USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York > Part 32
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Clymer was first settled in 1820 by John Cleveland on lot 58 near Clymer village. By the census of 1820 the population of the county was 15,268, an increase of 11,009 since the census of 1814, showing the extraordinary increase
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in six years of 258 per cent. During no period in its history, notwithstanding the unpropitious circumstances, had Chautauqua gained so greatly in popu- lation. Athough new settlers were coming in rapidly, by far the greater part of the county at this time was covered by a forest, and the axe was the instrument most in requisition. Still in some parts the land had been cleared a sufficient length of time for the stumps to decay, and there the plow was in full use. Orchards had been planted, and frame buildings erected. The lands most improved were situated along the main road from Silver Creek to Westfield. The largest clearings and best cultivated farms were within three or four miles east and west of Fredonia, and these did not contain more than 30 or 60 acres each. The owners of these farms were regarded as the wealthy men of the county. "And their faris were the Egypt that supplied the new settlers with provisions before they had enough land cleared to produce their own. Among the owners of these farms were Mr. Barker, whose farm included the site of Canadaway, Justus Harrington, Abiram Orton, Judge Cushing, Benj. Perry, Daniel Gould, Otis Ensign, John Walker, Benj. Roberts, the Gouldings, Hohneses, Hezekiah Turner, Crosby, Martin Eastwood, John Adams, Nathaniel. Marsh, Ebenezer Johnson, Seth Cole, Captain Simeon Fox; the Douglasses, Stephen Porter, Judge Philo Orton, and Captain Sprague. These farms at that time were not worth over $10 to $20 per acre, and were not readily sold for that."-Walter Smith.
All that part of the county lying south of the Ridge was substantially a wilderness. The clearings there were mostly covered with fallen timber, sometimes partly burned. The greater portion of the best improved lands in the south part of the county were still covered with undecayed stumps. Now and then at wide intervals, at the oldest settled points, were small tracts still better improved. Enough was accomplished however so that some interest began to be awakened in the subject of agriculture among the leading and thinking farmers, and steps were for the first time taken this Year, to advance in a public way the agricultural interest of the county. The Chautauqua Agricultural Society was formed at Mayville, of which Judge Zattu Cushing was chosen president. In July, 1821, a list of premiums to be awarded at the next annual cattle show and fair was published in the Chautauqua Gocette. Among the premiums offered was $8 for the best cultivated farm of not less than fifty acres ; $5 for the best farm of not less than 25 acres of improved lands ; $4 for the best bull ; $5 for the best blooded merino lamb ; $5 for the best blooded English lamb ; $5 for the best acre of corn ; $5 for the best acre of flax ; $5 for the best one- eighth acre of tobacco ; $S for the best 20 yards of fullcloth ; $5 for the best 12 yards of " bombasett ;" $3 for the best to yards of kersey ; $4 for the best 15 yards of flannel ; $3 for the best 20 yards of tow and linen cloth ; the cloth to be manufactured of material the growth of Chautauqua county. It
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was to be expected in the incipient condition of farming interests at that early day, that this society could exist for but a little while. Many years later it was revived as the Chautauqua Agricultural Society.
A general election for governor occurred in 1820. A political party, if greatly in the majority, will not long remain united. At the first meeting of the legislature after the election of Clinton in 1817, the Republican party began to show plain signs of a division. The friends of Clinton upon one side, and his opponents, led by such able men as Martin Van Buren and Samuel Young, upon the other. At a meeting of the citizens of Albany early in 1820, Clinton was renominated for governor. Mr. Tompkins, whose official term as vice-president was near its close, was nominated by the Bucktail members of the legislature. A very close and exciting contest ensued. During the campaign some leading Federalists issued a curious address to the people of the state in which they affirmed that the Federal party no longer existed ; that they approved of the doings of the adminis- tration, affirming that the Federalists had now " no ground of principle " on which to stand ; they declared their intention of uniting with the Republi- can party and avowed their determination to support Mr. Tompkins for gor- ernor. This manifesto was much criticised for certain absurd reasons given in it for the determination of those who promulgated it. The Federalists who signed it were men of talent and character. They were long known as the "48 high-minded Federalists." Their address is regarded as a memorable document in the political history of the state. Many of the Federalists fol- lowed the "high-minded " gentlemen, and became Bucktails and supported Tompkins, while many others, being deserted by their leaders, supported Clinton, and the Federal party, that had existed since the organization of the goverment, and numbered among its leaders some of the most eminent and patriotic statesmen of the country, suffered the fate that, in a popular govern- ment, is sure to befall all parties that are not in sympathy with the masses, and which distrust their intelligence and virtue. In New York it was now dissolved and absorbed by the great party of the people, its ancient rival. Clinton was elected by the small majority of 1,457 in the state.
In Chautauqua county, the town of Chautauqua gave Clinton 167 and Tompkins 115 votes. Pomfret gave Clinton 18;, Tompkins 82. Ellicott, Clinton 88, Tompkins 34. Gerry gave Clinton 67, Tompkins 28, Hanover gave Clinton 84, Tompkins 109, Portlan I gave Clinton 26, Tompkins 20. Ripley gave Clinton 82, Tompkins 35. Harmony gave Clinton 43, Tompkins 32. The aggregate vote of the county for Clinton was 744, for Tompkins 455. The election was warmly contested in Chautauqua county. The Chautauqua Eagle under the management of Robert J. Curtis supported Clinton. Jolin Dexter, a leading Republican, gave to Curtis and his paper the credit of having carried the county against Tompkins. Curtis says that
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
the contest for governor in the county was short and spirited, was conducted with courtesy, and that nothing personal emanated from the writers on either side. Among those elected to the legislature at this time was Dr. E. T. Foote ; for many years afterwards he took an active part in politics, and was a leading and influential member of the Republican party.
CHAPTER XXX.
1821-1822.
T HE town of Stockton was formed from the town of Chautauqua,. February 9, 1821. It was named in honor of Richard Stockton, a. signer of the Declaration of Independence. Calvin Warren was elected the first supervisor. He was a native of Windham, Conn., and removed to Stockton in 1816, where he resided until his death in 1827. He came with a team of two " yoke " of oxen, and was six weeks performing the journey. He was a man highly esteemed by his fellow citizens and several times elected supervisor. His son, Chauncey, and his grandsons, Amos K. and Lucien C., were leading citizens of the town and county, and were also often chosen supervisors of Stockton.
The town of Ellery was on the 29th of February 1821 formed from Chautauqua, and named in honor of William Ellery, a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence. Almon Ives was elected the first supervisor.
Clymer was organized February 9, 1821. It comprised the present towns of Clymer, French Creek, Mina and Sherman. It was erected from Chau- tauqua and named in honor of George Clymer, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Ande Noble, the first settler of French Creek, was the first man to be elected supervisor.
At the election held in April 1821, to determine whether a convention should be held to revise the constitution of the state, in accordance with a law passed in March of the same year, 1, 134 votes were cast for it, and 177 against it in this county. The election resulted in a large majority in the state in favor of the convention. At the election held in June, Augustus Porter and Samuel Russell were chosen to represent the assembly district to which Chautauqua county belonged. The convention commenced its session on the 28th of August and closed on the ioth of November. It was com- posed of the ablest body of men which had ever been assembled in a single state. The new constitution, the result of their labor, made radical alter- ations. " By it almost the entire structure of the state goverment was
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1821-1822.
changed. Scarcely a pillar in the venerable fabric reared by the political fatliers of the state were left standing. The legislative, executive and judicial departments were all remodelled." The form of government of the state was originally perhaps less democratic than that of any other state of the Federal Union. Under the first constitution the governor, lieutenant gov- ernor, senators and assemblymen, were chosen by electors who were required to have a property qualification. Nearly all of the other officers with the exception of town and city officers, were appointed by the council of appoint- ment, which consisted of the governor, and four senators chosen each year by the assembly. Military officers and judicial officers from the chancellor down to the justice of the peace, nearly all of the other civil officers from heads of departments down to auctioneers, including district attorneys, sur- rogates, sheriffs, and county clerks were selected by the council of appoint- ment. The immense patronage of the council rendered its power liable to great abuse.
Under the new constitution the government was made more democratic in many respects. Sheriffs, county clerks and coroners were elected by the people and the appointing power was materially altered. The time for hold- ing general elections was changed from the spring to the first Monday and the two succeeding days in November. By an amendment made to the consti- tution in 1826, the property qualification for voters was abolished with the exception of the case of colored persons. The least radical changes were made by the convention of 1821 in the judicial system of the state. Although the manner of the appointment of judicial officers was materially altered, none of them were made elective by the people, and while the courts were reorganized, their essential characteristics were retained.
A court of common pleas was established by the General Assembly in New York as long ago as 1691. The number of judges composing it varied at different times in the different counties of the state. Besides the first judge and associate judges, assistant justices formed a part of the court. By an act of the Legislature passed in 1818, the office of assistant justice was abolished, and the number of judges were limited to five including the first judge. This provision was not changed by the constitution of 1821, but remained in force until the present county court was established in its place ; the common pleas having then existed in New York for more than one and one-half a century. The old court of common pleas was deservedly popular with the people, and the most of the actions were brought in it, notwith- standing the circuit had concurrent jurisdiction. The county court, which was by the constitution of 1846 made to supersede it, has never been so favored by litigants, notwithstanding its bench has been ably filled. The popularity of the common pleas was partly due to the fact that it was more frequently and regularly held than the circuit, but more especially to the
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
circumstance that the judges were selected from the county from among its people, while the circuit judges were strangers from a distance. It was a remarkable fact that but a very few of the judges who composed this court were lawyers. Of the 23 associate judges, who from time to time constituted its members, but four were lawyers, and of only two years of the 36 during which it continued was the first judge a lawyer. The members of this popu- lar tribunal however, with hardly an exception, were men of character and of good ability ; men who possessed a taste and aptitude for the law, and would, had they prepared themselves in that profession, have made good lawyers. Their lack of legal training was supplied by business experience, and natural acumen. The court of common pleas, notwithstanding it was composed almost entirely of laymen, had the respect of the legal profession and the confidence of the people of the county, attested by the large amount . of legal business transacted by it. Zattu Cushing was the first judge of this court, from ISH to 1824, Elial T. Foote from 1824 to 1843, Thomas A. Osborne from 1843 to 1845, and Thomas B. Campbell from 1845 to 1847. The associate judges of this court were, nearly in the order of their appoint- ment, Matthew Prendergast, Philo Orton, Jonathan Thompson, William Alexander, William Peacock, Elial T. Foote, John Crane, Ebenezer P. U'pham, Joel Burnell, Nathan Mixer, Isaac Harmon, Benjamin Walworth, Alexander Hearic, Jared Freeman, Thomas B. Campbell, Thomas .1. Osborne, Elisha Ward, John Chandler, Francis H. Ruggles, Jolm M. Edson, Caleb O. Daughaday, Niram Sackett and Franklin H. Wait.
The first circuit and oyer and terminer was held in July, 1817, by Ambrose Spencer. The July court, in 1818, was held by Smith Thompson. The judge marched to the courtroom with the sheriff and his deputies and con- stables for his escort. Jonas Platt held the circuit in 1819, which was attended by the same ceremonies as at previous courts. The circuit was held in 1820 by Judge Van Ness. The sheriff as usual offered him an escort which Judge Van Ness declined, saying he chose to go to the courthouse without parade. He was in his manners a plain, affable and unassuming man, and dispatched business with rapidity. The ceremony of an escort was thereafter dispensed with at the circuits. In 1821 there was no circuit. The last court under the old constitution was held by Jonas Platt in June, 1822. The court under the new constitution was held by William B. Roches- ter in September, 1823. Judge Rochester was an amiable and pleasant man, more popular with the bar and the people than any that preceded him. Judge Rochester also held the court in 1824. In 1825 the court was held by Reuben H. Walworth. In 1826 by John Birdsall. Addison Gardner held the circuits from 1830 to 1835; and Nathan Dayton after that until the constitution of 1846 went into effect.
It was common in Western New York for the leading advocates to " ride
11
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1821-1822.
the circuit." They would go (often on horseback) from county to county with the judge to take charge of the trial of such canses in which they would be retained by the local lawyers. The circuit court consequently brought to Mayville many men who have left the impress of their talents and learning upon institutions of the state. The honored names of Ambrose Spencer, Jonas Platt, Reuben H. Walworth, Nathan Dayton and Addison Gardner appear upon the records as having held courts at Mayville. John C. Spencer, Dudley Marvin, James Mullett, Jonas Harrison, Sheldon Smith and James HI. Price all tried causes in the old courthouse, and juries and audiences wit- nessed the forensic encounters of these brilliant advocates, and listened to their eloquence. Courts were not then the tame and business affairs of mod- ern times, nor was all the interest confined to the courtroom. Jediah Tracy's old tavern was the scene of much spicy story telling, many rich anecdotes and keen passages of wit between these young and talented lawyers. Old "Counselor Root," the supposed author of most of the good stories of the carly bar, " not only witty himself but the cause that there was wit in other men," would sometimes come up from Buffalo to add point and zest to the occasion. The pioneers, too, though rough and unlettered, had a keen sense of humor, and minds cast in full as large a mould as their successors, and would often take a hand on these occasions, which were free to all who had an apt story or ready joke. The old settler who had business at court often carried back to his log-cabin home many spicy incidents and rare anecdotes, choice fragments of which have come down to the present time.
It is a singular fact that the surrogate and surrogate's courts were not mentioned in the constitution of 1777, nor in the constitution of 1821, although all the time the surrogate and his court were exercising exclusive jurisdiction and extensive authority. Both continued to exist after 1821 as before, except that surrogates before the constitution of 1821 were appointed by the governor and council of appointment, afterwards by the governor and senate. Squire White was appointed the first surrogate in 1811. The sur- rogates down to the present in the order in which they followed him are : Daniel G. Garnsey, William Smith, William Smith, Jr., Austin Smith, Orsell Cook, Orton Clark, Emory F. Warren, Albert Richmond, George A. Green, Theodore Brown, Henry O. Lakin, Charles G. Maples, Daniel Sherman.
The court most familiar to the inhabitants of the country districts of New York has always been the justice's court where the small causes were tried. This most ancient court, being held in the locality where the parties and witnesses resided and the cause of action accrued, never failed to excite a lively interest in its proceedings. The court was established in the pro- vince of New York by law in 1691. Justices of the peace were authorized to have cognizance in cases of debt and trespass to the amount of 40 shill- ings. Trial by jury was authorized when demanded by either party. Pre-
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
vious to the constitution of 1821 the justices were appointed by the governor and council of appointment. By the constitution of 1821 they were appointed by the boards of supervisors and the judges, and, by an amendment to the constitution in 1826, were made elective by the people, the first instance in which the election of a judicial office was entrusted to the people in this state. The original design was that justices' courts should be informal tri- bunals where small differences could be settled in a simple and informal manner. During early years such was practically the case, and technical errors of this court found little favor on review.
We are told that Esquire James Aikin of Ellicott would sometimes ren- der judgments on a shingle with red chalk and that he kept the record thereof in a crevice in his log dwelling. Samuel A. Brown, a well-read attorney and for many years a leading lawyer of the county, confesses that when he was a justice of the peace to have rendered the following judgement : " We find for the plaintiff 1,943 feet of white-pine boards." This will not seem so remarkable when we understand that money was exceedingly scarce, and that in the south part of the county lumber was sometimes used as a medium of exchange. We have even been told that pine shingles were there recognized as a legal tender.
The criminal courts consisted of a court of over and terminer held at the same time of the circuit, a court of general sessions held with the common pleas, and courts of special sessions held by the justices of the peace. Prior to 18IS an attorney was appointed to prosecute criminals in each of the different districts of the state. The western district contained several coun- ties, and the first prosecuting attorney after this county was organized was Polydorus B. Wisner, not a resident of Chautauqua. He was succeeded about 1815 by John C. Spencer, who resided at Canandaigua. He officiated as prosecuting attorney in the courts of Chautauqua until 1818, when a law was enacted providing for the appointment of a district attorney in each county. Daniel G. Garnsey was the first resident attorney appointed. The district attorneys who succeeded Garnsey in the order of their appointment and election were, James Mullet, Jr., Samuel A. Brown, Joseph Wait, David Mann, Abner Hazeltine, Daniel Sherman, George Barker, John F. Smith, William O. Stevens, Nahum S. Scott, Benj. F. Skinner, Edward R. Bootey, Abner Hazeltine, Jr., Chester B. Bradley, Arthur B. Ottaway, Lester F. Stearns and John Woodward.
In May of this year considerable havoc was made among the sheep in Gerry by some unknown animal, supposed by the inhabitants to be a panther. Several different persons suffered a loss of from 6 to to sheep each in a single night.
At the election in April 1821, David Eason of Chautauqua was declared by the canvassers elected to the assembly. His opponent, Judge Isaac Phelps
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1821-1822.
of Aurora, received certain informal ballots; whichi, if they had been allowed, would have given him a majority. Mr. Eason, admitting the justice of the claim, surrendered to him the seat.
Chautauqua county was now being rapidly populated. The prospect of the carly completion of the Erie canal stimulated emigration. The white wagons of the emigrants were constantly moving from castern New York toward the Holland Purchase. A bridge more than a mile in length extended across the lower end of Cayuga lake. It was called the "Cayuga bridge," and, until the Erie canal was built, was universally recognized as the divid- ing point between the east and the " Far West.,' For years a continuous procession of white wagons passed over it, each with a water-pail and tar- bucket dangling from the axletree, and perhaps an infant's cradle or basket swinging from the ashhoops, over which was stretched its cover, displaying upon the canvas, in large black letters, " For the Holland Purchase." These were the palace cars of that day. They bore the family of the emigrant, his cooking utensils, sleeping furniture, and sometimes all his family effects. They were often followed by freight wagons, drawn sometimes by three, fre- quently by five horses. The journey of the settler who contemplated making a home in Chautauqua county was usually less pretentious. He generally came with small means, with " a yoke of oxen and a wagon, or ox-cart ; and the smallest amount of household furniture that it was possible to keep house with. The settler's first business was to go to the land office and get a con- tract for his 50 or 100 acres of land, on which he paid nearly all his money, generally from $10 to $50, the remainder to be paid in yearly installments, with interest. He then put up his loghouse, with the assistance of his neigh- bors. He next went to the merchant to get a credit to commence clearing. He would tell the merchant he had a contract for land, and that he was going to clear so many acres, burn the timber, and make the ashes into black-salts, and, being a stranger, he wanted to get $25 or $50 in advance, in due bills for goods to buy a pig and other articles, the due bills to corres- pond in sums with the cost of the articles he wished to purchase, as he could not generally buy more than one in a place."
These important preliminaries having been arranged, the settler com- mences his principal work, clearing the land. We see him, as he plants him- self by some huge hemlock or maple, cast his eyes upwards to see that there is no peril from a broken limb or loose knot. Then he lightly strikes a blow with his axe into the body of the tree as if to measure the distance ; pausing for a moment, to adjust his feet in proper position, his work begins. The blows fall thick and fast until this monarch of the forest comes crashing down. This process he repeats until tree after tree succumbs to his blows, and the great silent wilderness that had so long sheltered wild man and wild beast, that for a thousand years had waved its branches in solemn grandeur,
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
was at last laid low. The only instrument by which this result was accou- plished was the woodman's axe. The more elaborate implement, the plow, which for centuries has been an emblem of civilization, and that complex masterpiece of human ingenuity, the steam engine, now the best symbol of modern advancement, have never been more effective or essential to progress in America than the simplest of all implements, the woodsman's " narrow axe."
The backwoodsman was strong and sinewy and tonghened by toil. Yet it was not his physical power alone that enabled him to conquer the forest. Felling the trees, cutting them into lengths suitable for logging, trimming the tops of their branches, cutting the underbrush, and every step including the burning of the fallow was a work of consummate skill. He understood the art of economizing labor, and was in a true sense of the term a skilled workman. How lightly he handles the axe ! how accurately he plants its blows ! With it he cuts the gash to sever the trunk of the tree as smoothly and symmetrically as if chiseled by a carver's tools, not merely to display his skill, but because the lines of grace carved by his axe corresponds with the points of least resistance to his blows. To save labor, with a few strokes of his axe he cuts a notch in each of a long line of trees, and fells one of the largest at the end of the line against its neighbor, when they all come down in succession with a mighty crash. By carefully observing the direction of the " cant," or leaning of the trees, and cutting a notch in the proper place, he was able to guide them to fall into long heaps or windrows, which often extended the whole length of the slashing or field to be cleared. These great masses of timber were now ready for conflagration. For a quarter of a century the fires were constantly burning in the fallows except in the winter time. The light of their flames nightly illumined the sky, and from the hill tops along the Ridge could be seen, in all directions between Lake Erie and the state line, great volumes of smoke ascending to the clouds. The pungent but not unpleasant odor of burning leaves and timber was wafted on every breeze.
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