USA > New York > Orleans County > Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York, containing some account of the civil divisions of western New York > Part 25
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Deacon Theophilus Cook commenced, alone and unaided, getting out the timber for this house. See- ing his zeal showing itself in faith and works, Mr. Ephraim Scovill joined him in the work. Others fol- lowed with their labor and contributions. till a building about thirty by forty-five feet was erected, in which the Presbyterians worshipped from about 1830, to February 17th, 1836, when their new church edifice was dedicated.
The first house was then used for school purposes several years, when it was sold to the Roman Catho- lics, who moved it upon the same lot with their church, built an addition to it, and it is now their school house.
The Presbyterian Church was organized with sey- enteen members, March 19th, 1829.
The Presbyterian Society was incorporated August 27th, 1831, by name of "The Trustees of the first Society of the Congregational Church at Medina."
The first printing press in Medina was set up in the fall of 1832, and the first newspaper called " Me- dina Herald," published by D. P. Adams.
After the Erie canal was located and surveyed
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through Medina, attention was called to this place as the probable site of a village, and about the year 1823. Mr. Ebenezer Mix surveyed and laid out the village for the proprietors and named it Medina.
Mr. John B. Ellicott, a relative of Joseph Ellicott, was sent here by the proprietors to superintend their interests, as local agent.
Mr. Artemas Allen came to Medina in 1822, and was the first mason who settled in the village. He had charge as master mason in building the aqueduct for the Erie canal on Oak Orchard Creek.
The stone for this work were mainly obtained from the bank of the creek north of the canal. The re- maining stone were from Shelby Center, or Claren- don. and a few from Lockport.
Mr. Allen built a large brick tannery and dwelling house for Justus Ingersoll, and a large stone build- ing called the Eagle Hotel, which was burned some years ago.
Mr. Allen claims he first discovered the quarry of ilaging stone at Medina, got out the first flags, and laid a number of rods of sidewalk in front of the residence of David E. Evans in Batavia.
The stone from which the water lime used on the aqueduct was made were obtained be- tween Medina and Shelby Center, burned on log heaps, and ground with an upright revolving stone.
Mr. Artemas Allen removed to Coldwater, Michi- gan, where he is now living.
The village of Medina was incorporated March 3d, 1832.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE VILLAGE OF KNOWLESVILLE.
Wm. Knowles, Founder and First Settler-First Clearing-First Framed House-First Tavern-First Warehouse-First Boat Load of Wheat-First Ashery-First School House-Post Office-First Religious Society.
NOWLESVILLE, situate on the eastern bounds of the town of Ridgeway, as at pres- ent bounded, owes its existence to the Erie canal. When work was begun on the canal, but two or three families had located on the ground now covered by the village.
Mr. William Knowles, the pioneer and founder of the village, was the first settler. He took up from the Land Company and settled upon lot three, town- ship fifteen, range three, in the winter of 1815.
Shortly after John Caniff took up one hundred acres of the north part of lot fifty-nine, in town- ship fifteen, range three, adjoining Mr. Knowles' land and east of it.
The first tree cut on the site of Knowlesville stood where the residence of R. P. Wood now stands, and was felled in March, 1815. There Mr. Knowles built the first log cabin, in which he resided. He hired a Mr. Hill to work for him in clearing land, and his wife was their house-keeper. In course of that sea- son, 1815, Mrs. Hill died, being the first person who died in what is now Knowlesville.
The Erie canal was finished from Lockport to Roch- ester a year or two before it was completed from
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Lockport to Buffalo ; but as this long level had to be fed mainly by water let into it from Genesee River, it was impossible to raise the water in the western part more than two or three feet deep ; but even then some little flat-bottomed boats were run through to Rochester regularly to carry passengers and light parcels, before the water was let in from lake Erie to till the canal.
In 1825 Mr. Knowles built the first framed house, on the south side of the canal, and west side of Main street, yet standing, in which he kept the first tavern for several years. Afterwards he built the first brick house erected, near the canal, and north from his old tavern house, and kept a tavern some time there.
Mr. Knowles built the first warehouse in 1825, and Mr. Win. Van Dorn kept the first store in Knowles' warehouse.
Nathan S. Wood opened the second store in 1825-6.
In 1827 Mr. Knowles bought twenty thousand bushels of wheat at Knowlesville. The first boat he loaded with this wheat is said to have been the first boat load of grain shipped from Orleans county by canal.
Moses Huxley kept the first grocery store on the canal in 1825. Philo Dewey kept a grocery here in 1830.
The first tanner and shoemaker was Andrew Betts.
The first blacksmith was Daniel Batty. The first carpenter and joiner was Andrew Ryan.
Mr. Knowles built an ashery in 1816. He manu- factured a little potash; afterwards, for about four years, he used his works solely for making black salts, which he sold to James Mather and others at Gaines.
The first school house was built of logs in 1817,
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and stood a little north of where a brick school house was afterwards built, on the west side of the street, north of the canal.
The post office was established here in 1826. It became necessary to give the village and postoffice a name. The inhabitants met together and requested Mr. Knowles to give the name, and he called it Port- ville. It was afterwards ascertained that there was already a postoffice in New York named Portville, and the name was then changed to Knowlesville.
The Presbyterian Church was first organized after the Congregational form, by Rev. Eleazer Fairbanks, with eleven members, Aug. 27, 1817. In June, 1820, it united with the Presbytery of Rochester, and since then has been Presbyterian in its form of Gov- ernment.
This was the first religious society organized in the present town of Ridgeway, and as such received the deed of the " Gospel Lot," so called, of one hundred acres given by the Holland Land Company. The first fourteen years of its existence its meetings for worship were held in the school houses, and some- times in the dwellings of its members in this part of the town.
Their first public house of worship, now standing in Knowlesville, was built of brick, and dedicated in 1832.
The first Baptist meeting house, and the first Meth- odist meeting house, which was afterwards burned, were erected in 1833.
The village of Oak Orchard, on the Ridge Road, in Ridgeway, was the principal village in town be- fore the Erie Canal was made. After the canal was completed Oak Orchard began to decline, and Knowlesville took the trade, population and busi- ness.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE TOWN OF SHELBY.
Jo. Ellicott Locating Land-Ellicott's Mills-Road from Oak Orchard Road to Shelby-Salt Works Road-Anecdote of Luther Porter- Col. A. A. Ellicott-Ball in Ellicott's Mill-Abner Hunt-Fiddler Hackett-First Physician-Post Office-Iron Foundry-Tannery- Biographies of Early Settlers.
HELBY was set off from Ridgeway, March 6th, 1818, and was named in honor of Gover- nor Shelby, of Kentucky.
In surveying the Holland Purchase for the propri- etors, Mr. Joseph Ellicott noticed those tracts of land that seemed to possess peculiar advantages, and lo- cated some of the best for himself. The falls on the Oak Orchard Creek attracted his attention as afford- ing a good site for mills, and he laid off for himself and purchased seven hundred acres of land here in & body, including this water power. At an early day he located some of his relations here and fur- nished means to begin a settlement and improve the water power, and in the year 1812 he built a sawmill, and in 1813 a gristmill, under the supervision of his nephew, Col. Andrew A. Ellicott.
To facilitate the growth of this settlement, the Elli- cotts, with the aid of the Holland Company, opened the first highway from Shelby Center east to intersect the Oak Orchard Road in Barre, and the Holland Company built the Salt Works Road from the Brine
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Springs, North of Medina, one branch of which led south-west through Shelby, to the Lewiston Road.
The mills first built at Shelby Center were small, coarse and clumsy affairs, which, when driven to their utmost capacity for work, could not supply all the wants of the settlers.
The little grist mill was generally crowded with customers at all seasons of the year, some coming many miles. And at seasons when the water was low it could not do half the grinding required, and grists sometimes lay weeks at the mill before they were ground.
Late in the summer one year when the water was lowest in the ereek, Luther Porter, of Barre. then a boy fifteen years of age, was sent there, some ten miles, to mill with two bags of grain, on horseback, and told by his father to stay till he got his grist. Arriving at the mill, Luther hitched his horse and went in. He saw the mill full of bags, unground, and a number of men waiting their turns, and con- cluding at the rate things moved it was likely to be several days before his turn would come, he resolved to try a little strategy to get his meal sooner. Say- ing nothing to anybody he unloaded his bags on some lumber, and watching his oportunity when the miller had put in a fresh grist and gone out to wait upon his customers at a little grocery he carried on near by in connexion with his mill, he carried his bags into the mill, nobody seeing him, and set them back in a retired place among the most dusty bags in the mill, collected some mill dust and sifted it care- fully over and about his bags and the place where he set them. This done, he waited the return of the miller, and going to him asked very innocently if his grist was ground ? "When did you bring it here?" said the miller. "Oh, a great while ago," says Lu- ther.
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The miller had forgotten, said he would look. Lu- ther went and helped find the bags. The miller see- ing the dust, said they had accidentally been over- looked, but if he would put out his horse and stop at his house he would try and put them through be- fore the next morning.
Luther staid of course, the work was done, and by daylight next morning he started for home with his meal.
"Col. Andrew A. Ellicott was the patroon of Shelby village. He is remembered for his many acts of kindness to the new settlers, and especially for the in- terest he took in the welfare of the Indians at Tona- wanda. He was adopted into their nation, under the Indian name of " Kiawana," which means "a good man." He often helped them to bread in seasons of scarcity.
Col. Ellicott removed from Batavia with his fam- ily to reside in Shelby, in 1817. He had been en- ployed with his uncle, Joseph Ellicott, in surveying the Holland Purchase.
He built a second grist mill at Shelby Center, or Barnegat, as it was then called, about the year 1819. It was afterwards burned. When this mill was fin- ished it contained the largest and best floor for dan- cing then in town, and the young people of Shelby and vicinity used it for the first ball in town. It was several times afterwards used by dancing parties, a man by name of Hackett, who resided in Shelby, furnishing the music on a violin.
The young people were very fond of dancing, and got up parties to enjoy that amusement frequently whenever they could find a floor, and whenever they could secure the services of Hackett with his violin. If he was not to be had they managed with such other music as they could get, and some of the old
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people yet remember attending parties at an early day in this neighborhood, and dancing right merrily to the music of a Jewsharp.
Col. Ellicott died in September, 1839.
The first birth in Shelby was that of Asa Coon, son of Alexander Coon, senior, February 14th. 1811.
The first death was that of William Bennett, Oc- tober 4th, 1812.
The first tavern was kept by Daniel Timmerman, in 1816, and the first store by Christian Groff in 1818.
The first school was taught by Cornelius Ashton in the winter of 1815-16.
In the winter of 1819, in order to get money to pay his taxes, Abner Hunt threshed wheat for John Burt. for every tenth bushel.
The work was done on the floor of a log barn ten by eighteen feet and the chaff was separated from the wheat with a hand fan made of boards. Mr. Hunt carried his share of the wheat on his back two miles, and sold it to Micah Harrington for twon- ty-five cents a bushel.
The first regular physician who settled in Shelby was Dr. Christopher Whaley, who came in 1819. Dr. George Norton came soon after.
The first postoffice in town was at Shelby Center, and the first postmaster was Colonel Andrew A. El- licott.
John Van Brocklin built and carried on a small iron foundry at Shelby Center, about 1821-2 which is said to be the first iron foundry established in the county of Orleans.
Justus Ingersoll built and carried on a tannery in Shelby about 1821.
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PIONEER HISTORY BIOGRAPHIES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
THE GREGORY FAMILY.
Among the old families in Orleans county, none are better known or more favorably considered than the Gregory family, of Shelby. Of Scotch descent, Ralph Gregory removed from Fairfield, Vermont, to Shelby, in 1816, where he followed the occupation of a farmer and brought up his six sons to the same calling.
Mr. Gregory, the father, died in 1837. His six sons still survive and live in or near Shelby, except Philo, who moved to Michigan ten years ago.
Brought up in habits of industry and strict econo- my, they have each acquired a competence of prop- pity, and are enjoying a serene and quiet old age, honored and respected by all who know them. It is rare that so large a family of brothers live together so long, and the Gregory Brothers may be referred to for proof that in this good land of ours, perseve- rance and energy will achieve success, and health and long life made happy will very surely be attained by those who live worthy of such rewards. Ex- tracts from the local history of two of the brothers are as follows :
AMOS GREGORY.
"I am fourth son of Ralph Gregory. I was born in Fairfield, Franklin county, Vermont, April 18th, 1796.
In the winter of 1817, my father with his family re- moved to what is now Shelby, Orleans county, N. Y. On that journey it fell to my lot to drive the team of two yoke of Oxen attached to a wooden shod sled. We were on the road from February 5th to April 3d. making some stops, waiting for snow and to recruit. The greatest distance traveled in any one day was
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twenty miles, and that was on the ice on Lake Cham- plain.
But in the closing up of our journey we were three days getting from four or five miles north of Batavia to our stopping place. I married Betsey Wyman. April 5th, 1818.
AMOS GREGORY."
MATTHEW GREGORY.
"I was born in Fairfield, Vermont, April 10, 1802. being the youngest of seven sons. I was a cripple in my feet and ankles from birth. I did not walk until I was four years old. My crippled condition and my extraordinary birth, being a . seventh son. occasioned my being called while a boy, 'doctor. This title was peculiarly annoying to me. This and the drunkenness, profanity and infidelity which char- acterized some of the faculty with whom I was early acquainted, prejudiced my mind strongly against the medical profession. I have lived to find honorable ex- ceptions to this character among some of the profes- sion I have since known.
My only sister died before she was quite five years old.
In the early part of September, 1815, there were severe frosts destroying the crops before they had matured. This so discouraged my two oldest broth- ers, who then had families living a few miles distant from each other, that they told my father they were done with Vermont, and had determined to seek their fortunes in the west.
At their suggestion, and in order to keep his family together, my father, then fifty years old, consented to go with them, patriarch like, to seek for himself and family 'a better country.' He accordingly took a saddle horse and visited the Genesee country, and spent some six weeks in vewing the entire region,
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when he returned home bringing in a favorable report of the land.
This was hailed with joy by us all except my mother, who was much attached to her old home. Houses and lands, and everything else too cumber- some to carry were disposed of, so that by the first of February, 1816, we were on our way to the far famed Genessee.
Our caravan consisted of two four ox teams, each attached to heavy wooden shod sleds, starting on the 5th, and a two horse team starting on the 6th. We had good teams, but we had a tedious journey. The most of the way the sleighing was bad. From White- hall to near Auburn, our sleds had to be newly shod every other morning, and from Auburn west we had to mount our sleds on wheels.
After refreshing ourselves awhile with friends in Gorham, Ontario county, we came on to Batavia and there made another stop. It was now about the mid- dle of March, and the younger boys went to work, while my father and the two eldest of his sons went out to look for land. The place where we stopped was about four miles north from Batavia, and is now called Dawes Corners.
My father located a farm for himself on Maple Ridge, in Shelby, paying one hundred dollars for his 'chance' on one hundred acres, and buying ar- ticles of land in the vicinity for his sons.
On the third of April we again started'on our jour- ney, and arrived at our new home near the close of the third day, a short journey this last, but a very wearisome one. I was then about thirteen years old.
When we arrived at our future residence, we had no shelter for men or beast. Orange Wells and Sam- uel Wyman had located in that neighborhood in the
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
spring previous and made small improvements, and built log houses.
Through the hospitality of Mr. Wells, we were kindly sheltered for a week, by which time we had built a cabin for ourselves.
Our oxen could very well live on browse, but our horses after standing one night tied to a brush heap, looked so sorry that my father took them back to Batavia.
We were all happy when we got into our new house, not a costly edifice like those dwellings of some of our rich neighbors of the present day, but made of rough unhewn logs, notched down together at the corners, shingled with rough hemlock boards, with joints broken and battened with slabs round side up, the floor made of split basswood logs spotted upon the sleepers, and flattened on the top, leaving an open space at one end for the fire place on the ground, the end of the floor planks affording a con- venient seat for the children around the fire, in the absence of chairs and sofas.
Our first work was to fell trees around our dwell- ing, burn off the brush and logs, and enclose a patch of land for a garden and a fruit nursery, my father having brought a small bag of apple seeds from Ver- mont.
We procured peach stones in Ontario county. This was in the spring of 1816. Four families had wintered near our location, but on the opening of spring neighbors came in frequently, and the forest resounded with the sound of the woodman's ax and the crash of falling trees.
Among the names of settlers who had located in our neighborhood about the time of which I have spoken, I remember Elijah Bent, Alexander Coon, Oliver R. Bennett, James Mason, Leonard Dresser, Andrew Stevens, William Knowles, William C. Tan-
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PIONEER HISTORY
ner, Josias Tanner, Elijah Foot, Peter Hoag, Stephen Hill, Franklin Bennett, Micah Harrington, Daniel Fuller, Daniel Timmerman, William Dunlap and Elizur Frary.
There was a will and indomitable courage enter- tained on the part of the settlers, but it was exceed- ingly difficult for them to obtain money for the com- mon necessaries of life.
Mr. Hiel Brockway bought a lot in this vicinity, and sent on Mr. Calvin C. Phelps (now of Barre) to chop, clear, and sow with wheat ten acres of land. He boarded with Mr. Wells. To him Mr. Brockway would send barrels of pork, flour, and whisky, the last of which was considered in those days about as much of a necessary as pork or flour, for him to sell to the inhabitants.
This was a relief to many, and saved the buyers much time in looking up their supplies and trans- porting them home.
At one time my father paid Mr. Phelps eleven dol- lars for as much pork as he could carry away in a peck measure. I don't recollect the number of pounds.
At another time he paid Elijah Bent twenty-five cents a pound for pork.
By the first of June in the year we came, we had driv- en the woods back from the house in one direction thirty or forty rods. The brush was burned off and the ground planted with corn among the logs. This was in 1816, known as 'the cold season,' when snow fell in every month in the year but two, with frost every month. Consequently we raised but little corn, and even that was saved in an unmatured condition. We were, however, with much care, able to make passable meal from some of it.
The little wheat sown the fall before yielded boun-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
tifully, but the supply not being equal to the demand, owing to the large emigration of people into the country, scarcity and high prices prevailed before the next harvest.
With so small a supply to be obtained, roads so new and rough, prices high, settlers poor, and their best and almost only means of conveyance an ox team, it is no wonder much suffering and want pre- vailed.
My father had one horse, and he assumed the office of commissary of subsistence in part, for the whole settlement, and acted as mill boy for the family. He would ride about the country to find grain, some- times getting a grist near Batavia, the next on the Ridge Road, between home and Rochester. Not- withstanding my father's faithful efforts, we would sometimes come short for food, then our good mother would put us on 'half rations."
At one time our supplies were completely exhaus- ted. We had been expecting our father home all day, with his bushel grist perhaps, but he did not come and we went nearly supperless to bed, expecting he would arrive before morning.
Morning came but father did not. We hoped he would come soon, and took our axes and went to work, but our axes were unusually heavy. Faint and slow were the blows we struck that morning. While we boys were trying to chop, mother sifted & bag of bran we had and made a cake of the finest, which she brought out to us during the forenoon. We ate this which stayed us up till noon, when father came and brought us plenty to eat, such as it was. Variety was not to be had in those times.
In course of this season most of the lands near my fathers were located by a hardy and energetic popu- lation, mostly from New England.
By the fall most of the occupied farms had their
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PIONEER HISTORY
fallows, of from three to twenty acres in extent, ready for sowing. This crop, though sowed among roots and stumps of trees, produced a yield of from thirty to fifty bushels per acre.
This bountiful return, together with a fair corn crop, placed us above want and fully satisfied us with the country we had adopted as our home. Pen- ding this harvest there was great scarcity of provi- sions, but neighbor lent to neighbor ; the half layer of meat and loaf of bread was divided, while for weeks many families subsisted on boiled potatoes and milk, and such vegetables as the forest af- forded.
When the earliest patches of wheat were cut and threshed, there was no mill to grind nearer than Rochester. There were mills on the Oak Orchard Creek, but they were of such construction there was not water at that season sufficient to turn them. Neighbors would join together and send a team to Rochester to carry grists to mill for them all at once.
En many instances green wheat was boiled whole and eaten with milk. I ate of it and thought it good. The products of this harvest exceeded the wants of the producers for their bread, and as we had no high- ways on which we could send our grain to market, we were restricted in our sales mainly to new comers who had not time to raise a crop. A bushel of wheat was the price of a day's work of a man, and he was considered lucky who had an opportunity to sell wheat for money, at even a low price.
On the first day of July, 1817, wheat was worth two dollars and fifty cents a bushel in Orleans coun- ty, and in the winter next after farmers drew their wheat to Rochester with ox teams, a journey round taking three days or more, and sold it for from twen-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
ty-five to thirty-one cents a bushel in money, and we felt that was better than to go home hungry.
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