History of Seneca Co., New York, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public building and important manufactories, Part 3

Author:
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Ensign & Everts
Number of Pages: 294


USA > New York > Seneca County > History of Seneca Co., New York, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public building and important manufactories > Part 3


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only by the Indian canoe. If he came from Long Island, he launched his bateau npon the Sound and came to New York, thence up the Hudson River, whence, transporting boat, passengers, and effects to Schenectady, he passed np the Mohawk to Fort Stanwix, or Rome; thence crossed hy land a brief portage to Vilrick, or Wood Creek, and by that reached Oneida Lake. Sweeping slowly along the lake, the Oswego River was entered, and by that stream he found access to the lake-hound region of Seneca and the Genesee plains beyond.


To one who made that voyage, looking baek after an interval of poling, rowing, floating, and transporting, for a period of four to six weeks, his former home scemed very distant, and present ills preferable to a like return. Another, and southern route, brought the emigrant along the Susquehanna and Tioga Rivers to Newtown, now Elmira; thence, after transporting boat and effects, he reached the Seneca Lake, and through its outlet came to the port of Scanyes, or, mounting his horse and following Indian trails, he traversed the dense wilds for many leagues to reach this, his future home. Yet a few remain with us who realized thesc modes of travel; but most of these pioneers have "fallen asleep." Farther on, the detail of actual travel will be given, of which we have presented the true ideal. The cause of westward migration deserves consideration. The annals of colonial days reveal the fact that, while the Spaniard ravaged the New World in his lust for gold, the Puritan, Huguenot, Catholic, and Quaker came here to enjoy the rights of conscience and freedom to worship in their own way. From 1620 to 1776 the sterile Atlantic coast received these voluntary exiles. Families increased in numbers, and the scanty soil gave little return for lahor. A rich soil, a large farm, a belief in the growth of the future, the desire of a com- fortable home with children tilling their own fields around them, and a love of novelty, urged on by the example of others, all conspired to scatter a population in this region of a varied character. It is on record that Seneca's pioneers who changed her hunting-grounds to cleared and productive farms were in general a hardy, energetic race. They were influenced hy like motives and circumstances, and acknowledged a common dependence, a deep sympathy, and a necessity of co- operation. In cutting roads, building bridges, erecting public dwellings, and defending themselves from mutual danger, they cheerfully shared labor and pro- moted sociality.


The southern part of Seneca was first settled, and George Fanssett, of Pennayl- vania, was the enterprising man ; while the first recorded resident in northern Seneca was James Bennett, likewise a native of the Keystone State. The narra- tive of these and of those who soon followed thein is material for a future chapter, but this much here is given, that the early settlers of every town in the County were not only industrious and full of energy, but were men of rectitude, who knew and practiced moral duties, and instinctively perceived and practiced right.


CHAPTER IV.


LINE OF ORGANIZATION-EVENTS CONNECTED THEREWITH-PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT WEST-REDUCTION OF AREA AND GRADUAL CHANGES FROM A GENERAL TO A LOCAL CHARACTER.


SENECA traces her genealogy from an honorable and ancient source. Her reduced area is the natural result of a growing population and a republican form of gov-


ernment. On November 1, 1683, Albany was organized as one of ten original counties of the New York province, and was by legal enactment bounded north and west by the provincial limits. At Albany, on June 19, 1754, the first Congress of the colonies met for purposes of union and defense, and the plan as drawn by Dr. Franklin was rejected as too advantageous to the other hy both the colonies and the British king. Montgomery County was formed from Alhany -on the 12th of March, 1772, and at that time bore the name of Tryon County. The name Montgomery was given during April of 1784, at the close of the war, in honor of Richard Montgomery, a gallant officer in the Continental army. The cramped settlements and over-crowded Eastern towns and villages began to send out families and colonies northward and westward, and apeedily required a further division of counties for convenience of jurisdiction and fair representation of interests. Accordingly we find Montgomery reduced in 1789 by the formation of Ontario, and her territory yet further diminished in 1791 by the erection of Tioga, Otsego, and Herkimer. It is not our purpose to dwell upon the con- tinued changes of counties, by which their present number and area was obtained, further than they apply in the exhibit of a line of organization by which Seneca can be readily traced. Whether there seemed to be disadvantages connected with settlement, or whether, as 'is more probable, the tide of emigration followed its ancient custom of following the course of river and lake, Seneca still lay undisturbed, and portions were late in occupation. There came in the year 1784, from Middletown, Connecticut, the first lone settler in the forests of western Montgomery. Resolute and decisive, this mau, Hugh White, planted himself in a log habitation at what is now the village of Whiteshorough, and, mingling with the Indians to win their approval, found relief from his labors of improve- ment in the society of his wife and children. One afternoon, White being absent, his wife saw a party of Indians coming along the trail towards her habita- tion. Following a natural impulse, she gave them cordial greeting and proffered food. Presently one of their number, whose hearing showed the chief, asked permission to take her daughter with them on a visit to the red man's home. To trust her darling child to the ruthless savages was a hard requirement, yet to refuse might bring some far worse fate. While the heart of the mother was troubled hy conflicting emotions, and the stoical foresters looked on and awaited a reply, a step was heard, and White came in. He saluted his visitors with frank and open countenance, and, learning the object of their call, consented instantly, and directed his child to go with them.


The Indians disappeared in the forest, and the hours' were made long by anxiety. Evening drew near, and with it the time for the return of the child. In the distance were seen the waving plumes of the chief, and by his side tripped the proud girl, arrayed in the ornaments of Indian life. The test of confidence had been made and withstood, and henceforth White knew no friends more faithful than his red brethren. During the year 1786, a trading-house was opened near Waterloo of to-day, by a man whose history is .all the more of interest here since he was recognized as the first white settler west of the Gene- see River. Captain Horatio Jones was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, November, 1763. His father was a blacksmith and frequently repaired rifles. The son was daily in the habit of seeing and trying them, and hence while quite young he became an expert marksman. Energetic, bold, and skillful, he seemed horn with a disposition for adventure, which was stimulated to activity by. the frequent passage of troops by his home on their way to the Indian country. Fourteen years of age, he was a man in spirit, and joined the soldiers as a fifer in the regiment commanded by Colonel Piper, with whom he remained during the entire winter. During the month of June, 1781, his desire for more active service induced him to enlist in a company of riflemen called the Bedford Rangers, recruited by Captain Boyd, of the United States army. After a scout of a few days, one morning about sunrise, while a fog hung heavy over the ground, the rangers, thirty-two strong, encountered a body of Indians, numbering about eighty, upon the Ragstown branch of the Juniata River. They soon found themselves ambuscaded, and a destructive fire from unseen rifles speedily laid nine rangers low in death; eight more were captured, and the whites were com- pletely defcated. The battle being ended Jones retreated rapidly, and, ascending a hill, discovered but a few feet in front two Indians armed with rifles aimed at his person. Having no reason to regard their intentions as friendly, he diverged from his course and ran for dear life. He would undoubtedly have distanced his pursuers, but unluckily his moccasin-string became untied and caught around a twig, which threw him to the ground. The Indians at full speed ran by him before they could stop, the one nearest him raising a claim to him as his prisoner. Distruating their ability to retake their captive if their fleetness should again be called into action, the warriors bound their blankets around him and allowed them to trail behind. Tho wet grass saturated the blankets and thereby frus- trated any attempt at escape. IIe was brought back to the battle-ground where the prisoners were arranged, and immediately marched into the woods. It was


PLATE IT


COURT HOUSE AND JAIL, WATERLOO, N. Y.


COURT HOUSE OVID, N. Y


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JOHN SULLIVAN.


11


HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.


observed by an Indian that Captain Dunlap of the militia, being wounded, faltered in his tread as he ascended a hill. The savage struck hia hatchet deep into the disabled soldier's head, drew him over backwards, and, scalping him, left the poor fellow te die with his face turned upward. Twe days they marched on and had no food; then a bear was killed, and to Jones fell the entrails for his portion. With scanty dressing, these were emptied, hastily cooked, and, without other seasoning than the promptings ef hunger, hastily caten. The captives were tied by night, and the journey continued under close guard by day, until they arrived at what is now Nunda, Livingston County, New York. During the ascent of Foot Hill, Jack Berry informed Jones that he must run the gauntlet to a house in the distance, and, if he was successful in reaching it, his safety would be secured. Indians aud squaws, swarming from their huts, formed themselves into two parallel lines, between which Jones hegan his perilous race. Numerous blows were struck at him, with clubs, tomahawks, and stonca, as he dashed along. A noted chief, named Sharpshins, struck at him desperately with his hatchet ; and then, as Jones passed unharmed, he threw the deadly weapon after him : the hlow was evaded and the goal safely reached. William McDonald came next, aud as Sharpshins prepared to throw again at Jones, McDonald came by, and the merciless savage, huryiug his tomahawk in his back, drew him ever, cut off his head, and placed it, scalped, upon a war-post. The rest escaped with little injury. The smallpox broke out during the following winter, and Jones, suffering in the hospital from the loathsome disorder, saw men borne away for burial while yet living. Speechless, he yet was able to exhibit signs of life, and finally recovered health. Young and handsome, Captain Jones was a great favorite, and was early adopted into au Indian family, and shared all the privilegea of Indian hospitality. He received the name of Ta-e-da-o-qua, and was always claimed as a prisoner by his Indian consin Ca-nun-quak, or Blue Eyes. Captain Jones established a trading-house within the borders of Sencca, thence removed to Geneva, where he located under the hill en the bank of Seneca Lake, and sold to John Jacob Astor his first lot of furs. He was married in Schenectady by Rev. Mr. Kerkland; and, in 1789, leaving Geneva, he settled near Beard's Creek, in the town of Leicester, raised the first wheat west of the Genesee River, and was the first white settler in the valley ef that stream. An Indian hut was his habitation for the first year. In this rude abode himself, his wife, and three children found ahelter. Appointed by President Washington, he held the position of interpreter with the Iroquois for a period of forty years, and died in 1836, at the age of seventy- five years.


The name of Job Smith appears next as that of one of that class whese liking was a region wild and full of game, whe felt an irksome restraint in the compan- ienship of his fellows, and who might be aptly termed a guerrilla in the warfare of civilization with nature. This character emigrated frem Ulster County in 1787, and was the first settler upon the military tract. He erected his cabin upon the flats at Seneca Falls, near the later site of the Upper Red Mill, owned by Cel. Mynderse. Historians ascribe to Smith a roving, unsettled character and an absence of certain necessary elements of genuine manhood. Rumor reported that his retreat in these wilds was more of an act to shun the clutch of the law than a love for the scenery of the locality. His route was along the Mohawk and Seneca streams, and his food upon the journey consisted of corn pounded in an old-fashioned mortar, wild game from the woods, and fish from the river. He lived alone, trafficked somewhat with the Indiana, and was the owner of a yoke of oxen. A party of travelers, passing up the river in 1788-'89, was transported by him around the falls upon a cart whose wheels were sawed entire from logs. Smith moved to Waterloo, married a Miss Gorham, and returned to the flat. Soon he disappeared aud dropped from remembrance, until in 1813 he was sub- ponaed as a witness at the court, in relation to the settlement of several pending and important law-suits. Two Connecticut traders, bearing with them on their journey packs of goods, visited the Canoga reservation in 1785, and traded their merchandise for furs, and returned. James Bennett, from Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, reached the borders of Seneca in 1789, and was soon engaged in running a ferry aeross Cayuga Lake, not far south of the later .bridge. On the return of General Sullivan's army from their work of spoliation, a detachment of one hundred men was sent out from the main column, which had reached the present site of Geneva, to march through the lauds of the Cayugas, Onondagas, and Oneidas towards Albany. This command, in charge of Major Gansevort, went into camp the first night at Seneca Falls, on the north bank of the river. Not a few were impressed by the natural advantages about them for settlement, and one Lawrence Van Cleef, an old Continental, on receiving his discharge, returned hither in the spring of 1789, and, choosing a site for a dwelling upon the flats, not far from Job Smith, erected upon it a double log house. This durable but humble abode stood as the first of its elass in that region, and in himself was known the first permanent settler. The first desideratum to the immigrant-a shelter-having been prepared, the next proceeding was the preparation of ground


and the planting of corn upon the flats. Jealous of intruders and smarting under a sense of wrongs suffered, Indians gave him petty annoyances and rendered diffi- cult his endeavors to raise a crop. . An understanding and friendly feelings were secured through his generosity and abundant good nature, and from that point le was unrestricted in his plans for private emolument and the public good. We have outlined the long route, and hinted at the hardship not unmixed with peril connected with pieneer journeys between the cabins and camps in the wilderness and the settled regions of the East ; but necessity knew no law, and the tramp ef Weston upen chosen roads to distant Chicago was no more to be admired in com- parison with the journeya of the pioneers of this section than the fast train, with a clear track, to the steady movement of the canal-boat, delayed by the locks, npon its course. Van Cleef established er followed the custom of individual exploration for a home, and then went east for his family to Albany. During the fall of 1789 he is found associated with Jeb Smith in the ownership and use of a team and a truck, the latter their own handiwork, formed from forest material alone, and sub- serving a geod purpose in transferring the goods of western-beund emigrants around the falls. At a later date, Van Cleef and Smith turned their attention to the construction of boats upen Seneca Lake, and the former achieved renown fer his success in running boats over the rapids,-a business he continued to follow till brought to a close by the construction of the locks, in 1815. It was his pride that in all his experience he never occasioned loss or damage to a boat, which could not be said by his cotemporary pilots. Generous aud hardy, well fitted for pieneer life, Van Cleef was the projector of various affairs of public enterprise, and, dying in 1830, was buried upon the spot where as a soldier he had built his camp-fire fifty-one years before. Turning our attention to the southern part of the County, we learn from "Smith'a Gazetteer," of 1860, and " Transactions of New York Agricultural Society," ef 1850, that the pioneer of that locality was George Faussett, of Pennsylvania. Bidding adieu to his wife, he left herself and child at the old home, and set out in the spring of 1789 to select a home within the present limits of Seneca County. Choosing a favorite and pleasant lecality in Ovid, he founded a claim upon the place by right of tomahawk improvements: these consisted in the building of a pole cabin thatched with bark, the deadening of timber in the vicinity, and the clearing of a small patch of ground. Legally these acts had ne force. but ameng pioneers they gave a patent to the claim which a purchaser was bound to respect both on account of local agreement and the good will of the eceupant. These preliminaries being arranged, Faussett returned to Pennsylvania, and passed the following winter. In the spring ef 1790, with the melting of the snow and ice, he act out with his family upon the extended journey, and finally reached their home in the wilderness. With what feelings did that wife survey the scanty provision for her shelter, what a depression of feeling to leok around upon a solitude however beautiful, what wonder if the lip trembled and tears fell as the endeared remembrance came of friends and kindred far removed, and perhaps forever ! Custom amelierates condition, and each year saw their circumstances improve. Frugality and labor bronght a competence, and with the lapse of time came heavier crops, enlarged fields, and extended ownership. Unsatisfied with undisputed possession, Faussett sought out the legal owner to lot No. 88, and from him purchased two hundred acres of the tract. Husbanding his resources, a few years elapsed, and another two hundred acres was added to the first. For many years this worthy man engaged in farming, and finally left the stage of action at the ripe age of eighty-three. There were other settlers during the period of which we write than those we mention, but our chapter intenda but allusion to prominent pioneers to this part of Montgomery up to 1791. Pennsylvanians were carly settlers of States northward and westward, and if Virginia may wear the title of Mother of Presidents, the Land of Penn may well lay claim to the appellation of Founder of Colonies. Among others who sought a home in southern Seneca during 1789 were the Dunlap brothers, Andrew and William, and with them came James Wilson. Arriving in May, Andrew Dunlap located upon lot No. 8, in the town of Ovid, and is known as the man whose plow turned the first furrow in breaking for cultivation the soil between the lakes. It was in the latest days of the month that a half-acre of surface was turned and the area planted with potatoes brought by him for that purpose from his former home upon the Susquehanna. But a brief interval elapsed before Mr. Dunlap was enabled to make full payment for his lot, and he thus became the possessor of a fine farm of six hundred neres, whose value constantly became enhanced as time passed on, and enabled the proprietor to live in comfort and independence in the winter of his days.


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12


HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.


CHAPTER V.


THE PIONEER-SENECA, WHILE A PART OF HERKIMER, FROM 1791 TO 1794 -CAYUGA BRIDGE-ORIST MILLS - PUBLIC MEETINO - AN OLD-TIME ARTICLE-THE OLD PRE-EMPTION LINE-THE ALBANY TURNPIKE.


HERKIMER COUNTY was formed frem Mentgemery on February 16, 1791; its name was given to commemorate General Nicholas Herkimer, who received wounda which caused his death at the battle of Oriskany, where he battled bravely for the liberty of the States. We have to do in this chapter with Seneca's history and anrroundings for the brief period of three years. When we scarch the memories of the living, glean the brief allusions of the press, and ponder the paucity of facts, we realize the transitory character of American life, and are ready to exclaim,-


"A shadow, a vapor, a falo that is told. Ah, where is the figure so true As justly to picture the bygones of old repassing in dreamy review ?"


Within the limits of a lifetime a marvelous change has swept over the face of all this region. Farmer's Brother, Cornplanter, and Red Jacket have vanished before the swelling tide of western-bound humanity, and the last of the Senecas was borne down upon the flood. Their fields are cultivated, as of yore, by the sona and grandsons of the pioncers, whose last surviving members totter upen the verge of dissolution. Fine farms and growing cities and an advanced society are the outgrowths of pioneer enterprise ;. yet the shadows of oblivion are gathering. The memory of what these enterprising and hardy men were and of the parts they acted, though lingering in the minds of a few cotemporaries and handed down to their descendants, is, nevertheless, daily losing its distinctness, and will soon be gone beyond recovery. What will be known a few years hence of Samuel Bear, John Green, and Jabez Gorham ? of Elder Rerison, Disbrow, the Yosts, Mynderse, Van Cleef, and the Dunlaps? What of Halsey, Asa Smith, the ill-fated Crane, and scores of others whoae labors broke the solitude and changed the features of this then wilderness ? It is no puerile task to wrest from obscurity a record of early events and those who caused them. It amazes the atudent of history to note the discount laid upon the life of our older citizens during the last quarter of a century. Familiar faces are sought which can never more be found. The harvester haa gathered the pioneers; a few remain as the gleanings, even as some fruit clings to the branches when the time of the vintage is past. These are the veteran survivors of life's battles, the witnesses of strange mutations. Gathered a little band, the pioneers of Seneca are thus addressed by S. H. Gridley, D.D., Historian of Waterloo Historical Society : " A kind word to the few earlier settlers of the village and vicinity who still linger among us. You remember the privations and hardships of pioneer life,-the hard blows needed to reduce the wilderness to a fruitful field, and something of the heart and brain work which have been the cost of the privileges conferred upon your de- scendants. You have labored well in your several spheres ; and, in behalf of the generations which follow you, I give you assurance of their appreciation of the heritage you have beqneathed to them. No service of ours is sufficient to requite the work yen have done for us, or reward the cares and burdens which have been the price of this inheritance. We can only assure you that what we have received shall be held in memory of your names, virtues, and labors. If, in our cultiva- tion of the moral virtnes, we may give you some pledge of our proper use of what you bequeath ; if, as the wrinkles npon yenr brows grow decper, and your ateps arc less elastic, and yon shrink from life's burdens, we may lighten your cares and gladden the evening of your earthly history, we shall count it both a duty and a privilege. And if the Father of Mercies shall deign to hear our prayer, then shall your sun decline slowly towards its setting, ita clesing beams ahall be its richest and mest effulgent, and it shall aet only to rise to a higher orbit in that pure world in which God's presence is the central light and glory." Worthy words these, well speken and fully deserved, and here embalmed to recall in after-times an occasion fraught with interest. Where individuals had been seen to take up homes in Seneca, now small parties of twos and threes und more, fre- quently arriving, the pepnlation increased, until the spring of 1793 saw full thirty families established in the southern portion, groups gathered at Seneca Falls and Scauyes, and isolated families acsttered at distant points in other localitics. At Goodwin's Point Philip Tremaine made a beginning, and was soon joined, in 1793, by the Kings,-Renben, Bassler, and Nathaniel; in' another year that nucleus was augmented by Jonathan Weodworth, accompanied by his sons Nehe- miah, Charles, and Oliver, and his daughter Deborah, fresh frem Norwich, Con- nectient. In 1790 James Jackson settled on lot No. 35, in Ovid. In the western part of the town, prior to and in 1794, were Elijah Kinne, from Dutchess County ; John Seeley, fron Saratoga County ; Peter IInghes, Nicholas and Richard Huff, Abraham De Mott and James, his son, Abraham Covert and his aon Abraham A., William and Robert Dunlap, and Tennis Covert, the last settlers of 1794. James




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