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 34
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 34
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 34
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 34
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 34
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 34
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 34
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 34
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 34
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 34
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The arrival was upon the 10th of June. In August of the same year, 1790, when Gen. Amos Hall took the census, the family of William Wadsworth consisted of nine persons. Beside him, there had then settled in the townships, others who were regarded as heads of families : - Phineas Bates, Daniel Ross, Henry Brown, Enoch Noble, Nicholas Rosecrantz, David Robb, Nahum Fair- banks. Horatio and John H. Jones had preceded the Wadaworths a few weeks, and were over the river, occupying an Indian cabin, and the shantee they had built the year before. They had come in
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from Geneva, via Canandaigua and Avon, with a cart, Horatio's wife and three children, household furniture, and some hired men. Their cart was the first wheel vehicle that passed over that route. From Avon, they had no track, but picked their way along the ridges and open grounds. Horatio Jones built a comfortable block house the same year. Besides Horace Jones' family, there was in August, west of the river, on what was then called " Indian lands," the families of William Ewing, * Nathan Fowler, and Jeremiah Gregory. t
The Indians residing upon the Genesce river in 1790, were loca- ted in villages, as follows : - At Squaky Hill, near Mount Morris, there were a small cluster of cabins, and a few families. The men had been southern captives, who had intermarried, and merged themselves with the Senecas. The principal chief, was " Black Chief." At " Allan's Hill," now Mount Morris, there were a few families : their principal chief, " Tall Chief." He was a fine speci- men of his race, physically and otherwise. At Philadelphia, on a visit to Congress, with Horatio Jones, he commanded much atten- tion and respect.
Little Beard's Town, a large village, was upon the present site of Cuylerville. The chief, Little Beard, was one of the worst specimens of his race. He was chiefly instrumental in the horrid massacre of Lieut. Boyd, and all the early Pioneers give him a bad character. The manner of his death in 1806, was but a just retri- bution for his many acts of cruelty in the Border wars : - In a drunken row, in which both Indians and whites were engaged, at the old Stimson tavern, in Leicester, he was pushed out of door, and falling from the steps, received an injury that caused his death.
Big Tree, a considerable village, was upon the bluff, opposite
* Ewing was a surveyor in the employ of Mr. Phelps. His father, Alexander Ewing, became a resident there in an early day, upon what is now the Perkins form, near Fall Brook. He was the father-in-law of John H. Jones His son, William, went from there to Buffalo, and from thence to Sandusky. Another son, Alexander, was a Pioneer at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he carried on an Indian trade. His son Charles, was the U. S. District Judge Ewing: another son, George W., was State Senator of Indiana ; William G. Ewing, of Indiana, was another son. The father was an emigrant from Ireland, and was settled in . Northumberland, Pa., when settlement of the Genesee country commenced.
t He was the father of " Mille Gregory." who was one of the white wives of Ebene- zer Allar. He lived on the Canaseraga, near " Son-yea," (the open spot where the sun shines in,) the present site of the Shaker Society.
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Geneseo, upon the river, now embraced in the farm of Eason Slo- cum ; Ken-de-wa, (Big Tree) was its principal chief.
There was a small village of Tucaroras on the river, a little above the Geneseo bridge, which was called Tuscarora; and two miles down the river from Geneseo, near the large Maple Grove of the Messrs. Wadsworths, was " Oneida Town," a large village of Oncidas. *
The other, and a principal village, was on the west bank of the river, opposite Avon, near where the main road crosses the river, The chief was Ga-kwa-dia, (Hot Bread,) in high repute among his people, and much respected by the Pioneer settlers. t
Gardeau, was the residence of the White Woman, and the several branches of her family went principally to make up the small village. Her husband was principal chief. At Nunda, there was a small village ; "Elk Hunter " and "Green Coat," were principal chiefs.
At Caneadea there was a considerable village ; the head chief, John Hudson. He was an old man, and had been a leading " brave" in the southern Indian wars, waged by the Senecas, and afterwards, in the English and French wars. Hon. George Woods, a prominent citizen of Bedford, Pennsylvania, became a prisoner with the Indians, on the Ohio or the Allegany. Hudson porcured his release, after he had been condemned and tied to a stake. In after years, they met, and the Judge treated him with much kindness, making him a present of a fine house and lot at
* The Oneidas and Tuscaroras were divided on the breaking out of the Revolution. Those that adhered to the colonies, and the neutrals, remaining in their eastern vil- lages ; and those that followed Butler and Brant, coming upon the Genesee River. A partial re-union of the Tuscaroras took place at their village near Lewiston, in after years.
t This was the birth place of Cornplanter. In his letter to the Governor of Penn- sylvania, in 1822, he says : - "I feel it my duty to send a speech to the Governor of Pennsylvania at this time, and inform him the place where I was from - which was Connewaugus, on the Genesee river." He then goes on to relate to the Governor, that on growing up, the Indian boys in the neighborhood took notice of his skin being of a different color from theirs, and on naming it to his mother, she told him who his white father was, and that he lived at Albany. He, after becoming a man, sought him out, and made himself known to him. He complains that he gave him victuals to eat at his house, but "no provisions to eat on the way home." " He gave me neither kettle nor gun, nor did he tell me that the United States were about to rebel against Great Britain." This is authentic, and does away with the less truthful, but more romantic version of the first interview between Cornplanter and his white father, O'Bail or " Abcel."
21
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Bedford, which he never occupied, but he used to often pride him- self upon its possession, and the manner in which he came by it.
In a ramble, to give the reader some account of their neighbors, the adventurers who were more immediately under consideration, have almost been lost sight of. We left William Wadsworth hewing plank for their shantee, by candle light, and James emerging from the forest, where he had been lost on his return from Canandaigua. The shantee went up, and the work of clearing a small spot of up- land and preparing a few acres of flats for summer crops, was im- mediately commenced. There was from the first, a division of labor between the two brothers: - William had been bred a farmer, and from habit and physical constitution, was well adapted to take the laboring oar in that department. Few men were better fitted for a Pioneer in the backwoods - to wrestle with the harsh- est features of Pioneer life -- or for being merged in habits, social intercourse and inc'inations, with the hardy adventurers who were his early cotemporaries. The backwoodsmen called him "Old Bill," and yet he had not reached his 30th year ; - not from any dis- respect, but as a kind of backwoods conventional nomenclature. At a log house raising, " a bee," or a rude frolic, " he was one of them ;" and when there were any "doings " at "Old Leicester," "Pitt's Flats," or Williamsburg, he was pretty sure to be there. He took an early interest in the organization of the militia, and mingled with the recollections of the author's boyhood, is "General Bill," at the fall musters, with his harsh, strong features, and bronzed complexion, mounted upon his magnificent black charger ; the " observed of all observers," the not inapt personification of the dark and frowning god of war; and to youthful backwoods eyes, he looked nothing less.
James, was by nature, of a different cast, and to natural incli- nations had been added the polish and the discipline of mind acquired in college halls, and a mingling in the most cultivated of New England society. The transition, the change of a New Eng- land home, for that of a cabin in the wilderness, and the associa- tions of the backwoods, was far less easy and natural ; though by alternating between the settlement at "Big Tree, " and Canandai-
NOTE .- James Hudson, the son and successor of John, was one of the finest speci- men of his race that was found here, in the early days of settlement. Staid and digni- fied in his deportment, he was truly one of "nature's nobleinen."
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gua, Albany and Connecticut, he managed to accommodate himself very well to circumstances. Upon him devolved the land agen- cy, and soon extending its sphere, and purchasing largely on the joint account of himself and brother, even in early years, he be- came engrossed in a business of great magnitude.
They had left behind them a large circle of family connexions and friends in " old Durham, " and great was their concern for the rash adventurers who had pushed away on beyond the verge of civilization, and set down in the midst of wild beasts, and then but recently hostile Indian tribes. How different is now the spirit and feeling of the age ? Then, there had been brooding over New Eng- land the incubus of foreign dominion, binding, fettering enterprise, and confining it to narrow, sterile and unpropitious bounds ; until when the fetters were shaken off, it seemed rashness to venture upon the extension of settlement and civilization even to this fair region, where all would seem to have been so inviting and promis- ing. Now, under the blessings, the stimulus, the release from foreign thraldom, of something over half a century, our young men make a hasty preparation, and are off over a wide ocean track, foun- ding villages and cities on the Pacific coast, in the interior, and fol- lowing up, up, the dark ravines of the Sierra Nevada, are making their camps upon its slope and its summit ; and in fond kindred circles at home, there is less concern for them than there was for the young adventurers who pushed out from New England to settle in the Genesee country.
An active correspondence commenced between James and his New England friends soon after their departure from Durham. In a letter to his brother, John N. Wadsworth, dated at Albany, he says : - " We have secured a boat and pilot, forage is pretty scarce, but our expenses do not exceed our expectations. We have now arrived where Genesee is much talked of, and all accounts confirm us in our choice. All hands are in good health and fine spirits ; lay aside all anxiety for us. We expect many difficulties but are fast in the belief that perseverance will surmount them. There has arrived this day, two vessels from Rhode Island. One has 28 and the other 30 passengers, bound full speed for the Genesee country. The migrations to the westward are almost beyond belief. Gin's (the colored woman,) courage rather increases, as many of her color are going to the Genesee."* A tender epistle to James, in no
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masculine hand, dated at New Haven, imagines that at some Indian war dance, his scalp may be one of the trophies "that will dangle from the belt of a Seneca brave." She adds, that "nothing short of making a fortune could induce you to reside amongst an uncivill ized people, exposed to the savages of the wilderness." Samuel Street, of Chippewa, C. W., writes a note from Canandaigua, on a small strip of paper, asking Mr. Wadsworth to excuse it "as paper is very scarce here." John B. Van Epps writes from Schenectady that " Peter and Gerritt Ryckman would not take up the four bar- rels of rum to Canandaigua, under $4 per barrel ; and to be paid likewise for riding the barrels over the carrying place. "
As early as September, 1790, the progress of improvement was arrested : - William and all of his hired hands had the fever and ague, the wench Jenny being the only well one among them. Dis- heartened by disease, the hired men returned to Connecticut, where they were soon followed by James, leaving William and the negro woman, to winter in the shantee and take care of the stock.
James Wadsworth started from Durham, in April 1791; but was delayed in New York by the sprouting of the ague, the seeds of which had been sown the fall previous. He arrived however, at "Big Tree " in June, and writes back to his uncle James that he
* But she did not become wholly reconciled. Sometimes on foot, sometimes in the ox-cart, cutting out roads and camping out nights, she would get out of all patience, in- sist that the expedition was a wild and foolish one ; and offer her sage advice that it would be best to go back to "Old Durham " and give it up as a bad job.
NOTE. - Among the family connexions in Durham, was an uncle, Gen. James Wadsworth, who had held the rank of a Major General in the Connecticut line in the Revolution, was a member of the Continental Congress; and was one of the promi- nent men of New England. It would seem that after the death of their father, he had been, if not the guardian, the kind mentor and counsellor of his nephews. Reverence for his memory is the natural impulse upon the perusal of his letters to them after they had departed for the Genesee country. "His first letter dated in May, 1790, was a long one, replete with advice and admonition, deeply imbued with religious sentiment, and instructions as to the duties and pursuits of life. In the next, dated in July, he gives the nephews all the current news of the day, as if they were beyond the reach of news- papers or mails, (as they really were. ) and eloses with admonitions :- " I must remind you of the importance of orderly and regular conduet in a new settlement ; of a proper observation of the Sabbath ; of justice in your dealings, especially with the Indians ; and of inviolably supporting your credit ; cultivate friendship with your neighboring Indians. Whatever husbandry yon undertake, do it thoroughly." Then again in an- other letter, he strikes off upon foreign news : - " The commotions in France, are the topies among our politicians and clergy. Cutting off heads, hanging and assassination, are much the order of the day there. It will be a very hard case if they are not very properly applied in some instances. Report says, the King's head is cut off; La Fay- ette has gone over to the Austrians. I hope the six nations will observe a strict neu- trality, on which your safety depends."
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found " brother Bill well ; and by persevering industry he has much improved the place, and given our settlement a very different and highly pleasing aspect. We have an excellent enclosed pasture within eight rods of our house, and please ourselves with the pros- pect of soon enjoying most of the conveniences of settlements of several years standing. We have the prospect throughout the country of a most extraordinary crop of wheat ; ours far exceeds our expectations, and corn promises 60 or 70 bushels to the acre. Our flats bespeak a great quantity of hay, (wild grass.) Respecting the Indians, we are so far from dreading the Six Nations (our neigh- bors) that we consider them no inconsiderable security. They have given us the most satisfactory proof of their friendship. We shall not be troubled by the southern Indians. I am happy to say that on second view of the Genesee country, I am confirmed in my favorable opinion of it. We have received a great increase of in- habitants the winter past. Four barns were raised last week in Canandaigua, within a half mile distance. Ontario, from a dreary wilderness begins to put on the appearance of a populated country. " In a letter to his uncle James, dated in August, same year, he says : - "The Indians have returned from the treaty(Pickering's at Newtown,) highly pleased. The inhabitants now do not even think of danger from the Six Nations; although fears are entertained that the southern Indians will attack the Six Nations."
In 1791, Oliver Phelps, First Judge of Ontario county admits James Wadsworth to practice as attorney and counsellor " to enable persons to sue out writs and bring actions, which at the present, for want of attornies, it is impossible to do."
The Messrs. Wadsworths' from year to year, extended their far- ming operations, bringing the broad sweep of flats that they pos- sessed, under cultivation, and stocking it with cattle. There being no access to markets for wheat, they raised but little, but were early large producers of corn. Their cattle went to the Philadelphia and Baltimore markets principally ; some were sold to new settlers, and some driven to Fort Niagara and Canada. Independent of their cultivated fields, the uplands and flats in summer, and the rushes that grew in abundance upon the flats, in winter, enabled them to increase their cattle to any desired extent. The present town of Rush, upon its flats had extensive meadows of rushes, upon which their cattle were herded for several of the early winters.
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They at one period had an extensive dairy. The cultivation of hemp engaged their attention in an early day, and along in 1800, and a few succeeding years, they were large cultivators of it, with others upon the river. They manufactured much of it into ropes, for which they found a market in Albany and New York. In com- mon with others in their neighborhood, they commenced the culti- vation of tobacco ; but that business fell pretty much into the hands of a company, who came on from Long Meadow, in Connecticut, rented flats of them, and cultivated for a few years largely. They cured it and put it up for market after the Virginia fashion. The breeding of mules fo. the Baltimore market, was a considerable business with them in early years. In later years they turned their attention to sheep, and prosecuted wool growing to an extent that has never been exceeded in the United States. In some observa- tions of Professor Renwick, they are ranked with Gen. Wade Hamp- ton, of S. Carolina, in reference to the magnitude of their opera- tions, at the "head of agricultural pursuits in the United States."
While the immediate care of all this chiefly devolved upon Wil- liam Wadsworth, James participated in it by a general supervis- ion, the purchase and sale of stock in distant markets, the procuring of improved breeds of cattle and sheep, and a scientific investiga- tion of all matters of practical improvement in agriculture.
From their first coming into the country, they were constantly extending their farming operations, and adding to their possessions. In early years they were materially aided in all this, by the use of the capital of their friends in New England ; especially that of their relative, Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth; but their extensive and judiciously conducted farming, soon began to yield them large profits, which added to the commissions that James realized upon various land agencies, in the aggregate, of vast magnitude, and of profits of purchase and sale of wild lands upon his own account enabled them to add farm to farm, and tract to tract, until they were ranked among the largest land holders in the United States; and in reference to present and prospective value of their possessions, probably the largest. Certainly no others owned and managed so many cultivated acres.
NOTE. - Major Spencer, the early merchant. manufactured the leaf into plugs, and for several years supplied most of the small dealers west of Seneca Lake.
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In February, 1796, James Wadsworth sailed for Europe. He went upon his own account, upon that of joint partners with him in land operations, and other large land holders in the United States. And here it is not out of place to remark, that land speculations had become rife very soon after the close of the Revolution. Large quantities of wild lands were thrown into market by the different States, pre-emption rights were obtained. Indian cessions followed, and very soon most of the available capital and credit of the whole country was used in the purchase of lands. They rose rapidly in value, fortunes were made. but as we have seen in later years, a crash followed, ruin and bankruptcy overtook. a large and prominent class of the operators. No matter how low they had purchased their lands ; if they were in debt for them, sale, settlement and im- provement, would fall behind the pay days of purchase money, and wide tracts of uncultivated wilderness was a poor resource for taking care of protested bills, and threatened foreclosures. Speculators had over bought, even with the quantity of wild lands then marketable, and when other wide regions in the north-west territory were thrown into market, and brought into competition, embarrassments were en- hanced. In '95, '6, this untoward state of things had arrived at its culminating point ; an exigency existed which created the alterna- tives of ruin to nearly all who had ventured in large land specula- tions, and the enlisting of capital in Europe.
In such a crisis, a distinct realization of which, can only be had by a general review of the history of that period, Mr. Wadsworth was selected as an agent to go to Europe, and make sales of lands to foreign capitalists. It was certainly no small compliment to the bus- siness reputation and character of one who had gone out in his youth and acquired his recommendations in the back woods, to be thus singled out from among the most prominent men in the United States, whose interest, with his own, he was to promote. His visit to Europe, was at the suggestion, and attended by the co-operation, of Robert Morris, Thomas Morris, Governeur Morris, Aaron Burr, Charles Williamson, De Witt Clinton, Robert Troup, Oliver Phelps, Nicholson and Greenleaf, Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth, of Hartford, and other prominent men of New England and Pennsylvania. His mission was undertaken under adverse circumstances : - What was understood in Europe to have been the highly successful ventures of the London associates, and the Holland Company of Amsterdam, in
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lands in this region, had had the effect to stimulate others, and at first, to create a strong disposition for American land investments. Land agents had flocked to Europe, and it is not at all strange that impositions had been practiced, and that many had been, (to use a modern term,) victimized. The reader need only be told, that a system of operations had been carried on, not unlike the mapping and platting upon paper, which prevailed in 1836, '7. Mr. Wads- worth reached Europe at a period of reaction, and yet, with the testimonials he carried with him, added to the confidence he inspired by his dignity of deportment and manifest integrity of purpose, by a slow process, his mission was mainly successful. He visited, and resided temporaily in London, Paris and Amsterdam. His letters of introduction, coming from high sources in this country, gave him ac- cess to the society of prominent financial men of that period, and inci- dentally to that of some eminent statesmen and scholars. Favored at once by the countenance and friendship of Sir Wm. Pulteney and Mr. Colquhoun, and in Amsterdam, with that of the members of the Holland Company, among whom was one eminent statesman, and several who occupied a high position as bankers, the young back- woodsman, from then young America, was enabled to place him- self upon a favorable footing, not only with reference to the imme- diate objects of his mission, but with reference to those advantages acquired by foreign travel and residence. He remained abroad until the last of November, 1798. In all this time, he effected a large amount of sales, and to this mission is to be attributed many of the foreign proprietorships in this region, as well as in other portions of the United States. Some brief extracts from his correspondence while abroad, possess not only local, but general historical inter- est, and are contained in a note attached. While in London Mr. Wadsworth obtained a commission agency from Sir William Pulteney, for the sale of lands upon the Mill Tract west of Genesee River, embracing what is now Ogden, Parma, Riga, Chili, and a part of Greece and Wheatland, from William Six, of Am- sterdam, for the sale of the township, now Henrietta, and from others, the agency for the sale of other tracts. And added to all this, was the agency for the sale of lands in the Genesee country belonging to Jeremiah Wadsworth and other New England land- holders. The duties thus assumed, together with the general man- agement of what then constituted the Wadsworth estate, of farms
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and wild lands, threw upon his hands an amount of business seldom devolving upon one individual, and requiring all his time and ener- gies. He must be regarded as the patroon of new settlements in his own neighborhood, in a large portion of the present county of Monroe, and in several other localities. His European agencies were upon terms that gave him an interest in the sale and settlement of wild lands, in some instances more than equal to that of the pro- prietors, and he was indefatigable in promoting sales. The fine re- gions coming under his supervision, unbroken by sales or settlement, principally west of the Genesee river; were put in market, and going to New England, he prosecuted upon a large scale, a system that Mr. Phelps had began, of exchanging wild lands for farms, when the occupants would become residents. He thus secured a good class of new settlers, and no where in the whole history of new settlements in this country, have they been more prosperous, abating such drawbacks as were beyond his control, than those were of which he may be regarded the founder. And while he was thus the instrument, eventually, to promote the prosperity of others, he was laying the foundation, or accumulating, the large estate which his family now possess. The profits of his agencies were large ones, and were invested in wild lands and farms. These being g nerally retained and well managed, the rise in value chiefly helped
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