History of Steuben county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 45

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 45

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When these expectations were entertained the Erie Canal vas not thought of. It was not till 1804 that Gouverneur Morris first suggested to Simeon De Witt the idea of " tap-

ping" Lake Erie, and carrying its waters across the country to the Hudson River, and the idea of transportation by rail- roads was one of at least a quarter of a century later.

Mr. James Geddes himself, the chief surveyor and engi- neer of the Erie Canal, passed up the Chemung River and explored the whole interior of the State in 1792. While at the Falls of the Genesee, he remarked in his journal that that cataract unfortunately " spoiled the navigation" of the Genesee River, and expressed the opinion that the wheat from the rich Genesee country, just then beginning to be opened to settlement, would have to be transported south- ward " by the Newtown Creek." Sixteen years later he was at the same falls with his leveling instruments, survey- ing a route which was to convey the rich products of the Genesee country and of the West, not southward by the tributaries of the Susquehanna, as he then guessed, but eastward to the markets of New York and Albany. That great enterprise, first conceived in 1804, introduced to the Legislature by Joshna Foreman, of Onondaga, in 1807, and completed under the eminent statesmanship of De Witt Clinton, in 1825, revolutionized all the early ideas of politi- cal economists respecting the avenues of transportation, and left many a promising town-site shorn of its early promise, and far away from the highways of trade and com- meree. Bath ouly shared the common foriune of hundreds of other future great eities. Then came the period of rail- roads, which have still further changed the expectation of many a promising locality, and have almost rendered natural Water-courses and even canals a non-essential factor in the caleulations of commerce and transportation.

Bath, for many years before the construction of the Erie Canal, was the most active and important place in Western New York. Being situated at the head of navigation on the Conhocton River, and in direct and rapid water com- munication with Philadelphia and Baltimore, it drew in the trade and commerce of a large seetion of tributary country ; became the seat of many enterprising merehants, the home of many families of wealth and influence, and the centre whenee legal talent and learning were dispensed over several adjoining counties. No village founded in the wilderness ever became so famous in a few years or assumed at so green an age so many of the concomitants and airs of a eity. Before the place was two years old Col. Williamson had a theatre in full operation, and a race-course which attracted visitors from beyond the Hudson and the Potomac. Nor were these amusements, which served to advertise the new settle- ment, the only features of its rapid development. Institu- tions of a more permanent and solid character soon took root and flourished, schools and churches were founded and fostered, and an influential bench and bar aided in giving strength and tone to society. The press, also, was one among the earliest institutions of Bath, in which this village took the lead of all others in Western New York, establish- ing the Bath Gazette and Genesee Advertiser in the year 1796, when the settlement was only three years old.

The growth of Bath has been permanent ; and although it has not realized the enthusiastic visions of its founder, it has at least attained the rank and dignity of a beautiful and substantial shire-town, stretching across the ancient valley and spreading its white skirts upon the feet of the adjacent hills.

172

HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.

EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE VILLAGE.

In 1793, Col. Williamson commenced the settlement of this village, called Bath, from Lady Bath, of England, a member of the Pulteney family. " Before the end of the season," he says, " not less than fifteen families were resi- dent in the village. Early in the season a saw-mill had been finished, and previous to the setting in of winter a grist-mill, with a saw-mill nearer the town, were in great forwardness." The first-mentioned saw-mill stood on or near the site of the old " glass-mill," on the road leading to Kanona. The grist-mill stood near the Conhocton bridge. Gen. McClure, in giving an account of his arrival in Bath in 1793, says: " 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, and 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."

The first clearing in the village, that of the Pulteney Square, was made in the spring of 1794, by Mr. Henry MeElwee, a young man from the north of Ireland, who had arrived a few months before. By this time two saw- mills were in operation, and the green lumber was rapidly converted into buildings. Houses were erected as fast as thirty or forty men could build them. Col. Williamson, expecting a large number of visitors within three or four days, desired the erection of a building for their accommo- dation, 40 by 16 feet, with the utmost possible dispatch. He laid his plans before Gen. McClure, who had charge of a large force of carpenters. They set to work, and in forty- eight hours had the building completed. For this suc- cessful exploit Col. Williamson paid the generous sum of $400, and had it advertised in the New York and Albany papers, which had the effect of drawing public attention to the new settlement. This is only one example of the rest- less energy and activity of Col. Williamson's administration. He galloped everywhere through the sparsely-settled coun- try, over distances which would now be considered long journeys by rail, stirring up the people, and forwarding the interests of his estate. " People heard of him afar off, --- in New England, in Virginia, and in Canada. The bankers of Albany and New York became familiar with his signa- ture. Englishmen and Scotchmen were aroused from their homes, and persuaded to cross the ocean for Genesee estates, and hearty young emigrants of the better sort-farmers and mechanics of some substance-were met upon their landing by recommendations to leave the old settlements behind them, and try their fortunes in Williamson's woods. Pioneers from below pushed their canoes and barges up the rivers, and men of the East toiled wearily through the forest with their oxen and sledges. Not a few Virginia planters, with their great households, abandoned their barren estates beyond the Potomac, and performed marches up the Susquehanna Valley and over the Laurel Ridge in mneh the same style (saving the camels) as the ancient Mesopotamian patriarchs shifted their quarters,-young-

sters and young ladies making the journey gayly on horse- back, while the elderly rode in ponderous chaises, secured against catastrophes by ropes and props, and the shoulders of their negroes. Several such cavalcades came over the Lycoming road. One is yet remembered with some interest by a few, as containing a pair of distinguished belles whose fame went before them, and who were met on their descent, half frozen, from the mountains in mid-winter, at the Painted Post Ilotel, by a couple of no less distinguished sprouts of Northern gentility, one of whom was afterwards so fortunate as to gain the hand of one of the frost-bitten beauties."*

In 1796, Colonel Williamson advertised to the country at large that grand races would be held at Bath. " At the distance of half a mile from the village a race-course of a mile in circuit was cleared and carefully grubbed, and all the resources of the place were brought forth for the entertain- ment of as many gentlemen of distinction and miscellaneous strangers as might honor the festival with their presence. But what probability was there that such a festival would be celebrated with success in the midst of 'a wilderness of 900,000 acres?' From Niagara to the Mohawk were but a few hundred scattered cabins, and in the south a dozen ragged settlements contained a greater part of the civilized population till you reached Wyoming. But Colonel Williamson did not mistake the spirit of the times. On the day and at the place appointed for the race sports- men from New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore were in attendance. The high bloods of Virginia and Maryland, the fast boys of Jersey, the wise jockeys of Long Island, men of Ontario, Pennsylvania, and Canada, settlers, chop- pers, gamesters, and hunters, to the number of 1500 or 2000, met on the Pine Plains to see horses run,-a number as great, considering the region where they met, as now assemble at State fairs and mass-meetings. Men of blood and spirit made the journey from the Potomac and the Hudson on horseback, supported by the high spirit of the ancients to endure the miseries of blind trails and log taverns. The races passed off brilliantly. Colonel Williamson himself, a sportsman of spirit and distinction, entered a Southern mare named Virginia Nell ; High Sheriff Dunn entered Silk Stockings, a New Jersey horse,-quad- rupeds of renown even to the present day. Money was plenty and betting lively. Silk Stockings was victorious. . .

" The great race-course was not often used during Wil- liamson's time for the purpose for which it was made. It was chiefly valuable as a public drive for the few citizens who were so prosperous as to keep carriages. There was, however, a course on the land-office meadows south of the village which was at different times the scene of sport."

The building erected for a theatre was of logs, and stood at the corner of Steuben and Morris Streets. " A troop of actors from Philadelphia, kept, we believe, at the ex- pense of the agents, entertained for a time the resident and foreign gentry with dramatie exhibitions of great splendor."

In 1794, Bath was threatened with an invasion by Col. Simcoe, lieutenant-governor of Canada. Col. Williamson was at that time interested in a settlement at Sodns Bay.

# MeMaster's History.

PHOTO BY EVANS CONNING NY

I N. Jeder

LORENZO N. RIDER.

Lorenze N. Rider was born in the town of Howard, Oct. 8, 1817. His father, James Rider, was a native of Saratoga County, born in 1795, July 11. His grandfather, William Rider, was a na- tive of Rhode Island, born in 1767, and after his marriage settled in Saratoga County, where he reared a family of four sons and three daughters,-Mrs. Isaiah Tuttle, Mrs. Robert Smith, James, Mrs. Moses Ogden, William, Samuel, and Joseph ; of whom Samuel and William are living.

His father, in 1815, came to the far West, looking for a place to settle, traveling on foot. He had two lots of timbered land, of one hundred acres each, booked to him in the town of Howard; cut the first tree for the purpose of clearing in that section, put up a log house, and after chopping some four acres returned to Sara- toga County, and that winter married Sally, daughter of Dr. Stephen Potter, of Galway, Saratoga County.

The following spring, with his wife and father's family, he came to their new home, moving their scanty effects with a yoke of oxen the entire distance. The grandfather and family settled on one of the lots, where he lived the remainder of his life, having cleared the most of his lot. He died in 1864, having lived to almost complete a century. His wife, Hannah Mosher, died some time after the settlement in Howard.

His father, with nothing hut his axe, yet with resolution and in- dustry, began in 1816 to carve out a competence. The choppings from year to year, the gradual increase of cultivated fields, the framed house taking the place of the log cabin, fruit-growing trees in place of the forest, on the one hand, all brought about by the sturdy pioneer, with the assistance of his boys, who were expected to do their part at very young ages; the indoor work, the old spinning-wheel, the wheel and distaff going day and night pre- paring eloth by hand for home necessities, and many other things, among which are the necessary privations and hardships incident to pioneer life, each one in itself has a history full of interest to the generation of to-day.

These obstacles were met with a will and overcome by the Rider family, and in time thrift was the result of industry and economy, with judicious management. For forty years his parents were farmers of Howard, and among the respected citizens of the town. In 1856 they removed to Wayland, where he died in 1863. His wife died in 1867. Their children are Mrs. Charles Markham, of Hor- nellsville; Mrs. Dr. H. C. Hess, of Howard, now of Berrien Co.,

Mich .; Ira S., of HornelIsville; Susan, died at the age of twenty ; Philo S., died at cighteen ; Mrs. B. W. Short, of Hornellsville.

Mr. Lorenzo N. Rider spent his minority until he was eighteen at home at farm labor, receiving, however, sufficient education by improving leisure hours at home in study by the fireplace to en- able him to become a teacher. By arrangement with his father he had his time for the next three years, which he spent as a teacher and at farm labor. It may be said here that his education was extended by some three months as a student at Howard Academy, where he attended, boarding himself.

In 1840, March 22, he married Susan, eldest daughter of Barnet Brayton, of Howard. She was born in 1822, and died in 1845, May 13, leaving two daughters, -Mrs. Orville Lewis, of Buffalo, and Susan, who died at the age of sixteen. After his marriage, Mr. Rider settled on a farm in the town of Howard, near Haskinville, and for some twenty-five years was a farmer in that town ; for three years be has been a resident of Hornellsville. In 1868 he removed to the town of Bath, and purchased the place now occupied for the Soldiers' Home, where he has resided, with the exception of the past two years, until the present time. In 1850 he married Jane T., daughter of William and Sarah Allen, of Howard. Her parents were among the earliest pioneers of that town, settling there as early as 1810. She was born in 1820, Jan. Ist.

Of this union was born one son, C. A. Rider, who married Anna Carpenter, of Bath, Oct. 1, 1878, and resides with his father.

Mr. Rider voted for Wm. H. Harrison for President in 1840, as a member of the Whig party, and is now identified with the Re- publican party. He has been somewhat active in politics ; has served as justice of the peace two terms while a resident of Howard; three terms as supervisor of the town of Fremont, after its erection in 1854, and represented the Third Assembly District of Stenben County in the State Legislature in 1860; and, as a representative of the county, advocated and obtained the passage of a bill through both branches of the Legislature to erect the county of Canisteo from Steuben, therehy making a division of Steuben County. The bill did not become a law for want of the Governor's, E. D. Morgan's, signature.

Mr. Rider has spent a life of activity, and, whether as a farmer or stock dealer, he has carried into all his efforts at business that force of character and integrity which commands the respeet and confidence of his fellow-citizens.

173

TOWN OF BATII.

The forts at Oswego and Niagara were still held by the British, although by the treaty of 1783 they had agreed to evaenate forthwith all military posts held by them within the territory of the United States. It was believed-not without reason-that these posts were held with a view to an attack upon the settlements of Western New York, and, as a pretext to provoke a conflict, Col. Williamson was inter- fered with by the authority of the Canadian Governor, who, on the 16th of August, 1794, sent Lieut. Sheaffe, a British officer, to inquire by what authority an establishment had been ordered at Sodus, and to require that such a design be immediately relinquished.

Col. Williamson was not at Sodus at the time, but a letter was left containing the above order. It is said, also, that a quantity of flour belonging to Col. Williamson was seized and carried off by the British. Col. Williamson re- sented the affront ; a spirited controversy ensued ; the Cab- inet at Washington took the matter in hand, and war seemed imminent.

Gen. MeClure, in his manuscript, says : " The adminis- tration at Washington apprised Capt. Williamson of the difficulties that had arisen between this country and Great Britain, and required him to make preparations for defense. Ile therefore received a colonel's commission from the Gov- ernor of New York, and immediately thereafter sent an express to Albany for one thousand stand of arms, several pieces of eannon, and munitions of war. Ile lost no time in making the necessary preparatious. He gave orders to my friend, Andrew Smith, to prepare timber for picketing on a certain part of our village, and ordered that I should erect block-houses according to his plan. The work went cheerily on. We could rally, in case of alarm, five or six hundred, most of them single men. Our colonel organ- ized his forces into companies. I had the honor of being appointed captain of a light infantry company, and had the privilege of selecting one hundred men,-nou-commissioned officers and privates. In a short time my company appeared in handsome uniform.

" By the instructions of our colonel we mounted guard every night,-exterior as well as interior. Most of our own Indians-whom we supposed were friendly-disappeared, which we thought was a very suspicious circumstance."

To further fortify the citadel and render it invulnerable to the threatened attack of the enemy, -- who, it was sup- posed, had designs of laying waste the valley of the Sus- quehauna and marching on Philadelphia,-Col. William- son employed Mr. Henry McElwee, of Mud Creek, to cut white-oak saplings 18 feet long and 18 inches thick at the butt, to be used for palisades in inelosing the Pulteney Square. A great many of these were made ready ; but the alarm sub- sided, and they were never brought into actual requisition.

The village at this time was only one year old, but it presented a very active and lively appearance. Col. Wil- liamson* was everywhere making improvements. The rivers were partially relieved of incumbrances ; roads were opened ; bridges were built ; farms were cleared. In 1796,

when the county of Steuben was organized, Bath was made the county-seat. The population increased more rapidly than the resources to supply their wants. This, together with the influx of visitors and strangers, attracted by the games and amusements, and especially during the session of the courts, made provisions very scaree in Bath. Money was plenty and hospitality liberal and generous, but the resources of the surrounding country were such, that the good stock of workingmen and farmers who tilled the land found the soil so ungracious that they were not a little straitened for the means of supporting life.

Col. Williamson transported his first flour from North- umberland and a quantity of pork from Philadelphia. After- wards these luxuries were obtained as best they could be. Flour was brought on pack-horses from Tioga Point, then it was brought in Durham boats from a mill at Jemima Wilkinson's settlement on the outlet of Crooked Lake. As the Farming country around grew rich enough to have any surplus to spare, Bath afforded an excellent market. " The Canisteo boy brought over his bag of wheat on a horse, threw it down at the door of the ageney-house, and was paid $5 a bushel. He drove his bullock across the hills, slaughtered it at the edge of the village, and sold everything from hoof to horn for a shilling a pound. He led over a pack-horse laden with grain, paid all expenses, treated, and took home SIS. One old farmer remembers paying $2.25 for a hog's head, " and it was half hair at that." Pleasant Valley sup- plied her quota to the straitened villagers. Said an old settler in that comfortable region : " Bath was just like San Francisco ; straw was a shilling a bundle, and every- thing else in proportion. Money was plenty, but they almost starved out. They onee adjourned court because there was nothing to eat. If it hadn't been for the valley the Pine Plains would have been depopulated. After court had been in session two or three days, you would see a black boy come down here on a horse, with a big basket, foraging. He would go around to all the farms and get bread, meat, eggs, or anything that would stay life. Bath was the hungriest place in all creation." The situation thus described will be readily appreciated when it is under- stood that the citizens of the county made court week in Bath a sort of general gathering time, and hence the larders of the village were sometimes speedily exhausted.

In 1796 a frame court-house was erected. The first Court of Common Pleas was convened on the 21st day of June, 1796. The first Court of General Sessions convened in the autumn of the same year.

In 1796 a log jail was erected, and stood on the site of the subsequent stone jail, west of the Pulteney Square and north of the present Steuben County Bank. A new brick court-house was erected in 1828, which was subsequently destroyed by fire, and immediately after the present court- house was built on substantially the same foundation and after the same plan.

In 1804 the village contained three streets, viz. : Liberty, running north from Pulteney Square, and Morris and Steu- ben Streets, running east and west. There were then 25 buildings in all in the place, as shown in the engraving in frontispiece, taken from the recollections of Col. William H. Bull, now living in Bath.

# Notice of the death of Col. Williamson is found in the " Geneva Expositor" of Jan. 11, 1809. He died in the fall of 1808, while on his passage from New Orlenos to Havaon, whither he was going as British agent or inioister to the Island of Cuba.

174

HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK.

The original plat of the village was laid out by Thomas Rees, Jr., surveyor, and a map made of the same, which is now on file in the county clerk's office.

From Steuben Street north to St. Patrick (now Wash- ington ) Street, and from Liberty Street west to Pine Street, was laid out by Col. William II. Bull, in April, 1842, being part of the estate of the late Col. Howell Bull. This part of the village is known as Bull's Plat, and contains lots as follows : On Liberty Street, from 1 to 5 inclusive; on St. Patrick Street, from 1 to 10 inelusive; on Howell Street, · from 1 to 10 inclusive; on Williams Street, from 1 to 22 inclusive ; on Buel Street, from 1 to 16 inelusive.

INCORPORATION.

The village of Bath was incorporated by a special act of the Legislature (Chap. 254, Laws of 1836), passed May 6, 1836, with the following boundaries :

" Beginning at Morris Strect where the same intersects a road leading to the old race-course; and thence running northerly on the easterly bounds of said road to a point where St. Patrick Street (laid out and not yet opened) would intersect the same; and thence on the south side of St. Patrick Street to the west line of John H. White's farm ; thence north on the west line of John H. White's farm, and the east line of David Rumsey's farm, to an out- lot owned by David McMaster; thence westerly on said MeMaster's south line to the southwest corner of his lot ; thence northerly along the west bounds of said MeMaster's lot, and the westerly bounds of Z. A. Leland's farm, being the westerly bounds of lots Nos. 34, 33, 32, and 65, to the division line between the Pulteney and Hornby lands; thence northerly on said division line to the north corner of ont-lot No. 3, occupied by James Read ; thence south- westerly on the southwestern line of lots Nos. 3, 2, and 1; thence on the division line between a lot owned by William S. Hubbell and lot No. 50, being a mountain lot, northerly and westerly ; thenee continuing southwesterly on the southern line of said lot No. 50 to the northern line of lot No. 51; thence easterly on the line of lot No. 51 to the northeast corner of the same; thence on the easterly line of the same, and the westerly line of a lot lately pur- chased by Ten Eyck Gansevoort, to the southwest corner of the last-mentioned lot, being a lot formerly owned by Gen. McClure; thence south forty degrees west, to the south line of the Old Mill Farm (so called) formerly owned by William Helm, now deceased; thence on the southern bounds of the Old Mill Farm to the southeast point thereof, and from thence to the place of beginning, shall hereafter continue to be known and distinguished by the name of ' The Village of Bath,' and the freeholders and inhabitants residing in said village are constituted a body corporate by the name of ' The Trustees of the Village of Bath.'"

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History of Steuben county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 45

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