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 46
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 46
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 46
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 46
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Real progress in the village began in 1796 with the coming of David Wagener, a prosperous farmer from Montgomery County. Wagener was first attracted in 1791 to the Finger Lakes country by purchase of a part interest in the Friends Mill, built in the township of Torrey on Seneca Lake. Five years later he bought lands in Penn Yan and erected the first grist mill south of the outlet on the site of the Andrews mill, destroyed by fire in 1913.
David Wagener died August 24, 1799, the first person to be buried in Lake View Cemetery. Under his will his Penn Yan' property was left to his sons, Abraham and Melchoir. Abraham in 1799 came to Penn Yan and built the first frame dwelling within the bounds of the village. He is generally considered the actual founder of Penn Yan and with his brother played a leading role in the early history of the community. It was they who induced most of the active early citizens of Penn Yan to locate there.
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In 1801 Abraham erected the second grist mill on the north side of the outlet and about 1816 he constructed what was long known as the Mansion House, on the south end of Main Street on the west side. Extending northward to Elm Street was his orchard, in which was produced the Wagener apple.
Penn Yan's second frame house was that of Dr. John Dorman, who came in 1795. The structure was used as a tavern.
In early days distilling was one of the pioneer industries. The first distillery in Yates County occupied in 1795 a log house not far from what is now Benton Center, but its capacity was only one bushel of grain a day from which two quarts of whiskey were obtained. Robert Chissom owned a distillery on the south side of Maple Avenue, and Dr. John Dorman also opened another. Aaron Gilbert Dorman, his son, owned three running full time and still named his daughter "Temperance." Penn Yan and its environs in the first quarter of the Nineteenth Century boasted at least a half dozen other distilleries. One owner, William Bab- cock, suddenly had a change of heart on the liquor question and advertised his distillery for sale, stating that "the whole estab- lishment at a moderate calculation would produce daily a suffi- cient quantity of whiskey to kill fifty men."
The first newspaper was the Penn Yan Herald, started in 1818. Four years later it changed its name to the Penn Yan Democrat, under which it is now issued by Harry C. Earles. The flourishing Chronicle Express came into existence December 16, 1824, under the name of the Yates Republican, published by Edward J. Fowle. In 1831 the name changed to the Yates County Enquirer; in 1833 to the Western Star; in 1837 to the Demo- cratic Whig; in 1839 to the Yates County Whig; in 1856 to the Yates County Chronicle. Under the late DeWitt C. Ayres, it was merged with the Express under its present name and is published today by Mr. Ayres' son as one of the outstanding weekly newspapers of the state. The Express had been started in 1866.
Shortly after the village was incorporated in 1833, Abraham Wagener built the historic Wagener Mansion, which today stands out in bold relief on Bluff Point. He moved, selling his Penn Yan
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property to John Sloan, a newcomer from Geneva. Sloan was largely instrumental in the upbuilding of the village's business life.
Sloan's new purchase included all that part of the village lying east of Liberty Street and south of West Elm and East Elm Streets. A new street was at this time laid out through what had been Mr. Wagener's orchard and given the name Wagener Street. Another thoroughfare was opened along the waterfront of the outlet under the name of Water Street. The Mansion House was moved back and converted into a tavern. Building lots were marked off on the two new streets, together with lots for stores on Main Street.
At the start, the business section of Penn Yan was largely confined to the head of Main Street, but the building of the Crooked Lake Canal and the presence of cheaper lots elsewhere gradually drew business to the foot of the street.
A post office under the name of Jerusalem was established in 1801. Before that time Daniel Brown carried mail from Canan- daigua and Geneva to Penn Yan on horseback and occasionally on foot. At one point he placed the letters for the entire country- side in a covered hole in a tree, and to this improvised "post office" the settlers would come for their letters at regular intervals.
What is said to have been the first public show in Penn Yan was the display of an elephant about 1820 in the barn of Zacha- riah Wheeler, located on a site just south of where the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital stands on Main Street. The first band, comprising ten musicians, was organized in 1839 with A. M. Cobleigh as leader. In the presidential campaign of "Tippe- canoe and Tyler too," the band journeyed by canal as far as Syracuse, to take part in a big political rally.
Penn Yan's first church, the First Presbyterian, was organ- ized February 18, 1823. St. Mark's Episcopal was formed Jan- uary 3, 1826, though the first church building of the society was not completed until 1837. The First Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was founded March 29, 1824, and save one, the locations have been shifted.
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The Penn Yan of today, with a population of 5,321, is in the heart of a rich farming center. A diversity of prosperous in- dustries, pleasant residences and all, opportunities for education, worship, recreation and pleasure make it an ideal community of homes. Its rail and highway facilities are of the best, though the old daily steamer connecting it with Hammonsport at the foot of Lake Keuka is no more.
DRESDEN.
Dresden, a village of but 276 population in the town of Tor- rey, Yates County, has as striking a history as any community in the county. For Dresden has always held a unique geograph- ical position. It lies at the mouth of Lake Keuka outlet on the west side of Seneca Lake and in the years when the old Crooked Lake Canal operated along the river waterway, it was the great shipping center for goods sent from many counties to the Erie Canal and the seaboard. The Keuka outlet in a course of five miles has a drop of 276 feet through a rocky gorge, producing valuable water power resources.
Dresden was a hub for steamboating in early days. In its cove, lines of tows were made up for passage northward to the Erie. The village was the meeting place of waterways, but since has also become a railroad junction point, though its old time docks and warehouses are fallen into decay. Dresden faces the widest expanse of water of any community on any of the Finger Lakes, for Seneca Lake, largest lake, reaches its widest point- five miles-opposite the village. Old canal days at Dresden are touched upon in the chapter devoted to waterways.
Robert G. Ingersoll, free thinker, was born at Dresden, his birthplace still standing. How the community honored this dis- tinguished son in maintaining his old homestead is told in the chapter devoted to the region's landmarks.
Dresden is connected with a new lakeside state road built in 1926 with Geneva and another improved road to Penn Yan.
DUNDEE.
On the broad plateau rising between Keuka and Seneca Lakes
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is Dundee, a thriving village of 1,083 inhabitants. It was in- corporated June 26, 1848, and is the principal village of the town of Starkey. Some historians claim that the burial place of Col. Isaac Andrews, private secretary of George Washington during the Revolution, lies within the village limits.
The first settlers on the area are now comprised within the limits of the village of Dundee were Isaac Stark and Hendrick and Isaac Houghtaling, who located here in 1807. For some time the settlement was known as Stark's Mills. Other early set- tlers were Anson Stark, William Durland, Elias Fitzwater, John Walton, Lazarus Reed and Joseph Green.
In 1808 or 1809 Benjamin Potter built a double log house on the west side of Main Street, just across Big Stream. This building was occupied as a dwelling and a tavern and was the first public house in what is now Dundee. Nearby was built a blacksmith shop and a small store, conducted for some months by Jonathan Botsford, later by John Walton. John Walton, the grandfather of G. B. Walton, came here in 1816 and later erected a store and dwelling combined south of Big Stream, on the northwest corner of the lot now occupied by the present race track. The next store was erected by John Starkey where the Sayre home now stands. Meanwhile two saw mills and two grist mills had been built in or near Dundee.
Samuel Harpending came to Dundee in 1811. He erected a building near Big Stream, on the west side of Main Street, con- ducting a public house and hattery. About 1818 he built a hotel on the site now occupied by the Harpending House. Andrew Harpending, his son, later took over the hotel. Andrew was suc- ceeded by his nephew, Abraham A., a son of Anthony S. Har- pending.
The first grist mill in the township was built by John Sears near Eddytown. In partnership with his brother-in-law, Clay- ton Semans, John Starkey built the old red grist mill, the second in the township, near the Main Street bridge over Big Stream. Semans soon sold out his interest to Starkey, who took in another brother-in-law, Samuel Kress. Isaac Stark built a saw mill in 1808 in Dundee and General Timothy Hurd, a son of Abner Hurd,
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built a saw mill on Big Stream south of Eddytown in 1809, and later a grist mill. Griffin B. Hazard built a saw mill in 1811 and a grist mill in 1812 on Big Stream south of Dundee. The Peche mill was built by James Barkley of Geneva in 1837. Big Stream at one time furnished power for fifteen saw mills, four fulling mills (mills where wool was carded and cloth dressed), two woolen mills and five grist and flour mills.
The settlement which later was to become Dundee was now known as Harpending's Corners. For some years it was second- ary in importance to Eddytown, which had several stores, a church, two hotels, lawyers, doctors and a daily mail and line of four-horse stage coaches running from Elmira (then New- town) to Geneva. In those days Eddytown was of greater im- portance than Watkins Glen. Eddytown was the "metropolis" of the township, and all public events were held there.
In the early thirties Dundee had a boom. The Harpending House was enlarged; Samuel Huson built a store and dwelling on the northwest corner of Water and Union Streets in 1831; a Baptist Church was erected in 1832; and homes were built on Main Street by John Sweeney, Dr. Benjamin Nichols, B. B. Beekman, Thomas Swarthout and E. J. Smith.
From this time on the future of the village was assured and Eddytown as a business place was doomed, its prestige gone. Little by little its trade was absorbed by its younger rival.
Meanwhile there developed a controversy over changing the name of the community. Plainville, Harpendale, La Grange and Starkville were proposed, but in 1834 the name Dundee was adopted.
Dundee has good schools, a modern public library, new water and sewage systems and a supply of drinking water so pure that typhoid is unheard of. A newly developed natural gas field, the largest producing field in the state, supplies gas in abundance for domestic and industrial purposes.
The village weekly newspaper, The Observer, was established in 1878.
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RUSHVILLE.
Rushville, a village of 452 souls, has the distinction of lying within two counties, Ontario and Yates, and embraces a portion of three towns-Gorham in Ontario County and Potter and Mid- dlesex in Yates County. It lies at the northern end of the Marcus Whitman highway on the direct route from Rochester to Watkins Glen, and has one of the most scenic settings in the county.
Rushville is the birthplace of Dr. Marcus Whitman, that in- trepid missionary and pioneer who saved the vast Oregon terri- tory to the United States and whose adventures are outlined in the chapter of this book devoted to Empire Builders.
The village lies in a valley, from whose surrounding hills may be obtained exquisite views of productive farms and shadowy groves, which bear silent testimony to the wonderful fertility of this district. Rushville, which had previously been called Federal Hollow, was named in 1818 in honor of Benjamin Rush, then a - noted surgeon of Philadelphia. At one time the place was also known as Burning Spring, from the natural gas springs one mile southwest of the village.
As early as 1792 Elias Gilbert opened a tavern at Rushville. The first merchant was Philander Woodworth, who also opened a tavern about 1810 at the corner of Main and Gilbert Streets. The village had a district school about 1800. The Rushville Academy was built in 1834 and razed in 1867, to give place the next year to the present Union School Building, built at a cost of $13,000.
A postoffice was established as early as 1818 and the first church, the Congregational, organized in 1802. Rushville was incorporated as a village in 1866, when it had thirty-one houses. The first physician was Dr. Buffum Harkness, who settled in 1796.
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