USA > New York > Tioga County > Our county and its people : a memorial history of Tioga County, New York > Part 45
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74
469
TOWN OF NICHOLS.
industries of this once busy place are removed and little now re- mains as evidence of former prosperity.
Strait's Corners is the name of a settlement in the north part of the town, partly in Candor, which was established as a trading centre for the accommodation of the farmers of the vicinity. The people here were thrifty, enterprising, and comfortably situated, and as early as 1859 secured a postoffice for their hamlet. They also organized two church societies and built substantial edifices for them. The Christian Church society at this place was formed in 1850 and in 1855 the meeting house was built. The Baptist Church was organized in 1842, and the edifice was located on the Candor side of the line.
German Settlement is a name which has been known in Tioga history since about 1830, and was applied to the locality in which there settled a number of German families. They were thrifty and well-to-do. and lived both in this town and in Candor. The settlement has always been regarded as a part of Tioga.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE TOWN OF NICHOLS.
T HROUGH the Moravian missionaries who traversed the Sus- quehanna and Chemung valleys long before any organized civil jurisdiction was attempted to be exercised over the re- gion, information was brought to the chroniclers of Colonial his- tory in New York that in various portions of the valley mentioned there dwelt an occasional white man among the Indians. In this locality such occurrences were rare, but in the upper Chemung and Canisteo valleys they were more frequent. and on one occa- sion Colonel (afterward Sir William, Johnson sent a detachment
470
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
of frontiersmen to drive certain offending white renegades from that region, for their influence had such a contaminating effect upon the savages that they became seriously annoying to the pro- vincial government. However, history does not give any record of undesirable occupancy in this part of the country, although on the south bank of the Susquehanna and within the borders of the present town of Nichols was an Indian village of considerable im- portance. In the immediate vicinity of the mouth of Wappasen- ing creek was one of favorite resorts of the red man for hunting and fishing, and on the broad and fertile plain land in the same town the Indian raised as good corn and vegetables as did the whites in the east, and great indeed was the surprise of Sullivan's men when they discovered the productive qualities of the soil in the region.
Many stories of the Indian occupancy are handed down to us through past writers of early history, and such as have been told of the locality now known as Nichols are well verified and do not rest on the unstable foundation of tradition. In the general chapters of this work relating to the period of Indian occupancy will be found the narrative of the unfortunate experience of two deserters from the British army who were pursued, overtaken, and ruthlessly shot on Maughantowano flats. They were left where they fell, but the more humane Queen Esther sent from her settlement and gave the bodies a decent burial. History also informs us that during the revolution two American soldiers were captured by the Indians and while being taken up the valley to a secure place of confinement at the once called Fitzgerald flats (in what is now Nichols) the captives made a sudden attack upon their custodians, killed two of them, and made good escape from probable death.
However, through the accounts written by General Sullivan's officers and men, the best early descriptive history of the valley country has been given to succeeding generations. Indeed, it was through these reports taken back and spread throughout New England that this part of the state came to be settled by the Yan- kees at such an early period ; and it has been said that it was also through the medium of these very reports that Massachusetts
4/1
TOWN OF NICHOLS.
learned that the Genesee country and western and southern New York contained superior land, and therefore clung tenaciously to the strict construction of the royal charter and finally became the owner of the pre-emptive right to several million acres of the most fertile lands in this state. All of Tioga county north of the Sus- quehanna and east of Owego creek was ceded to Massachusetts under this claim.
General Sullivan's army destroyed all buildings, and as far as possible all vestiges of the Indian occupation in the Susquehanna valley during the summer and fall of 1779; and, although the savages remained under the protection of Fort Niagara during the later years of the war, many of them returned to their former habitations after peace was declared, and were found here by the white pioneers who came first into the valley. They came back to their hunting and fishing grounds at the mouth of the Wap- pasening, and not until settlement was well advanced did they leave the region to live on the lands which the state and the general government set apart for their use. At a point opposite the mouth of Owego creek lived an Indian named Nicholas, a Mohawk, who was a successful farmer among the pioneers, and who accumulat- ed considerable stock in cattle and horses ; but he, too, after the whites became more numerous, left the region and was no more known in local annals.
Soon after the Indian occupation was at an end and before the state made final disposition of the lands, there came and lived for a time within what is now Nichols several squatters, adventurous pioneers from the east, who took and held lands without claim of title, for they were poor in purse and sought to make a home in the new country. They were neither law-breakers nor disturbers, and settlers of their class were in almost every town in the county. From this occupancy there has ever been a question as to whom belongs the honor of having been the pioneer in Nichols, the squat- ter without title and whose only capital was energy and determin- ation to succeed, or the settler under regular title, who bargained for and bought the land from its owners. However, before refer- ring at length to the period of settlement, a brief allusion to the land titles in Nichols is desirable.
472
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
According to statistical reports there was only one royal grant to an individual which conveyed title to land in this county, and that was a charter of lands in the towns of Owego and Nichols, dated January 15, 1775, to Daniel, William, and Rebecca Coxe, John and Tabor Kemp, and Grace Kemp, wife of Tabor Kemp. This grant carried title to 100,000 acres of land, and was made in compromission of a claim the grantees held on lands in the Caro- linas and elsewhere. Another and a large portion of lands in Owego and Nichols was known in history and on the public records as the township of Hambden, and was disposed of as fol- lows : To Nicholas Fish, 6,400 acres in Owego and Nichols ; to William Butler, 3,000 acres in Nichols adjoining Coxe's manor on the west ; and to Colonel Nichols was also granted a large tract of land in both Owego and Nichols, and in allusion to this worthy the town received its name. Hooper's patent included a large tract of land in the western part of the town, and was named in allusion to the patentee, Robert Lettice Hooper.
EARLY SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT .- One of the earliest and most reliable writers of contemporary history in Nichols was the late Judge Charles P. Avery, author of the series of articles pub- lished in Saint Nicholas in 1853 and 1854. In his article on this town Judge Avery says : "Among those who first settled in this town were the families of Ebenezer Ellis, Peletiah Pierce, and Stephen Mills, two of whom, Ellis and Mills, removed to Barton. George Walker becoming occupant by purchase of the premises left by Mr. Ellis." He also says that Daniel Pierce and Daniel Mills, sons of the pioneers, were born in the town, Pierce in 1787 and Mills in 1788. Alexander Ellis was also born in the town, in 1788, and Judge Avery remarks that they were, probably, the first whites born in this part of the county. He further writes of Captain Thomas Parks, living just over the Pennsylvania line, but says that he was not the Captain Park, the pioneer of Candor. It is also recorded by the same authority that in 1787 or '88 James Cole, from Wyoming, was living in the town, and that Judge Coryell and Robert Lettice Hooper visited the valley country in an explor- ing tour and were entertained at Cole's house, on the land which, in 1853, was occupied by Emanuel Coryell. However, Judge Avery
4,3
TOWN OF NICHOLS.
explains that the settlers mentioned " claimed but a possessory in- terest in the land occupied by them, no title yet having passed from the patentees."
Another authentic writer of local history was the late William Fiske Warner, who, discussing early settlement in Nichols, says : "The first settlement was made in 1787 by John and Frederick Evelin (or Eveland, as now spelt by their descendants), A. Van- Gorder and his sons Leonard and Benjamin. These all settled near Canfield's Corners. Ebenezer Cole, Peletiah Pierce, Stephen Mills, and James Cole came in the same year. Judge Emanuel Coryell and his family came in 1791 from Coryell's Ferry on the Delaware, in New Jersey. Caleb Wright occupied land where Nichols village is build up. Jonathan Platt and his family, and Major Jonathan Platt and his family, came from Bedford, Westchester county, in 1893. Col. Richard Sackett came in the same year. Miles For- man, a revolutionary soldier, and his family came from West- chester county in 1794 or'95. Major John Smyth, a revolutionary officer, and his sons General John, Nathan, and Gilbert Smyth, came in 1794."
" The Indians," continues Mr. Warner's narrative, " were at this time residing on the Maughantowana flats. Lewis Brown, Ziba Evans, Jonathan Hunt, Richard Searles, and Asahel Pritchard came about the same time. The last two moved to Union (now Owego). Daniel Shoemaker, a soldier of the revolution, came in 1801 or 1802 and settled on the flat lands he had purchased of Robert Lettice Hooper in 1792. John Pettis, Joseph and John All- nable, Joseph Morey, David Briggs, William Thatcher, Daniel Lanning, John Russell, and Isaac Sharp, a revolutionary soldier, were also among the early settlers. All settled along the rich river flats, which had been a favorite corn ground of the Indians for many generations. These bottom lands have furnished a rich har- vest of relics of the Indian occupation, turned up by the plow or the washing of the stream."
"The early settlers had the common experiences incident to pio- neer life. They had abundance of game and fish from the streams, and in a short time corn and wheat were gathered. The wheat was pounded in a mortar made in a hard wood stump, and a pestle
474
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
was attached to a bent sapling which formed a spring-pole. After the first supply of garments was worn out those made at home of flax, wool, and deer-skins were used. At length Caleb Wright built a grist mill and also a saw mill, the first in the town. Pix- ley's grist mill at Owego, and another on Shepard's creek had been built only a short time before."
Mr. Warner's description of early life and his interpretation of the pioneer character were so original and so natural to him, and his simple style of writing was such that the present writer feels constrained to quote him at still greater length, but space forbids.
In Nichols the historian is necessarily at loss to determine what is correct and authentic in regard to the pioneers or the exact year of their settlement, for on this subject past writers do not agree, and it is hardly expected of the historian in the field to-day to determine which statement is the most reliable. The pioneers themselves are all gone and few indeed are their sons and daugh- ters now living in the town. However, before leaving this branch of the subject the writer feels bound to respect the statements made by the most recent chronicler of early settlement in Nichols, Miss Mary L. Barstow, of Nichols village. .
According to this authority, Emanuel Coryell was the first perma- nent settler in the town in the year 1791. He found squatters on the land in advance of him and among them were Mills, Ellis. Pierce, Walker and Cole, all of whom are mentioned on a preced- ing page. It was indeed fortunate that the honor of having been the first permanent settler should have fallen to Judge Coryell, for such honor was most worthily bestowed. In after year's he became one of the foremost men in Tioga county and was called to many positions of trust in the early history of the region. In the bench and bar chapter of this work will be found an ex- tended mention of both his public and domestic life and service, and the facts need no repetition here. Yet as he was an important part of the history of Nichols so must the name be mentioned in these pages.
General John Smyth was the second permanent settler, accord- ing to accepted authority, and took up his residence here in 1794. Nathan and Gilbert Smyth were sons of General Smyth, and the
475
TOWN OF NICHOLS.
former afterward owned the old home farm of the flats. Later generations of this family spelled the surname Smith ; a name still well known in the town. The children of the pioneer were Elizabeth, Nathan, Gilbert, David and John. Daniel Shoemaker, the old revolutionary patriot, came up from Monroe county, Pa., his family were at Wyoming when the terrible slaughter took place.
Jonathan Platt and his son Major Jonathan Platt, and the fam- ilies of both, came to Nichols in 1793, as is elsewhere stated. Miles Forman, the son-in-law of the elder Platt, came a few years after- ward. Both he and Major Platt held the office of sheriff of the county. Jonathan Platt, the elder, died a few years after his set- tlement. In 1805. Jonathan Platt, Jr., son of Major Platt, removed to Owego settlement and became a clerk in John Laning's store, and five years later began business for himself. William Platt, brother to Jonathan, Jr., was the third lawyer in Owego. He was also the father of Thomas Collier Platt, whose name and public life are known throughout the country. The family in Nichols was one of the most prominent in the river valley, and the name is still known in the town.
Caleb Wright, who has been mentioned as the builder of the first grist and saw mills in the town, was in many respects a prom- inent figure in early history. He also built a dam across Wappa- sening creek, and as an experienced millwright his services were in great demand all through this region. Edmund Palmer came in 1800 and afterward married with the daughter of Judge Coryell. He was a farmer of Nichols and a man of worth in the town. Stephen Reynolds, another early settler, came a poor man and located on a part of Judge Coryell's land. He was a cooper by trade, an honest and industrious man, and his sons were among the thrifty farmers of the town in later years.
James Cole, who was a squatter on the land when Judge Coryell and Col. Hooper first came to the region, was a settler here as early as 1787, and his brother, Elijah, was also here about the same time. James, Joseph; John, George, Daniel, Charles and Edward Cole were sons of Elijah, but all are now dead.
Miles Forman came into this region from Westchestercounty as
.
476
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
early as 1786, and settled on land about a mile and one-half from Nichols village. He is remembered as sheriff of the county in 1811 and again in 1821, and also as a man closely connected with the early history of the county as well as the town.
Jonathan Hunt, whose family name is still well known and numerous in Nichols, was a resident of Westchester county, and by former service a patriot of the revolution, having served at Bunker Hill and thence throughout the war. In this town he was a hard-working and earnest citizen and respected man. His children were Ebenezer, Mary, Willard, John, Adonijah, Jonathan, Irena, Setli, and Harvey Hunt.
Benjamin Lounsberry was a pioneer in Nichols, coming here in 1793 in company with the family of Jonathan Platt, Mr. Platt having married with the widowed mother of Mr. Lounsberry. This surname Lounsberry has since been prominently mentioned in connection with the best history of the town, and is still pre- served in a station on the D., L. & W. railroad, and also in the residence in the eastern part of Nichols of several thrifty families. Benjamin, the pioneer, married with Elizabeth Platt, and to them were born Harriet, Hannah, Platt, Charles, Horace, Benjamin, James, William and Norman Lounsberry.
Stephen Reynolds, of whom incidental mention has been made, came to Nichols about 1800 from Washington county and settled on the site of Hooper's valley, or in that vicinity. He had thirteen children and from them has descended the Reynolds family of the town to-day, while many other of its representatives have settled elsewhere.
James Howell, who came to Nichols in 1806, was the pioneer head of a large, thrifty, and highly respected family who have ever since been well known in the town and identified with its best interests and history. Mr. Howell lived in various parts of the town during his life here, and by industry and energy acquired a large property in lands. His wife was Anelia Laning, and of their children six grew to maturity, viz : Elizabeth, William, Frances, John L., Mary A., and Robert, the latter enjoying considerable local celebrity as historian, geologist and naturalist. John L. Howell, another son, was for many years a merchant at Nichols
477
TOWN OF NICHOLS.
village, and was otherwise identified with the history of both town and village. He was supervisor in 1866-68,
David Briggs and Henry Washburn came to Nichols in 1808, from Washington county, N. Y., and Flat Brook, N. J., respec- tively. Mr. Briggs settled in Briggs Hollow, which was named from him, and Mr. Washburn was an early resident in Hooper's valley. Both names are known in town to-day, and both stand for respectability and thrift.
Ursula Dunham was the widow of Sylvanus Dunham, and came from the eastern part of the state in 1808 or '10, locating on the river road, less than a mile above the village. Of her ten child- ren eight were sons, and from all of them has sprung a numerous family in the county.
Joseph Ketchum was another of the carly settlers, possibly a pioneer, coming from Rensselaer county, and locating on the more recently known Pearl farm. His family and descendants are scattered through the county, but few are now in Nichols.
Judge Gamaliel H. Barstow, who came to Nichols in 1812, and who from that time was one of the foremost men of the county, was a former resident of Sharon, Conn. Three years after he came he was elected to the Assembly, and after another three years was appointed first Judge of the Common Pleas and was also elected to the State Senate. In the bench and bar chapter of this work will be found a biographical sketch of Judge Barstow's life ; but what he was to the. county, or to the state in his public life, so was he equally a factor in developing and building up Nichols to the position of importance it held among the towns of the county in the early years of the century. He was a physi- cian as well as a judge and public man, and was also one of the first to open a store and stock of goods in Nichols village. The name Barstow is still known in the town, and among the later prominent representatives of the family was Oliver A. Barstow, of Hooper's Valley. He was supervisor several years and otherwise influential in town affairs.
George Kirby came to the town in 1814, from Great Barrington, Mass., induced to such action by the previous coming of Judge Barstow. He was a shoemaker and brought his tools. He worked
.
478
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
for a time, but soon built a tannery and afterward became one of the most successful men of the town. He also built the first steam mill in Nichols. His son, Selim Kirby, was also a conspic- uous figure in business circles in Nichols for many years, and while the unfortunate results of his banking business at South Waverly was the occasion of much discussion, it cannot be called more than a misfortune which may and does overtake simi- lar enterprises.
Henry and Wright Dunham, front Madison county, came to the town about 1814 or '15, and bought lands up the creek. Henry Dunham was the son-in-law of Cabel Wright, and a man of im- portance in the town. He built a grist mill on the Wappa- sening, in 1822, which was for many years owned by some mem- ber of the family. Silvenus Dunham, of the same family, came later and built a carding and fulling mill, thus establishing a settle- ment of importance in that locality.
Thomas White and Anna Hale came about the year 1814. Mr. White from Clinton county, and the widow Hale from Benning- ton, Vermont. She married with Dr. William Rood, and after his death with Jacob Totten.
Nathaniel Moore, a New Hampshire Yankee, settled in the town in 1816, on the place afterward known as the Moore homestead. Joshua White came in 1819. Joseph Morey, among whose de- scendants have been some of the most prominent men in the later history of the town, was a settler previous to 1825, while the Williamsons, John McCarthy, Joseph Densmore and others whose names are now lost, were here about the same time.
Oliver A. Barstow, whose name has been closely associated with the history of the town, especially since 1860, came to the region in 1825. He was prominently identified with the politics of the county and the town, and was also a merchant in the village many years. So far as the records are clear, Mr. Barstow was supervisor in 1864-65, and again in 1871-72; was Member of As- sembly in 1866, and Justice of the Peace from 1862 to 1886.
ORGANIZATION .-- The aim of the writer of this chapter has been to trace the pioneer and early history of Nichols from the time the squatters first appeared to the civil organization of the town
479
TOWN OF NICHOLS.
as a separate division of the county. Of course the reader will understand that previous to the creation of Nichols, and after 1813, this territory formed a part of the older town of Tioga, and that the town of Owego preceded Tioga and included what is now Nichols from the organization of the county in 1791 down to 1813, when for convenience the towns of Owego and Tioga changed names. Previous to 1791, whatever there was of the exercise of civil authority over the territory of Nichols was as a part of the " Old Town of Chemung," the latter then one of the divisions of Montgomery county.
As shown by the census report of 1825, the inhabitants of the territory of Nichols numbered 951, therefore it was only natural that the people of the region should ask for a separate town out of the mother town of Tioga. The necessary act of the Legisla- ture was passed March 23, 1824, and all that part of Tioga lying south of the Susquehanna was erected into a separate town by the name of Nichols, and so named in allusion to Colonel Nichols, the patentee of a large tract of land within its boundaries.
The creating act also made provision for the first town meeting and the election of officers for the new jurisdiction, all of which was duly carried out. Town records, and especially the minute books of town meetings, are a fruitful source of information, both for the names of officers chosen annually and also for the light thrown on the facts of early settlement and the names of pioneers. However, in Nichols an unfortunate fire occured in 1864, during the clerkship of Luther Conant, and the town records were burn- ed. This misfortune cost us the customary list of first town offi- cers and as well the succession of incumbents of the leading offi- ces in the town. In 1864 the clerk began a new town book, from which is taken the following succession of supervisors from that year, while the names of persons mentioned as having held the office previous to that time are taken from a record kept by an in- terested editor living at the county seat. So far as obtainable the supervisors since 1847 have been as follows :
1847-George Wilson. 1851-52-II. W. Shoemaker. 1856-57-N. Lounsberry.
1848-Unknown. 1853-54-Harvey Coryell. 1858-Abram Westbrook.
1849-50-Harvey Coryell.
1855-Wm. R. Shoemaker. 1859-60-Peter II. Joslin.
480
OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
1861-62-John L. Howell. 1870-Selim Kirby. 1878-84-Robert II. Morey,
1863-Peter H. Joslin. 1871-72-Oliver A. Barstow. 1885-MeKean MeDowell.
1864-65-Oliver A. Barstow. 1873-74-Fred C. Coryell. 1886-90-Elmore Everett.
1866-68-John L. Howell. 1875-Mckean McDowell. 1891-97-Chas. P. Laning. 1869-Frederiek C. Coryell. 1876-77-Selim Kirby.
Among the still carlier supervisors of Nichols we may recall the names of Emanuel Coryell, 1824 ; Nehemiah Platt, 1825-27, and John Coryell in 1828.
TOWN OFFICERS, 1897-Supervisor, Charles P. Laning ; town clerk, John J. Howell ; assessors, George Newman, Warren A. Lane, John C. Bensley ; justices of the peace, Ransom W. Darling, George F. Lounsberry, Warren A. Smith, Elijah K. Evans; com- missioner of highways, Robert H. Morey ; overseers of the poor, John L. Hoyt, Michael Quilty ; collector, Charles McNiel ; con- stables, William Curkendoll, George K. McNiel, Philip S. Farn- ham, Charles McNiel.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.