USA > New York > Steuben County > Pioneer history & atlas of Steuben County, N.Y. : compiled from historical, statistical & official records > Part 3
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In 1929 about four times as much fluid milk was sold as in 1899. This increase in the produc- tion of fluid milk was due to the shift from the production of butter and the increased produc- tion per cow. The dairy cattle population of Steuben County in 1942 is 65,000 of which 37,000 are milking cows. There are 25,000 sheep; 350,000 hens; and 5,660 hogs.
By William Stempfle County Agricultural Agent
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GRINDSTONES
One mile north of Bath is a stratum of argillo-calcareous rock three feet thick. This furnishes an excellent building stone. The Che- mung group continues from the state line north as far as Painted Post. The tops of the high hills to the south are conglomerate at a few places.
Sandstone proper for grindstones is found along Bennett's and Rigg's Creeks. This layer is about 400 feet above the floor of the valley. Grindstones, in the early days, were obtained on the following farms, William Carter, in Canis- teo; William Stroud, in Woodhull; Colonel Tows- ley, in Jasper. Sandstone was quarried on the farm of Mr. Marshall near LaGrange, (now Greenwood,) which was used for tombstones, hearthstones, etc.
PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE
On November 21, 1788 the state of Massa- chusetts sold to Phelps and Gorham all its right, title and interest to lands in Western New York to about 2,600,000 acres of land for $100,000.00.
REFORESTATION STATE REFORESTATION AREAS IN STEUBEN COUNTY
FOREST DIST. No. 4 JUNE 11, 1942
Acres in
Acres
Acres Under Contract
Grand Total
Acres Reforested
Acres to be Reforested 1,293.43
Woods 840.81
Bath
2,134.24
2,134.24
Bradford
3,792.18
48.53
3,840.71
779.30
1,584.80
1,476.61
Cameron
1,086.76
1,086.76
493.30
593.46
Campbell
1,104.95
1,104.95
206.10
898.85
Erwin
530.82
530.82
148.20
382.62
Greenwood
1,179.39
1,179.39
271.67
310.96
596.76
Hornellsville
645.46
645.46
310.10
335.36
Hornby
2,340.05
2,340.05
239.82
1,153.27
946.96
Pulteney
73.81
73.81
36.00
37.81
Urbana
1,204.48
1,204.48
840.18
364.30
Wayne
308.69
308.69
216.08
92.61
Wheeler
703.46
703.46
425.71
277.75
Totals
15,105.29
48.53
15,152.82
1,290.79
7,018.13
6,843.90
By I. S. BOWLBY, District Forester
Forest District No. 4 N. Y. Conservation Dept.
June 11, 1942
Natural
Township
Owned
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FIRST HABITATION IN COUNTY
At Painted Post, the first habitation in Steuben County was erected by William Harris, an Indian trader from Pennsylvania in 1786. His intercourse with the Indians was of a friendly and confidential character. They helped him to build his log house.
Frederick Caulkins of Vermont was the first farmer. He made his settlement at the head of the Chimney Narrows in 1788.
FREEHOLDER
The freeholders of Steuben County generally derived their titles from Sir William Pulteney of England and his heirs. Sir William acquired his title from Robert Morris and Morris from Phelps and Gorham. The latter from the state of Massa- chusetts. And that commonwealth held title under the Royal Charter of James I,-King of Great Britain.
SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY IN 1859
In 1859 there were 350 school houses and 355 school districts in Steuben County. The number of teachers was 354. The number of children be- tween 4 and 21 was 25,717. The number of vol- umes in school libraries was 32,010. The appor- tionment of school monies in 1859 was $26,- 672.33. The total receipts were $42,912.11 in 1859. Total expenses in 1859 were $42,912.11
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GENERAL GEORGE MCCLURE (McMaster History, Page 146)
He was a pioneer of the early days of Bath, Urbana and Dansville and engaged in many un- dertakings. He was born. in 1770 in Ireland of Scotch ancestry. He attended school there from the age of 4 to 15,-when he decided to learn the carpentry trade. At the age of 20 he decided to embark for America. On his arrival in America his sole possessions consisted of three suits of clothes and three dozen linen shirts. On arrival at Baltimore he noticed the advertisement of Charles Williamson of North Umberland,-for carpenters to work at Bath. McClure persuaded his Uncle Moore to accompany him to Bath by pack horses. They found the river very high and on this account the Uncle decided to return to his home. McClure finally persuaded him to re- main and they crossed the river by swimming the horses by the side of a canoe. Finally they ar- rived at Lycoming, Pennsylvania. Between Ly- coming and Painted Post, a distance of 95 miles, there was but one house,-that of a Frenchman. Arriving at Painted Post they started for Bath. Arriving at Mud Creek, (now Savona, ) they found a hotel, where they remained for a short time. They finally arrived at Bath and stopped at a hotel kept by Mr. Metcalf. They called on Captain Williamson who welcomed these new arrivals gladly. McClure contracted with Cap- tain Williamson to build houses and other build- ings but before beginning work, he made two trips back to North Umberland to procure tools and men. He bought four canoes to transport goods, and arrived in Bath in 9 days. He had contracted with Captain Williamson, to erect a building 40 feet by 16 feet in 3 days. He had 30 hands on the job and completed the building in 48 hours or in 2 days. At that time they had found no suitable stone for walls. His next un- dertaking was a theatre, 80 feet by 40 feet. The next was to clear 100 acres for a race track. Captain Williamson ordered a committee to ex- plore the possibilities of clearing away impedi- ments to navigation in the Conhocton River and Mud Creek,-and make a report as to estimated cost. Williamson wanted these streams to be capable of bearing arks of 75 feet by 16 feet.
The estimate for this work was $700.00. The following season McClure built an ark of 75 feet by 16 feet and loaded it with lumber, staves, and wooden pipe. With this cargo he started out for North Umberland. He disposed of this before he reached his destination and returned to Bath. In 1795 he decided to change his occupation from carpenter to that of merchant and went to Albany on horseback to buy goods. On his arrival there he purchased a large quantity of goods and also a boat for transportation of the goods to the west. He had only gone some 30 or 40 miles up the Mohawk River when ice formed and he was unable to move his boat further. Not discouraged he transported the goods by sleighs to Bath.
His brother, Charles McClure, had opened a small store in Bath, -with whom he went in partnership and opened another store in Dans- ville. The first year in Dansville he took in 4,000 bushels of wheat and 200 barrels of pork. He built 4 arks at Arkport to transport his wheat and pork to Baltimore by way of the Canisteo, Che- mung, and Susquehanna Rivers. These were the first arks to descend the Canisteo River. The trip was a success and gave him a fair start in business. He also opened a store at Penn Yan and at Pittstown, (Ontario County). At this time he bought a mill site of one Skinner, a Quaker, with 200 acres of land. He also pur- chased 800 acres from the land office and others, in order to secure the whole water privilege. He erected a flouring mill, saw mill, fulling mill, and carding machine. He distributed hand bills all through the country offering a good price for wheat delivered at his mills or at any of his stores. He received in the course of the winter 20,000 bushels of wheat. During the winter he built 8 arks at Bath and 4 on the Canisteo and in the spring transported the flour to Baltimore and the wheat to Columbia. The river was in fine order and he made a prosperous voyage and a profitable sale. His next project was to build a schooner on Crooked Lake of about 30 tons bur- den. He erected a storehouse at each end of Crooked Lake. The schooner and storehouses cost $1400 and turned out to be a total loss since the lake was frozen over at the time he most wanted to use it. Indians were very numerous at that time. Their hunting camps were within a
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short distance of each other all over the county. good advantage. In the year 1814 he sold his The Indian trade was a business object. He hired an Indian, (a Seneca) chief who could speak English, to accompany him as interpreter. With this interpreter he set out on a trading expedi- tion among the Indians. He told them to come to see him with their furs and pelts and deer hams and he would buy them all and pay them in goods. They wanted to know particularly if they had rum and wine or "fire-water". That fall he took in an immense quantity of furs, pelts and deer hams. He salted and smoked about 3,000 hams. He paid two shillings per ham, large or small and sold them in Baltimore and Philadel- phia for two shillings per pound. The next spring he started down the rivers, Conhocton and Canis- teo, with a large fleet of arks loaded with flour, wheat, pork and other articles. The embargo was in full force and the price of wheat and flour was very low. The loss sustained in flour and wheat was great but he did not feel it to be any serious interruption to his business. He sus- pended the purchase of wheat and opened a large distillery, thus opening a market to the farmers for their rye, corn and even wheat which he con- verted into "fire-water" as the Indians very properly called it. Jefferson's embargo did not injure the sale of it but the contrary, as whiskey was then worth by the barrel from 8 to 10 shil- lings per gallon. He purchased in the fall, droves of cattle and sent them to Philadelphia. He also fed 40 head of the best and largest cattle in the winter, which he shipped on arks to Columbia and drove to Philadelphia where they sold to
Cold Springs mills to Henry A. Townsend for $14,000. He erected other mills at Bath. In 1816 he ran down to Baltimore about 1 million feet of pine lumber and 100,000 feet of cherry boards and curly maple. He chartered three brigs and shipped his cherry and curly maple and 500 bar- rels of flour to Boston, selling the flour at a fair price but his lumber was a dead weight on his hands. An inventor of a machine for spinning wool by water power, sold him one of his ma- chines for $2,500 taking lumber in payment. He was doing well with his woolen manufacture until Congress reduced the tariff for the protec- tion of home industry to a mere normal tax. The country immediately after was flooded with for- eign fabrics and but few woolen factories sur- vived the shock.
The estimation General George McClure was held in by the people of Bath and Steuben County is evidenced by the place he occupied in the government of the town and county. First he was appointed justice of the peace, next a judge of the court of common pleas, and surro- gate of the county. In 1816 he was appointed high sheriff of the county holding that office for four years. He was postmaster of the village of Bath for about eight years. The good people of Steuben also elected him three years in succession to represent them in the legislature in the State of New York. This brief narrative is nothing more than a mere synopsis of some of the princi- pal events of the last 60 years of his life. He died in Elgin, Illinois in 1851.
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A SETTLER'S HOME
(From McMaster's History of Steuben County)
"As I was traveling through the county on horseback on a summer day in an early year of settlement I fell in company with two gentlemen who were going in the same direction. One of them was the land agent from Bath, who was go- ing to the Genesee River. The other was a for- eigner on his way from Easton in Pennsylvania to Presque Isle, (now Erie,) on Lake Erie. We had followed in Indian file a mere path through the woods for several miles, passing at long inter- vals a log house where the occupants had just made a beginning; when, having passed the out- skirts of settlement and penetrated deep into the woods, our attention was attracted by the tinkling of a cow bell and the sound of an axe in chopping. We soon saw a little break in the forest and a log house. As we approached, we heard the loud bark- ing of a dog and as we got nearer the clearing, were met by him with an angry growl as if he would have said: 'You can come no farther with- cut my master's permission'. A shrill whistle from within called off the dog. We proceeded to the house. A short distance from it, standing on the fallen trunk of a large hemlock tree which he had just chopped in two, was a fine looking young man, four or five and twenty years of age, with an axe in his hand. He was dressed in a tow-frock and trousers, with his head and feet bare. The frock opened at the top, showed that he wore no shirt and exhibited the muscular shoulders and full chest of a very athletic and powerful man. When we stopped our horses he stepped off the log, shook hands with the agent and saluted us frankly. He asked us to dismount and rest our- selves, urging that the distance to the next house was six miles, with nothing but marked trees to guide us a part of the way; that it was nearly noon and, although he could not promise anything very good to eat, yet he could give us something to prevent us from suffering from hunger. He had no grass growing yet but he would give the horses some green oats. We concluded to accept the invitation and dismounted and went into the house. Before describing the house, I will note the appearance of things around it. Premising that; the settler had begun his improvements in
the Spring before our arrival. A little boy about three years old was playing with the dog, which, though so resolute at our approach, now permit- ted the child to push him over and sit down upon him. A pair of oxen and a cow with a bell on, were lying in the shade of the woods ; two or three hogs were rooting in the leaves near the cattle, and a few fowls were scratching the soil. There was a clearing or rather chopping around the house of about four acres, half of which had been cleared off and sowed with oats, which had grown very rank and good. The other half of the chopping had been merely burnt over and then planted with corn and potatoes, a hill being planted wherever there was room between the logs. The corn did not look very well. The chopping was inclosed with a log fence. A short distance from the house a fine spring of water gushed out of the gravel bank from which a small brook ran down across the clearing, along the borders of which a few geese were feeding. When we entered the house the young settler said, 'Wife, here is the land- agent and two other men' and turning to us said,-'This is my wife.' She was a pretty look- ing young woman dressed in a coarse, loose dress and bare footed. When her husband introduced us she was a good deal embarrassed and the flash of her dark eyes and the crimson glow that passed over her countenance showed that she was vexed at our intrusion. The young settler observed her vexation and said, 'Never mind Sally, the Squire (so he called the agent,) knows how people have to live in the woods.' She regained her composure in a moment and greeted us hospitably and with- out any apology for her house or her costume. After a few minutes' conversation, on the set- tler's suggestion that he had promised 'these men something to eat, to prevent their getting hungry' she began to prepare the frugal meal. When we first entered the house she sat near the door, spin- ning flax on a little wheel and a baby was lying near her in a cradle formed of the bark of a birch tree which, rested like a trough on rockers, made a very smooth, neat little cradle. While the settler and his other guests were engaged in conversa- tion, I took notice of the house and furniture. The house was about 20 by 26 feet, constructed of round logs, chinked with pieces of split logs and plastered on the outside with clay. The floors
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were made of split logs with the flat side up; the door of thin pieces split out of a large log and the roof of the same. The windows were holes unprotected by glass or sash. The fire- place was made of stone and the chimney of sticks and clay. On one side of the fireplace was a ladder leading to the chamber. There was a bed in one corner of the room, a table and five or six chairs. and on one side a few shelves of split board, on which were a few articles of crockery and some tinware and on one of them a few books. Behind the door was a large spinning wheel and a reel, and overhead on wooden hooks, fastened to the beams were a number of things, among which were a nice rifle, powder horn, bul- let pouch, tomahawk, and hunting knife,-com- plete equipment of a hunter and the frontier set- tler. Everything looked nice and tidy even to the rough stones which had been laid down for a hearth.
In a short time our dinner was ready. It con- sisted of cornbread and milk eaten out of tin basins with iron spoons. The settler ate with us but his wife was employed while we were at din- ner, in sewing on what appeared to be a child's dress. The settler and the agent talked all the time, generally on the subject of the settlement of the country. After dinner the latter and his com- panions took their departure, the one making the little boy the present of a half dollar and the other giving the same sum to the baby.
I have now introduced to the reader one of the best and most intelligent among the first set- tlers of the county. He was a man of limited in- formation except as to what related to his own particular business, but his judgment was good and he was frank, candid and fearless. He be- longed to that class of men who distinguished themselves as soldiers during our Revolutionary War and who were in many instances the descen- dlants of the celebrated 'Bold Yeomanry of Old England,' whose praises were commemorated by the English bard when he wrote,-"Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them as a breath has made; But a bold yoemanry, their country's pride, When once de- stroyed can never be supplied".
THE PIONEERING OF STEUBEN COUNTY By Reuben B. Oldfield
The hardy men and women who first made Steuben County their homeland were people of great industry, perseverance and ingenuity. By the "sweat of their brows," they cleared the fields, constructed the highways, built the bridges, and transformed a wilderness of forest into comfort- able homesteads, and progressive communities. Most of them arrived in heavy wagons drawn by oxen and aside from the few cattle, sheep or swine driven ahead of the lumbering vehicle, all of their property was packed on the ox cart. The first move was to secure a plot of land, the next was to build a log cabin, stables and other shelter for the domestic animals. A well or spring was also of primary importance. If there was no spring a well was dug, for water must be avail- able for man and beast. Land must be cleared, and the huge tree trunks either burned or hauled to the sawmill. Most of the timber was burned, until numerous sawmills came into operation along the rivers and creeks. This marked the start of the lumbering era.
The early sawmills used the upright saw which chewed its way lengthwise through the log. The "buzz" or circular saw was unknown till after the Civil War. These old upright "jigs" cut about a thousand feet of lumber per day and required frequent sharpening which necessitated stopping the mill. Water power was the only means then known for driving these mills, for steam engines were then in the experimental stage, and were too costly for the backwoods.
The pioneer having cleared his plot of all but the stumps, plowed the uneven soil with a wooden plow having an iron tip. He usually made the plow himself and the blacksmith supplied the point. It was a poor job of plowing, for roots and stones interfered as the oxen zigzagged between the stumps. But he planted his crops, and year by year the soil became more tillable. The stumps of the pine refused to decay, but the ingenious set- tlers invented a stump-puller around which the oxen plodded, slowly winding a great screw on a sort of tripod by means of which the stump was
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literally pulled-by-the-roots. Stump fences were made of these. Pine rails, easily split and durable, were prized as fence material. They were laid zig- zag to form the "worm" fence, the corners of which might be crossed with stakes driven into the ground and topped with extra rails, and then the fence was called a "stake and rider." This type of fence was most common, although many other types of rail fences were evolved. Stone walls, faced on both sides, and substantially put together were effective and lasting, but were slow of construction. When lumber became available, the board fence became popular, and many Steu- ben farmers built ornate models of these, painted and capped in a "workmanlike manner." Elabo- rate gateways made of heavy timbers in the form of a great square through which a load of hay might be driven, were fashioned to hold a pon- derous gate which swung easily on wrought iron hinges were not at all rare along in the 1840's, but the usual gateway was a simple contrivance made to slide and swing on greased cleats. Simple bars were first used by the pioneers.
The early settler's first crop was usually wheat, corn, rye, or oats. Flax and hemp were ex- tensively raised, but potatoes and beans were gar- den vegetables, as were squash and cabbage. Fine melons matured in the rich soil. Barley was one of the popular grain crops, the two-rowed and the six-rowed both being raised. Tobacco was a staple crop and was cured for domestic use. The other field and garden crops included practically every- thing now raised in this section. The pioneer made in a "domestic way" nearly all of the arti- cles needed for daily use. Hemp supplied him with a coarse fiber for ropes and heavy cloth ; flax gave him tow for twine and linen for the finest cloth; wool from the backs of his own sheep was carded, spun and woven into homespun. Even the fulling and dyeing of fabrics was done in the old log cab- in. Among the many dyes used were oak galls, hazelnut husks, walnut husks, hickorynut husks, sumac bark and bobs,-for black. Locust and poplar bark produced a yellow, sassafras bark a red, poke berries a Tyrian purple, wortleberries a mazarine blue, and walnut bark a delightful olive. Copperas, alum and salts of tartar were the usual mordants used although a solution of tin was adopted later. They made their own woof and
warp and spun their own thread. Many tanneries were set up and the farmer took his pelts to these to be tanned into leather. Many men made their own boots but traveling cobblers visited the log cabins and stayed long enough to make shoes for the entire family. Small children usually had no shoes either in summer or winter. Many a tot rode on his big brother's back to school when the snows were deep.
Harness makers opened shops or traveled from cabin to cabin with their trees, awls and waxed-ends tipped with hog bristles. They made horse collars and even saddles but saddle-making was usually confined to saddler shops in larger villages. The need for buckets, kegs and barrels brought cooper shops. At first these utensils were made entirely of wood,-hoops, staves and bails being of wood. Basket making was an art in- (lulged in by many a frontier woman,-when she had time from her spinning, weaving, or knitting. The metal workers such as the blacksmith and the gunsmith soon came in the wake of the settlers. The blacksmith ranked as a first essential. He made the plow points, the drag teeth, the scythes and the sickles. From his anvil came coulters and clevises, chains, picks, axes and crowbars. For the housewife he fashioned pothooks for the fire- crane, tongs, knives and scores of other needed ar- ticles. He shod the horses and the oxen, he ham- mered out hinges and hasps for the doors, he made the very nails which held the building to- gether. His was a life of service. The gunsmith not only repaired all sorts of firearms, but in many instances made guns and pistols complete from butt to fore sight. A noted gunsmith of Steuben County who became widely known for the excellence of his hand-made rifles and "fowl- ing pieces" was Berry Wood of Painted Post.
The harvesting of crops was a real problem to the early settler. The hand sickle was much used in cutting grains until the lessened number of stumps gave room to swing the cradle. The swath, cut by an expert cradler lay in a windrow with the heads of the grain to the left and the "raker and binder" who followed with his wooden rake, made sheaves of a most uniform size, binding them with "bands" made of two lengths of the grain ingeniously knotted together at the tops. The sheaves were set up in shocks or "stocks" and
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when dry were taken to the threshing floor, which was usually the main floor of the barn. Here a single layer of the sheaves was set, tops up, and the grain beaten out either by horses or oxen be- ing driven over the "flooring," or by means of the flail. The flail consisted of a long "stale" or handle the far end of which ended in a round nub below which a thong of eelskin was wrapped loosely enough to allow free play in turning. The eelskin passed through a round hole in the swingle, or beater. This last was of light hard wood, usually ash or hickory, and was about a yard in length and about two and a half inches in thickness. The flailer seized the stale in both hands and swung the swingle in an alternately rising and falling circle. The swingle rebounded from the impact with which it struck the grain, and a skilled flailer would keep the beater traveling in a continuous circle thumping the grain heads with prodigious thwacks at each descent. The straw was shaken from the threshed grain, and the kernels were then ready to winnow in the wind to separate them from the chaff. Most of the barns were built so that the wind had free play over the threshing floors. The grain was poured from a height while the wind blew the chaff and dust free from the kernels .- which by the way were often called "berries." The hay was cut with scythes, allowed to dry in the swath, piled into hay-cocks, and then hauled to the barn, or stacked. Few of the native grasses were suitable for domestic cattle and "tame" grasses were sown along with grain crops, the hay being harvested the second and third years thereafter.
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