History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 96

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422

USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 96

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

death. Winter coming on, and the most of the hay being gone, the Roberts family tried to save their stock till spring by browsing them, selecting for the purpose a favorable spot in what is now the southeast corner of Groveland, but the twigs were inadequate food, and the most of the cattle and horses died. In the spring they located on Niblack's Hill, as it is now called, in Sparta, and there the father died at the age of eighty-four and the mother at the very advanced age of 101 years and three months. These were the grandparents of Peter G. Roberts. His father, Peter Roberts, was married in 1801 to. Elizabeth Gilman, and they had to go from Sparta to Geneseo for a legal ceremony, which was performed by James Wadsworth, justice of the peace.

The first post office in Sparta was started in 1814, with Samuel Still- well as postmaster. The first school teacher was Thomas Bohanan. The first preacher was a Methodist circuit rider named John B. Hud- son, and the first church organization was the small society of Metho- dists to which he ministered. One of the first physicians, perhaps the first, was Dr. Scholl. The first mill was built by W. D. McNair in 1810.

William Magee says that there was a great deal of liquor drank in those early days at the raisings of log houses and log barns and the logging bees. It was kept in the house of nearly every family, and set forth to visitors as one of the customs of pioneer hospitality. Doty's history says, however, that there was very little drunkenness. which may be accounted for in part by the purity of the whiskey, which was unadulterated by the poisons now more or less in use, in part by the strenuous out-of-door labors of the pioneers, and in part by the scarcity of bars. The town of Sparta, says Doty, then embrac- ing its largest territory, had eight stills in operation-from about 1796 to 1810. These were owned by William Lemen, William Magee, Alexander McDonald, Hector Mckay, Nicholas Beach, John Hyland, James Rodman and James Scott.

The Rev. Andrew Gray's residence in Sparta has been mentioned. Although he preached to the Spartans before he became a missionary among the Tuscaroras he was not regularly connected with the Pres- byterian society of the town, which gave him a call in June, 1807, stating that "they had changed their situation from under the direc- tion of the Dutch Synod, and had cast themselves under the jurisdic-

1008

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

tion of the General Assembly of Divines, and had chosen themselves a body of trustees according to law." Mr. Gray did not accept the call, and went to the Indian village as missionary on the following December. About the same time the Spartan Presbyterians circu- lated subscription papers to raise money for building a church, one of the conditions of which was that the building site should be chosen by lot. The site was on the land of David McNair, and in 1808 the build- ing was erected and enclosed, but could not be finished for lack of funds. It is said to have been the second church erected in the state west of Cayuga lake. It was roughly finished and furnished the next year, and services were soon held in it regularly. In May, 1809. the society appealed to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of America, asking that a missionary be sent to labor in that region, and the next year Rev. T. Markle came and preached in the church. The appeal was signed by Samuel Bauer and William McCartney as elders, and John McNair, sr., David McNair and others as trustees. The next stated supply was Rev. Silas Pratt. When Rev. Andrew Gray returned from Lewiston to remain in Sparta, a controversy arose in the society based upon personal preferences regarding a minister. some adhering to Mr. Pratt and others desiring Mr. Gray to take his place. For some time both of these ministers held services in the church at different hours of the day. The division finally became complete, and a re-union was not effected until 1829. For a long time Mr. Pratt continued to hold services in the church, while Mr. Gray preached at Havens' Corners, where the present church building is located. The Rev. S. Gaylord took Mr. Pratt's place as pastor after the reunion, and a few months later was succeeded by Rev. Amos 1. Brown, under whose ministry there was a great revival which added many communicants to the church roll. A Second Presbyterian Church of Sparta was organized in 1848, but after 1855 one pastor has served both organizations.

Two Lutheran churches were organized about 1837, one in the cast- ern and one in the central part of the town; also a church of the Baptists and Evangelists at Reed's Corners in 1842, and a Methodist church near the center in 1841.

Quoting William Scott: "The Sabbath following our arrival in Sparta (1806) my father, one of the girls and four of us boys attended meeting at the house of George Mitchell, a log house standing two

TUJA PAGAS CADOFRY

Old view ; corner of Main and Center Sts., Geneseo.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

and one-half miles south of what is now Scottsburg, and six miles south of Conesus lake, where Samuel Emmet, a Methodist minister, preached to a congregation of about twenty-five or thirty persons. I had heard the good man preach in Pennsylvania, and meeting him here renewed agreeable associations to us all."

The first town meeting, held when Sparta embraced its original ter- ritory, was at the house of William Lemen in Williamsburgh, in April, 1796. The following officers were elected: Supervisor, William Harris; town clerk, William Lemen; assessors, John McNair, James Rosebrugh, Henry Magee; commissioners of highways, Matthias Lemen, Alexander McDonald; commissioners of schools, Samuel Mills, James Henderson, Robert Erwin; pathmasters, William McCartney, Hector Mckay; pound keeper, Asahel Simons; fence viewers, Nathan Fowler, Jeremiah Gregory; constable and collector, John Ewart.

The first town meeting attended by the Scotts after their arrival in Sparta, was in 1807, in the present town of Groveland, at the log house of Christian Roup, and among those present were John Smith, Joseph Richardson, Robert Burns, John Hunt, Andrew Culbertson, William and Daniel Kelly, Samuel Stillwell, James Rosebrugh, Thomas Begole and William Doty.

The first town meeting after the division of the town was in 1847, when P. Woodruff was elected supervisor.

Reference has been made to the grist mill built by William Scott and his brother in 1813. In the fall of that year William Scott went from Sparta on horseback through Dansville, Painted Post and New- town to Meansville, now Towanda, Pa., to order stones for that grist mill. For these he paid sixty dollars, and in the winter a team was sent for them, when the transportation charges amounted to eighty dollars, or a third more than the cost of the stones.

Quoting again from Doty's history: "About the middle of June, 1813, it commenced raining and continued for three or four days, when just at evening, on the 19th of that month, the rain began to fall in torrents, increasing in volume until the flood threatened to wash away every structure on the mountain streams of Sparta. Benjamin Hungerford, of West Sparta Hill, had but just completed a new saw- mill dam on Duncan's creek, and placed a new set of machinery in the old carding shop, when the storm came and swept machines, struc- tures and all away. Colonel Rochester's saw-mill dam, on the East

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

Dansville creek, which supplied water for himself and for Scott's card- ing mill, was also carried out. But the most notable loss was that of William D. McNair's grist mill, which stood on Stony Brook, a few rods east of the highway leading from Dansville to Haven's tavern. The building was strongly built of stone on a solid foundation, and so confident was the proprietor of its security, even on such a night, that, becoming alarmed as the storm increased for the safety of the log house in which he was living, he moved his household effects into the mill, and his family to the miller's house. Scarcely had they reached the latter place when a loud crash announced the total destruction of the stone-mill, with all its machinery and stores of grain and goods. The flood washed mill stones many rods from their place, and buried them so deeply in the sand and gravel that only after the washings of lesser floods for many years afterward were they discovered."

The first recorded vote for governor in Sparta was in 1801, when George Clinton received twenty-nine votes and Stephen Van Renssel- aer ten votes.

Captain Daniel Shays, the famous leader of the famous "Shays Re- bellion," spent the last years of his life in Livingston county as a resi- dent of Sparta, moving there in 1814 and dying there in 1825, aged seventy-eight. The details of that rebellion are properly a part of general history, but as Captain Shays was one of the remarkable char- acters among the early settlers of the county, a brief statement of the stirring episode which excited the whole nation is here appropriate. Daniel Shays was born at Hopkinton, Mass., in 1747, and was a resi- dent of Pelham at the time the Lexington alarm was sent out, when he joined a company of minute men, and was made its ensign. After- ward another company was organized in which he served as sergeant. He was at the battle of Bunker Hill, the surrender of Burgoyne and the storming of Stony Point, and was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1779. He was designated by General Washington as captain of the guard over Major Andre the night before his execution. In March, 1781, Captain Shays was chosen a member of the committee of safety at Pelham, and again in 1782. He was sent as a delegate to several of the conventions for the consideration of the grievances which began to burden the people before the war closed. These were talked over in the bar-room of Conkey's tavern, where the people came to consult Captain Shays as their wisest adviser. The mutterings here developed

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

into defiance of the state government, and armed resistance to the courts and laws. In 1786 the people of Massachusetts were more heavily taxed than those of any other state, and it was said they owed an average of $200 each. This tax they were unable to pay, and many poor persons were sued and put in jail. Another grievance was, that the soldiers of the Revolution remained unpaid. After the people's indignation had become intense Captain Shays drilled the farmers in front of the tavern, and soon was called to other parts of the state to organize the people into military bands. He finally commanded an army of about 2,000 rebels, which surrounded the court houses at Worcester and Springfield and stopped the suits for a short time. But the state government raised an army of 4,000 men and sent it against the rebels, and after various movements and some fighting, in which many were killed and wounded, they were obliged to submit. This was in 1787. Captain Shays' men dispersed gradually, and Shays fled to Vermont and New Hampshire. He went thence to eastern New York, where he resided some years, and moved from Schoharie county to Livingston. He and some of the other leaders of the rebellion were convicted and sentenced to be hanged, but were subsequently pardoned. In his later years he was allowed an annual pension of $240 by the na- tional government. Colonel Lyman of Moscow, who was well ac- quainted with him, has said that "he was not only a patriot and sol- dier, but an upright and honorable citizen, " and another friend has de- scribed him as "a man of noble and commanding figure and fine mar- tial appearance." His remains are buried in the Union Cemetery in Conesus, and the grave is marked only by a slate slab, a cut of which here appears.

The town furnished a large number of volunteers for the war of the rebellion, and bounties were paid ranging from fifty dollars to $1,000. In 1864 at a special meeting of the electors it was resolved that Sparta would pay to each of the volunteers credited to the town, under Presi- dent Lincoln's call for 500,000 men, a bounty of $800 in addition to the amount raised by the county for one-year men, and that drafted men should receive the same as volunteers. It was also resolved that each elector of the town should pay ten dolllars per capita tax, to apply on the tax levied to pay volunteers.

Rev. Thomas Aitken was pastor of the North and South Sparta Presbyterian churches nearly half a century, beginning some time in

1012

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

1839 and closing with his death. He was born in Scotland in 1799, was educated for the ministry in Edinburgh, and began to preach about 1825, starting as a missionary in the Orkney Islands.

From the church records in Sparta, which he kept, it appears

Grave of Daniel Shays and Headstone, Union Cemetery, Conesus.

that the number of his baptisms had been 231, and the number of his marriages 254.

A German Lutheran and Reformed church was organized in Sparta in 1837, and is now extinct. St. John's Lutheran church was organized in 1837; it built a house of worship in 1840. There was

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

a Church of the Evangelists and Baptists at Reed's Corners at an early day, about which little is known. The Methodist church of Scotts- burgh was organized in 1840.

The prominence of William Scott in Livingston County pioneer history justifies the editor in appending the following sketch of him by Dr. M. H. Mills before the Livingston County Historical Society read at the 1877 meeting :

Mr. President :- A link which binds the present generation to the past, is broken -- the Hon. William Scott, of Scottsburgh, N. Y., and vice-president of the Livingston County Historical Society, is no more.

From a long acquaintance with the deceased, coupled with the fact that he was an early associate of my father in the Genesee Valley, it affords me the pleasing, though sad, duty at this first meeting of our society, to pay, as far as I am competent, a slight tribute of respect to his memory.

Mr. Scott died in Rochester on Saturday, the 24th day of June last. He suffered much during his last illness of eight weeks, yet he bore it with patience and Christian fortitude.

His remains were conveyed to his native place on Monday the 26th. The funeral services took place on Tuesday at two o'clock, p. m., and were largely attended. The services were unusually solemn and im- pressive. The remains were interred in the family private burial grounds, resting by the side of his beloved wife and only child, in a romantic and lovely spot, about one mile from the village of Scotts- burgh.

Mr. Scott was born in Bethel, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, on the 18th dayof July, 1790. Had he lived twenty-four days longer he would have been just eighty-six years of age. He received a scanty common school education. He came with his father's family into what is now Livingston county in 1806. The family located tour miles east of the present village ot Scottsburgh, when the country was an unbroken wilderness and frequented by tribes of Indians, wavering betwixt war and peace, through the influence of British allies on the frontiers and at Fort Niagara. The same year of the arrival of young Scott into the country he husked corn for Gen. W'm. A. Mills on the Genesee flats at Allen's Hill, now Mt. Morris. From one acre of ground, measured off, he husked 226 bushels of ears of corn, receiving two bushels of ears, worth forty cents, for a day's work.

1014

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

In 1807, at seventeen years of age, he went to Dansville to learn the trade of wool and cloth dressing with Samuel Culbertson. He subse- quently worked in Bloomfield and Livonia at his trade, and saved money enough to pay for one-half of a carding machine which he pur- chased. With it, together with his knowledge of the business, he be- came a partner in 1811 with Col. Rochester from Hagerstown, Md., in the wool and carding business, and the manufacture of cloth fabrics. In 1813 young Scott and Rochester sold out their business and dissolved. The former entered the military service of his country, and served as a common soldier in the second American war of inde- pendence in 1812 and 1815, on the frontiers at Niagara and Buffalo, whilst the latter moved to the mouth of the Genesee river and there founded the city which to-day bears his name.

In 1814 young Scott returned, and built, in company with his brother older, the pioneer grist inill in that section on the inlet to Conesus lake. After completing this mill, his brother took charge of it, and he returned to Dansville and engaged to work for Mr. Hunger- ford at his trade. The same year Millard Fillmore (then fourteen years of age, and subsequently President of the United States) came to Mr. Hungerford to learn the trade of wool carding and dressing. Whilst thus. employed young Fillmore and Scott formed a friend- ship which continued through life, without change.

At a later period Mr. Scott engaged in the employ of Judge Hurl- but of Arkport, taking charge of his woolen factory. While there he learned from the pioneer settlers that Col. Butler of the British ser- vice and Joseph Brandt, fitted out at that place their memorable ex- pedition against Wyoming and Cherry Valley in 1778.

In 1819 he founded the village of Scottsburgh and erected a hotel. The same year he married a daughter of Isaac Woodruff of Livonia, and commenced housekeeping in the tavern, where he resided for six or seven years. In 1827 he sold his hotel property and erected near by a stately mansion for those times, in which he resided with his family. From this time up to 1856, although holding public office. he was engaged in farming and buying and selling lands. He acquir- ed a handsome property, which consisted mainly of 400 or 500 acres of improved lands and farms in the vicinity of Scottsburgh.

In 1835 he was elected Justice of the Peace and held the office six- teen years. He was elected in 1835 a Member of Assembly, and re-

1015

HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

elected the following year against his wishes, and declined a nomina- tion for a third term.

He had but one child, a promising young man, who died in 1840, at about twenty years of age. The losing of his son, and then his wife in 1856, seemed to be the forerunner and commencement of his busi- ness reverses, which resulted finally in the entire loss of his handsome estate. He never re-married.

His intimacy and social relations with Millard Fillmore endured. He was invited to visit the "White House" on several occasions dur- ing its occupancy by President Fillmore, which invitations he always accepted and responded to, yet sought no office within the gift of his distinguished friend. These occasions, he informed the writer, were among the most pleasing events of his whole life, attended as they were with sincere and true friendship, which had sprouted and grown up between them when apprentice boys, and continued until they were separated by death.

Mr. Scott was modest, unassuming and charitable; a man of integ- rity and honor. He retained in an eminent degree the esteem and confidence of his neighbors and all who knew him to the end of life. He was a worthy Christian gentleman of the old school, genial, kind- hearted, and ever ready if necessary to make personal sacrifices to aid a friend. It is said that to this cause, and without that discernment and discrimination of men in his dealings and intercourse with them nec- essary to guard and protect this interest, is attributable more than to

any other the reverses and loss of property in the closing years of his long and eventful life. He led the life of an honest man, and died without leaving the record of an unkind act, or a personal enemy to speak ill of his memory. He was a constant student, and improved his mind by reading and study. He was the author of nu- merous historical sketches, both in prose and poetry, of local interest, as well as communications of a general and pleasing character, from time to time, to the public press.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY

The supervisors of Sparta have been as follows:

Wm. McCartney

IS21-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29-30

James McCurdy 1831-32-33-34

Jesse Stevens. IS35

Morgan Hammond

1836-46

Roswell Wilcox

1837

James Faulkner. 1838-40

Justin Hall. 1839

Nicholas Kysor 1841-42-43-44

James Brewer.

I845

Philip Woodruff

1847-48

Jolın Gilman

1849-50-51

David McNair

1852-56-57-61

John Shepard. 1853-63-64-65-66-67

W. D. Rickard 1898-90-00

C. A. Bateman 1901-2

Charles Swartz.

1903

The assessed valuations and tax rate per $1,000 from 1860 were:

Assessed Valuation

Tax Rate on $1000

Assessed Valuation

Tax Rate on $1000

Assessed Valuation

Tax Rate on $1000

1860

435,314

6.77

1875

834,573

7.53

1890

774,717

7.72

1861

427,664

6.96

1876

798,588

5.58

1891

898,325

4.62

1862

417,855

8.56

1877

763,313

6.12

1892

1,023,769

8.11

1863

409,666

8. 52

1878

749,827

6.76

1893

996,089

1864

461,749

26.50

1879

739,364

6.68

1894

963,007

8.70

1865

492,081

36.60

1880

750,258

5.48

1895

971,376

9.65

1866

442,754

16.40

ISSI

744,806

4.62

1896

969,325

8.99

1867

486,049

19.56

1882

725,565

IS97

993,467

7.19

1868

486,640

16. 16

1883

806,149

5.67

1898

996,053

6.86

1869

463,789

10.07

I88.1

815,539

4.22

1899

992,268

9.31

1870

459,118

12.48

1885

813,604

4.94

1900

995,290

7.88

1871

462,759

11.37

1886

886,680

6.60

1901

994,836

7.15

IS72

424,305

15.41

1887

872,859

6 67

1902

955,220

5.44

I873

422,693

11.93

1888

869,734

6.84

1903

931,774

5.64

1874

842,391

7.75

1889

796,780

10.15

Harvey G. Baker 1858-60

George Shafer.

1859

Alonzo T. Slaight 1862

Jolını Loganı. 1875

Jolın Galbraitlı 1876-77

E. L. McFetridge 1878-79-80

Charles Swartz. 1881-82

Jolın Gilman. 1883-84

Jesse Roberts. 1885-87

George Weidman 1886

Heman A. Miller.

1888-89

Wm. R. Wilbur.

1890-91-92

John Flory.

1893-94-95

Ralphı J. Cranmer

1896-97

68-69-70-71-72-73-74.

Hugh McCartney

1854-55

Indian Lands FOR SALE. 10,000 Acres.

THE Subscribers having Just purchased part of the Guardian Heartation, fatemiling two miles on the Genrer Biset commonly called the . White Woman' Land," any offer for sale, lo actuaf settlers, the ment valuable tract of r. A.ND) in this part of the State. ",AKI acres of this Land is situated on the cau ude of the Cercare Krev, is the town of Mount- Morrin, Javitpina county, and through'which there are three und reale, moral which is the State had to Angelica-2.000 are of the sent Tdc ofthe River, in the county of Gestace. Thus Lam! is Ivo miles from the nlage of Perry, seien miles from Moscow, and ten miles (rma Gescien, all of which are very respectable villages ; the latter n the county towe, and in mercantile operations, manke with the mini respectable and important villages in the westere part of thus Stair, and afords a grid cach market, at all seasone of the year. for the surplus produce of the part of the country - Terms of Sale, Seven Dollars per acre, one dollar 1

HI. II. GIBSON, Canandaigua, MICAH BROOKS, Moomfield, JELLIS CLUTE, Moscowo.

.ALSO .- For sale by the subscriber, a tract of 2,900 neres of good LAND, eligibly situated for format parancs, in the town of Numa, Allegany county, and through which passes the great Allegany roud. Shaw, These Dollars per acre, ily com cast in fund. and chic balance payable in us annual instalments with manual sairTest.

ALSO -- The remaining unsold lots of a tract of 1, 150 acres of superior Wheat LAND, in the town of Leicester, Luigino covaly, utusted vitina three uules of the village of Moscow, and ano tmiles from the village of Gesehen, For valer perrieges, for als cod uter wachocr), the tract us ont surpassed try any other nors tue agle is this State, Troms, frum Sit to Seven Dollari per acre, sevcaty-five cents per acre , and die halsace payable is ten annual aslimecati, ('roca the first day of May last) will annual interest, . Caudague, Spinkr 10, 15Z3. H. B. GIBSON.

Notice of Safe of Gardeau Lands.

APPENDIX.

iii

APPENDIX

APPENDIX NO. I.

RED JACKET'S STATUS AND AN ACCOUNT BY GENERAL PARKER OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONS IN THE TRIBES OR CLANS CONSTITUTING THE LEAGUE.

New York, November 26, 1884. William C. Bryant, Esq., Buffalo, N. Y. :

Dear Sir-I owe you many apologies for not before answering yours of Octo- ber 25th, which was duly received, but I have had so many other things to attend to that your letter was temporarily laid aside. I will now, however, respond as briefly as I can to your queries respecting Red Jacket. You say you "have always been led to believe that Red Jacket did not belong to any of the noble or aristocratic families in which the title or distinction was hereditary." Also, "was his mother of noble birth," etc., etc. Let me disabuse your mind of one matter in the outset. Such a thing as aristocracy, nobility, class caste or social grades was unknown among the Iroquois. A political superiority was, perhaps, given by the founders of the League to the Mohawks, Onondagas and Senecas, who were styled "brothers, " and were addressed as "fathers" by the Oneidas and Cayugas, who also were "brothers" and yet "children." Nor were the Turtle, Bear and Wolf clans invested with the first attribute of nobility or aristocracy because they were also the elder brothers and cousins to the other clans. I am of the opinion that no purer and truer democracy, or a more perfect equality of social and political rights, ever existed among any people thian prevailed among the Iroquois at the time of their discovery by the whites. Often at that time and since persons attained positions of prominence and power by their superior intellectual abilities or their extraordinary prowess and success on the warpath. (Conspicuous examples of this fact are Joseph Brant and Red Jacket.) Successes of this kind, however, brought only temporary and ephemeral distinction to him, his family, his relations, his clan, and, perhaps, reflected some honor on his tribe. But this accidental or fatuitous distinction was not transmissible as a rightful or heredi- tary one, and was retained only so long as the intellectual superiority, military prowess or personal bravery could be maintained by the person or family.

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History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 96

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen Number of Pages: 1422

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422