History of Ontario Co., New York, Part 68

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 391

USA > New York > Ontario County > History of Ontario Co., New York > Part 68

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

Sharon Booth, aged nineteen, set out in the winter of 1790, with dog and gun, and came on foot to Utica. He was there joined by one Bishop, who accom- panied him to Canandaigua, where he arrived in March. He found work up the lake, at five dollars and fifty cents per month, with Gamaliel Wilder for a time; then, returning to Canandaigua, engaged in teaming until March, 1794, and assisted in hauling the timbers for the first court-house. He purchased and built a house upon the north half of lot 23, township 12. On the 7th of August following he was married, at the residence of the bride, to Ruth, daughter of Joel Gillet; and this was the first wedding in Manchester. Two others besides Mr. Booth settled in the town during 1794,-Ambrose Phelps, who located on the south half of lot 23 and married Lydia Gillet, and Deacon John McLouth, whose dwelling was erected upon the site of the old Walker house on the north half of No. 21. The deed for his farm was received August 1, 1796. It is affirmed that his was the first framed barn built on the line of the Canandaigua and Palmyra road. This barn was used as a church, and Elder Shay was the preacher. McLouth is entitled to the distinction of having built the first cider- mill in the town; it was an old-time wheel-mill, and, if existing to-day, would be a curiosity worth seeing.

In 1795, Nathan Pierce and family, accompanied by the family of McLouth, his brother-in-law, came into the town. Pierce bought of Stephen Phelps, by contract, an undivided half of lot 15, and, later, purchased of Oliver Phelps the other half-lot. His log cabin, without door, gable end, or window, when com- pleted, occupied the site of Ezra Pierce's residence.

Another settler of 1795 was Joshua Van Fleet, from Pennsylvania. He bought out Ambrose Phelps, who removed to No. 9. On March 25 of the year in ques- tion Dorris Booth, daughter of Sharon and Ruth, was born,-the first white child born in Manchester. Thomas Sawyer and family set out, during the winter of 1795, from Rutland, Vermont, for Ontario County. They had a span of horses

and yoke of oxen, and with these arrived in March, and built, at Littleville, a small frame house, north of the town line, east of Patrick O'Brian's. An elder son, Hooker Sawyer, located on one hundred acres, now part of the farm of Schuyler Sawyer. He also built himself a frame house. These two were the first frame houses erected in the town. Upon his land Hooker put up a small shop, wherein he kept farm implements in repair, and this was the initial movement in mechanical industry in the town. From apples, given by a squaw, seeds were taken and planted, and the trees which sprang therefrom, and which still yield fruit, constituted the first apple-orchard in Manchester. A year from his arrival in the town, on March 12, 1796, Thomas Sawyer died. His funeral was the first, and his remains were buried in the old cemetery north of the residence of Oliver Royce, in the town of Hopewell. In 1802, Joseph Hooker, a son, married Desire Root, who had come west in 1798. In 1796, Luke Phelps came to the settlement and located land; but clearing was not his trade, and the howls of wolves, terrifying to others, were musical to him, and the wolf-hunter was only happy when in pursuit of those cowardly depredators upon the early sheep-folds.

Another settler of 1796 was Bezaliel Gleason, whose log house was built on lot 37, near the house until recently the residence of Hiram and William Al- drich. It has been stated that Manchester was a part of Farmington, and in 1797 Farmington was known as a district.

The first election in the united town was held April 4, 1797, at the house of Nathan Aldrich, and was superintended by Phineas Bates. Nathan Pierce was chosen a road commissioner, John McLouth, assessor, and Sharon Booth, collector. Joshua Van Fleet was elected a member of the " school committee," and Joab Gillet became pound-master. Closely following the earliest settlement came the first religious meeting. On November 24, 1796, persons of the Baptist denomi- nation met at the house of John McLouth, and, agreeing thereto, sent an invita- tion to Elder David Irish, of Scipio, to pay them a visit. On January 14, 1797, Elder Irish, accompanied by Timothy Baker and Asa Caswell, came from Scipio and Aurelius. A council met February 11, in which Elder Irish was moderator, and John McLouth clerk. Two days later, fellowship was accorded by delegates from the two places named, and the First Baptist Church of Farmington wus organized. The name does not indicate the locality, as all the church edifices were erected within the present limits of Manchester. When the town was divided the church changed its name, and became known thereafter as " The First Baptist Church of Manchester." This society was not only the first church formed in the town, but was the first Baptist church which was ever formed or organized in New York west of Cayuga lake. So far as learned, the first arrival in the settle- ment during 1797 was Benjamin Barney and family, from New Jersey. He came on during the summer, took up a farm of seventy-seven acres, and built a cabin upon the site of Wm. Bement's house. Returning east in the fall he moved on during the winter, and when ninety years of age left Manchester to pass his remaining days with a son who had removed to Genesee county. A man named Jacob Rice had come into the town with Nathan Pierce in 1795. Later he contracted land crossed by the outlet at the site of Rice's saw-mill. He erected his first house opposite the residence of Dr. Warn, and later caused a saw-mill to be built on the banks of the stream. His son, Myron Rice, lives on the old homestead, in a dwelling upon the south side of the outlet. In 1798, Isaac Lapham and Jede- diah Dewey came to the town; the former was from Massachusetts, the latter from Suffield, Connecticut. Lapham, in company with a man named McFarland, made the journey on horseback. They located and bought one thousand acres ; each contracted for five hundred acres, at four dollars per acre. The land lay along the banks of the outlet, northward, in extent beyond the William Short road. The Genesee fever attacked McFarland, and in the fall he returned to New Eng- land and exchanged with Gilbert Howland for a farm of fifty acres. Phelps and Gorham deeded the land located by Isaac Lapham to his father, David Lapham, a resident of Adams, Massachusetts. The deed bears date November 13, 1798, and conveys lands contiguous and extending from the Manchester Centre and Port Gibson road westward. On June 18, 1801, these lands were conveyed from father to son. Mr. Lapham made improvements and sowed his first wheat

Digitized by Google

176

PLATE LXVII

AZEL TH ROOP.

PORT GIBSON P.O.)

RES. OF AZEL THROOP & SONS, MANCHESTER, ONTARIO CO ., N. Y.

Digitized by Google

PLATE LXVIII

RES. or G. VAN SICKLE , SHORTSVILLE, ONTARIO CO. N. Y.

EMPIRE GRAIN DRILL WORKS

EMPIRE GRAIN DRIEGA

H. L. & C. P. BROWN, PROPRIETORS, SHORTSVILLE, ONTARIO CO, N. Y.

Digitized by Google

177

HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

in the fall of 1798. Beside a spring west of the dwelling of William Short stands a willow-tree, sprung from a slip brought by Mr. Lapham from his Bay State home. The family numbered eight children, six boys, two girls. Epiphras lives north of Manchester Centre, at the four corners, upon part of the home- stend; Jared is in Michigan, Isaac in Delaware, Spencer in Palmyra, New York; Lucinda, wife of George Smith, of Palmyra; and Marietta, wife of Hinckley Fay, of Farmington. Jedediah Dewey left home in June, 1798, and fell in with the family of Benjamin Burney, then seeking a new home. The lake was crossed upon a soow, and the journey continued in company with his new friends. Dewey located land west of Burney, with whom he lived pending the erection of his house, which stood upon the site of Jedediah Dewey's residence. At four dollars per acre his farm cost him five hundred and twelve dollars. His house built, he cleared a patch of ground and sowed two acres in wheat. Dewey then went to Connecticut, married Anna Bement in November, and, with ox-team, sled, bride, and two cows, set out for his forest home, which was reached in February, 1799. The journey occupied three weeks, and the same distance has been traveled by descendants in fourteen hours. Desire Root came out with the couple and mar- ried, as stated, Joseph Sawyer. Dewey made purchase of his first hay in March, of Sharon Booth. Nine children were born to Jedediah and Anna, and the cradle in which they rested was but the hollowed section of a log. The first settler in the village of Manchester was Sylvester Davis, who located there to fol- low his trade. His blacksmith-shop, erected in 1798, a few rods east of the Man- chester bridge, was the first in the town. For years he occupied his shop, and was in later years known as captain of militia. Controversy respecting boundary lines caused a new survey of the township, which was made during 1798 by James Smedley. During the winter a prayer-meeting, held by Methodists at the house of Sharon Booth, gave a beginning to what ultimately became the first Methodist church of Manchester. The first settler, near Plainsville or Gypsum, was Abraham Spoor, a resident of the locality in 1798, and following him during the same year came the Vanderhoofs, Jacob and John, from Morris county, New Jersey, and selected lands in and around Plainsville. Lots 81 and 64 were deeded June 5, 1800, to their father, Garret Vanderhoof, who came in during the summer.

The Vanderhoofs came in wagons, via Oneida, and took five weeks for their journey. Their first abode was a log house close by the site of Sherman Mosher's dwelling; and, in default of better material, blankets were used for doors. A loaded gun was kept convenient to reach, to repel any intruding wild beast; and fresh meat they dared not keep at night in the house. All table furniture, even to plates, was of wood and home-made. Meal was made by corn pounded in a hol- lowed stump, and groceries were obtained at Geneva.

SETTLERS AND EVENTS OF 1799.

The closing year of the last century presents us the names of Nathan Jones, Peleg Redfield, Joseph Hart, Jacob White, Daniel Macomber, and Asa Reed. These, with their families, came on from the east and began new points of settle- ment. Macomber came in winter, and squatted on the north half of lot No. 71, now owned by Henry C. Hill. Unable to make payment, he never obtained a title. He had, at one time, the belief that his time had come to die, and "went to bed with his breeches on"; there he had remained six months, when one day Ephraim Hall, in search of his cows, found and pursued a bear, which came close in front of Macomber's door. The invalid heard the shouts of Hall, saw the bear, and forgot his ills; he sprang up and joined in the chase; the game was captured, and Macomber cured. Whether more generally brought to notice, or the loneli- nees of the life was the occasion, the records of early settlement furnish many instances of mental aberration.

During the summer, Asa Reed, Aunt Mittie, his wife, and two sons, Asa and Calvin, came to Silver street, and was the second family to settle in that. lo- cality. The parents died in the town and the sons moved west. The love of hunting was with this family a passion. To hunt " coons" was the delight of the father. On one night three large raccoons fell into his hands, and as he re- turned home with them he met neighbor David Aldrich, to whom he showed the results of his hunt, and said, "Dave, if I could but catch a coon that weighed a thousand pounds !" Poverty stood in the way of the boys obtaining guns. Fi- nally one was secured, but it would not stand cocked. The boys, proceeding to hunt, found a deer. Calvin in vain eesayed to discharge the piece; finally Asa, eying first the deer and then his brother, said, " Hands too, Calvin ! hands too, I can cock it in less than fifteen minutes." Time sped, and likewise the deer, and the Reeds did not have venison for supper.

Jacob White was the first settler in the neighborhood of the Armington school- house, and occupied a house built near or upon the site of Goodale's residence. On July 31, 1799, he obtained the deed of lots Nos. 6 and 81, paying therefor

$750. Nathan Jones and family located on the Shaving street road, a mile west of Clifton Springs. Their habitation was in the lot where stands an old red- painted house, a few rods west of Full creek. Jones erected a saw-mill upon the site of the old plaster-mill yet standing. A purchase had been made by Ebeneser Pratt early in 1798; he became the purchaser of lot 17, now including the farms of Dr. Pratt, Augustus Pratt, and D. B. Record, and then lying between the lands of Joab Gillet and Nathan Pierce. Two sons, Ebeneser and Elkanah, came out and settled upon the purchase. Their habitation was a doorlees and windowless double-log house, which stood in front of what is now Dr. Pratt's front yard. The floors were of split bass-wood logs, hewed smooth. It is said that when the floor became soiled one of the brothers would take his adse and go to work. The result would be a pile of soiled chips in the fire-place and a new floor. The house was used as a tavern until 1802, when Ebenezer built another, and set up a new tavern on the Gillet tract. This new structure was a one-story frame, low but capacious. The old "yellow house," after many years, has vanished amid the wrecks of the past. The double-log house was the first tavern in the town. In 1802, Ebeneser Pratt, Sr., with the rest of the family, joined the boys; and it was closely following this reunion that Ebenezer, united in marriage to Margaret Speer, had built and opened the tavern above noted.

Prior to 1798, three persons, Israel, Thomas, and Nathaniel Harrington, alike in surname, yet of no kin, settled on Silver street. Thomas located upon thirty acres of the west end of lot 108, now known as the McCauley farm, and Nathaniel settled upon lot 109, and later sold to James Coates. Israel and his two dangh- tera, Mary and Lucretia, made their home with Thomas, who married Mary, while Nathaniel did the same by Lucretia, and so established full relation by mar- riage. Nathaniel, having sold, as indicated, to Coates, went to the Holland pur- chase, and thence to Jackson, Michigan. All the family went with him from here. Jeremiah Hart, accompanied by his father, Joseph, came out in 1799, and purchased one hundred and two acres of lot 13, original survey. Deed was ro- ceived in 1809, and was from Theodore Sedgwick, of Massachusetts. . The land is now owned by G. W. McLouth. Jeremiah, soon after locating, married Ella Harrington. Their children were Joseph, Ellery, and David. Joseph was pro- vided a farm on lot 29, whereon his son, Robert F., resides. The homestead fell to Ellery, and David died young.

On the 15th of November, 1799, Peleg Redfield bought of Oliver Phelps lot 69, and part of lot 67, township 11, giving in exchange his small farm in Suf- field, Connecticut. Seven hundred and twenty dollars was the consideration for one hundred and eighty acres, located a mile and a half west of Clifton Springs, and now owned by a son, W. H. C. Redfield. Having located, .Redfield erected the body of a log house, cleared three acres, and in February, 1800, removed hither with his wife and six children. That part of the journey west of Utics was memorable. The family came with a span of horses and a sleigh ; the latter was loaded with bedding, furniture, and the family ; the snow was three feet deep, and progress was very slow. The cabin of Jedediah Dewey gave shelter until spring, and " bark would peel." The log house was then completed and the family moved in. By fall a double-log dwelling had been constructed, and therein was found ample room. In 1805, Redfield erected a good frame dwelling, and ob- tained for it nails and glass at Utica. The house, uuchanged save in needful repair, is yet standing. The wife of Peleg Redfield was Mary Judd, the mother of ten children-eight boys and two girls. She died subsequently, in her eightieth year, while Peleg survived till May 26, 1852, when he died, at the age of ninety. The eldest of the family, Heman J. Redfield, studied law in the ofice of John C. Spencer, at Canandaigua ; removed to Batavia, where he is yet living. Manning, the second, became a farmer, and was accidentally killed on February 26, 1850, while marketing grain at the flouring-mills in Manchester village. Lewis H. became apprentice to James D. Bemis, of Canandaigua, in 1812. In 1814 he was known as editor and proprietor of the Onondaga Register. He removed in 1829 to Syracuse, and united his paper with the Gazette. In 1832 he sold The Syracuse Register and Gazette, and at present is a resident of the place. He is one of the oldest living printers in the State. The other children filled high positions in society, and justify the prominence which attaches to their history.

The town was first divided into road districts March 8, 1799. Three of the seven were in what is now Manchester. District No. 8 included the west half of the town, No. 6 east of the centre line and north of the Canandaigua outlet, and No. 7 the remainder. On April 2, a town meeting was held at Nathan Herendeen's house. Joshua Van Fleet and Hooker Sawyer were chosen road commissioners; Nathan Pierce, assessor; Joab Gillet, poor-master. Benjamin Peters, Peter Spekin, and Benjamin Barney were made overseers and fence viewers of the three road districts mentioned. Nathan Pierce was made chairman of the school committee, and the place of the meetings was voted to be at the house of William Clarke.

Digitized by Google

178

HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY, NEW YORK.

The first general election was held in 1799, for senators and assemblymen to represent Ontario and Steuben in the Legislature. The following is a record of election found on page 9 of the old town-book :

" FARMINGTON, May 4, 1799.

" I hereby certify that the inspectors of election of this town-that is, Otis Com- stock, Nathan Pierce, Asa Willmarth-returned certificates, subscribed by them, of the statement of votes received at said election for assemblymen and cenetors, which was as follows, viz .: Charles Williamson had twenty-four votes for Assem- blyman for the county of Steuben; Nathaniel Norton had the same in Ontario; Vincent Matthews and Moses Kent had each twenty-four votes for Cenetors. " ASA WILLMARTH, Town Clerk."

This abbreviated record shows a unanimous choice. The two dozen voters of 1799 had increased, in 1875, to one thousand and forty, cast for governor in the same territory. On May 3, 1800, election for member of Congress was held, with forty-one votes cast. Thomas Morris received thirty-eight votes; William Stuart, three. Prominent among the families which had increased the number of votes by seventeen in the town, within the year, by their immigration, were the. How- lands, Grangers, Throops, Rushes, and Shekells.

The New England farmers, scant in resource, traded their small estates and re- ceived good-sized western farms. The proprietors, Phelps and Gorham, were no losers, as the income of settlers enhanced the value of adjacent tracts. Gilbert Howland, of Adams, Massachusetts, traded his farm of fifty acres to McFarland for five hundred acres, located in Manchester, in 1798. The family arrived Feb- ruary, 1800. The deed given by Oliver Phelps is dated April 25, 1799, and con- veys lots 39, 41, 76, and parts of 38, 84, 92, and 36, in consideration of one thousand five hundred and three dollars. On the day after the family's arrival a great snow-storm raged, and in its midst they went to the cabin of Job Howland, resident of Farmington. As Gilbert, striding through the snow, saw his brother Job standing in the door, he shouted, as his greeting, "Job, you lied; you said it never snowed out here !" The two families resided together until a log house was built, just west of William Steele's place. Mrs. Howland had brought on a pack- age of apple-seeds, and finding all busy in planting beans, potatoes, and other articles for more immediate use, herself went to work and fired a large brush-heap near the house, and upon its site prepared the earth and in drills planted the seeds. From these seeds grew trees which are standing to-day, evidences of an enterprising . woman's forethought. The family consisted of Gilbert, Elizabeth, his wife, and seven children, Jonathan, Nicholas, David, Charles, Job, and Polly and Betsy. In 1819, Gilbert divided his lands into four farms among his children, and the old estate long remained in their hands.

The settlement of Manchester, began in the southwest, gradually extended to the north and east. John Shekell, of Frederick county, Maryland, was the first settler in what is now the village of Clifton Springs. On the hill-top east of the village stands a frame building, publicly known as Mrs. Balcom's boarding-house. This was the old Shekell mansion, to the east end of which stood the original double-log house which was built in 1800, and opened as a tavern to travelers. With the arrival of the family, in 1801, came the first slaves in the town, three in number, Nath, Rose, and Lucy. They were in time set free, and provided euch with five acres of land, and provision made for maintenance as long as they lived. On September 29, 1802, Mr. Shekell received a deed for lot No. 99, in township 11, 2d range, excepting " the New Brimstone Spring, together with ten acres of land adjoining to same." Five hundred and forty dollars were paid for one hundred and thirty-five acres, which were bounded by the town line on the east, north by what would now be a prolongation of Teft avenue, west by a line coin- ciding with the west boundary of the village lot of William Cox, and south by a line outside corporate village limits. Shekell brought out a grown family. Richard settled the Sanger place, disliked the climate, and, selling to Harley Redfield, re- turned to Maryland. Benjamin married Nancy Jones, and lived upon the farm now occupied by Sidney Jackson. Other members of the family lived and died in the town.

Samuel Rush was the father of eleven children. The ninth in order of birth was Russell M. Rush, born in 1793, and living with his daughter, Mrs. McLouth. Two sons of Samuel had preceded him, and settled in Farmington. Samuel Rush, with four children, Mary, Rhoda, Marquis, and Russell, reached the house of the Pratts on October 16, 1800. It was decided to remain there till a house could be built. There were then two dwellings in the village of Manchester-the Pratts' and that of Sylvester Davis, directly opposite. The Rush farm was on lot 73, of the first survey, and now constitutes the Anson Lapham farm. In 1806, he sold out and went to Farmington. In the fall of 1805, Russell worked for Bezaliel Gleason two months for a barrel of salt and a pair of shoes. Salt was high, and the ordinary rate of exchange was eleven bushels of wheat for one

of salt, and then there were times of scarcity. Mr. Rush says: In 1814, Moses Buck erected the first building used as a tavern where stands the hotel kept by Nathan Aldrich. The old stone building refitted by Willson and Allen was built by Nathan Barlow, in 1809. He was the first store-keeper in the town, and likewise the first postmaster. Elihu Osgood, who had worked a year or so for Nathan Pierce and for Joseph Hart and others, finally made a purchase, in 1802, of twenty acres from the southeast corner of lot 13. He built a log house where stands the residence of his son Thomas, and to it brought Amy La Munion, his wife, In time the twenty acres have been increased to two hundred, and ten children had grown up to lives of usefulness and honor. Amanda, wife of Orrin Reed, of Stafford street, is the only survivor of four daughters. Thomas still resides upon the old farm; Barrus is a resident of Manchester; Myron went to California, thence to the Sandwich Islands, to escape consumption, the foe of the family, and there died ; and Edward is a resident of Canandaigua. At one time the annual crop of wheat from the farm sold at from $2500 to $3000, and the labor was done by the family. The first settlers on Stafford street were Zuriel Fish and Philip La Munion, from Rhode Island, in the winter of 1799-1800. They started with a large ox-sled each, but spring came and the wagon took the place of the sled. Their land was reached about May 1, and preparatory work occupied the summer and fall. The house of Fish stood a half-mile east of Orrin Reed's; that of La Munion, near Norris Sawyer's tenant house. The former took up two hundred acres, the latter twenty-three. Ichabod Ward and Samuel Dorrance, of Connecticut, had loaned money to Oliver Phelps, and, as a repay- ment, the latter deeded to them large tracts in the northeast corner of Manches- ter, and adjacent lots in Phelps and Arcadia. These lands were located, about 1800, by the parties named. The first settler locating upon these lands was Ben- jamin Throop. Selecting his land in 1801, he brought on his family in 1802. His possessions included lots 121, 122, 54, 112, and part of 111. Four dollars an acre were paid, and the Connecticut homestead was thrown in at twenty dollars per acre. The first log house was built in the centre of what was then known as the six-mile woods, and stood a few rods west of the residence of J. A. Throop. The nearest house north, in 1802, was that of Judge William Rogers, of Palmyra, and southward there was none nearer than Plainsville. Abram Spoor, living upon Abram Vanderhoof's place, was the nearest neighbor. The first domicile was a flat-roof shanty ; then a large hewed-log dwelling, one and a half stories high, was occupied : it had a pine floor and a brick chimney, and was altogether respectable for those days. Travel along the road was considerable, and the Throop house became a public hostelry. It was licensed in 1808, and continued to be for several years. Not only the whites patronized this inn, but the Indians regarded it as a favorite stopping-place in traveling from Oneida to Tonawanda, a reserva- tion. As many as eighteen were kept over-night at one time. Benjamin Throop passed his days on the farm, and died at the age of eighty-seven, on January 17, 1842. His wife, Rachel, died in her ninety-ninth year. Azel Throop, the only survivor of the family, was ten years old when the family moved in, and still lives on the homestead with his son, J. Allen Throop. Gehazi Granger located one hundred and fifty-two acres of lot 96, original surveys; to earn the money to make payment he worked in the Littleville mills, owned by Zachariah Seymour. At the end of six years he had paid for his land. He built his first house about fifteen rods east of the Shaving street school-house, which stands on the corner of the original purchase. The farm is yet held by Julius N. Granger, Esq., who was married to Sarah Ann Douglas, of Brandon, Vermont. Mrs. Granger was sister to Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, a man esteemed by the American people and well-nigh made their president.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Ontario Co., New York, Part 68

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 391

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 391