USA > New York > Orleans County > Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York, containing some account of the civil divisions of western New York > Part 3
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Enos Stone, an early settler in Rochester, said "The principal colony of the rattlesnakes was in the bank of the river, below the lower falls, at a place we used to call Rattlesnake Point ; and there was also a large colony at Allan's Creek, near the end of the Brighton Plank Road. I think they grew blind about the time of returning to their dens, in August and September. I have killed them on their return, with films on their eyes. Their oil was held in great esti- mation by the early settlers. Zebulon Norton, of Norton's Mills, was a kind of backwoods doctor, and he often came to this region for the oil and the gall of rattlesnakes. The oil was used for stiff joints and bruises ; and the gall for fevers, in the form of a pill
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
made up with chalk."* A rattlesnakes den where they used to winter, and out of which they would crawl in early spring to sun themselves, was situated on the west bank of Oak Orchard Creek, on the Ship- man farm, in Carlton. No snakes have been seen there for many years.
Raccoons were plenty. Their fat was used to fry cakes, and their flesh was much esteemed for food by the inhabitants.
Hedge hogs were also common. They frequently came around the log cabins in the night in search of food. Dogs, who were unacquainted with the animal sometimes charged upon him so rashly as to get their heads filled with the quills, which it was very difficult to extract, on account of their barbed points.
There were no natural openings in the woods, or prairie grounds in this county, before the settlement of the country, adapted to the habits of the quail ; and they are supposed to have come in with the emi- grants. They soon became plenty, the large wheat fields affording them sustenance.
Quails, raccoons and hedge hogs are nearly exter- minated in Orleans County. A rattlesnake is very seldom seen.
The beavers were all destroyed by the first hunters who came here.
Those who asume to know say skunks and foxes are more numerous now than ever before, which if true, may be owing to the abundance of field mice which they feed on.
Before the settlement of this county, streams of wa- ter on an average were twice as large as they are now; and they were more durable, flowing the year round, where now they are low, or dry, a part of the year.
Large tracts of low land, now cultivated to grass and grain, originally was marsh, too wet even to
* Phelps & Gorham's Purchase, p. 425.
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PIONEER HISTORY
grow trees ; sometimes occasioned by the dams of the beaver, which by flooding the land destroyed the timber once growing there. As the beavers were hunted and destroyed, their dams were opened, or wore away, and their ponds in time have become cul- tivated fields. Quite a number of these beaver dams existed in Orleans county. The largest in Barre per- haps was at the head of Otter Creek, on lot 15, from which a stream flowed north, and near which some years ago, E. P. Sill had a saw mill, that did a large business. This beaver pond covered a hundred acres or more, which after the beaver were gone, but be- fore the pond had been effectually drained, became a cranberry marsh ; and old people still recollect going there to get cranberries. Near the outlet of this pond or marsh, was a favorite camping place of the In- dians. who made this a kind of head-quarters in their visits here to hunt and fish. As the water subsided in these marshes, different kinds of forest trees gradu- ally came in. Another beaver dam was erected on the head waters of Sandy Creek, on the farm of Wil- liam Cole. And another on the farm of Amos Root, at the head of a small stream which flows into Tona- wanda Swamp. Remains of beaver dams are seen in Ridgeway and other towns.
When white men began the settlement of this coun- ty, the winters were much milder than now. Old set- tlers tell us the ground seldom froze in the woods so hard a stake could not easily be driven into it at any time. Snow did not fall to as great a depth as is sometimes seen now. The thick tops of the tall trees broke the force of the winds, and the softening influ- ence of the great lakes-Erie and Ontario-served to prevent the extremes of heat and cold, which have been more prevalent since the timber has been cut down, and the wet lands dried up.
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
Soon after clearings began to be made in the forest, peach trees were planted, and grew luxuriantly, and ripened the choicest fruit, in great abundance. The peach crop was never a failure, and apricots and nec- tarines were grown successfully.
The cultivation of apples received early attention, and some orchards, now in full health and bearing, are almost as old as the first settlement.
In the woods, the first pioneers found occasionally a wild plum tree, bearing a tough, acrid plum, of a red and yellow color ; and a small purple fox grape of no value.
For many years before and after the opening of the Erie Canal, wheat was the great object of cultivation among the farmers. The quantity of wheat raised and exported from Orleans County yearly, between 1830 and 1840, was immense. Barley did not come into cultivation till much later than wheat, and no rye was sown for many years.
It was not until after the ravages of the weevil, or wheat midge, had begun to interfere seriously with wheat growing, that the culture of beans attracted any considerable attention.
THE TONAWANDA SWAMP.
This swamp lies in the counties of Genesee and Or- leans, covering parts of Byron, Elba, Oakfield, and Alabama, in Genesee County ; and parts of Shelby, Barre, and Clarendon, in Orleans County. Originally it contained about twenty-five thousand acres, most of which was too wet to plow, and was covered with swamp timber, or was open marsh, covered with flags, or swamp grass. Oak Orchard Creek drains this swamp.
About 1820, the State constructed a feeder from the Tonawanda Creek in Genesee County. to convey the
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PIONEER HISTORY
water of Tonawanda Creek into Oak Orchard Creek, to supply the Erie Canal with water.
The outlet for water from the swamp was through a ledge of rock, too small naturally to drain it suffi- ciently, and when the Tonawanda Creek was thus brought into it, the level of water in the swamp was thereby raised, and nothing was then done by the State to facilitate the discharge, thus increasing the stagnant water.
In 1828, the Holland Company sold a considerable portion of these wet lands to an association, who ex- pended about twelve thousand dollars, in enlarging the capacity of the outlet, to drain the swamp through Oak Orchard Creek.
The Canal Commissioners then appropriated the whole of the Creek for the canal, and further at- tempts at drainage were abandoned.
In April, 1852, an Act was passed appointing Amos Root, John Dunning, Henry Monell, and David E. E. Mix, Commissioners, to lay out and construct a high- way across the Tonawanda Swamp, on the line be- tween ranges one and two, of the Holland Purchase. A road was made and opened to travel under this Act, at a cost of about $2,750.
As the surrounding country became settled, this swamp became an obstacle in passing through it, from the great expense required to make and main- tain highways. This large tract yielded but little re- turn to the owners, and paid but little tax to the pub- lic. No further attempts to drain were made. The association sold their lands to different individuals, and nothing was done to reclaim this tract, until April 16, 1855, an Act of the Legislature appointed Amos Root, S.M. Burroughs, Ambrose Bowen, Robert ITill, John B. King, and Henry Monell, Commission- ers to drain the swamp.
It was provided in this Act, that the Commissioners
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
should assess the expenses of their work upon the owners of the lands immediately affected by the drainage, in proportion to the benefits each would be adjudged to receive; the whole amount of such as- sessment not to exceed $20,000.
The Commissioners entered upon their work, and made an estimate and assessment of the expense .- This gave offense to the parties assessed, who united almost unanimously, the next year, in a petition to the Legislature to repeal the law, and it was repealed.
In 1863, an Act was passed appropriating $16,306 ; to be expended in improving Oak Orchard Creek, and the Canal feeder, on condition that all persons, who claimed damages of the State on account of the making the feeder from Tonawanda Creek, to Oak Orchard should release all such claims, before the ex - penditure of the money.
CHAPTER V.
THE LOG HOUSE.
Description-How Built-Windows and Door-Walls Raised at a Bec -Chimneys-Ovens-Cellars-Double Log House-Copied after In- dian Wigwam-Fires-Great Back Log-Lights.
HIE log house, as it was constructed and used by the first settlers of Western New York, as "an institution," belongs to a generation now gone by. No new log houses are now being built, and the few old ones now standing, will soon be de- stroyed by the relentless " tooth of time," and of those who were their builders and occupants, soon not one will be left to tell their story.
The most primitive log house, to which we refer, was rather a rough looking edifice, usually 12 or 15 by 15 or 20 feet square. It was made of logs, of al- most any kind of timber, nearest at hand, of uniform size. These were used with the bark on, by rolling one log upon another horizontally, notching the cor- ners to make them lie close together, to the height wanted for the outer walls of the house.
An opening in one side was left for a door, and commonly another for a window. Poles were laid across the walls for a chamber floor to rest on, to be reached by a moveable ladder. A ridge pole and rafters supported a roof, which was made of oak or hemlock splints, or elm bark.
Bark for roofs was peeled in June, in strips about four feet long, and laid upon the rafters in courses,
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
held to the rafter by heavy poles laid transversly, and bound on by strips of bark. An opening in the roof at one end was left for the escape of smoke from the fire, which was built upon the ground under the opening. The remainder of the ground enclosed was covered with a floor of basswood logs, split, or hewed to a flat surface. The crevices between the logs were filled or "chinked" as they called it, by putting in splints in large openings, and plastering with clay in- side and out.
When a sash, lighted with glass, could be procured that was used for the window. Instead of glass, oil- ed paper was sometimes substituted. In an extreme case, the door was made of splints hewed flat and thin ; but ordinarily of sawed boards, hung upon wooden hinges, and fastened with a wooden latch, which was raised by a string tied to the latch, and put through a hole, to lift the latch from the outside. Hence, to say of a householder, "his latch string was always out," was equivalent to declaring his generous spirit in opening his house to whoever applied for hospitality.
The carpenter and joiner work on the house was now complete. Masons, painters, glaziers, and all other house builders, had nothing to do here. The owner was his own architect, and commonly the house was put up at a " bee," or gathering of all the settlers in the neighborhood, gratis.
We read that Solomon's Temple rose without the sound of a hammer. The temple in that respect has . no advantage above these early homes of the settlers of Orleans County. There was no hammering here, for there were no nails to be driven. Sturdy blows with the ax did the business, and every thing was fastened with wooden pins, or withes.
If time and means permitted, and the wish of the owner was to indulge in the luxury of a chimney, he
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PIONEER HISTORY
was gratified by building one end wall of his house with stone, laid in clay mortar, from the ground sev- eral feet in height, carrying up the remainder of the end with logs in the usual way. A high cross beam, or mantel, was put in, on this a superstructure of sticks laid up in a square, as the walls of the house were, filled in with clay, was carried up above the roof and called "a stick chimney." This chimney, and all the wood work exposed to the fire, being well plastered with the clay mud, rendered the whole tol- erably safe from danger of burning, giving little en- couragement to insurance companies, whose agents never ventured to take risks on such property.
As wealth increased, and a higher state of civiliza- tion and architectural development was introduced in the structure of log houses, stone chimneys were built from the ground up. About the time when stone chimneys were first made, cellars under the log houses began to be constructed ; and were found to be ex- ceedingly convenient, as a depository safe from frost, adding much to the storage capacity of the house.
The introduction of brick ovens marks an era that may be called modern compared with the primitive log house. These ovens were sometimes made at a distance from the house, standing on a frame of the kind called Scotch.ovens.
When the family had become sufficiently affluent to afford it, sometimes a chamber floor of boards would be laid upon the cross beams over head ; leav- ing a hole in the flooring, by which a person from be- low could mount into the chamber on a moveable lad- . der.
And sometimes a wealthy settler, who felt cribbed, and confined too closely in a single room, would build an addition to his log house, like the first, and adjoin- ing it, with a door between. The owner of such a double log house, was looked upon with envy and
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
admiration by all the neighboring housekeepers, who wondered what he could do with so much room ; and it would be a remarkable and exceptional case if the owner and his family did not put on some airs and go to keeping tavern.
It would be several years before the general class of log householders got a barn. Straw and fodder would be stacked out for the cattle. And, if a shelter for cattle or horses was desired, some crotches of trees would be set in the ground for posts, poles laid across on these, and a pile of straw heaped on, and a shed warm and dry was the result.
The log house was copied from the wigwam of the Six Nations of Indians, as to its general form and structure. The bark roof was similar in both cases, but the Indians commonly built the walls of their wigwams of bark fastened to upright poles, without a floor, their fire on the ground in the center, the smoke rising without any chimney, found its way through a hole left open in the center of the roof.
Fires were sometimes made in these log houses of the white men, by cutting a log eight or ten feet long, from the largest trees that would go through the door of the house without splitting. This was run upon rollers endwise through the door, and rolled to the back of the fire place. A fire was then built in the middle of the log in front, and fuel would be applied to that place, until the fire would consume the center of the log ; when the ends would be crowded together until the whole was burned. Sometimes such a back log would last a week or ten days, even in cold weath- er. The light from such a fire was commonly suffi- cient to illuminate the single apartment of the house at night. If more light was wanted, a dipped tallow candle, made by the mistress of the household ; or a taper made of a dish of fat, or grease, with a rag stuck in it for a wick, would answer the purpose.
CHAPTER VI.
LOG HOUSE FURNITURE.
Beds and Bedding-Fire Place-Hooks and Trammel-Bake Pan- Table-Chairs-Pewter Spoons-Blue Edged Plates-Black Earthen Tea Pots.
LL household furniture used at first in the log houses of the farmers, at their first begin- ning in the woods on the Holland Purchase, was abont as primitive in its character, as their new dwellings. It was such as was adapted to the wants and circumstances of its owner, and such as he could readily procure.
For temporary use, a few hemlock boughs on the floor, covered with blankets, made a comfortable bed. If a better bed and bedstead was wanted, it was made by boring holes in the logs at proper height ; putting in rods fastened to upright posts ; and upon this bed- stead, laying such a bed and bedding, as the taste and ability of the party could furnish. To a cross pole over the fire place, kettles were suspended by wooden or iron hooks ; often by an instrument called a trammel, which was a flat iron bar filled with holes, hanging from the pole, on which a kettle suspended on a hook, might be raised or lowered at pleasure, by moving the hook from one hole to another.
Their nearest approach to an oven was a cast iron bake pan, covered with a moveable lid, standing on og' s, and lifted by a bail. Dongh was placed in this vessel, and coals put on and under it, when in use .-
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
Another cooking utensil was a frying pan, with a handle long enough to be held in the hand of the cook, while the meat was frying in the pan over the fire. The table was at first a board, or box cover laid on a barrel ; and many of the first families have taken their meals with the keenest relish, for some time after moving into a new log house, off a barrel head, or a chest cover. Their chairs were often blocks of logs, or benches and stools, of home manufacture. It was many years after the first settlement of Orleans County, before a stove of any kind was seen here.
The pewter mugs and platters, and the wooden trenchers that graced the shelves and tables of our grand-mothers, among the carly settlers of New Eng- land, were not commonly seen in the outfit furnished the young couple commencing housekeeping among the first, on this part of the Holland Purchase .- Spoons of tinned iron, or pewter-home made ; and a slender stock of necessary crockery, including the veritable " blue edged plates," comprised the table furniture ; not however forgetting the black earthen tea pot, in which the tea beverage for the family was duly prepared, whether the ingredient to be steeped was boughten tea, or sage, or pennyroyal, or any other herb of the fields. These little black steepers, holding about a quart, were claimed by their owners to make a better article of tea, than any other materi- al; and were used for every day, some time after block tin had become the fashionable article for a tea pot, which increasing wealth and pride had introduced. To this day, one of these interesting relies of antiquity is occasionally seen, with its spout probably broken off, adorning the upper back shelf of some kitchen pantry, in the great new house, which has succeeded the log one, carefully preserved, and annually dusted by the loving hands of the venerable dame, who used
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PIONEER HISTORY
it once ; or, of her grand-daughters who, inheriting the time-honored frugality of the family, in turning every thing to profitable account, make even the old teapot useful in storing a few garden seeds.
CHAPTER VII.
CLEARING LAND AND FIRST CROPS.
Cutting down the Trees-Black Salts-Slashing-Clearing-Fallow- Planting and Sowing-Harvesting-and Cleaning Up-How Done.
RLEANS County was originally covered with a heavy growth of trees. These had to be re- moved to open the soil to cultivation. This was commonly done by cutting the trees so as to leave a stump, two or three feet high. The felled timber lay upon the ground until it was dry, when fire was put in, and the whole field was burned over at once. The logs were then cut off at proper length, to be hauled together in heaps by oxen, and burned ; and the ashes of the heaps collected and leached to make black salts and potash. The land being thus cleared of wood, the first crop was wheat, sown broadcast, and covered with earth by harrowing the ground with a triangular harrow, or drag.
A field with the trees lying as they fell was called a " slashing," and sometimes a " clearing," or a "fal- low," as the work progressed.
The wheat was sown in the fall, to be harvested the next season ; no spring wheat being raised. Some- times corn and potatoes were planted among the logs, the first season, by digging in the seed with a hoe.
It was several years before the land could be plow- ed to much advantage, after the trees were felled, on account of the stumps, but as these were chiefly hard wood, they soon rotted out.
For some years, the first settlers cut their wheat
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PIONEER HISTORY
crop with a sickle ; threshed out the grain with flails, or trod it out with horses and cattle, and freed it from chaff by shoveling in the wind, or fanning with a hand fan. The want of barn floors, and other con- veniences, made all these operations exceedingly la- borious and slow, compared with such work now-a- days.
Before barns, with threshing floors in them, were made, some farmers made floors, or platforms of split logs, and laid them on the ground, without any roof over them. Beside these, they stacked their grain and threshed it on these floors in fair weather, or trod it out with oxen or horses.
CHAPTER VIIL.
HARDSHIPS AND PRIVATIONS.
Want of Breadstuff-Scarcity of Mills-Difficulty of getting Grain Ground-Mill on a Stump-Fever and Ague-Quinine and Blue Pill-No Post Office-Keeping Cattle-Difficulty Keeping Fire- Instance of Fire Out-Want of Good Water-No Highways-Dis- couragement from Sickness-Social Amusements-Hospitality- Early Merchants-Their Stores and Goods-Domestic Manufac- tures-Post Offices and Mails.
CARCITY of bread and breadstuffs before the war, and even down to 1818, is to be number- ed among the hardships and privations which beset the settlers ; and even when they could get a bushel of wheat, or corn, the difficulty in reducing the grain to flour, or meal, was truly formidable .- The nearest mill was 15 to 30 miles away ; there was no road leading to it ; and probably no horse to draw, or carry the grist, if a road had been opened. But meal must be had, the undaunted emigrant would hitch his oxen to his sled, or wagon, pile on a bag for himself, and take as many bags for his neighbors, as the occasion required, and start for some mill. We will leave imagination to describe his journey. After three or four days absence, it is announced in the set- tlement that Mr. A. has got back from the mill, and marvelously soon would each family be eating pud- ding, or have a cake. But, what if the family had no neighbors ; and no horse or ox, to carry their grist .- Still the grist must go at once. Its owner shoulders a half a bushel, or a bushel, according to his strength, and carries it to the mill, be the distance what it may,
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PIONEER HISTORY
threading his way by marked trees, through the woods. Such journeys were not lightly to be thought of, and they were honestly performed.
A sort of domestic mill, in which corn could be re- duced to meal, was made, and used, by some of the settlers, by making a hollow in the top of a hardwood stump for a mortar ; rigging a heavy pestle on a spring pole over the mortar ; and thus pounding the corn fine enough to be cooked.
But, if the new comers had bread enough and to spare, they all had to pay a penalty to Nature, in the acclimating process, which all went through almost without exception. Fever and ague attacked the pi- oneer, or his wife, or children, or all of them together, whenever an opening was made in the forest; or the earth was turned up for the first time to the hot rays of the summer sun.
Oh, the amount of quinine and blue pill, consumed in those days, by those who could get a doctor to pre- scribe in their case; while those sick ones, who had no doctor, because there was none to be had, wore their ague out, and let it work itself off the natural way; generally coming out about as well as those who doctored, and tried to "break" it, excepting that they took more time to do it.
The first professional doctors who came in were most intensely allopathic in their practice ; and dealt out quinine and blue pill in most heroic doses to their patients ; infinitessimal prescriptions, and homeopath- ic practice, had not then been thought of.
Another privation, if not a hardship, consisted in a lack of post offices, and mail facilities. Coming as most of the pioneers did from New England, which they, and their fathers regarded as a civilized country; and where they had always had post office accommo- dations all they wanted, it was rather hard to be shut out completely from the outer world.
.
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
The first settlers in Orleans County got their letters from Batavia, or Clarkson. They did not take news- papers by mail.
The first winter was a hard time for the pioneer to keep his cattle, on account of the scarcity of fodder. It took several years to clear the trees, and get a crop of hay grown in their places ; and a year or two was required before cornstalks, or straw could be pro- duced. If nobody in the neighborhood had fodder to sell, the new settler must cut down trees for his cattle to browse, or feed upon the boughs, a work of im- mense labor, especially in severe cold weather, and deep snows ; and a sad time the poor cattle had, com- pelled to lie out exposed to all storms, and feeding on such diet.
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