USA > New York > Orleans County > Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York, containing some account of the civil divisions of western New York > Part 24
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He married Lydia H. Fox, February 23d, 1832, by
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Stand Buscade?
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
whom he had two sons and two daughters, all of whom lived to adult age.
WILLIAM KNOWLES.
Mr. Knowles was born in Sandersfield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, July 19, 1790. His ancestors. for several generations, had been residents of Cape Cod, and were of the true New England, Puritan stock.
They were God-fearing people, of deep religious sen- timent, and strict in their habits. His parents brought up their family of nine children according to the no- tions prevalent in those days among the descendants of the old Puritans.
The school house and the church were prominent institutions in New England civilization, and Mr. Knowles had the advantages of both, as they were enjoyed seventy years ago. His schooling was re- stricted to the district school of that time.
In December, 1813, Mr. Knowles collected his ef- fects together, purchased a span of horses and wagon, and a quantity of iron and steel for loading, and started to go to the Genesee country, where three of his brothers had already located.
On his way west he stopped at Schenectady and bought eight kegs of oysters to add to his load. He arrived safely at the house of his brother in Riga, January 5th, 1814.
In January, 1815, he came to Ridgeway and stop- ped at the house of an old friend, Eleazer Slater. He took an article of lot three, township fifteen, range three, on which the village of Knowlesville, so named in his honor, now stands, on the Erie canal, contain- ing 341 acres.
In March, 1815, he began to cut down the trees upon his land so purchased, to build a house, then
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PIONEER HISTORY
more than a mile from any house, or highway or foot path.
The spot on which he ent the first tree is where the residence of Mr. R. P. Wood now stands. In due time his cabin was raised, with sides of logs, roof of staves, or shakes, as they were called, fastened to their places by poles bound crosswise, with a floor of basswood logs roughly hewed on one side.
Mr. John Canifee, having a wife and one child and no house, moved into the new house of Mr. Knowles before it was completed, while the floor was only half laid down and a blanket was used for a door, and lived in it in that condition for two weeks.
Mr. Knowles hired two men to work for him, one of whom had a wife, who was their housekeeper. Du- ring the first summer this woman, Mrs. Hill, was taken siek and died.
At that time there were no roads, no barns, no pas- tures, and none of the modern conveniences for living in the settlement. Mr. Knowles had obtained some . cows which he hired kept two miles from his house. Ile would work hard in his clearing all day, then go " two miles to milk his cows and bring the milk home in pails through the woods.
The death of Mrs. Hill was a sad event in the wilderness. It rendered the log cabin desolate. The men Mr. Knowles had hired soon left him.
In November, 1815, he went back to Massachu- setts, and in January, 1816, was married to Miss Mary Baldwin. They came on to the house Mr. Knowles had built. Mrs. Knowles soon accustomed herself to the inconveniences and difficulties of her new situation, went cheerfully to work and became a model housekeeper. The inconveniences of house- keeping were not a few.
Mr. Knowles, on his way home with his wife, had purchased a set of chairs with splint seats. These -
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were regarded at first by the neighbors as a great luxu- ry, and frequent comments were made by them upon the extravagance, as they regarded it of the Knowles family. But if they did indulge a little in the matter of chairs, their other furniture of the house at first was sufficiently primitive to satisfy the most fastidious of their friends, for they had at first no table but a board put on the top of a barrel. Their first bed- stead was made by boring holes in the logs in the side of the house, and putting in rods fastened to pole bedposts, with side pieces of like material.
In the cold summer of 1816, frost in June killed the corn, rendering the prospect gloomy and sad for the new settlers, but the wheat crop proved good in quality, though less than an average yield in quan- tity.
In the summer of 1816, the engineers surveying for the Erie Canal, came along and pitched their tent ou Mr. Knowles farm, on the spot where Abell & Brace now have a store, stopping there a week, and finally established the line for the canal through the center of his farm.
The canal was completed to Lockport from the east in 1824.
Mr. Knowles built one section of the canal a little east of Holley.
In 1825 he built the first framed house in Knowles- ville, on the south side of the canal, in which he kept a hotel for several years. Afterwards he built the brick house near the canal on the west side of the Main street, in which he kept a temperance hotel for several years, until he finally closed the house as a. tavern.
Mr. Knowles built the first warehouse in Knowles- ville, in 1825.
He bought and shipped the first boat load of wheat „ever shipped from Orleans county.
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Mr. Knowles was always among the first engaged in all public enterprises for the benefit of the commu- nity in which he lived.
HIe helped build the first school house in his dis- trict, which was made of logs. This served also as a place of public worship. Here ministers of various denominations preached the gospel, and the people flocked to hear them without regard to sectarian pre- judice or partiality.
In 1838 Mr. Knowles built his late place of res- idence on the beautiful eminence in the west part of the village, and north of the canal.
In 1830 the brick church in Knowlesville was erec- ted, Mr. K. furnishing one-half or more of the funds for that purpose.
Mr. and Mrs. Knowles united with the Presbyte- rian church in 1820, which was the first religious so- ciety organized in Ridgeway. For nearly forty years he has been a ruling elder in that church.
He never had children of his own, yet he has taken into his family and brought up and educated seven or eight children of others. To one of these Rev. I. O. Fillmore, he gave a liberal education, sending him to college and theological schools to fit for the gospel ministry, besides granting him a generous allowance of means to establish himself with comfort in life, in grateful remembrance of which favors, so bounti- fully and disinterestedly bestowed by Mr. Knowles and his family, Mr. Fillmore acknowledges his obli- gation, and devotes himself with filial duty to. make the last days of his kind benefactor as happy as possible.
Mr. Knowles has been twice married. His first wife died April 2d, 1861. He married Mrs. Mary Crippen for his second wife.
He has sold his large farm and other real estate, re- serving only a house and lot in Knowlesville, where
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he resides, relieved from the cares and perplexities of business, calmly awaiting the approach of death, en- joying the full assurance of the good man's hope.
The foregoing is the substance of a sketch of Mr. Knowles, furnished for the Orleans County Pioneer Association by his adopted son, Rev. I. O. Fill- more.
AVERY V. ANDREWS.
"I was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, July 25th, 1798.
In 1802 my father removed to Waterbury, Ver- mont.
In October, 1817, he started with two yoke of oxen and a wagon to move his family to western New York, and after traveling thirty days arrived at Gaines, then Genesee county, N. Y. I was then eighteen years of age.
In the fall of 1819, I bought an article for fifty acres of land in Ridgeway, and in 1821, I bought an arti- cle for sixty-two acres with a small log house on it. All my personal estate then consisted of one yoke of steers and a cow.
I lived in my log house seventeen years, then built a dwelling house of stone in which I now reside.
AVERY V. ANDREWS."
Ridgeway, June. 1866.
NANCY G. MASTEN.
" I was born in Warwick, Massachusetts, Septem- ber 20th, 1796.
I was married to Ephraim G. Masten, at Albany, N. Y., November 15th, 1815.
We settled in Bethlehem, Albany county, N. Y. In 1819 my husband came to Ridgeway, Orleans Co., and bought an article for one hundred and thirty acres of land on lot seventeen, township fifteen,
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range three, then in a wild state, cleared three acres and sowed it with wheat, and in November, 1819, mnoved upon his land with his family.
We lived in a log house until in 1831 we built a dwelling of stone on the site of the old log house. Mr. Masten died March 20th, 1840.
NANCY G. MASTEN."
Ridgeway, September, 1866.
LYSANDER C. GROVER.
"I was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Jan- uary, 22d. 1802.
In the fall of 1807. my father moved to Phelps, On- tario county, I being then in my sixth year. Here I spent my boyhood working on a farm summers and attending district school winters. When I was twelve years old my father sent me with his hired man a mile and a half into the woods to chop cord wood, and on my twelfth birth day I chopped and piled one cord of wood, and well do I remember of bragging of my exploit when I returned home. But strategy, of which we hear occasionally, had some- thing to do with it, for I got the hired man to fall an old basswood tree with a dead top for me, and this helped materially to make out my pile.
My father being of Green Mountain origin, where men were born with iron constitutions, required more work of me than my constitution could endure, con- sequently when I was about nineteen years old, I be- came physically unable to labor.
In 1823 I went to school at an academy in Geneva. and in the fall of that year I obtained a teacher's cer- tificate. Thus accoutered, and with little knowledge of the world, and still less of its lucre, I emerged as a pedagogue which occupation I followed with an in- crease both of success and wages.
Finding this business irksome and by no means de-
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sirable for life, I resolved upon a profession. When consulting with friends for a choice it was thought my piety did not come up to the ministerial standard. and I had neither the confidence nor impudence to warrant success as a lawyer, therefore the only al- ternative was I must be a physician, which I resolved to be.
I studied medicine with Dr. James Carter, of Gene- va, and attended medical lectures in the city of New York in the winter of 1827-8, and returned in the spring to Geneva, with just six cents capital in my pocket with which to start in business.
In January, 1829, I located for practice in the vil- lage of Alloway, in the town of Lyons. There, with a capital all borrowed, except the aforesaid six cents which I had not encroached upon, did I start out with saddle bags well filled, full of confidence of success. I stuck up my tin and was ready for business.
It was in the healthy season of the year, and no- body would get sick to accommodate me, or test the efficiency of my drugs, or my ability in prescribing them. And it was even more than hinted that the blues were lurking about me.
But at length by patient industry I eventually ac- quired a good and lucrative practice as a physician, and how well I have acquitted myself in my profes- sion, and in such other business as I have been en- gaged in, I leave for others to decide.
I had not physical stamina sufficient to enable me to enter the wilderness and lay low its primeval for- ests, supplant the ferocious bears, and prowling and howling wolves,-or to build log houses, and occupy them,-therefore I am scarcely entitled to have my name enrolled among the real settlers and early pio- neers of Orleans county fifty years ago, my only claim being that I swung the ax in my boyhood days
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in Ontario county, and also that I have cleared some land by proxy in Orleans county.
October 3d, 1831, I married a daughter of Henry Howard, of Alloway, Wayne county, N. Y. I car- ried on my professional business in connexion with merchandising, until in 1844, I removed to Alexander, Genesee county, and in February, 1845, I moved to Knowlesville, on the farm on which I now reside. Here I have practiced medicine but little, keeping a drug and book store, and superintending my farm.
My wife died April 8th, 1847, and I married for a second wife. Mrs. Eliza Ann Brown. August 12th, 1858.
I have failed to get rich, being too timid to make any bold and great business strikes, having too great a development of the organ of cautiousness to secure the avails of any great far-reaching enter- prise.
To sum up the events of my history in short, in my boyhood I was a farmer, then a teacher, then a clerk, next a student of medicine. after that a doctor, then a merchant.
I have run an ashery and a distillery, for which lat- ter business I trust I am now sufficiently penitent. I have kept a drug and book store, and am now living quietly on my farm in Knowlesville.
LYSANDER C. GROVER."
Knowlesville, January 21, 1867.
EDWIN P. HEALY.
" My father moved from Massachusetts to Marcel- Ius, N. Y. in 1805.
I was born in Marcellus, Onondaga county, N. Y., April 14th, 1812, and was brought up at labor on my father's farm until I became a man.
I taught school four years, then studied med- icine, and graduated in my profession in 1837,
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and settled to practice in Cortlandville, N. Y. In 1838 I was married to Miss Maria Thomas, of Skane- atelas, and began housekeeping immediately.
I practiced my profession eighteen years, then from failing health was compelled to abandon the practice of medicine and removed to Medina, N. Y., in 1856, and engaged in the business of selling drugs and medicines, which I still follow.
EDWIN P. HEALY."
Medina, April, 1867.
MILO COON.
Milo Coon was born in DeRuyter, N. Y., Novem- ber 4th, 1799.
His father, Hezekiah Coon, was a native of Rhode Island. He came to Ridgeway in 1809, and took an article for one hundred acres of land one mile east of Ridgeway Corners, upon which he moved with his family September 29th, 1811.
When he settled here his neighbors were Ezra D. Barnes, Israel Douglass and Seymour Murdock.
Milo Coon married Edith L. Willets, August 31st, 1823.
PETER HOAG.
Peter Hoag was born at Independence, New Jer- sey, December 3d, 1794.
In 1804 he came with his family to Farmington, Ontario county, N. Y. From that time until Octo- ber, 1815, he labored on a farm, or went to school, or kept school. In October, 1815, he took up a lot of land in Ridgeway and built a log house on it, into which he moved his family in March, 1816.
About the year 1838 he disposed of his lot, bought part of lot nineteen, township fifteen, range three, on which he resides with his son Lewis.
Mr. Hoag married Hannah Vanduser, March 15th, 1815. She died August 18th, 1831.
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PIONEER HISTORY
He married Maria Douglass, January 5th, 1832. She died March 20th, 1866.
His children are Mary, who died in infancy. Zach- , ariah married Maria Temple, and resides in Michi- gan. James, who married Elizabeth Slade, resides in Kendall. Ransom, who married Melvina Porter, resides in Medina. Mary, who married Sylvester Gillett, resides in Bergen. Lyman died in infancy. William L., who married Clara Bigford, resides in Wisconsin. Charles Henry, who married Minerva Powers, resides in Wayne county, N. Y., and Lewis H., who married Sarah Hoag, and resides on his pa- ternal homestead.
DAVID HOOD.
"I was born in the town of Tarbot, Pennsylvania, August 2d, 1794.
In 1797 my parents removed to Seneca, N. Y., town of Romulus. We had many hardships and priva- tions to endure, the country being new and we so far from school and religious meetings. Our land was heavily timbered and required a great deal of hard work to get it in a condition to till. We had to go ten miles to mill.
I went to school after I was nine or ten years old, what I could, and worked on the farm summers until in September, 1813, I was drafted for a soldier. being then nineteen years old, and went to Fort George, in Canada, which had been taken by our for- ces in the spring before.
I was three months in the army, and was then dis- charged.
I continued with my parents until 1816, when I came to the town of Ridgeway and worked one summer for a brother of mine who had located one mile south of Knowlesville. The next spring I bought an article
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for one hundred and nineteen acres of land, upon which I went to work clearing.
The title to the farm on which my father had re- sided and labored for twenty years in Seneca county proved bad and he was compelled to abandon it, leaving him almost penniless, and he came to the town of Shelby and began again anew.
I built a house on my land in Ridgeway, in Octo- ber, 1818.
In May, 1819, I was married to Miss Elizabeth Burroughs, daughter of David Burroughs, of Shelby, and in June after, we moved into my house upon my farm, on which farm I have resided now forty-seven years.
I worked my farm and my wife took good care of things about the house, and so we prospered as well as any of our neighbors. I built my first barn in 1820.
Presbyterian churches were organized at Oak Or- chard Creek, and at Millville at an early day. In the year 1831 a Church edifice was erected by the Presbyterians at Knowlesville.
During these years so long ago, although our labor was hard and fatiguing, yet we performed it with cheerfulness and in hope. Our neighbors knew no broils, families were all peaceful and friendly with each other, kind and attentive in sickness, even unto death.
Thus we toiled on from year to year, the forest gradu- ally retiring before us, and giving place to fruitful fields, and gardens, and orchards, yielding a gene- rous reward for our labors.
I built a new house which I finished in 1835, but our old log house was like a sacred spot, cherished in our memories.
Since occupying my present residence I have seen the present wilderness exchanged for cultivated
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land, filled with the habitations of industry. I have witnessed the introduction into our county of those great works of improvement, the Erie Canal, the Railroad, and the Electric Telegraph, and now, in the evening of my days, I am enjoying a competence of this world's goods for my comfort, expecting soon to pass over the 'river,' where I hope to meet not only the pioneers of the woods here, but all who are here ' seeking a better country,'
Ridgeway, January, 1865.
DAVID HOOD."
CHAPTER XXVI.
THIE VILLAGE OF MEDINA.
Saw Mill by Land Company-Evan's Grist Mill-Canal Feeder-Nix- on's Brewery-Coan's Store-First Tavern-First Merchants-Phy- sieian-Attorney -- Quarries --- Justus Ingersoll -- Baptist Meeting House.
HE territory included in the village of Medi- na was mainly covered with forest trees when work was begun here on the Erie canal.
Mr. Joseph Ellicott had, at an early day, located a' large tract of land here of the Holland Land Compa- ny, including the rapids in the Oak Orchard Creek, but settlement was commenced at Shelby Center, no- body at that time expecting a village would grow up here.
Mr. Samuel F. Gear built a sawmill for the Hol- land Company or Mr. Ellicott, on the falls in the Oak Orchard Creek, in Medina, about the year 1805, and about the same time the Salt Works were established at the brine springs, north of the village. This mill was a cheaply constructed affair. No roads leading to it were made, and before the war of 1812, few set- tlers located here. They could not get their logs to the mill for the distance and bad roads. The mill was not kept in repair and soon tumbled into ruins.
Mr. Ellicott rented out the salt works, but working them was impracticable, and not much salt was made there until the springs came into possession of Isaac Bennett in 1818.
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Mr. Sylvanus Coan opened the first store in 1824, before the canal was finished, and some small estab- lishments for selling goods to those working on the ranal soon followed, but the opening of navigation was the signal for commencing the improvement of the water power on the Creek and building up the town.
In May, 1825, David E. Evans laid the foundations of his large flouring mill, afterwards owned by Wil- liam R. Gwynn, standing on the race near the rail- road.
This mill was built of stone, John Ryan master mason, and finished in 1826. It was finally burned in December, 1859.
The State of New York built a dam in the creek at the time the canal was dug, and made a raceway to carry the creek water into the canal, as a feeder. This race proved too low for the purpose and was abandoned.
In 1825 Mr. Evans made an arrangement with the State, under which he raised a dam higher up the stream, and connected this by a raceway to the canal. Evans drew water from this raceway-to turn his mill, and sold water power to others to be drawn from his race.
Joseph Nixon built a brewery here about the year 1827. After a few years it was turned into a distille- ry, and malt liquors or whisky were made there for several years.
This brewery was burned three times, and the site is now occupied by Bignall & Co. as a foundry.
Uri D. Moore kept the first hotel, on Shelby St., in 1824.
Ashael Wooodruff and brother were merchants here in 1826.
John Ryan, mason, settled here in 1827; Simeon Downs, blacksmith, in 1825 ; Dr. - Rumsey,
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
the first regular physician, in 1827. Dr. Lathrop foi- lowed soon after.
The first attorney was Nathan Sawyer. The first carpenter, Samuel F. Gear. The first iron founder was Simeon Bathgate.
The postoffice was established in Medina in 1829, and Justus Ingersoll was the first postmaster.
David Ford and John Parsons were tinsmiths. Otis Turner.and Chase and Britt were grocers. Clark and Fairman were early merchants.
The first fire company was organized August 16th, 1832.
The first bell in a steeple was raised on the Presby- terian Church in 1836.
This was the first bell in the village, and the only church bell between Albion and Lockport for several years. It was rung a number of times every day to regulate the hours of labor and rest of the inhabi- tants.
A town clock was afterwards procured and placed in the steeple of the Methodist Church, to serve in the place of so much bell ringing. The clock proving a poor machine was soon given up.
Justus Ingersoll, who had been a tanner in Shelby, moved to Medina in 1826, and built a large brick building for a tannery west of the creek, near the the canal.
This was afterwards converted into a Houring mill, and burned December, 1858.
Mr. Ingersoll was justice of the peace, postmaster, Indian agent and Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the county, and an active man in village affairs.
The first religious society organized in Medina was the Episcopalian.
"St. John's Church in Medina," filed a certificate
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PIONEER HISTORY
of incorporation in the county clerk's office under that name November 12th, 1827.
Rev. Richard Salmon, missionary, was then in charge.
Bishop Hobart held the first Episcopal service by a Bishop in Orleans county, in this church Septem- ber 7th, 1828.
The corporate officers of the church for its first year were Justus Ingersoll and Richard Van Dyke, Wardens.
Christopher Whaley, Elijah Beech, John B. Elli- cott, Joseph Nixon, Henry Yerrington, Benjamin W. Van Dyke, Jonas S. Billings and Hezekiah R. War- ner, Vestrymen.
Mr. David E. Evans gave the church a piece of land on which to erect their church edifice, the foun- dations of which were laid in 1831.
The first religious services were held in this build- ing, in the basement, on Christmas Eve, 1832. Joshua M. Rogers was the minister.
The house was finished, and consecrated by Bishop Onderdonk, September 30th, 1836, where it now stands, on Center street.
The Methodists filed a certificate to incorporate a society by name of "The first Methodist Episcopal Society in Medina," October 1st, 1830.
They filed another certificate altering their name, among other things, April 7th, 1834.
They commenced building their house of worship of stone, in 1833. In raising the roof the timbers gave way and eleven men fell in the ruins. No one was killed, some bones were broken.
The basement of this house was finished and used in 1834, but it was several years before the whole house was completed.
This house was taken down and rebuilt in 1850, and thoroughly repaired in 1869.
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
The Baptists filed a certificate to incorporate "The First Baptist Church and Society in Medina," March 14th, 1831.
Their first house of worship was a building put up for a barn in the rear of the brick hotel, on the south- west corner of Center and Shelby streets. This was lathed and plastered and seated, and used for reli- gious meetings until their first meeting house was dedicated in the winter of 1832.
Their new church on the corner of West and Con- ter streets was commenced in the fall of 1870.
The Presbyterians built the first building designed for religious worship in Medina, on the north side of Cross, near the corner of West street.
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