USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. I > Part 17
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craft afloat. It took a week to make the up-trip. The boat had been considerably lightened at different places on the way up and the last consignment of goods, with one family, was made at the mouth of Mud creek, now Savona, in the Painted Post country.
The Rhode Islanders, hearing of a good country at the head of this creek, resolved to look it over. After the toil and hard- ship of the journey from Baltimore they were ready for anything else. So putting all their belongings on their shoulders and backs, with gun in hand well loaded, they started up the creek. Wading streams, wallowing through swamps and marshes, climbing hills, in and out of ravines, they finally encamped for the night under a friendly tree. It was now the middle of July and flowers and wild berries were in profusion. The hooting of the owls, or even an occasional snarl of a wolf, did not much disturb their sleep. The next day they tramped over the oak hills of Bradford; the gigantic size and symmetrical shape of the oak, pine and chestnut trees surprised them and attracted their admiration. They were from a land of ship-building and ship-builders, and knew the quality and abundance of this timber. Each picked out five hun- dred acres of adjoining tracts and went to Canandaigua without delay, where they paid for the thousand acres of land. They then returned to select a building site and erected a log house, with two rooms and a chamber, a roof of bark bound on with poles, and a fireplace with chimney on the outside. They cut and manu- factured the oaks into staves and heading, and the pine was after- wards made into lumber and shingles. These products were shipped down Mud creek and the Cohocton, Chemung and Sus- quehanna rivers and sold for good prices in a ready market. In a year or two after sawmills were built at Bartles. These two men lived alone and prospered. The younger enlisted at the breaking out of the War of 1812, went to the Niagara frontier, was in the battle of Queenstown, Canada, was taken prisoner, sent to Halifax and never heard from afterwards. The survivor, after waiting for the return of or news of his cousin, tired of waiting, sold the property, went to Baltimore, married and never returned to his wilderness home.
These instances are cited to show the early and isolated char- acter of the Painted Post and the Genesee country before any considerable sales were made of land in any but small parcels; before the sale by Phelps and Gorham to Robert Morris; and be- fore the sale by Robert Morris to Charles Williamson for Sir William Pulteney and other Englishmen in 1792, afterwards known as the "Pulteney estate." Intending emigrants had set their desires upon this wilderness, especially those who had served in the Sullivan campaign, and their friends and relatives. The claim of Massachusetts had been adjusted and the Indians were less of a disturbing factor, but the restless spirits who had got hardened to Indian campaigns really desired to have more of that kind of life, now that it meant both improved circumstances and new ventures. Yet all involved great hardship, deprivations and many dangers, as the settlers were completely isolated, frequently from two to ten miles apart.
The troubles in Pennsylvania over conflicting and overlap- ping land titles and the intense hatred that was kept alive between
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the Pennsylvanians and the "Yankees" from Connecticut in- duced many of the residents of the northern counties of Penn- sylvania, adjoining the New York line particularly, to turn at- tention to the land in the state of New York, ceded by Massa- chusetts and known as the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. The land in the northern counties of Pennsylvania was disposed of by lottery, the purpose of which was to use the proceeds for the im- provement of the roads about Philadelphia and the Schuylkill river. The first name drawn from the wheel, which was to deter- mine first choice, was that of Josiah Lockhart, a merchant of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Tioga Point, in Pennsylvania, was lot- tery warrant No. 1. The shape of the land formed by the con- fluence of the Susquehanna and Chemung (then Tioga) rivers in- duced Mr. Lockhart to call the land so drawn by him "the Indian Arrow." Christopher Hurlbert, a resident of Wyoming, who was a surveyor, drew a lot upon which he never moved his family, and afterwards relinquished. He returned to Wyoming and in 1797 moved into the state of New York, on the upper Canisteo river, in the district of the Painted Post. He was a grandfather of the late Governor Hoyt, of Pennsylvania.
The settlers at Tioga Point had another source of contention. The uncertainty of the location of the actual state line gave plausibility to, the claims of squatters, who insisted they were in New York.
COLONEL ARTHUR H. ERWIN.
While Lockhart or his representatives do not seem to have been actually on the ground Colonel Arthur H. Erwin, who had drawn a number of the Pennsylvania warrants, was; he made a choice of lands between the rivers above the head of the Indian Arrow, also west of the Chemung, in 1785. Soon after he pur- chased lands in the state of New York.
Arthur H. Erwin was a native of Crumlin, County Antrim. Ireland. In 1768, with his wife and five children, he sailed for America; his wife died on the voyage, and later he married again. He made a settlement in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, nearly op- posite to Frenchtown, New Jersey. The town was named Er- winna, for him. He was possessed of abundant means and be- came one of the shrewdest land buyers in the state, owning a large tract of land along the Delaware river. He served during the Revolutionary war in the American army, and for his energy and valor was made colonel of a Bucks county regiment and al- ways thereafter was, and is still, known as "Colonel Erwin." Of abundant means and the father of a family of ten children, he resolved to provide his offspring with a goodly heritage. It is evident that he went over the state line to avoid the Connecticut controversy.
Erwin made a settlement at Tioga Point in 1788 and ap- pointed his old friend, countryman and fellow-emigrant, Daniel McDuffee, his agent. Here they were at once and continually harassed by squatters and Connecticut claimants. In this di- lemma Erwin turned his attention to buying land in the Phelps' and Gorham Purchase. The story of this purchase is substan- tially as follows: In June, 1789, he started from Tioga Point,
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with a drove of cattle, for Canandaigua, presumably to feed the Indians at a council to be held there. The route was up the Che- mung and Cohocton trail to Mud creek, now Savona; thence up that trail to the foot of Crooked lake, now Penn Yan; and thence to Canandaigua. Stopping at the mouth of the Cohocton river (now the village of Painted Post) to rest and feed his cattle he improved the stop by engaging an Indian guide familiar with the country to show him the way up the mountain north of Painted Post. This afforded him a view of the valleys of the Chemung, Colocton, Tioga and Canisteo rivers, and he was so thoroughly impressed that he came down and ascended the moun- tain on the other side, thus realizing a remarkably interesting and inviting prospect for settlement and growth. He lost no time in returning to the log quarters of the surveyors of Phelps and Gor- ham, and ascertained the range and township by surveyor's num- bers. Then directing his drovers to resume the drive he hastened, under the Indian's guidance, to Canandaigua, where he arrived late in the afternoon. Without delay he went to the office of Phelps and Gorham, made an offer for the tract, by number of range and township (now known as the town of Erwin), and asked them to take in payment his cattle, at their own appraisal, promising to pay the balance in gold. The deal was closed in the following morning. Within twenty-four hours after the deed was signed and delivered Colonel Eleazar Lindsley arrived with an offer for the same land. We may safely guess that the reason for Colonel Erwin's haste was because he knew that Colonel Linds- Jey was on his way to buy this same land. Both of these colonels were probably acquainted with each other; both had served in Sullivan's campaign against the Indians in western New York during the Revolution, and both had observed this fair land and resolved to possess it.
Colonel Erwin was one of twelve associates who later in the same year purchased two townships of Phelps and Gorham, known as the "old Canistear Castle," and now the towns of Canisteo and Hornellsville and the city of Hornell-which will later on be more fully described.
Erwin in Pennsylvania, at Tioga Point, suffered at the hands. of the "wild Yankees." This term was derived from the pur- chasers of half shares in the Susquehanna Company, organized to take and dispose of land in the northern tier of counties in Penn- sylvania, adjacent to the Susquehanna river. These half shares were sold to induce men of limited means to purchase and settle on these lands; most of the purchasers came from Connecticut, and the Pennsylvanians, many of whom suffered at their hands, dubbed them "wild Yankees."
Erwin had been called a surveyor, which he was not. In 1791 he brought two of his sons, Samuel and Francis, up the Chemung river to settle on the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, and superintend his business there. His biographer says: "On his return he stopped at the house of Daniel McDuffee, one of his tenants near Tioga Point, and as he sat in the evening listening to Mr. McDuffee's flute a shot was heard. He suddenly arose, and staggering toward the open door, said, 'I am shot,' and then fell. He lived but a few hours, Miss Polly Lowe, who was present,
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says Erwin was listening to Mr. McDuffee's flute; that Mrs. Mc- Duffee sat in the doorway sewing, dropped her thimble, and as she stooped to pick it up the shot went over her head. Suspicion immediately attached to an ejected squatter by the name of Thomas, who the same night stole, or was supplied, with a horse, and was never after heard from."
- In a history of "Old Tioga Point and Early Athens," by Louise Welles Murray, page 318, is the following: "In the peti- tion of Alexander Patterson, addressed to the Pennsylvania legis- lature, is found this extract in a harangue against Yankee in- truders generally, and Colonel Franklin especially: "Nor be- cause it is believed he controlled the verdict which acquitted Joel Thomas of the barbarous murder of Colonel Arthur Erwin, a gentleman of large property and much respected.' This leads one to infer that there was a trial, though no record has been found. Probably it was Joel Thomas who was arrested and confined in Easton jail. Yet he was later a well-known and apparently re- spected citizen of the southern tier."
THE OLD CANISTEO FLATS.
In the early part of the year 1789 twelve persons-namely: Uriah Stevens, Sr., Arthur Erwin, Joel Thomas, Solomon Ben- net, Elisha Brown, John Jemingson, Uriah Stevens, Jr., James Hadley, William Wynekoop, John Stevens, Thomas Bennet and Christian Kress-associated themselves together to purchase lands of Phelps and Gorham, acquired by them from the state of Massa- chusetts, situated west of the Preemption line in the Painted Post country. Most of these associates had served in Sullivan's cam- paign against the Seneca Nation of Indians, and were familiar from that service and subsequent visits and travels with the gen- eral attractiveness of the wilderness country. Solomon Bennet and Elisha Brown, two of the associates, were chosen to select the locality and make the purchase. In pursuance thereof Bennet and Brown, with attendants, traveled on horseback from Tioga Point up the Chemung river to the mouth of the Cohocton river, thence up that stream to Bath. This locality was infested with rattlesnakes and its general appearance was not satisfactory. They therefore pursued their search a few miles up this river, and com- ing to the trail following a stream, now known as Campbell creek, they reached the divide between the Cohocton and Canisteo rivers, at the head of the stream now called Baker's creek. Here they suddenly came upon a deep and attractive valley, through which the quiet Canisteo found its winding way, indicated by the elms, alders and willows which lined and marked its banks. The pros- pect was unexpectedly charming. A heavy forest covered the bot- tom lands of the valley. Groves of gigantic pine trees, with deep green tops, stood in the midst of the maples, the elms and the sycamores, with their silver columns. So even was the surface of the valley, so steep and darkly shaded the ranges that bounded it that the searchers, looking down upon the tops of the forest trees that covered the ground from hill to hill, seemed to be look- ing down on a sea of trees. At the upper part of the valley, within the range of vision, was an open flat territory of apparently a thousand acres, overgrown with wild or buffalo grass, so high
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when they reached and rode through it that horse and rider were almost out of sight of their fellow travelers. It more resembled a little prairie, beautiful with flowers and verdure, which had been blown into this wilderness from its nativity in the northwest ter- ritory and hurled into this land of gloomy hemlocks.
This was the locality from which, forty years before, out- laws, renegades, apostates and worthless vagabonds were driven by Captain Montour, by command of Sir William Johnson, their habitations, burned and property confiscated and destroyed.
One hundred years before, 1690, Count Frontenac, then gov- ernor of New France, sent Sieur De Villiers, with a party of soldiers, Indians and Jesuit missionaries to warn and drive away from that portion of the Seneca country adjacent to La Belle (Allegheny) river all trespassers and intruders. With this ex- pedition was one whom the world will not so easily forget, the good Abbe Fenelon, afterwards Bishop of Cambray. The Chron- icler says: "The expedition left Cataraguy (now Kingston, On- tario), crossed to and skirted the south shore of Lake Ontario until Genesee river was reached, which they ascended, making one portage around two considerable cataracts, about a league apart, and continued to ascend until reaching its headwaters. After a carrying place of nearly six leagues they arrived at the stream flowing sonth, upon which, in a mountainous country, they found a place of habitation called Kenestio." Then follows the descrip- tion of the renegade settlement, which has already been quoted, and the taking possession of the country in the name of France and her king.
The later explorers of this section of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase decided to buy two townships on the river, which in- cluded this open and attractive savanna, and the twelve associates before mentioned ratified the selection and joined in the purchase. In pursuance of this determination, on August 18, 1789, Oliver Phelps, of Canandaigua, Ontario county, New York, of the one part, and Solomon Bennet and Elisha Brown, of Chemung, Mont- gomery county, state of New York, made an instrument in writ- ing whereby Phelps agreed to sell and convey to said Bennet and Brown and their associates two (2) townships of land, each to be six miles long, north and south, and five and one-half miles from east to west, lying in the county of Ontario, state of New York, to be located in such a manner as to take in all of the old Canisteo Flats, and not to derange the adjacent townships, in consideration of the sum of two thousand six hundred and sixty-six pounds, thirteen shillings, four pence, lawful money of the state of New York, to be paid, one-third on or before May 1, 1790, one-third on or before May 1, 1791, and the remainder on or before. May 1, 1792, with lawful interest. Bennet and Brown agreed that before October 1, 1789, they would give good and sufficient security for the payment of said consideration sum, at the times above men- tioned. Said Phelps then and there agreed that he would give a good and sufficient deed of the said townships when Bennet and Brown should give the security aforesaid. This was before this tract was run into ranges and townships, and the numbers of ranges and townships were therefore not named or specified. In September of the same year Arthur Erwin, Solomon Bennet and
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Joel Thomas were by the aforesaid associates deputed and author- ized to go to Canandaigua and complete the purchase and take the deed. Mr. Phelps, by reason of his former acquaintance and service in the army with Uriah Stevens, Sr., requested that he should sign the notes for the purchase of this land, which were secured by a lien upon the land, and be made a party grantee in the deed. This he did, and accordingly a deed was made and de- livered by Phelps to Uriah Stevens, Sr., Arthur Erwin, Solomnon Bennet and Joel Thomas for township 5, fifth range, and town- ship 3, sixth range. (The survey of this tract had then been com- pleted and mapped by Augustus Porter.)
It was soon discovered that the Canisteo Flats, which the associates desired to purchase and which all parties supposed they had purchased, had not been conveyed by the deed given, which did convey the present town of Canisteo and the town of Harts- ville; but the land which they supposed they had bought and particularly desired was described as township 3, fifth range (now the town of Canisteo), and township 4, sixth range (now the city of Hornell and part of the town of Hornellsville). In September, 1790, Uriah Stevens, Sr., Arthur Erwin, Solomon Bennet and Joel Thomas went to Canandaigua to get a deed for the last named townships and to return and deliver the first deed. Phelps agreed to give them a new deed if they would strike one- half mile from each township, so that each should be six miles by five and one-half miles; but as some improvements had been made on township 3 in the fifth range (Canisteo), it was agreed that instead of taking one-half mile from this township a strip one mile in width should be taken from the west side of town- ship 4, sixth range (Horuellsville) ; so that township 3, fifth range, should be six miles square and township 4, sixth range, should be five miles from east to west and six miles from north to south. In pursuance with this arrangement for correction a new deed was made on the 16th day of September, 1790, by Oliver Phelps to the same grantees for the same consideration, payable in the same manner and by the same notes as for the first deed, and the security and lien for the payment of the notes was trans- ferred from the first to the last conveyed land. The land in this last deed is described as lying in the district of Erwin, in the county of Ontario, state of New York, and known by the name of the old Canisteo Castle.
On October 18, 1789, after the first agreement made with Mr. Phelps by the associates an agreement was made and entered into in writing between the said twelve parties whereby Uriah Stevens, Sr., Solomon Bennet, Joel Thomas, of Chemung, in the state of New York, and Arthur Erwin, of the state of Pennsylvania, of the one part, and Elisha Brown, Uriah Stevens, Jr., James Had- ley, William Wynekoop, John Stephens, John Jemingson, Thomas Bennet and Christian Kress, of Chemung, aforesaid, of the other part, agreed that the party of the first part should let the party of the other part have eight-twelfths of the lands purchased hy the first part of Oliver Phelps and pay the first part eight-twelfths of the price and cost of purchase, that the first part had incurred; and the party of the first part agreed to convey eight-twelfths of said two townships to the party of the other part when they
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should give good and sufficient security for the payment of said sum. About this time Augustus Porter, the surveyor for Phelps and Gorham, ascertained that township 3, fifth range ( Canisteo), and 4 in the sixth range (Hornellsville), were much larger than supposed or intended. They were each actually about six by eight miles. They accordingly cut off from the east side of township 3, in the fifth range (Canisteo), 12,099 acres, known as the East Gore; and from the north side of township 4, in the sixth range (Hornellsville), 9,406 acres, known as the North Gore. This reduced these townships to the size originally intended.
In the summer of 1789 a company of men was sent to the great meadows, who cut and stacked a large quantity of wild grass to winter the cattle that were to be driven on-the advance pioneers of a new life. In the autumn of the same year Uriah Stephens (the senior) and Richard Crosby, with portions of their families, started from Newtown to begin the proposed settlement. The provisions, baggage, women and children were transported up the river in seven-ton flat-boats. Four sons of Mr. Stephens- Elias, Elijah, Benjamin and William-drove along the bank of the river the cattle belonging to the emigrants and to several other families who were to follow and join them in the early months of the next year. From the mouth of the Canisteo river to their new home the journey was slow and toilsome. Frequent shallow rifts were to be overcome and ascended and the channel was often to be cleared of obstructions by stones, trees, logs and debris of driftwood. By determination, grit and strong arms all obstacles were cleared and the Canisteo was opened to navigation up stream, against its rapids and currents, though the unwieldy crafts would, in spite of setting poles, hollowing, swearing and all other devices in aid of inland navigation, turn their noses down stream to the foot of the ripple. By the combined efforts of every human being tugging at long ropes smooth water would be gained. So, after these perils, with those of driving the animals along the shore (much of the way in the stream) stampeding at the sight, noise or scent of some wild animal and making the roundup diffi- cult-after three days of these strange and unexpected encounters the persevering voyagers reached their destination and landed on the upper flats. The astonished herd found itself almost smoth- ered and hidden in the luxuriant vegetation of the meadows. The first thing to be devised was a habitation, and as these pioneers were not dreamers waiting to find a castle they went into the tall timber, cut down trees, hauled them to the selected spot and built a castle of logs, twenty-four feet wide by twenty-six feet long. It had two rooms-one on the ground, one above-with a roof of bark and puncheons, and four fireplaces, one in each corner. In the winter, with a roaring fire in each corner, the last were a constant source of surprise to the Indians. The two families passed here the first winter in comfort. The next spring they were joined by Solomon Bennet, Uriah Stephens, Jr., and Colonel John Stephens, with their families. Ground was broken for the first crop, which yielded in large measure. These meadows were a wonder; what was their origin and when? Captain John, an Onondaga chief, who had been educated in the Mohawk country and was an Indian of much more than ordinary intelligence and
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information, said that he knew nothing of their origin. They were cleared before the Indians came. It required the united strength of four yoke of oxen to break a furrow through the tangled mass. This summer the townships were divided among the associates.
" ASSOCIATES" DIVIDE TOWNSHIPS.
Township 3, in the fifth range (Canisteo), was so situated, by reason of the ancient meadows and the valleys of the streams, that when it was divided into twelve equal lots, running across the flat and river valley, a distance of six miles, and assigned to the associates by lot according to their respective interests, the result was generally satisfactory. The choice resulted as follows : Arthur Erwin, No. 1; Christian Kress, No. 2; Solomon Bennet, Nos. 3 and 4; Joel Thomas, No. 5; John Stephens, No. 6; John Jemingson, No. 7; Uriah Stephens, No. 8; Uriah Stephens, Jr., No. 9; William Wynekoop, No. 10; James Hadley, No. 11; Elisha Brown, No. 12.
Township 4, in the sixth range, was not much thought of by the associates generally. Part of it was very undesirable, because it was largely composed of steep hillsides and other parts along the river and creeks were low and swamps. Some portions were quite desirable if separated from the hills or marshes and swamps. Those of the proprietors who had come to their purchase had located or selected their homes in the lower town. A division of the upper township must be made, and for that purpose an agree- ment was made between the proprietors whereby Arthur Erwin, an alleged surveyor, was to survey township 4 into twelve lots of the equal width of one hundred and thirty-three and one-third rods running the full length of said township from north to south, each to contain one thousand six hundred acres. The most west- erly lot was to be No. 1, agreeably to a draft that was to be made September 13, 1790. For all of his services Erwin was to be paid by the owner forty-seven pounds and ten shillings in money, grain or cattle (market price) at Matt. Hollenbach's store; each man, of course, was to be accountable for his share. The allotment and drawing were fixed for September 25, 1790, at the house of Benjamin Crosby, now the site of St. James' Mercy Hospital, in the city of Hornell. This was the home of the first white settler in the said township No. 4, Hornellsville. Twelve slips of paper were prepared, upon each of which was written the name of one owner. These slips were folded and put into a hat. Only seven of the associates were present. It is believed no more ever came to the territory to reside. The best of feeling did not prevail among those present, as each desired the best, location. All were not in a normal condition for the business at hand and after some contention it was settled that neither of the associates should draw in person or by proxy; that Hannah, wife of Richard Crosby, who was present, should be blindfolded and draw the slips of paper from the hat; and that the first name so drawn should be lot No. 1 and so on consecutively until all of the pieces were disposed of. The drawing resulted as follows: James Hadley, No. 1; John Jemingson, No. 2; Arthur Erwin, No. 3; Christian Kress, No. 4; Joel Thomas, No. 5; Uriah Ste-
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