USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 48
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Joseph Palmer, John Utter, J.r. Ames Keeney,
Asa Hamlin.
Elisha Mills,
462
HISTORY OF THE
T. 9, R. 1.
Gideon R. Trnesdell, Jeremiah Truesdell, Isaac Jacocks, Gideon Thayer, Josiah Hovey, Jr. Alexander Blowers.
T. 10, R. 1.
Willard Chaddock, Solomon Prindle, John Smith,
Eliphalet Owen,
David Thompson,
Jonathan Thompson,
Isaac Marsh,
Timothy Mallison,
David Foster,
Elisha Smith,
Joseph White,
Daniel Hoyt.
T. 11, R. 1.
Daniel W. Bannister, Jerry Cowdry,
Thomas Starkweather, Mons Goodrich,
Lewis Barney,
David Morgan,
Ebenezer Wilson,
David Filkin,
Peter Davidson,
Chester Davidson,
Franklin Putnam, David Stewart,
Lyman D. Prindle,
Joseph Shedd,
Henry Miller,
Orsamus Kellogg,
Ebenezer Eggleston.
Henry Rumsey,
Elijah Bristol,
Elisha Andrews,
David Ingersoll,
Joseph Bartlett.
T. 12, R. 1.
Solomon Sylvester, Daniel B. Brown,
Israel Graham,
Moses Norton,
Peter Putnam, Amos Jones,
Alvalı Jones,
Stephen Powell,
Webster Powers,
Samuel Stanhope,
William Osborn,
Joseph Munger,
Jonas Osborn. John Bailey,
Elihu Beckwith,
Asahel Atherton,
Rufus Atherton,
William Atherton,
Luther Stanhope,
T. 10, R. 2.
Joel Jerome,
James Mills,
Horace Jerome,
T. 11. R.2,
Elijah Root, Jr.
Ezra Whipple,
John Humphrey,
Benjamin Chase,
Sylvester Eldridge,
Silas Terry,
Amos Thompson,
John Roraback.
George Harrick,
T. 1, R. 2.
Thomas Lightfoot,
Thomas Smith,
John Watson.
T. 3, R. 2.
Benjamin Riggs,
Enos Silsby,
Andrew Hawley,
Stephen Coles,
George W. Higgins,
Levi Gregory,
Richard Friar,
James Haskins.
T. 4, R 2.
William Pinkerton,
Jonathan Dodge,
Samuel Crawford,
Alpheus Dodge,
Daniel Dodge,
Ebenezer Horton.
T. 9, R. 2.
Aaron Kinsman,
Silas Beckwith,
Isaac Gardner,
Truman Lewis,
John Grover,
Stephen King,
Seth Sherwood,
Jacob Howe,
Caleb Blodgett.
T. 13, R. 2.
Micajah Green,
Caleb Blodgett, Jr.
George Hoge,
Eldridge Buntley.
Nicholas Bently,
George Harper,
James Crossett,
John Harper,
David Woodworth,
Levi Nelson,
Dudley Nichols,
Joseph Chaffer,
Ezra Thomas,
Caleb Blodgett.
Robert Norton, Benjamin Graham,
Joseph Savacool,
Henry Stringer, Jr,,
Samuel Ranger, Peter Stage, Gurden Huntington, John Gould.
T. 13, R. 1.
Noah Barker, Joel Maxon.
Aaron White,
Enos Kellogg,
Ephraim Wortman,
James Clisby,
Jacob Thompson,
Joseph Carpenter,
David S. Clement,
William Wood,
James Clisby,
Jacob Thompson,
Noah Brooks,
Benjamin C. Goodrich,
Joel Munn,
Phineas Munn,
John W. Lawson,
Andrew McLean,
Ebenezer Seeley,
John Olney, Joseph Van Debogart.
T. 12, R. 2.
Newcomb Godfrey, Elijah Clark,
Richard Godfrey,
WVm. J. McCracken,
Edmund Badger,
William H. Bush,
Othniel Field,
James Post,
Caleb Blodgett,
Samnel Risey,
Elisha A. Eades,
Joshua Barrett,
Elisha Morehouse,
Thomas Godfrey,
Reuben Morse,
Ahaz Allen,
Shubac] Atkins,
Lyman Cody, Levi Atkins.
T. 10, R. 2.
Jacob Wood,
Charles M. Imus,
John Grant,
David Clark,
William Parrish,
T. 1, R. 3.
Jacob Swar,
John Young,
David Beckwith, James Sprout,
Daniel Edwards,
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HOLLAND PURCHASE.
T. 1, R. 3,
Jolin Holdrich,
Simeon Munson, Samuel Todd, Richard Frayer,
Isaac Phelps,
Ira Higgins, Daniel Church, Daniel Mckay, Reuben Clark,
James Green.
T. 4. R. 3
Robert Brooks,
Solomon Rawson, David Markham, William Markham, Orrin Upson.
T. 11, R. 3.
Amos Jones,
Joseph Fellows,
Timothy Fay,
James Cronk,
Elisha Geer,
Jonathan Fisk,
Joel Finch,
Israel Taylor.
T. 13, R. 5.
David Higgins.
T. 1, R. 6.
Rufus Jemison.
T. 9, R. 6
John Conant,
Solomon Hall,
Timothy Fuller,
Josiah Sumner,
Ira Paine,
Walter Paine,
James S. Henshaw,
James Hinds,
Levi Lewis,
Josiah Gale,
Joseph Mallery,
Oliver Pattengill,
David Pattengill,
Humphrey Smith.
T. 2, R. 4. Asabel Beach,
T. 10, R. 4.
Chauncey Loomis,
Justin Loomis. T. 12, R. 4.
John Richardson, Jariel Scott, Samuel Carr.
T. 5, R. 5.
Gabriel Larkin, David Jenkins, Pell Teed, Ira Pratt, Ebenezer Reed, James Jennings.
T. 9, R. 5.
T. 12, R. 6.
Amos Clark,
Perkins Shay,
Asahel Canfield,
Enock Lewis,
David Nettle,
Levi Felton,
Edward Carney,
David Bailey,
John More,
Samuel Green,
Rufus Earl,
Jonathan Bennet,
Henry Doney,
Justice Webster.
T. 14, R. 6.
Leander Hamlin.
T. 3, R. 7.
Benjamin Jones,
Adam Johnson,
Barnabus Weekham,
Luther Stewart,
John Wainwright, Alpheus Bascom,
William Gilmoro.
T. 8, R. 7.
Benjamin Whaley, Job Palmer,
Daniel Smith,
Jonathan Bump.
Zenus Smith, Jacob Nowkirk,
Aldridge Colvin,
Samuel Beebe,
Calvin Doolittle,
Elias Streeter, Josiah Metcalf,
Joseph Yaw,
Terrill Algur.
T. 9, R. 7.
Richard Smith, Zenus Smith, Ezekiel Smith,
Josiah Gale,
Thomas Webb, Nathan Peters, Jacob Wright, John Weaver, Eliakim Bradley, William Coltrin, Nathan Clark, Joseph Browning, Almon C. Lair, William Halladay.
T. 11, R. 7.
Seth Canfield, Enos A. Armstrong, James Harris.
T. 12, R. 7.
Emanuel Winter, Joseph Hayward, Oliver Standard, John Cunningham, Josiah Guthrie, Ebenezer Cone,
John M'Collister, Burnham Lyman, Henry William, David Clark, John Churchill, Jr. Reuben Nichols, Joseph Peters, Aaron Gale.
T. 19, R. 3.
Joseph Burlingham, Silas Call,
Elial T. Spencer,
Gardner Godfrew, Henry V. Champlin,
Joseph Flint, Henry Clark.
T. 11, R. 6.
Stepheu Morgan, Eli Carcutt,
Thomas Mansfield,
Samuel Clark, Arthur Miller,
Peter Pratt, John W. Lawson, Ezekiel Sheldon,
Luther Youngs, John Lawson, Jesse Hall, Stephen Chatfield, Joel Isbel, John Dunbar, Stiles Torrence.
James Caldwell,
Thomas Wortman, Johnson Street,
Alexander McKay,
Phinehas Stephens,
Simeon Mckay,
Martin Roar,
Abner Edwards.
T. 12, R. 5.
Aaron Beech,
Henry Rumsey,
David Carter,
Elnathan Wilcox, John Chamberlin, Alexander Little, Nahum Thompson, Jonas Blodgett,
Isaac Chaddock,
Oliver Pattengell,
Luther Adams,
Asa Cook,
James Hampton,
Stephen Kellogg,
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HISTORY OF THE
T, 12, R. 7.
T. 11, R. 8.
T. 3, R. 13,
Eli Hunt, Thomas Burger.
T. 14, R. 8.
Joseph Cowell,
Jonah Coolidge,
Joseph Howell, Sen.
Jedediah Prendergast,
Ephraim Waldo.
Charles Richards,
William Prendergast, Jr.,
T. 8, R. 8.
Joseph Tubbs,
James Burley. T. 13, R. 9.
Matthew Prendergast,
Stephen Baright,
Ezekiel Hill,
Amos Huntington,
Stephen Clifford,
Benjamin Hopkins.
Paulus Pardee,
Benjamin Hodges.
T. 14, R. 9.
Reuben Ellis,
T. 9, R. 8.
Daniel Howell.
John Putnam,
Abner Amsdell, Peter Pilky,
T. 15, R. 9.
Jonathan Barnhart,
Joseph Barnhart,
John Brown,
Asher Moore,
Heman Newton,
William McBride.
Uriah Scofield,
Henry Cheny,
Elias Scofield,
Frederick Lewis,
Abner Cooley.
Peter Hogeboom,
Sylvanus Rice,
T. 6, R. 11.
James Brown,
Matthew Blair,
Ozias Hart,
Jonathan Cheeney,
William Dean,
Justus Hinman,
Harry Ingersoll,
Daniel Smith,
Thomas Stebbins,
Henry Mott.
Abel Buck.
John E. Howard,
T. 5, R. 13.
T. 13, R. 7.
John Prior.
James Dunn,
George VanSlyke,
Eli Bradley.
T. 2, R. 12.
Nathan Fay,
T. 11 R. 8.
Daniel Ross,
T. 5, R. 12.
David Eaton.
Jasper Parrish,
Elisha Satterlee,
Daniel Cornwell,
Gideon Mosher,
William Monman,
Samuel Haskell,
Elijah Ripley,
Asa Spear,
Daniel Curtis,
David Cooley, Jr.,
Josiah Farnham,
Marshall Smith,
Reuben Edmunds.
William McBride,
Major Nobles, T. 6, R. 12,
John Ayers
John Semple,
Elisha Mann,
Augustus Skinner,
Benjamin Hodges,
George Patterson,
Benjamin Hutchins,
Addison Stewart,
Thomas Clump,
Samuel Sturgeon,
Ephraim Pease, Daniel S. Cole.
William Crossgrove.
The survey of the town plat of Batavia village having been made in 1800-or it having been designated as the future site of the land office, and some lots platted-in 1801, the three persons named in the list, took contracts for lots. Rowe was the first tav- ern-keeper in Batavia; his location was nearly opposite the present land office, but afterwards changed, Mr. Ellicott making his five hundred acre reservation there. He became the founder of the "Keyes' stand." Under the administration, first of Rowe, and afterwards of Wm. Keyes, this stand was well known in all early times. It was the home of the early settler, when he had business at the land office; about its yard used to be seen the huge covered
Peter Kain,
Joseph Wells,
Philo Orton,
Daniel Redfield.
T. 3, R. 15.
John Lyon,
John Cass,
Jared Goodrich,
Anna Bell,
T. 6, R. 10.
Robert Tupper,
Peter Ripson,
Philo Taylor,
Benjamin Tubbs,
Aaron Dennis,
Elizabeth Prendergast,
Susannah Whiteside,
Lewis Harris,
James Prendergast,
Marlen Prendergast,
John Griffith, William Molyneux, John Freeman,
David Marshall,
Thomas Harman. Joseph Hersey. T. 14, R. 7.
Isaac Young,
William Bemus.
Elisha Fay,
Philip Osborne,
465
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
wagons that transported goods from Albany to Buffalo, and in the war of 1812 it was often the head quarters of the officers of the army. It was the tavern of early days. How changed! "Eagles," "Genesee Houses," and " Americans," overshadow it; the sign of a worthy mechanic "H. Naramor," swings in front of the venerable pioneer tavern.
Russell was the founder of the site of the present Genesee House; was the next tavern-keeper after Rowe. His wife, the early landlady, now Mrs. Gibbs, is with her husband, among the Mormons, in the gold regions of California! M'Cracken was a physician; the first upon the purchase; enjoyed for a long period an extended practice; he died in Rochester a few years since. Four or five of this name, brothers, were early settlers at Batavia. The names of most of the settlers of 1801 are familiar to early residents. They formed the nucleuses of early settlements; the Buffalo road being at this period the only road, except Indian trails. they were scattered along almost its entire length upon the Purchase. Their log houses-their rude, imperfect accommodations, were lux- uries in those primitive times; havens of rest and comfort for the weary emigrant and his family, and the land explorer.
In the month of February, 1802, Mr. Ellicott employed John Lamberton and Mayo, to cut out the road through the village of Batavia. About this period he informed Dudley Salton- stall, Esq., that the Company were prepared to loan money to actual settlers, " who would erect saw-mills, &c."
In the winter of 1802, Mr. Ellicott spent a considerable time in Albany, " lobbying," as such visits to our state capital were after- wards termed; his paramount business being the project of a new county. This was consummated, but not without opposition. Mr. James Wadsworth had a counter project. It contemplated the erection of a county embracing all the territory west of a north and south line, which would cross the main road about midway between the Genesee river and Canandaigua; and the making of Hartford (Avon) the county site. Mr. Ellicott attributed his suc- cess to the absence of Mr. Wadsworth from Albany just at the time the subject came up for a final decision. He concluded that if he had been there, his "plausibility and address" would have occasioned him much trouble; and especially as his proposed territory con- tained enough inhabitants to immediately organize as a county.
In the month of July, 1802, an occurrence took place at New
30
466
HISTORY OF THE
Amsterdam, which was well calculated to create excitement anu alarm among the few scattered and defenceless inhabitants. The inkeeper, Joseph Palmer, was sitting in the evening near his house, in company with William Ward and Joseph Keeler. An Indian from the Seneca village, approached them, and drawing a knife, made an ineffectual attempt to stab Palmer. He then turned upon Ward, and stabbed him in the neck. An alarm spread which soon drew together the few white inhabitants. In the attempt to secure the assassin, he stabbed John Hewitt in the breast, and in two other parts of the body, killing him almost instantly. The Indian was secured, and taken during the night to Fort Niagara, and lodged in safe custody. The next day a band of forty or fifty warriors appeared in the settlement, armed with rifles, tomahawks, and knives, threatening if the Indian was executed, they would put all the white inhabitants to death. Finding where some of the blood of the Indian had been spilled in securing him, the armed warriors howled over it in a manner to create dismay and consternation among the inhabitants, many of whom fled from the settlement.
The circumstance created additional alarm, from the facts, that there was no personal provocation on the part of the three citizens attacked, and the Indian was sober .* The inference drawn by the defenceless inhabitants, was, that the attack was premeditated and concerted, and was the preliminary step to a general war upon the new settlers. Mingled with all this were jealousies that influences in Canada were operating upon the Indians.
The few white inhabitants at New Amsterdam drew up and signed a petition to Gov. George Clinton, soliciting his influence with the general government to secure a small garrison of troops, at the " village of Buffalo creek, alias. New Amsterdam;" Mr. Ellicott interesting himself zealously in the measure; surveyors and settlers throughout the Purchase co-operating. The petition set forth that the Seneca Indians had on other occasions manifested an unfriendly spirit.
The new county obtained, and the site of its public buildings determined upon, Mr. Ellicott soon gave his attention to the secur- ing of a Post Office. Mr. Seth Pease, one of his surveyors, was a brother-in-law of Mr. Granger, the then Post Master General. Taking advantage of a visit he made to Washington, he secured
* The Indian was the one named in the biography of Major Barton. The friend who furnished the data of that biography to the author, was mistaken in supposing that the murder occurred in a drunken frolic.
467
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
his influence, and made him the bearer of an application. In his letter to the Post Master General, he confesses that but little rev- enue can be expected from the proposed office, but he gives him an elaborate description of the country, its condition, prospects; and informs him that Avon is the nearest Post-office to the new county site. The application was granted; Mr. James Brisbane being appointed Post Master.
In 1802, Alexander Rhea and Lewis Disbrow, it will be observed, took lands south of the Buffalo road. Mr. Rhea became the founder of the village of Alexander; erected a saw-mill there in 1804; he was an early surveyor of the Company, from Pennsyl- vania. His wife was a sister of Horatio and John H. Jones. Although Mr. Rhea took the first contract of land there, William Blackman was the pioneer settler of the town. He raised the first corn and the first wheat. A child of his was the first born in the town. Lewis Disbrow was the pioneer settler of Bethany. Rhea, Blackman and Disbrow were the pioneers of all the Holland Pur- chase south of the Buffalo road. The four settlers noted in T. 10, R. I, were, the same year, the pioneers farther south, in what is. now Middlebury.
Gideon Dunham, the pioneer who gave the name to the beautiful" grove on the Batavia and Lockport road, died a few years since, at an advanced age. His son, Col. Shubael Dunham, died last fall. after an illness of several years. He had been a member of the State Legisture and a Presidential Elector. Previous to his decease the author obtained from him some of his recollections of early times. His father, it will be observed, was a settler in 1801. The road was cut out from Batavia to the Openings in that year. The road as first traveled was laid on the banks of the Tonawanda, to a point near the western side of the farm of William H. Bush. where it bore off passing through the back part of the farm of Isaac Sutherland, coming out on the present Lewiston road on the farm of Peter Lewis. Aaron White, who was a settler in 1801, was a Captain of militia in the war of 1812, and was killed at the battle of Black Rock on the morning Buffalo was burned.
Among the early settlers in Elba, was Patrick O'Fling. In 1813 the old gentleman, with three sons and a son-in-law, enlisted in the army. At Fort George, in 1813, Gen. Dearborn had his attention attracted by the soldier-like bearing of the old man, and asked him where he had seen service. He replied, "in the Revolution, under
468
HISTORY OF THE
Captain Dearborn." A recognition followed, and Gen. Dearborr. took so much interest in the family of soldiers, that, through him. two sons obtained commissions of Lieutenant in the army, and another was admitted as a cadet at West Point. One of the sons was killed at the sortie of Fort Erie.
Col. Dunham said that in early years the speckled trout were abundant in all the small streams in that region. In 1804, he went with a party of the new settlers to attack a den of rattlesnakes at the Falls of the Tonawanda. It was in the spring-the snakes lay upon the rocks in coils, or bunches, as large in some instances as a bushel basket; there were hundreds of them. The party killed them by scores; it seemed to thin them out; but few were observed in that region afterwards.
For four or five years after settlement commenced, salt was made at a salt spring on the Reservation.
And here in the reminiscences of this primitive period, occurs the name of one who, if he did not follow as useful an employment as the keeping of a house of public entertainment, made himself as well known. Russell Noble! At the bare mention of his name, there are surviving Pioneers, who will be reminded of their younger days, and their enjoyments; and, if there is "music in their souls,"-as there was wont to be with most of them,- they will almost fancy they hear the notes of his old violin! A fiddler was no obscure person in those early days; and Noble had no competitor-for he was the pioneer fiddler ;- he and his old violin inark the advent of music upon the Holland Purchase. Compared with his,
" Italian (rills were tame."
In those primitive times, in sleigh, or (ox-sled) rides, at recreations that followed log-house raisings, logging bees, road cuttings; at Christmas and New Years frolics; far and wide, in the early sparse settlements,-Noble and his fiddle, formed an accustomed and necessary part. It was to be hoped that his reputation as a fiddler would have remained unquestioned; but recently, a facetious gath- erer up of reminiscences has ventured to slur it, by intimating that he used to have no more "regard for time than he had for eternity."
The old fiddler still lives; and it was only last winter, that he was an occasional guest at the houses of surviving Pioneers-strip- ping the same old green bag from the same old fiddle, and reminding his auditors of early days.
469
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
Captain Samuel F. Geer, now of Medina, Orleans county, came to Batavia as early as 1802. Mr. Ellicott had erected the saw mill and got it in operation. Capt. Geer, assisted by Maj. Sutherland, built the Court House at Batavia in 1802, and the grist mill in 1803. Capt. Geer built a saw mill at Medina as early as 1805; and in the same year, a building for the salt works, a mile and a half below Medina. Mr. Ellicott rented the works, and they soon run down.
The author will here introduce some narratives of early settlers, which will enable the reader to get a more distinct view of carly events-the commencement and progress of settlement-than could be obtained in any other form. They consist chicfly of notes taken by him in conversations with the early pioneers.
A surviving son of the pioneer Jedediah Darling, has given the author some account of early times in Niagara. His father moved in in August, 1803; and died but a few weeks after, while returning from a visit to the land office; the sons were, therefore, principally identified with pioneer settlement. The Darling family took the first lands in all the region north of the Tonawanda Swamp, but were not the first settlers at the Cold Springs. Adam Strouse, a brother-in-law of the Howells, who had first lived at Lewiston, and had made the first commencement at Howell's Creek, had erected a shanty at the Cold Springs in the winter of 1802. The permis- sion was granted at the instance of Stephen Bates, Esq., of Canandaigua, the then mail contractor from Canandaigua to Fort Niagara. In his application to Mr. Ellicott, Mr. Bates is desirous that a fire should be kept there at least, that his mail carrier could have some place to warm his fingers.
John Young settled on Oak Orchard road near Pine Hill, in 1804. He took the first deed ever given by the Holland Conpany. From his aged widow, now a resident of Batavia, with her son Brannan Young, Esq., the author derived the following narrative :-
My husband having the year before been out and purchased his land upon the Holland Purchase, in the fall of 1804, we started from our home in Virginia on horseback, for our new location. We came through Maryland, crossing the Susquehanna at Milton; thence via Tioga Point, and the then usual route.
In crossing the Allegany mountains, night came upon us. the horses became frightened by wild beasts and refused to procced. We wrapped ourselves in our cloaks and horse blankets, and at- tempted to get some rest, but had a disturbed night of it. Panthers came near us, often giving terrific screams; the frightened horses
470
HISTORY OF THE
snorted and stamped upon the rocks. Taking an carly start in the morning, we soon came to a settler's house, and were informed that we had stopped in a common resort of the panther.
Arriving at our destination, a family by the name of Clark, had preceded us in the neighborhood. Myself and husband, and the family named, were the first settlers on the Oak Orchard road,- or in fact, north of Batavia. Mr. Clark was kind enough to give us a shelter for a few days until my husband built a shanty. It was about ten feet square, flat roofed, covered with split ash shin- gles; the floor was made of the halves of split basswood; no chim- ney; a blanket answered the purpose of a door for a while, until my husband got time to make a door of split plank. We needed no window; the light came in where the smoke went out. So much for the shanty, and now for the furniture :- For chairs, we had benches made by splitting logs, and setting the sections upon legs. A bedstead was made by boring holes in the side of the shanty. inserting pieces of timber, which rested upon two upright posts in front; a side piece completing the structure; pealed basswood bark, answering the place of a cord. We of course had brought no bed with us on horseback, so one had to be procured. We bought a cotton bag of Mr. Brisbane, and stuffing it with cat-tail, it was far better than no bed. Buying a little iron ware, crockery, and a few knives and forks, we were soon under way, house, or shanty keeping.
We got our flour and meal the first year at Caledonia. The second year we were in, I had an attack of the fever and ague. which confined me for nearly a year. That year my husband cleared four acres; besides taking care of me, and doing the cook- ing. It was no uncommon thing, in the first years of settlement, for women in child birth to be deprived of the aid of a physician, and often, the attendance of their own sex had to be dispensed with. Mr. Young died in 1836.
The old lady is 75 years old; enjoying a contented old age, cheerful, and even humorous in some of her descriptions of early pioneer life.
Mrs. Anna Foster, wife of Eden Foster Esq. of Batavia, was the daughter of Jonah Spencer, who was a resident upon the Genesee river as early as 1791. She has given us an interesting narrative of events in that region at an early period, the prelimi- mary portion of which we are under the necessity of omitting. In 1796 she was the wife of Moody Stone. and resided at Palmyra Wayne county :-
In the year 1796, I went with my husband to visit a brother-in- law, (Zenas Bigelow, Jr.) west of the Genesce river. We went
471
HOLLAND PURCHASE.
by the way of Irondequoit; Dunbar kept a tavern there; forded the Genesee river above the Falls; there was but one house in Rochester, and that was occupied by Col. Fish. I remember, hearing my sister Mrs. Bigelow, say that she was present at the mouth of the river when the first schooner was launched, in 1798.
In February, 1805, we settled upon a farm near Batavia. There was then inhabitants enough to make an agreeable neighborhood; [Here she enumerates the names of the settlers, most of which are inserted in our preceding list.] We used to have ox-sled rides, occasionally it would be out to uncle Gid Dunham's, where we used to avail ourselves of the services of the left handed fiddler, Russel Noble. Some of our earliest parties, were got up by first designa- ting the log house of some settler, and cach one contributing to the entertainment; one would carry some flour, another some sugar, another some eggs, another some butter, and so on; the aggregate making up a rustic feast. These parties would alternate from house to house. Frolics in the evening, would uniformly attend husking bees, raisings, quiltings, and pumpkin pearings. All were social, friendly, obliging-there was little of aristocracy in those primitive days.
The first general training west of the river was in 1706 or '7, it was north of Caledonia; Col. Atchinson was officer of the day; the next was at Alexander, in 1808; Col. Rumsey officer of the day.
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