USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 70
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THE CHURCHES OF CONESUS.
In the early years of the town of Conesus the people were without religious privileges. It was but infrequently that an itinerant preacher held services in a school house or barn. The Presbyterians occasionally conducted services at what was then known as Buel Hill, in the town of Livonia, to which the pioneers of Conesus resorted. About 1810 the Methodists began to hold meetings for religious wor- ship around in the houses of various neighborhoods, and within a year or two they were followed by the Baptists. Occasionally a Baptist preacher named Ingham visited the town to hold such services.
A church of the denomination known as Christians, or Disciples. was organized at Foot's Corners in 1818. The Rev. Sylvester Morris was in charge for a time; the church existed for only a few years.
About 1815 the Rev. John Hudson, a Methodist preacher, came to this town; and in 1816 the Methodists under his leadership organized a society at Conesus Centre. The Rev. John Hudson became its first pastor. There are no records of the church until 1837 when their church was dedicated. The first minister after the dedication was the Rev. E. Thomas, who was succeeded by the Rev. Jacob Scott and he by the Rev. William Jones and then the Rev. Charles Gould. The church was destroyed by fire December 30th, 1871, and for the suc-
720
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
ceeding two years the congregation worshipped in the school house. After that the Universalist church threw open its doors to them until the completion of a new edifice in 1876.
THE FIRST UNIVERSALIST GHURCH of Conesus was or- ganized December 19th, 1835. A church building was begun in 1836 but it was not completed until the following year. It was erected at Union Corners, on the land of Timothy DeGraw. . Here the society worshiped until the year 1873 when a more commodious church was erected at Conesus Centre. In the early years the successive pastors were the Revs. O. Roberts, -Tompkins, O. B. Clark, J. A. Dobson and W. B. Randolph.
ST. WILLIAM'S CATHOLIC CHURCH was erected in 1876. Before that year there was no regular place of worship in the town for those of the Catholic faith. The Rev. Father Seymour, the rector of St. Michael's Church in Livonia, had been conducting services in the school house before this year. The new church was completed and furnished by the successor of Father Seymour, the Rev. Father Murphy. The contributions towards the building of the edifice were from citizens of this town and surrounding ones irrespective of creed or faith.
LIMA.
Lima is the northeastern town of Livingston county, and so situ- ated that it was crossed by the early central State Road, and the stream of traveling emigrants and prospectors that went over it in the begin- ning of the nineteenth century. Its area is 19,607 acres, and its population in 1900 was 2,279. It is bounded north by Rush and Men- - don (both in Monroe county), east by West Bloomfield (Ontario coun- ty), south by Livonia, and west by Avon.
The surface is undulating, and its streams are Honeoye creek and branches. This creek divides the town from West Bloomfield in On- tario county. The soil in the southeastern part is clay and clayey loam, and in the southwestern part sandy and gravely loam, both of a quality to yield a variety of fine crops. The farmers are prosperous and progressive, with good buildings, good fences, good implements and tools.
Lima's village of Lima is near the center of the town, and is one of the handsomest and thriftiest of the villages of similar size. In 1900 its population was 949. Here a well conducted seminary, and for many years a good college, have flourished, beginning with 1832. Their educating and refining influences upon the people of the village and town have been and continue to be marked. Long ago the village was called "Brick school house corner," and afterward "Lima Cor- ners."
South Lima in the extreme-southwestern part has become a shipping point of much importance, and the center of a considerable celery and onion raising district, the large body of "muck" land proving especially adapted to the growth of the best quality of those vegetables.
L. L. Doty's history says: "Paul Davison and Jonathan Gould are credited with being the first settlers in Lima, their arrival here oc- curring in 1788. Turner says that if his information in this respect is correct, 'this was the first advent of an household west of the Adams' settlement, in Bloomfield.' These men came from the valley of the Susquehanna in search of a new home in the Genesee country.
722
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
Passing the last white habitation at Geneva, they pursued the Indian trail to the present town of Lima; where, finding a location to suit them, they erected a cabin and commenced making an opening in the forest. Going to the Indian lands at Canawaugus, they planted and raised a patch of corn and potatoes. Their location was about one mile south of the Indian trail, near the west line of the town. After some improvements upon their cabin, such as the luxury of a bark roof and a hewn plank floor, and gathering the small crop they had raised upon the Indian lands, they returned to the Susquehanna, and in the spring of 1789, Mr. Davison, with his family, consisting of his wife and her mother, and two children, came to make his permanent home in the wilderness. He was accompanied by Asahel Burchard. The family and household implements were conveyed in an ox cart Mr. Davison and his companion sleeping under the cart, and the fam- ily in the cart, during the whole journey."
Stephen Tinker and Solomon Hovey of Massachusetts settled in Lima in 1791. Col. Thomas Lee, Willard and Amasa Humphrey, Reuben and Gideon Thayer, Col. David Morgan, Zebulon Moses, Asahel William, and Daniel Warner, all from Massachusetts, came in 1794 and 1795.
Other early settlers were Miles Bristol, Wheelock Wood, James K. Guernsey, Abner Miles, John Miner, Asahel Burchard, Stephen Tinker, Col. George Smith, Nathan Munger, Samuel Carr, Jedediah Com- mins, Joel Roberts, Phineas Burchard, Christopher Lee, Jonah Moses, Solomon Hovey, John Morgan, Adolphus Watkins.
The ancestor of the Warner family was William Warner, of English birth, who came to Massachusetts in 1637. His grandson William Warner had fourteen children, and one of his sons, also named William, was a soldier of the Revolution, lost his health and property in the service, the latter consisting of worthless continental money, and was imprisoned for debt in the Albany jail. In 1794 his two sons, Ashael and William, came from eastern New York to Lima, remained one summer. Asahel purchasing land on which was a log house, returned east, got married in the winter, and arrived in Lima again March 22, 1795, after a journey of 22 days. Their father came with them, but died the next August. Matthew Warner, another of the brothers came in 1797. The Warners found the country an almost unbroken forest, in which bears, wolves and deer abounded. Asahel and Mat-
723
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
thew Warner became leading men among the early settlers. In 1797 they owned the greater part of the land which is now the site of Lima village. They were enterprising and energetic in developing the business interests of the town. In 1812 and 1813 Asahel was elected Member of Assembly. Matthew became a Justice of the Peace, one of the Judges of the county court of Ontario, and was Member of Assembly in 1818 and 1819.
Adolphus Watkins, who came from Connecticut to Lima in 1799, has given some of his recollections. He found a few log houses and there was a muddy lane leading from where Lima village is to a grist mill in Honeoye. There was no southward road except one a mile west extending southward one and a half miles. Mr. Watkins came with his uncle Jonathan Gould, who had been to the town before, and they drove two cows. His uncle took up land a half mile square, and Watkins lived with him a few years, and then went to work as a car- penter and joiner and millwright. The land was heavily timbered with black-walnut, oak, elm, cherry, basswood and several other kinds. Indians from Canawaugus swarmed around them, but were not trouble- some. Whole tribes from the east also filed by the house. Game was plenty. Deer, bears and wolves were often killed, and a panther occasionally. Mr. Watkins took part in the war of 1812, volunteering three different times. Captain William Batin raised a company which he joined for service on the frontier. They went first in September, 1812, but reached Buffalo too late to participate in the fighting.
During this second war with Great Britain troops frequently passed through Lima over the State Road, and later there was a steady stream of emigrants moving westward. This was the period for wayside inns, and Mr. Watkins said there were so many in Lima for a distance of two miles that they were hardly a stone's throw apart.
The first marriage in the town was that of Simeon Gray and Patty Alger in 1793. The first death was that of Mrs. Abbott in 1791, mother of Mrs. Paul Davidson, and the latter was the mother of the first child born in town, a girl.
The first school was taught by John Sabin in 1792-3. Reuben Thay- er opened the first tavern in 1793, and built the first saw mill in 1796. Tryon & Adams opened the first store and Zebulon Norton built the first grist mill in 1794.
Franklin Carter, who came from New Hampshire to Lima in 1820,
724
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
has furnished a few reminiscences in which he states that Atwell & Grout, merchants at that time, paid from $3.50 to $4 per hundred pounds for hauling their goods with teams from Albany to Lima. The most of them were purchased in Boston, and sent via New York city, from where they were brought on sloops to Albany. Wheat was then 3712 cts. a bushel. Much of it was ground into flour, drawn to the mouth of the Genesee river, sent thence to Ogdensburg on sloops, and the rest of the way to Montreal on rafts. Mr. Carter said there were then seven taverns between Honeoye creek and the Avon line, and they were full of teamsters and travelers about every night.
The town of Lima was originally called Mighle's Gore, from a man who owned a tract of land so cut up by the division of towns as to be shaped like a gore. It was formed as a part of Ontario county in January, 1789, and named Charleston. This name was changed to Lima in 1809. It became a part of Livingston county in 1821 when the county was formed from Ontario.
The first town meeting of Charleston recorded was in 1797, when the following officers were elected : supervisor, Solomon Hovey; town clerk, James Davis; assessors, Joseph Arthur, Willard Humphrey, Justus Miner; commissioners of highways, Elijah Morgan, Nathaniel Munger, Jonathan Gould; poormasters, Joseph Arthur, William Williams: constable and collector, John Miner; school commissioners, Joel Roberts, William Williams, Col. David Morgan; pathmasters, Jonathan Gould, Philip Sparling, Joseph Arthur, Willard Hum- phrey; fence viewers, William Webber, William Williams, James Davis; pound keeper, Reuben Thayer.
The first town meeting after Charleston became Lima, in 1809, elected the following officers: supervisor. Abel Bristol; town clerk, Manasseh Leach; assessors, Justin Smith, William Bacon, William Williams; constable and collector, John Morgan; commissioners ot highways, Jacob Stevens, Gurdon W. Cook; overseers of the poor, Ezra Norton, Jedediah Commins; scaler of weights and measures, Gurdon W. Cook; fence viewers, Asa Porter, Clement Leech, Enos Frost ; pound keeper, Asa Porter. At this meeting $25 was voted to build a pound.
Lima sent many volunteers to the front in the war of the Rebellion, and nearly all of them were men who fought bravely and endured the hardships of march and camp and bivouac with fortitude. The list of the Lima men who died in the service or from injuries received
725
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
therein is a long one. Nearly all of the Lima volunteers of 1861 and some of the later ones belonged to the 27th N. Y. V.
From the date of this meeting the list of Lima supervisors is here given:
Abel Bristol 1809
Asalıel Warner. ISIO-17-23
William Williams .18II
David H. Albertson I859-60
Shepard P. Morgan ... 1861-62-63-64-65-66
Richard Peck 1867-68-69
Manasseli Leach .. .. 1818-19-20-21-22-25-
26-27
- Levi Hovey. IS24
Parmelee Smitlı
1828-29-30-31
Hollum Hutchinson 1832
John Cutler ..... 1833-34-35-37-38-39-40-41
J. S. Galentine 1883-84-85-86-87
Alex Martin ... 1836-43-48
James E. Lockington 1888-89
Jarvis Raymond.
.1842
Israel Nicholson .. 1844
Angnstus Markham 1891
Josialı G. Leaclı .. I845-46-47
D. G. H. Bennett 1892
Alvin Chamberlain. .1849-50-51
E. R. Bronson 1893
Daniel Day 1852-57-58
Ezekiel Hyde.
1853
Henry Warne
1854
Assessed valuations and tax rates follow :
Assessed Valuation
Tax Rate ou $1000
Assessed Valuation
Tax Rate on $1000
Assessed Valuation
Tax Rate 011 $1000
1860
1,075,22I
6.27
1875
2,030,803
7.32
1890
1,523,426
5.94
1861
1,055,925
6.35
1876
1,893,079
4.44
1891
1,550,245
5.10
1862
1,056,860
8.45
1877
1,881,599
5.72
1892
1,486,474
5.79
1863
1,046,246
9.90
I878
1,785,210
4.74
1893
1,473,471
1864
1,068,854
18.60
1879
1,707,533
7.13
1894
1,443,247
5.04
IS65
1,005,034
37.80
1880
1,656,399
5.64
1895
1,439,940
6.52
1866
1,012,108
28.30
1881
1,661,912
5.43
1896
1,424,107
6.26
1867
1,049,286
22.56
1882
1,704,119
5.60
1898
1,464,339
5.62
IS69
1,056,787
9.57
1884
1,804,782
5.64
1899
1,486,670
6.35
1870
1, 140,979
12.43
1885
1,823,525
5.36
1900
1,488,308
5.35
1871
1,083,976
10.76
IS86
1,658,376
5.06
1901
1,492,576
4.79
1872
1,069,515
14.41
ISS7
1,615,534
6.39
1902
1,541,510
c 3 30 t+ 43
1873
1,034,052
12,58
1888
1,568,024
5.55
1903
1,542,927
4.01
IS74
2,094,682
6.17
1889
1,500,615
7.21
1897
1,452,313
5.80
1868
1,036,592
16.37
1883
1,808,10I
The village of Lima was not incorporated until 1867, but it was an educational center of wide reputation long before. Its famous seminary, now seventy-two years old, and the good college which stood by it and provided collegiate instruction and diplomas for young men for twenty years, have been the distinguishing glory of the vil-
Samuel T. Vary 1855
Lyman Hawes .. 1856
Matthew Warner. 1812-16
Jacob Stevens. 1813-14-15
Wm. R. McNair 1870-71-72
Anson L. Angle 1873-74-75-76-77 Albert Heatlı .1878
James T. Gordon 1879-80-81
Horace C. Gilbert .ISS2
Samuel Bonner. 1890-94-95
Jolın S. Peck 896-97
L. H. Moses. 1898-99-00-01-02-03
726
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
lage and the town. The seminary was established by the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church. A committee of five of its members was appointed in 1829 to investigate the subject of a Conference seminary, examine locations, receive local propositions, and report. The report was made to the Conference at its annual meeting in Rochester in 1830. Several villages had offered induce- ments in money and lands, all but five of which the committee elimi- nated. Lima's offer was subscriptions amounting to $10,808, with the privilege of buying the site, including ten acres, for $50 an acre, and the whole farm of which these were a part for $30 an acre. Other offers from other places were almost or quite as liberal, but the Con- ference decided in favor of Lima by a vote of 4 for Henrietta, 4 for LeRoy, 15 for Perry and 26 for Lima. The first board of trustees elected consisted of Revs. Abner Chase, Glezen Fillmore, Richard Wright, Loring Grant, Micah Seager and Francis Smith, with Messrs. Augustus A. Bennett, Erastus Clark and Ruel Blake. The name selected was the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. Thus the seminary became an institution in 1830, but the necessary building was not ready until May 1832, when one which cost $17,000 was so far con- structed that it was opened for pupils. The attendance the first year was sufficiently encouraging-230 young men and 111 young women.
The building was destroyed by fire in 1842, and although nearly all the library and apparatus with some furniture, were saved, the loss was estimated at 825,000 on which there was an insurance of $12, 000. Recitations were continued in the town hall, and within two months the corner stone of another building was laid, the citizens of Lima having contributed $5,000 to aid in its erection. It was a brick build- ing four stories high, with a front of 126 feet, and two wings with additional frontage of 96 feet. The cost when completed was 824,000.
We are told that between 30,000 and 40,000 pupils have received instruction in this seminary, and among them a number that became distinguished.
In 1849 Genesee College was founded, and the large building called College Hall was built. This was the flourishing college of Western New York for years until the Syracuse University was founded. Then began an effort to abandon Genesee College, and remove it to Syracuse. The fight was bitter. A bill was introduced in the Legis- lature in 1868 to accomplish the transfer, and was referred in the
727
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
Assembly to the committee on education. The chairman of that committee, Col. Robert Furman, of Schenectady, denounced it as vicious in principle, fraught with danger to the educational interests of the state impairing the validity of contracts, and a palpable viola- tion of the constitution. The debate in the senate was of unusual interest. The bill had been referred to the judiciary committee, which reported it without recommendation. When the vote in com- mittee was taken Senator Matthew Hale was its only supporter and the adverse vote was by Henry C. Murphy, Judge Charles J. Folger and Lorenzo Morris. The bill was finally withdrawn. Then Judge Johnson of the supreme court granted an injunction in restraint of such removal, and the injunction was never dissolved. But the col- lege was allowed to lapse, its functions ceased, and the legislature enacted a law by which all the material possessions of the college cor- poration were conveyed to the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, on con- dition that the institution assume the obligations and responsibilities of Genesee College. The college property consisting of buildings, a farm of nearly seventy acres, a cash endowment of $54,000 together with the libraries and philosophical apparatus, were thus transferred to the seminary, placing it on a sound financial basis.
Since then there has been no inauspicious interim, and the seminary goes on under good management, with capable instructors and large annual accessions of pupils.
There are other conditions which render Lima a desirable place to be educated in and live in. It is a very beautiful village, with at- tractive surroundings; the people are intelligent and orderly; there are several churches with large memberships; there is a good and well equipped fire department, with water works to make it more effective: and strong branches of the fraternal societies are not lacking.
Rev. Daniel Thatcher organized the Presbyterian Church, in Lima in October, 1805. It was the fisrt religious organization in the town, and among its original members were William Williams and wife, Miles Bristol and wife, Joseph Gilbert and wife, Mrs. Judge Warner, Mrs. Abel Bristol, Elijah Gifford and wife, Charles Rice, Mrs. Daniel Warner, Mrs. Clark Brockway and Gurdon W. Cook and wife. Meet- ings were held at irregular intervals in the houses of the members by missionaries. In January, 1802, the Charleston Congregational society was formed. and was a substitute for the less complete organi-
728
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
zation of 1795. Within a year or two it built a brick school house in which its religious services were held. In 1804 Rev. Ezekiel J. Chap- man was engaged as minister for six months at a salary of $260, of which $100 was to be paid in cash, and the rest in produce. The Rev. Mr. Leavenworth was engaged for six months to follow Mr. Chap- man, and at the expiration of his time Mr. Chapman was re-engaged and remained until 1814. The society's first church building was completed in 1816 at a cost of $7,000.
In 1891 Rev. John Barnard was installed as pastor and his pastorate continued nearly 37 years. In 1839 the church name was changed to the Lima Congregational Society, and in 1851 again changed to the Lima Presbyterian Society. There have been eight pastors since Mr. Barnard's long service, including the present one, Rev. Alfred K. Bates, who was installed in 1893.
Jonah Davis started Methodist meetings in the town of Lima in 1800, when he came from Deleware and settled on a farm three miles south of Lima village. He was a licensed exhorter and conducted services himself, and his house became the stopping place of the itin- erant Methodist preachers. From 1800 to 1825 or later he and they preached at his house and a near school house. In 1827 Rev. John Parker held regular services in the town hall, and there was a powerful revival which resulted in the organization of the Methodist church at "Lima Corners" by Mr. Parker. A small house of worship was built for it in 1828, and used until 1843, when it was moved, recon - structed and enlarged. In 1855 it was necessary to build still larger to provide room for the attendance from the seminary and college. This last building was repaired and improved in 1874. The church continues prosperous. The present pastor is Rev. P. T. Lynn.
THE LIMA BAPTIST CHURCH was organized in 1854, and a house of worship was completed for it in 1856 at a cost, including lot, of $10,000. It has since been repaired and beautified twice. It has had nine pastors during the half century of its existence, the first being Rev. B. R. Swick. There have been about 500 names in all on its church roll, and there are now 130. A new parsonage costing $2,500 has recently been built. The estimated value of the entire church property is $13,500. The semi-centennial anniversary of the church was appropriately celebrated August 26, 1904.
The first Catholic settler in Lima was Thomas Martin, who arrived
729
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
in 1834. Within three or four years afterward he had three Catholic neighbors-James Egan, Michael Coneen and John Brennan. They were devoted to the church, and for many years went as far as Roch- ester on foot to mass and other church services, and for the baptism of their children. In 1842 the first mass in the town of Lima was cele- brated by Father Murphy at John Brennan's house. Other priests visited the town at intervals. The first Catholic edifice was erected in 1848 when there were but nine or ten Catholic families in town. The present fine building was dedicated in 1873, when mass was celebrated by Bishop McQuaid, and Bishop Ryan preached the sermon. The present rector, Rev. S. Fitz Simons, has been in charge of the church many years.
THE FIRST UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF LIMA is located at North Bloomfield. It was founded in March, 1825. The first settled pastor, Rev. Henry Roberts, came that year. A church build- ing was dedicated in 1829, and a more commodious one was erected in 1872 at a cost of $5,000.
LEICESTER.
The original bounds of Leicester, organized in March, 1802, were as follows: Commencing on the eastern transit at the southwest corner of Southampton, the line ran east to the Genesee river, thence south along the river to the southeast corner of the present Leicester or to a point near the junction of Genesee river with Canaseraga creek, thence south to Steuben county, and on the line of Steuben county to the Pennsylvania line, west on this line to the east transit, and north on the east transit to the place of beginning. Its dimensions were about twelve miles east and west and sixty miles north and south. In 1805 a little more than half of Leicester's territory was cut off for the town of Angelica. In 1818 Mt. Morris was taken from Leicester. In 1819 a portion was taken from Leicester and Caledonia for the town of York.
The town is now bounded north by York, east by Geneseo and Groveland, south by Mt. Morris, and west by the towns of Castile, Perry and Covington in Wyoming county. The area is 20,300 acres, and the population in 1900 was 1415.
The surface of Leicester is undulating on the west, and on the east are the rich flats of the Genesee river. Its scenery is attractive, with the High Banks on the south, the Rice and Crosby falls in the center, and the eastward views from its hills. . Its shale fossil beds near Mos- cow are renowned, and have furnished many fine specimens for geol- ogists. The uplands have the best of soil for wheat. and large crops of this cereal are grown there.
Before civilization started in the Genesee country the capital of the Six Nations was in Leicester, on the present site of Cuylerville, and called Beardstown, after the Indian chief Little Beard, who was one of the leaders in the murder of Boyd and Parker. The village con- tained about 150 Indian houses, which were burned by Gen. Sullivan in 1779. Early in the 19th century there was a little hamlet in the southeast spot of the town called Dutch Corner.
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