History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 27

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 27

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).

Hurley, the pioneer, came as early as 1817. Abraham Reynolds came in 1818, direct from London; twice he walked from Charlotte to New York. His son Henry was a well-known citizen, three years its supervisor. Robert La- Grys came in 1819. Upon his farm on Kent street a pin or curled maple tree grew for which T. D. Copp paid him a sovereign, manufactured it into veneers, and took it to London to be used to decorate Queen Victoria's yacht. After it was completed, Mr. Copp, on invitation, vis- ited the yacht. He found it decorated with seventeen different kinds of wood. John Thorne came in 1834; he left three sons, John, Dr. William, and Thomas, who spent much of his time at sea. In 1836 from Devonshire came John Reed. His son William was supervisor, and Richard long a well-known hardware dealer of Sinclairville. His eldest son John emigrated to Australia. Richard Brock and Thomas D. Spiking came later.

The street leading north from the Center to Arkwright was also largely settled by Eng- lishmen from Yorkshire. Thomas Pearson, William Wright and their families and Thomas Dickenson came over together in a ship from Hull, and settled on this street in 1828. Wil- liam Hilton came in 1830; his son John was a director on the Erie railway. These English- men, their descendants and others who came in later years from that country, constitute a very large and influential part of the popula- tion.

Among the early settlers residing near Sin- clairville and in the southwestern part of the town were: Ezra Richmond, Chauncey Andrus, Peter Warren, father of Judge Emory F. War- ren, and William Brown; upon the Owlsbor- ough road: Asa Dunbar, Phillip Link, Henry Cipperly, William H. Gleason, and Bela Tracy, once a member of Assembly from Chautauqua county, and brother of John Tracy, former Lieutenant-Governor of the State. James Wil- liams was a well known resident of this part of the town. Henry Sornberger was also an early settler in this part, and Richard G. Bur- lingame, a settler of a later date.

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The northeast part of the town was the last settled. Alanson Straight, the first to begin improvement, settled about 1832 upon lot 24. In 1832 Nelson Chase located upon lot 16, and Nathan Penhollow on lot 15. Calvin Abbey, Elijah Lewis, William W. Wood, Neri Cramp- ton, Daniel Hoisington, Henry Smith, William Luce, G. R. Matthewson, Peter Odell and Nel- son Mansfield were early settlers there. John Wilkes, who came in 1851. built the first saw

mill in 1865 Upon his farm the last bear was killed in the town. James Hopkins, Patrick Doran and Garret Wheeler, from the west of Ireland, came about 1840. Others from Ire- land settled a little later.

The town was organized in April, 1829. The first town meeting was held March 2, 1830, and the following officers chosen : Supervisor, Na- than Lake; town clerk, Walter Chester ; jus- tices of the peace, John M. Edson, Eldred Lampson, James S. Parkhurst ; collector, Bar- zillai Ellis; assessors, Peter Warren, Bela Tracy, Spencer Clark ; overseers of the poor, Freeman Ellis, Abel Potter ; commissioners of highways, Bela B. Lord, R. W. Seaver, Charles Goodrich ; commissioners of schools, Bela B. Lord, Samuel T. Booth, Crocker Richardson; constables, Amasa Dalrymple, Barzillai Ellis, Benjamin Fisher ; sealer of weights and meas- ures, Oshea Webber.

Sinclairville and Charlotte Center-By Mrs. R. C. Seaver. Sinclairville is an incorporated village lying close to the southern boundary of Charlotte and laying grasping fingers on that part of Gerry between the township's border and the Dunkirk, Allegany Valley & Pitts- burgh railway station, and a corresponding section of the highway leading to Jamestown. It boasts four churches, a high school employ- ing six teachers, a hotel, and the usual quota of stores, public halls, mills, shops, factories and homes. South it is bounded by the open valley ; on the other three sides by hills, save where on the north, Mill Creek hurries through on its way to join the Cassadaga.

Major Samuel Sinclear had never looked on this part of Chautauqua when in 1809 he stepped into the land office in Batavia and took articles for two lots in what was then the town of Pomfret. Of these, lot 63 lay in the town of Gerry as formed in 1812, and on lot 4I was built the house that proved to be the nucleus of Sinclairville. It was from the scant descriptions of the surveyors' lines that he judged, and correctly, that here was a suitable site for a mill. He formed a partnership with William Berry, of Madison county, who came to Chautauqua the same fall and with assist- ance from four men from among those who had formed the Pickett Settlement, put up the body of a log house ; he then returned to Madi- son county. In the following March, Major Sinclear, his son John, two hired hands, Berry and his wife, reached this rude beginning of a home. Before it could be made habitable, they passed two days and nights in a wigwam of

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CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

poles, thatched and furnished with hemlock boughs.

Major Sinclear's father, Colonel Richard, was of Scotch descent, and Mary Cilley Sin- clear's ancestors were from Austria-Hungary. In the history of the Sinclear family, by Leon- ard Allison Morrison, published in Boston in 1896, the Sinclear lineage is traced back to 890, when Norsemen besieged and took the castle of St. Clair in Normandy. Here the name had its origin. That they were nearly related to, and that at least nine of the name were with William the Conqueror at Hastings, is asserted on the authority of undisputed history. The name has a different orthography among dif- ferent branches and generations of the family. St. Clair, Sinclear and Sinckler are among them.

Samuel, born May 10, 1762, at Nottingham, N. H., had four predecessors and four suc- cessors in the family cradle. "Gen. Joseph Cil- ley, conspicuous for his bravery as colonel of the First New Hampshire Regiment at the battles of Bemis Heights and Monmouth," was his uncle, and that Cilley, Congressman from Maine, who was killed in the historic duel near Washington by Graves of Kentucky, was also a near kinsman.

Samuel's childhood was of the briefest, for at fourteen years he was in the army as attend- ant to his uncle, Col. Cilley, and when barely fifteen he enlisted in Captain Amos Morrill's company of the same uncle's regiment and served three years. He rendered distinguished service in the first battle of Bemis Heights ; was one of the twelve thousand, under Washing- ton, who sent Clinton's defeated forces creep- ing off in the darkness at Monmouth, and he shared the privations and sufferings of those darkest days of the great patriot's life at Val- ley Forge. There were other battles in which he took part while in Gen. Enoch Poor's brigade ; and in 1779 he was with General Sulli- van fighting the Indians on the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania. Two of his brothers died in the service, and another was discharged with him. His father was also a Revolutionary officer. It was while a resident of Eaton, Madison county, in 1776, that Gov- ernor Jay bestowed on him his commission of major of militia.

Honorably discharged at eighteen years of age, having served the full term of his enlist- ment, Major Sinclear went to Maine and estab- lished a ship-timber business on the Kennebec. Eight years later he came to this State and after a residence of the same length of time in Utica and Cherry Valley, he joined those who

were making the first settlement at Eaton, Madison county. At forty-eight he was again battling with the "forest primeval," this time in Chautauqua county. That lonely and lowly home to which he came in 1810 soon received such additions as partitions, a ladder to the second floor, and a chimney of clay-plastered sticks and stones. It stood where now (1902) stands the home of Mrs. Mahala Dibble, at the intersection of the Charlotte Center and Cherry Creek roads, and served as church and schoolhouse, and as a refuge to new-comers until they could convert the living trees into sheltering homes. In this labor they had ever the benefit of Major Sinclear's advice, valuable from his experience and judgment; and many times his financial aid also.

In the summer of 1810, in addition to clear- ing land, Major Sinclear built the first saw mill in the central or eastern part of the county. The same fall, he employed help and worked with them to construct a wagon road, the first over the ridge, from Fredonia (then called Canadaway) to his wilderness home. He had previously brought his family to Canadaway, and October 22nd he arrived with his children, Samuel, David, Joseph, Nancy and Sally, his second wife, Fanny, and her children, Obed, John M. and Fanny Edson, and five wagon- loads of goods. His first wife was Sally Perk- ins, whom he married in 1785, in Vassalboro, Maine, and whose death occurred at Eaton in 1804.

A few scattering families had located from three-fourths of a mile to three miles distant, but the nearest settlements were, that on the Pickett Brook four miles northwest, and that at Charlotte Center, three miles northeast. The last named was begun by R. W. Seaver, Bar- ney Edson and William Devine. They came from Oneida county in the spring of 1809, De- vine and wife at Seaver's request. Edson went to Batavia in May and booked the land but did not return. The initial building of Char- lotte Center soon put up by those remaining was sixteen by eighteen feet, with bark roof and a single door and window. It stood on or r near the site of the present school house, their first clearing having been a few rods to the west. Here in the fall they stored the small crop of corn they had raised, and went back to Oneida county, returning the following spring.

Robert W. Seaver was born in Worcester county, Massachusetts, July 3, 1762, enlisted at fourteen, and served six years and eight months in the War of the Revolution. Among the battles in which he took part was that of

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King's Bridge, near New York and Yorktown. He was under Lafayette, and the face of the revered Washington was also familiar to him. During the War of 1812, when the "Queen Charlotte" chased the American salt boats into the Canadaway and was repulsed, Widow Cole run the bullets and Mr. Seaver made the car- tridges, no one in the hastily gathered forces knowing how to do it but him.

On the farm south of Charlotte Center, Mr. Seaver planted an orchard from seeds brought from Oneida county. The farm has remained in the possession of his descendants. Mr. Sea- ver was a man of prominence and held several positions of trust. Until 1816 his wife, Anna Edson Seaver, was the only doctor in the vicin- ity. The stone that marks his grave in Char- lotte Center Cemetery bears the simple record : "Robert W. Seaver for seven years a soldier of the Revolution, died July 31, 1836, aged sev- enty-five years."

When in 1812 the town of Gerry was formed, embracing the present towns of Gerry, Char- lotte, Cherry Creek and Ellington, a meeting was called at Cassadaga for the purpose of selecting a name. It was decided to call it Gerry, for the Vice-President elected that fall, but Sinclear was the choice of many. The first town meeting was held in his house in 1813. He was chosen supervisor, an office which he filled six terms. For several succeeding years, being the only freeholder in the town, he frequently executed a deed of some small piece of land gratuitously to such as, elected to office, were required to own land in order to hold the posi- ion, even when as in the case of Judge Joel Burnell, the successful candidate, his own op- onent.

Not alone in their struggle for a material existence was his help ready. His copy of the 'Albany Gazette," for many years the only newspaper penetrating the wilderness as far as Fredonia, was regarded as community posses- ion. On its arrival, all gathered to listen to its ontents as read aloud, usually by J. M. Edson, hen a boy, afterward Judge Edson, and the ather of Hon. Obed Edson and Mrs. Ursula Sylvester of Sinclairville.

With other soldiers of the Revolution, Major inclear was a conspicuous participant in ex- ending greeting and honors to Lafayette at Fredonia in 1825.

It was not until the death of its founder that inclairville assumed its present name, being nown previously as "The Major's" or "Major inclear's," and the post office awkwardly re- ined the name Gerry post office till 1869.

On the well-preserved gray stone that marks

his resting place are engraved many Masonic emblems, and below, the lines typical rather of the times than of the subject :

"How lov'd, how valu'd once avail thee not, To whom related, or by whom begot; A heap of dust alone remains of thee, 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be."

Prior to the organization of any religious society in Charlotte, it was visited by early missionaries. The first meeting was held by Rev. John Spencer, October 22, 1811, in the first log house built by Major Sinclear. He and Elder Turner, a Baptist, often delivered a regular sermon to a single family.

The Methodist Episcopal Church was the first religious society in the town, its begin- ning, a class organized at Charlotte Center, composed of Judge Joel Burnell and seven others. William Brown was the first minis- ter. In 1851 a church edifice was built at Sin- clairville, and the same year one at Charlotte Center.

The First Baptist Church of Sinclairville was organized June 2, 1826, Rev. Jonathan Wilson, its first pastor, John McAlister and eleven others the original members. In 1834 a church edifice, the first in the town, was built at a cost of $2,000.

The First Congregational church was formed July 22, 1831, by Rev. Isaac Jones, of Mayville, Rev. Timothy Stillman, of Dunkirk, and Rev. Obadiah C. Beardsley, of Charlotte, the society at first consisting of twenty-three persons, mostly Presbyterians. April 30, 1842, the Presbyterian form was surrendered and a re- organization effected as a Congregational church, thirteen members subscribing to that faith. On September 25, 1845, a house of wor- ship was built and dedicated, Rev. Charles W. Carpenter the first pastor. The First Uni- versalist Society of Charlotte was organized August 26, 1850, and a church edifice erected at Charlotte Center in 1851, Rev. William W. King the first pastor.

The First Universalist Society of Sinclair- ville was organized February 13, 1859, and a house of worship there erected, Rev. Isaac George its first pastor.

St. Paul's Church of the Cross, Roman Cath- olic, was organized in 1871, the parish purchas- ing for a house of worship the Sinclairville Universalist Church.

Sylvan Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Sinclairville, was chartered about the year 1824, Major Samuel Sinclear its first worship- ful master. Its first charter was surrendered during the anti-Masonic excitement, but a new

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charter was granted June 11, 1853, John M. Edson the first worshipful master under the new charter.

The supervisors of the town have been: Na- than Lake, 1830-35-37-42-45; Bela Tracy, 1831- 33-34; Samuel F. Forbush, 1832; John Chan- dler, 1836; Orton Clark, 1838-41-43-44-59-60; Randolph W. Seaver, 1846-48; Joseph E. Kim- ball, 1849; Orsamus A. White, 1850-51; John M. Edson. 1852-54; Daniel Arnold, 1855; Wil- liam M. Waggoner. 1856; Allen A. Stevens, 1857-68; Henry C. Lake, 1858-61; Timothy D. Copp, 1862-63 ; Henry Reynolds, 1864-66; Obed Edson, 1867; George S. Harrison, 1869-71; Horace E. Kimball, 1872-74; Albert Rich- mond, 1875; Edwin F. Lake, 1905-07; John G. Rose, 1908-09; George E. Montague, 1910-II ; John G. Rose, 1912-13; Edwin H. Edson, 1914-20.

The value of real estate in the town of Char- lotte in 1918 was $696,284; the equalized as- sessed value, $546,283. There are 22,964 acres in the town, and according to the State census of 1915, a population of 1,304 citizens and four aliens. Sinclairville, an incorporated village, returned a population of 582. The Gerry Veneer and Lumber Company and eight small factories were reported in the same year to be in operation in the village. The schools are excellent, and in keeping with the spirit of the town.

Chautauqua-The town of Chautauqua ante- dates the county, and may be called the "Mother Town," as it originally included all of now Chautauqua county except that part com- prised within the limits of the eastern range of townships. The town was set off from Batavia, April 11, 1804, and when the county was organ- ized, March 1I, 1808, the town was enlarged by the addition of the eastern or tenth row of townships. All the other towns of the county have been formed from the original town, re- ducing it to its present irregular dimensions on both sides of the northern part of Chautauqua Lake. Pomfret was taken off in 1808; Port- land in 1813; Harmony in 1816; Clymer, Ellery and Stockton in 1821. Notwithstanding its losses, Chautauqua is one of the largest towns in the county, containing 41,318 acres. The surface is hilly, and forms the watershed be- tween Lake Erie and Chautauqua Lake. Chau- tauqua creek forms part of the western bound- ary, and other streams are within its borders.

Although the town is hilly and broken, and by reason of its elevated situation is exposed to deep snows and severe storms in winter, it has fine and striking scenery. From the high hill- in its northern and western parts a mag-

nificent view is presented to the grape belt, and the wide and blue expanse of Lake Erie bear- ing upon its bosom the commerce of the west, and, in the distance one may see the shores and hills of Canada. The upper portion of Chautauqua Lake extends into the eastern part of the town, and from Mayville a fine view may be had of the shores of the lake, with its beau- tiful bays. Within the town limits is the vil- lage of Mayville, the capital of the county, with which is associated so much of historical inter- est; the far-famed Chautauqua Assembly grounds ; picturesque Point Chautauqua ; the villages of Hartfield, Summerdale and Dewitt- ville, and the county alms house and asylum.

The first settlement was made by Dr. Alex- ander McIntyre, of Meadville, in 1804. He built a log dwelling at Mayville near the steam- boat landing. Around it he erected a stockade "to protect it from the Indians," as he said. He had been captured by and resided with In- dians many years, acquiring their habits, and claimed to have learned the healing art of them. Dr. McIntyre's stockade had been built when in the fall of 1804 the Holland Land Com- pany sent William Peacock to survey and map out a town at the head of the lake. In the fall of 1804 Paul Busti, an agent of the company, was with his family at what is now Mayville, and at a meeting of Holland Land Company representatives held there a name for the new settlement was considered. William Peacock thus related the story of the naming of the village :

A great many names had been suggested, but none upon which all could unite, when Mrs. Paul Busti, wife of one of the agents and attorney for the company, came into the room where we were gathered with a baby in her arms. One of the gentleman present asked the name of the baby and she replied, "May." Then some one suggested that we name the settlement after the baby and call it Mayville, which was quickly agreed to and the new settlement was at once named in honor of May Busti.

William Peacock completed his survey and mapped a territory two miles wide from Chau- tauqua lake to the two Chautauqua creeks, and "the work was done with wonderful accuracy," as many subsequent surveys have fully proven.

In 1807 Captain John Scott, who had located at Canadaway in 1804 and had married Bril- liant, daughter of Deacon Orsamus Holmes, of Sheridan, came and opened on the present site of Mayville a public inn, the first made of logs, and upon the east side of Main street, between the Episcopal church and the Mayville House. Mr. Scott was supervisor in 1813. He removed from Mayville about 1826, and died in Illinois

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in 1845. In 1808 George Lowry settled in May- ville, and also opened a primitive inn. He was one of the celebrated family of ten brothers who with their mother Margaret emigrated from Ireland. Their names were Samuel, Hugh, John, Robert, James, Andrew, William, George, Alexander and Morrow. Most of them becaine early settlers of Erie county, Pennsyl- vania. In George Lowry's old bar-room occurred a desperate fight between some set- tlers and Pennsylvania boatmen, which fur- nished business for several of the earliest terms of court. His son, James B. Lowry, was county clerk in 1828.

In 1808 the county of Chautauqua was organ- ized, and that year Jonas Williams, Isaac Suth- erland and Asa Ransom, commissioners ap= pointed to decide upon the county seat, "erect- ed a large hemlock post" at Mayville to desig- nate the spot fixed by them. Darius Dexter had come from Herkimer county that spring. To him the contract was given by Joseph Elli- cott to cut and clear a road commencing at the head of Chautauqua Lake, extending one and one-half miles toward Westfield. He cut this road, now Main street, six rods wide, and cleared it to the width of three rods. He also cleared the land of the public square. Dr. John E. Marshall, a well educated physician, now moved into the woods that covered the site of Mayville. He married Ruth, daughter of Dea- con Orsamus Holmes, of Sheridan, in 1810. In 1809, Artemas Hearick, a native of Massa- chusetts, came from Chenango to Mayville. He was early appointed one of the associate judges.

The anticipation of a complete organization of the county with Mayville as its county seat, now influenced people to take up residence there. As courts were soon to be held, attor- neys were the first to be attracted. Anselm Potter, the first, and Dennis Brackett, the sec- ond lawyer of the county, both came in 1810, and Casper Rouse a little later. Brackett built an office, which was crushed soon after by a falling tree. The same year the Holland Land Company erected an office for the sale of its lands, and William Peacock, its agent, took up his residence here. Jonathan Thompson, one of the first associate judges of the county, came from Saratoga county to Mayville in ISI0; four years later he removed to Pennsylvania.

Waterman Tinkcom, from Saratoga county, for many years an innkeeper in Mayville, be- came a resident here that year. In 1811, the county having become fully organized, Captain Scott enlarged his log tavern by a plank frame addition for a court house. In it, the June be-

fore it was completed, the first court of record was held, and in October the Board of Super- visors here met. There were but two members -Matthew Prendergast, of Chautauqua, and Philo Orton, of Pomfret. This year Morrow Lowry settled in Mayville. His son, Morrow B., born in Mayville in 1813, afterwards was a distinguished citizen of Western Pennsylvania. Nathaniel A. Lowry, son of Alexander, settled in Jamestown, and Hugh W. Lowry, a mer- chant of Westfield, was the son of another of the brothers. Jediah Prendergast came to Mayville in 1811 ; he was the first physician. William Prendergast, his nephew, the second physician, soon followed. William Prender- gast, son of Martin and Phebe (Holmes) Pren- dergast, grandson of William, the physician, and great-grandson of Matthew, was born in Chautauqua in 1854. He was educated at May- ville Academy and was graduated from Jeffer- son Medical College at Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, in 1883, and located at Mayville. In ISII the first store was established in Mayville by Jediah and Martin Prendergast. William Smith was one of the early settlers of Mayville. He was born in Massachusetts in 1808, emi- grated to Oneida county, and a few years later to Mayville, where he opened a law office. He was appointed surrogate in 1821, which office he held for nineteen years; was one of the founders of the "Mayville Sentinel," and died in 1860.

Other parts of the town of Chautauqua were also being settled. In 1805 Peter Barnhart, a soldier of the Revolution, located a short dis- tance north of Point Chautauqua. His sons, Jonathan, Peter and Henry, also settled in the town. Jonathan Smith the same year made the first settlement on the west side, near the grounds of the Chautauqua Assembly. The Prendergasts in March, 1806, contracted for a large tract of land near the Chautauqua Assem- bly Grounds, and the same month James and William Prendergast, Jr., erected a log house there. In June the family arrived. Filer Sackett in June, 1805, bought land at Dewitt- ville, where John Mason early settled. He married Maria, daughter of Captain Anson Leet. Darius Scofield settled early at Dewitt- ville. Nathan and Daniel Cheney early settled a mile north of Dewittville. John Miles with a large family settled on lot 9 near the east line of the town. Dr. Lawton Richmond, the third physician, settled near Dewittville in 18II.

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 27

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