History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 68

Author: Franklin Ellis and Eugene Arns Nash
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EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

The pioneer settler within the town of Ellicottville was Grove Hurlbut, a native of Connecticut, who moved thence to Whitestown, Oneida Co., when about twenty-five years of age, and there married Hannah Niles.

In the year 1814 the family, consisting of his wife and seven children, started from there with the intention of locating in what was known as the Western Reserve. On his way he was persuaded to leave his family in Steuben County, and go out first and look at the land. He hired a farm in Arkport, and after he sowed his crops, in the spring of 1815, he went alone to the Reserve, but returned in about six weeks, not liking the lands in that region. The route on his return was through this town, where Rickert- son Burlingame was at the time surveying. Upon inquiry as to the lands he was informed that he would have to go to the land-office at Batavia for information. In a few weeks he went there and saw Mr. Ellicott, who told him the lands were not yet for sale, but that he would give him six lots to choose from if he would come in that fall and build a house that travelers could stop at, and that when the lots were for sale he might have them as cheap as any. He came in with his oldest son and chose lots 56 and 57, one of 150 and the other 166 acres, which John McMahan

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now owns. They chopped a clearing of about seven acres, and built a log house, the first dwelling erected in the town of Ellicottville. In the work of felling and rolling logs for this building he was occasionally assisted by travelers and land-hunters passing this way through the valley. The roof of his house was covered with shingles of four feet in length, roughly split from the log. Boards for the floor were obtained from James Green, who had been running a saw-mill at the mouth of Great Valley Creek for a num- ber of years.

Having made his little clearing and completed his sea- son's work, in the month of November, Mr. Hurlbut left his house in the charge and occupancy of Orrin Pitcher, while he returned to Steuben County to make preparations for the removal of his family thence to their future home in the wilds of Cattaraugus. Kettles for sugar-making, and all the various articles necessary to a complete pioneer's outfit having been procured, he set out on the 1st of Jan- uary to transport these and his household goods to their destination upon his new purchase. On this trip he was not accompanied by his family, but he brought with him a man by the name of John Maloney, whom he had em- ployed as a chopper, to assist in the heavy labor of clearing the heavily-timbered lands, and who boarded in the family of Mr. Pitcher, while Mr. Hurlbut again returned to his old home in Steuben.

On the 14th of the following month, Reuben Hurlbut arrived, having in charge a son and daughter of his brother Grove. These children were John and Sally Hurlbut, the latter being then only thirteen years of age. She, how- ever, became for the time the female head of the Hurlbut family in Ellicottville, consisting of these three persons, who at once became domiciled in a part of the log house, with the family of Mr. Pitcher, who, however, remained but a short time, until his own cabin was ready for occupancy.

About the 15th of March, Mr. Hurlbut returned with the remainder of his family, and completed his establish- ment. He lived on the farm he first cleared, the remainder of his days, and died Sept. 28, 1852, aged eighty-six years. His son John married Betsey Niles, settled on lot 57, and in 1836 bought a farm on Bryant Hill, where Frank Fitch now lives, and in 1865 removed to Minnesota. Miranda grew up to womanhood, married, and is now living in Michigan. Sally married William Johnston, and settled on lot 58; they had several children. John C. is a physi- cian in Michigan, and two sons are living in the town. Mrs. Johnston now resides in the village of Ellicottville. Hannah is the wife of the Hon. Chauncey J. Fox, of Elli- cottville.

Daniel Waldo located 75 acres on lot 27, where Stephen McCoy now lives, and had ground cleared, but never settled upon it.

Orrin Pitcher lived in Broome County, and came into this country with a man by the name of Waters. He chopped two acres of land for the Holland Land Company on the north side of the road, including lots 45, 46, and 47, on which the Whitney House now stands, in the village of Ellicottville. The Chautauqua road had been cleared of underbrush the year before, and they lived (while at work here) in a hut on the spot now occupied by the Catholic

church. In 1813, Pitcher and Waters distinctly heard the artillery firing at the burning of Buffalo. In 1814, Mr. Pitcher moved his family from Broome County to Frank- linville, where he rented a log house of a man by the name of Gibbs near Mr. McClure. From there he shortly moved to what is now Peth, took up a lot, built a log house, roof- ing it with bark (as the mill of Mr. Green was not yet completed), and for floors the smooth side of hemlock bark was laid uppermost, the edges pinned down with wooden hooks. Mr. IIurlbut, of Ellicottville, came to that place to get assistance in raising his log house. Mr. Pitcher, Mr. Green, and Mr. Norton came up with him and assisted him. Mr. Hurlbut, wishing to return to his home in Steu- ben County, had made an arrangement with Mr. Pitcher to draw the lumber, and put the floors in his house, and move in until he came out with his family in the early spring. Accordingly, on Christmas-day, 1815, Mr. Pitcher moved in when David (who is still living) was six years old, and lived there until a part of Mr. Hurlbut's family came out, and his own cabin was completed. He soon after took up two 40-acre lots, which Daniel Huntley afterwards purchased. He located several lots in the new settlement, and is said to have sold them advantageously. In 1843, he removed to Minnesota with his family, except David, who settled on part of lot 7 on the Machias road, where he still lives. One of his sons is a lawyer atMankato, Minn., and has represented his county in the Legislature of that State.

Eunice Carpenter taught the first school in this town, in the summer of 1817. She was a native of Massachusetts, and came to Cattaraugus County with and under the pro- tection of her brother Isaac, who had settled at Ischua, but was at that time employed at his trade at Ellicottville.

The pupils of Miss Carpenter were the children of Orrin Pitcher and Grove Hurlbut, and the school-room was the front part of Orrin Pitcher's house. Three of the pupils are now living, and well recollect those early school-days. They are Mrs. Hannah Fox, Mrs. Mary Matterson, and David Pitcher. Miss Carpenter married Levi Peet, of Farmer- ville, and died many years ago. Her descendants are living in that town.

In the year 1817, Daniel Huntley, Baker Leonard, Rickertson Burlingame, Benjamin Perkins, and John W. Cary came into the town and built houses.

Daniel Huntley moved from Cincinnatus, Cortland County, to Franklinville in the spring of 1817, with the intention of going to Ohio. After reaching Olean, he was persuaded by Levi Gregory to purchase a property in that town that he had bought of three brothers, who had become discouraged by the severe frost of 1816. These lots were of 100 acres each, with quite extensive improve- ments. After his purchase he returned to Cincinnatus, and removed to his new home, with his wife and four chil- dren and their goods loaded on two or three wagons. Upon the establishment of the county-seat at Ellicottville, he purchased at that place two 40-acre lots of Orrin Pitcher, and one lot of 150 acres of Grove Hurlbut in 1819. He rented his farm at Franklinville and moved here in March, 1821, and built the Whitney House and kept it many years. Daniel Huntley died July 5, 1846, aged sixty-two

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years. His children were William, Thomas S., Daniel I., and Amy. William married Miranda Maybe, and settled where John Welch now lives; there he lived and died. Thomas S. married Eliza Fox, and settled where W. S. Johnson now lives, and in 1846 sold the farm and removed to Illinois. Charles, his son, has been engaged with his cousin, Silas S. Huntly, in mail contracts. Daniel I. Hunt- ley married Eliza Hawkins. Silas S., his son, was in the army as a private soldier, and was promoted and made aid to Gen. Berry at Chancellorsville, and since the war has been engaged in mail contracts in the West. He resides at Washington, D. C.

In the year 1817 the Holland Land Company sent out Baker Leonard, from Batavia, to this place to build a tavern, which he erected on the spot where J. King Skin- ner now resides. The new building cost so much when it was completed that the company refused to accept it ; upon which Mr. Leonard opened it as a public-house, and con- nected with it a store (the first opened in the village), in which he employed Henry Saxton as clerk.

Mr. Leonard died on the 17th day of April, 1821, and persons still living in Ellicottville recollect that on the day of his funerul the ground was so deeply covered with snow that it became necessary to employ ox-teams to break a road from his house to the burial-ground.

Rickertson Burlingame came into this region from Ox- ford, Chenango Co., as a surveyor in the employ of the Holland Land Company. Traversed the hills and valleys of Cattaraugus and through the deep-tangled forests by the blaze upon trees made in the original township surveys. He assisted in the sub-division of the town into lots, sur- veyed and mapped the village plat of Ellicottville, and made the map which was adopted by authority upon the incor- poration of the village in 1837. After he had finished the greater portion of his survey he located lot No. 62, an ir- regular tract of land lying on Great Valley Creek and beyond the regular tier of lots, containing about 300 acres. His first dwelling was a log structure, erected near the banks of the creek. Upon this farm he passed the re- mainder of his life, and was buried within the ground which he had cleared and cultivated. These premises are now owned by Harvey Litchfield.

Mr. Burlingame was one of six men who took contracts of the Holland Company in the limits of this town, in 1813.

Benjamin Perkins and John W. Cary were brothers-in- law, and came here, in 1817, from Vermont. They selected lot 58, and built a cabin thereon. Perkins's occupation was that of a tailor, but to this sometimes he added that of a shoemaker, and upon occasions was professor of dentistry. They went away in 1821.

In the month of August, 1818, Chauncey J. Fox, then a young man of twenty-one years of age, in company with a younger brother, Pliny L., left Tolland, Conn., their native place, and came to Olean, in this county, for the purpose of establishing themselves in business. Finding no employ- ment, they purchased a skiff, procured a supply of bread and cheese, and started on a voyage down the river with a vague intention of going to Cincinnati, but with no distinct idea of the difficulties they would have to encounter. They passed a day and a night and part of the next day on the

river without seeing any one. Towards night of the second day they saw a man crossing the river. They landed and followed him to his house. He advised them to abandon their voyage and offered them employment, which they ac- cepted. This man, their employer, proved to be Philip Tome, whose early history was so well known in this region. Soon after the commencement of their labors in Mr. Tome's employ, Pliny was attacked by typhoid fever and confined for about eight weeks. Their means were exhausted, and they even sold their clothes to discharge the liabilities at- tendant upon this severe sickness.

The village of Ellicottville was the nearest point at which a physician could be found, and Chauncey traveled to that place and secured the attendance of Dr. A. Leavenworth.

After Pliny's recovery from his sickness, he worked, clearing land and farming, near Ellicottville, for three or four years, then taught school at Yorkshire, and, in 1827, was the first justice of the peace elected in Ellicottville under the constitutional amendment which made the office elective.

In 1828 he commenced the study of law in the office with his brother at Ellicottville, and was soon after admitted to the bar in due course, after which he practiced in the courts of Cattaraugus for several years. About 1842 he moved to Illinois. He served in the Union army during the war of the Rebellion, rose to the rank of major, and upon the expiration of his term of service returned to Illi- nois, where he now resides. A more extended biographical sketch of Chauncey J. Fox is given on another page of this work.

Dr. Alson Leavenworth came to Ellicottville in Septem- ber, 1818. He located on let No. 57, and built a log house, where he resided three or four years; when he built the hotel now known as the Crawford House. As settlers located rapidly along the valley and on the hillsides, the demands on the doctor's time and skill increased, until his ride extended from Kinzue and Corydon, in Pennsylvania, on the south, to Collins, in Erie County, on the north. He removed to Little Valley in 1831, and afterwards to New Albion. A more extended notice of him will be found in the history of that town.

In the year 1820, Clark Robertson, of Cazenovia, Madi- son County, passed through Ellicottville to visit his uncle in Little Valley. Returning to this village after his visit he was employed on the jail and court-house buildings then in process of construction. Soon after, by the advice of the land agent, Mr. Goodwin, he purchased the lot where " Irvine Hall" was afterward built, paying for it the sum of $50. He taught school in Great Valley in 1823, re- ceiving in part payment shingles and other lumber, which he used in the erection of a dwelling upon his land. In 1824 he taught at Lodi, and in the following year married Miss Ursula Maltby, and commenced housekeeping. Miss Maltby had come to Ellicottville from Paris, Oneida Co., and taught school in the upper room of Baker Leonard's house in the summer of 1819. The school was removed to the upper part of the court-house, upon the completion of that building. In 1821 she taught school in Connewango, and then returned to her home in Paris. Mr. Robertson is still living, at seventy-nine years of age, in the village of

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HON. STALEY NICHOLS CLARKE.

The real value to society of an individual member con- sists not so much in his exhibition of those shining powers of intellect which compel our admiration, as in the daily manifestations of those more attractive qualities of heart which win our confidence and love. Great abilities as- suredly have their uses, and when their destiny is properly unfolded, the world is a gainer by their existence, and a loser by their decay. But the virtues of charity, largeness of soul, and an ever-actuating sympathy for and with one's kind, are essential elements in every pleasure. The great die and are buried. The good are buried but never die, for their souls are so inwrought into the lives of those around them, that the aggregate existence of the com- munity is, to some extent, a continuous and permanent em- bodiment of their character. Their names may not live upon the lips of men, but the actual effects of their influence . and example descend from generation to generation, a pre- cious and perpetual inheritance of strenuous, but unobtru- sive virtue.

The man, therefore, who unites goodness of heart with intellectual ability, has a claim upon our esteem while living, and upon our affectionate remembrance when dead, which, for the honor of our race, we should never disregard. It is a worthy, and should be a pleasurable task, for each to contribute his share, however slight, towards a proper recog- nition of the value of such a character. It is with a feeling akin to this, that the present sketch of one more thoroughly identified than any other with the history and prosperity of our county, is undertaken.

Staley Nichols Clarke was born in Prince George's County, in the State of Maryland, on the 29th day of May, 1794. At the age of twenty-one he emigrated to Western New York, and began his career in life as a clerk in the Bank of Niagara, at Buffalo. In 1819, Mr. Clarke removed to Batavia, where he was employed as a clerk in the office of the Holland Land Company until January, 1822, when he took charge of the office of the company at Ellicottville, as their agent.

The county of Cattaraugus was then a comparative wil- derness, whose aboriginal beauty of hill and valley, of heavy forest and unobstructed water-courses, had suffered but little waste from the hands of men. Olean, from its situation on the Allegany River, was even then a place of consider- able consequence. The surface of the county was dotted here and there with an occasional clearing, but in general nature reigned in undisputed sway. Even Ellicottville was closely environed by forests; it was a mere island in an ocean of verdure.

The settlers were necessarily poor. Like all who immi- grate to unsettled territory, they came, to a great extent, destitute, either driven by necessity or impelled by enter- prise. With no capital, but stout hearts and hands willing

to toil, it was no light task to grapple at once with the ex- igencies of debt and the stern hardships of back woods life. Separated by an almost impassable distance from home and birthplace, in the heart of a wilderness, invulnerable to aught but endless toil; cut off from all but occasional com- munication with the friends they had left behind, and pro- vided with but scanty means to meet an accumulating indebtedness, it would not have been surprising if even their iron nerves had yielded to the crushing burden of their lot, and repudiated the ungrateful task of redeeming an unwilling soil. But they were not the men to repine or succumb. Their work was before them, and they did it well. To their spirit amidst discouragements, to their hope amidst reverses, to their fortitude in trial, to their determined and persistent energy at all times, we, whose comforts are the fruits of their privations, whose labors are lightened by their toil, whose possessions are enriched by their exertions, are under an obligation which we do not appreciate, and cannot discharge.

To these hardy pioneers the advent of Mr. Clarke was an inestimable blessing. Their scanty crops, wrung with strenuous and painful effort from a reluctant soil, barely sufficed to meet their immediate wants, and afforded but meagre encouragement of means for liquidating the claim of the landlord. In him, however, their embarrassments found a ready appreciation. Gifted with that true gen- erosity of heart which constitutes the only genuine nobility, those in need of kindness and indulgence met from him not the oppression of the task-master, but the sympathy and encouragement of a friend. His fidelity to those who em- ployed him was scrupulous and unquestioned; but to lend a willing ear and a helping hand to the appeal made by penury and distress he ever regarded as a duty paramount to all, and imposed upon him by the very fact of his manhood. Those who have experienced kindness at his hands, and their name is legion, will bear testimony to the assertion that in no case of actual need was an application for lenity or kindness ever made in vain. Many of these objects of his beneficence are now living, rich in herds of cattle and acres of cultivated land, but neither age nor pros- perity has dimmed their gratitude for the kindness he has shown them in their hour of need.

The confidence and affection with which he was regarded led to his election as County Treasurer in 1824, an office which he continued to fill through a period of seventeen years. In November, 1840, he was elected to Congress, where he served his constituents during his term of office. Since then he has filled no public place. Though deeply interested in all that concerned the welfare of the country, he had no craving for the stormy and unsubstantial excite- ment of political warfare, and readily yielded his place to more ambitious men.

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HON. STALEY NICHOLS CLARKE.

Mr. Clarke came to Buffalo, in 1815, to take charge, as deputy, of the clerk's office of Niagara County (then in- cluding Erie County), on the invitation of his brother, the Hon. Archibald S. Clarke, county clerk. The latter gen- tleman was a citizen of the highest character, of personal popularity, and was honored with important public trusts by the people. In 1808-9 he was surrogate of Niagara County ; in the years 1809-11 he represented Niagara County in the Assembly ; in 1813-16 was State Senator from the Western District, comprising fifteen counties ; in 1816-17 he was representative in Congress from the Twenty-first District, embracing nine western counties ; and in 1815-16, county clerk.

Hon. Staley N. Clarke married Eunice Thayer, at Clar- ence, Niagara (now Erie) Co., N. Y., Oct. 27, 1816; she was born in Ontario Co., N. Y., March 5, 1797. Mr. Clarke died in Ellicottville, N. Y., Oct. 14, 1860. Mrs. Clarke died in Corry, Pa., June 23, 1873. Eleven child- ren, namely :

1. Sarah Eunice, born in Buffalo, Aug. 9, 1817; mar- ried Theodore Smith, Aug. 16, 1835. Two children,- Lucy Nichols, married, deceased; Archibald Clarke, mar- ried.

2. De La Fayette, born in Buffalo, April 11, 1819; married twice : first, to Sarah Ketchum, deceased ; second, to Mary A. Snyder. Seven children.

3. Mary, born in Batavia, Dec. 7, 1823; married Wil- liam B. Hull, Nov. 23, 1841; he died May 19, 1845. One son, Col. Walter Clarke Hull, was a private in the 37th

New York Volunteers, 1861 ; promoted to lieutenant ; was aide-de-camp to Major-General Stoneman, commanding cavalry corps ; promoted colonel 2d New York Cavalry ; killed in battle of Cedar Creek, Va., Nov. 12, 1864; a gallant and heroic soldier, he died leading his command,- the youngest colonel in the army.

4. Archibald Smith, born in Ellicottville, March 20, 1823; died Nov. 13, 1846.

5. Dryden, born in Ellicottville, May 26, 1825 ; married William Gallagher, July 22, 1846; he died June, 1868. Five children.

6. Staley Nichols, born in Ellicottville, Aug. 21, 1827 ; died Feb. 20, 1851.

7. Abbie Wood, born in Ellicottville, Sept. 29, 1830; married Charles H. Chapin. Two children.

8. Theodora, born in Ellicottville, Feb. 11, 1833; mar- ried Dr. James B. Colegrove, Nov. 17, 1858; she died Dec. 30, 1858.

9. Emma Magruder, born in Ellicottville, Feb. 23, 1835 ; married William Thompson, Sept. 30, 1863; she died July 16, 1873. Five children.

10. William Thomas, born in Ellicottville, July 29, 1837; married Thankful Riggs, Jan. 24, 1865. Four children. William T. Clarke was captain in the 37th New York Volunteers; engaged in the battles of Williams- burg to Gettysburg; serving as a brave and gallant officer in the war of 1861-63.

11. Frances Smith, born in Ellicottville, Oct. 27, 1840 ; married Manley Crosby, June 3, 1863. Seven children.

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Ellicottville, and has four children living. Albert C. resides at Jamestown. Two daughters live in Chautauqua County and one in Onondaga County.

John W. Staunton, in the year 1817, left his home in Hampshire Co., Mass., on horseback for the western country, and passed through the village of Ellicottville both in going and returning. At that time there were only three . houses where the village now is, and there being no roads, marked trees were the traveler's principal guide. There was no office open yet for the sale of lands in this portion of the Holland Purchase, and a few months later he settled in Nunda, Livingston Co. There he remained until March, 1820, when with his wife and three children and all his household goods in a covered wagon, drawn by two pair of oxen, he removed to this town, and rented a small log house of Dr. Leavenworth for six months at the rate of $50 per year. He soon after bought the "chance" of Orrin Pitcher, in lot 56, containing 153 acres, and built the house which now is a part of the residence of Mr. Welsh, nearly opposite the house of Mrs. Dr. Staunton.

He was a man of excellent education, strict integrity, and won the respect and confidence of the people of the county. In the year 1825 he was elected county clerk, having pre- viously served three years in that office as deputy. He held the office of clerk for four consecutive terms, and lacked but 11 votes of being elected the fifth term, in 1837. He lived in the town until his death, which occurred on the 13th of December, 1858, at the age of seventy-seven years.

His sons, Dr. Jonathan B. and Elisha, both lived and died here. Dr. Joseph M. grew to manhood in the village, and removed to West Virginia in 1860. The fourth son, J. Galusha, is now living in Ellicottville. The fifth and youngest son resides in Kansas.

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History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 68

Author: Franklin Ellis and Eugene Arns Nash Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Franklin Ellis and Eugene Arns Nash
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: