History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches, Part 12

Author: Young, Andrew W. (Andrew White), 1802-1877; Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. fmo; Huntington Free Library. fmo
Publication date: 1875
Publisher: Buffalo, N.Y. : Printing House of Matthews & Warren
Number of Pages: 948

USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches > Part 12

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The day-book of Douglass & Houghton, merchants at Cattaraugus, in July, 1812, exhibits prices as follows : Hyson skin tea, 16s. ; bohea tea, 8s. ; calico, 6s. 6d. yd. ; white flannel, Ios .; tow cloth, 4s .; salt, 2os. bushel ; paper, 4s. qr .; ginger, 6s. lb .; whisky, 12s. a gallon. Their store was, in December, 1812, removed to Fredonia, where we see nails charged at 2s. 6d. lb. ; spelling books, 3s. a copy ; Harmony cloth at 68s. [$8.50] a yard. Pins were charged 4s. a paper ; stockings, 16s. 6d. a pair. Broadcloth is charged, May 22, 1813, to James Hale, by order of Elijah Risley, 8os. [$10] per yard ; and cassimere, 36s. yd ! These far exceed the war prices of 1861-65.

But our surprise at these prices will be less when we consider the cost of transportation. Charles Hill and Thomas Hill returned from Albany, Sept. 12, 1814, with loads of merchandise for J. & M. Prendergast, Mayville ; the former having brought 1635 lbs, the latter 1800 lbs., for which they were allowed $6 per 100 lbs. Their expenses appear to have been $40 each ; and the time spent in making the trip must have been about four weeks.

In 1819, freight from New York to Buffalo was $3.50 per 100 lbs. ; from Buffalo to Fredonia, $1.50-total, $5 per hundred, or $100 per ton. With the products of their farms at the prices they bore a few years later, farmers could hardly have paid for store goods at the prices charged. Prices of farm products had not reached the lowest point. They continued to de- cline until they were scarcely sufficient to pay transportation to the nearest cash market. Nor did farmers find permanent relief until after the comple- tion of the Erie canal, and until adequate encouragement had been secured to American manufactures.

J. & M. Prendergast established in November, 1813, a branch store in Ellicott, where Jamestown now stands. A part of the first day-book having been torn from its cover, the earliest date that appears is Sept. 20, 1814 ; and the business there was continued until March, 1816. The prices appear to have varied but slightly from those at Mayville. In the whisky trade we judge that, in the price and quantity sold, the Jamestown store surpassed that of Mayville. In July, 1815, we count, on five successive pages, 69 separate and distinct charges for this article ; the least number on any one

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

page being 12 ; on two of them, 15 each. During a considerable part of the war time, flour stood at $12 a barrel. On the Jamestown day-book, John Burgess is charged, Jan. 6, 1815, with 2 bbls. flour, at $19 bbl. ; and Israel Knight previously credited by 2 bbls. flour, (probably the same flour,) at $18.65 bbl. Wm. Forbes is charged Jan., 1816, for hollow castings, 10 cts. lb. ; cheese 2s. ; salt, $12 bbl. Salt rose suddenly from $7 to $12 and $15; and in November, 1814, Solomon Shepard stands credited at the May- ville store, by 2 bbls. salt at $22 per barrel !

Considering the low prices of farm produce, and the difficulty of con- verting it into cash, we can hardly imagine how either the settlers could buy the merchants' goods, or how the merchants could sell enough to keep up their establishments. Immigration having nearly ceased, the market formerly furnished by new-comers no longer existed. Grain bore prices merely nomi- nal. Wheat, at times, could not be sold at the farmer's barn for more in cash than the cost of transportation to the nearest cash market. Cases are known in which loads of corn have been taken to Dunkirk, twenty miles, over woods roads, and sold for 1212 cents a bushel to realize the money to pay taxes-the round trip taking two days. Wheat was taken to the same market and sold for 3712 cents. Maple sugar, at 4, 5, or 6 cents a pound, was exchanged for goods ; butter at 6 to 8 cents ; oats, 10 to 12 cents : other kind of grain in about the same proportion. Dressed pork sold for about 2 or 272 cents a pound. No wonder that, with hard labor and rigid economy, the settlers were slow in paying for their lands. Indeed, it would seem almost impossible, under such adverse circumstances, to avoid extreme suffering. Yet the various kinds of business were more or less successfully pursued. How this was done, will appear from the nature of trade, which will be the subject of succeeding pages.

Ashes were for many years the most important article of trade, being almost the only one which could be readily turned into cash. For some purposes money must be had. Certain articles or merchandise could not be got in exchange for grain, or on credit. Taxes could not be paid in kind ; and to raise "tax-money," farmers were sometimes obliged to sell grain and other products of their farms for prices which scarcely paid for their trans- portation to market. Ashes afforded material relief. Many a settler who had a large surplus of grain which he was unwilling to sell at the ruinously low prices offered, cut and burned timber for the ashes from which to get money to pay taxes and for other necessary uses. These ashes, and those from burned log heaps, were sometimes drawn several miles over rough roads, and exchanged for goods, or at a reduced price for cash, if cash must be had. The price was 5, 6, or 8 cents, according to quality, as ashes from old and partially decayed timber, or having an admixture of the soil, which was sonie- times scraped np with them, were of little value. Hence it is seen that an ashery was a necessary appendage to a store in a new settlement. The lye of the ashes was boiled down to a proper consistency and red heat, resembling molten iron in a furnace, and dipped into smaller kettles holding several

STORES AND TRADE.

pailfuls, and left to cool, when it was emptied out of the kettle in a single lump, solid as a stone. It was then broken and put into strong barrels, ready for transportation to market.

But raw ashes not admitting of transportation a great distance, it was necessary to concentrate their virtue into smaller bulk. The lye was boiled down to the consistence of thick mortar, and was called black salts, being of a dark color, and converted into pearl ashes. Hence the necessity of a pearl ashery also. The salts were thrown into a large brick oven, 6 or 8 feet in diameter, and baked, or rather burned, being brought almost to a red heat. When cool, the color had been changed to a pearly white. Always com- manding cash in every market, merchants having pearl asheries would readily pay cash for black salts. Pot and pearl ashes, containing great value in small weight and bulk, would bear transportation to the most distant markets. They were generally sent to New York and Montreal, and thence a large portion of them was shipped across the Atlantic.

Before there were stores and pearl asheries in the southern and south- western towns of the county, black salts were principally bought by the mer- chants in the lake shore towns. Many had no wagons on which to carry them ; nor did the roads admit of their being carried on wagons all the way from the back settlements. A more simple vehicle was used. From a small tree was taken a piece having at one end two prongs. The single end was put into the ring of the ox-yoke, the other resting on the ground. Across the prongs the trough containing the salts was placed, and kept from sliding backward by a long wooden pin set perpendicularly in each prong. On car- riages of this description were many tons of this valuable product of the forest yearly conveyed to market. Sometimes the oxen were simply hitched by a chain to the fore end of the trough containing the salts, the bottom of which had been flattened, and the end hewed away from the under side to fit it, like a sled runner, for sliding over the rough ground.

To facilitate the collection of debts, merchants, after cattle had become plenty, sometimes received cattle in payment from their customers, and drove them to castern markets, or sold them to drovers from the East. Cattle were then cheap. A pair of good working oxen could be bought for about $50 ; steers, three years old, for $15 a head ; two years old, for about $10. Pork also was taken on account at prices which contrast strikingly with the present. Well fatted pork, dressed, was sold for $2, or $2.50, per roo pounds.

Of the quantity and value of the products of the forest timber, a pretty correct idea may be formed from the following statements of the manufacture of pot and pearl ashes by a few of the merchants of this county. The most minute and accurate statement from any source is that of Albert H. Camp, Forestville, prefaced thus .

" Statement of pearl and pot ashes sent to Montreal and New York markets, or sold at Buffalo, by Albert H. Camp on his own account, or on account of the firms of which he was a partner at Forestville, Chautauqua county, N. Y., from May 1, 1820, to Sept. 1, 1850."

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

The number of barrels sold from 1820 to 1836, inclusive, was 2830. The price per cwt. of 112lbs. varied from $4.25 to $8, averaging about $6. These appear to have been all, or nearly all, pearls. The timber having princi- pally disappeared, the statement shows the annual sales to have decreased from 289 barrels, the greatest quantity sold in any year, to 40 barrels, in 1836. During this period the price paid for black salts, from which pearls are made, was from $2 to $3.50 per cwt. of 112lbs. From 1837 to 1850, inclusive, the amount was 648 barrels, nearly all pots made of house ashes, for which 1212 cents per bushel were paid, if delivered, or to cents, if hauled by the merchants themselves. With the year 1850, the business ceased.

George T. Camp, brother of Albert H. Camp, was a merchant for several years at Mayville, before he moved his business to Westfield. While at the former place, he paid in a single week $1200 for black salts; and for some time averaged $800 to $1000 a week. The price was between $2 and $3 per hundred. This was about the years 1829 and 1830. From the fact that there were at that time many asheries in the county, we have some idea of the amount of money paid to settlers for the products of their otherwise valueless timber.

Alvin Plumb, an early merchant in Jamestown, and afterward at Mayville, furnishes the following statement :

" Before the completion of the Erie canal, Montreal was the market for ashes, which, with lumber from the south-eastern towns, constituted nearly all the products of exportation from the county. I was engaged in the manu- facture of pearl ashes at Jamestown for several years, from 1824, and at Mayville from 1825. The quantity produced at the former place in the best years of the trade was some 50 tons, and at the latter place about 100 tons. I also bought largely from other merchants in that trade, in the years 1825 and 1826. The quantity manufactured and purchased at these places was about 500 tons, the most of which was sent from Barcelona Harbor."

Daniel Williams, now and for many years a resident of Ashville, states that, at an early period of the settlement of the county, [1819,] he com- menced manufacturing pot and pearl ashes, at Westfield, where he worked at the business for four or five years, for Alvin Williams and Budlong & Bab- cock. During the first three years there was made about I ton per week- or about 156 tons in three years. The best salts averaged in price about $2.50 per cwt. of 112lbs. The price of the pearl ashes in the eastern cities was from $5 to $7 per cwt. During the last two years he worked in West- field, there were made about 2 tons per week-about 200 tons in the two years in both asheries. On his removal to Ashville-the place being so named from the extensive manufacture of ashes in that section of the county --- there were three asheries there, which were run for several years, and at which were made from 100 to 150 tons a year. The salts bought at the latter part of this period cost $2.50 to $3 per cwt. Many, unable to sell the products of their farms for cash, were obliged to cut down and burn green timber, and make salts of lye, which alone could be sold for money.

Walter Smith, more extensively engaged in the manufacture and the

NATURE OF TRADE.

purchase and sale of ashes than any other merchant in the county, has fur- nished the following :

" The sales of our pot and pearl ashes, during the six years' trade in Fre- donia, varied in different years, both in quantity and price. The smallest amount sold was $20,000 ; the largest, $45,000. These pot and pearl ashes were shipped to Montreal for market until the Erie canal was finished. They were taken by vessel to Black Rock; by open boat to Schlosser ; by ox-teams to Lewiston ; by vessel to Cape Vincent; thence by batteaux down the St. Lawrence to Montreal. John R. Coney had an ashery in Portland ; Brockway in Ripley; Alvin Williams in Westfield, and afterwards at Ash- ville, where he continued business; Guy Webster in Hanover ; and

--- in Perrysburgh, Cattaraugus county. All these bought goods of me, and sold me their pot and pearl ashes, or had me send them to Montreal ; and I accounted to them for the net proceeds, and paid them the balance due them in money. Herriot & McGunnigle, of Mayville, were large manu- facturers ; also Wm. Holbrook,. Holbrook & Camp, and Camp & Colville, at Forestville. I think three-fourths of all the ashes from Chautauqua county were shipped by me the first six years. After that, the manufacture dimin- ished rapidly."

Although this product of the forest always commanded cash, or could be turned into cash, its price, like the prices of other articles, was affected by the law of supply and demand. Hence, the producers were not always adequately compensated ; and the manufacturers and dealers, who were generally merchants, were sometimes subjected to heavy losses. Such, especially, was the case in 1823. The Erie canal being not yet finished, the ashes from this part of the state were chiefly sent to the Montreal market. The Fredonia Censor, of July 30, announces "bad news for dealers in ashes," and states, that accounts from Montreal were so discouraging, that dealers almost despaired of obtaining fair prices. Pots were down to $128 per ton ; pearls about the same price. The price of black salts, which had been in the spring $4 per cwt., had fallen to $2.25. The high prices in the English market had induced the merchants to engage deeply in this business, some of whom had, by this sudden depression, become heavy losers. It was stated upon good authority, that more ashes were manufactured in this county than in any other along the shores of Lake Erie; and that the high price given for black salts had been the means of clearing much new land, as the price of that article had amply paid for clearing.

NATURE OF TRADE.

From what has been said in preceding pages, the reader will readily infer that trade was greatly restricted by the scarcity of the usual circulating medium. Few goods were sold for cash. Business was done on the credit and barter system, not only by and with merchants, but between the people. Notes were made payable in grain, lumber, cattle and other commodities, and sometimes contained the stipulation, "at cash price." Almost every country product, as well as some store goods, had a cash and a barter or a credit price. It was, however, not always easy to ascertain the cash price.

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

Merchants often suffered great loss by this system of trade. Notwithstand- ing the high percentage charged as profits on their goods, losses by bad debts, and losses on grain and other commodities, which it was almost impos- sible to sell for cash, rendered the mercantile business an unsafe one.

Most of the business of the county was for many years done in the northern or lake towns, which were first settled, and possessed superior com- mercial advantages. Maple sugar, long an important article of trade, came in large quantities from the southern towns. The inhabitants generally sup- plying themselves, the price is said to have been at times as low as four or five cents a pound. Brown sugars from the South were rarely seen in the early country stores. Almost the only sugar brought from New York was the white refined sugar, put up in hard, tall, solid loaves of a conical form, and called "loaf" or "lump sugar," and was wrapped in strong and coarse paper. It was sold chiefly for sweetening medicines and the liquors of tavern- keepers, who bought it in large quantities.

DIVISION OF BUSINESS.

The early stores presented, in sundry particulars, a striking contrast to those of the present day. As the population increased, a greater number and variety of articles were kept in the stores. After printing offices were established within a convenient distance, the merchants advertised their stocks in the papers and in posters, in flaming display letters, enumerating the various kinds of goods kept for sale; as " dry goods, groceries, crockery and glassware, hardware, dye woods and dye stuffs, iron and nails, paints, oil, window glass, school books and stationery, rum, brandy, gin and whisky;" to which was sometimes added, drugs and medicines, ending with a string of et ceteras, or " with other articles too numerous to mention."

The natural result of the increase of population and trade, is the division of business. For a long time, in a newly settled country, merchants keep goods of all kinds likely to be wanted by their customers. Silks and iron, laces and fish, pins and crow-bars, pork and molasses, tea and tar, cotton yarn and log chains, were all to be had at the same store. In process of time, stores were established for the sale of but one, or a very few kinds of goods, as hardware stores, drug stores, bookstores, etc. Where the first of these stores was commenced, has not been ascertained ; but we find Dr. Hazeltine informing his friends, through a Jamestown paper, as early as August, 1826, that he had "just received from New York a small, but general assortment of drugs and medicines." About a year and a half later, Dr. E. T. Foote announces the receipt, at his "Apothecary Store," a general assort- ment of not drugs and medicines only, but of "Patent medicines, oils, paints, dye-stuffs, surgical instruments," those articles which compose the stock of a modern drug store. Russell D. Shaw soon follows with the advertisement of a similar stock with the addition of groceries. And in 1834, N. L. Sears enumerates books and stationery among the articles in his drug store.

REFLECTIONS ON PIONEER LIFE.

In July, 1831, Adolphus Fletcher, publisher of the Jamestown Journal, announces the receipt of "a general assortment of books and stationery," in a room adjoining the Journal printing office. This appears to have been an establishment for the exclusive sale of those articles which constitute the stock of a modern bookseller. In reading the list of standard school books and the various articles of stationery, we are reminded of the almost total revolution that has taken place, in regard to the books and other articles used. In a long list of school books advertised, there is not one which has not been superseded by modern authors. In the line of stationery were wafers, ink- powder, sand-boxes, letter stamps, round rulers, quills-all of which have become nearly obsolete. By the invention of gummed envelopes, wafers have come into disuse in letter writing. Ink-powder is no longer to be found in the stores. As if by common consent, the people pay from 400 to 800 per cent. more for ink than was done when a "York shilling," or, after- wards, a dime was paid for a paper of Maynard & Noyes' powder, which made a full pint of the best quality of ink. Sand-boxes have been displaced by the superior article of blotting paper. Letter stamps have taken their departure with wafers. But the most valuable change is in the substitution of metallic for quill pens.

Under date of August 23, 1831, Lakin & Haven gave notice, in a James- town paper, that they "have opened a hardware store, in the new building on Second street." They occupy the greater part of a column in the enum- eration of articles " set solid," and without a single display line. Although the list is long enough to do honor to any city house, these articles are said only to be " among their goods," intimating that the greater portion of them were not included in the enumeration. Even the smaller villages now have stores limited to a single branch of trade.

REFLECTIONS ON PIONEER LIFE.

THE history of pioneer life generally presents only the dark side of the picture. The toils and privations of the early settlers were not a series of unmitigated sufferings. The addition of each new acre to their " clearings" brought with it fresh enjoyment, and cheered them on in the pursuit of their ultimate object, an unincumbered and a happy home. They were happy also in their fraternal feelings; or, as one expressed it, " the feeling of brother- hood-the disposition to help one another ;" or, in the language of another, " Society was uncultivated ; yet the people were very friendly to each other, quite as much so as relatives are at the present day."

We could now hardly endure the thought of exchanging our comfortable and splendid carriages for the rude ones of our fathers and grandfathers, which served the various purposes of visiting, and of going to mill and to meeting ; yet who doubts that families had a "good time" when they made

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

a visit to a ." neighbor" at a distance of several miles, through the woods, on an ox-sled? Our mothers were clad in homespun of their own make; and not a few remember the "glad surprise," when fathers, on their return from market, presented their faithful help-meets with a six yards calico dress pattern for Sunday wear. And it is presumed the wearer was in quite as devotional a frame of mind, and enjoyed Sabbath exercises quite as well, as she who now flaunts her gorgeously trimmed silk of fifteen or twenty yards, made up in a style transforming the wearer into " the likeness " of something never before seen or known "above," or " on the earth beneath," and altered with every change of moon.

People were happy in their families. The boys, having labored hard dur- ing the day, sought rest an early hour. Parents had the pleasure of seeing their sons acquiring habits of industry and frugality-a sure prognostic of success in life. The "higher civilization" had not yet introduced-

" In every country village, where Ten chimney smokes perfume the air,"

those popular modern institutions, the saloon and the billiard-room, in which so many youth now receive their principal training. Fewer parents spent sleepless nights in anxious thought about their "prodigal sons," or had their slumbers broken by the noisy entrance of these sons on returning from their midnight revels. They saw no clouds rising to dim the prospect of a happy future to their children. Never were wives and mothers more cheerful than when, like the virtuous woman described by Solomon, "they laid their hands to the spindle, and their hands held the distaff;" or when, with their knitting work or sewing, and baby, too, they went-unbidden, as the custom was-to spend an afternoon with their "neighbor women," by whom they were received with a hearty, unceremonious welcome. The "latch-string was out " at all times ; and even the formality of knocking was, by the more intimate neighbors, dispensed with.

Nor did they lack topics of conversation at these visits. Prominent among them were their domestic affairs-their manifold industrial enter- prises and labors-and the anticipated reward of their privations and toils. Their conversation, some may suppose, evinced no high degree of intellect- ual culture ; yet, as an indication of such culture, surely it would not suffer in comparison with the gossip of many of our modern educated ladies at their social gatherings.

The following extract from a letter, from the pen of a pioneer mother in another county, and published in a county paper, may he read with interest by some :

"The country around us was an entire wilderness, with here and there a small cabin, containing a small family. We were nearly all new beginners ; and although we had to work almost day and night, we were not discouraged. There were many and serious trials in the beginning of this country, with those who settled amid the heavy timber, having nothing to depend upon for a living but their own industry. Such was our situation. However, we were

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REFLECTIONS ON PIONEER LIFE.

blest with health and strength, and were able to accomplish all that was nec- essary to be done. Our husbands cleared the ground, and assisted each other in rolling the logs. We often went with them on these occasions, to assist in the way of cooking for the hands.

"We had first-rate times, just such as hard-laboring men and women can appreciate. We were not what would now be called fashionable cooks; we had no pound cakes, preserves, or jellies ; but the substantials, prepared in plain, old-fashioned style. This is one reason why we were blessed with health : we had none of your dainties, knick-knacks, and 'fixings' that are worse than nothing. There are many diseases that we had never even heard of thirty or forty years ago, such as dyspepsia, neuralgia, and many others too tedious to mention. It was not fashionable then to be weakly. We could take our spinning-wheels and walk two miles to a spinning frolic, do our day's work, and after a first-rate supper, join in some, innocent amusement for the evening. We did not take particular pains to keep our hands white; we knew they were made to use for our advantage; therefore, we never thought of having hands just to look at. Each settler had to go and assist his neigh- bors ten or fifteen days, in order to get help in return in log-rolling time ; this was the only way to get assistance.

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