USA > New York > Orleans County > Landmarks of Orleans County, New York > Part 44
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To no one was the town of Gaines, and, indeed, the people of the entire county of Orleans, more indebted at a very early period than to James Mather, who became an actual settler in 181I. Mr. Mather had been a manufacturer of potash in Herkimer county, and had found his market in Canada. On coming here he engaged in the same busi- ness. He purchased from the early settlers the "black salts " which were made from their ashes and paid for them in money, iron, salt, leather, chains, and other things that the people required. The only means by which these settlers procured the money with which to pay their taxes and to pay for many articles with which they could not dis- pense was the sale of these salts, and their only market was with Mr. Mather. These salts he converted into potash, which he took to the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek and shipped to Montreal. After non- intercourse with Great Britain was established he managed, by the use of money among government officials, to secure the transmission of his goods from shore to shore, and his profits were larger than in or- dinary times. Mr. Mather had purchased some 400 acres of land at
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what was afterward Gaines village, and on his arrival in 1811, with his younger brother, Rufus. they at once commenced making improve- ments. They built a house in which they kept bachelor's hall for more than a year. Mr. Mather was said to be a descendant of Rev. Increase Mather, one of the presidents of Harvard College. In the winter of 1810 II he came to Gaines with his brother, Rufus, driving two yoke of oxen with a sled on which, among other things, were three potash kettles. These were the kettles afterward used for converting black salts into potash. Although he never kept a tavern, his house was always open to wayfarers, and was often full of immigrants who were waiting for the erection of their own cabins. Oliver Booth, afterward the tavern keeper at Gaines, was one of these. About 1824 Mr. Mather built at Gaines a.large brick tannery, the same afterward con- ducted by Mr. Bidleman. He never worked at the business, but was interested in it with his brothers. He was also a dealer in real estate, and became quite wealthy.
Elihu Mather, a brother of James, was a tanner, was born in Marl- boro, Vt., in 1782, and in 1825 removed to Gaines, where he became a partner with James in his tannery. He was a Free Mason, and in the time of the anti-Masonic excitement he was indicted as an accessory to the crime of kidnapping William Morgan. He was tried at Albion and acquitted. His trial occupied ten days. In 1851 he removed to Cold- water, Mich., and died there in 1866.
Oliver Booth came to Gaines from Wayne county in the spring of 18II and settled on the farm north from the Ridge in Gaines village, where he built a double log house and opened a tavern, which he kept for many years. The region was being rapidly settled, and this was the stopping place for emigrants on their way farther west, as well as those that located in the vicinity. Whisky was a common beverage in those days, and he dispensed it in large quantities; and the food that was placed before his hungry guests was relished by those who did not look into the kitchen. He was illiterate, but he kept his accounts in chalk, and the walls were his account books. He had hieroglyphics of his own for different items, such as meals, lodging, horse feed, drinks, etc. The village grew, another and better hotel wes opened, and after
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a time Booth sold his property and left. He finally removed to Mich- igan, where he died.
Judge Thomas says :
No description of Booth or his tavern would be complete without including Sam Wooster. Sam's father lived in the neighborhood, and he (Sam), then a great lazy boy, strayed up to Booth's tavern, where by hanging about he occasionally got a taste of Booth's whisky in consideration of bringing in wood for the fire and doing a few other chores. For these services and the pleasure of his company Booth gave him what he ate and drank, with a place to sleep on the bar room floor. His clothes did not cost much. He never wore a hat of any sort, and seldom had on stockings or shoes. No body can remember that he wore a shirt, and his coats and pants were such as came to him, nobody could tell how or from whence. Sam never washed his face and hands or combed his head; and his general appearance, shirtless and shoeless, with his great black, frowsy head bare, his pants ragged and torn, and his coat, if he had any, minus one sleeve or half the skirt, to one who did not know him might befit a crazy prisoner. just escaped from bedlam. Yet Sam wasnot a fool or crazy. His wit was keen and ready, and his jokes timely and sharp. He would not work, or do anything which re- quired much effort anyway. He was a good fisherman, however, and, with his old friend Booth, he would sit patiently by the hour and angle in the Oak Orchard or any other stream that had fish, perfectly content if he had an occasional nibble at his hook. Although Sam loved whisky and drank it whenever it was given to him, for he never had money to buy anything, he never got drunk. He never quarreled or stole, or did any other mischief. Bad as he looked, and lazy and dirty as he was, he was harmless.
Oliver Booth, 2d, better known as 'Squire Booth, though not related to the tavern keeper, located in 1810 on the north side of the Ridge west of the Oak Orchard road, at Gaines village, and was elected the first supervisor in Orleans county, representing Ridgeway in 1813. During several years he was a justice of the peace, and was regarded as an upright and honest man. He died in Michigan in 1833, aged fifty- four.
Henry Drake was the builder of the pioneer saw mill in Gaines in 1812. It stood a few rods north from the Ridge, on Otter Creek. Mr. Drake was a clothier by trade, but a farmer by occupation. He was born in New Jersey in 1770 and settled in Gaines in 1811. He mar- ried Betsey Parks, of New Jersey, who died in 1843. He died in 1863.
Levi Atwell was a native of Columbia county, N. Y. He came to Gaines in April, 1811, and took an article for a part of lot 44, west from Eagle Harbor. His brothers-in-law, Gideon Freeman and Joseph Stoddard, came with him and took up land. He cut the timber on a
All Shelley
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few acres and built a log house in the summer of 1811. In February, 1812, he brought his wife (whose maiden name was Mabel Stoddard) and their children, Ira, Abbey, Roxy, Joseph, and Martin. They brought a yoke of oxen and some other cattle, and took possession of their house, which was roofed with " shakes " held by transverse poles, and had no windows. A large hole in the roof let out the smoke and admitted the light. They filled the crevices between the logs with chips and hung a blanket for a door. It was a shelf taken from this house that was used to make a coffin for Mr. Crofoot, who died in the fall of 1812. Mr. Atwell remained on the farm where he settled till his death in 1847.
Aaron Shelley came from Washington county, N. Y., to Wayne county, and thence, in 1812, to Gaines, where he kept a tavern in a log house with three rooms. Mr. Shelley and his family retired eastward after the battle of Queenston, but returned two months later. He soon removed to near Fairhaven, where he erected a house without boards or nails. Here the family lived at first on corn meal ground in a primitive Genesee mill (i. e., a stump mortar), and fish from Oak Orchard Creek. Afterward he removed to a place on the Ridge road near Otter Creek, where he built a saw mill and where he died.
Zaccheus Lovewell, a native of New Hampshire, was a Revolutionary soldier. After the close of the war he went to Canada and thence to Wayne county, N. Y. From there he came to the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek, but after a short stay returned to Wayne county. In 1812 he came to Gaines and located on the Ridge, a mile west from Gaines village. Thence after several removals, he went to Cattaraugus county, where he died 1834. His son, Samuel Lovewell, settled on the homestead on the Ridge where his father located in 1812, and died there March 16, 1891.
Gideon Freeman, born in Stillwater, Saratoga county, January II, 1787, removed with his father to Ledyard, Cayuga county, in 1799, whence he came to Gaines in March, 1812, settling in the southwest corner of the town. He was the first settler in that locality, which was long known as Freeman settlement. During the winter of 1816-17 he chopped fifty acres of woods to browse his cattle but having nothing to feed his large stock of hogs many of them died of starvation. He owned
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at one time considerable land, but finally became involved in business reverses, removed to Ypsilanti, Mich., and died there in 1832.
John L. Crandall, son of Christopher Crandall, was born in New Berlin, N. Y., in 1803. He came with his father to Albion and resided in that town a few years. He then purchased a farm on lot 29, in Gaines, northeast from Albion village, where he remained till his death, in 1851. In 1829 he married Hannah Brown, a native of Canada, born in 1808 They reared nine children.
Hon. Will'am J. Babbitt learned from his father the trade of a black- smith. He came to Gaines in 1813 and took up the farm where he resided till his death,-a part of lot 30, on the Ridge, east from Fair- haven. He was not a professional lawyer, but he possessed a large endowment of native shrewdness, and at an early day was frequently employed to try cases in justices' courts, and he became one of the most skillful pettifoggers in this part of the county. He was active in procuring the act of organization of the town of Gaines, and was the first postmaster in the town; he was appointed a justice of the peace in 1815, and was chosen by the people after the office became elective, holding it in all twenty-three years. He was twice elected supervisor of Gaines, and was a member of assembly for Orleans county in 1832. He acquired a large property. He was born in Providence, R. I., in 1786, and was married to Eunice Losey in 1810, He died in 1863, she in 1867.
David Bullard, the progenitor of the numerous family by that name in Gaines, was born in Dedham, Mass., whence he removed to Vermont, He entered the Revolutionary army when fourteen, in the capacity of an officer's servant. On reaching the proper age he shouldered a musket and served till the close of the war as a regular soldier. In 1814 he came to Gaines with as many of his children as had not preceded him, and settled west from Gaines village, where his son William had taken up a farm. A year or two later he removed to a place on the Gaines Basin road, where he died. William Bullard, his son, was born in Vermont in 1789. In January, 1812, he came with two yoke of oxen and a sled to Gaines and located north from Gaines Basin. His brothers Brigadier, David, and Ransom came soon afterward and settled in the vicinity. William served in the service during the War of 1812. After
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a few years he removed to a farm a mile west from Gaines village, on the Ridge road, and died there in 1861. He was distinguished for his benevolence and kindness to the poor. David Bullard, jr., another son, born in 1805, came to Gaines in 1815 and located on the Gaines Basin road, where he remained till his death, in 1886. His wife died in 1888. Ransom Bullard, also a son of David, sr., became a physician. He practiced a short time at Gaines Basin, then removed to Michigan, where he died.
Phinehas Rowley was a native of New Hampshire, and in his youth removed to Vermont. In 1815 he came to Gaines and purchased a farm on lot 30, near East Gaines. In 1817 he brought his family to this place and was a resident here till his death in 1851. His wife, Jane Anderson, was a native of Vermont, and five of their children were born in that State. The eldest son, John A. Rowley, was also a pur- chaser from the Holland Land Company.
Josias Lamont was born in Columbia county, N. Y. When a young man he removed to Schoharie county, and in 1815 to Gaines. He lo- cated on lot 14 in the east part of the town, where he remained till his death in 1856. His children, who came here with him, were Platt, Archibald, Smith, Fanny and Major T. Four children were born after he settled in Gaines. His wife was Anna Tyler, a native of Columbia county ; she died in 1864.
Sylvester W. Farr was born in Oneida county, N. Y., in 1797. In 1815 he removed to Gaines and settled at Five Corners. In 1847 he removed to Michigan, where he died in 1872. His wife was Anna Parshall, a native of Palmyra, N. Y.
Samuel C. Lewis was born in Poultney, Vt., in 1796. When seven- teen years of age he enlisted in the war of 1812, and served in the company of Captain Miller, afterward the founder of the sect called Millerites. He served about two years and fought at Plattsburg and French Mills. In February, 1816, with his brothers, Gideon and Ros- well, Amos and Elias Clift and their sister, Esther, afterward Mrs. Guy C. Merrill, he came from Poultney to Gaines in a lumber wagon, drawn by two yoke of oxen. They were twenty-five days on the road. The first night after their arrival the Messrs. Lewis slept in a house that Samuel's brother-in-law, Arba Chubb, who arrived the day before, had
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moved into. It was built by Mrs. Burgess, and it had not been occu- pied for some time. They cleared away the snow, built a roaring fire against the stoned-up end of the house, and lay down with their feet toward it. The fire thawed out the chimney back, which fell forward into the room. Samuel and Gideon purchased an article for 175 acres that had been taken up by Lansing Bailey at Gaines Basin. During the summer they worked for Mr. Bailey every seventh day to pay for their cooking and washing. Samuel resided on this farm during the rest of his life. He married Anna Frisbie in 1819. She died in 1820, and in 1824 he married Anna Warner, of Cornwall, Vt. She died in 1841. He died in 1877. It is said that he made the journey between Gaines and Poultney, Vt., twelve times on foot.
George A. Love was born in Preston, Conn., in 1792. His parents removed to Bridgewater, Oneida county, N. Y., in 1793. At the age of twenty he entered the army, and served through the war of 1812. In 1816 with his brother, Maj. William Love, he came to Orleans county and located in the southeast part of the town of Barre. In 1830 he removed to Gaines and settled on lot 12. He he remained till his death in 1885. His first wife was Louisa Ferguson, of Barre. She died in 1828, and in 1829 he married Mary Button, a native of Wash- ington county, N. Y. He had eight children.
Ebenezer Hutchinson, a native of Connecticut, removed with his father's family to Oneida county, N. Y., about 1800, and 1816 came to Gaines and purchased a farm on lot 6 near Gaines village, where his son, Almanzor Hutchinson, succeeded him. He died in 1820 and the care of his family devolved on his widow. Her maiden name was Bet- sey Phelps, who was a native of Connecticut. Their children were: Almanzor and Seymour. Mrs. Hutchinson was the administratrix of her husband's estate, and took a deed of the farm in her own name. She married again in 1834, and in 1864 her husband died, after which she returned to the farm where she first settled, and died there in 1873. Almanzor Hutchinson from early life took a lively interest in politi- cal questions. He assisted in the organization of the Whig party, was one of the earliest anti-slavery men in Western New York, and was active in supporting all the great reforms of his day. From the first of its organization he was an active member of the Republican party. He
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was a member of the Assembly during three sessions and of the State Senate one term. He died June 12, 1893.
Arba Chubb, a native of Poultney, Vt., was born in 1791. In 1816 with his wife and child, he came to Gaines and purchased a farm be- tween the Ridge and Gaines Basin. In 1832 he removed to Gaines Basin and became a merchant and produce dealer. In 1840 he re- moved to Gaines village, and in 1856 to Michigan. In 1813 he mar- ried Emily Frisbie. She died in 1829, and he married Sally Bullard. He represented Gaines on the Board of Supervisors five years, was a justice of the peace in the town thirty-three years and held the same office in Michigan till his total service amounted to about half a cen- tury. He held every other town office in Gaines except that of consta- ble. In 1848 he was elected member of Assembly.
Daniel Brown was a resident of Canada West from 1800 till 1816. In the War of 1812 he refused to bear arms against his native country, and was tried for treason, but was acquitted. He was born in Columbia county, N. Y., in 1787, and went with his father's family to Canada in 1800. He married there, Mary Willsea, in 1807, and they removed to Gaines in 1816, locating a mile northeast from Albion. Mr. Brown was regarded as a man of strict integrity, and was much honored and re- spected. He was the supervisor of his town in 1844. His brothers, who resided near him, were Oliver and Jonathan. Their father was Benjamin Brown.
Samuel Bidleman, son of Henry Bidleman, was born in Manheim, Herkimer county, in 1806, and came with his father's family to Shelby in 1818. In 1820 he went, alone bare- footed, wearing an old straw hat, tow-cloth pantaloons and a second hand coat, to Ridgeway Corners for the purpose of learning the trade of tanner and currier and shoe- maker with Isaac Bullard. He remained there till after Mr, Bullard's death in 1827, when he purchased the establishment and conducted the business on his own account, In 1835 he sold out and purchased from James Mather a tannery in Gaines village, where he employed four or five men in his tannery and five or six in his shoe shop. In 1841 Mr. Bidleman admitted Robert Ranney as a partner, and they enlarged the business. The partnership was neither profitable nor pleasant, and it ceased at the end of five years. The business was afterward conducted
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by Mr. Bidleman and his sons. Ready-made shoes took the place of those manufactured in country shops, and with the failure of the sup- ply of tan bark the business of tanning here became impracticable. Mr. Bidleman took a lively interest in the " Patriot " war for the aid of Canadian rebels in 1838. A hunters' lodge held its meetings in the old Free Masons' lodge room in his tannery, and he contributed liber- ally in support of the movement. He gave an old cast-iron bark mill to be cast into cannon balls, and fitted out a soldier with the last gun he ever owned and a pair of boots and sent him to Canada to join the insurgents. Mr. Bidleman had been a lieutenant of an artillery com- pany in Yates, which owned a cannon which was sent to the Patriots. During this excitement Gen. Winfield Scott passed through here with a detachment of United States troops to maintain peace.
Joseph Billings, sr., the ancestor of this family, Judge Thomas says, was born in Somers, Conn., and settled in Chenango county, N. Y., where he resided till his death. He purchased of Isaac Bennett a large quantity of land in Gaines, which Mr. Bennett had taken up, which he divided among his sons, Joseph, Timothy and Lauren. Joseph and Timothy settled on this land in 1817, and Lauren in 1822. Joseph, Timothy and Lauren lived on adjoining farms, which they cleared and improved. Joseph and Lauren each held the office of justice of the peace for a number of years ; Joseph was supervisor of Gaines from 1837 to 1841, inclusive, and Lauren was a colonel in the State militia.
Rev. Simeon Dutcher, a native of Dutchess county, N. Y., was born in 1772. Arriving at the age of manhood, he worked during fifteen years at the trade of a millwright, although he never served an ap- prenticeship. He then became a Baptist preacher, and in 1817 came to Carlton. In 1820 he removed to Gaines, where he resided till his death in 1860. When he came to the Holland Purchase the Baptists had no church organization in Orleans county, and he served as a missionary among the poor and scattered people, preaching in the cabins of the settlers or in school houses after such were built. He received but lit- tle compensation for his clerical work, but maintained his family by labor on a farm. He officiated at nearly all the weddings and funerals in this region for many years. A Baptist church was organized in Gaines at a very early day, and Elder Dutcher was its pastor. He
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continued in that relation till the breaking out of the anti-Masonic ex- citement. He was a Free Mason, and was required to renounce Ma- sonry. He declined to do so, and the church excommunicated him. He afterward became a Universalist in sentiment. He was always considered a good man, and was highly esteemed by the early settlers.
Hull and Zerah Tomlinson were born in Connecticut, the latter in 1792. They came to Gaines in 1817, and located on the Ridge half a mile west from Gaines village, where they remained the rest of their lives. Zerah died in 1871, and Hull some years previously. The three children of Hull removed to Michigan. The wife of Zerah was Sarah Stone, a native of Connecticut. Of their five children four lived to maturity. David died on the old homestead.
Rev. Samuel Salsbury was born in Herkimer county, N. Y., in 1804, and came to the Holland Purchase, with his father, Stephen, in 1817. He was educated in the common schools, and in his early manhood was a farmer and school teacher. He became a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, and in 1843 joined in the organi- zation of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America, in which con- nection he remained during the rest of his life. He married Miss Electa Beal in 1829.
John Wickham was born in Columbia county, N. Y., in 1774. When a young man he removed to Canada, where he married Lucy Brown, who died in 1814. In 1818 he came to Gaines and settled on lot 20, east from Albion, where his grandson, Lewis Wickham, now resides. His second wife was Mrs. Polly Rice, who was born in Massa- chusetts. He reared seven children, of whom Dyer Wickham, who also purchased a part of lot 20, was the eldest. The youngest son was Case Wickham who resided on the farm which his father purchased till his death, in 1883. His wife was Marietta Butts, of Albion. They reared six children.
Anthony Sterling was born in Lima, N. Y., in 1795. About 1818 he came to Gaines and purchased a farm on lot 45, three miles west from Gaines village, on the Ridge .. His brother, William B. Sterling, came at the same time, but removed west after a few years. Mr. Sterling remained on this farm till his death, in 1885. His wife, Mary Horton, was a native of Wayne county, N. Y., born in 1808. She
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died in Gaines in 1880. They reared ten children, of whom three live in Gaines.
Keyes Wilder, a native of Vermont, was born in 1790. His wife, to whom he was married in 1820, was Levira Slater, born in Massachusetts in 1802. They came to Gaines in 1820 and purchased the farm on which they ever afterward resided-a part of lot 53 in the southwest part of the town. Here Mr. Wilder died in 1844. They reared six children, none of whom resides in Gaines. Their eldest son, H. H. Wilder, died here in 1890.
Zebulon and Spencer Whipple came to Gaines about 1820 and located on lot 46, west from Gaines village. A granddaughter of Spencer Whipple, Mrs. Fred Stanley, still resides on the Ridge in the west part of the town.
Perry Davis, a native of Massachusetts, born in 1773, removed to Galway, Saratoga county, N. Y., then to Palmyra, and in 1823 to Gaines. He first took up land near the mouth of Otter Creek, but in 1825 purchased a farm at Gaines village, north from the Ridge and west from the Oak Orchard road. " He was an active business man, being engaged at different times as a merchant, farmer, school teacher, and manufacturer ; and while residing in Gaines superintending at the same time three farms, a saw mill, a grist mill, and a small iron foundry, all in operation." He married Rebecca Potter, who died in 1825, and in 1827 he married Sarah Toby, of Stockton, N. Y. He had eight daughters, seven of whom lived to adult age.
Samuel Hill, a native of Barrington, N. H., was born in 1793, and was married to Miss Olive Knight in 1815. They came to Gaines in the winter of 1823, and settled on the farm where they ever afterward resided. In the spring of that year they built a log house without chimney or window, the crevices between the logs admitting light and a hole in the roof permitting the escape of smoke. In this house they passed their first summer here, but made it comfortable for the winter by " chinking and mudding " the spaces between the logs. They pros- pered and acquired a competence.
John Hyde, a native of Worcestershire, England, born in 1779, came to America in 1832, and in 1833 purchased a farm on lot 30, two miles west from Gaines village, where he resided till his death in 1864.
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