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 39

Author: Turner, O. (Orsamus); Lookup, George E. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1851
Publisher: Rochester, W. Alling
Number of Pages: 640


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 39
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 39
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 39
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 39
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 39
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 39
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 39
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 39
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 39
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 39


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


LIMA.


Paul Davison, in the summer of 1788,f about the period that Mr. Phelps was negotiating his Indian purchase, in company with his brother-in-law, Jonathan Gould, came from the valley of the Sus- quehannah, to look out a new home in the Genesee country. Passing


* He finally met his deserts. Enlisting as an ally of the western Indians against Wayne, he was among the killed.


t If the author's informant is correct in the year, this was the first advent of an household west of the Adam's settlement, in Bloomfield.


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the last white habitation at Geneva, they pursued the Indian trail to the present town of Lima ; where, finding a location to suit them, they erected a cabin and commenced making an opening in the forest. Going to the Indian lands at Canawaugus, they planted and raised a patch of corn and potatoes. Their location was about one mile south of the Indian trail, near the west line of the town. Af- ter some improvements upon their cabin, such as the luxury of a bark roof, and a hewed plank floor, and gathering the small crop they had raised upon Indian lands, they returned to the Susquehan- nah, and in the spring of 1789, Mr. Davison, with his family, con- sisting of his wife and her mother, and two children, came to make his permanent home in the wilderness. He was accompanied by Asahel Burchard, The family and household implements were con- veyed in an ox cart, Mr. Davison and his companion sleeping under the cart, and the family in the cart, during the whole journey. Their route was Sullivan's track, the whole distance from the Sus- quehannah to where the Indian trail bore off in the direction of Canawaugus. They had bridges to build occasionally, and logs to cut out. before they left the track of Sullivan ; after that, they had their own road to make for the greater part of the way to the place of their destination. The journey consumed three weeks. Mr. Davison raised a crop of oats and turnips, the first of any kind raised in Lima ; and in that and a few succeeding years, cultivated Indian lands at Canawaugus. For two years, the family pounded all their corn in a stump mortar, getting their first grinding done at the Al- lan mill. Captain Davison and some of his Pioneer neighbors, took six or seven bushels of corn to Canawaugus, hired an Indian canoe, and took it down to the mill. On their return up the river, their canoe upset, and their meal became wet and unfit for use ; a small matter to make a record of, some readers will say, and yet, let them be assured, it was no small matter with those new beginners in the wilderness. In 1790, Mrs. Davison's mother died ; it being the second death in the Genesee country after settlement commenced. A daughter of Captain Davison, who became the wife of James Otis, of Perry, Wyoming county, was the first born white female west of Geneva. Captain Davison died in 1804, aged 41 years, after having become a successful farmer, and the owner of a large farm. Mrs. Davison died in 1844, aged 80 years.


Dr. John Miner and Abner Migells, had settled in Lima, in the


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summer of 1790; and it is presumed that Mr. Burchard had then brought in his family ; as his name, as the head of a family, occurs in the census of that period. He still survives to enjoy the fruits of his early enterprise and life of toil. "He was," says a corres- pondent of the author, "always a kind and good neighbor, and much esteemed by the early settlers."


Lima was called, in an early period, " Miles' Gore," the fraction of a township having been purchased in the name of Abner Miles, or Abner Migells, as the author finds it on some of the early records. According to the recollections of William Hencher, he must have left Lima soon after settlement commenced there ; as he was early engaged with his father in trading trips to Canada, and erected a public house at Toronto in the earliest years of settlement there.


The brothers, Asahel and Matthew Warner, Miles Bristol, and others, who were early and prominent Pioneers in Lima, the author hopes to be able to speak of in another connection. At present, he has not the necessary datas.


Reuben F. Thayer must have settled in Lima before the close of 1790. The venerable Judge Hopkins, of Niagara county, was in the fall of 1789, with a number of companions, returning to New Jersey. after a trading excursion. Passing Canawaugus, they as- sisted Gilbert R. Berry in erecting his first log house ; and the next day, finding a "settler just arrived by the name of Thayer, with logs ready for a house," they stopped and assisted him.


Wheelock Wood came to Lima in the winter of 1795, locating upon the present site of the college, where he commenced clearing, and erected a log cabin. He remained there a few years, and re- moved to Livonia, and from there, in 1807, to Gainesville, Wyoming county. He died in 1834.


In an early period of settlement in Lima, ancient remains, and relics of French occupancy were to be seen in various localities. The " Ball Farm," so prolific in these, and so often alluded to by an- tiquarians, is within the town. Upon the farm of Miles Bristol, a short distance west of Lima village, upon a commanding eminence, the embankments and ditches of an ancient Fort were easily traced. In ploughing upon his farm, in early years, Mr. Bristol picked up several hundred pounds of old iron, chiefly French axes.


James K. Guernsey, in connection with the Nortons, of Bloom- field and Canandaigua, and afterwards upon his own account, was


24


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the early prominent merchant of Lima. He removed to Pittsford, where he died in 1839. George Guernsey, of Michigan, is his son ; Mrs. Mortimer F. Delano, of Rochester, is his daughter. For many years, his store in Lima commanded the trade of a wide region.


CHAPTER VI.


-


PIONEER EVENTS IN WHAT IS NOW WAYNE COUNTY.


IN the winter of 1788, '9, John Swift and Col. John Jenkins, pur- chased T. 12, R. 2, now Palmyra, and commenced the survey of it into farm lots, in March. Jenkins being a practical surveyor, built a camp on the bank of Ganargwa creek, about two miles below the present village of Palmyra. His assistants were his nephew, Al- pheus Harris, Solomon Earle, - Baker, and Daniel Ransom. One morning about 2 o'clock, the party being asleep in their bunks, their fire giving light enough to show their several positions, a party of fonr Tuscarora Indians and a squaw stealthily approached, and the Indi- ans.putting their guns through the open spaces between the logs, se- lected their'victims and fired. Baker was killed, Earle, lying upon his back, with his hand upon his breast, a ball passed through his hand and breast, mutilated his nose, and lodged under the frontal sinus between his eyes. Jenkins and Ransom escaped unhurt, and en- countering the murderers - Jenkins with his Jacob staff, and Ran- som with an axe - drove them off, capturing two of their rifles and a tomahawk. In the morning they buried their dead companion, carried Earle to Geneva, and gave the alarm. The Indians were pursued, and two captured on the Chemung river. The nearest jail being Johnstown, it was feared they would be rescued ; if an at- tempt was made to carry them there; what in later years would be called a Lynch court, was organized ; they were tried and execu- ted at Newtown, now Elmira. The execution was after the Indian method, with the tomahawk. They were taken back into the


.


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woods, and blindfolded. One of the executioners dispatched his victim at a blow; the other failed; the Indian being a stout athletic fellow, parried the blow, escaped, was followed by a possee, who caught and beat him to death with stones and pine knots! This was the first trial and execution in the Genesee country. Horrid and lawless as it may now seem, it was justified by then existing exigencies.


During the summer, John Swift moved into the township, erect- ing a log house and store house at "Swift's Landing a little north of . the lower end of Main street, Palmyra.


Before the close of the year 1789, Webb Harwood, from Adams, Berkshire county, with his wife came in and erected a cabin on the rise of ground near first lock west of Palmyra, upon the farm now owned and occupied by Dennison Rogers. He was accompanied by Noah Porter, Jonathan Warner and Bennet Bates, single men. The author is disposed to regard Harwood as the Pioneer, although it is generally supposed that Gen. Swift had previously brought in a family. No family but that of Mr. Harwood and David White


NOTE .- The Indian party had their hunting camp near the surveyors, and had seve- ral times shared their provisions ; the incentive was hunger. One of them that escaped was "Turkey" well known in after years upon the Genesee river. He had a scar upon his face, the mark of a blow from Jenkin's Jacob staff. During the war of 1812, he contracted the small pox upon the frontier ; came to Squaky Hill. The In- dians dreading the spread of the disease, carried him to a hut in the pine woods near Moscow, where he was left to die alone. Earl recovered. He was the early ferry man at the Seneca outlet. There have been many versions of this affair. The author de- rived his information from the late Judge Porter, and from Judge John H. Jones, whose informants were Horatio Jones and Jasper Parrish, who were present at the trial and execution. He has also a printed account of it in the Maryland Journal, of April 1789. Alpheus Harris was living a few years since, if he is not now, at Spanish Hill, a few miles from Tioga Point. He says the Indians were "tried by committee law."


NOTE .- John Swift was a native of Litchfield County Connecticut. He took an active part in the Revolutionary war, and at its close, with his brother Philetus, was an emigrant to the disputed territory in Pennsylvania. He held a commission, and was at the battle of Wyoming ; and was also engaged in the "Pennamite" war, where he set fire to a Pennamite block house. He became a commissioned officer in the earliest organization of the militia and in the campaign of 1814 upon the Niagara Fron- tier, he was commissioned as Brig Gen. of N. Y. volunteers. In reconnoitering the enemy's position and works at Fort George, he captured a picket guard, and while in the act of receiving their arms, one of the prisoners shot him through the breast ; an at- tack from a superior British force followed ; the wounded General rallied his men, commenced a successful engagement, when he fell exhausted by his wound. "Never" says an historian of the war, "was the country called upon to lament the loss of a firm- er patriot or braver man." The Legislature voted a sword to his oldest male heir. The gift fell to Asa R. Swift of Palmyra who was drowned in Sodus Bay in 1820 or 21 by the upsetting of a boat while engaged in fishing. The sword is now in the hands of Henry C. Swift, his son, a resident o.Phelps. His companion Ashley Van Duzer, was also drowned ; his widow a sister of Mrs. Gen. Brooks, became the wife of Gen. Mills of Mt. Morris. and now resides at Brook's Grove. The Rev. Marcus Swift, of Michigan is a son of Gen Swift.


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is enumerated in the census taken in the summer of 1790. Mr. Harwood died in 1824. Wm. Harwood, of Ann Arbor, Mich- igan is a son of his ; his daughters became the wives of Isaac Mace, of Perry, Wyoming co, and -- Coe, of Kirtland, Ohio.


The settlers that followed, in 1790, '91, '92, in the order in which they are named, or as nearly so as the author's information enables him to arrange them, were :- Lemuel Spear, David Jackways, James Galloway, Jonathan Millet, the Mattisons ; Gideon Durfee the elder, his sons Gideon, Edward, Job, Pardon, Stephen, and Lemuel; Isaac Springer ; William, James and Thomas Rogers ; John Russell, Nathan Harris, David Wilcox, Joel Foster, Abraham Foster, Elias Reeves, Luther Sanford; and to what was Palmyra, now Macedon, in addition to those that have been named, Messrs, Reid, Delano, Packard Barney, Brown, Adam Kingman, Hill, Lap- ham, Benj. and Philip Woods.


Lemuel Spear, was a soldier of the Revolution, as most of the Pioneer settlers of Palmyra were. He was from Cummington, Mass. The family came on runners, before the breaking up of the ground in Feb '90, with two yoke of oxen, some cows and sheep, having little more than a bare track and blazed trees to guide them from Vienna to their destination, a mile above Palmyra village, where Mr. Spear had purchased land of Isaac Hathaway, for twenty cents per acre. The season being mild, they turned their stock out upon the open flats, some of which had been cultivated by the Indians, where they got along well through the winter and spring; the fam- ily consisting of the parents and nine children, living in a covered sleigh and in a structure similar to the Indians camp, until they had planted a few acres in the spring, when they built a log house. ·Bringing in a year's provisions, and killing deer whenever they wanted fresh meat, or bartering for venison with the Indians, they got along very well until after the harvest of their few primitive acres of crops. In the first winters, the Indians camped upon the flats and were peaceable, good neighbors, hunting and trapping, occasionally getting a beaver, the last of a colony, selling their furs and skins to traders and bantering their surplus venison with the new settlers. Lemuel Spear died in 1809 ; his surviving sons, are : - Ebenezer Spear, of Penfield, Abraham Spear, of Jeddo, Orleans county, Stephen Spear, residing upon the old homestead. A daughter is the wife of Dr. Mallory, of Wisconsin.


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Ebenezer Spear is now in his 78th year. Leaving Palmyra in early years he went to sea, engaged in mercantile business in Bos- ton, returned to Palmyra in 1804, married for a second wife, a daughter of Francis Postle, an early tailor in Canandaigua and Pal- myra, from the city of Prague, in Bohemia, moved to North Pen- field in 1807. He was one of the Carthage Bridge company, and opened a tavern at Carthage, while the bridge was constructing.


REMINISCENCES OF EBENEZER SPEAR.


In 1790, after we had got settled at Palmyra, the wife of our predecessor in the wilderness, Webb Harwood, in a delicate state of health, preceding child-birth, required wine, and her indulgent husband determined upon pro- enring some. At his request, I went to Canandaigua, found none - to Utica, and was equally unsuccessful - and continuing my journey to Schenectady, procured six quarts of wine of Charles Kane. I was fourteen days making the journey on foot, carrying my provisions in a knapsack, sleeping under a roof but four of thirteen nights.


Our first boards came from Granger's saw-mill on Flint Creek, several years after we came in; Captain Porter built the first framed barn, and my father the next one. I burned the first lime kiln west of Seneca Lake, for General Othniel Taylor, of Canandaigua. In 1794, or '5, Abraham and Jacob Smith built mills in Farmington, on the Ganargwa Creek ; previous to which, we used to go to The Friend's mills in Jerusalem. The first corn carried to mill from Palmyra, was by Noah Porter. He went to Jerusalem with an ox team in '90, carrying corn for all the settlers, taking ten days in going and returning. His return to the settlement was hailed with great joy, for pound- ing corn was very hard work. Our coffee was made of burnt corn; our tea, of hemlock and other bark; and for chocolate, dried evans root was frequent- ly used.


David White died in early years - the first death and funeral in Palmyra. His sons were, the late Gen. David White, of Sylvania, Michigan ; Orrin White, a resident of Ann Arbor, Michigan ; and Drs. James and William White, who reside at Black Rock; a daughter married Col. Otis Turner, of Niagara Falls. Bennett Bates is still living at Ridgeway, Orleans county ; is the father of. Lyman Bates, of Ridgeway, and Orlando Bates, of Jeddo. Noah Porter died in early years ; he was the father of Mrs. Sey- mour Scovell, of Lewiston, and John Porter, Esq., of Youngstown.


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PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.


Jacob Gannett was an early settler, and founder of the mills near Macedon Locks.


The Durfee family, who have been named, were from Tiverton, Rhode Island. In the summer of 1790, Gideon and Edward came first to Farmington, and Gideon returning in the fall, represented the country so favorably, that the whole family resolved upon emi- gration. Gideon, with Isacc Springer, came back in the winter of '90, '91, with an ox sled, consuming 173 days in the journey. Gideon purchased of John Swift his choice of 1600 acres. He located it on what was long known as "Durfee Street," a short dis- tance below Palmyra, securing a large amount of the flats on the Ganargwa. Being soon re-joined by his brother Edward, the brothers and Springer built a cabin, and clearing six acres, and without the use of a plough, planted it to corn. The brothers re- turned to Rhode Island, and brought out their brothers, Pardon and Job, with their families, coming in a batteaux, and landing at their new home in the wilderness, almost destitute of food. They were re- joiced on their arrival to find their corn fit for roasting, a forward- ness they have never since known. It served them the two-fold purposes of food, and confidence in the soil and climate. The six acres yielded 50 bushels to the acre, a quantity that served their own wants and over-stocked the market, as there were few con- sumers. The remainder of the large family came out in the winter of '91, '2. They had a large erop, some of which was marketed at Schenectady, probably the first that ever reached that market from as far west as Palmyra. Otherwise prosperous, sickness soon laid a heavy hand upon the large household, 17 out of 22 being prostrated at one time with fevers. Their first bread was made from pounded corn ; their first grinding was procured at Wilder's mill, and occasionally at The Friend's mill, Jerusalen.


The descendants of the Pioneer and Patriarch, Gideon Durfee, were 11 sons and daughters, 96 grand-children, and the whole num- ber are now over 200. The daughters became the wives of the Pioneers, Welcome Herendeen, of Farmington, Weaver Osborne, Humphrey Sherman and William Wilcox, of Palmyra. The only surviving son, is Stephen Durfee, of Palmyra, aged 75 years; and the only surviving daughter, is Ruth Wilcox, aged 76 years.


Elias Durfee and Mrs. Thomas Lakey, of Marion, Elihu Durfee, of Williamson, William, Isaac, Lemuel, Bailey Durfee and Mrs.


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PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE.


Brown, of Palmyra, Mrs. Wicks, of Ogden, Mrs. Edward S. Town- send, late of Palmyra, Charles Durfee, of New York, Philo Durfee, of Buffalo, Sidney Durfee, of Chicago, Allen, Barton and Nathaniel Durfee, of Michigan, are among the descendants.


REMINISCENCES OF STEPHEN DURFEE


There was general prosperity in the early settlement; all were friendly; mutual dependence made us so; and struggling with the hardships of pioneer life, there was a fellow feeling, a sympathy for each other's misfortunes, but little of which exists now. The first eurse that came upon us was whiskey distilleries, when the new settlers would take their corn and rye, and get them converted to what was the cause in many instances, of their ruin, and that of many of their sons. There was not only habitual, every day drinking, but much intoxication. I saw so much of the evils of intoxication, that I refrain- ed entirely, and was almost alone in it. I think the first temperance move- ment, practical one, in all this region, was made by me when I raised my house in 1811. When I invited my neighbors to the raising, I gave out that no liquor would be provided; and although it was a new experiment, I had no difficulty in raising my house. Striet temperance was not then a disci- pline with the society of Friends to which I belonged, but afterwards be- came so.


In the way of markets, our earliest grain mostly went to the distilleries, and supplied the new settlers. After Zebulon Williams, the early merchant established his store, he commeneed a barter trade, receiving for goods, grain and cattle. Money was scaree; those who were pretty well off were troubled many times, to pay their taxes, and much property used to be sacrificed at public sale. Williams was the first eash purchaser for wheat, but the prices were fluctuating; running down sometimes to 373 cents. One of my neigh- bors once sold his wheat in Rochester, for twenty-five cents.


In early years we could hardly believe that settlement would go much be- yond the Genesee River, during our life time. We thought we were quite far enough to the west; as far removed from markets as it would answer to venture; and we that had seen the hardest features of pioneer life, were surprised to see or hear of men attacking the dark heavy forests of the Holland Purchase.


Our first commerce was the navigation of the Ganargwa creek; then came the " big wagons," and then the Erie Canal, that gave us fair, steady prices for produce, raised the value of lands, and brought on a new era of enterprise and prosperity.


The Indians, were hunting and trapping, camping in our neighborhood, in all the earliest years. The flats of the Ganargwa, and the adjoining up lands were favorite hunting grounds. Many of the sons of the early settlers were trappers. It was about our only means of obtaining any money. I have re- alized from muskrat and coon furs, $50 in a season. I caught a beaver in a trap that I set for otter. Henry Lovell, a famous hunter was here in early


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years, he had trapped beaver for years. He said he had often tamed the young ones. Following their instinct (or reasoning,) when it rained they would knaw up chairs, and other household furniture, and go through with all the ceremony of erecting dams. When suffered to go out, they would com- menee dams upon the small streams.


All the low grounds of Palmyra were very heavily timbered; there were but small patches of open flats. To look out before we got clearing's, we had to go upon the top of " Wintergreen Hill." Upon this hill, just before Wayne's victory, we contemplated the erection of a block house, fearing an outbreak of the Indians. But we were soon quieted by events that followed.


I remember very well the first town meeting. It was held at my father's house. All were well pleased with the idea that we had got along fast enough in the "District of Tolland" to have a town organization. John Swift was the Captain of our first training - his beat, all this north country. The company parade was at his house; he gave out a liberal supply of damaged powder - salutes were fired - occasionally an old revolutionary musket burst ; as holidays were scarce then, we used to make the most of them.


We began to have apples, from the seed, soon after 1800. Previous to that we had plenty of wild plums, crab apples, cranberries, &c. Evans root chocolate was a common beverage; and we used wheat and tea for coffee. Our nails cost us 25 cents per lb., "hum hum" for shirts, 50 cents per yard, a luxury that but few could indulge in. Our wool had to be carded by hand, in all the early years. John Swift built the first carding machine, on the present site of Goddard's mill.


Nathan Harris was the principal early hunter of Palmyra; and fisherman too; in 1792 he drew a net across Ganargwa creek, near the present residence of Mrs. Williams, and caught eighteen large salmon. He was the father of Martin Harris, who was an early convert to Mormonism, and mortgaged his fine farm to pay for the printing of the . " Gold Bible." **


Zebulon Williams, who has been mentioned by Stephen Durfee, as the early merchant, died several years since, his widow survives, a resident at the old homestead. Platt Williams, of California, who was early engaged in canal transportations at Albany, and Richard,


* The late Mr.s Eden Foster, of Batavia, whose first husband was Moody Stone, of Palmyra, was an inmate of the family of Dr. Town. She gave the author a graphic description of a husking frolic in '96, at the house 'of Nathan Harris : - "We had a pot pie baked in a five pail kettle, composed of 13 fowls, as many squirrels, and due proportions of beef, mutton and venison ; baked meats, beans and huge pumpkin pies. Hunting stories, singing, dancing on a split basswood floor, snap and catch 'em, jump- ing the broom stick, and hunt the squirrel, followed the feast. "All joined in the rustic sports, there was no aristocracy in those days." "In Canandaigua " continued the old lady, "the dances were more fashionable, but there was no aristocracy there; thongh a hired girl, in families of Gen. Taylor, and Abner Barlow, I used to attend the frolfes and dance with Peter B. and Augustus Porter, Thon as Morris, Samuel and Judah Colt, Dr. Atwater, and many others of distinction." The old lady was even eloquent when reminiscences of the past, one after another, would flash upon her memory.




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