USA > New York > Wayne County > Landmarks of Wayne County, New York, Pt. 1 > Part 6
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and entertaining ideas of Wayne born in the consternation and awe that fell upon them when they saw the warriors fall like leaves before his onslaught.
Prior to the visit of Lieutenant Sheaffe to Mr. Williamson with Sim- coe's message, and on the 3d of July, the War Department had been specifically informed of the exposed condition of the settlers in the Genesee country. The acts of the British to which we have alluded were made the subject of a letter from General Washington to John Jay, then minister in London, in which he wrote as follows:
Of this irregular and high-handed proceeding of Mr, Simcoe, which is no longer masked, I would rather hear what the ministry of Great Britain will say. . . This may be considered as the most open and daring act of the British agents in America, though it is not the most hostile and cruel; for there does not remain a doubt in the mind of any well informed person in this country, not shut against conviction, that all the difficulties we encounter with the Indians, their hostilities, the murders of helpless women and children, along our frontiers, result from the conduct of agents of Great Britain in this country. .
In the same letter Washington predicted that it would be impossible to keep this country on peaceful terms with England long, unless the various posts were surrendered to us. '
Congratulations upon Wayne's victory and the resultant peace were general, and nothing more was heard of invasions from Canada.
There were other hardships which the carly settlers were forced to endure, but they were mostly men of stability, perseverance and energy. Buying his land on easy terms at a low price, and inspired with the vigor of young manhood, the pioneer thought the road to independence would not be a long nor a very hard one; but many were grievously disappointed. The meager crops raised on the small clearing were needed for home consumption ; or, if there was a small surplus, it was difficult to dispose of it. The roads to a market were often impassable for teams; interest accumulated, and what was worse than all else, sickness was very prevalent in many localities, and good medical attendance almost impossible to obtain. Fever and ague was espe- cially afflicting and disheartening. This intermittent disease gave the settlers their "sick days" and their "well days," ' and they could work
1 Dr. Coventry, who lived near Geneva in 1792-4 said that those seasons were very Sickly in proportion to the population, in all the Genesee country. "I remember," said he, "when in Geneva there was but a single individual who could leave her bed. In 1795 no rain fell in June or July; water in the lakes was lowered; every inlet 7
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only on the latter. These troubles, with the others we have described, would doubtless have driven many away from their homes, had it not been for the liberal, energetic and protective policy adopted by Mr. Williamson.
This chapter may be closed with an original article, showing clearly the policy of Mr. Williamson, and its effects on settlements, which was printed in the Commercial Agricultural Journal, in London, England, in August, 1799. It was as follows:
This immense undertaking is under the direction and in the name of Captain Williamson, formerly a British officer, but is generally supposed in America to be a joint concern between him and Sir William Patence, of London; in England Patence is believed to be the proprietor and Williamson his agent. The land in the Genesee country, or that part of it which belongs to the State of Massachusetts, was sold to a Mr. Phelps for five pence per acre ; by him in 1790, to Mr. Morris, at one shilling per acre, being estimated at a million of acres, on condition that the money was to be returned provided Captain Williamson, who was to view the lands, should not find them answerable to the description. He was pleased with them, and, on survey, found the tract to contain one hundred and twenty thousand acres more than the estimate, the whole of which was conveyed to him. This district is bounded on one side by Lake Ontario, and on the other by the River Genesee. Williamson also bought some other land of Mr. Morris, so that he is now proprietor of more than a million and a half acres. After surveying the whole, he resolved to found at once several large establishments rather than one capital colony. He therefore fixed on the most eligible place for building towns, as central spots for his whole system. These were Bath, on the Conhockton, Williamsburg, on the Genesee; Geneva, at the foot of Lake Seneca; and Great Sodus, on Lake Ontario: The whole territory he divided into squares of six miles. Each of these squares he forms into a district. Sure of finding settlers and purchasers when he had established a good communica- tion between his new tract and Philadelphia, and as the old road was by way of New York and Albany, Williamson opened a road which has shortened the distance three hundred miles. He has also continued his roads from Bath to Geneva, to Canandaigua, and to Great Sodus, and several roads of communication. He has already erected ten mills-three corn and seven sawing-has built a great many houses, and has begun to clear land. He put himself to the heavy expense of trans- porting eighty families from Germany to his settlements; but owing to a bad choice made by his agent at Hamburg, they did little, and after a short time set off for Canada. He succeeded better in the next set, who were mostly Irish. They put the roads into condition, and gave such a difference to the whole that the lands which he sold at one dollar an acre was soon worth three and he disposed of eight hundred thousand acres in this way so as to pay the first purchase, the whole expense incurred, and has made a profit of fifty pounds. The rapid increase of property is owing to to the money first advanced, but the great advantage is Williamson's constant
became a seat of putrefaction. . . In the Autumn of 1796 along an extent of four miles of a thinly-inhabited road, 24 deaths took place from dysentery."
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residence on the settlement, which enables him to conclude any contract or to remove any difficulty which may stand in the way; besides, his land is free from all dispute or question of occupancy, and all his settlement is properly ascertained and marked out. There has been a gradual rise in values, and a proviso is always inserted in the deed of sale to those who purchase a large quantity, that a certain number of aeres shall be cleared, and a certain number of families settled, within eighteen months. Those who buy from five hundred to one thousand acres are only obliged to settle one family. These clauses are highly useful, as they draw an increase of population and prevent the purchase of lands for speculation only.
Captain Williamson, however, never acts up to the rigor of his claim where any known obstacles impede the execution. The terms of payment are to discharge half the purchase in three years, and the remainder in six, which enables the industrious to pay from the produce of the land. The poorer families he supplies with an ox, a cow, or even a home. To all the settlements he establishes, he takes care to secure a constant supply of provisions for the settlers, or supplies them from his own store. When five or six settlers build together, he always builds a house at his own expense, which soon sells at an advanced price. Every year he visits each settlement, which tends to diffuse a spirit of industry and promote the sale of lands, and he employs every other means he can suggest to be useful to the inhabitants. He keeps stores of medicines, encourages races and amusements, and keeps a set of beautiful stallions. He has nearly finished his great undertaking, and proposes to take a voyage to Eng- land to purchase the best horses, cattle, sheep, implements of agriculture, etc. Captain Williamson has not only the merit of having formed, and that in a judicious manner, this fine settlement, but he has the happiness to live universally respected, honored and beloved. Bath is the chief settlement, and it is to be the chief town of the county of the same name. At the town he is building a school, which is to be endowed with some hundred acres of land. The salary of the master, Wilhamson means to pay until the instruction of the children shall be sufficient for his support. He has built a session house and a prison, and one good inn, which he has sold for a good profit, and is now building another which is to contain a ball-room. He has also constructed a bridge, which opens a free and easy communication with the other side of the river. He keeps in his own hands some small farms in the vicinity of Bath, which are under the care of a Scotchman, and which appear to be better plowed and managed. than most in America. In all the settlements he reserves one estate for himself, the stock on which is remarkably good. These he disposes of occasionally to his friends, on some handsome offers. To the settlements already mentioned he is now adding two others, one at the mouth of the Genesee the other at Braddock, thirty miles farther inland. Great Sodus, on the coast of this district, promises to afford a safe and convenient place for ships, from the depth of water, and it may be easily fortified. The climate here is much more temperate than in Pennsylvania. The winter seldom lasts more than four months, and the cattle even in that season, graze in the forest without inconvenience. These settlements are, however, rather unhealthy, which Captain Williamson ascribes to nothing but the natural effects of the climate on new settlers, and is confined to a few fits of fever with which strangers are seized the first or second year of their arrival. The inhabitants all agree, however, that the climate is unfavorable, and the marshes and pieces of
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stagnant water are thickly spread over the country; but these will be drained as the population increases. On the whole, it promises to be one of the most con- siderable settlements in America.
CHAPTER VI.
Circumstances of the Pioneers-Current Prices of Produce-Inconvenience of Dis- tant Markets -- Gradual Improvement of Roads-Old Stage Lines-Erection of Early Mills-Outbreak of the War 1812-Effects of the Conflict in Wayne County -- Military Operations at Sodus Bay-Account of a Skirmish-Descent Upon Pultneyville- General Improvements Following the Close of the War.
With the establishment of peaceful relations with the Indians and the British, the further opening of roads, and the rapid influx of settlers during the first ten years of the present century, came an era of com- parative prosperity to the pioneers of Wayne county. 1. Hardships and privation were, of course, still common to all. The area of cleared land was yet small, and difficult of tillage; prices of crops were low and markets far distant; and sickness, which seems to prevail in all new settlements, was still general in many localities. A partial idea of what the community had to contend with in some respects may be gained from the following list of prices of 1801: Wheat, seventy-five cents; corn, three shillings; rye, fifty cents; hay, six to twelve dol- lars per ton ; butter and cheese, eleven to sixteen cents a pound; salt pork, eight to ten dollars per ewt .; whisky, fifty to seventy-five cents per gallon ; salt, five dollars per barrel; sheep, two. to four dollars per head; milch cows, sixteen to twenty-five dollars a head; horse, 100 to 125 dollars per span; working oxen, fifty to eighty dollars per yoke; laborers, wages, ten to fifteen dollars a month, with board. A home- made suit of clothes sold for four to five dollars.
In 1805 a settler on the Purchase began building a frame house, and wanted a small quantity of glass and nails. They were not to be easily obtained. He started with an ox team and sled, and fifty bushels of
1 The reader will have noticed that we often use the name of Wayne county in de- scribing events that occurred long before the county was organized. In doing so, reference is made only to the territory afterwards embraced in the county. We adopt this course to avoid useless repetition and explanation.
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wheat, for Utica, more than a hundred miles distant, where he sold the grain for $1.68 per bushel to Watts Sherman, the early merchant of that place, bought the wrought nails for eighteen cents per pound, and two boxes of glass for $2.50. The bill of goods was made out by B. Gibson, the subsequent prominent banker of Canandaigua. Stephen Durfee left a record that wheat in the few first years of settlement sold often at thirty-seven and a half cents, and on one occasion at twenty- five cents a bushel. In the fall of 1804 a hundred bushels of wheat were taken on a wagon from this locality to Albany, with the help of four yoke of oxen-two hundred and thirty miles. The wheat was bought in Bloomfield for five shillings currency per bushel; it sold in Albany for seventeen and one-fourth shillings. This was a good profit ; but it was a long distance to haul, and over very poor roads. In fact, it was seen clearly enough that the conditions of transportation from one point to another governed prices of crops and merchandise, and that the great need of the new country was better roads. As the high- ways were improved, and the quantity of grain, and particularly of wheat, grown in the county and vicinity greatly increased, many hardy men engaged in teaming and the roads eastward presented a busy scene. The so-called "Pennsylvania wagons" were numerous, drawn by six horses, and carrying immense loads, This business was very prosperous until about the time of the opening of the canal. In the latter part of this period wheat was sometimes carried to Albany at two shillings and sixpence per bushel. Large quantities of grain went into the distilleries and were turned into whisky, which found a ready sale. Small distilleries were very numerous, though few were large, and many of them were built of logs. Their operation constituted a large part of the business enterprise of the first quarter of the present century, and whisky drinking was as common as water drinking. The sale of ashes and the manufacture of crude potash was of great im- portance to the pioneers. The ashes cost nothing but the transporta- tion, for their production was incumbent upon the clearing of land, and as late as 1815 their sale was a principal source of obtaining groceries and occasionally a little money.
Stages were running regularly over the great turnpike from Utica to Canandaigua at the beginning of the century. The long bridge at Cayuga was finished in 1800, and many branch roads were laid out and somewhat improved before 1815. Ganargwa Creek was made a public highway in 1799, with many other streams of this section. In 1800 a
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good road was made twelve miles westward from the Genesee River at the site of Avon; and at the road called the "new State road" between Lewiston and Rochester, on the accompanying map of 1809, was begun about the same time. But the roads westward from the county were of little importance to the settlers, as far as improving their markets was concerned. In 1804 a road was made through Galen and Palmyra, and onward to the Genesee River. There was only one mail between Canandaigua and Rochester in 1812, and that was carried on horse- back, and, as related, part of the time by a woman. As late as 1813 the ridge road between Rochester and Lewiston was almost impassable in many places, and $5,000 were appropriated by the Legislature for cutting out the path and bridging the streams. For a considerable period, it was thought that land transportation from Wayne county eastward would never, or at least not in many years, compete with the water route. It was this belief that led to the building of Durham boats at Palmyra and elsewhere at a very early date.
The erection of the first grist mills in the county created another avenue for disposing of a part of the wheat crops, and at the same time supplied one of the greatest necessities of the pioneers. A mill was built at Lyons in 1806, and one at Palmyra still earlier. Augustus Porter built and operated several mills in different localities in this sec- tion, and in 1812 advertised that he would pay one dollar a bushel for wheat at any of his mills. Within a year later it was worth eleven shillings. The multiplication of early stores for barter enabled the farmers who were raising crops prior to he war of 1812, to exchange them for household goods, bringing long-missed comforts to their homes, but generally at high prices. School-houses sprang up in the wilderness, as they always have done in the track' of the American pioneer, and simultaneously churches were organized at various points. The Presbyterian church at Palmyra came into existence in 1797, and was followed by the Baptist in 1800. In the latter year, also, the Presbyterian church at Lyons was organized. All of these subjects will be further treated in the subsequent histories of the several towns of the county. At the close of the first decade of this century the population of Wayne had reached only 1, 410. The entire population of what is now Monroe county, east of the river; Wayne, excepting the eastern towns, and Ontario, Yates and Livingston, was: Males, 21,835; females, 19,681; slaves, 211; total, 42,026.
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A number of the pioneers brought slaves into the country with them at an early day and held them in bondage for considerable periods. In what is now the town of Huron, Thomas Helms, who settled about the year 1800, brought about seventy slaves from Maryland and settled at Port Glasgow, on Big Sodus Bay. There is no doubt but he expected to establish the institution permanently. He is reported as a brutal character who cruelly treated the slaves, by whose labor about a hun- dred acres around the bay were cleared up. Upon the death of Helms the hated institution soon expired in that region, but under what con- ditions we have not learned.
Col. Peregrine Fitzhugh, who was also from Maryland, brought his slaves with him to Sodus Point. The colonel had been a Revolution- ary soldier, and lived in Geneva three years before settling at the Point. His family, including the slaves, numbered forty persons. These slaves were freed within a few years after their arrival. and with others, formed a little colony on the "out-lots " at "the city."
An act of the Legislature passed April 5, 1810, provided that all per- sons who emigrated hither from Virginia and Maryland in the preced- ing ten years, "who held in their own right slaves, which they brought with them from the said States, be and they are hereby authorized to hire out said slaves to any citizen of this State for a term not exceeding seven years." ' At the end of this term the slaves so hired out were to be free.
The peaceful and hopeful conditions which we have briefly pictured as existing in Wayne county down to about 1812, were now to be rudely dispelled by the culmination of the persistent injustice of Great Britain in her assertion of the right to search neutral vessels for deserters from the royal navy, under which claim hundreds of Americans had been taken from American vessels under the pretense that they were sus- pected of desertion, and compelled to serve under a flag which they especially detested. On the 20th of June, 1812, President Madison, by authority of Congress, declared war against the mother country. Wayne county constituted a part of the frontier, and, as such, her in- habitants appreciated their exposed situation and were correspondingly 0)
with a small garrison. At the month of Niagara River was Fort George, an insignificant work, and a little above the falls was Fort Chippewa, also a small stockade. The war began in the West and on the ocean, but we are concerned only with the operations of Northern New York.
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which did not commence till considerably later. A general order of the War Department, issued April 21, 1812, organized the detached militia of the State into two divisions and eight brigades. Of one of these brigades William Wadsworth, of Ontario county, was made com- mander. The capture of two trading vessels at Ogdensburg in the spring of 1812 began hostilities in Northern New York. On a Sabbath morning late in July, a conflict took place at Sackett's Harbor, between five British vessels, and the Oneida, an American vessel under com- mand of Lieut. Melancthon Woolsey, with a few guns on shore. The British vessels were defeated in a humiliating manner and driven off. The command of Lake Ontario now seemed more than ever important. Gen. Henry Deaborn was made commander-in-chief of the Northern Department. The battle at Queenston in October followed, in which the Americans were finally defeated, losing in one day in killed, wounded and prisoners, about 1, 100 men. But this disaster was avenged by several memorable and successful battles on the ocean. An unsuccessful attack was made upon Ogdensburg in September; and early in November, Commodore Isaac Chauncey appeared on Lake On- tario with a little squadron of American schooners. With these he blockaded a British squadron in Kingston harbor, disabled the Royal George, destroyed one armed schooner, captured three merchant ves- sels, and took several prisoners. He then returned to Sackett's Har- bor. On the 21st of November (1812), a heavy bombardment was made by the British upon old Fort Niagara, which led to preparations for the invasion of Canada by General Smythe, in command at Buffalo; but his loudly proclaimed intention ended in nothing but words. Meanwhile there were active operations in the West. September 10, 1813, Commodore Perry won his memorable victory on Lake Erie and sent his immortal message to his superior, General Harrison: " We have met the enemy and they are ours." On the 22d of February, 1813, Ogdensburg was sacked and partially burned. In April, the fortified position at York, Canada, was captured by the Americans, who, flushed with victory, sailed in considerable force from Sackett's Harbor to attack Fort George. This work was captured, and Forts Erie and Chippewa were abandoned, leaving the Canadian frontier in possession of the Americans. On the 29th of May a large force attacked the post at Sackett's Harbor, which was abandoned by the Americans, and an immense quantity of stores was lost. , The other principal events of 1813 were an attack by the British on Schlosser on the night of July 4,
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and an unsuccessful attack by the British on the post of Black Rock, whence they were driven back by the Americans under Gen. Peter B. Porter. In August there was activity on Lake Champlain, and Platts- burg was seized, plundered and partly burned by a British land and water force. In October a large force sailed from Sackett's Harbor, destined to Montreal, but after severe hardships and considerable fight- ing in the freezing weather, the expedition as planned was given up and the flotilla went into winter quarters at French Mills on the Salmon River. Still more distressing events were to occur before the cam- paign closed. Early in December General MeClure abandoned Fort George as untenable, and crossed over to Fort Niagara; before leaving the Canada shore he burned the little village of Newark. Fierce re- taliation quickly followed. The enraged British captured Fort Niagara and massacred a part of the garrison; sacked and burned Buffalo and Black Rock and drove the poor inhabitants far through the winter snows. Meanwhile the naval operations of 1813 were important and resulted generally in success to the American cause.
The British began vigorous operations with the opening of the cam- paign of 1814, the events of which can only be briefly alluded to here. Both parties to the conflict had been preparing during the winter to gain the mastery of Lake Ontario. Sir James Yeo appeared on the lake; left Kingston harbor when the ice went out, in command of a large squadron and about 3,000 men. Proceeding to Oswego he cap- tured that post on the 5th of May. They abandoned their purpose of penetrating up the Oswego River and withdrew on the 7th, carrying away several prisoners. In June General Brown marched from Sackett's Harbor and on the Ist of July was near the site of burned Buffalo. Opposite him on the Canadian side was the principal military force un- der command of Lieutenant-General Drummond. Brown was under orders to invade Canada. His force consisted of two brigades of infan- try, one of them commanded by Gen. Winfield Scott, and some artil- lery. This force crossed the river early in the morning of July 3, ap- peared before the fort, and at 6 o'clock the little garrison surrendered. At the same time General Riall, a brave British officer in command under Drummond, was marching towards Fort Erie, when he heard of its investment and capture. He resolved to attack the invaders, and was soon joined by reinforcements from York. General Scott was sent with his brigade to meet this force, accompanied by Towson's artillery. Scott moved on the morning of July 4, pushed on toward Chippewa, 8
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