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 19
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
The narrow limits allowed to this portion of the volume, warn that no further space can be occupied with a detail of the inci- dents of the Border Wars of New York. In 1779, Gen. Sulli- van made his well known expedition into the territory of the Indians. - During the remaining years of the war the frontiers were sorely harrassed. Bands of savages and loyalists incessan- tly emerged from the forests to ravage, burn and kill. And if they succeeded in bringing dreadful misery upon the homes of the borderers, it was not without resolute resistance on the part of the latter. Under the lead of Willett, the Harpers and other partisans not less sagacious than determined, the marauders of- ten felt to their discomfiture the rifles of the frontiers; and the well authenticated traditions of individual daring and adven- ture, rival in interest the annals of knight-errantry.
Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, emigration be- gan to penetrate Western New York from three quarters. Penn- sylvanians, particularly inhabitants of the region of Wyom- ing, pushed up the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, where, diverg- ing, some made settlements along the Chemung and Canisteo,
e
289
while others established themselves on the East branch of the Susquehanna and its tributaries. Adventurers from the East, crossing from New England or the Hudson river counties to "Unadilla, dropped down the river in canoes and settled along the Susquehanna or Chemung, or travelled into the upper Ge= nesee country. Yet another band took the ancient road through the Mohawk valley to Oneida Lake, then on to Canadesaga.
In May, 1784, Hugh White passing the boundary of civiliza- tion settled at Whitestown, near Utica. In the same year James Dean settled at Rome. In 1786, a Mr. Webster, became the first white settler of the territory now comprised in the county of Onondaga. In 1788, Asa Danforth and Comfort Tyler, loca- ted at Onondaga Hollow. In 1793, John L. Hardenburgh set- tled on the site of the city of Auburn. In 1789, James Bennett and John Harris established a ferry at Cayuga Lake. In 1787, Jemima Wilkinson's disciples made their first settlement on the outlet of Crooked Lake, one mile South of the present village of Dresden. On their arrival at Geneva from the East they found, says a local historian, but a solitary log house, and that not fin- ished, inhabited by one Jennings.
After the purchase of Phelps and Gorham, of their Western estate, Mr. Phelps selected the site at the foot of Canandaigua Lake as the central locality in his purchase, and the village of Canandaigua received its first settler in the spring of 1789. Ma- ny others followed during the same season, and in the August ensuing the new village was described as being " full of people residents, surveyors, explorers, adventurers. Houses were going up-it was a busy, thriving place."
In the fall of 1788, Kanadesaga (now Geneva,) is described as having become " a pretty brisk place, the focus of specula- tors, explorers, the Lessee Company and their agents, and the principal seat of the Indian trade for a wide region. Horatio Jones, (the Interpreter,) was livng in a log house covered with bark on the bank of the lake, and had a small stock of goods for the Indian trade. Asa Ransom, (the afterwards Pioneer of Buffalo,) occupied a hut and was manufacturing Indian trink- ets. Lark Jennings had a log tavern and trading establishment covered with bark on the Lake shore, which was occupied by Dr. Benton. There was a cluster of log houses all along on the low ground near the Lake." In 1794, Col. Williamson having assumed the agency of the Pulteney Estate, began improvements at Geneva by the erection of the Geneva Hotel. "It was com- pleted in December and opened with a grand ball, which furn- ished a memorable epoch in the early history of the Genesee
290
country. The hotel was talked of far and wide as a wonderful enterprise, and such it really was." In the same year Col. W. began his improvements at Sodus. By this time or in a few years later, nearly all the principal towns between Seneca Lake and the Genesee river in the northern district of the purchase, had received their first few settlers.
In the meantime the valleys of the Susquehanna and its tributaries, had been penetrated by adventurers from the South and East. In the year 1787, Capt. Joseph Leonard moving up the Susquehanna in a canoe with his family from Wyoming, made the first permanent settlement at Binghamton. In the same year Col. Rose, Joshua Whitney, and a few others, settled in the same vicinity. The settlement at Wattles' Ferry, (now Unadilla village, ) a well known locality in the early days, had been made sometime previous.
The Indian settlement at Oquago, (now Windsor,) as has been stated before, was of long- standing. For a few years pre- vious to the French War of 1756, an Indian mission had been established there, at the instance of the elder President Ed- wards. A small colony of emigrants made a settlement at this - place in 1785. In the same year James McMaster made the first settlement at Owego. Tioga Point is said to have been set- tled as early as 1780, but this seems incredible, unless the first residents were Torics. The pioneers of the Chemung Valley were principally Wyoming people, originally from. Connecticut. Col. John Handy was the pioneer at Elmira, settling there in 1788.
The Chemung Valley enjoyed some fame before the arrival of the pioneers. John Miller, Enoch' Warner, Jolin Squires, Abi- jah Patterson, Abner Wells, and others, are given as the names of pioneers of the valley at Elmira and its vicinity ; besides Leb- beus - Hammond, of Wyoming, renowned for personal prowess above most of the men of the border. A notice of the settle- ments of Chemung, Canisteo and Conhocton, has been given in the preceding portions of this volume.
The brief time allowed for the preparation of this sketch, and the unparalleled confusion of the otherwise valuable works from which our facts must be derived, will compel a random notice of the time of commencing the principal settlements remaining unnoticed. Rev. Andrew Gray and Major Moses Van Campen, with a small colony, settled at Almond, Allegany county, in 1796. Judge Church, of Angelica, not long afterward, began the settlement of Genesee Valley in the same county. William and James Wadsworth, emigrated to their fine estate_at Big Tree or Geneseo from Connecticut, in 1790.
291
It was till about the year 1798, that the State Road from Uti-" ca to the Genesee River at Avon, by way of Cayuga Ferry and Canandaigua, was completed. In 1799, a stage passed over this road in three days. In 1800, a road was made from Avon to Ganson's, now Le Roy. For many years this old Buffalo Road was the centre of settlement. The wide belt of dark, wet forest, which extended along the shore of Lake Ontario from Sodus to Niagara, formed a strong-hold of pestilence, which few dared to venture into. Not even the unmatched hydraulic ad- vantages of the Genesee Falls, could tempt the speculator to encounter the fevers that there unnerved the arm of enterprise. It is true that as early as 1790, " Indian Allen," a demi-savage renegade from New Jersey, resuming a sort of civilization after the Revolutionary war, erected mills at these falls on a certain " one hundred acre tract " given him for that purpose by Mr. Phelps, but it seems that the enterprise was premature .- Other mills along the line of settlement engrossed the custom, and the solitary miller had hardly employment enough to keep his mill in repair. Sometimes it was wholly abandoned, and the chance customer put the mill in motion, ground his own grist, and departed through the forest. In 1810, however, settlements having been made in the Lake district, a bridge was built across the Genesee at this point, and in the following year Col. Na- thaniel Rochester, with two associates Cols. Fitzhugh and Carrol, had become the proprietors of Allen's lot, laid out a village plot and sold several lots. Thus was founded the city of Rochester. In 1817, it was incorporated a village with the name of Roches- terville. In 1834, it received its city charter.
The Holland Company purchased their great estate west of the Genesee of Robert Morris, in 1792, and 1793. Mr. Joseph Ellicott, of Maryland, the first agent of this Company, and for many years a prominent citizen, arrived in Western New York, in 1797. In 1801, Batavia was founded under his auspices .- In 1798, there was an insignificant huddle of log houses, not a dozen in all, on the site of the present city of Buffalo. The possession of the lands at the mouth of Buffalo creek, long a fa- vorite place of rendezvous of the Indians, was deemed of impor- tance by Mr. Ellicott, and on purchasing it, plotted there the village of New Amsterdam, with its Schimmelpinninck, Stadtnit- ski, and Vollenhoven Avenues.
-
SETTLER-LIFE.
The Editor has had in his possession a manuscript sketch of Settler-life, of much value for its exactness and particularity of detail, prepared several years since by a gentleman of accurate observation and most just sympathies, himself in early life a woodsman and a true lover of nature, and always a hearty friend of the pioneer. It was expected that liberal extracts from this manuscript might have been given, but being unexpectedly cur- tailed in space, we can present but a passage or two.
A SETTLER'S HOME.
"As I was travelling through the county on horseback on a summer day in an early year of settlement, I fell in compa- ny with two gentlemen, who were going in the same direction. One of them was the land Agent from Bath, who was going to the Genesee river, the other was a foreigner on his way from Easton, in Pennsylvania, to Presque Isle, (now Erie) on Lake Erie. We had followed in Indian file a mere path through the woods for several miles, passing at long intervals a log house where the occupants had just made a beginning ; when having passed the outskirts of settlement and penetrated deep into the woods, our attention was attracted by the tinkling of a cow bell, and the sound of an axe in chopping. We soon saw a lit- tle break in the forest, and a log house. As we approached we heard the loud barking of a dog, and as we got near the clear- ing were met by him with an angry growl as if he would have said, " You can come no further without my masters permis- sion." A shrill whistle from within called off the dog. We pro- ceeded to the house. A short distance from it, standing on the fallen trunk of a large hemlock tree, which he had just chop- ped once in two, was a fine looking young man four or ffve and twenty years of age, with an axe in his hand. He was dress- ed in a tow-frock and trowsers, with his head and feet bare. The frock, open at the top, showed that he wore no shirt, and exhibited the muscular shoulders and full chest of a very ath-
293
letic and powerful man. When we stopped our horses he step- ped off the log, shook hands with the agent, and saluting us frankly, asked us to dismount and rest ourselves, urging that the distance to the next house was six miles, with nothing but marked trees to guide us a part of the way ; that it was nearly noon, and although he could not promise us anything very good to eat, yet he could give us something to prevent us from suffer- ing with hunger. He had no grass growing yet, but he would give the horses some green oats. We concluded to accept the invitation and dismounted and went into the house.
" Before describing the house I will notice the appearance of things around it, premising that the settler had begun his im- provements in the spring before our arrival. A little boy about three years old was playing with the dog, which though so reso- lute at our approach, now permitted the child to push him over and sit down upon him. A pair of oxen and a cow with a bell on, were lying in the shade of the woods; two or three hogs . were rooting in the leaves near the cattle, and a few fowls were scratching the soil. There was a clearing, or rather chopping around the house of about four acres, half of which had been cleared off and sowed with oats. which had grown very rank and good. The other half of the chopping had been merely burnt over and then planted with corn and potatoes, a hill be- ing planted wherever there was room between the logs. The corn did not look very well. The chopping was enclosed with a log fence. A short distance from the house a fine spring of water gushed out of the gravel bank, from which a small brook ran down across the clearing, along the borders of which a few geese were feeding.
" When we entered the house the young settler said, " Wife, here is the land-agent and two other men," and turning to us said, " This is my wife." She was a pretty looking young wo- man dressed in a coarse loose dress, and bare footed. When her husband introduced us, she was a good deal embarrassed, and the flash of her dark eyes and the crimson glow that passed over her countenance, showed that she was vexed at our intru- sion. The young settler observed her vexation and said, " Nev- er mind Sally, the Squire (so he called the agent) knows how people have to live in the woods." She regained her composure in a moment and greeted us hospitably, and without any apolo- gies for her house or her costume. After a few minutes conver- sation, on the settler's suggesting that he had promised " these . men something to eat to prevent their getting hungry," she be- gan to prepare the frugal meal. When we first entered the
294
house she sat near the door, spinning flax on a little wheel, and a: baby was lying near her in a cradle formed of the bark of a. birch tree, which resting like a trough on rockers, made a very smooth, neat little cradle. While the settler and his other guests were engaged in conversation, I took notice of the house and furniture. The house was about 20 by 26 feet, constructed of round logs chinked with pieces of split logs, and plastered on the outside with clay. The floors were made of split logs with the flat side up ; the door, of thin pieces split out of a large log, and the roof of the same. The windows were holes unprotected by glass or sash ; the fire place was made of stone, and the chim- ney, of sticks and clay. On one side of the fire place was a lad- der leading to the chamber. There was a Bed in one corner of the room, a table and five or six chairs, and on one side a few shelves of split boards, on which were a few articles of crockery and some tin-ware, and on one of them a few books. Behind the door was a large spinning wheel and a reel. and over head on wooden books fastened to the beams were a number of things, among which were a nice rifle, powder horn, bullet pouch, toma- hawk and hunting knife-the complete equipment of the hun- ter and the frontier settler. Every thing looked nice and tidy, even to the rough stones which had been laid down for a hearth.
" In a short time our dinner was ready. It consisted of corn bread and milk, eaten out of tin basins with iron spoons. The- settler ate with us, but his wife was employed while we were at dinner in sewing on what appeared to be a child's dress. The settler and the agent talked all the time, generally on the sub- ject of the settlement of the country. After dinner the latter and his companion took their departure, the one making the lit- tle boy a present of a half dollar, and the other giving the same sum to the baby.
" I have now. introduced to the reader one of the best and' most intelligent among the first settlers of the county. He was a man of limited' information, except as to what related to his own particular business ; but his judgment was good; and he was frank, candid and fearless. He belonged' to that class of men who distinguished themselves as soldiers during our Revo- lutionary War, and who were in many instances the descend- ants of the celebrated " bold yeomanry of old England," whose praises were commemorated by the English bard when he wrote,.
" Princes and fords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them, as a breath has made ; But a bold yeomanry, their country's pride, When once destroyed, can never be supplied."
295
THE FRIENDLINESS OF THE PIONEERS.
"The social relations and neighborly intercourse of the set- tlers were of the most kind and friendly character, and proved the truth of the common saying that 'people were much more friendly in new countries than they were in the old settlements.' It was no uncommon thing among them to comply literally with the injunction of scripture which requires us to give to him that asketh and from him that would borrow to turn not away.' Their kindness and sympathy to and for each other was indeed most extraordinary, and showed a degree of sensibility which we look for in vain in a more cultivated and enlightened state of society. At the commencement of the sugar-making perhaps, ยท some one in the settlement would cut his leg badly with an axe, making a deep and ghastly wound, which would render him a cripple for weeks and perhaps for months. The neighbors would assemble, that is, make a bee and do all his work as far as it could be done at that time, and then, by arrangement among themselves, one man would go every afternoon and gather the sap, carrying it to the house where it could be boiled up by the settler's wife. Again, one would be taken sick in harvest time : his neighbors would make a bee, harvest and secure his crops, when, at the same time, their own grain very likely would be going to waste for want of gathering. In seed time a man's ox would perhaps be killed by the falling of a tree : the neighbors would come with their teams and drag in his wheat when they had not yet sowed their own. A settler's house would be accidentally burned down-his family would be provided for at the nearest neighbors, and all would turn out and build and finish a house in a day or two so that the man could take his family into it. Instances like these. in which the settlers exibited their kindness and sympathy for each other might be extended indefinitely, but we have referred to a suffi- cient number to show the kindness and good feeling that existed among them."
A REMINISCENCE,
"For the purpose of showing how much time and labor it required in many cases for the first settlers to procure even the most common articles of food, I will state what has been related . to me by one of the most respectable and intelligent of the first settlers of Dansville .* He stated that when he first settled in
*The late Judge Hammond, of Hammondsport.
296
that town, it was very difficult to procure provisions of any kind; and there was no grain to be had any where but of the Indians, at Squaky Hill, who had corn, which they would sell for a silver dollar a bushel. In order to get some corn for bread-his supply having become exhausted-he went several miles to a place where a wealthy man was making large im- provements and employed a good many hands. He chopped for him four days, for which he received two dollars. He then worked one day for another man to pay for the use of a horse, and on the next day started for the Indian Village, a distance of fifteen or twenty miles, where he got two bushels of corn for his two dollars. The corn had been kept by the Indians tied up in bunches by the husks, and hung around the walls of their cabin, and was very black and dirty, covered with soot and ashes. He took the corn bome and his wife washed it clean with a good deal of labor and dried it so that it could be ground. He then got the horse another day, and carried the corn to mill, twelve or fifteen miles, and was fortunate enough to get it ground and reach home the same day. Here we see that it took seven days work of the settler to get the meal of two bushels of corn. The old gentleman's eye kindled when he related these circumstances, and he said that the satisfaction and happiness he felt when sitting by the fire and looking at the bag full of meal standing in the corner of his log house, far surpassed what he experienced at any other time in the acquisi- tion of property, although he became in time the owner of a large farm, with a large stock of horses, cattle, and sheep, and all the necessary implements of a substantial and wealthy farmer."
THE VILLAGE OF CORNING."
Corning owes its existence and prosperity to no original supe- riority of location over neighboring villages. but has sprung up to a thriving and commanding position by having become the centre of great public improvements. The history of these is the history of the place.
By the construction of the Chemung Canal this point was made an inland termination of navigable communication with the Hudson river and the ocean. It was consequently the point from which the products of the forest, the field, and the river, for a vast extent of country were destined to seek a market. The
*Prepared for this volume by a correspondent.
297
sagacious enterprise of a few capitalists pointed to it as the future centre of an extensive commerce.
The extensive mines of bituminous coal, at Blossburgh, in the state of Pennsylvania, had early attracted attention, and shortly after the completion of the Chemung canal two corpo- rations, one of which had been created by the state of Pennsyl- vania, to construct a slack water navigation from Blossburg to the state line, and the other by the State of New York, to continue the same to Elmira, were authorized by their respective states to build railroads connecting at the state line, and in this state, extending to a point at or near the termination of the Chemung canal .
The work of constructing these railroads was commenced in 1836, and at the same time an association of gentlemen now known as the Corning Company, having purchased a large tract of land on both sides of the Chemung river, and laying out streets and lots, made a beginning of the future village of Corning by the erection of a large hotel called the "Corning House." The Corning and Blossburg railroad was completed and put into operation in 1840. About the same time the work of building the New York and Erie railroad which passes through the village was commenced in the vicinity and prosecuted vigorously till the suspension of the work, in 1842. The Bank of Corning, with a capital of $104,000, had been organized and put in operation, in 1839. So rapid was the growth of the village, that the population amounted in 1841 to 900.
Here its prosperity was for a time arrested. The commercial revolutions which paralyzed enterprise and industry everywhere were felt with peculiar severity here. The work upon the New York and Erie railroad which had drawn together a considerable population, was suspended. The property of the Corning and Blossburg railroad was seized by creditors. The price of lumber, the great staple of the country, would hardly pay the cost of manufacture. Large quantities of coal lay upon the bank of the river and in eastern markets, wanting purchasers. Bank- ruptcy was almost universal, and the resources of industry were . almost entirely cut off.
Notwithstanding these drawbacks to the prosperity of the village, the advantages of its position and the hopeful energies of its citizens did not suffer the relapse to continue long .- After a while the demand for coal increased and the market enlarged. Improved prices of lumber stimulated its manufac- ture, and larger quantities were brought here for shipment. The place became the centre of a heavy trade, and capital
298
sought investment in manufactures. In 1848 the village was incorporated under the general law, containing at the time 1700 inhabitants.
In the mean time the work of building the Erie railroad was resumed, and on the first day of January, 1850, was opened a direct railway communication with the city of New York. The elements of prosperity seemed complete.
But there were elements to contend with of an adverse and direful character. On the eighteenth day of May, 1850, occur- red a fire, more extended and disastrous in proportion to the size of the place, than has often, if ever happened elsewhere. The entire business part of the village, comprising nearly one hundred buildings, with large quantities of lumber, was in a few hours laid in ashes. Yet the disaster was so common and universal-misfortune had so many companions-there were so many to share theloss that the burden seemed to be scarcely felt. The embers had not cooled before shanties of rough boards - supplied the place of stores, and for months almost the entire business was carried on in places, neither secure from summer rains or thieves. In the mean time the work of rebuilding was going on, and in no long time substantial and splendid buildings again occupied the place of the ruins.
In the year 1852 was opened the first section of the Buffalo, Corning and New York railroad, having its eastern terminus at Corning. The remainder of the line to Buffalo, willl be in operation in the course of 1853. The Corning and Blossburg railroad also was relaid with a new and heavy rail and newly equipped throughout.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.