USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 68
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ordained him spent much time in carefully examining him respecting his acquaintance with experimental religion and knowledge in divinity as can be seen in the proceedings of the Presbytery on that occasion, which were as follows: "Wednesday, the 17th day of August, 1808,
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Presbytery met according to adjournment, opened with prayer, Pres- bytery resumed the subject of Mr. Denoon's ordination and installa- tion, and having carefully examined Mr. Denoon respecting his ac- quaintance with experimental religion and his knowledge of divinity, we are unanimously of opinion that it is highly expedient that he be ordained and installed pastor of this church and congregation which result was made known. At half past two o'clock Presbytery pro- ceeded to the place of public worship and ordained Mr. Alexander Denoon to the work of the Gospel ministry and installed him pastor of the church and congregation in this place. The several parts of the proceedings were performed as follows: Rev. Mr. Mosher made the introductory prayer; Rev. Mr. Ayers preached the sermon from second Cor. IV. verse; Rev. Jedediah Chapman, moderator, made the conse- crating prayer and gave the right hand of fellowship. Mr. Ayers
gave the charge to the candidate. Rev. Mr. Bell gave the charge to the church and congregation, and Rev. John Linsley made the con- cluding prayer. Mr. Denoon, of course, became a member of Presby- tery and took his seat accordingly. Attest, David Higgins, stated clerk." The above and foregoing are true and faithful extracts from the records of the Presbytery of Geneva transcribed this fifth day of January, 1810. Both congregations reorganized again. Mr. De-
noon's on the 6th day of September, 1808, and the Associate Reform Church in the latter part of October, 1810. Although this people had been organized as a civil and religious society as early as 1802 and again organized a Presbyterian church on March 4th, 1805, yet owing to their dissensions and other causes not accounted for, they neglected to record their existence as a church in the County Clerk's office until the 17th of September, 1808, as may be seen in this account of the proceedings had in reference to it.
"At a meeting of the Congregation held at Caledonia on the 6th day of September, 1808, for the purpose of electing trustees. Donald Mc- Kenzie and John McPherson, elders, were unanimously chosen to pre- side, and the following named persons were duly elected trustees: Alexander McDonald, John McKenzie, Duncan McColl, John Camer- on, John Christy and Duncan McLaren.
Witness our hands and seal.
Donald Mckenzie, L. S.
John McPherson, L. S.
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Done at Caledonia this sixth day of Sept., 1808."
The following is taken from the record of the above proceedings in the Clerk's office in Batavia:
"Genesee County : ss.
On the 19th day of September, 1808, came before me, Ezra Platt, First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for said County, Donald Mckenzie and John McPherson, both known to me to be the persons who presided at the meeting above stated, and that they executed this as ruling elders and acknowledge that they signed and sealed the same as their own free and voluntary act and deed for the uses and purposes therein mentioned. No erasements or interlineation.
Ezra Platt.
County Clerk's office, Genesee County, received for recording on the 4th day of October, 1808 at one o'clock P. M., and recorded in Liber 1 of miscellaneous records for said County, page seventy-eight.
James W. Stevens, Clerk."
After having made further diligent search of all the old scraps of records which came to my knowledge, I have come to the conclusion that Rev. I. Chapman ordained only three elders at the first organiza- tion in 1805, as I cannot find but the names of Donald Mckenzie, Duncan McPherson and Donald Anderson on the church records of 1805. Duncan McPherson having died between this date and the 14th of March, 1807, and Donald Anderson having joined the portion of the congregation that seceded, the portion of the congregation that was friendly to Mr. Denoon elected three elders which were ordained by the Rev. Oliver Ayres, then of Massachusetts. The record is as follows: Caledonia, 14 March, 1807, the members of the Presbyterian church nominated and elected three elders more, viz .: Archibald Gillis, Peter Campbell and John McPherson, the venerable Archibald Gillis now in his eighty-third year is the only survivor of these devout men. It would be perhaps considered unnecessary for me to under- take to add to the deserved renown of these worthy men among their brethren in the churches, both churches were highly favored by the great head of this church in the selection of elders. I include in this paragraph all the elders that have been and those that are in that office at the present time in both the churches, and of whom I shall have occasion to write more distinctly in the proper place; therefore, let it
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suffice the reader that I think they would compare favorably with the two hundred men that were heads of the tribe of Isachar, which were men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do and who had all their brethren at their command, 1st Chron. XII. Chap., XXXII verse. Often have I looked with secret delight on their manly forms and on their venerable countenances, but all those worthy elders of the two first classes in both congregations have been removed from the fields of their labor by death, except the venerable Archibald Gillis, now in his eighty-third year, of the Presbyterian church, and the venerable and worthy elders John McVean and John D. Anderson, about the same age, of the Associate Reform Church. Again in 1821 the members of the Presbyterian church nominated and elected two intelligent and God fearing men, elders, viz .: Donald Fraser, Sr., and Donald Fraser, Jr., who are still living, and on the 12th of May, 1841, the church and congregation met according to ap- pointment and chose two additional elders, John D. McColl and Alex- ander Fraser, who are members in full communion in our church, were unanimously chosen. The reader can readily perceive that in giving this brief narrative of the organization of the Presbyterian church in Caledonia, that I passed through and over nearly forty long and eventful years, with almost telegraphic speed, and like it leaving but very little track behind me, but I must now retrace my steps and take notice of other important events that have transpired during this long period, and in doing so, I consider that an authentic account of the formation and organization of the Associate Reform Church in Caledonia, of the first importance in this narrative, and I think I cannot do this better than by faithfully transcribing an ac- count of it by an eye witness, which I find was published in the Janu- ary and February numbers of the Christian Magazine in 1836, edited by Rev. John McLaren, then living and preaching to a congregation of the Associate Reform Church in the village of Geneva, and as far as I am able to remember or judge, it is both true and graphical, and if I can find out who the writer was I will insert his name with pleas- ure. I have learned since writing the above with great pleasure that it was written by that worthy man John A. McVean, who was one of the first three Elders that were ordained in the Associate Reform Church, and also that he was the individual spoken of who met John Scoon of Geneva and who went to Rev. Mr. Wilson and spared no
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pains, time or money in procuring the necessary information and in endeavoring to call the attention of Presbytery to the deplorable con- dition of this people, and in which, after several disappointments, he was finally successful as his narrative of the same discloses, and I here again state with great pleasure that the narrative which Mr. McVean has written is both truthful and graphical. He requested me, how- ever, to correct the statement that there was no grist mill nearer them than twenty-five or thirty miles, by stating that the Messrs. Wads- worth had one on the outlet of Conesus Lake fifteen or twenty miles, but notwithstanding this, some of themselves told in my hearing that they had been obliged from some cause to go to the mill at Canandai- gua oftener than once and to Allen's mill at the falls on the Genesee river, now in the city of Rochester, and here I will let the writer speak for himself.
CONESUS.
The town of Conesus lies mostly between Conesus lake on the west and Hemlock lake on the east. It is bounded on the north by Li- vonia, east by Canadice in Ontario county, south by Sparta and Spring- water, and west by Groveland. It has an area of 19,996 acres, and its population in 1900 was 1,149.
The town is undulating and hilly and has a higher general elevation than any other town of the eastern range. The Marrowback hills in the eastern part run nearly parallel with Hemlock lake, and rise in places several hundred feet. Turkey hill, on the western border, takes the direction of Conesus lake. The Calabogue valley extends from near the centre of the town into Springwater. McMillan gully ends near the shore of Conesus lake, and in places has steep sides from 60 to 100 feet high. Purchase valley has like precipitous sides, and in the rock are specimens of bituminous slate.
The soil of the town is mostly clayey, and much of it is adapted to winter wheat, large crops of which have been grown on many of its farms. The timber is principally oak, walnut and chestnut, formerly with much pine on the uplands, and ash, elm and swamp oak on the lowlands.
An act was passed by the legislature in April, 1819, providing that all that part of township eight, in the sixth range of townships in- cluded in Livonia and Groveland, except that part lying on the east side of Hemlock lake and adjoining the town of Richmond, should be a separate town with the name of Freeport. The name was changed to Bowersville in 1824, and from Bowersville to Conesus in 1825. The name Bowersville was derived from Henry Bowers, an early settler and large landowner, and Conesus, Ga-ne-a-sios, was the Indian name for the lake, meaning " the place of nannie berries."
The lands of the town were a part of Ontario county before they became Freeport, and a large section had been purchased of Phelps and Gorham by Henry Bowers and Sir William Pulteney. In 1819 or 1820 they laid their lands out into 139 lots, five of which, comprising
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814 acres, Mr. Bowers set apart for the benefit of Canandaigua Acad- emy. A re-survey showed that the first five lots of the series were under the waters of Hemlock lake.
Conesus Centre, near the center of the town on Mill creek and the Erie railroad, is the principal village, with a population of about 200. It has about 100 residences, three churches, a grist mill, a saw mill, an evaporator, a grain warehouse, several stores and shops and two hotels.
Other hamlets are Union Corners, with about 50 residents, and Foot's Corners, with about 30 residents. A famous hostelry was kept for many years at Union Corners by Lewis Clark, better known as "Col. Crockett."
James Henderson was the first permanent settler on the tract of the town, but there were indications that temporary squatter were there beforc. Mr. Henderson emigrated from Pennsylvania, and located in 1793 near the head of Conesus lake, building a log house on lot 49, which in time became the McMillan farm. He was a millwright by trade, and about 1794 he and James Dunham built the first saw mill of the town on Mill creek near the site of Conesus Centre. Five men came from Lima and six from Dansville to help raise the mill. It was soon kept busy by coming settlers, some of whom brought logs many miles to be cut into boards for their houses and out buildings. Many years later, about 1816, Henderson built a carding and fulling mill in the gully at the head of Conesus lake. His family consisted of a wife and several children, and their pioneer experiences at first involved severe struggles and considerable suffering. It was said that the land he appropriated intruded upon land which the Indians years before had cleared and planted with apple trees, and after he learned that his unintentional trespass caused considerable ill feeling among his red neighbors he pacified them by sending them presents annually. Mrs. Henderson was the mother of the first white babe born in the town, which, however, lived only six months. One of the sons was killed in the war of 1812, at the battle of Queenstown.
The second settler was Hector Mckay, who arrived in 1795, im- mediately cut logs for a house, and got Indians from Squakie hill to help him raise it. Ile located three-fourths of a mile from the site of Scottsburgh. Jacob Dunham also settled in the town in 1795.
In 1796 Jesse and Jacob Collar from New Jersey, became settlers, the
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latter being the son of the former and 26 years old. They were 28 days in making the journey, with one horse and an ox team. At Great Bend of the Susquehanna river they were obliged to cut their way through thick beech woods, and for many days averaged only seven miles a day. They cooked their meals in the woods and slept on the ground rolled up in blankets. Much of the way they were guided in their course by blazed trees. They passed through Dans- ville. When they arrived at their destination they procured the aid of Wigot Andrews, James and Samuel Culbertson of Groveland and Isaac and Darling Havens of Sparta to assist them in raising their log house. The most of their food the first year was of corn which was made into coarse meal by pounding in a hole burnt into a stump.
Later settlers were John and Samuel McNinch, who came in 1803; James McNinch, 1805; Jabez Lewis, 1805; John McMillan and Elias Chamberlin, 1805; Joseph Allen, John Richardson, Moses Adams Samuel and Matthew McNinch, 1806; Elijah Richardson 1807 ; Charles Thorp and James Robeson, 1808; William Johnson and Joshua Gile 1809; Eli Clark, 1810. In a paper for the Livingston County Histor- ical society A. D. Coe of Conesus named among the early settlers the Mayos. the Arnolds, Davenport Alger, James Steel and Thomas Young, the last the father of Governor John Young.
In 1802 a man named Meloy came and built a log cabin on the shore of Hemlock lake, where he lived the life of a hermit several years, declining to mingle with the other settlers, and when they became more numerous he moved to a wilder region on the Ohio river.
In 1806 the nearest grist mill was at Hemlock lake and the nearest store at Lima, and at that time the Conesus people went to a school- house on the road leading to Hemlock lake for religious worship. It was a Presbyterian service. Two years later the Methodists began to hold meetings at private houses. The first school house of the town was of logs, with greased paper for window lights, and a school was opened in it in 1810 by Mary Howe. A. D. Coe said that Andrew and Gardner Arnold opened the first store in town in 1803, and that they built the first saw mill a little later. Mr. Coe said of the evi- dence that there were temporary settlers along the Marrowback range before 1793, that it has remains of log houses and fire places of whose use there are no records.
In 1816 there were but four frame buildings in town, and three of
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
them were barns, of which one belonged to Davenport Alger and one to Thomas Young, the father of Governor Young. The most of the logs for sawing by the two saw mills had been brought from other towns.
A serious difficulty with the early settlers was to find a market for their grain, and some of them drew their wheat as far as Albany. Later, distilleries were started which gave them something of a home market. At one time there were four in operation at once, and two of them were continued for many years. Asheries were started and found profitable. Another flourishing industry was the burning of charcoal, and some of the coal pits would often hold a hundred cords of coal. The pits had to be watched night as well as day, lest a hole should appear and give a vent which would cause the coal to be burnt to ashes.
The first preacher was Rev. Mr. Goodale, who preached in the south- west part of the town for the Free Will Baptists as early as 1795. The first resident minister was the Rev. Mr. Ingraham, who came in 1808. The Methodists, built the first church in 1836 at Conesus Centre, and the first minister in charge was Rev. E. Thomas. A Universalist society was organized in 1835, built a church at Union Corners in 1837, and its first pastor was Rev. G. W. Montgomery.
The first marriage was that of Hugh Harrison to Elizabeth Collar in 1796, and the first death that of this bride in 1801. The oldest per- son who has died in the town was Lucy Bates in 1832, aged 107 years.
Some of the pioneers were Revolutionary soldiers, of which ten have been residents of the town-Francis Horth, Aaron Hale, Lemuel Richardson, David Sopher, Jabez Lewis, Charles Chamberlin, Paul Sanborn, Theophilus Jackson, Thaddeus Gage, and Isaiah Bacon.1 Francis Horth was born in 1750, entered the Revolutionary army in 1776, and served in five campaigns. He commenced service at 19, remained in the army nearly five years, and was at Saratoga when Burgoyne surrendered to General Gates. Abram Hale entered the army at the age of 21, and was engaged in the battles of Bunker Hill and Bennington.
Conesus soldiers in the war of 1812 included Joseph and Jonathan Richardson, Joseph Richardson, Jr., Erastus Lewis, James Hender-
I. Five of these soldiers sleep in the Conesus Centre cemetery ; two in South Livonia ; one in the U'uion ; one in Hart's and one in Springwater,
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son, Andrew Carter, Andrew Arnold, Tyranus Ripley, Benona Fosdick, Asa Stevens, Benjamin Clapp, Elijah Webster, and Daniel and Sam- uel Monger. The brothers Richardson participated in the battle of Chippewa, July 5, 1814. Joseph was shot through the heart, and Jonathan taken prisoner and detained in confinement at Montreal and Halifax six months, when he was released. Joseph Richardson, Jr., son of the other Joseph, was also captured, but escaped after a few days. Henderson was killed in the battle of Queenstown.
Of the settlers who came not far from the beginning of the nine- teenth century, Thomas Young, the father of Governor John Young, has been mentioned. The son who became so distinguished was born in Bennington, Vt., and was only four years old when his father came to Conesus. He attended school at the Lima Academy, and when he was sixteen years old taught school in Conesus for nine dollars a month. About 1823 he began the study of law in the office of A. A. Bennett, East Avon, was admitted to the bar in 1829, and opened a law office in Geneseo. He was elected to the State Assembly in 1832, to Congress in 1833, 1835 and 1837, went to the State Assembly again in 1845, and as a Whig was elected Governor over Silas Wright, Demo- crat, in 1846, by a majority of about 11,000. He was appointed U. S. Treasurer in 1849, and held the position when he died in New York in 1852.
Mrs. Jane McNinch was born in Columbia county, Penn., and there married James McNinch in 1805 when she was seventeen. In Febru- ary 1806 she left her husband behind, and journeyed to Conesus with Matthew McNinch, and Matthew, Ann and John Scott. Her hus- band followed her in a few months. John McNinch, one of his broth- ers, came two years before, and soon afterward his father and other brothers came and rented a farm of James Henderson at the head of the lake, when the father returned to Pennsylvania for the rest of his family.
Alexander Patterson tried to peddle his way from Vermont to Con- esus in 1814, when he was quite young, but failing to sell goods, stopped trying, came on, built the first log house on lot No. 4, and lived on the land fifty years. Abel Root built the first log house on lot No. 43 in 1807. Union Corners is on this tract. Jabez Lewis, a Revolution- ary soldier, moved from Vermont to Lima in 1802, next moved to Richmond, Ontario county, and the next year, 1805 established his
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home in Conesus, where he built a log house on lot No. 5, sent a son and daughter to live in it, and moved the rest of his family there in 1806.
The first white men to enter the present town of Conesus were the officers and soldiers of Sullivan's expedition which passed around the outlet of Hemlock lake, September 12, 1779, and on from there to the head of Conesus lake, entering the town near the okl residence of Charles Hitchcock. The advance encamped half a mile easterly from the Indian village at the inlet, and the main body a mile beyond the flats southeast of Foote's Corners. From the advance camp Gen. Sul- livan sent out Lieutenant Boyd on the scouting expedition which ended so tragically.
Conesus lake was a favorite resort of the Indians in the period of the early settlement of the town. They came there in large numbers to fish and hunt, and when they got whiskey to drink were troublesome, although friendly enough when sober. They would borrow pots and kettles of the settlers, and faithfully return them, and when the whites fell sick the squaws would bring medicinal roots and herbs and prepare decoetions for them.
The widow of Mr. James McNinch, who has been mentioned as one of the first settlers, was 85 years old when she died in 1869, and left behind interesting reminiscences about the Indians, some of which are familiar. She said the squaws would come and borrow the small white children to play with theirs, and in the course of two or three hours bring them baek, and manifest much gratitude for the favor thus shown them. She never knew an Indian to steal. The Indians built their huts of pieces of bark set on end in the shape of a double roof, with a fire-place in the centre and a hole in the top. When they were courting and about to be married each of the pair would wear one blue and one red legging instead of two leggings of the same color as was usual. They ate a mixed dish consisting of several ingredients, such as corn meal, beans, potatoes and meats boiled together. This would be poured into a bark receptacle, and they would sit on the ground around it and eat from it with wooden spoons. They called wheat, flower tassel; corn meal, mathassel; wheat bread, equa; pork, cush; butter, we-saw. Their general term for what they like was cush, and for what they did not like tas-cush.
The first houses in town were built of peeled logs and a little
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later of hewn logs. The chinks between the logs were plastered with mud or filled with wedge-shaped strips of wood which were driven in. The openings for windows and doors were made after the house was erected. The doorways were usually closed with blankets at first, but heavy doors were constructed for winter. Few of the windows had glass, the substitutes being greased paper or the skins of animals scraped thin. The roof was of bark bound to the rafters with poles. The floor was of logs hewn on the upper side. The fire-place at one end was large enough to receive back logs two or three feet thick, and front logs half as thick.
The first grist mill which was owned by Purchase and Baker was not built until 1824, and before that year the settlers had to go to Heni- lock lake or Dansville to get their grain ground.
There were many deer and much other game in the woods, but the settlers were so busy clearing and cultivating their land that they depended more upon little trades with the Indians for game and fish than upon their own guns and lines. Sometimes they sorely needed such supplies when their crops suffered from very wet summers and were insufficient. Seldom were there drouths in those early days, as nearly the whole state was a forest to retain moisture in the soil and keep the streams running.
Conesus patriotism burst out into enthusiasm accompanied by practical action, in the war for the Union. Enlistments were rapid at the beginning, and the drum and fife were in evidence on Sundays as well as other days of the week. Seventy-eight residents in all en- listed and marched away. There were enough enlistments through the liberality of the town to enable the drafted men of the two drafts to stay at home if they wished to. The amount of money raised for war purposes was $3,100, of which $1,900 was by tax and the balance by voluntary subscriptions of individuals. The most of the Conesus volunteers belonged to Company I of the 136th regiment. Henry L. Arnold was its captain and was afterwards promoted to be colonel of the regiment. He was wounded at Bentonville, N. C., near the close of the war. A considerable number of the company and the other volunteers of the town were killed in battle or died in the service, or soon afterward. Prominent among the survivors was G. Wiley Wells, who enlisted from Conesus in the 27th regiment at the breaking out of the Rebellion, served with credit, and at the close of his term recruited
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