USA > New York > Erie County > Elma > History of the town of Elma, Erie County, N.Y. : 1620 to 1901 > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
1868.
Thomas Hines bought and moved on to the southwest part of Lot 39, Aurora part of Elma, between the Williams Road and the Railroad, April 14th, 1868.
201
James T. Hurd bought of Charles A. Dutton eleven and one- quarter acres of land, being the northwest part of Lot 59, Lancaster part of Elma, on west side of the Bowen Road, the deed dated April 16th, 1868, recorded in Liber 354 page 93.
John Hicks was the blacksmith at East Elma in 1868.
Clark W. Hurd and family moved to Batavia this spring, having rented their Elma property to their sons, Dennis and Charles.
Rev. George W. McPherson was sent by the Methodist Episcopal Conference to the Elma Village Methodist Episcopal Church.
George W. Hatch bought the three-quarter acre lot at East Elma on the northeast corner of Jamison and Thompson Roads, and during the summer of 1868 built a store on the lot.
At the Presidential Election held November 3d, 1868, 569 votes were polled in the town. The total popular vote given to U. S. Grant, the Republican candidate was 3,015,071. The Electoral College gave 214 votes, and 80 votes to Horatio Seymour, the Democratic candidate.
During this year several more families moved into the town, many of them buying parts of lots, some buying only a few acres.
The railroad having been built and in successful operation, greatly increased the facility of getting to Buffalo for the people and was convenient for the sending of wood and lumber to market by the carload.
The railroad company planned for three stations in the town, one at their crossing of the Pound Road, north from Spring Brook, one at their crossing of the Bowen and Woodard Roads, and one at their crossing of the Jamison Road.
A temporary building was put up for the Spring Brook station; a rough board shanty with board roof was erected as the Elma depot, the company refusing to use the comfortable building, 18 x 30 feet, that the Elma people had built, and the board shanty was used for several years, a cold place in winter and wet inside when it rained as the roof leaked badly, the company refusing to put up a better building until complaints from the people reached the railroad Commissioners, who, on visiting the place in 1878, notified the company that unless they immediately put up a new and comfortable building they, the Commissioners, would build a depot at the expense of the railroad company. This order ended the matter, as the railroad company immediately erected a com- fortable depot building on the west side of the railroad and on the north side of the Woodard Road. At the Jamison Road, the rail- road business was done in Fred. Wilting's building on the west side of the railroad track and on the north side of the Jamison Road, E. Bleeck acting as the railroad agent.
202
1869.
By deed dated April 2d, 1869, in the settlement of the estate of Lewis M. Bullis, Phoebe Bullis conveyed to Orson S. Bullis the Bullis sawmill and about twelve acres of land, and on the same date Frank Bullis received deed for Lots 22, 23 and 10 acres of Lot 29.
The Union Church Society, of Spring Brook, was organized early in January, 1869. David J. Morris conveyed the lot on which the the church building stood, on the north side of the Plank Road and near the west end of Lot 75 to the society, the deed being dated January 18th, 1869; recorded in Liber 427, page 518.
William H. Bancroft sold to Jacob Jerge the house and black- smith shop lot, in Elma Village on the west side of the Bowen Road, April 1st, 1869. After Casper Jerge's death, March 16th, Jacob had the entire business of the brothers.
On April 5th, Bancroft bought of Clement Peek, the northwest part of Lot 15 of the Mile Strip at the southwest corner of the Billington and Williams Roads, containing forty-eight acres, subject to the right for schoolhouse on the northeast corner so long as needed for public school purposes; the deed dated April 5th, 1869, recorded in Liber 285, page 318. Bancroft in a few days moved from Elma Village on to the Mile Strip.
Timothy Clifford sold to Michael Beck, April 22d, 1869, the house and lot on Lot 84, and blacksmith shop and Lot on the west end of Lot 75 in Spring Brook; when Clifford bought of John Miller twenty-five acres from the south end of Lot 38, on the northeast corner of Jamison and Schultz Roads; deed dated March 2d, 1870. Clifford built a blacksmith shop near his southwest corner, which he carried on for twenty years.
James Clark was appointed Postmaster of the Elma Postoffice in 1869, and moved the office from Standart's on Bullis Road, to Markham's store with Markham as deputy.
William Bell, who lived on Lot 21 of the Mile Strip, on the west side of Bowen Road, committed suicide in 1869, hy shooting himself with a pistol; cause: financial trouble, he, while insurance agent having become considerable short in making his returns.
At the General Election, November 2d, 1869, 407 votes were 1 polled.
1870-1871.
On January 3d, 1870, Mr. and Mrs. William Standard celebrated their golden wedding, at their home south of Elma Village. The many friends present with their gifts, testified their respect for the Standart family.
203
Alonzo C. Bancroft, in the spring of 1870, sold part of his per- sonal property and with his family moved to Wisconsin.
For the United States Census for 1870, see Chapter XXI.
Louis Kleberg was appointed Postmaster of Blossom Postoffice in 1870.
The East Elma Postoffice was re-established in 1870, with George W. Hatch as Postmaster.
Williams' store on the southeast corner of the Jamison and Hemstreet Roads in East Elma burned in the winter of 1870 and 1871.
Horace Kyser's steam mill in Spring Brook, built in 1862, burned in the fall of 1870.
Lyman K. Bass, November 15th, 1870, bought of Orson S. Bullis, the Bullis sawmill with other lands. Bass sold same to Henry C. Sargent and later Sargent took down the mill and sold the sawmill lot to Henry Cole.
1871.
John Shay was the East Elma blacksmith in 1871.
Mrs. James Dunbar bought the MeFee property across the. road from the Catholic church in Spring Brook in the spring of 1871.
The Bridge across the big Buffalo Creek in Elma Village gave out and two new stone abutments were required for an iron bridge built by the Ohio Bridge Company, at a cost of $3789.89.
The Northrup bridge across the Cazenove Creek at Spring Brook was repaired at a cost of $310.
The Standart bridge was repaired at a cost of $193.91.
Christopher Peek sold his steam sawmill on Pond Brook to a Mr. Wood, who took down the mill and moved it to Sardinia.
This year there were many changes and tranfers of real property made in the town, the descriptions of which must be passed by. The forest is fast disappearing.
At the General Election November 7th, 1871, 406 votes were polled.
1872.
Thomas Schneider was the blacksmith at East Elma this year.
George Helfter and Jacob Jerge form a partnership as black- smiths in Elma Village in April.
A fire company of thirty-six members was organized in Blossom this year.
Clark W. Hurd and family moved to Elma from Batavia, taking possession of their old residence and property.
204
In the spring of 1872, the Allen Brothers dissolved their partner- ship and made a division of their property at East Elma and vicinity. Ellery S. Allen took the woolen factory and business with sixteen and two-thirds acres of land; Anthony Allen, Jr., took the sawmill and two acres of land, and David Allen had certain other real estate.
Joseph Wagner bought of Joachin Wagner that part of Lot 39 west of the railroad and north of Thomas Hines on the east side of the Williams Road. Deed August 3d, 1872, recorded in Liber 323, page 44.
A Lutheran church, 21 x 30 feet was built on Lot 40, on the north side of the Woodard Road, in the summer of 1872. Chris- tian Stolle was the contractor and builder. The church cemetery is on the north part of the church lot.
Horace Kyser in the summer of 1872 built a steam sawmill and gristmill on the ground occupied by his sawmill which burned in 1870.
Stephen Northrup's store in Spring Brook burned in August. The postoffice matters and most of the goods were saved and moved into Esquire Ward's office. Northrup immediately built a brick store which was finished, furnished, and occupied by him in November of that year.
The Buffalo and Washington Railroad was completed to Olean in July, 1872.
At the Presidential Election, November 5th, 1872, 456 votes were cast. The popular vote to General U. S. Grant was 3,579,- 070. At the Electoral College, he received 292 votes and as Horace Greely, the Democratic candidate died before the meeting of the Presidential Electors, the Democratic Electors were divided as follows: For Thomas A. Hendricks, 42; for B. Gratz Brown, 18; for Horace Greely, 3; for Charles A. Jenks, 2; for David Davis, 1. Total 66.
The German Evangelical Society built a church on west part of Lot 75 on the north side of the Plank Road, in Spring Brook, in the summer of 1872, dedicated November 24th, 1872.
1873.
A Lutheran Society was organized in Blossom Village and a church building erected across the street from the German Evan- gelical church.
Alonzo C. Bancroft came back from Wisconsin with his family in the early spring of 1873 and moved into Mrs. Clark's house across the street from the church in Elma village.
205
The Standart bridge, three-quarters of a mile below Elma Village, went out with the spring freshet, and the voters at the town meeting, March 4th, 1873, refused by vote to rebuild the bridge.
There had for several years been great dissatisfaction as to that part of the Stolle Road along the west line of Lot 12, south from Bullis Road. The Commissioners of Highways finally made a settlement with the owners of land by paying Philip Stitz $125; Henry C. Sargent $100; Wm. Reuther $100; and John Heitman $15. Total $340.
The milldam built by Northrup & Baker in 1844 was replaced by Eli Northrup who built a stone dam in its place in the summer of 1873.
The house that Clark W. Hurd built in 1846 on the east side of the Bowen Road, north of Hurd & Briggs sawmill in Elma Village, was moved by Hurd in the spring of 1873 to the lot next north of the church, and the Hurd family lived in that house while Hurd was preparing plans and building a large new house on the old site. The new house was raised in September of that year, but was not finished and occupied until 1874.
The Buffalo and Washington Railroad was completed and opened for traffic to Emporium on July Ist, 1873.
For the last five years, the owners of timber lands in the Town of Elma had been working hard to get their wood and lumber into Buffalo before this railroad should be completed to the coal and timber lands of Pennsylvania, fearing that when the railroad should commence to bring coal and lumber, their prices would go down, and so the rush was continued. Every sawmill had been worked to its full capacity and the greatly diminished amount of timber remaining in the town showed that there bad been very much hard work done and that a very few more years of such work would see the end of hauling wood and lumber to Buffalo.
Occasionally, a sawmill located on a small stream where the timber was nearly gone, would be placed on the retired list or taken down; and the residents of the town were gradually changing business from lumbermen and woodchoppers to farmers.
To show the interest the first settlers in the new town took in school matters, an account will be given here of the building of the first schoolhouse in Spring Brook and the efforts made by some of the residents for additional room when the first building had become too small to accommodate all of the children of that school district. The records of the Spring Brook school district have been well and continuously kept from the first meeting to organize a school district and are, therefore, evidence that must stand.
In nearly every school district in the town, the records have been lost, so that they could not be obtained. As a rule, the building
206
of the first schoolhouse in a neighborhood or school district would meet with little or no opposition, but when a move was made for an addition or for a new house, the opposition would be out in full force. So the experience of Spring Brook is no exception but proof of the rule.
From the reported proceedings of the Spring Brook school district, viz .:
After one or two preliminary meetings to organize a school district, at a meeting held on April 24th and April 30th and May 2d, 1846, it was decided to build a schoolhouse as per the following contract: "The building to be 20 x 24 feet with 11 feet hemlock plank one and one-half inches thick, lined with one one-half inch hemlock plank five or six inches wide. Floor of one and one-quarter inch seasoned ash, jointed and lined; eight windows, each fifteen lights of 8 x 10 glass; two one and one-half inch four panel doors, one outside six panel two inch door; lathed and plastered inside and six double and two single desks; roof to be covered with good pine shingles; outside to be finished with good sound pine and bold cornice, to be painted with English Venetian trimmed with white, to be built on a good stone wall two feet high and to be ready for school by June Ist and to be completed by November 15th next. Contract price, $254."
Many families were moving into Spring Brook and immediate vicinity, so the schoolhouse soon proved to be too small to accom- modate all the children in the neighborhood who wanted to attend the school.
At the Annual meeting held on October 5th., 1852, a resolution was passed and adopted to build an addition to the schoolhouse. Meeting adjourned for one week.
October 12th, 1852, adjourned meeting; Resolved, That we build an addition to this schoolhouse, so we can have two school- rooms. Carried. Adjourned to October 16th, at 1 o,clock p. m. October 16th, 1852. Adjourned meeting; Resolved, that we rescind the resolution to build an addition to the schoolhouse. Carried.
October 25th, 1852. Special meeting. Resolved that we raise $150.00 by tax, to build an addition to the schoolhouse. Carried forty-four to forty-two."
(As the vote was so nearly equal, the names of the persons voting for and against the resolution are here given).
Voting for the tax: John B. Bristol, Charles M. Whitney, C. S. Mariam, William Jones, C. S. Spencer, Cornelius Van Brocklin, David J. Morris, Joseph Stafford, S. Eddy, Amos D. Waters, S. Wait, H. Van Antwerpt, John Van Antwerpt, James M. Taylor, Jonathan Johnson, James Dunbar, William Hunt, N. Weertman,
207
Joseph Morton, H. S. Larned, Nehemiah Graves, James H. Ward, J. J. French, F. S. Baker, J. H. Letson, Steadly Stafford, A. W. Palmer, John Morris, Edward Good, Elias Weed, Benjamin Rich- man, Nehemiah Cobb, Wyvell Todd, John Todd, John Skidmore, William Morris, L. F. Morris, Daniel W: Wilkins, Fisher Ames, John Van Antwerp, Ferris Palmer, George Good, Alonzo Doolittle, Total forty-four.
Voting against the tax: Isaac Tillou, Joseph Grace, Zebina Lee, Israel Morey, John Bohan, James Conley, Samuel Dans, Charles Rogers, Moses Baker, James Doman, John McGivern, Alfred Money, Thomas Corrigan, Amos Dodge, Edward Hill, Melvin Shaw, Lyman Parker, S. Hamlin, Neal McHugh, Zenas M. Cobb, William J. Chadderdon, Barney Conley, Abraham Morton, James Tillou, Pat- rick McCormick, Wallace Fones, John McFee, R. J. Jackson, J. H. Gregory, Thomas O'Flannigan, Joseph Tillou, Colby, A. Morrisson, L. G. Northrup, William White, Patrick Phalan, B. J. Smith, John Mitchell. Horace Kyser, T. Fagan, Isaac Hall, Cyrus Soddy. Total 42. Majority for the tax, two."
These eighty-six persons, voters at the school meeting in October 1852, besides others, probably who were not voters, or who did not attend the meeting, and who were residents of the Spring Brook school district, will show how rapidly that part of the town had become settled in the eight yeras since Northrup and Baker built the first sawmill and millhouse in October, 1844.
The addition to the schoolhouse above mentioned, was never built and the question of the addition was freely discussed in the school district. No further action was had until a special school meeting was called for January 5th, 1863.
At this special meeting a resolution was passed to build an addi- tion twenty-four feet square. Adjourned for two weeks.
"January 19th, 1863 .- Adjourned meeting. Resolved, that we rescind the proceedings of the last meeting so far as related to build- ing an addition to the schoolhouse. Carried.
Resolved, that we build a new schoolhouse in the center of the lot. Carried.
Resolved, that we raise $400.00 to build the new house. Carried."
Two plans for the new house were presented, called the Morris plan and the Grace plan.
"By a vote, the Morris plan was adopted, fifteen to twelve. March 2d, 1863, special meeting ; adjourned for one week because of non- attendance of part of the voters.
March 9th, 1863. The adjourned meeting voted to rescind the proceedings of the meeting of January 19th, to raise $400.00 to build a new house. Carried.
208
Resolved, that we raise $500.00 to build the new schoolhouse. Carried."
There was no new schoolhouse built under these resolutions, and as there were more children in the district than the old house could accommodate, rooms had to be hired from time to time, in which a second school could be kept. Matters continued to run in that way until at a special meeting held on January 6th, 1870, a reso- lution was presented to levy a tax to raise $2,500 or so much as may be necessary to build a new schoolhouse 26x40, two stories high.
The question was divided and the vote to build a new school- house was lost by twenty-eight to eighteen.
The building of a new schoolhouse was again taken up at a special meeting called for August 7th, 1872, at which a motion was carried to build a new schoolhouse.
A motion to reconsider was carried immediately, and a motion was carried to not build a new schoolhouse. A motion was carried that we repair the old house. A motion was carried to raise $1,000 for the repairs. A motion was carried that the $1,000 be raised in two installments, $500.00 for the first and as much as may be nec- essary to complete the house for the second.
August 8th, 1872, annual meeting. Motion made and carried that we rescind the movements of all special meetings." This ac- tion put a stop to any repairs of the old house.
"January 30th, 1873. Special meeting for building a new school- house or to repair the old house.
Motion made and carried that a committee of seven be appointed to prepare a plan for a new schoolhouse and report at a future meet- ing.
Messrs Zenas M. Cobb, O. J. Wannemacher and Patrick Dona- hue, the trustees, with Lewis Northrup, William Lockwood, Mr. Walker and Horace Kyser were the committee.
The meeting was then adjourned to February 5th, 1873. Feb- ruary 5th, adjourned meeting. The above committee submitted a plan for a new schoolhouse to be 24x30.
This plan was adopted by a vote of the meeting, and on motion, the trustees were appointed a building committee.
Motion made and carried that the trustees be authorized to levy a tax of $1,000, and apply the same in the construction of the new house.
October 6th, 1873. Special meeting to consider the matter of furnishing the new house, and vote a tax to pay the indebtedness of the district, and to sell the old house. Motion made and carried to raise by tax $235.00 to pay balance due to Samuel Hoyt on con- tract to build the new schoolhouse. Motion made and carried to
209
raise by tax $280.00 to furnish the new house. Motion made and carried to sell the old house."
The old house was then sold to Michael Beck for $25.00 and was moved by Beck to the side of the old blacksmith shop on the west end of Lot 75, and has since been used as a blacksmith shop.
"October 14th, 1873, annual meeting. Motion made and carried that the trustees be directed to repair the woodhouse and use the money received for the sale of the old house as far as it goes, and levy a tax for the balance."
The long controversy as to building an addition to the old school- house, or to build a new house was now settled, and in 1873, the Spring Brook district has the best schoolhouse in the town of Elma.
At the general election, November 4th, 1873, 295 votes were polled in the town.
1874.
Alonzo C. Bancroft bought of J. B. Briggs in the spring of 1874, the house and one and one-fourth acre lot in Elma Village on the west side of the Bowen Road and north bank of the Creek.
The high water in the Big Buffalo Creek having washed away the Thompson Road north of the Bodimer house on Lot 9, the Com- missioners of Highways of the Town caused a new survey to be made and then bought of the Bodimer heirs the land for the new road, and at the town meeting held on March 3d, 1874, they ap- plied to voters of the town to raise $200.00 to pay for the land so taken and this $200.00 was voted to be raised by tax.
The Eleazer Bancroft sawmill which was built in 1854 near the mouth of Pond Brook in Elma Village gave out, and as Bancroft had about used up his timber, the mill was not repaired and was never used after 1874. C. W. Hurd moved into his new house in Elma Village in the fall of 1874. John Collins bought of Samuel Hoyt the store in Spring Brook at the southeast corner of the Plank and Northrup Roads, in the spring of 1874.
John Standart, who lived in a house on the southwest corner of Lot 9, on the north side of the Clinton Street Road, on July 7th, 1874, shot his wife with a revolver and then cut his own throat with a razor.
The bridge over Pond Brook on the Chair Factory Road having broken down, the contract to build a new bridge and two new stone abutments was let to Hurd & Briggs for $1,200. The bridge and abutments were built in the summer of 1874.
Andrew Schefferstein bought of C. W. Hurd, twenty-one acres of northwest part of Lot 60, on the south side of the Bullis Road. Deed dated August 6th, 1874, recorded in Liber 346, Page 340.
210
1874.
The old Catholic church building in Spring Brook had become too small to accommodate the society, so that building was moved from the corner of the Plank and Rice Roads in Spring Brook, to the east end of their lot, to be used later as a barn for their parson- age, and a second church was built on the old site in the summer of 1874. Just after the frame of the building was raised, there came a very high wind which leveled the frame to the ground. It was immediately raised again and finished and occupied that fall.
A German Evangelical church was built on the south side of the Rice Road and north end of Lot 53 in the summer of 1874.
At the general election on November 3d, 1874, 368 votes were polled.
1875.
February 26th, 1875, George Helfter bought of Clark W. Hurd, one-half acre of land on southeast corner of the Bowen and Clinton Street Roads, built a shop and commenced blacksmith work there.
George Kelgus bought of Louis Funke, part of Lot 60, on the west side of the Bowen Road, and between the hotel property and John Garby.
The inhabitants had increased so rapidly in the last few years in the Rice school district that the schoolhouse on the northwest cor- ner of the Bowen and Rice Roads did not accommodate the children of the district. At the annual school meeting an effort was made to have a new house built. While the owners of a majority of the property in the district wanted a new house, there was the oppo- sition generally found and enough of the residents of the district voted "no" to kill the project; and the prospect was that the old house would continue, but somehow along in the night, the school- house took fire and burned down.
A special meeting was called and the motion to build a new house was carried. The new house was to be ready for the opening of school the next spring. The trustees hired the German church, fifty rods west, for the winter school.
Three hundred and eighty-nine votes were polled at the election held November 2d, 1875.
1876.
In April, 1876, Harvey C. Palmer bought the goods in the store at East Elma. The Lutheran church at Blossom burned this year.
The year 1876, being the one hundredth anniversary of the United States as a Nation, dating from the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a Centennial Exposition was held in Philadelphia
211
in honor of that event and many residents of the town of Elma, as well as residents of almost every town, village and city in the United States, made the pilgrimage to Philadelphia; and on their return to their homes reported the Exposition to be the biggest thing on the earth. Every crow thinks her young the whitest of all the birds, and every mother thinks her babe the handsomest babe in the world, and this being our Exposition, it is, of course, a great way ahead of anything of the kind that was ever held anywhere.
At the Presidential election held November 7th, 1876, 512 votes were polled in the town. Rutherford B. Hayes' popular vote was 4,033,050.
The Electoral College gave R. B. Hayes 185 votes; to Samuel J. Tilden, 184 votes.
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.