USA > New York > Wyoming County > History of Wyoming County, N.Y., with Illustrations, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Some Pioneers and Prominent Residents > Part 54
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REBEKA SHATTUCK was born October 28th, 1800, in Leyden, Mass., and mar- ried Samuel H. Shattuck, of that place, September Stad, 1842. Mr. Shattuck was born October 28th, 1806, and died January 5th, 1818. He came into the town in 1848, and was engaged in farming until 1870, when he retired from active life and removed to Gainesville. He was a prominent member of the Methodist church, with which Mrs. Shattuck is also connected.
ROBERT F. SHEARMAN was born in Perry, August 22nd, 1828, and was mar- ried March Ist, 1864, to Sarah L. Norton, of Gainesville, where he has lived since 1866. He has served as assessor three years, justice of the peace four years, inspector of elections, justice of sessions two years, and loan commis -. sioner three years. Gideon. Shearman, father of Robert F. Shearman, was born in Rhode Island in 1781, and was colonel of a regiment in the war of 1812-14. His wife drove a borse from their former place of residence to west- ern New York, carrying a child in her arms at the same time.
DEVELLO Z. SHEFFIELD was born in this town, in 1840. He obtained a good academic education at Warsew and taught scbool winters until 1881, when be enlisted in the 17th N. Y. infantry. After the civil war be was principal of Castile union school. He subsequently attended the Auburn Theolog- joal Seminary, and upon his graduation be married Miss Ella Sherril, of Pike, and went as a missionary to China, where be bas resided the past ton years.
N. B. TIFFANY was born . in Eagle, in 1828, and married Mary D. Gile, ot Gainesville. He is a farmer. He bes served the town as supervisor and col- lector, and has been assessor six years. Benjamin F. Tittany, his father, wes born in Onelda county, in 1800.
MRS. SULAN M. WARRINGE was born in. Vershire, Vt., August 18th, 1836, and was married to James L. Warriner, of Gainesville, April 3d. 1843. He was born in 1824. She came from Vermont to East Gainesville in 1834.
WILLIAM WEBSTER, farmer, was born in Warsaw, December 15th, 1818, and was married in April, 1848, to Calista Keeney, of his native town. That year he came to Gainesville, where be has served as assessor four years. and as overseer of the poor. Mr. Webster was a member of a stock company which built a large stone building near Bock Gien for the manufacture of furat- ture. It was 75 by 40 feet, with a drying-house 23 by 20 feet. It was burned about 1876. William Webster, father of the above mentioned, was born in Washington county, in 1787, and came to Warsaw in 1800. He and his wife both lived until past ninety.
PARKER WILSON was born in Gainesville, in 1837, and married Delina Snyder, of York, in 1851. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have three children, Mary, Charles and Frank, born respectively in 1868, 1865 and 1867.
MERRITT WOODRUFF was born in Washington, Litchfield county, Conn .. November 25th, 1796, and emigrated with his parents to Gainesville in 1818, where he resided until his death, December 13th, 1878. Mr. Woodruff was one of the solid Yankee pioneers of Gainesville; be had the confidence of the people, and never betrayed them. It seemed to be his aim to do right. Right and justice were the ruling principles of his life from youth to old age. He was honest from principle, and loved truth and right with as much ardor as Horace Greeley; was quiet and unobtrusive in his manners, of a redective mind, and always thought before he spoke or answered a question. He beld the office of justice of the peace many years. and important lawsuits were tried before him, and the sharpest lawyers could not swerve him from what he thought was right. He was one of the first abolitionists in town, and voted that ticket for several years all alone. He was a good neighbor, friend, husband and father ; and by good judgment, economy and industry accumulated a handsome property. He married Elizabeth Tinker, of Monroe county, and they had one child, Grace A., who married Walter H. Cummings, of Warmaw.
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RESIDENCE OF NORMAN SCHENCK, WYOMING CO., N. Y.
POST'S HOTEL
'POST'S HOTEL", A.J. AXTELL, PROPRIETOR, CASTILE, N . Y.
SAMUEL H. SHATTUCK.
RESIDENCE OF REBEKAH SHATTUCK, GAINESVILLE, N. Y.
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RESIDENCE OF DAVID P. STOWELL, WEST PERRY, N. Y.
RESIDENCE OF MILES SHARPSTEEN, CASTILE, N. Y.
RESIDENCE OF JOHN KEETON, CASTILE, N. Y.
Silver Lake
RESIDENCE OF T. G. WALLACE, GENESEE FALLS, N. Y.
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THE TOWN OF GENESEE FALLS.
HE original town of Portage was taken from Nunda, Allegany county, and incorporated in 1827. On the Ist of April, 1846, the Legisla- ture enacted as follows:
"Section 1 .- The towns of Eagle, Pike and all that part of Portage in the county of Allegany lying on the west side of the Genesee river, and bounded as follows :- On the east by the Genesce river. on the south by a line running due easterly from the south line of the town of Pike until it intersects the Genesee river, and west and north by the original lines of said town-from and after the passage of this act shall be, and the same are hereby annexed to the county of Wyoming."
"Section 2 .- The territory hereby taken from the mid town of Portage and three quarters of a mile of territory, being one tier of lots as surveyed by the Holland Land Company, from the east side of mid town of Pike, shall from and after the passage of this act be a separate town by the name of the town of Genesee Falls; and the first meeting therein shall be held at the house of Anson Tinkham on the second Tuesday of April next, to com- mence at ten o'clock in the forenoon, for the purpose of electing all neces- sary town officers for the mid town of Genesee Falls."
"Section 4 .- All the residue of the town of Portage lying west of the Gen- esee river shall, from and after the passage of this act, be annexed to the town of Hume, in the county of Allegany."
The original name, Portage, which means a carrying place, was derived from the portage around the falls in the river, over which the canoes of the Indians, the boats of early white navigators, and the lumber rafts which in later years descended the river, were carried. The derivation of Gen- esee Falls, from the falls in the neighborhood, is evident.
Except the tier of lots taken from Pike, the town is in- cluded in the Cotringer tract, elsewhere described, through which lumber was conveyed to market.
SETTLEMENT.
The land on that portion of this town which was included in the Cotringer tract came into market about the year 1816. Previous to that time what were termed squatters had come in and established themselves along the river. Most of these left when the land came into market. Of those who be- came permanent settlers the names are remembered of Joseph Dixon, Benjamin B. Earl, Increase Hawley, Aaron Davis, Zachariah Van Buskirk, George Brown, Thomas Mc- Clenathan, David Handy, Anson Bigelow, Jacob Mabie, Or- rin Goodell, Truman Blood, John Robinson, Elisha Leach, Albert Langdon, Carpenter and Thomas Buckman. Of these Anson Bigelow and Truman Blood, both between eighty and ninety years of age, remain on the farms where they first settled.
At the time this town was settled John Hornby owned most of this portion of the Cotringer tract. The settlers usually took "articles," on which they paid small sums. These articles ran four years, but lenity was given beyond that time. The price at which these lands were sold was .
$5.50 per acre,-more than double the price of the Holland Land Company's lands,-and of course the Holland Pur- chase was more rapidly settled.
The hills along the valley of the river were originally covered with pine, oak and chestnut timber, and during many years after the first settlement of the town the chief busi- ness of the settlers was to cut and convert this timber into lumber, which at an early time was rafted down the river. Rafts were constructed below the falls, and taken down dur- ing high water. The logs that were cut a few miles above Portageville were floated to the mill at that place, where they were sawed and the lumber drawn down the carrying place during the winter, ready for rafting in the spring. After the completion of the Genesee Valley Canal it was the avenue. Probably a majority of the earliest settlers sold their "bet- terments " after a few years and went elsewhere.
Several saw-mills were erected at an early period on the small affluents of the river; but with the disappearance of the pine timber these have gone to decay.
Six State censuses taken during the existence of Genesee Falls show an almost uninterrupted decrease in the popula- tion of the town. The figures are appended: 1850, 1,322; 1855, 1,098; 1860, 1,020; 1865, 1,070; 1870, 979; 1875, 906.
ROADS.
An Indian trail led from Wiscoy to Mt. Morris through this town. It followed the course of the river till it reached the village of Portageville, where it wound over the hill and crossed the river at a ford, near where the iron bridge now is.
The river road was laid out about the year 1822. It fol- lowed nearly the line of marked trees which had previously" guided the few settlers, and in its general course adapted itself to the windings of the river. A man named Spencer was the commissioner who laid it. Another road was laid through the tier of lots next west from the transit line, and another runs through the north half of the town just east from that line. Another crosses the town diagonally on a course southwest from Portageville. These are the prin- cipal roads in the town, but there are numerous cross-roads among them.
MATTER FROM THE TOWN RECORDS.
In accordance with the provisions of the act of incor- poration, the first town meeting was held on the 14th of April, 1846. At this meeting Robert Flint was chosen supervisor; Nathan Platt, town clerk; Henry O. Brown and Ephraim Smith, justices of the peace; Laban Hassett,
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HISTORY OF WYOMING COUNTY, NEW YORK.
superintendent of common schools; Leman W. Dyer, col- lector; Ephraim Smith, Lewis Wood and Perry Jones, assessors; William Davidson, Homer Smith and Jared B. Smith, commissioners of highways; Joshua Abbott, overseer of the poor; William Kendal, Josiah Mosher and Leman W. Dyer, constables; Samuel Shaw, Leonard Hoskins and Miles Moffatt, inspectors of elections; and James M. Knowlton, sealer of weights and measures.
The following is a list of the supervisors in this town, with the years of their election. Each one named was re: elected each year till his successor was chosen:
1843, Robert Flint; 1849, Henry O. Brown; 1861, Peter Dunn; 1868, Levi Trucsdell; 1866, Levi Bond; 1867, Miles Moffat; 1866, Nathan Platt; 1859. George Fox; 1861, Marcus W. Wilner; 1868, Joseph Ingham; 1806, Samuel Shaw; 1867. Isaac V. Matthews; 1868, Oscar Adams; 1870, Horace Green; 1871, Luke Smith; 1872, Oscar Adams; 1878, Peter Dunn; 1875, Augustus Bradley; 1877, John L. Davidson.
It appears from the town record that here, as in some other towns, the operation of the first local option law was not satisfactory. May 19th, 1846, ninety-two votes were cast for no license, and forty-two for license. A year later 'the vote was seventy-nine for to forty against license.
In 1857 a bounty of fifty cents was voted on each fox, and six and a quarter cents on each crow killed in the town.
The records show that prompt action was taken to fill the quota of men in this town under the different calls of the President during the war of the Rebellion. They also show that the loyal sentiment increased in intensity, and became more widely prevalent as the war progressed.
On the 30th of December, 1863, a special town meeting .
voted in favor of a tax to raise $1,722 as bounties for four- teen volunteers needed from this town on the latest call of the President. In August, 1864, a bounty of $250 was voted to each man who should go or send a substitute under a recent call for volunteers, and in March, 1865, a bounty of $100 was voted (sixty-three to four) as an inducement for volunteers under the latest requisition of the President.
CEMETERIES.
The first cemetery in Genesee Falls was used very early, Dear Fort hill, on lot 107, northwest from and close by the hill. During several years all the interments, especially in the south part of the town, were at this place. About 1826 or 1827 burials here ceased, and afterward a private road, which is still in use, was opened across it. No monuments were erected here, and a few depressions alone mark the sites of graves.
Soon after the above was first used interments commenced on lot 86, near the transit line. This cemetery is still used. Another was early used near the Genesee river, just below the middle falls. Another, which was at first a private bur- ial place, was on lot 102, near the transit.
The old village cemetery was commenced in 1827. The first interment there was that of Lot Griffith, who was killed in August of that year by a fall from a load of hay.
At one time the owner of the land which included this cemetery proposed to remove the bodies entombed there, and use the ground for other purposes. The people became highly indignant at this, which they considered a profanation, and he abandoned his purpose, after receiving strong hints that if he persisted a small space might be required for him.
Not long previous to the occupancy of this cemetery two bodies were buried a short distance north from it. They were those of a daughter of Seth Smith and her grandfather,
Mr. Bangs, the father of the late Nathan Bangs, D. D. Their bodies have never been removed. The ground where they lie is now used for a barn yard. None of these cemeteries are known to have been under the control of legally organ- ized associations.
About seven years since a lot of some four acres was purchased from the estate of H. O. Brown by the village of Portageville for a cemetery. This ground was grubbed, partially graded and seeded. Some lots were disposed of, and a number of interments have taken place there. The relinquishment of the village charter in 1874 left this ceme- tery in a somewhat uncertain state.
GLEN IRIS.
The scenery along the Genesee river, from the lower falls to Portage bridge, has been many times described, and its banks portrayed from almost every point of view, and an elaborate description of it cannot be given here. It is, how- ever, a portion of Wyoming-probably no portion of this county has been seen and admired by a greater number of people.
To the student of geology it presents features of peculiar interest. Although there is no portion of the earth's sur- face where the foot of man has ever trod or where it can tread that is not replete with interest, and has not a history extending back through unnumbered acons of ages, there are regions where, as here, a portion of this history is more plainly legible than it is on a plain, where only gentle undu- lations, covered with vegetation, are visible, and where only evidences are seen of a long succession of forests which have sprung up, matured and fallen.
When the escarpment of the chasm which has been ex- cavated from the lower falls to the bridge is examined, and the character of the strata through which it is cut is noted, the nature of the process by which this immense work has been accomplished will be comprehended; though the mind will fail to grasp the vast stretch of time during which it has been in progress.
These strata, which were of course submarine deposits, are seen to be of greatly varying degrees of hardness. Many of these are so soft that were they not protected by the harder ones that overlie them the wall of the gorge would weather away, and become the sloping side of a valley in- stead of the perpendicular wall which it now is. The edges of these strata, which are from a fraction of an inch to several inches in thickness, project beyond the softer ones beneath them, and thus prevent the weathering down of this wall.
When the slowness with which the deposit of these strata took place, according to the estimates of geologists, is con- sidered, some faint and imperfect idea can be formed of the lapse of time requisite for their formation.
At a period away back in the past, the river, which ran over the surface of this formation upon a hard stratum of rock, and shifted its bed from time to time as it now does above and below this gorge, found a point where the con- tinuity of this stratum was broken; and it poured over this broken edge and cut away the edges of the softer strata be- neath more rapidly than the edge of this hard stratum wore away. Thus left to project without support beneath, its edge was broken off from time to time by the weight of the water when it was high, or by heavy bodies which it brought down
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GLEN IRIS.
with it, and the soft rock beneath it was again more rapidly eroded. The edges of thinner hard strata beneath the brink of the fall were in like manner left to project, and were broken off by the falling water, and thus the fall went on to recede up the stream.
The bed of the stream below the fall was a hard stratum of greater thickness, which did not wear away by the falling of the water on it and the passage of the current over it. In the lapse of immense time, however, its continuity was in like manner broken, and another fall commenced to follow its predecessor, and so on. There are three of these falls now in existence, and above the upper fall are evidences of. the former existence of another that cut through the rock which apparently constituted a barrier between the valley above and the gorge below.
At the middle fall are evidences of a comparatively recent change in the course of the river above, which changed the direction of the channel below; then of a return of the river to near its old bed; and along the course of the gorge, be- tween the middle and lower falls, are evidences of similar changes in past time.
A survey of this gorge, and of the surface of the ground on each side of it, reveals the fact that when the middle fall had reached a point some distance down the stream from where it now is, a point where the surface on each side is higher than it is up or down the stream from it, it was many feet higher than it now is. and the upper wall had no exist- ence, for the strata over which the water now runs were buried many feet beneath what was then the surface. A fall, however, was in existence near or a short distance above where the bridge now is, and was cutting through the barrier of some two hundred feet in height which then existed there. Of the condition of things above that barrier, and between it and the point where the middle fall then was, it is only nec- essary to say that there were no lakes there, because there were no depressions to contain them. The valley has been excavated since.
Such, briefly, is the history of these glens, as it is written on their walls and at the falls, where they are steadily though slowly extending up the stream. Of the scenery along the two or three miles of this river between the lower and upper falls it is hardly necessary to speak. It has been many times ably described. It is not too much to say of it, however, that it is not excelled in grandeur by that of any region in this part of the country.
As one stands at the brink of one of these falls, and watches the mist which comes up from below and rises many yards above his head, the question readily arises, what force brings up this spray and carries it to such a height, and what determines its course? That the water in its de- scent should be broken into small particles is no matter of surprise; but that the law of gravity should be reversed with -reference to it seems strange.
It is well known that the air has a weight of fifteen pounds on every square inch of the water as it descends. By reason of this it is constantly carried downward with the falling stream and sent forward, and reflected upward from the bed of the river below. This upward movement is more abrupt and violent because the walls of the gulf prevent the air from passing off laterally. The direction of the rising col- umn is influenced by the form and course of these walls.
The mist into which the falling water is divided is carried
upward by this reflex current of air, and becomes the sport of the winds, or falls in a gentle shower in the vicinity. The rays from the sun passing through this mist are decomposed and reflected, so that a rainbow is constantly visible. This suggested the name of the glen, and the history of the rain- bow is thus briefly told.
Glen Iris, which includes that portion of the valley be- tween the high point of the sides of the gorge spoken of and Portage bridge, gives evidence of many mutations dur- ing the long period that has elapsed since the middle fall was at that point. The river has doubtless changed its bed many times within that period, and accumulations of drift may have been frequently deposited in the same place and carried away again.
A plateau of drift several acres in extent lies just opposite to and below the middle fall. The surface of this plateau is more than forty feet higher than that of the valley farther up the river, and the ascent to it is very steep. In that por- tion of the glen the evidences may still be traced of a former river bed, close to the hills and the edge of this plateau on the west side, and the fall and the chasm just below it show that during a long period it poured over the precipice from that side. It has run in its present bed only a short time compared with its course there. Down the river from this plateau are a series of undulations, a portion of which are drift, but which blend with the original hills west from the glen.
Many years since the project of utilizing the water power from above the upper fall and building up a manufacturing village in the glen was entertained, but it was never exe- cuted. About twenty years since the glen was purchased by Hon. William P. Letchworth, of Buffalo, for the purpose of converting it into a pleasant summer retreat. The im- provements which he has made here have all been of a character to restore and heighten the original beauties of the glen. Some eight or nine thousand trees have been planted here, and in planting these so closely has nature been imitated that most of them are mistaken for original growths. A plain but tasteful residence, surrounded by pleasant lawns, stands on the plateau some sixty yards from the middle fall. This is the summer residence where Hon. William P. Letchworth each year seeks a brief season of rest from his severe self-imposed labors.
Of him it is quite proper to say in this connection that since his retirement from business he has devoted his time and energies to the work of improving the administration of the public charities, especially so far as relates to children and the chronic insane, seeking no reward for his philanthropic labors beyond the consciousness of having benefited human- ity. From his labors as president of the State Board of Charities he comes here each year for a season of partial respite and retirement, in the midst of the scenery which he has done much to beautify.
On a hill which overlooks the glen the council-house grounds are arranged. This council-house originally stood at Caneadea, in Allegany county, N. Y. When it was erected is not known. It has doubtless been the scene of many grave discussions among the Senecas. Its walls have echoed the eloquence of Brant, of Cornplanter, of Red Jacket, and other Indian orators. Councils have been held in it to deliberate upon and arrange plans for hostile excur- sions against nations to the south and east, as well as west, against whom the Senecas warred. Here, it is believed,
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HISTORY OF WYOMING COUNTY, NEW YORK.
arrangements were made for the massacre in the Wyoming valley; and here the savages met to rejoice on their return from that expedition. It was at Caneadea, in the spring of 1782, that Moses Van Campen and his companions were compelled to run the gauntlet for the amusement of the warriors and squaws, and the council-house was the goal that they were to reach. Van Campen ran against and pitched headlong to the.earth two young squaws who stood in the road, and in the merriment which this caused all reached the council-house in safety.
Here, doubtless, the Protestant missionaries, and among them Rev. Samuel Kirkland, who visited the Senecas in 1765, taught their faith; and the neat carving of a Latin cross on one of its logs gives reason for the belief that it had been previously visited by those earnest propagandists of their faith, the Jesuits. Some Indian carvings may be seen on the walls.
The rude carving of a "square and compass" on the outside of a log has led many to the belief that in very early times it may have been visited by some Indian who had been made a mason in the lodge which Sir William Johnson estab- lished at his castle among the Mohawks. After it had ceased to be used by the Indians it became the dwelling of white settlers, and was finally abandoned by them.
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