USA > New York > Tioga County > Historical gazetter of Tioga County, New York, 1785-1888. Pt. 1 > Part 17
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The first school was taught by David McMaster. in the shoe- shop of Josiah Ball, and the shanty of Josiah Wilson. This early interest in educational matters has never flagged. The schools of Berkshire have enjoyed more or less celebrity. The district schools have received the support of the citizens generally, and select schools were popular and well patronized until the passage of the free school act. In 1845 Rev. William Bradford founded the Brookside Seminary, which soon passed into the hands of Rev. Frederick Judd, and became noted as a training school for boys, Nor was the school a local one. . The students came from adjoining towns and counties. and not a few have attained prom- inence in fields of politics, literature, and the arts and sciences. One mile south of the village existed at one time. a boarding- school for young ladies, but its existence was short. There is at present in process of erection, a handsome two-story school build- ing.
WILSON CREEK postoffice is located in the southern part of the town.
The Berkshire Tannery was built by S. & J. W. Leonard & Sons, in 1849. It was operated by water-power, and made upper- leather. On May 12, 1865, it was purchased by the present pro- prietors, Davidge, Horton & Co., who enlarged its capacity, and added steam-power. The tannery gives employment to forty hands, and turns out 40,000 sides of sole leather per annum.
John Ball's Sars-Mill was built by Deodatus Royce, in 1849, and purchased by Mr. Ball in 1851. It is operated by water- power, and cuts 300,000 feet of lumber per annum.
The Berkshire Flouring Mills, Leet & Hollenbeck, proprietors,
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was originally built by Judge David Williams, in 1818. The present building was erected by Mr. Williams, in 1839. It is operated by water-power, has three runs of stones, and grinds annually about 40,000 bushels of grain.
The Speedsville Creamery and Cheese Factory, located on road 18, was built by a stock company in 1868. The stock was subse- quently bought in by John Higgins and Lyman Kingman, and in 1886 a half interest was bought by George R. Rounsevell. The milk of 400 cows is manufactured into butter and cheese annually.
M. A. Owen & Brother's Cooperage, on road I, employs seven hands and turns out 10,000 butter tubs per year.
Sherwood & Horton's Hub Factory was established by Sherwood & Lamson, in 1882, and on the Ioth of the following January the firm was changed to its present title. They employ thirty hands and turn out about 25,000 wagon hubs annually. In March, 1883, the manufacture of beer shavings was added, in which quite an extensive business is done.
Milo G. Japhet's Saw-Mill was built by C. B. Hemingway, in 1883, and was purchased by the present proprietors in 1885. He manufactures 500,000 feet of lumber, 400,000 chair rounds, 500,000 toy broom-handles, and 10,000 platforms for platform rocking- chairs per year, employing eight hands.
Military. History .- Frederick Shaff, a soldier of the revolution, died here in 1860, at the advanced age of 107 years. Demas Orton 'a pensioner of the Mexican war died here in 1884, aged about 100 years.
Although the vicinity of Berkshire was not without its slave- holders at an early day, there existed a general and widespread opposition to this "peculiar institution " of the South for years preceding the rebellion, and the town was not without its members of the "underground railroad." Frederick Douglas and other slaves received substantial aid from this organization on their journey to Canada, Douglas having been a guest of the Hon. C. P. Johnson, an old abolitionist. Consequently, at the several calls for troops the town responded in men and money, the ladies assisting with hospital supplies. Charles R. Eastman and Earnest de Vallier were the first to enlist, with Gen. Isaac Catlin, then Captain of Co. H., 3d N. Y. Infy.
The total call during the war was for 115 men from the town of Berkshire, which was filled by thirteen drafted, all of whom paid $300.00 each, by the enlistment of forty one men from abroad, and the balance enlisted from the town. Of this number,
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three deserted ; only nineteen are known to be living ; eighteen, or nearly twenty-eight per cent. were killed or died during their term of enlistment ; eighteen came home broken in health and died during the few succeeding years; the fate of sixteen is unknown ; and the balance are men whose health has suffered from exposure and hardships, whose best years were spent in the service of their country,-years which to most men decide their success in after life.
Church History .-- The first church building, a barn-like struc- ture, was located upon the farm of Dr. E. Mayor, and was then the only house of worship within the present limits of the county. Services were held morning and afternoon, with Sabbath-school in the interim. The congregation was composed of residents scattered over a large territory. The roads new and almost im- passable. No little devotion was evinced by these pioneers who remained in this well-ventilated structure four or five hours with no fire except that afforded by the "foot-stove," an almost obso- lete word to the present generation.
In 1817 a more pretentious church was built near the site of the former. The erection of the frame was the occasion of a demonstration, the like of which the valley had never seen. People came from a distance and remained three days, until the last timber avas in place.
There are now three churches in the town,-the Congrega- tional, the Methodist, at the village, and a Baptist church situ- ated in the northwest corner of the town. The Congregational society has existed since the beginning of the present century. They worshiped in a building three miles below the village until the completion of the one now occupied, in December, 1834.
The society is a strong one and is in a prosperous condition, under the pastoral guidance of Rev. J. J. Hough. The Meth- odist church was organized in 1825, and in 1827 the present church building was erected, and the society, which has grown in strength and numbers, has in contemplation a handsome place of worship to be erected in the near future. Its present pastor is Rev. Mr. Beers.
C ANDOR# the largest township in the county, lies in the central part of the same, and is bounded north by the county line, east by Berkshire, Newark Valley and a small part of
* Prepared by Rev. Charles C. Johnson, late of Candor, now of Sherburne, N. Y.
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Owego, south by Tioga and west by Spencer and a small part of the county line. It originally formed a part of the Boston and Flint Purchase, the history of which has been detailed in the opening chapters of this work. Of this location. there were taken to make the present town the whole of Township 12, the northeast and southeast section of Township 9, southeast section of Township io, and south half of Township II. Prior to the completion of this arrangement, certificates of location and cer- tificates of survey had been granted in this town to John W. Ford, 350 acres, January 23, 1794, known as Ford Location ; John Can- tine, 800 acres, where Willseyville now is, and known as the Big Flatt, and another plat of 1,200 acres; to James Clinton 200 acres : Nathan Parshall, 200 acres, these latter having been granted March 7, 1792, and all . located on the road leading from the mouth of the Owego river to the head of Cayuga lake. The town was set off from Spencer, February 22. ISit, and has an area of 51, 334 acres, of which 33,572 acres is improved land.
The surface of Candor consists of high, broad, rolling uplands, separated into ridges by the valleys of streams flowing south- erly. Its streams are the Catatonk, Doolittle, and Shendaken creeks. The Catatonk creek heads in a small marsh in the town of Spencer, and takes a southeasterly course of twenty miles. uniting with the Owego creek a short distance above its mouth. The valley along this creek varies from 2,000 to 3,000 yards in width. Shendaken creek enters the Catatonk at Booth Settle- ment. Doolittle creek is a small stream that joins the West Owego creek at Weltonville. The soil in the valleys consists generally of gravelly loam, and yields fine crops of wheat, corn, etc. The uplands are better adapted for grass than grain. The hills were originally mostly covered with hemlock and pine, and the valleys with heavy growths of pine, oak, beech and maple. In instances the pines have reached 175 feet in height and five feet in diameter, and immense quantities of lumber of fine qual- ity have been manufactured and sent to market at an early day from this valley. The streams furnish abundant water privileges for manufacturing purposes, and saw-mills, grist-mills and tan- neries have long been in active and extensive operation. The farms are largely used for dairying purposes, and the connec- tions by the two railroads which cross the town, a history of which we have given in an earlier chapter, furnish ample oppor- tunities for shipping.
Settlement and Growth .- That part of the Watkins and Flint
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Purchase lying in the territory now designated as the town of Candor, was surveyed in 1793, by two men from Farmington, Conn. They were Capt. Joel Smith and Isaac Judd. Those who were thinking to settle here, selected lots of 104 acres each, for which they paid seven shillings per acre.
The deeds were made out in June of that year, after which four men with their families came on from Connecticut, follow- ing from Owego an Indian trail leading up the Cattatong (now Catatonk) valley. They were Elijah Smith, Collins Luddington, Thomas Hollister, and Job Judd, Sr. They halted at a spot near the present cemetery. Here the first trees were felled for actual settlement.
Indians of the Onondaga tribe had a fort on the bank of the the Catatonk creek, and also wigwams in the western part of the town. They were then friendly to the white settlers, though in previous years white captives were imprisoned in the fort. Some of these captives were ransomed and sent back to Wyom- ing, Pa., by Amos Draper, an Indian agent living where Owego now is.
These first settlers began at once to fell the forest trees and erect for themselves habitations. Thomas Hollister built his log cabin on the lot now occupied by the cemetery. Elijah Smith settled near by. Collins Luddington began clearing the forest adjacent to Elijah Smith ; then moved down the trail, and cleared and built on the spot now marked by the home of Harvey Ward. Job Judd went farther down the stream, and began clearing on the farm which has since for many years been the homestead of John Kelsey. Mr. Judd had been a soldier in the revolutionary army. He moved in 1820 to Indiana.
Joseph Booth, of Farmington, Conn., purchased a lot for his son, Orange F. Booth, in 1793, and had it deeded to him. The boy was then twelve years of age. In 1801 he came on and set- tled on the farm, where he spent the remainder of his days. His six sons settled in Candor, three of whom, Dennis, Orange and Edwin A., are now living.
Another revolutionary soldier, Israel Mead, came in March, / 1795, from Bennington, Vt., bringing his wife and five children with an ox-team and sled. He settled in the west part of the town, on the farm now owned by Mr. Schofield. His son, Wil- liam Mead, was the first white child born in what is now the town of Candor.
Joel Smith, Jr., another soldier from the patriot army, 12*
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brought his family of wife and five children from Connecticut in * the spring of 1795. He was a captain in the 3d Connecticut regi- ment, served through the war of the revolution, being present at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, in 1781. He surveyed a por- tion of this territory in 1793. So accurate was he as a surveyor, that his surveys are referred to even at this day, to settle land- marks and titles. He taught school in Candor and Owego, and is spoken of as an active, energetic man, methodical in all his business, and living to the advanced age of eighty-seven years.
Elijah Hart and David Whittlesey came to the settlement here in the winter of 1794-95. They built a small grist-mill and a saw- mill where the tannery and saw-mill of John Ryan recently stood. This first mill was burned in 1813. Abel Hart and his son, Capt. Abel Hart, Jr., came from Stockbridge, Mass., to Choconut, now Union, Broome county, in 1792 ; four years later Capt. Hart set- tled in Candor, building a plank house, which he enlarged by ad- ditions as need required. In this house religious meetings were held, and Capt. Hart having obtained a license to keep a public house, also opened it as an inn for travelers. His wife was Rachel Smeden, of Union, N. Y., by whom he had nine children. His son Abel, born September 23, 1814. married Louisa, daughter of Leonard Hall, of Danby, N. Y., by whom she has three children, viz .: George H., Adelaide A., wife of Amos Hixon, of Ithaca, and Lewis A., of Candor. George married Mary Carter, of Greene, N. Y., and has one son, Albert C. Lewis A., married Carrie, daughter of William Young, of Binghamton, N. Y., by whom he has two sons, A. Ralph and Harold Lester.
Thomas Hollister kept the first public house, in 1795. He also built the first log barn, and the first framed house. Bringing the seeds from Connecticut, he raised young apple trees, and set out the first orchard in the new settlement.
Settlements were made on the Big Flats in 1797. by Jacobus Shonich, and at Park Settlement by Capt. Daniel Park, Elisha Forsyth and Thomas Park. William Bates came from Owego in 1796 and settled on the road to Wilseyville. His wife died in Spencer, at the advanced age of 102 years. Capt. Eli Bacon and Seth Bacon settled here in 1798.
In 1802 Russel Gridley settled in the west part of the town, on the farm now owned by his grandson. William C. Gridley, on the old road to Spencer, north side of the creek. He built the first framed house on that road. The next year Selah Gridley, his father, came on from Farmington, Conn., and, with his son,
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purchased 1,900 acres of land. He was an ex-soldier of the revo- lution, serving on Washingtons's body-guard. He appeared always well dressed, in the mode of the day ; long stockings and knee- breeches, shining shoe buckles, and three-cornered hat. Equally precise in his speech, he won the name of " Deacon Slick." Rus- sel Gridley moved over to the new road to Spencer, where he built a log house, leaving for several years the tree tops on the first course of logs.
In 1805 Jacob Clark came from Orange county and bought in the cast part of the town the first farm sold from the Isaac Bron- son purchase of 10,000 acres. His family came to the settlement with a team of horses. His brother, Samuel Clark, came a little before. The next summer he bought the farm now owned by his nephew, Hiram Clark. Their nearest neighbor to the north was in Caroline, and on the south at Owego creek. Three years later Elisha Johnson settled two miles south, and John Brown just north of them, while Walter Hamilton located near.
In 1806 a number of settlers with large families located at Crine's Corners, in the north part of the town. Among these were Elias Williams, John and Joseph White, Pearson Phillips and Daniel Bacon. At the age of eleven years Harvey Potter came to Candor, with Dea. Asa North. He became a prominent townsman, and for many years was an excellent leader of sacred music. .
In 1810 Capt. Hart built a framed house, in which he lived and kept a public house for many years. He augmented his busi- ness with a blacksmith shop, and being a public spirited man he erected and run a distillery-then supposed to be a necessity in any civilized community, as no family wished to be without ardent spirits. In those days women had practical acquaintance with the loom, so Capt. Hart built a house for weaving. In the looms of this " weave house " three grades of woolen cloth were manufactured, and linen cloth woven for bedding and for frocks. In 1806 Capt. Hart and Thomas Gridley built a saw-mill, farther up the creek, and lumber was soon plenty enough to give every log house a floor. Previous to sawed lumber, split logs were put down for flooring. These primitive log cabins were covered with a bark roof, supported by poles. Not unfrequently a large sec- tion of bark served as a door, and oiled paper admitted some light at the window. A few stones served as a fire-place, and an open- ing in the roof above them let out the smoke, and let in the day- light. Until fodder could be raised on the clearings, the cattle
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subsisted on rations browsed from fallen tree tops. A few pota- toes were early raised, and abundant deer in the forest furnished venison. Bears disputed with men the possession of the few swine they brought with them, and wolves made sheep hus bandry a precarious industry. Aleck Graham proved himself a mighty hunter, killing the bears and trapping the wolves. Grain was carried a long distance to mill, or bruised in a hard-wood stump, hollowed out for a mortar. A yard of calico print sold for one dollar, and a bushel of oats sufficed to pay for a pound of . nails.
In 1805 the sons of Bissel Woodford came from Farmington, Conn. Chauncey and Ira settled at West Candor, and Cyrus in Spencer. Their cousins, Truman, Ozias and Sylvester Wood- ford also settled in town. Ebenezer Lake came in 1813, and Elijah Blinn, Beri Strong and other neighbors formed the Blinn settle- ment, in 1814. Hon. Jacob Willsey from Fairfield, Herkimer county, gave his name to Willseyville, in 1815. The Woodbridge families settled in the southern part, and John Kelsey in 1818.
Mr. Lewis, the father of Thomas N. Lewis, bought 1,000 acres of the Watkins and Flint Purchase, but never lived in this region. In 1825 Jonathan B. Hart his nephew, came here from Connecti- cut as his agent. For many years he was the undertaker of the town, and ,was prominently identified with the earlier Sunday school interest in the community.
At an early date there were twenty-two taverns on the road from Ithaca to Owego. This turnpike was established on an Indian trail in 1808. In 1797 a turnpike from Catskill Landing on the Hudson river, was opened as far as the town of Catharine. Over this for many years were drawn supplies of iron, tin, dry goods and implements. The first store was kept by Philip Case, near the location of the North Candor station of the E., C. & N. R. R. Daniel Olivet taught the first school, in 1797. Joel Smith also taught school, and was the first justice of the peace. Dr. Horatio Worcester was the first physician. Horatio Durkee, came from Meredith, N. H., and built the first tannery, on the site now occupied by the woolen factory of Capt. Barager. Another tannery was afterward built, by John Ryan and Hiram Smith ; the Estey tannery much later. After the disastrous fire which swept the settlement in IS13, Caleb Sackett erected a grist-mill, which was succeeded by a better one built by John Kirk and Mr. Tryon. A woolen-mill was erected in 1824, by the brothers Arte- mus and Isaac V. Locey. This mill was sold to Joseph Mathews
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in 1838. Isaac V. Locey manufactured wool-carding machinery for a series of years.
Charles Frederick Barager was the youngest of eleven children, and the seventh son born to Samuel Barager and Ruhamah Sears. His father, Samuel Barager, descended from the Holland Dutch, and was born in Albany County, N. Y., in 1793. He served in the war of 1812, and for his services in said war received a land warrant for 160 acres of government land, and before he died he was placed upon the U. S. pension rolls, and after his death the pension was continued to his widow during her life. At the close of the war, in 1814, he married Rubamah Sears, and the year fol- lowing, 1815, they came into the wilderness of Tioga county, and settled in the town of Candor. The name of Samuel Barager is inseparably connected with the history of Tioga county and the town of Candor. On his arrival at his new home he taught school, and as the sparse population learned his worth they placed him in offices of trust. For many years he was supervisor of bis town, and in 1829 was sent to the legislature as a member of assembly, and was the colleague of Millard Fillmore. On his return home from Albany, he was elected justice of the peace, and many times was elected associate judge. As the population in- creased, he grew in its esteem, and from far and near " Judge Barager" >was referred to as the arbitrator of nearly every diffi- culty, the judge of nearly every dispute. In his official capacity he always advised friendly settlement. and when litigation could not be avoided the confidence of his neighbors in him and his judgment was such that an appeal therefrom was seldom taken, and when it was taken never reversed. He held office for over half a century consecutively, and died in the harness of public service, in April. IS71, full of years and good deeds, and the large concourse of truly mourning friends who followed his remains to the grave, attested his usefulness by asking the question " Where can we find one to fill his place?"
Mr. Barager's mother, Ruhamah Sears, was directly descended" . from Richard Sears, who came from England in 1620. Her father was Daniel Sears, who came to Albany county in 1793. from near Danbury, Conn. Her father, Daniel, and her grandfather, Knowles Sears, served in the war of the revolution, the former as private, and the latter as captain. The mother of Ruhamah Sears was Catharine Warren, at whose home General Washington and staff often stopped, near Danbury, Conn. Ruhamah was born in Al- bany county, in 1796. She inherited the devoted, industrious and
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frugal nature so proverbial of her New England ancestry, so much so that her home duties and devotion to her family, and services and charity to her neighbors absorbed her life. Mentally she was remarkably clear and comprehensive. Religiously she was the embodiment of true piety. She was the true wife and the devoted mother, and no more expressive words can be said of her than her appreciative children had chiseled upon her monument in the cemetery in Candor, where she was buried in April, 1878, " Dear Mother, we still look up to thee."
Charles Frederick Barager was born in Candor, December 5, 1838. His boyhood was devided between the district school, the old homestead farm, and the " sports of the village green." Ambitious to know more of the world than could be learned in the quiet village of his birth, he started in the fall of 1859 for a trip through the South. He spent nearly a year in St. Tammany Parish, La., and returned home in the fall of IS60, satisfied, for the time being, with travel. He entered a select school and with renewed energy applied himself to the task of completing his education. But in the spring of 1861 the alarm of war filled the land, and fresh from witnessing the crime of slavery, and filled with indignation, because it existed in our country boasting of its wonderful freedom, he dropped his books and enlisted under the first call for troops, May 21, 1861. He was chosen first lieutenant by his company, which was Co. K., and it was assigned to the 26th N. . Y. Vols. With this regiment he only served a few months, and returned home and raised another company, which was Co. H., 137th regiment. Of this company he was chosen captain, and with it he served during the war. At Gettysburg, on the evening of July 2, 1863, he was ordered by General Green to take his command and advance from Culps Hill and engage the advancing skirmish line of the enemy. The rebels were in such force that he was driven back to the light line of earth works from which he started, but in the engagement he was . wounded and carried from the field. He was also wounded in the battle of Peach Tree Creek, Ga. He was engaged in the battles of Chancellorsville, Va., Gettysburg, Pa., Peach Tree Creek, Ga., Wauhatchie, Tenn., Lookout Mountain and seige of Atlanta, besides many minor engagements and skirmishes. With impaired health he was mustered out of the service at the close of the war and returned to his home, and as soon as his health would permit he again turned his attention to the acquirement of knowledge, and in 1867 he entered the Albany Law University,
Charles Faragon
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from which he graduated and was admitted to the bar in 1868. While in search of an inviting place to practice his profession in the Southwest, he became interested in the blackwalnut lumber business in Missouri and Illinois, and from that he engaged in other business enterprises, and finally abandoned his profession altogether. He grew oranges in Florida, was a merchant in the Red river valley of the north, and a lumberman on the shores of Lake Superior. In 1876 he returned to the old homestead, in his native village, to be with his aged mother and to give her that supreme satisfaction of spending her last days under the old roof which had sheltered her in joy and sorrow for so many years. Not wishing to be idle he purchased the Candor Woolen Mills, and operated them with such vigor and success that in ISSo and 18St he built a new mill, all of which he is now running. He was always an active Republican, but it was not until 1879 that he became a candidate for office, in which year he was elected supervisor of his town, redeeming it from Democratic rule. He declined to become a candidate the second time ; he also declined the use of his name for office again, until 1883 he was persuaded to become the candidate for member of assembly, in his native county of Tioga. In 1882, and for the first time in more than twenty years, the Democrats elected the member in Tioga county, and to recover the lost ground Captain Barager was unanimously placed in the field and was elected by nearly four hundred majority. He was re-elected in 1884. In the assembly of 1884 and '85 he served upon many important committees, and also served upon the special committee to investigate the armories and arsenals of the State. He was appointed one of the com- mittee of the legislature to accompany the remains of General Grant from Albany to New York, and to attend his funeral in that city August 8, 1885. In 1885 he was elected senator of the 26th senatorial district, by over 3,000 majority. During his term as senator he was chairman of the committee on poor laws and state prisons, and served upon other important committees. The convention of his county, July 15, 1887, unanimously recommended him for re-nomination, and allowed him to select the delegates to the senatorial convention.
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