History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches, Part 38

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 38

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).

CHURCHES.

The Methodist Episcopal Church in Clymer was organized about the year 1825. Rev. John P. Kent, who is still living, formed the first class in Cly- mer village. The members of this class, as stated from recollection, were Lawrence Amidon and Adelia Amidon, Elijah and Sarah Amidon, Leonard and Esther Amidon, John and Phebe Bliss, James and Mary Morden, Rachel Rice, and Ebenezer Brownell; and subsequently Sophrona Brownell, who is still living. The circuit was called North-east; John P. Kent, minis- ter in charge; Rev. Wm. Swayzee, presiding elder. Mr. Kent was succeeded, in 1826, by Rev. Henry Knapp; and he, in 1827, by Wilder B. Mack and John C. Ayres. The society has been regularly supplied with pastors until the present time. The present pastor is Rev. J. F. Hill.

The First Baptist Church of Clymer was organized about the year 1828, The persons who composed the church at the time of its formation were : Samuel Alvord and wife, Silas Barnes and wife, Mrs. Abigail Bennett, Polly Terry; and at the same time or not long after, Abishai Underwood and wife. Mrs. Roxa Thompson, and perhaps a few others. The first house of worship was built in 1840, and was since given as a donation to the United Brethren, by whom it is still occupied. Their present church edifice was built in 1868- 69, and dedicated in August, 1869. The first minister of this church was Samuel Alvord; and after him, Ransom Swain, Levant Rathbun, and others. The first deacon was Daniel P. Phinney. Present deacons, Leonard B. Freeman and John Marsh. Clerk, Melancthon Gleason.

DUNKIRK.

DUNKIRK was formed from Pomfret, Nov. 17, 1859, the division line being the north line of lots 2, 9, 15, 21, 26, 31, 35, 38. The town of Pomfret, at the time of the division, comprised the square township 4, of the 12th range, and the triangular township 5, lying north of it, containing a less area than a regular township. In the formation of Dunkirk, from the 5th township, the two southern tiers of lots were left to the town of Pomfret. Therefore Dunkirk contains only 6,632 acres, while Pomfret has an area of 28,899 acres. The probable reasons for such division are elsewhere stated. [See Pomfret.]

Victor m Rice

303

DUNKIRK.

Original Purchases of Lots and parts of Lots within the present Town of Dunkirk.

1804. June, John Williams, 21. October, Benjamin Barrett, 27. Zattu Cushing, 28, 29, 33.

1805. February, Benjamin Barrett, 27. March, Seth Cole, 1, 2, 9. June, Richard Douglass, 3. Rufus Langdon, 15. Seth Cole, 9.

1806. October, Ephraim Pease, 36.

1807. January, Hezekiah Fisk, 3. May, Jonathan Bartoo and John Van Tassel, 24. July, Theron Strong and Simeon Wilber, 18. Samuel Geer, 22. October, Samuel Richardson, 32. November, John Brigham, 23.

1809. June, Luther Goulding, 24. November, Oliver Weatherby, 10 ; [art. to Isaac Loomis.]

1810. January, Samuel Brigham, 19. February, Solomon Chadwick, 24. March, Daniel Getchell, 11. April, Nathaniel Munn, 13. May, Benjamin Barnes, Jr., 16.

18II. March, John Barge, 3. Richard Douglass, 3. John C. Billings, 11.

1812. February, Arnold Russell, 22. April, Stephen Washburn, 12. May, Enos Eastman, 22. December, John Pratt, Jr., 17.

1813. March, Richard Douglass, 3.

1815. October, John Burt, (or Bunt,) 17.

1816. June, Charles Harris, 17. Richard Douglass, 4. November, Daniel G. Garnsey, 13. December, Calvin Spafford, 4.

1817. January, Daniel G. Garnsey, 6, 7. Ezra Andrews, 16. March, Asa Owen, 5. Abel Carpenter, 4. Jacob Houghton, 39. Daniel G. Garn- sey, 12, II, IO. Robert Kenyon, 5. May, Caleb Seager, 32.

1827. September, Joshua Douglass, 36.

Seth Cole, from Paris, Oneida Co., N. Y., June 5, 1805, bought land of Judge Cushing at the mouth of Canadaway creek, and settled there. He paid for the land with some improvements, $3.33 per acre. He also bought other lands directly from the Holland Company. He contracted with Elli- cott to cut and clear out a road a rod wide from the town line between Pom- fret and Portland to Silver Creek, for $10 a mile. Like others of the earliest settlers, he had to go to mill with his first crop of corn to Niagara Falls, and afterwards to 20 mile creek in Pennsylvania. They went with ox-teams on the ice. Mrs. Cole earned the name of a heroine in the war of 1812. She was then a widow ; and her son Erastus, who was a volunteer in the militia, was absent at Lewiston. A company of militia was stationed at widow Cole's, at the mouth of the creek, in July, 1812, to protect the small com- merce of the lake. Salt boats and other small craft were liable to be seized by British cruisers. A salt boat chased by a British cruiser came into the mouth of the creek for protection. The cruiser anchored one-fourth of a mile from shore. The salt boat had run up on the west side of the mouth of the creek, and had a swivel on board, which the hands had hoisted out and placed on the crotch of a large tree, which they fired upon a boat with 13 men sent out from the cruiser, and making its way to the salt boat. When within musket shot, Capt. Tubbs and his company of about 40 men, who lay concealed behind a sand bank on the east side of the creek, ran up the bank and fired ; and the boat put back, with the loss of 10 men, killed

304

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

and wounded, out of her 13 men. During the fight, Mrs. Cole acted as a general patrol. She mounted her horse, and went to Fredonia to rally the men to the month of the creek; and after her return, she was actively engaged in carrying food and drink to the little army. This has been called the first naval fight after the declaration of war. [Old citizens, residing in the vicinity at that time, doubt that any of the men in the boat were killed.]

Solomon Chadwick, a native of Weston, Mass., emigrated with his family to the present site of Dunkirk, from Madison county, in or about the year 1810 ; his purchase of lot 24 bearing date Feb. 21, of that year. From him the place took its early name, Chadwick's Bay. He subsequently sold his article of agreement with the Holland Company, to Daniel G. Garnsey for $2,000. He finally removed to Perrysburg, where he died Jan. 10, 1864, in his 87th year, having been born October 16, 1777. He was a widower, and resided, at the time of his death, with his son, Luther Chadwick. His wife's maiden name was Jerusha Gleason. She died about 1845. They had four children, all of whom survived him : Luther, at Perrysburg ; and three mar- ried daughters in Wisconsin.

VILLAGE OF DUNKIRK.

In 1808, Timothy Goulding settled about one mile west of the harbor. In 1809, Solomon Chadwick located on the site of the present village. He was soon followed by - Gaylord, Luther Goulding, and Daniel Pier. Although a vessel is said to have been brought into the harbor, by Samnel Perry, as early as 1810, it was several years before the settlement was entitled to be called a village, as will appear from the following sketch of its early history, orally given to the writer by one of its early and most distinguished citizens, as well as one of its principal business men.

In the year 1816 or 1817, Solomon Chadwick, Luther Goulding, Timothy Goulding, Abraham Pier, and others, sold their farms, or assigned their con- tracts, to Elisha Jenkins, of Albany, as trustee for a company composed of Isaiah and John Townsend, De Witt Clinton and -- Thorn, who bought 1,008 acres of land, a part of the present site of the village of Dunkirk, and took a deed from the Holland Land Company. About 40 or 50 acres they surveyed into village lots. In 1818, they built a wharf and warehouse, at the foot of Center street, a hotel and other buildings, costing, in all, about $20,000. In 1825, the company sold to Walter Smith, of Fredonia, an undivided half of the property, with improvements, for $10,000; the village containing at that time about 50 inhabitants. Mr. Smith removed to Dunkirk in 1826. The population, in 1830, was supposed to have increased to about 1,000.

In or about 1833, Mr. Smith sold out his half interest to men in the city of New York at a large advance above the cost; and, for less than half of the sum received, he bought of the Company the other half. In 1838, the land was divided into shares among the owners ; and one-fourth of the proceeds of the sales of the lands was to be given to the New York & Erie Railroad Company, on condition that the road should be built within six years. In

305

DUNKIRK.

this, however, the company failed, although the time had been twice extended. But when the construction of the railroad had become assured, the proprie- tors of the lands made a donation to the railroad company of 40 or 50 acres for a dépôt and other purposes. It may be remarked here, that Mr. Smith, after having bought out the Townsend company, purchased for the associa- tion an addition to their lands of about 600 acres. After the completion of the railroad, the property was sold and the proceeds divided among the proprietors.

The name of the place was originally "Chadwick's Bay," taken from Solo- mon Chadwick, one of the early settlers. Its present name is said to have been given to it by, or at the suggestion of Elisha Jenkins, one of the pro- prietors before mentioned. The Jenkins brothers and their father had been shipping merchants, first in Hudson; and afterwards they had also a business house in New York, where some of the firm resided. Elisha was for a time engaged for the firm at Dunkirk, in France; the bay in which place resem- bled Chadwick's Bay on Lake Erie: hence the name of Dunkirk. [Mr. Jenkins was secretary of state of the state of New York, in 1811-13.]

This village was incorporated in 1837, when the memorable speculating mania prevailed in this state, and scarcely less in other states, when imagin- ary fortunes, without number, were made in the purchase of real estate. The effect upon Dunkirk is thus described by Judge Warren in his historical sketches of Chautauqua county :

"The speculations in real estate, which were at their height during this period, and which have resulted in such incalculable injury to the interests of the whole people, affected the village of Dunkirk more seriously than any other point in the county. The termination of the New York and Erie railroad at this place, pointed it out to those most deeply affected with the contagion, as a spot on which operations of the kind might be carried on for a while at least with success. The rage for corner lots and eligible sites, was rife, and ran to so high a pitch, that men of all pursuits-farmers, mechan- ics, merchants, lawyers, and even ministers of the gospel, embarked upon the wild sea, without rudder or ballast, with nothing to propel them but a whirlwind, that soon scattered them in broken fragments upon a lee shore.

"Though affected to a greater degree, this village was not alone in its madness. Most of the other villages were more or less influenced by the mania that swept over the land, and suffered in proportion to the extent of their operations.'

Dunkirk harbor, though wholly artificial, is a good one, several appropria- tions having been made by Congress for its improvement; and it has the capacity for a large amount of business. Railroads, however, have seriously affected its lake commerce, the line of steamers having been many years since withdrawn. Its railroad advantages are important. The Erie railway terminates here; and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad passes through the town; and the Dunkirk, Allegany Valley & Pittsburgh rail- road terminates in the village. It is also connected by a horse railroad with Fredonia, three miles south.

Its manufactures are extensive, notwithstanding the adverse effects of the

306

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

existing general depression of the various branches of industry throughout the country. An important establishment is Brooks' Locomotive Works. By the removal, in 1861, of the Erie railway machine and repair shops, with several hundred workmen, the business prosperity of Dunkirk was materially affected. But the minds of the citizens were much relieved when they learned, in the ensuing fall, that a company had leased the machine shops for a term of years, and would turn them into permanent locomotive works. The capital stock of the company was at first $350,000, and was subsequent- ly increased to $500,000. At the head of this company was Horatio G. Brooks, the present superintendent of the establishment. By the increase of the number of workmen, and the addition of improved machinery, it became one of the greatest manufacturing enterprises of its kind in the state. The Erie company, with its other work, had made a little more than one locomotive in a month; the present company turned out seven per month. The financial crisis of 1873 caused a suspension of operations for a time. Business, however, has been resumed, and is carried on, though on a less extensive scale than formerly.

The establishment known as Dunkirk Iron Works, was originally erected for the purpose of manufacturing locomotives, by a stock company; but the company failing in the accomplishment of their designs, the property was purchased by Clark & Allen, who, in the spring of 1865, commenced the manufacture of boilers, engines, and general job work. In the spring of 1868, the establishment was purchased by Sellew & Popple, of Gowanda, N. Y. These enterprising proprietors, having had long experience in the iron foundry business, enlarged the works, putting up new buildings and add- ing new machinery, thereby enabling them to manufacture a great variety of machinery, including mowers, planers, matchers, grist and saw-mill machinery, corn shellers, potato diggers, castings of all kinds, besides boilers and en- gines. Wm. B. O'Connell purchased an interest in the establishment in the spring of 1873, and the business was continued, under the name of Sellew, Popple & O'Connell, with increasing success, until the death of Mr. O'Con- nell, which occurred July 1, 1875. The number of men employed has ranged from 60 to 100, and the annual sales have been from $80,000 to $150,000. Sellew & Popple have repurchased Mr. O'Connell's interest in the establishment, and now continue the business in all its branches.

Skinner & Gifford Manufacturing Co. have an establishment for manu- facturing all kinds of railway track supplies, and a great variety of other articles. Among them are the locomotive hoisting machine, car hoisting and truck transfer machine, cast-iron turn table, portable turn table, coaling derrick, portable wrecking derrick, steel scrapers, nut tapping machine, Howe truss bridge, cast iron fronts, etc. This manufacturing firm is a compara- tively new one ; but the constantly increasing products of the establishment give fair promise of its attaining a high rank among the manufacturing enter- prises of the county.

There are several other manufacturing establishments, among which are

Willarde W. Hurgham

307

DUNKIRK.

Flesher's Iron Works; two manufactories of sash, doors and blinds ; two flouring mills ; one lime and one plaster mill, and several smaller manufac- turing establishments. It has also a number of planing mills, and a consider- able lumber trade.

The Dunkirk Water Works were constructed a few years since, at a cost of about $100,000, for which village bonds were issued, payable in twenty- five years. The water is drawn from Lake Erie, filtered through a crib sunk in its waters ; and forced by machinery to all parts of the village, through more than ten miles of iron pipe. A supply of water is thus furnished for domestic and manufacturing purposes, and for the extinguishment of large conflagrations.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL.

MOSELY WELLS ABELL, son of Thomas and Eunice (Griswold) Abell, was born at Bennington, Vt., Feb. 24, 1781, and was married to Ruth Bald- win at Dorset, Vt., July 6, 1806. He resided some years at Crown Point, where he was engaged in mercantile business, and in 1811 removed to Buf- falo ; and rented a hotel of Mrs. St. John, on the corner of Main and Seneca streets, which, with his effects, was destroyed by the burning of the village. After a residence in Mayville for one year or more, he came to Fredonia in 1815, and, with his brother, Thomas G., started a public house, which for many years was a favorite stopping place for travelers. He was long post- master here, and also one of the proprietors of the stage line between Buffalo and Erie. In 1828, he removed to Dunkirk, where he resided till his death, a respected citizen. He was one of the original members of the Baptist church of Dunkirk, and for many years a deacon. He held the offices of postmaster at Dunkirk, and county superintendent of the poor from 1849 to 1851. His wife died in August, 1851. Mr. Abell died in September, 1858, in his 78th year. He had 11 children, of whom two died in infancy. The others were: 1. Minerva, who married Walter Smith, and died February, 1855, leaving a son, Walter C., and four daughters, of whom Mary married Judge John M. Barbour, New York city. 2. Lucina, who married Norval Bishop, and died Nov., 1847, leaving a son, Francis M. 3. Mary Ann, wife of Rev. Timothy Stillman, D. D. They had 4 sons : Mosely A., Timothy, George, and one who died in infancy; and 2 daughters : · Ann Mary, who married John A. Townsend ; and Ruth, who died in infan- cy. Dr. Stillman and family reside in Dunkirk, where he settled in 1830. 4. Thomas B., who died at Marshalltown, Iowa, April, 1874, leaving a son and a daughter. 4. Albert H., who resides in Dunkirk ; had 4 children, of whom 2 died young, and 2, Daniel W. and Charley, are living. 6. George M., who resides in Dunkirk; had 4 children; all died in infancy. 7. Frances L., who married James B. Stevens, and lives in Chicago, with 3 children. 8. Casper K., who married Jane Williams, of Jamestown ; resides in Dunkirk, and has two sons and a daughter living; and two children died in infancy. 9. Clara K., who married Marvin Blanchard ; has 2 sons, and resides in Chicago.

308

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

WILLARD W. BRIGHAM, son of Stephen, and grandson of Jonathan Brig- ham, came with his father to Sheridan in 1816, from Madison county. In 1818, he went to Mayville, and worked as apprentice for Robert I. Curtis, in the printing office of the Chautauqua Eagle, and with Mr. Curtis' two maiden sisters, performed the work of the office. The Erie Reflector also was printed by Mr. Curtis, the papers being carried by Brigham in a saddle- bag on horseback to Erie for distribution. Finding the printing business injurious to his health, he returned to his father's in Sheridan. In 1821, Mr. Frisbee, in want of help to bring out the first number of the New York Censor, offered young Brigham $6 for a single week's work, which offer in those days of scarcity of money, was very readily accepted. Mr. B. has, during the greater part of his life, been engaged in the building of mills and the manufacture and sale of lumber, and is at present the proprietor of a lumber yard in Dunkirk. He formerly owned two vessels on Lake Erie, which were employed in the lumber trade, and by which large quantities were carried to Buffalo for the eastern markets. This business he continued until about the year 1852. He was eight years a justice of the peace in Sheridan; four years its supervisor, and for the term of three years a coroner of the county. He was also for four years assistant-assessor of internal revenue during the administration of President Lincoln. He married, first, Electa Robinson, of Sheridan, who died in 1852 ; second, Louisa C., daughter of Ebenezer R. Thompson. He has no children.

DANIEL G. GARNSEY was an early lawyer in this county. He pursued his professional studies in Norwich, Chenango Co., and in the city of Troy, and was admitted to practice in the supreme court. After the practice of his profession for a few years in the counties of Rensselaer and Saratoga, he visited Chautauqua county in 1811, and was present at the first county court in June of that year. He was there admitted to the court of common pleas; but he did not then become a resident of the county. He removed to Pom- fret in 1816; and, it is said, either on his own account, or for a company, purchased of Solomon Chadwick the land at "Chadwick's Bay," as the place was then called, and for a brief period, after this purchase, " Garnsey's Bay" as well as Chadwick's. The property, as elsewhere stated, became the property of the Dunkirk company, one of whom was Elisha Jenkins, of the city of Hudson. He was the agent for the proprietors, and labored faithfully to promote their interests in building up that village. He was ambitious of political preferment. He sought and obtained the office of surrogate, and superseded Dr. Squire White in that office, which he held from 1813 to 1821. He held the office of district-attorney from 1818 to 1826; and was also a commissioner to perform certain duties of a judge of the supreme court at chambers. Finally, he was elected to Congress, in which he served two terms-the period of the presidential term of John Quincy Adams. He was a faithful representative, and especially so in regard to the local wants of his constituents-particularly in respect to harbors, light-houses, claims of pen- sions, etc. He afterwards removed to Michigan. There being some pros-

309

DUNKIRK.

pect of the location of the new seat of the state government near Battle Creek, he made a purchase or location there, and laid out that village now bearing that name. He left that place, and made a purchase at Bertrand, and laid out a village. After a few years he removed to Rock Island. Next he was appointed by President Harrison, receiver of public moneys at the land-office at Dixon, Ill., but was removed by President Tyler. In 1851, returning with his wife from Philadelphia, where they had visited a married daughter, and being on his way to attend the grand celebration at Dunkirk, of the completion of the Erie railroad-an event in which he felt the more deeply interested from his having considered himself the parent and patron of that village-he stopped on his way with his friend and relative, Ralph Plumb, Esq., at Gowanda, where he was taken violently sick with erysipelas and putrid sore throat, and died after an illness of five days, May 11, 1851, in his 72d year.

WALTER SMITH .- No man was more intimately associated with the early history of Dunkirk than Walter Smith. Probably no other in the county has been so widely and so favorably known as a business man. The writer of this History has a letter from a distinguished gentleman, in a remote part of the state, formerly a resident of this county, who remarks, that a history of Chautauqua county without a proper notice of the business career of Walter Smith, would be like " the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out." And so often is his name still heard from the lips of old settlers who in early times had dealings with this pioneer merchant, that we venture to devote to him a little more space than is usually allotted to the sketch of a single individual.

Mr. Smith was born in Wethersfield, Conn., March 21, 1800, and came to Cazenova, N. Y., at the age of 15 years, and engaged as a clerk in the store of Jacob Ten Eyck. At the age of 19, in March, 1819, Mr. Smith came on horseback, westward, seeking for a place of business as a merchant, and determined to settle at Fredonia. He returned to Madison county, and, having formed a partnership with his late employer, he brought on his goods in May, and commenced business under the firm of Walter Smith & Co. ; the profits to be equally divided ; Mr. Ten Eyck agreeing to furnish the capital, and Mr. S. to manage the concern. Todd & Douglass commenced trade the same year ; and Ralph and Joseph Plumb, who had been in trade there a few years, discontinued business that year, and sold their store and ashery to Mr. Smith. The business capacity of the youthful merchant was soon manifest. His first year's sales of goods exceeded $20,000, and during his six years' business in Fredonia, they reached the amount of $75,000 a year ! The cash received for goods at the time of sale did not exceed 10 per cent. : the remainder being charged to the purchaser, to be paid for in black salts or house ashes, or farm produce. The latter was for a few years sold out to the new immigrants at the price paid for it in goods. The annual sales of pot and pearl ashes, during the six years, varied from $20,000 to $45,000. Ashes were shipped to Montreal for market before the completion of the Erie

310

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY,

canal, being hauled around the Falls to Lewiston. John R. Coney in Port- land, Brockway in Ripley, Alvin Williams in Westfield, Guy Webster in Hanover, and some one in Perrysburg, Cattaraugus county,-all had asheries, and bought goods of Mr. Smith, and sold him their pot and pearl ashes, which he sold in Montreal ; retained the amount of their indebtedness, and paid them the remainder of the proceeds in cash. Herriot & McGunagle, of Mayville, also Wm. Holbrook, Holbrook & Camp, and Camp & Colvill, of Forestville, were large manufacturers of pot and pearl ashes. It was the opinion of Mr. Smith that three-fourths of the pot and pearl ashes from Chautauqua county, were shipped by himself the first six years. After that, the manufacture diminished rapidly.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.