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 9
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wait until it became fordable. We stopped at the house of one Thompson, remained there several days, overhauled our clothing and provisions, and made another fresh start, and entered the wilderness on Capt. Williamson's new road.
There were no houses between Lycoming and Painted Post, a distance of 95 miles, except one in the wilderness, kept by a semi-barbarian-or in other words, a half-civilized Frenchman, named Anthony Sun. He did not bear a very good character, but we were obliged to put up with him for the night, or encamp in the woods. The next night we slept soundly on a bed of hem- lock, on the bank of the Tioga River. Next day, about 12 o'clock, we arrived at Fuller's Tavern, Painted Post. We ordered dinner of the very best they could afford, which consisted of fried venison and hominey. After dinner we concluded to spend the afternoon in visiting the few inhabitants of that neigh- borhood, of whom I have before spoken. First we called upon Judge Knox, who entertained us with a description of the coun- try and his own adventures. We next called upon Benjamin Eaton, who kept a little store of goods, and after an introduction by Judge Knox to the rest of the neighborhood, returned to our hotel and put up for the night. In the morning we started for Bath, a distance of eighteen miles. When we reached the mouth of Mud Creek, we found that a house of entertainment had been erected there, and was kept by one Thomas Corbit, who came from Pennsylvania with Williamson's company .* Thomas had been a soldier of the Revolution, and could sing an unaccount- able number of patriotic songs-Hail Columbia, among the rest. Some thirty years after he became poor and helpless. I procured for him a pension, through Henry Clay, but he did not live long to enjoy it.
We arrived at Bath and put up at the only house of entertain- ment in the village (if it could be called a house). It's construc- tion was of pitch-pine logs, in two apartments, one story high, kept by a very kind and obliging English family of the name of
*The first settlers at the mouth of Mud Creek were Thomas Corbit, in '93, John Dolson, in '94, and Henry Bush. Capt. Williamson, while on a journey from the North, was taken sick, and was so kindly taken care of at Dolson's house, on the Chemung, that he gave Mrs. D. 200 acres of land wherever she might locate it, between Painted Post and the Hermitage.
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Metcalfe. This house was the only one in town except a similar one erected for the temporary abode of Capt. Williamson, which answered the purpose of parlor, dining-room, and land office. There were besides some shanties for mechanics and laborers.
I called on Capt. Williamson and introduced myself to him as a mechanic. I told him that I had seen his advertisement, and in pursuance of his invitation, had come to ask employment. " Very well," said he, "young man, you shall not be disap- pointed." He told me I should have the whole of his work if I could procure as many hands as was necessary. We entered into an agreement. He asked me when I should be ready to com- mence business. I told him that I must return to Northumber- land and engage some hands there, and send out tools and baggage up the North branch of the Susquehanna River to Tioga Point, that being the head of boat navigation.
I introduced Uncle Moore to him-told him that he came all the way to see the country, and that if he liked it, he would purchase a farm and move on it with his family. He made a selection four miles west of Bath on which some of his family now reside.
We returned immediately to Northumberland, hired a few young men carpenters. We shipped our tools and baggage on a boat, sold my horse, and we went on foot to Bath, arriving there in five days. One more trip was necessary before we could com- mence business, as our baggage would be landed at Tioga Point. There were no roads at that time through the narrows on the Chemung for wagons to pass through with safety; therefore eight of us started on foot for the Point. When we came within four miles of Newtown, we discovered a number of canoes owned by some Dutch settlers. I purchased four of them. One of them was a very large one which I bought of a funny old Dutchman, who said his canoe "wash de granny from de whole river up." My companions gave me the title of Commodore, and insisted on my taking command of the large canoe. I selected as a ship- mate a young man by the name of Gordon who was well skilled in the management of such a craft. We laid in provision for the voyage and a full supply of the joyful. We pushed our little fleet into the river, and with wind and tide in our favor, arrived at Tioga Point in four hours, a distance of twenty-four miles.
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We shipped our goods, and set out with paddles and long setting poles against a strong current. Then came the tug of war. Many times we were obliged to land, and with a long rope tow our vessels up falls and strong riffles, and in ascending the Co11- hocton we had to cut through many piles of driftwood. Our progress was slow. We made the trip from the Point (fifty- six miles) in nine days. It was the hardest voyage that I ever undertook. We were the first navigators of the Conhocton river.
By this time Captain Williamson had erected two saw-mills on the Conhocton river, near Bath, and they were in full operation. Houses were erected as fast as thirty or forty hands could finish them. Captain Williamson called on me and asked me how long it would take me to erect and finish a frame building of forty by sixteen feet, one and a half stories high, all green stuff. He told me that he expected a good deal of company in a few days, and there was no house where so many could be entertained. I told him if all the materials were delivered on the spot, I would en- gage to finish it according to his plan in about three days, or per- haps in less time. "Very well, sir," said he, "if you finish the house in the time you have stated, you shall be rewarded." I told my hands what I had undertaken to do, and the time I had to do it in was limited to three days: "I will pay each of you one dollar a day extra. We shall have to work day and night.
What say you boys ?" Their answer was: "We will go it." This was followed up by three hearty cheers for Captain William- son. Next morning I went at it with thirty hands, and in forty- eight hours the house was finished according to agreement. No lime-stone had yet been discovered in that region, nor even stone suitable for walling cellars, therefore the whole materials for building were from necessity confined to timber and nails. Captain Williamson paid me $400 for my forty-eight hours' job, and remarked that he would not have been disappointed for double that sum. He published an account of this little affair in the Albany and New York papers. It had some effect of bring- ing our little settlement into notice. He also gave orders for the erection of a large building of 80 by 40 feet, for a theatre, and for the clearing of one hundred acres, around which was made a beautiful race-course, and another on Genesee Flats, near Wil- liamsburgh. Such amusements had the effect of bringing an
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immense number of gentlemen into the county every spring and fall. This was done by Capt. W. in order to promote the interest of his employer. Southern sportsmen came with their full- blooded racers; others, again, with bags of money to bet on the horses, and a large proportion of gamblers and blacklegs. Money was plenty, in those days at least, in and about Bath, and was easily obtained and as easily lost. Some men became immensely rich in twenty-four hours, and perhaps the next day were reduced to beggary.
Such amusements and scenes of dissipation led to another species of gambling called land speculation. Any respectable looking gentleman might purchase on a credit of six years, from one mile square to a township of land. The title that Captain Williamson gave was a bond for a deed at the end of the term, provided payment was fully made; otherwise the contract be- came null and void. Those bonds were transferable and the speculators sold to each other, and gave their bonds for thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars, which was the ruin of all who embarked in such foolish speculations. They became the victims of a monomania. Captain W. believed that this specula- tion would hasten the settlement of the county, but its tendency proved to be the reverse. Besides, it was the ruin of many hon- est, enterprising and industrious men.
Captain W. always advised me to keep clear of land speculation, and I resisted the temptation for more than two years. I was doing well enough, clearing several thousand dollars a year, but like many others, did not let well enough alone. My father's family had arrived in the United States, and had settled in the county of Northumberland, Pa., and I started in the fall of 1794 to visit them. On my way there, I met with one of those specu- lating gentlemen with whom I was acquainted. He offered me a great bargain, as I supposed, of half a Township, or 12,000 acres. It was the south half of Township No. 6, now called South Dans- ville. I agreed to pay him for his right twenty-five cents per acre, and paid him $1,000 in hand-and gave him my notes for the payment of the balance in annual payments. I went on to New York city where a few had been lucky enough to make good sales. I employed an auctioneer, and offered my lands for sale to the highest bidder at the Tontine Coffee House. It was knocked
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off at my own bid. I returned sick enough of land jobbing, but held on to my land until the next races in Bath, when I made a sale to one Mr. John Brown, a very respectable merchant and farmer of Northumberland Co., Pa. He paid me in merchandise $1,000, and gave his bonds for the balance. He shortly after failed in business, and I lost the whole of my hard earnings.
The next project that claimed his attention was the improve- ment of our streams. They were then called creeks, but when they came to be improved, and were made navigable for arks and rafts, their names were changed to those of rivers. The Colonel ordered the Conhocton and Mud Creek to be explored by a com- petent committee, and a report to be made, and an estimate of the probable expense required to make them navigable for arks and rafts. The report of the committee was favorable. A num- ber of hands were employed to remove obstructions and open a passage to Painted Post-which was done, though the channel still remained very imperfect and dangerous * The question was then asked, who shall be the first adventurer ? We had not as yet any surplus produce to spare, but lumber was a staple commodity, and was in great demand at Harrisburg. Columbia, and Balti- more. I therefore came to the conclusion to try the experiment next spring. I went to work and built an ark 75 feet long and 16 feet wide, and in the course of the winter got out a cargo of pipe and hogshead staves, which I knew would turn to good account should I arrive safely at Baltimore. All things being ready, with cargo on board, and a good ritch of water and a first-rate set of hands, we put out our unwieldy vessel into the stream, and away we went at a rapid rate, and in about half an hour reached White's Island, five miles below Bath. There we ran against a large tree that lay across the river. We made fast our ark to the shore, cut away the tree, repaired damages, and next morning took a fair start. It is unnecessary to state in detail the many difficulties we encountered before we reached Painted Post, but in about six days we got there. The Chemung River had fallen so low that we were obliged to wait for a rise of water. In four or five days we were favored with a good pitch of water. We
* The Conhocton was declared navigable above Liberty Corners. The first attempt at clearing the channel was made on the strength of a fund of $700, raised by subscription.
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made a fresh start, and in four days ran 200 miles, to Molion- tongo, a place 20 miles from Harrisburgh, where, through the ignorance of the pilot, we ran upon a bar of rocks in the middle of the river, where it was one mile wide. There we lay twenty- four hours, no one coming to our relief or to take us on shore. At last a couple of gentlemen came on board, and told us it was impossible to get the ark off until a rise of water. One of the gentlemen enquired, apparently very carelessly, what it cost to build an ark of that size, and how many thousand staves we had on board. I suspected his object, and answered him in his own careless manner. He asked if I did not wish to sell the ark and cargo. I told him I would prefer going through if there was any chance of a rise of water-that pipe staves, in Baltimore, were worth $80 per thousand, but if you wish to purchase, and will make me a generous offer, I will think of it. He offered me $600. I told him that was hardly half the price of the cargo at Baltimore, but if he would give me $800 I would close a bargain with him. He said he had a horse, saddle and bridle on shore, worth $200, which he would add to the $600. We all went on s ore. I examined the horse, and considered him worth the $200. We closed the bargain, and I started for Bath. I lost nothing by the sale, but if I had succeeded in reaching Baltimore, I should have cleared $500.
The same spring, Jacob Bartles, and his brother-in-law Mr. Harvey, made their way down Mud Creek with one ark and some rafts. Bartles' Mill Pond and Mud Lake afforded water sufficient at any time, by drawing a gate, to carry arks and rafts out of the creek. Harvey lived on the west branch of the Susquehanna, and understood the management of such crafts.
Thus it was ascertained to a certainty, that, by improving those streams, we could transport our produce to Baltimore-a distance of 300 miles-in the spring of the year, for a mere trifle.
In the year 1795 I went to Albany on horseback. There was no road from Cayuga Lake to Utica better than an Indian trail, and no accommodations that I found better than Indian wigwams. It may save me some trouble if I tell what took me there, and all . about my business. I volunteered to give a history of my own life, and I shall redeem my pledge so far as my memory will enable me to do so. I had got it into my head to dispose of my
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chest of tools, and turn merchant. I therefore settled my accounts with Col. Williamson. He gave me a draft on a house in Albany for $1,500, accompanied by letters of recommendation. I laid in a large assortment of merchandise, and shipped them on board a Mohawk boat. Being late in the fall the winter set in, and the boat got frozen up in the river about thirty miles west of Sche- nectady, at a place called the Cross Widow's, otherwise called the Widow Veeder's. Here the gooods lay for about two months, till a sleigh-road was opened from Utica to Cayuga Lake. About the last of January I started with sleighs after my goods, and in two weeks arrived at Bath.
I have already mentioned that Col. Williamson expended a good deal of money in improving a number of farms, and erecting a number of buildings on them, which gave employment to many hands .* These hands were my best customers, and paid up their accounts every three months by orders on Williamson ; but orders came from England to stop such improvements, and shortly after Col. W. resigned his agency. Those tenants and laborers got in my debt, at this time, about $4,000, and in one night the whole of them cleared out for Canada. They were a sad set of unprin- cipled scamps. They were a part of that "sprinkling of Yankees that came to make money." There was not one foreigner, nor a Virginian, nor a Marylander amongst them. They were a part of the first settlers in the town of Wayne. I waited some time till they got settled down in Upper Canada, and then started to pay them a visit. At that time there were no white inhabitants be- tween Genesee River and Niagara, a distance of about 90 miles. I lodged one night with the Tonnewanta Indians, and the next day crossed the river to Newark. I found some of my customers at York or Toronto, and some at the Bay of Canty. I employed a lawyer named McDonald, who advised me to get all I could from them in the first place, and he would undertake to collect the balance if they were worth it. They paid me about $200. I
*Several of the Haverling, Brundage and Faulkner farms, north of the vil- lage of Bath, were cleared by Capt. W. He built large framed barns on them, and settled them withitenants. The scheme was a failure. The soil, even at that early day, declared its abhorrence of estates other than for fee simple After Capt. W.'s departure, the farms were almost hopelessly over- run with oak brush.
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heard that some of them had gone up Lake Erie, and were in De- troit. I re-crossed Lake Ontario, went to Fort Erie, and up the lake in the old U. S. brig Adams. She was the only vessel on the lake, except one small schooner. I was nine days on the passage. I found some of my runaways at Detroit, but did not receive one cent of them. I set my face homewards-was taken sick on my passage down the lake, and lay six weeks at Fort Erie. The physicians pronounced my case hopeless, but owing to the kindness and attention of Mrs. Crow, my landlady, and of Col. Warren, the commissary of the garrison, I recovered. I at length reached home, after an absence of three months. My law- yer McDonald was shortly after drowned in crossing the lake. It was the last I heard of him or of my papers.
My next start in business was attended with a little better suc- cess. My brother Charles kept a small store in Bath, and in the year 1800 we entered into partnership. I moved to Dansville, opened a store, and remained there one year. I did a safe busi- ness, and took in that winter 4,000 bushels of wheat and 200 bar- rels of pork-built four arks, at Ashport, on the Canisteo River, and ran them down to Baltimore. These were the first arks that descended the Canisteo. My success in trade that year gave nie another fair start. My brother, in the mean time, went to Phil- adelphia to lay in a fresh supply of goods for both stores ; but on his way home he died very suddenly at Tioga Point. He had laid in about $30,000 worth of goods. I returned to Bath with my family-continued my store at Dansville-opened one at Penn Yan, and sent a small assortment to Pittstown, Ontario County.
At this time I purchased the Cold Spring Mill site, half way between Bath and Crooked Lake, of one Skinner, a Quaker, with 200 acres of land, and purchased from the Land Office and others about 800 acres, to secure the whole privilege. Here I erected a flouring-inill, saw-mill, fulling-mill and carding machine. I per- ceived that wheat would be the principal staple of the farmers, and I also knew from experience that there would be great risk in running wheat to Baltimore down a very imperfect and danger- ous navigation, and the risk in running flour, well packed, com- paratively small. The flouring mill, with two run of stones, I completed in the best manner in three months. I sent handbills
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into all the adjoining counties, offering a liberal price for wheat delivered at my mills, or at any stores in Dansville, Penn Yan and Pittstown. I received in the course of the winter 20,000 bushels of wheat, two-thirds of which I floured and packed at my mills ; built in the winter eight arks at Bath, and four on the Canisteo. In the spring I ran the flour to Baltimore, and the wheat to Columbia. The river was in fine order, and we made a prosperous voyage and a profitable sale. I cleared enough that spring to pay all my expenditures and improvements on the Cold Spring property. After disposing of my cargo, I went to Phila- delphia and settled with my merchants, laid in a very extensive assortment of goods, loaded two boats at Columbia, and sent them up the river to Painted Post.
My next project was to build a schooner on Crooked Lake, of about thirty tons burden, for the purpose of carrying wheat from Penn Yan to the head of the lake. I advertised the schooner Sally as a regular trader on Crooked Lake. The embargo to the contrary notwithstanding, (for Jefferson's long embargo had then got into operation.) Some of my worthy democratic brethren in the vicinity of Pen Yan charged me with a want of patriotism for talking so contemptuously of that wholesome retaliatory measure. I received a very saucy and abusive letter from a very large, portly, able bodied gentleman of Yates County, whose corpor- ation was much larger than his intellect. This famous epistle raised my dander to a pretty high pitch, and I answered his letter in his own style, and concluded by saying that if Jefferson would not immediately raise his embargo, I should go to work and dig a canal from Crooked Lake to the Conhocton River, and the next he would hear of the schooner Sally would be, that she had run in, in distress, to Passamaquaddy or some other Northern harbor. This brought our correspondence to a close.
I erected a store-house at each end of the lake. The vessel and store-houses cost me $1,400. The whole, as it turned out, was a total loss, as the lake was frozen over at the time I most wanted to use it. The farmers did not then carry their wheat to market before winter.
I had given notes the previous winter to the farmers for wheat to the amount of about $3,000, payable in June following, but after opening my new goods, I took in money fast enough to
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meet the payment of my notes when presented, which established my credit with the farmers throughout the West, far and near. There was not at that time any other market for wheat, until the great canal was finished as far as Caynga. Wheat was brought to my mill from all parts of Seneca and Ontario Counties and the Genesee River. After Col. Troup came into the agency, he authorized me to receive wheat from any of the settlers that wished to make payments in the land-office, and pay in my drafts on the office for the same.
Indians were very numerous at that time. Their hunting- camps were within short distances of each other all over the county. The Indian trade was then an object. I hired a chief of the name of Kettle-Hoop, from Buffalo, to teach me the Seneca language. He spoke good English. All words that related to the Indian trade or traffic I wrote down in one column, and op- posite gave the interpretation in Seneca, and so I enlarged my dictionary from day to day for three or four weeks, until I got a pretty good knowledge of the language. I then set out on a trading expedition amongst the Indian encampments, and took my teacher along, who introduced me to his brethren as seos cagena, that is, very good man. They laughed very heartily at my pronunciation. I told them I had a great many goods at Tanighnaguanda, that is Bath. I told them to come and see me, and bring all their furs, and peltry, and gammon, (that is, hams of deer,) and I would buy them all, and pay them in goods very cheap. They asked me, Tegoye ezeethgath and Negaugh, that is, "Have you rum and wine, or fire water." That fall, in the hunting season, I took in an immense quantity of furs, peltry and deer hams. Their price for gammon, large or small, was two shillings. I salted and smoked that winter about 3,000 hams, and sold them next spring in Baltimore and Philadelphia for two shillings per pound. At this time there was an old bachelor Irishman in Bath, that kept a little store or groggery, by the name of Jemmy McDonald, who boarded himself, and lived in his pen in about as good style as a certain nameless four-legged ani- mal. He became very jealous of me after I had secured the whole of the Indian trade. The Indians used to complain of Jamie, and say that he was tos cos, that is not good-too much cheat Jimmy. When I had command of the army at Fort George,
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in Upper Canada, about 600 of these Indians were attached to my command.
The next spring I started down the rivers Conhocton and Can- isteo, with a large fleet of arks loaded with flour, wheat, pork and other articles. The embargo being in full force, the price of flour and wheat was very low. At Havre de Grace I made fast two or three arks loaded with wheat to the stern of a small schooner which lay anchored in the middle of the stream, about half a mile from shore. Being ebb tide, together with the current of the stream, we could not possibly land the arks. Night setting iu, there was no time to be lost in getting them to shore, as there was a strong wind down the bay, and it would be impossible to save them if they should break loose from the schooner. I left the arks in charge of William Edwards, of Bath, whilst I went on shore to procure help to tow the arks to shore. Whilst I was gone the wind increased, and the master of the schooner hallooed to Edwards, who was in one of the arks, that he would cut loose, as there was danger that he would be dragged into the bay and get lost, and he raised his axe to cut the cables. Edwards swore if he cut the cables he would shoot him down on the spot, and raising a handspike, took deliberate aim. It being dark, the Captain could not distinguish between a handspike and a rifle. This brought him to terms. He dropped the axe, and told Ed- wards that if he would engage that I should pay him for his vessel in case she should be lost, he would not cut loose. Edwards pledged himself that I would do so.
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