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 35
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 35
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 35
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 35
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 35
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 35
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 35
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 35
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 35
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 35
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NOTE. - From London, June, '96. J. W. writes to Charles Wilkes," that he was upon the point of effecting large sales of land, "but all had been frustrated by oppo- sition in the H. of Rep. to Jay's treaty." "The fear of sequestration and confiscation has destroyed all confidence with capitalists in England. Besides they fear the effect of French influence in the United States." "Mr. Young, a large East India cap- italist, to whom I was going to sell 30,000 acres of land at half a guinea per acre, backs out in consequence of news from America." J. W. to Thomas Morris, May, '90, says :- "I am prevented from making sales by the proceedings of H. of Repre- sentatives." J. W. to Charles Wilkes, June, '96 : - " Things are looking better ; news has been received that Congress have passed the necessary laws to carry the treaty into effect ; confidence in American investments are reviving." J. W. to Benj. West, (the celebrated paiuter.) -- " Be kind enough to use your influence in quieting alarm and getting up confidence in London. I have no doubt that the United States will be as happy, and their government as permanent, as is allowable to men, and human insti- tutions in the world." A correspondence between Mr. Wadsworth and Aaron Burr was kept up during the absence of the former; the letters of Mr. Burr, would some- times be upon matters of business, sometimes upon politics, which subject would sud- denly be arrested by his favorite theme, gossip upon courtship and marriage. Some portions of his letters are obscured by the use of his ciphers. A. B. to J. W., Nov. 1796 : - "I refer you to the gazettes for the name of the electors, and the particulars vet known respecting the election ; 4 I think will be 15; 1, has, I think no chance ; 12 and 4 will run generally together, but the latter will not succeed by reason of some disaffection in 14 ;- 16, 10, had been at home, 13 would have been the man as
* An eminent early merchant of New York; a namesake and family connexion of Charles Wilkes, of London.
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to make the lagest estate, perhaps, that has ever been accumulated in the United States, by the same process.
But let no one, while viewing the broad domains of which he died possessed, suppose that they came to him in the absence of in- dustry, economy, good management, or of long years of severe trial and embarrassments. Dependent, chiefly, in his early enter- prises, upon the capital of others, he carried along through an ex- tended period of depression, a slow growth of the country, a war that bore heavily upon this local region - a large debt, and all the trials and vexations which it carries in its train .* It was not until the war of 1812 made a good market for his produce, that he began to be relieved from embarrassment ; his large clip of wool, his cattle, grain, and the produce from his dairy, enabled him to rapidly di- minish his indebtedness ; then followed a few years of depression ; then came that great measure of deliverance, and source of pros- perity to all this region, the Erie Canal; and participating largely, as his possessions enabled him to do, in the rapid advance in the value of real estate, in the facilities for market that it at once afforded freedom from debt, unincumbered wealth that was soon rated by millions, was the reward of his early wilderness advent, and over half a century of industry and enterprise.
In a history of pioneer settlement, such as this is intended to be, one who bore so conspicuous a part in it, must necessarily occupy a considerable space. and yet one entirely inadequate to the task of detailing his immediate and intimate connection with the growth
you will be convinced when you shall return home. Upon the whole I am quite sat- isfied with the state of things." "Except the little box already acknowldeged, and which appeared to have been sent by my booksellers, probably under your orders, I have not received a book or a pamphlet from you since your residence abroad." I have it from the very best authority that your friend Linklaen is soon to be married to a daughter of Major Ledyard, a pretty and agreeable girl. Not a bad match I think on either side. I continue an inflexible bachelor, but have been much smitten by Dge-gx of Naef-az, who is at present indisputably at the head of my list. Under oth- er dates. A. B. to J. W. :-- "I have been quite a recluise and a farmer this summer ; have not been two miles from home since my return from Philadelphia ; am not mar- ried, nor have made any approaches to it, though shall not probably pass another six months single, though no particular object has yet engaged my attention. God bless and prosper you." " It is hoped by some, feared by others, and believed by all, that the President will decline being a candidate at the next election. The candidates will be Burw-k. - 12, 4 and 1. The event seems pretty doubtful. I have been tokl (this day.) and fully believe it, that 20 and 21 were publicly married a few daysago. Adieu once more."
* In a letter to a friend after he had had an experience of fifteen years, he says :- " It is slow realizing from new lands. I will never advise another friend to invest in them. Men generally have not the requisite patience for speculating in them."
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and prosperity of this region. His biography alone, if it followed him in all his relations to our local region, would be almost its early history. To say that his was a useful life, would be but a natural deduction from his early advent, and his leading participation in laying the foundation of that unexampled prosperity, which now exists in a region that he entered, the wheels of his cart, and shoes of his horse, making the first impress of civilization upon its soil ! The abatement, if any, from his life of usefulness, would be the amount of territory he encompassed, and held on to with a tenacity, almost amounting to dotage, or an inordinate desire to possess ex- tended fields and forests. This ambition was first excited when a young adventurer, on his way to Montreal, in company with John Jacob Astor, to seek employment as a school teacher, he saw an extensive and beautiful estate, in one of the valleys of Vermont ; and traveling in Europe, a few years afterwards, making a sojourn, occasionally, at the hospitable seats of immense land proprietors, he seems to have been confirmed in his desire for a similar position, and to have steadily pursued his object in after life. Great landed estates in a country like ours, are a sore evil ; the effects, in various ways, bearing heavily and vexatiously upon their immediate neighborhoods. It is no "vote yourself a farm" spirit, no sympathy in common with agrarianism, that dictates the expression of a hope, that by all legal means, the evil may be abated. It would have been far better for the beautiful valley, where Mr. Wadsworth cast his lot in early life, and with which he became so intimately blen- ded, if his ambition for large possessions had been more moderate ; but, " may I not do as I will with mine own?" is an interrogation he might well have opposed to those who cavilled at his monopoly of the soil .*
* And this reminds the author of an anecdote of an early and venerated cotempora- ry of Mr. Wadsworth, the late Augustus Porter. The possession in his family of "Goat Island," and all the most desirable grounds on the American side, at Niagara Falls, and the tenacity with which they were held, when improvements were sought to be made, had occasioned much of murmuring and fault finding, in which the au- thor, as the editor of a paper in the same county, had participated, occasionally giving some thrusts at what used to be called the " monopoly." While engaged in a preceding historical work, the old gentleman had kindly given him the benefit of days and nights of conversation upon the early history of all this region ; his personal narrative, that began with his early adventures in the wilderness, his early years spent in survey- or's camps, encountering hardships and privations ; his after long years of toil. At the close of this interview, suffering under bodily infirmities, partly consequent upon all this, he observed :- "Now you have my whole history ; you have seen how I
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At an early period - almost as soon as the farming operations of the Wadsworths were fairly commenced -James Wadsworth gave much of his attention to agricultural improvements. He may be said to have given the impetus, in this state, to the application of science, the heeding of the simple teaching of nature, the elevation of rural labor from mere uninstructed handicraft, to the position and the dig- nity it has been rapidly assuming. He had cotemporaries, co-opera- tors - there were perhaps those before him in the state, who had labored in the same field - but he had entered upon the work with an earnestness, with practical views, and aided with his pen and his purse, effectual measures, that helped to mark a new era in agricultural improvements. Practical in his views upon all sub- jects, his theories and recommendations occupied the middle ground between a judicious and healthy reform in the cultivation of the earth, and stock breeding, and the extravagancies of mere theorists. The practicability and the usefulness of a thing with him were always allied. Had he been in the place of Mr. Jefferson, his spirit of enter- prise may have dictated the erection of a saw mill upon an eminence, to be propelled by wind, but before he had ventured upon the ex- periment, he would have seen how his saw logs were to be got up the steep ascent.
His, was a mind too active to repose upon the possession of wealth, or fall into supineness and inactivity, when the stimulus of gain had in a measure subsided. It reached out after new objects, when old ones were accomplished. Education, -education of the masses, allied to political economy, in all its later years, became with him, if not a hobby, an object of intense interest. He was not. unmindful of the higher interests of religion, but even those he would have made secondary in the economy of life, believing that educa- tion of the mind was the broad superstructure upon which all of spiritual as well as temporal good should be based. As the possessor of property, he urged upon the wealthy of the state, by strong ap- peals, that it had no security short of the education of the masses, out of which alone wou'd grow a respect for the laws, and vested rights. He was the patron of J. Orville Taylor, in his first move- ments ; had essays upon education, upon political economy, tracts,
have earned what I possess ; upon the whole, do you not think that I should have the privilege of managing it as best suits my choice and inclinations?" There was cer- tainly no convenient way of meeting the rebuke, or answering the interrogatory.
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printed and distributed through the state, at his own expense ; en- listed newspapers in the cause of education, by paying them for setting apart a space for its discussion; aided in the establishment of the District School Journal, and paid salaries to public lecturers, to go through the State, and arouse public attention to its impor- tance. If the system of District School Libraries did not originate with him, (as there are some reasons to suppose it did,) it had the benefit of his early and efficient aid. In the way of agricultural improvement, he had essays printed and distributed, and was an early and efficient patron of Judge Buel, in the starting of the Cultivator, at Albany
A love of order, system and regularity, was one of his leading characteristics. This is strikingly exhibited in his correspond- ence, and the careful manner in which it was preserved; and equally so in the written instructions to his agents. His office clerks he reminded of the maxim :- " Every thing in its place, and a place for every thing ;" and they were forbidden to hold any con- versations with those who came to the office to do business, on the subject of party politics, but instructed to interest themselves, and hold conversations " in reference to schools, and the means of their improvement." His out-door clerk, or farm agent, was in- structed to "frequently visit every farm, make suggestions to ten- ants ; see how they manage affairs, see that every farm has growing upon it good and wholesome fruit ; look to the compost heaps and manure ; see that the premises are made conducive to health." All short comings, negligencies, and slovenly, or bad management, you are to report to the office. Your inquiries should be : - " Are the gates in good order ? Is the wood-pile where it ought to be ? Are the grounds around the house kept in a neat and wholesome manner ? Are the sheds, and yard fence around the barn in a good state of re- pair ? The land agent should make suggestions to the tenants on the leading principles of good husbandry, with frequent reference
NOTE .-- In a letter to Mr. Troup, after he had succeeded to the Pulteney agency, in 1805, Mr. Wadsworth urges the setting apart of land in each township " for a school house, meeting house, glebe, and parsonage." He adds : - " I am not superstitious, but I believe in Christianity ; I am no partisan, but I believe in the piety of patriot- ism ; and amidst the afflictions of this wayward world, it appears to me that the sweet- est consolations that attend advanced life, is a recollection of substantial benefits con- ferred upon our country of having contributed our full mite to the improvement and happiness of our fellow men ; especially to that portion of them whose destinies are in- flueneed more or less by our decisions, and by the sitnations, which, under Providence, we are placed."
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to sound morals, founded on the sanction of religion and just reasoning ; and also the unappreciable importance of the edu- cation of youth, and of a vigilant attention to the state of com- mon schools in the lessees' district. Shade trees must be about each house. From a look or two about the garden or house, you can easily ascertain if the occupant drinks bitters in the morning, or whiskey with his dinner. If he drinks bitters, you will find his garden full of weeds."
To a natural love of rural scenery, skirted and dotted with forests and shade trees,had been added observation in European travel where time had enhanced their beauty and value. In England, in fact, he had learned to love trees, and appreciate the importance of their preservation ; and in nothing has he so distinctly left traces of him- self, as in the beautiful woodland scenery and magnificent forest trees, so much admired, in the immediate valley of the Genesee. With the same forecast that enabled him to estimate the prospec- tive value of lands, he saw far ahead what this whole region is now beginning to realize, the evil of destroying the native forests, with- out planting and rearing trees for future practical uses, as well as ornament.
The personal character of Mr. Wadsworth may mostly be infer- red from this imperfect sketch of him, as the Pioneer and founder of settlements. Almost his entire history is blended with this local region - its early settlement and progress ; though he took a deep interest in public affairs, it was in the retirement of private life, from which he would seem to have never had a disposition to be drawn by any allureinents of official stations. His private corres- pondence, the ability with which he discussed various subjects of political economy, scientific agriculture and education, evince a clear, sound judgment, strengthened by judicious, practical read- ing ; indeed, his library, like all the appointments of his farms, his stock, his dwelling, and his garden, is chosen with a strict regard to utility. "He was," (says a surviving cotemporary, * ) " a good judge of men - seldom erred in his estimation of them - and relying up- on his judgment, ivas even arbitrary in the withholding and bestow- al of confidence. He had not the elements of popularity ; or if he had, did not choose to make them available ; usually absorbed in the cares of business, or some favorite study, he was reserved in his
1
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deportment, and liable to be regarded as austere and unsocial ; but relaxing, as he sometimes would - freeing his mind from its bur- dens, he would exercise fine conversational powers, not unmixed with humor, wit and gaicty."
William Wadsworth, as has already been indicated, was the prac- tical farmer, and has little of history disconnected with the imme- diate supervision of large farming operations, and his early and prominent position in the local military organization. At the battle of Queenston, after the wounding of Gen. Solomon Van Rensselear, the immediate command devolved upon him, and he acquitted him- self with honor, and won even something of laurels, upon a badly selected and generally unfortunate battle field, where they were scarce, and hard to acquire .* He was a bachelor, and a bachelor's history has always an abrupt termination. He died in 1833, aged 71 years. His property which had been mostly held in common with his brother James, was willed to his children ; thus leaving the large estate unbroken.
James Wadsworth died at his residence in Geneseo, in June, 1844, aged 76 years ; leaving two sons and two daughters. His eldest daughter, was the wife of Martin Brimmer, of Boston, at one period the Mayor of that city ; she died in 1834. His second daughter, Elizabeth, was married in January, of the present year, in Scotland, to Charles Augustus Murray, second son of the late Earl of Dunmore, and a nephew of the Duke of Hamilton ; and now resides at Cairo, in Egypt, where her husband is the diplomatic representative of the British Government.t His son, William
* Mansfield, one of the biographers of Gen. Scott, says that when he had crossed the Niagara, at the battle of Queenston, and arrived upon the Heights, he proposed to Gen. Wadsworth, instead of assuming the chief command to limit it to the regular force ; to which the brave and patriotic Wadsworth replied :- "No, you know best professionally what ought to be done ; I am here for the honor of my country, and the New York militia." And the biographer adds : - "Scott assumed the command, and Wadsworth throughout the movements that ensued, dared every danger in seconding his views. Though they had met for the first time, he had become attached to the young Colonel, repeatedly during the battle, interposing his own person to shield Scott from the Indian rifles, which his tall form attracted." This statement, illus- trating the modesty of his courage, is confirmed by General Scott.
t He is the grand son of Lord Dunmore, the governor of the colony of Virginia on the breaking out of the Revolution. In 1834, he visited this country, upon a tour undertaken with the two fold objects of business and pleasure. Upon investigation he ascertained that by some defect or omission in the Virginia acts of confiscation, he could recover a large tract of land that had belonged to his grand-father, but he declined consummating the recovery upon learning that the land was nearly valueless. Striking off into the western States, he organized at St. Louis a corps of adventurers, and with them visited one of the far western Indian nations-the Pawnees-spend- ing the most of a summer with them, joining them in their rural sports, and groom-
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Wadsworth, who married the daughter of - Austin, of Boston, resides at the old family mansion in Geneseo. His son, James S. Wadsworth, who married the daughter of John Wharton, of Philadel- phia, is the occupant of a fine mansion he has erected in a grove, a short distance north of the village of Geneseo, upon a bluff that overlooks a broad sweep of the valley of the Genesee. Upon him, in consequence of the abscence of the surviving sister, and the in- firmities of his brother, devolves the entire management of the Wadsworth estate ; a difficult task, with all its diversified interest, its numerous farms, and tracts of wild lands ; but one that is well performed, not only in reference to the estate itself, but with refer- ence to the public interest in which so large landed possessions are necessarily merged. The representative of the early Pioneers - his father and uncle - " to the manor born" - while he knows little of the hardships, self-denial, the long years of trial and anxiety which attended the accumulation of the immense wealth he controls, he entertains liberal and enlightened views in reference to its man- agement and disposition ; is not unmindful, as his frequent acts of public munificence bear witness, of the local interests and prosper- ity of his native valley of the Genesee. While in many portions of our country, the evil attending the accumulation of great estates, is much enhanced by the narrow and sordid views of those into whose hands they fall; in this, as well as in other instances, in our own prosperous region, it has been mitigated. It was something more than the mere possession of wealth - something of the more legitimate claims to popular esteem - that during the last winter created that intense anxiety in the local public mind, when the worst fears were entertained in reference to the fate of the packet ship, in which the subject of this incidental notice, had taken pas- sage on his return voyage from Europe.
panying them in their buffalo hunts. He is the author of a book of "Travels in North America," and of the popular tale of fact and fiction - of wild adventure and roman- tic incidents - entitled the " Prairie Bird; " which the author is informed by one of the trade, has reached a tenth edition, in this country. James Wadsworth made the acquaintance of the family during his residence in Europe, and the younger member of it brought a letter of introduction to him when he came out to this country in 1834; thence the acquaintance; the sequel, after a long delay, consequent upon the mooted question of country and residence, has been the transfer of one of the daughters of the Genesee from her native valley, to the court and the diplomatic circle of one of the far off capitols of the Old World.
NOTE. - James Wadsworth in his life time, founded a library in Geneseo, erecting a building for the purpose, and for its support deeding to its trustees two farms and some village property. He made it free to every citizen of Livingston county. It has
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In the primitive division of Ontario into Districts, the second district, Geneseo, embraced all west of the east line of the present towns of Pittsford, Mendon, Richmond. The first town meeting for the "District of Geneseo, " was held at Canawagus, April 9, 1791. John Ganson was chosen Sup. David Bullen, T. C. Other town officers : Gad Wadsworth, Nathan Perry, Amos Hall, Israel Stone, Edward Carney, Hill. Carney, Jno. Ball, Isaiah Thompson,' Benj. Gardner, John Lusk, Jasper Marvin, Norris Humphrey.
It will be observed that these officers were distributed throughout the entire settled region west of the line named above. It used to be alleged that a little feeling of aristocracy had thus early crept into the backwoods, and manifested itself in the choice of supervisor - shoes, moccasins, and bare feet, were the order of the day, but "Capt Ganson, " glorying in the possession of a pair of boots, the choice fell upon him.
The town meeting in 1793, was held at "Miles Gore," Lima ; Amos Hall was elected Supervisor. This year, most of all the early roads in Livingston, east part of Monroe, and west part of Ontario, were laid out and recorded. Store and tavern licenses were granted to Gilbert R. Berry, Wm. Wadsworth, Simon Stone, Elijah Flowers, Pierce and Ransom, John Johnson, Donald Mc- Donald, Elijah Starr, Abel Willey, Peter Simms, Nathaniel Fowler, James Rogers, Wm. Hencher, Abner Migells. Nathaniel Perry, Christopher Dugan.
At that early period, when stock of all kinds ran in the woods, ear marks were appended. It is presumed that nearly all of the in- habitants had their peculiar marks recorded. In many of the old town books, the picture of a hog or a sheep's ear, is drawn, with each man's mark delienated opposite his name. In 1796, there were upon the town books of the district of Geneseo, the following names of those who had chosen ear marks, in all the wide region west of East Bloomfield to the western boundaries of the State. There is no other form in which so many Pioneer names are re- corded :-
now about 2,300 volumes, and a yearly income of about $600. In his will, he constitu- ted his immediate heirs its trustees. Its management devolves upon James S. Wads- worth, under which it is carrying out the designs of its founder, and promises to become one of the largest Libraries in the State. He gave $10,000 the income of which is to be ยท employed in the education of any indigent relative. He also gave $10,000, the in- come of which is to be devoted to the benefit of the common schools of the State.
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