History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 77

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 77
USA > New York > Schuyler County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 77
USA > New York > Tioga County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 77
USA > New York > Tompkins County > History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York > Part 77

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).

Dr. Flood was connected with the Democratie party un- til 1861, when, upon the breaking out of the Rebellion, he beeame a firm supporter of the Union eause, and sinee 1862 has been identified with the Republican party. Although seeking no place of notoriety, he has twice been elected mayor of the city of Elmira, twiee coroner of the county of Chemung, a member of the Board of Education one term, and is now a member of the Board of Health of the city.

In 1862, Dr. Flood responded to his country's eall as surgeon, 107th Regiment, New York Volunteers, ranking as major, and the same year was made brigade surgcon of the 12th Army Corps, 1st Division,-subsequently ranking as brevet lieutenant-colonel for meritorious services,-and in April, 1865, was assigned to duty as surgeon in charge of the 1st Division Hospital, which position he held until the elose of the war. To give a complete history of his career as physician and surgeon of the army would be to traee his regiment and brigade through the various battles of Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Sherman's Mareh to the Sea, Resaea, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Pine Ridge, Peach-Tree Creek, Averysboro', Bentonville, and Atlanta.

Sinee his return from military service, Dr. Flood has remained in the quiet practice of his profession in Elmira, zealously supporting all interests tending to edueate and elevate the rising generation. He is a man free from ostentation, aetive, industrious, ardent, and possessing that integrity of purpose worthy of emulation by the young. In the year 1837 he married Miss Rachel, daughter of John Sehmeek, of Paradise, Northumberland Co., Pa. She was born in the year 1820. By this union there have been born four sons,-John M., a graduate of the University of Buffalo, and now a praetieing physician in Elmira ; Albert H., a graduate of the same institution as his brother, but was prematurely cut off, dying May 14, 1877 ; Thomas S., a druggist in Elmira ; and Henry, a graduate of Bellevue College, New York, finishing his education in medieine at Vienna, Austria, and for the past three years practicing his profession at Elmira, N. Y .; and one daughter, Mary Ellen, wife of David Thro, of Du Bois, Clearfield Co., Pa.

Dr. Flood, in the service of his country, was always found at the front when duty required, and no danger confronted so great as to intimidate him from fearlessly giving aid and encouragement to the suffering; and in his profession he ranks with the first, always ready to give aid and counsel to the needy poor as well as to the rieh.

ABEL STOWELL.

Prominent among the builders of Elmira during many deeades of its history was he whose name heads this brief notiee. Although recently retired from the active pursuit of his trade, that of a carpenter, in the prosecution of it as a contractor and builder, during nearly a half-century

Photo. by Larkin.

ABEL STOWELL.

in this place, his hands and brains were employed in the ereetion of very many of the structures of the beautiful "eity of the Southern Tier." Many of those edifiees- business bloeks and private residences, ehurehes and seliool- houses-have passed away ; some have been destroyed by fire, others changed and remodeled, while a vast number remain, monuments of the genius and industry of their builder.

Abel Stowell was born July 10, 1808, at Petersham, Worcester Co., Mass. In 1826 he removed to Worcester, Mass., and there learned the trade of a earpenter and joiner. He removed to Utiea, New York, in 1829 ; both there and in the adjoining towns he followed his trade until 1832, when he removed to Binghamton, where he engaged largely in contraeting and building. Oet. 12, 1836, he re- moved to Elmira, only a few months after the ereetion of the county of Chemung, and through all the years that followed, down to quite recently, he earried on his business quite extensively. He has for many years been president of the Elmira Meehanies' Society.

In 1833 he married Miss Elizabeth Stringer, of Madison Co., N. Y. They reared a large family, nine ehildren, of whom seven survive, respected citizens of Elmira, viz. : Charles M., who follows the trade and ealling of his father; Rachel F., wife of J. E. Larkin, photographer, of Elmira ; Rufus R., William H., Frank A., John Emory, and Henry C. Frank and John E. are hardware merchants, of the

Photo. by Larkin.

B. Clark

HON. JEFFERSON BURR CLARK was born in Massachusetts, in December, 1812. At the age of about nine years he became an orphan, and during the balance of his minority remained under the care and guardianship of his brother, the late Hon. John C. Clark, a gentleman of considerable distinction in this region a quarter of a century ago. About the year 1833 he entered into the mercantile business at Bainbridge, in this State, with an uncle, remaining there some three years, when he came to this county and settled in the neighborhood of the village of Chemung, where he lived for many years. He was then very largely engaged in lumbering and farming operations with his brother before alluded to, and was successful in securing for himself a well-earned competency. They occupied while there a piece of property well known to all the old settlers as the "McDowell Flats."

In the year 1857, Mr. Clark removed to the city of Elmira, where he resided until his decease in the sixty-fourth year of his age. On his removal here he became largely interested in the Elmira Rolling

Mills, and continued so to be until the reorganization of the company in the year 1871, aside from which he was engaged in uo active business, having retired from all exacting employment, excepting the care of his own property. In 1842 he was chosen to repre- sent this Assembly district in the State Legislature; and faithfully serving the people in this trust, was re-elected to this honorable position in 1846. In 1845 he married a daughter of the Hon. John G. McDowell, who was a native of Chemung. His wife survives him, as also three daughters.

Mr. Clark was a man of sterling integrity, and in the business and social relations of life was honored and respected by all. He possessed strong regard for his friends, a sympathizing nature for those less fortunate than himself, a liberal hand and willing mind to aid the deserving needy, and all his acts were characterized with modesty and unostentation. Endowed by nature with a very penetrating mind and an inflexible will, his prominent characteristics were outspoken honesty, generous impulses, and neighborly kindnesses.

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AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

firm of F. A., W. H. Stowell & Co .; William is the senior partner of the firm of Stowell & Young, merchant tailors ; and Rufus and Henry are largely interested in the oil busi- ness in Western Pennsylvania. Rufus served in the Union army during the Rebellion, in the One Hundred and Forty- eighth Regiment N. Y. Vols .; was wounded and draws a pension. All are useful citizens.

Mr. Stowell has not been an incumbent of publie offices, nor a seeker after political honors. With quite an aversion to publie life and party strife, he preferred the more humble (and not less honorable and useful) duties of his calling, and the social amenities of his home and fireside. Now, in his seventieth year, still " hale and hearty," he can look back over an active and well-spent life, and forward with the prospect of passing yet many years in the home which was the work of his own hands.

IION. JOHN G. McDOWELL.

Judge MeDowell was born in Chemung Feb. 27, 1794, and at the time of his decease, Jan. 1, 1866, was nearly seventy-two years of age.

In early life he pursued the mercantile occupation, but his agricultural tastes led him to the farm, which he con- tinued to cultivate during the greater portion of his days.

During the latter years of his life he lived in comparative seclusion and retirement, but formerly he was a man of in- fluence and distinction in this section of the State, and was considered as among the principal citizens of the old West- ern Jury Distriet. Under the old constitution he was the contemporary in politieal life with Martin Van Buren, Silas Wright, Governor Marey, and General John A. Dix, with all of whom he held intimate personal and political relations.

Shortly after the adoption of the constitution of 1821, being then not far from thirty years of age, he received the appointment of judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the then county of Tioga, and at the general election, in 1829, he was chosen member of Assembly from the same county, and took his seat in that body on the 1st of January following. At the next election he was again chosen to the same office. In the discharge of his duties as a legislator, having won the entire confidence of his constituents, and a reputation reaching beyond the limits of his own county, he was, in the following autumn, elected to the State Senate from the district then comprising the counties of Broome, Chenango, Chemung, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Tioga, and Tompkins. For four years he acquitted himself with signal ability as a senator and as a member of the court for the trial of impeachment and the correction of errors. Passing through those eventful years when stock gambling in more than one instance tainted the purity of legislation, Judge MeDowell returned to private life with a reputation for integrity untarnished by the breath of suspicion. About this period he was appointed the president ( first president ) of the Chemung Canal Bank, an institution which procured its charter through his instrumentality.

Under the act for loaning the surplus revenues of the United States, Judge MeDowell afterwards received from 37

his personal and politieal friend, Governor Marey, the ap- pointment of Commissioner of Loans.

In every relation of life Judge McDowell possessed the faculty of ereating strong personal friendship, and his greatest pride and pleasure to the day of his death was to meet and give generous hospitality to the old pioneers. Those to whom he was best known were always his most warmly attached friends. High-minded, open-handed, gen- erous, truthful, those who hesitated to adopt his views and opinions could not but admire his honest devotion to prin- eiples, and the earnestness and inflexibility with which he maintained them.

Judge MeDowell was just to himself, generous to his family and friends, and kind and liberal to the poor. His memory will always be cherished and revered as a true gentleman of the olden school.

DR. HOLLIS S. CHUBBUCK

was born at Ellington, Tolland Co., Conn., March 13, 1809. He was the tenth child, in a family of twelve children, of Nathaniel Chubbuck and Chloe Eaton. His father came from Ellington and settled in the town of Orwell, Bradford

Photo. by Larkiu.

H. J. Chubbuck

Co., Pa., in the year 1818, where he died in 1825, in the sixty-first year of his age. His mother died also in the town of Orwell, in the year 1832, aged sixty-five years.

Dr. Chubbuck spent his early life, until eighteen, on the farm of his father, and at the age of nineteen began the study of medieine with his older brother, John, at Ware- house Point, Hartford Co., Conn., where he remained for some three years, attending the lecture course at the med- ical department of Yale College, and graduating M.D., in March, 1831.

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

He first located at Orwell, Bradford Co., Pa., but re- moved to Elmira in 1838, and settled in general practice, where he has remained until the writing of this sketch and during his professional career. He has been very suc- cessful in the performance of the more important obstetri- cal operations, having given especial attention to that branch of practice. He is a member of the American Medical Association ; of the New York State Medical Society ; of the Chemung County Medical Society ; of the Elmira Academy of Medicine ; and has been president of the two last named a number of times. He has contributed articles on obstetrical operations to the Transactions of the New York State Medical Society, 1869 ; to the Medical Journal for May, 1876 ; the Transactions of the Southern Medical Society of New York, etc. Dr. Chubbuck was surgeon of the Board of Enrollment for the Twenty-seventh District, New York State, until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged ; he has been since one of the members of the Board of Examining Surgeons for pen- sions, and is its present president.

Dr. Chubbuck cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson, and became a member of the Republican party upon its for- mation ; has never sought political preferment, yet, as a citizen, casts his vote for men and principles in his opinion representing justice and reform. In his varied practice in his profession, he has been ever zealous in administering to the wants of those in need of medical assistance without ever expecting remuneration, as well as attending to the wants of those able to pay for his services. During his long-continued practice he has enjoyed the confidence of a large circle of the citizens of the city of Elmira, and is now the oldest practicing physician of the city.

Dr. Chubbuck is a man of strict integrity of purpose in all his business or professional relations, of uprightness of character, genial and courteous in all his ways, unostenta- tious, seeking rather the private walks of life than public notoriety.

In October, 1831, he married Elizabeth A., daughter of Stephen and Elizabeth Heath, of Warehouse Point, Hart- ford Co., Conn. By this union there were born three children,-Benjamin S. (deceased) ; Hollis, died at the age of eleven ; and one daughter, Emma E., wife of Clay- ton R. Gerity, of Elmira.

CHAPTER XLVII.

TOWN OF ELMIRA.

THIS town was originally organized as Newtown, April 10, 1792, and its name changed to Elmira, April 6, 1808 .* The town is situated a little south of the geographical cen- tre of the county. On the east and west borders are ranges of hills, between which extends a wide and fertile valley. The summits of the hills are from four hundred to six hundred feet above the valleys, and their declivities are generally steep. Chemung River, which forms the south

boundary, and Newtown, Baldwin, and Goldsmith Creeks are the principal streams. The soil is a gravelly loam upon the uplands, and a productive sandy loam in the valleys.

The following interesting items, touching the history of this town, are taken from an old chronicle, by Rev. Clark Brown, prepared in August, 1803, and since published in the ninth volume of the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society :

" The principal wood is the oak, walnut, and maple ; lint, birch, elm, butternut, and pine are not scarce. Adja- cent to the village, for a little more than a mile cach way, the timber is mostly pine and hemlock. The soil upon which this grows is not so clear and good as that which produces hard wood.

" PRICE OF LAND .- The cleared and improved lands are as clear as they are in old settled country towns in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The new land, about six miles from the village, is from twenty to twenty-four shil- lings York currency by the acre. Lots are sold on six years' credit, and three years, without interest. The quality of the land is good, and it is easily cleared. It affords great encouragement to those who wish to purchase new farms. There is scarcely any cleared and improved land, except small lots in the village, for sale in the town. The country is considered very healthful.

"There are seven distilleries, one of which, two miles cast of the village, is on a new plan, as secured to the inventor by patent from Congress. The greater part of the spirits, which is whisky, is sold to the inhabitants living on the Susquehanna River. Some of it is sent down to Baltimore."

The reverend chronicler closes his valuable and interest- ing paper with the following significant sentence : "The western wilderness, in a civil and rural sense, is beginning to blossom like the rose."

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

Among the pioneers who settled in what now constitutes the townt of Elmira were the following :

. Colonel John Hendy arrived in April, 1788, and was one of the first white settlers in the town, but not the first in the Chemung Valley,t as has been claimed for him by local writers and others. From the " History of the Che- mung Valley," which appeared in the Elmira City Directory of 1868, we quote the subjoined account, which, with the exception of the assertion of exclusive priority for Colonel Hendy, is correct :

" He came up the river in a canoe from Wilkesbarre, in April, 1788, accompanied by a bound boy, Dan Hill, who lived with him for many years. They landed at what was then known as Newtown Forks, the junction of Newtown Creek and Chemung River, just below the present Arnot Mill. He put up a lodge of boughs and bark, and planted corn. . . . LIe was singularly happy in securing the friendship and good-will of the Indians, and was able to ward off personal contests or quarrels. Colonel Hendy had taken an active part in the Revolution, and served under Washington at

# For the various changes in its territory, see un ler head of " Civil Organization."

t See history of the City of Elmira.

¿ See history of the towns of Chemung, Horseheads, and South-

1 port.

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AND SCHUYLER COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

the early age of nineteen ; fought at Princeton, Trenton, and Monmouth. Before the latter battle he had been com- missioned as captain, and in brilliant style brought off the remnant of the army from this hard-won field. Here he gallantly bore off the battle-ground the brave General Mer- eer, who was wounded during the action, and died a few days after. . .

RESIDENCE OF COLONEL HIENDY, BUILT IN 1796-THE OLDEST DWELLING-HOUSE NOW STANDING IN CHE- MUNG COUNTY.

" In April the colonel had planted the first field of eorn ever planted by a white man in the valley .* The summer was spent in surveying the country for a favorable location for a fixed settlement, and several times he passed up and down the river, between his lodge and Tioga Point, bring- ing up two eanoe-loads of boards, which were used in the fall in putting up the first shanty in Hendytown. After securing his corn crop for the winter, late in the fall he and Dan Hill went back to Tioga Point, the residence of his family, and upon the 25th of October, 1788, came back with them to Hendytown, where he had arranged his future home. His family then consisted of one son, Samuel, and two daughters, Rebecca and Sallie. After their arrival and settlement here, there were born Thomas, Anna, Jane, John, Hannah, Mary, and Betsey."

The location of the shanty mentioned in the above quo- tation was on the bank of the river, almost on a line with the old log honse, still standing, which he built four years later, and on which he spent the remainder of his life. This log house, together with the site of the former humble dwelling, are on the farm now occupied by Joseph Hoffman. This farm is a part of the 800 acres described in the fol- lowing patent, which we copy from the original document, now in possession of Mr. Hoffman :

" The People of the State of New York, by the Grace of God, Free and Independent. To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting. KNOW YE that we have Given, Granted, and Confirmed, and by these Presents do Give, Grant, and Confirm unto JonN HENDY all that cer-

tain Tract or Lot of Land, situate now or late in the Town of Che- mung, in our said State, known as Lot No. 114; Beginning at a small maple tree marked with three notches and a blaze on four sides, on the northerly bank of the Tioga River, and running from thenee North 80 chains to a leaning dogwood tree, marked; thence East 70 chains to a stone set in the ground, on the easterly side of a high hill ; thence South 199, East 93 chains to the said River; thence up the same, its several courses, to the place of beginning, containing 800 acres.

" Dated at New York, " APRIL 12, 1791.

" LEWIS A. SCOTT, Secretary. " GEO. CLINTON, Governor."

The only portion of the estate of Colonel John Hendy now possessed by any deseendant of his, is by Mrs. Katie Starr, a granddaughter, who owns a farm of 100 acres, 50 acres of which was partly inherited by her mother from the colonel, and partly purchased by her father, and deeded to her by them ; the balance belongs to Charles Savage, a brother-in-law of Mrs. Starr.

Another early and prominent settler was Judge John Miller, who came into the town about 1790. He was a son of Judge Abraham Miller, who settled on the other side of the river, in what is now Southport. Judge John obtained a patent for 400 acres of land, dated 1792. He erected the first frame house in the town, which, after un- dergoing sundry repairings, painting, ete., still stands, and is now occupied by - Smitherly, a tenant on the Foster estate. The house is just within the corporate limits of the city.

Libbeus Tubbs came in at about the same time as Colonel Hendy, and was a prominent settler. Josiah and John Brown eame in 1815 ; the former resided in the house now occupied by A. K. Coleman, and the latter on the place upon which W. A. Bigelow now lives. Among others in the southwest part of the town was Judge Hiram Gray, t who purchased the place where he now resides in 1838. He is now the only settler who lives in the place cleared by himself in this part of the town. He eame to the village of Elmira in 1825, and has lived to see it grow from a small settlement to a thriving and prosperous city, and to personally develop his homestead from a wild, uncultivated spot to a home of comfort and even eleganee, thus admir- ably typifying in his life the energy and enterprise of the pioneer, and the instincts of the refined gentleman and scholar.

In the southerst part of the town Archibald Jenkins occupies the proud position of the oldest inhabitant. He is the son of Wilkes Jenkins, who came from Luzerne Co., Pa., and settled in what is now Ashland as early as 1790, where Arehie first saw the light, in the forest that then surrounded the old home, Nov. 12, 1792. In 1799 they moved to the place where " Uncle Archie," as he is famil- iarly ealled, has resided for nearly fourseore years. It is a place pleasantly situated on an elevation overlooking the Chemung, which flows placidly through the valley beneath. Here the post-octogenarian pioneer passes his closing years amid the scenes of his youth, dwelling in thought on the past, and recalling the time when the bark canoe shot swiftly o'er old Tioga's peaceful bosom, freighted with the dusky Indian, and bound on expeditions of peaceful

# See history of town of Chemung for correction of this statement.

t See nnder head of The Bar in general history of the county,

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HISTORY OF TIOGA, CHEMUNG, TOMPKINS,

business or harmless amusement; perchance to catch the sportive pickerel or wily perch.

Benjamin Lyttleton arrived about 1797-98, and settled on the farm now occupied by Jackson Goldsmith. A year or so subsequent came John Tubbs, who located on the farm upon which his grandson, Samuel Tubbs, now resides.

In 1811, Benjamin Goldsmith arrived from Orange Co., N. Y., and located on the farm now occupied by George W. Holbert. The Greatsingers were also among the early settlers of the south and southeast parts of the town. Jolin S. Greatsinger is a prominent representative of this family.

Among those who settled in the northwest part of the town, principally in the Thomas Whitney Patent, at an early period in its history, was John McCann, who came originally from Belfast, Ireland, but more immediately from New York City. He arrived in Elmira in 1809, and set- tled on a tract of 320 acres he purchased of Thomas Whit- ney. He subsequently added to his original purchase, and owned at his death the site of the New York State Re- formatory, 140 acres of which his son, George S. McCann, Esq., sold to the commissioners of prisons prior to the erection of the buildings. About 1820, Thomas McCann, brother to John, came in and settled near his brother, but subsequently moved to the town of Erin, where he died, at the advanced age of ninety-two, in the fall of 1877.

The Carrs, of Carr's Corners, were early settlers ; also S. S. Matthews, of the Hillside View homestead, J. W. Compton, J. Carruthers, and others.

In the northern part of the town is located Eldridge Park, the property of the Eldridge estate, and by its orig- inal owner, Edwin Eldridge, M.D., thrown open to the public. For a fuller description of this lovely spot, we refer our readers to the history proper of the city of Elmira.

CIVIL ORGANIZATION.

Elmira was formed from Chemung as Newtown, April 10, 1792, and its name was changed April 6, 1808. Catharine (Schuyler County), which then included the north half of towns Nos. 1 and 4, and all of towns 2 and 3 of the Watkins and Flint purchase, was taken off March 15, 1798; Big Flats and Southport, April 16, 1822; Horseheads, Feb. 8, 1854; and a part of Ashland, April 25, 1867. The description of the division of Che- mung and formation of Newtown (Elmira), as given in the act erecting the latter, is as follows : " All that part of Chemung lying east of the Massachusetts Pre-emption Line, and west of a line drawn north and south from the middle of Baldniss' (Baldwin's) Mill Creek to the north and south line of Tioga County (Pennsylvania line, and north tier of towns in the military tract ), shall be called Newtown." The present arca of the town is 14,682 acres.

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History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins and Schuyler counties, New York, Part 77

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