USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 27
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 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123
The fever common to the early settlers, known as the "Genesee
269
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
fever," still made its appearance, and nearly all the first settlers were attacked by it. It was of a low typhoid type and proved fatal in sev- eral instances. In others it left the constitution permanently impaired. Notwithstanding this, the currents were setting strong in the direc- tion of the Genesee country. Pittstown (Livonia) was receiving ac- cessions, from the prudent and industrious class of New England agri- culturists; indeed, all parts of the country were receiving additions. In December, 1805, Mr. Wadsworth writes, "Such is the prodigious influx of settlers to the Genesee river that provisions will be very scarce next summer."
A total eclipse of the sun occurred near mid-day on Monday, June 16, 1806. The centre of the eclipse passed over Lake Erie, the Genesee country and Albany, and thence outward into the Atlantic ocean to the southward of Nova Scotia. The at- mosphere during the forenoon had been perfectly clear, and the sun was very bright until fifty minutes past nine, when a little dark spot became visible about 45° to right of zenith. Shades increased, and at a quarter past ten o'clock stars were seen and the atmosphere began to assume a pale and gloomy hue. At a quarter after eleven the sun was wholly obscured. It now appeared like a black globe with a light behind. The darkness which equalled a deep twilight lasted three minutes. Business was suspended, fowls went to roost, birds were mute except the whip-poor-will, whose notes partially cheered the gloom, and an occasional bat flitted from its hiding place. The dew fell, the thermometer dropped a half dozen degrees, a certain chilli- ness was felt and nature everywhere seemed to have taken on a sober aspect. At about eighteen minutes past eleven o'clock a bright spot showed itself to the left of the sun's nadir similar to the focus of a glass when refracting the sun's rays, and as this increased a change, how pleasing can scarcely be conceived, took place in the complexion of things, and at about forty minutes past twelve the sun again shone forth in full splendor. Such a spectacle is so rare that it is not a mat- ter of surprise that the Indians, who looked with peculiar horror up- on celestial phenomena, should have regarded so unusual an event an omen of fearful import. On this occasion they were filled with alarm. John Hunt, one of the pioneer settlers in the town of Groveland, says that Dan Mckay, an Indian trader residing in Geneseo, was at Canea- dea on the morning of the eclipse, and taking his watch out he told
270
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
the Indians that at such an hour the sun would be totally obscured. As the sky was perfectly clear and their untutored minds knew noth- ing of science, they refused to credit his statement, and went so far as to wager ten dollars with him that the event he assumed to foretell would not come to pass. Having thus staked his money on the cer- tainty of the eclipse's occurring, he put out his horse and waited the event. As the hour approached and the sky became overcast, the countenances of the poor Indians were also overcast, and there was depicted thereon the greatest anxiety and consternation, and they ran to and fro in the most abject terror. The eclipse, however, was soon over with, and as the sun again poured down its flood of light the spirits of the Indians rose, and they resumed their wonted composure. They paid their lost bet like men, and Mckay started home ten dollars the richer for having possessed a little more education than his dusky customers.
In 1806 three Clintonian Members of Assembly were elected by the counties of Ontario and Genesee, which then voted together.
The spring of 1806 was one of famine. James Wadsworth, under date of May 23d, says: "There is literally a famine in this land of milk and honey. A severe drought last summer cut off about half the crop of corn. The farmers, they hardly knew how themselves, con- sumed their hay by the month of March, and have been compelled to feed out their grain to keep their cattle alive during a long, backward spring. They now find themselves destitute of bread to support their families. Six or eight families of the town of Southampton have applied to the overseer of the poor for assistance. I am supporting three or four families and expect to be called on by more soon. My brother has been compelled to turn forty fat oxen from our stables, to preserve the grain they were consuming for poor families who have not the means of subsistence."
A writer to a friend at the East, in May, 1806, says. "On my ar- rival 1 found upwards of thirty families at Mount Morris ready to go to work. Some of them have handsome properties." The settlements were still sparse, however. Richard Osbon, who settled in Leicester in 1806, said there was then but one house between Tus- carora, afterward the residence of Major Spencer, and Caledonia Springs. Where now is Vermont street in Conesus there was then no road and no settler, nor was there for several years thereafter.
271
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
Reverend Andrew Gray, a pioneer clergyman of the Presbyterian church, was preaching in Sparta in 1806, though he subsequently ac- cepted a missionary appointment among the Indians near Lewiston (Livonia), and did not return to Sparta until after Buffalo was burned. In 1806 the road from Bath through Dansville and Williamsburgh to Avon, was by law declared a post road. In the fall of 1806 the Post- master-General, Gideon Granger, established a post-office at Geneseo and provided a mail to Avon once a fortnight, the whole service to cost $26 a year, and, says a letter of that day, "it accommodates us perfectly." A gentleman writing from Geneseo this same fall, says, "You are mistaken in supposing that in coming to this country you come to a desert; you will find better roads here than in Haddam,1 and you will find most of the people who have been here two or three years enjoying the comforts of civilized life."
In June, 1806, James Scott left Northumberland county, Pennsyl- vania, with his family consisting of his wife and ten children,2 in a large covered wagon drawn by four horses and a yoke of oxen, reach- ing Sparta on the 1st of July. From Dansville they were obliged to cut a road most of the way to their new home. They settled in the woods on the Swick farm. There was no wagon road in any direction, except the one they had just opened. An Indian path ran from Con- esus to Hemlock valley, and nothing more. To the eastward stretch- ed an unbroken wilderness to Naples, a distance of eighteen miles. In the territory now constituting the town of Springwater there was not a stick cut nor line drawn. A good many Indians roamed through the woods, and bears, wolves and deer by the score made their pres- ence known, while ,panthers were far more common than welcome. Two years before bringing his family, Mr. Scott, who was an Irishman by birth, and a soldier in our Revolutionary army from love for his adopted country, had visited Sparta on horseback in company with his wife, for the purpose of prospecting. The country suited the couple and in the fall two sons and one daughter came out, erected a log cabin, cleared off a piece of ground and sowed it with wheat. The next summer another son came out with a cow. All went back
1. Connecticut.
2. One of whom was the Hon. W'm. Scott of Scottsburgh. The names of the other children were Matthew, Anna, James, Johu, Charles, Jane, Thomas, Isabella and Samuel.
272
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
to Pennsylvania in the fall and returned with the family. "The Sab- bath following our arrival in Sparta, " said Esquire Scott, "my father, one of the girls and four of us boys attended meeting at the house of George Mitchell, a log domicile two and one-half miles south of Scotts- burgh, where Samuel Emmett. a Methodist minister, preached a ser- mon to a congregation of twenty-five or thirty persons, who had gath- ered from a circuit of two or three miles. His text was Ecclesiastes X. 1. I had heard the good man preach in Pennsylvania five years before, and seeing him here renewed agreeable associations. His voice was loud enough to lift the bark roof from the low-browed house, and he had all the earnestness of early Methodism. There was much shouting, and some of his hearers fell with 'the power,' as it was called. The doxology was sung but no benediction was said except 'meetin's over.' The season was one of great scarcity, especially of wheat. We had learned this before quitting Pennsylvania, and had brought suffi- cient to last until our ripening crop, and a bountiful one it proved to be, could be harvested. Four of us brothers, of whom I was youngest, went over to Groveland hill to help in harvest. We worked for the brothers Hugh, Abraham and John Harrison, William and Daniel Kelly, and Thomas Bailey, William Magee on the Canaseraga flats, Jacob Snyder, who had a crop at Hermitage but had moved to Hen- derson's flats before it ripened, and Thomas Begole, agent for the Maryland Company. 1 In the fall we all went to Mount Morris flats and husked corn for Captain William A. Mills. Each hand of us got two bushels of corn in the ear for a day's work, and a brother with the two horses and wagon got six bushels a day. By this means we se- cured a supply of corn for the winter. There were then but few in- habitants in the village of Mount Morris or Allen's Hill. Captain Mills was keeping tavern in a log cabin, and there were perhaps a dozen other log houses, occupied by the widow Baldwin, Deacon Stan- ley, Adam Holtslander? and Grice llolland. A Mr. Hampton lived in a log house that is now called the Colonel Fitzhugh place, 3 and
1. The purchase of Charles Carroll, W'm. Fitzhugh and Col. Rochester was then so called.
2. Mr. Holtslander resided at Mount Morris until 1849, when he removed to Michigan, and died at Mount Morris in that State Febuary 27, 1872.
3. Now the residence of James W. Wadsworth, junior, and called from the former owner of the site "Hampton."
273
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
Joseph Richardson kept a store and tavern at Williamsburgh. I recol- lect seeing two sons of Mary Jemison at Mount Morris. There were but few inhabitants at Geneseo, then generally called Big Tree. I re- member the two Wadsworth brothers, who had a store there in charge of William H. Spencer, either as partner or clerk, Colonel Lawrence, a Mr. Coates, Charles Colt and John Pierce. I know of none now who lived there at that time.
"At Dansville I recollect David Shull, owner of the Williamson Mill, Samuel Culbertson (with whom I learned my trade as cloth-dresser, a good man), Peter LaFlesh, Neal McCay, Jared Irwin, the first post- master, Matthew Patterson, David, James and Matthew Porter, Peter and Jacob Welch, Jonathan Stout, John Metcalf, Amariah and Lazarus Hammond, Owen Wilkinson, William Perine and Isaac Vandeventer. The first town meeting we attended in Sparta was in 1807, and was held in the present town of Groveland, then forming a part of Sparta, at the tavern of Christian Roup, a log house standing nearly a mile south of the Presbyterian church. I recollect seeing at the polls. Captain John Smith, Joseph Richardson, Robert Burns, John Hunt, Andrew Culbertson, William and Daniel Kelly, Samuel Stillwell, James Rosebrugh, William McCartney, Alexander Fullerton. James Scott, the McNair brothers, Thomas Begole and William Doty. It was an orderly gathering, but little of political excitement."
The first settlements in this section, as in all new countries in early days, were located near navigable streams; and the little produce that found its way to market was either floated down the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers to Philadelphia and Baltimore (the latter then afford- ing the best market) in arks, during the short season of three or four weeks of high water in the Spring, or to Montreal by the Genesee and Lake Ontario. The latter was the shorter route, but was attend- ed with delays and expense of portage around the falls at Rochester and below. The cost of sending a barrel of potash from the mouth of the Genesee across the lake to Montreal, in 1807, was one dollar, a sum which, measured by the price of grains at the place of production, was several times in excess of the present rate. Though in 1807 James Wadsworth says that the road from Geneseo to Canandaigua was excellent, the wagonways were impassable for loads in the spring and fall, and so imperfectly were they yet bridged and graded that, except in midwinter, transportation overland was quite out of the
274
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
question. It must be recollected that the streams a hundred years ago averaged twice their present size. The clearing of the lands has greatly diminished their power of absorption, and aged Indians a few years ago pointed to tracts of farming lands which were known to them in their childhood as marshes and swamps. The Commissioners appointed by the State to consider the feasibility of a canal from Lake Ontario to tidewater, reported as late as 1816 that the cost of trans- porting a ton of merchandise from Buffalo to Albany was one hundred dollars, and the time required twenty days. As experience has shown that wheat will not bear profitable carriage over ordinary highways beyond two hundred and fifty miles, it was not until the completion of the Erie canal, which at once reduced the cost of freightage to one- tenth, and subsequently to one-thirtieth of overland charges, that our agricultural interests were fully developed. To the ark, however, the pioneer farmers were greatly indebted for transporting their marketable products, and they often referred to it with satisfaction. It was invent- ed by a Mr. Kayder, residing on the Juniata river. The high prices of both flour and lumber at Baltimore, and the plentifulness of both articles in the new settlements, induced him to try the experiment of preparing a long, flat float of timber, such as he supposed would suit the purpose of city builders, to be broken up and sold for lumber after discharging cargo. A temporary house or covering was placed cover the cargo, which often consisted of five hundred barrels of flour. Four or five men could navigate it at the rate of eighty miles a day. 1
In 1807 Portage contained only two houses, both of logs. No one lived at Nunda at that time, but there was a store at Hunt's Hollow kept by Mr. Hunt; the settlement also contained three dwelling houses.
In April, 1807, Ontario and Genesee elected one Federal and two Clintonian Members of the Assembly, and the vote on Governor in Ontario county stood, Lewis, 1462, Tompkins, 1240. The votes of the town of Avon were rejected in consequence of the inspectors having held the election for four days. The cavass showed 156 votes for Lewis
I. In speaking of markets at Bath in 1798, Captain Williamson gives the following prices.
Wheat per bushel, $1.00
Oxen, per yoke, $ 70.00
Rye
.75
Cows, each 15.00
·(ats and Corn per bushel,.
.50
An ox cart 30.00
Barley per bushel,.
.70
A log house, 20 x 20. 50.00
.. .4 of 2 rooms 100.00
275
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
and 42 for Tompkins. Taking the whole of what is now Livingston county together, the votes were divided almost equally between Tomp- kins and Lewis.
The months of January and February, 1807, were remarkably hard ones. The snow was very deep and steady cold weather prevailed. The smaller streams were frozen and the inhabitants of Sparta were compelled to go long distances to mill. The mill at Hermitage had been neglected and the water had frozen up. Samuel Magee was started to Bosley's mill with an ox sled with a grist for his father, one for Robert Burns and-one or two others. Starting long before day- light on a Monday morning, he found the weather bitter cold. Rid- ing and walking by turns, he reached the mill and was informed by Mr. Bosley that the water was frozen up hard and had been for several days, and the latter added, "I have more grain in the mill waiting its turn than I could grind in a month if I could begin to-morrow." "The building, as I saw for myself," says Mr. Magee, "was full up- stairs and down, and with no prospect of a thaw, so I started for home." Reaching Moses Gibson's tavern at the foot of Conesus lake, Gibson advised him to go to Henderson's mill, on the outlet of Hone- oye lake, seventeen miles distant. He remained over night, and starting early the next morning reached the mill without meeting a single team, and passing but two houses in the whole distance. He found a large number of grists ahead of him, but had the promise of getting his grinding done in the night time. But his grist was not reached until Saturday night, and he started for home early Sunday morning by way of the foot of Hemlock lake. On reaching Scotts- burg the snow had left him, and he carried his grist on the hind wheels of Jacob Collar's wagon, reaching his home at ten o'clock Sunday night, having spent eight days in securing a single grist.
In 1808 the Tuscarora lands, as they were then called, but later known as Major Spencer's farm, were occupied by squatters who gave great annoyance to land owners. The locality soon acquired a name more expressive than classical, "Buggarsburgh," and was held in dread by neighboring farmers. The denizens of this unthrifty neighborhood so frequently visited the sheep folds on Wadsworth's flats, that the path thitherward became well trodden and was used for years afterwards, while their visits were always sure to subtract a unit from the sum of the fine flocks kept there. The squatters were
276
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
dreaded by the whole surrounding country, but finally a Phila- delphian named Jacobs bought the land and succeeded in clearing it of its lawless occupants. Among the number was a former stage driver who had a worn-out horse whose legs were ill-mated, and when it dropped its foot seemed to step clear over back on its fet- locks. Being at Geneseo on some public day, his horse became the butt of the crowd. After a good deal of fun at his expense, he offered to bet a hundred dollars that Dobbin could travel one hundred miles in twenty four successive hours. The wager was taken, and it was agreed that he should go five miles north on the road to Avon and return, making ten miles each round trip, and make ten trips. The owner toed the mark when time was called, and actually made nine trips, or ninety miles, with two hours and a half to spare, when the parties who had taken the bet were glad to buy off.
The election of 1808 brought out a larger vote than usual, and re- sulted in 383 votes being cast for the Federal candidate for Senator and 470 for the Democratic candidate. 1 The vote of Lima, however, was rejected, owing to the fact that the returns, while declaring that "the poll was closed according to law," and giving the number of votes for each candidate, did not designate the office.
A division of the great territory of Ontario county was early agi- tated by the settlers along the river, who found it irksome to attend the courts and examine the records at Canandaigua. In February, 1808, a project was started to erect a new county, with the county seat at Avon, and a subscription paper was circulated to raise money to build a court house at that place. It had the countenance of Gen- eseo and the surrounding country, but was successfully opposed by Canandaigua.
The credit system in business transactions prevailed to a very large extent in the new settlements, and was productive, as it always is, of great evils. In August 1808 Mr. Wadsworth wrote to Major
I. The vote stood as follows:
l'ederal.
Democratic.
Sparta,.
126
Avon,
IIS
38
Livonia,
32
22
Lima,.
69
Geneseo,
-6
Caledonia
19
42
Leicester,
26
97
277
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
Spencer that he was trusting a great deal and urged him to restrict his credits more.
At the election of 1809 the town of Sparta cast 198 votes for Assem- blyman, of which the Democratic candidates each received 168 and the Federal candidates 30. Avon gave the Federal candidates 139 and the Democratic 60; Livonia gave the Federalists 76 and the Democrats 50; Lima cast 103 votes for the Federalists and 19 for the Democrats; Geneseo gave the Federalists 89 and the Democrats 73; Caledonia gave 45 votes for the Federalists and 106 for the Demo- crats; and Leicester cast 27 votes for the Federalists and 21 for the Democrats. In 1809 Ontario county gave a Federal majority of 107. The previous year it gave 470 Democratic majority.
A writer for an Eastern paper in May 1809 says "we have had a very severe winter. The oldest Indian does not recollect a winter equally severe."
In the summer of 1809 Asa Nowlen was advised to come to the Genesee country and open a blacksmith's shop. He was assured that a shop could be built for him in ten days. Iron he was told was easily procurable from Pennsylvania eighty miles distant. Nowlen had heard that the new country was unhealthy, but James Wadsworth assured him that "there was just as much foundation and no more for hang- ing witches in Boston a hundred years before as there is now for the report that our water is bad and that the inhabitants are all subject to the fever and ague."
In March of this year Mr. Wadsworth made the following interest- ing announcement :
"NOTICE TO NEW SETTLERS."
"The subscriber offers for sale the following townships and tracts of land, in the counties of Ontario, Genesee, and Allegany, in the State of New York.
"A tract containing upwards of 60,000 acres, situated within six miles of the landing in Falltown, on the west side of the Genesee River-this tract is divided into lots of about 100 acres. In order to encourage and accommodate industrious and enterprising settlers one- half of the land, consisting of every other three hundred acres throughout the tract, will be sold for wheat, pork and neat cattle; the
278
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
wheat and pork to be delivered at Falltown Landing. The very flourishing settlements of West Pulteney, Braddock's Bay and Fairfield are within this tract. The inhabitants in these settlements have been remarkably healthy. Vessels of 200 tons sail from Lake Ontario up the Genesee River to the lower falls; this place is called Falltown Landing and is only six miles from the tract now offered for sale. A barrel of flour can now be sent from Falltown Landing to Montreal for one dollar, and a barrel of pot-ashes for one dollar and a half; these prices will be reduced as the business of transportation increases. Most articles of American produce command as high prices at Mon- treal as at New York.
"The intervals and swales in this tract are timbered with elm, butternut, white and black ash, walnut, etc., the uplands with sugar maple, beech, basswood, hickory, wild cherry, white oak, black oak, chestnut, etc. There are a number of groves of excellent white pine timber. There are no mountains or ledges, and scarcely one hundred acres of waste land in the tract. Some of the intervals or flats will produce, if well cultivated, 80 bushels of corn, 800 weight of hemp, or 2,000 weight of tobacco on an acre, and other crops in proportion.
"Also the Township of Troupton, situated eighteen miles south of the village of Geneseo and adjoining the village of Dansville. This tract is within twelve miles of Arkport, a landing place on the west branch of the Susquehanna river; a barrel of flour may be trans- ported from Arkport to Baltimore for a dollar and a half and other articles of produce in proportion; the situation of this township is considered very healthy, the lands are fertile and well watered.
"Also the town of Henrietta being township No. 12 in the seventh range on the west side of Genesee river; this traet is within eight miles of Falltown landing, and adjoins the flourishing towns of Hart- ford (now Avon) and Northfield; the lands in Henrietta are excellent and the settlement very flourishing; the lots adjoining the Genesee river containing handsome portions of timbered flats, are put at five dollars per acre, the back lots at four dollars per acre.
"Also a number of lots in a tract of land, usually known by the name of Allen's Flats, or the Mt. Morris tract, situated in the forks of the Genesee river, fifteen miles south of the great State Road to Niagara and four miles from the village of Geneseo. The tract contains about 10,000 acres, 3,000 acres of which are flats or
279
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
interval. It has lately been surveyed into lots of convenient size; the village lots contain from one to forty acres, and the farm lots about one hundred acres each. The village is situated on elevated ground timbered with oak, and bids fair to be a very healthful situation. The subscriber will sell the upland and lease the flats, or will sell both upland and flats, as applicants prefer.
"It is fully ascertained that the flats or intervals on the Genesee river are perfectly adapted to the cultivation of hemp. Mr. Stephen Colton, from Long Meadow, raised ten hundred weight of excellent hemp the last season on one acre of flats in Geneseo. One hundred and six bushels of Indian corn have been raised on one acre in Allen's. flats.
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.