USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 45
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
him, acquired during the years of his captivity, was. retained through life, and proved valuable to the gov- ernment in the treaties with the northern and western tribes in which he participated, and his residence down: to the period of his death, continued a favorite stop- ping place for the natives who visited him almost daily .. His judgment was so much. respected by the Senecas that he was often chosen as arbiter to settle disputes among them ; and his knowledge of the Seneca tongue. was so accurate that he became their principal inter- preter. Red Jacket preferred him as translator of his speeches, on important occasions, as his style, which was chaste, graphic and energetic, suited the qualities so marked in that great orator's efforts, ac- curately preserving not only the substance but the most felicitous expressions. He was commis- sioned by President Washington as official inter- preter, and was employed on several occasions to ac- company delegations of sachems and warriors to and. from the seat of Government. In a notable speech of Farmer's Brother, at a council in November, 1798, the Indians asked the legislature of this State to permit them to grant Captain Jones and Jasper Parrish a tract of two miles square of land, lying on Niagara river, three miles below Black Rock, as a substantial mark of their regard .* The speech referred to was : "As the whirlwind was so directed as to throw into our arms two of your children, we adopted them into our families and made them our children. We loved them and nourished them. They lived with us many years. They then left us. We wished them to return and promised to give each of them a tract of land, and now we wish to fulfill the promise we made them
* By the laws of the State no transfers of Indian lands could be made to private individuals without permission of the Legislature.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
and reward them for their services." Subsequently he acquired a large body of land on the Genesee flats. At one period of his captivity he became dissatisfied, and resolved to return home. Leaving his adopted father's wigwam before daylight one morning, he travelled for hours southward. Night came on and he began to reflect that his youthful associates, and perhaps his relatives too, would be scattered and gone, and the first streak of light the next morning witnessed him retracing his steps. He resumed his abode with the Senecas, who never suspected him of having attempted escape, where he remained until peace brought about a general ex- change, a period of five years. Soon after the close of the war he removed to Seneca Lake, where his brother John joined him in October, 1788. He was married in the year 1784, to Sarah Whitmore, herself a prisoner from the valley of the Wyoming, by whom he had four children. He was twice married, his last wife dying in 1844. In the spring of 1790 Captain Jones removed to the Genesee country. Here he died on the 18th of August, 1836, retaining his well-pre- served faculties to the last. He lies buried in the Geneseo cemetery. In person he was strong and com- pactly built. His height was under, rather than over, the ordinary size. In early life his weight did not ex- ceed 180, but in his latter years, he became quite cor- pulent. His eyes were grey and his hair light inclin- ing to auburn. Major Van Campen often visited Capt. Jones. On such occasions their experience dur- ing the Revolution, often formed the interesting sub- ject of conversation. The Major had twice been made a prisoner by the Indians.
Before the country was settled Capt. Jones was chosen as the agent of the Government to carry the money to be paid to the Indians at Buffalo through
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
the woods. It was a large amount, and in specie. Armed with a tomahawk and scalping-knife, he put the money on the back of a powerful mare, a favorite, fast traveler, and mounted, leaving these directions, "If I am murdered at my camp you will find the money twenty rods north-west of where I sleep." He traveled by the Indian trail till night compelled him to camp in a bark hut on a branch of Tonawanda creek. After securing his treasure, he built a fire, ate his supper, turned his mare loose, and adjusting his saddle for a pillow, lay down to sleep. He had slept a few hours when he was awakened by dreaming that a little Indian had come to him, and told him in In- dian, that if he remained where he was, his bones would lie in a pile. So vivid was the impression that he got up and looked about on every side. His mare seemed frightened, and was disposed to hover about the fire rather than to seek food. He laid down, and soon fell asleep, but before long the same Indian seemed to come to him on the same errand. He arose the second time, looked around, and observed the same uneasines on the part of his mare, but neither apeing nor hearing anything uncommon, he lay down and slept. Again the Indian came with the same errand. Horses accustomed to running in the woods, when alarmed will whistle very shrilly, unlike anything that is observed in our educated animals. As he awoke the third time, his mare gave him that somewhat start- ling monition, and he was thoroughly awake in a mo- ment. He knew that his journey and the object of it was well understood. So looking to his arms, he dressed and caught his horse, placed his money on horse-back and mounted, just as the first streaks of daylight began to appear. He had accomplished about a quarter of a mile when he heard a rustling in the bushes close by the side of the path. He gave the mare a touch, and
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
she sprang past the noise, leaving the path clear to & man who came out of the brush just behind her with a good sized club in his hands. "You stir early," said the slayer. "Yes," was the response. As the mare had already struck a sharp gait Jones thought it was as well not to check her. A little farther on he found a bright fire burning, and a large kettle over and another man not far off. Putting that and that together, he thought that kettle was intended for the accommodation of his bones. This impression was strengthened the next day by hearing that a man by the name of Street, who had been to Buffalo and sold his cattle, and was returning with the proceeds, when he arrived at about this place had been accosted by two men who asked him to get off and drink, and doing so, and after taking a sup of whisky stooping to drink from the spring, they knocked him on the head and took his plunder. The spring was called "Murder Spring " afterwards.
. GEORGE W. PATTERSON.
Mr. Patterson was the youngest of three New-Eng- land brothers who settled in. Livingston County soon after the close of the war of 1812. They were men of sterling worth, broad and liberal in sentiment, and bore their full part in moulding and directing the social and political tendencies of society in those early days, as well as in promoting the material enterprises of the settlers who so rapidly changed our western wilds into well cultivated farms. Mr. Patterson was born at Londonderry, New Hampshire, on the 11th day of November, 1799. A noted ancestor of his, John Pat- terson, removed from Argyleshire, Scotland, about the year 1600 to the parish of Priestland in the county of Antrim, Ireland, where he purchased a large landed estate of the Lord Antrim who became so distinguished
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
a partisan of the Stuarts. A descendant of this John Patterson in the fourth generation, Peter by name, emigrated from Ireland, in 1737, to Londonderry, New Hampshire, and soon after married Grisey Wilson, whose grandfather had taken part in the noted siege of Londonderry, a fact that quite likely determined the name of their New England home. Peter had three sons, Robert, Thomas and John, the second of whom married Elizabeth Wallace. Five daughters and seven sons were born to them, of whom Peter was the eldest and the subject of our sketch the youngest. The maternal grandfather, James Wallace, came from the county of Antrim, Ireland, to the New Hampshire settlement, where he married Mary Wilson, of whom this incident is related : The vessel on which her parents had taken passage for this country, was cap. tured in mid-ocean by a pirate, and while a prisoner the mother gave premature birth to this child. In a capricious moment the pirate captain offered to release both crew and passengers, on condition that the parents of the newly-born child would call it Mary, after his wife. They assented, and after making the infant presents of jewelry and a piece of rich brocade silk, the pirate released the captives who were no doubt ready enough to part company with so romantic a godfather.
The brocade, it may be added, became the wedding- gown of the grown-up Mary .* The father of the future Lieutenant-Governor was a farmer in comfort- able circumstances, who duly valued education. The son was therefore afforded such advantages as were offered by the common school and a neighboring academy, and at eighteen the father proposed to him,
* Gov. Patterson has a part of the brocade wedding-dress in his posses- sion.
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first, that he might go through college, or second, he might take a certain hundred and twenty acres of land near the homestead and make a farmer of him- self. Both offers were declined, for with native inde- pendence he had already determined to swim with- out corks. He reasoned that the four years spent in college would subtract too large a sum from his early lifetime, and as to the land, New Hampshire farming as then conducted, seemed to him a pursuit well cal- culated to make a poor man of him to the end of his days. Neither proposition being accepted, his father was content to let him try the experiment of striking out for himself, and lived to see him a prosperous man of business, honored by his adopted State in her councils, and advanced to the second office in rank in the commonwealth. On his eighteenth birthday Mr. Patterson engaged to teach a district school in Pelham, near his home, for the winter ; and on the 2d of June following, the winter's wages in his pocket, and accompanied by his brother William, and Wil- liam D. Barnett, now of Attica, he left New Hamp- shire for Western New York. A journey of three weeks brought them to the Genesee country. Mr. Patterson's first home was in the family of Daniel Kelly of Groveland, and "a better one no young man will ever find outside of his father's house." Yankee observation soon suggested to him that the great har- vests of the finest wheat of the continent, being gath- ered when he reached this region, needed some better machinery for winnowing it than any then in use, and his first step was to open a shop for the manufacture of fanning-mills on the present Benway farm in Groveland, then owned by William Doty. This mod- est shop of logs stood near a small pond north of the house, which still goes by the name of Patterson pond. To be nearer his work he became a boarder at
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
Doty's tavern, " where he had a good time generally with the sons of the landlord, two of whom were older and five younger than himself." And here at night, his day's work done and well done he would meet a knot of the pioneers, men older than himself, who were in the habit of collecting about the broad and cheerful fireside of the log hostelry. The new comer was a favorite at once. No one could tell a more pithy story, and his trenchant discussion of politics, then running high, was listened to with satisfaction by those of his way of thinking, and with marked re- spect by his opponents. The latter were not the men to let an error of fact or argument go unchallenged, and Mr. Patterson here strengthened himself for de- bates in more notable assemblies. He spent but a year here. His brother William had settled near Havens' tavern, and in the spring of 1818, he there joined him, remaining until 1822, when he removed to Ripley, Chautauqua county, where he stayed until the fall of 1824, and then came back to Livingston county and purchased and occupied the farm now owned by William Elliott in Leicester. The manu- facture of fanning-mills continued to occupy his time until his removal to Westfield in 1841. How much of the superior market quality of Genesee wheat was due to the facilities his fanning-mill afforded in pre- paring it for eastern markets, it might be difficult to show, but it is certain that a very large part of the crops of this famous wheat growing section was fitted for market for many years by the use of "Patterson's" or "Patterson & Dickey's" machines. Indeed, for almost a generation, no other fanning mill was used. In the spring of 1821, Mr. Patterson had a quantity of wheat in store at Almond, where it could not be sold for ready money. The cost of transporting it to Rochester, then the nearest cash market, was three
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
shillings a bushel, and once there it was worth but two shillings and sixpence. Instead, therefore, of sending it to the Rochester market with the certainty of a sixpence margin on the wrong side, he exchanged it for boards on the Allegany river at Olean. Seven bushels of wheat at Almond for one thousand feet of boards at Olean, and on the opening of navigation he became a raftsman for one trip only, floating down the Alleghany and the Ohio rivers on board his raft in quest of a market. He nold at Cincinnati, and with- out assistance took the boards from the water and piled them on shore, receiving seven dollars a thou- sand in Miami Exporting Company's paper, a wild cat currency, worth on that particular day sixty cents on the dollar, the next day but fifty, and continued to rapidly depreciate until it became entirely worthless. On reaching home, his neighbors were ยท anxious to know how he had made out. He had but one answer for all, " I have saved-myself." The " West " was just now opening, and the great stories of its oppor- tunities were finding their way back to the settle- ments along the Genesee. As he was on the road to the newer region of promise he determined to see for himself. So investing the meagre proceeds of his lumber in a horse, saddle and bridle, he "set out to find a better country than Livingston county," travel- ling through Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky, return- ing to Cincinnati after a month's absence. In going from Brookville, Indiana, to Fort Harrison, on the Wabash, by way of Indianapolis, he was compelled, for want of better accommodations, to sleep in the woods several nights, and to follow blazed trees for forty miles through the wilderness, by day, to reach the site of the present city of Indianapolis. On arriv- ing there he found the surveyors running out city lots, and quartered in a small log shanty, then the
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY. 597
only hotel in the prospective capitol. From Cincin- nati he returned by way of Chillicothe, Cleveland, Erie and Buffalo, the latter place being then a village of seven hundred inhabitants. The Erie Canal was "staked out," but not a shovelfull of earth had been removed from its bed in that (now) city. At that time there was but one steamboat on Lake Erie (The Walk-in-the-Water), and three small ones on the Ohio river above the falls, and not a single Post-coach at any point in the United States, west of Buffalo. The mails, yet few and far between, were carried on horse- back or on foot. Railroads were not yet born, or telegraphs thought of. After making this tour he re- turned to Livingston county, concluding that "the people of Livingston county might travel through the States, north of Carolina, and as far west as Kansas, and would find no spot equal to the Valley of the Genesee."
Mr. Patterson for many years took an active part in politics, displaying the same zeal and conscience in that relation as in business affairs. His fidelity in every position, and his practical wisdom, secured him the unwavering support of an intelligent constituency through more than a quarter of a century, and until business engagements not only, but inclination, in- duced him to retire to private life. Hisfirst office was that of Commissioner of highways of Leicester, and when the position of justice of the peace became elect- ive, he was chosen to that office and retained it by re- election until he removed to Chautauqua county. He was eight times elected to the Assembly from Living- ston county, and was twice made speaker of that body while representing this county .* He took a
* He was elected by the Whigs to the Assembly in 1832-33-35-36-37-38 -39 and 40.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
prominent part in the memorable presidential cam- paign of 1840, and at the great mass meeting held in Geneseo in the autumn of that year, among the most noticeable features of the day was the farmer's dinner of pork and beans, hard cider and corn bread, given out in the Leicester carry-all. Mr. Patterson had been speaking, and coming down from the speaker's stand-the roof of the log cabin-at precisely twelve o'clock, he mounted the wagon, took out a great tin horn, and in true farmer fashion called his tribesten together, and amid a tumult of applause sat down with them to the substantial fare spread upon a bark table.
He was elected Lieutenant-Governor in 1848 on the Whig ticket, headed by Hamilton Fish, and presided over the sessions of 1849 and 1850 with remarkable dignity and fairness. His name has been repeatedly mentioned with the office of Governor, but never at his instance. Indeed it may be said with entire truth that office has uniformly sought him. He has never been a seeker after place. His sterling integrity, ma- ture judgment, and withal his manliness of character, have long given him a high place among public men, and first and last have distinguished him many times as the fit man to act for the State on commissions and special service. Two or three instances may be given. The question of selecting a proper quarantine station at the port of New York, for the protection of the in- habitants of the metropolis and of the whole country from imported diseases, had long perplexed the Legis- lature and the executive authorities. To reach a so- lution of a question so important, a commission of eminent men were named of which Mr. Patterson was one, and after a careful examination they presented & plan which, while it avoided the local prejudices oc- casioned by the situation of so formidable a pest-house.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
reached the end in view in a practical way. Another subject of the first importance to the commerce of the port was referred to a commission of which he was a member. Several years ago encroachments of a seri- ous nature threatened with danger the harbor of New York. Not only were the piers run far out into the North river, but structures had been commenced which were essentially changing the channel and threat- ened to lessen the capacity of the grand road-stead. The records were overhauled, the public archives ex- amined, to ascertain the original boundaries of the State. The exterior lines were then laid down and the report of the commission was adopted and con- firmed, and remains the authority on the subject. The threatened evil was thereby averted. It will be recol- lected that in obedience to public sentiment the Legis- lature in 1860 appropriated a large sum of money to be expended in Kansas for the starving and suffering colonists of that much afflicted territory, while it was passing through its ordeal of trial. . The proper ex- penditure of the grant was a delicate and difficult task, but the commission of which Mr. Patterson was one of the most active members, were eminently suc- cessful in meeting the needs of the settlers, while do- ing nothing to merit the adverse criticism of excited partizans. In all the varied duties committed to Gov- ernor Patterson through a long public career, no breath has ever been raised against his integrity ; no act has lessened the confidence of attached friends, and while enjoying many marks of general regard, he has never seemed more gratified than when, his duties ended, he might return to his home and to the import- ant business charge committed to him by the Holland Land Company in superintending their landed inter- ests, in which trust he succeeded Governor Seward when the latter was elected Governor. In February,
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1825, he married Hannah Whiting Dickey, daughter of John Dickey of Leicester. He has two children. In person Mr. Patterson is but one inch short of six feet in height, and his weight of two hundred and twenty-five pounds is not at the expense of his activ- ity or disproportioned to his well-knit frame.
LIMA.
Area, 19,607 acres ; population in 1875, 2,921. Boundaries : on the north by Rush and Mendon . (Monroe county) ; east by West Bloomfield (Ontario county) ; south by Livonia ; west by Avon.
Lima is the extreme northeastern town of the coun- ty, and was one of the earliest settled. Being situated on the great route between the eastern and western portions of the State, over which traveled a constant stream of emigration, it early attracted settlers, and became a well known place. The surface of the town is undulating and hilly, and is drained by Honeoye creek and its branches, the former furnishing excel- lent water power to the scores of mills and factories which line its banks, beyond the limits of the town. The soil in the southeastern part of the town is clay and clayey loam ; in the southwest sandy and gravel- ly loam. The farms are under a high state of cultiva- tion, the farm buildings and fixtures of the best char- acter, and thrift and prosperty are apparent on every hand. In these respects Lima will compare favorably with any town in the county, while her people, as a class, are intelligent, enterprising and industrious.
Lima village is near the center of the town, and
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
ranks as one of the most beautiful villages in the county. The old State road forms its Main street, along which, in early days, was a large number of inns, for the accommodation of the emigrants and teamsters who were passing through. The village long went by the name of the "Brick School house Corner." It contains four churches, and the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. The buildings of this institution are located on a beautiful eminence in the northwest part of the village, and from almost any direction are plainly visible to the traveller long before he reaches the village. The Seminary was founded in 1830 by the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was opened for pupils in 1832. The first building erected at a cost of $20,000, was destroyed by fire in May, 1842. The present building was immedi- ately erected, at a cost of $24,000. It is of brick, four stories in height, with a front of 136 feet, to the south, . while wings extending back give east and west fronts of 96 feet. In 1849 Genesee College was founded, and another large building, known as College Hall, was built. This was one of the most flourishing colleges in the country, but a few years ago it was abandoned, and the Syracuse University founded. The Seminary, which had been previous to this time one of the largest and most successful academies in the State, and one which sent out more students than any simi- lar institution in Western New York, received a se- rious blow by this abandonment of the College, but within the past year it has entered upon a new career of prosperity and usefulness. The college property, consisting of buildings, a farm of seventy acres, a cash endowment of $54,000, besides libraries, philosophi- cal apparatus, etc., have, by legislative act, been transferred to the Seminary, thus placing it on a sound financial basis. In addition to this, $15,000 have just
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been expended in modernizing and improving the buildings, which now equal those of any similar school in Western New York.
Paul Davison and Jonathan Gould are credited with being the first settlers in Lima, their arrival here oc- curring in 1788. Turner says that if his information in this respect is correct, "this was the first advent of an household west of the Adams' settlement, in Bloomfield." These men came from the valley of the Susquehannah in search of a new home in the Gene- see country. "Passing the last white habitation at Geneva, they pursued the Indian trail to the present town of Lima ; where, finding a location to suit them, they erected a cabin and commenced making an open- ing in the forest. Going to the Indian lands at Cana- waugus, they planted and raised a patch of corn and potatoes. Their location was about one mile south of the Indian trail, near the west line of the town. After ome improvements upon their cabin, such as the lux. ury of a bark roof, and a hewed plank floor, and gathering the small crop they had raised upon Indian lands, they returned to the Susquehannah, and in the spring of 1789, Mr. Davison, with his family, consist- ing of his wife and her mother, and two children, came to make his permanent home in the wilderness. He was accompanied by Asahel Burchard. The fam- ily and household implements were conveyed in an ox cart, Mr. Davison and his companion sleeping under the cart, and the family in the cart, during the whole journey .* In 1790 Mrs. Abbott, Mrs. Davison's mother, died, this being the first death in the town, and the second in the Genesee country. The first birth was that of a daughter of Mr. Davison. In 1790 Dr. John Miner and Abner Miles (or Migells, as some
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