USA > New York > Ontario County > A history of Ontario County, New York and its people, Volume I > Part 20
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Dr. Elnathan W. Simmons was born in Bristol, Ontario county, June 2, 1811, and practiced medicine in the county probably as long or longer than any other physician. He was also widely and favorably known throughout the county as a consultant. For two years he had his office at Cheshire, for five years at Rushville, and for a short time in Bristol. The remainder of the time he was in Canandaigua. He served also in the army and after a useful life full of responsibility and beloved by his townsmen, he died May 13. 1903.
Dr. Joseph T. Smith, another charter member of the Canan- daigua Village Medical Society, was born in Farmington, Ontario county, and received his medical diploma from Jefferson Medical College in. 1854. He practiced medicine for many years, devoting considerable attention to surgery, having also had experience as an army surgeon during the Civil war.
Dr. Harvey Jewett was another of the group of physicians who formed a connecting link between the pioneers and the physicians of the present generation. He began practice at Allen's Hill in 1832, at about the time that Dr. Cheney came to Canandaigua. For twenty years he led an arduous life, riding a great deal on horse- back through that section. He did considerable work in surgery and also in dentistry. In 1852 he came to Canandaigua and until the very hour of his sudden and unexpected death in September, 1888, he was actively engaged in practice. He served the com- munity in many ways outside of his profession and was for many years trustee of the Academy and the Ontario Orphan Asylum. In 1885 he was elected to the presidency of the New York State Med- ical Society. Dr. Harvey Jewett was born in Langdon, New
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
Hampshire, in 1809. At the age of fourteen he was induced to come to the town of Seneca by his oldest brother, Dr. Lester Jewett. His brother encouraged him to study medicine and after about two years spent at Hobart college, Geneva, he entered the Fairfield Medical College, a then famous institution, and was graduated from there in 1832. He, also, as was the case with Dr. Cook, has been succeeded by a son practicing in the same community.
Dr. Hilem F. Bennett was for many years a prominent prac- titioner in the village of Canandaigua. He was one of the original members of the Ontario and Yates County Homeopathic Medical Society, which was organized in 1861 at the office of Dr. O. S. Wood. Dr. Bennett afterwards renounced Homeopathy and became a member of the Ontario County Medical Society in 1866. He died in 1885, in Rochester, where he had recently moved to succeed to the practice of his brother.
Dr. J. B. Voak was a prominent member of the Homeopathic society. He came to Canandaigua in 1866 and occupied the house and office formerly occupied by Dr. W. Fitch Cheney. Prominent in the affairs of the church with which he was connected and ready to respond to the call of any who were needy, his active life termi- nated in 1892.
Of the physicians who practiced medicine in the immediate vicinity of the county seat during the latter part of the Nineteenth century, three are living and still engaged in practice, viz: Dr. J. Richmond Pratt, who settled at Canandaigua in 1851, remaining there ten years, and then removing to Manchester, where he is still located; Dr. M. R. Carson, a graduate of Albany Medical Col- lege, who came to Canandaigua in 1859, and is still practicing ; and Dr. James A. Hawley, who came to Canandaigua in 1861, after practicing elsewhere six years, and is still engaged in active practice.
It is unfortunate that the earliest records of the Ontario County Medical Society, which was organized in 1806, are either destroyed or lost. The first available record of the transactions of that Society is dated July 12, 1842. A more complete record would greatly simplify and make possible a historical reference to many other physicians scattered throughout the county whose life work has been none the less useful and noteworthy than that of those already enumerated.
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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
In Geneva a Dr. Spencer was one of the first physicians of whom any record is found. He was a professor in the Geneva Medical College which had been moved from Fairfield, N. Y.
Dr. Joseph Beattie was for many years a prominent practitioner in Geneva. He came there from the town of Seneca, where he had succeeded Dr. Lester Jewett. He was a highly educated man, but left Geneva and died in Richmond, Va. He was in Geneva in 1853 and for some time prior to that date.
Dr. G. N. Dox succeeded Dr. Beattie and occupied the same office. He had also an extensive practice for a number of years. A Dr. Potter was a prominent surgeon in Geneva, having his office in Washington street near the old water cure.
A notice is found in the record of the county society, October, 1873, of the departure of Dr. H. N. Eastman who had practiced at Geneva for a long time and who was about to go to Ohio. The notice states that he was eminent in his profession and had been a teacher at different times in no less than three medical colleges in the State.
Dr. N. B. Covert, who graduated in 1862 from the Homeopathic Medical College in Cleveland, has been a well known practitioner in Geneva for many years.
In the town of Seneca. Dr. Lester Jewett, who has been referred to before and who was a graduate of Dartmouth Medical College was a prominent and influential practitioner from 1822 to 1846, when he removed to Michigan.
As stated before, Dr. J. Richmond Pratt was in Manchester in 1861 and has now a son associated with him in practice. For a long time Dr. John Stafford was a practitioner in that town.
In Clifton Springs, Dr. A. G. Crittenden and Dr. W. W. Archer were for many years well known practitioners and regular attendants upon the meetings of the county society. It is recorded of Dr. Crittenden that he was present at every meeting of the society from 1857 to 1891, the day of his death.
No record of the medical history of the county would be complete without reference to the life and work of Dr. Henry Foster of Clifton Springs, who established there about the year 1847 a Sanitarium (at first called a water cure). This under wise manage- ment has come to be one of the renowned sanitaria of the United States and draws its patrons from all countries of the world.
In the western part of the county, at East Bloomfield, a Dr.
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
Hall was one of the earlier physicians. He married a daughter of Dr. Hickok who preceded him by a number of years.
Dr. Charles C. Murphy was a student of Dr. Hall and began practice in East Bloomfield about 1844. Until 1874, when he died, he was interested in all the affairs of the village and was respected and loved by all.
Dr. Webster was also a prominent practitioner in East Bloom- field, having been born there and lived a large portion of his life there. He died some time after Dr. Murphy.
Dr. E. O. Hollister, who was a pupil of Dr. Clark of Batavia and a graduate of Bellevue Medical College, came to East Bloom- field in 1874, soon after Dr. Murphy's death. He died in the year 1887, in the prime of life and mourned by a large circle of friends.
At Victor, Dr. J. W. Palmer and Dr. James F. Draper were for many years well known physicians, as were also the two Doctors Ball.
The name and life work of Dr. F. R. Bentley will not soon be forgotten in the vicinity of Cheshire.
Dr. J. H. Allen, at Gorham, and Dr. John Q. Howe and Dr. T. D. Pritchard, at Phelps, practiced long and extensively in their respective towns. Dr. J. H. Allen was a pupil of Dr. Chambers and was graduated from the Albany Medical College. He practiced at Springwater for one year and in 1853 went to Gorham, where he resided and practiced until his death in 1896. Preceding Dr. Allen at Gorham, were Dr. Deane and Dr. Buck. They were each there for a long time.
Dr. John Q. Howe was graduated from the Berkshire Medical School in 1842 and practiced in Phelps for many years. Drs. Allen and Howe have each been succeeded by sons practicing in the same locality.
Dr. F. D. Vanderhoof at Phelps, a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. D. S. Allen, a graduate of Albany Medical College and a practitioner at Seneca for over forty years, and Dr. L. F. Wilbur, over fifty years a member of the Ontario County Medical Society and located at Honeoye, are all still engaged in practice and should be mentioned among others who form a connecting link between the physicians of the earlier days and the present generation.
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THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
XXI
THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
Ontario County Settled by Men Attracted by Its Agricultural Opportunities-The First Wheat Grown on the Genesee Tract Pioneers Organize a County Agricultural Society in 1819- The First County Fair, Cattle Show, and Plowing Match -- List of the Officers-The Grange.
BY WILLIAM H. WARFIELD.
From its first organization in 1789, the land embraced in the county of Ontario was recognized as peculiarly adapted to agricul- tural purposes. Indeed the motive which led the yeomen who constituted the rank and file of the army which General Sullivan led through the region in 1779 to turn their eyes back with longing to this region and made them its first settlers, was the knowledge which they gained in that adventure of the fertility of its soil and its adaptation to purposes of cultivation. Colonel Hugh Maxwell, who had charge of the original surveys for the purchasers, Phelps and Gorham, recognized its possibilities in this respect when he wrote back to his wife in Massachusetts that the country exceeded his expectation "in richness of soil and pleasantness of situation" and that "the land in this country is exceeding good."
The men who were associated with General Israel Chapin in founding the first settlement at Canandaigua, and the pioneers who entered the county in the succeeding years, came as farmers intent upon developing the agricultural resources of the country, not as prospectors to discover and exploit suspected mineral wealth. Nor did they lose any time in setting about the task which they had essayed. Abner Barlow, whose portrait in the county court room collection is appropriately adorned with stems of wheat, enjoyed a well earned distinction from the fact that he harvested from his farm in Canandaigua in 1790 the first wheat that was grown in what
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
is now Ontario county and the first that was raised in all the "Purchase," unless it was that raised on the territory of Jemima Wilkinson, which it is claimed was in 1789. Mrs. Hannah Sanborn, in her later years, recalled the fact as one marking an era that she had served at a tea party in Canandaigua in 1794 the first dish of currants produced in the Genesee country. She had picked them from bushes planted in her dooryard upon her first coming to Canandaigua in 1790.
The first formal effort to bring the farmers of the county together in an organization for promoting their mutual interests and elevating their calling, was that made on February 18th, 1819, when a meeting was held at the court house in Canandaigua for the purpose of forming an agri- cultural society. The county court adjourned to accommodate the agricultural meeting.
A resolution was passed to organize the Ontario County Agricultural Society, whereupon the Hon. John Nicholas was elect- ed president ; William Wads- worth, Darius Comstock, Gideon Granger and Moses Atwater, vice presidents ; John Greig, secretary ; and Thomas Beals, treasurer.
A committee of one member ABNER BARLOW. Abner Barlow was born in Granville, Mass., March 11, 1759. Removed to Canandaigua in May, 1789, and that year sowed the first wheat ever put in the virgin soil of Ontario county. Was one of the original trustees of the First Congregational Church of Canan- daigua of, much public spirit. He died in the village, June 28, 1846. from each of the thirty-four towns then included in Ontario county was also elected, viz .: Thaddeus Chapin, Canandaigua; Thaddeus Oaks, Phelps; Daniel Penfield, Penfield: Mathew Warner, Lima: Thomas Spencer, Benton ; William H. Spencer, Genesee : Israel Marsh, Victor ; Thomas Burns, Italy : William Patten, Lyons; Jonathan Smith, Farmington ; William S. Homer, Avon; William McCartney, Sparta; Daniel White, Palmyra: William Fitzhugh, Groveland; Anthony Case, Rush; Oliver Culver, Brighton; Gideon Pitts, Richmond; Simeon
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THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
Bristol, Perrington; Benedict Robinson, Milo; Jacob Stevens. Henrietta ; Joseph Clark, Naples; Ruel Blake, Livonia: Jacob W. Hallett, Williamson; David Sutherland, Middlesex; John Collins, Seneca ; Enos Morse, Sodus: Clark Peck, Bloomfield; John Price. Gorliam; Timothy Barnard, Mendon: George Codding, Bristol ; John Hartwell, Pittsford; George Brown, Jerusalem: Jonathan Boyington, Ontario; Alvah Southerland, Springwater.
At this meeting it was resolved that any person might become an annual member on the pay- ment of one dollar and a life mem- ber upon the payment of fifteen dollars to the treasurer of the society.
The Legislature of the State. on the 5th of March, 1819. ap- propriated one thousand dollars to the Ontario County Agricul- tural Society, to be paid out for premiums on farm stock and farm produce.
On October 18th, 1819, the first fair and cattle show and plowing match of the Ontario County Agricultural Society was held. All members of the society wore a badge made of heads of wheat tied together with ribbon and fastened on their hats.
The plowing match was held at eleven o'clock A. M. Moses WILLIAM FITZHUGH. Atwater, John Greig, and Thomas William Fitzhugh, who was a third owner (with Colonel Nathaniel Rochester and Charles Carroll) of the Hundred Acre Tract, on which the city of Rochester now stands, was born in Calvert county, Maryland, Octo- ber 6, 1761. He came into the Genesee country in 1799, resided for a time at Geneva. and in 1803 settled at Sodus, where he died in 1810. Was an early officer of the Ontario County Agricultural Society. Beals were appointed a committee of arrangements. At 2 o'clock P. M., refreshments were served to members of the society. Cattle. sheep and swine were exhibited in a vacant lot opposite Hart's tavern. At 3 o'clock a procession was formed of members of the society under the direction of William H. Adams and marched to the court house, and an address written by the president of the
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
society was read by Nathaniel W. Howell. The amount paid out for premiums was one thousand dollars.
Thus the first agricultural fair held in Ontario county was pronounced a grand success and it was voted to continue the annual fair and cattle show.
Officers for the second year were elected as follows: President, Gideon Granger; vice-presidents, William Wadsworth, Darius Comstock, Philetus Swift, N. Allen, and Moses Atwater ; secretary, John Greig; treasurer, Thomas Beals; and thirty-four town managers were appointed.
WILLIAM WADSWORTH.
William Wadsworth, younger brother of James Wadsworth, and associated with him in the management of their uncle's estate in the Genesee country, was born in Durham, Connecticut : settled at Big Tree on the Gen- esee, in 1790; one of the first vice presidents of the Ontario County Agricultural Society ; a Brigadier General of Volunteers in the War of 1812; died at Geneseo in 1833.
On November 1st, 1819, an exhibition of domestic manufac- tures was held in the court house and premiums awarded on woolen cloth manufactured in Ontario county.
On April 11th, 1820, the premium list was revised and a premium of ten dollars offered for the best cultivated farm in each of the thirty-four towns in the county, and $190.00 was paid in premiums in this department at the succeeding fair. Robert Troop, of Geneva, made the soci- ety a present of fifty-four dollars toward paying the premiums on best cultivated farms in the county. The committee of award commenced examining the farms entered for premiums on the 4th of July and finished their exami- nation on the 1st day of October, 1820.
The second fair was held in Judge Atwater's meadow. Wil- liam H. Adams acted as marshal. The president delivered an address at the court house. An agricultural ball was one of the attractions at this second county fair.
The annual fairs were thereafter continued for twelve years,
H
P
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THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
John Greig serving as president from 1822 to 1834. At one of the fairs where toasts were given, the following was offered: "What is wanted is more draining of lands and less draining of bottles." And also the following: "The farmer's cardinal points, good tools, strong teams, neat farms, and smart wives."
At the annual fair held in 1821, Edgemont Chappel received the first premium for the best yield of wheat from one acre of land, which was eighty bushels, eleven pounds, and thirteen ounces ; and Mr. Baker, of Bloom- field, first premium for the largest yield of potatoes from one acre of land, which was five hundred nine and one-half bushels.
The agricultural society was reorganized in the year 1838. The first fair of the reorganized society was held at Canandaigua, October 20th, 1840. John Greig was president, Oliver Phelps and William Gorham, secretaries, and James D. Bemis, treasurer. A large attendance of farmers was present. The society held annual fairs in vacant lots in the village of Canandaigua for stock and farm implements, and in the court house for needle work, butter, and cheese.
JOHN GREIG.
John Greig, a prominent resident of Canan- daigua from 1801 until his death, April 9, 1858, was born at Moffat, Dumfrieshire, Scotland, August 6, 1779. A lawyer by pro- fession, his time was largely devoted to the management of the Western New York hold- ings of an English estate. Was actively inter- ested in the organization of the County Agricultural Society and served as its presi- dent for many years. His wife was Miss Clarissa Chapin, granddaughter of General Israel Chapin, and with her aid he made his mansion, long the most notable private dwell- ing house in Western New York, a center of culture and hospitality.
John Greig was continued president of the society until Jan- uary 1st, 1853, with Oliver Phelps and William Gorham as secre- taries, and James D. Bemis as treasurer.
The annual fair for the year 1853 was held in Geneva, with James Monier as president, and William H. Lamport and Henry Howe as secretaries.
The fairs were only held for one day previous to the year 1853.
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
At 4 o'clock P. M. the members and exhibitors would meet at the court house to hear the president of the society read the names of those who had been awarded premiums, and the article or animal on which the premium was awarded and the amount of the prem- ium, this being the first intima- tion which the exhibitors would receive as to who had received awards.
GIDEON GRANGER, 2ND.
Gideon Granger, 2nd, son of Francis Granger and grandson of Gideon Granger, was born in Canandaigua, August 30, 1821; graduated from Yale College in 1843; studied law and was admitted to the bar, but never engaged in practice. Declined many opportunities to enter politics, but took an active interest in public affairs, particularly during the Civil War, when, unable on account of ill health to serve in the army, he spent unstintingly time, strength, and means in support of the Union cause and in caring for the families of those who went to the front to fight the country's battles. Was an official of the County Agricultural Society and otherwise prominently identified with movements for the public good. Died in Canandaigua, Sep- tember 3, 1868, five days following the death of his father.
It is said that as soon as John Greig, the president, had finished reading the list of premiums, he immediately left the court room by the rear stairway and went out the rear door of the court house, where his carriage was in waiting, and drove away. The awarding judges had in the mean- time disappeared, so that the exhibitor who believed that he should have received a premium on his exhibit but had not, couldn't find an officer of the society to hear his protest of the award made by the judges.
In the year 1853, the society. purchased seven and three-fourths acres of land lying between Gib- son and Gorham streets in the village of Canandaigua, for which it paid $2,412. In 1854 the society was incorporated so that it could hold real estate.
During the summer and fall of 1854, an amphitheater building was erected that would seat 4,000 persons, with standing room all the way around the circle back of the seats for as many more, where every person would have a good view of the ring in the cen- ter, when the horses, cattle and sheep, one class at a time, were brought in to be judged. After the judges had decided which
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THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
animal should have the premium, the secretary would announce the decision and ask if there were any objection, and if no objection was made the premium ribbon would be tied on. If any consider- able number objected, then the question would be put to a vote, when every person in the amphitheater, whether member or visitor, would have the privilege of voting either for or against the decision of the judges. The decision would generally be sustained. The fair grounds and buildings and improvements cost over nine thou- sand dollars and were all paid for from the sale of life memberships at ten dollars each.
Annual fairs were held on these grounds until 1873, excepting in the year 1864, when owing to the war of the Rebellion but very few county societies held fairs.
In the year 1873, the society, feeling the need of more commo- dious accommodations, sold the old fair grounds and purchased seven- teen acres of land on North Pleasant street and Fort Hill avenue, for which it paid seventeen thousand dollars, and on which the annual fairs have since been held. The new buildings and the improvements which have been made have cost fourteen thousand, six hundred dollars.
The amount paid out for premiums has increased from one thousand dollars paid in the year 1819 to four thousand three hun- dred dollars paid in 1909.
The following is a partial list of the officers since the year 1819: Presidents-John Nicholas, 1819; Gideon Granger, 1820 and 1821; John Greig from 1822 to 1834, and from 1838 to 1852 (26 years in all) ; James Monier, 1853: William Hildreth, 1854 and 1855: Wil- liam Johnson, 1856-7; William H. Lamport, 1858-9; W. S. Clark, 1860; Lindley W. Smith, 1861; Edward Brunson, 1862: David Pickett, 1863 ; William Johnson, 1864 ; E. B. Pottle, 1865 : S. H. Ains- worth, 1866-7; S. A. Codding, 1868; Harvey Stone, 1869; Harvey Padelford, 1870-1; Cooper Sayer, 1872; Homer Chase, 1873-4-5 : James S. Hickox, 1876-7-8: H. M. Boardman, 1879-80; Charles E. Shepard, 1881-2-3-4-5; S. D. Jackson, 1886-7: F. O. Chamberlain, 1888-9 and 1890; George S. Hickox, 1891-2: William B. Osborne, 1893-4; John B. Hall, 1895-6: Roswell M. Lee, 1897-8; C. P. Whit- ney, 1899-1900; Levi A. Page, 1901-2: Cholett Collins, 1903-4; J. M. Ladd, 1905-6; John I .. McLaughlin, 1907-8: George A. Wheeler. 1909-10-11.
Secretaries-John Greig, 1819 and 1820: William Gorham,
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
from 1838 to 1852; Henry Howe, 1853-4; Gideon Granger, from 1855 to 1863; William H. Lamport, 1864; Thomas M. Howell, 1865-66; Isaac B. Smith, 1867; H. M. Davis, 1870-1; D. G. Lap- ham, 1872-3-4-5; Bradley Wynkoop, 1876-7; Jesse H. Mason, 1878-9 and 1880; Augustine Cooley, 1881-2-3; W. Allen Reed, 1884 ; William H. Warfield, from 1885 to 1897 and 1909; Homer J. Reed, from 1898 to 1904: Milton A. Smith, 1905-6-7-8; Clair L. Morey, 1910 and 1911.
Treasurers-Thomas Beals, 1819 to 1830; James D. Bemis, 1838 to 1848; James S. Cooley, 1855 to 1865; A. S. Newman, 1870 to 1878; L. B. Gaylord, 1879-80-81; F. O. Chamberlain, 1882-3-4-5; John B. Hall, 1886 to 1894; James S. Hickox, 1895 to 1906; O. J. Cooley, 1906-7-8; G. N. Nethaway, 1909-10-11.
The first Grange in Ontario county was organized at a meeting of farmers of the south part of Canandaigua and South Bristol, at the Academy school house, June 19, 1874. The officers were as follows: Master, John B. Hall; overseer, Edson Haskell; lecturer, Lute C. Mather ; steward. John A. McJannett; assistant steward, A. A. Stetson; chaplain, Gilbert E. Haskell ; treasurer, William M. Barnum; secretary, Kelly W. Green. There are now twenty granges in the county. The Pomona Grange, of 1911, is organized with the following officers: Master, Walter Dorman, of Stanley ; secretary, Charles G. McLouth, of Shortsville ; lecturer, A. B. Kat- kamier, of Macedon; overseer, Eugene Webster, of Stanley; steward, F. B. Ingraham, of Naples ; assistant steward, Edwin Has- lett, of Seneca; chaplain, Mrs. A. B. Welch, of Victor; executive committee, Frank Rupert, of Seneca, Orion J. Cooley, of Canan- daigua, and Garrett Wheaton, of Bristol Center; deputy, Jay J. Barden, of Stanley.
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