USA > New York > Broome County > Gazetteer and business directory of Broome and Tioga Counties, N. Y. for 1872-3 > Part 19
USA > New York > Tioga County > Gazetteer and business directory of Broome and Tioga Counties, N. Y. for 1872-3 > Part 19
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VESTAL-WINDSOR.
The First Reformed Methodist Church, at Tracy Creek, was organized with thirteen members, by Joseph Chidester, in 1841, in which year the first church edifice, with a capacity to seat 200 persons, was erected at a cost of $500. The first pas- tor was Elder Lake; the present one is Elder Cole. There are 100 members. The Church property is valued at $200.
The Reformed Methodist Church, at Tracy Creek, was organ- ized Dec. 30, 1860, by Rev. Daniel D. Brown, its first pastor. The first house of worship was erected in 1870. A new one is in process of erection, which is to be completed in October, 1872. There are forty-eight members. The pastor is Rev. Henry Cole.
The M. E. Church of Tracy Creek was organized with twenty- five members in March, 1871, and its house of worship, which will seat 200 persons, was completed in December of the same year, at a cost of $2,500, which is the present value of Church property. Rev. S. W. Lindsley was the first pastor; Rev. J. D. Bloodgood is the present one. The number of members has not increased.
WINDSOR was formed from Chenango, March 27, 1807. Colesville and Sanford were taken off April 2, 1821, and a part of Conklin, in 1851. A part of Conklin was annexed April 18, 1831. It is one of the southern tier towns, lying east of the center of the County. It covers an area of 51,997 acres, of which, in 1865, according to the census of that year, 23,790, were improved. The surface consists princi- pally of two elevated ridges, which are separated by the narrow valley of the Susquehanna. The hills in the eastern range attain an altitude of from 400 to 800 feet above the valley, and terminate in several sharp ridges ; while those in the western range, though being. generally less elevated rise in some instances to an equal height. Oquaga Hill, in the north-east part, is one of the highest peaks in town. The declivities of the hills are generally quite abrupt. About two-thirds of the town-the western and central portions-lie . within the great bend of the Susquehanna, by which river and its tributaries (Ok- kanum, Red and Tuscarora creeks) it is watered. The soil in the valleys of these streams is a deep, rich, gravelly loam; and on the hills it consists of a gravelly loam underlaid by clay and hard-pan. The Delaware & Hudson Canal Co.'s railroad passes through the town following the general course of the river; and the Erie R. R. crosses the south-east corner. These, with the river, furnish ample facilities for the transportation of the products of the farm, dairy and mill.
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WINDSOR.
In 1870 the town had a population of 2,958. During the year ending Sept. 30, 1871, it contained twenty-two school dis- tricts and employed twenty-three teachers. The number of children of school age was 1,010; the number attending school, 911; the average attendance, 451; the amount expended for school purposes, $6,113 ; and the value of school houses and sites, $8,525.
WINDSOR, (p. v.) located on the west bank of the Susque- hanna, a little east of the center of the town, contains four churches, (Free Methodist, Episcopal, M. E. and Presbyterian,) five dry goods stores, one hardware store, two hotels, a foundry and machine shop, one harness, three wagon, four blacksmith, one cabinet, three shoe and one milliner shops, an undertaker's establishment, one whip and two spoke manufactories, one planing, one grist and one saw mills, a spring-bed bottom man- ufactory and 600 inhabitants. It is a thriving village, sur- rounded by a good farming country and a wealthy farming community, and enjoys the ready transit of the river and the D. & H. Canal Co.'s R. R. The Susquehanna is spanned here by a free bridge, 700 feet long .*
CASCADE VALLEY, (p. o.) located near the south-east corner, on the Erie R. R., is simply a post station, and derives its name from the two falls on the creek on which it is located, each of which is one hundred feet in height. The surrounding country presents a wild aspect.
RANDOLPH CENTER, (p. o.) located west of the center, and so named from its being the center of Randolph's patent, con- tains one church, (Baptist) a wagon and blacksmith shop and eight or ten houses. It is a fine dairy country.
HAZARDVILLE, located in the south-west part, contains one church, (Wesleyan) a school house, a blacksmith shop, a grocery, four saw mills, t one of which is operated by steam and
* About 1846 a high school was established here and continued until 1849, when an application was made for its conversion into an academy and a charter was granted for that purpose. Grover Buel, B. H. Russell, Oliver T. Bundy, Jeremiah Hull, Enoch Copley, Elisha Hall, George Dusenbury, James Y. Brown, Seymour Butts, Henry L. Sleeper, Hiram W. Gilbert and Adam Craig were appointed trustees of the academy, which was known as the Windsor Academy. After several years it was changed to a graded school, with an academical department.
+ Uri E. Blatchley's steam saw mill, located near Hazardville, is oper- ated by an engine of thirty-horse power, gives employment to seven, persons and is capacitated to saw 12,000 feet of lumber daily.
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three by water, one grist mill and twenty-six houses. It is surrounded by a good grazing country .*
STILLSON HOLLOW (West Windsor p. o.) is located in the north-west part, contains one church, (Union) a store, a black- smith shop and a wagon shop.
BARTONVILLE is located south of the center. Stannard & Son's saw mill, situated near here, has a capacity for cutting 200,000 feet of lumber per annum.
For a long time anterior to its settlement by the whites the country embraced within the limits of this town was the home of the red man. Windsor,t says Wilkinson, " appears to have been a half-way resting place for the 'Six Nations,' as they passed south to Wyoming or its neighborhood; or for the tribes of the Wyoming valley as they passed north. Their path over the Oquago mountain, and also over a mountain this side, nearer the village, [Binghamton] was worn very deep, and is still plainly visible." The mountain referred to in the quota- tion extends on both sides of the river, towards which, on either side, it has a gentle slope, and incloses a beautiful vale from three to four miles in length and from one to one and one- half miles in width. The route pursued by the Indians was also the one followed by many of the early New England settlers to reach their western homes. " That portion of Gen. Clinton's army, not embarked in the boats, at the time of his inroad against the Iroquois of [this] valley in 1779, took the same course from river to river; and in 1785 a portion of James
* The place derives its name from a family named Hazard, five brothers of whom (Hiram, Edward, John B., O. P. and S. H.) settled there at an early day. Families named Phillips, Trowbridge, Vergason and Blatchley were among the first settlers. Samuel and Reuben Stephens erected the first saw mill, and Dyer Vergason built the first grist mill.
Fifteen persons from this School District entered the army during the war of the Rebellion, only seven of whom returned.
+ Windsor was formerly known as Oquaga. The latter name is variously written, but the orthography here given is that generally accepted by modern writers. In a letter from Rev. John Ogilvie, a missionary to the Indians at this place, to Sir Wm. Johnson, dated Albany, May 14, 1756, as appears in Doc. Hist. Vol. IV, page 302, it is written "Onogquaga ;" in a letter from Rev. Dr. Wheelock, also to Johnson, dated at Lebanon, Oct. 24, 1764, on page 342 of the work before quoted, it is written " Onoquagee," and in an editorial foot note on the same page of the same work, "On- ohoghquage;" in the report of Rev. Gideon Hawley's journey to this place in 1753, Doc. Hist. Vol. III, page 1033, it is written "Onohoghgwage;" and says C. P. Avery, in an article on The Susquehanna Valley which appears in The Saint Nicholas for March, 1854, it was written by the early mis- sionaries "Onuh-huh-guah-geh," and is so pronounced by some of the Iroquois now in Canada, and, he says, "upon the early map," it appears as "O-nogh-qua-gy." Officially, at the present day, the name of the post- office at Oquaga, in the south part of the town of Colesville, from which this is sometimes distinguished by the prefix old, is spelled "Ouaquaga."
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McMaster's pioneer company from the Mohawk crossed from that point over the same ground which their Indian prede- cessors with their intimate knowledge of the geographical fea- tures of the country, had so long before, with intuitive wood- land sagacity, pronounced feasible."* "The evidence we have," says Wilkinson, in the Annals of Binghamton, " of its great an- tiquity, and of its distinction at some date or other, is from the numerous and valuable trinkets that were found by the whites when they came to dig and plow upon its plains. The apple trees also found growing there, of great size, and of apparently great age; their number, too, and the variety and richness of the fruit; all indicated the antiquity and importance of the place. A great number of human bones from various depths below the surface, were thrown up from time to time. Some of these were of peculiar formation. A scull was found with the lower jaw attached to it, which had an entire double row of teeth ; a single row above, but all double teeth." Remains of a fort, constructed to meet the enemy from the river, were dis- cernible to the first settlers ; and as they presented indications of its recent construction the impression prevailed that it was built when Gen. Clinton passed down the river. This, however, seems improbable, since the Indians did not offer any resist- ance to him or even show themselves. It is highly probable, (in. view of the fact that traces of its existence would, at that early day, require much more time for their obliteration, than under the attrition of the present comparatively thickly populated country in its vicinity,) that it was constructed at a much earlier day, and quite possibly during the French and Indian war, as we find mention of a fort which it was then contemplated to erect at this place, and expressions of fear that opposition would be made to the project which would render it difficult to pro- cure workmen for that service, in a letter addressed by Rev. John Ogilvie to Sir Wm. Johnson under date of May 14, 1756.t The object of erecting this fort was doubtless to afford protection to and extend the missionary labors in this section, which were instituted about the middle of the last century. The Indians of Oquaga were religiously disposed and were among the first to avail themselves of the advantages of the Indian School instituted at Stockbridge at a very early day. They are sup- posed for this reason to have belonged to the Iroquois, who were distinguished for their deep interest in religious matters. A large number of them went to Stockbridge while Jonathan
* The Saint Nicholas, March, 1854.
+ Doc. Hist. Vol. IV, 302.
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Edwards,* who was afterwards president of Princeton College, was a missionary there, and were commended to him by the sachems of the Mohawks, in council, as being worthy of pecu- liar tenderness and care, since, as they ingenuously admitted, the Oqnagas "much excelled their own tribe in religion and virtue." Accordingly Mr. Edwards interested himself in their behalf and secured for them a missionary in the person of Rev. Gideon Hawley, who, in company with Timothy Woodbridge and Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Ashley,t the latter of whom went in the capacity of interpreter, visited Oquaga in 1753, and Haw- Jey remained there until the breaking out of the French war, when he was admonished that it was unsafe to remain longer, his companions having previously returned.
Mr. Hawley thus describes his reception at Oquaga:
"June 4th. [1753] In the afternoon appeared at a distance Onohogh- gwage mountain, and shewed us the end of our journey and the object of our wishes. It rained. Wet and fatigued, we arrived near night. The Indians flocked around us, and made us welcome. Our hopes were raised by favorable appearances. But our accommodations, considering our fatigues, were not very comfortable. Our lodgings were bad, being both dirty and hard; and our clothes wet.
"June 5th. To-day there were many the worse for the rum that came with us. One of our horses hurt an Indian boy; and this raised and enraged such a party against us, as Ashley, his wife the interpreter, and the Indians at whose house we lodged, hid themselves, and would have me and Mr. Woodbridge get out of sight; but we did not think proper to dis- cover the least symptoms of fear, although they threatened us in the most provoking and insulting manner. In the afternoon came the chiefs of the Onohoghgwages, and assured us that those insulting and ill-behaved
* About one year previous to Mr. Hawley's visit to Oquaga Mr. Edwards sent his son, Jonathan, there to learn the Indian language, with a view to preparing him for the Indian missionary service. He was then nine years old. At the commencement of the French war, the Indian, to whose special care he was entrusted, conveyed him safely to his father, carrying him at intervals upon his back. This lad subsequently became president of Union College, Schenectady, succeeding Rev. John Blair Smith, its first President, in 1799, and held the office until his death in August, 1801.
{ The services of Mr. Ashley, it appears, were not needed, and, in the opinion of Mr. Hawley, had better been dispensed with, since, he says, "he was a fanatick, and on that account unfit to be employed in the mission." The services of Mrs. Ashley, who, says Mr. Hawley, "was a very good sort of woman, and an extraordinary interpreter of the Iroquois language," were indispensable, and as they could not be obtained without the employ- ment of her husband, the mission were obliged to accept the unwelcome alternative. Writing of Mrs. Ashley, Mr. Hawley says: "Rebecca, my interpreter, laid her bones at Onohoghgwage in August 1757. She was much lamented by the Indians. Her Indian name was Wausaunia."- Doc. Hist. Vol. III, 1037-8.
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WINDSOR.
Indians did not belong to them,* but were foreigners. We pointed out to them the ill effects of intemperance, and remonstrated against their per- mitting rum to be brought among them; and that it was necessary in future it should be prohibited, or the dispensing of it regulated, in case we founded a mission and planted Christianity among them. In short, we now opened a treaty with them upon the affairs of our advent, and the importance of our business in every view. Having shewn our credentials, Mr. Woodbridge addressed himself in a well adapted speech of consider- able length, to an assembly who were collected upon the occasion.
"It affected them, and they appeared to be religiously moved, convicted and even converted."
The war with all its pernicious influences does not seem to have eradicated from the minds of these aborigines their re- ligious predilections.
Oquaga was also a noted rendezvous of Tories and Indians during the Revolution.
John Doolittle, who settled on the west side of the Susque- hanna, about four miles above the bridge, in 1786, is believed to be the first white man to make a permanent settlement in this town. In 1787 came David Hotchkiss and his two sons, Am- raphael and Cyrus. They settled on the west of the river, a little below the bridge. Hotchkiss took up a large tract of land, on both sides of the river, purchasing only the possession of a Mr. Swift, who came the same year. This was a little be- fore the land was patented, or at least before the patentees were known to the settlers. John Gurnsey, who also came in 1787, took up a patent of 1,000 acres, next south of Hotchkiss' tract. This he left to his sons, of whom there were many, and all of whom left it. North of this, on the river, was the Ellis patent, which embraced the land taken by Mr. Hotchkiss. It consisted of seventeen lots of two hundred acres each, of which Mr. Hotchkiss took ten. Mr. Hotchkiss was the first magis- trate appointed in the place. It is related of him that he was very generous and that often, in times of scarcity, he refused to sell his grain to those who had money, preferring rather to supply those who had none. Settlements were made in con- siderable numbers during the succeeding years, principally by persons from Connecticut. Among these was Major Josiah Stow, from Danbury, Conn., on whose lands were a large num- ber of the ancient apple trees previously mentioned. It was the opinion of the first settlers that they were one hundred years
* "This was partly the case." This statement seems confirmed and the general good character of these Indians substantiated by an address delivered by them to Mr. Wood- bridge, to be, by him, submitted to Col. Wm. Johnson, which in substance implored the latter gentleman to intercede for them with "the great men of Albany, Skenectetee and Skoharry," and implore them not to send them any more rum, which, they said, "has undone us." - Sce Doc. Hist. Vol. II. 627.
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old at the time of their settlement. Some of the apples, says Wilkinson, were large enough to weigh a pound. The trees stood irregularly and their trunks ran up very high, with few or no limbs for some distance from the ground, thus indicating that they grew in a forest. The large number of human bones plowed up in after years beneath these trees led to the supposi- tion that this was the place of sepulcher for the Indian dead .*
Samuel Stow came in 1793. In August, about the year 1794, occurred the "pumpkin freshet." The water in the Susque- hanna rose much above its usual height and swept away in its torrent the products of the fields along its banks. A great scarcity of provisions was the natural consequence. During this period the characteristic generosity and hardihood of Major Stow manifested itself. He shouldered a bushel of wheat, in which the whole neighborhood had a share, and with it started to Bennett's mills, via Wattles ferry, a distance of more than forty miles, to get it ground. He performed the journey on foot, and returned in the same manner. During the journey he purchased a quarter of a pound of tea, a luxury to which those early settlers were then entirely unaccustomed, to supple- ment the feast which his return was to inaugurate. On the Major's arrival the company assembled at his house and active preparations were soon begun to complete the arrangements for a sumptuous feast, in which all were to participate. A short- cake was made from the flour, and as no lard was to be had, the Major bethought himself of some bear's grease he had in the house, which was used as a substitute therefor. As tea was a new article in their bill of fare they did not possess the usual conveniences for preparing and serving it. A small kettle was procured and made to serve the purposes of both tea-kettle and
* Since the Indians are known to have shown a respect, amounting al- most to reverence, for the resting places of their dead, the following in- cident, the substance of which we extract from the Annals of Bingham- ton, lends credibility to the supposition.
In the early part of his residence here Maj. Stow, one evening, observed an Indian girdling one of these trees with a hatchet. He remonstrated with him, but as the Indian's reply was made in his own dialect, the Ma- jor could only glean from it the word "Sullivan," which the Indian re- peated several times. As the savage continued his onslaught upon the tree, Mr. Stow commanded him to desist, but as his command was disre- garded he reiterated it and threatened to shoot him with the rifle he held in his hand unless he relinquished his project of destroying the tree. The Indian seemed aware of the unwavering purpose of the Major and glanced furtively at his owu rifle which lay near him upon the ground; but evi- dently deeming his chances in the event of a collision unequal, he sullenly and reluctantly repaired to his canoe and pursued his way down the river. Undoubtedly the Indian had come with the intention of girdling the trees of whose fruit his own tribe had, perhaps, eaten for half a century or more, but which had fallen into the possession of strangers and enemies, who, he imagined, desecrated by their presence the resting-place of his fathers.
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tea-pot. Instead of tea-cups and saucers a wooden bowl was filled with the savory beverage and passed around in a cosmo- politan, if inelegant way. But who shall contrast with dispar- agement to the former the social cheer which prevailed at that feast, with that which is evoked by similar gatherings in mod- ern times.
Until 1797, when Nathan Lane built the first grist mill in the town, the settlers were obliged, at first, to go more than forty miles with their grists to mill, but somewhat later, and previous to the erection of Lane's mill, one was built about ten miles east of Deposit, which lessened the distance about one- half. Shortly previous, or soon after, (which the memory of old residents does not satisfactorily determine,) the erection of the saw mill by Mr. Lane, the same year in which his grist mill was built, a saw mill was built by Mr. Doolittle. Am- raphael Hotchkiss built the first mills upon the Susquehanna." David Hotchkiss built the first frame barn.
Frederick Goodell was an early settler. He came from Conn., in 1787, and settled about three miles above Windsor, on the river. In 1798 he moved to that part of the town known as Randolph, which was then a wilderness, and cleared a farm and raised a family, some of whom still reside in the town. Lyman and Henry Beebe came with their father from Wilkesbarre, Penn., May 9, 1803, and settled on the Susque- hanna about one mile north of the State line. Lyman Beebe was five years old the day on which he moved into the town. He has since resided within a mile of his present residence. Luman Blatchley came with his son, Neri, and two daughters from Conn., in 1806, and located at Randolph. Soon after his brother, Daniel Blatchley Jr., settled at Hazardville. Jehiel Woodruff was one of the first settlers in the west part of the town. He came with a family of six children, (three of whom still live in the town,) from Long Island, in 1811. On the Randolph hills, around Oquaga, were extensive groves of locusts, so valuable in ship building. Great quantities of this timber were carried to Deposit and thence conveyed in rafts down the Delaware to Philadelphia. The Randolph hills locust had a high reputation, and was found in many of the principal sea-ports east of Philadelphia.t
The first birth in the town was that of David Doolittle, Dec. 27, 1786; the first marriage, that of Capt. Andrew Eng- lish and Miss Rachel Moore; and the first death, that of Mrs. Ashley, the interpreter accompanying Rev. Mr. Hawley in his
* Annals of Binghamton, p. 152.
+ Spafford's Gazetteer of New York, in 1812, page 330-1.
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mission to Oquaga, in August, 1757, as before stated. The first death among the permanent settlers was probably that of Mrs. Rhoda Goodell, wife of Frederick Goodell, in 1803 .* Josiah Stow opened the first inn and store, in 1788; and Stephen Seymour taught the first school in 1789.
The first settlement at Randolph Center was made by Capt. Samuel Rexford, and family, in 1782. He settled on one hundred acres of land given him as an inducement to locate there. He built a log house and covered it with bark, and grappled manfully with the hardships and privations incident to the opening of a new country. Joseph Brown settled there in 1812, and still resides there.
Windsor may point with just pride to the record of her par- ticipation in the war of the Rebellion. She did her duty nobly. The town furnished 237 men for the army, and, as far as we have been able to ascertain, they were distributed as follows :
In Company G.+ 89th Regt. N. Y. S. Vols 97
66 B. 137th 41
יי F. 137th 16
" other Co.'s of 137th 16 " other regiments. 67
Of this number thirty-five are reported killed, wounded or missing.
The first church (Cong.) was organized by Rev. Mr. Judd, Aug. 15, 1793.
The Union Chapel (M. E.) society, located at East Randolph, was organized with six members, in 1803, by J. Herron, Samuel
*Statement of E. Goodell of this town.
+ We have been furnished the following interesting particulars relative to this company : It was organized in the fall of 1861, by Capt. Seymour L. Judd,¿ its commandant, and mustered in for three years. It left Elmira with the regiment, Dec. 5, 1861, for Washington, and one month later, hav- ing been assigned to the Burnside Expedition to North Carolina, was out on the ocean. In August, 1862, it came north to re-inforce McClellan after his defeat near Richmond. It participated, and suffered severely, in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. At Fredericksburgh, in Dec., 1862, it was among the first to cross the river and captured the sharp shoot- ers who prevented the laying of the pontoons. At Suffolk the 89th crossed the Nansemond and captured a rebel fort, with all its cannon and men. The regiment was with Gen. Dix on the "blackberry raid " at the time of the battle of Gettysburg. It next went to the assistance of Gen. Gilmore,
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