USA > New York > Wayne County > Rose > Rose neightborhood sketches, Wayne County, New York; with glimpses of the adjacent towns: Butler, Wolcott, Huron, Sodus, Lyons and Savannah > Part 29
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At the left, a few rods south of the railroad, is found the school-house for this district. It is just over the line in Sodus. Nearly opposite was once a home, the abode of N. Utter. The place has been merged in the Tindall farm, and the old home is utterly desolate.
The extreme northwest confines of Rose are reached when, having crossed the railroad, we come to the home of the Tindalls. Charles H. Tindall came here many years ago, from Pilgrimsport, a brother of "Parm," long prominent in the Valley. He was born in New Jersey, and his wife was Polly A. Camp, who was born in Ohio, but of a Connecticut family, long conspicuous in Litchfield county. In her infancy, she was
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taken back to her New England home, and there she resided till she was fourteen years of age. For this portion of our land she then acquired an affection that years have not been able to efface. Coming on a visit to Pilgrimsport, she met her future husband, and, instead of returning to Connecticut, as expected, she formed a life-long union with him. Event- ually, they came to this point, where they have been for more than fifty years. The house, built by Mr. T., stands very near the town line. The Rose portion of the farm was bought of John Wager, who took from the land office. There are in this part some sixty-five acres. Of their chil- dren, Louisa married William Gatchell, of Huron; Lovina married Robert Catchpole, of Huron, and both are dead; Lucy married Henry Gatchell ; Polly is Mrs. Ralph Palmer, of Sodus ; Rosette became Mrs. Philip Weber, of Sodus; Alonzo, deceased, married Sarah Munson ; Charles, at home, and Jerome Worth, who, having married Ida Clark, lives south of the Valley. The elder Mr. Tindall died in 1883. His widow, pleasant and retentive in memory, with her son, Charles, still remains on the old place, so fraught with agreeable associations. By a former marriage, Mr. Tindall had one son, Myron P., who married Emeline York, and lives in Huron.
SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 2 .- HURON; OR, "YORK SETTLEMENT." August 22-29, 1891.
We will enter this district, or that part of it belonging to Rose, from the north, and the first resident therein we shall find in the person of Adam Crisler. Adam, it will be observed, is a good name to begin with. As we enter the premises of this man and observe the cooper shop at the right, we should be justified in thinking that a Crisler dwelt here, even if we did not know the name; for no Crisler ever thinks himself properly equipped till such a shop is added to his possessions. Following a lane, we soon reach one of the cleanest, neatest homesteads that I have found in my Rose rambles. House, barns, yards-everything is the soul of neatness and order. Over all, waves an umbrageous elm, a faithful sentinel, keeping guard over these results of honest toil and industry. The home is on the west side of the road. Mr. C. is a member of the family, for many years identified with Rose. He married Clarissa Seager, a sister of David, of the Wayne Centre district. Their children are: Jared E., who married Rosina Lake, and lives in the Valley ; Charles M., who married Sybil Day, and is in the Covell district. Mr. Crisler has been here twenty-four years, but before him the place seems to have had many owners. Of these I can give scarcely more than the names. Mr. C. bought of William Woodward, who bought of R. West. He took
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from Gideon Wibur; he from William Sebring, and before him was the first owner, Henry Dunbar, to be met in the eastern part of the neigh- borhood. There are seventy acres in the farm. The name of Stephenson occurs in old records, on the east side, just south of the Huron line, but I have no other trace.
On the east side of the road are fields belonging to Gilbert Brown and to Alvah Jewell. Mr. Brown's extensive berry field is here, some eleven acres being given to this culture.
Next south, we find Samuel C. Hart, who has long been a Rose dweller. He was mentioned in the Covell district article, he having resided many years on the farm now occupied by George Wraight. He was born in Ontario county, and his wife, who died in 1865, was Ann Witherell, from Vermont. Their children were: Mary and Ann Eliza, both dead ; Marion and Ira, whom we met in the Griswold neighborhood, and William H., at home. Mary married Geo. Knox, then of Rose, but now in Michigan, and left a daughter, Lillie Ann ; Eliza married Daniel Seager of Huron. Mr. Hart came to Rose in 1842, and he tells me that his first place was bought of one Nichols, perhaps the Nicholas property. His present holding of thirty-eight acres he took from the land office. He built the . house now used by him. Near it is an old, unoccupied structure, erected by John Weeks, and back of that is a log house, used by some of the line of squatters who, all through this section, preceded the permanent settler. Mr. Hart has long been a member of the Baptist Church.
South of Mr. Hart's, a road begins, which, with many windings, finally runs through Glenmark. On the southeast corner is the fine residence of Frank Weeks, who, a son of Caleb, married Lucy Creek. They have only one child, Jennie.
The next place to the south, and still on the east side, is the old David Wager place. It is now held by George Dixon, who married Mr. Wager's daughter, Sarah. The Dixons were originally from Ireland, where Abel, the immigrant, married Alice Twamley, a native of Wicklow, and a rela- tive of the. Twamleys, on the borders of Lyons, near Wayne Centre. Abel must have halted first in New Jersey, for in that state some, if not all, of his children were born. The first Dixon who settled near Glenmark has long been dead, but his widow, at the age of ninety years, died a few weeks since. As the Wagers have already been given, it will be proper to give facts concerning the Dixons. There were several children, namely : Ben- jamin, who went to Ohio ; William is in Michigan ; Jane is in New York; Ellen, who married first, John Howard, second, Harry Traher of Glenmark; Hannah, the wife of Monroe Jewell; Mary, deceased, who married James Russell ; after Ellen, should have been named George, who lives here, and Abel, who died in War times, a member of Co. G, Ninth N. Y. Heavy Artillery. He sleeps in the burial ground at York's corners. The gene-
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sis of this place is short, since it goes back through Dixons and Wagers to the land office.
Still moving southward, we find a house where lives William Weeks, another son of Caleb. The father built this house. William married Lueze Welch, of Sodus, and they have one daughter, Ora.
Opposite dwells Caleb Weeks, who married long since Margaret Wager, a sister, I think, of David, and once a neighbor on the north. Their children are : Frank, living on the corners, north; Hannah, the wife of Nelson Dunbar, of Huron ; Jane, the wife of Asher Seager ; Martha, the wife of John York, of North Rose ; Sarah, who is Mrs. Albert Thomp. son, of the preemption, and William, the son, dwelling across the way.
At the angle in the road, where it turns abruptly to the west, is a log house, only recently occupied. As late as 1888, a family by the name of Porter lived in it. It was built by one Joe Miles, and among other occu- pants was Monroe Seager. This house, still well preserved, of hewed logs, with mortar clinking, on the east side of the elbow, is without doubt the last used pioneer edifice in Rose. Similar houses in the eastern part of the town disappeared years since.
Our district, so far as this road is concerned, is ended, but if we ride down into Seagerville, turn to the east and proceed till we come to the house of Frank Garlic, and thereturn to the north, we shall again enter York settle- ment, stopping first at the home of Frank Miner, though I understand that, owing to some differences, his place has been set off to the Covell's neighbor- hood. Mr. Miner, one of the sons of Riley Miner, married Mary A. Mitchell, and has children ; Jennie, Maud, Franklin, Zenas, Minerva, and John. He succeeded upon these twenty-seven acres P. Brower, who had married a daughter of Philip Marquette, one of the first if not the very first owners. There seem to be several of this name living in Glenmark, whence came Philip, who died in 1861. He had two daughters-Amelia and Elizabeth. The former is dead and the latter is Mrs. George Pritchard of Sodus.
Crossing the railroad, we pass through the Dunbar possessions, whose name the cross roads bear. On the southeast angle there was, long ago, a log house, where dwelt various families. Before that it was the site of many charcoal pit burnings; for here Henry Dunbar worked many a weary day and night. Bushes and old-fashioned flowers still indicate the haunts of man.
Diagonally across is a small building, where Aaron Dunbar once kept a grocery. On the northeast corner a blacksmith shop once stood, and in it were shod the farmers' horses of this vicinity.
To the west, we shall find but little, only an old house, now nailed up, built by Henry Dunbar's son-in-law, William Chamberlain. Still further west, on the north side, is a small house, where lives widow Daly, once the home of P. Chamberlain.
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North from Dunbar's corners, our first stop is at the house of Aaron Dunbar, and here it was my good fortune to meet Henry Dunbar, the man after whom the corners were named, and whom I find, despite his ninety years, a treasure house of early Rose data. He was born in Dutchess county, and came, with his parents, to the town of Galen in 1809 or '10. There they died. Since his twenty-third year he has lived in Rose. He was first on the present Adam Crisler place, which he took from the office. In 1837 he took this place from the same office, and has been here since. There were at first some 156 acres. He was an actual pioneer, and his memory of events, in the long ago, is very vivid-stating months and days of that period with no hesitation. For instance, it was the 27th day of January that he came to these then unbroken roads. "Yes," he says, "there was nothing but woods here. There was plenty of game. I once followed a flock of deer two days, and shot four of them. Just below here, where the railroad crosses the road, Andrew J. Sebring shot a big wolf. There were two of them, and he killed the larger one, and got a bounty for his scalp. My hearing is poor, but my eyesight is pretty good for a man who has burned as many pits of charcoal as I have. You know that is awfully smoky business, and it hurts a man's eyes." His wife was Catharine Wager, who died in 1870, at the age of seventy years. His home now is with his son, Aaron. ( Died February 13, 1893.) The children were: John, once living just to the north ; Levi, who married Lucy Day, and lives in Huron ; Nelson married Hannah Weeks, and also lives in Huron ; Aaron married Mary J. Burt of Sodus, and has two children, Benjamin and Cora ; Rhoda became Mrs. Wm. Chamberlain, and is dead; Melissa is Mrs. Chas. Knox, and is the sole dweller in the house to the east of the corners, and yet in this district. Mr. Chamberlain was killed by the running away of a team of horses. The original Dunbar log house stood about where the present house is.
John Dunbar's late home is found next north. He married Harriet Davenport, who died thirty years ago. Their only child, Emmaette, married Munson Seager, after whose decease she kept house for her father. Her children are : Harriet, who married a Pierce of Huron, and Nellie, at home. Formerly he ran threshing machines, portable saw-mills, and, obviously, has known what labor is. He had been particularly unfortunate in certain accidents, which had crippled him considerably. His place is a part of his father's original purchase. John Dunbar died June 11th, 1890, aged about sixty-five years. He was buried at York's corners.
No finer farm buildings can be found in this part of Rose than those that are nearly opposite, yet a little further north. Here is the home of Alvah Jewell. He was born in Dutchess county. His father, Isaac, who had married Charity Shaw, came here more than seventy years since. He died in Lyons. Alvah's wife was Susan Wager, a daughter of John. Their
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children are: Henry, who married Sivilla Winget, and is on his father-in- law's place in Huron ; Malinda, deceased, married Allen Robinson, of Huron ; Alanson married Mary Coats, and died in 1873 at the age of 23 years, and his son, Franklin, lives with Alvah ; Elizabeth is Mrs. Thomas Hewson ; Franklin married Miranda Barrett. Mr. J. has 170 acres. Of these, he bought twenty-eight of Philip Marquette, forty from his brother, Barney, and eighty-two from General Adams, who took from the office. On the B. Jewell place, opposite, there was formerly a house. Mr. J. is a Republican in politics and Methodistic in religious preferences. His post office is Alton. A few steps to the north is a house where Henry Jewell formerly lived, but which he now lets to a tenant.
Opposite is the home of Gilbert Brown, and when I find that he was a fellow company man with me in the Ninth Heavy Artillery, he seems very much like an old friend. He was badly wounded at Snicker's Gap, at the time Early was trying to get away after his sortie on Washington. Gilbert was born in the town of Marion, and married Arloa Adams of that town. Their children are Clara L. and Elroy G., both at home. Mr. B. bought of Thomas Hewson, who moved to Sodus. He bought of Aaron Winget, and the latter took from the office. The house was built by Hewson. Mr. Brown is a zealous cultivator of berries and has a large dry house. He also has a mint still. There are eleven acres in his place. In religion he is a Disciple.
The house standing out so prominently on the north side of the way, long stood in the name of the widow Shannon. There must have been many of this name here and to the north, years ago, since the name is common in the York's corners burial ground. Samuel Shannon, in solitary bachelorhood, lives on the paternal acres. He has nicely repaired the house, and it is too bad that with so many unmarried women in town he does not take some one to his heart and home. Perhaps he has his reasons. (Died April 8, 1892.) He was a good soldier in the Ninth Heavy Artillery, as was also his brother, Theodore, who died in 1867.
To reach the next house, we shall have to run down a long lane, past an old barn belonging to Shannon, to the end of the lane, where we shall find the residence of the widow of John Seager. She was Sarah York of Huron, a sister of the North Rose maltster. Her children are : Elizabeth, who is Mrs. John Hill, of North Rose; Sarah, who married George Ball, of the same place, and George, Warren, Norman, Oscar, and Jennie. This hold- ing has had some mutations. It is first found under the name of Jacob Wager, and this was more than thirty years since. He had at least one son, who died long since. In old age, Jacob went to live with William Wager, near Glenmark. Also some part of his old age was passed with Mrs. Rhoda Chamberlain. After Wager comes the name of Joanna Phillips, who sold to the widow of John Seager. The latter died just west
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of Dunbar's corners. There are twenty-five acres in the farm. The old house in which Jacob Wager lived is still standing, an isolated relic.
Still further back, and still more inaccessible, for we must follow a private way from Henry Jewell's house to reach it, is a quite pretty place, held and occupied by John Austin.
Coming back to the road and taking a glance to the north, into Huron, where we may see the elegant buildings of Luman Barrett, now occupied by his son, Gardner, we retrace our way, having thoughts of Green Erin aroused as we pass the home of Shannon, since everybody knows that no finer stream than that flows through the meadows of Ireland.
From Dunbar's corners we ride east, passing the home of Charles Knox, the son-in-law of Henry Dunbar, and when I pass, I find Alvah Jewell engaged in clearing up new land, a labor which took so much of the time of the ancestors here. The pioneer on heavily timbered land had experiences that the dwellers on the prairies know nothing of. It is, however, sad to think of the value destroyed in getting our land ready for cultivation. If the great trees thus cut off could only have been held for subsequent use, instead of being piled in great heaps for burning, what a storehouse there would be for coming time, but that is not the way. The growth of many, many years are felled, rolled together and burned. Fires are kindled around the stumps, and seed is planted at first in what seems to be very uncongenial soil, but great crops have been raised thus. Land that will support great trees will grow immense grain.
The school-house which the York settlement children seek, is found by following the road by Alvah Jewell's, just beyond the Barrett place, on four corners, known as York's. Near here resides Benjamin Winget, and close by, on the north side of the street, is the temple of learning. At any rate, it represents the altitude of knowledge to which the most of the boys and the girls of the settlement attain. The York part of the name comes from dwellers in Huron, though there are several women of the name married in Rose, and John York lives in North Rose. Back of Mr. Winget's is one of the finest chestnut groves in the state. I have never seen a more beautiful collection of these stately trees anywhere. It was a happy thought to allow them to remain and to thrive thus, forming such a charming background to the school-house, and such a playground for the children. Bryant's forest hymn is suggested at once :
" Father, thy hand hath reared these venerable columns."
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SCHOOL DISTRICT No. 1 .- " GLENMARK."
September 3-17, 1891.
This section was well named. Frequently, names are misnomers, but there is no want of application to this up and down region. Sodus bay has many approaches, many streams running down from the interior. These have worn away the land so that deep glens lead down to the main waters. It is possible that, in remote times, the lake itself occupied a higher level, and that these frequent gulleys represent the bays and inlets of the past. If so, where the farmer to-day raises corn and potatoes, immense fishes once swam in glorious freedom. We shudder at what would happen were the lake to again rise and claim its own. What a submerging of peaceful homes and fertile farms. Just at present, there seems more danger of the still further retirement of the lake. Had General Adams' dream of a Sodus canal been realized, and had the Sodus branch railroad ever been built, our glen-marked region had been to-day much more than the ragged, scattering hamlet that it is. Thomas' creek, whose sandy bed formed so considerable a part of the general's scheme, here has an exceedingly rocky bottom. In fact, I think, at the mill site in Glenmark, there is a cataract, where for untold ages, the waters have plunged over the outcropping limestone. There is not another place in the town where the layers, or strata, are thus developed. The gorge through which the water runs after passing the falls, is a deep, brier-lined chasm, whose depths can hardly be appreciated from the road which winds along the verge, the traveler protected by a rail judiciously placed between him and the abrupt descent. Many a Rose citizen has grown to maturity without dreaming that his native town has broken scenery as rare and engaging as that which people with well-lined purses travel many miles to see. These same people ride over dusty roads to the Bluffs, but they omit this wooded, glen-pierced country, so varied and picturesque. Its beauties and varieties must be seen to be appreciated.
There is not the least attempt at regularity in the roads about this district. They have simply adapted themselves to the glens and streams. In fact, there was no other way to get about. The three roads that lead into the district are merged just below the falls and follow the creek north- ward. This final gulley reminds one of the neck of a jug, for through it all travel and all water seeking the lake must pass.
Our entrance to Glenmark shall be along the road which leads eastward from Dunbar's corners, and our first farm will be at the home of David Johnson. The line which divides the Glenmark and York settlement dis- tricts just misses Mr. J.'s house, but he is in the eastern neighborhood. Huron is his native town, and he was in Company G, Ninth Heavy
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Artillery, during the Rebellion. There are thirty-five acres in the farm, which he bought of William P. Angle, who bought from the office. The latter went west some years since. Angle started the house which Johnson completed. It is at this point that the road turns abruptly to the south, though it runs thus only a short way. To the southeast, the woods once standing there afforded shelter to camp meetings in the times when piety, if not more fervent, at least was more demonstrative. Mr. Johnson's wife was Naomi Andrus, also of Huron. Their children's names are : Jennie, who married, first, Herbert Ackerman, second, a Mr. Burch, and Rilla, the wife of Kingsley Clum, who came from Galen to Rose. The Clums live in a house somewhat back from the Johnsons. Mr. C. is of German extraction. They have two sons-Augustus and Claudius.
The next place reached, as we follow the eastern bend of the road, when it turns again, is the home of Calvin Daly. He bought of Samuel Osborn, who took from John Weeks, now of North Rose, and he from Theodore Shannon. The latter followed Charles Angle, whose possessing must have been among the very first.
Then comes the home of Joseph Andrews, whose son-in-law, Asa Potter, lives with him.
Across the railroad, out in the open field to the south, is the place owned by Oscar Weed of Huron. He bought of Abram L. Barnes. When this. was covered with heavy timber, Eron N. Thomas owned it, and he sold to Robert Catchpole and others, who cut off the wood and then sold the land. Near at hand was the old Abel Dixon home, where he ended his own life through insanity, on account of the railroad cutting through his farm. This was in 1871. Leman Ellsworth is our next neighbor, or, at least, the place stands in his name, and his son-in-law, James Calkins, lives here. Mr. E.'s wife was a Huffman, of the family once living near North Rose.
Still progressing toward the northeast, we reach the place whose occu- pants have been sober for many years, for here Jonathan Sober, a native of Pennsylvania, came many years since. There are fifty acres in the farm. Mr. S. died several years since. Of their children, Huldah, deceased, married Albert Baker ; Mahala married George Jewell of Galen ; James, having married Kate Myers, is in Sodus ; Lewis married Alice Wager ; Albert, who married Lydia Eldridge, went west and died ; Eugene, a son of Lewis, lives with his grandmother. The wife of Jonathan Sober was Mary Garlick, the oldest own sister of Henry. Mr. S. took the place from the office, though it is probable that there were contract settlers before him. (Mrs. Sober died February 27, 1893.)
William M. Green, a native of Galen, is found next, on the east side. His holding of five acres runs back to one of the glens for which the region is noted, and it is quite irregular in surface. For twenty-five years Mr. Green has earned an honest living on and from his glebe. He built
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the house, having bought of David Johnson. Mr. Green is a brother of the George H. Green who was found in the Griswold district. The Green family, of which these two brothers are representatives, moved to Huron, and there the parents died. Early in life, Mr. Green wandered into Rose, and there he found his wife, Lydia Marsh, a daughter of Amos, who lived so long in District No. 5, or Town's. Their children are : Elmer, now in Glenmark ; Miss Lelia, at home, and Alice, the wife of Marsden Crisler, of the Valley. (Lelia Green was married June 29, 1892, to Emory J. Weeks of Rose. They have a daughter, Eva L. Mrs. Green died June 16, 1893.)
Toward the north, and having a substantial aspect, is the old Garlick homestead. To-day it is the abode of the widow of Walter Messenger, who died March 30th, 1890. This family is of Sodus lineage, where both husband and wife, who was Jane Jewell, were born. They came hither in 1874. Their children are all married. Polly is Mrs. John Shepardson, of Sodus ; Sarah married Sidney Garlick, a son of Eli, and lives next north ; Louise is the wife of Seth Woodard, of the Covell neighborhood ; Nellie married Darwin Miner, west of the Valley, and Walter married Ida J. Seager, and lives in Huron. The house dates from William Garlick. The original Garlick log house stood considerably further back from the road, where cherry trees now are. Mr. Messenger bought from William Chaddock, who traded his mill property at the falls with Henry Garlick for this. In the hands of sons and father, this was Garlick land for many years. Back of Garlick was Bacon, who followed the Lumberts, a family having numerous representatives, but very little real ownership. They, with other equally irresponsible people, were, more than fifty years since, prevailed upon to accept a free trip to the west. A canal boat was chartered at the expense of several public-spirited citizens, and some sixty or seventy people of both sexes, and of all ages, were loaded on and given this ride toward the setting sun. Save in a few cases where the adage, "A bad sixpence will return," was illustrated, the riddance was effectual. I suppose the donors of that excursion laughed heartily for years over the feelings of the communities among which these bouquets of Roses were scattered. The Garlick genealogy was given at length in the description of North Rose.
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