History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 56

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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every farmer's son who stands at the turning point of his destiny, deciding whether he will be a farmer or seek fortune in other pursuits. On the one side are certainty, respectability, independence, health, communion with nature, a reasonable competency, in short all the natural pleasures which belong to life. On the other are uncertainty, dependence, the merciless struggle for power and place, in which the heart withers and the brain burns ; there is exposure to all the nameless temptations of corrupt and artificial life ; there is the fixing of the affections upon things which, if they fail, bring blighted hopes, despair, criminal recklessness ; if by unmeasured toil they succeed, they have only gained Dead-sea fruit, which turns to dust and ashes to the taste. Go the cities where you can point out one country boy who has grown to wealth and fame, I will find you ten besotted beings, going through the last stages of degradation ere they find a resting place in the potter's field. Yet they went from pleasant country homes, with a mother's blessing, and with innocence and hope, and were overcome by temptation. I say to parents reflect before you send your children abroad. I say to the young with happy homes in the country, who can became the owners of land, who. can have all the joys that legitimately belong to life, you are like our first parents in Eden ; partake of what God has given, do not hazard it all to taste the fruit of some forbidden or fabled tree which fancy paints somewhere in the distance. Life admits of but a single experiment. After you have failed in some other pursuit, you cannot go back to industry, to a quiet country home, and to content, for when the demon of pride, avarice and ambition take full possession of the soul, it is for ever.

It is certain that the emigrants to Chautauqua found as favored a land as any on the long highway between the oceans. Here was a fertile soil, pure waters, forests with all forms of trees for use, an atmosphere bearing health and energy. Here was a spacious harbor upon the shore of one of the great chain of lakes. Here was a part of the most available highway across the continent. Here was the capacity to produce in the greatest perfection the cereals, the nutritious grasses, the varied fruits that sustain animal life.

Levi C. Baldwin informed me that prior to 1840, he brought 12 bushels of the choicest peaches to Fredonia, offered them at a shilling a bushel, could find no purchaser, drew them back, and shoveled them into the hog- pen. I believe that there is not in the United States a place where from a farmi of 100 acres, a greater variety and amount of food to sustain life can be produced than here.

Here have been many industries which have taxed and rewarded human toil. The three Risley brothers, about 1830, established the "Risley Seed Gardens " in Fredonia. For a long time they were the most extensive in the United States, sending their products to every state and territory. In 1849 they sold onion seed in California for the same weight in gold. Many.

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boys who commenced working at $6 per month upon the gardens became wealthy and influential men. I may mention Joel R. Parker, U. E. Dodge, George D. Hinckley, and David S. Wright, as conspicuous graduates from those gardens. The Canadaway creek, running through the town to the lake with a fall of about 700 feet in the town, has had 27 manufactories upon its banks, and has contributed largely to meet the wants of the com- munity. The hum of industry everywhere mingled with its waters. Now the little manufacturing done is mostly by steam. The great concentration of manufacturing capital and machinery in the cities has left the shores of the creeks and rivers desolate. The intelligent mechanics who used to give character to rural communities have been deprived of employment by the men who congregate in cities and spend their lives in doing only some trifling thing upon some job. This system may produce cheap machines but it also prodnees cheap restless men. Do we realize that the production of cheap machinery is not the chief end of life ?

Within the last twenty years, the production of grape roots has grown into an immense business finding a market in every state and territory, and almost every nationality upon the globe. About twenty millions are annu- ally distributed. T. S. Hubbard & Co., (E. H. Pratt, secretary and general manager), George S. Josselyn, Lewis Roesch, and Wheelock & Clark are the principal producers.

Another extensive business has been built up by Dr. M. M. Fenner in manufacturing medicines known as " The Peoples' Remedies." Thongh widely disseminated, the old saying, " Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return " is not disproved, as men now occasionally die.

Laona, in the southern part of the town, had the first woolen factory in the county in 1812, which did a large and profitable business for many years. Major Nelson Gorham, a noble specimen of manhood, carried it on, coming to it in 1837, as a refugee after the Patriot War (so called) failed in Canada. White, Bumpus and Ellis carried on a large tannery for more than 40 years. They were able men, and laid the foundations so strongly that the business still lives, though Eyvenns Ellis is the only survivor of its founders.

In 1834 there were in Laona and vicinity about 30 Mormons. Dr. Thomas D. Man was practicing there as a physician. A Mormon elder was sick unto death, and the doctor took his three students with him in one of his visits. The elder said that he should die, but should arise from the grave the third day. One of the students whispered to the other, " We will see that he does." Unfortunately some of the Mormons overheard this, and on the third night they assembled in force to watch, and when the boys had the body partly removed from the grave, they rushed upon them and succeeded in capturing one of the number. This year the Mormons removed, almost in a body, to Ohio, but they left one of their number as a witness to convict

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the young student. The one left had the habit of drinking, and, by a con- certed effort and free whiskey, was in a profound slumber when the case was called for trial. No one appearing, the case was dismissed. It is to be doubted whether the prisoner could have been convicted for his efforts to ver- ify the predictions of a dying saint. The accused was Dr. George S. Harri- son, who for more than 50 years was one of the most influential citizens and ablest physicians in Chautauqua county. It is believed that the same trio of medical students prepared themselves for their duties by a close observation of the bones and muscles of Joseph Damon, the murderer.

Many men have contributed to the developement of this town in various ways, and I can hardly do more than to give the names of a few of them. Some in connection with the early settlement and the academy, I have already spoken of.

Henry C. Frisbee commenced publishing the Censor in 1821. In 1842 Mr. Willard Mckinstry purchased the paper, and afterwards associated his brother with him, and then his son Louis, who is now in its active manage- ment. It is the oldest paper in western New York, and has always been a pure and able paper. In 1871, in its fiftieth year, Mr. Mckinstry gave a banquet to Mr. Frisbee, which was a most notable gathering. Hon. Hanson A. Risley presided. Mr. Mckinstry is now the oldest editor in the state. As his old associates pass away, his still vigorous pen commemorates their lives and perpetuates their memories. The Advertiser and Union was com- menced in 1846. Mr. L. L. Pratt, an able writer, who is now connected with the Watertown Times was its first editor. He was succeeded by C. E. Benton who conducted it ably and successfully until his death. It has since been under the efficient editorial management of A. H. Hilton, and has a daily paper connected with it, published at Dunkirk.

Of the pioneer physicians, Dr. White was the first. He came to Fre- donia in 1808, thoroughly educated, but the population was so sparse that he had to teach school the first winter. He practiced largely for 50 years, but never kept a set of books, practically giving his services to humanity. His skill was considered marvelous. He was the friend of education. He aided every cause that promised to make men better. He was the first surrogate of the county, and several times a member of the legislature. He was a great and good man. His nearest neighbor was Dr. Benjamin Walworth, also a learned and skilled surgeon. He came to Fredonia in 1824. He was a brother of Chancellor Walworth. He drew the charter of the village of Fredonia in 1829. In 1828 he was appointed one of the judges of the county court and held the position for 13 years. He was 14 years president of the corporation of Fredonia. He was for 31 years a trustee, and, most of the time, president of the Fredonia academy. He had strong prejudices some- times to the living, but no one ever heard him speak unkindly of the dead.

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He died at the age of 87. It is said that when he and Dr. White had a rail fence between them at an early period, that the top rails were broken and carried off, and Dr. Walworth suggested that the fence be divided and each repair his part. They met for this purpose, and Dr. Walworth told Dr. White to look the fence over and take which part he preferred. After look- ing, Dr. White said that he would take the lower part, the three bottom rails. Dr. Walworth did the repairing. .

Another of the early physician's was Dr. Orris Crosby, who came to Fre- donia in 1817. He was born in Connecticut, studied medicine with an uncle in Canada. He was, during the war, put in prison for vindicating his country. He was put on board the British fleet, and because he would not fight his countrymen was shot by a British lieutenant and left for dead. He carried during the rest of his life the marks of the wound in his breast and the Brit- ish handcuffs on his wrists. He was an able physician. Later Charles E. Washburn came here, in 1851. He was an accomplished scholar and phy- sician. He was surgeon of the 112th Regiment, and died from fever about the time the war closed. He was one of the men, who, whether joy or sor- row life or death came, did his duty as it was revealed to him. About the time the war closed Dr. Mathew S. Moon, who had held high rank as sur- geon in the Confederate army, removed here from South Carolina. He soon won the hearts and confidence of the people. As a physician he was the acknowledged peer of the ablest in western New York. Dr. Thomas D. Mann commenced practice in Laona in 1828, and died in 1837, at the age of 32. No other physician in so short a time achieved a greater success. Of the living physicians, let some one write after their records and that of their patients are completed.

I will write briefly of the legal profession. Judge Houghton was the first lawyer and left an honorable record. James Mullett came to Fredonia in 3810. With only a common school education, he commenced the study of the law at the age of 30. He was emphatically a great man. He had strong, earnest convictions. You might as well have attempted to stay the thunderbolt as to repress his emphatic utterance of what he deemed to be just and true. He was a man for great occasions, and when place seekers and demagogues would be overwhelmed and lost, communities and states would turn to him for a leader and a guide. His brain was stimulated and inspired by a warm generous heart. His best efforts were in behalf of those upon whom courts and juries and bystanders frowned. His powers were never employed to sus- tain any gigantic wrong. He loved truth, justice, and humanity better than gold. With rare opportunities for accumulation, he never acquired a com- petence. It seemed sad to see pigmies thrive while the giant starved. He was once a candidate for surrogate and delegates from Pomfret were elected for him. The night before the convention he withdrew. He said to one of

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its delegates, " I have tried all day to raise $ro. I have been refused by men who are under the strongest obligations to me, and a man who cannot raise $10 to defray the expenses of his friends to the convention, is not fit to be surrogate of Chautauqua county." Tender of all the money he needed from his friend did not change his resolution. His effort in defense of Joseph Damon for murder, was never surpassed for eloquence and power in any age or country. His invective marked men. In a suit begun against some boys by a man of herculean proportions, who tried to preserve order upon camp- meeting grounds, he characterized the plaintiff as " Zion's bulldog." Many of his judicial opinions will stand for ages as monuments of his learning, logic, high sense of justice, and strength and felicity of expression. Hon. B. F. Greene, Chauncey Tucker, Philip S. Cottle, Frank Cushing, Thomas P. Grosvenor, C. H. Matteson, William A. Barden, Walter W. Holt, all of whom have passed away, have honored the profession. Among the eldest of the living members are the venerable E. F. Warren, George Barker, Lorenzo Morris, F. S. Edwards, John S. Lambert. All of them belong not to the town, but to the county and will be presented in its general history. It is a com- pliment to the town that in the So years since the organization of the county it has furnished the county judge for more than one-third of the time, and has furnished, since 1847, four justices of the supreme court, James Mullett, Benj. F. Greene, George Barker, and John S. Lambert. All but Judge Lam- bert have retired from judicial service, and he, like his predecessors, is mak- ing an honorable record.

Citizens of Pomfret were honored by a visit from Lafayette in 1825. It his long journey he was greeted by no more eloquent voice than that of Rev. David Brown, first pastor of the Episcopal church of Fredonia. Detained by accident, he did not reach Fredonia until after midnight. Many revolu- tionary soldiers were present, and under the leadership of General Risley, General Barker, Colonel Abell, Captain Whitcomb, and Captain Brown made the most of the pomp of war by the exhibition of the wilderness militia. In the response of Lafayette to Mr. Brown, he said, "The manner of my recep- tion here, my dear sir, in a place so shortly since a wilderness, as you have said, surprises me as much as it pleases me. That the ladies too should remain up all night to receive me, it is too much." This ovation to Lafay- ette in city and country was the most wonderful expression of gratitude in the world's history. It was for sacrifices made more than 50 years before for liberty and humanity. It crowned a great life.

In 1836 the citizens of Pomfret were not exempt from the speculative spirit of the times. They were the pioneers of a movement to build a great city at Van Buren to be the terminus of the Erie railroad. Shares of stock representing $100 sold for thirty-five hundred. A railroad was surveyed from Fredonia to Van Buren. A corporation was formed and purchased

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Wheeler's gulf, three miles south of Fredonia, for stone quarries, and stock in them was sold largely on Wall street. These were to furnish the stone to be used in building up the city of Van Buren. There was at that time in the gulf a kind of stupid black-snake, some of which attained the length of 12 feet. We suppose they were to be trained, and to draw the stone from the quarry to the Fredonia & Van Buren railroad.

In 1851 the New York & Erie railroad was completed to Dunkirk. The president and his cabinet and Daniel Webster were present. This was the greatest day Chantauqua county had ever known. I cannot write of the railroad companies which have since built about 300 miles of railroad in Chautauqua county. The voice of the engine is daily heard in more than half of its homes and will speak for the railroads while generations of men come and go.

This town contributed its full quota of heroes to the war of the rebellion. I will not speak of them individually. A day has been set apart by law to honor their memories, to recount their great deeds, to decorate their graves. There, each spring, kindred and comrades come, and eloquent voices draw inspiration from the memory of the dead. We may hope this custom will contine long as the spring shall present her flowers, long as gratitude shall warm Innan hearts.

I can only name a few of the men who have departed but who have lived useful and honorable lives and have left their impress for good upon this community : Ebenezer A. Lester, John Crane, Philo H. Stevens, Alva H. Walker, Daniel W. Douglass, Elisha Norton, Orson Stiles, Stephen M. Clem- ent, Joel R. Parker, Elijah Risley, William Risley, Levi Risley, Horace White, Roselle Greene, Lewis B. Grant, David Barrell, Aaron L. Putnam, George C. Rood, William C. Graham, James Gillis, Henry C. Frisbee, George W. Lewis, Frederic A. Redington, Daniel J. Pratt, J. Condit Smith, Robert MePherson, Charles J. Orton, Alva Colburn, Charles Burritt, Ahnond B. Madison, Arnold Kingsbury, John B. McLenathan. I may speak of Austin Smith, now living at the age of ninety, the first principal of Fredonia Aca- demy in 1826, and who is still engaged in his profession of law at his home in Westfield. His life covers substantially the changes from the wilderness to Western New York of today, such changes as a life has never witnessed elsewhere in the world's history. Chauncey Abbey and many others have seen the same changes. They represent the buried generations. Of the liv- ing of today, my associates and friends who are dear to me, I have not spoken knowing that when they are gone some other pen will tell of their lives and virtues. The "Old Settlers' Festival" at Fredonia June 11th, 1873, was a large gathering from Chautauqua county and abroad not only of the pio- neers, but of the later generations. There was in attendence five over 90 years of age, 40 between 80 and 90, and 150 between 70 and So. We may

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assume now that they are all gone, but their faces, preserved by art look down upon us from the walls of our homes, their voices linger in our cars, the works of their hands are in the fruitfulness, bloom and beauty of our hills and valleys, and by their sides shall all of us soon sleep and with them await the resurrection.

Every fable has a moral and I suppose every history should have. There are many impressive social lessons to be learned even in the changes of the century in this humble town. They are lessons not peculiar, but such as our common humanity teaches everywhere. It is a solemn lesson that men do not bear prosperity ; that power and capacity for achievement come only from the toil and discipline of sorrow ; that men of one generation become strong and make life too easy for the next. In many cases here we have seen the sturdy pioneer come to the annual fairs with his cereals, his flocks and herds. His children appear with costly equipages and fast horses, and the third generation on foot, empty handed and hopeless, and the name is 110 longer upon the tongues of men. While this is going on toiling boys, denied opportunities, are working their way to wealth and place, to curse their pos- terity with too much unearned wealth.

In physical achievement, since the settling of Pomfret, the dreams of the poet have been surpassed. The achievements of 6,000 years have been mul- tiplied or the tree taking root in all the centuries, fed by the toil and suffer- ing of all, has at last suddenly blossomed and borne fruit. How helpless was the pioneer in the wilderness, but his children now are citizens of the world, sharers in all its luxury and glory. Every continent and every sea ministers to them. It took months for the pioneers to hear from across the seas, now the world's history of each day is read at the evening fireside. For many years a single carrier, on foot, carried all the mail past us to the west, now the railroads carry through Pomfret 100 tons daily. Men now live who knew Buffalo when it was a hamlet. It is now a city of 300,000 people, and is building up an electric power at Niagara where the lium of industry prom- ises to drown out the roar of the mighty cataract.

If the great object of life were splendid structures, the multiplication and diffusion of luxuries, well might men rejoice, 'but the solemn question, liere as elsewhere, is whether all these are making men better or happier.

"It is yours to judge how wide the limits stand Between a splendid and a happy land."

Every continent is strewn with the voiceless wreck of the works of men's hands and with graves. Nationalities and languages have disappeared. This has not been from any convulsion of nature, but from the degeneracy engen- dered by prosperity. In this very town were the relics of the mound build- ers. Great forest trees had grown over their resting places. The pioneer planted with hope above these warning graves. The same moral and social

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laws should remind us that there is no exemption from effects of social cor- ruption. In many ways we see the tide of anarchy rolling in that may. acquire such force that it can no more be resisted than the woman with her broom could stop the waves of the sea. Our greatest trouble is the power of monopolies, the restlessness of labor, the wildness of the scramble for gold, the violence and blindness of party spirit, and the character of the politicians who look to their own interest and forget their country. The foundation of the evil is that the agricultural population have no love for the home or the farin, which is valued only as so much merchandise. There is not a hun- dredth part of the farms occupied now by descendants of the men who first owned them. We do not believe the republic can last without the stability and conservatism of an agricultural interest that holds the balance of power sufficiently to be an element in government.

"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. Princes and lords may flourish or may fade ; A breath can make them, as a breath has made. But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied."

The teachers in schools will fail to impress moral lessons if all the lessons of life are against them. I would not hold up to children, as models, the marvels of humanity, the great historic figures, and teach them that if they - do not equal them, life is a failure. But I would exhibit the pure, self-sacri- ficing, toiling men and women who are cheerfully bearing the burden of humanity and whom they can imitate and equal. I would inspire them with a love for truth, for home pleasures, for nature, for humanity in its lowest estate, for the joys that God has provided for us all. One successful dema- gogue reeking with corruption, yet elevated to place, followed by popular applause, worshipped for successful stealing, while virtue is ridiculed and a drug in the market, will do more to demoralize young men than the exam- ples of a thousand saintly lives. All history warns us that the ship of state will not make a prosperous voyage through the centuries with demagogues and devils at the hehn, no matter if they do quote scripture and steal the robes of angels to cover their depravity. Nature has not among her possi- bilities greater woe than may come even to Pomfret, if men forget God and his laws. No matter what fields may be reclaimed, what temples may be reared, if men and women are not growing better, the pomp and splendor of civilization is as sad as the flowers that embellish graves.

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CHAPTER XLIX.

FREDONIA, CHURCHES, ETC .*

F REDONIA is a lovely village three miles nearly south of Dunkirk, with which it is connected by an electric railway, and the Dunkirk, Allegany Valley & Pittsburgh railroad. It is surrounded by hills and dales, and Canadaway creek flows through broad vineyards, tumbles into cascades and ripples merrily through the village. On a Sabbath morning, when the visitor sits on the balcony of the hotel looking out on the village park and the silence of the day is broken only by nature's warblers or the bells of four little churches that face the green, it is indescribably peace- ful and beautiful. The road between Dunkirk and Fredonia is bordered by an almost continuous stretch of fine residences under the protecting branches of grand old elms, and surrounded by picturesque lawns. Berries and all kinds of small fruits are prolific here, and are sent out in large quantities. The propagation of grape roots, gooseberry bushes and other nursery stock is also an important industry, three or four growers being extensively engaged in that business. There are 250 acres of ground devoted to the propagation of grape roots, and more of these are sold from Fredonia than from all other parts of the United States.

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 56

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