USA > New York > Chautauqua County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York : with a historical sketch of the county > Part 90
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In May or June, 1780, they first permanently located themselves upon Buffalo creek, near Buffalo, and in 1780 and 1781, while the Revo- lution was still in progress, a portion of them made the first settlement upon the Cattaraugus creek. When the Indian title to the lands of the Holland Land Company was extinguished in 1797, by the treaty made at Genesee, a reservation was made to the Indians of 425 square miles in extent, lying on both sides of the Cattaraugus creek, near its month, embracing substantially the territory so settled by thiem. That part of the reservation that is situated in the county of Chautauqua, is included in the town of Hanover. The establishment of these Indians along the border of the county was an
approach towards settlement. They were further advanced in civilization than has been generally understood. Before they were cx- pelled by the Americans from the Gencsec and Upper Allegany, they lived by the cultivation of thic soil, as well as by the chase. They dwelt in permanent villages, composed of comfortable houses, some of which were framed and painted, and cven well furnished. They had extensive fields of corn, gardens and orchards of apples, pears and cven peaches ; one of which destroyed by General Sullivan, contained one thousand five hundred trees. Having been reduced to want by the destruction of their villages and crops, by the forces of Sullivan and Broadhead, they were compelled to dispense with many of the comforts and conveniences that they had formerly enjoyed, when they had established themselves in their new homes along the Catta- rangus and Allegheny, yet, they built log houses and began to make a few clearings for their crops.
Deacon Hindes Chamberlain, an early pioncer of Genesee conuty, visited one of their villages on the Cattaraugus creek in 1792, and passed through Chautauqua county to Erie, Pennsyl- vania. As his narrative contains interesting facts concerning Buffalo and Erie, and particu- larly relating to the then unfrequented, solitary region now known as Chautauqua county, we will insert it here :-
" In 1792 I started from Scottsville with Jesse Beach and Reuben Heath ; went up Allen's creek, striking the Indian trail from Canawagus, where Le Roy now is. There was a beautiful Indian camping ground-tame grass liad got in ; we staid all night. Pursuing the trail the next morning, we passed the Great Bend of the Tonawanda, and encamped at niglit at Dunham's Grove, and the next night near Buffalo. We saw one white man, Poudery, at Tonawanda village. We arrived at the mouth of Buffalo creek the next morning. There was but one white man there, I think ; his name
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was Ninne, au Iudian trader. His building stood first as you descend from the high ground. He had rum, whiskey, Indian knives, trinkets, etc. His house was full of Indians; they looked at us with a great deal of curiosity. We had but a poor night's rest; the Indians were in and out all night getting liquor.
" Next day we went up the beach of the lake to the mouth of the Cattaraugus creek, where we encamped ; a wolf came dowu near our camp. We had seen many dcer on our route during the day. The next morning we went up to the Indian village, found Black Joe's house, but he was absent ; he had, however, seen our track upon the beach of the lake, and hurried home to see white people who were traversing the wilderness. The Indiaus stared at us ; Joe gave us room where we should not be annoyed by Indian curiosity, and we staid with him over night. All he had to spare us in the way of food was some dried venison. He had liquor, Indian goods and bought furs. Joe treated us with so much civility that we staid with him till near noon. There was at least an hundred Indians and squaws gathered to see us. Among the rest, there was sitting in Joe's house an old squaw and a young, delicate looking white girl with her, dressed like a squaw. I endeavored to find out something about her history, but could not. I think she had lost the use of our language. She seemed not inclined to be noticed.
" With an Indian guide that Joe selected for us, we started upon the Indian trail for Presque Isle (Erie). Wayne was then fighting the In- dians. Our Indian guide often pointed to the west, saying, bad Indians there.
" Between Cattarangus and Erie, I shot a black snake, a racer, with a white ring around his neck. He was in a tree twelve feet from the ground, his body wound around the tree. He measured seven feet aud three inches.
" At Presque Isle, we found neither whites nor Indians ; all was solitary. There were
some old French brick buildings, wells, block- houses, etc., going to decay ; eight or ten acres cleared land. On the peninsula, there was an old brick-house, forty or fifty feet square; the peninsula was covered with cranberries.
" After staying there one night we went over to Le Bœuf, about sixteen miles distant, pursu- ing an old French road. Trees had grown up in it, but the track was distinct. Near Le Bœuf we came upon a company of men who were cutting out the road to Presque Isle; a part of them were soldiers and a part Pennsyl- vanians. At Le Bœuf there was a garrison of soldiers-about one hundred, there were several white families there and a store of goods.
" Myself and companions were in pursuit of land. By a law of Pennsylvania, such as built a log-house, and cleared a few acres of land ac- quired a pre-emptive right ; the right to pur- chase at £5 per one hundred acres. We each of us made a location near Presque Isle.
"On our return to Presque Isle, from Le Bœuf, we found there Col. Seth Reed and his family. They had just arrived. We stopped and helped him build some huts ; set up crotches ; laid poles across and covered with bark of the cucumber tree. At first the Colonel had no floors ; afterwards he indulged in the luxury of floors made by laying down strips of bark. James Baggs and Giles Sission came on with Col. Reed. I remained for a considerable of time in his employ. It was not long before eight or ten other families came in.
"On our return we staid at Buffalo over night with Waiue. There was at the time a great gathering of huuting parties of Indians there. Waine took from them all their kuives and tomahawks, and then selling them liquors, they had a great carousal."
During the French and Indian wars, and the war of the Revolution, white men, and occa- sionally a white woman, were made prisoners by the Indians, and were almost invariably well treated by them if they adopted them iuto their
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
tribes, notable instances of which were the cap- tives, Horatio Jones, Jasper Parish and Mary Jemmison. The white girl that Deacon Cham- berlin saw at the mouth of the Cattarangus un- doubtedly had a similar history. The prisoners so taken sometimes intermarried with the In- dians ; consequently, of those who settled along the Cattaraugus, many had white blood in their veins. Often traders and other white men, to whom the unrestrained and carcless life of the Indians was attractive, voluntarily took up their residence among them, and adopted their modes of life. Of the persons of this character was Amos Sottle, or Sawtel. He was born in Ver- mont. In his early life he moved to Chenango county, New York, and afterwards for a time, it is quite probable, lived with the Indians. It is believed that in 1797, when he was about twenty-three years of age, he located within the limits of Chautauqua, then Ontario county, on the rich bottom lands near the Cattaraugus creek, about one and one-half miles from its month, upon lands subsequently laid out by the Hol- land Land Company, and numbercd as lot 61 of Cattaraugus village, and not far from the Indian settlements along the creek. It is said that he had a shanty or cabin there in 1797, in which he lived alone, whether with the inten- tion of becoming a regular settler there is not certainly known. It is probable that he made but little if any improvements, for the year fol- lowing we find him in the employment of the Holland Land Company. He continued in its employ during the years 1798 and 1799. He was an axman under Amzi Atwater, a principal surveyor. While surveying as such he assisted in running what is now the line between Chau- tauqua and Cattaraugus countics. In the fall of the year 1799 Sottle went to Ohio, then a part of the northwestern territory, where lie served for a while in a similar capacity in the surveys of that region. During the year 1800 it is probable that no white man was domiciled within the limits of the county. Sottle remained
away from Chautauqua perhaps not later than 1801 or 1802, and then returned to the Catta- raugus bottom, accompanied by William G. Sidney, who built a small log house for the entertainment of travelers, and ferried emigrants across the creek. No purchase of lands, how- ever, was made by either of them.
About this time an effectual settlement of the county was being made thirty miles away, in its northwestern part. In the year 1801 John McMahan made a contract with the Holland Land Company for the purchase of 22,000 acres of land in the town of Westfield, for which he agreed to pay $55,000, or $2.50 per acre. The site upon which is built the village of Westfield was included in this purchase. The same year Colonel James McMahan, his brother, purchased within the limits of this tract a lot a short distance west of the village of Westfield, at the Old Cross Roads, so-called from the fact of its having been the point where the rude road or trail between Buffalo and Eric was crossed by the old Portage road that had been cut out by the French more than half a century before. He also purchased a little more than 4000 acres in the town of Ripley.
Colonel James McMahan was born in Nor- thumberland county, in Pennsylvania, in March, 1768. His father was born in Ireland. Pre- vious to 1795, he had surveyed in the region near Lake Erie. For six months cach year that he surveyed there, he would see no white persons, except his assistants. He was survey- ing there in 1794, when Wayne defcated the Indians in the decisive battle on the Maumee river. During this war the frontiers of Penn- sylvania suffered from the incursions of the Indians, their hostile visits extending to the country along the borders of Chantanqna county. One of McMahan's chain-bearers was shot and scalped by the Indians as he and his men were returning to their camp, near the mouth of the Broken Straw. Col. McMahan, having in 1795, explored some parts of the
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county, with a view to a residence, came again in 1801, to finally select lands for a residence. Besides the land above mentioned, purchased by him at the Old Cross Roads, he purchased 4000 acres in what is now the town of Ripley.
Colonel McMahan was accompanied in his journey in 1801, by Andrew Straub, a Penn- sylvania German. In that year Straub built a log house a little east of the village of West- field, on what was known as Straub's creek. He made clearings and resided there for many years. Stones from his fire-place, and other relics of his house, have been found in later years. Straub had no family and did not at that time obtain any title to his lands.
SETTLEMENT CONTINUED. 1802. Previous to the year 1802, the region that is now Chau- tauqua county, was the town of Northumber- land, Ontario county. Ontario county then in- cluded all of western New York. On the 30th of March, 1802, by an act of the legislature, the county of Genesee was erected from Onta- rio. It embraced substantially all of the State lying west of the Genesee river, and the county of Steuben. What is now Chautauqua county, was made by this act to be included in the town of Batavia, in the county of Genesee.
In the spring of 1802, Col. James McMahan cleared, planted and sowed ten acres of land, and built a log house. A little later in 1802, Edward McHenry, of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, at the solicitation of James Mc- Mahan, came with his family and settled at the Old Cross Roads, upon an adjoining tract, and commenced soon after to keep a house of entertainment for emigrants travelling west- ward. A wagon road was opened this year from Buffalo as far west as the Chautauqua creek by General Paine, who was in the em- ploy of the State of Connecticut, to enable emi- grants to reach the "Western Reserve" in Ohio, the land there being owned by the State of Connecticut.
A few months after McHenry's arrival at
the Old Cross road, on the 28th of August, 1802, his son John McHenry was born. This is an event of interest, as he was the first white child born within the limits of the county. In the fall of the same year, and after the arrival of McHenry, McMahan removed his family in- to the log house above mentioned, that he had previously built. Still later, the same year, David Kincaid settled north of McHenry on lot 14.
Thus was commenced the settlement of West- field. . The first substantial improvement made in the county was made by McMahan. His, was the first improvement of any description, made by a person having a legal right to the soil upon which it was made, although Sottle, Sidney, Straub, and McHenry were perhaps all domiciled in the county, prior to the arrival of the family of McMahan in the fall of 1802.
The silence of the forests that everywhere covered Chautauqua county from time im- memorial, for the first time was now broken, and the long and savage reign of wild beast and Indian came to an end, and a permanent settle- ment effected. Yet this settlement was at this time isolated by a long stretch of forest from its nearest neighbors. The openings in the woods that at that time had been made by the ax of the settler, were mere specks in the great wilderness that covered this western region. The nearest habitations of white men cast of the Old Cross Roads, with the exception of the cabin of Sottle and Avery at Cattaraugus creek, was the little collection of houses at New Amsterdam, now the city of Buffalo, over sixty miles away, while to the west, the nearest settlements were in the county of Erie, in the state of Pennsylvania. The nearest settlers to the south, were a few scattering families at War- ren, in the state of Pennsylvania.
1803. In 1803, the settlers came in rapidly at, and near the Old Cross Roads. Arthur Bell in January, Christopher Dull in June, James Montgomery in July, and Wm. Cul-
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
bertson, George and John Degeer, and Jeremialı George.
An event of importance occurred this year, a sad accident, by which the little community at the Cross Roads was deprived of one of its earliest fonnders. Mr. McHenry and two others, departed from the mouth of Chautanqua creek, (now Barcelona) upon Lake Erie, in a small boat in a voyage to the settlement at Erie, to obtain a supply of provisions for his tavern, at the Cross Roads. Upon their way, a storm arose which upset the boat and McHenry was drowned. His two companions saved themselves by clinging to the bottom of the boat. The body of McHenry was never re- covered. This was the first death of a white person residing in the county. Joseph Badger who was attending a meeting of the Erie Presbytery, at Colt's Station in Pennsylvania, came to the Cross Roads and took charge of the funeral services, and preached the first funeral sermon in the county. The widow MeHenry, continued to keep the tavern at the Cross Roads after the death of her husband.
Charles Avery, it is quite probable, lived at "Cattaraugus Village," as the Cattaraugus Bottoms were called, during this year, and per- haps at an earlier date. Others also are believed to have lived there before Avery came. There is, however, no record of any purchase of land by any one prior to the close of 1803, and no clear account has been preserved of the residence of persons there before the close of that year, un- less it was those of Sottle and Sidney, so that, up to the end of the year 1803, no other settle- ments had been made in the county of Chau- tauqua, except that at the Old Cross Roads, which has since grown into the large and wealthy village of Westfield, now one of the most beautiful in western New York, and that at Cattaraugus, which had been surveyed into village lots by the Holland company, with the belief, in view of its situation upon the Cattar- augus creek, that it might be made a great
manufacturing place, and become of much im- portance as the county developed. No other places were regarded of such consequence by the company, as to entitle them to be surveyed into village lots, except Barcelona and May- ville. Cattaraugus is now represented by the village of Irving. Upper Irving was formerly known as La Grange.
To the towns of Westfield and Hanover be- longs the distinction of being the first settled in the county. Of the other villages of Hanover, Silver Creek was settled in 1804 or 1805. David Dickinson, Abel Cleveland and John E. Howard were the earliest settlers. Captain Jehiel Moore built a saw-mill in 1808 at For- estville, and afterwards a grist-mill. In 1809 he moved his family there. This constituted the first settlement of that village. Barcelona, in the town of Westfield, was first settled by John McMahan, the brother of James Me- Mahan, near the mouth of the Chautauqua creek, upon a traet selected by John. Barce- lona, in carly years, was a place of some im- portance. It was made a port of entry, a light house was crected, and a steamboat built for the transportation of freight and passengers, and for awhile it was a place of considerable trade.
1804 .- Although at the beginning of the year 1804 there were no settlements made in the county, other than those made at the Old Cross Roads and at Cattaraugus village, before its close settlements had been commenced in nearly every town lying north of the Ridge. A few more settlers came that year to the Old Cross Roads. John MeMahan built the first grist-mill erected in the county ; it was built one-fourth of a mile above the month of the Chautauqua creek. At that time the nearest mills at which the people could obtain grinding were at Erie, Pennsylvania, and Black Rock, on the Niagara river. Mr. Dickinson soon erected a saw-mill at Silver Creek. To its saw gate was attached a pestle, by which corn was
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SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY
pounded for food in a mortar, made by digging and burning out the end of a log. John Mc- Mahan also, a little later than the building of the grist-mill, and in 1804, built the first saw- mill erected in the county.
This year Charles Avery and William Sid- ney purchased lands at Cattaraugus village. Sidney kept the ferry at the creek, and Avery kept a small assortment of goods for trade with the Indians. This year Caroline, daughter of William Sidney, was born. She was the first white child born at Cattaraugus village, and her father was the first person to die there.
The settlement at the Old Cross Roads and at Cattarangus creek were soon followed by that at Fredonia, which at first was called Canada- way, deriving its name from the stream which has its source among the hills of Charlotte and Arkwright, and that brawls through dark chasms past the pleasant village of Fredonia to Lake Erie.
The Indians who resorted there during the hunting scason (the remains of their bark-cov- ered cabins were to be seen along the flats around Fredonia by the first comers) gave it the beautiful name Ga-na-da-wa-o, which means, in the Sencca tongue, " running through the hem- locks," in allnsion to the sombre evergreens that border its banks, casting their deep shade over its wild and rocky passage. The early settlers used the less musical pronunciation, Canadaway. At Ganadawao, or Canadaway, as the white men called it, the settlement of the town of Pomfret was made about 1804.
Thomas McClintock was born in Northum- berland county, Pennsylvania, in 1768. He emigrated to Erie county, Pennsylvania, in 1798 or 1799. In 1804 he built a cabin at Canadaway, upon land that he had located in December of the year before.
David Eason was also born in Northumber- land county in 1771. He became the first sheriff of the county in 1811, and in 1823 or 1824 a member of the State Senate. He also
built a log cabin at Canadaway, about the same time that McClintock came. He was then un- married. These were the only persons residing in Pomfret in the year 1804. Fredonia grew up where this settlement was made, and soon became the largest village in the county. It held its importance for many years. It was early the leading educational village. In 1817 the Chautauqua Gazette, the first newspaper of the county, was published here. Here, in 1824, the Fredonia Academy, the first institution of learning in the county, higher than the com- mon school, was established. The Fredonia Academy was for many years one of the best known and most important schools in western New York. Many citizens remember with gratitude the stimulus for the acquisition of knowledge that they received at this institution of learning, and some eminent and distinguished men and women laid the foundations of their knowledge here. The first term of this school commenced October 1, 1826. The venerable Austin Smith, now of Westfield, long a leading lawyer and respected citizen of the county, was its first principal. In 1868 the Fredonia Academy was merged in the well-known Nor- mal and Training school.
Sheridan was settled this year by Francis Webber and others.
The town of Ripley was first settled this year by Alexander Cochran, a native of Ire- land. He took up his residence about a mile west of Quincy.
The town of Chautauqua, which lies at the head of Chantauqna Lake, and joins the North- ern with the Southern towns of the county, was also first settled in 1804 by Dr. Alexander Mc- Intyre. He erected a log hut near the steam- boat landing, at Mayville. He, in early life, was captured by the Indians, who cut off the veins of his ears. He resided with them many years, and acquired their habits, and claimed to have derived his skill in the healing art from his intercourse with them. Judge
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OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.
Wm. Peacock settled at Mayville in 1810, as the first agent of the Holland Land Company, for the sale of its lands in Chautauqua coun- ty and a part of Cattaraugus. Chautauqua was organized as a county in 1811, and Mayville was designated as its county-seat by Isaac Sutherland, Jonas Williams and Asa Ransom, commissioners appointed for that purpose, and since then has been the capital of the county. The house of John Scott, in Mayville, was designated as the place for holding the first courts, until the court house should be built. In 1815 a court house and jail was com- pleted. It was a two-story frame building ; the lower story contained two cells for crim- inals, and one for debtors. It cost the county about $1500. The present court house and jail were erected about the year 1835. The village of Chautauqua, the seat of the Chau- tauqua Assembly, and of the Famous Semin- ary school, and Point Chautauqua, the cele- brated summer resort, are situated in this town.
On the 11th of April, 1804, by an act of the Legislature, the town of Batavia, which included within its limits all of the present county of Chautauqua, was divided into four towns, viz. : Batavia, Erie, Willink and Chautauqua. Pre- vious to this date the voters residing within the present limits of the county of Chautauqua, de- siring to vote at a general election or at town- meetings, were obliged to go to Batavia, a dis- tance of nearly one hundred miles, by forest paths. How many, if any, availed themselves of this privilege, we are not informed. The act provided that the first town-meeting should be held at the house of the widow McHenry. The town of Erie, by the provisions of this law, included, with other territory, the following towns of Chautauqua county, to wit : Carroll, Poland, Ellington, Cherry Creek, Villanova and a part of Hanover. The remaining towns constituted the town of Chautauqua.
1805 .- The year 1805 brought many set-
tlers to the town of Pomfret. In February of that year came Zattu Cushing with his family. He was born at Plymouth, Mass., in 1770. He was a ship-builder, and had been employed in 1798 or 1799 to superintend the building of the ship "Good Intent" at Presque Isle, near Erie. On his return to the East, lie passed along the shore of Chautauqua Lake, through the forests of Chautauqua county. He was pleased with the country, and selected for pur- chase the land at Canadaway, which is now the site of the village of Fredonia. Upon his ar- rival there, he found the land that he had chosen was occupied by Thomas Mcclintock, the first settler. He afterwards purchased this land of McClintock, who removed to the town of Westfield. Mr. Cushing was a respected and leading man of the county. He was ap- pointed its first judge, and served as such for thirteen years. He was the grandfather of the intrepid Alonzo H. Cushing, who fell at Get- tysburg, and William B. Cushing, the hero of many exploits, chief of which was the destruc- tion of the " Albemarle," and which have placed his name beside the names of Paul Jones and Perry in the roll of honor.
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