History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 23

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422

USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 23

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Captain Williamson, speaking of the settlement of this region at- tempted by Oliver Phelps in 1789, says it "was attended with great, almost insurmountable, difficulties. There was no access to the country but by Indian paths, and the nearest settlement was above one hundred miles distant. The Allegheny mountains, then never passed, lay on the south, and Lake Ontario on the north, while to the west was one boundless forest. By the census of 1790 there were only 960 souls, including travellers and surveyors with their at- tendants, within the bounds" of the State, west of the pre-emption line. 1

The large share which James Wadsworth had in developing the Genesee country will be recognized by all. He was graduated at Yale College at the age of twenty. About that period his father died. He went to Montreal and taught school a year, and then re- turned to the paternal home at Hartford, Connecticut. An uncle had administered upon the estate, and the property, about $45,000 in all, at that time a large sum, was divided equally among the three brothers, himself, William and a third who remained in Connecticut. On his way home from Montreal James had seen some very fine land

1. See Williamson's letters to a friend. Doc. Hist. N. Y.

Jeremiah Wadsworth Uncle of James and Major General William Wadsworth. First purchaser ol the Wadsworth lands from Phelps and Gorham. From Portrait In possession of Hon. James W. Wadsworth.

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on the Onion river in Vermont, and made up his mind that he would go back there and make an investment, but his uncle, Colonel Jere- miah Wadsworth, who had taken an interest in the Phelps and Gor- ham purchase, offered his nephews James and William one-half of his interest, or about one-twentieth of the reserved portion, at cost, and proposed to the former to give him the agency of the other half if he would remove to the Genesee. To this the brothers assented. It had been agreed that any co-proprietor who would settle on the lands might locate one thousand acres at the cost price, which was eight cents per acre. Phelps and Gorham had availed themselves of this provision in 1789 and located at Canandaigua. The Wadsworth brothers the succeeding year took the two thousand acres at Geneseo, at a cost of one hundred and sixty dollars. In the spring of 1790 they purchased a new and substantial ox cart and three pairs of oxen, and after many farewells William, with two or three hired men and Jenny, a favorite colored slave belonging to the family, started across the country for Albany, while James went to New York to purchase an outfit for the new settlement, including a small quantity of "store goods" and household furniture. He then took passage on board a sloop for Albany. The trip up the Hudson occupied a week. Mr. Wadsworth had for a fellow passenger at this time John Jacob Astor, who was making his first trip to Canada and the Northwest to pur- chase furs. The acquaintance then formed between these two remark- able men ripened into intimacy and continued through life. At Albany Mr. Wadsworth found his brother with the men and team, ready to take the supplies to Schenectady, where they purchased a boat. This the men poled up the Mohawk to Little Falls, whither William had preceded the water party overland, ready to draw the boat and its cargo around the falls. Another day's poling brought the boat to Rome, where they found two log houses, though there was but one as yet at Utica. Another portage by the ox team and cart brought them over to Wood creek; and when William saw all on board the boat at that point he started through the woods with his slow moving team for Canandaigua, following the trail traveled by Phelps and Gorham's party the preceding year. West of Whitestown the road, little more than an Indian path, was full of impediments. Fallen trees had to be removed, the approaches to small streams often to be laid with logs, and standing timber to be cut away before

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the cart could proceed. So well, however, was the work done that the roadway thus improvised was used for some time, and to this day William Wadsworth enjoys the credit of opening the first road through the wilderness between Whitestown and Canandaigua.

"Arriving at Cayuga lake, there was no ferry scow, and the party chartered two Indian canoes which they lashed together, and making a deck of poles, succeeded in crossing. Between Whitesboro and Canandaigua their average progress was twelve miles a day.") On reaching Canandaigua William expected to find his brother and the boat, but was disappointed. In going down Wood creek the party had run the boat upon a snag, and it was there held fast for three days until overtaken by Augustus Porter, the brother of General Porter. He took a part of Mr. Wadsworth's cargo on his boat, and so far reduced the burthen that little trouble was now experienced in getting it again afloat. The two parties now started in company down the creek into Oneida lake, thence through the lake and river to the Oswego river, and up the latter stream to the outlet of Cayuga lake, thence to Mud creek. Passing up Mud creek to the outlet of Canandaigua lake, they then found their way to the lake, and the cabin of Phelps and Gorham at Canandaigua. William had reached that hospitable roof several days before the arrival of the boat, and becoming very anxious about his brother, fearing that he had been killed by the Indians, had gone down the outlet several miles and taken his position in the top of a tree which leaned over the stream. He saw them a long distance below, and joyfully welcomed them as they came under his lofty perch. Stowing a part of their supplies at Canandaigua and learning that there was a fine tract of unoccupied land on the Genesee near Big Tree, they started for that point, fol- lowing Sullivan's route a portion of the way, and camping the first night at Pitt's flats, and the second night a little east of the foot of Conesus lake. The next morning William, keeping charge of the ox team, set out for the spot that had been described to them for a home, by the Indian trail leading to the Oneida village, while James, with a part of the men, shouldered axes and started on foot for the same place through the woods by the Big Tree trail. Reaching a point on the western edge of the table land west of the present village of Geneseo, he began cutting down trees for a log cabin. The loca-

1. Turner's Phelps and Gorham's Purchase.

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tion of this cabin was about one hundred rods west of the Mount Mor- ris road and forty rods south of the lane leading from the Park to the "Home Farm" boarding house. Mr. James Wadsworth marked the spot by erecting there in after years a small cobblestone house long used in connection with the farm, and but recently demolished.

William, getting lost in a swamp two miles northeast of the present village of Geneseo, tied his cattle to saplings and there passed the night. This delay causing some anxiety, James got on their track the next morning, and finding the bewildered party, conducted them to the spot selected by him for the cabin, where they arrived on the 10th of June, 1790. The party slept in the cart and upon the ground for two or three nights until their hut was ready to afford them shel- ter. The unwonted sound of axes brought to their camp Lemuel Jennings, the only earlier white settler in that vicinity, who had erected a cabin and was herding some cattle on the flats in their neighborhood for Oliver Phelps. 1

The Wadsworth brothers followed their first purchase of 2,000 acres at Geneseo for eight cents per acre, by a second of 4,000 acres the same season at fifty cents an acre, which was the price fixed by the Company for the land in the vicinity of Geneseo. A portion of the latter purchase was situated on the outlet of Conesus lake, where they had encamped the second night out of Canandaigua, and where they subsequently built a grist mill.

In August, 1790 General Amos Hall, who had been appointed to take the census of Ontario county, then embracing the whole of the Genesee country, reported the population embraced within the pres- ent limits of Lima at four families, comprising twenty-three persons; Sparta, one family of five persons; Geneseo, eight families, embracing thirty-four persons; Avon, ten families, sixty-six persons; Caledonia ten families, forty-four persons; Leicester, or "Indian lands, " as it was designated in the return, four families of whites, seventeen persons.

In September of the same year the new settlers had their first ex- perience with fever and ague. The Wadsworth household, with the exception of the negro woman Jenny, were all brought down with it.

1. James returned to Canandaigua on the first day of their arrival, and on his way back was benighted, but was guided to his home by a light held by Jenny, the colored woman, for William, who was hewing some planks for the cabin

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The brothers Horatio and John H. Jones had preceded the Wads- worths a few weeks. On the arrival of the latter they were occupying an Indian cabin at Little Beardstown, while a cabin they had begun the year before was being completed. "They had come from Geneva by way of Canandaigua and Avon with a cart, Horatio's wife and three children, several hired men and some household furniture. Their cart was the first wheeled vehicle that passed over that route. From Avon they had no track but picked their way along the ridges and open grounds. Besides Horatio Jones's family, there were in August, 1790, west of the river in the 'Indian lands' the families of William Ewing, Nathan Fowler and Jeremiah Gregory."

Immediately after the Revolution all that part of the State lying west of a line running north and south and passing through the center of the present county of Schoharie was called Montgomery county, and the town of Whitestown embraced all the region west of Utica. In 1789 the county of Ontario was formed from the western part of Montgomery, but, notwithstanding this, town elections for the town of Whitestown continued to be held in all this region until 1791. At the election held in the latter year Trueworthy Cook of Pompey, in the present county of Onondaga, Jeremiah Gould of Salina, and James Wadsworth of Geneseo, were chosen pathmasters. The dis- trict of the latter embraced the territory west of Cayuga lake, cover- ing an area large enough for a State.

Ontario county was at first divided into districts, the second dis- trict, Genesee or Geneseo, "embracing all west of the east line of the present towns of Pittsford, Mendon, Richmond." The first town meeting for this district was held on the 5th of April, 1791, at Canawaugus.

Captain John Ganson, an officer of the Revolution, was elected supervisor; David Bullen, town clerk. The assessors chosen were Deacon Gad Wadsworth, a Revolutionary soldier from Connecticut, Israel Stone of Stonetown (now Pittsford), General William Wads- worth of Geneseo, General Amos Hall of West Bloomfield, an officer of two wars, and Nathan Perry of Hartford. now Avon. The constables were Jasper Marvin and Norris Humphrey.

Roads opened slowly and settlements made small progress west of the river. Thomas Morris says that in 1791 and for several years thereafter there was only an Indian path leading from Canandaigua

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to the Niagara river, and there was not a habitation of any kind be- tween the Genesee river and Fort Niagara.

The Revolution had left the Indians broken in strength, and the growing power of the government held them under restraint; but it is well known that influences unfriendly to the Republic were at work among the western tribes, and to some extent among the natives oc- cupying the villages along the Genesee, although the latter claimed to be friendly and generally deported themselves properly. The appre- hension of an Indian war deterred settlers from crossing to the west- ern side of the river.1 In the latter part of the summer of 1791 James Wadsworth went on horseback to Niagara for the purpose of informing himself as to the prospect of an Indian war. To a friend he wrote on his return: "You will not suppose that we are under much fears from the Indians when I tell you that I started from the Genesee river without company, and reached Niagara in two days without difficulty. But, sir, it was a most solitary ride. I had an excellent dinner with Colonel Butler at Niagara. We were served with apples, chestnuts, hazelnuts and walnuts, but what surprised me most was to see a plate of malcatoon peaches as good as I ever ate."

The summer of 1792 witnessed a large addition to the population of the Genesee country. In July of that year the Albany Gazette? says: "We are assured of the rapid increase of settlements there, encouraged by the situation, climate and soil-equal in goodness to any part of the United States-and that the fever and ague, which it is common to suppose is epidemical there, has scarcely been known the present season. The Indians are very friendly, attending solely to their domestic concerns and gradually acquiring civilized habits." The population had so far increased that at the fall election in that

I. There are two sides to most public questions, and it cannot be denied that the Indians had many provocations, which artful men could use to influence them. In the summer of 1790 two of the Senecas of Little Beardstown, minor chiefs, were murdered on Pine Creek, in Pennsylvania. A reward was offered by the Governor of that State for the apprehension of the murderers, Little Beard and Red Jacket, in a letter of thanks to the executive, "hoped that the murderers might be taken and that they might see them executed, for it is natural to look for revenge of innocent blood. You must not think hard if we speak rash. The words come from a wounded heart as you have stuck the hatchet in our head, and we can't be reconciled until you come and pull it ont. We are sorry to tell you that you have killed eleven of lus since peace, and we never said anything until the other day when in liquor." The letter is dated at "Geneseo River and flats. August 12, 1790," and signed Little Beard (of Beaver Trihe), Sangoyeawatau ( Red Jacket), Gisschaske (of Wolf Tribe) and Caunhesongo.

2. Albany Gazette of July 9, 1792.

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year the canvass for governor was quite animated. The candidates were George Clinton, the incumbent, and John Jay, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The poll of the town of Canandaigua stood three to one for Jay; and it is said that the com- plexion of the vote in Geneseo, where fifty ballots were cast, was the same, but owing to the fact that the tally list was transmitted to Albany without being signed by the inspectors, the returns were re- jected. The result in the State was rendered so close by the rejection of Geneseo and certain other towns in the State, and the irregularities were so great that. the courts, after a heated controversy by the partisan press, were called upon to decide the question. The office was awarded to Clinton, against the earnest protest of Jay's friends.

Postal facilities, as yet, were meager indeed. Twice a month a mail was carried on horseback between Albany and Whitestown. In July, 1792, "several patriotic gentlemen of the Genesee country established a post to meet the one from Albany, at Whitestown, which once a month will pass through Geneva, Canandaigua and Canawaugus to Williamsburgh on the Genesee river."1 In Sep- tember of that year the Postmaster General, Timothy Pickering, advertised for proposals for the extension of the post road from Canajoharie to Whitestown and thence to Canandaigua.

Eastern newspapers as early as 1792 contained advertisements of Genesee lands. Captain Williamson, in August of that year, pub- lished an answer "to numerous applications for farms." He says, 2 "to those who wish to make actual settlements on his lands," that he has "surveyors employed in laying off some hundred thousand acres which will be ready to be viewed by the 10th of September. It will be necessary for persons to receive instructions from Mr. Wil- liamson at Williamsburgh. The price fixed on the land is one dollar per acre."

In the fall of 1792 William McCartney bought a farm of 320 acres in the southerly part of what is now the town of Sparta, near the Steuben county line, and was the first white settler in that region. Indeed, for more than a year there was not a white man within ten

1. Albany Gazette, July 9, 1792. The proprietor of the Gazette took charge of packages in- tended for the Genesee country free of expense.

2. Albany Gazette, Aug. 16, 1792. James Abeel, in the Gazette of Aug. 20, advertises "13,000 acres of most valuable land in Phelps and Gorham's purchase in the Genesee country."

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miles of him. Mr. McCartney was born in Barlocks, Dumfrieshire, Scotland, on the 2d of April, 1770. He came to America in the year 1791 in company with Andrew Smith, the latter settling at Bath, while the former as stated settled in Sparta. With little or no assistance he set to work to clear his purchase of the dense growth of oak, walnut and -underwood with which he found it covered, and was the first to raise a crop of grain at the head waters of the Canaseraga. In the summer of 1796 he married a sister of James McCurdy, who resided within the limits of the present village of Dansville. Mr. McCartney was mild and frank yet firm in his deal- ings with his fellow men, and the pioneers speak of him as a man of strong good sense, and qualified not only to manage his own interests with wisdom but to administer in public affairs with great success; and the local records show that continuously, for more than a third of a century, he was called by the almost unanimous voice of his neighbors and townsmen to hold office. In 1796 he was made a com- missioner of public roads, and directed the laying out and establishing of the highways of Sparta. This burthensome position he held for a number of years, as well as that of town clerk and commissioner of schools down to 1806, when he was made supervisor, to which office he was reelected for twelve successive years. In 1817 he was sent to the Assembly, to which body he was reelected the following year. In 1819 he was again made supervisor and held the office continuously until his death which occurred in 1831.1 The same sterling business qualities that enabled him to lay the foundation of a competency he carried into the discharge of his official duties, and in the board of supervisors, where he so long held a seat, composed of such men as Colonel Fitzhugh and General William Wadwsorth, Mr. McCartney was notably one of the leading men.

In 1793 Thomas Morris and Oliver Phelps each built a small frame house at Canandaigua, and when completed these were the only frame houses west of Whitestown in the present county of Oneida.

By January, 1793, letters and newspapers were conveyed by stated private posts, though at infrequent intervals, through all the Genesee settlements and as far west as Canandaigua. Writing to his father on the 4th of February, 1793, Thomas Morris says, "Our post goes

I. Ile died on the 9th of Feb., 1831, and was buried in the cemetery near the South Sparta meeting house.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

(east) once a fortnight," and speaks of the great mildness of the pass- ing winter and of the influx of settlers. In May of that year Moses Beal commenced running a weekly stage from Albany through Sche- nectady to Johnstown and Canajoharie, "at three cents a mile for pas- sengers and fourteen pounds of baggage gratis." And the same month a stage was established between Canajoharie and Whitestown to connect with Beal's stage. This essentially increased the postal facilities of the pioneers of the Genesee.

"The famous Genesee flats lie on the borders of the Genesee river; . they are about twenty miles in length, and about four miles wide; the soil is remarkably rich, quite clear of trees, and producing grass near ten feet high. I estimate these flats to be well worth 200,000 pounds as they now lie. They are mostly the property of the In- dians. Taking a view of this country altogether, I do not know an extent of ground so good. Cultivation is easy, and the land is grate- ful. The progress of settlement is so rapid, that you and myself may very probably see the day when we can apply these lines to the Gen- esee Country :-

" 'Here happy millions their own lands possess, No tyrant awes them, nor no lords oppress.

"Many times did I break out in an enthusiastic frenzy anticipating the probable situation of this wilderness twenty years hence. All that reason can ask may be obtained by the industrious hand; the only dan- ger to be feared is, that luxuries will flow too cheap."

"From Canandaigua I traveled about twenty-six miles through a fine country, with many settlements forming; this brought me to Genesee river. On this river a great many farms are laying out ; six- ty-five miles from its mouth is a town marked out by the name of Wil- liamsburgh, and will in all probability be a place of much trade; in the present situation of things it is remote, when considered in a com- mercial point of view ; but should the fort of Oswego be given up, and the lock navigation be completed, there will not be a carrying place between New York and Williamsburgh.

"After I had reached the Genesee river, curiosity led me on to Niag- ara, ninety miles-not one house or white man the whole way. The only direction I had was an Indian path, which sometimes was doubt-

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ful. The first day I rode fifty miles, through swarms of mosquitoes, gnats, etc., beyond all description. "1 .

Another writer at about the same period says of the advantages attending a settlement in the Genesee country :

"But the peculiar advantages which distinguish these lands over most of the new settled countries of America, are these following: 1. The uncommon excellence and fertility of the soil. 2. The superior quality of the timber, and the advantages of easy cultivation, in conse- quence of being generally free from underwood. 3. The abundance of grass for cattle in the woods, and on the extensive meadow grounds upon the lakes and rivers. 4. The vast quantities of the sugar maple tree, in every part of the tract. 5. The great variety of other fine timber, such as oak, hickory, black walnut, chestnut, ash of different kinds, elm, butternut, basswood, poplar, pines and also thorn trees of a prodigious size. 6. The variety of fruit trees, and also smaller fruits, such as apple and peach orchards, in different places, which were planted by the Indians, plum and cherry trees, mulberries, grapes of different kinds, raspberries, huckleberries, blackberries, gooseberries, and strawberries in vast quantities; also cranberries, black-haws, etc. 7. The vast variety of wild animals and game which is to be found in this country, such as deer, moose deer, and elk of very large size, beavers, otters, martins, minks, rabbits, squirrels, racoons, bears, wildcats, etc., many of which furnish excellent furs and peltry. 8. The great variety of birds for game such as wild turkeys, pheasants, partridges, pigeons, plover. heath-fowl, and Indian hen, together with a vast variety of water-fowl on the rivers and lakes, such as wild geese and ducks, of many different kinds, not known in Europe. 9. The uncommon abundance of very fine fish, with which the lakes and rivers abound, among which are to be found ex- cellent salmon of two different kinds, salmon-trout of a very large size, white and yellow perch, sheep-heads, pike, suckers and eels of a very large size, with a variety of other fish in their different seasons. 10. The excellence of the climate in that region where these lands are situated, is less severe in winter, and not so warm in summer, as the same latitudes nearer the sea. The total exemption from all periodical disorders, particularly the fever and ague, which does not prevail in the Genesee country, on account of the rising grounds and fine situa-

1. (Massachusetts Historical Collection I. ) Col. Hist. II, 1105-1109.

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tions. 11. The vast advantages derived from navigable lakes, rivers and creeks, which intersect and run through every part of this tract of country, affording a water communication from the northern parts of the grant by the Genesee river one way, or by the Seneca river an- other way into the great lake Ontario and from thence by Cataraqui to Quebec, or by the said Seneca river, the Oneida lake and Wood creek, to Schenectady on the Mohawk river, with only a short land carriage, and from thence to Albany, with a portage of sixteen miles; affording also a water communication from almost every township of the southern part of the grant by means of the different branches of the Tioga river, which joining the Susquehanna, affords an outlet to produce, through an immense extent of country on every hand, to Northumberland, and all the towns upon the great branch of this riv- er, down to Maryland and Virginia; and (with a portage of twelve miles) even to Philadelphia with small boats; and when the improve- ments are made in the Susquehanna, and the projected canal cut between the Schuylkill and that river, there will be an uninterrupted good water communication for boats of ten or fifteen tons from the interior parts of the Genesee country all the way to Philadelphia. 12. But above all. the uncommon benefits these lands derive from the vicinity to the thickly settled countries in New York and New Eng- land governments on the one hand, and Northumberland county in Pennsylvania on the other, from all which quarters, from the great ad- vantages which are held out, there must be an overflow of emigrants every year, until these lands are fully settled, which expectation is already completely evinced, from the rapid population that has taken place on the east boundaries of the grant upon the Tioga river, and between the Seneca and Cayuga lakes up to Ontario, where, in the course of three or four years, above eight hundred families have fixed themselves in this fertile country, most of whom having emigrat- ed from the Eastern States of New England, New York and Pennsyl- vania, have all the advantages which are to be derived from a perfect knowledge of the country, and from that kind of education and local resource, which soon renders the situation of a new settler comfortable and happy, enabling them, at the same time, to assist new comers, who may be less acquainted with the nature of the country.

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History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 23

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen Number of Pages: 1422

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422