USA > New York > Ontario County > A history of Ontario County, New York and its people, Volume I > Part 46
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
The succession of Supervisors has been as follows: Jacob Lobdell. 1813-14: Andrew Colton, 1815: Jacob Lobdell, 1816-18: Jared Boughton, 1819-20: Jacob Lobdell, 1821; Eleazar Boughton,
497
THE TOWN OF VICTOR.
1822-23; Samuel Rawson, 1824; Jacob Lobdell, 1825; Samuel Raw- son, 1826-28; Nathan Jenks, 1829-30; Orin Miller, 1831-33; Henry Pardee, 1834-35; Samuel Rawson, 1836; Jacob Lobdell, 1837; Samuel Rawson, 1838; Azariah Bickford, 1839; Henry Pardee, 1840; Joseph Rawson, 1841; Thomas Embry, 1842; Henry Pardee. 1843; Thomas Embry, 1844; Lanson Dewey, 1845; William C. Dryer, 1846-48; Peter S. Bonesteel, 1849; William Ball, 1850; Lan- son Dewey, 1851; Levi B. Lobdell, 1852-53; William S. Clarke. 1854-56; Josiah Upton, 1857-58; Lanson Dewey, 1859-67; William C. Dryer, 1868; James Walling, 1869-71 ; William Peck, 1872; James Walling, 1873-77; Gilbert Turner, 1878-79; Bolivar Ellis, 1880-82: Marvin A. Wilbur, 1883-86; Stephen Van Voorhis, 1887; John Colmey, 1888-89; William B. Osborne, 1890-91 ; Willis D. Newton, 1892-93; James Houston, 1894-95; Marvin A. Wilbur, 1896-97 ; Willis D. Newton, 1898-1901; George Van Voorhis, 1902-1905 ; William B. Clapper, 1906-09; John W. Lauder, 1910-11.
The history of all rural communities is much alike. The so- called great events seldom happen in them. Life glides along like the stream of a quiet river, and so it has been with Victor. The period succeeding its early settlement was one of growth and development and accretion. True to the character established by its founders, the town has ever been ready to assist in every good work, and it has the reputation of being one of the most progressive and enlightened communities in the State.
Village of Victor.
The village of Victor was incorporated under the general village act on December 8, 1879. According to the census of 1910, it has a population of eight hundred and eighty-one. It is a thriv- ing and progressive community, has excellent schools, four churches, a municipal water supply system, electric street lighting, a news- paper, a bank, and a number of up-to-date mercantile establish- ments. Victor is also the center of prosperous manufacturing interests, its leading enterprises in this line being the Locke Insu- lator Company and the Victor Preserving Company, each of which
gives employment to two hundred persons. Its advantage of location, being on the New York Central and Lehigh Valley rail- roads, and also a principal station on the Rochester and Eastern electric road, presages further growth along this line. The village school occupies a handsome brick building which was erected in 1883 and has just now been greatly enlarged and improved. It
498
HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
became a high school in December, 1891. The village newspaper, the Victor Herald, was established in 1880, and is now conducted by Carl D. Smith. The village also has a well equipped fire depart- ment and a number of volunteer organizations devoted to civic and literary development.
The hamlet of Fishers, located in the northwestern part of the town, on the line of the New York Central railroad, is a prosperous little business community and affords an outlet for the products of an exceptionally rich farming country.
499
THE TOWN OF WEST BLOOMFIELD.
XXXIX.
THE TOWN OF WEST BLOOMFIELD.
The Seneca Indian a Fairly Good Creature until the White Man Came-Heroic Service of the Jesuit Missionaries-General Amos Hall, the First Purchaser-Pioneers not of a Godly Sort -Organization of the Churches-Citizens of Prominence-A Decreasing Population-The Town Organization.
COMPILED FROM MATERIALS FURNISHED BY THE REV. NEWTON W. BATES.
Who were the first human beings to see this beautiful region? There are rumors of the Mound Builders or some other pre-historic race, such as probably lived in other parts of our country ; but there is very little proof that such a race ever lived here. At least no relics, either mounds or tools, can be found to point to any such occupancy. So far as we have any evidence, the Indians were the first dwellers here; but whence they came, or when they came, we cannot tell. It was the Senecas, one of the Five Nations of the great Iroquois confederacy, that dwelt here when first Europeans knew the region.
In this town the Senecas had a village on Fort hill, overlooking what we know as Factory Hollow along Honeoye creek, on a farm owned by the late Hamilton Hopkins. Here was a fort, and also a burial ground from which many relics have been taken. Another village was located on a farm now owned by Augustus Warren, near the West Bloomfield station. Still a third was in the south part of the town on the farm now owned by Miss Elvira Taft, where Charles Durrant lives.
.
The Seneca Indians were a quiet and honorable class of people, when they were first discovered. Many fields of corn and of vegetables, as well as large orchards of apples and peaches, were found, showing that they were industrious and peaceable, for agri-
500
HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
culture can prosper only when there is permanent residence and peace.
But there was a sterner side to the picture; for the war cry used to ring out on these hills, and the dry leaves bore other stain than that of the blood of the deer, as the fierce Indians from beyond the Honeoye came. and left a trail of fire and death behind. It is not unlikely that these hills could tell some sad tales of Indian war- fare, if they would only reveal their secrets. Yet on the whole the native Indian lived a very peaceable life; a very comfortable life, considering his savage state; and a very honorable life, after the standards of Indian honor, and even after our own standards in many ways. I know that it is easy to see the romance and forget the hard facts, but a study of the tales of the early settlers bears us out in this estimate of the character of the Indian. He was a fairly good creature until the white man came.
We do not know exactly who the first white persons were who looked upon the beauties of this region. It may have been some hardy hunter or trapper who wandered through the land in search of adventure. More probably it was some of the early Jesuit Fathers, who came as missionaries to the Indians.
The first recorded work of the Jesuits among the Iroquois was in about the year 1630, but it was not until 1654, when a treaty of peace was made between the French and the Iroquois, that the Jesuits did much work. Then many of the "Black Robes" entered the field and founded missions. There is a tradition that there was a Jesuit mission at the Indian village near West Bloomfield station, but when it was founded, or whom was the founder, or what was his success, there is no record. They were heroes, those Jesuit priests, devoting everything to the service of Christ, sparing neither toil, nor pain, nor life itself, for the sake of the cross. Along the Indian trails they passed, through what is now the village of West Bloomfield, no doubt, wasted often with their hard life, but ever full of zeal for their work. Dying at last alone among the red men, or perhaps murdered by some hostile savage, they left no monu- ment, except the memory of their faithfulness.
Later, as a result of French treachery, the Indians became bitterly hostile against the English colonists and many bloody scenes were enacted. At last as the tide of English emigration began to roll westward, it was necessary, as a mere war measure, to destroy the power of these Indians. It was in what is known
1
501
THE TOWN OF WEST BLOOMFIELD.
as Sullivan's campaign that the work of destruction was accom- plished. There is no record that the army went through any part of this town, but it is not impossible that small parties made side trips to villages here, carrying out their work of destruction.
The soldiers of Sullivan's army took back to the East such glowing stories of the fertility of the region through which they had marched that settlements were at once begun in the new country. Ten years after Sullivan's campaign, what is now the town of West Bloomfield was purchased by General Amos Hall, Robert Taft, Nathan Marvin, and Ebenezer Curtis. The first settler was Colonel Peregrine Gardner, who built a house on the old Indian trail, now the main road, near where Caleb Taft lives. Other settlers soon followed, many of whose descendants are with us today, for we find among those who came in the early days the names Hall, Peck, Taft, Wheelock, Shepard, Lee, Sears, Curtis, Baker, Gates, Parmele, Miller, and many others. It was in 1790 that Samuel Miller located in what has been so long known as Miller's Corners ; and others soon followed. Thus started the town of West Bloomfield.
It is recorded that the early settlers were not of a Godly sort. I quote from the records of my own church: "The first settlers of the society, as is common in most newly settled countries, were drawn thither by motives of personal interest. Religion was not their primary object in removing from the old settlements into these western wilds. There is reason to believe that very little of the fear of God existed in the society for a long space of time. Ebenezer Curtis, Esq., was the only professor of religion that resided in the society for several years. The public worship of God was wholly neglected, and the inhabitants devoted their time and talents to the acquisition of temporal prosperity, regardless of the one thing needful. The wilderness budded and blossomed as a rose, in a natural but not in a spiritual sense."
One authority says that the first public religious service in the town was held in 1793, but our church record gives a later date (1796), when Elisha Wade (be his name ever honored here) came to the settlement and "set up the public worship of God in his own house upon the Sabbath." Elisha Wade lived but a year after he came here, but the influence of his meetings was felt long after, for at those meetings three persons were converted, one of whom became the first deacon of the Congregational church. About 1795,
502
HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
Rev. Zadoc Hunn, then residing in Bristol, preached through the country as he had opportunity, and often came to "Bloomville," as the present village of West Bloomfield was then called.
The early settlers from this town were chiefly from Lyme and Guilford, Connecticut, and from Granville, Massachusetts, and were therefore of Congregational ancestry. In consequence the friends left in the East became anxious for the spiritual welfare of their relatives in the far wild West, and hence missionary societies sent out missionaries to keep our fathers true to the faith. In 1798-9 there was a great revival all through this region. In a letter dated April 29, 1799, one of these missionaries, Rev. Seth Williston, said : "There has been a very pleasing attention to the one thing needful in several societies in this county during the winter, and it still continues. The seriousness began, I believe, at Palmyra. * At Bristol and Bloomfield there has been, and still is, a most solemn attention to the concerns of eternity. Bloomfield is a large town. It contains three Congregational societies ; the awakening has pre- vailed in them all." (At that time Bloomfield included East and West Bloomfield, Victor and Mendon. He referred, I think, to the churches at East Bloomfield, West Bloomfield, and Victor.) "There are some other towns in the vicinity where there is more than the usual attention paid to religious matters. A few drops from the cloud of glory have fallen upon Pittstown (Richmond), and, what is very encouraging to the friends of religion in this quarter, there is a very pleasing and uncommon attention to public worship in Canandaigua, the capital of this county, and one of the most flourishing towns in all the western part of the State. The people generally attend public worship * in Canandaigua there are a few individuals whose minds are anxious about futurity. The Spirit evidently began to be poured out upon Bristol and Bloomfield about the beginning of the year. *
* * It has been difficult during the winter to get places large enough to accommodate, or even contain, the people, who have come together to hear something about Jesus and his salvation. Once I saw about four hundred people assembled at one place."
Life here in the early days was somewhat strenuous, subduing forests, and raising crops, and preparing food, with few of our modern conveniences. Yet the people made the best of the situa- tion and enjoyed life. It is on record that our grandmothers used to gather every Monday morning at Shepard's pond with the weekly
503
THE TOWN OF WEST BLOOMFIELD.
washing, and there with fires under great iron kettles, would make a picnic of their washing day, going home at night weary but happy in the consciousness that they were doing what to the typical house- keeper is the most important duty, keeping the family linen clean. The lack of mills for grinding grain was a great hardship, but this was soon remedied, for in 1816 General Amos Hall erected a mill where, Cox's mill is now located.
The Congregational church prospered for a considerable time, notably so during the pastorate of Dr. Ebenezer Fitch, who had been President of Williams College before coming to Bloomfield.
The succession of pastors and supplies has been as follows : James H. Hotchkin, David Fuller, Ebenezer Fitch, Silas C. Brown, William P. Kendrick, Julius Steele, George Clark, George Bassett, C. R. Clark, Timothy Stowe, C. E. Fisher, George C. Overhiser, P. F. Sanborn, John Patchin, O. D. Crawford, S. B. Sherrill, Annis F. Eastman, Newton W. Bates, Louis Wilson, and Charles R Hamblin.
In 1818, a Christian church was organized by Rev. David Millard. In 1825 a church building was erected about a mile south of the village of West Bloomfield. In about 1848 this building was . removed to the village. For many years the pastor of this early church was Elder Millard, as he was called, a man of considerable ability, and his services were highly appreciated. The society prospered for a time, but later it was with difficulty maintained. and about the year 1860 it was dissolved and the church building became our present town hall.
In 1831, a Methodist church was organized in the village of West Bloomfield, and in 1832 a house of worship was erected near where Porter F. Leech now lives. The historian says that most of the members resided at or near Miller's Corners, and so the society was disbanded and afterwards reorganized at the Corners.
In 1866 St. Joseph's Catholic church was organized, occupying a building that was erected by one section of the Congregational church at a time of division.
Peregrine Gardner was the first actual settler in the town. coming here in 1789, but he was soon followed by Ebenezer Curtis and his family. Mr. Gardner's daughter, Lucinda, was the first white child born in the town, her birth taking place in 1791. Amos Hall, who was among the first settlers, emigrating from Guilford, Connecticut, in 1790, rose to prominence in the War of 1812, when
504
HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
he commanded the Ontario county militia on the frontier. He also attamed distinction in civil life, acting as Surrogate of the county in 1796-98, representing the county in the State Assembly in the Legislatures of 1798 and 1799, and serving as a State Senator from the Western District in 1811 and 1812. As Deputy Marshal, he took the first census of Western New York in 1790, and he was a member of the Council of Appointment in 1809 and '10. Other carly settlers were Reuben Lee. Deacon Samuel Handy, Josiah Wendle, Nathaniel Shepard, Nathaniel Eggleston, tavern keeper ; Josiah Eggleston, shoemaker; Bayze Baker, Martin Minor, Phile- mon Hall, and Daniel Curtis. Samuel Nichols built a distillery about the year 1818 and Jacob Erdle a saw mill about 1824. In District No. 6, in which the village of West Bloomfield is located, Colonel Jasper P. Sears built the pioneer tavern. Julius Curtis was an early surveyor. Joseph Gilbert, Jasper Marvin, and Palmer Peck were carly settlers. John Dickson, a resident of the village, was a member of Assembly in 1829 and 1830, and represented the district in the Twenty-Second and Twenty-Third Congresses. In those early days there were general stores kept by Erastus Hunt, A. Hendee & Co., Ludwick C. Fitch, and Augustus Hall ; a drug store, by Drs. Hickox and Fairchild; a tannery, by Captain Arnold; an axe factory, by M. and D. Pillsbury; a wagon shop, by Reuben Pierce : a chair factory, by a Mr. Baker; a shoe shop by Bushnell Arnold : an iron foundry and wagon shop, by D. W. Pillsbury; a brass foundry, by Edward Herrick, etc. In District No. 3, the pioneer settlers were Samuel Miller and family, from whom the settlement of Miller's Corners, now Ionia, took its name.
Schools were established immediately after the first settlement of the town, and in 1812 an academy was founded at West Bloom- field village. Eight of the nine districts in which the town was divided have substantial school buildings and the educational interests of the town, like those of its churches, have been loyally supported in the face of a steadily decreasing population. Whereas in 1840 the population of the town was reported at 2,094, in 1860 it had fallen to 1,646, in 1890 to 1,481, in 1900 to 1,306, and in 1910 to 1.181. There are no incorporated villages within the limits of the town. although the settlements of West Bloomfield and fonia have thrifty business interests, and at North Bloomfield, located on the Honeoye lake outlet, there are several mills and
505
THE TOWN OF WEST BLOOMFIELD.
some other manufacturing enterprises. These villages are all located on the Batavia branch of the New York Central railroad.
The town of West Bloomfield became a separate political division on February 11, 1833, when that part of township No. 10 of Range 5, which lies east of Honeoye outlet, was set off from the old town of Bloomfield and established a separate organization. The town officers, elected on the first Tuesday in April following, were these: Supervisor, Reynold Peck; town clerk, H. B. Hall; assessors, Stephen Blake, David Paul, and Wheeler Griffin ; collector, Isaac W. Phillips; overseers of the poor, Stephen Hendee and Sylvester Kellogg; justices of the peace, Sidney Huntington, Enoch A. Hall, and Elias D. Wright; commissioners of highways, Jasper C. Peck, John L. Lloyd, and William Paul; commissioners of schools, B. C. Taft, Melancton Gates, and William Arnold, Jr .; inspectors of common schools, Baley Ayer, Ebenezer B. Saddler, and H. B. Hall; constables, Isaac W. Phillips and Griffin Goodrich.
The succession of supervisors has been as follows: Reynold Peck, 1833-39; Bazaleel C. Taft, 1840-42; Reynold Peck, 1843-44; Jasper C. Peck, 1845: John Dickson, 1846; Reynold Peck, 1847-48; Solon Peck, 1849-50; Charles Webb, 1851; Melancton Gates, 1852; Daniel S. Baker, 1853-54; Thomas R. Peck, 1855; Elisha F. Leech, 1856-64; Joseph C. Shelton, 1865-66; Hiram T. Parmele, 1867-70; Jasper P. Thompson, 1871; Reynold M. Peck, 1872; Walter J. Dixon, 1873-74; Harvey A. Metcalf, 1875-77 ; James H. Baker, 1878; Carlton S. Miller, 1879-80; Oscar H. Huntington, 1881; Carlton S. Miller, 1882-83; Edwin E. Bond, 1884-85; John P. Elton, 1886; Reynold M. Peck, 1887-88; Edwin E. Bond, 1889; Patrick O'Leary, 1890-91; Newton W. Dibble, 1892; William T. Case, 1893-95 ; Irving A. Pillsbury, 1896-97; James R. Worthington, 1898-99; Henry P. Hewitt, 1900-03; Alfred D. Gates, 1904-07; Charles B .. Pratt, 1908-09; Harry E. Taft, 1910-11.
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.