USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 44
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
product of this cereal reaches 62, 450 bushels annually. Within a few years past no little attention has been given to dairying, and with marked success.
Leicester was the first of the towns west of the river in which a permanent settlement was made. Soon after the close of the Revolution, Horatio Jones, whose years of captivity here had made him familiar with this region and therefore fully aware of its great ex- cellence for agricultural purposes, prepared to settle on the flats. The Indians becoming informed of this, and pleased to have one to whom they were partial for a neighbor, gave to him and Joseph Smith, a fellow captive jointly, a tract of land six miles square.
The south-east corner of this tract was at a point near the junction of the Canaseraga creek with the Genesee river. On the westerly side, running thence six miles to the west, the same to the north and thence an equal distance eastward to the river. On the older maps this grant is laid down as the "Smith and Jones tract." But at a council of the Senecas held some years later these limits were reduced and a portion of the grant re-called. Smith soon traded off his share, and Horatio Jones, by some misrepresentation was constrained to part with the principal portion of his, and the tract mainly passed into the hands of Oliver Phelps and Daniel Penfield. Jones still retained a section almost baronial in extent, and in 1789, his brothers John H. and George came hither with a view to beginning settlement. Reaching the flats in July, they cut about nine acres of grass, starting in at a point a few rods south of the present bridge over Beard's creek, near the Cuylerville flouring mill, and stacked the hay on the pioneer meadow. The same fall they plowed and sowed to wheat the ground they had previously mowed, and this nine acres it is be-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
lieved was the first crop of this grain planted west of the Genesee river .*
Horatio Jones was yet at Geneva, though busied in getting ready to remove to the Genesee. At the for- mer place on the 17th of December, 1786, William Whitemore Jones, his eldest son and first white child born west of Utica, saw the light of day. A few years since opportunity was afforded me to spend several hours with this gentleman, so familiar in early days with all the noted Senecas, and who saw them in their villages along the Genesee before innovations had modified the habits or feelings of the race. His recol- lections had the clearness of a written record, and his estimate of the various notables of the tribe expressed in language as terse and incisive as a sachem's, seemed to me to be eminently just. Age, though he then might be called venerable in years, had not bowed him a whit, and in reviewing early pioneer days, a subject to which I specially asked his attention, he displayed a vigor and vivacity that would not be ex- pected in one at his period of life. Though choosing the quiet of a farmer's life and disinclined to take part in public matters, Mr. Jones through many years exerted no little influence upon community, and it falls to me as an annalist, to say with no little pride, in speaking of him, the first born of twenty counties, that he possessed more than ordinary strength of mind and force of character, and may well claim attention in a local work aside from the fact of birth-right.t
In November, 1787, at Geneva was born Mary, the daughter of Joseph Smith, the first female child born
The clevis and pin used on the plow on this occasion are still in the pos- session of Col. Wm. W. Jones's family.
+ Mr. Jones was strongly inclined to military matters. He held a Colonel's commission at one time. Several references will be made in these pages to bis personal qualities and his bouts with the Indians.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
west of Utica. Two years later her parents removed to Leicester .*
Joseph Smith was for a number of years promi- nently connected with the early settlement of Leices- ter. He was a native of Massachusetts, and fully in sympathy with the spirit prevailing in that colony. Soon after the opening of the Revolution he entered the army, and was taken prisoner by the Senecas in one of their incursions in that direction, and brought to the Genesee, where he was held until the close of the war. He had been associated with Capt. Jones during the years of their captivity, and at the return of peace the two removed to the foot of Seneca Lake, where they became Indian traders. Smith soon after located at Canandaigua, and after the Indians made the grant to him and his associate, Smith removed to Big Tree. He had acquired great familiarity with the Seneca tongue, and was frequently employed as an interpreter. His open-hearted and obliging nature led him to indorse for friends and the lands he had received from the Indians were parted with mainly to meet the obligations of others. His death, which occurred at Moscow, was occasioned by injury received by him in a game of ball between Indians and whites at Old Leicester. On the birth of his eldest son, Capt. Jones was presented with a bark cradle by the Indians, but not content with this, he determined to construct one more in conformity with the white man's notions. Boards were nowhere to be had. Recollecting, however, that a deserted boat lay near the shore of the Seneca river, at a spot three or four miles distant from his house, he started through the snow one afternoon, knocked the boat apart, and
*Mary Smith married Justin Dutton who died at Moscow in 1815. She now resides with her son-in-law, Dr. D. P. Bissell in Utica.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY:
shouldering several pieces of its water-soaked sides, returned to his domicil. From this rough material he constructed a cradle that yet remains in the family after doing duty for three generations. In June, 1790, Capt. Jones and family started for the Genesee flats. His household consisted of himself, his wife, three sons, -William W., George and Hiram, and a young girl, Sally Griffith, who subsequently married Benjamin Squire of Geneseo. On crossing the river near Flint creek, by fording, they found ready for their occupancy a log hut, located near the wheatfield that had belonged to the Indians. Here in May, 1791, was born James Jones, the first birth in Leicester .* Mrs. Jones died in June, 1792, and hers was the first death that occurred in the town. Many of the Indian huts were yet standing and settlers were coming in and putting up log structures. As yet, however, there was no frame building of any kind in the town, but in the fall of 1796, Horatio Jones erected a frame barn, a little to the west of Jones's Bridge, where it still stands, and soon after he built a frame distillery at the Fort farm, as it is called, being the same farm that was occupied by Colonel Jones.
Settlement clustered about the site of the future hamlet of Old Leicester, as it is yet familiarly called. The natural beauty of the spot drew the pioneers thitherward, and roads began to radiate therefrom. One ran in the direction of Batavia and thence to Lewiston ; another directly west to the town of Shel- don, twenty-five miles distant. And still another in a southwesterly direction to the Alleghany river ; all quite primitive but still passable in ordinary seasons. A highway was also opened to the eastward, and in
* James Jones entered the war of 1812, and with his brother George was taken prisoner in 1813. Both were tomahawked by their captors, a band of Indians, in a dispute about a division of prisoners.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
1804 Daniel Curtis established a ferry across the Gen- · esee at the place now spanned by Jones' bridge. The road continued thence to Geneseo.
The free habits of the first settlers called for a num- ber of taverns. The supply, it should seem, must have been quite equal to the demand, although the Indians, both those still residing here and the roving bands which periodically visited this section, soon became among the most reliable of patrons. The whites drank too, and observed the Sabbath with a respect quite equaled by the red men. "Whiskey and Sabbath desecration were then and there notori- Ously prevalent," says Elder Hudson. Leonard Stimpson appears to have been the pioneer inn-keeper. In 1797 he established a public house near the river bank, sixty or eighty rods north of the present site of Jones' Bridge. Six years later he built a frame tavern house on the site of Charles Jones' residence, which became incorporated into the latter, in reconstructing the house some years later. Soon after Stimpson opened the first tavern, one Joseph Simonds opened a less pretentious house, a "Shanty for the sale of cakes and beer on the spot afterward occupied by the Pine Tavern." Francis Richardson about the same time opened a public house in a little log building which stood near the roadside, on the farm now owned by Hiram Crosby. James Forbes soon after opened one on the Moscow and Geneseo road, near the ferry, and a Mr. Whitmore opened one at Jones' Bridge.
None of these houses, however, appear to have been licensed. Indeed, the local records preserve no min- ute of any regular license until one that was granted to Leonard Stimpson in May, 1803.
Many stories are told of the mischievous propensi- ties of the loungers about Old Leicester. Stimpson's tavern was their favorite resort. Here they met nightly
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
to raffle, drink, and often to fight. Few travellers stopped at the place without having a horseshoe pulled off, harness cut, a linch-pin drawn or some article taken.
Old Leicester village grew apace, and by 1812 there was quite a little settlement there. Samuel Miles Hopkins, though residing in Geneseo, had purchased property at this place, and was aiding in the growth of the hamlet. He had prepared a plan and collected materials for a large public house there, indeed he had actually begun the work. But taking some offence, he sent for Captain John Smith of Groveland, a sur- veyor of some note, and set to work at once to lay out the rival village of Moscow, the land at that point already belonging to him.
A spacious square in the centre of the plot, since essentially encroached upon, was first staked off, and then the extensive limits of the prospective rural metropolis were run, and the lots laid off. The first building reared within the bounds of Moscow was a barn for Jessie Wadams, and in 1814, the latter gentle- man opened the first public house in the village. Gid- eon T. Jenkins, afterwards the first Sheriff of the county, soon after succeeded to the stand which has since been converted into a dwelling house and is now occupied by Horatio Jones. Soon after Mr. Jenkins became proprietor, Joseph White opened a second pub- lic house, and not long afterward Homer Sherwood erected a third, which soon passed into the hands of Jerediah Horsford. Several residents of Old Lei- cester removed to Moscow, and in half a dozen years the latter place had reached about the present population. The site of Moscow when first laid out was covered with scattering pines, interspersed with a short growth of white oak and an undergrowth of bear-berry and whortle-berry bushes.
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY. 581
Public houses now abounded, and distilleries were to be found at almost every crossroad: Churches, too, began to be erected, but as yet no educational institu- tion beyond the log school house, and even the latter were few and far between, until in 1815 the Moscow Academy was projected and its construction pressed to early completion. The edifice was a frame building forty feet by twenty-four, and three stories high, front- ing on the square. An engraving of the building ap- pears on this page.
MOSCOW ACADEMY.
The Academy opened under flattering.auspices. It was almost the first school of academic grade in west- ern New York, and drew scholars from Buffalo, Can- andaigua, and other distant places, as well as receiving good encouragement from its immediate region. Og- den M. Willey was the first principal, assisted by Miss Abby and her sister. The character of the members of the professions associated with Moscow has always been highly honorable. Samuel Miles Hopkins, Felix Tracy, John Baldwin, H. D. Marvin and Frederic Wicker were among its lawyers, and William C. Dwight, Asa R. Palmer, D. H. Bissell, D. P. Bissell and W. H. Sel- lew were among the physicians. John Baldwin was the first to establish a law office at the village. He
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
came there from East Bloomfield in 1814, and Dr. Aga R. Palmer was the first physician. In June, 1817, a Presbyterian Society was organized at Moscow, and the Reverend Abraham Forman of Geneseo, sup- plied the pulpit. The services were held in the lec- ture room of the Academy building, and although the eccentricities of the pastor were often the talk of the town, yet his ability and zeal crowded the room, and it soon became necessary to fit up the whole of the lower floor of the Academy for the purposes of worship .* Mr. Forman was called to the pastorate of the Geneseo church and the society was for a year or two without stated preaching.
In June, 1820, Samuel T. Mills was installed over the society and remained until October, 1826. Six months later the Rev. Amos P. Brown assumed pas- toral relations and continued until the fall of 1829. Several changes of pastors followed, the society mean- time increasing in numbers, and in 1832 a church edifice of wood was erected at a cost of $3,000. A half dozen years after its completion a portion of the so- ciety seceded and built another church. In 1844 the divided society was reunited under the Rev. John W. McDonald, who was unanimously called to minister to the united church in the old edifice. Since that period the Presbyterian church of Moscow has had a liberal support and has been prosperous.
In 1829, the Methodist Society, which had previ- ously held its meetings in private houses and school houses, built a frame church.
* Ashael Munger, Abijah C. Warren and Asa R. Palmer, were the first elders of the society. In addition to these three men, the following persons composed the society, as first organized: Ashel Munger, Jr., Hinman A Boland, Eunice Munger, Amanda Munger and Bethsheba Warren. Felix Tracy and Samuel M. Hopkins soon after united with the church and became active as members.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
The Baptist church edifice was erected in 1844, and had for its first pastor Elder Taylor. In 1815. Nicholas Ayrault opened a store at Moscow, the first established there. His stock consisted of a general assortment of merchandise and groceries. Soon afterwards William Robb opened another store in a building that had been moved to Moscow, from the present farm of George Lane, where it had been occupied as a public house by Dennison Foster. Allen Ayrault, who had removed to Moscow from Mt. Morris, succeeded to the business of Mr. Robb, and remained as the suc- cessful proprietor of the store for two or three years, when he removed to Geneseo. William Lyman, an- other early merchant of this place, came to Geneseo from East Haddam, Connecticut, in Sept., 1814, and went into the office of Jas. Wadsworth, where he re- mained a few months. He then clerked for Spencer & Co., until August, 1816, when he bought some goods of his employers and went to Sparta, and there remained until Nov. 1818, and on the sixth day of that month received his first stock of goods at Moscow from Albany by teams. A wool-carding and cloth- dressing establishment was quite early opened by Peter Roberts and Samuel Crossman, on the branch of Beard's creek north of the present residence of Lewis Newman. The first upland farm cleared and cultivated in the town was that of Josiah Risden, now occupied by David Bailey, lying a little to the north of Cuylerville. In September, 1825, an Indian treaty was held at Moscow in the Academy. It was a quiet affair, and the place selected probably on account of its freedom from excitement or interruption. Not more than one hundred persons were present at any time. Major Carroll of Groveland, Judge Howell of Canandaigua, and Nathaniel Gorham, attended on the part of the United States. Jasper Parrish and Horatio
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
'Jones acted as official interpreters. A large number of Seneca chiefs were present, and took part. Mary Jemison was also there, and formally sold her Gar- deau reservation to Henry B. Gibson, Micah Brooks and Jellis Clute.
The first saw mill in the town was built by Ebenezer Allen, at Gibsonville in 1792. The first grist mill was built on the south branch of Beard's creek, at Rice's Falls, in 1797, by Phelps and Gorham, and was burned down in 1817. It was rebuilt, and stood some years thereafter, but was finally taken down. The first newspaper published in the town (and it was also the first that was published in the county) was started at Moscow in 1817 by Hezekiah Ripley.
Gibsonville lies in the south-western part of the town, on the outlet of Silver Lake. It was named for Henry B. Gibson of Canandaigua, and was first set- settled by Ebenezer Allen in 1792, but after remaining a short time he parted with his interest there, and re- moved to Rochester. Its water power is used for a paper mill and a saw mill, and it contains about a score of houses. Cuylerville lies on the canal in the eastern part of the town and takes its name 'from Colonel Cuyler. It sprung into existence on the com- pletion of the Genesee Valley Canal, and soon became a favorite market for wheat and other agricultural products, and was incorporated in 1848 as a village. The construction of railroads has seriously interfered with the business of the canal and Cuylerville has suffered from this cause. It occupies a part of the site of the most important of all the Seneca villages, Little Beardstown. It has one church, Associated Reformed, built in 1845, a large grist mill and a dis- tillery. To the west of Cuylerville, some half a mile, stood the first residence of Colonel Cuyler, known as Woodville, erected by Samnel Miles Hopkins, in
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
1814. In the beautiful grove contiguous to the house was held the celebration in 1843, over the remains of Boyd and Parker and their compatriots. The house was burned in February, 1860. The changes in the channel of the Genesee river are notable. It was within the memory of Little Beard that the bed of the river was at one time within a few rods of Charles Jones's old farmhouse, a half mile distant from its present bed. In 1820-22, the channel was so near the store-house then standing north of Jeff. Wetherfield's house that wheat could be sponted into boats lying in the river, now distant thirty rods. Jones's Bridge was the first bridge built over the river south of Avon. It was built of wood in 1816, was carried away in the spring of 1831, and was rebuilt in 1832-3. The Mount Morris bridge was built in 1830, was carried away in 1832, and rebuilt in 1834. The Cuylerville bridge was erected in 1852.
HORATIO JONES. 1 :
Captain Horatio Jones was born December 17th, 1763, near Downingtown, Chester county, Pa. His grandfather, an Episcopal clergyman named Charles Jones, emigrated from the city of London while yet a young man and settled in Philadelphia. When the subject of this sketch was about six years of age, his father, William Jones, removed to Baltimore Co., Md., where John H. Jones was born. His father was an armorer, and designed to bring him up to the same employment, but the Revolutionary war was in pro -. gress when he reached an age at which the stirring events of that period had stronger attractions than the forge and hammer for one of his adventurous spirit, and before his size would permit his enlistment he became attached to a company of Rangers or " minute men." Like all frontier boys of that day he was a skilled marksman, a qualification, added to a hardy
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
frame, which even at so early an age, enabled him to count the privations of the colonial service as of small moment, and made him a welcome addition to the slowly wasting battalions at that period of the strug- gle, and in May, 1780, at seventeen, he enlisted in the Bedford Rangers, commanded by Captain Dunlap. The company was ordered to a neighboring fort, there to be reinforced, for duty along the western frontier. The garrison, however, was found so weak that it could spare no soldiers, and Capt. Dunlap, prompted: by his men who were eager for active work, concluded to follow out the original purpose by marching his small force at once into the Indian country. He had reached the wilderness at the head of the Juniata and was crossing the stream early one morning when he- was surrounded and surprised by a body of Indians, who fired upon the company, killing nine men and taking eight prisoners. Among the latter were the Captain and Jones. At the first alarm, Jones took to the bank and entered the woods at the top of his speed. Two Indians followed. Though his gun had been wet while fording the stream and could not be fired, the natives were ignorant of the fact, and when they approached too closely he would turn, point it: at them, and they would drop on their knees. He would then start on again, and the race would be re- sumed. After running some two miles, his foot caught. in some undergrowth and he fell. The Indians were- at his side in a moment, and he surrendered. Return- , ing to the place of ambuscade, the prisoners were placed together, the Indians divided, a part before, and a part taking position behind the captives, and started rapidly northward through the vast stretch of unbroken forest toward the country of the Senecas.
. For the first two days they were without food. On the third, the entrails of a bear were apportioned to.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
Jones. Captain Dunlap, showing exhaustion, was silently despatched from behind with a tomahawk, and as he fell his face was carefully turned skyward that his spirit might ascend to the white man's happy hunting grounds, as the other prisoners were given to understand. On the fourth day a hunting party brought in a fine deer. The Indians pointed toward it. Mistaking their gestures for an invitation to help himself to the venison, Jones ran to the spot with the alacrity of a hungry man. The Indians suspecting that he was trying to escape and unwilling to lose one who had already gained their favor, made after him. Stopping when he reached the game, the natives came up, laid him on his back, tied arms and legs each to a tree, and further secured his limbs by driving pronged sticks over them, and in this condition, with his face upturned to a pelting rain, kept him all night. He endured the punishment without complaint, a fact which pleased the Indians so much that that day he was relieved of the luggage that had previously been committed to his shoulders. In turn, however, he divided the burthen of an overloaded fellow captive, older and feebler than himself. Arriving at the Indian village of Caneadea, he was informed that at a coun- cil held to decide his case, the Great Spirit had inter- posed in his behalf, and his life was to be spared on condition of his reaching a certain wigwam, located about eighty rods distant, and which was pointed out to him from a height near the village. The old and young Indians, the squaws and children of the vil- lage and neighborhood, lined the way thither. Jack Berry, as he was afterwards called was present and motioned to him to start without a moment's delay. He saw the wisdom of the friendly advice and set out at once. Hatchets, arrows, clubs, knives, and every conceivable native weapon, was hurled at him by the
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
shouting and yelling Indians, as he made for the house of refuge. With no little address he managed to dodge the more dangerous missiles and reached the goal with few bruises, amid the hearty cheers of the excited crowd, and was at once adopted into a family, one of whose sons was killed in an expedition shortly previous, under the name of Ta-e da-ogua. While running the gauntlet, one tomahawk whistled past him, just grazing his head. It had been thrown by one of the warriors that took him prisoner, as he afterwards learned. Readily adapting himself to the situation, he assumed their dress, acquired their lan- guage, and set about repairing their implements of war and the chase. His stout arm won respect at once. Although surrounded by savages, he never allowed an insult to go unresented. If hatchets were thrown at him by the mischief-loving, he returned them with usury. At dinner one day, a young brave, fond of amusing himself at the expense of others, offended him in some way. Jones stepped to a suc- cotash kettle, seized a boiling squash, gave chase, and overtaking the festive Indian, thrust the hot vegetable between his hunting-shirt and bare back, then resumed his meal. At another time a party had dug up some saplings, and as they passed him bearing them on their shoulders, one of the Indians purposely stuck a mass of roots into Jones' face. As quick as thought his right hand was brought across the native's nose, breaking in the bridge and giving him a disfigured nasal organ the rest of his days. Possessed of un- common mental vigor, and of more than ordinary penetration, he was cool, fearless and ready of re- sources, traits which the natives esteemed. To this may be added that he was strong of body and fleet of limb, and was always ready to try speed or strength with the best of them. Their implicit confidence in
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