USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. I > Part 21
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 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
The last letter written by Washington in his official capacity of com- mander-in-chief of the armies of the United States was addressed on the morn- ing of the surrender of his authority to congress at Annapolis, to General Steuben, in which he said, "I wish to make use of this last moment of my public life to signify in the strongest terms my entire approbation of your conduct, and to express my sense of the obligations that the public is under to you for your faithful and meritorious services."
The warm-hearted General offered this simple tribute in return : "A
144
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
stranger to the language and customs of the country, I had nothing to offer in my favor but a little experience and a good will to serve the United States. If my endeavors have succeeded I owe it to Your Excellency's protection, and it is a sufficient reward for me to know that I have been useful in Your Ex- cellency's operations, which always tended to the good of your country. After having studied the principles of military art under Frederick the Great and put them in practice under Washington, after having deposited my sword under the same trophies of victory with you, and finally after having received this last public testimonial of your esteem there remains nothing for me to desire."
In May, 1783, the celebrated and patriotic Society of the Cincinnatti, originated by the fertile mind of General Henry Knox, was formed, its ob- ject being to cement and perpetuate the friendship of the officers of the First Army of the Republic, who had fought and bled together, and to transmit the sentiment to their descendants. The first meeting for its adoption was held May 13, 1783, at the headquarters of General Steuben, in the Verplanck mansion at Fishkill; Steuben, as senior officer, presided at that meeting. This society, led by Steuben, attended in a body on July 4, 1789, at St. Paul's 'church, in New York, where a great concourse of citizens and strangers were assembled to hear Alexander Hamilton deliver an oration on the life and public services of General Nathaniel Greene.
Steuben tendered his own resignation to congress in the spring of 1784, and was complimented at the time of its acceptance by a resolution voting him a gold-hilted sword in honor of his military merits. A more profitable reward for his military services remained yet to be bestowed, and with other acts of gratitude due our Revolutionary patriots was long delayed. Steuben had to fight another seven years' war, more wearisome to the old soldier than any struggle on the tented field. The story of this brave, toilsome, old sol- dier, who had conferred the most distinguished and lasting benefits upon the country, being compelled year after year to renew his claims upon the un- willing attention of the imbecile government of the old confederation is not an agreeable recital. It was not until the new government was inaugurated that justice was done. Congress, upon the report of Alexander Hamilton as sec- retary of the treasury, conferred a life annuity of two thousand five hundred dollars upon him. This act was approved by George Washington, president, June 4, 1790.
The several states were less dilatory in their recognition of the value of his services. In 1783 Pennsylvania gave him a grant of two thousand acres of land in Westmoreland county. Virginia presented him with fifteen thousand acres, in what was then her territory, now within the limits of the state of Ohio, adjacent to and embracing the territory now occupied by the city that bears his name. In May, 1786, the legislature of New York gave him sixteen thousand acres in Oneida county, north of Utica. It includes the town named for him.
Steuben survived the war eleven years. During this time he was spe- cially detailed by Washington, as president, to visit the post and forts on the northern frontier, still occupied or claimed by the English, and ascertain the extent, claim and force of such occupation. On this service he visited Forts Presentation, Ontario and Niagara. His journey to Fort Niagara in 1794 by way of the Susquehanna and Genesee rivers and Lake Ontario is spoken of in his memoirs, preserved and edited by Walker, his faithful secre- tary. He describes the fertile valleys .of the Susquehanna and its tributaries and of the Genesee, the many and beautiful lakes of the region traversed, and notes the many cvidences of devastation and destruction caused by Sul- livan's campaign. I unhesitatingly assume that on this journey he passed through a portion of this great county that so proudly bears his name. Would that the veil that hides the future might be lifted, that he might behold the enduring remembrance of a grateful people-perhaps he is cog- nizant of it all.
A large part of General Steuben's life after the close of the war was passed in the city of New York, where the excellent old Revolutionary society gave him a cordial welcome; he was emphatically a privileged character; in "Old New York" everybody knew General Steuben. The mob made way for him to pass, and cheered him in the great "Doctor's Riot" in that city. He, with Governor Clinton, Mayor Duane, Secretary Jay, Hamilton and other prominent citizens endeavored to appease the popular fury upon that occa- sion, but in vain-Jay, in driving to the scene, was severely wounded by a
145
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
stone thrown through the glass of his carriage. The mayor hesitated to give the order to fire upon the mob; Steuben, in the great benevolence of his heart, was remonstrating with the governor and mayor against attempting to quell the riot with firearms, when he was hit in the forehead with a brickbat, and fell bleeding to the pavement, crying loudly, "Fire! governor, fire!" The soldiers did fire, and five persons were killed and seven or eight badly wounded. Steuben was carried to Duer's house, and there being no surgeon at hand, and none daring to show themselves, Lady Kitty Duer scaunched his wound and bound up his head. He lived, when in the city, in various parts of it-at Jones' Woods for a time. As he was always unmarried he could readily shift his home about some half dozen streets, between Trinity and St. Paul's. For many years he was president of the German Society of the United States.
In 1789 he settled upon his Oneida county estate, built a co nmodious log house, to which he afterwards annexed a frame house. He collected a colony many of whom were his old soldiers, to whom he gave land for a o.nº; many Welsh farmers became his tenants. He meditated the erection of a suitable mansion, which should become his rural home; he did not live to see his contemplated improvements and plan carried out. On his return from the frontier in the late autumn of 1794, during his public employment before re- ferred to, he tarried for a time at his Oneida county farm. he retired in his usual good health on the night of November 25, 1794, to be struck by paralysis; he was speechless for three days, expiring on the 28th of No- vember, at the age of sixty-four years. He was wrapped in his cloak, with his golden star of knighthood upon his breast, and buried on > hillside on his own land-a spot he had selected for a place of burial. During the visit of LaFayette to this country in 1826 his remains were taken up and re- interred on the same place under a tablet of raised masonry, and an unpre- tentious monument to his memory erected. His property was mostly be- queathed to Colonel Benjamin Walker and Captain William North, his aides. His library was given to a young man named Mulligan. Colonel Walker gave a Welsh Baptist church a perpetual lease of fifty acres of land, five of which was woodland around the grave of General Steuben, with no other rent than the obligation to keep the woodland fenced and the range of animals prevented thereon. This condition is carefully observed.
Of the faithful Colonel Walker, let me say in passing, he was naval officer of the port of New York in 1791-98, and one of the illustrious repre- sentatives in congress from the Oneida district, sitting in the seventh congress in 1801-03.
After the year 1788 the settlement of that part of Ontario, now embraced in what was originally Steuben county became rapid; public convenience re- quired the erection of a new county out of what was then Ontario county. At the nineteenth session of the legislature of the state of New York-John Jay was then governor-General Philip Schuyler was one of the senators of the western division of this state and included the territory in question. Thomas Morris, a son of Robert Morris, the great financier of the Revolu- tion, was the member of assembly for Ontario county; that session commenced January 6, 1796, and closed April 11 of the same year. At that session Hon. Thomas Morris of Ontario county introduced a bill to erect a part of that county into a separate county by the name of Schuyler, complimentary to and in honor of General Schuyler of the Revolutionary war. General Schuyler was then a member of the senate, most vehemently objected to the giving of his name to the proposed new county, assigning as a reason that as he was not a member of the legislature it would be in bad taste for him to permit the use of his name in that connection; and further, that living participants in the late conflict should be so honored to the exclusion of the dead. He asked that the name of Steuben be inserted in the bill in place of his. The bill was in consequence thereof amended so as to read: "An Act to erect a part of the county of Ontario into a separate county by the name of Steuben." The act was passed by both branches, was approved by Governor Jay, March 18, 1796, and so became a law, and is Chapter 29 of the Laws of 1796. In 1854, nearly sixty years later, a part of the territory of this county was taken to form a new county, to which the name of the generous and self- denying Schuyler was given.
The county of Steuben owes a duty to the brave and generous soldier who came from a foreign land to aid the struggling republic to fight its battles, and by his patient, valuable and sacrificing conduct strengthen the tree of Vol. I-10
146
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
our liberties. At one of its centers of trade and population a suitable memor- ial to his memory and distinguished services in enduring granite or metal should without delay be erected.
A few years since a number of the sons of this country made the effort for this purpose, procured the passage through the legislature of a bill pro- viding for an appropriation for that purpose, but the measure failed to receive the approval of a cheap and frugal demagogue, then governor.
The project should not be abandoned, but renewed and stronger efforts should be made, for since the failure of that effort a more liberal, just and patriotic policy has been manifested by the enactment of a law providing for an appropriation for a monument to brave General Herkimer, which received the sanction and approval of a large-minded, public-spirited and patriotic executive.
Let us try again, with the patience and perseverance displayed by the old Drill Master of the Revolution-our namesake. This duty can be performed, and the patriotic obligation discharged.
CHAPTER VII.
SLICES FROM STEUBEN COUNTY.
SETTLEMENT OF TOWN OF ALMOND-PIONEERS OF ALFRED-FIRST SETTLERS OF ANDOVER-TOWN OF INDEPENDENCE-OSSIAN TOWN SETTLED-THE GODLY ELDER GRAY-CAPTAIN "DAN" AND DANSVILLE-LOSSES OF COUNTY TERRITORY-TOWN OF BARRINGTON-READING EVENTS AND PEOPLE-BARTLES AND HIS ARKS-SETTLEMENT OF TYRONE.
The boundaries named in the act creating the county of Steuben did not remain, as there specified, to exceed twelve years; for by an Act of the Legislature of the state of New York, passed March 11, 1808, it was enacted that all that part of the county lying west and south of the division line between the sixth and seventh ranges of towns be annexed to the county of Allegany; that the part of Steuben county so annexed to Allegany county be erected into a town by the name of Alfred, except all that said part of Steuben county, so annexed to the county of Allegany, comprehended within the fifth and sixth townships of the seventh range, be erected into a town by the name of Ossian; that all of the said seventh range bounded on the south by the division lines, between the fifth and sixth townships, seventh range, be erected into a town by the name of Nunda.
By an act of the legislature of the state of New York, passed in 1846, the town of Nunda was annexed to Livingston county and so remains, and by a legislative act of 1856, the town of Ossian, after being reduced from its original size by the erection of the town of Burns, thirty years before, was also annexed to Livingston county, of which it is still a part.
The history of that part of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, taken from Steuben county and annexed to Allegany county in 1808, properly belongs here, as it was then part of Steuben county.
SETTLEMENT OF TOWN OF ALMOND.
Township 4, of the seventh range of the Pulteney estate, which afterwards became and is now the town of Almond, county of Alle- gany, was first settled in Karr valley, which is formed by a tributary of the Canisteo, Chemung and Susquehanna rivers. In 1796 Rev. Andrew Gray, a clergyman; Major Moses Van Campen, a soldier of the Revolution ; Henry McHenry and Joseph A. Rathbun, all came to that locality. A deed made by Charles Williamson, of Bath,
148
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
to Joseph A. Rathbun, of Sharon, Connecticut, conveys a parcel of land one mile square, in the town of Canisteo, and situated in the northern quarter of township number 4, seventh range. It adjoins the Indian line and contains six hundred and forty-seven aeres of land, according to the survey made by George Bailey in May, 1793. The consideration was four hundred and forty-nine pounds and four shillings. Joseph Coleman eame with these first settlers as far as Canisteo, and assisted in building a grist mill in that town, now in the city of Hornell. In 1797 Joseph Coleman, William Gray, Walter Karr, Samuel Karr, Joseph Karr, Silas Ferry, Stephen Major, Ben- jamin Van Campen and George Lockhart, all of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, settled in Karr valley. Their mode of travel to their new homes was by arks or open boats, up the Susquehanna, Chemung and Canistco rivers. The boats were propelled against the current by setting poles, and by ropes attached to the eraft and drawn by men on the banks, and, when possible, by oars. They disembarked at the Lefferts farm, just east of the shops of the Erie Railroad in the city of Hornell. Here they put their carts and wagons to- gether and loaded them with the few goods and tools brought with them. These were drawn by oxen up Canacadea ereek; then, when near the present location of the school house in the village of Almond, they turned to the right through an opening in the hills and over sand dunes into Karr valley. They were obliged to eut away small trees and brush to make a road, as nothing but a trail marked the way. Within a mile of their destination, the wagon on which the wife and family of Mathew MeHenry were riding turned over and a large kettle fell upon her leg and broke it. There was no doctor nearer than Bath, forty miles away; so Major Van Campen and Elder Gray, who were in the party, set the bone. It was a success, rapidly healed, and the injured limb served her well until her death more than forty years later.
George Lockhart, one of these pioneers, located, lived and died on the Lockhart farm in this valley. He was a descendant of Josiah Lockhart, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who, on May 1, 1785, drew lottery ticket No. 1, entitling him to first choice. He selected the Indian arrow, formed by the junction of the Chemung and Susque- hanna rivers at Tioga Point. This lottery was for lands in the valleys of these two rivers, south of and adjoining the division line between the states of New York and Pennsylvania. Mr. Lockhart paid for his choice for this drawing, containing 1,038 acres and 94 perches, twelve pounds and three shillings. He died in 1808, leaving his property involved in litigation.
Elizabeth Major eame with her family in 1798, her husband having previously died in Pennsylvania. At the Wyoming massacre she stood by the door of her house, telling the invaders to take everything but spare her children. They destroyed the furniture and killed the stock, but her determined bravery saved her children.
Margaret Karr, another matron, deserves mention in connection with the history of this valley, while it was part of Steuben county. She came in 1797 and was a very skilful nurse, especially in mid- wifery and diseases of women and children. In the course of her- ministrations she traveled long distances on horseback at a time when there was no physician nearer than Bath or Geneseo. People living within ten or twenty miles were neighbors. On one of her calls
149
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
she was obliged to swim her horse across the Genesee river in Bel- fast. In addition to her skill and devotion, she was eminently a peacemaker. She closed her busy and useful life in 1820, at the age of eighty-five years.
The first school in Almond was taught by Joseph A. Rathbun, in 1802, in a log house covered with bark in Karr valley.
The first birth was that of Sally Coleman, a child of Joseph and. Mary Coleman, July 10, 1797.
The first marriage was in Karr valley in 1804; that of Peter Putnam and Sally Waters, solemnized by Rev. Andrew Gray.
The first death was that of Mathew McHenry, in 1801.
In 1796 Rev. Andrew Gray, a Duteh Reformed clergyman, built the first log house of the town, in Karr valley. He also built the first frame house, in 1802.
Benjamin Van Campen kept the first inn in 1805. This was in Karr valley.
In 1806 Phineas Stephens built the first saw mill, located in the village of Almond.
The Bath and Olean turnpike, constructed by the Pulteney. estate, ran through this town. It was surveyed by Oliver Miller in 1808 and was completed three years later. For a time it was a great thoroughfare of travel and emigration to the Northwest ter- ritory.
All of the foregoing territory and locality was, after the period of annexation above described, a part of the town of Alfred, as provided by the act of March 11, 1808, annexing the seventh range of townships in Steuben county to the county of Allegany.
The town of Almond was not organized until March 16, 1821. Before the annexation it was a part of the town of Canisteo, in Steuben county.
PIONEERS OF ALFRED.
The first settlers in the present town of Alfred, township 3, seventh range of the Pulteney estate, were principally Seventh Day Baptists. Their first church in the United States was an offshoot of members who seceded from the First Baptist church at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1671. This society in Alfred was the sixth Baptist . church organized in America. The new seet differed from its parent church only in the observanee of the seventh day, or Saturday, as the Sabbath. During the period from the establishment of this denomination in 16:1 to the present time, it established strong settlements and churches in many of the northern, eastern and cen- tral counties of New York; from the overflow of these new settle- ments and from the original locations, emigration set in toward the Genesee and Painted Post country. These people were mostly poor ; frugal from necessity; strong, temperate, industrious, eour- ageous ; fearing nothing but evil ; claiming absolute freedom of re- ligious faith and practice for themselves and all others, and the Bible as the only competent and sufficient authority in religious matters and right living. They grappled cheerfully and courageously with all the problems of their situation and location, and trium- phantly prevailed.
Alfred was first settled by such a sturdy people in the very early years of the nineteenth century ; the overflow passed on to Andover, Independence, and other towns of Allegany county, to Steuben and
150
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
other adjoining and neighboring counties, as well as to the central, western and southern states.
The earliest settlers necessarily followed Indian trails, the chief one leading from Fort Niagara, up the Genesee and down the Can- isteo, Chemung and Susquehanna rivers. It passed near the north- eastern corner of Alfred, and was much traveled and well worn by hunters, fur traders and war parties before, during and after the Revolution. Settlers from New England came by the Hudson, Mo- hawk, Scoharie and Susquehanna rivers and then by the Chemung and Canisteo rivers. Whatever route they chose, the roads were nearly all without bridges. From Hornellsville westward, for many years, the only roads were woodpaths, marked by chipped, notched or blazed trees.
The first settlers in the present town of Alfred came from Berlin, Rensselaer county, New York. These were Clark Crandall, Nathan Greene and Edward Greene, who bought eight hundred acres of land on the creek bottoms in the northeastern part of the town. Crandall's land was below Alfred Station. on the Erie Railroad, and Greene's tract was above the station. The Greenes were sons of Edward J. Greene, a soldier of the Revolution, who was born in Charlestown, Rhode Island, in 1758. He followed his sons to Alfred, where he died, in 1836.
Luke Maxson, from Rensselaer county, a soldier of the Revolu- tion, settled on lot 14, now a part of Alfred village, and is now a part of the ground occupied by the main building of Alfred University.
Hannah, the eldest daughter of Edward J. Greene, became the wife of James Fisk, and was known all about the country as "Aunt Hannah." Her home was one of the hospitable resting places for the tired emigrant and his dependents, on their weary search for a new home. "Aunt Hannah" was one of the most notable women of early days. Being a professional accoucheur, she traveled alone on horseback, whenever and wherever duty called her, the long and lone journeys giving her many thrilling experiences with bears and wolves. She often traveled alone in this way ten and twenty miles.
Luke Greene came from Massachusetts in 1808, his father, Judge Edward Greene, a veteran of the Revolution and who had been first judge of Madison county, accompanying him to Allegany county.
These are some of the settlers who so well formed the reputation of the town of Alfred for intelligence, integrity and industry; and to these pioneers and their descendants western New York is indebted for Alfred University. The untiring labor and determination of its first president, William C. Kenyon, and his successor, Jonathan Allen, matured their efforts, and made it the leading institution of the Massachusetts cession. Here the dignity of labor is recognized and encouraged through all its educational courses. Agriculture and the incchanical and domestic arts, as well as the classics and the humanities, all receive thorough instruction from competent teach- ers. The graduates of this university are among the learned and brilliant of the nation.
FIRST SETTLERS OF ANDOVER.
That part of township 2, range seven, of the Pulteney estate, in the town of Andover, county of Allegany, was settled by Thad-
151
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
deus Baker, the elder, in June, 1807. He had been a surveyor in the service of the Pulteney estate, and selected four hundred acres of land, now in the most valuable part of the village of Andover, for a home for himself and family. His brother Alpheus, who ac- companied him in 1792 when they surveyed the southerly half of the range, located on two hundred acres adjoining on the south. These Baker brothers were from Rutland county, Vermont. Seth Baker, an early settler, came from Granville, Washington county, New York. He was a millwright and a carpenter and built the first saw mill at this place, which was then called "Bakerville," in honor of these early inhabitants.
The first settler in the present town of Andover was Nathaniel Dike, from Tioga Point, Pennsylvania, who located in Elm valley, in that part of the town of Andover, west of the west line of what was Steuben county at and before the annexation of the seventh range of townships of the Pulteney estate lands. The first grist and saw mills in this town were built there. Mr. Dike settled at Elm valley, in 1795, and the mills were built during the next two years. His son, Daniel Dike, was born there on February 18, 1797, and he died on the farm where he was born in 1890.
Nathaniel Dike was educated at Yale college; served as a cap- tain on General Warren's staff; after the death of that officer at Bunker Hill, was attached to the staff of General Washington, and, as such, served until the close of the war. James Dike, a son of Captain Nathaniel, became a resident of the town of Hornellsville, Steuben county, and filled prominent positions there.
TOWN OF INDEPENDENCE.
John Cryder was the first settler in township No. 1, seventh range, now the town of Independence, Allegany county. He located on Cryder creek, in 1798; built a house and a saw mill and cleared some land, but did not become a permanent resident. He was the only resident inhabitant of this township while it remained in Steu- ben county.
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.