USA > New York > Orleans County > Landmarks of Orleans County, New York > Part 65
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Lots 8 and 10, section 11, were first articled to Ephraim Waldo May 22, 1804, but reverted. February 17, 1810, lots 4,6, and 8, sec. 11, 363 acres, were articled to Samuel Clark, jr., to whom they were deeded June 21, 1813. Lot 10, sec. 11, 118 1-2 acres was articled to Erastus Granger May 11, 1810. It was deeded to Samuel Clark, jr., August 19, 1814.
Lot 12, sec. 11, 118 acres, was articled to William Carter, sr., May 7, 1804. It was deeded to Joseph Ellicott February 29, 1812.
Lot 1, sec. 12, 123 acres, was articled to William Carter July 11, 1803. Lot 3, sec. 12, 121 acres, was articled to Conrad Foster July 11, 1803. Lot 5, sec. 12, 123 acres, was articled to Moses Root July 11, 1803. Lots 7, 9, 11, sec. 12, 342 acres, were articled to James Walworth November 15, 1803. All were deeded to Joseph Ellicott, February 29 1812.
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Lot 2, sec. 12, 129 acres, was articled to John Hunt October 6, 1807. October 7, 1817, the article was renewed to Harriet Fitch, and September 21, 1832, the lot was articled to Lyman Selleck. It was deeded to Thomas S. Clark November 23, 1833.
Conrad Ferster took up lot 4, sec. 12, October 6, 1807. July 21, 1829, it was con- veyed by two articles to Reuben Jennings, and it was deeded to Hiram P. Fuller Janu- ary 6, 1834.
Lot 6, section 12, 123 acres, was taken up by Jacob Ferster July 13, 1807. June 1, 1830, it was articled to John Barnum. It was deeded to John Barry June 20, 1834.
Lot 8, sec. 12, 120 acres, was articled to George Fester, jr., February 1, 1810, and was deeded to him June 28, 1816.
The north part of lot 10, sec. 12, 66 acres, was taken up by Henry Hutchins January 6, 1817. November 20, 1830, it was articled to Matthias Brown, and February 14, 1834, was deeded with lot 12 to Noah Greeley. The south part, 61 1-2 acres, of lot 10, sec. 12, was taken up by John Thompson, January 6, 1817. It was deeded to Adna Thompson.
Lot 12, sec. 12, 127 acres, was taken up by Jacob Dehart December 4, 1815. October 31, 1829, it was articled in two equal parts to Noah Greeley ; and February 14, 1834, was deeded, with 66 acres of lot 11, to Noah Greeley.
It has been said that as early as 1798 the celebrated Aaron Burr had contracted for a large tract of land at the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek, probably including a large portion of the present town of Carlton. In a letter to Theophilus Cazenove, one of the land company's agents. Mr. Burr complained that the survey included Tonawanda Bay (Oak Orchard Harbor), which he thought should not be reckoned as land and paid for at the stipulated price, $1.50 per acre. It appears that this sale to Burr was never consummated, and the books of the company make no mention of it. Indeed in the autumn of 1798 the survey of the company's land had not been completed and the land had not been placed in market, though a sale to Mr. Burr had probably been talked of.
At the beginning of this century the two localities which gave prom- ise of assuming the greatest importance of any in the county of Or- leans were at the falls of Oak Orchard Creek in Shelby and at the mouth of the same stream in Carlton. No canal had then been dreamed of, and railroads were unknown. It therefore appeared certain that, as the region developed, produce must seek an outlet over the lake, and supplies must be brought in the same way. In that case the excellent harbor at Oak Orchard Creek must of course be the shipping and re- ceiving point for all this commerce, and an important village must
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spring up around it. Joseph Ellicott was not slow to discern the pro- spective advantages which the locality offered; and to render these available for the settlers and thus encourage settlement he caused a survey of the Oak Orchard road to be made in 1803, and opened that thoroughfare as soon thereafter as practicable. In 1803 he also made a survey of a town near the mouth of the creek, and named it Manilla. It never had an existence as a town, however, except on paper ; for before the region became thickly settled the Erie Canal was projected, . and work on it commenced in 1817.
Mr. Ellicott was not altogether regardless of his own interests. He evidently had visions of the probable value in the future, not only of the land along that portion of Oak Orchard Creek called Stillwater, but also of that bordering on the lake in the vicinity of Johnson's Creek. As early as the latter part of 1802 lots 4 and 6, section 9, were articled to Joshua Woodard, and lots 8 and 10 of the same section to Reuben Lewis. These lots lie on each side of Johnson's creek at its mouth. This appears from the company's books to be the first land articled in Orleans county. Three of these lots were deeded to Joseph Ellicott February 29, 1812.
In 1803 land in this vicinity was articled to John G. Brown, David Musselman, James Walworth, Solomon Franklin, James De Graw, Elijah Hunt, William Carter, Conrad Ferster, and Moses Root ; and in 1804 to Samuel McKenney and William Carter. In nearly all these cases the parties to whom the land was articled appear to have been Mr. Ellicott's " dummies," for the land, amounting to about 3,000 acres, was deeded to him February 29, 1812.
In 1803 lots 5, 7, and 9, section 9, at Kuckville, were articled to James Dunham. They were afterward conveyed to Matthew, James, and Charles Dunham and George Kuck.
In 1804 Job Shipman and Ephraim Waldo received articles for land. That of Mr. Shipman was afterward deeded to Anna Shipman and others. That of Mr. Waldo reverted.
In 1805 land was articled to Paul Brown, and Oliver Clark. That of Mr. Clark, lots 7, 9, and II, section 6, was deeded to him in 1809 and 1812. In 1807 John Hunt, Conrad Ferster, Jacob Ferster, and George Ferster were purchasers; in 1809 Reuben Fuller and Charles Dunham ; in 1810 John Fuller and Joseph Mansfield.
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In 1811 Minories Day, Moses Barnum, jr., Fitch Chamberlain, Giles Slater, jr., Anthony Miles, Selah Bardslee, and Adam Ferster ; all these except the last named were members of the "Union Company." But little land in Carlton was sold between 1811 and 1820.
The pioneer settler in Carlton, and probably in Orleans county, was James. Walworth, who came from Canada, with his family, in an open boat and landed at the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek in May, 1803. He built a cabin, Thomas says, " which at that time was the only house near the shore of Lake Ontario, between Fort Niagara and Bradock's Bay His nearest neighbor, at first, resided near Lockport, Niagara county. Mr. Walsworth was very poor then. The only provisions his family had when they landed were a few potatoes ; these, and fish from Oak Orchard Creek, of which there was then an abundance, supplied their sustenance, except an occasional barter with boatmen, who, coasting along the south shore of the lake, would put into the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek for shelter. Walsworth hunted and fished mainly for a living, and when he collected any store of peltries he took them east along the shore of the lake to a market. After two or three years he removed to what used to be called the Lewiston road between Lock- port and Batavia, where he was afterward well known as a tavern keeper." William Walsworth, his brother, came the same year and settled near the mouth of Johnson's Creek, but nothing is known of his subsequent career.
Ray Marsh was a native of Connecticut. About 1800 he went to Canada and engaged in teaching. In 1803 he married Martha Shaw, and in the same year came in a small boat to Carlton and located near the lake shore. In 1805 he removed to Cambria, whence he was driven by the British and Indians at the time of the burning of Lewiston in the War of 1812. They fled to Ontario county, but returned to Ridgeway where they afterward suffered much from sickness and poverty. Mr. Marsh died about 1852. His wife survived him many years. Seven of their grandsons were soldiers in the Union army in the Civil War.
Elijah Hunt, a native of Pennsylvania, was born in 1751. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, was captured by the Seneca Indians, was made to run the gauntlet after the indian fashion and was after- ward prepared for torture, but was rescued by an old squaw who claimed
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him for adoption in place of a son that had been killed in the battle at which Hunt was taken. He remained with the Indians about three years, and after the close of the war was permitted to return to his peo- ple. He was kindly treated by the Indians, and many years afterward was visited by them at his home in Carlton. In 1804 he took up a farm on the lake shore a mile west from Johnson's Creek, and there he died in 1830. His daughter, Amy, married William Carter in 1804. This was probably the first marriage in Orleans county.
James Dunham took an article for land in the summer of 1803. With his father, Matthew Dunham, and his brothers, Matthew and Charles, he came from Berkshire county, Mass., to Wayne county, N. Y., about 1795, and thence to Carlton. Thomas says :
In the summer of 1804 Matthew Dunham and his sons built a dam across Johnson's Creek, where the dam now stands at Kuckville, and erected a small building on it for turning wood. The Dunham family carried on the business of turning in a small way in this building several years. They did not find much sale for their goods near home, but sold some chairs and wooden bowls to the new settlers. The most of their work they took across the lake and disposed of in Canada. They continued this commerce until the embargo was declared in 1808, and after that they smuggled their chair stuff over to a considerable extent on a sail boat which they owned.
It is related by some of the first settlers that in this turning shop the Dunhams fixed an apparatus for pounding corn, by making a tub or box in which the corn was placed, and a heavy pestle was made to fall at each turn of the wheel. Into this box they would put about a bushel of corn, occasionally stirring it up to bring it under the pestle, and thus pound it till it was reduced to meal. Several families coming in to settle in the neighborhood the want of a saw mill and a grist mill was greatly felt. Three or four years after the Dunhams built their turning shop the Holland Land Com- pany offered to furnish the irons for a saw mill, and the irons and a pair of mill stones for a grist mill if they would erect such mills on their dam. A saw mill and a grist mill were built accordingly. These were the first mills of the kind erected in Carlton. They remained the property of the Dunhams till about 1816, when they were bought by George Kuck, and rebuilt on a much larger pattern than the old mills.
Mrs. Rachel Dunham, a daughter of Henry Lovewell, was born in Onondaga county, N. Y., in 1785. In 1789 her father's family removed to Ontario county, and in 1804 to the mouth of Johnson's Creek in Carlton. They endured many of the hardships and privations incident to pioneer life. Her father died in 1813, and in 1814 she was married to Matthew Dunham, who died in 1854. They had seven children.
In 1805 a sailor who stopped at Henry Lovewell's house gave Rachel
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an apple. She planted the seeds from this near the shore of the lake, and from them grew the first apple tree that was raised north of the Ridge.
John G. Brown purchased a lot of two and one half acres in the " village of Manilla." and received a deed December 2, 1806. This was the first deed of land in Carlton or in Orleans county. Brown sold it to Silas Joy in 1815.
John Shipman was born in Saybrook, Conn., in 1772. After reach- ing adult age he removed to Greene county, N. Y., and thence to Wayne county, whence he came with the family of Elijah Brown to Carlton in the summer of 1804. They came by way of the lake, and on the voyage Mr. Brown died and his body was brought to Carlton and buried. Mr. Shipman took up a part of lot 12, section 2 in the second range, of which his son, Israel Shipman, afterward received a deed from the Holland Land Company. He erected on his farm the best house in the town. It was a log structure with a board floor and a shingled roof. At this house the first two or three town meetings were held. His wife, whom he married in 1815, was Widow Ann Tomblin. He died in 1833, and she in 1868.
Moses Root removed ftom Otsego county, N. Y., to Big Sodus Bay in 1801 or 1802. His family consisted of his wife and five sons In 1804 he came by way of Irondequoit Bay and Lake Ontario to the mouth of Johnson's Creek in Carlton. He had taken an article for lot 5, section 12 in the second range in July 1803, and on this he located. With his family came that of Mr. Dunham, and with the exception of the Wals- worth family at the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek, these constituted the whole white population north of the Ridge. Reuben Root (who after- ward settled in Yates), in a published sketch of his life in Thomas's History, says :
My father built a house of such poles as we could carry, as we had no team to draw logs, and covered it with elm bark, in which we lived without a floor for one or two years, then our floor was made of split basswood. After building a shelter for the family, the next thing in order was to get supplied with food and clothing, the stock we brought with us getting low. We cleared a small piece of land and planted it with corn ; from this we made our bread. Our meat consisted of fish, venison, bear, raccoon and hedgehog. We pounded our corn for meal two or three years, by which time we began to raise wheat, which we took to Norton's mill in Lima, to be ground. It was about seventy miles by way of Irondequoit Bay and the lake. The country was so
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infested with bears and wolves at that time we could not keep domestic animals. In the summer of 1806 or 1807 my father got a cow from Canada, but the following fall she was killed by wolves. Our clothing was made from hemp of our own raising. We could not raise flax on account of the rust that destroyed the fibre. For several years we had no boots or shoes for want of material to make them. My father built the first frame barn in what is now Orleans county. The lumber and nails he brought from Canada.
Mr. Root and his son Reuben were ordered to Buffalo in 1814 to serve in the United States Army. They volunteered to go, under Gen- eral Porter, and assist in taking the British batteries that were besieging Fort Erie.
The association that was known as the Union Company consisted of Minoris Day, Fitch Chamberlain, Charles Webster, Anthony Miles, Sela Beardsley, Moris Barnum, jr., Russell Smith, and Giles Slater jr., all residents of Stockbridge, Mass. In December, 1810, they entered into the following written agreement :
We who have hereunto affixed our respective names do agree to the following articles and hold ourselves bound to fulfill each and every one of them as follows, viz .:
Article 1 .- We agree that for the purposes of our better accommodation and mutual benefit we do and have resolved ourselves into one respective body or company, by and under the appellation of the Union Company, for the express purpose of emi- grating to the western part of the State of New York, on the Holland purchase, so called, there to purchase, each one by and for himself, unconnected with said company, as much land as he shall think will comport with his individual interests.
Article 2 .- We agree that we will jointly and severally bear our proportional part of expenses that may accrue, for the use of said body or company in the outfit, or when embodied or joined together, which shall be considered necessary by said company, being made in a just and lawful manner agreeable to the rules and regulations hereafter adopted.
Article 3 .- We agree that one of said body or company shall be appointed as sec- retary, to see that said expedition is forwarded, to give information from time to time what progress bas been made or is making, also to keep a book or memorandum on which shall be carefully recorded whatever has been furnished, and by whom, as well as the value of said articles and any entry which shall be considered necessary by said company.
Article 4 .-- We agree that we will individually furnish our respective proportion of such articles as shall be considered necessary by said company and make a de- posit of the same with the company's secretary previous to the first day of January next.
Article 5-We agree that should any individual composing said company furnish more than his proportional part, for the use of said body, he shall be repaid by them, and any not furnishing his share shall pay it into the company at their request,
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Article 6 .- We agree that we will put our joint force and strength together, for at least two years, next after the purchase of our respective lands and labor in company.
Article 7 .-- We agree that in order to have no division or dissension between our- selves, that we will clear off and burn up as much wood on one man's land as on an- other's, viz., to have it fit for sowing wheat or other grain for which it may be suitable.
Article 8 -We agree that the avails of our joint labor, of whatever kind it may be, shall be equally distributed among said body or company not having any reference to the lands or owners of said lands from whence said avails proceeded.
Article 9 .-- We agree that whatever may be taken by hunting, fishing, or the like, shall be the joint property of the company, as well as the expense attending the same, shall be borne by them.
Article 10 .- We agree that we will erect a house and barn on the land belonging to some one of the company, to be jointly concerned in the expense in building the same, and also joint owners in said building, until said company shall be dissolved, then to belong to the one on whose land it shall stand.
Article 11 .-- We agree that in planting a nursery of fruit trees, that on whomsoever the ground shall belong whereon it shall be planted for that purpose, the avails of which shall belong to the company after each individual shall have taken what he may want to plant his individual ground, viz., they (the company) being at the expense of cultivating it and taking all necessary care.
Article 12 .- We agree that we will assist each other in an equal proportion in erect- ing a house and barn not exceeding the expense of the first house and barn erected.
Article 13 .- We agree that we do not hold ourselves as a body or company respon- sible for any debts of any kind or nature contracted without the express knowledge of or consent of the whole, neither for the lands which the individuals composing the com- pany may purchase, each one contracting for his own lands paying for it and owning it by and for himself, the company not being responsible in that respect.
Article 14 .- We agree that it is possible that the best human calculations are often thwarted and disappointed, and the best intentions are sometimes providentially ren- dered incapable of performing these most solemn vows, that when it shall plainly and distinctly appear that any one engaging shall unfortunately be rendered incapable of performing, shall be excused in the manner hereinafter pointed out.
Article 15 .- We agree that should any one be disappointed and rendered incapable as described by article 14, shall he, having furnished his proportional share of the outfit of said expedition as will appear by record on company books, shall, at the expiration of two years after the first of January next, be repaid for whatever he may have put or placed in the hands of said company, they being accountable for the same.
Article 16 .- We agree that should any one belonging to said company fail from reasons assigned in article 14 of this instrument, shall nevertheless be considered as be- longing to said company until the expiration of eighteen months, computing from the first day of January next; should he fail of joining said body until after said time is expired he shall have no other claim than what is allowed by article 15.
Article 17 .- We agree that should any one refuse or neglect to go at the time
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affixed by said company having other reasons than those assigned by article 14 shall forfeit whatever he may have deposited in the outfit for the use of said company.
Article 18 .-- We agree that no one individual belonging to said company shall be allowed the privilege of substituting any person or persons in his room or stead, each shall be obliged to perform the work by his own hands (but not debarred from any assistance he may procure unconnected with said company), unless by consent of said body or company.
Saturday, 8th December, 1810. Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Cyrus Beach, Witness.
Minories Day. Fitch Chamberlain. Charles Webster. Anthony Miles. Selah Bardslee. Moses Barnum, jr. Russell Smith. Giles Slater, jr.
Day, Barnum and Chamberlain took up adjoining lots, 1, 3, and 5, section 6; Slater and Beardslee also adjoining lots, 12, section 6, and 2, section 9 ; and Miles lot 10, section 8; and all were worked accord- ing to their covenant. Smith did not take up land, but returned to Stockbridge, and Webster accidentally lost his pocket book containing his money and was released from his agreement. The other six ac- cumulated property and reared worthy families. Fitch Chamberlain was a physician, and practiced in Carlton and adjoining towns.
Daniel Gates was born in Rutland county, Vt., in 1789. His wife, to whom he was married in 1808, was Ann Anderson. He came to Or- leans county, and in July, 1809, took an article for a part of lot 29, township 15, range 2, and resided there several years. He afterward removed to Carlton, where he resided till his death in 1858. His wife died in 1866. They were the parents of John, Nehemiah F., Lewis W., and Matthew A. Gates. The latter resides in Gates. He brought his family here with a yoke of oxen and a wagon, fording the Genesee River, over which there was no bridge They suffered many hardships, especially during the war, when at times they were compelled to sub- stitute green boiled wheat for bread.
John Thompson was the son of Andrew Thompson, of New York city, who was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary army. John was born in the city of New York in 1771. He removed to Seneca county where he remained a number of years, and in 1811 came to Carlton and lo- cated in the west part of the town a mile from the lake shore. On the
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breaking out of the war of 1812 he removed his family to Lima, N. Y., and he became a soldier in the army. He was in the battle of Lundy's Lane, where he was wounded in the chest. On the conclusion of the war he returned to Carlton and located on the lake road in the west part of the town where he died in 1829. His wife was Phebe Garrett, of New York. They reared to adult age six children, of whom John was born in 1810. His wife was Lory Cushman, who was born in Vermont in 1810.
Rev. George Kuck was a native of London, England, where he was born in 1791. He was educated at King's College, came to New York city in 1806, and went to Canada in 1807. In the war of 1812 he was a lieutenant in the Canadian militia, and was also a government clerk. He came to Carlton in 1815 and purchased the farm at what is now Kuckville, where he ever afterward resided. He built a grist mill on the site of the primitive log mill that Mr. Dunham had erected, and afterward built a warehouse at the mouth of Johnson's Creck. He also opened a store in 1816. He at one time conducted a store, farm, ware- house, ashery, grist mill, and saw mill. He was a good business man and became wealthy. During thirty years he was postmaster at West Carl- ton, afterward and now Kuckville. He united with the M. E. Church in 1821, and was leader of the first Methodist class formed in Carlton. In 1829 he became an exhorter, and in 1833 a local preacher. He was ordained a deacon in 1837, and an elder in 1849. His wife, to whom he was married in 1819, was Miss Electa Fuller. He died in 1868.
Noah Greeley, a relative of Horace Greeley, was born in New Hamp- shire, in 1766. He married Anna Powell in 1793, and in 1810 they removed to Homer, N. Y., where he built a saw mill and a grist mill, and afterward purchased a farm. He removed to Lock, Cayuga county, thence to Allegany county, and in 1817 to Carlton, settling in the north- west corner of the town, on lot 12, section 12. The summer of 1819 was very sickly, and he, his wife, their thirteen children, and nearly all their neighbors were sick with the malarial fever that prevailed. That he might have better nursing than his sick family could give, some neighbors carried him on a rude litter of poles and bark to the home of Elijah Hunt, two miles east. As he was taken from the house he bade his sick wife and children good bye and none of them except his eldest
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daughter (afterward Mrs. Rensselaer Warner), who was able to visit him occasionally, ever saw him again. He died in October of that year. His wife died in 1849. Their children were Anna, Lucy, Noah, Clif- ton, Alvin, Gilman, Dustin, Fanny, Eber, Asa, Nancy, Sally, and Al- fred. Of these eleven were Methodists and two Baptists. All the sons but one were Whigs and afterward Republicans. None ever used ar- dent spirits, and only one tobacco. Only one was married more than once. The youngest was fifty years of age when the first of the chil- dren died.
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