USA > New York > Steuben County > History of Steuben county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 13
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133
BENJAMIN PATTERSON.
Benjamin Patterson was born in Loudon Co., Va., in 1759. His mother was a cousin of Daniel Boone, the famous pioneer hunter of Kentucky. Mr. Patterson, be- fore his removal to this county, resided at Northumber- land, Pa. During the war of the Revolution he served in a rifle corps, organized for the defense of the frontiers, and in this perilous service met with many exciting adventures. He was the Nimrod of the Susquehanna and of Western New York, the most renowned hunter and practical woods- man of his period. His military and hunting excursions gave him a better knowledge of the geography of the country than any of the pioneers of his times, and he be- came distinguished as the best guide from Northumberland to Lake Erie. He was frequently employed by Col. Wil- liamson to lead parties of immigrants through the wilder- ness in the early settlement of Steuben County and the adjoining region, and to superintend many pioneer improve- ments, in which his practical judgment, skill in woodcraft, and personal integrity rendered him of great service.
Physically, Mr. Patterson was of a medium height, squarely built, and of a powerful and agile frame. He possessed a remarkable memory and powers of narration, so that, although not polished by the refinements of education,
he could interest and engage the most cultivated minds for hours at a time with the relation of his adventures, and the stores of knowledge gathered from observation and experi- ence. He was a keen observer, and a man of intelligence, judgment, and strict integrity. He settled in Steuben County in 1797, and reared a large family. (See Histories of Erwin, Corning, and Lindley.)
CHAPTER XI.
ONTARIO COUNTY.
Steuben Included in Ontario-Indian Council at Canandaigua-Two Towns Organized in what is now Steuben County-Col. Williamson, First Judge-Eleazer Lindley, First Member of Assembly-First Member of Congress-Count Liancourt.
FROM 1789 to 1796 the history of Steuben County is included in that of Ontario. The county of Ontario was set off from Herkimer by an act of the Legislature in the winter of 1789. It embraced the entire territory of the State of New York west of the Massachusetts pre-emption line. Of this great wilderness county, Canandaigua was chosen as the seat of justice. " Mr. Phelps, having select- ed the foot of Canandaigua Lake as a central locality in his purchase, and as combining all the advantages which have since made it pre-eminent among the beautiful villages of Western New York, erected a building for a store-honse, on the bank of the lake. The next movement was to make some primitive roads, to get to and from the site that had been selected. Meu were employed at Geneva who under- brushed and continued a sleigh-road from where it had been previously made, on Flint Creek, to the foot of Canandai- gua Lake, following pretty much the old Indian trail. When this was done a wagon-road was made near where Manchester now is, at the head of navigation on Canandai- gua Outlet."
Joseph Smith was the first settler, who moved his family from Geneva and occupied the log store-house, in the spring of 1789. He soon after built a block house on Main Street, and opened the first tavern. His first stock of liquor was obtained from Niagara, Upper Canada, by canoe- freightage from the mouth of the Genesee River.
Early in May, 1789, Gen. Israel Chapiu arrived at Can- andaigua and selected it as his residence, erecting a log house near the outlet. Connected with him, and with the contemplated surveys and land-sales, were Nathaniel Gor- ham, Jr., Frederick Saxton, Benjamin Gardner, and Daniel Gates. Mr. Walker, an agent of Phelps and Gorham, soon after arrived with a party, and opened a log land-office on the site which Mr. Phelps afterwards selected for his resi- dence.
The late Capt. Iloratio Jones, who was one of the first at the place, revisited it in August, 1789. He thus describes its appearance at that time : "There was a great change. When we left in the fall of 'S8 there was not a solitary person there; when I returned, fourteen months afterwards, the place was full of people,-residents, survey- ors, explorers, adventurers ; houses were going up; it was a busy, thriving place."
51
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.
The scene connected with the Pickering treaty of 1794 is thus described :
" As soon as it was known by the Indians that Col. Pickering, the agent, would come prepared to give them a great feast, and distribute among them a large amount of money and clothing, the attendance was very general. For weeks hefore the treaty they were arriving in squads from all of their villages, and construeting their camps in the woods, upon the lake-shore, and around the court-house square. The little village of the whites was invested, overrun with the wildl natives. It seemed as if they had deserted all their villages, and transferred even their old men, women, and children to the feast, the carousal, and the place of gifts. The night seenes were wild and picturesque, their camp-fires lighting up the forest, and their whoops and yells creating a sensation of novelty, not unmixed with fear, with the far inferior numbers who composed the citizens of the pioneer village, and the sojourners of their own raee. At first all was peace and quiet, and the treaty was in progress ; heeves had been slaughtered, sufficient to supply them all with meat, and liquor had been carefully excluded ; but an avaricious liquor dealer secretly dealt out to them the means of intoxication, and the council was interrupted, and many of the In- dians became troublesome and riotous. Gen. Chapin, however, sup- pressed the liquor-shop, harmony was restored, the treaty coneluded, and the gifts dispensed. A general earousal followed, but no outrages were committed. The Indians lingered for weeks after the council, displaying their new broadcloths, blankets, and silver bands and brooches."
Judge Porter was then in Canandaigua, acting as the agent for Phelps and Gorham. In the name of his prin- cipals he had to make the Indians presents of provisions and whisky, when they came to Canandaigua, and that was pretty often. On the occasion above referred to, he denied an Indian whisky, telling him it was all gone. " No, no," replied the Indian ; " Genesce Falls never dry." This was a shrewd allusion to the gift to Phelps and Gorham of the enormous " Mill Lot," which embraced the Genesee Falls .*
The town-meetings held at Canandaigua were the first occasions of bringing the pioneers together, who were spread over most of the eastern portion of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase.
During this period two towns were formed in what is now Steuben County, and were represented in the Board of Supervisors at Canandaigna. The old town of Painted Post was formed as a town of Ontario County in 1793,-three years before the erection of Steuben,-and Eli Mead, the first settler at the mouth of Mead's Creek, was its super- visor. The town which he represented extended from Tioga (now Chemung) County to the west line of the present town of Rathbone, including the settlements at the head of the Chemung, Painted Post, Tioga Valley, and in the lower valley of the Conhocton and Canisteo.
The other town was Williamsburgh, and lay west of Painted Post, as then formed, embracing a large extent of country. This was also erected in 1793, and was repre- sented in the board at Canandaigua by Jedediah Stephens, in 1793 and 1794.
There were then no roads to the county-seat, and Mr. Mead and Mr. Stephens went on Indian trails, a distance of seventy miles through the wilderness, carrying their pro- visions in knapsacks on their backs and sleeping in the shades of the forest when night overtook them.
Courts were not organized in Ontario County till 1793.
The first Court of Oyer and Terminer was held at " Patter- son's tavern in Geneva" in June of that year. The pre- siding judge was John Stop Hobart, one of the three Supreme Court judges appointed after the organization of the judiciary in 1777. A grand jury was called and charged, but no indictments preferred. The first Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions was held at the house of Nathaniel Sanborn, in Canandaigua, in November, 1794. The presiding judges were Timothy Hosmer and Charles Williamson, associated with whom as assistant justice was Enos Boughton. Attorneys, Thomas Morris, John Wick- ham, James Wadsworth, and Vincent Matthews. A num- ber of suits upon the calendar, but no trial. One indiet- ment found by the grand jury.
At the next session, in June, 1795, occurred the first jury trial ever had west of Herkimer County. The party was indicted at the previous session for stealing a cow-bell.
The records of 1799 show that the " chiefs of the Seneca nation acknowledged the receipt of eight thousand dollars from Gen. Chapin, as a dividend upon the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, which the United States Gov- ernment had received of Robert Morris as purchase-money of the Holland Purchase and Morris Reserve, and invested in the stock of the United States Bank.
The first sheriff of Ontario County was Phineas P. Bates, who was succeeded by James K. Guernsey in 1806.
Ontario County, by a special act of the Legislature, was made eligible to a representative in the General Assembly in 1791, although not entitled to it by population. Col. Eleazer Lindley, under whose auspices settlement had begun on the Tioga, in Steuben County, received the election, and was the first member of Assembly from all the Genesee country. Gen. Israel Chapin was the repre- sentative in 1792-93.
Thomas Morris, son of Robert Morris, was the first representative in Congress from all the region west of Seneca Lake.
Mr. Morris, in his manuscripts, which were published in 1844, says: "The excursion which has been spoken of was undertaken by me, partly from a desire to witness an Indian treaty and see the Falls of Niagara, and partly with a desire to see a country in which my father at that time had such an extensive interest, and with the determination to settle in it if I liked it. I was pleased with it, and made up my mind to settle at Canandaigua as soon as } should have attained the age of twenty-one and my admis- sion to the bar.
" Accordingly, in the early part of March, 1792, I left New York for Canandaigua. I was induced to fix upon that place for my residence from the character and respect- ability of the families already there. In the course of that year I commenced building a framed house, filled with briek, and which was finished in the early part of the year 1793. That house still subsists, and even in that hand- some town, where there are so many beautiful buildings, it is not considered an eyesore. When it was completed, that and the house built by Oliver Phelps were the only framed houses west of Whitesboro'."
The first leather manufactured in Ontario County was by John Clark, a tanner and enrrier, who came to Canan-
* Turner's Phelps and Gorham Purchase, p. 167.
Slo19.
52
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.
daigua with Mr. Phelps, and it was made from the hides of the cattle driven on to furnish beef for the Indians at the great gathering to receive their first. annnity.
In his rambles, in 1795, the Duke Liancourt went from Bath to Canandaigua. He stayed all night at Capt. Mitch- ell's, who had made a settlement at Watkins, on Seneca Lake, in what is now the county of Schuyler. The duke remarks that the settlement was " called Watkinstown, from several families of that name who possess the greatest property here." He speaks of Capt. Mitchell's " saw-mill, where four thousand five hundred feet of boards are cut daily. These boards he sends on the lake to Canandaigua, where they are sold for ten shillings per one hundred feet. There is a schoolmaster at Watkinstown, with a salary of twelve dollars per month."
CHAPTER XIL
ORGANIZATION OF STEUBEN COUNTY.
Dates of the Erection of Preceding Counties-Original Towns of Steu- ben-Present Civil Divisions-First Courts-Grand Jury-Court- llouse and Jail-Northern and Southern Jury Districts -County Poor-House and Farm.
THE civil divisions known as counties have undergone many changes since the country began to be settled. Under the Dutch the only divisions were the city and towns. In 1665, a district or sheriffalty, called Yorkshire, was erected. It comprised Long Island, Staten Island, and part of the present county of Westchester. For judicial purposes it was divided into three Ridings-the name being derived from the practice of the judicial officers riding from one place of court to another. The East Riding comprised the present county of Suffolk ; the West Riding, Staten Island, Kings County, Newtown, and part of Westchester ; the North Riding, all the present county of Queens, except Newtown.
Counties were erected for the first time by the act of 1683, and were twelve in number, as follows: Albany, Cornwall, Dukes, Dutchess, Kings, New York, Orange, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, Ulster, and Westchester.
Cornwall, now in the State of Maine, and Dukes, in Massachusetts, were re-ceded by New York, and never rep- resented in the Legislature of that province after 1691.
Cumberland County, in 1766, Gloucester in 1770, and Charlotte in 1772 (afterwards changed to Washington), were formed out of Albany County. Tryon County was erected in 1772, also out of Albany County, and comprised the country west of a north and south line, extending from St. Regis to the west bounds of the township of Schenectady, thence running irregularly southwest to the head of the Mohawk branch of the Delaware, and along the same to the southeast bounds of the present county of Broome, thence in a northwesterly direction to Fort Bull, on Wood Creek, near the present village of Rome ; all west of the last mentioned line being Indian Territory. Thus, the province consisted, at the Revolution, of fourteen counties. After the Revolution, the counties which preceded Steuben were Columbia from Albany in 1786, Clinton in 1788, Ontario in 1789, Saratoga, Rensselaer, Herkimer, Otsego,
and Tioga, in 1791, and Onondaga in 1794. Steuben was therefore the twenty-fourth county of the State in the order of its erection. On the 8th of March, 1796, it was de- tached from the old county, Ontario, and erected into a sep- arate county. The population in 1790 was 200, in 1796 it was over 1000, and in 1800, 2000.
The seventh range of townships was annexed to Allegany County March 11, 1808; the part in the fork of Keuka or Crooked Lake to Ontario County, Feb. 25, 1814 ; a part of Dansville to Livingston County, Feb. 15, 1822 ; a part of Reading to Yates County in 1824, and a part to Schuy- Jer County, April 17, 1854.
When the county of Steuben was first erected it was divided into six towns, viz .: Bath, Canisteo, Dansville, Frederickstown, Middletown, and Painted Post. The town of Bath comprised all the north part of the county ; the town of Dansville, all the northwestern part ; Fredericks- town, all the eastern part ; Canisteo, all the southwestern part ; Middletown, all the southern ; and Painted Post all the southeastern, viz. : Hornby, Campbell, Erwin, Corning, Caton, and Lindley. The town of Bath originally com- prised all the territory now contained in Bath, Urbana, Wheeler, Prattsburgh, Pulteney, Avoca, part of Cohocton, and Howard. The town of Dansville contained all that is now comprised in Dansville, Fremont, Wayland, and part of Howard and Cohoeton. The town of Frederickstown all that is now comprised in Wayne, Bradford ( Barrington and Starkey in Yates County), Tyrone, Reading, and Orange, in Schuyler. The town of Middletown contained the present Addison, Rathbone, Thurston, Tuscarora. Wood- hull, and part of Troupsburgh and .Jasper. The town of Canisteo contained all the present Canisteo, Greenwood, West Union, Huntsville, Hornellsville, and parts of Jasper and Troupsburgh.
The present towns of Steuben County are thirty-two, as follows :*
1. Addison.
17. Hornellsville.
2. Avoea.
18. Howard.
3. Bath.
19. Jasper.
4. Bradford.
20. Lindley.
5. Campbell.
21. Prattsburgh.
6. Cameron.
22. Pulteney.
7. Canisteo.
23. Rathbone.
8. Caton.
24. Thurston.
9. Cohocton.
25. Troupsburgh.
10. Corning.
26. Tuscarora.
11. Dansville.
27. Urbana.
12. Erwin.
28. Wayne.
13. Fremont.
29. Wayland.
14. Greenwood.
30. West Union.
.
15. Hartsville.
31. Wheeler.
16. Hornby.
32. Woodhull.
FIRST COURTS.
The first session of the Court of Common Pleas for Steu- ben County was held in the court-house, at Bath, on the 21st day of June, 1796, Hon. William Kersey, assistant
$ In 1860 the county bad thirty-three towns, the town of Savona being, in the fall of that year, erected from Bath. The act creating it was subsequently repealed.
53
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.
judge, presiding, in the absence of Charles Williamson, first judge. The other assistant judges present were Abra- ham Bradley and Eleazer Lindley, Esq., of what was then the town of Painted Post.
The court was opened with the usual proclamation, when the commissions of judges, justices, sheriff. coroner, and sur- rogate were read. George Hornell, Uriah Stephens, and Abel White appeared respectively from Hornellsville, Canisteo, and Addison, and were qualified as justices of the peace.
The following attorneys and counselors were present : Nathaniel W. Howell, Vincent Matthews, William Stew- art, William B. Verplanck, David Jones, Peter Masterton, Thomas Morris, Stephen Ross, and David Powers. Wil- liam Stewart appeared as district attorney, or, as the office was then called, assistant attorney-general, for the counties of Onondaga, Ontario, Tioga, and Steuben.
The first court of General Sessions was held in the same year. Besides the judges mentioned in the record of the Common Pleas, there were the following justices of the peace present : John Knox, William Lee, Frederick Bar- tles, George Hornell, Eli Mead, Abel White, and Uriah Stephens, Jr.
The first grand jury was composed of the following citi- zens : John Sheathar, foreman ; Charles Cameron, George McClure, John Cooper, Samuel Miller, Isaac Mullender, John Stearns, Justus Wolcott, John Coudry, John Van Devanter, Alexander Fullerton, Amariah Hammond, John Seeley, Samuel Shannon. This jury presented two indict- ments for assault and battery, and were thereupon dis- charged.
FIRST COURT-HOUSE AND JAIL.
Upon the organization of the county in 1796, the county buildings were located at Bath. A wooden court-house, one and a half stories high, with two wings, was erected the same year. This served the purpose of the county till 1828, when a brick court-house was creeted on the site of the present building. This was destroyed by fire in October, 1859, and the present court-house was erected on substan- tially the same foundation and according to the same general plan, in the summer of 1860.
About the time of the erection of the first court-house, a jail was built of hewed logs. It stood in the rear of the subsequent stone jail, which was located on the northwest corner of the Pulteney square, and was torn down in 1846. The present stone jail was erected in 1845.
By an aet of the Legislature, passed July 19, 1853, the county was divided into two jury districts, the northern and southern, and the county buildings for the latter were located at Corning. The court-house at Corning is a fine brick edifice. It was erected iu 1853-54, at a cost of four- teen thousand dollars. The county clerk's office, erected in 1872-73, a neat and well-built brick structure, contain- ing the Bath library in the second story, is permanently fixed at Bath, but the courts are held alternately in Bath and Corning.
COUNTY POOR-HOUSE AND FARM.
This institution for the care of the poor of the county is located two miles north of the village of Bath, on the road to IIammon Isport.
The farm consists of two hundred acres, purchased by the county of Moses Lyon for three thousand two hundred dollars. The main building is of stone and brick, forty by eighty feet, and was erected in 1834. The first inmates were admitted November 19 of that year. In 1838 occurred the first fire, in an out-building, the upper story of which was used as a dormitory, when Elias Williams, an inmate, was burned to death. In 1859 another fire broke out in the night, in a separate building, consuming seven helpless victims. The fire was too far advanced to be controlled, or to admit of the rescue of the unfortunate inmates, before the alarm was given. In 1859 a brick building was creeted, thirty by forty-four feet in dimensions, for the chronic insane, which was burned in April, 1878, with the loss of sixteen lives. Most of the victims were deaf and idiotic, and unable to escape, the fire occurring in the night.
The first keeper appointed was Isaac Reeves, in 1834. Since then have been the following : D. B. Lee, Otis Hunt, N. B. Falwell, J. V. D. Terry, John L Scofield (first term), Eli Carrington ( first term), John L. Scofield (second term), Michael McClane, Eli Carrington (second term), since April. 1872.
The superintendents (three in number) are elected each year by the county, and each town elects annually one over- seer of the poor. The law makes it discretionary with the Board of Supervisors whether to charge the expenses of maintaining the poor belonging to the several towns to the towns themselves or to the county at large. The latter has been the method adopted in this county till within about ten years past, sinee which it has been the enstom to charge the poor having a settlement or location in the different towns to those towns separately.
The number of inmates in the institution Dec. 15, 1878, was one hundred and thirteen, of whom seventy-six were males and thirty-seven females. The opening of the Sol- diers' Home, on Christmas, 1878, reduced this number a trifle by the admission to that institution of a few poor soldiers, who had sought an asylum from the inelemency of the winter in the County Poor-House. It is quite a re- markable fact, and we have thought it worth mentioning in this history, that the fifth person admitted to this poor- house, John Edwards, of Hornellsville, is still an inmate. He was admitted on the 2d of December, 1834, over forty- four years ago, and never has been known during that time to be off the premises. ITis disease is a mild case of insanity. Ile was taken into the institution at the age of thirty-two; now he is an old, white-haired man, seventy-six years of age.
The commodious and substantial farm-barn on the prem- ises was built in 1868. A new brick building for male paupers, and a dwelling-house for the keeper, were erected in the summer of 1878.
The farm is under the management of Mr. Carrington, and the labor is furnished by the inmates of the institution, with the assistance of one hired man. The products are consumed on the premises. The estimated eash value of the farm products, in 1878, was $1500 ; estimated value of the real property, $13,278 ; personal property, $5,224.70. Total, $18,502.70.
54
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.
CHAPTER XIII.
Physical Features of the County-Geographical Situation-Topog- raphy-Geology.
GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION.
THE county of Steuben is situated upon the southern border of the State, in the tier of counties adjoining the Pennsylvania line. It lies chiefly upon the southern slope of the great dividing ridge or water-shed which separates the waters of Lake Ontario from those of the Susquehanna, and, on account of this geographical situation, is among the most elevated sections of the State. The highest summits in the county are about two thousand five hundred feet above tide.
The county contains an area of fourteen hundred and twenty-five square miles, or about eight hundred and thirty-five thousand acres. It is centrally distant from Albany one hundred and eighty-eight miles, and is bounded north by Ontario and Yates Counties, east by Schuyler and Chemung, west by Allegany and Livingston, and south by Pennsylvania.
TOPOGRAPHY.
The physical features of Steuben County present a bold outline of irregular hills and deep, intricate valleys, through which pass rivers and creeks. The north and west parts of the county occupy the summit, from whence the slope is to the southeastern extremity of the county, where the Che- mung passes the line and flows towards Elmira. The slope towards that point is from the north, the west, and the southwest, where the head-waters of the Conhoeton, Canis- teo, and Tioga rise, all of them converging to a junction above Corning, and passing into the Chemung. The streams, aside from the rivers which flow down this slope, are creeks of different sizes; their valleys are bounded by hills from two to eight hundred feet high, at some places a few rods in width, and at others a mile or more. From a circle of hills, all these waters flow down to the narrow valley of the Chemung, some eight hundred feet below their source. But the deep valley of Crooked Lake breaks in upon this general phase of Steuben as an exception. It extends far towards the centre of the county, and carries to the north the waters of three or four towns. It is a deep excavation of some eighteen miles within the county, break- ing into the summit of separation between the waters of the Chesapeake and those of the St. Lawrence, the same as the Seneca and Cayuga Lakes farther east.
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.