USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 65
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
Settlement, now LeRoy; Batavia; Buffalo, &c., a few in Lima, and but few in Big Tree, now Geneseo. All the rest of this large territory, excepting the Indians, was uninhabited, and a howling wilderness. I will here relate an incident which took place at this time, to show more clearly the indomitable principles which ruled in the minds of these early pioneers and was also characteristic of several of them all their lifetime. Mr. D. Mckenzie being at dinner one day in the house of Rev. Simeon Hoosick, a Presbyterian minister in the village of Johns- town, the conversation turned on the Genesee country. Mr. Mckenzie was asked if he intended to go there. He promptly replied, "I do." After a short pause, Mr. Hoosick said, "You seem to me to be a good sort of a man, and my advice to you is that you buy yourself a buck saw and saw wood in the village during the winter; it will be better for you than to throw yourself away among ferocious Indians, deprived of every temporal and spiritual comfort." The reply was, "I will die behind a stump of starvation first." He however thanked Mr. Hoos- ick and began to make preparation for removing his family to the Genesee country. He then bought a good yoke of oxen and built a sled at the wagon shop of Mr. John Hamilton in the place now of Avon, Livingston county, on which his family and goods were con- veyed to the place where we have ever since resided. We were two weeks on the road. The Sabbath we passed at an Indian tavern in
Oneida county. Mr. D. Mckenzie and Mr. William Fraser, now of Caledonia, spent a portion of the day in religious worship unmolested by the savages. Next Saturday night we arrived at a log cabin tav- ern at the Big Springs now in Caledonia. This inn was indeed a log cabin, similar to those so common in the political excitement of 1840, which latter strongly reminded me of this specimen of Genesee hotel. We remained in it however until Monday morning. Some time on Monday, the kind hearted Mr. Peter Campbell came to the inn where we were and insisted on our going to his hospitable and friendly man- sion, which he said was rather limited for our comfort, but to which we would be heartily welcome until we could do better, which offer we were glad of and accepted. We remained here about six weeks during which time and ever since there was a strong and abiding friendship formed and cultivated in the minds of those two eminent men, and which nothing could sever during the long period in which they were both efficient elders in the First Presbyterian church of Caledonia of
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which the Godly and beloved Rev. Alexander Denoon was pastor for forty-four years. The hungry and weary never went away from the house of Mr. Campbell without being refreshed. When the snow had melted the exploring party resumed their occupation. There was a large tract of land, then newly offered for sale, known by name of "Triangle Tract," lying west from a parallel line between LeRoy and Brockport. The agent thereof, Mr. Stoddard, was very anxious to get part of it, at least, settled by Scotch men. The party spent about a week exploring it, but when they returned they brought up rather an unfavorable report and it was abandoned. although the agent made them liberal offers. I have had occasion to travel on business through a good portion of this fertile savannah, of late, and saw there many large and stately mansions, many handsome and fertile farms, indicating both comfort and refinement through all that region. They had also liberal offers of land for nothing from an agent of the British government, who tried to persuade them to settle there in Canada, but they declined that also; having once expatriated themselves they resolved to remain so. There was then on every side of them any quantity and quality of unoccupied lands, which have since proved to be exceedingly fertile, especially since they sow so much clover seed and plaster, together with manure, &c., but which had then a very sterile appearance, owing, I think, to its being so often burnt over by the fire in the fall or spring. They would not settle then on some of the now best farms in Caledonia as a gift and be obligated to till them. This sterile looking tract extended on the State Road, from the Indian village near Canawaugus to the now town of LeRoy, and which had a dreary and desolate appearance, especially on a cold winter's day when covered with snow of which I often heard the travelers complain. When the ground
dried, which it did early in April that spring. the emi- grants concluded to make a part of the forty thousand acre tract their future home, although it was not surveyed nor for sale at the time. The writer of this narrative, in company with Donald McKen- zie and William Fraser, since of Caledonia, and who soon afterward was chosen an elder in the Associate Reform church, of which the Reverend and Godly Donald C. McLaren has been the worthy pastor for a great many years, came to what was to be my future residence. We staid two days and one night clearing the under-growth, and fell-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
ing some of the largest trees. When night came we kindled a large fire to keep us warm and frighten away any wild beasts that might roam through the wilderness. After refreshing ourselves with food, the night being calm and not cold, we sang for a long time in sincerity a number of the good old Psalm tunes which were wont to be often sung on the hillsides in Scotland, such as "Old Hundred Martyrs," "Bangor," etc., and then prayed to the God of Heaven and of America to protect us and prosper so humble a beginning. As a proof that this prayer was heard, I have for the most part of the time since slept within six rods of that to me sacred spot of ground. The glare of the fire shining on the tall trunks of trees which stood within the circle of impenetrable darkness, the stillness of the night and the solitude of the place, together with the echo of the woods mingling with the sweet strains of sacred song
poured forth for the first time in this place, and the canopy of the majestic forest constituted a scene truly novel and sublime, and one which I can never forget. I have this sacred spot inclosed in my garden now. All the party left Johnstown about the same time, but the others having hired horse teams to bring them to the Big Springs, they arrived a week before us, and quartered in the house of a kind man by name of John McVean, who lived then on the farm, now and for a long time owned by Col. Robt. Mckay, about two miles from the village of Caledonia.
The following are the names of heads of families who resided then at the Big Springs and around Allen's Creek: Big John McNaughton, living on the same farm where he now lives., and whose hospitality was proverbial; Angus Cameron, his son Duncan A. Cameron, Dun- can Mc Pherson and John Christie; Donald McKenzie, and Donald Anderson were the first elders ordained west of the Genesee River; John McVean, an honest old Christian, also an elder in Mr. McLaren's church, one or two families by the name of McKerchers; black Alex-
ander McPherson, as he was familiarly called; Peter Anderson; John McDermot, who was elected Town Clerk-after this he was a good penman; old John McDermot as he was called; Soldier John McPher- son, as by way of eminence he was known and is still; Thomas Ervin, father-in-law to Angus McBean, Esq .- there was still another fam- ily of McPhersons-and William Taylor, all these were living near Allen's Creek, Alexander McDonald was a land agent for a Mr. Will-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
iamson, and Donald McDonald, Esq., his son, who kept a tavern and store at the Springs for a great number of years -- his family keep a store there still; William Armstrong, who was a worthy man, was one of the first elders, and for a long time in Mr. McLaren's church ; old John McLaren and sons Duncan, John, James and Peter, and Don- ald McVean, his son-in-law, a worthy man. The kind and worthy man Duncan McColl and family came in the same time that we came. John McKenzie Argyle, Angus and Neal Haggart, Lachlan and Neal McLean all came about the same time, that is, they were in before or came in, in 1804. Soon after this Donald Mckenzie, clothier, as he has been called, came in. He built a small shop at Mumford, known then by the sobriquet of Slab City where he carried on the business of carding wool and cloth dressing for many years with profit to himself and his customers. He afterwards built a respectable shop and was doing business on a large scale, when in an evil hour his shop took fire from some cause I did not learn, together with all its contents. The loss was 2,500 dollars, no insurance. He after this built another large stone factory by his indomitable and perse- vering principle where he was doing a large business in manufacturing cloth as well as carrying on the other branches, but that too was doomed to the same fate with all its contents, and without being insured. These heavy losses would be enough to discourage ordinary minds, but he struggled on, aided no doubt, by the counsels and see- ing the fortitude of his peerless wife are still in comfortable cicum- stances, etc. John McKay, Esq., was then an enterprising young man, living where he now does, and owned a good grist mill and the only one west of the Genesee river. He commenced then erecting a saw mill. That spring he lived in a log cabin near where his house now is. His pious mother and Jennet, his sister, kept house for him. He soon after this married an amiable young woman, a daughter to Major Isaac Smith, who lived and kept a tavern on the farm now owned by Mr. Sylvester Hosmer, who also married another of those virtuous young ladies and daughter of Mr. Smith. Many who were quite young then and numbers who were not born at that date, are now heads of families, and are looked on as being somewhat in years.
Forty-seven years since then, during the winter of 1805 and 1806, Rev. Alexander Denoon came in company with Alexander Fraser, Francis Bean and Donald Fraser, Jr. Mr. Denoon and D. Fraser were
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
unmarried ; the others had families. Mr. Denoon after this married an amiable young woman by the name of Ann Fraser and sister to this D. Fraser who is now and has been an efficient elder in Mr. Denoon's church, for a great number of years. He has been supervisor of the town of York several years. Those hardy pioneers did not wait to erect houses before they moved in; they merely built temporary wigwams after the manner the Indians do in their journeys. It was some time before they got everything ready. Some of the men had to travel eight or nine miles to get here, and the same distance back again, who helped in building the first log houses in the town of York, formerly in Caledonia, and before that it was called North Hampton. They bought a yoke of oxen each and two cows with their calves. My father bought his oxen in Johnstown, as I said before. I heard him tell that after he bought the two cows he had not two shillings left. He had bought, however, before this, wheat and corn enough to last till harvest, and then every one that could worked in the harvest for a bushel of wheat a day for good reapers, which the most of them were-even some of the females. What they earned in the harvest served for brea'd and seed wheat for them, together with what growed on patches which were not more than half cleared, but on which we planted corn and potatoes late, to be sure, and which did not yield much. We made out to live until the next harvest. The only avail- able material for roofs for the houses was the bark of some trees ingen- iously flayed of something like the skinning of a beef creature, which made a pretty good roof. We could not get any boards for floors until Mr. Mckay got his saw mill finished which he did sometime that season, and was the first ever built west of the Genesee river. 1 must not let this opportunity slip without paying a small tribute of deserved praise to the peerless pioneer mothers, who, with wonderful fortitude, forsook all their former convenience and associations, and who, with him, the man of their choice and idol of their hearts went forth from the parental roof for the first time, perhaps exclaiming with Ruth, "Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God; where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried;" sur- prising love and sacrifice. Who could not go forth and do battle with such a companion, and soon make a comfortable lodge in some vast
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
wilderness, some contiguity of shade! I draw not on imagination here; no, it is as perfect and true as that two and two make four, etc. The reader will honestly inquire what it was that encouraged you and others to persevere and patiently endure so much hardship and toil, deprived of many comforts. 1 can only answer for myself, and that by stating that the star of hope glimmering in the future sometimes indeed more bright, at others more dim, but never extinguished, beckoned us to constant perseverance and endurance. At times an- nouncing like the morning star that an unclouded day was approach- ing and near us that would in its onward course dispel much of the chaos and discomforts which is inseparable from a pioneer life and from which I can assure the gentle reader we were not altogether ex- empt. It was not the main object of this people to get riches; no, to be sure they wanted most of all a permanent place of abode where they could dwell peaceably and worship the Lord God, not only of Britain, but also of America, according to the rule given by God himself in his Word; and in order to secure this they made considerable sacrifice in the personal comforts and used every lawful means and endeavor to accomplish so desirable and necessary a result and in which laudable efforts they were finally successful in securing. Every pioneer in the state of New York or any other state will involuntarily attest to the truth of a remark which I will here make, and that is that there is an alluring, anxious and constant pleasure in improving, cultivating and paying for a new farm and all at the self and same time which is almost unknown in any other occupation. This business is a special cure and preventive of that horrible disease termed dyspepsia ; the sleep of the laboring man is sweet whether he eats much or little. The his- tory of these persons after this would be the history of thousands of other pioneers. I often shudder when I call to mind how careless and yet how exposed the people were often. . I may say always when building log barns and log houses; some of the barns were often from 40 to 50 feet by 30 to 36 feet and often 20 feet high, 3 or 4 of the top logs whole, the whole length of the barns for each side and large in proportion, often attended with a confusion of tongues caused by the diversity of languages spoken, together with the free use made of whiskey, some talking English, some Gaelic, some Dutch, &c. I almost always notched the logs on the corners, which was heavy and hazardous work, and I continue still to wonder at the mercy of God in
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
preserving us all from being hurt or maimed, when I remember the temporary vigor and ambition created by the too free use of liquor. It was not then considered disreputable, after a heavy day's work of this kind, to see some stagger, some when going home, from the effects of it, brush and roots would have to bear a share of blame. I forgot to mention in the proper place the names of two worthy young men, sons of Duncan McPherson, and who were in the place before we came, John and Finley McPherson. John was one of the four first elders in Mr. Denoon's church after a part of the congregation seceded. Archibald Gilles was and still is one of the first elders, a worthy and God fearing man. A goodly number of people came in soon after we did. I will here mention the names of a few of them: big James Sinclair and big John Sinclair, big James Stuart and Donald Stuart, a worthy and Godly man, and his two sons by the name of Alexander Manp, bis son Per. Dorald Mann is a Baptist minister, a profound scholar. Federal and Gad Blexly, sons of Col. Blexly of Avon, Donald Campbell, father of Rev. John Campbell, the first settled minister in the Associate Reform Church of Caledonia, and his other sons, Malcom, Daniel and Joseph, John and Duncan McLaughlin, Peter and James McNaughton, brothers to big John, James Calder and family, William Forbes and Thomas Duer, John Campbell, brother to Peter, Archibald Ferguson, and Daniel, his brother, John McIntyre Wheelright, a kind man, Alex- ander McDougal and his two sons Neal and James, and his son-in-law Alexander Stuart, Athol, Donald, John and James McNab-brothers -John R. McIntyre and his sons Allen and Peter R. McIntyre, Alex- ander Stuart Argyle, who married one of my aunts. There are a number of other names which I will mention after I make one or two remarks, which I deem appropriate in this place, and which will apply with equal force to most of the names I shall hereafter mention, and the first is viz: these new comers [being thus placed in the most primeval condition that any people ever was or can ever be again is worthy of notice and more than a passing thought. They were all at once introduced into a new world, a new system of government, new scenes, a new manner of living, in fact everything new; the system of government itself was only problematical at that early period of its. existence, but they inhaled the free and balmy air of republican prin- ciples with avidity, aided by the teaching of the blessed truths of the
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word of God, which many of them made the Man of their counsel all their days. I think the prescriptions of this blessed book, the bible, if carefully obeyed, is a wonderful panacea for all the ills of this life. There were then in 1804 a number of enterprising and respectable families residing in Hartford in Ontario county, now Avon in Living- ston County: Hon. Timothy Hosmer and his sons, Hon. George, William, Sylvester, Sidney, Timothy, Frederick and Albert, all honor- able men and good citizens. There were four brothers by the name of Parsons, Benjamin, John, Joseph, and Ira, all wealthy and good citizens, Col. Malcom, Mr. Kelsey, Aaron Williams, Dr. Naramore, Col. Larrance, Mrs. Berry and her amiable daughters. Job Pierce, a Mr. Rogers, a tanner, and another tanner by the name of Gilbert, Mr. Wiard, Mr. Knowles, Gad Wadsworth: there might be others, but not many. There was one other, the veteran and gallant sailor, Graves Hosmer and brother to the Judge. Mr. Benjamin Parson kept a tav- ern then in the east part of now Avon for a long time, where the weary traveler always found a good resting place and a friendly welcome home.
John Parson and Job Pearce kept the first dry goods stores in Hart- ford, now Avon, for a number of years; the only ones in this part of the country, and to which all the early settlers had to go for articles which they could not do without-the only ones they bought. En- deavoring for a long time to live on the products of their farms and herds, there was a good deal of social intercourse and honest dealings between the new comers, and the first settlers in Avon, and strong attachments were formed which grew with their growth, and which death only severed. Hon. George Hosmer soon after this period appeared on the stage of life, an eminent lawyer and a profound scholar and jurist and was considered one of the most brilliant stars in western New York. The first bridge that ever spanned the Genesee river was built in the summer of 1804; it stood on the line of the State Road between Avon and Caledonia. A large share of the longest and largest timbers used in the construction of it was cut on my land and floated down the river; one stick of the large and longest of them was cut within 15 rods of where my house stands, and one of my brothers narrowly escaped being crushed, and floated with it in rolling it down the bank of the river. I believe the first freshet floated it away; it was built I think by the state, which opened also the State Road to
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
Buffalo. Avon, originally called Hartford, is one of the fourteen towns in Livingston county; it was organized by general sessions of Ontario county in 1889, of which county it then formed a part; this town was settled in 1790 by five families from Farmington in Connecticut, among which was the family of Hon. Timothy Hosmer. The situa- tion of the village of West Avon is beautiful, it has an academy, and a great number of dwelling houses. The valuable medicinal qualities of its springs combine to render this one of the most attractive watering places in the country, and at which the invalid and the most fastidious can be accommodated and every want be supplied that a rich country and a large market can furnish in one or another of six or eight large and well furnished hotels in West Avon and near the medicinal springs. These springs have already become places of great resort in the warm months for not only by the invalid but by parties of pleasure-seeking people who come to them from all parts of the country. Here is the place of residence of the Hon. George Hosmer, Curtice Haley, mine host Mr. Comstock, Capt. Nowlen and a host of other worthies. Its location is on the east outer bank of the Genesee river and on the State Road between Albany and Buffalo and about twenty miles south from Rochester and ten north of Geneseo, about two and a half east from the Genesee Valley canal at Canawaugus. I will here, once for all, state that I consider it unnecessary to give the number of inhabitants in towns and other places of which I may speak or describe. All the places that I shall have occasion to write concerning are generally healthy and teeming with a flourishing and prosperous population. It is worthy of a remark here that there is here nowhere any local fevers or epidemics or contagious diseases, although death here and there often steals in among us. The people in many parts of this section of country used to be very unhealthy when newly settled, caused no doubt, by exposure, hardship and hard fare, and from which the early pioneers had no way of escape. As I said before the history of these few pioneers which I mentioned first would be substantially the his- tory of thousands of others in and out of the state of New York, with this exception, having to travel so long and so expensive a journey across the Atlantic ocean many of them spent their last dollar by the time they were ready to commence improving their farms, but if there were any who with regret remembered the flesh pots of Egypt, they kept it to themselves, having their minds made up from first that they
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
would have to endure hardships and privations which are incidental to all new countries, being now as they thought permanently settled for life, they began to contrive and to execute measures to make them- selves more comfortable, which many of us continued to do, yet in hot pursuit, to get rich was with them but a secondary consideration, their object and aim was to secure a peaceful home in the first place, and having that object constantly in their mind's eye they struggled with and overcame many obstacles and inconveniences which often obstructed their path. Among many other things, the want of good mechanics was for a long time severely felt, consequently their imple- ments of husbandry and also culinary were crude and of the rudest kind and even at that few and far between, still we were not quite as badly off as the very first settlers were, who were in two or three years before us when there was no grist mill built nearer this place than on the outlet of Canandaigua lake, about thirty-five miles east from York. I have often in my mind compared the industry, patient endurance, economy and indomitable perseverance of the first pioneers to the story of and about the Swiss family in our school libraries, borrowing the good wife's bag from which she was able at all times and on every occasion of emergency to furnish them with all they needed; not so with the pioneers, for what they had not, they could not get very easily, and had to do often without for years. That portion of the state west of the Genesee river was but thinly settled before the war of 1812, but filled up rapidly soon after the close of that war in 1815, with a hardy and intelligent class of people mostly from the New England states and the eastern sections of this state, several from the state of Pennsylvania, &c. During a winter season in which I was a waiter in the tavern kept by Major Smith in Caledonia and at another that I was with Mrs. Berry of Avon, it was no uncommon oc- currence to lodge six, some times more, young, healthy, hardy looking men from the everlasting New England states, harnessed under a well filled knapsack and staff in hand, filled no doubt by a kind mother, or perhaps by a still more kind sister, as the last kind act which in all probability would be ever in their power to administer to them, full of energy, glee and jokes which no discouragement could daunt or turn aside from their purpose and destination, bound still further west, and I would not be surprised should this notice meet the eye of some of them, if I should receive a kind response, for I cannot believe
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