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 18
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Young were other settlers. A hermit, named Meloy, came here in 1802, but the incoming settlers brought with them too much civilization for him, and he soon moved westward. The first store in the town, according to the best records, was established by Andrew and Gardner Arnold in 1803; also they built the first saw- mill soon afterward. The first grist mill, owned by Purchase and Baker, was not built until 1824, the settlers going to Dansville or Hemlock Lake for this service.
Conesus has much historic interest, and it was on the route of Sullivan's destructive march through the Genesee Country, of which the Boyd and Parker tragedy was an incident; it was from the camp at the head of Conesus Lake that the scouting party started.
The Indian village was located a half mile south of the head of Conesus Lake, on the flat between Henderson's Creek and the inlet, though nearer the former than the latter stream. Here Sullivan's army breakfasted on the morning of September 13, 1779.
The first town meeting of Conesus was held in April, 1820, though it was not legal. The next meeting, regularly organized, was held in 1821, when the following officers were elected : Davenport Alger, supervisor; Samuel Chapin, clerk; Jesse Mc- Millin, Alexander Patterson and Zenas Whiting, assessors; Alex- ander Patterson and Hector Mckay, overseers of the poor; Jesse McMillin, Thomas Collar and Joel Gilbert, highway commis- sioners; Peter Stiles, constable and collector ; Jesse McMillin, Joel Gilbert and Erastus Wilcox, school commissioners; Andrew Arnold, Samuel Chapin, Jr., and Elias Clark, inspectors of schools.
The town of Lima was first called Miles Gore, so called from a gore-shaped tract owned by an early settler, Abner Miles. In 1789 it became a part of Ontario County, with the name of Charleston. In 1808 a committee selected the name Lima, a variation formed from the name of Old Lyme, Connecticut, whence most of them came. The first town meeting of Charles- ton, of which there is record, occurred in 1797, when Solomon Hovey was elected supervisor ; James Davis, clerk; Joseph Arthur, Willard Humphrey and Justus Miner, assessors; Elijah Morgan, Nathaniel Munger and Jonathan Gould, commissioners of high-
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ways; Joseph Arthur and William Williams, poormasters; John Miner, constable and collector; Joel Roberts, William Williams and Colonel David Morgan, school commissioners; Jonathan Gould, Philip Sparling, Joseph Arthur and Willard Humphrey, pathmasters; William Webber, William Williams and James Davis, fence viewers; Reuben Thayer, pound keeper.
The first town meeting of Lima, in 1809, resulted in the choice of the following officers: Abel Bristol, supervisor; Manasseh Leach, clerk; Justin Smith, William Bacon and William Williams, assessors; John Morgan, constable and collector; Jacob Stevens and Gurdon W. Cook, commissioners of highways; Ezra Norton and Jedediah Commins, overseers of the poor; Gurdon W. Cook, sealer of weights and measures; Asa Porter, Clement Leach and Enos Frost, fence viewers; Asa Porter, pound keeper.
According to available records, the first settlers within the present bounds of the town of Lima were Paul Davison and Jonathan Gould, who arrived in 1788; they came from the valley of the Susquehanna in search of a new home in the Genesee Coun- try, and after passing the cluster of white habitations at Geneva the men saw no more settlements as they followed the Indian trail westward to Lima. They erected their cabin and made their clearing near the west line of the town. Their first crops were planted on the Indian lands at Canawaugus. They returned to their home in the Susquehanna Valley after their settlement here had been perfected, and, in 1789, Davison came back with his family, accompanied by Asahel Burchard. Stephen Tinker and Solomon Hovey, of Massachusetts, settled in the town in 1791, and during the period from then until 1795 there came Colonel Thomas Lee, Willard and Amasa Humphrey, Reuben and Gideon Thayer, Colonel David Morgan, Zebulon Moses, Asahel William and Daniel Warner, all from the State of Massachusetts. Other pioneers of the town were Miles Bristol, Wheelock Wood, James K. Guernsey, Abner Miles, John Miner, Asahel Burchard, Stephen Tinker, Colonel George Smith, Nathan Munger, Samuel Carr, Jedediah Commins, Joel Roberts, Phineas Burchard, Christopher Lee, Jonah Moses, Solomon Hovey, John Morgan and Adolphus Watkins.
The village of Lima, incorporated in 1867, had been for a number of decades an educational center, and the home of the
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seminary founded in 1830 by the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The old state road formed the main street of the village in very early days, which went by the name of "Brick School House Corners." Leicester was formed first as a town in March, 1802, with larger boundaries than the present area of the town. Then the town line commenced on the eastern transit at the southwest corner of Southampton, ran east to the Genesee River, thence south along the river to the southeast corner transit at the southwest corner of Southampton, ran east to the river with Canaseraga Creek, thence south to Steuben County, and on the line of Steuben County to the Pennsylvania line, west on this line to the east transit, and north on the east transit to the place of beginning, thus making a town approximately twelve by sixty miles in size. In 1805 about half of this land was cut off to form the town of Angelica; in 1818 the town of Mount Morris was taken off, and in 1819 a portion was cut off for the town of York. The name of the town was originally written Lester, after Lester Phelps, a son of Oliver Phelps; the name was changed to its present form in 1805.
Ebenezer (Indian) Allan was the first white settler in the town, but his stay was short and he may be regarded as a tran- sient. His exploits are elsewhere described. The first permanent settlers and, indeed, the first in the region west of the Genesee, were Horatio and John H. Jones, brothers, and Joseph Smith, who came in 1789. Preparations for this settlement had been made the previous year by John H. Jones and another brother, George.
Both Horatio Jones and Smith had been captives of the Indians. In many respects Jones was one of the most interesting and romantic characters in the whole Genesee Country, not only on account of his many thrilling experiences in the rough border life of his day, and in his contact with the Indians, but because of his personal qualities, which included great intelligence, good judgment, resourcefulness and courage unsurpassed. He was born in Downington, Chester County, Pennsylvania, December 17, 1763, and after a time his family removed to Maryland. When thirteen years old he joined a company of Minute Men and five years later became a member of the Bedford Rangers. He was then an athlete, an expert marksman, and remarkably fleet of
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foot; he was also a skillful mechanic. While on a scouting expedi- tion Jones and his party were ambushed by the Indians and made prisoners ; his companions were all finally killed. Jones had made a very favorable impression upon the Indians and was taken to the Indian village of Caneadea, where he was permitted to run the gauntlet; he faced the long double line of old and young Indians, squaws and children, armed with hatchets, arrows, clubs, knives and every conceivable native weapon, and coolly decided upon a bit of strategy. He sped between the lines, keeping close to one side, so that the Indians nearest him were too close to strike effectively and the ones on the other side were too far away. With but slight injuries he reached the goal and was later adopted into the tribe. He assumed the dress and customs of the Indians, quickly learned their language, and at once became useful to them by repairing their arms and implements. The following para- graphs relating to him are quoted from the Doty history of Liv- ingston County :
"Their implicit confidence in him, acquired during the years of his captivity, was retained through life, and proved valuable to the government in the treaties with the northern and western tribes in which he participated, and his residence, down to the period of his death, continued a favorite stopping place for the natives who visited him almost daily. His judgment was so much respected by the Senecas that he was often chosen an arbiter to settle disputes among them; and his knowledge of the Seneca tongue was so accurate that he became their principal interpreter. Red Jacket preferred him as a translator of his speeches on im- portant occasions, as his style, which was chaste, graphic and energetic, suited the qualities so marked in that great orator's efforts, accurately preserving not only the substance but the most felicitous expressions. He was commissioned by President Wash- ington as official interpreter, and was employed on several occa- sions to accompany delegations of sachems and warriors to and from the seat of government. Subsequently he acquired a large body of land on the Genesee flats. At one period of his captivity he resolved to return home. Leaving his adopted father's wigwam before daylight one morning, he traveled for hours south- ward. Night came on and he began to reflect that his youthful associates, and perhaps his relatives, too, would be scattered and
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gone, and the first streak of light the next morning witnessed him retracing his steps. He resumed his abode with the Senecas, who never suspected him of having attempted escape, and remained with them until peace brought about a general exchange, a period of five years. Soon after the close of the war he removed to Seneca Lake, where his brother John joined him in October, 1788. He was married in the year 1784 to Sarah Whitmore, herself a prisoner from the valley of the Wyoming, by whom he had four children. He was twice married, his last wife dying in 1844. In the spring of 1790 Captain Jones removed to the Genesee Country. Here he died on the 18th of August, 1836, retaining his well- preserved faculties to the last. He lies buried in the Geneseo Cemetery." Horatio Jones' second wife was Elizabeth Starr ; they were the parents of twelve children. John H. Jones, Horatio's brother, became a judge of Genesee County at its organization in 1802, and later a side judge of Livingston County in 1821.
Joseph Smith came from Massachusetts; he was captured by the Senecas and held a prisoner until the end of the war; he was an interpreter and, like Jones, his services were much in demand. His death at Moscow was the result of an injury received in a game of ball between Indians and whites at Old Leicester. Follow- ing Jones and Smith in the settlement of Leicester were William Ewing, Nathan Foster and Frederick Gregory, with their fam- ilies. Ebenezer Allan constructed the first sawmill in the town in 1792, at Gibsonville, and the first grist mill was built by Phelps and Gorham on the west branch of Beard's Creek at Rice's Falls. Another grist mill was put up by Noah Benton near Moscow in 1799: Leonard Simpson was the first tavern keeper in Leicester, and his abode was near Jones' Bridge about 1797. Joseph Simonds, Francis Richardson, Pell Teed, Joseph White and Mr. Dennison were other early keepers of taverns.
The first town meeting of Leicester was held in 1803 at the home of Joseph Smith, between Moscow and Cuylerville. The officers elected were: John H. Jones, supervisor; George A. Wheeler, clerk; Samuel Ewens, Alpheus Harris and Dennison Foster, assessors; Perez Brown, constable and collector ; Benjamin Gardner and Adam Wisner, overseers of the poor; William Mills and Joel Harvey, commissioners of highways.
The settlement of Old Leicester was laid out in the year 1800
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by Nicholas Ayrault and was located about three miles east of Moscow. The village of Moscow, now incorporated as the village of Leicester, is situated on a site chosen in 1814 by Samuel M. Hopkins, who surveyed and named it. A tavern and hostelry was constructed and operated there during the same year by Jesse Wadhams; Gideon T. Jenkins succeeded him as proprietor. Homer Sherwood was also an early hotel keeper. Aside from mills and distilleries, the first industry of the village was a cloth- ing mill built by Peter Roberts and Samuel Crossman in 1815; a second one was established about the same time by Peter Palmer.
The site of Cuylerville was originally the important Indian village of Little Beardstown, or "Genesee Castle," the principal town of the Seneca Nation, and the western destination of the Sullivan expedition; it is a place of much historic interest which is elsewhere recounted.
L. L. Doty's history says: "The principal villages of the Senecas lay in Leicester, being Little Beardstown, Squakie Hill and Big Tree, where chieftains could call the whole warlike tribe upon the battle trail, and, if we may credit the tales of captives, something of a sylvan state was observed by the dignitaries of these castle towns, as old writers call them, whose vaguely defined sites are now devoted to the ordinary purposes of agriculture by the thrifty farmers of Leicester."
The town of Livonia was set off from Pittstown, now the town of Richmond, Ontario County, in 1808. In 1819 the town of Conesus was in turn taken from it, leaving Livonia in its present form and size.
Among the first group of settlers within the territory of the present Livonia was Solomon Woodruff, who came in 1792 from Connecticut and bought a farm of 150 acres from General Fel- lows, at four shillings per acre, for which he paid with his first crop of potatoes. He constructed his log cabin, returned to New England before cold weather, and brought his family back in 1793. He discovered on arriving that his house had been burned by the Indians, but he found temporary shelter at the house of Gideon Pitts at the foot of Honeoye Lake, and built another cabin. Philip, a son, was the first white child born in the town. During the year 1794 Woodruff opened his home as a tavern, the
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first in the town. Among the guests whom he entertained was Louis Philippe, the future king of France.
In 1794 Peter Briggs and a settler named Higby located there. In 1796 there came Philip Short, David Benton and John Benton, and in the interval before 1800 there followed Ruel and Jesse Blake, George Smith, Smith Henry, Nathan Woodruff and Thomas Grant. Oliver Woodruff, a brother of Solomon, came in 1803 and settled on the site of Livonia Center.
The first frame house in the town was built in 1801 by George and John Smith for David Benton. Mr. Higby was the owner of the first sawmill and Seth Simmons had the first grist mill. The first distillery was constructed by Levi Van Fossen in 1808, and the second by Fred Davis nine years later. George Smith was a Vermonter and died in Rochester in 1873, when ninety- five years of age; he held several town offices and after the organ- ization of the county was its first representative in the assembly, where he served two terms in all. He became active in military affairs and served in the War of 1812, attaining the rank of col- onel. He was the father of Lewis E. Smith. Leman Gibbs came here with his parents, Eldad Gibbs and wife, in 1801. He was for many years a justice of the peace, and in 1854 represented the county in the assembly. He entered the militia as a musician and passed through the several grades to that of brigadier-gen- eral. He was a musician of ability and in the early days con- ducted a singing school. Other early settlers were Robert Dixon, Darius Jacques, Matthew Armstrong, Elias Chamberlain and John Bosley. In the vicinity of Livonia Center, milling was a profitable occupation for a number of years and until the water- power weakened. Flavel Hunt, Orange Woodruff, Pliny Weller, William Gilbert and Mr. Hinman were mill proprietors of this time. Hugh Lemon was a manufacturer of potash. By 1810 the town had reached a very substantial position commercially. One writer has said it then "had a population of 1,187, with seventy-two voters, and the manufacturers in that year produced 15,933 yards of cloth from sixty looms. There were 200 fami- lies. In the year 1835 her population was 2,659. Its county tax was $754.58 and its town tax $711.41. The town then had three grist mills and three fulling mills. The number of yards fulled was 5,485. There were also two distilleries."
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The first town meeting of Livonia was held in 1808 at the house of Solomon Woodruff. The following officers were elected : Lyman Cook, supervisor; Theodore Hinman, clerk; George Smith, John Warner and Matthew Hinman, assessors. The vil- lage of Livonia was incorporated June 28, 1882, and the first president was Dr. Charles H. Richmond.
The town of Ossian was originally a part of the town of Angelica, and remained in Allegany County until 1857, when it was attached to Livingston. The first supervisor of the town was Richard W. Porter, who served as such from 1808 until 1828. He was one of the first two settlers in the town; the other was his brother James. They came from New Jersey and located on the site of Ossian Center in 1804. During the period from 1806 until 1810 there came James Haynes, James Crog- ham, Jacob Clendennin, Frederick Covert, William Boyle, Samuel McCrea, Joshua Carpenter, Elijah Belknap, James Rooker, William Lemen, James Gregory, James Boylan, Orrison Cleveland, William and John Gould, Heman Orton, and Luther Bisbee. The land within the town was once the property of Jeremiah Wadsworth, as a part of his apportionment of the Phelps and Gorham sales, which were made through the agency of James Wadsworth. He disposed of it to Robert Troup and for a time the town was called Troupton. Oliver Stacey was the first tavern keeper of the town in 1817, and the first mer- chant was Daniel Canfield, in 1824. Nathaniel Porter con- structed the first sawmill in 1806, and John Smith built the first grist mill in 1826.
One of the largest landowners in the town was Isaac Hamp- ton ; at one time he owned more than 5,000 acres. Hampton came here with his parents in 1835 and died in 1896. He held a num- ber of town offices, and for over a score of years was postmaster of Ossian Center. Corydon Hyde, Frank J. Bonner, Elias H. Geiger and William M. White were other men of the town in the early generation.
The town of Mount Morris was formed from the town of Leicester in April, 1818, and was named for Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution. At the first town meeting, in 1819, the following officers were elected: William A. Mills, super- visor; Horatio Reed, clerk; Allen Ayrault, Jesse Stanley and
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Aaron Adams, assessors; Allen Ayrault and Oliver Stanley, over- seers of the poor; Samuel Learned, Phineas Lake and Samuel Rankins, commissioners of highways; Horatio Reed, Aaron Adams and James B. Mower, commissioners of common schools; John Brown, constable and collector; Phineas Lake, Amos Bald- win, William A. Mills, James H. McNair, Aaron Adams, John C. Jones and William Lemmon, fence viewers; Ebenezer Damon, Asa Woodford, John Sanford, David H. Pearson and Sterling Case, road masters; Abraham Camp, James H. McNair, Richard W. Gates and Eli Lake, inspectors of common schools; Enos Baldwin, pound keeper.
Mary Jemison, the "White Woman," was the first white resi- dent, spending many years on the Gardeau Flats, located in the town of Mount Morris, and Castile, Wyoming County, granted to her by the treaty of Big Tree. She was associated with the Indian occupation and should not be reckoned a part of the pioneer settlement. Ebenezer Allan, elsewhere mentioned, subse- quently came into the town and remained awhile, but he cannot be given the character of a settler in the town.
The first permanent white settler of the town was William A. Mills, son of Reverend Samuel Mills, the pioneer preacher of the Genesee Country, who came in 1793. William A. Mills began his residence in Mount Morris the next year, on the village site, where he kept "bachelor hall." In 1811 there were a few additions to the settlement, including Deacon Jesse Stanley and family. Quoting Dr. Myron H. Mills, son of William A. Mills: "From 1794 to 1810 very few permanent white settlers located in Mt. Morris; Indian occupancy and the prevalence of ague and Genesee fever prevented. Among them were Jonathan Har- ris, Clark Cleveland, Isaac Baldwin, Adam Holtslander, Simeon Kittle, Louis Mills, Grice Holland, Benedict Satterly, Isaac Powell, William McNair and family. Adam Holtslander made and furnished the rails for fencing the original enclosures in and around Mt. Morris for many years, excelling the lamented Lin- coln in that business; was on the frontier in the war of 1812-15.
* * From 1810 to 1820 settlers locating in Mt. Morris were Elisha Parmelee, the Hopkinses, the Baldwins, Adino Bailey, Phineas Lake, David A. Miller, Allen Ayrault, Riley Sco- ville, Vincent Cothrell, Eli Lake, the Stanleys, the Beaches, Rev. Elihu Mason, James Hosmer, John Starkweather, George Green,
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Asa Woodford, Dr. Abram Camp, Col. Demon, Richard Allen, Samuel Seymour and others."
Additional early settlers of this period were: Oliver and Luman Stanley, Doctor Jonathan Beach, Russell Sheldon, Isaac Seymour, Sterling Case, William Begole, John Cowding, Allen, Orrin and Horace Miller, Samuel Learned, Chester Foote, John C. Jones, David Sanger, Horatio Reed, John Brown, Samuel Ran- kins, James B. Mower, David H. Pearson, Richard W. Gates, Dr. Charles Bingham and Joseph Thompson.
William A. Mills was seventeen years of age when he came here from Connecticut. He learned the Seneca language and enjoyed the respect of the Indians, although one of his first acts was to construct a log blockhouse. He married Susan H. Harris, of Pennsylvania. He engaged in farming and had a distillery and, in his later life, became an extensive landowner. He held a number of local offices, served in the War of 1812, and died in 1844. Dr. M. H. Mills, the youngest of the children, was one of the most prominent citizens of Mount Morris. He died in 1897.
The village of Mount Morris was originally known as Allan's Hill, also Richmond Hill. Reverend John B. Hudson, a Metho- dist circuit rider, describing his visit to the place in 1804, says: "Next day I came to what is now called Mt. Morris. It was then called Allen's Hill. Here I found a number of small houses newly raised, and timber not much cleared except where they stood. This was then the most advanced settlement up the Gene- see River till you reached Angelica, between which places none others were then in existence. The Mt. Morris settlers had par- tially cultivated the rich flats, which produced corn and hemp in abundance, and but little or no attention was paid to religion or moral duties. The nearest market was Albany, which they could reach only by land traveling with teams or on horseback." Dur- ing the next fifteen years the village experienced little growth beyond the construction of a few log houses and two or three brick houses. George Smith and John Runyan built the first frame house for William A. Mills in 1810. The village was in- corporated in 1835 and the first president was Colonel Reuben Sleeper. The first postmaster was James B. Mower. The de- velopment which the village has attained is largely due to its
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manufacturing enterprises, described elsewhere, made possible by water power supplied by the Genesee River dam. The first built in 1826, was destroyed, and rebuilt in 1833. This was carried away in 1852 and restored by the state. The flood of 1899 took this out and a new dam was constructed of stone and cement. The project of the Rochester Gas and Electric Corpora- tion involving extensive changes in the utilization of the river water power is explained in the chapter relating to Rochester.
The earliest fire department in Mount Morris, organized in 1836, consisted of an engine company of twenty-four members. Elisha Parmelee was the first merchant in the village; other early merchants were Allen Ayrault and David A. Miller. George A. Green was the pioneer tailor, Peter Peterson the first hatter, and Riley Scoville the first hotel keeper; the family name is still per- petuated in the title to the only hotel in the village.
From a sketch of Mount Morris written by Samuel L. Rock- fellow for the county historical society, the following paragraphs are quoted : "Commencing on the state road at the town line between Nunda and Mount Morris, the first settlers and owners were as follows, in the order named: William Mosher, Mr. Wood, John and Hiram Prentice, Dean M. Tyler, James McCartney, William Chandler and Micah Brooks. These were south of Brooksgrove. North we find John Carr, Elias Rockfellow, George Babcock, Henry Hoffman, Samuel Phillips, Benjamin Hoagland, William C. Dunning, Hosea Fuller, Joseph Ackers, David O. Howell, Mr. Brown, Benjamin Sherman, Orrin Hall, James Rolland, Sylvester Darrien, William D. Morgan, Ephraim Sharp, George Burkhart, Edwin Stillson, and Eben Stillson, which brings us to the Ridge.
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