USA > New York > Orleans County > Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York, containing some account of the civil divisions of western New York > Part 20
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
Bushnell out of business. He finally bought the es- tablishment and run it on his own account, and with a partner ; but in the end found it a losing business. After a time he gave up his trade and was elected constable. In this business he was not successful in laying up money, and in the end found himself about even with the world.
He did some business as a justice, and labored some at his trade until February, 1823, he removed to Holley, north of where the canal now is, which was then covered with felled timber, not cleared off; bought two acres of ground and leased two acres more for a mill pond. He commenced getting out timber for a house eighteen by twenty-four feet square, hewing and framing it at the stump. There was considerable snow on the ground, and on the snow crust mornings, he drew all the timber for his house to the spot with a rope over his shoulder. Af- ter getting his family settled in his new house, he cleared off part of his land, and with the help of his neighbors at one or two " bees," he built a log dam, got out timber and built a sawmill, and began sawing about May 1st, 1824. In 1825, in company with Samuel Clark he built works for wool carding and cloth dressing at Holley.
In October, 1826, his house burned with all its con- tents. In two weeks he had another house up. In June, 1828, he bought the interest of his partner in the wool carding and cloth dressing works, which he carried on alone until 1833, when he sold out and bought a farm. After a few years he sold his farm, moved to Holley, and ever after did business as an insurance agent.
For many years he was Superintendent of the Pres- byterian Sunday School in Holley.
He was one of the founders of the Orleans County Pioneer Association, and many years its President.
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PIONEER HISTORY
He was a kind hearted, genial man, benevolent and philanthropic, earnest and zealous in support of every good cause, and died lamented by all who knew him, October 28th, 1868.
ARETAS PIERCE.
Aretas Pierce was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont March 27th, 1799. He came with his father's family to settle in Clarendon, where he arrived April 7th, 1815. The family moved into a house built for a school house, until they could build a house for themselves.
They built a house and moved into it April 24th, 1815. The first year they lived on provisions they brought in with them. The next year being the cold season, they bought rye at one dollar and twenty-five cents a bushel, and pork at twenty-five dollars a bar- rel, in Palmyra. The next year they were out of bread stuff before harvest, and ate green wheat boiled in milk as a substitute, and what is strange none of the family had dyspepsia !
He married Matilda Stedman, May 8th, 1823, and has always resided on the lot originally taken by his father.
When his father came in it was an unbroken wil- derness on the west, from his place to the Oak Or- chard Road, eight miles ; north to Sandy Creek, four miles ; east two miles; south to Farwell's Mills. Eldridge Farwell, A. Dudley, John Cone, Wm. Aus- tin and Mr. West, had settled in Clarendon, and other settlers towards Sandy Creek came in the same year with Mr. Pierce. A few came before them.
In the years 1817-18, the inhabitants in this settle- ment suffered for want of food.
Samuel Miller worked for Artemas Daggett chop- ping wood for one dollar a day and board himself. All he had to eat, most of the time, was corn meal
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
and water; but he did not complain or tell of it then.
Ebenezer Fox settled a mile and a half east of Murray depot, and all they had to eat for a number of weeks was what they could pick up in the woods. The best they could find was the inner bark of the beech tree.
Mrs. Fox had a young babe, and her next oldest child was in feeble health, and she had to nurse them both to keep them from starving.
Almost all the money the settlers had was obtained by leaching ashes and boiling the lye to black salts, and taking these to Gaines or Clarkson and selling them for about three dollars a hundred pounds.
After 1818 the country filled up rapidly with set- tlers and more produce began to be raised than was wanted for home consumption. The price of wheat fell to twenty-five cents a bushel, and only thirty-one cents after hauling to Rochester, and so remained un- til the Erie Canal was opened.
Mr. Pierce settled on lands owned by the Pultney estate, and these did not come into market for sale until 1821, though settlers were allowed to locate themselves with the expectation of buying their land when it came into market. The price of his lot was fixed at eight dollars per acre, but having expended so much in building and clearing, he was compelled to pay the price or suffer loss by abandoning all he had done.
The reason given by the company for not bringing their lands into market was, they had " so much bus- iness on hand they could not attend to it," but the settlers thought they were waiting to have the canal located before establishing their price.
HUBBARD RICE.
Hubbard Rice was born in Pompey, Onondaga coun-
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PIONEER HISTORY
ty, July 28th, 1795. He removed with his father to the town of Murray, and settled on a lot adjoining the village of Holley, in May 1812. His father, Mr. William Rice, continued to reside on this place until about the year 1830, he went to Ohio to reside with his children, and died there.
Hubbard Rice lived with his father until 1825, then he moved to the south part of Clarendon, where he remained until he removed to Holley in 1864, where he still resides, 1871.
After Lewiston was burned in the late war with England, Mr. Hubbard Rice, then a boy of eighteen years, volunteered as a soldier and served a campaign on the Niagara Frontier.
Coming to Holley when a boy, he grew up to man- hood there, seeing and sharing in all the toils, dan- gers, hardships and privations which the settlers en- dured.
He has been spared to a ripe old age to witness the- founding, growth and development of a beautiful vil- lage on a spot he has seen when it was a native forest covered with mighty hemlocks, through which now by canal, railroad and telegraph, the commerce and intelligence of the world are flowing.
CHAUNCEY ROBINSON.
Chauncey Robinson was born in Durham, Connect- icut, January 5th, 1792. When he was two years old he was carried with his father's family to Sauquoit, Oneida county, N. Y., where, to use his own words, " I was educated in a district school, and graduated, at twelve years of age. between the plow han- (les."
He removed to Clarendon, Orleans county, and set- tled about two miles south of Farwell's Mills, July 1813; cleared a farm and carried it on until May. 1851,
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
he removed to Holley, where he resided until his death, which took place May 8th, 1866.
In the war with England in 1814, he was called out with the other inhabitants of the frontier generally to aid in repelling the British who were then besieging Fort Erie.
He was several months in this service ; was in the battle and sortie at Fort Erie, September 17th, 1814, which was the last battle of the war fought on this frontier.
Very few families had located in Clarendon when Mr. Robinson went there. He began in the woods, built a log house, and all its fixtures, furniture and surroundings, were in the primitive style of those times.
He was a man of ardent temperament, a flueut and earnest talker in private conversation or public de- bate, noted for his intense hatred of slavery and op- pression, and his love of freedom and free govert- ment, and for his zeal in the cause of temperance. Upon this and kindred topics he frequently wrote at- ticles for the newspapers.
He was an active man in organizing the town of Clarendon, laying ont and opening highways, and loca -. ting school districts, frequently holding public office as the gift of his fellow townsmen. He was Supervisor of Clarendon four years in succession. He was an original and free thinker on those subjects of public policy which excited his attention, enforeing his dou- trines with a zeal which some of his opponents thought fanatical.
In his personal habits he was industrious, frugal and temperate. When he was an old man he said : "I have never used one pound of tea, coffee, or to- bacco, and comparatively little liquor ; none for the last thirty years; not even cider. My constant drink at home and abroad is cold water."
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PIONEER HISTORY
HIRAM FRISBIE.
Hiram Frisbie was born in Granville, N. Y., Aug., 1791. He first came to Orleans county with a view of taking the job of building the embankment for the Erie Canal, at Holley. Failing in this he went with his brother-in-law, William Pierpont, to Farwell's Mills in the town of Clarendon, and opened a store there in 1821. They sold goods and made pot and pearl ashes there, Pierpont also keeping tavern seve- ral years, when Pierpont sold out the whole business to Mr. Frisbie, who managed it all alone several years, until the insolvency of some leading merchants in Holley made an opening for his business there, he then closed out in Clarendon and moved to Holley to reside about the year 1828 or 1829.
In connexion with Mr. James Seymour of Clarkson, he bought all the unsold land in Holley, of a one hundred acre traet, which had been taken up origi- nally by Mr. Areovester Hamlin.
At Holley he sold goods as a merchant, built hous- es, sold village lots, bought produce. opened streets, and became wealthy from the rise in price of his lands and the profits of his trade.
He was appointed postmaster soon after he came to Holley, an office he held fifteen years.
Some years ago he was thrown from his carriage while driving some high spirited houses, several of his bones broken, and was so badly injured as to render him incapable of active bodily labor, as before. He still resides in Holley, one of the few old men yet re- maining who settled here before the canal was made, enjoying in quiet the avails of a long life of busy in- dustry and sagacious investment.
JACOB HINDS.
Jacob Hinds was born in the, town of Arlington,
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
Bennington county, Vt. He settled in the town of Murray in 1829, and bought a farm which had been taken up by article from the State of Connecticut by Jared Luttenton.
The Erie Canal passes through this farm. Boating on the canal was then brisk, and no station between Albion and Hulberton was established at which boat- men could get their supplies.
Mr. Hinds built a grocery store and began that business.
It was a good location from which to ship wheat, which began to be produced in considerable quanti- ties, and Mr. Hinds built a warehouse in 1830. About this time his brothers Joel, Darius, and Frank- lin, came on and joined him in business, and being active, energetic business men, a little settlement sprang up around them, which was named Hinds- burgh.
Jacob Hinds had been engaged in boating on the canal and became acquainted with the canal and its boatmen and men engaged in trafic through it; in 1839 he was appointed Superintendent of Repairs on the western section, an office he held three years.
After an interval of ten years, in 1849 he was elec- ted one of the State Canal Commissioners and served three years in that capacity.
Since retiring from these offices, Mr. Hinds has followed farming as his principal occupation.
AUSTIN DAY.
Austin Day was born in Winhall. Vermont, April 10th, 1789.
He married Polly Chapman, July 23d, 1810. He moved to the town of Murray in the winter of 1815.
For some years after he came to Murray he served as a constable, and being a good talker he practiced
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PIONEER HISTORY
pettifogging, or acted as counsel in Justice's courts, and for a number of years, and until professional lawyers came in, he did a large business.
After the Erie Canal was made navigable he en- gaged in buying wheat, which he followed some years, shipping large quantities chiefly from Holley.
He was appointed Judge in the Old Court of Com- mon Pleas, of Orleans county, an office he held five years.
He was elected Sheriff of Orleans county in No- vember, 1847, and held the office three years. In January, 1848, he removed to Albion, where until within a few years he has resided. He was Supervi- sor of Barre in 1852.
His wife died October 15th, 1858, which broke up his family. and since then he has resided in the fami- ly of his son, F. A. Day, in Albion, and lately with his daughter, Mrs. Buell, in Holley, relieved from the cares and anxieties of business.
ELIJAH W. WOOD.
Elijah W. Wood was born in Pelham, Mass., April 22d, 1782. He removed to the town of Murray at an early day, where for many years he served as Constable and Justice of the Peace, and during one term of five years he was Judge in the Old Court of Common Pleas of Orleans county.
He was a shrewd and successful pettifogger in jus- tiees' courts, where he made up in wit and natural sagacity any lack he may have suffered in legal at- taiments. He died in Murray at the age of eighty years.
RECOLLECTIONS OF MRS. SALLY SMITH.
"I was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, in 1795. My father removed with his family. including myself,
1
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
to Leroy, New York, in 1816. We were twenty-one days on the journey.
I came to Murray in 1817, and taught school in district No. 8, in a log house in which a family re- sided at the time. My wages was nine shillings a week and boarded among my patrons. I taught eight months during which time I was happy and fared well.
While I was boarding at the house of David Gould, in the winter time, his stock of fodder for his cattle gave out and he was obliged to feed them with . browse,' and to save them from starving on such fare he went to Vietor, Ontario County, and bought a load of corn for his cattle. His brother-in-law brought the corn to Murray on a sleigh with two horses, and arrived at Mr. Gould's house late in the evening of a cold and stormy night.
There was no stable nearer than Sandy Creek, three miles, where the horses could be sheltered. Mr. Gould's house had but one room, but it was conclud- ed to keep the horses there over night. Mr. Gould and wife occupied a bed in a corner of the room, two girls and myself had our bed with its foot at the side of Mr. Gould's bed, and the horses stood in the other corner and ate their corn, and thus we all slept that night as we could.
I married Artemas Daggett, February 14th, 1819, and commenced house-keeping on the farm where I now reside, September, 1870.
Mr. Daggett died in 1831 and left me with three small children and one hundred acres of land, owing about nine hundred dollars. In two years I raised the money and paid our debts and took a deed of the land.
About this time I married Isaac Smith, with whom I lived in peace and plenty until his death in Au- gust. 1866.
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PIONEER HISTORY
During a great sickness at Sandy Creek, Mr. Brace, his wife, and six children resided there. One of his daughters fell sick and went to the house of a doc- tress in town to be treated. Others of the children were taken ill. Mr. Brace was notified that his daughter under the doctress' care was much worse and he went to see her. She died and he was taken down sick and could not go home. In the mean time a son at home died. Mrs. Brace had taken sole care of him in his sickness, and while watching his corpse the dead body of Mr. Brace was brought home and father and son buried at the same time. 'The other sick ones recovered.
At this time Mr. Aretas Pierce, Sr., who lived four miles away, came and found the Brace family misera- bly poor, and destitute of all the comforts and most of the necessaries of life. He went about and got a contribution, and next day the pressing wants of the family were supplied by the benevolent settlers around.
SALLY SMITH."
Murray, September, 1870.
ALANSON MANSFIELD.
Alanson Mansfield was born in Vermont, March 9th, 1793.
With an ax which constituted his whole personal es- tate, he came into the town of Murray in the year 1814, and hired out to work, chopping until he earned enough to take an article of lot number two hundred and nineteen, a little north of Hindsburgh. He then returned to Vermont to bring his father's family to settle on his land. They started from Vermont, his father and mother and six children,-Alanson be- ing oldest of the children,-with a pair of horses and a sleigh, in which was a barrel of pork and some meal, a few household goods and the fami-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
ly. A milch cow was led behind. The pork and meal and milk of the cow supplied most of their pro- visions on the road, and helped sustain them after arriving in Murray, until they could otherwise be supplied.
They arrived in the winter of 1815, put up a log house for a dwelling, and began clearing the timber from a piece of land, and the first season planted the corn from four ears among the logs, from which they raised a good crop.
He married Polly Hart, in Murray, October 14th, 1817. Her father settled near where Murray depot now stands, in 1816.
He united with the Baptist church in Holley, in 1831. The next year the Gaines and Murray Baptist church on the Transit was formed, and Mr. Mansfield united with them and was chosen deacon. He was a worthy, honored and good man, and died respected by all who knew him. September 30th, 1850.
ABNER BALCOM.
Abner Balcom was born in Richfield, Otsego Co., N. Y., September 15, 1796, and brought up in Hope- well, Ontario county.
He married Ruth Williams, of Hopewell, March. 1816. She died in March, 1822.
In the fall of 1822, he married Philotheta Baker. She died February 7th, 1865, and for his third wife he married Mrs. Philena Waring.
In the fall of 1812, in company with his older brother, Horace, and two other inen, he chopped over twenty-two acres on lot one hundred and ninety-two, which Horace had purchased, and on which he set- tled in the spring of 1816, and where he died. This was the first clearing in Murray, on this line between the Ridge and Clarendon.
Mr. Abner Balcom first settled in the town of
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PIONEER HISTORY
Ridgeway, on the farm now or lately owned by Gros- venor Daniels, to whom he sold it and removed to Murray before the canal was made.
In company with Mr. Hiel Brockway he built the dam and mills on the west branch of Sandy Creek, on lot one hundred and ninety-five, near which he has ever since resided.
These mills, a sawmill and gristmill, are known as "Balcom's Mills," and in them Mr. Balcom has always retained an interest.
Mr. Balcom has always been much respected among his fellow townsmen. He has held all the town offices except clerk. He served as Supervisor of Murray in 1847-8. He is an influential and consis- tent member of the Transit Baptist church, in which he has been deacon.
His son, Francis Balcom, was among the volunteers who went into the Union Army in the first years of the great rebellion, and was killed in battle while gallantly fighting to save the country which the in- structions of his father and the instincts of his own nature had taught him to love.
REUBEN BRYANT.
Reuben Bryant was born at Templeton, Worces- ter county, Massachusetts, July 13th, 1792. He graduated at Brown University, Rhode Island, about the year 1815.
After some time spent in teaching, he removed to Livingston county, N. Y., and studied law in the of- fice of the late Judge Smith, in Caledonia. Having been admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court, he settled to practice his profession in Holley about the year 1823, in which village he was the pioneer lawyer.
In the fall of 1849 he removed to Albion, and in 1855 he removed to Buffalo to aid his only son, Wil-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
liam C. Bryant, a rising young lawyer just getting into practice in that city.
He was appointed Master in Chancery by Governor Silas Wright, an office he held when the Court of Chancery was abolished under the Constitution of 1846.
He was a thorough classical scholar, and had his mind well stored with Greek and Latin lore, which he delighted to quote in social moments with his friends when circumstances made it proper.
As a lawyer he had a clear perception of the law" and the facts, and of their bearing in his cases ; but he was too exact, cautious, and diffident of himself to be an advocate. All his life he suffered from a malady which was a perpetual burden and cross to him, and annoyed him in his business. He died in Buffalo in January, 1863.
CHAPTER XXII.
VILLAGE OF HOLLEY.
Areovester Hamlin-First Store-Post Office-Frisbie & Seymour- Early Merchants-First Sawmill-Lawyer-Tavern-Justice of the Peace-Salt Brine-Mammoth Tooth-Salt Port-Presbyterian Church-Salt Spring.
OLLEY, situate in the town of Murray, is a village which owes its existence to the Erie Canal. The site of this village was originally covered with a heavy growth of hemlock trees. These were mostly standing when the canal was surveyed through, but it being apparent a town must grow up here, a vigorous settlement had been begun when work on the great embankment was commenced.
Areovester Hamlin took up one hundred acres of land of the State of Connecticut, which included most of the present village of Holley, about the the year 1820, and immediately commenced clearing off the timber and laid out a village.
Col. Ezra Brainard was the contractor who built the embankment for the canal over Sandy Creek, and while that work was progressing settlers came in and began to build up the place.
Mr. Hamlin erected a store in which he traded. He built an ashery and carried on that business ; he also built the first warehouse on the canal.
To help his village, and accommodate the settlers who were coming in, he got a post office established here of which he was first postmaster. He was an
OF ORLEANS COUNTY. 305
enterprising, active business man, but attempted to do more business than his means would permit, and failed. All his property was sold out by the Sheriff about the year 1828 or 1899.
Mr. John W. Strong opened a store here a little af- ter Mr. Hamlin, and he also failed about the time Mr. Hamlin did, when Hiram Frisbie and James Seymour purchased all the real estate that Hamlin had not sold to other settlers.
Mr. Frisbie came here in 1828 and opened a store and commeneed selling goods, a business in which he has more or less been engaged ever since.
Mr. Frisbie bought out the interest of Mr. Seymour many years ago, and he has sold out the greater part of his tract of land into village lots.
Among the early merchants, after those named, were Mower and Wardwell, and Selby & Nowell. Alva Hamlin, Geo. A. Porter. S. Stedman, and E. Taylor were carpenters and joiners, who settled here in an early day. John Avery and brother were the first blacksmiths. Samuel Cone was the first shoe- maker. Dr. MeClough first physician.
Harley N. Bushnell built a sawmill on the creek north of the canal, in 1824.
Reuben Bryant settled as a lawyer in Holley about the time the canal was made and was the first lawyer. John Onderdonk was the first tailor.
A man by the name of Samuel Cone built and kept a tavern where the Mansion House now stands ; and a Mr. Barr built and kept another tavern house, a little west of the Mansion House. Both of these taverns were before the Canal was navigable.
Turner was the first Justice of the Peace.
The Presbyterian and Baptist meeting houses were built in 1831.
Major William Allis came here as a clerk in the store of John W. Strong. After the closing out of
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PIONEER HISTORY
Mr. Strong's business Maj. Allis carried on business as a produce dealer and served a term as Sheriff of Orleans County.
Salt was found in the ravine on the bank of the creek south of the canal. A brine spring was located near where the railroad crosses the ereek. In its nat- ural state this was known as a . deer lick.' When the State of Connecticut sold the land on which this spring was found, in the deed given they reserved all mines, minerals and salt springs. The State after- wards agreed with Mr. John Reed that he should open the spring and test the water and share half the avails with the State. Mr. Reed dug out the spring, - set two kettles near the creek in the ravine and com- menced boiling the water for salt. When the water was pumped from the well it appeared limpid and clear, after boiling it became red colored, and if then boiled down to salt it remained red colored salt. To remedy this he boiled the water, then drew it off in vats to settle. the coloring matter fell to the bottom, the clear brine was then returned to the kettles, and made white salt.
Reed commenced boiling in 1814. After a time six- been kettles were set here to make salt and used un- til navigation was opened in the canal, when Onon- daga salt could be furnished here so cheap these works were abandoned. Indeed. they never afforded a profit to those working them.
"The wood for the fires was cut on the west side of the creek mainly, and drawn upon the top of the bank, of proper length to put under the kettles, and thrown down the bank through a spout made of tim- ber. A load of wood was sold at the works for a bushel of salt, or one dollar. Although the brine so obtained was comparatively weak, they made hun- dreds of bushels of salt, which was sold to settlers in this vicinity. and carried away in bags.
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