USA > New York > Orleans County > Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York, containing some account of the civil divisions of western New York > Part 26
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In consequence of my lameness my parents did not design that I should be a farmer, but Providence seemed to order otherwise. My privileges and means for obtaining an education were limited, and to the business of felling the forest, clearing land, and reap- ing the harvest I became much attached, so that even to the present day, the ax and the sickle are my fa- vorite tools.
At one time I came near entering as clerk in a drug store, but the proprietor proved to be a worthless character, broke down and ran away. No other business appearing to offer for me, I accepted the occupation of a farmer, which I have followed ever since, now residing on the homestead of my father.
The first school taught in our neighborhood was by Miss Caroline Fuller, of Batavia, in the summer of 1817. The next winter we had a full school taught by Mr. J. N. Frost, of Riga. I taught school myself two terms before I was twenty-one years old. When I was twenty-one years old I was elected constable, which office I held three years in succession. Since then I have held a few offices both in town and county, but never depended upon the fees of office for my support.
I was married April 20th, 1828, to Mary A Potter, daughter of Wm. C. Potter, of Shelby.
My mother died April 4th, 1832, aged 65 years, and my father died April 20th, 1837, aged seventy- two years.
My father was a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in connexion with Rev. Jas. Carpenter, of the Baptist denomination, he labored faithfully to plant and foster the principles of evan- gelical truth in the minds of a people otherwise most- ly destitute of religious instruction.
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I have been connected with the temperance organi- zations of all sorts that have been established here in the last thirty years.
At the age of eighteen years I was led to embrace the Savior of the world as my Savior, and from that time through much unworthiness, I have been en- deavoring to hold on my way, trusting that the merits. of Christ will avail for my short comings.
MATTHEW GREGORY."
Millville, January, 1863.
DAVID DEMARA.
David Demara was born in Albany county, Octo- ber 26th, 1808, and removed with his father's family to Shelby, in 1811. His father first located in the woods two miles from any house, built a log house fourteen by sixteen feet, covered it with bark and moved into it, without floors, doors, or windows. He left the county in 1813, on account of the war, and returned in 1815.
David Demara married Maria Upham, April 12th, 1837. She was born in Ward, Massachusetts, March 29th, 1814.
ABRAM BIDELMAN.
" I was born March 10th, 1800, in Manheim, Mont- gomery county, N. Y.
In January, 1817, I removed with my father's fam- ily to Ridgeway, Orleans county. We built a log house and moved into it in the month of March. While building our house, and just previous to put- ting on the roof, a large tree fell upon the building, and cost us much labor to remove it and repair damages.
Cornelius Ashton and John Timmerman had set- tled within half a mile of my father's location when we came in.
-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
My father's family consisted of my father and mother and ten children. When he moved here, he was to all intents 'and purposes, poor. I do not think, besides a pair of old ordinary horses and a cow, my father could boast he was worth other prop- erty worth fifty dollars. I worked out to help sup- port the family until I was twenty-one years of age.
I married Miss Lucinda Michael in 1824. My father, Henry Bidelman, died in 1860, aged eighty- two years.
In March, 1818, snow fell about two feet deep; next day it thawed, and a frost following made a hard crust on the snow. On this James Woodward and myself resolved to have a day hunting deer. We made snow shoes from a seasoned board, which enabled us to walk on the crust with ease. We were attended by a small dog, and armed each with a common pocket knife. We soon started a fine buck from his browse in a fallen tree top, the dog gave chase, and after a few bounds, in which the deer broke through the crust to the ground, he stood at bay. We rushed upon the deer with our knives and cut his throat. We soon started another deer, which we killed in the same manner. So we brought in two deer in about an hour. Our success so animated George Holsen burgh, a neighbor, that he joined us in another hunt. In our second hunt we had not gone far into the woods before we started as large a buck as I ever saw. The dog soon brought him to a bay. Holsenburgh, who was a quick, athletic man, rushed up to the head of the deer with intent to seize his horns, when he re- ceived a blow from the fore foot of the animal which laid open his clothing from his ehin down, as if cut by a knife. The hoof took the skin off' upon his breast, and left a visible mark down his body. Hol- senburgh was terribly alarmed at this change in af-
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fairs. He turned pale, and retired from the contest he was so prompt to commence. Woodward and myself went to the rescue, and , quickly despatched the deer as we had done the others. Our friend Hol- senburgh had had sufficient experience of that kind of deer hunting to satisfy him, and we went in with our game. Woodward and myself went out again the third time and brought in two more deer, making five in all killed by us in one day.
In March, 1822, I helped the contractor who had taken a section of canal to dig where Medina now stands, build a log cabin. We ent our trees for the building on the ground now the site of the village. We finished our cabin in five and a half days. I then engaged to work for the contractor half a month for six dollars and fifty cents and be boarded. Our work was digging for the canal. The first two days we had fifteen hands, and the third day about fifty. We were allowed a liquor ration. Mr. Eggles- ton, the contractor, brought in on an ox cart from Rochester, three barrels of whisky among other stores to use on his job. Of this each man was al- lowed one gill a day.
At this time I was unacquainted with the nature of whisky, and I with the others, drank my first al- Jowanco. I will not here attempt to de- seribe its effects. Suffice it to say, it was the first and last liquor ration I ever drank. I sold the re- mainder of my whisky rations to those who were fa- miliar with their use, at three cents each.
In the year 1828 I built for myself a log house twenty feet square, into which I moved my family, having but one room which we used for kitchen and parlor, dining room, bedroom, &c. Onr furniture was such as pioneer farmers in this country usually posssessed, viz .: a loom, quill wheel and swifts, · great wheel and little wheel for spinning, necessary
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
bedding, seven chairs, a table and a cradle, with a few exceedingly plain culinary utensils, which were indispensible to our comfort.
For many years my wife manufactured our cloth- ing, both woolen and linen, wove our own cover- lets and blankets, and hundreds of yards for our neighbors.
ABRAM BIDELMAN."
Shelby. October, 1866.
Mr. Abram Bidelman died Inne 8th, 1868.
JOTHAM MORSE.
"I was born in Providence, Saratoga county. N. Y., June 14th, 1793.
I was married to Dorcas Ferris, August 15th. 1814. I hired a man to move me to Ridgeway, agreeing to pay him forty dollars for it. Our outfit consisted of a good team of horses and wagon, as there was no snow then. My family consisted of my mother, my wife and two children.
After we had been two or three days on the road, a 'thaw ' came that compelled us to stop a week. The earth then became frozen and we went to Palmy- ra, when one horse gave out. I bought another horse for forty-five dollars, paid my watch, a fur hat, and a pair of boots, for thirty-two dollars. and gave my note for the thirteen dollars, and with my three horse team went on to Rochester, which then consisted onty of a few log buildings, one of which was a tavern where we stopped. On examining here I found our only bed had been stolen. I afterwards found it pawned at Palmyra by the thief and had to pay two dollars and a half to get it again. We came by the Ridge Road to West Gaines, where we found an empty shanty and moved into it. I went to Batavia through Shelby and procured an article of a piece of land west of Eagle Harbor, and returned in one day
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as far as Millville. It snowed hard all that day, and I think I did a good day's work, traveling so far through the woods on foot. Lacknowledge my steps were some hurried by seeing tracks of wolves in the snow, and seeing some evidences of a bloody encoun- ter they had had.
I bought a three year old heifer and paid for her chopping three acres of timber, and fitting it for log- ging, going three miles to the place where I did my work.
In time of having and harvest I walked to Palmyra and worked there three weeks to buy pork and. wheat for my family. The next fall I moved into a log house I had built, and felt at home. The next year I had a little trial such as was common to pio- por settlers in those days. It was before harvest. My cow had lost her bell, and had been gone in the woods eight days. We were destitute of provisions, except a small piece of bread, some sugar, and some vinegar. I went to the nearest place where flour was sold and could get none. On my return we gave the last morsel of bread to our children. I picked some potato tops which my wife boiled and we ate, dress- ing them with vinegar. Our empty stomachs would not retain this diet. We speedily vomited them up and retired supperless to bed. Early next morning I arose and went to my neighbors a mile away, and they divided their small store of flour with me. I carried it home and my wife speedily salted some water and made some pudding, which we ate with maple sugar, and this seemed to me to be truly the best meal of victuals lever ate. I felt, even in this straight, the words of Solomon to be true: " Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and contention therewith."
Another incident. Myself and immediate neigh- bors were destitute of flour. I had money which I had
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
taken in exchange of land, so a neighbor took me with his team and wagon to Hanford's Landing, at the mouth of Genesee river, to purchase flour. I bought six barrels of flour and one barrel of salt and took ont my money to pay for it. Mr. Hanford, the man of whom I had made my purchase, divided the money I handed him into piles of about thirty-six dollars in each pile, after doing which I was astonished to hear him accuse me, in an angry tone, of being a dealer in counterfeit money, and to learn that he had condemned about one-half of what I had paid him. He ordered a man in his employ to go immediately to Rochester and procure a precept for my arrest. I felt alarmed, and that I was in trouble. I knew not what to do, but God, who is ever watchful over those who put their trust in Him, was with me. While things were growing more threatening, a gentleman whom I had never seen but once before came up, and after learning the facts, strongly condemned Mr. Han- ford's course. The money was again examined, and only about nineteen dollars found bad. This was re- placed by current funds, and we were then allowed to return to our homes in peace.
This supply carried the settlement through until harvest, and by the blessing of Heaven and our own industry and economy, we have been saved from such destitution until the present time.
I have seen the wilderness disappear, and beauty and civilization spring up in its place around me. 1 have, in common with mankind, drank of the cup of affliction, perhaps more deeply than many others. I have been called to mourn over the graves of two loved companions and four children, from a family of fourteen.
I now reside with my third wife, in West Shelby, and preach every Sunday at the Christian Church in
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Barre, N. Y., where I have labored in the ministry. more or less, for fifty years.
JOTHAM MORSE."
West Shelby, May. 1868.
DAVID BURROUGHIS.
David Burroughs was born near Trenton, New Jer- sey, and died in the town of Shelby, Orleans Co., N. Y., in 1822, aged 46 years.
Mr. Burroughs removed to Ovid, Séneca county, about the year 1798, where he resided, working a farm and keeping hotel until the year 1818, when he removed to Shelby, and settled on a farm about two miles south-west from Shelby Center.
Mr. Burroughs took first rank among his towns- men for his capacity and intelligence. He was the first Supervisor of Shelby, while it belonged to Gen- esee county, and was appointed justice of the peace about the year 1820, an office he held till his death. He was a member of the Convention that framed the Constitution for the State in the year 1821. He took an article of his farm from the Holland Company a year or two before he moved his family to Shelby. He had a few acres cleared and a log house built. ready for his family when they came in. He left two sons, 1. K. Burroughs, formerly a merchant and business man in Medina, where he now resides, and Hon. Silas M. Burroughs, who began life for himself as a merchant. He afterwards abandoned merchandise for the practice of law. He represented the county of Orleans four years in the lower House, in the legislature of the State, and was twice elected member of Congress, and died before the end of his second term. He also resided in Medina.
DARIUS SOUTHWORTH.
Darius Southworth was born in Palmyra, N. Y ..
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
March 18th, 1800. He worked some at the trade of a carpenter while a minor, but since the year 1825, he has made that his principal business.
He married Mercy Mason, daughter of Jamies Mason, of Millville, in Shelby, where he has ever since resided. They have four children, Elvira A., Albert, Dexter L., and George J. H., all now liv- ing.
NEWMAN CURTIS.
Newman Curtis was born in Dalton. Massachu- setts, September 9th, 1797.
HIe married Maria Van Bergen, of Kattskill, N. Y., June 9th, 1818. In September, 1824, he settled on a farm in Shelby, one mile south of Millville. Mr. Curtis had fourteen children, eight sons and six daughters, all of whom lived to become men and wo- men, and all of whom received their education at Millville Academy.
In 1854 Mr. Curtis sold his farm in Shelby and re- moved to the town of Independence, in Iowa, where he purchased two hundred and fifty acres for his own farm, and located a large quantity of wild land of the Government, for his children. Mr. Curtis became wealthy from the rise in the value of these lands, and the practice of industry and economy. He died in the year 1858. His widow and twelve children survived him.
HORATIO N. HEWES.
Horatio N. Hewes settled in Shelby in the year 1825, as a partner in business with L. A. G. B. Grant. He was engaged in selling goods, running mills, and dealing in produce with Mr. Grant for some years, and after that became a large contractor to do public work, and had large jobs of work on the Erie canal. He removed to Medina to reside
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about the year 1854, where he died June 17th, 1862.
He was an energetic business man, and was exten- sively known in this part of the State. He married a daughter of Col. A. A. Ellicott.
LATHROP A. G. B. GRANT.
Lathrop A. G. B. Grant settled in Shelby about the year 1824, as a merchant. He married a dangh- ter of Col. A. A. Ellicott.
Mr. Grant gradually extended his business opera- tions, and at length became a large dealer in farmer's produce.
About the year 1851 he built the large stone mills at Shelby Center, and run them for a time. He was an active and influential man in public affairs of his town and county, and was the representative of Or- leans county in the State legislature in 1826, being the first member elected after the county was organ- ized.
Twelve or fifteen years ago he sold out his property in Shelby, and removed to Oswego, N. Y., where he has since resided engaged in extensive business.
ANDREW A. ELLICOTT.
Andrew A. Ellicott was born in Lancaster, Penn- sylvania.
He married Sarah A. Williams, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He came to Batavia in May, 1803.
In July, 1817, he removed to Shelby, Orleans coun- ty, where his uncle, Joseph Ellicott, had given him eight hundred acres of land, which included the water power at Shelby Center. He settled at Shelby Center, where he built mills, officiated as justice of the peace, and postmaster. He was the first post- master in that town.
His influence with his wealthy and numerous fam-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
ly connexions, his own benevolence and disposition to aid such as needed help, which he always be- stowed liberally when he had opportunity, en- deared him to the pioneers in Shelby, and contribu- ted much towards inducing settlements to be made there.
He died September 7th, 1839. His wife died Au- gust 26th, 1850. His daughter Sarah, widow of the late Horatio N. Hewes, resides in Medina.
ALEXANDER COON.
Alexander Coon was the first, or among the first settlers in Shelby. He came from Rensselaer county, N. Y., and located about two miles west of Shelby Center, in 1810.
In a statement furnished by Mr. Alexander Coon, Jr., for Turner's History of the Holland Purchase, he says :
"My father's family left the Lewiston Road at Walsworths, and arriving upon our land, four crotch- es were set in the ground, stieks laid across, the whole covered with elm bark, making a sleeping place. The cooking was done in the open air. A very com- fortable log house was then built in five days, with- out boards. nails, or shingles. Our cattle were fed the first winter on browse, the next winter on browse and cornstalks.
Our nearest neighbor south, was Walsworth ; west, the nearest was in Hartland ; north, one family on the Ridge Road."
Mr. Alexander Coon, senior, left several sons, and the family became among the most respectable in the community.
Alexander Coon, Jr., was afterward a prominent public man, well and favorably known in the affairs of his town and county. For eleven years he rep- resented the town of Shelby in the Board of Super-
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visors of Orleans county,-a longer time than any other man ever served as a member of that Board. He also held many other town offices. He said when he was collector of taxes in Shelby, he had a tax of less "than" a dollar against a man who, to pay it, made black salls, drew them to Gaines on a hand- sled, and sold them for the money.
JACOB A. ZIMMERMAN.
Jacob A. Zimmerman was born in Manheim, N. Y., August 23d, 1795.
In 1817 he came to Shelby with John B. Snell, who moved from the same town.
In the summer of 1817, he married Nancy Snell. In the spring of 1819, they commenced keeping house in Shelby, on the farm they ever afterwards occupied.
Mr. Zimmerman says :
" I made a table. We had no chairs. I made three stools, two for ourselves and one for company. Our window lights were white paper ; no window glass could be had here then. Our cooking utensils were a four quart kettle, and a black earthen teapot. I gave a dollar for six cast iron knives and forks and six cups and saucers, which completed our eating tools.
Times were very hard. I was eleven months with- out a sixpence in money ; two months without any shoes. When we saw shoes tied up with bark we called them half worn out. I gave five bushels of wheat for a pair of poor coarse shoes, made of flank leather.
In 1821 my log house was burned. The neighbors helped me build another house, and in two weeks after the fire we moved to the new house. In November, 1826, I had bought and paid for eighty-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
seven acres of land. I afterwards increased my farm to one hundred sixteen acres."
Mr. Zimmerman's children are Morris, married Phebe Bent ; Eleanor, unmarried ; Gilbert, married Janette Sanderson ; John A., married, Mary Powers; Arvilla, married Egbert B. Simonds ; and Andrew L., married Jennie Bartsom. Jacob A. Zimmerman, died December 6th, 1864.
JOHN GRINNELL.
John Grinnell was born in Edinburgh, Saratoga County, December 4th, 1796.
His father, Josiah Grinnell, was a native of Rhode Island. He settled in Saratoga county and removed from there to Oneida county, where he died.
John Grinnell purchased a farm in Barre, in 1820, on which in the fall of that year he built a log house into which he moved in April, 1821. He cleared his farm and resided there till 1854, when he moved to Shelby.
He was three times married. First, to Roxana Kirkham; second, to Lucy Babcock ; she died Janu- ary 25th, 1846 ; third, to Mrs. Julia Ann Abbott, Oc- tober 27th, 1847.
His children, Cyrene and Daniel, are dead. Paul, married Sarah Butler ; Peter, married Eliza Berry ; Lyman, married Leonora Rooker ; Andrew J., mar- ried Mary Rodman ; J. Wesley, married Alice Haines ; Mahala, married William J. Caldwell ; Harley, married Maria Kelsey ; John Jr., married Margaret Root ; Ella J., married Frederick Hop- kins.
His brothers, Ezra, Major and Amos, and his sis- ters, Betsey, wife of Alanson Tinkham; Eliza, wife of William Tyler ; Chloe, wife of Relly Tinkham, and Anna, wife of Weston Wetherby, all settled
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in Orleans county soon after Mr. John Grinnell came in.
These families so early settled here, have been prosperous in business. Being upright in purpose, and honorable in character, they have become among the most respected families in the county.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE TOWN OF YATES.
Formerly called Northton-George Houseman - Discouragement to Early Settlement-First Deed-Tappan's Tavern-Liquor Sokl- First Marriage -First Death -First Store -First Sawmill-Bear Story - Preserved Greenman-Anecdotes of first Justice-Yates Center-First Post Office-Peter Saxe-Names of First Settlers along Range Line Road-Village of Lyndonville-Biographies of Early Settlers.
ATES was formed from Ridgeway, April 17, 1822. by the name of Northton. The next year the name was changed to Yates, in honor of Governor Yates.
George Houseman, from Adams, Jefferson county, came into this town and settled in 1809. John Eaton came in 1810.
Very few settlers came in before or during the war of 1812. The extreme difficulty of getting farm pro- duce to a market, and the prospect that such a diffi culty would long exist, from the locality, discouraged emigrants from stopping here, and little land was taken before 1817.
Persons coming to this county to look for a place for their home, generally sought a locality in the vi- cinity of neighbors, where roads were openel, and where the social enjoyments of human life could in some degree be realized. It required considerable heroism for a man to go back five or eight miles from any settlement into the thick, heavy forest, and begin with the intention there to clear for himself a. farm.
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PIONEER HISTORY
A few hardy resolute men located in Yates, re- gardless of every discouragement, but no considera- ble settlement was effected until after the cold season of 1816-17, when the country rapidly filled up with settlers.
The first deed of land given by the Holland Land Company, in this town, was to Preserved Greenman, June 18th, 1810. Almost the whole of this town was deeded by the Holland Company between the years 1831 and 1835.
The first tavern was kept by Samuel Tappan, at Yates Center, in the year 1825. The population of the town at that time was less than eight hundred, yet Judge Tappan, in a biographical sketch of him- self, says :
"In the thirteen months in which I kept this tavern, I retailed fifty-three barrels of spiritous li- quors."
The first marriage in town was that of George Houseman, Jr., and Sally Covert, in 1817. The first death that of Mrs. George Houseman, senior, De- cember, 1813.
The first store was kept by Moore & Hughes, at Yates Center, in 1824.
The first school was taught by Josiah Perry, in the year 1819, in the district including Yates Cen- ter.
A sawmill was built on Johnson's Creek, below Lyndonville, by Gardner and Irons, about the year 1819, and a gristmill on the same dam in 1821. These mills, at a later day, have been known as Bul- lock's Mills, named from a subsequent owner. The mills and dam are now gone.
Chamberlain & Simpson built the warehouse on the Lake shore, north from Yates Center.
A family by the name of Wilkeson lived in the east rart of the town in 1811 or '12. In the summer sea-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
son of that year, Miss Eliza Wilkeson saw a young cub bear near the house, among some vines they had planted. She was alone in the house, but seizing the old-fashioned fire shovel, she went and killed the bear with it.
Mr. Preserved Greenman took up about six hun- dred acres of land lying east from Lyndonville, be- fore the war of 1812. Mr. Greenman did not occupy his land himself, but settled his sons Daniel and Enos there, giving the neighborhood the name of the " Greenman Settlement."
Some years after, Mr. P. Greenman removed from Montgomery county to Yates, to reside. After a few years he removed to Genesee county, and died there.
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