USA > New York > Erie County > Our county and its people : a descriptive work on Erie County, New York, Volume I > Part 21
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RESOLUTION OF THE MORAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO.
Resolved, That after the 23d of November inst., the laws of the State prohibiting violations of the Sabbath, shall be strictly enforced against all persons who, on that day, shall drive into the village loaded teams, or who shall unload goods, wares, and merchandise, or who shall vend goods or keep open stores or shops for the pur- pose of trading or laboring, or who shall engage in hunting, fishing, etc., etc. ; also against all parties of pleasure, riding or walking to Black Rock or elsewhere.
Resolved, That the above resolution be published two weeks in the Gazette, pub- lished in this village, that strangers as well as villagers may be informed of the same, and govern themselves accordingly. By order of the Society.
A. CALLENDER, Secretary.
Gen. Elijah Holt was president of this society and was, probably, quite as radical as the good Deacon Callender. By their joint efforts they purposed a more stringent reform movement than Buffalo has ever since experienced.
The Washington Benevolent Society was also organized in 1811 in Buffalo, in which Heman B. Potter was a conspicuous officer. Other leading citizens were early connected with it in some capacity. If it is claimed that these organizations signify that there was need of them in the general character and customs of the inhabitants of the village, it may also be claimed in justification that the fact of their having been called into existence indicates a desire to place the morals of the com- munity above reproach. It will be remembered that a church society was organized in 1809, but there were still for a few years no regular religious services-a fact that had called forth considerable criticism.
Rev. John Alexander and Jabez B. Hyde were sent in 1811 to estab- lish a mission among the Indians on Buffalo Creek-the first named as a preacher and the other as a school teacher. Opposition arose imme- diately upon their arrival, particularly to the preacher, and a council was held to consider the matter. After long deliberation the school teacher was accepted, but the preacher they did not want. Red Jacket was, of course, the leader of the opposition, and it is recorded by Ketcham, delivered the following decision in the matter:
He said they had listened attentively to what had been argued in favor of the re- ligion of the whites, and if it would accomplish what those who advocated its intro- duction among them promised, it was very good-if it would make them sober, honest, truthful and kind that was very good; but as they were not fully satisfied on the subject, they thought the experiment had better be tried on the people in Buffalo, for they were great rascals; they cheated the Indians, they drank a great deal of whiskey and caused the Indians to get drunk, and they never spoke the truth, and were always quarrelsome. If the missionaries would go down and preach to them
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a year, they [the Indians] would see what effect it would have upon them, and would then be able to decide what was best for them.
Mr. Hyde remained as a teacher and labored zealously in the cause of religion and morality in Buffalo, frequently conducting meetings in the absence of an ordained preacher.
John Mellish visited Buffalo in October, 1811, and left on record his impressions of the place, a perusal of which has a certain kind of in- terest of its own. He wrote as follows:
Buffalo is handsomely situated at the east end of Lake Erie, where it commands a beautiful view of the lake, of Upper Canada, and Fort Erie, and a great distance to the southward, which is terminated by an elevated lofty country. The site of the town extends quite to the lake shore, but is principally built on an eminence of about thirty feet, at a little distance; and to the south along the creek are handsome rich bottom lots, which are at present a little marshy, but will, when drained, be most valuable appendages to this beautiful place. Buffalo was laid out for a town about five years ago, and is regularly disposed in streets and lots. The lots are from sixty to one hundred feet deep, and sell from twenty-five to fifty dollars; and there are out lots of five and ten acres, worth at present from ten to twenty-five dollars per acre. The population was by last census three hundred and sixty-five; it is now. computed at five hundred, and is rapidly increasing. The buildings are mostly of wood, painted white; but there is a number of good brick houses, and some few of stone. There are four taverns, eight stores, two schools, and a weekly newspaper has been recently established. The town is as yet too new for the introduction of any manufactures, except those of a domestic kind. The greater part of the people are farmers and mechanics. The settlers are mostly from New England, but the town being on the great thoroughfare to the western country, there is a great mixture. A considerable trade is constantly kept up by the influx and reflux of strangers, and such articles as are necessary for their accommodation are dear. House rent is from two to twenty dollars per week; wood is one dollar per cord; flour is seven dollars per barrel; pork six dollars per cwt .; beef four dollars; porter six dollars per dozen. Fish are very plenty and cheap. Boarding is three dollars per week. The situation is quite healthy, and the seasons are much more mild and open than might be expected in this northern latitude. Buffalo creek flows into the lake by a slow current. It is navigable about four miles, and it is proposed to run a pier into the lake at its outlet, and form a harbor, which would be a most important advantage to this part of the country. Already there is a turnpike road to New York, having the accommodation of a stage three times a week. Upon the whole I think this likely to become a great settlement.
Before the beginning of the war settlement was made to some ex- tent in the territory that ultimately constituted each town in the county, while in the older settled localities, new arrivals were some- what numerous and the nuclei of several hamlets were formed. A little improvement was made in the northern part of what is now Ton-
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awanda, where Robert Simpson settled, about a mile from the site of the village. At that time Garret Van Slyke was keeping a tavern on the north side of Tonawanda Creek, in the present Niagara county. On the south side the forest was still almost unbroken. Henry An - guish, before mentioned, lived a mile farther up the river and about this time kept a tavern. On the approach of war a guard house was built on the Erie county side of the creek. The only road to Buffalo then ran along the beach.
In 1810 or 1811 Isaac Bowman opened a store at Williamsville, the first in the present town of Amherst and the third in the county out- side of Buffalo. About the same time Benjamin Bowman bought a saw mill on Eleven-mile Creek at what has always been known as Bow- man's Mills or Bowmansville; it is in the northwest corner of Lancas- ter, and took its name from him.
Previous to 1811 the settlers in the Cayuga Creek region were com . pelled to go to mill either at Clarence Hollow or Aurora. In that year relief came to them when Ahaz Allen built a mill at what is now Lan- caster village. His dam was the first one on that creek.
Adam Vollmer was the first purchaser on the lowlands of township 13, range 7, in the north part of Amherst, where he secured two lots at $3 an acre. The same is true as to township 13, range 6 (the north part of Clarence), where John S. Stranahan was the first purchaser of land, paying $2.75 an acre. The erection of the old town of " Buffa- loe " left Clarence as a town about eighteen miles long and twelve miles wide, and at the first town meeting Samuel Hill, jr., was elected supervisor, and in 1812 James Cronk was elected, both of whom were settlers in what is now Newstead. The usual $5 bounty for dead wolves was voted at the town meeting, and also that "every path- master's yard should be a public pound." This is only one of many evidences to show that the keeping of domestic animals within the limits of their owners' lands was one of the greatest tasks the pioneer officials assumed. Religious services were held in this town prior to the war by Elders John Le Suer and Salmon Bell, but no church was organized until a number of years later.
Moses Fenno, who located in the present town of Alden in the spring of 1810, is given credit as the first settler; but Zophar Beach, Samuel Huntington, and James C. Rowan had previously purchased land on the western edge of the town and possibly one or more of them had settled there. Fenno began improvements on the site of Alden village
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and raised his first crops there in 1810. In the same year Joseph Free- man (afterwards known as Judge Freeman), William Snow, and Arunah Hibbard settled in that town.
The town of Wales attracted several settlers in 1810-11 and in the former year received its first frame house, which was built by Jacob Turner. James Wood, then a young man, was another arrival, who passed his long life in the town; he made his first clearing on the flats a little below the site of Wood's Hollow hamlet, which took its name from him. At that date there was. no road, but an Indian trail ran along the west side of the creek. Varnum Kenyon, Eli Weed, jr., Nathan Mann, and others settled there in 1811, in which year James Wood taught the first school in the town. Isaac Hall settled in the same year at what became known as Hall's Hollow, or Wales Center, where he soon built a saw mill and a grist mill, the first in the town, and opened a tavern. Alvin Burt, Benjamin Earl and a few others were probably in the town before the war.
Aurora presented, as it had from the first, a favorable locality for pioneers, and a considerable number settled there in 1810-11. In the former year Jonathan Bowen, Asa Palmer, and Rowland Letson were among the arrivals. In the latter year the Stafford families, who settled "Staffordshire," Moses Thompson, Russell Darling, Amos Underhill, and probably others were added to the population within the limits of the present town. To meet the wants of these pioneer families, John Adams and Daniel Hascall early in 1811 purchased a small stock of goods, placed them in a log house owned by one of them, near what became known as Blakeley's Corners, and traded about six months, when the business was given up. Dr. John Watson was the first physi- cian in Aurora, and his younger brother, Ira G., also a physician, was there before the war. They were then the only practitioners in the south- east part of the county. Frequent religious services were held in this town in the two or three years before the war, and on October 17, 1810, the First Baptist church was organized with ten members; they were without a regular pastor for four years and met in school houses and dwellings. Rev. Elias Harmon was the first regular pastor. On the 18th of August, of the same year, the West Aurora Congregational church was formed, probably under direction of "Father" John Spencer; there were nine members.
In East Hamburg Stephen Kester, Elisha Clark, William Austin and others settled in 1810; the latter in the Smith, or Newton, neigh-
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
borhood, to pass his long life there. About 1811 the name, Potter's Corners, began to be applied to what is now East Hamburg village, the name being taken from two or three families who settled there. By the year just named, too, Daniel Smith (before mentioned as an energetic mill builder), associated with his brother Richard, built a good grist mill on the site of Hamburg village, and the name " Smith's Mills" was applied to the place. Moses Dart also settled at Hamburg at about that date and was long a well known citizen. The Ingersoll families settled about this period on the lake shore in this town, just below the mouth of Eighteen-mile Creek. It was by members of this family that the ship irons on the lake shore were discovered, which gave rise to considerable discussion as to the probability of their having once belonged to the ill-fated Griffin. The best authorities have arrived at the conclusion that it is far more probable that the irons were from the Beaver, which was wrecked about 1765. Among the arrivals in Ham- burg in 1811 were Ira Fisk, Boroman Salisbury, Henry Clark, Shubael Sherman and Ebenezer Ingersoll, while in East Hamburg there located Pardon Pierce, James Paxson, Joseph Hawkins, and others. Dr. Will- iam Warriner was a physician in Hamburg at this time and Obadiah Baker operated a grist mill on Smoke's Creek near Potter's Corners. Early in the summer of 1812 the first settlement was made on Chestnut Ridge by Daniel Sumner. He and the members of his family had . some exciting adventures with wild beasts. Wolves and bears were numerous and bold in attacking domestic animals. On one occasion a bear seized a hog weighing more than 100 pounds near the dwelling and carried it away, climbing a high rail fence with the burden.
Up to 1810 no settlement had been made in the present town of Colden. In that year Richard Buffum arrived there as the first pioneer; he came from Rhode Island and settled on the site of Colden village, cutting his own road through the forest about eight miles to that point. He was possessed of some means and in the fall built a saw mill and a log dwelling, the latter forty feet long. He was father of Thomas Buffum and ten other children, and needed a large house. It was over a year before he had near neighbors, excepting men whom he hired.
One of the first arrivals in the present town of Concord in 1810 was William Smith, father of Calvin C. Smith. Besides Albro, Cochran and Russell, before named, there were then living in the town Jede- diah Cleveland, Elijah Dunham, Jacob Drake and a Mr. Person. Rufus
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Eaton settled in that summer and Jonathan Townsend located about the same time at what became known as Townsend Hill. Settlers of that period in other parts of the town were Josiah Fay, Benjamin C. Foster, Seneca Baker, Philip Van Horn and Luther Curtis. At Springville Anna Richmond taught a school in 1810 with fourteen scholars; it was held in a log barn a little north of the village site.
When Dr. John March and Silas Este settled in Eden Valley in 1810 there were only four other families within the limits of the present town. In 1811 the arrivals were Levi Bunting, Samuel Webster, Joseph Thorne, James Paxon, John Welch, Josiah Gail and James Pound, with perhaps a few others. John Hill was the first settler at Eden Center, where his three sons resided many years.
In February, 1810, Samuel Tucker, brother of Abram (pioneer in North Collins in the previous year), moved into that town, following the Indian trail by way of Water Valley and Eden Center; his was the first team to pass over that trail. He located a mile and a half south of the site of North Collins village (Kerr's Corners), and built a log house, which did not have a glass window until two years later, and he procured his first seed wheat in trade for a log-chain. Enos South- wick settled there the same year and was hospitably provided for in Abram Tucker's cabin. There in August, 1810, was born George Tucker, the first white child born in Collins and North Collins; in Sep- tember following George Southwick was born there. Other settlers in North Collins before the war were Henry Tucker, Benjamin Leggett, Levi Woodward, Stephen White, Stephen Twining, Gideon Lapham, Noah Tripp, Abraham Gifford, Orrin Brayman, Jonathan Southwick, Hugh McMillan, and possibly one or two others. Some time in 1810 Turner Aldrich and his family followed up Cattaraugus Creek to the Gowanda flats, where they settled on the site of the present village; they were the first family to locate in Collins, excepting those near Taylor's Hollow, previously mentioned. In the spring of the same year, Stephen Wilber, Stephen Peters and Joshua Palmerton arrived in the town, built a cabin and for a time lived as bachelors about a mile west of the site of Collins Center, where they had purchased land. Wilber returned to Cayuga county in the fall for his family, but in March, 1811, went back to his wilderness home accompanied by Allen King and wife, Luke Crandall and wife, Arnold King, John King and Henry Palmerton. It is probable that before the war Seth Blossom, George Morris, Ethan Howard, Abraham Lapham, Ira Lap-
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
ham and Silas Howard settled in this town; Smith Bartlett came a little later.
In the towns of Concord and Sardinia arrivals were numerous dur- ing the two years preceding the war and a little hamlet gathered on the site of Springville. Here in 1811 settled Samuel Burgess, Harry Sears and others, and Benjamin Fay located at Townsend Hill. Either in that year or the succeeding one Rufus Eaton built a saw mill to accommodate the numerous newcomers in that vicinity. Over the town line into what is now Sardinia, settlers of 1811 and the beginning of 1812 were Horace Rider, Henry Godfrey, Randall Walker, Benja- min Wilson, Daniel Hall, Giles Briggs, John Cook, Henry Bowen, Smithfield Ballard, Francis Easton and Elihu Rice. The latter brought with him a small stock of goods which he placed in his log house for sale. Sumner Warren, a brother of William, also arrived in this town before the war and built a saw mill near the mouth of Mill Brook. There was still no road south of the Humphrey Settlement in Hol- land.
In 1811 James Ayer settled on the lake shore in the present town of Evans, where his son afterwards lived. At that time Gideon Dudley, David Corbin and Timothy Dustin had settled at or near the site of Evans Center, while a Mr. Pike lived near the creek that bore his name. A man named Palmer was keeping a tavern near the mouth of Eighteen mile Creek. Hezekiah Dibble also arrived in this town be- fore the war and became a prominent citizen.
Among the settlers of the town of Holland during the period under consideration were Daniel Mckean, Harvey Colby, Samuel Miller, In - crease Richardson, Sanford Porter, Theophilus Baldwin and Joseph Cooper. The latter was father of Samuel Cooper, long a well known citizen, and settled in the Colby neighborhood, south of which there was no road as late as 1811. The first school in this town was opened in the Humphrey neighborhood just before the war. A few other set- tlers had located farther south on the high lands.
The town of Boston received accessions in the year 1811 in the per- sons of John. Twining, Lemuel Parmeley and Dorastus and Edward Hatch. A Baptist church was organized in the town in that year over which Rev. Cyrus Andrews served as pastor during the succeeding ten years. A portion of his labor during that period was devoted to other near by sections. Rev. Clark Carr, also a Baptist, settled near the Concord line before the war and preached in that vicinity many years.
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In the preceding few chapters the gradual growth of settlement in various parts of Erie county down to near the outbreak of the war of 1812 has been traced quite minutely and, of course, with much greater detail than can be devoted to it in the later history of the several towns; but the personal history of a vast number of the families of the county will be found in the second volume of the work. A very large portion of those already named were worthy ancestors of the later families who contributed largely to the advancement and prosperity of the various immediate communities. They were men of sturdy type and mainly of high moral character. That they possessed energy, self- dependence, perseverance, and a share of that adventurous spirit that within a comparatively short period peopled a vast region and subdued the wilderness, need scarcely be stated. Had it been otherwise their names would not be found here among those of the pioneers of Erie county. Most of them arrived in their new forest homes almost with- out money and many of them with very few household articles, and those of a primitive character. These very conditions constituted one of the factors of inducement for them to migrate from older settled localities. Obstacles were encountered and overcome by them, both on the journey westward and within the few subsequent years, that would appall the present rising generation. While in Buffalo previous to the war there was a little opportunity for enjoyment of simple so- cial privileges, they were almost totally absent in the rural settle- ments for several years after the advent of the pioneers. Neighbors were distant from each other, journeys over the rude roads were tedious and time was precious for labor. Yet a spirit of general and active helpfulness and unselfishness was never failing. When sickness, death, or other trouble visited the settlers, as we know they did, then neigh- bors, however distant or burdened with home cares, sought out the afflicted and by their gentle deeds and practical sympathy relieved and cheered the unfortunate.
The wisdom of the pioneers was exhibited in no other direction more strikingly than in their prompt opening of schools in every neigh- borhood as soon as there were children enough to make the employ- ment of a teacher a duty. These early schools were of the most primi- tive character and taught under the most discouraging circumstances; but they served to keep alive the true American desire for education until better conditions could be inaugurated. So, too, with religious observances ; meetings were held and prayers ascended in many in-
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
stances where the vaulted heavens were the only church roof and the trees were its pillars. Under their adverse surroundings and in their isolation the pioneers trusted in God and worshiped Him whenever and wherever they could.
Money was scarce almost beyond present conception, and was diffi- cult to obtain even when there was the best of produce for sale. Ex- cellent wheat was, at times, worth so little that its value was absorbed in making a journey to Batavia or elsewhere to sell it. At one period it brought only twenty-five cents a bushel.1 The only relief for the settlers in this respect was in the sale of crude potash, or "black salts," as it was called, which could be sold at the asheries, of which many were established in the county between 1808 and 1812. When potash was produced from the salts it could be transported east with so little expense compared to its value that a profit was realized, and a little money was brought into the county.
But all these adverse conditions served to stimulate a spirit of self- reliance and perseverance under difficulty among the scattered fam- ilies, which not only carried them through the years of privation, but bore fruit in later times in the development of a sturdy manhood among the forefathers, which was transmitted to a later generation.
Near the close of the period under consideration and not long before the tocsin of war rang out across the land, an event of great impor- tance took place in Erie county. The issue of the pioneer newspaper in any community not only constitutes in itself an especially notable occurrence, but it frequently signalizes local changes of more or less import, is always an indication of intelligent advancement, and the journal itself becomes at once a living and enduring record from which the reader in after years may learn of the march of progress in the distant past. Too frequently copies of early newspapers were con- sidered at the time of their publication as of little value and were thrown aside and lost. But Erie county is most fortunate in the pos- session of an almost complete file of its first newspaper. This fact assumes still more importance when it is remembered that all public records and many private papers having local value were destroyed at the burning of Buffalo in 1813. The loss of those documents, meager
1 The fact has been recorded that a family in the north part of the county, in which the woman felt that she must have the tea to which she had always been accustomed, took eight bushels of wheat to a market and gave it for a pound of tea ; the price of the wheat was twenty- five cents a bushel and the tea was $2 a pound.
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though they may have been, doubles the historian's task and neces- sarily detracts from the character of his work covering a few years.
The first number of the Buffalo Gazette was issued on October 3, 1811, by Smith H. and Hezekiah Salisbury, brothers, the first named acting as editor of the paper. A file of the paper beginning with the second number is in possession of the Buffalo Young Men's Associa- tion. From its scanty record of current events and its advertisements a little additional light is reflected upon the story of the period, and especially upon the business condition of Buffalo village. The Gazette was then the only newspaper in Western New York with the exception of one at Batavia, which was established in 1807.1 The Salisbury brothers also opened a bookstore, which was the only one in the State west of Canandaigua. In the early numbers of the Gazette Tallmadge & Mullett advertised for two or three journeymen tailors; John Tower for a journeyman shoemaker; Daniel Lewis for a " Taylor's" appren- tice and a journeyman; Stocking & Bull for three or four journeymen hatters; and Leech & Keep for two or three journeymen blacksmiths at their shop at Cold Spring, "two miles from the village of Buffalo." ? On the 26th of March, 1812, the mechanics .of the village organized the Mechanical Society, with Joseph Bull, president; Henry M. Camp- bell and John Mullett, vice-presidents; and Robert Keene, Asa Stan- ard, David Reese, Daniel Lewis and Samuel Edsall, a standing com- mittee. Edsall had a tannery and shoe shop, which he advertised in the Gazette as located " on the Black Rock road, near the village of Buffalo"; it really stood on what is now the corner of Niagara and Mohawk streets! Lyman Parsons was making earthenware at Cold Spring, and in the newspaper requested all who were "indebted to him and whose promises have become due, to make payment or fresh promises." Joseph Webb advertised his Black Rock brewery, which was probably the first venture of the kind in this vicinity.
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