History of Seneca Co., New York, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public building and important manufactories, Part 5

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 5


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Reed and Ryckman now proposed to Phelps and Gorham to unite in running the Pre-emption Line, each party to furnish a surveyor. The result was what is known as the " Old Pre-emption Line." The survey was highly favorable to the traders, and disappointed Messrs. Phelps and Gorham, who, however, made no re-survey, but sold their purchase to Robert Morris, and-influenced by their suspicions of fraud on the part of the surveyors, caused by an " offer" by one of the Lessee Company for "all the lands they owned EAST of the line that had been run"-specified in their decd to Morris a tract in a gore between that line and the west bounds of the Military Tract. Morris was satisfied that the survey was incorrect, and in his sale to Pultney and others articled to run a. new line. Under the superintendence of Major Hoops, Andrew Ellicott and. Augustus Porter performed the work. A body of axe-men were set to work, and felled the timber a width of thirty feet; down this line the survey was continued to the head of Seneca Lake, whence night signals were employed to run down and over the lake. The care taken to secure accuracy established credit in the survey, and in this manner the " New Pre-emption Line" became known as the true line of division between the two States' claima. Major Hoops then examined the former survey, and found that a short distance from the Pennsylvania line it had begun to bear off gradually till, reaching the outlet of Crooked Lake, it there made an abrupt offset. An inclination was then made in a north west course for some miles; then the line inclined eastward till, reaching the foot of Seneca Lake, it struck ont in a line nearly due north to Lake Ontario. Consulting an old msp,


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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.


the site of Geneva included in Reed and Ryckman's tract is seen to have been the magnet which caused this unusual variation in the surveyor's compass. The old line reached Lake Ontario, three miles west of Sodus Bay, and the new line. near the centre of the head of the bay. The space between the two lines, aside- from the departure at Crooked Lake, became of a triangular form, having an acute angle near the Chemung, and its base resting on Lake Ontario, and was familiarly , ยท known as "The Gore." The State had permitted land warrants to be located on disputed territory under the impression that the first line was correct; hence the addition of what were called " Compensation Lands" to the Military Tract in what is now Wayne County. We conclude our chapter by a reference to the old turnpike road which eighty years ago connected Albany with Buffalo. This famous road pursued a line through State Street, Albany; Main Street, Utica; Genesee Street, Auburn ; Fall Street, Seneca Falls ; Main Street, Waterloo; and Main Street, Buffalo. We have said that the road was little else but a trail prior to 1794. . From Geneva on to Avon there were no more than half a dozen log cabins in 1792 to cheer the vision of the weary western-bound traveler, but on the 22d of March, 1794, three Commissioners were appointed to lay out a road, which was authorized by legislative enactment, from Utica, formerly known as " Old Fort Schuyler," as nearly direct as possible to the Cayuga Ferry; thence to Canandaigua, and from that point to a settlement at Canawagus, on the Gene- see River, where the first bridge spanning the Genesee River was erected. The road from Utica to the Genesee, which in June, 1796, was little else but a name, was improved, and travel upon it began rapidly to increase. In the year 1793, the first mail west of Canajoharie was transported from that point to Whitestown. In pursuance of an arrangement of the Post-Office Department, the route was made self-sustaining by leaving the expenses incident to be met by the people along the road. The distance was fifty miles, and the time twenty-eight hours. The contract passed into the hands of Jason Parker, Esq., the enterprising and well-known founder of a great line of stages which later traversed the country in every direction, whose main truoks have been superseded by railroads in the East, and whose career, following the rush of the emigrant and gold-seeker, is glorious in the reckless yet skillful driving down into the canons of the rivers and skirting the precipices of the Rocky Mountains, and will be famous till there too the rushing car will outatrip the coach and consigo it to a recollection and a reminiscence of the aged and the past. A stage was started from Utica on Sep- tember 30, 1796, and on the afternoon of the third day out arrived with four passengers at Geneva before the old Williamson Hotel, whose appointments, in charge of landlord Powell, were then equaled by few inns in America. There are those yet living who have traveled along this old thoroughfare in the old stage coach. They will recall the long night rides, when each, subsiding into silence, indulged a growing drowsiness, half conscious of crossing the "Long Bridge," being jostled in passing over a piece of corduroy, and awaking chilled as the crack of the driver's whip, the increased motion, and the final stop before a group of spectators indicated the arrival at a terminus. Then each stepped out and exercised his stiffened limbs, enjoyed warm, pleasant rooms, and refreshed the ioner man with well-cooked steak, hot coffee, and unrivaled liquor. Those who daily traverse the " old line" railroad little know the good and ill experienced in old-time travel on the Albany Turopike. A few years, aod this old road will be blotted from the memory of man. James Cotton, familiarly known as "King Cotton," was a contractor and the builder of that section of the road which passed through Seneca Falls, and as landlord of a tavern built in that place in 1800 by Parkhurst, on the present site of the Globe Hotel, received in patronage a second payment for services; but there were those whose toil and labor, given cheerfully, deserve the respect of posterity. John Salisbury was one who walked from his home on Melvin Hill to what was called the Narrows, in Waterloo, and there engaged in cutting out stumps, repairing, and improving, and returned weary from bard toil to his habitation. During the war of 1812 this road, continued by slashed track and corduroy to Niagara frontier, was burdened to its full capacity with four to six and eight horse teams used in the conveyance of goods for western settlers, and return of all produce which would bear the cost of transportation to Albany. These, with emigrant teama, and the constant passing of troops and munitions of war, made almost a continuous line. Nearly every house was a tavern, and every few miles was a gate to collect tolls. In 1814-15, peace being de- clared, the Governor of Upper Canada and suite, with a numerous retinue in carriages and on horses, carrying beds, ailver, and conveniences, ladies, lap-dogs, and luxuries, made a journey along the road, eastward bound; but the caravans of emigrants, the trains of produce-bearing wagons, the stage linea and the taveras are already of past record.


CHAPTER VI.


1794 TO ORGANIZATION OF SENECA COUNTY IN 1804-THE STATE'S HUNDRED -COURTS AND OFFICERS-MIGRATORY HARDSHIPS-THE CAYUGA RESER- VATION-THE BAYARD COMPANY-A REMINISCENCE OF WATERLOO IN ITS FIRST DECADE.


"OURS is a free republic where, beneath the away of mild and equal laws framed by themselves, one people dwell and owa no lord, save God." The war of the Revolution produced a great and favorable change in the State character,. The prosperity which followed peace diffused an enterprising spirit. Individual freedom of action was uurestricted, yet infringement of social rights brought condign punishment. From 1794 till March 8, 1799, Cayuga formed a portion of Onondaga County, the first courts of which were held in barns and settlera' habitations at Onondaga; Levana, on the shore of Cayuga Lake, Cayuga County ; and at Ovid, in Seneca County. The first officials of the then large county were Seth Phelps, first Judge; Benjamin Ledyard, Clerk ; John Harris, Sheriff; and Moses De Witt, Surrogate. This County was the home of the tribe whose name it bears. Upon its lands were held the great councils of the Iro- quois, and to the Onondagas, or " men of the mountains," was intrusted the care of the sacred council-fire. By treaties of various dates the remnant of the tribe has disposed of its lands until their reservation embraces something more thau six thousand acres, located in Onondaga and Lafayette. Of that renowned and powerful tribe but a few hundred remain, yet these lay hold of civilization and show improvement. Cayuga was formed from Onondaga in 1799, and retained its area unbroken but five years; during this period it included the territory. embraced east and west by Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. The population was sparse and busily occupied in projecting and carrying forward improvements individual and general. To accommodate all parts of the County, Aurora, on the east shore of Cayuga Lake, was designated as a temporary county seat, as being centrally located. The first and a truly primitive court-house was erected in 1799, the materials employed being poles for the walls and rafters, and brush for roofing in lieu of shingles or clapboards. Humble though it were, yet with it is associated the conclusion of a tragedy, of which this region has known but few, and whose recollection is all the more distinct from its rarity. The year 1803 still saw the Indians swarming in the forests. They were peaceable, but annoy- ing as importunate beggars and inveterate thieves. Between them and white settlers there was little confidence, and many families lived in fear. There was one among the Indiaos who made himself at home in the cabins of the pioneers. He was aged ; but "Indian John," the Seneca, had not learned to rule his tem- per, and this was not to his advantage. When the leaves fell and sharp frosts foretold the winter near, settler and savage set out to gather stores of meat, that when the snows lay deep they need not hunger. A settler named George Phadoc, in company with the Seneca, built a bark shelter on the waters of Black Brook, and both went out in search of game. Again and again the deer fell before the settler's deadly aim, while the Indian leveled his rifle at bird or beast in vain. Oa the evening of December 11 the savage returned with empty hand, and his fierce heart burning with thoughts of magic and revenge. Phadoc had killed a deer, for which next morning he early left the hut, and, coming back, was in the act of throwing down the carcass at the door, when a rifle-ball sped from the Indian'a weapon through the deer into the white man's side. Phadoe drew his tomahawk to meet his enemy, then snatched his rifle, and hurried for relief to the cabin of Asa Smith, where much alarm arose from a knowl- edge of "Old John's" accustomed fits of rage. Like a wild beast in hia lair crouching for a victim, the Indian watched in the hut with loaded fire-arm to shoot the first who came. Ezekiel Crane, with wife and children, had come from New Jersey in 1794, and made a settlement on lot No. 48. The woods around his habitation were felled, crops had been gathered, neighbors had moved in, and the chief difficultics of this pioneer of Tyre seemed overcome. " On the morning of December 12, Mr. Crane and Ezra Degarmo, a settler on the same lot and a relative by marriage, together set out to select additional land. Crane resolved to go by the cabin where the Indian lay in ambush, and obtain some venison from the hunters. The white men came up, and Crane rapped at the door, and was im- mediately answered by the report of a rifle, and a ball passing through his left breast buried itself in his left shoulder, causing him to fall as though dead. Degarmo hastened away to spread the news and gather aid; meanwhile, the wounded mau recovered consciousness, and found his way to Asa Smith's, where, after five days of auffering, he died. At dark of the day of the fatal ahot the settlers gathered at the cabin, and cautiously atole near it. The savage, with the wily cunning of his race, expected an attack, and, catching sight of the back woods- men, raised a loud and ringing war-cry. Some of the party were for shooting him down, but this was opposed to the plan of giving him up to be tried by the


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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.


white man's law. The old Indian, while conversing with some Indians friendly to the whites, was cautionsly approached, captured, pinioned, ete., and taken to Smith's, where his eye fell upon Phadoc aud blazed with baffled fury ; but he looked with deep regret upon the death of Mr. Crane. The prisoner was con- fined in a room-built in one of the abutments of Cayuga Bridge-for a time, and then sent to a jail at Canandaigua. In 1804, a circuit court and court of " oyer and terminer" was held at Aurora by Judge Daniel D. Tompkins, at which John, the Indian, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hung. He asked that he might he shot, but the request could not be granted. As he stood on the platform, with a pipe and some leaf-tobacco at his belt, he told the officials that with these he wished to smoke a pipe of peace with Crane in the land of spirits. The effect of the execution was to drive back into the forests the greater portion of the Indians, and cast a wholesome dread on those remaining.


There was a term employed in reference to the Military Lots which, once well understood, has now but little meaning and deserves an explanation. The Military Lot called for tracts one mile square, and a reservation was made by the State of the right to retain one hundred acres from the southeast corner of each lot, and donate instead a like amount of Ohio land. This lot so reserved was entitled " The State's Hundred." Did the purchaser of a lot desire to keep the entire tract, he had only to give due notice to that effect, and pay eight dollars for the survey. Should default of payment occur, the State withheld fifty acres of the mile square, which reserve was called the "Survey of Fifty Acres."


We have already remarked with regard to county and town officers that salaries were nominal and persons desirous of the honors few ; yet it is seen to occur that the same persons, being once installed in the confidence of the citizens, hold the places of trust for many terms. Hence it is not surprising to find that on the organization of Cayuga, in 1799, some of our Onondaga officials again come to notice as the former's first county incumbents. Here we see Seth Phelps occu- pying the bench, William Stuart serving as District Attorney, Benjamin Ledyard acting in the capacity of County Clerk, with Joseph Annin for Sheriff, and Glen Cuyler for Surrogate. With no court-house and a log building authorized to be used as a jail,-a public building but little in the line of architectural display now become so common and indulged in so extravagantly, --- Cayuga village, on March 25, 1800, can boast of early public proceedings. County history is intimately allied to early settlement, and brief narratives of hardships endured turn our minds backward to a period of privation whose rough edges are rounded by time and made to appear as very desirable to the children of the third generation.


While in many instances a settler took up land, cleared it up, built a house, made fences, and settled down to an annual routine of summer care of erops and winter's chopping and choring, and, when grown old and feeble, still lived upon it, there were others who stopped but briefly, and, abandoning their improve- ments, pushed on to find a better : these migrations united relatives and friends as neighbors.


Samuel Clark and his son Samuel, from Massachusetts, were settlers in 1802 in Genesee County. Samuel Hall, from Seneca County, and John Young came a little later. Mrs. Young gives in "Turner's Pioneer History" this account of pioncer life as it was :


" My husband having the year before been out and purchased his land upon the Holland Purchase, in the fall of 1804 we started from our home in Virginia, on horseback, for our new location. We came through Maryland, crossing the Susquehanna at Milton, thence by way of Tinga Point aud the then usual route. In crossing the Allegheny Mountains night came upon us, the horses became frightened by wild beasts, and refused to proceed. We wrapped ourselves in our cloaks and horse-blankets and attempted to get some rest, but had a disturbed night of it. Panthers came near us often, giving terrific screams. The frightened horses snorted and stamped upon the rocks. Taking an early start in the morning we soon came to a settler's house, and were informed that we had stopped in a com- mon resort of the panther. Mr. Young built a shanty which was about ten feet square, flat-roofed, covered with split ash shingles; the floor was made of the halves of split basswood, and no chimney. A blanket answered the purpose of a door for a while, until my husband got time to make a door of split plank. We needed no window; the light came in where the smoke went out. For chairs we had benches made hy splitting logs and setting the sections upon legs. A bed- stead was made by boring holes in the sides of the shanty, inserting picces of timber which rested upon two upright posts in front, a side piece completing the structure ; peeled hasswood bark answering in place of a cord. We, of course, had brought no bed with us on horseback, so one had to be procured. We bought a cotton bag, stuffed it with cat-tuil, and found it far better than ao bed."


The fever and ague attacked most new-comers with more or less severity. With the means at hand a settler did well to.clear four to six acres, and there was little leisure for those who were able to work. It was no uncommon thing for sick- ness sud confinement to he endured unaided, not alone by a physician, but by any


attendance outside the family. . During the spring of 1797, while Cortland and Seneca formed part of Onondaga, there came to Cortland from Ulster a man named John E. Roe. He took board with John M. Frank and went to work upon his lot. Upon a satisfactory site the trees were cleared away, logs prepared, and hy neighborly aid put in place to form the walls of a house. Puncheons were split ont and used to lay a floor, bark was pceled to use for roofing and a man engaged to put it in place. Of the wild grass bordering a swamp he cut and cured a portion for future need and returned home. During the interval at the old home this rude beginning was constantly in mind, every preparation was made for moving, and finally a start was made in winter, when discomfort seemed certain to attend their journey. Roe and his wife set out in a sleigh, bringing with them a young cow. They came forward without incident until they reached a stream opposite the dwelling of Joseph Chaplin. The water ran high, and a canoe, the usual means of ferriage, had been carried away. Chaplin hethought himself of the hog-trough : this was secured, launched, Mrs. Roe placed therein, and safely taken across. Standing upon the hank she watched anxiously the crossing of the team and cow. Urged in, the horses swam across with the sleigh, followed by the cow. The current was strong and the result was doubtful, but the oppo- site shore was finally reached in safety. Night came, and the horses being secured to the sleigh for want of any shelter, lunched upon the flag chair-bottoms. Over n trackless country, in snow two feet in depth, from morning till night they labored on from the river to their new home. No lights shone out a welcome, no warm fire and ready meal to comfort and restore them, no one to take and feed the team, no bed to rest their tired limbs, but a roofless house and snow piled up within. It was discouraging but not hopeless. The snow was cleared from the floor, a fire was kindled against the logs, blankets were drawn across the beams for a covering, the horses were secured in one corner, a bundle of marsh hay obtained and placed- before them, a frugal meal prepared and eaten; and then they lay down to rest, their journey ended, and while much hard work was before them a lifetime was given to do it.


From C. Fairchilds, a resident of Waterloo, and who at the advanced age of eighty-one looks back with vivid memory upon the changes iu Seneca since the commencement of the century, we learn that it was generally understood on the Atlantic coast that this region was excellent both for agriculture and for busi- ness. There were those who had been out and returned, who, in answer to inquiry, gave glowing details of a western paradise. Among other extravagances it was said, " New-comers need not trouble themselves to bring feather beds, for the wild fowl were so abundant that feathers could easily be procured." The wild fowl were in flocks, and Fairehilds at a single shot obtained ten ducks while hunt- ing on the Seneca, but those who brought along their bedding experienced no regret therefor. The charter for the Great Western Turnpike had been granted, and the entertainment of travelers and the raising of supplies were thought to open a way to competence, and, ns a result, every man's cabin was an inn, and the settler was glad to see guests.


Influenced by various reports, Joseph Childs, father of Caleb, came out in 1801 from Somerset, New Jersey, riding on horseback, visited Geneva, then a kind of inetropolis for the great Genesee country, as all western New York was termed, returned east, and set out on his return westward accompanied by the family, consisting of his wife Phoebe and five children. The household goods were conveyed in two wagons equipped with hows and covered with canvas; each wagon was drawn by a yoke of oxen. Fairchilds drove one yoke, and one Joseph Saunders, a hired hand, the other. They took their slow way to the Delaware, where, on a post hy the bank, was suspended a tin horn : Fairchilds blew a blast and called the ferryman. With both wagons on the scow the transfer was made to the opposite bank.


On through the beech-woods of Penn, and rolling the wheels through the deep mire, the emigrants proceeded, and, reaching, crossed the Susquehanna. The children, looking from the wagon over the scow upon the water, saw the .oxen begin to back and to carry them towards the edge, and were badly fright- ened. No such catastrophe occurred, and day by day the journey went on. Whenever possible, stops were made at inns or cabins, and finally the upper end of Seneca Lake was reached, and they arrived at Ovid. Here was an old man known as Captain Kinney, n large land-owner. He kept a tavern in a small, red-painted building, which stood solitary and alone. Ferried across the outlet by a man named Widener, and moving through the woods, they reached Geneva, a place which then commanded the trade of northern Seneca. Judge John Nicholas and Robert S. Rose came from Virginia in 1803. They were owners of some sixty or seventy slaves, who, being freed by Legislative act in 1827, formed a little community by themselves, und were known as the Colored Settle- ment. Rose bought n tract of sixteen hundred acres of land in Seneca, and placed in charge a man named Rumsey. This estate is now separated into several fine farms. Mr. Rose built a fine house for the times, engaged extensively in wool-


PLATE IV.


Erastus Cartridge


THE early life of Erastus Partridge, connected with later successful effort, is replete with encouragement for emulative young mea; and a brief sketch, while a fitting tribute to his memory, serves also ns an exampler for those who would know how a poor boy may become the successful banker and skillful financier.


Mr. Partridge was born near Norwich, Connecticut, on the 9th day of May, 1798. As in most instances of self-made men, pressed for means in early life, he won his way stendily to position, influence, and competence by industry and perseverance. In 1821 he came to this section of the State, settled at Cayuga, then a promising locality, where he engaged in the mercantile trade. Here was laid the foundation for successful and prosperous business, and here were the scenes and incidents to which in later years he frequently and fondly referred. During the year 1824 he established a branch store ia Seneca Falls, and soon thereafter entered upon a large and lucrative trade ; but it was not till 1837 that interests at Cayuga were transferred and a perma- nent removal made to Sencea County. From this time forward business increased, and his store became kaowa ns an established institution of the village. Keeping pace with towa growth, his aid and encouragement were given to every worthy en- terprise. He identified himself with various manufactures, and liberally advertising, made known to public favor his business interests. Kindly counseling and advising those who recognized his good judgment and ample qualifications and sought to profit by them, erratie conclusions were seldom made. Opinion or person was never obtruded, and he ever maintained both his dignity and deliberate judgment. He was ready to perceive, accurate to estimate character, prudent in opinion, and unswervable in principle. Remarkably successful in mercantile business, Mr. Partridge com- menced private banking in 1848, and in the month of January, 1854, established the Bank of Seneca Falls, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars; himself president; his son, Leroy C. Partridge, cashier. This was the first bank organized at Seneca Falls, and was regarded by its business interests with no little pride and plensure. The business of the bank increasing to an extent requiring all his time, Mr. Partridge disposed of his mercantile business, in the spring of 1856, to W. B. Lathrop, and devoted his entire attention to the banking interest. The bank, originally located ia old Mechanies' Hall, was removed in April, 1858, into the new aad commodious structure erected for banking purposes on Fall Street, and kaown as the "Bank Block." The bank, known as " individual," made contributory to the best interests




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