USA > New York > Genesee County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Genesee County, New York, v. 1 > Part 10
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There is no doubt that Mr. Ellicott was greatly disappointed at the slow sales of land. While he had believed that the favorable terms offered, coupled with the great natural advantages of the region, wouldi result in a very general migratory movement westward, he evidently had not taken the scarcity of money into consideration. On December 4, 1801, while at his temporary headquarters at " Pine Grove, " he wrote to Mr. Busti as follows:
I have made no actual sales this fall where the stipulated advance bas been paid I begin to be strongly of the opinion you always expressed to me (out which I must confess I rather doubted, that few purchasers will come forward and pay cash for land in a new country.
But the prospects grew brighter with the beginning of another year, and Mr. Ellicott announced that many settlers were preparing to with lish homes and begin the clearing and cultivation of their hands as soon as the spring opened. The opening of highways and the establishment of taverns added to the conveniences of the locality and doubtless helped to make it more attractive to newcomers.
" Among the primitive tavern keepers there was a backwoods pat losopher. It was the Me. Washere who had been sent from Phitefel. phia to be the landlord at the Transit Store House Est. ME hed in Mi. location, he made himself gute oferons; his leten came Back und? fast upon Mr. Ellicott. whenever he knew where they wouldle with him They were an odd mixture of philosophy and advice and suggesti no . reference to the best manner of settling a new country. In one let's" he would talk of his domestic troubles; in another he would ann ance that one, or two, or three landlookers had been his guests, not forget ting to assure Mr. Ellicott how hard he had labored to convince them of the splendid prospects of the new country; in another he would in. form him of false reports that had been started as to the title of the land, and how he had part a quietus upon them; in another he would express his regrets that his house was full of strangers, who were pass.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
ing the Purchase, and going to 'swell the numbers of his Britannic Majesty's subjects in Upper Canada.' In Mr. Ellicott's absence he was wont to consider himself a sub-agent; taking some airs upon himself, from some favors that had been shown him by the general agent at Philadelphia. He did not last long, as will be observed in an extract of a letter from Mr. Ellicott to Mr. Busti. Mr. Ellicott answers a let. ter received from . Mrs. Berry and Miss Wemple ' -- (names familiar to old settlers, as household words). They were applicants for two town lots at the 'Bend of the Tonewanta.' He very courteously informs them that when he lays out a town there the lots will contain forty acres each, and their application will be held in remembrance."
The first town meeting on Holland Purchase was held at the log tavern of Peter Vandeventer on March 1, 1803. The functions of this meeting extended over territory having a radius of a hundred miles, though the most distant settlements were at Buffalo, twenty-two miles west, and at the East Transit, twenty-four miles east. But, despite the long distance many of them were compelled to travel, and in the season of the year when new roads were very apt to be almost impassa- ble, the number of the assembled voters was so large that the polls were opened out of doors by Enos Kellogg, one of the commissioners appointed for the purpose of organizing the town of Batavia.
The meeting was a unique one. Mr. Kellogg, after calling the vot- ers to order, announced that Peter Vandeventer and Jotham Bemis of Batavia village were candidates for supervisor. The vote was then taken, the procedure being novel. Mr Kellogg placed the two candi- dates side by side in the road and then directed the voters to fall in line, each beside the man of his choice. Seventy-four men stood by Vandeventer and seventy by Bemis, and the former was declared elected. A little later on, when the men from the east of Vandeventer's (who were considered Batavians) gathered in the one place, and those from the west of there in another, they took note of their absent neigh - bors and found that there were but four to the eastward and five to the westward who had failed to attend. This makes the whole number of voters on the Holland Purchase in that year one hundred and fifty- three, one hundred and forty-four of whom were present at this primi- tive election.
The balance of the officers chosen on that occasion were as follows, the election being conducted by uplifted hands:
1 Turner's History.
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THE FIRST COURTS.
Town clerk. David Cully : assessors, Enos Kellogg, Asa Ransom, Alexander Rhea; commissioners of highways, Alexander Rhea, Isaac Sutherland and Suffrenus () Maybee; overseers of the poor, David Cully and Benjamin Porter; collector, Abel Rowe; constables, John Madge, Levi Felton, Rufus Hurt, Abel Kowe. Seymour Kellogy and Hugh Howell: overseers of highways, Martin Middangh, Timothy S. Hopkins, Orlando Hopkins, Benjamin Morgan. Rufus Hart, Lovell Churchill, Jabez Warren, William Blackman, Samuel Clark, Gideon Dunham, Jonathan Willard, Thomas Layton, Hugh Howell, Benjamin Porter and William Walsworth.
The first State election on the Holland Purchase was held at the same place the following month. At the latter meeting one hundred and eighty-nine votes were cast for member of assembly, evidence of the rapid increase in the number of settlers. At this election the vote was as follows:
For Senators-Caleb Hyde, 146; Vincent Mathews, 5
For Members of Assembly-Daniel Chapin, 152; Ezra Patterson, 155. John Swift. 100: Polydore B. Wisner, 4; Nathaniel W. Howell, 28, Amos Hall, 9.
In June, 1803, the court house at Batavia being nearly completed, the first courts of the county were organized there. The judges were Ezra Platt, John H. Jones and Benjamin Ellicott, and Nathan Perry was an assistant justice. Among those admitted to practice in the new court as attorneys and counselors were Timothy Burt, Gouverneur Ogden, John Greig, Richard Smith and George Hosmer. At this term of court the first grand jury west of the Genesee river was organized. It consisted of Alexander Rhea, Asa Ransom, Peter Vandeventer, Daniel Henry, Samuel F. Geer, Lovell Churchill, Jabez Warren, Zerah Phelps, Jotham Bemis, Seymour Kellogg, John A. Thompson, Jonn Ganson, jr., Isaac Smith, Elisha Farwell, Peter Shaeffer, Hugh McDermott, John McNaughton and Luther Cole. In November following, at a second session of the courts, Ebenezer F. Norton, Robert W. Stoddard, Jonathan T. Haight, John Collins, Daniel B. Brown and Jeremiah R. Munson were admitted to practice. The first issue joined in a court of record west of the Genesee river was tried at this term. It was the case of Rufus Hart versus Erasmus Enos.
At the next term of courts in June, 1504, several indictments were tried, and the jury was the first traverse jury drawn and organized in the new court. It consisted of William Rumsey, Joseph Selleck, Abel Rowe, John Forsyth, Benjamin Morgan, Alexander McDonald, Peter Camp- bell, James Woods, Benjamin Gardner, Lovel Churchill, John Ander- son and John McVean. The first jury empanelled in a civil suit in these courts consisted of Job Pierce, Andrew Wortman, Gilbert Hall, John
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
McNaughton, Isaac Smith, Archileas Whitten, Isaac Sutherland, Sam- nel Davis, Ransom Harmon, Peter Vanderventer, Hugh McDermott, and Jabez Fox.
The Big Tree road, or the Middle road, as it was known by the Hol- land Company, was surveyed and cut out in the summer of 1803 by Jabez Warren of Aurora, who was paid $2.50 per mile for surveying and $10 per mile for cutting out the road. This highway extended from near Geneseo to Lake Erie in a nearly westerly direction. It ran about a mile south of the southerly line of the Big Tree Reservation.
The Legislature of 1804 divided the town of Batavia into four towns. These were: Batavia, on the east; next, Willink, including the 4th, 5th and 6th ranges; next Erie, containing the 4th, Sth, 9th and 10th ranges, the State Reservation and adjacent waters; then the town of Chautauqua, consisting of the remainder of the purchase.
Dr. Dwight, who traveled through the town of Pembroke in October. 1804, while making a tour of the West, notes the circumstance of his passing through "oak plains" or "openings," as he refers to them. He describes these grounds as having a varied surface, and in a great degree destitute of forests, but covered with grass, weeds and shrubs of various kinds. He supposes these openings to have been caused by the Indians burning them over, to produce pasturage for deer. In the fourth volume of his " Travels" he writes:
When one of these plains is seen at a little distance, a traveler emerging from the forest naturally concludes, that it is the commencement of a settled country, and as he advances toward it, is instinctively led to cast his eye forward to find the village of which it is the outskirts. From this impression his mind will be unable to free itself: for the thought, though given up, will recur again and again, in spite of his absolute conviction that he is in the heart of an immense wilderness. At the same time a sense of stillness and solitude, a feeling of absolute retirement from the world. deeper and more affecting than any in which he has ever suspected before, will be forced upon him while he is roving over one of these sequestered regions. No passage out of them is presented to his eye. Yet though the tract around him is seemingly bounded everywhere, the boundary is everywhere obscure: being formed by trees thinly dispersed, and retired beyond each other, at such distances, as that while in many places they actually limit the view, they appear rather to border dim, indis- tinct openings into other tracts of country. Thus he always feels the limit to be un- certain: and until he is actually leaving one of these plains, will continually expect to find a part of the expansion still spreading beyond the reach of his eye At every little distance, especially on the higher grounds, the view is willely, though indeti- nitely extended along the surface; and a little above where he looks through the Stems of the trees, is bounded only by the horizon. On every side a multitude of chasms conduct his eye beyond the labyrinth by which he is surrounded; and pre-
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A PIONEER'S STATEMENT.
sent an imaginary passage back into the world, from which he is withdrawn; bewil- dering him with expectation, continually awakened to be continually disappointed. Thus in a kind of wild, romantic rapture. he wanders over these plains, with emo- tions similar to those with which, when a child, he roamed through the wilderness created in Arabian tales, or the imaginary regions spread before him in a dream. Ile is not only separated from all human beings, but is every moment conscious of this separation. Whenever he ascends one of the superior elevations, he seems to stand above the rest of the globe. On every side he looks downward; and beholds a prospect with many vistas, opening indeed around him, but conducting his eye to · no definite objeet, and losing it in confusion and obscurity. His view is confined by neither forests nor mountains; while yet trees in a thin dispersion partly interrupt it; but at the same time discover. through their various openings, that it has no other limitation than the skirts of the heavens. While he wanders on through this bewildering scenery, he cannot fail to remember, that on these plains Indians have lived, and roved, and hunted, and fought. ever since their first arrival from the shores of Asia. Here, unless they molested each other, there was nothing to molest them. They were the sole lords, the undisturbed possessors of the country. Here, therefore, he will call up before his imagination the secret windings of the scout ; the burst of the war-whoop; the fury of an Indian onset ; the triumphant display of scalps : and the horrors of the war dance before the tortured and expiring captive. Whether these thoughts will be excited in the mind of any future traveler, I know not; in my own they sprang up instinctively.
An idea of the manner in which some of the pioneers lived, and of the business of those early days, may be gleaned from the following narrative of William H. Bush, a pioneer who came from Bloomfield, Ontario county, and located upon the Tonawanda three and a half miles below Batavia:1
I moved my family from Bloomfield in May, 1806. The settlers on Buffalo road, between my location and Batavia village, were Isaac Sutherland, Levi Davis and Timothy Washburn. Rufus MeCracken, Damel MeCracken, Thomas Godfrey, Linus Gunn, Henry Starks, Alanson Gunn, David Bowen, John Lamberton, lived on the road west. There were then less than one hundred acres of land cleared on the Buffalo road in the distance of six miles west of Batavia.
I built a log house, covered it with elm bark-could not spare time to build a chim- ney; the floor was of slabs and hemlock boards. Immediately commenced banding a saw mill and had it completel before the middle of October. That summer my wife did the cooking for family and hired men by an out of door fire, built up against stumps. The first winter, I attended my own saw mill, working in it from daylight to dark, cutting my firewood and foddering my stock by the light of a lantern. Be- fore winter set in. I had built a stick chimney, laid a better floor in my house, plas- tered the cracks, and hired an acre of land cleared-just enough to prevent the trees falling upon my house. When the mill was baik I had it paid for, but to accomplish it, I had sold some pork and grain I had produced by working land upon shares in Bloomfield-in fact, everything but my scanty household furniture. My saw mill
I Turner's History, page 61.
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
proved a good investment, boards were much in demand at seven dollars and fifty cents per thousand; the new settlers stocked the mill with logs to be sawed on shares.
In 1805 I built a machine shop. a carding and cloth dressing establishment. These were the first upon the Holland purchase. On the 10th of June of that year, I carded a sack of wool. the first ever carded by machine on the Holland Purchase. It be- longed to George Lathrop of Bethany. In February, 1509, I dressed a piece of full cloth for Theophilus Crocker, the first ever dressed upon the Holland Purchase.
There are on my books, the names of customers, from as far south as Warsaw and Shel- don ; from the east, as far as Stafford ; from the west to the Niagara river and Lake Erie, including Chautauque county ; from pretty much all of the settled portion of the Holland Purchase. I carded in the season of 1508, 3,000 lbs. of wool: the largest quantity for any one man, was 70 lbs., the smallest, 4 lbs. The lots averaged 15 lbs. Allowing 3 lbs. to a sheep, the average number of sheep then kept by the new set- tiers, would be six; although it is presumed that the number is larger, as in those days, much of the wool was carded by hand.
The machinists of the present day, may be glad to learn how I procured my ma- chinery. I bought my hand shears of the Shakers at Now Lebanon ; my press plate at a furnace in Onondaga; my serew and box at Canaan, Conn., my dye kettle, press papers, &c. at Albany. My transportation bill, for these things, was over two hundred dollars.
I built a grist mill in 1809; in 1817, a paper mill and distillery. I manufactured the first ream of paper west of the Genesee river.
During all the period of my milling operations I was clearing up the farm where I new reside, coming into the woods as I have related, dependent almost wholly upon the labors of my hands, in the first twenty years, success had so far attended my efforts, that I had accumulated some fifteen or sixteen thousand dollars.
An exhaustive search among the records of the oldest churches in Genesee county adduces evidence of the most reliable character that the first religious society to be established in this county is the First Congregational church of Bergen, which was organized in December, 1801, by the Rev. John Lindsley and thirteen other inhabitants of that town who became the first communicants.' This church, in all proba- bility, was not only the first to be founded in Genesee county, but it is the oldest religous organization west of the Genesee river, with the single exception of the old Scotch Presbyterian church at Caledonia, Livingston county. At the time of its organization Bergen was a part of the great town of Northampton. At the time of the organization Levi Ward, sr., and Benjamin Wright were elected deacons, and Levi Ward, jr., clerk. January 25, 1808, organization was perfected by the
1 Some authors. . daim the the Presbyterian church in Vexander was organized a short time prior to this die , but this saltem nt cannot be thor nigdy atlanticde! It possible. However, that the l'exbyter an church at Mexander and the First Congregational of Bergen. : the absence of promove documentary o. 'nun may have to divide the honor falling to .... i oneet church of Genesce conm'y.
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FIRST MURDER CASE.
election of Alexander White, Simon Pierson and Levi Ward, jr., as trustees. The other original members were John Ward, John Gifford, Josiah Pierson, Selah Wright and W. H. Munger. The Rev. John Lindsley preached for the new society for a few months, but the first regularly ordained pastor was the Rev. Allen Hollister, who was in- stalled July 4, 1810. The first church edifice was built on Cemetery Hill, about a mile to the south of the second location, to which place the church was removed in the spring of 1854, during the pastorate of the Rev. A. O. Whiteman. Although organized as a Congregational church, the society placed itself in charge of the Presbytery soon after its organization, since which it has remained a Presbyterian church.
Meetings had been held by the Presbyterians of Alexander for over two years, under the direction of Elder Burton, before the Presbyterian church in that town was organized. The exact date of the establish- ment of this church is not known. It was in existence in 1808, and some authorities claim that it was founded about the same time as, or even shortly prior to. the organization of the Congregational society in Alexander. Harvey Hawkins and Cyrenus Wilbur were the principal promoters of the movement which resulted in its formation. It was not a strong society at the start, as is shown by the fact that upon its reorganization, or the perfection of its organization, in ISIS, it had but ten members. The first house of worship, a stone structure, was not erected until 1828. The Rev. Solomon Hibbard was the first regular pastor. A second edifice was constructed in 1845, at an expense of five thousand dollars.
The first murder case in the court of Genesee county occurred at the term held in June, Isot, when James McLean, who had been indicte l for the murder of William Orr, was placed on trial. Hon. Daniel D. Tompkins was the presiding judge, and Judge Howell was council for the prisoner. A right then existing by common law, but long since abolished by statute, was that the accused, being an alien, was entitled to be tried by a jury one half of whom were aliens. In accordance with the demand of the counsel for the defense a jury thus composed was selected, as follows:
Citizens-Benjamin Morgan, Ebenezer Cary, Samuel Geer, Worthy L. Churchill, John Olney and Daniel Fairbanks.
Aliens-Duncan MeLelland, James MeLelland, John McPherson, John Me Vane, Daniel MeKinney and Patrick Powers.
The jury convicted the prisoner, who was sentenced to be hanged in
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
August following. The crime was committed near Caledonia Springs. McLean, Orr and a man named MeLaughlin, who were squatters on the forty thousand acre tract, had been to the Springs together, had drunk at least one glass of beer each, but MeLean was not intoxicated. While there a dispute arose regarding a tree located on land which MeLean claimed, and which had been felled by Orr. McLean knocked Orr down with an axe, killing him at the second blow. Mclaughlin in- terfered to prevent a tragedy, and he too was killed. That night the murderer remained in a hollow log near his house, and the following morning took to the woods. As soon as the news of the crime reached the ears of the authorities Judge Platt ordered out the militia, which, in small squads, searched the entire region. Several days passed, when McLean was captured while attempting to make his escape eastward, he having been recognized at a tavern a few miles east of Canandaigua, where he was arrested. A great crowd from all parts of the country attended the public execution, the first to take place in Genesee county and consequently an event of extraordinary interest for those days.
Several other events of interest occurred in the county during the period prior to the war of 1812. The development of the numerous resources of the community progressed favorably during these years In the villages of Batavia and Le Roy, as well as in the smaller settle- ments, the spirit of progress was constantly in evidence. New busi- ness buildings were erected annually to accommodate the increasing trade of the community, and many handsome residences also were erected. Road improvement during these years was carried on at a satisfactory rate, enabling the rapidly increasing farming community to carry on trade with the villages with greater facility.
In 1807 the first printing press ever seen west of the Genesee river was set up in Batavia, and soon after the opening of the office the first number of the Genesee Intelligencer, the pioneer newspaper of the county, and indeed of the entire Holland Purchase, was issued from that press, by Elias Williams, editor and publisher.
Until 1810 James Brisbane and Ebenezer Cary were the only mer- chants in the village of Batavia. In that year an extensive store was opened by Ephraim Hart, who intrusted its management to Clark Heacox.
The pioneer religious society of Batavia was organized September 19, 1809, by Rev. Royal Phelps, a missionary sent out by the Hamp- shire Missionary Society of Massachusetts. It was of the Congrega-
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EARLY CHURCHES.
tional denomination. This church was not regularly incorporated until Feburary, 1811. Its first regular pastor was Rev. Ephraim Chapin, who served in this capacity from Ists to 1821 inclusive.1
The fourth religious society to be founded in Genesee county was the Freewill Baptist church at West Bethany, which was organized in 1509 by the Rev. Nathaniel Brown. Every town in Genesce county, ex. cepting Bethany, received from the Holland Land Company a grant of one hundred acres of land for religious purposes. But this neglect on the part of the Land Company did not dampen the spiritual ardor of the adherents of the Baptist denomination in Bethany, as is demon- strated by the very early establishment of their church society. This church experienced a steady, though not rapid, growth from the start. Lack of means, however, deterrel the society from erecting a house of worship for three decades, the first edifice, a frame building, not being erected until 1539.
The first church in the town of Byron was of the Baptist denomina- tion. This society was organized at Byron Centre in 1810, but after a few years it disbanded. Religious services had been conducted in that town, however, a year before the establishment of this pioneer society, by the Rev. Royal Phelps, a Presbyterian missionary from Cayuga county. In the same year ( 1810) the Rev. Joshua Spencer, a Congregational minister, held services in Pembroke and organized a Congregational church at Long's Corners, now Corfu. This was the first religious society in the town of Pembroke. Its existence covered but a brief period.
The East Elba Methodist Episcopal church began its existence by the formation of a class of eleven under the leadership of Joseph Wal- ton, an exhorter of that denomination. Among those who thus asso- ciated themselves together for worship were Elder Grant, John Howe, Seth Howe, Zalmon Luttington, Fayette Luttington and others. The class was organized by the Rev. Ralph Lanning. A year later the Rev. Marmaduke Pierce became the first regular pastor of the society, and in 1814, so greatly had the organization prospered, that the erec. tion of a small house of worship was found practicable. In 1830 a new church was dedicated, and Levi Barnes, John Taylor, Phineas Howe, William Knapp, Isaac Barber and Locklin Norton were chosen to be its trustees.
In Isit a public library, the first in the county, was established in " This Church afterward can the Pre Pres , trian church of Batavia.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Alexander. The trustees were Alexander Rea, Harvey Hawkins, Seba Brainard, Samuel Latham, Henry Hawkins, Noah North and Ezra W. Osborn.
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