USA > New York > Wyoming County > Warsaw > History of the town of Warsaw, New York, from its first settlement to the present time; with numerous family sketches and biographical notes > Part 5
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Nor did they lack topics of conversation at these visits. Prominent among them were their domestic labors-their manifold industrial enterprises-and the anticipated rewards of their present toils and privations. Their talk, some may suppose, evinced no high degree of intellectual culture; yet, as an indication of intellectuality, surely it will not suffer in comparison with the gossip which engrosses the time of many of our modern educated ladies at their social gatherings.
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HISTORY OF WARSAW.
POLICY OF THE LAND COMPANY.
THE Books of the Company in the Land-Office show remarkably slow progress of settlers in paying for their lands. From entries in these books we infer that a large proportion of them forfeited their claims. It appears that, at the expira- tion of ten years from the date of their contracts, those who had paid little or nothing were charged with "Increase," to an amount almost equal to, and in some instances greater than the original price of the land. And this increase is almost uniformly charged the next day after the ten years had expired.
For example: G. T. J. was charged April 1, 1806, "To two Lots, 728 Acres, $1,456," being two dollars per acre, only ten dollars having been paid down. At the end of ten years, he was charged, "To Increase, $1,648," making the sun of $3,104, when the land was bought in parts by six different purchasers, who took new articles. E. P. was charged May 21, 1807, "To part of Lot -, 246 Acres, $615," on which was paid soon after, thirty-five dollars. May 22, 1817, " Increase" was added, $642; and articles were given to three new pur- chasers, charged with $1,257.
It is presumed that the lands reverted to the Company by forfeiture, and that new articles were given to the former pur- chaser or any other applicant. The uniformity of the dates of the new articles, just ten years after the dates of the old ones, may be accounted for by the supposition, that the new articles, at whatever time they were issued after the increase had been charged, were dated the day next after the date of that charge.
Some assistance was rendered the settlers in making pay- ments, by the offer of the Company to receive cattle on their contracts. Agents were sent once a year to certain towns in cach county for that purpose. We find the first credit for cattle in the year 1822 or 1823. This policy was continued a
Truman Len's Sketch , v.291
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POLICY OF THE LAND COMPANY.
number of years. We see also some credits for grain. An additional stimulus was given by a notice to those most in arrears, or who had paid little or nothing, that a large deduc- tion, in case of speedy payment, would be made, from the sums due. This gave much dissatisfaction to those who had been prompt in their payments, who regarded it as a premium to their slack neighbors for their want of punctuality.
Many have questioned the wisdom of the policy adopted by the Holland Company for the disposal and settlement of their lands. Probably with a view to inviting immigration, articles were given to settlers on the most easy terms-to many of them, on payment of a sum scarcely sufficient to pay for drawing the contract, which, in many cases, was but one dollar. Many, doubtless, were attracted to the Purchase by this easy mode of obtaining possession of land. The early settlers were generally poor, and could scarcely have pur- chased on less accommodating terms. Yet of these, not a few, after a short residence and sundry discouragements, sold out their "improvements," and sought new homes in more favorable locations.
The opinion has often been expressed, that the plan of selling lands at a low price for cash, after the manner of the General Government, would have been better both for the Company and the settlers, as it would have brought in not only a more industrious and enterprising, but a better class of inhabitants. That some persons of the lower class, and shift- less, were brought hither by the easy terms proposed by the Company, is probably truc. But we believe those of the early inhabitants still living will agree in saying, that the early settlers of this town were generally honest, frugal, and indus- trious.
A recurrence to facts in their history, will reveal the true cause of the slow progress of the settlers in discharging their obligations to the Company. Most of them were compara- tively young men from the East, and poor. Wages had been low; and they had laid up little more than enough to buy a
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HISTORY OF WARSAW.
team and pay the expense of their removal. They had heavily timbered lands to clear, and for a time had no sons able to help, nor the means of hiring labor. And for the little surplus grain which after a few years they produced, there was no market beyond the demands of new-comers. War came; and many were obliged to leave their farms and join the army. Peace returned; labor was again thrown upon the land; and in a year or two there was a large surplus which scarcely paid for the labor of raising it. The price of wheat in Rochester, then the nearest and best cash market, was 2s. 6d. to 3s. per bushel, which would not pay the cost of trans- portation in that time of bad roads; of course, very little was sold there. Occasionally a load was taken to Albany by teamsters going after goods for the merchants. At home, a bushel was given in exchange for a pound of tobacco, or a yard of brown cotton cloth.
In providing means for prosecuting the war, double duties were laid upon goods imported, which duties were to continue during the war, and for a year after its close. These duties checked importations and encouraged home manufactures. Many manufacturing establishments sprang into being. The period of high duties expired in 1816. Commercial inter- course with Great Britain, which had been suspended during the war, was resumed, and the country was again flooded with British goods. Our manufactures were prostrated. The country was drained of its money to pay for foreign goods; specie payments were suspended; and bank-bills depreciated to seventy or eighty per cent. below par, and in some states to almost nothing. No wonder that the books of the Land Company show so few and so small credits to settlers. Nor is it strange that so many children went barefoot long after the first snows had fallen.
Partial relief, however, was found within doors. Our mothers and their eldest daughters plied the spindle and the shuttle with the characteristic assiduity of those days, in pro- viding clothing for the families; thus restricting in a good
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POLICY OF THE LAND COMPANY.
measure the running accounts at the stores, and in many cases producing a considerable surplus to be exchanged at the stores for cotton cloth, both plain and printed. Many a farmer's wife have we seen bringing under her arm to the store in this town, a huge roll of linen or flannel, and carrying away its equivalent in a score of articles to supply the wants of her family.
But for some purposes money must be had. Taxes could not be paid in kind; and to raise "tax money " farmers were obliged to sell grain and other products of their farms for prices which would now scarcely pay for their transportation to the place of delivery. Some relief was afforded by the products of the forest timber. The ashes from the burned heaps were saved and sold at the ashery, which was an indispensable appendage to a country store, or to at least one store in a place. They were drawn several miles over rough roads, and sold for six or eight cents per bushel, and measured in a bushel and a half basket at that; and then they could not always be sold for money. Or, to cheapen transportation, they were, by a process unknown to some of our younger readers, converted into " black salts," which would generally command money at any pearl-ashery, where they were man- ufactured into pearl ashes. Many, to get money to pay taxes and other cash debts, cut and burned timber for this special purpose, while their granaries were well stored with grain, which could not be sold for cash. A hotel-keeper and stage proprietor in this village, after having bought a supply of oats for the year, at twelve and a half cents per bushel, had them urged upon him for ten cents, at which price he ventured to buy more; but he lost rather than gained by the operation.
Thus the struggle continued until the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, which, by opening to our people an accessible market, brought them speedy and permanent relief. They at once entered upon a course of unwonted prosperity, and soon attained a comfortable independence.
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IHISTORY OF WARSAW.
THE VILLAGE.
BEFORE the year 1816, the settlement at the center of the town had scarcely begun to assume the appearance of a vil- lage. The only framed houses recollected at present, were the following: 1. The tavern house built by Judge Webster, of which the present dwelling of Nehemiah Park was a part, the other and main part having been moved toward the north- east, on the south corner of Buffalo and Main streets. 2. A school-house where the Baptist Church now stands. 3. A small house near it, the residence of Samuel Mcwhorter. 4. The residence of Capt. Fargo, on the site of the present dwelling of his son, Allen Fargo. 5. The dwelling-house of Almon Stevens on the ground now covered by the Congrega- tional Church. 6. The dwelling of Dr. Sheldon, a few rods north of Mr. Stevens's. 7. A small honse which stood a few feet north of where Dr. Bartlett's "Gothic" now stands. S. The tavern house of Russel Noble, since removed to make place for the brick hotel built by J. A. MeElwain, and ocen- pied by the late George W. Morris, Esq., on Main street, in the north part of the village. There was also the small build- ing used as a store by Almon Stevens, which stood on the north side of the old Presbyterian church, occupied more recently and for many years as a dwelling; and the old red building occupied as a store by C. L. Sheldon & Co., and afterwards as a dwelling, until removed to make room for the Episcopal church. Calvin Rumsey had established the tanning and shoe-making business on the west side of the creek on Buffalo street, on the lot now owned and occupied by Frank Miller and his son, Edwin A. Miller, and lived in a part of the shoe-shop.
In 1816, the aspect of the embryo village began to change. Simeon Cumings, of Batavia, had, the year previous, bought of Judge Webster 40 acres of land, for the sum of $8,500. One object of the purchase was the erection of a grist-mill,
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THE VILLAGE.
and perhaps other machinery. The employment of the labor required in the construction of the mill-race and the mill, and in making the various contemplated improvements, gave ac- tivity to the place. Before the close of the year 1816, the grist-mill was in operation; and a year or two later, an oil- mill was built a short distance south, near where the race crosses Water street.
Mr. Cumings laid out the streets now called Water street and Court street; and the land adjoining them and Main and Buffalo streets, was laid out into village lots. At this time, not a dwelling, it is believed, had ever been erected on it. The principal portion of this tract was in a square body bounded by abont eighty rods on Main, and nearly an equal distance on Buffalo street, excepting about two acres in the south-west corner of the square previously sold to Calvin Rumsey, and adding the corner south of Buffalo street, in- cluding the tavern stand.
The first lots sold by him were mostly on Buffalo street. Among the first buildings erected was the house in which Timothy II. Buxton now resides. Its first occupant was Edward Putnam. It was soon after occupied by Rev. Norris Bull. The "old cider-mill " building was removed a few rods, and wheeled to its present site west of and near the mill-race, where, for a time, in a half finished state, it served a greater number of families and tradesmen than any other building; having been used as a store, cabinet-shop, shoe- shop, etc., and sheltered the families of lawyers, doctors, mechanics and others. About the same time, 1817, John Hobson, the first hatter in Warsaw, built the house which constitutes a part of the present residence of H. A. Dudley; Henry Stevens, on the south side of the street, the present residence of Mrs. Lawrence; and Benjamin L. Watkins, a house and blacksmith's shop on the corner of Buffalo and Water streets, west side of Water street.
Among the first buildings erected on Main street, (in 1817, or late in 1816,) was a dwelling, built by Nelson A. Phelps,
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IIISTORY OF WARSAW.
and now the cabinet-shop of E. C. Shattuck, and about the same time two or more dwellings on and near the corner where the Methodist church now stands. Dr. Frank, who came to Warsaw in 1817, built, either that year or the next, a dwelling on Main street, near the place where the store of A. & G. W. Frank now stands. The " Masonic Hall," which had stood for years in an unfinished state, on the south side of Buffalo street, and never occupied, was bought by Aaron Rumsey, moved across the way on the corner of Buffalo and Water streets, and fitted it up for a dwelling, in which he lived until he removed to Westfield, in 1827. This house has since served the families of Silas Kidder, John Crocker, Dea- con Munger, Dr. Belden, and several others, and undergone frequent repairs. It was some years ago removed west on the opposite corner of Buffalo and Water streets, and is now owned by John A. McElwain, and occupied by Mrs. Lemon as a boarding-house. Calvin Rumsey built the house now owned and occupied by Frank Miller. Samuel McWhorter vacated the small house near the school-house, having built on his farm the house next north of the present residence of Samuel Fisher, 2d, and now owned by John Ransom, editor of the "Wyoming Democrat."
Elisha Parmele, merchant, whose first sign called customers to the "old cider mill," in 1817, built, soon after, the "yellow store," elsewhere described, and a two-story dwelling near it; the house being at present the north part of the hotel recently owned by the late N. J. Perry, and for many years previous by the late Dr. Angustus Frank. Dr. Sheldon built, near his store, (south side,) his new two-story dwelling, occupied by him until his death, and thereafter by his family for many years. It was afterward occupied as a parsonage, the property of the Presbyterian church, and then passed into the hands of Dr. J. G. Meachem, and after a few years, removed by him to the north part of the village. It is the house in which Dr. M. Baker now resides, by whom it has been changed into a beautiful residence.
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THE VILLAGE.
In 1820, H. & E. C. Kimberly, merchants, who had for two years occupied the old Stevens store, built the " corner store " on the ground now covered by the brick building of J. H. Darling, occupied as a Drug store by Matthews & Brown, the present as well as the former bank building having been crowded into the former narrow unoccupied space between the bound of the street and the corner store. The store of Sheldon & Frank, now the property of Dr. Bartlett, was built, it is believed, as early as 1818 or 1819; and in the spring of 1822, Dr. Frank, having withdrawn from the firm of Sheldon & Frank, commenced business in his new store on the west side of the street, where the brick building of the Franks now stands.
Dr. Daniel Rumsey, who had resided in this town in 1817 and 1818, and who, after several years' residence in Alexan- der, had returned to Warsaw, built a large two-story dwelling on the west side of Main street, about midway between the corners. After his removal to Silver Creek, this house was occupied by his son-in-law, George D. Farnham, and was afterwards bought by Dr. Frank, and rented for a mimiber of years. A part of it was for a time occupied for the instruc- tion of a school of young ladies, by Miss Anna P. Sill, the founder and present principal of the noted and popular Young Ladies' Seminary in Rockford, Ill. This building was several years since converted into shops or stores to supply the busi- ness wants of the place. About the time Dr. Rumsey built his house, James Crocker built one near it, which he sold to F. C. MeKay, and which was occupied successively by him- self and Isaac C. Bronson, before it came into the possession of its present occupant, Albert Purdy. Whether this dwell- ing is destined to a similar change, time must determine. It has for several years borne a powerful pressure on its south side, and it may soon be compelled to yield. About the time these buildings were erected, perhaps a little earlier, Dr. Cyrus Rumsey built the house now the residence of John A. McElwain, on Genesee street, and John Crocker the house
5
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HISTORY OF WARSAW.
next west of it, the present residence of Win. Bingham, and the first east of the Hotel.
It has been suggested by several of our citizens that our village history would be incomplete without due notice of a certain prominent old inhabitant, well known through a wide region of surrounding country. There are many yet living who remember well their old unfortunate fellow-citizen, who had in early life lost the free use of both his lower limbs, and whose locomotion was rendered possible only by the aid of wooden substitutes. Ile was one of Warsaw's earliest me- chanics, and for a time carried on business in a small plank building, said to have been built by Col. Day, the first black- smith in town, and used by him as a shop, or as some say, a dwelling. It stood on or near the spot on which Dr. Bartlett's brick building stands, on the corner of Main and Genesee streets. Its exterior fitly represented the mechanical skill of its occupant, whose vocation was thus legibly expressed on a sign board: "I. Kenyon, Tailor." Though a single as well as a singular man, the income from his trade afforded him a scanty support; and he united with tailoring the sale of " cake and beer," the latter being, if our memory be not at fault, in the full sense of the term, home made, and having at least this preference over the modern articles of that name, that its effects were less injurious. Of course the public were duly notified of this extension of business, by an additional sign on his shop's front. Other articles were by degrees added to his stock, until his "assortment " assumed the title of "Gro- cery." But adversity came, and taught him impressively, that " disappointment is the lot of all men." He was "burned out clean!" and, for a time at least, his "occupation was gone."
But our neighbor was not disheartened by this reverse of fortune. A new building in due time sprang up, Phenix like, on the west side of the street. This was by no means a rude structure. It had one adornment which is believed to have been entirely original. A large picture of a pillar sur-
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THE VILLAGE.
mounted by an eagle, was painted on its front, intended, it is presumed, to represent the patriotism of its proprietor. In front of the building was erected a high post, on which was fastened a sign reading as follows; (for the old gentleman, be it known, laid some claim to poetic talent:)
". Come view my post, and drink a toast. For I've been tried by fire; Yet I will still make up your bill As low as you require."
It is related of one of our respectable citizens, (though evi- dently wanting in respect to hoary hairs,) that he was wont, on passing, to read in a loud tone this inscription, and to subjoin the mock reference, "Isaiah xvi, 19," (Mr. K.'s name being Isaiah,) well knowing that he would thus bring to the door the irascible occupant to give boisterous vent to his indignation. In his new shop "Tailoring" was never done, his last chosen business alone giving him a livelihood, such as it was. His grocery, however, became at length the haunt of the idle, the intemperate, and the vicious; and such was its influence, that a fate like that which had befallen the old shop, would have been regarded as a public blessing.
One of his singularities was the tenacity with which he ching to the hope, almost to the last, of finding a wife; hence nothing would he so bitterly resent, as being called an old man. Having at length become disqualified for business by his infirmities and age, and being destitute of other means of support, he was compelled to spend the last years of his life where the wants of the unfortunate and needy of every county are gratuitously supplied.
Although the village continued gradually to improve, there was no marked change in its appearance from this time until after the purchase of the Webster estate by F. C. D. McKay, Esq., in 1836. Judge Webster had been indisposed to sell land in small parcels; and owning the land on both sides of Buffalo street west of the bridge, no houses could be built there. There were but two houses west of the bridge on that
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HISTORY OF WARSAW.
street, one them his own, near the hill, now the residence of H. B. Jenks; the other built by Calvin Rumsey, the present residence of Frank Miller. Perhaps, also, the two small, diminutive houses lately standing near the bridge. Mr. McKay laid out Liberty street, and sold within the first year a considerable number of lots on Buffalo and Liberty streets; and several dwellings were put up, among which was one intended by Mr. McKay for himself, but never finished by him. It came a year or two afterwards into the hands of Joshua H. Darling, who completed it, and who, by several alterations and improvements, has transformed it into a beautiful and tasty mansion. Most of the lots, however, were sold to laboring men of limited means; and the new buildings were generally small and cheaply constructed. Nor did the population or the business for several years greatly increase.
In 1841, the new county of Wyoming was formed, com- prising the southern half of Genesee, and the county seat located at Warsaw. This gave to business and to im- provements an impulse such as they had never before re- ceived. The population has since been trebled, and business has increased in nearly the same proportion. Large and valuable stocks of goods have brought purchasers from all parts of the county; and manufactures of various kinds have been established. Many marked improvements have also been made during this period. The streets were at times almost impassable with teams; and the side-walks were in no better condition for footmen, except here and there a few rods covered with gravel or tan-bark. The village was incor- porated in 1843; and by the exercise of its corporate powers, this and other difficulties have been remedied. Much has been done to improve the streets, and two bridges have been built across the O-at-ka, which are likely to stand during the life time of at least two generations. The streets have been greatly beautified with shade trees. By turning the course of the west branch, so as to unite with the O-at-ka
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THE VILLAGE.
creek some distance below the south bridge, the road is no longer liable to damage from the former stream; and several village lots of little value have been changed into eligible locations.
Prior to 1841, there was but one brick building in the vil- lage, (that of Mr. Darling,) except a small one on Water street, still standing there. The county jail, a wooden struc- ture, was built in 1841. The Court House and County Clerk's Office, substantial brick buildings, were erected in 1842, and greatly improved the appearance of the village. Many ele- gant brick dwellings-the first of which were those of Dr. Merrick Baker (now S. Whitcher's) and Linns W. Thayer, Esq.,-and a much greater number of first class framed houses, have since been built; and many old ones have been moderenized and beautified. At no time, for a similar period, has there been so marked an improvement as within the last six or eight years, on Buffalo and Main streets. Main street presents two fine specimens of church architecture, erected within the last three years, by the Presbyterian and Congre- gational societies. And that memorable event in February, 1867, "the great fire," which was at the time deemed a seri- ons calamity, has contributed, more than any other cause, to the permanent improvement of the village. Probably not more than two or three persons have reason to regret the occurrence. A brick block of three stores with some nine or ten dilapidated, rickety buildings were destroyed, and the vacant space has already been filled by a row of beautiful and substantial structures, which are surpassed in few country villages in this section of the state.
In 1868, George W. Frank and Elbert E. Farman pur- chased of John A. McElvain several acres of land, lying north of Genesee street, and east of the lots on the east side of Main street, which they laid out into building lots. They have opened from Main street to their grounds, two new streets: Elm street running to the north corner of their land; and one south of it, which is a continuation of Court street.
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