USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 55
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THE WATER CURE AND MINERAL SPRINGS.
These springs, which are becoming justly cele- brated for their curative properties, are situated about a half mile south of the beautiful village of Nunda. They are on a rise of ground, nearly one hundred feet higher than that on which the village stands, and are situated about fifteen minutes' drive from Dalton Station on the line of the Erie railroad. The cure, located on a rising elevation near the springs, is a large, commodious building, adjoining a grove of pines and maples, containing pleasant shaded walks and drives, The interior is fitted up for the accommodation of those who wish to avail themselves of the medicinal properties of the springs, and contains hot and cold baths sup- plied from the naturally medicated waters. The rooms are large, thoroughly ventilated, and supplied with all the modern improvements and the location is in all respects desirable, combining the best hy- gienic conditions, with a landscape view of excep- tional beauty.
The first discovery of one of these springs was in 1878 while workmen were engaged in repairing the public highway adjoining the lands of Daniel Passage. As the earth was removed from the side of the beaten track a vein of water gushed from the rock beneath. Tubing was placed in the spring from which the water flowed, for the benefit of the traveling public. The medicinal properties of the water were discovered by use and led to an analysis of the water, which showed one U. S. gallon to con- tain 203.58 grains sulphate of magnesia, (Epsom salts,) 184.41 grains of sulphate of lime, 104.10 grains of carbonate of lime, 6.82 grains of chloride of sodium, 1.05 grains of carbonate of iron, .12 of silica and traces of alumnia.
The two larger springs emanate from the rock about five feet beneath the surface of the earth and about twenty-five rods distant from the spring by the roadside, and are situated upon slightly more elevated ground appearing to be the fountain from which these mineral waters are supplied. These two springs furnish an abundance of water and from these springs water is drawn to supply the cure.
These springs belong to the class of magnesia mineral waters and in a general sense their therapeu- tic effects are alterative, and it may well be called nature's sovereign remedy for all the ills that the human family is heir to. The springs are on the estate of Daniel Passage, who in 1879 began the erection of the cure. The first discovery of the curative properties of this water was in 1878. Since that time it has been confirmed by many_who have used it as a singular alterative for the cure of blood diseases, and is becoming quite generally used, large quantities being shipped each year to various parts of the country. It is being used more exten- sively each year.
CHAPTER XXI.
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF PORTAGE.
IN the extreme south-western border of the 0 county lies in some respects the most remark- able, and in nearly every respect the most pictur- esque town in Livingston county.
Originally a part of the town of Leicester in Genesee county, at its first formation, in 1805, Portage was set off as a part of Angelica, (Allegany county,) and in 1808 was again set off as a part of Nunda ; being formed from Nunda as the town of Portage, March 8, 1827.
It was about six miles square, bounded on the east by the Piquot line, and on the west by the Transit line. In 1846 it was taken from Allegany and annexed to Livingston county. At the same time from about one-third of it, lying on the west side of the river, was formed the town of Genesee
VIEW IN THE GROVE
DANCING HALL IN THE GROVE
THE PASSAGE WATER CURE, NUNDA, LIVINGSTON Go., N.Y.
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PORTAGE - PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.
Falls, which was annexed to Wyoming county. The town is six and a quarter miles long, and four and three-quarters in width at its widest part.
It is bounded on the north by Mount Morris, on the south by Granger, (Allegany county,) on the east by Nunda, and on the west by the Genesee River and Genesee Falls, (Wyoming county.)
Within these limits Portage has been called " The Switzerland of the Empire State." With less of the general ruggedness characteristic of Ossian ; with but little, if any, of the quiet rural scenery of Springwater ; and to a great extent devoid of the enterprising appearance which characterizes Nunda, Portage surpasses all in presenting the most varied scenery bordering on the modern, the ancient, the beautiful and sublime.
Near the line of the Erie road, which passes through from the western to the south-western part of the town, the surroundings approach to the modern and business appearance of to-day. Back from the railroad and the river the scene changes to rolling farm lands, and to a settled and ancient look, as though at some time the town had taken immense strides in advancement, and had sud- denly stopped afraid of its own progress, and never again having the courage to proceed had settled down contentedly and allowed age to cover it with quaintness and beauty.
Here is seen the deserted channel of the Genesee Valley canal cut through high embank ments, and spanned by old-fashioned and decaying bridges ; with its oft recurring locks, now grass grown and crumbling, rising like giant stairs to higher levels ; passing through scenery now rural, now romantic,- a busy stream no longer, but picturesque even in its idleness and desertion.
Near the Genesee river on the western border of the town, and extending nearly the entire length of that boundary, the scenery changes from cleared lands and thrifty farms dotted with comfortable buildings to wild and rocky ravines skirted with a dense growth of saplings and heavy timber, sprinkled with lumbering camps and saw-mills, and where is heard the ringing of axes and the crash of falling trees as in the days when the whole town was a forest, unbroken only by the ax of the sturdy pioneers.
It is in this section that the town presents its most striking beauty. Through the winding ra- vine, whose shaley walls, straight and smooth, tower hundreds of feet, or break up into ragged masses of rocks crowned with the verdure of pine tree and shrub, flows the Genesee, calmly and
sluggishly, or whirling with a dash and roar over the falls into the basins which its action for ages has channelled deep and smooth. Within a dis- tance of three miles are three falls varying in height and in scenery. At the lower falls the scenery approaches the sublime. Here the river lashed into a creamy foam thunders through a gorge worn narrow and deep by the eternal rush of its waters, and whose perpendicular walls hem- ming it in on either side rise to an elevation of four hundred feet above the level of the lower stream.
Standing here in the silence, unbroken save by the roar of the falls and the ringing of the lumber- man's ax in the forest which crowns the summit, fancy reverts to the time when these waters floated the graceful canoe of the Indian, parted before the homely keel boat of the advancing pioneer, and bore upon their surface the freightage of the forests to the markets of the East. Then, as now, the water poured ceaselessly over the falls, but in wider and more eager torrents, while along its banks the river was dotted with the wigwams of the savage whose war song blended with the music of the cataract.
But the scene has changed. The canoe, the wigwams, the Indians, have disappeared; the keel boats have passed from existence, and the river long ago ceased to be navigable for the rafts of the hardy lumbermen.
Above this point a few rods, is still seen the carrying road over which the lumber and other freight of early days was conveyed from the upper to below the lower falls, and from which "port- age," or carrying place, the town derived its name.
Just below these falls there arises an island of rock, crowned by large flat stones, as though placed there by some human agency, on the sur- face of which grasses grow and in whose scant soil several pines and saplings have taken root, lending their verdure to that barren and shaley rock. At some time in the past this pyramidical island has been connected to the eastern bank, but it has been gradually separated therefrom by the crumb- ling of its surface into the river. It is called "The Haystack " by the inhabitants of the town, and is not unlike one in appearance, tapering, however, on all sides, somewhat like a pyramid, toward the top.
The fall of water here at one time was nearly one hundred feet ; but the stream, becoming shallower, changed its course, and cutting its way deeper into the narrow gorge has reduced the height to sixty-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
eight feet, and in five years the falls have receded fully one hundred feet.
Midway between the lower and middle falls the barren, perpendicular walls on the western side take a graceful curve, in shape like an Indian bow, and rise to a height of three hundred feet above the stream below. On the eastern side the ascent is less abrupt, and is sprinkled with a growth of saplings, crowned on the summit with a parapet of huge flat stones that formerly protected the towing path of the Genesee Valley canal, which began at this point its parallel course with the river. In the precipitous rocks which skirt the canal on its east- ern side is seen the side drift of the tunnel began by Elisha Johnson, * through which the canal was originally intended to run. The tunnel was begun at a point on the southern side of the gorge, and had a south-western termination near the Middle Falls. The spot is now covered up by the caving in of its walls, so that the terminus is not visible. Work was begun on the tunnel in 1839. It was eleven hundred and eighty feet long, and was at that time the greatest undertaking of that nature in this country. Owing to the treacherous nature of the earth forming this hill, the tunnel was not found practicable and was therefore abandoned. The canal was not completed to Olean until 1856.f
At the Middle Falls the scenery is less grand, but still beautiful. The water falls in a broader sheet over the shelving rocks to a distance of one hun- dred and ten feet into an immense basin which its action has furrowed out, but the walls of the ravine below are not so high or imposing. On the east side is seen the wooden aqueduct of the canal now hastening to decay.
On the western side the summit is surmounted by a table-land thickly strewn with pine and oak, and dotted with cottages, while on the bank of the river numerous places of observation have been built for the benefit of tourists.
Between these and the upper falls the land on the eastern side slopes gradually up to the bed of the canal. On the western, it lies quite level for some distance back from the river, when it gradu- ally rises into hills covered with forests. At the upper falls the banks abruptly rise again to a height of two hundred and thirty-five feet, where stretches the Portage bridge, like a gossamer thread, across the chasm. The water at this point has a fall of seventy-three feet; the three cataracts having a total fall of two hundred and fifty-one feet.
* At one time Mayor of Rochester, N. Y.
t See page 106.
The Portage bridge stands not only as one of the wonders of the State, but as a monument to the ingenuity of man, and to the rapidity with which his skill can surmount obstacles and over- come difficulties. This bridge was built for the Erie R. R., to replace the wooden one which was destroyed by fire May 6, 1875. The old bridge was built in 1852, at a cost of $175,000. It was 800 feet long, 234 feet high, and contained 1,602,- ooo feet of lumber, and 108,852 pounds of iron, and was the largest wooden railroad bridge in the world. In twelve weeks after its destruction by fire, the present bridge was tested and opened for traffic, July 31, 1875.
It is 280 feet from bank to bank, 235 feet high from the bed of the river to top of railing, and contains 1,314,500 pounds of iron, besides track material. It was built by the Watson Manufac- turing Company, Paterson, N. J .*
Seventy years ago where now this railroad stretches its iron course, was a dense forest and the whole township was an unbroken wilderness ; where now the shrill whistle of the flying locomotive breaks on the air as it sweeps past well-tilled farms the silence was undisturbed save by the howling of wolves, the chase of the savage, or the fury of the tempest.
Jacob Shaver, Seth Sherwood and other pio- neers who first penetrated these wilds scarcely conceived that in the lapse of forty years, that engine of civilization, the locomotive, would become an established feature of the town, and that over the forest-skirted chasm of the Genesee would be constructed the largest railroad bridge in the world ; to be replaced in a few years by the grand piece of mechanism that spans the river to-day.
To Jacob Shaver, who came in 1810, and Seth Sherwood, who came at about the same time or soon after, has been awarded the honor of the first settled residency in the town. This claim, how- ever, is doubtful. As pioneers they were undoubt- edly the first to wield the ax in making for them- selves small clearings, upon which they located as squatters, with no pretense to title or ownership. But here their labors toward the settlement of the town probably ended; for when in 1816 these lands were opened for sale, and the incoming of permanent settlers began, they moved onward to become pioneers in other unbroken regions.
To Ephraim Kingsley is accorded the credit of being the first actual settler in the present limits of Portage. He came here from Vermont in 1814,
* See page 107.
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PORTAGE-EARLY SETTLERS.
and located on lot 169, since owned by Frederick B. Hunt. In 1816 Col. George Williams settled in the town as resident agent for the Cottinger Tract, which contained fifty thousand acres con- veyed to Gerrit Cottinger in 1791, and by him con- veyed to John Hornby, of Scotland, who sold the half of it in alternate lots to his agent, John Greig, of Canandaigua, for the sale of them. In 1807 the tract was surveyed and subdivided by Elisha Johnson.
The lots were three quarters of a mile long and about one-third of a mile wide, containing one hundred and sixty acres, the measures varying and generally over-running.
The lands in the town have all been sold. There are one hundred and one lots and parts of lots, containing in all 16,580 acres, the town being situated about the middle of the east side of the entire tract.
As agent for these lands Col. Williams continued for years, becoming himself an extensive land owner, and taking an important part in the settle- ment and improvement of the town. In his eighty- first year he was thrown from a buggy, sustaining in- juries which hastened his death. He died May 11, 1879. He had a son who now occupies the home- stead, and a daughter residing at Portage Bridge.
These lands opened for sale, the settlement of the town was accelerated, and the next few years witnessed the influx of those whose labors convert- ed the forests into farms and laid the foundation for the future wealth and prosperity of the town. Among the settlers who came in these early days were Prosper Adams and his brother Abijah, Rus- sell Messenger, Nathaniel B. Nichols, Asahel Fitch, Elias Hill, Halliday, Stephen Spencer. Horace Miller, Elisha D. Moses, William Dake, Joseph Walter and Thomas Bennett. Of these pioneers and settlers, Nathaniel B. Nichols was the first Justice of the Peace, in about 1818 .* Pros- per Adams built the first tavern in the town just south of what is now known as the Deep Cut,t on land now owned by A. J. Burroughs. This tavern was for many years the center of business for the town, and was kept by Adams for several years. He sold it to William Marks, his brother-in-law, who in his turn kept it about fifteen years.
In 1835 or'36 Marks went to Kirtland, Ohio, with a society of Mormons who had held a branch church in Portage, meeting principally at Marks' tavern .¿
* Magistrates have been the only legal representatives with which Por- tage has been honored. There has never been a lawyer's office in the town.
t Where the Genesee Valley Canal was cut through the high land.
# Afterwards, and for a number of years, this tavern was kept by Mr. Burroughs.
William Dake, with his wife and two children,- Jonathan and Charles-came from Saratoga coun- ty, in this State, in 1819, locating on Oak Hill. July 27, 1822, he purchased of John Horn- by, through his agent and attorney, John Greig, one hundred acres of land on lot 142. For this land, heavily timbered with oak, he paid four hun- dred and fifty-two dollars, and cleared it entirely with the labor of his own hands. Here, on Oak Hill, he lived fifty-four years, dying in May, 1873. His wife died in Rochester, N. Y., in 1878. Two of his children died, William J., in 1849, and Clarrissa E., in 1872. His descendants are J. M. Dake, a hardware merchant in Nunda; Jabez W. Dake, M. D., now living in Rochester, N. Y .; Dr. Charles A. Dake, of Irondequoit, N. Y .; and Benja- min F. Dake, M. D., now in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Elisha D. Moses was the first physician, coming from Connecticut in 1816, and beginning at once his practice which continued until 1837, when he removed to Rochester, N. Y., where he died in October of 1872.
His father, Elisha Moses, came to Portage in the following year, 1817. He was a native of Sims- bury, Conn., where he and his father before him were born. In 1826 he moved to Mt. Morris, pur- chasing a farm and living there until his death. He had a family of twelve :- Elisha D .; Amarila, the date of whose death is unknown ; Phœbe, who died in Portage in January, 1820; Timothy, in Indiana, September, 1823; Arden, in Michigan, April, 1847; Flavia, in 1858; Betsey, in 1863; Edmond, in 1865; Ormenta, in March, 1825; Marcus, in Lockport, N. Y., December 9, 1880, and Aurelia and Schuyler, the former now living in Mt. Morris, and the latter in Rochester, N. Y., at the advanced age of eighty-two.
Thomas T. Bennett's family all went west but one daughter, the wife of William Tousey, who lives near Joel C. Bennett.
The family of Joseph Bennett are also settlers in Western States, none remaining in Portage.
Walter Bennett's widow, Mrs. Huldah Bennett, still lives in the town with one of the sons, J. Y. Bennett.
The improvements made by Jacob Shaver, who, as we have reinarked, was a squatter at will in this region, were purchased by Captain Richard Church in 1816. Near him soon after settled Abner Tut- hill and his sons, Henry and Lewis.
Rev. Mr. Miller and sons, Allen, Horace and Orrin, with their families, came about the same time from Saratoga county. Allen Miller was ex-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
tensively know as a drover, and Orrin Miller be- came distinguished as a Methodist minister of rare eloquence and power.
Robert, George and Reuben Gifford, Elias Bowen, Benjamin Utter, Nathaniel Lewis, John McFarline, a Scotchman, and others, early occu- pied every lot in the school district No. 1, called North Oak Hill.
A few of these pioneers lie buried here, but a majority sought other homes. All are gone and their posterity are widely scattered. Alexander McFarline remains the sole representative of the only family that holds the paternal homestead.
The northern part of the town was settled mainly by people from Saratoga county and were most of them related to each other. Most of those who settled about Marks' Tavern, the old town center, were from Windham, Vt .; those who located at Hunt's Hollow were from Cayuga county, while in the district between that place and Oakland the settlers were from Coleraine, Massachusetts,
George Wilner, another inhabitant of Connecti- cut, came to Portage in 1817 or '18, and married Betsey, daughter of Elisha Moses. His descend- ants are Malcolm, who resides in San Francisco ; Flavia, who lives in Michigan, and Marcus and Merriman, who still live in Portage.
Solomon Williams and Capt. Elisha Smith, who came from Vermont, were early settlers ; the former coming in 1816 and locating just south-west of Hunt's Station, on the Short Track road and the latter locating near Adam's tavern south of the Deep Cut.
Russell Messenger built the first saw and grist mill in 1817, at Messenger's Hollow, which was named for him, and now known as Oakland. Dur- ing the next few years fourteen saw mills were constructed on the Cashaqua Creek, which flows northerly through the eastern part of the town, and within the same time, nearly as many more were built on the Genesee River and smaller streams. Wherever a stream of sufficient force could be found a saw mill was built, for at that time and for many years afterward, the principal business was lumbering. Of all those mills built by the pioneers scarcely a vestige now remains.
Soon after the building of the first grist mill by Russell Messenger, a second mill was built by Thomas Alcott near the head waters of Spring Brook, which was afterward moved to the mouth of the brook, and again removed about fifty rods down the stream to receive the water of the Cashaqua Creek, and was then enlarged to an extensive flour-
ing mill by Hunt & Thompson, It afterward passed to the proprietorship of Smith & Mills, and was destroyed by fire on Christmas day, 1869.
Among the most prominent and energetic of the pioneers in this new region of country was Sanford Hunt. He was a native of Connecticut ; born in Tolland county, in April, 1777, and came to Por- tage from Greene county in December, 1818, with his wife and seven children.
He located at Hunt's Hollow, which derived its name from him, and engaged in farming and mer- cantile business in a small way, opening the first store in 1819, afterward building an ashery and saw-mill. He kept the post-office at this place from its first establishment and for many years afterward.
When he came there were but few settlers, and the township was nearly a dense wilderness. On the evening of his arrival he met Dr. Elisha D. Moses, who was then School Inspector, and whose first residence in the town was at the forks of the Short Tract and Hunt's Hollow road, south of Mr. Bur- roughs'. He was then post-master, being the first postmaster and second Town Clerk of Old Nunda." Rev. Orrin Miller was the first Town Clerk.
Of the children of Sanford Hunt but one, Sam- uel, lives here at Hunt's Hollow, Another son, Horace, is living in Jackson, Michigan.
The mail was then carried once a week, on foot or on horseback, through from Moscow to Angeli- ca. The post-office was established some time in 1818, and was located on lot 169, near where Adams' tavern stood.
Mr. Hunt had for some years a large trade with the Indians, whose encampments extended along the Genesee Valley, and who placed in him the fullest confidence. His goods were purchased mostly at Geneseo, twenty miles distant. The store continued in his hands until his death in 1849, when the business passed into the manage- ment of his son Horace, who continued it some ten years longer.
Sanford Hunt was the father of nine children :- Horace, Samuel R., John H., Sanford, Frederick B., Washington and three girls. The latter son, Washington, became Governor of this State in 1851-52. Studying in the common schools of Portage -- which, in his day, were limited in both comfort and educational facilities-and laying the ground-work of his education there, Washington went to Geneseo and entered the Academy pay-
* Portage, it will be borne in mind, was then part of Nunda ; not being separated therefrom till nine years later.
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ing his way by manual labor. He afterward entered the store of Bissell & Olmstead in Gene- seo, and Mr. Bissell soon after removing to Lock - port, N. Y., Washington followed him, where he found a field that presented a wider scope for his faculties, and a surer reward for his efforts and his ambitions. Here he advanced rapidly in his pur- suits and in the opinions of the public, until he at- tained the highest position in the State within the gift of the people.
Another prominent early settler in Portage was Col. Greenleaf Clark, who came from Tamworth, N. H., in early boyhood to the then wilds of West- ern New York. He also located in Hunt's Hollow in 1824, and in 1826 married Eliza, the eldest daughter of Sanford Hunt.
Col. Clark began business there as a tanner and currier, succeeding William Alward, who had built the tannery in 1818 or thereabout, and continuing the business until his death in 1875. He assisted at the organization of St. Mark's Church, of which he was a valued member ; and for many years held the office of Magistrate. The tannery is now con- ducted by his son, John H. Clark.
Hunt's Hollow in its early days was believed to have before it a rapid growth in population and in business.
In the ten years that succeeded the coming of Sanford Hunt, other stores were built ; a cloth- dressing establishment, a tannery, two asheries, a hat shop and two churches were erected, in one of which-the Episcopal-Mr. Hunt was a leading member. Three taverns were also built, one of them being kept by John Slater* for many years.
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