USA > New York > Orleans County > Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York, containing some account of the civil divisions of western New York > Part 10
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That man was Gideon Freeman and the little girl was Sally Freeman.
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PIONEER HISTORY
I looked around a little and finally bought the farm on which I have ever since resided, part of lot fifty, in township fifteen, range two, of the Holland Purchase, lying in the north-western part of Barre, then Gaines, near the south end of what is now known as ' The Long Bridge? over the Erie canal. My land cost me five dollars per acre. I took an ar- ticle for it and was able to pay in full in about eight years.
I underbrushed five acres, built a log house and. went back to Salem.
I was married November 25th, 1816, to Abigail Simonds. who was born in Salem. Massachusetts, July 6th, 1790.
While I was preparing to start on our journey west I was accosted by an old sailor friend who inquired where I was going ? I said to the Holland Purchase." Said he. . where can that be ? I never heard of that place before.' Itold him 'it was a fine country in Western New York ;' that 'I had bought a farm there, built a log house and was going to live there.' Said he. . I would not give the gold I could serape from a card of gingerbread for the entire Holland Purchase." But he did not know everything.
My wife and I left Salem for our new western home with a span of horses and a wagon. We were twen- ty one days on the road. We arrived at my place and began house-keeping January 1st. 1817, without a table, a chair or a bedstead, all of which articles I soon made in true Genesee pioneer style.
For many years in the settlement I was called · Sailor Clark ' to distinguish me from another Clark who was. I am happy to say, a very decent man.
Money being very hard to be got, we made black salts. which became practically a legal tender or sule stitute for money.
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
I and my neighbor, Mr. Benjamin Foot, worked together in the manufacture, but after a time he sold to a Mr. Elijah Shaw, who conducted the business with me until that necessary calling was . played out .*
Mr. Shaw and myself are the only persons living in this school district who came in as early as 1816.
My wife having been reared in the city knew noth- ing of spinning wheels, though she was a good house- keeper ; but under the influence of her neighbor's example, she urged me to raise flax and purchase her a Pioneer Piano, which I did, bringing home one of the largest size on my shoulder from a dis- tance of several miles : and before long she could discourse as melodions music as any in the settle- ment.
In the early part of my pioneer life, like others, 1 had to cut browse for my cow. One evening I went out and felled a tree, thinking it would certainly fall west, but alas for my sagacity, it fell east striking our house, breaking down about half the roof and alarming me greatly for the safety of my family. However no one was hurt except by being badly frightened. The roof was easily repaired, but a fine mirror, a very elegant one for a new country, which my wife's father, who was a seaman, had brought from Hamburgh, in Europe, was broken into frag- ments, and could not be repaired.
During the cold seasons many of the settlers suf- fered for the necessaries of life, but happily for me and mine we did not suffer. I went east with my team far enough to find all the provisions we needed and brought home a full supply for all our necessi- ties.
The fall of 1824 was a sad period to me. My wife died October 20th of this year.
I desire here to record my grateful sense of the kind-
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ness of our neighbors during her sickness. Their at- tentions were timely, cordial and continued. All those kind women then living in the distriet are dead except Mrs. Benj. Foot.
I married my present wife, Elizabeth Stephens, in Gaines, March 20th, 1825. She was born in Middle- town, Rutland county, Vt., June 20th, 1806.
We left our pioneer log house and moved into our present dwelling in 1825. About this time the boats were seen passing along in .Gov. Clinton's big ditch.' the Erie canal, on the north border of my farm, connecting the great commercial and agrienltu- ral interests of our country. And I trust that our nat- ural and artificial channels of trade may remain open, and the love of freedom among our people con- tinue to aid. with the blessing of God. to preserve and perpetuate our nationality, restore the U'nion of these States and the free institutions of our country.
In 1825 I experienced religion, and about 1829 my wife and myself connected ourselves with the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, in whose communion we still remain.
JONATHAN CLARK."
Barre, April Ah, 1864.
OLIVER BENTON.
Oliver Benton was born in Ashfield. Mass .. April 10th. 1791. He came to Barre to reside in 1812. He married Elvira Starr, May 15th, 1817. Mr. Benton took up a large tract of land two miles south of Al- bion, on which he resided.
After the town of Barre was organized, and about 1818 or '19 the first postoffice in the town was estab- lished and called Barre, and Mr. Benton was ap- pointed postmaster, an office he held many years.
For many years he was a noted tavern keeper on the Oak Orchard Road, and as he had a large and
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commodious house for the times, town meetings, balls and gatherings of the people were held at his house.
On the death of William Lewis, who was the first Sheriff. Mr. Benton was elected Sheriff of Orleans co. Nov. 1825, and held the office three years. He died Feb. 12th, 1848.
MOSES SMITHI.
Moses Smith was born in Newburg. New York. February 6th, 1785. He married Chloe Dickinson, of Phelps, New York, April 11th. 1811, and moved to Barre. Orleans county. Nov. 16th. 1824, and took a deed from the Holland Company of a part of lot two. township fifteen, range one, on which he continued to reside until his death May 16th, 1869. He had four- teen children, eight of whom survived him. He was a carpenter and joiner by trade, but the main ocen- pation of his life was farming.
He was of Scotch descent. His grandmother emi- grated from Scotland and settled on what is known in history as the Hasbrouck place, in the South part of the city of Newburgh. on two hundred and fifty arres. On this farm Mr. Moses Smith was born, and on this farm stands the celebrated building known as " Washington's Headquarters."
ANTHONY TRIPP.
Anthony Tripp was born in Providence, Rhode Is- land. In his childhood he removed with his father's family to Columbia county, N. Y .. where he grew up to manhood, was married and settled. Ilo after- terwards removed to Delaware county, where he re- sided until he moved to Barre.
In 1811 he came to Barre and took up one hundred acres of land about two miles South of Albion. It is claimed this was the first article for land issued by
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the Holland Company in Barre. The war breaking out next year he did not settle on his land.
In 1817 his eldest son, Samuel, commenced clear- ing this land and built a log house there, into which Mr. Tripp moved with his family in 1824, and where he continued to reside until his death.
He married Mary Brown. Their children were Sammel; Talitha, who married Sylvester Patterson ; Stephen R., who married Ruth Mott ; Anthony ; Al- vah, who married Jane H. Blakely. She was killed January, 1866, by a chimney and battlement from an adjoining building falling through the roof of a store in Albion, in which she was trading, crushing her to death. Mary, who married Psalter S. Mason. Al- meron, who married Sylvia Burns.
ALLEN PORTER.
Allen Porter was born in Franklin county, Mass., Aug. 24th, 1795. He married Electa Scott, Dec. 22d, 1819. In the fall of 1815 he located for himself a farm in the town of Barre, upon which he removed in March, 1816, and commenced felling the trees, and on which he has ever since resided.
At the time Mr. Porter came in, not more than fif- teen families had settled in the present limits of Barre.
Previous to this time the Holland Company had cut out the road from the Oak Orchard Road to Shel- by Center, which now passes the County Poor House. A few lots had been taken but no dwelling had been erected on the road so cut out in Barre and no set- tlement had been made in this town south of the Poor House Road and west of the Oak Orchard Road.
Mr. Porter remembers hauling wheat raised on his farm, to Rochester, and selling it there for thirty-one cents a bushel, and paying five dollars per barrel for
Elique Hach
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
salt, seventeen cents per pound for nails, and other goods in like proportion.
While Mr. Porter was a boy his father removed to Seneca county. N. Y. Allen being yet in his minori- ty was drafted in the war of 1812 and sent to the frontier. He volunteered at Buffalo to go over into Canada to reinforce our troops in Fort Erie, and was present in the sortie from that Fort in Sept. 1814. Mr. Porter has held various offices, civil and military, and is a well known and much respected citizen.
ELIZUR HART.
Elizur Hart was born in Durham, Greene county. N. Y., May 23d, 1803. His father, Dea. Joseph Hart. removed to Seneca county, N. Y .. in 1806. and to Barre, Orleans county, in October, 1812. It was sey- eral years after he came to Barre, before, any school was opened in his father's neighborhood, and he never had the benefit of much instruction in school. While residing with his father he was employed mainly in clearing up land and in labor on the farm, and grew up to manhood as other boys did in that new country, without much knowledge of books or business. or of the world beyond the community where he lived.
About the year 1827 he was elected constable, an office he held two years. His business now called him to spend much of his time in Albion. He had about five hundred dollars in money. His brother William had a like sum which he put into Elizur's hands to use for their joint benefit. Elizur began to buy small promissory notes and to lend small sums to such customers as applied, and sometimes to re- lieve debtors in executions which were put in his hands to collect as constable.
About this time his father deeded to his sons Wil- liam and Elizur one hundred acres of his farm for
-
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PIONEER HISTORY
which they paid him five hundred dollars. They con- tinned joint owners several years when William gave Elizur the five hundred dollars he had put into his hands and all the profit he had made on it for a deed of the whole one hundred acres to himself. This land lies in the village of Albion : is still owned and occupied by Win. Hart, and the rise in its value has made him a wealthy man.
As Mr. Hart found his means increase he began to invest in bonds and mortgages, and in articles for land issued by the. Holland Company. He seldom lost but generally made money in all his trades, and continued this business for many years.
In 1852 he was made an assignee, and in a year or two after receiver of the property of the Orleans Insurance Company. And on the failure of the old. Bank of Orleans he was appointed receiver of that institution.
On February 10th. 1860, in company with Mr. Jos. M. Cornell ho established . The Orleans County Bank' at Albion, with a capital of $100.000. Of this Bank he was President as long as it existed. When all State Banks were superseded by National Banks. he changed his institution and organized . The Or- leans County National Bank ' in its stead Aug. 9th, 1865. of which he was President the remainper of of his life.
Mr. Hart was not a speculator in business, advan- ring money in uncertain ventures and taking the chances on their success. His investments were the results of careful calculations, and usually returned the profit he had computed before hand.
Always attentive to his business, but never dilatory or impulsive, correct and exemplary in all his habits, beginning with comparatively nothing, without the aid or influence of wealthy connections, he became one of the opulent country bankers in the State, and
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
at his death was master of a fortune amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In his will he gave the Presbyterian Church in A]- bion, of which he was a member, fifty thousand dol- lars to build a house of worship, and an endowment of five thousand dollars to the Sunday School con- nected with his church.
Mr. Hart married Miss Loraine Field in May, 1835. She died Feb. 11th, 1847. He married Miss Cornelia King, Oct. 16th, 1849.
His surviving children are Frances E., who married Oliver C. Day, and resides in Adrian, Michigan. Jennie K. and E. Kirk : the last named married Lou- isa Sanderson and resides in Albion, is Cashier and principal owner of the Orleans County National Bank.
Elizur Hart died August 13th, 1870.
JARVIS M. SKINNER.
"I was born in Providence, Saratoga Co., N. Y., June 3, 1799. I married Mary Delano, Feb. 14, 1822. She was born in Providence, Dec. 25, 1800.
I labored on a farm, of which my father had a lease, in the summer season, and with my father in the win- ter, a part of the time, in his shop, making saddles and harness, he being a saddler by trade.
When I became of age, I hired out to work on a farm for Earl Stimson, then a large farmer in Galway, first eight months, at $11 a month, then a year for $110. My wages for this work, deducting my cloth- ing bills, constituted all my capital.
On the 18th day of March, 1822, I started for the Holland Purchase, and came alone to Durfee Delano's. a little west of Eagle Harbor, in Gaines.
I bought fifty-five acres of land of Winsor Paine, for which I agreed to give him $250-8100 down, my horse, saddle and bridle, for $80, and $70 worth of saddles, to be delivered in a year.
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I worked on my place until the next fall ; Mrs. Paine did my washing and cooking and I furnished a portion of the provisions. I chopped and cleared and sowed with wheat, six acres ; raised one acre of spring wheat, one hundred bushels of corn. I returned to Saratoga in the fall, made the saddles in the winter, to pay for my farm, and in January 1823, moved my wife to our new home in Barre, where we have since resided, on lot 33, township 15, range 2.
Dated, Dec. 1, 1863. JARVIS M. SKINNER."
NATHANIEL BRALEY.
Was born in Savoy, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, Dec. 14, 1796. He has always followed farming. He came to Palmyra in 1801, settled in Gaines, Orleans Co., N. Y., in 1819, married Sarah Wickham in 1821. She was born in Chatham, Columbia Co., July 15, 1799, and removed to Gaines in 1816.
Mr. Braley removed to Barre, where he now re- sides, in 1838.
LUCIUS STREET.
"I was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, Dec. 19, 1795. My father gave me a good common school education for those times and brought me up in his occupation, as a farmer.
I followed the business of teaching school for sever- al winters, when I was a young man.
May 5, 1818, my brother Chapin and myself started from my father's house in Hinsdale, Mass., on foot, with knapsacks on our backs, for the ‘Geneseo' country.
After going to Batavia and looking over the towns of Orangeville and China, we came to Barre and set- tled on lot 3, township 14, range 2, of the Holland Purchase, about two miles south of Barre Center where we still reside, (1864.)
OF ORLEANS COUNTY. 147
We took our article for our land, May 18, 1818, and immediately began chopping, boarding with a family named Cuthbret.
I taught a district school, in all, seven winters, and singing school two terms.
One of our neighbors, Henry Edgerton, a strong, athletic man, carried a bushel and a half of wheat on his back, to Farwell's mill, in Clarendon, eight miles, got it ground and brought it home.
In the fall of 1820, my brother and myself, having partially recovered from fever and ague, from which we had suffered, and getting somewhat homesick, went on foot back to Mass., being quite discouraged at the prospect of ever paying for our land, as the price of produce was so low. We wanted to sell out.
Finding no opportunity to sell our articles, we worked out for farmers in Massachusetts the next season, at 88 a month, then the common wages, and returned to Barre, in the fall of 1821, to sell our im- provements, but found no buyers.
We had agreed to give six dollars an acre for our land, on ten years' time-the first two years without interest. At this time, wheat was worth in Rochester from thirty-one to thirty-seven cents a bushel.
While I was teaching school in Springfield, Mass., in 1821, I saw Esq. Brewster of Riga, Monroe Co., N. Y., who, with one of his neighbors, had come there from Riga, with two large loads of flour, drawn by four yoke of oxen. The flour sold for $5 a barrel .- They sold their oxen and Genesee sleds, bought a span of horses and an old sleigh and returned to Riga.
In the summer of 1822, I boarded with Mr. Edger- ton, and worked two days of every nine for him, to pay my board. That season I cleared, fenced and sowed ten acres with wheat, from which next season I harvested 255 bushels of good wheat. The canal
3
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PIONEER HISTORY
being then navigable west as far as Brockport, I could sell my wheat there for $1 a bushel.
My brother and myself divided our land, giving me . 109 acres. I then abandoned the intention of selling, and Nov. 16, 1823, was married to Miss Martha M. Buckland, daughter of John A. Buckland, of South Barre.
In those days we were required by law to 'train' as soldiers, two days in each year, viz: on the first Monday in June and September, company training, and one day for a general muster, which was often held at Oak Orchard Creek. We were often called to meet at Oak Orchard and made the journey, 16 .. miles, on foot, carrying our gun and equipments and paying our own expenses. We would drill until near night, then on being dismissed, return home the same day, if indeed we were able to reach home be- - fore the next morning.
In the early times in this country, inspectors of Common Schools were allowed no compensation for- their services, the honor of the office being deemed sufficient remuneration. After serving the town in that office several years gratis, Dr. J. K. Brown and I agreed and declared to the electors, that if ap- pointed to that office again we would pay our fines of $10 and thus relieve ourselves of the service, where- upon the town voted to give us seventy-five cents each. per day, for the time we might be on duty.
Under circumstances like these, not as many were seeking the small town offices then as now.
Bears, wolves, wild cats, deer, raccoons, hedge hogs and other wild animals, were plenty here then.
In the summer of 1818, my brother and I be- ing at work chopping on our farm, heard a hog squeal, and saw a bear walking off very deliberately carrying the hog in his paws. . We gave chase and as we came near, the bear dropped his prey and ran off;
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
he had killed the hog. We then made 'a dead fall,' as it was called, in which to entrap the bear, which was a pen made by driving stakes into the ground. . and interweaving them with brush horizontally, in which the hog was placed. Into this pen we expect- .ed the bear would come and spring a trap, which would let a weight fall upon him. It proved a suc- cess, for in the morning we found the bear in the pen ; he had sprung the trap, and a spike of the dead fall through his leg held him fast.
Religious meetings were early established and maintained at South Barre and Barre Center. Dea- con Orange Starr was among the foremost in these meetings.
Many pleasant reminiscences of pioneer life might be mentioned, for though we endured many hard- : ships and privations, we had plenty of sport mingled with them, giving us a pleasant variety of mirthful enjoyment. Major Daniel Bigelow, being a good horseman, and having no horse, broke one of his ox- en to the saddle, and was accustomed to ride him through the settlement.
Riding out one day, his ox being very thirsty and coming near a large puddle of water, started forward to the drink on double-quick time, and plunging into the water, stopped so suddenly as to throw his good- natured rider over his head, sprawling into the mud, much to the amusement of those looking on.
I am a descendant, on my mother's side, of the seventh generation, from Samuel Chapin, an early pi- · oneer of Springfield, Mass., who settled there when only three families were in the place. At a gathering of his descendants at Springfield, on Sept. 17, 1862. fifteen hundred such descendants were present. Dr. J. G. Holland, known as 'Timothy Titcomb,' deliver- ed a poem on the occasion, which he said he was re-
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quested to do because he had married into the Chapin family.
I am also descended in the sixth generation on my father's side, from Rev. Nicholas Street, who came. from England and was ordained pastor over the first church in New Haven, in 1659.
LUCIUS STREET."
Dated, Barre, Feb. 25, 1864.
THOMAS W. ALLIS.
Extracts from the local history of Thomas W. Allis, written by himself for the Pioneer Association.
"I was born in Gorham, Ontario Co., N. Y., Nov. 1, 1798. My father died in the year 1805, and I was. brought up from that time until I attained my major- ity, in the family of an uncle, in Hampshire, Mass.
In March, 1820, in company with a younger broth- er, I moved to Murray, in Orleans County, to what is now the town of Kendall.
We brought with us four barrels of flour, one bar- rel of pork, one barrel of whisky and a bed.
We located three and one-fourth miles north of the Ridge road, and one mile east of the Transit Line.
In going from the Ridge to our place, we passed but one family and they lived in a log house, in the woods, with no plastering between the logs, with only part of the ground covered by a floor, a bark roof, no. chimney.
We hired our provisions cooked, and lived with a family near by, in a log cabin similar to the one above described.
We bought a contract for one hundred acres of land, by the terms of which we agreed to pay $300 for the improvements, and $600 for the soil.
We kept bachelor's hall there most of the time for . four years.
I soon bought fifty acres more of land, with six acres improvement on it, for which I agreed to pay
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
8450. But few families were then north of the Ridge. in that section of country.
I worked at clearing land and raising crops. Wheat was worth only three shillings per bushel, de- livered in Rochester.
The first plow in our settlement, I bought in com- pany with two neighbors. We walked to Gaines village, bought one of Wood's patent plows and car- ried it on our backs from the Ridge road three and one-fourth miles to our home.
I was married Nov. 18, 1824, to Miss Elizabeth ('lements, of Queensbury, Warren Co. N. Y.
On the 9th of January, 1826, my house was burned with all my furniture and clothing and one years' provision. Our neighbors turned out and drew logs and rolled up part of a house, but a snow storm came on and stopped the work before it was finished. My brother and myself afterwards built a log house, com- mencing on Thursday at noon, built a stone chimney, finished and moved into it the next Saturday. Size of the house was sixteen by thirteen feet. We lived in this small house about two years and then I finish- ed the house which had been begun by my neighbors soon after the fire.
I resided in the house last built about fourteen years.
I paid interest on the purchase money, for the first hundred acres I bought, to about the amount of the principal before I took a deed.
I afterwards bought fifty-three acres for $450, for which I paid with the avails of one crop of wheat .;
In 1837 I bought a timber lot of 48 acres.
In 1840 I built a frame house, thirty by seventy feet, which cost me 82,000.
In March, 1860, I sold my farm in Kendall, part of which I had held for forty years, and bought a house
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and fifteen aeres of land in Albion, on which I now reside.
THOMAS W. ALLIS." Albion, January, 1863.
Mr. T. W. Allis, above referred to, was for many years one of the solid men of the town of Kendall, honored and respected by all who knew him. He was a Justice of the Peace and held various other town offices. Having acquired a competency, by many years' steady toil and economy, he retired from hard labor on a farm, to a village residence, where he is now (1871) spending a quiet old age, in the enjoy- ment of the fruits of his labors.
JOSEPH BARKER.
Extracts from the local history of Col. Joseph Bar- ker, written by himself.
" I was born in Tadmorden, Lancashire, England. September 21st, 1802, and emigrated with my father's family to America in the spring of 1816. Iarrived in the town of Seneca, Ontario county, in July of that year, and resided there until I bought the farm in Barre, in November, 1825, on which I now reside. I was married in October, 1822, to Miss Submit Cowles, who was born in Heath, Franklin county, Massachu- setts, by whom I had nine children. My wife died February 15th, 1851. I lived a widower two and a half years, and then married widow Elizabeth Guern- sey, who was born in Middleburgh, Schoharrie Co,. N. Y., March 19th, 1810.
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