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 47
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the edge of which runs the Genesee Valley Canal, traversing the town from north to south. Stretching riverward with a uniform grade the western border at- tains an altitude of several hundred feet above the flats. The territory of the town is singularly free of waste lands, as scarce an acre can be found that is not already under cultivation or capable of a high degree of culture. The farms are to an exceptionally large extent, the property of actual occupants, and the farm houses and buildings which exceed in number those of any other town in the county, rate above the average in quality, a fair index of the thrift and com - fort that generally abounds. Nature, too, has be- stowed her favors liberally. The scenery from every point of the extended plateau is rich and varied, a vast park-like landscape, picturesque in its highlands and bottoms, and diversified by the winding river and sin- uous creek. The uplands bordering the flats in the neighborhood of the river were a favorite haunt of the Indians, and also of the fort-builders as has already been shown. Though the principal villages of the Senecas in later times were located on the western side of the Genesee, yet there was a considerable town known as Big Kettle's village, near Mount Morris. No sooner was the Genesee country opened to settle- ment than the advantages of this region attracted cap- italists from New England and Pennsylvania. Eben- ezer Allen, the " Blue Beard " of the border, had se- cured a large donation in lands from the Indians and had opened a store near Damon's Run in 1790, first exhibiting his wares under the great council Elm. He replenished his stock in Philadelphia, and took every occasion afforded by his visits to that city, to make known the advantages of this locality. That city was then the seat of the general government, and Colonel Trumbull, an officer of the personal staff of
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Washington, whose artist brush has preserved some of the most interesting subjects of Revolutionary his- tory, formed the half romantic notion of establishing his home in these beautiful wilds." He purchased a section of land, planted an orchard, made some pre paration for building a residence near the site of the late Judge Hastings' house, and changed the name of the spot to Richmond Hill. For some reason the pur- pose was abandoned by him and the property passed from Allen into the hands of Robert Morris, who it is quite certain designed making the place his home. Its name was changed to its present designation.
Ebenezer Allen was the pioneer of the whites. He settled first near Mt. Morris in 1785. His career, the more notable portion of which is associated with the town, forms a curious episode in early annals. He was one of those daring characters, without conscience or patriotism, who thrive best in troublons times. A native of New Jersey, he took the tory side in the Revolution, and was forced to quit his home, finding an asylum toward the close of the struggle among the Indians along the Genesee, where he worked Mary Jemison's land until the return of peace. He de- feated soon after, by a characteristic trick, a plan of the frontier Indians and British to renew the border troubles. Just before an expedition was to start he procured a belt of wampum and carried it as a token of peace to the nearest American fort. The act was wholly unauthorized, but so sacred a thing was the wampum, that the Indians determined to bury the hatchet, resolving, however, to punish Allen for the cheat. He was pursued for months but eluded their
* Trumbull painted the historic pictures of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and Washington resign- ing his commission.
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clutches by hiding in the woods and fastnesses .* When pursuit ceased, Hi-a-ka-too replaced his tattered gar- ments, and Allen settled down near Mt. Morris, mar- rying a squaw named Sally. The following spring he purchased at Philadelphia a boat-load of goods, which were brought to Mt. Morris by way of Cohocton, and bartered for ginseng and furs. After harvesting a large crop of corn and wheat he took up a farm near Scottsville at the mouth of a creek that bears his name. The next season Phelps and Gorham gave him a hun- dred acres of land on the west side of the river where Rochester now stands, on consideration that he would build a grist and saw-mill there.+ In 1791 he asked the Senecas to grant a portion of the Genesee flats to his daughters Mary and Chloe, born of his Indian wife Kycudanent or Sally. The Indians disliked him, and showed no haste to comply, but he made a feast at which more whiskey than meat was served, and thus secured a deed of four square miles, including the site of Mt. Morris, which took the name of Allen's Hill, and the adjacent flats to the east .¿ Thither he returned in the summer of 1792, built a house and planted a crop. Agriculture alone did not suffice him, and he prepared to add a store-house to his log man- sion. The Indians warned him that timber collected
* He was subsequently taken prisoner by the Indians, carried to Canada, tried and acquitted. See Turner's Holland Purchase, p. 298.
+ He built the mills, and in 1792 assigned his interest in the tract to Benj. Barton for 200 " pounds N. Y. currency." In 1802 the tract was purchased by Col. Wm. Fitzhugh, Col. Rochester and Charles Carroll.
# The deed provided that Allen should have care of the land until his daughters were married or became of age, and out of its proceeds he should cause the girls to be instructed in reading and writing, sewing and other useful arts, according to the customs of the white people. "Sally, the mother, was to have comfortable maintainance during her natural life or re- mained unjoined to another man."-Turner's Holland Purchase, p. 301.
The daughters were fine looking girls, and were educated in Philadelphia.
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for such a purpose would go into the Genesee. He persisted, however, and the Senecas, when all was got together, headed by Jim Washington and Kennedy, took the timber, carried it to the river and threw it in, and saw it float away. But Allen got out more, built a saw-mill at Gibsonville to supply lumber, and erected a store-house where Judge Hastings' residence now stands. By this time he had taken several wives, red, black and white, and scarcely had he settled in his new quarters before another, Millie Gregory,* was added to his rude harem.
In one of his yearly visits to Philadelphia he met Robert Morris, to whom he gave a glowing account of the Genesee country. "Hemp grows like young wil- lows," said he, "and the forest trees about this city are no larger than the branches of trees in my neigh- borhood." As settlers increased Allen grew uneasy, and in 1797, Governor Simcoe of Canada having granted him lands on the Thames river, he removed thither after selling the tract on the Genesee to Robert Morris, who changed the name to Mt. Morris. Allen's life closed in 1814, in Canada, after a checkered career. Many crimes, most of which grew out of his sensual nature, have been imputed to Allen, and appears to rest upon creditable authority. His moral character certainly appears to great disadvantage. "He mur- . dered those for whom he professed most friendship, and out of sheer love of blood, would beat out the
* Or McGregor, daughter of a white settler at Sonyea. Two men were hired to drown her, taking her in a canoe they ran over the rapids at Roch- ester "swimming ashore themselves, but leaving her to go over the main falls." She, however, disappointed them by saving herself and soon ap- pearing in the presence of her faithless lord at the mouth nf the river, a dripping nymph. She followed him to Canada, and became one of his new household and became the mother of six children .- Turner's Phelps and Gorham Purchase, p. 406.
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brains of infants when on the war-path." Altogether he holds a most unenviable place in pioneer annals .*
The first Baptist minister who preached in Mt. Morris was the Rev. Samuel Mills, father of General William A. Mills. The first Presbyterian minister was the Rev. Robert Hubbard. The preachers who most frequently visited Mt. Morris were from among the Methodists, among whom occur the names of Jesse Lee and John B. Hudson. Before 1810 a small Methodist class was formed in this settlement, which soon disappeared from deaths, removals, and other causes, and yet the place was visited at stated times by preachers of this order. About the year 1813, Rev. Daniel D. Butterick came to this section with the de- sign of laboring as a missionary among the Indians near the village, if the way seemed open. He made some efforts for them, but for some reason soon aban- doned his plan and spent his days as a missionary among the Cherokees. It was in the year 1814 that the Presbyterian church of Mt. Morris was organized. On the 29th of April of that year the following four- teen individuals met in the school house and were formed into a church: Jesse Stanley, Jonathan Beach, Luther Parker, Enos Baldwin, Abraham Camp, Luman Stanley, Russel Sheldon, Almira Hop- kins, Lucy Beach, Martha Parker, Sarah Baldwin, Mary Camp, Patty M. Stanley and Clarissa Sheldon. In 1831, the present Methodist society of Mt. Morris was organized. The Protestant Episcopal Church of Mt. Morris was organized in the spring of 1833. In 1839 the Baptist society was constituted. The school house was for a long time the only public room for holding religious services. Allen Ayrault, Wm. A. Mills and Jesse Stanley assisted in putting seats in
* Historical sermon of Rev. Mr. Chichester.
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this school house, for the purpose of holding meet- ings about the year 1815. They were constructed with high wooden backs, and "they felt prouder," said Mr. Ayrault, "with the accommodations thus afforded than many would at the completion of the most costly church edifice." The first Presbyterian church was dedicated January, 1832. It stood where now is the orchard of Dr. Branch, back of his residence. Ten years afterwards it was removed a few rods to the south, fronting State street, and enlarged by an addi- tion of twenty-five feet in length, which made its dimensions eighty-four by forty-four feet. September 29th, 1852, it was destroyed by fire. The dimensions of the new brick edifice are eighty by fifty-two feet. The lot was the gift of John R. Murray, Esq. The Methodist Episcopal church was dedicated January 1st, 1833. A few months later the society of the Protestant Episcopal church dedicated their house of worship. In 1840 the Baptist society dedicated their house of worship.
GENERAL WILLIAM A. MILLS.
Among the earliest settlers of Mt. Morris was Major- General William A. Mills, who was born May 27th, 1777, in the town of New Bedford, Westchester County, New York. His father the Rev. Samuel I. Mills, was a Presbyterian minister, and a graduate of Yale College-a native of Derby, Connecticut. Gen. Mills located at Mount Morris in 1794, at seventeen years of age. His capital consisted of good health, a common suit of clothes, a five franc silver piece in his pocket, and an axe on his shoulder. He put up a small cabin on the high table land overlooking the flats, at the north end of the present village, where he lived several years, keeping bachelor's hall, on most friendly terms with his neighbors the Indians, and
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cultivating land on the flats in common with them, raising Indian corn and stock. He learned to speak the Indian language fluently, and ere long had so worked into the good will and friendship of the In- dians that he gained their entire confidence and be- came their advisor and counsel in their dealings with white people in that locality, and was also their arbi- trator not unfrequently to settle matters of dispute arising among themselves. He was a personal and warm friend of " Tall Chief," the head of the Seneca tribe at Allan's Hill and Squakie Hill, and was also well acquainted and on friendly terms with "Red Jacket," chief of the Senecas near Buffalo. Mary Jemison the " White Woman," was a frequent visitor at his house, living only five miles distant at Gar- deau. His Indian name was Sa-nem-ge-wa, or "Big Kettle," meaning in our language generous. From his long residence among the Indians he became much attached to them, and they to him. He never deceived or cheated them in all his dealings with them ; the re- sult was he had their entire confidence, and never lost it. In after years when the Indians had by treaty given up their lands about Mount Morris and moved to the Indian reservation near Buffalo, when passing backward and forward through the country, as they frequently did, they always made it a point to stay over night with Sa-nem-ge-wa. Even to this day, among the older Indians on the reservation west of Buffalo, the name of Sa-nem-ge-wa is still familiar, but they have lost the tradition and only know that it relates to some great and good white man, the In- dian's friend, who has long since gone to the happy hunting grounds and is there waiting for them to come. The only white man at Mt. Morris when Gen- eral Mills located there was Clark Cleveland, a mason by trade, intemperate and dissolute in his habits.
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Indian Allan had been there, but at this time was liv- ing with the Indians west of the Genesee river at Beardstown. General Mills built the first house erected by a white man in the village. It stood near- ly opposite the residence of the late Daniel A. Miller on Stanley street. It was a block house, made by flatting sticks of timber on both sides for the walls, the roof being made of staves or long shingles split
from oak logs .* General Mills was married March 30th, 1803, to Miss Susanah H. Harris, at her father's house at Tioga Point, Pa. Miss Harris came to Mt. Morris in 1802, all the way on horseback from her home, to visit her brother and his family who had located there. While there she became acquainted with young Mills, who soon followed her home and they were married. She was a most excellent christian woman, and was highly esteemed by all who knew her not only for her social qualities but for her kind- ness of heart and liberality to the poor and needy. She died in April, 1840. Previous to his marriage General Mills had constructed a substantial log house on the high elevation of ground overlooking the flats, in which he reared a large family and there resided until the fall of 1838, when he moved into his elegant brick mansion which he had just completed, and which is now the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Dr. Branch. He continued cultivating the land on the flats in common with his Indian neighbors, raising grain and stock, and also added to it the distilling business until the lands came into market, which was fourteen years from the time he first settled in Mt. Morris. During this time many of the settlers who came and located there, finding the fever and ague
* Gen. Mills sold this house before occupying it as was his intention, to a settler by the name of Baldwin, but soon bought it back again.
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prevalent, from which all suffered more or less in that locality, were discouraged and moved away to other sections of the country, but the subject of this sketch, not daunted, and with a resolution and fixedness of purpose which knew no defeat, remained with the firm determination to become the owner some day of at least a portion of the rich alluvial bottom lands which he had so long cultivated. His first purchase was twenty acres on the flats, for which he paid fifty dollars in silver per acre. This was the lowest priced land he ever bought on the Genesee flats, although the general received opinion always has been that he got his lands for little or nothing. They were reserved lands and always considered valuable, and when brought into market, sold for the extraordinary high price above stated. In his later purchases he paid as high as $80 per acre. At the same time the uplands could be bought for from ten to fifteen dollars an acre. General Mills was at the time of his death a large land holder, owning about eight hundred acres of the most choice land in the Genesee Valley. Considering the fact that he commenced without capital, paid such prices, and made his money substantially from the soil to pay for them, shows a degree of success, seldom if ever equaled in any new country . He was the first Justice of the Peace, and Supervisor of the town of Mt. Morris for twenty years in succession. He was prominently connected with all the measures of public utility which effected this section, and especially his locality, from the time he settled in Mt. Morris in 1794 to the time of his death in 1844. He was one of the commissioners to petition the Legislature to authorize the construction of a dam across the Genesee river at Mt. Morris and to excavate a canal or race from the river to the vil- lage, a distance of a mile. This enterprise secured to
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the village of Mt. Morris a good water-power, which materially aided the growth and prosperity of the place, and is to-day of great value to the village .* Previous to this the nearest grist-mill was twenty miles distant, at which place the grinding for his dis- tillery was done. General Mills organized the first militia company in Livingston county, and was elected Captain. In the war of 1812 he went to the frontier, where he remained until the war closed, rendering his country valuable service. Report reached Mt. Morris that he was killed on the frontier. Some of his neigh- bors got together and called on Mrs. Mills to sympa- thize with her, and also to inform her they had agreed to start the next morning for the frontier, in pursuit of his dead body. Adam Hostlander, John Eagle, Mr. Stanley, Lewis Baldwin and Arzel Powell were foremost in this pursuit.
During that night General Mills reached his home, to the great surprise of his family and neighbors. He soon after fell sick with the Genesee or spotted fever brought on by fatigue and hardship on the frontier, from which he barely survived, after six weeks con- finement to his bed. He was always ready to assist the poor and needy and never turned such away empty-handed or disappointed. He was the standing "aid " for all the early settlers in the town of Mt. Morris who bought land and moved on to it, and could
* My informant assures me he well remembers the morning this work was commenced and the first shovel-full of earth cast. The village people and laborers, amounting perhaps to 100 persons, assembled at the foot of the hill, on the line of the work just north of the present wagon-road bridge across the race, as you go north to the Genesee river. It was here the first ground was broken. The men were all drawn up in line, appropriate re- marks were made by Deacon Stanley and General Mills, the latter excavating the first shovel-full of earth, Deacon Stanley tho next, after which wine and liquor was drank, and the work of furnishing Mt. Morris with water-power thus inaugurated.
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not pay for it. He never allowed one such to lose his land. He was on those early settlers' paper to the average amount of $12,000 for nearly twenty years. He never lost but $250 in consequence. In no in- stance can it be said of him that he ever charged any- thing for his services, and the responsibility incurred in their behalf, or that he would allow them to pay him anything for these valuable services, extending through many years. The result was that there was scarcely a farmer in town but that sooner or later be- came under obligations to General Mills. In the sum- mer of 1816, the crops in Allegany County were almost entirely destroyed by frost especially on the Short Tract, and at Caneadea. In the winter follow- ing there was a famine in these neighborhoods. Teams and sleighs were sent down to Mt. Morris for wheat and corn. The settlers who came down brought no money to pay for their supplies for the best reason in the world, they had none nor could raise none in their neighborhood to bring. They called on General Mills and laid their case be- fore him, and the condition of their people at home, and said if he would let them have what they wanted he should some day be paid amply therefor. Though strangers to him he listened to their tale of suffering, and literally filled their sleighs with corn and other grain and pork, and sent them home rejoicing. The following summer in harvest time, fourteen of the residents of Caneadea and Short Tract came to Mt. Morris and worked for him, thus paying him in full for his generous act in providing food for their starving people the winter previous. His military career was quite as successful as his financial. As before stated, he organized the first militia company in what is now Livingston county, and from this small beginning rose to the rank of Major-General of the militia of the
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State. The district which he had command of was large, embracing Allegany, Genesee, Livingston, Wyoming, Monroe, Ontario and Steuben counties. He used to hold his fall meetings and parades at the prin- cipal villages in the different counties, and some of the leading men of Western New York were at times on his staff. On these occasions Gen. Mills always rode a stylish bred bay horse, which he purchased of Major Carroll for one hundred and ten dollars in sil- ver, which at that time was considered a great price .*
General Mills lived in Mt. Morris half a century ; his death occurring April 6th, 1844. His age was 67. He died suddenly after dinner, from disease of the heart, while taking his customary nap. His family consisted at his death of nine children. He was a man of many virtues, retaining the love and confi- dence of a great circle of acquaintances down to the close of a long and useful life. His youngest son, Dr. Myron H. Mills, served in the Mexican war on the staff of a distinguished officer of the army, and at the close of the war Secretary Marcy personally tendered him an appointment in the regular service as a mark of his appreciation of the Doctor's professional ser- vice. Dr. Mills has been a successful contractor on the public works, and after acquiring a competency has settled on the family domain near his birth-place, a spot endeared by many associations.
Deacon Jesse Stanley came here about the year 1809, from Goshen, Connecticut. He was a sterling man, of unwearied industry, and unusual buoyancy of spirits.
* This horse was General Scott's saddle horse which he rode on the fron- tier in the War of 1812, and was ever afterward known as the "Scott horse" by all the early residents of the town of Mt. Morris and Livingston county.
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He died in June, 1845, aged eighty-seven years. His sons Oliver and Lumen accompanied him here. The former died in October, 1851, aged seventy-four, the latter in October, 1839, aged sixty years. He was truly one of the pioneers of Mount Morris.
NORTH DANSVILLE.
Area, 5,349 acres ; population in 1875, 4,084 ; boundaries : on the north by Sparta ; east by Way- land ; south by Dansville (Steuben county) ; west by West Sparta and Ossian.
North Dansville was formed from Sparta on the 27th of February, 1846. Three years later an addi- tional portion of Sparta was transferred to its territory, making it about three miles square, but still leaving it one of the smallest, if not the very smallest, of the towns in the State. It has, however, the largest pop- ulation of any town in the county. The surface of the town consists mainly of the fine flats which lie between East and West hills, the summits of which rise to the height of six or eight hundred feet. The soil upon the slopes is a clayey and gravelly loam, well suited to the culture of grapes and other fruits. The deep sandy alluvium of the bottoms is peculiarly fitted for horticultural purposes, and for nursery gar- dening, to which uses it is largely devoted.
Canaseraga creek, which rises a few miles to the southward, flows through the northwestern portion of the town, and presents a succession of cascades with- in the distance of a couple of miles, affording "power enough," says a local authority, "to drive all the
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mills of Lowell, and so permanent in its supply as to be little affected by the dryest weather." Across the southern end of the town runs Mill creek, a consider- able stream, on which are situated a number of mills. The village of Dansville, the largest in the county, was incorporated on the 7th of May, 1845. Its name was derived from Daniel P. Faulkner, an early set- tler, popularly known as "Captain Dan," hence Dansville or village. It lies near the head of Canase- raga creek, and the head of the valley. The branch, or southerly stem of the Genesee Valley Canal, ter- minates here. The construction of a slip immediately above lock number eight, with a basin located near the centre of the village, were the subject of animated local discussion, leading almost to bloodshed, but were completed at a cost of about six thousand dol- lars to the citizens of Dansville. Although fairly en- titled to the name, Dansville has not been suffered to possess it without a sharp struggle. More than two score years ago the name of Dansville, as applied to the post-office, was for months the subject of a heated contest between neighboring villages in Livingston and Steuben counties. In 1824 the representative in Congress from the Steuben district, on the petition of the inhabitants of the village of South Dansville, in the latter county, had the name of the Dansville post- office changed to South Sparta, and transferred the former designation to South Dansville post-office. The result was that many important business letters in- tended for patrons of the old office found their way to the Steuben office under its new name. Finally, all who had letters that had gone to South Dansville, each separately wrote a letter to the Post-Master Gen- eral, and requested him to change the name of the office back to Dansville, and the one in Steuben county back to South Dansville, which he did, and this post-
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