USA > New York > Steuben County > Pioneer history & atlas of Steuben County, N.Y. : compiled from historical, statistical & official records > Part 7
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The town was well supplied with churches and schools.
Corning is known as the Crystal City. The Corning Glass Works at Corning were established in 1868 by Amory Houghton, and became widely known. Glass cutting and engraving was a separate and distinct operation and was con- ducted by John Hoare.
Corning Free Academy
The first school was opened September 2, 1839 in a log building. The first schoolhouse was built in 1846 on First Street, site of the present Court House park. Several additions were made prior to 1861, when the old Methodist Church was purchased by the School Board, moved and joined to the schoolhouse.
To meet the increasing growth in population it was voted in 1859 to borrow funds for a new academy. The Corning Free Academy was es- tablished by an act of the Legislature in 1859. Before this time there was only the ordinary
district school. With the growth of the village the school facilities and buildings kept pace. On September 1, 1873 the old Corning Free Academy was opened. The cost of the building was $70,000. The curriculum embraced Mathematics, Science, Literature, History, Music, Painting, etc. This institution was an outstanding place of learning.
From the log schoolhouse in 1839 with one teacher, to the present system employing a faculty of 72 members, with a registration of 1,300 pupils, is a long, long step which taxes our imagination.
Today the activities embrace baseball, bas- ketball, football teams, etc. The auditorium has a capacity of 900. The gymnasium is well equipped, with athletic instructors for boys and girls.
Under the present very efficient manage- ment the school has steadily advanced in scho- lastic training.
Corning Northside
The Corning Northside High School was organized in June, 1899. The school facilities of Corning Northside system of schools affords pupils a wide choice of subjects and vocational training as attested by the following activities : Band, Orchestra, Glee Clubs with two music in- structors; Vocational Homemaking with two instructors; Commercial Department with three instructors; Vocational Agriculture, Library containing 5,560 volumes, Health Department, School Nurses and Dental Hygienist, Medical Inspectors, two Guidance Counsellors. Sports include basketball and baseball, touch football, cross country, tennis, gymnasium. There is an athletic field and Pyrex Park is also used. The auditorium has a capacity of 1,100. There are three athletic instructors. The registration today is 1,700 with a faculty numbering 60.
The advancement attained by the school scholastically and its other useful activities, show the system to be under a capable and progres- sive faculty.
CORNING
In 1873 the New York State Arsenal oc- cupied the block between Washington and Ham- ilton and First and Second Streets.
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DANSVILLE
Dansville was named from Daniel P. Faulk- ner, an early and spirited citizen known as Captain Dan. Dansville was formed in March, 1796. Parts of Cohocton and Howard were taken off in 1812, a part of Wayland in 1848 and Fremont in 1854, a part was annexed to Sparta in 1822, and a part of Cohocton was reannexed April 26, 1834.
It is the north town upon the west border of the county. The surface is mostly an upland, divided into ridges by the narrow valleys of small streams. The declivities of the hills are steep and their summits are 300 to 400 feet above the valleys. The streams are head branches of Canaseraga Creek, flowing north, and Canisteo River, flowing south. The soil is a sandy and gravelly loam in the east and north, and gravel underlaid by hardpan in the southwest.
Rodgersville, (South Dansville,) contained in 1855, two churches and an academy, the Rodgersville Academy, organized in 1849. The buildings were erected in 1852 as were those of Rodgersville Union Seminary.
Burns, had in 1855, about 15 houses and Doty's Corners was a postoffice. It is today a station on the Erie and Shawmut Railroads.
The first settlement was made in 1804 by Isaac Sterling and Samuel Gibson. Other first settlers were James, John and Major Jones, Frederic Fry, William Ganong, Thomas and Nathaniel Brayton, Tisdale Haskin. Robert Fuller built the first sawmill in 1820, and a grist- mill which was carried away by a flood. Handy and Miller built the first grist-mill in 1825. Isaac Sterling kept the first inn in 1806. The first school was taught by James Jones in 1811.
William C. Rogers in 1848 established a select high school with one department. The first principal was the Rev. J. Strough. The Rodgersville Union Seminary was chartered by the Regents of the State University January 28, 1853.
The building was 3 stories and contained a large chapel, 4 recitation rooms, a library and 40 dormitories.
Tuition: Preparatory $6; provisional and normal $7; academic $8; incidentals $1; instru-
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mental music $10; vocal music $1.50; use of in- strument $2; telegraphy $10; drawing $3; board at hall per week $2.75; room rent per student $1.75.
Courses of study embraced Algebra, Plane Geometry, Trigonometry, Physiology, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Astronomy, Zoology, Natu- l'al Philosophy, American and General History, Rhetoric, Physical Geography, Mental Philoso- phy, Bookkeeping, English Literature, Science of Government, Drawing, Latin, Greek, French and German.
The first Methodist meeting was held in the house of George Butler on Oak Hill in the Spring of 1817.
The walls of the first house of worship in the town, remembered by the old families as "The Old Log Church," were erected in 1819, and occupied immediately. Cyril Buck and Philander Hitchcock secretly purchased a stove and put it up in the church without the knowledge of others.
The first Baptist meeting was held at Beach- ville in 1819 in the old log schoolhouse.
All lumber and grain in pioneer days were hauled by ox team to Arkport for transportation to tide water.
The north part of the town to the east of Stony Brook was a high sandy plain originally covered by a light growth of oak and yellow pine, which had been annually burned over by the Indians to make a hunting ground. The first crop of wheat on the sand hills was pulled up by the settlers, it being too short to reap. The heads were cut off over a stump with a broadaxe.
Lime was burned at Rodgersville, and pot- ash made everywhere. Wood was burned for charcoal for use by the blacksmith. The price was $4 per 100 weight.
The region boasted wildcats, raccoons, foxes, etc. The last bear was killed by Uncle Charles Tripp in 1846, between Rodgersville and Loon Lake. .
John Brail in 1817 built a log house. His fireplace occupied the entire end of the house and
was an enclosure of huge stones resting upon the ground. The chimney commencing at the garret floor consisted of sticks thoroughly plastered with mud, and extended just above the roof. Great logs which were shoved in on rollers by the entire efforts of the family kept the fire for 6 or 8 days. Pitch pine faggots furnished the only light for years.
Cows were scarce, but you could buy a cow when you could not buy bread. The staple article of food for 1818 and 1819 was boiled rye and milk.
On Oak Hill in 1816 and 1817 a settlement was made by Moses Hurlburt, Joshua Williams, Daniel, George and Gubbard Griswold, William C. Rogers, Thomas Buck, George Butler and Joshua Woodard.
The census reports six churches in 1855.
One of the early churches was Universalist. This is now the town hall. It stands just south of the grove where the academy and seminary once stood. Nothing remains of the academy and seminary that William C. Rogers was instru- mental in building.
At Kurtz Hollow, (about 1 mile north of Rodgersville), was a carding mill, sawmill and grist-mill.
The early hotel was run by Chauncey Day. This building is now the Masonic Hall, across from the large general store.
There was a foundry in Rodgersville at an early date. Also, 2 lime kilns, a store and wagon shop and a boot and shoe factory. The lime for the kilns was taken from a marl deposit near the village and burned in the kilns.
At one time a chair and table factory was operated at Rodgersville.
Charles Oliver was an early land surveyor. Phoebe Oliver Briggs was the daughter of Cap- tain Charles Oliver of the Militia of 1816. Mrs. Briggs inherited the Oliver home and has given it to the Society of Daughters of the American Revolution of Dansville, N. Y.
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ERWIN
Erwin, named for Colonel Arthur Erwin of Erwina, Bucks County, Pa., an officer of the Revolutionary War by whom the township was purchased of Phelps and Gorham in Canandai- gua, N. Y. in 1789. Erwin was formed from Painted Post January 27, 1826. Lindley was taken off in 1837 and a part of Corning was annexed in 1856. It lays west of Corning in the southeast part of the county.
Its surface is about equally divided between high rolling uplands and the low valleys of streams. The summits of the hills are 400 to 600 feet above the valleys. Tioga and Canisteo Rivers unite in the southeast part of the town and Tioga and Conhocton Rivers in the north- east, forming the Chemung River. The valleys of these streams are 1 to 2 miles wide. The soil upon the hills is a shaley and clayey loam and in
the valleys is a fine quality of alluvium. Nearly all the hill surface in 1855 was covered with forests. The lumber trade was extensively pur- sued.
Painted Post, situated at the junction of Conhocton and Tioga Rivers, is a station on the Erie. R. R. It contained in 1855 2 churches, a bank, an iron foundry, a machine shop, a tannery and a flour mill. Population was 777.
One mile west of Painted Post at Gang Mills, was a saw, shingle and planing mill which gave employment to seventy-five men and turned out eight million to eleven million feet of lumber per year. At its height in 1870, it was said to have the largest daily capacity of any mill in the U. S. Its capacity was 100,000 feet of white pine daily.
In the summer of 1789 Colonel Arthur Erwin set out from his home in Bucks County, Pa., with a good number of helpers and a herd of cattle bound for Canandaigua, the seat of operation of the Phelps and Gorham proprie- tary. This adventurous pioneer came with the determination to locate in the Genesee country and brought with him a fair drove of cattle to be turned into cash or used as stock on his pro- posed purchase. At that time the fact was well known that William Harris, trapper and Indian trader had a cabin within the limits of the pres- ent village of Painted Post.
It was here that Colonel Erwin stopped to rest his cattle. The location and general outlook pleased him and he immediately resumed his journey to Canandiagua. Reaching there he at once inquired if township No. 2, range 2 was in the market and if so at what price. Phelps charged and Erwin paid the gross sum of 1400 pounds in N. Y. money for the township, turning his cattle in part payment and cash for the bal- ance and thus became the owner of the town.
Three years previous to the foregoing event in 1786 William Harris built a cabin on the vil- lage site and employed himself in trapping, cur- ing and dealing in furs and trading among the Indian occupants of the region. He was not in any sense a pioneer and made no attempt at clear- ing or improving the land. William Harris was the son of the founder of Harrisburg, Pa. He
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later moved his activities to Canandaigua and other places. He finally bought a large farm in Potter County, Pa., where he died.
Augustus Porter, surveyor for Phelps and Gorham, made the Harris cabin his headquar- ters while laying out the townships for this part of Ontario County.
Among the other early settlers in the town were Benjamin Patterson, famed throughout the region for his hunting proclivities, and as well for his generous hospitality as a tavern keeper. As a story teller and general entertainer he was without a peer in the town.
Prominent also among the pioneers was John E. Evans, who taught the first school in the town and who was later postmaster. Also George Young and Edward Cooper, all of whom were identified with the town in its early history.
After Colonel Erwin's death his property was divided among his children, of whom Samuel, Francis, Arthur, Rebecca and Mrs. Mul- hollen became residents of the town.
The first supervisor was Samuel Erwin, in 1826.
FLOODS
The town of Erwin, having within its boun- daries parts of four considerable rivers, has several times been subjected to serious inunda- tions. Some of the occasions have passed into history as notable events, hence worthy of at least passing mention. In the fall of 1817, there came what has ever been known as the Pumpkin Flood, by which crops, cattle and many dwellings were swept away.
In 1833 waters of both Conhocton and Tioga were swollen to an unusual degree and some damage and still more excitement was the result.
Next came the great flood of 1867, and also the flood known as St. Patrick's Day flood.
In 1889 there occurred the Johnstown flood and in 1935 a very large flood which furnished the cause for flood control.
Samuel Erwin built the first sawmill in 1820 and the first grist-mill in 1823.
David Fuller kept the first inn in 1792.
In 1788 Saxton and Porter, surveyors for the Phelps and Gorham purchase were located at Painted Post. They were engaged in surveying and establishing township lines and dividing these into lots and numbering them.
The Weston Imperial Engine Manufactur- ing Company is located at Painted Post. Also located here is the large Ingersoll Rand Co., manufacturing war materials and employing a large number of men.
COOPERS PLAINS
Coopers Plains is a village at the northern edge of the town of Erwin. The first clearing was made on the farm now owned by F. F. Pierce. Coopers Plains was a postoffice in the early days.
Fred Cooper operated a chair factory and grist-mill about 60 years ago, and a foundry manufacturing plows was in operation. There were 3 blacksmith shops, 2 wagon shops, a brew- ery and a hotel. About 1 mile west of the village is a marl deposit of considerable size.
John Williams, a Hessian soldier who fought under General Burgoyne, is buried in the cemetery.
The first schoolhouse was of logs.
The year 1816 was known hereabouts as the year without a summer. It is claimed that every day had its frost.
PAINTED POST-Town of Erwin
This is the accepted story of the origin of the name,-Painted Post.
In the summer of 1779, a party of tories and Indians, under the command of a loyalist named McDonald, returned from an excursion into the Susquehanna settlements, bringing with them many of their number wounded. At the confluence of Tioga and Conhocton Rivers, Cap- tain Montour, son of the famous Queen Cath- erine, a chief of great promise, died of his wounds. "His comrades buried him by the river- side, and planted above his grave a post on which
(Continued on page 59, column 2)
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I HOWARD
FREMONT
Fremont was named in honor of Colonel John C. Fremont. It was formed from Hor- nellsville, Dansville, Wayland and Howard No- vember 17, 1854. It is an interior town laying northwest of the center of the county.
Its surface is a high upland, forming a part of the dividing ridge between Canisteo and Con- hocton Rivers. Its streams are small brooks. The soil is chiefly a shaley loam derived from the disintegration of the surface rocks.
Fremont Center, (Stephens Mills) and Has- kinville are hamlets as is Big Creek also. First settlement was made in 1812 by Job B. Rathbun, Amos Baldwin and Sylvester Buck. Job B. Rathbun settled in the eastern part of the town at what is known as Job's Corners which was named after him. In 1813 and 1814, John Buck, Joel Evert and Daniel Atherton settled in the town. Nehemiah Luther and others settled in 1816.
Daniel Upson built the first sawmill in 1816, and the first grist-mill in 1819. The first school was taught by Lydia Evert in 1819. The first religious service was conducted by Rev. Ford in 1814. There was one Methodist Episcopal Church in the town in 1855.
Elisha J. Stephens moved from Canisteo to Stephens Mills to operate the Upson saw and grist mills built in 1816 and 1819. He made re- pairs and added a separator and a smut mill, a new thing in those days. It induced customers to come from long distances, even passing by other mills.
A blacksmith located at the mill, also a cooper located there and made barrels for flour, and other wooden articles.
Some of the first roads or trails consisted mostly of blazed spots on the trees. Four or five families formed a settlement at the head of Neils Creek in 1819. When these settlers arrived there was a camp of some 20 Indians on what was later the Cotton place in the valley where they hunted during the season.
William Haskin settled across the creek from Mr. Cotton in 1818. William Holden had a shingle mill as early as 1834. William Haskin opened the first tavern in the town in 1836. Has-
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kinville grew around the tavern, and it had a store, cheese factory, shoe shop, blacksmith shop, and half a mile above Haskinville was the sawmill. The settlement grew to 20 dwellings.
Daniel Upson in 1818 killed the last elk seen in the region, but wolves remained much later. The bounty on wolves was said to be from $40 to $60 per wolf.
Sometimes these early settlers were in want of bread, and when Mr. Upson was repairing his mill and started it on Saturday night for the settlers who were waiting with backloads of corn, he was forced to grind all night and far into the Sabbath that their little ones might have bread.
There were at one time four cheese factories in the town located respectively on Big Creek, at Haskinville, near Stephens Mills, and on Harding Hill.
Job B. Rathbun came from Connecticut and settled in Dansville as early as 1810, removing to Job's Corners in 1812. His was the first house built in the town.
Solomon Gates and his brother, Levi Gates, settled in the town in 1816 just east of Fremont Center.
At Stephens Mills in 1870 and prior thereto there was a hotel, store, wagon shop, blacksmith shop, 2 sawmills, 1 grist-mill and a cheese fac- tory.
At Big Creek there was a cheese factory, blacksmith shop and sawmill.
ERWIN
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were painted various symbols and rude devices. This monument was known throughout the Genesee forests as 'The Painted Post'. It was a landmark well known to all the Six Nations, and was often visited by their braves and chieftains." This account of the origin of the Painted Post was given to Benjamin Patterson, the hunter, by a man named Taggart, who was carried to Fort Niagara a prisoner by McDonald's party, and was a witness of the burial of Captain Montour, or at least was in the encampment at the mouth of the Tioga at the time of his death. Colonel Harper, of Harpersfield, the well known officer of the frontier militia of New York in the Revo- lution, informed Judge Knox of Knoxville in this county, that the Painted Post was erected over the grave of a chief who was wounded at the bat- tle of the "hog-back" and brought in a canoe to the head of the Chemung, where he died. It was well understood by the early settlers that this monu- ment was erected in memory of some distin- guished warrior who had been wounded in one of the border battles of the Revolution and after- ward died at this place. The post stood for many years after the settlement of the country, and the story goes that it rotted down at the butt, and was preserved in the barròom of a tavern till about the year 1810 and then mysteriously dis- appeared. It is also said to have been swept away in a freshet.
-(McMaster's History of Steuben) ERWIN By Charles H. Erwin
That the area now occupied by the village of Painted Post was a favorite haunt of the red man long previous to the settlement of the whites, is surely indicated by the great abundance of In- dian relics-stone hatchets, flint arrowheads and lance points, pottery, mortars, amulets, and graves abound in great profusion.
Many Indian graves have been found in Painted Post and vicinity. These graves disclose skeletons in sitting posture, amply provided with
(Continued on page 63, column 2)
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GREENWOOD
Greenwood was formed from Troupsburg and Canisteo January 24, 1827. West Union was taken off in 1845. A part of Jasper was annexed in 1848.
The town was named by Alexander H. Stephens,-one of the early and most influential citizens. The hills and valleys were heavily tim- bered with pine and hemlock which added a deep green color to the scenery. Because of this, it is thought, the town derived its name of Greenwood.
Greenwood lays upon the west boundary of the county south of center. Its surface is mostly of rolling upland. Bennett Creek flows north- erly through the east part of the town in a val- ley 400 to 600 feet below the summits of the hills. The soil is a gravelly and clayey loam.
Greenwood Village is on Bennett Creek and contained in 1855 one church and 35 houses. West Greenwood was the post office. The first settlement was made in 1820 by Alexander H. Stephens. In the spring of 1821 Alexander H. Stephens and Anson Robertson cleared land and built a sawmill about one mile north of Green- wood. The families did not arrive until the mill was completed. Anson Robertson, and Chris- tian Cobey, John H., Ezra and Phineas Stephens, Eleazer Woodward, John J. Hoyt. H. Carr, and Lewis Ordway settled in the town in 1822. The first grist-mill was built by Colonel John H. Stephens. The first inn and store were kept by Levi Davis, who was the first supervisor. Sarah Carr taught the first school.
Benjamin F. Brundage came to Greenwood in 1830 and erected the first woolen and carding mill in the town. It was a successful business until destroyed by fire in 1846. This was re- placed by a flouring mill.
Levi Davis bought the site of the present village of Greenwood in the fall of 1824. In March, 1825 he moved into his new log cabin and opened a tavern and store. In one corner of the room a bar was fenced off,-in which he sold goods consisting mainly of tea, snuff, cotton cloth, tobacco, pork, whiskey, oats, hay, and indigo for coloring cloth. Whiskey at that time sold for 20c a gallon at the still. He manufactured pot and pearl ash, which business he carried on
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for 30 years. The first post office was at his store.
The farmers, when clearing their land. gathered and saved the ashes which they boiled down during bad weather,-selling the black ash at the store. Several hundred bushels of ashes were required for a ton of potash, which would be worth from $80.00 to $100.00. A man could make $10.00 a month by gathering his ashes and boiling down the proceeds. This was a cash business. The Liverpool markets readily ab- sorbed these chemicals until the Russians en- tered into competition some years later.
Joshua L. Chapman, a boy only 15 years old, carried the mail on horseback through the dense forest from Hornellsville through Canisteo to Greenwood. The journey took one day each way.
In 1830 David Foote and William Ferguson opened a coffin and furniture manufactory. Some of their heavy carved work is still preserved.
A tannery was operated on Woodard Creek northeast of the village. There was also a brick yard and lime kiln in Greenwood, as well as a hotel. There was a gunsmith, three blacksmith shops, harness making, cabinet and wagon shops, foundry, cooper shop, cheese factory and cream- ery. Butter was packed in 100-pound tubs or firkins and buyers came once or twice a year to buy. The first three firkins of butter were ship- ped by James McCormick in 1834.
The first meetings of the Methodist Church were held as early as 1825. The Universalist Church was organized in 1851. The church was built and dedicated in 1852. In 1860 a Wesleyan Methodist Society was organized on Danby Hill. The Christian Church was organized February 19, 1876. The Christian Church building is now the Grange Hall. The church of the Latter Day Saints was the last to be organized and built. The census of 1850 gives three churches in the town,-Presbyterian, Universalist and Catholic.
Daniel McCormick of Ireland located in Greenwood in 1832. He built a grist-mill in the community known as "Rough and Ready."
On the land of Mr. Davis at LaGrange a
salt spring rises in the green shale. Salt was made at this spring by the settlers, and prior to that by the Indians.
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