USA > New York > Orleans County > Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York, containing some account of the civil divisions of western New York > Part 13
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
Mr. Philetus Bumpus, and his father, Jesse Bum- pus, built the first framed dwelling house in Albion, . on the lot on which Mr. L. Burrows now resides.
183
OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
The first warehouse was built by Nehemiah Inger- soll, on the canal about twenty rods east of Main St. The next by Cary & Tilden, on the west side of Main street, on the canal.
The first sawmill in the corporation of Albion was built in 1819, by William Bradner.
Mr. William Bradner built the first grist mill, the mill stones for which he cut in person from a rock in Palmyra. One of.these stones is now used for a corner guard stone on the corner of State and Claren- don streets. These mills were cheap structures and were taken away after a few years.
The stone flouring mill on the canal was built by Ward & Clarks in 1833.
The first lawyer in Albion was Theophilus Capen. He remained here but a short time. The next law- yers were William J. Moody, Alexis Ward, Henry R. Curtis, Gideon Hard, William W. Ruggles, and others came about the time the county was or- ganized.
Dr. Orson Nichoson was the first physician. He located two miles south of the village in 1819, and removed to Albion about 1822. Dr. William White, who had been in practice at Oak Orchard in Ridge- way, came here about the time the county was organ- ized, and opened a drug store and went into partner- ship with Dr. Nichoson in the practice of medicine.
Dr. Stephen M. Potter was one of the early physi- cians who settled in Albion. He was born in West- port, Mass., removed to Cazenovia, N. Y., and from thence to Albion. About the year 1837 he removed to Cazenovia again. He represented Madison county in the State Legislature in 1846.
The first tanyard was located on the south side of the canal on the lot now occupied by the gas works, by Jacob Ingersoll, about the year 1825. Tanning
184
PIONEER HISTORY
was continued here until the gas works were built in 1858.
The first blacksmiths were John Moe, Rodney A. Torrey, and Phineas Phillips.
Albion was at first for some years called Newport, but on account of trouble with the mails, there being another post office in this state by the name of New- port, at a meeting of the inhabitants to take meas- ures to get the village incorporated, on motion of Gideon Hard, the name was changed to Albion in the first Act of incorporation passed April 21st, 1828. The first company of fireman was organized in 1831.
John Henderson settled in Albion in Sept. 1825 and established the first shop for making carriages. He kept the first livery stable in 1834, and started the first horse and cart for public accommodation in 1837. He has been an active man, an ingenious mechanic, and has built ten or twelve dwelling houses and nu- merous shops, barns and other buildings here.
1
CHAPTER XVII.
TOWN OF CARLTON.
Name-Lumber Trade-First Settlement of White Men in County- James Walsworth-Village of Manilla-Names of Persons who took Articles of Land in Carlton in 1803, 1804 and 1805-Matthew Dun- ham-Curious Mill to Pound Corn-Dunham's Saw Mill and Grist Mill-First in County-First Frame Barn-The Union Company- Death of Elijah Brown-First Children Born in Town-First Store -Biographies of Early Settlers.
ARLTON was set off from Gaines and Ridge- way April 13, 1822, by the name of Oak Orchard. The name was changed to Carlton in 1825.
The region of land lying north of the Ridge Road in this vicinity was called the "north woods" in early times. It was heavily timbered land, containing large numbers of immense whitewood trees and white and red oaks of the largest kind. Some pine grew near the Oak Orchard Creek. Hemlock was abundant in some localities, and basswood, elm, beech and some maple comprised the principal kinds of trees.
The settlers in their haste to clear their lands, gen- erally burned up all of this fine timber that they did not want for fencing, in the first few years of their settlement. After sawmills were built, white wood was sawed and the boards hauled to the canal for sale, and large quantities of oak trees were squared to the top and sent down the Lake to Europe for ship timber. The prices obtained were barely sufficient to pay the expense of the labor required to move the lumber,
186
PIONEER HISTORY
but the destructive work was kept up till most of the timber trees of every kind have been cut down through this town.
The first settlement of white men in Orleans county mas made in this town in the year 1803 by William and James Walsworth, who came from Canada. James settled near the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek, and William near the mouth of Johnson's Creek. James Walsworth was the pioneer settler of this county. He came across from Canada in May 1803, in an open boat with his family, and built a log cabin for his residence, which at that time was the only house near the shore of Lake Ontario, between Fort Niagara and Braddock's Bay. His nearest neighbor at first, resided near Lockport, Niagara county. Mr. Walsworth was very poor then. The only provisions they had when they landed were a few potatoes ; these and fish from Oak Orchard Creek, in which there was then an abundance, supplied their sustenance, ex- cept an occasional barter with boatmen, who, coast- ing along the south shore of the lake, would put into the mouth of the Oak Orchard for shelter. Wals- worth hunted and fished mainly for a living, and when he collected any store of peltries he took them east along the shore of the lake to a market. After two or three years he removed to what used to be called " The Lewiston Road," between Lockport and Batavia, where he was afterwards well known as a tavern keeper.
The Walsworths and the few other settlers who came in and stopped along the Lake Shore in Carlton, com- prised all the settlers in Orleans county before the year 1809, with one or two exceptions.
About the year 1803, Joseph Ellicott concluded that eventually a village must grow up at the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek. In anticipation of that event he made a plat for a town there and called it Manilla,
187
OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
a name which is now found on some maps for the place more commonly known as Oak Orchard Harbor. It was supposed in those days that most of the trade to and from the Holland Purchase, would take the lake route, and Manilla would be the depot. At that time the sand bar, at the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek was less then in later years. and the small schooners then on the lake could come over it with- out difficulty. It was in furtherance of this thought that the Holland Company did what they did towards opening the Oak Orchard road to travel. The Erie Canal, however, effectually stifled this project, and turned trade and commerce in another direction.
John G. Brown took up two and one-half acres of land from the Company, on the west side of Oak Orchard Creek near the mouth and held it on specu- lation for a time, but nothing was done in the way of founding a village. This land was deeded to him by the Holland Company Dec. 2, 1806, and was described in the deed as lot No. 15, on a plan of the village of Manilla. This was the first deed of land in the town of Carlton given by the Company. Brown conveyed the land to Silas Joy, Nov. 28, 1815. The following named persons took Articles of the Holland Company for land lying in the present town of Carlton, in the years following, viz :
IN 1803.
John Farrin, James DeGraw, Cornelius DeGraw, James Walsworth, Elijah Brown, John G. Brown, James McKinney, Elijah Hunt, James Dunham, David Musleman, Samuel Utter, Ray Marsh, Henry Lovewell, John Parmeter, William Carter, Martin Griffin, Eli Griffith. William Griffith and Stephen Hoyt.
IN 1804.
Samuel MeKinney, John Jason, Henry Lovewell,
188
PIONEER HISTORY
William Carter, Job Shipman and Ephraim Waldo.
IN 1805.
Paul Brown, Job Johnson, Ephraim Waldo, David Miller, and Thaddeus Moore.
Matthew Dunham and his sons Matthew, James and Charles, came from Berkshire county, Mass., to Wayne county, New York, about 1795. They re- moved to Carlton in 1804. They were chair makers, and began working at their trade soon as they could get settled after they came in.
Henry Lovewell from New Hampshire, and Moses Root and his family from Cooperstown, N. Y., came to Carlton with Mr. Dunham and his family.
Matthew Dunham, Jr. married Rachel Lovewell, daughter of Henry Lovewell, in the year 1814. Mr. Dunham died in 1854, but Mrs. Rachel Dunham is yet living, 1871, aged about eighty-six years.
In the summer of 1804, Matthew Dunham and his sons built a dam across Johnson's Creek where the dam now stands at Kuckville, and erected a small building on it, with machinery for turning wood. The Dunham family carried on the business of turn- ing in a small way in this building several years. They did not find much sale for their goods near home, but sold some chairs and wooden bowls to the new settlers. The most of their work they took across the lake and disposed of in Canada. They continued this commerce until the embargo was declared in 1808, and after that they smuggled their chair stuff over to considerable extent on a sail boat which they owned.
It is related by some of the first settlers that in this turning shop the Dunhams fixed an apparatus for pounding corn, by making a tub or box in which the corn was placed, and a heavy pestle was made to fall at each turn of the water wheel. Into this box they
4
189
OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
would put about a bushel of corn, occasionally stir- ring it up to bring it under the pestle, and thus pound it until it was reduced to meal. It took considerable time to turn a bushel of corn into meal by this pro- cess, and aid could be afforded to but few families in this way.
Several families coming in to settle in the neighbor- hood, the want of a sawmill and a gristmill was great- ly felt. Three or four years after the Dunhams built their turning shop, the Holland Land Company of- fered to furnish the irons for a sawmill, and the irons and a pair of mill stones for a grist mill if they would erect such mills on their dam. A saw mill and a grist mill were built accordingly.
These were the first saw and grist mills built in Carlton. They were small, coarse affairs, but they were very useful to those living near them. They remained the property of the Dunhams until about 1816, they were purchased by George Kuck, and rebuilt on a much larger pattern than the old mills.
Mr. Reuben Root owned a small sail boat of a few tons burthen which he used to run across the lake. On this, pine lumber was brought from Canada before sawmills were built here, and it was the principal conveyance by which passengers and property were carried across the lake either way for a number of years.
Mr. Moses Root built a framed barn before Dun- ham's sawmill was erected, bringing the boards from Canada. This is supposed to have been the first frame barn built in Orleans county.
Reuben Fuller and John Fuller came from Brad- ford county, in Pennsylvania, and settled near Kuck- ville in 1811.
THE UNION COMPANY.
In December, 1810, eight young men in Stock-
190
PIONERR HISTORY
bridge, Massachusetts, formed a company, which they named "The Union Company," and agreed each to contribute an equal share of stock, and go together and form a settlement on the Holland Pur- chase, where each partner should buy for himself a farm with his own means, and the company would help him clear a certain portion of land and build a house and barn. The buildings to be alike on each man's farm.
They limited the company to two years, during which they would all live and work together and share the avails of their labor equally.
Before leaving Stockbridge they drew up and signed their agreement in writing.
Thus organized they came to Carlton and took up land west of Oak Orchard Creek, each a farm, which was worked according to contract.
Fitch Chamberlain was married but left his wife at home until he could get a home for her made ready. They brought no women with them and kept bache- lor's hall the first year when Giles Slater, Jr., went back to Stockbridge and married a wife and brought her to his new home, and soon after his example was followed by the remainder of the company.
The company made judicious selections of land ; its affairs were well managed and successful. All of the partners were fortunate in accumulating proper- ty, the sure reward of honest, persevering industry. Their families have ever been among the most respec- ted and influential in town.
Fitch Chamberlain was a physician and practiced medicine in the later years of his life. The members of the company are all dead except Anthony Miles, now aged 84 years, in 1871.
The Union Company consisted of Minoris Day, Fitch Chamberlain, Charles Webster. Anthony Miles,
191
OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
Selah Bardslee, Moses Barnum, Jr., Russell Smith, and Giles Slater, Jr.
The first death among the settlers was that of Elijah Brown. The first birth was a pair of twins, children of James Walsworth, in 1806. At their birth no physician or person of her own sex was present with the mother. The first marriage was that of William Carter and Amy Hunt, in 1804. Pe- leg Helms tanght the first school in 1810-11. And George Kuck kept the first store in 1816.
The first public religious services in Carlton were held about the year 1810, and were conducted by Rev. Mr. Steele, a Methodist preacher who came from Canada.
Elder Simeon Dutcher, of the Baptist denomina- tion, settled in Carlton in 1817. He was the only preacher residing in town for several years.
Among the first settlers were Elijah Hunt, Moses Root, Henry Lovewell. Paul Brown, Elijah Brown. Job Shipman, Matthew Dunham.
Dr. Richard W. Gates was the first regular phy- sician who settled in the practice of his profession in Carlton. After a few years he moved to Barre, and thence to Yates. He represented Orleans county in the State Legislature in 1841, and was Supervisor of Carlton in 1826.
BIOGRAPHIES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
GEORGE KUCK.
Rev. George Kuck was born in the city of London, England, December 23, 1791, and educated at King's College, London. He came to New York city in 1806, and removed to Toronto, Canada West, in 1807. In the war between England and the United States in 1812, he served as Lieutenant in the Canada militia.
192
PIONEER HISTORY
After the war, and until 1815, he was clerk in the employ of the Canadian Government, at Toronto, until October, when he removed to Carlton and pur- chased the farm on which he resided ever afterwards, now known as Kuckville.
He erected a frame gristmill on the site of the log mill built by M. Dunham on Johnson's Creek. In 1816 he opened a store near his residence, at that time the only store north of the Ridge in this part of the country, where he kept a large store of goods aud carried on a great trade.
He soon after built a warehouse at the mouth of Johnson's Creek. At one time he had a store, gristmill, sawmill, ashery, warehouse and farm, all under his personal supervision and in successful ope- ration. His investments were judicious and safe, his affairs all managed with economy and skill, which resulted in making him a wealthy man.
He married Miss Electa Fuller March 25th, 1819. In March 1821, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church; in which he was ever after a prominent mem- ber. He helped to form the first religious class in his church in the town of Carlton, and was its leader. In 1825 he organized and taught the first Sunday School in the county north of the Ridge. In April, 1829, he was licensed to exhort, in 1833 he was licensed to preach, and in 1837 he was ordained Deacon by Bishop Hedding, and in 1849 he was or- dained Elder by Bishop Morris, at Albion.
He was appointed Postmaster at West Carlton, since Kuckville, an office he held, in all, about 30 years.
He was a man of good education and fine natural ability and his life was filled with usefulness. He was among the first and foremost in all matters of re- form and advancement, active in the cause of temper- ance, morality and religion, always a leading man in
OF ORLEANS COUNTY. 193
the counsels of the church. He died March 16, 1868, aged 76 years.
DANIEL GATES.
Daniel Gates was born in Rutland county, Vermont, March 11th, 1786. He married Ann Anderson, March 12th, 1808.
About November, 1811, he removed to Orleans county, and bought an article of part of lot twenty- nine, township fifteen, range two, on the south side of the Ridge. A former owner had cleared a small spot and built a log house there. On this farm Mr. Gates resided several years. He afterwards bought a farm in Carlton, where he resided at the time of his death, January 31st, 1858.
Mrs. Ann Gates died January 1st, 1866. They were parents of JJolin and Nehemiah F. Gates, of Carlton, Lewis W. Gates, residing in Michigan, and Matthew A. Gates, of Yates.
Mr. Gates moved his family in with a yoke of oxen and wagon. No bridge had been built across Gene- see River, and he forded the stream at Rochester, a man riding a horse hitched before the oxen, to guide them through the river.
Few settlers along the Ridge Road came in advance of Mr. Gates, or braved the hardships and difficulties of pioneer life with better courage. They had very few of the conveniences and comforts of civilized life. and sometimes were in want of food. Once about the last year of the war a scarcity prevailed among the four families then comprising all the inhabitants in the vicinity of Mr. Gates. But one pan full of Hour remained among them all. and that they kept to feed the children, the older folks expecting to sub- stitute boiled green wheat in place of bread. Mr. Gates cut a few bundles of his wheat then in the
13
194
PIONEER HISTORY
milk, and dried it in the sun. They rubbed tho soft grain out of the straw and boiled it. This was eaten with milk and relished very much by the family, and it supplied them until wheat ripened and dried fit to grind.
For several years no settler located between Mr. Gates' place on the Ridge, and Shelby. Along the line of the canal was then a solid forest. Mr. Gates' cattle were suffered to range the woods to browse in summer. They usually returned to the clearing at night. Once his oxen, one of which wore a bell, with his cow failed to come in at night. Mr. Gates armed himself with a bayonet on the end of a staff to repel a bear or wolf if he chanced to be attacked, and went out to hunt for them, his old English musket being too heavy to carry. After several days hunting he found his cattle where Knowlesville now stands-at- tracted there by some wild grass growing along the brook.
ELIJAH HUNT.
Elijah Hunt was born in Pennsylvania. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. While in the ser- vice, being in a scouting party in Pennsylvania, he, with his party, was taken prisoner by the Indians. IIe with the other prisoners was made to run the gauntlet from one point to another, fixed for the pur- Dose. The Indians -- men, women and children- posted themselves on each side of the track to be run over by their prisoners, and assaulted them as they passed with clubs, hatchets, knives, stones, &c. If the prisoners were fortunate enough they might get through and live, and they might be severely wounded, or even killed by the way. Mr. Hunt got through without serions damage. After reaching their village on the Genesee River, the Indians con-
.
195
OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
cluded to sacrifice Mr. Hunt after their terrible fashion. He was stripped and painted black prepar- atory to his suffering ; but before they began to tor- ture him, an old squaw, whose son had been killed in the fight when Hunt was taken, came forward and claimed her right by Indian custom to adopt him as her son, in place of the one that was killed. He was released to her and adopted as she proposed, and re- . mained with the Indians near the Genesee river, in Livingston county, about three years, when the war having ended, he was permitted to return to his friends in Pennsylvania.
He was always treated kindly after his adoption by the Indians, especially by his new mother. Many years after his settlement in Carlton, the Indians found him out and visited him with many demonstra- tions of their friendship.
In the depth of winter, after the cold summer of 1816, fearing he might be in want with his family, on account of the loss of crops that year, two Indians. one of whom claimed to be his brother, being a son of the squaw who adopted Mr. Hunt, came to Carlton to visit him and afford relief if he needed it.
He came to Carlton in the summer of 1804 and took up a farm about a mile west of the mouth of Jolinson's Creek, on the Lake shore. After a year or two he went back to Pennsylvania with his family and remained until October, 1806, when he returned and settled permanently on his farm, where he ever afterwards resided, and died in 1830, aged seventy- nine years.
The long residence of Mr. Hunt among the Indians qualified him to become a pioneer in this new settle- ment, and fitted him to endure the privations and difficulties he had to encounter.
The daughter of Mr. Hunt, Amy Hunt, married William Carter in 1804, which was the first marriage
196
PIONEER HISTORY
in that town, and probably the first marriage in Or- leans county.
RAY MARSII.
Ray Marsh was born in Connecticut. About the . year 1800 he went to Canada West and was employed' in teaching school. In 1803 he married Martha Shaw, who was born in Nova Scotia. In that year, he left Canada at Queenstown, in a small boat, and coasted along the south shore of Lake Ontario to Oak Or- chard Creek, in Carlton, and took an article for land" lying near the lake in Carlton.
In 1805, on account of sickness in the neighborhood' of his home in Carlton, he removed to Cambria, in.a Niagara county, and located on the Ridge, about five miles from Lewiston. He was driven away from here by the British and Indians when Lewiston was burned by them in the war with England, losing almost ev- ery thing he had in the world, except the lives of him- self and family. They fled to Ontario county, but returned the next year to near Ridgeway Corners and stopped there. He had now a large family of chil- dren ; to maintain them he had to sell his interest in his farm in Cambria : and in the cold seasons of 1816-17 they suffered for necessary food ; and few families suffered more from the prevailing sickness of the country, aggravated as it was by their poverty and want of means to afford relief.
Mr. Marsh died about 1852. His widow, now (1870) eighty six years old, is living. She had seven : grand-sons soldiers in the Union army in the war of" the great rebellion. During the war she spent a large portion of her time knitting stockings for the soldiers. Such women are worthy the name of "Revolutionary Mothers," and are an honor to the American name.
JOB SHIPMAN.
Job Shipman was born in Saybrook, Connecticut, ..
-
OF ORLEANS COUNTY. 197
.June 2d, 1772. After he arrived at manhood he re- sided for a time in Greene county, N. Y., and at length came to Wayne county, where he joined the family of Mr. Elijah Brown, and removed by way of Lake Ontario, to the town of Carlton, in the summer . of 1804.
While coming up the lake Mr. Elijah Brown died. .and his body was brought to Carlton and buried there. His sons were James, John Gardner, Paul. Elijah, Jr., and Robert M.
Mr. Shipman took an article of part of lot twelve, section two, range two, of which his son Israel after- wards took a deed from the land company, and on which he resides.
He married widow Ann Tomblin in May, 1815. Israel Shipman was his only child.
Job Shipman died Jannary 12th, 1833. His wife died February 8th. 1858.
The first town meetings in Carlton for two or three years were held at his dwelling, because it was one of the best log houses in town ; had a shingled roof. board floor, and stood near the middle of the town ; but it was so small that few of the voters assembled could get in the house at once. They compromised the matter by allowing the Inspectors to sit in the house while the voters handed in their ballots to them through the window from without.
As it was in cold weather, even the liberal potations of whisky in which they indulged would not warm the crowd sufficiently, so they made a large log heap near the house which being set on fire answered the purpose.
LYMAN FULLER.
Lyman Fuller was born in Pennsylvania, August 16th, 1808. In February 1811, his father, Reuben
.
-
198
PIONEER HISTORY
Fuller, moved with his family to near the lake shore. in West Carlton.
In the fall of 1811, Capt. John Fuller, a brother of Reuben, settled in Carlton. Mr. Reuben Fuller died July 4th, 1837. Mr. Lyman Fuller succeeded to the possession of his father's homestead, on which he re. sided and where he died March 22d, 1866. He was a much respected man among all who knew him.
CHAPTER XVIII.
TOWN OF CLARENDON.
Difficulty in getting Titles from Pultney Estate-Eldredge Farwell- Farwell's Mills-First School-First Merchants-J. and D. Sturges -First Postmaster-First Physician-Presbyterian Church-First Town Meeting-Biographies of Early Settlers.
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.