USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 71
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Moscow is the principal village, and there are also the hamlets of Cuylerville and Gibsonville. Cuylerville was made a point of some importance by the construction of the Genesee Valley canal, and
731
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
reached the height of its prosperity in 1848, when it was incorporated as a village. Four warehouses were then located there; also two or three stores, a mill, and at least one distillery. It is on the line of the old canal between Piffard and Mount Morris, and is often visited by tourists on account of its site as the former capital of the Six Nations and its interesting Indian history. Gibsonville is in the southern portion of the town on the outlet of Silver lake.
Ebenezer Allen in 1784 made the first settlement in Leicester, but soon went away, and the first permanent settlers were Horatio and John H. Jones and Joseph Smith, who fixed their homes there in 1789. John H. and George Jones, Horatio's brothers, had come the year be- fore to prepare for the settlement. They cut and stacked grass in the summer, and in the fall plowed land and sowed wheat, and this, it is believed, was the first wheat sowed west of the Genesee river. And Leicester was the first town west of the river in which a permanent settlement by whites was made. Horatio Jones's family, consisting of his wife, three sons and one daughter, came with him.
Soon after the Revolution Horatio Jones decided to settle on the river flats, and the Indians gave to him and Joseph Smith, both of whom had been their captives many years, a tract of land six miles square, which on the older maps is laid down as the "Smith and Jones tract." A few years later at a council of the Senecas the limits of the tract were reduced and a portion of the grant recalled. The most of the tract passed into the possession of Oliver Phelps and Daniel Penfield, but Jones still retained a large section.
The first tavern in Leicester was kept by Leonard Simpson, who opened it a few rods north of Jones bridge in 1797. Later Pine Tav- ern was kept by Joseph Simonds, and other taverns in the town were kept by Francis Richardson, Pell Teed, Joseph White and Dennison.
The first saw mill was built in 1792 at Gibsonville, by Ebenezer Allen, and the first grist mill in 1797 by Phelps and Gorham on the west branch of Beard's Creek at Rice's falls. Another was built near Moscow by Noah Benton in 1799; the grist mill was burned in 1818, and rebuilt the next year. Another grist mill was put up by Samuel MI. Hopkins in 1818.
The settlers who closely followed the Joneses and Smith to Leicester were William Ewing, Nathan Foster, Frederick Gregory, and their families.
732
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
The village of Old Leicester was laid out in 1800 about three miles east of Moscow by Nicholas Ayrault, who was the first postmaster of the town.
Several distilleries were started very early to dispose of the grain, for which there was no near market, or to concentrate it into a liquid which was more portable and salable.
In 1796 the settlers sent batteaux loaded with corn to Rome, by way of the Seneca and Oneida rivers and Oneida lake, to be ground in a mill on Wood creek.
The brothers Horatio and John H. Jones, have been mentioned as two of the first settlers of Leicester. Horatio became one of the most noted men for daring, skill and thrilling experiences in Western New York. Ile was born in Downington, Chester county, Pa., December 17, 1763, and about six years afterward his father's removal changed his home to Baltimore, Md. The spirit of adventure was born in him, and military life attracted him. When only thirteen he joined a company of minute men, and in his eighteenth year enlisted in the Bedford Rangers. At that time he had become an athlete, an expert marksman, excelled his companions in athletic sports, and was remark- ably fleet of foot. His father was a gunsmith, and in his shop Hor- atio became a skillful mechanic. He was not inclined to books, but was a keen observer and careful inquirer, and by talking with soldiers early learned a good deal about Indian characteristics and customs. Soon after he joined the Rangers, which were commanded by Captain John Boyd, he had opportunities to prove the stuff he was made of, as they were sent into the wilderness as a scouting party against the In- dians. They fell into an ambuscade, and Horatio was captured with several others. The Indians soon discovered that he could outrun their swiftest runners, and, fearing that he would escape, they bound him and fastened him lengthwise on the ground until they resumed their march. The march was a long one, and all the prisoners were bound at night, and carefully guarded during the day. Horatio en- dured the hunger and other sufferings to which he was subjected with fortitude, and excited the admiration of the Indians by his youthful beauty, suppleness, strength, and the other qualities which he mani- fested. Some of them wished to spare his life and have him live among them. But it was customary to compel their prisoners to run the gauntlet, and it was not easy to do this without getting killed.
733
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
He was told that if he escaped death in that ordeal he would be safe. The prisoners ran the gauntlet at Caneadea, a distance of about eighty rods between lines of warriors and squaws, and Jones was so swift, and so skillful in dodging the hatchets, clubs and other missiles thrown at him by the yelling Indians, that he got to the goal with only slight injuries. The other prisoners were either killed while they were running or immediately afterward. Jones was cheered by the excited Indians, and adopted into an Indian family under the name of Hoc-sa-go-wah. He assumed their dress and customs, quickly learned their language and at once became useful to them by repairing their arms and implements. They learned to respect and fear him, as he fearlessly resented their insults, was the equal of any of them in strength and skill, and their superior in intelligence and fertility of resources. We quote from Doty's history :
"Their implicit confidence in him, acquired during the years of his captivity, was retained through life, and proved valuable to the gov- ernment in the treaties with the northern and western tribes in which he participated, and his residence, down to the period of his death, continued a favorite stopping place for the natives who visited him almost daily. His judgment was so much respected by the Senecas that he was often chosen an arbiter to settle disputes among them; and his knowledge of the Seneca tongue was so accurate that he be- came their principal interpreter. Red Jacket preferred him as trans- lator of his speeches on important occasions, as his style, which was chaste, graphic and energetic, suited the qualities so marked in that great orator's efforts, accurately preserving not only the substance but the most felicitous expressions. He was commissioned by Presi- dent Washington as official interpreter, and was employed on several occasions to accompany delegations of sachems and warriors to and from the seat of Government. In a notable speech of Farmer's Brother at a council in November, 1793, the Indians asked the legislature of this State to permit them to grant Captain Jones and Jasper Parrish a tract of land two miles square, lying on Niagara river, three miles below Black Rock, as a substantial mark of their regard. The speech referred to was: 'As the whirlwind was so directed as to throw into our arms two of your children, we adopted them into our families and made them our children. We loved them and nourished them. They lived with us many years. They then left us. We wished them
734
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
to return and promised to give each of them a tract of land, and now we wish to fulfill the promise we made them and reward them for their services.' Subsequently he acquired a large body of land on the Genesee flats. At one period of his captivity he became dissatisfied and resolved to return home. Leaving his adopted father's wigwam before daylight one morning, he traveled for hours southward. Night came on and he began to reflect that his youthful associates, and perhaps his relatives, too, would be scattered and gone, and the first streak of light the next morning witnessed him retracing his steps. He resumed his abode with the Senecas, who never suspected him of having attempted escape, and remained with them until peace brought about a general exchange, a period of five years. Soon after the close of the war he removed to Seneca Lake, where his brother John joined him in October, 1788. He was married in the year 1784, to Sarah Whitmore, herself a prisoner from the valley of the Wyom- ing, by whom he had four children. Hle was twice married, his last wife dying in 1844. In the spring of 1790 Captain Jones removed to the Genesee country. Here he died on the 18th of August, 1836, re- taining his well-preserved faculties to the last. He lies buried in the Geneseo cemetery."
Once while the country was still mostly a wilderness Captain Jones as government agent found it necessary to carry the money to be paid to the Indians through the forest to Buffalo, and go alone. It was a large sum and he carried it on horseback. As it might be known or suspected by would-be robbers that his small baggage was valuable, he left these directions: "If I am murdered at my camp you will find the money twenty rods northwest of where I sleep." He was followed a part of the way, and waylaid, but his mare was too fleet for his pur- suers, and he got through safely with the money. Ile served as United States Indian agent over forty years, and his influence with the Senecas was great and controlling. He was the chief interpreter when the treaty of Big Tree was negotiated, and it is through him that we have the eloquent speeches of Red Jacket and other chiefs.
To go back, Captain Jones opened a trading house at Waterloo, in 1786, and moved from there to Geneva. In Waterloo John Jacob Astor called on him, bought furs of him, and stopped with him nearly a day and a night. In Geneva Captain Jones's eldest son, William D., was born, and was said to be the first white child born west of
735
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
Utica, while Mary Smith, daughter of Joseph Smith, who shared with Jones the land donated by the Indians, was said to be the first white female child born west of Utica. Sarah Whitmore, the wife of Captain Jones, had also been an Indian captive in Pennsylvania and among the Mohawks. He met her near Seneca lake, and by marrying her saved her from a forced marriage to an Indian. After her death he married Elizabeth Starr, and by her had twelve children. He had sixteen children in all, eight sons and eight daughters.
Joseph Smith, as well as his land partner, Captain Jones, was an important factor in the early settlement of Leicester. He was from Massachusetts, was captured by the Senecas early in the Revolution, brought to the Genesee, and held until the close of the war. He and Jones became warm friends, and like Jones he was much esteemed by the Indians, as their land gift to the two men showed. He also learned the Seneca language, and was more frequently an interpreter between them and the whites than Jones, although Jones was gener- ally preferred by the Indian orators. He and Jones were in partner- ship at the trading house in Waterloo. Doty's history says of him: "His open-hearted and obliging nature led him to endorse for friends, and the lands he had received from the Indians were parted with mainly to meet the obligations of others. His death at Moscow was occasioned by injury received by him in a game of ball between In- dians and whites at Old Leicester."
George W. Patterson was the youngest of three brothers born in New England who settled in Livingston county in 1812. All of them were intelligent, broad-minded and public-spirited men. They came when George W. was eighteen years old. He had an inventive mind and, observing the primitive methods of winnowing the wheat, soon opened a shop for the manufacture of fanning mills near a small pond which is still called Patterson pond. For nearly a generation the "Patterson mills" were the only kind used for cleaning wheat. He took an active part in politics, was the first commissioner of high- ways of Leicester, was elected justice of the peace several times, and to the Assembly for Livingston county eight times, of which body he was twice chosen speaker. He took a prominent part in the presi- dential campaign of 1880, and was one of the speakers at the great mass meeting held that fall in Geneseo. In 1848 he was elected Lieu- tenant Governor on the Whig ticket. Mr. Doty says that "he pre-
736
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
sided with remarkable dignity and fairness," and "his sterling in- tegrity, mature judgment, and withal his manliness of character have long given him a high place among public men, and first and last have distinguished him many times as the fit man to act for the state on commissions and special service." On such commissions he was several times appointed, one of them being for the selection of a proper quarantine station in New York, and regarding which he pre- sented a plan which was adopted. Another was with reference to the commerce of the port of New York, on which he did- valuable service. Another was for the proper expenditure of a large sum of money ap- propriated to relieve the starving people of Kansas, of which he was one of the most active and efficient members. Says historian Doty : "In all the varied duties committed to Governor Patterson through a long public career, no breath has ever been raised against his integrity, no act has lessened the confidence of attached friends, and while en- joying many marks of general regard, he has never seemed more grat- ified than when, his duties ended, he might return to his home and to the important business charge committed to him by the Holland Land Company in superintending their landed interests, in which trust he succeeded Governor Seward when the latter was elected Governor."
John H. Jones, who came to the town with his brother Horatio, was appointed one of the judges of Genesee county at its organization, in 1802, and continued to hold the office until Livingston county was formed, in 1821. He was side judge for Livingston county several years.
Samuel Miles Hopkins came to the county in 1811, and located in Leicester in 1813. Ile was a brother of the celebrated Mark Hopkins. He graduated from Yale college in 1791, and in 1792 became the pioneer lawyer of Oxford, Chenango county. He remained in Liv- ingston county until 1822, when he moved to Albany, where he be- came eminent in his profession. He moved from Albany to Geneva in 1831, and died there in 1837, aged sixty-five. He was elected to the Congress of 1813-15 from the 21st district, was Member of Assembly from Genesee county in 1820-21, and represented the western district in the State Senate in 1822-23. In 1825 he was appointed one of a com- mission of three to sell the state prison at Newgate and build a new
737
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
one at Sing Sing. He was respected for his Christian philanthropy as well as his ability as a lawyer and public official.
Another early citizen was Samuel Royce, who emigrated from Con- necticut to Leicester in 1815, and purchased a tract of timbered land. The family name became a household word over a wide extent of country through his son John Sears Royce, inventor of the celebrated Royce reaper. He was born in 1819, and his inventive genius became apparent in boyhood. His first invention was a better threshing ma- chine than any then in existence, and his next was a perfected plow, known as the Genesee Valley plow, for which he took out his first patent when twenty-two years old. After various minor inventions, he took out a patent for the Rockaway carriage in 1850, which he manufactured ten years with financial success. He then invented the combined reaper and mower known as the Empire harvester, and manufactured it until 1870. It was too heavy, like the other reapers in use, and so he studied out the Royce reaper, weighing only 370 pounds, or about one-fourth as much as the Empire, and which worked admirably. His patents on this, taken out in 1874, covered nine claims, and the machine soon came into use throughout the United States and Canada. Afterward he invented and patented two other reapers, and it has been said that he made more valuable improve- ments in reapers than any other inventor.
The first town meeting of Leicester was held in 1803 at the house of Joseph Smith, the friend and partner of Horatio Jones, who was with him during much of the time of his captivity among the Indians. The house was between Moscow and Cuylerville, and the town officers there elected were: supervisor, John H. Jones; town clerk, George A. Wheeler; assessors, Samuel Ewens, Alpheus Harris, Dennison Foster; constable and collector, Perez Brown; overseers of the poor, Benjamin Gardner, Adam Wisner; commissioners of highways, William Mills, Joel Harvey. The meeting voted a bounty of five dollars for every wolf killed in the town.
The Indians had a council house and frequent powwows at Squakie Hill. The names of the more prominent Indians who frequented the spot were Straight Back, Tall Chief, Bill Tall Chief, Sharp Shins, Kennedy Blinkey, Tom Jemison, Jim Washington and Captain Cook.
Samuel M. Hopkins in 1814 selected the site of Moscow for a vil- lage, had it surveycd, and named it. The first hotel was built there
738
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
the same year by Jesse Wadhams, who managed it, and was succeeded by Gideon T. Jenkins. Homer Sherwood built a hotel there a little later, and kept it for a time, when he was succeeded by Col. J. Hors- ford, who kept it twelve years. In 1815 a clothing mill was con- structed by Peter Roberts and Samuel Crossman, and another by Peter Palmer.
Hezekiah Ripley started a paper in Moscow in 1817, and named it the Moscow Advertiser and Genesee Farmer. It passed into the ownership of James Percival in 1821, who moved it to Geneseo and changed its name to the Livingston Register. In 1847 Franklin Cowdery started a paper at Cuylerville, and called it the Cuylerville Telegraph. It passed into the hands of Peter Lawrence, and was not published long.
The most important land transaction in the town of Leicester was by means of a treaty with the Indians in Moscow in 1823, when the Gardeau reservation, Mary Jemison's land, was sold to Henry B. Gib- son, Micah Brooks and Jellis Clute. The commissioners for the United States were Major Carroll, Judge Howell and N. Gorham ; Jas- per Parrish was present as Indian agent and Horatio Jones as inter- preter, and there were also present a large number of Seneca chiefs, who sanctioned the transfer.
Doty's history says: "The principal villages of the Senecas lay in Leicester, Little Beardstown, Squakie Hill and Big Tree, whose chief- tains could call the whole warlike tribe upon the battle-trail; and, if we may credit the tales of captives, something of a sylvan state was observed by the dignitaries of these castle-towns, as old writers call them, whose vaguely defined sites are now devoted to the ordinary purposes of agriculture by the thrifty farmers of Leicester. The narrative of the captivity of the Gilbert family of Quakers, who were brought to the country of the Senecas in 1780, and whose enforced stay here for a short period forms a part of that account, makes men- tion of their formal reception at Big Tree village by the Indian wife of the chief warrior. 'On reaching the Genesee river,' says the narra- tive, 'Captain Rowland Montour's wife came to meet us. She was the daughter of Siangorotchti, king of the Senecas. This princess was attended by the Captain's brother, John Montour, and another Indian, and also by a white prisoner who had been taken at Wyoming. She was attired altogether in Indian costume, and was shining with gold
739
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
lace and silver baubles. Her attendants brought us what we much needed, a supply of provisions. After the customary salutations Cap- tain Montour informed his wife that Rebecca Gilbert was her daughter and that she must not be induced by any consideration to part with her. The princess took from her own finger a silver ring and placed it on Rebecca's. By this ceremony she adopted the white girl into her household, and the latter was conducted to her future hut in the retinue of the forest princess.' Brant, the Butlers, Red Jacket, who was a statesman but never a war chief of the eastern and western tribes, the Johnsons and other British officers were familiar with the pathways that traversed these forests and the red man's villages that dotted this township. Here all the wise men of the league collected to plan their predatory campaigns, and to celebrate their successful forays, and the very soil, though long ago disturbed by the white
MOSCOW ACADEMY.
man's plow, continues to be held in special veneration by the descend- ants of the former occupants here."
Moscow academy was projected as early as 1815, and completed soon afterward. It was a frame building forty feet by twenty-four, and three stories high. It was built when there were only a few school houses in the Genesee region, and these were mostly of logs, and was one of the first academic institutions in Western New York. It drew scholars from Buffalo, Canandaigua and other remote places,
740
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
and furnished excellent instruction for that time. The first principal was Ogden M. Willey, and he was assisted by Miss Abby Willey, his sister. Many prominent men were among its graduates.
Jellis Clute was the first merchant of Leicester, and the first store in Moscow was opened in 1815 by Nicholas Ayrault, and soon after- ward another store by William Robb. The first upland farm cleared in town was that of Josiah Risdon. Leonard Simpson was the first blacksmith, and Dr. Newcome was the first physician. The first white child born was James Jones, son of Horatio, in 1791, and the first death was that of Horatio Jones's first wife, also in 1791.
The first law office in town was opened in Moscow, in 1814. ʼThe fiist physician of Moscow was Dr. Asa R. Palmer. The first regular preacher was Rev. Abraham Forman, who went to Moscow from Gen- eseo in 1817 and preached to the Presbyterian society organized that year. The services were held in the academy. The first regular pas- tor of the society was Rev. Samuel T. Mills, who was installed in 1820, and the society's first elders were Asahel Munger, Abijah War- ren and Asa Palmer. The society did not have a house of worship until 1832, when one was erected at a cost of $3,000. A few years afterward some of the members seceded and put up another church building, and the divided societies were re-united in 1844 through the efforts of Rev. John McDonald, who became their pastor. The Methodists held their meetings in school houses and private houses until 1829, when they built a house of worship in Moscow. The Bap- tists were not strong enough to put up one until 1852. A Presbyte- rian church was organized in Cuylerville in 1846, and a church building erected in 1846. The first pastor of this church was Rev. James B. Scouller.
Jones's bridge was the first bridge over the Genesee south of Avon, and was constructed in 1816. A flood carried it away in the spring of 1831, and it was re-built in 1832-3. The Mt. Morris bridge was built in 1830, carried away in 1832, and re-built in 1834. The Cuylerville bridge was not built until 1852.
A notable event in the history of Leicester was the removal of the remains of Boyd and Parker -who had been tortured and put to death by the Indians during the Sullivan campaign-from Cuylerville to Mt. Hope cemetery, Rochester, in 1844. There were addresses and a procession, and one of the speakers was the celebrated Major Van-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
Campen, a surviving comrade of the two men. In Rochester Gov. William H. Seward delivered an address.
Assessed valuations and tax rates per $1,000 have been as follows:
Assessed Valuation
Tax Rate O11 $1000
Assessed Valuation
Tax Rate 011 $1000
Assessed Valnation
Tax Rate on $1000
1860
749,856
8.17
I875
1,579,950
8.81
1890
1,257,764
6.57
1861
746,6II
8.08
1876
1,479,809
4.93
I891
1,340,000
5.09
1862
756,497
10.85
1877
1,406,939
11.72
1892
1,378, 184
7.78
1863
757,830
10.61
1878
1,364,879
5.70
I893
1,373,789
1864
770,658
23.00
1879
1,178,125
5.77
1894
1,353,788
7.67
1865
744,193
41.30
1880
1, 187,494
5.50
1895
1,337,413
8.30
1866
848,756
29.40
18SI
1,187,887
4.66
1896
1,332,29I
6.47
1867
757,020
22,37
IS82
1,320,176
1897
1,349,27I
7.01
1868
777.959
20.29
IS83
1,303,038
5.97
1898
1,377,566
8.01
1869
772,813
10.14
ISS.4
1,318,153
5.27
1899
1,357,115
11.66
1870
770,502
14.36
ISS5
1,350,465
5. 59
1900
1,337,490
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