USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 36
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Mr. Smith was followed by the redoubtable Rector Page, who. according to the record. "urged several objections to the doctrines of Abolition; professed himself as much opposed to slavery as Mr. Smith; would go as far to remedy the evil, etc., but contended that Abolitionists had done no good; they had agitated and disturbed the peace of the churches, etc., and that Mr. Smith and his friends were all acting under a delusion! Mr. Smith rejoined, answered objections. explained and proved that the Abolitionist had done much to ad- vance the doctrines of freedom, and aided extensively in the emanci- pation of many slaves, etc., and made further illustrations of the
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blessings of immediate emancipation by quoting historical proofs."
Action was then taken upon the resolution, which passed with four or five dissenting votes, and a constitution was presented and read and unanimously adopted.
In this manner was born the Livingston County Anti-Slavery Society.
A committee consisting of Charles Colt, Rev. Henry Snyder, Allen Ayrault, J. B. Bloss and Rev. Wilber Hoag was appointed for the purpose of reporting names of officers. The committee reported for officers, Reuben Sleeper, of Mount Morris, for President; Vice Presidents: Win. C. Dwight, Leicester; Asa Woodford, Mount Mor- ris: Samuel W. Smith, Sparta; I. McCracken, York; Russell Austin, Geneseo; Wm. Squier, Groveland; Rev. H. B. Pierpont, Avon : Andrew Arnold, Conesus; Rev. H. Gregory, Lima; Henry Pierce, Livonia, Rev. Samuel Hoag, Springwater. For Recording and Cor- responding Secretary, William H. Stanley of Geneseo. For Treas- urer, Ephraim Cone of Geneseo. For Executive Committee. Charles Colt, W. H. Stanley and W. M. Bond, Jr. of Geneseo, George Hast- ings of Mt. Morris and J. B. Bloss of York.
The following are the names of the members given in at the first meeting or subsequently added: Wm. C. Dwight, Moses Marvin, James H. Rogers, Reuben Sleeper, Morris Sleeper, J. B. Bloss, David Bush, Allen Ayrault, Rev. Samuel Hoag, Giles Lyman, Jr., Charles Colt, Hiram Ellis, Rev. Wilber Hoag, Rev. C. H. Goodrich, Rev. Merritt Harman, Rev. Henry Snyder, Felix Tracy, George Kemp, Hiram Jennings. John D. Fraser, Rev. H. Gregory, A. Fowler, James Col- lins, Eben N. Horsford, Edgar Camp, Orrin Hall, Wm. B. Munson, S. Rowland, Win. MeCracken, Robert L. Guthrie, Alfred Beecher, Wells Fowler, James Richmond, Alanson Richmond, Jonathan Kings- bury, E. B. Warner, John Fisher, Samuel Gardner, Samnel Burpee, James Conkey, George Hastings, Amos Scofield, Mary H. Hastings, Mrs. Wm. M. Bond, M. B. Rogers, Lucy F. Richmond, Alice Jen- nings, Mrs. B. Ayrault, Mary Lyman, Caroline A. Bloss, Lucy Lyman, Mary W. Stanley, Mercy B. Stanley, Harriet C. Stanley, Emily S. Stanley, Catherine Whiting, Roxena Ewart, Nelly Bush, Susan E. Wendell, Eleanor C. Hoag, Sally H. Fowler, Maria Hills, Mary B. Lyman, Louisa Lyman, Sophia A. Fullerton, Lucretia W. Merrill, Orissa Merrill, Laura A. Bond, Lucinda Snyder, Ilannah
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Childs. W. H. Stanley, Wm. M. Bond. Jr., J. R. Bond, Asa Wood- ford, Samuel W. Smith, Russell Austin, William Squier, Rev. H. B. Pierpont, Andrew Arnold, Henry Pierce, Luman Stanley, S. S. Cooley, W'm. Wilder, N. Wilder, R. B. Southworth, Samuel Wood, George H. Ellicott, Frederick Stanley. B. W. Bills, M. W. Toby, Doctor E. Childs, Ephraim Cone, W. F. Clark, Wm. H. Raynale, Luther Melvin, S. Shannon, Moses VanCampen, C. E. Clark, Russell Day, J. W. Merrill, Jacob B. Hall, David Shepard, Robt. T. Sinclair. Moses Camp, John P. Gale, Eben Childs, Jr., Elihu S. Stanley, John H. Stanley. James R. Bond, Andrew Baldwin, Thomas P. Boyd, Lorenzo II. Brooks, Lorin Coy.
Meetings were held by the society until February 6th, 1839, which appears to be the date of its last assemblage. All but one were held in Geneseo, the final meeting being held at York Centre; and if the duration of the society was short, its work was of a very earnest, if not effective, character, to judge from the resolutions which the record shows were adopted.
Delegates were appointed to attend the conventions of the State society at various times, generally one or more members from each of the towns in the county being selected.
·Gerrit Smith delivered an address at a meeting held at the Presby- terian Church in Geneseo, on the 1st day of September, 1838. At this meeting, according to the record, "there was a respectable audi- ence from several towns in the county, and among them a few from the Village of Geneseo." It is apparent from the emphasis with which the secretary records the word "few." that the attendance from Geneseo was not up to his notion of what it should have been. The following are several of the resolutions adopted in the course of the society's existence:
"RESOLVED, That the system of American slavery, as sustained by law, is disgraceful to this nation, revolting to humanity, repugnant to common justice, contrary to the plain and positive injunctions of the Gospel, and ought therefore to be immediately abolished.
"RESOLVED, That the adoption on the 21st inst. by the House of Representatives of Mr. Patton's resolution to lay unread, unprinted, and unreferred, all petitions and papers touching the abolition of slavery on the table, clearly shows that the North has in that house many unNorthern and unAmerican representatives, and that the
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whole of the affirmative on that resolution are ready to sacrifice the entire nation on the altar of slavery.
"RESOLVED, That as American slaveholding destroys the in- dividual responsibilities of its victims by legally blotting out the grand distinguishments of humanity, it is an usurpation of Divine power, and the relation in itself sinful.
"RESOLVED, That the annexation of Texas to this republic would be unsound in policy, inconsistent with the avowed political faith of the nation, and threaten with a speedy dissolution the union of the States, and that Abolitionists ought at once to be prepared to meet any attempt for that purpose by the South, with the solemn protest of all classes of their fellow citizens.
"RESOLVED, That the principles and designs of Abolitionists need only to be understood to receive the approbation of candid and intelligent people. That they have been fully explained and power- fully discussed in the various anti-slavery publications of the day. That the establishing of libraries embracing these publications in towns and villages is an enterprise which commends itself to the judgment and ought to command the well directed persevering efforts of the friends of human rights to secure its immediate success.
"RESOLVED, That slavery in the District of Columbia and in Florida and the slave trade between the respective States, are fully under the constitutional control of Congress. That the honor, safety and prosperity of the nation demand their immediate abolition.
"RESOLVED, That the recent assassination of E. P. Lovejoy admonishes us that the friends of human rights should be prepared to. make any sacrifice for the promotion of their cause. And that in the name of God and suffering humanity they should be ready to part with reputation, property and even life, rather than yield the great principles of Abolitionism which bind us to our fellow men and the throne of God.
"RESOLVED, That we believe the system of American slavery was regarded by the wisdom and intelligence of our nation at the time of the organization of our Government, even by slaveholders themselves, as a great evil and one which would soon diminish and eventually cease, and that the increase and extension of this evil and the claims of slaveholders upon the liberties of the free States, for the purpose of perpetuating this horrid system, give fearful evidence.
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of a change of national policy incompatible with the fundamental principles of our Government, detrimental to the interest of free labor, and destructive to the peace and prosperity of our whole country.
"RESOLVED, That recent events show more clearly than ever the dark spirit of slavery, and its withering influence not only at the South, but at the North; and that as the developments of its wither- ing influence are coming thick and fast upon us, in the form of mobs, lynching, burning of public buildings, gag resolutions, rejection of petitions, and threats of assassination, it becomes every philanthropist. every patriot, and especially every Christian, to maintain calmly, yet firmly, and unflinchingly. the principles of the Declaration of In- dependence, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And to pledge to each other as did our fathers our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor in support of these principles.
"RESOLVED, That as slavery is created by law, it must be . abolished by law, and that in the exercise of our elective franchise, we will give our votes to those men of good moral character, and those only, who will sustain the principles of impartial freedom. And that the time has come to let all men know, that we will not on any consideration give our votes for any man to be next President or Vice President of the United States, who is a slaveholder, or an apologist for slavery.
"RESOLVED. That we have abundant evidence, not only in the nature of things and the testimony of God's words, but in the history of all past experience, that immediate emancipation is not only safe but most expedient for the master as well as the slave."
For the most part, the resolutions were adopted unanimously; occasionally some differences of opinion were expressed by the more conservative members who, however, appeared to have been very much in the minority and do not seem to have impressed their spirit of moderation upon the Society. This is probably a fair picture of how strong a hold the anti-slavery feeling had thus early taken upon the people in the rural communities of the North.
The presidential campaign of 1840 was a memorable one, and hokls its place in history as one of the most spirited and closely con- tested the country has ever witnessed. The Whig party came
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early into the field with its standard bearers, William Henry Harrison for President, and John Tyler for Vice President. The Democratic party nominated for reelection President Martin Van Buren and Vice President Richard M. Johnson.
It was a period of great financial distress. In 1837 had occurred the disastrous financial panic, when bank after bank suspended specie payments, enterprise was crippled, the business of the country was to a large degree suspended, and thousands of laborers were thrown out of employment. The government, which a few months before had a surplus of forty millions of dollars, found itself in this crisis unable to meet its daily obligations, and an extra session of Congress was rendered necessary to extricate it from serious difficulties. In 1840 the financial distress had been but little relieved and the people generally attributed this to the attempts of the government to regu- late the currency. Under the generally accepted rule that the party in power is responsible for all existing evils, the Democratic party was held responsible for this wide-spread distress and business stagna- tion, and its nominees were thus rendered unpopular. This tendency of popular judgment has ever been a marked feature of our political system, and while it may, and undoubtedly does, sometimes do in- justice to party leaders and organizations, it also acts as a wholesome check upon the abuse of power or the neglect of manifest public duty.
Some peculiar features marked the campaign of 1840. General Harrison, the Whig candidate for President, had served in the cam- paign of 1811 against the Indians, and at the battle of Tippecanoe had won great military honors. His admirers now took advantage of this, and "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," became the Whig watchword. Another peculiarity arose from the fact that some injudicious opponents had taunted General Harrison with having lived in a log cabin and used hard cider as a beverage. "Hence the term 'log cabin' was seized upon and became the great talismanic word of the party, the effect of which all the arts of the 'Little Magician' were insufficient to counteract. Miniature log cabins were a part of the paraphernalia got up to give effect to the mass meetings which were not infrequently measured by acres. These rude structures, decorated with 'coon skins,' were erected of sufficient dimensions for the accommodation of the local assemblages. There was scarcely a city or village which was not adorned with an edifice of this de-
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scription. And the number was legion of those who traced their con- version to the 'new light' emitted from these political forums."
Like their brethren in other parts of the country, the Whigs of Livingston had their log cabins and hard cider, much to the amuse- ment of their opponents, who derided them unmercifully. The Whigs of Geneseo erected a cabin near the centre of the village in the latter part of August, and it afforded a place for numerous gatherings dur- ing the campaign. It was not a sightly structure, however, and many were the derisive laughs enjoyed by the Democrats at its rough appearance and uncouth shape. The Register for September 1st, under the head of "Village Improvements," announces the comple- tion of the log cabin, which had been built in one week. It con- sidered the architecture unique, and compared the cornice in front. which had no posts to sustain it, to "Federal Tippecanoe Whiggery," which, it said, "is destitute of props, posts or supports, that can save it from the fate that awaits it."
Dansville also had her log cabin erected in one day at a grand mass meeting of Whigs, and, although threatened with destruction by the Democrats, it served its purpose in the campaign, and was the scene of a number of exciting and enthusiastic political barbecues.
After a canvass which will long be remembered, the two great parties met at the polls and measured their relative strength. The result proved an overwhelming Whig victory, the party electing its candidates for the presidency and vice presidency, gaining a large majority in Congress, and sweeping everything before it on its local tickets. In Livingston county it achieved a signal victory. The entire Whig ticket was elected. The Register, the organ of the Democracy, discouraged by this result, and its resources exhausted in attempts to maintain an existence, gracefully yielded to the in- evitable and suspended publication. The county officers chosen at this election were Samuel P. Allen, County Clerk; James Brewer, Sheriff, Augustus Gibbs and Reuben P. Wisner, Members of As- sembly. John Young was also chosen Member of Congress and John Wheeler, Presidential Elector.
The county had now nearly reached the twentieth year of its separate existence, and was prosperous to a degree exceeding the highest expectations of those who had favored its erection. The population at this time had reached 37,777, an increase of about 8,767
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in ten years. The assessed valuation of real estate was $10,477,692; of personal estate, $768,432; aggregate valuation, $11,246, 124.
The development of the manufacturing interests of the county had kept pace with her agricultural progress, and among the principal manufacturing establishments were one woolen mill, six iron establish- ments, four paper mills, twenty tanneries, one brewery, sixty-nine saw mills, thirty grist mills, sixteen fulling mills, fifteen carding mills and one oil mill.
Of banking establishments the county had two. The Livingston County Bank at Geneseo, with a capital of $100,000, its report for 1839 showing loans and discounts to the amount of $217,844; divi- dends in that year, $14,000, and surplus, or profits on hand, $37,762. Allen Ayrault was President and Ephraim Cone, Cashier. The Bank of Dansville was located at Dansville. Its capital was $150,000 at this time, and the amount of its circulation $124,000.
The villages in the county incorporated were Geneseo and Mount Morris, the former in 1832, the latter in 1835. But Dansville, Moscow, Avon, York, Lima and Livonia were flourishing villages, Dansville, at least, having a larger population than either of the incorporated villages. The number of post-offices in the county was thirty.
Three newspapers were at this time making their weekly visits to the people. These were the Livingston Republican and Livingston Register,1 published at Geneseo, and the Spectator, published at Mount Morris by Hugh Harding.
Two incorporated academies furnished educational facilities, in addi- tion to the excellent district schools. These were the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, with an average attendance per term of 180 pupils, and the Livingston County High School, with an average attendance of 83 pupils per term. There were also several unin- corporated academies which enjoyed a considerable reputation as institutions of learning. Among these were the academies at Moscow and West Avon.
A daily line of stages furnished comparatively easy communication with all points, and carried the mails with regularity and dispatch. A line ran from Rochester to Bath, accommodating all the principal
1. Suspended after the Presidential election of 1840.
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places in this county, and making connection with a Philadelphia and Washington line, and also with lines running to Buffalo, Lewiston, Utica and Albany; while the Genesee Valley Canal, now completed to Mount Morris, and rapidly approaching a finished state on its upper sections, as previously stated, afforded ample and cheap facilities for transporting the abundant products of the valley.
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CHAPTER XVII.
T HE AMBUSCADE by which a brave scouting party sent out from Sullivan's army of invasion in 1779 was ruthlessly de- stroyed by the savages, has been described in a previous chap-
ter. The scene of this ambuscade is on the farm now owned by Robert D. and Mary E. Boyd, situated just below the cemetery in Groveland, and a few rods south of the public road. The spot where the remains were interred is now marked by a monument erected by the Livingston County Historical Society. The deeply worn trail traversed by Boyd's scouting party and over which the army passed, and which might until recently be easily traced through the wood lot near by for quite a distance between this spot and the lake, is now used as a private roadway.
The fallen soldiers were buried in two graves near together, the larger of which was located between three huge oaks whose stumps were standing a few years ago. Captain Salmon, who now sleeps in the graveyard close at hand, lived for many years but a mile distant and frequently visited the spot. He never was weary of pointing out the place of conflict, or of identifying with soldierly reverence the burial place. The earth over the graves, while yet the virgin soil thereabouts lay undisturbed, had settled about two feet, and bushes had been thrown into the depression. Thus it remained for some years until the brush was removed by a tenant, who plowed over the spot and gradually levelled it with the surrounding surface.
While the country was yet new and farmers allowed their cattle and horses to roam at large, John Harrison, of Groveland, one morning in crossing the farm, just north of the site of the ambush, in search of his stock, stumbled upon a human skull which lay beside a decay- ing log. This doubtless belonged to one who had been wounded in the fight and had crawled off in that direction to die. A scalping knife also, possibly the property of the Indian killed by Murphy while effecting his escape, was found a little way eastward of the graves. A
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number of other relics have been picked up from time to time, though few are preserved.' For many years it was the practice of Groveland boys, on their way to the lake for fishing, when their route lay by this spot, to seek among the soldier bones, then quite' freely scattered over the surface, for such pieces as they best liked for cane tops. Military buttons, too, were now and then picked up and applied to the same fanciful purpose until the hand of the curious and the corrosion of time together had removed the more open evidences of the burial place, so that when in 1841, the general exhumation occurred, it was only after digging over a considerable space that the exact location of the two graves was ascertained. Mingled with the bones and dust thrown up on that occasion were found four pewter
buttons of a particular pattern, bearing on the face in large letters the initials "U. S. A." These were at once recognized by Paul Sanborn and Lemuel Richardson, and one or two other Revolutionary soldiers present, as the kind worn by the Riflemen, to which corps Boyd's party belonged. The identity of the remains, consisting of bones more or less decayed, of teeth and we believe some portions of mili- tary clothing, was thus fully established.
1. The engraving on this page shows the scalping knife alluded to above: an axe dug up about forty rods east of the spot where the military bridge was built across the inlet; and a pair of huge bullet moulds, greally rust eaten, capable of running a dozen balls at once, found near Sullivan's camping ground at Conesus.
The knife was the property of James Boyd, the late owner of the farm; the ave was presented to Colonel Doty by Mr. Granger Griswold, late of Conesus: the notch near the eye hole was made by taking ont a piece of steel for ornamenting a cane made from the wood of the Big Tree for Thurlow Weed: the bullet moulds were presented by the lale James T. Norton of Geneseo.
There was found on Mr. Richardson's farm, on the spot where the army lay encamped for the night, a gun barrel, and Mr. Richardson some years ago plowed up two horse shoes, of great size, much eaten by the rust, which doubtless belonged to the army horses.
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As the anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence in the year 1841 approached, a writer in one of the Rochester journals, said:
"The proximity of our national anniversary naturally excites re- flection respecting the services of those bold spirits whose patriotic course in field and council was blessed by Heaven to the establish- ment of American liberty. Unworthy would we be of the freedom we are enjoying, were we to prove forgetful inheritors of blessings se- cured through the storm and bloodshed of our glorious Revolution ! The national honor would have been consulted by more liberal provision for the soldiers of that memorable strife. But as time rolls by-thinning their ranks with its unsparing scythe-the survivors, like the Sibylline leaves, increase in public esteem as they diminish in number.
"There were those who fell fighting our battles, whose memory has not been fully considered by the inheritors of the liberty for which they fought. This Valley of the Genesee contains the relics of a gallant officer who bore arms for the Republic against the former savage occupants, when they were leagued with British red-coats in desolating our frontiers with fire and sword.
"The mouldering relics of that ill-fated warrior slumber now in an obscure grave, almost unknown, as it is without any memorial to apprise the passing traveller that beneath rests the gallant Boyd, · the slaughtered officer in the advance guard of Sullivan's army.
"The heroic valor of Boyd would be worthy of admiration under any circumstances; but when we know that that valor was displayed in behalf of American liberty, and that his gallantry and his slaughter are identified with the history of the Genesee Valley, how much stronger are those claims rendered which impel us to testify our love for his patriotism-our sympathy for his fate, by some public testi- monial of his worth, and of the gratitude of his country !
"It may be that our Rochester companies, recognizing promptly all claims of honor and patriotism, will make an excursion this summer to remove the mouldering remains from their lonely grave to our beautiful Mount Hope, and award the last military honors by a proper monument to the martyred soldier."
'This suggestion evoked immediate response from the Rochester companies to whom it was more directly addressed, with the promise
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of their enthusiastic cooperation. The following is the record of the proceedings of a meeting of Williams' Light Infantry upon the subject :
Armory of Williams' Light Infantry, Rochester, July 2, 1841.
At a special meeting of this corps, on Friday evening, at their armory, the subject of disinterring the remains of the brave Lieut. Boyd, which now lie buried in the Valley of the Genesee, between Geneseo and Moscow, and removing them to such place on Mount Hope as shall hereafter be designated, the following resolutions were adopted :
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