USA > New York > Cattaraugus County > History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 9
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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, NEW YORK.
for weeks (as was sometimes the case) in their comfortless shelters, awaiting an opportunity to proceed on their way, then their condition was pitiable indeed.
It was not an unusual thing for these people, on account of being detained here for a longer time than they had an- ticipated, to exhaust all the supplies laid in for their jour- ney before being able to get away from Hamilton, and at these times a scarcity of food, almost amounting to a fam- ine, was the result. Upon such occasions flour sometimes sold at Olean Point at twenty-five dollars per barrel, and pork at fifty dollars, and other necessary articles in propor- tion; and as a consequence, some families who had left their Eastern homes with an amount of pecuniary means which they had supposed to be sufficient to carry them safely and comfortably through their intended journey, sud- denly found themselves reduced to beggary, and unable to proceed unless assisted by others.
It was not infrequently the case that large numbers of emigrants, starting from Canandaigua or Geneva, or per- haps from Albany, when the winter was waning, expecting to reach the famous embarking place (for in those days Olean Point was more famed than Buffalo or Pittsburgh) just before the breaking up of the ice in the rivers, found the snow melting from the roads before their journey was half accomplished; and so they were obliged to abandon their sleighs and to substitute wheeled vehicles (if such could be procured), and on these to travel for days, or per- haps weeks, over roads that were next to impassable, before reaching the goal of their wishes,-the mouth of Olean Creek.
The emigrants made the river passage from Hamilton to their various places of destination in the Southwest on flat- boats and various other kinds of primitive river craft. These were often constructed by themselves during their stay at the landing, but were sometimes purchased (by such as had the means) from pioneer boat-builders who had come to the place for the especial purpose of supplying this demand. Often, too, the migrating people made use of rafts to ac- complish their journey. It has been stated that at one time as many as three hundred and fifty persons left the Point on a single raft ; but this statement does not appear to be well authenticated, and in fact seems quite improbable. It is doubtless one of the numerous class of verbal accounts of pioneer events which come down to us from the early time, apparently gathering exaggeration with the lapse of years.
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But a statement which does have every appearance of au- thenticity, is to the effect that during a single season (that of 1818) more than three thousand emigrants came to Olean Point, and there embarked upon the Allegany for the differ- ent points of their destination ; and that there was nearly an equal travel in several other single years. And it is certain that this early establishment of a principal Western route of travel through the limits of Cattaraugus caused its people, particularly those who settled along the Allegany Valley, to overrate its natural advantages of position, to place too high an estimate on the importance of the river as a highway, and, as a consequence, to indulge in futile hopes of great growth and prosperity,-hopes which were never realized, but which it required more than a half-cen- tury of disappointment to entirely dissipate.
CHAPTER VI. CHANGES OF CIVIL JURISDICTION.
THE changes of jurisdiction over the present domain of Cattaraugus County have been many and frequent, result- ing from successive erections of new counties and towns within the vast wilderness which, less than a century ago, embraced the greater part of Central and Western New York.
The original counties of New York were erected by the Colonial Assembly, Nov. 1, 1683, and were twelve in number, namely : Albany, Cornwall, Dukes, Dutchess, Kings, New York, Orange, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, Ulster, and Westchester. The second Assembly, which met in 1691 under authority of the new sovereigns Wil- liam and Mary, declared the legislation of the first Assem- bly null and void,* and proceeded to reorganize the counties. By that act of reorganization, passed Oct. 1, 1691, the county of Albany was defined "to contain the manor of Rensselaerswyck, Schenectada, and all the Villages, Neigh- borhoods, and Christian Plantations on the east side of Hudson's River from Roeloff Jansen's Creek, and on the west side from Sawyer's Creek to the outmost end of Sar- aghtoga." Later acts extended these boundaries, so that Albany County was made to comprise all of New York to its northern and western limits.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
On the 12th of March, 1772, the area of Albany County was largely reduced by the erection of Tryon County, which then included all of the province west of the Dela- ware River, and a line extending northwardly through Schoharie, and along the eastern boundaries of the present counties of Montgomery, Fulton, and Hamilton, and thence continuing north to the Canada line. The county was named in honor of William Tryon, the last royal governor of the province whose authority was recognized by the people of New York. This name was discontinued, April 2, 1784, and that of MONTGOMERY was substituted, in honor of the hero who fell in the assault on Quebec.
WHITESTOWN.
By an act passed March 7, 1788, the western part of Montgomery County was erected a town named " White's Town," in honor of Judge Hugh White, and described and bounded as follows : " Easterly by a line running north and south to the north and south bounds of the State, and crossing the Mohawk River at the ford near and on the east side of the house of William Cunningham, and which line is the western boundary of the towns of Herkimer, German Flats, and Otsego; southerly by the State of Pennsylvania; and west and north by the bounds of the State." The house of William Cunningham, mentioned in the description, stood on the west side of Genesee Street, in the city of Utica ; and the town of Whitestown, as de- fined in the act, embraced all of the State of New York lying west of the described line,-including, of course, all the present county of Cattaraugus. Within all the vast area
* Journal of Colonial Assembly.
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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, NEW YORK.
of the town there were, probably, at that time, less than two hundred white inhabitants,-merely a few scattered settle- ments in the great wilderness,-and by the census of 1870, the same territory, including about thirty counties, con- tained a population of more than one million five hundred thousand souls.
ONTARIO COUNTY-TOWN OF NORTHAMPTON.
The county of Ontario was formed from Montgomery (the western part of Whitestown) on the 27th of January, 1789. Its territory covered all that part of the State lying west of the pre-emption line, now the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Mon- roe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Steuben, Wyoming, and Yates, and including parts of Schuyler and Wayne.
The town of Northampton in old Ontario included all of the Holland Purchase, the Mill-Seat Tract, and the Morris Reserve; but nearly all the inhabitants were clustered in the vicinity of the lower falls of the Genesee, so that in the year 1800 there were in that part of the town which in- cluded the whole of the Holland Purchase less than twelve taxables. In a letter written in August, 1801, by the agent, Mr. Ellicott, to the agent-general, Mr. Busti, the former mentions and complains of the fact that these inhab- itants of Northampton residing off the Purchase evince a disposition to tax the land company exorbitantly for roads, bridges, and other improvements, but expend the money outside the bounds of the company's property,-that is, upon the Phelps and Gorham and Morris' Reserve tracts. It was his opinion that this injustice would be remedied only when the Purchase became populous enough to secure a fair share of the town officers, and ultimately to accom- plish a division of the town. To hasten these events, he said, he was encouraging settlements by waiving advance payments for land whenever he could secure a settler by so doing. He also complained that the county of Ontario had " built an elegant and commodious brick jail, such an one as few of the old counties of Pennsylvania can boast," and this with the intention of compelling the Holland Company to bear a large portion of the expense. For these and other similar reasons the very considerable influence of the Hol- land Company was used to bring about a division of On- tario and the formation of a new county, to include all the territory of their purchase.
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GENESEE COUNTY-TOWN OF BATAVIA.
The county of Genesee was erected March 30, 1802, to embrace all that part of Ontario which had been included in the town of Northampton.
By the same act which erected the county of Genesee the old town of Northampton was partitioned, and three additional towns were erected from its territory, namely, Southampton, Leister, and Batavia. The contracted bound- aries of Northampton were then Lake Ontario on the north, Genesee River on the east, the south bounds of the Mill- Seat Tract on the south, and the east line of the Holland Purchase on the, west. South of this and bounding west on the east Transit line was the town of Southampton, ex- tending as far south as the north bound of township nine of the Phelps and Gorham survey. Leister was made to
extend from the south boundary of Southampton south to Pennsylvania, and west to the Transit line.
Batavia was made to include all the remaining part of the county of Genesee,-a territory embracing the western parts of the present counties of Allegany, Wyoming, Gen- esee, and Orleans, and all of Niagara, Erie, Chautauqua, and Cattaraugus.
WILLINK AND ERIE.
The next division affecting territory now within the county of Cattaraugus was made by " An Act to divide the town of Batavia into four towns," passed April 11, 1804. This act erected the new towns of Willink, Erie, and Chautauqua from parts of the territory of Batavia.
The town of Willink* was described by boundaries, " beginning in the north boundary line of the State of Penn- sylvania, where the meridian line between the third and fourth ranges of townships of Holland Company's lands commences; thence north along said meridian line to the boundary line in Lake Ontario, between the United States and the King of Great Britain ; thence westerly along said boundary line to a point in the same meridian with the western transit meridian line, being the division line between the sixth and seventh ranges of townships of the Holland Company's lands ; thence south along said western transit meridian line to the north boundary of the State of Pennsylvania; and thence east along the said north boundary of Pennsylvania to the place of beginning."
The town of Eriet was described as bounded east by Willink, and extending from the Pennsylvania line north- wardly to the boundary between the United States and Great Britain, in Lake Ontario; its west boundary being the division line between the tenth and eleventh range of townships of the Holland Company, from Pennsylvania to Lake Erie, and thence through that lake and the middle of Niagara River to Lake Ontario and the Canadian boundary line.
The town of Chautauqua was defined to include all of the State west of the town of Erie.
The town of Batavia retained that part of its original territory lying between the cast boundary of Willink and the east transit line. Its limits, as then established, would include the present town of Portville, the eastern half of Hinsdale, Ischua, Farmersville, and Freedom, and the greater part of Lyndon. The remainder of Freedom, Farmersville, Lyndon, Ischua, and Hinsdale; all of the towns of Olean, Allegany, Humphrey, Franklinville, Ma- chias, Yorkshire, Carrolton, Great Valley, and Ellicottville ;
* This town was organized in 1805. The first town-meeting was held at the house of Peter Vandeventer, and resulted in the election of the following town officers : Supervisor, Peter Vandeventer ; Town Clerk, Zerah Ensign ; Assessors, Asa Ransom, Aaron Beard, John J. Brown; Collector, Levi Felton; Commissioners of Highways, Gad Warner, Charles Wilbur, Samuel Hill, Jr .; Constables, John Dunn, Julius Keyes ; Overseers of Poor, Henry Ellsworth, Otis Ingalls; Pathmasters, Augustus Curtiss, Alexander Hopkins, Jedediah Riggs, James De Graw ; Pound-Keepers and Fence-Viewers, John Beemer, Asa Ransom, Peter Pratt, Lawson Eggleston. The total vote of the town in the election of 1807 on the Assembly ticket was but 115.
t The towns of Eric and Chautauqua were organized in 1805. The first town-meeting in Erie was held at the dwelling-house of John Crow,- that of Chautauqua was held at the house of the widow Mc- Henry.
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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, NEW YORK.
with the southeast point of East Otto, and all of Ashford, except the northwest corner between Cattaraugus and Connoirtoirauley Creeks, were then included in Willink. All the remainder of Cattaraugus (that is the western half of the county), with the eastern range of townships in Chautauqua County, were covered by the town of Erie. The town of Chautauqua included all the territory within the present county of the same name, except the tenth range of townships.
ALLEGANY COUNTY.
The present towns of Olean, Portville, Allegany, Hins- dale, Ischua, Humphrey, Franklinville, Lyndon, Farmers- ville, Machias, Yorkshire, and Freedom, in Cattaraugus, were included in the county of Allegany at the time of its erection from Genesee County, which was effected by an act of Legislature, passed April 7, 1806. By the terms of that act Allegany was made to include a territory extending north from the Pennsylvania line forty-two miles, and west from the western boundary of the county of Steuben thirty- eight miles, which (as Steuben then extended one range of townships farther west than at present) carried the west line of Allegany to the dividing line between the fifth and sixth ranges of townships, and included the territory above mentioned, which continued a part of Allegany until the erection of the new county of Cattaraugus.
The formation of this county, as well as those of Niagara and Chautauqua, was very largely due to the influence of the Holland Land Company, an influence which had pre- viously been exerted with similar effect in the severing of Genesee from the old county of Ontario. The company favored the erection of these new counties in order to pre- vent a recurrence of such injustice as that which they alleged had been perpetrated by the cluster of inhabitants at the lower falls of the Genesee, who laid heavy taxes on the company's wild lands, and lavishly expended the avails in their own immediate vicinity, allowing the remoter parts no participation in the benefits of the county expenditures.
ERECTION OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY.
On the 11th of March, 1808, the Legislature of New York enacted "That all that part of the county of Alle- gany lying west of the meridian line, being the division line between the second and third ranges of townships of the Holland Land Company's land, be annexed to the county of Genesee, and that the remaining part of the county of Allegany be and remain a separate county by the name of Allegany." This act restored to Genesee County all the territory now within the county of Cattaraugus, which had previously been held by Allegany.
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Subsequent sections of the same act erected the counties of Niagara, Chautauqua, and Cattaraugus. Those boun- daries of Chautauqua and Niagara, parts of which were also identical with the west and north bounds of Cattarau- gus, respectively, were established as follows, namely : Chautauqua to be bounded "east by the meridian line, being the division line between the ninth and tenth ranges of townships of the land aforesaid;" and Niagara to be bounded " south by the middle of the main stream of Cat- taraugus Creek, from the mouth thereof up to the point in the said creek at which it is intersected by the division
line between the sixth and seventh tiers of townships of the lands aforesaid, and thence by that line to the east boundary."
The part of the act applying to the erection of the county of Cattaraugus provided "That that part of the county of Genesee bounded north by the division line, being part of the south bounds of the county of Niagara, west by the last bounds of the county of Chautauqua aforesaid, south by the north bounds of Pennsylvania, and east by the west bounds of the county of Allegany aforesaid, be erected into a county by the name of Cattaraugus .* . . . Said counties of Niagara, Chautauqua, and Cattaraugus shall have the like powers and privileges as other counties in the State possess and enjoy : Provided, that the said counties of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus shall be organized, and for all county pur- poses shall act in conjunction, with the county of Niagara as a part thereof, and shall respectively remain so organized until they shall respectively contain five hundred taxable inhabitants qualified to vote for members of Assembly, which shall be ascertained in the following manner, to wit : The Supervisors of the said counties of Niagara, Chautauqua, and Cattaraugus, at their annual meetings, shall ascertain, from the assessment-rolls of the towns in the said counties of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus, the number of inhabitants of those counties, respectively, qualified to vote, as afore- said; and when they shall respectively amount to five hun- dred the said Supervisors shall certify the same, under their hands and seals, to the person administering the govern- ment of the State for the time being, and that thereafter the said counties of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus shall respectively be organized as separate counties."
The terms and requirements of the above act relating to the provisional annexation of Cattaraugus to Niagara until the requisite number of voters should be attained, and pro- viding for its separate organization at such time, were re- peated in an act passed April 5, 1813, which also provided that such of the inhabitants as were enrolled in the militia should be " exempted from attending regimental and bat- talion trainings and from serving as jurors and constables in courts of record," but should remain still liable to serve as such in any court of special sessions of the peace and in courts held by justices of the peace ; all moneys raised thereafter by county tax in Cattaraugus to be applied solely to its own use, after deducting therefrom all expenses arising from its temporary attachment to Niagara in ac- cordance with the act.
ANNEXATION TO ALLEGANY.
The eastern half of the county-that is, all the part lying east of the division line between the sixth and seventh ranges-was provisionally attached to Allegany-for ju- dicial purposes only-by an act passed June 12, 1812. This annexation was affirmed, and its scope and effect ex- tended, by an act passed April 13, 1814, which provided " That until the said county of Cattaraugus shall be or- ganized as a county, pursuant to an act of the Legislature passed March 11, 1808, entitled ' An act to divide the
* These boundaries were confirmed by an " Act to divide this State into counties," passed March 26, 1813.
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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, NEW YORK.
county of Genesee into several counties,' all that part of the said county of Cattaraugus lying and situated east of the east boundary-line of the seventh range of town- ships of the Holland Company's lands in the said county of Cattaraugus shall be annexed to, and is hereby con- sidered as a part of, the county of Allegany, for all pur- poses whatsoever." The act also directed that all moneys thereafter raised by county tax in the part of Cattaraugus thus annexed to Allegany should be for the sole use of that part, after paying its just proportion of all contingent expenses arising from its temporary annexation.
After its many vicissitudes, the county of Cattaraugus, having attained and exceeded the number of taxables re- quired by law, at last severed its connection with the con- tiguous counties, and effected a separate organization in 1817, as will be found mentioned elsewhere in this work.
EARLIEST SUBDIVISIONS OF CATTARAUGUS: OLEAN- ISCHUA-PERRY.
The act of 1808 which formed the county of Cattaraugus also erected its entire territory into a town, to be called Olean. For a few years its extensive limits remained un- disturbed, and Olean continued the only town of the county. But at a special town-meeting, held May 16, 1812, the question of a division of the town was discussed, and it was voted that the town should be divided on the line between the third and fourth tiers of townships, and that the new town lying north of the said line should be named Ischua, the part lying south of it to retain the name of Olean. The result of this action was the division of the town in the manner named, under authority of an act of Legislature passed June 16, 1812 .. .
The towns of Olean and Ischua were recognized and further defined by " an act for dividing the counties of this State into towns," passed April 12, 1813, which declared that " all that part of the county of Cattaraugus lying on the north side of the line running east and west, between the third and fourth tiers of townships of the land of the Hol- land Company, shall be and continue a town by the name of Ischua. And all the remaining part of the said county shall be and continue a town by the name of Olean."
A new town was formed from the western parts of Olean and Ischua by a legislative act passed April 13, 1814. This was the same act which has been already mentioned as annexing the last half of the county to Allegany ; and it also provided that the parts of the two towns which were by its terms thus annexed to Allegany " shall be and re- main separate towns, by the names of Olean and Ischua." And that all that part of Cattaraugus County situated west of the east boundary line of the seventh range of townships in the Holland Company's lands " shall remain annexed to the county of Niagara, and shall, from and after the day preceding the first Tuesday in April next, be erected into a separate town by the name of Perry."
The act also directed that as soon as practicable after the organization of the town of Perry the overseers of the poor of the three towns, Olean, Ischua, and Perry, " should meet at the house of Sylvanus Russell, in Olean, and divide the moneys and the poor belonging to the said towns respec- tively ;" each town thereafter to maintain its own poor.
The location and extent of the three towns composing the county at that time were as follows :
The town of Olean included, in addition to its present territory, all that of the towns of Portville, Allegany, Hins- dale, Ischua, Humphrey, Great Valley, and Carrolton.
Included in Ischua were the present towns of Ellicott- ville, Franklinville, Lyndon, Farmersville, Machias, York- shire, Freedom, the small part of East Otto which projects east into Ellicottville, and all of Ashford, except the small corner known as " New Ashford," in the north west.
The town of Perry embraced all the remainder of the county,-this being identical with the territory in Cattar- augus which had formerly been included in the town of Erie.
These three towns remained unchanged until after the organization of the county in 1817. The numerous sub- divisions and changes which have been made within the county since that time, will be found mentioned and de- scribed in the histories of the several existing towns.
CHAPTER VII.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY-COURTS AND COUNTY BUILDINGS.
THE organization of the county was effected in 1817. " An act organizing the county of Cattaraugus," passed March 28 in that year, declared " That the freeholders and inhabitants of the county of Cattaraugus shall have and enjoy the rights, powers, and privileges which the free- holders and inhabitants of any other county in this State are by law entitled to have and enjoy."
COURTS OF COMMON PLEAS AND GENERAL SESSIONS.
The Court of Common Pleas was an institution which was continued from the colonial period by the first consti- tution of the State, and under that instrument had a large number of judges, as high as twelve being on the bench at the same time in some counties. By an act passed March 27, 1818, the office of assistant justice was abolished, and the number of judges (including the first judge) was limited to five. The court was continued without material change by the second constitution, and expired with that instrument in 1847.
The act of March 28, 1817, organizing the county, also provided, " That there shall be held in and for the said county a Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace, and that there shall be three terms of the said courts in every year." The first term to begin on the first of July ; the second term to begin on the first Tuesday of November; and the third term to begin on the last Tues- day of February in every year; and each to continue, if necessary, until and including the Saturday following the day of beginning. The place or places of holding these courts were to be designated and appointed from time to time " by the judges for the time being," and (by Section IV.) " That no Circuit Court or Court of Oyer and Ter- miner and general gaol delivery shall be held in and for
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