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 95
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In 1795 there was built at the " Big Springs," now Caledonia, a house " by two Englishmen of the name of Kane and Moffatt."* This was the first house built here, and those squatters were probably the first to locate within the present limits of the town. In this house Kane and Moffatt kept tavern for some time, but being suspected of robbery and murder they were driven away by the settlers at Avon. They were succeeded by two men named L. Petersont and David Fuller, about 1798, who in this house, and in log-houses built by themselves, entertained travelers, and afforded a temporary shelter to the Scotch emigrants who soon after came as the pioneer settlers of the town.
In the year 1798,# a number of families and young persons emigrated from Broadalbin, Perth- shire, Scotland, to America, to seek a home where they could be free from the exactions of land
* For much of the early history of this town we are indebted to the writings of Donald Mckenzie, of Caledonia and Donald D. Mckenzie, of York, who have devoted much time in collecting data relating to the carly years of this section of country. The facts relating tu Kane and Moffatt appeared in the LeRoy Gazette of June 9, 1858, and, with other matter, were gleaned from the notes of Donald Mckenzie, of Cale- donia.
t Peterson's successor was a man of the name of Brooks; he was suc- ceeded by Job Pierce, who sold to John Cameron and moved to Avon in 1806, where for many years he was a successful merchant.
# From notes of Donald D. Mckenzie, changed only somewhat in language.
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CALEDONIA-EARLY SETTLERS.
owners and the danger of impressment in the army of the British government, then waging war against France. In the beginning of March, they took shipping at Greenock, and arrived in New York before the first of May, and from thence proceeded without delay to Johnstown, Montgomery (now Fulton) county, N. Y., where a number of their friends and acquaintances had been settled for many years.
Here they remained for nearly a year, undeter- mined as to their future location. Vague reports came to them of lands open for settlement in the Genesee country, but no one could give them au- thentic information concerning that then far away region.
Col. Williamson, agent for the Pultney estate, hearing of their arrival in Johnstown, and being de- sirous of securing Scottish emigration to this portion of the Genesee country, journeyed there to see them, and held out tempting inducements for them to settle on his company's land near the "Big Springs." He offered them land at three dollars per acre, payable in wheat at six shillings per bushel, and agreed to provide them with necessary pro- visions until they were able to provide for them- selves. As they had expended all their money for the passage to America, and were consequently too poor to purchase land in Johnstown, Col. William- son's alluring offers were deemed worthy of accept- ance. But with the habitual shrewdness of their race, before they gave him a decided answer they resolved to send five of their number to explore the Genesee country and report the result of their investigations. The names of the persons selected to visit that then distant region were Donald McPherson, Malcolm McLaren, Hugh McDermid, James McLaren, and John D). Mc- Vean.
These young men traveled on foot the distance of two hundred miles, and arrived at a place called the " Big Springs," so named " on account of large springs of water that rise from the ground there."* The investigation was quite satisfactory to the ex- plorers, and they started on their return journey to Johnstown to entreat their companions to prepare immediately for settlement in this new and prom- ising country.
On the return journey they met Col. Williamson on the road between Geneva and Canandaigua, and there on the highway the writings were drawn and the bargain closed that secured to them the occu- pancy of this fertile region. "On our return to
Geneva,* Col. Williamson treated us to peaches and other new fruit of the Genesee country. He showed us his English stock cattle which we all admired, but much more so the man, Col. Wil- liamson. After we arrived in Caledonia again, with our families, we must all acknowledge that we found Col. Williamson more noble and generous than he agreed or promised."
Upon receiving the report of the five explorers, emigrants in Johnstown made immediate prepara- tion for their journey to the Genesee country. The number of men, women, and children did not exceed twenty persons-as some of the company remained in Johnstown until the next spring-and included Peter Campbell and wife, Malcolm Mc- Laren and wife, John McNaughton and wife, Don- ald McVean, Hugh McDermid, John McPherson, and, in the succeeding fall, Donald McPherson, Donald Anderson, and Alexander Thompson. These are the settlers who found temporary relief and shelter beneath the thatched roofs of Peterson and Fuller, and who constituted the pioneer set- tlers of the town of Caledonia.
Arriving here in March of the year 1799, and being satisfied with the appearance of the soil, they agreed to purchase three thousand acres on the previously arranged plan of three dollars per acre, to be paid in wheat at six shillings per bushel. On account of so extensive a purchase Charles Williamson agreed to grant to them two hundred acres as a donation for the support of a minister, together with two acres on the State road on which to build a church and school house .; The pioneers then began in earnest to build houses and to cultivate the ground. Accessions were made yearly to this small colony by their countrymen from Scotland and Johnstown. Those who came soon after were John and Daniel Anderson, John Christie and family, John McLaren, Major Isaac Smith, Finley McKercher and his sons, Peter and John, who came in September, 1800 ; John McKay, his mother and sister, Jeannette, Alexander McDonald and his wife and son Donald and two daughters, Jeannette and Catharine, Robert Whaley, Wil- liam Armstrong, all of whom came previous to 1804 ; and Angus Cameron and three sons-Dun- can A., Donald and John, who came about the year 1804. These settlers were reduced to nearly
* From notes of Donald McPherson included in the writings of Donald Mckenzie.
1 In 1802 at the formation of the "Caledonia Presbyterian Religious Society," William Pultney, through his agent, Charles Williamson, made over a deed of 150 acres of land for church lands, 2 acres on which to build a manse, and 50 acres for school purposes, which was duly re- corded in the County Clerk's office of Ontario in 1802,
* These springs are now in the village of Caledonia.
450
HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
the conditions and surroundings of the most primi- tive age. To those who had been born and bred in Scotland, and whose ancestors had for genera- tions inhabited the highlands and lowlands of that staid and long settled country, everything in this region was both new and strange. They found themselves at once introduced to a new world and a new government, to new scenes, new manners and customs. The system of government even, at that early period, was yet both new and problem- atical.
The sudden transition from a monarchial to a republican government was attended by no little mental embarrassment, but they soon became im- bued with the spirit of republican principles, and clung with the true Scottish love to the land of their adoption.
Coming here poor and with scarcely the means for subsistence, Col. Williamson furnished them with provisions and the necessary facilities for the cultivation of the soil. Wheat was obtained at Dansville, and for some time was ground at the Wadsworth mills in Conesus. In the summer of 1801 Mr. Williamson began the erection of the first grist mill on the outlet of the Springs,* which was completed in 1802. The work was superin- tended by Jonathan Baker.
Finley McPherson was employed by Mr. Baker to dig for the foundation at six shillings per day and board himself, and was obliged to go for his pay to the Pultney Company's store in Hermit- age, t some twenty miles distant. This was a small mill, having but one run of stones, and was the first mill, except Allen's, west of the Genesee river.
In 1803, this mill and two hundred acres of land, which included the Springs, the outlet, and the site of Mumford, were purchased for two thousand dollars by an enterprising pioneer, John MeKay. Mr. McKay came to the Genesee coun- try in 1793, when but sixteen years of age, and worked for several years as carpenter and joiner, coming to Caledonia in 1803. In 1804 he erected there a saw mill, in the construction of which he was assisted by William # Whaley, who soon after- wards married his sister Jeannette. John McKay died in 1850, aged seventy-three years. The next grist mill erected in Caledonia was built in 1814 by Moses Gibson and Col. Robert Mckay,s on a
stream near the line of York. With the erection of these convenient mills the progress in farming and building was more rapid, and the settlers were soon making considerable headway, though still in straitened circumstances and struggling against the numerous adversities and privations of pioneer life.
In the fall and winter of 1803 and 1804, a large number of Scoteli people came in from Inverness- shire and Argyleshire, and other places in Scot- land, and at that time came also some of those who had remained in Johnstown since 1798.
Among these settlers may be mentioned the names of Duncan MeColl and his son, Donald, Lachlan, Daniel, James and Niel McLean, brothers, Archibald Gillis, Archibald MeLachlin, William Orr, Angus Haggart, and Niel, his brother, Collin Gillis and John Mckenzie, the most of whom brought families with them.
Among the many intelligent and prominent early settlers was Donald Mckenzie,* who came to America in 1805. He arrived in New York in July, where he remained two months working as a clerk in a store. From there he went to Con- necticut, where he stayed until fall, when he came to Caledonia. He worked for a short time in a cloth dressing and carding shop on Honeoye creek in Lima, and in the fall of 1806 he built on the present site of Mumford a small log building, in which he began the business of cloth dressing, becoming in that business the pioneer in all the Genesee country west of the river. He had for his early customers all the people of a territory now included in the ten counties. In 1809 he added to his business a carding machine, which was the second in all the territory west of the Genesee river, the first having been erected by William H. Bush, near Batavia. Not long after this small beginning he built a large framed shop, in which for some time he did a profitable business until it was destroyed by fire. During this time he had purchased of the English Company in Geneva some three or four hundred acres of land, on a part of which he soon built a large stone factory and commenced again not only the former business, but the additional branches of spinning and manufacturing of all kinds of cloth. He also built a large grist-mill on Allen's creek, a short distance east of Mumford, from which for some years he derived considerable profit, but which he lost through some business misfortune. He
* Turner says this mill was begun in 1799, but the notes of Donald Mckenzie and others of the first settlers place the date at 1801.
t Williamsburgh. Alexander MeDonald was the company's sub- agent and clerk at that place.
# In another place this name is given as Robert Whaley.
ยง Brother to John McKay, and an early school-teacher in the Genesee country.
* To whose writings, as before mentioned, we are indebted tor many of these facts.
MR. & MRS. JOHN CAMERON,
JOHN CAMERON.
John Cameron was a native of Inverness, Scot- land. His father, Angus Cameron, was also a na- tive of the same place. In 1804, he was married to Catharine, daughter of Alexander Cameron, of Argyleshire, Scotland, and soon after, in com- pany with his wife, came to America, landing in the city of New York, and proceeded from there to Geneva, where he engaged in the mercantile business in company with Colonel Grieves.
After remaining there nearly a year he sold out his interest to his partner, and through the solici- tations of the Scotch settlers in Caledonia, or " Big Springs," as it was then called, came here in 1805 and opened a store containing general merchandise.
He was the first merchant who engaged in busi- ness in this town, and continued in it till about 1815 or '16, soon after the close of the war of 1812. He died August 7th, 1820, and his wife June 8, 1849. They left eight children as fol- lows :- Angus, born July 10, 1805; Margaret, born March 4, 1808; Mary Ann, born March 21, 1810; Alexander, born December 10, 1811; John Greig, born July 31, 1813; Caroline, born May 13, 1815; Jean, born March 25, 1817; and Charles, born August 5, 1820. Only three of the family are now living, viz :- Margaret, Mary Ann, who married Peter Forbes and resides in Burlington, Racine county, Michigan, and Jean, who married Robert Brown, of Mumford, Monroe county, N. Y.
45 1
CALEDONIA- EARLY SETTLERS.
also lost a large section of his land, and the stone factory had not been many years in operation when that, too, was burned down, incurring a loss of many thousand dollars in buildings and ma- chinery. He then built on the Spring creek, near his house, a large saw-mill, in which for a number of years he did a paying business. He married in 1809 a daughter of William Hencher, the " prince of pioneers," who settled near the mouth of the Genesee river in 1792. She had been inured to the hardships and discomforts incident to pioneer life, and it is not known that in all the reverses of fortune which came upon the family that she ever gave utterance to one perverse murmur. She died Sept. 14, 1877, aged 92. Donald Mckenzie died Sept. 13, 1861, aged 77.
His children were Janet McNaughton, of Mum- ford, N. Y .; William W. Mckenzie, of Oakland, Cal .; Daniel R. Mckenzie, of Liberty, Ind .; Mary McLean, of Rochester, N. Y .; and Elizabeth, now on the homestead,-all living; and Mehitable Lusk died July 15, 1843; Sarah died in 1832 ; Joseph died in Kansas, September 25, 1857 ; John J. died July 3, 1878; and Simon D. died June 10, 1879.
Alexander McDonald, Col. Williamson's clerk and sub-agent, was another prominent early settler. He sailed from Scotland in July, 1775, in the ship "Glasgow," Captain Townsend, with five hun- dred passengers. On arriving in New York they were all taken as prisoners by the British ship of war, Asia, and sent to Boston, and then to Hali- fax. Alexander was then enlisted in the 84th Regiment, in which he served five years. He af- terward owned half of the schooner "Mary," 105 + ne burden, which was lost on the first voyage to Maueria. He then went to the Bahama Islands, arriving at Nassau in 1790, and was there over- seer of Lord Dunmore's estates. On his return from there to New York he engaged with Charles Williamson, agent for the Pultney Estate, and sailed from New York, April 9, 1793, arriving at Williamsburgh about the beginning of June. Here he remained in the employ of Colonel Williamson until the latter left the agency, when he removed to Caledonia about the year 1802. He was the first postmaster here, the first captain of militia,* and for a number of years kept tavern in a build- ing which stood just beyond the Presbyterian First Church. He died in February, 1826.
John Cameron came to Caledonia in 1806, lo-
* Of him it is related that in drilling an " awkward squad " who did understand the meaning of the order about face, he cried out, "Turn your face to the captain's hoose, an' your bocks to John Mckay's mull !"
cating at what is now Caledonia village. He pur- chased the old log cabin tavern stand and a large farm adjoining, on which he built a commodious framed house and a store. He was the first mer- chant in Caledonia. He had married the daugh- ter of a wealthy lease-holder in Scotland-a wo- man of great beauty. The union was opposed by her father, and America became their "Gretna Green," and the Genesee country their final desti- nation. He engaged at first in the mercantile business with Walter Grieves in Geneva, but as early as 1806 removed to Caledonia. During the years embracing the war of 1812 he relinquished the management of the tavern, but his hospitable private house was often the stopping place of Gen- erals Gains, Brown, Ripley and Scott, and other leaders, when public houses had not the capacity to accommodate all who were on their way to and from the frontier. Mr. Cameron died in 1820. leaving his wife with eight children, and with his business affairs much embarrassed. She assumed, with her son Angus, the management of the tavern, store, and farm. They retrieved the estate, main- tained and educated the family, and accumulated for them a considerable inheritance of property, and a far richer one-the noble example of a pio- neer mother. She died in 1849.
Finley McLaren was the first to die in this town, and he was buried where the Presbyterian First Church now stands. He died about the year 1800. The first marriage was that of Hinds Chamberlin and the Widow McLaren. The first school was built in about 1802, and Jeannette McDonald was the first school teacher. The first settled preacher was Rev. Alexander Denoon. Another early minister was Rev. Donald Mann, of the Baptist denomination, who came to Cale- donia in 1809, from Invernesshire, Scotland. The first church was built in about 1806, and was located on the ground now occupied by the house of Charles Blackman.
In 1807 occurred here a horrible inurder which was the first startling crime ever committed in this region. In the laying out of a road near the land of Duncan McColl, James McLean and William Orr engaged in some ill-tempered dispute, and McLean, who was quite violent when enraged, struck Orr on the head with an ax, killing him instantly. Being reproached by Archibald Mc- Laughlin, one of the working party, who came up at that moment and bent over the murdered man, McLean at once struck him a heavy blow with the ax, cutting to his heart, and killing him as sud-
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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY.
denly as he had killed Orr. McLean then made his escape and fled to Canandaigua, where he was cliscovered and arrested and taken to Batavia, where he was afterward convicted and executed.
James McLean had three brothers, Lachlin, Donald, and Niel. The first brother has three sons now living-Hector, in Rochester, Lachlin, in Wisconsin, and Alexander McLean, the chief of police in Rochester, N. Y.
Peter and John, sons to Donald McLean, live in Michigan, the latter being a doctor in the city of Jackson. A daughter, Mary, lives in Rochester.
The children of Niel Mclean are Alexander, Betsey, (Mrs. William McPherson,) and Mrs. Duncan Shepard, all of whom live in Michigan.
Among the descendants of other settlers are Peter Campbell, who lives on the farm on which his father, Peter Campbell, settled in 1799. John Campbell, another son, lives in Fowlerville, York. Angus Cameron, who came here in 1804, has none but grandchildren living :- Hugh Cameron, a law- yer, in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Mary, Catherine, Duncan, now in Wisconsin, Mrs. Margaret Wil- son, and U. S. Senator Angus Cameron, of La Crosse, Wisconsin. Other grandchildren were Daniel, Dugald, and Alexander. Daniel died in June, 1856 ; Dugald died in LaCrosse, Wis., in 1867 ; and Alexander died in April of 1864, from disease contracted in the late war. All of these were children of Duncan A. Cameron, son to Angus.
Rev. Alexander Denoon has two sons now living in Caledonia, James and Alexander ; Simon, an- other son, died in California some three or four years ago, and two daughters died in 1813 or 1814.
Among these noble pioneer men and women there existed a moral principle that was above suspicion, and a strict regard for their pledged word was manifest in all their dealings. They have passed to their final rest, and with them the peerless Scotch pioneer mothers, who forsook paternal roofs and youthful associations and fol- lowed the husbands of their choice over a wide ocean, and with them entered the forests of the Genesce country, willing helpers in all that had to be done and endured.
The pioneers of Caledonia brought with them Scotland's vigor, Scotland's customs, and Scot- land's names. This region in early days was called New Inverness, for the Inverness left behind in fatherland, and when that name became obsolete the more national name of Caledonia clung to it like
the mists which cling to the highland crags. Those hardy sons of Scotia plied the ax, and, as if caused by the whistle of Roderic Dhu, from matted forests sprang forth fields of grain, and the wilder- ness gave place to the broad and cultivated farms that grace that town to-day. And the Scottish vigor has not been purely physical. There has been a wealth of mental vigor. From this town have gone forth artists, poets, and statesmen. " Happy as a Queen," which at the Centennial Exposition received honorable mention as an artistic production, was painted by Kate E. Cam- eron,* of this town. She went to Paris, France, in 1867, to perfect her studies, and died there June 22, 1878.
The celebrated Chester Harding, one of the best portrait painters America ever produced, lived in Caledonia village in 1814 and '15. Few men in any country have risen from obscurity to fame so well deserved, and few have crowned their honors by the grace of so noble a life. He was born in the town of Conway, Mass., September 1st, 1792, and came to Caledonia about the close of the war of 1812. Here he engaged in cabinet making in company with a man named Osgood, the latter doing the wood work and Harding the painting. A house which he built is now standing, the prop- erty of Miss Mallock.
Money being scarce, he took from customers their notes for furniture, and having difficulty in negotiating them he became involved in debt to the extent of some five hundred dollars. The law im- prisoning for debt was then in force, with whose (lire vengeance Harding was threatened. Judge Willard H. Smith, afterwards one of the ablest of the Judiciary of Livingston county, rous-1 h ,
cause, and secreted him in a building no upie 1 by Miller & Son as a plow manufacto
cellar of this building he remain
from Friday until Sunday, Judge Smith conveying to him food and drink. As he could not on the Sabbath day be arrested on a civil process, the Judge opened the door of his temporary prison and, pointing to the woods beyond the village, said- "There are the woods; now make for them !" And he did. From there he went to Le Roy
from there to Batavia, losing no time lo totit! outside the jurisdiction of his former county lo the vicinity of Batavia he remained a :
and then worked his way to Pittsburg, .. engaged in house and sign painting. Afterwards becoming acquainted with a sign and portrait
* Sister to Dugald E. Cameron, merchant in Caledonia.
A 1.6. Smith
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CALEDONIA- EARLY SETTLERS.
painter named Nelson, he became convinced that he, too, could paint portraits, and he at once en- tered upon the career which made him famous both in this country and in Europe. He died in Boston in April, 1866.
John H. McNaughton, the popular song writer and poet, lives three miles southeast from the vil- lage of Caledonia. His residence is a comfortable farm house whose interior bears evidence of the poetical nature of the man. Mr. McNaughton was born in Caledonia in 1829. He received his education in the common schools of that town, and early evinced a decided aptitude for music and musical studies, which later developed into the phase of song writing that has made him so popu- lar both in this country and in Europe. His songs have a peculiar sweetness and an individual charm, due, undoubtedly, to the inspiration which prompts both the words and the music. He has written the words and the music of over one hun- dred songs which were issued simultaneously in New York and London. Among those melodies are the exceptionally popular ones of "Bell Ma- hone," "Jamie True," "Mary Aileen," "As we went a-Haying," "Sweet Night, be Calm," " Faded coat of Blue," the latter being a popular song dur- ing the war of the Rebellion. Mr. McNaughton is also the author of a volume of poems entitled " Babble Brook Songs," and a theoretical work on Bands and Orchestras, besides being a prolific con- tributor to various musical journals and reviews on Harmony, Acoustics, and other technics relating to the science of music.
Caledonia was also the home of that eminent jurist, Judge Willard H. Smith,* who came to this town in 1813. He was a native of Chesterfield, Mass., where he was born in 1785.t He gradua- ted from Williams College in that State, September 10, 1810, and soon after studied law with Bleeker & Sedgwick in Albany, N. Y., and afterwards with Samuel Huntington, of Waterford. In Octo- ber, 1813, he was admitted to practice in the Su- preme Courts of this State. He was appointed First Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Liv- ingston county March 24, 1832, the duties of which office he continued to discharge for sixteen years-or until that office became an elective one.# His dignified and impartial manner in dispensing justice, his extensive learning and eminent talent
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