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 22
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" It is still my intention to continue the execution of my plan. But I have reason to believe that it may be imagined that, if a person con- nected with your agency is employed in appraising the value of the lots, he might be liable to a suspicion of not being sufficiently impar- tial. I therefore now request you to lose no time in selecting, suhjcet to my approbation, some independent, judicious, and upright farmer residing in Steuben or Allegany County, and Do way connected with the estate, to appraise the lots under contract in the several towns in your department. As this will be a work of considerable time aod expense, I request you to engage the person you may select to com- mence with those townships that have not been already appraised by your assistant. It is possible that his appraisement quay prove to be so correct and fair, on comparing them with the appraisements of the lots in other townships by the person you may select, as to lead me to judge that the lots already appraised oued not be appraised again.
" The person to be iutrusted with the business of appraisement must confirm the appraisement of the lots in every township by his oath, and when the appraisement is returned to the land-office it must re- main subject to my approbation.
" The ageney has heretofore gone to some extent into the practice of taking wheat and eattle in the payment of debts. and I now direct you to make the practice general, and to continue it as long as the settlers shall appear faithfully to second my sineere desire to accom-
modate them and it shall be found advantageons to the agency. The price at which the wheat is to be received during the winter months is to be fixed at seventy-five cents per bushel. This price, I am per- suaded, will seeure to the settler a good living profit for his labor. It must nevertheless be remembered that the wheat to he received on contracts originally made payable in wheat must be taken at the price stipulated in the contraets.
" At the time when the price of seventy-five cents per bushel is given for wheat it may so happen that the settler who has money to pay may sustain an injury from soaking the payment in money and not in wheat. To prevent such injury, you are authorized to allow the settler a just abatement on his money payment, if he is willing to make it.
" You will also receive cattle at fair and liberal cash prices.
"When the settler comes to the office to receive the benefit of the reduction of his debt. I think it reasonable and just that you should demand of him a moderate payment on account of the balance of his debt, and I desire it to be expressly understood that, while the ap- praisements are in progress, the settlers are expected to make pay- ments as usual. They may rest satisfied that the payments made in the mean time shall not impair their right to have a reduction of their debts, but shall be considered in lieu of so much paid at the time of reduction, and shall accordingly be applied towards extinguishing the balances that may then he ascertained to be due.
" It is my desire that no occupied or improved lots he advertised for sale until after the settlers have been favored with the opportunity of availing themselves of the benefits to arise from the reduction of their debts under the proposed appraisements.
" Some time since I directed you to reduce for the future the selling prices of wasold lands in your agency to a more moderate standard. and this direction you must continue to observe.
" The details for carrying these instructions into effect must neces- sarily be a matter of sound discretion with you, and I request you to exercise that discretion in the same spirit of liberality that is mani- fested in this letter.
" Yon will be pleased to communicate to the settlers in due season, through the medium of the newspapers printed at Bath and at An- gelica, such part of the details as they ought to be made acquainted with.
" With great respect, I am, " Dear sir, your humble servant, " ROBERT TROUP.
"W.M. W. M'CAY, EsQ."
FURTHER ACTION OF THE SETTLERS.
During the interval of three months between the above letter of Col. Troup and another containing his modified instructions, dated June 14, 1830, meetings were held by the settlers in many towns of the county, and a spirit of calm but determined resistance manifested. At an ad- jonrned meeting of the convention held in Bath, April 14, 1830, it was
" Resolved, As the sense of this meeting, that the instructions given by Col. Troup to his sub-agent in Bath under date of March 14, 1830. will not afford the necessary and reasonable relief required by the settlers upon the lands embraced in the agencies, and that the con- vention disapprove of the same.
" Resolved, That the convention recommend to said settlers that they withhold all payments upon contracts upon the aforesaid lands until the necessary relief is granted."
On the 6th of May a large meeting of the settlers in Urbana was held at Hammondsport, of which James Brundage was chairman and William Hastings seeretary. The action of the above convention was approved, and it was
" Resolved, That all further payments be withheld until the asked- for relief is granted.
" Resolved, That if our grievances are not redressed our delegates use their endeavors with the convention to memorialize the next Legislature, praying that proper and expedient laws be cuacted for the relief of this oppressed community."
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Such was the spirit and purport of the meetings held throughout the county.
On the 14th of June, 1830, Col. Troup sent the follow- ing instructions to Mr. M'Cay :
" NEW YORK, 14th June, 1830.
" DEAR SIR,-I have received your letter of the 9th ultimo, with its inclosure. From them, and likewise from late proceedings of a public nature in Steuben County, I learn, with no little surprise, that my proposed plan for the relief of the settlers on the PULTENEY Es- TATE in Struben and Allegany Counties, na exhibited in my letter of instructions to you of the 14th March last, is disagreeable to them : and especially that part of the plan which prescribes an appraise- ment of the present value of the improvements on every lot as one of the items to be taken into the account of its total value. It seems that this part of the plan is so disagreeable to many of the settlers that they have rejected it. and, in consequence of their rejection, have resolved to suspend all payments to the ageney. The suspen- sion, I am informed, is to continue until I agree to their plan of relief, which, I have constantly understood, consists in my consenting arbitrarily to cut down their contract debts, without any discrimina- tion, in the cases of the settlers, to the present value of wild lands, exclusive of the value of the improvements on their lots, and in my further consenting to give them new contracts for the lots at the price of wild lands.
Learning these to be the feelings and views of the settlers, it is necessary for me to furnish you with additional instructions for your government.
" I very much regret that my plan of relief has proved so disagree- able to the settlers. I formed it on mature reflection, and withont having the least possible motive of personal interest to hend my judg- ment from the straight line of rectitude. The faithful management of the estate intrusted to my charge places me on middle ground between my principals and the settlers. I have, on the one side, to perform to my principals the duties of diligence, justice, and integrity ; and, on the other side, to perform to the settlers the duties of justice, liberality, and kindness. It was under a sense of these several duties, most deeply impressed both on my mind and heart, that the plan was formed. And, sueb being my duties, I was afterwards very happy to find that the plan received the full approbation of able, disereet, and honest counsel, to whom I submitted it for their consideration, but more particularly for their consideration of the legal exercise of the powers delegated to me as an agent.
" It appeared to me that, as a discreet and faithful land-agent. I would not be justified in acceding to the plan of relief proposed by the settlers. I thought it was foundedl on arbitrary principles, which, when carried into practice, would prove unjust to the persons I repre- sent, and unequal towards the settlers themselves.
" The reasons for this opinion are obvious.
"The plan, by reducing debts differing widely from each other in age, amount, and character, would assume an arbitrary rule, subjeet- ing the estate to a heavy and, in a great majority of the cases, no- necessary loss on the debts in different proportions from twenty-five to seventy-five per cent. It would not render equal justice to the settlers themselves; for the operation of an uniform rule of abate- ment on debts, of various descriptions, could not fail, in many cases, to exceed what the actual situation of the settlers in justice required. It would often place the settlers who bad profitably enjoyed their farms for ten, twenty, or thirty years, and had paid little or nothing for them in the mean time, on a footing of equality with those who had purchased their farms but recently; and on a more favorable footing than those who had made frequent payments, or had quite ex- tinguished their contract debts. That I have declined acceding to a plan possessing such very objectionable qualities will not seem ex- traordinary to any man who sets a dne value on his property, and regards what is fair and just in his business transactions.
"I supposed, on the contrary, that my plan would afford all the relief to the settlers that was proper to be granted by a discreet and faithful land-agent, or that justice aud equity demanded. This plan was grounded on the fair value of every lot, which was to be ascer- tained by appraising, separately, the present value of the improved land, and buildings, and the present value of the land remaining in a state of nature. That the appraisement might be perfectly impar- tial, it was to be made, under oath, by some independent, judicious,
and honest farmer resiling in Steuben or Allegany County. and not subject to the influence either of the settlers or the land-office. The lot having been appraised, and its total value ascertained by uniting the value of its several parts, the contract debt was to be reduced, by an abatement on just and equitable principles, to a sum considerably below the appraised value of the farm.
" But this reduction of the contract debt was not to take place in favor of every settler indiscriminately, ns there are settlers whose cases are so circumstanced as to render any relief to thera neither necessary nor proper. In this class of cases are those, among others, of second purchasers, who have lately bought contracts of the first settlers, and paid them for their improvements, with express refer- ence to the balances due on the contract debts.
"The principles of justice and equity, to regulate the abatement pro- posed, would naturally embrace varions considerations, such as the greatness or smallness of the price originally agreed to be paid for the land, the accumulation of interest on the price, the present value of the property, the enterprise, industry, and general good conduct of the settler, his ability to pay, his hardships, losses, and misfortunes since he settled on the estate, and other circumstances furnishing just and equitable elaims to liberality. In no instance, however, did I intend to charge, in the renewed contract, more than was due on the previous contraet. though the value of the land should much exceed the debt due on it, my objeet heing to benefit the settler, and not to injure him. But it should be remembered that the abatement, in- stead of heing designed by me as an act of more benevolence, was to be made as a matter of business ; and therefore I meant to bound my liberality by that honest and sound discretion which it was my duty to observe in managing the property of other persons.
"Such are the principles on which the tuo plans proposed for the relief of the settlers are grounded ; and I believe that when the arbi- trary and unjust principles of the plan of the settlers are contrasted with the rational and just principles of my plan, the contrast will appear so glaring as to flash conviction on every reflecting and un- prejudiced mind, that my conduct, far from meriting censure from the settlers, is well entitled to their grateful acknowledgments.
" But my proposed plan for the relief of the settlers went still farther. I granted them easy annual installments for paying the equitably re- duced balances due on their contracts; and to facilitate their means of payment, as Steuben and Allegany Counties. depend on the uncer- tain and bazardous navigation of the Susquehanna for a market for the sale of produce, I permitted them to make payments in wheat and cattle, taking wheat at seventy-five cents per bushel, and cattle at liberal cash prices. It is matter of public notoriety that the price of seventy-five cents per bushel for wheat is considerably above the priee that has for many years past prevailed in Steuben and Allegany Counties ; and as it is admitted that seventy- five cents per bushel will yield the farmer a living profit. I readily agreed to allow that price.
"Some of the contracts stipulate payments in wheat, but the greater portion of the contracts oblige the settlers to pay their purebase- moneys in cash. And yet I consented to take wheat and cattle in payment on the cash contracts, though at the certainty of heavy losses aceruing to the ageney from the operation. The losses will arise from the expense and risk attending the transportation to the seaboard, from the fluctuations of the market, and from bad debts ; in all which respects the agency bas heretofore suffered severely.
" I presume I hazard nothing in saying that the facilities thus pro- posed to be granted to the settlers for the payment of the equitably reduced balances of their contract debts rendered my plan of relief complete. I call it complete, for, by its natural effects, the debts of the settlers obtaining relief would be reduced considerably below the present worth of their farms. time would be gained for paying the balances in easy installments, and a convenient and ready market, at liberal prices, would be provided for the sale of their produce. Had I carried my plan of relief to greater extent in essential particulars, I should have thought myself unworthy of the important trust eon- fided to me by my principals: but I ask what more equitable and what more liberal can the settlers reasonably desire of me? This question will he promptly and rightly answered by every settler who takes pride in performing his honest engagements.
" The settlers voluntarily came and purchased their farms, without the practice of any imposition by the agency, at the prices commonly asked by land-holders at the time, and after having explored the lots, and thereby qualified themselves to judge correctly of the situation, nature, and value of the lands. They have occupied the farms for
86
HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.
many years, and supported their families with the productions of the soil ; and they have been treated by the agency with sernpulous jus- tice, and almost unexampled forbearance and kindness.
" The settlers who have rejected the appraisement I had in view have unfortunately thus deprived me of the services of Mr. Grattan II. Wheeler in the prosecution of my plan of relief. Mr. Wheeler is known to be an independent, judicious, and honest farmer in Steuben County, and a respectable member of our State Senate. I had selected him as the proper person to make the appraisement; but, being now deprived of the benefit of his services, I forbear to notice the qualifi- cations that eminently fitted him to execute the offico of appraiser in a manner satisfactory to all parties.
" Since the appraisement of the lots by an independent, judicious, and honest farmer appears to be a feature of my plan of relief which is particularly disagreeable to many of the settlers, I shall not persist in having the appraisement made. With this exception, however, it is my fixed purpose to carry the plan fairly into effect.
"You will therefore he pleased to repeat your invitation to the set- tlers, in all the townships belonging to the estate, to make payments on the contract debts; and to inform them that, on their making reasonable payments, you are authorized, in all cases where abate- ments are proper, to reduce the contract debts according to the equit- able and liberal principles of my plan of relief: and also to allow them easy annual installments for the payment of the balances. The applications for reducing the contract debts should claim your partic- ular attention, and you are requested to favor the applicants with every equitable and liberal relief their situation may require, and your information may qualify you to grant. With respect to applica- tions from settlers in the townships which Mr. Fowler has examined, I imagine you already have sufficient light to guide your judgment; and as to applications from settlers in the townships which have not been examined, it is my desire that you grant them such relief as prudence may recommen I under the limited information within your reach.
" I have heard, with much gratification, that, notwithstanding the settlers have heen advised to the contrary, a respectable number of them have made payments, and taken uew contracts at abated prices. I cannot help cherishing a hope that their prudent and upright con- duct will he followed by the other settlers in the several townships.
" I shall wait a reasonable time on the settlers who have resolved to suspend payments, with the expectation that, on their calmer reflec- tion, they will see the good sense of abandoning the ground they have taken. But, if a reasonable time should elapse without receiving payments from them, it will then become my imperions duty, however painful to me its execution, to take legal measures to enforce the per- formanee of contracts which the settlers have so willingly and fairly entered into. And, in taking such measures, I do not entertain the smallest doubt but that the wholesome laws of the State, aud its con- stituted authorities, will afford the same just and effectual protection to the rights of my principals which they have uniformly afforded to the rights of all other owners of real property in the State.
" I have thus explained, and I hope with eleairness, the course of policy which, after dispassionate and deep deliberation, I have adopted for the conduct of my agency. The course is sanctioned by my judg- ment and approved by my conscience. I shall pursue it with steady and firm steps, without turning to the right or to the left. It is not my intention to be the first land-agent in the State to set the danger- ous example of yielding to an attack on the rights of property ; nor is it my intention to submit to the dietation of any combination of men, he it ever so numerous, that is formed to force me from the direct path of duty in the management of the great trust committed to my charge.
" Faithfully to fulfill these intentions I conceive to be a solemn obli- gation which, as an agent, I owe to the interests of the worthy family that bas honored me with its confidenee. I conceive it likewise to be a solemn obligation which, as a citizen, I owe to the high reputation our State sustains for its wise, impartial, and energetic administration of the laws : to the rights of all the owners of real property in the State, whom, to a certain extent, on this occasion I may be truly said to represent : and also to the welfare of every other class of my fellow- citizens, whose prosperity and happiness are inseparably connected with the preservation of the rights of property,-rights which consti- tute the main pillar that supports the fabric of our free and excellent government.
" For the general information of the settlers, I request you to have
this letter published in the Bath and Angelica newspapers; and in all your dealings with the settlers it is my wish that you treat them with the courtesy and kindness becoming your station and the character of the agency.
" With great respect, " I am, dear sir, " Your bumble servant,
" ROBERT TROUP.
"WM. W. M'CAY, EsQ."
CHAPTER XVIII.
SOCIETIES.
Steuben County Medical Society-Steuben County Homeopathic Medical Society-Southern Tier Homoeopathic Medical Associa- tion-Hornellsville Academy of Medicine-Steuben County Agri- cultural Society.
STEUBEN COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.
This society was organized prior to 1818, the records not showing the exact date. It consists of the major part of physicians of the county, convened for the purpose of professional and social advancement. Its first president, as shown by the minutes, was Dr. Warren Patchin, who was elected in the year 1818. The eldest living member is Dr. James Faulkner, now of Dansville, Livingston Co. He attended the first recorded meeting sixty-one years ago. The society has held since that date annual and semi- annual meetings at Bath, Dansville, Corning, Reading, and Hornellsville (Dansville and Reading were at date of or- ganization in Steuben County). The society has labored under some difficulties, chief of which has been the widely- separated location of its members. It has been useful to physicians of the county in a professional and social way, giving opportunity for consulting concerning cases and com- paring modes of practice. This organization has been the greater prized, as many of its members have been in rural districts at a distance from professional brethren. The older members were exposed to many hardships. Their patients were widely scattered in small openings in the primitive forests; the roads, illy made, often mere bridle- paths. In the heat of the day and in the darkness of the night, in sunshine and in storm, these men have done an arduous, important, and often unrequited duty to the in- habitants of the county ; and, in the main, they have done it well. Many are the associations of joy and sorrow, sickness, accident, and death that will be recalled by the perusal of the following list of members of this honorable body. It will be seen that many have finished their labors and gone to their rewards. The first twenty names on the list were members prior to 1820.
John D. Higgins," Bath. Willis F. Clark.$ Warren l'atchin,# Patchinsville.
Samuel Gorton.$
James Faulkner, Dansville.
Enos Barnes, died at Geneva. John Warner.# James Warden, died at Mead's Creek. Andrew Kingsbury.#
* Deceased.
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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Daniel Gilbert,# John P. Kenedy.# Jacob Chatterton.# Lyman N. Cook.# Philo Andrews." Walter Wolcott, died at Dundee. Thomas M. Bowen, Dansville ; died at Dansville. Noah Niles,# Prattsburgh. Samuel Southworth." Simeon 1I. Goss.# Joel Luther.#
Robert F. Hoyt, Erwin, admitted 1820 ; died at Painted Post. Jonathan Lockwood,# Tyrone, admitted 1821. Samuel Scofield, admitted 1822. Silas B. Hibbard,# Reading, admitted 1823. James Cutler, Painted Post, admitted 1823.
George W. Turner,# admitted 1823.
Gustavus A. Rogers, Bath, admitted 1823; died at Chicago. Samuel B. Chidsey,# admitted 1823.
Isaac L. Kidder, admitted 1824; removed.
Milo Inrd,# admitted 1824.
Levi S. Goodrich,# Howard, admitted 1824.
David L. Wicks,# admitted 1824. Daniel H. Orcutt, admitted 1824.
M. C. Kellogg, admitted 1826. E. R. Pulling, Bath, admitted 1826; died in 1844.
Israel Chissom,# Italy Hill, admitted 1826.
Isaac Wixom, admitted 1827.
T. E. Gansevoort, Bath, admitted 1827.
J. L. Livermore, admitted 1827.
F. E. Bateman, Cohocton, admitted 1827. William Hunter,# Jasper, admitted 1828. Samuel Olin,# Hornellsville, admitted 1828.
Levi Fay, admitted 1828. David Hochkiss, admitted 1828. Nathaniel Sheldon, admitted 1829. Manning Kelly, admitted 1829. Zenas S. Jackson,# Prattsburgh, admitted 1829. Sampson Stodard, admitted 1829. Winthrop E. Booth, admitted 1829; died at Watkins. David Ward,# admitted 1830. Delevan Stebbins, admitted 1831 ; removed. Norman Truesdell, admitted 1831.
J. R. Wagner, Addison, admitted 1831.
A. L. Comstock, admitted 1832.
Ira L. Babcock, Bath, admitted 1833 ; removed to Norwalk, Ohio. Abijah B. Case, lloward, admitted 1833.
A. S. Winslow, admitted 1834. Myron A. Smith, admitted 1835.
William H. Bissell, admitted 1835; removed.
Daniel H. Shipman, admitted 1835; died at Syracuse.
Andrew Baker, Jr., admitted 1837; died at Norwich, Chenango Co.
J. S. Jones, admitted 1837 ; removed. Daniel Seaver, admitted 1842; removed. Walter S. Cheney, Prattsburgh, admitted 1842 ; died at Bath. Addison Niles, Bath, admitted 1842; died at Quincy, Ill. P. D. H. Goff, admitted 1842; removed.
Festus Demerest, admitted 1842; removed. Andrew D. Voorhees, Prattsburgh, admitted 1843; removed. Wickham R. Crocker, Cameron, admitted 1843; died at Cameron. C. W. C. Howard, Avoca, admitted 1843; removed.
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