USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 46
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*Turner's Phelps and Gorham Purchase.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
of the records have it), settled in Lima, and Miles be- coming the owner of a large tract of land in the shape of a gore, the town was called "Mile's Gore." The town was formed Jan. 27th, 1789, as Charleston, but it retained its local appellation for some years. In April, 1808, the name was changed to Lima.
Steven Tinker and Solomon Hovey, of Massachu- setts, settled in Lima in 1791; and Colonel Thomas Lee, Willard and Amasa Humphrey, Reuben and Gideon Thayer, Colonel David Morgan, Zebulon Moses, Asahel, William, and Daniel H. Warner, all from Massachusetts. came previous to 1795.
The first school was taught by John Sabin in 1792, and in 1793 Reuben Thayer opened the first inn. The year following Tryon & Adams established a store in Lima, the first in the place, and one of the first in the whole Genesee country. Zebulon Norton built the first grist-mill in the town, on the Honeoye creek, about three miles north of the village of Lima, in 1794, and in 1796 Reuben Thayer built the first saw-mill. The first religious society, the Presbyterian, was organized by the Rev. Daniel Thatcher, in 1795. There are now five churches in the town, four of which, at least, have elegant and costly houses of worship.
Among other early settlers were Miles Bristol, Wheelock Wood, and James K. Guernsey. the latter long the leading merchant of the town.
The first town meeting for Charleston was held at the house of Reuben Thayer on the 4th of April, 1797, nine years after the town was formed. At this meeting Solomon Hovey was chosen Supervisor, James Davis Town Clerk, Joseph Arther and Willard Humphrey Assessors, Mr. (probably John) Minor Justice, Elijah Morgan, Nathaniel Munger and J. Gold, Road Commissioners, and Joseph Arther and William Williams Poormasters.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
- Colonel George Smith came to Lima in March, 1798. He found there, in addition to those already men- tioned, Phineas Burchard, Joel Roberts, Jonathan Gould, Jedediah Commins, Christopher Lee, James Sterling, John and David B. Morgan, Jonah Moses, Nathaniel Munger and Samuel Carr.
Adolphus Watkins came to Lima in 1799, from Ashford, Winford county, Connecticut, where he was born in 1783. He says: "I came from Albany to Utica, Canandaigua, and along the State road to this place. There were a few log houses here then. Where Rochester street is now, used to be a muddy lane leading to a grist-mill in Honeoye. There was no road going to the south, except one about a mile west of here, leading about a mile and a half south, where it stopped. This was Charleston then and a wilderness. Reuben Thayer built a house here before I came, and it still stands. I came with my uncle Jonathan Gould, driving two cows out here. He had been here some time before. My uncle took up a half mile square, and I lived with him a few years and then went to work as a carpenter and joiner, and mill-wright. There was one run of stone at Honeoye. The land was heavily timbered with black walnut, white and black oak, elm, cherry, basswood and other kinds." The Indians from Canawaugus swarmed around here then, but were not troublesome. Mr. Watkins has seen whole tribes filing past on their way west. Game was plenty, deer, bears and wolves being often killed. Occasionally a panther was slain, though not often. In the War of 1812 Mr. Watkins took part, volunteering three different times. Cap- tain William Batin raised a company here, and Mr. Watkins joined it, for service on the frontier. This company went first Sept. 26th, 1812, but reached Buffalo too late to participate in the fighting. The
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
only one now living who was here when Mr. Watkins came to Lima, is Luther Moses. Mr. Watkins himself although ninety-three years old, retains his faculties to a remarkable degree, and his remembrance of the early days is as clear and distinct as though the events were but of yesterday's occurrence.
Miles Bristol early made Lima his home, where William A. Bristol (now living) was born in 1805. Mr. Bristol still resides on a portion of the farm owned by his father, on which many Indian relics (mentioned in a previous chapter) have been found. He says there were many Indians about here when he was a boy, and that he has seen forty Indians sleeping on the cellar floor of his father's house at one time. They were quiet, peaceable, and readily recip- rocated any favors shown them.
Considerable excitement was caused in Lima in 1811 by a conjuror who made half a dozen of the citi- zens of the town believe that buried treasures were to be found in subterranean vaults, nearly half a mile west of Norton's mill. These deluded persons com- menced digging industriously, while a large party of the curious and unbelieving surrounded them. An excavation had been made some twelve feet square and fourteen feet deep when our informant saw it. He had some brass beads which he would slyly drop into the excavation, and the men, finding them would become excited and work with increased vigor. The conjuror was present with his divining rod, and would go round making a circle. No one was per- mitted to cross this circle, else the charm would be broken and the conjuror be compelled to re-establish the circle by going around again. It is needless to say that no treasure was found, but the people of Lima have learned that their greatest treasure is to be obtained in thoroughly digging over the rich fields of her valuable farms.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
It has already been mentioned that Lima, being upon the old State road, was an important point in early days. Especially was this the case during the second war with Great Britain, when troops were con- stantly passing through the town to and from the frontier, and after its close, when the tide of emigra- tion which set in sent a constant stream of emigrants through the place. Inns were opened all along the route, those in the town of Lima being so numerous within the distance of two miles that they were scarcely a stone's throw apart. One of these old hostelries still ยท stands, a dingy, venerable old building, about a mile west of the village of Lima. Itis known as the " Yel- low Wasp," and is occupied as a residence by Mr. Thomas P. Bishop. During the War of 1812 it was a flourishing inn, and famous for its social gatherings. At one of these country dances, so runs the story, a dispute arose between the civilian guests and some soldiers who had come from their winter quarters near Avon to attend the ball. The soldiers attempted to mount to the ball-room, upon which the civilians poured down the stairway upon their heads a barrel of beans, and finally succeeded in expelling them from the house. The soldiers retaliated by firing sev- eral shots into the house. The affair created consider- able excitement in the neighborhood for several days, and was the cause of several personal encounters, but it ended without serious results.
LIVONIA.
Area, 22,811 acres; population in 1875, 2,898 boundaries : on the north by Lima; east by Rich-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
mond (Ontario county) ; south by Conesus ; west by Geneseo.
Livonia lies upon the border of the county. It was erected on the 12th of February, 1808, from Pittstown, now Richmond, Ontario county. In 1819 a part of its original territory was taken off to form the town of Conesus.
Its name, derived from a Russian province, was proposed by Col. George Smith, at a meeting of citi- zens called to petition the Legislature for the erection of the town. The surface of the southern half of the town is moderately billy, that of the northern half un- dulating, and the whole, with trifling exceptions, is arrable. Conesus lake lies upon its western border, and Hemlock lake upon the eastern border. The town is drained by the outlets of these two lakes, and by the outlet of Lake Canadice. The soil in the val- leys of these streams is a clayey loam, that of the up- lands a sandy and gravelly loam, resting on a sub- stratum of lime-stone, and the whole is peculiarly well adapted to the growth of winter wheat, of which grain it produces in proportion to area as large a num- ber of bushels as any town in the county. The first settler in the town was Solomon Woodruff, who in the year 1789, located on lot number 32. He removed from Litchfield, Connecticut, alone on foot, with his gun, axe and a pack upon his back. After making a clearing, he built him a log cabin and returned for his wife, bringing their effects to their new home with an ox team, the journey occupying three weeks. In February, 1794, Mr. Woodruff opened a tavern in his log dwelling house. The same year was born to him a son,-Philip Woodruff, long a leading member of the county bar, the first white child whose birth oc- curred in the town. In 1794, Mr. Higby and Peter Riggs settled in Livonia ; two years later Philip Short
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
located near Hemlock lake. David Benton and John Walcot, from Connecticut, came in 1798. Ruel Blake, Thomas Grant, Nathan Woodruff and George Smith, became residents in 1801.
The substantial character of the pioneers of Livo. nia, and the natural advantages of the town, early gained for it the favorable opinion of the neighboring settlements. In December, 1805, James Wadsworth writes to an eastern correspondent : "The settlers of Pittstown (Livonia) are mostly from New England, prudent and industrious, and will in time pay for their lands." The prediction was fully verified. The favor- able terms granted to the first purchasers enabled them promptly to meet their engagements ; indeed the demand for their products from immigration alone, afforded them the means of meeting their installments as they fell due.
The ample water power afforded by the considerable streams of the town was early utilized. In 1795 Mr. Higby built a saw-mill on the outlet of Hemlock lake, and in 1798 Seth Simonds, of Bristol, erected a grist- mill for Thomas Morris, of Canandaigua, on the same stream.
The new settlement had been favored with good health, and it was not until the fall of 1797 that the pioneers were called to mourn the first death in the town, that of a child of Mr. Higby. "Our grief was genuine," says an early settler, "and as we lowered the rude little coffin into the earth, it is safe to say that there was not a dry eye amongst us." A colony composed mainly of Eastern people, would not be long without a district school, and in the winter of 1798 and 9, a little log house at the centre was opened for a winter term to the children and young peo- ple. Dorias Peck was the teacher. In 1801, David Benton erected a frame house, the first in the
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
town. The carpenter work was done by Col. George Smith and John Walcot. The house is still stand- ing. In 1803 Isaac Bishop opened a store and made an ashery. The heavy growth of forest trees, and the dense underwood, afforded favorable covers for wild game. Wolves, and bears too, were often seen, and the depredations of the latter were quite an- noying. Sheep, and even swine needed to be housed near the dwellings of the settlers. An incident of 1805, occurring on the farm of Mr. Richardson, near the site of South Livonia, PRIMITIVE SCHOOL-HOUSE. is related. While chopping near his hog-pen early one morning, Mr. Richardson heard an unusual disturb- ance in the inclosure. Slipping quickly to the pen he saw an enormous bear attempting to drag a large hog over the side. Lifting his axe he jumped into the pen. The bear dodged his blows, and he was obliged to call a fellow-workman before the hungry brute could be driven off and made to retreat into the rank weeds. With the aid of a neighbor a dead-fall was set for the bear. On visiting this trap the next morning the bait was gone, but the weight, in its fall, had caught the bear by one of its fore paws, which, in its struggles, had been torn off, and the victim got away minus the paw. The Indians roamed over every portion of the town and have left visible traces in several parts of their occupancy. As already shown, remains of the most extensive of those rude fortifications yet found in the State, whose origin remains a matter of so much question, are found in the town.
The first town meeting was held at the house of Solomon Woodruff. Lyman Cook was chosen super-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
visor, Theodore Hinman, town clerk, and John War- ner, Matthew Armstrong and George Smith, assessors. Jacksonville, at one time a promising hamlet, located on the outlet of Hemlock lake, a mile or so north of Slab City, has gone to decay. It contained at one time a grist-mill, distillery, cloth-dressing works, one store and several dwelling houses. The place was regularly laid out and the village lots duly numbered. A single dwelling house only remains, occupied by the former proprietor of the cloth-dressing works .*
The first Universalist Society was organized in 1831. The first trustees were Robt. Adams, John Farrel and George Smith. The Mennonite Society was organized in 1827. There are in all, ten churches in town. In the northwest part of the town is situated the little hamlet of Lakeville, on the outlet of Cone- sus Lake, and near by but lower on the stream, is Millville, taking its name from a large grist-mill first erected by Mr. John Bosley some time before 1800, and burned down. It was next erected by Edmund Bosley in 1822, and was again burned. The last time it was rebuilt by Lucien F. Olmsted & Co. in 1835, and is now owned by Clark & Sons. The first settler here was John Bosley who came before 1800. He purchased about four hundred acres, mostly of the Wadsworth's, for which he paid from two and a half to three dollars an acre. Thirty rods north- westerly of the mill is a spot known as Fort Hill, which derives its name from some breast-works that were plainly seen when Mr. Bosley came to this place. He plowed it and planted it to corn and potatoes the first year of his residence. There was a small undergrowth of bushes on it, which he grub.
* A map of the village plot appears among the records of the County Clerk's office, drawn by E. Caulkins, Jr.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
bed out and cleared away, and in doing so found axes, tomahawks, a gunbarrel, a large number of beads, some of extraordinary size, skulls, thigh bones and other relics of its former occupants, the Indians.
Some wild plum trees, which bore excellent fruit, were also standing for many years after Mr. Bosley came. A plaster mill, run by wind, was built on the hill south of the grist mill, and a deposit of plaster was claimed to be found and the mill did quite a bus- iness, but it was discovered that the plaster was not plaster, and the mill was abandoned .. Mr. Aug. Por- ter, who was a surveyor for Phelps and Gorham, re- ceived the town of Livonia for his services, at the rate of one shilling per acre, and sold it for one shilling and six pence, and regarded it a great bargain.
Solomon Woodruff, one of the first settlers, was born in South Farms, Connecticut, and came to Li- vonia in 1792, and settled on a farm one mile south of the Centre. His nearest neighbor at that time was Mr. Pitts, at the foot of Honeoye Lake. He purchas- ed his farm of General Fellows, a large land owner at four shillings per acre. The first year he cut the tim- ber on one and a half acres, and burnt the brush, and without removing the logs planted it to potatoes, and with the avails of this crop paid for his farm of one hundred and fifty acres. He returned to Connecticut in the fall, and in February, 1793, with his wife and two children, and his household effects on a sled drawn by a pair of three year old steers, started again for his home in Livonia, and was twenty six days on the journey to the house of George Goodwin, in what is now the town of Bristol, Ontario county, where his youngest child died, after which event he and his family pursued their journey and arrived safely at his house, a log one which he had, with the help of a neighbor by the name of Farnam, rolled up previous
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
to his departure to Connecticut. The nearest grist mill was six miles east of Canandaigua, and to this Mr. Woodruff often went with his oxen and the grist on the yoke between them, as he had no wagon, and there was hardly a road for one. At this time the In- dians were quite troublesome, and on one occasion when Mr. Woodruff was absent, they came to the number of thirty and demanded the bark which cov- ered the corncrib to make a covering for their huts, and upon being refused by Mrs. Woodruff, they came into the house, intoxicated, and remained the entire night, threatening the lives of herself and child. The next year, in the fall, a party of Indians came by Mr. Woodruff's, and one of them snatched up this same child and started off at full speed, but fortunately his course lay up a steep hill which somewhat arrested his flight. Luckily, a man who worked for Mr. Woodruff met him and relieved the child from its perilous situation. The next summer there was a great treaty had some place west of his house and eleven hundred Indians passed his place in Indian file and the train was over one mile in length. About the same time an Indian runner was sent out from Buffalo to go to Canandaigua, and reached Mr. Woodruff's house at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, seven- ty-five miles distant from Buffalo. He halted a few moments, took a drink of water, and started again, and reached Canandaigua before sunset, a total distance of one hundred miles. When Sullivan's army passed near the foot of Hemlock Lake, they cut down an orch- ard of apple trees. They afterwards sprouted up, and Mr. Woodruff cut some and stuck them into a potato and planted them, and one of the trees is now stand- ing, a venerable relic of his labor, bearing the best of native winter fruit.
George Smith was born in Dorset, Vermont, on the
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
3d of March, 1779, while his parents were moving from Scituate, Rhode Island, to the former state, in which they continued to reside until 1798. His ances- tors were of Rhode Island. His father, Oziel Smith, removed to Livonia, where he died in September, 1818, at the age of 78 years. His mother's maiden name was Margaret Walton .* In the winter of 1798, George engaged with Joel Roberts, of Lima, to drive a team of two yoke of oxen and a horse from Rutland, Vt., to the Genesee country, heavily loaded with plow irons, chains and other agricultural imple- ments. The journey was made in twenty four days. He remained in Lima until the spring of 1801, when he removed to Livonia with John Walcot, to work at the carpenter and joiner trade, and mill-wright business. Their first job was the erection of the first framed house built in the town of Livonia. This house in its original form is still standing. In 1803 he worked a season on the old court house now standing in Bata- via, and in the fall of the same year he erected a saw mill for the Holland Land Company at the Oak Orch- ard falls, now Medina. At that time the Ridge road was not cut out. The nearest inhabited house stood on the old Queenstown road, nine miles distant. In Jan- uary, 1807, he married Sally Woodruff .; In the March following he commenced house-keeping in a log house on the farm on which he has continued to reside to the present time. On the formation of the town, .Colonel Smith was elected assessor, and was elected supervisor in 1820, and several times there-
*She died in Clarendon, Vt., on the 10th of June, 1793, at the age of 39 years.
+Daughter of Nathan Woodruff of Litchfield, Ct. She died February 17th, 1835, at the age of 51 years. He re-married Dec. 23d, 1843, to widow He- lena M. Stout, of East Bloomfield, who died March 6th, 1845, at the age of 51 years,
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
after. He was appointed justice of the peace in 1819, and held the office about eight years. Immediately after the Declaration of war in 1812, he was commis- sioned as Major in Colonel Peter Allen's Regiment of Militia, and was ordered to the Niagara frontier. The regiment was first quartered at Five mile Meadows, and afterwards at Lewiston. When the order came on the 12th of October to attack Queenstown, the Major was detached and ordered to take charge of the boats and transportation. After the repulse of the troops under VanRensselaer, in the first movement, Major Mullany was ordered across with a hundred men. But the firing upon the boats in the first attempt, had demoralized the boatmen and they ran away. The soldiers however supplied their places, though lacking skill to manage the boats in the swift current, they were carried half a mile below the point of at- tack, and when they reached the shore were fired upon by the enemy, who left the heights and came down in such force as to make prisoners of the battal- ion with the exception of Major Mullany, Doctor Lawton of Philadelphia, and one other, who put off in a boat, and though exposed to a general fire from the British lines, they succeeded in making good their escape, their boat so badly riddled on reaching the American side that it was in a sinking condition. Meantime Captain, afterwards General Wool, was crossing the river with his forces, and stormed and took the heights. As soon as the American. forces had reached the other side, General Wadsworth, with a small force under orders took boats for the purpose of supporting the movement, and to take command of the attacking party. He directed Smith to raise the flag of his regiment, and to join his force. He promptly stepped in to one of the boats and unfurled the colors, though the enemy paid their respects to the
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
party with a twenty-four pounder planted over the river. He had the honor of planting this flag on the British battery. Major Smith was sent out under Colonel, afterwards General Winfield Scott, to drive the Indians who were firing upon the heights, from a piece of woods. On the re- return Major Smith passed an old soldier of the Revolution, then serving in Col. Stranahan's regiment, who was trying to scalp an Indian. On being ordered to desist, he replied that it had cost him a great deal of trouble to kill the Indian, for they had been dodging each other's shots for some time, and insisted that he might be permitted to preserve some remembrance of the red-skin. If not allowed the scalp he would content himself with the Indian's blanket, two good yards of blue broad-cloth, and stripping it from the body of his fallen antagonist, he deftly thrust the prize into his knapsack. After the hights were retaken by the British and our troops made prisoners, they were taken to Fort George, and at the end of a week were released on parole. Major Smith was a prisoner and was included in the parole. In 1817 he was appointed Colonel of the 94th Regi- ment of militia, and served two or three years in that capacity. On the organization of the county in 1821, he was elected to the Assembly, being the first repre- sentative from the new county, and the last under the first constitution.
In 1823 he was re-elected to the Assembly having for a colleague George Hosmer, of Avon. In person he lacked but half an inch of six feet ; weight 170; form masculine, complexion dark, and health good.
LEMAN GIBBS.
Leman Gibbs was a native of Litchfield, Connecti- cut, where he was born on the 15th of August, 1788.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
His parents, Eldad and Ester Riggs Gibbs, were sub- stantial Connecticut people, of limited means, who in 1801 concluded to cast their lot in the Genesee coun- try, whither so many from their native state had pre- ceeded them. In the latter part of the winter of that year, the parents, with Leman, then their only child, and Jeremiah Riggs, started from Litchfield by way of Albany in a sleigh. Before reaching Livonia they were compelled to substitute a wheeled vehicle. This was after a few days changed again for a sleigh, and near Canandaigua the load became stuck fast in the mud. Detaching the horses, Mrs. Gibbs mounted one and with the youth behind her, she followed her hus- band, who on foot, made his way along the Indian trail, by Pitt's Settlement to Solomon Woodruff's, the first settler in Livonia. The family settled about a mile north of the Centre. Although too young to render much aid in preparing the new home he yet took hold manfully, and thus early formed the habit peculiar to him in after life, of bearing his full share in every labor and duty. The country about their forest home was absolutely wild. Judge Gibbs said the "tameness of deer and birds was shocking." While out gathering berries one day with his mother, a beautiful fawn, quite likely chased by dogs, ran to him for protection and was taken to the house. Edu- cational opportunities in a neighborhood so sparsely settled, were scarce. Indeed no school was kept within reach. He however went to Bloomfield, where he spent two or three winters with the Rev. Dr. Hotchkiss, where he prosecuted the more useful studies with much zeal. At the age of eighteen he engaged to teach school, following the work during each successive winter for several years. His fond- ness for music had made him proficient in the art, and he opened a singing school. The early settlers were
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