USA > New York > Tioga County > Historical gazetter of Tioga County, New York, 1785-1888. Pt. 1 > Part 30
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tions for emigration to this new scene of action. These were few, as the journey was made in a one-horse wagon, which car- ried beside himself, such articles as he deemed necessary to the practice of his profession in a new country, and also certain arti- cles of merchandise with which he proposed to add to his resources in a country where shops were not. With this modest equipment he left his father's house in November, in the year ISHI, to make a journey of more than two hundred miles, over bad roads in severe weather, to an unknown country. He crossed the Hudson at Coxsackie; we are not told his route,- but it brought him to Owego and thence to the Wappasening. He passed through the country and went directly to the house of his brother, on the Wysox. Here he remained a few weeks to rest, and then adding a few hundred dollars' worth of goods from his brother's store to those he had brought with him, he returned to his place of destination and took up his quarters at the house of Jacob Middaugh, where he arrived the 7th of January, 1812. Here he hired a couple of rooms, one for an office and store and the other for a bedroom, and Mr. Middaugh having agreed to board him, he there began his long career in the valley of the Susquehanna. His accommodations were limited, and his board by no means luxurious, but he has often been heard to say, that blessed with health and hope and indomitable courage, the months that he spent there were among the happiest of his life.
The ground where the village now stands was, as we have said, a part of that purchase by Caleb Wright. It was now, at least a part of it, in the possession of Robert Williams, a son-in- law of Mr. Wright. He owned the land on the east side of the street running south to the foot of the rising ground which for some years seemed to form the boundary to the village in that direction. This was sold in acre lots to the emigrants as they came in, there being eight between the corner and the foot of the hill. Dr. Barstow purchased the corner lot, for which he paid the sum of one hundred dollars. Opposite this corner on the river side stood a log house, occupied by Simmons Clapp, while a few rods farther up stood another, belonging to Mr. Williams him- self. There had, until this time, been no resident physician south of the river, and Dr. Barstow's presence in the town becoming known, he was soon in the enjoyment of considerable practice, which constantly increased. The prospect of ultimate success soon became so encouraging that he very soon built a house, and about a year after his arrival he married a daughter of Judge
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Coryell and commenced house-keeping. Ile soon after put up another building for a store and office.
The next arrival that we hear of was George Kirby, who had been an acquaintance and intimate friend of Dr. Barstow in Great Barrington. One day, in the summer of 1814, he sur- prised his friend by driving up to his door with very much such a horse and wagon as had brought him into the country, and laden, too, with materials for his business. He purchased land nearly opposite that of Dr. Barstow, on the river street, where he built a house. The next summer he returned to Massachu- setts for his wife and child. Mr. Kirby was by trade a shoc- maker, which proved a most lucrative business, and he was soon able to build a tannery, and afterwards a large building for the manufacture and sale of shoes. To these he added other indus- tries and was soon one of Nichols' most prosperous men. He built the first steam mill in the town, a few years after.
Other emigrants came in, and the lots belonging to Mr. Will- iams were soon sold. The land on the opposite side of the street, which probably still belonged to Mr. Wright, extending south from the river street some twenty or thirty rods, was for a long time unsold and unenclosed. This strip, with the exception of the upper part, or church lot, eventually came into the posses- sion of the heirs of Major Platt, and was enclosed for building purposes. Among those who purchased lots of Mr. Williams previous to 1820 were Captain Peter Joslin, Dr. John Petts, Dr. John Everitt, James Thurston, Isaac Raymond, Joshua Brown, and many others whose names are yet heard in the town.
Henry and Wright Dunham, two of a numerous family of brothers who came into the town at different times from Madi- ison county, purchased farms up the Wappasening, where Henry Dunham, who was a son-in-law of Caleb Wright, built a grist- mill, in 1822, which is still owned by his son-in-law, Samuel Dun- ham. Silvenus Dunham, who came later, built a carding ma- chine and fulling-mill, which were for years the only ones in the town.
Not far from 1820, Major Platt left his farm up the river, and came-down to " The Corners," by which euphonious appellation the village was long known by those living out of it, and built a very good house where he kept a hotel up to the time of his death, in 1825. This house, which must now be the oldest in the village, and is still one of the best, is at present occupied for the same purpose by a grandson of Major Platt, who bears his name.
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A store and house were also built directly opposite, which were occupied soon after by Nehemiah Platt, who was a prosperous merchant and business man for a good many years.
In 1819 Dr. Barstow purchased the homestead farm of Caleb Wright, then recently deceased, of his grandson, James Wright. This is believed to have been nearly the last piece remaining of the old man's originally large property. This added farming to Dr. Barstow's already varied business. He not long after this built a distillery, which probably did not pay, as it was soon abandoned. He also erected a small building on the Wright farm for the manufacture of potash, which he carried on for some years, sending a considerable quantity every year to New York. This, too, finally became unprofitable, and was given up. In 1833 he purchased the mills at the mouth of the creek, of John Cassell.
Although the town was fast becoming agricultural, yet a large lumber trade from a considerable part of the country round about centered there for many years, and its purchase and sale neces- sarily made a large part of the businesss of the merchant, and sometimes of the farmer, as it constituted an important and fre- quently the only medium of exchange between them and poor settlers, while he was trying to turn his own land into a farm. The production of lumber, taking it from the felling of trees in the woods. to its sale in the markets of Southern Pennsylvania, was a most laborious pursuit, involving not only hard work, but often a good deal of risk to life and limb. The trade helped to develop the resources of the country, and many of those engaged in it, made it very profitable, though few made fortunes; and when it finally gave place to the cultivation of the soil, the coun try was more prosperous. It yet has its place among the indus- tries of the country, but the manner of carrying it on has entirely changed. Previous to 1825, all the goods purchased in New York by the merchants of our town had to be brought by teams from Catskill on the Hudson. In that year the completion of the Erie canal brought them to Ithaca, which was within a two days jour- ney, one going and one coming. In 1833 the Ithaca and Owego railroad brought them to Owego, which was very near home. In 1852 the Erie railroad brought them to Smithboro, and now the D., L. & W. road brings them to our doors. So much for the march of modern improvement.
Dr. Barstow not long after becoming a house holder, was ap- pointed justice of the peace, his first commission being for the town of Owego. It was during the same year that the territory
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south of the river was made a part of Tioga. In the year 1815, and the two succeeding years, he was elected to the assembly of the state, and soon after that to the senate, the members of which body then held their places for four years. In ISI8 he succeeded Judge Coryell as first judge of the county, and was in 1825, and again in 1838, elected by the legislature treasurer of the state. During the frequent absences from home which these positions required, it became necessary to find some person who could attend to his affairs at home, and at his solicitation, Dr. John Everitt, a young man just commencing the practice of medicine " in his native town of Sharon, Conn., came to Nichols, and was taken in by him as partner, and became a member of his family. This gentleman, two years after, married a daughter of Judge Corvell, and settled in Nichols. Becoming discontented, however, after a while, for some reason, he went back with his wife and family to the East, and lived for some years in Duchess county, N. Y. He returned eventually to Nichols, where his descend- ants still live. Dr. Barstow, who was never fond of his profession, gave it up entirely before the departure of Dr. Everitt, and Dr. Petts, who was by this time settled in the village with a wife, had the monopoly of the profession until the arrival of Dr. John Chub- buck, who came in to the village about 1830 or 1831.
In 1824, as we have shown, the town was set off from Tioga and received an organization of its own. The village had been called Rushville by Dr. Barstow, in honor of Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, the founder of the system of medical practice most in vogue at that day. The town would probably have received this name, but when it came to the establishment of the postoffice, it was discovered that there was already a town of that name in the state, in Yates county ; a new name therefore had to be found. It was finally called Nichols, in honor of Colonel Nichols, who was then in possession of the rights as patentee, which formerly vested in Colonel Hooper. In return for this compliment, Col. Nichols directed Judge Coryell to give 8200.00 to the town to be used as it pleased in the erection of some public building. This was finally used towards the building of the church. The first postmaster in the new town was Charles R. Barstow. Until this time there was no postoffice south of the river, the mails for the town all being brought from Smithboro. There was probably at that time a new mail iine established from Owego through Nichols to Towanda, the county seat of Bradford. There was certainly such a one in operation in 1830, bringing us a mail about
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three times a week. About that time a passenger coach and four horses was put on it, but probably did not prove a success and before long was taken off. There was for a time a postoffice estab- lished at Canfield Corners, about four miles up the river on this same line, but it was removed before many years. There is now another office in the southeastern part of the town called East Nichols.
The clearing up of the forests had left the country covered with pine stumps. To get rid of these unsightly objects became a problem of no small magnitude. The stumps of other trees would soon decay and were easily removed, but the roots of the pine which extended to an immense distance from the trunk and were filled with turpentine, it used to be said would last forever. Various attempts were made at a somewhat early period in the history of the village to invent some machine for pulling them ; but without success. The science of mechanics was not perhaps well understood, as no one seemed able to hit upon any method by which sufficient power could be obtained to dislodge these "old settlers." It was finally reserved for Mr. Briggs, a black- smith in the village of Nichols, about the year 1832, to invent such a machine. It consisted of a number of cogged wheels of iron of graduated sizes working into each other, the power being obtained by what is known in mechanics as the " decrease of motion." In this way he constructed a machine of immense power which, worked by a single yoke of oxen, not only pulled up the stumps with their tremendous roots, but was also applied to the moving of houses. By the aid of this machine, which has since then been simplified and improved, but which, it is believed, was the first successful invention of the kind, the face of the country improved rapidly, and the value of the farms very much increased. The stumps being drawn, it then became a question as to what was to be done with them. It was almost an endless task to burn them. though that often had to be done. A few were thrown into the river, but the freshets instead of carrying them down to the sea, floated them up on the flats. At length some shrewd genius con- ceived the idea of making them into fences, which proved a great success. They were placed side by side, the roots all the same way, and when placed along the highway these roots towering into the air sometimes ten or twelve feet presented a not unpic- turesque appearance, and constituted a barrier which might amost have turned an invading army. This machine ought to have brought its inventor a fortune, but he left the town not long
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after its completion, and the writer has no knowledg of his subse- quent history.
The village after 1825 improved rapidly, until then it contained but few houses of much size or pretention. In the year 1827, Mr. Kirby built the house on River street now in possession of his son-in-law Mr. Smith. Soon after, Nehemiah Platt, a son of Major Platt, and the only one of his sons who made Nichols his home, built the large brick house occupied by his family so long, and now in possession of his son-in-law, Dr. G. P. Cady. These were followed within a few years by Doctor Petts, C. R. Bars- tow, and George Coryell, who erected houses which are still among the best in the village; others were enlarged and im- proved and trees began to be planted. To Doctor Petts must be given the credit of having set out the first of the maples which now shade our streets. They were placed in front of his own house, now owned and occupied by Mr. De Groat. The house now belonging to Eben Dunham was long occupied as a hotel by Isaac Raymond, and afterwards by Peter Joslin, where good quarters and excellent entertainment were always to be had. Dr. Barstow built his house on River street in line with those of Mr. Kirby and Mr. Platt, in 1835. His old house, every vestige of which has disappeared, is worth a description as having been the beginning of the village. It extended from east to west with three front doors looking towards the north. Over the two toward the west was a low veranda surrounded by banisters except a space where three or four steps led down to a small door yard in which stood several large locusts. The eastern part which was built atter the other, had over the door a small two storied portico, the upper part surrounded by a railing with a door opening into the chamber above. One like it, probably could not now be found in the country. A wing extended towards the south opening on the other street. It was used some years after Dr. Barstow left it as a hotel ; the yard was thrown open and the trees having some time before been destroyed by the locust worm it became a part of the public street which in this way acquired a greater width in that direction than it has below the opposite corner. George Wilson, a son-in-law of Mr. Kirby, about the same time fitted up a residence just above that of Dr. Petts. He finally became the owner of the property of Dr. Petts, which he occupied till the time of his death, in 18:0. Harvey Coryell built the house on the hill now in possession of Mrs. Elsbree. He occupied this house until the death of his
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father, Judge Coryell, in 1835, when he removed to the home- stead farm, and the widow and unmarried daughters of Judge Coryell took possession of the house he had left. The hotel on the corner was built in 1838 by Mr. Platt. These men were then, and for some years afterwards the principal business men of the village and their names are identified with much of its history.
Our business men since then have been O. A. Barstow, P. H. Joslin, Selim Kirby, J. L. Howell, Eben Dunham, Harris Brothers, C. Bliven, Edward Joslin, C. I. Sherwood, -John R. Edsall, general merchants; Joslin & Alden, A. . A. Swinton, and Colman & Horton, dealers in stoves and hardware; Cady & Latham, druggists; L. Conant, dealer in shoes, besides several dealers in groceries.
C. R. Barstow was a son of Dr. Samuel Barstow, of Great Barrington, Mass. He came to Nichols while a boy, and grew up in the family of Dr. Barstow, his father's brother. He was a partner of his uncle in the mercantile business for a while before going into business for himself. In 1844, he was elected sheriff of the county, and removed to Owego. At the end of his term as sheriff he was elected member of the assembly, after which he was made postmaster at Owego, and after his removal from that office occupied for a time the post of harbor-master in New York. He finally returned to Owego. He married a grand- daughter of Major Platt, by whom he had a large family of children, all of whom he outlived, except a son and daughter. He sent three sons into the army, two of whom never returned. The survivor, Capt. Sumner Barstow, finally settled at Big Rapids, Mich., where his father died in ISS -. The daughter is the wife of Hon. Thomas C. Platt.
Oliver A. Barstow, a brother of C. R. Barstow, came to Nich- ols, too, while yet little more than a boy, and lived some years in the family of his uncle. He was also for a time his uncle's part- ner. Heat length married a daughter of Edmund Palmer and commenced business for himself as a merchant, and has been one of our most enterprising and successful men. He was a member of assembly in 1866, and was previous to 1884, for forty years, a member of the board of justices of the county of Tioga. A man who has been elected by the popular vote so many times, to fill such an office, may be said to have possessed the confidence of the community in which he lives. He has for some time retired
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from active business and makes his home with his daughter at Hooper's Valley.
The exact period at which the first school-house was built in the village is uncertain, but it was probably as early as 1817. It stood on the lower corner of the unoccupied ground before re- ierred to, directly opposite the spot now occupied by the Bar- stow house. This vacant ground -- a green, as it was called -- served for many years as a charming place of recreation for the school children and young people of the village. The house con- sisted of but one moderate-sized room, with a single row of desks built against the wall, with a row of benches in front which were without backs, so that the scholars who practiced writing could sit with their faces either way, and another row in front for the smaller children. It was warmed in winter by a large fire- place at one end, and was entered by a door having a wooden latch, which was raised by a leather string. This primitive tem- ple of learning must have stood some ten or fifteen years when the fire-place gave place to a stove, and the interior was altered so as to accommodate a greater number of scholars, and the house was painted red. The "old red school-house" stood until the growth of the village seemed to demand its removal and the erection of a new one. The exact year is not remembered, but it must have been about 1844 or 1845. This new one was built on the west side of the street, about half way between the corner and the foot of the hill, at the cost of two hundred dollars. A building of this kind was very soon entirely inadequate to the wants of the village. It was occupied, however, until 1871. A lot on Cady avenue was then purchased of Dr. G. M. Cady for the sum of five hundred dollars, and the present school building erected at a cost of four thousand, where a graded school has been maintained since 1874.
The town in 1856 contained 13 school districts, and the entire amount of public money that year was $807.78, and the allotment to District No. 2, which comprised the village of Nichols, was $82.70. There are at present, 1887, 12 districts, No. 2 and No. 3 extending a mile up the river having been consolidated. This year the public money for the village district alone is $440.73. The gross amount of salaries for the three teachers in the graded school is $960.00
The Susquehanna river though a beautiful stream, renowned in poetry and song, has yet been found by the dwellers on its banks, very often a troublesome neighbor. For many years its
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waters during the spring freshets though often overflowing its banks did no very great damage. But with the receding of the forests these became more sudden and violent, and frequently came into the streets in the lower part of the village. In 1865 it reached the point of inundation, invading the houses and causing general consternation and a good deal of damage. Since then it has twice been in the streets, the last time in seventy-two -- since which a long succession of dry seasons has given us a rest from these inflictions. The Wappasening creek was, we are told at the first settlement of the country a narrow stream that was crossed by a fallen tree. The clearing up of the country has transformed it into a raging torrent coming down in the spring time with a fury that sweeps everything before it. The first bridge, which was nearly as long again as the present one, must have been built not long after the settlement of the village. The force of the stream made constant repairs necessary, and it was at least entirely rebuilt before 1865. The inundation of that year swept it entirely away. It was then rebuilt and shortened, the upper half being replaced by a causeway. The ends of this bridge being, like the others, insecure and needing constant re- pair, it was finally in 1882 replaced by the fine iron bridge which at present spans the stream. An iron bridge was built the same year across the same stream a mile above the village. The New York and Erie railroad which reached Smithboro in 1851, did a great deal for Nichols although the nearest station was two miles distant. There being no capitalists at Smithboro to take advan- tage of its position, the grain trade from a considerable extent of country centred at Nichols where our merchants, principally Barstow and Kirby, operated for a time so largely as to control the market on the Central Division of the road. This furnished employment to a great many persons, brought a good many new inhabitants into the town and gave an impetus to trade beneficial alike to town and country. Some of our best business establish- ments date from about this time.
In 1852, the old Owego and Towanda Mail line was discon- tinued and a daily mail established between Smithboro and Nichols. The mails are now carried from Nichols by a tri-weekly line to some of the towns in Bradford county. There is no direct line at present between Nichols and Towanda.
In IS68 the main street of the village was well built up from the corner to the foot of the hill, a distance of rather more than a hundred rods. The lower ground on the creek, on the east of
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the village, prevented its being built up much farther on the river street, in that direction. Beyond the bridge it has, however, been a good deal built up since that time. That part of the street ex- tending toward the west was gradually being occupied, and more room for building lots seemed to be called for; and during this year several new streets were laid out. Cady avenue, which runs from the upper end of River street toward the south, till it is joined by Platt street, which connects it with the main street at the foot of the hill. West avenue leaves the river street about sixty rods west from the corner, and running south joins Howell Street, which connects it with the main street. Walnut street runs from Howell street towards the south into one of the old streets commonly called the back street, which runs from the main street towards the hill on the west of the town. The two older streets have never been formally named, but are commonly called the Main and the River streets. Other names have been suggested, but these will probably remain. A short street con- nects the main street with Cady avenue about midway between the corner and the foot of the hill, and two short streets have since been laid out between the river street and the depot. The new streets were well laid out, planted with trees, and very soon built up, and now offer some of the most attractive residences in the village.
Dr. George M. Cady came to Nichols in 1847. His nephew George P. Cady came a few years later. He studied medicine in the office of his uncle and elsewhere and after taking his degree became his uncle's partner. These gentlemen both became sons- in-law to the Hon. Nehemiah Platt. In 1884 Dr. G. P. Cady purchased the property on the corner formerly owned by Dr. Barstow, and erected the brick block which bears his name. This block contains, on the ground floor, Cady & Latham's drug store, the dry goods store of Edward Joslin, and the Doctor's office. The second story contains three suits of living rooms, while the third consists of a fine hall for public meetings and public gatherings of all kinds; something the village had long wanted. The two adjoining stores, the grocery store of Mr. Westbrook, and the large hardware store containing the post- office, which were built soon after, with the broad plank walk ex- tending in front of the entire line of stores at that end of the street, which was built at the same time, has greatly improved the appearance of the town. On the death of Mr. Kirby, which occurred in 1864, the two large buildings on the street below his
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