USA > New York > Ontario County > History of Ontario Co., New York > Part 46
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Close following upon organization came the town meetings in most cases; but the paucity of population prevented any action until April, 1791, when a meet- ing was held at Canandaigua, of which we have elsewhere spoken. In April, 1792, a second town meeting was held in " Canandarque." It was " opened and inspected by Israel Chapin and Moses Atwater, Esqs." Previous officers were re- elected, and Mr. Chapin continued to be supervisor and James D. Fish the town clerk. Wolf bounties were continued at thirty shillings per scalp. Eighty pounds were raised to meet the expenses of the town.
The record of an early road from the house of Joseph Kilbourn to Canandarque lake, and other of the first roads laid out in the district of Canandarque, were from the square in the village of Canandarque, by Hugh Jameson, to the west side of the town; to the bank of a brook opposite a new grist-mill in No. 11, 3d range, by Nathan Comstock ; to the home of George Coddings in No. 9, 4th range; be- sides a number of others centering in the shire village, or leading to the various mills. The road commissioners were Othniel Taylor, Ephraim Wilder, and John Swift. The surveyors were Jairus Rose, Alexander Ewings, Eber Norton, Jabez French, Jonathan Edwards, Roger Sprague, Gideon Pitts, and Joel Phelps.
The third town meeting was held at a school-house in the village, on the first Tuesday of April, 1793. Difficulty with the hogs scems to have been met, since fence-viewers are instructed to examine the hog-yokes. The bounty for destroying wolves was raised to five dollars, and Samuel Gardner, town clerk, was designated as the person to attend to recording " wolf scalps." Twelve wolves were taken during the year, five of them by Theophilus Allen. A public road was surveyed by Seth Dean in March, 1793, from the outlet to the east line of the county, from the fording-place, below Chapin's Mills, to the Sulphur Springs; across Flint creek, in Phelps, to Snail brook ; thence to Bennett's brook and to the Military road. Wolves continued to be troublesome, as is shown by the payment of thirty dollars to Othniel Taylor for six scalps. Chapin was succeeded in 1795, as su- -pervisor, by Abner Barlow.
These records are useful as showing the important affairs in a town of which official notice needed to be taken. The construction of roads to places of resort, the attention to rights in the matter of stock, and the premium upon the wolf, are matters exclusively pioneer in their character. The record of ear-marks shows a
wonderful variety and fertility of invention, and recalls the days when the cattle ran common and browsed in the woods; the many bells proclaimed their locality, and the peculiar sound directed each barefoot boy or girl where to find the ones they were sent after.
While the store-keeper, the tavern-keeper, and the land-agent found themselves a home in Canandaigua, and scattered log huts along Main street evidenced an intention to make a permanent sojourn, the mills and distilleries were speedily in demand as the first settlers in the woods found a surplus of wheat, corn, and rye. Ambrose Phelps donated a church lot to the settlers of " No. 9," and a meeting- house was erected on the hill just west of the Durand place. Long the old frame occupied its site; and, finally, about 1870, it was moved into Canandaigua, and used as a store-house. The current of water from the lake, flowing north, gave but slight fall, and to obtain sufficient power a site for the pioneer mill of this locality was obtained down the outlet, at a place called Littleville. Here Oliver Phelps, Sr., erected a grist-mill, which bore his name. It was of pigmy dimen- sions as compared with the steam-mills erected at Canandaigua at a later period ; but, crude as it was, knew no lack of patronage. The pioneers came here to get their grists from long distances, in all directions. Samuel Day was engaged to run the mill, and had no very arduous task. The machinery consisted of a single run of stone and a bolt, while the flour was conveyed along a short spout from the stone to the bolt. Some time in 1798, a grist-mill, known as "Chapin's Mill," was built in Hopewell, on the outlet. This institution had two run of rock stone, the dam was about one hundred rods above the present, and the water was brought to the wheel in troughs. In this small structure Mr. Fleming was the miller. Upon the Thayer farm, now owned by the heirs of Nathaniel Cooley, stood a saw- mill a few rods to the east of the farm-house. The water to run this mill was conveyed from the farm of Charles Chapin along a ditch cut for that purpose. All residents of the vicinity know that a canal heads from near the foot of Main street in a northerly and casterly direction, and that farther to the east is the outlet, trending eastward, and then mainly northward, uniting its waters with those of the canal about a mile and a half from the foot of the lake. The con- struction of this canal was the pioneer enterprise of this section. The lake at this time was far lower than it had been before or has been since, and it was required that power should be gained to run the small grist-mills which had been erected down the outlet. In accordance with the custom of those days, when- ever united effort was requisite, a bee was announced to open the present canal by plowing and scraping, and so opening a water-course of depth sufficient to allow the passage of water when the current induced would wash out the present channel.
At the time appointed, the little band of pioneers assembled with ox-teams, plows, and scrapers, and accomplished their task. Shortly after this work was made successful, a small structure called the Mud-mill was built near the bridge; but not proving remunerative, was changed to a carding machine, and as such operated by a Mr. Grimes. A saw-mill once stood within the corporate limits of Canandaigua, upon Sucker brook, just west of the residence of L. Wilcox, and at this late date the outlines of the race may be seen.
A pottery was located at the foot of the lake, and rendered good service in furnishing crocks, plates, platters, and such wares for the old-time housekeepers. The parties engaged in operating this pottery were known as the firm of Wagstaff & Rifford. Turning from the improvements to provide food, lumber, and house- hold utensils, let the attention revert to those in whose interest they were made to the pioneers of Canandaigua so far as their location has been possible.
Joint District No. 10 is composed of that portion of the town lying east of the lower portion of the lake and north of Gorham ; but two residences exist in the tract. A former resident of the Beeman estate was a man named Samuel Rogers. North of Rogers and his neighbor dwelt Artemus Lincoln ; his widow is a resident of Hopewell, on the turnpike. Upon the island formed by lake, canal, and outlet lived a German named Rifford, one of the firm engaged in the manu- facture of earthenware. The business was continued a number of years. He had three log structures: one for the preparation of the clay, which was ground by horse-power; one for his ovens, to bake the ware; and the third as a dwelling.
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He died on the Saltonstall lot. Surviving pioneers tell us that this land, now denuded, was once a handsome tract, covered with fine timber, and travelers, view- ing the village removed from the lake, deplored the omission to have founded it here. Men of wealth, having control of the mills down the stream, dammed the water, and in its reflow it covered and made useless for habitation the whole area. On the lot now owned by J. F. Dubois lived Charles Grimes, who ran his card- ing-machine after the failure of the mill, and engaged in fulling cloth. He left before 1818, and was succeeded by John Van Orman, who kept a public house in the village, and later erected a small frame east of the outlet. Subsequently a brick addition was built and a tavern-stand opened. Little prominence can attach to the majority of what we term taverns, from their lack of prime necessities, food and lodgings, but the emigrant was glad to shelter his family beneath a roof, be it ever so humble. Next east on the turnpike lived Liberty Day, in a house framed and yet standing. Day engaged in making brick, and, to judge by the material of which many of the old houses in the village were composed, he was an efficient workman. Like many another mechanic and tradesman, to his trade as a brickmaker he united that of landlord and farmer. From one or all of these sources money flowed in, and he became wealthy, and in time died on the farm. Upon the Cooley place lived Elihu Tupper, where in the days of travel on the turnpike he opened a tavern, acquired a three-horse team and a wagon, and made journeys to and from Albany with grain and goods. During his absence his wife looked to the interests of the tavern.
In Joint District No. 1, Lyman and Arnold Hays were farmers in this vicinity. The former had a clothiery, and, when the water was high, carried on the busi- ness of carding and fulling; at other times labored upon his farm. It is said that not a few of those who became settlers in the west were addicted to intemperance, and that its penalties differed little from those of to-day.
District No. 17, adjacent to the village on the northeast, was early of settlement. Judah Colt, who had been living a short time in Canandaigua, first settled upon and partly cleared up the farm owned by Charles E. Shepard, Jr. His father, C. E. Shepard, Sr., purchased the farm about 1810, and at that time Colt was living in a small, framed, red-painted house, near Shepard's present dwelling. The younger Shepard is a bachelor, and both father and son have been prominent men of the district. They have held, and the son still holds, the office of supervisor, and in addition is superintendent of the poor. We have little to say' of others in the district, more than the line of title in lands from the present back to the days of settlement. While we honor the past, we are in danger of losing the present ; and in this connection the order is reversed, and we retrace the farmer to the pioneers. P. S. Vandenburg has lived since 1870 upon a farm occupied by Jedediah Sanger for half a century,-where he had grown old, and where every object seemed bound up with his existence; yet prior to him John Reed had built upon the old Sanger farm a log house and made the first improvements. On the property of John J. Hannah had lived M. Axtell for a score of years; prior to him, the owner was M. Wills, and previous to his occupation had been that of Thomas Barnard. An old man named Carpenter, father-in-law to Barnard, was the occupant of a log house, where Hannah has a gravel-pit. In the northern part of the district lived T. Welsh and H. M. Davis, upon farms once united and owned by Henry Howe, a principal of the Canandaigua academy, and by him purchased of an old settler. R. Kildea resides upon a farm which, for half a century, gave a home to a Mr. Woodward, who sold out in 1866, and departed from the place he had tilled so many years. Beyond, upon the present property of B. K. Emerson, lived Harris Andrews for sixty years. It is a lesson to the proud to know that few out- side the little spot denominated a school district have a recollection of men who have seen their threescore and ten, and can say of them only that they were for all their lives wont to plow, sow, reap, and enjoy the relaxation of winter. Close upon the Hopewell line lives W. W. Ridley, an Englishman, who twenty-five years ago erected the first house on that farm, and has been its occupant to the present. Where F. Fox lives dwelt Heman Andrews; and W. Callister has lived a dozen years where W. Scantlin, his predecessor, had found a home for thirty years continuously. H. M. Smith had been preceded by Seymour Aldrich, & purchaser from John Greig. At this place lived old Mr. Andrews, father of Harris. Some time about 1806 he was the keeper of a public resort which is known now to few, but once bore the title of the " Owl's Nest." The road be- tween the outlet and railroad is of more recent origin and late of settlement.
District No. 15 lies in the northeast corner of the town. To this place came Zachariah Tiffany, his wife Susannah, and eleven children, from Adams, Mass., in the spring of 1800. The family settled near the Farmington line, and the land owned by them has been known, until recently, as the Tiffany farm. On August 21, 1821, it was divided among three sons, Olney, Zachariah, and Ed- mond, all of whom are dead. A grandson of Zachariah, Sr., Francis J. by name, has lived for the last fifteen years upon a part of the old farm. The size of this family suggests a reason for the rapidity with which clearings were made, when
ull, to the smallest, had his special task to do. The log house was their original home. Here the entire family were incapacitated by sickness from ague, and the harvest was kindly secured by the neighbors. A lime-kiln was built upon the farm, and the lime was marketed at the village of Canandaigua. M. S. Pomeroy has lived eight years upon the farm once the property of Zachariah F. Tiffany, and a part of the old estate of that family. Mr. Nichola, of Irish descent, was a former resident upon the farm now owned by E. Lord. The Irishman, in con- mon with many a settler, found difficulty in making payment of his farm, and, not to lose all, sold out, and realized a trifle for his labor. Joseph Phelps moved upon and made a clearing on the Giddings farm. Here, as on the Tiffany place, there was a lime-kiln run as a source of income.
Soon after the arrival of Tiffany came David Cassort and the Shulars, John and William ; these came into the south part of the district. William Cassort has been the owner, for fifteen years, of the place long owned by his father. Upon the farm occupied since 1869 by W. S. Parish lived Ashbury Christian for a quarter of a century ; and before him the land had been the property of Benson Meek and John McConnell, Scotchmen. These last were men of culture and means; they erected good frame houses, and caused their grounds to be carefully and artistically cultivated and attended. W. N. Reddout lives upon a farm which, for ten years, was the property of John J. Lyon, county clerk, and Lyon obtained his right from Wm. Meek, who had resided there above forty years. In the eastern part of the district, on lot 54, J. P. Faurot lived twoscore years. Here Robert Saunders, of Connecticut, had settled in 1795. Mr. Saunders had two sons; one of them, Harvey Saunders, was a physician. N. A. Gifford has lived twelve years upon lot 53, previously the property, for thirty-five years, of Ishmael Gardner, and by him acquired of De Bow, father of Ansel De Bow, and the first settler upon it. Descendants of the De Bows are residents of the county, in the south part of Farmington, and in district 14 of Canandaigua. Mrs. Parmlee has been a resident on the north part of lot 54 full thirty years, and George Brant had dwelt there thirty-five years previously. Next eastward on that road lives Mrs. Pomeroy, widow of Aaron Pomeroy, who died there in 1872, after a residence upon the land of forty-five years. Mr. Pomeroy had two sons, one of whom, C. G. Pomeroy, now a doctor in Newark, owns part of the old home. Pomeroy bought of Phineas Bates, a well-known resident of Canandaigua in the early days, and an original owner. Upon the farm now owned by T. H. Williams since 1870 dwelt Joseph Berling, a Friend, from New York. For fifty years the old place was under his care and supervision, and few in this vicinity were more highly esteemed or more prominent as regards property at his time. Lot 73 has been the property of Richard Giddings for the last twenty years, and of Mr. Bunnel for a period nearly three times as long before him. Upon the farm owned by F. J. Tiffany, and tenanted, lived Mr. Dennis for half a century ; a son is at present a lawyer in Topeka, Kansas. To the northeast, on lot 65, S. Douglas has lived fifteen years, and prior to him William Dillon could well lay claim to being an old settler, having owned and cultivated its fields for fifty years. Francis Granger was the first purchaser of the farm whereon Latting lived for thirty-five years, and E. Lord for the last five. In the extreme northeast of the district John H. Latting has resided a score of years, and before him his father, John Latting, had been the owner and farmer full fifty years.
The people of the district stand connected with the churches in Canandaigua, Chapinsville, and Shortsville. The Methodists were the pioneers, and held peri- odic meetings in the school-house, after one was erected. The present school- house is the third on the same site, and is a neat brick house. The second was also of brick, and the first, as might be anticipated, was a rude log cabin, in con- formity with the homes of the children attending. For many years females have been employed as teachers, and ordinary results reached. Among the remembered names of instructors in the school of No. 15, was Russel Whipple, a grandson of Zachariah Tiffany. About 1836, Willis Gregory was the instructor, and sur- viving pupils extol his merits as superior to the ordinary teachers. Three sisters of the Bishop family, Ann, Eliza, and Jane, have, at various times, conducted schools in this district.
An old cemetery is located upon the west side of lot 57, just south of the road, upon the farm of T. H. Williams; here repose the bodies of many an old settler. This consecrated ground marks the burial-ground of the Tiffanys, Cassorts, Brock- elbanks, Shulers, De Bows, and others of their day. Among the finest residences in the district is the Burling place, now the property of T. H. Williams, and the stone house erected in 1846 by Zachariah Tiffany, and now owned by M. S. Pomeroy. Prominent as a soldier during the late war was Captain Henry Faurot, who recruited the first company raised for the United States service in Ontario County.
District No. 14 lies west of No. 15, and was probably formed as such in April, 1825. Caleb Gage, wife, and two children came to the district in November, 1817, from Wendell, New Hampshire, and made a stop during the winter in a
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frauine house owned by Joseph Camfield, now the property of Thomas Chapman. Gage bought seventy acres of lot 85 from Zachariah Seymour. The lot had been bought in 1806, and a piede including three or four acres partially cleared by a man named Thomas Pike, who became subject to the ague and abandoned the land, and the clearing began rapidly to resume its natural state. We are apt to regard the country as somewhat settled at the time of the war of 1812, but vast regions were a forest, the villages were but hamleta, and, except upon old, well- traveled roads, offering inducementa to open a tavern, houses were often full four miles apart. Near to Canandaigua, yet the condition of this district was essen- tially that of a new country. Some few had become well settled, and had reached the civilised stage of a settler's life, but all else waa savage and original. Joseph Canfield was one of the first settlers in the district, and cleared one of the first tracts of land. He had a farm of two hundred acres, upon which he erected a small one-story frame house, now standing on the Padelford farm. He built the house now occupied by M. Hitchcock. Stephen Bishop came in about 1814, and lived for years in a log house, to which he attached a lean-to frame. He bought of a man named Hart, who had made considerable progress in clearing. Bishop passed his life upon his farm, and at his death his heirs sold to E. S. Potter, who transferred his title to M. D. Munger, of the village. John B. Nor- ris was owner. in 1817 of lot 80, which then stood in its primitive state. John Brockelbank was the owner of the Cost farm. He was the son of one of the earliest settlers in the town, and, as a carpenter, was engaged in the construction of the Methodist church and other buildings in 1818 and later. He rented his farin to different parties, among whom was Eaton, of New Hampshire. John Gage came in during 1816, and bought a forest farm, upon which he lived and labored forty years, and then diod about 1866. He had a family of eight chil- dren, all of whom, with one exception, went to Michigan. The place was sold, and went to various parties, and is now the property of D. Couch. On lot 82 lived Amass Burchard, who, dying, left the estate to three children, who still pos- sess it. Just west of Burchard was a farm known as the property of George M. Gage, son of John Gage. He was a preacher of the Universalist faith, and was employed in different towns as pastor, and died upon his place in 1871. Lot 88 is remembered as the home of Myron Jones, a cripple, who for many years oocu- pied a log house, and hired his field cultivated ; at his death his sisters inherited the land. Levi Brockelbank, son of Samuel, was the original settler on No. 89, and dwelt in the log hut so common and so suggestive of the times. Sale was made to L. B. Garrison, then to G. A. Christian, and, finally, to William Utley, the present owner. Zachariah Padelford purchased land in 1831, and is the owner of the four northeast lots of the district. Chandler Burger was the pioneer upon the lot occupied by Mr. Padelford as the location of his residence. James Reeves, of New Jersey, lived on lot 83. His trade was that of a wheelwright, and a large family grew up around him. Influenced by reports and the sight of many moving westward, he sold out and joined the current. Bates, Morgan, and then E. Osgood succeeded to the ownership of the property. William Kibbe, the first cashier of the old Ontario Bank, was the early owner of the farm now occupied by J. W. Potter. Eliphalet Taylor, a justice of the peace in Canan- daigua, owned the present farm of Abraham Risser, and his sons, James and Henry, worked the land. Oliver Glover was the first white man to make his home upon lot 79. Here he lived in a one and a half story house, and became the possessor of a large landed estate. Sale was made to Joel Norris, and the ownership is now vested in T. McGregor. Charles Cassort was the first owner of what is known as the Sackett farm. In 1821, Horatio Forbes, a mechanic, bought of L. Seymour what was then forest land, and cleared it up. It has passed by marriage of a daughter to Homer Chase. J. H. Simmons and William Curtis bought from the land agent lots 102 and 114; Curtis moved on with a family, and finally sold out to J. H. Simmons, whose widow resides in the house built and inhabited by Curtis. Beni Bishop, the early owner of 113, sold to M. Walsh, and moved to Michigan. The father of James Collins was a former owner of 102.
It is notable that barns built in that early duy were of the best timber, by good workmen, and unexcelled in durability to-day. C. Gage erected in 1844 the first and only brick building in No. 14. Wheat was a staple crop, producing forty bushels to an acre in some instances. It was a drug as regarded price, and had no cash value till 1825, when the canal was under way. Gage and others turned their hogs into the wheat to fatten, as the speediest means of utilizing the crop. Orchards early set out produced good and abundant fruit. The first reaper in the locality was brought in by David C. Gates and Frank Bates, who cut for dif- ferent farmers. It was one of the old McCormick stamp. Gage brought in the first mower in 1844, from Buffalo, and its execution was a subject of considerable interest among the farmers.
A school-house was built on the Osgood farin at a very early day. It was an old building in 1815, and was constructed of logs halved and notched to fit, and furnished with a huge fireplace. One Holland was a teacher in those times.
About 1819, the frame now standing was erected at the junction of the Rochester and Farmington roads. Richard Stevenson, son of Professor Stevenson, of the Canandaigua Academy, was an excellent teacher in this house. James Jamison, Russel Whipple, and Warner Bundy wore teachers in district No. 14. The last taught in 1830, and, with ninety-one names upon his roll, had an average of sixty scholars in attendance. The branches taught were of advanced grade, and thirty- three of that term's pupils later were known as teachers. A new house is in process of construction.
Joint District No. 3, in its western portion, is yet unoccupied. The eastern border is traversed by the New York Central Railroad, which established a station and erected a small depot building in 1873. This stopping-place is known as Padelford Station and Post-Office. Where William Warfield lives dwelt a settler named Price, who is remembered to have had a numerous family. Kinney was an owner of the land now occupied by F. Mattoon. The first school-house in this district was of logs, upon the land now owned by H. Berry. Emily Green, of Canandaigua, was a teacher in this school during 1840-41. A frame was erected in 1842 on the Farmington side of the town line; this was torn down and a new frame put up in 1873.
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