USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 37
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
It has been stated that his misfortunes were partly owing to sacri- fices he made during his financial agencies in the Revolution. This error is corrected in a letter with which the author has been favored from a surviving son of his, the venerable THOMAS MORRIS,
356
HISTORY OF THE
Esq. a resident of the city of New York :- "My father's pecu- niary losses were not owing to his public engagements in the war of Independence. Heavy as those engagements were, (the last two years of the war having been supported almost entirely by his advances and by his credits,) he was eventually reimbursed by the public."
The author has in his posession two autograph letters, from Mr. Morris, addressed to "Mr. Benjamin Barton," the father of the late Benjamin Barton, Jr. The first, was written but a few weeks after the Treaty with the Indians on the Genesee river, at which the Indian title was extinguished to all the lands in this state west of Phelp's and Gorham's Purchase. It is inserted entire :-
" HILLS, NEAR PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 18, 1797.
SIR .- I received your letter dated at Newark, the 12tli inst. only yesterday, and am sorry to see thereby the several unfortunate accidents you have met with, and particu- larly as your affairs have become deranged thereby. In consequence of the purchase lately made by the Indians, our surveyors, will immediately set to work and survey and lay out that country; and as my son Thomas, who lives at Canandaigua, Ontario county, will have a principal share in selling lands, and establishing settlements there, I think you had better apply to him; but your application will be time enough by or before next spring, when he comes to Albany in the winter, to meet the Legislature.
You did not furnish me with an account of the lumber you sent down, which I wish you would do, with the cost thereof.
I am, Sir, Your obt. serv't. ROBERT MORRIS."
At the date of this letter, he was a "Merchant Prince," living in affluence, writing of the purchase and intended sale and settlement of vast tracts of land. Upon him had devolved the financiering for our country in a period of peril and embarrassment. When the army of WASHINGTON, unpaid, were lacking food and raiment; murmuring as they well might be; it was his purse and credit that more than once prevented its dispersion, and the failure of the glorious achievement of Independence. His ships were upon the ocean, his notes of hand forming a currency, his drafts honored every where among capitalists in his own country, and in many of the marts of commerce in Europe.
A reverse of fortune, saddening to those who are now enjoying the blessings to which he so eminently contributed- who wish that no cloud had gathered around the close of his useful life-inter- vened between the dates of the two letters. The second one is dated "Philadelphia, Dee. 11, 1800," and after disposing of some business enquiries that had been made. closes as follows :-
357
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
" You have now the clearest information I can give you. I have been frequently applied to about this affair, but hope there is an end of it. If however, you should find it necessary to write again, be good enough to pay the postage of your letters, for I have not a cent to spare from the means of subsistence.
I am, Sir, Your very obt. serv't. ROBERT MORRIS. Mr. BENJAMIN BARTON, Sussex Co. N. J."
Mr. Morris died at Morrisania, N. J., Nov. 6th, 1806, aged 73 years.
NOTE .- During the life of Mrs. Morris, she had an annuity of fifteen hundred dollars, paid her by the Holland Company, as an equivalent for the release of dower, in the lands they purchased of her husband. "This was all that was left of that splendid fortune which we have seen to have been lavished in loans for the public service, when its return was most doubtful." Robert Morris was not only connected with this region as a primitive proprietor, but the project of the Erie Canal was promoted by his efforts.
358
HISTORY OF THE
AUGUSTUS PORTER.
Few names were carlier, have been more intimately, and none more honorably, associated with the entire history of settlement and progress in Western New York, than that of AUGUSTUS PORTER. Entering it in his youth-sitting down in the primitive log cabins erected by the first settlers west of the Mussachusetts pre-emption line ;- going out with compass and chain and trav- ersing the wilderness, over hill and dale, the trails of the Indian that he occasionally crossed, the only evidences that human advent and agency had preceded him ;- his rude camp in the fastnesses of the forest, pitched upon streams and by the side of springs that had flowed and gurgled until then, unknown to his race ;- changing his wilderness itineracy for a position and agency that equally blended him and his name with the primitive settlement of that now empire of wealth and substantial prosperity,-"Phelps and Gorham's Purchase." Remaining there but to see settlement fairly commenced, then coming farther on, first as surveyor and then as a settler to prominently participate in pushing settlement and improvement to a new field of enterprize-to the western boundaries of the Holland Purchase ;- he lives to witness the mighty change that has been wrought! With a memory and a judgment unimpaired by age and more than its usual physical infirmities, he yet lives to contribute valuable and essential remin- iscences to the Pioneer history of a region he has seen converted -and helped to convert-from the hunting grounds of the migratory Indian, to the fairest and most prosperous region of our Empire State.
There are few whose days are lengthened out as his have been; fewer by far who have had cognizance of, and participation in, so extended a period of interesting events in the history of our country. Change, progress, the conversion of a wilderness to what Western New York now is, in the short space of a little over half a century, is a wonder of itself-and how far enhanced is the wonder, when in view of the average amount of years that are allotted to an active participation in the affairs of this life, we listen to, or read the recital of events from a living witness, commencing with the earliest advents of our race, in the work of settlement and improvement !
His studies at school in the years immediately preceding his
:REHE
LITH OF WM ENDICOTT & TN f
Any Portion
AUGUSTUS FORTET.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Autor, Loros. 271 Founda: 31
359
HOLLAND PURCHASE
majority, were interrupted by a transfer to farm labor, to help supply the places of those who had gone out to fill the ranks of an army raised by a few feeble colonies struggling for separation and Independence. He has lived not only to see a glorious con- summation of that struggle, but lives to see those colonies a mighty empire of states, fulfilling the highest destinies fondly anticipated by its founders.
The hand that helped to make some of the primitive township and farm surveys of the region between the Seneca lake, and the east line of the Holland Purchase,-a region now embracing a city with over thirty thousand inhabitants; large and prosperous villages; dotted throughout its entire length and breadth with comfortable farm houses and highly cultivated farms; traversed by canals, rail roads and telegraphic wires ;- is spared to make a record of events of his own times, that in the old world would be witnessed but by successive generations, and mark the lapse of centuries !
Penetrating the wilderness region still farther on-locating at the Falls of Niagara, and prominently pioneering in clearing away the forest that enshrouded them-in commencing there the work of settlement and improvement-in surveying and opening the primitive roads; he lives to see there, a prosperous and growing village; to see it the termination of rail roads and telegraphs; the deep gorge, or basin, into which he has seen the mighty volume of water pour but to affright the wild beasts in their favorite haunts, spanned by one of the highest perfections of modern art; to see where stood the rude, semi-log cabin resting place of an occasional visitor, palace-like hotels erected, annually crowded by those who throng to the great centre of attraction.
Where now is a city of over forty thousand inhabitants, the great mart of the commerce of prosperous states, he has set down and partaken of backwoods fare, in a log-cabin, the only place of entertainment. There he has waited for a change of wind, to enable him and his companions to coast along the shores of lake Erie, in a batteau, over waters then but seldom disturbed but by the elements, and the Indian's bark canoe. He lives to see those waters whitened by the sails of commerce; "floating palaces," steam-propelled, in fleets, competing for the travel and transpor- tation of a young but already extended and prosperous empire of the west !
360
HISTORY OF THE
How blended with change, progress, the mighty achievements of our age and race, is the name, the reminiscences, of this early Pioneer! The reader will not be surprised that the author has, for a few moments, arrested the course of narrative, for comments, such as he has indulged in; nor deem it inappropriate, to have availed himself of the skill of the artist, to give a faithful portrait of his venerable features.
Judge PORTER was born on the 18th of January, 1769; is a native of Salisbury, Connecticut; the son of Joshua Porter, who was, for fifty years, a practicing physician and surgeon, in that town. He died in 1825, at the advanced age of ninety-five years. The subject of our brief memoir acquired the rudiments of educa- tion in the common school of his native town; his regular attend- ance at school being confined, as was the case with most boys of New England at that period, to the winter months. In 1786, in the sixteenth year of his age, he had the advantage of a few month's study of mathematics, and particularly surveying, under the tuition of Mr. Nathan Tisdale, of Lebanon. His tutor dying, he returned to labor upon his father's farm, remaining under the paternal roof until the spring of 1789, when he first started for the new field of enterprise, then just opening in Western New York. A continuation of the Judge's personal biography, in this form, is rendered unnecessary, as it is embraced in a narrative of early events, which he has furnished, at the request of the Buffalo Young Men's Association; much of which, as it will be observed, the author has transferred to his pages.
In June 1806, he became a resident of the Holland Purchase- locating himself at the Falls of Niagara, where he still resides, at the advanced age of eighty years. He may be said to constitute a connecting link between two generations- or rather between two distinct classes; so far as habits of life are concerned. He is one of the survivors of a race of Pioneers, hardy, industrious and frugal; men of iron constitutions they must have been, to encounter the hardships and privations of the wilderness. Living now in an age of luxury, of increasing effeminacy; surrounded by all the comforts of life; with ample means to enjoy its luxuries; he emphatically belongs to the old school; preserving the simple, frugal habits of his youth and middle age, his habits of industry and economy; his love of the substantial and sensible things of this life; leaving to those who have acquired wealth through a less
361
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
rugged path, their choice of show and ostentation. In this respect, as well as others, his life and example furnish a useful lesson; a protest against the moral and physical degeneracy he lives to witness.
He came to the western country as will have been seen, young; with a good New England constitution; healthy and muscular. In all of his early life he enjoyed good health; interrupted occasion- ally by diseases incident to the climate, and extraordinary expo- sures. In 1843, then seventy-four years of age, he was engaged with his laborers, in prying up a stick of timber. Standing himself upon the pry, the whole weight of the stick came upon it, throwing him off with such violence as to partially break a hip bone; to which casualty is to be attributed a present lameness; added to which is the troublesome and at times painful infirmity -hernia- and a hereditary deafness, that increases with age, and renders the use of an ear trumpet essential in ordinary conversation. And yet, under all these disabilities, the greater portion of each day, is spent in the out-of-door general management of a largely extended and varied business .*
[During the last winter, as a preliminary step in the preparation of this work, the author called upon Judge Porter for such assistance as his long residence, retentive mem- ory, and intelligent observation enabled him to give. He cheerfully and obligingly com- plied, and devoted several days to a patient answering of such enquiries as were made of him; the author taking notes during the interview. These are principally applicable of the early settlement of the Holland Purchase, and will be used in a detached form, as the necessity of their use occurs. About this period the Judge had been applied to by a committee of the Young Men's Association of Buffalo, for historical reminiscences, with a view to preservation in the archives of their Association; which request he was complying with. With his consent, and that of the Association, that portion of his written narrative of events, having reference to settlement as it was approaching the Holland Purchase, is used by the author. It saved the narrator from travelling twice over the same ground, and insured a greater degree of correctness, than could have been relied upon from notes of conversation. The narrative is taken up as it came from his hands; with such portions omitted as have been embraced in other forms; that in reference to land titles being the principal omission in all that relates to the progress of settlement in Western New York.]
In the year 1789, Capt. Wm. Bacon, Gen. John Fellows, Gen. John Ashley, and Elisha Lee, Esq., of Sheffield, Mass., Deacon John Adams of Alford, Mass., and my father, having become the pur- chasers of Township No. 12, Ist Range (now Arcadia, Wayne Co.,) and No. 10, in the 4th Range, (now East Bloomfield, Onta-
" This is from a note made in the author's memorandum book, a year previous to the publication of his work.
362
HISTORY OF THE
rio Co.,) then in the county of Montgomery, New York, I entered into an agreement with them to go out and survey the tracts. I, accordingly, in pursuance of previous arrangements, made with Capt. Bacon, met him at Schenectady, early in May, 1789. Here I found Capt. B. had collected some cattle, provisions, and farming utensils, for the use of the settlers who were going forward in company with Deacon Adams and his family, whom I also met at the same place, and who took charge of the cattle. The provis- ions were taken into two boats. I assisted in navigating one of the boats, each carrying about twelve barrels, and known as Schenectady batteaux, and each navigated by four men. Leaving Schenectady, we proceeded up the Mohawk to Fort Stanwix (now Rome.) In passing Little Falls of the Mohawk, the boats and their contents were transported around on wagons. At Fort Stanwix, we carried our boats, &c., over a portage about one mile, to the waters of Wood creek. This creek affords but little water from the portage to its juncture with the Canada creek, (which falls into Wood creek seven miles west of Fort Stanwix.) At the portage there was a dam for a saw mill, which created a considerable pond. This pond, when filled, could be rapidly dis- charged, and on the flood thus suddenly made, boats were enabled to pass down. We passed down this stream, which empties into Oneida Lake, and through that lake and its outlets to the Three River Point, and thence up the Seneca River and the outlet of Kanadasaga Lake, (now Seneca Lake,) to Kanadasaga settlement, (now Geneva.) The only interruption to the navigation to this river and the outlet, occurred at Seneca Falls and Waterloo, (then known as Scoys.) At Seneca Falls we passed our boats up the stream empty, by the strength of a double crew, our loading being taken around by a man named Job Smith, who had a pair of oxen and a rudely constructed cart, the wheels of which were made by sawing off a section of a log, some two and a half or three feet in diameter. At Scoys, we took out about half our load to pass, consisting mostly of barrels, which were rolled around the rapids.
From the time we left Fort Stanwix, until we arrived at Kana- dasaga, we found no white persons, except at the juncture of Canada and Wood creeks, where a man lived by the name of Armstrong ;- at Three River Point, where lived a Mr. Bingham, and at Seneca Falls, where was Job Smith. Geneva was at that time the most important Western settlement, and consisted of some six or seven families, among whom was Col. Reed, (father of the late Rufus Reed, of Erie, Pa.,) Roger Noble and family, of Shef- field, Mass., and Asa Ransom, late of Erie county, who had a small shop, and was engaged in making Indian trinkets. At Geneva we left our boats and cargoes in charge of Capt. Bacon, who had come from Schenectady to Fort Stanwix, on horseback, and there took passage on our boats. Joel Steel, Thaddeus Keyes,
363
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
Orange Woodruff, and myself, took our packs on our backs, and followed the Indian trail, over to Canandaigua.
At Canandaigua, (then called Kanandarque) we found Gen. Chapin, Daniel Gates, Joseph Smith, (Indian interpreter) Benjamin Gardner and family, Frederick Saxton, (Surveyor) and probably some half a dozen others, all of whom except Smith and Gardner had come on with Gen. Chapin, some ten or fifteen days before, in boats from Schenectady, by Fort Stanwix, Wood creek, Oneida Lake, &c., and up the Canandaigua outlet, into the lake itself. This is the only instance to my knowledge of the ascent of boats for transportation so high up; the ordinary point of landing, after- wards, being at Manchester, seven miles down. The only houses in Canandaigua were of logs. One occupied by Gen. Chapin near the outlet; one a little further north, on the rising ground occu- pied by Smith, and one by Gardner near the old Antis house, as at present known; and the other on the lot where Oliver Phelps' house stands, which had been built the fall before by Mr. Walker, an agent of Mr. Phelps. In this house, Caleb Walker, his brother, died in 1790, and was the first person buried in the grave- yard at Canandaigua.
From Canandaigua, I went to township, No. 10, in the 4th Range (now East Bloomfield,) where I found Jonathan Adams, one of the proprietors of the town, who had come on from Schenectady with cattle and horses, accompanied by his large family, consisting of the following persons; himself and wife, his sons, John, William, Abner, and Joseph; his sons-in-law, Ephraim Rew, and Lorin Hull, and their wives, (his daughters) Wilcox, another son-in-law, and a younger daughter, afterwards the wife of John Keyes; Elijah Rose a brother-in-law, wife and son, and the following named persons: Moses Gunn, Lot Rew, John Barns, Roger Sprague, Asa Heacock, Benjamin Goss, John Keyes, Nathaniel Norton, and Eber Norton. Here Mr. Adams had erected two small log houses, and one large one, in which for the time being, all these people found a shelter. Mr. Adams in compliance with an arrangement with the proprietors, furnished me with the necessary hands and provisions to fit out my surveying party, and I then commenced to survey the town.
After finishing the survey of this township, Fredrick Saxton and myself, surveyed and allotted township 9, in 6th Range, (now Livonia, Livingston Co.,) which proved to be one of the best town- ships of land in the Genesee country. To show however, the inconsiderable value put upon it at that time, I mention the faet that Gen. Fellows offered to sell the whole township to Mr. Saxton and myself at twenty cents per acre.
After completing the survey of this township, Mr. Saxton assisted me in the survey of township No. 12, 1st Range, (Arcadia, Wayne Co.) Col. Hugh Maxwell, a surveyor, had con- tracted with' Phelps and Gorham, the previous year, to run out
364
HISTORY OF THE
into townships the whole of that part of their purchase to which the Indian title had been extinguished. Not having completed the work, he entered into an agreement with Mr. Saxton and myself, to survey a portion, consisting of about forty townships, which now constitute part of Steuben county. We entered immediately on this survey, and completed it in the course of the season. While engaged in it we made our head quarters at Painted Post on the Conhocton river, at the house of old Mr. Harris and his son William. These two men, Mr. Goodhue who lived near by, and a Mr. Meade, two miles up the river, at the mouth of a stream since known as "Meade's creek," were the only persons then on the territory we were surveying. Before we left, how- ever, Solomon Bennet, Mr. Stevens, Capt. Jameson, and Mr. Crosby, arrived from Pennsylvania in search of a township for purchase and for future settlement, and fixed on township No. 3 in the 5th, and No. 4 in the 6th, Ranges, both lying on the Canisteo river, and soon after settled by these men. They are now known in whole or in part as the town of Canisteo.
In the fall I returned to my father's, in Salisbury, by the water route, in company with several persons from New England, who, having spent the summer at the west, were returning home to spend the winter.
In addition to the persons mentioned by me as found at Canan- daigua, in the spring of this year, (1789) the following came during the summer, viz: Abner Barlow, Israel Chapin, Jr., Othniel Taylor, Nathaniel Gorham, Dr. Moses Atwater, Judah Colt, John Call, Amos Hall, Gen. Wells, John Clark, Daniel Brainard, John Fanning, Stephen Bates, Aaron Heacock, James Fisk, Jairus Rose, Hugh Jameson, Mr. Truman, Orange Brace, Martin Dudley, and Luther Cole. The following came to Victor: Hezekiah Bough- ton, Jr., Enos Boughton, Jared Boughton, Seymour Boughton, 2d, Lyman Boughton, Zebulon Norton, Joel Scudder, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Brace. Into Bristol: Gamaliel Wilder, Jonathan Wilder, Wm. Gooding, Elnathan Gooding. Into Geneva: Roger Noble, Phineas Stevens, Elias Jackson, Mr. Jennings, Wm. Patterson, Peter Bortle. To Palmyra: Gen. John Swift. To Pittsford: Israel Stone, Simon Stone, Paul Richardson, Mr. Allen, and Mr. Acker. To Irondequoit Landing: Mr. Lusk. To Brighton: Orange Stone and Chauncey Hyde, Capt. John Gilbert from Lenox, Mass. (father of John Gilbert, now of Ypsilanti, Mich.) who surveyed the town into lots. To Perrinton; Glover Perrin and Caleb Walker. To Livonia: Solomon Woodruff. To Avon: Timothy Hosmer, Gilbert Berry, Capt. Thompson, and Mr. Rice (whose wife gave birth to the first child born on the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, whose name was "OLIVER PHELPS RICE.") To Vienna: Decker Robinson. To Middleton: (at the head of Canandaigua lake.) Col. Clarke, Capt Watkins, Lieut. Cleveland, and Ensign Parrish. To Lima: Abner Miles and Doctor Minor.
365
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
Among the incidents of this year (1789) in this western region, then just beginning to be inhabited, was the following: A Mr. Jenkins, who went out for the proprictors, John Swift and others, to survey township 12, 2d range, (Palmyra) commenced his labors early in the season, and erected for the accommodation of his party a small hut of poles. One night, when the party were asleep, two Indians attacked them, first firing their rifles through the open cracks of the hut, and then rushing in. One of Jenkins' men was killed by the first fire, but Jenkins and his party after a brief strug- gle, succeeded in driving the savages off without further loss. He went the next morning to Geneva, where he learned that the party to which they probably belonged had gone south. He accordingly, in company with others, followed in pursuit, as far as Newtown, (Elmira) on the Chemung river, near which place the murderers were captured. Newtown was then the principal, indeed almost only settlement, in that region of country. The Indians were examined before an informal assembly, and the proof being in their opinion, sufficient to establish their guilt, the question arose as to how they should be disposed of. The jail of the county, (then Montgomery) was at Johnstown, and it was not deemed practicable to transport them so great a distance, through an Indian wilderness. It was therefore determined summarily to execute them, and this determination was carried immediately into effect, -an account of which I received from Jasper Parrish and Horatio Jones (after- wards Indian interpreters) who were eye witnesses of the execu- tion .* Another incident occured at Canandaigua this year, worthy, perhaps, of notice.
The year was one of unusual scarcity among the Indians. Indeed, they were almost reduced to starvation. Oliver Phelps having made a treaty with them the year previous, they were to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.