USA > New York > Ontario County > A history of Ontario County, New York and its people, Volume I > Part 36
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The Gorham Agricultural Association, whose annual exhibition is sometimes known as the "World's Fair," was organized in 1852. The grounds were donated to the society by Mason Reed, upon the condition that it be used continuously for this purpose. It has a half mile track and the necessary buildings, which give the society facilities for holding successful fairs.
There are two churches at Reed Corners: The Baptist, which is located a little east of the Corners, and the Congregational, a little north.
Gorham Village.
In the eastern part of the town is located the village of Gorham, known for many years as Bethel. This village is situated on Flint creek, the largest stream of water in the town. Lot No. 5, upon which the village is situated, was taken up by Levi Benton in the year 1800. He built a tavern on the property, now used as a resi- dence by Mrs. William Snyder. Mr. Benton was the first man to utilize the water power of Flint creek, by erecting a grist mill, at an very early date. Here also was located the first saw mill of the town, which was built by a man by the name of Craft.
391
THE TOWN OF GORHAM.
The first merchant in Gorham village was Joseph Palmer, who was also the first minister to locate in this vicinity, which was in the year 1808. He was succeeded as a merchant in 1816 by Perry Holiett, who in turn was followed by George and Samuel Stewart, who erected the first business block in 1822. Armstrong Tompkins was the first blacksmith, coming in 1814. The first physician was a Dr. Coffin. The first frame school-house was erected in 1815, which was also the date of organization of the first cemetery association. The first meeting-house was a Methodist church, built in 1828. The Baptist and Presbyterian churches were both built in 1842-43.
Gorham village has a well kept cemetery, which is located on the west side, with surroundings and conditions particularly adapted for a burial place.
The Main street in Gorham runs east and west, and four of the cross streets are named, Stanley street, Dewey avenue, Maple avenue, and North and South street. On the north side of Main street are to be found the following business places: Marvin Sutherland's bakery, the post office, The Gorham Hotel, the feed and flour mill, and the Robinson block, which is occupied by C. M. Bullock's grocery and dry goods store and Fisher & Kinner's furniture and undertaking establishment. On the south side is located the I. O. O. F. block, erected in 1896 and occupied by William Pulver's dry goods and grocery store, and C. L. Crosier, hardware. Adjoining this block on the west are the following busi- ness places : A. M. Phillips, department store ; Stacy's barber shop; the New Age printing office, where is published a weekly under the editorship of J. J. Deal; Whyte and Kindelberger's meat market. Further west, over Flint creek, is the blacksmith shop operated by Clifford Fingers, and D. A. Sutherland's wool house is near here.
The Lehigh Valley station is on Dewey avenue, and on this street also are the produce firms of Herrington & Sutherland, and Adamson & Son, who operate a cold storage plant. The lumber yard conducted by William Thompson is on Stanley street. The apple evaporator is located on Maple avenue, where may also be found the dentist, Charles Compton. On South street is situated the Baptist church, Scott & Son, blacksmiths ; and the M. E. church. At the west switch are C. M. Thompson's produce and fertilizer buildings, and the Cook & Fake coal yard. The village has two
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
doctors, A. D. Allen and C. C. Williamson. The town is lighted with natural gas furnished by six wells.
Rushville.
The village of Rushville is the only village in the town that has a corporate organization. The principal part of the village is in Yates county. The union school district of Rushville extends beyond the village limits, on the Ontario county side. The Rush- ville school draws many of the more advanced students from the district schools in this part of the town, and in it many of Gorham's first citizens have received the most of their education.
Chester Loomis, who afterwards became Judge Loomis, and a New York State Senator, was one of the early school teachers of Gorham, and his son, Charles Loomis, remembered his and his father's home village with a gift of $15,000 with the stipulation that it be used for public improvement. With the avails of this bequest a large public block was erected, with room for two stores, and a large public audience hall. This building was burned in 1908, but a new building was erected in 1909 along similar lines, with a public hall, and space for the fire department, and the public offices. The Rushville banking office does a thriving business with the people covering a large territory. It is managed and conducted by Irving Jones, the cashier. On the Gorham side of the village is located the cemetery and the Methodist Episcopal church, while the Con- gregational church stands very near the line.
The Rushville Evaporating and Packing Company, whose office is located on the Lehigh railroad, does a large business in evaporat- ing apples and buying and selling apple products. At this point is also located the bean picking house of Bedel & Co., managed by George Fitch. The cold storage of John Adamson and several hay storage houses and produce plants make this one of the best marketing places for Gorham farmers.
The Gorham Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons received its first charter from the Grand Lodge in 1813 and held regular meet- ings until 1828, when it was compelled to forego its meetings on account of the popular feeling aroused by the Morgan abduction incident. The lodge resumed work again in 1840 and continued under the old dispensation until 1855, when a new charter was granted to it as No. 377, F. & A. M. The present membership of the lodge is one hundred and ten. It owns its building, which is located on the east side of Main street in the village of Rushville.
393
THE TOWN OF GORHAM.
The Lake Shore.
The town of Gorham is bounded on the west by Canandaigua lake. Much of the lake shore has been sold to non-residents in cabin lots, of from fifty to five hundred feet width, and in some cases more. Upon these lots have been built cottages which are occupied during the summer months by people who live the rest of the year in near-by cities and villages. This lake shore develop- ment has added materially to the value of the property in the immediate neighborhood, and has added to the assessed valuation of the town many thousands of dollars. There are about seventy- five of these summer homes located in the town. Cottage City is the name of the principal steamboat landing, and the locality where the most of the cottages are located. The store, boarding-house, dancing hall, and billiard parlors are owned and operated by Mr. R. M. Gage. Lincoln Wood is the name of another steamboat landing and the immediate locality. Here is located the fine country residence of the late Senator John Raines, which was com- pleted after his death. Washburn's landing is the name of the first landing on the east side of the lake as you leave Canandaigua. On Green's point, a little further south, there are located six or seven cottages. Bradley Wynkoop, Esq., and John Colmey, Esq., each has a cottage on the shore, near the north line of the town. At Gooding's point there is a group of seven or eight summer homes. Further up the lake, at Noble's, there are several more.
The lake shore road running south from the Gage school- house was originally located on the bank of the lake, but has been moved back a greater part of the distance from this point to the south line of the town, so as to make cottage lots of the land near the lake.
The present town officers are: Supervisor, Fredrick Kindel- berger; town clerk, T. B. Pierce; justices, William Pulver, L. C. Lincoln, S. B. Douglass, and M. W. Fisher ; assessors, John Whyte, Alonzo Ardell, and George Chapman; highway superintendent, Charles H. Green; collector, Miles Blodgett; overseer of poor, Charles Babbitt; constables, James Stokoe, Charles Stark, Julius Braham.
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
XXXI
THE TOWN OF HOPEWELL.
Set Off from Gorham on March 29, 1822, by Officials Who Hoped Well for the New Civil Division-Emphatically an Agricul- tural Town-The Earliest Settlers-Fortunate in the Character of Its Pioneers-Once the Home of a Company of Fourierites -The Old Indian Trails-The Seneca Castle of Onnaghee.
BY IRVING W. COATES.
The Muse of History, clad in the classic garb of a former age, with uplifted pen, amid the moss grown tablets and the crumbling relic of a barbarous, unrecorded and uncultured epoch, at the very dawn of what is now termed civilization, seeking to discover amid the wreck and ruin of countless centuries the actors, the deeds, and the motives which impelled them, as well as the localities upon which they dwelt and enacted their drama of triumph or defeat, of glory or shame, is very much in the position of the modern historian who today attempts to record scenes, localities, men and events of a time long since past.
The voices of those who could tell most eloquently of the past are stilled in death. The incidents of their struggle in this then their wild wilderness home are not obtainable. The localities of their rude cabins, as their gleaming axes cleared away the giant forests, have gone before the onward march of progress, and all is changed. And to add to the difficulties of the student who seeks to elucidate the story of our past, former historians who then had a most interesting field from which to glean stores of valuable facts, with a "cloud of living witnesses" to substantiate them, have been content to merely mention a few brief incidents, leaving to the investigator of today the mere "dry husks of history," on which to base his conclusions.
I have often fancied the delight and interest with which the decendants and friends of those hardy pioneers of our town would
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THE TOWN OF HOPEWELL.
peruse the many daily events and adventures incident to their rough life in subjugating this wilderness, and the strange scenes upon which they gazed, on their early advent to this paradise clothed in all its pristine beauty, before the hand of civilized man had marred its surroundings. We know full well, the severe trials and hard- ships which they endured, we know the great dangers which those noble men and women faced by day and by night ; yet, would it not have increased our love and admiration for them, and deepened our reverence for their memories, had some careful chronicler of the time been more explicit in telling the story of their heroic lives and dauntless courage ?
On the 27th day of January, 1789, after the advent of some of the earliest settlers in Ontario county, and nearly ten years since the Old Continentals under General Sullivan made their victorious raid against the Senecas, a district or town, according to the best information we can get, was formed and included within its bound- aries all the territory now known as the towns of Gorham and Hopewell. The district thus set off was called "Easton," but on April 19th, 1806, the name, not giving very good satisfaction to many citizens of the district, was changed to Lincoln, and still later, April 6th, 1807, to Gorham, in honor of Nathaniel Gorham, one of the proprietors under the Massachusetts Preemption purchase.
The town of Hopewell, as it is now known, was set off from the old town of Gorham on March 29th, 1822, and according to the system of Phelps and Gorham surveys, as adopted at the time of their large purchase, it is known as township 10, range 2, and con- tains about thirty-six squares miles of land. As to the origin of the name given it on its separation from the town of Gorham, the true reason has not been satisfactorily explained. By some it is claimed that it was in allusion to Hopewell in New Jersey, where General Washington and his officers held the famous "council of war" on the evening preceding the battle of Monmouth, while he and his army were in pursuit of Sir Henry Clinton after his evacuation of Philadelphia, during the Revolution, but of the truth of this the writer knows not. Others have suggested that the name adopted in 1822, for the bantling township thus set adrift upon the uncertain tide of corporate existence, embodied the good wishes of those former fellow citizens of the older town-old Gorham, and that they truly hoped well for the child mothered on their soil, who thus
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
had assumed the dignity and responsibility of a separate jurisdic- tion among the towns of Ontario county. But be this as it may, Hopewell is a good name, a name of which she may well feel proud, and whose history, although she boasts of no large populous vil- lages, or long city avenues, noisy with the din of traffic, can point with pride to many a happy country home, whose doors are ever open to the demands of charity, where peace and plenty dwell, and where kind nature rewards the labors of the husbandman.
That the town thus christened in 1822 "made good," as the saying is, is evidenced by the fact that, although the pioneer settle- ment of the town commenced in 1789 and the year following, so rapid was the progress made in settlement, that in 1830 it had a population of over two thousand inhabitants, a population by the way, as has well been observed, that has never been "exceeded or equalled at any subsequent census enumeration." Hopewell is emphatically an agricultural town, the great majority of its citizens being engaged in cultivating the soil, and its large area of fer- tile land, its heavy forests of valuable timber, its abundant supply of pure water in springs and creeks, no doubt early attracted the attention of a thrifty, industrious class of emigrants from other States less fortunate, and this accounts perhaps, in a great measure, for its early growth and development.
The earliest settlers in the town of Hopewell, according to the most authentic information we have, were Daniel Gates, Daniel Warner, Ezra Platt, Samuel Day, George Chapin, Israel Chapin, Jr., Frederic Follet, Thomas Sawyer, Benjamin .Wells, and a Mr. Sweet, who came from Massachusetts, and William .Wyckoff, from Pennsylvania. These were actually the original pioneers of the town, and as such are deserving of notice before other early settlers who came in subsequently.
A son was born to Benjamin Wells and wife on February 4th, 1791, who was named Benjamin Wells, Junior, who was the first white child born in the town. William Wyckoff was said to have been an Indian captive, captured in the Susquehanna valley by the Senecas, and brought from his home by them on their retreat before Sullivan's army in 1779, and who on his release, after the war, settled on the site of Old Onnaghee.
Captain Frederic Follet, another early pioneer, led a romantic and adventurous life during the closing years of the Revolutionary
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THE TOWN OF HOPEWELL.
war, and, by a miracle almost, after intense pain and suffering, escaped death at the hands of the Indians. Captain Thomas Saw- yer, another pioneer whom we have named, was a bold and brave officer among the "Green Mountain boys," and rendered loyal service in the wild scenes of the Revolutionary period. His was the first death in the present town of Manchester, which occurred on March 12th, 1796, and his remains were buried in the old rural cem- etery in Hopewell, on the main road leading from Canandaigua to Manchester. Quite recently, however, at a meeting of his descend- ants in Ontario county and elsewhere, his remains were removed from their first resting place in Hopewell and reinterred with appropriate services in the new Pioneer cemetery in the town of Manchester, which has lately been incorporated and improved, and where sleep many of his old friends and associates of pioneer days.
Although the pioneers, whose names I have mentioned, were undoubtedly the first settlers in the town, there came in quite early many enterprising, thrifty men of families, from New England, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, who by their advent as permanent settlers, and by their labors in subduing the wildness, helped much to improve the newly-formed township. There is no doubt but that these also are justly entitled to the name of pio- neers and to all the honor which that name implies. Among the names recorded at that early date, occur those of Richard Jones, Nathaniel Lewis, Elam Smith, Vimri Densmore, George Le Vere, Robert Buchan, John Price, Daniel Le Vere, John Freshour, Israel, John, and Stephen Thacher, Major Elijah Murray, Elijah Ellis, John Russel, David W. Beach, Oliver and William Babcock, William Bodman, Erastus Leonard, Luther Porter, Robert Penn, Samuel Bush, Joshua Case, John Ricker, Amos Knapp, Silas Benham, C. P. Bush, Daniel Warren, Shuball Clark, John Hart, John Faurot, George Chapin, Russel Warren, Dedrick Coursen, Robert David- son, Moses DePew, John Gregg, James Moore, James Birdseye, Edward Root, Ezekiel Crane, John McCauley, David Aldrich. Amos, Amasa, and James Gillett, Joseph Lee, Oliver Warren, Elam Crane, Ezra and Leonard Knapp, Thaddeus Benham, Elisha Higby, William Canfield. Andrew Bush, Elder Anson Shay, John Kellogg, Thomas Edmundson, Daniel Macumber, Captain Thomas Davis, Rufus Warner, Apollas Baker, John Church, Jonas Whit- ney, Asel and Constant Balcom, Eben and Eli Benham, Ezra Newton, and others.
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
At a little later period, there came still others to swell the population of the town, who, like those already mentioned, proved most worthy citizens and added wealth and credit to the com- munity. The surnames of these families were: Thomas, Derr, Spangle, Skinner, Cleveland, Knapp, Marks, Sly, Purdy, Ketchum, Brundage, Bishop, Pembroke, Woodin, Knickerbocker, Chapman, Archer, Stotenburg, Reese. Maynard, Cary, Cost, Parkhurst, Mat- tison, Stoddard, Shekell, Kingsley, Wadsworth, Odell, Warfield, and many others, whose names have been forgotten in the lapse of time, but many of whose descendants have long been citizens of the town, and have contributed in no small degree to its growth and material prosperity.
Hopewell was fortunate in the character of its pioneers, com- ing as they did, the majority of them, from the New England States, and having been educated in the stern precepts of the Puritan school where honesty, patriotism, and justice between man and man were regarded as the essential elements of true man- hood, being early inured to honest toil, to rigid economy, and frugal habits, to a faithful regard to obligations incurred. With a just conception of the benefits of education and of the value of wholesome moral influence in regulating the affairs of a commun- ity, they set on their advent here a worthy example for their descendants to follow, and thus we find them, even before the forests were cleared away, erecting rude places of worship and schools that the principles of their noble forefathers which had wrought so much good in the older localities, might take root here and bring forth precious fruit in the virgin soil of Western New York. Hence, we are not surprised to learn from the records that Calvin Bacon taught the first school in one of these rude school- houses as early as 1792, or that religious meetings were held in 1803.
They were men of great enterprise and thrift, upright and honorable in their dealings, with a profound respect for law and order ; and by their labors soon rendered to the town a name and character that gave it an enviable reputation among its neighbors in the civil divisions of the county. The officers chosen at its first annual town meeting, held on the 17th day of April, 1822, were men of much native ability, and the names of Nathan Lewis, its first supervisor, Judge Amos Jones, Judge John Price, and many others, who occupied prominent positions in succeeding town
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THE TOWN OF HOPEWELL.
administrations, reflected much honor upon the town and are to this day most lovingly remembered for their zeal, their sound judgment, and unselfish efforts in an official capacity, for all the people of the town during many long years of service.
As it has been before remarked in the course of this humble sketch, Hopewell was typically an agricultural town, and most of its citizens were tillers of the soil, hence its manufacturing interests were of no great extent, nor was much capital invested therein. In an early day, Jonas Whitney, who was the owner of a large tract of fine farming and timbered land, built a saw mill on Fall brook, Dennie Chapman being the millwright, and a little lower down on that same stream, Henry Jones erected a saw mill that was run for several years, while yet another saw mill, higher up the stream, nearly east of Hopewell Center, was owned and operated for many years by George Derr.
On the Canandaigua outlet, in the western part of the town, Oliver Phelps and Captain Israel Chapin built at an early date, probably about 1789, a grist mill at the foot of the first rapids in the stream, about five miles below the lake. This was for the time quite a large mill and proved a great convenience to the early set- tlers, as well as establishing a local market for the splendid crops of the famous "Genesee wheat" that grew to perfection on the clayey soils of that portion of the town of Hopewell. As Captain Chapin soon removed from Canandaigua to the locality of the mill, erecting the venerable old mansion (still standing) in 1808, and extending his farming operations over a large area, the place was named in his honor, Chapinville, and soon became quite a busy center for the trade of that region. The flour made from the fine wheat on his farms and others soon gained a great reputation for excellence, and on the completion of the Erie canal in 1825, a brisk trade was opened between the cities of the State and even abroad, by long lines of farmers' teams hauling flour from the mill to Pal- myra on the canal, and even before its completion, to Pultneyville, on Lake Ontario, bringing on the return trip loads of iron ore, which occurs so plentifully in that part of Wayne county, to the early furnaces in Shortsville and Manchester.
Another early mill on the Canandaigua outlet was erected by Oliver Phelps in 1791. This mill was a small and crude affair, yet it answered its purpose well for a time and proved a great help to the early settlers for long distances in this region. This mill was
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HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
iong known as the "Day mill," from Samuel Day, an early settler of the town, who was employed by Mr. Phelps to operate the mill. In 1800 Edward Parker became the owner of this mill, and it was run by him until his death in 1820.
Stephen Bates, the son of Phineas Bates, the early landlord of Canandaigua, became the owner of the mill property after the death of Edward Parker, and buying a large area of land near, became a very successful farmer, improved the mills, both saw and grist mills, and they were known over a wide extent of country for many years, as the "Bates mills."
Stephen Bates was a prominent citizen; became sheriff of Ontario county, member of Assembly, and State Senator. He emigrated to Sauk, Wisconsin, in 1845, and died the following year. The property subsequently came into the possession of a company of "Fourierites" and after a brief occupancy by that deluded sect, it was purchased by Norman C. Little, about 1846 or 1847, who in addition to the mills, erected a store and transacted quite a little business for a time, but not meeting with very good success, Mr. Little was sold out by the sheriff, and he removed to Saginaw, Michigan, where he was drowned in the river. The locality thus occupied by him on the outlet in Hopewell, in 1846, still bears his name, Littleville, and probably will be known as such for many years to come.
This locality on the outlet, now known as Littleville, was a famous one in the days of the Indian occupancy of this region. It was here the "old ford," or "stepping stones," crossed the stream and marked the junction of two very important paths or trails, one' leading from Geneva through Oaks Corners and the Indian vil- lages on the Flint creek, and the other from the foot of Canandai- gua lake to the Indian settlements on the Ganargua creek in the vicinity of Palmyra, in what is now Wayne county. In fact, as the writer has proved by actual exploration, no less than five well defined Indian paths or trails converged at this point, and further it must have been occupied by the red men as a village or home for many years, judging from the relics found in the near vicinity. On the authority of Hon. George S. Conover, the map of the old trail from Littleville, or the "old ford," to Flint creek and beyond, is still on file in the State Engineer's office at Albany ; is numbered 341 of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and shows the exact junc- tion of these two important trails. The present road in the north-
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