History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 90

Author: Franklin Ellis and Eugene Arns Nash
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Deprived of the privilege of attending school, home study became a passion as well as a necessity, and many an obscure problem has yielded up its secrets to the mysterious tracery of a piece of chalk upon the head of a newly-finished potash barrel.

My father was a cooper, and to the old shop, with its capacious fireplace and piles of illuminating fagots, I look back with pride as an "institution of learning," where in- tellectual genius was developed that, feeble though they might be, are scarcely outreached by the boundaries of American civilization. Though I did not "o'er books consume the midnight oil," yet the glow from that old fire- place has illuminated many a page, the contents of which are ineffaceably engraven upon my memory. By no means would I have the reader suppose that I was always a " nice boy," but that where artful mischief lay concealed I was generally near by, the whip and the ferule generally reach- ing another, when if blundering justice had not been blind she would have awarded the prize to me. But, through my forbearance, I bore the loss without a murmur, and was never mean enough to taunt the recipient with receiving awards that properly belonged to me.

From the age of thirteen to fifteen years I attended the district school in the old log school-house, which stood a short distance north of the village of Franklinville, two

. Briefly sketched by himself.

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months to Miss Louie Moore (since Mrs. Smith, of Hins- dale), and about the same length of time to Pardon T. Jewell, and subsequently eleven and a half days to Eleazar Perkins; and thus rounded off as an accomplished scholar of the period, I entered the list in the strife for eminence in the capacity of a country pedagogue.

In the autumn of 1828, at the age of eighteen years, I entered upon the responsible duties of a teacher, and at intervals, both summer and winter, have followed the pro- fession through a period of forty years, having taught in all what is equal to a period of fifteen years without recess or vacation,-with what ability and success, the annals of time and eternity can best portray; and now, in my old age, I enjoy the gratifying consciousness that to every pupil placed under my charge, so far as they were capable of comprehension, I have ever imparted the best I had of knowledge and advice, and that through no precept of mine has any child ever gone astray.

On the 17th day of July, 1836, I was married to Dian- thia T. Reynolds, of East Bloomfield, Ontario Co., who was born in the town of Sullivan, Madison Co., Feb. 23, 1816. By this marriage, to us have been born four sons and six daughters, the eldest of whom (a son) died in infancy. Of the other sons, Robert E. and William M. served in the army during the war of the Rebellion ; the former of whom was killed near Petersburg, Va., June 18, 1864, and the latter was wounded and captured in the valley of the She- nandoalı, and died of starvation in the prison-pen in An- dersonville, Ga., Aug. 22, 1864. The remaining son, Wallis M., died at Franklinville, N. Y., Dec. 24, 1878.

Of the six daughters, five are or have been teachers of good repute, and all are respectably married and comfortably situated in life.

On the 24th day of October, 1861, I enlisted in the cavalry service of the country, and was assigned to Com- pany I, of the 6th New York Volunteer Cavalry, and after a brief period of camp drill at Staten Island, N. Y., the regiment was sent to the front early in the summer of 1862, and successively followed the fortunes of Gens. Pleasonton, Stoneman, Averill, Custer, and Sheridan, and each indi- vidual was a personal actor in the great drama performed by the Army of the Potomac.

Soon after the organization of the regiment I was de- tailed on extra duty as clerk in the quartermaster's and commissary's departments in the field ; these, though they sometimes afforded additional comforts, also imposed addi- tional duties. Gen. Pope's order to forage the country for subsistence furnished occasion for some ludicrous as well as hazardous adventures, of which I had my full share. My detached position relieved me from the ordinary duties of the rank and file, yet I participated in the ex- citing scenes of South Mountain, Antietam, and Fred- ericksburg, and came out with a whole skin and unharmed. On the night between the last day of April and the first day of May, 1863, and pending the inauguration of the battle of Chancellorsville, a squad of about seventy, under the command of Lieut .- Col. McVicker, being on a reconnaissance, suddenly found ourselves, in the blinding darkness of a foggy night, surrounded on all sides by the rebel hordes, en route for the historic heights of Chancellors-

ville. To stay and fight was sheer madness, to tamely submit would be cowardice, and the only alternative was to hew a road with the sabre in a desperate charge. The latter alternative was adopted; some succeeded and reached the main body, and some fell in the encounter. I was among the latter, and when I had, after a severe effort, collected the scattered fragments of what little intellect I once possessed, I found myself half-buried in mud, with my head sadly battered by a sabre-stroke, and a dead horse across my legs. I drew myself from beneath my dead horse, and crawled to a little mound beneath some dwarf pines, and communed with myself in sober, almost dead, earnest. There was nothing to disturb or vary my gloomy forebodings except the groans of the wounded, the twinges of acute pain, the moaning of the chill night-wind, and the heavy rumble of artillery-trains on the distant pikes, en route for the bloody scenes of the coming morrow. I had dragged from my saddle two blankets, an overcoat, and a haversack of provisions, but of these, soon as it was light, the vandal hounds that follow in the wake of an army relieved me. We were then taken to some farm buildings hard by, and suffered to sun ourselves and nurse our wrath on the south side of an old out-house.

Towards night we were taken to Spottsylvania Court- House and our wounds dressed, and the next day I with two others, who were unable to walk, were loaded into a dump-cart, drawn by a dilapidated mule, and started on our triumphal march to the city of Richmond. After much fatigue, many delays, privations, and starvations we arrived at our destination, and were at once escorted to that historic watering-place, Belle Isle, and subsequently to that fash- ionable resort, " The Hotel de Libby," where we were treated to rebel hospitality by way of the naked floor for a bed, the grimy old roof for a covering, gray-backs for recreation, mule soup for refreshment, and river water for a beverage. But all things have an end, and so did my term of imprisonment. I was returned on parole by way of Petersburg, City Point, James River, Fortress Monroe, and Annapolis to convalescent camp near the city of Washing- ton, where we arrived in July, 1863.

I must here relate one incident, and will say in digression that I am neither a skeptic nor an infidel. I can bear ad- versity or grief with the stoicism of a doomed pagan, but incidents of an opposite nature totally subdue all real or assumed indifference, and render me as pliant and sensi- tive as a sickly child. On my way from prison, as I ap- proached City Point, I beheld the most beautiful sight upon which my eye ever rested, and its beauty was enhanced by the consciousness that it was mine. It was a piece of white bunting the size of a school-girl's apron, but, thank God ! emblazoned thereon was the Stripes and Stars, the emblem of my country, and for very joy, I confess, I wept like a child. I am no idolator, but I plead guilty to one infrac- tion of orthodox creed, for, from the bottom of my heart, I did worship that rag since it has been thrice sanctified by the best blood of our land. On my arrival at camp, near Washington, I was immediately detailed as clerk in the ordnance department, and for merit was promoted to the first rank in the office, and the order of detail was made permanent by the indorsement of the Secretary of War, in

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which position I remained until the close of the term of my enlistment, when I returned to my family a poor, bat- tered, time-worn veteran of the war.

My life has been one of varied experiences. I have held official positions, and have carried the hod; I have been at the head of literary associations, and have delved in the sewer; I have sat in polite circles, and drank poor whisky in the lowest of grog-shops; I have written high- toned moral articles for the public press, and lampooned vice in ribald verse. In fact, my life has been one of incon- sistencies : intellectually, a fair success ; pecuniarily, a total failure ! Whisky and tobacco have been my masters; but of late years I have chewed the latter, and eschewed the former. I have written epitaphs for the dead, and bi- ographies for the living, at the imminent risk of sacrificing my self-respect for veracity, or the respect of others as a popular author. I have been a married man, and kept house forty-two years, and have moved my family twenty- eight times, but never beyond the limits of the county.

In view of my many inconsistencies, the public have been liberal in the bestowal of their confidence as a general rule, but exceptionally treating me to an insult more keen than the ingratitude of a thankless child. I have been an inhabitant of the town for more than three-fifths of a cen- tury. I have seen the face of the country undergo material changes from a dense wilderness to cultivated fields and thriving villages; the hunter's trail has given place to busy streets and commercial thoroughfares. I have seen two generations of the human race rise, flourish, and pass away, yet time deals gently with me in the down-grade of life, and no enterprise of public utility has ever been inaugu- rated without receiving my hearty co-operation and support. I have been the subject of scandal, vituperation, and false- hood ; and here I place myself upon the record, and chal- lenge the congregated world, with their myriad fingers of criticism, to point to a vicious word, thought, or deed of my life that was derogatory to the character of a husband or father. I am like the rolling stone, I have gathered no moss. Yet one tumble more and I have done, and that is, to tumble into the quiet grave; and when that time shall come, I shall " Go, not like the quarry-slave, at night soourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, approach my grave like one that wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleas- ant dreams."

FRANKLINVILLE, N. Y., January, 1879.

ISAAC SEARL,

the son of Gideon and Hannah Searl, was born in the town of Whitehall, Washington Co., N. Y., Oct. 23, 1789. He was the second son of a family of fifteen children, of whom six brothers and five sisters have been honorable and exemplary citizens of Cattaraugus County. His early education was limited to the ordinary common schools of that period, yet what he lacked in the polish and refine- ment of classical literature was amply supplied by an inbred love of truth, ever a faithful devotee at honor's shrine in all the social, civil, financial, and political relations of life.

In July, 1811, at the age of twenty-two, he married

Martha Hotchkiss, of Washington County. In 1816 he moved with his family to Warsaw, Wyoming Co., where he remained only one year; and in the autumn of 1817 he removed to Franklinville, occupying a small habitation on the ground now covered by the Globe Hotel. Here he re-

ISAAC SEARL.

mained until the following summer, when he selected as his future home, the north part of lot 35, and the northwest cor- ner of lot 27, township 4, range 4. Here he erected his log cabin and moved his little family, and by the vigorous use of the axe, the handspike, and all-consuming fire, he waged a vigorous warfare with the denizens of the forest until he had cleared many broad acres, and bountiful harvests repaid him for his weary labors. He was prudent and economical, yet far from being parsimonious ; he was a charitable giver and a prompt paymaster; the needy never went empty- handed from his door, the latch-string of which was always out to the benighted wayfarer and the neighboring pioneer. He had nine children, five of whom are still living, worthy representatives of a noble stock. The surviving sons are Orange, Lyman, and Isaac, who, by following in the foot- steps of their worthy predecessor, have not only kept the patrimonial estate intact, but have added largely thereto, and are ranked among the best farmers in the Ischua valley, as well as models in all the social amenities that characterize the gentleman and the Christian. Of the daughters, Arvilla and Hannah survive, and are respectively the wives of John Burlingame and Marshall O. Bond, both of whom, in all their social and domestic relations, bear the impress of noble training and Christian example.

During the winter of 1837 he made profession of religion, and through the remainder of his life honored that profes- sion both by precept and example. Conscience was the tribunal before which every act was tried, the Word of God was the law and evidence, and a resolute compliance with duty executed its decree. In April, 1837, he united with the Baptist Church in Franklinville, and until the close of his life was an honorable, exemplary, and influential mem-

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RESIDENCE OF THE LATE JOHN TEN BROECK, NEAR FRANKLINVILLE, N. Y.

VILLAGE RESIDENCE OF MRS. MARTHA LOWDEN, LATE WIDOW OF JOHN TEN BROECK.

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HISTORY OF CATTARAUGUS COUNTY, NEW YORK.

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ber of that organization. He died April 11, 1860, aged seventy years, five months, and eighteen days, leaving to . his heirs-at-law a goodly inheritance, and to the community at large a legacy richer by far,-that of a blameless life and a spotless reputation ; and the passer by may pause at his grave and truthfully say, " Here lies all that can die of the noblest work of God,-an honest man."

JOHN TEN BROECK,*

brother of the Hon. Peter Ten Broeck, was born in Otsego Co., N. Y., March 11, 1797. Being derived from a stock whose ideas of man's earthly mission was that the aggrega- tion of wealth was paramount to the cultivation of intel-

Here, amidst a dense forest, he erected a diminutive log shanty, covering it with sections of hollow trees cleft in twain, placed alternately, with concave and convex surfaces to the zenith, with a slight inclination to the plane of the horizon. Into this primitive habitation he entered, with his wife, in 1821 or '22; and here an incident to illustrate the romance of pioneer life. On the second morning after their arrival at their new abode John was aroused from his slumbers by the loud bleating of some animal, in seem- ing distress, but a few paces from his cabin-door. He seized his rifle and sallied forth, and soon discovered two large gray wolves, with their bloody muzzles buried deep in the entrails of a fallen deer. The obscurity of twilight obstructed a correct aim, but the report of the rifle fright-

John Ten Broeck

lect or the embellishment of the mind, his opportunities for an education were very limited, and the mollifying ameni- ties of polite literature entirely neglected.

Thus he entered upon the theatre of manhood with a native intellect of more than ordinary capacity, but crude, angular, and unrefined, disdaining all the blandishments that serve to round off the rough corners that so frequently come in contact in the intercourse of social and domestic life.

Soon after attaining his majority, he married Miss Polly Chapin and engaged in the employ of his father, in consid- eration of the price of fifty acres of wild land on the Hol- land Purchase. The conditions were fulfilled, and the land selected on lot 37, township 5, range 4,-the locality now known as " Pigeon Hill," in the town of Farmersville.

ened the midnight hunters from their prey, and John, taking advantage of their temporary absence, appropriated the hide and carcass as his legitimate booty ; but the wolves soon returned with reinforcements, and celebrated both the triumph and defeat by frightful and ominous howlings which lasted until late in the day.

But prosperity, true in her allegiance, soon followed a persistent course of industry, thrift, and economy, and the pair found themselves in possession of an easy competence ; the fifty acres had multiplied to several hundreds, the log cabin had given place to a respectable farm-house, and barns and sheds dotted the outline of the picture, cultivated fields and blooming orchards occupied the place where swaying forests had interposed their shades but a few years before.

At this period of his history, John Ten Broeck became fanatically imbued with a spirit of wild adventure, and

* By Marvin Older.

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against the earnest remonstrances of his wife he resolved upon leaving her in charge of a large farm and the con- stantly multiplying duties incidental to growing prosperity. As yet the marriage had been unblessed with issue, and they separated for the time, he with the intention of spend- ing from one to three years on a fishing or whaling voyage, and she to remain at home and nurse her resentment at, what seemed to her, cold and criminal neglect ; she reso- lutely and boldly inaugurated means, the result of which is disclosed by the sequel ; and he, to take stern lessons in the school of experience, on the coasts of Labrador and the Banks of Newfoundland,-the only school in which a cer- tain class of individuals ever receive salutary lessons. He returned, if we mistake not, late in the fall, a much wiser, but neither a richer nor a happier man.

The evidences of incontinence on the part of his wife were too palpable to admit of concealment, palliation, or denial, and the sequel was a decree of divorce issued by the Court of Chancery, dated Aug. 17, 1835. Thus they separated again,-he to a desolate home, and she to the cold embrace of a heartless and uncharitable world. Time passed on, and on the 17th of October, 1837, he married for his second wife Martha Sessions, and the pair continued to reside on the original farm for a term of ten years, when the growing infirmities of approaching old age admonished him of the necessity of a relaxation from the arduous duties of farm life. He accordingly placed his farm under rent for a term of years, and purchased a small farm on the banks of the Ischua Creek, one and a half miles north from the village of Franklinville, to which place he removed in December, 1847. Here he erected a spacious residence, in which to spend the remainder of his days in comparative retirement. But the habits of early life prevailed over the demands for repose, and he purchased from the estate of his brother Peter two hundred acres adjoining his own, thus increasing his home-farm to three hundred and ten acres, and again embarked in extended agricultural pursuits, which he fol- lowed until the time of his death. He died at his residence Sept. 15, 1866, aged sixty-nine years, six months, and four days, and was buried in the " Ten Broeck Cemetery," where a costly monument of Italian marble, prepared by his own direction, discloses to the passing travelers whose remains lie inhumed beneath its base.

Over his infirmities, if he had any, we gladly drop the veil of charitable silence; his virtues belong to posterity, his frailties are in the hands of his God.

As a man, his honor and integrity were beyond doubt or cavil ; as a citizen, he was quiet and unobtrusive, seldom or never mingling in public affairs or extending his sphere of action beyond the limits of his own personal affairs. He was a cautious giver, but absolute suffering never went un- relieved from his door. Abrupt in his address, eccentric in his habits, harsh and caustic in retort, unpolished by any of the refinements of social etiquette, yet beneath all this rough exterior he carried a kind and benevolent heart.

WILLIAM McNALL,*

eldest son of John and Mellison (Washburn) McNall, was born at Stafford Springs, Tolland Co., Conn., Feb. 23, 1806.

In 1816, when the subject of this sketch was ten years of age, his father, with his family, left Connecticut and set- tled at what is now the hamlet of Cadiz, in this town, the means of transportation for the family and their household effects being a cart drawn by a pair of oxen,-the journey occupying nearly thirty days, during the most of which time young William traveled on foot, with goad in hand, by the side of the patient team.

WILLIAM M'NALL.

The fortunes of young McNall during his boyhood were not dissimilar to those of other early pioneers of restricted means, and the relentless necessity for constant labor sadly abridged the opportunities for acquiring an education, which, at best, were confined to common schools of an ordinary grade ; yet, by dint of perseverance, he acquired a fair standing among the youth of his time. Being of indus- trious habits and mechanical tastes, he readily made himself familiar with the tools of different craftsmen, and became a farmer, carpenter, joiner, mason, wheelwright, millwright, or blacksmith, as the exigencies of the case demanded.

On the 17th of December, 1829, he married Miss Sibyl Seaward, daughter of Stephen Seaward, Esq., of Frank- linville. The fruits of this marriage were five sons and four daughters. Charles and William, Jr., both died in infancy; Nathan, the eldest son, died March 5, 1857; Thomas E. was killed at Morton's Ford, Va., in 1864; and a braver, better, truer soldier never broke a hard-tack or drank from a canteen than was Thomas E. McNall.

Stephen E., the only surviving son, has purchased the original homestead, and is a thrifty and enterprising farmer, enjoying an easy and well-earned competence and the confi- dence and esteem of all who know him. The four daugh-

. By Marvin Older.

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ters still survive, and, so far as we know, are comfortably seated on life's ever-moving train.

As a mechanic, Mr. McNall had acquired a fair reputa- tion, and many substantial structures are now standing to attest his skill as an architect and bear evidences of his handiwork in their construction. As a man, he was honest, upright, and truthful; genial and good-natured, he ever bore about him a halo of joyousness that reflected the sunshine of a happy disposition wherever he went. As a neighbor, he was kind and obliging even to a fault, often sacrificing his own convenience for his neighbor's profit; as a citizen, he was public-spirited, charitable, and benevolent ; as a husband and father, he was faithful, constant, kind, and affectionate. By industry and economy he had acquired a limited competence, and his surviving widow is left to cher- ish pleasant recollections of his many virtues, and the pos- session of the fruits of his labor and toil to pave with com- forts the remaining path way of life.

On the 20th of December, 1870, after a brief illness, he quietly breathed his last and sank to rest. During the autumn of 1878 his remains were transferred to Mount Prospect Cemetery, and William M. McNall has left, as an indefeasible inheritance, a memory grateful to surviving friends, salutary to succeeding generations.

CHARLES THOMAS LOWDEN. Robert, the father of Charles T. Lowden, was born in Glas- gow, Scotland, and on arriving at a suitable age was sent to Edinburgh to college, where he remained until fully quali-

C. T. LOWDEN.

fied to enter upon the ministry, which was his intention. His father, who was a sea-captain, having a family consist- ing of five sons and one daughter, thought it best for the interests of his children to find a home across the Atlantic, and subsequently located in Pictou, in the Province of Nova Scotia, where they afterwards became extensively engaged in mercantile business and also in ship-building.

Robert, who was a twin-brother to Samuel, not finding a favorable opportunity to enter into the ministry, continued with his brothers in the mercantile and ship-building busi- ness for many years, during which time he married a widow, -Mrs. Wallace,-whose maiden name was Abigail Dickson. They had eight children,-six sons and two daughters,- of which Charles Thomas, the third, was born in Merigo- mish, Pictou Co., Nova Scotia, Aug. 22, 1815. At a suit- able age he was sent to a district school, which he attended more or less until he arrived at the age of fifteen years; then, leaving home, he went to live with a half-brother, Alexander Wallace, who instructed him in the art and science of blacksmithing, an occupation he afterwards fol- lowed many years.

On arriving at the age of twenty-one years he bade fare- well to friends and home, with the determination of locating ' somewhere in the United States. After spending some time in the States of Maine and Massachusetts, without having very good success, he resolved to visit Western New York. He arrived at Yorkshire Centre, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., Oct. 22, 1837, at which place he at once established himself at blacksmithing, and there continued the business over thirty-five years.

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History of Cattaraugus County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 90

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: