USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 51
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* There was a year or two since, if there is not now, a stick of oak timber, that was taken from the ruins of this mill perfectly sound. The mill it is supposed, was built previous to 1763. When Judge Porter went to Schlosser, there were in a fence some chestnut rails that then appeared very old. The same rails are now in his fences there, perfectly sound.
t The Judge attributes this to the trembling of the earth for that distance. Open a penknife, stick the point into a tree near the Falls, and a tremulous motion of the handle will be observed.
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occupy a favorite fishing ground there. They extirpated them in great numbers, by setting fire to the dry leaves- burning over the steep bank, about the time they were crawling out for their summer excursions. On another occasion, as related by Messrs. Fairbanks and Gould, the white inhabitants collected and made war upon them; over five hundred were destoyed in one day. In this way, with the help of the hogs, that would hunt and devour them, they were gradually extirpated.
Judge Porter names some facts in connexion with the rattle snake that may be interesting to naturalists :- They never strike except in self-defence; they will always first endeavor to retreat. He has taken the head off of one, opened the jaws with a stick, and observed a drop of fluid, resembling milk and water, exuding from each fang. It seemed to be the effort of the head to do its work of mischief after it was separated from the body. The body, after the head is off, when touched, will coil and make an impotent attempt to strike.
In the first few years after Judge Porter went to the Falls, the visitors were but few; there was no tavern upon this side. Upon the opposite side, William Forsyth had opened a house. The visit- ing upon this side, to any considerable extent, commenced with the completion of the bridge to Goat Island.
In the spring of 1807 -- all Niagara being in the town of Buffalo -Judge Porter and Robert Lee, Esq. attended town meeting at Buffalo, to get some path masters elected.
In 1806, the inhabitants along the frontier, in Niagara, were, besides Judge Porterat Schlosser, Jesse Ware, Wm. Miller, Stephen Hopkins, William Howell, Joshua Fairbanks, Philemon Baldwin, Joseph Howell, Isaac Colt, Erastus Parks, James Murray, between Falls and Lewiston; Isaac Swain lived on military road. At Lew- iston there were, Capt. Lemuel Cook, Thomas Hustler, John Beach, Solomon Gillett. Between Falls and Black Rock, there was only " Big Smith," at Cayuga creek.
In 1806, the Portage Company built a mill of two run of stones, at the Falls. To raise the mill, it took all the able bodied citizens of the neighborhood, and a party of forty soldiers, from the fort who were accompanied by Lieut. (now General,) Armisted.
The first time that Judge Porter succeeded in getting upon Goat Island, (previous to 1810,) there were old dates there upon trees; there had been a tree cut there, and a canoe built. The remains
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of five or six human skeletons, were found there in early years. There were three or four acres that had been cleared by Captain Stedman to make a pasture for goats that he had once kept there; - hence the name.
In 1811, Judge Porter and his brother General Porter made an attempt to buy Goat Island of the state; but could not succeed in getting the consent of the Legislature. In 1814, they had the good fortune to secure it. Samuel Sherwood, a lawyer of considerable eminence in his day, had a float, as it is now called in our western states. It was an instrument given him by the state of New York, (such as are often issued from the General Land Office of the United States,) allowing the bearer to locate two hundred acres of any of the unsold or unappropriated lands of the state. It was given Mr. Sherwood as a consideration for some failure of title to lands he had purchased of the state. The brothers (Porters,) bought the instrument of him, and during the next year selected Goat Island, and the small islands about it, as a part of the two hundred acres; in all, about seventy acres. In 1816, they received their "patent," or deed. The boundaries, as stated in the deed, are as follows :- "A certain island, commonly called Goat Island, being in the Niagara river, immediately above and adjoining the Great Falls; - together with several tracts, or masses of rock, surrounding and appendant to the said principal Island ;- according to a plan or sur- vey of Parkhurst Whitney." The deed is signed by Daniel D. Tompkins, then Governor of the State; by Archibald Campbell, Deputy Secretary of State; and Martin Van Buren, as Attorney General, certified as usual in such cases.
In 1817, Judge Porter threw a bridge across in the smooth, strong current, some distance above the present site. The bridge was completed in that year. During the next March, lake Erie was broken up suddenly by a violent wind; large masses of ice came down with such violence as to carry away the central and greater portion of it. In 1818, he erected another bridge, on the present site. He chose a location where the rapids were still stronger than at the previous one. There was this advantage in it, how- ever-it is low enough down to have the masses of ice principally broken before they reach it, and consequently not striking with as much force. A decided advantage, too, is gained in the location of the piers. There are, in the rapids a succession of eddies
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The piers are in each instance located in one of them. The main structure erected in 1818, is now standing, though it has required frequently, new planking, and other repairs .*
Judge Porter is of the opinion, that Goat Island was formed by a gradual deposit, commencing at a period when there was not a very strong current. He thinks in the progress of the Falls from Lewiston to their present location, they were arrested a long time at the Whirlpool; thence the deep pit, or chasm, that has been excavated there.
The Stedman family left Schlosser in 1795, the British portage having been transferred to the other side of the river, in anticipation of the surrender of this frontier. They left Jesse Ware in pos- session of their home and farm. He in fact not only claimed the Schlosser property, but some four thousand five hundred acres of land beside, including the Falls. He claimed as the successor of the Stedmans, their claim having been founded upon an assumed grant of the Seneca Indians of all the land that lay between the Niagara river, and the circuit he made in his flight from the mas- sacre at the Devil's Hole. The state having put Judge Porter and his associates in possession, no attempt was made to enforce the Stedman claim until 1823. In that year, Samuel Street, and Thomas Clark, of Chippewa, commenced a suit in ejectment in the Supreme Court of this state, in the name of the heirs of Philip Stedman. It was assumed that the Indians had once deeded the land to Stedman, and that the deed had been lost. The trial re- sulted in a nonsuit.t
The Stedman family were in possession at Schlosser, from the period of British conquest in 1759, to 1795. Philip Stedman died in New York, in 1797, where he had gone for medical advice.
* Great skill and ingenuity were required in the erection of these bridges. The process by which the piers were located was as follows :- An abutment was first laid a short distance out in the water; sticks of timber eighty feet long were hewed tapering; the light ends were carried out and the heavy ends secured upon the abutment. A man would then walk out upon each of these sticks, and the two would throw a girth across, secure it, and then manage to thrust posts into the swift water for the structure to rest upon. From this commencement, the cribs or piers were constructed; the process being repeated upon each extension. Soon after the bridge was completed, Red Jacket was at the Falls, and was invited by Judge Porter to go and view it. After he had surveyed it attentively, with less than his usual stoical indifferance, he muttered, "Tamn the Yankees," as much as to say, it took them to a difficult thing.
t If the Indians did anything more than to promise such a grant to Stedman, they were unmindful of it the next year after the affair at the Devil's Hole. In that year (1764,) they made no reservation of land about the Falls, in their cession of the carry- ing place to the King of Great Britain.
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The transportation for all the region west of Cayuga lake, was by water, (the portages excepted,) until the completion of the Turnpike in 1803. After that it was mostly done with the "big wagons." When staging commenced, the time was usually two days from Albany to Utica, three days from Utica to the Genesee river, and two days from the river to Buffalo. Judge Porter has been seven days in coming from Albany to Canandaigua by stage; in 1802, he had the contract for carrying the mail from Utica to Fort Niagara. The route was the usual one to Buffalo; from thence, down on Canada side to Fort Niagara. Luther Cole was the first mail carrier west of Utica.
Judge Porter was the first Post Master in Niagara county; he held the office until 1837, and was succeeded by Judge De Veaux.
Major John Morrison, now residing upon lake shore, a mile and a half below Fort Niagara, was one of the first to make an opening in the woods of Niagara, in all the region north of Batavia and Lewis- ton road and east of Howell's creek. In the fall of 1803, he erected a log cabin in what was afterwards called Slayton's settlement. on Eighteen Mile creek, a mile below Maybee's mill. Keeping bachelor's hall, he chopped five acres, and in the spring brought his wife and children there from Niagara, U. C. His cabin not being large enough to accommodate the new comers, he put up in one day, with the help of Mrs. Morrison, a very considerable addition: covering it with peeled elm bark. Raised that season, among the logs, patches of corn and potatoes. Gad Warner, Thomas Slay- ton, Loudon Andrews, Samuel Capen, were his neighbors in 1804. Mrs. Morrison, who yet survives, gives a relation of the events of a night, which will interest the reader :-- In the summer of 1804, her husband had gone out to Batavia to get some provisions; leav- ing her alone with her children over night. A pack of wolves came near the cabin and set up a terrible howl-such as is usual with them when scenting prey. Mrs. M. got up from her bed, and heard them for a long time, apprehending no danger until she found they had approached within a few feet of the door place. There was no door, a blanket supplied the place of one; this, as she was aware, afforded but a poor protection. Careful not to wake her sleeping children, lest the sound of their voices might excite the wolves to a bolder sicge, she took her husband's axe and stood sentry, for hours and hours, until, day light approaching, the wolves retired into the depths of the forest.
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The author will here observe, that a necessary brevity of narra- tive, obliges him to omit many relations of events like the above, and others that were attendant upon primitive forest life.
The Ridge road, through all the eastern portion of Niagara, was discovered in 1805. Some of the new settlers in Slayton's settle- ment in 1805, were hunting cattle, and observed that there was continuous elevated ground, and changed their location, settling upon it east of Hartland Corners. It was not however known in its full extent through that region, until some years after. Jedediah Riggs, John Palmeter, and Daniel Brown, were the first settlers upon the Ridge, cast of Howell's creek, in Niagara and Orleans counties.
The pioneer in all the region named in connexion with the advent of Major Morrison, was Thomas Slayton. He was on his way to Canada, with his family; broke his wagon down, about two miles east of the Cold Springs, stopped in consequence, liked the country, took up land and chopped an acre or two. His horses having strayed away from his log cabin, he went into the woods in pursuit of them, and in his rambles saw the fine soil and black walnut groves below the mountain, and soon changed his location, becoming the founder of Slayton's settlement. Those who pass now through that beautiful, highly cultivated region, will conclude that the early pioneer made a good selection, when he had a wide field before him.
Stephen Bugbee, who went to Slayton's settlement in 1805, still survives. Joshua Slayton, one of the earliest residents, is still living, his residence, at Jackson, Michigan. The first religious meeting held in the pioneer neighborhood, (now town of Royalton,) was in 1808; Elder Joel Doubleday, of the Christian denomination, officiated. The church formed by him there, is supposed to be one of the first upon the Holland Purchase. Dr. David Dunn, was the first physician in town; Ezra Harwood, the first merchant; Thomas, or Joshua Slayton, raised the first crops; Stephen Bugbee built the first framed house and barn; William Curtiss planted the first orchard; Daniel Vaughn, who is still a resident of the town, was the first born. The church edifice erected by the Christian denomination in Slayton's settlement, is the first house built for public worship on the Holland Purchase; if we except the log church, built by Brant at Lewiston, before white settlement commenced.
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Gladly would the author, from memory, in the absence of dates, if space permitted, bestow especial notice upon more of the pio- neer settlers of Niagara. There was one of the pioneer land- lords upon the Ridge Road, William Molyneux, widely known in early times, and especially in the war of 1812; one of the best specimens of the "green isle of the ocean;" jovial, kind hearted and benevolent. The old landlord, and she, the companion in his early advent, who served up for long years, welcome repasts for the weary traveller-one of the best of pioneer wives and mothers- both, side by side, rest in a quiet rural spot, that will arrest the attention of the traveller as he passes along the Ridge Road, near their once residence; and near by, under the same green shade, rest the remains of a son who closed an early life of promise at West Point, a tasteful monument, erected by his brother cadets, indicating the high respect they entertained for his memory. The surviving sons of William Molyneux, now residents of Niagara, are Charles, (the landlord at the old stand,) William and Robert. An only daughter, is the wife of ex-sheriff, Hiram M'Niel.
Capt. Lemuel Cooke was a first sergeant in the U. S. army, and came to Fort Niagara at an early period of American occupancy; remaining in the army but about one year, he opened a tavern near the fort at the ferry landing. In 1802 he removed to Lewiston. The sons of this early pioncer were Bates, Lothrop, and Isaac. Bates Cook, Esq. was the early P. M. at Lewiston, for a long period a practicing Attorney in Niagara, and ultimately filled the office of Comptroller of the State. He died at Lewiston a few years since. Judge Lothrop Cooke and his brother Isaac are yet residents of Lewiston. The family will again be referred to in connection with some events at Lewiston in the war of 1812; no family has been longer, and few more conspicuously identified with the history of the Holland Purchase.
Judge Cooke mentions the fact that in the year 1799, he was sent to school to East Bloomfield, the then nearest one to the resi- dence of his father's family. The first school at Lewiston was in 1806, kept by a Scotchman named Watson.
And there is another reminiscence of his that should have been in an earlier connection :- In the summer of 1799, the garrison at Niagara was kept in readiness for action, in anticipation of a renewal of Indian wars. At one period a large body of Indians came down and camped on the Canada side.
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Few were better known all along during the period of the war of 1812, than the early landlord and landlady at Lewiston, Mr. and Mrs. Hustler. He is said to have been the model Sergeant Hollister, of Cooper's Spy, and his wife the model Betty Flannagan. Both were taken prisoners at St. Clair's defeat, and were after- wards with Wayne's army.
The Loyds, Browns, Dotys, Zittles, Swains, Hopkins were among the earliest settlers in Porter, and that, it will be observed, was one of the earliest settled towns upon the Purchase.
Jacob Christman was the pioneer settler on Tonawanda creek, between Indian village and the Niagara river, settling at Christman's Rapids, as early as 1804. He was for several years the only settler in the distance named; George Van Slyek was the next settler.
Reuben Hurd, a surviving pioneer, settled on Ridge Road in Cambria, in 1805. He says :- The early settlers used to go to Canada for their supplies of provisions; sometimes they would have no supplies there and then they would have to manage the best way they could. The Tuscarora Indians generally had corn to sell. Billious fevers and fever and ague, in early years, along the Ridge Road, were very prevalent, discouraged settlement. I have known, at several periods, more than half of the population sick. Before there was any mill at the Falls, we used generally to pound our corn out in stump mortars. The first school on Ridge Road was in a small log house, a mile west of Howell's. Mrs. Neal, the mother of George Neal was the teacher. Our earliest meetings were at the mission house, in Tuscarora; Methodist preachers soon came along, holding their meetings in the log houses of the settlers. At the breaking out of the war of 1812, I think there was not over one hundred acres of cleared land between Hardscrabble and the Cold Springs.
Jeptha Dunn was one of the earliest settlers on Ridge Road, in Hartland; now in his old age, the owner of a large and valuable farm; an anecdote of his early advent, may serve to illustrate how beneficial to settlers and the prosperity of the country was the poliey of admitting settlers without requiring more than nominal advance payments. He applied to Mr. Ellicott for the land upon which he now resides. It was required that he should pay the usual per cent; this he was unable to do, for four dollars was all the money he possessed. Eventually, the land was "booked" to him, he advancing the four dollars, half of which, was handed baek to
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him, upon Mr. Ellicott's understanding that he had a journey to make a considerable distance to the east on foot. A good settler was thus secured, and he paid for his land. It is not exaggera- tion to say, that there were a thousand of instances, that would as well illustrate the benefits that have flowed from giving men pos- session of soil, and trusting to their industry and energy for pay- ment of the purchase money. To be sure, the poor man obtains a few hundred dollars now, easier than he could then, but how many Jeptha Dunns have there been since the sales of public lands commenced at the west, who would have gone there and become free holders and useful citizens, if they could have got possession of lands as easy as he did? If they went there and located under pre-emption laws, sale days would come about, long before they could meet them.
And here, through the aid of a venerable surviving pioneer, Mr. David Mather, of Lockport, we get another early glimpse of Buffalo :-
I settled in Buffalo in April, 1806; there was then sixteen dwell- ing houses, principally framed ones; eight of them were scattered along on Main street, three of them were on the terrace, three of them on Seneca, and two on Cayuga streets. There were two stores; one the "contractor's" on corner of Main and Seneca streets, (east side of Main,) Vincent Grant, kept it. The other was the store of Samuel Pratt, adjoining Crow's tavern. Mr. Le Couteulx kept a drug store in a part of his house on Crow street. David Reese's Indian blacksmith shop was on Seneca street, and William Robbins had a blacksmith shop on Main street. John Crow kept a tavern where Mansion House now stands, and Judge Barker kept one on the site of the market.
I remember very well the arrival of the first public mail that ever reached Buffalo. It was brought on horse-back by Ezra Metcalf, he came to my blacksmith's shop and got his horse shod. He told me he could carry the contents of his bag in his two hands.
William Johnston died in 1807, aged 65 years. He was a good neighbor, a man of a good deal of intelligence; was much respected by the Indians. I was with him a good deal during his last illness, and from what escaped him then, I judged that he had been famil- iar with some of the most barbarous scenes of the border wars.
From 1809 to the commencement of the war, a good many set- +lers came into Buffalo, and a good many buildings were put up.
In early times, I have on several occasions seen the water less
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than knee deep across the mouth of Buffalo creek. The few vessels then on the Lake, would lay off from a half to three fourths of a mile, or go down to Black Rock, anchoring below the rapids.
Mrs. Mather, the wife of David Mather, also survives. She came to Batavia in 1802, was then the wife of Joseph Hawks, and a sister of the earliest physician there, Dr. Alvord. Mrs. Mather moved with her first husband to Williamsville, in 1805. Jonas Williams, a brother-in-law of Andrew A. Ellicott, from whom the village of Williamsville took its name, was then a young man just commeneing a farm there-had purchased the old saw mill and water power, and was rebuilding the mill. For two years Mrs. M. was the only female at Williamsville; kept house for Mr. Williams. The nearest family was a half mile on the road east. She remembers that a Mr. Lewis opened the first tavern in the neighborhood, a mile and a half west of Williamsville, at the Hen- shaw stand, and that the settlers came in pretty fast upon the openings, in 1805. Mrs. M. says that she and her husband were three days getting from Batavia to Williamsville, with a yoke of oxen and wagon.
Mrs. Mather became a resident of Buffalo in January, 1807. She participated in the formation of the first religious society; a union of Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The Rev. Thaddeus Osgood was the officiating minister. The first meetings were held in the court house. The primitive members of the church were: - Mrs. Landon, Nathaniel Sill and wife, Mrs. Mather, Mrs. Pratt, and a young man whose name is not recollected. If Deacon Callender was not a member of the church on its first organization, he was soon after; except when missionaries came along, he took the lead in the meetings. Mrs. M. thinks that the Rev. Miles P. Squires, was the first settled minister in Buffalo.
In the disposal of lots in Buffalo Mr. Ellicott was even more careful to confine the sales to actual settlers, and to require a cer- tain stipulated amount of improvements, in a given time, than in the sale of farming lands. He often refused to sell lots for the whole purchase money in advance, without buildings were first erected upon them, or some earnest given that there would be. This ac- counts for the slow sale of lots there. The whole original village plat, would have sold in the absence of such conditions, at the low prices asked, before 1820. As in the rest of the Purchase, there
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was a resident in the confidence of the local agent, who would report to him from time to time the progress of improvements. Mr. Le Couteulx, at "New Amsterdam," would inform Mr. Elli- cott that such an one had a "framed house up and covered;" that another "had the frame out for a house;" that another "had a cel- lar dug;" that another had an inner lot "cleared and fenced in;" that another on an outer lot, had one two or three acres, "cleared and enclosed." Upon the contract books, there are numerous instances of entries stipulating the improvements that were to be made in a given time. These conditions it should be observed, were not for the usual purpose of increasing the value of the prem- ises, and keeping the lien for the purchase money good; but were intended to make every purchaser an actual settler. It would amuse the reader to see with what care Mr. Le Couteulx would inform Mr. Ellicott that cellars were dug, frames up and partly covered, or the timber cleared away and enclosures made, where the land is now worth from two to three hundred dollars per foot, and covered with four and five story brick blocks.
It may interest the reader to see some of the early prices of lots in New Amsterdam. No sales were made until 1804; such set- tlers as had made locations and improvements had done so with the promise of a pre-emptive right. In that year, lot 1, site of Man- sion House, was sold for $140, (deeded afterwards to Joseph Landon at that price.) Prices of lots in this year, generally corresponded with this example of prices. In 1805, Thomas Sidwell paid $35 and $45 for lots 75 and 76 on Pearl Street. In 1806, Asa Chap- man paid for lot 36 opposite Farmer's Hotel, $120; Eleazer Hovey, paid for out lots 146 and 147, (near barracks,) 11 and $12 per acre; David Mather, for lot 38 on Main Street, $120,25 in advance. In 1807, Abraham Hershey, paid for lots 150, 151, 156, 157, $20 per lot. In 1808, Alphous Hitchcock paid $4 per acre for out lots 88 and 89. One of the first sales after the war, in 1816, was to Smith H. Salis- bury; lot 183 on Washington Street; price $180,80; was to erect a "house 20 feet square." Next sale in that year, was of lots 85 and 86, to Miles P. Squier; purchase money, $550. There were but three sales in this year. In 1817, Frederick B. Merrill paid for lots 87 and 88, $580; was to "erect a house 20 by 24." Barent B. Staats, for E. pt. inner lot 90, $300; was to erect a house "24 feet square, 2 stories high." There were but two sales in this year. In 1818 no sales. In 1819, F. B. Merrill paid for outer lot 115,
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