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 20
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 20
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 20
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 20
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 20
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 20
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 20
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 20
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 20
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 20
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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daughters are now living. The mother died in Randolph, Cattara- gus county, in 1840, aged 78 years ; the eldest son at Council Bluff, on his way to Oregon, in 1846. The history of this family furnishes a remarkable instance of the spirit of enterprise and adventure in- herited by the descendants of the early pioneers of the Genesee country. Residing in one town, in 1813, in 1842 the sons and daughters were residents of five different States. Nine of them are now living : James Sperry, in Henrietta, a well known surveyor, and a local agent of the Wadsworth estate; Moses Sperry, the present Surrogate of Monroe ; Calvin Sperry, in Gates, Monroe county ; Charles Sperry in Quincy, Illinois; George Sperry in Trumbull county Ohio. A sister resides in Cattaragus county ; another in Akron, Ohio; another in Missouri; another in Gates, Monroe county.
Mr James Sperry having kindly furnished the author with some interesting pioneer reminiscences, they are inserted in the form adopted in other instances.
REMINISCENCES OF JAMES SPERRY.
Among the trials of the first settlers, there were none more irritating than the destruction of sheep and swine by the wolves and bears. Often whole flocks of sheep would be slaughtered in the night by the wolves. This hap- pened so frequently that those who determined to preserve their sheep, made pens or yards, so high and tight that a wolf could not get over or through them. If left out by accident or carelessness, they were almost sure to be at- tacked. The state, county and town, offered bounties, in the aggregate, amounting to $20 for each wolf sealp. Asahel Sprague caught ten in Bloom- field, which had the effect to pretty much stop their ravages in that quarter.
Bears preyed upon the hogs, that from necessity the new settlers were obliged to let run in the woods for shack. About two years after we came to Bloomfield, when our nearest neighbor was a mile from my father's house, one dark evening in October, when we were all sitting around the table pearing pumpkins to dry, (and to make apple sauce,) we were suddenly started by a loud squeal from the mother of the grunters, who with her pro- geny, were resting in a hollow log in the woods. My father having no am- munition for his old French gun, seized an axe, and went to the rescue, un- hindered by the remonstrances of my mother. The bear fled at his approach, but had so injured the hog that my father killed her and dragged in the carcass.
It was not uncommon for boys to see bears when after the cows, but I think no one of the early settlers received any injury from them, unless they had first been wounded. One of the Coddings, in Bloomfield, came pretty
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near having a clinch with one, while in the woods, splitting rails. Stooping down to pick up his axe to cut a sliver, he turned around and found himself confronted by a bear standing upon its hind legs, with fore paws extended, to give him a hug. He declined the offer, struck the bear in the head with the axe, but making a glancing stroke, failed to penetrate the skull. The bear fled, bearing off the axe, which was held by the wounded skin and flesh.
Asahel Sprague shot one effectually in the night, while he had hold of one of his hogs in the fattening pen. James Parker drove one out of his corn field in the day time, followed close upon his heels, and broke his back with a hand-spike as he was getting over the fence. The second year of our residence in Bloomfield, one day when my father had gone to training, a bear came within six or eight rods of the house and caught a hog. My mother and eldest sister frightened him from his prey. So much for bear stories, and enough perhaps, though I could tell a dozen more of them.
Among the pleasures of Pioneer life, there was nothing I used to enjoy more than to see the flocks of deer bounding over the openings when we were out for the cows. or whenever we went a little way from the clearings. Many enjoyed the sport of hunting them, and some were successful enough to make the sport profitable ; killed enough to supply themselves and their neighbors with meat, and themselves with breeches from the dressed skins. By the way, I would remark here, that at that early day, the openings about Bloomfield were so clear of trees and bushes, that in many places deer would be seen from a half to three quarters of a mile off. The openings were burned over every spring, and every season they would be green with the tender " bent grass," which made good feed for the cattle and deer. In a few years, however, improvements were so extended that the inhabitants ceased firing the openings, and soon they began to be covered with oak and hickory bushes. I know of two localities where the ground was free from trees or bushes fifty years ago, that would produce as many cords of wood now per acre, as the heaviest timbered native forests.
Although the privations of the first settlers were numerous and hard to bear, having often to go without meat and sometimes bread ; obliged to go on horseback to mill, often fifteen and twenty miles ; to go with poor shoes and moccasins in the winter, and barefoot in the summer; yet, notwithstand- ing all this, to their praise be it recorded, they showed a considerable zeal in the support of schools for their children. When our family arrived in March, 1794, there was a school in the north east corner of the town, near the residence of the Adams and Nortons, kept by Laura Adams, Four of the oldest of our family entered the school as soon as we arrived. Heman Norton and Lot Rue, who afterwards " went through college," were mem- bers of this school. The next spring, aseven by ten log school house was built about one and a half miles south west of the centre, where a school was kept by Lovisa Post, who afterwards married William H. Bush, and removed to Batavia. * During the summer of '95 and '6, Betsey Sprague
* The wife of the author is a daughter of his. After leaving Bloomfield in 1806, he built mills at a place which took his name, on the Tonawanda Creek, three miles west of Batavia. He was a Pioneer of Bloomfield, and also upon the Holland Pur- chase. He carded the first pound of wool by machinery; dressed the first piece of cloth, and made the first ream of paper west of Caladonia. He still survives, in the 78th year of his age.
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kept this school. There was then but two schools in the town. Miss Sprague kept the same school in the winter of '96 and '7. My eldest brother and myself attended this school in the winter, walking two and a half miles through the snow across the openings ; not with "old shoes and clout- ed" on our feet, but with rags tied on them to go and come in, taking them off' in school hours. The young men and boys, the young women and girls, for three miles around, attended this school. John Fairchild, west of the Centre, sent his children.
In the fall of '97, a young man with a pack on his back, came into the neighborhood of Gunn, Goss, King, Lamberton, and the Bronsons, two miles east of the south west school, and one mile north of may father's, and intro- duced himself as a school teacher from the land of steady habits; proposing that they form a new district, and he would keep their school. The proposi- tion was accepted, and all turned out late in the season, the young man volun- teering his assistance, and built another log school house in which he kept a school in the winter of '97 and '8, and the ensuing winter. The school was as full both winters as the house could hold. Two young men, John Lam- berton and Jesse Tainter, studied surveying both winters, and in 1800, Lamberton commenced surveying for the Holland Company, doing a larger amount of surveying upon their Purchase than any other man. He now lives near Pine Hill, a few miles north of Batavia. The first winter, my father sent seven to this school, and the second winter eight. In this school, most of us learned for the first time that the earth was round, and turned round upon its axis once in 24 hours, and revolves around the sun once a year. I shall never forget the teacher's manner of illustrating these facts : - For the want of a globe, he took an old hat, the crown having "gone up to seed," doubled in the old limber I rim, marked with chalk a line round the middle for the equator, and another representing the eliptic, and held it up to the scholars, with the "seed end " towards them, and turning it, com- meneed the two revolutions. The simultaneous shout which went up from small to great, was a " caution" to all young school masters how they in- troduce " new things" to young Pioneers. Although the school master was a favorite with parents and pupils, the " most orthodox " thought he was talking of some thing of which he knew nothing, and was teaching for sound doctrine what was contrary to the common sense of all; for every body knew that the earth was flat and immovably fixed, and that the sun rose and set every day. That teacher finally settled in Bloomfield, was afterwards many years a Justice of the Peace; for one term, member of the legislature; and for one term, a member of Congress; now known as Gen. Micah Brooks, of Brook's Grove, Livingston county.
ยท The first meeting house in the Genesee country, was erected in Bloomfield, in 1801. A church and society had been formed some years before; Seth Williston and Jedediah Bushnell, missionaries from the east, labored occa sionally and sometimes continually in Bloomfield, from 1797 to 1800. An extensive revival in that and adjoining towns continued under their labors for several years, and in 1801, they raised a large meeting house. Robert Powers was the builder. Meetings were held in it summer and winter, when it was in an unfinished condition, and without warming it, until 1807 and '8, when it was finished; Andrew Colton being the architect.
Ancient occupancy was distinctly traced at the period of early settlement
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in Bloomfield. On the farm of Nathan Waldron, and on others contiguous, in the north east corner of the town, near where the Adams, Nortons and Rues first settled, many gun barrels, locks and stock barrels, of French con- struction, and tomahawks, were plowed up and used for making or mending agricultural implements. I have seen as many as 15 or 20 barrels at a time, at Waldron's blacksmith shop, while he and David Reese, his journeyman, were working them up. I once saw Reese pointing out in the roof of the shop, the effect of a ball fired from an old barrel while heating it in the forge; his learers wondering how the powder retained its strength for so long a period, the barrel having lain under ground.
There were many old Indian burying grounds in Bloomfield, and many of the graves were opened in search of curiosities. In some of them, hatchets were found, but generally nothing but bones. In ploughing the ground, bones, skulls, and sometimes hatchets, were found. The stones used by the Indians for skinning their game and peeling bark, were found in various localities. These stones were very hard, worked off smooth, and brought down to an edge at one end, and generally from four to six inches long. Pestle stones used for pounding their corn were frequently found. They were from one to one a half feet in length, round and smooth, with a round point at both ends, something like a rolling pin; and they were frequently used by the settlers for that purpose.
The venerable Deacon Stephen Dudley, who settled in Bloomfield as early as 1799, still survives. In the summer of 1848 he informed the author that there were then less than twenty persons living in Bloomfield, who were adults when he came there. He also inform- ed the author, that Gen. Fellows built the first framed barn west of Canandaigua ; and as an instance of the value of lands in an early day, he related an anecdote : - Gen. Fellows Lad no building spot on the road, on his large tract, but an aere of land on a lot adjoin- ing was desirable for that purpose. Proposing to buy it, he asked the owner his price, who replied :- " I declare, General, if you take an acre right out of my farm, I think you should give me as much as fifty cents for it."
In 1798 a second religious society was organized in Bloomfield, called the "North Congregational Society." The first trustees were : - Jared Boughton, Joseph Brace, and Thomas Hawley.
MICAH BROOKS.
Micah Brooks, was a son of David Brooks, A. M., of Cheshire, Conn. The father was a graduate of Yale College. fle belonged
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to the first quota of men furnished by the town of Cheshire ; en- tering the service first as a private soldier, but soon becoming the quarter master of his regiment. He was a member of the legisla- ture of Connecticut, at the period of the surrender of Burgoyne, and a delegate to the State Convention that adopted the U. S. con- stitution at Hartford. After his first military service, he alternated in discharging the duties of a minister and then of a soldier - going out in cases of exigency with his shouldered musket ; especially at the burning of Danbury and the attack upon New Haven. After the Revolution, he retired to his farm in Cheshire, where he died in 1802.
Micah Brooks, in 1796, having just arrived at the age of twenty- one years, set out from his father's house to visit the new region, the fame of which was then spreading throughout New England. Af- ter a pretty thorough exploration of western New York, he returned to Whitestown, and visited the country again in the fall of 1797, stop- ping at Bloomfield and engaging as a school teacher ; helping to build his own log school house. DP See reminiscences of Mr. James Sperry. Returning to Cheshire, he spent a part of a summer in studying surveying with Professor Meigs, with the design of enter- ing into the service of the Holland Company. In the fall of '98, he returned, and passing Bloomfield, extended his travels to the Falls of Niagara on foot, pursuing the old Niagara trail; meeting with none of his race, except travellers, and Poudry, at Tonawanda, with whom and his Squaw wife, he remained over night. After visiting the F'alls - seeing for himself the wonder of which he had read so imperfect descriptions in New England school books, he went up the Canada side to Fort Erie, crossing the river at Black Rock. The author gives a graphic account of his morning's walk from Black Rock to where Buffalo now is, in his own language, as he is quite confident he could not improve it : - " It was a bright, clear morning in November. In my lonely walk along the bank of the Lake, I looked out upon its vast expanse of water, that unstirred by the wind, was as transparent as a sea of glass. There was no marks of civilization upon its shores, no American sail to float upon its surface. Standing to contemplate the scene, -here, I re- flected, the goodness of a Supreme Being has prepared a new crea- tion, ready to be occupied by the people of his choice. At what period will the shores of this beautiful Lake be adorned with dwel-
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lings and all the appointments of civilized life, as now seen upon the shores of the Atlantic ? I began to tax my mathematical powers to see when the east would become so overstocked with population, as to be enabled to furnish a surplus to fill up the unoccupied space between me and my New England friends. It was a hard question to solve; and I concluded if my New England friends could see me, a solitary wanderer, upon the shores of a far off western Lake, indulging in such wild speculations, they would advise me to return and leave such questions to future generations. But I have often thought that I had then, a presentiment of a part of what half a century has accomplished." Walking on to the rude log tavern of Palmer, which was one of the then, but two or three habitations, on all the present site of Buffalo, he added to his stock of bread and cheese, and struck off again into the wilderness, on the Indian trail, - slept one night in the surveyor's camp of James Smedley, and after getting lost in the dense dark woods where Batavia now is, reached the transit line, where Mr. Ellicott's hands were engaged in erecting their primitive log store house.
Renewing his school teaching in Bloomfield, in '99, he purchased the farm where he resided for many years. It was at a period of land speculation, and inflation of prices, and he paid the high price of $6 per acre. Boarding at Deacon Bronson's - working for him two days in the week for his board, and for others during haying and harvesting, he commenced a small improvement.
Returning to Connecticut, he kept a school for the winter, and in the spring came out with some building materials ; building a small framed house in the course of the season. In 1801 he brought out two sisters as house keepers, one of whom as has been stated, be- came the wife of Col. Asher Saxton, and the other - Curtiss, a settler in Gorham. In 1802 he married the daughter of Deacon Abel Hall of Lyme, Conn., a sister of Mrs. Clark Peck of Bloom- field.
He became a prominent, public spirited, and useful Pioneer. Receiving in one of the earliest years of his residence in the new country, a military commission, he passed through the different gra- dations to that of Major General. Appointed to the office of justice of the peace in 1806, he was an assistant justice of the county courts in 1808, and was the same year elected to the Legislature from Ontario county. In 1800, he was an associate commissioner
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with Hugh McNair and Mathew Warner, to lay out a road from Canandaigua to Olean ; and another from Hornellsville to the mouth of the Genesee River. In the war of 1812, he was out on the frontier in two campaigns, serving with the rank of Colonel. In 1814 was elected to Congress. He was a member of the State Convention in 1822, and a Presidential Elector in 1824. He was for twenty years a Judge of the Ontario county courts.
In 1823, he purchased in connection with Jellis Clute and John B. Gibson, of Mary Jemison, commonly called the White Woman, the Gardeau tract on the Genesee River. Selecting a fine portion of it for a large farm and residence, on the road from Mount Mor- ris to Nunda, he removed to it soon after the purchase. The small village and place of his residence is called "Brook's Grove."
Gen. Brooks is now 75 years of age, retaining his mental facul- ties unimpaired ; as an evidence that his physical constitution holds out well, after a long life of toil and enterprise, it may be remarked that in the most inclement month of the last winter, he made a jour- ney to New England and the city of New York. His present wife was a sister of the first wife of Frederick Smith, Esq. of Palmyra, and of the second wife of Gen. Mills, of Mount Morris. His sons are Lorenzo H. Broons, of Canadea, and Micah W. Brooks, residing at the homestead. A daughter is the wife of Henry O'Rielly Esq., formerly the editor of the Rochester Daily Advertiser, and P. M. of Rochester ; now a resident of New York, widely known as the enterprising proprietor of thousands of miles of Telegraph lines in different States of the Union; another, is the wife of Mr. George Ellwanger, one of the enterprising proprietors of Mount Hope Gar- den and Nursery ; another the wife of Theodore F. Hall, formerly of Rochester, now of Brook's Grove. He has two unmarried daughters, one of whom is a well educated mute, and is now a teacher in the deaf and dumb institution at Hartford, Conn.
The history of Micah Brooks furnishes a remarkable instance of a man well educated, and yet unschooled. The successful teacher, the competent Justice and Judge - as a member of our State and National councils, the drafter of bills and competent debater - the author of able essays upon internal improvements, and other sub- jects -- even now in his old age, a vigorous writer, and a frequent contributor to the public press : - never enjoyed, in all, a twelve months of school tuition! The small library of his father, a good
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native intellect, intercourse with the world, a laudable ambition and self reliance, supplied the rest.
The original purchasers of that part of the old town of Bloom- field, which is now the town of West Bloomfield, (or 10,560 acres of it,) were Robert Taft, Amos Hall, Nathan Marvin and Ebenezer Curtis. All of these, it is presumed, became settlers in 1789, '90; as was also Jasper P. Sears, Peregrine Gardner, Samuel Miller, John Algur, Sylvanus Thayer.
Amos Hall was from Guilford, Conn. He was connected with the earliest military organizations, as a commissioned officer, and rose to the rank of Major General, succeeding William Wadsworth. At one period during the war of 1812, he was the commander-in- chief upon the Niagara frontier. He also held several civil offices ; and in all early years was a prominent and useful citizen. He died in 1827, aged 66 years. The surviving sons are : - David S. Hall, merchant, Geneva ; Thomas Hall, superintendant of Rochester and Syracuse R. Road ; Morris Hall, Cass county Michigan ; Heman Hall, a resident of Pennsylvania. An only daughter became the wife of Josiah Wendle, of Bloomfield.
Gen. Hall was the deputy Marshall, and took the U. S. census in Ontario county, in 1790, in July and August, it is presumed. His roll has been preserved by the family, and will be found in the Ap- pendix, (No. 9.)
HONEOYE-PITTSTOWN-NOW RICHMOND.
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In April, 1787, three young men, Gideon Pitts, James Goodwin, and Asa Simmons left their native place, (Dighton, Mass.,)to seek a new home in the wilderness. They came up the Susquehannah and located at Newtown, now Elmira. Here, uniting with other adventurers they erected the first white man's habitation upon the site of the present village ; and during the summer and fall planted and raised Indian corn. Returning to Dighton, their favorable rep- resentations of the country induced the organization of the " Dighton Company" for the purpose of purchasing a large tract as soon as Phelps and Gorham had perfected their title. To be in season, Cal- vin Jacobs was deputed to attend the treaty with Gideon Pitts, and select the tract. As soon as the townships were surveyed, the com-
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pany purchased 46,080 acres of the land embraced in Townships 9 in the 3d, 4th, and 5th Ranges : being most of what was after- wards embraced in the towns of Richmond, Bristol, and the fraction of number nine, on the west side of Canandaigua lake. The title was taken for the company, in the name of Calvin Jacobs and John Smith.
In 1789, Capt. Peter Pitts, his son William, Dea. George Codding, and his son George, Calvin Jacobs, and John Smith, came via the Susquehannah route to the new purchase, and surveyed what is now the town of Richmond and Bristol. One of the party, (the Rev. John Smith,) on their arrival at Canandaigua, preached the first sermon there, and first in all the Genesee country, save those preached by Indian missionaries, by the chaplain at Fort Niagara and at Brant's Indian church at Lewiston. The lands having been divided by lottery, Capt. Pitts draw for his share, 3000 acres, at the foot of Honeoye lake, embracing the flats, and a cleared field which had been the site of an Indian village destroyed by Sullivan's army.
In the spring of 1790, Gideon and William Pitts commenced the improvement of this tract. Coming in with a four ox team, they managed to make a shelter for themselves with the boards of their sled, ploughed up a few acres of open flats, and planted some spring crops, from which they got a good yield, preparatory to the coming in of the remainder of the family. Withal, fattening some hogs that William had procured in Cayuga county, driving them in, and carrying his own, and their provisions upon his back. Capt. Peter Pitts, started with the family in October, in company with John Codding and family. They came from Taunton River in a char- tered vessel, as far as Albany, and from Schenectady by water, landing at Geneva. The tediousness of the journey, may be judged from the fact that starting from Dighton on the 11th of October they did not arrive at Pitt's flats until the 2d day of December. A comfortable log house had been provided by Gideon and William. The family consisted of the old gentleman, his wife, and ten children, besides hired help. For three years they constituted the only family in town ; their neighbors, the Wadsworths at Big Tree, Capt. Taft in West Bloomfield, and the Coddings and Goodings, in Bristol.
The House of this early family being on the Indian trail from Canandaigua to Genesee river - which constituted the early trav-
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elled road for the. white settlers -"Capt. Pitts " and "Pitts Flats " had a wide notoriety in all primitive days. It was the stopping place of the Wadsworths and Jones, of Thomas Morris and in fact of all of the early prominent Pioneers of that region. Louis Phillipe, when from a wanderer in the backwoods of America, he had become the occupant of a throne, remembered that he had spent a night in the humble log house of Capt. Pitts. The Duke Liancourt, strolling every where through this region, in 1795, with his com- panions went from Canandaigua to make the patriarch of the back- woods a visit .*
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