History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 19

Author: Edson, Obed, 1832-; Merrill, Georgia Drew, editor
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Boston, Mass. : W.A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1068

USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York > Part 19

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*Rev. W. L. Hyde.

tAtwater papers in the possession of Horace A. Foote.

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

CHAPTER XVIII.

BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT.

" The pioneer has left The home in which his early years were passed, And, led by hope, and full of restless strength, Has plunged within the forest, there to plant His destiny."

P ROBABLY about 1800 one Skinner came with his family from the Susquehanna country, Pa., to Cattaraugus creek and opened what was termed a "house of entertainment " near the spot afterwards known as the " Mack Stand," and lived there three or four years. There is no doubt that Skinner and his family were living there as early as 1801, keep- ing a shanty tavern, and entertaining the few travelers that threaded the lonely forests along the southern shore of Lake Erie, as appears by the follow- ing extract from the journal of Joseph Badger, who, at the time labored as a missionary upon the Western Reserve and among the Indians by appoint- ment of the Connecticut Missionary Society.

"Oct. 25. (1801.) I set out this morning in company with Eliphalet Aus- tin, Esq., on my return to Massachusetts by the way of Buffalo. Got into the town of Erie Sabbath morning and gave notice of preaching at 4 o'clock. A small number collected to whom I preached. The most of the people were engaged in their secular concerns as on other days. Rode on a few miles to Mr. Morehead's, a respectable family with some apparent piety, here we lodged. Det. 28th. We now after a few miles ride to the Pennsylvania lines entered the unbroken forest ; following the Indian path our progress was slow ; and when night came on we struck a fire and encamped. Soon after a man by the name of Babcock joined us with an axe ; we got a good fire, turned our horses into the wood with one bell on, and lay down in my blanket and slept safely in the wood. In the morning our horses were out of hearing ; they took the path eastward. Esq. Austin overtook and brought them back in time to reach Cattarangus before dark. Put up with a family living but little above the Indian habits, by the name of Skinner. 30th. This mor- ing I was very unwell, had considerable fever, and was unable to sit up but little. Our horses had straved three or four miles to the Indian village. At evening Gen. Paine and two or three hands came in from pretending to cut and open a road through from Buffalo to Pennsylvania line. There came also four men returning from the Reserve to Connecticut all on foot. Mr. Badger returned to the West the next year. Of his journey through Chantan- qua county that year he says : Wearrived on Tuesday (April, 1802,) about two

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BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT.

o'clock in the afternoon at Cattaraugus on the sandbar. I sent a man to the Indians, got a canoe, crossed over my family and goods, tied a rope to the wagon and drew it across the bar. But before we got our tent pitched, there came a storm of wind, hail and rain, directly across the lake, which brought in the water like a flood. Here I got several bushels of corn of the Indians at a dollar per bushel and some coarse hay. From this place we made our way slowly, cutting, as we had done, many small trees and saplings to make room for the wagon, until Friday near dark we arrived at Esq. Robinson's the first house in Pennsylvania."

Sottle finally returned to Cattaraugus and resumed possession of the improvements that he had made. It is said that he returned in 1801, accom- panied by Captain Rosencrantz, an officer of the army and bearer of dispatches from Gen. Anthony Wayne to the head chiefs of the Seneca Indians residing in western New York. It could not have been true that Rosencrantz was at that time a bearer of dispatches from Wayne for the Indian wars were ended and Wayne had died in 1796 .* It has also been said that Sottle was accom- panied on his return by William Sidney. (William G. Sydnor is probably meant.) If this was so Sydnor did not then take up his residence there, but returned to the place from which he came for a while, which is quite possi- ble, for if Sydnor accompanied him the return of Sottle must have occurred later than 1801. Sydnor did not become a resident at Cattaraugus until as late as 1804, as appears by the following letters to Joseph Ellicott preserved among the papers relating to the Holland company in the Buffalo Historical Society rooms :

"ERIE, DECEMBER 16, 1803.

I wish to purchase from 100 to 200 acres of land on Silver creek includ- ing the mouth thereof, also a small tract on Cattaraugus say the same num- ber of acres near or opposite to where the black man Joe formerly lived if those lands are for sale. I will be obliged if you will inform me by the return of Mr. Mcclintock the prices and payments. If they suit me I will do myself the pleasure of waiting on you to purchase these lands. I am respectfully sir, your most obedient servant,

WILLIAM G. SYDNOR."

By a letter to Joseph Ellicott, bearing date Greenfield, March 4th, 1804, written by a person whose signature is indistinct, it is stated that William G. Sydnor talks of moving to Cattaraugus, N. Y., to open an inn.

When Sottle returned to the Cattaraugus Bottoms, whatever may have been the date, he made it his permanent abode and continued to reside there until his death. He bought no lands however until 1806, when he purchased by contract lots 55 and 59 in Cattarangus village. He made little or no improvement upon his land. In 1806 he had not sufficiently cleared for the raising of grain. He had acquired the habits of Indian and border life. He

*Rosencrantz during the campaign against the Indians in 1799 had been a bearer of dispatches more than once from Wayne tothe Indians of western New York, as appears by a letter written by him when he was comt- mander in chief to Cornplanter, Kyasutha, and other " chiefs of the Allegheny."

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

was a man of considerable native ability and information, and in early years not without native dignity and politeness. After his return to Cattaraugus Bottoms he married a negress of Buffalo to the mortification of his relatives, some of whom moved in respectable circles. She was called "Old Chloe" and was an excellent housekeeper, but was " not above reproach in a moral sense." After the death of his wife about 18H, he became more eccentric, intemperate, dissolute and thriftless. He lived in a shanty and died in 1849. A swarthy son, Jzara Sawtel, was for seven years an inmate of the Chantan- qua county poor house, and died there at the age of 74, January 1, 1886. During 1Sos and 1803 Skinner probably continued to reside at the Cattarau- gus flats. Perhaps Sottle was there also. We have no account of any other settlers during that period except Charles Avery, who it is believed came in one or the other of those years.

Cattarangus village, the site of their settlement was afterwards surveyed into lots by the Holland Land Company with the expectation of its becoming an important manufacturing place. Joseph Ellicott suggested that water might be taken from the Cattaraugus three miles from its mouth and carried along the side of the hill to Cattaraugus, village and there used for manufac- turing purposes. In later years expectations were entertained that the New York and Erie railroad would fix its Lake Erie termination at the mouth of the Cattarangus, and a village plot was made by capitalists who formed the Irving Company. Among them were Erastus Corning, William L. Marey, Oliver Lee, Heman J. Redfield, Thomas B. Stoddard, Ezekiel B. Guernsey and Dr. Henry P. Wilcox. AAppropriations for harbor improvements were made by congress. The selection of Dunkirk for the terminus of the rail- road destroyed their prospect. Cattaraugus is now represented by the village of Irving. Upper Irving was formerly known as LaGrange, named from the home of LaFayette in France.

In iSor settlement was also commenced thirty miles westward of Catta- rangus creek in what is now Westfield. It was effected through the enter- prise of Col. James McMahan, one of the most prominent and influential pioneer citizens of the county. He was born in Northumberland county, Pa., in March 1768. Prior to 1795 he surveyed two seasons in western Pennsylvania, and for six months at a time saw no white persons except his assistants. He was surveying there in 1794 when Wayne defeated the Indians in the decisive battle on the Mammee river. In this Indian war the frontiers of Pennsylvania suffered from the incursions of the Indians, their hostile expeditions extending even to the borders of Chautauqua county. Que of MeMahan's chainbearers was shot and scalped by the Indians this year as he and his men were returning to their camp near the mouth of the Broken-Straw. Mr. McMahan married July 3, 1795, Sarah McCord, and passed through this county about the same year. Having explored some

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BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT.

parts of the lake region with a view to a residence, he first selected land in Harbor Creek, Pa. He there cleared a piece of land, sowed it to wheat and built a log cabin where he established his wife and child. He afterwards sold his land and soon after the surveys by the Holland company were begun commenced negotiations for lands in Chautauqua county. In ISor accom- panied by Andrew Stranb he visited the lake region, and made a contract for his brother John McMahan to purchase township 4 in range 14, which inchided all the village of Westfield, and parts of the towns of Westfield and Chautauqua. These lands were bounded north by Lake Erie, east by the present town of Portland, south by a part of the present towns of Chautan- qna and Westfield, west by Ripley and contained 22,014 acres of mnsurveyed lands, for which $2.50 per acre was to be paid and $1,035 was paid down. James also purchased for himself 4,074 acres of unsurveyed land in the pres- ent town of Ripley, the tract extending from the lake two miles southward, and from the east line of Ripley 3 1-4 miles westward nearly to the site of Quincy. The terms of payment were like those granted his brother. James also selected for himself out of his brother's township, lot 13, which extended east to the old "cross roads," so called from its being the point where the rude road or trail between Buffalo and Erie was crossed by the Old Portage road. Here he settled about three fourths of a mile west of Chantanqua creek.

The printed blank forms commonly used by the company were not in this case used ; the contracts were in manuscript, and contained liberal provisions to encourage immigration, and the sale of smaller parcels to actual settlers. These contracts, although considered as made in 1801, were not fully exe- cuted until May or July 1803. When portions of their land were sold by the McMahans, the purchasers took their deeds from the Holland Land Company which credited the McMahans with the purchase money paid. James, an experienced surveyor, surveyed the township which he purchased for John into lots generally a mile square, instead of 34 of a mile, as was the custom of the Holland company. The numbers of the lots commenced at the south- west corner of the townships instead of the southeast. James surveyed his lands in Ripley into lots by lines running at right angles with the lake instead of by meridian lines as the Holland company surveyed. In other respects the survey of both of these tracts differed from that of the Holland Company.

Andrew Straub in his visit to this region selected lands a short distance cast of the site of the village of Westfield upon " Straub's creek." In ISor he built a house and occupied it. He resided there for many years. Stones from his fireplace and other relics of his house have been found in later years. He had no family, and did not at the time obtain title to the land because it had not been surveyed. In September, 1803, he contracted for about 450 acres on lot 17 or 26, of the John McMahan tract.

162

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

When Chautauqua county was first settled it formed a part of the town of Northampton in the county of Ontario. The province of New York, by a law passed in 1683, was divided into twelve counties. Albany county included the country east of the Hudson north of Roelof Jonsens creek creek in the county of Columbia ; on the west side it included the county north of Sawer's creek, now Sangerties, in the county of Ulster. By this and subsequent statutes Albany county was made to comprise all of New York lying north and west of this limit including that extensive country to the west of Fort Orange (Albany,) which was even as late as 1683 designated as " Terra Incognita" or Unknown Land, including also at one time all of Vermont. In 1772 the county of Tryon was formed from Albany. It included all the state west of the Delaware river and a line extending north through Sehoharie, and along the east lines of the present counties of Mont- gomery, Fulton and Hamilton and continuing in a straight line to Canada. It comprised much the greater portion of the state. It was named from Wil- liam Tryon, the British governor of the state immediately preceding the Revolution. The name Tryon having become obnoxious, the legislature in 1784 changed the name to Montgomery in honor of Gen. Richard Mont- gomery who fell at the siege of Onebec.

In 1789 Ontario county was formed from Montgomery and included all the state lying west of the east line of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, all of the "Genesee Country." It was identical with the great tract coded by New York to Massachusetts. The portion of Ontario county lying west of the Genesee river and a line extending due south from the point of junction of that river and Canaseraga creek to the south line of the state, was erected into the town of Northumberland. This town included at the time of the settlement of Chautauqua county all of the Holland Purchase and the Mor- ris Reserve. March 30, 1802. an act of the legislature erected the county of Genesce from Ontario. Its boundaries were identical with those of the town of Northampton. It was subdivided into the towns of Northampton, South- ampton, Leicester and Batavia. What is now Chautauqua county was by this act made a part of Batavia, which also included nearly all of Erie, Niagara and Cattaraugus counties.

Early in the spring of 1802 Col. James McMahan cleared and planted to corn ten acres of the land that he had selected from his brother's purchase in Westfield, and built npon it a log house* in which he installed his family in the fall. This cleared field was the first land cleared and cultivated by a white man having the right to the soil within the limits of Chautauqua.

At the solicitation of Col. McMahan, Edward McHenry of Northumber- land county, Pa., was induced to come to the " Cross Roads," become a set-

*William Vorce formerly a sheriff of the county in isto owned the land where this log house stood, and at the suggestion of Judge E. T. Foote, he erected upon it a monument "to commemorate the place where the first tavern was kept in Chautauqua county, the first militia training and the first town meeting were held."

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BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT.

tler, and keep a house of entertainment for emigrants, who were finding their way to the Western Reserve. He came in the spring of 1802, a little later than McMahan, built a log honse at the Cross Roads upon land adjoining McMahan's, moved his family into it, and opened his tavern which became a famous gathering place. Here the town meetings, elections, and training days of the county were held for many years. A few months after McHen- ry's arrival, August 28, 1802, an event occurred in his family of no little im- portance in the history of the county. It was the birth of John McHenry, the first white child born within its limits. (John McHenry spent all of his days in Chantanqua county.) David Kincaid in November 1802, purchased lot 14, north of James McMahan's lands, and settled there the same year.

The first preparations for the mighty tide of emigration soon to pour itself into the West was this year (1802) made in Chantanqua county. A rude road was opened between Cattarangus and Chautauqua creeks by Gen. Edward Paine, (founder of Painesville, Ohio.) He was employed by Connecticut to open a wagon road west from Buffalo to enable emigrants to reach the " Wes- teri Reserve" in Ohio, sometimes called "Connecticut Fire Lands" and sometimes " New Comectient." He was engaged in this work the preced- ing year. Joseph Badger, the missionary, states in his journal of his journey from the west to Massachusetts in 1801, that, while stopping for the night with Skinner at Cattaraugus creek, "at evening Gen. Paine and two or three hands came in from pretending to cut and open a road through from Buffalo to Pennsylvania, line." About all that Gen. Paine did was to cut away fallen trees and underbrush and mark the route over the firmest ground and the best places to cross the stream. He built no bridges. The road terminated not far from the village of Westfield, was afterwards known as " Paine's Road," and was the only one used by settlers coming from the east for two. or three years. It was probably completed in 1802. It was afterwards con- tinned to the state line by the settlers.

These settlements were all that were made in the county previous to 1803. To Westfield and to Hanover belong the distinction of being the first settled towns of the county. Which was the earlier settled has been a subject of controversy. Who were the first settlers of the country, or of the county or town in which one resides, and when and where they settled are always sub- jects of interest. Investigations respecting it however are not quite satisfac- tory, if the question is not accurately determined. It is absolutely safe to say that this county was first settled in 1801. The short time during which the hint or cabin at the Cattarangus bottoms was Sottle's abiding place in 1796 and 1797 can scarcely be regarded as sufficient under the circumstances to entitle his living there " a settlement." He had no legal title to the land upon which his cabin was built. The scanty improvements he made, his early departure and his long absence, leads to the conclusion that he regarded

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

this as merely a temporary dwelling place. This opinion is strengthened by the fact that Mr. Atwater, the surveyor in whose employ he served in 1798 and 1799, reported him in his list of assistants, as a resident of Chenango county, a fact which he undoubtedly learned from Sottle. Again Sottle appears in the list of another surveying party as being from Buffalo creek. His subsequent residence here was of a different character. Although his cabin was primitive, and the improvements that he made but trifling, his occupation was continuons, lasted for years and until his death, and was accompanied within a few years by a purchase of lands.

Skinner seems to have been a permanent settler. He built a cabin which he and his family occupied at least as early as 1801, and for three or four years resided there and kept an apology for an inn. Andrew Straub seems also to have been an equally genuine settler of Westfield in 1801. Although he did not acquire a legal right to the land in 1801, he built a loghouse in . that year. followed it up by making a clearing, and later by a purchase of the land and a residence of many years. The settlement of the county had certainly been commenced in 1801, in both Westfield and Hanover, but which of the first comers to these towns was the earliest actual settler, can not certainly be determined.

Although Sottle, Skinner, Straub and McHenry were the first persons domiciled within the county, Col. James McMahan was the first to fully con- summate a settlement by acquiring ownership to the soil and making really substantial and permanent improvements. In 1795, one year before Sottle is said to have first located at the Cattaraugus bottoms, McMahan explored the country along the lake with a view to residence. In 1801 he made the first purchase of lands made by an actual settler and paid a considerable amount down, thus obtaining the first right to make improvements and to live upon lands of the county. In 1802 he cleared and planted the first field cultivated to any extent in the county, built a house upon it the same year and moved his family into it. He was sole owner of the soil he occupied, and the only person that had a legal right to make improvements within the county. Under his auspices came Straub, MeHenry, and the others that followed them. He was the one that went before and prepared the way for the com- ing of others. He was also the first to complete a full settlement by acquir- ing title to the land and by making upon it substantial improvements.

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1803-1804.

CHAPTER XIX.

1 803-1804.

" Beside some rapid stream

Ile rears his log built cabin. When the chains Of winter fetter Nature, and no sound Disturbs the echoes of the dreary woods, Save when some stem cracks sharply with the frost ;

Then merrily rings his axe, and tree on tree Crashes to earth."

N 1803 settlers came in rapidly at the Cross Roads. Arthur Bell in Jan- uary, Christopher Dull in June, James Montgomery in July, William Culbertson, George and John Degeer and Jeremiah George also came in 1803. These settlers and others that followed them from Pennsylvania were influenced to come by the McMahans. John McMahan had visited Chautau- qua county in 1802, as appears by his letters to Joseph Ellicott, and intended to have settled in the county that year or early in 1803 but sickness pre- vented. He set out in the fall of 1803 from Chelisquaque, Pa., with his fam- ily, arrived at Chautauqua in October, 1803, and settled upon the west side near the mouth of Chautauqua creek upon the lands his brother James had contracted for him. He was the first to settle at or near Barcelona.

Cattaraugus, Mayville and Barcelona were surveyed into village lots by the Holland land company. No places in the county were regarded of so much importance as these. Barcelona was made a port of entry, and, in 1828, Judge Thomas B. Campbell erected a lighthouse for the government which was lighted by natural gas carried in wooden pump-logs from the cel- ebrated spring located about three-fourths of a mile east. This spring was noted by the surveyor who made the original survey of the township into lots. We copy from his field-book : "On lot 16 is a spring that by putting a blaze of fire to the air that issues out of the fissures of a rock will as quick as lightning take fire, and burn with such fury that the leaves on the trees immediately over the blaze at the height of ten feet will be burnt. When the air of the atmosphere is heavy or moist, the smell of the air from this spring may be discovered at the distance of forty rods. When you are at the place you feel a sickness at the stomach." The gas from this spring was afterwards carried to Westfield to assist in lighting that village.

For some years Barcelona was a place of considerable trade. The produc-

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

tive country back of it, its favorable location with reference to the navigable waters of Chautauqua lake and the south part of the county, and the absence of competing harbors promised to give it some commercial importance. In 1831 a steamboat, " William Peacock," was built by a company (principally citizens of Westfield) to transport passengers between Buffalo and Erie. The Barcelona company was formed to develop the place. Smith and Macy of Buffalo, Charles M. Reed of Erie, Nathaniel A. Lowry, Elial T. Foote and Samuel Barrett of Jamestown, Augustin U. Baldwin, Calvin Rumsey and Thomas B. Campbell of Westfield and perhaps others were members. The building of the great lines of railroads along the southern shore of the lake destroyed the prospects of the town.

In ISog a serious calamity befel the community at the Cross Roads. A sad accident deprived it of one of its principal founders. The latter part of August, Mr. MeHenry and two others departed from the Chautauqua creek (Barcelona) upon Lake Erie, in a small boat upon a voyage to the settlement at Erie, to obtain a supply of provisions for his tavern. They set up a pole for a mast and a blanket for a sail, after sailing about four miles up the lake a flaw of wind capsized the boat. McHenry, who was a good swimmer, told the others who were not, to cling to the boat and he would swim to the shore, which was a mile away, but he was drowned and his body was never found. His two companions, Culverson and Degeer, saved themselves by clinging to the bottom of the boat. This was the first death of a white person residing in the county. Joseph Badger, the missionary who was attending a meeting of the Erie Presbytery, in Penn- sylvania, came to the Cross Roads to conduct the funeral services. We copy from his journal : "September 2, 1803, rode to Chautauqua to visit a family under heavy affliction. Mr. McHenry, the husband and father of a young and amiable family, was drowned in the lake. Preached on the occasion the first sermon ever preached in the place, from Ecel. IX, 12 : " For man also knoweth not his time." The widow McHenry continued to keep the tavern at the Cross Roads. She married James Perry, who a few years later left his home for a short absence and never was heard of. Mrs. Perry died at Ripley when over eighty years of age.

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 19

Author: Edson, Obed, 1832-; Merrill, Georgia Drew, editor Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Boston, Mass. : W.A. Fergusson Number of Pages: 1068

Author: Edson, Obed, 1832-; Merrill, Georgia Drew, editor
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Boston, Mass. : W.A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1068