Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 17

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017

USA > New York > Erie County > Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1) > Part 17

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

' Mr. Ellicott dated his letters promiscuously "Pine Grove," " Ransom's Grove." "Ransom- ville." as his fancy dictated at the time.

"Ketcham's Buffalo and the Senecas, Vol. II pp. 146 49.

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don, Peter Vandeventer and Augustus Porter were appointed commis- sioners for its further improvement, under an appropriation by the Legislature of $1,500. While Wilkenson was on the frontier he located the site of a fort at Black Rock, and the general government applied to the State Legislature for a cession of land for that purpose. This was refused and the fort was not built, thus augmenting the defense- less condition of the frontier in the war of 1812.

In the summer of 1801 John Thompson, the surveyor, built a saw mill on the site of Williamsville, and a blockhouse for a dwelling. The latter was subsequently covered with clapboards and a large frame upright added to it, in which condition it stood until recent years. The mill, if started at all, was soon abandoned.

On the 3d of November, 1801, Asa Chapman made the first contract for land in the town of Newstead (township 12, range 3), which was then just ready for sale. Chapman took lot 10, section 8, the price for which was $2. 75 per acre. He probably did not settle on the land, as he was living in Buffalo a little later. In the same month Peter Van- deventer took four lots in sections 8 and 9 (Newstead), built a log house in 1802, and opened a tavern, which became a popular resort. Timothy Jayne also purchased in that town in this year; Otis Ingalls was already settled there, and Orlando Hopkins and David Cully located either in 1801 or 1802. In the closing month of the year Gov. . George Clinton commissioned Asa Ransom a justice of the peace; this was the first appointment of a white official in Erie county.

Genesee county was formed from Ontario in 1802 and included all of the State west of the Genesee River. Northampton was divided into four towns, one of which was Batavia, which included the Holland Purchase and the reservation along Niagara River. Batavia was made the county seat, and Mr. Ellicott removed there the same spring. The fame of the region was gradually extending and settlement began. There was some difficulty at first in disposing of the Holland Com- pany's lands on account of the demand for ten per cent. cash; the price set was $2.75 per acre. Many who wished to buy had very little or no money; others who could pay this advance were reluctant to do so upon land which would at once demand time and expense to clear. On this subject Mr. Ellicott wrote:

If some mode could be devised to grant land to actual settlers, who cannot pay in advance, and at the same time not destroy that part of the plan which requires some advance, I am convinced the most salutary results would follow.

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Moreover there was active competition between the Holland Com- . pany and the sellers of land on the Western Reserve, at Erie, in Can- ada, and in other parts of New York State, which delayed settlement in Erie county. There is great difficulty, indeed it is practically im- possible, in many cases to give the names of the first settlers in various parts of the county, excepting as they were discovered by earlier writ- ers and placed on record in print, as the books of the Holland Com- pany show only the names of those who agreed to purchase land; these were not, in many instances, actual settlers. The first record of a pur- chase in the county, made in the regular course of settlement, is under date of March 12, 1801, when Christopher Sadler took a contract, or "article," as it was termed, for 234 acres on lots 1 and 2, section 6, town 12, range 6; the tract was about a mile east of Clarence Hollow.

The Holland Company records are unreliable also as to actual set- tlers, from. the fact that soon after lands were placed in market the practice began of placing on the books the names of men who paid one dollar with the-understanding that at any time within a year they could make a first regular payment and take their article. Under this arrangement speculation began to some extent, men paying the dollar and hoping that during the year they could sell at a profit. In a few instances, also, persons settled in the county without purchasing land. But from the Holland Company's books, with records in the Erie county clerk's office, and the memory of early settlers who gave infor- mation to Ketcham, Turner and others, a reasonably full account can be made of the progress of settlement.

Others besides Mr. Sadler who took land in 1801 were John Hains, Levi Felton and Timothy S. Hopkins before mentioned.' Mr. Hop- kins came into the county in 1799 and took charge of Johnston's saw mill, before mentioned, which was then the only one in the county.

Mr. Ellicott evidently was anxious and disappointed at the slow sales of land. While he had anticipated that the natural advantages of the region and the favorable terms offered would cause a rapid influx of settlers, he had not taken into consideration the scarcity of money. On December 4, 1801, he wrote as follows from " Pine Grove" to Mr. Busti:

I have made no actual sales this fall where the stipulated advance has been paid. I begin to be strongly of the opinion you always expressed to me (but which I must

1 See sketch of Gen. Timothy S. Hopkins in Vol II.

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confess I rather doubted), that few purchasers will come forward and pay cash for land in a new country. 1

However, with the opening of another year the prospects brightened, and Mr. Ellicott informed the agents that many settlers were preparing to establish their homes as soon as the spring opened. This was under date of Ransom's Grove, February 14. The list of the settlers of the year in what is now Clarence includes the names of Gardner Spencer, Abraham Shope, John Warren, Frederick Buck, John Gardner, Re- solved G. Wheeler, William Updegraff, Edward Carney, and Elias Ransom. In the same year land in township 12, range 5 (Newstead) was charged to John Hill, Samuel Hill, William Deshay and possibly a few others. Nearly all of these became settlers and all located on or near the old Buffalo road.

The first murder in Buffalo, of which there is record took place in July, 1802. An Indian known to the white people as "Stiff-armed George," assaulted John Palmer, the tavernkeeper, as he sat in front of his house with a man named William Ward and another. Palmer evaded the assault, when the Indian turned upon Ward and stabbed him in the neck. An alarm was raised and during the attempt of the white men to arrest the culprit a man named John Hewitt was as- saulted by the infuriated Indian and stabbed to death; the Indian was also wounded, and was sent off to Fort Niagara. On the following day a large body of warriors appeared in Buffalo and freely threatened that if the murderer was executed they would massacre all the whites. Ex- citement and dismay prevailed in the settlement. Benjamin Barton, jr., was sheriff, and he proposed the issue of a criminal warrant and the transfer of the murderer to the Canandaigua jail. This was hotly opposed by the Indians, who claimed that their brother was drunk when the crime was committed, and therefore was not responsible. After much discussion the Indians pledged the appearance of the pris- oner at Canandaigua on the day of trial, and the pledge was kept. The trial took place in the following February, and the Indian was con- victed, despite the eloquence of Red Jacket who pleaded his case. Before the time of execution Governor Clinton pardoned the criminal. '

In 1803 the village of New Amsterdam was surveyed by William Peacock,' whose description of the place at an earlier date has been

1 Turner's Holland Purchase, p. 451.

" Various accounts of this incident have been published, but the foregoing is believed to be substantially correct.

3 Mr. Peacock removed to Chautauqua county, where he became a prominent citizen, held the office of judge and lived to be nearly 100 years of age.

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quoted; but the lots were not made ready for market until the follow- ing year. The accompanying map shows how the village was laid out and what portion of its territory was subdivided into inner lots. These lots were generally about four and a half rods wide and intended for commercial purposes, while the outer lots contained several acres. At the time of the survey Main street as far up as Church was called Will- ink avenue, while above Church it was called Van Staphorst avenue. Niagara street was Schimmelpenninck avenue, Erie street Vollenhoven avenue; Court street Cazenove avenue; Church street Stadnitzki avenue, and Genesee street Busti avenue. The terrace above Erie street was called Busti Terrace, and below it Cazenove Terrace, thus doubly honoring the first and the second agent of the Holland Com- pany. The effort to perpetuate the memory of members of the com- pany might have been directed in a more appropriate course than by applying those unpronounceable titles to public streets, and the sub- sequent changes were welcome. Other changes were made, for what is now Ellicott street was originally called Oneida; Washington was Onondaga; Pearl was Cayuga; Franklin was Tuscarora, and Morgan was Missisauga. Delaware, Huron, Mohawk, Eagle, Swan, and Sen- eca streets received their present names, but Exchange was called Crow street, after the pioneer who succeeded John Palmer as tavernkeeper. North Division and South Division streets were not laid out in the original plan. The streets radiating from Niagara Square are believed to have been copied from the survey of Washington city, which Ellicott and his brother surveyed. In the survey Ellicott took for himself outer lot 104, containing 100 acres, including the entire front of Main street between Swan and Eagle streets, and extending eastwardly. Directly in front of this lot a curve was surveyed with several rods radius. Oneida and Onondaga streets (Washington and Ellicott) were laid out north of this lot, but neither was allowed to cross it, and even what is now Main street was made to deviate from a direct course to accommo- date the lot. There Mr. Ellicott intended to erect a mansion for his future home, from which he would command magnificent views along the various streets and off upon the lake and river. These ambitious plans were to be frustrated-plans which had, perhaps, been develop- ing in his mind since his arrival at Buffalo creek in 1798.'

1 At that time Mr. Ellicott wrote Mr. Cazenove regarding the site of Buffalo as follows: The building spot is situated about sixty perches from the lake, on a beautiful, elevated bank, about twenty-five feet pependicular height above the surface of the water in the lake; from the foot of

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Mr. Ellicott complained of the delay in placing the lots at New Am- sterdam in market. It will not be forgotten that Black Rock was at that time a rival of Buffalo, and in one of his letters Mr. Ellicott speaks of it as "equally or more advantageous for a town than Buffalo." He could see no reason for delaying sales of village lots after the ex- tinguishment of the Indian title to the site under the act of the winter of 1801-2, and particularly after the completion of the survey in 1803; said he, "If the State shall make the intended purchase this summer [1802] and offer this spot [Black Rock] for sale before New Amsterdam gets in operation, the 'nick of time' will be lost to the future pros- perity of that place."

The first town meeting on the Holland Purchase was held at Peter Vandeventer's log tavern on March 1, 1803. This early political inci- dent was for several reasons a notable and interesting one. Its func- tions extended over territory a hundred miles distant from the place of meeting, though the most distant settlements were at Buffalo, twenty- two miles west, and at the East Transit, twenty-four miles east; but regardless of these long distances the voters assembled in such num- bers that the little tavern was soon overflowing, and Enos Kellogg, one of the commissioners for organizing the town of Batavia, opened the polls out of doors. He announced that Peter Vandeventer and Jotham Bemis, of Batavia village, were candidates for supervisor. The voting was conducted by a method at once novel and satisfactory. The com- missioner placed the two candidates side by side in the road and then ordered the voters to "line up" each beside the man of his choice. They did so, those favoring Bemis stretching along the road towards Batavia, while those supporting Vandeventer extended towards Buffalo. The count showed seventy-four on Vandeventer's side and seventy on Bemis's. This method of voting was primitive, but there was no ballot-box stuffing. When a little later the men from east of Van- deventer's, who were considered as Batavians, gathered in one place, and those from west of there in another, they noted their few absent neighbors and found there were only four to the eastward and five to

which, with but little labor, may be made the most beautiful meadows, extending to the lake, and up Buffalo creek to the Indian line. From the top of the bank, there are few more beautiful pros- pects. Here the eye wanders over the inland sea to the southwest, until the sight is lost in the horizon. On the northwest is seen the progressing settlements in Upper Canada; and south westerly, with pruning some trees out of the way, may be seen the Company's lands, for the dis- tance of forty miles; gradually ascending, variegated with valleys and gently rising hills, until the sight passes their summit at the source of the waters of the Mississippi.

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SCHIMMEL

Y.S. RESERVATION LINE

IVE

HURON

MON ALYE

BUS

CAZENOV

VAN STAPHORS

JAYAVL

LAONITS KI

YETERRACE

WATER

ILLENHO

TERRACE

CALA NOST CROW ST

SENECA

BIC

BUFFALO

CREEK

Map of the - Village of New Amsterdam -(now the City of Buffalo) Made for the Holland Land Company - by JOSEPH ELLICOTT, Surveyor. 1804

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LAKE ERIE

WILLINK AV

SWAN

TUSCARO

LY UGL

AVES

AVE

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the westward who had failed to attend. This makes the whole number of voters on the purchase in 1803, 153, of whom 144 were present at the town meeting. ' The list of officers there chosen was as follows, the election being conducted by uplifted hands, except as to the super- visor:

Supervisor, Peter Vandeventer; town clerk, David Cully; assessors, Enos Kellogg, Asa Ransom, Alexander Rea, Isaac Sutherland, and Suffrenus (or Sylvanus) Maybee; overseers of the poor, David Cully and Benjamin Porter; collector, Abel Rowe; constables, John Mudge, Levi Felton, Rufus Hart, Abel Rowe, Seymour Kellogg, and Hugh Howell; overseers of highways, Martin Middaugh, Timothy S. Hopkins, Orlando Hopkins, Benjamin Morgan, Rufus Hart, Lovell Churchill, Jabez Warren, William Blackman, Samuel Clark, Gideon Dunham, Jonathan Willard, Thomas Lay- ton, Hugh Howell, Benjamin Porter, and William Walsworth.

The simple regulations for governing the town then customary were voted by the meeting, Among them was the usual bounty of $5 for wolf scalps, "whelps half price," and half a dollar each for foxes and wild cats.

The first State election on the purchase was held at the same place in April, 1803, when 189 votes were cast for member of assembly, showing that the number of settlers was rapidly increasing.

The highway called the Middle Road by the Holland Company, and the Big Tree Road by the settlers (because it started from the Big Tree Reservation) was surveyed and cut out in the summer of 1803 by Jabez Warren, of Aurora. He received $2.50 per mile for survey- ing and $10 for cutting out the road, which extended from near Gene- seo to Lake Erie, in a nearly west direction and about a mile south of the south line of the reservation. Mr. Warren settled in Middlebury (now in Niagara county) in 1802, and in 1804 removed to the site of Aurora village, where he built a log house and made a small opening in the forest; he did not bring in his family until 1805; with him were Henry Godfrey and Nathaniel Emerson. In the last named year William Warren, son of Jabez, also left Middlebury and settled with his family in Aurora, where he opened the first tavern on the site of the upper village, and became a prominent citizen.

An important arrival at Buffalo in 1803 was Dr. Cyrenius Chapin, who, it will be remembered, had made an earlier effort to purchase for himself and friends a large tract of land. Dr. Chapin bought lot 41, township 11, range 8, and received his article October 11, 1803. This

1 Account of Amzi Wright, in archives of the Buffalo Historical Society.

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was probably the earliest actual sale in that vicinity, the lot containing 99 acres, for which he agreed to pay $346.50. As Dr. Chapin found no house into which he could place his family, he crossed to Fort Erie, where the family remained nearly two years. Selecting inner lot 40, on Swan street, he built a house and in 1805 brought over his family to the new home.'

About the same time with Dr. Chapin's purchase of lot 41, William Desha (or Deshay) purchased lots 59 and 60 in the same vicinity, agree- ing to pay $430 for eighty-six acres; Asa Chapman purchased lot 40, 127 acres, for $445.50; Isaac Hurlburt, lot 61, fifty nine acres, for $295; George Burgar, part of lot 61, fifty-nine acres, for $232.80; sub- sequently assigned to Vincent Grant. William Hodge, lot 35, forty- seven and three-tenths acres, for $236.50; Samuel Tupper, lot 27, sixty- five acres, for $294.75, and lot 50, thirty-four acres, for $172.50; Will- iam Hodge, lot 57, sixty-one and four tenths acres, for $307; Gideon Dudley, lot 28, sixty acres, for $300, assigned to Joseph Wells in De- cember, 1805; William Liget, lot 51, thirty acres, for $195, assigned to John Crow in 1805. All of these sales were in the same township and range with Dr. Chapin's purchase and all were dated in October, 1803. In the same year, probably, a certain Major Perry had made an open- ing where Main street crosses the Scajaquada Creek (then called Con- jockety, from the Indian family of that name living near its mouth).

Erastus Granger took up his residence at Buffalo in 1803. He and his brother Gideon were close friends of Jefferson, who remembered both when he was elected to the presidency. Gideon was made post- master-general, while Erastus was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs, and collector of customs when the district of Buffalo Creek was formed in 1808. He became the leader of the Democratic party in Western New York. He was a young widower when he settled in Buffalo and boarded at John Crow's tavern. In July, 1805, he pur- chased inner lot 31, and later acquired other tracts. He died in 1823. He was father of Rev. James N. Granger and Warren Granger.

In township 12, range 7 (Amherst), sales were made in the fall of 1803 to Samuel Kelsy, Henry Lake, Benjamin Gardner, William Lewis,

1 Dr. Chapin was a skillful practitioner for that period and soon became widely known, both in his profession and as a public-spirited citizen. For twelve years no person exercised greater in- fluence in the village of Buffalo. His strong will and self-confidence, while enabling him to take a foremost position in the community, at the same time made enemies as well as friends. He was a strong political partisan on the Federal side, and as will be seen, was conspicuous in the war of 1812. He died in 1838.

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and perhaps a few others, the prices of their lands ranging from $3.25 to $3.50 an acre; settlement there soon followed. In the same year are recorded the purchases of Samuel Beard, William Chapin, Asahel Powers, Jacob Durham, and Samuel Edsall, in Newstead, and Andrew Dummett, Julius Keyes, Lemuel Harding, Jacob Shope, Zerah Ensign, in Clarence. It will be noticed that all of these settlements were in the towns through which ran the Buffalo road; but the adventurous pioneer soon found his way into more remote localities. In November, 1803, Alanson Eggleston became the first purchaser in township 11, range 6 (now Lancaster), and Amos Woodward and William Sheldon bought in that town the same month. The price of the land was $2 an acre. All of these were north of the Buffalo Creek Reservation, which divided the whole of Erie county territory into two parts; but in this year several townships were surveyed south of the reservation and settlers quickly followed. On the 3d of October Didymus C. Kin- ney purchased part of lot 33, township 9, range 7, now the southwest corner lot of the town of East Hamburg; he built a cabin and staid there through the winter with his family, bearing the distinction of being the earliest pioneer in the county south of the reservation. Cot- ton Fletcher, the surveyor of those southern townships, purchased land in the same locality with Kinney, but did not settle there till later; the same is true of John Cummings, who took the mill site a mile and a half below Water Valley.

In November, 1803, two brothers, Charles and Oliver Johnson, pur- chased in the present town of Boston, near the site of Boston Center, while Samuel Eaton bought farther down the creek. Charles Johnson lived with Kinney during the winter and occupied his own place in the spring. Samuel Eaton and Samuel Beebe followed a little later.

The year 1804 witnessed still farther progress of settlement in various parts of the county. The Legislature of that session divided the town of Batavia into four towns-Batavia on the east; next Willink, including the 4th, 5th and 6th ranges; next Erie, containing the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th ranges, the State Reservation and adjacent waters; the remainder of the purchase constituted the town of Chautauqua. For further description of these divisions, the reader is referred to Chapter I.

The following lots in the village of Buffalo were sold in 1804 and were probably the first regular transfers of land within the village limits: Nathan W. Sever bought outer lots 55 and 56, sixty-three and

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seven-tenths acres, at $115 (later assigned to Elijah Leech); Zerah Phelps, inner lot 1, for $112 (assigned to Joseph Ellicott in 1806); Sylvanus Maybee, inner lot 35, at $135; Samuel McConnell outer lot 84, at $191.50. In the same year Rowland Cotton purchased farm lot 67, 143 acres, for $500.50; Abner Gilbert, lot 34, forty-eight and four- tenths acres, for $242. William Johnston received a deed from the Holland Company of outer lot 93, October 27, 1804.

Turner gives the following as a list of land owners in Buffalo in 1804: William Robbins, Henry Chapin, Sylvanus Maybee, Asa Ransom, Thomas Stewart, Samuel Pratt, William Johnston, John Crow, Joseph Landon, Erastus Granger, Jonas Williams, Robert Keane, Vincent Grant, Louis Le Couteulx.1

In the county outside of Buffalo settlement now began to make en- couraging advances. John Cummings, before mentioned, became the first settler in the present town of Hamburg, and in the same spring Deacon Ezekiel Smith and his sons Richard and Daniel came from Vermont and purchased land two miles southeast of Didymus Kinney's in what became known as the Newton neighborhood. David Eddy, a young man, came with them and selected land near the site of Potter's Corners. Smith returned to Vermont for his family and in September arrived at his new home with five more sons (Amasa, Ezekiel, Zenas, Amiah, and Almon), several daughters and his wife; four of the seven sons were married and the family formed quite a settlement among themselves. With them came another Vermont family, that of Amos Colvin, with his sons, Jacob, George, Luther, Amos and Isaac. With David Eddy, before mentioned, came his brother Aaron, Nathan Peters (a brother-in-law of Aaron), and Mary Eddy as housekeeper. The latter was a young woman of education and a pioneer school teacher in Hamburg and Aurora. The Eddys settled on the land selected by David near East Hamburg village and were the pioneers in that vicin- ity. John Sumner settled near by in that year or the next, and Obadiah Baker bought land there in that year.

In June, 1804, Joel Harvey settled at the mouth of Eighteen-mile

1 Mr. Le Couteulx was born in France in 1756. After extensive travels and a few years' resi- dence in Albany, he settled in Buffalo, where he built a frame house opposite Crow's tavern, on the site of the building afterwards known as the Le Couteulx block, and lived therein until the burning of the village. He kept a drug store in part of his dwelling-the first in the place. He acted for a period as agent for the Holland Company in selling their Buffalo lands, and was ap- pointed the first clerk of Niagara county in 1808, holding the office until the war of 1812. He died in Buffalo October 16, 1839. He is remembered as the founder of the St. Louis church.

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Our County and Its People: A Descriptive Work on Erie County, New York (Volume 1), Part 17

Author: Truman C. White Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1017

Author: Truman C. White
Publication date: 1898
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017