History of Wyoming County, N.Y., with Illustrations, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Some Pioneers and Prominent Residents, Part 47

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: F.W. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages:

USA > New York > Wyoming County > History of Wyoming County, N.Y., with Illustrations, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Some Pioneers and Prominent Residents > Part 47

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ANSON WILLIAMS, born in 1802 in Otsego county, N. Y., married in 1808 Miss U'rminda Lamman, of Orangeville, N. Y. He came here in 1816, and is a shoemaker at Castile.

JOHN WRIGHT, son of John and Tamar Wright, was born in Dutchess county, N. Y., in 1801. In 1825 he came to Castile and bought a portion of his present farm. In 1826 he married Miss Lovica Wixon, daughter of Jobn and Phebe Wixon, and has six living children.

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RESIDENCE OF WM J. PALMER, WEST SIDE OF SILVER LAKE, CASTILE, N . Y.

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JEDEDIAH WALKER.

MRS, JEDEDIAH WALKER.

RESIDENCE OF J. S. WALKER, PEARL CREEK, WYOMING CO ., N. Y.

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THE TOWN OF COVINGTON.

IGHTEEN hundred and six found Covington a wilderness without inhabitants. Its gently rolling surface, varied here and there by a plain, a gorge, a rugged rise, was densely covered with tall maples, beech, basswood, black cherry, spread- ing elms and sturdy oaks-beech and maple predom- inating.

The paths of men, gently trod by moccasined feet, were there, leading from wigwams on the Genesee toward the council fires of Buffalo and Tonawanda. Bronze-faced travelers, with strong bow and well-aimed arrow, stopped the timid deer in its flight, brought the agile squirrel from the top of nut-bearing beech, and with rod and line jerked speckled fish from the crystal pools of Pearl brook and from the quiet spring-fed waters of the Oatka (Allen's) creek. Reaching the " Big spring" (at Waldron's, formerly Judge Sprague's mill) they kindled fires, rested awhile on the sloping banks of the stream, and cooked and ate with more than civilized relish what vulgar moderns call a "square meal." Crossing the Oatka, pursuing their trail westward up the ravine, they pass to other hunting grounds, to perish miserably from the earth, sadly conscious that savages have no rights Christians are bound to respect.

PIONEER ARRIVALS AND ENTERPRISES.

In. the panorama of events a new scene opened. The In- dian trail was trod by one of a different race, precursor of a marvelous change! Tall, muscular, thoughtful, reserved, bred at the base of the Green mountains, firm in his tread, firmer in his purpose, Jairus Cruttenden followed the paths so often trod by Red Jacket, Tall Chief, Cornplanter and their tribes, carefully scrutinizing timber, soil and situations till he came to the "Big spring," a few rods south of where Pearl creek empties into the Oatka. Here the deep, strong soil, magnificent timber and the expanse of level land greatly impressed him. He at once resolved to make his home there. As he decided, a strange darkness came over the land, the stars were visible at midday, birds and beasts sought their resting places, the wild men of the woods were sore afraid-it was the " great eclipse of 1806!"

Adventurers, three or four years before, had built their cabins at Buttermilk Falls (Le Roy), ten miles southwest of there at Wright's, and at Warsaw, but between these places and eastward to the Genesee river was no white inhabitant. Mr. Cruttenden went to work at once cutting trees, putting up a log house and clearing two or three acres of land, which he sowed to wheat the same season. He lived alone, changing works occasionally with his five or six neighbors at " Wright's

Corners," two miles west, where his bread was baked. For the rest he extemporized his own cooking. We may well be- lieve that he went back to Pultney. Vt., for his wife and child as soon as he could get ready for them. Returning in October he pushed forward his improvements; but soon a serious unpleasantness occurred. During his absence a brother of Jemima Wilkinson, " the prophetess," or, as she styled herself, "the universal friend," who founded a sect or community on Seneca lake, had bought the premises from the Holland Company, and so he duly notified the occupant. The land was not surveyed when Cruttenden came, but he was assured that he could choose his place and it would be reserved for him-a promise not kept, so he had to begin anew. He went half a mile to the northwest and commenc- ed again. Soon after his brothers-in-law, William and John Sprague, settled east of him on the same lot. William Sprague, a hatter, built a shop to make and sell hats, and erected a log house where Mrs. Cameron now lives. His brother John started the pioneer tannery a little east of him, and close to where Gurdon Miller built soon after, it being the east part of the Gorton farm. He ground his bark by rolling a huge stone, like a grind stone with a shaft through it, round a platform with a horse, removing the fine bark and putting the coarse in the track of the wheel.

In 1810 William Miller came from Sherburne and settled three-fourths of a mile north of Pearl Creek, on the Warsaw and Le Roy road. He entertained travelers, sold goods, made potash (the first in the neighborhood), sold it for $175 per ton in Caledonia, and subsequently ran a line of stages. .

Dr. Daniel White, the first physician in the town, settled north and adjoining Mr. Miller. He was a surgeon in the war of 1812, was skillful, had a large practice, gave calomel and used whiskey freely, as the fashion was, and was more companionable than constant as his wife believed. He was a leading member and champion of the masonic order. While leading a grand masonic procession on "St. John's day," at Pavilion, arrayed in royal robes, his wife, who had more temper than self respect and' frequently gave her hus- band the benefit of it, brought up the rear clad in the most slatternly garments imaginable. Their daughter Volina was the first child born in the town. The family moved west about 1826.

The first settler east of the Warsaw and Le Roy road was Captain Levi Beardsley, who in 1810 or 1811 took up six hundred acres where John C. Taine now lives. His sons Dyer, Jesse, Elisha, Levi and William took farms, and were industrious and enterprising citizens. Amenzo Beardsley, a

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HISTORY OF WYOMING COUNTY, NEW YORK.

grandson of Captain Beardsley, lives in Middlebury, and his daughter married Charles B. Matthews.

Captain Beardsley is gratefully remembered for the kindly welcome and generous aid he extended to many early comers. He removed with most of his sons to Chautauqua county, N. Y.

In 1811 Marshall Davis, from Vermont, settled at Pearl Creek, where Chauncey Pond now lives, and a year or two later he sold to Timothy Cruttenden (father of Jairus) and his son Julius, who came from Pultney, Vt., and Mr. Davis moved east about a mile, where he resided till his death. Soon after his removal he was joined by his mother and his brothers Calvin, Jonathan, Edward and Lewis. Edward was a farmer, a preacher and a school teacher, whom the writer remembers gratefully as a kind and faithful teacher. He married his brother Marshall's widow for his second wife, and is now living in Macomb county, Mich., about ninety years of age.

Calvin Davis married Captain Beardsley's daughter Sylvia, in 1814, it being the first marriage in the town.

About this time William Cruttenden, cousin to Jairus, set- tled three-fourths of a mile south of Pearl Creek, on the War- saw road. He sold to Ethel Cushman and his son Joseph T. Cushman, who sold to Joseph Burleigh, whose son Ed- ward sold to Mr. Boyce.

Luke Keith built on the east side of Allen's creek. Shortly after Salmon and David Hurlburt, Mr. Raymond, a cooper, Orin and Elnathan Scranton and Jonathan Peterson settled on the creek near Captain Sprague's saw-mill and woolen- mill, which stood a little above where William Croman's saw- mill now stands. This was the most popular part of the town. Captain James Sprague came in 1812. His house was on the west side of Allen's creek, where Messrs. Henry and George Eastman now live, and nearly opposite his saw- mill.

James C. Ferris, a leading business man of Middlebury, built a store at Pearl Creek, where T. G. Miller's grocery now. is, and which was moved by N. B. Miller, and is now occupied by Norman Shepard. Mr. Ferris also owned and lived on the farm east of Wyoming where Mr. Thayer re- sides. He built and occupied a house on the Samuel Webb farm, and sold to Mr. Squires, its present owner. Mr. Fer- ris came from Albany in 1817, and long conducted a very large mercantile business at Wyoming; also farming to a con- siderable extent. He made potash extensively, and after the completion of the Erie Canal shipped it at Brockport.

South of the Samuel Webb farm lived Thomas Tygart, who was taken prisoner in the war of 1812 and sent to Hal- ifax, suffering great hardships; he died in Wisconsin. While in Covington his three-year-old boy Merrit was lost in the woods, and only found the day after by a general turnout of the inhabitants.

Deacon Daniel Judd, living on the Warsaw road, came in 1817, and the Presbyterians held their meetings at his house. Abijah Owen, Elisha Palmer, David Beebe, on the E. Murry place, and Mr. Locke and four sons on the Havens place, all came between 1820 and 1830.

In 1825 Jedediah Walker moved with his son, Jedediah S. Walker, from Rutland, Vt., and bought Deacon Nathaniel Brown's place, adjoining William Miller's. Deacon Brown had resided there several years, and William Miller married his daughter.

Jacob Lemley, a skillful blacksmith, opened a shop at Pearl Creek in 1825, and his son has continued the business since. The same year Daniel Sprague, of Livonia, exchanged his farm with William Sprague, the hatter, and he came on with his sons James and and Chauncey. James Sprague and, afterward appointed judge, also purchased the mill then recently erected by Erastus Bailey, of Le Roy (afterward owned by Duncan Cameron, and later by O. D. Waldron). About 1826 John Doty, who had married a sister of J. S. Walker, bought a farm on the Pavilion road, a part of it hav- ing belonged to Jonathan Petersen.

About the same time Joshua Dean bought a farm at Pearl Creek; he died at that place a few years after. The farm is now owned and occupied by Chauncey Pond. Chester Moulton, from Vermont, owns the house built by George Par- tridge, a manufacturer of spinning wheels, whose wife was a sister of Jairus Cruttenden.

S. O. and Beaumont Parks, near Pearl Creek, live on a farm formerly owned by Hiram Brooks, who sold it to Es- quire Bowers; the next farm east was taken up by Lazarus Green, a seceder from the Shakers; the writer remembers his collecting a large number of men to plant his potatoes be- fore the change of the moon.

The Davises and Peter Knapp, deputy postmaster of Cov- ington under Benedict Brooks, lived west of the Norris hill, on land now owned by Harry Sprague.

Daniel Balcom built, at a very early day, the first grist- mill in the town; it was small, of the Grahamitish order, having no bolt, and was used mainly to grind feed and "samp;" it stood where Mr. Mather lives, west of Harry Sprague, on Pond creek. It was converted into a carding machine by Mr. Hough. Timothy and Julius Cruttenden, Hurlburt, Patridge, Church, Norton, Crocker and others all made spinning wheels, "big " and "little," and all the women used them.

David Norris came.to Covington Centre in 1812, and "took out an article " of a farm. Returning to Vermont he came back with his family March 14th, 1813. He stopped over night at Levi McWethey's, on the corners north of Coving- ton Centre.

Isaiah Phelps was living near the present school-house, on the west side of the road, and Captain Beardsley at what is now called " Paine's Corners;" these were the only settlers on the road until Perry Centre was reached: there was no inhabitant east of this road in the town of Covington .. Mr. Norris lived for some time without floor, doors, or win- dows.

The next year Thatcher Beardsley and William Norris settled a little east of him; and the next year (1815) Edward Norris bought land south of him, lying near Captain Beards- ley. Rev. William True came with him from Vermont; they were twenty-six days on the road, with ox teams.

The first frame tavern, with barn, bar-room, ball-room and beds, was erected and installed at Covington Centre by Daniel Balcom, in 1817. There pleasure seekers "tripped the light fantastic toe " in rather heavy boots, while on Sun- day in the same assembly room Elders William True, Mil- lard and Badger exhorted sinners to repentance. Daniel Balcom was succeeded by James Norris, brother of Mark, in the tavern. Some years later Enos Newman and Colonel Miller kept open house where William Bryon now lives.

In 1817 Mark Norris came to Covington; he was born in

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MAJOR, H.T. BROOKS.

C. T. DEYO.

WALTER M. HATCH.

yours truly Gerard H. Brysen.

Henry Hovy.

DANIEL HOWARD, FATHER OF JONATHAN HOWARD.

JUDGE M. TRALL.

Alonzo Persons

Oliver Hodges Google

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FIRST INHABITANTS OF COVINGTON.

1796 in Peacham, Vt .; taught school in Lima, N. Y., and married Roccina B. Vail, sister of Benjamin Vail. He opened a store and an ashery; did a large business for some years, then sold to B. Vail & Compton, who had been clerks in his employ, and went to Ypsilanti, Mich.

In 1817 John Nobles and his brother came to this town, and settled on " No. six." John married Mary, daughter of Captain Sprague, attended his grist-mill for many years, and afterward bought a farm in Pavilion, where he is still living, at the age of eighty-two years; his wife died in 1878; two sons and two daughters are in Pavilion.

Mark Norris was succeeded by Vail & Compton, who married daughters of Dr. Derby. They did a large mercan- tile business until Vail was succeeded by Samuel B. Peck, a nephew of Benedict Brooks, who eventually bought Comp- ton's interest in the store, and for several years kept a large assortment of goods and did a good business. Since that time much of the trade of Covington Centre has been di- verted to other places.

About 1830 the Genesee road was moved a third of a mile further north for a better grade, and public buildings were then erected on their present sites.

Enos Newman settled in 1811 on the Leicester or Elicott road, leading from Cuylerville through Pavilion to Tona- wanda. This road was surveyed by Joseph Elicott, and opened by Sylvenus Young, father of Mr. S. Young, of Geneseo, who had settled on Allen's creek (Oatka) in 1810.

.In 1814 Joseph Perry settled on the Leicester road, where Harrison McWethey now lives. The Carrs and Crowfoots came about 1816, and settled on the same road.

Deacon David Fowler came from Ulster county, N. Y., in 1824, and settled a little east of Covington Centre; his daughter married Dr. Eben Warner, who practiced medicine successfully at Covington Centre.

Alexander Boyd, born near Glasgow, Scotland, came to Sar- atoga county, N. Y., in i811, and to Covington in 1824, tak- ing a part of Gilbert Lang's place, who came in 1822. Mr. B. was a very industrious farmer, who improved his cattle and sheep, and for fifty years was never absent from .the communion table of his church. He brought from the church in Scotland this significant testimonial: "We have known him from infancy, and he has always behaved soberly and honestly." His sons are James, Samuel and Alexander; his daughters Margaret and Jane. Mr. Boyd died in 1874, aged eighty-four.

James McQueen came in 1825. Mordecai Brownell came in 1825, and settled just west of the Scott or Orr farm. He, together with his son, Lorenzo Brownell, living on the Orin Scranton place, took much interest in the improvement of sheep and cattle. Peter Forbes and Alexander Douglass came in 1827.

On the eastern borders of Covington, just west of the .United Presbyterian church, is a farm that deserves special mention. About 1819 Captain Scott and Captain Mow took up six hundred acres of land, which they divided, Captain "Scott taking the south part. They both pushed their im- provements vigorously, Captain Scott performing a feat un- paralleled in pioneer annals. He chopped, cleared, fenced into ten-acre lots, and sowed to winter wheat, one hundred acres in one year, and all in the most thorough manner. He got the enormous yield of fifty bushels of wheat to the acre.

It was cut with sickles, Mr. John Nobles, of Pavilion, being one of the reapers; they were divided into three squads, of five men each, and at once entered into a vigorous competi- tion for the lead; so much so that before night on the first day half the men were "under the fence," being helped there in some cases by the barrel of whiskey. with a faucet and tin cup, kept in the harvest field and in the woods while the land was being cleared. This crop of wheat was threshed with flails, drawn to Albany on wagons, and sold for two dollars a bushel, the teams loading back with goods. Elated with his success, Captain Scott, socially inclined, spent the following season in Washington, having sold his farm to James Gilmore. A year or two later he went West, and died without becoming rich. Mr. Gilmore sold the farm to Mr. Sturtevant, and he to John Orr, who came from Scotland with his father to Caledonia when he was four years old. His father, while at a chopping bee, was killed with an ax by a comrade frenzied with drink. McLean, the murderer, fled to the woods, where he was fed several days by his mother. He was afterward arrested on the road while leav- ing the country and hung at Batavia in 1807-the first exe- cution in Genesee county. John Orr was a man of great in- dustry and perseverance; while young he assisted his widowed mother, whose labors, trials and achievements seem almost incredible. His wife and two sons occupy the Scott farm.

Peoria, a village of twenty-five or thirty residences, with shops, hotel and store, was not settled till the close of the war of 1812. About that time Deacon Butler located a little west and Mr. Mills a little southeast of the present village. Subsequently Deacon James Wells opened a store and his son a hotel at the "Corners," and about 1827 Mr. James Gordon established himself in business, with his sons. He kept a full assortment, had a good trade and still continues it. His eldest son is actively employed elsewhere, and his son Thomas collects the farm produce and ships it at Pavil- ion, on the State Line railroad. One of Mr. Gordon's daughters is the wife of Rev. Mr. Gilfillin, the eloquent and popular pastor of the United Presbyterian church.

A joint stock company, aided by subsidies, built a sub- stantial steam flouring-mill, but finding the cost of run- ning greater than of water-mills, it was abandoned as a mill.

Mr. Fiero for several years manufactured the diamond toothed cultivator, that perhaps has never been excelled for stirring the soil in corn fields and cutting up weeds and grass. The tooth is a diamond shaped steel plate attached to an iron shank.

Mr. Guthrie, of Peoria, has invented an iron fence post of undoubted value-a large stone is drilled and the post, an inch bar, inserted in it.

Elijah Kendall came to the southeast part of Covington in 1817; his brother-in-law, Jonathan Cooley, about the same time; they were from Springfield, Mass., and were the first settlers in that part of the town. Mr. Cooley's wife survives him, at the age of ninety-six. Of his sons, Frederick, Gil- bert, Alonzo, Ashley and Carlton, the last occupies the home- stead. Elijah Kendall's sons are Franklin, Ralph, Alfred, William and Lawson. Theodore, his grandson, lives on the homestead.

Mr. Barr took up the farm where Leicester Rood now lives. Elijah Lamb was an early settler. James Armstrong

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HISTORY OF WYOMING COUNTY, NEW YORK.

settled further west. Isaac Wellman moved in 1821 from Vermont to Friendship, and the year following to the "State road " in Covington, where Mr. Morrow now lives; he died in 1847. John, Andrew and David Morrow came with their mother from Saratoga county and settled on the State road, at the source of Pearl creek, in 1821. John went to Michi- gan, where he died. Joseph Durfle came from Rhode Island in 1822, and settled at Paine's Corners.

Jasher Taylor, son of Jasher Taylor of Ashfield, Mass., came with his family in 1827 and bought Elisha Beardsley's place, adjoining Captain Beardsley's farm. Mr. Taylor died in 1872.

David Wylie came in 1814, and bought Mr. Fosgate's "chance " to a farm on the Perry road, half a mile south of Captain Beardsley's; and Hardin Bradly settled the same year a little further south, toward La Grange. In 1813 Dan- iel Howard came to La Grange, where he built a house on the northeast corner. Samuel Russell and James Miller, who had married his sisters, built on the northwest corner, and Mr. Armstrong on the southeast corner. There was no set- tlement east short of Moscow, near the Genesee river.

Asaph White, commonly called Bachelor White, came from the town of Heath, Mass., in 1815, and bought a farm west of La Grange; cleared twelve acres with the help of Calvin Lewis and Samuel Hatch, and sowed it to wheat. Being disappointed in receiving money from the east which was due to him, he sold in the spring of 1817 to William Alton, who harvested forty-five bushels to the acre. Wheat being scarce after the cold season of 1816, Alton sold it for $2 per bushel. Mr. Alton died, and his son William succeeded to the place, which is now owned by Deacon Austin Lane, who was an early settler. John Howard lived east of his brother Deacon Howard, and sold in 1819 to John Boughton. Captain Gillett bought the place now owned by Mark Vebyg.

Captain James Sprague, one of the prominent farmers and business men of Covington, was born in Connecticut in 1766, and was living with his mother, brothers and sisters near New London, Conn., when that town was burned by Ben- edict Arnold in September; 1781, the most valuable of their goods were burned. In 1798 he married Abiah Carpenter, and they lived in New Marlborough, Mass., where all his children were born. In 1812 he removed to Covington, and immediately built a saw-mill on the Oatka, in company with Aaron Spaulding, it being the first saw-mill in the neighbor- hood and a very great convenience to the settlers. Soon afterward he erected a carding and cloth dressing establish- meut. In 1826 be built the grist-mill now owned by William Crossman. He subsequently established his sons in business in Pavilion; James in cloth dressing, Daniel and William as merchants, while Paul took charge of the grist and saw-mills, and Erastus of the farm of four hundred acres. William on retiring from mercantile business practiced medicine success- fully at Pavilion for several years.

Captain Sprague was respected as a man of energy and integrity, of much public spirit. For a long time he stood first in wealth and enterprise in the town of Covington. He died in Pavilion in October, 1849.

Daniel Howard, the son of Elisha Howard and Patty Wil- liams, was born in West Rockingham, Windsor county, Vt. After living awhile in Middlebury, Vt., he removed to Os- wego county, N. Y., and married Patty Sherman. He

selected a farm in 1813 on the northeast corner at La Grange. His brother and brothers-in-law settled at La Grange about the same time, being the first settlers in the south part of the town. Mr. Howard and his wife were soon taken down with fever, and lay at the point of death for eight weeks. Day after day and week after week women came three or four miles on horseback to minister to Mrs. Howard's necessities during each night, and then returned to severe labors at their own homes. She is still living. Mr. Howard bought his farm for $4 per acre, and sold it in 1816 for $13. He bought another, one and a-half miles west of La Grange, where his son Jonathan now lives, for $5 per acre, and clear- ed it. He was a staunch Democrat, a Baptist, a deacon, an efficient highway commissioner when the duties were arduous, and in all respects a good citizen. He died in 1856.

Mr. Howard frankly acknowledged that his wife "did as much to pay for the farm " as himself, and many other men could say as much if they would. The labors of pioneer women are almost incredible. Mrs. Howard, while rearing her family, cut and made clothes for the people round about, did the housework, boarded the hired man, boarded " Bach- elor " White and his men, wove cloth for the neighborhood, kept a ministers', pedlars' and land-lookers' tavern, and made butter and cheese to buy groceries and store goods.

Her son, Austin A., who died in 1879, attained distinction as a lawyer in Buffalo. From the time he left home to at- tend Williams College, to his death, forty years afterward, he never failed on his mother's birthday to write her a good letter and to accompany it with a substantial token of re- gard.

Thomas Fisher came to Covington in 1817 from Stafford, Genesee county, where he had cleared up a farm. He came to Stafford from the town of Pompey, Onondaga county, N. Y. He was the son of Jacob Fisher, of Sharon, Mass., and came to this State when fourteen years old. He married Desire Pratt, sister of Webster Pratt, who also came to Covington in 1817. Mr. Pratt's father, Noah, served through the Revolutionary war, and died about 1830. Thomas Fisher purchased a large farm on lot 4, of Stephen Wilkinson, and cleared it up, performing a great amount of hard labor; he was an upright and respected citizen.

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History of Wyoming County, N.Y., with Illustrations, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Some Pioneers and Prominent Residents, Part 47

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: F.W. Beers & Co. Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: F.W. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: