USA > New York > Livingston County > Nunda > Centennial history of the town of Nunda : with a preliminary recital of the winning of western New York, from the fort builders age to the last conquest by our Revolutionary forefathers > Part 14
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CHRONOLOGY AND GENEALOGY OF WILCOX CORNERS' CITIZENS
The Merricks, George W., Hiram B., Susan Merrick.
George W. Merrick married Zervia Paine, sister of James Paine, Sr.
Settled in Nunda 1817. He bought the half acre clearing of Eleazar Barnard with log house and 50 acres of land, for $40 in gold. Mr. Merrick had read somewhere in a newspaper that a man by the name of Barnard had with the assistance of five others, on a certain Sunday, gone into the woods. chopped the logs and laid up a log cabin as high as the chamber floor and one log higher before sundown, in the town of Nunda. On reaching Nunda. Mr. Merrick found this place and purchased the claim with its improvements, con- sisting of a log house twelve feet square, and one half acre cleared land, sowed to turnips.
He raised the logs five feet higher and put on a roof of shake shingles (shingles about three feet long ), made by himself, and fastened down with poles, without using a nail. Five hundred feet of boards for finishing purposes was all he could procure. These were probably procured at the Bennett & Nichols settlement. afterward called Hunt's Hollow. Mr. Merrick with his brother-in-law Paine and Wilcox ( William P.), have been credited with laying out the state road in 1824, others like Captain John H. Townsend and the War- rens claim to have assisted and doubtless they widened the road after it was surveyed.
Mr. Merrick's ability to do things was well known and he was soon after coming elected Justice of the Peace. ( an office that became elective about 1817), and held this position for 16 years. He was supervisor of the town of Nunda for six years. Higher offices would have been within the scope of his ability and within the circle of his well deserved popularity, but for an infirmity, ( he became very deaf), that rendered office holding at Albany impracticable.
Mrs. Zervia Merrick's popularity was as great as that of her husband, re- sulting in her somewhat unusual name becoming a favorite one in the com- munity. She died in Nunda and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery. It is said by a granddaughter of George W. Merrick, that he arrived in Nunda with one horse and a yoke of oxen. There was great scarcity of feed for horses or cattle in the year following the cold season of 1816, when there was frost every month and hearing of a settler that had hay to sell, he went the next day ( Sunday ) to secure some. The farmer lived somewhere south of the present village down the creek. There were only a few people then in Nunda and it being Sunday the set- tler refused to seil the hay until Monday. "But," said Merrick, "my live stock have been on the road a great many days, are used up and are starving. the; must have something to eat." "I will not sell hay or anything else on Sunday," insisted the settler. "Then I will take it and pay you later." And take it he did. This gives us a fair type of two classes of men, the one a sensible practical man : the other, a formatistic, pietistic pharisee, who had neglected to read intelligently the Great Master's conclusion on Sabbath keeping; namely, "Wherefore it is right to do good on the Sabbath day." I was pleased when Mrs. Ross told me this story, for I felt I was better acquainted with her grandfather whom I had never spoken to, but had often seen, when I was a youth.
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The children of George W. and Zervia ( Paine) Merrick were:
II. I. Delos Merrick, born in Nunda. Married Alvira Chase, East Street, Nunda. 2. Alonzo Merrick, born in Nunda. Married Julia, daughter of Amos B. Barker of Nunda.
Delos Merrick was in many respects as much of a Paine as a Merrick. Strong, vigorous, resolute, energetic, a man who did his own thinking, and made "Reason" rather than "Ritual" or "Tradition" his pilot and guide.
Mrs. Almira ( Chase) Merrick, the author remembers as a matronly woman with a pleasant face and a fine physique. She died recently.
Their children were daughters :
*Julia, a teacher, married ( 1) *Wilbur Wood, of Davenport, Ia.
Children-1. Endora. 2. Julia. 3. Daisey, and 4. Delos.
2. Mr. Powell, President Street Railway, was killed by being run over by the cars at Wichita, Kan.
Kittie Clarissa, a teacher in New York and the West. Married William Ross, residence Sparta, N. J.
Mary married Joseph Meigs.
I. Hiram Merrick married Esther Richardson.
The year of settiement is not given. This family, unlike their relatives of the Richardson and Wilcox families, were Universalists. It required some cour- age and strength of will to espouse a cause, which like early Christianity "was everywhere spoken against."
It must have been in the Merrick makeup of blood, brawn and brain, to be brave, strong and self reliant, to be themselves, instead of being pocket editions of pedagogues and parsons, who were supposed by most people in those days as the possessors of unlimited knowledge and truth.
A charge of heresy and the fate of ostracism, awaited those who dared to reason for themselves in those days, when Puritan Calvinism dominated in church circles. Even Methodism was tabooed and Universal Love was less ac- ceptable than even universal malignity.
"Bless me and my wife, my son John and his wife, us four and no. more. Amen." was a somewhat exaggerated statement of the family prayers and eschatology in Calvinistic households even fifty years ago.
And what is the writer doing but repeating the thoughts of his anti-Calvin- istic mother.
The children of Hiram B. Merrick were mostly girls with masculine minds, and possessors of the Merrick makeup, supplemented by the devout spirit of the Richardsons. Their intellectuality, their freedom from fetters, their zeal for progress, progressive piety and patriotism, made them poor con- servatives, poor imitators, but natural leaders among their own sex. Con- spicuously so was Fidelia J. Merrick Whitcomb, a true logician, a subtle rea- soner, a born theologian, a social leader. In theology a pronounced Univer- salist, in politics a Republican, she could make votes if she could not vote. A student of medicine for the sake of medical knowledge. she became not only the possessor of an M. D. degree from Boston University, but became a skilled practitioner. "She saved others, herself she could not save," from death, from an incurable malady.
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In the time of our Civil War, her leadership led to the doing of great things for the soldiers. Since the united efforts of the patriotic women of Nunda, led by their strongest church leaders, Mrs. Whitcomb. Mrs. Britton, Mrs. King and Mrs. Herrick, working together in perfect harmony, there has been more of the spirit of the Master in the churches and less of that bigotry, (w) common in this community. At this time, all were patriots. Having worked together in the cause of humanity, it was easier to believe in the Brotherhood of man-and to find a larger sphere of inclusivness in the greatest doctrine of the Gospels-The Fatherhood of God.
II. 1. Mrs. F. J. M. Whitcomb died at Tarpon Springs, and was buried there. Had she been buried here the wreath and flag we bestow, in gratitude to those who loved and served their country in the hour of her peril, would not be out of place on the grave of this ardent patriot.
Her sisters were :
2. Elvira, who married Henry DePuy, who was private secretary to Governor Horatio Seymore.
3. Pamelia, who married Miles Cowen, has a son, Hall Cowen, Windsor, Ontario.
4. Moses Merrick, the youngest member of the household, is best remem- bered as the accomplished cierk in the store of his brother-in-law, Walter B. Whitcomb. He married Mary Craig, of Nunda.
For further information concerning the Walter B. Whitcomb family, see Whitcomb Family, 1834.
I. 3. Susan Merrick was a pioneer teacher of Nunda at least 80 years ago, when the Barkertown school first existed, and when our octogenarian, Munson O. Barker, first attended school. She was a younger sister of G. W. and H. B. Merrick. She was married to Luther, son of William Warren.
CHAPTER VI.
SUBDIVISION OF TOWN-NUNDA PARTS WITH FOUR SECTIONS-CENTERVILLE, EAGLE, PIKE AND HUME-CENTERVILLE'S FIRST SETTLER A BOY.
T HE town of Centerville formed half of the western boundary of the town of Nunda for ten years. Its first settler, the "Monarch of all he sur- veyed" was a very king of a new realm, with energy enough to supply a whole dynasty of monarchs. He was only a barefoot boy of eighteen, the proud possessor of an axe, that mighty talisman whose transforming power was of more value to him than a dozen crowns and scepters. He came from Otsego County to Pike in the early spring of 1808, which made him a Nunda citizen. He must have been a dreamer of prosperity, a sentimental youngster, with a vivid imagination of achievements to be realized. His story as told by Turner is as follows
"The advent of Joseph Maxsom, into this primitive wilderness is worthy of notice. He was only 18, two cents and a few articles of provisions and cloth- ing constituted his wealth. At Pike he took from his feet a pair of new shoes. bartered them for an axe, and pushed on into the wilderness, and in the center of
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Atter 1846
barworm
NOISPRINT
genesee FALLS
Engle
and
NUNCA PO HUNDA
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centreville
aroab
ALLE GANG
1
the township near a small stream, erected the rudest kind of a hut. For a bed he peeled basswood bark, used some pieces as a floor and others for covering. Not long after he came snow fell six inches deep. He persevered in his labors and passed eight months alone. In the books of the land office an entry made July 22, 1808, shows that he had five acres cleared, which probably meant no- thing more than felling the trees and burning them. He raised a few bushels of corn and some potatoes the first year, and had two acres prepared and put in to wheat that fall.
"Success attended the young pioneer. He became an early tavern keeper and the owner of a large and well improved farm. After the country was con- siderably cleared up he became restive, sold out in the forties, went to Wiscon- sin and engaged in building mills. ( Here is where the sentiment comes in.) He preserved for years, one of the cents before mentioned, one kernel of the seed corn of 1808, and an old wooden fan with which he cleaned the first wheat raised in town."
Of all the pioneer stories to be told of the settlers of Nunda, it is doubtful if there are any more indicative of self-reliance and energy. The record does not even say he had a gun to supply food for his table-was the one cent spent for a fish hook? If so, it helps to explain how this youth made his few articles of provision last so well. Did he trap his game? Did he carry ashes to Pike to sell for needed stores? How was his seed wheat secured? Ah, the pioneer, kinder than men of to-day, would sell to men of energy, without money as will- ingly as to men with a well filled purse.
THE FIRST INN
A man by the name of Thatcher kept the first inn. Most of these wayside inns return to their original use as private homes, but retain the appearance of hotels. Strong Warner kept another.
STORY OF A NUNDA MERCHANT
To one of these, probably the one on the Allegany Road, a belated traveler from our modern village, now a well known merchant, and a favorably known citizen, drew reins over a tired horse, and seeing the host and hostess of an inn sitting at ease on their piazza, asked to be entertained for the night. He stated he had expected to reach the place of his destination, but the roads being heavy his horse had tired and he had concluded to complete the journey on the morrow. The man on the porch asked him how far he had come. He answered "from \unda." About twenty miles, though it seemed to be much farther. "I should like to accommodate a man from Nunda, for I once lived in Nunda myself. I kept a hotel there many years ago." "Indeed," said the traveler from Nunda. now on the familiar ground of long acquaintance with the town, "which hotel, the Nunda House, or the Eagle?" "Neither," said mine ancient host. "it was this place, this wayside inn." "But this is Centerville not Nunda." said our . traveler. "True," said mine host. "but Centerville was in Nunda ten years, and my good wife and 'me' kept this hotel then. We were young and strong then. but we are neither of us strong enough to do that kind of work now, and you will have to go on to the next hotel though I hate to send a Nunda man away." And Joseph Lovell, genial Joe, otherwise well informed, who had grown to man-
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hood in Nunda, had learned a lesson in local geography, that none of his teachers could teach, because they did not know of "Greater Nunda" and its "Long- House" from 1808-1818.
ยท GOOD-BY TO CENTERVILLE
Centerville history of a later time is interesting, but is not strictly within the scope of this sketch. A few more statements relating to the children of these pioneers may be germane. Ellen Higgins, one of the daughters of Russell Higgins, attained considerable celebrity as a physician in New York City. A son of Packard Bruce, Edward S. Bruce, was a sheriff of Allegany County, and a daughter married Hon. Henry M. Teller, once Secretary of the Interior, from whom, Major George M. Lockwood, recommended by William H. Kelsey, received the appointment of chief clerk; both filled their positions with honor.
CHAPTER VII.
THE TOWN OF EAGLE-NUNDA-TOUGH TIMES-TIM BUCKLAND'S TRICKS- TIPSY CUSTOMS-FIRST TOWN MEETING.
T HE town of Eagle, once the northwest corner of the town of Nunda, was cut off with Pike from Nunda March 18, 1818, and it separated from Pike January 23, 1823. It lies on the summit of Western New York. Its water courses are tributary to streams whose waters reach Lakes Erie and Ontario and also the Gulf of Mexico. These streams at one time abounded with trout. It is said that Timothy Buckland often put a grain bag into one of the streams at the head of Spring Glen, and caught half a bushel at once. As this is a "fish story," it would be folly to dispute it.
William and Silas Hodges, and hired man Smith, were first settlers. Wil- liam ran away from his home in Massachusetts when 19 years of age. Silas bought his time. Both were minors, but William had a magnet that drew him back to Herkimer County, so had Silas. William married the magnet, Miss Abigail Howard of that county, in February, 1808. Soon afterward the three men came to Nunda (Eagle), settled on Lot 8 and Smith felled the first timber in the town. A log house was built. Both Hodges returned to Herkimer and both returned married men (the magnets did not come with them to Eagle at first). In April, 1809, Silas came with an ox team and William hired his brother-in-law, with a horse team to move him and his, including wife and furniture, to their new habitation. They covered their chimney when going east to keep out the snow, when they returned, they found the house had been used by the Indians, who unaccustomed to chimneys, did not remove the cover, and the house had the appearance of a smoke house. It a few days the two brides, with a liberal use of water, ashes, and sand, had restored this primitive bark roofed cabin to all its former "elegance." Besides having a bark roof it had a floor, made of split basswood logs, and doors made of the same material. Necessity, in pioneer days, was the fruitful mother of Invention. In 1809, William planted an orchard ot apple trees, i. e., he planted the seeds of the apples they brought with them and fifty trees rewarded his effort. Three of these trees were standing in 1880. Early history fails to tell of marriages unless they were of those with the ceremony in
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the town, but first marriages in town, first births and first deaths, are sure to be a matter of local history. Alanson, son of Silas Hodges, born October 13, 1809, was the first child born in Eagle-Nunda.
GOOD-BYE TO EAGLE
With the citizens who came to ( Eagle-Pike, i. e., after 1818 or to Eagle after January 23, 1823), the pioneer history of Nunda has nothing to do. Some of them. however, like Timothy Buckland in 1833. a pioneer of Centerville, serve so well to illustrate a class of pioneers whose skill with rod, seine and gun, make them especially interesting to the young. We therefore give this phase of his career. Timothy Buckland came from Vermont to Centerville. He was a suc- cessful sportsman. His choice of location was governed by the abundance of fish and game. He had been a sailor and having lost the sight of his right eye by smallpox while at Liverpool, shot left handed, and a truer shot never lived in town. When seventy years of age, he was seen to center a snowball at ten rods distance, offhand. He came to Eagle in 1822, but did not purchase a farm until 1833. While at Centerville he killed 24 bears, 75 wolves, on which the bounty amounted to $750, and deer unnumbered. He was also a successful trapper of mink, sable, foxes, racoon, etc. He caught a number of foxes in his wolf traps setting the traps in a spring.
A habit acquired at sea, was to save his rations of rum ( some other tars did the same ) and on Saturday nights, if weather and duty permitted, they would bring out their can of rum and have a jolly time spinning sea yarns, singing songs, and drinking. Buckland could sing songs all night without repeating one. This habit acquired at sea he kept up, to some extent, during his life. Sometimes these cans would last several days. The last day he would be asleep for an hour or two then get up, and take a drink or two, sing a song or two, go out and shin up the side post to show how the sailors climbed; on these occa- sions he wore only his night attire. He tanned the skins of the deer he killed.
MRS. LORINDA BUCKLAND,
his wife, made the skins up into gloves, mittens, moccasins, and when the skin was a light one into a vest. While the family lived in Centerville, two miles from any neighbor. with the wolves howling on every side. Mrs. Buckland would go on horseback through the forest visiting her neighbors very often alone, and enjoy the ride as well as the visit. The route was where the Roch- ester and State Line or Pittsburg Railroad now runs through the corner of Cen- terville and into the town of Freedom.
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UNCLE TIM'S TRICKS
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Mr. Buckland was known as Uncle Tim, and he was often heard to say, that when he set foot on the Holland Purchase, he had only eighteen pence and a chew of tobacco. He delighted in playing tricks on tavern-keepers, and he knew them all for miles around. He sent Dan Burrows, then keeping tavern in Castile, a quarter of wolf, for venison. Dan returned his thanks, accompanied with a paper of choice lettuce seed. with particular directions how to prepare the soil and to sow the seed. Tim bit the hook as greedily as any "gudgeon of the pond" and in due time Uncle Tim had a fine bed of luxuriant bull thistles.
Cherry lumber was plentiful, of large size, and for those times brought espe- cially the wider boards, a large price. i. c., from $20 to $30 per thousand, every inch in width above twenty bringing an additional dollar.
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Colonel G. G. Prey ( of the 104th ) and a brother-in-law, when this cherry timber grew scarce found a stub fifty feet high whose top had blown off. They bought it and got five splendid logs, about 2 1-2 feet in diameter. Two miles south lived Jesse Dutton, who weighed 440 pounds. It was proposed, in jest, to save a few of the widest boards for Uncle Jesse's coffin. In a short time those very boards were used for this purpose.
POLITICAL HISTORY
The first town meeting was held at the home of Seth Wetmore, agreeable to an act of the Legislature, fixing place and date, February 11, 1823. Dan Beach (the saddler innkeeper ) presided at the board after innkeeper fashion.
The author gives an account of this first town meeting of this Upland town, to bring out one of its peculiarities. It was a jolly affair. In the room where the votes were polled, (good Wyoming Co. authority says), there was a barrel of whiskey, and on the table where the ballot box sat, and which was sur- rounded by the official board, were a decanter and glasses. ( Remember they were no longer West Nunda). Surely this differs from the past and present custom in Puritan New England, of opening every town meeting with prayer, -this custom the author had witnessed in New Hampshire, but never in New York, and the extremes in these customs from the Eastern States and what was West Nunda, is at least worthy of notice. I would hate to swear even on a "Pilgrims Progress" that in New England, two centuries ago, that the clergy- men present for duty and the "Select Men" as they call their highest town offi- cials, were not given a glass of New England rum on these great occasions. At least, the author has the statement of Hon. John Randolph that "New England rum was the only thing that could take the taste of New England Calvinism out of the mouth." Possibly, the treat depended upon the strength of the theology But in Eagle in 1823 it is doubtful if there was any church, parson, or theology of any kind requiring an antidote. These pioneer huntsmen and inn keepers seemed to care more for toddy than for temperance or theology of any kind, and not until 1846 was there any effort to control the sale of intoxicants which re- sulted in a vote of 58 votes for no license and 107 for license.
Nathaniel Hills and his brother. Adino Hills came from Mont. Co. in 1810. Both families lived in one room, but when Dan Beach came in the fall, he stopped with the Hills' a few days, three families in one room, ( room must have been a misnomer). The next week they built a house for Beach .. A portion of this was covered with bark, the remainder left open for smoke to escape, as the fire was built upon the ground. Elm logs were split and laid side by side for the floor. Hemlock boughs on the floor served for bed and bedstead. A bed quilt at first furnislied the outside door. The opening in the roof and the spaces between the logs, served for windows. Who would not have been 1 pioneer? Camping out does not compare in "outness!" These first families of Eagle-Nunda were without roads or teams. they were 12 miles from a saw mill, 31 miles from Geneseo, the nearest point where other building material could be obtained. Mr. Beach. however, was rich, compared with others, after paying the men for his transportation to this scene of primeval forests, he had $104, a hoe, an axe, and a shovel, all unfamiliar implements to him, for he was a saddler by trade. In eight years he had paid for his farm, had a comfortable home and kept a tavern.
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Joseph Barnhart in 1819 bought Eber Benton's farm (Lot 24) for a yoke of oxen and a rifle. Eber Benton sold in 1816.
The winter of 1820-21 was very severe. The snow was two feet deep in April, fodder all used up. and the settlers were obliged to cut browse for their stock. Maple and basswood bouglis seem to have served this purpose best. In May of this year, 1821, there was a three days' snow storm. Early herbs and leeks were np, and were serving as food, but the snow covered everything green and the cattle nearly starved. Timothy Buckland told that he fed out the straw from his straw beds, and when the last bed was emptied, he lay all day between two feather beds, in order not to hear the bawling of his starving cows.
PIKE-NUNDA
The town of Pike was organized by act of the Legislature on the 18th day of March, 1818, dividing the town of Nunda into two equal parts, and organiz- ing the town of Pike from the four western town plots (now Pike, Eagle, Hume, and Centerville ). The new town was named after General Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who was killed at the explosion of a mine at the capture of Toronto, May 13th, 1813. This action was taken by the request of the people of Nunda, who in a town meeting held at (the present village of) Pike, Decem- ber 18th, 1817, appointed Dan Beach, Thomas Dole, Asahel Trowbridge, Asahel Newcomb and Seth Wetmore, a committee to petition the Legislature in their behalf, to this end. A drag was the first pioneer vehicle, a sapling with two roots or branches used as runners, not over three feet apart. See picture break ing into the woods. They were used in summer or winter.
This divided the eight original 6x6 town plots into two equal parts, the four forming Pike were in the Holland Purchase, and the four that remained in the Morris Reserve. The town was first settled from Whitehall. N. Y., by Asahel Newcomb, Eli Griffith. Peter Granger. Caleb Powers, Phineas Harvey, Russell H. Benton and Christopher Olen. The first marriage was that of Russell H. Benton, and Phineas Harvey was the first adult to die. Eli Griffith kept the first inn, built the first saw mill and grist mill, laid out a road to Leicester. Enlisted ( he was a Capt. of Militia) in 1812, and died December II, 1812. Chandler Benton and Jonathan Conch shared his fate.
Abel Townsend was a pioneer of 1809, and married Beula Abell, who taught the first school in the town in 1809. She was an able teacher, a prudent and able housewife, but when Able asked her to teach a school of one, she was not "able" to answer in the negative. The sequel of this followed when their daughter and granddaughter came to Nunda to reside, as will be told hereafter The first store in Nunda ( Pike ) was kept by Tilly Parker in 1810. William Hyslop was the first lawyer in 1812 and Luther C. Peck, 14 years after, Super- visor and J. P. for 10 years, was our first and last Member of Congress. He came to Nunda village to reside in 1841.
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