History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 7

Author: Franklin Ellis and Eugene Arns Nash
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tural advantages of Western New York by the cession of all this fertile region to the State of Massachusetts. The interest then engendered had been increased from year to year by the favorable accounts sent back by purchasers in the Phelps and Gorham, the Cragie and Greenleaf, the Connecticut, and other tracts which had been placed in the market, and, in addition to this, several very enthusiastic writers had invoked the aid of the press to praise the new country in the most glowing terms. A very favorable mention of this kind is found in "an account* of the Soil, Growing Timber, and other productions of the lands in the countries situated in the back parts of the States of New York and Pennsylvania, in North America, and particu- larly the lands in the county of Ontariot known by the name of the Genesee Tract, lately located and now in the progress of being settled.

" The actual distance of the eastern boundary [of the tract of the Holland Company] from the Hudson's River or Albany is about one hundred and forty miles. From Philadelphia, by the nearest road, the distance may be about one hundred and eighty miles, and not more than two hundred miles north of the proposed new city of Colum- bia [Washington ], the intended seat of government of the United States.

"But the peculiar advantages which distinguish these lands over most of the new settled countries of America are the following: 1. The uncommon excellence and fertility of the soil. 2. The superior quality of the timber, and the ad- vantages of casy cultivation in consequence of being gener- ally free from underwood. 3. The abundance of grass for cattle in the woods and on the extensive meadow-lands upon the lakes and rivers. 4. The vast quantities of the sugar- maple-tree in every part of the tract. 5. The great variety of other fine timber, such as oak, hickory, black walnut, chestnut, ash of different kinds, elm, butternut, basswood, poplar, pine, and also thorn-trees of prodigious size. 6. The variety of fruit-trees, and also smaller fruits, such as apple- and peach-orchards in different places, which were planted by the Indians, plum- and cherry-trees, mulberries, grapes of different kinds, raspberries, huckleberries, blackberries, wild gooseberries, and strawberries in vast quantities, also cranberries and black haws, etc. 7. The vast variety of wild animals and game which is to be found in this coun- try, such as deer, moosc-deer, and elk of very large size, beavers, otters, martins, minks, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, bears, wild-cats, etc., many of which furnish excellent furs and peltry. 8. The great variety of birds for game, such as wild-turkeys, pheasants, partridges, pigeons, plovers, heath-fowl, and Indian hen, together with a vast variety of water-fowl on the rivers and lakes, such as wild-geese and ducks of many different kinds not known in Europe. 9. The uncommon abundance of very fine fish, with which the lakes and rivers abound, among which are to be found excellent salmon of two different kinds, salmon-trout of very large size, white and yellow perch, sheep-head, pikes, suckers, and eels of a very large size, with a variety of other fish in

* Imlay's Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America, 1792.

t Ontario County then extended to the west bounds of the State.

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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, NEW YORK.

their different seasons. 10. The excellence of the climate in that region where these lands are situated, which is less severe in winter and not so warm in summer as the same latitudes nearer the sea. The total exemption from all periodical disorders, particularly the fever and ague, which does not prevail in the Genesee country on account of the rising grounds and fine situations. 11. The vast advantages de- rived from the navigable lakes, rivers, and creeks, which intersect and run through every part of this tract of coun- try, affording a water-communication from the northern parts of the grant by the Genesee River one way, or by the Seneca River another way, into the great Lake Ontario, and from thence by Cataraqui to Quebec, or by the Seneca River, the Oneida Lake, and Wood Creek to Schenectady on the Mohawk River, and by the Allegany River towards the southwest to the Ohio; . . . and when the improvements are made in the Susquehannah, and the projected canal cut between the Schuylkill and that river, there will be an un- interrupted good water-communication for boats of ten or fifteen tons from the interior parts of the Genesee country all the way to Philadelphia .* . . . And as the soil and cli- mate are supposed to be the best in the world for raising large and productive crops of hemp, flax, Indian corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, peas, beans, and every other species of grain produced in North America, much benefit will be derived to the settlers by every improvement which can be made in facilitating carriage by inland navigation. At present wheat can be sent from the Genesce settlements to Philadelphia at one shilling sterling per bushel, but if water-communication be opened between the two rivers the cost will not exceed fourpence.

" No country in the world is better adapted for raising cattle than the Genesee grant. One of the first settlers in that country asserts that he can every season cut wild grass on his farm in the Genesee flats sufficient to maintain two thousand head of cattle through the winter, and that such hay, with rushes and vegetables, which are found above the snow, generally keep the cattle fat without any expense. Hogs can also be reared in the woods at little or no expense to the farmer. . . .

" The farming lands exhibit a variety of different soils, adapted to every species of cultivation. The bottoms be- tween the rising grounds being universally rich, and the soil deep upon every part of the tract, may be turned suc- cessfully to the raising of hemp and flax of the very first quality, also Indian corn ; all kinds of vegetables may be cultivated in the greatest perfection, and considerable ad- vantages may be derived from making ashes from the timber consumed in clearing the lands. Every part of the tract abounds with springs of excellent water."

Other descriptions of the Genesee country, equally flat- tering, were written by Capt. Charles Williamson (in 1798

and 1799), Robert Munro, and a number of others. Some of these accounts, in enumerating the multitudinous advan- tages of this region, were especially enthusiastic in their mention of the climate, which they represented as being singularly favorable. In one of the accounts by Capt. Wil- liamson, he alluded to this subject as follows :

" The country is bounded on the north and west by great bodies of water, which do not freeze, and in this direction there is not one mountain. The northerly and westerly winds, which scourge the coast of America by blowing over the Allegany Mountains, late in the spring and early in the fall covered with snow, are tempered by passing over these waters ; and these mountains to the south at the same time prevent the destructive effects of the southerly breeze in winter, which, by suddenly thawing the frozen wheat-fields, destroys thousands of bushels. While the great lakes and the Allegany Mountains are in existence, so long will the inhabitants of the Genesee country be blessed with their present temperate climate."

The description of the climate by Mr. Munro was much the same. In one of his accounts he said :

" The northerly and westerly winds, which occasion an extraordinary coldness in winter, spring, and fall on the east side of the Allegany Mountains, by blowing from the high and cold tract of country composed of those moun- tains, are, in this country, tempered by passing over the extensive bodies of water which are situated on the north- ern and western bounds ; and the south wind does not pro- duce those frequent changes in winter which are injurious to the raising of grain in the casterly parts of the States of New York and Pennsylvania. The heat of summer in this country is accordingly more temperate than in the eastern parts of the States which are situated even in a more northerly latitude ; and the frosts of winter are remarked as less violent than in the Middle States."

Such highly-colored accounts as these, circulating freely among the old communities of the East, had the very natural effect to stimulate emigration to the newly-opened region. On his arrival at the newly-established headquarters at Pine Grove, in the beginning of the year 1801, Mr. Ellicott wrote to the agent-general, Mr. Busti, that while stopping at Canandaigua, on his way west, he had ascertained that the settlements on the Phelps and Gorham tract, during the year 1800, had been more than five times as great as in any previous year, and he expressed the belief that, now that the Holland Purchase had been opened for settlement, these lands would thereafter receive their full share of immigra- tion, an expectation which was afterwards fully realized. A considerable number of contracts for lands in the purchase were taken in 1801, and from that time the number of settlements increased year by year with great rapidity.

In the original plan for the subdivision of the townships into lots it was contemplated to divide each full township of six miles square into sixteen sections, each one and a half miles square, and to again subdivide these sections cach into twelve lots, three-fourths of a mile long (the length being generally laid north and south) by one-quarter of a mile wide, containing (where the full size could be main- tained) one hundred and twenty acres cach. This plan of subdivision was founded on the theory that a wealthy

* It seems to have been the universal belief at that time that Phil- adelphia would be the natural and most advantageous mart for West- ern New York, and that an outlet for this region by way of that city was the one most to be desired. That such was the opinion of the Willink proprietors was clearly shown by their selection of lands in the southeast corner of the Holland Purchase, as elsewhere mentioned. At the present day, it seems difficult to understand how such an idea could ever have been entertained.

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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, NEW YORK.

farmer, contemplating settlement in the new country, would wish to purchase as much as a full section (fourteen hun- dred and forty acres), on which to locate himself with his sons and perhaps sons-in-law.

Experience showed, however, that the idea was better in theory than in practice. It was found that such a uni- form system of subdivision as that proposed would seldom conform to the topography of the country ; that the recog- nition of sections, in addition to the subdivisions known as townships and lots, made the description of farms much more complicated; and that, in purchasing land, sons and sons-in-law would invariably prefer to make their own se- lections, regardless of the location of the paternal domain. And so this impracticable plan of subdivision was aban- doned, after having been pursued in only twenty-four town- ships, none of which were within the boundaries of Catta- raugus County.

The plan then adopted was to lay off the townships in lots of three-quarters of a mile square, or as near as might be to that dimension, containing, if of full size, three hun- dred and sixty acres. These could be much more easily divided (if division was required) in accordance with topo- graphical peculiarities and the ideas and requirements of purchasers, and this was the general plan of subdivision which was followed in Cattaraugus.

The first white settlement in what is now Cattaraugus County was made by Joel Swayne, Halliday Jackson, and Henry Simmons,* three young Quakers from Chester County, Pa., who were sent to this region by the Phila- delphia Yearly Meeting of Friends, in the year 1798, ou a mission to the Seneca Indians. These young men came under charge of Joshua Sharpless, a Friend, of Philadel- phia, who, however, remained only long enough to see them established in their new sphere, and then returned to Philadelphia by way of Buffalo Creek, Canandaigua, and Albany. They first located themselves on land of the Indians near " Old Town," in the present town of South Valley, but afterwards (in 1803) removed to an adjacent tract of six hundred and ninety-two acres, which had been purchased by the Yearly Meeting, for the purpose, from the Holland Company. Their sole purpose in coming to this wild country had been to labor for the amelioration of the spiritual and temporal condition of the Indians, and for this purpose they first located among them temporarily, not knowing what might be the result of their mission. Their efforts, however, proved reasonably successful, and upon the purchase of the Friends' tract, as mentioned, the permanency of their set- tlement became assured. A further account of it will be found elsewhere in this history.

The first contractt made by the Holland Company for the sale of lands now within this county was taken in 1803, by Adam Hoops, who had been a major in the army of

Washington, and under whose direction work was com- menced on the lands during the same year, at a point near the junction of Oil Creek (now Olean Creek) with the ~~~~ Allegany River.

The attention of Major Hoops had been drawn to this section by an account given of its advantages by his nephew, Adam Hoops, Ju, who, as before mentioned, had been em- ployed on the survey of the Holland Purchase in the years 1798 and 1799. Acting on the information thus obtained, Maj. Hoops (having associated David Hueston with him in the enterprise) employed Benjamin Van Campen, then a young man of twenty-four years, who had also been a sur- veyor on the purchase and was a resident of the Van Campen Settlement,§ in the present county of Allegany. He set out in the month of November, 1802, and proceeded to King's Settlement, || now Ceres, Pa., which he made the base and headquarters of his exploration, there being then no road of any kind entering the county, and the most practicable route by which to reach his destination being from the south, and down the valley of the Allegany.

In his explorations his only guide was a small compass, which instrument is still preserved in the possession of his son, George Van Campen, of Olean. Equipped with this and a few other necessary articles of outfit, he made a thorough examination of the region, which occupied two months, during the latter part of which time the cold was intense, and his situation on that account most uncomfort- able.

# This name for the creek which enters the river at Olean is bere used under authority, the stream being so designated on a map of the State of New York, made in 1802 by Simeon De Witt, Surveyor- General of the State. This map may now be found in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany.

¿ That settlement-located in what is now the town of Almond-was commenced in 1796 by Maj. Moses Van Campen, Capt. Henry McHenry, Rev. Andrew Gray, William Gray, Benjamin Van Campen, - Van De Mark, Walter Karr, Josoph Karr, Samuel Karr, Silas Ferry, Stephen Major, Joseph Coleman, Joseph Rathbone, George Lockhart, and Matthew Mcllenry, all from Luzerne Co., Pa. A part of them did not arrive until 1797. At that time this was the nearest white settlement to Cattiraugus County in any direction.

! The King Settlement, located on the waters of the Oswayo in Pennsylvania, but a very short distance south of the State line, was commenced in the year 1798 by Francis King, a Quaker, who came from London, England, to Philadelphia in 1795. In 1797, at the sug- gestion of some capitalists of Philadelphia, he set out as a land ex- plorer, and visited this region in that capacity. He endured many hardships during his journeyings of many weeks through the un- broken wilderness, but it seems that he was favorably impressed by the appearance of the country, for he returned to Philadelphia and made a report, on the strength of which Keating & Co., of that city, purchased from William Brigham, Esq., 300,000 acres of land (which he had purchased from the State) lying in the present counties of Potter and Mckean. The agency of this tract was given to Francis King, who thereupon removed to and settled on the land, erecting a log house near the present village of Ceres. A son and three daugh- ters joined him there during the same year. For two years their nearest neighbors were in Dyke's Settlement, now Andover, Allegany Co., N. Y. Their nearest neighbor in Pennsylvania was fifty-six miles away. No supplies could be obtained except by a journey of one hundred and forty miles to a settlement on the Susquehanna River. Once a month John King, the son, set out to the nearest post- office (Williamsport, Pa.) for his mail, making the journey on foot, bivouacking at night in the woods. Several families joined the settle- ment in 1800, and at the time when Adam Hoops located himself at the present village of Olean the people of the King Settlement were his nearest neighbors.

" Some published accounts have made this Chester Simmons, but that is shown to be incorrect by several documents still in the posses- sion of Friends in Philadelphia, to which access has been had in the preparation of this work.

t The transaction of the company with the Friends was not a con- tract, but an absolute sale.

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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, NEW YORK.

The result of his examination was a favorable report to Hoops and Hueston, upon which the purchase, or contract to purchase, was made and executed Jan. 30, 1803. The lands contracted for embraced about twenty thousand acres, lying in townships No. 4 of the second and third ranges, 1 and 2 of the fourth range, 1 and 2 of the fifth range, and 2 in the sixth range. Those in the second range were of course in the present county of Allegany, but all the remainder were located in Cattaraugus, and chiefly along the valley of the Allegany. The survey was made by Enos Kellogg, but was not completed until 1805, bearing date July 16 of that year.

Some small amount of improvement in the way of clear- ing had been made contiguous to the mouth of Oil Creek (now Olcan) in 1803, and in the following spring Adam Hoops came and made his residence there, as did also his brother, Robert Hoops, who remained there as agent in charge of the tract until his death in 1810. Adam Hoops' residence there was of shorter duration. Pecuniary mis- fortune overtook him, and the tract passed from his pos- session.

While referring to this subject of Hoops' settlement, it has been thought proper to introduce a verbatim copy of a letter written by Gen. C. T. Chamberlain, of Cuba, to Maj. Adam Hoops in 1836, at a time when the project of the Genesee Valley Canal was in agitation. The letter was published in the newspapers of that time, and is as follows :

" ALBANY, March 31, 1836.

" DEAR SIR,-As you were the first to explore the wilderness between the Genesee River, near where the vil- lage of Geneseo has since risen up, and the Allegany River, with view to settlement upon the last-named stream, and in 1803 began to open a farm at the mouth of the Ischua, since called the Olean Creek, you must of course, in pro- posing to purchase in a quarter then so remote as to be hardly known, have looked forward to such advantages as a position on the Allegany might promise at some future day in regard to commerce on the great scale, although doubtless your immediate objects were associated with the idea of a thoroughfare that way, which it was impossible to avoid seeing would open to emigrants from the eastward on their journey to the countries on the Ohio and Missis- sippi and their waters a more convenient and cheaper route, by embarking at your projected establishment, than the one through New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh, the only one then in use.

"The publication annexed to the map refers immediately to the principle on which applications have been made, from various quarters, for opening the Genesee Valley Canal, which will be, in fact, a most important branch from the Erie Canal at Rochester. Improvements of our interior communications, based on that principle, are bonds of union between the different States, however distant from each other. A bill for opening the Genesee Valley Canal, having passed the Assembly, is now before the Senate.

" The death of the Indian chief, Cornplanter, has been lately announced, but with circumstances indicating an ignorance of his history; for I have always understood that in the Revolutionary war he was very actively engaged

on the side of the British. At the return of peace in 1783, being then probably near fifty years of age, he deter- mined to devote the remainder of his days to farming, and being, perhaps, aided by the Society of Friends, was pro- vided with implements of husbandry, and was then called ' the Cornplanter,' by which name he was known in subse- quent negotiations with our government.

"Less than a year ago I was at Warren, in Pennsyl- vania, the part of the Allegany Reservation on which he resided many years. Business calling him into court, facts came out which were highly honorable to his character. The result was a decision in his favor, to the satisfaction of all his white neighbors, with whom he was a great favor- ite. Through the interpreter employed on the occasion, I understood from Cornplanter that he was born on the place where you made your first improvement in 1803, in a cabin near a large apple-trec that stood close to the mound which is but a few rods from the log house you first built and oc- cupied for several years.

"After the declaration of war in 1812, the Indians on the Allegany reservation, as well as the few settlers then on your purchase, became uneasy, and I have understood that a conference was held by Cornplanter and other Alle- gany chiefs with your brother Robert, which set both parties at their ease.

" I have also understood that, after the peace of 1783, Cornplanter always employed his utmost influence iu re- straining the warlike propensities of the Indians of his nation, and particularly in preventing any of them from joining the Western Indians in their war, terminated by Gen. Wayne in 1794. Though a formidable enemy in the Revolutionary war, he was ever after a fast friend, but boldly remonstrating with the government when he thought he had ground to complain.

" From calculations made at Warren, he must have been full one hundred years old at the time of his death.

" I remain very sincerely your friend and obedient ser- vant,

C. T. CHAMBERLAIN.

" MAJ. ADAM HOOPS, Albany."

Certain portions of the above letter have been put in italics, because they seem to give a decisive answer to a question which has been regarded as a matter of doubt by some of the old residents of Cattaraugus, whether Hoops came upon his tract earlier than 1806, and whether he ever had a domicil and a residence here; both these queries being answered by some with a confident negative. As Gen. Chamberlain had an intimate acquaintance with Maj. Hoops, and was doubtless well acquainted with the circum- stances of his settlement and residence here, the portions of the letter referred to seem to render it quite certain that his improvements at Olean Point were commenced in 1803, and that he subsequently resided there for several years. Another interesting fact disclosed by the letter-and one which is probably new to the larger part of the people of this county-is, that the Indian chief, Cornplanter, was born on a spot almost identical with that on which Hoops erected his log dwelling.

The carliest settler in the broad and inviting valley of

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Ischua Creek was Joseph McClure, who took a contract for land in 1805, and came there in the spring of 1806, locating his farm at the place where the village of Frank- linville now is. He had been a surveyor of the Holland Land Company, and followed the same calling for a num- ber of years after his arrival in Cattaraugus County. The neighborhood where he made his location became known as the " McClure Settlement," and it was said of him that, in his profession as surveyor, he laid out nearly all the roads in the eastern part of the county to converge at that settle- ment: Mr. McClure was always recognized as having been the pioneer of the Ischua Valley. Some of the events of his life are more particularly mentioned in the history of Franklinville.

In the same year (1806) the McClure Settlement was augmented by the arrival of Moses Warner; the Hoops Settlement received the addition of Cornelius and John Brooks, Wyllys Thrall, and William Shepard; and within the limits of the present town of Hinsdale, settlement was made by Zachariah Noble and his two brothers, Charles Foot, and Thomas Lusk. In 1807, Thomas Morris, Henry Conrad, and the three brothers, Nicholas, John, and David Kort- right, joined MeClure on the Ischua, and Benjamin Cham- berlain (then but a youth, but afterwards for many years one of the most prominent men of Cattaraugus County) first came to this wilderness country and entered the em- ploy of Maj. Hoops as a day laborer.

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History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 7

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: