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 56
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the county. John W. Watkins represented a company consisting of Royal Flint, Jonathan Lawrence, Robert C. Livingston, John Lamb, Melancthon Smith, James Watson and himself. The Wat- kins and Flint purchase of 325,000 acres extending south, east and west from the head of Seneca lake is well known in the history of land transactions of early western New York; when this pur- chase was made, it did not embrace the 4,000 acres which had been bought by Ezra L'hommedieu, a wealthy Frenchman, and which included most of the villages of Watkins and Havana. John W. Watkins erected a large house on the hill in the western portion of the village. Charles Watkins built a grist mill and blacksmith shop on the north bank of the Glen, then called "Big Gully," and together they gradually built up the estate. John W. Watkins was compelled by financial difficulties to return to New York, and the property passed into the hands of another brother, Doctor Samuel Watkins, who came here in 1828 and remained until his death in 1851. He was responsible for the real beginning of the village of Watkins; he laid out the village, built the Jefferson House, also several stores, residences and mills. He named the village Salubria, but later changed it to Jefferson, by which name it was incorporated April 11, 1842; on April 8, 1852, an act was passed naming it Watkins. The village charter was renewed April 3, 1861. The first trustees of the village are believed to have been Orlando Hurd, William E. White, Benoni Peck, Winthrop E. Boothe, George E. Quinn, Colonel Enoch Armitage and William R. Thompson. The post- office first established here was Catlin, in Tioga County, in 1823, with John Diven, postmaster.
The Presbyterian Church of Watkins was organized Sep- tember 8, 1818 .. The Methodists had preaching here as early as 1810, but no church was formed until 1849. St. James' Episcopal Church of Watkins was established in 1830. The first Catholic services were held in the village about 1850, and a church (St. Mary's) built in 1865. The Baptists organized here about 1846.
The Glen National Bank of Watkins was organized in 1911; W. W. Clute is now president. The Watkins State Bank was also organized in 1911; C. M. Durland is president. The Schuy- ler County Bank and the Watkins Exchange Bank were financial institutions of an earlier day.
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The village now has two newspapers. The Watkins Express, a Republican weekly, published by F. W. Severne, was started in 1853, and the Watkins Review, a Democratic weekly, issued by B. L. Piper, was established in 1896.
The town of Hector was first included in the town of Whites- town, Montgomery County, in 1788; in 1789 twenty-eight mili- tary townships were surveyed and lot 21 was named Hector by the land commissioners, in 1790. In 1792 it became a part of Penn, and in 1794 a part of Ovid. On March 30, 1802, it was reorganized as Hector in Onondaga County, and in 1804 was embraced in the territory which formed Seneca County. It became a part of Tompkins County when it was created in 1817, and when Schuyler County was erected in 1854 the town of Hector became a part of it. The first permanent white settler of the town was William Wickham in 1790. Reuben Smith and his sons, Jabez and Harry, came in 1793. Subsequent settlers were: Daniel Everts, Colonel Aranthus Everts, Grover Smith, Samuel Hanley, Richard Ely, Elisha Trowbridge, Hermon Trowbridge, Amasa Matthews, Captain Jonathan Owen, Henry Sayler, Sr., David Larrison, Captain Joseph Hager, Joseph Gil- lespie, George Howell, Robert Durland William Spaulding, Cornelius Humphrey William Carman, Richard Carman, Joshua and Jesse Makeel and others.
The village of Burdett, incorporated in 1898, was first settled by William Martin, Joseph Carson and Mowbry Owen. The first school was built at Peach Orchard; John Livingston was the first teacher. The first religious services in the town were held at McIntyre's settlement in 1805. The first church organization was the Presbyterian, in 1809, and the first church building was erected at Peach Orchard in 1818. The Methodist Church at Burdett was organized in 1833.
The town of Montour was erected March 23, 1860; Charles Cook was the first supervisor. Phineas Catlin was the first set- tler in 1792 in the present town area. Other early comers were Anthony Brodrick, Joseph Frost, Asa Coe, William Lyon, Samuel Bennett, David Lee, Samuel Nichols, William Ayres, Ebenezer B. Crofut, Thomas L. Fanton, Minor L. Sherwood, Joseph Brown, John C. Larew, Albert Brown, George C. Wickham, Solomon Williams, Jacob Hendricks and James P. Sherrer. The village
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of Havana is located adjacent to the site of the old Catherine's Town, the Indian village of Catherine Montour, which was razed by Sullivan's troops in 1779. Silas Walcott and Mr. Wilson made the first settlements at Havana, in 1788. George Mills came in 1790.
The town of Orange was formed from Jersey April 20, 1836. Additions to the town were made in 1842 and 1854 from Steuben County. The town was first settled in 1802 by Henry Switzer and his sons, Henry, Jr., John, William, Jacob and Peter, and his sons-in-law, Abram Bosombarack, Samuel Skomp, Peter Umphalalla and Francis Yager.
The town of Reading was erected from Frederickstown (now Wayne, Steuben County), February 17, 1806; the first town meeting was held in April following, and officers elected. Promi- nent among the early settlers were Judge John Dow, David Cul- ver, Alexander Hinton, William Roberts, Valentine Hitchcock, James Calvert, Andrew McDowell, Caleb Fulkerson, Richard Laning, Daniel Shannon, John Sutton, John Davis, Asaph Cor- bett, Lewis Lefevre, Thomas Torrence, John Diven, John Hurl- but, John Hurley, James Drake, Jonathan Treman, James Hayes, Alpheus Schofield, Daniel C. and Samuel Norris.
The town of Tyrone was formed from Wayne, April 16, 1822. Early settlers included Joshua and Elisha Wixon, Gershom, Jus- tus, Justus, Jr., Thadeus and Abram Bennett, Albert Stothoff, Solomon Wixon, Ephraim Sanford, Samuel Lowrey and Thomas O'Connor.
Prominent among the early settlers of Schuyler County was Simeon L. Rood, the first county judge. He was a native of Ver- mont, and came to Cayuga County in 1817. He was one of the first judges of Chemung County when it was organized, and in 1854 was elected county judge of Schuyler. Leading members of the county bar were John J. Van Alen, George G. Freer, George C. Shearer, Oliver P. Hurd, Hull Fanton, Artemas Fay, Hiram W. Jackson, Edward Quin, John Morgan, C. G. Judd, Sylvester Hazen, Gilbert Hurd, F. W. Ritter, Charles J. Baskin, George E. Quin, D. C. Woodcock, Marcus Crawford, George G. Freer, Milton P. Leonard, William H. Gibbs, D. J. Sunderlin and J. B. Wilkins. Several of these men represented their county in assembly and congress, and others were elevated to the bench in Schuyler.
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The Schuyler County Medical Society was organized at a meeting held in the Montour House in Havana, December 29, 1857; the following physicians of the county were present: J. W. Thompson, Nelson Winton, N. Nivison, S. B. H. Nichols, E. B. Wager, G. D. Bailey and Thomas Shannon. Doctor Nelson Win- ton was the first president. The Schuyler County Homeopathic Medical Society was organized July 9, 1872 by Doctors William Gulick, E. W. Lewis, Alex V. Stobbs, G. A. Tracy and A. P. Hol- lett. I. W. Thompson was elected president.
CHAPTER LIII. THE COUNTY OF CHAUTAUQUA.
The county of Chautauqua has an area of 1,069 square miles and its population in 1920 was 115,348. Centrally located is Chautauqua Lake, from which the county derives its name. On the old maps of the Holland Purchase the name of the lake appears as "Chautaughque." Later maps changed the spelling to "Chau- tauque," which form prevailed until 1859, when the board of supervisors adopted a resolution that the name should be "Chau- tauqua." The name is of Seneca origin, but opinions differ as to its original significance. Some say the word means "foggy place," because of the frequent fogs about the lake; others that it means "high up," the lake being in an elevated position; still others that the name means "moccasins tied together," significant of the contour of the lake. A story, based on a Seneca tradition, is that a young Indian lay down to drink out of the lake, when he lost his hold and drowned, and the name is derived from the Indian word "ja-da-qua," which means place of easy death. Dr. Peter Wilson, an educated Cayuga chief, gives an entirely dif- ferent version; he says that according to a tradition a Seneca caught a strange fish in the Chautauqua Creek. After carrying it down to Lake Erie, the fish was still alive. Believing it was not the will of the Great Spirit that the fish should be eaten, he threw it into the lake. From this incident the word Chautauqua was finally coined, the Seneca word "Ga-jah," meaning fish, and "Ga-da-gwah," taken out; in time this was shortened to "Jah- dah-gwah," which was corrupted into the present form.
In 1796, Amos Sawtell (sometimes written Sottle) helped drive a herd of cattle belonging to New Amsterdam parties to the Cattaraugus Valley for the winter. He built a small cabin near the mouth of the Cattaraugus Creek, took an Indian wife, and is credited with having been the first white settler. At that
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time the terriory was in Ontario County. Sawtell joined a sur- veying party of the Holland Land Company in 1798 and was engaged in that work for about two years. He then went to the Western Reserve, but returned in 1801, and died in 1849.
About 1800, a man named Skinner came from Pennsylvania and opened a house of entertainment on the Cattaraugus Creek ; he left after three or four years. John Mack afterward conducted a tavern near the Skinner place.
General Edward Paine, the founder of Painesville, Ohio, be- gan the construction of a road to the Western Reserve in 1801. It was completed to the site of the present village of Westfield in 1802, and Andrew Straub settled on the little stream that bears his name just east of the village. He was a bachelor and did not remain long.
James McMahan explored the country as early as 1795. In 1801, he came back, bought a large tract of land near Westfield for his brother John, and 4,074 acres for himself, in what is now the town of Ripley. He settled near the lake shore, about three- fourths of a mile west of the Chautauque Creek, and was the first postmaster in the county. Edward McHenry settled near James McMahan in 1802. Others who came that year or early the year following were: John Allen, James Brannan, Arthur Bell, Mar- tin and Nathaniel Dickey, John C. Dull, the Fishers, Abram Frederick, and two brothers named Murray.
On March 3, 1802, Genesee County was created and the terri- tory now comprising Chautauqua became a part of the new county. That fall William Murray taught a school in the Mc- Mahan settlement-the first in the county. In 1803 David Eason, Thomas McClintock and Low Miniger came from Pennsylvania and settled on the Canadaway Creek, not far from where Fre- donia now stands. The Indian name of this stream was Gan-a- da-wao, meaning "running through the hemlocks." A little later the population of this settlement was increased by the arrival of Hezekiah Barker, Zattu Cushing, Elijah Risley and Dr. Squire White, who was the first licensed physician in the county.
Mayville was settled in 1804 by Alexander McIntyre, who built a log cabin near where the steamboat landing was afterward located. He had been captured by Indians in his boyhood and spent many years with the red men. From them he learned much
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of the medical properties of roots and herbs and was known as "Doctor" McIntyre. Peter Barnhart settled near McIntyre in 1805, and the next year William Prendergast brought his family to that locality.
Thomas R. Kennedy married a daughter of Andrew Ellicott, a brother of Joseph Ellicott, agent of the Holland Land Company. In 1805, Kennedy and Edward Work came from Meadville, Penn- sylvania, and settled near the eastern border of the county. The same year Robert Miles brought a party from Pennsylvania and planted a settlement on the shore of the Chautauqua. This place afterward became known as Miles' Landing.
By the spring of 1805 there were about 200 people living within the present limits of Chautauque County. On April 11, 1804, the Genesee County authorities established the town of Chautauqua, the boundaries of which were almost identical with those of the present county of that name. The first town meeting was held at the Cross Roads (now Westfield), on April 2, 1805, when John McMahan was elected supervisor. In the meantime a petition had been presented to the Legislature in 1806, asking for the creation of three new counties from the western part of Genesee, to be called Allegany, Cattaraugus and Niagara. Alle- gany was the only one then created. In 1807, another petition was presented asking for the erection of Chautauqua County. The county was created by the act of March 11, 1808, but it was not organized until nearly three years later.
The act creating the county authorized the appointment of three commissioners to locate the county seat. Asa Ransom, Isaac Sutherland and Jonas Williams were appointed. The people of Canadaway (now Fredonia) cleared about half an acre of ground for county buildings and made a bid for the location of the capital there. They were somewhat disappointed when the commis- sioners did not even visit the place, but, as one Canadaway man afterwards expressed it, "They went out in the woods near the head of the Chautauqua Lake and set up a large hemlock post to mark the county seat." The "large hemlock post" stood near the place where Alexander McIntyre, Peter Barnhart and the Pren- dergast family lived, and where the village of Mayville grew up. John Scott built a large log house there and opened a tavern soon after the commissioners located the county seat.
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At the beginning of the year 1811 Chautauqua reported 500 resident taxpayers required by the organic act for the county establishment. On February 11, 1811, the council of appoint- ment, consisting of Governor Tompkins and four state senators, met and named the following officers for the county of Chautau- qua: Zattu Cushing, first judge; William Alexander, Philo Orton, Matthew Prendergast and Jonathan Thompson, associate judges; John E. Marshall, clerk; David Eason, sheriff; Doctor Squire White, surrogate; Daniel G. Gould and Philo Hopson, coroners. The council ordered that the county business should be transacted at John Scott's tavern until a courthouse was erected. Eight justices of the peace were appointed, viz .: Benjamin Bar- rett, Abijah Bennett, Justus Hinman, Selah Pickett, Jeremiah Potter, Daniel Pratt, John Silsbee and Asa Spear.
The first meeting of the board of supervisors was held at Scott's tavern October 15, 1811. At that time there were but two towns in the county and the board was composed of only two members; Matthew Prendergast represented the town of Chau- tauqua, and Philo Orton the town of Pomfret. The former being the older town, Mr. Prendergast was permitted to act as president of the board, as a sort of right of seniority. A deadlock ensued. Mr. Orton was dissatisfied with the location of the county seat, and, when Mr. Prendergast introduced a resolution to appropriate money for public buildings at Mayville, the member from Pomfret voted an emphatic "No." Prendergast had his inning a little later, when Orton proposed to appropriate certain funds for the benefit of his town. Thus matters stood for several days. Then a compromise was reached, Orton agreeing to an appropriation of $1,500 for a court house and jail, and Prendergast consenting to the use of money for the benefit of Pomfret.
Before the close of the year 1811 a contract was awarded to Winsor Brigham for the erection of a two-story frame building, to be used as a court house and to contain cells for prisoners. Brigham did not complete the building until 1815. The delay was partly due to the fact that in 1812 three new towns-Ellicott, Gerry and Hanover-were created from the town of Pomfret, the people of Canadaway hoping by this movement to secure a majority of the board of supervisors and bring the county seat to their village. The winter of 1811-12 was a severe one and the
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contractor did not start the work until late in the spring of 1812 Another reason for the delay was that on June 12, 1912, Congress declared war against England and quite a number of the settlers left the county, fearing an invasion from Canada. To check this exodus and encourage others to come into the county, the Holland Land Company built a road from the shore of Lake Erie to Ken- nedy's Mills, "along or near the line of the Indian path," and another from Mayville to Angelica, Allegany County. The lower floor of the first court house contained two cells for criminals, one for debtors, and living rooms for the jailer's family ; upstairs were the courtroom and jury quarters.
In March, 1832, an act was passed authorizing the supervisors of Chautauqua County to expend $3,500 for a new jail; the jail was completed two years later, at a cost of $5,000. A petition was then presented to the Legislature asking for authority to erect a new court house; in response to this petition, Thomas B. Campbell, William Peacock and Martin Prendergast were ap- pointed commissioners to levy a tax that would produce $5,000 annually for five years, beginning in 1837. The state lent the money for the court house and a contract was awarded to Ben- jamin Rathbun, of Buffalo, for its construction. In December, 1834, the commissioners announced that the money borrowed from the state was exhausted and the court house was still un- finished. The Legislature was then asked to remove Peacock and Prendergast from the commission; instead of doing so, however, two members were added-Leverett Barker, of Ellicott, and E. T. Foote, of Pomfret-and the law changed to authorize an addi- tional tax of $1,000 a year for four years. Under this arrange- ment the second court house was completed in 1838; it served the county for sixty-nine years. On July 24, 1907, the corner stone of a new court house was laid by the Grand Master of Masons of New York, assisted by the Masonic bodies of the county. Rev. George L. MacClelland, of Westfield, delivered the oration. The new court house, erected on the site of the one built in 1838, was accepted by the board of supervisors on August 17, 1909.
In 1832 the board of supervisors purchased a farm near Dewittville, on the eastern shore of Chautauqua Lake, and erected upon it a brick building for an almshouse. It was opened on December 21, 1832, with William Gifford as superintendent, and
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Jacob Lockwood the only inmate. During the next forty years several additions were made and some new buildings erected. In 1870 the present almshouse was built.
The town of Arkwright is one of the "Ridge" towns, the highest point being about 1,200 feet above the level of Lake Erie, and was set off from Pomfret and Villenova April 30, 1829. The first town meeting was held on May 2, 1830, at the house of Simeon Clinton. William Wilcox was elected supervisor. The first settlement was made in 1807 by Augustus Burnham, Byron T. Orton and Benjamin Perry. During the next five years sev- eral families came, among them Nathan Eaton, Uriah Johnson, John Sprague and Aaron Wilcox. Lucy Dewey taught the first school in 1813; Benjamin Orton built the first sawmill in 1818; and the first church was that of the Baptists, organized in 1820, though religious services had been held ten years earlier.
Arkwright was the first town in the state to establish on a large scale the cooperative manufacture of cheese. In 1861, Asahel Burnham, grandson of Augustus Burnham, started a cheese factory in the village of Arkwright, the first in the county ; this was known as the Canadaway Cheese Factory. Then the cooperative plan was adopted and a second factory began opera- tions at Sinclairville in 1865. That year 452,000 pounds of cheese were made and New York cream cheese came into the market.
When a new town was set off from Ellicott and Harmony on April 16, 1823, it was named for Paul Busti, general agent of the Holland Land Company. A town meeting was held at the house of Heman Bush March 4, 1824. Daniel Shearman was elected supervisor. Palmer Phillips, who settled here in 1811, is credited with having been the first white man to locate in the town. He afterward became well known as a manufacturer of grain cradles and hand rakes. Daniel, Isaac and Nicholas Shearman purchased large tracts of land; John Frank established a tannery in 1812; he also engaged in the manufacture of shoe lasts. Patrick Camp- bell was the first blacksmith. Heman Bush opened the first hotel and built the first sawmill in the town. Uriah Bentley, who came about the time that Palmer Phillips arrived, was a cooper by trade. George Stoneman settled near Daniel Shearman and built a sawmill. Long before steamboats were placed on the lake
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Mr. Stoneman constructed a boat by placing two large dugout canoes a few feet apart and decking them over with heavy plank. The boat was operated by horse power of the treadmill type. When this peculiar craft was put in commission, the owner's neighbors began calling him Commodore Stoneman. General George Stoneman, of the United States army, was a son of this Chautauqua pioneer, and a daughter, Kate Stoneman, was the first woman to be admitted to the bar in the State of New York.
A Baptist church was organized on August 30, 1819, with about a dozen members, and Rev. Paul Jones as pastor. The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized a little later.
The town of Carroll was created April 18, 1825, from part of Ellicott, and was named for Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The first town meeting was held March 6, 1826, at the house of William Sears. James Hall was elected supervisor. Settlement of the town began in 1809, when John Frew and Thomas Russell located near where the village of Frewsburg now stands. Charles Boyles and Isaac Walton also came in 1809; James and Hugh Frew, George W. Fenton and Benjamin Covell were among the pioneers. Frew & Russell built a sawmill in 1810, and Hugh Frew soon afterwards built a grist mill. George W. Fenton opened a store near the mills, and this was the beginning of the village of Frewsburg. The Frewsburg Baptist Church was organized in January, 1838, by sixty members of the First Baptist Church of Carroll, which then became extinct. The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in January, 1843; the Congregationalists and Lu- therans came a little later.
In the spring of 1809, John Pickett came from Chenango County and built the first cabin in what is now the town of Char- lotte. Later in the year his brother, Daniel Pickett, and Arva O. Austin settled near him. The same season Robert W. Seaver set- tled at Charlotte Center. Other pioneers were: John, Moses, Oliver and Samuel Cleland, Barna Edson, David Ames, Caleb Clark, James Cross, Oliver Gilmour, Daniel Jackson, Freeman Ellis and Major Samuel Sinclear, the founder of Sinclairville. Charlotte was created in April, 1829. The first town meeting was held at Charlotte Center March 2, 1830; Nathan Hale was elected supervisor.
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The village of Sinclairville (at first called Sinclearville) dates back to the spring of 1810, when the first house was built by Samuel Sinclear. He was a native of New Hampshire and at the age of fourteen years entered the Continental army as a member of Captain Amos Morrill's company, and was with General Sulli- van's army in 1779 in the campaign against the Indians of west- ern New York. Soon after completing his log house he built a sawmill, the first in this part of the county. A few families set- tled near the mill, but the growth of the village-if such it could be called at that time-was slow until about 1824. In that year George A. French and Walter Smith opened a store. Walter Chester opened the second store in 1828. After the completion of the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley & Pittsburgh Railroad, Sinclair- ville grew more rapidly, and in 1887 it was incorporated.
On October 22, 1811, the first religious services in the town were conducted by Rev. John Spencer at the home of Samuel Sin- clear. A Methodist class was organized at Charlotte Center in 1812; a Baptist Church was organized in June, 1826; the Con- gregational Church was formed in July, 1831, as a Presbyterian society, the Congregational form of worship being adopted in 1842; the Universalist Church of Sinclairville was organized in February, 1859, and St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church in 1871.
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