USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York > Part 79
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SUPERVISORS .- 1813-14-15, James Prendergast ; 1816-17-18-19-20-21-22, John Frew ; 1823-4-5, James Hall ; 1826, Solomon Jones; 1827, Nathaniel Fenton ; 1828-9, Solomon Jones ; 1830, Nathaniel Fenton ; 1831-2-3-4-5-6-7- 8-9-40, Samuel Barrett ; 1841-2, William Hall ; 1843, Horace Allen ; 1844, Samuel Barrett ; 1845-6, Henry Baker ; 1847-8, Augustus F. Allen ; 1849- 50, Charles Butler ; 1851, R. V. Cunningham ; 1852, Augustus F. Allen ; 1853-4, Henry Baker ; 1855, Simeon W. Parks ; 1856, Augustus F. Allen ; 1857, Francis W. Palmer ; 1858-9, Lewis Hall ; 1860-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, Augus- tus F. Allen ; 1869-70, Jerome Preston ; 1871-2-3-4, Augustus F. Allen ; 1875-6, Lewis Hall; 1877, Corydon Hitchcock ; 1878-9 John T. Wilson ; 1880-1-2-3, Robert N. Marvin ; 1884-5, Daniel Griswold ; 1886-7-8, Gustavus A. Bentley, 2d ; 1889-90-1-2-3-4, Alonzo Halliday.
670
HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
CITY OF JAMESTOWN.
"Out of monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, records, fragments of stone, passages of books, and the like, we doe save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time."
CHAPTER LXII.
THE CITY OF JAMESTOWN.
T HREE miles below the foot of Chautauqua lake on its winding and deep outlet (Chadakoin river) is located the picturesque manufactur- ing city of Jamestown. Its streets and avenues climb the steeply sloping banks of the stream, or stretch in long levels for extensive distances. Not only all the original site has been occupied but English and Swede hills, Dexterville and Tiffanyville (East Jamestown), with much adjacent territory have been absorbed, while from its contiguity Falconer has attained rapid growth and Lakewood assumed its importance. The city of today with its numerous smokestacks indicating a regular throbbing of the heart of industry, its elegant churches, its magnificent business blocks, its elaborate school edifices, its artistic library building, its miles of electric and other railroads, its fleet of steamboats, its display of residences crowning the charm- ing hills and ornamenting the defiles, would seem to its founder (could he retum and visit it) as a creation of fairyland or an optical delusion, so much its prosperity exceeds what even his vivid imagination had forecasted.
Jamestown has many advantages for still greater development as a manu- facturing center. It has the purest water and the lowest death rate of any city in the United States. Its railroad facilities give it easy and rapid communi- cation with the east and the west, the north and the south. It is favored with two branches of the great Erie railway system, on which it is only 447 miles from New York city, 540 from Chicago, 414 from Cincinnati and 69 from Buffalo. The Chautauqua Lake railway opened in 1888 gives it a western outlet by the Western New York and Pennsylvania, the "Nickel Plate" and the Lake Shore railways. It is in touch with Dunkirk and Pittsburgh by the Dunkirk, Allegany Valley & Pittsburgh R. R. Its central position between the northern (Bradford) oil fields and the southern ones of Pennsylvania has been of advantage to its welfare as successful oil operators have made their residence here. The steady growth and increasing pros- perity of Jamestown have been the result of the application of correct prin-
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ciples to a development of manufacturing and industrial interests. It was established as a manufacturing town, and its liberal and enterprising citizens have cordially welcomed and reached out after valuable additions. A board of trade has been in existence for nearly a quarter of a century, and, when occasion requires, gives organized and systematic support to movements benefiting the public weal. Hand in hand with this has worked the furni- ture board of trade, which devotes itself to the interests of the numerons furniture manufacturing establishments. The never-failing water-power of Chadakoin river, the high attitude of the city, assuring climatic conditions in the highest degree favorable to health, its exhaustless supply of the purest of waters from a system of artesian wells, the fact that it is surrounded on all sides by a rich and productive agricultural country ; all these combine to make a city whose factory fires shall increase from year to year, whose dig- nity and reputation shall grow from decade to decade, and whose wealth and prosperity shall only be surpassed by its generosity and unobtrusiveness.
The original purchase of James Prendergast included " all of township 2, range 11, embraced in the west and middle third of lots 33 and 34, lot 41, and the south part of lot 42." *The first resident was John Blowers in 1810. He was a workman in Mr. Prendergast's employ, and the location of his house was marked in 1870 by a mounment erected by Hon. E.T. Foote, bearing a suitable inscription. In 1811 Mr. Prendergast became a resident of the incipient city in a more pretentious log house, which was burned with valu- able contents in the fire that destroyed his first mill. The first milldam was just above Steele street bridge. Reuben Slayton had a sawmill on Goose creek in Harmony as early as 1810, and Hon. E. T. Foote, in an annotation in a copy of " French's Gazetteer," owned by Willard Mckinstry, says : "From that sawmill Judge Prendergast procured sawed stuff for his first inill." This sawmill was " raised " in September, ISHI, the dam com- pleted in December, the mill commenced to saw in February, IS12, and was burned the same season. The dam caused the flooding of the farms along Lake Chautauqua, whose waters were permanently raised, and was aband- oned. To secure another site Mr. Prendergast purchased 500 acres more, " the east thirds of lots 33 and 34, and north part of 42," which included the present business center of Jamestown. The war of 1812 brought disaster to all enterprises. Money bec ume scarce, and the piper currency nearly worth- less. Fears of Indian depredations were not unfounded, and Mr. Prendergast experienced trouble upon trouble. But discomagement only stimulated him. He manifested the same courage, push and capability that have been charac- teristic of the later manufacturers of this city, and steadily and persistently laid well the foundations of the Jamestown of today. Little was done in 1812, but a double frame house was built between First and Second streets
*For early settlements see pages 203 to 208.
V
672
HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
near Cherry, which Mr. Prendergast and Capt. William Forbes, his superinten- dent, occupied in December. Travel along Chadakoin river must have been extensive and the passing of keelboats frequent, for a tavern was opened in 1813. By this time (1813) there was a stir of life. A bridge was commenced over the " Outlet," but no road penetrated the thick forests. The travel was all on the water. J. & H. Prendergast this year sent goods down the lake to stock a store for the hands working on the new mills must have their wants supplied. In 1814 roads were laid and opened in various directions. The bridge was finished, $37.67 of the $100 appropriated for the entire county being applied upon it. The war was over. Prospective settlers were freed from anxiety for safety, and came and brought others. The new sawmill could now furnish boards and several shanties were erected. "In 1814 Mr. Prendergast set about building gristmills to bridge that awful chasm between $19 flour and 'three shilling' wheat." Jacob Fenton commenced a tavern worthy the name, which fronted Chadakoin river at the keelboat landing east · of Main street and south of Second. This was kept by Mr. Fenton till his removal to Fluvanna in 1822. He also established a pottery adjoining the tavern, and the red cups and saucers there made yet here and there linger in existence. This year Mr. Prendergast built a small frame dwelling, which be occupied for many years, on Second street just west of the Chautauqua County National Bank. John Blowers built a small house on the west side of Main, on lot later plotted as " lot 3."
Notable additions were made to the settlers in 1815, men of education and professional men had heard of " The Rapids," and Elial T. Foote, its first physician, came this spring, and Dr. Laban Hazeltine came in May, but a few weeks later, with his family. A young graduate of Williams College, Abner Hazeltine, came in November, and commenced the first academical school of the south part of the county in the large academy building Mr. Prendergast built this year. Horace Allen, later general, "and active partiei- pant in village affairs, the soul of good nature, highly esteemed," came also this year. The great development of the city on the "south side " is due to his earnest efforts. Such men as these add strength to any community, and how much more value do their mentality, vigor and culture impart to the infant settlements of civilization. Years have passed. The struggling ham- let has become a city, they and the village grew together, and, when in ripened years they closed their earthly career, they had ineffaceably stamped their vigorous personalities upon the place, so long the scene of their activi- ties. An old townsman says: "I can now see Judge Prendergast as he listened to some person's account of his wants which he was sure to relieve. He was a father to the needy. Dr. Foote was one of the ruling personages. Energetic and ambitious, many of his moves ran counter to the views and feelings of his associates, yet his many good traits of character procured him
James Prenderga
1
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JAMESTOWN.
hosts of friends. Laban Hazeltine, an honest, skillful physician, who never dealt out medicine not needed to increase his charges ; his brother, Abner Hazeltine, belonged to a profession proverbially suspected, but he was one of nature's noblemen, whose patent of nobility came from God."
In the spring of 1815 Jamestown village was inaugurated by a survey of lots of 50x120 feet, which were offered for sale at $50 each. The price remained unchanged for a dozen years. Judge Foote thus describes " The Rapids " in 1815: "A 11% story gristmill building with two runs of stones, two single sawmills and one gang sawmill, all owned by James Prendergast. There was one small store of goods owned by Jediah and Martin Prendergast of Mayville, managed by Thomas Disher, a clerk. Two small shanty black- smith shops were occupied by Eleazer Daniels and Patrick Campbell, and a small out-of-doors tannery owned by John Burge and James Rice. The chiet business was cutting humber. (See page 324). In November 1815 there were 13 families living on Jamestown territory, occupying rude cabins, and some men without families. A few families lived in adjacent territory ; one in the extreme northwestern corner of the city's limits, and two or three at Cass's Mills (East Jamestown)." In the winter of 1815-16 several families arrived. The first New Year's ball was an event. It occurred January 1, 1816, in the partly completed hotel William Clark and Jesse Smith were building on the southeast corner of Main and Third streets.
Even yet the village was but a ragged hole cut in a gloomy forest wilder- ness. Only about 60 acres had been cleared, and swamps, burned logs, stumps, mireholes and unpainted cabins perched on wooden blocks were the chief features of the "clearing," while surrounding this on every side a forest of majestic pines towered heavenward. The second dam was located where is now that of L. B. Warner's mill. The sawmill built here burned this spring (1816), but was soon rebuilt. A "Fourth of July " celebration was held in Nathan Cass's unfinished hotel on the southwest corner of Main and Second streets. James Prendergast, " Esq.," was president of the occasion, Abner Hazeltine orator, Jesse Smith read the "Declaration," there was a large gathering from the settlements along the lake and the southern towns and a glorious time was had with powder, gingerbread, cider, and "other refreshments " to add to the hilarity. 1816 was the "cold year," frosts and freezes in every month cut off all crops, and many were discouraged and departed for a more genial region. Fever and ague was prevalent also, and threatened to remain. But the timorous were thus weeded out while the strong men remained, and this year accessions were made to their numbers of men of brain and influence. Daniel Hazeltine, " a man of great industry, unimpeachable integrity, and an ornament to society ;" Samuel Barrett, " later major, and bank president, social and friendly, a business man in every sense ; " Samuel A. Brown, "that eccentric, honest, confiding yet cautious
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
man, whose fare like himself was plain and substantial ; " Thomas W. Har- vey, later general, a man of wonderful inventive skill, the inventor of the machines in use to make gimlet-pointed screws and brass pins. (His son Hayward, the inventor of the celebrated Harvey armor-plate used on U. S. iron-clads, was born in Jamestown) ; Royal Keyes, "an ingenious mechanic and of strong religious sentiments ; " Rufus Pier, " that quiet, steady hat- ter, whose judicial mind caused him to be made 'justice' year after year ; " William Hall, "of great strength, untiring industry, sound judgement-a father of the city in business and religion ; " all these came in 1816.
Silas Tiffany, " a polished, dignified gentleman of the old school, whose gentle manners won him many friends, and who, during his residence here of over half a century, was a highly esteemed citizen," came in June, 1816. We take this from a memorial prepared by W. W. Henderson in 1883 :
" At the time of Mr. Tiffany's arrival the area now occupied by the city was largely covered with an unbroken forest of pine. Deer were numerous, and bears and wolves not uncommon. Of the few buildings that had been erected was the house on Main street, built by Blowers for Judge Prendergast as a boarding house, then the home of Dr. Hazeltine, the house on ( herry street built as a residence for Judge Prendergast and Capt. William Forbes ; the new house just completed for Judge Prendergast on the west side of Main street ; the tavern of Jacob Fenton, and a few other small houses and a few buildings yet incomplete. Soon after Mr. Tiffany's arri- val he purchased the lot on the northeast corner of Main and Second streets, and erected a large two-storied store, to the north side of which he attached a one-storied building for a residence. The first person to occupy this residence was J. E. Budlong ; afterwards Benjamin Budlong ; and, after Mr. Tiffany's marriage, it was his home until 1837, when seven buildings on the east side of Main street between Secend and Third were destroyed by fire, including Mr. Tiffany's house and store. Not counting the shanty store on Mr. Tiffany's lots when he purchaasd them, his was the second store in the town ; his first goods arrived in the fall of 1817. His store was first built on blocks, as then was usnal. In the spring of 1819 he dug a cellar under it and under the house, and built cellar walls of stone ; these were the first stone walls built in Jamestown."
The village now steadily increased in importance. In 1822 Dr. Foote purchased the " reserve land " of the Holland Land Company between the Prendergast land and the Dexterville tract, plotted it into lots of from five to 40 acres, one of 11 acres included the "water-power at the lower dam." This land sold rapidly, Horace Allen bought the site and built the first mill where John T. Wilson's mill stands, other improvements were made and in 1827 Jamestown was ready for incorporation. Among the prominent arri- vals in these years were Col. Augustus F. Allen, later member of Congress elect, " a natural leader, with executive qualities far greater than are possessed by but very few ; " Dascum Allen, " a thorough, active business man, ever ready to assist others ; " Col. Henry Baker, " one of the leading spirits of the town. Always wide-awake, prompt and active-the right kind of a man to give tone to society and build up a place ; " Woodley W. Chandier and John W. Winsor, " who, in their carding and cloth-dressing, rendered great aid to the farmers of a wide range ; " Adolphus Fletcher, founder of the Journal, " an example of patient endurance, of poorly recompensed labor, who died, as he
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JAMESTOWN.
lived, an honest man ; " Solomon and Ellick Jones, the first " a worthy pat- riarch whose memory is reverenced by numerous descendants ; " the second " an energetic man, well fitted for pioneer life, and to battle with its hard- ships ; " Charles R. Harvey, later a merchant, successful inventor and a most remarkable iron worker; Silas Shearman "a strong abolitionist, never a bigot nor unreasonable, always social and brimful of kindly feeling ; " George W. Tew, " the financial and executive genius, a natural financier ; " William H. Tew, "the persistent man ; dominated by a sense of justice, he never failed to espouse the honest cause of the weak and oppressed."
Jamestown was incorporated as a village March 6, 1827, with these bound- aries : Beginning at the southeast corner of James Hall's land, (lot 27, town- ship 2, range 11); thence south to the town line, between townships I and 2 ; thence west to the line of the town of Busti ; thence north to the outlet of Chautauqua lake ; thence up said outlet to Solomon Jones' land, (lot 35, township 2, range 11) ; thence east to the place of beginning. The first vil- lage election was held at the house of Solomon Jones when were elected : trustees, Thomas W. Harvey, Jediah E. Budlong, Daniel Hazeltine, Jr., Samnel Barrett, Alvin Plumb ; treasurer, Samuel A. Brown ; collector, R. F. Fenton ; clerk, George W. Tew. E. T. Foote, Horace Allen, S. A. Brown, Abner Hazeltine, Josephi Wait were appointed to draft bylaws. The first attempt to raise a tax was in July, 1827, when the proposition to raise $300 "to purchase fire apparatus" was voted down. (The people built by con- tribution a reservoir for fire purposes at the corner of Main and Third streets). In 1828 a tax of $150 was voted to buy a fire engine, etc. In 1829 the tax was $45 to build an engine house and buy fire ladders. For several years the vil- lage tax was $200 annually: Joseph Waite, a committee appointed for the purpose, reported July 16, 1827, a bylaw which was adopted. We quote :
" In the words following to wit : Whereas, certain exhibitions and shows exhibited in the village of Jamestown tend to call together the youth and others and frequently such exhibitions are impositions on the public and serve to disturb the public peace rather than enlighten the mind or innocently amuse the spectators. Therefore, Be it ordained by the freeholders and inhabitants of the village of Jamestown ; that if any person or persons shall hereafter exhibit any shows, either natural or artificial, or perform any feat or feats of Tumbling or Ballance upon the slack wire or perforin and scene or scenes of stage playing, or any other performances of any kind whatsoever within the said village, for which performance or show any reward or com- pensation shall in any manner be taken, the person or persons so exhibiting or performing, shall forfeit and pay to the trustees of said village for the use of the said corporation the sum of five dollars for each distinct show or exhibition."
In 1828 Jamestown contained 6 stores, 2 taverns, 2 groceries, I gristmill, 4 sawmills, I woolen factory, 2 clothing shops, 2 tanneries, 2 tin shops, 5 shoe shops, 5 blacksmith shops, I chair factory, I sashi factory, 2 distilleries, 2 apothecaries, 3 tailors, 2 hatters, 2 saddlers, 2 wagon makers, 2 cabinet makers, 3 " law shops," I steamboat. The census gives as " householders " Solomon Jones, William and Elisha Hall, Hibbert Montague, Abraham Win-
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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.
sor, J. Warner Winsor, Abraham Staples, William and John Breed, Jacob Rice, William Knight, William Sherman, Nathaniel Barns, Jesse Carrier, Loren Johnson, Judson Southland, William Clark, Phineas Palmiter, Richard Hiller, Barber Babcock, William Carpenter, Noah W. Harrington, Joseph Waite, Mrs. Farnam, Samuel A. Brown, Royal and Eber Keyes, Harmis Willard, Adolphus Fletcher, George W. Tew, Nicholas Depew, Henry Mor- gan, Pearl and Henry Johnson, R. K. Lyon, Daniel Hazeltine, Hiram Kin- ney, James Daley, Owen Salisbury, Thomas W. and Charles R. Harvey, Alfred Wilcox, James Carney, Isaac and Isaac Eddy, jr., Loren Sherman, Samuel Bar- rett, Judiah E. Budlong; Richard F. Fenton, Salmon Grout, Daniel Gibson, Lyman Crane, Emerick Evans, Aaron Taylor, Ira Hart, Sedgwick Benham, Horace and Elisha Allen, Woodley W. Chandler, James and James Merrill, Jr., Noah Schofield, Rufus Pier, James Prendergast, Elial T. Foote, William Forbes, James Clark, D. Phillips, James White, Horace Bacon, James Richi- ards, Sanford Holman, Laban and Abner Hazeltine, Wilford Barker, Amory · Stearns, John Fent, (?) Elmer Freeman. Some prominent residents were not " honseholders," among these were Silas Tiffany, Silas Shearman and wife, Henry Baker and wife, William H. Tew and wife, Alvin Plumb, R. V. Cun- ningham, D. S. Walbridge. Judge Richard P. Marvin, for so many years an active and leading personality in the town, the county, and the state, in an address delivered before the Chautauqua Society of History and Natural Science January 27, 1886, said :
I came to the village of Jamestown in 1829. Jamestown was then an enterprising village of about 600 inhabitants, surrounded by primeval forests mainly of majestic pines, these being rapidly converted into lumber to be rafted into and floated down the outlet to the Cassadaga, to the Conewango, to the Allegany and so on to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and other places on the Ohio river, there to be sold for $8, Sto or $12 per thousand feet. We were some 30 miles from Lake Erie, 75 miles from Buffalo, doing business with New York, Albany, etc., through Lake Erie to Dunkirk or Barcelona ; if the latter then by land over the mountain range to Chantau- qua lake, thence by a steamboat put upon the lake in 1828 to Jamestown, to which a large region of country on the headwaters of the Allegany river in Cattaraugus and Pennsylvania resorted for their supplies. The principal business of this extensive region was lumbering. There were more dry goods stores in the village then than now, but no groceries ; the merchants kept a general assortment of dry goods, groceries, crockery, iron, nails, salt, flour, pork and whiskey, for the supply of their customers, mainly lumbermen. The merchants visited New York once a year, some of them twice, being absent three or four weeks, and made their pur- chase largely on credit, and their sales were mainly on credit, the lumbermen paying when they realized for their lumber in the spring, down the river. Jamestown possessed an indus- trious, enterprising and intelligent population. There were few idlers among us.
The condition of the village in 1830 is well given in this petition for a charter for a bank, which throws light also on the resources of the surround- ing country :
CHAUTAUQUE COUNTY BANK.
The applicants for the Chautauque County Bank respectfully submit the following statement of facts in relation to their application :
Population of Chautauqua county in 1811, when county was organized, about 2,000. Population in 1825, 20,- 639. Population in 1830, 34,668. Increase within the last five years 14,029.
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JAMESTOWN.
EXPORTS.
Boards, planks and other sawed humber, 40,000,000 feet. |
Estimated value of shingles, lath, window sash, staves and square timber, $50.000.
Pot and pearlashes, this county and Cattarangus, 500 tons.
Horses and nmles, $25,000.
Cattle, this county and Cattarangns, $30.000.
The county is well adapted to grain, but being in its infancy does little more at present than supply its rapidly increasing population.
The amount of merchandise brought into the county, about ;250,0%).
In 1816 there was no postoffice within 25 miles of Jamestown where it is proposed to locate the bank.
Population of Jamestown, Jammary, 1827, 393. Population of Jamestown, June. 1530, 551.
It has now 11 stores, i woolen factory. i sash factory, i gristmill with 3 run of stone, 1 gang sawmill, 3 common do., 2 printing offices, and a great number of mechanic establishments.
A steamboat of So tons burthen plies daily between Jamestown and Mayville on the Chautauque lake. One of the Lake Erie steamboats is solely employed in doing the business of Chautanque county.
Jamestown is 90 miles on the route usually traveled, from the nearest banking institution in this state, (U. S. Branch Bank at Buffalo). The bank at Lockport is the nearest state institution. There is no bank in the southern tier of counties from Orange to Lake Erie.
The humber included in this estimate, is produced in a territory about the size of Chautanque, which is partly in this county, partly in the county of Cattarangus, and partly in the state of Pennsylvania, and of which Jamestown is the commercial centre.
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