USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 76
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W. R. Shay .. 1898
1854-63-65-66-67-68-69-70-71-72-78
Thayer H. Lamont. I899-00-01-02
Samuel Porter.
1856-57-58-59
Jolin M. Kennedy 1903
Assessed valuations and tax rates per $1000 have been as follows:
Year
Assessed Valuation
Tax Rate on $1000
Year
Assessed Valuation
Tax Rate of $1000
Year
Assessed Valuation
Tax Rate on $1000
1860
323,395
7.47
1875
658,598
9.25
IS90
519,300
8.55
1861
327,470
9.23
1876
625,135
6.53
1891
540,750
6.72
IS62
322,816
11.85
1877
619,991
7.29
IS92
572,051
7.93
1863
316,169
11.54
1878
584,240
6,12
1893
562,703
1861
336,844
21.40
1879
565,156
6,23
1894
547,549
6.74
1865
327,708
46.60
ISSO
565,427
7.90
IS95
552,959
7.64
1866
322,465
25.00
1881
570,781
7.02
1896
551,892
7.01
1868
324,881
17.44
1883
642, 114
6.34
.IS98
562,315
7.16
1869
333,318
10.81
1884
650,367
6.61
I899
563,285
8.74
1870
334,983
13.91
ISS5
662,248
6.53
1900
564,442
8.05
1871
340,38I
12.61
ISS6
599,403
7.33
1901
568,734
8.64
1872
342,324
17.95
1887
598,214
6.95
1902
571,036
8.70
I873
344,113
13.56
I888
592,754
6.62
1903
564, III
9.14
1874
636,975
7.94
1889
581,535
9.00
IS97
559,723
7.85
1867
330,714
20.65
ISS2
573,464
Charles W. Denton.
1891
A. J. Wood.
Zephar Fontaine
1892-93
F. J. Bonner 1883-84-89
A. B. Dunu .. 1885-86
.
I849-53
William M. White. I860-73-74
Lewis C. Lemen ... 1875
.
MT. MORRIS.
Mount Morris, on the western border of the county, is one of the larger towns, with one of the largest three villages. It is bounded north by Leicester, east by Groveland and West Sparta, south by Nunda and Portage, and west by Castile, Wyoming county. It was formed from Leicester in April, 1818. Its area is 28,545 acres, and its population in 1900 was 3,715.
To quote from Doty's history: "Its surface is greatly diversified. On the eastward between Canaseraga creek and the foot of the table lands spreads a broad alluvial plain of unsurpassed fertility, two miles in width. The ground then rises abruptly to the first terrace. Stretching riverward with a uniform grade the western border attains an altitude of several hundred feet above the flats. The territory of the town is singularly free of waste lands, as scarce an acre can be found that is not under cutlivation or capable of a high degree of cul- ture. The farms are to an exceptionally large extent the property of actual occupants, and the farm houses and buildings, which exceed in number those of any other town in the county, rate above the average in quality, a fair index of the thrift and comfort that generally abound. Nature, too, has bestowed her favors liberally. The scenery from every point of the extended plateau is rich and varied, a vast park-like landscape picturesque in its highlands and bottoms, and diversified by the winding river and sinuous creek. The uplands bordering the flats in the neighborhood of the river were a favorite haunt of the Indians, and also of the fort-builders. Though the prin- cipal villages of the Senecas in later times were located on the western side of the Genesee, yet there was a considerable town known as Big Kettle's village near the present village of Mt. Morris."
The town is underlaid by the rocks of the Chemung and Portage groups, which are deeply covered in many parts by alluvion and drift. While the flats are remarkably fertile some of the uplands are hard and comparatively unproductive. Kashaqua creek enters the town near the center of the south border, flows northeasterly across its
786
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
southeast section, leaves near the center of the cast border, but again enters and flows through it a short distance near its confluence with Canaseraga creek.
Mount Morris village takes its name from the town, and is the second village in the county in population, which in 1900 was 2,410. It is picturesquely situated on the margin of the high terrace which over- looks the broad flats of the river and confluent streams. Four rail- roads enter the village-the Erie, the Dansville and Mt. Morris, the Pennsylvania and the Lackawanna. It is about twelve miles from Dansville and six from Geneseo. Squakie Hill in Leicester is one mile north. The village site was first called Allen's Hill, then Rich- mond Hill, and last Mt. Morris.
Tuscarora is a hamlet in the southeastern part of the town, with two churches, and some mills and shops. Other hamlets are Ridge and Brooks Grove.
The first white settler in Mt. Morris, though identified from child- hood till death with the Indian race, was Mary Jemison, known as "the white woman," much of her life being spent on the Gardeau flats, a part of her reservation by the Big Tree treaty, and located in Mt. Morris and Castile.
Ebenezer Allen, of unsavory fame, came next, but did not stay very long. He settled near Mt. Morris in 1785, having fled there from his New Jersey home, where he was detested by his neighbors as a man of bad character and one of the tories of the Revolution. He was cun- ning as well as wicked. In 1791 he induced the Senecas to give to him in trust for his two daughters a deed of four miles square of land, including the site of Mt. Morris, he to have the care of it until his daughters were married or became of age. It contained 10,240 acres, and the deed was signed by sixteen Indian chiefs, and witnessed by Ebenezer Bowman, Joseph Smith, Jasper Parrish, Hora- tio Jones, Jacob Hart, and three Indians. It was sealed by Timothy Pickering, United States Commissioner "for holding a treaty with the Six Nations of Indians." In 1793 Allen sold this tract to Robert Morris of Philadelphia, from whom the town and village are now named. Dr. M. H. Mills said in his centennial address of 1894 that Morris must have known that Allen did not possess the legal right to make the sale. "He evidently ran the risk," said Dr. Mills, "to extinguish the title of the heirs of the Mt. Morris tract, which he ac-
787
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
complished four years later in the treaty of Big Tree." Allen took his pay in dry goods, built a storehouse and opened a trad- ing post at Mt. Morris, remaining there until 1797, and then going to Canada. Morris assigned his title to the tract to the Bank of North America as collateral security for advances and loans, and this led to its survey in 1806 by Stephen Rogers, when it was called the Mt. Morris tract, and described as lying in the town of Leicester, in the county of Genesee. The bank sold seven-eighths of it in 1807 to John R. Murray, William Ogden and John Trumbull of New York City, James Wadsworth of Geneseo, and their wives, of whom each, including the Bank of North America, then owned an undivided one-eighth. In 1810 these proprietors made a partition of the land lying south of the Genesee river, except the public square in Mt. Morris.
Quoting from Dr. Mills' centennial address: "From 1794 to 1810 very few permanent white settlers located in Mt. Morris; Indian occupancy and the prevalence of ague and Genesee fever prevented. Among them were Jonathan Harris, Clark Cleveland, Isaac Baldwin, Adam Holtslander, Simeon Kittle, Louis Mills, Grice Holland, Bene- dict Satterly, Isaac Powell, William McNair and family. Adam Holtslander made and furnished the rails for fencing the original enclosures in and around Mt. Morris for many years, excelling the lamented Lincoln in that business; was on the frontier in the war of 1812-15. *
* From 1810 to 1820 settlers locating in Mt. Morris were Elisha Parmelee, the Hopkinses, the Baldwins, Adino Bailey, Phineas Lake, David A. Miller, Allen Ayrault, Riley Scoville, Vincent Cothrell, Eli Lake, the Stanleys, the Beaches, Rev. Elihu Mason, James Hosmer, John Starkweather, George Green, Asa Woodford, Dr. Abram Camp, Col. Demon, Richard Allen, Samuel Seymour and others."
Mark Hopkins was the first land agent for the Mt. Morris tract. He came to Mt. Morris with his father, Samuel Hopkins, and the Stanleys in 1811. He relinquished the agency in 1817 and moved to Ohio, where he was "honored and respected" until he died.
The first permanent white settler of Mt. Morris was William A. Mills, son of Rev. Samuel J. Mills, the pioneer preacher of the Gen- esee Valley, who came in 1793, preached at Williamsburg, and con- ducted the first religious services held in Mt. Morris. His son
788
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
William A. took up his abode in Mt. Morris in 1794 on the site of the future village, and kept bachelor's hall in a small cabin, renting some of the flat lands for cultivation, and putting up a block house. Deacon Jesse Stanley and family came with several others about 1811.
Others who came about this time, a number of them with families, were Oliver and Luman Stanley, Dr. Jonathan Beach, father of nine sons and two daughters, Russell Sheldon, Isaac Seymour, Sterling Case, and a little later William Begole, John Cowding, Adino Bailey, Riley Scoville, Allen, Orrin and Horace Miller, Samuel Learned, Chester Foote, John C. Jones, David Sanger, Horatio Reed, John Brown, Samuel Rankins, Eli and Phineas Lake, James B. Mower, John C. Jones, William Lemmon, Asa Woodford. David H. Pearson, Richard W. Gates, Dr. Charles Bingham, Joseph Thompson, Vincent Cothrell.
About the time the most of these settlers came, there were nearly a hundred Indians at Squakie Hill. Dr. M. H. Mills has explained the origin of this name. In remote times the Senecas carried their con- quests to the Mississippi river, and from Illinois brought prisoners of the Sac and Fox Indians. At a council they decided, contrary to cus- tom, to spare their lives, and located them on the hill in question, and called them Squakie-haw Indians; hence the name. Squakie Hill, by the treaty of Big Tree in 1797, was included in an Indian reservation of two square miles.
Rev. John B. Hudson, the pioneer Methodist preacher, in an ac- count which he wrote of his travels, in the Genesee country about 1804, said: "Next day I came to what is now called Mt. Morris. It was then called Allen's Hill. Here I found a number of small houses newly raised, and timber not much cleared except where they stood. This 'was then the most advanced settlement up the Genesee river till you reached Angelica, between which places none others were then in ex- istence. The Mt. Morris settlers had partially cultivated the rich flats, which produced corn and hemp in abundance, and but little or no attention was paid to religion or moral duties. Their nearest mar- ket was Albany, which they could reach only by land traveling with teams or on horseback. "
A description of the village in 1813 mentions a school house with "mutilated seats and dingy walls," a brick store, an old brick house "into which all the inhabitants fled on one occasion the year before
789
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
for fear of a coming army of British and Indians," a Presbyterian church, four frame dwellings, and twenty-two log houses, all on two streets. Frank Condery has stated that in 1817 the village had a tavern, a few mechanics' shops, and a small store kept by Allen Ayrault.
The first frame dwelling house was put up in 1810 for General Mills by George Smith and John Runyan, and the next year they con- structed for Mark Hopkins a carding machine and a hemp factory on the ravine running to Damonsville. Afterwards they built two log distilleries for General Mills. The first grist mill in town was built in 1810, and was on the Damonsville ravine. It had but one run of stone. In 1818 a grist mill four stories high was erected on the same stream.
A great deal has been written about Mary Jemison who lived on the Gardeau flats fifty-two of the seventy-eight years that she was identi- fied with Indian life. She was born on the ocean in 1742, and cap- tured by Shawnee Indians and Frenchmen, with her parents and their two other children and a soldier's wife and two children, at their home on the Pennsylvania frontier. All were murdered except Mary and a boy. She was then thirteen years old. She was taken to Fort DuQuesne (Pittsburg) and here was adopted by two Seneca women. Two or three years afterwards she married a Delaware Indian, and by him she had two children. In 1859 she went with her foster sisters to Beardstown on the Genesee. making the journey of 600 miles on foot with the boy, nine months old, on her back. She did not again see her husband, who died on the Ohio. In 1763 she was offered her free- dom, but chose to remain with the Indians. She married a Seneca chief for a second husband and had several more children. She went with the Senecas to Niagara when they fled from Sullivan's army in 1779, but soon returned to the Genesee, made her way up the river to the Gardeau flats, and lived there until 1831, when she had become wealthy. By the treaty of Big Tree in 1797 a tract of nearly 18,000 acres including the Gardeau flats was secured to her in perpetuity. She adhered to Indian costumes and habits until she died, and was highly esteemed by both Indians and whites. Her second husband had streaks of cruelty, and some of his children by her were like him, and caused her much trouble. Her sons Thomas and Jesse were mur- dered by another son named John. She sold some of her lands in
790
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
1822-23, and the remainder in 1831, when she moved to the Buffalo Reservation, and died there in 1833. She was a kind, hospitable and sensible woman and her influence over the Senecas was great.
We give L. L. Doty's account of Indian Allen, heretofore mentioned : "Ebenezer Allen settled first near Mt. Morris in 1785. His career, the more notable portion of which is associated with the town, forms a curious episode in early annals. He was one of those daring char- acters, without conscience or patriotism, who thrive best in troublous times. A native of New Jersey he took the tory side in the Revolu- tion, and was forced to quit his home, finding an asylum toward the close of the struggle among the Indians along the Genesee, where he worked Mary Jemison's land until the return of peace. He defeated soon after, by a characteristic trick, a plan of the frontier Indians and British to renew the border troubles. He was treacherous to the Indians, and they pursued him for months, but he eluded their clutches by hiding in the woods and fastnesses. When pursuit ceased, Allen settled down near Mt. Morris. The following spring he pur- chased at Philadelphia a boat-load of goods, which were brought to Mt. Morris by way of Cohocton, and bartered for ginseng and furs. After harvesting a large crop of corn and wheat he took up a farm near Scottsville at the mouth of a creek that bears his name. The next season Phelps and Gorham gave him a hundred acres of land on the west side of the river where Rochester now stands, in considera- tion that he would build a grist and sawmill there. £ In 1791 he asked the Senecas to grant a portion of the Genesee flats to his daughters Mary and Chloe, born of his Indian wife Kycudanent or Sally. The Indians disliked him, and showed no haste to comply, but he made a feast at which more whiskey than meat was served, and thus secured a deed of four square miles, including the site of Mt. Morris, which took the name of Allen's Hill, and the adjacent flats to the east. Thither he returned in the summer of 1792, built a house and planted
a crop. Agriculture alone did not suffice him, and he prepared to add a storehouse to his log mansion. The Indians warned him that timber collected for such a purpose would go into the Genesee. He persisted, however, and the Senecas, when all was got together, headed by Jim Washington and Kennedy took the timber, carried it to the river and threw it in and saw it float away. But Allen got out more, built a sawmill at Gibsonville to supply lumber, and erected a store-
791
. HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
house where Judge Hastings' residence now stands. By this time he had taken several wives, red, black and white, and scarcely had he settled in his new quarters before another, Millie Gregory, was added to his rude harem.
"As settlers increased Allen grew uneasy, and in 1797 Governor Simcoe of Canada having granted him lands on the Thames river, he removed thither after selling the tract on the Genesee to Robert Morris, who changed the name to Mt. Morris. Allen's life closed in 1814, in Canada, after a checkered career. Many crimes, most of which grew out of his sensual nature, have been imputed to Allen, and appear to rest upon creditable authority. His moral character cer- tainly appears to great disadvantage. 'He murdered those for whom he professed most friendship, and out of sheer love of blood, would beat out the brains of infants when on the war-path.' Altogether he holds a most unenviable place in pioneer annals."
The first permanent settler of the town, William A. Mills-who was called General Mills because he became a major general in the state militia-was the opposite of Allen, the first comer, in character and reputation. He has been mentioned before as the son of the pioneer preacher, a Presbyterian minister at Williamsburg. They came from Connecticut, and young Mills was only seventeen years old when he went to Mt. Morris in 1794 and put up a cabin on the high lands at the north end of the present village. Here he kept bachelor's hall several years, while cultivating the flats and the Indians, and learning the Seneca language, which he soon spoke fluently. He gained the entire confidence of his red neighbors, and became their counselor and arbitrator. Among his particular friends were Tall Chief and Red Jacket, and also Mary Jemison, who lived five miles from his cabin. The Indians called him Sa-nen ge-wa, meaning generous. He never deceived or cheated them, never lost their confidence, and was known as the Indian's friend. When he arrived Allen had gone to Beards- town, and was living there with the Indians. General Mills built the first house erected by a white man in the village. It was a block house, made by flatting sticks of timber on both sides for the walls, and was roofed with staves split from oak logs. Afterwards he con- structed a substantial log house on the hill, and in 1803 took to it a wife who had been Miss Susan H. Harris of Tioga Point, Pa. There they lived very happily and had several children, not moving from it
792
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
until 1833, when they occupied a large brick house that had been con- structed for them. To his farming he added distilling, prospered and bought much land both on the flats and uplands, so that when he died he owned about 800 acres of the most productive land in the valley. Doty's history says: "He was the first justice of the peace, and supervisor of the town of Mt. Morris for twenty years in succession. He was prominently connected with all the measures of public utility which affected this section, and especially his locality, from the time he settled in Mt. Morris in 1794 to the time of his death in 1844. He was one of the commissioners to petition the Legislature to authorize the construction of a dam across the Genesee river at Mt. Morris and to excavate a canal or race from the river to the village, a distance of a mile. This enterprise secured to the village of Mt. Morris a good water-power which materially aided the growth and prosperity of the place, and is today of great value to the village. Previous to this the nearest grist mill was twenty miles distant, at which place the grinding for his distillery was done. General Mills organized the first militia company in Livingston county, and was elected captain. In the war of 1812 he went to the frontier, where he remained until the war closed, rendering his country valuable service. He was a helper financially of the early settlers, loaning them money to pay for their land, and never pressing them when they could not well return it. In the militia he rose to the rank of major general and some of the leading men of Western New York were at times on his staff. Ilis military district comprised Allegany, Livingston, Genesee, Wyoming, Monroe, Ontario and Steuben counties. His residence in Mt. Morris extended through half a century, and he died there in 1844. "He was a man of many virtues, " says Doty.
The youngest son of General Mills was Dr. Myron H. Mills, to whose intelligence and public spirit the later Mt. Morris is much indebted. He was born there in 1820, and graduated as physician and surgeon from the Geneva medical college in 1844. When war was declared against Mexico in 1846 he joined the army as assistant sur- geon and was promoted for his ability and professional skill to be the head of the medical and surgical departments. After an absence of three years he returned to Mt. Morris and was closely identified with its interests until his death a few years ago. It was Dr. Mills who inaugurated the movement and matured the plans for the Mt. Morris
..
Memorial Monument to Dr. M. H. Mills. Presented to the Village of Mount Morris by Mrs. Dr. Mills and her Daughters.
=
793
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
water works, which were constructed in 1879, and since then have sup- plied the village with an abundance of pure water for both domestic and fire-quenching purposes. In various other ways he was of much service to his town and county. He became learned in Indian tra- ditions and pioneer history, and wrote valuable papers about them, as well as other subjects, and was often called upon to deliver addresses at publie gatherings. His death was felt to be a serious loss by the community in which he had spent nearly all his life.
Samuel Hopkins came to Mt. Morris in 1809, and settled on a farm in the southern part of the present village. He was from Connecticut, belonged to a family prominent in Connecticut history, and was near of kin to his namesake, Samuel Hopkins, one of the great theologians of the early times, and brother of Lemuel Hopkins, an eminent phy- sician and poet. He was a kind, generous and estimable man, and a great reader of solid literature, including the philosophies of Locke, Hume and Edwards. He also had mechanical and inventive skill, and was the inventor of the whole tire for wagons. ITis son Mark, who has been mentioned as the first land agent, came to Mt. Morris with him. His brother, Samuel Miles Hopkins, who began his career as a lawyer in New York, purchased the interest of the Bank of North America in the Mt. Morris tract and three-fourths of the original grant to Jones and Smith, embracing the land, on which he located the village in 1814, while he was representative in Congress.
Jesse Stanley came from Connecticut with Samuel Hopkins. He was an earnest Presbyterian, with the missionary spirit, and was perhaps more active and influential in religious matters for some years than any of his neighbors. He took the lead in the organization of the Presbyterian society, and was its leading member for many years. Nor did he lag behind in more worldly matters. He caused the public square to be grubbed and cleared up, and was active in the movement which gave the village a dam and mill race. One of the Mt. Morris streets takes its name from him.
Micah Brooks and Jellis Clute in 1822 purchased of Mary Jemison a portion of her reservation six miles long north and south and about four miles wide on the south boundary. Micah Brooks established his residence at Brooks Grove near the center of the tract, and super- intended the sale and settlement of a large part of the purchase. He was a resolute and public spirited man, and did what he could to aid
794
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY
in the progress of the Genesee country. His father was the Rev. David Brooks, a graduate of Yale college, and an influential New England clergyman. The son taught school and learned surveying, and in 1800 was appointed to assist in laying out the roads from Canandaigua to Olean and from Hornellsville to the Genesee river. He became a member of the legislature in 1809, served in the war of 1812 and reached the rank of major general, and was elected to Con- gress in 1814, when he represented all the state west of Cayuga bridge. In Congress he was instrumental in pushing through both houses a bill providing for the help of the general government in constructing the Erie canal, but was vetoed by President Madison. It was through his efforts in Congress that the first government mail service through Rochester was established.
Another prominent citizen, was Norman Seymour. He wasalso a historical investigator and able writer, and accumulated a mass of valuable material for a history of Livingston county, which he in- tended to write, when sickness and death prevented. Mr. Seymour was in the hardware business in the village a quarter of a century, and his recreation was in gathering and delving among the scat- tered records of the Genesee Valley's past. He, like Dr. Milis, was an interesting speaker and often heard at public meetings. A more extended sketch of both of these gentlemen appears elsewhere in this volume.
The first president of Mt. Morris village after its incorporation in 1835 was Colonel Reuben Sleeper. He was also one of the first direc- tors of its first bank, organized in 1853, and later was its president for many years. He came from Onondaga county in 1823, and with Abner Dean opened a store which for some years was the only store in town. He was one of the first Abolitionists, and kept a way station of the "underground railroad" for fugitive slaves. His strong char- acter and solid judgment were recognized by all his acquaintances.
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