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 62
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ting down the tracks during this year and 1873 was in the hands of Edward C. Colwell. The route extended from Horseheads through Lake to Water Street, then to Main, up Main through Third to the railroad station, also up Clinton to the city line and up Park Place to the college.
It is impossible in this connection to give a detailed history of the many newspapers and publications which have existed in Elmira and Chemung County. The Elmira Advertiser, the Star- Gazette, and the Sunday Telegram are all published by the Elmira Star-Gazette, Inc., a corporation extending its news- paper activities to other cities as well. The first named is a morning paper and the second an evening edition, while the Tele- gram is issued just as a Sunday newspaper. The respective dates of founding of the above papers are 1853, 1828, and 1879.
The Gazette, the forerunner of the Star-Gazette, was started in 1828 by Job A. Smith, from Southport. He had started a paper in 1820 called the Investigator, which he later called the Tioga Register and in 1828 named it the Elmira Gazette. This was not the first journalistic venture in the village, but it was the first one of durable quality. (Prindle & Murphy issued the Telegraph in 1815, which was the first newspaper in the county ; its name was changed to The Vidette in 1816, but it soon passed out.) Job Smith was not a successful newspaper man and moved from the county in 1834. He issued his newspaper here from a small wooden building on the north side of Water Street between Lake and Baldwin. Before Smith left he took in as partner Brinton Paine. His connection lasted two years longer, with Thomas Maxwell as partner. Then followed a number of owners and in 1853 the paper was owned and published by George W. Mason and William C. Rhodes. Mason died in 1856 and Rhodes continued a little more than a year longer, issuing a daily edition in 1856. Samuel C. Taber, Philo B. Dailey, Frederick A. Devoe, Archibald N. Devoe and Charles Hazard were connected with the management of the paper until 1870, when a stock company was formed, the first of such management extending down through the years, with numerous changes of make-up. (The Evening Star was founded May 24, 1888, by I. Seymour Cope -. land and James S. Woodford, both formerly with the Advertiser. The reader is referred to the biographical volume of this work
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for a sketch of Mr. Copeland's long connection with Elmira newspaper history.)
The Elmira Advertiser was first issued November 3, 1853, as a small page advertising the job printing of Seymour B. and Charles G. Fairman. It was passed out, like handbills, free. It was first called Fairman's Daily Advertiser, but on February 8, 1854, the name was changed to the Elmira Daily Advertiser, and placed on a subscription basis. There have been many editorial and executive changes in this paper until it now forms one of the journalistic triumvirate of Elmira.
The first number of the Elmira Sunday Telegram was issued May 7, 1879, by three enterprising young men-Charles Hazard, Henry S. Brooks and James Hill, with an original capital of about $25 cash. This was not the first effort toward Sunday newspaper publication in Elmira, as the Times had been operated about. a year by D. T. Daly, and there were also the Sunday Tidings and Sunday Republican, but the Telegram was the first ven- ture which has endured permanently. From lowly beginnings, like the other existing Elmira newspapers, it has grown to news- paper leadership in the Southern Tier.
In 1824 a new court house was built in Elmira near the site of the present county buildings, and was used until moved to the present site of the Elks Club on Market Street and served as city hall until 1896, when the present municipal building was dedi- cated. Five years later a poor house was authorized for Che- mung County. In 1836 a small brick building was erected for the accommodation of the county clerk.
Chemung County was organized by the state legislature March 29, 1836. Its area was that of the present, and also included what are now the towns of Catherine, Dix, Montour and Cayuta in Schuyler County. Horseheads made some effort to obtain the county seat, and even started a newspaper, the Che- mung County Patriot and Central Advocate, for the purpose of spreading propaganda, but the effort came for naught, as Elmira had a court house and was, by every indication, the logical site. The first board of supervisors consisted of Samuel Minier, Big Flats; Timothy Wheat, Catlin; Jacob Swartwood, Cayuta; John G. Henry, Catherine; Isaac Shepherd, Chemung; Green Bennett, Dix; John W. Wisner, Elmira; Robert Stewart, Erin; Albert A.
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Beckwith, Southport; and Asahel Hulett, Veteran. Jacob West- lake, of Horseheads, was the first member of assembly; Andrew K. Gregg was the first district attorney; Joseph L. Darling was the first county judge; Isaac Baldwin the first county clerk; A. A. Beckwith the first sheriff ; H. S. Dickinson was the first state sen- ator from the district in which the county was located; and Hiram Gray was the first congressman who lived in Chemung County. At the time of the organization of the county, the pop- ulation was about 18,000.
The first religious missionary to come into Chemung is said to have been the Rev. Daniel Thatcher, in 1795, under authority of the Presbyterian board of missions. He held meetings in various homes until the erection of the court house, when that building was used for the purpose. Abiel Fry and Samuel Lud- low were elders of this early church organization. Reverend Thatcher remained in Newtown only a year or two, and was suc- ceeded by Dr. Amos Park for a brief time, followed by Brinton Paine, "a veteran of the Revolutionary War and a victim of the infamous prison ship in the harbor of New York," and Rev. Clark Brown. A small church organization formed during these years later became the Baptist Church of Wellsburg. Rev. Roswell Gough (or Goff) settled in the valley in the early years and preached occasionally near his home. Some authorities have placed his coming as early as 1790, in which case he antedates the arrival of Reverend Thatcher. In 1804 Rev. Simeon R. Jones settled in the Chemung Valley, and continued the work begun by Thatcher, Brown and Rev. John Smith, and also taught school. He permitted the church to become somewhat disorgan- ized, through his Congregational tendencies, but after five years the society returned to Presbyterian policy. Prior to 1816 Rev. Ambrose Porter came here and the society became divided-the majority going with Porter and the minority with Jones. With- in a year Rev. Porter left the field and the society was reunited. Rev. Hezekiah Woodruff succeeded Reverend Jones in 1816, and he was followed by Rev. Henry Ford in 1820; the latter remained seven years. During his pastorate a lot was purchased at the corner of Church and Baldwin streets and a wooden house of worship erected. Other early pastors of this church were Eleazer Lathrop, Marshall L. Farnsworth, Ethan Pratt, John Frost and
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Philomel H. Fowler. The latter was very prominent in the affairs of the church and remained here eleven years, or until 1850. During his pastorate another split occurred in the church over the question of slavery ; in 1846 a small group of members formed the Independent Congregational Church, which eventually be- came the well known Park Church. Services were first held in a hall on the north side of Carroll Street between Lake and Bald- win, and in 1848 a small room was built on Baldwin Street, fol- lowed in 1850 by the church building on the later permanent site of the Park Church.
In 1812 the little village of Newtown was made a part of the Methodist circuit. Early preachers here were Reverends Loring Grant and Nathan B. Dodson. The first Methodist class in the village was formed in the year 1819. This was organized by Rev. Isaac Chamberlayne. In 1830, during the pastorate of Rev. Jonas Dodge, the first house of worship was erected.
In 1829, through the 'efforts of "Parson" Goff, a Baptist society was regularly organized, but final confirmation of the society by the legislature was not made until 1849, when the name of the church was the "Baptist Church and congregation of the towns of Southport and Elmira." In 1853 the name was changed to the First Baptist Church of Elmira. One of the prin- cipal pastors in the development of this early society was Rev. P. D. Gillette, who came here in 1829 and remained until 1836. He also established the Baptist Church society at the village of Horseheads. Episcopal services were first held in Elmira in 1833 by Rev. John G. Carder, an Ithaca pastor. A schoolhouse was utilized for the meetings. Trinity Church was organized in March 31, 1834, and three years later the first church building was erected at West Church Street and Railroad Avenue. The first vestry was composed of: Wardens, Hervey Luce, Ephraim Wheeler; vestrymen, Platt Bennett, Samuel H. Maxwell, Mat- thew McReynolds, Levi J. Cooley, Linus Griswold, Ammon Beardsley, Ransom Birdsall, A. S. Lawrence and Dr. Theseus Brooks. Rev. Thomas Clark was the first rector of the church in 1836.
It was in the early '40s that the first Catholic masses were celebrated in the Chemung Valley by Father Bradley of Geneva. In 1848 the construction of a small wooden church was begun at
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the corner of High and Market streets, the lot having been a burial ground. Father Sheridan was the first pastor of this small congregation, which included such men as Mark Cum- mings, John Kavanagh, Michael Conley and Thomas Mahoney.
The name of the old Presbyterian Church, or the Second Pres- byterian Church of Elmira, was changed to the Lake Street Presbyterian Church in 1876. There have also been a number of other branching societies from this mother church, one of which started in 1860 and in 1861 a church building was erected at the corner of Church and Lake streets. Another outgrowing society was established in the fifth ward in 1882 and a church building erected on Franklin Street. North Church was another outgrowth in 1890.
Grace Episcopal Church branched from Trinity Church in 1864, with Rev. Charles T. Kellogg as the first rector. The first vestrymen were : Hervey Luce, William P. Yates, B. P. Beardsley, E. N. Frisbie, F. H. Atkinson and Francis Collingwood. The first chapel used by the church was erected in 1866.
The Hedding Methodist Church was organized in 1852 and the first board of trustees was composed of John I. Nicks, N. W. Gardiner, John Davis, Bradley Griffin and D. T. Tillotson. The first pastor of the church was Rev. William H. Goodwin. The Centenary Church in the fifth ward of the city was organized in 1872 and a church building erected in 1884. There have been many other "offshoots" from the principal Protestant churches of the city, such as the Free Will Baptist Church in the seventh ward in 1869, and a Congregational Society in the same ward in the early nineties. A German Evangelical Church was organized in 1874 and a building erected two years later; Reverend Loesch was the first pastor.
The German Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist was organized in 1867, the Rev. G. Erhard having been the first pas- tor. In 1891 a church building was erected at the corner of Lake and East Second streets.
The church building of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic congre- gation was built in 1871 and consecrated December 13, 1875. The first church building of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church was built in 1872, of frame, and replaced two years later by a brick
1
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structure. The development of this church during the early years was largely the work of Rev. James C. McManus.
It is believed certain that the first lawyer to make the village of Newtown his home was Vincent Mathews in 1792. Of the career of this prominent attorney and statesman more is given elsewhere in this work. He only stayed in Newtown until 1820, when he moved to Rochester.
The first physician in the village was Dr. Amos Park, who was also a school teacher and preacher. He came about 1792 and built the first frame house in the village, located on the river bank a short distance west of High Street. Dr. Joseph Hinchman came to Newtown soon after Doctor Park. Dr. Chrisjohn Scott was perhaps the third practitioner here. The Chemung County Medi- cal Society was organized May 3, 1836, with Dr. Lemuel Hudson the first president of the society. Drs. Nathaniel Aspinwall, Erastus L. Hart, Theseus Brooks, John Payne, P. E. Concklin, Jotham Purdy, Hollis S. Chubbuck, Nelson Winton, and William Woodward were prominent early members and officers.
The Elmira Academy of Medicine was organized June 29, 1852, and the original members were Drs. H. S. Chubbuck, T. H. Squire, Ira F. Hart, Erastus L. Hart, Jotham Purdy, Uriah Smith, N. R. Derby, William C. Wey and J. K. Stanchfield.
Immediately after Lincoln's call for troops, in fact the eve- ning of the same day, April 15, 1861, a mass meeting of citizens was held at Concert Hall on the west side of Lake just above Water Street. The usual procedure of such meetings was fol- lowed, speeches were made and volunteers were called for. Prac- tically all of the unit known as the Southern Tier Rifles was raised at this time and later became officially Company K of the 23d. No city in western New York was more important than Elmira from a military standpoint. For the entire period of the war it was a rendezvous for troops coming and going. The community was filled with military color. Second Lieutenant William W. Averell was the first mustering officer assigned to Elmira and, at first, he found housing conditions inadequate for the vast num- ber of troops sent to this place to be mustered into the service. Every available home, hall, factory and church was pressed into service. General Averell became one of the most noted cavalry leaders of the Union army. He was succeeded at the Elmira post
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by Capt. J. L. Tidball, and then came Major Arthur T. Lee, Capt. La Rhett L. Livingston, Capt. J. Riley Reid and others. The first regiment mustered into the service at Elmira was the 12th New York Volunteer Infantry, Col. Ezra L. Walrath, which had been organized at Syracuse a month before. The date of muster was May 13, 1861. Then followed the 13th and then the 23d, in the latter of which there were two local companies. It is manifestly impossible in a historical sketch the scope of this to give the names and roster of the many regiments which passed through Elmira during the war. During this time there were twenty-four in- fantry regiments mustered in here, four artillery organizations and six of cavalry.
The prison camp was established at Elmira in May, 1864, at the old No. 3 barracks. This prison site embraced about thirty acres, in the western part of the city, lying between Water Street and the river. The main fence, lying parallel to Water Street, was built of twelve-foot boards, standing upright, with massive gates at a midway location. Around the whole was a raised plat- form for the guards. The first group of prisoners was brought here in June, 1864, and from then on smaller and larger detach- ments were regularly arriving. During the first year approxi- mately 12,000 men were housed in the prison. With the close of hostilities the number of prisoners was gradually decreased, until the last had departed by the end of August, 1865.
The first two small schools in Elmira were built on Lake Street in the early days of the village. Also about the same time Judge Ariel S. Thurston had a select school in the second story of a frame building at Lake and Carroll streets. Peter Healy taught this school soon afterward. Towner states: "Next was a little build- ing that stood about half way between the eastern entrance to Park Church and Main Street. The name of Pomeroy Aspinwall is one, the most intimately connected therewith as the teacher in command there. The little yellow building, when its school days were over, was moved to the north side of Second Street a little east from the corner of College Avenue. It was bought and moved by John Davis, who at one time kept the tavern half way between Elmira and Horseheads, and had acquired the very peculiar nick- name of 'Crow' Davis. It was succeeded as a school- house by one on Church Street on the lot east of the Hedding
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Church. This was a building in which when it was new the citi- zens of Elmira took great pride. Compared with the school build- ings of the present day it was a poor concern, but in that day it was a triumph of public spirit. At one time one by the name of Pratt ruled there. Another well remembered teacher there was Francis Ferry. But the teacher most clearly remem- bered as having been the longest in service there was one by the name of William G. Hathaway, a spectacled gentleman of rather stern aspect and a very vigorous disciplinarian."
Then there was the select school kept by the Misses Cleves on the north side of Water Street near College Avenue, and Miss Thurston's seminary.
In the beginning, the Elmira Collegiate Seminary, which be- came the Elmira Female College in 1855, seemed destined to be established at Auburn, as with one exception most of those inter- ested in it lived there. The exception was Simeon Benjamin. Rev. H. A. Sackett and wife of Auburn were actively engaged in securing subscriptions and during the course of their work visited Elmira and procured a gift of $5,000 from Mr. Benjamin, who made the stipulation that the school be located here. A site was purchased, a building started in 1853, and in October, 1855, it was opened for students, under Mrs. Dunlap. In 1856 Rev. A. W. Cowles became president of the school and remained as such for over thirty years.
The educational facilities of Elmira were changed much in 1859, when the legislature provided for the control of the schools by a board of education. The first officials of this nature were Erastus L. Hart, John Arnot, Orrin Robinson, Elijah N. Barbour, Ariel S. Thurston, Stephen McDonald, Archibald Robertson, Civilian Brown and Shubael B. Denton; Erastus L. Hart was the first president of the board. The first meeting of the board was held April 19, 1859. In 1860 a lot was purchased for the Free Academy and the building completed thereon in 1862. The de- velopment of education has been steady in Elmira and in the Free Academy and Elmira College the city has two schools unsurpassed for their type.
The New York State Reformatory, located at Elmira, had its inception with the legislature of 1869 and in March of the follow- ing year a tract of land was purchased, to which a generous addi-
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tion was made during the same year. The board of building com- missioners consisted of Charles C. B. Walker of Corning, Stephen T. Arnot and Frank H. Atkinson of Elmira; A. H. Miller of Owego, and Amos Pillsbury of Albany. Joseph Warren of Buffalo served in place of the last-named who resigned. The first build- ing was ready for occupancy in 1876 and Z. R. Brockway was appointed general superintendent. In development and size this penal institution has kept pace with others of like nature in the state and at present cares for approximately twelve hundred in- mates on the average.
Note has been made of the formation of the town of Newtown and its change to the title of town of Elmira. The original bounds of this town have been cut down a number of times since that time. Upon estates in the town have lived such men as Gen. A. S. Diven, Samuel L. Clemens, Hiram Gray, Dr. Rulandus Bancroft, Samuel M. Carr, John and Thomas McCann, the Guinnips and the Dininnys and many others, many of whom are treated extensively in the biographical volumes of this work.
Some of the early settlers of the town of Southport, or who took up grants of land, were: Abraham Miller, Lebbeus Ham- mond, Christian Minier, A. Rummerfield, Joseph Edsall, Nathaniel Seeley, Jr., James Seeley, Aaron Seeley, Abner Het- field, Samuel Edsall, John Weir, Thomas King, Abraham Harden- burg, Daniel De Witt, Albert Foster, James Garlinghouse, John Harris, John Williams, the Griswolds (or Grisells), McHenrys and Smiths. The credit of being the first settler in the town is difficult to determine, but some authorities have named Timothy Smith, who was here as early as 1787. John and William Fitz- simmons, Barnabas Tuthill, Richard Hetfield, Peter Stryker, Charles Evans, Charles Dense, Philetus P. Rathbun and Philo Jones were others well known among the settlers. The town of Southport was itself a part of the town of Elmira until April 16, 1822, when it was erected by itself, and has undergone territorial changes itself since that time. The first town meeting was held May 14, 1822, when, among other officers, Solomon King was chosen supervisor. A portion of the town of Southport later be- came the fifth ward of the city of Elmira. Towner says: "The name Southport has served its purpose to designate three distinct and separate areas. For the larger part of a century it has been
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used to indicate the township first described in this chapter. It has also been the popular term for years applied by residents of Elmira to the settlement located immediately opposite them on the south bank of the Chemung River. The name has also been applied to the postoffice on the plank road located at Southport Corners.
"Prominently among the early settlers in what is now the Fifth ward of Elmira appear the names of Sly, Maxwell, Reyn- olds, Robinson and Covell. In the year 1831 there were but five houses on the south side: The toll house, the old ferry house, the Isaac Reynolds house, the residence of Albert Beckwith (who was afterwards sheriff of the county), corner of Ann Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, and the residence of John Sly. John Sly owned 600 acres of land extending east of the Lake Street bridge. This he divided among his sons, George, John, Matthew McR. and Abraham. * * The old ferry house, which originally stood next door to what is now the corner of Sly Street and Maple Ave- nue, was a story and a half high and about 16x25 feet. It was truly a primitive affair, constructed of six-inch square posts, an old-fashioned frame, and the nails throughout being hand made and of wrought iron. Henry Wormley came from Big Flats in 1831. He was a cooper and built that year the first cooper shop in the locality. It stood near a big elm tree close to the river.
* The rate of toll across the bridge in those days was two shillings for a horse and wagon and two cents for a foot passenger. In 1833 John F. Smith built a three-story brick hotel just east of the corner of Maple and Pennsylvania avenues. It was the first and only regularly kept tavern on that side of the river. * Isaac Reynolds built the first store in 1832, or shortly prior to that date. It was burned with the bridge in 1850. In 1842 there was virtually nothing but open land west of the toll bridge. To give an idea of the appearance of the south side of the river at that date it is only necessary to say that John Wormley sowed a field of ten acres with oats in the spring of 1842, the field extending along the river in the neighborhood of what is now the Southport approach to the Main Street bridge."
The original town of Chemung in 1788, when a part of Tioga County, comprised an extensive area in comparison to the pres- ent. Records of the early town have gone, but fragments of his-
.
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torical lore have been preserved in many places. Names of tav- ern keepers and ferry men of that day are known, and the scat- tering records of surveyors who were sent through the territory contain much of interest. Many members of the Sullivan expedi- tion returned to open their way up the valley, seeking the garden spots they had seen when invading the country. Isaac Baldwin, it is believed, came up the river as early as 1784 and two years later the Wynkoops, Bucks and McDowells arrived. The biog- raphy of the members of these notable pioneer families is given elsewhere in this work. Jacob Kress was another settler, also Jonathan Griswold, John Squires, Abijah Batterson, Ebenezer Green, James and Uriah Wilson, David Burt, Justus Bennett, Benjamin Wynkoop, John Hillman, Joseph Drake, Moses De Puy, Jacob Decker, Samuel Westbrook, Joseph and Gabriel Sayre. Wil- liam Wynkoop built the first mill and the first frame house in the town. Lumbering was an important industry during the first half century. It had been important before the coming of the white men, for the latter found large tracts of land which had been cleared by the Indians. Until 1850 pine was the principal lumber cut, but the use of hemlock in tanning brought the bark of this wood to a stage of popularity. The site of the village of Chemung, originally called Buckville, was one of the first places to be settled in the town and in the county. The lumbering busi- ness centered at this villaage, where Asahel Buck had a hotel called the Great Western, which was said to have spread out over a quarter acre of ground. The postoffice was established at Che- mung in 1801, with Elijah Buck postmaster. There are no exist- ing records of town meetings for the first four years from 1788, but in 1791 Abner Kelsey was elected supervisor.
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