USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 21
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Postal facilities, as yet, were meagre indeed. Twice a month a mail was carried on horseback between Albany and Whitestown. In July, 1792, "several patriotic gentlemen of the Genesee country established a post to meet the one from Albany at Whitestown, which once a month will pass through Geneva, Can- andaigua and Canawaugus to Williamsburgh on the Genesee river."* In September of that year, the
* Albany Gazette, July 9, 1792. The proprietor of the Gazette took charge of packages intended for the Genesee country free of expense.
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Postmaster General, Timothy Pickering, advertised for proposals for the extension of the post road from Canajoharie to Whitestown and thence to Canandai- gua.
Eastern newspapers, as early as 1792, contained advertisements of Genesee lands. Captain William- son, in August of that year, published an answer "to numerous applications for farms." He says," "to those who wish to make actual settlements on his lands, that he has surveyors employed in laying off some hundred thousand acres which will be ready to be viewed by the 10th of September. It will be neces- sary for persons to receive instructions from Mr. Williamson at Williamsburgh. The price fixed on the land is one dollar per acre."
In the fall of 1792, William McCartney bought a farm of 320 acres in the southerly part of what is now the town of Sparta, near the Steuben county line, and was the first white settler in that region. Indeed, for more than a year there was not a white man within ten miles of him. Mr. McCartney was born in Bar- locks, Dumfrieshire, Scotland, on the 2d of April, 1770. He came to America in the year 1791, in com- pany with Andrew Smith, the latter settling at Bath, while the former, as stated, settled in Sparta. With little or no assistance he set to work to clear his purchase of the dense growth of oak, walnut and underwood with which he found it covered, and was the first to raise a crop of grain at the head waters of the Canaseraga. In the summer of 1796 he married a sister of James McCurdy, who resided within the limits of the present village of Dansville. Mr. Mc-
* Albany Gazette, Aug. 16, 1792. James Abeel, in the Gazette of Aug. 20, advertises " 13,000 acres of most excellent land in Phelps and Gorham's purchase in the Geneere country."
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Cartney was mild and frank yet firm, in his dealings with his fellow men, and the pioneers speak of him as a man of strong good sense, and qualified not only to manage his own interests with wisdom but to administer in public affairs with great success ; and the local records show that, continuously, for more than a third of a century, he was called by the almost unanimous voice of his neighbors and towns- men to hold office. In 1796 he was made a commis- sioner of public roads, and directed the laying out and establishing of the highways of Sparta. This burthensome position he held for a number of years, as well as that of town clerk and commissioner of . schools down to 1806, when he was made supervisor, to which office he was re-elected for twelve successive years. In 1817 he was sent to the Assembly, to which body he was re-elected the following year. In 1819 he was again made supervisor and held the office con- tinuously until his death which occurred in 1831 .* The same sterling business qualities that enabled him to lay the foundation of a competency, he carried into the discharge of his official duties, and in the board of supervisors, where he so long held a seat, composed of such men as Colonel Fitzhugh and General William Wadsworth, Mr. McCartney was notably one of the leading men.
In 1793 Thomas Morris and Oliver Phelps each built a small frame house at Canandaigua, and, when completed, these were the only two frame houses west of Whitestown in the present county of Oneida.
By January, 1793, letters and newspapers were con- reyed by stated private posts, though at infrequent intervals, through all the Genesee settlements and as far west as Canandaigua. Writing to his father on
* He died on the 9th of Feb., 1831, and was buried in the cemetery near the South Sparta meeting house.
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the 4th of February, 1793, Thomas Morris says, "our post goes (east) once a fortnight," and speaks of the great mildness of the passing winter and of the influx of settlers. In May of that year Moses Beal com- menced running a weekly stage from Albany through Schenectady to Johnstown and Canajoharie, "at three cents a mile for passengers and fourteen pounds of baggage gratis." And the same month a stage was established between Canajoharie and Whitestown to connect with Beal's stage. This essentially increased the postal facilities of the pioneers of the Genesee.
The institutions of society came slowly. Up to the month of June, 1793, owing to neglect to appoint judges, no courts had ever been held in Ontario county, . then embracing the country west of Seneca lake, although the county had been organized upward of four years. The first Circuit Court and court of Oyer and Terminer was held at "Patterson's Tavern,' in Geneva, on the 9th of June, 1793, the presiding judge being John Sloss Hobart, one of the three judges appointed in 1777, on the organization of the judiciary. A grand jury was empanneled and charged, but no indictments were found. The first court of Common Pleas and General Sessions was held at the house of Nathaniel Sanborn in Canandaigua on the 4th of No- vember, 1794. The presiding judge was Timothy Hosmer, with Charles Williamson and Enos Boughton as associates. At this term, James Wadsworth, Thomas Morris, John Wickham and Vincent Mat- thews appeared as attorneys.
In the autumn of 1793 the Marquis de Talleyrand, the famous French statesman, was piloted through the wilds of the Genesee by Benjamin Patterson, who, until recently, resided in Steuben county. The Mar- quis was then an exile and had leisure to inspect the natural features of this valley. Standing on the bluff
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near the dam at Mt. Morris, he said, after admiring for an hour the scenery spread out before him to the eastward, " It is the fairest landscape that the human eye ever looked upon."
The Albany Gazette of the 15th of July, 1793, con- tains this advertisement : " Williamsburgh Fair and Genesee Races. There will be held at Williamsburgh, at the great Forks of the Genesee river, an annual fair for the sale and purchase of cattle, horses and sheep, to commence on Monday, the 23d of September and continue on Tuesday. It is expected at this fair that a number of fat bullocks and working oxen of the best New England breeds, with which the country is well supplied, will be shown. As the situation of Wil- liamsburgh lays convenient for the Niagara market, it is also expected that both horses and young cattle will meet with ready sale at high prices, the demand from Upper Canada being considerable. On Wednesday there will be run for over the race-ground a purse of fifty pounds, and also a subscription purse. On Thurs- day there will be a run for the sweepstakes, and races for small prizes. On Friday there will be shooting matches and foot-races. As this meeting will be held in the centre of a country abounding in provisions, strangers will find no difficulty in providing themselves and horses, and pains will be taken to afford them every possible accommodation. Particular conve- nience will be made for such horses as are brought to compete for the different prizes. The horses must be regularly entered and carry weight according to the established rules at the races in the Low Countries."
The following year, (1794) fourteen horses were entered for the fifty pound purse, and cattle were driven from all the adjacent country to the show. The fair and races continued for several years to be highly successful, while the sales of stock were quite large.
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The exhibitions were held on the flats lying between the present highway and the Canaseraga creek, west of the residence of the late Colonel Abell.
In 1793 the small-pox, a disease of which the Indians had justly a great dread, broke out among the Senecas on the Genesee. The Indian agent at Canandaigua, General Chapin, employed male nurses to go to Little Beardstown and other villages and take general charge of the sick. The papers of the agency contain the account of "Solomon Jennings for thirty-nine days nursing the Indians with the small-pox at Genesee river, seven pounds, sixteen shillings." The General Government employed and paid blacksmiths for the Indians, as well, and Chapin's papers contain the account of George Jones, rendered in November, 1793, for fifteen months' services as blacksmith for the Sen- ecas at Genesee river, tools and sundry supplies, one hundred and twelve pounds.
The new stage lines appear to have promoted postal facilities but little at first, for in February, 1794, the Albany Gazette, expressing regret at the deficiency. of mail communication between Albany and the Genesee river, says, "a respectable if not a major part of the letters and papers brought in the mail to the post- office in this city are destined further westward, but for want of regular conveyance are rendered useless from the length of time elapsing before they can reach the place of destination."* It appears that there was a sort of provisional post-office at Williamsburgh in 1793, for Timothy Pickering, writing to Gen. Chapin from Detroit in August, 1793, says, "The enclosed
* Timothy Pickering, Postmaster General, writes to Gen. Chapin, under date of June 3d, 1794, "The postroad is extended by law to Canandaigua
* The post will not be riding till September. * * I shall order the mail once in two weeks from Whitestown to Canandaigua."-See Chapin's MSS. papers, N. Y. Hist. Soc.
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letter I request you to forward to Philadelphia, either by forwarding it to the postoffice at Williamsburgh, or let it be carried by an Indian runner to the postoffice at Whitestown," and the same year the Secretary of War directs Gen. Chapin, "You should write me weekly by Captain Williamson's post."
In 1793 a plan was developed to divide this State, and erect the western half into a separate common- wealth. The crafty managers in the Livingston lease were doubtless at the bottom of this project. Failing to receive the approval of the legislature to their con- tract for the Indian lands, these men proposed, it would appear, to accomplish their design in this revolutionary manner. A variety of reasons, though not the real ones, were assigned for this step. James Wadsworth and other large land-owners were invited to take part in the movement. But it received no countenance from him nor from others in this region. The adjournment of the November term of the court of Common Pleas and General Sessions, of Ontario in 1794, was chosen as the occasion for a meeting to declare the popular opposition to the measure. The attendance was large. Timothy Hosmer, first judge of the county presided, and a series of resolutions were adopted setting forth that certain restless and turbulent characters from the eastern district of this State, evilly disposed towards the welfare of the coun- try, had for some time past endeavored to stir up sedition among its peaceable inhabitants and excite them to acts both treasonable and improper, in pro- posing that the counties of Ontario, Otsego, and a part of Tioga and Herkimer, should immediately shake off all dependence from the State of New York, and support their independence by force of arms if need be; that the passions of the dishonest and dis- orderly, the ambitious and timid, had been flattered
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to expect that laws would be passed by the proposed State for screening individuals from the payment of their just debts for six years; that all Indian lands and all public lands should become a prey to the rapacity of their hungry followers ; and have engaged to sustain their measure with armed troops, collected from Vermont and elsewhere. Referring to the threats of the revolutionists, the resolutions say, " We have nothing to fear from any banditti they can collect for forcing us into measures we heartily disap . prove," and that sensible of the many advantages they derive from their connection with one of the most respectable States in the Union, and desirous of con- tinuation of same, highly resent the ill-timed and improper attempt made by the characters above alluded to, to disturb their peace. The proposed State could not defray the necessary expenses of the most moderate State government, and it would be unjust to raise enormous taxes for such an object on uncultivated lands, and they recommended that the Geneva meeting, appointed to be held on the 25th of November, be not attended, as it was called by stran- gers to the county.
The meeting expected, after such a public declara- tion, that the State administration would take the most vigorous measures to suppress any attempt that might be made to destroy the peace and quiet of the county.
Judge Cooper, in his charge to the grand jury of Otsego county, referred to this meeting and endorsed its action. Other officials and other public meetings discountenanced it, and the project however formid- able at one time it appeared, seems never to have been revived.
The loss of the colonies was accepted with ill grace by the British authorities in America. The treaty of
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1783 had, indeed, ended the war, but a spirit of hos- tility remained, and under one pretext or another the forts at Oswego and Niagara and other military posts on the western lakes continued to be occupied by British garrisons ; and British officers affected to claim the territory of Western New York, the valleys of the western lakes and the region of the Mississippi, and every art was employed by them to keep alive the prejudices of the Indians and to incite them to un- friendly acts. The growth of the settlements along the Genesee was an especial cause of jealousy, both to the British and the Indians, though they did not ven- ture directly to interfere. But when, in 1794, Charles Williamson began a settlement at Sodus Bay, the authorities of Canada resolved to put a stop to it. Lord Dorchester, then Governor-General of Canada, held a talk with the Indians, in which he artfully sought to provoke them to a hostile course, and found them disposed to second his measures. An alliance was formed, it is said, and a concerted movement agreed upon, having for its object the repossession of Western New York. Presents were freely distributed, "the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs," says Col. Hosmer, "being profuse of costly presents to his fierce allies ; and broadcloths, blankets and silver ornaments were tauntingly exhibited to the white settlers of Avon and vicinity by the young braves of Canawaugus," who had received them of the Canadian authorities. There was good ground for believing, as .our government did, that the Ministry of Great Britain entertained the idea of making war upon us. As a first step the Deputy Governor, Simcoe, dispatched Lieut. Sheaffe* of the British army to Williamson
* Better known afterward as Major General Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe. He .commanded at the battle of Queenstown, after Brodie's death, and was other- wise conspicuous during the war of 1812.
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with a formal protest against the further prosecution of the settlement at Sodus Bay, and all other settle- ments in Western New York, during the inexecution of the treaty. Williamson happened to be at Bath at. the time, and Sheaffe informed his agent, a Mr. Moffat, of the nature of his mission, and stated that he would return in ten days. Williamson was sent for, and Thomas Morris met the British officer and conducted him to Williamson, who stood beside a table on which lay a brace of loaded pistols. The meeting was friendly and even cordial, for the two gentlemen had known each other years before, when both were in the English service. The protest was delivered and read, and Williamson desired the Lieutenant to inform his prin- cipal that no attention could be paid to the missive, but that the settlements there and elsewhere would be proceeded with all the same.
News of this proceeding on the part of the British authorities was not slow in spreading through the Genesee settlements. Its abrupt nature, and the morose and quarrelsome temper of the Indians who swarmed the forests, and had become "rude and saucy to the white settlers," says George Hosmer, "and would impudently enter their houses, take the pre- pared food from the tables, and commit other offences," and who were known as ready and willing allies of the authorities across the border, caused no little anxiety and alarm among the pioneers, who were des- titute of arms and ammunition, and were scattered over a large territory, remote from assistance. A few sold out their betterments at a loss, and returned to the East. But the insolence of the demand excited the spirit of the settlers, many of whom had but recently laid down their arms, and many were the offers of personal service to repel any attempt to take. Captain Williamson prisoner and send him in irons to
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England, as had been threatened. A letter written at this period expresses the feeling of the sturdy settlers. " We are prepared to give a cordial and warm recep- tion to our Canada friends, and shall not fail to persuade them to make six foot locations in the rich soil of the Great Sodus and along the Genesee should they come over with guns loaded and pointed."
The Lieutenant no sooner left than Captain William- son despatched an express rider to President Wash- ington, and another to Governor George Clinton, advising them of the peremptory character of Simcoe's order and of his own purpose to resist any attempt to interfere with the settlements. He requested that arms might be furnished and authority given to collect and organize the militia and volunteers. Governor Clinton was found at his home in Little Britain near New- burgh. The independence of the act stirred the stern old patriot and he lost no time in directing that the arms that had been assigned to the militia of the western frontier and the quota for Ontario county should be immediately forwarded ; "For," said he in his order, "the principle set up in Governor Simcoe's protest cannot for a moment be tolerated, and if any attempt should be made on the part of the British to carry it into execution, face must meet face. To this end, exert every means to keep the militia of your division in the most perfect readiness for actual service." A law had recently passed the legislature authorizing the erection of fortifications on the north- ern and western frontiers, and commissioners were selected to carry it into execution. They decided to establish block houses at Fort Stanwix, at Onondaga Salt Springs, Canandaigua, Canawaugus, and at Bath. The Albany Gazette of the 11th of September, 1794, says, "Several of the block-houses and pickets on the western frontier are already completed, and all of
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them are in great forwardness. Each will be furnished with a piece of cannon and all necessary ammunition, and seven hundred stand of arms for use of inhabit- ants of the frontier are on their way."
" While all this was progressing," says Turner, "in four days after the affair at Sodus, in fact, before Gov. Simcoe would have had time to execute his threats, the great measure of deliverance for the Genesee country and the few scattered border settlers of the west, had been consummated. 'Mad Anthony' *- (and there had been 'method in his madness,')-had met the confederated bands of the hostile Indians of the West, and almost under the walls of a fortress of their British allies, achieved a signal victory ! Those upon whom Gov. Simcoe was relying for aid, (for it is evident that he looked to a descent of the western Indians upon the Genesee country in case the war was renewed,)-were humbled and suing for peace. This alone would have averted his worst intentions, and added to this was the consideration that Mr. Jay had sailed for London on the 12th of May, clothed with ample power from our government to arrange all mat- ters of dispute."
"Those familiar with the history of our whole country in the earliest years of its separation from England, are aware how important was the well planned and successful expedition of General Wayne. Important in its immediate consequences-the putting an end to protracted, harassing Indian treaties, and the founding of that great empire of wealth, prosper- ity and unparalleled progress, our Western States. But few can now realize its local consequence, in the Genesee country. It gave security where there was little of it before, inspired hope and confidence with
* General Anthony Wayne, of Revolutionary fame.
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those who were half determined to retrace the weary steps that had brought them into the wilderness, for they felt that if war was to be added to all the suffer- ings and privations they were encountering, it were better to abandon the field, if not forever, to a period more propitious. The news of Wayne's victory was communicated by Brant to Gen. Chapin, and it circu- lated briskly among the backswoods settlements. Here and there was seen small gatherings of pioneer settlers, congratulating each other upon the event, and taking fresh courage to grapple with the hard- ships of pioneer life. All was confirmed, when in a few days, the Senecas were seen coming back, upon their war path, humbled, quaking with fear at the mere recollection of the terrible onslaught that Mad Anthony had made upon the dusky legions that had gathered to oppose him, and uttering imprecations against those who had lured them from home to take part in the contest and then remained far away from danger, or shut themselves up in a strong fortress, but spectators in a conflict in which they and their con- federates were falling like autumn leaves in a shower of hail."
Col. Hosmer says, "Tidings of Wayne's victory came like a reprieve after sentence of death, a sky- lark's call after a raven's croak." The Indians were thoroughly subdued, and chagrined by their terrible reverses and the bad faith of their Canadian allies, they determined to settle down quietly in their vil- lages, and renew their amicable relations with their white neighbors. The British, also, bound by the terms of the Jay treaty, ceased from troubling, and the Genesee settlements were finally permitted to pro- gress in peace.
Early in September, 1794, Daniel Kelly, John Jones and John Harrison, all of whom were afterward
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notable farmers of Groveland, and all became deacons in the same church, left their Pennsylvania home, on the north branch of the Susquehannah, for a visit to the Genesee country by way of the Williamson road, "which was without bridges over creeks, or crossways in bad places, the underbrush and logs being removed a rod wide," says Mr. Harrison. William Byans was also of the party. They had two horses between the four, riding and walking in couples by turns. The party on horseback would trot on far ahead, and hitching the horses beside the road, would start for- ward on foot, leaving their companions to come up and resume the saddle. A journey of eight days brought them to Williamsburgh, where, on the 13th of September, 1794, they pat up at William Lemon's tavern, a small frame house, and the first frame house built in the town of Groveland. Ryans was displeased with the country, and home-sick, and started back the following morning, taking with him one of the horses. The three others went to Geneseo to purchase lands of the Wadsworths, who were then laying the cellar wall of their homestead. James Wadsworth at once saw that they were good judges of farming lands, and advised them to look at some lots lying along the road leading to the foot of Conesas lake, describing the lands minutely'to them, and specifying particular parcels on either side of the highway. They at once took the path up the hill, over the route now traversed by South street, just as a cold, drizzling rain began to fall. Daniel Kelly selected a lot of over a hundred acres on which the present graveyard is located, and John Harrison selected the farm lying directly east of it, across the main road. This done they went down to Peter Steel's tavern, a little log cabin situated in Upper Lakeville where Robert Masten's house now stands, for dinner. They reached there drenched to the skin,
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and John Harrison no sooner got to the fire than a chill seized him, which was so severe that it drove him almost into the heap of smouldering coals. The first salutation that met his ear was the unwelcome remark of an old root doctor from a neighboring settlement, " You've got the ager, stranger, fast enough." After an hour spent here, they returned to Geneseo. Kelly paid earnest money, but Mr. Harrison was sick and far from home, and it was therefore concluded that he had better not part with the little money he had. It . was agreed, however, that he and Kelly should return by the first of the following May to complete the pur- chase of the lands selected by them .* They then went to Lemon's tavern for the night. Harrison's ague came on again, and a daughter of John Ewart, who resided at Williamsburgh, was also down with it. The party were ready by daylight to return to Penn- sylvania, and Mr. Harrison, sick as he was, decided to return with them. They had now but one horse, and as Mr. Harrison was weak, he took the saddle. In going down the hill leading to the inlet of Hemlock lake, Harrison began to shake, and calling to his com- panions to secure the horse, he threw himself off and started forward on a run, "shaking and stooping," he says, "as if I had my back broken. My compan- ions laughed at my odd motions, but I felt too wretched to notice their jokes. Still, I liked the new country as well as my companions who had escaped that abom- ination of new settlements, the fever and ague, and we all three came back and located the following May, a step I have never regretted." Mr. Harrison says that Williamsburgh, at this, his first visit, contained,
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