USA > New York > Wayne County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 41
USA > New York > Cayuga County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 41
USA > New York > Seneca County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 41
USA > New York > Ontario County > History of Central New York : embracing Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Ontario, Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Yates, Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga Counties, Volume I > Part 41
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PAINTED POST.
Where the thriving village of Painted Post, with its 2,320 inhabitants, now stands there was once the solitary cabin of William Harris, a Pennsylvania fur trader who was the first white settler in all Steuben County. In 1786 he put up his cabin and a trading post near the north end of the bridge which spans the Cohocton in Painted Post. While on a visit to Pennsylvania in the winter of 1787, his place burned, but he rebuilt it and by 1889, when Phelps & Gorham sent out surveyors to survey the county, they made their headquarters at Harris' place.
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The same year Col. Arthur Erwin from Pennsylvania came to Painted Post with a drove of cattle, which he was driving to Canandaigua. While resting the animals, he employed an Indian guide to show him the Steuben territory. So intrigued was he with the locality that on arrival in Canandaigua, headquarters for the Phelps & Gorham Land Company, he offered the cattle and future payments in gold for the land embraced in the town of Erwin, in which Painted Post is located. In the deed to this township the name "Painted Post" appears for the first time in a record or legal document.
The cognomen, "Painted Post," grew out of the erection by the Indians of a monument to the memory of the Seneca chief, Captain Montour, who died in 1779 of wounds received at the battle of Freeling's Fort.
"His comrades buried him by the riverside and planted above his grave a post on which were painted various symbols and rude devices. This monument was known throughout the Genesee forests as the Painted Post. It was a landmark well known to all the Six Nations and was often visited by their braves and chieftains."
This account of the origin of the painted post was given to Benjamin Patterson, a hunter, by a man named Taggart, who was carried a prisoner to Fort Niagara, and was a witness of the burial of Captain Montour or at least was in the encampment at the mouth of the Tioga at the time of his death.
Colonel Harper, a Revolutionary officer, claimed that the painted post was erected over the grave of a chief, who was' wounded at the battle of the Hog Back and brought in a canoe to the head of the Chemung where he died. It was well under- stood by early settlers that this monument was erected in mem- ory of some distinguished warrior, wounded in a border battle of the Revolution, and who afterward died at this place. The post stood for many years after settlement of the county and the story goes that it rotted down and was preserved in the barroom of a tavern until about 1810, when it mysteriously vanished. That the locality of the post was a favorite haunt of the Indian is
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indicated by the numerous relics and skeletons that have there been unearthed.
The village plan was laid out in 1833 by Capt. Samuel Erwin and incorporation was effected in 1893. The first frame house on the village site was built in 1822 by Francis Erwin and re- mained until burned April 29, 1872. The place was used for a hotel. Erwin also built the first frame store on the northwest corner of Water and Hamilton streets opposite the hotel.
PRATTSBURG.
The settlement of Prattsburg, a village of 583 inhabitants and one of the most historic in the county, follows closely upon the settlement of Bath and seems a direct result of that move- ment. The village was incorporated in 1877.
William Root of Albany and Capt. Joel Pratt of Spencertown, Columbia County, New York, purchased township No. 6, third range of Robert Troup who had succeeded Williamson as agent of the Pulteney estate. Root's purpose for the deal was specula- tion, but Capt. Pratt desired to settle and found a religious so- ciety of the Congregational order. Because of this difference of motive, Mr. Pratt soon acquired Root's interest in the venture.
In 1799 Captain Pratt came to this region on horseback to make plans for his home. He selected a site on Urbana Hill, five miles southeast of Prattsburg and in 1800 he cleared 110 acres and planted it to wheat. This wheat was harvested and in the spring of 1802 was conveyed by ark to Baltimore and sold for $8,000. It was not until 1805 that Captain Pratt brought his family within the present bounds of Prattsburg, but his nephew, Jarad Pratt, settled on what is known as the Luther Wheeler farm in 1800 and was therefore the first white settler within the town of Prattsburg. The second was a hunter, Daniel Buel; the third was Rev. John Niles, who came from Clinton (Hamilton College) in 1803. In 1805 Captain Pratt built a log house on the farm now owned by William B. Pratt. He built a frame house for himself and family in 1817 and it has remained in the family to the present time and has housed four generations of Pratts.
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The Sabbath following the arrival of Rev. John Niles a re- ligious service was held at the home of Jarad Pratt. On June 26, 1804, the "Prattsburg Religious Society" was organized by Tim- othy Field of Canandaigua and from this the name Prattsburg came to be applied to the town.
A number of the leading men in the settlement were Yale grad- uates. So it came about that the religious and educational as- pirations of the people were the distinguishing characteristics of the little settlement. As early as 1822, a public meeting was called to consider the possibility of establishing a school for higher education.
During the following year, the people voluntarily pledged themselves to give $2,000 toward building an academy and be- tween $3,000 and $4,000 towards the support of the school. The school was opened early in 1824 with William Beardsley as prin- cipal. We are told the first recitation was in Greek. It was the only school of its kind in this section and drew students from all surrounding towns and counties. Many who were educated at Franklin Academy and Collegiate Institute in the early days be- came distinguished in work for state or nation, or were the lead- ing citizens in the communities where they resided. The influ- ence of the school extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. Dr. J. L. Manning, pastor of the Old South Church of Boston, was educated here; Rev. Henry Harmon Spalding and Narcissa Prentiss, wife of Dr. Marcus Whitman, all pioneer missionaries to the Great Northwest were among its early students.
For a long time the only painted house between Bath and Geneva was the home of J. C. Higby, located on the side of Mrs. W. H. Hoag's home. It was given the distinguishing title of "Lily of the Valley."
In 1822, the Baptists after holding meeting in the district schoolhouse, built a log meeting house on West Hill, on land do- nated by the Pulteney estate. The Methodists built the Old Chapel in 1830. In 1828 the Presbyterians built a beautiful new church of Colonial type on land given by Judge Porter just East of the Academy. Both buildings continued to serve the people until February 28, 1923, when both church and school burned to
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the ground in one of the most spectacular fires that ever visited Prattsburg. Within two years they were replaced by the modern brick buildings standing on the site today.
The Prattsburg News, a weekly newspaper established in 1871 by Paul C. Howe, assisted by his eldest son, W. L. Howe. The Kanona-Prattsburg Railway built in 1889.
SAVONA.
Savona, a village of 543 on the Cohocton River in the town of Bath, was originally known as Mud Creek. The first settlers were Thomas Corbit, who came from Pennsylvania with Colonel Williamson in 1793; John Doleson, who arrived from the Che- mung in 1794, Henry Bush and Henry McElwee. A post office was established about 1823.
The Methodist Church of Savona was built in 1843, previous to which time services had been held in a schoolhouse. At first the Baptists held services with the Methodists but in 1856 built their own church.
The community is served by the Erie and the Delaware, Lack- awanna & Western. Savona was incorporated as a village in 1883.
WAYLAND.
The Village of Wayland, in the northeastern part of the town of the same name, is a thriving village of 1,814 population; was settled by Capt. Thomas Bowles, a Mr. Bowen and John Hume, in 1808. A Mr. Hicks came in 1810 and Thomas Begole in 1814. The first sawmill was built by Benjamin Perkins; the first grist mill by Dugald Cameron and Abijah Fowler in 1816. Samuel Taggart kept the first inn in 1827 and James L. Monier the first store in 1830. The first school was taught by Thomas Wilbur in 1811.
The Wayland Village postoffice was established in 1852 and the village was incorporated in April, 1877, with H. S. Rosen- krans as first president.
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WOODHULL.
Woodhull Village, of 290 inhabitants, is in the town of the same name in southern Steuben County, Tuscarora Creek flow- ing through the community. It was incorporated in 1899.
The first settlement in the town was made in 1805 by Stephen Dolson, Daniel Johnson, Patrick Breakhill, Bethuel Tubbs and Samuel B. Rice. Caleb Smith came in 1808. The first birth was that of Polly Smith, the first marriage that of Levi Rice and Cynthia Tubbs and the first death that of Benjamin Tubbs. Caleb Smith built the first gristmill in 1805; Ichabod S. Leach kept the first inn and Joseph Tubbs the first store. The first school was taught by Abner Thomas.
The Woodhull Academy and Union School was erected in 1868 by public subscription. Hamilton Marlett donated ground for the building. The Presbyterian Church of Woodhull was or- ganized October 15, 1831; a Free Baptist Church society about 1834 and the First Baptist Church November 20, 1835.
CHAPTER XXXIV
TIOGA COUNTY.
COUNTY CREATED-ORIGINAL AREA-EARLY SUBDIVISIONS-FIRST SETTLERS TOWNS - OWEGO - CANDOR - NEWARK VALLEY -NICHOLS - SPENCER --- WAVERLY.
Tioga County was created February 16, 1791, from Mont- gomery, as the state's twentieth county. With an area of 520 square miles, its land area of 332,800 acres has 2,273 farms em- bracing 262,396 acres. Farm lands and buildings are valued at $10,332,081 and 78.8 per cent of the area is devoted to agricul- ture. The population is 25,470, about three fifths of which is rural.
There are twenty-nine industrial plants in the county, em- ploying 909 people with an annual payroll of $873,360, according to the 1929 statistics of the Federal Government. Tioga plants pay $4,898,131 a year for materials, fuel and purchased power and the output of the industries is valued at $7,753,968.
In the county are 1,075 miles of highway, 149 of which are on the state system. There are also 7,563 automobiles in the county.
Though Tioga County has no city, it claims six incorporated villages: Candor, Newark Valley, Nichols, Owego, Spencer and Waverly. Owego is the county seat.
Tioga's nine towns are Barton, 7,221; Berkshire, 770; Can- dor, 2,564; Newark Valley, 1,843; Nichols, 1,407; Owego, 7,793; Richford, 805; Spencer, 1,480; Tioga, 1,587.
Tioga has one assembly district, it is in the Thirty-seventh Congressional District, the Sixth Judicial District and the Forty- first Senatorial District.
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Tioga, as an early county, was subsequently divided, portions going to four other counties. A part of Chenango was taken off in 1798; Broome in 1806; a part of Tompkins in 1822 and Chemung in 1836. The county seat, though it is now in Owego, had various locations in earlier days.
By the organic act of 1791, Tioga was formed a half shire county. It provided that the courts should be held alternately at Chenango in the town of Union and at Newtown Point, in the town of Chemung, the former now Binghamton, Broome County, and the latter Elmira, Chemung County. The half shire was abolished under the organization of Broome County in 1806. On February 17, 1810, commissioners were appointed to locate the courthouse site and others to superintend the erection of a build- ing, and in 1811-12 the county seat was removed from Elmira to Spencer Village.
On June 8, 1812, the county was divided into two jury dis- tricts and the courts were held at Elmira and Spencer. The East Jury District embraced the towns of Tioga, Spencer, Danby, Caroline, Candor, Berkshire and Owego; and the west, the towns of Cayuta, Catharines, Chemung and Elmira. The courthouse at Spencer was burned in 1821 and by an act a year later the half shire of the county was re-established, and Owego and Elmira became the half shire towns. Upon the organization of Chemung County in 1836, Elmira became the county seat, and Owego the county seat of Tioga.
The first settlements in Tioga County were made upon the Susquehanna intervales, soon after the Revolution, by emigrants from Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. These settlers originally came from Connecticut and Massachusetts and left Wyoming in consequence of troubles with the Indians and with the land titles. They located in Tioga before the Indian title to the land was ex- tinguished. The greater part of Tioga County as it stands today was located in the Boston Ten Towns. The title of this tract, comprising 230,400 acres between Chenango River and Owego Creek, was vested in the State of Massachusetts in 1786. In 1787 it was sold to a company of sixty persons, mostly residents of that state. The greater part of the proprietors immediately
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took possession of these lands and thus it happened that the county was filled up with a New England population, while the fertile fields farther west and north were yet an unbroken wil- derness.
The town of Barton was formed from Tioga March 23, 1824; Berkshire was formed from Tioga February 12, 1808. Newark was taken off in 1823 and Richford in 1831.
Candor was erected from Spencer, February 22, 1811; New- ark Valley was created from Berkshire as Westville, April 12, 1823, and its name changed March 24, 1824; Nichols was formed from Tioga March 23, 1824.
The Town of Owego was organized February 16, 1791, and Spencer was taken off in 1806. Richford was formed from Berk- shire as Arlington April 18, 1831, and its name changed April 9, 1832.
Spencer was formed from Owego February 28, 1806. Can- dor, Caroline, Danby and Newfield (the last three now in Tomp- kins County) were taken off February 22, 1811, and Cayuta March 20, 1824.
Tioga was formed from Union (Broome County) March 14, 1800. Berkshire was taken off in 1808, a part of Union in 1810 and Barton and Nichols in 1824.
The first permanent settlement in Tioga County was made by Amos Draper in 1785 on the site of Owego. Settlements were subsequently made in the several towns as follows: Tioga and Nichols, 1787; Barton, Berkshire and Newark Valley, 1791; Can- dor, 1793; Spencer, 1794; Richford, 1809.
First farming operations begun in the county were those of James McMasters and his bound boy, William Taylor, in Owego in 1785. That season they cleared some ten to fifteen acres and planted it to corn and raised the crop. Indians watched and cared for its growth and for their labor received a share in the harvesting.
The first school opened in Tioga County was in Newark Val- ley in 1796-97, in the bark covered shanty of Elisha Wilson a portion of the time and in Josiah Ball's shoe shop the rest of the time. Log school houses were built previous to 1800 in several
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of the settlements, the first framed one being in Owego about 1802.
The first church formed in the county was the Baptist Church of New Bedford, organized February 20, 1796, by settlers in what is now the Town of Tioga. It had but nine members. As early as November 10, 1819, there was an agricultural society in the county.
Tioga County, according to the official postal guide for July, 1930, has the following post offices : Apalachin, Barton, Berkshire, Candor, Catatonk, Halsey Valley, Lockwood, Lounsberry, New- ark Valley, Nichols, North Spencer, Owego, Richford, Smithboro, South Apalachin, Spencer, Straits Corners, Tioga Center, Waits, Waverly, Willseyville.
OWEGO.
Owego, known as the southern gateway to the lake country, is a village of 4,739 inhabitants finely situated on the Susque- hanna, near the mouth of Owego Creek. In 1922 the state com- pleted the final link of the New York-Finger Lakes-Buffalo cross state motor route, thus placing Owego on a route fifty miles shorter than the old New York-Albany-Buffalo highway. At Owego the traveler leaves the Liberty highway and follows the new road to Ithaca.
From time immemorial the Susquehanna River at Owego and the Finger Lakes at Ithaca have been connected-first by an Indian trail, next by a pioneer roadway cut in 1789, and then the turnpike built from 1808 to 1811. During the War of 1812 this highway was of great value as a means of bringing supplies to the Atlantic seaboard, the Susquehanna River at that time being an important artery of commerce.
It was from Owego to Ithaca, that the second railroad in the United States was chartered in 1828 to bring salt, lumber and plaster to the Susquehanna River on which these goods were transported by barges to Baltimore on Chesapeake Bay.
The attractiveness of Owego today has its appeal to all who love the peace and inspiration which comes from intimate contact with the gifts of nature. Many creeks and glens and wood roads
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tempt the traveler to tarry a while and drink in the beauties of the region.
The Susquehanna River sweeps in a picturesque bend at Owego, and for several miles is navigable for launches, sail boats and canoes. Three miles east of the village is Hiawatha Island, a favorite objective for canoeists. The current runs deep on the south side of this island, and here fine bass can be caught.
Just across from Hiawatha Island on the River Road, is an interesting little house in which the Rockefellers lived, while John D. Rockefeller and his brother, William, went to school in the old Owego Academy.
Owego is also interesting as the home of General H. M. Rob- ert, whose books on parliamentary law are of nation-wide au- thority. Thomas C. Platt, former senator of the United States, was born and lived in Owego. His last resting place is in Ever- green Cemetery, high above the village.
A favorite walk, of which the hikers never seem to tire, takes one past Glenmary, and the home of the poet, Nathaniel Parker Willis; where, inspired by its natural loveliness, he produced many of his best poems and essays.
The little Indian town which Colonel Dearborn designates "Owagea," has been variously spelled and pronounced by au- thorities and writers of local history. In the Indian dialect it was known as Ah-wah-gah, the authority for this statement being Mrs. Jane Whitaker, a captive white girl, who was taken to Owego with other prisoners on the journey to Unadilla after the massacre at Wyoming. According to Morgan's "League of the Iroquois," the name, in the Onondaga tongue, was "Ah-wa-ga," the "a" in the second syllable having the same sound as in "fate." It was otherwise known and spelled as "Owegy," "Oweigy," and also as "Oswegy."
On a number of the early maps of the Region the names were known as "Owegy" and "Owega," while to the pioneer settlers it was commonly pronounced "O-wa-go," and was so written in the journals of several officers in Sullivan's Expedition, and also in the records of the town of Union, that being the first organized civil jurisdiction which exercised authority over the territory
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now called Owego. The meaning of the word "Ah-wa-ga," ac- cording to Judge Charles P. Avery, a recognized authority on Indian history in the Susquehanna Valley, is "where the valley widens," but Wilkinson's "Annals of Binghamton" interpret it as "swift river."
Owego was settled one of the earliest of any locality in Cen- tral New York. In 1785 Amos Draper, an agent and Indian trader from Wyoming Valley, first came to the place. He erected a house on the site of Owego the following year and in 1787 or 1788 brought in his family. An Indian chief and his wife passed the first winter in the wilderness abode of the Draper family and here that first year a child was born to Mrs. Draper.
John McQuigg and James McMaster, from New England, the original patentees of the half-township on which Owego stands, came in 1788. A clearing was made and grain sowed on an Indian improvement there in the season of 1786 by William McMaster, William Taylor, Robert McMaster, John Nealy, and William Wood, who entered the valley from the east by way of Otsego and the Susquehanna.
There were no mills nearer than Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, which was reached by canoes. Until 1801, when a post office was established at Owego, settlers had been dependent on private hands and chance ways of receiving a letter. For many years the early Owego post office was one of the four distributing offices of the state.
From Owego for an extended period were shipped salt, plas- ter, lumber and wheat for the Pennsylvania and Maryland mar- kets. The first tannery in the county was built in Owego in 1795-96, with deer skins as the chief hides dressed.
The greatest disaster in Owego's history came September 27, 1849, when fire destroyed the entire business section-104 build- ings exclusive of barns, with a loss of $300,000, as figured in those days of low valuations. The blaze started in the hall of the Sons of Temperance, over the store of James and Wm. A. Ely on the south side of Front Street. Only three stores were left in the business section, the destruction including all build- ings on both sides of Front Street from Church Street to the
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park, and all on Lake Street to the old Center House on one side and the Jared Huntington residence on the other. The bridge across the river was partly destroyed.
This conflagration came in the days when fire fighting equip- ment was crude. The first steamer did not come to Owego until 1866, four years after the village fire department incorporated. Today Owego's fire fighting force is highly efficient and equipped with all modern apparatus.
Before the nineteenth century Capt. Luke Bates built the first tavern in Owego and soon after the Franklin House was opened. The Owego Academy was founded in 1828. The place was in- corporated as a village April 4, 1827.
The Owego Gas Light Company was organized March 20, 1856, with a capital of $40,000. Owego has always been a com- munity interested in horse racing. The Owego Driving Park Association was formed in 1871, leasing grounds for a fine half mile track.
The steamer Lyman Truman, built in the fall of 1875 and launched the following March, was the largest ever launched at Owego. It was built for excursions to Hiawatha Island and had a capacity of more than 700 passengers. At the island the steam- boat company had erected a hotel.
Three railroads serve Owego, the Erie, the Lehigh Valley and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. The village industrial plants turn out shoes, furniture, chemicals, laboratory supplies and auto accessories.
Two admirable weekly newspapers are published in the vil- lage-the Owego Gazette, founded in 1800, and the Owego Times, founded in 1836.
CANDOR.
The Village of Candor, in the town of the same name, was for many years in two settlements, Candor Corners and Candor Center. It was incorporated as a village in 1900 and has a pop- ulation of 669, its greatest population having been in 1915 when the census showed 749 residents.
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Thomas Hollister kept the first tavern in 1795, built the first log barn and frame house, set out the first orchard and raised the first apples in the town in or near the cemetery in the village. The first religious services were held in barns and homes as early as 1797, by Rev. Seth Williams, a missionary from Connecticut. As early as 1854 plows were wooded at the Candor Iron Works, the irons being cast at Montrose. In 1824 a woolen mill was built. The First National Bank of Candor was chartered March 30, 1864.
Candor is on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R. Large quantities of gloves are made there and pine, oak and hemlock timber is produced in abundance.
The Candor Courier, a weekly, was established in 1899 and still serves the community. The first journalistic venture here was the Candor Press, established in 1867. It became the Candor Free Press and later suspended publication. In 1872 the Candor Review made its debut but it was burned out in a fire in 1873 and did not resume publication. Then came the Candor Inde- pendent, established October 14, 1876.
The strong agricultural organizations of the county today found their inception in Candor on December 19, 1876, when a County Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, was organized.
NEWARK VALLEY.
Newark Valley, incorporated in 1894, is a delightful village of 795 inhabitants, in the Town of Newark Valley. Here is lo- cated a state fish distribution and field station, which in 1930 distributed 100,345 brook trout fingerlings furnished by the hatchery at Bath, Steuben County. Since then its work has ex- panded.
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