History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 176

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 1112

USA > New York > Chemung County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 176
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 176
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 176
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 176

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).

In a note, the author writes: "This Indian town (Catharine's), situated near the head of Seneca Lake, in

one of the most delightful and romantic spots imaginable, contained a great number of houses, with large orchards and extensive corn-fields. It was totally destroyed, in 1779, by the troops under the command of General Sullivan, who, entering the place at night, found it nearly deserted by its inhabitants. One miserable old squaw alone remained, who, from extreme old age, was incapable of walking, and looked like the last survivor of a former age. The general ordered a hut to be erected for her, with provisions for her subsistence, but she did not long survive the catastrophe of her nation."

The village proper was located on the hill, a little south of the present village of Havana, and the orchard stood on what afterwards became the old William McClure farm, now laid out in village lots, and owned by Hiram Raymond and others. The situation of the village on an elevated spot was a necessity, as the territory now embraced within the limits of Havana was a morass, utterly untenable as habitable ground.

Fear, consternation, and dismay followed the destruction of the Indians' village and the devastation of their agri- cultural improvements. With these misfortunes, the glory of the Senecas departed, and the hand of oblivion is stretched forth to close forever the gates that lead to the memory of their existence. No vestige remains of their council-house, where the assembled warriors met to send round the joy of feast, to smoke the pipe of peace, or to sing the song of war. Naught remains but the verdure- clad hills, where once their village stood, and where now, perchance, repose the ashes of renowned chiefs and sachems, and of the famous half-breed, Queen Catharine Montour. Even the very names, beautiful in pronunciation and melo- dious in sound, are no more. History has failed to hand them down to posterity, and but two belonging to this vicinity has tradition preserved. These, She-qua-gah (the Indian name for the falls just west of the village, now called Havana Falls), which means "the roaring waters," and Ta-de-vigh-ro-no, ; the aboriginal name of the hill back of the Seneca Lake Highland Nurseries, established by Colonel Eli C. Frost.

There are several natural curiosities in the vicinity of Havana, the material improvement of which attest that the industry of its citizens has done what it could, if not to vie with, at least not to disparage nature. Of these, a general description will be given ere we close this history of Havana.

The Indians were succeeded by a race of beings more enlightened, but perhaps less happy, than was the aborigine in his pristine freedom. These later-the pioneers-people and their settlement here now require our attention.

THE SETTLEMENT

of the village by the white pioneer was commenced in 1788, by Silas Walcott and a Mr. Wilson. George Mills, a Revo- lutionary soldier, came through the place in 1788, but did not permanently settle there until 1790. He came from Pennsylvania via Newtown (now Elmira) ; thence through the valley, following the old Indian trail and Sullivan's

* From a poem entitled " Catharine Creek and Sencea Lake Valley," in 1804, by Alexander Wilson, author of " American Ornithology."

t So given on Sir William Johnston's map, in the State Library at Albany.

REN

THOMAS L. FANTON.

The most pleasurable task of the historian is to write the life of a self-made man ; to narrate the principal events that have transpired in his eareer from early youth to mature man- hood, and from mature manhood to venerable old age; to follow step by step the personal exertions that have led to the accu- mulation of a competenee and the acquisition of a creditable reputation. In the personal sketeh we have before us, that of Thomas L. Fanton, the essential qualifications as presented in his life and eharacter are readily summarized in three words,- industry, economy, and honesty, all of which he possesses in a marked degree. In the preparation of the biography of an individual it is requisite to have at least a slight personal ae- quaintance with him, and for the rest to take the general esti- mate as furnished by inquiry among those to whom he is known longest and best.

Thomas L. Fanton was born in the town of Weston, Fair- field Co., Conn., July 25, 1805. He is the son of Hull and Margery Fanton, the latter having been the daughter of Thomas Langley Collyer, of the same town, who moved from there to Bedford, Westchester Co., N. Y. Mr. Fanton's home was three miles south of the Forge, and a mile out of Lyon's Plain. The old homestead has long since disappeared. At the age of five years he lost his mother by death, and a few years after that sad bereavement he went to live with one Lifflet Dykeman, in the town of Northfield, where he con- tinued to reside for upwards of three years, and where he made himself generally useful. He returned home in July, and remained there until the following April. On the 16th of April, 1819, he was apprenticed verbally to Ephraim San- ford, of Redding, in his native county, to learn the black- smith's trade, the stipulations of the indenture being that he was to stay five years, receiving thirty dollars per annum and his board, he to clothe himself. At the expiration of his apprenticeship he merged forth a full-fledged diseiple of Vulcan, and a good, practical mechanic. There was one other .

apprentice with him, by the name of Sanford, who subse- quently came to this county and settled in what is now the town of Dix, where several of his children still reside.

On the 31st of October, 1824, Mr. Fanton left Sanford's, in company with Eli Banks, and removed to Tioga County, coming thither by way of Danbury, the Catskills, the Butter- nuts, Unadilla, Binghamton, Owego, Spencer, Cayuta (Hiram White's), and to Johnson's Settlement, and thence to the South Settlement, where they arrived fifteen days after starting from Connecticut. Banks had lived in Tioga County ten years prior to this visit. On arriving, Mr. Fanton pro- ceeded to ereet a blacksmith shop near the residenee of Eli Banks, with whom he boarded six months, and then went to live with one Morehouse. He purchased his anvil and tools of John Arnott, who kept a store on the bank of the river, where the present Chemung Canal Bank now is. Mr. Fanton remained at the South Settlement until 1826, and in Novem- ber of that year removed to Johnson's Settlement, where he resided at intervals until 1839, a part of the interregnum being spent on a place he still owns, situated on the Ridge Road, in the town of Veteran, returning from there perma- nently in 1839. On the 12th of October, 1853, hic settled in the pleasant and beautiful place where he now resides.

Mr. Fanton has been several times honored with offices of public trust, notably with those of justice of the peace for two terms in the old town of Catharine, and overseer of the poor in Montour. He presided at the first town-meeting at the organization of the town of Montour by legislative appoint- ment. These offices he filled with ability, satisfaction to the people at large, and to his personal credit. His public life and private character are alike above reproach, while his in- dividual integrity has been firmly established by an extended and honorable business eareer. He is at present one of the directors of the Havana National Bank, of which institution his son, Hull Fanton, Esq., is the president.

645

AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

road. He was accompanied by John Richardson. At the head of the lake they procured a bateau, and proceeded down the lake to the Seneea River ; thenee around to the Cayuta, and settled on the east side of that ereek. In an interview with Hull Fanton, Esq., Mr. Mills stated that he found William McClure settled where Thomas MeClure afterwards lived, and one Phineas Bowers residing near the site of the pottery ; also two families by the name of Stevens, and a man named John King. One of the Stevens family lived near the Havana Falls ; the other, near McClure's. Speaking of himself, Mr. Mills says, " I settled near where Campbell's store now is, where stood a little shanty, which belonged to John King, of whom I purchased it. I opened a store, in 1805, in company with Isaae Baldwin, of El- mira, who furnished the goods. The building, then re- eently erceted, stood on the corner of Main and Catharine Streets, near the Inlet Bridge, and was also used as a tavern, and oeeupied by me for that purpose for a quarter of a century, during which time I entertained Louis Philippe, afterwards king of the French, with some noble- men, who were his traveling companions." No members of Mr. Mills' family nor any of his descendants now re- side in the village. Madison Mills, M.D., a son of his, held a distinguished position in the medical department of the army during and, we believe, subsequent to the war of the Rebellion. Mr. Mills died in December, 1858.

The above constituted the original settlement of Havana ; but during the next two years several arrivals, either of native-born citizens or of immigrants from other parts of the country, were made; for Captain Charles Wilkinson, who came to this country as the agent of Sir William Pult- ney and Governor Hornsby, writing of Catharine's Town, in 1792, says, " This place, situated at the head of the lake, four miles from Culver's (now Watkins), contains 30 in- habitants ; Culver's about 70."

George Mills was the first merehant of Havana, having opened a store there, as above stated, in 1805. The goods were furnished by Isaae Baldwin, of Elmira, and sold either on shares or on commission. Mr. Mills was also one of the first navigators of Seneca Lake. "Mills' Landing" was the head of navigation, and from this point, in his Indian bateaux, he transplanted the produets of the soil, and re- eeived in return goods brought from New York via Albany, Mohawk River, Wood Creek, and Seneea River. As the population of the village inereased, he augmented the ton- nage of his vessels, and did a thriving business.

The first sloop launehed upon the lake was built under the patronage of Colonel Charles Williamson, in 1796, to ply between Geneva and Catharine's Town. This event ealled forth the settlers from their cabins, and was regarded as an oeeurrenee of as mueh importanee as the launching of an ocean steamer in our seaports to-day. The first steamboat that navigated the lake was the "Seneca Chief," and her first trip was made July 4, 1828. In just twenty years from that date she was destroyed by fire.

David Ayres was an early settler, who came in 1827, and bought the George Mills farm, which he laid out in village lots, and otherwise improved his purchase.

Thomas Nichols, Jr., eame from Steventown to Havana, in 1798, and died here in 1823. He was one of the pio-

neer school-teachers, and also the first to teach musie in the village. IIe afterwards turned his attention to agricul- tural pursuits, and purchased and settled upon a farm. The oldest resident, in point of settlement, now living within the corporate limits of the village, is Mrs. Armenia Quick, a daughter of Thomas Nichols, Jr. She was born in Havana in 1806, and has sinee resided there. She mar- ried Peter Quick, who came to the place in 1826, and died there in 1878.

For the first thirty-five years sueeeeding the settlement of Catharine's Town by white people its population was similar to that of all village settlements,-composed largely of the respeetable laboring elasses, with a few mechanies, here and there a merchant, and the indispensable keeper of the village inn. Of the laboring elasses, which are usually of a migratory eharaeter, very little in the way of history remains. Of the meehanies, the only one whose memory is generally preserved to posterity is the village blacksmith, -the brawny, muscular personage, elad in leather apron, whose swarthy features and hereulean frame become fa- iniliar to all, and the very utility of whose ealling makes him known alike to the villager and the farmer. The pio- neer in this branch of industry here was one Kimball, who, although not a resident, eame in about the year 1802, and associated himself with Phineas Bowers in the milling busi- ness. Another early disciple of Vulean, and better known than his predecessor, because he remained in the business, was Joshua Morse, whose dwelling and shop oeeupied the site of the residenee of Mrs. Dr. Baily. Of the merchants, after George Mills, was one Risley, who kept a primitive store prior to 1820. He was sueeeeded by Samuel Roberts.

At the time of the first division of the old town of Cath- arine, April 15, 1823, it is stated by a local writer that " where Havana now stands there was but a meagre popu- lation, the eluster of houses now known by the name of Catharine Landing (pronounced at that day as now, and as it should be spelled), ' Kathrine,' by some ealled ' Mills' Landing.' It was mainly in the vieinity of the corner where now the house of Darius Ballou stands. There was the old tavern, kept by our earliest settler, George Mills. West of this, and aeross Kathrine Creek, and on the north side of the road, near the present Farmers' Building, stood the house of one Abraham Massiker, and on the south side that of Thomas Nichols. Still to the west, and where Langley Hall now stands, was the comfortable farm-house of David Lee. Next on the north, and about where stands the Daniel Tracey homestead, lived Roswell Wakely, and opposite Nathan Hall. Beyond, and where Mrs. Dr. Baily now resides, stood the house of Joshua Morse, and near it his blacksmith-shop. What is now Genesee Street continued to the north about as the road now runs. Be- yond the Episcopal church was a traek, that diverged and went up the hill, passing to the rear of the house and grounds now oeeupied by John F. Phelps. What is now Steuben Street, and leading to the Falls Bridge and eeme- tery, was a mere path and quite impassable."

It was about the year 1825 that the place began to as- sume the importance and dignity of a village, although it was eleven years subsequent to that date before corporate honors were conferred upon it. In December, 1825, Wil-

646

HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

liam T. Jackson arrived from Sussex Co., N. J. He was the first merchant who purchased his own goods in New York, to retail in his village store at Havana .* Besides being prominently identified with the mercantile and manu- facturing interests of the place, he became also intimately connected with its polities. In 1838 he was appointed one of the associate judges of Chemung County. In 1848 he was elected to represent the then Twenty-sixth Congress- ional District, comprised of the counties of Yates, Tomp- kins, and Chemung, in the Thirty-first Congress of the United States. He was also one of the justices of the peace of the town of Catharine for twelve consecutive years. The same year (1825) Samuel G. Crawford came in from Orange Co., N. Y. He was many years a justice of the peace, and was one of the principal boot and shoe merehants of the place for a long time. In point of settlement, he is the oldest male resident of the village.f John W. Jobbitt, father of Andrew Jobbitt, the grocer, came from Painted Post in 1828, and settled in the village. He was the pio- neer tailor.

In 1827, Minor T. Brodrick moved into the village, and ten years thereafter formed a eopartnership in the merean- tile business, with Adam G. Campbell, deceased. Mr. Brodriek still resides in Havana, and is one of its most prominent eitizens.

In 1829 dawned the most important epoch in the history of Havana. This year witnessed the arrival of Charles Cook, whose energy, enterprise, and philanthropy did so much towards the progress and development of the embryo village, and made it what it is to-day, a prosperous and pleasant place. No history of Havana would be complete without a somewhat elaborate sketch of this gentleman's life and eharaeter, nor without some mention of other members of his family, who were his earnest coadjutors in the work of its development.

Charles Cook t was born in the town of Springfield, Otsego Co., N. Y., Nov. 20, 1800. At the death of his father, in 1812, he became a clerk in a leading dry goods house in Utiea, and of his earnings, aceumulated a little, beyond contributing freely to the support of his mother ; and at the age of twenty-six or twenty-seven, associating with himself his younger brother, Hiram, he beeame a eon- tractor on the publie works of the State of Pennsylvania. Within a year or two they took in partnership their youngest brother, Elbert W., who is now a resident of Havana. In 1829, Charles eame to Havana, and soon thereafter his two brothers followed. They had a contraet on the Chemung Canal, which was carried out by the spring of 1831, and the partnership dissolved.

On his arrival at Havana he began a long and earnest struggle to build up a flourishing and commanding village. He bought farms and improved them ; he bought village lots and built upon them ; he erected mills and set them in operation ; he built hotels and opened them to the publie ; a church (St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal) and gave its use for worship ; made a new county from parts of other counties,

and located its buildings at Havana and retained them there as long as he lived; established a bank and condueted its business successfully ; erected a magnificent building for a people's college, gave it and a hundred-aere farm to a eor- poration for educational purposes, and largely aided in pro- euring the land-grant legislation by Congress and the New York State Legislature which gave the " People's College" serip for nine hundred and ninety thousand aeres of publie lands, which subsequently reverted to Cornell University. He was prominently identified with local and State polities, and during his life was a eanal commissioner, a State sena- tor, a candidate for Congress, and gave refusal to a tender of nomination for the governorship. In national political affairs he was the associate of Seward, Greeley, and Weed. With these he was instrumental in moulding the Whig and Republican parties of his State.

In 1829, John F. Phelps, the pioneer hardware mer- ehant, arrived, and has ever sinee been a resident of the village. Dee. 1, 1828, F. D. Goodwin left the town of Ulysses, in Tompkins County, and settled in Havana, and was among the first and most extensive forwarding and commission merehants of Havana. He is now, after fifty years, engaged in the eoal business, and is one of the sue- eessful merehants of the place. The same year one Flavel Gaylord, who was among the constituent members of the Presbyterian Church, eame in. He evidently soon there- after removed, as we find no trace of him in after-years.

Iu 1828, John G. Henry arrived, and was the pioneer harness-maker of the place. After the lapse of fifty years we find him still engaged in his old business. He was supervisor of the old town of Catharine, when Havana eou- stituted a part of it, several years, and also filled other town offiees with eminent eredit to himself and to the sat- isfaction of the people at large.

In 1830, Hiram W. Jackson, brother to Judge William T. Jackson, came in, and ereeted the " first house after the survey of the village had been made by Pumpelly & Lee."

In 1836, Adam G. Campbell, who subsequently beeame one of the most prominent merehants of the place, eame in, and for thirty-seven years was actively engaged in busi- ness. He died in October, 1873.

INCORPORATION OF HAVANA.

All north of the L'Hommedieu line was patented Mareh 21, 1791, to Ezra L'Hommedieu, of Southhold, Long Island. The patent contained 4000 aeres. Mr. L'Hom- medieu was a member of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union adopted Nov. 15, 1777, and ratified by the Legislature of New York, Feb. 6, 1778. He took his seat at the October session in 1779, and was again a member in 1780, 1781, and 1782. He sold his patent subsequently to John Wat- kins. Dr. Samuel Watkins acquired it after this, and not very long after; for as early as 1804 he deeded a plat of 60 aeres, east of Catharine Creek, to George Mills, who, as the deed recites, " was in the actual possession of the premises." As the village now is, this 60 aeres would commence where the L'Hommedieu line crosses Main Street, just in front of the wagon-shop of Ballou. Mills' house, long kept by him as a tavern, was on the corner.

# Named Havana at the time of laying out the village, in 1829. i See biographies of Messrs. Jackson and Crawford, in the bio- graphical department of our work.

# See biography and portraits of Messrs. Charles and E. W. Cook.

647

AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

It is probable that Mills, when he settled here in 1790, took up the land, and was found on it when Dr. Watkins made his first visit to the tract. The balance of the village site, lying west of the creek, was afterwards sold to Peter Tracy, William T. Jackson, and others, and only very re- cently built upon, save on the old road leading to the head of the lake.

The territory as now embraced within the corporate boundaries of "The Village of Havana" is described as follows in the laws of New York for 1870, chapter 216 :

" All those parts of the towns of Montrose and Dix, in the county of Schuyler, within the following boundaries, to. wit :

" Beginning at tho northwest corner of the cemetery lot, and run- ning thenee south two and one-half degrees, west ten chains and two links to the southwest corner of said cemetery lot; thence south eighty-seven and one-half degrees, east seven chains and thirty-six links to the west line of E. W. Cook's dairy-farm ; thenee south two and one-fourth degrees, west eight ehains and forty links to a stake and pile of stones; thence south eighty-seven and threo-fourths de- grees, east two ehains and eighty seven links to a stake; thenee south two and one-half degrees, west twenty-three ehains and forty-eight links to the southwest corner of said dairy-farm; thenee south eighty-seven and three-fourths degrees, east thirty-three ehains and ninety-five links to the west line of the Chemung Railroad; thenee south three and three-fourths degrees, east seven ehains and ninety- eight links to the south line of the MeClure farm; thence south eighty-seven degrees, east fifty-six chains and eighty-two links to the southeast corner of the college farm ; thence north two and three- fourths degrees, east fifty-three ehains and ninety-one links to the south line of A. O. Whittemnore's lands; thenee north eighteen and one-half degrees, west one hundred and thirty chains and fifteen links ; thenee south seventy-four and one-half degrees, west ninety chains and eighteen links; thenee south twelve and one-fourth de- grees, east one hundred and one chains and eighty-six links to the place of beginning, shall constitute the village of Havana; and the inhabitants residing therein are hereby deelared to be a body politie and corporate by the name of ' The Village of Havana,' and as such shall have perpetual suceession," ete., etc.

The village lies on the east and west of Catharine Creek, and on the north and south of the survey line known as the L'Hommedieu line. It was within the territory patented to John Watkins, on the 15th of June, 1794. As carly as 1786, eight years before the patent to Watkins, por- tions of the territory described had been settled upon, probably upon some supposed military claim or title. The origin of these titles was the donation by the government of sixty acres of land to those who had done service in the Revolutionary war, and who had complied with certain military requirements before becoming entitled thereto. As early as 1790 the State of New York issued patents for lands within the twelve townships afterwards patented to John Watkins, and there was a reservation in his patent of some 40,000 acres granted in this manner.

It is probable that the patents to Henry Wisner and John Carpenter came in part through the purchase of these military claims. The western part of the village (extend- ing westward to the MeMasters location, south of the L'Hommedieu location), containing about 100 aeres, and known as the David Lee farm, came into the possession of Lee, in part through Wisner, whose daughter he had mar- ried. We say in part from Wisner, for the patent shows that Samuel W. Johnson, as administrator of Robert C. Johnson, with the will annexed deeded abont 43 acres next to the MeMasters location. It is possible this may have been south of the land received from Wisner; if not,

the meagre description that we find would seem to leave it on the west. In time he sold to Charles Cook, who sold in many instances to the various parties who now occupy them.

The land to the east of the 100 acres acquired by Lee was also originally owned by Wisner and Carpenter. Pat- ents were issued to both for different tracts. The remain- der of the village site north of the L'Hommedieu location was sold by them to some person whose name is not known to us. It was that part of the present bounds of the village lying east of Jones Street and south of Main.

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 Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 176

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 1112

Author: Peirce, H. B. (Henry B.) cn; Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 1112