USA > New York > Steuben County > A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people, Vol. I > Part 64
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"Agreement made between Robert Biggar, of Bath, State of New York, and Christopher Hurlbut, of Luzerne, State of Pennsylvania, witnesseth: that the said Robert Biggar agrees to sell unto the said Hurlbut two lots, being number two and thirteen, in the strip of land between townships No. 4, and 5, in the sixth range, containing six hundred and thirty-seven acres and 34, at five dollars per acre, on the following conditions, to-wit: the said Hurlbut is to pay in store goods at Wilkesbarre, to the amount of two thousand dollars, and to pay Capt. Williamson one dollar per acre, half the first day of June next and half the first day of June, 1800, with the lawful interest from June 6th, 1795, and the residue the first day of November, 1797. The said Biggar is to execute a good sufficient warrantee deed for the said land on the first payment of 2,000 dollars in goods as aforesaid. Witness our hands this 22d day of September, 1796.
ROBERT BIGGAR,
CHRISTOPHER HURLBUT.
WILLIAM LEE."
Vol. I-31
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
We are thus particular to give verbatim the above "agree- ment," because it was the first land ever sold to an actual settler in the North Gore. The "agreement" is in the handwriting of Christopher Hurlbut, whose biography we shall now give.
Christopher Hurlbut was born in Groton, Connecticut, May 30, 1757. He was the oldest son of Deacon John Hurlbut and Abigail Avery Hurlbut, and lived in his father's family at Groton until April 3, 1776, when, with a younger brother, John, Jr., he enlisted in the Continental army for one year, and was in the battle of White Plains, October 22d. In November and December following, as will be remembered, General Washington was retreat- ing before the victorious British army through New Jersey; the Hurlbut boys were in that retreat, and in the battle of Trenton where 922 British were taken prisoners. On the morning of Janu- ary 2, 1777, they were in the battle at Princeton, New Jersey, and followed the fortunes of General Washington's army the rest of the winter and until the term of their enlistment expired. In May, 1777, Christopher, who was just past twenty years of age, took a journey to Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, where he remained during the summer. His father, in November following, also went there and hought a farm, when both went back to Groton, Con- necticut.
February 10, 1778, Christopher and John left Groton with two sleigh loads of household goods and farming utensils for the new farm in Wyoming, where on the 23d of the same month they safely arrived and put up with Thomas Stoddard in Kingston. In April they moved to the farm in Hanover, about three miles down the river from Kingston. They boarded for a time with Mr. Corey (a relative, we presume, of Hon. Joseph Corey, of Almond), and in May left for Connecticut to help move the family to their new home.
The sickness and death of a child, Abigail, and the sickness of Deacon John Hurlbut, while on the journey, so detained then that the family had barely reached the Delaware river when they were met by the fugitives flying from the Wyoming Massacre of July 3d, which put a stop to their progress towards Wyoming till 1779, when Christopher preceded the family and made prepara- tions for their reception at Hanover, where they arrived November 16, 1779.
For four consecutive years his father, Deacon John Hurlbut, represented Westmoreland county (now Luzerne county) in the Connecticut legislature.
In 1782 Christopher Hurlbut married Miss Elizabeth Mann by whom he had eight children, viz., Abigail, John, James, Sarah, Elizabeth, Nancy, Christopher and Edward. All of them, except the youngest, lived to a mature age, and most of them to a good old age.
Almost from the time that Christopher Hurlbut set his foot upon Wyoming soil, he made surveying his chief occupation. Says George Peck, D. D., in his history of Wyoming: "Mr. Hurlbut was a man for the times of more than usual education; a good mathematician, and a practical surveyor. His plots of large tracts of lands surveyed by him in the county of Luzerne, are acknowl-
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edged data. His field books, plots, bearings and distances, are all executed with great skill and accuracy." .
In 1789 he was appointed by Thomas Mifflin, then governor of Pennsylvania, to the office of judge of the county court of common pleas for the county of Luzerne for seven years, on condition "you behaving yourself well." And in 1791 was appointed by the same governor to the office of justice of the peace for the district of Wilkesbarre, "so long as you shall behave yourself well. Signed by A. J. Dallas, secretary, and Thomas Mifflin, governor." The duties pertaining to his official position he discharged acceptably until 1797, when in the spring he and his son John left Wyoming valley for their new farm on the headwaters of the Canisteo. Dur- ing the spring and summer they erected a small log house and made a clearing on the west side of main street about twenty rods north- west of the present "Hurlbut homestead" and by the south side of that beautiful streain of water coming down from the highlands of South Dansville and uniting with the Marsh creek a few rods below, after which they returned home and made preparations for their journey to York state.
As a curiosity we copy a receipt bearing date as follows :
"February 25th, A. D. 1797.
Received of Christopher Hurlbut, one of the Consistory of Hanover, à due bill for the sum of Eight Pounds, fifteen shillings and one penny, which, when paid, will be in full for my salary for the years 1794 and 1795.
ANDREW GRAY."
Andrew Gray was the clergyman who preached in Wyoming Valley at that time, and afterwards came into this region, and will be remembered by the old settlers now living.
Christopher Hurlbut, often known as Judge Hurlbut, was a widely known surveyor. At the request of the agent of the Pulteney Estate, he made a careful survey of the Lake Erie and Hudson River turnpike, commencing at Pulteney Square in the village of Bath, and described each mile-giving measurement of angles in degrees and minute, length of each tangent, the arcs and sizes, passing through the towns of Bath, Howard and Hornellsville to the line between the counties of Allegany and Steuben, a distance of twenty-seven miles. Thence the survey was turned over to Majors Moses Van Campen and Adam Hoops, who completed it through Allegany and Cattaraugus counties in the same careful and detailed manner as conducted by Judge Hurlbut.
THE MCBURNEY HOME, CANISTEO.
The house now known as the Magee Homestead was built in 1797, on the farm then comprising some 1600 acres, by Col. Thomas McBurney, a great-uncle of the present proprietor. The finishing lumber was drawn from Elmira, with oxen, and I am told by builders of today that even the lumber used in the attic is worth some seventy dollars per thousand. The Colonel was then a bachelor of some forty years, evidently a gentleman of wealth, culture and ability and a man who kept his servants and owned slaves.
You enter this house through a heavy door swung with mas- sive iron hinges, very much like those one would put on a well- finished barn. It ushers you into a hall some twelve feet wide and thirty feet long opening onto a broad rear porch, which leads you to the well-house with its latticed sides and covered roof.
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By a peculiar twist of the little, old brass knobs on the doors in this hall, which are hung with the same style of hinges as the front, only of lighter weight, you find yourself in the pleasant parlors. The ceilings are high. The narrow casings are finished with fine, fluted mouldings very much like some of those used in buildings of today. The chief attractions in these rooms are the huge old fireplaces, built in the great stone chimney, with their narrow high mantles, which, I am sorry to say, have been modern- ized in these later days by cutting them down so one could see across the top. At the side of the chimney is a queer little shelf, built of the same stone and made for statuary.
In the front room we find one of the heirlooms of the family, a stand, with its richly-carved front, supported on a large, round column, beautifully carved and resting on three clawed feet.
Coming again into the hall, near the center you meet the grand old stairs, so easy of ascent that you hardly realize you are going to the second floor. Midway on the stairs is a pleasant landing, with a window opening towards the east and overlooking the broad, rich lands of the Canisteo Valley.
The upper hall gives access to two large, square rooms, with the same high ceilings and finish of woodwork as below. In the front room is a cosy fireplace with its empty andirons seeming to invite you to start a cheerful fire. In the front of this hall is a small bedroom. Opposite are the stairs leading to the attic, through which is built the great stone chimney that comes from the cellar below. In this attic are several pieces of quaint old furniture. Especially noticeable is an old sofa, with its claw feet and richly- carved legs and back. The original covering was hair cloth, nailed with large-headed brass tacks. The pillows were long and round.
Descending to the first floor we open the door at our left into the dining room, large and pleasant, fronting upon the street, with side windows looking north.
In this room we find the old family sideboard, probably a hundred years old and sadly out of repair but it might be made beautiful again. In the hall is an old mirror, in a beautiful franie of rich design, and on the opposite wall hangs the portrait of Harry Magee, a venerable old gentleman, the grandfather of the present owner, after whom he was named. He came to this country, from County Antrim. in the north of Ireland, in 1784. He was first cousin to the late William Magee, D. D., Protestant arch-deacon of Dublin, who is extensively known as an author.
Even yet the buildings and the arrangement of the grounds show evidence of Colonel McBurney's taste. When he built the old log barn, which was taken down some time in the '70s, his friends from all the country round came and staid a week with him, to help him build. Among these were the Wadsworths from Geneseo, the McClures of Bath, the McCalls, Erwins, Morrises, Magees and many others whose names I do not recall. The shingles they used were rived from the clearest pine, were 18 inches in length by 10 in width and nailed with wrought-iron nails made by hand. These were twice the size of the present nails.
The children of Israel murmured because they had to make bricks without straw. The smokehouse of this establishment which only fell to decay a few years ago, was built of bricks made with
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
straw. They were some twelve inches square, of a light cream . color, and made a pretty wall.
It was on this place that the noted Bob Barr, a slave, was born in 1809, the certificate of whose birth may yet be seen in the early records of the town of Canisteo. Tradition also tells us that sev- eral of the Colonel's slaves lie buried beneath the cluster of ever- green trees at the head of the lane leading to the hills opposite the house.
Here is the chance for the Daughters of the Revolution, or of the American Revolution, or the Colonial Dames, or the Sons of the Revolution, or the local Historical Society, to show historic apprecia- tion for the lives of these humble faithful servants.
THE WHEELER HOMESTEAD, KANONA.
The Wheelers were among the very first settlers in the town of Bath, coming within a few years after the treaty at Buffalo creek on the 8th of July, 1788, with the Seneca Indians, by which the title of the land passed to Phelps and Gorham who had con- tracted to purchase it from the state of Massachusetts. Two years later they made a conveyanee of the traet to Robert Morris, and, by him in 1791 it was sold to the English Association-Pulteney,: Hornby and Colquhoun-who, in turn, conveyed it in homesteads and farms to the settlers who came into this beautiful "Genesee country."
The site of the village of Bath was located in this wilderness in 1793. John Mahon kept an inn in 1793 at the mouth of Kauona creek (Five Mile creek), five miles up the river from the site of Bath village. Col. Henry Kennedy came in 1800 and built a saw-mill near by, on the Conhocton, the river into which Kanona creek empties. Direetly, in 1804, Jeremiah Wheeler with his wife, six children, his cattle and other possessions, set forth from the home near Dover, Vermont, and with his friends, Brigham, Elijalı and John Hanks, started for the famous Genesee traet. The women rode and the men drove the cattle, and tradition keeps alive the terror of the women in coming through the "Narrows," where. there was just space between the bluffs for the road and the river. The "Narrows" are at the foot of a steep, high bluff running down to the Chemung river near what is now the city of Corning, leaving, in those days, hardly room for two teams to pass. The route was probably from Vermont to Albany, New York, thence up to the Mohawk to Canajoharie, thence south to the headwaters of the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, and up the Chemung to the Painted Post, and thence, by Colonel Williamson's road which had been cut through the forests, north from the Painted Post to the Genesee river.
They reached Kennedy's sawmill in 1804. Brigham Hanks. started a blacksmith shop near the mill, on the opposite side of the . river. Elisha Hanks settled nearer to the village of Bath, down the river. Jeremiah Wheeler located across the beautiful Conhocton about a mile up Campbell Creek valley, where a fork of the road turns south, on a beautiful flat surrounded by hills which rise like an amphitheatre to forest-crowned summits. Elijah and John Hanks settled between Wheeler's and the river-all of them within about a mile of Kennedy's mill.
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY
Jeremiah Wheeler was looking for a "well-watered spot," and found it in the farm that has belonged to him and his chil- dren for more than a hundred years. Campbell creek flows through its acres, a never-failing "little creek" has charmed generations with its rippling music, while cold springs are hid in the depths of the hillside forests. Neither springs nor forests have been dis- turbed during these long years of occupancy. He located land on both sides of the road west of the fork, extending far up the valley, and built a house on the southeast corner of the fork. The cellar of this first house still remains. He built a tavern on the north side of the road, facing the fork, where he entertained men and beast in their travel past his door, for the settlers came fast into the much- advertised lands of the English Association.
Jeremiah Wheeler was born in Concord, Massachusetts, Feb- ruary 11, 1765, and moved to and lived in Wardsborough, Vermont. He belongs to a branch of the family of George Wheeler (1638) of Concord, Massachusetts. He married December 16, 1784, at Killingley, Connecticut, Mary Joslen, born June 5, 1761, daughter of Joseph Joslen (born May 14, 1726), and Mary Adams (born April 3, 1732), daughter of Capt. Michael Adams. Joseph Joslen was the son of Captain Israel Joslen, born near Falmouth, Eng- land. He was a sea captain, and for several seasons went to the Newfoundland fisheries, finally settling in Salem, Massachusetts, where, in 1715, he married Sarah Bayley (born February 13, 1698). In 1723 he bought 400 acres of land at Killingly, Connecticut, where in 1771 he died. He is buried at the East Thompson ceme- tery. The children of Jeremiah Wheeler and Mary Joslen, who came to the Genesee country in 1804, were George, Jenks, Esther, Lydia, Jeremiah and Joseph. Later, Jenks went on to Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he married and moved to that part of the "American Bottoms," which was afterward Monroe county, Illi- nois. He bought land, raised a family and died a well-to-do re- spected citizen. Esther, the oldest daughter of Jeremiah Wheeler, left her lover, Joseph Chamberlain, in Vermont. He soon followed her, walking the distance in three weeks. They married and built a house not far west of the tavern and made a fine farm, which, like the Wheeler homestead, has never passed from the family, Lydia, the other daughter of Jeremiah Wheeler and Mary Joslen, married Erastus Wright and settled farther up the road. Jeremiah, the fifth child, married Sally Glover, and located a farm above the Wheeler homestead. Joseph, the youngest son, married Sarah Kennedy, daughter of Colonel Kennedy of the sawmill. Joseph tcok charge of the tavern and built a house adjoining. The tavern was abandoned and removed in later years.
George Wheeler, the oldest son of Jeremiah Wheeler and Mary Joslen, was born August 15, 1785, in the town of Providence. Rhode Island, where his parents lived for a time before going to Vermont from Killingly, Connecticut. He was married in Vermont, to Gratia Stearns, daughter of Nathaniel Stearns (born in Douglas, Massachusetts, in 1751) and Dorcas Sanger. Nathaniel Stearns was a son of Ebenezer Stearns ( born in Lexington, 1711), a famous Baptist preacher who married Thankful Clapp, of Walpole, Massa- ehusetts. His father, Isaac Stearns (1665), married Elizabeth Stearns of Lexington, that state. Isaac Stearns (1665) was son
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of Isaac Stearns who married Sarah Beers, of Lexington, Massa- chusetts, and whose father, Isaac Stearns, landed at Salem, Massa- chusetts, in 1630, from the ship "Arabella." George Wheeler and his wife Gratia Stearns settled about a mile west of Wheeler's tavern on the same road, living there for several years. In 1817 they moved back to the original location of the Wheelers, settling on the south side of the road. He built a house by the roadside, a barn by the little creek and a blacksmith shop between the house and the fork of the road. The lines of all the farms on which Jeremiah Wheeler settled his children were so run that each family had a house by the roadside and an orchard, the farms lying back on the hills. The house and barn, built by George Wheeler in 1817, are used today in usual family living, as in the days when they were built, and all the associations and memories of the family center around them. Jeremiah Wheeler died May 29, 1819, and is buried in the graveyard at Kanona. From that time his son George until his own lamented death, in 1870, was the head of the Wheeler clan, which extended from Kennedyville to Towelsville making a large connection of relatives united by blood and com- mon interests. "Uncle George" to most of them, friend to all, a care-taking brother, a loving, indulgent father, a tender husband, a devoted son to his widowed mother and a good citizen. He was never known to shirk a duty or betray a trust. His hand, house and heart were always open to the God-fearing stranger. First in all good works, a willing worker, good-natured, strong, with the kindest of blue eyes, cheerful, George Wheeler left on his family, his neighborhood and his times the impress of a good man. The love between him and his little quiet, reserved, black-eyed wife was beautiful, and when he built the new house, he so situated it that from the windows of the living room every part of the, farm could be seen; he, about his daily work on the hills or the flat would ever be in sight, and could always glance at the home below him. A good man, in the memory of at least one of his children a perfect man, like David "he served his generation and was gathered to his fathers." His mother,. Mary Joslen Wheeler, died in 1850, and is buried in the family cemetery near the farm.
There were nine children born to George Wheeler and Gratia Stearns-Chandler, Mary, Lydia, Charlotte, James Stearns, Sanger, Dorcas, Andrew Jackson and Sophia, and they grew up in a com- munity of relatives in the intimate friendship of the old days. An orphan, Nancy Clark, a child of a connection by marriage, was taken into the family and became as a daughter of the house. Before 1813 a schoolhouse had been built on the Wheeler land, on the north side of the road, near the tavern. When George Wheeler built his house in 1817, he built it opposite the school house. The dear stories of those school days under the guidance of Mr. Huntington and Mr. Farnum, when the Old English Reader created a standard of pure English, and made a clear stream of noble thought and beautiful expression, all down the living years; when the seeds were sown that grew into an ardent desire to keep pace with the wonderful growth of the world; when the limited maps and geography of those days were so studied that they formed a basis for the keen world-wide interest of late years-all this is the precious heritage of the family of one of George Wheeler's
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children. The spelling of "the brave little class," the early rising to first find the quills dropped by the nesting geese and carry them to Mr. Huntington to be made into pens, the fun at recess, the country sports, the eager delight in the few available books, make pictures as clear and dear today as if nearly a century had not passed since that schoolhouse was a part of daily living.
Chandler, the oldest son, became a Methodist minister and married Catherine McClure; Mary married Zerah Bradley; Lydia married John Hanks; Charlotte married John Spronson Jones, a physician from Tioga county, and after living ten years in New York State, moved, in 1846, to Covington, Indiana (then the frontier) ; moving again, in 1871, to Danville, Illinois. James married Pamela Trembly; Sanger, Barbara Simms; Dorcas died an infant; Jackson and Sophia did not marry. All of the married children settled within a few miles of the homestead excepting Chandler and Charlotte, whose hearts ever turned to the old home and the loving father. A. J. Wheeler, the youngest son, went to Chicago in his early manhood, where he lived for twenty years but returned before the death of his father to take charge of the farmn with his sister, Sophia, who died in August, 1903. He still lives at the homestead in summer, spending his winters in Florida. Nancy Clark is still single and lives on the farm.
The Wheeler homestead stands today, as of old, for good and respectable things. The old-time farming industries in the breed- ing of Devon cattle, Morgan horses, Merino sheep, Yorkshire, swine and poultry still go on. The old condition is maintained, of "a bay horse, a red cow and a white pig." Some processes of work have changed a little, but in general they are the same. The noble hemlock woods rise majestic as when the trails of the Indians crossed them. The fields are tilled, the seed is planted, the harvest is gathered. The issues of life and death are the same. And to eyes that love every foot of the old place, it is still as beautiful, with the same delight of field and forest, hill and stream as when Jeremiah Wheeler, with his little company, halted on the spot that commanded a view of the entire farm, to make a home one hundred and seven years ago.
THE GRISWOLD HOME, DANSVILLE.
One of the pioneers of the northwesterly portion of the county was Hubbard Griswold, who, born in Walpole, New Hampshire, January 10, 1798, resided for many years on "Oak Hill" in the town of Dansville, where he died as the result of an accident, May 17, 1894, at the age of ninety-six years.
A lineal descendant of Edward Griswold, of County Warwick, England, who came to America and settled in Connecticut in 1639, Hubbard was the youngest son of Josiah Griswold, who was a corporal in the company that went from Walpole, New Hampshire, to the relief of Ticonderoga in 1777. The mother of Hubbard Gris- wold was Susanna, daughter of Captain William and Susanna (Gardner) Simonds, of Rockingham, Vermont. Soon after the death of his father, about 1820, the young man decided to try his fortune in what was then known as the "far west," and left Wal- pole for western New York, making the entire journey on foot, much of the way through unbroken forests. Entering the state at
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Troy, he passed through Geneva, Canandaigua and Naples, to the town of Dansville, where his eldest brother, Daniel, had been lo- cated since 1816 upon what is locally known as "Oak Hill." Hub- bard located a piece of land on South Oak Hill, some distance south of the location of his brother, and, making the preliminary arrange- ments with the Pulteney estate, and leaving the completion of the transfer in the hands of his brother, returned to New Hampshire, again on foot; returning, in the following year, with his young wife, to find that the land located by him had been granted to another. He then bought of Levi Doty what was known as a "girdling lot" of 8912 aeres, so called because on one aere the trees had been girdled, thus making more easy the removal of the timber.
The country surrounding "Oak Hill" was then a dense forest, with no clearing for miles toward the north, west and south, with the exception of one small break where the village of Canaseraga, Allegany county, now stands. Deer were plentiful and the young farmer was an ardent hunter. For years the friendly Indians, when on their annual hunting trips to the Canisteo hunting grounds, would camp, days at a time, by a spring on his farm. "Unele Hubbard," as he in his later years came to be known, united early in life with the Methodist Episcopal church, and to his death was a devout adherent of that denomination. In politics, his early affiliations were Democratie, but on the organization of the pres- ent Republican party he became, and thereafter remained, a stanch Republican. During the Civil war he was prompt to assert his confidence in the stability of the government by investing in the bonds issued to provide for the continuation of the war.
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