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 38
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The town of Lewiston is situated on the Niagara River, be- tween Porter and Niagara. The territory comprising the town is historic ground. Where the village of Lewiston now stands was the lower terminus of the Portage road. On September 14, 1763, while an escort of twenty-five men, which had just convoyed a wagon train to Fort Schlosser, was returning, it was attacked by a large body of Seneca Indians near the southern border of the town. The Indians opened fire from ambush and followed up with knife and tomahawk. Several of the teams were frightened
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over the precipice at that point and some of the men jumped over, preferring that desperate chance to certain death at the hands of the savages. One of these was a drummer boy named Mathews. He landed in a tree top and lived to be ninety years of age. John Stedman, who accompanied the escort, was mounted on a good horse and escaped through a shower of bullets. A teamster wounded in the first volley managed to secrete himself and es- caped. All the others were massacred. Reinforcements sent up from Lewiston were also ambushed and a majority of the men killed. The place where this massacre occurred is known as Devil's Hole, and a little stream nearby is still known as Bloody Run. Near the northern border of the town is a flat of several acres, which is fifty or sixty feet lower than the surrounding surface. It is called the Five-Mile Meadow, because it is five miles from the mouth of the Niagara River. It was here that the British troops landed on the night of December 18, 1813, moved down the river and captured Fort Niagara.
The town was erected from Cambria February 27, 1818, and the first town meeting was held at the house of Sparrow Sage on the 7th of the following April. Rufus Spaulding was elected supervisor ; Oliver Grace, clerk; Benjamin Barton, Amos M. Kid- der and William Miller, assessors; Eleazer Daggett, collector and constable.
Permanent settlement in the town began in 1800, when the following arrived: William Gambol, Henry Hough, John and Joseph Howell, Thomas Hustler, John McBride, Henry Mills and Frederick Woodman. Hustler opened a tavern, and McBride . started a tannery. In 1802 Dr. Lemuel Cooke, who had served as an army surgeon, located in the town. One of his sons, Lothrop Cooke, was appointed sheriff in 1821, and afterward served as supervisor and as one of the trustees of Lewiston Village. An- other son, Bates Cooke, served as a member of Congress and in 1839 was appointed comptroller of the state.
The village of Lewiston was laid out by Joseph Annin in 1805. A visitor in 1807 described it as follows: "It contains two small frame and five or six log houses. The ground on either side of Main Street, for a short distance, is cleared and fenced in, and corn and other grain is grown on it. There are many old dry
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trees standing, and thick woods bounds it on the north and south sides."
About the time this was written Augustus Porter and Ben- jamin Barton engaged in the carrying trade around Niagara Falls on the American side of the river under the firm name of Porter, Barton & Company. They were associated with Matthew McNair, of Oswego, and Jonathan Walton & Company, of Sche- nectady, forming a link in the first regular chain of forwarders between tidewater and Lake Erie on the United States side. Lewiston was almost entirely destroyed by the British in the War of 1812, the only structures left standing being the stone walls of Jonas Harrison's dwelling and Solomon Gillet's log stable. After the war Mr. Barton returned and rebuilt the warehouse of Porter, Barton & Company. Those who had left their homes at the time of invasion returned and for several years the village flourished. General Lafayette visited Lewiston in 1825 and stopped at the hotel kept by Thomas Kelsey.
Lewiston was incorporated April 18, 1843, and the first village election was held on the second of May following. William Hotch- kiss was elected president of the board; E. A. Adams, R. H. Boughton, Lothrop Cook and Nelson Cornell, trustees; Jonathan Bell, clerk; Carlton Bartlett, treasurer; George W. Shockey, col- lector; John T. Beardsley, constable.
The village of Sanborn takes its name from Rev. E. C. San- born, who settled here in 1846. A sawmill was built in 1854, and a cheese factory in 1867. Model City (postoffice named Modeltown) was founded in the early '90s by a company headed by William T. Love. It is situated near the north line of the town on the Ontario division of the New York Central Railroad.
About one-third of the town of Lewiston, in the central and northern part, is included in the Tuscarora Indian Reservation. One square mile of this reservation was given by the Seneca Nation; the Holland Land Company granted two square miles adjoining, and in 1808 there was purchased of that company 4,400 acres more. Churches were established, schools were opened, and a council house built. John Mountpleasant was for years the principal Tuscarora chief; he died May 6, 1887. His second wife was a sister of General Ely S. Parker, the Seneca
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chief who was war secretary to General U. S. Grant, and wrote the articles of surrender at Appomattox in 1865.
By the act of February 2, 1824, the town of Lockport was created out of territory taken from the towns of Cambria and Royalton. The first town meeting was held April 6, 1824, at the house of Michael D. Mann. Daniel Washburn was elected super- visor; Morris H. Tucker, clerk; John Gooding, Henry Norton and David Pomroy, assessors; Eli Bruce, collector. An overseer of highways was chosen for each of the twenty-five road districts, and the sum of $100 was voted for the relief of the poor.
Settlement of the town was commenced in 1805, when Charles Wilbur built his log cabin at Cold Spring, about a mile east of where the city of Lockport now stands. The old Indian trail, later the mail route between Canandaigua and Fort Niagara, passed near this spring and Wilbur's house became a stopping place for travelers. A few others came into the region before Niagara County was set off from Genesee, in 1808, but the de- velopment was slow until after the latter date. Thaddeus Alvord, David and Joseph Carlton, Alexander Freeman, David Pomroy and Stephen Wakeman came between 1808 and 1811. Freeman built the first sawmill soon after his arrival. John Gibson opened the first blacksmith shop in 1815, near Warren's Corners.
After the War of 1812 settlement was slow until the route of the Erie Canal was definitely determined, when new settlements began to make their appearance. The most important of these developed into the city of Lockport, described later in this chapter. On the Ridge road, almost due north of Lockport, a man named Barber established a tavern at an early date. It was burned about 1820, and a year later Solomon Wright located there and opened another public house. David Maxwell started a store there in 1824. In 1826 a postoffice at Wright's Corners was estab- lished, with Mr. Wright as postmaster.
Warren's Corners, in the northwest corner of the town, has been described in connection with the town of Cambria. Near the southeast corner of the town is the village of Rapids, which takes its name from the swift current of the Tonawanda Creek at that point. It was laid out by Amos and S. B. Kinne in 1839. A few years later Orange Mansfield built a sawmill, G. H. Utley opened a hotel, and Horace Cummings started a store. About
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1850 a postoffice was established and William Heroy built a grist mill.
In the eastern part of the town is a thickly settled neighbor- hood called Chestnut Ridge. There was once a postoffice called Raymond in the southern part; here Solomon Dershaw had a gen- eral store and served as postmaster.
On March 20, 1824, territory was taken from the towns of Hartland, Somerset and Wilson to form a new town, to which James Van Horn gave the name of Newfane. The first town meeting was held at the house of James Van Horn April 6, 1824. James Wisner was elected supervisor; Jonathan Coomer, clerk; Jacob Albright, Cornelius Van Horn and Solomon C. Wright, assessors; John B. McKnight, collector.
The first settlers were John Brewer and William Chambers, who came from Canada in 1807, and settled near the mouth of Eighteen-Mile Creek. They were soon followed by Jacob Albright, Levi Ellis, Peter Hopkins, Burgoyne Kemp, Levi Lewis, Joseph Pease, James and William Wisner, all of whom settled in the cen- tral and northern parts of the town. In 1810 Levi Ellis began the erection of a sawmill and grist mill on Eighteen-Mile Creek, near the present village of Newfane. Before the dam was completed he and his workmen were stricken with fever and went back to Seneca County. James Van Horn then came into possession of the property and completed the mills. In 1813 a detachment of British soldiers was sent up the creek to destroy the mills, claim- ing that they were being operated for the benefit of the United States army. Near the mills lived Joseph Pease. The officer in command directed Mrs. Pease to move her furniture out of the house, as it was his duty to burn the dwelling. It so happened that she had two barrels of apple brandy in the cellar and asked the officer to permit his men to assist her in removing them. He consented and Mrs. Pease allowed them to help themselves. They became so generous that they did not burn her house, released her son, Enoch, who was a prisoner, and also permitted her to take several barrels of flour from the mills before they were set on fire. Mr. Van Horn rebuilt the mills in 1817, but they were de- stroyed by fire in 1839. Again they were rebuilt and operated until 1894. A sawmill on Keg Creek, built by Jacob Albright in 1811, was burned by the British in 1813. It was promptly rebuilt
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and continued in business until the supply of timber in the neigh- borhood ran short.
The land on the east side of Eighteen-Mile Creek was pur- chased by Burgoyne Kemp, who laid out the village of Kempville. The name was subsequently changed to Olcott. About 1811 Ben- jamin Halsted built a large log house there and opened the first tavern. Asa Douglas put in a small stock of goods the next year, the first store in the town. He sold out to John Eddy in 1816.
Between the years 1870 and 1877 the United States Govern- ment expended $200,000 in the construction of two piers, extend- ing 800 feet into the lake, one on either side of the mouth of Eighteen-Mile Creek. At the end of the western pier a lighthouse was built, thus forming a safe harbor for large vessels. For years after that a line of steamers plying between lake ports made regular stops at Olcott.
Newfane, four miles south of Olcott, was laid out by George R. Davis and named Charlotte, for his daughter. When the post- office was established the name was changed to Newfane. This village includes the site of the Van Horn mills, erected in 1811. Arthur Patterson opened a tavern in 1823. The woolen mill built by Niles and Van Ostrand in 1863 passed through several hands, finally becoming the property of the Lockport Felt Company. Shaw & Vincent began the manufacture of baskets to accommo- date the fruit growers and shippers of the vicinity. Appleton and Burt, the former once known as Hess Road, are other small postoffices in the town.
Niagara is one of the three towns erected from Cambria by the act of June 1, 1812, and was at first called Schlosser, after the old fort and landing above the falls. It then included the territory now forming the towns of Pendleton and Wheatfield. The name was changed to Niagara on February 14, 1816.
Sir William Johnson's Journal states that in 1761 Sir Jeffrey Amherst gave permission to a company of Indian traders to estab- lish a post at the place known as the Upper Landing, and that a large house was in process of erection for their use. Very little in the way of settlement or improvement was done until the state offered the lands along the Niagara River for sale in 1805. Augustus Porter, Benjamin Barton and Joseph Annin, jointly,
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purchased lands in Black Rock, Niagara, and other places along the river, and Porter built a sawmill at the falls.
In 1808 James Field purchased land between the mouth of Cayuga Creek and old Fort Schlosser, where he opened a tavern in 1810. Field's tavern was a favorite place for holding meetings in early days. The first town meeting was held there April 7, 1812, in anticipation of the erection of the town. Silas Hopkins was then elected supervisor; Ezekiel Hill, clerk; James Field, Ebenezer Hovey and William Scott, assessors; John Sims, col- lector and constable. Among the pioneers of the town were: Isaac Swain, who settled on the military road near Gill Creek in 1805; John Sims and William Valentine, who located at old Fort Schlosser and engaged in boat building; Gad Pierce, who opened a tavern on the Portage road in 1807; John Witmer and John Young, who came from Pennsylvania in 1810; and Eli Bruce, who settled on the Lockport road a few years later.
Most of the history of this town is intimately interwoven with the history of Niagara Falls City, which is treated elsewhere. The first suspension bridge over the Niagara River was built in 1847-48. A village grew up at the bridge and was at first called Bellevue. C. H. Witmer built a flour mill in 1848, and a post- office was established in 1849, with a Doctor Collier as postmaster. The Monteagle Hotel was commenced in 1848, but was not fin- ished until about 1855. It was then considered the largest and best appointed hotel in western New York. On June 8, 1854, the village was incorporated under the name of Niagara City. John Fisk was the first village president; E. Stanley Adams, clerk; Rodney Durkee, James Vedder, George Vogt and H. P. Witbeck, trustees. A fire department was formed in 1856; the water works were installed in 1876, and by that time the village was almost universally known as Suspension Bridge. In 1892 it be- came a part of the city of Niagara Falls.
At the mouth of Cayuga Creek is the village of La Salle. A man named Smith settled there in 1806, but the village dates its beginning from 1850. There were then a few log houses and a schoolhouse in the vicinity and the settlement was known as Cayuga Creek. Henry W. Clark and Samuel Tompkins owned a sawmill, Andrew White had a blacksmith shop, and a man named McCulloch opened a tavern about that time. The name La Salle
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was adopted in 1852, when the postoffice was established, with Henry Clark (son of Henry W.) as postmaster. He erected a new building, in which he opened a store and kept the postoffice. Tompkins & Louck started a planing mill about 1876, and H. S. Tompkins engaged in the manufacture of brick and tile. In 1897 a substantial two-story village hall was erected, and in 1907 La Salle was incorporated.
At the junction of the Tonawanda River and the Erie Canal Sylvester Pendleton Clark settled about 1820 and opened a log tavern. The next year he erected a frame house, and about that time J. S. Jenks opened a store. Mr. Clark was generally called by his middle name and the place became known as "Pendleton's." The postoffice was established in 1823, with Mr. Clark as post- master, and was given the name of Pendleton. When the town was set off from Niagara April 16, 1827, this name was adopted for the new town. The first town meeting was held at Clark's tavern May 8, 1827. Lyman E. Thayer was chosen supervisor ; Garrett Van Slyke, clerk; David Chandler, James C. Hawley, and Nathaniel Sykes, assessors; Kimball Ferrin, collector.
Jacob Christman and Martin Van Slyke settled on the Tona- wanda River in 1808. Adam and John Fulmer came about three years later, but at the beginning of the War of 1812 there were not more than half a dozen families living in the town. Most of those deserted their homes, hence the actual settlement did not begin until after the war. Among those who came prior to the organization of the town were: Asa Andrews, John Baker, Bailey Curtis, James Henderson, Jerry S. Jenks, Asa Milliken, Russell Richards, James Van Slyke and the town officers above named. Garrett Van Slyke, the first town clerk, was captured by the Indians near the close of the Revolution and his freedom was purchased by his uncle for a gallon of rum.
Between 1830 and 1835 a number of Germans settled in the central and eastern parts of the town. Prominent among the names of these settlers were Beiter, Blum, Donner, Hoffman, Koepfinger, Meyer and Wendel. Martin Wendel's general store was the beginning of the village of Wendelville.
The town of Porter is one of the three erected on June 1, 1812, and was named for Augustus Porter, one of the most prominent of the county's early citizens. At a town meeting held at the
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house of Peter Tower, April 11, 1815, Dexter F. Sprague was elected supervisor; Elijah Hathaway, clerk; Nathaniel Mc- Cormick, Joseph Pease and Thaddeus N. Sturges, assessors; David Porter, collector and constable. The name of Sprague appears among the early settlers of Hartland, and that of Pease among the pioneers of Newfane, but it is evident that they later settled in the town of Porter.
John Lloyd, who had been a soldier in the garrison of Fort Niagara, cleared a farm about three miles from the fort in 1801, and is credited with having been the first permanent settler. During the next five years came James Benedict, Robert Bigger, John Brown, John Clemmons, Elijah Doty, John Freeman, Ephraim, Obadiah, Peter and Silas Hopkins, William McBride, Abijah Perry, Samuel Shelly, John Waterhouse and John Wilson. The first school was taught at Youngstown in 1806 by William Coggswell. John Clapsaddle came in 1816. The next year he built the first sawmill in the town and also opened a tavern. A little later he built the first grist mill. The settlement that grew up about the mills was long known as Tryonville.
The village of Youngstown is one of the oldest on the frontier. In 1813 there were a few houses there, but they were all destroyed by the British. Immediately after the war Robert Grensit opened a tavern there, which was conducted for some time by his widow after his death. Elijah Hathaway opened his tavern in 1815. The mercantile firm of J. Davis & Son commenced business in 1835; Hezekiah H. Smith built the large stone flour mill in 1840; the stone hotel (Ontario House) was built by Alexander Lane in 1842, and on April 18, 1854, the village was incorporated. The first election was held on the 4th of the following October. Lewis C. Beals, Nelson R. Davis, Alfred Emerson, Samuel Fosdick and George Swain were chosen trustees; Samuel Olney, clerk; George C. Hotchkiss, treasurer ; David Burge, assessor; Paul Durfee, col- lector. Mr. Swain was elected president of the board.
In 1826 Jehiel C. S. Ransom opened a store in the eastern part of the town. A postoffice was established there soon afterward and was named Ransomville. Gideon and Gilbert W. Curtiss were early settlers in that section. They came from Connecticut and brought apple seeds with them, from which an orchard was started. This was the beginning of the large fruit growing inter-
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ests. In 1843 William H. H. Ransom, a nephew of the first settler, bought out his uncle's store and took his son, Elton T., into part- nership. After the coming of the railroad in 1876 the village took on new life and gained in importance.
On April 5, 1817, the southern part of the town of Hartland was set off as the town of Royalton. The town was organized on April 7, 1818, by a meeting held at the house of Almon H. Millard. Millard was chosen supervisor ; William Smith, clerk; Henry Ells- worth, Asher Freeman and Warren Rosenkrans, assessors; Solomon Richards and Samuel White, collectors and constables.
In 1800 Joshua Slaton was on his way from Vermont to the Niagara frontier, following an old Indian trail that ran in a northwesterly direction. Near the northwest corner of the present town of Royalton his wagon broke down. While repairing the vehicle he noticed the character of the country and decided to go no farther. Thus the first settler came into the town. He was soon afterward joined by his brother, Thomas Slaton, and by Andrew Brown, Stephen Bugbee, Varney Gaskill, Benjamin Hale, Marvin Harwood and William Smith, all of whom located near the original pioneer. Joshua Slaton gave Varney Gaskill a lot and he opened a blacksmith shop. In 1804 Marvin Harwood opened a store. This settlement was the beginning of Orangeport.
A short distance east of Orangeport George Reynale built a frame house about the time the canal was completed. He opened a grocery and engaged in buying staves. The place soon became known as Reynale's Basin, where the first postoffice in the town was established. The rapid development of Gasport and Middle- port caused Reynale's Basin to decline, and it has almost entirely disappeared.
Gasport, a canal village half way between Lockport and Mid- dleport, dates from 1824, when Samuel Hitchcock built a frame house there and opened a tavern. Inflammable gas from springs in the neighborhood gave the name to the settlement. This gas was piped to the village and used for lighting the store and ware- house until the improvement of the canal destroyed the springs. Sextus Shearer was the owner of the store. Alfred Colwell was the first postmaster.
Middleport came into existence with the building of the Erie Canal, and received its name because it was supposed to be mid-
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way between Lockport and Albion. Levi Cole opened a tavern here in 1820. Two years later James Northam opened the first store. Other early merchants were Timothy Bray, A. G. Tay- lor, James P. Compton, Alden S. Baker. The completion of the railroad in 1852 gave Middleport a boom. The village was incor- porated in 1859.
Royalton, near the center of the town, dates its beginning from 1808, when Carrington Fisk located there and opened a tavern. A little later three or four families settled in the neigh- borhood and a postoffice was established. Near the southeast cor- ner of the town is the village of Wolcottsville, which takes its name from Anson Wolcott, who bought 2,000 acres in that locality from the Holland Land Company and built a sawmill. In 1851 Wolcott sold his land to Carl Martins, Frederick Welland, Chris- tian and Frederick Moll, trustees of seventy-five Prussian families who settled here soon afterward.
Somerset is the most northeastern town in Niagara county. Jacob and Philip Fitts, David and Truman Mudgett, Zachariah Petterson, Archibald Whitton and others settled in the town before the War of 1812. After the war Francis N. Albright, David Barker, Asa and Samuel Coleman, Peter Hess, James Matthews, Ezra Meade, Samuel Palmer, Adam Pease, John and Masten Sherwood and a few others settled here before the town was set off from Hartland February 8, 1823. The first town meeting was held at the house of Silas Meade April 1, 1823. James Wisner was elected supervisor; Samuel Palmer, clerk; James Hess, Nathaniel Pond and Ezra Meade, assessors; John Sherwood, collector.
In 1817 Joseph S. Bailey opened the first tavern in the town at a place later known as Bailey's Corner. About a mile and a half west of this tavern the little hamlet of Somerset grew up about the store of James Matthews, which was opened in 1820 in the first frame building in the town. John Randolph built the first saw mill in 1822, and Archibald McDaniels built the first grist mill in 1825. Both were located on Hill Creek north of Somerset, where the first postoffice was established in 1825, with James Matthews postmaster.
The village of Barker grew up after the railroad was built in 1876. It is now the only postoffice in the town. Among the early
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merchants here were Jay L. Taylor, Compton & Bennett, Jesson Brothers and John O'Malley. Barker was incorporated in 1908.
The village of West Somerset, west of Barker, is a small place, which at one time boasted a postoffice.
On May 12, 1836, the town of Wheatfield was set off from the town of Niagara. The first town meeting was held June 6, 1836, in a school house near the north line. N. M. Ward was elected supervisor; Edwin Cook, clerk; Hiram Parks, Isaac H. Smith and James Sweeney, assessors; Stewart Milliman, collector; John Sweeney and L. B. Warden, justices of the peace. The first settle- ments were made at or near the site of North Tonawanda. There were a few settlers living along the Tonawanda River at the be- ginning of the War of 1812, but they took their families and such property as they could carry to the older settlements for safety. After the war permanent settlements were made at a number of places. Stephen Jacobs, a Revolutionary veteran, settled near the mouth of the Tonawanda in 1817. William Vandervoort came in 1825 and a little later purchased 1,000 acres from the Holland Land Company, which he sold to German immigrants. Among these were: Christian and William Dornfield, Christian and William F. Fritz, Charles and Frederick Grosskopf, Carl Sack, Christian Wolf and Erdman Wurl. These immigrants laid out the village of Martinsville, so named for Martin Luther. Eugene de Kleist established an organ factory there in 1892 and in April, 1897, the village was annexed to North Tonawanda.
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