History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 25

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 25

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CHAPTER XXIII.

ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.

" All hail our early settlers! though with storin Their sky of being was obscured and black, And Peril, in his most appalling form, Opposed their rugged march, and warned them back ; They faltered not, nor fainted in the track That led to empire ; but with patience bore Cold, parching thirst, and fever's dread attack ; While ancient twilight, to return no more, From far Otsego fled to Erie's rock-bound shore." -Hosmer.

T HE facts which entitled Chautauqua to be organized as a separate county having been duly certified, Governor Tompkins and the coun- cil of appointment February 9, 1811, appointed the requisite county officers and Chautauqua became fully established as an independent and sep- arate county. Zattu Cushing was appointed first judge, Matthew Prender- gast, Philo Orton, Jonathan Thompson, William Alexander, associate judges ; Henry Abell, William Gould, John Dexter, Abiram Orton, assistant justices ; Jeremiah Potter, John Silsbee, Abijali Bennett, Asa Spear, Justus Himman, Benjamin Barrett, David Pratt and Selah Pickett, justices of the peace ; John E. Marshall clerk ; David Eason sheriff; Squire White surrogate ; David G. Gould and Philo Hopson coroners.

Nearly the first officer designated to administer the government of the county upon its first organization, as appears by these namnes, was Matthew

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

Prendergast. He was the eldest son of William Prendergast, Sr. Matthew was born in 1756, and, when his father was pardoned by the king, was about ten years of age. These circumstances occurring at his early age undoubtedly made a strong impression upon his youthful mind, and naturally excited his sympathies in favor of King George, who had favored his father in so momen- tous an affair. When the controversy between the King and the American people had come to an issue 10 years later, he was so strongly inclined towards the royal cause that he joined Abraham Cuyler's celebrated regiment of Royal Refugees. Colonel Cuyler before the Revolution was mayor of Albany. After the war was commenced he was confined at Hartford as a loyalist. Being released and having taken up arms for the king, he was attainted and his property confiscated. After the war he returned from England and resided in Albany for a while, but his course during the Revo- lution made his situation so uncomfortable that he removed to Canada, where he died in 1810. He was probably influenced in his course by his son Cornelius, a British officer in the French and Indian war and in the Revolut- tion, and rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the British army.

Matthew Prendergast joined Cuyler's regiment in 1779 and was made an officer. While lieutenant he performed an exploit of which this account is taken from Robertson's Royal American Gasette, a loyalist paper published in New York in 1780: "New York, Oct. HIth, Monday last, were brought to town, by Capt. Luke of the Royal Refugees, and safely lodged in Provost, the following rebel gentry, viz : Major Brush, Capt. Cornelius Conklin, Captain Rogers, and Lieutenant Farley, all notorious offenders long practised in coming from the New England shore to murder and plunder the King's loyal subjects, on Long Island. They were taken last Saturday by Lieutenant Prendergast, and a party of Colonel Cuyler's refugees at Smithtown, with their whaleboat, and considerable booty." The following American account of this affair taken is from Onderdonk's " Revolutionary incidents of Suffolk and King's county."

" It was a dark moonless midnight in Sept. 'So that Major Brush, a small well-built man, with red hair, sandy complexion, and a bright eye, strong as Hercules, and bold as a lion, two brothers Conklins from Virginia, Captain Rogers, a hardy old fellow, whose farin had been ravaged by Cornwallis's army, Lieutenant Ketcham, a polished gentlemen and a brave officer, Tim Williams, at the close of the war a merchant at Huntington, where he died in 1811, a noble generous fellow, full of vivacity and humor, and Abraham Leggett landed from a whaleboat on a beach near Smithtown. Abraham Leggett was a prominent citizen of New York City, and father of Win. Leg- gett editor of New York Evening Post, 1834-1835. The boat was hauled up in a cove and carefully covered with branches of trees, seaweed, etc., so as to prevent its being noticed. Then they proceeded to a house, the owner of which was a True Blue, who had been apprised that Major Brush was about to be despatched on a secret mission by Governor Clinton to raise a loan of

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ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.

specie on Long Island. For three weeks they passed to and fro in varions disguises, generally choosing the night for their peregrinations, sometimes venturing out by broad daylight with assumed names and some pretended business, which they would pursue with a great deal of seeming earnestness. After they left Long Island, stress of weather forced them back to North Swamp when they hanled up their boat, capsized it, and crawled under it for shelter. In the afternoon it cleared up and they came out, when they were surprised by a shout from a neighboring height, " there they are, the dammed Rebels," and a volley of musketry followed, which laid two dead on the sand. Leggett and Williams escaped in a swamp, and recrossed in the night to Connecticut in a large whaleboat which General Washington kept cruising in the Sound, and commanded by Captain Brewster."

Au address by the officers of the Loyal Refugees Volunteers to Col. Cuyler previous to liis departure for England just before the close of the war, in which they thanked him for his kind endeavors to alleviate their disagreea- ble situation, and begged him to assure his Majesty of their loyal attachment, is signed by Matthew Prendergast among others.

After the Revolution, Mr. Prendergast for some years resided in Nova Scotia, where he owned a large tract of land. In 1807 he came to Chautau- qua county, where he continued to reside until his death. He was appointed a justice of the peace in 1808. He served in 1810 and 1811 as supervisor of the town of Chautauqua, and was finally appointed associate judge in which position he served many years. He as such verified the petitions of many Revolutionary soldiers for pensions, and, curiously enough, we see him pre- siding at a Republican meeting, held at John Scott's tavern in 1812, expressly called to sustain the war against England, whilst other citizens of the county, who had been gallant soldiers of the Revolution, were at the same time par- ticipating in meetings held in opposition to the war.

Mr. Prendergast was a man of integrity and sound judgement, a good offi- cer, and filled all public positions with credit to himself and beneficially for the public. Surely we at this late day have no right to criticise the course of Mr. Prendergast, so long as his contemporaries, the most of whom were staunch Whigs during the struggle for independence, many of them soldiers of the Revolution, chose to bestow public honors upon him. The highest possible tribute was paid to his personal character by his townsmen in elect- ing him to important official positions in the face of his Revolutionary record. He died in 1838 at his pioneer residence. Through his life he retained his Revolutionary costume, and wore long hair tied in a queue with a leather string.

The mild winter of 1810 and 1811 gave a favorable impression of the country to the people visiting the county with a view to settlement. Cattle could almost subsist upon browse alone during the winter, and the woods were green with leeks early in March. The complete organization of Chau-

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

tauqua as a separate county, and the opening of the land office at Mayville, were also auspicious events. The beginning of the year 1811 was long remembered as marking the period when the county emerged from its wilder- ness condition to that of an organized community, and the settlers who came here in 1810 and during preceding years, like the forty-niners of California were regarded with a measure of pioneer respect not awarded to those who came later.

The earliest inhabitants were frontiersmen accustomed to ronghing it in the wilderness, often more skilled in the use of the axe and the rifle than the implements for cultivating the soil, and perhaps better fitted for a life in a border country than in a thickly settled community. They came however from eastern New York, Pennsylvania and the New England states, and highly valued the advantages possessed by older counties. They regarded their residence in log cabins as but a temporary inconvenience. They believed that a tide of emigration would soon bring them neighbors, that highways of travel would bring to them conveniences of the East, and that through their industry they would secure farms and acquire a competence. Ten years had elapsed since settlement had commenced. In that time thoroughfares of travel by land or water had been made to lead into the county, and they still were shut ont by the forests from the populated parts of the country. They practically had no voice in the government of the state ; a sense of solitude oppressed them, which was, in a great measure, removed by being granted the political importance that pertains to a county, and allowed to a certain extent to administer their local affairs. By the incorporation of the county their enterprise was awakened, and they began to devise first moderate schemes for promoting their interests. The opening of the Kanawha saltworks in Virginia, which appeared destined to supply the southern market with that article, did not destroy all hopes that large quantities of Onondaga salt would still be transported through Chautauqua county to Pittsburgh and other southern markets. A survey of the harbor at Barcelona was contemplated, and a vessel was built there that would transport salt and other merchandise from the foot of the lake to that place. The price of transporting salt from Portland to Mayville was then 75 cents a barrel. The incorporation of a turnpike that would so improve the road between these two places as to reduce transportation to 25 cents a barrel was was also advised. The remainder of the way to Pittsburgh the salt was car- ried in Durham or light keel-boats. 300 barrels of salt abont August 1, 1811 was awaiting transportation at Portland (Barcelona.) None had been carried over the route between Erie and Waterford that season. Salt at Pittsburgh was worth $7 or $7.50 per barrel, and it was believed that it would not go below that price notwithstanding the opening of the Kanawha saltworks.

In April, 1811, Matthew Prendergast was re-elected supervisor of Chau-

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ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.

tauqna and Philo Orton of Pomfret. They designated the log tavern of Cap- tain Jolin Scott in Mayville as the place for the meeting of the board of supervisors, and also as the place where the courts were to be held until a court house could be built. Captain Scott proceeded with dispatch to build an addition to hiis log tavern. He caused the necessary lumber to be sawed at Reuben Slayton's sawmill in the present village of Ashville, and floated down Goose creek, and up Chautauqua lake to Mayville. From this green lumber he built a two-story plank framed house in front of his tavern. This building later was for many years used as a printing office by Hon. Beman Brockway and by John F. Phelps publishers of the Mayville Sentinel. In the lower story, before it was completed, the first court of record was held in the county. At the same time the upper room was used as a lodging place for some of the officers of the court and the bar.

The court of common pleas commenced its first session June 25, ISII, Zattu Cushing, first judge, presiding, Jonathan Thompson and William Alex- ander associated with him and Henry Abell and John Dexter as assistant justices. John E. Marshall was the clerk. The court continued four days, the last two of which it was engaged in designating and surveying the jail liberties of the county. John Patterson was the surveyor. The other business transacted was choosing a device for a seal for the court (which was an eagle surrounded by the words "Chautauqua Common Pleas,") granting a license to Thomas Bemus to keep a ferry over Chautauqua lake " at the place called the Narrows," adopting the rules of the court and admitting attorneys to practice. Anselin Potter and Dennis Brackett of Chautauqua county were present at this court, and were admitted.

Anselin Potter was the first lawyer to settle in the county. He was born at Plymouth, Conn., in 1786, entered Yale college at 17, but did not complete liis college course. Studying law at New Haven, he completed his studies at Litchfield in the law school of Judge Reeve. He established himself in Mayville in 1810, and resided there until his deatlı.

Dennis Brackett was the next lawyer who came to the county. He resided in Mayville in 1810. William Peacock wrote to Joseph Ellicott, January 1, 1811, that " Brackett built a small office nigh Mrs. Prendergast. A dead tree fell and dashed it to pieces." To such hazards was the profes- sion exposed in early days. A more serious calamity befell Brackett a few years later at the battle of Buffalo, where he lost his life by the tomahawk of the Indian.

Jacob Houghton, A. M., was the third lawyer to settle in the county. He was born in Bolton, Mass., in 1777, studied Latin and Greek under a private tutor, and law three years in Troy, and was admitted to practice in all the courts of the state. In June 1811 he was present at the first term of the court, and the same year moved his family to Chautauqua. He resided in Fredonia

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

from 1812 until his decease in 1861. He was a leading lawyer of the county in early years. His son Douglas Houghton, a well-known citizen of the west, state geologist of Michigan, was drowned in Lake Superior in 1845.

Daniel G. Garnsey and Casper Rouse were also present and admitted to the bar at this term of court, and afterwards became residents of the county. Rouse was the son of Judge Jonathan Rouse of Pittstown, Rensselaer county. He died in 1812 or 1813. He was a worthy and respectable man. Garnsey was subsequently prominent, filled the office of surrogate, was chosen the first district attorney and served two terms as member of congress.

The first trial that occurred in the county court, as the record shows, took place at the November term, held that year at Scott's inn, and was an action in which Charles Forsythe was plaintiff and William Spear defendant. The plaintiff's attorney was Dennis Brackett. The result of the action was a verdict against the defendant for $30. Among the first cases that appear on the records of the court, were a number that grew out of a desperate fight which occurred in George Lowry's old bar room in Mayville in September, 1810. Captain Dunn of Portland had some time before been. brutally mal- treated by a Pennsylvania boatman named Valentine, and a bitter feud existed between some of the inhabitants and the boatmen engaged in the transportation of salt from Mayville over Chautauqua lake, resulting in this barroom fight. The boatmen were a rude lot, fond of rough play and hard knocks. A large portion of the early settlers were athletic men. Those gathered on this occasion, besides being strong and sinewy, were rather bois- terous sons of the backwoods. The fight was long, and was participated in by 8 or 10 upon a side. Among the boatmen was one who was afterwards mayor of Pittsburgh. Several on both sides were badly injured, but the Chautauqua county party seemed to have had the best of the affair. In the affray Patrick Jack, a justice of the peace of Pennsylvania, had a hand-to- hand encounter with Joseph Aiken, afterwards a justice of the peace of Elli- cott, in which Jack was badly punished. Among the cases that grew out of this affair was one by Jack as plaintiff against Aiken as defendant in which $So damages was awarded to Jack. The effect of the fight was to restore harmony between the boatmen and the Chautauquans.

The first meeting of the board of supervisors of Chautauqua county was also held at Captain Scott's house on the third Tuesday of October, 1811. Orton and Prendergast constituted the board at this meeting. They appointed Charles B. Rouse their clerk, and William Peacock treasurer of the county. They voted to raise $1,500, as required by the act of ISOS organizing the county, to erect a courthouse and jail, and contracted with Winsor Brigham of Mayville to build the same upon the site designated by the " large hemlock post " erected in 1808. To pay the various town and county expenses they assessed against Pomfret $583.86, against Chautauqua

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ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.

$317.3112 and against the county $1, 586.8712 (including the courthouse and jail.) No charge appeared against the county in favor of its sheriff David Eason.

Having acquired the political rights of a county, the people were justly elated. Emigration from the East had been pressing by it towards the West- ern Reserve, where more valuable lands were sold at a less price for cash. Those who had ready means were seeking more attractive homes among the fertile prairies and flowery openings of Ohio and the West, and Chautau- qua ceased to lie in the extreme western verge of settlement. The political importance given to the locality now led the people to expect that it would stay at least a portion of the westward emigration, and help to effect a rapid settlement of the county. The hopes of the settlers were however for a while doomed to disappointment. Ominous signs, foreboding war, retarded emi- gration to the western borders of the state.

For several years the persistent encroachments of England upon the maritime rights of the United States had led to continued controversy. Eng- land also claimed the right to search American vessels, and impress such sea- men as appeared to be British subjects. In the exercise of these so-called riglits, more than 6,000 American sailors were pressed into the British ser- vice. Subsequent to 1803, 900 vessels had been captured by British cruisers. In 1807, when the American frigate Chesapeake, unsuspicious of danger, was putting out to sea, she was attacked by the Leopard, a British man-of- war of superior force, and three Americans were killed and 18 wounded. In ISHI British cruisers were stationed along the coast of the United States, and they continued to search American vessels and impress seaman. May 11, 1811, the British brig-of-war Little Belt, while cruising on the coast of Vir- ginia, without provocation fired upon the United States frigate President. The President promptly poured a broadside into the Little Belt, killing and wounding 32 of her men. The patience of the American people was now nearly exhausted. Congress was assembled November 5, 1811, in extra ses- sion to make preparations for war. The hope was cherished, however, that England would make such concessions that an appeal to arms might be avoided. An event occurred in the west which materially lessened their hopes of a peaceful solution of the difficulty. In the fall of 1811, while con- gress was still in session, the Indian chief Tecumseh and a force of Indians, incited it was believed by British agents, made a furious attack upon a small force commanded by General Harrison at Tippecanoe, but were defeated with great loss. Congress, consequently, during the winter of 1811 and the spring of 1812, continued to make hostile preparations for the war that now seemed inevitable.

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

CHAPTER XXIV.

WAR.

" Why such daily cast of brazen cannon And foreign mart of implements of war ?" -Hamlet.

U NLIKE the previous year, IS12 opened unpropitiously, not only for the settlers but for the Holland Company also. The winter had been very severe. The snow fell to an unusual depth and lay upon the ground in great quantities even to the last of March, interrupting the . explorations of the land lookers. The deep snow, rumors of war and the disturbances in the Indian country had the effect to greatly interrupt emi- gration from the East. But 23 articles for the sale of land were issued in Chautauqua county between the first of December ISHI, and February 4, 1812. The taxes levied against the lands of the Holland Company at the close of ISHI in Pomfret was $960, in Chautauqua was $1, 100, and scarcely money enough was received to pay them. The Holland Company's agents were at this time also sorely perplexed by the proceedings of the settlers in calling special town meetings with a view to organizing new towns which would tend to increase the taxes. They were also annoyed by movements to effect the removal of the county seat from Mayville to Canadaway, and if this could not be effected to half-shire the county.

The people of the latter place remembering the brusque treatment of the commissioners a few years before in passing by them to locate the county seat at Mayville, entertained no very kindly feeling towards the rival site, which they believed was established through the influence of the Holland Company. They desired its removal to Canadaway, and favored the organ- ization of new towns out of the old town of Pomfret undoubtedly that they might be strong with the board of supervisors. Zattu Cushing was vigilant and active in advancing the interests of his locality.

William Peacock who represented the Holland land company in Chantau- qua county in a letter dated at Mayville, February 8, 1812, complained to David E. Evans that " the inhabitants of this county seem as if they had run mad by calling special town meetings for the purpose of cutting up this county into towns in order to have them incorporated such by the present legislature. There will not be money enough to defray the increased expense. The thing originated with a few persons at Canadaway creek. They had to

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WAR.

call three special meetings before the few could effect the intended division, and succeeded at last in consequence of the day being stormy. The same few I am creditably informed are circulating a petition privately to have the seat of justice removed from this place or if they can not effect that, to have the courts of the county held at this place and Canadaway village. The disease of new towns has reached as far as Cross Roads with Eason the sher- iff at the head. It is said that his honor Zattu Cushing is on his way to Albany with petitions to effect the divisions of towns and to have the county courts removed from this place." Peacock in this letter enclosed a memorial from the people east of Canadaway creek against the removal of the courts.

June 1, 1812, three new towns were incorporated as the result of the action of the settlers. The town of Ellicott was one and was made to include within its limits the city of Jamestown and the present towns of Ellicott, Carroll, Poland, Kiantone and a part of Busti. At a town meeting held the following year, James Prendergast the founder of Jamestown and third son of William Prendergast was chosen its first supervisor. At the same town meet- ing the town of Gerry was incorporated and then included the same territory as do the present towns of Gerry, Ellington, Charlotte and Cherry Creek. Major Sinclear was chosen the following year its first supervisor. He was born in New Hampshire, was a soldier of the Revolution and was at the bat- tles of Saratoga, Momnouth and Newtown near Elmira. He suffered with the Americans at Valley Forge and participated in Sullivan's campaign against the Indians. The town of Hanover was also incorporated at the same time. It included the present towns of Hanover, Villenova, parts of Arkwright and Sheridan. Its first supervisor was Nedebialı Angell. He was born in Pow- nell, Vt., in 1787. He came to Hanover about the year 1811 and became the founder of the " Angell settlement " in that town. In 1830 he removed to Forestville and kept a public inn. In 1833 he removed to Michigan where he died in 1852. At a meeting of the citizens held at Cassadaga for the pur- pose of naming some or all of these towns, a contest arose as to the name of one of them. Many contending that it should be named "Sinclear " after Major Sinclear. Othello Church, a Republican residing at Cassadaga insisted that it should be called Gerry after Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence. He succeeded and it was named Gerry.

The Holland company, notwithstanding the discouraging state of affairs, continued to make efforts to open the county to settlement. They contracted with John Kent to build a road from his place in Villenova to Kennedy's Mills to be laid out on or near the Indian path for which he was to receive $10 per mile, one-fourth in cash and the balance as a payment on his land. The company had expended considerable labor in' preparing a road from Angelica to Mayville which they anticipated would constitute a new avenue for emigration into the county. This road had been so far opened as to be

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 25

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