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 17
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was also laid out. The annual fair was continued until 1896, when it was abandoned. On May 29, 1886, the Genesee Valley Park Association was formed, to promote agricultural and me- chanical interests in the county. It also went out of existence at about the time of the termination of the agricultural society's activities.
The first effort to organize a historical society for Livingston County occurred at an informal meeting at Dansville in Decem- ber, 1875. An adjourned meeting was held at Mount Morris in January, 1876, and the Livingston County Historical Society was then organized; the officers first chosen were Dr. Daniel H. Fitz- hugh, president; Dr. James Faulkner, William Scott, Adolphus Watkins, Dr. Daniel H. Bissell and Deacon John McColl, vice presidents; Norman Seymour, secretary ; Benjamin F. Angel, Dr. Myron H. Mills, Samuel P. Allen, Lucien B. Proctor, Richard Peck and George W. Root, executive committee. The object of the society, as defined in its constitution, was to "discover, procure and preserve whatever may relate to the history of western New York in general, and Livingston County and its towns in par- ticular, and to gather such statistics of education and population, growth and prosperity and business of this region as may seem advisable or of public utility." Annual meetings have been held since this date and great interest has been maintained in the organization. The historical addresses and manuscripts pre- sented before this society have each year been printed in pam- phlet form. At first the Wadsworth Library at Geneseo tendered the use of a room in its building for the records of the society, but the need of a separate and distinct depository soon became evi- dent. The result was the building of the log cabin in the park at Geneseo, which was dedicated at the annual meeting February 18, 1896, and now holds a large part of the society's historical collection. The following is a list of the society's presidents from the beginning: D. H. Fitzhugh, 1876; D. H. Bissell, 1877 and 1878; M. H. Mills, 1879; William M. White, 1880; Benjamin F. Angel, 1881; E. H. Davis, 1882; A. O. Bunnell, 1883; A. H. Mc- Lean, 1884; Norman Seymour, 1885; Dr. F. M. Perine, 1886; Isaac Hampton, 1887; Amos D. Coe, 1888; William A. Brodie, 1889 ; H. D. Kingsbury, 1890; O. D. Lake, 1891; William Hamil- ton, 1892; J. A. Dana, 1893; Frank Fielder, 1894 ; C. K. Sanders,
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1895; Charles Jones, 1896; William A. Wadsworth, 1897; S. E. Hitchcock, 1898; E. W. Sears, 1899; Joseph D. Lewis, 1900; Her- bert Wadsworth, 1901; Lockwood R. Doty, 1902; Dr. F. H. Moyer, 1903; Dr. William P. Spratling, 1904; George S. Ewart, 1905; Jotham Clark, 1906; William E. Dana, 1907; John F. White, 1908; George B. Adams, 1909; Lewis H. Moses, 1910; Florence VanAllen, 1911; William N. Stewart, 1912; Mrs. J. F. White, 1913; Lewis H. Beecher, 1914; H. W. DeLong, 1915; Daniel Mor- ris, 1916; Charles E. Pratt, 1917; Edward H. Dibble, 1918; Mrs. Herbert Wadsworth, 1919; William G. Markham, 1921; Gamble Wilson, 1922 and 1923; William H. Ellis, 1924; William J. Ma- loney, 1925.
The Genesee Valley Hunt was the outgrowth in 1880 of the Livingston County Hunt, an irregular organization which had existed since 1876, during the summer of which year occurred the paper hunt on the home farm of Major William A. Wadsworth, which was the occasion of the first systematic attempt to hunt foxes on horseback in the Genesee Valley. The first meeting of the reorganized hunt occurred October 29th in that year. William A. Wadsworth was elected president and M. F. H .; Lockwood R. Doty, secretary and treasurer; an executive committee was ap- pointed, consisting of the president, ex-officio, Trumbull Cary, of Batavia, and George Servis, of Geneseo. The charter members were: William A. Wadsworth, Charles Culbertson, George T. Ewart, William McCory, George Servis, L. D. Rumsey, Dr. Charles Cary, Trumbull Cary, Frederick Palmer, John Young, C. H. Young, J. W. Wadsworth, L. R. Doty. We quote from a sketch prepared in 1905 by David Gray, then of Buffalo, and for many years an active member of the hunt: "Good sport was given in 1880, and in 1882 it grew and continued to prosper. Drag hunt- ing had mostly given way to fox hunting, and January 1st, 1884, there was a pack at the master's kennels of twenty-three hounds, including several English dogs imported for stud purposes. The following year the Fourth of July meeting was celebrated with equestrian sports held at the Geneseo Fair Grounds; the events were picking up a hat from horseback, riding at scarfs with lances, riding at Turk's head and rings with sabre, riding at rings with lances, and the high jump. The hunting season of 1885 opened successfully; the hunt had by this time become effectively
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organized to hunt foxes, with W. A. Wadsworth as master and huntsman, two whippers-in and a kennel man; there were ten couples of hounds. On October 23d the first point-to-point steeple- chase in the valley was held. In 1888 the cards were issued as 'Mr. Wadsworth's Hounds,' and the hunting by this time was firmly established, and the Genesee Valley rapidly became known throughout the country and in England as a hunting center. Drag hunting had been abandoned altogether and the Genesee Valley hounds became exclusively a pack used for hunting wild foxes."
Mr. Gray continues: "The influence of the Genesee Valley Hunt upon Livingston County during the past generation has been an interesting one to the student of American country life and of much more importance than would at first appear. This beautiful farming country, like all our Eastern agricultural com- munities, has had to withstand not only the competition of the Western grain lands, but the absorption by the cities of a large percentage of the most desirable young men and women. To meet the effect of the opening of the Northwestern wheat coun- tries, it has been necessary to change the character of farming in the older states. Generally speaking, where this has been done successfully, the tendency has been to substitute for wheat and corn, high-class stock, forage, dairy and garden produce, such as find advantageous markets in the nearest centers of population. Indirectly the Hunt has assisted not a little in this result. Thor- oughbred breeding horses have been introduced and buyers come from all parts of the United States in search of young, well-bred horses suitable for making hunters. It costs the farmer no more to raise such a horse than a common one, and as four-year-olds they readily command from fifty to a hundred per cent more than the ordinary run of farm horses. More directly the Hunt has stimulated the business of the community by attracting to the valley for several months each year hunting men from the cities, who spend their money in the country and provide a local market for forage, horses and supplies.
"In a much broader manner, however, fox hunting has tended to benefit Livingston County, as it has benefited those counties in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, where the sport has flour- ished for over a century. The impulse which carries so many of the country bred men to the city is often not so much the belief
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that a greater financial success is likely to be found in the city as that life in the country is dull and without variety or amusement. All work and no wholesome play makes Jack or anybody else a dull boy. Fox hunting is the best and most natural sport to amuse and absorb the surplus energies of a farming community. School- ing a well-bred four-year-old not only doubles the value of the colt by making a hunter out of him, but it teaches the boy to ride and develops the courage and self-control requisite in following hounds across country. And most of all it furnishes him with an autumn of the best fun in the world, which ought to make him work cheerfully, if anything will, and binds him anew to his com- munity by the pleasant ties of sport.
"These are somewhat material considerations as to the rela- tion between the county and the Hunt. But there is another which appeals wholly to sentiment and county pride. During the past generation there have been assembled at the meets of the Genesee Valley Hunt people from all parts of America and Europe, and not only people interested solely in sport, but men and women distinguished in widely varying spheres of life. Some of the best known of American artists, literary men, generals, lawyers and statesmen have been introduced to the beauty of this historic val- ley through the pursuit of foxes. One very hot Fourth of July afternoon, on the Meadow at the Homestead, the present Presi- dent of the United States (Roosevelt) rode strenuously in the sports and was much respected for the vigor of his blows in the cavalry fight. It is interesting to know that his two favorite horses have been schooled over Genesee Valley fences.
"Thus, through an organization which at first thought seems intended only to furnish manly sport, has Livingston County been materially benefited and its beautiful valley made famous in all parts of the world." Active interest in fox hunting here ter- minated with the death of Major Wadsworth until revived in quite recent years by Winthrop Chanler of Geneseo.
CHAPTER XXXII.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY : TOWNS.
The town of Avon originally included the territory embracing the present town of Rush, Monroe County. Avon was formed as Hartford, in January, 1789, from the original district of Geneseo, the name being given by Dr. Timothy Hosmer and Major Isaiah Thompson, two of the early settlers, who were natives of West Hartford, Connecticut. In 1808 the name was changed to Avon, from a town in Connecticut, that state, it may be added, supplying a great number of the early residents of the town. Rush was set off from Avon in 1818. Until the formation of Livingston County, in 1821, the town of Avon was a part of Ontario County. Town records are not available prior to 1797; at that time Ebenezer Merry was supervisor; William Hosmer, town clerk; Timothy Hosmer and Gad Wadsworth, highway commissioners. In 1798 the assessors were John Beach, John Hinman and John Pearson; Stephen Rogers, Josiah Wadsworth and John Markham were commissioners of highways.
Within the territory now embraced in the town of Avon, the first settlement was made by Gilbert D. Berry in 1789. He located near Canawaugus and built a log cabin, where he conducted a tavern; he also kept a store. Berry was from Albany and resided in Geneva for a short time before coming here. He had an ex- tensive fur business for the time at Big Tree and at the mouth of the Genesee River. He died in 1797, and thereafter his tavern was managed by his widow, who became very popular among the settlers and travelers. William Rice was another settler of 1789, as was also Captain John Ganson, an officer under General Sulli- van. Captain Ganson bought land in 1788 on the river two miles below the village of Avon (now in the town of Rush), and during the following winter his sons, John and James, lived there. The next autumn the captain and the remainder of his family arrived.
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He built a rude mill, which was well patronized from the sur- rounding country ; this was the first flouring mill in the Genesee Country. After occupying his land for some years, Ganson learned that the title was not good, and he was forced to surrender it. Colonel William Markham took possession then and Ganson moved on westward and purchased a tavern near LeRoy, where he was very successful.
The next settlers were Dr. Timothy Hosmer and Major Isaiah Thompson, Connecticut Yankees, who came in 1790 and pur- chased the township of Avon (Nos. 10 and 11, Range 7) for a company consisting of themselves and three others; the price was 18 pence an acre. Major Thompson lived only a year after his arrival, succumbing to the prevalent "Genesee fever" which swept western New York settlements. As already stated, Doctor Hos- mer went back to his native state in the autumn of 1790, returned the following year with his sons, Frederick and Algernon Sydney, built a log house, and then in 1792 brought the remainder of his family. Gad Wadsworth, a relative of James and William Wads- worth, came from Connecticut with Hosmer and Thompson. Colonel William Markham's first visit to the Genesee Country was in 1788; he surveyed the first line from Canandaigua to the river. Having acquired Captain Ganson's land, he became the owner of what was afterward known as the Markham farm, noted for the "King Elm" and the site of the first flouring mill. John Kelsey was another early settler; in 1798 he transported the first salt from Onondaga by water. Other pioneers were John P. Whaley, Benjamin, John, Jesse, Joseph and David Pearson, Josiah Waters, John Beach, Stephen Rogers, Pantry J. Moore, Joseph Rathbone, Gideon Dunham, the Bensons, Johnsons, Campbells, Chapels, Bonds, Riggses, Hendees, Millers, Demings, Littles, Todds, Pecks and Beckwiths. The first saw mill was built by Timothy Hosmer at Littleville, on the Conesus outlet, in 1796. Paul Knowles and Judge Riggs obtained this property in 1807, and soon after a still and carding mill were constructed nearby. Judge Riggs added a flouring mill and a distillery in 1810. Taverns were popular in these days, not only places where conviviality reigned, but as tem- porary abodes for the new arrivals. The Widow Berry's tavern was one of a number of these meeting places well known in early Avon. Nathan Perry was the proprietor of a tavern; Isaac Smith
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had one four miles west of the river in 1800; and in 1806 the "Hosmer stand" was built.
Thomas Wiard came to Geneseo from Connecticut in 1804, and went from there to his farm half a mile from East Avon. He was a farmer, blacksmith and manufacturer of plows; he also engaged freely in politics, having held quite a number of public offices. James P. Whaley located at Avon in 1805. Charles Kel- logg, with his family of nine children, came from Connecticut in 1810; also Ephraim Hendee with six children. Colonel Jonas Hogmire, of Maryland, purchased 1,500 acres of river land from Mr. Wadsworth about 1801, and here his two sons, Conrad and Samuel, afterward settled, while the father remained back East. Colonel Abner Morgan, who settled here in 1828, had a notable military career. He was a major in the first regiment of Conti- nentals organized during the Revolution and led the last attack before Quebec, January 1, 1776, after Montgomery, his com- mander, was killed and Benedict Arnold was wounded. Colonel Morgan died in 1837, aged 100 years. Another military man to settle in Avon was Colonel Samuel Blakeslee, who came in 1808 and lived there until his death in 1834. He fought in the Revolu- tion, and in the War of 1812 led a company from Avon and Batavia. George Hosmer, who was twelve years old when his father came to Avon, is mentioned in the chapter on the courts and lawyers. Another of the family to win distinction was W. H. C. Hosmer, whose poems relating to the Indians were at one time widely read. His death occurred in 1877.
The principal village in the town of Avon is also called Avon, once known as West Avon, and earlier as Canawaugus, meaning "bad-smelling water," to denote the mineral springs located nearby. Avon was incorporated May 17, 1853, and on July 5th following the first election was held. The trustees chosen then were George Hosmer, Orville Comstock, James Hosmer, David Brooks and Benjamin P. Ward. Other officers were Joseph F. Miller, Orin H. Coe and Curtis Hawley, assessors; Thomas C. Chase, collector ; John Sabin, treasurer ; Charles A. Hosmer, clerk; Edwin M. Price, Darius M. Gilbert and William W. Jones, fire wardens; and William E. Pattee, pound master.
One and a half miles east of Avon Village is East Avon, estab- lished as a small trade center soon after 1800. It was here that
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Thomas Wiard began the manufacture of plows in 1830 and con- tinued until 1877, when the plant was moved to Batavia. The hamlet of Littleville, one and a half miles south of Avon, was at one time in its early history a serious rival of Avon Village by reason of the water power which the Conesus outlet afforded. One writer has made the statement that "had the state road been run a little farther to the south and Avon Village been located where Littleville now is, it is safe to assert that Avon would have been designated as the county seat instead of Geneseo." The place was named for Norman Little, who located there in 1830. He became the owner of the mill, and erected a store there. Little moved to Michigan in 1837 and was one of the founders of Saginaw.
The town of Caledonia was originally part of the town of Northampton, established in 1797 as that part of Ontario County west of the Genesee River, and the first meeting of this extensive division was held at Big Springs, now Caledonia, with Gad Wads- worth presiding. In 1802 Northampton was separated from Ontario County and given the name of Genesee County, which was divided into the towns of Leicester, Batavia and Southamp- ton. What is now Caledonia was a part of the latter. The town of Caledonia was set off in 1806 and the name changed April 4th. In 1812 it was made smaller by the creation of the town of Bel- lona, now the town of Le Roy, in Genesee County, and again in 1819, when another section was subtracted to become Wheatland, in Monroe County. The first town meeting in Southampton was held March 1, 1803, when Christopher Labourn was elected super- visor ; Job Pierce, clerk; Peter Sheffer, Ebenezer Green and Peter Anderson, assessors; James Ganson, collector ; Hinds Chamberlin and Peter Sheffer, overseers of the poor; Thomas Irvine, Andrew Wortman and Asher Bates, commissioners of highways; James Ganson, Cyrus Douglass and Daniel Buell, constables; John Gan- son, Jr., Isaac Smith, John Christie, Peter Sheffer, James Wood, Andrew Wortman and Henry Mulkin, fence viewers and over- seers of highways; James McLaren, John Ganson, Jr. and Charles Duggan, pound keepers. At the town meeting the following year Labourn was reelected and Hugh McDermid was chosen clerk; they held office until the town was renamed Caledonia. At the first town meeting thereafter, April 1, 1807, Labourn again suc- cessfully headed the ticket, and Asher Bates became clerk. James
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Ganson was supervisor in 1808, and Alexander McDonald town clerk.
The first settlement of the town of Caledonia was made by Scotch Presbyterians, hence the significance of the name, although the first arrivals within what is now the town were two English- men, named Kane and Moffatt. They came to Big Springs in 1795, constructed a log house, where they ran a tavern for three years, but they were unsavory individuals and were finally driven away. They were succeeded by L. Peterson and David Fuller about 1798. It was in this same year that a large group of Scotch people from Broadalbin, Perthshire, Scotland, emigrated to Amer- ica and came to Johnstown, now in Fulton County. Colonel Wil- liamson, agent for the Pulteney estate, repaired thither without delay and offered them Big Springs lands for $3 an acre, payable in wheat at 6 shillings a bushel, and further agreed to supply their provisions until they became self-supporting. His generosity impressed them and Donald McPherson, Malcolm McLaren, Hugh McDermid, James McLaren and John D. McVean were sent there to investigate. They were so pleased with the outlook that, when they met Williamson on the highway between Geneva and Canan- daigua, they closed a contract with him then and there. The first company of Scotchmen arrived at Big Springs in March, 1799, and included, among others, Peter Campbell and wife, Malcolm McLaren and wife, Donald McVean, Hugh McDermid and John McPherson. In the autumn there came Donald McPherson, Don- ald Anderson and Alexander Thompson. Taking lodging with Peterson and Fuller for a time, this first group quickly came to terms with Williamson for 3,000 acres, and he threw in 200 addi- tional acres for a minister and two acres for the accommodation of a church and schoolhouse. Williamson recognized the ad- vantage of having new settlers of this type in the Genesee Country and he exerted every effort to treat them fairly. They were thrifty, religious and law-abiding people.
From this time on, for several years, additional Scotch settlers arrived, some of them from Johnstown and others directly from the land of the heather. In 1800 we have John and Daniel Ander- son, John Christie and family, John McLaren, Major Isaac Smith, Smith McKercher and his sons, Peter and John, and within the next four years John McKay, with his mother and sister Jean-
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nette, Alexander McDonald and family, Robert Whaley, William Armstrong, Angus Cameron and his sons, Duncan, Donald and John. Colonel Williamson provided abundantly for these settlers and built for them a small mill at the outlet of the springs, said to have been the second mill west of the Genesee River. This mill was put up in 1802, the grain having been ground before at the mill in Conesus. John McKay bought this mill in 1803, together with 200 acres of land, including the springs, the outlet and the site of Mumford, for $2,000. He then erected a sawmill. These mills supplied the needs of the community until 1814, when Moses Gibson and Colonel Robert Mckay constructed a flouring mill near the York line. About 1804 the settlement was augmented by the arrival of Duncan McCall and his son; the McLean brothers, Donald, Lachlan, Daniel, James and Neil; Archibald Gillis, Archi- bald McLachlin, William Orr, Angus and Neil Haggart, Collin Gillis and John McKenzie.
One of the most prominent of the early settlers was Donald McNaughton, who came to America in 1805 and to Caledonia the following year. He built his log house on the site of Mumford, where he worked at his trade of cloth-pressing. A few years later he added a carding machine, then built a frame house. McNaugh- ton bought 400 acres at Geneva, constructed a stone building and established a cloth-making factory. He also had a grist mill on Allen's Creek. His stone cloth factory eventually burned, but he continued to make his living from a sawmill on the outlet. Alex- ander McDonald, who came to Caledonia in 1802, was the first postmaster of the village and was also a tavern keeper. He came to America in 1775, but immediately upon landing was impressed into the British service, where he spent five years. He later came to Williamsburgh, to assist Colonel Williamson in the disposal of lands. John Cameron, who arrived in the village in 1806, was the keeper of another popular tavern, where many well-known people stopped. He kept a store, in addition, which is said to have been the first in the village.
The state fish hatchery was founded at Caledonia in the year 1875. Three years before this a private hatchery conducted since by James Annin was established, and of which more is written in the biographical section of this work. The state hatchery had been started as a private enterprise in 1864 by Seth Green, of
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Rochester. He sold to Andrew S. Collins, who in turn trans- ferred it to the state.
The village of Caledonia was incorporated in May, 1891; C. W. Blackman was the first president, and F. A. Christie the first clerk.
The town of Conesus has been known by other names. In April, 1819, the legislature provided that all that part of town- ship No. 8, in the sixth range of townships included in Livonia and Groveland, except that part of township No. 8 lying on the east side of Hemlock Lake and adjoining the town of Richmond, should be a separate town called Freeport. In 1824 the name was changed to Bowersville, after Henry Bowers, one of the early settlers. In 1825 the name was changed to Conesus, from the Indian name Gah-nyuh-sas, meaning the place of nannie-berries.
There is some evidence that the first settlements within what is now the town of Conesus were made in the eastern part, the so-called Marrowback section, but records have disappeared or were never made, so the identity of the first comers there cannot be ascertained. It is believed, however, that James Henderson was the first permanent settler. He came from Pennsylvania in 1793, and located near the head of Conesus Lake, there building a cabin on land which was afterwards known as the McMillan farm. He was a millwright and, in the year after his arrival, with James Dunham he put up the first sawmill of the town on Mill Creek, near Conesus Center. A number of years later Hen- derson constructed a carding and fulling mill at the head of the lake. He lost a son during the War of 1812; he was the father of the first child born in the town. The second settler was Hector Mckay, who came in 1795, and, with the assistance of a few friendly Indians, built his cabin, located three-quarters of a mile from the site of Scottsburg. Jacob Dunham came to the town the same year as Mckay. In 1796 two from New Jersey, Jesse and Jacob Collar, located there. Subsequent settlements were made by John and Samuel McNinch, 1803; James McNinch, Jabez Lewis, John McMillan, Elias Chamberlin, 1805; Joseph Allen, John Richardson, Moses Adams, Samuel and Matthew McNinch, 1806; Elijah Richardson, 1807; Charles Thorp, James Robeson, 1808; William Johnson, Joshua Gile, 1809; Eli Clark, 1810; the Mayos, Arnolds, Davenport Alger, James Steel and Thomas
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