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 17
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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 him- self 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 sending 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 contemplation, 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 with- out a growl.
Wolves seldom or never were provoked to resistance. The settler walking through the woods at dusk, was sometimes inter- cepted by a gaug 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 defensive. They were generally held in supreme contempt. 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 dangerous an- tagonist. The following incident is given in a manuscript here- tofore 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
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and rushed at him. He fired again, but in the hurry of the moment missed his aim. He then clubbed his gun and struck at the head of the infuriated 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 followed him more than an hour, lunging at him with his horns so rapidly that the gentle- man 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 with his knife several times inde- cisively, 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 gronnd 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 connected with "going to mill." Grist mills being fabrics of civilization, were not of course found in a wild state along the primitive rivers. The unfortunate savage 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 indifferent quality, yet it may be a question if this was not compensated for by the free- dom of the courts of the Six Nations from those thrilling contro- versies 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 Sus- quehanna 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 Friend's Settlement near Penn Yan ; one in Lindley town on the Tioga. Shepard's mill on the Susquehanna, a short
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distance above Tioga Point, was the main dependence of our set- tlers 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 remember. That backwoods machine known as the Plumping 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 mag- nificent to be mentioned with a homely plumping-mill. Never- theless, granting all due deference to these portly and respectable edifices, historians will insist that their rustic predecessors be re- membered with some degree of kindness.
The Plumping Mill was made after this wise. 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 a 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 backwoodsman 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 gorgeous red paint and puzzling machinery, are uncertain affairs at best- nervous as it were and whimsical, disturbed by droughts and freshets, by rains and high winds like rheumatic old gentlemen : there is always a screw loose somewhere, and their wheels need
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" fixing " 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 were to dyspepsia, or the women to hysterics and tantrums.
The reflecting citizen will duly honor the old Plumping 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.
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 phalanx of militia in any pub- lic 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 disposed 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 monarchical phantoms which hovered before the eyes of our vig- ilant forefathers. The plume, the epaulette, 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 com- mand 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,
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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 Congressmen. The inferior officers might be hailed by their myrmidons as Tom or Harry, and, though the high com- manders were generally men of more stately character, who were not to be treated exactly with such familiarity, yet their relations with the soldiers were 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 Marl- borough, 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 with- out modification. There was occasionally one of these magnifi- cent commanders 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 battle afar off.
The officer was expected to deal liberally with the infirmities of his men, and, as one of the popular infirmities in those times was a singular relish for stimulants, the epidemic was treated after the most approved practice 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 fountains ; majors, captains and adju- tants, were held responsible for " small drinks," that the fatigues
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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.
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 com- pany drafted from the regiment. Many who were disposed to volunteer, had been carried off by the recruiting officers of the regular service. Captain James Sandford commanded one of the rifle companies, which belonged 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 Brun- dage. 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. Samuel 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 the actors. We give the story of the ensign, afterwards Major Kennedy, Sheriff of the county, a reliable man, and brave soldier, and obtained from him as related to our informant many years ago.
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
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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 remained 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 com- mand 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 sud- denly 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 and dashed at the Britons like a lion. The soldiers were astonished to find them- selves led by such a 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 opposed to the Indians, whom they drove before them
* 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 fight- ing Chief Justice. He was a physician by profession-a dissenter from the establishment, however, never having taken a degre-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 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 before the prisoners, clad in the gor- geous raiment of the captain. He strutted to and fro with great self-admir- ation, and was not entirely sure that he had not slain the President of the United States.
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into a wood. While exchanging an irregular fire with these en- emies 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 reinforce- ments, which were just coming up. "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, explain- ing 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 hill a fire was delivered which was very destructive; but a misap- prehension of the word of command by part of the line caused disorder. The fire was returned by the enemy. The militia suf- fered 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.
It is popularly told, that on this day Ensign Kennedy was engaged in personal combat with a British officer, and being unac- quainted with the polite learning of his newly-adopted profession, was speedily disarmed ; that he immediately closed with his con- founded antagonist, knocked him down with his fist, and made him prisoner. The hero of the story, however, is said to have denied it. He was present at other engagements, and gained the reputa- tion of a cool and resolute 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
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wouldn't do." In the second year of the war two companies were drafted from the Steuben County militia, and sent to the Niag- are frontier, under the command of Captains James Read, of Urbana, and Jonathan Rowley, of Dansville, faithful and reliable officers. Captain Read refused to go as a drafted officer, but reported himself to General of the Division, at the commence- ment of the war, as ready to march at the head of a company, as a volunteer, whenever he should be called upon. Both the com- panies were principally levied from the Northern part of the county. Of Capt. Rowley's company, John Short and John E. Mulholland were lieutenants, and George Knouse and Timothy Goodrich, ensigns. Of Capt. Read's company, George Teeplesand 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 vol- unteered to cross the boundaries of the republic, and were stationed at Fort George.
We have not succeeded in learning anything about the draft for the last year of the war, if any was made, nor concerning the militia of this county who were engaged at Fort Erie.
The following incident is related by one of the Steuben County militia who was engaged in one of the battles on the line as sergeant of a company. His company was ordered into action, and before long found itself confronted by a rank of Old Penin- sulars, 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 sol- diers 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 thor- oughly soaked the powder in them. It was his business to have seen to it, that the muskets were cared for, and upon him after- wards fell the blame of the disaster. Nothing could be done till the charges were drawn. There were but two ball-screws in the company. The captain took one, and the sergeant the other,
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and beginning their labors in the middle of the rank, worked towards the ends. A more uncomfortable position 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 disagreeable precision into position and fired. The bullets whistled over the heads of the militia. The British loaded their guns again : again the fright- ful row of muzzles looked the militia-men in the face-again they heard the alarming command, 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 terrible 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 ex- cited. " 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 below 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 inusket 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. Reinforce- ments came on the field and the engagement became hot. An officer on horseback was very active in arranging the enemy's line-riding to and fro, giving loud orders, and making himself extremely useful. "Mark that fellow !" said the sergeant to his right hand man. Both fired at the same instant. The officer fell from his horse and was carried off the field by his men. They afterwards learned that he was a Colonel, and that one of his legs was broken.
THE BATTLE OF DANSVILLE.
In the midwinter of 1814, the bareheaded express-rider, gallop- ing through the frozen forests, brings startling tidings. The British Lion, bounding forth from the snow-drifts of Canada, with icicles glittering in his mane, has pounced upon the frontiers
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of the Republic. Black Rock is taken ! Buffalo is burned ! General Hall's militia have been captured and generally eaten. The supervisors of Niagara County have been thrown into the grand whirlpool. The floodgates of invasion have been opened, and the whole standing army of Great Britain, with several line- of-battle ships, and an irregular horde of Canadians and Esqui- maux, is now rolling Eastward with fire-brands and artillery, breaking furniture, shattering flour-barrels, burning cabins, blow- ing up mills, and terrifying the wives and children of our fellow- citizens.
Since Col. Simcoe, brandishing his two-edged sword on the ramparts of Toronto, beckoned those "black war-elephants " out of the billows of Ontario, there had not been such a martial ferment in our county, as arose at this alarming intelligence. Before the horse tail of the express-rider vanished beyond the Chimney Narrows, the murmur of war arose from the valleys like the humming in a disturbed bee-hive. The Brigadier blew his gathering horn, and all the cavaliers and yeomen, in the utter- most corners of the county, hurried to their regimental mustering grounds. A draft was ordered of every second man.
One battalion mustered on the Pulteney Square, at Bath. The snow was deep and the wind keen, but the soldiers stood formed in a half-moon, with the fortitude of Siberians. Col. Haight, mounted upon a black charger, rode up with great circumstance, and made a vigorous and patriotic speech, calling for volunteers, and exhorting every man to go forth to the battle. If half the corps volunteered, a draft would not be necessary. Nearly the requisite number offered themselves at once. Then the deluding drum and the fanciful fife began to utter the most seducing mel- odies. The musicians again and again made the circuit of the regiment, as if surrounding the backward warriors with some enchantment. "Drummers pounded with marvelous energy, and the fifers blew into their squealing tubes with such extraordinary ardor, that if the safety of the republic had depended upon the active circulation of wind through those " ear-piercing " instru- ments, all apprehensions of danger from the invaders might have been instantly dismissed. Occasionally a militia-man broke from the line and fell in behind the musicians; but the most of the
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