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 60
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Jamestown was one of the pioneer cities of New York in introducing municipal ownership of public utilities. Besides the electric light plant and waterworks, already mentioned, the city
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has a municipal hospital in the Orsino E. Jones Memorial Hos- pital, which was opened on July 8, 1911.
Most of the established religious denominations are repre- sented in Jamestown. The First Baptist Church was organized in 1832. The First Church of Christ, Scientist, was organized in 1891. The First Congregational Church, the oldest in the city, was organized by Rev. John Spencer in 1816. In 1877 the only English Lutheran Church was organized in Jamestown by Rev. S. G. Weiskotten. The First Methodist Episcopal Church grew out of a class formed at Worksburg in 1814. Nine years later the class was organized into a church and located in James- town. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was organ- ized in 1882; a Free Methodist Church was formed in 1871. The First Presbyterian Church was organized in 1834 by Rev. E. J. Gillett. Olivet Presbyterian Church was organized in 1919. St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church was organized in 1834 but was without a stated rector until 1853, when Rev. Levi W. Nor- ton took charge. Sts. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church was established as a parish in 1874 by Rev. Richard Coyle. St. James' Parish was organized in 1910, with Rev. James Carra as pastor. A Unitarian Church was organized in 1885.
CHAPTER LIV.
THE COUNTY OF ERIE: CITY OF BUFFALO.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the settlement of the land now in Erie County had not progressed far along the so-called "Ohio route", a few small villages existing. At the close of the Revolutionary War, the country in western New York was in a condition of stagnation, and there had been no immigration thitherward during the struggle; in the succeeding years the tide of immigration again flowed westward, and the country began to develop. Buffalo Creek was mentioned in the Gilbert narra- tive as an Indian settlement and its use in the treaty of Fort Stan- wix (1784) is the first instance where the name occurs in a public document.
It is believed that the first permanent white settler came to the present city of Buffalo about 1789. This was Cornelius Winne (or Winney), a Dutchman from the Hudson River Country. He built a small log store and traded with the Indians. William Johnston resided on the site previous to Winne, but he cannot be classed as a permanent settler.
A visitor to Buffalo Creek in 1792 wrote as follows: "We arrived at the mouth of Buffalo Creek the next morning. There was but one white man there. I think his name was Winney, an Indian trader. His building stood first as you descend from the high ground. He had rum, whiskey, Indian knives, trinkets, etc. His house was full of Indians. They looked at us with a good deal of curiosity. We had but a poor night's rest. The Indians were in and out all night, getting liquor."
About 1794 William Johnston erected a blockhouse near Winne's store and took up his residence there. At the same time Martin Middaugh, a Dutch cooper, and his son-in-law, Ezekiel Lane, built a log house nearby. One Skinner is said to have kept a tavern in 1795, and John Palmer built another tavern the same
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year. The latter was probably the first regular tavern-keeper, and it is interesting to note that the Duc de la Rochefoucauld- Liancourt stopped here on his journey through western New York in 1795. The duke's own words concerning the settlement. are descriptive of the place and the character of the times:
"We at length arrived at the post on Lake Erie, which is a small collection of four or five houses, built about a quarter of a mile from the lake. We met some Indians on the road and two or three companies of whites. This encounter gave us great pleas- ure. In this vast wilderness a fire still burning, the vestiges of a camp, the remains of some utensil that has served some traveler, excite sensations truly agreeable, and which arise only in these immense solitudes. We arrived late at the inn, and after a very indifferent supper, we were obliged to lie upon the floor in our clothes. There was literally nothing in the house; neither furni- ture, rum, candles nor milk. After much trouble the milk was procured from neighbors, who were not as accommodating in the way of rum and candles. At length some arriving from the other side of the river (Fort Erie), we seasoned our supper with an appetite that seldom fails, and after passing a very comfortable evening, slept as soundly as we had done in the woods. Every- thing at Lake Erie, by which name this collection of houses is called, is dearer than at any other place we visited, for the simple reason that there is no direct communication with any other point. Some were sick with fever in almost every house."
William Johnston was the first land owner in the territory now embraced in Buffalo. He died in 1807, respected by white and Indians alike. In 1789 Asa Ransom, a silversmith, came to the settlement. At this time the name "Lake Erie" was beginning to be applied to the group of log huts. In 1797 Joseph Ellicott surveyed through this section for the Holland Land Company and probably recognized on this trip the potential value of the site for a village. During the next two or three years he kept this in mind, and spent much of his time here. The settlement became known as Buffalo Creek, or New Amsterdam, after the surveying started. About this time Captain Williamson was authorized by law to lay out a state road from the Genesee River to Buffalo Creek and Lewiston, this road followed the main Indian trail- from Avon, through Batavia, north side of Tonawanda Creek,
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entering Erie County at the Tonawanda reservation, thence across the site of Akron, through Clarence Hollow and Williams- ville to Cold Spring, and along the line of Main Street to the creek.
Coincident with the first settlements at Buffalo Creek and along the Niagara frontier, were the earliest attempts at com- merce on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. In 1800, Johnston, Mid- daugh, Palmer and Lane were the only tax payers at Buffalo Creek. In 1801 Joseph Palmer applied to Ellicott for a lot at Buffalo Creek, upon which to build a school house; the latter went there and laid off the lot; it is not positively known, however, whether the school house was erected. From Ellicott's records we also have the information that at this time two missionaries were at Buffalo Creek; these were Reverend Elkanah Holmes and Rev- erend Palmer. Holmes was the first preacher at Buffalo. In 1803 William Peacock surveyed the village of New Amsterdam (Buffalo Creek), but the lots were not placed on the market until the next year. In 1807 the first school house of which there is definite record was built in the village on the corner of Pearl and Swan streets. Hiram Hanchett had kept a school in the old Middaugh house the previous winter.
In 1806 the first lawyer settled in Buffalo, in the person of Judge Ebenezer Walden.
Settlements were also being made outside of Buffalo Creek, and advantageous sites along the streams of what is now Erie County were chosen for the water power.
Niagara County was erected March 11, 1808, and included all of the present Erie County; Buffalo was named as the county seat, and a court house was completed the following year in the middle of Washington Street and in front of the second court house site.
The first number of the Buffalo Gazette was issued October 3, 1811, by Smith H. and Hezekiah Salisbury; the Gazette and the paper published at Batavia were then the only newspapers in western New York.
Erie County at the close of the War of 1812 was in a demor- alized condition as a consequence of the ravages of that war, the story of which as it concerns this particular vicinity is told elsewhere. Rehabilitation immediately followed, however, and
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with the rapid influx of settlers, the village of Buffalo and the towns of the county took on new life.
In July, 1816, the Bank of Niagara, the first one in the county, was organized with a capital of $500,000. The directors were: Augustus Porter of Niagara Falls, Joseph Brisbane of Batavia, A. S. Clarke of Clarence, Jonas Williams and Benjamin Caryl of Williamsville, Isaac Kibbe of Hamburg, Martin Pren- dergast of Chautauqua County, Ebenezer F. Norton, Jonas Har- rison, Ebenezer Walden and John C. Camp of Buffalo, Samuel Russell and Chauncey Loomis. Isaac Kibbe was the first presi- dent and Isaac Q. Leake the first cashier. This was the first bank in Buffalo and in the county as well.
Buffalo was first given the right to incorporate as a village in 1813, but the destruction of the village in that year prevented; a similar attempt was made in 1814, with the same result; in 1816 the incorporation was effected.
On April 2, 1821, Niagara County was divided by legislative enactment and Erie County erected, the latter comprising all of the territory of the old Niagara County south of the middle of Tonawanda Creek. A new act of incorporation for the village of Buffalo was passed April 17, 1822. The construction of the canal during these years was an event which greatly stimulated the growth of the village. The state census of 1825 gave the population of Erie County as 24,316, of which Buffalo had 2,412, White's history of Erie County says: "At that time most of the business of Buffalo village was transacted between Exchange Street and the park in front of the court house. Interspersed among the stores and shops of Main Street were many dwellings, and others were scattered along Ellicott, Washington, Pearl and Franklin streets. What is now the great northeastern section of the city was then low ground which had not been even tilled. Not far out Genesee Street a log causeway made the road pass- able and blackberries were abundant there. The irregular line of the forest approached within forty to one hundred rods of Main Street as far southward as Cold Spring, and to near the line of Virginia Street on Delaware." The great German immi- gration into Buffalo occurred first between 1825 and 1832.
Buffalo was incorporated as a city April 20, 1832, and divided into five wards. Ebenezer Johnson was the first mayor elected.
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The following quotation from a speech delivered by E. C. Sprague at the semi-centennial celebration of the incorporation of the city in 1882 describes the Buffalo of 1832: "It was a little city erected upon the substance of things hoped for rather than things seen. It contained a few scattered brick buildings and perhaps twenty handsome dwellings, mostly of wood; but the bulk of the city consisted of frame houses, generally from one to two stories high, even on Main Street. The ridge of land running from Exchange, then known as Crow Street, northerly, lifted Main, Franklin and Ellicott and the intermediate streets out of the bottomless mud east of Ellicott Street, and the miry clay which, west of Franklin Street, absorbed in its adhesive depths the wheels of wagons and the boots of pedestrians. Niagara Street, crossed and hollowed by running streams, was sometimes impassable to man or beast. Extending from the corner of Main Street and the Terrace westerly around to Court Street was a high bluff, down which the boys coasted through Main and Com- mercial streets. The streets were unpaved and the darkness of Main Street was made visible by a few oil lamps. But all of the people knew each other, even in the dark, and congregated at the Eagle Tavern, the Mansion House, the Buffalo Hotel and Perry's Coffee House, and, on pleasant days, in Main Street on the var- ious corners from Court to Seneca streets, cracking jokes and discussing politics. The daily street costumes of some of our leading citizens, in 1832, was a black or blue dress coat, with costly gilt buttons, a voluminous white cravat, a ruffled shirt, accompanied by the 'nice conduct' of a gold-headed cane. Main Street presented a picturesque variety, including elegantly dressed gentlemen and ladies, blanketed and moccasined Indians, and emigrants in the strange costumes of foreign lands. Most of the business was done upon the west side of Main Street, between Mohawk and Exchange. Mayor Johnson's stone cottage, now occupied by the Female Academy, stood in solitary state on Delaware Avenue, which was devoted for the most part to lum- ber yards and soap factories. The dwellings north of Mohawk Street were few and far between. It was considered a long walk to Chippewa Street, and a hardship to walk as far as Tupper Street."
The first railroad of any description in Erie County was built
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in 1833, extending from Buffalo to Black Rock. In 1840 the pop- ulation of the county was 62,465, that of the city of Buffalo being 18,213.
Buffalo responded to Lincoln's call for volunteers with a monster mass meeting held at the court house April 15, 1861, with an overflow meeting at the Kremlin Hall, which also over- flowed into the street. One hundred and two men signed their names to the volunteer roll on this occasion. Colonel Chauncey Abbott informed the governor that he had a company of 250 men ready, and recruiting offices for the 65th and 74th Regi- ments were opened. A company called the Union Continentals was organized within a few days, and by the 3d of May three more companies were prepared to leave for concentration camp. By the 11th six more companies were formed and sent to Elmira, and, with the first four were organized as the 21st New York Volunteer Infantry. William F. Rogers was colonel. Company A of the 44th New York Volunteer Infantry, Ellsworth Regi- ment, was raised in Erie County. Four companies of the 10th Cavalry were raised in the county, and one company of the 11th Cavalry was raised in Buffalo. Two companies of the 12th Cav- alry came from Erie County, and one in the 14th Cavalry. Four companies of the 16th and three in the 24th Cavalry were from this county. Battery I, known as Wiedrich's Battery, of the 1st New York Artilery; the 27th Light Battery; part of the 23d Light Battery; three companies of the 2d Mounted Rifles; practic- ally all of the 49th New York Volunteer Infantry under Colonel Daniel D. Bidwell; all of the 100th New York Volunteer Infan- try under Colonel James M. Brown; 116th New York Volunteer Infantry under Colonel Edward P. Chapin; two companies of the 155th Infantry and two companies of the 164th infantry were raised in Erie County; hundreds of men from the county enlisted in other organizations of the state and other states, and these were credited to other localities. The total number of enlistments from the county may be summarized as follows: Cavalry, 4,837; mounted rifles, 908; artillery, 2,276; engineers, 93; sharpshooters, 125; infantry, 7,010; making a total of 15,249. The losses in dead, wounded and captured were 4,704.
The town of Alden was created from Clarence March 27, 1823, and Moses Fenno was the first settler in 1810.
The town of Amherst was formed from the town of Buffalo
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April 10, 1818; Benjamin Ellicott and John Thompson were first settlers in 1799.
The town of Aurora was created from Willink April 15, 1818. Jabez Warren, in 1805, was the first settler.
The town of Boston was erected from Eden April 5, 1817. Charles and Oliver Johnson, 1803, were first settlers.
The town of Brant was taken from Evans and Collins March 25, 1839; Moses Tucker made the first settlement in 1816.
The town of Cheektowaga was formed from Amherst March 20, 1829. Apollos Hitchcock first settled here in 1808.
The town of Clarence was erected March 11, 1808. Asa Ran- som was the pioneer.
The town of Colden was formed from Holland April 2, 1827. Richard Buffum settled here in 1810.
The town of Collins was formed from Concord March 16, 1821. A colony of Friends under Jacob Taylor made the first settlement about 1809.
The town of Concord was formed from Willink March 20, 1812; Christopher Stone and John Albro made the first settle- ment in 1807.
The town of East Hamburg was erected from Hamburg Octo- ber 15, 1850, as Ellicott, and the name changed two years later. Didymus Kinney made the first settlement in 1803.
The town of Eden was formed March 20, 1812, from Willink. Deacon Samuel Tubbs, his two sons and a nephew, made the first settlement in 1808.
The town of Elma was formed from Lancaster and Aurora December 4, 1857.
The town of Evans was erected March 23, 1821. The first settlement was made in 1804 by Joel Harvey.
The town of Grand Island was formed October 19, 1852, from Tonawanda. Major Mordecai Manuel Noah settled here in 1825, designing to found a Jewish city.
The town of Hamburg was formed from Willink March 20, 1812. It is thought that John Cummings made the first settle- ment in 1803.
The town of Holland was formed April 15, 1818, from old Willink. Arthur Humphrey, Abner Currier and Jared Scott made the first settlement in 1807.
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The town of Lancaster was erected from Clarence March 20, 1833. Alanson Eggleston made the first land purchase.
The town of Marilla was formed from Wales and Alden December 2, 1823. Jesse Bartoo was the pioneer in 1827.
The town of Newstead was formed from Clarence March 27, 1823, and called Erie. This was changed in 1831. David Cully was the first settler.
The town of North Collins was erected November 24, 1852, from Collins. Nathaniel Sisson was the first settler here in 1809.
The town of Sardinia was erected from Concord March 16, 1821. George Richmond was the pioneer settler, in 1809.
The town of Tonawanda was formed from Buffalo April 16, 1836. John Hershey, John King and Alexander Logan made the first settlement in 1805.
The town of Wales was created from Willink April 15, 1818, and the first settlers were William and Ethan Allen, Amos Clark and William Hoyt in 1806.
The town of West Seneca was formed from Cheektowaga and Hamburg October 16, 1851, with the name Seneca, which was changed in 1852. The Indians occupied this town exclusively until 1829, when Rev. Asher Wright started the first white settlement.
CHAPTER LV. THE COUNTY OF YATES.
By legislative act of February 5, 1823, the southeast corner of Ontario was cut off to form a new county, which was given the name of Yates, in honor of Joseph C. Yates, then governor of New York State. Its area is now 343 square miles and the popu- lation was 16,641 in 1920.
The history of the early settlement of the county is somewhat associated with Jemima Wilkinson, "The Universal Friend," and the group of followers and believers in her vagaries. The attrac- tions of the Genesee Country for the settler were widely advertised throughout the east, and among those back in New England whose ears these glowing tales reached was Jemima Wilkinson, who had for fourteen years preached in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and had a good many followers, some of them good New England farmers. She conceived the idea of a community of her people, a place of their own creation, where they might order their lives according to. their beliefs. In 1786 they held a meeting in Connecticut, at which time they decided to dispatch a committee to the Genesee Country to select a suitable site for this settlement. Richard Smith, Thomas Hathaway and Abra- ham Dayton were named as such committee, and in 1787 they set out on their journey, through Pennsylvania; while traversing that state they learned of the beauty of the Seneca Lake country. When they beheld the land they were pleased and hastened back east to report to the Friend their findings and discoveries. In 1788 the first settlement was made by a party of twenty-five of the Friends, including Abel Botsford, Peleg and John Briggs, George Sisson, Isaac Nichols, Stephen Card, John Reynolds, James Parker "met at Schenectady and embarked on board of batteux for the promised land. At Geneva they found but a solitary log house and that not furnished. They went up the east side of the lake to 'Apple Town,' where they remained several days searching
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for a. mill site. The noise of the falling water of the outlet to Crooked Lake attracted them to the west shore of Seneca Lake. Passing up the outlet they came to the falls, and explored the neighborhood and fixed upon it as their location. They began their settlement in Yates County about one mile south of the present village of Dresden. It was August when they arrived."1 They erected their cabins near the Indian trail leading from the Che- mung Valley to Canadesaga. A few acres of wheat were planted that autumn, and so, alone in the wilderness, this little band passed the winter, the Indian being their only visitor. The sur- vey of this country was completed in 1789, and immediately after- ward not only other members of the religious sect arrived, but settlers sought homes in this region. The Friend herself arrived a year later. Phelps and Gorham deeded to Caleb Benton a tract of land and on November 28, 1788, the latter set off to James Parker and his colleagues of the Friend's Society a strip of land six miles long, containing 1,104 acres. A census of 1790 showed fully eighty families in the Friend's settlement.
Jemima Wilkinson was born in the town of Cumberland, Providence County, Rhode Island, in 1758. When she was sixteen years old she became interested in a group of religious fanatics who appeared in her vicinity, and who rejected church organiza- tion in favor of a belief in direct divine guidance. On recovering from a serious illness, "she announced that her carnal existence had ended; henceforward she was but divine and spiritual; in- vested with the gift of prophecy." It is not the purpose of this sketch to record her adventures in her adopted country further; she died in 1819.
For about twenty years after the settlement of the Friend's Society on the west side of the lake, the town of Barrington re- mained a wilderness. In 1800 Col. Jacob Teeples erected the first house there, and four years later opened a tavern, which for many years, and under several owners, was a landmark of the town. There were a number of new comers in 1806, including William Ovenshire, Thomas Bronson, Oliver Parker, William Coolbaugh, Joseph Finton, James Finley, James and Nehemiah Higby. John Carr built the first grist mill in the town. Elders Zebulon Dean and John Mugg organized a Free Will Baptist Church with eleven
1 Turners Phelps and Gorham Purchase.
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members May 1, 1819. The locality known as Sunderlin Hollow, made famous by the Crystal Springs, was settled about 1812 by the Sunderlin family, chief among which were David and Dennis. Daniel Winters was the first to come to the East Hill district in 1820. The Barrington Baptist Church was organized in 1819, al- though meetings had been held as early as 1815.
When Steuben County was organized all of the present town of Barrington was a part of the town of Frederickton, and later became a part of Wayne. In 1822 the town of Barrington was created, and in 1826 it was added with Starkey to Yates County. The first town meeting was held February 24, 1823 at the house of Daniel Rapalee; Richard Eddy was elected supervisor.
The town of Benton originally included Milo and Torrey. It was erected from Jerusalem February 12, 1803, and named Ver- non. There being another town of the same name in Oneida County, the Ontario Vernon was changed to Snell in 1808 by the legislature; this name was unsatisfactory to the people, and a meeting was held in 1810 at Penn Yan, at which it was decided to petition the legislature to change the name to Benton, in honor of Levi Benton, one of the early settlers. The legislature was agreeable and the change made as desired. The town of Milo was taken from Benton in 1818; Torrey in 1851.
The first temporary white settlement was at Kashong, by the French traders, De Bartzch and Poudre. Levi Benton and his family were the first permanent settlers, arriving in the year fol- lowing the settlement of the Friends. Dr. Caleb Benton, of Lessee fame, was a cousin of Levi Benton. Kashong was the site of a former Indian village which had been destroyed by Sullivan's soldiers, and in later years it was also popularly known as Ben Barton's Landing. It was the "gateway" to that section of coun- try; Major Barton lived there many years. The first religious meetings in the town were held in the summer of 1792, in Levi Benton's barn. Ezra Cole, a Methodist preacher, conducted them. In 1793 a class was organized. The First Baptist organization in this town was made about 1800. The first Presbyterian meet- ings were held by Stephen Whitaker in 1802. A Dutch Reformed Church was formed at Bellona in 1833. Eliphalet Hull taught the first school in the town prior to 1800.
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