USA > New York > Orleans County > Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York, containing some account of the civil divisions of western New York > Part 29
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Indeed, we who have not learned by experience, can hardly imagine the obstacles and difficulties to be surmounted by the first settlers of Orleans county. Roads from Albany, westward, were bad ; merchants and mechanics had not yet arrived. A dense and
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PIONEER HISTORY
heavy forest of hard, huge trees covered the land, to be felled and cleared away before the plow of the farmer could turn up the genial soil. Pestilential fe- vers racked the nerves and prostrated the vigor of the stoutest, as well as the weakest among them. The ague, that pest indigenous to all new countries, came up from every clearing, usually in the best days of summer, to seize upon the settler, his wife and children, some or all of them, and shake out all their strength and energy.
Though the noblest timber trees for their buildings existed in troublesome abundance, sawmills had not then been erected.
Though their lands produced the finest of wheat whenever it could be sown, it cost more than its mar- ket price to take it to the distant grist mills to be ground. Sales of farm produce were limited to home consumption.
Before the War of 1812 but few settlers had loca- ted in Orleans county.
From Canandaigua to Lewiston, along the Ridge Road, and from the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek. along an Indian Trail to Batavia, the trees had prin- cipally been ent wide enough for a highway. A few log cabins had been erected, and the sturdy emigrants had begun by felling the trees to open little patches of cleared land around their dwellings to form the nucleus of their farms.
War was declared. The regular pursuits of peace- ful industry were broken up. The settler was sum- moned to become a soldier, and at the call of bis country, at times almost every able-bodied man in the settlement was away in the ranks of the army, leaving their scattered, unprotected families, to risk the chances of hostile forays of the enemy, often threatened from the west along the lake. The cour- age and spirit of the women of those days was equal
437
OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
to the best examples to be found in American border warfare. Neither the frightful rumors of the massa- cre of their husbands and brothers in the fight, or the terrible announcements that the Indians, with mur- der and pillage, were sweeping down the Ridge Road or coming up the Creek, could drive them to abandon the homes they had chosen in the woods, or make them turn a point from the performance of what their duty required.
Perhaps the gloomiest time in the experience of the pioneers was during and after the war, before the com- mencement of work on the Erie canal. Considerable wheat was annually grown, but beyond what the farmer wanted for his own consumption it was of lit- tle value, bearing a nominal price of about twenty- five cents a bushel.
A kind of crude potash, made by leaching wood ashes, and known as " black salts," was almost the only product which brought money, and became, in fact, almost a lawful tender for value in trade, and this had to be taken to market for miles upon ox sleds or hand sleds, or on the backs of the makers, through woods and swamps, following a line of marked trees. After the war, came the memorable cold seasons of 1816-17. About these years, a cotemporary says, " from half to two-thirds of all the people were down sick in the summer time."
Without a supply of physicians or nurses, or med- icines, or even bread, how were such sick men to se- cure their crops or clear their land, endure storm, and want, and trouble and distress, which beset them at every turn ? Surely nothing but an iron will which no impediment could break or bend, an abid- ing faith and hope which no disasters or discourage- ments could overcome or crush out, sustained them through these dark days. Like heroes of another time, " through the thick gloom of the present, they beheld
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PIONEER HISTORY
the brightness of the future," and they struggled on.
It has been playfully said that you may place a Yankee in the woods with an ax, an augur and a knife, his only tools, and with the trees his only material for use, and he will build a palace, if need be, want- ing perhaps in the finish which other tools, and the aid of iron trimmings, nails and glass would afford, but possessing the substantial requisites of conve- nience, and fitness and strength.
The first log houses built in this county, proved al- most literally the truth of this remark. They were the dwelling places of the best families in the land, made by their owners, where the latch string was al- ways out at the call of the stranger, and the best of their plain and scanty store was always generously shared with the weary and destitute, whoever he might be.
The builders and occupants of those rude tene- ments were then probably poor, as can well be im- agined, sick and suffering, with none of the luxuries, and few even of the necessaries of their former expe- rience, but withal contented and happy.
How often do we hear these persons, now occupy- ing their noble mansions, fitted and furnished and adorned with all the elegance and profusion which the abundant means of their owners, and the taste and fashion of the times command, refer to the little, old log cabin first built upon their farm, and count their residence there the happiest in their lives. These buildings belong to the time gone by, and the last of the log houses will soon have gone down with their builders to that destruction which awaits all things earthly.
For some years none new have been erected in this county, and but rarely now can the traveler see one left standing in dilapidated humility behind the great
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
new house, maintaining to the last its character for usefulness, as a shelter for the grind stone, the salt barrel, the swill tub, the work bench, and all the hand tools there carefully treasured up for use on the extensive domain of their wealthy owner.
Among these primitive settlers, the advent of a new family to locate among them, was an occasion of joy through the town. The acquaintance of the stran- gers was promptly sought, a cordial welcome ex- tended, and the more material aid of all the force in the neighborhood, kindly volunteered to help the new comer roll the logs to begin his clearing, or pile them into the walls of his cabin home. Such friendly feeling prevailed in all their social affairs. Relations of acquaintance and friendship were sustained be- tween all the families for miles around, and no dis- tinctions of wealth or party, sect or condition were known.
It is true no such visionary scheme of community of goods, as was attempted by the old Plymouth Colony, or by the Fourierites of a later day, with all its attendant idleness and discontent obtained among them, but a most generous spirit to lend to and help the needy was a prominent trait in their character. They were not speculators who entered upon the lands to secure a title, trusting by a fortunate sale, or by the rise in the market price to derive large prof- its on their investment. The fever for land specula- tion had not then set in.
The policy of the Holland Company was to get, their lands taken up and occupied as fast as possible. With this in view they gave contracts for deeds of conveyance on payment of a small portion of the purchase money, giving the purchaser some years of credit in which to pay the residue. This policy bro't in settlers, and the liberality of the company in ex-
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PIONEER HISTORY
tending contracts where prompt payment could not be made, kept them on their lots.
A portion, however, of the first inhabitants of this county, like a portion of the first inhabitants in every new settlement, became charmed with their life of vicissitude and hardship, and the varied advantages of pioneer settlement, and soon as the farms were mostly taken up and occupied, and the progress of cultivation had driven away the game and introduced in some degree the order of civilized society, they be- came uneasy and discontented, and longed for the freedom and excitments of wilder life on the border. Like Cooper's hero, "Leather Stocking." they would " get lost among the clearings," and moved to the West to begin again in the forests of Michigan or Ohio.
To those who remained and labored on through every affliction and discouragement, using such means as their own sagacity and industry afforded them to assist their efforts, we are indebted for such success- ful results as we now see.
And 1 may repeat, what but an intelligent and confiding hope in " the good time coming " could havo sustained these men under all discouragements they endured ? What but that indomitable spirit of the race, which never falters at perils or hindrances in the way when a desirable object is to be gained, under the wise ordering of a mysterious good Provi- dence, nerved them for their work, and cheered them on to its succesful accomplishment ?
In ardent imagination the young emigrant, who had selected and contracted for his farm, looked over his future abode and traced the boundaries of orchard and meadow, and pasture, and plain, and saw the shadowy outlines of his houses and his barns, his fences and his fields, looming into being where then the gray old trees stood in solemn grandeur,
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
the sturdy sentinels of nature for centuries keeping watch over the primitive wilderness. He saw in vision of the future his crops of waving corn and his granaries bursting out with plenty, and himself the happy possessor of a home blessed with comforts and luxuries of life in abundance, and seizing his ax, then perhaps his only chattel, he went to work with a will, to prove the scenes his faney had por- trayed.
It is a remarkable fact that the English settlements in America were in the main first made at points the most inhospitable and muinviting, thus bringing every part of our country to be settled and improved. The Puritans, who came over in the May Flower, intended to have gone to Virginia, but through the treachery of the captain of their ship, as some assert, they were landed at Plymouth.
The first emigrants westward from New England, located in the forests of New York, Michigan and Ohio, because they came from a forest country and were not afraid of the woods, and because they could not get to the fertile prairies of the West. There were no roads by land, and no communication by water to these beautiful territories. They were compelled by necessity to clear up and settle the country as they went through it.
Had the Puritans reached their 'intended destina- tion in the sunny South, and located along those noble rivers and fertile plains, they would never have removed to the hard, cold, ironbound hills of New England. When then would New England have been settled : Never by emigrants from the West. And had the southern and middle States been first settled, and the application of steam to motive ma- chinery been made, and the railroad and the telegraph and the knowledge of the useful arts we now possess been known 200 years ago, Maine. New Hampshire
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PIONEER HISTORY
.
and Vermont, would be to-day like parts of Lower Canada, a vast and dreary wilderness, and as such to remain until the more inviting regions of the West had all been settled. And had railroads and tele- graphs, and steam power, as now used, been known even fifty years ago. I fancy some of these venerable pioneers would be now rejoicing in homes made happy upon the banks of the Missouri, or perhaps west of the Rocky Mountains.
The interesting details of border settlement in this country have so often been the theme of remark that they have become trite matters of history. The solemn and deepening shade of antiquity is begin- ning to clothe them with its mysterious interest, and as the immediate actors leave us, slowly and silently fading away from among the living, their memory is cherished as the pride of their kindred, and they come to be regarded as the benefactors of their country. The Pioneers of Orleans county are not all dead, but the times of their trouble have gone by. The Hol- land Purchase is settled, subdued, and made the cheerful home of an industrious and thriving popu- lation, now in their turn sending out their caravans of emigrants, with the fervent spirit of their fathers. carrying the arts and institutions of our favored country to those new States so rapidly growing up in the regions of the West. All the improvements in science and the arts are brought to aid the swift pro- gress of our people in spreading themselves over our entire national territory.
If the earlier march of emigration and settlement. from the Atlantic westward has been toilsome and slow, and two hundred years scarce brought settlers to the great lakes and the slopes of the Alleghanies, what shall we say of the advances of the last fifty years, and which are now going forward :
Since the first tree fell here under the ax of the white
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
man, the triumphs of steam power have appeared .-- By the help of this tremendous agent, a voyage across the Atlantic, which took the May Flower months to ac- complish, is now made in a week. A trip to Boston, which once cost these pioneers a month to perform, is now the business of a day. Steam drives our mills, carries our burdens, plows our fields, warms our houses, digs our canals, and furnishes a motive pow- er, to effect the mightiest and minutest work attempt. ed by the ingenuity of man.
But steam, though admitted to be strong is voted slow, in this fast age, and electricity is sent out to run the errands of our ordinary business.
Excelsior ! Higher ! is the motto of our noble Em- pire State, and Forward is the cry of encouragement with which Young America stimulates its ardor in the race for victory.
My friends, we who are the juniors of these noble men, whose praise we have thus faintly endeavored to celebrate, should never forget that we are building upon foundations they have laid for us. That we in- herit the lands their hands have cleared ; that we en- joy the liberties they have achieved.
We shall ever admire their enterprise, patience and fortitude. We shall justly feel proud to claim ac- quaintance, perhaps relationship with such worthy predecessors.
We shall teach our children the story of their la- bors and success, as examples to be imitated ; and from every memorial they have left us of strenuons effort in a good cause, take courage and gain strength to help our resolution in the performance of all the duties, which have fallen to our lot. And when we look about us upon the broad patrimony we have de. rived from them, and take an inventory of the abun- dant good things they have bequeathed to us, as the fruits of their labors, let us not forget our duty of
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PIONEER HISTORY
gratitude to the memory of these our benefactors, to whom we owe so much, nor fail to improve as we ought, the rich inheritance we enjoy.
Venerable Pioneers-You have not met on the present occasion to gratify your vanity by publishing to the world the exploits you have performed, or boasting for the wonder of others of the marvelous adventures you may have achieved ; but, like a com- pany of weary travelers, life's toilsome journey al- most done, -- you are here to spend an evening hour in social converse, on scenes you have witnessed by the way, to bring to mind again the stirring events in which you have been called to mingle ; and to soothe your spirits by a grateful recollection of that kind Providence which has sustained you in all your toils and brought you in old age to the abundant enjoy- ment and realization of the most ardent hopes of your youth.
You have seen the country of your choice a gloomy wilderness. You now behold it, by your exertions changed to cultivated fields, and dotted over with noble houses, interspersed with thriving villages and connected by public highways.
Where a few years ago you hunted the savage bear, your splendid herds and numerous flocks now roam and feed in safety. Where but lately you was compelled to grope your way from town to town through pathless woods, by marked trees, or Indian trails, the railroad or telegraph afford you means of communication, in which time and distance are scarcely items in the account of delay.
The rich produce of your fields, instead of rot- ting on your hands, valueless because no buyer could be found, commands at all times the highest price in the markets of the world.
The howl of the wolf is exchanged for the scream of the steam whistle, and though you live so far in-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
land, the gallant steam vessel is made to float by your very doors.
How astonishing. how stupendous the change ! We have read of the Wonderful Lamp of Aladdin. and stories of Oriental Necromancy, where by the superhuman power of magic, and the agency of demons, the loftiest works of art, and the noblest productions of industry and skill were made to appear or vanish at a word,-but the magic which wrought the works we celebrate, was the power of in- domitable energy, applied with strong hands and stubborn perseverence. The mighty improvements which excite our admiration are only the happy re- sults of your steady, well directed industry overcom- ing its early discouragements and trials,-the honor- able testimonials of the sternest conflict and most complete success.
Fortunate men and women! Long, long may you live, enjoying the rich fruits of your early toils. And may you be permitted to witness the return of many anniversaries of your present association, hap- py in the consciousness that you have accomplished the objects of your youthful ambition, and leaving. when at last you shall be called to your rest, a noble history, and a worthy example embalmed in the memory of your grateful posterity.
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APPENDIX.
Towns in Orleans County-Their Organization-Villages in Orleans County-Table of Elevations-Members of Assembly Elected from Orleans County since its Organization-County Clerks of Orleans County-County Treasurers-County Superintendents of Common Schools-First Judges of Orleans County Courts-District Attorneys of Orleans County-Sheriff's of Orleans County-Surrogates of Or- leans County-First Courts of Record-Supervisors of the Different Towns in Orleans County since their Organization.
TOWNS IN ORLEANS COUNTY.
WHEN FORMED.
FROM WHAT TAKEN.
TOWNS. Batavia, March 30th, 1802. Batavia is now divided into other towns, and not known by that name in Orleans county.
Barre, March 6th, 1818, from Gaines.
Carlton,* April 13th, 1822, from Gaines and Ridgeway.
Clarendon, Feb'y 23rd, 1821, from Sweden.
Gaines, Feb'y 14th, 1816, from Ridgeway.
Kendall, April 7th, 1837, from Murray.
Murray, April 8th, 1803, from Northampton.
Ridgeway, June 8th, 1812, from Batavia.
Shelby, March 6th, 1818, from Ridgeway.
Yates,+ April 17th, 1822, from Ridgeway.
* The town of Carlton was originally named "Oak Orchard," and was changed to "Carlton" in 1825.
t The town of Yates was Originally named "Northton," and was changed to Yates, January 21st, 1823.
VILLAGES IN ORLEANS COUNTY.
NAMES. WIIEN INCORPORATED.
Albion .* April 21st, 1828. Incorporated by special act.
Gaines.} April 26th, 1832.
Holley. July 1st, 1850. general "
Medina. March 2d, 1832. 60
special "
Albion was originally named "Newport," and the name changed to Al- bion when it was incorporated as a village.
+ The village of Gaines has ceased to use its corporate franchises.
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
THE FOLLOWING LIST OF ELEVATIONS IS TAKEN FROM O'REILY'S HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND WESTERN NEW YORK :
FEET.
Lake Erie above level of tide water is 570
Top of Niagara Falls is below Lake Erie
66
Bottom of Niagara Falls below Lake Erie 226
Lake Ontario below Lake Erie, 330
Canal at Albion below Lake Erie 64-
Erie Canal at Albion above Lake Ontario is. 266 .
Middle Falls, Genesee River at Rochester, perpendicular pitch, 96
Canal in Orleans county, level above tide water. 509
MILES.
Distance from Albion by canal to Albany.
293
From Albion to Buffalo,
59
From Albion to Rochester
.34
The descent given to cause a flow of water between locks in the Erie Canal does not vary much from one inch in a mile.
MILES.
Distance from Albion by railroad to Suspension Bridge
443
From Albion to Rochester
30
MEMBERS OF ASSEMBLY ELECTED FROM ORLEANS COUNTY SINCE ITS ORGANIZATION :
Lathrop A. G. B. Grant, from Shelby
1926
Abraham Cantine, from Murray
1837
Lyman Bates, from Ridgeway 1828
George W. Flemming. from Barre. 1829
I John II. Tyler, from Yates, 1830 1 1 I I
1831
William J. Babbitt, from Gaines
1832
1 Asahel Byington, from Carlton 1835 1 1
Asa Clark, Jr., from Murray
1834
Asa Clark, Jr., from Murray
1835
John Chamberlain, from Barre.
1836
Silas M. Burroughs, from Ridgeway
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1837
Horatio Reed, from Clarendon
1838
Horatio Reed, from Clarendon
1839
John J. Walbridge, from Gaines
1840
1 Richard W. Gates, from Yates 1841 F
1 Sanford E. Church, from Barre. 1842
₡ 1 Elisha Wright, from Barre 1843 I
4 1 1 Sands Cole, from Ridgeway 1844 1
1 t 4 Gardner Goold, from Carlton 1845 I
Dexter Kingman, from Ridgeway,
1846
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+ Abner Hubbard, from Murray 1847 1
. + 1 Arba Chubb, from Gaines 4818
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John H. Tyler, from Yates.
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PIONEER HISTORY
Reuben Roblee, from Kendall
1849
Silas M. Burroughs, from Ridgeway 1850
Silas M. Burroughs, from Ridgeway. 1851 1
George M. Copeland, from Clarendon 1852 1 1
Silas M. Burroughs, from Ridgeway 1853 1 I 1
Jeremiah Freeman, from Shelby. 1854 I . 1
Elisha S. Whalen, from Ridgeway
1855
Dan. H. Cole, from Barre
1856
Almanzor Hutchinson, from Gaines I
1857
Almanzor Hutchinson, from Gaines
1858
Almanzor Hutchinson, from Gaines 1859 I I 1
# Abel Stilson, from Barre 1860 1 1
1 Gideon Randall, from Kendall 1861
Nicholas E. Darrow, from Clarendon 1862 I
John Parks, from Ridgeway 1863
Edmund L. Pitts, from Ridgeway. 1864 1
1865
Edmund L. Pitts, from Ridgeway
1866
Edmund L. Pitts, from Ridgeway
1867
Edmund L. Pitts, from Ridgeway.
1868
Marvin Harris, from Kendall 1869
1870
John Berry, from Murray 1871
NOTE .- Alexis Ward was elected in November, 1854, and died be- fore the session began, and E. S. Whalen was elected in his place.
COUNTY CLERKS OF ORLEANS COUNTY FROM ITS ORGANIZATION :
NAMES.
WHEN ELECTED OR APPOINTED.
Orson Nichoson,
November, 1825
Abraham B. Mills
November, 1831
Timothy C. Strong
November, 1834
Elijah Dana
1 1
November, 1843
Harmon Goodrich*
March,
1848
Dan. HI. Cole
November, 1848
Willard F. Warren 1
November, 1854
John P. Church 1
November, 1857
George A. Porter I
Dee'r 30th, 1858
James M. Palmer
November, 1839
Edwin F. Brown.
November, 1862
George A. Porter
November, 1865
George D. Church
November, 1868
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* Appointed in place of E. Dana, deceased, under Act passed March 20th, 1848.
+ Appointed in place of J. P. Church, deceased.
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Edmund L. Pitts, from Ridgeway
John Berry, from Murray
449
OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
COUNTY TREASURERS OF ORLEANS COUNTY FROM ITS ORGANIZA TION :
Ist. Appointed by the Board of Supervisors to boll during the pleasure of the Board-
William Perry 1825 Lorenzo Burrows 1840
James Mather. 1826 Codington W. Swan 1841
Gideon Hard. 1827 Joseph M. Cornell 1843
Truxton Burrell
1835 Lemuel C. Paine. 1845
Hugh McCurdy 1837 John H. Denio 1847
2d. Elected under the Constitution of 1846, for a term of three years-
John H. Denio.
November, 1848
Ambrose Wood
1851
Joseph M. Cornell
1857
Ezra T. Coann
1863
Samuel (. Bowen
1866
Albert S. Warner
١١
1869
COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS OF COMMON SCHOOLS FOR ORLEANS COUNTY :
Edwin R. Reynolds, Jonathan O. Wilsea, John G. Smith, Oliver Morehouse, Marcus II. Phillips, Abel Stilson, and James H. Matti son.
FIRST JUDGES OF ORLEANS COUNTY COURTS SINCE THE ORGANIZA TION OF THE COUNTY:
NAMES. WHIEN APPOINTED.
Elijah Foot,
April 22d, 1825.
Alexis Ward, Feb. 10th, 1830.
Henry Angevine, Jan. 27th, 1840.
Benj. L. Bessac, . Feb'y 7th, 184-1.
James Gilson, Jan. 10th, 1846.
ELECTED ENDER CONSTITUTION OF 1846, COUNTY JUDGE AND SURROGATE.
Henry R. Curtis, June, 1847 Dan HI. Cole, app. in place o' I.R.Curtis, deceased, Sept.24,'55 Gideon Hard, November, 1855 Arad Thomas, November, 1859 Edwin R. Reynolds, Nov., 1863 John G. Sawyer, Nov'r, 1867
DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OF ORLEANS COUNTY FROM ITS FIRST OH GANIZATION :
NAMES. WHEN APPOINTED.
Orange Butler, 1825.
George W. Fleming 1828.
Henry R. Curtis, 1831.
George W. Fleming, 1832.
Henry R. Curtis,
1833.
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WHEN ELECTED UNDER CONSTI- OF 1846. Sanford E. Church, June 1847 Wm. K. MeAllister, Nov. 1850 Benjamin L. Bessac, Nov. 1859 Henry D. Tucker, Nov. 1856 John W. Graves, Nov. 1859 John G. Sawyer, Nov. 1862 Irving M. Thompson, Nov. 1865 Henry A. Childs, Nov. 1868
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PIONEER HISTORY
SHERIFF'S OF ORLEANS COUNTY SINCE ITS ORGANIZATION. NAMES. WHEN APPOINTED OR ELECTED. On organizing County. November, 1826
William Lewis
Oliver Benton
Wm. Allis.
1829
Harmon Goodrich
1832
Asahel Woodruff
1835
John Boardman
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