USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 50
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON . COUNTY
setting a good table and entertaining friends. His death occurred Sept. 29th, 1825, at the age of 84 years. He was buried in the town of Conesus, a mile north of Scottsburgh, and no stone marks his grave.
The first newspapers circulated in Sparta, and the first in the county, were the Repository and the Mes- Benger, both of which were printed in Canandiagua, and delivered by post-riders. A postoffice was estab- lished in the town in 1814, with Samuel Stillwell as postmaster.
A great deal of whiskey was used in early days, although there was comparatively little drunkenness. Perhaps this was because the liquor was home made, and unadulterated with the vile poisons that are found in liquors of the present day. William Magee says : "There was a great deal of liquor used in those days. They had their bees to put up log cabins, log barns, and also their logging bees ; and to take it all in all, it required a great deal of liquor." The town of Sparta then embracing its largest territory, had eight stills in operation, from about 1796 to 1810. These were owned by William Lemen, William Magee, Alexander Mc- Donald, Hector Mckay, Nicholas Beach, John Hy- land, James Rodman and James Scott.
In June, 1806, James Scott *. left Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, with his family of ten children, in a long covered wagon drawn by four horses and a yoke of oxen, reaching Sparta on the first day of July. From Dansville they had to cut a road most of the way to their new home, and settled in the woods on lands now owned by Peter Swick and heirs of L. Doud. There was then no wagon road in any direc- tion. An Indian path ran from Conesus to Hemlock valley, and nothing more. To the eastward stretched
# Father of the Hon. William Scott of Scottsburgh.
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' HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
an unbroken wilderness to Naples, a distance of 18 miles. In what is now the town of Springwater . there was not a stick out nor line drawn. A good many Indians roamed through the woods ; and bears, wolves, panthers and deer, almost by the hundred, made their presence known. Two years before bringing his fam- ily, Mr. Scott had visited Sparta on horseback with his wife for the purpose of prospecting. The country Suited him and in the fall two of his sons and one daughter, came out, erected a log cabin and cleared off a piece of ground which they sowed to wheat. The next summer another son came out and drove a cow. All returned to Pennsylvania in the fall and came back with the family the following year.
"The Sabbath following our arrival in Sparta," says William Scott, " my father, one of the girls and four of us boys attended meeting at the house of George Mitchell, a log house standing two and one- · half miles south of what is now Scottsburg, and six miles south of Conesus lake, where Samuel Emmet, a Methodist minister, preached to a congregation of about twenty-five or thirty persons. I had heard the good man preach in Pennsylvania, and meeting him here renewed agreeable associations to us all."
"The season was one of great scarcity of flour here. But having learned the fact before leaving Pennsylva- nia, we brought a sufficient supply to last until new wheat could be harvested, of which there proved to . be a bountiful crop." The first town meeting attended by the Scotts after their arrival in Sparta, was held in 1807, in the present town of Groveland, at the house of Christian Roup, a log house standing less than a mile south of Groveland Center. Here they met John Smith, Joseph Richardson, Robert Burns, John Hunt, Andrew Culbertson, William and Daniel Kelly, Sam- uel Stillwell, James Rosebrugh, Thomas Begole, Wil- liam Doty, and others. -
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
James Scott was a native of the County Antrim, Ireland, though his parents were born in Scotland. The family sailed for America on the 21st of August, 1773, and reached New York on the 16th of October. They settled at Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania. At the breaking out of the Revolution James Scott joined the patriot forces, serving under Colonel Stroud, whose regiment was detached from field service and detailed to protect the frontier from the incursions of the In- dians, so frequent after the massacre of Wyoming. "My mother was staying with some friends in Phila- delphia at the time of the battles of Brandywine and Germantown and heard the sound of the cannon all day, and after the battles, so disastrous to the colon- ists, saw the British march into the city with colors flying, and take possession, though they did not seem disposed to disturb quiet citizens." Mr. Scott was married about the year 1780 to a daughter of John Smith, who had come from Londonderry, Ireland, at the same time with the Scotts. Mr. Scott lived at Mount Bethel until 1794, when he removed to North- umberland county, where he remained until his removal to Sparta. "My parents hearing much said about the Genesee country, resolved to see it for them- selves. They set out on horseback in the summer of 1804, and after a journey of five days reached Sparta. The same distance can now be made in half a day. A location was made, they returned, and at once pre- pared to take up their abode in the newer land of promise, where they continued to reside until their death." Mr. Scott died in 1840, at the ripe age of 84, his wife surviving him eleven years. It was truthfully said of him that he was never heard to utter one vul- gar or profane word. He was an even-tempered, patient, firm, and warm-hearted man, and was univer- sally respected.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
William Scott, upon whose recollections large drafts have been made in this work, and who is yet living, a hale, hearty old man, commenced his business life as a wool-carder and cloth-dresser. He says: "In Au- gust, 1807, Samuel Culbertson came to my father's to get a boy for a fortnight to assist in his carding shop at Dansville, and it was concluded that I should go and remain with him through the carding season. I, however, stayed with him through that year and the two following ones, and felt competent at the end of that time to take charge myself of a wool-carding and cloth-dressing shop."
In May, 1810, Mr. Scott hired out to Ichabod A. Holden and Russell Gilbert, who had a carding and cloth-dressing establishment two miles north of Hem- lock lake, at a place now called Jacksonville. His wages were $18 per month. "In the fall I hired to a man of the name of Plumb, at Norton's Mills, now Mendon, at $18 per month. Elder Weeks owned the works. After cloth-dressing was over at that place I returned to Holden & Gilbert's in Livonia and worked for them until the first of April. I had agreed with Mr. Laflesh to purchase a carding machine and set up the business in Dansville, in company with him, he being a carder as well as cabinet-maker. So I agreed with William Brisband of East Bloomfield to furnish one for $400, one-fourth to be paid down and the re- mainder in three equal annual instalments. When the time came for setting up the machine, Laflesh could not pay his part of the first payment, which put me to much embarrassment, it being my first effort to set up business for myself." Mr. Scott saw Colonel Nathan- iel Rochester, as is stated in the sketch of Dansville, and formed a partnership, which helped him out of his difficulty.
Afterward Mr. Scott was foreman in the wool-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
carding and cloth-dressing establishment which Ben- jamin Hungerford started in what is now the town of West Sparta in 1814, where he remained for some time. "I engaged with Judge Hurlburt, of Arkport, to take charge of his carding and cloth-dressing works through the season, at $35 per month. The following year I took the works on shares. I doubt not the good influence surrounding me during the two years I resided in the Judge's family had a favor. able influence over me during my subsequent life. The Judge had settled in Arkport in 1795."
"Having settled up my business at Arkport I re- turned to Sparta, making up my mind to settle there for life, in the spring of 1819. I commenced building a house at Collartown, or Scottsburgh, which I com- pleted in the autumn of the same year. That house is now owned and occupied as a hotel by Captain Dar- ling Havens,* a worthy representative of a family of hotel-keepers, who, for three quarters of a century have made the name a favorite one with the travelling public."
Mr. Scott was married Feb. 9th, 1820, to Phebe Woodruff, daughter of Isaac Woodruff of Livonia. In the spring of 1821 he opened the public house at Scottsburgh, and continued in that business until the completion of his new house in 1826. The following year he sold the tavern stand to Dr. E. Wright, and moved to his new residence. He was elected a Jus- tice of the Peace in 1835, and filled the office for twelve consecutive years. The little stone building in which he held court was often the scene of sharp en- counters between members of the bar. Mr. Harwood, of Dansville, and Philip Woodruff, of Scottsburgh, were often pitted against each other. Harwood was
* He has since died.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
always plausible with witnesses and skillful in pre- senting the strongest points of his case, and so court- eous that he usually had some advantage over his opponent. Woodruff was much more thoroughly versed in the law, was a man of keen discernment, and possessed a high sense of honor. He was very successful in his practice and always true to his clients and friends.
In 1836 Mr. Scott was elected to the Assembly and was re-elected the following year. In 1847 he was elected Sessions Justice, under the new constitution, occupying the bench with Judge Lord, County Judge, and John H. Jones of Leicester, associate Sessions Justice. In 1856, Mrs. Scott died, "a bereavement that fell like a blight upon my pathway," says Mr. Scott, who, in a retrospective letter, written after hav- ing passed man's allotted time-three score years and ten-says : "Many a heartfelt enjoyment has been shared by me in former days with near and dear friends. And, calmly turning from the Past, with its teeming memories, to the Future, with all its tran- scendent interests, with that eye of Faith which sees more and more clearly as life advances, I may be per- mitted to say that I derive assured consolation for anything that may be denied here by bereavements, in the hope of a perpetual re-union of friends in a happy Immortality."
In the fall of 1813 Mr. Scott went on horseback from Sparta, by way of Dansville, Painted Post and New- town to Meansville, now Towanda, Pa., to order mill- stones for the first grist-mill .built in Scottsburgh. The stone was quarried in the mountain above. He ordered the stones, for which he paid $60, and the fol- lowing winter a team was sent for them, the transpor- tation charges amounting to $80. Mr. Scott thinks the " runner" of these two stones is now in Zehner's mill.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
About the middle of June, 1813, it commenced rain- ing and continued for three or four days, when just at evening, on the 19th of that month, the rain began to fall in torrents, increasing in volume until the flood threatened to wash away every structure on the mountain streams of Sparta. Benjamin Hungerford, of West Sparta Hill, had but just completed a new saw-mill on Duncan's creek, and placed a new set of machinery in the old carding shop, when the storm came and swept machines, structures and all away. Colonel Rochester's saw-mill dam on the East Dans- ville creek, which supplied water for himself and for Scott's carding mill, was also carried out. But the most notable loss was that of William D. McNair's grist-mill, which stood on Stony Brook, a few rods east of the highway leading from Dansville to Haven's tavern. The building was strongly built of stone on a solid foundation, and so confident was the proprie- tor of its security, even on such a night, that becom- ing alarmed, as the storm increased, for the safety of the log house in which he was living, he moved his household effects into the mill, and his family to the miller's house. Scarcely had they reached the latter place than a loud crash announced the total destruc- tion of the stone mill, with all its machinery and stores of grain and goods.
Seldom has such a storm been witnessed in this country, and the popular notion was that a cloud had " burst." The flood washed mill-stones many rods from their place, and buried them so deeply in the sand and gravel that only after the washings of lesser floods for many years afterwards, were they discov- ered. It may be stated, as a curious fact, that the log house above alluded to survived the storm and still stands.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
SPRINGWATER.
Area : 32,562 acres; population in 1875, 2,129. Boundaries : north by Conesus and Canadice (Ontario Co.); east by Naples, (Ontario Co.); south by Way- land and Cohocton, (Steuben Co.); west by Sparta.
Springwater is the largest town, and forms the south-eastern corner of the county, its eastern half extending six miles beyond the general eastern line of Livingston. It was erected on the 17th of April, 1816, and was formed from Sparta and Naples, both towns then belonging to Ontario County. Its name was de- rived from the abundance and excellence of the springs which everywhere break out along the bottom of the hilly grounds, and was chosen at a meeting of the inhabitants called to petition for its erection. Other names were suggested but Seth Knowles said that none were so suitable and expressive as that they selected. The soil of the town is a sandy and gravelly loam, plentifully interspersed here and there with clay. Its surface is somewhat broken, and is more hilly than any other town in the eastern half of the county, and both from soil and topography, it is bet- ter suited for grazing purposes than for grain. The inlet of Hemlock lake, which flows north ward through the western portion of the town, is the principal stream. Cohocton river has its source in the north- eastern part of the town, and passes thence south- ward into Steuben county. The Pultney estate em- braced a portion of Springwater, and several sharply litigated suits have grown out of the peculiar charac- ter of the title to that property in the town.
On an elevated hill, not far from the head of the lake, were found many years ago remains of the Fort- builders, over whose history yet broods so much of uncertainty, showing that the locality whose natural
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
beauty has so much in it to attract, was known to, and appreciated by the aboriginal races ages ago. The first settler in Springwater Valley, then called Hem- lock Valley, was Seth Knowles, a native of Connecti- cut, who settled on lot 18, in 1807. His house, a small log tenement, stood a mile above the lake on the east · side of the valley. The spot is not far from John Jennings' dwelling house. The next settler was Sam- uel Hines, " who located here in 1808. He built a saw mill the following year, three miles above the lake, which subsequently became the property of Farnum and Tyler. Hugh Wilson, who came from Northum- berland, Pa., built the pioneer grist-mill in 1813, at the foot of the hill where the road from Scottsburg enters the valley. It occupied nearly the present site of Charles Brewer's mill. It was a frame building, about twenty-two by thirty, two stories high, and had two runsof stones. Elder John Wiley, who settled in Springwater on the 14th of March, 1815, found thirty families in the town. He crossed Hemlock lake on the ice, returning from the war then just closed, and on reaching the western side, learned that peace between England and America had been declared. The for- rests, he says, were yet in a state of nature, with only here and there a small patch of clearing. The hamlet of Springwater then contained one frame dwelling house, built by Samuel Story on the premises subse- quently owned by Harvey S. Tyler, a frame barn built by Mr. Watkins, of Naples, and now owned by heirs of Edward Withington, and a little frame "seven by nine" store, erected by Hosea H. Grover, who kept the first store, built the first ashery, and made the first barrel of potash. There were also
* Another account claims Phineas Gilbert as the second settler. It is said that he removed to Springwater in 1806, and settled on the lot afterward owned by Dr. John B. Norton, about 100 rods north of Gilbert's house.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
three frame saw-mills and a frame grist-mill, besides four or five log houses. There was then but one school house in the town, a "small log structure " said Mr. Wiley, "which stood in my dooryard and which in after years I tore down." "Grover," he says, " ex- changed goods for shingles, boards, maple-sugar and black salts or potash, articles then reckoned as lawful currency for we had no other medium. The war had left us without money. Shingles rated at twenty shillings, and boards at seven dollars per thousand, while common shirting was worth half a dollar a yard, plug and pig-tail tobacco from fifty to sixty cents a pound, and salt five dollars a barrel, and very hard to get even at that. We were shut up in this then re- mote region. Horses weres carce enough. I think there were but three in town. Mr. Goodrich of East Hill told me he supplied his large family with pota- toes all one season by bringing a bushel and a half at a time from Richmond, a dozen miles away, on his back, and Sylvester Capron said that for the first year he carried the flour of a bushel and a half of wheat on his back from Reed's Mill, in Richmond, a like distance. Harvey S. Tyler, then about eighteen years of age, was the first school teacher I knew, though I believe that Jas. Blake had kept a school the previous winter in the log school house. David Henry, who some years afterwards removed to Michigan, was the first physician that settled in Springwater. On reach ing the Valley I found Elder John Cole, a Baptist minister, there. He was the first clergyman who set- tled in the town. Of the Methodist Society, Phineas Gilbert, a native of Massachusetts, who located in Springwater in 1810, was the class leader when I reached there. The society then consisted of half a dozen persons. The Methodist circuit then embraced Bloomfield and Springwater, or Hemlock Valley as
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
our place was then called, and was supplied by the Rev. Elisha House, a man of superior parts, assisted by James S. Lent, a son-in-law of Lemuel Jennings, of Geneseo. The first quarterly meeting ever held in the town was under charge of Abner Chase, Presiding Elder of Ontario district, in 1820 or 21, in the barn of Jonathan Lawrence, who was then the class leader. The barn stood on the premises now owned by Addi- son Marvin. The society met at private houses until the school house accommodated it better. There was no Presbyterian society, nor any member of that church in the town when I reached there. In a year or so, Mrs. Lucy Chamberlain, my grandmother, who had been a member of the Presbyterian church at Dalton, Mass., for fifty-one years, came here to reside with her daughter, Mrs. Lawrence, wife of Jonathan Lawrence. The old lady took a letter from the Rev. Mr. Jennings, of Dalton, on leaving there, but told him she had learned that there was no Presbyterian congregation at Springwater, and that she would unite with the Methodists, which she did. The Rev. Mr. Bell, a Presbyterian Missionary, preached a ser- mon in the house of Dr. David Henry in 1816, the first sermon preached by a Presbyterian minister in the town I think.
The first distillery in the town was built by Alvah Southworth, on premises then owned by Jonathan Lawrence. It was a frame building, about twenty by thirty feet. About twenty gallons a day was distilled from rye and corn, thus making a home market for these grains. The spirit was sold at the still, and car- ried away by farmers in jugs and bottles, and occa- sionally in kegs.
"The first wool-carding and cloth-dressing establish- ment was erected by Edward Walker in 1821, on prem- ises now owned by William Brewer. It was a frame
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
building, about twenty-two by thirty, two stories high, the cloth-dressing part below and the carding above. The new settlement was generally blessed with good health, but in the winter of 1813-14, as I was told, the epidemic, or cold 'plague,' visited the valley. One of the earliest settlers named Farnam, and his wife, , both died, and were both buried in one grave. An incident of the winter of 1816 cast a shadow over our new settlement. A Mr. Goodrich, a shingle maker, living on West Hill, on the farm now owned by Nehe- miah Osborn, had been busy shaving shingles all the morning, and in the afternoon both he and his wife had been called away to a neighbor's, leaving the two children, aged two and five years, alone at home. By some means the shavings took fire, and when the parents started back they saw their house a mass of flames. Of course assistance, even if it could have been had, was then useless, and both children were burned to a crisp, and the house and contents com- pletely destroyed. The year I came to Springwater, 1815, I presume there was not more than one hundred, certainly not to exceed two hundred bushels of winter wheat raised in the town. In three years the annual production was increased ten fold. In 1816 I paid for one bushel of wheat at Hugh Wilson's mill, to Joseph Cady, the sum of three dollars, then a common price scarce as money was, and it was very scarce. I was then boarding with 'Squire Southworth. I went down to breakfast one morning, and was informed that there was no wheat bread nor any wheat flour in the house. I sent my brother with a horse to Pitts' mill, Rich- mond, a distance of twelve miles, where he procured two bushels of wheat as a favor. He rode a horse. I was present at the first town meeting. Politics entered little into the contest for the office of supervisor, we looked alone to the qualifications of the candidates.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
There was Oliver Jennings on one side, and Samuel Story on the other. Jennings was declared elected by a majority of one. The friends of Story, because of some alleged informality, claimed the election for their man. They went to Canandaigua, got the first elec- tion set aside and a new one ordered. We tried it over again, and Jennings was elected the second time by one majority. John Culver, appointed by the Gov- ernor, was the first justice of the peace in town. After enduring the inconvenience of being without a post-office as long as possible we at last succeeded in getting a mail and post-office. Alvah Southworth was the first Post-Master. On the arrival of the first mail, so great was the satisfaction of all that the farmers and everybody came down to the village to satisfy themselves that there was no delusion about it."
The few Presbyterian families among the first set- tlers were occasionally visited by a minister of that denomination. It. was not, however, until fourteen years after the settlement of the town, that a church was formed. It consisted of twelve members, and was formed on the 10th of February, 1821. The Rev. Lyman Barrett, of Naples, preached the first sermon, and continued to supply the pulpit occasionally for the next five years. After him the Rev. James Cahoun performed similar service for about three years. The Rev. Seymour Thompson was stated sup- ply for nearly three years. The Rev. Daniel B. Woods was ordained and installed pastor Sept. 19th, 1839, and was dismissed from his pastoral charge August 25th, 1841. The Rev. William Hunter snc- ceeded Mr. Woods in October of the same year, and was ordained and installed Sept. 25th, 1844. He still retains his relation to the church. The house of wor- ship was dedicated December 31, 1840.
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
WEST SPARTA.
Area, 19,820 acres; population in 1875, 1,208. Boundaries : on the north by Groveland ; east by Sparta ; south by Ossian ; west by Mount Morris.
West Sparta was formed on the division of the old town of Sparta, Feb. 27th, 1846. Its surface is quite hilly, and some of the highest summits are 500 to 700 feet above the valleys .. The soil is a clay loam in the northern part, and a sandy loam in the southern por- tion of the town. Canaseraga creek flows along the eastern border, and Butler Brook, a small stream, in the southern part, in which is a perpendicular fall of about 60 feet. In the northeastern part of the town is a large marsh known as Canaseraga swamp.
The town contains no large village, but has four small hamlets, Kysorville, Union Corners, Beyersville and Woodville. There are four churches in the town Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, Baptist and Chris- tian. The first church organization was the Baptist.
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