USA > New York > Erie County > Elma > History of the town of Elma, Erie County, N.Y. : 1620 to 1901 > Part 11
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A bridge was also built across the Big Buffalo Creek on the girdled road at Simanton's sawmill to replace the bridge carried off in the spring freshet of 1854.
RESERVATION CENTRAL PLANK ROAD.
The Reservation Central Plank Road Company was organized to plank the Bullis Road; and the road was in 1855 partly planked from Bowen Road to the Aurora plank Road in West Seneca.
J. B. BRIGGS & CO .- 1855.
In August, 1855, Warren Jackman sold the goods in his store to Riley Ives, and Ives kept the store.
Jackman then bought Elon Clark's interest in Clark, Briggs & Co. property and business, and the firm name was changed to J. B. Briggs & Co.
The manufacture of broom handles was added, and the com- pany had an order from Howard & Williams for the woodwork of 2,000 mowing machines and 2500 reaping machines which required a working force of twenty to twenty-five men.
The M. E. Conference sent Rev. - Gordon to the Lancaster and Elma charge, but on account of poor health, Gordon left in the spring of 1856.
A Frenchman by the name of LaGore who lived on Lot 69 on the north side of the Bullis Road shot himself with a rifle. He was
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sitting in a chair outside of the house when he placed the muzzle of the rifle to his neck and with his toe pulled the trigger-result: throat torn open causing instant death.
Jacob Jerge bought of Charles A. Dutton his shop on the east bank of the mill race near the steam mill and commenced the busi- ness of blacksmith for himself in that shop.
Sawmills were being put up on every stream where a fair supply of water could be had and several steam mills were being started in different parts of the town, the lumber finding a market in Buffalo.
1856.
In 1856 a bridge was built across Big Buffalo Creek at Bowen and Standart's sawmill, and a road laid out south to the Bullis Road.
Henry D. Wilbor bought the interest of his sister, Mrs. Oliver H. Clark, in the J. B. Briggs & Co.'s business, but the name of the firm was not changed.
Elon Clark died June 7th, 1856, and was buried in the Elma cemetery. Rev. A. Newton, of Lancaster and Elma charge, preached in the schoolhouse, alternating with Rev. Wm. Waith.
In July, J. B. Briggs & Co. shut down work in the shop for repairs. They put in a Mulley saw, rotary planer, turning lathes, and other machinery and built an addition for a cheese box factory. Mr. R. L. Howard, now sole owner of the Ketchum patents, having made changes in the mowing machines, all the woodwork required for them was the pole, and J. B. Briggs & Co. had the contract for 2000 mowing machine poles and the woodwork for 4000 reaping machines.
Cyrenus Wilbor, father of Mrs. J. B. Briggs, died September 12th. Riley Ives sold the goods in the store at auction, and the latter part of September went to Lancaster.
J. B. Briggs & Co., in October, put into the store a stock of goods in connection with the steam mill business.
On December 4th, 1856 the Board of Supervisors formed a new town from the south part of Lancaster and the north part of Aurora and gave the name of Elma to the new town. The account of the whole proceedings were noted in chapter IV. In some histories of Erie County, it is stated that the town of Elma was formed December 4th, 1857.
RESIDENTS ON DECEMBER 4th, 1856.
It has not been possible to obtain the exact year that many of the early settlers came on to the Lancaster part of the Reservation, and many who were here before the town was organized, December
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4th, 1856, have moved away or have since died, so the names of all the residents at that time cannot now be obtained; but among those who were here then, are the following :
George Ard, Joseph B. Briggs, Erasmus Briggs, Lewis M. Bullis, Matthias Baker, Eleazer Bancroft, Wm. H. Bancroft, Alonzo C. Bancroft, Albert Bancroft, Henry Beidler, Hiram Bacon, Hiram Cotton, Gardner Cotton, John Carman, Daniel Christ, Peter Cau- field, Charles A. Dutton, Heman Dean, Ziba Dewitt, Allen French, John Frieberg, Michael Greiss, George Gentsch, Christ Garby, Fred Garby, Zenas Hill, Clark W. Hurd, Cyrus Hurd, Otis A. Hall, Frederick Heineman, James R. Jackman, Warren Jackman, Wm. J. Jackman, Jacob Jerge, Casper Jerge, Philetus Johnson, Hiram W. Kinney, Jacob Knaab, George Krouse, Joseph Klein, Carl Keim, Lawrence Krouse, Osman Little, John Luders, John Ludemon, Benj. P. Lougee, Jesse Monroe, Bradley Moore, Fred Maurer, Fred Mann, Charles Mann, Theodore Noyes, Charles Noyes, Amasa Noyes, Eleazer Nouse, John Nouse, Peter Oberly, Lewis Ott, Daniel Price, Joseph Peck, John Pomerink, William Standart, Deforest Standart, Wesley Standart, George Standart, Sr., George Standart, Jr., Washington Standart, Benj. F. Stetson, John Schmaltz, Henry W. Stitz, Philip Stitz, Theoron Stowell, N. W. Stowell, Thomas Summerfield, Harry Stone, George Shufelt, Peter Schultz, Thomas D. Tiffany, Orvil Titus, George Townsend, William Winspear, John Wolf, Henry D. Wilbor, Jacob Young, Adam Young, and the members of Ebenezer Society at Blossom, and some other names not known.
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CHAPTER X.
SPRING BROOK AND VICINITY .- 1834 TO 1856.
An Indian sawmill had been built on the Cazenove Creek at or near the Transit line; but it was gone before any white settler came into the town of Elma. It probably was carried away by high water, as the only trace left of it was the race, also some large stones that had been a part of the foundation for the mill. No person now living ever saw the mill and it cannot be learned by whom or when it was built.
The early settlers in the towns of Wales, Holland, and Aurora had their road to Buffalo by the way of Hamburgh, called the Big Tree Road; but they soon learned of the nearer way of the Indian trail, and after the Mile Strip had been secured by the Ogden Co., the Commissioner of Highways of the town of Aurora, April 21st, 1832, laid out a highway on or near the Indian trail, and on the lot lines across the Mile Strip. When that track was surveyed, the lot lines were made to conform to this trail as nearly as possible; and to continue this road on toward Buffalo, the same Commissioner, on March 31st, 1834, following the same trail, laid out a highway from the road at North Star Tavern, across the Reservation through Spring Brook to the Transit line. By what authority the Commissioner acted is not known, but it is pre- sumed that the Indians gave the necessary consent as it was entirely across their lands. This road was later to be known as the Aurora and Buffalo Plank Road.
1837.
For several years before the Aurora and Buffalo road was laid out across the Reservation, on March 31st, 1834, there was a log house on the north side of the Indian trail on the hill in the east part of the Village of Spring Brook, which was occupied by an Indian Chief by the name of Daniel Two Guns.
A man by the name of Burns had kept the North Star Tavern in 1837, and while there he was so strongly suspected of making counterfeit half and quarter dollars that officers visited the place.
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They found moulds, tools and some material in his cellar but he so stoutly maintained that he knew nothing about it, and that the things had been left there without his knowledge, that he was not arrested, but he soon left the tavern.
In 1839, this same Burns and Plin Barnum hired of Two Guns, his house for a tavern. They started to build a barn and shed to accommodate travelers who should call on them. While framing timber for the barn in the woods near there (for it was woods all around the place), the wind broke a limb off an oak tree, under which they were working. The limb striking Burns on the head, killed him instantly. This was the first death by accident on Elma soil.
Plin Barnum and his brother, Chauncey, then put up the barn and shed and kept tavern in the Two Guns house in 1839 and 1840. This was the first house occupied by white people at Spring Brook.
After the Barnums, H. B. Denio kept the tavern two years, from 1841 and to the spring of 1843. This house was kept as a tavern for many years and was known far and near as the " Mouse Nest."
"MOUSE NEST"-1842.
As stated in a previous chapter, the parts of the Buffalo Creek Reservation, in the towns of Aurora and Lancaster were surveyed and numbered separately. The Indian trail on and near where the Aurora and Buffalo Road had been laid out, was the only road across the town of Elma, leading to the city.
The lumber from the Hatch sawmill, and the people from the east end of the Mile Strip, and from Wales, Aurora, Colden, and Holland, went by that road and the lumber from the Estabrook sawmill came through a woods road on and near where the Wood- ard and Rice Roads are now located, reaching the Aurora and Buffalo Road at Spring Brook. When the Ogden Co., by the treaty of May 20th, 1842, secured title to the balance of the Buffalo Creek Reservation from the Seneca Indians, the treaty gave to the Indians the privilege of possession and occupancy of their improvements until April 1st, 1846, and until the improve- ments were paid for by the company. By this arrangement, Two Guns and his assignees had the right to keep the Mouse Nest Tavern until April 1st, 1846; and the tavern was kept as before stated by Plin and Chauncey Barnum in 1839 and 1840, and by H. B. Denio in 1841 and to April 1843, by Felstein to April, 1844, and by David J. Morris, from April, 1844, to the fall of 1845. The Indians residing on the Aurora part of the Reservation nearly all left for the Allegany and Cattaraugus Reservations in 1844 and
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1845; a few remaining until 1846. The Davis road from Spring Brook south across the Reservation, was laid out June 20th, 1842.
1844.
The Ogden Co., after having made a sale of the 5000 acre tract to the Ebenezer Company, in April, 1843, settled with the Indians for their improvements on this 5000 acre tract and had the balance of the Reservation west of the Transit line surveyed; and the com- pany advertised "that on and after August 14th, 1844, they would sell certain lots, which were marked on their map of the Reser- vation. Those marked comprised a large part of the town of Elma."
As the Aurora part of Elma was settled mostly by people coming from Wales, Aurora, and Hamburgh, all going to Aurora to elections and town meeting; and the Lancaster part settled largely by people from Lancaster and Alden, they going to Lancaster for election and town meeting, there had been but little communica- tion beween the early settlers of these two parts previous to the formation of the town of Elma on December 4th, 1856. So it has seemed best to treat the early settlement of the Aurora and Lancaster parts of the town separately, up to the time the town was organized.
The Hatch Mill (East Elma) part was mentioned in Chapter VIII; and the Lancaster part in the previous chapter; and now, we take up the settlement of the balance of the Aurora part, or Spring Brook and vicinity.
SPRING BROOK NAMED-1844.
Near the Indian trial and now on lot 71 on the north side of the Aurora and Buffalo Road and a few rods southeast from Daniel Two Guns house, was a large spring.
At that time all around was a dense forest, allowing but little if any evaporation and the melting snows and the rains gradually settled into the low places in the woods, the swamps retaining the water which was slowly given up by the soil in numerous springs (most of them now dry), but then giving a steady and in many cases a large supply of water. This Two Guns spring was one of the very large springs giving a stream many times larger than in 1900; the water crossing the road on to lot 82, taking a westerly course in a gully, growing gradually deeper, passing on to lot $1, where the gulf came near the bend in the Cazenove Creek, only a narrow bank thirty feet high separating them; then the brook takes a northwest course nearly parallel to the highway, passing on to lot 84, where at the Northrup Road it enters a wide ravine
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and makes way along the east side of the Northrup Road to the Creek. This spring and brook gives the name to the Village.
FIRST SAWMILL AT SPRING BROOK .- 1844.
While David J. Morris was keeping the Mouse Nest tavern, in September 1844, Lewis Northrup and George Baker, both of Au- rora, made the first purchase of land at Spring Brook, when they bought lot 84 in the west part of Spring Brook, the lot lying between the Aurora and Buffalo Road and the Cazenove Creek; the deed from Joseph Fellows being dated January 1st, 1845, and recorded in Liber 79, Page 317. Immediately after they bought the lot in September, 1844, they began to clear the ground and prepare for building a sawmill and to build a millhouse for the family to board the hands. While this work of preparation was going on, the men boarded with D. J. Morris at his tavern. To furnish room, Morris built a frame addition (16 x 24 feet, 12 feet high) to the log tavern for a sitting room, and this frame building was enclosed on the outside with siding, and lathed and plastered inside, and is used by Charles Thayer, owner of the premises in 1900, as a kitchen and woodhouse.
This Two Guns tavern is the only log tavern ever kept in Spring- brook, and this addition is all the tavern, in whole or part, frame or log, that David J. Morris ever built.
In October of 1844, Lewis Northrup moved his family from Aurora into the plank mill house; living there and boarding the hands while the dam and sawmill was being built, and, until he built a frame house on the north end of the lot, and on the south- west side of the highway in the spring of 1845.
Horace Kyser, Asa Palmer and John Morris, came in the fall of 1844. Kyser bought fifty acres in the centre of lot 75, of William D. Waddington; deed dated September 1st, 1845, recorded in Liber 81, Page 80. John Morris built a house on the southeast part of lot 82.
1845.
On April 19th, 1845, the Aurora Commissioner of Highways laid out the Rice Road, from the Girdled Road west on lot lines to the Aurora and Buffalo Road, at the northwest corner of lot 75; the Pound Road, on east line of lot 83 and the Jimeson Road, from Marilla town line, west, on lot lines through East Elma, to the Aurora and Buffalo Road, at the northwest corner of lot 63.
The bridge at East Elma across the Millpond, went off with the spring freshet, and a new bridge, nearer the sawmill was built on the lot lines during the summer of 1845.
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Northrup and Baker completed their double sawmill on the north bank of the Creek in the early part of 1845 on the site now occupied by Eli B. Northrup's sawmill. Northrup and Baker operated their mill as a company mill about one year, when North- rup sold his interest to Baker.
Zenas M. Cobb bought lot 83 and built a house opposite the Northrup house and moved into it in the spring of 1845.
On May 1st, 1845, David J. Morris bought of Northrup and Baker sixteen and four one hundredths acres of lot 84, being that part of the lot lying east of the road to the sawmills; and that summer he built a house on that lot, into which he moved that fall from the tavern, and where he lived many years; and, on September 1st, 1845, he bought of Joseph Fellows, twenty-five acres of the west end of lot 75, being all of lot 75 west of Kyser's fifty acres. Deed recorded in Liber 81, Page 77; and, as he owned on both sides of the Road he sold off small lots to make the village of Spring Brook.
In the summer of 1845, Zebina Lee and family came from Oswego County and lived with Asa Palmer in an Indian log house on lot 67. While there he built a plank house on lot 76 where Mr. O. J. Wan- nemacher now lives and into which he moved in the fall of 1845. William M. Rice moved on to Lot 56 in the fall of 1845.
Thomas Flannigan came in the fall of 1845 and moved into the Mouse Nest tavern which he kept two years. He bought of Joseph Fellows part of Lot 71, the deed dated November 29, 1847. He sold or rented the. Mouse Nest tavern stand to Holmes who moved into the tavern in the fall of 1847.
On November 1st, 1845, Northrup & Baker bought a mill site and privilege of Joseph Fellows on the south side of the Creek and opposite the sawmill, being six and ninety-five one hundredths acres off the north side of Lot 85 where the gristmill now stands.
1846.
In February of 1846, Northrup & Baker had a sawmill on the south side of the Creek ready for business and in the course of the summer, Northrup bought out Baker's entire interest, thus becoming owner and operator of both mills. During that summer he built a bridge across the Creek below the mill.
Nathaniel Graves moved with his family from Aurora in the spring of 1846, and worked for Northrup at the mills, living in one of the mill houses.
Joseph Grace came in the spring of 1846 and bought of D. J. Morris, one and one-half acres of land west of and adjoining Horace Kyser on which he built a house and blacksmith shop, the first of
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its kind in Spring Brook and in December he bought of Louis North- rup twenty-five acres off the east end of Lot 75. In May 1846, Joseph Tillou moved with his family on Lot 66 on the south side of the Rice Road.
The first schoolhouse, 24x 30 feet in Spring Brook, was built on the present schoolhouse site in the spring of 1846; to be ready for school on June 1st and to be completed by November 15, contract price $254; deed from David J. Morris, dated October 23d, 1850. The first school was kept by Miss Calpherina Johnson of Holland in the summer of 1846.
Truman Case built a house and moved on Lot 52, on the west side of the Bowen Road in the summer of 1847.
SPRING BROOK POSTOFFICE .- 1848-1849.
Alfred Marvel and James Davis moved on their farms south of Spring Brook in the early part of 1848.
William Jones in 1848 bought the five acre lot on the west side of the Davis Road south of Spring Brook, later known as the Tal- madge place, and built a house on the lot. The same summer, Jones opened a meat market in a building on the southeast corner of the Davis and Aurora roads.
The Spring Brook Postoffice was established in 1848, with David J. Morris as first Postmaster. This was under President Polk, and Morris had the Postoffice in his house, until after President Taylor was inaugurated in 1849.
The first steam sawmill in Spring Brook was built in 1848, by Finley Robinson and William English, on the lot across the road from Kyser's house.
The bridge that Northrup built in the summer of 1846 across the Creek below the sawmills, went out with the ice at the spring break- up and freshet in 1849.
James H Ward, Esq., moved into Spring Brook May 11th, 1849, and that summer the Aurora and Buffalo Plank Road was built through Spring Brook and was completed to Buffalo that year; so that heavy loads of lumber, cordwood and farm produce could be hauled to the Buffalo market.
On June 23d, 1849, the Aurora Commissioner of Highways laid out a highway from the Plank Road east of Northrup's house to the Transit line, crossing the Cazenove Creek below the saw mills, and let the building of a bridge across the Creek at that point. The bridge was built that summer.
1850.
Joseph Grace moved his blacksmith shop and family on to the twenty-five acres, on east end of Lot 75, which he bought in 1846.
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Nathaniel Graves built a house and blacksmith shop on the lot west of the Pail Factory lot and there worked at his blacksmith trade.
Zenas M. Cobb was appointed Postmaster of the Spring Brook Postoffice under President Taylor in 1849; and had the office in his house until after President Fillmore was inaugurated in 1850.
A steam sawmill and pail factory was erected on the lot across the road from Horace Kyser's house by William H. Corbin in June 1849 with J. J. French and Sherman Roscoe as proprietors. Deed from John Morris dated February 19th, 1850, recorded in Liber 117, Page 482. A fifty horse power engine was put in to drive the saw- mill and factory machinery. This gave employment to quite a force of men. The pails, tubs, and other articles manufactured, found a ready market in Buffalo and the business was carried on by this company for two or three years.
The steam sawmill built by Robinson & English in 1848, burned in 1850 and another steam sawmill was immediately built on the same grounds by George and Edward Good.
In 1850, E. G. Kent bought of D. J. Morris the lot at the south- east corner of the Northrup and Plank Roads, and built a store, putting in a good stock of goods for a country store and this was the first store in Spring Brook.
John McFee bought of Hiram Harris, on February 20th, 1850, the lot on the southwest side of the Plank Road, on Lot 82, and that summer built the house now across the road from the Catholic church and opened a saloon, at that time called a "grocery."
James Dunbar moved into the Mouse Nest April 1st, 1850, and kept the tavern one year.
Eron Woodard and Martha Bostwick were married April 22d, 1850 and moved on to Lot 52, on the west side of the Bowen Road, on land bought of Truman Case.
Cyrus S. Spencer moved into a house on the north side of the Plank Road at west end of Lot 71, and had his shoeshop in the building at the corner of the Davis and Plank Roads, known as the Meat Market in the early part of 1850, and here he worked for about two years.
D. L. Wilson came on May 7th, 1850 and worked for Lewis North- rup. The Spring Brook cemetery was laid out by D. J. Morris in the . spring of 1850. Two children of Austin J. French had been buried there in August and September 1849.
James H. Ward was appointed Postmaster of the Spring Brook Postoffice in 1850, under President Fillmore. He held the office four years and until the Postoffice was moved to West Seneca.
The first church built in Spring Brook was the Catholic church, 20 x 30 feet on the north side of the Plank Road and east side of the
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Rice Road on Lot 71; the deed being from Thomas Flannigan, to John Timon, dated February 23d, 1850; recorded in Liber 111, Page 43, and another deed, with some difference in the boundary lines from the first deed, but each description to contain one acre. This deed, from Thomas Flannigan to John Timon, is dated Septem- ber 18th, 1850, recorded in Liber 94, Page 229; and here, at the junction of the Rice and Plank Roads was the church built. It served as a place of worship for the members of that society for about twenty-four years when it was moved on to the east end of the acre lot and was for many years used as a barn for their parsonage; the present fine church building having been erected in 1874. A part of the east end of the lot was set off as a cemetery.
1851.
James Wolcott built a blacksmith shop at west end of Lot 75, and carried on blacksmithing one and one-half years, then sold to John Barnett.
The bridge which was built across the Creek below the mills in 1849 was carried off by the ice and freshet in the spring of 1851 and was rebuilt that summer.
James Dunbar moved April 1st, 1851, from the Mouse Nest tavern into the building on the south side of the Plank Road, later known as the Leger place, where he opened a store of dry goods and groceries and a saloon.
James W. Simons, on April 1st, moved into the Mouse Nest tavern and having bought the property, began to change the ap- pearance of the place. During the summer he tore down the log house thus removing one of the Indian land marks and in its place erected the two-story frame building which was for many years used as a tavern and is now owned and occupied by Charles Thayer as a family residence.
As soon as Simons new building was sufficiently completed so as to admit of occupation, he opened it as a tavern.
John McFee, having the year before built a house and opened a saloon across the Plank Road from the Catholic church, as soon as Simons tore down the log tavern, he, McFee, opened up as a tavern.
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BUILT.
In 1851 or 1852, Rev. Nehemiah Cobb, who had been sent in 1849 by some Presbyterian church in Buffalo as a missionary, succeeded in getting contributions and donations so that he had a church built on the western part of Lot 75, on land purchased or donated by David J. Morris, where religious services were held for several years.
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1852.
In May, 1852, Lewis Northrup moved the plank house which he had built on the south side of the Plank Road in the spring of 1845, and put in its place another much larger and better house which is owned and occupied in 1900 by Eli B. Northrup as his residence. The old house was later sold to Horatio Winspear, and by him it was moved into the town of West Seneca, on the north bank of the Cazenove Creek.
Cyrus S. Spencer, having bought the building lot at the south corner of lot 84 on the southwest side of the plank Road and be- tween the road and the Spring Brook cemetery, had his house ready to raise and it was raised the same day and by the same gang of men who had raised the Northrup house.
Dr. James Gilmore came to Spring Brook in the summer of 1852 and with his family lived in a house across the Plank Road and nearly opposite to the Congregational church; and on October 22d, of that year, he bought of Henry G. Stamback, the house and lot on Lot 82, on the southwest side of the Plank Road, joining McFee on the south.
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