History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 31

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

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The Northern Sentinel was discontinued in 1815. A little later, Curtis commenced the publication of The Genius of the Lakes at Erie. In 1819 this paper was enlarged, and its name changed to The Phoenix and Eric Reflector. It was soon removed to Mayville, and its name changed to The Chautauqua Eagle. The leading men of Mayville had guaranteed him 400 subscribers, and job printing and advertising to the amount of $400. The subscription price was $2 a year in advance. The Eagle had been scarcely established a year when Curtis sold it and journeyed to Wheeling, Va. When he reached there he had but 25 cents. A couple of strangers assisted him to buy out the Virginia Northwestern Gasette which he changed to the Wheeling Gazette. One of these men, Noah Lane, had such confidence in his ability and character, that, shortly after he commenced business, he geil- erously sent a receipt in full for $250 that Curtis owed him with a note which read " The press ought to be free." Mr. Curtis discontinued printing in 1834, and engaged in farming 1 miles below Wheeling. He was living in 1854. The Eagle was published at Mayville in a chamber of the store occu- pied at first by George McGonagle, and later by J. B. Burrows. Curtis was

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assisted by his two maiden sisters. Willard W. Brigham was his apprentice. ' From his paper we may learn what interested the people of Chautauqua county more than 75 years ago. Communications from local writers, often in good prose, original poetry, quite as good as that now contributed to country newspapers, legal notices, advertisements, and occasional political articles. But the chief attraction of the Eagle was the frequent poetic con- tributions by James H. Price, a lawyer of Mayville.

Price was born in Pittstown, N. Y., about 1787. He studied law in Troy, was admitted to the bar about ISOS, and opened an office there, and had a good practice. He was a preceptor of William L. Marcy. It is said that Price had been disappointed in some political ambition which led him to become intemperate. He came to Mayville about 1812 or 1813 and resided there 17 years. He did some law business, interested himself in politics, often wrote poetry and miscellaneous pieces for the newspapers. He was an able lawyer and a generous man. He died in Mayville in June 1829. Although kind-hearted and amiable, he had a highly sensitive nature, which on a few occasions betrayed him into the use of intemperate language, and, in one instance when excited by drink, led him to insult the court. While trying a case in Buffalo in opposition to Jonas Harrison, Price, provoked by the unfavorable rulings of the court, made a fierce attack on the judge, for which he was advised by his friends to apologize in open court. This he did the next morning in this manner, a night's sleep not having assuaged his resentment. " I regret to have said yesterday that there was no power in heaven or earth that could force a sound legal idea into the head of the court. A night's rest has discovered to me my mistake. I had not thought of the power of electricity ; undoubtedly lightning might have done it." Curtis, who knew him best, says he was a noble-hearted and talented man, that he was subject to fits of melancholy which was his excuse for drinking. A " temporary remedy," Price would say, " but a very bad one." Curtis, who had much influence over him, kept him sober while he was in Mayville. He however died an inebriate. Twelve or more of Price's poems which appeared in the Eagle show that he possessed a cultivated mind and much poetic talent. That his mental products may not be entirely lost we copy at random some of these verses :

ODE TO THE GRASSHOPPER.

Hopping and skipping through the fields Where Nature any herbage yields, And marring this fair season, Tell me ye spindle shanks, What demon bids you play such pranks 'Gainst law and rhyme and reason ?

There is not a Dutchman on the soil Whose careworn cheek affords a smile To greet his nearest neighbor ; While your devouring tushes craunch, Gone is his cabbage, root and branch, The fruit of all his labor.

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And dark and dismal was that hour, When, fierce on garden, field and bower, You made your dread attacks ; And, scouring every hill and plain, You eat our oats and summer grain, And stripped our corn and flax.

Potato vines are wilting fast, Fam'd ruta baga canuot last Much longer for your rations ; Melons and squashes too, I ween, Will quit in grief this earthly scene, Amid your depredations.

'Tis said that in old Salem town, Where witches used to hang and drown To frighten ignorant people, That you in savage, wild affray, Just at the middle of the day, Devoured their church and steeple !

Lo ! not content with common crops, Villains ! you're eating up the hops Just for your morning bitters, Regardless how another year,

Our scorching throats will howl for beer, You shameless, graceless creatures !

The farmers, with true rustic grace, Put on old Jeremiah's face ; Aud, loud as they can bawl, Sincerely wish, sincerely pray, At home, abroad, by night or day, The devil had you all.

Destruction ou.your bodies seize, You worse than Egyptian lice and fleas That thinned proud Pharo's ranks ; Worse than that noisy tribe of frogs, That croaked about among the bogs On Nile's deserted banks.

Muse o'er that scene of ruin ! pause, When round the sunnner insect draws The curtained shade of death. Ere long, with hurried march sublime, The sharp and sweeping seythe of time Shall crop the fairest wreath.

Beauty and youth, by years decayed, Like the frail insect, too, shall fade In fate's destructive hour ; Lost in the dust, disowned, forgot, Shall be the dire, unhappy lot Or each departed flower.

These lines were written upon the death of George Shipman of Mayville.

The rose may bloom on beauty's cheek, From beauty's eye the light may break, And beauty's bosom swell All wildly throbbing to be pressed ; And still, caressing and caressed, Its amorons moments tell.

You blushing nymph, with face so fair, And flowing locks of auburn hair, In pomp of beauty drest, Must quit the toilet's gay parade ; For all the blooms on carth shall fade, The loveliest and the best.

The youthful nerves with vigor strung, The music of affection's tongue, And all we love beneath, Cold as the monumental stone, Shall sleep forgotten and alone, In the embrace of death.

One ray of hope the mind consoles, As on the tide of being rolls To dark eternity. When, shivering on death's gloomy coast, Faith whispers " all shall not be lost In that unmeasured sea."

From Calvary's summit bold and high, The saints are toiling up the sky, And they who strive shall win ; Almighty Grace, Almighty Love, Life's cumbrous load will soon remove, And let the conqueror in."

. Yes, 'tis a spirit from the skies, That bids the sleeping dust arise, In form divinely fair ; ' Tis mild religion's voice that gave A final conquest o'er the grave, And smoothed the passage there.

Ruler of Heaven and Earth Supreme ! Still be thy grace my latest theme ; That, ere I yield my breath, I learn the maxim wisdom loves, And virtue, in her sons approves, " In life prepare for death."

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The first two verses of a Christmas hymn, written by Price.

" No more the morning breaks serene Mid icy winter's joyless scene When hushed in long repose. Y'e storms, by winter whirled,

The milder beauties cease to play,

And stern December rules the day Cold on his throne of snows.

Be calm, ye winds ; ye floods that roar, With gentlest music kiss the shore ;

Smooth every harsh discordant sound,

And whisper as ye travel round " A Saviour of the world."

It is interesting to know that such refined sentiments found expression in a frontier newspaper, and that they were read and admired by its back woods subscribers. It is a matter of deep regret that the author should fill at last a drunkard's grave. The death of Price was scarcely noticed at the time, and his place of burial at Mayville, became alnost forgotten. Judge Elial T. Foote ascertained its location in 1857, and caused headstones to be erected at his own expense at the graves of Price and of his brother lawyer Casper Rouse. They were buried side by side. A volume of Price's prose and poetry was published in 1813. His later efforts were only published in the Eagle. Other good writers contributed to the early newspapers. Well-writ- ten articles upon political and miscellaneous subjects often appeared.

Authorship commenced in Chautauqua county at an early day. The first book published was entitled "A Contrast between Christianity and Cal- vinism " by a western clergyman. It was published in 1824 at Fredonia by H. C. Frisbee. "An Abridgement of English Grammar of Etymology and Syntax, designed for the use of Common Schools in the United States, by the author of a new and complete system of Arithmetic," was published at Fredonia in 1827, by Oliver Spafford; Hull and Snow printers. These books were written by Rev. Lewis C. Todd, at one time editor of the Genius of Liberty, a Universalist newspaper published in Jamestown. Mr. Todd was born in New Haven, Con., in 1794, came to Chautauqua county in 1817 and afterwards lived upon the farm at Dewittville where the comity poor- honse now stands. In 1831 he moved to Jamestown. He was a well known Universalist clergyman. He and Rev. S. R. Smith were about the first pro- mulgators of the faith in the county. Todd was a writer of no mean ability. He was the author also of " Moral Justice of Universalism," and other works.

In a copy of the Eagle of this year is a notice that " a living African lion will be exhibited at the tavern of Jediah Tracy in Mayville, October 11, 1819,-the only one of its kind in America. No apprehension of danger need be entertained, as he is secured in his substantial iron cage. Admit- tance 25 cents, children half price." Sometimes a single elephant was exhib- ited. It would be driven to the place of exhibition in the night, covered with canvas so as not to be seen by the people on the way. These simple shows excited great interest. They were the beginnings of the caravans and cir -. cuses that periodically visited the different villages of the county and were

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so popular in later years, and were the forerunners of the mammoth hippo- dromes of the present.

This year the village of Ellington was first settled by Ebenezer Green, . of Pittsfield, Mass. At the end of a month's journey with an ox-team, he arrived there and erected the first log cabin on the site of the village. Wyman Bugbee, four years previously, had settled half-a-mile west of the place.

At the election in 1819, Philo Orton, of Pomfret, a Clintonian Republican was chosen to the assembly. He was the second person who had the honor of representing the county of Chautauqua in the state legislature. He signed the address by the Clintonian members of the legislature to their constituents supporting Governor Clinton.

In 1820 Chautauqua was the paradise of hunters and sportsmen. The brooks were full of trout, particularly the streams south of the ridge. These streams were supplied by springs, which, protected by the shade of the extensive forests, were more numerous and permanent than now. The cold water of the rivulets and brooks, flowing over gravelly beds in the shadows of the woods, were favorable to the existence of these fish. The settlers were skillful fishermen. Equipped with a line of horsehair of their own manufac- ture, a beech pole cut on their way to the fishing ground, a box of angle worms, and with practical knowledge of the streams and the ways of the trout, they were fully as successful as the fisherman of today with his flies and reels. Game was very abundant. The wild animals were the wolf, black bear, panther, wild-cat, otter, pine-martin, and opossum, all of which have disappeared or nearly so. The smaller animals still remain ; the fox, hedge-hog, raccoon, wood-chuck or ground-hog, skunk, mink, muskrat, rab- bit, weasel and squirrel. Black, bear were plenty until about the close of the last war with England. They were until then more numerous than wolves. Stephen Jones of Gerry in 1811 or 1812 caught six bears in a trap in one season. The bears were very bold and would sometimes enter a settler's cabin, often his pig-pen, and carry off his swine. The first log house at Sinclairville had scarcely been occupied by its owners when a bear seized a hog near the door, having secured this, the most valuable item of their personal property, he coolly took his departure in the immediate presence of the female occupants, walking erect, carrying the squealing hog embraced by his forelegs, to the great consternation of the women who were the sole witnesses of the robbery. The bears lived in the windfalls and slashings (hibernating in the winter in hollow logs,) subsisting upon roots, berries and fish. They were fond of green corn and fresh pork, which rendered them obnoxious to the inhabitants. They were captured in strong steel traps, in " dead falls," and in small log houses or pens erected for the purpose. They were usually not very dangerous, they would, however, in defence of their

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young, fiercely attack a man, advancing rapidly towards him on their hind feet in long and awkward strides with their fore legs hanging by their sides.

The panther was seldom seen but there is no part of the county that he did not sometimes visit. Wild-cats were more plenty ; they infested the swamps until comparatively a late day. Wolves were by far the most obnoxious although not as numerous at first as the bears. As the county settled, and the sheep and animals which constitute their prey increased, they became very plenty, and lived not only in the thickets of the valleys but among the hills also. They infested the swamps, and were very numer- erous around the lakes. The peculiar frightful cry of the wolf was long remembered by the pioneer. It often disturbed his rest at night. A favorite haunt was the Cassadaga swamp. The inhabitants of Charlotte and Stock- ton were familiar with the voice of the wolf. Mr. J. L. Bugbee says : "Seemingly a leader would begin the concert by a solo of firm prolonged howl, when the rest of the wolves would pitch in with a grand chorus of the most terrible jargon, of sounds, dying away at the place of beginning as the reverberations sounded over the far-off hills." J. M. Edson, a citizen of Charlotte and an experienced hunter, said : "Often a single wolf would be the cause of this pandemonium. The wolf was an accomplished ventrilo- quist ; he could modulate his voice so as to make it appear to come from different points. He could also abruptly change its tone so that there would Seem to be many wolves where there was really but one. On one occasion in the winter their discordant sounds indicated that the woods were full of them. People thought there were 50. I scoured the woods from whence the howls appeared to come and could find but three wolf-tracks."

Wolves finally became " as plenty as blackberries." The inhabitants depended upon domestic manufactured cloth for their clothing. The raising of sheep was consequently an important business. It was difficult however to preserve the sheep from the wolves, and they were only safe in enclosures near the house. Large bounties were offered for scalps of the wolves. The state offered $20 for the destruction of a full-grown wolf, and $to for that of a young one. The county gave the same sum, and most of the towns offered not less than Sio as a bounty. Hunters devoted their entire time to obtain these bounties. In June, 1819, Levi C. Miller and Parley Munger killed one wolf and six young ones. Peter Jacquins of Clymer is said to have captured nearly 100 wolves previous to 1832, for which he received an average bounty of $12 per head. There were instances in which persons were tempted to perpetrate frauds to secure these bounties. A certificate was issued this year (1820) for an old wolf which was proved to have been caught when a whelp and kept until it was fully grown. James Bates, of Ellington, when a boy but 15 years of age, killed a full-grown wolf with a club, for which he received bounties to the amount of $40. Oliver Pier, a famous

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hunter of Harmony, paid for his farm by the bounties upon the wolves that he killed. The county paid $420 in 1815 for bounties. $480 in 1816, $580 1817, $710 in 1818, $472 in 1819, and $510 in 1820. In addition to these were the state and town bounties. The effect of such large bounties was greatly to reduce the number of wolves, so that in 1820 the Chautauqua board of supervisors petitioned the legislature to leave the amount disere- tionary with the board. A law was passed to that effect and the bounties were reduced.

Pine-martens were plenty but easily captured, which led to their exter- mination about the year 1825. Their skins were worth from 50 to 75 cents cach. Until they were exterminated there were no black or grey squirrels in the county, as the martens were their foes. Flying squirrels were com- 111011. Otters were abundant along the water courses. They were migratory animals, and would travel by land and water in considerable numbers from the Allegany river up Conewango and Cassadaga creeks to Cassadaga lake, and a few days later would return one after another along the same route. Their sliding-places were often seen along the banks of the Cassadaga and Conewango. Prior to 1816, otter skins were valued at 20 shillings each, after that date they were worth more. The otter disappeared about 1825. Zacheus H. Norton, an old trapper, who lived in Gerry near Cassadaga creek, in early years was very successful in capturing them in strong steel traps.

There were not many foxes in these days. Like the wolves, they increased as the creatures that constituted their prey multiplied. Hedge- hogs were plenty. There were no skunks or pole-cats for a long time after settlement commenced. For some years there were no rats. At first there were but few muskrats except along the larger creeks. There were many minks and raccoons, the latter were so abundant as to be troublesome to the cornfields. Opossums were occasionally captured. The lynx and the elk were sometimes seen in some parts of the county.

Deer were very abundant. At first they were quite tame, and would browse in the slashings along with the cattle. Venison was depended upon as an article of food, and deer hunting was a business of necessity as well as a diversion. In the winter they were tracked through the snow and in the summer were killed while drinking at "licks" of brackish water. Deer ceased to be plenty about 1835, but have been killed in some places quite . recently. In early years there were in the county many noted hunters of deer who were familiar with their habits and accustomed to the use of the rifle. In fact every neighborhood had its skilled hunter. Oliver Pier is said to have killed 1,322 deer with one gun, which had required during its use three new stocks and hammers. He was sometimes called the " Leather Stocking " of the county. Zachicus H. Norton of Gerry, was a keen hunter. About this time he killed 100 deer in a single winter. Carroll was early

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celebrated for its abundance of game and its excellent hunters. Thomas J. Fenton of Carroll writes, " About the year 1825 James Cowan, quite a noted hunter, settled on Case Run. While in search of game he penetrated the then dense wilderness of South Valley, Cattaraugus county, to an Indian fence which had been erected many years before. This fence commenced on the north side of the Indian trail near the boundary line between Carroll and South Valley. It was lattice-work ; made of brush and small poles inter- woven. It extended northerly near 11/2 miles over a high ridge of ground to the north branch of Bone Run, and was of sufficient height to intercept the passage of deer and elk. At certain distances along this hedge were left gaps seemingly for game to pass through. Here the animals could be watched and bagged at short range with the bow and arrow. This fence was visible as late as the year 1840." It was constructed by the Indians, and was undoubtedly the same one spoken of by John Thompson in his letter dated at " Kataraugus " August 30, 1798, to Amzi Atwater. (See page 151.)

In Carroll, besides an abundance of deer, wolves, panthers and wild cats, there were also elk and lynx. It was a favorite resort of Indian hunters. Mr. Fenton writes that "Mr. Cowan further related that an Indian, who lived in a camp with his father's family in the southwest corner of Poland, in one day's hunting along Case Run in Carroll, killed three deer, two bears, and one wild turkey with an old flint lock rifle. The Indians in considerable numbers were accustomed each fall to pass over the Indian trail that led from Cattaraugus creek through Charlotte Center and Sinclairville to their hunting grounds along the Broken-Straw. Their squaws and pappooses were mounted on Indian ponies. They would often camp near Jamestown, and on their return would be laden with deer skins and venison which they would sell at 25 cents a quarter.

The wild turkey was the finest representative of the feathered tribe that inhabited Chautauqua county. It was larger and better formed than the domestic turkey and its flesh was of a superior flavor. It was a solitary bird. Hunters never failed to admire its graceful form and stately step as it stalked alone in the depth of the woods. Partridges were far more abundant than . in later years, as were 'the owl, the king-fisher, the wood-pecker, the black- bird and the heron. Robins, bluebirds, bobolinks, swallows, meadow larks, and many singing birds that are now abundant, were seldom seen during the early years of settlement, while some that then sang in the woods have disap- peared. Vellow birds came with the thistle down. Hawks were abundant. It is a singular fact that the crow was a late comer. The eagle sometimes winged his way from his eyrie for a brief visit to the waters of Chantauqua lake.

Of the feathered species that visited Chautauqua, the most remarkable were the wild pigeons. In the early spring they would pass over the county

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and Lake Erie to and from their nesting or roosting and feeding places in Canada and Pennsylvania. They would fly in enormous flocks with astonish- ing velocity far above the reach of firearms. A little later in the season their flight would be lower. They would descend into the woods, flock after flock to feed upon the beech nuts. The forest would be vocal with their pleasant voices. The noise of their wings as they would arise or descend would sound like distant thunder, and the noise made by their wings in flight was like the rushing of a great wind. Fowling-pieces and other firearms were then in great requisition. The people would kill them on the wing, and as they traveled in flocks over the ground in search of food. The roost- ing places of the pigeons were often in the limits of the county. There they were seen in great multitudes. They would sometimes choose for their nest- ing places the wilderness portions of the county where they would gather in still more astonishing numbers. It is said that limbs would be broken from the trees by their weight, and the noise of their wings would be almost deaf- ening. The accounts of the extraordinary numbers of pigeons that appeared alnost annually seem now scarcely credible. In the New York Censor pub- lished at Fredonia May 22, 1822, is this : "More pigeons : We have been informed that a family in the west part of this town on the lake shore killed about 4,000 pigeons in one day ; knocking them down with poles. The feathers only were saved, their bodies were thrown to the dogs." The May- ville Sentinel of March 15, 1840, says : "Pigeons seem to have emigrating fevers very extensively about these days. Some mornings during the past week the air has been filled with these migratory birds. Last Saturday morning immense flocks kept flying over for three or four hours appearing at a distance like large black clouds moving rapidly through the air. Some of the flocks were apparently some four or five miles in length. They directed their course to the dominions of, the queen. It seemed that they returned at night. We understand that their pigeon place of meeting is about three miles west of here. We had formerly supposed the accounts of the pigeons of the west related by Audubon and others were exaggerated, but when we see flocks several iniles in length here, and when there is scarcely a moment in which we could not see some flying for hours, we are almost inclined to think that at the best their stories may be literally true." In 1833 a snow storm came in May which destroyed great numbers, their dead bodies were found everywhere in the woods and fields. Great numbers were found floating in Lake Erie and the lakes and streams of the county. Pigeons ceased to visit the county in large flocks between the years 1850 and 1855.

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 31

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