USA > New York > Steuben County > Wayland > Directory of the Village of Wayland, N.Y, 1901 > Part 5
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"ANNE X FAULKNER." mark
June 18, 1812, the town of Cohocton was formed from the town of Dansville, the division being the line that bounds the corporation on the west and crosses the highway between the lands of Moses Poor and Martin Kimmel, and Wayland- ers transferred their allegiance to the new town.
At the first town-meeting, held in April 1813 at the house of Joseph Shat- tuck, Jr., Samuel Wells was chosen sup- ervisor, and it was voted that a bounty of five dollars be paid for each wolf scalp, and ten dollars for that of cach panther. The price of wolves' scalps was afterwards raised to twenty dollars. In these early days wolves were a great pest, though the settlers entertained no fears of personal attacks from them.
At the general election the following year sixty-four votes were cast, which in a measure indicates the size of the population.
LELLS
RESIDENCE OF MR. JOHN J. MORRIS, Cor. E. Naples and Wayland Streets.
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HISTORY OF WAYLAND, N. Y.
CHAPTER IV.
PATCHINSVILLE. EARLY FAMILIES AT VIL- LAGE. "OLD TILDEN."
During the next few years the immi- gration to the territory within the pres- ent town increased, and included many of the families who, with their descend- ants have become important factors in the building and development of Way- land.
In 1813 the Brownsons settled at Loon Lake, and the Patchin and Hess families came to Patchinsville in 1814 and the years immediately following. The advent of these last two families gave to that section of the town the vast preponderance of vigor and enter- prise, and for many succeeding years it was, and seemed destined to remain the business center.
Walter Patchin was born in Norwalk, Conn., July 24, 1764. When a child his father moved to Balston, Sararoga county, and, here, while a mere boy, he joined the Continental army and took part in the defense of the town against the British and Indians. The town was burned and young Patchin was wounded by an Indian, but saved his life by swimming the river. He was afterwards pensioned by the government for the injury he received. Later he settled in Marcellus, Onondaga county, and in 1814 moved to Patchinsville where he took up a large tract of land, on which he built a log house that stood nearly on the site of the house now occupied by the Hon. Gordon M. Patchin. He was twice married, his first wife being the mother of two children, Loraine, and Dr. Warren Patchin, and Myron M. Patchin was the ninth of eleven children by the second marriage, and was born
in 1806. With these alone this story is concerned. Walter Patchin died in 1854 at 90 years of age, and is buried in the East Wayland cemetery.
When Walter Patchin moved to town he transported his goods with an ox team, and in coming down the East Patchin hill, over which the old road led, one of the oxen fell and broke his neck,-a most serious loss for a pioneer farmer. On enquiry of Benjamin Per- kins he learned of a settler near Dans- ville of whom an ox could be had, but Mr. Patchin was not prepared to pay just then, and being a stranger, was in a predicament from which Mr. Perkins relieved him by picking up a chip on which he scratched his initials, "B. P," and gave it to Mr. Patchin to hand to the settler, which he did and returned home with his bovine. This is the first recorded bank-check in the town.
Dr. Warren Patchin, who was born at Balston in 1784, had graduated from Fairfield Seminary and had seen service in the war of 1812.14. He followed his father from Marcellus to the "far west," as this country was then known, and in 1816 settled on what is now the Marlette farm. He was the most noted practitioner of his period in this locality, his clientele extending over fifty miles of territory, and at a time when bridle-paths were the principal highways it was not an uncommon occurence for him to be obliged, if overtaken by night, to fasten his horse to a tree, and make himself as comfortable as possible until daylight permitted him to continue his journey. He was an active member of the Steu- ben Medical Society from its organiza- tion in 1818, and was its first president, and held the same office in 1824 and in 1843 and 1844. He, however, found
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HISTORY OF WAYLAND, N. Y.
time and energy aside from his profes- sional calls to devote to business mat- ters, and in 1820 built the Patchinsville saw-mill, which burned the following year, and in 1822 he erected the grist mill.
The long-time famous Patchin's Mills hotel was built by him in 1824. It was his intention to make it of brick, which he endeavored to manufacture at home, but the clay was defi- cient and the bricks proved worthless, so the wooden structure was erected It stood where now is the house of John P Morsch, and was a typical country tavern. A long build- ing with small windows and large doors, scarcely two full stories high and painted the universal red. The ground floor was devoted to public rooms and the loft to sleeping apartments and a large ball-room where the rustic youth brought their "sweet- hearts" to the "swell" dances of the time. It was the meeting place for business transactions and the resort of idlers. The first store of the town, opened by James Monier about 1826, was on the corner toward Perkinsville, and with the mills, the postoffice and the blacksmith shop there was a general
"behold-how-great-is-Babylon" air to the neighborhood.
There are those now living who recall the bustle when the stage-coach that connected Newtown (now Elmira) with Dansville and the west arrived. The post horses were changed ; the mails shifted ; the bugle sounded ; the whip cracked over the leaders, and off it rum- bled, the leathern
springs creaking under its load of passengers, wearing wide- brimmed bca- ver hats and poke bonnets, and the "boot" filled with leather - cover- ed trunks, studded with brass nails, and with "band- boxes and bun- dles." It was the "sight" of the time, and folks brought their children from miles around to see the rapid tran- sit of the era. Across the flats was the corduroy road built by Dr. Patchin, where logs three feet in diameter seemed afloat, and water splashed from between them under the burden of a heavy load.
MR. MARTIN KIMMEL.
Dr. Patchin was the father of six children : Warren, 1804-1879 ; Jabez, 1806-1825 ; Harriet, (Mrs. Warring) 1808-186 -; Ira, 1812-1898 ; Cameron, 1820-1896 ; Minerva, (Mrs. John Young) 1826-1900. He died in 1872. The tax-list of the town of Cohocton
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HISTORY OF WAYLAND, N. Y.
for the year 1829 shows Warren Patchin assessed on 409 acres of land valucd at twelve dollars an acre, his taxcs amount- ing to $15.65. This seems to be the highest farm valuation in the town for that year. At the time of his death hc owncd about 700 acres, which was pur- chased of the remaining heirs by his sons Warren and Dr. Cameron.
There were four of the Hess brothers who settled on farms in the neighbor- hood of Patchinsville about 1818. All of them were the progenitors of large families. Demis (or Dennis) Hess re- moved here from Warren, Herkimer county in the year mentioned, and it is with two of his sons, John and Dr. Henry H. Hess, that the history of Wayland village is concerned.
James Totten was another early set- tler at Patchinsville, coming there about the same time as the Hess families. He settled on the farm now occupied by Mr. Joseph Staub, and which was the home for many years of his son, James Totten, who died in 1900 at Seneca Falls.
A story that deserves to be recorded of this early time is the "act of nullifi- cation" by the Patchin's Mills postmaster. The rates of postage had remained un- changed from the organization of that office, and the postmaster had faithfully charged for a single letter-which was a letter on a single sheet of paper-six cents when it was to be sent not over thirty miles ; ten cents for less than eighty miles ; eighteen cents for less than 150 miles, and over 400 miles twenty-five cents, and double rates for double letters, and he had as faithfully decided that most places were over 400 miles from his office, if the mail went by the safest route, which of course it
should, and which the proverb says is the longest. Then after writing "Paid 25" in the corner of the letter, he placed five cents to the credit of the govern- ment-if he chanced to have the change -and put twenty cents in his pocket, his patriotic desire being that people would write morc letters so that he could work harder for his country, and incidentally, put more five-cent pieces to the credit of the government.
March 3, 1845, Congress passed an act reducing the rates of postage to five cents for each half-ounce under 300 miles, and ten cents for over that dis- tance. The postmaster at Patchin's Mills had not been consulted in the matter, and no public hearing had been granted on the bill. He felt not merely injured by the wanton disrespect exhib- ited in not seeking his advice on so rad- ical a measure, but he insisted that it was a brutal infringement of his per- sonal rights, in that it reduced the emoluments of his office without the consent of the governcd. Being a man of decision he slammed the door of his office and bolted it against the public in general, and the Congress of the United States in particular. After a few days of deliberation, however, he re-opened the office, having decided that it is better to suffer the ills we have than to permit the other candidate to do the suffering.
Benjamin Perkins established his fam- ous saw-mill at Perkinsville about 1812. The year 1815 is given by every prev- ious history as the date of Mr. Perkins' settlement, but it is undoubtedly erron- eous. In the village cemetery is the headstone of "Bridget, daughter of Benjamin and Lydia Perkins, died July 14, 1812, aged 3 mos. and 8 days."
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HISTORY OF WAYLAND, N. Y.
Though Mr. Perkins may have been here even earlier than this, the writer has taken the death of this infant daughter as evidence that he was a resident at that time, and thus antedates the settle- ments in the central and southern por- tions of the town. At the time of Mrs. Perkins' death the family resided on the Dansville highway near the home of Mrs. Hemmer at the Perkinsville corner.
The year following the building of the saw-mill, Abijah Fowler and Dugal
original settlers were able to pay for the homes that cost them such arduous labor.
Moses Poor, Sr., purchased the farm now occupied by his grandson, Moses A. Poor, in 1817, receiving the first deed for land actually paid for in the town. He had emigrated from Ver- mont to Canada, and at the outbreak of the war of 1812 he was compelled to leave that country, the Canadians being much less tolerant toward the Yankees
RESIDENCE OF MR. FRANCIS W. MILLINGTON, No. 46 Lackawanna Avenne.
Cameron erected the Perkinsville flour- ing mill.
In an attempt to trace the early occu- pants of the lands in the vicinity of Wayland village a difficulty is presented in the fact that most of the early settlers purchased their homes on land con- tracts, which contracts were not record- ed as in the case of deeds, and they were frequently sold and re-sold, the land passing through several proprietors before there is a record of sale. It is a sad fact that proportionately few of the
than the people of the mother country. Leaving all his property that could not be carried in a hasty flight, he came to Dansville, where he lived for several years before moving to Wayland. His son Moses, second,-there have been three by that name,-succeeded him in the proprietorship of the farm. Here he lived during three-fourths of the last century, 1817-1892, and was always esteemed by his neighbors as a man of the strictest integrity. His house and barns were of logs until thrift and pros-
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HISTORY OF WAYLAND, N. Y.
perity enabled him to replace them with more pretentious structures of sawed lumber. The castern end of the barn now standing on Naples street is prob- ably the oldest building in the village, and the blacksmith shop across the way is of about the same date. This pioncer who had maintained a perennial assault on Nature's stronghold through so many years, driving the wilderness farther and farther in retreat, died in 1892 at the advanced age of 90 years.
Samuel Taggart opened the first tavern in the village in 1824, the same year that the Patchinsville hotel was built. It stood on the north-east corner of Naples and Wayland streets. He embelished his revenues as "mine host" by doing cobbling work, but seems even then to have had difficulty in making both ends meet, and on one occasion he was obliged to lock himself in his shop for a number of days, receiving his meals through the window until he had earned money at his bench to pay a judgment. Those were days of impris- onment for debt, but a man's house was his castle and, though the constable happened to be Mr. Taggert's son, he could not arrest him while he kept him- self locked in his house. The propric- torship of this tavern passed to John Coe, under whose regime it burned- about 1842-but was immediately re- placed by the building now standing. Mr. Coc was succeeded by a Frenchman named Franot ; he, by Benjamin Bur- rows, who sold to Henry H. Hess, whence it passed to Mrs. C. M. Jervis and its present owner, John J. Morris.
William Rosenkrans came to Way land from the town of Wheeler in 1833. and settled on the farm immediately north of the corporation. He was a cousin of
Levi Rosenkrans-father of Hamilton S. who came to the village three years later. Though "Uncle William" lived in Wayland until his death in 1886, none of his twelve children remained here or became identified with the village. The change in the Springwater highway, which had been about twenty rods west of its present location, was accomplished by Mr. Rosenkrans soon after his settle- ment. Levi DeWitt Rosenkrans, a brother of William, settled on the farm now occupied by Mrs. David Shafer about 1833. He was a school teacher as well as farmer. Another brother, James Rosenkrans, settled about the same time west of the village, living on the farm now owned by Mrs. Jervis, and near the home of Martin Kimmel.
The date of Walter Wood's settle- ment is not certain. He was here in 1833, and had married Eliza, daughter of Mr. Taggart, the tavern keeper. He resided where Mrs. Isabelle Beeman lives, and owned that farm for many years ; it descended to his son-in-law, Henry L. Cooley. Main street origi- ginally extended across his farm about as at present, and he closed it because he did not approve of a neighbor's selection of a wife. It was re-opened a few years ago.
Adin Parmenter was one of the ear- liest pioneers of northern Steuben. He came to Cohocton from Onondaga county in 1813, and to Wayland in 1833, building his log house where is now the house owned by H. G. Pierce on the south side of the Lackawanna railroad. He was the father of fourteen children, but two of whom, Mrs. Myron M. Patchin and Mrs. H. G. Pierce, now reside in Wayland. He died in 1877. In 1833 the village consisted of the
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HISTORY OF WAYLAND, N. Y.
homes of Walter Wood, Mrs. Beeman's house ; Thomas Hicks, opposite Mrs. Milliman's ; Elijah Hall, J. A. Schwin- gle's place ; Mrs. Rebecca Austin, about where the Methodist church stands ; the Underwood house, near the home of W. W. Clark ; Moses Poor in the old Poor house, where Emory W. Hoppaugh resides, and the Taggart tavern. In addition to the farmer's mentioned, were Alvin Pennel at the Ira Patchin place ; John Brown, S. E.
The land adjoining the Poor farm on the west was taken up in the early days, and passed by contract through several owners, coming into the possession of James Moore in the late '30's. Mr. Moore's house stood opposite the west- ern half of the grove, and an old resi- dent says that from Mrs. Moore's garden came the first pie-plant raised in this locality which "made better pies than we get now-a-days." He had migrated from New Hampshire, and had served
RESIDENCE OF MRS. JANE BUSH. No. 7 S. Main Street.
Patchin's ; Mr. Boothe, H. G. Pierce's ; Ephraim Hall, George Bailey's ; Will- iam Hitchcock, opposite C. S. Avery's.
Prior to 1840 several families subse- quently prominent were added to the neighborhood. In 1836 Levi Rosen- krans settled on the farm since occupied by his son, Hamilton S. Rosenkrans, coming from Hammondsport. The Rosenkranses are scions of ancient stock, their ancestry dating from the earliest days of the colony.
in the quota of that colony in the Rev- olutionary army, and was a pensioner. He died in 1841, and his was the first interment in the present village ceme- tery. His son, Chauncy Moore, suc- ceeded to the estate, and by farther purchases increased his farm to almost four hundred acres. These purchases were paid by levying tribute on Nature at every turn, and it was not uncommon, after the day's work in the field, to stir the fire during most of the night in boil-
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HISTORY OF WAYLAND, N. Y.
ing potash, which was hauled to Pittsford for sale. This it may be said was a quite common industry with the farmers of that time. He built a new house on the site where Martin Kimmel, Jr.'s, house now stands, and his home was a welcome stopping place for the itinerary clergy who came through the town, the latch-string being always out to men of the cloth regardless of creed. He died in 1861, leaving one daughter, Mrs. Josiah Gray.
Chauncey Bennett moved to the farm now owned by his son, John A. Bennett, at the Lackawanna crossing in 1839, coming from Patchinsville. He was a blacksmith by trade and erected a log shop near his house where he did a thriving business for many years. Hon. James G. and John A. Bennett are his only surviving children who live in Way- land. He died in 1881.
In this portion of the town resided "Old Tilden," a character who was the . bogy of the community. He lived alone in a hut, on what is now called Buffalo street, about where Joseph Hoff- man's house now stands. His occupa- tion was the manufacture of lamp-black. He was of a highly convivial nature, and frequently indulged to excess. At such times, which generally occurred on specially owlish nights, the exuberance of his spirit became uncontrollable, and he would build a terrific fire in the woods, lighting up the sky with lurid flames, and then intersperse wild songs with blood-curdling shrieks and hair-raising yells that filled all the timid women with fear and made the children put their heads farther under the bed clothes. His sooty appearance and strange her- mit life gave the uncanny air necessary to make a child very cautious when the
threat was made to call "Old Tilden."
One day, however, a dapper young man, dressed in "boughten" clothes, and wearing a high silk hat-probably the first ever seen in Wayland-came and said that he was "Old Tilden's" nephew, and took him away with him. The old man never came back to scare the chil- dren. The young man afterward became Governor of the state, and almost President of the United States, and was Samuel J. Tilden.
The life of the settlers in these early days that we have been viewing will be well-nigh incomprehensible to the peo- ple of the twenty-first century. We, of today, are near enough to the forests to be able to appreciate the pioneer sur- roundings of every age. We can re- thatch the old log house, fill again the crevices with mortar, scatter sand on the floor, start the fire in the great fire-place, and before its dream-inspiring blaze see again the crane and kettle, the turn-spit, the deal table, the cushioned settle and foot-pans, the flax and spinning wheels, and the drying herbs, bright peppers and golden corn festooned from the rough-hewn rafters. The tallow dip that lighted the way to a canopied and curtained bed, its downy heighth cov- ered with spreads in geometric patch- work is still in memory. To us the quiet housewife, with apron and cap, following in endless rounds from fire to dishes, and dishes to wheel, and wheel to needle ; the husband with his sun-to- sun routine of axe and plow and cradle and flail, are live beings, thrilled with like sorrows and joys, discouragements and hopes with ourselves.
But after another hundred years of equal pace the spinning-wheel and flail, even now mute as Tara's harp, will
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HISTORY OF WAYLAND, N. Y.
be as the vessels and flints of the mound builders, and the pioneer and wife as the mummies of Egypt. The Western man, who through centuries has led the way for civilization, always the same, in bold, restraintless might, whether Kelt or Greek, Slav or Roman, Saxon or Yankee, has circled the globe and his course is finished. Future scientists
may discuss but not apprehend him, future students may examine but not understand him, future peoples may picture but not reproduce him. He will live for them with axe transformed to caduceus and covered wagon changed for talaria, his genius given to the con- quest of the world of commerce.
MR. HAMILTON S. ROSENKRANS.
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HISTORY OF WAYLAND, N. Y.
. CHAPTER V.
ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWN. BUILDING
OF THE RAILROAD. FOUNDING OF
TIIE VILLAGE. VILLAGE BEFORE 1 860. TOWN FAIR.
Most of the early settlers had come to Wayland by the Susquehanna route from the south and east, but the build- ing of the Genesee valley canal, with Dansville as a convenient port of entry to northern Steuben, afforded a more
cign countries. Until the building of the railroad the canal also absorbed the greater part of the freight, though occa- sional loads of grain were still drawn to Hammondsport for shipment.
The extended boundaries of the town; the fact that in the carlier division, by some unforseen faux pas, the lines had been so drawn that the voters from above Patchinsville must go to Dans- ville, passing those from the northern end of the town on their way to the
RESIDENCE OF MR. MOSES A. POOR, No. 63 W. Naples Street.
direct route to the seaboard and the older settled section of the east, and emigration began to come from that direction, the town attaining its greatest growth during this period. Outside of the corporation, Wayland has never equalled the population it attained at the end of the first decade after its erec- tion as a town. Sandy Hill and the southern portion of the town were par- ticularly benefited by this influx of settlers, many of whom came from for-
polls at Cohocton, and the rapid growth of this section in population induced the movement for a new town.
Myron M. Patchin and John Hess may fairly be considered the "fathers" of Wayland, and it was mainly due to their efforts that a petition was signed and forwarded to Hon. William M. Hawley, at Albany, who was then state senator from this (26th) district, and who presented the necessary resolution to that body.
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HISTORY OF WAYLAND, N. Y.
The name selected for the new town was "Millville," but there were already so many places in the state with names compounded of the word mill that it was not deemed advisable by the com- mittee to increase the list. A request was sent Mr. Hess to make another selection. The session of the legisla- ture was nearing its close, and delay would compel the measure to wait another year. Mr. Hess hastened to
MR. JOSIAH GRAY.
The resolution erecting the town was adopted on the last day of the legisla- tive session, April 12, 1848. By its provisions officers in either town, Dans- ville or Cohocton, from which the new town was taken, and who resided in the territory thus set off, were to hold their respective offices until the expiration of the terms for which they had been chosen ; the civil list was to be com- pleted by a special election called at Warren Patchin's tavern on May 2, following, and there- after town-meetings were to be held on the same days with the other towns of the county.
By these terms John Hess, who was then serving his fifth term as supervisor of Cohocton, became the first supervisor of Wayland, to which office he was elected at intervals six times there- after. Myron M. Patchin was serving his third term as justice of the peace, and held over in the new town, being re-elected until he had served twenty-one con- secutive years,-the longest continuous service that has been rendered the town.
Amos Knowlton also held Mr. Patchin, on whom he threw the over as justice elected in Dansville. The onus of choosing a name, when he modestly rejected the one proposed by Mr. Hess. In casting about for a sub- stitute, Mr. Patchin chanced to hum a favorite tune called "Wayland," which gave him the suggestion, and the town was so named, and not in honor of Dr. Francis Wayland of Moral Philos- ophy fame as has so often been stated.
first town meeting selected the follow- ing officers to complete the list : Chaun- cey Moore and Gardiner Pierce, justices; Samuel W. Epley, town clerk ; R. M. Patchin, David Poor and David Brown- son, assessors ; H. H. Hess, superinten- dent of schools ; Stephen C. Philips, Wesley Doughty and F. E. Day, com- missioners of highways ; George Kara-
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HISTORY OF WAYLAND, N. Y.
cher, Gideon Moon and Joseph Fronk, constables ; John Hamlin, sealer of weights and measures. Wayland was thus started on its independent career with full power to breed statesmen and levy taxes on real-estate and dogs.
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