USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York > Part 35
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
portage to Le Boenf, and other localities. Washington replied to General Irvine :
MOUNT VERNON, 31st October, 1788.
DEAR SIR : The letter with which you favored me, dated the 6th instant, enclosing a sketch of waters near the line which separates your state from New York, came duly to hand, for which I offer you my acknowledgments and thanks. The extensive inland navigation with which this country abounds, and the easy communication which many of the rivers afford, with the amazing territory to the westward of us, will certainly be productive of infinite advantage to the Atlantic states, if the legislatures of those through which they pass have liberality and public spirit enough to improve them. For my part, I wish sincerely that every door to that country may be set wide open, that the commercial intercourse with it may be rendered as free and easy as possible. This, in my judgment, is the best, if not the only cement that can bind those people to us for any length of time, and we shall, I think, be deficient in foresight and wisdom if we neglect the means to effect it. Our interest is so much in unison with the policy of the measure, that nothing but that ill-aimed and misapplied parsimony and contracted way of thinking, which intermingles so much in all our public councils, can counteract it. If the Chautauqua lake, at the head of the Connewango river, approximates Lake Erie as nearly as it is laid down in the draft you sent me, it presents a very short portage indeed between the two, and access to all those above the latter. I am, etc., GEORGE WASHINGTON.
It will be seen that Washington, at that early day, clearly foresaw the great importance of obtaining a ready communication between the waters of the East and the West, which was then required only to transport the few furs and peltries collected by the Indians and trappers in the uncivilized western regions ; but which, 45 years later, was needed to bear a tide of emigration that has constantly since then been pouring into the valley of the Mississippi, and to carry back to the East from that fruitful territory surplus products so vast as to require the building of the Erie canal.
The Erie canal was completed and formally opened October 26, 1825, and the first fleet of canal boats left Buffalo for New York. On that day, as they started at the signal of a cannon fired at Buffalo, which was promptly answered by gun after gun stationed at regular intervals along the canal and down the Hudson to New York, where one hour and 25 minutes after the first gun was fired at Lake Erie, the last was fired beside the sea. Immediately an answering gun was sent back from the ocean which reached the lake in another hour and 25 minutes. The canal boats, loaded with distinguished people, and amid popular rejoicing, reached New York November 4th, and proceeded to Sandy Hook under the escort of nearly all the vessels in port, where De Witt Clinton poured a keg of water from Lake Erie into the ocean. The event was celebrated in New York by a grand civic procession nearly five miles in length, a magnificent display of fireworks and a grand illumina- tion. Of such importance was the construction of the Erie canal regarded by the country at the time, and justly, for, as a result, magnificent cities have grown up in the West, and an empire created around the borders of the Great Lakes. The completion of the canal was duly celebrated in Chau- tauqua county on the 26th of November at Mayville. At 10 o'clock A. M., the board of supervisors and citizens, marshalled by Joy Handy, marched
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in procession to the public square, where a national salute was fired under the direction of Major Asahel Lyon. The cannon used was taken from the British on Lake Erie by Commodore Perry. In the evening, still animated by commendable enthusiasm to further celebrate the auspicious event, the super- visors, and a number of gentlemen of the county, assembled at the tavern of Jedediah Tracy, then the most widely-known and popular public house in the county. Thomas Prendergast presided, and Abiram Orton acted as vice- president. It is said "the utmost harmony and hilarity prevailed, toasts interspersed with songs suitable to the occasion were drank with a flow of soul which only the event celebrated could have elicited."
The subject of internal improvements had now a strong hold upon the public mind, and many projects were entertained to develop the resources of the state by constructing canals and building roads. In pursuance of an act of the legislature, surveys and estimates of expense were made of the most eligible roads for navigable communications from Lake Erie to the Allegany river through the valley of the Conewango and from Portland Harbor to the head of Chautauqua lake. However nothing further was done.
Upon the recommendation of Governor Clinton, a law was passed in 1825, appointing three commissioners to explore and cause surveys to be made for a state road from the Hudson river to Lake Erie. Nathaniel Pitcher, Jabez Hammond, and George Morrell were appointed. They recommended two routes, to commence at different points on the Hudson river and to extend westward, merging into one at Bath in Steuben county, and thence to extend westward through Angelica and Ellicottville to Gerry in Chautauqua county, and, from this point, it was proposed to have branches, one extending to Dunkirk, and the. other to Barcelona by way of Mayville. It was estimated that the expense of making this road would be $2,000 per mile. Public meetings in favor of the project were held in various parts of the state to be benefited. Among them was one in Mayville. In the southern tier of counties it was regarded with great favor. At the next session of the legislature it was a subject of great importance, and met with determined opposition from along the line of the Erie canal. It was defeated by a close vote. Had the bill passed and the state road been built, the complaints in the south tier of counties that they helped to bear the burthen of the con- struction of the Erie canal without corresponding benefits would have been removed, for they would not only have been satisfied but grateful for the bounty of the state. As it was, the defeat of the state road was the cause and the beginning of the agitation that resulted 25 years later in the coil- struction of the Erie railroad.
March 25, 1825, Carroll was organized from Ellicott and comprised the present towns of Kiantone and Carroll. James Hall was elected its first supervisor.
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296
HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
1
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE CLOSE OF THE PIONEER PERIOD.
Our hardy pioneers, the men who nursed
Amid the blooming fields of cultured lands, ".
Forsook the scenes of infancy, and first,
With hearts of lofty daring and strong hands, Pierced old primeval groves, by hunter bands
And beasts of carnage tenanted alone, And lit their camp-fires on the lonely strands Of lakes and seas, to geographer unknown, Deserve the bard's high lay-the sculptor's proudest stone. -Hosmer.
W ITH the completion of the Erie canal, the material prosperity of Chautauqua county commenced. Practically isolated from the settled portions of the state during the first ten years of the set- tlement of the county the pioneers had maintained a desperate struggle with the wilderness. They had suffered all the privations and hardships of forest life. When the county was organized this first period in its history was closed. The forest life of the settler was ended, and his political existence recognized, which before had been practically ignored, and, for a time, a bright future for the settler seemed assured. But this hope was soon dis- pelled by the war, which came with all its scourges, followed by the cold season and its meager crops, and long years of financial depression. The original debt to the Holland Company in most instances remained unpaid with the interest annually accumulating. The settlers had absolutely no market for their products except for black salts and potash sold at Montreal and in England, and pine lumber sold at Pittsburgh and along the Ohio. Their log tenements were fast falling into decay. The prospect before them was gloomy indeed. Such was the condition of the county prior to 1825.
With the completion of the Erie canal a new era commenced. The set- tler now found a market, was brought into contact with the east, and a period of prosperity began which has continued to the present time. This change in the condition of the people brought a corresponding change in their characteristics and customs. The people who settled in the county prior to the completion of the canal were mostly frontiersmen from the west- ern borders of New York and Pennsylvania. As a rule they were unlettered. Yet among their number were sometimes men of marked ability whose talents
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THE CLOSE OF THE PIONEER PERIOD.
would honor any station. There were also women of refinement whose attain- ments prepared them to adorn any society. Although the early settlers were uneducated, they were not ignorant or uninformed. They possessed strong practical sense, and native ability fully equal to those who came after them. They possessed that learning which, in the situation that it was their fortune to be cast, best fitted them for a life of usefulness. They were accomplished masters in woodcraft. They could handle the axe as deftly as a fencing master his foil. They were adepts in their calling, and in all that pertained to the task of preparing the way for the westward expansion of civilization. How quickly and how well they performed this duty the green hillsides and blooming valleys of our county attest. They brought with them little skill in husbandry for the gift requisite was that of the woodsman. The land was not sufficiently subdued to yield but small crops and fruit, consequently the scythe and plow remained the whole year round exposed to rust and weather.
Ganie was abundant in the woods, and trout plenty in all the streams. Hunting was not only a pioneer accomplishment, but a common pursuit. The rifle was found in nearly every cabin. Its use was familiar to all from youth up, and its owner usually possessed a steady nerve and a quick eye.
In those early years the habits and manners of the people corresponded with their rough pursuits and surroundings. Their recreations consisted in outdoor sports, such as a vigorous and athletic people always delight in. Wrestling was a popular amusement, and was universally practiced on rais- ing, training and election days, and other assemblies of the people.
The carly pioneers were remarkably generons and hospitable. The latchi- strings always "hung ont." Isolated in the wilderness, subject to common hardships, participating in the same simple enjoyments, and living in com- plete social equality caused true friendship and genuine benevolence to be cultivated and universal. Wealth was not regarded as a passport to respecta- bility. Their charity was not manifested in cold ostentatious displays of lib- erality, nor was it that unaccountable sensibility that only descries distress in the distance, that bestows its bounties afar off. It was the unaffected and gen- uine charity taught in the Scripture. They would themselves repair to the cabin of their destitute neighbor, and with their own hands, and with real kindness, relieve his distress and administer to his wants. If the afflictions they sought to relieve were the result of what they termed " shiftlessness," intemperance or other fault, they would with charity administer a just rebuke, and endeavor to correct the fault by a wholesome and sometimes a rough repri- mand. Humanity was their distinguishing trait, yet exhibited in the rough manner peculiar to the pioneer. The new comer was treated with a cordial welcome. No unjust or disparaging reflections were indulged in, but he was received as an equal, and assumed to be in every way a worthy companion until found to be otherwise. All lent a helping hand to assist him to build his cabin
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
and make his first clearing ; and often did it happen that men of doubtful character, who settled among them, by such fair and generous treatment were made good citizens, and maintained ever after fair characters.
The people who emigrated to Chautauqua after the building of the canal differed in certain respects from those who came before them. They were not so poor. The prospect of a market for the surplus products of the soil and other signs of coming prosperity invited people from New England and from communities in other settled localities who brought with them more means, and habits of economy and thrift that prevailed in the east. These new comers were better skilled in husbandry, and consequently better fitted for the changed condition of the county, which had now advanced from a backwoods state, and become a "farming country," although there were several towns almost entirely covered with forests.
Many of the old settlers, unfitted by their habits of life to these changed conditions or pressed with debt, sold their improvements at a loss to the more thrifty new-comers and sought more congenial homes in the West, and the simple and hearty ways of the pioneers that remained were gradually sup- planted by the more conventional and less genuine manners of the farmers who followed them.
The completion of the Erie Canal dates the close of the true pioneer history of the county. Yet for many years the characteristics of the pioneer period were very closely interwoven with the ways of the people who came after them. Indeed the methods of life of the pioneer did not entirely disappear until 25 years later, or about the time of the building of the New York and Erie railroad, when communication was still better established with the eastern towns, and a still better market was obtained.
The history of the county would not be complete if an account of the customs of the people who inhabited it during the first 50 years of its settle- ment should be omitted. We therefore liberally quote from " Pioneer Homes and Characteristics " written by the late Judge L. Bugbee, of Stockton, which contains most faithful pictures of their life. This admirable description was prepared for the Chautauqua County Society of History and Natural Science. The early life of Mr. Bugbee was passed among these old pioneers, and his memory bore to his later years a vivid recollection of the scenes he has so accurately described.
"Let us examine the obstacles to be bravely met by the pioneers, who sought to establish homes in the wilderness of Chautauqua. Jeremiah Griffith settled at Griffith Point in April 1806. His son, Samuel, states that he was at that time 15 years of age. The family consisted of his father and mother and six children, the youngest a babe of six months. They arrived at their destination at sundown on Saturday. Hastily erecting a temporary shelter with crotches, poles and bonghs, and kindling a fire in
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front, they made themselves comfortable till Monday. Early in the morn- ing Mr. G. and the boys were busy with their axes in eutting the second growth trees from the Indian fields around their wigwams, and soon had a cabin 16x20, covered with elin bark fastened in place with poles and withes, (afterwards covered with pine shingles three feet in length.) The floor was of split chestnut logs, and the door was made of the same material ; the fire- place was a notch in the floor at one end of the cabin, made upon the bare earth with stones rudely piled against the wall to protect it from the fire, with split sticks laid up in eobhouse fashion from the chamber floor upwards, being about six feet square at the base and tapering to three feet at the top, the whole wall covered inside and out with ind plaster. A " lugpole " crossed the chimney at the upper floor, from which dangled a chain with several loose hooks, on which the good housewife hung her pots and kettles in cooking. The wood used for the fireplace was usually about six feet in length. A hnge backlog often two feet in diameter was brought in on rollers and placed against the back of the chimney ; on the top was a " back- stick," about half the size of the former ; in front a "fire-stick " with each end resting upon a couple of holders a foot in diameter, the middle being filled with smaller wood, making the most cheerful family fireside the world has ever known. Around this fire sat the family on rude benches with per- haps a few splint bottom chairs for the parents and older portion. This stick chimney was far from being fire-proof, and to protect it a huge squirt gun stood in a bueket of water in the corner, which, with the watchful eyes of the family, was usually an ample protective. Matches were unknown, and the loss of fire was quite a calamity when neighbors were many miles away. But nearly all would own a flint-lock gim and ammunition. With these, and a little tow or "spunk " was found a sure and ample remedy. The gun was also the chief reliance in supplying the family with meat, chiefly from the deer that abounded in the forests. During the winter veni- son hams could be seen in nearly every cabin suspended on wooden pins to dry around the huge chimney or from the beams overhead. No better dried meats ever graced the table of kings, and when fresh it was equal to the best domesticated animals. The pioneers around Chautauqua lake also relied mueh on the fish which they captured in any desired quantity with hooks or in their canoes by night with pine torches and spears. Speckled trout and horned dace were found in large quantities in the numerous spring brooks which at that time were flowing the year round. Chautauqua lake was often called the " meat barrel " of the pioneer. It was not uncommon for a couple of men to capture 200 pounds or more of pickerel or bass in a single night.
A great majority of the early settlers with families, came with ox teams on " wooden-shod " sleds. One or two cows and a few sheep followed driven
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
by the boys. In the winter, they subsisted upon browse, the best of which was elm, basswood and maple tops, on which they would thrive as on the best of hay. In summer or in spring the herbage in the woodlands furnished abundant pasturage. One who has never seen our forests of fifty years ago can hardly conceive of the beauty and magnificence of the scene presented during April, May and June. They were everywhere carpeted with ferns, leeks, and a great variety of wild flowers up to the knees or hips, and along the intervals and water-courses nettles and other wild herbage were often higher than a man's head, forming an alnost impassable barrier. For more than thirty years many portions of the county depended upon the woodlands for their pasturage, and the tinkle of the cow-bell was heard at all points of the compass. The milk and butter was usually highly tinctured with leeks, and, to make them passable as an article of food, an onion, leek, or bunch of sives was placed besides the plate of each one of which they took an occa- sional taste. The courageous and provident pioneer, having sheltered his family in a rude cabin, next cleared away a patch and planted it to corn and potatoes, reserving small portions here and there, where the log heaps had been burned, for cucumbers, melons and other vines.
In order to understand the labor to be performed to clear away an acre of the native woodland, we will state that upon this would be found from forty to forty-five trees from one to three feet in diameter, besides the staddles, underbrush and fallen timber. This applies to the hard timber lands where beech and maple prevailed. A good axeman would chop and prepare an acre of this in six days ; an expert axeman would often do it in four. The staddles and underbrush were cut and thrown into heaps, then the larger trees were cut into sections 16 to 20 feet in length for logging or to be drawn and rolled into heaps for burning. The tops were trimmed and thrown into piles and burned in order to clear the way for the ox-team and men which were to follow. A full set required a teamster and three men with handspikes to roll the logs in position. When these log heaps were well ablaze with innumerable sparks dancing and darting upward under an evening sky the scene was cheering and delightful. The timber being con- smned the ashes were carefully raked mto heaps, then drawn to the leach, water thrown upon them, the lye caught in a trough dug out with an axe from a section of a large tree, then boiled down to a thick black pudding known as black salts. On the oak and chestnut lands it was customary to cut out the small timber and underbrush, girdle the large trees and leave them standing, plant the ground to corn and potatoes or sow to wheat or oats and thus obtain very good crops.
The early mills at Westfield, Bemns creek, on the outlet, Silver Creek and Canadaway were a great blessing to the pioneer, but many were so far away and the roads so bad that they were obliged to grind their corn with a
11
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THE CLOSE OF THE PIONEER PERIOD.
pestle attached to a spring pole in a hole dug out of a log. All crops com- mitted to the virgin soil cheerfully responded to the efforts of the husband- men. In especial manner the potato would often give a plump bushel for every six hills. Very little cultivation was necessary. An early settler used often to speak to us the pleasure he experienced when he dug his first hill of great smooth potatoes.
The manufacture of maple sugar was an important industry, and gave to the people an abundant supply of this luxury, and was a convenient article of exchange. The sap was usually caught in troughs made with the axe from the enember tree, and boiled down in kettles suspended to Ingpoles with large quantities of fuel. The sugar camp was often the resort of the young men and maidens of the neighborhood, who, around the cheerful fire, would pass the fleeting hours in merry glee, over a feast of wax sugar spread upon the virgin show.
Darius Knapp of Harmony was among its first settlers. He informed the writer that his capital at the time he took an article of liis farm consisted of courage and his are on his shoulder. He said that he had made the trip on foot seventeen times between sun and sun from Buffalo to Panama. Joseph Sackett at an early day came from Buffalo to his home in Stockton, starting at early dawn, and chopped a cord of wood before sundown. Nahum Aldrich who settled on lot 2 above Long Point, on Chantauqua lake in 1807 was unmarried. His wealth consisted of his axe only and an indomitable will. These men all died wealthy. Aldrichi boarded awhile with his neigh- bor, Deacon John Peterson, but, alarmed at the debt he was incurring, he moved his quarters to his own premises and kept bachelor's hall, cooking his food in a skillet, and lodging for several months in a hollow buttonwood log, his only shelter, his bed some straw with a single blanket. During the summer he captured many ducks with his gun, from the feathers of whichi and an old shirt for a case he made a comfortable pillow.
The period of bark covered cabins was of short duration. The body of this primitive dwelling was made of light poles that could be placed in posi- tion by the help at hand. As soon as the country became well settled and sawmills could be built from which boards could be obtained, the more sub- stantial log house took its place. These were quite uniform in size, usually about 20x24 feet, with a projection of the roof in front of ten feet resting on the beams that supported the chamber floor. This projection was called a " stoop," and under it could be seen pots and kettles, the washtub, the wooden washbowl, splint broom, and many other necessary utensils of the household. This house was the first work of the pioneer. Straight trees and of uniform size were selected and drawn to the place chosen for the dwelling ; the neigh- bors were invited to the "raising," and all made it a religious duty to attend, unselfishly forgetting the duties of home. . No foundation was required but
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
the four logs, the size of the building, laid upon the level ground. When this was done four of the best axemen each took a corner, and cut a saddle and notch to hold the logs in position as they were rolled on skids to the proper place. They were usually made a story and a half, the upper portion being the sleeping room of the family, access to which was a ladder, or pins driven into the logs in the wall of the house, and occasionally rough board stairs. Three or four hours in an afternoon was sufficient time to raise a log house. When the body was up the logs were cut away for the door and windows, the floor laid with unplaned boards, the space between the logs filled with split pieces of wood and plastered with mud, the gables boarded, the roof made of pine shingles, and a stone chimney, with jams and an iron crane for the pots and kettles, made for those days a very comfortable and convenient home. Occasionally, when briek could be obtained, an oven was built at one side of the fireplace, the flue entering the chimney. These ovens were of sufficient size to contain a half dozen loaves of bread, as many pies, and a pan of pork and beans. Fine dry wood was required to heat the oven for baking, but it is doubted if the modern range or cook stove is any improvement in this branch of cookery. Occasionally ovens were built out- side the house on a log platform up to the hips. The house without an oven would substitute the bake-kettle, a flat-bottom, straight-sided iron vessel with legs four inches long and an iron cover. The baking was performed by sur- rounding the kettle with live coals in a corner of the fire-place, changing and renewing as occasion required. A loaf of bread baked in this manner, made of three parts of corn meal and one part of stewed pumpkin, was a great favorite with the pioneer. No better bread was ever made. It was thought that standing in the kettle over night improved its flavor. Remove the cover in the morning and behold a brown loaf with a yellow tinge and aroma that would tempt an epicure. "Johnny cake," or brown bread baked upon a board or spider tilted up before the fire, was also in common use. To cook a sparerib, duck of turkey they were suspended by a tow string before the open fire-place, with an iron vessel underneath to catch the drip- pings from which the cock would bathe or baste the parts with a ladle or spoon, giving her charge at the same time a whirl that all portions might receive the benefit of the blazing fire. Plain roast potatoes and salt was often an acceptable and even a pleasing meal for the entire family. The open fire-place introduced the use of andirons on which rested the finer portion of the wood in front of the back log in building the fire. The hearth made of smooth flag-stones three or four feet in width was always a necessary portion of the stone chimney. About 1830 the tin oven superseded the bake kettle. This consisted of a tin frame about two feet long and one foot wide, with a short iron pan with a cover of bright tin, standing at an angle of forty-five degrees when open before the blazing fire, and, when new, performed the
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