USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 30
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
after the sale of their lands in 1825 they began to leave, going to the western reservations, and in a few years none were left. The Indians of Allen's Hill, Little Beardstown and other villages had gone some years before. Civilization had done but little for these dusky natives. With rare exceptions they continued to live in their old huts, with fires in the centre, and nothing but skins and blankets for beds. The women also continued to the last the laborers of the tribe, while the men spent their time in hunting, fishing, and the idle amusements of their villages.
On the 28th of January, 1824, a meeting of inhabi- tants of the County was held at the Court House in Geneseo, for the purpose of forming a county Bible society, auxiliary to the American Bible Society. The history of one of the oldest and most useful civic organizations of Livingston County dates from this meeting. The meeting was well attended, and an organization effected. As officers for the ensuing year, the following were chosen : President, James Wads- worth ; Vice Presidents, Charles H. Carroll and Jere- miah Riggs; Treasurer, Orlando Hastings; Corres- ponding Secretary, Rev. Norris Bull; Recording Secretary, Augustus A. Bennett ; Directors : Willard H. Smith, Caledonia ; George Hosmer, Avon ; Orrin Gilbert, Lima ; William Janes, York ; Eben E. Buell, Geneseo ; Leman Gibbs, Livonia ; Dr. Asa R. Palmer, Leicester ; James Rosebrugh, Groveland ; Samuel Chapin, Jr., Freeport (Conesus) ; Jonathan Beach, Mount Morris ; William McCartney, Sparta; Alvah Southworth, Springwater. The society has had a continued existence to the present day, and in its peculiar field no organization has done greater or more efficient work. The Bibles distributed by it are num- bered by thousands, and on several occasions the whole county has been canvassed, and a copy of this
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precious book placed in every home where one was found wanting, often "without money and without price."
The cause of the Greeks in 1824 excited the liveliest interest in Livingston County, as it did throughout the country, and our liberty-loving people were not slow in showing their sympathy and extending substantial aid to the struggling Greeks. For this purpose & county meeting was held at Geneseo on New Year's day, 1824, at which Judge Jones of Leicester presided. A series of resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the citizens were submitted by William H. Spencer, Calvin H. Bryan and Orlando Hastings, which were heartily endorsed. A committee was also appointed to receive and forward to New York such contribu- tions as might be placed in their hands, while com- mittees to solicit and receive contributions were appointed for each town in the county. In this way liberal contributions were secured, and substantial aid given to the cause in which the Greeks were engaged.
A local paper announces as "commercial enter- prise," under date of May 27, 1824, the passage by Geneseo, on the river, of the canal-boat "Hazard," from Nunda, on her way to Albany, loaded with pine lumber, ashes, etc. The boat was owned by Sanford Hunt of the former place. Shipments were often made in this way down the river, until the completion of the Genesee Valley Canal. At one time an attempt was made to introduce steamboats on the river, and steamboat navigation companies were organized, but the attempt was not successful, although trips were made several seasons by small steamboats. The fol- lowing announcement appears in the Livingston Jour- nal of July 28th, 1824: "We can congratulate the public upon the arrival of the steamboat 'Erie Canal,' Captain Bottle, at our village last evening. A more
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welcome arrival, and one which throws the smiles of a bland and hearty cheerfulness among our villagers could not well have happened."
The same paper contains a communication from Avon commencing as follows :
"Cheer up you lusty gallants, With music sound the drum, For we've descry'd a steamboat On the Genesee hath come."
The writer follows this ryming effusion with a detailed account of the arrival of the boat at Avon on the 26th, from Utica. "This being the first time the river has been navigated by steam, drew together a numerous multitude, all eager to catch a glimpse of the novel stranger who had come in such a questiona- ble manner among us." A company of gentlemen immediately assembled on board the boat "to honor its arrival and greet the commander with a cordial welcome." Toasts were drank, accompanied with music on board and the roar of cannon on shore. The genius of Fulton, the steamboat itself, its gallant cap- tain, the Genesee and the beautiful scenery on its shores, the arrival of the boat, and the great promise of the future, dating from this opening of steam navi- gation, all received due attention from the toasters, and each sentiment was lustily cheered by the multi- tude who had gathered to see the wonderful sight. "As the last gun was fired, the boat was gotten under way, and moved up the river toward Geneseo, the place of her destination, at the rate of about six miles per hour."
At Geneseo the boat met with much the same greet- ing. On the day following her arrival a large com- pany of ladies and gentlemen went on board, and- Captain Bottle gave them an excursion up the river, returning in the evening. The boat was about 77 feet long, with a breadth of beam equal to that of the
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largest canal packet, and drew about 11 inches of water, exclusive of her keel. Where no obstructions existed the boat made about four miles per hour up stream. Captain Bottle stated at that time that a suc- cessful steamboat navigation might be prosecuted from Rochester to Geneseo, and even a few miles above, if the obstructions impeding the passage were removed. The channel was in some places filled with fallen trees and snags, which often detained the boat for hours. The editor of the Register concurred with Captain Bottle in the opinion "that nothing is wanting but an alteration in the Feeder at Rochester, and a cleaning out of the rubbish in the river, to make this one of the most easily navigable streams in the State," and favored an appropriation by the legislature to effect this object.
The next attempt at steam navigation on the river was by the "Genesee," a rear-wheeled steamboat owned by a stock company, Major W. H. Spencer and other citizens of the county being interested in the enterprise. It plied between Rochester and Gene- seo, its landing at Rochester being at the head of the Feeder, and at Geneseo a little below North's Mill. Its carrying capacity was not very great. It was intended for passengers and for towing river boats, of which it could tow about three at a time. The speed of the "Genesee " was greater than that of its prede- cessor, it sometimes making ten or elven miles an hour. It would leave the Geneseo landing at 5 o'clock in the morning, and reach Rochester by 10 or 11 o'clock that forenoon. Returning, it would leave . Rochester at 4 o'clock P. M., reaching Geneseo at 10 or 11 o'clock in the evening,-distance by the river, 65 miles. If it brought up a tow it might be detained two or three hours or more. There were berths for the hands, but none for passengers. The "Genesee,"
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
however, was not a success, and after running two seasons the enterprise was abandoned. During the first season the boat was commanded by Captain Wil- liam W. Weed, and Captain John Dallson commanded it the second season.
On the 12th of August, 1825, as a Mr. Adams of the village of Geneseo was opening a drain to conduct the water from the marshy spot on which the two springs are located which supply the village with water, " he came in contact with a substance between two and three feet below the surface of the earth, so peculiar in its appearance and delicate in texture, that he was induced to make a critical examination of it, and found it to be a bony substance very much resem- bling in appearance that of ivory. After removing the earth he found it to be of a spiral form, measuring five feet in length, and seven inches in diameter at its base, gradually diminishing in size to an obtuse point. The figure of the substance so nearly resembled the tusk of an elephant that he concluded it must have its fellow, so he renewed the search and soon found it situated about three feet from the first, and precisely resembling it in every respect, their points lying in opposite directions .* He soon found eight of the teeth, "four of which were evidently the back teeth of each side of the jaws, they being fitted to each other, and two belonging to the upper and two to the lower jaw, all precisely alike as to figure and dimen- sions, their. transverse diameter being three inches and their horizontal diameter six inches, one of which weighed 33 pounds without the process that enters the jaw, that being totally destroyed in all of them. These teeth were marked upon their grinding surface by four rows of studded, blunt points, elevated an
* Livingston Register, Aug. 17, 1825
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inch. The four remaining teeth were of less size, and their grinding surface perfectly smooth. The enamel of all the teeth is sound and perfect."
The discovery of these mastodon remains caused no little excitement in the village. The citizens, believ- ing that with proper care the whole skeleton might be obtained, volunteered to remove a sufficient area of surface to effect this object. As anticipated, the bones of the body and extremities were found, but so much decayed that it was impossible to raise any of the more important ones entire. Traces, however, were left, by which their size and figure were ascertained. " The lower bone of the hind leg measured three feet in length from the knee joint to the ankle. The thigh bone, from joint to neck, was also three feet in length, and eighteen inches at its smallest circumference." The length of the animal, measuring from the centre between the base of the two tusks to the exterior point of the pelvis, was estimated at twenty feet, and the height at twelve feet. "The animal could not have been old, as eight molar teeth were found-old animals have only one molar on either side of each jaw."* The bones were placed in the cabinet of the Buffalo Natural Historical Society.
A similar discovery was made about the year 1835, in straightening the road from Scottsburgh to Conesus lake. In digging the ditch on the east side of the road, where it ran through a swamp of five or six acres, near the inlet of the lake and about thirty rods to the west, the remains of a mastodon were found, about three feet below the surface. Eight teeth were found, four of which had blunt points, and weighing about two pounds each. The shoulder blades, pieces of the ribs and some joints of the backbone were also
* Silliman's Journal, Vol. 12, p. 380, 1st Series.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
found. Some of these bones are now in the Le Roy Female Seminary .*
In November, 1824, Livingston county gave 849 majority for De Witt Clinton for Governor, over Sam- uel Young. Every town in the county except Grove- land gave a majority for Clinton. In 1820 Governor Clinton had proposed in the State Senate that the federal constitution be amended so that presidential electors should be chosen by the people in districts. Following up the idea, he recommended in his speech at the opening of the extra session in November, 1820, that a State law be passed providing for the election of the electors by the people on a general ticket. This proposed change was the great theme of discussion in the fall of 1823, and throughout the following year. Originally agitated by the "Bucktails," all the Clin- tonians joined them in favoring the bill. The advo- cacy of this measure added to Clinton's popularity with the people, but the moving cause of his triumph- ant election may with safety be attributed to the action of the legislature in the spring of 1824, in removing him from the office of Canal Commissioner. This was done by the "Bucktails," his political enemies, yet though it was but following out the policy he had himself always pursued, it seemed to the people " like striking a fallen enemy." His work in behalf of the people, especially in developing the resources of the State, were not forgotten, and rallying to his support they carried him into office with a majority of over sixteen thousand. In this contest, as has been shown, Livingston stood firmly by the " people's candidate," and contributed largely to his successful canvass.
* Within the last two years several bones of a mastodon were discovered on the borders of the county near Dansville, some eight feet below the sur- face, a portion of which are now in the possession of Professor Allen of the State Normal School at Geneseo.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
Warmly supporting Clinton, the people also strongly favored his proposed change in the manner of choos- ing electors, and looked with suspicion on all who did not hold the same views. During the sitting of the January Common Pleas, and while the electoral bill was pending in the legislature, John Van Fossen, with a view of getting up a general meeting of the electors of this county, without reference to party, to give expression to the views of the people on this subject, presented a paper to Judge Carroll, then First Judge of the county, who was also Republican can- didate for Congress, while he was at dinner with about fifty others at Amos Adams' tavern in Geneseo. The Judge declined to sign the paper, believing that Van Fossen had some ulterior purpose. Van Fossen at once caused to be struck off hand-bills which he cir- culated slyly in Monroe county, stating that Judge Carroll was opposed to any change in the existing mode of appointing presidential electors. Judge Car- roll, when apprised of this fact, publicly denied the assertion. His opponent, Moses Hayden, was also compelled by public opinion to define his position on this question, and his letter caused considerable dis- cussion, although he warmly favored Clinton's meas- ure. At the election Mr. Hayden was successful in securing a re-election.
In the summer of 1826 Governor Clinton, accom- panied by his son Col. Clinton, and Gen. Beck, visited the Genesee Valley. Accepting the statement of the opposition organ as true, his reception was not a warm one. "His Excellency's visit at this place was re- markable for nothing but its silence; his friends, we think, were hardly civil to him."*
In 1826 Charles H. Carroll was the Republican can-
* Livingston Register, July 25, 1826.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
didate for State Senator, his opponent being his old foe, Mr. Van Fossen. The result was somewhat of a surprise, a canvass of the votes showing that Judge Carroll had a majority of about 600, in a district which in 1824 had given Mr. Clinton a majority of between 5,000 and 6,000. The Register, then the "Bucktail" organ at Geneseo, commenting on this result, said : "Notwithstanding, the little regency editor of the Journal, in his simpering tone proclaims that 'in this Senate District Charles H. Carroll, the Bucktail candidate, has been elected by a small ma- jority.' It is true that it is not 6,000, neither is it reduced to the sickly number of nine; but is respect- able in a district where the political parties claim to be nearly equally divided, and one that the friends of Judge Carroll feel not inclined to find fault with-and why need his enemies."
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CHAPTER XV.
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ANTI-MASONRY-NEW COUNTY PROJECT.
An event occurred in the fall of 1826, in the neigh- boring county of Genesee, that filled the people with alarm and terror, and aroused them to a fever heat of excitement. A wide-spread effect was produced upon the then existing political parties, and a new organiza- tion sprang into existence, which rapidly increased in numbers, and for a time exerted a powerful influence over the political affairs of the State.
This occurrence was the abduction and supposed murder of William Morgan, a royal arch free mason, a printer by trade, then living at Batavia. As the whole subject has been fully discussed by other writers, only enough of the details will be given here to explain the course of the people of this county, especially in their political action. Morgan, it ap- pears, unable to earn a livelihood by his trade, deter- mined to publish for his pecuniary benefit, a pamphlet containing an expose of the secrets of masonry. While at work setting the type for this pamphlet, his inten- tion was discovered by some of his fellow masons, and communicated by them, as subsequent events seemed to show, to the members of the order, far and wide.
A warrant was issued by Jeffrey Chipman, a Justice
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of the Peace in Canandaigua, on the 11th of Septem- ber, 1826, for the arrest of Morgan on a charge of stealing a shirt and cravat, and Mr. Cheesebrough, master of a masonic lodge at Canandaigua (who pro- cured the warrant), together with two or three other masons, went to Batavia with it. Causing Morgan to be arrested, they hurried him in a close coach to Can- andaigua, where he was brought before Justice Chip- man, but was discharged, as the Justice believed him guiltless of the charge preferred. He was immediately re-arrested on a small debt due Aaron Ashley, which Cheesebrough claimed had been assigned to him. Judgment was rendered against Morgan for two dol- lars, and an execution being issued he was committed to close confinement in the Canandaigua jail. During the night of the 12th he was discharged from custody, but was immediately seized by a party of unknown persons, and rapidly and secretly conveyed to the Niagara river, where he was left confined in the old magazine of Fort Niagara, in charge of Colonel King and Elisha Adams. On the 29th of September he dis- appeared, and nothing was ever afterward heard of him .*
The people of Batavia had been for some time aware that Morgan was regarded with suspicion by the masons, as they had made several ineffectual attempts to suppress the forthcoming work. When it became known, therefore, that Morgan had been forcibly seized after his discharge from custody, and had mysteriously disappeared, they determined to investigate the case and vindicate the majesty of outraged law. At a public meeting held in Batavia, a committee was ap-
* As to his ultimate fate later disclosures seem to leave no doubt. A party of men chosen by lot, met under cover of darkness, and conveying him to the middle of the Niagara river, consigned him to its waters, firmly bound and weighted with stones.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
pointed which instituted a strict investigation, without, however, being able at that time to discover any traces of the missing man beyond the fact that his abductors had conveyed him rapidly toward Rochester. These facts being reported, the community became convinced that a great crime had been committed, and the dread- ful suspicion prevailed that Morgan's life had been sacrificed by his abductors. Then the whole western part of the State was aroused, and alarm, indignation, and a deep determination to probe the mystery to the bottom prevailed among all classes of people. Meet- ings were held in nearly every town, at which was condemned in the severest terms the outrage which had been perpetrated, and steps taken to ferret out and bring to justice the impious hands that had thus stained themselves with human blood. The evident deliberation with which the abduction had been com- mitted, the large number of agents employed, and the secresy with which all the movements had been con- ducted, pointed to a well-organized and wide-spread conspiracy to put Morgan out of the way, and indi- cated that in thus ignoring the laws and outraging the sentiment of the peaceful community, a large organi- zation had been interested. This was enough to fill the community with alarm, but when was added to this evident strength of the abductors the mystery which surrounded the occurrence-itself an element that seldom fails to inspire terror-it may be readily believed that not only indignation but the greatest alarm filled the hearts of the people.
The committee before spoken of continued its inves- tigations, but at first with little success. "They could trace him [Morgan] as far as Rochester, and it was a long time before the clue was found by which he was finally traced to Fort Niagara. The very difficulties interposed to the investigation increased
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the excitement in the public mind. There were some who early implicated the whole masonic fraternity in the guilt of the transaction. This, however, was not at first the general public sentiment ; but when, as the investigation proceeded, it was found that all those implicated in the transaction were masons ; that with scarce an exception no mason aided in the investiga- tion ; that the whole crime was made a matter of ridi- cule by the masons; and even justified by them openly and publicly ; that the power of the laws was defied by them, and the committees taunted with their inability to bring the criminals to punishment before tribunals where judges, sheriffs, jurors and witnesses were masons ; that witnesses were mysteriously spirited away, and the committees themselves person- ally villified and abused for acts which deserved com- mendation, the impression spread rapidly and seized a strong hold upon the popular judgment, that the masonic institution was in fact responsible for this daring crime."*
It is proper to say, however, in this connection, that this extract is from the pen of one who was a promi- nent anti-mason, and who took a leading part in the investigation. Therefore it is probable that his pic- ture of the opposition met with by the committees in their investigations is highly colored and overdrawn. Many engaged in these investigations, and the warfare on masonry through honest abhorance of the crime that had been committed, and a firm belief that all secret societies were inimical to the spirit of our insti- tutions. Others, however, seized upon the oppor- tunity to advance their own political ends, and some who were loud in their denunciation of masonry, and zealous to an excessive degree in the prosecution of
Hammond's History of Political Parties.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
those suspected of complicity in Morgan's abduction, would have been as ready, had the popular current been setting that way, to applaud the dark deed and extol the shining virtues of the masonic order. It was certainly the case that the abduction and murder of Morgan found many to condemn it among masons themselves, while, as must be admitted, a few of the order approved and defended it.
The effect of this event on the then existing political parties was very great, although for a year or two it was not sensibly felt outside of the counties of Gene- see, Monroe, Livingston, Orleans and Niagara.
The rise and progress of the anti-masonic party was briefly epitomized at one of its later conventions, as follows : "The abduction of Mr. Morgan called forth the first general expression of popular opinion against secret societies. That event occurred at Batavia Sept. 11th, 1826. A considerable period elapsed before the people in the immediate vicinity of that outrage became sensible of the fact that freemasonry had com- manded and justified the high-handed conspiracy ; and a still longer period transpired before the iniquit- ous oaths and obligations of the order became gene- rally known. But finding themselves at length unable to ferret out the conspirators, and becoming acquainted with the alarming principles, in accordance with which their fellow citizen had been bereft of lib- erty and life ; a determination was made by the peo- ple, in a few of the towns in the counties of Genesee, Monroe and Niagara, by the exercise of the right of suffrage, to effect the abolition of the institution in whose name and service the daring deed was commit- ted. In the spring of 1827, a few scattering demon- strations of this determination were made at the town meetings. In the fall of 1827, the question was for the first time brought distinctly and with concert to
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the polls, in the counties of Genesee, Monroe, Living- ston, Orleans and Niagara, in each of which counties the anti-masonic ticket prevailed, and the territory including them became thenceforth known in masonic language as the 'infected district.' In the summer of 1828 a convention of seceding masons was held at LeRoy, in the county of Genesee, by whom the truth of the revelations of free-masonry made by Morgan was affirmed, and a farther revelation was made by many of the higher degrees. In the fall of 1828 the memorable presidential canvass absorbed almost the entire public attention, without the limits of the counties above mentioned and the counties adjacent. Nevertheless, anti-masonry, in defiance of and in opposition to both of the political parties, deposited in the ballot boxes 33,000 votes. In the month of Feb- ruary, 1829, a State convention was held at Albany, in which forty-two counties were represented, and by which the first national convention was recommended. As yet neither of the political parties had openly declared itself in opposition to anti-masonry, and in many parts of the State both had vied in caressing it."
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