History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 14

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649

USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I > Part 14

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After the completion of the Erie road, cattle, hogs and other live stock were taken to market exclusively by rail. Particular attention was given by that company to the transportation of livestock from the time it began operations. Before it was completed they went on foot

hundreds of miles over the long roads leading to Troy, Albany, New York and Philadelphia. The latter city formed the principal market for the cattle of Chautauqua county. There they stood highest in the list for quality, which was due to the measures early taken by Judge Pea- cock to improve its breeds. Droves of cattle during the summer months followed each other in quick succession over the long hoof- beaten roads leading to Philadelphia. One hundred twenty droves, averaging one hun- dred twenty-five head of cattle each, passed the Love Stand in Gerry on the old Chau- tanqua road (that being then the direct road to the East for livestock) in a single season. Thousands of cattle were at the same time passing over other routes through the county. They were usually sold to stock dealers and farmers of Eastern Pennsylvania, to be fat- tened and fitted for market upon the rich farms lying in the vicinity of Philadelphia.

In 1851 lumbering was still an important in- dustry. In the southeastern portion of the county it led all the rest. By far the greater part of the lumber and shingles exported from the county went down the Conewango and Allegheny rivers in rafts. The great amount of lumber so transported involved the employ- ment of many strong men in rafting it down the rivers. The service of these men was almost wholly dispensed with when railroads reached the lumber country.

Railroads also brought to the county new employments and new vocations with which the reader is more familiar. The changes we have cited will sufficiently show the great revo- lution that railroads made in the conditions before existing and the improvements in the fortunes of its people. Indeed, the ten years that last preceded the Civil War, was a period of prosperity. Railroads brought with them a great reduction in the price of all articles im- ported into the county, and also a material increase in the price of farming products, and consequently a rise in farm rents and in the value of real estate. Labor was in demand, and consequently wages increased. The build- ing of plank roads extended the advantage en- joyed along the chief highways of travel to interior and remote parts of the county. Money was reasonably plenty. In the smaller, as well as the larger villages, new buildings were erected, and improvements made. Their years of privation being ended, the people were satisfied with their present prosperity. The feverish desire to accumulate great wealth had not taken possession of them. At no time was

JAMES MONTGOMERY First Town Clerk of Chautauqua Chrinty

GENERAL GEORGE STONEMAN

COLONEL JAMES M. BROWN

JUDGE WILLIAM PEACOCK

AGRICULTURAL PERIOD-1851-1861

such genuine and universal happiness enjoyed by the people of the county, as in the decade that ended with the year 1860.

But during this period one grave subject lay heavily upon the public mind, and was seri-

ously disturbing its peace. Its close marks the beginning of a most momentous period in the history of our country-the beginning of the Civil War, the events of which have left their impression as deeply here as elsewhere.

CHAPTER XII. The Agricultural Period-1861-1875.

During the Civil War, few events of conse- quence occurred in Chautauqua county that were not in some way connected with it. The minds of the people were too much occupied with its serious phases and its exciting inci- dents, to engage in many enterprises of impor- tance. Besides, the greater part of the young and enterprising men were away with the army. Had it not been for new and improved farming utensils, particularly the mowing ma- chine, which was introduced into use about that time, it is difficult to see how, owing to the scarcity of laboring men, the hay and other crops raised by the farmer could have been secured. Yet for the time being, farming and other industries seemed to be in a prosperous condition. This was in a great measure due to the inflated currency. One dollar in gold was at one time worth $2.98 in greenbacks, but- ter reached over fifty-five cents per pound, and and more than doubled in value. We will now note in succession the events of more than ordinary importance that occurred within the county during the war and in the years following it. On the night of January 31, 1861. a fire in Jamestown destroyed the entire block on the west side of Main street from Second :0 Third street, and also the Allen block then occupying the east side of Main street from Third street down to William H. Lowry's building. The fire also destroyed the Allen House barn and the livery stable, as well as he Shaw Hotel block which then occupied the vest side of Main street and the north side of Third street, where now stands the Prender- rast block, and as far north as Samuel A. Brown's house. In February of that year. fire imits were established in that village, and the amestown Gas Light Company was organ- zed. October 8th of the same year, another ire occurred in Jamestown, in which twenty buildings were burned, including a church and hotel. Jamestown had no sufficient water upply, and many of its houses were built of wood, consequently it was afflicted with a re- markable number of destructive conflagrations. In March, 1864, a soldier enlisted from a own in Cattaraugus county, named McDon- Chau-5

ald, went into McBride's saloon in Dunkirk-, where he met William Battles. They with others engaged in a game of cards, in the course of which a dispute arose between M .:- Donald and Battles regarding Sio which had been staked. Battles grasped the money and threatened to burn it. McDonald forbade the burning, whereupon Battles placed a pistol at McDonald's head and discharged it. The ball entered the brain, producing death. Battles was tried in Mayville at the September court. Hon. George Barker, the district attorney, ap- peared for the people, and Hon. F. S. Edwards and William M. Newton for the prisoner. Battles was convicted of murder in the first degree, and hung in Mayville jail. He was the second person executed in the county for crime.

A remarkable rain storm passed over a por- tion of the counties of Chautauqua and Catta- raugus in September, 1865. The rain began to fall in Ellington at 10 o'clock in the forenoon and continued without intermission until 2 p. m. Mill dams above the village upon Twenty Eight creek which passes through the town, gave way. Suddenly, and without warning to the inhabitants, a great flood reached the vil- lage, carrying away houses and barns. The Baptist church was lifted by the water and car- ried against the hotel, which was swept from its foundations. Its landlord, Mr. Torrey, barely escaped drowning; stores and other buildings were crushed or carried away. Not a bridge was left in the vicinity. Gardens were devastated, and heaps of floodwood piled along the valley. The most deplorable occurrence was the drowning of the four small children of William A. Mattocks. His house was isolated by the water before the danger was realized and before assistance could be rendered.

In 1865 the Buffalo & Oil Creek Cross Cut railroad was chartered. Its name was subse- quently changed to the Buffalo, Corry & Pitts- burgh railroad. It connects Corry in Pennsyl- vania with Brocton in this county, where it joins the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern road. Its length is 43.20 miles; the portion lying in this State is 37.20 miles in length, and terminates at the State line, which there forms

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

the south line of Clymer. The two were con . solidated April 24th, 1867.

August 7th, 1867, occurred an important event in the interest of education, in the laying of the cornerstone of the State Normal School at Fredonia by the Masons.

November 3rd, 1868, in the course of an altercation. Henry Koch killed Daniel Calla- han, in a saloon on Third street in Dunkirk. On the trial, District Attorney B. F. Skinner, assisted by Hon. Lorenzo Morris and W. W. Holt, appeared for the people, Hon. F. S. Ed- wards, N. H. Hill and A. J. Cook for the pris- oner. The trial resulted in a verdict of man- slaughter in the third degree.

In November, 1869, the Brooks Locomotive Works of Dunkirk was organized with H. G. Brooks, president, and Marshall L. Hinman, secretary and treasurer, and a capital stock of $350,000. These extensive works have grown into a great industry, one of the first of the kind in the world and the most important of any in the county. In 1901 its employes num- bered 2600 men and it made 382 locomotives that year. It has added greatly to the busi- ness importance and reputation of Chautauqua county. Horatio G. Brooks, who established these locomotive works, and to whose business ability their success has been chiefly due, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was in early life a locomotive engineer. In 1850 he brought the first locomotive to Dunkirk for the New York and Erie railroad. He blew the first locomotive whistle ever heard in Chau- tauqua county. In 1862 he became superin- tendent of the Western Division of the Erie railroad, and in 1865 superintendent of motive power of the entire Erie railroad. Upon his death in 1887, he was succeeded as president of the company by Edward Nichols, who died January 7th, 1892, and was succeeded by Mar- shall L. Hinman.

February 4th, 1870, the Sinclairville Library Association was founded. It is the oldest cir- culating library in the county. December 12th, 1894, it was chartered a Free Library by the name of the Sinclairville Free Library. It is the Second Free Library established in the county, being only preceded by the Prender- gast Library of Jamestown. Monday, August 14th, 1871, occurred the most fearful disaster that ever happened on Chautauqua Lake. The steamer "Chautauqua." with thirty people on board, on its afternoon trip up the lake, turned into Whitney's Bay, on the west side about midway between Bemus Point and Mayville, to wood up. As she lay at the dock her boiler exploded. Such was the force of the explosion

that the boiler was torn to fragments and it: front part blown a distance of ten rods, cut ting a tree a foot in diameter half through The water and land for twenty rods each way were strewn with wreckage, with here an there a mangled and bleeding body. The nois: of the explosion was heard for many miles In half an hour physicians were there fron Mayville. Mrs. Perry Aiken was instantly killed ; her body was found fastened between the stumps of two trees that had stood upoi the shore. Mrs. Jerusha Hopkins lay dear upon the beach, crushed and mangled. Henr. Cook, a colored boy, was killed instantly. Mis Julia S. Hopkins, Miss Eunice Hopkins, Mis Elizabeth Witt Ells and Samuel Bartholomew died from their injuries soon after the catastro phe. The body of Mrs. J. C. Cochran, of Buf falo, was found the next day fifteen rods fror the wreck and ten rods from the shore, at th bottom of the lake. Eight in all were killed o died. Fifteen others were seriously wounded among them Capt. James M. Murray, his thig being broken; also Alvin Plumb and Majo Winfield S. Cameron, prominent citizens of th county.

June 22nd, 1871, the first passenger trai passed over the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley ¿ Pittsburgh railroad. No event more favorabl to Dunkirk had occurred since the completio of the Erie road. The road runs southerl from Dunkirk, along the picturesque ground of the Spiritualists at Cassadaga Lake, throug good agricultural lands in this county, term nating at Titusville in the State of Pennsy vania. It is ninety miles long. It gave Dur kirk access to the coal, oil and lumber region

One of the earliest projects ever entertainc for the building of a railroad west of the Alle gheny river was conceived by the people ( Warren, Pennsylvania. In 1832 or 1833 charter was granted by the Legislature ( Pennsylvania for a railroad to follow the valle of the Conewango north from Warren. I 1853 this project was revived by the peop of Warren, and seventeen hundred shares ( stock were obtained to build a road under th name of the Warren Pine Grove railroad. Th project was never consummated until the build ing of the Dunkirk, Warren & Pittsburgh rai

road in 1871. The first public movemer toward building the latter road was made at meeting held in 1866 by the citizens of Sii clairville, at which Hon. C. J. Allen preside The next winter the company was organize as the Dunkirk, Warren & Pittsburgh Railroa Company. Timothy D. Copp was chose president, Hon. George Barker vice-presiden

AGRICULTURAL PERIOD-1861-1875

and S. M. Newton engineer. By an act of the Legislature, towns were authorized to sub- scribe to its capital stock and $238,000 was sub- scribed by towns along the route of the road, which constituted substantially the capital upon which the road was built. Many diffi- culties rendered the completion of the road a matter of much doubt for a time. To the abil- ity and vigilance of Stephen M. Newton, of Dunkirk, the chief engineer and a director, was the completion of the road chiefly due.

August 20th, 1871, Myron Eddy, a deputy sheriff of Jamestown, received a dispatch from the Police Department of Dunkirk directing him to arrest Charles Marlow, of Jamestown, a German, for the crime of murder. When this order was received it was supposed that some mistake had been made, as Marlow was known in Jamestown as an industrious, well-behaved citizen. It was soon discovered that a most foul crime had been committed. The murder was perpetrated in the cellar of the old brew- ery in the suburbs of the village, just under the brink of the hill on the west side of Main street, opposite its point of intersection with Kent street. The old brewery has long since gone and its place is occupied by dwellings. A church now stands hard by the spot.

Valentine Benkowski, a poor Russian Pole, had the month before landed in New York, and stopped two days in Dunkirk among his countrymen. In less than a week he was em- ployed by Marlow, who understood his lan- guage, as a common laborer. About three weeks later William Bachman, an itinerant German, came to Marlow's and was enter- tained by him over night. In the morning Marlow told Benkowski that Bachman claimed to have $6,000 in money. Marlow's manner when he made this remark, and other sus- picious conduct, led Benkowski to believe that some crime was meditated, so later in the day when Marlow went down into the cellar with Bachman, Benkowski listened. Soon he heard a pistol shot. It was not until the next day that Benkowski found an opportunity to go into the cellar. He then discovered that the cellar stairs had been recently washed, and saw traces of blood as if a body had been dragged along the cellar floor to the furnace. where there was evidence that a hot fire had been burning. These and other circumstances made him sure that a inurder had been com- mitted. He could communicate his suspicions to no one, for he understood no English. With- out giving a reason for his abrupt departure, he set out for Dunkirk, where there were many

of his countrymen. Benkowski went on foot to Sinclairville and stopped over night. The next day he went by rail to Dunkirk. On his arrival he told his countrymen, and they in- formed the police. Benkowski, Orsino E. Jones, a leading citizen of Jamestown who happened to be in Dunkirk, and also a mem- ber of the police force of Dunkirk, went to Jamestown and made a diligent search of the brewery premises. In the ashes of the furnace they found the bones and teeth of a man, and also ivory bosom studs like those worn by Bachman.

Marlow was indicted and tried at Mayville. District Attorney B. F. Skinner and Hon. Lorenzo Morris appeared for the people ; Hon !. Porter Sheldon and C. R. Lockwood, Esq., ap- peared for Marlow. On the trial, which lasted nearly two weeks, Mrs. Julia Ortman, the aged mother-in-law of Marlow, testified that she killed Bachman with a hammer in the cellar of the brewery in defence of her daughter, Mrs. Marlow, and afterwards she and her daughter without the assistance of Marlow burned the body in the furnace. The jury failed to agree. A second trial was held in January, 1872, be- fore Justice George D. Lamont. E. R. Bootey, then district attorney, and Lorenzo Morris, conducted the trial for the people, and C. R. Lockwood and Porter Sheldon for Marlow. The jury this time rendered a verdict of guilty. Marlow was hung in Mayville jail. This was the third execution of a human being for a crime within the limits of Chautauqua county.

Train No. 6, consisting of an engine, tender, baggage and passenger cars, going north on the Buffalo, Corry & Pittsburgh railroad, Fay Flanders conductor, left Mayville at 3 :15 p. m., December 24, 1872. A trestle work three hun- dred twenty feet long spanned a deep gulch about five miles north of Mayville and ten rods north of Prospect Station. The engine of the train passed over the trestle at a low rate of speed, as it approached Prospect Station. A broken flange on a wheel of the tender threw its rear truck off the track, which caused the baggage and passenger cars to topple, turn over, and fall bottom up on the hard snow be- neath. It was a cold day, and the cars were heated by stoves, from which the coals were scattered by the crash and set fire to the cars. There were forty-five persons on the train, of whom thirty-eight were passengers, many re- turning home or going to visit friends and cele- brate Christmas the next day. The weight of the passenger car crushed some of the inmates and held others wedged in so tightly that they

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

could not escape. The people quickly gathered to check the flames and rescue the passengers. In the absence of water, snow was heaped upon the flames. Holes were cut into the car where the flames would admit it, in an ineffectual attempt to release those imprisoned. Chains and ropes were employed in efforts to pull over the cars, and oxen were used with a like pur- pose, without avail. When the fire had burned low, a terrible and ghastly scene was wit- nessed. Eighteen dead bodies, bruised and burned, were taken out. Of the forty-five per- sons on the train, but five escaped with slight injuries, thirty-two were killed, burned to death, or died from their injuries. Mark Haight, of the firm of Moss, Haight & Dun- ham, bankers, of Brocton, was firmly held by the timbers of the car. Jack screws were ob- tained and the timbers lifted so that he could be taken out, but he was so fearfully burned that he expired two hours later. His partner, Mr. Dunham, who was sitting beside him, was rescued with slight injury. Of the twin broth- ers, Edwin H. and Edward Bell, one was in- stantly killed and the other escaped. Of two Ryan brothers, one was killed the other escaped. Wilbur T. Rice and his bride, who had been married a few weeks before, were both killed. Catherine Riley, of Titusville, on her way to visit her mother at Dunkirk, Frank Green and his wife, all met their death. Fay Flanders, the conductor, while wedged into the. wreck by timbers, but with his body and arms at liberty and suffering pain, even aided thc rescue of a little girl who was a passenger on the train. Flanders exhibited great coolness and resolution in his dire extremity. At his suggestion a chain was put round his body. and by the effort of many strong men he was drawn out. His ribs were broken and his limbs torn and burned, and yet he survived a few days and died. Frank Taylor stayed by his brake, although he could have escaped, and lost his life.

The Prospect railroad accident was the most terrible tragedy that ever occurred within the limits of Chautauqua county, excepting the burning of the steamboat "Erie" in 1841. In few accidents of this kind that ever happened was the percentage of loss of life so great.

Jamestown, from the time of its settlement. was the leading manufacturing town of the county. It long had been celebrated for its implements, furniture, wood, cloth and textile manufactures. But in 1873 the most impor- tant manufacturing industry of the city was established. Before, no attempt had been

made to manufacture worsted goods west of Philadelphia. That year William Hall, Wil- liam Broadhead and Joseph Tanner established the Jamestown Worsted Mills, at first called the Alpaca Mills. The machinery was made in England, and many of its skilled operatives came from that country. It quickly grew to large proportions, and its business is now con- ducted on an extensive scale, its products known from Boston to San Francisco. Even- tually William Broadhead retired, and the name of the firm finally became Hall & Com- pany. W. C. J. Hall, Chapin Hall, Erie L. Hall, Elliot C. Hall, Mrs. Rose E. Kent, Alfred E. Hall and Samuel Briggs all have been mem- bers of this firm. This industry has contrib- uted greatly to the prosperity of Jamestown.

William Broadhead and his sons, S. B. and A. N. Broadhead, under the firm name of Broadhead & Sons, not long afterwards estab lished other very extensive textile manufac- tories in Jamestown which are giving thou- sands of people employment or daily support. Jamestown owes much of its growth and pres- ent prosperity to the energy and business abil- ity of thie Broadhead family.

Chautauqua county had now come to the front as one of the first agricultural counties in the State. Its farmers used improved and scientific methods of dairying. Chautauqua county butter and cheese bore a reputation for excellence. The county had become famous for its horses and cattle and apples, all of which were exported in great abundance. Judge Zattu Cushing, when he came to the county in 1805, brought with him a half bushel of apple seeds from which a nursery was started on what is known as the Marsh farm at Fre- donia. This was probably the oldest orchard in the county. Many other early settlers plant- ed their first orchard with scions and with apple seeds brought with them into the county, selected from favorite varieties that were raised at their old homes in the East. Among them were Spitzenburghs, Seek-no-furthers, Roxbury Russets, Rhode Island Greenings and other excellent and now forgotten kinds. There were also many worthless kinds, useful only for cider, which have been supplanted by the standard varieties of later years. The apples of the hills in the central part of the county were better in quality than those raised in the northern towns, but the early frosts rendered the former a more uncertain crop. Pears, plums, cherries and berries of all kinds were successfully grown in nearly all parts of the county, but the northern towns and the coun-

cere

: t

AGRICULTURAL PERIOD-1861-1875

try bordering on Chautauqua Lake were de- cidedly best adapted to most kinds of fruits. Peaches of an excellent quality were raised north of the Ridge in abundance, while among the hills they were poor in quality.

In the northern towns of the county in 1874, the grape had become the principal staple, and the manufacture of wine an important indus- try. In 1824 Deacon Elijah Fay planted a few Isabella and Catawba grape roots on his farm in the town of Portland. In 1830 he made five or six gallons of wine, and from year to year in- creased the manufacture until 1860, the year of his death, when he had two thousand gallons in his cellar. In 1859 Joseph B. Fay, Garrett E. Ryckman, a grandson of Deacon Elijali Fay, and Rufus Haywood, built the first wine house in the county at Brocton. Twenty acres of grapes supplied it. In 1879 Mr. Ryckman became the sole owner of this wine house. He improved and added to the plant until it be- came one of the most perfect and extensive establishments of its kind in the county an 1 in the State. In 1865 the Lake Shore Wine Company was formed. The year following there were six hundred acres of vines in Port- land. The Portland Center Wine House and other wine companies followed.

In 1867 Thomas Lake Harris, a native of England, who had acquired a literary celebrity, and also a reputation as a successful and popu- lar minister of the Universalist church, organ- ized a society known as the Brotherhood of the New Life. The society purchased nearly two thousand acres of land in Portland, extending two miles along the shore of Lake Erie, and, besides other industries, commenced to culti- vate the grape, built a large wine house and cellar near Brocton, engaged in the manufac- ture and sale of pure native wine, more espe- cially for medicinal purposes. They laid out a village, intended as their industrial center, to be called Salem-on-Erie. They were com- monly known as the Harris Community. They manufactured thousands of gallons of wine an- nually. The association finally fell to pieces and their lands were sold in parcels. While they continued, their property was not held in common, but individuals were permitted to hold real estate and cultivate it on their own account. The authority of the Scripture and the marriage relations were held sacred. They had no written form for their government. Their system combined the doctrines of Plato in philosophy, Swedenborg in their religion, and Fourier in their social relations. Although exclusively devoted to their association, they

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 14

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc. Number of Pages: 649

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649