History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches, Part 13

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 13

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"I have thought proper to mention these matters, that people now may know what the first settlers had to undergo. We, however, did not complain half as much as people do now. Our diet was plain; our clothing we manu- factured ourselves ; we lived independent, and were all on an equality. I look back on those by-gone days with great interest. How the scene has changed ! Children of these same pioneers know nothing of hardship; they are spoiled by indulgence, and are generally planning ways and means to live without work."

It is, indeed, to many who have been brought up in the "lap of ease," not a little surprising, that a wife and mother should do the house-work of a family in which were six, eight, or more children, and occasionally some hired men, without hired help. Yet such instances were not uncommon.

The reader of family sketches in a succeeding part of this history, will not fail to notice the contrast between the pioneer settlers and their descendants in another particular-fecundity. The former, with comparatively few excep- tions, fulfilled the duty enjoined upon the original progenitors of the race, to " multiply and replenish the earth;" an injunction which the present genera- tion seem to think more "honored in the breach than in the observance." At the present rate of the increase of our native population, who can tell the number of generations necessary to "replenish " our vast national territory ? In writing out genealogical sketches of pioneer families, which, in not a few instances, show a product, if not of " thirty," at least of ten to fifteen fold, we have often been reminded of what we read more than half a century ago, in the history of some eastern country, where it was a part of the marriage ceremony to sprinkle upon the head of the bride a handful of hops, and to accompany the act with the expression of a wish that she might be "as fruitful as the hop vine." As to the cause of this modern degeneracy, we forbear to express an opinion. To those who desire light on this subject, we commend Rev. Dr. John Todd's little book, entitled " A Serpent in the Dove's Nest."

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

EDUCATION-EARLY SCHOOLS.

THOUGH struggling under the pressure of privation and poverty, the settlers made early provision for the education of their children. So important an object they would not defer until they could build more comely and con- venient school-houses ; they were content, for a time, with such as corre- sponded to their rude dwellings. The first school-houses were built of logs, with fire-places and chimneys like those of log dwelling-houses, and were roofed in the same manner. Many still remember those houses, in which they received their limited education-the ill-chinked walls, the large open fire-place filled with a huge pile of logs, in the vain attempt to make a comfortable place for study.

Benches were made of split slabs, hewed, and raised so high as to keep the scholars' feet swinging several inches above the floor. After there were saw-mills, benches were made of sawed slabs. The writing-desk was a slab or board extending along the whole length of one of the walls, fastened on long pins driven into auger holes in the logs, and slanting downward from the wall. Above the writing-table, holes for windows were cut through the wall, and filled with four or six lighted window sashes. For the want of sash and glass, the window openings were temporarily covered with old papers, greased with lard, for window-lights.

Schools were not then regulated by law. Persons could not be compelled to pay for building school-houses and for the services of teachers. These were done voluntarily by the persons interested. They mutually agreed to contrib- ute labor or money toward the building of a school-house-chiefly labor, as little money was needed to build a log-house. Teachers were paid by those only who sent children to school. A subscription paper, stating the price of tuition per scholar for the term proposed, was circulated, and each person affixed to his name the number of scholars he would send. If a sufficient number were obtained, the school would commence. Teachers were some- times, wholly or in part, paid in produce, many of their employers being unable to pay in money. To such it was an object to employ teachers having families to consume the products of the farm.

The course of instruction embraced but the few more primary branches. Spelling, reading, writing, and common arithmetic, constituted for several years the entire course. The school books used were Webster's Spelling Book, one or two reading books, and an arithmetic. A grammar, a geogra- phy or an atlas, the scholars had never seen. But many teachers were not qualified to teach even these few branches successfully. Only the simpler parts of arithmetic were taught by most teachers, especially in the summer term. The mathematical ambition of many pupils was satisfied when they could " cypher" to the end of the "Single Rule of Three," which, in that old popular work, "Daboll's Arithmetic," then in general use, preceded " Fractions," as it did in other old arithmetics. Nor did some parents think

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EARLY SCHOOLS.

a higher attainment in this branch necessary for their sons, unless it were the knowledge of computing interest, which some of them might, at some time in their lives, have occasion to practice. Even after the enactment of the school laws requiring the examination of teachers, and a certificate from a board of inspectors pronouncing them "well qualified to teach a common school," most of them were very deficient in the "learning and ability" in- tended to be secured by the law. A knowledge of grammar was for many years not insisted on by the inspectors, and for the reason that, if it had been, there would not have been a sufficient number of teachers to supply all the schools. And so in respect to geography and other branches now considered indispensable.

The manner of teaching and conducting a school was also defective. Writ- ing, in many schools, was not required to be done at any fixed hour, nor by all at the same time. Children could not make their own pens-none but goose-quill pens being used-nor, indeed, were teachers generally competent to do it properly. These pens needed to be frequently mended. To make and mend the pens and " set copies" for ten or twenty pupils, took no small portion of a teacher's time, and was often done during reading and other exercises, in which the worst mistakes escaped the observation of the teacher. To avoid this, some teachers did this work before or after school hours. The introduction of the metallic pen and the printed copy-book is a valua- ble improvement, saving much of the teacher's time, and furnishing the pupils with good and uniform copies.

The black-board had not been invented ; or, if it had been, it was unknown in rural districts. Scholars were not taught arithmetic in classes. They got the attention of the teacher as they could. Voices from all quarters, asking for help "to do this sum," for permission to "go out," to "go and drink," and to "go to the fire," questions which, in many schools, were, to use a parliamentary phrase, "always in order ;" and the teacher going about the room to "help" scholars at their seats ; all these, and other things that might be mentioned, kept the school-room in a continual bustle. Not all schools, however, were thus conducted. In many of them order and good management prevailed ; and many of our most intelligent citizens and most practical and successful business men, were graduated at these institutions.

A citizen of the town of Stockton gives the following description of the school-house and school in which he " learned his A B C, and graduated in Webster's Spelling Book as far as 'Crucifix :'"

"This school-house was about 20 by 24, and about 7 feet between the floors. A large Dutch fire-place was in the north end. There were three nine-lighted windows of the smallest pattern ; desks or writing tables against the walls, and pine slab seats with wooden legs. The furniture consisted of a plain cross-legged table, a splint-bottom chair, and a pine log about two feet in diameter and one foot high, called a 'dunce block,' and a pair of leather spectacles. It is presumable that the last two articles were con- tributed by the teacher, and hence omitted when not thought necessary for the good of the school.

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

" A word of explanation may be necessary to show the use of the dunce block and the leather spectacles, as these appliances have become nearly or quite obsolete. The scholar who failed to get his lesson perfectly, was pretty sure to mount the block with the spectacles across his nose; and as odd and droll as he looked, with his eyes through the leather belt, no one would dare to laugh, for fear of taking the same place, with perhaps an additional 'switching' about the back, by those ominous looking beechen whips care- fully stored in a crack in the floor overhead. Young men and women frequently mounted this dreadful block, who were too tall to stand erect, because their heads would come in contact with the ceiling above. This would occasionally bring a suppressed titter from the other scholars ; but a blow with the great whip in the hand of the teacher would restore gravity, and make us all feel thankful that it was the table, and not our backs, that received the beating."

There were, however, some good schools then ; and there are many poor ones still ; yet a comparison of the schools of the present time with those of fifty years ago, shows a vast improvement. Perhaps the most salutary pro- vision in the school laws of our country, is that which brings the advantages of a sound and practical education within the reach of all classes of its citizens.

Prior to the year 1813 or 1814, little provision was made by the state for the education of its children. The poorest people had to pay wholly for the tuition of their children, or keep them out of school. This misfortune was in part remedied by providing a school fund, which consisted of lands and other property of the state, the income of which was annually distributed amongst the school districts to be applied to the payment of teachers' wages. The first money thus distributed in this county was in the year 1814. This fund was many years afterward largely increased on this wise : In 1836, Congress passed an act authorizing the distribution, among the states, of many millions of dollars which had accrued from imposts and sales of public lands. Propositions for distribution had been several times defeated on the ground of its supposed unconstitutionality. To avoid this objection, it was proposed that, instead of giving this money to the states, it should be " de- posited with" the states, until the general government should call for it. It was to be deposited in four annual installments ; three of which had been deposited, when, in 1838, it being supposed that the government would have occasion to use a part of the money, an act was passed to postpone the pay- ment of the fourth installment. About $28,000,000 had been deposited with the states. The quota of the state of New York was about $3,500,000. No portion of the sum deposited has ever been called for; nor was it supposed by many that it ever would be.

In 1838, by an act of our state legislature, the income of the United States deposit fund, as this money was called, was to be appropriated "to the purposes of education." For three years, $55,000 was to be expended annually for the purchase of district libraries. The remainder was principally paid toward the teachers' wages. If the public moneys were insufficient for this purpose, the deficiency was supplied by a rate bill.

By the first school law, a sum was to be raised by a tax on the inhabitants

RELIGIOUS HISTORY.

of every town equal to the sum received from the state funds ; in default of which, their claim to the public money was forfeited ; and by a vote at town- meeting, double the amount might be raised in the town. The districts were also required to have a school kept at least four months, [now six months,] to entitle them to a share of the public money.

RELIGIOUS HISTORY.

THE establishment of the institutions of religion in the new settlements of this county, is a prominent feature in its history. Reared under the influence of these institutions, and imbued with the sentiment declared by the founders of our republic, that "true religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty," the settlers, like the " Pilgrim Fathers," planted churches at the earliest practicable period.

The people of Western New York, as well as those of the new states generally, were chiefly supplied by the missionary societies of New England and other religious organizations. The tide of emigration to the West was followed up by missionaries, carrying the gospel of peace to the destitute pioneer settlements, enduring, with the people, for the Master's sake, the hardships and sacrifices incident to such a condition of the country. There is probably not a town in this county whose early inhabitants were not indebted to these self-denying laborers for the religious instruction of their families. We say self-denying ; because the pittance they received for their services-their toilsome travels, their coarse fare, and the manifold discom- forts they experienced in rude, unfurnished dwellings-forbids the idea that they were actuated by mere mercenary motives. Some of them possessed talents which, if employed in other pursuits, would have elevated them to distinction and affluence. And it can scarcely be doubted that the health- ful influence of their " preaching in the wilderness" did not cease with the generation to which they ministered.

Perhaps no other minister labored so early and so long in the missionary service in this county as the Rev. John Spencer, familiarly known as "Father Spencer." He had been a deacon in the Congregational church in Worces- ter, Otsego county ; and with only such learning as an ordinary school edu- cation and his own reading and observation afforded, he entered the ministry. He was employed as a missionary on the Holland Purchase by the Connec- ticut Missionary Society ; and his labors were highly useful in forming and sustaining churches. He preached in the new settlements when his congre- gations consisted of but two or three families, and sometimes, it is said, of but one ; thus literally "preaching from house to house."

All, or nearly all, the churches formed by Mr. Spencer were denomina- tionally Congregational. Most of them, however, have long since adopted the Presbyterian form of government, and formed connection with" Presby- teries. Of his labors, a citizen of this county writes :

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

" Hardly was the first log cabin reared in the wilderness, before it was visited by that early missionary, the Rev. John Spencer, to cheer and encour- age the pioneer in his struggle with the formidable difficulties that surrounded him. Mr. Spencer's life in the forest was an active and a toilsome one ; he understood the duties of his calling well, and faithfully he performed them. There are many anecdotes still extant illustrating the clearness of his intellect and cheerfulness of his disposition."

Another writes of him as follows:

" From 1810 to 1820, or later, Rev. John Spencer, a Congregationalist, was the pioneer minister. Priest Spencer, as he was called, entered all parts of the county where could be assembled three or more families, and preached nearly every evening. His dress was ancient-knee and shoe buckles- - short breeches and long stockings-a dress which at that period attracted attention, as it had nearly passed out of date. Independence in thought, word and deed, was characteristic. ' He was remarkable for the sharp twinkle of his eye, which always preceded some witty reproof. His sermons were short, practical, and impressive. His manner of delivery was singular : com- mencing short sentences, he would speak the first words slow and very dis- tinct, and hasten to the close, accenting strongly the last words. Especially was this the case in his prayers. Children noticed the set formula with which he closed every petition."

Several interesting anecdotes are related of Mr. Spencer ; but the disagree- ment between the relators in some of the particulars, renders it probable that they are largely based on tradition. He closed his useful life in this county, and was buried in Sheridan.

In 1808, the Presbyterian General Assembly appointed Rev. John Linds- ley a missionary for four months, two of them to be spent in Steuben and Tioga counties, and the remaining two months in the settlements of the Hol- land Purchase. Although he was here probably as early as Mr. Spencer, his labors do not appear to have continued beyond the term of his appointment. The principal record of his labors that we have seen, is that of his having officiated at the formation of the Presbyterian church at Westfield in 1808, and at the formation of a Congregational, now the Presbyterian, church of Warsaw, July 14, 1808. It is said, however, that he visited Westfield as a missionary in the fall of 1807, and was then sustained by a Female Mission- ary Society. He was on his way to Pennsylvania ; and on his return in the spring, formed the Westfield church as above stated. It has been stated, and probably truly, that he returned and went over his former missionary ground, and spent three sabbaths in Westfield.

Rev. Phineas Camp,. a graduate of Union College in 1810, and a graduate of the second class of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, was appointed by the Presbyterian General Assembly's Board of Missions as a home mis- sionary in Pennsylvania, Western New York and Ohio. He assisted in the reorganization of the church in Westfield, in November, 1817, and was installed as pastor of the church by the Erie Presbytery, Sept. 8, 1819.

Benefits, doubtless, accrued both to Congregationalists and Presbyterians, from a " Plan of Union " then existing. Their system of religious belief was

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RELIGIOUS HISTORY.

substantially the same. They were divided only on the plan of church gov- ernment. As it was generally difficult, in new settlements, for either to support a separate and distinct organization, the Presbyterian General Assem- bly, in 1801, adopted a plan which permitted Congregational ministers to become pastors of Presbyterian churches, and Congregational churches to be represented in Presbyterian ecclesiastical bodies. On the formation of churches, the majority probably determined the mode of church government.

Rev. Asa Turner, a Baptist preacher, was also an early missionary in this county, and is represented to have been "very popular among the settlers, and warmly welcomed among them." Rev. Joy Handy, too, was an early laborer in this missionary field, though he soon became pastor of the Baptist church at Fredonia. As a missionary and pastor he made "full proof of his ministry," and closed his useful life after a long and faithful service of the Master.

Several of the early Baptist churches in the county were formed by these and other 'early ministers. The first was at Fredonia, the preparatory work having been done by that devoted layman, Judge Cushing. The records of the church show that its organization was completed by its being received into fellowship by a council, October 20, 1808.

The Methodists, too, with their usual promptitude, sent their preachers into the western wilderness. Their missionaries are their circuit preachers, who appear to have made their advent in this country about the year 1808. In Gregg's " History of Methodism within the bounds of the Erie Annual Conference," we find the following :

" From 1796 to 1812, Western New York was nominally within the bounds of the Philadelphia Conference, though most of the time entirely unoccu- pied. In 1808, a circuit was formed by that conference called the 'Holland Purchase,' which embraced all of the state of New York west of the Gene- see river, to which the Rev. George Lane was appointed. Sometime in the winter of 1808-9, learning that a few members of the Methodist Episcopal Church had settled a short distance east of the present village of Fredonia, in the west part of Sheridan, Chautauqua county, Mr. Lane started up from Buffalo in a one-horse sleigh to visit and preach to them. On his way up he overtook Mr. Gould and wife in a two-horse sleigh, who were members of the Methodist church, and resided in the place just mentioned, and who had been East on a visit, and were returning home. The snow was deep and badly drifted. Night came on them while in the woods some distance below the Cattaraugus creek ; and they became so buried in the snow, that they could get their sleighs no further. After disengaging their horses from their sleighs, each person mounted a horse, and rode on the bare back to Mack's tavern, where they spent the remainder of the night. Next morning they succeeded in getting their sleighs, and before night reached Mr. Gould's house, where Mr. Lane spent a few days and preached several times, and, during his stay in the place, formed a class consisting of Stephen Bush, Dan- iel G. Gould and wife, and Elijah Risley. This was undoubtedly the first Methodist preaching and the first class formed in Chautauqua county, which has, since that time, been a very fruitful field for Methodism, and very pro- ductive of Methodist ministers."

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

As early as 1801, the Erie circuit existed, which embraced the first religious organizations of the Methodists in this county, and for a long time afterwards the whole or a considerable part of the county. It was in the Pittsburgh district, which was within the bounds of the Baltimore Conference. The presiding elder of the district was Thornton Fleming ; and the preacher of the Erie circuit was James Quinn. It is said that Mr. Quinn's circuit, when formed, contained twenty appointments, requiring him to travel four hundred miles every four weeks. The first class he formed was near a place called Lexington, in Springfield township, Erie county, Pa. In 1804 the district took the name of Monongahela, and Thornton Fleming was continued pre- siding elder until the meeting of the Baltimore Conference in May, 1810, when Jacob Gruber was appointed presiding elder, and Joshua Monroe, preacher of Erie circuit ; and the year following, James Watts and James Ewing.

GOSPEL LAND.

It is generally known by the older inhabitants, that the Holland Land Company made a donation of 100 acres of land to religious societies in every town, usually designated as the "gospel land." This was no part of the early policy of the Company. The manner in which this land was obtained, is related by Mr. Turner in his History of the Holland Purchase.

In the fall of 1820, Paul Busti, the general agent of the Company at Philadelphia, while on a visit at Batavia, was importuned by a Presbyterian minister from a neighboring town for a donation of land to every society of that persuasion then formed on the Holland Purchase. Mr. Busti was for a long time indisposed to grant the request. But the Rev. gentleman having urged his suit until the agent's patience was exhausted, the latter firmly replied : "Yes, Mr. R., I will give a tract of one hundred acres to a religious society in every town on the Purchase ; and this is finis." He was, however, unwilling to give preference to any particular denomination. " But," said he, "to save contention, I will give it to the first society in every town." Mr. R., it is said, lost no time in communicating the information to the Presbyterians in the towns in his vicinity. Mr. Turner proceeds as follows :

"The land office was soon flooded with petitions for land from societies organized according to law, and empowered to hold real estate, and from those that were not, one of which was presented to Mr. Busti before he left, directed to 'Gen. Poll Busti,' on which he insisted that it could not be from a religious society ; for all religious societies read their Bibles, and know that Po double /, does not spell Paul." Amid this chaos of applications, it was thought unadvisable to be precipitant in granting these donations, the whole responsibility now resting on Mr. Ellicott to comply with the vague promise of Mr. Busti. Therefore conveyances of the 'gospel land' were not executed for some space of time, notwithstanding the clamor of petitions for 'deeds of our land ;' during which time the matter was taken into consideration and systematized, so far as such an operation could be. Pains were taken to ascertain the merits of each application, and finally a tract or tracts of land, not exceeding one hundred acres in all, were granted, free of expense,

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ORGANIZATION OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

to one or more religious societies regularly organized according to law in every town on the Purchase, where the company had land undisposed of, which embraced every town then organized, except Bethany, Genesee county, and Sheldon, Wyoming county ; the donees being in all cases allowed to select out of the unsold farming land in the town. In some towns it was all given to one society ; in others, to two or three societies, separately ; and in a few towns to four societies of different sects, twenty-five acres to each."

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