USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 47
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
617
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
accustomed to introduce the popular songs of the day at the frequent social gatherings, and here Judge Gibbs was always foremost. His uncle, Jeremiah Riggs, was quite gifted in making impromptu coup. lets on some familiar theme, a verse of which he would "line," and Judge Gibbs was as apt in wed- ding them to music, and these impoverished efforts were the source of special delight to the little assem- blages. The hospital house of Eldad Gibbs was always open to new comers, and many were the good- natured practical jokes played by the circle of young men who often gathered there, upon any pretentious night. A gentleman from an eastern city on a pros- pecting tour, had sought and obtaind permission to spend Saturday and Sunday in this household. Be- fore going to church, he asked if he could be shaved. "Certainly," answered one of the youngsters. The preparations were made and one-half of his face was carefully shaven and the back of the razor carefully rubbed over the other side. A home-made pomade of bear's-grease was then deftly applied to one side of his head, while the opposite side was left to luxuriate in its native harshness. Looking-glasses were not common in those days, and the city gentle- man was not aware until he reached the next settle- ment, why his appearance had attracted so much attention at the log church.
It was but natural that Judge Gibbs should hold office. His excellent good sense, and his honest worthiness, commended him to the suffrages of his neighbors, and, without any effort or volition on his part, he was called to public stations as soon as he was old enough to take office, and was continuously in office until his failing strength compelled him to give up all public employment. He was first elected constable, and was then appointed deputy sheriff,
618
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
when the county still belonged to Ontario: He held the office of justice of the peace for nearly thirty-five years, and on the erection of Livingston county was appointed side judge, and occupied a place on the bench until the present constitution substituted the office of sessions justice, for which latter he was at once designated. He was several times elected super- visor. His early official duties were performed while the law of imprisonment for debt was in force. In its most favorable aspect, this law operated harshly, and in a new community, where credit is a necessity and money scarce, instances were constantly presented of great hardship and cruelty. Judge Gibbs was a man of too tender sensibility to draw the head of a pioneer family to prison, or to deprive a family of their last cow, and while he often mitigated the severity of the law to the deserving, he was now and then imposed upon by the professions of some worthless fellow, and between the two he became so involved by being obliged to pay debts contracted by. others, but for which, and of tenderness in executing the law, he had rendered himself liable that at one time all his worldy possessions were advertised for sale, and it was only by the timely help of friends that he was enabled to stay the sale and to get clear of his embarrassments ; and it required the labor of many years to recover from the effects of this trouble.
He served as Member of Assembly in 1854, and after the close of the session was appointed a commis- sioner to examine the public account. His practical good sense was shown in the report made by himself and his fellow commissioners, in which several incip- ient abuses were pointed out and checked by subse- quent legislation. Judge Gibbs had a fondness for military matters. Entering the militia as a musician he passed through the several grades to that of Briga-
619
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
dier General, from which he resigned. While holding the rank of sergeant he was promoted above a supe- rior. The jealousy of the latter led to a misunder- standing, and finally to a challenge to fight a duel. Mutual friends stepped in and the difficulty was ami- cably settled. In his own town he stood as a sort of common peacemaker and arbitrator and had much to do in quieting neighborhood difficulties. He was a firm and consistent christian for many years, and not only by precept but by example, did he let his light shine. His form was robust, and he lacked but an inch of six feet in hight, was of dark complexion, and healthy constitution.
MOUNT MORRIS.
Area, 28,545 acres; population in 1875, 3,817. Bounded on the north by Leicester ; east by Grove- land and West Sparta ; south by Nunda and Portage ; west by Castile (Wyoming County).
Mount Morris is one of the larger towns and lies on the western border of the county. It takes its name from Robert Morris of Revolutionary memory, who in the spring of 1792, purchased the great farm of Ebenezer Allen, which embraced the village site and many a broad acre of the flats. The town was formed from Leicester, by an act of the Legislature on the 17th of April 1818. Its surface is greatly diversified. On the eastward between Canaseraga creek and the foot of the table lands spreads a broad alluvial plain of unsurpassed fertility, two miles in width. The ground then rises abruptly to the first terrace, along
620
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
the edge of which runs the Genesee Valley Canal, traversing the town from north to south. Stretching riverward with a uniform grade the western border at- tains an altitude of several hundred feet above the flats. The territory of the town is singularly free of waste lands, as scarce an acre can be found that is not already under cultivation or capable of a high degree of culture. The farms are to an exceptionally large extent, the property of actual occupants, and the farm houses and buildings which exceed in number those of any other town in the county, rate above the average in quality, a fair index of the thrift and com- fort that generally abounds. Nature, too, has be- stowed her favors liberally. The scenery from every point of the extended plateau is rich and varied, a vast park-like landscape, picturesque in its highlands and bottoms, and diversified by the winding river and sin- nous creek. The uplands bordering the flats in the neighborhood of the river were a favorite haunt of the Indians, and also of the fort-builders as has already been shown. Though the principal villages of the Senecas in later times were located on the western side of the Genesee, yet there was a considerable town known as Big Kettle's village, near Mount Morris. No sooner was the Genesee country opened to settle- ment than the advantages of this region attracted cap- italists from New England and Pennsylvania. Eben- ezer Allen, the " Blue Beard " of the border, had se- cured a large donation in lands from the Indians and had opened a store near Damon's Run in 1790, first exhibiting his wares under the great council Elm. He replenished his stock in Philadelphia, and took every occasion afforded by his visits to that city, to make known the advantages of this locality. That city was then the seat of the general government, and Colonel Trumbull, an officer of the personal staff of
621
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
Washington, whose artist brush has preserved some of the most interesting subjects of Revolutionary his- tory, formed the half romantic notion of establishing his home in these beautiful wilds .* He purchased a section of land, planted an orchard, made some pre- paration for building a residence near the site of the late Judge Hastings' house, and changed the name of the spot to Richmond Hill. For some reason the pur- pose was abandoned by him and the property passed from Allen into the hands of Robert Morris, who it is quite certain designed making the place his home. Its name was changed to its present designation.
Ebenezer Allen was the pioneer of the whites. He settled first near Mt. Morris in 1785. His career, the more notable portion of which is associated with the town, forms a curious episode in early annals. He was one of those daring characters, without conscience or patriotism, who thrive best in troublous times. A native of New Jersey, he took the tory side in the Revolution, and was forced to quit his home, finding an asylum toward the close of the struggle among the Indians along the Genesee, where he worked Mary Jemison's land until the return of peace. He de- feated soon after, by a characteristic trick, a plan of the frontier Indians and British to renew the border troubles. Just before an expedition was to start he procured a belt of wampum and carried it as a token of peace to the nearest American fort. The act was wholly unauthorized, but so sacred a thing was the wampum, that the Indians determined to bury the hatchet, resolving, however, to punish Allen for the cheat. He was pursued for months but eluded their
* Trumbull painted the historic pictures of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and Washington resign- ing his commission.
622
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
clutches by hiding in the woods and fastnesses .* When pursuit ceased, Hi-a-ka-too replaced his tattered gar- ments, and Allen settled down near Mt. Morris, mar- rying a squaw named Sally. The following spring he purchased at Philadelphia a boat-load of goods, which were brought to Mt. Morris by way of Cohocton, and bartered for ginseng and furs. After harvesting a large crop of corn and wheat he took up a farm near Scottsville at the mouth of a creek that bears his name. The next season Phelps and Gorham gave him a hun- dred acres of land on the west side of the river where Rochester now stands, on consideration that he would build a grist and saw-mill there.t In 1791 he asked the Senecas to grant a portion of the Genesee flats to his daughters Mary and Chloe, born of his Indian wife Kycudanent or Sally. The Indians disliked him, and showed no haste to comply, but he made a feast at which more whiskey than meat was served, and thus secured a deed of four square miles, including the site of Mt. Morris, which took the name of Allen's Hill, and the adjacent flats to the east .; Thither he returned in the summer of 1792, built a house and planted a crop. Agriculture alone did not suffice him, and he prepared to add a store-house to his log man- sion. The Indians warned him that timber collected
* He was subsequently taken prisoner by the Indians, carried to Canada, tried and acquitted. See Turner's Holland Purchase, p. 298.
+ He built the mills, and in 1792 assigned his interest in the tract to Benj. Barton for 200 " pounds N. Y. currency." In 1802 the tract was purchased by Col. Wm. Fitzhugh, Col. Rochester and Charles Carroll.
# The deed provided. that Allen should have care of the land until his daughters were married or became of age, and out of its proceeds he should cause the girls to be instructed in reading and writing, sewing and other useful arts, according to the customs of the white people. "Sally, the mother, was to have comfortable maintainance during her natural life or re- mained unjoined to another man."-Turner's Holland Purchase, p. 301.
The daughters were fine looking girls, and were educated in Philadelphia.
623
. HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
for such a purpose would go into the Genesee. He persisted, however, and the Senecas, when all was got together, headed by Jim Washington and Kennedy, took the timber, carried it to the river and threw it in, and saw it float away. But Allen got out more, built a saw-mill at Gibsonville to supply lumber, and erected a store-house where Judge Hastings' residence now stands. By this time he had taken several wives, red, black and white, and scarcely had he settled in his new quarters before another, Millie Gregory,* was added to his rude harem.
In one of his yearly visits to Philadelphia he met Robert Morris, to whom he gave a glowing account of the Genesee country. "Hemp grows like young wil- lows," said he, "and the forest trees about this city are no larger than the branches of trees in my neigh- borhood." As settlers increased Allen grew uneasy, and in 1797, Governor Simcoe of Canada having granted him lands on the Thames river, he removed thither after selling the tract on the Genesee to Robert Morris, who changed the name to Mt. Morris. Allen's life closed in 1814, in Canada, after a checkered career. Many crimes, most of which grew out of his sensual nature, have been imputed to Allen, and appears to rest upon creditable authority. His moral character certainly appears to great disadvantage. " He mur- dered those for whom he professed most friendship, and out of sheer love of blood, would beat out the
* Or McGregor, daughter of a white settler at Sonyea. Two men were hired to drown her, taking her in a canoe they ran over the rapids at Roch- ester " swimming ashore themselves, but leaving her to go over the main falls." She, however, disappointed them by saving herself and soon ap- pearing in the presence of her faithless lord at the mouth nf the river, a dripping nymph. She followed him to Canada, and became one of his new household and became the mother of six children .- Turner's Phelps and Gorham Purchase, p. 406.
624
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
brains of infants when on the war-path." Altogether he holds a most unenviable place in pioneer annals .*
The first Baptist minister who preached in Mt. Morris was the Rev. Samuel Mills, father of General William A. Mills. The first Presbyterian minister was the Rev. Robert Hubbard. The preachers who most frequently visited Mt. Morris were from among the Methodists, among whom occur the names of Jesse Lee and John B. Hudson. Before 1810 a small Methodist class was formed in this settlement, which soon disappeared from deaths, removals, and other causes, and yet the place was visited at stated times by preachers of this order. About the year 1813, Rev. Daniel D. Butterick came to this section with the de- sign of laboring as a missionary among the Indians near the village, if the way seemed open. He made some efforts for them, but for some reason soon aban- doned his plan and spent his days as a missionary among the Cherokees. It was in the year 1814 that the Presbyterian church of Mt. Morris was organized. On the 29th of April of that year the following four- teen individuals met in the school house and were formed into a church: Jesse Stanley, Jonathan Beach, Luther Parker, Enos Baldwin, Abraham Camp, Luman Stanley, Russel Sheldon, Almira Hop- kins, Lucy Beach, Martha Parker, Sarah Baldwin, Mary Camp, Patty M. Stanley and Clarissa Sheldon. In 1831, the present Methodist society of Mt. Morris was organized. The Protestant Episcopal Church of Mt. Morris was organized in the spring of 1833. In 1839 the Baptist society was constituted. The school house was for a long time the only public room for holding religious services. Allen Ayrault, Wm. A. Mills and Jesse Stanley assisted in putting seats in
* Historical sermon of Rev. Mr. Chichester.
625
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
this school house, for the purpose of holding meet- ings about the year 1815. They were constructed with high wooden backs, and "they felt prouder," said Mr. Ayrault, "with the accommodations thus afforded than many would at the completion of the most costly church edifice." The first Presbyterian church was dedicated January, 1832. It stood where now is the orchard of Dr. Branch, back of his residence. Ten years afterwards it was removed a few rods to the south, fronting State street, and enlarged by an addi- tion of twenty-five feet in length, which made its dimensions eighty-four by forty-four feet. September 29th, 1852, it was destroyed by fire. The dimensions of the new brick edifice are eighty by fifty-two feet. The lot was the gift of John R. Murray, Esq. The Methodist Episcopal church was dedicated January 1st, 1833. A few months later the society of the Protestant Episcopal church dedicated their house of worship. In 1840 the Baptist society dedicated their house of worship.
GENERAL WILLIAM A. MILLS. .
' Among the earliest settlers of Mt. Morris was Major- General William A. Mills, who was born May 27th, 1777, in the town of New Bedford, Westchester County, New York. His father the Rev. Samuel I. Mills, was a Presbyterian minister, and a graduate of Yale College-a native of Derby, Connecticut. Gen. Mills located at Mount Morris in 1794, at seventeen years of age. His capital consisted of good health, a common suit of clothes, a five franc silver piece in his pocket, and an axe on his shoulder. He put up a small cabin on the high table land overlooking the flats, at the north end of the present village, where he lived several years, keeping bachelor's hall, on most friendly terms with his neighbors the Indians, and
.
626
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
cultivating land on the flats in common with them, raising Indian corn and stock. He learned to speak the Indian language fluently, and ere long had so worked into the good will and friendship of the In- dians that he gained their entire confidence and be- came their advisor and counsel in their dealings .with white people in that locality, and was also their arbi- trator not unfrequently to settle matters of dispute arising among themselves. He was a personal and warm friend of "Tall Chief," the head of the Seneca tribe at Allan's Hill and Squakie Hill, and was also well acquainted and on friendly terms with "Red Jacket," chief of the Senecas near Buffalo. Mary Jemison the " White Woman," was a frequent visitor at his house, living only five miles distant at Gar- deau. His Indian name was Sa-nem-ge-wa, or "Big Kettle," meaning in our language generous. From his long residence among the Indians he became much attached to them, and they to him. He never deceived or cheated them in all his dealings with them ; the re- sult was he had their entire confidence, and never lost it. In after years when the Indians had by treaty given up their lands about Mount Morris and moved to the Indian reservation near Buffalo, when passing backward and forward through the country, as they frequently did, they always made it a point to stay over night with Sa-nem-ge-wa. Even to this day, among the older Indians on the reservation west of Buffalo, the name of Sa-nem-ge-wa is still familiar, but they have lost the tradition and only know that it relates to some great and good white man, the In- dian's friend, who has long since gone to the happy hunting grounds and is there waiting for them to come. The only white man at Mt. Morris when Gen- eral Mills located there was Clark Cleveland, a mason by trade, intemperate and dissolute in his habits.
1.
627
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
Indian Allan had been there, but at this time was liv- ing with the Indians west of the Genesee river at Beardstown. General Mills built the first house erected by a white man in the village. It stood near- ly opposite the residence of the late Daniel A. Miller on Stanley street. It was a block house, made by flatting sticks of timber on both sides for the walls, the roof being made of staves or long shingles split from oak logs .* General Mills was married March 30th, 1803, to Miss Susanah H. Harris, at her father's house at Tioga Point, Pa. Miss Harris came to Mt. Morris in 1802, all the way on horseback from her home, to visit her brother and his family who had located there. While there she became acquainted with young Mills, who soon followed her home and they were married. She was a most excellent christian woman, and was highly esteemed by all who knew her not only for her social qualities but for her kind- ness of heart and liberality to the poor and needy. She died in April, 1840. Previous to his marriage General Mills had constructed a substantial log house on the high elevation of ground overlooking the flats, in which he reared a large family and there resided until the fall of 1898, when he moved into his elegant brick mansion which he had just completed, and which is now the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Dr. Branch. He continued cultivating the land on the flats in common with his Indian neighbors, raising grain and stock, and also added to it the distilling business until the lands came into market, which was fourteen years from the time he first settled in Mt. Morris. During this time many of the settlers who came and located there, finding the fever and ague
* Gen. Mills sold this house before occupying it as was his intention, to a settler by the name of Baldwin, but soon bought it back again.
628
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
prevalent, from which all suffered more or less in that locality, were discouraged and moved away to other sections of the country, but the subject of this sketch, not daunted, and with a resolution and fixedness of purpose which knew no defeat, remained with the firm determination to become the owner some day of at least a portion of the rich alluvial bottom lands which he had so long cultivated. His first purchase was twenty acres on the flats, for which he paid fifty dollars in silver per acre. This was the lowest priced land he ever bought on the Genesee flats, although the general received opinion always has been that he got his lands for little or nothing. They were reserved lands and always considered valuable, and when brought into market, sold for the extraordinary high price above stated. In his later purchases he paid as high as $80 per acre. At the same time the uplands could be bought for from ten to fifteen dollars an acre. General Mills was at the time of his death a large land holder, owning about eight hundred acres of the most choice land in the Genesee Valley. Considering the fact that he commenced without capital, paid such prices, and made his money substantially from the soil to pay for them, shows a degree of success, seldom if ever equaled in any new country. He was the first Justice of the Peace, and Supervisor of the town of Mt. Morris for twenty years in succession. He was prominently connected with all the measures of public utility which effected this section, and especially his locality, from the time he settled in Mt. Morris in 1794 to the time of his death in 1844. He was one of the commissioners to petition the Legislature to authorize the construction of a dam across the Genesee river at Mt. Morris and to excavate a canal or race from the river to the vil- lage, a distance of a mile. This enterprise secured to
629
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
the village of Mt. Morris a good water-power, which materially aided the growth and prosperity of the place, and is to-day of great value to the village .* Previous to this the nearest grist-mill was twenty miles distant, at which place the grinding for his dis- tillery was done. General Mills organized the first militia company in Livingston county, and was elected Captain. In the war of 1812 he went to the frontier, where he remained until the war closed, rendering his country valuable service. Report reached Mt. Morris that he was killed on the frontier. Some of his neigh- bors got together and called on Mrs. Mills to sympa- thize with her, and also to inform her they had agreed to start the next morning for the frontier, in pursuit of his dead body. Adam Hostlander, John Eagle, Mr. Stanley, Lewis Baldwin and Arzel Powell were foremost in this pursuit.
During that night General Mills reached his home, to the great surprise of his family and neighbors. He soon after fell sick with the Genesee or spotted fever brought on by fatigue and hardship on the frontier, from which he barely survived, after six weeks con- finement to his bed. He was always ready to assist the poor and needy and never turned such away empty-handed or disappointed. He was the standing "aid " for all the early settlers in the town of Mt. Morris who bought land and moved on to it, and could
* My informant assures me he well remembers the morning this work was commenced and the first shovel-full of earth cast. The village people and laborers, amounting perhaps to 100 persons, assembled at the foot of the hill, on the line of the work just north of the present wagon-road bridge across the race, as you go north to the Genesee river. It was here the first ground was broken. The men were all drawn up in line, appropriate re -. marks were made by Deacon Stanley and General Mills, the latter excavating the first shovel-full of earth, Deacon Stanley tho next, after which wine and liquor was drank, and the work of furnishing Mt. Morris with water-power thus inaugurated.
630
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
not pay for it. He never allowed one such to lose his land. He was on those early settlers' paper to the average amount of $12,000 for nearly twenty years. He never lost but $250 in consequence. In no in- stance can it be said of him that he ever charged any- thing for his services, and the responsibility incurred in their behalf, or that he would allow them to pay him anything for these valuable services, extending through many years. The result was that there was scarcely a farmer in town but that sooner or later be- came under obligations to General Mills. In the sum- mer of 1816, the crops in Allegany County were almost entirely destroyed by frost especially on the Short Tract, and at Caneadea. In the winter follow- ing there was a famine in these neighborhoods. Teams and sleighs were sent down to Mt. Morris for wheat and corn. The settlers who came down brought no money to pay for their supplies for the best reason in the world, they had none nor could raise none in their neighborhood to bring. They called on General Mills and laid their case be- fore him, and the condition of their people at home, and said if he would let them have what they wanted he should some day be paid amply therefor. Though strangers to him he listened to their tale of suffering, and literally filled their sleighs with corn and other grain and pork, and sent them home rejoicing. The following summer in harvest time, fourteen of the residents of Caneadea and Short Tract came to Mt. Morris and worked for him, thus paying him in full for his generous act in providing food for their starving people the winter previous. His military career was quite as successful as his financial. As before stated, he organized the first militia company in what is now Livingston county, and from this small beginning rose to the rank of Major-General of the militia of the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.