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 20
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Other early settlers were Elijah Bennett, William and Jacob Devon, John and Jacob Passage, Schuyler Thompson, Henry Root, John White, Abraham Acker, James H. Rawson, David Corey, and Henry C. Jones. The first frame house in the town was built in 1824 by George W. Merrick, and in the same year Asa Heath built the first house in the village. It was in this year also that the village of Nunda was laid out by Charles Carroll. Alanson Hubbell was the first tavern keeper, and the first merchant was W. P. Wilcox. The first saw mill was constructed by Willoughby Stowell, while Samuel Swain put up the first grist mill in 1828. Nunda Village, like many other communities of the Genesee Coun- try, flourished most during the lumbering period. About 1835 there were no less than eighteen saw mills in the vicinity of the village, also flouring mills, tanneries, furnaces, a woolen mill, hat factories and a steam engine manufactory. Stores and shops were numerous.
The first town meeting, held in 1809, resulted in the election of Eli Griffith as supervisor, and Asahel Trowbridge clerk. After annexation to Livingston County, the first meeting was held in 1846, and the officers elected were: Edward Swain, supervisor ; Charles E. Crary, clerk; Earl J. Paine, highway commissioner. The name of the town, adopted in 1808, is from the Indian O-non-da-oh, meaning "where many hills come together." It is also given Nun-da-o.
The town of York was established in 1819 from the towns of Caledonia and Leicester, and in 1823 an addition was made from Covington. The first town meeting was held in 1819, when the following were elected: William Janes, supervisor; Perez P. Peck, clerk; John Darling, John Dodge and Henry James, asses-
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sors; Joseph R. Ramsdell, collector; Moses Allen and Thomas Blake, overseers of the poor ; John Russ, William Taylor and New- comb Mead, commissioners of highways; Jonathan Tainter and Joseph R. Ramsdell, constables; Wells Fowler, Philander Sexton and N. Sacket, commissioners of schools. The town was named for Joseph York, St. Lawrence County assemblyman, who, as chairman of the committee in charge of the subject, had favorably reported the bill for the creation of the town.
The first settlements within the limits of the present York were made by the same group which settled Caledonia, mostly Scotch, and they began to arrive about 1800. Among them were Donald, John and William McKenzie, John and Alexander Frazer, Angus McBean, John McCall, Archibald Gillis, Alexander Stew- art, William Dorris, John Clunas, John and David Mart, Ralph Brown, Donald D. Mckenzie, John Russ and John Darling.
These Scotch pioneers were a hardy race of men; before they erected their log cabins they threw up wigwams, Indian fashion, and all worked as a community, both men and women. We have an interesting excerpt from Donald D. Mckenzie's recollections concerning the log house raising. "I often shudder when I recall the carelessness of the pioneers in erecting their log houses and log barns. Some of those barns were forty to fifty feet by thirty to thirty-six feet, and often twenty feet high. Three or four of the top logs were whole the entire length. These were raised in place amid a great confusion of tongues caused by the diversity of languages together with the free use of whiskey. For some were talking English, some Gaelic, some Dutch, etc. Whiskey drinking was not then considered disreputable, and the men were full of vigor from their cups, and it is a mercy that more were not injured."
Ezekiel Morley built the first sawmill in the town in 1807, and the next year Ralph Brown built his grist mill. Moses Gib- son, Colonel Robert Mckay, Wells Fowler and William Taylor were later grist mill owners. From a history of the town by Robert Grant, the following paragraphs are taken: "David Mc- Donald began business at an early day when a young man at a point in the northeast part of the town called the city of Ghent, about 1819, and in 1823 at York Centre, where he continued steadily in business until 1850 and at which place he died in 1858,
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having raised a large family and acquired a large fortune. Porter P. Peck was another early merchant, commencing business in a small way at what is now known as Mt. Pleasant, one mile south- west of Fowlerville, whence he removed to York Centre, becoming perhaps the first merchant there as well as the first postmaster and afterwards removing to Rochester. Peck was succeeded in trade and in office of postmaster by Shepard Pierce, who removed early in the thirties to Livonia, where he engaged in the same vocations (some authorities have given Pierce as the first mer- chant in York), and David McDonald became the postmaster at York, holding the office almost continuously until 1849.
"Cyrus Hawley, Alvan Hayward, Thomas Fraser, Steven B. Noble, Edward Brown, Abram Stocking, Fish and Crissy, Allen Ward, James McPherson, William Fraser Jr., Roswell H. French, George F. Ramsdell, James W. Whitney, Henry Peck, Orrin Chamberlain, James Fraser, Edward R. Dean, Charles O. Beach, Walter Elliott Gilmore, Alexander Skellie, James and Duncan McIntyre, John W. Stewart, Neil and Charles Stewart, Alexander Reid, James W. McArthur, Alexander F. Mckean, James A. For- rest, Edward F. Caldwell, Charles N. Stewart, Mrs. W. J. Reid and Mrs. Bessie Dresser have been among the early and late mer- chants at York Centre.
"Among the hotel keepers have been Nathan Rup, Timothy Rice, Vinton West, R. C. Moore, Peleg Blankenship, Newell L. Bowman, Ira Harrington, T. Butler, William McCandlish, John C. Fiero, Hiram Martin, Hector L. McLean, James Plan, William Stebbins, John L. McLean, Isaac Hayward, Ray Hitt, William Howell, and George A. Root.
"At Fowlerville the merchants have been Clark L. Capron, Nathaniel Goodman, Joseph R. Ramsdell, Judge Riggs, Bradley Martin, Alonzo Fowler, Walter Whitcomb, Little & Dixon, Charles Estes, Charles J. Folger, William Fraser, Amos Fowler, James S. Fowler, John P. Carey, Robert Grant, Stephen Loucks, Chauncey Haxton, Thomas J. McDonald, B. F. Dow, Luman F. Dow, John W. Howe, Sanford Weller, W. J. Rogers and Donald A. Fraser. Among the hotel keepers have been Wells Fowler, Clark L. Capron, Amos Fowler, Justus Weller, Isaac N. Steward, Caleb White, Alexander McHardy and William Howell ..
"At Greigsville the merchants have been Fish & Crissy, Ed-
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ward R. Dean, John P. Dickey, John D. Fraser, James Jones and Elisha Williams. The hotel keepers have been Gideon Barnes, William Bowman, John C. Fiero, George A. Root and Samuel Dorris. Greigsville was the birthplace of Gen. Clinton B. Fisk. At Spencerport the merchants have been John Spencer, Charles and Edward Hosmer, Peter Fraser, James McPherson and John Van Valkenburg. The hotel keepers have been Amos Fowler and James H. Bow."
The town of Groveland was formed in 1812, from the town of Sparta, then in Ontario County. The first town meeting was held shortly thereafter and the following officers were elected: James Rosebrugh, supervisor; Samuel Niblack, clerk; Hugh McNair, John Jones and Christian Roup, assessors; Daniel Ross, John Slaight and Samuel Begole, highway commissioners; Abram Har- rison and Aaron Norcross, overseers of the poor; William Doty, constable and collector ; Davenport Alger, constable; John Hamp- ton, Samuel M. Mann and Enoch Squibb, fence viewers; William Doty, Nathan Ogden, John Oman, Ira Travis, David Cook, John Vance, William R. Begole, Philo Mills, Ebenezer McMasters, Ben- jamin Price, Samuel Henderson, Eli Clark and Thomas Young, overseers of highways. The abundance of groves in the town is said to have suggested the name to the pioneers. Some of these groves were of natural formation; others had been formed by the Indians' fires and clearings for camp sites.
The site of the extinct village of Williamsburg, opposite the confluence of the Canaseraga Creek and Genesee River, where Captain Williamson made the first settlement in 1792, was in the town of Groveland. He came here as the first agent of the Pulte- ney estate and selected this place as the most promising as a trade center largely because of the navigability of the two streams nearby. With Williamson there arrived a number of surveyors, among them John and Hugh McNair and John Smith. Smith bought a square mile of land and erected thereon a two-story frame house.
Captain Williamson was constantly engaged in exploiting Williamsburg, of whose future he was most sanguine. He em- ployed labor to clear a road from Pennsylvania north to this spot, the place acquired a postoffice in 1792, and here the first store in the county was established by Alexander McDonald. Judge John
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Rosebrugh arrived in the year 1705, and next year came William Magee and his family. In the years following and before the close of the century, Thomas Ward, Benjamin Smith, John Har- rison, Capt. John Vance, Levi Dunn, the Hunts, Culbertsons, Rob- ertsons, Stilwells, Barbers, Kellys, Ewarts, Boyds, Roups and Gambles came into Groveland. Thomas Bailey, a former soldier, came in 1803, and two years later Samuel Mann appeared. Michael Johnson and his wife and daughter came in 1807, after previously spending three years in Geneseo. Daniel Ross, Levi Dunn, William Harris, Elias Harrison were others who came into the town in an early day.
William Doty came here about 1797 from Basking Ridge, New Jersey, but soon after went to Derry, Pennsylvania, returning in 1802 or 1803 to Groveland, where he bought land. With him were his wife and four sons, Parker, Jonathan, Hugh and Zebulon. John Melvin accompanied the party from Pennsylvania. Wil- liam Doty kept a tavern in Groveland in a log house of two stories which he had erected, and it became known as William Doty's Inn. John Hunt, Samuel Culbertson and Joseph Richardson were other pioneer tavern keepers.
Two notable residents of Groveland were Major Charles Car- roll and Col. William Fitzhugh, who are mentioned in the chapters on Rochester. Colonel Fitzhugh's son, Dr. Daniel H. Fitzhugh, was prominent in the affairs of the county, where he was a large landholder.
From Doty's history we quote the following concerning Wil- liamsburg: "The site of Williamsburg was on the road between Geneseo and Mount Morris. It comprised a tavern stand, one or two stores, and a number of dwellings, the entire village covering about thirty acres. On the flats adjoining the river was also the celebrated race-course, where the first fairs and races ever held in the Genesee Country came off. These fairs drew together a large concourse of people, some coming hundreds of miles to attend them, while from the Niagara frontier came many cattle dealers to purchase for the Canadian trade the fat, sleek cattle they were sure to find on exhibition. The tavern was a frame building erected for that purpose by Captain Williamson, and stood on the southwest part of the town square, which was situated about eighty rods east of the river. The main building was about thirty
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feet square, and two stories high, a large wing extending from the rear of the principal building. In the second story of the latter was a good sized ballroom, in which as early as 1800 was kept a dancing school. The first landlord was Capt. Elijah Starr, who was succeeded by William Lemen. The first town meeting of the town of Sparta was held in this house on the first Tuesday of April, 1796. William Perine succeeded Lemen and kept the tavern two years. Thomas Hummer succeeded him and the latter, it would seem, was the first tavern keeper who had a license. William Magee purchased the tavern, the town square and village lots, amounting in all to some thirty acres, of the Geneva land office, and shortly after sold the property to Joseph Engle. The latter kept the tavern two years, and failing to make the pay- ments, Magee took the property back in 1806 and kept the tavern one year. The property soon passed into the hands of Major Carroll, and the tavern was closed. Not many years afterward it took fire and burned down."
Williamsburg succumbed to the growing importance of Mount Morris, Geneseo and other places, and soon after 1807 sank into oblivion; today no vestige of it remains.
The town of Geneseo was formed in 1789 by the court of gen- eral sessions of Ontario County. On April 5, 1791, a town meet- ing was held at Canawaugus for the "district of Geneseo, in the county of Ontario." John Ganson was chosen supervisor; David Bullen, clerk; Nathan Perry, Gad Wadsworth, Amos Hass, Israel Stone and William Wadsworth, assessors; Edward Carney, col- lector; Isaiah Thompson, Benjamin Gardner and John Lusk, com- missioners of highways; Jasper Marvin and Norris Humphrey, constables; William Rice, John Oelman, Elijah Morton, Philemon Hall and Phineas Bates, fence viewers; Darling Havens, Nicholas Miller and Henry Brown, pound keepers; Gilbert R. Berry, Clark Peck, Gideon Pitts, Lemuel B. Jennings, Joseph Morgan, Chaun- cey Hyde, Aaron Beach and Abner Mighells, pathmasters.
The pioneer settler was Lemuel B. Jennings, from Connecti- cut, who as early as 1788, was engaged in clearing his land, two miles south of Geneseo Village. Capt. Elisha Noble, also from Connecticut, was one of the early settlers; his brother, Russell, who came later, was well-known over the countryside as the left- handed fiddler. Horatio Jones was here in 1789. James and William Wadsworth came here from Durham, Connecticut, in
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June, 1790. L. L. Doty says, regarding their arrival: "Their lo- cation here was an event of consequence, and their influence was at once and widely felt. Possessing sagacity as well as enterprise, they foresaw the future importance of the Genesee Country. Lands were purchased by them at merely nominal prices, and they soon set about inviting immigration and began to develop the latent excellence of this great agricultural region." By the close of 1790 a number of New Englanders had settled in the town. Among them were Phineas Bates, Daniel Ross, Henry Brown, Enoch Noble, Nicholas Rosecranz, David Robb, Nathan Fairbanks, Benjamin Squier, Joseph W. Law- rence, Daniel Kelley, Benjamin Wynn, William Crossett, Rodman Clark, William, David and Samuel Finley. The first thing these men did was to raise a log house for shelter; the next to plant a crop. One of the first buildings of a pretentious kind erected was the town house on the village square, for which $200 was authorized at a town meeting in 1797. William Wadsworth, Horatio Ewing, John Bosley and John M. Minen comprised the building committee. This structure was moved in 1805 to serve as a Presbyterian meeting house.
William Wadsworth died in 1833, a bachelor. James Wads .. worth married Naomi Wolcott, of East Wolcott, Connecticut, in 1804, and they were the parents of two sons and two daughters. Mr. Wadsworth died in 1844; his wife dying in 1831. The sons were James S. and William W. Wadsworth.
James S., the older, was born October 30, 1807, and was edu- cated in the schools of Geneseo and eastern colleges, being awhile in Harvard and subsequently a law student in Yale. He was for some time in the law office of Daniel Webster in Boston. He was admitted to the bar in 1833, but the exacting labor of managing his great estate prevented his engaging in legal practice, three- fourths of his father's estate, or that part belonging to himself and his sisters, devolving wholly upon himself. In 1834 he mar- ried Mary Craig Wharton of Philadelphia, and in 1836 erected the mansion now occupied by his son James. He became a pro- gressive agriculturist, looking after the farms of his far-reaching lands with laborious and intelligent circumspection, and availing himself of every practical means available to improve their stock, crops and methods of cultivation, and at the same time benefit his tenants. He was made the first president of the New York State
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Agricultural Society after its reorganization in 1842. He im- ported choice breeds of stock. He sent a shipload of corn to the starving people of Ireland in 1847. He was appointed regent of the University in 1844. He was twice a presidential elector in 1856 and 1860. He was the republican candidate for governor against Horatio Seymour in 1862. The legislature appointed him a member of the peace congress which met in Washington in February, 1861, and he opposed the compromises with the South, then advocated. He was one of the first to offer his services to the government when the Rebellion broke out, and furnished two ships with cargoes of military supplies, and sent them to Annap- olis for the soldiers who had been called to defend Washington. He was appointed aide to General McDowell, and took part in the first battle of Bull Run, where he had a horse shot under him. In August, 1861, he was commissioned a brigadier-general, and as- signed to a command in the army of the Potomac. In 1862 he was appointed military governor of Washington, and was in com- mand there nine months, when, at his request, he was called to active service in the field, and assigned to the first division of the first corps, commanded by General Reynolds, with which he par- ticipated in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and in the last took command of that famous fighting corps after General Reynolds was killed. Soon afterward he was sent on an important tour of inspection to the Mississippi. In 1864 he was appointed commissioner for the exchange of prison- ers, but was soon afterward assigned to the command of the fourth division of Warren's corps in the battle of the Wilderness, and in that destructive fighting was mortally wounded on May 6th and taken prisoner, dying two days afterward in a Rebel hospital. There were few more distinguished soldiers in the Union army than General Wadsworth, and none who performed his duties more intelligently, faithfully and bravely, and from higher mo- tives of patriotism.
Capt. Craig W. Wadsworth, who was present in a part of the action in which General Wadsworth was wounded, gives the fol- lowing account of his father's death:
"My father and his men crossed the Rapidan on the 4th of May. On the evening of the 5th his command was engaged for several hours and lost heavily. On the morning of the 6th he was
BRIGADIER GENERAL JAMES S. WADSWORTH
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ordered to report to General Hancock and by him ordered into another position on the right of that corps. My father made sev- eral charges with his division and finally carried quite an im- portant position, but was unable to hold it, the enemy coming down in superior numbers.
"This was about eight o'clock in the morning, fighting having commenced at daylight. About this time General Hancock sent for my father and told him that he had ordered three brigades to report to him, and he wished if possible with the six brigades under his charge to carry a certain position. Three or four on- sets were made, but without success, the fighting being terrific. My father had two horses killed from under him. General Han- cock sent word not to make any further attempt to dislodge the enemy at present. This was about eleven o'clock A. M. The enemy did not show any further disposition to attack. It was Hill's corps which my father had been fighting. Everything re- mained quiet until about twelve o'clock when Longstreet precipi- tated his corps on my father's left and hurled back Wood's brigade at that point in some confusion. My father seeing this, immedi- ately threw the second line, composed of his own division, for- ward, and formed it on the plank road at right angle to the original line, the ditch at the side of the road affording his men some protection. It was in trying to hold this line with his own gallant division, then reduced to about 1,600 men, that he fell. His third horse was killed that morning about the time he was wounded. The enemy was charging at the time and got posses- sion of the ground before my father could be removed. He was carried back to one of the rebel hospitals. This was on Friday afternoon, and on Sunday morning he died."
During the last two days of the brave general's life, while a prisoner, he received all the kindness and attention that could be bestowed upon him at the hands of the enemy. When he died, a Confederate (to whom he had shown kindness while military gov- ernor of Washington) obtained his body, purchased a coffin and had him buried with all his clothing just as he fell on the battle- field, in his own burial lot near New Hope Meeting House, twenty miles from Fredericksburg. Thus alone, far from home and kin- dred, and in the power of that enemy he had sought to subdue, perished one of the bravest of men. Sergeant John March carried
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the flag of truce into the enemy's lines and negotiated with Colonel Mosby for the recovery of the body of General Wadsworth. Dr. DeWitt Crum, March's companion and tent mate, gives the fol- lowing interesting account of the incident :
"On the third following day, the 9th, Capt. Benjamin Bennett with about twenty men were detached from the regiment and with an officer from the 57th New York Volunteers and a scout, with an ambulance, were sent by a circuitous route back towards the Rapidan. After a forced march of several hours we found ourselves on the road to the battlefield of the 6th inst., when the whistle of a minie reminded us that we were in the presence of the enemy.
"The little command quickly halted and Sergeant John March volunteered to proceed up the road and across the open field with a flag of truce. The picket (perhaps color blind) did not recog- nize the flag of truce, but fired away at the sergeant as he ad- vanced towards them, until an officer (evidently alarmed by the firing) came up and at once ordered the firing to cease and the sergeant to halt. Then it was found that we were confronted by the world renowned Mosby and his command. The officer who first met Mr. March was not inclined to receive his commission kindly and even threatened to fire upon the little squad. For- tunately, at this juncture General Mosby himself rode up and the irate Confederate officer retired. Mr. March was received with great kindness and upon making his mission known it was readily granted. We were allowed to remain within the enemy's lines while the ambulance proceeded up the road on its errand of mercy. Our mission was successful, as on the following day the ambul- ance returned and, as it passed, both friend and foe bowed their heads and raised their caps in respect, knowing that within the curtained ambulance reposed the lifeless body of one of America's noblest and bravest generals, James S. Wadsworth."
General Wadsworth had three sons, Charles F., Craig W. and James W., and three daughters. All of the sons did service in the War of the Rebellion. James W. made a distinguished record in public life, as a member of the New York state legislature, state comptroller, and representative in congress for several successive terms. His son, James W. Wadsworth, Jr., is the present senior United States senator from this state, in his second term.
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One of the first merchants in the village of Geneseo was Major William H. Spencer, who came to the Genesee Country in 1803, as already noted, and opened a store in 1805. He continued his busi- ness until 1837, when he retired to a farm in York. He was the first postmaster of Geneseo. Another early merchant was Charles Colt, who began business in 1817 and afterwards served in the state senate.
Quoting from the Doty history: "In 1813 there were not more than thirty houses in the village. Main street, North and South streets, were located about where they are now. Two considerable gullies crossed Main Street; the one nearly opposite Concert Hall, the other just south of the machine shop. The road leading down the hill near the court house, instead of running at right angles with Main Street, bore to the northwest in the direction of Shack- leton's ferry, which crossed the river where the bridge now stands. The bridges on Main Street across the gullies were merely of a temporary character, and neither convenient nor safe. When Col., afterward Gen., Winfield Scott marched his regiment through the village in 1813, they came down South Street and through Main Street to a lane running east, up which they marched to the lot now occupied by Mrs. C. H. Bryan's residence, where they encamped. There was then no Center or Second streets."
The village of Geneseo was incorporated April 21, 1832. The first village meeting was held June 4th of that year and the fol- lowing officers were elected : Allen Ayrault, William H. Spencer, Calvin H. Bryan, Charles Colt and Owen P. Olmsted, trustees; Samuel F. Butler, Gurdon Nowlen and Chauncey Metcalf, asses- sors; Truman Hastings, clerk; William H. Stanley, treasurer; Joseph W. Lawrence, collector; Horace Alpin, Joseph W. Law- rence, Jr., Russell Austin, Elias P. Metcalf and John F. Wyman, fire wardens. Owen P. Olmsted was named president of the board of trustees; Philo C. Fuller, Calvin H. Bryan and Truman Hastings were chosen as a board of health; Dr. Eli Hill became health officer and Truman Hastings village attorney.
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