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 7
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The bear, too, true to his instincts, was ever ready to help himself to a share of the settler's corn and swine ; and often the squealing of a hog called out the farmer with musket, club, and even armed with stones, to drive away the assailant. The bear in making an attack seized the hog by the back of the neck, and, hold- ing his victim fast, gnawed away until his prey was dead. A man named Alex- ander is reported to have gained the mastery of an enormous bear by pounding his nose with a club; and such was his delight in troubling these shaggy natives of the forest, that he would steal their cubs and carry them about with him for the entertainment of children. It was wont to happen that when most nceded the old family musket was not available. It was loaned to a neighhor, or the fire- lock was just then in a disabled condition. In an emergency, however, our fathers had a way of their own to discharge a gun that would not go off in the ordinary way, as a single incident will show. 'A bear, accompanied with four cubs, was detected laying waste with lawless aggression a corn-field on or near the farm of John T. Demarest, and on close pursuit was obliged to ascend a large tree in the neighborhood. The best available gun had either a disabled lock or was destitute of any ; but while one man holding the barrel leveled it at bruin, another, with a coal of fire, touched it off. This light artillery practice was con- tinued until three of the cubs were secured against further aggression. 'It is re- lated by Mr. Gridley that, on one occasion, while the wife of John Knox and two companions were returning home from Geneva on horseback, a huge bear emerging from the woods appeared in front of them, and halted in the centre of .the path. " The ladies, as was quite natural, drew up abruptly. It was a mutual surprise, and each party, while reconnoitering the other, reflected upon the possi- bility of effecting a retreat. Soon, however, like the bachelor under the gaze of beauty, bruin's heart failed him, and he hastened to hide his discomfiture in the recesses of the forest.
The first consideration of the early settler was a shelter for himself and family, and furniture was often the work of his own hands. The farm-house was built somewhat in this wise : its walls were of logs, notched, and the openings between chinked and plastered with mud; its chimney of rudely-piled stones; its floors of split logs, with flat side up; its apartments formed by blankets suspended from the eciling ; its doors hung on wooden hinges, and its windows formed of white. paper to let in light, and well saturated with grease in order to shed rain. Cephas Shekell, of Waterloo; advertises in the Waterloo Gazette of July 16, 1817; that "having made an arrangement with the proprietors of the Ontario Glass Factory, he will always have on hand an extensive supply of that article of various sizes, to be disposed of by wholesale and retail, at the factory prices, free of transporta- tion." Hence we may infer that about this date glass was introduced for windows. Nor was the village residence a stately mansion. The shop or office, the parlor, the kitchen, and the sleeping-room were often one and inseparable, and this, too; without carpet, and without papered or even plastered walls. In 1803, a resident
23
PLATE VI.
1
ST PAUL'S PARISH CHURCH, WATERLOO, N. Y.
FOIS
THE BAPTIST CHURCH, OVID VILLAGE.
25
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
of Seneca, living on a farm a mile west of Scauyes, thus describes his father's dwelling at that date : " We had," says he, "a two-story house, that is to say two stories on the ground ; first, the kitchen, built of round logs about ten inches in diameter, properly notched together at the corners, and well chinked and plastered up with clay mortar, with front and back door; bass-wood logs, split in two, flat side up, made a very substantial floor ; the fire-place reached nearly across one end; a stone wall from the foundation was carried up about six feet, two sticks of the proper crook rested one on either end of the wall and against a beam .overhead, forming the jambs, and upon these rested the chimney, made of sticks and clay mortar, very wide at the bottom and tapering to the top, serving the purpose of both chimney and smoke-house; the hearth was of flat stones about twelve fect by six. When a fire was to be built in winter, a horse was hitched to a log six or eight feet long, two or three feet in diameter, and snaked into the house, the horse passing through and out at the back door, and the log rolled on the fire- place; this was called the back-log : next came a somewhat smaller log, which was placed on top and called the back-stick ; then came two round sticks from six- to eight inches diameter and three feet long, the greenest and least combustible that could be found; these were placed endwise against the back-log and served in place of the more modern andirons ; upon them was laid the fore-stick, and between this and the back-log dry limbs were piled in and a few pinc knots, and the fire applied, and, when fairly started, an indefinite quantity of dry limbs from the fallen trees around. The fire thus built, which was usually done about four o'clock iu the afternoon, would last a whole day with little attention, keeping the family and visitors, clad in good warm homespun, comfortably warm. The second story was somewhat aristocratic in finish and furniture. It stood some ten or twelve feet east of the first, and was constructed of hewed logs, without fire-place, and supplied with a Philadelphia ten-plate oven stove that would admit wood four feet long and maintain a heat of over eighty degrees in extreme cold weather."
In the year 1815 a house owned by Cornelius I. Smith stood in Waterloo on a corner lot now the property of Edward Fatzinger; it was moved in 1817 to the corner of William and Back, now Swift Street, and is the building known as the Grove Hotel. This edifice was two stories high, with a lean-to on the north used as a kitchen, dining-room, sitting-room, parlor, and bar-room. The west side of the house was a hall, having a floor one board in width. The house was sided to a point just above the lower story; the floor was of loose boards. Oliver Gustin occupied the room adjoining the addition, and Charles Swift lived in the front room. Partition walls were made by hanging up blankets and coverlids, and cooking was done either at Smith's fire in his parlor, or by one in the open air, the house having but a single chimney ; washing was done at the river bank. To reach the upper story, a ladder was made by nailing board strips across the studding of the wall .. The floor of the chamber was sufficiently wide for a bed in each corner. These beds were made upon the floor, and reached by a narrow board extending from the ladder to the bed. The furniture was an after consideration. At the fire-place were hooks and trammel, the bake-pan and the kettle; at the side of the room and about it stood a plain deal table and flag-bottomed chairs, and the easy high-backed rocker. Upon the shelf were spoona of pewter, blue-edged plates, cups and saucers, black earthen tea-pot; in one corner stood the tall Dutch clock, iu another the old- fashioned high-post and corded bedstead, covered with quilts, a curiosity of patch- work and laborious sewing each of them; then the ubiquitous spinning-wheel, and not unfrequently a loom.
The climate of Seneca has shown extremes, but the vicinity of the lakes, owing to the equalizing influence of water upon the adjacent lands, tends to produce uni- formity. In Fayette, located in latitude 42° 50' and at an elevation of four hundred and sixty feet, the mean temperature has been noted as 48.38. The highest tem- peraturc of the atmosphere for five continuous years was 90°, and the lowest 2º, -a result exhibiting a freedom from those extremes which try the constitution in other localitiea, and tend to protract existence. There are many aged persons now residents of the County, who may attribute their preservation to this health- ful mean temperature, and whose longevity thus practically attests the salubrity of the climate. There is at present living near Magee's Corners, in the town of Tyre, a venerable man named Aaron Easton, who, born at Morristown, New Jersey, on February 6, 1775, and moving hither many years ago, has reached the age of full one hundred and one years. What but the excellent climate and invigorating life of the farmer have protracted his life beyond the common lot ? The clothing worn in early days was generally the same iu all seasons, and shocks to the system elsewhere, owing to unprepared-for extremes, were here unknown. The farmers of the olden time generally clothed themselves in garments made in their own families, both as a matter of necessity and economy. The matrons and maidens of long ago found pleasant music in the buzz of the spinning-wheel and in the double shake of the loom. The long web unfurled like a carpet, bleached in the sun under their care and supervision, and, with no foreign aid save that of carding and fulling mills, the wool of their own sheep was manufactured into
clothing called home-made, and worn common. Sabbath and holidays were occa- sions when " boughten clothes" were used, although it was not infrequent that. Sabbath-day suits made by mother, wife, or daughter, were worn with laudable. pride. British goods were worn in large towns, and discreet matrons hazarded the remark, with reference to the gay attire of the city belles, that "They had better wear more clothes for comfort, and less for mere ornament." There was fashion in those days, but it was less exacting than now, and the samc.style had a more permanent existence. The calico dress made by the hands of the wearer, and often a common and generally improved pattern, served both for parlor at home and the party abroad; since it remained new two or three years, a lady scldom excused herself from a social gathering with the plea of " nothing to wear." There are old ladies living in Seneea who wrought three or four weeks at the spinning-wheel to obtain means to purchase a pair of shoes, which lasted as many years. The girls used to go out to spin at six shillings per week, or do house-work for a dollar. There was little factitious distinction, and many warm and generous friendships. The love of liberty and the maintenance of lofty senti- ments are cherished by industry, and no dignity of character is more precious than that derived from conscious worth. ' Young and old had their amusements, partaken of with hearty zest. There were huskings and quiltings, wood-chop- pings and apple-parings, and the knitting societies for the benefit of the poor, and each was a joyous gathering. There was profit in the work, and the life and zest of social enjoyment. Visits deserved the name: several went together; cards and calls were unknown, and if the visited chanced to be absent, it served as a reason to call again. The sleigh-ride was full of life and freshness, and the woods rang with the merry laugh and the chorused song. The lumber sleigh was dcep and roomy, the horses fleet of foot, the bells of respectable circumference, and their music kept time to the stroke of nimble hoof. Horseback riding, for busi- ness and pleasure, was common to both sexes, since horses could pass where trees and stumps forbade the use of wheeled vehicles. It scema that there was music, too, as, for example, a lady found herself in the following dilemma when urging her way on horseback from "The Kingdom" to the village of Scauyes. On setting out, her husband had furnished her a stick for a.switch, to use in quickening the movements of her steed, since being timid a speedy journey was desirable. The stroke of the rod was answered by an echo; the louder the echo, the greater the alarm of the rider. Alarm merged into terror, quicker and heavier fell the blows, and the forest seemed to resound with dreadful noise of wild beast and savage men in hot pursuit. Assisted from the saddle at the house of a relative, the lady expressed belief that she had not breathed since leaving home.
Now all is changed in party, work, in dress, and modes of travel. There is more form and less enjoyment. The spinning-wheel and loom are in the garret, displaced by melodeon, cabinet-organ, or piano. No need of thimble or sewing- bird where rattles the sewing-machine. Store clothes monopolize the market, and the former journey of a month is accomplished in a day.
CHAPTER VIIL
CLEARING LANDS-PRODUCTS-RESORTS-TAVERN-KEEPING-TRADE-A SET- TLER'S RECOLLECTIONS.
MEMORIES throw a mellowed radiance over the deeds of the past as the tale of Washington at Trenton enlivena the gloomy close of 1775. To-day, aside from specdy transit and ncighbors near, the work of clearing is continued, and nearly every State has territory in its natural condition. The work of clearing lands was pluin, hard labor ; and they who survive at this late day, when asked for early history, can ouly tell what we have ontlined in this and previous chap- ters, varied only by differing dates and names and place of settlement.
. Just prior to 1804, the people, recovering from the prostration of the Revo- Jution, with few exceptions were poor. The Continental currency was worthless, there was a lack of confidence in any paper money, and, with little specie, pay- ments were made by offsets of goods and labor. Pioneers came on and bought a piece of land, for which they paid a part and trusted to time and crops to meet the balance. When these failed the lots were sold by default and foreclosure. Volume I., No. 6, of the Waterloo Gazette of 1817, has aix of its sixteen col- umns occupied by mortgage sales, defaults, and notices of insolvency, and Martin Van Buren, Attorney-General at the time, had advertised the sale of many mort- gaged lots in the Cayuga Reservation. There is a talk of hardships borne, but when a settler, perhaps with sickness in his family and obliged to work outside and cook within, had toiled early and late to clear some ground of heavy timber and then had lost his land and labor, that was in truth a pitiable case.
26
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Go back a period of seventy years and see, in the spring of 1806, David Grif- fin at work on. land inelosed by Cotton, Eber Barons on the farm of Nicholas Thompson, and Albert Wyckoff on the meadow of the Trask farm, and from the first pages of Mynderse's methodical book of contracts read the following: "October 7, 1805. Agreed with David Griffin to clear a piece of land inclosed by W. Cotton, in the following manner and on the following conditions, viz. : To clear off all the timber and brush of every description,-to grub it, to plow it three times, the first plowing to be in the spring, to harrow it four times, to inclose the whole in good fences of oak or ash rails, at least eight rails high and. locked, and to furnish what rails shall be necessary to do the same, and to have the work completed by October 20, 1806. I am to pay him ninety-five dollars for ten acres, to furnish a hand to work at grabbing one week, to furnish the necessary teams, drags, plows, and grubbing-hoes, said Griffin to be at the expense of boarding himself and hands." Then, travel from day to day through the woods, and every now and then approach a clearing where sprouting, logging, and burning heaps of brush is going on, and there before you is the settler's history, -his work at elearing.
Chopping was done by system. The uniform rate was five dollars per aerc. Three trees were to be left standing on each acre; " roll-bodies"-the bodies of large trees, against which log heaps were to be made-were to be provided to the number of five. The choicest oak and white-wood were cut in logging lengths of about sixteen fcet and burned on the ground. Should a settler, falling sick, get behindhand, a day was set when neighbors came, with axes and yokea of oxen, to help him up. Ox-teams were everywhere employed. It was common for a farmer who had no yoke of cattle of his own, to go and help his neighbors get the log-heaps in place for burning, and, when ready, they would come and give him a log-rolling. Often the settler, having spent the day at a logging-bee, has passed the night in kindling up and keeping his log-heaps burning. It was customary to chop a piece in winter to plant in corn ; then, when dry in spring, fire would be set and the brush burned where it lay. If the fire swept the field the ground was in good condition for a crop. The matted roots of vegetation and decaying leaves contributed .by their ashes to fertilize the ground. In those apring days the woods were often dark with smoke, and lurid fires by night gave to the scene a weird aspect. . Here a dead and hollow tree blazed like a furnace from the top, and on the clearing could be seen a freshly-kindled heap in lively flame, and others smouldering in red coals with scorching heat. If the season, far advanced, did not admit full clearing, the various crops of corn, pumpkins, turnips, and potatoes were planted irregularly amidst the blackened logs .. There was no hoeing needed, but it was necessary to go through and pull up or cut down the fire-weed, which, from a questionable germ, sprang up.numerous and rank on new cleared lands. It was soon exterminated with a few successive crops. By some, wheat and rye were sown after. corn, but in general a special piece was cleared, sowed, and harrowed in. Husbandry was in a crude state, and hoes and drags were the implements for putting in the crop. The drag was made by the settler himself. Two round or hewed sticks were joined at one end and braced apart by a cross-picce forming an "A." Seven heavy teeth were put in, four on one side and three on the other. There were many instances of harrows with wooden teeth. Fields were tilled three years before plowing, to allow time for the roots to decay. Clumsy plows were used, with wooden mold-board, home- made, and plow-shared from the east.
The lands of Seneca have ever been most productive of wheat, but the absence. of transportation in an early day made prices low. Williamson, of Geneva, in 1792, cut a road by way of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to Baltimore, and wheat which brought a dollar at Bath was only sixty cents at Geneva, owing to lack of good roads. In 1816 a bushel of wheat was worth in the towns of Seneca but two: shillings and sixpence per busbel, and a pound of tobacco brought the same price. . Many farmers raised their own tobacco, since merchants would exchange goods for wheat, but tobacco was cash. ' Corn and osta; known as coarse grains, were consumed at home, or sold to tavern-keepers for the stage-horsea and for teams (engaged in drawing goods from Albany to Buffalo and points between. Wheat, flour, and potash were transported east. Becf and pork were worth from two to two and a half dollars per hundred pounds. Ashes was the only article that at one period (1816) would bring n fair price, and with it tea and spices were purchased.
James B. Darrow says, " In 1818, we (father and family) went to Phelps, Ontario County, on a visit to an unele, and were told by him that one day a large eight-horse wagon from Albany was in Geneva, and the proprietor was endenvor- ing to contract with a merchant for a lond of wheat nt three shillings a bushel, but the latter could not make out n full load. Darrow told the teamater to go with him home four miles distant and he would load him up for two shillings and sixpence per bushel. The offer was recepted, provided Darrow would keep pur- chaser nud. his teams over night without charge. The wagon was loaded with
two hundred bushels and took its departure." Potatoes, corn-bread, pork, and maple-sugar were food. It is said that in one corner of many a fire-place was a porridge-pot and a dye-pot in the other. Mush and milk, when milk could be had,; were quite a luxury. Large quantities of whisky were distilled from rye. Nearly every farmer had a portion of his grain worked into whisky .by the small log- built distilleries that abounded along the banks of Seneca River .. Old residents affirm that without the stimulus of ardent spirits the toil and privation would have been unendurable, while others ever regarded its influence as highly pernicious.
. In 1810. the population of Sencca, then embracing a much greater area than at present, was sixteen thousand six hundred and nine, and in this County there were twenty-six distilleries, whose product for that year was fifty-one thousand two hundred and twenty gallons, the average price per gallon being eighty cents, and the total valne forty thousand nine hundred and seventy-six dollars. The dis- tillery is cotemporary with the grist-mill, and both were often found combined .. Martin Kendig, Jr., came to Scauyes in 1794, and carried on distilling in a building a little northeast of the log mill carlier described, and made the real copper-distilled rye whisky. Samuel Bear had a small affair which was kept con- stantly running; and two brothers, Ezra and Stephen Baldwin, ran a still at the upper end of what was known as the Island. On the commencement of business at the old Red Mill in Seneca, distilling went with it. : These stills consisted of two small copper stills, and the "mash" was stirred by hand. In those days drinking was general, and every job of raising, log-rolliog, running the rapids, muster and training, and celebration of any kind, was a sober affair without liquor.
On the occasion of raising the first store in Waterloo, a builder, standing on the ridge-pole of the new frame in honor of Elisha Williams, of Hudson, de- clared the building " The Flower of New Hudson," and went through the cere- mony of sending a bottle of whisky to the ground. "Uncle Larre," the pilot of the rapids, while attempting. their ascent, would toil with his hardy crew for hours, gaining foot by foot, when suddenly the craft would cease to advance, rcel off right or left, and speed down to the foot of the rapids. Then Van Cleef's order rang out, " Ashore with the painter, and make fast ;" followed by " Stand by to splice the main brace,"-that is, " Take a drink of whisky all around." This having been done with hearty good will, the boat pushed off and renewed the attempt.
The favorite resorts of the convivially inclined were the taverns, some of which obtained a local celebrity. Among these were heard the names of Whisky Hill, The Kingdom, the Globe at Seneca, and the Eagle of Waterloo. While some public houses were well worthy the name, there were scores whose chief aim was the sale of liquor by those who were averse to honest industry as applied to hard labor. With the completion, later, of the Erie Canal, the taverns found their occupation gone as the great heavy wagons disappeared from the turnpike road. The toll-gates were taken away, the keepers discharged, and the western emigrants went bag and baggage by canal. The old road seemed deserted, the signs of " Cakes and Beer sold here" were taken down, the house became a dwelling where some remained, while others sold and elsewhere resumed their calling. "The Kingdom" was a small. place midway between Scauyes and Mynderse's Mills. There lived Pontius, Hooper, Lewis Birdsall, and John Knox,-men of celebrity in their day, and there. occurred various incidents of which but few remain to us. A single well-known instance will suffice. H. F. Gustin, and several other boys of that day, had taken. their fish-poles and gone down the river one Sunday to fish. The day was hot, the fish were shy. Reach- ing " The Kingdom," the thirsty boys went to Mr. Hooper's for a drink of water. Setting their poles against the house, the boys went in, and Mr. Hooper, at the bar in his shirt sleeves, waiting on his customers, gave the water asked for. Just then several young men who had been out hunting came in, set their guns against the bar, and called for " drinks.". Meanwhile Charley Stuart, s preacher of those days, was exhortiog to an audience of from fifteen to twenty-five persons, seated about the bar-room. . While expntiating upon the ill effects of breaking the Sab- bath, and advising more exemplary behavior on that day, he startled his hearers and administered a rebuke that will live while every one who was present sur- vives. With heavy stroke of clinched fist he struck the desk, and thus ex- pressed himself: " Brethren, ye'll tak yure fishing tackle an' go down tha stream for fiah upon the Sabbath,-ye'll not find the Lord there. . Ye tak yer guns upon yer shoulder an' gang to the woods a hunting,-ye'll nae find the Lord there. Ye'll go to auld Tom McCurdy's cock-fighting on Sabbath, and ye'll nae find the Lord THERE. But just como up to auld Stuart's church, and there ye'll find the Lord upon the spot.".
Stuart became chaplain to n regiment which went out in 1812, and made him- self conspicuous nt the battle of Queenstown, where, after using all his powers of persuasion to induce the soldiers to cross the river, he went over himself and was soon engaged in the hottest of the fight.
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