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 39

Author: Doty, Lockwood L. (Lockwood Lyon), 1827-1873; Duganne, A. J. H. (Augustine Joseph Hickey), 1823-1884
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Geneseo [N.Y.] : Edward L. Doty
Number of Pages: 762


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 39


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Beside the two hundred acres given to the society -- they lay on the south side of Allen creek, and included what is called "the old burying ground"-a lot of two acres lying in the village laid out near the springs was granted as the site of a church and manse. Upon this lot, in 1805, the people built a log meeting-house, thirty feet by forty. In this work, though they were already, as we have seen, alienated from one another, the people from Inverness and those from Perthshire labored harmoniously together. This primitive church stood not far from the site of the house now occupied by Mr. Hatch, its gable ends facing east and west. Alexander Denoon was secured as minister.


At the town meeting held in April, 1805, the sum of $100 was voted for bounty on wolves, and the bounty for every wolf killed within the limits of the town was fixed at $5.


In the spring of 1807 an event occurred that filled the infant settlement with horror, and made a deep


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impression on many. A number of men were engaged in laying out a road in the neighborhood of Duncan McColl's. Some trifling dispute arose between James McLean, a very bad tempered man, and William Orr. McLean grew very much enraged, and all at once raised his axe and cleft Orr's skull, killing him almost instantly. Archibald McLaughlin came up a moment after, and stooping down to look at the murdered man, exclaimed in a tone of reproach, "Oh, Lachlin, Lachlin, and what have you done now !" Without any further provocation he raised his axe again, and striking Mc- Laughlin on the shoulder, cut him down to the very heart. Donald McColl, then a boy about 16 years old, with great boldness and dexterity, jerked the axe off McLean's shoulder and hid it in a thick jungle of hazel bushes. He then fled, as for his life, to the vil- lage. McLean pursued him until he found he could not overtake him, and then he hid himself. Mean- while Donald McColl reached the village frightened almost out of his senses, and gave the alarm. The whole settlement was roused to arrest the murderer. By hiding himself in hollow logs and in the woods he succeeded in escaping to Canandaigua, where he was suspected and arrested. He was afterward convicted. and executed at Batavia.


About this time there grew up quite a little village about the springs. John McKay's saw mill, and his grist mill, to which people sometimes came even from the neighborhood of Buffalo, brought considerable business to the place. In 1805 John Cameron came in from Geneva and opened a store in connection with a tavern. Up to that time the settlers had been obliged to purchase the few things they bought either at Wil- liamsburgh or Canandaigua. Three or four years later Colonel Robert Mckay started another store, which was extensively patronized.


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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.


On the 12th of May, 1808, the excise commissioners of the town licensed nine persons to keep an inn or tavern in the town of Caledonia.


The year 1810 was memorable as the one in which a stage commenced running through the place, convey- ing the mail. This stage started from Canandaigua on Monday morning at 6 o'clock, and passing through this place, Batavia and Buffalo, reached Niagara on Thursday at 3 o'clock in the morning. The fare was six cents per mile. Six years afterward a tri weekly stage run west as far as Batavia. Thence to Buffalo an open wagon went whenever there were passengers.


On the breaking out of the war of 1812 the Scotch people of Caledonia showed considerable enthusiasm. A company was raised among them, and under the command of Robert Mckay volunteered its services on the frontier. It was actively engaged both that and the following years. In 1813 Captain Mckay was promoted to the rank of Colonel, and William Duer succeeded him in the command. While serving at Black Rock under Colonel Blakeslee, Colonel Mckay and several others were taken prisoners and carried to Montreal, where, after a time, they were exchanged. During the whole course of the war the settlers here showed themselves strongly attached to the interests of their adopted country.


During the war the village of Caledonia was a favor- ite stopping-place for the soldiers and sailors passing to and fro between the seaboard and the lakes. On one occasion a party of about five hundred sailors, who had been drafted to man Commodore Perry's fleet on Lake Erie, stopped for a few hours at noon on their way west. They were transported by a train of between seventy and one hundred great wagons. At that time all the land between the main street in the village and the shore of the springs was open. The re


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they were turned out to cook their dinner. Near by there was a field of potatoes, belonging to Robert Mc- Kay. As soon as the sailors discovered it they began to dig the potatoes to cook for their dinner. Mr. Mc- Kay was, of course, greatly incensed, and sternly ordered the trespassers off, but they did not notice him except to laugh and joke at his expense. He and several of his friends then armed themselves and entered the field, determined to defend property, even at the expense of life. A fight was imminent when the commanding officers, who were enjoying them- selves in Mr. Cameron's tavern, were sent for, who soon allayed the disturbance. In the course of the afternoon the detachment moved on to the west, and spent the night near Batavia. The next day they reached Buffalo and were immediately put on board the fleet. Before the next morning they had secured prizes near Fort Erie valued at $200,000.


At about the same time the people were very much annoyed by a squadron of dragoons which passed twice through the place. Nothing was secure from their depredations. When word was brought to the village that they were returning from the west, every one made haste to shut up his fowls and lock all his doors, taking care to hide away all articles of any value. They wheeled into the open space before the spring for a halt, and after they had tethered and cared for their horses, they began to scatter for plun- der. A party entered John Cameron's store and there, despite all the efforts of those who were employed to protect the goods, they appropriated everything they could lay their hands on. One of the party, having asked to look at buckskin gloves, a package was shown him, and in less than five minutes, during which time the utmost confusion and noise prevailed, every pair was gone, safely stowed away in a dragoon's pouch.


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Detachments escorting British prisoners, and carry- ing wounded and dead Americans eastward, often passed through the village.


William Armstrong was one of the most influential of the early settlers. He was a native of Falkirk, and came here, it is believed, in 1807. Being a Low- lander he was regarded by his clannish Highland neighbors as a speckled bird, and they were not dis- posed to respect him much at first. By his generous liberality, however, to all who were straitened, his strong common sense, and especially by his deep and consistent piety, he won very soon a position of great esteem and influence among them. He died in 1829, after a lingering and painful illness. His loss was very greatly felt in the settlement.


Judge Willard H. Smith was another man who ex- erted a large influence over the infant settlement, and added greatly to its growth and prosperity. He was born at Chesterfield, Cheshire county, New Hampshire. When six years of age his father removed to Hamshire county, Massachusetts, where Judge Smith was edu- cated. On the 11th of January, 1814, he removed to Caledonia, where he opened a law-office. In 1832 he became County Judge, and presided for nearly six- teen years, during which time several suits of great importance were tried before him. He was a lawyer of great ability, a judicial officer who was prompt, firm and incorruptible, and a citizen who was always held in great esteem by his neighbors and acquaintances.


CONESUS.


Area, 19,996 acres; population in 1875, 1,377; boundaries : on the north by Livonia ; east by Cana-


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dice (Ontario Co.) ; south by Sparta and Springwater ; west by Groveland.


Conesus lies upon the eastern border of the county. Its general surface is more elevated than any other town of the eastern range. The town of Conesus was organized in 1819. On the 13th of April of that year the Legislature enacted that "all that part of town- ship eight, in the sixth range of townships (then) in- cluded in the towns of Livonia and Groveland, except that part of township eight lying on the east side of Hemlock lake and adjoining the town of Richmond, shall be, and the same is hereby erected into a sepa- rate town by the name of Freeport," and the same act appointed the first town meeting to be held at the dwelling-house of Enoch Squibble, near the head of Conesus lake. On the 26th of March, 1824, the Legis- lature changed the name of the town to Bowersville, and on the 15th of April of the following year the present name was adopted by authority of the Legis- lature.


The name of Freeport was derived, it is said, from the following circumstance : A squatter who had been a sailor, settled on a particular lot near the brow of the western hill. After fencing it in and making some improvements he was forcibly driven off by the owner. The ejection provoked the landless pioneer, who, at some pains, published his version of the story, urging that however ready other sections might be to welcome immigrants, this particular region was no " free-port." This name, for want of a better, clung to the locality, and when the town was set off it re- tained the designation.


Bowersville was derived from Henry Bowers, a large land-owner and early settler. Conesus, it is scarcely necessary to say, is the Indian name of the lake along which the town lies.


CONESUS LAKE. LOOKING NORTH FROM THIE HEAD.


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The township was early laid out by Henry Bowers into lots numbered from 1 to 139. Five of these lots, comprising 814 acres, were set apart for the benefit of Canandaigua Academy, of which institution Mr. Bowers was a liberal patron. On the re-survey of the township it was found that the first five lots of the series were situated in Hemlock lake.


The surface of the town is rolling, though marked in some parts by abrupt hills which slope down on the east and west to the two lakes. The soil is some- what more clayey than the general average of the County, though portions of it are equal to the best upland anywhere found for winter wheat. The tim- ber is principally oak, walnut and chestnut on the upland ; and ash, pine, elm and swamp-oak in the valleys and low lands. The Marrowback hills, which rise in places to the height of many hundred feet, run through the eastern part of the town, their general course being nearly parallel with Hemlock lake. The Calaboge valley extends from near the centre of the town into Springwater. Turkey hill runs along the western border of the town, keeping the direction of Conesus lake. This range of hills took name from the levies occasionally made upon the poultry yards in the valley, by a few families given to petty pillage who lived upon this hill. McMillan Gully or Mill Creek, terminates near the shore of Conesus lake. Its steep sides are, in some places, from 60 to 100 feet in height. The roadway passes near the edge of the gully. Some years ago a resident of the town named Hamilton was thrown from his wagon at the most pre- cipitous point, while under the influence of liquor, and falling to the bottom of the gully, was killed. Purchase Valley, on Lot No. 41, is marked by equally precipitous banks. Specimens of bituminous slate are found in the rock composing the walls. During


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the War of 1812 a drafted soldier from Conesus de- serted from the army, then lying near Buffalo, and took refuge in this gully, then so thickly wooded along its margin as to be almost inaccessible. The period was mid-winter, and as he was aware that a reward had been offered for his arrest, he kept closely concealed during the day-time in a nest he had formed for himself among the upper branches of a venerable hemlock tree, closely surrounded by smaller trees. At night he was in the habit of visiting a neighboring log hut for his food. Officers scoured the gully sev- eral times, but did not succeed in discovering his hiding-place.


John, James, Samuel and Matthew McNinch were among the early settlers, as were Francis, Joseph, John and Elijah Richardson. The first saw-mill was erected on Mill creek, near the Centre, in 1793, by James Henderson and Jacob Dunham. Eleven hands raised the mill, five of whom came from Dansville and six from Lima.


The earliest settler of the town was James Hender- son, who removed from Pennsylvania in 1794, and located on lot 49, near the head of Conesus lake. Hugh Mckay came in 1795, and got out the logs for a house. The following year he invited the Indians from Squakie Hill to come and help him raise the house. Jacob Dunham also came in 1795, and the following year Jesse Collar located on lot 109. The Indians were very friendly, and readily sold them corn for bread and seed. The corn was fitted for the table by pounding it in a hole burned into the top of a stump, and then sifted through a sieve of bark splints.


Jacob Collar was born in Sussex county, New Jer- sey, Feb. 25th, 1770. In the spring of 1796, in com- pany with his father, Jesse Collar, he settled in Con-


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esus, on lot 109. The same year Hugh Harrison of Groveland was married to Phebe Collar, the first wed- ding in Conesus. When Mr. Collar removed from New Jersey, he loaded his effects into two large Jersey wagons, one of which was drawn by three horses, and the other by an ox team. The journey was made in twenty-eight days. A portion of the way they were compelled to cut a path through what was known as the beech woods, some days making not more than half a dozen miles. When night came on, bark and boughs would be collected and piled about a dry log and the whole set on fire, affording an opportunity for


On cooking their food and drying their clothing. reaching Conesus they set about erecting a log house. The land was so thickly wooded that it was not found necessary to draw the logs to erect the house ; enough were felled on the site. Darling and Isaac Havens of Sparta and the Culbertson brothers of Groveland came and helped to raise the house. For some time after the family settled in Conesus there was no road for wagons. In going to Dansville on horseback, the way was marked by "blazed " trees to the foot of Bowers' hill.


It is stated that when Mr. Henderson made his set- tlement in the town he, inadvertently probably, in- truded upon some land which the Indians had some years before cleared and planted with apple trees. This caused a good deal of ill feeling among the In- dians, and in order to live in peace with them, Mr. Henderson made it a custom, for years, of making annual presents to the Indians of such articles as would please their fancy.


About the year 1800 a singular man settled in the town, on lot 19, on the west side of Hemlock lake. His retiring disposition and isolated, lonely life won for him the title of the " Hermit." His real name was


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Meloy, and he gained his livelihood by hunting and fishing. A story is told of his encounter with a bear in Hemlock lake early one morning. The bear upset the boat, and afterward tried to mount it. Meloy would strike him with the oar, and the bear would strike back with his paw. Finally, after a desperate struggle, the bear was drowned.


James McNinch, another old settler, came to Cone- sus in 1807, and settled on lot 111. During the sum- mer and fall he built a log house, leaving it to be completed at odd spells. In place of a door, which Mr. McNinch had not had time to make, Mrs. Mc- Ninch hung up a bed blanket. One evening Mr. McNinch was absent, and his sister came to spend the night. Venison had been cooked in the fore part of the evening, and about 9 o'clock the wolves, scenting the meat, began to collect about the house. They grew bolder by degrees until they threatened to come into the house. The two women managed to get a horse which had been hitched a short distance away, and fastened him to the door-post. Whenever the wolves attempted to get into the house the horse would kick and fight them, and with this and the aid of bright lights they were enabled to keep the hungry wolves at bay until help came.


The first school in the town was opened in the win- ter of 1810 in a small log house near the residence of James D. Alger, with Mary Howe as teacher. It is recollected that greased paper was used in the win- dows, instead of glass.


Mrs. Lucy Patterson, whose father settled in the present town of Lima in 1802, and removed to Conesus in 1806, says the nearest grist-mill at this time was at the present village of Hemlock Lake, while the near- est store was Gurnsey's, at Lima, where the people generally did their trading. Mrs. Patterson also


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says : "When we came into this place our nearest place where meeting for worship was held was in a frame school house on what was then called Buell Hill, about one mile south on the road leading from Livonia Center to the village of Hemlock Lake." Here service was held by the Presbyterians. About 1810 a number of Methodist families began to settle in the town, and meetings for worship were frequently held at private houses. Families of the Baptist per- suasion also began to come in, who likewise met for devotional exercises. A Baptist clergyman named Ingraham, who lived in Conesus in 1808, preached oc- casionally. He is said to have been the first clergy- man who settled in the town, and the Rev. John Hud- son, a Methodist, who settled here about the year 1815, the next. About the year 1816 the Methodist Episcopal Society was organized in Conesus Center, and Mr. Hudson became the pastor of the church. In 1818 a society of the Christian order was organized, near Foot's Corners, but it existed for only a few years.


On the 16th and 17th of April, 1817, snow fell to the depth of two feet by actual measurement, and on the 10th of May in the following year snow fell to the depth of nine inches. On the 19th of April, 1820, Jotham and Thomas Clark crossed Conesus lake on the ice. On the 13th of July, 1816 a severe frost de- stroyed most of the corn and injured the potato crop. On the 10th of September of the same year another frost destroyed the remainder of the crops. Potatoes that year were worth $1 a bushel, and corn $1.25. Marrowback hill suffered greatly. Nathaniel Cole said that many families actually came near starving. For himself, he was obliged to go to the woods, cut timber and burn log heaps so that he might get ashes to sell, to supply his family with the necessaries of life.


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Bears and deer were so plenty as to be troublesome. As late as 1816 farmers found it necessary to watch their wheat crops in the early morning, to prevent the deer from nipping off the growing blades, and bears were so bold as to render it somewhat dangerous to travel about the woods without a dog or gun. Wolves were very plenty. James McNinch was burning a coal pit, occupying a shanty at night. During the afternoon he had killed a deer and carried the choicest parts to his cabin. The wolves scented the blood and at night gathered about the shanty. McNinch was compelled to set fire to a pile of wood near the door and use his gun to keep them from breaking in.


In common with other new settlements, Conesus felt the scarcity of money in early days. Even in matrimonial matters the local magistrates were called upon to take trade in place of cash. A young broom- maker traveled several miles on foot with his betrothed, one winter afternoon, to have Davenport Alger marry them. Calling the justice aside he offered him two well finished splint brooms if he would perform the ceremony. The offer was declined, and the couple trudged off to find another justice. They met Esquire Blake on horseback. The rueful story of the would- be bridegroom carried the point ; the magistrate jumped off his horse, united the pair, shouldered his brooms and resumed his journey.


In 1818 Andrew and Gardner Arnold established a store at Conesus Center, and the following year Har- vey May opened a store at what is now called Foot's Corners. Hosea Gilbert built the first woolen factory in 1819.


John Young


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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.


GENESEO.


Area, 26,937 acres ; population in 1875, 3,118 ; boundaries : north by Avon ; east by Livonia and Conesus lake ; south by Groveland ; west by York and Leicester, from which it is separated by the Gen- esee river.


The town of Geneseo was formed in 1789, by the Court of General Sessions of Ontario county. Its name is of Indian origin. It lies centrally between the eastern and western boundaries of the county, and north of the center, measuring from south to north. In extent of territory it is, with two exceptions, larger than any other town in the county. Its surface, ter- raced and furrowed by valleys, is generally rolling. On the east it descends abruptly, in some places three hundred feet, to Conesus lake, and on the west toward the Genesee river the declivity is equally steep. The Genesee flats extend the whole length of the town from south to north, having an average width of half a mile.


Though irregular in its western outline, the town is nearly square, the four sides facing the cardinal points of the compass. Considerable streams cross its sur- face, running both eastwardly and westwardly. Con- esus outlet, the largest, flows toward the river through the extreme north-eastern corner, and then bending westerly re-enters the town. After describing a half circle it again flows northward beyond the boundary of the town. Fall Brook, next in size, rises in the southeastern part of the town, and running westerly empties into the river near Cuylerville bridge. In the northern part of the town Jaycox creek, nearly as large as Fall Brook, and flowing in the same general direction, also empties into the river. Several smaller


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streams drain other portions of the town into the lake or river.


The soil of the town, of clay or clayey loam, is strong and very productive. Wheat of excellent quality is produced in large quantities, while live stock of superior quality is raised by the farmers gen- erally.


The Indians, during their occupancy of the Genesee country, had several small villages near the river within the present limits of the town, the most con- siderable of these being Big Tree and Canaseraga. The celebrated chieftain Red Jacket resided for a time in the town on Ewing's farm.


" Big Tree," a designation rather vaguely given to that part of the town embracing the village and im- mediately west of it, derived its name from a great oak which stood on the bank of the river west of the Wadsworth dairy farm. For years the spring and fall freshets continued to wear away the earth beneath this immense oak, and a few years ago this venerable forest king fell into the river. Happily its trunk, which measured many feet in diameter at the butt, has been preserved, and may now be seen in the vil- lage.


On Fall brook, near the highway leading to Mount Morris, is a perpendicular cascade of nearly ninety feet. In the spring and fall the floods dash over the shelf in considerable volume, but for the greater part of the year only a slender thread of water finds its way down the rocky wall. Tradition has long been busy with this romantic spot, and superstition has peopled its groves and recesses with beings of another world. It is said that an Indian girl, the favorite daughter of a chieftain of a neighboring village, being urged to marry whom she did not love, threw herself over the fatal rocks. The natives say that often at twilight,


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and always amid the howlings of autumn tempests, the plaintive tones of her voice could be heard.


It is popularly held that in Sullivan's expedition a band of Seneca Indians were surrounded and driven over the falls by the advance guard of Clinton's divi- sion. But as no reference is made to such an occur- rence in Sullivan's minute report, the story is clearly without foundation, even if it were not inconsistent, and, indeed, improbable. Another version refers the occurrence to a period near- ly a century anterior to the latter date, connecting it with the French invasion, under De Nonville, in 1684, of the Seneca villages in the Genesee country. It is likely that the tale has its origin in the destruction of a small band of De Non- ville's army, which the In- dians, familiar as they were FALL BROOK, GENESEO. with the locality so close to their homes, were enabled to entrap and destroy.




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