USA > New York > Genesee County> History of the Genesee country (western New York) comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, Volume II > Part 16
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The following interesting account is from the pen of a visitor here in 1792: "From Canandaigua to the Genesee River, twenty- six miles, it is almost totally uninhabited, only four families re- siding on the road. The country is beautifully diversified with hill and dale, and in many places, we found openings of two or three hundred acres, free from all timber and even bushes, which, on our examining, proved to be of a rich, deep soil. It seemed that, by only inclosing with one of these openings a proportionable quantity of timbered land, an inclosure might be made similar to the parks in England.
"At the Genesee River I found a small Indian store and tav- ern; the river was not then frozen over, but was low enough to be forded. As yet there are no settlements of any consequence in
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the Genesee Country. That established by a society of Friends, on the west side of the Seneca Lake is the most considerable; it consists of about forty families. But the number of Indians in the adjoining country, when compared with the few inhabitants who venture to winter in the country, is so great, that I found them under serious apprehension for their safety. Even in this state of nature, the county of Ontario shows every sign of future respectability. No man has put the plough in the ground without being amply repaid; and, through the mildness of the winter, the cattle brought into the country the year before are thriving well on very slender provision for their subsistence. The clearing of land for spring crops is going on with spirit. I also found the settlers here abundantly supplied with venison."
In September, 1794, a group of new settlers from Pennsyl- vania, including Daniel Kelly, John Jones and John Harrison, also William Ryans, arrived at Williamsburgh and spent their first night at the tavern of William Lemon, the first frame house in the town of Groveland. Ryans did not like the country and started back east after a night's sleep. The others went to Gene- seo to buy lands of James Wadsworth, who advised them of de- sirable tracts along the Conesus Lake road. They started on their journey to inspect the land, were overtaken by a cold rain, and took their dinner at Peter Steel's tavern in Upper Lakeville. Here Harrison was seized with the ague. They returned east, but came back to the Genesee Country the following May and completed their purchases. Despite the ague, they liked the new country. In fact, new settlers in the Genesee Country were made welcome by such men as the Wadsworths and Williamson, and often material assistance was given them. Williamson, in par- ticular, was solicitous for the welfare of the pioneers and con- stantly aided them in their quest for homes.
Many notable people from foreign lands visited the Genesee Country during its formative period and carried back with them vivid descriptions of the advantages here. Upon other pages of this work we have noted the visits of Talleyrand, Louis Philippe of France, and others. In June, 1795, the Duke de Laincourt came through the Genesee Country, tarried awhile with James Wadsworth and with a countryman named De Boni, soldier of fortune and world traveler, who had settled on the flats.
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The Genesee Country was well exploited. Captain Williamson was elected to the Assembly in 1796, as representative of the counties of Ontario and Steuben, and he had ample opportunity to extol the merits of this section and work for legislation in its behalf. In the spring of 1796, James Wadsworth visited London, where he interested capitalists and buyers of western New York lands. Wadsworth was an indefatigable champion of his adopted region and was quite successful in disposing of the lands.
William Magee, a native of Ireland, was a settler in Sparta in the spring of 1796. With his household effects, which included two copper stills, he made the journey, passing over the site of Dansville, of which his son afterward wrote: "It was an entire wilderness. I mean where the village now stands. South of the village nearly a mile there was one log cabin owned and occupied by Neal McCay, and one other cabin occupied by Amariah Ham- mond, north of the present village, near the Indian trail that passed through the place. He came into the place the same year that my father came to Sparta, 1796." Henry Magee, brother of William, at this time resided three miles north of his brother's cabin, and a like distance south was Darling Havens, who kept a. tavern. A road was cut through to the Williamson grist and saw mills near the site of Dansville, and the only settler on this road between the Havens tavern and the mills was Capt. John Clark. Hermitage was a small community a mile north of Henry Ma- gee. Here were Capt. John Smith, a surveyor; his brother George; Alexander McDonald, a distiller; James Butler, shoe- maker; Scotch John Smith, Joseph Roberts and a number of sons, Hector Mckay, Robert Wilson, James Templeton, Nicholas Beach and Levi Dunn. Thomas Howey opened a blacksmith shop here in 1798. Williamsburgh had at this time three frame buildings and a number of log cabins, most of which had been constructed by Captain Williamson. Here lived Captain Starr, who was the local tavern keeper, Samuel Ewin, John Ewart, William Harris, Green Smith, Thomas and William Lemen, distillers, and Matthias Lemen, tanner and currier. In 1798 Sparta acquired several new settlers, among them James Rosebrugh, William McNair and his six sons, James, Andrew, Robert, John, Hugh and William R., James and Samuel Culbertson and John Niblack. Next year came Jesse Collar and two sons, who located at Collartown, now
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Scottsburg. Philip Gilman and his family were subsequent ar- rivals and located near James Henderson at the head of Conesus Lake. Sparta at this time was large, embracing what are now the towns of Sparta, West Sparta, Groveland, Conesus and Springwater. Records show that the principal occupation, aside from farming, was distilling liquor, no less than eight distilleries having been operated in the region. Dissipation was very com- mon among the early settlers, but their combined thirsts hardly required eight distilleries to quench. The facility of marketing grain in the form of rye whiskey was the reason for the extensive distilling. Roads were bad and distances long, hence the trans- portation of heavily loaded conveyances was almost an impossi- bility.
The first coming of Col. Nathaniel Rochester, Charles Carroll and William Fitzhugh has been narrated in the chapters on the city of Rochester, of which they were the proprietors. The year 1800 was the date of the arrival of these three Marylanders. Rochester purchased at Dansville and sometime later Carroll and Fitzhugh bought 12,000 acres in Sparta and Groveland, where they took up their residence.
The first year of the new century dawned with new settle- ments on the steady increase. In 1801 the Genesee settlements experienced an unusual prevalence of ague and kindred ills. Throughout the years of early settlement the so-called "Genesee fever" levied heavily upon the settlers. It was a disease often permanent in its after-effects. However, bountiful harvests and an abundance of maple sugar compensated somewhat for the phy- sical discomforts. The influx of white men, with their improved methods and machinery, was also having its effect upon the In- dians, who were no longer content with their own primitive methods of milling and constructing houses. At the same time, it became increasingly difficult for them to procure their food from the forest, the game becoming scarcer. Red Jacket, speak- ing for his people, assembled in council near Geneseo in 1801, re- quested from the government more clothing and ammunition, oxen, cows, farm implements and spinning wheels, as the chang- ing conditions demanded that the red man also change his mode of living.
Approximately thirty families had settled in Geneseo by 1803.
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James Wadsworth, the land proprietor, had set the price of the river lands at $5 per acre, with 5,000 acres for sale. The year 1804 proved to be one of great scarcity in provisions. Unim- proved lands east of the river in this year were selling for $2 to $4 an acre; farms of 100 acres, some of it improved, with log house and barn, commanded $6 to $20 an acre; and land west of the Genesee sold for $1.50 to $2.50 per acre.
The Genesee settlements were in the spring of 1806 visited by a severe famine, caused principally by a drought the preceding summer, which had reduced the crops by one-half. Settlers were yet coming in, but the total number who had taken up homes was not extremely large. James Scott, a Pennsylvanian, came to Sparta in June of this year with his family. Two years before Scott and his wife had prospected through the region on horse- back and liked it so well they determined to make it their home. In the fall two sons and a daughter came out and erected a log cabin; another son followed the next summer with a cow, and eventually the whole family had assembled here. One of the sons wrote thus of their experiences:
"The season was one of great scarcity, especially of wheat. We had learned this before quitting Pennsylvania, and had brought sufficient to last until our ripening crop, and a bountiful one it proved to be, could be harvested. Four of us brothers, of whom I was the youngest, went over to Groveland Hill, to help in harvest. We worked for the brothers Hugh, Abraham and John Harrison, William and Daniel Kelly, and Thomas Bailey, William Magee on the Canaseraga Flats, Jacob Snyder, who had a crop at Hermitage but had moved to Henderson's Flats before it rip- ened, and Thomas Begole, agent for the Maryland Company. (This company meant the purchase of Rochester, Carroll and Fitzhugh.) In the fall we all went to Mount Morris Flats and husked corn for Capt. William A. Mills. Each hand of us got two bushels of corn in the ear for a day's work, and a brother with the two horses and wagon got six bushels a day. By this means we secured a supply of corn for the winter. There were then but a few inhabitants in the village of Mount Morris or Al- len's Hill. Captain Mills was keeping tavern in a log cabin, and there were perhaps a dozen other log houses, occupied by the widow Baldwin, Deacon Stanley, Adam Holtslander and Grice
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Holland. A Mr. Hampton lived in a log house that is now called the Colonel Fitzhugh place (now residence of James W. Wads- worth, Jr., and called Hampton) ; Joseph Richardson kept a store and tavern at Williamsburgh. I recollect seeing two sons of Mary Jemison at Mount Morris. There were but few inhabitants at Geneseo, then generally called Big Tree. I remember the two Wadsworth brothers, who had a store there in charge of William H. Spencer, either as partner or clerk. Colonel Lawrence, a Mr. Coates, Charles Colt and John Pierce. At Dansville I recollect David Shull, owner of the Williamson mill, Samuel Culbertson, Peter LaFlesh, Neal McCay, Jared Irwin, the first postmaster, Matthew Patterson, David, James and Matthew Porter, Peter and Jacob Welch, Jonathan Stout, John Metcalf, Amariah and Laz- arus Hammond, Owen Wilkinson, William Perine and Isaac Van- deventer. The first town meeting we attended in Sparta was in 1807, and was held in the present town of Groveland, then form- ing a part of Sparta, at the tavern of Christian Roup, a log house standing nearly a mile south of the Presbyterian Church. I rec- ollect seeing at the polls Capt. John Smith, Joseph Richardson, Robert Burns, John Hunt, Andrew Culbertson, William and Dan- iel Kelly, Samuel Stillwell, James Rosebrugh, William McCartney, Alexander Fullerton, James Scott, the McNair brothers, Thomas Begole and William Doty. It was an orderly gathering, but little of political excitement."
By 1807 Portage had two houses, while at Nunda there was no one. A general store was located at a place called Hunt's Hol- low, kept by Mr. Hunt; also there were three homes.
In closing this general account of the early settlement of the Genesee Country we may very appropriately borrow the following statement found in a work from which we have many times found occasion to quote:7 "It was fortunate for this county that the earliest settlers here represented the enterprise, the culture and refinement, as well as the patriotism, of the three states of Con- necticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland, coupled with the prover- bial independence, religious spirit and forecast of the Scotch emigrants. The Wadsworth brothers, the Finleys, Jones, Fitz- hughs, Carrolls and Rochesters, and the Scotchmen of Caledonia, may be mentioned as types of those who were first to establish
7 Doty's History of Livingston County.
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
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their homes in this new country. Ireland, Germany and England were soon represented and every Atlantic state added its quota to the daily growing settlements within the boundaries now pre- scribed to this prosperous shire."
GENESEE LANDS For Sale.
THE subscriber offers for sale, in Lots to suit purchasers, the Estate on the Genesee River, on which Mr. Harris resides, "about one half mile from Geneseo, in the county of Livingston. There are about 3000 acres of upland and 1000 acres of River Flats; of which one half is in Timothy and Clover. The upland is first rate wheat land, and the flats of the best quality. The upland is divided into farms of various sizes, many of them improved ; others in Timber .- The proprietor living at a distance, the prices will be low, and a liberal credit given for a great part of the purchase money, payable by installments. Apply at Geneseo, to
May, 1824.
JNO. S. BRINTON
NOTICE OF SALE OF GENESEE RIVER LANDS, 1824
:
CHAPTER XXXI.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY: ORGANIZATION AND MISCEL- LANEOUS.
The county of Livingston was created February 23, 1821. As originally erected, eight of the twelve towns then in the county were taken from Ontario; these were Avon, Conesus (then re- named Freeport), Geneseo, Groveland, Lima, Livonia, Sparta and Springwater. Caledonia, Leicester, Mount Morris and York were a part of Genesee County. Later Nunda, Ossian and Port- age were added from Allegany, and North Dansville from Steuben County. As it stands today, the county of Livingston comprises 655 square miles, or 419,200 acres. It is an interesting fact that the period of its greatest population was in 1840, when the census indicated 43,436 people, by including the part of the present county not then annexed.
The establishment of Livingston County was attended with vigorous opposition from the counties of Genesee and Ontario, but they had become unwieldy, and a contraction of their widely extended borders was inevitable. Canandaigua and Batavia, the county seat villages, were out of reach of those residing even a moderate distance away, who had to travel over the then almost impassable roads, and other places had begun to compete with them as accessible trading centers. With increasing population, lawsuits multiplied, and to reach the county seats where trials were held, litigants, witnesses and jurors were subjected to great inconvenience, not to say hardships, and business at the shire towns relating to land transactions imposed a heavy tax upon those who were far removed from those places. The creation of the new county, which lessened these annoyances, naturally met with universal favor.
The original counties of the province of New York were formed in 1683, at which time this region was included in the
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county of Albany. In 1772, Tryon County, embracing all the province lying west of Schoharie Creek, was created; in 1784 the name Tryon was changed to Montgomery. Ontario County was taken from Montgomery in 1789, and then included all of New York west of the preemption line, which, roughly speaking, ex- tended south from Sodus Bay to the Pennsylvania border, and is known as the Genesee Country; Genesee County was formed later from Ontario.
The matter of the erection of the new county came before the state assembly in 1820, but without result. During the months immediately succeeding, the question of its establishment was warmly discussed in the district affected. Residents of the river valley farther north were at the same time advocating the erection of the county of Monroe and were encountering the same kind of opposition as Livingston. This proceeded largely upon the insist- ence that, whereas it was not necessary, the autonomy given to these subdivisions would greatly increase governmental expenses, which would be reflected in a mounting tax rate. The objectors sought to give point to their argument by an unprecedented vigi- lance on the part of the courts in the despatch of business, and other expedients were resorted to to check the fast growing senti- ment for separation, but all to no purpose; the majority of the people directly affected were determined to have a new county and it was just a matter of determining its size.
One plan was to establish a single county, enclosing substan- tially the territory which is now Monroe and Livingston counties, with Avon as the county seat. Residents of Avon, Caledonia and York to the number of 850 signed a petition to this effect. An- other included the making of two counties, omitting from the southern one the towns of Sparta, Ossian, Nunda and Portage, and taking in Castile, Perry and Covington on the west and giving Caledonia to Monroe. The village of Moscow (Leicester) would then have been the central point, and it was a citizen of this hamlet who went to Albany to champion the scheme. The third project, which proved to be the successful one, provided for the creation of two counties, Monroe and Livingston, from the terri- tory depending chiefly upon the river for a market, Rochester and Geneseo, respectively, to be the county seats. Colonel Roches- ter and Judge Carroll represented this mode of division at Albany.
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In this form it was passed, approved by the council of revision, and signed by Governor De Witt Clinton. The new county was named in honor of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, patriot and statesman, conspicuous as a promoter of agricultural interests in this country.
The council of appointment, within a few days after the pas- sage of the act, issued commissions to Gideon T. Jenkins, sheriff ; James Ganson, clerk; James Rosebrugh, surrogate, and George Hosmer, district attorney. Four weeks later Moses Hayden was commissioned first judge. The act named Dr. Gamaliel H. Bar- stow, Archibald S. Clark and Nathaniel Garrow commissioners to fix the site for a court house and jail, to perform which duty they were to meet at the public house of James Ganson in Avon.
There was not a little rivalry in the effort to secure the ad- vantage which the county seat would bring to a town. Geneseo, Avon, Williamsburgh, Moscow and Lakeville all sought it eagerly. The commissioners decided in favor of Geneseo.
It was also a provision of the original act that Gen. William Wadsworth, Daniel H. Fitzhugh and William Markham should be commissioners to superintend the erection of county build- ings. It was provided that, until the jail was finished, prisoners should be confined in the Canandaigua jail, and that courts should be held, awaiting the building of a court house, in the brick academy building standing on the site of the present district schoolhouse on Center Street in Geneseo. George Smith was the first member of assembly; the act was amended in 1822 to permit two members.
Two sites for the county buildings in Geneseo were offered. One was the public park at the south end of the village and the other where the court house and jail now stand, including about four and a quarter acres of land which was given by William and James Wadsworth.
The first meeting of the board of supervisors was held in Octo- ber, 1821. The board was composed of the following men: Thomas Wiard, Avon; Robert Mckay, Caledonia; Davenport Alger, Conesus (then Freeport) ; William H. Spencer, Geneseo; William Fitzhugh, Groveland; Jellis Clute, Leicester; Manasseh Leach, Lima; Ichabod A. Holden, Livonia; William A. Mills, Mount Morris; William McCartney, Sparta; Alvah Southworth,
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Springwater; Titus Goodman, York. William Fitzhugh was made chairman, and Ogden M. Willey, of Geneseo, clerk. It is worthy of record that Willey held this position thirty years. Orlando Hastings was elected county treasurer. One of the first items of business transacted by the board was that offering a bounty of $5 a head for the destruction of wolves, and $2 a head for each wolf's whelp killed during the year. The town of Lei- cester was permitted to pay a bounty of $1 for the destruction of each wildcat.
Homer Sherwood, of Geneseo, was given the contract to build the court house, and the building was duly constructed and ready for occupancy in May, 1823. In 1886 a building for the clerk's office was completed, and this now constitutes a part of the court house structure. In 1888 the board of supervisors determined to construct a new jail and sheriff's residence, at a cost not to exceed $16,000. The old jail, which had been built in 1823, was razed, and in 1889 the new jail was completed. At a special meeting of the board August 17, 1897, the question of a new court house was considered. Mount Morris, as it had done on the occasion of the erection of the clerk's office addition, offered to erect new county buildings at its own expense if the county seat were moved to that village. A resolution was adopted by the board calling upon the Mount Morris supervisor to present a bond in the sum of $60,000 conditioned for the payments of the cost of the court house- $30,000, as an evidence of its good faith; this was not produced. A resolution was adopted at the annual meeting of the board in favor of constructing a new court house and appropriating $30,000 therefor and appointing a building committee with power to proceed with the construction; the cornerstone was laid with elaborate Masonic ceremonies June 25, 1898, and the building was completed the following winter.
In December, 1828, the board of supervisors advertised that the need of a county alms house was imperative and that those who had farms for sale should notify the officials. By the Novem- ber session of 1829 the board had purchased a farm one mile and a half from Geneseo Village, containing 136 acres, for $5,440, and proceeded at once to erect the necessary buildings. Two fires occurred at the alms house in 1868, the first of which destroyed the frame building used for the insane; the building was imme-
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diately replaced by one of brick. The second fire of the year con- sumed the barns and stables.
In the early days, years before the establishment of Living- ston County, mail facilities were few. The settlers were obliged to dispatch their letters to the nearest mailing point, whence they were carried overland to the East. In January, 1805, James Wadsworth wrote to the postmaster-general, commenting on the lack of a postoffice at Geneseo, as follows: "We at present some- times send our letters to Canandaigua, distance thirty miles, and sometimes to Hartford, distance ten miles. As the postmaster at the latter place is not a little careless, we are subjected
to many inconveniences. By establishing a P. O. at this place you will very much accommodate this and the neighboring towns. I imagine that the receipts of the office will more than pay the expense of transporting and returning the mail once a week from Hartford to this place." In the fall of 1806, Gideon Granger, the postmaster-general, established a postoffice at Geneseo, and provided a mail to Avon once each two weeks, which was considered excellent service at the time.
The legislature of 1841 passed an act to promote agriculture in the state, allowing certain sums to the various counties if the counties themselves raised an equal amount by subscription and formed an agricultural society. The farmers of Livingston County quickly took an interest in this plan. On July 1, 1841, a meeting was held at the court house in Geneseo and the Livingston County Agricultural Society was formed, with William A. Mills, president; Holloway Long, James S. Wadsworth and Daniel H. Fitzhugh, vice presidents; C. H. Bryan, recording secretary; C. R. Bond, corresponding secretary; Allen Ayrault, treasurer; Micah Brooks, S. W. Smith, Charles H. Carroll, W. H. Spencer, W. W. Wadsworth, W. W. Wooster, Hector Hitchcock, Edward A. LeRoy, Asahel Warner, H. S. Tyler, Leman Gibbs, and John E. Tompkins, managers. The first fair was held at Geneseo October 22, 1841, when nearly fifty premiums were given. The fair of 1846 was held at Avon, and that of 1848 at Mount Morris. In 1849 Geneseo was designated as the permanent location of the annual exhibit; James S. Wadsworth offered eight acres of land rent free for five years if the society would enclose the grounds with a fence and otherwise improve the site. A trotting course
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