History of Monroe county, New York with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, Palatial residences, Part 10

Author: McIntosh, W. H. cn; Everts, Ensign, and Everts, Philadelphia, pub
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Ensign and Everts
Number of Pages: 976

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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Frost, Henry Brewster, Samuri Church, Satunel Baldwin, Amas Frust, and Elibu Church. The donations were duly bestowed. and within three years a church was formed, and the Rev. Allen Hollister settled as its pastor.

George W. Willey, the pioneer of Ogden iu 1804, made his log house the welcome resort of the traveling missionaries and the uuwearying circuit-riders. Close following upon the track of the settler cune those ministers of the gospel, bound on their mission of good. Upon the trail, the path, and the road, crossing awamps, fording streams, and, at times, making their couch in the forest with the saddle-bags for a pillow, those heralds of good tidings brought the news to all. Upon horseback the journey was taken, and in cabiu or school-house, week-day or evening, the meetings were held, and then on to the next station. The Meth- odists were the first in the missionary field, and rode upon a circuit of full four hundred miles. The pioneer circuit-riders of the western country were James Smith, in 1793; then came Alward White; after him followed Joseph Whitby and John Lockby, io 1795, Hamilton Jefferson and Anning Owen, in 1796. Johnson Deebam was the associate with Owen next year, theo James Stokes and Richard Lyon in 1798, and Jonathan Batemau in 1799. Daniel Dunham and Benjamin Bidlack were koowo to the settlers of 1800, David James and Joseph Williamson in 1801, Smith Weeks and Jolin Billings in 1802. Griffith Sweet and Sharon Booth in 1803, and Roger Benton and Sylvester Hill in 1804. The memories of these men are known to few, if any, now living. There is in the memory of the aged a remembrance of the ministers who came casting seed by the wayside, whose fruitage in directing the mind to things eteroal is scen in [ present religious attainment. - The sermon in the old log school-house, and the prayer with the family ere retiring for the night, are dim recollections, while the records of the books say, " The first preachers in this vicinity were Methodist circuit-riders." Two upon the circuit traveled far and long, changing, as was their wont, each year, and small indeed the settlement they did not visit. The names of Mitchell, Jeuks, Van Epps, Gatchell, and Lque are recalled as of those who early in the century visited the settleusents of Geuesce valley. The first settled minister in Ogdea was Ebenezer Everett. Characteristic of the new country, names were given to designate localities and retained when the country had become settled. The term Methodist Hill indicates a truth, that the first religious meetings held in the town were by circuit-riders of that denomination, recalled in names of Lacey, Fillmore, and Puffer.

+ The primary organization of societies was the result of accident, so far as de- : Dominations were concerned. Whatever sect had the most members formed their society, and as the income of new settlers grave strength, others drew uff fur inde- pendent organization. It may be said that religion was not made a convenience but a willing duty, and contemporary with the shelter for the body was sought food for the soul. ) A single instance is illustrative. Upon a Saturday, Dr. Levi Ward, Joha Ward, and their families arrived from Connecticut in the dense, heavy : forest called the " North Woods." The first act was the notice of a meeting to be held next day at the house of a settler. A dozen or more assembled from their scattered homes, a sermon"was read, prayer made, and singing was " excellent." During this year (1807) a Congregational church, the second one west of the river, was organized. The history of' towns and city fully illustrates the progress from the formative period down to the present, and inspires hope and energy to advance them farther. The antipathies of sects, the intolerance of opinion, and the warfare of seliisms belong to the past. We find the churches of Rochester occupied, during a conference, by the ministers of that denomination ; in council we see harmonious action and brotherly feeling; talented and pious clergymen occupy the pulpits; missionaries depart for heathen lands ; societies for the spread of religious influence have long heen operative, and evidence philanthropic en- deavor and liberal endowment.

Education was recognized as a softening and elevating influence, without which other labor was regarded as comparatively useless. Upon the clearings there was work for all; the child could gather brush, watch the corn from depredators, bring home the cows, and ride to mill with the grist, yet the necessity of instruc- tion in the essentials of learning was apparent and the want soon supplied. Vol- untary action followed timely suggestion, and if families were not many they were large, and where seven and eight children were not uncommon the little, rude school-building was generally filled. When a town's limits had the area of a county, it was not expected that the school inspectors, voted in at annual meet- ings, frequently visited the schools. From old repurts we see the following : " Visits of inspectors of schools, none." Yet the foundation was laid upon which the general free school system has been built. The school-building has been frequently described ; it was consistent with the homes of the children and youth in attendance. The same necessity which substituted gressel paper for glass at home was apparent here. The summer terms, as now, were taught by females; the young meu attending in winter were instructed and governed by the school-master. Qualitications were equal to the need. Text-bouks were neither

numerous nor frequently changed. Orthography was correctly taught from Web- ster's Elementary, and there were good readers whose study was continued to the American Preceptor, the English Reader, and the New Testament. The authors Dillworth and Pike held a monopoly, and the Federal Educator had few pages but required study. It was the custom for the proposed teacher to visit the patrons, who signed for so many scholars 'at a specified rate, or the salary way agreed upon and paid by rate-bill estimate of attendance. Then the number of children sent determined the individual cost, now the wealth secured to the owner by a moral and intelligent society is the basis of taxation. The customary rate was one dollar and a half for a term of thirteen weeks. Wages rauged from ten dollars to twelve dollars per month, and board around. The journey along font- paths for miles was made by the pupils, who brought their dinners. doughnuts being an essential and staple portion. The noouing was employed in games of base- and drop-hall, or, if the weather shut them in, many an old, well-temetubere play was had, and cheerily the voices mingled in " The needle's eye that doth sup- ply," etc. Traps for guine were set between home and school-house and visited morning and evening, aud sometimes when the school was late in ching and even- ing's darkening shadows fell the children hurried homeward, fearful of the beasty which ranged the woods at night. Probably the first school ever instituted withio the limits of Monroe w.is taught by Mr. Barrow4 during the year 1794, in a log house which stood one mile south of the village of Pittsford, thee the business centre of Northfield. The young men wanting to go to school during winter were Dot back ward in urging the establishment of school-houses. A log school-build- ing was erected at Iroudequoit landing in 1802. Oliver Culver hauled logs to a saw-mill and furnished the roof-boards. A young man named Turner, employed as clerk in the store of Tryon and Adams, was engaged to take charge of the school. In the year 1805, Hinds Chamberlin, Alexander McPherson, Francis Le Barron, Gideon Fordham, and Philemon Nettleton rolled up some large bass- wood logs near the brook at the foot of Fort Ilill, and thereby constructed one of the rudest of back woods school-houses. A huge Greplace, supplied with fuel by the voluntary labor of the larger boys, was all- suthicient for winter fires, and the open door gavo summer ventilation. The first teacher in this structure was Andrew McNabb, a Scotchman, the second was Samuel Crocker, and the third Major Nathan Wilson. Among the first schools taught in Henrietta were one upon the Wadsworth road near Stephen's corners, opened in a log building by Sarah Leggett, in 1807, and auother on the River road, commenced in 1810, and taught by Lucy Branch, later the 'wife of Solomon Nichols, of- Cattaraugus county. The first school in the town of Ogden was conducted by a sister to the pioneer Esquire Willey, and dates with the commencement of settlement in that locality. The primal school in what was denominated the Schoolcraft neighbor- hood, ia North Penfield, was started in 1810, under charge of a Scotchman named William Harris. Welcome Garfield, of Mendoa, and Charlotte Cummings. of Clarkson, were pioneer teachers of those localities. Free and select schools, com- mou and high schools, seminaries, academies, and university, afford a moge of in- struction and a choice of mode sufficient for the varied wants of the population. Buildings are erected and foods applied to educational purposes with a liberality which deserves a hearty commendation and corresponding support.

( No uninteresting leaf of pioneer history is that which treats of marriages, births, deaths, and burial-grounds. The young men from New England, having prepared a log house and made a clearing while hoarding or obtaining provisions at the house of some settler, like Orange Stone, from the desire of companionship and the necessities of house-work, bethought themselves of obtaining wives. Somne returned east and contracted an alliance, and the wedding-tour was made on horseback to the home iu Monroe; others, visiting the new families arriving, made brief courtships and not less happy marriages. Jacob Schoonover and family had settled at the mouth of Dugan's ereck, and the marriage uf Peter Shaeffer to a daughter in 1790 was, in all probability, the first in what is now Monroe County. The second marriage on the west side of the river was that of' Thomas Lee to the eldest of the seven daughters of William Hencher. It is worth while to note further concerning this family. Accustomed to pioneer life, daughters of an old soldier, and seeking the west as their abiding place, the Misses IFencher were soon sought out and taken to the settlers' home's. The names of their husbands were Bartholomew Maybee, Stephen Lusk, Jonathan Leonard, Donald MeKenzie, Abel Rowe, and Clement. Seven pioneer wives and mothers from under the grass-covered roof of the first hut built by white settler on the lake shore between the river and Niagara! With everything to discourage, yet the conjugal relation was a mutual support, and the biography of the aged bears uniform testimony to the concord aud affection existing through life.

Among the early white natives of Monroe County a few are here mentioned. Asa Wright was the first born of' Perrintan, and dates 1797 ; William E Sterling of Mendon, 1795; Joseph Wood of Chili, 1799. The first born male cluld in Ogden was John M. Colby, sou of Abraham Colby, and the first born female in

HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the town was Betsy, daughter of Ephraim Culby-both date 1803. Clarkson's record is a son to Mrs. Clark-on and a daughter'to Mrs Palmer, Jod that of liga a daughter to Samuel Church, and a son Iliraru to Samuel Shepard, in 1206. We have given Asa Wright as the first white child boru in Perrinton, and he was the first to attain niturity; but on February 5, 1797, a boy Hollister was born to Jesce Perrin, and survived but two months. His hurial is thus noticel : " This little child, because there was no minister in all the surrounding country, was consigned to the grave with ouly the sunnie rites which affection framed for the occasion." It was io harsh contrast with the custo Dia of the old eastern home. The death of Peter Shaeffer, Sr., of Juseph Morgan, and of John Moon were among the first recorded. The venerativo for the resting-place of the depitted is variously indicated by human races. and the precedence of life is commemorated by costly shait and mural tomib. The progress of civilization is marked by the consecration of cemeteries ; their ornament and care ay distinguished from the grave- and church-yards of , the past. The opinions of the early settlers were expressed on the occasion of opening the first burying-ground in the city of Rochester. This " ground" was located on a rise neat aod along Plymouth avenue, occupyiog the lot and vicinity of M. F. Reynolds' residence. Sumie citizens regretted the cemetery was so near the village ; others held that it should be among the dwellings of the living. It was a New England idea to inter the dead within a square surrounded by dwellings and stores, and it was carried with the settlers westward. The cemetery was cleared of undergrowth and awaited its first occupant. A tenant was soon found in the person of the wife of Dr. Gibbs. and ma time elapsed others lay there and the ground was no more occupied. Else- where has been noted the beauty, extent, and locality of Mount Hope and other cemeteries. Mount Ilope, appropriate in Dame, is unrivaled in its scenery. Ilere is seen diversity of plain, plateau, bill and dale, native and exotic tree aud shrubbery, and here, since the progress of a little more than fifty years, well-nigh thirty thousand have been laid to rest. Its name combines holy attributes, and conveys the trust and anticipation of death and other life; hence its appropriate application and popularity.

CHAPTER XII.

PASTIMES OF THE SETTLERS-HUNTING THE HEAR AND OTHER GAME-IN- CIDENTS OF THE FOREST, CLIFF, AND STREAM.

STORIES of the wild animals which aboundei in the thick woods of the Gene- see; of their depredations, numbers, and capture; of the deadly serpents which had their dens amung the rocks at the flints, and of the fish and fowl so plentiful in and upon the streams and baya along the northern coast, possess a peculiar interest from their locality and authenticity.

The valley of the Genesee way the favorite hunting-ground of the Senecas. .Many sous of the early settlers were trappers, and Stephen Durfee received for the fur of muskrat and raccoon fifty dollars in one season, and Henry Lovell, a famous hunter of early years, caught many beaver. The hills of Rush, Wheat- land, and other towns were favorite ranges for the ileer. The howling of wolves was a common sound, and the bear and panther were foes to dread. Pastimes we call them,-the pursuit of game for find. ur for the fur or bounty,-for such they were in the memories of participants.

" The moet dreaded denizen of the woods was the lithe and ferocious American panther. ) Their half-human screech, cat-like agility, and tenacity of life, made them objects of terror to the defenseles, and even the back woodsmen, armed, abrank from an encounter. On one occasion an Indian found a panther at Dumplin hill, and a shot killed the animal. The easy victory arose from the fact that the beast had killed a deer and bad gorged himself stupid and helpless. At another time, a hunter, Juhn Parks, who made his headquarters at Hencher's, was out with Dunbar, a mulatto, who lived at Irondequit. io pursuit of raccoons upon the shorn of the lake. It was after dark when the dogs, as was supposed, treud one. Dunbar climbel the tree to dislodge it, and having partially ascended observed a pair of eyes fixed upon his which hore no reveuiblance to those of the raccoon. The body was invisible, but the brilliant, unflinching eyes proclaimed no ordinary animal. The mulatto tuade briste to reach the ground, and, inform- ing Parks, the two gathered materinl and kindhel Bres, by which they remained till daylight, when a large panther was sen crouched in the tree. A well-simed shot brought him to the ground, and insured a bounty of at least five dollars fur the scalp. Dr. Juel Brace, a pioneer doctor, resident uf Victor, was one day

riding along the old ladian trail, from Norton's wills homeward. when his hore abruptly stopped, and a glance ahead showed a panther crouched in the path and ready to spring. Bethinking hituself of an umbrella he ad with him. he sud- denly spread it, and the animal arose and disappeared in the timber. More numerous, less feared, and a pest to those who attempted to raise shirep, were the wolves. ) Hiding in the swamps by day, they issued forth in numbers at night. and when a few sheep had been brought in, these became the especial object of their notice. At times their howling was terrific, and the forest seemed tilled with them. High feuces were built in which the sheep were yarded, and the settlers were obliged at times to go out to seare the wolves off. Cattle were ocet- sionally attacked by them, but, save in packs by night and stimulated by hunger. they were not dangerous. One winter evening a sertler named ITuribut was riding through a strip of woods, near the log house of Roswell Turner, on the out- let of Hemlock lake, when a pack of wolves surrounded him brut upon an attack. His dog created a diversion which enabled him to escape to Turner's huu-e. " While sitting upon his horse," says Mrs. Farnum, daughter of Turner and an eye-witness, "the pack came within fifteen rods of the house, and stopping upen a knoll, almost deafened us with their howl. Retreating into the words, they seemed to have a fight among them-elves, and in the morning it was ascortamed that they had actually killed and caten one of their own number."

Captain Cornelius Treat, a settler in Mendon prior to 1704. was belated one night and attacked by wolves, whose determination was so persistent that nothing but the fleetness of' his horse saved his life. Traps. deadfalls. and pity were re- sorted to, and the pests were soon thinted out. A trapper named John Stimson caught nine wolves in one night, for which he received a bounty of ninety dollars. a sum sufficient to make a creditable payment npon a farmi tract. Hunta took place after the war, and the wolves, save in few instances, disappeared.

( The bear of the Genusre was a terror and a pest. Their exploits in carrying away swine in broad daylight from near the cabins, and their havne in the corn- felds, form a large part of' pioneer reminiscence.1 An instance or two of a score will illustrate modes of hunting them. Four men set out one night upou a bear hant, and approaching a cornfield on the Big Ridge, found by the noise of break- ing stalks that the game they sought was at hand. One of the party. camed Tindall, a blacksmith in Rochester, went forward to reconnoitre, and carue sud- denly opon a large bear, which ceasing from her work gave him exclusive atten- tion. Almost overpowered by emotion Tindall leveled his gun, fired, aud took to his heela. He directed his course towards the brush feoce where he had left the main body, and running against a stump crawled hastily to the top of it, call- ing for reinforcements. At the supreme moment, when he bud reached and was balancing upon the stump, the old bear closed in, and striking him with one paw just below the waist, took his pantaloons completely off. His comrades took Tindall while the bear took his breeches. Firing their guna, the party hastened to retire. Some days later the settlers' combined furces got their dogs together, and the hunt resulted in the captyre of a large she-hear.

A story ofteu recited around the great lug fires of the old settlers duriog the social meetings of half a century ago was popularly known as ".Judge Hum- phrey's bear story," and as auch we hand it down te posterity :

" A deep snow had fallen one night during the winter of IS07-3, and a little after suprise next morning I saw coming up the road Joe Jackson, a boy some- what older than myself. Joe bad a dog and gun. He asked my company to hunt two bears, a large and a small one, which had recently passed alung, Is was evident from the humau-like tracks. I joined readily, taking with me my own dog. Our only reliance to secure the game was Jue's old breech-loading fowliny- piece or fusce. The tracks led off towards the words, into which the dogs dashed under great excitement, und were soon lost to view. At a mile's distance from the edge of the timber the dugs were thund barking up a large white oak tree near the line roadl between Victor aud Bloomfield. Upon this tree the bears „had clitubel,-an old bear and a large-sized cub. The latter had crawled out upon a large limb some ten feet from the body of the tree and well-nigh seventy feet from the ground. The old bear sat hugging the true where the limib joinel the trunk. Jou delivered his first fire at the cnb without other effect thau to czcite Jemunstratinos of auger from the old bear. Again Jue's gun was dis- charged ; the explosion rang through the forest; the stucke blew away, and no change in the situation. A third attempt was also a failure; and now ammuni- tiou gave out. It was agreed that Joe should guard the tree wlule I went for a supply or help. Three men were seen coming through the w.wds,-my father, a mon camel Culver. and one other. Culver had a long rifle of small calibre which he had luuled with two halls, With suspense we saw him take position, level bis piece coolly and ran folly. and then forsy the trigger. A sharp crack followed, and a moment later the old bear fell with a heavy third tout the snow. shut dead. A second time the whip-like crack of the rite was heard, and the cub fell wounded to the ground, was attacked and killed by the dogs. We

HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

returned home bearing our gate in triumph, while the neighbors feasted on bear- steak, aud ' bears'-grease' was plenty as a pomale for some time afterwards."

( In early years hous roamed on droves over the uplands along the Genesee river. They were derived from those brought here by the Indians, and were wild, dangerous, and untamable: They were hunted as any other will game when wanted for pork or when found iojuring the erops. Hencher and Stone agree in statements that hous brought in became will and were shot or hunted with dogs. Ia combats with the bear the wild hugs were often victorious; and on one occasion when a settler had made a party and gone out in the early fall to capture bis hogs, the contest was as exciting and dangerous as if they had never been domesticated. Sume twenty of these savage creatures were placed in a stontly-built pen of large size, and when the owner came to feed them they would rush forward with arched hick and champing tushes and endeavor to make an attack. One seemed in the forest to become the leader. He was seen to take his position before the drove, and defeat all assailants, bears and dogs. An Indian was once treed by him, and the siege was kept up until others brought relief. ·

( Deer were very abundant; and as far back as De Nouville's expedition a party of Indians seut out from Ningara in advance of the main army had piled up two hundred when overtaken. During the winter of 1800-7 a deep snow fell, a thaw followed, and the openings were left nearly bare, while an ice-crust, formed on the snow in the woods, brought many deer to the open tracts, where Indian and white could kill all they wanted. In 1808-9 a similar snow and crust occurred, and tbe deer were pursued by wolf, dog. and man. They were known to take refuge among the stock in the farmers' yards. Venison was of great assistance as a means of subsistence to new settlers. A smaller, but by far the most annoying. animal early known was the raccoon. Their ravages among the corn were very de- atructive. The settlers werc obliged to hunt them, and their fur paid for the trouble. The sketch of a pioneer cabin without one or more raccoon skins fastened to the logs would be incomplete.

( All accounts of the Genesee country notice the dens of rattlesnakes along the banks of the river below the falls. They were known to find their way outward ten to twelve miles during the summer. and return to the den on the approach * of winter. Hencher reports having killed forty in a day, and of an occasion when a party ascended the river one day in canoes and killed three hundred. These snakes were held in dread by the settlers, and were found in most unex- pected places. At times they were discovered about the houses and under the beds. They were met in the harvest-fields while reaping. and the habit of going barefoot rendered the danger of being bitten greater. Considering their number, the cases of injury from this source were rare.

Pigeons, ducks, and geese came in flocks of countless numbers. The geese came fall and spring, and Braddock's bay was a favorite resort. Ducks were abundant on the river and its tributary streams. Pigeons catne in such numbers that it was difficult to protect the new sown wheat from their depredations. Roosts were known on Mud creek, in a cedar swamp on Dugan's creek, and on the lake-shore. In 1912 the roost at Dugno's creek occupied the trees of nearly eighty seres. Full thirty nests were found on a single tree. The squabs were taken away by cart-loads, and made good eating. Large numbers were caught in nets. " There were times in the fall when the fields and woods were alive with tbese birds, and, as they took flight in a cloud, the roar of their wings was as that of thunder. They were seen to retire as settlements progresseI to remote, unfrequented regions. Not only were the settlers supplied with flesh and fowl, but with fish in abundance and of the best quality. Speckled trout were plenty in the river and its tributaries. It is said that a string of one hundred and fifty could be taken at Allen's creek without changing ground. It was not till 1810 that pickerel and other lake fish were placed by William Wadsworth and others in Conesus lake. The introduction of these tish above the falls dates the disap- pearance of the trout. Salmon were caught in the creeks leading into the lake. In 1792,'Nathan Harris drew a net across Mud creek and caught eighteen large salmon. Pickerel and pike were taken in the bays, and both black and striped bass were plenty in the rivers. A rack of tamarack-poles supporting a contrivance similar to an ecl-weir was placed below the falls of the Irondequoit, and as many as ten barrels of fine salmon were taken there in one night. There were those to whom the forest and stream gave a living for years, and when the settlements thickened these withdrew to find elsewhere a renewal of the life which was uot without its attractions.

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History of Monroe county, New York with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, Palatial residences, Part 10

Author: McIntosh, W. H. cn; Everts, Ensign, and Everts, Philadelphia, pub Publication date: 1877 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Ensign and Everts Number of Pages: 976

Author: McIntosh, W. H. cn; Everts, Ensign, and Everts, Philadelphia, pub
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Ensign and Everts
Number of Pages: 976