USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 43
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they refused to perform, insisting on being fed and maintained in idleness. Under the pretense that they were authorized by the associates, they contracted debts, extending their patronage to the Wadsworth's at Geneseo. They denied the authority of any one to direct them, and in the absence of Williamson they became unmanageable. John Johnson, his agent at Williamsburgh, fearing violence, sent to Canandaigua, begging Thomas Morris, who spoke German, to hasten to his assistance. On his arrival Morris expostulated with Berezy but without effect. Williamson was ex- pected back, and the Germans resolved to hang him on a tree they had selected near at hand for the pur- pose. Disappointed at his non-arrival, they assem- bled around Johnson's house and threatened violence to him. Morris tried to dissuade them but they rushed toward him and but for his timely escape would have suffered in the agent's stead. Williamson at length came. "Sunday intervened, but Berezy and the minister were all day pow-wowing in every house in the settlement." On Monday Williamson found him- self with his friends Morris, Johnson and several others, in all a force much inferior to their opponents, besieged by the refractory Germans, who had col- lected in a body, and under the influence of Berezy were making extravagant demands as conditions of peace and their continuance in the colony. "Driven into a corner between two writing desks," says Wil- liamson, "I had luckily some of my own people near me, who were able to keep the most savage and daring of the Germans off, though the cry was to lay hold of me. Nothing could equal my situation but some of the Parisian scenes. For an hour and a half I was in this situation, every instant expecting to be torn in pieces." Berezy himself now became alarmed for the consequences of the outbreak, and tried to
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
quiet his countrymen ; but the more reckless of them turned to plunder. The cattle were driven off or killed, and all kinds of property was rendered inse- cure, as well as the personal safety of the citizens. Warrants were at once sued out, and with the assist- ance of some boats' crews and new settlers who were hurried from Bath, pending the return, of Richard Cuyler, clerk of Williamson, who had been despatched to Albany with a requisition upon Governor George Clinton for a force sufficient to quell the riot, several were apprehended, and carried to Canandaigua and tried on indictments for assault and battery and riot, and convicted of both. The proceedings "terrified and humbled them," and they were let off with small fines under promise of leaving the country. This they did after those who had been fined earned the money of farmers in the vicinity, having already agreed to go to Canada, where Governor Simcoe had assigned them a tract of land for a colony.
The site of Williamsburgh was on the road between Geneseo and Mount Morris, and is now marked by the residence of the late D. H. Abell. It comprised a tavern stand, one or two stores and a number of dwell- ings, the entire village covering about 30 acres. On the flats adjoining the river was also the celebrated race course, where the first fairs and races ever held in the Genesee country came off, as described in an earlier part of this work. These fairs drew together a large concourse of people, some coming hundreds of miles to attend them, while from the Niagara fron- tier came many cattle dealers to purchase for the Can- adian trade the fat, sleek cattle they were sure to find on exhibition. The tavern was a frame building erected for that purpose by Captain Williamson, and stood on the south-west part of the town square, which was situated about 80 rods east of the river.
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The main building was about 30 feet square, and two stories high, a large wing extending from the rear of the principal building. In the second story of the latter was a good sized ball-room, in which, as early as 1800 was kept a dancing school. The first landlord was Captain Elijah Starr, who was scceeded by Wil- liam Lemen. The first town meeting of the town of Sparta was held in this house on the first Tuesday of April, 1796. William Perine succeeded Lemen and kept the tavern two years. Thomas Hummer suc- ceeded him and the latter, it would seem, was the first tavern keeper who had a license. William Magee purchased the tavern, the town square and village lots, amounting in all to some 30 acres, of the Geneva land office, and shortly after sold the property to Joseph Engle. The latter kept the tavern two years, and fail- ing to make the payments, Magee took the property back in 1806 and kept the tavern one year. The prop- erty soon passed into the hands of Major Carroll, and the tavern was closed. Not many years afterward it took fire and burned down.
A recent writer* says that Williamsburgh contained a good hotel building, a dry goods store, a distillery, blacksmith shop, grocery, a grain warehouse and about forty dwellings. The distillery stood in the ravine just north of the present farm buildings of the Abell estate, while across the way, opposite these farm buildings, stood the old tavern. The same writer says : "Church services were occasionally held in a portion of the warehouse, the Rev. Samuel J. Mills, a Presbyterian minister, holding the religious services. He was the pioneer minister in the valley, south of Avon ; preaching here and there as his ser- vices were required or accepted, and often in the open
* M. H. Mills of Mount Morris, in the Enterprise of Dec. 22, 1875.
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air * He is represented to have been a devout and sincere man, simple and plain in his manners, and much esteemed by the frontier settlers of that remote period. He resided near the village of Williamsburgh. A few old apple trees, standing to the left of the road just after crossing the Canaseraga creek bridge, going from Mount Morris to Geneseo, on lands now owned and occupied by Dr. Fitzhugh, mark the site of his ancient home. His house burned down. He took the 'Genesee fever' and died. Through the kind offices of James Wadsworth, Senior, (one of the original proprietors of the Wadsworth estate) his remains were buried in 'Big Tree' (Geneseo) cemetery ; whether on his lot, or what precise part of the grounds, the writer is unable to state. Although the immedi- ate resting-place of his mortal remains may be un- known, yet his memory lives, and is inscribed upon the page of history. * The early preacher of the evangelical truths of the Bible in the Genesee valley, Christianity owes to his memory a debt."
Among the early settlers of Williamsburgh was Alexander McDonald, who brought with him some goods to trade with the Indians, mostly woolen cloths and blankets, and thus gave rise to the belief that he was the first storekeeper. He never replenished his stock, however, and only stayed in the village a short time when he removed to Hermitage, where he engaged in farming and also established a distillery.
Joseph Richardson located in Williamsburgh in 1805, and established a store, continuing in this busi- ness a number of years. Samuel Magee says that in 1807 Richardson enlarged his business by keeping a tavern and by carrying on a distillery, all three branches of business at the same time. "The first year he kept his store in the old tavern house, and in the year 1806 moved his stock of goods into the build- ing now occupied by Colonel Abell."
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
The first school in the town of Groveland was taught at Williamsburgh about the year 1793 by Samuel Murphy. The first mill was built for Captain Wil- liamson by Charles Scholl on lot 58 in 1797.
Williamson's expectations in regard to Williams- burgh were very great. He believed that here was to be the great commercial centre of Western New York, and had visions of a thriving, busy, populous town that should rival all others in importance. He painted its future with glowing enthusiasm. Writing to & friend he said, " the progress of the settlement is so rapid that you and myself may see the day when we can apply these lines to the Genesee country :
' Here happy millions their own lands possess, No tyrant awes them, nor no lords oppress.'"
At another time he writes : "On the Genesee river a great many farms are laying out, sixty-five miles from its mouth is a town marked out by the name of Wil- liamsburgh, and will, in all probability, be a place of much trade; in the present situation of things, it is remote, when considered in a commercial point of view ; but, should the fort of Oswego be given up, and the lock navigation be completed, there will not be a carrying place between New York and Williams- burgh."
But Williamsburgh's greatness soon passed away. Geneseo and Mount Morris grew apace, and other vil- lages sprang up in various places, but Williamsburgh's glory waned. Its decline seems to have commenced about 1807, and in a few years only a few old build- ings remained. To-day, we believe, not one remains to mark the site of this ancient village.
William McNair was among the earliest settlers of the town. He came to Williamsburgh June 10th, 1798, with his wife and sons, James H., William and Charles. James H. McNair, who moved to Sonyes
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the same year, with his father's family, says there was no permanent settlement of Indians at that place. He plowed up a sandstone anvil and some Indian uten- sils. The Indians retained a white man there as a prisoner, during the Revolutionary war, to mend their guns.
Samuel Magee, who came in 1796, says that Hermi- tage, about a mile north of Henry Magee's farm, on the main road, was a small collection of houses where were then residing Captain John Smith, surveyor ; his brother George Smith ; Alexander McDonald, a dis- tiller ; Thomas Hovey, blacksmith; James Butler, boot and shoe maker ; Scotch John Smith, Joseph Roberts and family of grown up sons, Hector Mckay, Robert Wilson, a tailor named Templeton, Nicholas Beade and Levi Dunn.
One of the earliest settlers and most prominent and influential citizens of the town of Groveland was Judge James Rosebrugh. Judge Rosebrugh was a native of Mansfield, New Jersey, where he was born on the 24th of April, 1767. He was the son of the Rev. John Rosebrugh, a sturdy Scotch Presbyterian minister, who, when Washington with his "dispirited and broken forces, was retreating through New Jersey be- fore the superior army of the British," called upon his people to take arms, and not content with this, shouldered his musket, and refusing to take the com- mand, went with them to the field of strife. Being compelled, by reason of his age and the fatigue of the march to halt at a tavern while the army passed on, a party of Hessians came up and wantonly murdered the aged minister in cold blood.
Judge Rosebrugh exhibited much of the same un- flinching patriotism. It was long remembered of him by pioneers that close upon that series of disasters to our arms along the Niagara frontier which marked the
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
opening year of the War of 1812, and appealed so eloquently to the patriotism of the settlers of the Gen- esee country, he was among the first to volunteer. Raising a company of his neighbors as minute men, they marched to the sorely threatened border and there served out the term of their enlistment.
Judge Rosebrugh removed to Western New York in 1795, his family then consisting of a wife and one child. The little household reached Sonyea on the 4th of July of that year, and here was born his eldest son, the first white child in that settlement. He sub- sequently removed to Groveland hill and settled soon after on the farm which he occupied until his death in November, 1850. His first log cabin home was en- bosomed in an almost limitless wilderness, and In- dians far more frequently crossed his threshold than whites. Wild animals were plentiful, and wolves, bears and panthers were often met with. Not long after settling in Groveland Mrs. Rosebrugh made a visit to a neighbor, two or three miles distant, by way of the trail below, on horseback. Returning just be- fore evening, when half way home her ears were greeted with a piercing scream from the bushes near the path. It was like a child's cry of distress, though louder than a score of infant voices. Her horse knew the sound and seemed incapable of motion, so great was its terror. But she, with great presence of mind, struck the faithful animal a telling blow, and it bounded forward at the top of its speed, the panther leaping after at a great pace and following to within a few feet of the door.
In the spring of 1814 Judge Rosebrugh was elected to the Assembly, taking his seat in September of that year. The session was charged with legislation in support of the war, and proved an important one. William C. Bouck, Samuel Young and other notable
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men were his fellow members. He was re-elected in 1816 and also in 1818, serving through four sessions. In 1820 he was chosen over John Van Fossen to the convention which framed the second constitution of the State, after a spirited canvass, marked by many incidents of local interest. The judge was naturally reserved in demeanor, but always relished a joke. While in the Assembly he was placed on a joint com- mittee of the two -houses to arrange the interior of the then new capitol. Mr. Van Buren, then in the Senate, and a member of the same committee, had urged a particular plan for fixing the ladies' gallery in the Assembly chamber, and was more tenacious, the Judge thought, than became a Senator in a matter effecting the lower house. So taking up a slip of paper he penned two or three verses, humorously re- ferring to the known partiality of the future President for the ladies, so pertinent to the occasion that the ac- complished sage of Lindenwald was laughed out of his plan. The Judge's pen was more than once em- ployed in a facetious way. The subjects of his harm- less satire, however, had their good natured revenge. On one occasion he had prepared a speech on a party question with some care, a fact known to certain of the opposition. Opportunity did not offer for its de- livery, and yet, next morning, carrier-boys were sent out in all directions with a blank sheet bearing the flaming title, "Speech of the Hon. Mr. Rosebrugh of Ontario." Copies were left at the doors of members of his party and hawked through the streets. The joke was the town talk for the day, and by none was it enjoyed more than by the Judge himself.
On the erection of Livingston county in February, 1821, he was appointed Surrogate, and held the office until March, 1832. Many of the wills of the early settlers were proven by him and appear in the official
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folios recorded in his own hand. His office duties were performed at his residence in Groveland with the exception of stated days at the county seat.
Judge Rosebrugh received many marks of the con- fidence of his immediate neighbors. Among other town offices he was several times chosen Supervisor, and often acted as umpire in the adjustment of local disputes. He was a liberal supporter of religious work, and in the latter years of his life was a member of the First Presbyterian church of Groveland. He sleeps in the gully school-house cemetery, a few rods only from the farm which he subdued from the wilder- ness and long and profitably cultivated.
CHARLES H. CARROLL.
No citizen of Groveland ever commanded a larger share of public confidence and esteem than Charles H. Carroll, who became a resident of the town in 1815. Charles Hobart Carroll was a son of Charles Carroll of Bellevue, and was born at the ancestral seat, Belle- vue, Hagerstown, Md., on the 4th of May, 1794. He was reared in affluence and luxury. His parents were models of the old-fashioned gentry, owning large numbers of slaves and living in a generous, open- hearted manner. At the age of 18 young Carroll graduated at St. Mary's College, Baltimore, with high honors. The second war with Great Britain was now in progress, and soon after quitting college he volun- teered into the service, serving through 1813 and 1814. In June, 1815, he removed with his parents to the Genesee country, settling in Williamsburgh, where he continued to reside until his death. Soon after locat- ing in Groveland he went to Litchfield, Mass., to read law, and in 1819 was admitted to the bar. In the fall of 1820 he married Alida, daughter of Jeremiah Van Rensselaer of Utica. His popular qualities and his
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aptitude for public place had attracted the attention of the intelligent settlers to him, and in 1821 when the towns comprising the new county of Livingston required an agent to visit Albany to present their claims, the choice fell upon him. After several weeks' zealous labors with the legislature he was enabled to return to his gratified constituency bearing a certified copy of the law erecting the new shire.
In February, 1823, he was appointed First Judge of the county and held the office for over six years. Before the close of his judicial term he was elected to the State Senate from the old eighth district, serving two years in that capacity. Illness of himself and wife prevented his acceptance of the nomination for a second term which was urged upon him. In 1826 he built a beautiful home known as the Hermitage, where he always entertained in the most generous, . genial manner, and his home was always made cheer- ful and happy surrounded by a large family.
Judge Carroll served in the Assembly in 1836, and in 1840 was elected to Congress, serving two con- secutive terms in that body. He also filled various town and other offices in the gift of the people.
His great farm was a pattern of agricultural well- being. He greatly enjoyed superintending his "large estate, in developing its agricultural resources and in improving the breed of horses and cattle. In this he rendered a great service to his section of country." He acted as agent for the sale of large tracts of land lying in Mount Morris and Nunda. While he guarded with the strictest fidelity and watchfulness the interests of the owners, he was ever the protector of those who found themselves unable to fulfill promptly their contracts. During the sale of the entire tract he never commenced legal proceedings against & purchaser.
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No public enterprise, no movement having for its object, the improvement of community and the ad- vancement of the public good, ever found Judge Carroll a looker-on simply. A public meeting never seemed more complete than when he occupied the presiding officer's chair, "an able and dignified officer." In politics, in education, in the prosperity of religious movements he took a deep interest, and his views on all public questions were broad and lib- eral. "In the councils of the Episcopal church, both diocesian and general, he was an earnest, liberal and systematic supporter, and his cheerfulness, deep faith, sound, consistent church views and never failing lib- erality to the poor and needy, made him beloved in all the circles of life." He died July 22d, 1865, and society lost and mourned for one of its truest friends. "I remember with great pleasure and profit, " says an esteemed friend, "his eloquence, his geniality, his fund of information and humor, his liberality, his quick response to all calls of charity and for all public improvements, his noble gifts of time as well as money, his unbounded hospitality ; but far beyond all these, he left on me the unvaried and constant impression that he was a christian."
Daniel Kelly settled in Groveland in 1799, on the farm on which he continued to reside until his death, a period of 62 years. Few men in the town of Grove- land exerted so large an influence as he. He was a man of strong nature, well settled in his convictions, frank in his expression, and always ready to give a reason for his faith. His ancestors, who fled from the north of Ireland on account of religious persecution, settled in Pennsylvania. Daniel Kelly was born in
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Tinnicum, in that State, Nov. 10th, 1782. In 1797 his father, with a family of eight children removed to Lakeville in this county, where the elder Kelly died in 1834. In 1807 Mr. Kelly married Mary Ann Roup, daughter of Christian Roup. Major Kelly held the office of Supervisor of his town for many years, and in the board of supervisors his practical wisdom and thorough knowledge of public business gave him a commanding position.
Another early settler was John Hunt, who came here in 1800. He settled first on the farm afterward owned by Samuel Culbertson, and later owned the present homestead of John White. In 1810 he settled at what is still known as Hunt's Corners, where, in 1814 he opened a tavern, which he kept for about six years. At that time there were two other taverns in the town, William Doty's, to the south, and Joseph Richardson's at Williamsburgh.
Michael Johnson located in Groveland in the spring of 1806. He was a native of the north of Ireland, of Scotch-Irish parentage, whose ancestors took part in the memorable siege of Londonderry. From this place Michael Johnson sailed in the spring of 1804, landing in New York the last of July of that year. He reached the home of his relative, William Crossett, * in Geneseo, in the fall. Mr. Johnson built a log cabin in Groveland, on the farm which continued to be his residence until his death in June, 1835. He was a man of decided convictions, great industry, and as a citizen was one of the most respected and intlu- ential in Groveland. He was one of the deacons of the Presbyterian church on its foundation, and con- tinned in this relation until his death.
* Father of John Crossett.
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1
LEICESTER.
Area, 20,300 acres; population in 1875, 1,662. Boundaries : north by York ; east by Geneseo and Groveland ; south by Mt. Morris ; west by Castile, Perry, and Covington, (Wyoming county).
Leicester was formed at the same time with Genesee county from Ontario county, and comprised four towns, viz : Leicester, Batavia, North Hampton and South Hampton, by an act of the Legislature on the 30th day of March, 1802. Its name, first written Les- ter, after Lester Phelps, a son of Oliver Phelps, who was a partner of Nathaniel Gorham, was changed in February 1805, to its present orthography. On its first formation Leicester included the present town of Mt. Morris, a part of York, and an essential portion of the county of Wyoming. The principal villages of the Senacas lay in this town, Little Beardstown, Squakie Hill and Big Tree, whose chieftains could call the whole warlike tribe upon the battle-trail ; and, if we may credit the tales of captives, something of sylven state was observed by the dignitaries of these castle-towns, as old writers call them, whose vaguely defined sites are now devoted to the ordinary purposes of agriculture by the thrifty farmers of Lei- cester. The narative of the captivity of the Gilbert family of Quakers, who were brought to the country of the Senecas in 1780, and whose enforced stay here for a short period forms a part of that account, makes mention of their formal reception at Big Tree village by the Indian wife of the chief Warrior .* "On reach- ing the Genesee river," says the narrative "Captain Rowland Montour's wife came to meet us. She was
* The Gilberts were captured in Northumberland Co., Pa. Tho Montours, John and Rowland, aided in their capture.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
the daughter of Siangorotchti, king of the Senecas. This princess was attended by the Captain's brother, John Montour, and another Indian, and also by a white prisoner who had been taken at Wyoming. She was attired altogether in Indian costume, and was shining with gold lace and silver baubles. Her attend- ants brought us what we much needed, a supply of provisions. After the customary salutations, Captain Montour informed his wife that Rebecca Gilbert was her daughter and that she must not be induced by any consideration to part with her. The princess took from her own finger a silver ring and placed it on Rebecca's. By this ceremony she adopted the white girl into her household, and the latter was con- ducted to her future hut in the retinue of the forest princess.
Brant, the Butlers, Red Jacket, who was a states- man but never a war chief of the Eastern and West- ern tribes, the Johnsons and other British officers were familiar with the pathways that traversed these forests and the red man's villages that dotted this township. Here all the wise men of the league col- lected to plan their predatory campaigns, and to cele- brate their successful forays, and the very soil though long ago disturbed by the white man's plow continues to be held in special veneration by the descendants of the former occupants here, and if we might adopt the grotesque fancies of the natives, these hills and val- leys yet faintly echo the exultant shouts of their braves, and the voices of their wild orgies that diver- sified the times of old. The general surface of the town formes a terraced slope declining riverward, the portion of its territory to the Eastward running down to and embracing the flats. Of the soil of the fruit- ful bottoms it is unnecessary to speak. The upland is especially adapted to the culture of wheat, and the
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