USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 50
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The narrator of these early events, who has witnessed almost the entire progress of settlement upon the Holland Purchase, is now but sixty-one years of age-young enough and vigorous enough to assist in the settlement of another new country. He has been deputy sheriff and sheriff of Genesee county; in the war'of 1812, he was first sergeant in Capt. Seth Gates' company of Grenadiers. He was made a prisoner at the battle of Queenston. His brother
man was enterprising, persevering, as any one that ever penetrated that rough, wild region; droll and eccentric. Who of the early mill boys of all that region, does not remember the old man, his "by Gosh," and " by Golden," the rusty horse shoes nailed upon his mill wheel to keep off the witches? He was an early magistrate; many are the anecdotes told of the carly marriages he performed. In 1807, he got injured by the fall of a tree; a splinter striking him in the forehead. When the wound was healed, there was a depression large enough to admit the half of an ordinary hen's egg. Although it was attended with a partial loss of faculties, he survived many years. With all of his eccentricities, he was in early times, a good helper in the work of set- tlement and improvement; possessed of many excellent qualities.
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Joseph, was an early magistrate in Attica; held various military offices up to the grade of colonel. He died in 1836.
The town of Sheldon, Townships 9, Ranges 3 and 4, was pur- chased of Holland Company, in 1803, by Oliver Phelps and Lemuel Chipman. Judge Chipman, with his brother Silas, it will have been seen, were settlers in Pittstown, Ontario county, as early as 1794. They were both physicians from Vermont; brothers of the Hon. Nathaniel Chipman of Middlebury. Lemuel Chipman had been a surgeon in the army of the Revolution. The two brothers were some of the best of the early pioneer stock. Lemuel was for a long period one of the prominent men of Western New York; was a member of the legislature, and one of the Judges of Ontario county. He died in Sheldon, ten or twelve years since. His sons were, Fitch, Lemuel, and Samuel; the last of whom is well known as an early laborer in the temperance cause. Mrs. Guy H. Salisbury of Buffalo, is a daughter of Lemuel. Fitch Chipman, formerly a member of the Legislature from Genesce, whose wife was of the widely known family of Spaffords of Vermont, is still a resident of Sheldon. Dr. Silas Chipman emigrated to Michigan; was one of the earliest settlers at Pontiac.
The purchase of Phelps and Chipman having been perfected, in the summer of 1803, Elijah Warner, a surveyor, was employed to survey the land into farm lots. His assistants were, Roswell Turner, (father of the author,) Joseph Sears, and Tabor Earl. While out, a supply of provisions failed to reach them, and the party were five days without food, except the fish that they caught. wild berries, and roots. Attempting to make their way out of the woods, when nearly exhausted-some of them in fact unable to proceed any farther-they were met by Judge Chipman with a plentiful supply of provisions.
Roswell Turner, having been appointed the agent of Phelps and ' Chipman, moved upon their land in the month of March, 1804; thus becoming the pioneer settler in all the region now constituting the northwestern portion of Wyoming and southern portion of Erie counties. The first winter was one of severe trials and hardships; the snow was deep, and he had sixteen head of cattle to winter, principally upon browse. At times the deep snow would preven? cattle getting into the woods, and the browse would have to be cut and carried to them in bags. Provisions, and some grain for cattle, had to be brought in from Honeoye and the Genesee river. Upon
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one occasion, during the winter, he started from the Genesee river with a load upon an ox sled, and went back to stay the first and second nights. Progressing as far as he could through the deep snow, breaking his road as he went along, when night came he would go back with his oxen, leaving his load, and return in the morning and renew his slow journey. The snow was two and a half and three feet deep, and no track before him. He was five days making the journey from Genesee river to Sheldon -distance about twenty-five miles. In the winter previous to this, he was preceding his family with a load of provisions, and in fording Allan's creek below the present village of Warsaw, had his feet badly frozen. He found his way to the shanty of the early pioneer Morris, and eventually had to be taken back to Honeoye on his ox sled.
There came in, the first winter, Joseph Sears and family; they did not, however, become actual settlers. Robert Carr and David Hoard were the next settlers, or rather the first named; Hoard died while he was out looking at the country; his was the first death and funeral upon Phelps and Chipman's Purchase. His family came in and occupied the land he had selected. In 1806, the settlers in Sheldon, beside those named, were Deacon Seth Gates, Lemuel Castle, Levi Street, Marvin Brace, Stephen Welton, and Orange Brace. In 1805 and '6, emigration was brisk in that quarter; settlers were pushing on to Willink, Hamburgh and Eigh- teen Mile Creek. Roswell Turner soon opened a log cabin house of entertainment for the emigrants. It is remembered that, in addition to the stock of provisions he carried in with him, he brought from over the river, the first two winters after, twenty loads of provisions, principally for the supply of new settlers. His house was the home of the earliest class of pioneers. Young men would push on beyond him, build shanties, keep bachelors' hall, and when they were tired of the woods, make a visit to "the settlement;" get their clothes mended, perhaps, or their bread baked. The humble log house that he erected upon the four corners-now called North Sheldon-is a land-mark in the recol- lections of the early settlers of Wyoming, south part of Erie, and a part of Cattaragus and Chautauque. With the exception of a child of Joseph Sears. who is mentioned as having remained but a short time in Sheldon; a son of Roswell Turner, (Chipman Phelps Turner, of Black Rock, Erie county.) was the first born in all the
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western portion of Wyoming county. His name was derived from the land owners. Another son of his-the late Judge Horace S. Turner, of Aurora, Erie County,-had been, at the period of his death, longer a resident of that portion of the Purchase named in connection with the advent of his father, than any male survivor. Mrs. Farnum, of Bennington, a daughter of Roswell Turner, is now the oldest resident of the territory named.
The early pioneer settler died in 1809.
Marked, as were hundreds of the Pioneer advents upon the Holland Purchase, with extraordinary privations and endurances, perhaps there were none more so than his. It is a wild, rough region, even now. The reader who may have passed over it, ean realize in some degree what it must have been when penetrated by the first settlers.
The first school in Sheldon, was in a log house, erected by Roswell Turner, where Elihu Parson's tavern now stands; the first religious meetings were held at the house of Roswell Turner; the first ministers who were in that region, were Elders Butler and Throop, and father Spencer. The first physician in Sheldon, was John Rolph, after him Benjamin Potter (father of Dr. Potter of Colesville, and Dr. Potter of Varysburgh.) Dr. Ziba Hamilton came in, in 1809. He is now nearly 80 years old, and practising yet, occasionally. He is presumed to be the oldest living resident physician upon the Holland Purchase; his has been a long life, and one of more than ordinary usefulness. For forty years, he has been in one location, the kind and skilful physician, and the useful citizen.
Who of the early residents, does not remember Levi. Street ! Commencing at an early period, he carried the mail on the route from Canandaigua through Geneseo, Warsaw and Sheldon, to lake Erie. He was the carrier through all that region, for many vears, of the Ontario Repository, Ontario Messenger, and Moscow Advertiser. He removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he met the singular fate of death from hydrophobia, caused by the bite of a horse.
Deacon Seth Gates, (father of Hon. Seth M. Gates of Warsaw,) it will be observed, was an early settler. He assisted prominently in the organization of the first church in Sheldon, and was an exemplary and useful citizen. He died, a few years since in Warsaw, where his aged widow resides with her children. Some
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notice of the family of Orange Braec, will be found in connection with the war of 1812. The early physician, Dr. Rolph, was a highly educated man, but singular and eccentric. He chose a residence where he and his family were in a great measure excluded from the little society there was in carly times. His wife was the sister of the poet Selleck Osborn.
In addition to the carly pioncer settlers of Sheldon, already named, there were Joshua Gates, Lodowick Thomas, Benjamin Joslyn, the Godfreys, Grinnel, Uriah Persons and his sons, Uriah, David, Joseph. John, William, Robert, Charles, Hiram, Henry, Elihu, and two younger ones-twelve, all told; Hubbard Fitch, Simeon Hoard, the Weltons, Joel Harris, Edward Brace, - Feagles, - Woodruff, Robert Waters, - Frink, Sher- mans, Jared and Roswell Barber, John Sutherland, and a few others whose names are not recollected.
But few of the old inhabitants of Sheldon are left there. Em- igration and death, have perhaps thinned their ranks in a greater degree, than in any other early settlement upon the Purchase. Over one half of the whole town, has been purchased within a few years by foreign emigrants; principally Germans.
At an carly period, bears, wolves, wild-cats and foxes, preved upon the sheep, hogs and fowls of the new settlers. Sheep in all cases, had to be folded nights. There used to be a large bounty for wolves: some of the new settlers made a profitable business of trapping them. In cold winters, when snow was deep, the wolves would get hungry and ravenous. There were seve- ral instances of their obliging men to climb trees to avoid them. Bears would come and take hogs within a few rods of the dwellings. Deer were abundant. The hills and valleys of Wyo- ming, were favorite camping and hunting grounds for the Indians long after white settlement commenced. In periods of deep snows and crusts, the deer were easily taken; hundreds were knocked in head,-for several winters, for their pelts alone, the meat being too poor to eat; or if not too poor, the meat would be so flavored with hemlock, (the principal food of the deer in times of deep snow,) as to be unpalatable. In carly times, there would once in a while, an elk stray into the neighborhood, from the regions of the Allegany. The trapping of martin, was very com- mon with the young men in winters. Trout were plenty in all the streams.
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Chauncey Loomis was the founder of settlement in Bennington. In 1805, he purchased for himself, his mother, his brother-in-law P. Case, his brother Justin, and Jonah Barber, T. 10, Ranges 3 and 4. Bennington was previous to 1818, included in Sheldon; the family name of old Mrs. Loomis, was Sheldon. Chauncey Loomis came on with his mother in July, 1806. There came with him beside, Pelatiah Case, Ezra Ludden, Aaron and Adolphus Clapp, with their families; Joseph Farnum, George Loomis, Nathan Clapp. Justin Loomis had come in the winter previous, built a log house and kept bachelor's hall. This was the first tenement erected in Ben- nington. Several log houses were erected in the summer of 1807. In that year, Chauncey Loomis erected a saw mill. It was built by Ezekiel Hall, the afterwards widely known landlord-now the keeper of the Eagle tavern, Batavia. In raising a barn for Chaun- cey Loomis, the first summer, Mr. Hall remembers that it took all the able men in a circuit of ten miles, which included of course, the then considerable settlement in what is now Sheldon. In 1808 and '9, Roger Rowley, George Hoskins, Joab Rockwell, Joseph and Walter Burnham, came into Loomis' settlement. Jonah Barber, who was interested in the land purchase, came on and pre- pared to erect a log house; returned to Connecticut, and in com- ing again into the country, was taken sick and died in Bloomfield.
Chauncey Loomis, for Holland Company, in 1808, cut out the road from Bennington through Indian Reservation, coming out upon Willink road a half mile above Red Jacket's wigwam. The first team that passed through on that road was a wagon and three yoke of oxen, going to Buffalo for salt. It was three days in get- ting to Buffalo. The teamsters were Lester Brace, (late sheriff of Erie county,) Joseph Farnum and Levi Street. The Allegany road from Bennington to Sheldon was cut out in 1807; next year, was continued north to South Buffalo road. In 1808 a road was opened from Bennington to Attica.
The first physician in Bennington was Salmon King; the next, Ira Cross. The first school was organized in 1810; Webster Parsons, Griswold Palmer, George Loomis, Avis Stickney, Seth Pomeroy, Rhodema Durgee and Affa Case, were early teachers. The Baptist church in Bennington was the second church organized ยท upon the Purchase; old Mrs. Loomis made it a donation of one thousand dollars. Elder Herrick was the first settled minister in Bennington. The first born in town was a daughter of Adolphus
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Clapp; the first death, that of an infant daughter of Joseph Farnum. The first religious meeting held in Bennington was in the fall of 1807-Elder Peter B. Root officiating. The first merchants in town, were Joseph Farnum and Roswell King. Joseph Farnum opened the first tavern.
In 1810, Chauncey Loomis married Rachel Evans, a niece of Joseph Ellicott. He was elected a State Senator, and died in Albany in 1817, leaving no children. Mrs. Loomis became a resi- dent of Buffalo, where she died a few years since, lamented at least by her old backwoods neighbors, who remembered her many amiable qualities. Justin Loomis, who married a daughter of Dr. Rolph, of Sheldon. is still living, but has been partially insane for many years.
THE LOST BOY.
Among the early events, which will long be remembered, in the region of which we have been speaking, was that of the Lost Boy. David Tolles was a settler on the road between Loomis' settlement and Attica as carly as 1806. In July of that year, he had a small patch cleared and sowed to oats, not fenced; the cattle would come out of the woods, and get upon the oat field. A boy, eight or nine years old, a son of Mr. Tolles, was set to watch and keep them off. Just before sun set, he drove the cattle back into the woods, and did not return. That night some few of the immediate neighbors searched for him, and the next day the alarm was spread through- out the whole country. None but those who have witnessed the lively sympathies that exist among backwoods pioneers, can imagine the prompt gathering and faithful search that commenced. The new settlers came in from all directions, organized in companies, and scoured the wilderness. The third day, a party of Indians came from the Buffalo Reservation, and joined in the search. The force collected had to be supplied with provisions; the settlers fur- nished them to the extent of their means; Mr. Ellicott sent a load from Batavia; and Jabez Warren, who had provisions stored at Roswell Turner's, in Sheldon, ordered them to be served out in rations. The search was continued for a week by the whites; the Indians were hired to continue it longer. But it was all unavailing; the fate of the Lost Boy is unknown to this day.
The second day of the search one party found his tracks: the
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third day, another party found where he had gathered hemlock bows, and slept; on the fourth day, a party discovered where he had been in a creek, washing some roots. His foot prints upon the rocks were so recent that the water was not dried off; the water of the running stream was yet riled. He had probably fled at the approach of the party. This was the last trace of him discovered.
How much greater the affliction to the parents, than if they could have known the fate of their child! Long years followed of hopes revived from time to time, only to be crushed. The father became a wanderer in search of the Lost Boy. Rumors. cruel to him, would get afloat, that a wild boy had been found in Pennsylvania, or perhaps Ohio; and he would start out on foot, on a pilgrimage of paternal affection. Returning, while attempting to be reconciled to the bereavement, a rumor would reach him, per- haps that his child was among some of the Western Indians; and another long journey would be made.
There are few old settlers who do not remember the Lost Boy, and the intense excitement it created throughout the then thinly settled region.
James M'Kain, the father of James M'Kain, Jr. of Lockport, was a resident of Batavia as early as 1802. In 1804 he opened the first tavern upon the present site of the American. The old gentleman died in Lockport a few years since. The son relates many adventures of early days; especially descriptive of the woods road he used to travel between Ganson's and Batavia, bringing in provisions from Canandaigua on horse back. In the early years the woods road could only be traveled on foot and horse back, when there was no snow upon the ground; the trans- portation was mostly done by sleighing.
Capt. John Ganson came from Bennington, Vermont, and settled on the Genesee river in the year 1790 or '91. He had accompanied Sullivan's expedition. His first location was on the river, two miles below Avon; his title there proving bad, he purchased land on the Canandaigua road, four miles east of Avon. In the year 1798, he pushed on into the wilderness, and located a little east of Allan's creek, (LeRoy,) becoming the well known pioneer tavern-keeper west of the Genesee river. Charles Wilbur had preceded him, and built a small framed house. He bought him out.
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Mrs. Warren, (formerly Mrs. Forsyth,) now residing on Ridge road, in Cambria, is a daughter of Capt. Ganson. Few have seen more of pioneer life-and that, principally, upon the Holland Purchase. She has obligingly given the author some interesting reminiscences of early times :--
Soon after my father had come on west of the river, and opened a public house, other settlers began to come in. There was nothing on the road to Batavia, until Mr. Ellicott's surveyors made their head quarters at Stafford. The Indians were frequent visitors at my fathers. I used to see them often, the chiefs, Hot Bread, Jack Berry, Red Jacket, and Little Beard. Sometimes the Indians were turbulent; they would become a terror to the new settlers. My father was a stout athletic man; had great influence over them; would quell them in their worst drunken frolics.
In 1802, having become the wife of John Forsyth, (a brother of Wm. Forsyth, the well known landlord of the Pavilion, at Niagara Falls,) we settled five miles west of Batavia, near Dunham's grove. Remaining there until 1807, we moved upon the spot where I now reside. When we came here, there were but three or four settlers between Dunham's grove and Lockport. East, there was no settler till we passed the Eleven Mile woods. Our nearest neighbor west, was Joseph Hewett, at Howell's creek.
In 1808, the Ridge road was laid out by General Rhea, Elias Ransom, and Charles Harford. I remember well the arrival of the surveyors; their delight at finding a bed to sleep in, and something to eat that was cooked by a female. Previous to this there had been nothing but an Indian path through the low grounds, west of Wright's Corners.
We brought in a few sheep with us, I think they were the only ones in the neighborhood; they became the especial object of the wolves. Coming out of the Wilson swamp nights, their howling would be terrific. Two years after we came in, I was alone with my then small children one day, when I heard the sheep bleating and running, and went out to see what the matter was. A large wolf had badly wounded a sheep. As I approached him he left the sheep and walked off snarling at me as if reluctant to quit his prey. I went for my nearest neighbor, Mr. Stoughton to get him to come and dress the sheep. It was three fourths of a mile through the woods. On my way a large grey fox crossed the road ahead of me. Returning with my neighbor, a large bear slowly crossed the road in sight of us. I could tell many stories of wild beasts in this region; but I think I never saw as much of them in any one day, before or since. We had no way to keep fowls, but to secure them well in their roosting places. The first settlers found it very difficult to keep hogs; the bears would even come out of the woods and take them by daylight.
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Asahel Sage, Esq. of Lewiston, a surviving early settler, gave the author the benefit of his recollections of early times :-
I moved upon the farm in Lewiston, where I now reside in 1807. John Gould, - - Bragbill, - - Smith, were then settled on first tier of lots back of mile strip; no other settler farther east upon the mountain. Sanders, Doty, Goodwin, Webster, Hawley, were the pioneer settlers in Sander's settlement. Jarius Rosc, De. Foe, Springsteen, the Carneys, went in west of Pekin after the war. The Reynolds and Carneys were the first settlers at Pekin. Beamer, Wilson, Bridge, Dr. Orton, Bliss, Earls, were among the earliest settlers between ridge and mountain, west of Scott's.
From some old store bills, that Col. Sage has preserved, the author has extracted some prices. In 1811, trading at a store in Lewiston, he is charged 5s. 6d. for cotton shirting; for " Hum Hum," 3s. 9d. per yard; In 1813, he is charged for muslin, 5s. per yard; for a pound of tea, 12s .; for coffee, 3s. per lb .; for sugar, the same; for a hat $8,00; for a plug of tobacco, 2s .; for nails, 2s. per lb .; for powder, 8s. per lb.
The reader will have observed that the narrative of Judge Porter was arrested about the period of his becoming a resident of the Holland Purchase, in 1806. He gave the author many remin- iscences of early times in this region; many of them have already been included in portions of the work derived from other sources. From memorandums taken in conversation with him the following reminiscences are principally derived :-
The Judge moved from Canandaigua to the Falls, in June of the year already named. After the fashion of emigrants in those days, he was his own teamster; coming to his new home with whip and reins in hand, his family, consisting then of his wife and three sons, constituting his freight. He was four days making the journey; and that in favorable weather. The Portage company, consisting of himself, his brother Peter B. Porter, Benjamin Barton, Jr. and Joseph Annin, had in February, of the year previous, leased of the State, the Portage and Stedman Farm at Schlosser ;* and at the same time, the company had bought of the State, lots 1, 2, 3, and 4, of Mile Strip, which included the Falls on the American side, extending three fourths of a mile below
* The lease was for the term of twelve years; on its expiration in 1816, it was extended four years, in consideration of the interruption that had been occasioned by the war.
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them, and half a mile above. They had erected a saw mill the same year of the purchase.
Judge Porter took possession of the Stedman house, for his residence. It was a substantial framed building; besides this, there were at Schlosser, several dilapidated log buildings. All that was left of the old English fort, were the entrenchments; several pickets, and the ruins of some framed and log buildings that had been used as barracks. During English occupancy, Stedman had built a saw mill on the rapids, where a woolen factory now stands .* At Schlosser there was an old apple orchard, a hundred trees or more, and several peach, pear, and plum trees.
In 1806, and up to the period of the war, water fowl were abundant at the Falls. Large flocks of geese and swans would make their appearance generally in September, and remain until the fore part of winter. But few came during or after the war. It is supposed that the firing of cannon and muskets, scared them away. The eagle used to nest about the Falls in early years of settlement. The Judge accounts for the fact that ducks often go over the Falls, (which has had so many different versions,) in this way :- In still dark nights, sitting upon the water in the wake of Grass Island, they fall asleep, and float into the rapid water, where they cannot rise upon the wing. Sometimes they have encountered this fate in large numbers. After being disabled by the descent over the Falls, they are easily taken below.
The rattle snake existed in great numbers at the Falls in an early day. At the whirlpool was a large den of them; they were of uncommon size. Above the Falls, between Sclosser and Gill creek, there used to be large colonies of an entire different species; they were small, not exceeding twelve or sixteen inches in length. It is a singlar fact, that the rattle snake was never known to approach Niagara Falls, within a distance of from a half to three-fourths of a mile.t They were so numerous at one time, at their principal den below the Falls, that the Tuscarora Indians could not safely
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