USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. I > Part 32
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and crowding the ravines, were sounds and sights unknown to their pleasant native plains. When it was night and the awful howling of the wolves all around scared the women and children, or when the crash of great trees overturned by the high and howling winds of autumn woke the timid from dreams of the fatherland; or when the brave. men were aroused in the mid-watches of the night by the strange uproars, looked out in the darkness to see enormous black clouds sailing overhead and the obscure cliffs looming ugly. all around, like the fabled demons of the old wives at home; when goblins squeaked, cried and whistled in the air, and for mischief knocked down their tents and shutters-then they all gave way to dismal lamentation and fears. During this toilsome effort, the equinoctial storms came on with unusual severity, and it was truly disheartening to see the dreary and impetuous rains pour down day after day, the gorges and ravines fill with fog, and vapors steam up the mountain sides from the swollen torrents below, dis- guising the heights in cloudy masks without a ray of sunshine to arouse their desolate souls. No retreat could be thought of, for the swollen streams would have swallowed the entire expedition. Ben Patterson, the guide, and his Pennsylvanians, really enjoyed the discomfiture of these hopeless, deluded Germans.
They came to the Laurel mountain, an offshoot of the Alleghe- nies and the divide between the waters of the Lycoming creek and the Tioga river. Over this ridge a distance of fifteen miles the road was to be built. It does not now seem to be any large un- dertaking, but to these inexperienced emigrants it could hardly seem to be a more serious matter than if they had been requested to build a road over, or tunnel through the mighty Alps. When they toiled over these long hills, looking off into deep gulfs which sometimes descended into wild and forbidding hollows, thence filing along the edges of precipices, their sufferings were inde- scribably intense. All this time Patterson was at the height of his enjoyment. He scoured the ravines and climbed over the rocks, and the Germans from the tops of the high hills heard the report of his rifle in the woods far below, where the elks were browsing or the panther with her whelps lurked in the trec-tops Not for game alone did he search; he could mark with pleasure valleys, and mill streams, and ridges of timber; and note the labors and results of those invisible artists from the north, which came down in the autumn nights and decorated the deciduous forests with the rarest combinations of hues, tints and colors, so that the rising sun found the valleys, hillsides and summits arrayed in all the glories of royal oriental splendor. He could note with his appre- ciative eye the dark robes of the laurels that covered the mountain ranges; the beautiful fleshy green of the hydrangea, rhododendron and other trees and shrubs of the saxifrage and heath families. Whenever a beech, a maple, a chestnut, a birch or an oak thrust its solitary head through the crowded evergreens, he could smile to see how busy the "little people" from the elfland of the Arctic pole had been in spreading their artistic work, while others were pinching the butternut and hickory to let loose their annual yield- the glories of autumn, the heralds of the approaching delightful Indian summer. But all this beautiful panorama of an American autumn was no solace or even transient comfort to these ob-
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livious, dull emigrants. Certain birds of ill-omen became very obstreperous; their clamors, interpreted by the soothsayers, were the only sights or sounds noticed by these pilgrims. Quail whistled, crows cawed, jays scolded, hawks sailed overhead scream- ing like robbers or pirates, and at evening the whip-poor-will sang its mournful song. At night will-o'-the-wisp, or jack-o'-lantern, in most mysterious manner, danced and pirouetted over the swamps and marshes. All were declared to be sure omens of starvation and death, although the hunters roving the country about like hounds supplied them abundantly with game.
The men wept and cursed Captain Williamson bitterly, say- ing he had sent them there to die. They became mutinous, re- fused to work, and brought on the first "strike" in this region. The guide and "boss," Ben Patterson, was equal to the emergency. He first tried to soothe and comfort them, but to no avail, and the malcontents threatened to attack him; whereupon, backing up to a tree and brandishing his tomahawk, he furiously declared that he would kill the first man who resisted him and refused to work. Discipline was restored and work resumed, and Patterson became the first successful "strike-breaker."
INCIDENTS OF THE ROAD BUILDING.
They had now got over the divide and into the valley of the Tioga river. A party was sent ahead, built block-houses and moved their families into them, and then continued their work to and beyond them; when other block-houses would be built in advance, and families moved into them. Many of these temporary abodes remained standing for many years after, serving as shelter and rest for returning raftsmen. It was now November; the wind was keen and full of frost; and the emigrants could sit around the fires, smoke and drink hot coffee. Arriving at about the present location of the village of Mansfield, in Pennsylvania, a new dis- aster hefel them; their supply of coffee gave out and the distress of all was wild at this calamity. Even the men went about wailing and crying, "Ach Kaffee! Kaffee! Mein lieber Kaffee!" (Oh coffee ! Oh coffee! My dear coffee !) ; but no loss of life followed this sudden failure of that coffee supply and the column toiled on.
A few miles above, where now is the village of Blossburg, the Germans made a camp and a bakery. Here a few pieces of coal were found, which the Germans who had used such fuel in their native country pronounced of an excellent quality, and a large pile was gathered and used with good effect in their bakery. A half century afterwards this hill, where the Germans found their coal, was full of great tunnels; miners with pick axes, crow bars and gunpowder were tearing out its vitals, and cars drawn by steam locomotives were hauling it away northward by tons.
The next camping place was about ten miles below Mansfield, called Canoe camp. Here Patterson sent to Tioga Point for canoes and provisions, the latter to be delivered at Painted Post and the canoes at their camp. Meanwhile the road building proceeded down the Tioga river, following the Indian trail. When the canoes arrived at the camp, Patterson directed the women, children and sick to board them for Painted Post; but the Germans refused, saying the canoes were too frail. Patterson and his assistants
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then forced them into the canoes, although they fought, kicked and screamed vigorously. When the flotilla put out down the river he told the men to follow along the Indian trail and all ar- rived in due time without any mishap. Here the party found an abundance of everything; the baker turned out warm loaves and "der lieber Kaffee" steamed from the kettles with grateful fra- grance, while men, women and children crowded around the guide and begged his pardon for their ugly conduct.
THE ROAD FINISHED.
It was now December. They had been three months in the wilderness, and were not in a condition to move on to the Genesee river. But Patterson selected thirty of the most hardy Germans, kept on, opened the road up the Cohocton to Dansville, and thence on to the mouth of the Canaseraga creek, their destination. The others remained through the winter at Painted Post. Said an old lady many years ago: "They were the simplest creatures I ever saw. They had a cow with them, loved it as if it was a child, and used to feed it with bread." The whole colony was conducted to Williamsburg in the spring.
There were but three habitations between Painted Post and Williamsburg. One at the mouth of Five-mile creek; one at the eight-mile tree and one at the foot of the Groveland hill.
The fate of the first potato crop of northern Steuben is worthy of note. The settler had raised a small crop of that now staple product the fall before and had buried them for the spring planting. The Germans snuffed the precious tubers and appro- priated them, Patterson paying the owner several times their actual value. In the Canaseraga valley-Sparta, they came unawares upon a solitary Indian cooking succotash in a small kettle. Both were probably equally surprised. The Germans asked, "Is this a wild man?" and crowded around him in eager curiosity, but the Indian did not look up or say a word. Patterson said the poor Indian was so scared by the crowd of strangers "jabbering Dutch" that he dared not look up or speak. After many tribulations and trials, the Germans were delivered at Williamsburg, with the loss of but a single man who was killed in the mountains by a falling tree. Of the subsequent fortunes of this German colony we are not here concerned.
The undertaking and building of this road at that period was a marvelous undertaking. Captain Williamson said it was built by coffee. General Grant, seventy years later, declared that coffee subdued the rebellion and saved the nation. It is potent in sus- taining the lives of the dwellers and travelers in the Arctic zone.
This road was built and opened to afford access to the Pulte- ney estate. Its route is now in many places obliterated and points where it crosses town lines should be marked and preserved.
Now other means of communication in and out of this ter- ritory will be considered.
PRODUCTS OF PAINTED POST REGION.
The product of the Painted Post region (and that includes Steuben county) was peltries and furs from the animals that in- fested the woods, collected and acquired by the hunters, whites and
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Indians, who roamed the forests in search of this harvest. These were comparatively easy to pack on their backs to the nearest trad- ing station, there to be exchanged for goods, trinkets, liquors and sometimes for money-the last to be taken back to the wilderness to be again turned into the only commodity the forest then yielded.
The first settlers felled the forests, made small clearings, suf- ficient for their first use in raising such crops as were needed for subsistence and maintenance. The trees not used in their rude and primitive habitations were collected into log heaps and burned, the ashes collected, rude leaches constructed, and the lye extracted by running water through the ashes from the burnt wood. This product was made into black-salts and potash, but rare- ly into pearl-ash, and was put into a trough, box or barrel, on a travois, to which a horse or an ox was hitched, and then trans- ported by trail, or the Williamson road, to the nearest market town-perhaps Newtown, Northumberland or other Pennsylvania town-where a good price in cash was paid for the article. From the lye saleratus in its various forms was made, then as now. From the money thus received by the patient and industrious settler and frontiersman were purchased the necessary tools and implements for subduing the forest and converting the ashes into a marketable product. If sufficient funds were at hand and rea- sonable credit secured, the outfit for a sawmill was loaded upon the same vehicle, and with the faithful animal the return journey was made. Then the mountain streams, so long of no value except to produce fish and charm the eye and ear of the Jesuit, voyageur or fur-trader, were summoned to do duty and work in subduing the forests, and making abodes of peace and plenty. Dams were built across these streams, the waters impounded, races dug, the sawmill frame was put up, the new machinery installed; operations for the slaughter of the giants of the forest commenced and their bodies were finally dismembered. Great logs of white pine trees were drawn to the mills, placed upon and secured to the carriage, like the early victims of superstition and ignorance. Then the head-sawyer fixed the gauge (after various measurements and "squints") for the lumber, and the cruel-looking bright saw with its sharp pointed teeth, voracious as a shark, impelled by the im- prisoned water, commenced its up and down motion, producing white pine lumber twelve to twenty feet in length, twenty to thirty inches in width, and not less than one inch in thickness; not a knot or blemish to mar its pure white surface, and yielding a fragrance more precious than the myrrh of Arabia, or the spices of the Indies.
This demonstration was at Bartles' mills, at the outlet of the lakes of beauty and romance, and the time was in 1794. Saw- mills sprang up fast in all sections of the country; great piles and ranks were on the Chemung, Tioga, Canisteo and Cohocton rivers. The sights, sounds and fragrance of this product were the pride and capital of these hardy and persevering producers. The fame and excellence of the lumber of the Painted Post country had reached Columbia, Baltimore, Wilmington, and other towns of the Susquehanna valley, the Chesapeake bay and the coast. But how was it to be sent to market, as it could not be transported over the Williamson road with success ?
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The banks of the rivers above named were lined with piles and ranks of their product, waiting for an opportune time to move it to market. Competent gaugers and inspectors had pro- nounced the pine lumber of this region superior to any found in the United States. Indeed, the Allegheny and Painted Post prod- uct is still the standard in estimating the excellence and value of all pine lumber offered in the markets.
RIVER NAVIGATION ASSURED.
About the year 1783, the Pennsylvania assembly appointed William McClay, a hard-headed reliable Scotchman and a com- petent river man, with large experience on the Susquehanna river and its tributaries, to examine the navigation of this system and to report upon the depth of water, amount at all seasons (especially at mid-summer), obstructions by rapids, riffles and falls, gravel bars and rocks (their size and extent), trees, logs and stumps col- lected in drifts; and in general to open the river and its branches for the navigation of Durham boats, seows and rafts. Mr. MeClay made reports from time to time, extending over more than ten years, these including estimates as to the probable expense of the improvement. The assembly of Pennsylvania made appropriations for the improvement in that state. In New York nothing was done, so far as the Chemung river and its branches were con- cerned, leaving that to be done by the persons most interested, who had no data except the MeClay reports. In 1793 a meeting of the settlers and persons interested was held at the Painted Post to devise ways and means to improve the navigation of these streams. At this meeting, it appears from an old account book that was found among the papers of Judge Christopher Hurlbut, with a memorandum that the following were present: Daniel Messerau, David Pixley and Capt. Asa Leonard of Tioga; Cyrus Hallenback and William Dunn of Newtown; Robert Miller, Che- mung; William Wombaugh, Middletown; Frederick Bartles, Fred- eriekstown; Charles Williamson and Nathan Harvey, Bath ; Jededi- ah Stephen and Christopher Hurlbut, Canisteo; John P. Ryers, Lindley town; and Nathaniel Dyke, Leicester (now Andover). It appears that Judge Hurlbut kept the memorandum of the meet- ing. It was there determined and resolved to clear these streams of obstruetions-the Chemung, to the month of the Tioga; the Tioga to the state line; the Canisteo to Hurlbut (Arkport) and the Cohoeton to Liberty Corners. Fifteen hundred dollars were subscribed and agreed to be paid. The work of clearing out these streams was commenced immediately. The most difficult undertak- ing was the removal of the gravel shoals and cutting' away and removing the log, timber and stump jams, the accumulations of many unknown years. Navigation of the rivers of the Painted Post country, by reason of these determined improvements, being now assured, sawmills were built and those that then had been erected were set to work at their full capacity. Pine lumber abounded over the whole country and it was the only product that could be converted into money, now that a way was opened. Pine lumber, logs and spars were drawn and hauled from Cattaraugus, Allegheny and western Steuben counties to the banks of the Canisteo river, and from northern and eastern Steuben, Livings-
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ton, Ontario, Yates and Schuyler counties, or rather the territory now embraced in these civil divisions, to the Cohocton river, and thence to Mud creek. The entire valleys of these streams were covered with these products of the forests. Men from the Dela- ware and lower Susquehanna rivers, who had experience in raft- building, were imported to learn and teach the art of raft con- struction, a well known method of getting lumber to market in the regions of their homes.
LUMBER RAFTS OF OLD.
A raft of those days is a curiosity of today; so a brief, and in some respects an imperfect description will be here attempted. The writer, although he had witnessed the construction and navi- gation of the great timber rafts on the St. Lawrence and Missis- sippi rivers, had no knowledge as to similar matters connected with the interior waters of this country. For the purpose of gain- ing such information and instruction, he consulted two well pre- served, reliable and intelligent nonagenarians, whose minds and bodies were sound and unimpaired, residents of the Canisteo val- ley; pioneers whose youth and vigorous early manhood had been spent in these vocations. How their eyes brightened and their ruddy cheeks glowed with enthusiasm, as they summoned that mysterious power we call memory, and described the mode of op- erations in every detail. First were fashioned three pieces of pine timber, from sixteen to twenty feet long, six inches wide and four inches thick, bevelled on each end from the bottom, about six or eight inches in length. A two-inch hole was made through each of these pieces and a somewhat larger cavity on the lower side was also made in each of what will here be called keels. Through each of these holes was inserted a "witch," a small oak staddle with a portion of the root attached. The stem or body of this staddle was worked down so that it would go through this two- inch hole, and was about three feet long. The root was trimmed down so as to form a head to prevent the body of the staddle from being forced through the hole. These keel pieces lay parallel to the thread of the stream, and to each other. The layers of lumber were now placed crosswise on these keel pieces, beginning at the lower end and laying each piece side by side until the up- per staddles (or perhaps "grub" is more readily understood) were reached and the proper thickness (thirty inches) was attained. The length of the lumber, usually sixteen feet, made the width of the platform, as this section was called. For the purpose of se- curing the lumber in the platform and keeping it in place, a stick of second-growth hemlock was used-about sixteen feet long and four to six inches at the butt-through which a mortise two by four inches was made, about two feet from the butt end. This was slipped over the staddle or grub stick. At the end of this hemlock stick, or lever, was securely fastened an iron chain, at the end of which was a link or ring to slip over the end of the keel piece. When this was in place it made a "binder" simi- lar to that now used to secure loads of hay, lumber or wood. This platform could run either end foremost, and to guide or steer it a long oar or sweep was used. This was made from a smart pine tree, free from knots, about nine to twelve inches at
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the larger or butt end, and about sixteen feet long, peeled of the bark, smooth and well seasoned. At the butt end was a slot or opening two inches wide and about eighteen inches long, into which was forced a plank about six feet long, eighteen to twenty inches wide, and at the farther end three inches thick, tapered down to two inches. When it was forced into the slot, it was fastened with wooden pins, well wedged. The stem of this oar had a mortise two by three inches, which, about three feet from the blade, was shipped or placed on the stem of the middle stad- dle or grub, and with a sweep could easily control the course of the platform. Usually, though not necessarily, each platform had two oars, on whose blades the name of the owner and number of the platform were frequently painted.
The rafts on the Cohocton, Canisteo and Tioga rivers usually averaged about eight platforms, which were coupled together by planks two inches thick, sixteen to cighteen inches wide, and six to ten feet long. About two feet from each end was a two-inch auger hole, and about eight inches from each end, this was slipped over the middle staddle or grub stick of cach platform, so that there would be a space of at least one foot. Through this device the platforms would take the motion of the stream in passing over dams or other obstructions, and the entire raft was steered by the sweeps or oars from the platforms at either end. Each raft contained about ten thousand feet of the best pine lumber in the world, and was worth, in down-river, bay or coast markets, about twenty-five dollars per thousand. The crew consisted of three men to each platform. On these rafts was a low shanty, tent or cabin, in which the men slep when off duty. There was also a shanty or cabin, provided with a kettle or pot, with a sheet iron cover, for cooking the food of the crew. At night, unless the full moon- light made navigation safe, the rafts were tied up to a suitable shore and a watch was set until the first dawn of day, when the trip was resumed. Occasionally disaster occurred, by which the whole or a part of a platform would be lost. Some of the lumber might be saved, or recovered, when the flotsam rule was recog- nized. If necessary to save the balance, part of a platform might be cast away ; then the jetsam rule prevailed.
These raftsmen were a hardy and robust lot of men, full of fun, or fight, as the occasion might require. In returning they usually walked back, taking the Williamson road from the West branch of the Susquehanna river, at Northumberland. When the Canisteo raftsmen went down the river, the whole adjoining country knew it. Reared on bear meat, venison, bacon, beans, cornbread and native whiskey, made at primitive distilleries, they fought Indians, wrestled and boxed, claiming and taking the en- tire right of way. Usually there were, each season, three stages of high water for rafting, or at "rafting pitch" (in the vernacular of the rivers), known as the "spring fresh," "June fresh" and "fall fresh." The June fresh was the favorite. Then the weather and water were warm; then the callow youth, desiring to see the busy world, obtained passage on some raft, working for his trans- portation and feed. As the old salts on the ocean-going ship, Jand lubbers must pay their devotion to Neptune on their first crossing the line, to the great enjoyment of the veteran seamen,
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so these novitiates must be initiated on their first trip on a raft. Below Towanda a considerable stream called British-Milk creek falls into the river over a precipitous rocky bank or shore. At a sharp bend in the river unobserved by the voyager from up the river, the cry goes out, "Save the fire." The live coals are put into a sap-trough and "greenhorn" is told that the raft is liable to be submerged by this lateral stream, whose descent is something like Niagara in roar. He is told to hold this trough at arm's length high above his head. The cascade is passed; there is no wetting except the dampening experience of the victim who, with crest-fallen countenance, returns the fire to the kettle or stove. Buttermilk falls are passed; the novice has crossed the line.
EARLY LUMBER POINTS.
Rafts were built and sent out from Liberty Corners, now Cohocton, in the first years of the last century by Jonas Cleland, James Woodward and Calvin Blood. About this time Mr. Cle- land built the first sawmill in that vicinity. At Avoca Michael Buchanan, Eleazar Tucker and James McWhorter built and run rafts about the same time. Tucker built a sawmill on Twelve- mile creek, about two miles above the present village.
At Kennedyville-now Kanona-there was a brisk business in rafting and ark-building conducted chiefly by Grigham, Elijah and John Hanks and George W. Taylor, who had one of the most flourishing yards and plants on the river. Taylor had a large sawmill on Five-mile creek about a mile above and later built a large. grist-mill and distillery at the same point. The timber of these mills after their dismantling was taken away and is now in one of the barns of the Soldiers and Sailors' home, two miles above the village of Bath. George W. Taylor was a son of Col. Jolin Taylor of the New Jersey line. His home was Washington's residence during the terrible New Jersey campaign at and around Valley Forge. The son, George W. Taylor, was held during bap- tism and named by George Washington, and became the father of William B. Taylor, of Canisteo, now a nonagenarian.
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