USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York > Part 21
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In 1805 Portland was settled by Captain James Dunn, who was born in Lycoming county, Pa., in 1761, and had served in the Revolution. In 1803, he moved to near Meadville, Pa., and in 1804 explored the lake region from Presque Isle to Canadaway, and although the territory was not surveyed into lots, he selected a tract for settlement, purchasing of the Holland land com- pany by contract dated May 31, 1804, 1,150 acres of land in Portland. In 1805 he came to Portland with a team of four horses, locating on lot 31 near a large spring where he built a shanty of poles for a temporary residence into which he moved his family, consisting of himself, his wife and six children, but soon removed to the north part of lot 30, where he had built a hut or shanty and cleared an acre of land. In the spring of 1806 he moved into a larger log house that had been built the year before on the same lot upon the road that James McMahan had surveyed that year. " The house of Mr. Dunn was the great rallying point for the settlers for some years. The first public religious services in town were held at his house in 1810, and the first school was taught there the same year." During the year following Dum's settlement Benjamin Hutchins, Nathan, Elisha and Nathaniel Fay, Peter Kanc, John Price and David Eaton became settlers of Portland.
The town of Dunkirk was first settled in 1805 at the month of the Cana- daway. The city was not settled until a few years later. In 1804 Judge Cushing purchased by contract land on both sides of the Canadaway at its mouth. Seth Cole of Paris, Oneida county, and his family, accompanied Judge Cushing in 1805 to Chautauqua county. Cole bought land of Cush- ing at the mouth of the Canadaway, June 5th, 1804, by contract and settled there. He afterwards made a contract with the Holland company to cut out and clear a road a rod wide from the town line between Pomfret and Port- land to Silver Creek for $10 a mile.
In 1805 settlement had been made in every town in the county lying
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north of the Ridge. Eight towns had been settled, every one of which bor- dered on Lake Erie, excepting Chautauqua. Of these Dunkirk was the last. The dwellings of the settlers were built of logs, and situated in isolated clear- ings generally but a few acres in extent. Their newly cleared fields were disfigured with stumps and blackened timber, the streams were unbridged, and the roads little better than Indian trails. Deer were abundant in the woods, unscared by the presence of man. They even browsed with the cattle at the edge of the clearings. Bears prowled in the slashings. Often the fearful howl of the wolf in the most quiet hours of the night disturbed the deep silence of the lonely wilderness that stretched miles away on every side of the cabin of the settler. A distinct faint cry would be heard from the distant hills answered by many voices from the adjacent woods and sometimes by frightful howls that seemed near to his cabin door.
In 1805 there were between one and two hundred inhabitants in those northern towns. No white man had taken up his abode south of the Ridge, unless Dr. McIntyre at Mayville may be considered as an exception. The greater part of the county remained unvisited except by the surveyors of the township lines, and explorers and pioneers who had voyaged along the water-courses or journeyed over the Indian trails to reach the settlements in the north part of the county. Away from these lines, in most of the thick forests that overspread the south part of the county, the human voice had not been heard. Its deep stillness remained unbroken save by the cry of the fox or the wolf or by the sound of the falling of some broken limb or decayed forest tree.
Thickly scattered over the hills, and more abundantly gathered along the streams and lowlands grew the majestic and useful forest tree, the white or Weymouth pine. These trees grew tall and straight So or 100 feet without a limb, then sending out a few branches, they formed a tufted top ; they towered far above the surrounding forest. At maturity they were from 3 to 5 feet in diameter, often more. They grew to the height of 150 and even 200 feet. The Imber manufactured from the white pine is most beautiful in appearance and excellent in quality. These pine trees grew in all the towns south of the ridge, but more abundantly in the southeastern ones. . 1 dense forest twelve miles square covered Carroll, Poland, Ellicott, and Kian- tone, the site of Jamestown and part of Busti. These monarchs of the woods have now nearly disappeared and in a few years no vestige will remain. Soon there will be no one living who has seen these majestic forests of pines, which once stood with ranks unbroken in places where are now green meadows.
Attention was first elle l to the pine and other valuable timber of south- ern Chautauqua, and the country along the Upper Allegany and its tribu- taries, by the surveyors and explorers. Early in the present century a mar- .
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ket for this lumber began to have an existence along Ohio river and the Mississippi. Win. Jackson run the first raft from Warren county to Pitts- burgh in 1798. It contained about 20,000 feet of boards and was guided by a "setting pole " instead of oars. The pine regions along the Allegany had then but few competing districts. There were then no railroads and the pineries of Michigan and Minnesota were inaccessible. The first assanit upon the pine forests of Chautauqua (to furnish luimber for this southern market) was made in 1805 by Dr. Thomas R. Kennedy and Edward Work of Meadville, Pa., at Kennedy in Poland, where the first settlement south of the ridge was commenced. Dr. Thomas Kennedy was a resident of Mead- ville, and one of the most enterprising men of western Pennsylvania, He never became a citizen of Chantanqna county. His wife was a daughter of Andrew Ellicott and niece of Joseph Ellicott. He died in Meadville in 1813. Edward Work, a strong friend of Dr. Kennedy, was born in Franklin county Pa., Dec. 3, 1773, studied law in Carlisle, Pa., and settled at Mead- ville about 1798, where he was appointed postmaster. He was also deputy prothionotary under Dr. Kennedy and subsequently prosecuting attorney. In 1816, Mr. Work married Mrs. Jane Cameron. Three of her sisters married pioneer settlers of Chautauqua ; Mrs. John Frew, Mrs. Benjamin Ross and Mrs. James Conic, formerly Mrs. Simeon Scowden. Mr. Work's second wife was Mrs. Pamelia Jeffers. Their only child, Jane Amozette, was in 1858 his only surviving descendant. Dr. Kennedy purchased about 3,000 acres of land in Poland which was unsurveyed into lots. His purpose was not to cultivate the land, but to manufacture lumber. Work was commenced on his mill in 1804 at Kennedy. In 1805 he commenced erecting the mills, much of " the materials for their construction and the provisions for the hands were brought in keel-boats or canoes up the Allegany and Conewango rivers. The mill frame was raised in three days in October, 1805, by men who came in canoes, or by Indian trails, from Warren, Pa., or south of it. A canoe load of provisions, whisky, etc., sent from Meadville, did not arrive in season ; and being short of provisions, the men were living upon the flesh of a yearling heifer of Edward Shillito and venison, green corn and potatoes raised at the mills. The canoe however arrived in time for the men to celebrate the completion of the raising with whisky."
Edward Shillito was the first resident of Poland. He subsequently owned land and resided on the north side of the mouth of Chautauqua lake. In 1805 he resided with his family at Kennedy and boarded the workmen. The mills consisted of a double sawmill and a gristmill in a lean-to attached. The gristmill was erected after the sawmill. The boards first manufactured " were rafted to Pittsburgh, there stuck up and partially seasoned ; then put on flatbottomed boats (mostly made at the mills) and run to New Orleans. Mr. Work superintended the running of many of these boats, and the sale of the
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boards. The boatmen returned from New Orleans in vessels to Philadelphia or New York, and thence home on foot or on horseback, as there was then no way of coming up the Mississippi but by rowing a boat or coming by land on foot or horseback, through Indian country, which was deemed unsafe." Pittsburgh at that time was the largest of the inland towns of the United States ; it contained in 1805 but 2,000 or 3,000 inhabitants, Cincinnati 1,000 to 1,500 and New Orleans 10,000 inhabitants.
The inroads thus begun upon the pines in Poland continued at other points in southeastern Chautauqua with unremitting energy for three quart- ers of a century, until the pine forests have substantially disappeared. The sawmill erected by Dr. Kennedy, and the Prendergast mills at Jamestown, probably manufactured the largest amount of lumber within the same time of any mills in the county. Dr. Kennedy manufactured large quantities of lumber for many years. After his death in 1813 his heirs sold the property to Judge Richard P. Marvin, who afterwards conveyed it to Guy C. Irvine ยท and Robert Falconer.
No other settlements or improvements were made south of the Ridge in 1805 than those in Poland and Chautauqua, except the opening of the Miles Road, about 1805, by Robert Miles of Sugar Grove, Pa., and others who opened a woods road from near Sugar Grove to Chautauqua lake. It termin- ated in Busti at the mouth of a little creek east of and near Lakewood. This was the first road in the south part of the county. It was used for many years by the people of Pennsylvania in going to Chautauqua lake and by the early settlers around Chantauqua lake in their trips to Pennsylvania to pur- chase seed-potatoes, oats and wheat, and also in driving cows and hogs. The. termination of the road was called " Miles Landing." Dr. Hazeltine says, " This road was the great highway of the wilderness ; a guide to the bewil- dered and lost pioneer ; if he should strike this road, he was safe."
In 1805 settlements were commenced at several new places south of the Ridge. Ellicott was first settled that year by William Wilson from Penn- sylvania. He first built a shanty upon the north side of the outlet below Falconer. He moved into his house in June. He died in Ellicott in 1850. James Culbertson early in the same year settled on the north side of the outlet at its confluence with the Cassadaga. George W. Fenton, father of Gov. Reuben E. Fenton, settled on the south side of the outlet in the spring of 1807 where he remained until 1809.
This year ( 1806) William Prendergast settled on the west side of Chautau- qua lake in Chautauqua, not far from the Chautauqua Assembly grounds. His 13 sons and daughters nearly all became residents of the county. The sons were withoht exception important persons in its early history, and all . held prominent official positions. Considering the wealth, number and respectability of this family, it was the most influential of any that came
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early into the county. William Prendergast, Sr., was born in Waterford, Ireland, February 2, 1727. He was the son of Thomas and Mary Prendergast. He came to America, settled in Pawling, in Dutchess county, and married Mehitable Wing, of Beekman, N. Y., who was born March 20, 1738. He died at his residence in Chautauqua, February 14, ISII. His wife died Sept. 4, 1812. Their children were Matthew, Thomas, Mary, (Mrs. William Bemus of Ellery,) Elizabeth, James, Jediah, Martin, John Jeffrey who was never a resident here, Susanna, (Mrs. Oliver Whiteside,) Eleanor, Martha, William, Minerva, who married Elisha Marvin of North East, Pa.
Some very interesting events occurred in the life of Mr. Prendergast in Dutchess county which have never been narrated except as they appeared in the newspapers of the time. These events show that however much he may have been mistaken in the course of his conduct, that he did not lose the good opinion of his community. They also show that he was a man of force, a leader among his neighbors. Some of these incidents reflect much credit upon his wife, and prove that she was a woman of fortitude and dis- cretion. The conspicuous place the descendants of Mr. Prendergast have held in this county, make these events matters of public interest here.
The long leases by which the lands were generally held in the counties along the Hudson, the restraints and forfeitures incident to them, and the oppressive methods for collecting rents, were clearly antagonistic to the spirit of our institutions, and produced a turbulent spirit among the people, often manifested in violent and lawless conduct by the tenants. These disorders began long before the Revolution. ' In June, 1766, some soldiers were sent to suppress riotous proceedings in Dutchess county, were fired upon and one of their number wounded so that he died. William Prendergast was appre- hended for participating in this affair as a principal, and taken under a strong guard of grenadiers to a sloop for safe keeping. He and others were after- wards indicted for high treason. The public mind was considerably excited over the case of Prendergast, and Holt's Gasette, a leading paper of the time, in several articles showed apparent sympathy for Prendergast and the ten- ants. A disposition to resist the privileges of favored classes is often evi- dence of a free and independent spirit, and is apt to excite sympathy, not- withstanding that the lawless and turbulent manner in which it is done may deserve censure.
At a court of over and terminer which commenced July 29, 1766, at Poughkeepsie, and was held by Chief Justice Horsemanden, in which Sam- uel Jones, a most eminent lawyer, appeared as counsel for the king, Mr. Prendergast, after a trial which lasted for 24 hours, was found guilty of high treason, and sentenced to be executed on the 26th of the following Septem- ber. Other rioters were tried and found guilty. Some were fined, two were imprisoned, and two stood in the pillory. The sentiments of the people were
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such respecting Mr. Prendergast's offence that Mr. Livingston, the sheriff, was obliged to offer a good reward to any person who would assist at the execution of Mr. Prendergast, he to be disguised so that not being known he would be secure from insult. In Holt's Gazette of September 4, 1766, in a long account of the trial appears : " We hear that in the trial of Prendergast, the behavior of his wife was very remarkable, and greatly attracted the notice of the audience. During the whole long trial she was solicitously attentive to every particular ; and, without the least impertinence or inde- corum of ac havior, sedately anxious for her husband ; as the evidence opened against him, she never failed to make every remark that might tend to extennate the offence and put his conduct in the most favorable point of view ; not suffering one circumstance that could be collected from the evidence, or thought of in his favor, to escape the notice of the court and jury, and when he came to make his defence, she stood behind him, reminded him of and suggested to him everything that could be : mentioned to his advantage. Her affectionate assiduity filled every observer with a tender concern, and occasioned one of the counsel for the king to make a motion to move her out of court, lest she might too much influence the jury. He was answered that she neither disturbed the court nor spoke unseasonably. He replied that though she should not speak at all, her very looks might too much affect the jury. He was answered that, for the same reason, he might as well move that the prisoner himself should be covered with a veil, lest the distress painted in his countenance should too powerfully excite compassion. It seems the motion was needless, for though she was not moved out of court the jury brought in the prisoner guilty. When she could do lum no further service at court, she immediately set out for New York to solicit a reprieve, and, though above 70 miles distance, returned in three days with hopes of success, the prisoner having been recommended by the court and jury to the king's mercy. The whole behavior of this unhappy woman was such as did honor to her sex and the conjugal state. When the terrible sentence was pronounced upon the prisoner, she uttered an ejacula- tory prayer to God for mercy, with such earnestness and looked so distressed, that the whole andience, even those least susceptible of compassion, were melted into tears. It was afterwards claimed by Mr. Jones, the counsel for the king, that the statements that the jury differed from the opinion of the court and were sent back, and that a motion was made to remove Mrs. Prendergast out of the court room were untrue. He further claimed that the account in the Gazette of the behavior of Mrs. Prendergast was greatly exaggerated. The governor, Sir Henry Moore, sent a reprieve to the sheriff of Dutchess county until His Majesty's pleasure should be known. It is stated in the Gazette of September 11, 1766, that " this truly worthy and charitable lady procured a list of the poor prisoners in the Albany gaol, and deposited money
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to discharge all those who were confined for sums less than 30 s., whereby several prisoners obtained their liberty and were restored to their helpless families. She also ordered a daily provision for the rest of the prisoners, and several other captives and poor persons have experienced her humanity and goodness."
. Soon after Prendergast received his reprieve, a number of men, without the least tumult or previous notice, suddenly assembled at the jail and offered to release Prendergast, but he told them he would remain where he was and await the result, whereupon the men quietly withdrew. Lord Shelburne, having laid before the king a letter of Sir Henry Moore recommending the pardon of Prendergast, a little later wrote Governor Moore : "His majesty has been graciously pleased to grant him his pardon, relying that this instance of his royal clemency will have a better effect in recalling these mistaken people to their duty, than the most rigorous punishment." Is it not reason- able to suppose that gratitude to King George for his royal clemency would lead Mr. Prendergast, who was not a native of the country, to espouse the cause of the king during the Revolution ten years later ?
The circumstances attending the coming of the Prendergasts to the county are of interest. Mr. Prendergast although about 75 years of age was hale and healthy. His family did not all wish to stay in Rensselaer county where he then lived, and as he was a man of energy and perseverance, he determined to keep them together by emigration, accordingly they left their home in the spring of 1805, with the intention of locating in Tennessee. Mr. Prender- gast and four sons, and five daughters, his sons-in-law and grandchildren and slave Tom,-twenty-nine persons, with four canvas-covered wagons, some drawn by four horses, and a two-horse barouche for the older ladies,- traveled through Pennsylvania as far as Pittsburgh or Wheeling. There they purchased a flat-boat and embarked with all their effects and descended the river to the falls of the Ohio (now Louisville, Ky.) They traveled thence with their teams to a point near Nashville, but were dissatisfied with the coun- try and people, and turned back through Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania to Eric, where they arrived about the last of September, 1805. Mr. Prender- gast had desired to settle in Canada, Jediah had urged the family to go to Tennessee, William Bemus and Thomas Prendergast had visited Chau- tauqua lake and were pleased. It was finally decided that they should settle in Chautauqua. The family, with the exception of Bemus and Thomas Prendergast, journeyed to Canada where they passed the winter. Thomas Prendergast settled in the county, in the fall of 1805. He parchased 600 acres of land of Josiah Farnsworth and Oliver Loomis about one and one- half miles cast of Quincy (now Ripley) where he made his home until he died. Bemus decided to locate upon Chautaugna lake, but lived in the win- ter of 1805-1806 in a loghouse near the Cross Roads,
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In March 1806 James and William Prendergast, Jr., came from Canada by Batavia, where they contracted with the Holland Land Company for lands for the family upon the west side of the lake. Parts of lots 26, 27 and 31 of the 3rd townships and 13th range consisting of 433 acres were allotted to William Prendergast, Sr. They were situated on Prendergast creek, one or two miles southerly of the Chautauqua Assembly grounds. Two other mem- bers of the family were allotted tracts of land on the west side of the lake in Chautauqua, all their land aggregated over 3,000 acres. In March 1806 James and William Prendergast, Jr., erected a loghouse and made prepara- tions for the coming of the family, which arrived in June with the exception of Jediah who remained in Canada for several years. Judge Foote says : "I had often heard Judge James Prendergast speak of the tour ; and in July, 1857, I called on Col. William, the only surviving son, who related the jour- ney to me ; and I make this statement from the notes I took from his own lips ; and it is believed to be substantially correct. They were a clannish family, of similar habits, industrious, frugal, plain-livers, honest, and appar- ently agreed in almost everything, and prosperous. Their society was of choice much among themselves : "
When the family went south, Mr. Prendergast took with him a pair of very fine horses and a handsome carriage for which he was offered a plan- tation of a thousand acres, but which he refused. He drove the horses and carriage back from the south to Chautauqua. This was the first carriage ever brought to this county, and was probably the first in western New York. Probably no other early settler brought into the county so large an amount of money. It was specie put up in boxes in the bottom of a wagon. One day one of the party while walking behind the train, found every few rods a number of silver dollars, and called the attention of the company to his good luck. It was soon discovered that one of the boxes of money had started its fastenings sufficiently to allow the escape of a dollar or two nearly every time the wagon careened at the obstructions in the road.
William Bemmus, son-in-law of William Prendergast, Sr., made in the spring of 1806 the first settlement of Ellery. Jan. 3, 1806, he articled lots 34 and to of the second township and 12th range, and March 31, lots 31 and 35, being lands around the cape that extends into the lake, and so reducing its width as to cause it here to be called the "Narrows." This well known point of land has always since the settlement of William Bemus, been known as Bemus Point. Mr. Bemus was born February 25, 1762, at Bemus Heights, Saratoga county, near where the first of the celebrated battles was fought that resulted in the surrender of Burgoyne. It was named from Jonathan Bemus, his kinsman, who during the Revolution kept the only inn worthy of note on the Albany and Fort Edwards road. In the beginning of the Revolution he removed to Pittstown where he married Mary Prendergast. He died June 2, 1830, in Ellery.
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Jeremiah Griffith settled in Ellery in 1806 a little later than Bemus. He was born in Norwich, Conn., July 28, 1758, and married Mary Cropsey. He removed to Rensselaer county, New York, in early life, thence to Madison county in 1800. He started for the Western Reserve with his wife and six children with an ox team and a "wooden-shod " sled, and with a few cows and sheep driven by his boys. At Batavia he met Alanson Weed and Abijah Bennett who induced him to settle on Chautauqua lake. He came by the way of Westfield to the head of Chautauqua lake where he left his family while he and his eldest son went to select a place to locate. They proceeded down the lake to Bemus Point where Mr. Bemus had been settled about two weeks. About 100 rods cast of the extreme end of Griffith Point was a grove of young chestnut trees of second growth four or five acres in extent where the numerous cornhills indi- cated previous cultivation. Here too were several mounds, supposed to have been chosen by the " builders " as a burial place. Mr. Griffith having decided to locate here returned for his family. The two eldest boys were sent around by the shore of the lake, with the oxen and stock, while the remainder of the family took to the ice with hand-sleds, upon which the mother and younger children might ride when they were weary. Just at dark with great difficulty they reached the shore, which had been hidden from their view by a furious, blinding snow storm. With the aid of a gun and "spunk " they struck up a fire by the side of a fallen oak ; and, under a shelter hastily made with hemlock boughs over the fire, they took quarters for the night. The next day, with the aid of Mr. Bemus and his men in opening a road, the family reached their destination ; and, under a temporary shelter made with crotches, poles, and boughs, before dark, Saturday, March, 29, they found themselves comfortable and happy. A log house was commenced on Mon- day and completed on Wednesday, the floor being made of split chestunt logs ; and by the middle of May six acres were cleared and planted with corn, pota toes and oats. Before midsummer the family supplies were reduced to half a bushel of potatoes and the milk of three cows ; and their money was exhausted. But Mr. Griffith had fifty pounds of sugar which he obtained. in a trade. A canoe twenty-five feet in length was made from a large pine tree capable of carrying 600 to 800 pounds. In this craft Mr. Griffith and his son Samuel, about 16 years of age, set out for Franklin, Pa., where they received a bushel of corn for four pounds of sugar. On their return they had great difficulty in rowing their canoe against the current, but reached home in safety after an absence of fourteen days. The supply of meal was sufficient to last until the growing crop was harvested. The new corn was ground (cracked) in a wooden mortar with a pestle. Mr. Griffith settled upon lot Io in the second township and twelfth range. The place is now well known as Griffith's Point. In the spring of the year preceding the settlement in
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