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 56
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 56
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 56
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 56
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 56
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 56
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 56
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 56
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 56
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 56
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
Pittsford village, in point of time, may be said to have been a Pioneer locality next to Canandaigua, and as early as Geneseo, Avon, Palmyra and Lyons. The fine bluff which forms its site, at the base of which was a valuable spring, drew the attention of the early adventures to the spot. There were long years in which the principal business of a wide region was transacted there ; and though it is now one of the out posts of an over-shadowing city, time was, (and that within the memory of hundreds who survive,) when the few settlers in the small openings of the dense forest on the site of that city, thought themselves out in the world again, when they
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had reached that village, where there were dry streets, comfortable public and private dwellings, merchants, mechanics, lawyers, and doctors, and " stated preaching."
The town of Northfield was organized in 1794. It was then all of what is now Pittsford, Penfield, Perrinton, Henrietta, Brighton, Irondequoit, and Webster. The first town meeting was in 1796. It was " opened by Phineas Bates." Silas Nye was chosen super- visor, John Ray town clerk. Other town officers, Noah Norton, Caleb Hopkins, Glover Perrin, Jonas Sawen, Jesihel Farr, Aaron Stone, Ezra Patterson, Samuel Bennett, Henry Bagley, Alexander Dunn, William Acer, Paul Richardson. In 1798, the name of the town was changed to Boyle. In 1813, the town of Boyle was divided into three towns, Penfield, Perrinton and Smallwood ; and in 1814 the town of Brighton was erected ; and in the same year, what is now Pittsford and Henrietta, was made to constitute a town which was called Pittsford. Henrietta was erected in 1818. There was no such town as "Stonetown ;" this was the early designation of the settlement ; as in the case of " Boughtontown," " Pittstown," &c.
A school was organized in what is now Pittsford, as early as 1794 ; a Congregational church in 1809.
John Mann, saw the Genesee country immediately after the close of the Revolution - as early as 1784. A resident of New Jersey, in company with Allen Nixon and - - Scritchfield, he came through the wilderness from the Delaware River, following the Indian trails to Niagara River. Failing to make some contempla- ted arrangements with Gov. Simcoe in Canada, for a settlement there, the party returned to New Jersey. Upon the Genesee river they made the acquaintance of Ebenezer Allan, who offered to ob- tain for Mr. Mann the Indian grant of 500 acres of the present site of the city of Buffalo, for the horse he rode. Mr. Mann visited the country again in 1803 in company with his son, Wm. Mann of Pen- field. He found at that early period a sister of his wife - a Mrs. Field - who had settled with a large family of sons and daughters, in a small Indian village at the mouth of the Wiscoy, in Allegany county. In 1804 Mr. Mann moved his famly, consisting of a wife and ten children, to Victor, and renting land of Enos Boughton, raised 500 bushels of wheat for his own share, which he exchanged with Zachariah Seymour, of Canandaigua, for the hundred acres of land in Penfield, upon which his son now resides. In 1805 he bought of Simon Stone fifty acres of land on the Irondequoit near the great embankment, upon which Mr. Stone had erected a small grist mill and saw mill soon after 1790. Mr. Mann re-built the mills in 1812. As " Stone's mills" and " Mann's mills," they were known in early years throughout a wide region. Millwrights of the pre- sent day may learn something of the expedients of the early period in which the saw mill was built; of what " necessity, the mother of invention," used to accomplish ; from the fact, that the saw used in
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Mr. Stone's primitive mill was made by Samuel Bennett, a black- smith, by welding together old scythes. Mr. Mann died 1824, aged 75 years. His son, other than the one already noticed in connec- tion with Penfield, is Jacob Mann, of Pittsford ; daughters became wives of Wm. B. Jobson, of Canandaigua, Calvin R. Cheeny, of Michigan ; Mrs. Asahel Baker, of Iowa.
.Stephen Lusk, whose early advent is noticed in connection with Brighton, became a resident of Pittsford in 1807, establishing there a primitive tannery, and continuing it for many years. He is now the occupant of a fine farm, a mile east of the village on the Victor road.
PERRINTON.
It has little of pioneer history distinct from that of Pittsford, with which its territory was blended previous to 1810; and it is one of those localities from which the author has been favored with no account of its early settlers. It will be observed that its original proprietor made a commencement there as early as 1790, and died in that year at Canandaigua; his companion, Glover Perrin, leaving soon after; it was several years before its settlement was again attempted. Among the earliest settlers were, Jesse Perrin, Asa Perrin, Edward Perrin, Major Norton, John Scott, Levi Treadwell, Richard Treadwell, John Peters, and Gideon Ramsdell.
With reference to the uplands of Victor, Mendon, Pittsford, Per- rinton, Penfield and Irondequoit ; oak openings, and to a small ex- tent, pine plains, a marked change has occurred. It was an inviting soil when settlement commenced ; far easier beginning upon it, and making more speedy returns for labor expended, than the heavily timbered lands. But long years of discouragement and stinted crops succeeded. The sandy, light soil became almost unproduc- tive, in some instances their cultivation was abandoned, and the vallies and intervals became the chief dependence. In Victor, as late as 1820, uplands were sold as low as from $3 to $6 per acre. Since about that period a change has been going on, until from the poorest, these lands have become, if not the best, equal in value to any in all this garden of the State. Their prices now range from $40 to $80 per acre ; in Pittsford, farms have been sold this sum- mer as high as $80. Time, and each successive cultivation, im- proves the soil.
Omitting any speculations or any theories of his own, the author
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will give the opinions of others, as to the cause, or causes of all this. Mr. Wm. C. Dryer, of Victor, a man of intelligence and careful observation, says that the frequent burning over of these openings that preceded settlement and cultivation, had rendered inert and unproductive, the surface soil, while it had been making deposites in the sub-soil, of some of the most essential elements of vegetation, which deeper plowing has been developing, and other of improved cultivation, making available. The late Timothy Backus, of Le Roy and Lockport, (one of nature's students, as well as one of her " noble- men,") a few years before his death, in conversation with the author, was citing the fact that the first board of commissioners, sent out by our government to explore the peninsula of Michigan, made a report, which is upon record, in substance, that it was unfit for hab- itation or cultivation, and would never repay the cost of survey and sale. "They judged," said he, "that the heavily timbered lands were generally too wet for cultivation, and that the burr oak openings, which predominated, were unproductive barrens, because they saw upon them but stinted herbage, and a feeble undergrowth of shrub- bery. There was in the soil rich and abundant elements of agri- culture, as time and experiment has demonstrated, but it was in the sub-soil ; the surface soil had been depleted by fire, and deteriorated, or poisoned by the acids of the oak and chestnut leaves. This remark is applicable to the same kind of lands in our own region ; the new settlers could at first realize but stinted crops upon them. Even now, wherever the oak or chestnut leaf has fallen and decayed for a long succession of years, it requires time and cultivation to make the soil productive."
MENDON.
Township 11, R. 5, what is now Mendon, containing 23.040 acres, was the last sale made by Phelps and Gorham previous to the sale made to Sir Wm. Pulteney and his associates. The purchasers were " Franklin and Boughton," or the entry of sale is to them. The township was soon subdivided, and Jeremiah Wadsworth be- came the owner of 11,000. Other large early proprietors of the re- mainder of the town were, Catlin & Ferris, Waddington & Pepoon, Jonathan Ball. Ebenezer Barnard, of Hartford, Conn., became the owner of half of the Wadsworth tract. The whole 11,000 acres was settled under the auspices principally of James Wadsworth, either as owner or agent, The Ball tract was sold to Augustus and Peter B. Porter, and Zel ulon Norton. Zebulon Norton, from Ver- mont, was the Pioneer in the township, erecting mills as early as 1791, on the Honeoye Falls. He died in 1814 ; his son Ezra, upon
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whom the care of the mill and farm devolved in early years, died two years previous.
Sales of farm lots were commenced by James Wadsworth, on the 11,000 acre tract, in June, 1793; in that and the succeeding year, sales were made to " Dan Williams, Cornelius Treat, Elijah Williams, Benjamin Parks, Ebenezer Rathbun, Rufus Parks, Nathan Williams, Moses Everett, Wm. Hickox, Lorin Wait, Reuben Hill ;" not all of whom, it is presumed, became actual settlers. The prices they paid were from $1 25 to $2 per acre. Treat, Williams, Hickox, and Parks, "all from Berkshire," were actual settlers in 1791. Other early Pioneers in the township, in succession, all be- fore the close of 1800, were, John Parks, Jonas Allen, Joseph Bryan, Samuel Lane, Charles Foote ; and soon after 1800, Moses Rowell, Elijah Leland. Charles Foote, of Mendon, and Elias Foote, of Alex- ander, Genesee Co., are sons of Charles Foote ; daughters became wives of Enos Blossom and Gaius Lane ; other sons and daughters re- side at the west. Capt. Treat died in 1848, at the advanced age of 81 years ; his wife, whose first husband was Benjamin Palmer, an early settler at Palmyra-father of Geo. Palmer of Buffalo-died in 1849. Capt. Treat was not only an early settler, but for more than half a century was a prominent citizen of the town, of whom much could be said, as in hundreds of other instances, if the necessary briefness of these sketches would allow of it. Dr. John Jay Treat and Ellery Treat, of Rochester, Nelson Treat, upon the home- stead, and Joseph Treat, residing at the west, are surviving sons. Amaziah, Calvin, and Thomas Parks, of Mendon, are the sons of Benjamin Parks. Joseph Williams, of Canandaigua, is the son of Nathan Williams. Rufus, John, Benjamin, and James Parks, of Mendon, are the sons of John Parks, who still survives. The sur- viving sons of Capt. Jonas Allen are, Ethan, in California ; Daniel, residing upon the homestead ; and George, a magistrate in Mendon ; a daughter is the widow of the late Dr. Milton Sheldon. Of eight sons of Samuel Lane, but one survives, Gaius Lane of Rochester. Judge John Bryan, of Michigan, is the only surviving son of Joseph Bryan.
Other early settlers of Mendon : - Marvin Smith, Henry Shel- ters, Jacob Young, John and William Dixon. John Moore, John Sims. Benjamin of Mendon, and Isaac Smith, of Rush, are sons of Marvin Smith. Lyman Shelters, of Mendon, and Cabot Shel- ters of Bloomfield, are sons of Henry Shelters. Jacob Young was an early and enterprising manufacturer at the Falls ; now survives, as do in fact, a larger number of the early Pioneers named, than is usual in other localities. Amos Dixon at the Honeoye Falls, is a son of John Dixon.
The early physician was Dr. Knickerbacker, who was the foun- der of Knickerbacker Hall, Avon, now a resident of Rochester. He was succeeded by Dr. Harvey Allen, who is yet in practice.
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Dr. Wm. Brown was the early physician in East Mendon, is now a resident of Pembroke, Genesee county.
Zebulon Townsend was an early settler on what was called " Abraham's Plains," still survives, at the age of 75 years. Surviv- ing sons are :- Geo. P. Townsend, an Attorney, in Penfield, Jo- seph B .. of Mendon, Jeremiah, Seth and Gideon, of Marengo, Mich- igan. Mrs. John R. Stuart and Mrs. Orra Case, of Honeoye Falls, and Mrs. S. N. Degroff, of Marengo, are his daughters.
Timothy Barnard, who was the brother of the early land propri- etor, (but not resident,) named above, removed from the city of Hartford -exchanging a comfortable home for a log cabin in the new region -in 1808. He died in 1847 or '8, aged 91 years. It is a singular fact, that although he brought a large family into the new country, and his descendants in the second degree became nu- merous, his was the first death that occurred in the whole family circle. Ile was an early Judge of Ontario, and in other respects a prominent and useful citizen. He was the father of Daniel D. Barnard, the U. S. Minister to Prussia, of Timothy and Henry Barnard who reside on the homested.
Among the reminiscences of the early settlers of Mendon, is that of an oak stump, on the farm of Capt. Treat, nine feet in diameter. The tree was supposed to have been cut down by the Indians. On the farm of Mr. Parks, a section of a hollow sycamore was cut off, 6 feet in length, through which a pair of oxen, of ordinary size, was driven in their yoke. John Stimpson, a trapper, caught on Capt. Treat's farm, 9 wolves in one night, for which he received a bounty of $90'; a large sum of money in those primitive times. Wolves pursued Capt. Treat one night for miles ; and nothing but the supe- rior speed of his horse saved him from becoming an inhabitant of an older settled country, "where wolves cease from troubling." Dr. Joel Brace, the early physician in Victor, was going from Norton's Mills towards home, on the old Indian trail. When near what is now Miller's corners, his horse suddenly stopped, and looking ahead of him he saw in his path a huge panther, crouched and ready to spring upon him. An attempt to turn around would have been fatal. With much presence of mind he suddenly spread his umbrella, and shaking it, the animal walked off.
The town was organized in 1813. Jonas Allen was the first supervisor ; Daniel Dunks town clerk. A Baptist church was or- ganized in 1809 ; the first pastor, the Rev. Jessee Brayman ; a Con- gregational church in 1817 or '18, the first settled minister the Rev.
NOTE .- " The empire region of the Empire State," is a designation occasionally given to our favored and prosperous locality ; rather vauntingly perhaps ; but it has really come to be something more than a figure of speech. From the "Genesce Coun- try," a wilderness when our national existence commenced, and for long years after- wards, there has gone out a President of the United States ; a Post Master General ; a Foreign Minister; and a Governor and Lieutenant Governor of our State; at one and the same period.
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Nathaniel Taylor. The early mechanics were : -- Nathaniel Wil- liams, Wm. Hickox, Nathaniel Bryan, Samuel Lane ; Gen. Chalotte Cady, of Michigan, was the first merchant. Elliott erected the frame of the first saw mill on the Irondequoit; the mill was owned and finished by Jonas Allan. . The first grist mill on Pond Brook was built by ------ Hazc.
RUSH.
Jeremiah Wadsworth, was the purchaser of 5,000 acres, and "Mor- gan and his associates, of 4,750 acres of what is now Rush, of Phelps and Gorham.
The author is unable to give the years in which each of the prim- itive settlers came in, but those named were the earliest, and gener- ally in the order named.
Joseph Morgan, who had first settled on the west side of the river, was one of the earliest settlers of the town, his farm the same which now constitutes the homested of Joseph Sibley - the beau- tiful sweep of flats and upland at the junction of the Honeoye creek with the Genesee river. The property passed from Morgan into the hands of - Spraker, one of the well known Mohawk fam- ily of that name, who died there.
In 1801, to the few settlers that were previously located in the township, there was added a considerable number from Frederick county, Maryland : - The families of Philip Price, Chrystal Thom- as, Jacob Stull, John Bell, - Otto.
The family of Philip Price, consisted of seven sons and one daughter. The sons were :- Jolin Price, of Gorham, Ontario county, who was for many years one of the county Judges of On- tario, for one or two terms a representative in the Legislature, and a member of the State Convention of 1821. Peter Price, who in the war of 1812 was a Lieutenant in a volnnteer corps, and served upon the Niagara Frontier. He was an early Judge of Monroe county, a Justice of the Peace, and for 18 years was the supervisor of Rush, and for several years chairman of the board of Supervi- sors of Monroe county. Improving the opportunities that judicial offices gave him, by study, he was admitted to practice in the court of Common Pleas, of Monroe, and ultimately in the Supreme Court. He was emphatically a self made man, and what is not always the case with self made men, the work was well done. He dicd after a long and useful life, in Feb. 1848, leaving an only daughter who is the wife of A. D. Webster, a merchant in West Henrietta. His wife, who was the daughter of Nathan Jeffords, still survives. Ja- cob Adam, and Philip Price, emigrated to Michigan in 1824. Geo.
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Price resides in Rush on the homestead of the family. The daugh- ter was the wife of Jacob Stull.
The surviving sons of Jacob Stull, are: - John P. Stull, George Stull, James Stull, all residents of Rush. Chrystal Thomas, died in 1844. He erected the first saw mill in Rush, on Stony Brook, in 1805. Jacob, Chrystal, and David Thomas are his sons. Mrs. Mook, of Henrietta, is a daughter. John and Frederick Bell of Rush, are the sons of the early emigrant from Maryland, John Bell.
In addition to these that have been named, there were settled in Rush previous to 1806, Thomas Daily, who still survives. The Harmon family, who were afterwards early settlers in Sweeden, and original proprietors of a large portion of the village plat of Brockport. John Hartwell ; a surviving son is Thomas Hartwell, of Rush. Joseph M'Farland ; the father of Peter M'Farland, of Rush. Zephaniah Branch. A large family of Goffs, of which the early and widely known Elder Goff, was a member.
Joseph Sibley came to the Genesee country in 1804 -in 1806, located in Rush. Ile was from Renssealer county, N. Y. Like nine-tenths of all the early adventurers, he came into the wilderness with little to aid him in his enterprise ; but with an indomitable spirit of perseverance, he looked at its rugged features undismayed, and boldly and successfully wrestled through long years with all of its hardships and privations. With youth and health, courage and fortitude, he seized
" The axe that wondrous instrument, That like the talisman, transforms Deserts to fields and cities,"
and first in one locality, and then in another, made openings in the forest ; and now in his declining years, favored with almost un- interupted health, and a sound constitution, he is enjoying the fruits of his labors - is settled down in the midst of broad. highly culti- vated fields, constituting one of the many large and beautiful farms in the immediate valley of the Genesee.
In 1812 he changed his residence from Rush to Riga, and was one of the first to commence clearing a farm in the neighborhood of Churchville ; and after that was a resident of Chili, founding the milling establishment on Black creek, now owned by D. Cope. When in anticipation of the declaration of war, Gov. Tompkins ordered drafts from the militia, he was one of the six hundred vol- unteers that supplied the necessity of a draft, and promptly marched to the frontier, under the command of Col Swift. He was an early supervisor of Genesee and Monroe, a member of the State Legis- lature ; for five years a canal superintendant ; and more recently the collector of the port of Genesee. His wife, the sister of Elihu and Samuel Church, of Riga, to whom he was married in 1807, still survives ; a more than usual mortality has prevailed with their large
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family of sons and daughters; of a family of ten children, most of whom became adults, but three survive : - Horace J. Sibley a stu- dent of law in Rochester ; Mrs. John P. Stull, of Rush ; and Mrs. James M'Gill, of Cincinnatti.
REMINISCENCES OF JOSEPH SIBLEY.
When I came to Rush, in 1806, there was no surveyed road in the township. The fall previous, Mr. Wadsworth had contracted with Major Markham to cut out a wood's road as far as the line of Henrietta; but it was several years before it was carried any farther. The first surveyed road through the town and West Henrietta, was the State road from Ark- port to the mouth of the Genesee river. A road was surveyed from the line of Mendon through the "Goff settlement," in 1807; and in 1808, a bridge was built by the volunteer labor of settlers, over the Honeoye, near where State road crosses, In 1809, a bridge was built over the Honeoye, in West Rnsh, on river road, by the town. In 1817, the bridge on the State road, went off in a freshet, and about the same period, Austin Wing, a brother of Dr. Wing, of Albany, was drowned in crossing the stream.
There were large patches of rushes both on flats and uplands, along the river and the Honeoye Creek; the locality was called " Rush Bottom "- thence the name of the town. Cattle would winter well and thrive on the rushes; the Wadsworths would send large droves here to winter, and many were sent from Lima, Bloomfield, and Victor. i he rushes finally run out by being repeatedly fed down.
The greatest amount of sickness and death that I knew of in any locali- ty in the Genesee country, was as late as 1821, in the settlements along on Black and Sandy Creek. The prevailing disease had all the distinctive character of the yellow fever, and in a dense population, woul I have been equally as fatal. It was principally owing to the erection of mill dams. and consequent flooding of timbered lands. When the mill dams were drawn off, the sickness subsided. In one of the carlier years, when Riga and Chili were one town, it was ascertained that 60 died in a population of less than 3,000. At one period, in a population of 83, within the distance of 12 miles along on the Braddock's Bay road, 63 were sick, principally with billious intermittents. In many seasons, along on the river, the per cent of sickness was greater than has ever prevailed in any of the large cities of the United States, not excepting even the seasons of cholera. This was the case in many of the early years. I have seen instances when entire families would be prostrated, deaths would occur without any medical aid, and sometimes even without nursing. Physicians would be worn out, over-run with business; often it would be twenty-four hours af- ter they received a call before they could attend to it.
In 1805, crops were very light, and before the harvest of 1806, there was much suffering for food; wheat went up to $2 50 per bushel. The season of 1804 had been very wet, especially along about corn harvest ; and the seed corn planted in 1805, seemed to have lost in a great measure
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its germinating principle; much of it rotted in the ground. The harvest of 1806 was an abundant one; many fields of wheat were fit to cut on the 4th of July. Wheat and corn became a drug; neither would sell for store trade, nor could they be bartered for the ordinary necessaries of life. I chopped, cleared, and sowed to wheat, twenty acres the first year I commenced in Rush. I harvested from 6 to 700 bushels, but could sell it for nothing that I wanted, except in a few instances. I gave a blacksmith in Bloomfield, a bushel of wheat for putting a small wire bail into a tea kettle. Leather, wheat would not buy: and so we had to go barefoot. This state of things produced a large amount of distilling, and whiskey became far too cheap for the good of the new country. The seasons of 1807, '8' '9, '10, '11, were produotive, but that of 1812 was unproductive, and they grew worse until 1816 inclusive. In that year, most of the wheat was not fit to cut until September; the corn crop was almost entire- ly lost; but little summer erops of any kind were raised. From the 6th to the 12th of June, there was frost every night. I sold pork that year for $10 per cwt., fresh; and beef for $6. The harvests of 1817, '18, were tolerable ones : from 1819 to '24, they were universally prolific. In 1819, wheat went down to 31 cents per bushel.
In early years, there was none but a home market, and that was mostly barter :- It was so many bushels of wheat for a cow; so many bushels for a yoke of oxen, &c. There was hardly money enough in the country to pay taxes. In the way of clothing, buckskin breeches and those made from hemp grown upon the river, were quite common. A young man would then have to work six months for such a suit of clothes as he could now buy for $12. Few wore shoes or boots, except in winter. I have seen men who are now wealthy farmers, barefoot long after snow came. The price of a common pair of cow-hide boots would be $7, payable in wheat at 62 cents per bushel. Judge Peter Price told me that the first horse he ever owned in Rush, he paid ten bushels of corn for shoeing. As a matter of necessity, horses mostly had to be used without shoeing. When we began to have a few sheep, it cost us a great deal of trouble to keep them from the wolves; the coarsest wool was worth 50 cents per lb., and cash at that. Woolen shirts were a luxury; the most common ones were of flax and hemp.
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