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 50
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663
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
William Scott, upon whose recollections large drafts have been made in this work, and who is yet living, a hale, hearty old man, commenced his business life as a wool-carder and cloth-dresser. He says : "In Au- gust, 1807, Samuel Culbertson came to my father's to get a boy for a fortnight to assist in his carding shop at Dansville, and it was concluded that I should go and remain with him through the carding season. I, however, stayed with him through that year and the two following ones, and felt competent at the end of that time to take charge myself of a wool-carding and cloth-dressing shop."
In May, 1810, Mr. Scott hired out to Ichabod A. Holden and Russell Gilbert, who had a carding and cloth-dressing establishment two miles north of Hem- lock lake, at a place now called Jacksonville. His wages were $18 per month. "In the fall I hired to a man of the name of Plumb, at Norton's Mills, now Mendon, at $18 per month. Elder Weeks owned the works. After cloth-dressing was over at that place I returned to Holden & Gilbert's in Livonia and worked . for them until the first of April. I had agreed with Mr. Laflesh to purchase a carding machine and set up the business in Dansville, in company with him, he being a carder as well as cabinet-maker. So I agreed with William Brisband of East Bloomfield to furnish one for $400, one-fourth to be paid down and the re- mainder in three equal annual instalments. When the time came for setting up the machine, Laflesh could not pay his part of the first payment, which put me to much embarrassment, it being my first effort to set up business for myself." Mr. Scott saw Colonel Nathan- iel Rochester, as is stated in the sketch of Dansville, and formed a partnership, which helped him out of his difficulty.
Afterward Mr. Scott was foreman in the wool-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
carding and cloth-dressing establishment which Ben- jamin Hungerford started in what is now the town of West Sparta in 1814, where he remained for some time. "I engaged with Judge Hurlburt, of Arkport, to take charge of his carding and cloth-dressing works through the season, at $35 per month. The following year I took the works on shares. I doubt not the good influence surrounding me during the two years I resided in the Judge's family had a favor- able influence over me during my subsequent life. The Judge had settled in Arkport in 1795."
"Having settled up my business at Arkport I re- turned to Sparta, making up my mind to settle there for life, in the spring of 1819. I commenced building a house at Collartown, or Scottsburgh, which I com- pleted in the autumn of the same year. That house is now owned and occupied as a hotel by Captain Dar- ling Havens,* a worthy representative of a family of hotel-keepers, who, for three quarters of a century have made the name a favorite one with the travelling public." .
Mr. Scott was married Feb. 9th, 1820, to Phebe Woodruff, daughter of Isaac Woodruff of Livonia. In the spring of 1821 he opened the public house at Scottsburgh, and continued in that business until the completion of his new house in 1826. The following year he sold the tavern stand to Dr. E. Wright, and moved to his new residence. He was elected a Jus- tice of the Peace in 1835, and filled the office for twelve consecutive years. The little stone building in which he held court was often the scene of sharp en- counters between members of the bar. Mr. Harwood, of Dansville, and Philip Woodruff, of Scottsburgh, were often pitted against each other. Harwood was
" He has since died.
1
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
always plausible with witnesses and skillful in pre- senting the strongest points of his case, and so court- eous that he usually had some advantage over his opponent. Woodruff was much more thoroughly versed in the law, was a man of keen discernment, and possessed a high sense of honor. He was very successful in his practice and always true to his clients and friends.
In 1836 Mr. Scott was elected to the Assembly and was re-elected the following year. In 1847 he was elected Sessions Justice, under the new constitution, occupying the bench with Judge Lord, County Judge, and John H. Jones of Leicester, associate Sessions Justice. In 1856, Mrs. Scott died, "a bereavement that fell like a blight upon my pathway," says Mr. Scott, who, in a retrospective letter, written after hav- ing passed man's allotted time-three score years and ten-says : "Many a heartfelt enjoyment has been shared by me in former days with near and dear friends. And, calmly turning from the Past, with its teeming memories, to the Future, with all its tran- scendent interests, with that eye of Faith which sees more and more clearly as life advances, I may be per- mitted to say that I derive assured consolation for anything that may be denied here by bereavements, in the hope of a perpetual re-union of friends in a happy Immortality."
In the fall of 1813 Mr. Scott went on horseback from Sparta, by way of Dansville, Painted Post and New- town to Meansville, now Towanda, Pa., to order mill- stones for the first grist-mill built in Scottsburgh. The stone was quarried in the mountain above. He ordered the stones, for which he paid $60, and the fol- lowing winter a team was sent for them, the transpor- tation charges amounting to $80. Mr. Scott thinks the " runner" of these two stones is now in Zehner's mill.
666
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
About the middle of June, 1813, it commenced rain- ing and continued for three or four days, when just at evening, on the 19th of that month, the rain began to fall in torrents, increasing in volume until the flood threatened to wash away every structure on the mountain streams of Sparta. Benjamin Hungerford, of West Sparta Hill, had but just completed a new saw-mill on Duncan's creek, and placed a new set of machinery in the old carding shop, when the storm came and swept machines, structures and all away. Colonel Rochester's saw-mill dam on the East Dans- ville creek, which supplied water for himself and for Scott's carding mill, was also carried out. But the most notable loss was that of William D. McNair's grist-mill, which stood on Stony Brook, a few rods east of the highway leading from Dansville to Haven's tavern. The building was strongly built of stone on a solid foundation, and so confident was the proprie- tor of its security, even on such a night, that becom- ing alarmed, as the storm increased, for the safety of the log house in which he was living, he moved his household effects into the mill, and his family to the miller's house. Scarcely had they reached the latter place than a loud crash announced the total destruc- tion of the stone mill, with all its machinery and stores of grain and goods.
Seldom has such a storm been witnessed in this . country, and the popular notion was that a cloud had " burst." The flood washed mill-stones many rods from their place, and buried them so deeply in the sand and gravel that only after the washings of lesser floods for many years afterwards, were they discov- ered. It may be stated, as a curious fact, that the log house above alluded to survived the storm and still stands.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
SPRINGWATER.
Area : 32,562 acres ; population in 1875, 2,129. Boundaries : north by Conesus and Canadice (Ontario Co.); east by Naples, (Ontario Co.); south by Way- land and Cohocton, (Steuben Co.); west by Sparta.
Springwater is the largest town, and forms the south-eastern corner of the county, its eastern half extending six miles beyond the general eastern line of Livingston. It was erected on the 17th of April, 1816, and was formed from Sparta and Naples, both towns then belonging to Ontario County. Its name was de- rived from the abundance and excellence of the springs which everywhere break out along the bottom of the hilly grounds, and was chosen at a meeting of the inhabitants called to petition for its erection. Other names were suggested but Seth Knowles said that none were so suitable and expressive as that they selected. The soil of the town is a sandy and gravelly loam, plentifully interspersed here and there with clay. Its surface is somewhat broken, and is more hilly than any other town in the eastern half of the county, and both from soil and topography, it is bet- ter suited for grazing purposes than for grain. The inlet of Hemlock lake, which flows northward through the western portion of the town, is the principal stream. Cohocton river has its source in the north. eastern part of the town, and passes thence south- ward into Steuben county. The Pultney estate em- braced a portion of Springwater, and several sharply litigated snits have grown out of the peculiar charac- ter of the title to that property in the town.
On an elevated hill, not far from the head of the lake, were found many years ago remains of the Fort- builders, over whose history yet broods so much of uncertainty, showing that the locality whose natural
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
beauty has so much in it to attract, was known to, and appreciated by the aboriginal races ages ago. The first settler in Springwater Valley, then calied Hem- lock Valley, was Seth Knowles, a native of Connecti- cut, who settled on lot 18, in 1807. His house, a small log tenement, stood a mile above the lake on the east side of the valley. The spot is not far from John Jennings' dwelling house. The next settler was Sam- uel Hines, * who located here in 1808. He built a saw mill the following year, three miles above the lake, which subsequently became the property of Farnum and Tyler. Hugh Wilson, who came from Northum- berland, Pa., built the pioneer grist-mill in 1813, at the foot of the hill where the road from Scottsburg enters the valley. It occupied nearly the present site of Charles Brewer's mill. It was a frame building, about twenty-two by thirty, two stories high, and had two run of stones. Elder John Wiley, who settled in Springwater on the 14th of March, 1815, found thirty families in the town. He crossed Hemlock lake on the ice, returning. from the war then just closed, and on reaching the western side, learned that peace between England and America had been declared. The for- rests, he says, were yet in a state of nature, with only here and there a small patch of clearing. The hamlet of Springwater then contained one frame dwelling house, built by Samuel Story on the premises subse- quently owned by Harvey S. Tyler, a frame barn built by Mr. Watkins, of Naples, and now owned by heirs of Edward Withington, and a little frame "seven by nine " store, erected by Hosea H. Grover, who kept the first store, built the first ashery, and made the first barrel of potash. There were also
* Another account claims Phineas Gilbert as the second settler. It is said that he removed to Springwater in 1806, and settled on the lot afterward owned by Dr. John B. Norton, about 100 rods north of Gilbert's house.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
three frame saw-mills and a frame grist-mill, besides four or five log houses. There was then but one school house in the town, a "small log structure " said Mr. Wiley, "which stood in my dooryard and which in after years I tore down." "Grover," he says, " ex- changed goods for shingles, boards, maple-sugar and black salts or potash, articles then reckoned as lawful currency for we had no other medium. The war had left us without money. Shingles rated at twenty shillings, and boards at seven dollars per thousand, while common shirting was worth half a dollar a yard, plug and pig-tail tobacco from fifty to sixty cents & pound, and salt five dollars a barrel, and very hard to get even at that. We were shut up in this then re- mote region. Horses weres carce enough. I think there were but three in town. Mr. Goodrich of East Hill told me he supplied his large family with pota- toes all one season by bringing a bushel and a half at a time from Richmond, a dozen miles away, on his back, and Sylvester Capron said that for the first year he carried the flour of a bushel and a half of wheat on his back from Reed's Mill, in Richmond, a like distance. Harvey S. Tyler, then about eighteen years of age, was the first school teacher I knew, though I believe that Jas. Blake had kept a school the previous winter in the log school house. David Henry, who some years afterwards removed to Michigan, was the first physician that settled in Springwater. On reach ing the Valley I found Elder John Cole, a Baptist minister, there. He was the first clergyman who set- tled in the town. Of the Methodist Society, Phineas Gilbert, a native of Massachusetts, who located in Springwater in 1810, was the class leader when I reached there. The society then consisted of half a dozen persons. The Methodist circuit then embraced Bloomfield and Springwater, or Hemlock Valley as
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
our place was then called, and was supplied by the Rev. Elisha House, a man of superior parts, assisted by James S. Lent, a son-in-law of Lemuel Jennings, of Geneseo. The first quarterly meeting ever held in the town was under charge of Abner Chase, Presiding Elder of Ontario district, in 1820 or 21, in the barn of Jonathan Lawrence, who was then the class leader. The barn stood on the premises now owned by Addi- son Marvin. The society met at private houses until the school house accommodated it better. There was no Presbyterian society, nor any member of that church in the town when I reached there. In a year or so, Mrs. Lucy Chamberlain, my grandmother, who had been a member of the Presbyterian church at Dalton, Mass., for fifty-one years, came here to reside with her daughter, Mrs. Lawrence, wife of Jonathan Lawrence. The old lady took a letter from the Rev. Mr. Jennings, of Dalton, on leaving there, but told him she had learned that there was no Presbyterian congregation at Springwater, and that she would unite with the Methodists, which she did. The Rev. Mr. Bell, a Presbyterian Missionary, preached a ser- mon in the house of Dr. David Henry in 1816, the first sermon preached by a Presbyterian minister in the town I think.
The first distillery in the town was built by Alvah Southworth, on premises then owned by Jonathan Lawrence. It was a frame building, about twenty by thirty feet. About twenty gallons a day was distilled from rye and corn, thus making a home market for these grains. The spirit was sold at the still, and car- ried away by farmers in jugs and bottles, and occa- sionally in kegs.
" The first wool-carding and cloth-dressing establish- ment was erected by Edward Walker in 1821, on prem- ises now owned by William Brewer. It was a frame
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
building, about twenty-two by thirty, two stories high, the cloth-dressing part below and the carding above. The new settlement was generally blessed with good health, but in the winter of 1813-14, as I was told, the epidemic, or cold 'plague,' visited the valley. One of the earliest settlers named Farnam, and his wife, both died, and were both buried in one grave. An incident of the winter of 1816 cast a shadow over our new settlement. A Mr. Goodrich, a shingle maker, living on West Hill, on the farm now owned by Nehe- miah Osborn, had been busy shaving shingles all the morning, and in the afternoon both he and his wife had been called away to a neighbor's, leaving the two children, aged two and five years, alone at home. By some means the shavings took fire, and when the parents started back they saw their house a mass of flames. Of course assistance, even if it could have been had, was then useless, and both children were burned to a crisp, and the house and contents com- pletely destroyed. The year I came to Springwater, 1815, I presume there was not more than one hundred, certainly not to exceed two hundred bushels of winter wheat raised in the town. In three years the annual production was increased ten fold. In 1816 I paid for one bushel of wheat at Hugh Wilson's mill, to Joseph Cady, the sum of three dollars, then a common price scarce as money was, and it was very scarce. I was then boarding with 'Squire Southworth. I went down to breakfast one morning, and was informed that there was no wheat bread nor any wheat flour in the house. I sent my brother with a horse to Pitts' mill, Rich- mond, a distance of twelve miles, where he procured two bushels of wheat as a favor. He rode a horse. I was present at the first town meeting. Politics entered little into the contest for the office of supervisor, we looked alone to the qualifications of the candidates.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
There was Oliver Jennings on one side, and Samuel Story on the other. Jennings was declared elected by a majority of one. The friends of Story, because of some alleged informality, claimed the election for their man. They went to Canandaigua, got the first elec- tion set aside and a new one ordered. We tried it over again, and Jennings was elected the second time by one majority. John Culver, appointed by the Gov- ernor, was the first justice of the peace in town. After enduring the inconvenience of being without a post-office as long as possible we at last succeeded in getting a mail and post-office. Alvah Southworth was the first Post-Master. On the arrival of the first mail, so great was the satisfaction of all that the farmers and everybody came down to the village to satisfy themselves that there was no delusion about it."
The few Presbyterian families among the first set- tlers were occasionally visited by a minister of that denomination. It was not, however, until fourteen years after the settlement of the town, that a church was formed. It consisted of twelve members, and was formed on the 10th of February, 1821. The Rev. Lyman Barrett, of Naples, preached the first sermon, and continued to supply the pulpit occasionally for the next five years. After him the Rev. James Cahoun performed similar service for about three years. The Rev. Seymour Thompson was stated sup- ply for nearly three years. The Rev. Daniel B. Woods was ordained and installed pastor Sept. 19th, 1839, and was dismissed from his pastoral charge August 25th, 1841. The Rev. William Hunter snc- ceeded Mr. Woods in October of the same year, and was ordained and installed Sept. 25th, 1844. He still retains his relation to the church. The house of wor- ship was dedicated December 31, 1840.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
WEST SPARTA.
Area, 19,820 acres; population in 1875, 1,208. Boundaries : on the north by Groveland ; east by Sparta ; south by Ossian ; west by Mount Morris.
West Sparta was formed on the division of the old town of Sparta, Feb. 27th, 1846. Its surface is quite hilly, and some of the highest summits are 500 to 700 feet above the valleys. The soil is a clay loam in the northern part, and a sandy loam in the southern por- tion of the town. Canaseraga creek flows along the eastern border, and Butler Brook, a small stream, in the southern part, in which is a perpendicular fall of about 60 feet. In the northeastern part of the town is a large marsh known as Canaseraga swamp.
The town contains no large village, but has four small hamlets, Kysorville, Union Corners, Beyersville and Woodville. There are four churches in the town Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, Baptist and Chris- tian. The first church organization was the Baptist.
Settlement was commenced in the south part of the town in 1795 by Jeremiah Gregory. Other early set- tlers were William Stevens, who came in 1796, Abel Wilsey in 1797, Benjamin Wilcox in 1798, and Sam- uel McNair in 1804.
Ebenezer McMaster opened the first tavern kept in the town in 1820, at Kysorville. Three years later the first store was started by Jonathan Russell at Union Corners. Samuel Stoner built the first grist- mill in 1823.
In 1814 Benjamin Hungerford established the first wool-carding and cloth-dressing mill in West Sparta. Mr. Hungerford had removed to Sparta from Cayuga county. Returning homeward in the fall of 1814 from his usual fall visit to the east for the purchase of dye- stuffs, he called upon an old neighbor, Nathaniel Fill-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
more, a small farmer living near Skaneateles lake. While there he expressed a wish that Mr. Fillmore's son, Millard Fillmore, * then a lad of fourteen, should return to Sparta with him, and learn the cloth-dress- ing trade. The war then in progress had stirred the patriotism of the youth of the country, as well as those of maturer years, and young Fillmore had been urgent to go as a substitute for some drafted man. Quite likely with a view to directing his son's atten- tion from a project so unsuitable in one so young, the father had inspired Mr. Hungerford to make the re- quest. At all events the proposition was received so favorably that the son was constrained to assent. This required some resolution, as he had never before been out of sight of home. The distance was a hundred weary miles through woods and new settlements. Mr. Hungerford had a poor team and a large load, and the road was much of the way very bad. Asa conse- quence young Fillmore walked a greater part of the journey, suffering not a little from sore feet and stiff- ened limbs. As he neared his new home nothing struck him with so much surprise as the contrast be- tween the vegetation in Cayuga and the exhuberant vegetation of the Canaseraga valley. The change seemed extraordinary to him.
. "I met young Fillmore," says William Scott, "the morning after his arrival for the first, and at once took a liking to him. He was dressed in a suit of home- spun sheep's gray coat and trousers, wool hat and stout cowhide boots, but his appearance was very tidy. His light hair was long, his face was round and chubby, and his demeanor was that of a bright, intelligent, good-natured lad, quite sedate, rather
* Millard Fillmore was born in Locke, now Summer Hill, Cayuga county, in 1800.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
slow in his motions, with an air of thoughtfulness that gained my respect. I may safely say, for I have it from his own lips, that he then had no expectation of anything beyond the acquirement of a good trade and pursuing it through life." He came with the under- standing that he was to remain four months, and then, if both employed and employer were satisfied, further arrangements were to be made. Perhaps he expected too much here. At any rate the treatment he re- ceived was very galling to his feelings. His experi- ence during the few months he spent in Sparta im- planted "' 'a deep sympathy,' as he himself remarks, ' for the youngest apprentice in every establishment, ' even to the printer's devil.' "' Instead of being set to work at his trade, he was required to chop wood and to do all manner of chores, and on manifesting sur- prise, was met with the answer "that such was the usage of the trade." He bore it all until coming into the shop a little before dark one evening, after chop- ping in the woods, he was ordered by Mr. Hunger- ford to go up on the hill and cut some wood for the shop fire. As he quit the door he let drop the re- mark that "he had not come there expecting to give his time to such work." He went up the hill, mounted a log and began chopping. In a few minutes Mr. Hungerford appeared, his face flushed and manner excited. As he came up he said, "Do you think yourself abused because you have to chop wood ?' " Yes, I do," was the reply, 'for I could learn to use the axe at home. I came here to learn a trade. I am not satisfied and don't think my father will be." He was angry, and perhaps was not quite respectful in his language. At all events, he was charged with impudence and threatened with chastisement. Upon this he raised his axe and told Mr. Hungerford if he attempted to punish him he would knock him down.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
The latter stood a moment, then turned and walked off. This brought matters to a crisis, so the next day he was asked if he wished to go home. He replied : "I came on trial for four months, and if I can be em- ployed in learning the trade I am willing to stay. If not I wish to go home." He remained, and from that time the duties assigned him were made more satis- factory. The fare provided by the household was somewhat simpler in character than either young Fillmore or the other hands had been accustomed to, but having resolved to stay his full time of four months, unless driven off by ill-usage, he made small complaint on that score.
Mr. Fillmore says, "I met here in the person of the foreman, William Scott, a man who seemed born for another destiny. In him I found a friend and also a congenial companion, so far as such a boy could be a companion of a man ten years his senior. I then formed for him a friendship which I still cherish with grateful recollections. His was the only society I en- joyed. I scarcely visited a neighbor, indeed only one or two were near enough to be accessible to me. I neither saw book or newspaper to my recollection. I attended no church, and think there was none in that vicinity then."
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