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 17
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stakes, and slept on the pole. His slumbers were sound and refreshing. In the morning he found himselfi on his roost with no serpents in his pockets, his boots, his hat, or his hair, and observed, moreover, that, during his sleep, he had unconsciously turned over from his right side to his left.
So much for rattlesnakes. Concerning other kinds of serpents-black snakes, racers, and the like of which there was no lack in this bailiwick, we have nothing to offer -- not from disrespect, but from ignorance.
The chase, as we have seen, was not often attended with peril; yet there were times when the hunter was obliged to move briskly for his life. The wounded panther was a dangerous enemy. Men have been kill- ed by them. A noted Canisteo hunter once hurt one of these animals with a rifle ball, and it sprang upon his dog as the first adversary it met. Knowing that himself would be the next victim, the hunter closed with the ferocious beast and killed it with his knife. As it lay upon the ground after the fight, eight feet or more in length, it looked like a lion, and the hunter was astonished at his boldness.
A Justice of the Peace in one of the outer towns had once occasion for a little practice, not provided for in the "Magistrate's Manual." Relieving his judicial cares by the pleasures of the chase, he one day; met a great panther which he severely wounded, but did not immediately cripple it. The monster, enraged at the tort, attacked him furiously. The plaintiff in the case found himself: unexpectedly made defendant. The books suggested no proceeding for relief in such a
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strange turn of affairs, and he was obliged to fall back on first principles. He dealt a rousing blow with his gun, and then dexterously seized the panther's tail. A novel action ensued, which was neither trover nor replevin. The plaintiff, though partially disabled, had yet so much of his former enormous strength, that, when he turned with a savage growl to bite the defen- dant, the latter, by jerking with all his might, baffled the manœuvre of his antagonist. This odd contest, worthy of record in the " Crockett Almanac," lasted a good while-jerking this way, jerking that way, re- joinder and sur-rejoinder, rebutter and sur-rebutter- till at length the panther became so weak from loss of blood, that the guardian of the people's peace could work the ropes with one hand ; when resuming his po- sition as plaintiff, he speedily entered up final judgment against the defendant with a hunting knife, and seized his scalp for costs. This is a true story, (as also are all other stories in this book) and can be proved by a Supervisor, a Justice of the Peace, and a Town Clerk.
A Canisteo hunter was once watching a deer lick at night. A large tree had partially fallen near the spring, and he seated himself in its branches several feet above the ground. No deer came down to drink. Towards midnight the tree was shaken by the tread of a visitor. It was a huge panther, which slowly walked up the trunk and sat down on its haunches within a very few yards of the hunter. The night was clear and the moon was shining, but the uneasy deerslayer could not see the forward sight of his gun, and did not like to attempt the delicate feat of send-
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ing a bullet to the heart of such a lion so decisively that there would be no snarling or tearing of his throat afterwards. All night long they sat in mutual con- templation, the hunter watching with ready rifle every movement of his guest ; while the latter, sitting with the gravity of a chancellor, hardly stirred till day- break. As soon as the light of morning brought the forward sight in view the rifle cracked and the panther departed life without a growl.
Wolves seldom or never were provoked to resist- ance. The settler walking through the woods at dusk, was sometimes intercepted by a gang of these bush- pirates, whom hunger and the darkness emboldened to snarl and snap their teeth at his very heels; but a stone or a " chunk of wood" hurled at their heads was enough to make them bristle up and stand on the de- fensive. They were generally held in supreme con- tempt. We hear of a bouncing damsel in one of the settlements who attacked half a dozen of them with a whip, just as they had seized a pig and put them to flight, too late, however, to save the life of the unhappy porker.
The buck, under certain circumstances, was a dan- gerous antagonist. The following incident is given in a manuscript heretofore alluded to: “ An individual who eventually became a leading man in the county and a member of Congress, once shot a buck near Bath. He loaded his gun and walked up to the fallen deer, which was only stunned, the ball having hit one of his horns. When within a few steps of it, the deer sprang up and rushed at him. He fired again, but in
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the hurry of the moment missed his aim. He then clubbed his gun and struck at the head of the infu- riated animal, but it dexterously parried the blow with its horns and knocked the rifle out of the hunter's hand to the distance of several yards. The hunter took refuge behind a tree, around which the deer fol- lowed him more than an hour, lunging at him with his horns so rapidly that the gentleman who " eventually went to Congress" could not always dodge the blow, but was scratched by the tips of the antlers and badly bruised on his back and legs, and had almost all his clothes torn off. He struck the deer several times with his knife indecisively, but when almost tired out managed to stab him fairly just back of the shoulder. The enemy hauled off to repair damages but soon fell dead. The hunter threw himself upon the ground utterly exhausted, and lay several hours before he had strength to go home. A man thus assailed was said to be " treed by a buck."
THE PLUMPING MILL.
There are few tribulations of the new country about which old settlers are more eloquent than those con- nected with " going to mill." Grist mills being fab- rics of civilization, were not of course found in a wild state along the primitive rivers. "The unfortunate sav- age cracked his corn with a pestle and troubled his head not at all about bulkheads and tail races, and, although his meal was in consequence of a very indif- ferent quality, yet it may be a question if this was not
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compensated for by the freedom of the courts of the Six Nations from those thrilling controversies about flush-boards, and drowned meadows, and backwater on the wheel, which do in modern times confound the two and thirty Circuit Judges of the Long House.
In 1778, a grist-mill and saw-mill belonging to the Indians and Tories, at their settlement of Unadilla, the only mills in the Susquehanna valley in 'this State, were burned by a party of rangers and riflemen. In 1790, four mills are noted on the map of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, one in T. 8, R. 3; one in T. 10, R. 4; one at the Friends' Settlement near Penn Yan ; one in Lindley town on the Tioga. Shepard's mill on the Susquehanna, a short distance above Tioga Point, was the main dependence of our settlers till they built mills for themselves. The people of Painted Post and Canisteo took their grain down to that mill for several years.
There was, however, one truly patriarchal engine which answered the purpose of the grist-mill in times of necessity which it would be ungrateful not to remem- ber. That backwoods machine known as the Plump- ing Mill, the Hominy Block, the Samp Mortar, or the Corn Cracker, is now as obsolete an engine as the catapult or the spinning-wheel. The gigantic red castles that bestride our streams rumbling mightily with their wheels and rollers, while their mill-stones whirling day and night, crush the grains of a thousand hills, are structures entirely too magnificent to be men- · tioned with a homely plumping-mill. Nevertheless, granting all due deference to these portly and respect-
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able edifices, historians will insist that their rustic pre- decessors be remembered with some degree of kind- ness.
The Plumping Mill was made after this wisc. From the outer edge of the top of a pine stump, and at a little distance within the extreme edge, so as to leave a rim of about half an inch in breadth, augur holes were bored toward the centre of the stump pointing downward so as to meet in a point several inches below the surface. Fire was placed on the top of the stump, which, when it had eaten down to the augur holes, was sucked according to atmospherical laws, through those little mines and burned out the chip or conical block nicely, leaving a large deep bowl. This was scraped and polished with an iron and the mill was ready for the engine. The engine was a very simple one of about two feet stroke. From a crotched post à long sweep was balanced like the swale of an old-fashioned well. A pole, at the end of which was a pounder, was hung from the sweep, and your mill was made. The back- woodsman poured his corn into the bowl of the stump, and working the piston like one churning, cracked his corn triumphantly. Modern mills, with all their gor- geous red paint and puzzling machinery, are uncertain affairs at best-nervous as it were and whimsical, dis- turbed by droughts and freshets, by rains and high winds like rheumatic old gentlemen : there is always a screw loose somewhere, and their wheels need " fix- ing "' almost as often as the "wheels of government." But the sturdy old Plumping Mill was subject to no such whimsies, no more than the men of the frontiers
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were to dyspepsia, or the women to hysterics and tant- rums.
The reflecting citizen will duly honor the old Plump- ing Mill. It is the pioneer engine. It can even now be heard thumping on the edge of the Far West, thumping on the outer edge of the Canadas, and so will go, stoutly thumping its way across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific.
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INCIDENTS OF THE WAR OF 1812.
At the commencement of the War of 1812, the standing army of our country was a much more respectable corps than it is at the present day. Either from modern degeneracy or from our superior enlightenment, the appearance of a pha- lanx of militia in any public place in this noon of the nineteenth century, is a signal for universal laughter. Forty years ago it was not so. Then' the army of Napoleon could not have been much more an object of respect to itself than the rustic regiment which paraded yearly in each important village of Western New York. There were many independent companies of horse, rifles and artillery. The officers took pride in the appearance of their men, and the men, instead of indulging in all manner of antics, were dis- posed to keep their toes pointed at a proper angle, and to hold their guns with the gravity of Macedonians. The militia was respected, and men of reflection beheld in it a great bulwark to defend the republic against the demonstrations of the Five Great Powers, and other 24
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monarchical phantoms which hovered before the eyes- of our vigilant forefathers. The plume, the epau- lette, the sash, were badges of honor. To be an officer in the militia was an object sought for by respectable men. The captain was a man of more consequence than he would have been without the right to command forty of his neighbors to ground arms, and to keep their eyes right. It was a great addition to the importance of a leading citizen that he was a colonel, and enjoyed the right of riding upon a charger at the head of half the able-bodied men of the county ; and the general galloping with his staff from county to county, dining with the officers of each regiment, and saluted by the drums and rifles of five thousand republicans, was a Bernadotte, a Wellington ; and, if a man of tact and vigor, carried an important political influence.
The social constitution of this domestic army was, of course, a different thing from that of the armies of the European Marshals. Captains went to logging bees and raisings with their rank and file, perhaps ground their corn, possibly shod their horses. Colo- nels and generals drew the wills of their legionaries, or defended them in actions of assault and battery and ejectment in the courts, or employed them on their arks, or bought their cattle. They were dependent upon the men they commanded for elections as Sheriffs or Con- . gressmen. The inferior officers might be hailed by their myrmidons as Tom or Harry, and, though the high commanders were generally men of more stately character, who were not to be treated exactly with such familiarity, yet their relations with the soldiers were
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not those of Austrian Princes with their drilled boors. When, therefore, one of these high field-officers went forth to war, and indiscreetly put on the majesty of Marlborough, or affected to look upon his men as the Duke of York looked upon his, he soon found that the social laws of a European army were not to be applied to an army of such composition without modification. There was occasionally one of these magnificent com- manders who, after the war, suffered the consequences of his exaltation, and even was in danger of being handsomely thrashed by some indignant corporal, who, at home, was the equal of his commander, but found himself treated very loftily when his former comrade commanded a corps upon the line, and snuffed the bat- tle afar off.
The officer was expected to deal liberally with the infirmities of his men, and, as one of the popular infirm- ities in those times was a singular relish for stimulants, the epidemic was treated after the most approved prac- tice of the ancients. The colonel often knocked in the head of a barrel of whiskey; the general, sometimes after review, dashed open his two or three barrels of the same delightful fluid, and the whole legion crowding around quenched their thirsts at these inspiring foun- tains ; majors, captains and adjutants, were held res- ponsible for " small drinks," that the fatigues of the day might be endured with greater patriotism. There was, according to the best information we obtain, one regiment in the county at the breaking out of the war. On review day the militia from all parts of the county met at Bath.
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Three companies of Steuben County militia were ordered out for three months' service on the lines in the year 1812, two being independent companies of riflemen, and liable, as such, to be called at pleasure by the government, and the third being a company drafted from the regiment. Many who were disposed to volunteer, had been carried off by the recruiting officers of the regular service. Captain James Sand- ford commanded one of the rifle companies, which be- longed chiefly to the town of Wayne, and the other, which mustered about 50 men, belonged to the town of Urbana, and was commanded by Capt. Abraham Brundage. William White, of Pulteney, was his first lieutenant, and Stephen Garner his ensign. Two rifle companies from Allegany County were attached to these, and the battalion thus formed was commanded by Major Asa Gaylord, of Urbana. Major Gaylord died on the lines. After his death, the battalion was commanded by Col. Dobbins. The drafted company was composed of every eighth man of the regiment. Capt. Jonas Cleland of Conhocton, commanded. Sam- uel D. Wells, of Conhocton, and John Gillet were lieutenants, and John Kennedy, ensign.
These companies reached the frontiers just at the time when Col. Van Rensselaer, with an army of militia, was about to make an attack on the works and forces of the British at Queenstown Heights. Capt. Cleland, with many of his men, volunteered to cross the boundary.
As to the movements of the Steuben County militia on that day, there are discrepancies in the accounts of
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the actors. We give the story of the ensign, after- wards Major Kennedy, Sheriff of the county, a relia- ble man, and brave soldier, and obtained from him as related to our informant many years ago.[ [[ ] 150m
The men of the company, being ranged on the shore of the Niagara river at the foot of the precipitous bank, were fired upon by the British batteries on the opposite side. The grape shot rattled furiously
against the rocks overhead. The captain advised his men to seek a less exposed position, and disappeared with some of his soldiers. He appeared again on the field of battle, over the river, in the course of the forenoon, and complaining of illness returned to the American side. Lieutenant Gillett and Kennedy re- mained under the fire of the British batteries with most of the men, crossed the river, and went into the . battle. The former was well known through the county as "Chief Justice Gillett," an eccentric oratorical man, a Justice of the Peace sometime, and a practitioner in the popular courts. Upon him devolved the command
of the company. It was doubted by some whether this Cicero would make a very good figure upon the battle field, and whether his chivalrous flourishes and heroic fury would not suddenly fail him at the scent of gunpowder. What was the surprise of the men when the " Chief Justice," as soon as he snuffed the British sulphur, rushed into the fight as if he had just found his element, whirled his sword, bellowed savagely with his coarse, powerful voice, urged on the men, cheered zand dashed at the Britons like a lion. The soldiers were astonished to find themselves led by such a
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"chevalier. Even after receiving a dangerous and almost mortal wound, he faltered not, but swung his hat, brandished his sword, and continued his outlandish uproar till he fell from pain and exhaustion .*
Ensign Kennedy, after the fall of the lieutenant, took command of that part of Capt. Cleland's company which crossed the river, and of a few others, hastily formed into a company. At one time they were op- posed to the Indians, whom they drove before them into a wood. While exchanging an irregular fire with these enemies among the trees, Benjamin Welles, a young man from Bath, who stood beside Kennedy, looking over a fence, was shot through the head and mortally wounded. At the final engagement in this random, but often gallantly-fought battle, Kennedy, with his men, were ranged in the line formed to meet the British reinforcements, which were just coming up.
r * Old soldiers tell of a militia captain from a neighboring county, who was engaged in the same battle, and was in some respects a match for the fighting Chief Justice. He was a physician by pro- fession-a dissenter from the establishment, however, never having taken a degree-and accustomed to garnish his conversation with the most sonorous language. In battle, he made good his words, and fought bravely. He went into the fight in full uniform, adorning himself with great care, and from this circumstance became a mark for the Indians, who supposed that such a blaze of finery must cover I at least a Major General. He was last seen by his men engaged in single combat with an Indian, slashing manfully with his sword, while the savage danced around him with a hatchet, watching a chance to strike. The next day the Indian made his appearance be- fore the prisoners, clad in the gorgeous raiment of the captain. He strutted to and fro with great self-admiration, and was not entirely sure that he had not slain the President of the United States.
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"Bill Wadsworth," as their general, was known to the militia, (upon whom the command devolved after the fall of Van Rensselaer,) went through their lines, in a rough-and-ready style, with hat and coat off, ex- plaining to the inexperienced officers his plan. To avoid the fire of the British the men were ordered to retire below the brow of the hill upon which they were ranged, and up which the enemy would march. When the British appeared on the top of the hill the militia were to fire from below. The slaughter would be great ; they were then to charge bayonets, and in the "confusion might be successful, though the decisiveness of a charge of bayonets up a hill against veterans, by militia, who before that day had never been under fire, might well have been doubted. The first part of the plan succeeded famously. As the British appeared above the hiil a fire was delivered which was very de- structive ; but a misapprehension of the word of com- mand by part of the line caused disorder. The fire "Ewa's returned by the enemy. The militia suffered a considerable loss, and fell back overpowered to the river, where the most of them were made prisoners. Of the Steuben County men two were killed and three wounded. H
It is popularly told, that on this day Ensign Ken- nedy was engaged in personal combat with a British - officer, and being unacquainted with the polite learn- ing of his newly-adopted profession, was speedily dis- armed; that he immediately closed with his confound- ed antagonist, knocked him down with his fist, and made him prisoner. The hero of the story, however,
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is said to have denied it. He was present at other en- gagements, and gained the reputation of a cool and re- solute officer. At the sortie of Fort Erie he served - with distinction. It was here that, under a close and heavy fire, he paced to and fro by the heads of his men, who had been ordered to lie flat on the ground to avoid the balls-not for a vain exposure of his person, but " being an officer," he thought " it wouldn't do." In the second year of the war two companies were drafted from the Steuben County militia, and sent to the Niagara frontier, under the command of Captains James Read, of Urbana, and Jonathan Rowley, of Dansville, faithful and reliable officers. Capt. Read refused to go as a drafted officer, but reported himself to the General of the Division, at the commencement I of the war, as ready to march at the head of a com- pany, as a volunteer, whenever he should be called - upon. Both the companies were principally levied from the Northern part of the county. Of Capt. Row- ley's company, John Short and John E. Mulholland were lieutenants, and George Knouse and Timothy . Goodrich, ensigns. Of Capt. Read's company, George Teeples and Anthony Swarthout were lieutenants, and Jabez Hopkins and O. Cook, ensigns. From muster to - discharge these companies served about four months. All of the officers and most of the men volunteered to - cross the boundaries of the Republic, and were station- - ed at Fort George. lo gai
We have not succeeded in learning anything about Ithe draft for the last year of the war, if any was Lodem
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made, nor concerning the militia of this county who were engaged at Fort Erie.
The following incident is related by one of the Steu- ben County militia who was engaged in one of the bat- tles on the line as sergeant of a company. His com- pany was ordered into action, and before long found it- self confronted by a rank of Old Peninsulars, arrayed in all the terrors of scarlet coats and cartridge boxes. When within a distance of ten rods from their enemies,. the militia halted, and were ordered to fire. Muskets came instantly to the shoulder and were pointed at the Britons with the deadly aim of rifles at a wolf hunt, but to the dismay of the soldiers there was a universal " flash in the pan "-not a gun went off. The sergeant knew in an instant what was the cause of the failure. The muskets had been stacked out of doors during the night, and a little shower which fell toward morning had thoroughly soaked the powder in them. It was his. business to have seen to it, that the muskets were cared for, and upon him afterwards fell the blame of the dis- aster. Nothing could be done till the charges were drawn. There were but two ball-screws in the compa- ny. The captain took one, and the sergeant the other, and beginning their labors in the middle of the rank,. worked towards the ends. A more uncomfortable po- sition for untried militia can hardly be imagined. The men, as described by the sergeant, " looked strangely, as he had never seen them before." The British brought their muskets with disagrecable precision into position and fired. The bullets whistled over the heads of the militia. The British loaded their guns again :
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again the frightful row of muzzles looked the militia- men in the face-again they heard the alarming com- mand, fire, and again two score bullets whistled over their heads. A third time the British brought their muskets to the ground and went through all the terri- ble ceremonies of biting cartridges, drawing ramrods, and priming in full view of the uneasy militia. The moistened charges were by this time almost drawn, and when the enemy were about to fire the sergeant stood beside the last man. He was pale and excited. "Be . quick sergeant-be quick for God's sake !" he said. They could hear the British officer saying to his men, " You fire over their heads," and instructing them to aim lower. The muzzles this time dropped a little be- low the former range ; smoke burst forth from them, and seven militia-men fell dead and wounded. The sergeant had just finished his ill-timed job, and was handing the musket to the private beside him, when a bullet struck the unfortunate man between the eyes and killed him. The fire of the British was now returned with effect. Reinforcements came on the field and the engagement hecame hot. An officer on horseback was very active in arranging the enemy's line-riding to and fro, giving loud orders, and making himself ex- tremely useful. "Mark that fellow!" said the ser- geant to his right hand man. Both fired at the same instant. The officer fell from his horse and was car- ried off the field by his men. They afterwards learned that he was a Colonel, and that one of his legs was broken. 9V
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