USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. I > Part 3
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During the high water season in the early years of the set- tlement of this valley this river was navigable for arks from Liberty in the town of Cohoeton, this county, where they were built, and in which the products of the vicinity were shipped to markets in Pennsylvania and Maryland. At Bath and other places on this river storehouses were built and yards established for the accumulation and keeping of property awaiting shipment by these river crafts.
THE CANISTEO, A GREAT WATERWAY.
Canisteo river has its source in eastern Allegany county, whose summits are 2,000 feet above the level of the sea, flows through a valley west of and nearly parallel to that of the Cohoeton, and at an average distance of twelve miles therefrom. Its chief tribu- taries are the Canaesdea, Crosby, Purdy, Bennett's, Colonel Bills' and Tusearawa ereeks, all from the southwest.
During the early years of the last century until about 1840 the Canisteo was a great water highway. During the season of the year when the river was at "rafting pitch" it was alive with rafts, arks and other craft, laden with the products of the forest, field, meadow and glade of all of the surrounding and adjacent country reaching from the Pennsylvania line, western Allegany, even to the banks of the tributaries of the Allegheny river, and to the country bordering on the lower reaches of the Genesee river; for the reason that, strange as it may now seem, the markets available to the then navigation of the Allegheny and the Genesee rivers-Pittsburg, Cincinnati, New Orleans and the gulf ports-were not as desir- able; were quicker glutted than those reached by the Canisteo, Cohocton and Tioga rivers-Harrisburg, Columbia, Baltimore and the Atlantic coast markets.
Arkport was the head of navigation on the Canisteo and many arks and rafts were put into the water here. Hornellsville, Canisteo
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
and Addison were also important river ports. At the first named place, now the city of Hornell, was a noted shipping point, and ark building was extensively carried on in its many yards.
Lumber, cattle, sheep, hogs, grain and all products of the soil; Steuben potatoes and buckwheat then, as now, the favorites of the market, were collected and stored here for shipment. To accommo- date and take care of these products, large warehouses were built on the banks of the river. Rafting was extensively carried on at Canisteo. The immense pine forests immediately contiguous and surrounding supplied great lumber yards there, which were packed full and piled high with the best grades, were industriously converted into rafts and hourly sent down the river to market. At such times the river at these points and below seemed covered with clean and fragrant piers of lumber, rivaling in value, volume, frequency and continuity the goods trains now hauled over the tracks of the Erie Railroad along the banks of this river.
VENTURESOME ARK BOATS.
At Upper Canisteo, the present Hornell, Col. Ira Daven- port built several canal boats, which were floated down the river and by way of the navigable feeder of the Chemung canal to Knoxville (now a part of the eity of Corning), to the head of Seneca lake, and thence were soon placed in traffic on all of the canals of this state. Some floated in the salt water of New York harbor, after passing the highlands of the Hudson, historic West Point, and the echo-repeating crags from the dormitory of Rip Van Winkle, and thence through the sleepy Kill von Kull to Perth Amboy, receiving a cargo of earthenware and terra cotta and returning to Seneca lake. Another of these boats, by way of Troy, the Champlain canal, Lake Champlain, the Sorell river and the St. Lawrence, reached Montreal, and thence floated down the River St. Lawrence, and listlessly swung with the ebbing and flow- ing tide in Wolfe's cove under the battlements of Quebec. When we reflect, these boats were about the size of Henry Hudson's "Half Moon" that made the early trans-atlantic venture in safety, we need not marvel at the journeyings of these Canisteo river craft from Hornell to Quebec.
Canaseraga and Patehins creeks and Stoney brook, which drain the north part of the county, are tributaries to the Genesee river flowing north. They pierce a water shed, from which water flows to the Chesapeake bay on the south, and the gulf of St. Lawrence on the north, forming deep and picturesque glens and ravines of remarkable scenery, abounding in rare and interesting geological formation and springs of unascertained depths, emitting liquid clay and finest sand; the wonder and study of learned per- sons.
BEAUTIFUL AND ROMANTIC LAKES.
Crooked or Keuka lake penetrates the northeasterly section of the county a distance varying from eight to fourteen miles, in a deep valley formed by steep hills five hundred to eight hundred feet high. It is a bold intruder of the St. Lawrence system, of great depth of purest and clearest water, without an -island or rock to mar its beauty or vex its crystal waves. It is the purest gem, the choicest diadem of the lacustrine region of the Empire
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
state. In Indian legends guarded by the demons of the upper air, who hurled tornadoes and thunder bolts against those who had the temerity to venture on its azure surface, where beryl swirls and sapphire chorls clap their crystal hands. This lake is pierced by a bold peninsular headland, called Bluff Point, four hundred feet high from the surface of the lake, dividing the lake into two parts -- the main body of the lake and the west branch. Bluff Point is in Yates county ; the main shores from the south line of that county are in Steuben county.
Lake Wanetta, early called Little lake, is a beautiful sheet of water. The scene of a romantic Indian tradition, it lies in a shallow valley along the east border of the county in the town of Wayne, about two miles east of and parallel to Lake Keuka, and at about an altitude of two hundred feet above. It discharges its waters into Mud lake and through Mud creek into the Cohocton river.
Loon and Mud lakes, in the town of Wayland, lie in a valley which is the southern continuation of the valley of Hemlock lake, in Livingston county. Their waters flow in opposite directions. The outlet of the former is subterranean for nearly half of a mile; where it comes to the surface it is of sufficient volume to form a valuable uniform mill stream, flowing into the Genesee river through Canaseraga creek. The waters of Mud lake, the lesser of the two, run into Neils creek and thence into the Cohocton river.
Lake Salubria, one mile east of the village of Bath, is a little round tear drop; a thing of beauty surrounded by abrupt high- lands, now denuded of native forests, having an outlet through a valley into the Cohocton river.
Goodhue lake in the northwest part of the town of Addison, covers an area of about five hundred acres, surrounded with cul- tivated lands upon which are pleasant and prosperous homes. Of late years it has become a favorite summer resort. Its waters find an outlet through a creek of the same name to the Canisteo river, below the village of Addison. It is a wild, picturesque stream in all of its surroundings of hill and valley; sometimes beautiful and placid as it finds its tortuous course; sometimes impetuous and dashing and surging against the hills in its course, affording hydraulic power for several lumber mills.
In the southeast part of the town of Prattsburg lies Duck lake, now less than half a mile long, and one-quarter broad, but evidently, from surrounding appearances, and ancient mem- ories, was at not a remote period more than twice its present size. The marsh surrounding this lake has been gradually encroaching on its limits for years, and is filling up gradually with decayed organic remains. This lake is filling up with drift and mold; its waters are full of decayed vegetable matter held in suspension. It is from six to ten feet deep and abounds in fish. Scutt creek and Waldo creek are tributaries to this lake. It discharges its waters through a narrow and crooked outlet of some forty rods in length into Five Mile creek; thence into the Cohocton river.
In the northern part of the town of Howard are two lakes. One of them is to the north of the village of Howard, the outlet of which empties into Niels creek about two miles above its con-
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
fluence with the Cohocton river. The Castle, a noted private fish- ing preserve, well stocked, is supplied from this stream. The other lake is a beautiful but treacherous sheet of water, termed a "pond" by the inhabitants, and is surrounded by a fine cul- tivated country, called the "Pond settlement." A number of fatalities have occurred on this "pond" by the dwellers there- abouts who, relying upon their familiarity with its nature, have rashly ventured upon it, particularly in winter, and lost their lives. This pond debouches to the south in a rapid outlet running past and supplying power at Goff's mills years since. These latter consisted of a grist mill, saw mill, shingle mill, earding and fulling mills, long sinee crowded out by the march of improvements and modern methods. After escaping from the exactions of these mills, this outlet joins Goff's creek a little below ; thence into the Cohoeton river. Along this outlet and this creek, are developed some of the most remarkable characteristics of the geological features of Steu- ben county. Ascending Goff's creek to a locality above what was formerly known as Grave's mills, we find massed rocks of shale and granite thrown up in rounded hills, and then torn asunder by the passage of the water. The valley of this stream is in marked contrast with the alluvial character of the Howard Flatts above. Dernmon pond is a small sheet of water near the center of Howard, its shores are unfrequented.
In the southern part of the town of Thurston is Friends lake, the outlet of which breaks through the hills to the Canisteo river. 'This outlet is in character with all the streams which are pre- cipitated from the hills into the valleys below. In dry seasons it secretes its water beneath the debris of the shales scattered along its channel; in wet weather it is the "mad mountain torrent," sweeping everything in its course, and excavating rock and gravel as a pathway for its wild, tumbling and turbulent waters.
Ryers pond, in the town of Hornellsville, two miles south of Arkport, is a small deep pool of clear cold water, surrounded by bogs and morass. A thickly overgrown fen, where abound many rare and interesting botanical specimens; it is the nativity of the venomous mosquito, and of the elusive will-o'-the-wisp ; but details of this later on.
A feeble brine spring, called in pioneer day "The Deer Lick," is found in the town of Howard. Sulphur springs are found in Jasper, Canisteo, Hornellsville, Campbell and Urbana.
The shales and sand stones of the Portage group, outcrop in all of the deep ravines in the north part of the county, and in the west banks of Lake Keuka. Elsewhere the Chemung group com- poses most of. the rocks at the surface, or at a short distance below. Adjacent to and along the Pennsylvania line, the highest hills are capped with a coarse silicious conglomerate, which forms the floor of the coal measures further south. Generally the rocks of the county are of a shaley nature, not fit for building purposes or the ordinary uses of stone, because of tendency, upon exposure to the action of the air, sunlight and water, to slaeken and disintegrate. There are a few exceptions, however.
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS.
About one mile west of Bath, is found a stratum several feet thick of a tough argillo-calcareous rock forming an excellent build- ing and abutment stone. In Woodhull, Jasper, Greenwood and C'anisteo, are sandstone ledges which have furnished excellent grindstones, sharpening and polishing stones. In Hornellsville, Dansville, Fremont and Troupsburg, are marl beds, from which lime has been made, but now abandoned because lime of a superior quality is more accessible. The deposits are used in the vicinity for fertilizing purposes.
In the right bank of the Canesaraga creek, adjacent to the west line of the city of Hornell, is found ledges of rock and shale of a vitreous composition, which after being pulverized or ground by powerful machinery then mixed with certain sands and other substances under a secret formula, and submitted to an intense heat in ovens or kilns, produces a hard, enduring adamantine briek.
This is extensively used with great success in paving streets built for heavy traffic and for sidewalks and general building pur- poses. Ledges of similar formations are found in Corning and Erwin, from which brick is made for like usage.
In the town of Wayland at the summit of the Lackawanna Railroad in that town are found extensive beds of marl, inter- spersed with marine shells and productions forming the principal basis for the excellent and well known cement manufactured at Wayland.
Northwesterly of this marl and cement deposit, within a dis- lance of several miles in Wayland, but principally in the town of Dansville, is an elevated plateau extending a number of miles, of marl and sand, evidently drift brought here by the action of a large body of water, well adapted for grain and fruit raising. From this plateau extensive and beautiful views of the Canesa- raga and Genesee valleys, with the surrounding highlands, are afforded, and at the northern extremity of this water-shed this formation suddenly breaks into numerous pit holes and ravines, in some of which are deep deposits of muck, vegetable and animal remains. The bones of a nearly complete mastodon, a few years since, were found in the town of Wayland, near the plank road leading to Dansville village. They were removed to the museum of the State Normal School at Geneseo, New York. Other smaller similar bones and remains have been unearthed more recently in that locality, notably one on the farm of Mr. J. B. Whiteman in Wayland. The noted Mud Springs in a deep, narrow and fertile valley known to early inhabitants as "Poag's Hole"-now called Spring Valley-comes from this elevated plateau.
Petroleum and natural gas are found sufficient for domestic purposes, in the towns of West Union, Greenwood, Independence and Andover (the two last named are of "Old" Steuben and prop- erly belong to this history). The petroleum is piped to the refinery at Wellsville; the gas is mained to IIornell, Wellsville, Andover, Canisteo and other localities in the vicinity-for heating, lighting and other purposes.
Natural gas of feeble volume is found in Dansville, Urbana, Cameron, Canisteo, Hornellsville, Almond, Troupsburg, Woodhull
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
and other towns, but not sufficient to be of practical value, except in rare and isolated instances.
SOIL OF THE COUNTY.
The soil of the county in general is composed of detritus of the adjacent rocks and is better adapted to grazing than tillage. Upon the intervals along and adjacent the larger streams the soil is a fertile and productive alluvium, well adapted for corn, tobacco, cabbage and all culinary crops. The extensive flats of the valleys of the Chemung, Tioga, Cohocton and the Canisteo rivers, the up- lands of Howard, Wayland, Dansville, Wayne and Lindley, are among the finest and most desirable farming lands of the state.
SANDSTONES AND SHALES.
As has been before noticed, the surface rocks of this county are largely composed of the Chemung group of sandstones and shales, extending to a depth of nearly one thousand feet. The sandstones are usually fine grained, the particles being often inter- mixed with shale, and so cemented together. It is to this cause, from the disintegrating nature of the shale, that so much of this sandstone is of a perishable nature, and of inferior value for build- ing or foundation purpose.
The sandstones range in layers from an inch to a foot in thickness, in some localities forming suitable layers for flagging. In Canisteo particularly a quarry suitable for grindstones has been opened and worked. The shale in some localities assumes a slaty structure, sometimes of a blue color, with the same tendency to decomposition which characterizes the whole mass. In some places they form concretions parallel with their layers of carbonate of lime or of manganese, from an inch to several yards in length. They are sometimes colored with bitumen and carbonate of iron.
POOR COAL MINING PROSPECT.
The rocks of this county pass next under the coal formations of Pennsylvania. The dip, inclination downward tendency, is al- ways to the south, there being no anticlinal line other than the slightly elevated one which has given rise to the northern and southern waters. This dipping of the rocks to the south, though it diminishes the geographical height of the coal series, correspond- ingly increases their thickness. Some of the hills in the southern part of Steuben county, contiguous to the state line, are capped with conglomerate, showing masses of red sandstone, together with fossils which border the coal series; but the strata of rocks dipping to the south, near Painted Post-one hundred and thirty feet to the mile, then at Chimney Narrows one hundred feet, and five miles further south one hundred ninety-eight feet-this strata of rock, peculiar to Steuben county, would pass five thousand feet below the principal coal beds of Pennsylvania. And if the line of this coal strata could be continued north at the same angle of ele- vation as the depression of these rocks the coal strata would be the same distance above; a poor prospect for coal mining.
The rocks of this county, consisting of shale and sandstone of a greenish tint, are apparently not of igneous formation. They abound in marine organic remains of shells and zoophites, showing the presence at one time of the sea, and not of land-producing
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
plants and trees, the accepted origin of coal. The coal series ex- hibits vegetable, not marine remains. The conglomerate or pebble rock occurs in this county as a terminal rock only; and then in very partial masses. It diminishes with the coal indication as the quest goes north. All of this is conclusive proof that these rocks pass under the coal series and form the support of their mass.
MARKS OF AN INLAND SEA.
The rocks of this county, showing marine organic remains, were submerged by the waters of the ocean. It has been conjec- tured by geological observers that an inland sea once covered all the western portion of this state and Pennsylvania; observations tend to support the conjecture, or rather this theory.
The Ridge-better known as the "Ridge Road"-shows marks of ancient shores of water which at various periods stood from an elevation of seven hundred and seventy feet to the present level of the lake. Similar indications of ancient shores may be traced at the head or southern limit of Cayuga, Seneca and Keuka lakes. When these ancient waters stood at the highest mark indicated the area of this inland sea must have been defined generally by the highlands of eastern and northeastern New York, the New Eng- land ranges of mountains on the east; the rocky ranges north of Lake Superior and the Laurentine mountains of Canada, on the north; the Appallachian mountains on the south; and the high- lands of Dakota and Montana on the west. The outlets of this vast sea, from present appearances, must have been by the St. Law- rence, the Hudson, the Susquehanna and the Mississippi and its tributaries. The depositions of drift made at that period can be traced down the several valleys and courses of these outlet streams, by the earth and soil deposits and the alien boulders.
The indications of diluvial action are nearly everywhere in evidence in the accumulation of gravel, sand, pebbles and boulders of varying size; scattered in some localities profusely, in others frugally. Diluvial hills, mounds and knolls are found in many localities and the level portion of western and southwestern New York are largely of diluvial origin, the surface being impaired with annoying boulders of varied foreign origin. Many of them are of granite and gneiss; some of sandstone from below; others of limestone from above the geological plane where they are found. Many of the rocks show evidence of the wearing action and influ- ence of water and ice, running and moving, carrying materials, wearing away, grooving and polishing the surface of the rocks with which they came in contact. It is not uncommon to find the abrupt offsets from one strata to another have been worn down to a grad- ual slope, produced by the action of water in motion.
The agency of running water in producing our diluvial depos- its is strikingly obvious to every observing person. The formation of these deposits shows not only the action of currents of water in one direction, but also the action of eddies and counter-currents. We find evidence of these reverse and counter-currents more boldly presented on the northerly side of the watersheds and highland than elsewhere. This is strikingly presented by the remarkable formations and pot-holes in the northern part of Wayland and
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
Dansville, near the Livingston county line, and along the Lacka- wanna and the Shawmut Railroads.
BOULDER DEPOSITS AND DRIFT ROCK.
The boulder deposits are numerous and deposited generally throughout the county. In Cohocton, Prattsburg and Wheeler they are chiefly derived from primary rocks; some of granite gneiss; others of crystalline formation and feldspar combined. Many of the boulders of this description are large in size. The native bed cannot be nearer than the primitive formation of the North Amer- ican continent, brought and deposited where we find them by ice- bergs from the extreme north, long before mnan had a primitive existence as man. Granite is found promiscuously through all the northern towns of the county, while in the southern towns it is mingled with masses of conglomerate.
In some places in Bath, Urbana, Wayne and Wheeler, large blocks are accompanied by rolled pebbles of greenstone and sand- stone, syenite and limestone are found. In the valleys of the Can- isteo and Cohocton rivers, Five Mile and Twelve Mile creeks, lime- stone is found as a driftroek, in rounded pebbles of varying sizes. There is not any uniformity in the line of deposit of these boulders, nor can any course be traced with distinetness or certainty. It is an unsettled proposition whether they were stranded from ice- bergs or by glacial action, the most intelligent and best established opinion founded on competent, careful examination, strongly inelines to the former.
No UNIFORMITY OF DRIFT.
The ridges of gravel, sand and elay appcar to have been formed by water in similar action by some eause. They seem to be of like or similar character and from the same regions as the larger boulders. No uniformity of drift over any considerable space is found confined to any one town. In some localities it is in the form of fine sand; in others it assumes that of coarse gravel, and again pure loam in mass, intermixed and mingled with sand and gravel; in other places the sand, gravel, clay and loam lie unmingled in distinct strata and layers upon each other; in some instances each of the same thickness and dip or inclination. Generally the depth of these deposits of drift vary from one to two feet, to forty feet or more.
In the town of Howard, at the "Flats" occupied by the village of Howard and immediately surrounding and extending two miles north, composed of alluvial deposit, singularly deep and uncom- mon, though moderately elevated above the general surface of the seetion of the country about, is presented an elevated plateau. It is surrounded by hills of the average height of those of the county, terminating at the north in an extended swamp-the source of an affluent of Neil's creek, in the valley of which the alluvinm abounds to a great depth, devoid of sand or gravel. On the south and west the waters from this tableland find drainage into the brooks and streams flowing into Goff's, Bennett's and Dolly's ereeks.
The deposits of the hill country are not uniform. Some present the greatest slope to the north and east; others to the south and west. This eannot be relied upon without exception, for in a num-
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
ber of instances the eastern slope is more abrupt than the western, being the result of the action of the waters in scooping out their channel in their course towards the sea, or of the eddies, currents and counter-currents of the inland sea before its drainage.
Of the action of these eddies and currents instances are found in the eastern towns of the county, through Wayne, Bradford and Bath. From Olmsted's-now Keuka Landing, on the eastern shore of Lake Keuka-to Wayne Four Corners, and thence southward, is a well defined valley, the result of these agencies being evidenced by hills formed, and lakes, ponds and pools excavated thereby, the whole distance. Aside from Lake Waneta, or Little Lake, and Mud Lake, a succession of ponds are strung along the valley of Mud creek, some of them of great depth, and surrounded by ridges and hills of every known or imaginary shape.
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