USA > New York > Erie County > Centennial history of Erie County, New York : being its annals from the earliest recorded events to the hundredth year of American independence > Part 13
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In the year 1806, Joel Harvey, the first settler of Evans, be- gan keeping tavern at his residence, at the mouth of Eight- een-Mile creek. There were some. purchases made in that year near East Evans, and temporary settlements made, but accord- ing to Peter Barker, who furnished an interesting sketch of Evans to the Buffalo Historical Society, the discouraged pioneers left. and no permanent settlements were made till several years later. Mr. Harvey's was the frontier house, yet it was a good location for a tavern, on account of the heavy travel that went up the beach of the lake to Chautauqua county and Ohio.
It was in 1806, too, as near as can be ascertained, that the first regular grist-mill was erected in the southwest part of the county, probably the first south of the reservation. It was built by John Cummings, on the Eighteen-Mile creek, at a place now called McClure's Mills, a mile or so below Water Valley, in the town of Hamburg.
The raising of it was a grand affair. Old men still relate how from all the south part of the county the scattered settlers came with their teams, elated at the idea.of having a grist- mill, and willing to make a week's journey if necessary to give it a start.
Yet so few were they that their united strength was insuffi- cient to put some of the great timbers in their places. The pro- prietor sent to the reservation and obtained a crowd of Indians to help in the work. One does not expect very hard lifting from an Indian, but he can lift, when there is a prospect of plenty of whisky as a reward. It was only, however, after four days'
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THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE.
work, by white men and red men, that the raising of the first grist-mill in Hamburg was completed.
Jacob Wright about this time settled in Hamburg near Ab- bott's Corners, which for many years was known as "Wright's Corners."
The "Friends" in East Hamburg had become numerous enough to organize a "Friends Meeting" in 1806. This was undoubtedly the first religious organization in the county. The next year they built a log meeting-house close to Potter's Cor- ners. It was not only the first church-building of any descrip- tion in the county, but for more than ten years it was the only one.
The Quakers were equally zealous in the cause of education, and as early as 1806 built a log school-house-certainly the first one south of the reservation, and perhaps in the county. Henry Hibbard taught the first school. David Eddy also built a saw- mill on Smoke's Creek, not far from Potter's Corners.
Seth and Samuel Abbott, brothers, located two or three miles southeast of Potter's Corners in the fall of 1807, both be- coming influential citizens, and the former afterwards giving his name to the village of Abbott's Corners.
Among the new settlers in Boston in these years were Jona- than Bump, Benjamin Whaley, Job Palmer, Calvin Doolittle, Eliab Strecter, and Joseph Yaw in 1806, and William Cook, Ethan Howard, - Kester and Serrill Alger in 1807. In the latter year the settlement first attained to the dignity of having a frame barn, the proprietor being the energetic pioneer, Charles Johnson.
In 1806 or '7 the "Friends Yearly Meeting" of Philadelphia sent a mission to instruct the Indians of the Cattaraugus re- serve, having bought three hundred acres adjoining the reserva- tion. The mission was composed of several single men and women, who called themselves a family. The whole was under the management of Jacob Taylor. His nephew, Caleb Taylor, remembers the names of Stephen Twining and Hannah Jack- son, as members of the family.
They located at the place since known as Taylor's Hollow, a few rods from the reservation line, where they gave instruction in farming to all the Indians who would receive it, in housework
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SETTLEMENT OF SPRINGVILLE.
to the squaws, and in reading, writing, etc., to the youth. What- ever the improvement made, the Quakers generally produced a favorable impression on the red men. Even the bitter Red Jacket spoke of them as friends-the only white friends the In- dians had.
With this exception the valley of the Cattaraugus, including all its tributaries in Erie county, remained an unbroken wilder- ness till the fall of 1807. At that time two hardy pioneers, Christopher Stone and John Albro, crossed the ridge, made their own roads through the forest, and finally located on a pleasant little stream running into the Cattaraugus from the north ; in fact on the site of Springville. There they and their families remained during the winter, their nearest neighbors being at least ten miles distant, in the valley of Eighteen-Mile creek.
In 1806 Phineas Stephens bought the mill-site at the "lower village" of Aurora, and that year put up a saw-mill. That year or the next he also built a grist-mill. My authorities differ but it was probably in 1807, leaving Cummings' the first grist- mill (for wheat) in the south towns. It was certainly the first framed one, as Stephens' was built of hewed logs. Among new purchasers in 1806, all of whom settled that year or the next, were Solomon Hall, James S. Henshaw, Oliver Pattengill, Walter Paine, Jonathan Hussey, Ira Paine and Humphrey Smith. The latter had a great fancy for mill-sites, and besides the one at Griffinshire where he afterwards built mills, bought the one at West Falls and the one at the forks of the Cazenove.
In 1806 or early in 1807, he does not remember which, young William Warren hung out a sign before his log house, and be- came the first tavern-keeper in the southeast part of the county. In the summer of the latter year the little cabin he had first lived in was converted into a school-house, where the first school in all that section was taught by Mary Eddy, the vigorous pedestrian mentioned by Mrs. Colvin. The next winter Warren himself kept school in the same house. That enterprising young pioneer was thus school-teacher, tavern-keeper and cap- tain all at once. His second "company training " was held at Turner's Corners, in Sheldon, in 1806, when there were about sixty men present, instead of the nine of the year before. Asa Ransom had then been appointed major commandant.
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144
THE MYSTERY OF THE TOMAHAWK.
Ephraim Woodruff, the pioneer blacksmith in the southeastern part of the county, opened his shop in Aurora in 1807.
In 1806 William Allen made the first settlement in Wales, locating where the Big Tree road then crossed Buffalo creek, about half a mile south of Wales Center. The road then made a half-mile curve to the south to avoid the long and steep hill east of Wales Center. The same fall Amos Clark and William Hoyt located a little east of Holmes' Hill.
This locality received its name from two brothers, Ebenezer and John M. Holmes, whose arrival, though it did not occur till ' the beginning of 1808, preceded the formation of Niagara county, and can, therefore, most conveniently be noted here. They came in February and located themselves on the top of the hill, close to the present west line of Wales. As both had large families-Ebenezer eight and John M. nine children-most of whom grew up and settled in that vicinity, it was natural that the name of " Holmes' Hill" should soon be adopted, and be- come permanent.
It may be observed, in passing, that the vegetation was at that time almost as luxuriant on the hill-tops as in the valleys, and frequently deceived the keenest of the pioneers as to the valuc of the soil.
Jacob Turner came to Wales in 1807 or '8, and settled near William Allen.
A curious story is told regarding early times in that town, even previous to its first settlement. In 1813 an Indian hatchet was found imbedded in a tree on the land of Isaac Hall, near Wales Center. No one could imagine how it came there, and no one attempted to explain its presence. Many years later, however, (after all danger of Indian retaliation had passed away,) John Allen, who is vouched for by those who knew him as a reliable man, made the following statement concerning it :
About the time the first settlers came to Buffalo, an Indian was in that village who showed the skin of a white child, which he boasted that he had killed and skinned. He declared his intention to make a tobacco-pouch out of his ghastly trophy. One of the few who heard him was Truman Allen, brother of John Allen, who told the story. He became so enraged that when the savage left for the southeast, Allen followed him as
145
SETTLEMENT OF HOLLAND.
far as Wales, and there shot him. He buried the slain man and his gun, but stuck the tomahawk into the tree where it was afterwards found. John Allen's story was a strange one, but I give it as it was told me by P. M. Hall, who knew of the finding of the hatchet, and heard the tale from Allen. It is also nar- rated in the State Gazetteer.
In 1807 the first settlement was made in the present town of Holland. Arthur Humphrey, (father of Hon. James M. Hum- phrey,) Abner Currier and Jared Scott began clearing farms on the creek flats, between South Wales and Holland village. Humphrey settled that year on the farm where he lived till his death, fifty years later. Currier and Scott brought their families a year or so afterwards.
In 1806 the first purchase was made in the present town of Alden, in the northwest corner, by Jonas Vanwey. According to all accounts, however, there was no settlement till some years later.
In Newstead, Elisha Geer, Jonathan Fish and others settled in 1806, and Charles Knight, Lemuel Osborn and others in 1807. Mrs. Osborn was the daughter of Knight, and still survives, a resident of the village of Akron. She is the only person re- maining in Newstead, so far as I could learn, who came as early as 1807.
She relates that the first church in town was organized at her father's house just after their arrival, in July of that year. It was a Methodist society, with twelve members, and Mr. Knight was the first class-leader. Mrs. Osborn is the only surviving member.
It was the first Methodist organization on the Holland Pur- chase, and probably the second religious society in Erie county, the Friends' Meeting in East Hamburg being the first. It was organized by the Rev. Peter Van Ness, one of the two first Methodist missionaries who came upon the Purchase, the Rev. Amos Jenks being the other. Both were sent out in 1807. under the auspices of the Philadelphia conference.
In 1806 or '7, too, Archibald S. Clarke started a store on his farm near Vandeventer's. This was the first store in the county, outside of Buffalo, and was hailed by all the people round about as marking a decisive epoch in the advance of civilization.
146
A TRAVELING BALLOT BOX.
Into Clarence, in 1806, came Jonathan Barrett, John Tyler, Justice Webster and others, and in 1807, Wm. Barrett, Thomas Brown and Asa Harris. The last named settled on the Buffalo road, three or four miles west from Clarence Hollow, at a point which thenceforth went by the name of "Harris Hill," though the " hill " is so low as to be hardly perceptible.
Before leaving the territory of the original town of Willink, it may be stated that, up to and including 1806, the elections were every year held at Peter Vandeventer's, and every year the worthy landlord was chosen supervisor. In 1807, however, the town-meeting was held at Clarence Hollow, and then Asa Ran- som was elected supervisor.
Up to this time the scattering voters in Willink, south of the reservation, had to cross it to exercise the elective franchise. General elections, however, in those times were held three days, and in April, 1807, the southern settlers got sight of a ballot box. The election was held a day and a half north of the reservation, and on the afternoon of the second day the "board" crossed the wilderness. The next forenoon they held open the polls at Warren's tavern in Aurora, and in the afternoon, (as Gen. W. remembers it,) in Wales, at the house of Jacob Turner.
The commissioners of excise of Willink for 1807 certified to the qualifications of no less than ten persons to keep hotels in that town. Doubtless all these, and perhaps more, actually kept tavern, but there was not a single store in the town.
James Hershey and William Maltby came to Amherst in 1806, and in 1807 John J. Drake, Samuel Fackler, Gamaliel St. John and others. St. John had to pay $3 an acre for his land, while the price to the rest was $2. This was doubtless because he settled close to where Jonas Williams was vigorously striving to build up the village of Williamsville, though without much suc- cess. Mr. St. John was an energetic pioneer, with already a large family of children, and Mrs. S. was a woman of extraordinary resolution, destined to become a historical personage in connec- tion with the burning of Buffalo.
There were still but three or four houses at Williamsville, which was generally called Williams' Mills. In one of these, near the west end of the present village, Samuel McConnell kept tavern.
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147
THE FIRST LAWYER.
In the present city of Buffalo, outside the village, Major Noble, James Stewart, Gideon Moshier, Loren and Velorous Hodge, Henry Ketchum (brother of the late Jesse Ketchum,) and many others settled during the two years under consideration. Some of the land was held at $3.50 per acre, and from that down as low as $2.25.
The village itself continued to grow, though not with the rapidity of later years, nor after the manner of some newly founded western cities.
In 1806 Joseph Landon bought Crow's tavern, refitted it, ยท made a comfortable hotel of it, and in fact founded the present Mansion House. Landon's tavern soon became celebrated far and wide, and was the first in the county which gained especial fame as a place of good cheer.
In September, 1806, the earliest lawyer made his advent in Erie county. If any of the frontiersmen were disposed to look askance on a representative of the legal profession, as a proba- ble provoker of disputes and disturber of society, they must soon have been disabused of their prejudices, for Ebenezer Wal- den, the new comer, was of all men one of the most upright and most modest. He immediately commenced practice in a little office on Willink avenue, between Seneca and Crow streets, and for a year or two was the only attorney west of Batavia.
In 1806, too, the population of the youthful city was increased by the advent of Mr. Elijah Leech and Mr. David Mather. The former was in the employ of Captain Pratt, whose daughter he afterwards married, and the latter established the third black- smith shop in the village. He has stated that there were but sixteen houses in Buffalo when he came in April, adding, "Eight of them were scattered along on Main street, three of them were on the Terrace, three of them on Seneca and two on Cayuga streets." I think, however, that when he made this statement Mr. Mather forgot a few buildings. He mentions only the stores of Samuel Pratt and that of "the contractors,'" then in charge of Vincent Grant, while all other accounts in- clude that of Sylvanus Maybee. Joshua Gillett also established a small store in Buffalo about that time.
Apropos of that "contractors' store," General Warren tells a story illustrative of early expedients. One fall the contractors
148
BUFFALO'S "LITTLE RED SCHOOL-HOUSE."
sent on a drove of hogs from the East, expecting that they would be killed and salted down at Buffalo, and the pork shipped in the spring to the western posts. At Buffalo, however, the man in charge (probably Vincent Grant,) discovered that there were no barrels to be had. In this emergency he availed himself of a small empty log house, which he packed full of alternate lay- ers of pork and salt, and thus 'safely kept the meat through the winter.
It was probably in 1806 that the services of the Rev. Elkanah Holmes as a preacher were secured by the following primitive arrangement, narrated in after years by Mr. Landon:
In the first place the inhabitants held a meeting, and made a list of those who would help pay a preacher for a certain length of time. Then they estimated the amount to be paid by each person for each week, and it was agreed that every Sunday each man should bring his money in a piece of paper, with his name on it. The arrangement was faithfully carried out, and as strangers , also contributed some the preacher's salary was made up before his time was out. That was certainly a very thorough exempli- fication of the motto, "pay as you go."
During the winter of 1806-7, a school was taught by a Mr. Hiram Hanchett in the old "Middaugh house." But in March of the latter year it was determined to have something better. The "little red school-house" then erected on the corner of Pearl and Swan streets, is frequently mentioned in the reminiscences of the early residents of Buffalo. Its history is interesting not only because it was the first building of its kind in what is now a great city, but because it became the subject of a somewhat famous controversy in the courts, which was not terminated till twenty-five years after the structure itself had ceased to exist.
The time and manner of building it, as well as the contribu- tors thereto, have heretofore been a matter of doubtful tradition. Those who feel an interest in early local history will be gratified to learn that there is now in existence, among the miscellaneous papers of the Historical Society, a document which gives an authentic account of the beginning of school-house building in the city of Buffalo. This is nothing less than the original ac- count-book, containing the subscriptions and payments toward erecting the "little red school-house" of historic fame.
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A VALUABLE ACCOUNT-BOOK.
It is only a memorandum-book of coarse paper, with proba- bly the roughest brown, pasteboard cover ever seen on a book ; yet it is extremely interesting, not only as giving an authentic account of the erection of the first school-house in the city, and as showing the names of a large proportion of the inhabitants of the then infant village, but also because it is one of the very few documents relating to local history which survived the confla- gration of 1813. With the solitary exception of the town-book of the town of Erie from 1805 to 1808, this account-book is the most valuable article to the student of local history in the whole collection of the Buffalo Historical Society. The following is a literal copy of the first page :
"At a meeting of the Inhabitance of the Vilage of Buffaloe meet on the twenty-ninth day of March Eighteen hundred & seven at Joseph Landon's Inn by a Vote of Sd meeting Zenas Barker in the Chair for the purpos to arect a School Hous in Sd Village by a Subscription of the Inhabitanse.
also Voted that Samuel Pratt, Joseph Landon & Joshua Gil- lett be a Committee to See that they are appropriated on the School House above mentioned which Subscriptions are to be paid in by the first day of June next or Such part of it as Shall be wanted by that time."
And the following is a list of the subscribers and the amounts put down by each :
"Sylvanus Maybee, $20.00; Zenas Barker, 10.00; Thomas Fourth, 3.00; Joshua Gillett, 15.00; Joseph Wells, 7.00 ; John Johnston, 10.00; Nathaniel W. Sever, 10.00; Isaac H. Bennet, 3.00 ; Levi Strong, 5.00; William Hull, 10.00; Samuel Pratt, 22.00 ; Richard Mann, 5.00; Asahel Adkins, 5.00; Samuel An- drews, 1.00 ; Garret Freeland, 1.00 ; Billa Sherman, 871/2c."
All the subscriptions were dated March 30, 1807, the day after the meeting. Each man's name was placed on a page of the book and charged with the amount subscribed, and then credited with the amount paid, either by cash, labor or material.
The carpenter work appears to have been all done by Levi Strong and George Kith, whose accounts are also in the book. Their bills for work amounted to $68.50. The credits for work and material were mostly in April, 1807, showing that the building was started immediately after the subscription.
From the fact that Joshua Gillett is credited with 214 gallons
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WILLIAM JOHNSTON.
of whisky on the 13th of April, I should presume that the "rais- ing" took place on that day. But funds and credit apparently ran low, so that Buffalo remained without a school-house a year and a half more ; for it was not until November, ISO8, that Samuel Pratt was credited with two thousand shingles for this primeval temple of education.
The building was doubtless finished up for use that winter (1808-9,) for on the 23d day of May, 1809, there was a general settling up, and the last entries of small cash payments are made in the book.
Most of the subscribers, including Pratt, Maybee, Landon, Barker, Gillett and Wells, paid up in full, but some appear to have failed in part and a few entirely.
The book was presented to the Historical Society in 1866, by Joshua Gillett, of Wyoming county, whom I presume to have been a son of the Joshua Gillett who was one of the committee to raise funds and superintend the building. It was probably lying in a trunk, in 1813, and was carried out of town ; thus escaping the general destruction of documents at that time.
Among the names mentioned as subscribers are those of Wil- liam Hull, Asahel Adkins and Joseph Wells, all of whom came late in 1806 or early in 1807. Hull was a silversmith, the first in the county after Ransom quit working for the Indians, Ad- kins soon afterwards opened a tavern on "The Plains," long cele- brated for its good cheer, and the usual resort of Buffalonians on their simple pleasure excursions in those days.
William Johnston, who at one time had held the destiny of Buffalo almost entirely under his control, died in 1807, being then the largest private land-holder in the village, except Mr. Ellicott. He had reached the age of sixty-five, and after the stormy scenes of his early life, when he had led his tories and savages against the American frontier, he sank quietly to rest, respected as a good neighbor and an intelligent citizen.
David Mather says : " I was with him a good deal during his last illness, and from what escaped him then I judged that he had been familiar with some of the most barbarous scenes of the border wars." His half-breed son John inherited his property (now of immense value,) and married a daughter of Judge Barker, but did not live long to enjoy his fortune.
151
CHIVALRY AT A DISCOUNT.
I will close this chapter with the description of an amus- ing scene which occurred in Buffalo in the fall of 1807, related to me by Gen. Warren. Militia regiments in those days had no colonels, but were each organized with a lieutenant-colonel commanding, and two majors. In 1807, the militia of the west- ern part of Genesee county had been formed into a regiment, with Asa Ransom as lieutenant-colonel commanding, and T. S. Hopkins and Sylvanus Maybee as majors. There had been several " company trainings," but as yet no "general training."
At the first "officer meeting" after the new appointments were made, a dispute arose between Col. Ransom and Major Maybee, as to who should be recommended to the governor for the vacant captaincy of the Buffalo company, in place of May- bee, promoted.
The war of words grew more and more furious, until at length the doughty major challenged his superior officer to fight a duel. For this infraction of military discipline Col. Ransom put the major under arrest, and reported his case to the higher authorities. In due time a court-martial was convened, Capt. Warren being one of the witnesses, and Maybee was tried and cashiered.
He must have taken his military misfortune very much to heart, for, though he had been a prominent man in Buffalo, he immediately disappeared from its records, and undoubtedly left the village, apparently preferring the discomfort of making a new home to remaining where he could not enjoy the glory of a duel, nor the honors of a militia major. Thus sadly ended the first display of chivalry in Erie county.
152
LONG ELECTION JOURNEYS.
CHAPTER XIX.
REORGANIZATION.
Division, of Genesee County Necessary .-- Inconvenient Towns .- Captain Bemis' Strategy .- Erection of Niagara, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties .- Short Courts. - Town Changes .- Clarence .- Willink. --- Destruction of the Town of Erie .- Actual Beginning of Erie County.
In the beginning of 1808, there was a reorganization of the counties and towns of the Holland Purchase, so complete, and in some respects so peculiar, as to merit a brief chapter by itself.
Hitherto the boundaries of Genesee county had remained as at first defined, except that Allegany had been taken off in 1806, but by 1808 the inhabitants felt that they were suffi- ciently numerous to justify a subdivision, and, what was more important, Mr. Ellicott became satisfied that the interests of the Holland Company would be promoted by such a change, even though they should have to erect the new county buildings.
The towns, too, eighteen miles wide and a hundred miles long, which had done well enough when nearly all the settlers were scattered along the Buffalo road, were now found to be in- convenient in the extreme. Going from Fort Niagara to Buf- falo, nearly forty miles, to town-meeting, was a little too much even for the ardent patriotism of the American voter. Scarcely less troublesome was it to cross the reservation for that purpose. Besides there was already a settlement at Olean, in the town of Willink, the inhabitants of which if they ever went to election, which is doubtful, must have traversed a distance of sixty miles, and twenty miles further to town-meeting, which was always held north of the reservation.
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