USA > New York > Steuben County > History of the settlement of Steuben County, N.Y. including notices of the old pioneer settlers and their adventures, 1893 > Part 13
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
WHEELER.
The first permanent settler in this town was Capt. Silas Wheel- er, a native of Rhode Island, who emigrated from Albany Coun- ty, in the State of New York, in the year 1790 or 1800. Capt. Joel Pratt made a purchase of several thousand acres in this town, in the year previous, and had made a clearing of one hundred and ten acres, and raised a crop of wheat from it, on what is now known as the " Mitchell farm." Capt. Pratt was permitted, by
131
Capt. Williamson, to exchange this for a tract in the town of Prattsburgh, where he removed in 1804, or about that time.
Capt. Wheeler had been a man of adventure. He was one of Benedict Arnold's men in the perilous march through the forests of Maine, and at the assault of Quebec stood near Montgomery when he fell. He was four times taken prisoner in the revol- utionary war-twice on land, and twice when roving the high seas as privateer's man. From his first captivity, he was soon released by exchange. After another capture, he lay in prison more than a year. Being taken a second time on one of the dar- ing privateers that tormented the British coast, he was confined in the Jail of Kinsale, in Ireland, and condemned to be hung as a pirate-or at least was very rudely treated, and threatened with hanging by powers that had the authority to make good their threats. He escaped this disagreeable fate by the assistance of a friendly Irishman, and of the distinguished orator and statesman Henry Grattan. Mr. Grattan procured for him a passport, pro- tected him from press-gangs and the police, and secured for him a passage to Dunkirk, in France.
Capt. Wheeler was induced to settle in Steuben County by Preston, the Surveyor, (mentioned in the sketch of the settle- ment of Prattsburgh,) who, on his return to Westerlo, spread the most glowing accounts of the fertility and prospects of the Conhocton Country. Capt. Wheeler's settlement was made at the place now occupied by his grand-son, Mr. Grattan H. Wheeler.
Capt. Wheeler's first trip to mill, is worthy of record. There. were, at the time when he had occasion to "go to mill," three institutions in the neighborhood where grinding was done-at the Friend's settlement, at Bath, and at Naples. The mill-stones of Bath had suspended operations-there being nothing there to grind, as was reported. Capt. Wheeler made a cart, of which the wheels were sawn from the end of a log of curly-maple ; the box was of corresponding architecture. He started for Naples with two oxen attached to this vehicle. Two young men went before the oxen with axes and chopped a road, and the clumsy chariot came floundering through the bushes behind-bouncing over the logs, and snubbing the stumps, like a ship working
I32
through an ice-field. The first day they reached a point a little beyond the present village of Prattsburgh-a distance of six miles from their starting point-and on the second, moored triumphant- ly at the mill of Naples.
Capt. Wheeler was a man famous for anecdotes throughout all the land. Not one of the multitude of Captains, who flourished in our country in early days, earned his military title more fairly. He died in 1828, aged 78. Hon. Grattan H. Wheeler, son of Capt. Wheeler, died in 1852. He had been a prominent citizen of the county many years, and had served in the State and National Legislature.
After Capt. Wheeler's settlement, lots were purchased, and im- provements made by persons residing abroad, some of whom afterwards established themselves on these farms. Thomas Aulls, Esq., a son of William Aulls, the first settler of Pleasant Valley, and Col. Barney, of the same neighborhood, with Phillip Murtle, who lived on the farin now owned by Gen. Otto F. Marshall, were among the earliest settlers after the Wheelers. These, with settlers named Bear, Ferral, and Rifle, were mentioned by our informant as constituting all, or nearly all, of the original stock of settlers. Esq. Gray came in at an early time. The Gulf Road to Bath was opened by Capt. Wheeler ; the Kennedyville Road was opened a year or two afterwards. The first saw-mill in the town stood at the Narrows of the Five Mile Creek, and was built by Capt. Wheeler.
PULTENEY.
The first settlenient in the town of Pulteney, was made on Bully Hill, by John Van Camp and D. Thompson, in 1797. The following are the names of other early settlers from 1799 to 1807 :- Samuel Miller, G. F. Fitz Simmons, Thomas Hoyt, Abraham Bennet, Ephraim Eggleston, John Kent, Joseph Hall, senior, Samuel Wallis, John Turner, John Ellis, Augustus Tyler, and Ezra Pelton. John Gulick kept the first dry goods store in the town .*
HOWARD.
Abraham Johnston settled in 1806 where Richard Towle now lives, and about the same time, Samuel Baker settled where J.
*Communicated by Melchior Wagener, Esq.
133
Rice now lives, and Reuben Smith, Abraham Smith and Abel Bullard, settled on the road between Goff's Mills and the old Turnpike, near the old State Road. Jacob, Benjamin and Daniel N. Bennett, settled in 1807, or about that time, on what is yet called Bennett's Flatts, Job. B. Rathbun, with three of his brothers, in the Rathbun settlement, in 1808 or 1809. William Allen and David Smith, in the Pond settlement in 1810 or 'II, and Capt. Joel Rice and Esq. Israel Baldwin in 1811 or '12. Major Thomas Bennett settled on the old turnpike about six miles east of Hornellsville, toward 1808. Colonel Henry Ken- nedy built a saw-mill at Goff's Mills in 1809. William Goff, Esq., came in in 1812.
The town of Howard was set off from the old town of Canisteo in 1812. The first town meeting was held at the house of Simeon Bacon, on the old turnpike, in the spring of 1813. In the year 1812, there were about thirty families in the town .*
HORNBY AND ORANGE.+
Asia and Uriah Nash, the first settlers of Hornby, settled in 1814, in the north part of the town called Nash settlement. Ed- ward Stubbs, Ezra Shaw, Samuel Adams, and Jesse Underwood, settled in 1815. In the same year, Jesse Platt, Jolın Babbins and Amasa Stanton, settled in the Platt settlement, in the south- western part of the town. James S. Gardner, Chester Knowlton, and Adin Palmer settled in the Palmer settlement in 1816.
Darius Hunt, Chauncey Hunt, James Overhiser and Thomas Hurd, were the first settlers in Orange, on Mead's Creek, prob- ably in 1812.
CONHOCTON.I
Captain Williamson, about the time of the settlement of Bath, sent a man named Bivin, to the Twenty-two mile Tree, (now Blood's Corners,) to keep a tavern. This point was known in early times as Bivin's Corners. The first settlement made in the town of Conhocton after this, was made, according to the best of our information, in the Raymond Settlement, by James and
*Communicated by William Goff, Esq.
+Communicated by Henry Gardner, Esq.
¿Communicated by Mr. Levi Chamberlain.
I34
Aruna Woodward. In 1806, Joseph Chamberlain, of Herkimer County, settled on the Davis farm, near Liberty Corners. His household consisted of a cow and a dog. All his property, be- sides his axe, was contained in a small pack. For his cow the accommodations were rather rude. When the hour of milking arrived, the settler resorted to the strange expedient of driving the beast "a straddle of a log," and milking into a notch cut with his axe. Into this he crumbled his bread, and ate therefrom with a wooden spoon.
In the following year, Levi Chamberlain, Captain Jones Cleland, Joseph Shattuck and Deacon Horace Fowler, settled in this neighborhood. Other early settlers were-Timothy Sher- man; James Barnard, Samuel Rhoades, Jesse Atwood, Isaac Morehouse, and Charles Burlingham. The Brownsons settled at Loon Lake at an early day. Abram Lint settled at Lint Hill, in in 1809, or about that time, and afterwards the Hatches, the Ketches, and others.
Capt. Cleland built in 1808 the first mills. Levi Chamberlain built in 1809, the first frame house at Liberty Corners, and Jo- seph Shattuck kept the first tavern at the same place about the same time.
On account of some legislative awkwardness, the settlers in the northern part of the town, went for several years to Bath, to vote at town meetings, while those in the southern part went to Dans- ville. The two squads of voters used to meet each other on the road when going to the polls.
THE COUNTRY SOUTH OF CANISTEO.
The following are names of settlers who were living in 1810 in the town of Troupsburgh, which then comprised nearly all the territory in the county south of the Canisteo River, " Beginning on the east side, the settlers were Caleb Smith, Daniel Johnson, Lemuel Benham, Breakhill Patrick, Samuel B. Rice, Nathaniel Mallory, Elijah Johnson, Joseph Smith, Reazin Searle and Beth- uel Tubbs. Further west, on the old State Road, were Ebenezer Spencer, Andrew Simpson and a family of Marlatts, Elisha Hance, Philip Cady, Elijah Cady, Samuel Cady, Peter Cady, Caleb Colvin, Matthew Grinnolds, William Card, Charles Card ;
I35
and west of the old State Road, were Nathan Coffin, Henry Gar- rison, Edmund Robinson, Jeremiah Nudd. The last three came in 1812, Alanson Perry came in 1810. There were some others here in an early day, as by the census of 1815, there were over 500 inhabitants."* Daniel Johnson was Supervisor till 1812, and Charles Card from 1813 to 1819. Samuel B. Rice was Town Clerk for about twenty years. The first grist-mill was built by Caleb Smith, the second by George Martin in 1812. "There was but little improvement made for several years, and many of the first settlers became discouraged and emigrated to the West, and the town seemed to be, at a stand. Those remaining have be- come comfortable in circumstances." The Brotzman's, Andrew Boyd, the Rowleys and John Craig were early settlers of Jasper.
ORANGE. +
That part of the town of Orange called Mead's Creek was set- tled, or began to be settled, a few years previous to 1820. Among the inhabitants who were there previous to or about that time, were Jedediah Miller, Andrew Fort, David Kimball, Esq., and his brother Moses, John Dyer, Sylvester Goodrich, and three settlers named Hewitt. Joshua Chamberlain came there four or five years later and bought the land where the village of Mont- erey stands, of a man by the name of De Witt.
" The northeast part of the town of Orange known by the appellation of Sugar Hill, did not receive its name from any dis- tinguished elevation or large hill, but from the following circum- stance. Some of the men and boys from the older settlements used to come to this place to make sugar in the spring of the year, while it was yet a wilderness. They had traversed the woods in quest of deer, and taken notice of the fine groves of maple in this locality, and as there were no settlers on the land, and nobody in their way, they had an excellent chance for mak- ing sugar ; and as they had to give the place some name, they called it Sugar Hill. The settlement began about the year 1819 or 1820. Lewis Nichols, William Webb, Thomas Horton, Abraham Allen, John Allen, Ebenezer Beach, Mr. Eveleth, Sey-
*Communicated by Charles Card, Esq.
+Communicated by Dr. Silas B. Hibbard, of Sugar Hill.
I36
mour Lockwood, and two families of Comptons, were among the first settlers. Dr. Hibbard arrived in 1821, and Abraham Ly- bolt, Esq., came about the same time.
" After the commencement of the settlement the land was very soon taken up by actual settlers. The fertility of the soil, its proximity to the head of Seneca Lake, their anticipated place of market, the easy manner of obtaining the land from the Land Office at Bath, their confidence in the validity of the title, and perhaps the novelty of the name, might all have contributed to the speedy settlement of the place."
CAMPBELL .*
The first permanent settlers of that part of the old Town of Bath which is now the Town of Campbell, were Joseph Stevens, Robert Campbell, Solomon Campbell, and Archa Campbell. In addition to these, the remaining inhabitants of the Town in the year 1800, and about that time, were, Elias Williams, black- smith, Samuel Calkins, farmer, Abram Thomas and Isaac Thomas, hunters, James Pearsall, farmer, David Mc Nutt, Joseph Woolcott, and - Sailor.
AVOCA.
Avoca was known in the early part of Col. Williamson's time as "Buchanan's," or the Eight-Mile-Tree. The name of the first settler, as the title of the settlement indicates, was Buchanan. He was established at that point by the agent and kept "accom- modations" for travellers. A correspondent has returned the names of the oldest residents as follows : James Mc Whorter, Abraham Towner, Gersham Towner, Daniel Tilton, John Don- nahee, Spence Moore, Henry Smith, Allen Smith, who have been residents for about thirty years, and John B. Calkins, Joseph Matthewson, Gersham Salmon, James Davis, and James Silsbee, who have been residents about twenty-four years.
WAYLAND.+
The first settlement in the town of Wayland was made by - Zimmerman, in 1806, on the farmn now occupied by J. Hess, at
*Communicated by Mr. Samuel Cook, of Campbell.
+Communicated by Rev. E. Brownson.
137
the depot. The north part of the town was settled by Captain Bowles (1808), Mr. Hicks (about 1810), Thomas Begole (1814), Mr. Bowen (1808), and John Hume (1808).
The settlements at Loon Lake in the south part of the town, were made in 1813 by Salmon Brownson, James Brownson, Elisha Brownson, and Isaac Willie.
The settlers of the central part of the town were Walter Patchin (1814), Dr. Warren Patchin (1815), Dennis Hess (1815), Ben- jamin Perkins, and Samuel Draper.
"No road passed through the town except the ancient one from Bath to Dansville. It was a hard town to settle, and people were generally poor. They passed through many hardships and privations, but now their town is in a prosperous condition.
" One circumstance connected with the early settlement of this town may be somewhat interesting. In 1815, there being a scarcity of bread, I went through the towns of Springwater, Livonia, and Sparta, and thence to Dansville, in search of grain for sale, and none was to be found in those towns, nor in West- ern New York. People had to hull green wheat and rye for food. I found a field of rye on William Perine's farm which was thought nearly fit to cut. I went home and got some neighbors, and with oxen and cart went and cut some of it, threshed it, and took it to the mill and had it mashed, for it was too damp to grind, and thought ourselves the happiest people in the world be- cause we had bread."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE AIR CASTLE VANISHING-THE CLOSE OF COL. WILLIAMSON'S AGENCY-HIS CHARACTER.
Nearly sixty years have passed away since the Scottish Captain started from the West Branch in pursuit of the air-castle which shone so bravely like a balloon to him, looking northward from the Cliffs of Northumberland. The changes which have in the mean time been wrought upon this continent, are without a parallel in the World's annals. Prophecy has been put to silence : conjec- ture has proved a fool ; for the things which have been accom- plished exceed so far any thing promised in the visions of political prophets, or in the ravings of dreamers, that the extravagance of our ancient soothsayers is this day accounted moderation. No conquests of Goths, or Tartars can be compared for rapidity with that which has been achieved by the woodsmen of America in the overthrow of a forest as broad as an ocean. The little weapon which they wielded against the innumerable host that they went forth to conquer, seemed enchanted, like the swords of those champions of old, who are said to have slain their pagan enemies till rivers were choked, and hollows became hillocks. States
have been founded, cities built, savage rivers made highways, prairies where the Genius of Barbarism fed his herds of elk and buffalo, made pastures for mules and bullocks, and the lakes which lay afar off in the solitudes, crossed only by the flocks of wild fowl and the fleets of Indian admirals, have been gladdened by the keels of steamships and the watchful flame of light-houses. The utmost western wilderness which the settler of "The Gen- esee " beheld over the Lakes, and which he surmised might become the dwelling place of desperate pioneers when he had been a century in his grave, is now but midway between Niagara and the outposts of the Republic, and caravans of restless men, pressing beyond the momentary borders, have crossed the Cordil- leras and built cities on the coast of the Pacific.
Where now is the gallant Scot and his city ? The Genesee country has not lagged in the advances of the Republic. Its popu-
139
lation is counted by hundred thousands, and its wealth is told by millions ; but the memory of the city builder and his schemes has almost perished. While the Northern counties have been making almost unexampled strides to power and opulence, the district which wise men of the last century pointed at as the centre of future Western commerce has dragged its slow length along in poverty and obscurity, and only by the sheerest labor has reached its present position of independence. The Great Western Highway was diverted from the valley of the Conhocton. For a quarter of a century the wealth of the North and West has been rolling in one tremendous torrent to the Mohawk and the Hudson, and by the side of the channel through which it poured, the demon, our ancient enemy aforementioned, has struck swamps and salt-bogs with his staff, and forthwith cities have risen from the mire. The little river which was to have been the drudge of the broad north- west, carrying to the seaboards rough arks ladened with tlie grains of Genesee and far-off Michigan, has been happily delivered from that tedious servitude, turning a few mill-wheels and watering meadows. The fair valley of Bath, instead of groaning under the weight of a wilderness of bricks where brokers and cashiers, and other mercantile monsters might go about, gratifying their financial instincts to the full, bears at this day only a quiet village and a few ranges of firms, and is girdled by wooded hillsides as wild as in the days when the great Captain of the Six Nations was wont to rest with his warriors under their shadows.
The memory of the Scot and his city has almost perished. A Senator of the United States, addressing not long since the mem- bers of the Legislature of the State of New York, guests of the city of New York, at the Astor House, spoke of the prediction of a traveller in the year 1800, that the village of Bath on the Conhocton river, would in fifty years become the commercial metropolis of the State of New York .* The public heard it with
* A portion of the speech of Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, at the Astor House, on the evening of March 22, 1851, is thus reported in the New York Courier and Enquirer :
" Gentlemen : It seems to me that we can improve this festival occasion by considering how intimate is the relation between the City and the State,- how essential each is to the other There is a town in the interior of the State. far away in what was lately kuown as the secluded, sequestered part of it, Bath by name. Many of the representatives of the Rural Districts
140
surprise. Many men of the past generation remembered the name of Williamson, but of the present generation few, except citizens of Western New York, knew of the attempted assassina- tion of the great Atlantic city.
The story of the downfall of Backwoods Baron and his city, is a brief one. Ten years Col. Williamson lived on the Conhocton, and exhausted all chemistry in his experiments upon the possi- bility of turning a castle of rainbows into ,stone. His expendi- tures had been enormous, and the British proprietors began to grumble audibly. The towers of glass, which they once imagined they saw glimmering in the wilderness, were scrutinized with profound suspicion. But whatever doubt there might be about the reality of those structures, as to one thing there could be no doubt at all. The greedy wilderness was swallowing the fortunes of the Pulteneys with as little gratitude as an anaconda. Hun- dreds of thousands of pounds had been thrown away to that monster, and like the grave it was yet hungry. To satisfy such a remorseless appetite one needed a silver mine, or a credit with the goblins.
know it well : the members from Steuben can speak for it. Of this town I wish to speak. It is a beautiful but quiet one, situated in the delightful val- ley and on the banks of the Conhocton, a tributary of the. Susquehanna. But those who know it well have remarked, that it has a broad and magnifi- cent plan, imperfectly filled out. There are houses on corners, designating streets and avenues, without inhabitants. In short, it was laid out for a great city, but has long since renounced all ambitious pretensions. You do not know how this happened. Well if on your return to Albany, you will call on my excellent friend (Mr. Street,) the State Libarian, he will give you a small duodecimo volume, published in the year 1800, containing an account of a journey performed by an English gentleman in the short space of six weeks, from the city of New York all the way to Niagara Falls. That travel- ler visited Bath, then in the day-spring of its growth, and he recorded of it that it was destined to be the greatest commercial metropolis of the State of New York .- The Hudson was only a short arm of the sea. It did not pene- trate the interior far enough to take a hold of the trade of the country. Bath was to receive all of it that could be diverted from the channel of the St. Lawrence and the market of Quebec, and send it down through the Conhoc- ton and the Susquehanna to Chespeake Bay. Had that calculation been realized, Bath might have been a city like Albany, and New York would have been a city over which the President could have had but little ambition to preside."-(Cheers.)
14I
Col. Williamson, however, was not discouraged. Time enough has not been given, he argued. Even a magician would not undertake to perform such a chemical exploit in ten years. The brilliant balloon which overhangs the wilderness is not yet securely anchored, it is true, and sways to and fro as if it might possibly rise into the air and sail away. Give but a few years inore and everything will be accomplished.
But the faith and patience of the proprietors had become utterly exhausted. They had had enough of balloons and ballooning, and were deaf to argument. Like one awakening from enchant- ment, the Baronet saw the towers of ivory to be but squat pens of logs, and the spires of glass, but long dead trunks of hemlocks, bristling with spikes and blackened with fire. It was determined to change the system which had regulated the estate. Accord- ingly, in 1802, Col. Williamson descended from the throne, and Robert Troup, Esq., of the city of New York reigned in his stead .*
* Col. Williamson held the Pulteney Estates in New York in his own name, and conveyed them to Sir William Pulteney in the month of March, 1801. The act of 1798, permitting aliens to purchase and hold real estate in this State, (passed, it is said, through the influence of Col. W., who was a member of the Legislature in that year,) expired by its own limitation, on the 2d of April following.
Col. Williamson assigned to Sir William Pulteney on the 13th of Decein- ber, 18co, for the consideration of $300,000, all the bonds and mortgages held by him.
In the month of March following, he executed to Sir William Pulteney five deeds, which were delivered as escrows to Robert Troup, Esq., to be delivered to Sir W. P., in case certain conditions were performed before the 25th day of October, 1801, which conditions were performed by the execu- tion of a deed from Pulteney to Williamson, dated 23d July, 1801. Of these five deeds, the first, dated 4th March, 1801, conveys 50,000 acres of land in the County of Ontario; the second, dated 5th March, 1801, conveys twenty lots in the heart of the city of New York, 1784 acres of land in the County of Otsego, 1299 acres in the town of Unadilla, 1400 acres in the County of Her- kimer,9000 in the County of Montgomery, 34108 acres in the County of Chen- ango :the third, dated 27th March, 1801, conveys 7000 acres of land in the County of Chenango; the fourth, dated 31st March, 1801, conveys 5000 acres of land in the Gerundigut township, and 600 acres in the town of Galena, in Cayuga, and all lands in the State of New York, held by the said Williamson : the fifth is an assignment of all the personal property, notes, bonds, bills, and securities of every description, held by the said Williamson. The considera-
142
Col. Williamson, after the termination of his agency, returned to England. He afterwards made occasional visits to America. He died in the year 1807, (at sea, it is said,) of the yellow fever, while on a mission from the British Government to the Havana.
He was a man of spirit, energy and ability. Prepossessing in person, free and frank in manner, generous and friendly in dispo- sition, he is remembered to this day as a "fine fellow " by the farmers who were once young pioneers, and opened his roads and hewed his forests. A keen follower of sports, a lover of the horse, the rifle and the hound, he was accounted a man, by the rudest foresters. High-bred, intelligent, of engaging address, and read . ily adapting himself to the circumstances of all men, he was equally welcome to the cabin of the woodsman or the table of the Peer : and whether discussing a horse-race with Canisteo, a school project with Prattsburgh, or the philosophy of over-shot wheels with Bartle's Hollow, he was entirely at home, and pronounced opinions which were listened to with respect. His hale, prompt, manly greeting won for him the good will of the settlers, and gave him influence at the occasional assemblies of the citizens. A crowd of men, for example, waiting in the meadows behind the Land Office for the beginning of a horse-race, became impat- ient, and at last Canisteo began to kill time by fighting. The Colonel, galloping over from the village, had but to exclaim, in
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.