USA > New York > Steuben County > History of the settlement of Steuben County, N.Y. including notices of the old pioneer settlers and their adventures, 1853 > Part 11
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All stand waiting for the dogs of war. " The soli- " tary express-rider now gallops through the streets of " Northumberland, clatters along the rocky roads, " wheels up the Lycoming, climbs the Laurel Bridge " and urges his stumbling horse over the rugged Ger- " man path, descends to the Tioga, hurries along the " rivers, and, riding at night into the guarded citadel " of the Conhocten, declares tidings of peace. The " lion, grumbling no longer on the ramparts of To- " ronto, lies down in his lair; the pacified unicorn " ceases to stamp upon the Canadian soil, and the " black war-elephants haul in their horns, and sink " behind the northern horizon." Such is the perora- tion of the Fourth of July Orator.
In 1796, Col. Williamson, by way of blowing a trumpet in the wilderness, advertised to all North America and the adjacent islands, that grand races would be held at Bath. , At the distance of half a mile from the village, a race-course of a mile in circuit was cleared and carefully grubbed, and all the resources of the metropolis were brought forth for the entertain- ment of as many gentlemen of distinction and miscel- laneous strangers as might honor the festival by their presence. But what probability was there that such a festival would be celebrated with success in the midst of " a wilderness of nine hundred thousand acres ?" From Niagara to the Mohawk were but a few hundred scat- tered cabins, and in the south a dozen ragged settle- ments, contained the greater part of the civilized popu- lation till you reached Wyoming. But Col. William- son did not mistake the spirit of the times. Those
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were the days of high thoughts and great deeds. On the day, and at the place appointed for the race in the proclamation, sportsmen from New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore were in attendance. The high blades of Virginia and Maryland, the fast-boys of Jersey, the wise jockeys of Long Island, men of Ontario, Pennsyl- vania and Canada, settlers, choppers, gamesters and hunters, to the number of fifteen hundred or two thousand, met on the Pine Plains to see horses run- a number as great, considering the condition of the region where they met, as now assembles at State Fairs and Mass Meetings. No express-trains then rolled down from Shawangunk-no steamboats plowed the lakes-no stages rattled along the rocky roads above the Susquehanna. Men of blood and spirit made the journey from the Potomac and the Hudson on horse- back, supported by the high spirit of the ancients to endure the miseries of blind trails and log taverns.
The races passed off brilliantly." Col. Williamson himself, a sportsman of spirit and discretion, entered a Southern mare, named Virginia Nell; High Sheriff Dunn entered Silk Stocking, a New Jersey horse- quadrupeds of renown even to the present day. Money was plenty, and betting lively. The ladies of the two dignitaries who owned the rival animals, bet each three hundred dollars and a pipe of wine on the horses of their lords, or, as otherwise related, poured seven hundred dollars into the apron of a third lady who was stake-holder. Silk Stocking was victorious.
This, our most ancient festival, is rather picturesque, seen from the present day. The arena opened in the
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forest, the pines and the mountain around-the varie- gated multitude of wild men, tame men, rough men and gentlemen, form a picture of our early life worthy of preservation. Canisteo was there, of course, in high spirits, and throughout the season, with self-sacrificing devotion to the ancient, honorable and patriotic diver- sion of horse-racing, seconded, with voice, and arm, every effort of Baron. Williamson to entertain the country's distinguished guests. Young Canisteo went away with mind inflamed by the spirited spectacle, and before long introduced a higher grade of sport into their own valley. A pioneer of that region, known to the ancients as a youth of game and a "tamer of horses," will, at the present day, talk with great satis- faction of a Jersey horse, which not only bore away the palm in the Canisteo Races, but on the Pine Plains, in the presence of men from Washington, Philadelphia and New York, (fifteen hundred dollars being staked on the spot by the strangers,) distanced the horse of a renowned Virginia Captain, who, being a " perfect gentleman," invited the owner of the victorious beast and his friends to dinner, and swore that nothing was ever done more handsomely even in the ancient domi- nion. Bath and the neighborhood was, in those days, the residence of a sagacious and enterprising race of sportsmen. They not only raised the olympic dust freely at home, but made excursions to foreign arenas, sometimes, discomfiting the aliens, and sometimes, it must be confessed, returning with confusion of face. It is told how a select party of gentlemen-Judges, Generals and Captains-once went down to Ontario 15*
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County " to beat the North ;" how, after the horses had been entered, an Indian came up and asked per- mission to enter a sorry-nag which he brought with him, which with some jeering was granted ; how, to the general astonishment, the pagan's quadruped flew off with a "little Indian boy sticking to his back like a bat," and led the crowd by a dozen rods. The ju- dicial and military gentlemen straightway set out for home, each with an insect in his ear. The great race- course was not often used, during Williamson's time, for the purpose for which it was made, after the first grand festival. It was chiefly valuable as a public drive for the few citizens who were so prosperous as to keep chaises. There was, however, a course on the Land Office Meadows south of the village, which was at different times the scene of sport.
Colonel Williamson further embellished the back- woods with a theatre. The building, which was of logs, stood at the corner of Steuben and Morris streets. A troop of actors from Philadelphia, kept we believe, at the expense of the agents, entertained for a time the resident and foreign gentry with dramatic exhibi- tion of great splendor. Of these exhibitions we have no very distinct account, but the public eye was pro- bably dazzled by Tartars, Highlanders, Spaniards, Brigands, and other suspicious favorites of the Tragic Muse.' The excellencies of the legitimate drama seem to have been harmoniously blended with those of the circus, and with the exploits of sorcery. We hear of one gifted genius who astonished the frontiers by balancing a row of three tobacco pipes on his chin, and by other
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mysterious feats which showed him to be clearly in league with the psychologists.
The race course and the theatre brought the village which they adorned into bad odor with the sober and discreet. Without intending to speak of such institu- tions with more civility than is their due, we 'maintain · that in the present case they brought upon the neigh- borhood where they existed, and upon the men who sustained them, more reproach than they merited. The theatrical exhibitions were but harmless absurd affairs at worst. The races were perhaps more annoy- ing evils. People are certainly at liberty to think as badly of them as they please, but they should con- sider the spirit of the times, the military and Europe- an predilections of their founder, and also his object in their institution (which of course does not of itself change the moral aspect of the matter.) Colonel Williamson was inclined to hurry civilization. The "star of empire" was too slow a planet for him. . He wished to kindle a torch in the darkness, to blow a horn in the mountains, to shake a banner from the towers, that men might be led by these singular phe- nomena to visit his establishment in the wilderness. Therefore, jockeys were switching around the mea- dows before theland was insured against starvation, and Richard was calling for "another horse" before the county grew oats enough to bait him.
Notwithstanding the extenuating circumstances, Ba- ron Williamson's village bore a very undesirable repu- tation abroad-a reputation as of some riotous and extravagant youngster, who had been driven as a
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hopeless profligate from his father's house, and in a wild freak built him a shanty in the woods, where he could whoop and fire pistols, drink, swear, fight, and blow horns without disturbing his mother and sisters. This was in a great measure unjust. The main em-
ployment of the town was hard work. " He couldn't bear to have a lazy drunken fellow around him," says an old settler speaking of the agent, " and if any such came he sent him away." The men of the new country were rough and boisterous it is true, but also industri- ous and hardy, and out of such we "constitute a State." It has often been flung into our faces as a reproach, that when the first missionary visited Bath, on a Sunday morning, he found a multitude assembled on the public square in three distinct groups. On one side the people were gambling, on another they were witnessing a battle between two bulls, and on a third they were watching a fight between two bul- lies. We are happy to say that the truth of this ras- cally old tradition is more than doubtful. Aside from the manifest improbability that men would play cards while bulls were fighting, or that bulls would be trumps while men were fighting, the evidence adduced in sup- port of the legend is vague and malicious. To sup- pose that Colonel Williamson's ambition was to be at the head of a gang of banditti who blew horns, pounded drums, fought bulls and drank whiskey from Christmas to the Fourth of July, and from the Fourth of July around to Christmas again, is an exercise of the rights of individual judgment in which those who indulge themselves should not of course be disturbed.
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It may be true that sometimes, indeed often, a horn or horns may have been blown upon the Pulteney Square, at unseasonable hours of the night, in a man- ner not in accordance with the maxims of the most distinguished composers; it is not impossible that a drum or drums may have been pounded with more vig- or than judgment at times when the safety of the re- public, either from foreign foes or from internal sedi- tions, did not demand such an expression of military fervor ; it will not be confidently denied by the cau- tious historian that once or twice, or even three times, a large number of republicans may have assembled on the village common to witness a battle between a red bull and a black one : but from these cheerful eb- ulitions of popular humor, to jump to the conclusion that the public mind was entirely devoted to horns, drums and bulls, is a logical gymnatic worthy of a Congressman.
These aspersions upon the character of the early settlers as men of honor and sobriety, are repelled with much sharpness by the few survivors. "We were poor and rough," say they, " but we were hon- est. We fit and drinked some to be sure, but no more than everybody did in those days."
"The man that says we were liars and drunkards, is a liar himself, and tell him so from me, will you ? There isn't half the honesty in the land now that there was then. Oh ! what miserable rogues you are now. You put locks on your doors, and you keep bull dogs, and then you can't keep the thieves out of your houses after all !"
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" I have seen them do in Bath what ye wouldn't do the morrow. When a pack-horse with flour came from Pang Yang or Tioga Pint, I have seen the ladies carry it around to them that hadn't any. Many and many's the time I have seen the M-'s and'the C -- 's and their daughters take plates of flour and carry them around to every cabin where they were needy. I have seen it often, and ye wouldn't do the same at Bath the morrow."
In like manner on the Canisteo, you hear-" People now, friend, ain't a comparison to those Ingens. They were simple creatures, and made their little lodges around by the hills, three hundred Ingens at a time, and never stole a thing. Those Ingens came to our houses, and were around nights, and never stole the first rag. Now, that's the truth, friend. They would snap off a pumpkin now and then perhaps, or take an ear of corn to roast, but they were just the simplest and most honest creatures I ever see. But now, Lord ! you can't hang up a shirt to dry but it will be stolen."
Occasionally there is an expression of contempt at the decay of chivalry. " There was men enough then that would have knocked a fellow down if he said Boo. It isn't half an affront now to call a man a liar or a rascal. If you whip an impudent dog of a fellow, you get indicted."'
Captain Williamson further astonished the back- woods with a newspaper. In 1796, the Bath Gazette and Genesee, Advertiser was published by Wm. Ker- sey and James Eddie. This was the earliest newspaper of Western New York,-the Ontario Gazette, of Ge-
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neva, established in the same year, being the second. We have not had the 'good fortune to find a copy of this ancient sheet. Capt. Williamson, in 1798, said, " The printer of the Ontario Gazette disperses weekly not less than one thousand papers, and the printer of the Bath Gazette from four to five hundred." How long the latter artisan continued to disperse his five hundred papers we are unable to say. The candle was probably a " brief " one, and soon burned out, leaving the land in total darkness, till Capt. Smead's Democratic Torch, twenty years afterwards, illuminated the whole county, and even flashed light into the ob- scure hollows of Allegany. Of this happy event we may take the present opportunity to speak.
In 1816, Mr. David Rumsey published at Bath the "Farmers' Gazette," and Capt. Benjamin Smead started at the same place the "Steuben and Allegany Patriot." This sheet is the most unquestionable an- tiquity which the County has produced. Though but thirty-five years have elapsed since Capt. Smead opened his republican fire on the enemies of human rights, (a fire which never so much as slackened for more than a quarter of a century,) such have been the improvements in the art of printing that in comparison with the bright, clean country newspapers of 1851, the Patriot looks rusty enough to have been the Court Journal of that ancient monarch, King Cole, if it were lawful to suppose that the editor would ever have con- sented to manage the " administration organ " of such a rampant old aristocrat. The Patriot differed in several important particulars from our modern county
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papers. Geneva, Olean, and Dansville advertisements were important features. The editorial matter was brief, and the first page was occupied with advertise- ments of sheriff's sales and the like, instead of such " thrilling thousand dollar prize tales " as " The Black Burglar of Bulgaria, or the Bibliomaniac of the Jungles,"' and others of like character, which in our modern home newspapers sometimes crowd off even the Treasury Report and elegant extracts from the leading journals. The columns devoted to news would poorly satisfy the demand of the present generation. We think the news cold if forty-eight hours old, but then tidings from New York in ten days almost smoked, and Washington items two weeks old were fairly scald- ing. The political matter was also of an ancient tone. There was a little sparring between Observer and Quietis on the one hand, and some invisible enemy on the other who dealt his blows under cover of the On- tario Messenger. The antiquarian of nice ear will also detect antiquity in the rythm of caucus resolutions. It is comforting to the patriotic citizen to think how much cheaper eloquence is now than formerly : how much easier one can strike the stars with his lofty head from the Buffalo platform, the Philadelphia platform, or the Baltimore platform, than from the Bucktail platform and other old-fashioned scaffolds. The style of abuse which prevails at present in school-house con- ventions is inclined to be rolling and magnificent ; in the days of the old Patriot it was direct and well planted, straight, short, and distinct.
It appears that even then there was a brisk agita-
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tion about the division of the County. Steuben was like Poland in the clutches of the Three Powers. Three "rogues in buckram let drive " at it,-Penn Yan in front, and Tioga and Allegany in the flanks ; and like a man beset with thieves, the stout old County backed against the Pennsylvanian border and " dealt " by the. Patriot very efficiently.
In the Patriot of Jan. 19, 1819, occurs the following- proclamation indicative of the spirit of the times during court week.
GRAND HUNT.
A Hunting Party will be formed for the purpose of killing wolves, bears, foxes, panthers, &c., to commence on the 20th of January, at 7 o'clock A. M., and will close the same day at 3 P. M.
This being the week of the sitting of the court, gen- tlemen from towns of this vicinity are invited to meet at Capt. Bull's Hotel at 7 o'clock, on Friday the 15th inst., to aid in completing arrangements for conducting the grand hunt.
Bath, Jan. 12, 1819.
Capt. HOWELL BULL, Appointed Commanding Officer of the day."
THE BAR, COURT, &c.
The year 1796 is furthermore a memorable one in our annals, for that in the said year was organized that wrangling brotherhood, the Steuben County Bar. A few straggling birds of the legal feather had alighted
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on the Pine Plains in the preceding year, but were not recognized as constituting a distinct and independent confederacy. These adventurous eagles however found themselves in 1796 released from allegiance to the Ontario Bar by the act organizing Steuben County, and thenceforth confederated for the more systematic indulgence of their instincts, under the name and style of the Steuben County Bar.
A framed court house, and a jail of hewn logs was erected for the furtherance of justice, and in the former of these edifices the first Court of Common Pleas, held in and for the County of Steuben, convened on the 21st day of June, 1796.
The Honorable William Kersey was the presiding Judge. Judge Kersey was a grave and dignified Friend from Philadelphia. He came to Steuben as a surveyor, and practised that profession, and performed the duties of Lord High Chancellor of the county for several years, when he returned to Pennsylvania, greatly esteemed by the people whom he judged. Abraham Bradley, and Eleazer Lindley, Esqs., of Painted Post, were the Associate Judges.
"Proclamation made, and court opened," says the record. "Proclamation made for silence; commis- sions to the Judges, Justices, Sheriff, Coroner and Surrogate read ; George Hornell, Uriah Stephens and - Abel White were qualified as Justices of the Peace ; Stephen Ross as Surrogate."
The following attorneys and counsellors appeared in due form. Nathaniel W. Howell, (late of Canandai- gua,) Vincent Matthews, (late of Rochester,) William
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Stuart, (who presented "letters patent under the great seal of this State, constituting him Assistant Attorney General, [District Attorney, ] for the counties of Onondaga, Ontario, Tioga and Steuben,") Wm. B. Verplanck, David Jones, Peter Masterton, Thomas Morris, Stephen Ross, David Powers.
· The first Court of General Sessions was held in 1796. In addition to the Judges mentioned in the Record of the Common Pleas, offenders against the people encountered the following array of Justices of the Peace. John Knox; William Lee, Frederick Bartles, George Hornell, Eli Mead, Abel White, Uriah Stephens, Jr.
The first Grand Jury was composed of the following citizens :- John Sheather, Foreman ; Charles Cameron, George McClure, John Cooper, Samuel Miller, Isaac Mullender, John Stearns, Justus Woolcott, John Coudry, John Van Devanter, Alexander Fullerton, Amariah Hammond, John Seely, Samuel Shannon. This jury presented two indictments for assault and battery, and were thereupon discharged.
General McClure makes of the early members of the bar the following notice. " I will mention as a very extraordinary circumstance, that although our new settlement consisted of emigrants from almost all nations, kindred and tongues, yet not a single gentle- men of the legal profession made his appearance amongst us during the first two years. However, had they come, we had not much employment for them in their line of business, as all our litigations were settled by compromise, or by the old English law of battle,
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and all decisions were final. In our code there was no appellant jurisdiction. In the following year we had a full supply, shortly after the organization of Steuben County.
The first arrival was George D. Cooper, of Rhine- beck, on the North River. He was appointed the first Clerk of the County. The next arrivals were Messrs. Jones, Masterton and Stuart, from New York. Next William Howe Cuyler, from Albany. Mr. Cuyler was a fine portly elegant young man of very fashionable and fascinating manners, of the Chesterfield order. In 1812, General Amos Hall appointed him aid-de-camp, and while stationed at Black Rock he was killed by a cannon ball from Fort Erie. Major Cuyler was a very active intelligent officer, and his death was much la- mented. He left a young wife and one son.
Next in order came Dominick Theophilus Blake, one of the sons of Erin-go-bragh. He was a well educated young man, but his dialect and manner of speech afforded much amusement for the other mem- bers of the bar. He had but little practice and did not remain long with us, but where he went and what became of him, I never have heard.
Samuel S. Haight, Esq., moved from Newtown with his family to Bath. Gen. Haight had an extensive practice, and a numerous and interesting family of sons and daughters. He is yet living, and resides in the county of Allegany. Daniel Cruger, William B. Rochester, William Woods, Henry Welles and Henry W. Rogers, members of the Steuben County Bar,
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studied law in Mr. Haight's office. Edward Howell, Esq., of Bath, studied law in Gen. Cruger's office.
Gen. Vincent Matthews resided for many years in Bath. He was said to be at the head of the bar for legal knowledge, but was not much of an advocate. Judge Edwards, Schuyler Strong, Jonas Clark, Jona- than Haight, John Cook, and Leland and McMaster, are all that I can remember of the old stock. Ah, yes ! there's one more of my old friends -- Cuthbert Harri- son, a Virginian, a young man of good sense, and whe- ther drunk or sober, he was a good natured clever fellow."
Mr. Cuthbert Harrison is described as a young man of fine talents, and one of the most eloquent advocates in the western part of the State.
Gen. Daniel Cruger, for a long time a leading mem- ber of the bar and an influential politician, was a printer by trade. He worked in the office of the old Bath Gazette, before the year 1800. Afterwards he published a newspaper in Owego. Adopting the legal profession, he practised with success at Bath. In
1712, he was elected a member of the Legislature, and chosen Speaker of the House. After this he was chosen representative in the same body for three suc- cessive years. In 1813, he served with credit as Major of Infantry, under Gen. McClure, on the frontiers. In 1816, he was elected Member of Congress. In 1823, or about that time, he was again sent to the Legisla- ture. He afterwards removed to Syracuse, returned to Bath, and in 1833, removed to Virginia, where he continued in the practice of the law until his death, in
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1843. Gen. Cruger, under the judicial system of New York, was once Assistant Attorney General, or District Attorney, of the district composed of the counties of Allegany, Steuben, Tioga, Broome and others. After the abolition of this system, he was District Attorney of the county of Steuben.
Of the early Physicians of the county, we have not much to say. Dr. Stockton, of New Jersey, and Dr. Schultz, a German, came in with Capt. Williamson, and were the most prominent of the pioneer physicians. The surgeon, in ancient times, lived a rough life. His ride was through forests without roads, across rivers without bridges, over hills without habitations. Bears rose up before his startled steed as he rode at dusk through the beechen groves of the uplands, and wolves, made visible by the lightning, hung around him as he groped through the hemlocks in the midnight storm, and insanely lusted for the contents of his saddle-bags.
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CHAPTER VII.
SKETCHES OF THE SETTLEMENT OF VARIOUS DISTRICTS.
PLEASANT VALLEY-(TOWN OF URBANA.)
THE settlement in that well known prolongation of the bed of Crooked Lake, famed as Pleasant Valley, was the first made under the auspices of Captain Wil- liamson, and was for many years the most prosperous and one of the most important in the county. The soil was exceedingly productive, and yielded not only an abundance for the settlers, but furnished much of the food by which the inhabitants of the hungry Pine Plains were saved from starvation. For the young settlers in various parts of the county, the employment afforded by the bountiful fields of the valley during haying and harvest, was for many years an important assistance. In the midst of pitiless hills and forests that clung to their treasures like misers, Pleasant Valley was generous and free-handed-yielding fruit, grain and grass with marvellous prodigality.
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