USA > New York > Orleans County > Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York, containing some account of the civil divisions of western New York > Part 7
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In 1845 he was re-elected to the State Senate and appointed Chairman of the Committee on Railroads.
In 1848 his office as Senator having terminated by the adoption of the new constitution of the State, which abolished the old Senate and Court for Correc- tion of Errors, Mr. Hard was appointed a Canal Ap- praiser, which office he held two years, and in 1850 returned to the practice of his profession until the fall of 1856, when he was elected County Judge and Sur- rogate of Orleans county, which office he held four years.
The year 1860 he was in ill health and did little business. The next three years he spent mainly in attendance upon his sick wife. She died, an event which broke up his family, and since then he has re- sided most of the time with his children engaged in no business.
Mr. Hard married Adeline Burrell, of Hoosic Falls New York, in August, 1824.
They had two children, Samuel B. Hard, a lawyer and business man residing in the city of New York,
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and Helen B. who married Geo. H. Potts, and resides in New York also.
Mrs. Hard died at Albion Sept. 15, 1864.
EBENEZER ROGERS.
Dea. Ebenezer Rogers was born in Norwich Conn., October 3, 1769. He married Betsey Lyman of Leba- non, Connecticut, who died August 28, 1849. Mr. Rogers removed from New England to Onondaga Co., N. Y., in 1812, and in March, 1816, settled on the farm on which he afterwards resided in the south part of the village of Albion. When he came, not more than twenty families had settled in Barre and his house was a home for many of the young men, who came here to select a farm for themselves, or, who, having a lot, were clearing it and building a cabin, preparatory to occupying with their families.
Being a professor of religion and deeply impressed with the importance of that subject, he was among the most earnest of the settlers in introducing the stated observance of the forms of public worship among them ; and with his near neighbor, Joseph · Hart and others, he assisted to form the first Congre- gational Church and Society in Barre, which finally was established at Barre Center, and after Albion became a village, he was conspicuous in organizing the First Presbyterian Church and Society in Albion, which was an offshoot from the organization first de- scribed. Of the latter church, Mr. Rogers was a long time deacon, and a ruling elder.
He was by trade a tanner and shoemaker, but nev- er followed that business.
Of a strong physical constitution, Mr. Rogers lived to see his children settled around him in competence, enjoying the abundance of the good things of this good land, which he and his worthy compeers had done so much to reclaim from the wilderness of
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nature. Mr. Rogers died January 28, 1865, aged ninety-six years, three months and twenty-five days.
ASA SANFORD.
"I was born in the town of Farmington, Hartford Co., Conn., June 2, 1797. My parents were members of the Presbyterian Church and gave their children a strictly religious, as well as a common school educa- tion, as was the custom in New England. In Febru- ary, 1806, my father removed with his family, then consisting of wife, four sons and two daughters, to Candor, Tioga Co., N. Y., a journey of about three hundred miles.
My father, oldest brother and myself, performed this journey, with a pair of oxen and one horse, at- tached to a sled, being twelve days on the road.
A hired man brought my mother and her other children in a sleigh.
That country was then wild, with but few settlers scattered along the Susquehanna and Chemung riv- ers, with dense forests stretching back thirty miles without a human being, inhabited by bears, wolves, panthers, deer and smaller animals.
A road had been opened between Owego and Ithaca, on which a few settlers had located.
In the fall of 1806, I went to Ithaca with my father, with oxen and wagon, after a load of salt.
I think Ithaca was then the most loathsome and desolate place I had ever seen. It stood on low, black soil, surrounded north and west by a quagmire swamp. It rained hard, and the black mud was so deep, it was with difficulty our oxen could draw two barrels of salt home.
My father and another man, built the first school house in the town of Candor, and opened the first school there. The school house stood three miles from my father's dwelling and I went there to school
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through the woods, with no other shoes than such as my mother made from woolen cloth from day to day.
In June, 1806, niy father, his hired man, my broth- ors and myself, wore hoeing corn. between ten and eleven o'clock in the forenoon, when we noticed a sin- gular appearance in the atmosphere : the sky looked sombre, the birds retired to the woods, the hens to their roosts, and we went to the house. The sun way all darkened, but a rim around the edge ; the gloom and chill of evening settled ou all the earth. around. This lasted but a short time, when the sun- came out from its dark pall, everything assumed its wonted activity and light and the . great eclipse" passed off.
I continued most of the time working with and for my father, occasionally working for others, till one day as I was chopping in the woods, a young man came along and said to me. he was not going to live longer in that hilly, sterile place : that he had been to the 'Genesee' and found a country far preferable to that for beauty and farming purposes.
I heard his story and determined that at some time I would see that famous . Genesee country.'
In the spring of 1816, I bought my time of my father, for $100. I was nineteen years old. I hired. out to work for $14 per month and in less than a year earned enough to pay my father for my time, and had money left. I continued working where I could make it most profitable, got plenty of work and good pay, until in the summer of 1819, feeling as if I had worked for others long enough, having then ten acres of land and several head of cattle. I felt a desire to get a good wheat farm for myself.
I started with two young men, on foot, knapsacks on our backs, Aug. 27. 1819, to go to the Genesee country. We went through Ithaca, and took the road to Geneva, traveling as far as Ovid the first day,
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forty miles. Next day through Geneva and Canan- daigna. we reached West Bloomfield. Next day through Lima and Avon, we arrived at Batavia and went to the office of the Holland Company to see abont land.
In the office the agent appeared rather sour, little disposed to be sociable. We asked him if he had land to sell. He said he had. He was asked where it lay and replied 'everywhere, all over. you cannot go amiss. I asked him if it was wild, or improved farms ? He answered 'go and look. when you run your head into a great improvement you will know it, won't you ! I turned indignantly and walked out of the office, saying ' I had a mind to boot that fellow.'
The agent followed us out to close the blinds and hearing our conversation, said rather pleasantly. · boys keep a stiff upper lip.
We stayed that night at the old . Pioneer tavern." "The landlord tried hard to convince me that the agent was a New England gentleman, one that I would be pleased to do business with.
We were informed of the rapid growth of a new town north from Batavia, called Barre, lying between the Tonawanda Swamp and the Ridge road. Towards this new town we set out next morning.
After examining various parts of Barre and Gaines. we selected our locations in Barre, and returned to the Land office to secure our Articles for our land : but finding we lacked a few dollars required to pay the first payment. the agent kindly offered to ' book' the lots to us, until we got the money.
We made no farther complaint against the agent. who 'booked' the land to us and we returned to make preparations for felling the timber on our new farms. Never before did we complain of the rapid flight of time, but here, while laboring for ourselves, we thought these the shortest days we had ever seen.
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On the 12th of October, 1819, having obtained the money, we went to the office and took out our Articles for our land, went back to our work and after chop- ping five or six acres apiece, we returned to our friends in Tioga county.
During the next winter, we fitted out with teams. tools, clothing and a quantity of pork, and in March. 1820, set out for our new Homes and after a tedious journey of twelve days, through snow, water and mud, we arrived home April 1st.
Having no hay for our cattle. we eut browse to feed them, giving a few ears of corn proenred from our neighbors, till vegetation grew so that they could live in the woods.
We hired our board cooked at a neighbors and . cleared off what we had chopped the previous season and planted the land with corn. The season being propitious, we had good erops of corn, with oats, po- tatoes, beans and other vegetables and melons in abundance. We also cleared off and sowed several acres with wheat.
In the autumn the bears were very troublesome in our cornfields, committing their nightly depredations, till it became necessary to put our veto upon them ; this we did in various ways-by trapping, shooting, night watching, &c., until we had captured four of them and thus saved our corn.
After securing our crops and preparing for winter, we sold our teams and returned to our parental homes.
During the next season we experienced much incon- venience in getting our board dressed for us. The woman who did it became quite tired of doing the work for the ' old bachelors,' and I began to realize the truth of the Divine declaration that 'it is not good for man to be alone.
After visiting among friends in Tioga County a few
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days, I hired out for three months. March 1, 1821, I was married. About the middle of the month, putting all on board a covered wagon, with two yoke of oxer attached. and in company with the two young men previously referred to, we set out again for our new wilderness home, in the Genesee country.
After two weeks hard labor, we arrived at our home to the great joy of our neighbors, especially the momen. We moved into a small house with one of our neighbors, until we could build us a house, which we built in a few weeks after.
While the early pioneers of a new country are necessarily subject to many hardships and privations, unknown to settlers of older countries, still there are many enjoyments and pleasing reminiscences for these pioneers, which they never forget. Aristocracy is unknown in a new country. The people are all friendly and kindly disposed towards each other. If any are sick, they are at once cared for. If a farmer was attacked with ague, that dread disease, so com- mon among the pioneers of this county, before he could get his spring crops into the ground, his neigh- bors would turn out and put them in for him and if necessary. they would keep his work along until he was able to do it himself. If there is any state of so- ciety where men fulfil the Divine injunction ' love thy neighbor as thyself,' it is found among the pioneers of a new country.
If any one got lost in the woods, and did not return at night. search was at once made by everybody and no sleep was had until the lost one was found.
After we moved into our new house, I started ont to buy me a cow, bought one and we now commenced housekeeping under circumstances quite favorable, at least our neighbors thought so. My wife had a few necessary articles of furniture, so that we were about as well off as any of our neighbors.
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There were no pianos or melodeons in those days. The little wheel for spinning flax and the great wheel for spinning tow, furnished the music. A few years Jater and we had other house music.
I plodded on for eight years, adding field to field of my cleared, improved land and then found myself un- able to pay even the interest due on my Article to the Land Company.
I raised about $70. and with this went to Batavia to see the agent. I determined this time to walk into the office with head up and meet any insult I might receive with manly independence.
I found the agent alone in the office, went up to him and laid down my Article and all the money i - had, saying my Article has expired and here is all the money I have. I want to renew my contract, as I have no idea of giving up my premises yet.
The agent walked up. took my Article, unfolded it and said you have not assigned it I see. Then taking up the money he said pleasantly, . walk into the other room.' I did so and in less time than I have been writing this. my new Article was made out, my payment indorsed and I was ready to start for home. But on returning to the contractor's room, the agent said to me he had relinquished all the back interest and $1 per acre of the principal, making an entire new sale, with eight years' pay day, as at first. and asked me if I was satisfied. My gratitude had by this time become almost unbounded and I left the office, thanking the old agent for his kindness and thinking after all, beneath a rough exterior he had a generous heart.
I mention this incident to show the kind and gener- ous treatment extended towards the poor industrious settlers upon the lands of the Holland Company .- Many incidents of a like character might be recorded to the credit of the Company.
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I came home inspired with new energy and determi -- nation to struggle on and overcome every hardship and difficulty in my way.
We had but little sickness compared with our neighbors, as yet. In the spring of 1823. I had severe inflamation of the hings, and in the spring of 1828. I was taken with fever and ague, which held me through the season.
The next spring my wife was sick with fever and agne and thrush, which kept her ill till the October following.
Our children, then four in number, had their full shares of fever and ague. It was painful to see the "little ones draw up to the fire while suffering their chill. then see them retire to their beds. tormented. with the raging thirst and fever following the chills. while their mother could do little for them. except to- supply their frequent calls for water.
In the fall of 1824 or 1825 two men living near Barre Center, named Selah Belden, and Nathan Angel. started. on Saturday morning to hunt deer west from the Center. They parted in the afternoon, each after separate game. At night Mr. Belden returned-Mr. Angel did not. Next morning Belden, with some of his neighbors, went out and spent the day looking for Angel, but not finding him. the next morning a gene- ral rally of all the men in town was made and the" woods thoroughly searched and the dead body of Mr. Angel found, having apparently fallen and died from exhaustion. The body was carried to Benton's Corn- ers, -- then the centre of the settlement,- a jury called by Ithamar Hibbard, Esq .. one of the first coro- ners and it is believed this was the first coroner's in- quest in Orleans county. As the county was cleared up and the low lands drained of their surface water . the people suffered less from ague.
The canal being now opened. farmers found a ready
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market and better prices for their produce. Home manufactures were protected from foreign compe tition and the price of domestic goods greatly reduced. It was then the farmers began to thrive and soon to pay up for their lands. The price of rea !! estato advanced and some even predicted the time would come when the best farms would be worth one hundred dollars per acre, hardly expecting to live to see their predictions fulfilled as they have done.
The attention of the carly pioneers was called to the subject of common schools for their children and the next building to go up after a log cabin for a dwelling was a log school house.
One of our own statesmen while a member of the Legislature being asked where he graduated, replied : ' In a log school house up in Orleans county.' Ihave often carried my eldest son to and from school on my back through the deep snows of winter.
More than forty years ago I united with the Meth odist Episcopal Church at West Barre and in 1843 withdrew from that church and united with the Wes- · leyan Methodists.
Many years ago, convinced of the sin of intemper- ance, I resolved to use no more intoxicating liquor as a beverage, a resolution to which I have strictly ad- hered ever since.
ASA SANFORD." . January 28th, 1862.
ANDREW H. GREEN.
Andrew Il. Green, of Byron, Genesee county, N. Y., writes for the Orleans county Pioneer Association records, his local history as follows :
"I was born in Johnstown. Montgomery Co .. N. Y., Oct. 16th. 1797, and in June, 1809, came to Gene- see county from Rome. Oneida county, N. Y.
In 1792, my father and Judge Tryon, of New Leb- anon, came to Irondequoit. near Rochester and built
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a storehouse : and in 1808, my father came to what is now Bergen and Sweden and purchased something of a farm and commenced on the north bounds of what is now the Methodist camp ground. in Bergen. run- ning north to the road running east to Sweden Centre. twenty-five lots containing three thousand acres at twenty-two shillings per acre.
It was a hard country to settle. There were but few inhabitants and the roads were very bad. As soon as they began to erect mill-dams there was a great deal of sickness.
We went to Hanford's Landing. at the mouth of Genesee River. to trade and sell potash. I found but two houses between our house and Clarkson Corners. and but two from there to Genesee river. For several years I was as familiar in every family from my father's to Genesee river as I am now with my near neighbors.
The first time I passed through Rochester was in the summer of 1809. The next I remember about it was the bad roads and that I was very much fright- ened crossing the Genesee river. The water was deep and ran very swift. I expected to go down stream and over the falls.
I think there was one mill and two or three shanties to. be seen there then. There was a small clearing where the Eagle tavern formerly stood, but I had as much as I could do to get my load through the mud. I little thought then that black ash swamp was ever to be the place it now is. Late in the fall of 1809 my father sent me to Sangersfield Huddle after a load of inerchandise. East of Canandaigua was a new turn- pike where I got stuck in the mud and had to wait until the next teamster came along to help me out. I was then fourteen years old. My father had fifteen workmen and the first summer cleared one hundred seres.
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In October Judge Findley from Genesee came on with a company of men to survey township number two of the one hundred thousand acre tract. They also stopped with us, making a family of twenty-six men, besides having two families in the house.
The 'latch-string' was always out and none ever went away hungry as we had plenty of pork and wild game to season it. Deer. bears and wolves were plenty. I never heard of but one panther. The sur- veyors had their tent near where the steam saw mill now stands in Clarendon. Their cook came in on Wednesday night for bread. One evening he had got to where Col. Shubael Lewis afterwards lived when he heard some one halloo. He soon found it was a panther on his track. It followed him to the "learing. The man was much exhausted when he came in. He was an old hunter and said he knew it was a panther. The men all came in Saturday after- noon. The Sabbath was as well kept in 1809 as in 1863. We were seldom without evangelical preach- ing. We had one close communion Baptist Elder, some Methodists and some Presbyterians. All could sing the good old tunes and sing them with a will. The vear 1809 was productive and healthy. In 1810. about July 20th. we had a frost that killed most of the wheat and corn. The fall of 1811 was very sickly. There were several families settled at Sandy Creek village. They were all sick. We made up a load of some six or seven and went down to help them. I never saw so happy a company. We carried two loads of necessaries and staid two Lights and when some of them got so they could take care of the others we left for home.
I used to have many hard and lonesome rides through the woods on horseback. One very dark night I had been to Dr. Ward's after medicine. Com- ing home I lost my road and also my hat. Before I
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found my hat the wolves began to howl. I took off my shoes so that I might find the road. and by the time I had mounted my horse to go on, the wolves were within "speaking distance " and before I had gone far they struck my barefoot tracks ; then they made a terrific roaring. I thought I was a .goner sure enough. but I presume if the wolves had seen me then on the old white horse they would have been as frightened as I was.
Our men had all kinds of musical instruments and any time when the drum was beat the wolves were almost sure to respond.
About the beginning of winter my father started me off with an ox team and load of grain to find Judge Farwell's grist mill. After a tedions day's travel I came in sight of water pouring over rocks. It was no small stream. I thought it must be Niag- ara Falls. I was glad to find I could get my grist ground, so I chained my oxen to a tree and found a comfortable night's lodging among the bags in the mill. I got home the the next day with my grist. Our folks thought I had done well and I thought so too.
The first winter I walked seven miles to school every day and back again.
A. H. GREEN." Byron, Genesee Co. N. Y., June 16, 1863.
In a letter written by the above named A. H. Green to the Secretary of the Orleans County Pioneer Asso- viation, dated June 14th. 1866. he says: "I was quite interested the other day, while hunting up the old road records of our town, Byron. in 1809. It was then the town of Murray, but now contains eight or Dine towns entire.
LINUS JONES PECK.
Mr. Peck furnished his local history for the Orleans
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OF ORLEANS COUNTY.
County Pioneer Association Records as follows : " I was born October 27th, 1816. in a very cheap log house on Onondaga Hill, in Onondaga Co., N. Y .. abont a mile and a half from the old Court House. Up to eleven years of age I was engaged principally in endeavoring to get something to eat. not always however with much success, and in going to school barefoot both summer and winter.
I never had anything made of leather to wear on my feet until the spring of 1828.
My amusements consisted in listening to the howl- ings of the wolves and in gymnastic exercises with the misketoes.
In May. 1828, I had a pair of shoes and was sent to Pike, Allegany county, to live with my brother Luther. I stayed there nutil May 1833. when I re- turned to my parents with whom I lived until 1836. when I went to Wyoming to attend the Middlebury Academy.
In the spring of 1838 1 returned to Pike to read law in my brothers office. In 1841. ho removed to Nunda, now in Livingston county and I stayed with him in his office till 1848. In July of that year I commenced jobbing on the canals and continued in that business until the summer of 1861. since which time I have done little business of any kind. I was nover married.
I left the town where I was born in 1817 and ar- rived in Clarendon, or what is now Clarendon. Orleans county, just forty years ago to-day (March 20, 1864. ) I came to Holley first in the spring of 1856 and stayed until December. I then returned to Pendleton in Niagara county and completed a large job I had on the Erie Canal through the Mountain Ridge and went back to Holley in the spring of 1857. since which time Holley has been my residence.
My mother died March 4. 1848. aged 71 years. My
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father died JJune 2. 1852. aged 82 years. I am the youngest of my brothers, all of whom are living.
There are, or were, no incidents in my carly history or that of my brothers, not common to all the early settlers in this vicinity, except I thought we managed to be a little poorer than any body else. My father had the misfortune of having two trades, that of a farmer and carpenter and joiner. He worked his hands altogether too much and his brains altogether too little, and dividing the time between the two, nec- essarily resulted in doing neither well. Consequently neither prospered. This his sons turned all about in 1825, when my brothers became old enough to take charge of affairs. Since which time there has been an improvement.
LINUS JONES PECK."
Dated -- Holley, March 20, 1864.
HARVEY GOODRICH.
Harvey Goodrich was born in Herkimer county, N. Y .. in Nov. 1791. His father, Zenas Goodrich. re- moved to that place from Berkshire. Mass. When a young man Harvey Goodrich removed to Auburn, N. Y., and worked for some time at the business of mak- ing hats, and for several years he officiated as a constable. Having been successful in accunmilating property. he with his brother-in-law, George W. Standart, took a job of work in making the Eric canal, and leaving Auburn after his canal work was completed. he located permanently at Albion in the year 1824. and engaged in selling dry goods and groceries in company with George W. Standart.
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