History of Steuben county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 14

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia, Lewis, Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 826

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 14

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).

VALLEYS.

The valleys are ocular evidence of the action of water. The general surface of Steuben County, without that action, would have been the average elevation of the hills. The waters, in their several courses towards the ocean, have ex- cavated channels, which from year to year have deepened and widened, until they present the features of hill and valley everywhere existing throughout the county. In various places walls of shale, with superincumbent sand- stone, have been broken through, forming deep and wide valleys.

In the town of Campbell, and partly in Hornby, Mead's

Creek has excavated a valley to the Conhocton, deep and tortuous, through the hills,-through Wayne, Bradford, and Savona, to the valley of Mud Creek, extending north- ward to the head of Little Lake, and thenee to Lake Keuka. The valley of Crooked Lake (or Lake Keuka) is the deepest, exposing the broken roek to the depth of from three to four hundred feet, and the débris therefrom along its shores. This valley extends from Bellona, in Ontario County, to Branchport ; from Penn Yan to Hammondsport, and thence to Bath. The valley of the Conhoeton is the widest, and the excavation of the hills more uniform than that of any other, except, perhaps, the Canisteo. It stretches from Livingston County, where it is scarcely per- ceptible, to Chemung County, with branching valleys on either side made by tributary streams. Next of importance is that of the Canisteo River, receiving its slightest inden- tations in Allegany, and reaching the level of the Conhocton and Tioga at Painted Post. This valley is narrow and crooked, except at the mouth of Bennett's Creek, where the flats are wide and the hills retiring, and at the mouth of the Tuscarora Creek, at Addison. This valley develops much of the débris of the grits and shales through which the waters have forced a passage. The valley of the Tioga passes from Pennsylvania northward through Lindley and Erwin to the Canisteo; in its course it is intersected by the Glendening and the Cowanesque, the latter extending up- wards to Troupsburgh.

HILLS.

In the south part of the county, the highest lands ex- tend from the western line of the town of Lindley through southern Addison (now Tuscarora), through southern Wood- hull; thence northwest, through the northeast part of Troupsburgh, to the south line of Jasper; thence westward to Greenwood, and southwest to the south part of West Union, where the source of Bennett's Creek is eight hun- dred feet above its junction with the Canisteo, and the sur- rounding hills from three to four hundred feet higher.

Between the Canisteo and the Conhocton Rivers the sum- mit of highlands commences in the town of Dansville, passes near South Dansville post-office; thence, through Fremont and Howard, to the west of Howard Flats; thence south to the south line of the town of Howard, following the south line eastward to the town of Cameron; thence southeast, through Thurston and the northeastern part of Addison, to Erwin.

The summit highlands north of the Conhocton River is the dividing ridge between the waters which flow into the Chesapeake and those which flow into the St. Lawrence. It commences in the town of Wayne, north of the Wayne Hotel, and follows the highlands, between Little and Crooked Lakes, to Mount Washington ; thence westward to the south line of the town of Wheeler; thence north, through the eastern lots of Wheeler, to the southeast cor- ner of the town of Prattsburgh ; thence, through Western Pulteney, north to the county line; thence west to North Cohoeton, where the ridge curves into Livingston County ; and thence, through Wayland, to South Dansville, to the summit between the Canisteo and Conhocton Rivers.

The waters running north to the St. Lawrence interlock with those running south to the Chesapeake Bay. Cold

MAP OF STEUBEN COUNTY, N. Y. to accompany HISTORY of STEUBEN COUNTY

Forth Cohorteme

Pitanville

BUFFALO

Gul

Fiskusville

+PRATTSBURGH

Harmony

Tiherty

buch 1.

Loon

Ink st ornes Rodgerss ille Lonem Litkr

AS Danndie PO

DANSVILLE

Wireine

WIE E

WAYNE

NEW

Matchellvilles:

Wayne Car's

FREMONT Frenumit Center Stepheny Hills Ph

Bennetts

ORK

M+ Washington

Tow Ksville

HORNÉLES B-VILLE

ORNELASVILLE

- Umnonville

'S Bradford

Smul

Howard

Cock

Centerl'anistre

North Cameron' Bowe Hill

Run

Chỉmstill

Funds Creek

Hornby Forks

ARTSVILLE

THURSTON

ORNBY

Benwellstreck

S. Thusstan

Ginodluus

WGreenwood

frapted

REENWOOD

Greenwood

FH-W

CORNING

ERIE

Tusper Ators

Roughs Bendy

ADDISON

West Trapsburgh

WH ville

Rayville

Erwan Conter

K Trampsburgh

WEST

TROUPS BURGH

TIOn.

¥I

Lindley Town

Duijshurgh.

IN -

Young Hularry

TUSCARORALYNDSEY

B. CORNING ... R.

Prest

Bathbourville

Whisper

NEW YORK

Bueney Vista

FRIE

Croshelt

Allens Station

Aun

W camerou

ISTEO

Rit

Puoiel Sprint

Ranona

HAMMONDSPO

SAXISION

Sort l'iban 7

CROOKED

VIL

BAKE

Scale of Miles.

WOODHALL

Sonont

HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Spring Creek takes its rise two miles north of Bath, while the head-waters of Mud Creek and Five-Mile Creek are in Yates County, some twenty miles north. In the northern part of the town of Prattsburgh Flint Creek rises, near the head of Twelve-Mile Creek, and the waters of the Cana- seraga rise far south of those of the Conhoeton.

ELEVATIONS.

The following elevations have been determined princi- pally by actual surveys : Crooked Lake, 718 feet above tide-water; Corning, 925; village of Bath, 1090; Hor- nellsville, 1150; Arkport, 1194; summit between Mud Lake and Bath, 1579; summit between Bath and Ark- port, 1840; summit between Arkport and Angelica, 2062; Troupsburgh Hills, 2500.

LAKES.

The lakes are marked characteristics of the topographi- cal features of Western and Central New York. The most of them discharge their waters into Lake Ontario through the Oswego River. The Canandaigua, the Crooked, Seneca, Cayuga, Owasco, Skaneateles, Onondaga, and Oneida, hav- ing their head-waters far in the Southern Tier, drain all the intervening territory to the north. All of them lie in val- leys of excavation far down through the rocks which under- lie the soil,-the Oneida through the gray sandstone which forms its bottom, covered with drift; the Skaneateles through more than three hundred feet of the Hamilton group, with the Tully limestone outcropping on both shores ; the Cayuga and Seneca Lakes through the Marcel- lus shales and the superincumbent Hamilton and Tully limestones, the latter ranging from four hundred and twenty to six hundred and thirty feet in depth.

The Crooked Lake (now called Keuka) is a beautiful sheet of water, which extends from Penn Yan, in the county of Yates, to Hammondsport, a distance of about twenty miles, with a branch to Branchport seven miles. This lake exhibits an excavation of more than three hundred feet in depth through the shales and grits of the Erie group. The waters are fed by springs, supplied with water by the rain falling on the surface of the surrounding country, which, passing through the scams and fissures of the rocks, rushes into the basin below the surface of the lake. No streams of any considerable magnitude flow into it except Cold Spring brook at Ilammondsport and Lazallier Creek at Branchport. The lake abounds with white fish, trout, and perch of' fine quality, of which numbers are taken annually to grace the tables of those who take the trouble to seek them in their proper season. During the summer months the transportation of agricultural products and ar- ticles of commerce employs many boats, aside from one or two beautiful steamboats, which make daily trips between Hammondsport and Penn Yan and intermediate places. Lake Keuka lies two hundred and seventy-one feet above the waters of the Seneca; its outlet discharges one hundred and forty-four thousand and sixty-five gallons of water per minute, with a current of one hundred and thirty-two feet per minute. The outlet runs from Penn Yan to Dresden, a distance of seven miles. Boats pass to and from Seneca Lake by means of the Crooked Lake Canal, thence to the

Erie Canal, affording a direet and cheap transportation to the sea-board for all the products of the surrounding country. The valley of Lake Kenka drains the lands of Urbana, partly of Wayne, and of Pulteney, in Steuben County. The hills on the west shore rise some three hun- dred to four hundred feet above the waters, and on the east shore two hundred to three hundred feet. Bluff Point is a marked and picturesque promontory, standing between the branches of the lake and showing itself conspicuously above the surrounding scenery. Its elevation is more abrupt and its altitude considerably greater than the high- lands on either side of the lake.

Lake Waneta, elevated above Keuka some two hundred feet, and distant but two and a half miles, in the town of Wayne, is the summit of a different grade, and the tribu- tary of waters which flow south into the Chesapeake. An excavation of a few feet at the Wayne Hotel would pass the water into Lake Keuka, and thence into Lake Ontario. Yet the natural drainage is the Conhocton. This lake is nearly three miles long and about half a mile wide. It abounds in fish, such as pickerel, perch, white fish, and trout of the finest quality. It discharges its waters south- ward into Mud Lake, near Wayne Four Corners, its chief tributary being a small stream which enters it from the north at Wayne Hotel ; otherwise it is fed by springs.

Mud Lake, aside from the waters of Lake Waneta, is fed by the Tobahanna Creek, and the creek running from Pine Grove through Tyrone to the lake. This lake is about two miles long and half a mile wide, abounding in excellent fish. The outlet is called Mud Creek, and enters the Conhoeton at Savona. In its course are several small lakes, singularly deep, partly grown and filled up with vegetable mould and tufa. In the eastern part of the town of Bath there is a succession of them, which affords a study for the geologist and natural philosopher, how they were excavated amidst the surrounding hills to their ex- treme depth, how detached each from the other, and yet exhibiting a chain of causes and effects ideutical through- out.

In the southeast part of the town of Prattsburgh lies Duck Lake, now about half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, but evidently in years gone by more than twice that size. The marsh- surrounding this lake has been gradually eneroaching upon its limits for years. This marsh extends more than half a mile eastward and south- ward, and is filling up gradually with decayed organic remains. Duck Lake is filling up with drift and mould ; its waters are full of decayed vegetable matter held in suspension ; they abound in fish ; depth, six to ten feet. The creeks running into Duck Lake are the Seutt Creek, which rises in the vicinity of Scuttville, passing westward through the marsh into the lake, and the Waldo Creek, which rises in Pulteney and runs southwest, entering the northern extremity of the lake through the lands of Charles Waldo. This lake discharges its waters through a narrow and crooked outlet of some forty rods in length into Five- Mile Creek. This lake and outlet have been declared by statute law a public highway, for the benefit of those who are disposed to use it, to float lumber down the Five-Mile Creek to saw-mills or to market below.

HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Loon Lake, in the town of Wayland, is situated in a high valley. The outlet passes for some distance underground, and then comes to the surface with a volume of water suf- ficient to drive a mill. It runs northward, while the waters of Mud Lake, a little distance south of it, run south to Neil's Creek. The surroundings of Loon Lake are marsh and swamp. This lake is over a mile long and three- quarters of a mile wide. The summit here is about eighteen hundred feet above tide-water.

East of the village of Bath lies a beautiful little lake, nestled amid the surrounding hills, its waters pure and clear, its name Salubria. The little gem was probably dropped there in the breaking up of the great inland sea, as a " tear-drop" to remind one of by-gone days .* It is a beautiful sheet of water, and fulfilis in all its phases the characteristics predicated upon the name by which it is known.

In the northern part of the town of Howard are two lakes. One of them is to the north of Howard Flats, the outlet of which empties into Neil's Creek, some two miles above its confluence with the Conhocton. The other lake, northeast of Howard Flats, is a beautiful sheet of water, termed a pond by the inhabitants, and surrounded by a fine cultivated country ealled the " Pond Settlement." This lake debouches to the south in a crooked outlet, which runs past Goff's Mills, theuce northeast to the Conhocton. Along this outlet and creek are developed some of the most re- markable characteristics of the geologieal features of Steu- ben County. Ascending the creek to and past the mills of Alonzo Graves, we find roeks of shale and grit in masses, here thrown up in rounded hills, and there torn asunder by the passage of the water. The valley of this stream through- out is in marked contrast with the alluvial character of the Howard Flats above.

In the southern part of the town of Thurston is Friends' Lake, the outlet of which passes southward through the hills to the Canisteo. This outlet is in character with all the streams which are precipitated from the hills into the valleys below. In dry seasons it secretes its waters beneath the débris of the shales scattered along its channel. In wet weather it is the " mad mountain torrent," sweeping every- thing in its course, aud excavating rock and gravel as a pathway for its tumbling waters.

Goodhue Lake, covering an area of about five hundred acres, and surrounded by hills and forests of pine, lies in the extreme northwest corner of the town of Addison, and forms the head of Goodhue Creek, which passes southeast through the town, affording hydraulic power for several saw-mills. It enters the Canisteo below Addison. This is a wild, picturesque stream iu all its surroundings of hill and valley, sometimes beautiful and quiet as it winds along its tortuous course, sometimes impetuous, dashing and surg- ing against the hills as it hastens downward to the Can- isteo.

RIVERS.

The principal rivers of Steuben County are the Conhoc- ton, Canisteo, Tioga, Chemung, Cowanesque, Canaseraga, and their several tributaries, denominated creeks. The

Conhocton stretches from the summit in Livingston County to the extreme southeast part of the county, where it unites with the Canisteo and Tioga, forming the Chemung River, which retains that cognomen until it is merged in the Sus- quehanna. The head-waters of the Conhoeton are found in the town of Springwater, Livingston Co., far north among the hills, and north of the inlet of Hemlock Lake, which empties north into Lake Ontario. Thence it enters the northwest corner of the town of Cohoeton, passing through Avoca, Bath, Campbell, Erwin, and Corning, where it assumes the name of Chemung. This river, to- gether with its tributaries, drains all the northern and middle portions of the county. Upon its waters have been rafted much of the timber of the county, and formerly a large quantity of grain was floated upon it to market in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Conhocton was declared navigable from the " twenty two mile tree" (Bivin's Cor- ners, now Blood's) to Painted Post, and Gen. McClure, as early as 1795, constructed an ark seventy-five feet long and sixteen feet wide, and passed down the river with a cargo of staves to near Harrisburg. Others frequently navigated this river with arks during the early period of the coun- try's settlement.

The Canisteo River takes its rise in the towus of Alfred and Grove, in Allegany County, and passes eastward through Steuben to near Painted Post, where it unites with the Tioga, and thenee the united waters of the latter and the Conhocton flow into the Chemung. This river and tribu- taries drain the southwestern part of the county ; its flats rank with the most fertile lands, and the surrounding hills furnish the most valuable lumber. This river was also famous in the early days as an avenue of commerce with the lower Susquehanna, and with Baltimore and Phila- delphia, Arkport, in its upper valley, being the headquarters for fitting out arks laden with provisions and lumber, and sending them down to the Chesapeake Bay. (See Histories of llornellsville, Bath, Urbana, and Bradford.)

The Tioga River rises in Pennsylvania, and enters Steu- ben County from the south, in the town of Lindley, running north to the Canisteo, midway between Painted Post and Addison. Near the Pennsylvania line the Cowanesque Creek enters the Tioga. This creek has its rise in the town of Troupsburgh ; from that town it passes into Pennsylvania, and thence into the town of Lindley, entering the Tioga near the State line. The valley of this creek presents some of the most beautiful and fertile lands in the State.

The TUSCARORA CREEK rises in the town of Jasper, and passes by a tortuous course through the southwest corner of Rathbone into Woodhull, thence to the Canisteo, at the village of Addison. The hills on either side of this creek are quite near in their approach, leaving a contracted valley of fertile alluvium. This creek drains the southeast part of Jasper, the town of Woodhull, Southern Addison, and Tuscarora. These towns rank in fertility of soil and graz- ing adaptation with any portion of Steuben County. The hills and valleys of the Tuscarora and its tributary creeks furnish some of the most favorable advantages for wool- growing and dairy purposes to be found anywhere.

STEPHEN'S CREEK has its rise iu Jasper, near the head- waters of the Tuscarora, and runs north through the hills

* Goldsmith Denniston.

HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.

of Canisteo, where it enters the river a little below the mouth of Bennett's Creek. Throughout the course of this creek the country is elevated into high hills, with precipi- tons valleys, presenting features broken, bold, picturesque.

BENNETT'S CREEK rises in the town of West Union, at an elevation of eight hundred feet above the Canisteo River. Here the hills are about two thousand five hundred feet above tide-water. The highest source of Bennett's Creek is a little south of the residence of J. McNeil ; thence it runs north past Rexville, " Rough-and-ready," Greenwood, Canisteo, where it enters the Canisteo River in a broad and beautiful delta of flat lands. This creek ex- poses to view some of the grits from which have been quarried grindstones. Its upper source is in a fine lumber distriet ; its valley somewhat contraeted by the approach of hills, through which are precipitated numerous small, roar- ing, rattling runs of water, whose beds are paved with shale, broken stone, and gravel.

PURDY CREEK is a principal tributary of Bennett's Creek. It rises in the southwest corner of the town of Hartsville, and runs through a narrow valley northeasterly to Bennett's Creek, near the residence of H. Eason. The bed of this ereek is covered with the débris of roek and shale, broken and torn asunder by the precipitous waters.

CROSBY CREEK rises in Allegany County, and runs through the northwest corner of Hartsville into Hornells- ville, and enters the Canisteo at the village of Hornellsville.

The CANASERAGA rises in the south part of the town of Dansville, and runs north into Dansville, in Livingston County ; thenee to the Genesee River.

NEIL'S CREEK rises in the high valley of Loon Lake, out of Mud Lake, and runs south into Howard; thence east and north into the Conhoeton.

FIVE-MILE CREEK, TEN-MILE CREEK, and TWELVE- MILE CREEK severally rise in the north part of Pratts- burgh, and run southwesterly into the Conhoeton ; Five-Mile Creek at Kanona, Ten-Mile at Wallace's Mills, and Twelve- Mile at Wallace's Station. These several creeks form the principal valleys of the towns of Wheeler and Prattsburgh.

COLD SPRING CREEK rises partly in Bath and Wheeler, formus quite a stream at the old Henry A. Townsend place, and thence runs through Pleasant Valley to Lake Keuka, it Hammondsport. (See History of Urbana.)

MUD CREEK rises from Mud Lake, and runs south- easterly through Bradford and the eastern part of Bath to the Conhocton at Savona. At the outlet of Mud Lake, Frederick Bartles located himself in 1793, and built a Houring- and saw-mill, making the place quite noted, and prospectively quite a large town. (See History of Brad- ford.)

GEOLOGY.

The surface rocks of the county of Steuben are composed of the Chemung group of sandstones and shales to the depth of nearly one thousand feet. The sandstones are most commonly fine-grained, the particles being often ee- mented by shale, the two being intermixed with each other. It is to this cause, from the disintegrating nature of the shale, that so much of the sandstone of Steuben County is of a perishable nature.

The sandstones range in layers from an inch to a foot in 8

thickness. In some localities they form suitable layers for flagging. In one locality, a quarry suitable for grindstones has been opened and worked. The shale in some places assumes a slaty structure, sometimes of' a blue color, with the same tendeney to decomposition which characterizes the whole mass. In some places they form eoneretions, parallel with their layers, of carbonate of lime or of manganese, of sizes from an inch to several yards in length. They are sometimes colored with bitumen and carbonate of iron.

The rocks of Steuben County pass immediately under the coal formations of Pennsylvania. The dip or inclina- tion is constantly to the south, there being no anticlinal line other than the slightly elevated one which has given rise to the northern and southern waters. This dipping of the rocks to the south, though it diminishes the geographical height of the coal series, correspondingly inereases their thickness. Some of the hills in the southern part of Steuben County are capped with conglomerate, showing masses of red sandstone, together with fossils which border the coal series ; but the strata of roeks dipping to the south at Painted Post one hundred and thirty feet to the mile, at Chimney Narrows one hundred feet, and five miles farther south one hundred and ninety-eight feet, the strata of roek peculiar to Steuben County would pass six thousand feet below the coal beds of Pennsylvania.

The rocks of this county, consisting of shale and sand- stone of a greenish color, are evidently not of igneous origin. They abound in marine organic remains of shells and zoophites, showing the presence of the sea, and not of land favorable for plants the origin of coal,-the coal se- ries exhibiting vegetable, not marine remains. The con- glomerate or pebble rock occurs in this county only as a terminal rock, and in very partial masses. It diminishes with the coal as you go north. From all of which it is evident that these roeks pass under the coal series, and form the support of their mass.

The rocks of the county exhibiting marine organie re- mains were at some period submerged by the waters of the ocean. It has been suggested that an inland sea covered all the western portion of the State, and observations may tend to support the theory. The lake ridge of Ontario shows marks of shores of water, which at various periods stood from an elevation of seven hundred and sixty-two feet to the present level of the lake. Similar indications of ancient shores may be traced at the head of Seneca Lake. When the waters stood at the highest mark indieated, the area of the inland sea must have been limited by the Highlands and New England range on the east ; the shores of Lake Superior on the north ; the Alleghanies on the south ; and the head-waters of the Mississippi on the west. The outlet of this sea would be by the St. Lawrence, the Hudson, the Connecticut, and the Susquehanna.

The deposition of drift which occurred at that time may be traced down the valleys of these rivers in the large number of bowlders deposited.

The indications of diluvial action are everywhere perceived in the accumulation of gravel, sand, pebbles, and bowlders strewed over the surface. Diluvial hills are found in various localities. The level portions of Western New York are of diluvial origin, the surface being strewed with bowlders

HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.

of foreign parentage. Many of them consist of granite and gneiss, some of sandstone from below, others of lime- stone from above. Many of the rocks bear evidences of the wearing action of water, running and carrying materials which wore away, and in some instances polished, the sur- face of the rocks. In some places the abrupt offsets from one strata to another have been worn down to a gradual slope. The agency of running water in producing our di- luvial deposits is very obvious ; and the formation of these deposits shows not only the action of running water in one direction, but also of eddies and counter-currents. In many places we find the coarser deposits on the south side

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

History of Steuben county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 14

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia, Lewis, Peck & co. Number of Pages: 826

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia, Lewis, Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 826