USA > New York > Orleans County > Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York, containing some account of the civil divisions of western New York > Part 28
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
He married Miss Fanny Skellenger in 1821. His children are Simeon, who married Olive Skellinger, and resides in Illinois; Stephen B., married Ann Watkins, resides in California ; Nathan S., married Mary E. Lane, resides in Lockport ; and Cordelia, who is unmarried.
ELISHA BOWEN.
Dr. Elisha Bowen was born in Reading, Windsor county, Vermont, in the year 1791.
He received a diploma from Dartmouth College. He was first married and removed to Palmyra, N. Y., in 1817, where his wife died.
In the year 1820 he removed to the town of Yates, and settled on a farm between Yates Center and the lake.
He was the first, and for several years the only regular physician residing and practicing in the town of Yates.
He married for his second wife Miss Adeline Raw- son. After her death he married for his third wife Miss Mary Ann Clark. She died in 1861.
Dr. Bowen had twelve children, of whom nine are living, viz .: Francis W., married a daughter of Dr. Whaley, resides in Sacramento, California ; Samuel C., married Kate, daughter of James Jackson, of Ridgeway, resides in Medina ; Adeline, unmarried, resides in Wisconson; Charles C., married Julia Hard, resides in Detroit ; Edgar J., married Mary Winn, resides in Chicago ; Susan, married H. L. Achilles, Jr., resides in Rochester ; Cornelia, married Samuel Boyd, resides in Appleton, Wisconsin ; Mary, un- married resides at Appleton, Wisconsin ; Theodore E., married Mary Loomis, resides in Chicago.
Dr. Bowen was one of thirteen persons who united to form the Baptist Church in Yates, in 1822, of which church he continued an active member until
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his death. He was a strong advocate of temperance, and among the first who united in the town of Yates to form a society to promote that cause.
Dr. Bowen was conscientious and correct in all the habits of his life, and had the confidence and respect of all who knew him. In the later years of his life he did not practice his profession. He died April 6, 1863, aged 72 years.
CHAPTER XXX.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF JOSEPH ELLICOTT AND EBENEZER MIX.
JOSEPH ELLICOTT.
Although Mr. Ellicott was never a resident of Or- leans county, and consequently not strictly included among its pioneers, whose history it is the main ob- ject of this work to record, yet, as the agent of the Holland Land Company for so many years- no man had more to do in organizing and settling this county, and in planning and bringing into action the means by which the varied resources of Western New York have been developed.
The ancestors of Mr. Ellicott came from Wales to America at an early day, and were among the early pioneers of Buck's county, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Joseph Ellicott was thoroughly educated as a surveyor, by lessons given him by his elder brother Andrew. His first practical lessons were taken while assisting his brother in surveying the city of Wash- ington, after that place had been selected for the Na- tional Capitol.
In 1791 he was appointed to run the line between Georgia and the Creek Indians. He was then en- gaged in surveying the lands of the Holland Company lying in the State of Pennsylvania. When this was completed he was sent to survey the Company's lands in Western New York.
He spent many years in the woods, in the arduous labors of a surveyor, and when he left the woods to
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engage in the business of local agent of the Company, his toil was scarcely lessened. During this time he carried on an immense correspondence with the gene- ral office, at Philadelphia, in reference to the business entrusted to him, and also with the prominent men of his time and country in relation to public affairs generally, in which he manifested great interest. He is especially remembered aside from his connexion with the Holland Land Company, for the part he took in promoting that great work of internal im- provement, the Erie Canal. With the schemes for the origin and prosecution of that work, and its pro- gress to success, he was conspicuously identified; and among the great men whose comprehensive minds devised that canal, and urged it forward to completion, his name will ever rank among the first.
By a life of activity and enterprise, he was enabled to accumulate a large property without being charged. with peculation in office, or mal-admin- istration of the vast business entrusted to his care.
A spirit of discontent had begun to be manifested among the settlers on the Holland Purchase, growing out of their enormous indebtedness to the Company for their lands which they had been permitted to buy on credit, and while the leniency of the agents had not enforced payment on their contracts, accu- mlating interest had largely swelled the original debts.
Worried and worn by the load of labor he had sustained, and aware of the discontent which pre- vailed, and which he hoped might be allayed if direc- ted by other counsels, Mr. E. resigned his agency, and thus closed a busy life. From that time he was afflic- ted with a monomania upon real or imaginary diseases with which he believed himself to suffer. He was
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
taken by his friends to New York and placed in the hospital at. Bellevue, where about August, 1826, he committed suicide.
Joseph Ellicott was never married, but for his nu- merous family of relatives he made most ample pro- vision, some of the choicest lands on the Holland Pur- chase being selected and secured by title to the Elli- cotts.
His remains were brought to Batavia and interred in the village cemetery, a beautiful monument being erected under the superintence of David E. Evans, his nephew, and successor as local agent of the Hol- land Company, marks the spot.
From his intimate acquaintance as surveyor with the Holland Purchase lands in Western New York, he was enabled to make some judicions selections of lands for himself.
In the original survey of Buffalo, he laid off for himself one hundred acres, now included in the best part of that city.
In the county of Orleans he bought seven hundred acres, including the water power at Shelby Center, and afterwards fourteen hundred acres farther down the Oak Orchard Creek, which included the vil- lage of Medina, and the best water power on that creek.
About the year 1824 he made his will, in which he devised a large part of his great landed estate in special gifts to his favorite relatives. The residue was devised to others of his kindred, nearly one hun- dred in number, share and share alike, with a few exceptions.
His property at the time of his death, even at the low price lands then bore, was estimated at six hundred thousand dollars. From the great advance in value at this time, this property is worth many millions of dollars.
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He was the first Judge appointed in and for Gene- see county courts.
EBENEZER MIX.
Ebenezer Mix is a name familiar as household words to the old settlers on the Holland Purchase, and no history of the pioneers, or of the early settle- ment, could be made complete without a reference to him.
Mr. Mix was born at New Haven, Connecticut. He died at Cleveland, Ohio, January 12th, 1869, aged 81 years.
In his native New England he learned and worked at the trade of a mason.
He came to Batavia, Genesee county, to seek his fortune, in the year 1809. There he worked first at his trade as a mason. He afterwards taught school ; was for a time a student in a law office, and finally went into the service of the Holland Land Company as a clerk in their office at Batavia, in 1811, where he remained twenty-seven years.
Being a good theoretical and practical surveyor, and a clear headed and competent business man, in a short time he was made contracting clerk in the Batavia office, in which capacity it was his duty to make, renew and modify contracts for the sale of land, calculate quantities of land, make sub-divisions of tracts of land, and act as salesman generally. In this way he became intimately connected with every transaction of the Company relating to gifts of land to churches and school districts, and took part in all business matters between the company and the people who settled on their lands. And few men could be fonnd who would have done the business as well. He excelled as a mathematician, was a practical sur- veyor and possessed a remarkable memory of boun- daries, localities, dates and distances. Indeed the
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
whole transactions of the Land Company, and the map of their territory seemed to be pictured on his mind with singular fidelity, making it a treasury of facts, exceedingly convenient for reference in settling conflicting questions concerning highways, bounda- ries and original surveys, which arise among the people.
Naturally of a somewhat irritable temperament, when aroused by the perplexities of business, he was sometimes rather sour and rough in manner to- wards persons by whom he was annoyed, but his wish and aim was to do right and justice, and how- ever austere and crabbed his manner, his conclusions and final settlement of matters he had in hand was kind and benevolent to those with whom he had to do.
Full many a time has the unfortunate settler who had been unable to make the payments on his article, and whom sickness and calamity had driven almost to despair of ever paying for his land, had reason to be grateful for the humanity and generous treatment he received from Mr. Mix in extending his payments, renewing his article, and abating his interest money.
In the war of 1812 he served for a time as volun- teer aid to Gen. P. B. Porter, and was at the sortie at Fort Erie.
For twenty years in succession he was the Surro- gate of Genesee county.
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ORLEANS COUNTY PIONEER ASSOCIATION.
This Association was organized June, 1859. Its members are persons who at any time previous to January, 1826, were residents of Western New York, who sign its Constitution. The objects of the Asso- ciation, as contained in its constitution, are to pro- mote social intercourse by meeting together statedly, in order to preserve and perpetuate the remembrance of interesting facts connected with the early history of the settlement of Orleans county and its vicini- ty. The annual meetings are held at the Court House. in Albion, on the third Saturday in June.
It has been an object of the Association to collect and preserve as much of the history of the early set- tlement of Orleans county as possible. The local history of many of the early pioneers has been ob- tained and written out in books kept for that pur- pose, and several photograph albums have been filled with the pictures of the men and women who came here at an early day.
At these yearly gatherings, and at occasional spe- cial meetings held from time to time in various places in the county, the old people are accustomed to meet together and recount their adventures while subdning the wilderness, and have a good time generally.
It is intended to obtain as much of such history of "'ye olden time" as possible, and when the actors in these old scenes are no more, and the last of the log houses shall exist only in the memory and rec-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
ords of the times gone by, then these old manuscripts and relics, laid up in some public depository, shall remain for the information of posterity of the things that were here, memories of the hardships, labors, and privations of the pioneers of Orleans county.
ADDRESS
DELIVERED BEFORE THE ORLEANS COUNTY PIONEER ASSOCIA- TION, SEPT. 10TH, 1859,
By ARAD THOMAS.
Mr. President, and Members of the Orleans County Pioneer Association :-
In discharging the pleasant duty of addressing you on the present occasion, I am desirous to devote my thoughts to the consideration of topics kindred to the sentiments which led to the formation of this associ- ation.
This seems no fit time to indulge in abstruse spec- ulations, or idle rhetoric. I address a practical com- pany,-men who have been trained to meet the stern realities of life, and accomplish their destiny with un- flinching labor ; and having achieved a good work, well may they enjoy the triumph it affords. Let us then contemplate the past, and learn wisdom for the future.
A stranger, who now for the first time should come into our county, judging from appearances, would be apt to think this an old settlement, where genera- tion after generation of men had lived and died, and where their accumulated labor had been expended upon those works of enlightened civilization which cover the land. But we know scarce fifty years since the first acre of this territory was cleared of its native forest, and the men are now living who recol- lect when here was nothing but a dark, unbroken wilderness.
Many of the first settlers of this county have passed away from among the living. Others follow-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
ing in the tide of emigration are now inhabitants of some Western States. A few survivors and represen- tatives of a generation rapidly passing away, remain quiet possessors of the soil their hands first subjected to cultivation, and today they have assembled to talk over the trials and privations, the hardships and the suf- ferings, the varied events of fortune, prosperous and adverse, which have fallen to their lot since first they came into this county.
The occasion is replete with interest to us all. To the aged veterans, it brings up memories of events, which in passing thrilled their hearts with intensest emotion.
To the more youthful spectator it affords encour- agement to labor, in view of these examples of suc- cess over every opposition, obtained by resolute and continued exertion. And to us all, it shows convin- cing proofs that honest and laudable industry will reap its rewards in due time.
Our theme embraces the consideration of subjects connected with the early settlement of Orleans county. In tracing the history of mankind in their migrations since their memorable dispersion on the plains of Shinar, we find a variety of causes which have impelled men to remove from the places of their nativity. The venerable founder of the Jewish nation went down to Egypt to save his family from death by famine, and his descendents came out of Egypt to save themselves from a terrible bondage.
The builders of ancient Rome were the scattered fragments of various nations who assembled there as to a common asylum of outcasts from everywhere, and raised their walls for mutual protection and sup- port ; and by encouraging immigration from broad, and the gradual accretion of power by treaty, and con- quest of foreign nations, in time they became the mightiest empire on earth, in their turn to be overrun
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by swarms from the northern hive, who, deserting their inhospitable homes, came down with all their move- able possessions, by fire and sword, to drive out the inhabitants of the fair provinces of Italy, and give themselves a better land.
The Spaniards who first settled in America, were attracted there by their cupidity for gold. And the ranks of the settlers in most new countries have been swelled by adventurers who had been obliged to leave their native land to escape the consequences of their crimes.
A nobler impulse prompted our ancestors in their migrations from Europe.
The discovery of America, the invention of print- ing, and the Protestant Reformation had roused the minds of the most intelligent nations of the world to a more exalted sense of the value of liberty, and a keen perception of those natural and inalienable rights of conscience which form the richest possession of a free people. Persecuted for conscience sake in their na- tive country, England, they had borne for years the cruel oppression which religious intolerance and po- litical tyranny forced upon them there, with christian endurance, till overcome by suffering too grievous to be borne, and hopeless of relief, they solemnly with- drew from their national church and from the land of their birth, to Holland, where, some years after they formed and carried out the resolution to emi- grate to America, there, under the protection of the King of England, they thought to worship God in peace, as they believed to be right.
Piety and love of liberty furnished them sufficient motives for removal, and armed them with fortitude required to meet the perils and hardships of their new home.
With all proper admiration which we ought to feel for the early New England Puritans, the_ ancestors
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
of so many of those who hear me, we may admit they had their failings. In the austerity of their faith they often forgot the mild spirit of charity which pervades the gospel they revered, and in the ardor of their zeal they made and sought to en- force laws of great severity against those professing religious belief at variance with the dogmas of their stern creed, and punished and persecuted with a strange infatuation, those charged with the crime of witchcraft.
But in reviewing this portion of the history of our forefathers, we should remember not to judge them by the lights of the present age. Toleration to faith and worship, contrary to the forms declared by the civil government for a thousand years, had then not been known in Europe, and the opinion of good men had before then always been, that such religious free- dom would destroy the best institutions of society. A belief in witchcraft was as old as history itself, and was a common superstition of the times. The excellent and pious Baxter held the existence of witches as certain as the punishment of the wicked, and the great and good Sir Matthew Hale, that able judge, and profound himinary of the law, believed in witchcraft as sincerely as did Cotton Mather.
The superstitions of the dark ages were then enter- tained by the most enlightened and liberal minded men everywhere, and it would be requiring too much, to expect our forefathers to have freed themselves from opinions we may deem absurd, but which up to that time, and by all other men then, were held worthy of acceptation.
I know we are sometimes charged with using ex- travagant eulogium in speaking of the New England Puritans of the olden time. But making due allow- ance for their eccentricities of character and conduct, resulting from circumstances with which they stood
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connected, we may look in vain to find in the early history of any other people, such noble patriotism, fervent piety, sound wisdom, and incorruptible hon- esty as in the case before us.
They had all been trained in the same school of adversity, and possessed in a wonderful degree iden- tity of sentiment, sympathy and character in all their conduct and opinions which impressed itself upon all their laws, their individual and social arrangements, and upon every institution and action which found place among them.
Inflexible and steadfast in their cherished princi- ples, they trained their children in the faith and prac- tices of their fathers, and the combined influence of such faith and works, we may see in their effects upon the energy and enterprise, the love of liberty, the respect for law and order, good morals, religion, learning and true patriotism, which, inspired by such examples, has ever distingushed their descendants down through the period of more than two hundred years.
We need not sounding eulogy or words of windy panegyric to prove the value of New England intelli- gence, integrity and power, in moulding and guiding the rising destinies of our country. The wisdom of her statesmen, the heroism of her soldiers, and the spirit and conduct of her people, secured our nation- al independence, and established our national federa- tion of independent States upon the broad basis of constitutional liberty. And even up to now this ele- ment has always been prominent, I had almost said controlling, in the legislation of most of the States, and at Washington.
A few years since some curious individual ascer- tained on enquiry, that thirty-six of the members of the two Houses of Congress, then in session, were born in the single State of Connecticut.
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
In the language of Mr. Malthus, man coming up to take upon himself his place, and the responsibili- ties of life, finds no cover laid for him on nature's table, and he goes out to spread a table for himself where he deems the prospect most inviting. The rich treasures of experince and wisdom, and the abundant stores of material good things the past has garnered up, afford him capital with which to work out the fulfilment of his own and his country's hopes.
These magnificent results of the skill and enter prise of the present day. are only other phases and demonstrations of the same spirit which led to the first settlement in America, and which has attended every step of our progress since, as well exemplified in the resolution of the solitary emigrant who sets his stake in the wilderness and determines there to dig up for himself a farm, as in that mightier work of a statesman, or a nation, which makes a canal or & railroad across a continent, lays a telegraph wire across an ocean. or solves the deepest problem of state policy for the world.
Soon after the revolutionary war had ended, the settlements in New England were extended over the the principal part of those States suitable for tillage, and multitudes of their active and adventurous young men went out to seek their fortunes among the bor- derers who were pushing the bounds of civilization and improvement back into the new territories, skirt. ing the old AAtlantic States upon the West.
A large majority of the first settlers of Orleans county were either emigrants from New England, or descended from the Puritan stock, who traced their origin back to those who, in December, 1620, landed from the May Flower upon Plymouth Rock. It is admitted that as a class they were poor but honest, possessing strong moral convictions, of effective force of intellect and will, they determined to plant and
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grow up the institutions of religion, order and civilization in this wilderness, such as prevailed in their New England homes. Such views, habits and purposes, characterized the emigrants who first set- tled Western New York. Here was not the hiding place of a population of whom it might justly be said they had left the homes of their youth as a measure of prudent care for their personal safety, er from a kind regard for the good of the place they had left. Neither did they come here to buy choice lots and leave them till the toil of others on adjoin- ing farms should add value to their purchases. Here were few non-resident land holders at an early day.
The Holland Land Company had purchased the Western part of the State of New York, bounded on the east by a line extending north from Penn- sylvania to Lake Ontario, known as the Transit Line.
Before the last war with Great Britain, a portion of this tract which has been distinguished as the Hol- Iand Purchase, had been surveyed by the Company and offered for sale to settlers. The wonderful fertil- ity of the Genesee country had been reported abroad, and before the war a few emigrants had begun to make their homes among the heavy forests which covered this country, some of whom had located themselves in what is now Orleans county.
The possibility of such a work as the Erie Canal had not then entered the great mind of Dewitt Clin- ton, or been dreamed of even by the great men of that day.
The most favorable means in prospect, then far in the future, for communicating with the old settle- ments at the past, was by wagons n the highways, er boats down the Mohawk or St. Lawrence. But He pioneer settlers of the Holland Purchase belonged
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
to a bold and fearless race, who did not stop to en- quire whether the trail of civilization had extended to the new country, by which they could retreat with ease and safety to the homes of their fathers, if life in the woods should happen to prove uncongenial to their tastes. They expected to overcome the formi- dable obstacles before them by their own strong arms and stout hearts. They knew that wealth was in their farms, not perhaps in the shape of golden nuggets, such as fire the imagination of emigrants to Pike's Peak, or the other El Dorados of the West. but in the golden produce of well tilled fields, which honest hard work was sure to raise in abundance in time to come, and they meant to have it.
It is really not as great an undertaking for the em- igrant, who at this day goes from the Atlantic States to settle in Kansas or California, as it was fifty years ago to make a settlement in Western New York. Railroads and telegraphs have made communication easy and rapid between places most distant, and modern improvements in the economy and arts of do- mestic life are such, that most of the necessaries and comforts enjoyed by residents in older towns can readily be procured everywhere.
The farmer who locates on a prairie at the West, be- gins his work by plowing the primitive sod, and the next year he reaps his crop and finds his field as clean and mellow as plow land along the Connecticut river, and he can sell his products for almost New York prices. But beginning a farm on the Holland Purchase, fifty years ago, was quite a different busi- ness.
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