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 3
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extend his farm to the northward, making his estate very compact and valuable. He had early wedded Polly Catharine, the younger daughter of Aaron Shepard, the first settler in the district; but he never took his wife- to his new home, as she died in 1829, leaving a daughter, Polly Catharine, who married, in 1843, Austin M. Roe, the youngest son of Austin Roe, one of the early comers to the neighborhood. In 1834 Mr. Seelye married Sarah Ann, daughter of Dr. James Sheffield, of Sherburne, Chenango Co., who survives him. His son, James Judson, who served in the 9th Heavy Artillery, married Frances, daughter of Artemas Osgood, long a resident of the. district, and now resides just north of the "old home," on what is known as the Aldrich place. His second daughter, Eudora, married, in 1865, Lucien, elder son of Artemas Osgood, and for several years lived north of her father's, on one of the Lovejoy places. She died in 1870. The third daughter, L. Estelle, married, in 1878, Merritt G. McKoon, a schoolmate, born and reared in the Butler part of the district, and with him retains the. "old place." Mr. Seelye enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, was a life-long Baptist, and in early life was very active in the state militia, holding, in succession, the offices of adjutant, major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the 186th Regiment. The titles of colonel and deacon are indifferently applied to him.
Just opposite the Seelye home, on the south side of the road, was, years. ago, a log honse which Mr. Seelye, in the early part of his married life, used as a barn. Before that, it was occupied by one Ransom Ward, who after- ward moved to Whisky Hill and ran a potash factory. Again, diagonally across, near where James Armstrong's dwelling stands, was another log house, built by a Mr. Eaton, a would-be settler from Connecticut. He came up with Mr. Shepard, but, at the period of moving, his courage failed him, and he gave his possessions into the care of Mr. Shepard, who finally became the owner in full. Also on the north side of the road, a little west of Mr. Seelye's, was a log house once occupied by Mr. Savage and his family. These humble houses, I have been told, were built upon the lands of certain parties for the occupation of wood cutters, who labored in clearing up the country, and whose wages, I learn, were oftentimes quite one-half paid in whisky, of which the proprietor was wont to lay in a plentiful store. Long since, the very last vestige of the houses disappeared, not even so much as a currant or lilac bush, nor sprig of tansy, remaining to show where families lived and children played.
Proceeding to the east, just beyond the school-house, on the north side of the road, were we to look sharp, I doubt not we should find the re- mains of an old log house already old as long ago as the oldest inhabitant can remember. Passing over the long line of early occupants, it will suf- fice to state that its last tenant was Edward Stickles, who married Sarah, oldest child of Abram Chatterson, of the same district-No. 7. This house-
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was on the farm of Dudley Wade, who for many years lived in the large white house still further to the east, on the south side of the way, and is now the home of Oliver Bush. (Sidney P. Hopping, 1893.) The farm orig- inally belonged to John Springer, who sold to Mr. Wade and went further west. Dudley Wade, who was born in Paris, Oneida Co., in 1806, was of excellent Connecticut parentage, his father being Dudley, son of Dr. John Wade, who died in Oneida Co. in 1803. His own father dying when he was very young, he was brought up by his uncle, John Wade, a brother of Mrs. Aaron Shepard, wife of the first settler. Before getting through with these sketches, it will be seen that almost every permanent settler in this neighborhood was, in one way or another, related to his neighbor. Mr. Wade's wife was Mary Louisa, the only daughter of Joseph Seelye, a most estimable lady, now residing with her daughter Imogene at South Butler. His son Joseph married Emma, daughter of Artemas Osgood, and lives in Rose Valley. Ensign married Lucy, daughter of Kendrick Sheffield, and grand-niece of Mrs. George Seelye. He is a farmer on one of the Ellinwood places just east of the Valley. Frank, a promising boy, died in 1875 in Boston. Imogene married Chester Irish, a native of Indiana, but of a Ca- yuga county family. She is now a widow, as is also her only sister Emily, who married a Mr. Cushman of South Butler. Mrs. Irish has three daugh- ters, Lorena, Dora and Maud. The large house, so long Mr. Wade's home, was erected by Mr. Springer, he having bought a few acres of Aaron Shep- ard for this purpose. For some reason, inscrutable to us, he was unwill- ing to have his home on the same side of the road as his barns, which were and are now quite extensive. In one of these barns was a stationary threshing machine, to which the farmers carried their grain to be threshed, just as now they take it to the mill to be ground. Columbus Collins, a native of the district, was, when a boy, severely injured by falling into the machinery when in motion. Geo. Seelye has been heard to say that this was the worst place for threshing that a man ever suffered in. For some inex- plicable reason Mr. Wade was prompted to sell his farm during the War to Messrs. Abraham and John Phillips of Wolcott. They, however, held it but a short time, in turn selling it to Hudson R. Wood, who had married Catherine, daughter of Thaddeus Collins and grand-daughter of Aaron Shepard. He, too, soon passed the place along to Oliver Bush of Oneida county. Mr. Bush keeps up the relationship traditions of the vicinity, being a cousin of Mrs. John B. Roe. Mr. Bush's wife was a Stone before marriage, and her mother, an aged lady, lives with them. They have four sons, Leverrier, Fletcher D., Lavello S.and Edward. He has held the estate for nearly twenty years, and has introduced many improvements, both in the house and upon the farm. He is one of the two farmers of the district who have made hop growing a specialty. Just now, in addition to hops, he is giving much attention to berries. (Mr. Hopping has still further improved
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the place, repairing house and barns, making them among the most attract- ive in the town. ) His eldest sou, Leverrier, married some years ago, and resides in a new house erected recently on the north side of the road and a lit- tle further to the east. Near this spot there stood many years ago a log house, among whose early occupants was Philo Saxton, father of Martin Saxton of Butler. An earlier tenant was a Mr. Brewster, whose son Samuel mar- ried Experience, a sister of John Kellogg. John Ogram, long a well known resident on the plank road south of the Valley, was her second husband. Brewster, the tailor of Wolcott, and his brother, once proprietor of the Clyde Hotel, and Decatur B., are her sons, and there was a daughter, Polly, by Mr. Ogram. She was the mother of Priscilla, who is Mrs. Wm. Wes- cott of Syracuse; and James, who lives in the north part of the town. (In 1891 Mr. L. Bush sold to Frank A. Hendricks, who, Wolcott born, married Eva Vought of the same town. They are Rose Methodists. Mr. Bush and family went to Syracuse. There are 44 acres in the farm.) Nearly oppo- site, in years agone, was another log house, in which at one time lived Mr. Goodrich, the Baptist minister. This house, with the ten acres upon which it stood, was given to Geo. Seelye in lieu of one hundred dollars, the stip- ulated compensation for one year's labor given by him to Aaron Shep- ard immediately subsequent to his marriage to the old gentleman's daugh- ter. He, however, never lived upon the place, but traded it with his father for the place upon the corner. Returning, for a moment, to Dudley Wade, it ought to be said of him that he purchased, after leaving District No. 7, first, the old Fuller place, near Rose Valley, and afterward the Ellinwood farm, just east of Fuller's. Here he died in 1876. The name Dudley has been prominent in many successive generations of the Wade family, or ever since Jonathan Wade of Medford, Mass., married, in the 17th cen- tury, Deborah, daughter of Gov. Thomas Dudley of that state. I hope others may yet bear this cognomen as honorably as the Dudleys of the past. It is safe to say that no man in the town of Rose was ever more widely known ; whether as auctioneer, speculator or marshal at a county fair, everybody knew "Dud. Wade." There may be cases where he was beaten in repartee, but few of them are recorded. The man who tried to get a joke on Wade usually retired from the contest dejected. His merry joke and his hearty laugh will linger long in the memories of those who knew him, and instinctively we ask, " Why couldn't such men live longer?" A quarter of a mile beyond Mr. Bush's, on the same side of the road and on the Butler side of the town line, about thirty years ago Frank Rice, son of Jonathan Rice of the Butler part of the district, was killed by the kick of a horse. He was one of the merriest youngsters that ever delighted a parent's heart, or worried a school teacher. He was returning from school, and, in his frolics, going too near the heels of a lively team driven by Stephen Kellogg, was kicked so violently that death ensued in a few
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hours. For several years a board erected, having a picture of the boy inserted, served as a warning to all children.
Returning to Seelye's corners we will journey westward, pausing as we go to note the disappearance of the woods that, till recently, filled the val- ley on the south side of the road, and to lament the dwindling of the brook at the foot of the hill, which, through climatic changes, has become a mere suggestion of its former self. The hill we have before us is no ordinary one, but years of working have rendered it a little more easy of ascent. At the left on the slope of the hill, half way up whose sides we are, stands a house repaired about thirty years since by Sheldon R. Overton, now of Wolcott. Daniel Soper built it. Since Mr. Overton disposed of it to Henry Klinck, who married Caroline, eldest daughter of Artemas Osgood, the place has remained almost unchanged save in owners. Mr. Klinck sold to Homer Stone, a brother of Mrs. Oliver Bush, who in time sold to Edgar Arm- strong, who now resides there. He married Libbie, adopted daughter of Oliver Bush, and their three children are Morton, Lullavine and Virgil. Mr. Armstrong has long been a resident of the district, having lived with his father, James Armstrong, for many years upon the Dr. Dickson place. (Mr. Armstrong has recently completely renovated the house inside and out.) The first note of this place that we have, is its occupancy by a Rhodes family, who lived away up on the very top of the hill, to whose log house led the road which yet runs up the side of the almost mountain, and which serves a very useful purpose now as a farm way. When at home these people certainly had a most breezy outlook. In time, however, they wearied of their elevated home and moved the frame additions to their house down to the road, or near it, and this was the building so long the abode of the Lewises and Sopers. In time the father died, the widow married again and moved away, and the place became the home of a family named Lewis, whose stalwart sons are yet recalled by the older residents of the neighborhood. They were from the east, Connecticut, I think, and only paused here a while on their journey westward. After them came Daniel Soper, an industrious man, brother to Brewster Soper of Rose, who reared here a very large family. His mother died Feb. 19, 1865, at the age of 79. Daniel, the eldest son, is still in the town. Robert and William, with a sister, Phoebe, moved years ago to Berkshire county, Mass., and there married. Deborah married a Mr. Saulsbury and lives at the Valley. Annette is the wife of Asahel Colvin of Wolcott. Delia died young, while Emma and Alfred are unmarried. (The latter has since died.) During Mr. Soper's residence upon the place, it was held by the General Adams Agency, a corporation that purchased everything that could be bought, as some will remember, at the time that a canal was con- templated from Sodns to Clyde. The melancholy traces of this venture still exist, west of the Valley, in the shape of its channel, still called Adams' ditch.
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Eron Thomas was long the agent for this and other farms, and from him Mr. Overton purchased in 1855. Still further along the ridge of this hill, per- haps a half mile south, was another log house, still marked by the apple orchard which stood near it, where dwelt a family named Gould. All that I can learn concerning them is that Mr. Gould taught singing school, and that they all long since moved away. The place was once in the possession of Milton Town, who sold to James Benjamin, the present owner.
Crossing the road from Edward Armstrong's, we shall find the comfort- able home of Joseph Roat, whose wife, Angeline, is the eldest daughter of Delos Seelye, for many years the owner of these fertile acres. They have two daughters, Nellie and Inez. The first resident here carries us back to a log house, standing some distance from the road in what is now the orchard. This resident was a certain John Holloway, who married the widow Rhodes, and moved, I am told, down near Clyde, but just when and where I can't tell. He sold to Zach. Esmond, of whom I know nothing save that he had a nickname of " Ishmael," and that he was a Protestant Methodist in religious matters, not over enterprising either physically or spiritually, and he in turn sold to Delos Seelye. Mr. Seelye was a native of this dis- trict, being the youngest son of Joseph Seelye. He married early in life Almanda, daughter of Erastus Fuller, one of the oldest dwellers on the road leading to the Valley. She was in all respects a most worthy help- meet, and by hand and counsel assisted Mr. Seelye in securing a compe- tence. There was a small frame house standing near the road when Mr. Seelye purchased, and in this he and his family resided till along in the fifties, when he instituted the changes, making his home one of the most pleasant in the vicinity. No one who ever knew Delos Seelye could forget him. Nature had endowed him with a physique such as seldom falls to the lot of man. During his youth and early manhood it may be doubted if he knew what fatigue was. From dawn to twilight he could lead in all the labor that then made up the farm routine. He laughed at any mention of rest. When he wished to push matters even more strenuously, he would secure the services of a Mr. Stickles, a Mokawk Dutchman, who lived a mile or so south of him, and who was the only man in the vicinity capable of keeping up with him, and together they would crowd each other in the harvest field from sun to sun, accomplishing as much as four com- mon men could do in the same time. He made very little difference in his work on account of the weather. A thing to be done must be done, rain or shine. At the table he was just as energetic as in the field. Great stories are yet told of the work that he could do and of his feats of strength. All this could have but one ending, and before he was fifty years old, broken in constitution, he retired from his farm to the Valley, where he lingered out a few years of invalid life. He died in August, 1870, at the early age of fifty-four. Kind-hearted and generous, he passed away lamented by a
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wide circle of friends. As already noted, his oldest daughter married Joseph Roat of Steuben county, and now holds the old place. (Now owned by Ransom Jordan of Lyons. The Roats are in Clyde. Nellie, married, lives in Watkins.) His second daughter, Annie, married Felton Hickok, a Rose boy, who served his country in the 9th Heavy Artillery, and who lived many years on the old homestead, in fact succeeding her father and re- maining till followed by Mrs. Roat. Mr. and Mrs. Hickok now reside in the Valley. The youngest child, Elnora, is the wife of Valorus Ellinwood and lives just south of the Valley. At her home, in 1883, died her mother, Mrs. Almanda Seelye, a lady of no ordinary mental ability, as all will tes- tify who have argued with her on topics in which she was interested.
Going to the west, we next come to the place where Thomas Smart, an industrious Englishman, long had his home. His particular trade was and is that of a ditch digger, acquired, I believe, among the fens of Lincoln- shire, England. No man in the town could make so perfect a trench as he, and, I suppose, very many miles of tile of his laying now underlie the fields of Rose. At one time he was blind, but always he was the soul of industry. His home he located on a swampy corner of Lyman Lee's farm, adjoining that of Delos Seelye's. This land he tried to reclaim by his deep and excellent ditches, but in spite of all his, care his surroundings were, to put it mildly, damp. During the present season he has yielded to the inevitable, and has moved the house to a sandy acreage that he has for some years possessed, nearly opposite the home of Kendrick Sheffield. Mr. Smart's sons - George, John and William - have grown to be, like him, worthy and industrious citizens. His only daughter, Mary, takes the place at home of the mother, who died several years ago.
Nearly opposite the late site of Mr. Smart's abode is a modest house erected by Egbert Soper, a brother of Daniel, mentioned already. The first family of whom I can obtain any trace upon this farm was named Hodge, and they lived in a log house just on the side of the hill to the west of the present location. Mr. Hodge sold to John Pierce, who for some time resided here. He had three sons, at least, and a son of one of them, Eugene, married Emily, daughter of S. R. Overton, and lives in Huron. John Fairchild, Baptist clergyman, also lived here a while. To the Pierces and Fairchilds succeeded Mr. Soper, who, for many years, lived iu the log house, and there reared his children, of whom Theron, early deceased, will be remembered as a young man of rare promise. Mr. Soper's wife was Margaret, a daughter of John Deady, a respected farmer living about one mile south. Charles and James Deady, of Rose, are brothers. After Mr. Soper left this place it was occupied for a time by Nehemiah Seelye, son of Benjamin and a nephew of Joseph Seelye. He afterward went to Michigan and there died. His sons-Royal, Alfred, a member of the 9th Artillery, and Frank-accompanied him. He had one daughter, Mary, who now
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lives in Michigan. This property passed into the possession of Joel Sheffield, of the Valley, who still retains it, the house being the home, in succession, of so many families that it would be difficult to enumerate them. Josie Way, the daughter of one tenant, is recalled as a very pleasant school girl. She subsequently became Mrs. Heman Shepard of Galen, and died March 1st, 1892, aged 38 years. Upon the level ground beyond the ascent we come to the home of Kendrick Sheffield. I am under the impression that the house was erected by William Briggs, who long retained it. He had a lively family, some of whose members are yet remembered with pleasure. Their names were Sarah, Mary and Harriet. There were sons, John and others. Elder Graham, a Baptist minister, came next, who had a son, and a daughter Louisa. Afterward succeeded Elder N. Ferguson, pastor of the Baptist Church of Rose. He believed that contact with the soil was conducive to excellence in the pulpit. He had children, who were entertaining members of Rose society during their father's pastorate. Clark Ferguson was a scholarly boy, who afterward became a minister himself. The daughters were Emma, Minnie and Mary, the latter of whom were school teachers of note.
Kendrick Sheffield, who purchased from Elder F., is a nephew of Mrs. George Seelye. His father, James, moved from Madison county early in the fifties, and located on the place now owned by Gleason Wickwire, he buying of Hudson Wood. Mr. Sheffield married, in Madison county, Mary Ann Chase, sister of Mrs. Wickwire. He has reared a family of children on this farm, and they having left the homestead he is again alone. His oldest son, Judson, married Ornie, daughter of Peter Harmon, of the Valley, and is now in the employ of a Rochester firm. His second boy and namesake, whose black eyes few who knew him will forget, died several years since, just as he was blossoming into the manhood which everybody said he would ornament. The youngest, James, is a promising lawyer in Lincoln, Nebraska. Of his two daughters, Lucy is the wife of Ensign Wade, as stated before, while Mattie married Chas. Osborne, and lives in Oneida Castle. Mr. Sheffield has long been noted for his taste and success in the care of horses. Perhaps no man in the town has done more to improve the quality of this kind of stock than he. So far as I know, he was the first man in the town to cultivate hops, and with Mr. Bush the only one to keep up the culture through a term of years. (Mr. Sheffield died July 10, 1892. Chas. Osborne, now on the farm, is a graduate of Colgate University, a son of one of the professors. By him the house has been much improved and many salutary changes have been made on the farm. Mr. and Mrs. Osborne have two children, Kendrick N. and Lucy E.)
Just west of this place, on lot 193, once stood a house bought by Chas. Sherman from George Seelye, and in it the older Sherman children were
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born. It was afterward moved to the northward, and is now the home of Henry Decker. A little west of opposite is the pleasant house where live Thomas Smart and his children, George and Mary. Thrift and neatness here reign supreme.
The next place on the south side of the road is held by the widow of the late Linus Osgood. Years ago it was the property of Chas. Sherman, who, with his first wife, Lucina Allen, reared here many children, whose names are well known in town. His second son, Willard, married Permilla, daughter of John and Betsey Kellogg, of Butler, and has lived for many years in Clyde. The other sons were George, married Sybil Wilson and living in Rose; Charles, killed a year or two since upon the Hudson.Central R. R .; Frank, the oldest, who married a Moore, of Spencer's Corners ; and Ezra, who (a member of the 111th, N. Y.) was taken prisoner and died in the hands of the rebels. Their only daughter, Lucy, married Putnam Sampson, and lives on the old Mackie place on the Clyde road. After the death of his first wife he married Miss Charlotte Tyler, of Butler, who, with her sons, Chester T. and Ezra A., manages the farm one mile east of the Valley, to which he moved after selling his first home. Mr. Sherman was a man of great energy and perseverance, and is well remembered as a valuable and patriotic citizen. During his holding of the farm it belonged to the Valley district, but, at the request of Artemas Osgood, to whom he sold, it was set off as a part of No. 7. Mr. Osgood moved into Rose from Hamilton, Madison Co., and was, with his large and interesting family, an exceedingly worthy addition to the town. Mr. Osgood is of Massachusetts birth, and has ever manifested the sterling qualities so characteristic of the land of the Puritans. His wife, who died in 1870, was Harriet Pierce. Many will recall her mother, a gracious lady, who spent her last days here. His older son, Lucien, married first, Eudora Seeyle, as already stated. She dying in 1870, he afterward mar- ried Matilda, daughter of Gleason Wickwire, and resides in Rose. The younger son, Linus, into whose hands the farm passed, married Sarah Sheffield of New York City, a grand-niece of Mrs. George Seelye, and, till his death, Oct. 9, 1886, maintained one of the most successful places in the town. The tamarack swamp, in the rear of his farm, has proven to be the very best onion grounds in Rose, and it is most thoroughly utilized. He left two daughters, Iola and Mabel. (His widow, as Mrs. Ellsworth Klinck, and family still occupy the place.) The marriages of Artemas Osgood's daughters - Caroline, Frank and Emma - have been noticed already. Of the other two, Nannie married Joel Sheffield, the third son of James Sheffield, and resides in Rose, while Mary, the youngest, is the wife of George Catchpole, well known in Rose.
The last place to the west in this district is situated a little back from the road, and at the earliest accessible date was the home of Lucius Ellin-
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wood. To him succeeded, as owner, Dr. John Dickson, though I think he never lived there. Andrew Bradburn and family were here for several years. For a long time this was the home of James Armstrong, who now lives near Seelye's corners. One fact alone should make Mr. Armstrong's occupancy noteworthy, since he was the first to introduce the culture of mint in this neighborhood. Mr. Armstrong's children, several of them, grew here to manhood and womanhood, and from this passed out to homes of their own. George lives in Lawrence, Mass .; Edgar we have noted before; Duane lives in Rhode Island (Now Brockton, Mass.); his twin brother, DeWitt, in the southwest (Now Creete, Colorado); James is at home (Syracuse); Alice married Harvey Ferris, but died several years since ; Ella is the wife of Ephraim Wilson, Jr., and lives in the Valley; Carrie and Minnie are still at home. Mr. Armstrong came to this town from Lewis county and is a relative of the Armstrongs, of Butler. His wife, a Miss Sweet, is a member of the famous Rhode Island family of Sweets, bone setters. No more sturdy and straightforward man ever came into the neighborhood. To Mr. Armstrong succeeded Harlan P. Wilson and he still resides here. His wife was Miss Carrie Snow, daughter of Alonzo Snow, from Chenango county. Their children are Harriet, Charles, Frank and Lewis, (Mrs. Wilson has since died).
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