USA > New York > Erie County > Sardinia > History of the original town of Concord : being the present towns of Concord, Collins, N. Collins, and Sardinia, Erie County, New York > Part 48
USA > New York > Erie County > Collins > History of the original town of Concord : being the present towns of Concord, Collins, N. Collins, and Sardinia, Erie County, New York > Part 48
USA > New York > Erie County > Concord > History of the original town of Concord : being the present towns of Concord, Collins, N. Collins, and Sardinia, Erie County, New York > Part 48
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LIST OF THOSE WHO WERE KILLED OR DIED IN THE SERVICE.
Harrison Clark, killed in the battle of Fair Oaks June 1, 1862.
Foster B. Ross, contracted disease in the service; died at home Jan. 24, 1863.
Alexander Oglevie, killed in the battle of Fair Oaks June 5, 1862.
Jacob Saunders, killed at Cold Harbor.
Henry S. Young, died in the hospital Oct. 6, 1862.
John G. Young, died in the hospital at David's Island.
George Palmer, killed in the battle of Fair Oaks June 5, 1862.
William Burns, killed in the battle of Auburn Hill.
Andrew Reagles, killed at Coffee Hill.
William H. Hathaway, died at Baltimore Aug. 5, 1862.
Sergt. John W. Vail, killed in the battle of Hanovertown, Va., May 28, 1864.
George B. Pratt, died in Andersonville prison.
Sergt. William S. Lenox, killed at Bristow Station, Va., Oct. 14, 1863.
Capt. Kimball Persons, killed at Travillion Station June II, 1864.
Wilber C. Perry, died in Andersonville prison Sept. 1, 1864.
593
COLLINS SOLDIER RECORD.
James Wilber, died of wounds received June 4, 1862.
Oliver K. Irish, killed at battle of Hanover Court House.
Marshall Bickford, died in the hospital at Baton Rouge in August, 1863.
Oscar Ralph, died in the hospital at Baton Rouge in May, 1863.
Franklin B. Stewart, died in the hospital at Baton Rouge May 10, 1883.
William Ferris, died at Cairo, Ill., Oct. 2, 1863.
Lieut. Charles Boursky, died of wounds in June 1863.
Casper Levack, died in the hospital at Alexandria, Va., in the Fall of 1862.
John A. Wiesmantle, killed in the Battle of the Wilderness.
Frank Matthews, died at Camp Wool in April, 1862.
Lawrence Reagles, killed at Auburn Hill, Oct. 13, 1863.
LIST OF PERSONS NOW LIVING WHO WERE RESIDENTS OF COLLINS SIXTY OR MORE YEARS AGO.
David Wilber, John Wilber and wife, John Beverly, Elisha Washburn, Augustus Smith, Benjamin Albee, Isaac Hunt and wife, Mrs. Rachel Palmerton, Mr. Burnap, Huram Wickham, Aaron Lindsley and wife, Sylvanus Cook, Joseph H. Plumb, Mrs. Maria Stewart, Joshua Wilber, Lewis Hopkins, Samuel Lumbard, John Pratt, Philip Pratt, Mr. Hokum, Abram South- wick and wife, George Southwick, Mrs. Sylvenus Bates.
TOWN ACCOUNT OF THE TOWN OF COLLINS FOR 1830.
No. I, John Lawton $17 25
No. 2. John Arnold 17 88
No. 3. R. Rogers .. II 25
No. 4. E. Southwick 8 50
No. 5. Thos. Stancliff. .62
No. 6. A. Knight 10 00
No. 7. O. Hathaway 8 50
No. 8. Warren Tanner 24 25
No. 9. J. C. Adams. 13 50 No. 10. John Stancliff 10 00
No. II. John Griffith 22 63
No. 12. Isaac Palmer 3 00
25
594
TOWN ACCOUNTS FOR 1830.
No. 13. Com. of Highways,
Gabriel String $30 00
No. 14.
No. 15. Damages, E. Lapham. 12 00
Wm. Parmerton 5 50
No. 16. Stephen White 22 00
No. 17. Byron W. Pratt
I 50
No. 18. Horace Langdon and John Griffith 4 00
No. 19. John Stancliff 1 00
No. 20. Thomas B Soule
17 00
No. 21. L. M. White.
18 00
No. 22. Jurors' fee for 6 Jurors 1
Com. of Highways, sworn in 3 cases,
12 00
No. 23.
Jurors fees not sworn .. 7 50
No. 24. Nathaniel Knight 13 45
Due the Treasury 8 63
Rejected Fees.
3 97
Interest on Received Fees
27
Roads and Bridges
250 00
Commissioners of Schools 100 65
Contingent 31 80
Collectors' Fees, 3 per cent 46 09
County Tax
852 00
Amount raised $1584 24
COLLINS SOCIETIES.
Collins Center has four secret societies or beneficiary orders, as follows :
ODD FELLOWS.
Friendship Lodge, reinstated in February, 1882. It has a membership of about seventy. The officers are as follows :
Humphrey Russell, N. G .; James Mathews, V. G .: Milton B. Sherman, Secretary ; Philander Pierce, Treasurer: Joseph Mugridge, Acting P. G.
A. O. U. W.
Lodge organized in February, 1877. Membership about fifty. Officers are as follows :
A. S. Warner, M. W .: E. A. Bartlett, Recorder ; M. W. Bai- ley, Treasurer.
COLLINS SOCIETIES.
R. T. OF T. 595
Harvest Council No. 62. Number of charter members twenty ; present membership about fifty. The following is a list of the original officers :
Edwin R. Harris, S. C .; Butler Potter, V. C .; Erastus B. Letson, P. C .: David Empson, Chaplain ; Seth T. Bartlett, Secretary ; Philander Pierce, Treasurer ; William Wilbur, Her- ald; Joseph Kiefer. Guard ; Nathan Pierce, Sentinel.
E. A. U.
Eureka Union No. 76; instituted April 14, 1880. Charter members, twenty. Present membership, thirty. The original officers were :
George H. Hodges, Chancelor ; Joseph Mugridge, Advocate ; James Matthews. President ; Mrs. George Hodges, Vice-Presi- dent ; B. M. Briggs, Secretary ; Edwin Mugridge, Acc't ; Ed- gar Shaw, Treasurer ; Mrs. William Popple, Aux .; Mrs. James Matthews, Warden ; John Schneider, Watchman.
JOHN MILLIS AND HIS GRIST OF WHEAT.
Active out-door life and constant contact with nature in her rougher forms, often developed, in our pioneers, powers of endurance and herculean strength that would be hardly credited at the present time. John Millis was a good example of this fact. It was about the year 1820 and Millis had been logging and chopping a few days for Samuel Tucker ; finishing his work on Saturday night he was paid with two bushels of wheat. His family being out of provisions when he left home he real- ized the necessity of transforming his bag of wheat into material for replenishing his pantry as soon as possible. Notwithstand- ing the next morning was the sabbath, he started with the wheat on his back, on foot, through the woods, to Taylor's mill, three miles distant. On reaching the mill the miller refused to grind on Sunday. Undaunted, he shouldered his grist and directed his steps towards Lawton's mill, farther on. At this mill the water was so low that grinding could not be done. The next mill to which he might apply was Townsend's mill, in Concord, located in what is now known as Wheeler
.
596
WILD ANIMALS.
Hollow. To reach this mill he would have to retrace his steps back home and then proceed five miles farther on.
Millis was determined that his wheat should be flour before the dews of evening fell and to Townsend's mill he went, get- ting his grist ground and returning, making a distance of twenty- two miles traveled, carrying the two bushels of wheat the entire distance.
WILD ANIMALS
When the first settlers came to Collins, wild animals were quite numerous. Deer were very plenty, wolves made sad havoc with the sheep and a panther occasionally made his appearance. One of the latter-named animals came to the house of Joshua Palmerton one night and attacked his dog. The panther soon left and Mr. Palmerton going out found his dog alive, though bitten through by the savage teeth of the panther.
Black bears abounded and annoyed the settlers by commit- ting depredations on their fields of corn. In the Fall of 1822 Nathaniel and Avery Knight and John T. Johnson, after hav- ing their corn fields badly mutilated by what appeared to be a company of three bears, set a dead-fall and caught two of them alive; the third one, escaping, was shot at and wounded, not captured. Two years after a bear was caught in a wolf-trap, but escaped by leaving one of his feet in the trap as an evi- dence of his capture. Fourteen years after, when it was sup- posed that the last bear had disappeared from town, a lonely Bruin was found snugly ensconced among the ledges on the banks of the Cattaraugus creek. After he was killed it was found that he was minus a foot, and a scar appeared on his shoulder ; evidently the same bear that cvaded capture in the dead-fall sixteen years before, and amputated his foot in the wolf-trap.
BUSINESS DIRECTORY OF COLLINS CENTER FOR THE YEAR 1882
H. L. Atwood, physician. Bates & White, general store. Joseph Mugridge, general store. James Matthews, groceries and provisions. Milton B. Sherman, groceries and provisions.
597
BUSINESS DIRECTORIES.
H. A. Reynolds, groceries and provisions. N. Bolander, Jr., & Bro., custom mills. W. H. Parkinson, saw mill. E. L. Harris, saw mill.
W. W. Baily, cider mill.
M. J. King, pumps and planing mill. H. B. Wood, cooper and joiner. Albert A. King, furniture.
John Haas, wagon maker.
John Auwater, wagon maker.
Frank Gornikiswies, blacksmithing.
Peter Schaus, blacksmithing.
George Frink, blacksmithing.
D. H. Davis, harness maker.
Peter Bies, shoemaker. Adolphus Rothfus, shoemaker.
Merrit A. Palmerton, meat market.
J. C. Hupfeld, tailor. J. V. Cole, dentist. Smith Bartlett, hotel.
GOWANDA BUSINESS DIRECTORY FOR THE YEAR 1882, OF THAT PORTION OF THE VILLAGE LOCATED IN ERIE COUNTY.
C. C. Torrance, law office.
J. S. Shugert, physician.
T. M. Kingsley, drugs and medicines.
R. P. McMillian, groceries and provisions.
A. R. Sellew & Co., Gowanda Agricultural Works. Romer Bros., axe factory. Torrence & White, flour and custom mill.
L. P. Dean, lumber and planing mill.
L. P. Bestrup, furniture. Joseph Straub, carriage manufactory. Chauncey M. Grannis, carriage manufactory.
J. W. Dauber, carriage manufactory.
E. F. Slait, hardware.
D. E. Jacobs, jewelry. Peter Rink, boots and shoes.
Peter Erback, shoemaker.
598
THE PETERS FAMILY.
G. E. Rooker, groceries and provisions.
Michael Molls, meat market.
Christian Stetzer, meat market.
G. H. Henry, harness maker.
Frank Taylor, Marble.
Mrs. Delsell, millinery.
Frank Briminsthol, billiards.
A. F. Conger, Grand Central hotel.
Aman Fischer, hotel and brewery.
Henry Eagle, Farmers' hotel.
In response to a request to give some information concerning the family of Stephen Peters, his eldest daughter wrote as fol- lows,
E. BRIGGS, ESQ .:
KENNEDY, Jan. 21, 1881.
Dear Sir :- Stephen Peters was the youngest of three boys ; his brothers' names were Joseph and John ; his sisters' names were Naomi, Lydia and Anna. When Stephen was eighteen years of age he left his home in Farmington, Ontario county, N. Y., for what was called the " Far West." I think it was in the Winter of 1810; took with him a sled loaded with pro- visions, clothing, and everything which was essential for such a journey ; hitched a yoke of oxen and left one bright morning in December, mother and sisters all in tears, thinking he would be killed by Indians. I think he found Joshua Palmerton some- where on the road ; have heard my father say he and Joshua went together to buy their land ; they also kept bachelor's hall together ; he used to say it was the worst hall he was ever in. The following winter he went back to Farmington, after his sister to keep house for him. Joshua also went to Bennington, Vt., after his sister Sarah to keep his house. After a while Stephen took Sarah away from Joshua; they were the first couple married in town: it was then called Concord. Then Joshua went to Vermont after a wife; her name was Hannah Nichols.
I don't know when Stephen Wilbur did come; think it was soon after Joshua and Stephen came. I understand they made the first brush heap near Collins Center.
Some time after, Stephen's father, Benjamin Peters, was
599
THE PETERS FAMILY.
taken sick at the East and sent for father to come back and take the homestead by paying the heirs something. He let his brother Joseph have hisfarm in Collins for his share : took care of his father and mother the remainder of their days.
In regard to my father's family : he raised three children by his first wife, viz .:
Henry, born Oct, 14, 1813.
Charles, born Aug. 12, 1815.
Charlotte, born Aug. 28. 1817.
My mother died with consumption, July 15, 1822. The next father married Tryphenia Bidwell ; she lived only one year four months. Then, after living a widower one year, father married Huldah Springer. By her he had six children, viz .:
Sarah, born Oct. 29, 1828.
Myron, born July 16, 1830.
Eliza, born Aug. 6, 1832.
Stephen, born Aug. 15, 1834.
Julia, born Aug. 9, 1836.
Silas, born Feb. 12, 1842.
In 1843, father went to Iowa; took a span of horses and wagon ; his son Myron went with him. He bought him a farm, put up a house, and got things ready for the rest of the family. They went down the Ohio river on a raft as far as Louisville ; took boat there to the Mississippi river, up that river as far as Bloomfield, Iowa; there father met them with team, and took them to his place in Yalton, Iowa.
He died in 1847; two of the children died years before. The rest are living in the Western country-Colorado, Oregon, and Washington territory.
I forgot to mention that after father crossed the Genesee river, in coming to Collins he had to make his own road part of the way, camp out nights, make his bed of hemlock boughs, start a fire with flint and steel, and chop down trees to browse his oxen on, which was their supper.
Henry was married to Sarah Dearman, in 1841 ; died Oct. 16, 1845.
Charles married Mary Ann Rice, in 1841 ; he lives in Cali- fornia.
Charlotte married S. H. Seymour.
600
THE PETERS FAMILY.
I remember the first term of school just east of Collins Cen- ter ; I went; school was kept in a small log school-house on father's farm; the teacher used to get asleep Monday morn- ings ; during one of her naps, I and another girl got into trou- ble : result, the other girl got her hand bit and I took a whip- ping. At another time, she let the boys out ; they all went down to father's spring after water and forgot to come back ; after a long time I was sent after them ; when they came, she made them all stand half bent with their heads under the writing desk awhile : they looked comical.
Yours &c., CHARLOTTE SEYMOUR.
At the earnest solicitation of the author of this work, I pen the following lines of recollections of the by-gone times of Col- lins and its inhabitants ;
To think or write of times fifty or sixty years ago is like visiting dreamland, so indistinct and vapory do all things seem. Yet memory recalls some events very distinct and real, some of which may possibly be of some interest to the reader.
Sixty years ago, Collins was a wilderness, with here and there a clearing. Log houses were universal ; wagons were few; roads primitive and almost impassable, crooking round hills and knolls, roots and through the mud. Little do the young of to-day know of the labor toil and hardships of the early settlers of this now flourishing Town of Collins.
A few lines in regard to society as it then existed.
The Quakers or Friends composed almost the entire popula- tion of the town ; no other meeting, no other society and no other associates : all was " thee and thou," and "yea and nay." But a more friendly society I belive never existed in this part of the world : no rich, no poor, no jarrings and contentions, strife or discord ; but one law ruled, and that law was the law of universal brotherhood.
Thus society appears to me at that early date. To attend meeting seemed a pleasure as well as duty, for all went, and the log meeting-house was every day filled full of sober and dignified Quakers. Quiet reigned; no noise to disturb the deep thoughts of the pious worshipers, but all were giving heed
601
RECOLLECTIONS OF COLLINS.
to the influence of the spirit, and anon some dignitary arose, took off his hat (the hat was always worn in church), and the words came : first slow and measured, then more rapid, till the whole house resounded with the echoes of the speaker's thun- dering tones, and then all was again still, silent and solemn, till perhaps a voice in the other part of the house arose, a few words said, and again silence reigned. After one hour's wor- ship, they began to shake hands and a universal shaking took place. Then all retired to their several homes, generally on foot.
Such was a meeting in early times.
Tibbitts Soule came to Collins I think in 1823, and located on lot twenty-four, township six, range eight, one mile east of Gowanda, amid a forest of as noble pines as could be found in Western New York, and died there in 1837, aged seventy-three years. His family consisted of five sons and two daughters, all of whom have passed away. Jonathan, the eldest, died in 1849. Stephen Soule died in 1880, at the ripe old age of eighty-one. Luther, the third son, settled at Pontiac, in the State of Michigan, in 1822, took up a large tract of land on which the city now stands ; built mills on the same, cleared up a farm, and soon after was taken sick with that fatal scourge of the new west, the fever, and died. Mrs. Lydia Ann Palmer- ton, of Collins Center, is the only one remaining of the family. Thomas B. Soule, the surveyor and teacher, settled on lot twenty-three, township six, range eight, and removed from there: in 1838, to the Town of Aurora, this county, and died there soon after, Charles E. Soule, now of Kansas, is his only son. Abram H. Soule, settled in Hamburg one and one-half miles north of the village, raised a large family. Hon. Oscar H. Soule, his eldest, now resides near the old homestead. Jona- than, the eldest son, came to this town some three or four years prior to his father's coming, and settled on lot sixty, township six, range eight, now known as the Peter Potter farm. Tib- bits, the father, was an exemplary and consistent Christian and before that fatal division among friends ; was at the head of society and truly did he merit the exalted position. Equal and exact justice seemed his ruling trait of character, and his
602
RECOLLECTIONS OF COLLINS.
counsel and advice was seldom gainsayed or laid aside ; Jona- than was an exception in the family, religion seemed to him his all in all. He began preaching young, first in sleep and afterwards in public, and continued to preach until his death in 1849. Not a flowery speaker, but a plain, straight-forward honest man ; he gained the confidence of all ; especially sought for in the trials of sickness and death, whose talk by the sick bed and to mourners, always seemed to heal the wounds of sorrow and cheer the drooping spirits. Such I believe to be an imperfect but true sketch of the prevailing traits of charac- ter of Jonathan Soule
In 1828, came the division among friends, and from that date the society gradually lost its moral standing, till now but little remains save its name, and that too will soon be lost (I speak only of Collins). Riches came, pride of position took a strong hold of the many, and Quakerism was swallowed up in the vanities of this world. Now and then may be seen one of the old types with his low hat and straight coat, his kindly ways and simple habits, but he walks the street as one lost in thought ; he lives long ago ; the world knows him not, and he is only waiting for the summons that calls him to a more con- genial clime. A stranger amid his own : a traveler in a strange land, for all things are to him new. The mighty engine goes howling through his own quiet fields. Religion once sacred, now a thing of traffic, a nonentity ; no vitality, no heart, no life, nothing but a cold form, that kills the good (if there be any) and builds a fabric rotten to the core, whose fate is cer- tain and destruction sure. This much of the ancient Quaker, once glorious, now gone, such (to me) appears the mind of the ancient Quaker. His ideas and ways of thought are not ours, and I leave him with the thoughtful reader to judge whether the old man's views are right or wrong. Permit me to give an illustration of the state of society, as it existed sixty years ago among the Quakers in Collins. It was customary in early times to cut and fit a few acres of the sturdy forest for a crop of wheat. Well, Jonathan Soule had his fallow (some five acres) all ready to log up, having had what was called a good burn, being out of health he could not clear it off, and, of course, unable to hire. So the " Friends" went to him, advised him
603
RECOLLECTIONS OF COLLINS.
to go to Hamburg and make a week's visit, it would, they thonght, do him good. He went, staid one week, came home, found his fallow cleared all off, not a brand left and sowed with wheat and harrowed nicely in and fenced. This illus- trates fully and directly the claim I give to that era of good and friendly times, in glaring contrast to the selfish and greedy rapacity of the present world. Give us sim- plicity, give us plain religion, give us plain talk and plain faces, and we ask no more. Though at meeting the whole congre- gation wore a solemn and staid countenance, yet at home and in converse with their neighbors, they had their jokes, told their stories, and, if some were well grown, were well received, and amid roars of laughter the social cup was filled, and good will and a friendly spirit prevailed. Life to them, they believed, "is what we make it " and well did they act up to that true and often slighted maxim; visiting with them was a busi- ness ; 12 o'clock was an early hour to break up ; often 2 or 3 was the hour to retire ; my young mind received and stored away their quaint and mirthful stories; witchcraft and the mysterious were set forth in glowing light ; hobgoblins and ghosts were to me a living reality. A yoke of oxen and a sled with a high box would start out at sunset and stop at the first house, load in its occupants, go to the next and do the same till the sled was loaded with women, the men on foot, and then go for some friends' house, pile in and a glorious time was in store.
Jacob Taylor occupied a kind of elevated position. Rich in this world's goods, and a man of good judgment and sense, was often appealed to in matters of difference between Friends and decisions were never appealed from. The Friends had their black sheep, as all societies do. Of course I do not wish to claim them exempt from human frailties. A case to illus_ trate :
A Friend took from another Friend a busliel of corn. Now that was a glaring offense against their laws ; the meeting took the matter up; a committee of investigation was appointed. The committee finally proposed to the parties to refer the whole case to " Friend" Taylor for settlement. Well on the first day after the meeting, the parties and a large portion of
604
RECOLLECTIONS OF COLLINS.
the meeting repaired to Taylor's to hear the suit, for they knew that Jacob would make an interesting case of it. The trial began. Plaintiff called.
Jacob says: Friend , did thee lose a bushel of thy corn ? Ans. I did.
Where did thee keep the corn? Ans. In my crib.
Jacob says : Thee may sit down.
Defendant called.
Did thee take a bushel of corn from Friend -? Ans. I did.
Jacob says : Thee may be seated.
Now what would Jacob do was the exciting theme of whis- pering ; but Jacob was equal to the emergency ; he recalled plaintiff ; says he :
Friend --- , did thee have thy crib locked? Ans. I did not.
"Well," says the arbitrator, " the case is proven ; my decision is this: The crib being unlocked, the temptation too strong and an erring brother too weak ; therefore I must give a ver- dict of no cause of action-and friend, thee must keep thy crib locked." And amid roars of laughter in which both parties joined, the meeting adjourned and quietly went to their several homes, commenting on Jacob's novel decision and wondering if there ever was another such man as Friend Jacob in the world.
The postoffice was at Taylor's Hollow, named Angola. A letter came from Vermont to Elijah Pratt, directed thus :
To N. Y. state I am bound, Erie county, Collins town, To Elijah Pratt, among the hemlocks, A little above young Caleb Tarbox's.
I ask pardon of the reader and will leave the subject for abler pens than mine. There is enough of early life that I have only touched to fill a volume ; I hope to see it· filled and well filled too.
E. B.
S. W. S.
In 1815, while the tide of emigration was setting towards the Holland Purchase, Isaac Allen, leaving his newly-married bride
605
RECOLLECTIONS OF COLLINS.
in Danby, Vt., where they had both been brought up, started to seek a home in the West.
He hired a man to accompany and work for him, and the two performed the journey on foot, carrying their knapsacks and axes.
Passing through Buffalo they " found the land dear, it being ten or twelve dollars an acre, and that in the vicinity of the creek and lake, swampy, covered with alders and black birds." They went on to the south part of the county, and there within one range of the Cattaraugus creek my father located land, and while his hired man was felling trees he walked to Batavia to make his purchase.
That Summer the two men cleared off the timber from sev- eral acres and built a log house.
To that house early the next spring he brought his wife and there, in the wilderness, the young couple commenced their humble house-keeping. He was twenty-two and she was twenty.
Besides seeds for a vegetable garden a little corn was brought for planting, nor were the flower seeds forgotten.
The house was unfinished, still wanting the chimney and door. A blanket was hung up to supply the place of the latter.
My mother would sometimes be startled by a "ugh!" and, looking round, would see an Indian peering in where he had raised the corner of the blanket. Indians and squaws were the most frequent callers.
Aaron Lindsley was the nearest neighbor-more than a mile away.
The first year no corn ripened, it being "the cold year," remembered so well by all the old settlers. At that time live stock was very scarce, and it was with the greatest difficulty and by paying the high price of seven dollars, that a small, raw- boned shoat was procured, which soon met with an untimely end.
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