Revolution caused much alarm among the neighboring governments of Europe, and to none more than to England. In 1797 there was great fear of an invasion, and the British parliament in that year laid upon every estate the obligation of raising a certain number of fencibles. The Scottish Earl of Broadalbin, in carrying out this requisition, directed that every person on his broad earldom who had two sons, must place one of them in the Fencibles or leave his estates. The measure was unpopular in Scotland, and availing themselves of the alternative, a number
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
of young men sailed from Greenock in March, 1798, and after a passage of six weeks, landed at New York. Captain Williamson was apprised of the arrival of so desirable a party of colonists of his countrymen, and lost no time in inviting them to locate on his lands. They decided, however, to have a committee of their number examine the lands, which, having reported favorably, in March, 1799, a party of twenty-three of them, one-third of whom were females, set out on foot from Johnstown, Montgomery county, for the present town of Caledonia. After a journey of ten days, they reached their destination. The land was laid off into small farms which were assigned by casting lots. The whole party set to work to build a loghouse for each family, and beyond a trifling expenditure for nails for the doors and for fastening the clapboards upon the gables, their domiciles were completed with- out the use of money. All about them the country was a wilderness, full of Indians and alive with deer, wolves and rattle-snakes. "A man," says John Mc- Vean, "might travel twenty miles north or south from the settlement, and not see one house except an Indian hut." Fever and ague made its appearance, and one by one it attacked the new comers, but they soon recovered .*
* In Williamson's Letters to a Friend he says, " The plan of this settlement occupies about 10,000 acres, distributed in the following manner :
For the Ministry
100 acres.
" Schools, about
60
Ten gentlemen, 500 acres each
5,000
Ten farmers, 100 =
1,000
Forty “ 78 =
3,120
For the Village, 60 lots of 12 acres each,
720 10,000.
CHAPTER XI.
PIONEER ELECTIONS - SCARCITY OF FOOD - RAPID GROWTH OF THE SETTLEMENTS.
The pre-occupied farmers of the new settlements found little leisure for politics. In an address of a committee of Federalists, of which Judge Porter was secretary, to the people of the old county of Ontario, "it was regretted that the inhabitants of this county have, in former elections, betrayed so much remissness and neglect in giving their votes that not more than one-third of the electors have voted," and so modest were candidates here that, says the address, "it is to be remarked that members of Congress from the Western district ( embracing the counties of Onondaga, Cayuga and others, ) have uniformly been elected from counties east of this .* A convention followed at Can- andaigua in March, which nominated Thomas Morris for Congress and two Federal candidates for the Assembly, of whom the latter were elected.
In 1800 Charles Carroll of Bellevue, Maryland, induced his friends and neighbors, Colonel Willian Fitzhugh and Colonel Nathaniel Rochester to visit the Genesee country in quest of a town site contiguous to a water power. They came on horseback by way of
* See Albany Gazette of Feb. 1800.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
Bath, over the Williamson road, accompanied by a servant and a led mule. Captain Williamson advised them to go to the Falls, as the present city of Roches- ter was then called, where they bought of Indian Allen one hundred acres embracing a mill site at the edge of the fall, and also a tract in the center of the present city, on the west side of the river, of the Pult- ney estate. Returning up the valley, Carroll and Fitzhugh purchased 12,000 acres in Sparta and Grove- land, on which they subsequently resided, and Rochester purchased seven hundred acres in the latter town. Their families had been intimate in Maryland, and in this new country they proposed to continue this intimacy and friendship. They returned to Mary- land, and in 1807 sent out an agent named Begole to take charge of their lands .*
At the legislative session of 1800 an act was passed for improving the State road from Utica to Geneva and incorporating a turnpike road company. The capital stock was fixed at 2,200 shares at $50 per share. The commissioners under the act were Charles Wil- liamson, Benjamin Walker, Jedediah Sanger and Israel Chapin. Books were opened for subscriptions to the stock at Geneva, Canandaigua, Utica and Al- bany. The prospectus estimated that there could annually be drawn from Onondaga, Cayuga, Ontario and Steuben, upward of 500,000 bushels of wheat, with a due proportion of other produce, and it con- cluded as follows: "Travellers all agree that the settlement and improvement of these counties have been more rapid and prosperous than that of any other tract of country of the same surface was ever known to be. Spirit of emigration still in its infancy, owing to the extreme difficulty of passing to and from
* Begole settled at Hermitage and became the father of a large family.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
it as the present state of the roads for nine months in the year renders it almost impracticable to travel it even on horseback."
At the election for State Senator in 1800, Sparta gave 37 votes for Jedediah Sanger, Hartford 71 for the same candidate, Pittstown 69; Charlestown gave 94 for Nathaniel King and 22 for Jedediah Sanger, and Geneseo gave 75 for Sanger.
The fall of 1801 proved to be quite sickly. The weather was uncommonly wet, and billious fever was very prevalent, though not of a very fatal type. In- deed, agues and other bilious complaints were com- mon prior to 1804. Maple sugar making was common among farmers at this period, from five hundred to one thousand pounds was often made in a season by a single farmer. The soil produced abundantly, and bountiful harvests rewarded the labors of the husband- man.
At the State election in May, 1801, the candidates for Governor were Stephen Van Rensselaer and George Clinton, and the vote in the towns embraced in the present limits of Livingston county, stood as follows : Charlestown gave Van Rensselaer 51 votes and Clinton 63 ; Sparta, 10 for Van Rensselaer and 29 for Clinton ; Geneseo, 22 for Van Rensselaer, 63 for Clinton ; Pitts- town, 81 for Van Rensselaer, 27 for Clinton ; North- ampton, 78 for Van Rensselaer, 10 for Clinton ; Hart- ford, 41 for Van Rensselaer, 25 for Clinton ; giving Stephen Van Rensselaer a majority of 66 in the county. Governor Clinton was elected, however, by a majority of 3,965.
The census of Ontario county, taken this year, showed 1,691 electors possessing a freehold of £100 value, 247 electors possessing a freehold of £20 value, and 923 electors who rented tenements of forty shil- lings annual value. Sixteen hundred and thirty-four
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
freeholders was the ratio to one Senator, and 860 electors to one member of assembly.
The Indians, who had now experienced the advan- tages of machinery, were no longer content to hew the material for their houses with the axe, nor pound their corn and other grains in the mortar. They wanted saw-mills and flouring mills. At a council held in May, 1801, after deciding to annex the prop- erty of Squawkie Hill and Little Beardstown reserva- tions to Buffalo Creek, and Big Tree to Tonawanda, they authorized their head men to negotiate for the disposal of Canawaugus reservation to secure means to erect a grist and saw-mill, in case the land would amount to their cost. Soon after this their chiefs began to advise them to dispose of the other reserva- tions along the Genesee, remarking that " our great reason for this exchange is that there are bad Indians living on these lands, and by placing them more com- pact, will be the means of keeping them in better order," and they applied directly to Captain William- son and Thomas Morris to aid them in exchanging their lands for other property.
The observation of the Indians had advanced them another step toward civilization. At a council held near Geneseo in November, 1801, at which the prin- cipal chiefs of the Senecas, and representatives of the Onondagas, Cayugas and Delawares took part, Red Jacket, speaking for his people, said, "We have assembled at this time to receive our annuities. We have been treated fairly, but we wish next year that fine broadcloths be omitted and coarser woolen cloths be sent in their place, that a small portion may be divided to all, for our old men, women and children are now looking to you for something to screen them from the cold winter blasts and snows. At this sea- son, too, our young men betake themselves to the
284
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
forest to procure game. They want more powder and lead. We no longer find our game at our doors, but are obliged to go to a great distance for it, and even then find it scarce to what it used to be. The white people are scattered so thickly over the country that the deer have almost fled from us, and we find our- selves obliged to pursue some other mode of getting our living. So all our villages have determined to take to husbandry, and we have concluded to accept the proposition of President Washington when he told us we must learn the customs of the white people, and he would provide us oxen to plow the ground and relieve our women from digging; with cows which our girls could learn to milk and to make butter and cheese ; and with farming utensils and spinning wheels. He told us we must make use of beef instead of moose and elk meat, swine instead of bears, sheep in place of deer. Brothers ! we desire you to make known to the President who is in the place of General Wash- ington [John Adams] that we agree to accept his offer, for we find ourselves in a situation which we believe our forefathers never thought of."
A gentleman travelling through this region in June, 1802, writes to the Albany Gazette that "the spirit of improvement which pervades all parts of this State the present season has no example in our history, Turnpike roads are now progressing with spirit in all directions. A chain of them stretch the whole extent of the route from Schenectady to Canandaigua, a dis- tance of 193 miles, which, it is expected, will be com- pleted by the middle of October." Writing in the latter month on the subject, the Gazette says, "on the great turnpike much work has been performed, and although not finished, the road in its whole extent has received most valuable repairs." Pro- posals were also made to the energetic commission-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
ers to carry the turnpike to Presque Isle, Niagara Falls.
In the same year James Wadsworth offered to set apart one thousand acres of land adjoining the river to encourage an English settlement, and adds, "I am disposed to offer substantial encouragement to the first English families who remove into this town."
At the Senatorial election in May, 1803, Ontario county gave 808 votes for Hyde, the Democratic can- didate, and 1,059 for Matthews, the Federal candidate, showing a large increase in the aggregate vote in the county.
In October of this year the Holland Land Co. advertised three millions of acres of land for sale. By 1803 there were about thirty families settled in Geneseo. In April, 1803, James Wadsworth bad fixed the price of the bottom lands adjoining the river at $4 to $5 per acre, according to quality and situation, and offered five thousand acres of these lands for sale.
In 1803 Ontario county elected three Federal mem- bers of the Assembly, Nathaniel W. Howell, B. P. Wisner and Amos Hall, over their Democratic com- petitors, Daniel Chapin, John Swift and E. Patterson, by an average majority of 350. At the State election in May, 1804, Ontario county gave 792 votes for Lewis for Governor, and 1178 for Aaron Burr. The number of Votes for assemblyman in May, 1804, in Hartford (Avon), was 134 ; Geneseo, 118; Sparta, 95 ; Leicester, 81; Southampton, 114.
The summer of 1804 proved to be one of great scar- city. James Wadsworth, writing on the 19th of July of that year, says, "So great a scarcity of provisions has never been experienced in this country." The growing crop, however, proved a good one, and in November of that year a wagon load of Genesee wheat
286
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
was carried to Albany from Bloomfield, 220 miles. The quantity was one hundred bushels, and was drawn by four yokes of oxen. It was purchased at Bloom- field for five shillings per bushel, and sold in Albany for seven shillings and three pence, the net proceeds of the load being not less than $100. The journey, notwithstanding the badness of the roads at that sea- son, was performed in twenty days. This was the first venture of the kind yet undertaken, of transport- ing by land grain from so great a distance and was only justified by the exceptionably high price then ruling in the Eastern market .* A team with an ordi- nary load, could make the trip over the turnpike from the Genesee to Albany and return, in a fortnight.
The price of unimproved lands in 1804, east of the Genesee, ranged from $2 to $4 per acre, and for farms of one hundred acres, of which twenty to thirty were improved, with log house and barn, would sell for from $6 to $20 per acre; west of the river the best unimproved lands sold for $1.50 to $2.50 per acre.
Among the annoyances to which the pioneer farmer was subjected, not the least was the depredations of the Indians. The misappropriation did not always arise, perhaps, from deliberate intent to commit a larceny, but it required some time for the native to become accustomed to the white man's notion of the rights of property. It was not an uncommon thing for a farmer to find an Indian astride a horse for which he had spent days in search of, and the coolness with which the native would listen to the reprimand was often as provoking as the loss of time occasioned by the search. Saddles, hogs, meat and wearing apparel were not infrequently taken. It was no satisfaction to obtain a judgment for costs against an Indian, for
* Albany Gazette, Nov. 22, 1804.
287
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
the officer could seldom find anything to levy upon. Farmers, therefore, resorted to General Chapin, the Indian agent, who at the annual payment of annuities, would deduct properly authenticated accounts against the Indians, and thus compel their chiefs to put a check upon the lawlessness of their followers .* The case, however, had two sides. The policy of the gov- ernment toward the Indians was not fully defined, General Knox, in writing to General Chapin, calling it "helter-skelter conduct," and often the wrong-doing was traceable to the practice of dealing out whiskey and rum to the Indians, often by direct order of the government agent ; + and sometimes the misdeeds of the uncivilized red man were committed to retaliate for the thieving of the whites upon them. The latter class of petty evils was so serious that the Indian agent was supplied with an annual allowance for pay- ing the Indians for articles taken from them by the whites.
In January, 1805, the weather was exceedingly cold. On the 5th of that month John Kennedy, of Sparta,
* I give below specimens of these accounts:
" Rec'd of Isr'l Chapin Thirty Dollars in full ot shirts, vest, &c., stolen from me in June last by the Indians of Squaka Hill.
WM. WADSWORTH." Canandaigua, 3 Ap'l, 1801.
"Geneseo, 23d September, 1799.
Israel Chapin, Esq., Indian Agent,
To John Bosley, Dr.
For 650 (six hundred and fifty) pounds of Pork, being hogs killed by the Indians (of Squaka Hill) as acknowledged by them in the presence of Mr Parrish and Capt. Jones,
Dolls. 40 Cents 62."
(This bill is receipted by James Bosley for $20.)
+ In the Spring of 1792 Israel Chapin, Indian Agent at Canandaigua, sup- plied to Farmer's Brother and party, on their return front Philadelphia, 240 lbs. beef, 300 lbs. flour, 100 lbs. pork, and 10 gallons of whiskey.
In October of the same year, General Chapin delivered 43 gallons of whis- key for the purpose of enabling Red Jacket's family to build a house.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
perished on the road as he was returning from mill. His team was near him when found. Two men were frozen in Livonia, and others died from the same cause.
The year 1805 proved to be one of prosperity to this region. James Wadsworth says, "people here are very healthy, and everybody who minds his business is growing rich." Farmers had come in in abundance, but there was as yet much lack of persons of other · occupations. In September of this year, James Wadsworth writes, "there is not a good tanner within 25 miles of the Genesee river."
In the month of January, 1805, the same gentleman was interesting himself in the establishment of postal facilitles. On the 5th of this month he wrote to Post- master General Granger on this subject, and said, there being then no postoffice at Geneseo, "We at present sometimes send our letters to Canandaigua, distance 30 miles, and sometimes to Hartford, distance 10 miles. As the postmaster at the latter place-Mr. Hosmer-is not a little careless, we are subjected to many inconveniences." * * "By establishing a P. O. at this place you will very much accommodate this and the neighboring towns. I imagine that the receipts of the office will more than pay the expense of transporting and returning the mail once a week from Hartford to this place."
Mr. Wadsworth was in the habit of offering, in early days, to exchange new Genesee lands for old Connecticut and other eastern lands. On the 1st of August, 1805, he writes Samuel Finley, "I am desir- ous of encouraging the most respectable settlement from Marlborough to this town. I have determined to offer two important farms, together with a new farm of 100 acres, to three respectable families of Martbo- rough or the adjoining towns. You are therefore
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
authorized to offer these three farms to three inhabi- tants of industry and established and approved principles, in exchange for their farms, subject to this condition, that their farms shall be appraised by Esq. Joel Foote." Mr. Wadsworth also authorized a friend to advance $15 to each of two good men of Berkshire county, to come and view the Genesee country. He took great pains to diffuse accurate information as to climate, crops and lands, and also worked indefatiga- bly to stimulate the growth and prosperity of the settlements. In August, 1805, Mr. Wadsworth writes, "I am resolved on making the experiment this fall of sending mule colts to the Genesee river," and ordered the purchase of one hundred.
A feeling of prosperity was experienced by many of the settlers. Mr. Wadsworth wrote in August of this year, "I feel myself rich in Genesee lands, and rich in the faith that in a few years they will command $20 to $30 per acre."
The fever common to the early settlers, known as the "Genesee fever," still made its appearance, and nearly all the first settlers were attacked by it. It was of a low typhoid type and proved fatal in several instances. In others it left the constitution perma- nently impaired. Notwithstanding this the currents were setting strong in the direction of the Genesee country. Pittstown was receiving accessions from the prudent and industrious class of New England agriculturists ; indeed, all parts of the country were receiving additions. In December, 1805, Mr. Wads- worth writes, "such is the prodigious influx of settlers to the Genesee river, that provisions will be very scarce next summer."
A total eclipse of the sun occurred near mid-day on Monday, June 16, 1806. This noted event is vividly recollected 'by persons yet living in our county.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
The centre of the eclipse passed over Lake Erie, the Genesee country and Albany, and thence outward into the Atlantic ocean, to the southward of Nova Scotia. The atmosphere during the forenoon had been perfectly clear, and the sun was very bright until fifty minutes past nine, when a little dark spot became visible about 45° to right of Zenith. Shades increased, and at a quarter past ten o'clock stars were seen, and the atmosphere began to assume a pale and gloomy hue. At a quarter after eleven the sun was wholly obscured. It now appeared like a black globe with a light behind. The darkness, which equalled a deep twilight, lasted three minutes. Business was suspended, many stars were seen, fowls went to roost, birds were mute except the whip-poor-will, whose notes partially cheered the gloom, and an occasional bat flitted from its hiding place. The dew fell, the thermometer dropped a half dozen degrees, a certain chilliness was felt, and nature everywhere seemed to have taken on a sober aspect. At about 18 minutes past 11 o'clock a bright little spot showed itself to the left of the sun's nadir similar to the focus of a glass when refracting the sun's rays, and as this increased, a change, how pleasing can scarcely be conceived, took place in the complexion of things, and at about forty minutes past twelve the sun again shone forth in full splendor. Such a spectacle is so rare that it is not a matter of surprise that the Indians, who look with peculiar horror upon celestial phenomena, so unusual an event should seem an omen of fearful import. On this occasion they were filled with alarm. John Hunt, one of the pioneer settlers in the town of Groveland, says that Dan Mckay, an Indian trader residing in Geneseo, was at Caneadea on the morning of the eclipse, and taking his watch out, he told the Indians that at such an hour the sun would be totally
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY. 291
obscured. As the sky was perfectly clear, and their untutored minds knew nothing of science, they refused to credit his statement, and went so far as to wager ten dollars with him that the event he assumed to foretell would not come to pass. Having thus staked' his money on the certainty of the eclipse's occurring, he put out his horse and waited the event. As the hour approached and the sky became overcast, the countenances of the poor Indians were also over- cast, and there was depicted thereon the greatest anx- iety and consternation, and they ran to and fro in the most abject terror. The eclipse, however, was soon over with, and as the sun again poured down its flood of light, the spirits of the Indians rose, and they resumed their wonted composure. They paid their lost bet like men, and Mckay started home ten dol- lars the richer for having possessed a little more education than his dusky customers.
In 1806 three Clintonian members of assembly were elected by the counties of Ontario and Genesee, which then voted together.
The spring of 1806 was one of famine. James Wads- worth, under date of May 23d, says: "There is literally a famine in this land of milk and honey. A severe drought last summer cut off about half the crop of corn. The farmers, they hardly knew how themselves, consumed their hay by the month of March, and have been compelled to feed out their grain to keep their cattle alive during a long, back- ward spring. They now find themselves destitute of bread to support their families. Six or eight families of the town of Southampton have applied to the over- seer of the poor for assistance. I am supporting three or four families, and expect to be called on by more soon. My brother has been compelled to turn forty fat oxen from our stables, to preserve the grain they
.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
were consuming for poor families who have not the means of subsistence."
A writer to a friend at the East, in May, 1806, says : "On my arrival I found upwards of thirty (30) fami- lies at Mount Morris ready to go to work. Some of them have handsome properties." The settlements were still sparse, however. Richard Osborn, who set- tled in Leicester in 1806, says there was then but one house between Tuscarora, afterward the residence of Major Spencer, and Caledonia springs. Where is now Vermont street in Conesus, there was then no road and no settler, nor was there for several years thereafter. Reverend Andrew Gray, a pioneer clergy- man of the Presbyterian church, was preaching in Sparta in 1806, though he subsequently accepted a missionary appointment among the Indians near Lew- iston, and did not return to Sparta until after Buffalo was burnt. In 1806 the road from Bath through Dansville and Williamsburgh to Avon, was by law declared a post road. In the fall of 1806 the Post- master General, Gideon Granger, established a postoffice at Geneseo, and provided a mail to Avon once a fortnight, the whole service to cost $26 a year, and, says a letter of that day, "it accommodates us perfectly." A gentleman writing from Geneseo this same fall, says, "you are mistaken in supposing that in coming to this country you come to a desert, you will find better roads here than in Haddam, * and you will find most of the people who have been here two or three years, enjoying the comforts of civilized life."
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