USA > New York > Erie County > Elma > History of the town of Elma, Erie County, N.Y. : 1620 to 1901 > Part 9
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Dated Buffalo Reservation, January 3d, 1837.
In presence of JAMES YOUNG, his WILLIAM X KROUSE.
mark.
98
..
Signed.
their
their
SENECA X WHITE,
JACOB X BENNETT,
FALL X PETER,
SAMUEL X WILSON,
JOHN X SNOW,
WILLIAM X JONES,
JOB X PIERCE,
DANIEL X Two GUNS,
CAPT. X POLLARD,
Z. L. JIMESON,
JAMES X STEVENS,
WHITE X SENECA,
JOHN X SENECA,
TONY X YOUNG,
THOMAS JIMESON, marks.
GEORGE X JIMESON."
marks.
This petition does not locate the mill, and no doubt the permit was granted by the Court. The license cannot be found among Mr. Hatch's papers.
THE HATCH MILL BUILT.
Mr. Hatch, having by this license the right to build a sawmill, entered into a contract or agreement with Seneca White, White Seneca, Big Kettle and some other Chiefs to build the mill on the Big Buffalo Creek at East Elma, with the privilege to cut and use any timber standing in the woods for the construction of the mill and dam and the necessary houses and barns with the privilege to run the mill for four years from September 1st, 1837, when the mill was to become the property of the Indians; but they would lease it to him for a further term of years at a stipulated price.
Robert McKean's name does not appear in any of the writings or papers, and if he had any interest in the contract, he sold out to Joseph Riley of Aurora, for Hatch and Riley formed a co-partner- ship. They built the mill and operated it for some months as a company mill, after which Hatch bought Riley's interest and op- erated the mill, living with his family in the mill house until his death on June 21st, 1842. At the end of the first four years, viz., on September 1st, 1841, he made a bargain by which he had the lease of the mill for several years. The exact terms of that lease cannot be learned, as nothing can be found among the Hatch papers on that subject, but there must have been a contract, as he con- tinued to run the mill until his death, nearly ten months after the first lease expired, and one month after the Ogden Company had made their purchase of the remainder of the Reservation. Mr. Zina A. Hemstreet, a brother of Mrs. Hatch, as administrator of the Hatch estate, carried on the business under this second lease and under contracts with the Ogden Company until he bought the property in 1855; then, and for many years the locality was known as "Hemstreet's Mill," also as " Frog Pond."
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. L. of C.
ROADS FROM THE HATCH MILL.
The road from the Hatch sawmill to Bartoo's Mill, now Porter- ville, was southeast and east from the mill through the woods, very near where the road is now located. A log road from the mill led down the creek near the bank and west of the "Knob," coming off the flats north of Mr. Harvey C. Palmer's barn, then by a general east course over hills and through ravines- to "Stave Town," so called from the great quantities of staves made from the oak timber in that locality. After 1843, lumber and staves went by the woods road, east to the "Two Rod Road," thence north through "Slab City," now Marilla Village, to Alden to be sent by the rail- road to Rochester, where were many flourishing mills, and at that time the great wheat market for all Western New York. Roch- ester was then known as the "Flour City"; now they call it the "Flower City."
The road from the sawmill by which the lumber was hauled to Buffalo the first winter after the mill was built, was south on the ice, on the millpond, for about 100 rods, then south through the woods to the Adams Road, then west to the Indian trail or road from Aurora to Buffalo. In the summer of 1838, a bridge was built across the millpond about sixty rods south from where the present bridge is located; then westerly by a dugway to the high ground, and then by a general south course to the Adams road near Luther Adams' house, now owned by his son, John Quincy Adams, then to Buffalo. This road from the sawmill, took the Indian trail to the Adams Road, the trail still leading south to near the Rickertson place, crossing the town line into Aurora at or near the intersection of the road from Porterville, thence on near where the present road is located, to East Aurora. By this trail, the Indians living at and near East Elma, went to and from Aurora. The low places in this woods road between the sawmill and the Adams Road were crossed by the corduroy or causeway plan and patches of these log roads are to be seen in 1900, sixty years after they were built, on Col. Ellsworth Persons' farm on Lots 26 and 27. Most of the lumber was hauled from the mill in the winter until after the Ogden Com- pany had surveyed their last purchase into lots, and many of the lots had been sold, when, on April 19th, 1845 the Jemison road was laid out on lot lines and worked as now traveled.
INDIAN FAMILIES.
The same year that Mr. Estabrook built the "Indian Mill," viz .: 1826, the Ogden Company made their first purchase of part of the Buffalo Creek Reservation from the Seneca Indians. This pur-
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chase of a strip from the north side of the Reservation one and a half miles in width, across the east end three miles wide, and along the south side one mile in width, compelled the Indians to leave that tract; and as a result, they mostly came on to the lands they had not sold; where they lived for sixteen years when, in 1842, by a compromise treaty, they sold the remainder of this Reservation to the Ogden Company, and then gradually left, going mostly to the Cattaraugus and Allegany Reservations. So it happened that for several years before 1842, there were quite a goodly number of In- dian families living in what is now the town of Elma; some of them Chiefs, Warriors, Headmen, or men of importance and influence in the Seneca Nation.
Along the shores of the Big Buffalo Creek, from half a mile to a mile and a half east from Blossom, was quite an Indian village with a Council House, some twelve to twenty-eight families, but the names of these Indians cannot now be obtained.
At Elma Village, which place the Indians called "Big Flats," .
were a dozen or more families. Jillings, John Luke and Peter Snow had houses in what was later Hurd and Briggs' millyard, John Baldwin, John Hudson and Isaac Johnny John had their houses on the hill northeast from the others, Ben Johnny John lived with his brother Isaac, Judge Moses lived near the milldam, Fall John lived on the high bank just north of the milldam, Thompson lived on the high bank north of the Elma Cemetery, Little Joe lived on the table land now occupied as the Elma Cemetery, Little Joe's Boy lived where Mr. Joseph B. Briggs' house now stands, Joe Dudley lived in the sugar bush near the James Clarke house, Sam Beaver lived in J.B.Briggs' orchard and Thomas Snow lived on south side of the Creek. Their cemetery was a little southwest from Mr. J. B. Briggs' house, and for many years after these Indians had moved away in the spring of 1847, some members of the families would come every year to visit the graves of their departed friends.
At East Elma and vicinity was quite an Indian settlement, and at the "Indian Openings," one mile north, were several families; among them, Chief Big Kittle, and one Jimeson, a relative of Mary Jimeson, the White Woman. Sundown lived at the openings with about a dozen other families whose names cannot now be learned. Tommy Jimmie and another family lived half a mile south of East Elma village on the west side of the Creek. Chiefs Elijah Cayuga and his son William Cayuga lived near the Indian Cemetery half a mile southeast from East Elma. Charley Spruce and Silversmith lived near the Cemetery. Silversmith died at East Elma in 1895, and was taken to Cattaraugus Reservation for burial.
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INDIAN OPENINGS.
Chiefs Seneca White, John Seneca and White Seneca, brothers, were frequent visitors at East Elma up to the time the Indians moved from the Reservation. The "Indian Openings," so-called, north from East Elma, as before stated, was the living place for several families. As it fell to the lot of the Squaws to clear the land and raise the corn, beans and other crops, it was but natural that they should select as a place for a clearing, some spot where the timber was scattering or small, and this locality seemed to suit them; for they would select such a place and cut away and burn the small trees and soon have from half an acre, to two or three, or more acres, as the needs of their family required, on which to raise their provisions. Another family would select their place, it might be a few or several rods away from any other clearing, and so these little clearings or openings were scattered over quite a territory. In all, these clearings comprised some forty or fifty acres, mostly on the west side of the Creek; but one, of some ten acres on the east side with a good log house, was on land now owned by Mr. Edwin H. Dingman; the clearings on the west side of the Creek being mostly on lands lately owned by Mr. Frank Met- calf, Mr. Spencer Metcalf and the James Hopper estate. It is said by some of the old residents of East Elma that Chief Big Kittle was buried on land now owned by Spencer Metcalf, and a butternut tree is pointed out as having been planted at his grave at the time of his burial. Their Cemetery is one-half mile southeast from East Elma, and is preserved by the present owner of the land.
INDIANS LEAVE THE TOWN OF ELMA.
Several other families of Indians resided one to two miles north- east of East Elma, among them Jack Johnny John, who was lame, and always used a crutch, and was known as Old Jack, who lived near the "Two Rod Road." He, with his family, remained there for many years after the other Indians had left the Reservation. Many of the Indians thought they had been cheated in the last sale and treaty, and they hoped to have that treaty set aside, and he lived there to show that they still retained and held possession.
Some eight or ten families had their wigwams for several years before 1844, about one mile southwest from the Elma Railroad station.
Chief Daniel Two Guns lived in a log house on the high ground on the north side of the Indian trail, later known as the Aurora and Buffalo Road, thirty rods easterly from where the Catholic Church was later built in Spring Brook Village. This house, with addi-
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tions was for many years kept as a tavern, known far and near as the " Mouse Nest." Two families of Indians lived near the " Devils' Hole," on the west side of the Cazenove Creek, about one mile south from Springbrook, and several Indian families were in that vicinity. The Indians moved from the Reservation one to five years after the sale to the Ogden Company in 1842, after it had been the home of the Seneca Nation for sixty-five years. The lands in the vicinity of East Elma did not find rapid sale when first put upon the market by the Ogden Company, but few fam- ilies were living there before 1850.
Thomas Hanvey built a sawmill, in 1854, on a small stream three-fourths of a mile north from East Elma, on land owned by Hugh Mullen in 1900. Isaac Gail opened the first store on north- west corner in East Elma in 1854.
A general improvement was noticed in the spring of 1856, as in the early part of the summer the first schoolhouse was built and the first school was kept by Miss Maria Hall after July 4th of that year.
RESIDENTS OF EAST ELMA, DECEMBER 4th, 1856.
Nathan Howard had a blacksmith shop on the north side of the road at the east end of the bridge. Russel Howard and Albert Crane built a steam shinglemill, thus opening up a new industry.
The locality was known by lumbermen as "Hemstreets Mill " but generally, the little settlement was known far and near as "Frog Pond" from a large swamp of some twenty acres a little distance east from the sawmill.
On December 4th, 1856, when the town of Elma was formed, we find the following persons residing in that locality, viz .: Abel N. Button, Albert Crane, John Darcey, Harry Dingman, Edwin Fowler, Isaac Gail, John W. Griffin, Thomas Hanvey, James Hatch, Niles Hatch, Zina A. Hemstreet, Daniel Hicks, James Hopper, Nathan Howard, Russell Howard, Thomas Ostrander, Amos P. Rowley, and Joseph G. Thompson. Only three or four of these persons are living in Elma in 1900.
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CHAPTER IX.
ELMA VILLAGE AND VICINITY-1845 TO 1856.
We left the Lancaster part of the Reservation after Eleazer Bancroft rebuilt the bridge across the Big Buffalo Creek in the spring of 1845 as mentioned on page 95.
The Bancroft sawmill was raised in June of that year, 1845. June 2d, 1845, the Clinton street road was laid out from Bowen road to the Transit, and on September 21, the Bullis road was laid out from Buffalo Creek on the line of lots, west, to Lot 105. August 1st, 1845, Clark W. Hurd, Joseph B. Briggs, Allen and Hiram Clark bought of Fulford and Plummer their interest in Lot 57 (Deed from Joseph Fellows dated October 1st, 1845.) They then bought of Joseph Fellows (Deed dated May 1st, 1856) Lot 52, where was a good place to build a dam across the Creek and on August 5th, 1845, they commenced on the dam. As they lived in the town of Lancaster near the Town Line station on the Attica & Buffalo Railroad, they brought a supply of provisions for a few days and did their cooking by a fire built by the side of a log, and at night had a bed of hemlock boughs with blankets for what cov- ering they needed at that time of the year.
They came by a road through the woods to where Deforest Standart built a house the next year, in 1900 owned by Jacob Young estate; then south to the top of the high bank, then down a dug way which still remains, and then southwest and south to the Creek, then up the creek to the dam. The Indians had patches of cornfields on the flats through which the right of way had to be bought before the millrace could be commenced.
THE AMERICAN-1845-1846.
A board shanty 14 x 24, with an addition 12 x 24 for kitchen and bedroom, both of which were covered by a board roof, was built the last of August, 1845, for a boarding and lodging house for the men who were to work on the dam, race and sawmill. It was located on the west side of the Bowen Road, and the south bank of the millrace. This building was named "The American," and by that name was known until it was torn down in 1853. That fall, Mrs. Hurd and Mrs. Briggs took
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turns, one week for each, in coming from their homes at Town Line and keeping The American. When winter set in, the mill company hired Peter Rolon and wife to occupy The American and board the hands. After the dam was completed and while work on the race was being pushed, a 30 x 40-foot barn was built about fifteen rods north from where the sawmill was to stand; later, this was known . as Hurd's barn. It was in this town that the Indians held their war dance (See chap. II. page 33) late in the fall. The Indians left the "Big Flats" during the next spring. The sawmill was framed and raised before winter weather set in; the work on the race being done partly as job and partly by day work was carried into the winter. As the mill was to be a double mill, work was hurried to get the south saw at work before spring; the north saw was ready early in the summer of 1846.
Eron Woodard came in March, 1846 and worked for Mr. Bullis. Mr. Otis A. Hall moved on to the end of Lot 41, March 30th, 1846. Mr. Joseph Peck built the first frame house in what was later to be Elma Village, on the west side of the Bowen road, across the race, from The American. The house was later known as Osman Lit- tle's house, and is still standing in 1900. During the summer of 1846, J. B. Briggs and wife occupied The American and boarded the men; and a 30 x 40-foot barn was built on the west side of the Bowen road, later known as Briggs' barn.
Wm. H. Bancroft, in the fall of 1846, moved from Town Line, into a house built on the west side of the road. He built the first blacksmith shop there and carried on that business for several years. The place is now owned by Jerge Brothers.
LEWIS M. BULLIS.
Lewis M. Bullis, owner of the Estabrook Saw Mill, bought of Joseph Fellows Lot 16, 17, 23, 24, 25 and mill yard lot, in 1845, the deed being dated July 18th, 1846, and recorded in Liber 81, page 84.
In the fall of 1846, Deforest Standart moved on to Lot 51 on the north side of Clinton street road, where Mrs. Jacob Young lives in 1900.
Before the sawmills were in running order, in the summer of 1846, Hurd & Briggs bought the Clarks' interest in lands and mill; and after surveying from Lots 52 and 57, the land necessary for the mill, yards and race, was retained as company property. They divided the mill, in so far that Hurd was to have the south saw and Briggs the north, each to keep his own mill in repair at his expense and each to have an equal chance in use of the water;
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but all heavy repairs on dam, race or mill were to be at company's expense.
A division of the balance of the real estate of the two lots was also agreed upon. Hurd was to take the east side of the Bowen road and Briggs to take the west side. This agreement was made in the fall of 1846, but the deeds were not passed until January 25th, 1851, recorded in Liber 113, page 241.
Immediately after the division was made, each made preparations for the erection of dwelling houses, and both houses were raised in the spring of 1847. Hurd moved into his house in June of that year, before it was finished, in fact, as soon as it was enclosed and with loose floors.
The Briggs family occupied the American until their house was completed and moved into it in November, 1848.
The first schoolhouse was a rough board structure, 12 x 16, built in the early summer of 1847 and with board roof and located on ground now occupied by the church. Miss Celina Standart taught school that summer and winter and the next spring in that schoolhouse.
BULLIS REBUILDS THE SAWMILL-1847.
Lewis M. Bullis, owner of the Estabrook Saw Mill, having bought several lots of land of the Ogden Co., in June, 1847, tore down the Estabrook Mill and rebuilt it in that summer, putting in a double mill; and he also built a box factory at the upper, or south end of the sawmill. The box factory building was southeast of the south end of the saw mill, with road way between the buildings.
In the spring of 1847, Peter Schane and Broadbeck moved on Lot 72, and Augustus Bonnell on the west part of Lot 66, now occupied by Benjamin Stetson, and Philip Young moved on the the east half of Lot 66, now Beidler's, in the summer of 1847; and Daniel Price on Lot 54, same year.
June 10th, 1847, the Clinton Street Road was laid out from Bowen Road east to the town line. March 18th, 1847, Mr. Jacob Young and Maria Standart were married and on June 12th they moved into a plank house, just enclosed, on the northeast corner of Clinton Street and Bowen Road. They had no cookstove and for three weeks she cooked by a fire built against a large stump. They lived during the next winter in the Alonzo C. Bancroft house that was built in the summer of 1847 on the east side of Bowen Road and on the banks of the Big Buffalo Creek and Pond Brook.
Cyrus Hurd and Hiram Kinney bought Lot 61 on the north side of Clinton Street Road, October 4th, 1847, and on November 25th
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Hurd commenced work on a plank house 16 x 26 and 12 feet high, also on a frame barn 16 x 24, 7 feet high. The buildings were finished so that on December 25th, 1847 he moved from Town Line, with his mother and sister Sarah, into the new home.
On March 7th, 1848, Cyrus Hurd and Cordelia Hill were married and he brought his wife home that day.
A few other families were coming into the neighborhood whose names cannot now be learned.
NEW SCHOOLHOUSE IN ELMA VILLAGE.
In the summer of 1847, Hurd & Briggs put a lathmill into an addition built by Zenas Clark, on the southwest part of the saw- mill. At a school meeting held in the fall of 1847, it was voted to build a new schoolhouse and the site selected was on J. B. Briggs' land on the west side of Bowen Road at the top of the high bank, about fifty rods south from Clinton Street.
The building of the schoolhouse, the furnishing of all the materials, the building to be painted red, with white trimmings, was let to Hurd & Briggs and Eleazor Bancroft, for $400; the house to be completed by July 1st, 1848. The contract for the labor was sublet to Peter Spade for $50 and the house was finished on time. Miss Celina Standart moved her school into the new house and there finished her summer term. The lumber of the school- house on the flats was taken to build a woodhouse on the north end of the new schoolhouse.
On September 10th, 1847, a road was laid out on the south side of the Buffalo Creek from the Bowen Road to the Girdled Road, later known as Chair Factory Road.
The Hill Road from the Bullis Road east of the Bullis school- house north to Clinton Street Road was laid out December 6th, 1847, and at the same date, the Woodard Road, from the Girdled Road a little south from the Bullis Road to the Bowen Road, at what is now Elma Center, was laid out. Most of the other roads in the town of Elma were laid out after the town was organized.
1848.
Early in the summer of 1848, a Mr. Walker moved into the Bancroft house on the south bank of the Big Buffalo Creek and opened up a small stock of groceries, being the first store in Elma. Bancroft soon put up a building across the road, designed for Walker's store. Walker never moved into the building but bought a lot on the east side of the road and on the north side of the Big
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Buffalo Creek, built a house there during the summer, and in the fall moved his family into the south part, while he used the north part for the store which he so occupied until he sold the house and lot to Oliver Clark, in the winter of 1850, at which time he moved family and goods to Marilla Village.
In the spring of 1848, George Standart, Sr., sold to his sons George and Washington twenty-eight and one-half acres of land from the south end of Lot 54 including the sawmill, log house and frame barn. George Standart, Sr., then moved into a plank house he had built on Lot 73 on the north side of the Big Buffalo Creek, three-quarters of a mile west of the Bowen Road. The boys, George and Washington. built a plank house at the north side of their millvard. That house was later occupied by William Standart until he built his brick house, when it was sold to Frederick Heineman. and moved to Lot 84 on the north side of the Bullis Road, and is in 1900 owned by Adam Bommer.
Osman Little bought the Joseph Peck house, on the north bank of the millrace and moved there in the spring of 1848, and lived there several years, running Hurd & Briggs' lathmill, having a share in the enterprise.
Jacob Jerge came in 1848 and commenced work with William H. Bancroft. to learn the blacksmith's trade.
In 1849. the Ebenezer Society commenced their settlement or village which they called Upper Ebenezer, (now Blossom) where they built a sawmill, gristmill, church, schoolhouse, and several houses for families, with store and Upper Ebenezer post office with some large barns.
February 26th, of the same year, the Bullis Road was laid out from Marilla town line, west to the corner of Lots 11, 12, 17, 18. John and George Freiberg. and Conrad Mertz moved on to Lot 46 on the north side of Clinton Street Road in the spring of 1849.
1849.
The bridge across the Big Buffalo Creek on the Bowen Road was carried off by the spring freshet of 1849 and Mr. Eleazer Bancroft built another bridge during that summer. This bridge was dam- aged when the ice went out in the spring of 1851; was then repaired and remained until the iron bridge was built in 1871.
George Standard. Sr. and Oliver Bowen built a sawmill on the north side of the Big Buffalo Creek near the southwest corner of lot 73.
Samantha, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Standard, died July 15th, 1849. The funeral sermon was preached by Rev. George E. Havens, Methodist preacher at Lancaster. This was the first
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death of a white person and the first sermon preached on the Lan- caster part of the reservation. Samantha was buried on lot 73.
Soon after this, Rev. Havens and Rev. L. A. Skinner, the Pres- byterian minister at Lancaster, commenced holding meetings in the school house on the hill at Elma Village, at two o'clock on al- ternate Sunday afternoons.
Rev. C. S. Baker was sent to Lancaster by the M. E. Conference in September, 1849. He came to Elma every other Sunday afternoon, alternating with Rev. L. A. Skinner through that conference year. In October, Rev. Baker organized a class in Elma. The members were: Joseph Briggs, George Standart, Jr., Mrs. J. B. Briggs, Flori- na Briggs and Mrs. William Standart. This was the beginning of the Elma Village Methodist Church and the preaching of Rev. L. A. Skinner was the starting point of the Presbyterian Church of Elma Village. Alonzo C. Bancroft and Jane Sleeper were married Sep- tember 2d, 1849, and in a few weeks they moved into the house on the east side of the Bowen Road on the south bank of the Big Buffalo Creek.
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