USA > New York > Tioga County > Owego > Early Owego, N.Y.; some account of the early settlement of the village in Tioga County, N.Y., called Ah-wa-ga by the Indians, which name was corrupted by gradual evolution into Owago, Owego, Owegy and finally Owego > Part 21
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
Mr. Gee was with Clinton's right wing, which ascended the hill upon the right of their centre, dislodging the Indians, who were there contest- Ing every inch of ground under Brant' leadership. The severest of the engagement was along these heights, where Braut had taken his position, and here Mr. Gee was in the thickest of the fight. He was after- ward a participant 'in the engage- ments which ended with the surren- der of Gen. Cornwallis at Yorktown. He served in the army seven years lacking only one month.
In 1795 Mr. Gee drew lof No. 21 in the military tract, just north of Owe- go hill in the town of Harford, Cort-
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land county, and settled thercon. He came there with two other men from 'Chenango Point (now Binghamton), guided by marked trees. They cut down the trees on a small spot and built a little log house about 12 by 16 feet in size, with only an axe, without a board, a mail, or a pane of glass, and returned whence they came. The next year Mr. Geo removed his Tam- ily, consisting of his parents, his wife, and six children, from Wyoming, ar- riving June 17, to live in this small building.
One of his sons, John Gee, Jr., af- terward. settled in the town of Rich- ford, where .some of. his descendants are still living. He later in life re- moved to the town of Barton, where he died. Judge Avery mentions him in his Susquehanna Valley papers (St .- Nicholas, page '381) as "living in a remoto part of this town, westerly from Halsey Valley, in the . 92d year of his age."
The state military records show that John Gee was at different times. a member of Col. ' Philip Van. Cort- landt's Second regiment, of Col. James Holmes's Fourth regiment, of Col. Lewis DuBoys's Fifth regiment, of the Dutchess.comty militia (regiment of minute men); commanded. by . Col. Jacobus Swartwout, and of the Fourth Ulster county militia, commanded by Col. Johannes Hardenburgh in 1775- 1782.
The name of Jno. Gee again appears in the list of members of the Second regiment of Dutchess county militia, Col. Abraham Brinkerhoff.
The name of John Gee also appears in the list of persons suspected of be-
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ing tories, and also in the list of those whose estates were confiscated by the government. (See New York in the Revolution Supplement, pages 231 and 255. There may have been more than one man in the continental army named John Gee.
Some Account of the First Grist Mills Euilt at Owego by Col. David Pix- ley, : Thomas . Matson, Jr., and Charles.' Frederick . and Robert Charles Johnson.
It is related in judge Avery's "Sus. quehanna Valley" papers that in April, 1786, James and Robert Mc- Master, John Nealy, and William Woods, with William Taylor, a bound boy, who were the first of the white men to settle here, came to Owego. They planted ten acres of corn on the fats, north of where the Frie railroad now runs. After it was harvested in the fall "it was gathered and taken, by boat loads to Tioga Point and se- enrely cribbed." As soon as it was thus secured the party set out on their return to their "winter quarters" in the valley of the Mohawk.
To transport this corn down the Susquehanna river. dead pine trees were cat' on the bank of the Owego creek and felled into the water, where they were bound together with withes, forming a raft.
On this, the corn was floated down the river and finally taken to the nearest mill, at Wilkes-Barre, to be ground. .
The first grist mill built in this part of the state, according to Wilkinson's "Annals of. Binghamton," was built on
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Mitel's creek, four miles above Bing- hamton, in the present town of Kirk- wood. This creek took its name from Jonathan Fitch, an early settler there, who was the first representative .of . Tioga county. in the state legislature, in 1792. He came from Wyoming, Pa., when the troubles which resulted in the massacre commenced, where he had been a merchant and high sheriff of Westmoreland county.
The pioneers at Owego, found no mill nearer than Wilkes-Barre, which they reached by canoes, until Fitch's mill was built in 1792., The same year a mill was built at Milltown. In 1793 Col. David Pixley built á mill near this village, the first one erected here.
Among the Avery papers in the Wis- consin state historical society's col- lection is & "statement and narrative" of Laurence Merriam, taken by Guy finchiban : Avery, judge . Avery's brother. Merriam settled three miles above. Union. . Merriam says, among other things:
"We were very much straightened for food when we first came into the country; have ground coch all night in order to have something for break- Tast: . used wooden trenchers and wooden forks; had to go. in canocs down to Shepard's mill for grist. The first grist mill that was built in the country was built up the Squires creek, four mike's above Binghamton. It ran only in high water.".
This was doubtless the Fitch mill.
The Pixley mill stood on the west bank of the Owego creek, near the Indian spring, and about forty rods above the present Main street bridge. It was built of logs. To get to it from the village it was necessary to ford. the creek. . The old mill stood
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close under the bank, and the tail race ran close at the base of Vesper' cliff. The entire course of the creek has been changed by the floodsofmany years, and in some places where the old stream ran are now stones, grass, and weeds. Until a few years ago remains of the flume could be seen, some of the timbers sticking out of the bank; showing where they had been cut and joined together. The old flume was just east of the Indian spring.
This spring was a peculiar one, and was one which was resorted to by the Indians. . The water never freezes . and preserves the same temperature all the year round .. It still contains water, but is in a neglected condi- . tion, used only for the watering of cattle, Before the springs were made dry . by the clearing away of the woods, the water from this spring used to How down to the south side of the old dam into the creek, or what was known as the old race. The water in the spring is very cold.
On the high ground south of the spring have been found many arrow heads, hatchets, etc., from which it is inferred that the Indians were accus- tomed to camp there. From the mill the road extended- west up a slight. rise of ground to Col. Pixley's house, knowu for many years as the Pixley tavern, which house still stands there -the only one of the old houses now remaining in the town of Tioga.
This house was built by Col. Pixley in 1791. The course of the old road from the mill to the house may still be seen. It has been for many years only a cow path. The bed of an old creek runs along the road on the north
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side. This creek has been dry for many years. . H rises from springs in the woods north of Glenmary on the old Ephraim Leach property. The Pixley mill was washed away by high Water in 1824 or 1825.'
There was another grist. mill at an early day further down the Owego creek. In September, 1:01, when Thomas . Matson, Jr., purchased of Various owners a large amount of land on both sides of the creek north and south of where Main street now ex- tends, a saw mill and grist mill are mentioned in two of the deeds from Col. Pixley- and Ashbel Wells to Mat- son as being on the east side of the creek and "standing in the meadow, near the mouth of the Owego creek, formerly held in joint ownership with James McMaster."
Thomas Matson, Jr., came to Owego from Simsbury, Conn. He had three sons, William, George, and Reuben Matson. A daughter, Rachel Matson, married Daniel Goodale and lived in East Hartford, Conn. Another daugh- tf, Ruth Matsom, married James Buck, of the town of Chatham, Middle- sex county, Conn. Still another daugh- ter, Fanny Matson. died at Owego May 4, 1811:
Thomas. Maison, Jr., built a grist will in Canawana. It 'stood , about half way between the Owego creek and the present hydraulic canal, or race, which supplies the electric light works with water power: It stood on the south side of the street now known as Main street, but then known as. "the lake road.".
Col .. Wm. Ransom, of Tioga Centre, once informed the writer that the Mat- son mill was built when he was five or
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six years of age. As Col. . Ransom was born in 1801, the date must have been 1806 or 1807. The mill was built, of hewed logs and had but one run of stone. It was one story high and open to the roof, with no loft .. An iron screen was suspended above the hop- per and the miller went up on a lad- der and poured wheat in, to screen it. '
Traces of the old race which sup- plied the mill with water can still be ·seen, although almost obliterated by the floods of many years, ' and where . it crossed the street the highway was filled in and raised several years ago. After the property was sold to Charles Frederick and: Robert. Charles John- son, in the spring of 1833, the mill was converted into a plaster mill and it was burned in March, 1838. The plaster mill was afterward rebuilt.
When the Matsons came here they bought about 400 acres of land on the west side of the Owego. creek and lived thereon in log houses. As they accumulated money they tore down these houses and built better ones. framed from sawed lumber. George Matson lived west of the Owego creek where the Meadowbank farm house stands, which house was for many years the residence of Charles Frede- rick Johnson. Reuben Matson lived on the north side of the road .. His house stood near the highway and was just west of the present gate to the en- trance of the "Vesper Cliff" grounds. The house was afterward moved back and was made a part of the large house built on the place by Robert Charles Johnson. Wm. Matson lived west of his brother, Reuben's, house, in the farm house which still stands there.
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West of the Matson grist mill was a pond known as Matson's pond, which extended nearly to the creek. It was crossed by a wooden bridge, sixty or . seventy feet long. This pond was sub- requently filled with earth by the Johnsons.
When the hill west of the creek was cut through to extend Main street west up the hill into the town of Tioga, to make the ascent easier, a large quantity of human bones was dug up. This part of an Indian bury- dug up. This was part of an Indian burying ground . Of this ground Judge Avery says:
."An Indian burying ground extended along the brow of the cliff, on the westerly bank of the Owego creek upon the homestead . promises of Messrs. J. Platt sød C. F. Johnson. It was a : favorite burial place. . Mr. Whitaker narrates that upon the death of . Ka-nau-kwis he was brought to this place, Where he died she does not state, but Mrs. Williams recollects' to have heard her father [Amos Draper] say that he received his death wound at Tioga Point. His remains must therefore have been transported from that place to this favorite spot of interment, a distance of twenty-one miles. Although many Indian graves have been found upon the site of Owego, no indications have been there exhibited of an appropria: tion so exclusive for Indian burial in its ordinary mode, as the extended brow of this cliff."
Thomas Matson, Jr., died March 12, 1818, aged 73 years. His wife, Abiah Matson, died. Dec. 26, 1820, aged 72 years. Their bodies were buried in the Tioga, cemetery.
After Thomas Matson's death the property all passed into the hands of the three sons, George, Reuben, and William Matson. In May, 1833, they
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sold all their property on both sides; of the Owego creek to Charles Frede- rick Johnson and his cousin, Robert Charles Johnson, and removed to Con- neaunt, Ohio.
Robert Charles Johnson was born at Stratford, Conn., and came to Owego Feb. 27, 1830. He was a lawyer and became the law partner of Thomas Farrington. Charles Frederick John- son also came from Stratford. In. May, 1833, they purchased of the Mat- son brothers the land between the Owego creek and the present mill race of the electric light company's work on both sides of Main street, and much land on both sides of the same street on the west side of the creek. The Matson mill was afterward con- verted into a plaster mill and .con- dueted by Charles Frederick Johnson. The cousins built a larger grist mill on the ground where the electric light company's power house now stands and in the summer of 1833 built the hydraulic canal, seven-eighths of a mile long, to supply it with water power.
The year previous to the building of this canal had been a cold season and the corn crop was killed. . Everybody was in a semi-starving condition, and the building of the canal was a God- send to many of the farmers. Two or three hundred of them were employed in digging the ditch and building the . dam and mill. Money was paid for the work on the spot. Shanties were erected along the work, in which the men slept, and in some of them their wives cooked their meals. Stables were also erected to house the teams employed on the work.
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'Corn was selling at $1.25 a bushel, and the price advanced to, about $2. Wheat sold at $2 a bushel. Rice could be bought for 8 and 9 cents a . pound and was used largely by the people, on account of the scarcity and high price of grain. Silver change was also scarce, and Robert Charles . Johnson and the Trumans issued "shinplaster" currency, which was circulated in making. change.
The Johnson cousins built in addi- tion to the grist mill a large sawmill at the foot of the race, near the Sus- quehanna river. This sawmill had four upright saws and three circu- lar saws and was considered then one of the best ones in the state, but it would be looked upon at the present day as a rather old fogy affair. The machinery for the mill was made in New York city and transported to Binghamton by canal, and thence by teams to . Owego. This mill was burned.
In the days, of the Matsons the country was covered with woods. Every available place along the creeks was selected as a site for a saw mill. No lath was made at that time and the slabs were thrown into the creek, where they floated ashore' further down the stream and were gathered by people living there and used for firewood.
The Johnsons contemplated the building up of a manufacturing centre in Canawana; and to that end estab -. lished various manufacturing : inter .. ests there. On the west bank of the canal was a sheepskin tannery con- ducted by Arba Campbell and Thomas 1. Chatfield. This tannery was burned in December, 1860. Another tannery
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was built on the same site, and it was also burned in December, 1879.
On the west bank of the canal, sev (ral rods north of Main street, was an' axe factory. There were also a pail and tub factory, which was afterward converted into a wooden match box factory; a shoemaker's last factory, conducted by John Camp, and Ezekiel Noble; a clock factory, Tinkham & Blanchard's . soap" factory, Daniel Ruggs's match factory, John G. Crane's wool and carding mill; Warren Kim- ball's carpet weaving looms, and other industries.
At the corner of Main and Division streets Robert . Charles Johnson built a store in the fall of 1838. This store was kept at various times by Frede- rick E .. Platt, E. W .. Warner, and others. It was afterward converted into a tavern and was burned in 1868 .. East of this was another store known as the "Indian Spring grocery," which was also burned. Between this store and the canal were two houses occu- pied by the millers and their families, which houses are still standing.
The faihire of the manufacturing project was largely owing to the gradual decrease in the water supply, owing to the country being cleared of its woods.
Charles Frederick Johnson lived in the house on his farm in the town of Tioga, known as Meadowbank farm, which house still stands there and is owned by Lewis H. Leonard, who pin- chased the farm of the Johnson heirs in June, 1900.
Charles Frederick Johnson was the seventh in descent from Robert John- son, who was born in Rutlandshire, England, in 1599 .. He was one of the
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founders of New Haven, Conn., and died there in 1661.
. His son, William Johnson, died at Guilford, Conn., in 1702. William's son, Samuel, also died there in 1727.
Samuel's son, also named Samuel, was born at Guilford in 1696 and died at Stratford, Conn., in 1772. He was graduated from Yale college and was afterward president of Kings college in- New York city. . He was the first Episcopal clergy man ordained in Con- necticut.
Samuel's son. William Samuel John- son. was born at Stratford in 1727 and died there in. 1819. He was graduated from Yale college and became a law- yer. He was a member of the Stamp- Act congress of 1765, a member of the Federal convention. in 1787 which framed the constitution of the United States. He was United States senator from Connecticut and president of Columbia college in New York city.
His son, Sammuel William Johnson, who was the father of Charles Frede- rick. Johnson, was born at Stratford Oct. 23, 1761, and died there Oct. 25, 1806. He also was graduated from Yale college and became a lawyer. He was judge of probate, member of the Connecticut legislature, and. mem- ber of, the governor's council. He married Nov. 27, 1791, Susan, daugh- ter of Pierrepont Edwards.
Charles Frederick Johnson was born at Stratford in 1804. His parents both died when he was an infant and he was brought up by his grandfather, William Samuel Johnson. After his graduation from Union college he spent three years studying in France. In 1835 he married Sarah Dwight Woolsey, youngest daughter of Willian
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Walton Woolsey, an old-time merchant of New York city, some account of whom is given in the second volume of "The Old Merchants of New York." by Walter Barrett. Mr. Woolsey was a descendant of Thomas Woolsey; a near relative of the Thomas Woolsey who was better known in history as. cardinal Woolsey. She was born in New York city in 1805 and died in Paris, France, Feb. 24, .1870. Her brother was president . Thomas Wool- sey of Yale college. Mrs. Johnson was on a tour through Europe at the time of her death and died of pneumonia.
Mr. Johnson lived at his Tioga home mitil 1876 when he removed to the home of his daughter, Mrs. Will- iam Bellamy, at Dorchester, Mass., where he died . July 6, 1882. The fathers of both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson owned much land in Tioga county, . which was the reason for their com- ing here.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were people of refinement and fine culture, and were highly educated. Mr. Johnson. remained a student during his entire life, giving most of his attention to the Latin language and literature. . A 1374 He published a metrical transla- tion of the great poem of Lucretius; "De Rejim Natura," which was re-" ceived with favor in both America and England, He also possessed marked inventive powers, although he lacked the practical sagacity neces. sary to render new ideas pecuniarily remunerative. He was the inventor of what is known as the atmospheric dock for raising vessels, now in use in every seaport in the world, and of the circular tumbler . combination lock, which may be seen on most American
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safes, and of several other inventions, which came into general use after he had abandoned them.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Frederick Johnson were Charles Fred- erick Johnson, Jr., who has been for several years professor of English lit- erature in Trinity college; William Woolsey Johnson, who is professor of draughting in the United States naval academy at Annapolis, Md .; Anna M. Johnson, who mharried William Bel- lamy and lives at Dorchester, Mass., and Katharine Bayard Johnson, who died in Paris, France, in February, 1906.
Robert Charles Johnson's father was also named Robert Charles. Johnson, and was a brother of Samuel William Johnson, whose father was William Samuel Johnson, president of Column- bia college. The brothers, Samuel C. and Robert C. Johnson became great speculators in the wild lands of south- ern central . New York and in other states, even as far south as North Carolina. One or both of the brothers were in the Watkins and Flint syndi- cate which bought of the state the great track of land, then wholly in Tioga county, called the Watkins and Flint Purchase. This tract was thirty- five miles in length east and west and about eight mile's in . width.
In the division of the property . of the younger Robert Charles Johnson and his cousin, Charles Frederick Johnson, the property of about sixteen acres known as "Vesper Cliff" in the town of Tioga became the home of Robert Charles Johnson, and the next year he became owner of the mill property. He moved the Reuben Mat- son house back on the grounds and
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built the large mansion, which still stands there. . The place was known as "Tioga Terrace."
Mr. Johnson sold the property in 1841 to Horace 'Frizelle, of Horace- town, Pa., for $11,500. Frizelle .also bought of R. C. Johnson property on the east side of the creek at the cor- nor of . Main and. Division streets. 22 feet front by 100 feet deep, on which stood the store.
In' November, 1842, Frizelle sold the Tioga property for $5,000 to Jonathan Platt, who, following the example. of the poet, N. P. Willis, who had named his home "Glenmary" in honor of bis wife, changed the name of his new purchase to "Glenbetsy," in honor of his wife, her name being Betsy.
In March, 1854, Mr. Platt sold the ' : property for $6,500 to Rev. Samuel Hanson . Cox, a noted Presbyterian clergyman, who in his old age had come to Owego as pastor of the Pres- byterian church. " Mr. Cox changed; the name of his new home to "Vesper Cliff," which it has ever since re- tained:
In April, 1859, after Dr. Cox had, re- moved to LeRoy, Genesee county, he. sold the property for $7,000 to Capt. WJohn B. Sardy, of Brooklyn, who had become wealthy in the business of importing guano from South America. . Capt. Sardy and his family occupied the property as their summer home eight years. In Nov., 1867, he sold the property for $12,000 to Thomas C Platt, who in April, 1869, sold it for the same amount to Samuel S. Wat- son, of Newark Valley. Mr. Watson subsequently failed in business and in February, 1883, the property passed into the possession of John Hardman.
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he purchasing it at refereo's sale for $4,000.
While Mr. Watson owned the prop- orty the cliff was practically ruined and the value of the property perma- nently impaired by the cutting of a road along the side of the cliff, for the purpose of obtaining easy access to a sand bank.
Robert Charles Johnson was born at Stratford, Com., June 6, 1806. He married Mary . Eliza Pumpelly, daugh- ter of James Pumpelly. He removed in 1851 to Westfield, Chautauqua county, N. Y., where he purchased a farm at Long Point on Chautauqua lake, on which he built a magnificent resi- dence, commanding ;a beautiful . view of the lake, which residence was the pride. of the town for years. The house was elegantly furnished and the Johnsons wore lavish in enter- taining their friends. Johnson's friends, however, were convivial spirits and he gradually become dis- sipated, and to ,such an extent that his wife left him and obtained a di- voree' from him, afterward becoming the wife of William II. Platt.
In the division of the family prop- erty, following the divorce, Johnson came into possession of the Long Point residence. Here, freed from the restraints of marriage, he gave himself up to a life of revelling. His fortune rapidly dwindled, and after a time he was thrown on his own. re- sources. He went to Washington, · where he obtained an appointment as . inspector of timber for the Norfolk navy yard. He was afterward trans- ferred to the treasury department, ·where he remained until 1881, when
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he returned to Jamestown, N. Y .. where he lived quietly on an anuunity furnished by a nephew, who was iu Paris. In December, 1885, when he was 80 years of age, he was injured by a fall down stairs, from the effects of which he died June 10, 1886.
Themas. M. Nichols purchased the sawmill at the foot of the race in 1839 and the grist mill two or three years afterward. . In company with Francis A. Bliss he conducted the mills from 1848 to his death in May, 1378. Tu January, 1885, William E. Dorwin pur- chased. the property and afterward, in company with George L. Rich and James T. Stone, supplied the mill with new machinery, at a cost of about $26,000. The mill was burned March 19, 1889, and was not rebuilt.
On the north side of Main street, extending from William street to the: mill race is a row of sycamore and elni trees. These trees were set out by direction of James Pumpelly in 1827 and were placed sixteen feet apart, on which to build a fence. The sycamores have nearly all died, but the elms are still standing, which shows that the chin is the best tree to plant for permanence as a shade tree in a village.
The young elm trees were taken from the island in the Owego creek. There was an insufficient number of elms,and when the supply of elms was exhausted sycamores were used. The. trees were planted by Deacon Perry, a blacksmith, who lived in a house in Main street where the convent of St .- Patrick's church now stands. His shop was also in Main street and oc- cupied the spot on which the second house east of the Baptist church now
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