USA > New York > Orleans County > Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York, containing some account of the civil divisions of western New York > Part 27
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Mr. P. Greenman was noted for being "set in his way," and having made up his mind, it was hard to turn him. Having sold his farm in Montgomery Co,, while preparing to move to Yates, he had a valuable ox-cart to dispose of. He named a price for his cart. A man offered him a less price and would give no more. Greenman declared he would not abate a cent, and would burn his cart before he would sell for less. No better offer was made, and when he came away he piled his cart in a heap and burnt it.
A rule he made was, that a pail of water must be left standing in 'his house every night, and the last person who retired must see that it was done, under the penalty of being horse-whipped by Mr. Green- man next morning, in case of neglect. It happened once his daughter had a beau who made her a rather long evening visit, and she was the last in the family to retire for the night, and forgot the pail of water. Her father rose first, as usual, in the morning, and finding the waterpail empty, called up his daughter
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and gave her a sound thrashing to maintain the rule he had established.
Amos Spencer was the first justice of the peace within the territory now called Yates. He was ap- pointed by the Council in 1819.
The first school house in town stood three-fourths of a mile north of Yates Center, and was built in 1818. Mr. Josiah Perry kept the first school there in 1819.
YATES CENTER.
Yates Center at first seemed to be the point where the village would be built. A hotel was opened here by Samuel Tappan. and a store by Moore & Hughes, the first in town, and several dwelling houses were built.
ITere the first postoffice was located, Wm. Hughes first postmaster.
When population and trade began to settle at Lyndonville, Yates Center ceased to enlarge, but its inhabitants were not discouraged. About this time Peter Saxe, from Vermont, a brother of John G. Saxe. the poet, located here as a merchant. He may be considered the founder of Yates Academy, for through his influence and energy it was planned, the stock subscribed, and the institution incorporated. Mr. Saxe traded here a few years, then removed to Troy, N. Y.
After the canal was made navigable, much of the produce of the town of Yates found a market that way ; this trade, and the mills at Lyndonville, opera- ted in favor of that place, and against the Center.
The Methodist Chapel at Lyndonville, which was the first house of worship built in town, was soon followed by the building of the Baptist and Presby- terian churches at that place.
Considerable oak timber grew in Yates. This was
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
cut down long since, squared for ship building, or riven into staves. and sent down the lake to market.
The following is a list of names of persons who, if not first the first, were among the first who settled on the road in the center of the town from the lake to Ridgeway, beginning on the lake :
On the west side of the highway. - Amos Spencer settled here on the lake shore in 1818. Next south. Simeon Gilbert, in 1818. Next. Baruch H. Gilbert. in 1817. Next, Luther St. John. Next, Isaiah Lew- is, in 1818. Next a man by the name of Wing sold to Dr. Elisha Bowen, who resided there many years. Next, Zonas Conger. Next. Nellis. Next.
Thomas Stafford. Next. Moses Wheeler. Next.
Nichols. Next. Rowley, Next.
Samuel and O. Whipple.
Next. Peck. Next. Collins. Next. Josiah Campbell. Next, Elisha Sawyer.
On the east side of the highway, beginning at the lake. First, Robert Simpson. Next. Elisha Gilbert. Next Nathan Skellinger. Next Zacheus Swift. Next, Comfort Joy, in 1817. Next Lemmel L. Downs. Next, Isaac Hurd took two hundred acres. Next, Stephen Austin. Next. Benjamin Drake. Next. Truman Austin. Next. Jacob Winegar. Next, Stephen B. Johnson. in 1817.
The next two hundred aeres were owned by several. different parties under article, but the deed from the Land Company was taken by Samuel Clark, Esq. Next, was - Peck. Next. Abner Balcom. Next, Harvey Clark. Next, Elisha Sawyer. These settlements were chiefly made between the years 1816 and 1819.
VILLAGE OF LYNDONVILLE.
Mr. Stephen W. Mudgett, who had carried on tan-
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ning and shoemaking in Ridgeway, purchased fifty aeres of land, part of lot two, section seven, on the east side of the north and south road in Lyndonville, and removed there and set up tanning and shoe- making.
Samuel Clark took a deed of two hundred acres next north of S. W. Mudgett, on the east side of the road.
About the year 1817, a man by the name of Peck took up one hundred acres on the west side where William Mudgett afterwards resided. Samuel and Oliver Whipple took up land next north of Peck.
Soon after the county of Orleans was organized, settlers began to gather here. Mechanics and trades- men came in and a village began to be formed. Sam- uel Tappan, who was postmaster, and kept his office at Yates Center, removed it here, much to the dis- gust of those living at the Center.
L. & N. Martin, from Peacham, Vermont, kept the first store in 1830. Smith & Babcock soon followed, and Royal Chamberlain was an early merchant. C. Peabody was first blacksmith.
Blanchard and Chamberlain built the tavern which stands there yet, which was kept by Miner Sherwin, in 1830.
To settle the postoffice satisfactorily to the people, Yates postoffice was transfered to the Center, and application was made to the department for a new postoffice, to be called Lyndon, that being the name that had been agreed on at a public meeting of the inhabitants, several of whom came from Lyndon, Vermont. The postoffice department established the postoffice by name of Lyndonville, to distinguish it from Linden, in Genesee county.
S. W. Mudgett, Samuel Tappan, Richard Barry and others, built the first flouring Mills at Lyndon-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
ville, in 1836. The Union School house was built in 1843.
Royal Chamberlain, from Vermont, settled here as a merchant about the time the village began to be established.
As there was no lawyer by profession in town, Mr. Chamberlain being a ready talker and possessed of some education and sufficient self assurance, engaged in trying suits]in justice's courts, and continued the practice several years, until he became a noted "pettifogger" through several towns around. He was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas one term. He removed from Yates several years ago, and now resides in Lockport, where he has edited a news- paper. He did considerable to build up a village at Lyndonville.
Dr. Horace Phippany was the first regular physi- cian who settled in Lyndonville.
Rev. Jeremiah Irons was the first Baptist minister who resided in Yates.
BIOGRAPHIES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
REUBEN ROOT.
"I was born in Cooperstown, Otsego county, N. Y., December 28th, 1792. My father removed with his family, then consisting of his wife and five sonk, to Big Sodus Bay, in 1801 or '2. In April, 1804, we moved by way of Irondequoit Bay and lake Ontario, to the mouth of Johnson's Creek, in Carlton, near which place my father took an article of land from the Holland Land Company. and located on it to make him a farm.
The party that came consisted of my father's fami- ly and the Dunham family, of six or seven persons,
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and these constituted. the whole white population north of the Ridge, between the Niagara and Gene- seo rivers. except a family by the name of Wals- worth, who had settled at the mouth of Oak Or- chard Creek.
. My father built a house of such polos as we could carry, as we had no team to draw logs, and covered it with elm bark. in which we lived without a floor for one or two years, then a floor was made of split basswood logs.
After building a shelter for the family, the next thing in order was to get supplied with food and clothing, the stock we brought with us getting low. We cleared a small piece of land and planted it with corn : from this we made ont bread. Our meat con- sisted of fish. venison, bear, raccoon and hedgehog. We pounded our corn for meal two or three years. by which time we began to raise wheat, which we took to Norton's mill, in Lima. to be ground. It was abont seventy miles by way of Irondequoit Bay and the lake. The country was so infested with bears and wolves at that time we could not keep do- mestie animals.
In the summer of 1806 or '7. my father got a cow from Canada, but the following fall she was killed by wolves.
Our clothing was made from hemp of our own rais- ing. We could not raise fax on account of the rust that destroyed the fibre.
For several years we had no boots or shows for want of material to make them.
My father built the first frame barn in what is now Orleans county. The lumber and nails he brought from Canada.
Turner, in his history of the Holland Purchase, is in error when he says that " James Mather built the first frame barn. and got part of his lumber from
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
Dunham's mill." Our barn was built before Dun- ham's sawmill was built. The barn was torn down by Daniel Gates twenty-two or twenty-three years since, who then owned the place, and some of the flooring can now be seen on the premises. They were split and hewn from whitewood logs. The nails used were all wrought nails.
In September, 1814, my father and myself being the only ones in our family liable to do military duty, were ordered to meet at Batavia. and go from there to Buffalo to serve in the United States army, in the war then being carried on against Great Britain.
On our arrival at Buffalo, there was a call made for volunteers to go to Fort Erie, under General Por- ter, to take the British batteries that were then be- seiging Fort Erie. My father and myself volunteered and went over and assisted in taking the batteries and capturing some five hundred prisoners. This was on the 17th of September, 1814. After this we were discharged, receiving at the rate of $8 per month for our services.
In 1814, I took an article from the Holland Land Company of the land on which I now reside, on lot one, section three, township sixteen, range three.
In April, 1815, I went to Canada and worked on a farm there during the summer. The winter following I returned and chopped over twenty-five acres on my farm, and in March, 1816, I went to Toronto and took command of a vessel and sailed on lake Ontario during the season of navigation until the year 1820.
In January 28th, 1819, I was married to Miss Eliz- abeth Hastings, of Toronto. We moved upon my farm in Yates, in December, 1820, where we still re- side. We have raised a family of ten children, five sons and five daughters. My eldest and youngest
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sons are now serving in the armies of their country in the war of the great rebellion.
REUBEN ROOT."
Yates, June, 1864.
SAMUEL TAPPAN.
Samuel Tappan was born in Saco, Maine, Novem- ber 19, 1781. When nine years old he went to reside with an uncle in Massachusetts. His father was a Quaker in religious opinion, a zealous advocate of their peculiar principles until his death. On the death of his father Samuel was placed with a man in Saco, to learn the tailor's trade. Disliking this business he was soon after bound as an apprentice to a shoemaker, and commenced his " servitude," as he called it. August, 1793. His master belonged to the sect of Quakers, hard and exacting, he made no allow- ance for the faults and failings, or the weakness or feelings of others. He obliged his apprentice to as- sume the dress, and conform to the mode of worship of the Quakers, both of which were repugnant to the feelings of the young man. His master had no books but the Bible, and a few religious works on subjects connected with the Quakers. Samuel was inclined to read whatever came in his way. His incli- nations, however, were strictly restrained by his mas- ter, by whom all books of poetry and romance were absolutely forbidden. and the range of other books to which he was admitted, was exceedingly limited. After several years spent in this manner, a friendly Congregational minister kindly supplied him with books, and gave him discreet counsel, which rendered his servitude more tolerable and happy. Ile had no benefit of schooling. never having attended school as a scholar but three days in his life.
In 1801, with the help of friends he purchased his
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
freedom from his apprenticeship, and returned to Saco and worked at his trade about two years, studying what he could in the mean time to fit him- self for a school teacher.
In 1803 he taught his first school, in which occupa- tion he was mainly employed for a number of years, occasionally working at his trade, and studying when he could without a teacher.
For several years he supplied the poets corner in a village newspaper, and became considerably inter- ested in politics, on the Republican side, under the lead of Mr. Jefferson.
In 1809 he was appointed deputy sheriff for York and Oxford counties, which office he held for two years.
In 1811 he removed to Pittstown, Rensselaer coun- ty, N. Y. The troubles between the United States and Great Britain thickening at this time, on his ap- plication he was appointed an Ensign in the Infantry in the United States Army, and assigned to duty in the 18th Regiment, and stationed in the recruiting service at Hoosie, N. Y.
After war was declared in 1812, he was transferred to the 23d regiment.
In May, 1813, he was ordered with his company to the Niagara frontier. Fort George, at the month of Niagara river, on the Canada side, was taken by our forces, and Ensign Tappan was sent with forty men to plant the American flag on the fort, which was the first time that flag was raised over conquered British territory in that war. Ensign Tappan was now ap- pointed adjutant. In September he was sent with a convoy of prisoners to Greenbush, being twenty-one days on the road. He remained in Greenbush the next antumn and winter, teaching school in the mean time.
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In June, 1814, he was again ordered to the fron- tier and assigned to the command of a company, and served at the capture of Fort Erie. He was engaged in the battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane. In this last battle his company lost seventeen ont of forty-five in killed and wounded. In this battle Lieutenant Tappan, at the head of his company, cap- tured Capt. Frazier, of the Royal Scotts. with twenty of his men. The American army afterwards retired to Fort Erie, and was besieged there by the British, but they were finally compelled to raise the siege. Afterwards, by the bursting of a shell in our camp which had been thrown there by the British. his knee was broken, which confined him in hospital a long time, and on account of which he received a pension the remainder of his life. After he became suffi- ciently recovered to return to duty, he was retained on the peace establishment. war with England being ended, but resigned his commission in February, 1816. He then returned to Pittstown, and there taught school the next seven years, serving in the mean time as inspector and commissioner of schools. commissioner of deeds, auctioneer and coroner. In 1823 he moved to Ridgeway, moving in October, his family consisting of a wife and five children, with all his effects on two Dutch Wagons, reaching Ridge- way, November 10th. After fitting a log cabin for his family he took a school for the winter. In the spring he went to work clearing land, but as he said his farming was not a success. " My fruit trees would fall down and my forest trees would stand up: my crops were light but my bills were heavy, and one year's experience taught me I was not born to be a farmer."
In the spring of 1825 he moved to Yates and opened a tavern at Yates Center, keeping the first tavern opened in that town. After keeping tavern one
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
year and retailing fifty-three barrels of liquor in that time, he sold out his tavern, was elected constable and inspector of schools and commissioner of deeds. which last named office he held twenty years. He was elected justice of the peace in 1828. In the win- ter of 1827 he taught school for the last time, conclu- ding his nineteen years service in that capacity. In 1829 he was appointed postmaster, which office he held thirteen years. In 1832 he was appointed one of the Judges of the Orleans County Court of Common Pleas, which office he held five years. In 1846 he was elected town superintendent of common schools. The later years of his life were spent in quiet at home with his books, and enjoying the society of family and friends. He was constitutionally frail in body, but energetic and active in his habits of life. Being ready with his pen, and having considerable expe- rience in business, he was frequently employed to draft deeds, wills and contracts for his neighbors. and had some practice in trying suits in justices courts. as counsel for parties. Of a cheerful and lively turn of mind and easy flow of language, and having an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes and sto- ries at his command, he would make himself exceed- ingly interesting in conversation, and give zest and enjoyment to society wherever he was. His charac- ter as a man is aptly described by his daughter in a memoir of him prepared by her, from which we ex- tract as follows :
"Judge Tappan may be described as a man of more than ordinary intelleet, well acquainted with the leading events of the day. Of the strictest integ. rity in his business relations, noted for punctuality, a public spirited citizen, ready to bear his full share of responsibility. In his social relations, his keen perceptions and ready wit made him an instructive companion. Although many excentricities mingled
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in his character, yet those who knew him best over- looked these, knowing his heart was right, though his words might sometimes wound."
He was married four times and had nineteen chil- dren.
Many anecdotes might be told of him illustrative of his different traits of character. He posssessed no mechanical ability and often related one of his experiments in this department. After he moved to Ridgeway and became a farmer he found a well curb needed and concluded to make one without assis- tance. He ascertained the size required, collected the materials together and made it in the house du- ring the evenings, being engaged in teaching in the day time, but after its completion, when he at- tempted to take it through the doorway he found it several inches wider than the door. He was a great pedestrian, often making excursions on foot, showing greater powers of endurance than many younger and stronger men.
In the spring of 1844, when starting on one of his eastern journeys, he tells us in his journal that ar- riving in Albion and not finding the water let into the canal as he expected, he managed to get as far as Rochester, and walked most of the distance to Ge- neva. After he was seventy years old he walked from Medina to Daw's Corners, near Batavia, at one time.
While postmaster, he often left two horses in his stable and walked from Yates to Ridgeway with the mail bag on his arm.
He died February 8th, 1868, aged eighty-six years.
JOHN II. TYLER.
John H. Tyler was born in Randolph, Orange Co., Vermont, November 30th, 1793. He attended the
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
academy in Randolph a short time and removed to Massena, N. Y .. in 1810. On war with Great Britain being declared in 1812, he volunteered as a soldier and served near Ogdensburgh six months. In 1817 he removed to the Holland Purchase, and March 22d took an article for one hundred seventy-six acres of land in Yates, part of lot two, section two, range three, on Johnson's Creek, on which he afterwards resided and labored as a farmer. He was Supervisor of the town of Yates nine years, justice of the peace a number of years, and represented the county of Orleans in the Assembly of the State in 1830 and '31. He was a man of vigorous intellect and good judg- ment, and enjoyed the confidence of all who knew him.
He married Selina Gilbert, daughter of Simeon Gil- bert, of Yates, in 1819. She died October 7th, 1842. He married Saloma Gates, daughter of Daniel Gates. of Carlton, in 1843.
He died in August, 1856.
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HORACE O. GOOLD.
Horace O. Goold was born in Lyme, New Lon- don county, Connecticut, August 12th, 1800. In March, 1818, in company with two other men in a one horse wagon, he came to Bloomfield, N. Y., after a journey of fifteen days. He labored on a farm the next summer, taught school the next winter, and in the spring of 1819, removed to Carlton, N. Y., and located about two miles west of the head of Still- water.
The first year of his settlement here he raised thirty bushels of corn and as many bushels of pota- toes.
Mr. Goold said : "During the first season we were sometimes rather short of food, especially meat, but some of the boys would often kill some wild an-
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imal, and we were not very particular what name it bore, as hunger had driven us 'to esteem nothing un- clean, but to receive it with thanksgiving.'"
Mr. Goold married Laurenda Fuller, of Carlton, November 15th, 1820.
Several years before his death, Mr. Goold removed to Lyndonville, in Yates, where he died October 5th. 1865. ITis wife died October 24th, 1865.
JOSIAH PERRY.
Josiah Perry was born in Shaftsbury, Vermont, September 6th, 1787. He removed to Yates in April. 1817, and commenced clearing a farm, and planted and raised corn and potatoes among the logs and sowed some wheat, all the first year.
The people in Yates, in those days, generally went . to Dunham's gristmill, at Kuckville, in Carlton, to get grain ground, and Mr. Perry relates of his carry- ing a bushel of wheat on his back a half dozen miles to that mill to be ground, going through the woods by marked trees, no road being cut out.
Mr. Perry taught the first school that was kept in town. He held office as justice of the peace a short time. He is yet living in Yates.
ALFRED BULLARD.
Alfred Bullard was born in Barre, Massachusetts, February 19th, 1793.
HIe removed with his parents to Shrewsbury, Ver- mont, and there received a fair common school edu- cation, with the addition of a knowledge of field sur- veying.
In 1817 he came to Batavia, Genesee county, and in 1818 he removed to Barre, Orleans county, and he finally settled in Yates in 1824, where he has ever since resided.
For many years after coming into this county, his
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
principal employment consisted in surveying land, and he was known to almost everybody in Orleans county as "Surveyor Bullard.' When he was not surveying he worked on a farm. He married Cynthia Peck in 1821. She died and he married Sally Smith, who is dead also.
Mr. Bullard has not engaged in surveying for a number of years on account of lameness, which com- pelled him to use one, and sometimes two canes in walking. He may be considered the pioneer surveyor located in Orleans county.
IIENRY MC NEAL.
Henry McNeal was born in Pittstown, Rensselaer county, N. Y., in 1792.
He married Lucy Sternberg in 1814. They moved to Yates in 1817.
Mr. McNeal was the first Captain of a militia com- pany in Yates.
AMOS SPENCER.
Amos Spencer was born in Connecticut in 1787. He married Jerusha Murdock, September 10th, 1811. They moved to Yates and settled on the lake shore in 1818.
After a few years they removed to Hartland, Ni- agara county, where he was living in 1870. The first year he resided in Yates, he cleared the land and sowed ten acres with winter wheat. On this the next year he harvested three hundred and thirty bushels of wheat. He drew forty bushels to Ridgeway Corners, hired Amos Barrett to carry it to Rochester with his team, gave him five dollars for drawing and paid his expenses on the road. He sold his wheat for fifty- four cents per bushel. They were gone four days, and on getting home found they had only five dollars
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PIONEER HISTORY
of the money received for their wheat left, all the re- mainder having been spent in paying necessary ex- penses.
ELISHA SAWYER.
Elisha Sawyer was born in Reading, Vermont, September 30th, 1785. He settled in Yates in 1816. He took up four hundred acres of land on the south line of the town. After some years he removed to Lyndonville on a small place. He removed to Pax- ton, Illinois, and died there December Sth, 1868.
BARUCH H. GILBERT.
Baruch H. Gilbert was born in the town of North- east, Dutchess county, New York, August 24th, 1795.
His father, Simeon Gilbert, came to Yates in the fall of 1816, and took an article of land on the west side of the line between ranges three and fonr, about a mile and a half south from lake Ontario, and re- turned to his eastern home without making any im- provement on his lands, to which he did not return until the spring of 1818.
Baruch H. Gilbert settled on the south part of the land so taken by his father in the spring of 1817, and cleared a farm there on which he resided about fifty years.
Mr. Gilbert was of fair education, of considerable spirit and energy of character, and settling in this town among the very first, he interested himself in every movement made to improve the country, intro- duce and maintain the institutions of civilized society and induce people to settle in Yates. He soon took a prominent position in the business of his town and neighborhood, and as long as he resided here he was one of the leading men in all public affairs. He officiated as justice of the peace for thirty years.
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