History of Steuben county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 43

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 43

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# See account of this road in another chapter.

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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.

called on Benjamin Eaton, who kept a little store of goods, and, after an introduction by Judge Knox to the rest of the neighborhood, returned to our hotel and put up for the night. In the morning we started for Bath, a distance of eighteen miles. When we reached the mouth of Mud Creek, we found that a house of entertainment had been erected there, and was kept by one Thomas Corbit, who came from Pennsylvania with Williamson's company. Thomas had been a soldier of the Revolution, and could sing an nnaecountable number of patriotie songs, ' Hail ! Columbia' among the rest. Some thirty years after he be- came poor and helpless. I procured for him a pension, through Henry Clay, but he did not live long to enjoy it.

" We arrived at Bath and put up at the only house of entertainment in the village (if it could be called a house ). Its construction was of pitch-pine logs, in two apartments, one story high, kept by a very kind and obliging English family of the name of Metcalfe. This house was the only one in town except a similar one erected for the temporary abode of Capt. Williamson, which answered the purpose of parlor, dining-room, and land-office. There were besides some shanties for mechanics and laborers.

" I called on Capt. Williamson, and introduced myself to him as a mechanic. I told him that I had seen his ad- vertisement, and, in pursuance of his invitation, had come to ask employment. . Very well,' said he ; 'young man, you shall not be disappointed.' Ile told me I should have the whole of his work, if I could procure as many hands as necessary. We entered into an agreement. He asked me when I should be ready to commence business. I told him that I must return to Northumberland and engage some hands there, and send our tools and baggage up the north branch of the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, that being the head of boat-navigation.

"I introduced Uncle Moore to him ; told him that he eame all the way to see the country, and that, if he liked it, he would purchase a farm and move on it with his family. He made a selection four miles west of Bath, on which some of his family now reside.

" We returned immediately to Northumberland, hired a few young men,-carpenters. We shipped our tools and baggage on a boat, sold my horse, and we went on foot to Bath, arriving there in five days. One more trip was neces- sary before we could commence business, as our baggage would be landed at Tioga Point. There were no roads at that time through the narrows on the Cheming for wagons to pass with safety ; therefore eight of us started on foot for the Point. When we came within four miles of New- town, we discovered a number of canoes, owned by some Dutch settlers. I purchased four of them. One of them was a very large one, which I bought of a funny old Dutch- man, who said his canoe ' wash de granny from de whole river np.' My companions gave me the title of commodore, and insisted on my taking command of the large canoe. I selected as a shipmate a young man by the name of Gordon, who was well skilled in the management of such a craft. We laid in provisions for the voyage and a full supply of the joyful. We pushed our little fleet into the river, and with wind and tide in our favor, arrived at Tioga Point in four hours, a distance of twenty-four miles. We shipped

our goods and set out with paddles and long setting-poles against a strong current. Then came the tug of war. Many times we were obliged to land, and, with a long rope, tow our vessel up falls and strong riffles, and in ascending the Conhocton we had to cut through many piles of drift- wood. Our progress was slow. We made the trip from the Point (sixty-six miles) in nine days. It was the hardest voyage I ever undertook. We were the first navigators of the Conhocton River.

" By this time Capt. Williamson had erected two saw- mills on the Conhoeton, near Bath, and they were in full operation. Houses were erected as fast as 30 or 40 hands could finish them. Capt. Williamson called on me, and asked how long it would take me to erect and finish a frame building of 40 by 16 feet, one and a half stories high, all green stuff. He told me that he expected a good deal of company in a few days, and there was no honse where so many could be entertained. I told him if all the mate- rial were delivered on the spot, I would engage to finish it according to his plan in about three days, or perhaps in less time. 'Very well, sir,' said he; ' if you finish the house in the time you have stated, you shall be rewarded.' I told my hands what I had undertaken to do, and the time I had to do it in was limited to three days. 'I will pay each of you one dollar a day extra. We shall have to work day and night. What say you, boys ?' Their answer was, ' We will do it.' This was followed up by three hearty cheers for Capt. Williamson. Next morning I went at it with 30 hands, and in forty-eight hours the house was finished ac- cording to agreement. No limestone had yet been dis- covered in that region, nor even stone suitable for walling cellars, therefore the whole materials for the building were, from necessity, confined to timber and nails. Capt. Wil- liamson paid me $400 for my forty-eight hours' job, and remarked that he would not have been disappointed for double that sum. He published an account of this little affair in the Albany and New York papers. It had some effeet of bringing our little settlement into notice. He also gave orders for the erection of a large building, eighty by forty feet, for a theatre, and for the clearing of 100 acres, around which was made a beautiful race-course, and another at Genesee Flats, near Williamsburgh. Such amusements had the effect of bringing an immense number of gentle- men into the county every spring and fall. This was done by Capt. Williamson in order to promote the interest of his employer. Southern sportsmen came with their full-blooded racers ; others again with bags of money to bet on the horses, and a large proportion of gamblers and blacklegs. Money was plenty in those days,-at least in and about Bath,-and was easily obtained, and as easily lost. Some men became immensely rich in twenty-four hours, and per- haps the next day were reduced to beggary.

"Such amusements and scenes of dissipation led to another species of gambling, called land speculation. Any respectable-looking gentleman might purchase, on a credit of six years, from one mile square to a township of land. The title that Capt. Williamson gave was a bond for a deed at the end of the term, provided payment was fully made, otherwise the contract became null and void. Those bonds were transferable, and the speculators sold to each other,

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TOWN OF BATH.

and gave their bonds for thousands and hundreds of thou- sands of dollars, which was the ruin of all who embarked in such foolish speculations. They became the victims of a monomania. Capt. Williamson believed that this specu- lation would hasten the settlement of the country, but its tendency proved to be the reverse. Besides, it was the ruin of many honest, enterprising, and industrious men.

" The next prejeet that claimed his attention was the im- provement of our streams. They were then called creeks, but when they came to be improved, and were made navi- gable for arks and rafts, their names were changed to those of rivers. The colonel ordered the Conhocton and Mud Creeks to be explored by a competent committee, and a report to be made, and an estimate of the probable expense required to make them navigable for arks and rafts. The report of the committee was favorable. A number of hands were employed to remove obstructions and open a passage to Painted Post, which was done, though the channel still remained very imperfect and dangerous .*

" The question was then asked, Who shall be the first ad- venturer ? We had not as yet any surplus produce to spare, but lumber was a staple commodity, and was in great demand at Harrisburg, Columbia, and Baltimore. 1 there- fore came to the conclusion to try the experiment the next spring. I went to work and built an ark 75 feet long and 16 feet wide, and in the course of the winter got out a cargo of pipe and hogshead staves, which I knew would turn to good account should I arrive safely at Baltimore. All things being ready, with a cargo on board, a good pitch of water, and a first-rate set of hands, we put out our un- wieldy vessel into the stream, and away we went at a rapid rate, and in about half an hour reached White's Island, five miles below Bath. There we ran against a large tree which lay across the river. We made fast our ark to the shore, eut away the tree, repaired damages, and next morning took a fair start. It is unnecessary to state in detail the many difficulties we encountered before we reached Painted Post, but in about six days we got there. The Chemung River had fallen so low that we were obliged to wait for a rise of water. In four or five days we were favored with a good pitch of water. We made a fresh start, and in four days ran two hundred miles, to Mohoutongo, a place twenty miles from Harrisburg, where, through the igno- rance of the pilot, we ran upon a bar of rocks in the middle of the river, where it was one mile wide. There we lay twenty-four hours, no one coming to our relief, or to take us on shore. At last a couple of gentlemen came on board, and told us it was impossible to get the ark off till a rise of water. One of the gentlemen inquired, apparently very carelessly, what it cost to build an ark of that size, and how many thousand staves we had on board. I suspected his object, and answered him in his own careless manner. He asked if I did not wish to sell the ark and cargo. I told him I would prefer going through if there was any chance of a rise of water ; that pipe-staves in Baltimore were worth $80 per thousand, but if you wish to purchase, and will make me a generous offer, I will take it. He offered me

8600. I told him that was hardly half the price of the cargo at Baltimore, but if he would give me $800, I would close the bargain with him. He said he had a horse, saddle, and bridle on shore, worth $200, which he would add to the $600. We all went on shore. I examined the horse, and considered him worth the $200. We elosed the bargain, and I started for Bath. I lost nothing by the sale, but if I had succeeded in reaching Baltimore I shoukl have cleared $500.

" The same spring Jacob Bartles and his brother-in-law, Mr. Harvey, made their way down Mud Creek, with one ark and some rafts. Bartles' mill-pond and Mud Lake afforded water sufficient at any time, by drawing a gate, to carry arks and rafts out of the creek. Harvey lived on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and understood the man- agement of such erafts.

"Thus it was ascertained to a certainty that, by improv- ing these streams, we could transport our produce to Balti- more-a distance of three hundred miles-in the spring of the year for a mere trifle.

" In the year 1795 I went to Albany on horseback. There was no road from Caynga Lake to Utica better than an Indian trail. . . . I had got it into my head to dispose of my chest of tools and turn merchant. I therefore set- tled my accounts with Col. Williamson. Ile gave me a draft on a house in Albany for $1500, accompanied by let- ters of recommendation. I laid in a large assortment of merchandise and shipped then on board a Mohawk boat. Being late in the fall, the winter set in and the boat got frozen up in the river about thirty miles west of Schenec- tady, at a place called the Cross Widow's, otherwise called the Widow Veder's. Here the goods lay for about two months, till a sleigh-road was opened from Utica to Cayuga Lake. About the last of January I started with sleighs after my goods, and in two weeks arrived at Bath.

" I have already mentioned that Col. Williamson ex- pended a good deal of money in improving a number of farms and erecting a number of buildings on them, which gave employment to many hands .; These hands were my best customers, and paid up their accounts every three months by orders on Williamson; but orders came from England to stop such improvements, and shortly after Col. Williamson resigned his agency. Those tenants and labor- ers got in my debt at this time about $4000, and in one night the whole of them cleared out for Canada. They were a sad set of unprincipled scamps.

" My next start in business was attended with a little better success. My brother Charles kept a small store in Bath, and in the year 1800 we entered into partnership. I moved to Dansville, opened a store, and remained there one year. I did a safe business, and took in that winter 4000 bushels of wheat and 200 barrels of pork ; built four arks at Arkport, on the Canisteo River, and ran them down to Baltimore. These were the first arks that descended the

+ The author of MeMaster's history makes this note : Several of the Ilaverling, Brundage, and Faulkner farms, north of the village of Bath, were cleared by Capt. Williamson. He built large framed barns on them and settled them with tenants. The scheme was a failure. After Capt. W.'s departure the farms were almost hopelessly overrun with oak-busbes.

* The Conhoeton was declared navigable above Liberty Corners. The first attempt at clearing the channel was made on the strength of a fund of $700, raised by subscription.

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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Canisteo. My success in trade that year gave me another fair start. My brother, in the mean time, went to Phila- delphia to lay in a fresh supply of goods for both stores ; but on his way home he died very suddenly at Tioga Poiut. He had laid in about $30,000 worth of goods. I returned to Bath with my family ; continued my store at Dansville ; opened one at Penn Yan, and sent a small assortment to Pittstown, Ontario Co .*

" My next project was to build a schooner on Crooked Lake, of about 30 tous burden, for the purpose of carrying wheat from Peun Yan to the head of the lake.

" Indians were very numerous at that time. Their hunt- ing eamps were within short distances of each other all over the county. The Indian trade was then an object. I hired a chief by the name of Kettle-Hoop, from Buffalo, to teach me the Seneea language. He spoke good English. All words that related to the Indian trade or traffic I wrote down in one column, and opposite gave the interpretation in Seneca ; and so I enlarged my dietionary from day to day for three or four weeks, until I got a pretty good knowledge of the language. I then set out on a trading expedition amongst the Indian eneampments, and took my teacher along, who introduced me to his brethren as seos cagenu, that is, very good man. They laughed very heartily at my pronunciation. I told them I had a great many goods at Tanighanaguanda ; that is, Bath. I told them to come and see me, and bring all their furs, and peltry, and gammon ( the hams of deer ), and I would buy them all, and pay them in goods very cheap. They asked me, Tegoye ezeethyath and Negaugh ? that is, . Have you rum and wine, or fire- water?' That fall, in the hunting season, I took in an immense quantity of furs, peltry, and deer-hams. Their price for gammon, large or small, was two sbillings. I salted and smoked that winter 3000 hams, and sold them next spring in Baltimore and Philadelphia for two shillings a pound.

" At this time there was an old bachelor Irishman in Bath, who kept a little store or groggery, by the name of Jimmy McDonald, who boarded himself and lived in his pen in about as good style as a certain nameless four-legged animal. He became very jealous of me after I had seeured the whole of the Indian trade. The Indians used to com- plain of Jimmy, and say that he was tos cos; that is, not good,-too much cheat, JJimmy. When I had command of the army at Fort George, in Upper Canada, about six hundred of these Indians were attached to my command.

" The next spring I started down the rivers Conhocton and Canisteo with a large fleet of arks loaded with flour, wheat, pork, and other articles. The embargo being in full force, the price of flour and wheat was very low. At Havre de Grace I made fast two or three arks loaded with wheat to the stern of a small schooner, which lay anchored in the middle of the stream, about half a mile from shore. Being ebb-tide, together with the current of the stream, we could not possibly land the arks. Night setting in, there was no time to be lost in getting them to shore, as

there was a strong wind down the bay, and it would be impossible to save them if they should break loose from the schooner. I left the arks in charge of William Ed- wards, of Bath, while I went on shore to procure help to tow to shore. Whilst I was gone the wind increased, and the master of the schooner hallooed to Edwards, who was in one of the arks, that he would cut loose, as there was danger that he would be dragged into the bay and get lost, and he raised his axe to cut the cables. Edwards swore if he eut the cables he would shoot him down on the spot, and raising a handspike took deliberate aim. It being dark the captain could not distinguish between a hand- spike and a rifle. This brought him to terms. He dropped the axe, and told Edwards that if he would engage that I should pay him for his vessel in case she should be lost he would not cut loose. Edwards pledged himself that I would do so.

" When I got on shore I went to a man named Smith, who had a fishery and a large boat with eighteen oars, and about forty Irishmen in his employ, and offered to hire his boat and hands. He was drunk, and told me with an oath that I and my ark might 'go to the d-1.' He would neither let the boat nor the hands go. I went into the shanty of the Irishmen, and, putting on an Irish brogne, told them of my distress. 'The d-1 take Smith; we will help our countryman, by my shoul. boys,' said their leader. They manned the boat, and the arks were brought to shore in double-quick time. They refused to take pay, and I took them to a tavern and ordered them as much as they chose to drink. My friend Edwards and those jolly Irishmen saved my arks and cargo. Edwards is yet alive, and resides in Bath.+

" The loss I sustained in flour and wheat this year was great, but I did not feel it to be a serious interruption to my business. On my return I concluded that I must sus- pend the purchase of wheat while that ruinous measure, the embargo, was in foree, and fall upon some other seheme and project. So I opened a large distillery, which opened a market to the farmers for their rye, corn, and even wheat, which I converted into 'fire-water,' as the Indians very properly call it. Jefferson's embargo did not injure the sale of it, but the contrary, as whisky was then worth by the barrel from eight to ten shillings a gallon, and all men, women, and children drank of it freely in those days. I converted much of my whisky into gin, brandy, and cor- dials, in order to suit the palates of some of my tippling customers.

" I purchased in the fall droves of cattle and sent them to Philadelphia. I also stall-fed forty head of the best and largest cattle in the winter, which 1 shipped on arks to Columbia, and drove to Philadelphia, where they sold to good advantage. This mode of sending fat cattle to market astonished the natives as we passed down the river. It proved to be a profitable business.

" In the year 1814, I sold my Cold Springs mills to Henry A. Townsend, for $14,000. I erected other mills at Bath. In 1816, I ran down to Baltimore 1,000,000 feet of pine lumber, and 100,000 feet of cherry boards and

# The account of the purchase of the Cold Springs property, and of Gen. McClure's operations there and on Crooked Lake, will be found in the history of the town of Urbana.

+ He died in March, 1851.

Lay noble

LAY NOBLE.

Lay Noble was born in New Lisbon, Otsego Co., N. Y., Sept. 17, 1800. His father, Martin Noble, was a native of Litchfield Co., Conn., born June 18, 1774. Married Abigail Lane, born July 29, 1792; was a car- penter and joiner by trade, and about the year 1795 removed to Otsego Co., N. Y., where he worked at his trade, and where he subsequently purchased a farm, on which he resided until his death, Feb. 23, 1828. His wife survived him many years, residing with her son in Batlı prior to her death, which occurred Aug. 21, 1857.

Mr. Lay Noble is second in the family of six children, two of whom are living, the subject of this narrative and Mrs. Crittenden, of Chippewa Falls, Wis. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to learn the cabinet- maker's trade, at Geneva, N. Y. Upon reaching his majority he began as a journeyman at his trade, which he followed in various places.

In 1826, Oct. 22, he married Lucinda, daughter of Lemuel and Amelia (Blakslee) Brooks, of Butternuts, Otsego Co., N. Y., having in the fall of 1824 settled in the town of Bath, this connty, and established the cabinet business.

He was engaged in business in Bath as a cabinet manu-

facturer and dealer in that class of goods until 1832, and during the same year purchased a farm of two hun- dred aeres in the town of Bath, which he carried on until 1865, when he retired from active business. As an ap- prentice or journeyman he was industrious, and known for his honesty ; as a business man and farmer he was enterprising and successful.

In politics he was a Whig, and afterwards a Republi- can. Ever interested in church and kindred interests, he early in life became a member of the Episcopal Church, and for many years has been a vestryman and warden of that church, and a member of the same for nearly half a century.

His wife died Feb. 1, 1867, and he married his present wife, who was a sister of his first wife, Mrs. Fanny Bergen, Oct. 24, 1868. His children are Martin Wil- liam, Edward (deceased), Mrs. Jacob W. Velie; her husband is secretary of the Academy of Science, Chi- cago.

The eldest son, Martin William Noble, is a thrifty and prominent farmer in the town of Bath. The family of Edward Noble reside on the farm purchased by Mr. Noble in 1862.

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TOWN OF BATH.

curled maple. I chartered three brigs, and shipped my cherry and curled maple and 500 barrels of flour to Boston. I sold my flour at a fair price, but my lumber was a dead weight on my hands. ' At length the inventor of a machine for spinning wool by water-power offered to sell me one of his machines for $2500 and take lumber in payment. I

closed a bargain with him, which induced me to embark in woolen manufactures. I obtained a loan from the State, and was doing well until Congress reduced the tariff for the protection of home industry to a mere nominal tax. The country immediately after was flooded with foreign fabrics, and but a few woolen-factories survived the shock.

" I will now close my narrative, so far as it relates to my own business concerns, with a single remark that although I have been unfortunate at the close of my business, yet I flatter myself that all will admit that I have done nothing to retard the growth and prosperity of the village of Bath or of the inhabitants of Steuben County generally, especially at a time when there were no facilities for the farmers of the county to transport their products to market other than that which was offered them by my exertions. And whether the people of Steuben or myself have received the most benefit, I leave them to determine.

". It would appear to be of very little consequence for me to state the number of civil offices that I held during my residence in Steuben County. It will only show how far I had the good-will of the people. First, I was appointed justice of the peace, next a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and surrogate of the county. In 1816 I was ap- pointed high sheriff of the county, which office I held four years. I held the office of postmaster of the village of Bath about eight years. The good people of Steuben also elected me three years in succession to represent them in the Legis- lature of the State of New York. For all these favors I felt then, and ever shall feel, grateful.

" This brief narrative is nothing more than a mere synopsis of some of the principal events of my life during the last sixty years. I find that all labor, whether of the hand or head, has become burdensome, which will be a sufficient apology for its insufficiencics."

SAVONA.

At the time of the early settlement, and for many years after, this part of the town of Bath was known as Mud Creek, from the intersection of the creek of that name at this point with the Conhoeton River. The first settlers were Thomas Corbit, who came from Pennsylvania with Colonel Williamson in 1793, John Doleson, who removed here from the Chemung in 1794, Henry Bush, and Henry McElwee, father of Henry, who still resides on the old homestead. Henry McElwee settled here some time during the year 1794.

A post-office was established here about 1823. The ear- liest postmaster who can now be recollected was Elisha Me- Coy. He was followed by Archibald HI. Gates, in 1835. Then came the following in the order named : Marvin Wait, Daniel Goodsell, D. P. Graves, Marsena Terry, Richard Graves (1851-62), Harry Cole, Thomas J. Ballou, James Tyler, Charles Loucks, and John C. Mallory, the present

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History of Steuben county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 43

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