USA > New York > Ontario County > Gazetteer and business directory of Ontario County, N.Y., for 1867-8 > Part 5
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
Canandaigua has numbered among her inhabitants many dis- tinguished men. Hon. Gideon Granger was Postmaster General, under Jefferson's administration ; and his son, Hon. Francis Gran- ger, held the same office under Harrison. Among the distinguished names of which this place may well be proud, we may mention Ilon. M. II. Sibley, Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, Gen. John A. Gran- ger, and Ex-Gov. Myron H. Clark.
Cheshire ( p. v.) is a small village of about 20 houses, in the south part of the town. Centerfield is a hamlet, and Academy, near the south line, is a post office.
The first church was organized at Canandaigua, Feb. 4, 1799, it being St. Matthew's, Episcopal, now St. John's. The Congrega- tional Church was organized Feb. 25, 1799. There are 11 churches in town. The amount of money expended for common schools in the town of Canandaigua in the year 1866-7, was $8,754.83; the amount of public money apportioned 82,088.24; the value of school property $14,800, and the average daily attendance 540.
EAST BLOOMFIELD was formed January 27, 1789, as Bloomfield. Mendon and Victor were taken off in 1812 ; its name was changed and West Bloomfield taken off in 1833. It is an interior town, lying north-west of the center of the County. The surface is rolling, with slight inelination to the north, the ridzes rising 50 to 600 feet abc the valleys. The soil is extremely fertile, consisting of Loup, gravelly loam, in places mixed with elny. It is a superior agricultural section, raising fine grain. Crapes and hops are cultivated to a large extent, and considerable attention is paid to the cultivation and improvement of fruit, many young orchards having been set out within a few years.
$3,008.16 was expended for common school purposes in the year 1866-7. The amount of public money appropriated was $808.62 ; the value of school property is $5,250, and the average daily attendance of pupils 260.
Griffith's Mille, in the cast, Brug Village, in the south-east, and Shepherd's Mills, in the north-east part of the town, are hamlets. Bust Bloomfield! ( p. v.) is a thrifty and growing village of about 600 inhabitants, three-fourths of a mile from East Bloomfield Station, on the N. Y. C. R. R. It contains three churches, a flourishing academy, incorporated in 1838, manufactories of agricultural in- plements and carriages, and an extensive furnace and machine shop. A large freight house, and a planing mill and machine shop are in process of construction. A Soldier's Monument was erected in East Bloomfield, January, 1867, by subscription. It is a plain Ahaft of gray stone, 60 feet high, surmounted by a full size statue representing a soldier in full uniform, and was erected at an ex- pense of $6,000. On it is inscribed the name of every enlisted
GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
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soldier of the town, who died in the discharge of his duty as a fender of the national flag. The town lost heavily in the sanguinary struggle, and this beautiful shaft, pointing upward ir. solemn and silent eloquence, shall be an eternal memoria gallant deeds and heroic self-sacrifice of those whose ach beneath its shadow.
"How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest! When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallow'd mold, She there shall dress a sweeter sod Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. By fairy hands their knell is rung, By forms unseen their dirge is sung ; There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray, To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; And Freedom shall awhile repair, To dwell, a weeping hermit, there."
The settlement of East Bloomfield was commenced at the ssted time as that of Canandaigua. The east township was purchased by Capt. William Bacon, Gen. John Fellows, Elisha Lee, Ihr denn John Adams and Dr. Joshua Porter. Deacon Adams wa- tih pioneer settler and patriarch, as he brought with him a ley family, consisting of his wife, his sons John, Abner, Joseph, W liam and Jonathan ; his sons-in-law, Ephraim Rew, Lors H .... and - Hecox, with +' " wives; and Elijah Rose, a brother : law, and his family, fu three unmarried daughters. Joined # these were Moses Gunn, Lot Rew. John Barnes, Roger Spra. Asa Hickox, Benjamin Goss, John Keves and Nathaniel Norte : The company was from Berkshire County, Mass., and early it " spring of 1789, they left Schenectady for the then wilder :... some traveling by water with the furniture and stores, a! ! others going with pack horses, following the Indian trails. PO'E. they were joined by Augustus Porter, Thaddeus Keves, Joris ?? Eber Norton and Orange Woodruff, who, on their arrival. : the Adams family living in a log house 30x40 feet, which w first dwelling erected west of Canandaigua after white 5. commenced. To accommodate so large a family with bo's : berths, one above the other, were swung up on worden pihis ars into the walls. The emigrants fortunately brought on a few stock of provisions and a number of cows ; and, wild game weine plenty, they were enabled to live comfortably .. Dr. Datel Chapin was the early physician of Bloomfield, and was to second repre. sentative of Ontario County in the State Lezaliture. Amos Bronson was an early settler, and Benjamin find was in the new { country as early as 1791. He married a daughter of Deacon George Codding, of Bristol, and theirs was the first marriage in
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
the town, and indeed in the whole Phelps and Gorham Purchase. Nathaniel Norton was from Goshen, Conn., and founded the mills bearing his name, on Ganargwa Creek, in Bloomfield. He was an early Sheriff and representative of the County .- Daniel Gates located in Bloomfield in 1790, and built the first mill on Honeoye Creek. The first death was that of Lot Rue, in 1793. Gen. Fellows put up the first saw mill, on Mud Creek, in 1790, and the first store was opened in 1806, by Norton & Beach. Moses Sperry joined his fortunes to those of the new settlers in 1794, and James Sperry, one of his sons, fur- nished an interesting collection of reminiscences for the pages of Turner's History of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, from which we make some extracts. Mr. Sperry says :- "Among the trials of the first settlers, there were none more irritating than the de- struction of sheep and swine by the wolves and bears .. Often whole flocks of sheep would be slaughtered in the night by the wolves. Bears preyed upon the hogs, that, from necessity, the new settlers were obliged to let run in the woods for shack. One of the Coddings, in Bloomfield, came pretty near having a clinch with one, while in the woods splitting rails. Stooping down to pick up his ax to cut off a sliver, he turned around and found him- self confronted by a bear standing on his hind legs, with fore paws extended, to give him a hug. He declined the offer, struck the bear in the head with the ax, but making a glancing stroke, failed to penetrate the skull. "The bear fled, bearing off the ax, which was held by the wour " . skin and flesh."
"Although the privations of the first settlers were numerous and hard to bear; having often to go without meat, and sometimes bread ; obliged to go on horseback to mill, often fifteen and twenty miles; to go with poor shoes and moccasins in winter, and bare- foot in summer; yet, to their praise be it recorded, that they showed considerable zeal in the support of schools for their chil- dren. When our family arrived, in March, 1794, there was a school in the north-east corner of the town, kept by Laura Adams. The next spring a seven by ten log school house was put up about one and a half miles south-west of the center, where a school was kept by Lovisa Post. Betsey Sprague kept this school in the winter of '96 and '97. My eldest brother and myself attended this school in the winter, walking two and a half miles through the snow across the openings, not with 'old shoes and clouted' on our feet, but with rags tied on them to go and come in, taking them off in school hours."
Mr. Sperry speaks at some length of a young man, who, in the fall of 1797, came into the neighborhood one mile north of his father's, and introducing himself as a school teacher from the land of steady habits, proposed to the settlers that they form a new
.
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
district and he would keep the school. The proposition was accept- ed and all turned out, late in the season, and built another log school house, assisted by the young man, who kept the school during three successive winters. Mr. Sperry says :
"In this school the most of us learned for the first time that the earth is round and turns around on its axis once in twenty-four hours, and revolves around the sun once a year. I shall never for- get the teacher's manner of illustrating these facts. For want of a globe, he took an old hat, the crown having 'gone up to seed,' doubled in the old limber rim, marked with chalk a line around the middle for the equator, and another representing the ecliptic, and held it up toward the scholars, with the 'seed end' toward them, and turning it commenced the two revolutions. The simul- taneous shout which went up from small to great, was a 'caution' to all young school masters how they introduce new things to young pioneers. Although this school master was a favorite with parents and pupils, the most orthodox thought he was talking of something of which he knew nothing, and was teaching for sound doctrine what was contrary to the common sense of all; for everybody knew that the earth was flat and immovably fixed, and that the sun rose and set every day." The teacher who introduced this "pre- posterous" doctrine, became Justice of the Peace, a member of the Legislature, a representative in Congress, and was afterwards known as Gen. Micah Brooks, of Brooks' Grove, Livingston County.
The first meeting house in the Genesee country was erected in Bloomfield in 1801, Robert Powers being the builder. It was not finished, although used for religious services, till 1807 and '8. An- cient occupancy was clearly traced at the time of first settlement in Bloomfield. In the north-east corner of the town many gun bar- rels, locks and stock barrels, of French construction, and toma- hawks, were plowed up and used for mending and making agricul- tural implements. There were many old Indian burying grounds in the town, and when opened, ancient curiosities were discovered. The stones used by the Indians for peeling bark, skinning animals, and pounding their corn, were frequently found and preserved as curiosities by the settlers.
FARMINGTON was formed January 27, 1789, and took its name from Farmington, Conn. Its location is on the north border of the County, west of the center. The surface is nearly level in the south, but in the north it is broken, owing to the drift ridge peculiar to this section of country, which rise 50 to 100 feet above the general surface. Toward the north and west the decliv- ities are steep, but in the south they run off into gradual slopes. The streams are Mud and Beaver Creeks and Black Brook. A strip of land across the south part, embracing about three tier of
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS.
lots, has a clay soil. A marshy section lies north of this, and yet farther north the soil is a gravelly loam, very productive, with good proportions of arable meadow and pasture lands throughout the town. The amount of money expended for common school purposes in Farmington for the year 1866-7, was $4,472.92 ; the amount apportioned 8761; the value of school property, $5,590, and the average daily attendance 200.
New Salem (p. v.) is a small village of about 200 inhabitants, in the north part of the town. It contains about thirty houses, a church (Methodist Episcopal), and several shops. About half a mile east of New Salem are two churches, occupied respectively by the Orthodox and Hicksite branches of the Friends' Society. Both are large societies. In the south- .east part of the town there is another flourishing Hicksite church. Brownville, formerly Norton's Mills post office, is a hamlet, as is Eust Farmington. West Farmington is a post office, and Farming- ton, (p. v.,) in the south-west corner of the town, is a small station on the N. Y. C. R. R. At Brownville there was formerly a wool- en factory, which has been discontinued.
Fine crops of grain are raised in this town, and it is also devoted to grazing. Farmington was the first sale made by Phelps and Gorham, the purchasers being Nathan- iel Comstock, Benjamin Russell, Abraham Lapham, Ed- mund Jenks, Jeremiah Bro- 3, Ephraim Fish, Nathan Herendeen, Nathan Aldrich, Stephor anth, Benjamin Rickenson, William Ba- ker, and Dr. Daniel Brown. The deed was given to Nathan Com- stock and Benjamin Russell. All except Russell, Jenks, J. Brown, Fish. Rickenson, Baker and Smith, became settlers on the purchase. In 1759, Nathan Comstock, with two sons, Otis and Darius, and Robert Hathaway, came from Adams, Berkshire County, Mass., a part of them by the water route, landing at Geneva, with their provisions, and a part by land with a horse and some cattle. When the overland party arrived within 15 miles of Seneca Lake, a calf was added to their stock, which Otis Comstock carried on his back that distance. Arriving on the new purchase, they built a cabin, cleared four acres and sowed the ground to wheat. Their horse died, and Darius was obliged to act as a pack horse, go- ing through the woods to Geneva once a week, where he purchased provisions and carried them twenty miles on his back, to their home in the wilderness. When winter approached the party re- turned to Massachusetts, leaving Otis Comstock to care for the stock during the winter, with no neighbors, other than the Indians and wild beasts, nearer than Boughton Hill and Canandaigua. In Reb .. 1790, Nathan Comstock, with his large family, accompanied by several others, set out from Adams, Mass., for Farmington, and during the same year the little colony was increased by the addi-
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tion of about twenty-five others. Many of these pioneers were Friends, and about 1794 a meeting was organized, being the first. and, for a long period, the only one west of Utica. The first ! was that of Welcome Ierendeen, in 1790 ; the first martina .. . of Otis Comstock and Huldah Freeman, in 1792, and the fir- 1 .5 that of Elijah Smith, in 1793. Jacob and Joseph Smith to fa grist mill in 1793, and the first saw mill, in 1795. Wheat max harvested in 1790. The stump mortar was the main depende that preparing their grain for bread. In the fall of 1790, the chra !!! " had been greatly increased, and considerable fields of wheat ar. sown. Nathan Aldrich having raised some seed wheat that ** * son, Welcome Herendeen worked for him thirteen days for two. bushels and a half, sowed it, and when relating the story in alter years, having become owner of broad acres of wheat fields, used :.. remark that he never had to buy any wheat after that. The Cry: settlers of Farmington brought with them apple seeds and preah and plum pits, and soon had bearing orchards. For years the few settlers in distant neighborhoods went there for apples, which were a great luxury in those primitive days. Farmington and Blootr field cider, apples and apple sauce, was a great treat throughout the Holland Purchase in those times. The first frame builtny was put up by Joseph Smith and James D. Fish, of Cananda.cox, for an ashery, on the farm of Welcome Herendeen. The fry! frame barn was built by Annanias MeMillen for Isaac Hathde ...
in 1793. The same v McMillen put up the grist mil! ! , referred to, on Gana, gwa Creek, for Jacob and Joseph Snuth. tlers were known to come forty miles to this mill. Nota : of it now remains. Dr. Stephen Aldridge was the first physiis Nowhere in all the newly settled region was success so D' .. and unparalleled as in Farmington. The wholesome discipline : upright example of the Society of Friends preserved the ment from an excessive use of spirituous liquors, and from harmful indulgences, while the fruits of their proverbial in ... and economy gave the town the pre-eminence it now chjula.
GORIIAM was formed Jan. 27, 1789, as " Et" The name was changed to " Lincoln," April 17, 1806, and te Gorham, April 6, 1807. Hopewell was taken off in 1822. st & part of Canandaigua was annexed in 1824. It lies on the east shore of Canandaigua Lake, south-east of the center of the County, and has a rolling surface, the ridges rising in gradual sly & to a height of 20 to 200 feet above the valleys. Flint Creek is the principal stream. The soil in the east part is chiefly a gravelly loam, white in the west it consists of clay, and is generally fertile and produce tive. The town was named in honor of Nathaniel Gorham.
Gorham, (p. v.,) formerly called "Bethel." three miles from Gor.
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ham Station on the Canandaigua & Elmira R. R., contains three churches and ahout 300 inhabitants. Reed's Corners (p. v.) contains three churches and about 25 houses. The Town Fair Grounds, nicely enclosed, and containing suitable buildings, are located here. Rushville, (p. v.,) lies partly in the town of Gorham and partly in the town of Potter, Yates County. It is an incorporated village and contains about 800 inhabitants. There are four churches already in the place, and the Methodist Episcopal society is erect- ing a fine building at an estimated cost of 818,000. A hotel, sev- eral dry goods stores, a foundry, steam grist mill, boot and shoe stores, and a cabinet manufactory, comprise the business of the town.
There are now six churches in town. James Wood made the first settlement, at Reed's Corners, in 1789, and in 1790 a few set- tlers began to drop in along the route from Canandaigua to Gen- eva. In July of that year there were in town the families of Dan- iel Gates, Daniel Warren, - Sweet, Platt, Samuel Day and Israel Chapin, Jr., who had commenced the erection of mills upon the Outlet. Daniel Gates, Sr., was the first collector of taxes in the town. Among numerous other settlers in 1796-7 was Capt. Frederick Follet, whose adventures bordered on the mar- velous. He was an early settler of the Wyoming valley, and. at one time, in company with our others, was attacked by the In- dians, within sight of Wil' arre Fort. Three of his companions were murdered and scarped. Mr. Follet was pierced by two balls, one through each shoulder, stabbed nine ties with spears, scalped, and, but for the appearance of aid from the fort, would undoubtedly have been despatched with the tomahawk. His case was consid- ered hopeless, but the fort surgeon, Dr. William Hooker Smith, did all in his power to save his life, and was ultimately successful. Capt. Follet afterward entered the naval service, was captured, taken to Halifax and confined in a dungeon six months; was re- leased, twice recaptured, but finally returned to his native place, Dalton, Berkshire County, Mass., whenee he removed to Gorham. It is a singular coincidence that his eldest son who entered the navy as midshipman in 1812, was captured on board the Chesapeake in her engagement with the Shannon, and was also imprisoned six . months in the same dungeon previously occupied by his father. Capt. Follet's posterity were quite numerous, and all rose to hon- orable and useful positions in life, one of his sons, Orrin Follet, having been a member of the legislature, and another, Frederick Follet, having been at one time one of the Board of Canal Commis- sioners of this State. The first tavern in Gorham was opened in 1800, at Reed's Corners, by William Sherwood. The first grist mill was built by Levi Benton, the first saw mill by Buckley &
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Craft, in 1807, and the first school was taught by Timothy Moore in 1802.
The amount of school money expended in 1866-7 was $3,625.30; the amount apportioned 8921.67 ; the average daily attendance 237, and the value of school property $4,505.
HOPEWELL was formed from Gorham, March 29, 1822, and is an interior town, lying east of the center of the County. The prin- cipal streams are Canandaigua Outlet, Fall Creek and Fall Brook. The surface varies from a level to a rolling country, and has a gen- eral inclination toward the north. The soil is a sandy and gravelly loam in the west; and the same, intermixed with clay, in the centre and east.
Chapinville, (p. v.,) a station on the N. Y. C. R. R., contains a church and about 30 dwellings. Hopewell Centre ( p. v.) contains a church and about 25 dwellings, and Hopewell is a post office.
Settlement was commenced in this town at about the same time as in Gorham. Among the first settlers were Daniel Gates, Dan- iel Warner, - Sweet, Ezra Platt, Samuel Day, George and Israel Chapin, Jr., Frederick Follet, Benj. Wells and Thomas Saw- yer, mostly from Massachusetts, and William Wyckoff from Penn- sylvania. The first child, Benj. Wells, Jr., was born Feb. 4, 1791. Calvin Bacon taught the first school in 1792. The first tavern was kept by Ezra Platt, and the first mill was built by Oliver Phelps and Israel Chapin in 1789. There are five churches in town ; the first (Presbyterian) having been organized in 1808.
The amount of money expended for school purposes in this town in 1866-7, was $2,280.21; the amount apportioned, $806.19; the average daily attendance, 226, and the value of school property $5,585.
MANCHESTER was formed from Farmington, March 31, 1821, as " Burt," but the name was changed April 16, 1822. The town lies on the north border of the County, east of the center, and has a level surface in the south, while irregular sand and gravel ridges of the drift formation occupy the north part. Canandaigua Outlet, Fall Creek and Black Brook, are the chief streams. Hy- draulic limestone is quarried to some considerable extent at vari- ous points along the Outlet. The soil is a gravelly foam, and for fertility is unsurpassed by any section of the State. There are a number of flouring mills in town, which do an extensive local business.
Clifton Springs, (p. v.) is a flourishing village on the N. Y. C. R. R., and is situated in the east part of the town. It was incorpo- rated in 1859, and contains about 450 inhabitants. At this place
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are the celebrated Sulphur Springs, which have made Clifton a place of great resort for invalids, while the natural beauty of the village and surrounding country has drawn thither the tourist and the pleasure seeker. A hotel was erected here as a dispensary, in 1806, and a Water-cure was established in 1850 by a stock com- pany, with a capital of $45,000. A commodious building, capable of accommodating 150 patients, was erected, but has now given place to an immense brick structure with greatly increased facili- ties. The grounds are beautifully laid out with lawns, ponds, walks, etc., and the place presents unusual attractions to the invalid. Two kinds of springs are connected with the institution, the fresh water and White Sulphur Springs, the former containing carbonic acid gas in large quantities. The water of the Sulphur Spring was an- alyzed by Dr. Chilton in 1852, with the following result, in grains to one quart :
Sulphate of lime, . 17,30 grs.
magnesia,. 4,12
soda, 1,94
2,42
Chloride of sodium,
2,33
calcium,.
1,02
magnesia, 1,02
trace.
Organic matter,
Total, 33,42
ILydrosulphuric and carponic acids are also found in small quan- tities. An extensive Air Cure has just been established by a stock company, with a paid up cash capital of 875,000. The buildings formerly known as the Clifton Springs Hotel, situated at the head of Main street, in beautiful grounds, comprising about thirty acres, have been purchased, and extensive additions made thereto. The main feature of this institution is the use of the Compressed Air Baths, a method of treatment but lately introduced into this coun- try. Special attention was directed to it by observing the effects wrought upon persons descending in the modern Diving Bell, in which the air is condensed according to the depth to which it de- svends. It was noticed, among other things, that persons seriously affected with deafness, could hear distinctly while subject to the pressure. Accordingly experiments were commenced about thirty years ago, the results of which were published in Germany and France, and they were so satisfactory in many types of disease, that establishments were opened in the principal cities in those countries. They still continue in operation and are now being in- troduced into Canada and the United States. As the system is comparatively new and unknown, it may be interesting to our readers to state that the Air Bath consists essentially of an iron
Carbonate of lime,
magnesia, 3,98
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compartment, large enough to contain eight or ten persons, with an entrance door lighted with plate glass, in which the pressure is regulated to any required density by means of valves. The air is forced by a steam engine into a Purifier, where all impurities are removed by proper chemical agents, and is conducted thence by a pipe into the bath room, where it passes off through a safety valve. The amount of pure air thus passing through the room is from fifty to one hundred cubic feet per minute, and a constant supply of pure air, of double density, is thus secured for as long a time as is deemed necessary for the good of the patient. The Air Cure went into operation about the 1st of May, 1867, and is meeting with flatter- ing success. There are several extensive vineyards near the vil- lage of Clifton. Manchester is a post village of 374 inhabitants, and Manchester Center is also a post village, containing about 20 houses. Shortsville (p. v.) on the N. Y. C. R. R., is a thriving town, possessing considerable importance on account of its manu- facturing interests. It is situated on the Canandaigua Outlet, which here offords no inconsiderable water power. The manufacture of seed drills and plaster sowers is carried on extensively, one com- pany turning out about 400 yearly. This company holds patents on the Brown, Empire, and Jessup drills, considered the best in use, and gives employment to a number of mechanics. About 150 tons of castings are turned out annually at this place. A company is also engaged in the manufacture of an Improved Potato Digger. Plows, cultivators, spokes, and general wood work, are also im- portant items in the business of this growing village. There is quite an extensive foundry in operation, also a woolen factory and paper mill. A large establishment for the manufacture of printing, writing and wrapping paper, is being erected the present year. A new school building, neatly and substantially constructed, is being put up, and a graded school will be established. There is one church (Presbyterian,) in the village. Port Gibson, (p. ".) is on the Erie Canal, and is the only point where that important public work touches the County. It contains about 50 houses, one church, two stores, and a number of shops. An extensive steam planing mill and stave factory, and a large malt house, are situated on the canal. Gypsum, (p. o.) formerly called Plainsville, is a small set- tlement, containing about 15 houses, a flouring mill, capable of manufacturing 50 bbls. per diem, a plaster-mill and a saw-inill.
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