USA > New York > Wyoming County > Warsaw > History of the centennial celebration : Warsaw, Wyoming County, New York, June 28-July 2, 1903 : 1803-1903 > Part 10
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William Webster had a longer residence in Warsaw than any other of the first settlers and died in 1876, upon the farin which he cleared and where he spent 68 years of his life, and is buried in the old cemetery where he
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assisted in the first burial. His wife survived him about two years and is buried by his side. They had eleven children, only one of whom is now living, Mrs. Susan Webster Hitchcock of Wyoming Village, who is in Warsaw to attend the Centennial celebration. She is 86 years of age and is the only one living of the children of those first "old settlers,"
William Webster and his wife were among the first members of the Presbyterian Church and remained such until their death. He was elected a trustee of that church in 1824. He rendered much assistance in recruit- ing a military company during the war of 1812 but was unable to enter the service himself. He was elected a Jus- tice of the Peace and served as such many years and built an elaborate office, for those days, in which to hold court. One of the oldest attorneys of Warsaw told me some years ago that William Webster was one of the best Justices that Warsaw ever had. He settled many cases without trial, by good advice and counsel, and no decision which he rendered after trial was ever reversed by a higher court when appealed to. He was also known as an efficient "Tyer of Knots," matrimonial knots, and could say that which many of our clergymen cannot say, they never came untied. I have the record book of many of the marriage ceremonies performed by him, dating back to 1834 and many of the names are familiar to our older residents.
It was my pleasure and privilege to live in the same house with my grandfather Webster from the time I was nine years old until I was thirteen, and my brother and I used to go to his room in the evening and sit by the old fire-place and listen to many stories told by him and my grandmother about the early settlement of our town, of the many years of hard labor and of being deprived of many of the necessaries of life. These men and women were men and women of courage, ambition and self de- nial; for it takes courage to be a successful Pioneer, and we, the descendants of the old Pioneers of Warsaw should cherish and revere their memory for it is by their cour- age, hard work and self-denial that we enjoy the com- forts and luxury of the 20th century. William Webster
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lived an honorable and upright life, always casting his influence for right as he saw it, and I am proud to say that I am the grandson of one of those old " first settlers."
AMOS KEENEY BY ELIZABETH BISHOP
The subject of this sketch and one of the earliest settlers of our town, Amos Keeney, was born in East Hartford, Conn., April Sth, 1778. While yet a lad he journeyed west to Ilampton, Washington County, N. Y., and soon after made the acquaintance of Elizur Webster, a man of means and the one who played such an im- portant part in the settlement of this town. It was at Hampton that Amos Keeney first met and afterward married Patty Brooks, who was destined to share the hardships and perils of their new western home. In the fall of 1803 Amos Keeney accompanied Judge Web- ster to Warsaw, driving one of his teams. Ile had bargaincd with Mr. Webster for fifty acres of land to be paid for by clearing ten acres of his land for him. Domestic affairs necessitating his return, he traveled back to Hampton on foot accompanied by Lyman Morris who had also contracted for land here. Returning the following March, he built his log cabin, and chopped and cleared two acres toward paying for his land on the north side of what is now Buffalo street, between Main street and the Oatka creek. Again he started for Hamp- ton on foot and after severe hardships and nearly losing his life while fording the Gencsce river, he finally reached his destination, having paid his last sixpence for food and lodging.
The following October he and Lyman Morris came back with their families, Mr. Keency having a wife and three children and Mr. Morris a wife and two children. One wagon drawn by an ox team sufliced to carry all the household effects and the families of both men. When within ten miles of Warsaw the king-bolt of the wagon broke and they were forced to camp in the wilderness which was infested with wild animals. The following day another trial was made but the wooden
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bolt failed them and they were obliged to abandon their wagon and household goods and started for their destina- tion on foot, making knapsacks of their overcoats. Mr. Keeney carried his two eldest children, Betsey and Har- ry, while his wife carried the baby who was about six months old.
It seems that Mr. Keeney's hardships had just begun, for he owed ten dollars or more for the transportation of his belongings; his stoek of provisions had been re- duced to a few pounds of flour and part of a salt fish ; his cabin was a primitive affair-it had no chim- ney except a large opening in the roof and the fireplace had not even a stone baek-wall, the fire being kept at safe distance from the wooden structure. From Mrs. Keeney's seanty wardrobe a flannel skirt was sold to Ster- ling Stearns for wheat and flour, and a chintz dress to Josiah Ilovey for his eldest daughter, for the delivery of twelve bushels of eorn at Geneseo where Mr. Hovey had raised it during the preceding summer. It now re- mained for him to transport his eorn from Geneseo to Conesus for grinding, and then home. To accomplish this he hired an ox-team and after a few days' journey succeeded in his enterprise.
Ile now had a considerable supply of bread-stuff, but how was he to preserve so great a bulk of corn meal from spoiling? Ile ent from a hollow basswood tree several pieces three feet long, shaved off the bark and smoothed them inside, and into these vessels he placed the meal in layers two inches deep, separated by flat stones. In this manner it was preserved and, with the flour previously bought, lasted about a year. One of these basswood barrels is still in existence and is the property of Mrs. JJames E. Bishop of this village, a granddaugh- ter of Amos Keeney.
Such was the pioneer life of Amos Keeney, a hardy. God-fearing man. He lived to the good old age of 92 years and was blessed with nine children.
THE FARGO FAMILY BY PALMER C. FARGO
Nehemiah Fargo was born in Bozra, Conn., on Janu- ary 10, 1764, and was married in June, 1783, to Mary Chap- man. They resided in Bozra about ten years after their marriage and then, successively, at Colchester and Hebron, in Connecticut; Sandisfield and Great Barrington, Mass .; Green River and Geneseo, N. Y. At the latter place Mr. Fargo worked on the Wadsworth estate one year and after putting in his crops he took his axe on his shoulder and started through the woods, coming ont at Warsaw, where he immediately negotiated for a piece of land, and made an opening preparatory to building a log house, to which he returned in the fall and completed all except hanging the doors. He built the house double, large enough to accommodate any weary traveler or home-seeker who might come his way. Therefore, he became really the first keeper of a public house in town, though he never did that as a profession or as a business. In the spring he loaded up for the last time his belongings on a cart drawn by oxen and a wagon with horses, and after three days, going by the way of LeRoy and over Bethany Hill he arrived at Warsaw.
This was in 1804. Mr. Fargo made a large purchase of land; more than one-third of the village of Warsaw oc- eupies a portion of his investment. He gave to the Pres- byterians the land on which their church stands and in return, it is said, was given his choice of pews. He settled on the place, corner Main and Livingston streets where his son Allen Fargo resided for so many years and which is now occupied by his great grandson, Wilber G. Fargo. Nehemiah Fargo was a prominent factor in the early his- tory of Warsaw and many of his descendants still reside here and are active and influential in the affairs of the town.
Now, as I am only a half-blood Fargo I feel it might
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not be out of place if I should say a word in honor of my maternal grandmother, who was also a pioneer, and whom I hold with as much reverence and respect as I do the one whose name I bear. Hezekiah Scoville was born in Orwell, Vermont, in the year 1777. Ile married Amy Thompson of the same place, coming to Warsaw in 1810 or 1811, bringing with him that which stood him in good stead, a skilled pair of hands in woodcraft, and he built largely, or helped to build, the frame churches in this community and many of the houses, building for himself the first frame house on the West hill, just east of the Sharp school house, and that house is doing service today as a dwelling. In that house my father and mother, Palmer Fargo and Caroline W. Scoville, were married in 1818. Ile also brought with him that venerable townsman, whom many of you remember and from whom he learned the art of woodcraft, Chester Howard, who built, it is said, more churches than any other man who ever lived in Western New York of his day, and we remember him with great respect, and many of his descendants are still in this community. Ilezekiah Scoville was a musician. He was the first of our singing masters, using not the eight notes but the three syllables in the gamnt, and used to lead the choir and the devotional services.
THE MUNGER FAMILY BY EMMA R. MUNGER
Of the pioneers in Warsaw in the early part of the last century there came three Munger brothers, represent- atives of a family which had been living in Connecticut more than 150 years. They came from good old Puri- tan stock, the kind of men that made New England stand for civil and religions liberty and that helped to give to Western New York the same character of independence in thought and action. Nicholas Munger, the ancestor of the Mungers in America, came from Kent, England, to the New Haven Colony in 1639. Nearly every one of his great grandsons were Revolutionary soldiers. One of them, John Munger, born in Bethlehem, Conn., in 1749, had four children who became residents of Warsaw. HIe himself came here in 1824 and lived here until his death in 1830. His grave can be seen in the old ceme- tery.
Of these four children one, Elizabeth, the wife of David Martin and the mother of David Clark Martin, came here in 1813. Another, Ebenezer, came here in 1806 but afterwards moved to Pennsylvania. The two best known were John and Samuel Munger. Deacon John Munger, as he was familiarly known, came here in 1806 and was a resident of Warsaw for 58 years. He lived for many years on the farm just south of the west side cem- etery, where he built and operated the first tannery in the town. He and his wife were among the first mem- bers of the Presbyterian church, and it may be remem- bered that in his will he left several thousand dollars for the erection of a church building. Samuel Munger came with his wife and five children to Warsaw from Roxbury, Conn., in March. 1816. Their journey occupied six weeks. their only conveyance being an ox sled. Their two oldest sons, Morgan and Robert, walked ahnost every step of the way. Upon their arrival they went to work immediately to help their father cut away the forest on the west hill
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to make a new home. Morgan Munger spent the re- mainder of his life on the farm which his father cleared, having added to it from time to time until he owned a large tract of land. He was honest, frugal, industrious, generons to his neighbors, a man of strictly upright life. ITis wife, who was left at his death with a family of ten children to rear, was a woman of remarkable force and energy of character.
Robert Raymond Munger, who is no doubt remembered by many of the older people of the town, started ont in life with nothing to aid him except an indomitable will, yet before his death he owned many valuable pieces of property, both farming land and town property. Between 1838 and 1844 he owned and conducted the old Columbian Hotel which stood on the site of the present postoffice, In 1854 he started the grist mill at the south end of the village, the mill long known as the Chase mill. The mill- stones which have recently been placed at the foot of the path at the old cemetery were the ones which he put in the mill at that time, and the tall poplar trees stand- ing there he also planted the same year. While he was Highway Commissioner, about 1867, he built the stone arch over the Oatka on South Main street, using the flat stones from the creek bed to build the walls. He was frequently told during its construction that the walls would not last. They stand today a testimony to his good sense and honest work. Robert Raymond Munger was known as a typical, shrewd, energetie Yankee, a man of sound judgment and absolutely honest life. Though he was somewhat conserv- ative in his opinions, yet he was progressive in his busi- ness. Both he and his brother were firm believers in the temperance cause and in the anti-slavery movement.
Of the descendants of Samuel Munger, twenty-one are residents of Warsaw, fourteen being descendants of Morgan Munger and seven descendants of Robert Raymond Mun- ger. Of the children and grandchildren of Robert Raymond Munger here and elsewhere it happens that five are millers and five are school teachers. Five, too, is the number of the generations of Mungers buried in Warsaw. Though the Mungers have never achieved fame, yet the younger generation living feel that they have a right and just
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pride in the heritage of an untarnished name from the courageous pioneers who helped to found Warsaw's pros- perity.
REMARKS BY LEWIS E. WALKER
Mr. Chairman :-
I assure you that I feel very much at home here to- day for, if family records are correct I began my career on the very spot where this tent is located, on the 15th of May, 1826, and have been a resident of Warsaw ever since with the exception of six years-three in Vermont and three in Ohio. Ou the last day of July, 1854, I bought a little bookstore of Nehemiah Park, and have continued to supply you with books, papers and magazines, which possibly may account for the fine literary taste and attain- ments of the residents of this town.
My father, William Walker, was born in St. Albans, Vermont, on March 13, 1793, and came to Warsaw in 1823, where he continued to reside until his death in 1885 at the age of ninety years and one month. HIe was long identified with the best interests of the town. I find his vame on the records in connection with building the stone school house and in building the two bridges-not the one referred to by Miss Munger but those built at a prev- ious time, the one on Buffalo street and on Main street.
All you need to know of the Walker family is, that we are here, and we are represented throughout this county and this section of the state. I am very glad to see you all today ; and what gives me special pleasure in this assem- blage is the fact that all the heads are not gray. It is a joy to see here so many young men and women who have been reared in this community, in these churches and these schools, and who are a credit to this place or to any place where they may live.
WILLIAM BRISTOL BY BELLE BRISTOL KURTZ
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :-
Two years after Mr. Webster located in this town niv grandfather, William Bristol, came from Canaan, Comm- bia County, as surveyor for the Ilolland Land Company. His son, your fellow townsman of that name, was to have spoken of him tonight. Although my father is a young man, having recently celebrated his eighty-second birthday -like Oliver Wendell Holmes. preferring to be "eighty years young than forty years old"-and is more vigorous than many of half his age, he decided a few hours ago that owing to a slight hoarseness it would not be prudent for him to speak in the night air and therefore delegated to me the pleasant task of referring briefly to my ancestors.
I knew that my grandfather came to this locality in 1805; that he was active in the political and social life of that time; that he felled the first tree in the wilder- ness of that part of the county now known as Gaines- ville; that he cleared the forest for the first road lead- ing from Warsaw to Pike, but I did not realize how closely he was connected with the early history of this town until I took up the History of Warsaw this afternoon and found his name associated with the names of the early settlers like the Websters and Keeneys and others of whom we have heard this evening. In speaking of the friend- ships of that time and of the simplicity of the life, the historian says: "Who doubts that William Bristol and family of No. 8 had a good time when they made a visit to Judge Webster's, seven miles away, on a sled drawn by oxen ?"
Mr. Bristol served in the war of 1812 as lieutenant in Captain Wilson's company of cavalry. When in some en- counter their company had with the Indians Julius Whit- lock's horse was killed from under him and the Company
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fled leaving him behind, his friend William Bristol went back and rescued him. The history also tells of the re- ligious society formed in 1812 with Ezra Walker as mod- erator, Chauncey Sheklon, clerk ; John Munger, Zera Tanner and William Bristol among the trustees. That society was called " Union." There are now many denominations but they are all working, thank God, harmoniously and unitedly for the good of the citizens and community.
Of Mr. Bristol's three sons and three daughters, my father is the only one left, but descendants of his sons Francis and Benjamin are with us tonight. Many of the okl family still live in the county; some with the old pioneer spirit of the grandfather, are helping to build up new settlements and some blazing their way through forests of sage brush beyond the Rockies.
My grandfather showed rare judgment in the selection of a wife when he chose Martha Stevens, born in Wor- cester, Mass, a woman with the strong New England character, eminently fitted for life in a new country. Together they dispensed a generous hospitality and were kind and sympathetie neighbors. Our hearts are filled with gratitude to those early settlers for preparing for us this beautiful valley we enjoy today. We admire their courage and bravery, their patience under all the hard- ships they endured. Their lives are an inspiration! But more than all are we grateful that they were noble, up- right, God-fearing men and women whose splendid char- acters have been transmitted to the men and women of this generation, like the eloquent, scholarly men we have heard today, and the energetic townspeople who have planned this delightful Centennial reunion and celebration which will never be forgotten.
LINUS W. THAYER BY BLANCHE L. THAYER
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :-
It might provide an interesting contrast and add some spice to these tales about our worthy ancestors if I could claim descent for the Thayer family from the "Three Thayers " who were hanged in the public square in Buffalo in the "good old days." Certainly crime brings fame- at least in the newspapers, to a family otherwise unheard of. But unfortunately our family is in no way con- nected, I believe, with the aforementioned murders and therefore I must speak on topics more commonplace.
This centennial celebration is not only a pleasurable occasion, but a very instructive one for us of the younger generation. After listening to the eloquent addresses this afternoon I said to an old school friend of mine, "Those speeches make us believe that we all had noble ancestors." "Not only that," he replied, "but they make us believe that we have a future." And in thinking of that future it is especially wholesome for those of us who see so much luxury in our large cities to hear of the days when life was simpler; when it was not necessary in order for a boy to be contented that he should have at his command, for pleasure, horses, a bicycle, a motor cycle and an au- tomobile. Our forefathers probably were not much more unhappy in the long run than we are, and yet their pleas- ures were of such a simple kind that they scarce seem pleasures at all to us.
The committee who asked me to speak on the Thayer family intended, I am sure, that I should commemorate that one who for a considerable period stood at the head, it is conceded, of the legal profession in this county, my grandfather, General Linus W. Thayer. He was born in Warsaw, in the limits of the present town of Gainesville in 1811 and died here in 1892. He began the practice of law in Perry in 1839, but removed to Warsaw in 1841;
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so that he practiced in this town for fifty-one years. It may be of interest to read the list of lawyers who studied in his office: Hon. Andrew Thayer and Judge Wallace Thayer of Oregon; Vine W. Kingsley of New York City : Daniel C. Nichols of Chicago; Charles Henshaw, after- wards Judge of Genesee County; Sammel S. Spring, after- wards Judge of Cattarangus County; Charles W. Bailey, formerly Clerk of Wyoming County; Edwin Thayer of Buffalo; Leonard W. Smith, formerly Treasurer of Wyo- ming County; Henry C. Page of Nebraska; M. E. Bart- lett, C. T. Bartlett, I. Sam Johnson, L. L. Thayer and Augustus Harrington of Warsaw. His law partners were: Levi Gibbs, James R. Doolittle, Charles Henshaw, L. W. Smith, Henry C. Page, L. L. Thayer.
The success that he won and the reasons whereby he won it have always been exceedingly interesting to me. Living on a farm till he was seventeen; for the next ten years teaching school winters and working on the farm summers with the exception of two spent in study at Lima, N. Y., studying by himself with such few books as he could afford to buy, often baffled but never over- come by adverse circumstances, he rose to such a posi- tion in his profession that for many years there was not an important law case in the state in which he was not connsel on one side or the other.
The remarkable persistence and determination shown throughout his life is not unknown to many of you here. He always had the courage of his convictions and never lost a suit for lack of courage to press it. Ile might be beaten in a preliminary struggle, but he never retreated when in his jadgment there was a fighting chance. Many instances might be cited from his practice when he refused to submit to an adverse decision and finally demonstrated by the result in the Court of Appeals that he had been right and the lower tribunals wrong. It is said that on many occasions his earnestness and perseverance brought to the court a comprehension of the principles for which he was contending when other men would have abandoned the fight from sheer physical exhaustion.
It is men and women of such spirit and courage that have made our town known far beyond these hills of ours.
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and it is to all of us, their descendants who have received such an inheritance more inspiring than great wealth, to whom Warsaw looks for similar examples of fearlessness and honorable success even though it may be won in an humble field.
REMINISCENCES. BY COMMANDER ZERA L. TANNER. U. S. N.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen-
When I was told that I might be called upon for a few extempore remarks } sat down and began to prepare a really eloquent speech, which even Dr. Gates would have listened to with a show of patience, if not interest, when along came a fellow who said, "Oh, go on and tell some reminiscences of what you did when you were a boy." I said, "I wont tell the best things I did-I wouldn't dare tell-and the other things would not be worth telling." "Well," he said, "tell them anything."
Of course I had an idea of going back to my great- great-grandfather in the French and Indian war, and saying how he fought there and in the Revolution, and how my grandfather came to Warsaw in 1808 and established himself, and I was going to give you a pretty good his- tory of the Tanner family. Then a lady came along -"Oh," she said, "Tell them about how you stole the ladder from the straw-stack." I said, "I wouldn't dare to do it for one of the girls is here to-night." I would no more dare to tell that story in her presence than I would dare to jump overboard. What should I say ? An attempt to follow my career of nearly 68 years wouldn't do on a three minute limit. Then an- other one said, "Tell them something about Bering Sea, something that yon did, something that you caught from the bottom of the sea, and how you got it." "There is the limit again," I replied.
Well, really, it only seems the other day that I was delving on the west hill farms for bread and butter, and while it was pretty rough work I don't know that I ever complained much; but at the age of sixteen } graduated into the foundry; yon all know where that is, and I think the three years that } spent there were
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