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 45
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
1237
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
was founded in 1883 by A. Ellas McCall, Orson L. Drew and William Black. The Corning Leader, an independent evening newspaper, John F. Rolfe, editor, Edwin S. Underhill, publisher, was founded in 1884. The Hornell Tribune-Times, an evening paper, independent in politics, C. W. Newman, editor; W. H. Greanhow, publisher, dates from 1873. The Addison Advertiser was first issued in March, 1858; Henry M. Johnson was the founder. L. J. Seely and D. J. Colbert are now the editors of the paper, which is a Republican weekly. The Avoca Advance was first published May 17, 1879, by W. T. Coggeshall. Clyde Rich- ards now edits this Republican weekly. The Canisteo Chronicle, independent weekly under the proprietorship of Leon J. Hough, was established in 1900. The Canisteo Times was started Janu- ary 25, 1877, by S. H. Jennings. It is a Republican weekly, and now controlled by J. C. Latham. The Cohocton Valley Times- Index, independent weekly, Vincent L. Tripp, proprietor, began as The Cohocton Herald in 1872 by H. B. Newell, later became the Cohocton Tribune, then the Cohocton Valley Times, and now it carries the above name. The Greenwood Times was started in 1899. S. Kellogg is editor and J. H. Backus & Son publishers. The Hammondsport Herald was established in 1874; the Pratts- burg Advertiser in 1921; the Savona Review in 1888; the Way- land Advance in 1909, and the Wayland Register in 1879.
Steuben County contributed several companies of men dur- ing the War of 1812. One of the rifle companies, belonging chiefly to the town of Wayne, was commanded by Captain James Sanford; another rifle company from the town of Urbana was under Captain Abraham Brundage; William White of Pulteney was first lieutenant, and Stephen Gardner second lieutenant. These were organized with two rifle companies from Allegany County, all under command of Major Asa Gaylor, who died in the service. Another company of drafted men was captained by Jonas Clenand of Cohocton; Samuel D. Wells and John Gillet were first lieutenants, and John Kennedy, second lieutenant, or ensign as it was then called. These companies performed meri- torious service on the frontier.
Steuben County supplied one company for the 7th New York Volunteers for service in the Mexican War. William E. Shan- non of Bath enlisted this company, which left August 1, 1846, for
1238.
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
New York, and thence was taken by boat to California; it was. mustered out of service in September, 1848.
After Lincoln's call for volunteers in 1861, Steuben, with Chemung County, made up the 23d New York Volunteer Infan- try, the first regiment raised in the seventh congressional dis- trict. Early in the summer of 1861, Captain John Stocum of Bath raised and commanded a company which became Battery C, of the 1st New York Light Artillery. The 34th New York Volun- teer Infantry contained two companies from Steuben County. The 86th New York Volunteer Infantry, known as the Steuben Rangers, was raised in the county in 1861. The 50th Engineers was partly composed of Steuben men, also the 104th New York Infantry. The 107th New York Volunteer Infantry was mostly comprised of men from this county in 1862, also the 141st, the 161st, 179th, 188th and 189th.
The first lawyer of the county is said to have been George D. Cooper, who was also the first county clerk. Early lawyers belonging to the county bar were David Jones, Peter Masterton, Thomas Morris, Stephen Ross, David Powers and William Ver- plank, William Howe Cuyler, Dominick Theopholus Blake, Gen- eral Cuthbert Harrison, General Haight, General Vincent Mathews, General Daniel Cruger, Judge Henry Welles, Edward and William Howell, Robert Campbell, David McMaster, Thomas A. Johnson, David Rumsey, John Baldwin, William M. Hawley, Joseph G. Masten, Henry W. Rogers, Vincent Mathews Coryell, Schuyler S. Strong, Anson Gibbs, John Cook, Samuel H. Ham- mond, Washington Barnes, Guy H. McMaster, Horace Bemis, Alfred P. Ferris, William E. Bonham, L. H. Read, Ziba A. Le- land, Andrew G. Chatfield, F. R. E. Cornell, Charles H. Thomp- son, R. L. Brundage, John K. Hale, Thomas J. Reynolds, William Irvine, Joseph Herron, John Maynard, Henry G. Colton, Henry Sherwood, Charles H. Berry, N. C. Waterman, Isaac C. Herri- don, George N. Middlebrook, William K. Logie, Azariah Long- well, George R. Graves and Jacob H. Wolcott.
Dr. Benjamin B. Stockton came to Bath from New Jersey in 1796, bought land in the town and gave his name to a creek; he left in 1803. : Dr. B. F. Young was here in 1798. Dr. Shults lived in the village about the same time. Dr. David Henry began practice in Bath in 1810. Dr. Simpson Ellas settled there in 1815. Peter Rose was the first physician in the town of Brad-
1239
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
ford. Among the early physicians of Cameron were Thomas H. Horton, Wickham R. Crocker, Frederick C. Annabel and Charles O. Jackson. In Canisteo Dr. Daniel D. Davis was an early prac- titioner; also Doctors Whitney, C. P. Chamberlain and Benja- min Picket. Doctor Gregory came to Caton in 1824. Dr. F. H. Blakely was the first physician in Cohocton for a half century. The pioneer physicians of Dansville were Doctor Potter and Thomas Bowen. Records of the early physicians of Steuben County are very meager.
BATH
From Persona
Recollectim &f WHBull.
1804
of The Back together
Meine' Residen
ist tomat Saus Mills,
CHAPTER XLIX
INDIAN MYTHS AND LEGENDS WITH AN HISTORICAL NARRATIVE OF STEUBEN COUNTY
BY REUBEN B. OLDFIELD
Written history like all other man-made things is full of dross. The gruesome details of slaughter in battle, the heroics of the great drama, the flash of the duelist's pistol, the ceremonies of the conquest, strike and hold the mind of the historian, and thus become history.
The writer's part in The History of the Genesee Country deals not with the sublime; for him the prosaic is spread; the war of wind and wave contending with the rock; the splashing of water- falls in the sunlight of early morning; trivial incidents which are but a fraction of great adventure; dross that will not be long remembered, but a part of the play, even as the croaking of the frog is a part of a spring day. But to him as recompense comes the memory of the blue of the lake, of the lifting of the autumn fog in the Valley of Catherine. Again in fancy, he hears the echo of the wierd Lake Guns, the lapping of the waves against Painted Rock and the song of the red-winged blackbird floating over the melancholy marsh.
These recollections shall reward him, as in imagination, he again treads the moist moss of the old Sullivan Trail, that leads over the uncertain ledges of the glen, where the Walking-leaf fern travels ceaselessly season after season, and the hemlocks cluster close together in mute conversation, undisturbed by man; for man has forgotten the place and though by his thousands each day he passes by, the whisper of the gorge calls him not; within his memory there is no response, and no intuition turns his head to see the long lost trail of the ancient Senecas.
Late in the summer of 1779, three thousand men armed with flint-lock rifles and supported by artillery, found themselves on
1241
1242
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
the bank of the Chemung River, facing an army of Iroquois Indians. The attacks on the frontier towns had so exasperated the colonists, that General Washington planned an expedition into the country of the Iroquois, for the purpose of destroying their towns, ruining their crops and eliminating the Indians as a further factor in aiding the cause of Great Britain.
General Sullivan commanded the expedition, and on the bank of the Chemung River near the present site of the city of Elmira, was fought the first and decisive conflict. The battle continued all day, but during the night the Indians withdrew, and from then on, offered no organized resistance to the advance of Sulli- van's troops. Beyond the meagerest details gleaned from official records and private journals kept by members of the expedition, all definite information concerning this battle is lost and the romance of the conflict in the primeval forest with the fiercest red man on the continent has never been written. A bloodier contest than that of Bunker Hill is now nearly forgotten.
It is left to the imagination to picture the fierce Senecas, aided by their brethren of the Iroquois Confederation, defending their homes in the hopeless conflict against the superior white soldiery. The coon-skin caps of the frontier riflemen; the swarthy, lean faces that rested against the rifle butts; the fury of the hand to hand encounters; the twang of bow-strings; the noise of the artillery; the calls of officers; the shouts of the men and the shrill war cries of the Indians, continuing until night came on and the moccasined feet stealthily traveled over the damp leaves in retreat. It was the defiance of a lost race against inevitable destruction, a protest against fate. It was a Thermopolea with- out victory. The warriors, who fell in the battle of Newtown could never be replaced from the dwindling population. The star of the Iroquois Long House was dipping towards the west, the fire in its council chamber had gone out, and the people of the Ho-de-na-sau-nee were soon to be without a home.
Valiant to the superlative degree within the meaning of the word, resourceful in diplomatic maneuvers, eloquent in speech, sagacious in council, industrious in times of peace, fearless and energetic in war, the Iroquois is most certainly deserving of more than passing attention. From the Hudson to the Mississippi, from the Tennessee to James Bay, his word was law. Over the
1243
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
surrounding tribes he exerted a fierce dominance, even the French settlements along the St. Lawrence had just cause to fear him. In retribution of a French invasion into his own country, he swept all Canada with a torch. The terror of those bloody days can scarcely be exaggerated. From Ottawa to Quebec, outside of the forts, he left nothing but charred ruins. At Montreal he killed or captured over a thousand French in one foray. So weakened were the French colonies by his incessant and relent- less attacks, that when the French and Indian War ensued, the British successfully invaded Canada, secured Quebec, and event- ually terminated French possession in America. Fighting side by side with his British ally, the Iroquois had helped to secure for Great Britain the continent she coveted, but as the settle- ments grew, new conditions over which he exerted no control and regarding which he knew but little, arose, and when the people of the colonies flew to arms against the mother government, his perplexity increased and for the first time in all of its long history, the Great Council of the Long House failed to agree. Bitter feel- ings arose between the tribes, but the Senecas almost to a man con- tinued loyal to the hand that fed them. Little did they understand concerning the merits of British taxation upon the col- onists. It was enough to know that the only white government, which had extended to them the true courtesies of diplomatic relation, was threatened by the settlers, who had so often encroached upon their own soil.
From their vast store of food, they had assisted in feeding the British Army, their warriors had fought side by side with the British soldiers in many engagements, but gradually there came to the Senecas the realization that the Colonists were win- ning the struggle, and on that summer day at Newtown, the remnant of their battle host fought their last fight, convinced that the tide of war had set against them and that the white man's progress could not be stayed.
A band of dejected warriors retreated northward to Che- quaga, better known to the white man as Catherine's Town, so named from Catherine Montour, a white woman, who dwelt with that village of Senecas. Out of the many conflicting rumors con- cerning her, the greatest probability seems to be that she was a white girl, who had been taken prisoner in Canada, and adopted
1244
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
by the Senecas, and growing to womanhood, had married an Indian brave and become the mother of Hester and Andrew Mon- tour. Hester is known to have lived to an extreme age and died at Niagara Falls; Andrew, wounded in battle died at Painted Post, and was buried there. The post marking his grave con- tributed a name for the spot, while Catherine's later days remain a mystery.
Great must have been the despondency, which settled over Chequaga, when the wounded and beaten braves arrived. Plans for immediate departure were at once made. Ascending the hills, that bordered on the valley, some of the fugitives might have turned for a last glimpse of the painted cabins, the orchards of apple, peach and pear and the waving corn fields. From the western slope a cataract poured its torrent, and from the east, the great seam of a glen lent the song of its brook to swell the summer symphony and for miles northward a great marsh stretched its monotonous bed of reeds beyond which Seneca Lake reflected the blue of the sky.
To the Iroquois this valley was an ancestral home. In all of their conflicts with the red or white men, its soil had never been trodden by feet of enemies other than those of captives, yet hun- dreds of the Indians, who called the place home, felt that they should never see it again. The white man's torch would consume and the white man's axe would lay low.
A few days later the army of Sullivan, having completed the destruction of all of the villages and standing corn along the Chemung River, continued on their way up Catherine's Valley and finding Chequaga deserted, proceeded to burn it. In one of the cabins, a lone Indian woman awaited them. She stoically presented herself for slaughter and seemed surprised that her death did not immediately result. She was a woman past middle age, and according to her story, every male relative had fallen in the war, her husband and younger son being slain in the battle of Newtown.
Becoming despondent over her gloomy out-look she had deter- mined to remain in her own house and perish at the hands of the soldiers rather than make an effort to extend a doleful exist- ence by the expediency of flight. The soldiers felt a natural sympathy for her and leaving the cabin and sufficient food for her needs, continued on their way.
1245
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
After the war had terminated and the settlers began to arrive, they found the lonely Indian woman, living alone in her solitary cabin. The passing years had left their impress upon her and she had become old and wrinkled, but strange to relate she soon became a great favorite with the frontier people, by whom she was affectionately called "Aunt Sarah," in lieu of her almost unpronounceable Indian name.
Midway between the present villages of Mountour Falls and Watkins, the perpendicular face of the rock ledge, which borders the highway, is split by an opening, into which plunges a minia- ture water-fall. By the side of the pool at the foot of the water- fall, the frontiersmen had built a cabin for Aunt Sarah, who had often expressed a wish to live at the foot of the falls, and upon this spot she resided until her death. Tradition has it that she lived to an extreme age, and that her passing was greatly bemoaned by the frontier folk, who came in great numbers to attend her funeral. Her services to them had been greatly appre- ciated, her knowledge of the wild plants and their medical prop- erties, and her skill at nursing have been exaggerated by repeti- tion, but many of the descendants of those rugged times boasted of having been an infant patient of hers. It is claimed that under her skillful treatment, many of the pangs of the suffering of the fever and ague victims were abated.
Aunt Sarah's Falls yet bears her name, while the spot is much admired by tourists and others, who respond to the beauties of foliage, rock, and water. Some enterprising scion of mundane commerce has erected a "Hot Dog" stand on the shore of the pool, long since deserted, when the old log cabin followed its lonely occupant into the trail, whose ending is beyond the stars.
Some distance from the southern end of the lake, a fragment of an old Indian trail which yet adheres to the face of the cliff may still be seen. Above this trail in the early days the surface of the rock was decorated with rude characters, which the white people accredited to the brush of the Indian. Near the trail a deep glen breaks through the face of the cliff. This glen is crossed by a trail along the hill-side, some distance from the lake. In the angle formed by the lake and glen, a small body of braves lay hidden, awaiting a favorable opportunity to ambush Sullivan's rear guard. Their presence was discovered and over-
1246
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
whelmed by superior numbers, with all avenues of escape closed, the desperate warriors plunged down the face of the cliff, over the trail, which led to the narrow shore. Here they were dis- patched by the riflemen from the protection of the over-hanging rocks. Later on, returning survivors of the tribe painted the rocks with rude sketches, in commemoration of the unfortunate braves. These paintings were observed by the settlers, but no record of them survived. Recently their existence has even been doubted, but the writer through extensive acquaintances with the older generation of men, who resided near the scene in their early boyhood, is entirely convinced that the incident is authen- tic, that such an engagement did take place, and that the entire settlement of colonists was not laboring under a spell of halluci- nation, even though official records of the army's eengagements do not mention the skirmish.
But although a fragment of the trail may still be seen, no human foot can travel it, for both the upper and lower ends have split from the parent rock and fallen into the lake. The slow circle of years will soon entirely obliterate the last evidence of the old foot-path and future voyagers will neither know nor sus- pect the grim significance of the spot.
The world possesses few places more wildly beautiful than this part of the shore of Seneca Lake. Sheer precipices of jagged rock with inverted trees hanging by their roots, seeming to cling in desperation to avoid plunging from the dizzy height; swinging vines swaying in the winds; masses of flat stones apparently piled high by some mischievous demon, awaiting a propitious moment to topple them into the lake. And below the water is as clear as crystal, so that objects thirty feet below are plainly discernible. All of which forms a picture in striking contrast to the usual shore of inland waters. Along this shore a strong cur- rent seems to hurry the waters along. At other times the surface rests motionless, which peculiarity is only one of the many strange and unaccountable phenomena of Seneca Lake.
Years ago a late sojourner hastening home in the night, dis- covered a ghost on the lake. With terror stricken eyes he saw a canoe of fire, which a spectre Indian slowly paddled with regu- lar motion. The superstitious witness fled and for days there- after bore the ridicule of the neighborhood. But later on there
1247
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
gathered to his defense, others who claimed to have seen the hideous spectacle. Night boating became unpopular. The entire country-side was terrorized and the more timid people dared not venture out at night. At last some one, more cour- ageous than the rest, espied the spectre boatman and continued in sight of the apparition until day-break, only to discover that a tree, which had toppled into the lake, its top becoming water logged, had developed "fox fire" in its large tap root and branches, so that when floating inverted on the water and rocking with the undulations of the waves, the phosphorescent glow of its exposed roots shining in the dark, formed a very credible imita- tion of a spectre Indian in a craft of fire.
THE LAKE GUNS.
Between low ranges of hills, the deep and slender Seneca Lake stretches for forty miles. Forty miles of cold and silent water. Cold, from the subterranean springs that seep into its five hun- dred foot depth, and silent, by reason of its narrow width, being crossed by the prevailing winds. Only when Gaoh, God of the Winds, causes the Bear to drive the spirits of the North winds or when he calls the Fawn to hurry the spirits of the South winds, do the waves roll dangerously and real peril threaten the unwary boatsman. It is also said that at certain times a sleeping demon suddenly emerges from its depth and causes a single, lone and solitary wave to traverse the lake from end to end. However this may be, it is easily proven than on certain calm and beauti- ful days in early autumn when the ivy leaf is red, and the spirit of the maple has painted his leaves yellow, orange and crimson, the better to view his own reflection in the water, that while the surface of the lake rests rippleless, there arises a deep, rumbling boom like distant thunder, which sound echoes from shore to shore and has been heard many miles from the lake. This uncanny noise is called by the people of the country-side the "Lake Guns," and is a phenomenon that has never been satis- factorily explained.
The explosions are never accompanied by disturbances of the surface of the lake, but during the firing of the "Spirit Guns," the surface lies motionless and unbroken.
In the distant day, when the Iroquois paddled his canoe over
1248
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
its mirror, he heard the boom of the thunder guns with fore- boding. It might be Ha-gweh-da-et-gah, the spirit of evil, rolling the rocks in his cave in an effort to escape from his prison; it might be the voice of the Great Serpent, who is generally believed to hide in the depths below, calling to his mate, who is known to hide in Canandaigua Lake. When the serpents and demons became restless, what good was it to fish, anyway. And then perhaps, Heno, God of the Thunders, might desire the lake to him- self and be taking that method of warning others not to approach, so it were best not to take any chances, but leave the lake will- ingly, rather than provoke the wrath of any of them.
Seneca Lake, more, perhaps, than any of the other lakes in the state, arrested the attention and stimulated the imagination of the Iroquois. He might build his lodge and clear his land near some other body of water, but the weird beauty and impassive repose of its silences, drew him often to its shores. The Sullivan Expedition discovered and destroyed many prosperous villages upon its banks.
The word Seneca as applied to the Indian tribe was derived from an Algonquian word meaning "real adders." According to some authorities the word might also be interpreted to mean "the people of the snake." This last supposition is rendered ten- able by the fact that the Seneca Indian Legends and Mythologies contain many references to gigantic serpents. Probably the most hideous tale of a colossal snake is contained in their Legend of Canandaigua Lake. According to the legend there was at one time at the outlet of Canandaigua Lake a prosperous and popu- lous Seneca town. This was in the old days when hideous mons- ters roamed the forests unmolested. There were the flying heads, which flew through the forest, devouring all human beings with their jaws of fire; there were the great eagles, who preyed upon the Indians; there were the monstrous big buffalos, who destroyed villages at a time, but worst of all of the many perils, which beset the Senecas, were the great serpents.
One day the father of all serpents, not only the oldest but the most enormous, attacked the village of Canandaigua. The noise of his approach warned the inhabitants in time for them to flee in search of a refuge on the hills. His great body wriggled through the woods, upsetting the great forest trees, which fell
1249
HISTORY OF THE GENESEE COUNTRY
crashing to the ground. His eyes shone with a baleful light and the odor of his breath blasted all living things.
Finding the village deserted, the monster drew the entire length of his body around Bare-hill, where most of the villagers had taken refuge. Gradually tightening his folds, he forced the unfortunate victims to seek a final haven on the summit of Bare- hill, where they were completely walled in by the barrier of the serpent's body. The strongest archers shot their arrows into the monster without effect, the cutting, piercing weapons glanced off from his tough skin, while the snake leisurely selected his vic- tims and swallowed them entire.
Night came on, but the serpent showed no indications of leav- ing. Resting his hideous head upon his folds, he slept. An Indian youth also slumbered, and in his dreams there was whis- pered to him, probably by the wood-spirits, the knowledge that by poisoning his tiny arrow point with the leaf of a certain shrub, which grew upon the hill, he might slay the reptile with a poisoned arrow. As soon as daylight came, the youth sought out the shrub and rubbing its leaves upon the flint point of his small arrow he shot the projectile into the snake. The effect of the magical arrow upon the great snake was instantaneous. His great body suddenly stiffened and down the hillside he rolled in agony, dis- gorging the remains of his unholy repast. His dead body sank into the lake, but the petrified remains of his victims yet continue to be found along the shore of the lake, adjacent to Bare-hill. The poisoned fumes of the serpent's breath and the slime from his body exerted such a deleterious effect upon the ground, that it required the most persistent efforts on the part of the white man to overcome this peculiarity of the soil.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.