USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. I > Part 33
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
At Bath extensive operations were carried on by and in the name of Captain Williamson by his efficient overseers and fore- men, among whom were Charles Cameron, "Muckle Andrew" Smith, George Moore and Thomas Metcalfe. John Patterson built and run rafts from White's sawmill, now Eagle Valley, in 1799. In 1798 Frederick Bartles of Frederickstown (then called Bartles Hollow, now Bradford) had built a large dam at the foot of Mud lake, making a large pond here. He had erected sawmills, manu- factured large quantities of lumber, and here he built a ten-plat- form raft. When completed he opened a part of the dam, and away went this raft on the flood tide as far as the Chemung river. Other rafts were built and sent away in like manner.
At the mouth of Mud creek, now Savona, James Tolbert and John Brink, at Campbell's, Curtus and Corpus, and in the town of Bath, Campbell and Erwin, lumber was rafted by Samuel Cal- kins and Joseph Wolcott. Campbell and Knox bought, assembled and shipped away by rafts immense quantities of lumber. cut and manufactured from trees, in some instances twenty miles away.
At Painted Post and in the town of Erwin rafting was large-
240
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
ly carried on at and before the beginning of the last century by David Fuller, Eli Mead, Arthur Erwin and Captain Howell Bull, who were pioneers in lumber manufacture and raft navigation. This has been, until twenty years ago, an important lumber point. The firm of Fox, Weston & Bronson were extensive operators, their business extending over all of the Painted Post country, the Al- legheny valley in New York and Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wiscon- sin and Minnesota, out to the Georgian bay and the valley of the Ottaway river.
On the Tioga river, north of the state line, in the present towns of Erwin and Lindley, lumber was extensively manufac- tured and sent by rafts to market. Heavy pine forests covered the whole adjacent country, and numerous sawmills were built at an early day. The first sawmill was built by Col. Eleazar Lind- ley in 1792. Others soon after followed. The pioneer raftsmen and lumbermen were Capt. John Seeley, Jeremiah Lindley and John P. Ryers.
On the Canisteo river rafting was a prominent and principal business carried on by Christopher Hurlbert, Nathaniel Cory and William Hyde. Numerous sawmills were in operation, and lum- ber was hauled, drawn from their mills from fifteen to forty miles away from the rivers. Canisteo then included the city of Hornell, and the town of Canisteo and the southern part of the town of Hornellsville comprised probably the largest lumber market and rafting yards of any section in the whole Painted Post country. Among the pioneers in the business were Elijah Stephens, Solomon Bennett, Uriah Stephens, James Hadley and Nathaniel Dyke. In later years George H. Stephens, Nathaniel Crosby, Oliver Allen, Alanson Stephens, Ira Davenport, Martin Adsit, Nathaniel and William B. Taylor were conspicuous in this business. During the winter season, with plenty of snow, the highways were lined with loads of lumber drawn from the Allegheny and Genesee rivers and their tributaries, in some instances forty miles away. The valley of the Canisteo at this place was one immense lumber yard. With the spring freshet active operations in raft building and lumber shipping were on, attracting men for miles around to en- gage in the work. Taverns and boarding places were filled and hardy and rough men engaged in this laborious and exacting work. The spirit of revelry and disorder prevailed and the ill reputation of the locality was far-famed.
What is now Cameron, formerly part of Middletown, was a brisk lumbering and rafting point. One of the principal features of the work here was the collecting of long straight stems or bodies of Norway pine from seventy to one hundred and thirty feet long, free the whole length of limbs or knots, which were put into the water, formed into rafts fifteen to twenty feet wide, fastened to- gether with hickory withes, then covered with pine plank and run to tide water, where they were in great demand for masts and spars for ocean-sailing vessels. Among the leading lumber men of earlier years were Capl. Luther White, James H. Miles, James Young and Isaac Santer.
Farther down the river, in the present town of Rathbone lumbering and rafting were largely carried on by Seth Cook, Isaac and Jonathan Tracy, Martin Young and Franklin and
241
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
Chauncey Hubbard. Numerous sawmills were built and operated on the streams flowing into the river in this vicinity, from which lumber of the best quality was manufactured, giving this place and nearby points on both sides of the river notoriety and ready sale for its shipments.
At Addison, then better known as Tuscarora, active, energetic and extensive lumbering and rafting operations were carried on by William Wombaugh, William B. Jones, John Loop, Sherman & Glover, Wilcox, Birdsall and Weatherby. The lumber shipped from this point came from the contiguous northern counties of Pennsylvania, and from the towns of Troupsburg, Woodhull, Jas- per and other towns of southwestern Steuben county, as well as from the territory lying between the Canisteo and Cohocton rivers. During the rafting seasons, the three rivers forming the Chemung were almost entirely covered by rafts of the most val- uable pine lumber-the most valuable product of the country- and there was no. other way of getting it to a market. It could not be sent by the Genesee river, owing to the falls at Portage. If attempted, it would be ruined, broken, split and bruised. There was no demand for lumber at Rochester, or any other place ac- cessible by that river, as the now flourishing cities and towns of that region then had no existence.
The Allegheny river was navigable for these lumber rafts, but there was no market that could be reached by that route; neither Pittsburg, Cincinnati and Louisville nor any other place on the Ohio or Mississippi rivers afforded market then for lumber or other forest products. By the Chemung and its tributaries from the Painted Post country, there were markets at Harrisburg, Colum- bia, Port Deposit, Baltimore, and Wilmington, which could be easily reached without danger or breaking bulk; from the Chesa- peake bay ports this lumber could be easily shipped by schooner to Philadelphia, New York and other Atlantic markets. The pro- duction was large and the demand readily absorbed the production.
Rafts on the Chemung were usually made up of ten platforms, each containing from ten to twelve hundred feet. When the "Big River" at Tioga Point was reached these rafts were usually con- solidated, eight to twelve together. Arriving at their destination, rival crews were always anxious and willing to see who had the best men. Frequent and bloody combats and encounters were the usual result, but no animosity was harbored after the affair was over; only a desire to see who was the best man. When the rafts were disposed of, the crews were paid and started on foot to return to their homes.
The cutting of timber, the building of rafts, furnishing the necessary equipments for them, and their navigation to primary markets, comprised the principal and favored occupation of the early settlers of this country. They were hardy, courageous men, full of life and fun, and possessed great physical endurance. The following is an example: McElwee of Mud creek, James French of Bath, Hopkins (usually called "Hop") of Kennedyville, and Ira Lane of Howard, had all been down the river with a "June fresh" to Port Deposit. They returned in company, part of the way by public conveyance and hired transportation. coming on foot to the old "Block Hcase" on Williamson's road above Will- Vol. I-16
242
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
iamsport, where they remained over night. Here they agreed they would walk to their homes. Starting at the early dawn of a late June day, they began their journey. They reached MeElwee's home, fifty-three miles, in the middle of the afternoon; the others reached Bath, fifty-nine miles, the home of French, late in the afternoon. "Hop" and Lane then thought they would go on to Kennedyville, sixty-three miles, before stopping. Arriving there, Lane refused "Hop's" earnest solicitation to stay over night with him, but decided to go home to Howard, which he reached at mid- night, seventy-one miles from the starting place. Lane said the next day he was not tired, and was ready for the day's work. This tramp, or "treek," remains to be beaten by the army in an endurance march.
Those who did not go with the rafts remained at home to till their seanty eleared patches; and in making grubs from the stad- dle found on the hills and hillsides; witch poles, wedges, oar blades and stems and coupling planks, to be ready for use when needed. From the eleared land abundant erops were raised-corn, wheat and other grain-more than the needs of the inhabitants required. Sheep, cattle and hogs and their produets became plenty. Large quantities of shingles were riven, shaved and bunehed. All of these products were ready for a market, if transportation could be assured.
RAFTS ABANDONED FOR ARKS.
But the raft was not to be depended upon; so the means available to the older, down-the-river methods, were resorted to. The bolder, more progressive and enterprising determined upon the ark as a means of relief. The material was at hand but the builders were not, and experts in ark building were indueed to come from the lower Susquehanna town. Ark yards were laid ont, labor secured at several different points in the Painted Post . country, notably at Bath; Arkport (from which the name was derived), at Bartles' mill, in Frederickstown, at Canisteo-in several places, at the now eity of Hornell, at places lower down on the Canisteo river, such as Cameron and Tuscarora, at Lindley town, and Painted Post, now the city of Corning.
The following was the method of building arks: A suitable dry hard bank of the river was selected, a few feet above high- water mark. First, the bottom or "arkbed" was framed, planked, and well caulked with flax, wool saturated with piteh or tar, thoroughly driven in with wedges. or caulking irons. The seams were then carefully smeared over with tar or pitch. This frame and bottom were of the best pine lumber. The bottom was built of pine planks two inches in thickness, not more than sixteen feet long, and varying from two to three feet in width. The bottom of the ark was from sixty to one hundred feet long and sixteen feet wide-the length of a beam. The building was all done on the bank adjoining the water's edge. The bottoms were nar- rower and pointed at each end. Then the frame was turned on to the ways, or skids (four to six), placed near the top of the banks; one end on the bank, the other end in the water. The "turning" of the frame or bottom was as great an event for the whole country side as the barn-raising of a later day. Feasting
243
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
on hog and hominy, with native whisky to wash it down, was always the wind-up. of the job. After the bottom was in the water, where it had slid from the bank on the ways, it was moved at some convenient bank of the yard. Stem posts, three feet high, were set at the point at each end of the bottom, and posts of the same height and size were placed along the sides. Then the outside of two-inch pine plank of the best quality was fast- ened to the sides and end with oak pins. No nails were used. The stem posts were fitted to receive the oar-sweeps, which were about thirty feet long, made from small straight white pine fitted and provided with oar blades like those used on rafts as before described. In the center was a cabin or shanty for' the crew, usually of four men, and conveniences for cooking their meals. Sometimes the whole craft was covered with a low roof, so that it looked like the pictures of Noah's ark, which it was sometimes called. These arks were loaded with wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, whiskey, shingles and lumber, and later with cattle, swine and sheep ; in fact, all articles manufactured or grown in the country found a market through these mediums.
Captain Williamson's dream was realized for the present; his domain was to be the market and shipping point for the whole west. He urged and assisted in building arks at Bartles' Hol- low, at the foot of Mud lake, at White's mill below Bath, and at Kennedyville, four miles above Bath. The first arks that ran the Susquehanna were built at White's mill and at Bartles' mill in March and April, 1800. This fact was of so much importance, that a minute of the venture was made and entered in the Steuben- county clerk's office, showing that the first of these arks were started one on the 20th of March, 1800, from White's mill; the others, on April 4th of the same year from the mills of Frederick Bartles, at the foot of Mud lake (Frederickstown).
ARKS STIMULATE COMMERCE.
In 1796 Christopher Hurlbert from Luzerne county, Pennsyl- vania, settled at Arkport, at the head of the Canisteo valley. The next spring he built a small log house, and moved his family from the Wyoming valley to his new home; ascended the Susquehanna in a Durham boat as far as Tioga Point; from thence traveled by land to his place at Arkport. About 1799 he built a sawmill and storehouse. The following year he obtained the passage of an act by the legislature of New York, making the Canisteo river a public highway. The same year he built a large log tavern.
In 1800 he built and turned the first ark on the Canistco river, and took it to Baltimore, loaded with wheat purchased from the farmers about Dansville, Mount Morris and Geneseo. He was so successful in this, his first venture, that here was a market opened at once for the surplus grain, beef, pork and whiskey of the Genesee country. The following winter he erected a larger storehouse on the east bank of the river. This was filled the same winter by the farmers of the Genesee valley, who brought and stored here for the first shipment to Baltimore their wheat, corn, butter, cheese, pork, beef and other marketable produce, waiting for the first high water to take it to market. Thousands of bushels of grain and tons of beef, pork, whiskey, shingles and other prod-
244
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
uets were annually shipped from this port. Several seasons as many as eleven arks were so loaded and sent down the Susquehanna. This was indeed the market place for the whole Genesee country. As early as 1804 General William Wadsworth, of Geneseo, started from Arkport with two ark loads of very large stall-fed oxen, reached Baltimore in safety and found a ready and profitable market. The passage of these crafts down the rivers, with their bellowing cargoes, was a surprise and wonder to the dwellers along the route.
In 1806 Hall & Elsworth of Geneseo sent down from Arkport an ark laden with three hundred barrels of mess-pork, a large quantity of butter and cheese. a great number of dried venison hams. Similar cargoes from Dansville and other places were shipped from this point, and such trips gave employment to men at from seventy-five cents to one dollar a day. The living was good and they did not mind "the walk back." At Canisteo sev- eral warehouses were erected and filled with produce for ship- ments: here also arks were built and sent away well loaded.
This method of transportation continued to grow, as it af- forded means of reaching a ready market for all of the produc- tion and commodities of the country. It also attracted settlers, who bought and improved the land, and built larger and more comfortable houses, many of which are yet standing and occupied. Among these may be mentioned the Patchiu residence, in the town of Wayland, at Patchin mill; Judge Hurlbut's colonial house at Arkport ; the brick house of William Goff and the houses of the Smiths at Smith's Pond, and of the Towles, all in the town of Howard; and the residence of Colonel Thomas McBurney on the west side of the road leading from the city of Hornell to the vil- lage of Canisteo. Colonel McBurney held slaves at the time; the only evidence of their having lived is the neglected, abandoned and unmarked graves of these faithful people, across the way, midway to the foothills. Others of these pioneer houses are those of Bennett, Stephens, Jamison and Hallett, in Canisteo: Alex. H. Stephens, in Greenwood; Hadley, White and Averell, in Cameron; Wombough, Weatherby and Jones, in Addison; Erwin, David Fuller and Benjamin Eaton, in Erwin; and Lindley, Dr. Mulford, Capt. John Seeley and Elder David Harmon, town of Lindley. All indicate that their builders and occupants were industrious and enterprising people.
During the first years of Captain Williamson's efforts, the entire country was all woods. The roads were bad and difficult to find and to travel; there was no other mode of transportation than by the natural waterway. Great efforts were made to re- move obstructions from the larger streams, notably the Conhocton, Tioga and Canisteo. In the spring, summer and fall. the Con- hocton was with little labor made fairly navigable from Twelve- mile creek to the Chemung river for rafts, arks and other crafts. All the products of the western part of the state, principally lum- ber, grain and live stock, had no other water route to reach the great. marts of Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore. In the spring of 1798, Frederick Bartles started from Mud creek two rafts of pine lumber, which in a very brief time, and at small expense, were safely landed in Baltimore, and a good sum realized
245
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
therefrom. This settled the question of this species of navigation on the Conhocton. The success of the venture spread rapidly through all the state. Williamson's dream had materialized. Bath was the head of navigation. It was not strange that a man of Captain Williamson's sanguine temperament overflowed with bright anticipations of the growth, greatness and glory of Bath. He believed that it was bound to become the great commercial metropolis of southwestern New York. He was not endowed with the prophet's vision of the untold wonders of the then not dis- tant future, that would change and improve the situation.
BOOM IN PAINTED POST COUNTRY.
Immigration was stimulated and was so great in Bath, and in the valley of the Conhocton, that all the food products were consumed in the locality where produced; so that there was none for shipment. Town lots were in demand; buildings for dwelling and for business were rapidly put up. In 1800 the first venture in ark navigation was made. Three of these crafts were sent out : One from White's mill, a short distance below the present vil- lage of Bath, and two others from Mud lake at Bartles' mill. This species of craft was the invention of a man named Cryder, who in 1792 built one on the Juniata river, loaded it with wheat and whiskey, ran it down to Baltimore, and established a new means of transportation on the Susquehanna and its principal tributaries.
Captain Williamson was almost beside himself with joy at the success of these ventures. Rafting and ark-building became a lively business upon all the rivers of the Painted Post country. At Liberty Corners, at Twelve-mile creek, at Kennedyville, Bath, Mud creek and Painted Post; at Mead's creek and Campbell in that town. Storehouses were built at all convenient places for storage; one at the mouth of Five-mile creek; five in the village of Bath; two on the west side of the river, near the Davenport home; three at the foot of Ark street; and one at Mud creek. During the winter loaded sleighs came in long lines, and in groups, from Geneva, Canandaigua, the Genesee country, and the lake region, with produce, to be stored in the warehouse. Business was more lively than before or since that era. When the early freshets came, the arks were moved at the warehouses, and the grain, pork and whiskey, and often shingles, lumber and staves, were loaded into them. The pilots, with their jolly crews, cast off their lines and, with shouts and songs, began their voyage to Chesapeake bay. These frail shallops did not always reach. their destination. About one in every score emptied its contents into the stream, through ignorance or carelessness, by going on a sunken rock, or stranding on a dangerous shore. For the cargoes of those that reached their destination a handsome profit was realized by the shipper. When the arks were sold, as they were built of the best of pine lumber, much more than the first cost and expenses of the trip was realized by the builder and owner. The pilots and crews returned home either on foot, or by such rude means of con- veyance as were then in vogue. The lumber maker, merchant, shipper and farmer all prospered by the activities of the situation. and locality, as the large and well preserved homes of Tucker,
246
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
Burnham, Geo. W. Taylor, Kennedy, General McClure, Town- send, Baker, the Springfield House, McElwee, Talbert Bart- les, Curtiss, and others, bear witness; some of the most prominent have by fires and neglect disappeared and only their sites remain. Two decades later and when Steuben was looking forward to, and was on the eve of realizing the fulfillment of Williamson's fondest hopes, the construction of the canals of the state of New York was already under way; and lo! the bubble of expected greatness and prosperity vanished forever into thin air.
The plunging Scotchman alarmed his English patrons; his expensive preparations were beyond their stupidity. He was re- called, turned over the trust property, accounted for the proceeds, and left the land of his dreams forever.
Its navigable streams, for a time vexed with mill dams, became insignificant streams and stagnant pools; their vermicular courses, barely discernible through verdant meadows and dairy meads, except in the spring, summer and autumn freshets, when they as- sert their ancient ways and convince that
"Man and his boasted strength is weak When I, in my loudest fury, speak."
THE CANAL ERA.
The Erie canal was finished from Buffalo to the Hudson river in 1825, and along this waterway the produce of the entire Great Lake region sought the seaboard market at New York by the Hudson river. Lateral canals were projected and built extending into southern and western New York. In 1828, the Cayuga and Seneca canal was opened from Montezuma, on the Erie canal, to the foot of Cayuga and Seneca lakes, the latter at Geneva. These lakes were canalized to Ithaca at the head of Cayuga lake, and to Watkins and Havana, now Montour Falls, at the head of Seneca lake. At Dresden, on the west side of Seneca lake, twelve miles from Geneva by the lake, the Crooked Lake canal was built and opened along the outlet of Crooked lake to Penn Yan, a distance of eight miles. This made all of the towns and places on this last- named lake (now called Keuka lake) canal ports, so that Ham- mondsport, in the town of Urbana, Steuben county, became an important canal port, shipping point and market place.
The Chemung canal and feeder extended from Watkins at the head of Seneca lake to Elmira, with a navigable feeder by the Chemung river to Knoxville, the original Painted Post, with a dam and guard lock at Gibson in the town of Corning. This canal and navigable feeder were opened for business in 1833, the entire length of the water route from Watkins to Knoxville being forty-two miles.
The Genesee Valley canal from Rochester to Olean, a distance of one hundred and seven miles, was opened in 1856, and the Dansville branch, or side-cut, from Shakers settlement on the main canal to Dansville, fifty-two miles from Rochester, was completed to the latter place in 1840. Dansville was then in Steuben county.
By means of these canals, three vital points of attack were made on river navigation, resulting in its subversion, abandonment and destruction. Now the products of the farms, forests and mines
247
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
of the Painted Post country sought the markets of the east by canal boats, from these three places, while goods of all kinds, sup- plies and emigrants, came into the country through the same means instead of by the crude, adventurous, old-time methods. Let us now follow the outgoing canal boats from Dansville. We find a boat say sixty feet long, eighteen feet wide, and six to eight feet below the deck, or, in the navigators phrase, the "hold." Be- tween quarter decks and well on towards the stern is the cabin, with kitchen and dining room, and the galley, with berths accom- modating four to six persons. The cabin roof projects about three feet above the main deck, which space is for windows with whiel to light the cabin. This cabin was provided with a companion- way, with stairs and sliding hatch. At the bow of the boat in those days was a similar structure for the horses, used in towing the boat. This was provided with large hatehways, one on each side, provided with landing planks, upon which the animals were led in and out. These stables were equipped with mangers and feed boxes and storage places for small amounts of hay, grain and bedding were utilized between the cabin and the stable, or "horse heaven," to use the vernacular of the times. The space was decked over and openings were built in the deck, and covered with hatches. Into the hold the grain was put in bulk, or if the cargo was in boxes, bales or barrels, it was placed in the hold. If lumber was to be the cargo, then all the hatches were removed, and the lumber piled in carefully, it often reaching from three to six feet above the deck line. When the loading was completed and everything secured, the horses were removed to the towpath, one end of the towline niade fast to the eleats or timber-heads, and the other to the accoutrements of the team. The towline was a hemp rope, about two inches in diameter, and one hundred feet long. Everything being ready, the trip was commenced, at about three miles an hour, to Rochester; and then by the Erie canal to destination. The return trip, but with different lading, was made in the same way.
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.