USA > New York > Monroe County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 19
USA > New York > Allegany County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming > Part 19
USA > New York > Livingston County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 19
USA > New York > Yates County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 19
USA > New York > Ontario County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 19
USA > New York > Wyoming County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 19
USA > New York > Steuben County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 19
USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 19
USA > New York > Wayne County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 19
USA > New York > Orleans County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
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PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
state legislature, and in 1813, '14, he represented in Congress, the double district, composed of Ontario and the five counties to the west of it. On retiring from the Bench, he retired from his profes- sion, employing himself in the superintendence of a farm and gar- den, enjoying good health, with slight exceptions ; in summers labor- ing more or less with his own hands.
In a previous work, the author has observed, that there are few instances of so extended a period of active participation in the affairs of life ; and still fewer instances of a life that has so adorned the profession to which he belongs, and been so eminently useful and exemplary. To him, and to such as him - his early cotem- porary, General Matthews, for instance - and others of his cotem- poraries that could be named, is the highly honorable profession of law in Western New York indebted for early and long continued examples of those high aims, dignity, and exalted integrity, which should be its abiding characteristics. They have passed, and are passing away. If days of degeneracy should come upon the profes- sion -renovation become necessary - there are no better prece- dents and examples to consult, than the lives and practices of the Pioneer Lawyers.
The first wife of Judge Howell was the youngest daughter of General Israel Chapin. She died in 1808, leaving two sons and a daughter. He married for a second wife, in 1809, the daughter of Dr. Coleman, of Anchram, Mass. She died in 1842, leaving three sons and a daughter. The surviving sons are : - Alexander H. Howell, Thomas M. Howell, Nathaniel W. Howell, Augustus P. Howell. Daughters became the wives of Amasa Jackson of the city of New York, and Henry S. Mulligan of Buffalo.
Dudley Saltonstall was a native of New London, Conn., a grad- uate of Yale College. He studied law in the celebrated law school of Judge Reeves of Litchfield, and was admitted to practice in the court of common pleas of Ontario, in 1795. He had genius, and high attainments in scholarship, commenced practice under favorable auspices ; but aiming high and falling below his aim, in his first forensic efforts, he lost confidence in himself, and abandoned the profession. He engaged in other pursuits with but little better success, and in 1808, emigrated to Maryland, and soon after to Elizabeth city, N. Carolina, where he died some fifteen years since.
Dudley Marvin did not locate at Canandaigua within a pioneer
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PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
period, but his name is so blended with the locality, that a brief no- tice of him will perhaps be anticipated. He was a native of Lyme, Connecticut. His law studies were commenced and com- pleted in the office of Messrs. Howell & Greig; in the absence of any classical education, but in its place was a vigorous intellect, peculiarly adapted to the profession he embraced. He had not been long admitted to the bar. when he had no superior, and few if any equals, as an advocate, in the western counties of this State ; indeed, the giants of the law from the east, who used to follow the circuits of the old Supreme Court Judges in this direction, found in the young advocate of the west, a competitor who plucked laurels from their brows they had won upon other theatres of forensic strife. " When sitting as a judge," says one of his early legal mentors, "I frequently listened with admiration to his exceedingly able and elo- quent summings up in jury trials. I was once present on the trial of an important and highly interesting cause, in which Mr. Marvin and the celebrated Elisha Williams were opposed to each other, and I thought the speech to the jury of Marvin, was quite as eloquent as that of Williams, and decidedly more able. He was, in- deed, unsuccessful, but the failure was owing to his cause, and not to him. He might well have said with the Trojan hero: - " St Pergama dextra defendi possent etiam hac defensi fuissent."
He was twice elected to Congress, in which capacity the high expectations that were entertained of his career were somewhat dis- appointed. The new sphere of action was evidently not his forte - neither was it to his liking ; while the free habits that unfortunately so much prevailed at our national capitol, were illy suited to help the wavering resolutions of a mind that was wrestling with all its giant strength, to throw off chains with which a generous social nature, had helped to fetter him. Years followed, in which one who had filled a large space in the public mind of this region, was almost lost sight of ; his residence being principally in Maryland and Vir- ginia. He returned to this State, and resumed practice in the city of New York, where he continued but a few years ; removing to the county of Chautauque, and retiring upon a farm.
Myron Holley came from Salisbury Connecticut, in 1803, locating at Canandaigua. He had studied law, but never engaged in prac- tice. He was an early bookseller, and for a considerable time clerk of Ontario county. He was a member of the first Board of
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PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
canal commissioners, the acting commissioner in the original con- struction of the western division of the Erie Canal, unil the whole was put under contract. Soon after the location of the canal he became a resident of the village of Lyons. So eminently able and faithful were his services as a canal commissioner, that the grateful recollection and acknowledgement of them, outlive and palliate the mixed offence of fault and misfortune, with which his official career terminated.
Mr. Holley died in 1839, or '40; his widow, the daughter of John House, an early Pioneer at Canandaigua, resides in Black Rock, Erie county.
Isaac Davis, an early merchant at Canandaigua, and subsequently at Buffalo, married another daughter of Mr. House. She resides with her two sons in Lockport. Wm. C. House, a surviving son of John House, was an early merchant in Lockport, and lately the canal collector at that point ; his wife, the daughter of John G. Bond, an early merchant in Rochester.
Thomas Beals became a resident of Canandaigua, engaging in the mercantile business, in 1803. In early years his trade extended over a wide region of country, in which he was highly esteemed as an honest and fair dealing merchant. The successor of Thad- deus Chapin as treasurer of Ontario county, in 1814, he continued to hold the office for twenty eight years. As Trustee and Secretary, he has been connected with the Canandaigua Academy forty years. He was one of the trustees, and a member of the building com- mittee of the Congregational Church in 1812; and was one of the county superintendents of the poor, when the Poor House was first erected. He is now, in his 66th year, engaged in the active pursuits of life ; the Treasurer of the Ontario Savings Bank, a flourishing institution of which he was the founder. Mrs. Beals, who was the daughter of the early settled clergyman at Canan- daigua, the Rev. Mr. Fields, still survives. There are two survi- veing sons, one a resident of New York, and the other in Indiana. Surviving daughters are : - Mrs. Alfred Field, and Mrs. Dr. Carr, of Canandaigua, and Mrs. James S. Rogers, of Wisconsin.
In 1798, a formidable party of emigrants arrived and settled near Canandaigua. It consisted of the families of Benjamin Barney, Richard Daker and Vincent Grant. They were from Orange county; and were all family connexions .. With their six or seven teams,
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PHELPS AND GORIIAM'S PURCHASE.
and a numerous retinue of foot passengers, and stock, their advent is well remembered. They practiced one species of travelling economy, that the author has never before heard of among the de- vices of pioneer times :- the milk of their cows was put into a churn, and the motion of the wagon produced their butter as they went along .* The journey from Orange county consumed twenty- six days. The sons who came with Benj. Barney, were : - Thomas, John, Nicholas, Joseph and Henry. Thomas was the head of a family when they came to the Genesee country ; a surviving son of his, is Gen. V. G. Barney of Newark Wayne county ; a surviv- ing daughter is the wife of Elisha Higby, of Hopewell, Ontario county ; - and in this connection it may be observed, that Mr. Iligby erected the first carding machine in the Genesee country, in 1804, in what is now the town of Hopewell, to which he soon added a cloth dressing establishment.
James Sibley, the early and widely known silver smith, watch repairer, and jeweler, of Canandaigua, still survives, retired from business, a resident of Rochester. His son, Oscar Sibley, pursuing the business of his father, is the proprietor of a large establishment in Buffalo. By the aid of a singularly retentive memory -especi- ally in reference to names and localities -he has furnished the author with the following names of all the heads of families in Can- andaigua, village, in 1803 : --
Seth Thompson,
Widow Whiting,
Abner Bunnell,
Phineas Bates,
Sylvester Tiffany, Wm. A. Williams,
Elijah Morley,
Augustus Porter,
James Holden,
Henry Chapin.
Zachariah Seymour,
Nath. W. Howell,
Samuel Latta,
Nathaniel Sanborn,
Samuel Dungan,
Dudley Saltonstall,
Timothy Burt,
Robert Spencer,
Leander Butler,
Thomas Morris,
Haunah Whalley,
Luther W. Benjamin, John Hall,
Moses Atwater,
John Furguson,
John House,
Thaddeus Chapin,
Abner Barlow,
Martin Dudley,
Israel Chapin,
Norton & Richards,
Gen. Wells,
Gould & Post,
Nathaniel Gorham.
Jasper Parish,
James Dewey,
William Shepherd,
Mr. Crane,
Ezekiel Taylor,
Freeman Atwater,
Daniel Daues,
Wm. Antiss, John Clark,
William Chapman, Col. Hyde, Virtue Bronson,
Timothy Younglove,
Jacob Haskell,
James B. Mower,
Samuel Abbey, John Shuler,
Rev. Timothy Field,
Oliver Phelps,
Joshua Eaton,
Peter H. Colt.
John Brockelbank, Jeremiah Atwater, General Taylor,
Samuel Brock,
Luther Cole,
Moses Cleveland,
Amos Beach.
Thomas Beals,
Ebenezer F. Norton,
Mr. Sampson,
James Smedley,
* But this device found more than its match with an old lady who was fleeing from the frontier in the war of 1812. An alarm found her with her dough mixed for baking.
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PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
The first permanent church organization in Canandaigua, of which the author finds any record, was that of St. Mathew's church of the town of Canandaigua, February 4th, 1799. "A meeting was held at the house of Nathaniel Sanborn ; Ezra Platt was called to the chair to regulate said meeting." The following officers were chosen : - Ezra Platt, Joseph Colt, Wardens; John Clark, Augustus Porter, John Hecox, Nathaniel Sanborn, Benjamin Wells, James Fields, Moses Atwater, Aaron Flint, Vestrymen.
The . Rev. Philander Chase, the present Bishop of the United States, then in Deacon's orders, presided at this organization ; re- mained and officiated as clergyman for several months.
About the same period, "the first Congregational church of the town of Cannandaigua," was organized. "All persons who had statedly worshipped in said congregation," met "at the school house," and chose as Trustees : - Othniel Taylor, Thaddeus Chapin, Dudley Saltonstall, Seth Holcomb, Abner Barlow, Phineas Bates. The first settled minister of this church, was the Rev. Mr. Field.
The first record of election returns that the author has been enabled to obtain, is that of the election of Senators and Assem- blymen in 1799. This was before Ontario was dismembered, or rather before Steuben had a separate organization, and the returns of course embrace the whole region west of Seneca Lake. Vin- cent Matthews, Joseph White, Moss Kent, were the candidates for. Senators. The candidates for Assembly were, Charles Williamson and Nathaniel Norton, opposed by Lemuel Chipman and Dudley Saltonstall. Williamson and Saltonstall were elected. The entire vote is given : --
Bloomfield
168
Jerusalem
101
Northfield
59
Hartford
70
Charleston
-
125
Palmyra
55
Easton
58
Geneseo
44
Augusta
58
Sodus
46
Sparta
82
Seneca
55
She rolled it up in a bed, and sitting upon it, kept it warm, pulling it out and baking as she stopped along the road.
NOTE. - There was a little feeling of rivalry in the organization of these Pioneer churches : thence the anecdote of "Bishop Chase's fiddle." The then young clergy - man boarded with Mrs. Sanborn, and to amuse one of her children, whittled out a shingle in the shape of a fiddle, and stringing it with silk thread, put it in the win- dow ; an Zolian harp. The trifling affair soon got noised about, and some members of the rival church organization converted it to no less offence than that of a minister of the gospel making a fiddle.
12
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PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
Canandaigua
66
Middlesex
52
Bristol
-
110
Frederickstown
46
Phelps -
104
Painted Post
63
Pittstown
62
Dansville
54
Middletown
86
Canisteo
76
Bath
106
978
766
978
Total
1744
In 1800, Lemuel Chipman and Nathaniel Norton were elected ; number of votes, 3,582. Thomas Morris was elected to Congress, receiving almost the entire vote of the Genesee country. Canan- daigua, Palmyra, Bristol, Sparta, Hartford, Easton, Charleston, Northfield, Augusta, their entire vote; and in several other towns there were but one, two and three, against him. 1801 - Peter B. Porter and Daniel Chapin were elected to the Assembly. 1802- Steuben elected separately, Pollydore B. Wisner, Augustus Porter and Thaddeus Chapin, were elected members of Assembly from Ontario. 1803 - Batavia, which was then all of the Holland Purchase, gave less than 180 votes. In that year, Amos Hall, Nathaniel W. Howell, Pollydore B. Wisner, were elected to the Assembly. 1804 - The members of Assembly were, Amos Hall, Daniel W. Lewis and Alexander Rhea.
. Jonathan Philips, an early shoemaker of Canandaigua, still sur- vives, hammering and drawing out his waxed ends upon a seat he has occupied for 51 years ; being now 75 years of age. The old gentleman observes, that in that now healthy locality, he has known it to be so sickly, that more than half the entire population would be afflicted with fevers.
Southworth Cole, an elder brother of Luther Cole, came into the country in 1797. He located on the east side of the Lake. in a then wilderness, at what was known in early days as " Corn Creek." There was an old Indian clearing of about 20 acres. Mr. Cole was for several years the only settler between the foot of the Lake and Naples. The location was famed as the favorite ground of the rattle snake : some members of this Pioneer family have killed as many as 160 in the course of a day at their den. Deer were so plenty, that a hunter of the family has killed 60 in a season. The sons of the Pioneer were Abner Cole, an early lawyer of Palmyra; Dorastus Cole, of Palmyra; Joseph Cole, of Michigan; G. W.
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PHELPS AND GORIIAM'S PURCHASE.
Cole, of Saratoga Springs ; and Benjamin B. Cole. of Ogden. Mrs. Philetus Swift of Phelps, and Mrs. Kingsley Miller of Palmy- ra, were his daughters. Joseph Colt, the early merchant of Geneva and Palmyra, married a sister of Southworth and Luther Cole.
BLOOMFIELD.
The settlement of East Bloomfield, commenced simultaneously with that of Canandaigua. The east township was purchased by Capt. Wm. Bacon, Gen. John Fellows, Elisha Lee, Deacon John Adams, Dr. Joshua Porter (the father of Peter B. and Augustus,) Deacon Adams became the pioneer in settlement ; - and the pa- triarch it might well be added, for he introduced a large household into the wilderness. His family consisted of himself and wife, his sons John, Jonathan, William, Abner and Joseph ; his sons in laws, Ephraim Rew, Lorin Hull, and - Wilcox, and their wives, and Elijah Rose, a brother in law and his family, and three unmarried daughters. Joined with all these in the primitive advent, were : - Moses Gunn, Lot Rew, John Barnes, Roger Sprague, Asa Hickox, Benjamin Goss, John Keyes, Nathaniel Norton. Early after the opening of navigation, in 1789, the emigrants departed from Sche- nectady, some of the men with the household furniture and stores, by water, but most of the party upon pack horses, following principally the Indian trails. In May, they were joined by Augustus Porter, Thaddeus Keyes, Joel Steele, Eber Norton and Orange Woodruff. Judge Porter, then but twenty years of age, had been employed to make farm surveys of the township. When he arrived he found the Adams family, and those who had come in with them, the occu- pants of a log house, 30 by 40 feet, the first dwelling erected west of Canandaigua after white settlement commenced. To accomo- date so large a family with lodgings, there were berths upon wooden pins along the walls of the house, one above another, steam, or packet boat fashion. It was the young surveyor's first introduction to backwoods life. He added to the crowded household himself and his assistants, and soon shouldered his " Jacob staff," and commen- ced his work. The emigrants had brought on a good stock of pro- visions and some cows ; wild game soon began to be added, which made them very comfortable livers. The Judge, in his later years,
A
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PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
would speak with much animation, of the primitive log house, its enormous fire place ; and especially of the bread " baked in ashes" which Mrs. Rose used to bring upon the table, and which he said was excellent.
William Bacon, a principal proprietor in Bloomfield, was a res- ident of Sheffield, Mass .; he never emigrated. He bore a captain's commsssion in the Revolution, and was a contractor for the army. After the Revolution he drove cattle through upon the old Indian trail to Fort. Niagara. Deacon Adams, Nathaniel Eggleston, and several others of the early settlers in Bloomfield, first saw the Gen- esce Country, in connection with this cattle trade to Niagara. Col. Asher Saxton a prominent pioneer, in Bloomfield, Cambria, and Lockport Niagara co., and lastly upon the river Raisin, near Monroe, was a son in law of capt. Bacon and his local representa- tive. He died at his residence in Michigan in 1847 at an advanced age. He married for a third wife a sister of Gen. Micah Brooks. When he left Bloomfield to go into a new region in Niagara county, he remarked to an old friend that he was going "where they live in log cabins." " I want" said he " to see more of Pioneer life." The roof of a log cabin has seldom sheltered a worthier man.
The author is unable to name the year in which all of the emi- grants settled in Bloomfield after the primitive advent of the Adam's household, and those who came in the same year. Those who will be named were of the earliest class of Pioneers.
Dr. Daniel Chapin was the early physician. He was the next representative of Ontario county in the Legislature after Gen. Israel Chapin. He removed to Buffalo in 1805 and died there in 1835.
Amos Bronson was from Berkshire, a persevering and enterprising man, and became the owner of a large farm. He died in 1835. His wife still survives, at the advanced age of over 90 years. Mrs. Bronson, and Benjamin Goss, are the only two surviving residents
NOTE. - There are no surviving descendants in the first degree of the early Pioneer Deacon John Adams. In the second, third and fourth degree, few families are more numerous. The three unmarried daughters mentioned above, became the wives of John Keyes, - Benjamin, and Silas Eggleston. Among the descendants are the family who gave the name to " Adams Basin," in Ogden ; Gen. Wm. H. Adams of Lyons, Wm. Adams of Rochester, and Mrs. Barrett of Lockport ; and the author re- grets that he has not the memorandums to enable him to remember more of a name and family so prominently identified with Pioneer settlement.
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PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
of all the adult pioneers of East Bloomfield. The sons are among the wealthy and public spirited men of the town.
Benjamin Goss, who is named above, was in the country as early as 1791. He married a daughter of Deacon George Codding, of Bristol. Theirs was the first wedding on Phelps and Gorham's Pur- chase. He is now 90 years of age ; a Revolutionary pensioner. He was in the battle at Johnstown, at Sharon Springs, and was in the unsuccessful expedition of Col. Marinus Willett to Oswego in the winter of 1781 .*
Nathaniel Norton was from Goshen, Conn. He was the foun- der of the mills that took his name, on the Ganargwa creek, in Bloomfield. He was an early sheriff of Ontario, and its represen- tative in the Legislature ; and an early merchant in Bloomfield and Canandaigua. He died in 1809 or '10. The late Heman Norton was his son; a daughter became the wife of Judge Baldwin of the. Sup. Court of the United States; another of - Beach, of the firm of Norton & Beach. Aaron Norton, the brother of Nathaniel, settled in Bloomfield about the same time; died soon after 1815. Hon. Ebenezer F. Norton of Buffalo, and Reuben Norton of Bloom- field, are his sons. A daughter became the wife of - Kibbe, the early Bank cashier at Canandaigua and Buffalo; another, the wife of Peter Bowen. Eber Norton, another brother of Nathaniel, died in 1810; Judge Norton of Allegany is a son of his.
Roger, Azel, and Thomas Sprague, with their father and mother, and three sisters, were early pioneers. Roger succeeded Nathaniel Norton as Sheriff of Ontario, was a member of the Legislature, and supervisor. He died in Michigan, in 1848. Asahel and Thomas, both died soon after 1810. The only survivor of the family is a sister who became the wife of Dr. Ralph Wilcox.
* The old gentleman gives a relation of suffering and privation in that expedition, which exhibits some of the harshest features of the war of the Revolution. The con- templated attack upon Oswego, was undertaken in mid winter, and the army encoun- tered deep snow. Many of the men had their feet frozen, and the relator among the number. The expedition was undertaken in sleighs, and upon snow shoes, the men going ahead upon the snow shoes, and partly beating the track. Oneida Lake was crossed upon the ice. Arriving at Fort Brewerton, a large number of the pressed mil- itia, appalled by the suffering and danger they were to encounter, deserted and return- ed to the valley of the Mohawk ; the remainder, an unequal force for the work that was before them, struck off into the dark forest in the direction of Oswego, were badly piloted, missed their course, and were three days wanderers amid the deep snows of the wilderness. Coming within four miles of a strong fortress, with provisions exhaus- ted, ammunition much damaged, and men already worn out in the march, a council de- cided against the attack, and the expedition retreated to Fort Plain.
190
PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.
Moses Gunn was from Berkshire. He died in 1820 ; Linus Gunn of Bloomfield was a son of his; another son was an early tavern keeper on north road to Canandaigua.
As early as 1790 Daniel Gates located in the town of Bloomfield, on the Honeoye creek, at what is now known as North Bloomfield, and erected the first saw mill upon that stream. Procuring some apple sprouts from the old Indian orchard at Geneva he had one of the earliest bearing orchards in the Genesee country. His youngest son, Alfred Gates, now resides upon the old homestead.
Dr. John Barnes was an early physician, remained a few years, and emigrated to Canada.
Elijah Hamlin, Philo Hamlin, Cyprian Collins, Gideon King, Ben- jamin Chapman, Joel and Christopher Parks, Ephraim and Lot Rue, Alexander Emmons, Ashbel Beach, Nathan Waldron, Enos Hawley, Timothy Buel, were Pioneers in Bloomfield, but in reference to them, the author as in many other instances, has to regret the absence of datas to enable him to speak of them beyond the mention of their names. Elijah Hamlin, who was alive a short time since, in Mich- igan, if alive now, is the only survivor of them. He was a contrac- tor on the Erie Canal, at Lockport, in 1822. Joel Parks, a son of one of those named, married a daughter of Dea. Gooding of Bristol. He was a pioneer at Lockport, Niagara county, a Justice of the peace and merchant ; and is now a resident of Lockport Illinois.
Moses Sperry moved from Berkshire to Bloomfield, in March, 1794, with his wife and seven children. He was then but 27 years old. Remaining in Bloomfield until 1813, he removed with his family to the town of Henrietta, when settlement had but first com- menced, and where he had been preceded two or three years by some of his sons. He died in the town of Gates, in 1826, aged 62 years. At the time of his death he had living, 12 children, 67 grand-children, and 7 great-grand children; nine of the sons and
NOTE .- Amos Otis Esq. of Perry, Wyoming county, who has furnished the author with some interesting reminiscences of the early settlement of his present locality, a nephew of the above named Daniel Gates, resided with him as early as 1804. He was informed by his uncle that he ploughed up many relics in the earliest years of settle- ment ; among which was a sword blade about two feet long, and a brass kettle. The old gentleman also informed him the Indians were very troublesome previous to the Pickering treaty ; so much so that they would enter the log cabins of the new settlers, insolently demanding whatever they wanted to cat or drink. Mr. Otis mentions an additional fact that the author has learned from no other source, that in the height of Indian alarm, the new settlers erected a block house, upon the Ball farm, in the north part of the town of Lima.
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