USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York > Part 75
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115
Forestville, after the building of the sawmill and gristmill in ISog and '1810, was the center of much business, and early had a large trade in pot and pearlashes.
The Holland Land Company laid out a road from Fredonia through For- estville and Nashville. This road became the road drovers took in driving their cattle, hogs and sheep to New York and Philadelphia. Taverns were abont as frequent there as on the main road along the Lake. This road helped the south part of the towns and Forestville and Nashville very much. Forestville received early a number of enterprising men who materially assisted in building it up. Among them were John Hurlbut, Nathan Mixer, Albert HI. Camp, Daniel and Harvey Holbrook, Win. Colville, Jr., Amos Avery, M. D., Adolphus and Orrin Morrison, and later, Daniel Sherman, L. J. Pierce, P. O. Tower.
After the Erie and Lake Shore railroads came in 1851-2 the whole char- acter of the town was changed. The road from Fredonia to Nashville ceased to be used by drovers. I know of no hotels except at Forestville in town on that once very busy highway. A similar change took place in the northern part of the town. After the Lake Shore railroad came through in 1852 the long lines of emigrant wagons going to the west were no longer to be seen, and the hotels closed for the want of custom. The main road along the lake shore from the old Mack tavern to Silver Creek was principally abandoned for a more direct new road from upper Irving to Silver Creek. Where the old road ran in 1838, Lake Erie has washed it away, and the gardens and lots where three houses stood, and carried off 10 or 15 acres east of the road. During the winter of 1850-1 on that road Judge Sackett kept over night for drovers 18,000 hogs, besides great numbers of cattle and sheep. He kept no hotel, but his farm, like many others, was fitted for keeping droves, and this business furnished a home market for his hay and grain. After the next
635
HANOVER.
winter few stock were driven. The railroad carried them. The government made no more appropriations for the harbor, and piers and harbor went to decay. The business at Irving and Silver Creek was much reduced by the cutting off the trade with the southern towns. Forestville also lost its part of the southern towns trade. The lower village of Irving was entirely aband- oned ; except one or two fishing shanties near the lake. From the coming of railroads Forestville, and Silver Creek more largely, invested more in manu- facturing, and increased in population and wealth until they are thriving places. Forestville had a disastrous fire in 1870 which burned most of its business places and checked its growth for years. Silver Creek's most enter- prising citizens after 1853 built factories, machine shops, etc. They have developed a large business in manufacturing and selling the Eureka smut and separating machines. This was built up by Simeon Howes, Ezekiel Montgomery & Son, Alpheus and Norman Babcock, W. W. Huntley and others. This business commenced in 1856. There have been many changes among the proprietors, Simeon Howes from 1859 to 1864 was out of the business but resumed it in 1864, and after having had others connected with him took in the business Albert Horton as a partner, who sold to Carlos Ewell. About 1888 Mr. Simeon Howes bought the interest of the Bab- cocks and Ewell, who had all died, and became sole proprietor. Mr. Howes died in 1892, and the business is carried on by his executors. 120 machines machines were made and sold in 1856-7, in 1892 more than 2,000.
The Monitor Works, manufacturing grainmill machinery, separators, etc., are owned by Win. W. Huntley, F. S. Cranson and C. L. Hannnond.
Other manufactories are Excelsior Works, making milling machines, August Heine proprietor. Shoemaker & Co., manufacture buckwheat shuckers ; Staring & Co., have a stepladder factory ; Montgomery, Quail & Montgomery have upholstering works ; Henry Schrader has a basket factory ; there are two flouring mills and other minor industries, making Silver Creek a thriving manufacturing village.
February 10, 1877, a few farmers met at Deacon A. S. Giles' to form a farmers' club, which was organized March 22, 1877, at the house of A. M. Keach, as the "Farmers Club of Hanover," with J. J. Keyes, president, and A. S. Giles, R. C. Clothier, E. Dennison, A. M. Keach, J. J. Keyes, Wmn. Gardner, N. C. Southworth, Comfort Birdsey, D. J. Rider, J. F. Elson, Mr. McEwen and John Mixer members. It meets two Saturdays in each month.
Hanover Lodge, F. & A. M. was instituted in the schoolhouse at For- estville, Feb. 5, 1824. Charter members : Luther Thwing, W. M. ; Ezra Piffer, S. W. ; Seth Snow, J. W. ; Albert H. Camp, sect. ; Warren Griswold, treas. (first officers) and Ephraim Judson, Richard Smith, William Jones and Elijah Robinson. Discontinued in 1828, it was rechartered in 1849.
636
HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
Silver Lodge, No. 757, F. & A. M., was organized Nov. 11, 1874. The charter members were Hiram Washburn, W. M .; Amos Bowen, S. W .; G. W. Eacker, J. W. ; O. Lee Swift, treasurer ; C. G. Talcott, secretary ; Frank Swift, S. D .; P. W. Bates, J. D. ; and F. D. Fuller, W. L. Christy, F. M. Gifford, James Chesbro, Ebenezer Buel, W. W. Huntley, Smith Clark, A. L. Mulkins, A. Montgomery, M. Leland, W. S. Andrus, Squire Keith, G. D. Chesbro, H. Newton, G. W. Smith, G. B. Bishop, Membership, April 1894, 108. The present secretary is S. H. Burgess.
Silver Creek Lodge, No. 682, I. O. O. F., was instituted Oct. 31, 1893. Charter members : H. A. Weston, W. W. Cole, C. M. Homan, John Schmill, D. J. Van Vlack, H. W. Allen. Present membership, 41.
Flourishing societies of Royal Arcanum, Royal Templars, United Work- men, Maccabees, Farmers' Alliance, etc., exist.
Jolın G. Record, son of Israel and Mary (Gardner) Record, is a native of Hanover. He received an academical education, was admitted to the Chau- tauqua county bar in 1859, and has been and is a successful practitioner at Forestville. Mr. Record is a Democrat of the Jeffersonian type, and advocates the principles of liis party with vigor. He has served his town as supervisor.
Albert W. Hull was born in Oneida county in 1825. His father moved to Cherry Creek in 1837 and here Albert received his early education. He was engaged in contracting and building for some years, and in 1868 con- menced the study of law with Jolin G. Record and was admitted to the bar of the state in 1870, and subsequently that of the United States district courts, and pursues his profession at Forestville. In 1885 he was elected justice of the sessions.
Hon. George E. Towne, a native of Keene, N. H., removed to Cattaraugus county when 13. He was graduated in 1875 from the Ten Broeck academy at Franklinville, read law with the Hon. Alfred Spring and was admitted to practice at Rochester in 1879, and commenced practice in Cattaraugus county. In 1880 he came to Silver Creek and established himself as a lawyer. He is a Republican and has been a popular member of assembly two terms.
Edwin R. Hopkins, M. D., son of Ezra and Catherine (Johnson) Hopkins, was born at Westfield, May 21, 1849. He was educated at Westfield academy, was a medical student in Dr. J. M. Brown's office. He then went to Buffalo and after studying two years with the professor of surgery in the medical department of the University of Buffalo, he entered the university and was graduated therefrom in February, 1877, and located at Silver Creek in November, where he has been in active and successful practice as a surgeon and physician. He is surgeon of the W. N. Y. and Pa. R. R., is a mem- ber of the Chautauqua County Medical Society and vice-president of the alumni of the medical department of the University of Buffalo.
637
HANOVER.
1)
CHAPTER LIX.
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
BY REV. CHALON BURGESS.
E DUCATION and religion are the two main pillars upon which our nation stands safely builded. The early settlers of the town of Han- over, true to their Puritan origin, made prompt and thoughtful pro- vision for both these institutions. The schoolhouse and the church were regarded by them as no less essential to their welfare than their own homes. They acted on the principle, since so forcibly stated in these words: "The continued ringing of the schoolbell and the continued ringing of the church- bell are essential to the continued ringing of the liberty bell."
Owing to the absence of documents and the removal by death of pioneers it is difficult to trace the history and progress of these institutions in our town. It is believed however that the first school was taught at Irving, then called Cattaraugus Village, and the first teacher, or among the earliest teachers, was Miss Nancy Hall, a daughter of Ephraim Hall, an early settler there. She was soon succeeded by her brother William Hall, and he by Lyman Gregory. The next school taught was at what was then called Fayette, now Silver Creek. The schoolhouse stood where is now the residence of the late Mr. Lucius Cook, and after three or four migrations it has been succeeded by the pres- ent nobleedifice. Among the earliest teachers whose names are remembered are Mr. Bacon, Judge Richard Smith, Miss Philena Johnson, Donald Johnson, and Miss Emily Trask. The last named teacher was one-armed, and among her other qualifications and achievements as a teacher, the making of a good quill pen with the use of only one hand, stands out quite distinct in the memory of her few surviving pupils. Forestville, then called Walnut City, Nashville, Smith's Mills, is the probable order of succession in the opening of schools. The first teacher at Forestville that we can trace was a Mr. McDaniels in 1816.
Something should be said, before we go farther, about the schoolhouses and the course of study of these early years. The first log school building had passed away before the writer's memory, but he has very distinct and lively recollections of the first schoolhouse which he ever entered, and that was far back in the early twenties. This was a frame building nearly square in form, the interior of which had some three or four rows of seats rising
638
HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
rapidly from front to rear, each seat having a broad shelf for writing and study, except the front row which was assigned to the little ones and consti- tuted our primary department. A large Dutch fireplace with its great blaz- ing logs gave us in winter a practical and very sensible illustration of the three zones of the earth-the torrid being nearest the fire, the temperate about the middle of the room, and the frigid in the rear. The furniture of the room was simple and scanty-a desk for the master, a broom, a water pail, a heavy ferule, a good stout birch stick, with a dark closet which, among other purposes, served for the solitary confinement of the youngest offenders, forms a pretty complete inventory of our school apparatus. The ferule and the whip may be said to have been our philosophical equipment, the use of which illustrated the comparative efficacy of penalty when applied to a particular portion of the body as the hand or a more general distribution over the surface by the whip. The scantiness of our schoolhouse appliances was made up for by the frequency and thoroughness of their use. It is but just however to say that this severity was only occasional. Many teachers then as now maintained order largely by appeals to the reason and the better nature of their pupils.
The course of study in these early schools was pretty nearly limited to three R's, but these were taught with commendable thoroughness, so that though confessedly inferior in appliances and methods these schools were not without some advantages over those of more recent years. We all know very well that when attention is drawn in many directions and divided among many things what is gained in superficial extent is apt to be lost in intensity and volmne. Thus the fewness of the studies favored concentration and thoroughness. More than seven decades have passed since the first rude provision for education was made in this region. Probably about two hun- dred different teachers have had their share in training the youth of Silver Creek, and doubtless the proportion has been much the same in other parts of the town. What a curious treasure would it be could a complete collec- tion be made of the school books of those early days! Think of Pike's Arithmetic-a book about. the size of Young's county history, and quite intricate in statement-to be put into the hands of beginners ! What a wel- come change when Pike was succeeded by Alexander Daboll and Adams ! Lindley Murray and Kirkham were our teachers in Grammar. In Geog- raphy, Morse, Malte Brun, Olney and Mitchell. In Reading, the American Preceptor, Columbian Orator and English Reader-the latter being a capital collection of English composition, but what a formidable first step for a child to take in the art of reading was one of its opening sentences ! e. g. " Deli- gence, industry, and proper improvement of time, are material duties of the young." Dilworth, Webster and Cobb initiated the youth into the mysteries of spelling. The words were arranged in straight and formidable rows on
639
HANOVER.
the page, and the scholars in rows as straight and long, but not as motion- . less, on the floor. Oral spelling was the method in vogue, and when the long words like incomprehensibility and all the other bilities, concatenation and all the other ations, words that like a whip with a snapper at the end rolled down the class, the excited and eager contestants must be confessed to have filled the room with a noise that was loud if not learned. But we think we may safely challenge comparison between that time and the present in the knowledge of orthography gained. Well do I remember scholars who, incited by love of conquest over the anomalies of the language, or by promised reward from parent or teacher, would pass a month or even two months without missing a single word. And when a spelling match was had it was a sight worth seeing, the spectators often getting tired of waiting for the scholars all to be spelled down. Frequently the last one standing would spell so long without missing that the teacher, through sheer weariness, was constrained to end the contest by ceasing to pronounce the words.
There are other respects in which we may justly claim for these early schools a decided superiority. The power of personal influence of teacher over scholar was much greater. The varying characteristics and talents of the pupils had better opportunity for attention and culture on the part of the teacher. The methods of teaching being more flexible there was conse- quently less danger of repressing natural gifts and endowments and so reducing all the scholars to the same shape and mold. Reverence for age and author- ity, deference and politeness to strangers, obedience to the powers that be- these were thoroughly and successfully taught. The pupils were required as they left the room at the close of the school for the day, to turn respect- fully toward the teacher, and with a bow or courtesy, and a "good after- noon," take their leave. And also on their way home they were required to salute strangers or acquaintance with similar tokens of respect. It is per- haps a necessary effect of our free institutions to develop individuality and self- assertion to a dangerous extreme. We need to put on the brakes upon this tend- ency. The public school should be an auxiliary to the parent and the church in helping to inspire proper regard for official station and rightful authority. Certainly in this respect the present does not compare favorably with the past. How often instead of a respectful salutation or bow is it the case that a stranger riding through a town is greeted with a derisive epithet if not a snowball or a stone. This tendency to rudeness, self-importance and conceit every wise teacher will seek to diminish and restore something of that mod- esty and pleasing deference which were so generally characteristic of the period under review. While, therefore, we appreciate and admit the increased facilities of our modern schools, and in many respects the better work done, let us not fail to render due homage to these early efforts made so early and
640
HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
successfully to sow the seeds of knowledge, reverence, and obedience, in the minds of the young. As we hold in grateful remembrance the sturdy pioneers who leveled the forests, bridged the streams, built the mills, and pre- pared the way for the material comforts which cheer and adorn our homes, so let us enshrine in our grateful memories those who, amidst the priva- tions and difficulties of the early times, when corn was pounded in a. mortar, when wheat, if to be had at all, commanded three dollars a bushel, when " wild meat without bread or salt was often their only food for weeks together "-nevertheless did plan and provide, in all matters affecting the educational development of the people, so wisely and so well.
The town of Hanover is divided into sixteen school districts. In two of these districts, namely Forestville and Silver Creek, are schools of high grade, where pupils may, if they desire, gain preparation for college. That at Forestville is entitled "The Free Academy " and received its present organization in 1865. Two years previous, school district 16 in Forestville, 'and school districts 13 and 15 in Hanover and Sheridan, were consolidated and the Union School thus formed was conducted with varying degrees of success, the house being often over-crowded, but since the establishment of the Academy the Forestville school has enjoyed a marked prosperity. At the. time of its organization there were four in its faculty, Prof. T. L. Griswold, principal, and three assistant teachers, with 150 students. The board of education then consisted of Hon. Daniel Sherman, A. P. Parsons, M. D., D. Fiske, J. Mixer, and J. F. Hulbert. At the present time there are six in the faculty, Prof. A. C. Anderson being principal, assisted by five other teachers. The present board of education consists of J. G. Record, president, W. H. Parsons, secretary, H. H. Farnham, John Hutchinson and Oscar Jew- ett. This institution was admitted to the university of the state Jan. 10, 1867, and it has now 250 students.
The school at Silver Creek is called the " Silver Creek Union School and Academy," and was established in its present form in 1879. Two districts had been united some years before, and a Union School conducted with the usual prosperity but without Academic Department, or any well graded sys- tem, and using a building too small for the increasing number of pupils. In the year above mentioned a noble edifice of brick was erected, costing, with additions since made, $20,000. The first board of education consisted of A. P. Holcomb, president, Geo. P. Gaston, Norman Babcock, James M. Beman, Charles N. Howes and Smith Clark. The faculty at that time con- sisted of Prof. J. W. Babcock, principal, Miss Mary B. Mosher, Miss Emma V. Shattuck, Miss Amelia S. Cranston and Miss Emma Mulkin, assistants. The following is the succession of principals from that time to the present : Professors Preston K. Pattison, W. H. Benedict and A. M. Preston. The present board of education are C. A. Lanphere, president, Charles H. Ster-
641
HANOVER.
ling, S. S. Staring, I. D. Rowley, Elmer Horton, Bruce L .. Bailey, J. J. Dal- rymple, with M. E. Farnsworth, secretary. The present faculty consists of Professor J. M. McKee, principal, and ten assistants ; Willis E. Goodhue, Gertrude E. Kelsey, Hattie Dalrymple, Tibb L. Smith, Elizabeth Dennison, Mary B. Weeks, Helen Christy, Grace Brown, Josephine Hanson, Laura Fair- child. A fine apparatus for teaching physics, an extensive and well selected library, an attractive and helpful museum, are among the equipments of this institution. Nearly 500 pupils have been enrolled during the past year, and we may safely say that it was never more prosperous than now, as the fol- lowing brief statement will show : Number of pupils this year in excess of the year previous, 32, excess in amount of tuition, $116, excess in contribu- tions to the literature fund, $89, excess of papers sent to the Regents, 151, excess in certificates taken, 26, graduates last year, 5, whole number 44. In all the other schools of the town, some of them employing two teachers, as at Smith's Mills and at Irving, there is evident and successful aim at keeping step with the improved methods of teaching. At Irving a new school build- ing is in process of erection to cost about $4,000. We think it can be truly said of the town of Hanover that it is fully abreast with the progress of edu- cational methods which characterize these modern times.
THE CHURCHES .- The early history of the churches in the town of Han- over lies under the same disadvantages as that of the schools. It is difficult in many cases, and in some impossible to get reliable facts. Documents in numerous instances are wanting ; the memory of the oldest survivors is con- fused and uncertain ; but we think that the facts given in the following pages are a close approximation to accuracy. There can be no doubt however as to the importance of religion as a coordinate factor with the school in qualifying our people for their duties as citizens. "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indis- pensable supports." This oft quoted sentence from Washington's Farewell Address commands the alnost universal assent of our people. Viewed simply in relation to the present life, it may be justly said that all that is lofty in our patriotism, all that is solid and enduring in our national goverment, all that is elevating and chaste in our literature, all that is great and inspiring in our enterprise, all that is beautiful and pure in our domestic life, finds its best ally and support in religious conviction and principle. If a full nara- tive could be given of the exertions made in obedience to the demands of our religious nature, amidst the difficulties which surrounded the pioneers, it would read like a romance. We are told of women who often went on foot several miles to meeting, carrying in their arms an infant child, and of oth- ers who walked barefoot carrying their shoes till near the place of meeting, so limited were their resources, so fervid their, zeal. On special occasions, men, women and children would gather from far and near, on foot, on horse-
642
HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
back, in farm wagons, ox sleds or carts, any kind of rude vehicle that could be made available, in such numbers that the ability of the residents at the place of assembly was taxed to the utmost to entertain them, some taking five or ten or twenty to feed and care for, and in one instance it is said that a man took forty to entertain during a meeting of two or three days. Great enthusiasm prevailed. The emotional element had free play. Shouts, amens, hallelujahs, were, especially in one of the denominations, a common thing, resulting occasionally in what was called "the power." Regular meetings were held in private dwellings and schoolhouses, and the women sat apart from the men. The sermons were often more hortatory than logi- cal. Little attention was paid to style. Scriptural quotations abounded, sometimes making nearly half of the sermon. Fervent appeals were made to the heart and conscience, and, on the whole, the preaching of those early days must be pronounced effective, for it resulted in frequent conversions and warin hearted piety.
It appears impossible to say with absolute certainty who preached the first gospel sermon in the town of Hanover. It seems probable that it was the Rev. John Spencer, the noted missionary sent out by the missionary society of Connecticut to labor on the Holland Land Purchase, and who was in their service from 1807 for 19 years, dying in what was then the town of Hanover, but is now the town of Sheridan in 1826. In Young's history we find him thus spoken of: " His dress was ancient, knee and shoe buckles, short breeches and long stockings, a dress which at that period attracted attention, as it had nearly passed out of date." Another says that " during his missionary life, he uniformly wore a black coat and brown corduroy small-clothes. His coat was of strong, but rather coarse material, and always of the same cut." Independent in thought and speech, noted for his wit, easiness of address, plainness of manner, large fund of good sense, short prac- tical sermons (with special accent on the last words of a sentence) his labors were very fruitful in churches established and his memory is fragrant. This distinguished missionary was abundant in labors, preaching almost every evening wherever he could get two are three families together. He had only a common school education, served long in the army during the war of revolution, first as a private and then as an officer, and when questioned about his education, used to say that he was educated in the continental army. The following is a specimen of one of his many apt retorts. A minister who once heard him preach said to him, " Mr. Spencer, I heard your sermon, it is very able, I cannot answer it, but I do not believe a word of it." "I am sorry to hear you say so," said Mr. Spencer, " very little of it is mine, it was nearly all of it taken from the Bible." " Father Spencer " was buried in the ceme- tery near the western boundary of Sheridan, along the line of the public road between Silver Creek and Fredonia. A monument with the following
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.