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 28
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About this time the Willink "Smith's mills" were sold to James and Robert Griffin, and the place has ever since borne the name of "Griffin's Mills," or "Griffinshire." James Griffin was a man of considerable prominence and was supervisor of Aurora two or three years. Adams Paul also set up a store there near the same time, perhaps a little earlier, which he kept for nearly thirty years.
In this year, also, Leonard Cook, who still survives, residing upon Vermont Hill, opened the first store in the present town of Holland, at what is now Holland village.
That same fall there occurred in that locality one of those events which most strongly excite the feelings of a frontier set- tlement, and furnish a subject of conversation for scores of years afterwards.
On the eastern side of Vermont Hill, nearly east from the embryo village, lived John Colby, a young settler, some thirty years of age, with a wife and two small children. Like many others he had been severely straitened by the "cold summer" of 1816, and had barely struggled through the succeeding winter. By the autumn of 1817, he obtained a cow and one or two young cattle.
312
LOST AND FROZEN.
When the first snow of the season came, in the month of November, Colby's cattle and those of a neighbor strayed away, and the two started out in search of them. The neighbor found his and returned home, while Colby continued on in search of his own.
All day and all night his wife expected his return, but he came not. More snow fell during the night. The next morning the news was sent around the neighborhood that John Colby must be lost. The log dwellings of the settlers on the hill were widely scattered, but the news spread rapidly and a goodly number of hardy, active men were soon assembled. The snow of the last night had not entirely obliterated the track of the wanderer, and the searchers followed upon it.
For awhile it pursued the direction in which Colby was prob- ably seeking his cattle. At length, however, it got among the hills and ravines southward from the site of Holland village, and then it would appear as if the traveler had entirely lost track of home, and had wandered aimlessly among those forest-covered steeps. Very likely night had overtaken him before he entered among them.
His friends pursued among the gorges his devious pathway, barely discernible under the new-fallen snow. So tortuous had been his wanderings that, though the searchers pressed on with all practicable speed, the forenoon passed and the afternoon waned ere they discovered aught but the half-covered track of the missing man.
At length, a little before nightfall, as the party was approach- ing the settlements on Cazenove creek, the leader discovered, curled up at the foot of a tree and covered with snow, some- thing resembling a human form. All quickly gathered around, and there lay John Colby, dead, only a short distance from the clearing and house of a settler.
It would appear that, having once lost his way, he had be- come entirely unable to adopt any line of action. When night came on he had wandered about at random among the hills and ravines, growing colder and weaker as he went. Had the obvi- ous expedient of following a stream of water down hill sug- gested itself to him, it would soon have carried him to a clearing, but nothing of the kind seems to have come into his mind.
313
FOUR NEW TOWNS.
So he had struggled on, and at length, toward morning, had leaned against a tree to rest, and then, overcome by cold and fatigue, had fallen down in a heap at its foot.
Every event of that kind was pretty sure to be celebrated in rhyme by some rude versifier of the forest. One Simeon Davis was the poetic genius of that locality, and ere long he had turned the mournful story of poor John Colby into verse. No less than two hundred and forty lines were produced by the facile poet, and these being reduced to writing by some admirer, (for Simeon himself was destitute of that accomplishment,) were copied, and repeated, and sung in many a frontier home for more than a score of years.
The year 1818 was distinguished by the creation of four new towns, and the annihilation of the oldest one in the county. On the tenth day of April an act was passed forming the town of Amherst out of Buffalo. It comprised the present towns of Amherst and Cheektowaga, and nominally extended to the cen- ter of the reservation.
Five days later the town of Willink, the organization of which dated back to 1804, was stricken from existence. From its for- mer magnificent proportions, rivaling those of a German prin- cipality, comprising at one time a strip eighteen miles wide by a hundred long, at another a space twenty-seven miles by thirty-five, it had been reduced to a block twelve miles square, and was now about to suffer annihilation.
Whether the settlers had some special grudge against the worthy Amsterdam burgher who was the recognized head of the so-called Holland Land Company, or whether they thought his name lacking in euphony, I know not, but they determined, so far as they could, to get rid of "Willink." Petitions were sent to the legislature, and on the 15th of April the necessary law was passed.
Township Eight, in range Five, and township Eight, in range Six, were formed into a new town named Holland, comprising the present towns of Holland and Colden. It could hardly have been dislike of the Holland Company that led to the cast- ing off of the name of "Willink," for Holland must have re- ceived its appellation purely out of compliment to that com- pany. Nothing could well have been more unlike the half-
21
314
WALES, AURORA, ETC.
submerged plains at the mouth of the Rhine than the narrow valley, precipitous hillsides, and lofty table-lands of the new town.
There was more propriety in the name of " Wales," which was given to another new town, composed of township Nine, range Five, with the nominal addition of half the reservation-land op- posite. Its hills, though not so lofty, were numerous enough to give it a strong resemblance to the little principality which over- looks the Irish channel.
Finally, by the same act, the remainder of Willink (viz., the ninth township in the sixth range and the adjoining reservation- land,) was formed into a town by the name of Aurora. As it contained a larger population than either of the others, it has usually been considered as the lineal successor of Willink, but the law simply annihilated the latter town and created three new ones.
The known supervisors for 1818 were Charles G. Olmstead of Buffalo, Otis R. Hopkins of Clarence, Richard Smith of Ham- burg, Samuel Abbott of Boston, and John March of Eden. The new towns were not organized till the next year.
Early in 1818 S. H. Salisbury retired from the Gazette, a fact which I notice in order to mention that his farewell address of fifty-two lines was the longest editorial which had at that time appeared in Erie county. In a few months H. A. Salisbury be- came sole editor and proprietor. He changed the paper's name to " The Niagara Patriot," and announced that in future it would be a Republican sheet.
It will be observed that the name "Republican" was still ap- plied to the party which had of old borne that appellation, but which had recently been more often called "Democratic." This was during what has been termed the "era of good feeling," when the Federal party had almost entirely disappeared and no new one had taken its place. The Republican, or Democratic, party was in full possession of the national field, but in local matters it frequently split into factions, which waged war with a fury indicating but little of the "good feeling" commonly sup- posed to have prevailed.
In this congressional district the regular Republican conven- tion nominated Nathaniel Allen, from the eastern part, and Al-
315
A YOUNG CONGRESSMAN.
bert H. Tracy, the young lawyer of Buffalo. Isaac Phelps, Jr., of Aurora was renominated to the assembly, along with Philo Orton of Chautauqua county. Forthwith a large portion of the party declared war against the nominees. The cause is hard to discover, but there was a vast amount of denunciation of the "Kremlin Junta." By this it is evident that the original " Krem- lin block" was already in existence, having doubtless been thus named because built amid the ruins of Buffalo, as the Kremlin was rebuilt over the ashes of Moscow. It was there that the "Junta," consisting of Mr. Tracy, Dr. Marshall, James Sheldon and a few others, were supposed to meet and concoct the most direful plans.
Ex-Congressman Clarke was the leader of the opposing fac- tion. Ere long an independent convention nominated Judge Elias Osborne, of Clarence, for the assembly, against Phelps, but seem to have been unable to find candidates for Congress. The old members, John C. Spencer and Benjamin Ellicott, declined a renomination, but were voted for by many members of the anti-Kremlin party. The Patriot was the organ of the Clarke- Osborn faction, while the Journal fought for Tracy and Phelps. Dire were the epithets hurled on either side. No political con- flict, over the most important issues of the present day, has been more bitter than this little unpleasantness during the "era of good feeling." At the election in April, Tracy was chosen by a large majority, and Phelps by twenty-three. The former was then but twenty-five years of age, barely old enough to be le- gally eligible to Congress, and considerably the youngest mem- ber who has ever been elected in this county ..
A law was passed this year abolishing the office of assistant- justice, restricting the number of associate-judges to four, and requiring a district-attorney in every county. Under this stat- ute Charles .G. Olmsted was the first district-attorney of Niagara county.
Asa Ransom, who had been four times appointed sheriff, made his final retirement in 1818, and James Cronk, of what is now Newstead, was commissioned in his place.
Passing from the stirring conflicts of political life to the peace- ful scenes of the militia-encampment, we find that in the same year Brigadier-General William Warren was appointed major-
316
SWORD AND EPAULET.
general of the twenty-fourth division, Colonel Ezra Nott being made brigadier in his stead. Elihu Rice was Nott's brigade major, Earl Sawyer his quartermaster, and Edward Paine quar- termaster of another brigade.
By this time no less than four regiments of infantry had been organized within the present county of Erie, and, as the law had recently been changed, each had a colonel, lieutenant-colonel and one major. The field officers of the 17th regiment, the one north of the reservation, were James Cronk, colonel; Calvin Fill- more, lieutenant-colonel; and Arunah Hibbard, major. Cronk's office was soon vacated by his appointment as sheriff, when I suppose Fillmore and Hibbard were promoted.
Those of the 170th regiment, apparently comprising only the old town of Willink, (Aurora, Wales, Holland and Colden,) were Sumner Warren, colonel ; Lyman Blackmar, lieutenant_ colonel ; and Abner Currier, major. Of the 48th regiment, in the towns farther west, Charles Johnson was colonel; Asa War- ren, lieutenant-colonel; and Silas Whiting, major. Farther south was the ISIst regiment, of which Frederick Richmond was col- onel ; Truman White, lieutenant-colonel ; and Benjamin Fay, major.
Besides these the 12th regiment of cavalry and the 7th regi- ment of artillery had a representation in the county, as I find the name of Hawxhurst Addington, of Aurora, as captain in the former, and Reuben B. Heacock, of Buffalo, in the latter. We were a very military community in those days.
A hundred and thirty-nine years after the gallant La Salle entered Lake Erie with the pioneer sail-vessel, there occurred at the same point a similar event, which, though lacking the heroic and romantic elements of the earlier scene, was yet a mat- ter of intense interest to a great number of people.
In the previous November two or three capitalists had come from New York to Black Rock, and caused to be laid the keel of the first steamboat which any one had ever attempted to build above the great cataract. In the spring the work was pressed forward, and on the 28th of May, ISIS, the new vessel was launched amid the acclamations of a host of spectators. It re- ceived the appropriate and striking name of "Walk-in-the- Water," partly because it did walk in the water, and partly in
317
THE WALK-IN-THE-WATER.
honor of a great Wyandot chieftain who once bore that peculiar cognomen.
The new steamer was ready for use about the middle of Au- gust, and then occurred a reproduction of La Salle's experience, with an element of the ludicrous superadded. Again and again the Walk-in-the-Water essayed to steam up the rapids into the lake, and again and again it was compelled to fall back, its en- gines not being strong enough for the purpose.
At length, after several days of unavailing trials, the owners, to their intense mortification, were compelled to apply to Capt. Sheldon Thompson, of Black Rock, for the loan of his cele- brated " Horn Breeze," that is to say, of the dozen yoke of oxen used to drag sail-vessels up the rapids, and which, as before mentioned, the sailors had dubbed by that peculiar title.
On the 23d of August another trial was made. The " Horn Breeze " was duly attached by a cable to the vessel, and steam was generated to the utmost capacity of the boilers. The stok- ers flung wood into the fire-places, the drivers swung their whips, and with steam-power and ox-power combined the vessel moved slowly up the rapids.
Ere long the difficulty was passed, smooth water was reached, the "Horn Breeze" was detached, and thus, a hundred and thirty-nine years and sixteen days after the Griffin first ploughed the waters of Erie, the Walk-in-the-Water inaugurated the sec- ond great era of lake navigation.
Religious improvement steadily continued. A Presbyterian church, the first in the present town of Lancaster, was organized on the 7th of February, ISIS, at the "Johnson school-house," on the site of Lancaster village, under the name of the Cayuga Creek church. It was composed of five males and cight females, Rev. Jas. H. Mills being the officiating minister, and was the fruit of the revival of the previous year, which was con- tinued during the succeeding summer. Before the infant church was a year old, it numbered thirty-one members.
Notwithstanding the large and growing population of the county, there was not a solitary church-building within its limits, excepting the log meeting-house of the Quakers at East Ham- burg. In ISIS, however, that energetic young servant of Christ, Glezen Fillmore, after serving nine years as a local preacher,
318
A CHURCHI IN FORTY-SEVEN DAYS.
was regularly ordained as a Methodist minister, at the age of twenty-eight, and appointed to a circuit comprising Buffalo and Black Rock, and a wide region northward from those villages.
On arriving at Buffalo he found just four Methodist brethren! The Presbyterians held services in the court-house, and the Epis- copalians in a building which, though private property, was used as a school-house. At first Mr. Fillmore preached in the lat- ter place, by permission of the owner, at sunrise and at early candle-light. Besides this he preached twice at Black Rock, making four services every Sabbath, and on week-days met fourteen appointments in the country. His salary was seventy- five dollars the first year,
Some difficulty arising, he was denied the privilege of preach- ing in the school-house. It was determined to build a church. A lot was leased on Tuscarora (Franklin) street, and a church twenty-five feet by thirty-five was begun on the eighth of De- cember, 1818. Mr. Fillmore assumed the responsibility for everything. As he expressed it afterwards, "I had no trustees, no time to make them, and nothing to make them of." His peo- ple, however, contributed according to their means, he wrote to a zealous Methodist in New York who collected and sent him a hundred and twenty dollars, and Joseph Ellicott gave him three hundred. On the 24th day of January, 1819, just forty- seven days after it was begun, the church was dedicated.
Near this time, though at a warmer season, the whole Metho- dist church of Buffalo rode out to a quarterly meeting in Clar- ence, in one lumber wagon. Fortunately for the horses there were but seven members.
At the same time improvements were taking place in every direction. The forest was being constantly swept away, and every little while a new grist-mill or store marked another step toward the condition of older communities.
In most cases the details have not come down to us, but oc- casionally I have been able to get hold of an item showing the course of progress.
A grist-mill was built at what is now Evans Center, in 1818, by a man named Wright, who had previously had a saw-mill there. A few houses were built around, and for a long time the little settlement was known as "Wright's Mills."
319
LEGAL LORE EXTRAORDINARY.
Springville had by this time probably a dozen houses, and Mr. Rufus Eaton became so impressed with its prospects that he procured a surveyor to make a regular map of it, several of the streets then laid down corresponding with those of the present day. Drs. Daniel and Varney Ingalls, two brothers, came there about this time, and began practicing medicine, being the first regular physicans. A Dr. Churchill had practiced before, with- out a diploma.
The place of a lawyer was supplied by Wales Emmons, a cabinet-maker, who had settled there the year before, whose services in justices' courts were in wide demand, and whose many pranks are still the theme of jovial rehearsal. One of the sto- ries represents him as being employed by the defendant in an action brought before a justice some miles from Springville. Seeing that there was no defense, and knowing the dullness of the magistrate, Emmons rode over to his residence a day or two before the time appointed for the trial, and informed him that the defendant had concluded to withdraw the suit and pay the costs. To this the worthy justice assented, received the money, and noted the withdrawal in his docket.
On the appointed day the plaintiff, with his counsel, (also an amateur,) appeared, when the justice benignantly informed them that the defendant had withdrawn the case and paid the costs.
"Withdrawn the case," roared the pettifogger; "what do you mean ? The defendant can't withdraw the case."
" But 'he has withdrawn it," replied the justice, with dignity, for he felt as if his word was disputed; "he has withdrawn it and paid the costs, and it is so entered on my docket, and I will have nothing more to do with it."
The counsel advised a suit before another justice, but the un- lucky plaintiff had had experience enough, and settled with Emmons' client on the best terms he could obtain.
Notwithstanding the march of improvement, (as shown by such courts of justice,) the fierce denizens of the forest still prowled in large numbers around the frontier cabins.
Numerous combats took place between them and their human antagonists, but there was one battle, which came off near the beginning or close of 1818, of such a remarkable character as to deserve especial notice. In fact I doubt if all the annals of
320
A BATTLE ROYAL.
ยท that kind of warfare can show a solitary instance of greater coolness, courage or success than was seen on the occasion of which I am speaking. It beats even the exploit of Philip Con- jockety in killing the two panthers, which I thought sufficiently audacious.
So remarkable were the circumstances, that I hesitated to be- lieve this story until investigation convinced me of its truth. I have heard it from several different sources, and, though they vary slightly as to details, yet as to the main points there is no dispute. The following account of it is derived from a compar- ison of the different stories, though the most direct statement comes, through Mr. George Wheeler, from Mr. Isaac Hale of North Collins, who was a boy of fourteen, residing near where the event occurred. It is corroborated by John Sherman, Esq., an old resident of the same place.
An Indian on the Cattaraugus reservation one day discovered the trail of three panthers in the deep snow. Not desiring to meet such game as that himself, he notified another brave, named John Turkey, one of the celebrated hunters of the tribe. As the latter told it : "Me sick when he come ; me well quick when he tell about panther."
Turkey took his gun and accoutrements and started alone in pursuit. He followed the trail about six miles to the head of "Big Sister Swamp" in the present town of North Collins, two or three miles southeastward from the village of that name. There he came to two or three large trees, turned up by the roots and lying close together. Looking beyond them he saw no tracks, and at once concluded that the animals were concealed there.
Turkey put two balls in his mouth, took the stopper out of his powder-horn, cocked his gun and approached. Suddenly a panther sprang out on to one of the trees, while two others were heard below ; all making a noise which Turkey describes as re- sembling the caterwauling of a score of tabbies, fifty times in- creased. I infer from the story, though it is not directly stated, that the first was an old one, and the others not quite full grown.
Instantly leveling his gun, the hunter fired with so true an aim that the panther fell dead to the ground. The two others sprang out on the farther side, raising a yell that resounded afar through the forest. Turkey reloaded almost in a second, pouring in
321
TURKEY'S TRIUMPH.
plenty of powder without measuring, and snatching a ball from . his mouth and dropping it into the muzzle, without a patch and without ramming. "Mebbe," said he, "ball go half way down ; mebbe not." At the same time one of the young panthers sprang on the trees and came toward him. Again he leveled his weapon and the second enemy fell dead. The third one had attempted to follow the first, but had struck his breast against the farther tree, fallen back, and then turned to go around the tops. This gave Turkey time to reload in the same expeditious manner as before. He had hardly done so when number three came around the tops, jumped on a log, and prepared to spring. Just as he was doing so, Turkey fired for the third time. The ani- mal was fatally wounded in the neck, but came on. Turkey sprang aside, the panther stopped, and the Indian was about to strike him with his clubbed rifle when he saw him stagger. He gave him a push with the muzzle of his gun, when the animal immediately rolled over and expired.
By this time it was nearly dark, and as Turkey was not very well he did not purpose to travel any more that evening. So he scooped away the snow between the trees, laid down hemlock boughs for a bed, put some more across the two trunks for a shel- ter, and thus made himself thoroughly comfortable for the night, with his dead enemies all around.
The next morning he skinned his game, shouldered the pelts with the heads attached, and went some three miles southwest- ward to Hanford's tavern, at Taylor's Hollow. Hanford, or some one else, gave him a certificate on which he obtained the bounty paid by the town for panthers. He then took them to Buffalo, and it is said obtained a county bounty also. Passing through Hill's Corners, (Eden Center,) he showed the three scalps to the children as they came out of school. I have talked with those who saw them there, and the various stories from which I have compiled the foregoing account differ only in some minor details. It was certainly one of the boldest ex- ploits ever performed, and fairly entitles John Turkey to espe- cial mention in the annals of the brave.
322
THE "GRAND CANAL."
CHAPTER XXIX.
1819 AND 1820.
The "Grand Canal."-The Harbor Company. - Supervisors, etc .-- Strong Lan- guage. - The International Boundary. - An Indian Council. - Pagans and Christians .- Red Jacket's Question. - Another Execution. - " The People of Grand Island."-A Small Rebellion .- Troops ordered out. - The Squatters Removed .- A Sad Dilemma. - Governor Clark .- Clintonians and Bucktails. -Tracy Reelected .- Other officials .- The Harbor Begun .- Wilkeson turns Engineer .- His Services .- New Post-Offices .- Dr. Colegrove. - Niagara Ag- ricultural Society .- Town-Managers .- Another Church. - The Amateur En- gineer becomes a Judge .- Three New Towns. -- New Use for a Psalm-Tune.
This chapter will be extended a little beyond the years named in its title; it being most convenient to include the three months of 1821 previous to the formation of Erie county.
More and more the "Grand Canal," as it was generally called, (the name " Eric " was not at first applied to it,) attracted gen- eral attention. At Buffalo and Black Rock, in particular, the question as to which should be the terminal point became of the deepest interest. It was plain that the chances of the former must be gravely injured by the fact that it had no har- bor, and steps to build one were taken by ten of the principal citizens. Of ready money there was almost none in the village. The State passed a law to loan twelve thousand dollars for the required purpose, to be secured by the bonds and mortgages of individuals for twice that amount. If the State officials should approve the harbor when finished, they had the privilege of tak- ing it and cancelling the indebtedness; if not, the company would have to pay the bonds and reimburse themselves out of tolls.
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